- Tainted -

The Chansey all but kicked the group out of the Center the next morning, which was half expected given the pokemon's mood and the lack of other trainers staying there. Charizard had decided to stick with his Acid Armor capable Water/Steel form for a while. Goodra was still excited about the potential of Earthen Contagion to help teach others Acid Armor, and while that was alright for the move it wasn't the type combination that Charizard preferred. The Acid Armor expert's training aid was clearly valuable enough to convince Chesnaught to try a change, and none of the team wanted to miss out on something that impressive.

One of those was the currently giant clay bat that had just spent a rough day at the National Park Pokemon Center. Charizard wasn't entirely sure what to think about Herman not wanting to be Heracross anymore, but he would also support his teammate with however it worked out.

"Alright Hera- Herman," Goodra said with a quick correction. "I have no idea how flying works when you can use Acid Armor, but you can at least harden more than I can. Actually you might want to look at Harden the move too, but I would assume that it doesn't actually work with Acid Armor." The Dragon blinked. "I'm not sure I've ever thought about a pokemon that could use both before."

"Maybe using hard outer layers with soft underneath to improve defense both ways?" Herman suggested at the concept. "Deflect with the hard and absorb with the fluid."

"William, let me try this stuff. I can't do harder on my own," Goodra requested eagerly in the face of that idea.

Charizard chuckled as the illusioned trainer tried to talk the Dragon out of that idea. "I think that one likes what we do," he said to Alexa, who was still trying out being a Spectslurry.

"I guess so," Alexa agreed somewhat distracted. "Hey, Charizard, would you mind if I used the Geode? I kind of want to switch out the Ghost of this one for something else, and Water seems a good match."

"Not to mention it is one that replaces secondary types," he laughed and got the Clearwater Geode out and started to fill it from one of the bottles of water they had. "Not a problem, I was actually expecting you to try it much soon-" The water he poured back out was a sickly green color with a hint of glow with little flakes of purple in it. Now that he was paying attention he could see the Geode itself had a foul looking purple glow coming from it.

"The Poison Powder from yesterday," Alexa said faintly as Charizard struggled to think. Her words caught the attention of everyone else. "Lily, I'm going to need your help here. We have documents on how to fix this. I made sure we had stuff on how to fix this before we left, Charizard."

"Do we have the right stuff for any of them?" he asked with a strong sigh and resolved to stay in his current much easier to maintain form until they actually found a fix. "Or was this all theoretical?" he growled.

"I have every option we could find, and as much of the stuff they need as I could get," Alexa answered and got out the Pokedex.

"But with artifacts like that such things aren't the kind of stuff you can just buy in a store," Lily added seriously, the currently Typhlosion shaped Witch had her book out again. "That is a piece of Kyogre's power, and it is going to need to be handled carefully to not just lose that power."

"That rules out Contagion Cure," Kingler admitted immediately and tossed a small splash of the liquid on the ground. "It just strips stuff, and we don't want to go too far."

"I don't want to lose it. So, yes, please don't break it," Charizard rumbled dangerously, and turned away with a bit of embarrassment at how mad he was getting.

"So, these seven all need some form of Legendary intervention," Alexa said to put aside a set to start off. "We might be able to get in touch with a couple of them, but they aren't exactly something we have for a first option."

"You have two dozen methods," Charizard said, looking much better than right after they discovered the problem. "You found that many just to fix this?" Her Starter might actually be crying, which just showed that Alexa made the right call finding all of them.

"You can count these five the same way. Getting what you need will basically take asking a Legendary, probably the same ones you need for those first seven," Lily specified with a look at her own copy. It was tricky to get the small printer, that Alexa still needed to store separately due to its size, attached to her Pokedex to make the print outs, but it was required to go over so many in a short time. "Wait, eight, these three all need Kyogre Tears. Those technically aren't from Kyogre themselves, but they are only made when the Ocean Maker is enraged. You aren't finding those either."

"Sixteen Soak Water sounds possible," William unhappily sighed. "We just need to teach every pokemon we have Soak to get some. Maybe even find some proper Water type volunteers?"

"Has to be made all at once, but it is our simplest option," Alexa had to admit. They could do it, but it would take time and effort to pull off. "It would be a while and unfortunately the best Water type change we had is what we need to fix. Dad could send us another Geode, or we can work out a Water type Contagion, but either way it is a big delay for getting it fixed."

Charizard read that option, and visibly relaxed. "But we can do it," he said. "Right, are any of the others something we could try?"

