Chapter 6: Training the Soul
"AHHHH!" I yelled as I charged into the stuffed dummy, only to get knocked back again.
"No!" Mew whacked me over the head with her tail quite hard. "You keep holding back! You've gotta charge full force!"
"Well, I'm not one for rugby." I admitted.
Now that we had a good few campers transformed, Mew, Latias and Grace were now training us for battle via stuffed dummies. I was practicing Tackle, but I'm not exactly the sporty type.
"Right, I'm gonna help you a bit." Mew then abruptly picked me up.
"Um...Mew? What are you doing?"
"YOU GO NOW!" She then threw me full force at the dummy.
"AAHHHHH!" I screamed in fear as I smashed face first into the dummy.
"Now THAT was much better." Mew nodded.
"My insides are in my feet..." I moaned, trying not to throw up.
"Flippers." The legendary corrected me.
Harrison was also practicing Tackle, he was no better. "Ha...ha...I think I have the stamina of a Munchlax as well..." He wheezed.
"I'll help." Mew said as she picked him up.
"W-Wait! Please! NOOOO!" He yelled as he was also thrown, unfortunately he missed and smacked face first into a tree.
"...Oops." Was all Mew said.
"Harrison! Are you oka-" I stopped when I reached him and stared with a dropped jaw.
His eyes were black swirls.
I. Am. Not. Joking.
"Ohhhh...he's knocked out." Mew stated guiltily.
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH HIM!?" I yelled at her.
"...He's knocked out?"
"Not that! His eyes!" I pointed at them.
She shrugged. "So? I thought your world knew that happened."
"Yes, but...it's just so freaky!" I was tempted to poke them.
"I'll take care of him." Mew said as she picked him up.
"You've sure done a good job of that." I said with a half-lidded look.
Everyone else was training as well. Matt and Luke were also training with Tackle, Chris, Lydia and Sarah were practicing Scratch (Chris seemed to already be experienced) and Liz was actually practicing Flamethrower. I noticed that Vi and Janine were having a bit of difficulty, as they were learning Confusion and Fairy Wind respectively.
Grace used Ice Beam to create a large block of ice in front of Liz. "Okay, let's go again."
Liz nodded as she blew hot flames at the ice cube, slowly melting it. "Owwww, my mouth always hurts afterwards..." She admitted
"Hey Liz." I said as I walk-...sigh...waddled over. "How's Flamethrower going?"
"Pretty good, how's the Tackle training going?"
"Let's just say my shoulder hurts..." I sighed. I then thought of something and turned to Grace. "Hey, Mew said we're all baby pokemon right? So how come Liz knows Flamethrower?"
"Liz probably knows an egg move." Grace said.
"What? How can Liz know an egg move?" I said in disbelief.
"Anything is possible via the transformation." Grace shrugged.
"Jealous?" Liz said with a smug look.
I immediately went back to trying to learn Water Gun.
Chris and Luke were training next to each other. "CHEARRRRGE!" Luke said as he rammed into the dummy with lots of enthusiasm.
Chris scratched the dummy with his claws as he gave Luke a half-lidded look. "Your too hyper, you know that?"
Luke just replied with what he was replying to Chris constantly with: "Mystery Dungeon!"
Chris' expression hardened. "I swear, the next person to say Mystery Dungeon is getting Double Kicked."
Liz looked at him with a raised furbrow. "But, you can't learn Double Kick until you evo-"
"I'M ABOUT TO TRY IT ANYWAY!"
"Why do you hate Mystery Dungeon so much?" I had to ask.
He glare at me for a few seconds before turning away, as if recalling something. "That series...took my family away from me..."
My eyes widened. "Really?"
"No! It's just a terrible series!"
I just paw-palmed as I walked on to Vi and Janine. "Come on! Come on! Come oooooon! Confusiooooon!" She cried as she tried to harness her power, but just got a faint blue glow on her horns as it faded away. "Awwww..."
"Still no luck?" I asked as I tried to spit out just a little bit of water.
"I'm almost there! I'm sure of it!" She declared confidently.
"You can do it Viii!" Sarah cheered as she was busy hugging her own tail.
Janine was just waving her flower around whilst at the same time trying to hide behind it. Chris was constantly worrying that she'd get blown off in stray wind or something like that.
"Since your all whining so much, we'll take a short break." Latias announced.
We all collapsed with sighs of relief. ""You won't be able to take out a Magikarp at this rate!" The red and white dragon belittled us.
