.

Hey, I'm back. This chapter took a while, sorry about that. I had a hard time writing this, mostly due to my inability to write less important chapters. Big thanks to the mysterious "guest" for the huge review on chapter 3. To respond to some of the things you brought up, well, I have plans for most of it, don't worry ;).

Also, yeah i handled the dungeon pretty poorly. That's why in the future, I will try and fix it.

Also, i stopped writing on my phone, and begun writing on my actual computer, so hopefully grammar and stuff should get better

I should stop dragging this on. Here's chapter 4 of loss of identity.

Chapter 4, Frosted village.

The sun shone over the horizon yet again, its light reaching the peak of the mountain, and slowly drifting down as the morning progressed, eventually reaching Frosted Village. As it began to shine through the windows of the few huts and houses that made up the town, it peeked through the window of a certain house, awaking its residents.

Ian was the first to get up this time, a first for him as he had always been woken up by Ava in the last 5 or so days. This time however, due to his location on the large hay pile, he had gotten an eyeful of sunlight, and woken up a few minutes earlier than she had. He took this time to look around the small house they had been given.

It was similar to the one Neo and Nova had, but it was much smaller, about the size of a motel room, and contained the aforementioned fireplace, which had gone out overnight, a small desk, the hay pile, and a door to another room, presumably the food storage.

'You know, it's kind of like that one motel I stayed in while I visited P.E.I a couple summers ago. It's almost like… I'm in the human world again...' he sighed depressedly. 'But I'm not. My human life is done. It's gone.' memories had begun to come back, and he laid down on his belly on the floor, a sad look on his face.

'I miss everyone. My family, my brother, William, hell, even my school and schoolteachers. I bet everyone misses me too. I bet my brother likes being the only child now, but he probably still misses me. My parents are probably so sad. Mom would be crying, dad would have been angry, not at her... ' he closed his eyes, and began to tear up. 'The whole school probably is holding some event about my going missing, or an announcement, or something. William is probably broken because of it now. He wouldn't have taken it well. And online… all my friends online are probably wondering what happened. I just left one day, never to return. I… I miss everything! I wanna go back! Please!'

Ian laid there for probably 15 minutes sobbing, before Ava woke up. She had woken up to the sunlight hitting her similar to Ian. It took a moment for her to notice Ian wasnt laying next to her anymore. She quickly realized and scanned the room, spotting a sobbing Eevee a few feet away. She got up, and slowly trotted over to him.

"Hey… are… are you ok? Do you want me to give you a minute?" she asked quietly. He didn't respond.

"O-ok." she said, backing away and opting to check her bag for gear. She had a fairly basic selection of items, minus the food which had all gotten eaten on the trip.

Eventually, after a minute or two…

"Should we head outside and get ready?" Ian asked, suddenly standing behind Ava. she jumped for a moment. How had he been so quiet?

"Oh, um, yeah." she awkwardly responded, tossing her stuff in her bag, and walking towards the door.

"I'm sorry."

"What?"

Ian sighed. "I'm sorry you had to see me like that Ava. I shouldn't be so weak like that. I'm the leader of Team Supernova, and I shouldn't be showing so much weakness. I'm supposed to be an inspiration, but instead I'm a wreck. Sorry." he said, looking down. "Its… it's just been hard. Being a human here I just… sorry."

"It's ok, Ian. I don't blame you. There's nothing wrong with letting out a good cry from time to time. Believe me." she said.

"Thanks, Ava. that means a lot."

"Don't mention it."

The two of them sat there for 15 minutes before Ian spoke up. He seemed mostly better now.

"Like I was saying, should we get going? We probably need to stock up on items, and find a job… or something. You know, get affiliated, et cetera eh?" Ian asked, as the two of them opened the door and walked outside.

"Yeah, and look at this." she said, gesturing to the streets of the town.

It was a mystical sight. Eevee and their evolutions everywhere. There were probably 30, and at least 2 of every species, and around 10 other Eevee. There seemed to be a higher amount of Flareon and Glaceon, and only 2 or 3 Leafeon. They were all heading about their day, buying goods from the stores, heading in or out of the town, etc. it was a busy morning, and the many Pokémon there went about their business oblivious to the new pair, Ian and Ava. The sight of so many other Eevee and their evolutions gave Ian a huge wave of unexplainable dopamine.

"Whoa. is this what the place is like during the day? This is really neat, actually!" Ian said, a large smile on his face. 'You know, seeing all the Pokémon here going about their daily business is really pleasing! I don't know why, but some part of me just feels… in place here!

