- Azalea Farewell/Good Riddance -
"So, the situation with education for pokemon that are also trainers is a bit complicated," Maizie explained. "On one hand, Charizard, um."
"Please do not call me 'Charles'," Charizard requested as he kept an eye on his tailflame in the kiln. He had decided that getting a custom ball of his own was possibly worthwhile, and gave everyone an excuse to talk with Maizie about the real reason she had called someone from the League to show up. "I will see about getting that changed eventually, but I'd rather just ignore it for the moment.
"Ah, well apparently the plan was for you to start things off locally as an open one, who didn't have a disguise to make you look human, and probably send a League official on the trip with you to find all of the places where things went wrong," Maizie continued, and Charizard cringed at how that was worse than if she'd called him 'Charles'.
"Which it turns out is worse than it sounds," Slowking added with a sigh. "They have been reviewing the rules in place for more typical human-disguised trainers that are pokemon. Those are very bare even in places where pokemon like William have been doing it for a long time."
"Most of those are focused entirely on where and how to handle the illusions or whatever they use to look human. It isn't just those, but more often than not it says how to pretend that there isn't a difference instead of showing what to do for the differences," Maizie sighed. "Which means that Vernon had to spend time looking up the human rules for loose energy instead, although I don't know where he found the time for that."
"Celebi," Charizard, Alexa, and William all answered together.
"Right, okay, please tell me he at least arrived after he left," Slowking requested, and none of them wanted to tell the Water/Psychic the truth. Slowking sighed. "Call us when you get to Goldenrod, I want to know how much the forest is messing with people this year. She does that some years, and I want to be forewarned if we are going to end up with people 'conveniently' showing up right after we finished getting stock for their pokeball needs."
"So anyway, the issue there is that a lot of those rules have been marked for review too. It isn't technically any more common, but new tech and magic being used more widely means that it is a situation that is happening more and more," Maizie cut off that topic with a sharp hiss. "In fact when he learned that I had gotten a way to become a pokemon myself he got out this big notebook and started asking me more questions."
Charizard glanced at Alexa, who was currently a Lobasalt, and saw that his trainer was still closed off and quiet. "I am quite happy to have avoided that kind of questioning for an entire League," he said. "But is anything going to happen now?"
"This year's League? Probably not, maybe not even next year's, but at least it is being reviewed actively now," Maizie said. "If anything else happens to blur the line between human and pokemon this year it will probably be even faster." She flowed into a more serpentine shape. "It wouldn't even need to be this region. Apparently the League as a whole is looking into the issue, specifically because of the increased knowledge of Ultra Ball captures of humans."
"That technically isn't a new-new thing," Slowking pointed out. "The modern Ultra Ball is almost a decade old, but trainers getting themselves caught has been rare enough to not be widely known. I don't think it even made it into any shows yet."
"It has, but not widely known ones. Remember, I tried to get a stock of some recordings last month?" Maizie pointed out to her pokemon. "They are fairly new though, and I think they were made for this review of the old rules we found out about."
"Maizie, they wouldn't sell us those because they weren't officially released yet. They asked you fairly pointedly where you even heard about them," Slowking grumbled. "And they also asked us to not mention them unless they officially released."
"Still, I think I managed to get across that they should look at both humans with loose energy and pokemon that are trainers at the same time," Maizie explained carefully specifying both categories.
"I didn't even know typed humans existed before I met Alexa," William sighed. "That is still a big surprise."
"Types don't have anything to do with loose energy," Maizie pointed out and then frowned at the kiln. "I think that's done, Charizard, go ahead and stop the heat." He lowered the heat on his tailflame back to its natural level and removed it from the kiln. "Uh, I'm changing back for this again to keep from contaminating it," Maizie declared and then used Contagion Cure successfully to become human again. "Back on the loose energy thing, it happens to humans without a clear type too. Actually it is a bit worse for them because it is harder to tell their energy is naturally loose, and it is kind of wrong to say it is too since it only really started to matter when those new Ultra Balls came on the market."
"So we are all older than the term," Charizard grumbled, and then flinched as Slowking reminded him again that he couldn't talk to normal humans with a translation of that statement.
"And I'm not," Slowking then added with a grumble. "Also Shellder is even younger than me."
"It is older than that," Alexa pointed out. "We've known that humans can have looser energy for a long time, it just didn't matter much before then outside of being taught moves. My mom told me all about it when she went over her classes."
Charizard stared at his trainer. "I thought she was a Move Tutor?" he asked slowly, suddenly unsure he had really understood what exactly Alexa's mother did. "They, they don't actually learn the moves themselves do they?"
"Not all of them, but it's mom, you know what she's like," Alexa pointed out a bit dully.
"Your mother is Alexandria Larch?" Maizie asked with a bit of excitement after that was translated.
"Wait, I thought your dad was Professor Alexander Larch?" William interrupted with emphasis on Alexa's father's first name.
"They think that's funny," Charizard said along with Alexa. "It is why they named me 'after both of them'," his trainer continued a bit more animatedly. "'Alexa' isn't short for either of them officially, that is my full first name, but it is from both of them as far as my parents are concerned."
"I still don't get what is supposed to be funny about it," Charizard complained. "So you've heard of Alexa's mom?"
