"Hey, Imposter! Imposter, hey! Imposter, hey Imposter! Heh... hey... Imp... hey..!"

Luckily Imposter was aware of enough human to recognize a greeting, if not an excessive one. It turned around robotically as an exhausted and panting Shauna ran up behind it.

She shook her head like a Ponyta in order to clear it. Less flustered, she tried again. "Hey, Imposter."

"Ditto," it replied. She did not seem to mind.

"So what brings you to Santalune Forest?"

Imposter looked around, confused. How did it end up here? It had just started walking, to get a head start on its new life as a human. It battled some young trainers with relative success; its friends were all already skilled battlers that new how to take advantage of whatever form they were given. Therefore, today was going well.

But now it appeared it was lost, and its only aide was this human youth it vaguely remembered from yesterday's rendezvous. "What's wrong? Can't find your way?"

Imposter shook its head. "That's okay. Let's go together," Shauna offered. "This'll be so exciting!"

It put its - hands - in its - pockets. It still did not understand clothing. Apparently it was not made of flesh, yet it was attached to humans anyway. What purpose it served to them, other than appearance modification, Imposter was still unsure, but it liked it anyway. Perhaps there even was no purpose past that. From time to time it liked to think that - humans with their clothing constantly changing were similar to Ditto and their various forms.

Regardless of this, Imposter was content letting Shauna lead the way.

"C'mon, we all gathered over here. We're waiting for you."

She led it towards a clearing in the trees, where her friends from yesterday were gathered. She squinted, and it realized what they were really doing:

"Chespin, Razor Leaf!"

The Pokémon sliced through his opponent, a nervous-looking Corphish. Instantly, the Water-Type collapsed.

"Hahah, great job." Serena called her partner back into its Ball. "Good match, Tierno."

"How was that a good match?" The large boy slumped over in defeat. "It was over in twenty seconds."

Serena opened her mouth as if about to reply, when she was interrupted by Shauna.

"Hey guys! I found uh... Ditto."

Everyone turned, and Imposter suddenly found itself struggling to maintain form. They were relentless with their 'hi's and 'how are you?'s, and all it could say in return was "Ditto."

"Well, everybody's here. We should get going," suggested Trevor. "So much we have to do, you know."

"Yeah," Serena agreed. "I don't know about any of you, but I'm going to take on the Pokémon League challenge. There's a Gym right in the next town over."

No one responded. "Y-You guys all know what that is, right?"

"Um..." Shauna drawled out.

Trevor held up his Pokédex. "Does it have anything to do with - this?"

"Wow, none of you know, huh?" Serena concluded. Imposter knew it had heard the words before - it was all over the news, and sometimes Calem would talk about it. "Basically it's a measure of how good you are as a trainer," continued Serena. "And at the top is the Champion. That's what I'm going to be."

Her eyes closed as she said this, a smile growing over her lips. "Or at least, that's what I'm aiming for, and it will be taking a while. So we should get moving."

Imposter agreed. Because it was unable to speak, it made this point by walking straight through the group and out of Santalune Forest.

Route Three was unsurprisingly pleasant for this time of day. Imposter kept walking in the sun's warmth, momentarily forgetting that there were even people behind it. "Wait! Hey! Where are you going?"

As a Pokémon, Imposter's people skills were understandably shaky.

"Imposter!"

Shauna grabbed it by the shoulder, extremely startling it. It would have Transformed back right then and there if her hand did not remind it that there were humans around. It turned around rapidly to save face, but it was too uncoordinated - its legs turned one way and its head the other, resulting in it completely falling over looking up at Shauna.

It gulped, pigments of red appearing on its cheeks. "You - hah! You're too funny. That was really rude, you know, walking away when we're in the middle of a conversation!"

Heart racing, it looked behind her for the others. Tierno was guffawing at its clumsiness, while Serena and Trevor looked confused at the situation. Shauna moved again, transferring its attention to her hand, extended in helping. "Here, get up. We've got places to go, anyway."

Get up. Oh. Okay; it did as she ordered, without touching her. Why was her hand still out like that? It poked her wrist, and she recoiled. "What? What's with-"

It saw her looking it up and down. "...Okay. Let's-Let's go, guys."

Imposter saw them all walk ahead of it, embarrassed about its faux pas. Naturally, Froakie was in stitches at it.

"Oh boy, you sure are bad at this, eh? Have you even practiced in that body at all?"