Around the center of the town was a large fountain the pair missed during last night as it was after dark when they arrived. It had no water, probably because it would freeze overnight at these altitudes, but most importantly, it was a large carved icy rock.

On the other end of the village, Neo and Nova could be spotted exiting their house, the two of them chatting politely with each other.

"Ian! Let's go see Neo and Nova first!" Ava said excitedly, as she bounded towards the back of the village.

"Right behind you!" he called out, almost excessively happy.

As the two of them walked through the village, an exceptionally British voice called out to the 2 of them. "You two! Young Mr and Mrs Eevee!" he said jovially.

Ava and Ian both stopped, and turned to where the voice was coming from. They saw a Kecleon, the only non Eeveelution species there, gesturing them forwards, a large smile on his face. The two Eevee walked over to his stall. oh boy, I bet I know what he does.' Ian thought sarcastically.

"Hello you two! I don't believe we've met before! I'm Saul Kecleon! Nice to meet you! I sell wares around here with my brother, Tenpepper Kecleon! Although he's been out for about a day collecting merchandise. Anyways, what are your names you two?" he said quickly.

"Oh, uh, I'm Ian, and this is Ava. we just arrived here last night." Ian said awkwardly.

"Nice to meet you Ian! And you too, Ava! I hope we can end up good partners in business! Anyways, I couldn't help but notice the one bag between the 2 of you. I could sell you a second bag for, say, 1000 Poké? What do you say?" Saul said, overjoyed to have made new customers.

"What do you think Ava?" Ian asked, turning to face her.

"I'm good with it. I have about 5000 Poké left, anyways. My parents gave me a starter fund from their cash, so I don't mind." she responded.

"We'll take it!" Ian exclaimed, the dopamine high from being in a community full of his own species still in effect.

"Excellent! Here you are!" Saul said, digging through his wares and pulling out a treasure bag full of gear.

"Tha- hey, there's still some stuff in here." Ian said, handing him back the bag.

"Keep it! I insist!" Saul exclaimed, refusing the bag. "A Gift for a new discovery team! I heard you guys are going to be announced tonight by Neo and Nova!"

"Thanks Saul! See you around!" Ian and Ava said simultaneously, as they walked away.

"Sorry for spending your money like that, Ava." Ian said as they walked to where they last saw Neo and Nova.

"It's fine. You needed a bag, and Saul preloaded it too!" she exclaimed happily.

After a minute or two of walking, they passed by a Flareon who instantly recognized the two of them. "Eh! Ava an Ian! What's up yeh two!" he said.

"Oh, John! We were just going to go check up with Neo and Nova before we headed out today!" Ava said.

"Oh that sounds nice, eh? I have sentry duty again today! So I'll see you two tonight when you get back, yehear!" He said, as he continued walking to the entrance of the village.

"See you!" Ava called as she and Ian continued to walk down the small street.

Eventually, they ended up in front of Neo and Nova's house, although the Eeveelution siblings were nowhere to be found.

"Looking for us?" a pair of voices said from behind them.

"Oh, Mrs. Neo and Mr. Nova! We were, actually! We were wondering where to get our first jobs!" Ava said, as Ian and her watched the evolved pair step out from the shadows of a house.

"Just head out, map your route, and report any dungeons." Neo said, a sense of calm smoothness in her voice.

"And don't forget to come back tonight. If you don't come back in 2 days, we start sending out rescues. If it's been a week, well, that hasn't happened yet." Nova added.

"We actually found a dungeon yesterday. On our way here." Ian added. "The road up the mountain on the south side had an autumn forest that was turned to a dungeon. We actually had a few close calls in there. It was pretty rough."

"Ah, ok. We can mark that down on the maps tomorrow. Thanks for letting us know. Anyways, you two should scamper off. Go check out the area on the western side of the mountain. It hasn't been well marked over there yet. No dungeons we know of." Nova said, as he and Neo walked towards the center of the village. "See you two tonight!" he called.

"See you tonight!" Ava called back, before turning to Ian. "Let's get going!" she said, practically running to the west exit. Ian followed behind, having a harder time running.

The two of them walked down the west side of the mountain, and as the air grew warmer, the trees began to return, and they soon found themselves on a small trail, not unlike yesterday. Every few minutes, Ava would stop to write on the map.

The road they were on was covered in pine and spruce trees, instead of the boreal trees from yesterday's route up. Since they were on an incline, you could see into the distance, where a beach on the coast of the continent could barely be seen. It was probably a few days' travel away.