"Thanks for the enthusiasm." Matt mumbled.
Chris thrashed around a bit. "F***! I can't get up with these stupid wings!" He thrashed around a bit more before rolling onto his side and then clawing his way into standing. "These things are useless!"
"Are you ever gonna stop shouting?" Lyds said with a frustrated sigh.
"You try having these things!"
"Well YOU try having tusks!" Pretty soon the two were literally butting heads.
"Hey, hey! Calm down!" I tried to reason with them.
"Maybe he should stop being a bastard." Matt suggested.
"AHHHHH!" Chris yelled as he leapt on top of Matt, quickly followed by Lydia in a cartoonish-like sandy scrap.
"Hey! No fighting!" Latias boomed as she readied a Luster Purge.
BONG!
The weird, echoing noise snapped everyone out of their arguing, as we all turned towards the source of the noise.
It was a Braixen, lying on the floor in what looked like a state of daze. But something was up with it, all the red fur that is usually on a Braixen was a sky blue and the yellow fur was a cream colour.
"...That's the weirdest Braixen I've ever seen." Matt said bluntly.
Lydia facepalmed. "Can you at least try to have some restraint?"
The Braixen then sat up and rubbed its head. "Ahhhh...what the hell hit me?" "Braiiiiix...Braix Braixen Xen?" Oh so she was a girl.
I walked over to her. "Are you okay?"
She immediately stood up and got into some kind of battle stance. "Okay! I want answers! Why the hell am I some weird coloured Braixen?"
"Are you a camper?"
She raised an eyebrow at me. "You too?"
"Yep." I nodded as I spread my arm across the little group. "We all are, except for Latias and Grace."
"And Grace is who?"
"The Shiny Glaceon."
"Makes sense."
"So...who are you?"
"Name's Melody, but just call me Mels."
"Wait, Mels?" Chris spoke up as he stepped forward. "Mels that girl I met? It's me! Chris!"
She looked at him sceptically. "Your Chris?"
"Yeah, I'm a Torchic, with stupid stubby wings!" He complained once again.
"So who's doing the explaining?" Liz asked no-one in particular.
"Oh! Oh! Pick me! Pick me!" Sarah said as she raised her paw and waved it around.
"I...honestly don't mind." Mels shrugged.
"Yay!" The Skitty cheered, I just hoped she was accurate...
SplitWorlds
Sean was thinking.
He knew they weren't in their own world anymore, that much was evident. The clues were obvious, the sky, the forestation. Not that he was complaining, it was beautiful, trouble was it was to beautiful to be Britain. And the campers that were disappearing, it wasn't a coincidence. If only he could find some clue that-
"WE'RE ALL GONNA GET RAPED!"
The sudden yell snapped him out of his train of thought as he surveyed the campers running around like headless chickens. Searching had turned up quite a few number of campers clothes, and SOMEHOW people had become convinced that there was some kind of creepy weirdo abducting people for sex slaves. HE didn't have a hypothesis for it, but that was just going over the top, the fact that the driver, the only adult here, had vanished as well didn't help. Just what the heck was going on here?
SplitWorlds
Azura and Ray walked on through the thick foliage, Azura once again leading. "You okay?" She called back to him.
"Yep." He replied as he had his hands behind his head, staring up at the clouds without a care in the world.
Azura sighed. She wondered how Ray could be so airheaded all the time, even now in this small crisis he was plodding along as if nothing was wrong. She herself was quite glad to be away from the camp, it wasn't that she didn't like people, it was that she didn't bond with them...or at least very rarely. She was merely tolerating the more annoying members like...what was his name?...Luke? Yes, that was it. As for Ray, he had tried to make friends with practically everyone here! Sometimes she thought he was too oblivious to any form of danger, but he really would do anything for her. They were living proof of the phrase 'opposites attract'.
They stopped for a second as they found some flat rocks to sit on. "You ever gonna stop looking at the sky?" She chuckled.
"Nnnnnope." He replied. "The sky here just seems so nice, so clear and filled with clouds."
He did have a point. They had run into a guy earlier, Sean, who had said something similar, it really was nice though. "You stare at the sky so long you'll break your neck." She joked.
"Oh really?" He smirked as he looked at her. "Do you really think there's some weirdo guy around here?"
She shrugged. "I dunno, could be, couldn't be."
"I won't lose you." He nodded. "Your my partner after all."