Alexa looked over the remaining eight options. These were mostly magic spells that had been shown to work to clean out the contaminated Clearwater Geode. Three of those left were not magical in nature, but they also required lab equipment. "I think another option is to send it back to dad," she said aloud. "He was more prepared for this, and has the equipment ready for two of these."

"You might be able to pull off this one more quickly," Lily said with a small huff of Ghostly smoke. "Clear Flow Flush Powder, a potent Water type related spell that usually gets used to clean out drinking water. You need some ground Water Stones, preferably charged ones, a natural pure Water type pokemon's shed scales or similar, and a few herbs I might have on hand."

"I do have a set of evolution stones," Alexa admitted. They were on hand for use in spells anyway, and she did have some equipment that might work to grind one up. "If you have some of the rarer plants that one takes it would be possible."

"Only problem there is we don't have a pure Water type," Kingler pointed out. "I doubt I count anymore, even if I took out the Frozen Flame."

Alexa looked at Lily for confirmation, and the Typhlosion sighed and nodded. "It is likely that Kingler has been too used to the Dragon type, and to changing types in general, to fully count," the Witch admitted.

"We can always just ask the next one we find to help out," Charizard suggested, now much happier with the outcome. "We still have two other options to look for at the same time, so I think it will be fine." He thoughtfully looked over at the Witch. "Would it mess with any of those to use it right now?"

"It shouldn't," Lily said slowly. "Especially for you guys. Some of these options I wouldn't normally suggest if not for your metaphysical natures. Using an altered artifact until you can fix it is pretty normal. Actually a couple of the harder methods left might be made easier with it."

"They still don't sound as easy as 'find a Water type'," William added. "But I guess seeing another way to get Poison types while you guys can makes sense for this sort of thing."

"Does that mean we can go back to Acid Armor work?" Goodra questioned. Herman nodded uncertainly to agree.

"Yeah, I think that will be fine," Alexa agreed. "I'm not up for another Poison type at the moment, but we can ask the others," she told Charizard.

"William, I am up to try that," Carracosta of all pokemon commented.

"Because it is the shortest?" William noted.

"Because it is the shortest that cannot be instantly undone," the turtle pokemon confirmed. "I don't want to be able to go back just because of some initial worries. Besides, I'm not interested in any of their other types."

"You, don't want to be able to change back?" Herman asked with complete confusion that Alexa also felt. "I know it is only an hour, but being stuck in a bad one is terrible." The newly named pokemon was currently halfway liquid with solid shells of material between himself and Goodra, who had clearly stopped an attack at that comment.

"Is it that important?" Chesnaught of all people questioned. "I mean, you guys have stuff that lasts a week at most. I was halfway to a pot for eight days."

"I spent a month stuck as a Bug/Fire type that creaked every time I moved and I could barely control my heat output," Herman specified. "That is why we haven't used any others that really last more than a week."

"A month," Chesnaught said faintly. "One of you was stuck with something bad for a whole month." William's Starter blinked. "Oh, you guys are worried about people getting stuck from experiance."

"Legendary pokemon aren't careful with their power without reason," Lily commented, and Alexa purposefully did not glare at the Typhlosion for that statement. It was technically correct, but the implication was a bit rough to hear. "I had wondered why you all were so firm about that kind of thing given how excited you get about the rest of it."

"An hour isn't even a day," Alexa said to Carracosta. "It is still stuck if you don't like it, but much less risky than what we really worry about." Then she firmed up her face a bit, which was a bit more literal than normal due to being a Spectslurry. "But it could still be bad. Are you absolutely sure you want to try it that way?"

"We have not tested this one ourselves yet either," Charizard pointed out, with a bit less enthusiasm than his comment that started the idea.

"It isn't like I haven't seen some strange Poison type forms from you, I think I can handle this," Carracosta replied.

William was half convinced that Carracosta was just going through with this because Charizard had been so upset before. The usually calm and playful pokemon had taken whatever it was that happened to the Geode hard, and for an instant had even looked in a way that reminded them all that this was a fully grown and strong Starter from a famous species.

Although he couldn't be entirely sure. Carracosta was a quiet pokemon most of the time, and it was hard to tell what the young technical-fossil thought all the time. A modern born example of a fossil species made it sort of tough to get across that Carracosta was not some ancient creature brought back. William had tried to help, but it was clear his Water/Rock typed pokemon was somewhat different from wild pokemon due to being effectively human raised by people who didn't really know how they lived in the distant past.

"So," William started.

"I want to try being something other than Rock typed," Carracosta answered quietly while Alexa set up the research Pokedex. "I like Water, so the other one doesn't work as well, but I didn't have a good excuse for that."

