- Olivine Gym -

Alexa, Mephagic for the day, arrived at the floor of the Pokemon Center the next day to find the Florabedtor trainer entering their pokeball. "Um?" she questioned of another trainer she somewhat recognized taking the ball and the Florabedtor's bags.

"We got word from Moomoo Farm, apparently someone broke into the contaminated storage on purpose. They really need someone who knows Contagion Cure right now, and he needs a ride," Craig explained from where he and Ignatius were packing up their supplies.

The trainer with the Florabedtor's stuff was already gone when Alexa looked again. "So you two are heading out now too?" she asked, halfway relieved that someone was taking care of that problem already, halfway angry it was already a problem again.

"Yeah, we went over to ask for permission to make that swim," Ignatius confirmed. "They were fine with that after a bit of a baggage check."

"I'm sorry to say I don't know what swimming that far as a Lobasalt is like, I haven't tested that myself," she admitted to the pair. "If you run into anything interesting see if you can tell me or my dad about it."

"I suppose we can help out with your father's research, but aren't there other Lobasalt that you can ask instead?" Ignatius questioned from the middle of a new fireproof and waterproof bag. "The ones you found this stuff from?"

"Um, actually my Charizard developed the Magma Contagion," Alexa admitted. "You two are some of the first Lobasalt ever as far as we know."

"Wait, does that mean we get to decide what Lobasalt are like?" Craig asked with interest that Ignatius matched after looking a bit shocked from the news.

"I guess so, I mean, you aren't the only Lobasalt," Alexa admitted with a thought to those who had split off and Maizie, although the ball crafter had preferred Vipercury. "But there aren't really many right now, so please don't make up stuff that says there are more hidden out there or that messes with the others somehow."

"We did say we would talk with the ones who split off about being like this," Ignatius agreed thoughtfully. "We'll keep you up to date too."

"Should we delay to make some calls first?" Craig asked, and the two lava lobsters both began to more quietly discuss that topic.

"Do I want to know what new problem we have now?" Charizard quietly asked her, and Alexa turned to find her Starter right behind her.

"Lobasalt might actually end up a species," Alexa whispered back. "Hopefully they keep each other up to date on what they think that means."

"Hopefully they wait until after the swim to work out some of that," Charizard said more loudly. "A Fire type that swims is an interesting shape to have."

"Rock too," Craig pointed out. "Outside of fossil pokemon we... We don't usually like water. Huh, that Kangaskhan lady had a point about saying that stuff."

"Is Charles Larch here?" an Officer Jenny then interrupted from the doorway. "I'm following up an incident yesterday that inconvenienced trainers who are also pokemon and he is on the list to interview."

"Over here," Charizard sighed. "Is this about the Pokemart thing? Because I know that most Pokemarts I've been in don't ask me about my trainer card before they let me in."

"That is one topic I've been told to look into by Leader Jasmine," the Jenny admitted with a bit of nervous unease. "Do you have time now?"

"How much time?" Charizard questioned while William, Suicune, and Kyle followed him down. "I was going to go with Alexa to see if we could help with the local issues a bit more directly."

"It shouldn't be more than an hour," Officer Jenny said hopefully. "At least, if there aren't more problems with the question list."

"Go on ahead without me, Alexa. I've already got the impression this will take a while," Charizard complained.

"I think I might stick around for this too," William said darkly. "I have some issues with that incident at the Pokemart myself."

"If we're going over things I can stay a bit, but I was heading to help out Miss Kangaskhan," Kyle pointed out. "Although I might try and catch up with some of the others who aren't going pokemon full time too. They might have some opinions on this topic."

"Lobasalt all come from humans," Ignatius seemed to realize aloud. "If one day we had little kid Lobasalt would they not be able to shop here until they got their trainer card?"

These concerns were clearly more than the officer was really ready for, but Alexa wanted to get to the Gym. Not to mention it seemed there were already enough people here to cover the topic.

