A New World

By

WYLD STALLYNZ

Blade stepped into the sunlight, beer in hand and a small smile in his face. "At last! I will learn how to harness the powers of this body and use them to destroy my opponents!"

He was followed outside by a slightly less animated Wave and Cassie, who were wondering just how they would learn their powers.

They immediately noticed Sage passed out just beyond the door. The spiff was completely gone.

Wave carefully approached Sage and nudged him. "Hey... uh, dude, are you alive?"

Sage rolled onto his back, arms falling limply to his sides. "That is some powerful stuff you have growing on your hair, duddette..." he coughed. "Slooooow... slooooooow..." he giggled. "Three little Spearows fly around my heaaaaad~!" he sang to himself.

Wave slowly stepped away from him and glanced nervously at the flowers on her body. "Are these really toxic?"

Blade snorted. "I doubt it. That guy could get high by breathing clean air."

Wave nodded, still uncertain. "Then why did I knock you unconscious earlier?"

Blade rolled his eyes. "That's just a Grass-type attack. Don't worry about it. Now, let's train so that I can be the first to learn a cool Pokemon attack!"

"But... Moonstone already discovered an attack, remember? He froze the ground," Cassie pointed out, raising an equine eyebrow.

"W-well, then, I'll be the second-"

"And for all we know, Dice could be telling the truth about her attack; we've seen her charge it up a couple of times." Cassie interrupted.

"Th-that's because they are getting all the attention!" Blade snapped. "Fine! I'll be third!"

"Uh... if I knocked you out with Sleep Powder-" Wave started to say, only to be interrupted.

"I'll be THIRD!" Blade snapped. "Okay?" he took a long drink of beer. "And even if I'm FIFTH, I won't care as long as I learn something before that guy!" he shouted, pointing at the Axew, who was giggling at the ghostly Ponyta.

Cassie shrugged, looking at the giggling Sage with mild amusement. "Well, I doubt that'll be a problem; this guy is completely incapable of mov-"

She stopped as Sage burped and the air seemed to shimmer and darken. Slowly she looked up and with a startled whiny, she jumped back into the house, somehow grabbing Wave on the way.

"What?" Blade blinked, looking up as the sunlight dimmed.

.o.O.o.

Moonstone stifled a yawn as he headed outside, preparing himself to get ready to learn how to fight, or at least how to defend himself better. What he was not prepared for was seeing the condition of his backyard. "What the? What's going on here?" Moon shouted, his eyes going wide as he saw several craters scattered around the backyard.

"Duuude!" Sage called from the side, still sprawled on the grass. "The sky is falling..."

"What?" Panicking, his head jerked around, looking to the sky, but saw nothing but blue skies. "But..." Confused, he turned to Sage, interrogating the Axew heatedly, "What do you mean that the sky is falling? Tell me what destroyed my backyard!"

"Duude... it was like... the sky went dark... and like... meteors rained down on Blade after he made the gods angry..." Sage whispered in awe. "I saw it all, Bro... it was... it was amaaaazing..."

Moon blinked, deadpanning as he asked, "Blade offended the gods? What could he have possibly done or said to do that? And meteors?" he finished incredulously.

"Dude... the gods are everywhere..." Sage nodded, still staring at the sky. "They rained their anger on Blade like breadcrumbs fall onto the ocean from Rayquaza's morning lunch... but they all landed on him..."

Moon blinked, then asked, "But... How does that... Wait, why do they need to eat anything? They're gods!"

Luna padded outside, strangely happy as she walked over to Moon, asking, "So what's going on, Xell? Did I miss anything?"

"Moonsong? I, uh, don't think so. I can't get a straight answer from this guy," Moon grunted.

"No dude... the Moon does not sing to you or me... it sings only to the chosen ones..." Sage sighed. "It's there for us to see but not touch..."

"Oh, what would you know about the moon?" Luna snorted, rolling eyes at the Axew. "Talking from experience, she'll talk to whoever is willing to talk to her!"

"I know, dudette... I know... you must be one of the lucky ones... the rest of us... we are just inkblots in the great white page of the universe... yeah..." Sage's eyelids lowered half way as he started giggling again.

Luna and Moon looked at each other for a moment, before facepawing.

"Is it safe now?" Wave asked from the doorway, looking out.

"Define 'safe'," Moon answered wryly, rolling his eyes at the drugged Axew. "I'm not sure if he's ever technically 'safe', but if there was something falling from the sky, it looks like it's done for now. You can come out now, and tell me what really happened, if you would."

Cassie carefully stepped out, followed by Wave, who did her best to walk in a straight line and stare at the sky at the same time.

"We don't know... exactly..." Cassie said. "Uh... that dude there... he started burping and then one of his burps shot up into the sky... next thing we know there's meteors landing on Blade."

"We were just talking about who needed to learn new powers and... Blade was angry that he hadn't learned anything new and..." Wave sniffed. "And now he's dead!"

"He's what?" Luna and Moon both exclaimed, looking at each other in shock. "But... We can't have a dead Pokemon here! I don't even know what kind of rites they get, if he wanted to be buried, or cremated, or... Anything!" Moon panicked, looking around for ideas.

Cassie looked at the swirly-eyed, drooling Cyndaquil, then back at Wave. "I think he's alive..."

Moon slumped in relief as Wave's eyes became watery. "It's a miracle! Thank Ho-Oh!"

"Do you see what I have to deal with?" Cassie asked Moon.

