- Ecruteak Reunion -

Alexa set down back in Ecruteak, and sighed. The trip to Sprout Tower was nice, everyone had enjoyed the Grass type themed structure, but it had not really been notable itself. Meeting another case of time travel had been the most interesting part, and she missed most of that one. "There we are," she said to Hanako. "Back to Ecruteak." The Kimono Girl gave a quick goodbye and started off towards the Dance Theater.

"Alexa," her father then called out from the other direction. "Over here."

"Dad?" she asked, and looked at her thankfully human father. Alexa wasn't sure she could handle the town seeing him as a Vespikiln too for this conversation. "What are you doing here?"

"What I can't just want to see how you're doing?" Alexander Larch questioned with a laugh. "I have a bunch of stuff for you, and wanted to see if you had anything you wanted to discuss in person." He paused and rubbed his head. "Also Leader Morty wanted an expert on his new Fire/Poison type."

"She's stuck?" Alexa asked with a cringe as Charizard with Suicune and William on his own caught up.

"Well, not 'stuck'. That makes it sound like she didn't want to stay like that. Ghost types that lose their Ghost type from a non-permanent change will turn back like any other pokemon," her father explained. "But, at the same time those sort of pokemon have an easier time making their change permanent instead, and her mother was quite insistent. It's some spiritual or magical thing, and unfortunately I haven't had much chance to see it before." He shrugged. "That is another reason I'm here."

"Professor Larch," Charizard greeted her father. "Nice to see you again."

"Hello, Charizard. I see you have an interesting translator now," her father noted sympathetically. "And you must be William?" he questioned her other traveling companion as William changed back into his human illusion.

"Yes, Professor Larch," the Zoroark confirmed. "It is nice to meet you." He sounded a bit awkward.

"I think that, after the year I've had so far, you don't need to worry about me around pokemon that are like humans," her father joked. "I've been one myself a good part of the year. Mostly Vespikiln like Alexa is right now, but I also have a few options she hasn't tried yet too. Although I didn't bring many of those ones, a lot of the stuff that worked on me tended to be on the rarer side. Things more like a Frozen Flame, and a lot of those have restrictions on where I let them end up." He looked a bit embarrassed. "I actually had to ask the Flameheart League about letting you take the Frozen Flames with you, even when I didn't think either of them worked on you."

"I haven't tried touching the Ice typed one yet," Alexa admitted. "We wanted to find an alternative for me to try Ice or Dragon instead, but I guess it is an option we know about at least."

"Well, I don't really have any of those with me for you right now. They are rarer types and I'm still working on what you got from your friend in the forest. Those plants are taking a bit to set up," her father explained. "Well, I do have one Dragon typed item with me I was halfway wondering if your team could find time to test out a bit, but it wouldn't really work for Gyms. It is a complicated one, and I don't know if any of your pokemon would be fine sharing a body with each other."

"I was already planning on trying something like that with Rhydon actually," Alexa admitted with a tilt of her head.

"In that case you will probably will be able to take the Hydreigon Spinel," her father laughed and took out a blood red crystal with sharp points. "They are strange things, usually found in really old ruins now inhabited by Hydreigon or used by local Dragon trainers for special events. Two pokemon can use the gemstone to fuse into a two headed Dragon type that looks mostly like a mixture of the two, with the secondary type matching the previous primary type of the last head to express themselves. Usually the last to use a move."

"Okay, that sounds more interesting to me than the salt and pepper shakers," Charizard laughed. "I wonder what this one does with our more unusual forms. How about changing back? It isn't something too easy, or too hard, is it?"

"Well, staying together isn't always hard, but from what I've read on it all it takes to come apart is both pokemon wanting to split apart," her father answered, and Alexa frowned at one possible issue. "I've been told it is harder than it sounds to keep wanting to be combined with someone else who really doesn't want to be," he added to her. "Although I don't really know what the League classifies that as for official matches."

"Pokemon fusions must be able to last the entire match to count as a single pokemon," William answered. "Failure to stay together that long ends with disqualification if it happens during a single pokemon fight. I saw it with a Magneton once," he clarified after they all gave him a confused look. "One of the Magnemite was apparently a recent catch that didn't really want to be part of a Magneton yet, but the trainer tried to force it. The Magneton split midway through the fight, and the referee halted the battle and called it in favor of the opponent. Stopped the whole local tournament for a bit because the trainer wanted to argue the point. Admittedly there was also this fish pokemon on the same team that went with the other end of that problem, a lot of pokemon that could work together as one but aren't technically fused."

