- Vespikiln -
Dark Pass was a fairly young town. While there had been some inhabitation on Routes 30 and 31 for a long time it had not been until the Hoenn disaster that there was real need for development at the intersection of the two. There had been a trainer accessible cave pass at the corner of those routes that led to Route 45 near Blackthorn City, but during the disaster the creation of the Cherrygrove port had caused the development of a proper cargo path towards that mountain city in order to aid in travel and supply.
Dark Pass itself was split between a few buildings in the area at the front of the cave, and a larger number of locations inside of the caverns. It was not a very large town, little more than a place where some people had set up a couple of shops, a few locals who maintained the passage, the houses for those inhabitants, and energy restoration machines for pokemon in the two town halls at either end. It was, notably for Alexa, too small to have the official League representation she needed to update her trainer cards.
It also had been filed in her downloaded map as being next to Blackthorn City instead of Violet City, so finding the town came as a bit of a surprise she needed to discuss with her team before changing back from her Mephagic form.
"While it is an easy pass to Blackthorn, I personally want to see if we could find another method for the Dragon or Ice type before we take on the Dragon Clan's Gym," Charizard admitted while Alexa looked over the road into town from a tree she probably would not have climbed up if not for her frog form.
"Agreed, I don't want to have to face that one alone, and we have a theme to keep up," Kingler agreed with him. "After all, the plan was for Rhydon and Bellossom to both confuse the Flying type Gym. We're ready for that one now, Dragons can wait until we get more Frozen Flames or something better."
"We do have the Ice typed Flame with us too," Alexa had to uncomfortably admit. "It sort of got forgotten because everyone had something at that time and we ended up waiting for Rhydon to turn back first."
Heracross looked down at her from the higher branch the former-insect current-mammal pokemon had far more easily climbed to. "Do you need to be worried about that one working on you?" he questioned about her tone.
"You've handled mine quite a bit, isn't that enough to know?" Kingler added with concern. "Because I can tell you that I do not like the idea of my trainer going through the pain of one of these."
"Frozen Flames are attuned instead of just a works or doesn't thing," Alexa started to explain as she shifted on the branch to face the rest of the team better. "A specific one will work on a specific human. There is no way to tell if the other one will work on me, but I'm a bit worried. Dad never handled Kingler's, and I've never touched the other one. The chance we just happened to get two that were attuned is higher than my dad is comfortable with."
"We are going to avoid Blackthorn until we have a better option than Alexa being our other Dragon type," Charizard complained. "Right, with that out of the way, what is the plan for this town? We still have time on Route 31 to test Chitin Powder."
"The tent hasn't appreciated my other forms much," Alexa admitted with a glance at the now slightly stained, a bit melted, and very patched mess. "And the weather is looking a bit like rain. I don't want to ruin our canopy tent too just to keep from getting too wet. We might need to find one that is Fire type inhabitation safe now if they have one."
"You seem really sure that you're going to become one," Kingler noted, and she froze at being called out. "Either that or you really want to use the Lobasalt form more."
Alexa ribbited at the idea, because yes Lobasalt was a fairly nice form, and Fire and Rock typed attacks had been easier to figure out so far, but that wasn't the actual reason. "Dad figured out that it wasn't an all or nothing immunity for humans because he spilled Chitin Powder on himself," she quietly replied. "He knows that he becomes one, and sent me the information with that one as the first for a reason."
"We could just not use Chitin Powder," Rhydon suggested at that admission. "I mean, I- No seriously I do not want to see Alexa break out of bug shell. It isn't like the Bug type is all that great really."
"Just because I'm not using it anymore doesn't mean it can't be useful," Heracross sighed, as Alexa jumped down easily from the tree to the ground. "Although maybe you should have started with 'it will probably work on me' instead of letting us think you were just nervous about if it worked or not."
"My dad sent me an article about a Bug typed human form instead of telling me he accidentally transformed himself," she croaked dully. "I didn't find that out until after he had turned back and I started to check that literature more for details. I asked him if humans really did turn back differently than pokemon, just shifting instead of shedding, and he admitted he was personally happy that it wasn't the same. These transformations tend to run in families, so if it works on dad it probably works on me." Rhydon looked a bit relieved at that news, even if the others clearly agreed that they didn't like how she had found out.