"Yeah... Though is this really that much worse than working at a bar? I always heard such crazy stories about what can happen in bars. Are the stories true?"

Cassie sighed. "Yes... they are, and yes, it's worse because when I deal with drunkards I can go home and not deal with them anymore. I'm stuck with all of you as it is... no offense... but I haven't seen anyone that isn't crazy so far."

"Great," Moon replied, monotoned. "Well, now that I know that I, along with the rest of my family, are crazy, maybe we can get help! You wouldn't happen to know anyone, would you, Cassie?"

"No... I can pretty much say I'm in the same boat due to circumstance..." the Ponyta deadpanned. "Can we get started? Maybe we can return to normal soon if we are able to find out what they did to us."

Blade groaned. "Wha- what happened?" he shook his head, and looked down, finding a fist-sized stone next to his now-empty bottle of beer. "No! My beer!" he raised his paws to the sky. "My beeeeeer!"

"I think you have another problem other than that..." Cassie said, trotting up to him.

Blade blinked. "I do?"

"That... dude... he discovered his special attack before you did." Cassie said. "And we should really find out his name; we can't keep on calling him 'dude'."

"He... he beat me? The stoner learned a Pokemon attack before I did?" He fell on his rump. "But... that's... that's not fair!" he whimpered.

"There there, it's okay," Moon replied soothingly, placing a paw on the smaller Pokemon's shoulder. "Besides, just because he learned a move first doesn't make him stronger or better than you! Besides, you could always evolve before he does," he finished nonchalantly.

Blade looked up at Moon with watery eyes that quickly dried as he stood with conviction. "Yes! I will prove that I am the strongest!" he coughed. "But... how do I do that?

"I think you have to train for a while," Cassie said. "The stronger you get the more likely you are to evolve... although..." she looked at Moon. "What do you think would happen to us if we evolved?"

Moon opened his mouth, his paw raised as he got ready to lecture, before he paused, a flicker of befuddlement crossing his face. "Well that... I uh... Hmm..." he stopped, frowning, his eyebrows furrowed in thought. "That's a really good question, honestly. I have no idea what would happen. Would the Pokemon genes increase? Would it ensure that the change is irreversible? Would it change our personality at all, making us more animalistic?"

"Hey, I take offense to that!" Luna interrupted heatedly, huffing. "You make it sound like that's a bad thing!"

"Well, it's... uh, hard to explain, you know?" Moon quickly backpedaled, trying to appease the Umbreon that was his friend for years. "I mean..." he sighed, then gave up. "Fine, I guess I made it sound like a bad thing, happy? I just don't know what effects it would have on us, or if it would eventually make us go insane having two different types of personalities, one that's still human, and another that's Pokemon. I mean, do you know how hard it is to both hate and enjoy getting your ears scratched? I mean, on one hand, err, paw, it feels good, but on the other, it... you know?"

"... Not really," Luna replied, clearly not understanding or empathetic to Moon's plight. "If it feels good, and it doesn't break a law or something, then why not do it? Is it against the law to have your ears scratched?"

"So... you're saying that if we evolve..." Wave gulped. "We might end up like... Dice?" Both she, and Cassie looked in horror at Moonstone, begging him with their eyes to tell them it wasn't so.

Moon's jaw dropped, his eyes widening as his left eyelid twitched involuntarily. "NO! Anything but that! No, that... I can't tell you how I know, but let's just say that Dice is a... Special case," he hesitated, trying to think carefully of the words he used. "She uh... She's just taking this harder than some of us, and her... Eccentricities, I suppose, are her way of handling the stress. I mean, she isn't that bad with single people, so maybe she has a problem with crowds? A-anyways, we should stop talking about this, really. Without a way to test anything, we're only randomly guessing, and that's just going to make us freak out more than some of us already have. Let's just focus on the task at, uh, paw, and prepare ourselves to get some info! Are you with me?"

"Oh..." Cassie sighed in relief as Wave slumped down, the adrenaline and fear leaving her body. "I had thought that her mind had been warped by the transformation..." the Ponyta chuckled weakly. "But... anyway... let's uh... let's learn some more attacks, okay? Um... Luna, since you have the most experience, how can we learn to use our powers?"

"Oh crap..." Luna sighed to herself, facepawing. "Umm... Wow, I've never had to try to explain this before!" she exclaimed, feeling split between feeling nervous and excited. "Well, first of all, at least, when I learned new moves, it was because I was either under a lot of stress, or I had time to think and reflect on what I should be able to do, and watched others use attacks. Like, as an Eevee, I learned how to use Shadow Ball because I saw an Umbreon using it, and I tried to imitate it, doing it over and over again. I'm not sure if I would have learned it if he hadn't taught me himself, but... Anyways, I failed a lot learning it, and it's not like you'll have a perfect move the first time you try! You have to perfect it, learn the technique behind it, how to refine an-"

"So... what you're saying is that we have to watch someone using their powers and imitate them... right?" Blade interrupted. "Like a normal fighting technique." He nodded. "Well then... show us the Shadow Ball... slowly, and then we'll see if we can do something if we try it..."

Luna tried not to get upset as she was interrupted, and answered, "Well, I wouldn't know what you humans consider 'normal' fighting technique, but yeah, I guess whatever helps. I guess I can do it. It's simple. You just concentrate on your power, focus it in your mouth, letting it flow, then you shoot it! Like this!"

Blade and the others observed as a ball made of dark energy shot out of the Umbreon's mouth, hurdling past the giggling Axew only to impact heavily on a nearby rock in an explosion of darkness that split the boulder in half.

