Well, uh, I guess this is what I landed on, um, Yay! One year! I didn't abandon this thing! I mean, we're still a ways away from the coveted "Completed" status, but hey, we're getting there. Well um, before we get into this, I guess I'll talk a little bit about the future of this fic, first off, although I joke about abandoning this fic every once in a while, I do genuinely fear abandoning it, not because I don't like writing it anymore! No, no! Quite the contrary, actually! It's become sort of a bad habit of mine at this point to start writing the next chapter immediately after posting the last. I just can't help it! I want to see how the story advances and changes from my original idea, and I want to share that with you all! But the main thing that scares me is that a lot of fan projects, no matter what kind of project or what fandom, just don't get finished. Part of that is because of dwindling interest, but another part of that is just people don't always have time for them, I'm not one of those people now, but that's usually never the case for those people when they start their projects. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I wanna finish this thing no matter what, but if something changes suddenly or something, then I'll be here 'till this thing's done.

I'll make an update like this again next year. But for now, let's rock!

February 7th, 8:14 am

Abundant Apple Forest

Coast Continent

Malachite trotted through the forest, her friends trailing cautiously behind her. Her Mimikyu friend, who now goes by Patches, was a little nervous, "Are we sure we can trust this guy?"

Malachite turned around and started to back-peddle, "Of course, we can trust them! Would somebody this pink really commit a crime?"

Candy the still un-candied Applin objected, "Didn't you literally say that you were a bit skeptical at first?"

"W-well yeah, but I changed my mind! They don't seem bad, they're just kinda big, and I was a little scared of that."

The Lurantis tapped Malachite on the shoulder with one of its scythe-like arms, "There's a bit of a story behind that."

"There is?"

"Yep, my parents are even bigger than me, in fact, my dad holds the record for the biggest Lurantis in recorded history."

"Wow, that's interesting, so they passed down their big size to you?"

"Well, sort of… As I said, they're both bigger than me, like much bigger than me, I'm much closer to an average-sized Lurantis than they are."

Malachite was fascinated by the idea of a massive Lurantis that was even bigger than the one guiding her and her friends through the forest, "Interesting… Is there a reason your parents are so big?"

"I think I remember my dad saying something about being an alpha, and my mom said she's supposed to be some totem or something. I don't know, I wasn't paying that much attention."

Patches adjusted her disguise with a shadowy claw, once she was comfortable she decided to ask a little more about the shady character's family, "So you're just a big bug family?"

"Nope!" The Lurantis replied, "I may look like one, but I'm not a bug."

"Huh? You're not?"

"Nope, I'm a plant pretending to be a bug, hence why I'm not a bug type."

Malachite was amazed, she had no idea that Lurantis weren't actually bug type Pokémon, her whole life she thought they were, then she realized something, "You'd fit in perfectly with our team!"

The Lurantis was a little confused, "Team? What kind of team?"

"Y'know, our team! We're part of the SurfSpark Guild. We do all kinds of stuff."

"I don't see what this has to do with pretending to be a bug."

"Well, our team name is Mimicry, we're all kinda good at pretending, that's our thing."

"Ah, I see, well, in that case, I'll consider joining if I've got nothing better to do."

Patches wanted to object, but she decided not to, she thought it'd be hypocritical to say that Malachite couldn't trust this guy seeing as she herself was new to the team. Thankfully, the team reached their destination before she could start feeling awkward.

The team arrived at a tree that bore apples the size of bowling balls, "Woah!" Malachite marveled, "Those apples are huge! One of those is like a whole meal's worth of apple!"

"Wouldn't it be, one of those could serve as a whole meal?" Patches interjected.

Lurantis shrugged, "Eh, words are hard when you're staring at a Perfect Apple."

Malachite looked back at Lurantis and her friends, tail wagging furiously, "We need that apple! There's no way Candy can resist evolving if we turn that one into a caramel apple!"

"But how do we get it down?" Candy asked as she stared up at the apple.

The apple was hanging from a part of the tree way above everyone's heads. The only way to get it down would be to knock it down, knowing this, Lurantis hit the tree with a Leaf Storm, catching everyone off guard. Lurantis ignored their startled reactions and focused on the apple, it hadn't fallen, but it was shaken *ahem* to its core.

"Woah! That was a strong attack!" Patches blurted, "What was that!?"

"I think that was Leaf Storm." Malachite replied, "That guy must be tired after such a powerful move."

"Tch." The Lurantis scoffed, "Tired? Nah. I feel even better after that attack! It's time for round 2!"

Another Leaf Storm struck the tree, this time it was more intense than the last, it was so intense in fact that the apple fell almost instantly. Lurantis caught the apple before it hit the ground, striking a pose as it landed on the dull side of one of his scythes, "Behold! One Perfect Apple! And it's all ours!"

Before Lurantis could move from his pose, the ground shook, causing the color to fade from his eyes, "Um, t-that's o-odd, I didn't think anyone lived here."

Patches started shivering, "W-what was that?"

