The great roar of what Imposter was sure was a Dragon-Type sounded overhead. Rolling gray stratus clouds kept the sky free of much other than a large building across town, so spotting the culprit was easy.
A red Pokémon completely foreign to Imposter was flying overhead. After a couple seconds, Imposter realized, the creature was flying directly toward it.
It instinctively put one foot backwards to keep balance, protectively clutching Froakie with both hands the way humans would one of their infants. The Pokémon landed in front of it, and that was when it noticed his passenger.
"Good landing, Charizard," complemented Serena. "Now, you. Didn't we all agree to meet here in Shalour? What's kept you so long? I've already beaten Ramos in the time it took for you to get out of that dang cave, you know," she informed proudly.
Imposter opened its mouth. "Regardless. Let's see that Trainer Card. How far along even are you?"
Hesitantly but trustingly, Imposter pulled it out. "Tsk, tsk." Serena evaluated its progress. "Only two? I was hoping you'd have beaten Korrina by now. We're supposed to be learning about Mega Evolution from her gramps, but he won't tell us anything unless we've all proven ourselves by beating his granddaughter, the Gym Leader. Still waiting on only you and Trevor, who's working on it now. So you're coming with me. To the Gym."
She called Charizard back into his Poké Ball. Taking Imposter by surprise (so much that its calves wobbled with the sensation of deforming), Serena grabbed onto one of its wrists and took off.
Imposter figured she should know by now that it was unable to run well, but apparently she did not. It had no choice, however, and kept up with her as best it could.
"Now see, this Gym focuses on a trainer's physical ability, as well as the Pokémon's," Serena explained. "You need to navigate the rink in the center on these roller skates. You were able to pick up a pair, right?"
It glanced downwards at Froakie (who had awoken by now), slightly panicking. What even were roller skates? It sent the Water-Type this look, who returned with a shrug.
Serena lifted a foot to show that underneath, attached to her shoe, was a removable pair of wheels she could flip out and in whenever she wanted. Taking note, Imposter studied the contraption. It could easily whip up something like that, it was sure.
It sat down on the ground, folding one leg over the other so that the sole of one foot was facing it, out of Serena's view. Glancing back and forth between its work and its subject - her roller skates - it carefully morphed wheels onto the bottoms of both its feet.
It gave one of them a spin. Worked like a charm, though it tickled. Now was the hard part: standing up.
One foot down. Incredibly unsturdy. Rolling the foot back and forth, an idea formed; it flattened the very bottoms of the wheels, keeping them from rolling and providing a tiny base for it to stand on.
However did humans learn to use these things without being able to Transform them?
It shakily stood up. Even with its modified version of the skates, keeping balance was ridiculously hard, and it was too unprepared for how much taller the skates made it. It fell down a total of seven times before Serena gave up and helped it along.
"Come on," she commanded, reaching up to secure its shoulders. Herself wearing roller skates, she impressed Imposter with her ability to get them both moving; it rounded the wheels and felt itself being pushed.
Froakie crept along as Imposter inched forward. "Hey, you know, I'm not gonna just push you this whole way," Serena announced, to Imposter's chagrin. "Now you're standing, so try moving. It's just like walking... kind of... just in strides. Like-"
She was cut off by the sound of a passing trainer's greeting. "Heyo, Serena! Imposter!"
"Hi, Trevor! Get your badge yet?"
"About to. Gotta heal the team, first. Heheheh..."
Serena motioned towards him as he skated away. "-Like him. He just learned today, too."
That did not help Imposter. "Here. Hold on." She let go, making sure it was standing up. It created its platform and watched her demonstration.
"You just... push off with one foot at a time. Don't pick your feet up so often, and make sure not to go Pidgey-toed. See?"
She skated away, then circled back to Imposter. "Now you try."
Push off with one foot at a time... that was no different from when Grace taught it how to walk as a biped. It inhaled, and making its wheels round, went for it anyway.
One push on skates took it three times the length of a typical non-skating step. Clearly unprepared for this, it wiped out.
Serena rolled up to it. "I can see this is going to take a while."
Feet away, it could hear Froakie laughing it up.
It took a lot of practice and patience on Serena's part to get Imposter to the Gym Leader, but eventually they made it.
"You." The girl pointed out Serena. "Your team was tough. What brings you back to my Gym?"
"Korrina, you goofball, trying to be all serious. This here is the last of Sycamore's pupils. He has everyone call him Imposter - I can't tell you if that's his real name, but that's what he goes by, so we just roll with it."