"See?" Luna said casually, turning to face everyone else again. "I tried to slow it down and make it as weak as possible so that you could follow it better. Did you all get a good look?"

Blade nodded, a confident smirk in his face, while Wave and Cassie exchanged looks.

"Uh... sure..." Cassie coughed. "Let's see... I'll probably shoot out fire if this works, so be careful!"

She took a deep breath while Blade chuckled.

"There's no way she'll do it on the first try... I bet I can set things on fire before she can!" he said to Wave with a glint to his eye. The Whimsicot took a step away from the Cyndaquil, eyeing him warily.

Meanwhile, Cassie had started concentrating, looking for the inner power that she had to focus in her mouth. It was surprisingly easy to find the energy. Perhaps because she had never felt anything like that before... She concentrated even more, feeling the energy gather and follow her command. She snapped her eyes open and willed the energy to shoot out... and then panicked when she realized that her fire ball... her... black, swirly, very shadow-ball like fire... ball... was flying straight for the Axew!

The ball of dark energy fluttered out of her mouth and wiggled up and down in front of the stupefied Pokemon as it slowly and inevitably made its way to the giggling Sage. With a final pirouette it landed delicately on the Axew's belly.

And exploded with a miniature puff that sent the stoned Pokemon into a harder giggling fit.

Blade's jaw was hanging in place as he stared at Cassie. "Buh- buh..."

Moon looked to Luna, stifling a few giggles behind a paw, before he started to roll on the snow, laughing his head off. "That was epic!" he exclaimed, his face turning violet. "That was the funniest thing I've ever seen! It was like the attack was a little dancing bee that exploded on Dude's face! That has to be one of the greatest first attempts of an attack I've seen since Luna tried to learn Confuse Ray!"

"W-what?" Luna exclaimed, her face fur darkening as she blushed madly. "X-Xell, you promised not to tell anyone about that!"

"Huh? No I didn't!" he protested, a puzzled look on his face. "When did I ever promise that?"

"Right after I came to my senses, I asked you never to speak a word about that to anyone, and you said sure!"

"What? I thought you were asking to take a break!" Moon protested, jerking back a little in shock. "You sounded kinda weak, so I just assumed that you needed to take a break! How the heck was I supposed to know th-"

"It's common sense!" Luna screamed, her fur only partially hiding how red her face was. "I've never told my friends or Solaire about all of the experiments that you failed spectacularly on! How many people have you told?"

"Erm..." Moon became eerily quiet, looking away as he awkwardly shuffled his paws. "Maybe a couple?"

Wave giggled. "It's not so bad, Luna, he didn't know..."

"Yeah... you know, dudette, if life was as clear as we wanted it to be and everything we said was always understood... where would we be now?" Sage asked.

"... probably in a better place?" Cassie asked, looking at the Axew. "If lack of communication didn't cause so many problems then-"

"But that's the thing, bro..." Sage whispered, "if we understood everything immediately... there would be no discovery!"

The Ponyta slowly pushed him away. "Discovery. Right, like what?"

"Like, you know... how did a Fire-type Pokemon fire a Ghost-type move?" Sage asked. "It's the mysteries that drive us to better ourselves, dudette!" he paused. "Dudette?"

Cassie was slowly stepping back. "But... I... was that really a Shadow Ball?" she looked wildly around. "Am I a ghost type? Am I dead?"

Moon and Luna turned to Cassie, quirking an eyebrow both, their disagreement forgotten for the moment. "Huh, you know, that's a good question," Moon said, his voice thoughtful. "But really, there's only one way to test that, and I don't exactly want to do it, you know? But that would explain why you're kinda purple instead of orange."

"Whooaaa..." Sage whispered in awe. "It's like... we've been speaking with the dead! That's- that's deep man, real deep..."

Wave looked from the Axew to the Ponyta, and back to the Axew. "Um...Dude... I don't think that's helping..."

Cassie for her part was starting to freak out. Her fiery mane grew as she took several steps back. "But... but I can't be dead! I was alive just last night!"

"It's like, in that movie... you know?" Sage said. "About the Pokemon psychologist that doesn't know he's dead and is trying to help this Pikachu that sees dead Pokemon?"

Cassie started twitching.

"Duude... it's like... we're talking to a spirit, bro! There is life after death!"

Moon and Luna looked at each other again, before Moon sighed, "Moonsong, make him shut the hell up, will ya?"

"My pleasure," Luna grunted, firing a Shadow Ball at the Axew in less than a second. As it hit the small, grey Pokemon, it exploded, sending him flying through the air before he landed in a particularly large drift of snow.

"Thanks. Now, Cass," Moon soothed, turning to the Ponyta that was threatening to go completely mental, "I need you to just calm down for a second, alright? We have no idea if you're a Ghost type, if you're dead, or any of that! Just take a deep breath, and we'll try to analyze this step by step. Now, first of all, are you tired or hungry at all?"

"I... no, not hungry..." Cassie admitted. "But I just ate."

"Aha!" Moon exclaimed, stomping his paw heavily on the ground. "You just ate! There ya go then! Even if you were a ghost-type Pokemon, you're not dead! I mean, what kind of dead Pokemon needs to eat in order to live?"

"But..." Cassie's eyes became watery. "I- I just ate because everyone else was eating! I wasn't hungry at aaaaalll!"

