- Route 34 -
Celebi's gifts were varied, many, and unfortunately mostly the kind of thing Alexa wanted to save or send home to her father to grow more before she used. The gold was a nice touch, but you can't eat gold, and it turned out they were still the better part of a week from the nearest forest's edge even with Celebi's help. With all of Route 34 still between them and somewhere to shop that meant trying to forage along a proper Route instead of inside a forest.
"Please tell me we aren't going to spend the rest of this trip with your team messing with time now?" William asked as she considered a number of plants off the side of the road. They weren't typical choices for food, but Alexa's team had more options there than the average trainer's, and she was fairly sure she could make it work to extend their supplies a bit. "Because only Bug types really like that plant you're looking at and I don't think there is enough around for three days."
"Huh? Oh no, it isn't worth it for Bug types, they can eat them raw but they also have better options, but it does work well to make rations last longer if you use some to cook," she replied thoughtfully. The technical aspect was that the plant had some stuff that only was actually food when heated properly, and even then it was mostly to add to something else to make it last due to a fairly bad flavor when on its own for most.
"Alexa, I have a reserve of flour and other supplies to make bread," William said, with a tone just about as worried as he had been when they reacted badly to Flaaffy's evolution. "Please do not eat cooked whatever that is instead of asking me for help."
"We've had it before," Alexa defended herself. "It is even safe for humans." Like she currently was.
"That implies you have options that aren't safe for humans," William said with a dubious look directed at her. "Listen, my parents would probably kill me if I couldn't bake bread for my team and companions at any time, regardless of what sort of Legendary mess I'd gotten myself into. I have enough supplies stored away to last twice our number of pokemon for a year, just in case we run into a town with a famine somehow. I can handle making sure you aren't eating something that smells like that."
"The smell improves when you cook it," Alexa continued to argue, not really willing to give this up but resigned to the fact she probably would have to. "It actually can make you feel hungry." Although that might be some of the mild toxins that meant you did not want to eat a lot of it. Nothing harmful in the long term, those were actually an ingredient in some seasoning mixes, but it would be best to have some now while they were still a few days away from any serious battles.
The other trainer blinked twice. "We are stopping now to bake bread, because the more you argue for this the more I am reminded of some of my more stubborn wild-caught pokemon," William declared with a harsh glare at the poor plant. "I am not helping with medical treatment for food poisoning again while I can bake bread!"
"I think I see why you aren't back home making bread for a living," Charizard complained around some bread that was at least better than the random plants Alexa learned to use from her mother.
"I'm just out of practice," William complained, but the Zoroark trainer didn't look happy with his bread either. Charizard had to smile at how clear it was this was a poor attempt. "Okay, maybe I only do this as a last resort, and it might always be tricky to get the dough to work right out in the wilderness, but I was actually serious about my parents having a problem with me not making bread instead of whatever Alexa was planning."
"What plant was she looking at?" Kingler questioned with a glance around the clearing they had stopped at to make enough bread for a few days. William replied by pointing at one particular plant. "Oh, that stuff. It isn't too bad as long as you mix it with the right rations."
"And don't eat too much," Bellossom hissed at their trainer. "I thought I told you not to go for that one again?"
"I was planing on having it as a Lobasalt this time," Alexa, currently a Mephagic, replied. As if that made the fact that the last attempt with that particular plant had made her stomach upset for a week not matter now. Charizard had practically led the team, despite his own poor reaction to the attempt. "Also I kind of hoped to use that one over there too," the frog pokemon added and pointed to another plant.
"Didn't that catch fire the last time we tried that?" Charizard asked dubiously. It had more accurately exploded, but the fire afterwards was the more notable result. "Why not that one-" he started with his own claw pointed at one that he remembered tasted pretty good.
"No! We are not trying that one again," Heracross cut him off. "I don't care that I'm not even the same kind of creature anymore, I do not want to put up with that damn taste again."
"Agreed," the rest of Charizard's team chorused, along with William, Chesnaught, and Goodra. The three from the other team were a surprise to the Starter/Trainer, as they apparently always had bread as an option.
"It does not work in bread either," Chesnaught grumbled.
"I haven't tried to add foraged stuff to the dough since our first League," William shot back, which made Charizard laugh at the byplay. "I worked out my limits there at the end of that one."
A curious growl then made the Zoroark jump and spin towards a small cluster of curious pink bipedal dog pokemon that had clearly followed the smell of baked bread from the grassy route. "Food?" one of the pokemon questioned.
"Ah, yes, of course," William nervously said and then just gave out bread to the wild pokemon that seemed just as confused as Charizard about the pokemon-trainer's reaction. In fact the wild pokemon half fled after they received a few pieces of mediocre bread.