Of course it did. Imposter spent almost as much time like that as it did in its natural form, but being confined to Grace's house kept it from getting much practical experience. A glance shut Froakie up, and it followed the humans. It would continue this adventure.

"Uh... Ditto. Look."

The Pokémon's attention landed where Serena's finger pointed. The building in front of them was not notably large, but its furnishings implied that it was largely notable. "That's a Pokémon Gym."

Imposter's heart skipped a beat. This was one of the humans' Gyms. There was something about that word, and the luxury with which Serena pronounced it, that convinced the Ditto that it needed to go in.

And, true to nature, go in Imposter did.

"Hey, me first! Wait up, mister."

It was hardly aware of Serena anymore. All it knew was that this place was special. The room was simple enough - two statues at the entrance, one human standing amongst them, and a square-shaped hole in the floor in the center. It hardly took into account the pictures on the walls, which Serena claimed were photographs taken by the Gym Leader.

It did not know nor care what a photograph was, only that it needed to proceed.

While it was vaguely aware of the man trying to have a conversation with it and Serena, it hobbled over to the hole in the ground and stepped down.

"Imp- oh no!"

Serena screeched as it fell. Even Froakie was silenced for a moment. Its arms flailed, and after a second, Imposter felt something sticky underneath it. Hardly phased, it stood up and looked around.

And immediately wanted to leave.

There were a lot of Bug-Types in the towns and routes around its hometown of Vaniville City, and often when Grace took her Ditto out in public she would allow them to roam for a bit and Transform into whatever they wanted. So once Imposter Transformed into a Scatterbug.

A wrong choice when there were Ariados in the area. Long story short, Imposter was no longer comfortable in the middle of any spiderwebs, artificial or not.

The web shook again when Serena landed beside it, followed by Froakie, on top of it. "Hey! Are you alright? You know they have that rope to slide down. You could have hurt yourself!"

"Ditto."

"Don't you 'Ditto' me. We're-"

Serena stopped talking. "That's right. We're in the first Gym in our adventure in Kalos."

She calmly turned to face Imposter, then inhaled slowly and said quickly:

"Last one without the Bug Badge is a rotten Exeggcute!"

With that, she took off, hunger in her eyes. Imposter looked down. Was there really nothing beneath it but this webbing? It gulped. May as well continue.

Most of its battles with the Gym trainers went as expected; it won them eventually, but not without trouble. Learning what certain moves did took longer than Imposter would have liked. Yet it was determined, and it would succeed.

It turned to the back of the Gym when shouting could be heard. Serena was standing before a large pink Pokémon it had never seen before, and was battling against him like it had never seen her do. Suddenly its attention was ripped away, taken by the next Gym trainer, itching for a battle.

It reached into its bag.

By the time it was ready to battle Viola, Imposter's team was begging it for a round of restores. The last battle between them and Lass Charlotte's Kakuna had taken much longer than anticipated, since the fight had became more of a defense-maxed-on-both-sides Struggle-fest, as Kakuna knew only Harden. That, combined with the following Combee's frequent supereffective Gusts, had quickly depleted Imposter's store of potions and berries.

But Imposter could not be expected to prepare properly for something it did not understand, so it took the remaining two Ditto - Limber included - and figured it may as well challenge the Leader.

Viola had an entire speech recited, but it all flew in one of Imposter's copied human ears and out the other. One word - fantastic - it had picked up on, but only because she had used it so often. It was too focused on the prospect of battle to comprehend anything else.

Viola sent out Surskit, and Imposter, Ditto. Ditto used Water Sport - to help guard against all of her Fire-Type moves, of course - after the opponent Quick Attacked.

The battle never did turn around for Imposter, and it lost quickly. Finally it bolted back to Santalune's Pokémon Center to give its team a much-needed respite.

"All I'm saying is... you have to understand our side of the situation too. When you're not the one battling, it might be easy to forget that fighting is - tiring."

Imposter blinked. Limber had wanted to have this conversation before rebattling the Gym, so Imposter hid its bag nearby and the two Ditto had Transformed into a couple surrounding Rattata, to avoid drawing attention.

"Doesn't Grace battle with you all the time?"

Imposter's tail flicked back and forth. Rarely had any of them been used for battles, especially recently. "No," was Imposter's answer.

"So - well-" Limber stuttered, picking its whiskers. "Regardless, when half of us are asking you for a break and the other half aren't because they're already unconscious, it's a good indicator that maybe visiting a center before such an important battle is a good idea."

