- Earthen Contagion -
"Okay, so we are going to need more of this stuff for later if we like it. Dad hasn't started his own work on it yet, and the way we got the first batch wasn't exactly a normal set of layers. Although I probably will use that again to grow more berries later," Alexa explained the next day, more for Lily than her own team or even William's team. Although the Witch looked a bit confused at that explanation. "The name we are going with is 'Earthen Contagion' unless we find another name for the stuff. It appears to be a thin watery clay, and from basic metaphysical scans it should result in a non-permanent change."
"You have a metaphysical scanner," Lily pointed out. "You are expecting to have enough unknown things to need a metaphysical scanner to try and work out durations."
"I have added a metaphysical scanner that is the same kind my dad was already using because he worked out the right settings to get that information," Alexa clarified. "Knowing if an unknown or poorly documented change is permanent or not is critical to asking for volunteers."
They had moved a good ways down the route before stopping again, and while they were a good way off the main path they still were close enough to the city that a handful of other trainers were watching them from other good camp spots nearby. Kingler and Rhydon were both in their typical altered forms, but Charizard, Bellossom, and Heracross were all in what counted as their natural forms. Bellossom was still Grass/Electric instead of just Grass, but she was also plant instead of lizard for the moment.
Alexa was back to human, which was a bit strange given she had expected to be a Vespikiln for at least a few more days given more layer testing to drag it out, and Lily had ended the spell that made the Witch into a Typhlosion for the moment as well. "So I want to start off with trying it on myself," Alexa admitted. "Hopefully if there is somewhere this existed before we can recognize the human form."
"Not that we can be sure that tells us the stuff existed before," Charizard pointed out, and Alexa flinched a bit at his changed voice from the recharged translator gem. "Mephagic and Toxin Contagion are both known things, but the stuff we found first doesn't actually list them together most of the time."
"Humans changed into pokemon with this sort of thing are always notable, but the stuff that changes them is usually rare and hard to tell apart from the kind of abilities such pokemon have," Lily pointed carefully. "Vipercury for example aren't really known as either of those. Vespikiln are about the only case I know of where it is obvious, and that's because they hunt with their Chitin Powder."
Alexa had suspected that about Vespikiln, but did not really want to think about it. "Well, it might be familiar enough to give an idea," she suggested. "Also it will be easier if I don't have to worry about changing myself, and either way that will be the result of trying it myself."
"It would be easier to avoid needing a translator of it if you do change," William pointed out.
"Layers," Alexa said along with Charizard and probably the rest of her team. The others at least said something at the same time. "If it doesn't work I can try it over another form."
The nearby trainers were now openly staring as Charizard got the Pokedex ready again, Kingler got ready to use Contagion Cure just in case, and Alexa got out the separated vials of the new substance. She didn't really want the audience, but also didn't have a good enough reason to tell them to them go away. She felt it shouldn't be too bad to have some other trainers watch as long as they didn't interfere.
The mostly-liquid clay felt cool as it touched Alexa's skin, but a different kind of cool to a Fire type change, and not what she had expected at all. Her body didn't become quite as thin and mobile as when her Vespikiln form uses Mercury Contagion, but she did lose form instantly and the result was still more liquid than solid. Her body was vaguely salamander shaped in the new default she reformed into, with a short snout, a relatively slender body, a good sized tail, and separated fingers and toes that move easily even without melting them into new shapes. The color of the clay part was the same dark tan as the Contagion, but with spots of water that was almost purple in color that pooled randomly on the surface.
The big issue though was that Alexa could feel every living thing around her, and in a way that was clearly different from herself at the moment. The ground beneath her felt more like a suggestion than something solid and stable. Her gloves now had brown and pale purple glowing symbols. "Um, Ground/Ghost?" she said to Charizard and looked up to see the reactions.
"Spectslurry," Lily said with a pale worried face. "A ghost story. Salamander shaped earth spirits that turn anyone they find into clay statues or worse. Sometimes the targets are living statues, sometimes they are stuck unable to move on their own until cured."
"Looks like that might be the ability," Charizard said without the worry and with concentration on the Pokedex. "Metaphysical scanner is reporting advanced paralysis, which isn't the worst but I think you said that is what that moss stuff does too?"
"Yeah," Alexa confirmed, reassured by the details. "Contagion Cure will probably work on it then, but we might need to test that."
"I hate how the number of Legendary adjacent pokemon I've met keeps going up," William said slowly. "Chesnaught, got more bad news," he added as he let out his Starter.
"What- Oh no not again," the armored pokemon sighed. "You found another one? Wasn't getting me back bad enough the first time? Goodra is still holding that over me."
"Okay, so you have been Ground typed before too?" Alexa had to ask at that. It was starting to look like William had more experience with type changes than he had thought. "Also it is me, this is what the new stuff does to humans."
