- Twin Heads -

Alexa looked at the clearing they had stopped at along Route 38. There were a couple of other trainer groups around, and for once Alexa was deliberately staying near other trainers instead of finding a more secluded place. That was well justified by how all of those groups were currently playing around with new translators.

"So, are we doing the gemstone or the salt and pepper shaker Memento first?" Rhydon asked with a look at the rest of her team. "And I am calling first try either way."

"Shakers, because I'm the only one who also wants to try that," Alexa admitted, and the rest of her team visibly agreed. She was already a Florabedtor for that test too. "It is the one for fun, the other we might actually use."

"I think it is just that a lot more of us want to try the new gemstone," Kingler agreed. "I want to try that, and I'm already a Dragon." The purple plated crab clacked her claws meaningfully. "It sounds interesting, and is a rare type. The shakers just sound silly."

"That's kind of half the point," Rhydon chuckled. "I don't think it will be useful, but it will be silly." The topiary pokemon moved closer, and Alexa stood up in order for both of them to hold the Memento.

Activating the item made her pull closer to her pokemon, and also harden into ceramic. Rhydon's leaves merged into a shell that meshed with her own body, before splitting along a seam between them, and then again to separate their four legs and two tails that were touching the ground into a stand. The end result was both of them standing side by side facing the same direction, with their legs one piece below them that they could move off of. They both became an old looking uniform green color, even Alexa's flowers were the same shade.

It was also far too stiff, Alexa thought along with Rhydon. Both of them incredibly annoyed by that detail they had forgotten. "Wait," Alexa said with a bit of a poke at thoughts and memories that were not hers. "How connected are we?"

"Really connected," Rhydon complained, because he really didn't want to stay this stiff. Which Alexa could tell without him saying anything. "Does moving away do anything to that?" he asked and floated off their base a short distance. "Nope."

"So, the combined into one thing is a problem?" Charizard asked, and it took a moment for the two of them to work out why he would think that.

"No, the stiffness is the problem," they said together. "We just, sort of forgot to say that to the rest of you."

"Oh, thinking the same thing like that is odd," Alexa said after they finished. "I think I'd rather try the Hydreigon Spinel now instead."

"This didn't end up as funny as I thought," Rhydon agreed and sat back on their base. Then they together looked over what had happened to their energy. There was a connection between them that was part of the energy that made up the added Ghost type, and breaking that part seemed to instantly reverse the entire change, unlike what had happened with the Mementos before.

"Woah," Alexa stumbled. The sudden loss of Rhydon in her head took a moment to get used to, despite how short of a time they were stuck together. "Okay, we definitely need to work that kind of change out before we do anything long term with it."

"Alexa thinks differently than I expected," Rhydon commented. "And she can see the type stuff better than I can."

Alexa paused to actually consider what Rhydon had felt like when they were fused. It was a solid way of thinking, but also simple. Not in an unintelligent way, but instead in how Rhydon didn't seem to really consider things as deeply as Alexa did. It honestly made her wonder if she thought about some stuff too much. Which made her realize that Rhydon seemed to have already moved on to complaining about the stiffness while she thought about it in detail.

"Right, Alexa's done overthinking things," Charizard pointed out to her embarrassment. "Now its time for us to work out who is next to find out how someone else thinks."

"Well, I don't want to use Florabedtor again," Alexa huffed, and changed back to avoid the conversation for a moment. Then frowned at her entire team as the pokemon sounded a whole lot like they did a few times she had gotten lost in thought on her first League. Charizard even laughed at her look back towards them.

She shook her head at that and checked her bags. They had restocked on vials, jars, and even purchased a few special containers to hold those better. A couple of small packs, one that was now filled with vials of Contagions, another for full jars of various substances, and a third for empty jars and vials if they worked out any new ones. All three had extra space to add more to by taking from others or buying new empty containers.

A vial of Earthen Contagion from the vial bag changed her into a Spectslurry again, and it appeared her team had worked out who was going next. "So, who is going next?" she asked and flowed forward.