"So, are Snubbull one of those Fairy types that are Normal types around here?" Alexa asked cautiously. "Because in Johto they are in fact Normal typed."
"You mean we just gave away bread for no good reason?" Dedenne asked a bit angrily.
"Given even they were confused by it, I think that is a good way to put it," Charizard laughed at the whole event. "I think they might be worried that you were trying to trick them."
"The bread thing doesn't quite seem like a good solution," Alexa commented two days later, when they were once again stopped to bake. "I know that it doesn't seem that much longer than foraging, but my team can at least move mostly in the right direction while we do that." She looked over the small portable oven, the larger portable table, and the rather large portable sink to clean everything. "I mean, your whole team needed an hour to get this set up." The second storage bag William carried around that he had gotten all of it out of was clearly just for this purpose.
"I will argue with that idea given what I've looked up about what you were suggesting to 'forage'," William shot back as he worked on a bowlful of future bread dough. "The extra time is worth better food."
Chesnaught rumbled something as she helped with cleaning the utensils that her trainer was already done with. "Okay, yes, we are still getting real supplies at the city instead of doing this later," William half answered that statement, half translated it. "But I have the supplies for this, and it is a lot safer than the alternative."
Charizard replied with a rumble of his own that sounded joking, and Alexa saw her own Starter motion towards the plants her team had been foraging anyway despite the available bread-making supplies. Bellossom hissed something that sounded like agreement, and Alexa was once more momentarily distracted by the sounds that her natural Grass type now made when she heard them as a human.
That got the discussion started with the entirety of both teams. It was clearly either a complicated topic, or they had forgotten that she could not currently follow the discussion, but Alexa was in the mood to be human. Even William seemed to lost track of that as he started to growl out his own responses, which looked fairly funny with his human illusion intact now that she couldn't understand it.
It actually took a few minutes and the bread to be at the point where it needed to just sit for a while before one of them, Goodra specifically, to ask her a question directly. "Sorry, I figured if it was really important you would all let me know when I changed again," Alexa replied with a smile, and Charizard laughed at her little joke.
Bellossom hissed something angry sounding directed at Bellossom herself that Alexa was fairly sure was about how the Grass/Electric pokemon had still asked for Alexa to take a day as a human. It continued for a good length of time.
"So, is this important enough for me to be a pokemon?" Alexa had to ask with a laugh of her own. It was not, but William ended up translating a bit of the overall discussion on how things had gone for past foraging attempts by both teams.
Two days later and almost to Goldenrod's outskirts, Alexa got a chance to make a good soup that was still too time consuming to collect the materials for usually, but was also much faster to make than bread. Something that William was complaining about after it was served from a pot that had been lava-heated on her back.
"Face it, William, her soup tastes better than your bread," Chesnaught sighed, and the Starter didn't look happy about that apparent fact. Alexa personally felt they were about even, but her team was more used to these makeshift meals. "How many variants do you have? Because I've been trying to get my trainer to pack some variety in the bread bag for... I think it has been literal years now."
"Depends on what we can find. We managed an alright one with just extra ration packages over the break," Rhydon answered for Alexa. "But normally we work with whatever plants are right there. Sometimes we know ahead of time and can be more picky, that's what we have here. Although, we might want to try and use Loam Berries to grow some of the food berries next time?" He suggested to her.
"Now that we have some that seems like an idea, but we will need to work out who is willing to be out of practice to grow them," Alexa tentatively agreed. "Unless you think we can grow them and train at the same time? I guess we might have someone who wants the Ground type."
"Why not try it yourself?" Flaaffy asked curiously, as he played with the utensils with his crystal claws. "Not that I really understand what you are talking about, but if it is something that messes with battles doesn't that mean it is okay when you're the one doing it?"
"Because it has never worked on humans before," Alexa answered slowly. "I've not tried myself yet but... Hmm, if it doesn't work as a human it might as a Lobasalt or Mephagic. I wouldn't want to try as Vespikiln."
"Lobasalt is bigger, more room for planter areas," Charizard added with a motion to his own back, which was notably more bulky than her Mephagic form's.
"The heat might be a bit of an issue, but we can test that," Bellossom agreed tentatively. "Some plants might not like that, but I can help you work that out."
"Do I want to know what Loam Berry does to a pokemon?" William asked carefully.
"Makes them into a Ground typed berry planter pot," Kingler replied. "One with Loam Berries growing out of you if you were already Ground typed. It is technicality useful, but not that great for combat from the looks of it."
William's team just looked at them for a long moment as they continued to eat. Then they silently resumed eating as well for a while. "So, do gardeners grow those to let them grow other things on the move?" Chesnaught slowly questioned after she finished her bowl. "Or are those more of a Legendary thing?"