"W-well, that doesn't prove anything yet," Moon added hastily, back-pedaling as he readied another line of attack. "That was just the first question! For all you know, you were hungry, but just didn't notice. Now, let's see, what else can we do to prove you aren't dead, besides try to kill you..." he mused, putting his paw to his chin.

Cassie's eyes went wide. "But... that's... no! You know what, I'll just go back in and wait in a corner until you finish finding out without me!" Turning around, she put her head down, closed her eyes and galloped straight into the wall.

And through it.

Moon and Luna gaped, before Moon stuttered, "W-well, at least we know she's a ghost Pokemon... Now, how do we prove she's alive? I mean, she seems to be freaking out about it fairly badly." After a moment of contemplation, he added, "Well, at least if she's freaking out about if she's alive or not, she's not freaking out about being a Pokemon?"

A loud 'THUNK' sound made all present Pokemon turn around to face Blade, who was staggering away from a tree-trunk, holding his head. "Ow... ow ow... I guess I'm not a Ghost-type too..."

Moon and Luna had to stifle giggles behind their paws, before Moon commented, "I uh, guess not. Bummer. So, why don't you try to do something else? Or perhaps you'd like for me to try to-"

"No! Don't try to kill me!" Blade said hastily, then coughed into his paw, suddenly looking dead serious. "I'll train on my own; I will develop my skills and be ready for tonight." He turned around, facing the forest and took a few steps into it before looking over his shoulder with a grin. "I am, after all, a fighter!"

"Duuude..." came the hollow voice of Sage from the little cavern of snow he had been propelled to. "That was almost badass!"

Blade growled and turned around, trotting into the forest, muttering to himself.

Wave looked around before settling her eyes on Luna and Moon. "Well... I already know how to use Sleeping Powder so... are we done then?"

"... That's only one move, Wave," Moon noted, quirking an eyebrow. "How about learning an attack attack? You know, something that can knock other Pokemon out without knocking some of us out as well?"

"I... I don't believe in violence..." Wave said.

"Well... This should be interesting then," Luna muttered, before Moon jabbed her gently.

"Hey, don't be mean, okay? There's nothing wrong in not wanting to fight! She can be our uh... Supporter! Yeah! She'll just need to try to learn more moves like Sleep Powder, so that would be... What, Stun Spore, maybe Sunny Day or Synthesis?"

Luna blinked, before sighing, "Xell, don't look at me like that! I'm a Dark type! Like I know anything about Grass type moves!"

At that moment, a shiny Flareon jumped over the bushes.

.o.O.o.

"Oh, dear, oh dear..." Solaire panted as he pranced as quickly as he could through the forest. "This is not good... no, not good... oh, Great Arceus, not good!" he carefully dodged around a large puddle. "No, I should just run through the next one! Tear needs me!" he declared as he continued to his destination.

He could just make the house and...

A grunt made him stop, fearful of being caught. But it just turned out to be a gruff Cyndaquil hitting a tree trunk with its paws for some reason. Stepping past the uncouth creature, and making sure he hadn't been spotted, Solaire immediately started prancing as fast as he could again.

"At last!" he shouted in glee as he jumped beautifully over a shrubbery. "I am here! Luna! Sister, I need your help!"

He stopped as he noticed that Luna was not alone. An Espeon who had obviously dyed its coat stood next to her, (he could tell it was fake! It had to be!) along with what looked like a shiny Whimsicot. All three Pokemon looked at him in surprise.

"I..." Solaire coughed. "I-"

"Hey guys!" a feminine voice called as the back door into the Scifo's family mansion opened. Solaire stared in shock as the relatively familiar figure of a Legendary Pokemon, a Latias no less, floated out of the house. "Can you keep it down? I couldn't really sleep and-"

"BY ARCEUS!" Solaire shouted in horror, pointing a paw at the Latias's face, which was scribbled over with hideous black lines. Little dark circles and spirals were drawn on the female Pokemon's cheeks, and a black tear had been drawn under her left eye. It had a partner on the right side, but it had been smeared over and was simply nothing more than a dark patch on the white feathers of the Latias' face.

"He's a concept, dude..." a voice, harsh and slow emanated from somewhere. "There's no Arceus my friend... it's all in your head..."

Solaire stammered. "What... Luna! Why are you socializing with... with... these... I have no words!"

"Solaire?" Luna exclaimed, shocked. "What are... But why are you here? Where's Tear? You guys always call ahead!"

"Wow, it's kinda weird being able to hear him now," Moon commented. "I mean, he sounded rather tough before, but now he just sounds... Prissy."

"Why-" Solaire sputtered. "If I didn't have pressing matters to attend to, I would show you proper manners, you uncouth social climber!" the Flareon sniffed. "But right now, I have grave news... Tia... she's been kidnapped!"

"What?" Moon and Luna exclaimed, their eyes widening. "Tear got kidnapped?" Moon asked, rushing over to the shiny Flareon. "When did this happen? And where?"

Luna rushed over to the Flareon as he slumped down. "It was just after I won the last beauty contest... we were walking out and Tia decided that she wanted to take a look around the city before heading home," he said miserably. "As you can imagine, I wasn't so keen on the idea, and I told her, but she insisted and..."

"Oh shit... Please, please tell me she didn't get gassed as well," Moon groaned, facepawing. "Please tell me she didn't just pass out before getting kidnapped, Sol. I could really, really use some good news right about now..."

"... alas, she was..." Solaire sighed, then he narrowed his eyes and glared at Moon. "Wait... what did you call me? How dare you? Riff-raff like yourself cannot call me Sol! Apologize at once, knave, or I will punish you in the name of decorum!"