"Do I need to worry about being made into a pot?" Chesnaught carefully asked. "Because the crazy clay ghost threatened to make me into, well I kind of hope it was just one pot."
"Would it help to compare to a wild Froslass?" Lily noted in a somewhat poor attempt at consolation. "Because they are compared fairly commonly."
"I do not think I like being compared to a Froslass at all," Alexa admitted. "Although this one doesn't seem too bad so far, and I'm not going to be fighting myself." Wild Froslass were the really dangerous ones. The kind that could and would leave you as a frozen statue.
"You aren't eating the life of everyone around you, so we've had worse before," Charizard pointed out. "We just need to not think too much about the whole Ghost type thing."
"Most Ghost types we've properly met were born like that," Kingler pointed out, but this was news to Alexa. "Admittedly we didn't actually 'properly meet' that many, but it is fairly common to be born Ghost typed."
"Three examples out of five is technically 'most'," Charizard huffed. "Still, a type is a type." Her Starter doesn't sound entirely confident. "How about we move onto the rest of us? So far it has only given the secondary type to humans without a primary. Well, maybe after you go over the details of this scan a bit more."
The results were reassuring in firmer way. Alexa could work out that the issues with long term Wisp's Breath weren't here. She wasn't going to get stuck as a Ghost type even if she used this form for days at a time. "Well, I think I will need a bit more than just instinct to make an illusion form with this one," she said as her Pokedex was transferred to William while she used the new Contagion on Charizard. Lily seemed to just be quietly observing at this point.
"You do at least have the Ghost type to help," William pointed out as he frowned at the device's display. "That one is good at them. You'd be surprised what Golurk can pull off."
"Although our team does need to go through an extra set of checks for official matches to use those. That means Golurk doesn't use it for actual battles much," Chesnaught clarified. "That is a big downside of your trainer having such an obvious ability to throw off a match."
Alexa smiled at that detail and after a moment spent getting William up to speed with the exact recording settings they wanted she moved on to using the substance on her Starter. She was being very careful to use Earthen Contagion that they had let set properly instead of any fresh from her changed body. Chesnaught's past encounter gave an idea what fresh might do instead, and that would only be a chance to see if Contagion Cure worked in that situation.
She dripped the new Contagion onto Charizard's shoulder. His body immediately began to convert to clay, but the coloration did not change so it was likely the others could not see it as easily. That held true until it hit his tail tip, where his flame solidified into an amusing looking clay recreation of flames. Thankfully Charizard moved to look at the earthen flames easily, and gave a sigh. His leather gloves and band changed markings to a mixture of either hills or sand dunes with the typical clouds.
"Huh, that's interesting," Charizard noted, and then the clay that made him up thinned notably into a runny slurry that lost a lot of the Charizard shape. Then he firmed up to be even more dry and solid than he started for a moment before he returned to the consistency and shape he had started with. "I think we found what your mom was looking for in an Acid Armor education."
"Okay, let me try that one," Bellossom requested. "I want to see if it works out as well as Mercury Contagion for that."
"I'm going to need layers for it," Rhydon complained. "This looks like a good option to learn Acid Armor better, and because of my natural types I'm going to need layers."
"Still don't know if it works on all of us yet either," Kingler pointed out. "Well, it probably works on Chesnaught, but it doesn't sound like she would like to try."
"Long as I can still move it will be better than last time, but I would rather not," the other Starter present complained. For some reason the Grass/Fighting type did not sound confident about being able to miss out.
"Can't change the colors, or at least not easily," Charizard commented, and Alexa looked back over to see her Starter was in a Charizard colored Rhydon shape. He clearly softened to return to a more normal shape. "Not going to bother with anything specific with this one."
"Seriously, let me try this one next," Bellossom reminded everyone. "Mercury Contagion is alright but this one looks less fluid all the time, and I'm interested in that."
"Let me turn back first," Charizard requested. "This isn't bad, but not my first choice for holding stuff either. My claws are softer than they look right now without concentration."
The main delay for that was showing William how to set up another recording session for the reversal change. "I don't think I fully realized that you had a full research Pokedex instead of just a data collector," William said after the brief explanation. "Mine can't even handle the memory modules this one needs, let alone the advanced sensors you are using."
"You would be surprised what you can pull off with them," Alexa noted with a laugh. "Dad had this a while before I got it for this League. Let's get both reversals then move on to the rest of the team that wants to try."
She was far enough from Charizard when he got splashed with Contagion Cure that she only really noticed his tail flame bursting into flames instead of clay again. Mostly because she had wanted to avoid getting splashed herself just yet, as she wanted a good scan of herself too and that would be ready after Charizard took the Pokedex again.
Then it was her turn. Kingler helped her with a splash that had her back to human, but Alexa found she stumbled a bit as that happened. "Wait, was I floating?" she asked and moved to change back again.