The Olivine Gym seemed to have quite a crowd for being closed, but Alexa was quickly led past concerned locals and upset travelers by one of the expert trainers.

"Sorry, we haven't had a great time since Jasmine was changed, and Aron isn't helping," the woman admitted.

"Aron?" Alexa asked uneasily. "Um."

"He is going by Aggron now, because that is somehow less confusing so why not," the expert corrected herself with a sigh, looking a bit upset with herself. "He was joking about the name when he took over for Jasmine a couple of times this year, before the change. Named the same as his favorite pokemon or something."

"I guess that explains why she wasn't expecting to get him back to leading the Gym," Alexa said with a sigh of her own.

"I've had a bit more luck on that front, but only if he gets to be the final pokemon," Leader Jasmine corrected that idea. The Ampharos looked tired. "That is a problem for this year because he is not up for any fights over four Badges himself. At this rate we might be able to open again for the few lower Badge matches were still going to get, and while that is better than closing entirely at least, it does give most people a big problem."

"Oh, I guess that's good news," Alexa nervously said. It was better than a complete shutdown, but not great this late in the League.

"For comparison, Leader Chuck participates in second and third Badge matches personally," the Gym Leader stated with a laugh while the expert trainer went back towards the front. "I have heard it has become a bit of a contest for Fighting type Gym Leaders in particular to see how high of a Badge they can offer when fighting themselves." The Ampharos clapped her paws. "Now, how about we get you to where the stones are being kept. I don't expect a real solution, but some more information from an expert on shape changing items is welcome."

"I'm not sure how much I can do to help," Alexa easily admitted. "But I am a bit upset this has happened." Which was an understatement, as she could feel anger build again whenever she considered the issue.

A locked glass topped table was the main feature of the room Jasmine led them, although a second look at the locked cabinets and containers along the walls revealed that this was probably a room for any hazardous items the Gym needed to protect. Inside the obvious glass case were two sets of random river stones, four on one side that each felt fairly empty, and six on the other that made her feel very angry just looking at them. They Felt careless and inconsiderate in a way that made her want to track down the maker right then.

Alexa could even feel her toxins grow a bit too dangerous, which she needed to get a handle on. "There's only ten," she noted, and her tone apparently made the Gym Leader give her a concerned look. She took a deep breath. "I don't like them."

"I was warned you probably wouldn't," Leader Jasmine said calmly. "It was a younger Lugia, although that still probably means older than any of us, who apparently has strong opinions on Tradition. She was already mad when she got here, took one look at the new translators, and then did something to these and threw them across the city."

Alexa took another breath, got out her Pokedex, and started to scan the stones. "Jasmine, please tell me I have this wrong," she said, her anger drained immediately into worry as the numbers didn't change. "Please tell me this isn't a duration of one hundred years."

"The duration would have been worse than a permanent change. So the four of us got a local magic user to make it into one to be safer," Jasmine said instead, and Alexa turned towards the Leader with wide eyes. "We're getting as many options for turning pokemon into humans as we can find, but it isn't a normal thing to look for." Jasmine laughed. "I think we have at least twice as many pokemon who heard about this and decided to pretend they used to be humans to get that kind of stuff, not to mention the ones who are just being openly pokemon now."

"Because if any of you did live for another hundred years it would be a new problem then," Alexa complained now that the Gym Leader was done. "So, only two humans other than the Gym Leader and her backup?"

"Aggron got hit along with the other two, I picked one up without realizing the stones were still going to change people," Jasmine explained. "He's been going out to check for issues the local wild pokemon are having with the translators. Our local pokemon nursery owner was the first the Lugia spotted using those, and another trainer, who has had luck with a blue pendant, was the second. We also have a Mismagius who apparently has been living as a human who got hit in the head by that one." A somewhat blue colored rock with full energy. "He Cursed her with misfortune and then gathered most of them up, but I found that one first." It was plain and brown, unremarkable if not for Alexa's Legendary senses.

