Piers knew straight away as he gained consciousness that he had fallen asleep on his arm.

"Fuck me," he groaned with a tired scowl as he shook it, feeling it tingle with that weird sensation that accompanied a dead arm. His eyes blinked open as he continued to violently rattle the limb, focused on the white fur of his paw. Ah, right. He didn't have arms anymore. No matter how much he wished otherwise, this whole debacle was indeed not a dream.

He stared over at Raihan on the other bed, seeing he was still a Trapinch and still conked out, a blissful grin on his face. Must be having a good dream. Most likely one where he was not stuck as a Pokémon in an unfamiliar world.

Finally shaking that horrible feeling out of his paw, he stumbled over to his sleeping friend. What time was it? The room was dark but not pitch black, a few dim rays of light peeping through the windows. It must be dawn. Piers had the whole day ahead of him and he had no idea what to do. Should they search for Leon? Find the mayor and ask more about this wacky world?

He thought about Flaaffy's words. If it was true that humans had become Pokémon in the past, it would help to learn more about that, surely. What transformed them in the first place? Were they able to return home, or did they die in this world? Come to think about it, he did not even know if these supposed heroes were still alive. So many questions, he surely had plenty of time to find answers, but he did not even know where Ninetales and Flaaffy went off to.

No, don't panic. Ninetales said he was returning, right? They just had to wait for him.

He heard a quiet whisper followed by a chuckle. "Heh… Piers, look at that…"

The Zigzagoon stared at his friend, hearing him mumble in his sleep. Raihan seemed so at peace, Piers was feeling jealous. Lucky bastard friend, not waking up on his arm. Uh, leg. He was starting to get frustrated correcting himself. "Rai-Rai?"

Of course he received no response, but that smile had grown wider, laughing even in slumber. "Ha! We told you you'd look like a pillock in that, Lee… You even got Piers laughin'..."

This was not a dream but a memory, he realised as he huddled closer to Raihan's side, slumping next to him. Even without the context he recognised it, a memory of when Leon had just turned 18 and they made their first drunk bet. As soon as Leon lost, Raihan pulled out the uniform. It was the attire of an organisation that used to wreck chaos in Unova, supposedly themed after medieval knights. Any claims that Leon made of making anything look good were mocked after that incident.

Now, Piers was completely capable of laughing. Everybody knew that. However what Raihan had described as him laughing was him gasping for breath, tears in his eyes as he tried to gather any sense of composure. His stomach had eventually cramped up and Raihan's attention had shifted to him, voice shaky with both amusement and concern as he had ungracefully collapsed next to his dragon enthusiast of a friend.

Any envious bitterness dissipated and he climbed onto his shell, curling up. A little nap couldn't hurt, if Raihan poked fun at him later, he'd embrace it. But in that moment, stuck in this confusing world with no clue about the fate of their third trio member, he didn't want to be apart from him.

The clinic was quiet, yet something stirred Piers into a half-awake state, body still and eyes unable to open yet ears picking up the faintest of whispers.

"Eevee don't, you don't know what they'll do to you…"

"Relax, I know Quick Attack. If owt happens, I'll just ran away!"

Owt? Was Eevee Galarian now?

"I mean it, we'll get in trouble!" the other Pokémon harsh whispered, prompting Eevee to laugh.

"Don't worry so much Eevee, we'll be fine!"

Wait, two Eevee? Flaaffy said something about six Eevee, didn't he? Piers could not quite remember what exactly he said in his sleepy state, but he was already dreading the incoming confusion. He tried to move his limbs but they were firmly asleep. Damn it, just open your eyes and see-

"Eevee, no!"

"Geronimo!"

Piers yelped as a weight suddenly came crashing down on him, paws regaining function just to grip onto his friend's shell as he tried to resist gravity. However, Raihan's sudden movement launched him off his back, falling to the side with the laughing Pokémon. "What the fuck?!" his friend squawked, looking around to see two Eevee, one in the doorway he recognised as the apprentice with his winter hat, the other splayed over a flailing Piers holding on and laughing as though Piers was one of those Tauros rides. "Gah?! What the fuck happened? Piers, what are you doing over here?"

"I was enjoying the view of the wall- Help me out here!" he barked, Raihan caught the hatless Eevee by the scruff of their neck and dropped them in front of the bed, allowing his friend to finally get up. "Eevee, who's this?"

The apprentice Eevee's ears were drooped, looking as though he wanted to sink into the floor. "Sorry guys, I tried to tell him not to. This is Eevee, he's my friend."

"Ah great, they are both called Eevee," Raihan mumbled with a snort, looking at the chuckling Eevee as he scampered over to his friend's side. At the very least they could tell the difference between the two Eevee, when one was wearing his flapped hat and the other… "Are you wearing a collar?"

"Yep, cool innit?" their harasser responded with a playful wink, tugging at it to show a leaf charm hanging from it. "Mum wouldn't let me dye my fur, so this was the next best thing!"

Raihan coolly looked at Piers, a grin on his face in response to his friend's irritated expression. "Hey look, it's a punk Eevee!"

"Joy," Piers deadpanned, as he glowered at said punk Eevee. He was truthfully missing his own choker right now. "Didn't your ma tell you not to jump on people?"