"SOMETHING BIG IS COMING THIS WAY!" Malachite screamed, "RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"

Suddenly, a huge Ursaring emerged from the forest and roared at the team. Candy whimpered as the big bear stared her down intensely, "U-um... U-uh…"

Malachite felt her knees turn to jello when a sudden wave of courage washed over her, 'I have to help Candy! I can't just sit here and let her get hurt!'

Malachite dove toward Candy and moved her out of the way. While Malachite was still on the ground, Lurantis fired another Leaf Storm over her head, knocking the Ursaring into the tree, "We don't have to do this y'know, let us go and we'll be out of your hair!"

Malachite got up and checked on Candy, "You alright?"

"I'm fine, thanks, I would've been toast if you hadn't jumped in!" Candy replied.

"Oh, thank goodness, if you would've gotten hurt, I… I…"

"I would've been fine, now focus! If we don't take out that Ursaring, we'll be history!"

Malachite nodded as a determined expression appeared on her face, she turned around and faced Ursaring, only to get smacked in the face with a giant apple. Once Malachite got her bearings, she heard Lurantis shout, "It's after the apple! We need to keep the apple away from it!"

Malachite set the apple beside Candy and rushed into the fray, hitting Ursaring with a Foul Play while its eyes were glued to the apple. Patches followed up by rushing at the big bear, relentlessly attacking it as cartoonish clouds appeared around the pair. Ursaring retaliated by swiping at the Mimikyu with its claws, its attack phased right through the ghost as she giggled, "What's wrong dearie? Never fought a ghost before?"

Ursaring growled before shoving the Mimikyu aside, breaking her disguise's neck as she hit a tree, "Patches!" Malachite screamed.

"My disguise! URGH! I'LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THAT!"

Patches completely forgot about the apple and charged straight at Ursaring again, this time though, she meant business, latching onto the bear's face and clawing at it furiously.

Lurantis watched the Ursaring struggle for a moment, he was waiting for his moment to strike, the moment it flung Patches off again, he would fire one last decisive Leaf Storm.

However, his moment never came, the Ursaring never flung Patches, instead, it was torched by some unseen Pokémon, "Huh? What's going on here? Where'd that fire come from?" Lurantis asked.

Malachite wasn't concerned with the source of the fire, she rushed over to check on Patches, "P-Patches! Your neck! A-are you ok?"

"I'm fine..." Patches replied, "I'm gonna need to fix my disguise, otherwise I'm gonna stick out like a sore thumb… I'm not looking forward to it."

"I can help! I know arts and crafts!"

"Save yourself the headache, this thing takes hours to mend."

Lurantis tried to grab the pair's attention, "Are we just gonna forget about the random stream of flames or are we gonna sit here and let it fry us too?"

Malachite shook her head, "I don't think it's that big a deal, I mean, they probably would've torched Patches too if they were after us."

Sure enough, a little Vulpix popped out of the foliage, "Did I get the big meanie?" They asked.

"Um, uh, yep, sure did! The big meanie has been dealt with, you don't need to torch anything else!" Lurantis said as he started to sweat bullets.

The little Vulpix squinted his eyes at Lurantis, "Are you sure? I mean, you look pretty big and tough yourself, I bet Mama would be proud if I told her I took out not one but two big mean Pokémon."

"I'm not your enemy, kid! I came here for apples! I mean no ill will! Honest!"

"Apples?" The Vulpix asked, "Where?"

Lurantis was sweating enough to legally be considered a waterfall by this point, he really didn't want to be burnt to a crisp, "J-j-j-just look up!"

The fox Pokémon looked up only to be amazed as he saw giant apples growing from the tree, "Wow! Those apples are huge! Mama would be super happy if I brought her one of those!"

Lurantis wiped his forehead, "I'll get you one if you agree not to torch me."

"Deal!"

Lurantis struck the tree with another Leaf Storm, causing a bunch of apples to fall to the ground. The Vulpix's little kid mind was blown, "WOAH! That was totally wicked! I'm gonna take a whole bunch!"

Candy was confused, "Uh, whose kid is this?"

Patches shrugged, "No clue, but they're adorable!"

Malachite thought she had seen the little kid somewhere before, "Hold on, isn't your mama one of those ice Ninetales?"

The Vulpix nodded, "Yup, and my dad's a Luxray, they're both really tough. I wanna be as tough as they are when I grow up, so I snuck out and fought my way through the forest."

"Wait, so you mean to tell me this kid snuck out here just so he could get stronger?" Lurantis asked, "That's not cool! You could've gotten hurt!"

The Vulpix frowned, "I know… It's just… Mama won't take me out exploring, so I kinda took matters into my own hands, I'm strong enough to handle it, but she still wouldn't let me!"

"Look kid, your mom knows what's best for you, you should listen to her more often, you hear?"

The Vulpix sighed, "Yeah…"

"So, what's your name, little guy?" Malachite asked.

Mere moments after Malachite asked the Vulpix's name, worried cries could be heard in the distance, "Blair!? BLAIR!?"

Blair's ears perked up, "Oh, my mama came looking for me!"

Lurantis gave Blair a pat on the head, "Well, you should get going then, see ya around, little guy."

But before Blair could run off, Cloak had arrived on the scene, "Freeze! Or I'll make you!"