"You will punish Moony?" Dice asked venomously, pressing her scrawled-over snout against Solaire's. "Who do you think you are, you uptight little fire-farter?"

"Hey! Only I'm allowed to insult my little bro!" Luna snapped, her eyes glowing in rage. "You take that back right this second, or I'll beat the feathers off your stupid face and do you a favor!" Spinning to face Solaire, she continued, "And you! If you threaten Moonstone, brother or not, I will kick your sorry pampered butt back to that stupid contest, got it?"

Dice growled. "Let me get this clear right now, Luna; you do not intimidate me!" she glowered. "Your Arceus-damned powers do! But you don't, so don't think you can just glower me into submission, understood?" She then turned to Solaire. "$%&# you."

Solaire stared at Dice in horror. "Wha- what does that even mean?"

Dice shrugged. "I have no idea. But it sounded awful, didn't it?"

Solaire looked at his sister. Then something clicked. "Wait... did you say... Moonstone? That's not Moonstone! It's an Espeon! With dyed fur!"

"Duude... we all are entities trapped in the wrong bodies..." Sage's voice reached them. "We are whispers in the wind, bro... we are not what we seem, only what we believe we are, and in that essence we are free..."

Solaire blinked. "A- anyway... you cannot be Moonstone! I refuse to believe it!"

"Belief is a state of mind, Bro... it reflects what we wish and wish not to be reality..." Sage's voice faded as Dice pushed snow into the small hole where the voice emanated from.

"Gah! Shut up!" Moon screeched, glaring at everyone. "I have had it with all of this chaos! You will be quiet so we can handle this one item at a time! First of all, if I hear one more person trying to threaten another while at my house, I swear to Arceus I will get your ass kicked out of here faster than a bug Pokemon evolves! This is my house, and I will not tolerate fighting! Second: Solaire, I'm Moonstone, and I got turned into a Pokemon because of this weird gas from a night or two ago. I don't care if you can understand or not, but if you threaten me again, I'll make sure that Tear finds out about it, and I'm sure that she can make a punishment for you much worse than I can!"

"But Xell, I was ju-"

"No! No 'buts', Luna!" Moon cut her off, looking at her. "If I want you to fight or intimidate someone, I will tell you to do so, alright?" Luna nodded sullenly, looking away as she tried to hide her hurt. "The same goes for you too, Lati! Luna is my sister too, and I will not listen to you two fight!"

"Bro..." Dice said softly, "Luna and I were just trying to defend you from this guy..."

"This 'guy' has a name, thank you very much!" Solaire interrupted, but wilted at the glare still present in Moon's eyes. "But... I suppose I can refrain my disdain for you lot..." he sighed. "Luna... I- we need to rescue Tia... there's no time to waste!"

"Before you freak out on us again, Sol, how about telling us what happened? Why does she need rescuing? Why couldn't you protect her? You sure didn't have a problem with defending her when you were a kit!" Moon exclaimed.

"I-" Solaire looked down. "I didn't know what to do... and then this human girl ran up to us and told me to get help... to run to get Nurse Joy... so... I- I ran and when I came back... they were both gone. I-I didn't know what else to do!"

"And how long ago was this, Bro?" Luna asked, trying to comfort her twin brother.

"I... think it was about 5 hours ago..." Solaire said. "Of course I stayed for a bit to look for her, but I was unable to find her! That's when I rushed here as fast as I could!"

Dice looked at Moonstone. "If it was five hours ago... Moon, that means that your friend could already be..."

"Crap," Moonstone sighed, shaking his head. "Great, just what we needed," he said sarcastically. "Now we have to not only break back into those facilities for the transformation data, but now we also have to see if we can find Tear in that place as well, and we have no idea if she got turned into a Pokemon, and if she did, what type. Oh, this is going to be fun..."

"Yes, yes it is," Dice said. "But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't take it seriously," she added, her serious face marred by scribbles. "However, what it does mean is that we probably have to cut the wait short... and go sooner rather than later. We don't know how long it takes for them to change a human into a Pokemon... there might still be time to save her!"

"Pokemon?" Solaire gasped, raising a paw to his chest. "What do you mean? Is she going to be okay?"

"Well, that's part of what we're going back there to find out," Moon commented, rolling his neck. "We're going to find out how they transformed us, what the possible side-effects are, how to reverse it, you know."

"Xell, stay on track!" Luna chided, hitting Moon on the head. "We have to go rescue Tear!"

"Alright, alright!" Moon protested, holding his head in a paw. "I'll go see if Dad can't drive us into town or something! Maybe he can serve as a distraction or something."

Dice nodded. "He'll have to be careful though; we don't know if they'll try to turn him into a Pokemon!" she thought for a moment. "I assume we would be going in through the back?"

"Naturally, since it was unguarded last time, it's worth the chance to see if it's unguarded again," Moon answered. "Besides, it's unlikely that there would be more people guarding the back than the front! Anyways, we'll just bust in there, start kicking butt and find out wh-"

"Umm, excuse me, but do we have to kick butt? I don't believe in fighting," Wave interrupted. "Isn't there something else we could do that doesn't involve violence, like getting the police or something?"

"And how do we explain to the police that there was a bunch of humans like yourself and Moon turned into Pokemon in time for them to act fast enough to stop them from transforming more people, or even escaping?" Dice asked. "Sorry, Wave, it seems that we'll have to fight..." she stopped for a moment and tapped her chin. "Or... maybe not... given how incompetent they are, they might just be guarding the front door."