"Why do you think that isn't a 'good excuse' on its own?" William questioned.

"Because they change both of their types all the time," the turtle pokemon replied.

"For the record, I do my best to not lose my Fighting type," Herman interjected, and Carracosta flinched at the currently clay Ground/Flying typed bat pokemon. "Rhydon likes his Grass type, and you've just seen how much Charizard loves the Water type himself. That said the secondary type changes we have on hand are a bit more limited, but you could always just ask Alexa."

"Ask me what?" Alexa asked with a very fluid movement to get closer. A kind of constant flowing shift that looked more like a small stream. William was half used to that from Goodra when the Dragon was feeling particularly fluid, but it was strange to see for someone who usually should be solid. "We are ready by the way."

"I'd rather change my Rock type than my Water type," Carracosta managed to say, and William was glad his pokemon was up for that much.

"Huh, okay, if you want to try anything specific I can see if dad has something that does that," Alexa easily replied. "I'd suggest Chitin Powder as one that might work too, but that is three days of Bug type, and I know firsthand how annoying that gets when you don't want to stay that way. Even when the result isn't that bad."

"For the record, this is probably going to taste very bad," Bellossom pointed out as she approached and handed over the bottle to Carracosta.

"It cannot be the worst thing I have ever tasted," Carracosta said with a glare at Chesnaught.

"I didn't know it tasted bad to pokemon that aren't Grass or Ground typed!" William's Starter shouted back. "Nobody told me it was a kind of dirt."

"I thought you would be fine because of the Rock type," William admitted once again in response to this old argument. "Usually it is the same for Ground and Rock types with those sort of 'food'."

Carracosta grunted in reply, which was better than his more typical response of continuing the argument, and quickly downed the entire bottle of glowing green water. The turtle's body immediately shifted to a teal shade, and his shell to a toxic green. Then the thick plate ridges of Carracosta's shell broke up into clusters of spines along the ridges that seemed to glisten with toxic fluid. Carracosta's face plating had always had a pair of large tooth-like spikes on the upper jaw, but now they bent into a pair of curved armor fangs that similarly seemed to drip poisonous fluid.

"Chesnaught, I'm sorry. Bellossom, was right and I was wrong. That is the new worst thing I've ever tasted," Carracosta declared, and shook his body. Which let William spot that the flipper ridges of his pokemon were now something between spikes and claws that had a slight gap between the spike and flipper at the end near the tip of the flipper. Carracosta's armored toes similarly were now spikes instead of armor as well. "Although this doesn't feel bad exactly. Seems a lot lighter than before. Still would rather not taste that again."

"If it is that bad I'm not trying it either," Alexa pointed out. "I can still look into secondary type changes."

"Reverse Prisms," Lily suddenly declared. "You need to be able to open a portal to the Reverse World to use one in most places, but if you can they will be able to switch the primary and secondary types of a pokemon around. They are these little crystals that form near natural openings. Well, some openings."

"Do you mean the Distortion World?" Alexa questioned, while William was just lost. "Because while I know Giratina isn't as bad as the stories say I still don't think I want to meet him anytime soon. Opening holes to his world sounds like the best way to get his attention."

"I'm not sure I like that you seem confident you could just do that," Lily slowly replied. "And I brought the things up. I was expecting you to ask for help with a spell for that. Even as a Ghost type I'd need one myself."

"Okay, I don't think we want to ask the details there, but what does switching primary and secondary type do?" William questioned more to change the topic than because he actually wanted to know.

"Quite a bit actually," Alexa admitted. "Usually a pokemon is more like their primary type than their secondary, so if you switch them they might change quite a bit. I've heard of other ways to swap them from dad, but most of those are permanent. Well, technically permanent. You could just use them twice to reverse it, but you need to do that to reverse it instead of just letting it wear off."

"I don't think I'd like to be Rock/Water instead of Water/Rock," Carracosta pointed out. "That kind of sounds like a way for me to find out what being a fossil is like."

William paused to consider that, and it was clear most of the rest of them had the same consideration. "Yeah, yeah that probably isn't a good solution to that problem," Lily slowly confirmed.

"If it wasn't for the taste I'd say this is something I'd want to keep trying," Carracosta admitted, also clearly looking to change the topic. "Also the geode is going to be fixed, so probably not something to get used to."

"We can ask for another one," Charizard said. "We'd still fix this one, it's mine, but the other one could be tainted for that."

[Author's Notes]
Did anyone catch this last time? It was hard to come up with the events that led to this one, but I like how it worked out in the end.
Reverse Prisms are from Happerry on SV.