"W-wait, this isn't what it looks like!"

Cloak raised her tails to appear more threatening, "Silence! You won't be putting a claw on my kit! Do you understand?"

Malachite jumped in front of Lurantis, "We're not your enemy! We were just here for some apples when your son came and saved us from a big Ursaring!"

Cloak's tails lowered, "Oh, I see, so the threat's been dealt with, got it, sorry for jumping to conclusions."

Cloak walked over to Blair and picked him up by the scruff of his neck, "H-hey, put me down!"

"Not until you learn to quit running off!"

Cloak dragged Blair back through the foliage and all the way back to town. When they were gone, Team Mimicry (and Lurantis) let out a collective sigh, "That was too close." Candy said, "It's bad enough the entire continent is covered in snow, if she had attacked us we would've been nothing more than ice sculptures in a winter wonderland!"

"Well, she didn't attack us, so we should be thankful for that." Malachite said, "Now, where were we?"

"Right! The apple!"

Candy picked up the apple and placed it in Malachite's bag, "This calls for a celebration!"

"A celebration?" Patches asked as she readjusted her disguise's head, "But we don't even know if it's worked!"

Lurantis shook his head, "It'll work, just trust me."

"But what if it doesn't"

Malachite didn't like Patches' negative vibes, so she ran up and started tugging on her ragged outfit to nudge her toward the path home, "How about we rush home and try it out, then if it works we'll have the biggest celebration that's ever been celebrated!"

"A-alright, let's get going then, I need to fix my neck anyway."

February 7th, 11:43 am

Malachite's Hideout

Coast Continent

Malachite led her friends back to a little hidden nook in a tree just outside town. After everyone squeezed their way in, Malachite gave them a little tour (even though Lurantis was the only one who hadn't been there before, well aside from us, I guess, but shhh, she doesn't know of our existence!), "This is my, bed, and this is Patches' bed, and this is Candy's bed…"

Lurantis interrupted Malachite's train of thought to give his thoughts, "I'm seeing a lot of beds and not much else."

"Well duh! I kinda took this place from my brother when he got locked up! I haven't had time to spruce this place up!"

"Hold on, your brother got locked up?"

"Yup, he was, to put it bluntly, a terrible Pokémon, he would always steal stuff from unsuspecting Pokémon, but one day he got caught stealing from the leader of a group of thugs, I think you can guess what happened after that."

"He got roughed up so bad that he never tried stealing from anyone ever again?" Lurantis asked.

"No, they invited him into their gang or whatever, I know, sounds stupid, right?"

"Well… It kinda makes sense? I mean, maybe they admired his dedication or something?"

"Whatever their reason was, it ended up ruining his life even more."

"Well… Maybe we could try to scrape together enough money from guild work to deck this place out by the end of the day?" Lurantis suggested.

Malachite's eyes widened, "Wait… Does that mean!?"

Lurantis nodded, "Indeed, let me aid you in your future endeavors."

The little Zorua beamed a bright smile as she started to run around her empty excuse for a base, "Oh my gosh! We have our fourth member! This is so awesome!"

Patches was still on the skeptical side, however, "Really? Just like that, he's joining us? We don't even know his name yet! Let alone if we can trust him!"

"The name's Rose," The Lurantis said, "And I think you're a little too paranoid, I did help you get that Perfect Apple after all."

"That's a good point, but who's to say you won't stab us in the back later!?" Patches shouted as her disguise's head flopped over.

"Here, let me help you with that."

Rose lifted Patches' fake head and placed it back on top of her real one, "There, just fix the neck and we'll be all set."

"Thanks."

"See, you can trust me, I'm not as shady as I look."

"Yeah, I'm still gonna need a little more proof."

Rose fell onto his back, "You've gotta be kidding me!"

A few hours later…

Team Mimicry spent the next few hours knocking out jobs to get some money, once they had a sufficient amount of Poké, they hit up the local furniture store (Which may or may not have been raided by a certain Cyndaquil at some point.). With their new furniture in tow, they came home and started decking out the little hollow. Their base wasn't massive, but it was definitely better than a room at the guild, and it had enough space for everyone, so it definitely was better than nothing. Once the base had been redecorated, Team Mimicry prepared dinner, it was nothing too special, just some berries and stuff, but after dinner came dessert.

Malachite placed the Perfect Apple on the table and prepared the caramel, "Alright, let's hope it works this time."

Malachite began pouring the caramel onto the apple when Patches stopped her before she could even get in a single drop, "Shouldn't we get Specter to help us out with this? Y'know, just in case that has any effect on anything."

The Zorua thought about it for a moment, "Well, it couldn't hurt." She said as she hid her blushing face under her pitch-black fur.

Candy rolled her eyes, "Ugh, just hurry up and call your boyfriend already,"

Meanwhile…

February 7th, 8:00 pm

Team Echoes' Base - Specter's room

Coast Continent

Specter had just gotten back from Team Echoes' bizarre outing, he plopped down on his bed when his watch started vibrating, "Ugh, I just got back from sailing to the other side of the world just to sit around and do a whole lot of nothing all day. Can't I just have a moment of peace?"