"I don't know... I don't really-"

"Well, what if you joined my father then?" Moon suggested, turning thoughtful once more. "I mean, you could always help him with a distraction, worst case scenario. And if there's a bunch of guards there, you could always try to use Sleep Powder again."

"W-well... I guess that doesn't hurt anyone, and that would still help, wouldn't it... O-okay, I'll help with the distraction, I guess."

"Alright then! Does anyone else want to help with the distraction, or are we all going on the offensive?" Moon asked, looking around.

"I... I have find out what happened to Tia," Solaire said. "I'll go with you."

"Me too!" Dice smiled. "I wouldn't miss this for a cupcake made by Mewtwo himself! … Well... okay, by Zapdos..."

A muffled sound came from within the snow.

"I think Dude says he's coming too," Dice said after a moment. "I'm pretty sure Blade will go... and someone should ask Cassie..."

"Yeah, we really need to get her on-board as well, especially if she's dead! We don't have to worry about her dying that way," Moon commented. "Luna, would you mind trying to talk her into... Luna? Where'd she go?" Looking around, he saw that she was already heading inside.

"Wait... Cassie is dead?" Dice gasped. "Dude, I knew you said training would be hard but... seriously? What did you do to her?"

"Hmm? Oh, you know, the usual. Made her run until she was out of breath, then we stabbed and whipped her repeatedly until she got back up and ran again. We kept that cycle going until she just didn't get up anymore," Moon answered, rolling his eyes.

"H-how dreadful!" Solaire gasped. "That's completely barbaric! How could you? I demand to see your certificate as a trainer of Pokemon! This will not stand!"

"So you didn't dunk her into the frozen lake after she ran out of breath?" Dice asked. "Shame on you, Moony! You should know better!"

"Gah! Knew I was forgetting something," Moon replied, swiping at the snow with his paw. "Sorry Lati, I'll try to keep that in mind next time..." Turning to Solaire, he shrugged, answering nonchalantly, "Oh, that little thing? Who needs them? I mean, really, how hard is it to order Pokemon around?"

When it became clear that Solaire was taking everything seriously, he continued, "Geez, I was just joking! Seriously, Sole, didn't Tear ever teach you about jokes? Man, and I thought that Luna was a bit serious! You need to learn how to loosen up!"

"Hey, Moony!" Dice called, fishing out a half-frozen Sage from the snow. "I found your other trainee! Where should I bury him next?"

Solaire fainted.

Dice floated up to Moonstone and looked down at the unconscious Flareon. "Uh, was it something I said?"

Moon snickered, before shaking his head. "Nah, not at all, Lati. Besides, he deserved it. Man, I never would have guessed that Sol was such a..." he paused, his paw wavering as he tried to think of the right word. "Not a sissy, not a pansy, but..."

"A prick?" Dice offered.

"Yeah, pretty much. I mean, he could be worse, but he always seemed like he was more masculine and tough than that," Moon commented, frowning slightly.

"It's always the quiet ones..." Dice sighed. "You wouldn't know it, but when I was really young I was so quiet people would forget I existed... and now..." she narrowed her eyes. "I won't let them forget!" she started chuckling to herself. After a moment, she took a breath. "But... where's Luna?"

Moon smirked, shaking his head as he chided, "Silly Lati, weren't you paying attention? Little Luna went to go see what Cassie was going to do, if she was going to fight or not."

"Well, yeah, but she left rather abruptly so I wasn't sure," she said, hefting up Sage. She looked down at the Flareon laying on the snow. "So... are we leaving him here for now, or should I pick him up on my way to clean my face?"

"Meh, leave him in the snow. I'm sure his royal highness could use some time to cool off a bit," Luna answered as she came back from the house, rolling her eyes. "I love him like a brother, bu-

"Hey, Luna!" Dice interrupted as she headed in for the house. "I need to know something..."

"You need to know a lot of things," Luna smirked, hoping to get back for being interrupted.

"Well, yeah! I do," Dice said nodding. "You are right, of course. I'll be sure to ask the adequate authority when I need to find out... in the meantime, did you use water-soluble markers?"

"Well, I think I used... Wait, what?" Luna asked, doing a double-take.

Dice grinned. "Oh, I thought it was you, but I didn't think you'd fall for it!" she chuckled malevolently. "I will, of course, retaliate at some point..." her grin slowly expanded. "But... for now... I think I should go wash my face... and you can explain to Moony why you painted my face... sis."

Still chuckling, Dice flew into the house, leaving Moon and Luna alone with the unconscious Solaire.

Turning, Moon looked sternly at Luna, who avoided his gaze. "Moonsong, you look at me and answer the question honestly. Did you draw on Lati's face, and why?"

"W-well... Yeah," she said meekly, her ears falling flat against her head. "I just... She just drives me crazy!" she exploded, her face twisting in rage. "She blatantly insults you, and mocks you, an-"

Moonstone put his paw on her mouth, silencing her, before jerking his head sharply. "Come on, let's walk."

Luna followed Moon dejectedly as he led her through the snow, walking at a leisurely pace. After a minute, Moon turned around, sitting in the snow as he looked at his Umbreon, before starting to laugh. "Luna, that was awesome! I couldn't have gotten her better if I had planned it!"