"Apparently I'm doing it with you," Charizard half complained. "Rhydon with whichever one of us still wants to after that." He nodded towards the topiary pokemon. "He thinks we should be the ones to try the whole mind part next." Her Starter shrugged. "I'm going to be Water typed for this anyway, but I really want to try being a proper Dragon type."

"Sounds like it should be interesting," Alexa admitted. Then looked around the area again to make sure the more normal trainers were still doing alright. William was off to one side, seemingly paying a bit of attention to her team's antics while mostly focused on his own efforts. Suicune, currently in human form, was talking with one of the nearby trainer groups about something, and that was attracting another. The third group, led by an older trainer and his Empoleon, was just openly watching Alexa's team now, with interested looks but less confusion than Alexa had expected.

"Pure Water type," a wet Charizard pointed out, once again blue, finned, and with water instead of flames. "Ready when you are."

Alexa fished out the new item, handed the bags and Pokedex to a reptile Bellossom, and stepped over to her Starter. "We just both hold it, and see how long we can stick together," she said and held the item out. "Although we need to be careful, dad didn't really explain how easy it was to start the change. The notes say it can easily happen accidentally, and took actual investigation for those Dragon type trainers he mentioned to work out the real reason why they were fusing with their pokemon."

"Wait, they know it works with humans?" Charizard paused in reaching out to question.

"I want to see Spectslurry fused with my pokemon," Alexa grumbled. "Not be a part human two headed Charizard." Her team laughed at that half joke. "Seriously, dad forgot to mention that it just makes a two headed version of a pokemon with a few human features if you do it like that. Which sounds more boring than with two pokemon."

"Ah yes, we have reached the point where you being a pokemon can be 'boring'," Kingler chuckled. "Well, we need to be careful with that one then. I don't want random fusions, so maybe it needs its own bag."

Alexa and Charizard shared an eye roll and then both touched the gemstone at the same time. Alexa felt herself flow into him as he combined with her, a much closer combination this time as they were reduced to just two arms and two legs between them. Their color was now a very dark blue, with a pattern of large scales on the outside of the clay they were both made of now. The end of their claws were small lighter blue stones that looked really sharp, with the forelimbs more bulky than either had been before, but their hindlimbs longer and thinner with more resemblance to a Spectslurry's than a Charizard's. Their tail was long, with a fin at the end, but the water now formed a split trail of strangely solid spikes down their long necks and back from each of their heads as well as filling in the fin. Those heads were more rounded at the front than a typical Charizard, but still with the two horns extending out the back.

"Strong," they both said together about the power that seemed to fill both of them. Alexa couldn't tell if it was the Dragon type, or something about her new connection with her Starter. Charizard's mind was much faster than Rhydon's but also stranger than her other pokemon's as well.

"Um, you two okay?" Herman asked, and Alexa turned to face him. She felt their shared body solidify a bit more as she took control, despite that being a bit opposite for what they had started with.

"Might be the Dragon type," Charizard said with a puff of purple flames, and they liquefied a bit more as he took control. "Alexa thinks a lot less like a human than I expected too."

Alexa blinked and turned to face Charizard at that statement. He felt certain about that assessment, and she realized with a bit of unease that his mind felt closer to hers in a few ways. Understanding writing seemed to make him put into words some things Rhydon had only considered as feelings. It was a bit human, and she could feel Charizard realize she realized that and mentally tell her not to say it.

"You like to fight more than you say," she commented instead, with her own puff of Dragon fire, and wondered what a more typical Charizard would be like in comparison.

"Well maybe I don't want to talk!" a pokemon then roared from the road loudly enough to cut off everyone. "Maybe I just want to fight, and get stronger, and I don't want to do any of the people stuff! You're the trainer, that's your job!" A Milotic lashed towards the clearing, with one of the new translators dangling from a neck band that the pale serpentine Water type pokemon looked to be considering snapping off. Her pink head ribbons and pink, black, and blue tail fanned behind her.

Behind her trailed an equally upset looking trainer. "I just want to make sure I don't make any mistakes!" the young woman shouted back. "You're always mad now, and I want to know why!"