Specter answered the call only to have his ears bombarded by a very enthusiastic Zorua, "Hey! My team and I got our paws on a massive apple! You wanna help us candy it?"

Surprisingly, Specter wasn't annoyed by the sudden call, "Oh, uh, sure, I'll be there in a minute, just give me a sec."

Specter hung up the call and grabbed his things, then he bolted toward the door. He skidded to a stop just before the door as he almost crashed straight into Cinder, "Oh, hey, Specter. What's got you all shaken up right now?"

"Oh, I was actually on my way over to Malachite's place, she said something about making caramel apples again."

"This late? It's 8 pm! Everyone's gonna be asleep by the time you're back!"

Specter began to slip past Cinder, "Y-yeah, sorry 'bout that, I'll be back soon!"

As Specter started climbing down the vine to leave the base, Cinder looked down at him and shouted, "You better not make a lot of noise when you get back!"

"I won't!"

February 7th, 8:13 pm

Malachite's Hideout

Coast Continent

Specter entered Malachite's hideout to see everyone gathered around the table, it was then he noticed Rose sitting at the table, "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I'm part of the team now." Rose responded, "What are you doing here?"

Patches snapped her shadowy fingers to get Rose's attention, "Um, hello, Malachite was just on the phone with him!"

"Ooooooh, so that explains why you were being so protective earlier, you're her boyfriend, gotcha, well um, hi, I'm Rose, and I'm not as shady-"

Rose was cut off by Specter punching him in the arm very lightly, "I'm just playin' with you, my ghost friend told me you were clean."

"Uh, h-how did they-"

"She checked your aura, don't ask me how that works because I have no clue."

"Forget all that!" Candy shouted, "Let's just get this over with! I wanna evolve already!"

Malachite nodded, "Alright, I'm gonna pour the caramel, just calm down, ok?"

Candy was brimming with excitement, if she had any limbs she'd probably be using them to slam her hands on the table while clasping a fork and knife. By the time the apple was ready, she looked as if she was ready to pounce on it, "It looks soooo good."

She tried to jump toward the apple, only to be quickly swatted back by one of Malachite's paws, "No you don't! You're gonna wait until it's done, you hear?"

The apple dragon sighed, "Fiiiiine… I'll wait…"

Malachite wrapped up putting all the caramel onto the apple, "Alright, now you can-"

Before Malachite could even finish her sentence, Candy jumped out of her apple and demolished the candy apple mercilessly before quickly returning to her own apple. At first, it seemed like nothing had happened, but that couldn't be further from the truth, Candy burped before glowing as bright as a star, "Woah, so that's what that feels like."

Once Candy emerged from the evolution light, she peeked out of her apple and started looking around at her new form, the apple was covered in a red syrup and had a big green stem-like thing sticking out of the top of it, and to top it all off there was a tail peeking out of the back of the apple, "Uh, whose tail is that?" She asked.

"Is it not yours?" Malachite questioned.

"Well, I can't move it, so I don't think it is? I'm not exactly-"

To the shock of just about everyone in the room, another wyrm popped out of the apple, "Sup roomie!"

Candy was baffled, "Roomie!? The hell do you mean roomie!? Where did you come from and where's your apple!?"

"This is my apple, did nobody tell you that we'd be sharing after you evolved?"

"No, all I was told was I'd evolve from eating a syrupy apple!"

"Well uh, sorry you had to find out the hard way I guess…"

Specter stared at the two wyrms utterly bewildered by this new development, "S-so there's just two of them now?"

Rose tried making sense of the situation, "Uh, yeah, that's what it looks like to me."

"Then where did the second one come from!?"

"G-good question, I have no clue."

Malachite wasn't really all too concerned about where the second wyrm came from, instead, she just walked up and gave the new wyrm a pat on the head, "Well, I don't really care about where you came from, welcome to the team."

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance, I look forward to coating our enemies in a thick layer of syrup."

Candy turned to look at her new '''''roommate'''''' "Wait, what?"

The new wyrm sprayed some syrup on Candy, as it dripped down her face it left her face looking sourer than a green apple, "Cool…"

"That's so cool!" Malachite gushed as little sparkles appeared in her eyes for the hundredth time that night.

Patches on the other hand raised a claw like a student trying to get their teacher's attention, "Uh, I have my doubts."

Both of the wyrms stared the Mimikyu down, "You wanna be next?"

Patches ducked under the table with a squeak, "Eek! This is exactly what I was afraid of! If you hit one of us, then we'll be all sticky for the rest of the day!"

"Maybe you shouldn't mess with us then!" The wyrms said in sync.

Candy looked at her new roommate with a smile on her face, "Y'know, maybe keeping you around won't be so bad."

"How about that." The other wyrm said as he flashed a cheeky smile.

"Hm… So how should we do this…? I'm thinking I stay up here, and you stay down in the apple unless we need to team up. That sound good to you?"

"Sounds good to me, I'll be down here if you need anything!"

Candy's newfound friend ducked back into the apple for the time being, he was feeling a little tired, it was starting to get late after all, and it seemed that everyone was feeling the same way as Malachite yawned, "Well, I think we should wrap this up, it is getting late after all."