"W-what?" Luna replied, shocked. "Y-you're not mad that I-"

"Are you kidding? She's been trolling me ever since we woke up together! I've been looking for a way to get back at her! Besides, what you did was a good, clean, harmless prank, not something that could hurt her verbally. As long as you promise not to do anything that would actually hurt her, then heck, you can count me in on the pranks, alright?"

"R-really?" Luna asked, her eyes going wide. "I-I was under the impression that you and she were... Umm, you know, kinda-"

It was then that Blade emerged from the trees and looked around, noticing the pair. "Hey Moon! I heard a commotion! Did your girlfriend finally wake up?"

"Blade!" Moon protested, spinning on the purple-tinged Cyndaquil. "She's not my girlfriend, okay? And don't you dare give her that idea! She'll troll me so hard I'll never be able to sleep! Now," he continued, turning back around to face Luna, "as I was saying... Luna? Luna?"

Looking around rapidly, he turned back and forth, but she was nowhere to be found. "Where'd she go?"

.o.O.o.

Dice dunked her head in water and shook it. The black stains faded away as the protective oils that permeated her feathers and made them water-proof also rejected the ink. Sighing, she looked at herself in the mirror.

The hot water had made condensation on the surface of the mirror, preventing her from being able to actually see her new face. Slowly and deliberately, Dice's claw traced a small circle where one of her eyes was reflected, then another for the other eye. Then she slowly drew an upside 'u', drawing a 'sad smiley'. She looked at her amber eyes through the little clean areas for a short time before using a towel to quickly wipe the mirror and dry her face.

When she stepped out, she found Mr. Scifo waiting for her. "Well, Dice, if you really want to go along with this... I have the paperwork set up. You'll need to sign up with your own trainer number and personal code, but that's about it."

Dice nodded and looked at Mr. Scifo for a moment, then nodded more slowly.

Mr. Scifo smiled. "I already talked it over with my wife, Gracia... she was a bit confused, but she's looking forward to getting to know you better."

Dice smiled and followed Mr. Scifo to his computer room, where the documents waited.

.o.O.o.

Luna ran towards the house, her vision wavering slightly as she tried to collect her thoughts. As she approached, however, she realized that if she went inside, she'd have to face the others, and she didn't want to face anyone yet. She just couldn't.

Of course, it was at this time that Solaire woke up, groaning pitifully, "By Arceus, how did I get here?" He looked around, and slowly stood up shaking away the snow. "Was I drinking again with Marcelle and Pierre?" It was when his sister ran past him in tears that he remembered everything. "Oh, no! Tia!" He shook his head as he refocused on his sobbing twin. "Luna? What happened to you?"

"S-Solaire?" Luna exclaimed, shocked, pawing at her eyes quickly, trying to regain her composure. "W-what do you mean? Nothing happened to me. I-I'm fine."

"But... you're crying!"

"S-so? W-why wouldn't I be fine? What, I can't cry and be fine? Everything's great, okay? Just peachy," she chocked, pivoting her head away sharply.

"Luna..." Solaire sighed, making his way up to her and nuzzling her neck. "Come on, sister... I despise seeing you like this; you very well know that while we might act very different, especially when it comes to decorum, and while we might disagree on just about anything, especially good taste, I can tell when my twin sister is sad."

"I... I don't even know what exactly's wrong, though!" Luna protested, giving in as she leaned against her brother's coat, burying her face in his mane.

"It's okay dear," he said. "Sol is here for you... it probably doesn't help that you are surrounded by such a group of knaves."

"D-don't call Xell a knave," Luna corrected automatically, her voice muffled from the fur.

Solaire was quiet for a moment. "It's true, then? Was he really transformed into a Pokemon?"

"Y-yeah," she sniffed, trying to compose herself for her brother's sake. "We don't know how, exactly, but it's true. I was teaching them how to fight so that we could go to the place where it happened when you showed up."

Taking a deep breath, Luna managed to stop crying, her eyes still red, but no longer leaking. After a second, she asked quietly, "What about you, Sol? How are you holding up with Tia... Y-you know, being kidnapped... What happens if she got transformed too? What will you do?"

Solaire narrowed his eyes. "I will pretend that I did not notice your attempt to change the subject, if only because we will talk about this." He sighed. "I am worried... very worried. I don't want Tia to be transformed into a Pokemon... I- I don't know how she would take it..."

"Yeah... I don't know how she'd handle it either," Luna admitted. "I'm not sure if Xell is really freaking out on the inside, and is just trying to hide it, or if he's just interested in figuring out how it happened, and all of that stuff. Tia, I... We'll try to save her in time, okay? I promise," Luna vowed softly, trying to cheer her brother up.

Solaire nodded, his eyes betraying his worry, but there was a hint of relief. "I know I can count on you, sister..."

Luna's ear twitched as she heard faint yelling. "Luna? Where'd you run off to? Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," she lied, shouting back to Moon. "I'm just... Talking to Sol, that's all! You know, catching up, trying to get moving, you know. Heh heh..." she forced herself to laugh a little, trying to act innocent.

Solaire gave her a dirty look, his expression telling her in no uncertain terms that he knew that Moon had something to do with her crying, but he refrained from making a comment as the Espeon, followed by the Cyndaquil he had seen earlier, came into view.

"I'll go check on the others," Blade said, giving the Flareon a strange look before disappearing into the house.

Solaire faced the Espeon rather stiffly. "Well, then... Xell. What exactly did you do to my-"

"Ohmygoodness, wouldja look at the time?" Luna exclaimed, shouting suddenly as she turned to push Moon towards the house. "We completely forgot about the um, experiment we left running in the basement!"

