- Route 39 Respite -

William looked at the group that he had ended up in as they traveled Route 39, and sighed at how this year was definitely the most confusing one yet in his League attempts. Alexa had decided to try and just keep the various people calm in the wake of the Moomoo Miltank incident. Which translated to just working on her team's new moves, and dealing with the small but still too large number of trainers who had decided people being a Miltank for a bit meant it was time to try out other more useful pokemon forms too.

He wasn't happy with that, Alexa wasn't happy with that, Suicune didn't seem too enthused, and Charizard seemed more concerned that the pokemon might want to try the other way around. Luckily there was only one item to change pokemon to humans available, and Suicune wasn't sharing. Unluckily Alexa had the Contagions, and those were easy enough to reverse that it was harder to argue against the people who now wanted to try. Most of them had after all experienced the reversal method already, and a couple had even managed to learn Contagion Cure themselves so far.

"So, we are up to a half dozen Lobasalt, more than I expected," Chesnaught started to dryly list. "Three Mephagic, although one doesn't look like she will stay that way. Two Spectslurry, probably three when that Mephagic switches. One Florabedtor, who apparently saw Alexa as one in Ecruteak and wanted to try. Two Vipercury, but apparently one was a Vipercury before getting turned into a Miltank and that was before they met us, somehow. Finally three trainers who are still trying Miltank."

"This year is definitely more interesting than the last one," Goodra said, a bit grumpy as well. "On one hand, plenty of people who need help with Acid Armor. On the other, most of them are trainers instead of battle pokemon."

"Is it really that different?" Flaaffy asked, and the older part of the team just looked at the magma sheep. "I mean, you keep finding stuff that happened before-"

"I didn't have anything close to this before," Shanker cut that statement off. "Those were just one off things for the team. Stuff that happened once and was a funny story when enough time had passed. This year has been a whole mess of stuff like this, one after another."

"Usually it was funny for whoever didn't deal with it pretty soon afterward," Carracosta countered. "And it isn't like it is stuff happening to us. Just next to us."

"Okay, that would be a good argument," William said with a touch of regret that this was his life now. "If I wasn't basically in charge of talking to normal people, which apparently I am now. About being a pokemon and a trainer included given that list." There were a lot of requests for advice, which left him uncomfortable with how many wanted to know about fighting alongside their pokemon. Which he couldn't help them with at all.

Case in point, one of the Vipercury was coming over. The new one who was already transformed when they found him instead of Sui. "So, are there classes on this 'being a talking pokemon' thing you got growing up?" Wess asked and flopped/splashed in front of William. "Because even knowing that Alexa Larch can actually turn me back, I'm not sure I'm going to do that. I've just spent too much time thinking this was permanent for me." The metal snake rippled in a sort of shrug. "I got used to it before this League, and suddenly I'm worried about if I would be able to be a solid human again."

"There were some classes I suppose," William admitted as he thought about that situation. "But I grew up in an entire town of Zoroark, so they were Zoroark classes, not just for being any kind of pokemon that could become a trainer." It was a distinction that mattered now that he was looking at humans who were getting forms that could not just look like humans if they wanted. "How was being a Miltank?"

The Vipercury looked away from him. "I didn't like being solid again," Wess admitted. "I- I had decided on this route because I knew Alexa Larch, who I have been told could fix a Vipercury transformation, would be coming this way, but now... Now I don't know if I will ask to try and be human again. Solid is just so, limiting in comparison."

"Can't say I'm that fond of melting down from trying. I don't mind it but being solid is fine," Chesnaught said to Goodra's annoyance. "And William can't handle it at all, but I guess you can at least be human shaped. Are you having trouble with being human shaped?"

"Some with ball handling gloves, which are hard to keep in the right place, and dealing with stuff that isn't made for pokemon to use very well," Wess clarified thoughtfully. "Just because I can be shaped like a human doesn't mean stuff can't tell I'm not one. I kind of want to know if you could help with those?"

"When I tried to get ball handling gloves, which was just this year, they ended up fused with my body," William admitted. "Honestly, if you already have some you are better off than I've been since I became a trainer." It was a touch annoying to learn that someone else had heard about those before him. "As for scanners and such, well a lot of growing up for me was just working with or around those." That kind of thing was actually a bit rude to use in his home town, but everyone was still taught how to talk around the results. He then considered the biggest issue a human turned pokemon might have with those. "You aren't actually trying to hide that you aren't human, right? Just deflecting so you can give the trainer card more quietly?"

"I thought that the trainer card was just for official events and stuff like that?" the Vipercury questioned. "Gym matches and League events." The liquid metal pokemon seemed thoughtful. "So, you tell lots of people then?"