"I sold her a few pokeballs. Custom made police style that she said helped out with some move teaching topics," Maizie specified as she finished assembly of the pokeball. "It was a special order from before I started the shop, back when grandpa was still making some. They were some of my first professional works, so I've been trying to tell if you were related for a while." The crafter passed the ball to Charizard and went back over to Maizie's still fairly full jar of liquid metal.
"Do you have enough Mercury Contagion?" Alexa asked more easily, and Charizard smiled at how the change in topic seemed to open her up a bit more.
"Just in case you don't know yet, both Lobasalt and Vipercury leak their transformation materials when they sleep," Maizie dully replied. "Being in a pokeball stops that, although it is convenient for staying a Vipercury, if not for keeping sleeping areas clean."
"You mean I could have avoided cleanup as a Vespikiln if I just slept in a pokeball?" Alexa darkly rumbled, which Charizard counted as a win as it at least wasn't a depressed inquiry.
"I guess I know which of us is going to be out of one for nights the next time you use that form," Charizard said, although he was hopeful that the mess with Bugsy didn't make such an idea unnecessary. He wouldn't be surprised if Alexa never wanted to be a Vespikiln again.
"Good point," Alexa agreed, and Charizard could see he wasn't the only one relieved to see she wasn't against the idea of being one again. "So that is a good ball for another type changer?"
"I don't think your adopted brother asked for his trainer-ball to be anything special," Maizie, once again Vipercury, joked. "This is just the standard Luxury mix I made with some basic metaphysical contributions." The serpent said 'metaphysical' carefully, clearly needing to deliberately remember the word.
"I told you that I wanted something plain," Charizard said simply. "And this looks plain to me." It was in fact unpainted and still just a green colored wood.
"I want you to keep in touch," Maizie demanded as they exited the shop. "I am not done with the way the League is handling trainers like you, and you are literally the only ones I actually know so far."
"I want you to keep in touch so I have someone to help with her turning into pokemon," Slowking grumbled. "Which is your fault, and I hold it against you."
Alexa bobbed her head in agreement, feeling a bit better about her time in Azalea town after the good conversation. It was nice to hear more about abstract changes that would affect trainers after her instead of stuff that impacted her directly. "I'll call when we have some time in Goldenrod," she offered. "Although I will need to handle some other conversations first."
Her parents had last heard from her before the Gym match, but they weren't expecting a followup until Goldenrod. Mostly because her father was very interested in Vipercury, and they would both be away from home for a week or so looking for volunteers. Enough time to put off the call unless there was an emergency, and it had not been quite that bad. Close to that bad, and her parents might disagree, but she wanted some time before she faced them over this.
"I can give you the number of a few others if you are willing to call outside the region," William offered. He was currently without an illusion, but seemed more uneasy with that decision as time went on. "I'm sure my own family will be really concerned about any changes, so being able to help work on them would be good."
"Sounds good," Maizie replied, and then froze at the sight of something behind them.
"Excuse me, you are traveling with Alexa Larch, right?" Bugsy questioned William, and Alexa disbelievingly turned to face the Gym Leader. He glanced at her for a moment, but clearly had no recognition of her Lobasalt form. "I want to apologize to her before she leaves town."
"You are doing an absolutely terrible job of it," William said bluntly as he boggled at the Gym Leader. "The worst possible attempt."
Alexa did not say anything, as she somewhat wanted to see just how deep Bugsy could dig himself with this exchange. She watched as his gaze also passed right over Charizard too without recognition. "Ah, well, can you at least pass along an apology?" Bugsy said quietly. "I made a big mistake, and-"
"Bugsy, as nice as it is seeing you dig yourself deeper, I don't think you can apologize for this one," Maizie cut him off with a glance to Alexa.
"I'm not up for accepting one," Alexa specified in a way that was specifically inhuman. "I'm not sure I'm even up for hearing one."
"I kind of wish I could properly yell at him for not even knowing what I normally look like," Charizard agreed with a dangerous rumble. "Although this kind of helps us avoid him."
"Okay," Bugsy said sadly, not even bothering to attempt to follow the pokemon conversion. "Alright. Just let her know I'm going to retire after this month. Vincent is going to take over for this League."
"Expert Trainer Vincent, not a bad choice," Maizie allowed. "So retire, or 'retire'?"
"I have looked over my years and decided that I have been at this long enough," Bugsy said a bit stiffly. "I'll see you around, Maizie."
Alexa waited for the Gym Leader, soon to be former Leader, to be out of earshot before going back to human speech. "Please tell him why this was so dumb of him later," she requested of the pokeball crafter. "I want him to work out somehow that I at least can be things other than Vespikiln."
"I think he is aware of that, but hasn't quite connected the dots yet," Maizie said without much faith that he would. "I can only promise to try."
They spent a few more minutes saying goodbye and giving Maizie some phone numbers, and then set out. They were on one last trip through town to buy what supplies were locally available, which was somewhat more limited than had been available in the cities they had visited before in the region.
"Is perfectly permitted!" Slow-Slim declared, and Alexa looked over to see the pokemon wave a piece of paper in front of Official Vernon. The Slowpoke once again had a bandage on his tail, and a nervous looking trainer was next to the stand holding a somewhat undersized severed tail. Vernon's face was red, and roughly grabbed the paper to inspect it.
"I think I'm done with Azalea Town," Alexa declared at this sight as Vernon began to argue with Slow-Slim loudly. She got a pair of agreeing growls back.