The Milotic just huffed and continued to move away. Alexa and Charizard started towards the pokemon. "I'm mad when I'm mad, you just need to deal with that," the Water type complained. "Trainers aren't supposed to understand pokemon."

"Doesn't sound like a good way to get what you want to me," Charizard said to the pokemon as the two of them padded closer.

"Yeah, being able to talk to my pokemon worked out great for me," Alexa added as the trainer caught up.

"Are you both trainers, or is just one of you?" the Milotic's trainer then asked, to their shared annoyance as they realized the issue.

"I'm her Starter, we're using a mystical item to fuse together," Charizard firmly complained. "Even if I am also a trainer," he grumbled more quietly.

The pair stared at the two of them for a long moment. "Sui, you better not go that far!" the Milotic demanded of her trainer. Alexa and Charizard both had to smother laughter at the trainer apparently having the proposed name Suicune was probably going to use.

"I am not!" trainer Sui confirmed strongly. "But it has to be easier for me to just ask if you like different foods, or restaurants, or routes to take, instead of just trying to guess all the time."

"You, needed a translator to do that?" Alexa questioned with confusion that Charizard mirrored.

"Not all of us are pokemon that can just understand other pokemon," trainer Sui complained, and Milotic nodded in agreement.

"Alexa did that before she found out how to turn into a pokemon," Charizard said with a frown. "And I remember both Starter and trainer school going over at least making some attempts at that."

Both Sui and Milotic looked nervous with that pointed out. "School isn't everything," Sui said. "Me and Milotic have been doing fine without those."

"We have two Badges!" the serpentine pokemon confirmed. "That's pretty good."

Alexa and Charizard both gave the pair an incredibly unimpressed look. It was quite late in the League, and that Badge number was also about the point where a trainer would start to be required to have multiple pokemon. "What does the rest of your team think of the translator?" they asked together, suspicious about the answer.

"Why would we need anyone else?" Milotic questioned, and Sui looked at them smugly as well. "I can handle any opponent."

"Can you handle six in a row?" Alexa questioned dubiously, and to the two headed Dragon's shared surprise Milotic seemed to need to consider that, although admittedly the pokemon was considering the question. "How many Gyms have you both tried?"

"It was a late start," Sui said. "We were just going for our third."

William's training was now entirely interrupted by the spectacle of Alexa and Charizard, combined into a single very intimidating two headed Dragon, carefully working out what exactly a pampered pet Milotic and her rich girl owner thought being a trainer meant. He could recognize the type, someone who got a rare pokemon and a technical trainer card to just keep the pokemon around the house, then one day decided that meant they could go out and try for real.

In his experience they were actually trainers to look out for, because pet pokemon tended to have really close bonds with their owners-turned-trainers, and once they worked out how reality worked they either gave up or gave it their all. Hitting one that made it into a League Tournament was generally a wake up call to first time trainers who didn't work on teamwork and assumed that a pampered pokemon would be the same. Or even to more experienced trainers who ended up overconfident.

"Is that Alexa Larch?" the nearest trainer also interrupted by this happening asked him. In fact the entire clearing seemed to be split between distracted by Alexa and the newly arrived trainer.

"The left head I think," William answered, actually a little unsure at this distance which was which. "She's trying out something new." Also something that would probably need a lot of clarification to use in official battles if Alexa ended up part of the fusion that fought. "How are you doing with the translator?"

"Well, the wild pokemon are a lot more pushy so far," was the cautious response. "Um, how exactly did she merge with her Charizard? Is it common-"

"Then why can't I just be the other pokemon?" the rich girl trainer asked firmly and loudly. "You two can do that."

"It is not common," William quickly replied, and sighed at the thought that they might end up with this problem solved by making a new pokemon out of a human. "Other stuff she uses is, but that is something new they are trying for Professor Larch." Which was technically true. "I don't know if they will even use it in battles."

Then there was a shuffling of bags, and the trainer with the issue melted down into a Vipercury. Which caused a different sort of complaint from the Milotic than William expected. "She could have been another serpentine pokemon this whole time?" Milotic asked loudly, and apparently with approval.