"Okay."

"And I want to give as much as I can too. It isn't much, but I could do a lot better when I'm not exhausted."

"Okay."

"And wow, stop okaying me. Just-" it inhaled. "I'm excited about all this, truly, but - we all have a long way to go - from here. Unh."

Imposter watched as Limber bit down on some air, trying to hold form, but that looked harder than it was for Imposter. Limber soon gave up, released a breath, and turned back into Ditto. It climbed back into its Poké Ball after one last reassuring smile, leaving Imposter alone to gather its bag, become Calem again, and make its way back to the Gym.

It remembered the rope down this time.

"Hey," Viola observed, eyeing Imposter's Trainer Card. "You're back."

"Ditto," it responded.

"Me? I didn't go anywhere. But you... I can see it in your eyes. It's fantastic that you want to try it again. I admire your fantastic persistence, but I already gave out one Bug Badge today, and I don't plan on losing again!"

"Ditto."

"You don't either? Fantastic!"

You are challenged by Leader Viola!

Viola sent out Surskit again. Imposter threw out a Ditto.

Imposter shared a look with this Pokémon. It would do it right this time.

"Ditto, use Quick Attack."

It did.

"Surskit, Bubble."

Imposter blinked. Okay. "Bubble."

"Quick Attack."

"Quick Attack!"

"Water Sport!"

Imposter all but burst out laughing. "Bubble!"

Surskit fainted. Imposter grinned.

"Fantastic!" Viola praised. "Now onto my ace. Go, Vivillon!"

So this was the pink Pokémon that Imposter saw Serena battling so vehemently. It could not tell if Ditto was nervous, but it understood now, for the first time, that there was a difficult battle in front of it.

Imposter felt a crunching sound in its mouth. Apparently it had been chewing its tongue too hard. It cringed. "Quick Attack, Ditto."

Vivillon shrugged it off. "Infestation."

A new move that Imposter failed to recognize. It could only watch Ditto's face as Vivillon swooped in for the move.

Ditto fainted!

"Go, Ditto!"

Viola's face contorted into a mixture of confusion and amusement. "More Ditto? You sure seem to have a favorite species. That's fantastic! Good on you for using the ones you like over the ones that will get the job done. Fantastic."

It was now Vivillon on Vivillon. New move? Imposter was happy to try it out.

"Ditto, Infestation."

The opposing Vivillon simply blinked. Imposter's jaw dropped when it saw how little the attack did. "You have a lot to learn, challenger," Viola reminded it.

Vivillon Tackled. Imposter liked how much better that was. Ditto Tackled. Vivillon Hardened. Ditto Tackled.

It seemed to Imposter that no matter what it was Ditto did, Vivillon would only brush off the attack. But Ditto apparently read the situation better. "Imposter, see? He looks exhausted. We almost won."

Vivillon Tackled. Ditto Tackled. Vivillon Tackled again. Ditto fainted.

"Ditto..." It called its Pokémon back. "Thanks. It's almost over.

"Let's finish him, Ditto."

Ditto used Tackle!
Vivillon fainted!
You defeated Leader Viola!

Imposter stopped to catch its breath, withdrawing its friend's Ball. "Good work, Ditto."

"Did I do well?"

"You did fantastic."

It put Ditto away and looked up to see the strange look on Viola's face. That was right. Humans normally cannot talk to Pokémon. Its face flushed as though it had been caught, with Viola continuing on as usual in spite of what had transpired.

"Well, you beat me," she conceded with a giggle. "Have this Bug Badge, for all your fantastic effort!"

Imposter cautiously accepted the metal pin, as if unbelieving of its very existence. It slowly pinned the badge onto its very own Trainer Card. Now it was really getting places.

Now, perhaps, there was a chance for it to make something of itself as a human.

But only time would tell.

~End of Part One~

Imposter Fact of the Day: During the playthrough that inspired this story, I had Shauna and the gang call Imposter, quote, 'uh... Ditto'. They were pretty confused.

Heeey

Sorry for the potentially somewhat-boring chapter, but the first Gym's pretty important. Good chance to get used to how battles are going to work in this, as well as Imposter's habits as a trainer. Anyway, you've probably noticed, but this story is separated into parts. Ten, specifically, their lengths ranging from two to five chapters each. They're more or less organized according to Gym - that is, a part will end after finishing each one. Generally speaking. There will be exceptions.

Thanks for sticking around! Hope to see you Saturday.