"Do you know what exactly her problem was?" Alexa asked with some hope that it wouldn't make her any angrier.

Jasmine clearly considered not telling her whatever the Gym Leader knew, and then sighed. "Apparently, the Lugia is in love with the same pokemon as a Mew," the Ampharos started, and paused as Alexa looked up at that detail. It sounded very familiar. "And she was mad that the Mew showed up to rub in how the Legendary cat found a hint on where the pokemon ran off to, because he ran away from them somewhere."

"I'm going to have to ask the Shamouti Lugia about his cousin who was in love with a Kadabra," Alexa decided with a huff. "Was this supposed to ruin the Silver Conference because that's Lugia's League?"

"That did not occur to me, but probably not," Jasmine was looking at her strangely. "Are you okay?"

"I'm still quite angry," Alexa admitted with a fragile smile. "Can I get some scans of you too? I've met Miss Kangaskhan, but it didn't feel right to ask her for that." It would help as a distraction from boy trouble turning humans into pokemon permanently without their permission.

"I would like a second opinion," the Gym Leader happily agreed.

The results weren't as happy for Alexa. The scans made her look more closely herself, and unfortunately the results of her senses were saying the same thing. "Your types haven't changed at all," she said aloud. "This- It is like the stone took your human form and made it into a pokemon species you fit with best." Jasmine nodded as if that was obvious. "I can't do anything about that."

"I was warned that you would probably have that issue. I can understand the confusion, most people don't know that I am slightly Electric typed," Jasmine agreed then considered that wording. "Well, just Electric typed now, but I didn't start as a Steel typed Gym. I changed to one after a while working as a Leader. Actually, the few rough years at the start was more because I started out also managing the lighthouse, and never had enough Electric types for both that and the Gym. Two different kinds of training that were too different to really keep ready for high Badge matches." The Ampharos sagged. "Kind of like now."

"Will that be a problem for going back to Gym battles?" Alexa considered, sort of glad for a different topic than something she couldn't fix, but still worried. "I mean, if you aren't used to getting an Electric type battle ready."

Jasmine then took a long moment to consider that. "Oh, that might be a problem," the Gym Leader then admitted. "High Badge training for even Electric/Steel pokemon takes longer than we have left in the League."

Charizard wasn't sure how he ended up the face of talking pokemon when the rest of the room was full of former humans and an illusionist who was practically human. He somehow had though, because Officer Jenny had mostly spoken with him for the long and fairly pointless discussion.

"I don't think she actually understood the problem," Craig complained with a bit of literal heat. "I mean, she got that we wanted Lobasalt and Zoroark to be able to buy stuff when they are kids, but that wasn't the point. We want all pokemon, not just the ones who are a lot like humans."

"Zoura, my species needs to evolve to be Zoroark," William clarified. "I think Kyle had the right idea with leaving near the start."

"My uncle is an idiot," Suicune said suddenly, looking a bit more damp than typical for her Ground typed form in the doorway. "Charizard, I have bad news about what exactly happened in the town."

"Oh right, Suicune ditched us too," the Zoroark grumbled. "We might have wanted your help, Ecruteak would have been an example of somewhere we know pokemon can act like humans just fine."

"I know your uncle doesn't have problems with translators," Charizard said to the Legendary Beast, mostly because there wasn't much more to say about the other topic right now. "Yet at least, I guess this might be enough of a mess for him to get upset." Suicune shook her head. "It wasn't another Mew, was it? Because the last two were enough problems."

"Technically it involved another Mew, but another Lugia was the actual issue here," Suicune sighed. "I'll tell you the rest later. I take it this didn't work out?"

"If you mean the talk with the local police, then no," Ignatius said dully. "But if you mean the calls with all the other Lobasalt, then it actually did go really well. Not everyone is up for being a lifelong one like the two of us, but we have a good basis for what our new species is like."

"We are still working out how to get any new Lobasalt without making Charizard and Alexa angry," Craig admitted carefully in response to Charizard's glare at going to this topic instead. "Well you didn't think that we wouldn't become a species did you?"