"Alright, I say Alexa spends a day or two at this town doing human things, and then we can work out if we want to try that form before or after Violet City," Bellossom argued, and Alexa rolled her eyes as the rest of the team agreed. It had only been a few days of going between her two tested pokemon forms to get them into shape to move around and maybe fight in an emergency.
Being human among humans again after a while as a pokemon among pokemon was stranger than Alexa had anticipated. Maybe it was just the feeling of being effectively stuck as a human because of paperwork after being able to just change herself whenever there weren't humans around. Other humans she reminded herself as she looked over the hiking supply store that clearly mostly existed for the inhabitants of the town who monitored the side paths for any risks to the main route. The rare Dunsparce and Wobbuffet found here were not the most hazardous on their own, but they did cause fairly unusual problems for the prospect of navigation.
"We don't really have the most call specifically for Fire type resistance of that quality, but there is a bit of overlap in materials that resist the Dragon type flames that some of our route clearers from Blackthorn have to buy," the supply store owner admitted a bit happily. He was an older man who seemed amused at the topic. "The Dragon Clan there is really big on letting their partners stay outside their pokeballs on trips, so it is a more common issue than you'd think." The old man leaned in as if to tell a secret. "Honestly, they seem Dragon enough that I wonder how much of that is an excuise for their own damage to the things."
Alexa, who knew that she was buying this tent for that exact issue, managed to laugh at it a bit, but she didn't think he missed how she couldn't quite find it that amusing. "Well, then I'm glad you have good options," she said and tried to keep her face calm with how much this was going to cost. The one she could afford was a quarter more expensive than her old model, but could stand up to her new forms and the weather better. The other option that looked to be the best was too expensive by far, and she just couldn't scrape enough together to work out how to get that one instead. She already sold off a few jars of the rare materials her team specialized in and could produce, but now that turned out to only be enough to keep a food budget after this instead of a last minute boost to make up for the tent.
"Only the best," he boasted, and with great regret she paid for the new tent and made her way back into the main cavern. It was still fairly dark off the main path, but that path was broad enough for some fairly large cargo to pass through and framed by artificially carved chamber-buildings that from a brief conversation extended most of the length of the route. Most were concentrated at the two ends, but both were considered to be the town of Dark Pass officially, and Alexa learned that the reason for her map issue was that this end was actually the smaller part of the town.
There was another, possibly larger and more stocked, shop that sold tents and such at the other end, but that was at least one full day of cave travel away. She didn't have time for that trip, and the damp cave felt like a place she would prefer to travel as a Lobasalt when she finally updated her trainer cards. So as she left she simply listened to rumors about the possible excavation of the long collapsed Route 46 branch and complaints about the higher price of the older model of lights that worked better with the local pokemon than the new ones.
It was different, because a part of Alexa still expected to understand the pokemon who were having their own discussions, and the way some humans spoke about pokemon was a new kind of uncomfortable. Alexa had thought she was a bit too pokemon centered in thought before, but now that she was sort of counting herself as one the way some of the people around her spoke hit harder than before. Casual comments about the difference between pokemon and humans that she had passed off easily as just ignorant before now seemed a bit less understandable.
"I almost wanted to say that there is less difference between humans and pokemon than that," she mumbled as she got back on the road and started to look for a new camp site to start her time as a Vespikiln.
"Alexa, that was barely a day," Bellossom noted as the team set up a tent well off of the normal path. "Do we have a new problem?" She had decided to try out being a Fire/Electric lizard pokemon again since they were testing Fire types anyway. It was strange being an animal, somehow it was a bit more noticeable than being liquid metal instead of a plant, but for once it wasn't that hard to move and dance like this.
"I don't know if I like how humans talk about pokemon," Alexa rumbled as the Lobasalt carefully worked with Charizard to test their new tent while the 'warranty' was still useful. Apparently it came with one of those things that said it could handle pokemon inhabitation or it would be replaced with a better one.