'Lots' made William pause, because it had never felt like a lot of people. Just one or two people in any given place, maybe a couple more if there was a bigger need. "Um," he said with confusion, mostly with how he had thought before. "It didn't seem like a lot of people, but I don't know what you think a lot would be?"

"Well, admittedly I was expecting to be the strangest part of this year's Johto League," Wess admitted. "I'm fighting in my sixth Badge onward myself, so I couldn't exactly hide it now. I just didn't think I'd need to tell anyone but Gym Leaders before that." The Vipercury looked over at the rest of the group. "From the looks of things I won't even be the only Vipercury there."

William looked over, and discovered that the unhappy Mephagic had apparently decided on Vipercury instead of Spectslurry. Which meant he didn't have to point out that Sui wasn't too likely to make it to this year's League. He hoped, the Vipercury and Milotic pair had managed to add on a Pidgeot who was apparently up for helping them try for a fast Gym circuit.

"She might change her mind again," Goodra suggested with a nod towards the latest change in form. "I think she would like a thicker one than you're using. Lobasalt was something she tried longer than Mephagic."

"'Change her mind' about what species she wants to be," the Vipercury said with a shake of his head. "Can you believe that is happening now?"

William looked at the pokemon-trainer who had not even been a pokemon his entire life with a raised eyebrow, fully visible as he wasn't bothering with an illusion right now.

"I've been like this over a year, I think I can claim to be enough of a pokemon now to say that," Wess complained. "I've spent that time wondering how many people take being human for granted, and now I'm in the middle of a bunch of humans just trying it out like it is a party trick."

"Fair enough," William admitted. "And the answer is that I can't really believe it, even though I've been with Alexa a lot of this League. This is honestly a new one for us."

"How did your Starter handle this happening to you?" Chesnaught questioned. "I know I had a hard time with William being able to talk to me at the start."

There was a long quiet moment where it became clear it was not an answer Wess really wanted to give. "My Starter ended up not working out before this happened," the Vipercury admitted sadly. "The rest of my team at the time was alright with it when it seemed like it might be a temporary thing, and I still have all of them on the team, but it was trying when we first dealt with the whole mess that is me suddenly being able to talk to them. I had four Badges at the time, and only barely that." The Vipercury flowed over a bit towards them. "My new captures since then have taken it better, but right now they are." The serpent sighed. "They are just learning that I used to be human once."

"I remember when I thought William might have been a human before," Shanker noted, and William groaned. "I never heard about pokemon owning stuff before, so when he talked about his family bakery I thought it meant he was transformed or something." The former Bug type laughed. "It was only for about a week, but the rest of the team thought it was funny and kept me going."

"It was hilarious," Chesnaught said with a fake grave tone. Shanker glared at William's Starter as the Grass/Fighting pokemon continued in the same tone. "She ended up on 'raised by humans' for another week before William called home and she got to see they were Zoroark too."

Shanker glared at Chesnaught for a moment, then looked thoughtful. "You know, after meeting Alexa I'm not sure if I'd still think... Wooper does know you aren't a transformed human, right?"

The whole team turned to the young pokemon, who was following along curiously but quietly. "Human means shaped like human," Wooper started to explain her viewpoint. "Some pokemon are human, but many are only pokemon. Human pokemon make cities and stuff."

"Is that better or worse?" Goodra questioned as William tried to work out where to start with that description. Heading home for the break was not going to help with that viewpoint if Wooper stuck around that long.

"That depends, do you think it will be wrong after all of this?" Wess sighed to point out the other issue. "I've been with this group only a short time and I'm asking myself if that's the future I'm looking at." The Vipercury frowned at Wooper. "How old is your Wooper? Is she an egg pokemon?"

"Not that old, and no," William answered, more comfortable with that topic than the other one. "I'm going to make a trip back to Union Cave at the end of the League to see if I can find her mom again."

Their quiet trip down Route 39 probably didn't seem like that to the various people trying out being a pokemon, William felt, but being able to just talk normally with people for once and only working on relatively normal things, at least what had become normal, was helping a lot. Overall it seemed that every human with them was at least trying a pokemon form, at least trying those that worked on them as many could only use one or two of the available options if any, but far fewer seemed to actually be sticking with it for the long run.

Unfortunately some of those were apparently not going to turn back before splitting off, Wess and Sui in particular had figured out Contagion Cure and the two Vipercury were now going to lead a group heading along the side path to Iridescent Cross they had all stopped near. There had been some pokeball use and advice from Alexa that should also work as a method to turn themselves back from the Contagion forms without the move, but William wasn't holding onto hope that the next time he saw those trainers they wouldn't still be pokemon.