"Alexa finds such interesting people," Chesnaught complained. "You want to try the fusion thing?"

"Translators are everywhere here, Chesnaught," William cautioned his pokemon in human, and then switched to pokemon. Hopefully other pokemon would understand that meant not to translate for their trainers. "Also, maybe. The way they're talking about being able to sense each others minds sounds like it could be helpful."

"I'll wait until all of them have tried first," his Starter admitted.

Alexa did not entirely like how that turned out, but the new Vipercury was ecstatic with her new form, the Milotic seemed to find the idea of talking with another serpent-like pokemon wonderful, and Alexa wasn't sure she could convince trainer Sui to go back now. Although hopefully this was a way to solve the problem that wasn't going to get Alexa in too much trouble, even if it was an attempt to show why the other trainer shouldn't ask for being a pokemon that backfired.

Charizard gave her an exasperated feeling, a directed one they had both been working out how to better manage as the conversation got more complicated, and she sent back some agreement. They could send more, but that was a bit more mental connection than the two of them were entirely comfortable with at the moment. The combination was interesting to experience, and wasn't uncomfortable, but it was strange. The way it was their body all the time in particular, as even when it was just one of them that decided to move it still felt like it was a shared thought to actually move. There was a 'they' in addition to each of their separate minds, it wasn't too much but it was a different way of existing.

"Being one pokemon with two minds is odd," Charizard said aloud to the group when they finally got back to being just among their team. "We are a we, and it changes everything."

"It isn't bad," Alexa quickly corrected at the uneasy looks her Starter got. "Just really different." She kind of liked some parts of it, it was in some ways comfortable to have someone else to help do things, even if it was the opposite of private in other much clearer ways.

"The other one didn't seem bad, other than the stiffness," Rhydon admitted. "But I'd like to try again," he added with a motion to where Bellossom was still holding the Pokedex. "So who am I combining with?"

Alexa and Charizard both then took a good minute to really work out that they didn't entirely want to split back apart just yet. At some point definitely, they both were sure they didn't want to stay together like this forever, but it ended up needing a bit of effort for them to get back apart so others could try. Alexa felt herself flow off Charizard as he returned to a more solid form and she liquefied entirely again, the Hydreigon Spinel falling to the ground between them in a way Alexa did not like very much.

"Oh, yeah, not having someone else in your head again takes a moment," Charizard complained. "I also want to know how you can like photosynthesis," he said to Rhydon directly, and picked up the gemstone. "This seems like the fastest way to manage that."

"If it gets you Grass typed without complaint I will be happy with that," Bellossom called out and held the Pokedex towards Alexa. "Also I tried that button that reads stuff out, and apparently this gives you an ability called 'Twin Head'. Who names these?"

"Didn't we name at least one?" Kingler pointed out. "I think 'people like us' kind of explains that name. I call next fusion. Don't care with who."

"How about with me?" Herman suggested while Rhydon and Charizard both took up a position and Alexa got the Pokedex ready. He was currently still in his Floral Contagion Grass/Flying form from Sprout Tower, so the team had a lot of Grass types for the moment.

"Alright, I'm willing to work with you a bit closer," Kingler agreed. "Although, do we know it only works on two pokemon at a time?"

"In theory I guess we could pull off everyone at once," Alexa admitted, but she wasn't fond of the idea. "But in practice we would need to all touch it almost at once, which is hard enough just for three pokemon. There isn't much time before it starts and the notes say attempts usually end up with just two merged with the third left out."

"We probably shouldn't all turn into one pokemon," Charizard suggested with a laugh and a deliberate flick of his fins. "I think two at a time makes the most sense after actually trying it, and I have no idea what even just three of us together would end up looking like." Alexa fully agreed, it was different enough to be the same pokemon as one other person, two fellow heads sounded like too many, and she didn't even want to consider sharing a body with five others.