As the pair walked down, they were mostly silent, opting to take in the fresh pine scented air around them. 'It reminds me of the wilderness park near where I lived. It was always nice there, even if I didn't go too often. My family went there one time to get family photos taken in 2018. No one really went there after Covid struck, though.'

Ian continued to reminisce as the two of them walked. Eventually, he spoke up.

"Hey Ava, you said your parents inspired you to travel here. What were they like?" he asked innocently.

"They were nice. You would have really gotten along with my dad. He's a lot like you. In… a lot of ways." she responded. "I always took after my mom, more, though."

"What species were they?" Ian asked.

"My mom was a Jolteon. Sarah Jolteon. And my dad, well, he was a Lucario. Jona Lucario." she said, stopping as the two of them took a drink.

'A Lucario and a Jolteon… named… Sarah… Wait a minute…' "Hey Ava, why do I remind you of your dad so much?" he asked.

She sighed. "He was a human, too. Why do you think I was so accepting of your humanity? Most Pokémon wouldn't believe you for a minute." she looked off into the distance. "If my dad wasn't lying about it, why would you?" she said, before turning to Ian again. "You have no reason to lie about it, and honestly, you act a lot like dad."

'Huh. so her dad was a human too. Explains a lot.' he thought. "Thanks for believing in me, Ava. it means a lot." he smiled back at her, as the two of them packed up their gear. "Shall we get a move on?" he asked.

"You bet so, you goober." she responded, before the two of them began to walk off, continuing to absorb the silence and atmosphere of the surrounding forest, the two of them holding a newfound confidence in each other.

It was around noon when they stopped, and Ava pulled out her map. "Lets see… if we turn back now, we should make it back to Frosted Village by sundown." she said, scanning the map and jotting down their location.

Ian took out a pouch of still frozen jerky from his bag, and started trying to chew on it, finding it just as difficult as the last few times. After a moment or 2, he just resorted to eating the pieces whole, finding it was much easier, and felt more natural. "Yeah, we should head back soon, probably, eh?" he said.

She finished scrawling her notes on the map, and put it back into the bag. The two of them turned around and began to walk back up the mountain.

Eventually, after a few hours, they had gotten just past the tree line, and it was late afternoon. The 2 of them had made light conversation all afternoon about their interests. Ian had taken to explaining more about astronomy since it was a fun subject to him, and Ava had not talked about much, mostly listening to Ian as he raved on and on about weird things like "Rovers" and "Landers" and "Probes." he even explained what a supernova was, and why he chose it as a team name.

Eventually, as they reached past the tree line, they turned around, and looked down the mountain. They could sparsely see a lack of trees in a winding path from where they had gone. It continued down the mountain to the edge of the continent 10s of miles away, although you couldn't tell it from this distance.

"Wow, this world is just full of view, isn't it?" Ian asked.

Ava just stared off. "Better than the grass continent, that's for sure." she said absentmindedly, looking out in the distance.

They turned around shortly after, and continued up the path to the village, eventually reaching a point where there was a thin layer of snow on the ground, shortly after, they reached a gate, where at the top, a few pokemon could be seen walking around. The gate was closed.

"HEY, COULD SOMEONE LET US IN, PLEASE?" Ian called out towards the top of the gate. It opened shortly afterwards.

They walked through, and found the small street fairly empty. After a moment of talking, they decided to go and report their map to Neo and Nova. They walked over to the biggest house, and knocked.

"Come in" a telepathic voice similar to last night called. The two of them pushed open the door, and walked over to the evolved siblings.

"We marked our path today." Ava said, presenting her map to the two.

"Excellent. You two go wait outside, we have an announcement tonight to make, and you guys are needed there." Neo said, quickly shooing them out the door. "We are quite busy now, and would appreciate the silence until we are done. Thank you."

Ian and Ava quickly scampered out the door after that, and let it shut behind them.

"So what now?" Ian said, looking around for something to do.

"We could always deposit our items. Most towns have a localized storage shop. We could go look." Ava responded, walking back over to the center of the town. Ian followed, and the two of them scanned the surrounding area for shops.

Eventually, they spotted one with a Sylveon behind the counter. The Sylveon was smiling and waving to them with her ribbons.

"Hey, what about that shop over there?" Ian said, nodding his head in the direction of the Sylveon.

"Sure" Ava said, quickly getting up and walking over. Once they got a little bit closer…

"Aye, Laddies! Welcome tew Sylveon Storage! Tha finest storage company north ah post town!" a deep, Scottish, male voice said. It was Sylveon.

"Uh… hello Sylveon… nice accent." Ian said. 'Why is he so Scottish though? How do accents even work here? Why does everyone have some accent? Weird.'