Korrina sent her a stern look. "Are you-"
"Making a pun? No, just heard it now. Sorry. Anyway... You should totally battle my friend sohecanfinallygethisbadge. Now, goooo..."
Serena kept the last syllable up for longer than she looked comfortable with, until Korrina sent out her Hawlucha.
Imposter sent in Ditto. "And, Imposter," Serena added, causing the Ditto to turn. Her eyes narrowed, her mouth lost all traces of a smile, and her jaw hardened.
"Don't lose this fight."
Imposter lost.
Serena admitted later to expecting this, but that did not keep her impatience down. She grabbed it by the wrist and dragged it along to the Gym again, attempt after attempt, each time appearing more and more frustrated.
"Why do you keep leading with that regular Ditto if you have so many Hidden Ability ones?"
"Hawlucha is a Flying-Type with moves powerful against Fighting-Types like itself - and the Ditto Transformed into it."
"Why aren't you using your Froakie? I'm sure he's just itching to battle such a strong opponent."
(To that, Froakie responded: "Ain't no way. Not against something that screams every time it uses a move.")
"You've got to work on being faster than her! Put on a Quick Powder, or something - heck, at this point, take my Quick Claw!"
"No... Why don't you learn that you're not using effective moves?"
"Do you ever train anything other than Ditto!?"
All Imposter understood was that it was tired, and wanted to un-Transform for a while - preferably in the nearby Pokémon Center, munching on a Sitrus Berry.
Serena huffed as she approached Korrina's stadium again, Imposter in tow. "This will be the one," she breathed.
And she was right. Imposter lost a total of one Ditto during that battle, the main battler knocking out Korrina's team without a problem.
Korrina growled as she handed over the badge. Serena looked relieved, sending the Gym Leader a happy smile. Korrina said nothing, looking down at the one skate she rolled back and forth.
Before leaving to flaunt its victory, Imposter vaguely noticed Serena slip something to the Leader. It decided to make nothing of it, instead heading to the Shalour City Hotel where Froakie was sure to be waiting.
Imposter awoke to thuds at its hotel room window. Looking around, it took a while to figure out they were just Fletchling flying around, making fools of themselves.
It also took a second to realize that it was not even in its Poké Ball, nor was it Transformed. Apparently it had been so worn last night that it had just gotten into its room, flopped on the bed, deformed, and zonked out without even taking care of its bag. The night was incredibly dark when it had finally left the Gym victorious, but now that it did, it was happy to be able to stop battling for a while.
And thinking of resting... there was that Sitrus Berry it had promised itself.
It was eerily quiet as Imposter nibbled its breakfast, but it had only noticed for a moment before running into and having to discard the pit. Another Fletchling bumped the window again, drawing Imposter's attention to the sunlight streaming in through the panes.
So, it was probably late in the morning. Imposter did not mind that at all; after working so hard - gaining two Gym badges in as many days! - it did not plan to do much today. Berry taken care of, it would have contented itself falling right back to sleep, if not for a pounding on its door.
It reached for its bag, where its Trainer Card was located; but it was too slow. Serena, finding the door to be unlocked, busted in demanding its presence.
It panicked - it could never Transform fast enough at this rate to be Calem, and the only option was to hide. Luckily, Ditto were masters of camouflage.
Floral print bedsheets? No problem, plus Flabébé was a small Pokémon to begin with and easy to overlook. Although it had not become one recently, that was its only choice. It curled up, forcing the process.
Long ears... a petite face... a little round body with - did Flabébé have tails? Well, this one was going to... and of course, the flower... What color was the flower...
Anyway, those details did not need to be perfect, just convincing. As its miniscule eyes formed, it began to sense Serena approaching.
"He left his bag..." her voice loudly announced. It watched as she took it upon herself to close the flap. She looked around the room, apparently failing to notice it; she walked away, reaching into her own bag.
Imposter breathed a tiny sigh of relief. It needed to take it back, however, when it saw Serena reapproaching with a Poké Ball in her hands.
"Hah! Don't know how you got here, but the shiny luck was with me with Chesnaught and it's with me again!"
She poked the button, readying the Ball for the throw. "White flower Flabébé with a purple body? Trevor would be flipping. Out!"
Imposter glanced at itself. What did she mean? It could have sworn Flabébé were white and purple, or some other feminine color. It would be sure to check the Pokédex as soon as it could. After all, Ditto - Imposter included, except in Calem's case - were known to get details wrong if Transforming from memory.