"So that old problem, just with more to it," Kingler sighed, and Bellossom rolled her currently reptilian eyes. "Alexa, you didn't get into an argument about talking with pokemon again, did you?"
"I don't mind our trainer pointing out that we're people too," Bellossom had to say to her teammate, because it was one of the nice parts of being one of Alexa's pokemon. "I do mind her running away from humans because of it."
"They were talking about me too this time," Alexa finally replied after a bit too long, and that silenced everyone. Bellossom did not really understand what that could even mean. "I'm a pokemon right now. I can be a pokemon just like the rest of you."
"They've been talking about me the whole time, and I could have been another trainer around them," Charizard joked to a bit of success. It at least got the crack that was Alexa's mouth to twist into more of a smile, even though Bellossom wasn't entirely happy with the thought that Alexa really counted as a pokemon now.
"It was already annoying, but I'm mostly nervous about a few days without a trainer card as a pokemon," Alexa admitted and nodded at the tent being unharmed despite how a magma lobster had set it up. "For three days I'm going to be just a pokemon, not a human at all, and I have no idea what other trainers are going to do if I try and talk to them."
"Maybe we should have gotten some fireproof clothes to go with the tent?" Heracross suggested. "I mean, that would be easier to find good ones if you were already a Vespikiln, but there might have been some things." Bellossom leveled the rodent pokemon a dark glare at going for such a silly sounding idea.
"The tent cost most of our money," Charizard said seriously. "I really hope we don't need to get Alexa new clothes unless her dad can help us out there."
"There are too many things that are waiting for me to get those new trainer cards," Alexa said once again. "Dad does want to buy me some trainer basics for each of my forms, but he needs official recognition to pay for them. Some stuff should stay when I change if it is made to be able to work on a different form." Their trainer looked over the camp site, and sighed. "Let's get this done now."
Bellossom kind of wanted to stall a bit longer, but Alexa had worked out Contagion Cure enough to use it to collapse back down into a human form before she could respond to her trainer. The rest of the team looked similarly uneasy with that declaration. Not being understood as easily was strangely hard even though they had managed so well before. It was a bit harsh to realize how much time they had taken before to talk to Alexa, how much effort went into finding a way to get across an idea, and now to know there was an easy solution to tell their trainer something as easily as if they had said it to each other.
There was a brief pause as they cleared an area and Charizard got out the Pokedex again, because Alexa wanted to get as much data as possible on this whole topic. Another of those small vials, which were too fragile for Alexa to really be using herself at this point, full of Chitin Powder was then sprinkled onto their trainer. Alexa's body immediately started to harden and shift in profile. Their trainer's head extended forward into a teardrop shape with the pointed end at the front, and grew a pair of thick fuzzy antenna and wide flat black eyes. Alexa's main body grew into a rounder fuzzy oval shape as it took on an orange color with light blue bands, and a large abdomen grew out from the base of her spine with a good sized jagged stinger at the end. Her legs thinned dramatically, and a set of four brilliant clear orange wings emerged from her back, while her arms split into two thinner identical pairs with three short claws at the end of each.
Their trainer's new large bee pokemon form then surged out a wave of heat that made Bellossom glad she was currently a Fire type herself even as Rhydon and Heracross both took a large step back.
It wasn't much different from her other pokemon forms in general, Lobasalt had the same number of extra body parts and Mephagic was also a non-mammal, but it was something she couldn't stop on her own. They had spent the afternoon on trying to keep her cooler so they could travel safely, but it really felt like rain, and Alexa was a bit worried she was going to be stuck in the tent all day. Stuck as a giant bug that had already coated the bottom of the tent in flakes of the blueish grey powder that caused the change.
"Cleaning this is going to be a nightmare, Alexa," Kingler informed her with a claw-thump. "I think I might need to clean this whole thing out myself before you use it again just so nobody else gets changed by accident too."
"I think I misunderstood what the reports meant when they said the hives were 'filled' with piles of Chitin Powder," Alexa admitted with a click of her mandibles that was the closest she could manage to a frown. "Thought it meant as storage, not that it is impossible to keep a place you stay clear of the stuff."