"Maybe? You were on the ground, but that doesn't mean you weren't making yourself float to stay up more easily," Charizard commented. "You did look more liquid than I ended up, so that form might have needed that."
It took Bellossom replying to remind her that Charizard could just speak now, mostly because she could not understand her Grass/Electric type. "Let me change again first," Alexa requested and quickly liquefied herself into fluid clay again. With a deliberate move she pushed herself off the ground. Then she began to flail in mid air as she could not quite control the movement yet and ended up quite a bit higher than she expected. Soon she found herself looking at the group while upside down in the air next to them.
"Not so easy is it?" Kingler laughed.
"No, it isn't," Alexa complained and allowed herself to simply splash against the ground. "Alright, Bellossom's turn," Alexa said as she reformed to cut off the slight laughter at the sight.
Bellossom was even harder to tell the change with than Charizard, with the texture and slight stiffness of the now Ground/Electric type pokemon's clay leaves being all that revealed the change. The green, orange, and yellow of the clay was an interesting set of colors. "Huh. This might be something that is useful for making nice colored pots," Bellossom noted, and then cringed. "Oh, sorry Chesnaught."
"I am coming to terms with this," William's Starter complained.
Bellossom then reshaped herself into a mimic of her reptile form. "Yeah, this is a nice- Oh the colors don't quite match," the currently clay pokemon sighed. Bellossom then started to try and shift where the colored patches of her body were.
"Yeah, this is alright but I think it will take more practice to get good at that with," Charizard agreed. "Who wants to go next?"
"Can I get back to my layered forms?" Heracross asked. "The clay stuff reminded me I'm a Bug type again, and I kind of want to go back to being a bat pokemon again." Alexa nodded, and then considered how she probably should turn back instead of any attempts to use another clay as this kind of clay.
"How exactly did I agree to try this?" Chesnaught questioned, with a glance to Alexa's very wary team, and then back at her own currently clay limbs. The Legendary group had been fairly against it given her past experience.
"I distinctly recall you saying you would ask the next Spectslurry we saw if you could be living clay to learn Acid Armor," Goodra firmly declared. The Dragon type had some mystical ability of his own, which had been key to turning her back from a clay statue. Something about how knowing Acid Armor helped with the metaphysical affects.
"I was being sarcastic," Chesnaught pointed out as she tried to not think about how her limbs were only moving the same way as normal because she wasn't trying to move them other ways. "William, help. This isn't as bad as before." It honestly wasn't too uncomfortable, as she could if anything move more than normal instead of less.
"Are you asking for help because it isn't bad?" her trainer questioned darkly.
"I'm asking for help because it is not bad, and that scares me greatly," Chesnaught confirmed, and very carefully let her legs soften. This didn't work quite right, and she ended up a large puddle of clay instead.
"You are not ready for only melting a bit of yourself at a time yet," Goodra said in a tone that implied this was something they would work on, which Chesnaught did not look forward to.
"This is not how I expected any of this to turn out," the Witch Lily sighed. "Alright, I think I will stick with you guys until you get to your next city. If only to have an idea of the kind of things that are being unleashed on the region." Chesnaught then realized a bit unhappily that the Witch did not in fact understand their conversation, and instead was just saying that about the melting thing.
"Well, an extra curse breaker sounds fine to have," Goodra commented with a glare to remind her why exactly the sarcastic comment had been serious enough to still count. She had said it to the Acid Armor expert after he had fixed her after all.
Chesnaught pulled herself back up again, which was not as bad as being inanimate despite feeling stranger. "Right. So, do I need to stay like this longer?" she asked.
"I say you don't," William strongly said mostly to Goodra. "Not unless you want to. Like how we aren't testing if Alexa can do the inanimate one on our team."
Chesnaught considered that. "I'm worried enough about things, I'll stick with this long enough to be able to just melt my legs," she allowed. "With how this League is going I half expect us to find an Acid Armor TM somewhere, and I want to be used to this sooner rather than later."
"Chesnaught, even I know they aren't going to be able to make one of those," Goodra complained. "That one is allowed to stay sarcastic."
"Anyone who could use one would already be able to just learn it, wouldn't they?" Rhydon questioned practically, if not for the fact that every one of Alexa's team had demonstrated the ability before Chesnaught's own attempt.
"That's the nice way of asking why that is even a topic?" Charizard clarified, and Chesnaught sighed. Alexa's team had not liked the idea of her trying given her unease.
"I commonly have my teammates agree to unlikely situations where they would learn Acid Armor from me," Goodra answered for her. "I'm honestly quite happy, if a bit confused, with finally getting to cash in a few of those."
[Author's Note]
... I may have a preferred type of transformation. Well, anyway there is another form for Alexa. In case it has not been apparent the human based changes have been somewhat horror/ghost story monster themed overall. Typically of the "monster that takes humans to become new monsters" variety, but with some added side implications as well.