"She never told me not to~!"

The hatted Eevee looked sheepish, nudging a bowl of pecha and cheri berries towards his patients. "I'm really sorry, Eevee gets like this when he hasn't been on an adventure in a while. Blissey came back with new stock, are these berries alright or…"

Raihan promptly bit into one of the berries, before launching it up and catching it in his jaw, swallowing it. "Nah, these are great, thanks! What time is it, by the way?"

"It's 8am," Hat-Eevee responded, Piers tried but failed to muffle a groan. "Mayor Ninetales will probably be here in…"

"Hey, kid?" The tired and cranky former gym leader bit into a cheri berry. "Why are you both called Eevee?"

Punk-Eevee tilted his head. "That's uh… Because we're both Eevee. What did you expect me to be called, Houndour?"

Piers rested his paw on his snout, exhaling. "You have nicknames, right? Like we're Piers and Raihan. Raihan being Raihan, not me."

The two Eevee looked at each other. "Well, some of the others call me Leafeon and him Glaceon, because we want to evolve into them when we're older. But people can usually tell us apart so… It's not that weird, is it?"

"Hey, Eevee?" At Raihan's words, both foxes stared at him. "Point proven. Do one of you mind if we give you a nickname? Maybe not Leafeon and Glaceon though, that's a bit of a mind boggler."

The Eevee exchanged glances then cautiously nodded. "As long as it's not mean spirited, go ahead," Hat-Eevee responded.

Piers stared at him as he thought. The Eevee that helped them wanted to be a Glaceon and had a hat that kind of reminded him of the crest and flaps on its head. Something ice related maybe… Raihan clapped his stubby front legs together. "How about Snowcap? It'll be obvious who we're referring to."

"Snowcap? It doesn't seem bad," he whispered as his friend chuckled.

"It sounds cute, it suits you!"

Piers observed that in response to his friend's remark, Snowcap now seemed to be blushing. Huh, he could see it through the fur. This whole experience in this world was certainly making him question everything about Pokémon biology. "Alright then, you're Snowcap, he's Eevee. Now Eevee, why exactly did you decide to jump on me?"

"Because it seemed fun," he replied so casually, grinning. "You were sleeping on top of your friend and it looked fun, I wanted to see how high we could stack."

Raihan peered at Piers as now it was his friend's turn to go red in the face. "Aww Piers, you were sleeping on me? You weren't worried about the Sinistea under the bed, were you?" He rubbed his cheek against his, laughing as the Zigzagoon shoved him away snapping.

"Oh piss off! We have bigger things to worry about than teacups!" He pointed his stubby paw at Eevee. "You, do you know anything about humans?"

He tilted his head. "Humans? My ma used to tell me fairy tales about 'em, so… A tiny bit? They're bossy, they're ugly, they don't come from eggs and they used to trap us in tiny balls, she said."

The former humans flinched. "That's… Really interesting kid, but not what we meant," Raihan deadpanned, patting Piers' shoulder. Could it be called a shoulder anymore? Either way it looked like he needed a reminder that mauling kids was bad, judging by the scowl on his face. His usual sleepy crankiness combined with a Galarian Zigzagoon's desire for brawling was certainly not doing any favours. "Do you know anything about these heroes that were turned into Pokémon?"

"Oh those, sure! We don't really know if they're actually human though or if it's some mass prank," Eevee said, waving his paw dismissively. "There was a hero on each major continent. A Torchic on the Air continent, Oshawott on the Mist Continent, Fennekin on the Water continent and a Vulpix here on the Grass continent. No one knows what happened to these heroes though, they came here long before we were born." He sniggered. "Heck, I think Vulpix was here even before Mayor Ninetales hatched. My friend said you guys were from some place called Galar, right?"

"Yep, some place with humans that apparently doesn't exist here." Raihan yawned. "We have no clue what's going on, but our theory is that we got isekai'd here from another world, possibly with our human friend Leon. And, well, we wouldn't be able to confirm that unless we run into him or go back home and find him missing. For all we know, he could have been turned into a Pokémon like these heroes apparently were."

Piers nearly choked on a berry as Eevee dropped info on them. "From another world? Maybe you fell down an ultra wormhole! Or you got sent here to save the world, or you came back from the future but forgot that, or-"

"Ultra wormhole? Back-track a minute, is that a thing that happens?"

Snowcap gave the Zigzagoon a crooked smile. "It's a possibility but we can't quite confirm that… No one's seen them before, but there's supposed to be these creatures called 'Ultra Beasts', they can apparently travel to other worlds and abduct Pokémon. If Arceus or something didn't summon you here for a divine mission…" He shook his head, tugging on his hat. "I don't know, they might be a myth. It's just a possibility…"

"We should ask the old Ninetales about Ultra Beasts when he comes, eh?" Raihan nudged Piers. "For all we know, it could have been something playing a prank on us!"

"Then they better bring us the heck back," he whispered under his breath, feeling an odd shiver rip through him. They had heard of these creatures before, yet he had never heard of fallers changing species before. Whatever they wanted, he hoped Leon was safe. Hopefully, the three of them would get home in one piece.