It floated towards its bag. Its own Ball - the one in which it was caught by Grace - was nestled in there; that would be its escape.
Serena threw. Imposter reached the bag - now to get inside. It looked back to judge its chances of making it, just in time for the Ball to bonk off its nose.
The contraption opened up, and Imposter steeled itself not to look back to see the red glow emanating from it. Instead it dove into its bag and willed itself into its own Ball. Serena would discover it gone at some point and move on, continuing the search for the human trainer she knew as Imposter.
Time was difficult to judge when one is halfway between matter and energy, and even more so between consciousness and unconsciousness. Somehow, it is possible, however, and when a Pokémon needs to do it, a little focus can go a long way.
After what Imposter thought to be around five or ten minutes, its strained hearing ceased to betray Serena's presence. It let itself out, being sure to land outside of the bag. It scanned the room; no sign of any humans, but the door was slightly open. That was fine. It retrieved its Card, Transformed, fit the bag on its body, and left the building.
The sun said it was a couple hours past noon. Now it was realizing that Serena was probably looking for it for that engagement with the Gym Leader's grandfather, and began to feel remiss for arriving late.
Suddenly it heard yelling. From a few blocks down - Imposter's blood ran cold when it finally recognized the voice: Serena's.
Running as a human would get it nowhere. Pokédex, out. Dark alley, found. Page for Pidgey, located. Bag, stashed. Self, Transformed. Card, in beak.
It landed near the site of the screaming, turned human, and sprinted out. "Imposter! They have - get them!"
She pointed out a couple of humans dressed fully in red, down to the hair color. One of them saw it and froze. The other was holding Froakie with both hands, and started running.
"I've got her. You take care of - where's your bag? I thought your team was in there?"
Imposter shrugged.
"Agh!" Serena booked it towards the fleeing human. "Get over here! Forget about him, she's got your Pokémon!" She fumbled in her own bag. "Chesnaught, go!"
The huge Pokémon that emerged was foreign to Imposter, but apparently not the other way around. "It's you," he growled.
"Chesnaught, Team Flare at eleven o'clock!"
He turned, then rolled after his trainer. Imposter was stunned, as it had never seen a Pokémon move so fast.
Serena and Chesnaught were now out of sight. There was one thing Imposter could do.
There and then it mustered the muscle memory from being a Pidgey just moments ago and Transformed, not paying much attention to the remaining human. It took off, scanning the area for its friends.
Flying was immensely difficult, due to either panic, a weak Transformation, or a combination of the two. Finally it found them and thought nothing - just swooped.
Froakie was too busy viciously kicking at its stubborn captor - who was too busy warding off Froakie's blows - for either of them to acknowledge that Imposter was even there. In the back of its mind it remembered that it would never attack a human, and stuck out its talons.
Crying out, it landed on the person's head and gripped her hair. It flapped in her face. It snipped off one miniature pigtail with its beak. Outraged, the human dropped Froakie and reached for the bird on its head.
"Go to Serena," it commanded its Water-Type friend. One of the human's hands grabbed one of its wings, which it desperately shook free.
Dodging punches, Imposter launched off her head. Only when it was a good twenty feet above the scene was it comfortable perching on a nearby windowsill and looking down.
Serena had grasped Froakie in her arms, holding him close. He looked as though he had just escaped one bad situation only to find himself in an equally unfavorable one.
Only two creatures were looking up at it: Chesnaught, who was glaring menacingly, and farther away (it would never have noticed if not for Pidgey's exceptional eyesight), the male human who had worked to take Froakie away. The latter was still staring at it, speaking into some device in a panicked fashion.
Now, Imposter's work was done. It navigated the streets to find the places it had left its Trainer Card and bag, collected them, and set off for where it last saw Serena.
Now, she would be waiting no longer.
Imposter Fact of the Day: Up to Korrina's Gym, I had been playing with five Limber Ditto. The Fighting weakness was unbeatable though, and I had to replace four of them with ones that had the Hidden Ability. Of course, Imposter's experience in this Gym had to reflect this difficulty.
The Pokédex says that Ditto have trouble Transforming when going from memory, so... shenanigans.
Um, has anyone else been having trouble updating recently? I've been getting error messages whenever putting these up, then failing to get the email saying they're up. So I've had to take them down and reupload a couple times. If you've been getting multiple emails per chapter (or none at all), then that's why, although I can't say I know what the problem is.