- Route 31 -

Puddles had not been intimidating when Alexa was in her other three forms. They had been on the road all morning, and she had managed to avoid direct contact so far mostly by luck. Humans and pokemon had been easier to dodge.

"You should at least let a few drops hit you," Charizard noted and deliberately stepped in another puddle. Not one anywhere close to her, the Fire/Water type had been very polite about that so far, but he had not stopped his usual playful nature while he had this sort of change.

"This is honestly really strange," Alexa said with a glance at the water on the ground and trees as she hovered along. "I have felt water before, I know it isn't a big deal normally, but right now I'm just- Ahh!" she cried out as a good sized splash fell onto her from a branch overhead. It felt like someone had dipped her in ice so cold it instantly burned. Without really thinking she responded with a blast of flames from her wings at the branch.

"And that is why you need to know what it feels like," Charizard sighed and spat some water to put out the now burning branch. "My biological mother made sure to dip each and every one of us in a pool, carefully of course, before we were ever allowed outside after a rain storm. Until we could manage to handle getting a bit wet without getting mad at trees."

"I bet you had a good time with that," Alexa joked, but her Starter's face shifted into a frown that made her stop and land.

"She dunked me three times to make sure the first wasn't a fluke, and then left me with her trainer's family for the next month while my siblings learned to handle it," he said a touch sadly. "There were six of us, a big clutch, and she was overworked and happy to pass me off. Her trainer's family had a young kid of their own, and he was learning to read and write at the time."

Alexa turned to fully face Charizard as he paused to collect his thoughts. Well aware that this was important she kept quiet and simply ran one of her four hands through the not even damp fuzz on her back where the water had landed.

"I consider him to be another brother, and his parents to be mine too," Charizard continued. "I was bored, reading and writing looked interesting, and at first it was just amusing to watch me try and mimic the letters." He flexed his fins and looked at her directly for the first time since he started the story. "Then I wrote down a question I wanted to ask, not very well but good enough to be understood, and suddenly it wasn't just lessons for my human brother anymore."

"Is that when the decided to try and make you a trainer?" Alexa had to ask, because it was clear enough how that came from this somehow.

"Maybe, but I'd say it was when they started trying to raise me a bit like I was a human. My biological mother didn't let them do everything, and I still play battled with my other siblings, but I also sat in on all of my human brother's lessons," Charizard corrected her and looked away again. "They didn't send either of us to a proper school, just did it themselves. First actual classes I got were the ones for being a trainer." He laughed humorlessly. "Do you know what they said when I asked why they didn't tell me the truth about those?" Alexa had to shake her head, unable to understand any reason why. "They didn't want to get my hopes up. Advanced Starter pokemon really do take it too, but because I could write and be understood I could actually complete the entire course."

Alexa easily remembered that they gave out a temporary trainer card at the end of the training. Her father had framed hers after she got her first real one. "Are they still pushing for that?" she had to ask. Alexa wasn't sure how much contact he had really had, there were times he could have sent his own letters.

"It has been a bit strained since then. I don't want to be human, I want to be a Char, and I'd rather be a Starter on a team than a pokemon leading one," Charizard answered. "I love them, I really do, but I have been a bit too upset with them to write as much as I should. Short emails when you aren't paying enough attention isn't my only option now too."

Alexa nodded at that, and decided to change the topic back. "No, you definitely should do more than that since I know about it. Now, is it better to practice with hot water or cold?" she questioned with another glance at a puddle.

"Just as bad," he replied, possibly with a bit of relief. "Fire types run hot enough that it is the evaporation that is the real issue, and that drags the heat out of you real quick unless it is humid enough to half drown by breathing. That's where it takes the most energy out of you."

The rest of that day was filled with Alexa's very hands on lesson about why pokemon weak to Water types didn't like rainy days.