Azura chuckled at this, they had at one point discussed about being partners, and it just...stuck, somehow. But...she liked it, it meant that they would always have each other.
Suddenly Ray jumped. "Ouch!" He cried as he clutched his chest.
"What's the matter?" Azura asked.
"Ow...it felt like something burned in my heart..." He winced.
"Never heard of heartburn like that..." She said to herself as she stared at him, notcing that his face was heating up. "Hey, are you hot or something?"
"Huh? No, why would you think-" He stopped as he looked up and stared at Azura with a raised eyebrow. "Azura? Are you feeling sick?"
"...No? Why?"
"Well...your looking a bit...green."
"Green?" She echoed as she looked at her hand, which was now an emerald green colour. "Wh...WHAT THE HELL'S UP WITH MY SKIN!?" She yelled.
"...Heyyy...why am I red?" Ray said as his skin turned a bright red.
The two slowly started to shrink. "Now I'm shrinking!" Azura yelled.
"This is weird..." Ray mumbled.
"CAN YOU AT LEAST TRY TO SHOW CONCERN AT THIS!?" The green girl shouted angrily.
Azura winced as her body structure shifted into a more lean and agile one, with her legs shortening whilst her arms and neck grew thinner and longer. Her stomach and chest were changed red as her toes merged together until there were only two big ones, with one growing out of the back on each foot. Her hands followed a simple transformation as they merged into two claws. Three leaves grew out of both her wrists as she felt five others sprout out of her rear, her hair then abruptly all fell out as a long green leaf shoot out and fall behind her back. Finally her face and nose stretched out as her ears disappeared, and her eyes grew slightly larger whilst turning yellow.
"Ahhh...what just happened?" "Grooo...Gro Vyle Grovyle." She mumbled, only just realising what came out of her mouth.
Right next to her Ray's stomach turned a cream colour as his body structure changed into a more stouter one, with his arms being accentuated with strength. He bit his tongue as his toes and fingers shrank back into his feet and hands, were three claws grew out quickly afterwards. He closed his eyes in pain as he felt his skull jut out at the back of his head, this was actually a stump as his face lengthened and his teeth became fangs, his ears also vanishing. Finally a long tail slowly grew out, where a large flame suddenly burst to life.
"YEOWCH!" "CHAR!" He shouted from the shock, causing him to cover his own mouth.
The two realised what each other said and looked at each other.
"Your a Charmeleon!" Azura yelled in Grovylese
"Your a Grovyle!" Ray shouted in Charmeleonese. "...Cool."
Azura facepalmed at his lack of concern. "We're now POKEMON, and can understand each other, and you really can't freak out?"
Ray shrugged. "Well, it doesn't fix the problem, does it?" Azura just sighed.
"YAAAAY!" Thw two jumped and turned to find Mew floating right behind them.
"AH! Don't sneak up on us like that!" Azura yelled fiercely.
"Wow, your a Mew!" Ray marvelled.
"THE Mew, thank you." She corrected him. "Your lucky I found you guys! You could've gotten lost or something! So who are you?"
"Why should we tell you that?" Azura glared at the pink legendary.
"Because I'm the only one who can explain this to you?"
"...Fine. I'm Namae and this is R-"
"Eh-eeeeeh! Wrooong!"
"What!?"
"Your name's Azura, right? I can read your mind."
"If you can do that, why did you ask!?"
"'Cause it's fun!" Azura could only rub her temple in frustration.
"Look, are you gonna tell us what's going on or not?"
"Oh yeah! Come on! I'll tell you on the way."
"Where are we going?"
"Secret."
And so the three walked on, with Mew leading, Azura following and Ray obediently bringing up the rear. It was during this time that Azura put two and two together. "This has happened to others, hasn't it?"
"Yep! We've got quite a group so far!" Mew confirmed. Azura just groaned as she thought of who she might have to put up with during all this.
"I can't wait to see who they are!" Ray cheered enthusiastically. Yep, opposites attract indeed...
SplitWorlds
"YEEEEEEES! I DID IIIIIIIIT!" I whooped for joy.
"Did what?" Liz asked as she walked over.
"Well one, my Tackle has improved, and check this out!" I felt that new organ somewhere in my body begin pumping as I opened my mouth and spat out a thin stream of water somewhat forcefully, like a hose.
"You learned Water Gun!" Liz cheered.
"Yeah, but its a long way off." I admitted sheepishly.