"Aye, thanks young lad. Got it from me parents when I was a wee one like yerself. Anyways, what can I do for you young'uns on this lovely evenin?" he said.

"We were hoping to store some stuff here. I guess this is the place?" Ava said.

"Yep. Sylveon storage. If ye wanna store yer stuff here, this is the place. I can store anythin' and everythin' you might need." the sylveon said, showing the 2 of them the stall.

It was a smaller building, and on the inside, small safes were visible, each with a number labelled on them. It was fairly dark inside, too.

"I don't think we actually have anything we do want to store currently, Mr sylveon. But once we do, you'll be the first to know." Ian said.

"That's fine lad. You run along now. I hear they're plannin on presentin somethin tonight. Better be there!" He called, as the 2 Eevee began to walk back to their house.

"We will!" Ian called back.

After a few minutes of walking, they arrived at their house, and went inside, dropping their gear bags on the floor. A few moments later…

"Everyone in the village. This is a public service announcement. There is an announcement to be made to everyone in person. Meet at the fountain in the next 5 minutes. This message was broadcasted by Neo Espeon"

"You hear that?" Ava said, turning to face Ian.

"Yeah, lets go." He answered, and the two of them immediately went back outside, and started towards the fountain.

Once they arrived, there was a huge amount of Eevee and their evolutions hanging around waiting for the announcement to start. There was a lot of idle chatter, and Ian could make out a few conversations.

"...heard there was some new…"

"...another one...?"

"...two this time?"

Ian didn't know what they had been talking about, but he had been excited about it. A similar thing to the morning, where being surrounded by his evolutionary line and species just felt right.

Suddenly, a voice called out.

"Pokémon of Frosted Village! Me and Neo bring an announcement!"

Excited murmurs floated through the crowd as everyone mostly quieted down.

"There are two new discovery teams being inaugurated today! I will now call up the members! Both are 2 Pokémon teams!"

Everyone hushed and waited for the names to be called.

"Can I have Team Supernova, consisting of Ian Eevee and Ava Eevee please come up here!"

"That's us!" Ava practically squealed, before dashing through the crowd and up to the front. Ian followed shortly behind, unexplainably ecstatic. Once they arrived at the front...

"These two young Eevee are one of our newest teams! Now for the other new team!" Nova announced. "Can I have Edison Eevee and Kelvin Eevee to the front too!"

'Edison and Kelvin? Weird…' Ian thought, as a pair of feisty Eevee, both male arrived at the front. They both had confident smirks on their faces.

"These Two are Edison and Kelvin!" Nova said aloud. "They make up our other new team! Team Crossfire!"

The crowd let out a cheer once the 4 Eevee were there. Ian was next to Edison, and Edison leaned over and whispered. "Good luck beating us here. You'll need it." before returning to absorbing the praise from the crowd.

'Kind of a dick, but I'm sure he's fine' Ian thought, as the crowd began to calm down again.

"Everybody here! With this announcement out of the way, I hope you all can become acquainted with our newest recruits and welcome them to the village!" Nova said. "And with that, you all can return to your nightly duties."

The crowd began to disperse, with most of the Pokémon heading to their own houses or the shops scattered around, whose owners had been listening in on the announcement. Ian, Ava, Edison, and Kelvin stayed behind.

"Ok, so you four all did missions today, correct?" Neo asked. They all nodded.

"Good. That means you don't need much more info. I do recommend you stop at the shops tonight too, as being prepared is very useful. Here are your missions for tomorrow. Crossfire, you two will scout out the boreal walkway dungeon to the south, and Supernova, you two will continue to map out the path to the east you took today. You got all that? Good. now go get some sleep. This job isn't easy." she continued, before her and Nova went inside their house behind them.

"Heh, we get to scout a new dungeon while you two morons have to just go on a walk. Hah." Edison said once Neo and Nova were out of earshot.

"You two probably can't even fight which is why they gave you that job." Kelvin added.

"Oh shut up you two. Don't forget WE were the ones to find your little dungeon anyways." Ava said, shooting them their own look back at them. They galked for a moment, before scoffing.

"Whatever. We'll do it better." Edison called at them as Ava and Ian walked away.

Team Supernova ignored them and continued back to their own building. Once inside and with the door shut, Ian spoke.

"What was that?" he said

"What do you-"

"That was awesome! They couldn't even retaliate! I would offer to high five you but, well, I can't." Ian exclaimed, still somewhat giddy from before.

"Oh, uh, hehe, thanks." she laughed awkwardly. "What do you say to some dinner?"