"Sounds like a memorable day," Suicune laughed. "I can also see how you are related to Alexa, Professor. I'm-" Then she seemed to freeze.

"You don't have a name for this form yet, do you, miss Suicune?" Alexa's father quietly asked.

"I didn't really consider the issue yet," the currently human shaped Legendary Beast admitted. "Please don't tell my father, I might have been a bit harsh on him about picking 'Hou' for his human name."

"How about 'Sui' then?" Charizard joked. "You might even be able to say you're related to 'Hou'."

"Father looks too young for that, but I don't know if I have a better name," Suicune admitted, then looked at the gemstone that had led to this conversation. "Hmm, how does it count if the pokemon fused to another was not caught by the trainer?"

"Well, admittedly none of us are going to be able to say we aren't Legendary to an official anyway," Charizard grumbled, while Alexa gave Suicune a Look for the suggestion.

"I suppose we could try that," Alexa admitted, but honestly she was fine with sticking with her current team. She turned to her father to change topic. "What else did you want me to look into?"

"Well, quite a bit actually, but you are on a League so it is a question of how long you can spend on any of them," her father pointed out. "Let's head to the Pokemon Center to go over the list."

"Shopping," Charizard said once they finished going over the full list of new supplies from Professor Larch. "This stuff is nice, but we have another couple of routes to go down, and I think we might be on them slower than we have been traveling so far."

"What do we even do for supplies at this point?" Bellossom contributed, a Fire/Electric type and making use of her new translator. "I'm serious there, I've gone between plant and/or lizard basically every day this week, and I'm one of our more stable members at this point."

"With our trainer being the worst of us, given she barely stays the same material day to day," Kingler managed to say loud enough to also get caught by the new little machine. "And me being the best because I rarely use changes for more than battles."

"I'm fairly stable too," Rhydon grumbled good naturedly. "My usual types aren't that big of a change physically."

"Fine, we can get another one of the generic kits. I have enough forms now too," Charizard complained. "But we aren't rebuying all the other extra stuff. Only for forms we know we like, or obvious items we know we're going to test before the next place to shop."

"I hate to say it, Charizard, but you guys probably need a stock of 'extra' stuff," William pointed out, and earned a glare for doing so. "You want to train in these other forms, and part of that will be knowing what sort of care items are used for them. If only to know what problems you can run into and how they are normally fixed. It isn't like you aren't always surprised by what you end up."

Charizard continued to glare, but sighed and nodded to admit the point. "Fine, but not as much stuff," he said aloud. "We got a good amount of money from what Celebi gave us to sell, but we can't really afford to just buy everything again."

"I think I know of some better general purpose kits," Professor Larch pointed out. "A few of those would probably be better than just getting a full set of care items, at least for travel."

"That would help a lot, Dad," Alexa said with relief that Charizard could easily agree with. "Although ..."

"More Florabedtor?" Bellossom asked smugly. "I think you did enough shopping with the Champion for that."

"No, I'm thinking a different form," Alexa clarified. "I want to go with Spectslurry again, and I want to see what stores have for Ghost types in a town with a matching Gym."

Charizard considered that. "We probably do need to look into more molten pokemon stuff, if anyone here has it," he unhappily had to say. "It seems to happen a lot with Contagion changes for you, and enough of the time for the rest of us."

"I end up like that a lot actually. So I guess I do need those sometimes," Kingler grumbled and looked at William. "Any suggestions, given you have Goodra?"

William just gave her a dull look. "I'll try to point things out," he said blandly.

"You know, Alexa can just ask me for help," Professor Larch suggested with a laugh, and Charizard laughed with him as Kingler realized that she was still loud enough for the translator. "I see you ran into Sylph Co's latest promotional offer."

Charizard looked at the small device he had just been given far too easily. "So, what's wrong with it that they are just giving these ones out?" he asked with a huff.

"It is fairly quiet and not great at picking up pokemon unless you are standing still. Apparently they heard a rumor about the League going for more translators, and had a whole bunch of unsold units of a failed model," the Professor explained. "I believe it was just that they didn't sell well at the price Sylph wanted, but it might have been a quality issue. The League is willing to pay at least some of that for them now, and I've been told to hold onto some to give out to new trainers."

"New trainers are getting translators from the start?" William asked with considerable unease, then very deliberately broke his illusion. "Next year's new trainers are All going to start with the ability to understand their teams?"