"I remember when I started this League," Alexa said to him, thumping down next to him as a Lobasalt as the smaller group set off along that other path. "I thought the worst I would have to put up with was turning myself into a pokemon for a couple of days every once in a while. Now we have this." The sitting lava lobster pokemon waved a claw at the various pokemon-trainers.

"That's still more prepared than I started," William pointed out a touch jokingly, even if it was a very serious point.

"Honestly, I've been expecting you to decide to run for it ever since the Celebi thing," Alexa admitted.

William was sort of glad that both of their teams were currently in their pokeballs since they just stopped. They were waiting a bit to make sure none of the split off group changed their minds before heading out again, and that meant he didn't have to explain to all of Alexa's team.

"Alexa, I mean this as nicely as I can, but I still think I am better off knowing if something like this," he explained with a motion towards the leaving group. "Happens when it happens instead of when it makes the news."

"Fair enough," Alexa actually laughed. "I suppose you have been keeping an eye on my team for this sort of thing. I just didn't expect people to actually say 'yes' to trying before the whole milk disaster. Then there was that..." She didn't seem to have a description of what happened.

"I was a bit worried whoever caused That was going to end up stuck as something," William admitted. Suicune had warned him that she had told Alexa about the kind of anger a Legendary pokemon could feel if their Legendary powers were misused, and that overlap between two Legendary pokemon sometimes ended up in a fight. The first part was worrying for the fate of the cause of the Miltank issue. Although the second part was a bit odd, since he had not seen any other Legendary pokemon around, but it was probably a solid bit of information.

"I've spent the past day trying to work out what exactly is happening here, and that statement is a worrying thing with my context," an older woman William had seen join the group the day before suddenly cut in. "Given I have been trying to work out what exactly is going on here, and how my daughter ended up made out of clay in a way even I cannot reverse. You have been a number of shapes, including a Spectslurry, but none are what I would expect to have the power you have demonstrated."

"What exactly do you know about what your daughter did?" Alexa asked surprisingly coldly, and William found himself worried he missed something important.

"That she is probably understating it a bit," the woman admitted with a huff. Then she inspected how far away everyone else was, with a pause on the human form of Suicune. "She is a young Mew, only thirty years old compared to my thirty thousand and quite often gets caught up in her own desires without any concern at all for others. I am expecting the truth to be that she didn't turn 'a couple of silly birds' into Miltank, but instead a few of the farmhands."

"Um," William uneasily cut in because Alexa saying this didn't look entirely safe given she was putting out notable amounts of heat. "More like all of the farmhands, at least two dozen trainers, and I didn't even get a count on how many pokemon."

There was a bit of a 'pop' sound as suddenly an enraged Mew replaced the woman. "I see," the Legendary said glacially. "How long would that have lasted, and how long is my daughter going to be clay?"

"A month, for both of them," Alexa answered, more calmly, but probably a dangerous calm given there were two Legendary pokemon that agreed on their anger now. "You can't break my change?"

"No, and I have encountered Spectslurry before," Mew confirmed. "I'm afraid I don't know who you are, or what is happening?" It technically wasn't phrased like a question, but also clearly was.

"Alexa Larch, I'm, well I still don't really understand how what I've been doing has turned me and my team into Legendary pokemon, but we are now," Alexa started to explain. "I'm kind of hoping Suicune can tell you that if you don't have a better idea than I do. She's been traveling with us since I turned Lugia into a Fire type."

The Mew paled immediately and drifted back a short distance, anger extinguished with that detail. "You did what?" The cat shook her head. "Maybe I should feel lucky my daughter didn't suffer a worse fate for her mistake."

"Given how badly she nearly impacted this year's League I would think so," Suicune added darkly. "Mew, I'd say it is good to see you, but I think you understand why that isn't quite true."

"Can the somewhat worried regular pokemon leave you Legendaries alone?" William tried to escape this event as it grew more serious.

"Pokemon?" Mew asked, and William blinked at the Legendary. "You think of yourself as-"

"Zoroark," Alexa cut in to explain.

"Oh." There was a pause as the Mew squinted at him. "A good one then, that is a very solid illusion. Perhaps not battle ready, but given he is using a human form that is not as needed," Mew commented thoughtfully. Then visibly paused in mid air. "How long has he been traveling with the young Legendary?"

"Please tell me being a Legendary isn't contagious," William requested, fairly sure it wasn't but still a bit resigned to the possibility that it might be.

"No," Suicune said with a laugh. "But if you are around Legendary pokemon a lot you get used to us. Which means your idea of normal changes a lot."