After a moment more to get the Pokedex ready, Charizard and Rhydon both touched the gemstone. The result looked much stranger from the outside, with Rhydon first seeming to wrap around Charizard, and then both breaking up into a different shape from either before. Their body now seemed to be a thin and flexible inner set of six limbs and one long tail, but extending from that was a very loose set of scales or leaves that made the overall appearance much larger. Two of the limbs were clearly always legs, two were mostly arms, and two more seemed to be more fin than limb. The overall color of the pokemon shifted and changed rapidly as they fused until it settled on blue. Their heads both changed into a three horned triangular shape, on relatively short necks compared to a Charizard, but longer than typical for a Rhydon. The tail remained thin at the end instead of flared out into a fin, but water did seem to collect to a degree under the fluffed up covering. Then the color shifted to green as Rhydon presumably took main control for a moment.

"Wow, okay, Charizard was understating how bad it feels to him," Rhydon immediately pointed out. "Do you have to lean on me that much?"

"If we want to stay together when we're doing that I do," Charizard answered out loud, and Alexa cringed at the idea. Having to lean on another's mind to deal with your body didn't sound fun.

"Speaking human," William yelled out with concern. "You did that with Alexa too, despite not having your translator, but now there isn't a human in you two and Rhydon's doing it too."

"Hopefully that isn't something all of them do," the fused pokemon said together, and hearing that was much more unnerving than speaking like that. "Do we have enough to split again?"

"Go ahead, if any of these are a bad fusion we don't want to have anyone stuck with it," Alexa specified. "We can work out who wants to retry later, or see if switching types helps."

"It's mostly a type thing here," Charizard specified, just before the two of them pulled back apart again. "You probably wouldn't like a Psychic fusion." Her Starter managed to catch the Hydreigon Spinel this time. "What about you, Rhydon?"

"I like my Grass type too much," Rhydon answered with a large stretch. "So probably not going to fuse with you again unless I find another mobile option. Maybe we can check things out next time I finish my Crystal Syrup."

"How is Charizard handing that to me without fusing with me?" Herman questioned while Alexa went over the Pokedex results. "Because I kind of don't have hands right now."

"I'll grab it," Kingler said and started towards Charizard. "I'm kind of interested if I will finally end up something other than crab shaped." Then she paused. "How does this work with pokeballs?"

"You can use either pokemon's while you are part of a fusion with them, and you can't unfuse while inside of one," Alexa answered with a touch of unease, but also a bit of curiosity. "So if anyone wants to see what someone else's pokeball is like this is an option for that."

"Great, now I want to see what Alexa's fancy ball is like," Charizard joked thoughtfully as he dropped the gemstone into Kingler's larger claw. "I think we might spend a bit longer together when everyone else is done, Alexa."

"Maybe if nobody else wants to stay merged longer," Alexa replied, uncertain how serious the suggestion was, and a little worried about how tempting it sounded at the moment.

Kingler then clacked a claw to draw attention. "We're ready whenever," the crab pokemon declared from next to Herman. Alexa nodded at them in response, with a bit of a tail lash as she realized she was using the Pokedex as a Spectslurry. Her father said it should be fine with being used by a wet pokemon, or even underwater somehow, but that did mean she was distracted to the point she forgot what exactly she was again.

Herman reached down to touch the gemstone in Kingler's claw, and this time the merger didn't have a pokemon that was fairly mobile involved. The two of them seemed to fuse together and then stretch and twist a bit into their new form. The result looked almost like Herman's bat form, with two large wings and a long tail, but with some notable changes. Instead of two mammal like wings and legs made out of leaf and root material, they seemed to now have a dark green membrane stretching between a number of purple armored leg like structures that extended from a similarly armored segmented body, with the last four of about ten total without the membrane and notably longer crab-like limbs that were only legs. Their heads were both at the top of the body, and appeared to be made out of mobile plates of armor instead of the petals that Herman had before, with dragonfire contained within those moving shells, but with both having a horn adorned rodent like shape. Their body under the armor was now a darker green than their membrane, with armor plate along the back. The overall result was an alien looking flying centipede-ish result.