Specter swung his bag back over his shoulder, "Well, I should get going, I told Cinder I'd be back."

This news was very disappointing for Malachite, "Aw… It's no biggie, we plan on throwing a party tomorrow, y'know, to celebrate Candy's evolution and everything, maybe we can have a sleepover after the party?"

"I'd be down, as long as my team's not doing anything tomorrow."

"Oh! Wait a minute! Why don't you bring your team to the party!? It'd make things much livelier, and we could get a cake for everyone to share!"

"I'll bring it up with Cinder if she's still awake." Specter paused to yawn, "But for now, I think I just wanna lie down in bed, see you all later."

"Later!" Team Mimicry echoed.

Specter stepped out of Team Mimicry's base only to be jump scared, as he came face to face with an Umbreon, "Sup kid."

Specter almost fumbled back into the little hollow he had crawled out of, "Gah! Don't you know it's rude to creep up on others like that?"

"Sorry, I just heard noise coming from in there and got a little curious."

The Umbreon backed out of Specter's face so that they were no longer within breathing distance of each other, she then asked, "So, what's got you out this late?"

"I was visiting a friend, what's with you?"

"Oh, I'm just a lonely Umbreon going on a late-night walk, nothing out of the ordinary here."

Specter shrugged, "Guess not, I mean you are an Umbreon after all."

"Say, you're an Eevee, are you planning on becoming an Umbreon too?"

"Nope, quite the contrary, actually, I want to become an Espeon."

"Then what are you doing out this late!? You should save hanging out with friends for the daylight hours!"

"It's alright, I carry an Everstone around with me so that I don't mess up my evolution, besides, this was a one-time thing, I don't usually go out late at night like this."

The Umbreon wiped the poisonous sweat off her forehead, "Phew, that's a relief, for a moment I was worried you were gonna evolve into the wrong form."

"I've got everything under control, besides, my family has enough unhappy Eevees, surely one of us has to achieve happiness right?"

"Well, for your sake, I hope so."

Specter yawned, "Well, I think that's my cue to start heading home, I'll see you later!"

"W-wait! W-why don't I walk with you? Y'know, so we can talk a little more."

Specter turned his head back toward the Umbreon, "Uh, sure, just don't expect me to be very lively, I feel like collapsing on my bed and kissing today goodbye already."

The Umbreon's light rings started glowing a little brighter as a smile grew on their muzzle, "Great! Let's go!"

The pair strolled back toward Team Echoes' base. Specter kept his eyes on the path as his head drooped, while the Umbreon focused her gaze on the waves off in the distance, "Y'know, I've been living here for a while now, but I've never really stopped to appreciate the way the moonlight reflects off the water."

Specter chuckled nervously as he tried his hardest not to slur his words as he practically sleepwalked onward, "Yeah, it's pretty neat, I love living near the beach here, if you're a fan of how the beach looks at night you should really see it during sunset, as basic as that sounds."

"I've only heard of the sunset's beauty, unfortunately, I've always been inside around sunset, I just never made it a point to stay out and watch it y'know."

"Yeah, I feel you on that, I kinda avoided watching sunsets when I moved here because I thought I was above it, I thought the sunsets were overrated and that there was no way that I'd like them like everyone else did, but I was wrong." Specter said as he lowered his head a little.

"You look… A little sad. Is something wrong?"

He closed his eyes and shook his head, "It's nothing."

The pair kept walking in silence until Specter reached his destination, "Well, this is my stop. It was nice talking with you, uh."

"Fiona." The Umbreon replied, "And thank you for walking with me."

Specter was slightly unnerved, this Umbreon's name was eerily similar to a certain aforementioned unhappy Eevee he had the misfortune of being related to, but he didn't say anything about it, it was probably just a weird coincidence after all, "Well, uh, you're welcome Fiona, I'm Cameron, but everybody calls me Specter."

"That's a little strange, why do they call you that?"

"Eh, it was just some stupid nickname I made for myself, it doesn't really go any deeper than that."

"Well, I think it's quite neat."

Specter yawned one last time, "Well, I'm gonna hit the hay, see you later, Fiona."

"See ya!"

Specter climbed back into the base and tip-toed back to his room, as he opened the door he took a peek at his watch…

February 7th, 10:30 pm

Team Echoes' Base - Specter's room

Coast Continent

"Dang, It's really late." Specter whispered to himself, "I bet everyone else is in bed by now."

Just then, Vulcan peeked out from behind Specter's crystal ball, "Sup."

Specter took a seat across from Vulcan at the table, "W-what are you doing in here?"

"Cinder asked me to keep an eye out for you when you got back, besides, if Mesprit's allowed to have a sleepover with the humans, then it's only fair I can do the same here."

"Ok, but with Mesprit it kinda makes sense, from what I've heard she's trying to become friends with the humans because she's lonely. But us? I mean, it's not that I don't like you or anything, but I don't really see much in common between the two of us."

Vulcan chuckled as he looked at the crystal ball, "You said you wanted to become an Espeon right?"