"I assumed that it would take deliberate decision on our part," Charizard pointed out with a sigh. "Not a bunch of trainers, and I suspect some family members, just changing at the first chance we gave them." Both Lobasalt shifted at 'family members', which Charizard expected from what he overheard from the calls to the trainers who probably weren't going to finish the League but would stay Lobasalt despite that.

"Given I apparently already have some other Spectslurry family members I'm not sure that's going to look too strange," Opheleia added from the doorway as the Ground/Ghost moved next to where Suicune had stopped. "Dad is saying that I 'should have known' grandfather was a pokemon, but I'm still coming to terms with the fact I have less humans in my family tree than I thought." She then took in the room. "What did I miss while my image of normal was shattered?"

"We decided to get the Lobasalt species started and talked with a brick wall of an Officer Jenny," Craig supplied, and Charizard sighed again.

"So, a normal Olivine Jenny then?" Opheleia joked, then sobered immediately. "Oh, wait, I'm genuinely Ghost by ancestry, we're made to prank people a bit too far. I'm not sure I know what normal people think about the local cops."

"I've been here before," Suicune said despite how she had not been around for the conversations. "That is a recent problem with them, that hopefully is going to get fixed. You would be surprised how often Legendary pokemon have to bring up that kind of thing." Charizard realized this wasn't agreement, it was a threat.

"Bring it up like that Lugia 'brought up' an issue with translators existing?" he said despite that, because while it was a problem that would be going too far.

"Only if it kept being a problem long enough," Suicune said bluntly, but then quickly clarified, "Like if pokemon were suffering because of how poorly they were acting, and probably not as drastically. I don't know how long this change was done for, but a couple of weeks at absolute most would be appropriate."

"The Lugia did it for a hundred years," Alexa said to join the series of people showing up just in time for the conversation.

Then Charizard and the rest of the room registered what Alexa had just said, and the Pokemon Center's staff started to look really worried.

"I see," Suicune declared first with an icy tone. "I'm sorry, I need to leave again." Charizard had other things to do that were more important, and that was the only reason he didn't follow the Legendary Beast out the door to wherever this other Lugia would be. He didn't seem to be the only one.

"So, how many people from my home city were permanently turned into pokemon?" Opheleia asked with a very Ghost typed 'smile'.

"Four, and I think there are only two who don't like the result, and only one who doesn't have a good way to be human again yet," Alexa answered, and the answer immediately changed the angry atmosphere to confusion.

"Wait, just four people?" Craig asked disbelievingly.

"We had more than that with us!" Ignatius agreed firmly. "I thought us doubling the number was a joke, but that's not even as many as we brought!"

"What do you mean 'four'?" Opheleia asked with a fairly funny looking frown. "I've seen more than four new pokemon acting like they were human around town... My grandfather isn't the only pokemon taking advantage of this, is he?"

"I think the only pokemon who used to be human you should have seen around town who wasn't part of our group is Miss Kangaskhan," Alexa confirmed. "I thought the Lobasalt were leaving today?" Alexa then awkwardly asked now that the problem didn't seem anywhere near as bad as the other stuff they were dealing with at all. Or rather the other stuff their group had brought with them, let alone the disaster of Moomoo Farm.

"We got caught up with making the species work," Craig said, and Charizard sat down as the two lava lobsters got a chance to show off what they were doing to Alexa.

[Author's Note]
... this chapter might partially exist so people looking ahead at the chapter list later don't realize there won't be a Gym battle here.
Still, I did want to cover the details of this problem. Which is that if you just hear the high level summary it sounds absolutely horrible, if you hear how many were actually impacted it sounds bad but limited, and when you hear the knock on effects you realize it is actually a whole different problem in practice. That Alexa is propagating a bit in a different but related way independent of the local problem.
Because she arrived in town with more genuinely transformed humans than were impacted, and some of those are working on ways to make more.