"Well, this is different," Kingler commented from one of the heads. The two of them twisted around, showing an almost serpentine like movement before they flapped into the air strangely.

"Not sure I like the form," Herman admitted, sounding like an agreement to what Kingler had said. "Nothing bad about it, but it is a bit awkward."

"The shape is more awkward than the mind thing," Kingler agreed with a bit of a different shift. "Anything interesting about this one?"

Alexa looked at the Pokedex information. "Not really. You two are swapping between Dragon/Water and Dragon/Grass, and have the expected changes to your readings," she explained. "I don't need you to stick together if you don't want to."

The two were split apart again quickly, and they both cringed as they missed catching the gemstone. "We need to get better at that," Kingler said as Bellossom went over to pick up the Hydreigon Spinel.

"Alexa, up for going with me?" Bellossom asked, and moved to also take off her Chlorophyll Jade. "I want to see what you're like."

"Probably should have gone for someone other than the former Bug type," Kingler grumbled good naturedly. "I don't think we are that different."

"You felt different to me, miss always a Dragon," Herman grumbled back, and Alexa passed the Pokedex to Charizard. "You barely noticed that change."

"I'm up for it, Bellossom," Alexa said to her original Grass type who currently wasn't one. "Do you want to be Fire/Electric or your original shape?"

"Let's go for Dragon with Ground and Fire," Bellossom said thoughtfully. "Also twice the lizard shape, see how that works out."

"Probably liquid, we are both using Contagions," Alexa pointed out from next to the pokemon. She looked over to Charizard, who held up the Pokedex and nodded. "Ready?"

Bellossom tapped Alexa with the gemstone in response. The two of them flowed together, and quickly turned into thick glowing lava with a very loose coating of shiny black stone scales that left plenty of the lava under visible. The overall shape they took on was mostly salamander like, with long and thin body, limbs, tail, and necks. Both of their heads were triangular and smoothed out. A fairly simple result visually, but it felt good to both of them.

"This is pretty nice actually," Bellossom noted, with thoughts that were less human than Charizard's, but more active than Rhydon. Bellossom even seemed to already be considering how to use this to make new changes.

"A good amount of flow," Alexa agreed and had both of them move around the clearing a bit to test how natural Acid Armor was for this one.

"I think we might need more of these things," Charizard laughed at them.

How he said that made something click in their heads. "Oh, we know how to do that," Bellossom/Alexa said with purpose and got to work, their minds together in a way that seemed less important than pulling this off. Their two heads merged together for a moment to help them concentrate, and they started to grow a gemstone out of their lava. Bellossom/Alexa carefully manipulated all three of their types in order to properly tune the new gemstone to work as well as the one they were using, and then with a bit of a flash it completed.

They tossed the brand new Hydreigon Spinel towards Charizard, and then split their head back into two. Which brought Alexa and Bellossom both out of whatever they had just done and separated their minds again. "Ugh, okay, that was weird," Bellossom groaned with a bit of a headache.

"Yeah, I think 'we' were an 'I' for a little bit there," Alexa said, annoyed by how she could tell they were dealing with two different headaches while still being able to feel both of them.

"That was scary you two," Charizard said with noticeable concern. "I was a little worried you two, weren't going to be two again."

"Not sure I want to keep trying these if that can happen," Kingler agreed.

"It wasn't," Alexa started and tried to find the words to continue.

"There were still two of us," Bellossom found some of them. "That couldn't last too long."

"We just, got caught up and worked together too much," Alexa tried to clarify.

"Legendary stuff?" Rhydon quietly questioned.

"No, I think it is just Alexa and Bellossom stuff," Kingler sighed. "I'm surprised it wasn't a new Contagion actually." Alexa watched as her crab pokemon scuttled over to Charizard. "So, do you think it works?"

"You want to try it with me?" Charizard questioned. "Because everyone else I could try with right now is Grass typed."

"Okay, if you guys have two of the things now, I want to see what using one with William is like," Chesnaught interrupted as the Grass/Fighting type walked over with the Zoroark trainer, who was not under an illusion.