"HEEEEEY! I'M BAAAAAACK!" We recognised the cheery voice immediately as we turned to see Mew float over to us, accompanied by a Grovyle and a Charmeleon. "Everyone, this is Azura and Ray!"
"Hey!" The Charmeleon said in a male voice, so I guessed he was Ray.
The Grovyle, who must have been Azura, glared at Mew, as if she let something slip. "Just call me Namae." She told us.
Whilst Ray introduced himself to practically everyone Azur-...er...Namae tried not to mingle. These two were like polar opposites or something!
I noticed Mels walk over to Mew so I joined them. "So your Mew, huh? Good to meet ya." Mels said. "Listen, when I tried to come here I hit something pretty hard, do you know what it was?" What was she...oh yeah! When we heard that noise!
"That was probably my shield." She said with an air of smugness. "You must have had ill intent or something like that."
"Did you?" I asked the oddly coloured Braixen.
She crossed her furry arms. "Fiiine, I MIGHT have been trying to attack you."
"ATTACK US!? Why!?" I shouted.
"Well, there were a bunch of you training and I thought you might've been an army or something...plus when those idiots started fighting I wanted to break it up."
I just stood there for a minute before nodding. "Makes sense."
Mels turned back to Mew. "Another thing...WHY AM I BLUE!?"
Mew shrugged. "I dunno. Some compatibilitys can be...debatable or skerwiffy."
"How can compatibilitys be...those things?" I asked.
"It all has to do with your soul and aura, and how strong and happy they are." She vaguely explained. "Ask a Lucario or something."
I'm getting more and more evidence my life was on cue, because at that moment Harrison walked in on us. "MEW! YOU JUST DUMPED ME IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WOODS!"
"Huh?" Mew tilted her head in confusion until her eyes widened in realisation. "Oops. I dropped you when I saw Azura and Ray! My bad!"
I was seriously having trouble figuring Mew out! One side of her was calm and stoic, yet caring and gentle...whilst the other is a forgetful airheaded litle kid! I was tempted to ask her, but decided against it.
"Hey!" Grace called over to us. "Someone else has transformed!"
"Really? Who and into what?" A still annoyed Harrison asked.
She frowned. "I honestly don't know, I think they're disguising themselves somehow...it's possible they're a Kecleon or something similar."
"Hey hey! I think break times over! Back to training!" Latias shouted, making us all groan.
As I went back to Tackle practising, I thought I heard someone behind me...I turned to see Vi. "Hey Vi, what's up?"
"Elin, I feel something weird..." She said as she parted her hair to look at me.
"Weird?"
"Yeah, I think my horn's doing that whole emotion sensey thing again. I think somone's...scared or something. Can you come with me?"
"Huh? Where?"
"I think I can find out who it is, just c'mon!" She then grabbed my stub and led me away, did she have any idea where she was going?
"Vi, wait a second. Why did you talk to me."
"Because your my partner." She replied as if it was natural.
"Uhh...since when did we decide tha-"
"I'VE GOT IT!" She abruptly yelled, cutting me off and running off.
"Vi! Wait up!" I called as I followed her to a familiar looking lake. "Hey...this is the lake I came to when I was having my test with Grace..."
"Awwww!" Vi pouted. "I'm sure it's over there somewhere..." She pointed along the lake shore.
"Maybe you just imagined it?" I suggested.
"But I felt it..." She looked downhearted.
I patted her on the...shoulder? "Don't worry about it, let's head back and-"
SPLOOSH!
Both of us turned to see water suddenly start thrashing around in the lake on it's own!
"H-HELP!" "Z-ZORUA!" As we heard the cry a Zorua suddenly materialised where the thrashing water was!
"That's a Zorua!" Vi gasped, it was probably another camper.
"I-I can't swim well!" HE pleaded.
"Hold on!" I yelled as I dived back into the water and swam underneath him. I got kicked several times in the face as I carried him across the water and pushed him onto the side, popping my head above the water afterwards. "Are you okay?"
The Zorua coughed some water out of his lungs before looking back at me. "Y-Yes...thank you for saving me..."
"Just as long as your safe." I nodded as I layed lazily on my back and paddled in a circle, preferring the water.
"Umm...are you the Oshawott everyone is looking for?" He asked hesitantly, which kind of reminded me of something...
"Yep." I nodded. I then stopped and straightened myself in the water as I saw something around his neck, a red scarf. "Wait a minute...Gael?"