"Uh, yeah." Specter replied, "What's that got to do with anything?"

"Well, if that goes well then we'll both be psychics, I'll just be a much weaker psychic with minimal experience." Vulcan said as he winked his eye under his eyepatch.

"Wait, so you mean to tell me you're a psychic?"

"Yup, but the only thing I can really use my psychic power on is my Extrasensory attack, I don't know how to do anything else." Vulcan's head drooped down as he sighed, "But then I thought, maybe if I hang out with someone who knows about psychic powers it'll give me a bit of insight."

"Oh, well I hate to break it to you, but Midnight is an infinitely better candidate for that, heck even Joseph would be a better candidate than me, at least he knows a psychic move."

Vulcan shook his head as he pointed a digit at Specter "That's not necessarily true, you're the only one who's seen the future."

"You really believe the weird visions I saw in the crystal ball?"

"Well, you did foresee Cinder meeting back up with me, how silly could these visions be?"

Specter slumped in his seat as he held his chin in his paw, "I guess you've got a point there… So like… Are you…"

"Gonna try to use the crystal ball? Yeah, I mean, assuming you're willing to teach me how."

Specter sat back up in his seat as he sighed, "Just wave your paws around it until you see something."

"Oh, it's that simple, huh, a-alright, let's do this."

"Oh, and if the vision's a little, uh, unfavorable for a lack of a better word, then just make something up, I had to do that with Flint the other day."

"Um, alright. Let's just… Tell your fortune for right now."

Vulcan tried replicating what Specter had told him, he started waving his arms around the crystal ball without rhyme or reason until eventually, he began to see an image, "Oh, hey! I've got something."

Specter sat in silence for a moment before impatiently asking, "Well, what is it?"

"Ack! Sorry! I just kinda assumed that you could see it too! I see… You're… Stirring in bed? Are you having a nightmare? O-oh! Here's Mesprit! She seems to be helping you."

"Anything else?"

Vulcan hopped off his chair, "Nope… Well… That was interesting, I guess."

Specter followed Vulcan's lead as he too hopped off his chair, he plopped onto his bed and curled up, "Yeah… Maybe tomorrow it'll show something more significant, but for now, I think I'm gonna hit the hay, good night…"

"Good night!" The one-eyed Quilava chirped as he plopped himself onto his own bed, "It was nice spending time with you."

As the two finally drifted off for the night, one thing ran through Specter's mind, "Great… Look's like that dream's on the menu for tonight. Well, at least this time, someone's here to bail me out…"

You might be thinking, "What's that dream? What does he mean by that?" Well, that's a story for another time, sorry, but it'd definitely sour the mood of this chapter, you'll have to wait just a little longer for answers on that one, but enough about that, let's just skip to the part you've all been waiting for: cake!

February 8th, 9:12 am

Malachite's Hideout

Coast Continent

Malachite was in a rush, she was trying to decorate the base, make invitations, come up with party activities, y'know, just about every form of party planning you could think of, "Ok, invitations are done! Patches! I'm gonna need you to deliver these while I go order cake from the Batter Splatter, alright?"

The Mimikyu nodded her head, "Leave it to me! But, before I go, I have a question."

"What is it?"

"Do I really need two party hats?"

"Well, of course you do! You need one for your real head and one for the disguise!"

"You do realize having two hats makes it much harder to maintain the disguise, right?"

"I don't buy it," Malachite said as she threw a roll of streamers, "I think you're just not a fan of the party dress code."

Patches wasn't about to argue about why she didn't think two party hats were necessary, so she just grabbed all the invitations and set out to deliver them all. As she left the base, she took a look at the first invitation, "Alright, first stop, Team Echoes' base."

February 8th, 9:27 am

Team Echoes' Base

Coast Continent

Joseph woke up a bit later than usual. He still felt the pain from his punctured soul, so continuing the search for the plates was out of the question. He turned over in his bed, facing the wall, "Great, I still feel like crap, I guess today's gonna be another day of sitting around doing nothing… Yay…"

Once he got out of bed and opened his door, he was immediately met by Specter, "Sup dude? You doing alright?"

"I could be a bit better… What's up with you?"

"Nothing much, I just came here to give you this."

Specter handed Joseph an envelope containing an invitation, "Uh, thanks…"

"No problem!" Specter said with a smile, "Get well soon, dude!"

Wasting absolutely no time at all, Joseph tore open the envelope, inside he found the aforementioned invitation, "An invitation? What's going on here?"

Joseph took a closer look at the invitation…

Hey! It's me, Malachite, y'know, the one who keeps bumping into you (Literally).

Well, recently, my friend Candy evolved! And I wanted to celebrate that by throwing a party!

I plan on getting cake, cookies, candy, and all the sweet stuff! So if you're free today, why not stop by? I promise you won't regret it!

Malachite of Team Mimicry

"That sounds like a fun way to spend the day." Joseph thought aloud, "I wouldn't mind eating a bunch of sweets."

As he headed out the door, Joseph noticed none of his teammates seemed to be around, "Is everyone going to the party?"

Mesprit appeared behind Joseph, "What party?"

Joseph jumped as he turned around, "GAH! Mesprit! Don't do that!"