"I'm going along with this willingly for the record," William added, and Alexa finally remembered that others were present in the area. The various other trainers didn't seem intimidated, mostly curious. Suicune was talking awkwardly with the new Vipercury, Sui, and that new pokemon-trainer's Milotic. "I think everyone here is assuming that this is Professor stuff, if you're worried about that."

"Um, no illusion?" Alexa and Bellossom asked together, but both of them were a little surprised the other also wanted to ask that question.

"Sui, and really we ran into someone with that name? That's an uneasy coincidence. Anyway, she wanted to know if any other pokemon-trainers were around," William explained. "I figured this was the fastest way to actually tell her stuff she needed to know."

"If you two really want to try the new one, I guess we can let you," Charizard admitted with a glance to Alexa and Bellossom.

"It will work," Bellossom strongly said, and Alexa realized with a touch of embarrassment that her pokemon might have been a bit more in charge of their fused self.

"If it does we might want a third," Kingler admitted. "That way we can all find partners to work on stuff with," the crab pokemon said thoughtfully. "If that isn't that bad to, um, be one pokemon like that, then it might help with the stuff we're working on."

Alexa and Bellossom paused together to consider that. "Huh. That would help," they said together, and then looked over to where Charizard, Rhydon, and Herman also said it with them.

"Now I feel better about trying," Chesnaught laughed. "Well?" Charizard tossed the new gemstone to her.

"Just touch it at the same time?" William asked to confirm. Alexa felt Bellossom nod along with her.

The Zoroark reached over to tap the Spinel in Chesnaught's hand, and the two merged together in the more solid way. Chesnaught's body seemed to be the base, although they grew even larger with bits of fur growing out of the plates in their armor in tufts. Their heads weren't that different before, and now the main notable changes were to both have a Zoroark's ears and mane extending from both of the heads on their bulky armored body, with both manes tied back by a single larger bead. A fairly simple change, but clearly including quite a bit of strength in the change, if a bit of mobility loss.

"Oh," William and Chesnaught said together. "Huh." They looked around for a moment. "We need to talk to mom again about those 'Connection Stones' she wanted us to use."

"So, this is something you've had to deal with before?" Alexa asked curiously, and felt Bellossom suppress a laugh that made Alexa also have to stop herself too.

"Not, the body sharing thing," Chesnaught said and moved around. "That's... William, is doing this how you pull off illusions?" she continued before getting distracted. The two of them were then replaced by William's typical human form for an instant, and then the illusion broke harshly.

"That is how," William said sounding a bit woozy. "However, we are not ready to use it on ourselves like this." The two then split back apart. "Ugh, okay. I think this was a nice enough try, but I think I would like to leave that kind of change to Alexa's team."

"I'm not sure I like what your illusions do to yourself, William," Chesnaught complained. "It feels different from when you use one on me."

"So, do we make a third now?" Alexa asked. "Or, does someone else want to try with me first to see if other combinations work?"

"I think we need the lava for making new ones," Bellossom pointed out. "Although you could go Lobasalt, that might help."

"Make a third one now, while we know it will turn out, and we'll work out the rest later," Charizard suggested as he went to pick up the second gemstone again. "Although, we might need to work out what combinations we're testing stuff with if we do go for that." He paused for a moment. "I'm going to call Alexa for the night."

"Hmph, then I get Rhydon," Bellossom said with a grumpy tone, but Alexa could feel that her current other head felt amused inside.

"You two are sticking us together?" Herman said with a gesture at Kingler. "We end up in that weird one, and I'm not in the mood to change type."

"It will work for oddball type work," Kingler argued with a laugh. "But I'm going to say 'no' to that too, give me someone else."

"Hmm, well if I can't stick with Alexa, and I can't have Rhydon," Bellossom said with a serious tone despite how clearly Alexa could feel her current body-mate joking. "Then I guess I'll just pick Kingler."

"I think we're stuck with each other then," Rhydon said to Herman. "Want to try now while they make the third one?"

"Hey, I want to see all of these," Alexa pointed out with a suppressed laugh of her own. "I can't do that if I'm too focused on what Bellossom is doing."