"Cleaning this thing out is a pain, Alexa," Kingler noted as they sort of rushed to get all of the Chitin Powder on the bottom of the tent contained safely before it could set long enough to possibly extend Alexa's time or change any of the others for days. "Is it dry enough to avoid the tent tonight? Because this is a lot of work for this sort of thing."

"I need a weather tracker," Alexa mostly agreed, it was difficult even with four arms. "But at least I've made progress on the heat issue."

"Not enough that I'm not holding the bag," Charizard grumbled from a good distance away with said bag in claw. "Although we have made good time. We should reach Violet City sometime tomorrow morning at this rate. Later in the day if we run into problems."

"Are you really sure it is a good idea to show up like this?" Alexa asked again. It had occurred to them as a possibility when they first found Alexa could manage a good pace with her flight.

"Even if there is some concern with you, I should still be in the League systems," he sighed, repeating information from the prior day's conversations that neither of them wanted to need to use. "I should be able to at least get us set up to have you checked on, and when you change back it will confirm things."

They finished the much longer packing up process that being a Vespikiln caused, and set out again. The main path was a bit too risky for running into another trainer, and Alexa did not want to have to explain without a trainer card to back her up. That should have meant more wild pokemon encounters, but so far a fully evolved Char had been enough to discourage any locals. It honestly was a well known downside to letting a pokemon travel outside of their pokeball, and a reason why a typical starter who got ball-sick was generally a bad thing as they grew. The famous Pikachu with that condition from her home region at least didn't have an immediately intimidating appearance.

"I think the cartoon might have made him look like it was worse than the actual pokemon," Charizard noted when she brought up the idea. "I mean, I'm not sure if they made up the whole Team Rocket group, dad heard some odd rumors about how that comedy group got started, but a lot of the show was supposed to be exaggeration."

"'Supposed to be'?" Alexa had to asked with some amusement and turned in mid air to fly backwards to see his reaction.

"I would have said it was one before you started turning into a pokemon, but there was that one where the Lugia Champion was turned into a Pikachu too," Charizard noted a bit too seriously, although Alexa still had to smother a laugh at calling the cartoon version the title the real one held. Given the cartoon one still wasn't a Champion yet last she knew it was a joke she was very familiar with about the Kanto celebrity.

"Any idea what region that was in? We might be able to check and see if it was real," Alexa jokingly offered.

"No, I don't in fact remember where a cartoon I watched before I met you was happening," Charizard laughed. Then Alexa turned back to the faint path slightly off the main road that was either made by pokemon or trainers who wanted to try and catch some pokemon. They discussed the bits of the cartoon they could remember until they stopped for lunch.

Rhydon was still amused by how Alexa seemed to almost like Charizard's food more than the winged lizard had ever enjoyed it. Heracross was more than willing to eat her old mix until it was gone, and since the last League they had known Viridian had different brands than most of the rest of Kanto. Apparently they stocked Johto brands from what Charizard had said were in the Cherrygrove store.

"So are we going to get back to fights when you get those card things?" he questioned, a bit farther away from his trainer than normally because she was still very new at Fire control, and it turned out Lobasalt had been more Rock than Fire. As a metallic bush pokemon he had twice the reason to be wary about that. "We haven't even done much foraging this last trip, and you did say money would be a problem."

"Yeah, practice is good but I think we forget to get some battles before the next Gym," Bellossom agreed with him, not quite as far away but still a bit more distant.

"I know, and at this point I almost wish I had just stopped and tried everything back in Viridian," Alexa admitted with an annoyed buzz that raised the heat notably. "Then everything would already be done and I'd have already been stuck like this before."

"Sounds like a bit much to me," Kingler commented with a grumble. "Honestly I halfway wish you had spaced this one out a bit more."

They all gave agreements to that and Rhydon went back to focus on how eating worked now that he was a plant pokemon. He needed a lot less, and his mouth still worked to get the food into his currently molten metal core, but it was a big change from being a particularly rocky animal. He glanced to see how Alexa was doing with her new mandibles, and smothered a giggle as she once again ate a bit fast and nipped one of her claws.