The lake guardian giggled, "Sorry! You're just so cute when you're scared!"

"I'm just gonna pretend you didn't just say that…"

"I'm just playing with you! You humans make for very ugly Pokémon."

"Wow, ok, I would've preferred the weird compliment instead of an outright insult."

Mesprit giggled once more, "I'm still just messing with you! Apart from your eyes and fur, you're identical to almost every other Shinx out there."

Joseph was getting pretty frustrated at this point, "Could you stop messing with me and just tell me what you want?"

The mischievous pixie grabbed the invitation from Joseph's hands, "You said something about a party? What's that all about?"

Joseph sighed as he snatched the invitation back, "It's being hosted by a mortal, you can't come, sorry."

Mesprit's tails drooped as a frown spread itself across her face, "Aw… But I wanted some cake… It's been so long since I had some…"

"Look, I'll save you a slice of cake if you agree to just stay put and stay out of trouble, alright?"

Mesprit genuinely considered taking Joseph's advice, but she decided to disregard it entirely, "Hold that thought, I've got a better idea."

In the blink of an eye, Mesprit warped away, leaving Joseph completely confused, "Oh, boy… I really hope that whatever she has planned isn't a dumb idea."

And just as suddenly as she left, Mesprit returned, this time with a smug expression, "Check this out!"

With the snap of her fingers, Mesprit disappeared in a cloud of smoke, once the smoke dissipated Mesprit was nowhere to be seen, however in her place sat an Abra, fanning its mouth as it choked on the smoke, "S-so, how do I look?"

Joseph was at a loss for words, "M-Mesprit!? Is that you!? How did you do that!?"

"Mew taught me, a-although, my transformation is much more limited than theirs. Mew can transform freely for as long as they want to, meanwhile, I'm stuck with this form, and I can only keep this up for… Maybe an hour or two? I'm not sure, I haven't tried this before."

"Doesn't this sound like a lot of effort just for a slice of cake?"

"Look, it's not just about cake, it's about experiencing a party again, it's about- uh, something else too I swear!"

Joseph shook his head and sighed, "You have no idea why you're doing this, do you?"

"W-well-"

"Do you even know what you transformed into!?"

"I-it's nothing super gross, is it!?"

Another sigh escaped Joseph's mouth, "Just, calm down and follow me."

Joseph led Mesprit into Specter's room. Much to his amazement, Mesprit had no trouble moving despite the fact she had no idea what she looked like, "Alright, the mirror's on the table, just take a peek and try not to scream."

The deity-turned-Abra took a cautious peek at the mirror, "I-I'm an Abra? I-is that why I feel so skittish all of a sudden?"

Her human-turned-Shinx companion shrugged, "Your guess is as good as mine."

Mesprit started to feel around her new face, "Gosh, is this how you humans felt when you got dragged here? I'm starting to see where Fiora was coming from when she decided she wanted to end the world."

"Are you seriously sympathizing with her? After all she's done?"

"W-well, o-only a little? I'm starting to see how uncomfortable it is to be put in a body that isn't yours, and I'm not even stuck like this! I can't imagine what that must be like!"

"Luckily for you, you'll never have to go through that. I, on the other hand, might not be as lucky if things don't turn out well."

"R-right, sorry…" Mesprit frowned as she looked back at the mirror, "Wait a sec, how can I see if my eyes are closed?"

"We're not having this discussion again!"

"Huh?" Mesprit asked as she flipped around, carelessly knocking Specter's mirror over with her tail, "O-oh! Oops!"

Joseph walked over and picked the mirror back up, after confirming it wasn't broken he placed it back on the table, "You do realize two of my friends have their eyes closed most of the time, yet they're able to see just fine."

"I kinda forgot about that, heh heh…"

The Abra finished looking at herself in the mirror, "So, shall we meet back up with your friends?"

"Yeah, you think you can teleport us there?"

"Sure, just tell me where, and I'll get us there in no time flat!"

Joseph looked back at the invitation, it didn't seem to have any sort of indication of where the party was taking place, "Uh, Malachite? Are you sure you know how invitations work?"

"Wait, she didn't forget to tell us where the party was, did she?"

Joseph flipped the invitation over to find a bit more writing on the back, the writing seemed to be someone else's entirely as not only was it in English instead of footprint runes, but it was also super stylized, looking almost like its own font.

Malachite forgot to leave directions to her place, so I included some.

Her place is under a tree, there's a little hollow that leads to a pretty roomy space. The tree's by the beach just north of town. It's fairly big, so you shouldn't miss it.

See you in a bit! - Specter

Joseph was going to read the directions to Mesprit, but she had seemingly already read them herself as she opted to grab Joseph and teleport off in an instant, leaving him no time to prepare for said teleportation.

February 8th, 9:53 am

Malachite's Hideout

Coast Continent

Joseph and MesprAbra (Which will not be a name that sticks) arrived at their destination. The former was still recovering from the abrupt teleportation, while the latter was searching for the tree hollow.

"Dude! A little warning would be nice!" Joseph shouted.

"Sorry, I couldn't help it! I'm just too excited!"