"Make one quick then," Charizard suggested with mirth.

This time Alexa and Bellossom were able to repeat the creation process without fully merging their thoughts, although it did take a closer combination than normal. "I wonder if we might need that for making more powerful stuff," Alexa wondered to her team aloud, but hopefully quietly enough to not carry to the others present in the clearing.

"It is the same sort of focus I used to make Espeon into Floreon, but with more behind it because someone else is there to help," Bellossom agreed and passed the latest created Hydreigon Spinel to Rhydon without letting both of them touch it at the same time. "Let's get Alexa back with Charizard first." Alexa went along with the decision to split, and soon was hovering over the ground as a Spectslurry while Bellossom caught the original gemstone and went over to Kingler.

"Does anyone want to change types first?" Charizard asked as he held out the second Spinel to Alexa.

"I want to keep with Spectslurry," Alexa replied, and everyone else gave similar responses. She then noticed that Charizard was wetter than before.

"Had to get back to pure Water while you were busy," he explained, and then she touched the gemstone he had in order to be combined with him again. It was easier this time, much like how she had handled splitting apart the third time better. "So, I guess we are going to stick together tonight?" Charizard had a bit of worry hidden under his joking tone.

"We're going to try, although I don't know who is actually going to use pokeballs to sleep," Alexa said in the same tone, but with similar underlying worry. "We might just pile together tonight," she suggested thoughtfully, although it seemed a bit odd to say.

"That might have been a bit of me," Charizard pointed out with a big burst of unease. "Looking at you like that is reminding me of my childhood char-piles." It was a fond thought, and Alexa kind of liked the chance to feel what it was like to think about siblings.

"Our turn?" Herman asked from next to Rhydon. "Or have we changed the plan?"

"Let us get out the Pokedex at least," Charizard laughed, although he was still a bit unhappy inside. It was a strange view on her Starter, how he thought instead of just how he acted. She felt him mentally shrug at her investigation, and she tried to send back a bit of apology. "That's closer to embarrassment," he more clearly said in the shared part of their mind. "Don't worry about it, I wouldn't stick to you if I wanted to hide what I'm thinking."

"Am I thinking too loud?" Alexa attempted to say back the same way as they picked up the Pokedex to point at their two currently Grass typed teammates.

"No," he thought back. "I just didn't think you wanted to send 'embarrassment' at me." That mental statement featured genuine amusement, but Alexa ignored that to wave at Herman and Rhydon to have those two go ahead.

Those two merged into a topiary bat quite quickly, with their heads already fairly similar to each other, and in fact most of their features mostly the same. The color of the leaves changed to a darker green, and they bulked up overall, but were mostly just Herman's shape with Rhydon's leafy construction and two heads.

"Huh, we were pretty close to the same thing before we merged," Rhydon and Herman said together.

"We're all going to be talking in pairs at this rate," Alexa said with Charizard, and with a lot of shared amusement.

"I'm fine with that," Kingler laughed. "Ready, Bellossom, or are you going to switch types?"

Bellossom answered by tapping the crab pokemon with the original gemstone. The last two singular pokemon of Alexa's team combined together quickly, with Kingler's purple plating spreading over the lava red combined body as it took on a more reptilian form from Bellossom. There were still some crab related results as well though, with six limbs instead of four, each with a lot of armor plating. The upper two arms ended in three-clawed hand-like shapes, while the lower four ended with two-clawed feet. Both of the heads were reptilian in nature, but with crowns of spikes extending from the backs and then continuing all the way down their back and to the shared tail.

"Huh," Bellossom and Kingler said together. "That is not how I expected you to think," they agreed with a confused look at each other.

Charizard's laughter at that statement came with so much amusement that Alexa had to join in.

[Author's Note]
I had fun with this one. Unusual body changes are one of the fun parts, and becoming a multi-headed creature with someone else is fairly unusual with lots of ways to go.
Probably the most new changes I've put in a single chapter, but I didn't really want to split them up. Next chapters are also going well, if not as long as this one.