There was a pop as Chesnaught decided to join the conversation. "Please," she started as she outright grabbed the translator. "Tell me that they are at least letting the Starters know that is happening. You do not want to surprise a Starter with that."

"Sylph is only doing it for Kanto and Johto," Alexander Larch pointed out. "And I have been talking with the people I know who give out Starters about that, among other things." Alexa's father looked Charizard in the eye, and he felt his flame sputter at the implication.

"They're going to offer being a trainer to them," Charizard muttered, and considered the strange idea of an entire class of Starters getting the offer instead of just one confused Charmander. "Aren't they?"

"That Pidgeotto you sent my way is already considering the new option," the Professor admitted. "I'm going to have to have a long talk with the League about that. I don't think they are entirely prepared for that shape of pokemon to be a trainer."

They all contemplated the idea of a bird pokemon trying to be a trainer. "I need more awkward forms to try stuff with," Alexa declared, apparently having gotten the wrong conclusion in Charizard's opinion. "Even a Florabedtor wouldn't have to deal with those sort of issues. Having limbs that can work as hands for one thing."

"As one of several pokemon who had to be your hands," Bellossom said, snatching back her translator from Chesnaught. "No, Alexa, you did not have working hands as a Florabedtor. I would trust a Pidgeotto with holding stuff and opening doors more than you as a Florabedtor."

That serious statement was not what Charizard expected, and startled a laugh out of him that most of the team joined in with.

Alexa could see the amusement, but she kind of knew that she had not really used her forelimbs as hands all that much as a Florabedtor. "Alright, let's just head out and get stuff," she said and stood up to just do that. The rest of her team was still giggling as she returned them, and William had remade his illusion unusually quickly.

"I always told your mother that understanding your team just makes it worse when you do something funny," her father said with a smile as they made their way downstairs. "Although being able to understand them better is worth it."

"Alexa!" a familiar voiced called out from a translator as they reached the main entryway. A small, but not that small, Lugia was at the door looking inside. "I'm glad I caught you before you left," Champion Ketchum said. "Would you mind talking with me a bit? I can go along with whatever you're doing."

"That's a bad sign," William grumbled.

"Professor Larch?" Ash Ketchum asked as they started to head to the Pokemart. "Its nice to meet you, but I kind of wish it was a better time. Did Sylph send you translators too?"

"They have, Champion Ketchum. Is there a problem with them?" her father questioned.

"They weren't supposed to be sent out until the start of the next League," the Champion rumbled, an out of place angry sound that his translator seemed to only barely identify as words. "Now we have a mess of trainers getting them without any of the introduction stuff we were planning on having. I hate to ask, but I need Alexa's help with looking out for problems. William, and whoever else I can find that's used to being able to understand pokemon too."

William paled at being called out by the Champion, but Alexa simply nodded. "I can try at least. Is it really that big of a problem?"

"There is a difference between understanding pokemon and talking to them," Ash replied simply. "Meowth was the biggest example of that. I could talk to him fine, but I still don't understand him."

"The Team Rocket stuff was real?" William said with a bit more color as that new information hit a bit differently than the Champion probably intended.

"I still don't know why we let them play themselves," Ash complained. "The point is that being able to talk to someone doesn't always help with understanding them, and I need help with that."

That made a lot of sense to Alexa, especially with Chesnaught's stories about finding out William was also a pokemon, her own experience with being able to entirely understand pokemon, and how Charizard felt the need to hide that he could write. Being able to talk to her team had worked out because she already talked with them all the time, but plenty of people in Johto had said that kind of interaction was rare for trainers.

"What do you need me to do? I still want to have my League because of, well, you know," Alexa admitted.

"Yeah," the Lugia sighed. "I do." He took a moment to think, during which a very frustrated looking Pikachu bounded over and chittered angrily at him. "Mostly I just need you to keep an eye out while you travel. I know it is getting pretty late in the League, but I mostly just want someone else I know can help for the next couple of weeks. Lance thinks it will calm down by the tournament, and we all have other people we're bringing in to help."

"Which way are you going?" Alexa's father asked with a bit of a joking tone.

"Whichever Alexa isn't, with a friend going the third," Ash quickly answered with a laugh. "I just need a bit more help across the region, and I don't have many options."

"We're going to need extra supplies for other peoples' problems," William grumbled to her.

"Charizard is going to be upset," Alexa agreed.