"They are extremely hard to grow unless you are growing them on someone who used one," Alexa admitted. "Celebi even mentioned when she gave us a few more that even she can't grow them very well unless she gets volunteers, and her presence is what lets them form in the first place. A lot of these things only form when Legendary pokemon are involved."
"Which in retrospect was probably a hint that we were going a bit far," Charizard admitted as well. "I've looked over the notes we got from Alexa's dad, and he is not looking into ways to make new ones."
"I knew it was something he said I could handle, but I'm wondering if that kind of thing is like researching Legendary pokemon more than just interesting stuff," Alexa added with a sigh. "He is interested in the results, but has more than enough stuff that already existed before."
"Is he working on the permanent stuff we didn't even look at?" Heracross asked nervously, and Alexa flinched as she had not wanted to touch that topic around William's team.
"I, don't actually think I'm allowed to be surprised about that one," William slowly confessed, with a very unhappy look on his illusionary face. "What with that aunt I mentioned before who basically found one of those things."
"He is, but he has a lot of carefully selected volunteers for those," Alexa answered her pokemon. "Although I have heard that at least one pokemon has gone through so many in a row that dad needs to look up what they started as."
"Alexa, I'm currently a plant covered reptile after just three layers, and the first barely did anything," Bellossom said with a bit of worry. "Heracross is a bat after two. Does that pokemon even look anything like what they started as?"
"I meant that even the pokemon sometimes forgets what they were. They definitely don't look the same at all," she confirmed. "I think I can understand how they can get confused, but I'm a bit unsure how they decided to try that in the first place."
Alexa nervously looked at a second Loam Berry. She had foolishly decided to try one as a human to make sure, and it quite literally tasted like dirt without changing her. Now as a Lobasalt it at least looked more appetizing, and smelled so too as much as a Lobasalt was able to smell.
"If it didn't poison you the first time it can't now," Charizard said to her. "Not that you will get me to eat another."
Alexa huffed some flames out the crack of her mouth. "Fine," she said and tried to take a bite, only as soon as the fruit contacted the lava inside of her mouth she found it missing, and that she was halfway to grabbing another before the fact it was delicious fully hit her.
She deliberately stopped herself from having another as she felt her core cool and change into something just as soft but not as fluid. "What do I look like? I didn't feel much happen," she said aloud.
"You have a bunch of little planters on your back. There are two big spots at the top and bottom of your back, and six little ones down the sides of those," Rhydon specified. "Other than that it just looks like your lava turned into dirt."
Alexa looked herself over, and moved around a little bit. Her body was much more stiff, but seemed to have actual joints now instead of a need to break the surface of her body constantly. "Well, that solves the heat issue then, right Bell-" Alexa started to ask before she felt a lizard jump onto, no into, her back. "Bellossom!"
"You are honestly a bit too nice. I am getting out of here," the Grass/Electric said quickly and hopped back down to the ground. "I think we can grow just about everything that doesn't need something specific in there."
"I was expecting something strange," Chesnaught complained. "That barely counts as a change, you just cooled down." The Grass/Fighting pokemon moved closer and inspected the dirt that was apparently on Alexa's back. "I mean- Oh wow, that's some really nice dirt there. You can grow just about anything in there."
"I think the last time we ran into a berry market these Magost berries were the ones that worked best to fill out emergency meals," Charizard commented as he looked through their berry pouch for the best options. "The taste was okay, but it worked really good at bulking up the soup."
William woke up the next morning to Alexa's team clustered around the currently plant covered trainer. "It isn't really runny, but it does look more like a liquid than a typical clay," Rhydon pointed out about something they were looking at.
"What's going on?" William asked carefully, with a look at how some of his pokemon were already out.
"You missed the morning discovery that there is now another way for them to change types," Dedenne complained at him. "'Good news' is that Wooper found it first instead of someone who wasn't already Ground typed."
"When did my life change to have that count as actual good news?" William growled quietly to himself.
"I think when you met the trainer with the at the time liquid Charizard," Chesnaught grumbled despite how quiet he had been. "Alexa had to stop me from getting Wooper out of that stuff before I found out what being a Torterra is like."
"We don't know what it would do to anyone yet," Charizard called out to the other Starter. "It might make you Ground/Fighting instead."
"If I can't find it in the information we have, then I'm going to send it to my dad to check out before we try anything with it this time," Alexa added to William's relief.
[Author's Note]
Sorry about the delay on this one. I've fully caught up on the backlog I had and have been a bit slow to write.
This seems like the time (or perhaps a bit late) to mention that I am more active on and post these first on the SpaceBattles and Sufficient Velocity fourms. I'm deliberately keeping the version here about a week behind at least because those sites give good feedback on issues quickly while also being a bit easier to edit when I get that feedback.