"What did the explorers all end up Vespikiln as soon as they cracked the place open?" Kingler grumbled and made an attempt to clean up some of the powder.
"Three of the five did, but the other two were immune," Alexa complained and checked over her slightly fluffy form. "The report had an entire statistical segment on how that was more than normally are effected. It also had a few really confused segments taken from the original report I've been trying to use to deal with this whole development." Her body wasn't uncomfortable like this, but she could actually feel the soon to arrive rain that had her more worried than she had ever been by water before.
"And your dad didn't think to mention that when he gave you the stuff?" her pokemon questioned with a body shake.
"He apparently even let me try this stuff before he worked with it at all," Alexa had to agree, then flinched at the sound of the first few drops on the tent. "I'm going to try and get some sleep, hopefully wait out the storm."
"Alright, good night, Alexa," Kingler replied and then the crab pokemon returned herself to her pokeball.
The rain got more intense, and while the tight confines of the tent were sort of comforting, Alexa simply could not get to sleep with the sound of it. A part of her shivered at the sound, and she wasn't sure if they would even get somewhere tomorrow as a result. Which meant she was putting out a good amount of heat and light, and that just made it harder to try and calm down in order to sleep.
After a while of just laying down she heard someone approach and tensed up a bit. "Excuse me, Pokemon Ranger, just checking in to make sure you're alright," a male probably-human voice said from the front of the tent. "You have a light on pretty late and this is quite a ways off the path."
Reluctantly Alexa opened the tent to see the now definitely human trainer, who stepped back at the wave of heat that let out. "I'm having some trouble getting to sleep," she quickly and tiredly admitted as he blinked at her appearance. "It is my first night in this form, and we didn't get a forecast long enough ahead to know it would rain."
"I, do not actually understand what you mean, but I apologize for misunderstanding the situation," the Ranger replied. "The storm is supposed to get harsh, but it should be done by morning. Your tent looks like it can handle that for tonight."
"So I will just need to worry about puddles tomorrow. Well, Charizard will be happy," Alexa thought out loud. "Thank you."
"Yeah, sure, have a nice night," the Ranger said with confusion and let her close her tent.
"I was so tired I didn't even try to explain to him," Alexa buzzed unhappily the next morning, after a fitful night of barely any sleep.
"It's sort of funny," Charizard chuckled as he took a drink of Clearwater Geode enhanced water. He quickly shifted to his finned Fire/Water form, and Alexa tossed her head at the display. "Wanna try?" he offered with a smug smile.
"I don't want to try anything that makes this last longer until I have those cards," she complained, and that made the rest of the team laugh as they finished packing up the camp site. "But I still don't believe I just left a Ranger in the middle of nowhere with no idea what I was."
"You could talk and had a tent," Bellossom noted as the temporary lizard pokemon finished packing the tent's mounting pegs. "I think that is enough for him to have an idea at least."
"I guess," Alexa admitted while Charizard took up her pack. She still was not able to regulate her temperature enough to safely carry everything.
"Ready to try flying at least?" Heracross suggested to change topic. "I know my old set of wings is about the only thing I miss, but the bat ones from Stable Cloud are better."
Alexa's wings buzzed a bit at the suggestion. Walking was a bit harder in this form than she had expected, even if the reports had noted that Vespikiln preferred to move by hovering around. "I guess so," she admitted as she tried to lift herself with just the air around her. It took a lot of motion to get enough under her wings and get them down fast enough, but somehow the much faster and more in depth movement was a bit less tiring than walking on her thin legs.
"Huh," she noted as she lifted off properly, and something in her Bug typed energy clicked and suddenly it was a lot easier to get enough air. "I'm going to have to look into what exactly the Bug type does, because it might have some flight aspects too."
"Kind of already figured that one out," Rhydon pointed out with a yawn. "You sure you are up for travel like that Charizard?"
"I can handle the road, although we might end up a bit slower the next three days," the Fire/Water type replied with a roll of his eyes.