Joseph was about to enter the hollow when he realized, "Wait a sec, how are we gonna convince them you're not just some stranger?'

The psychic type stopped to think about that one for a moment before devising a master plan, "It's simple, we don't!"

"We don't?"

"Exactly, we don't. I'll just act like I teleported to the wrong place."

Joseph was still on the fence about this plan, "Ok, but what if they, I don't know, ask you to just, teleport away, or better yet, just leave?"

"You see that's the thing, I'll pretend I'm out of energy, and what's the best way to recover your energy?"

"Sleep?"

Mesprit slammed her tail on the ground as she practically squealed at Joseph, "What, no! Loading up on sweets!"

"That's got to be the dumbest thing I've ever heard." Joseph said as he practically created a crater in his face using his paw, "Your thought process is cartoon levels of stupid."

"Eh, I'm still gonna roll with it, you just waltz in there, and I'll be there in a few seconds."

Mesprit teleported away in a flash, with her gone, Joseph squeezed his way through the tree hollow to see a massive party forming. Not only was his entire team there, but there were some other notable Pokémon just hanging out too. Among the partygoers were Lanturn, Nail, Razor, Cloak, Blair, and just about everyone Team Mimicry had met around Sunset Square. It was almost overwhelming how many Pokémon actually showed up to this party, in fact, Joseph felt super awkward just waltzing in and all, that was until he was met by the man of the hour so to speak, "Joseph! What's up!" Candy and her roommate exalted.

"Candy? Is that you? Wow, you look so cool! Congrats on evolving!"

The wyrms' expressions were glowing so brightly they could light up a pitch-black room, "Thanks, bud! It's all thanks to you that I was able to make it this far, so thanks again."

"Yeah, to think all this is because I slipped on a Pokémon Trap back in that one dungeon, wow, funny how the butterfly effect works right?"

"Correctamundo friendo! Even the smallest little thing can cause an explosion!"

As if on cue, Mesprit teleported in and knocked some stuff over, making her ruse just that little bit more believable, Joseph just ignored her antics however, he had had enough of them for one day. What Joseph was interested in however was the absolutely frickin' massive cake sitting on a table in the corner of the room. The table almost looked like it was going to collapse under the weight of the cake, it was that big. Speaking of the cake, it had white and green frosting with little apple slices on it, "Oh. My. God." Joseph uttered as he stared at the cake in utter awe, "I-It's- th-that's the biggest cake I've ever seen! Where did you guys get enough money to afford this thing!?

"Oh, we uh, cleared the job board yesterday, Lanturn thanked us, but Chandelure told us to get out." Candy explained as their roommate started cutting Joseph a slice, "So, are you gonna eat some of it or are you just gonna keep gawking?"

"O-oh, right, I'll take a slice please."

Joseph received his slice of cake from the newly evolved Dipplin. With his cake in hand, he took a bite, it was apple flavored, obviously, and it was delicious! Joseph quickly scarfed down the rest of the cake, "Wow, I think that was officially the best cake I've ever had, maybe chocolate is overrated after all."

"Thanks! We picked out the flavor ourselves!" Candy's companion chirped, "Maybe we could help you pick a flavor for your evolution party! If you have one, that is."

"I'll make sure to remember to ask you, you two have good taste."

Everyone was having a great time, Razor and Cloak were watching Blair climb Stumpy as if he were a jungle gym, Basil was hitting on Arcanine (which oddly didn't entirely fail), Rory and Sammy talked about the combo moves they were planning with Cinder and Blublin, Malachite and Yumi showed off their illusions, and Patches talked about spooky ghost stuff with Midnight and Chandelure.

Everyone had a great time…

And with that, we've reached the end of this chapter, and subsequently year 1 of this fic's life, Happy Birthday PMD: The Experiment! Hopefully, there will be many more to come (If things go well, next year's cake should be lemon flavored.). I hope you all enjoyed this chapter (And this fic's first year for that matter) as it was fun for me to write. The change in perspective was very fun to develop, and I hope going forward I can find more opportunities to do similar stuff with other characters. Anyway, I'll quit rambling and get on to reviews and stuff.

To KirgizovVlad: I feel ya on that. Part of the reason I even started writing The Experiment was because I was struggling to find stories to read after being obsessed with PMD stuff for a little while. A lot of projects just never get finished, or are just stuck at the start due to the massive scope of their projects. So, uh, I kinda just sat around, bored, until I had the idea to just write something myself! And so a lot of rambling on later, and we ended up here. I'd like to close out by reiterating that I don't plan on abandoning this fic, even if stuff comes out kinda slowly going forward, I'm probably still working on new chapters, my goal is to get this thing finished. It might not be the best, but I will try my absolute hardest to make sure that it at least has an ending, even if it's the last thing I do.

And uh, the next reviewer is uh… oh… uh, apologies if I'm wrong on this, but I'm pretty sure it's a bot review, so I'm just gonna move on for now.

Anyway, on that, somewhat sour note, I'm gonna leave things off there. Next time: Things get a little spooky. See ya then!

(Also because I forgot to say this at the start, this chapter is 100% canon.)