"We did?" Moon exclaimed, stunned. "Which one?"

"Err..." Luna paused for a moment, before blustering, "L-look, it doesn't matter! We've got to go check on it and stuff, remember? For science!"

"Moony!" a voice echoed from the house and suddenly, Moon was rolling on the snow with a white and purple blur on top, both ending with Moon on his back with Dice grinning like an idiot at him on top, pinning him down. "It's official!"

Luna gaped, before her face turned red, turning away in a huff, somewhat embarrassed as well. Moon, however, tried to stop his eye from twitching as he said quietly, "Lati, I'm going to give you five seconds to get off of me before I blast you in the face with an attack."

Dice's eyes became sad as her smile faded. They started watering up. "But... Moony... I just wanted to tell you..." she leaned a bit closer. "I'm yoursss... ister!"

Moon's pupils shrunk to the size of pinpricks until he heard all of the sentence. "Gah! Don't do that to me!" he roared, his face heating up. "I've got enough hell going on, and I really, really can't put with your antics right now, alright? I've been turned into a Pokemon, my best friend has been kidnapped, and may also be turned into a Pokemon if we can't find her fast enough, and what are we doing? You're pinning me down just so you can get a little bit of personal satisfaction! For once, can you please grow up?"

Luna blinked, shocked. She couldn't remember the last time she had heard her master yell like that, and that worried her. 'I take that back,' she shakily whispered to Solaire. 'M-maybe he's not taking this as well as I thought. He hasn't yelled like that in years...'

"We're ready to go!" Dice said, grinning, "I just came to get you and share the news." She rolled off of him and levitated back, giving him room to stand. "You still have to tell your dad about your plan, since... well, you thought about it... we're just waiting for you three and we're good to go save Tear!"

Moon surged to his paws, brushing himself of brusquely, huffing, "Fine, whatever! Luna, come on! I need you to shut the lab down while I go talk to dad. Well, type, I guess," he corrected himself, grunting. "Sol, you need anything? We're leaving ASAP, so if you need to eat, you'd better do it now.'

Luna saluted and charged back to the house, a fading, echoing 'For science' ringing in the clearing as she disappeared.

Solaire shook his head, following his sister into the house.

Dice watched Moon walk into the house, completely ignoring her. Her smile didn't fade until he was gone and she was completely alone. She looked down at the area where she had knocked down her friend and new-found brother and sighed, shaking her head. Her ears twitched and her feathers ruffled as conflicting emotions and knowledge rushed through her mind's eye. "The hell I'm doing?" she muttered, just as a smile played on the edge of her lips almost rebelliously. Soon her anger faded as slow happiness seeped into her eyes. She took a deep breath, forgetting once more that she had once been human. Who cared, anyway?

.o.O.o.

Moon followed after Luna, trotting briskly to the house, trying to burn off his excess energy as he looked for his dad. After searching several empty rooms, he finally found his dad hunched over his laptop, working on some document. Figuring he should just get straight to the point, he crouched before leaping up onto his father's chair, barely keeping his balance. "Holy crap, how does Luna manage to make that look so easy?"

"Moon?" his father looked down at the Espeon in surprise. "What's going on, son? I'm just finishing up some data and..."

Moon swiftly opened up a new document, and started typing, "We're getting ready to leave, but we needed to know a few things. First of all, if you didn't know, Solaire is here. It seems that Tear has been kidnapped, possibly by the same group that did this to us."

Mr. Scifo's eyes widened with worry. "That's really not good..." he said, looking at his son. "Do you have a plan, Moon? Knowing you as I do, I don't think you would have come up here and told me without something in mind."

"Exactly. We were going to wait until night, but with her being captured, we can't afford to take time for that. If there's a process outside of the gas that knocked us out, then there's still a slim chance that we can save her before she's transformed as well. The plan is dangerous, to an extent, and it involves you," Moon typed. "We'd need you to drive us there, first of all, since we wouldn't be able to hide in Pokeballs until we got there, and secondly, we'd need you to act as a scout of sorts, and possibly create a distraction if needed, if there's lots of guards at the rear entrance."

A glint passed through Mr. Scifo's glasses as a small smile played in his face. Action! At last! "Sounds like a plan son, but are you sure you guys can handle yourselves? You've been a Pokemon for less than a day!"

"Well..." Moon hesitated, before continuing, typing slower. "Kinda... I mean, everyone else has learned an attack or two, more or less, so we've got that, and between Solaire and Luna, we should be fine! Not only that, but you're forgetting one small detail that should help quite a bit in fights... We might be in Pokemon bodies, but we're also humans! We don't have to follow the rules of combat like we would if we were still humans ordering Pokemon around! If we're fighting grunts, they're going to be outnumbered, or we'll run away. We'll be fine. If it's something that Luna and Solaire can't handle with help, then we wouldn't be able to get anywhere, so we have to at least act like we're confident enough to go, or there's no point in going in the first place..."

Mr. Scifo nodded. "Okay Moon, I think I can distract them if necessary." He typed a couple of commands into his computer and an "in development" screen appeared with a timer. "Are you all prepared? I'll go ready the car!" he said, putting down Moonstone. "Take the others to the garage. We'll leave when everyone's there."

Nodding, Moon leaped down to the floor, running off to go find everyone, starting with Luna in the basement. The time for planning was over, and now, finally, it was time for some action!

.o.O.o. End Chapter 4 .o.O.o.