"Sure. I can try cooking. I was always pretty decent at it." Ian said, walking towards the food storage.

He opened it up, and dug through the box on the floor with his snout without thinking about it. Eventually, he found a couple of frozen sausages labelled "Miltank"

'Oh so these are like beef' he thought, pulling them out, along with a couple of metal rods that were hanging on the wall. He dragged them outside into the main room, shutting the cold room door with his hind legs.

"Oh there was meat in there? That's nice." Ava said, as she spotted Ian walking out from the cold room. "What are the metal rods for?"

"We can try cooking them over the fire in the fireplace? I know you always ate raw meat, but, you know, you might like this more. Cooking them is fun too." Ian said, putting the metal rods on the floor, and walking over to the unlit fireplace.

He had taken out a makeshift flint and steel he had thrown together during their travels a few days ago, and after a lot of struggle, had managed to get a small fire going, all the while Ava watching on curiously. Aside from the one night they had travelled together, she had only ever seen fire created by fire types or natural causes, and never by a regular Pokémon. Well, as regular as Ian was.

She watched as he took one of the two sausages, and stuck it onto the end of the rod much like a hotdog, and held it over the fire.

"Come join me!' he said smiling, while sitting down. He didn't sit down like most Eevee, instead opting to sit down like a human with his belly facing forward and front paws for use. It looked quite awkward to Ava, but she liked it nonetheless.

"So I just… stick the sausage on the rod and hold it over the fire?" she asked, sitting down next to him, (like a normal quadruped,) she tried to do it too, and found grasping the rod harder. Ian seemed to get it easier than her.

"Yeah, like that. You just hold it over until it's cooked all the way through." he said, rotating his slowly.

"You know, Ian, you seem really good at this. I'm assuming you've done it before?" Ava asked, following suit with her food.

"Yeah. as a human, I remember being really interested in survival and camping and all that stuff, which was quite contrary to my usual personality. Hell, I joined a program called "Air Cadets" which where I lived was, like, a youth program run by my country where you would get together with a lot of other people your age and learn stuff about aircrafts, and the military, and survival. As much as I might not have shown it all the time, I… liked it quite a lot. I… really miss it, actually." Ian said, as memories of his air cadets friends and squadron came back to him.

"That's cool. Was it common for others your age to join?" Ava asked.

"No, not really. The program had maybe 15 others in it at most. Its… actually kind of similar to the teams here in some ways, but still quite different." He explained.

The two of them sat there in silence for a bit, slowly cooking their sausages, Ian with memories of his cadets experience coming back, quite a few of them surprisingly foggy, however. He was unable to remember the names of the other cadets. However, his concern over it was quite low for whatever reason.

Eventually, Ian pulled his sausage out of the fire and examined it. After a moment, he pulled it off the stick and started biting pieces off of it, due to learning the other day that chewing regularly was difficult with his new facial structure. Ava followed suit shortly after, and started eating hers.

"Wow, this is really good. I'm quite surprised no one has bothered to try this before." She exclaimed after a few bites.

"Why do you think I was so insistent on cooking it a few days ago?" Ian asked jokingly.

"Human nature?"

"I mean, yeah, but like…"

Ava laughed at him. "Don't worry. I get it. You were used to eating it cooked, and I would argue it's better this way."

"Heh, yeah." Ian finished his, and walked over to the desk in the corner, and took out his journal from his bag. He began to write;

'Day 6 now… September 27th, 2021. Not much to write for today. We got inaugurated into the discovery team system, and we seem to be equals with this dickish pair called team crossfire. Another pair of Eevee. That and I took some time to think about air cadets. I really do miss it. I'm going to wrap up for now. Tomorrow we have another mission, and I'm still pretty excited. Just being in this village makes me feel really happy!

Ian Eevee.'

Ian closed the book yet again, and trotted over to the hay pile where Ava was already laying down. He laid down next to her, and…

"Hey Ava? Thanks for being here for me. It's nice to have someone to help me adjust to this. Nicer than you know. Thank you." Ian whispered as he closed his eyes.

"Of course." She whispered back, snuggling closer to him. They both fell asleep shortly after.

Well there. Chapter 4. I gotta be honest, this took a while to write, which is why it took until sunday to release. Sorry :\ On a brighter note, I got my covid test back and I'm negative so that's good. Chapter 5 might not release until Monday due to my next weekend being booked irl, so forewarning for that.

That's it for chapter 4. Stay tuned for, uh, not much honestly except more fun character interactions and missions. And more crossfire!

See you next week.