"H-Huh?" He buried his face in his soggy scarf. "H-How do you know my name?"
"It's a long story..." I said.
"Your Gael! I remember you!" A certain Ralts beamed. "Remember me? I'm Vi! And this is Elin!"
I frowned at her. "Don't you think we should have eased him into it?"
"...Oh...sorry..." She mumbled, covering her face withher hair.
"...That...makes sense..." Gael mumbled behind his scarf. "Y-You did say osha to me..."
'Kinda hard to cover that up.' I thought as I reluctantly climbed out of the water.
"So, how did you turn invisible like that?" Vi asked curiously.
Gael still looked uncomfortable, but I think he was easing into the conversation. "W-Well, I just turned into a Zorua...and I got scared...I just wanted to hide away somewhere...and then I couldn't see myself in a puddle..."
I thought for a second before I nodded. "You must have created an illusion to hide yourself."
"Yeah! Zorua's are super special at illusions!" Vi giggled.
Gael looked at us both. "T-That does seem to wor-ACHOO!" He suddenly sneezed violently.
"Uh-oh, we'd better get you back to the others, can we explain on the way?" I asked, he just nodded as he started to look sickly. "Okay, come with us."
SplitWorlds
"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!?" Latias yelled at us.
Gael buried his face in his dripping scarf as the legendary bore down on us. "We were finding Geal!" Vi defended us.
"And why didn't you tell US!?"
"Because!...Because...uh-oh..." She hid her face behind her hair.
"Can we get some help for Gael over hear?" I called out.
"You want me to give him an Ember?" Chris suggested, I just sighed.
Grace walked over. "Here Gael, I'll make a moss bed for you."
"Th-Thank you." He sniffled.
"Just for this little act, Elin! I have a little job for you..." Latias glared at me.
"Why me!?"
"Because YOU obviously arranged it!" How!? How was I the mastermind in all this!? "Come on!" She began leading me away.
Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Janine floating up to Geal, hiding behind her flower. "...Are...are you okay?" She asked Gael.
He turned to her nervously. "I-I'm fine, just a little sick..."
I didn't hear anything else as Latias shoved me along to a clearing where everyone else was, for some reason Matt was standing opposite me. "Hey Elin!" He waved at me.
I hesitantly waved back. "Hey...what's going on?"
"This is an exhibition battle, and your fighter number 2."
I whipped my head towards her. "Wh-What!? Battle!? With Matt!?"
"You heard me." She said as she gave me an encouraging push. "Break a leg! Yours or his, either one wil do." IS SHE INSANE!?
"Mew!" I called to said pokemon.
"Fight! Fight! Fight!" She cheered enthusiastically...I hate her at times...
"Go Elin! Show him your Water Gun!" Liz cheered from the make believe sidelines.
"He can use Water Gun?" Harrison mused aloud.
"I'm betting on Matt." Chris stated plainly.
"Good luck, Matt!" Lydia called with a fist-pump.
"COME OOOOOON! GO BOTH OF YOU!" Luke shouted.
"Go! Go! GOOOOO!" Sarah ran around in excitement.
"You can do it Elin! My partner can't lose!" Vi practically screamed...thanks?
"Who should I cheer for?" Ray thought aloud.
"Why are we doing this...?" Namae sighed.
"Come on, Elin! I'm not gonna hold back!" Matt said as he jumped up and down in anticipation.
I. Am. Doomed.
Cliffhanger! Sorry this chapter is late, I'm gonna explain that now.
What with school starting back up and me resurrecting an old story back from the dead, my updates are gonna be a bit later then usually. Don't panic I have ZERO intention of giving up this story, it's just...school. Enough said. But seeing as you guys l've this story so much, for those of you who've submitted OC's, you can PM me your OC's introductions and/or transformations for me to slughtly edit, and speed up the next update. Of course I'm more then happy to do their own, so you don't have to if you don't want to.
Pawniard: Lazy author.
I'm doing my best here! But anyway, thank you guys SO much for reading and I'm SO sorry about this, anything to add, Pawniard?
Pawniard: Yes actually, I have a certain Razzorow to use Guillotine on...
KILLING ONE OF OUR READERS WILL NOT HELP! Sorry again about this! But in four weeks it's Summer Holidays and I can write as much as I want! Thanks again! PAWNIARD PLEASE DON'T KILL RAZZOROW!