"Admittedly I am a fairly minor Legendary myself," Mew clarified. "Those transformed trainers are about as much Legendary pokemon as I am, and I have no idea how my daughter could pull off this disaster she apparently caused. I can break a Spectslurry's change, but not change even half this many humans so quickly. I was surprised she could manage one for even just an hour or so." That admission gave William some worry, because Alexa had been able to do more than this ancient Mew somehow as long as William had known her.

"She found, or maybe stole, a Fairy trinket that a former farmhand used to turn herself into a Miltank," Alexa explained, which was another bit of information William had not quite heard yet. "Then gave it to some bird pokemon, who lost it in machinery that caused it to affect all of the milk."

Mew had gotten paler and paler as that was explained. "Ah. Alright. I, need to go now," Mew said somewhat desperately. "Because I only know of a few local Fairy types that can pull that off, and they might not think you did enough to my daughter," the Legendary squeaked shrilly as she speed off, the last words mostly understood from context given how far the floating cat had gotten.

"Um," Alexa said understandably.

"I think I might need to check on that," Suicune admitted and trotted off as well.

"So, change of topic from that, how have the moves been going," William decided firmly now that it was just the two of them again.

"The energy shot is about ready," Alexa admitted with a sigh of relief. "It isn't as strong as the claw attack yet, but it also has just settled into something consistent. We should have it ready in time for the next Gym."

"That's good, you've needed those," he honestly told her. "Your team clearly wants to move onto ways to change during a fight, Bellossom already managed that once, and you need those for it." He paused for a moment. "Wait, what about that pulse one you've been trying? Didn't you have some trouble teaching that one?"

"Ugh, we were almost off the Legendary topic," Alexa complained. "Nobody else can learn it because it wasn't actually what we thought it was. We tried for 'pulse of typed energy' and accidentally got a version of that little pulse when we break a change that can do some damage."

William looked over at her with a raised eyebrow. "You weren't breaking your types though," he pointed out, because at first he had actually wondered about it being similar, but the lack of that effect told him otherwise.

"We've only done a couple of tries so far, but it looks like it only becomes consistent when we do brake a type as we do it," the Lobasalt lamented. "We probably should work it out more, but it is a disappointment. We wanted stuff anyone could use."

"Well," William considered. "You will be turning back during fights too, right?"

Alexa gave him a Look. "I suppose we will," she grumbled.

"Gym Leaders are going to know you guys are Legendary pokemon, and I doubt you will be the only ones to make it to the Tournament," he informed her, well aware of both points. "Holding that kind of thing back isn't going to help you."

"I guess I just don't want it to be what humans think of me," she said glumly. "I don't want them to hear 'Alexa Larch' and go 'the typechange Legendary'. Kind of like how Charizard doesn't like being called a trainer." Both of them were those things, but it was sort of rude to bring that detail up without a good reason. Which was the whole point.

"I don't think anyone is really thinking that about your type break stuff," William said to reassure her. "Like Mew was saying, we have a few humans technically turned Legendary pokemon here right now." Alexa looked over the trainers in question with a new light, although given his feelings that probably wasn't the best argument. "I mean, I know some of them are going to try fighting in the League themselves too."

"Kyle can't learn the pulse though," Alexa pointed out her specific problem, using the Mephagic who definitely was in that category. "Although, even if he could it wouldn't really help him in a fight. It is actually really unstable without breaking the change, and that would just make him a human," she then said more thoughtfully. "I might be able to do something with that."

The number and species of transformed humans had settled by the time Olivine City started to be visible. Kyle was the only Mephagic left, while they still had two Lobasalt, a single Spectslurry, and the Florabedtor who had stayed with them and kept being pokemon. Thankfully nobody from either group had picked Miltank, largely because unlike the other options those needed translators.

"I don't think anyone is changing their minds now," William sighed to Alexa as the three pokemon-trainers who actually had cards for their pokemon forms and one Legendary Beast met to discuss the plan for dealing with that issue.

"It at least made the translator issue seem small by comparison," Alexa replied, currently Vespikiln. "I think I know what I'm doing first in Olivine: trying to keep them out of trouble."

"Pokemon Center first?" Charizard questioned with a glance over the group. "They are all going to need new trainer cards, and I think they also will need us there to help them get those."

"I think we should grab everyone we can bring with us," William said with a careful look at the currently human trainers who had tried other forms during the trip. "Just in case some people want to try again later." He then sighed. "How the heck did this end up feeling like a break?"

"Because the thing before this was that bad," Charizard grumbled. "At least this was by choice for everyone."

"You would all be surprised what becomes 'relaxing' over time," Suicune added with a laugh.