"Who dares enter my territory?" a pokemon hooted dangerously a while later after Alexa and Charizard had gone back on the road.

She had flown ahead a bit too far, and the large owl pokemon that swooped down sharply to land in front of her clearly wasn't in the mood for an actual answer. Well actually the harsh yet silent burst of wind that tore at her own wings told her that, and her still instinctual burst of flame in response probably did not help. He was big, colored with various shades of brown, with red eyes, harsh talons, dark triangular markings on his chest, and an impressive light brown set of feathers along the top of its eyes that was like both eyebrows and horns.

Alexa then attempted to back off, only to have her wings not quite work the way she expected. She found herself smashing into a tree, and barely rolled out of the way of the other pokemon's talons. It was possibly the result of a Confusion attack.

This time Alexa's Fire typed attack was more deliberate, a quick Ember that while not really trained did at least buy her some time to think as the owl dodged. She wasn't very strong when it came to combat yet, but a quick look told her she only really needed to hold this pokemon off until Charizard caught up. The owl was strong for the area, but not at her team's level.

The bird followed up with another burst of slashing wind that Alexa jumped, and then she had to force herself up sharply so she flew over the bird themselves in their followup attack. Then she heard the other pokemon crash. Its feathers were now fusing together into chitin, and its wings splitting into both clear membranes and thick shells. The horn like eyebrows markings were becoming actual horns, and Alexa realized dully that it had gotten hit by some of the Chitin Powder that flaked off her body with her movement.

"Do you think this trickery is enough to defeat me?" the now beetle pokemon shouted and this time she avoided a Psychic attack she could barely detect. His wings were clearly just as strong as before, and she doubted this pokemon was any less of a risk to her.

Alexa on the other hand was now a much greater risk to him, and she showed that off with a widespread fire attack that was probably not quite an Ember, but did prove the expert trainer back in Cherrygrove's comment about the change in defense true. Unlike the first slightly stronger Ember this one sent her opponent back with a sharp movement that reminded her of her brush with water the day before.

"Alexa!" Charizard suddenly roared, and she saw the exact moment the former owl fighting her realized the fully evolved Char was looking for her. Charizard took one look at the altered pokemon, huffed out a far more intimidating puff of flames that sent it flying off rapidly, and leveled a bit of a glare at her. "Do not get that far ahead of me again."

She half crashed to the ground and simply let herself breathe instead of responding, too worked up by the sudden fight to even reply. The Pokedex came out quickly, and she found her Starter going over her injuries critically.

"Here, we have some spring water that should build your defenses back up," Charizard sighed and got out one of the bottles. "Maybe an Oran berry too. You took at least two bad hits."

It was a costly result, water of a quality to work as a treatment for defensive energy depletion was about as expensive as a battle potion for the same, but she could not disagree and quickly drank the offered bottle. Then he got out one of their healing berries and she curled into herself in embarrassment and dismay as she ate it. "I'm sorry," she mumbled around the last fourth of the fruit.

"I know it has been quiet," he admitted and sat down next to her. "But we can't be careless like this. You don't look human, and wild pokemon aren't going to be as wary about a random pokemon as they are a human that might have hidden pokemon."

Alexa knew that, but this was the proof that she didn't need to drive the point of the information home. "Can we work on my heat issue? I want to get back to carrying our stuff," she dully replied and nodded at the chastisement.

"Yeah, we can do that today," her Starter agreed. "Let's see if we can find a campsite nearby. I think we've gone as far as we can handle, and we should still make it to Violet tomorrow."

[Author's Notes]
So if you know the details of the included reference to the pokemon anime then you have the reason why this chapter exists. Originally there was no chapter between the last one and the next one, but that would mean that I had gone directly from Alexa turning into a Vespikiln to her turning back after a moment, and I realized with a bit of horror that I was about to pull the same thing the anime did with Ashchu.