Chapter 6 They slept that night at the pokemon center, preparatory to leaving for Mount Moon and beyond in the morning. They had opened their prizes the night before. Bob had gotten an elixir, a rare medicine that restored a pokemon's attack power. Jack had taught Ice Drill to his Gyrados, and had also gotten another TM, Rock Shield, which he was saving until the right pokemon came along. David had gotten a carbos, an iron, and a protein. The day dawned bright and clear. Lauren woke up first, and had taken a small portable stove out of her backpack, and was frying bacon and eggs on it, when the three others awoke to the smell of food. "I hate morning people," David grumbled from his bed, still half asleep. Jack saw it was Lauren he was talking about. "Well I love morning people," he said. Lauren giggled and blushed. "Can we stop the syrupy stuff before I gag?" Bob asked, making a disgusted face. Lauren and Jack both fell over, then jumped up and hit Bob on the head. "Ow+ICY-" Bob said, rubbing the throbbing red lump. "Serves you right." Lauren said, sniffing. Later that day, after breakfast (and several more blows to the head), the group finally got on the way to Mount Moon. The scenery was beautiful, the ground was very hilly, leading up to mountains in the distance. It was a beautiful day, the air was fresh, the sun was shining, and everything was at peace. Well, almost everything. "Hey, give me back my backpack!" "Lauren and Jack, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-" *WHAM!* "Ow! Why do you have to keep doing that?" "Because you're an idiot! And Brock was the one who made me come along with you idiots! Except Jack." *giggle* "Oh god. Are you two going to keep at that this entire journey?" "And what's wrong what me and Lauren liking each other?" "Well+ICY-" *WHAM!* "Ow!" Ok, so nothing pivotal to the story was at peace. But it still sounded good. Actually, the Jigglypuff that came skipping out in front of the group was at peace, but not for long. Lauren gasped. "A Jigglypuff! I've always wanted one of those! Graveler, go!" The Jigglypuff took one look at the menacing visage of the rock pokemon, gave a small "jiggly!" of despair, and ran for it. "Graveler! Follow it! Don't let it get away!" Jigglypuff lead the group on a long chase, up and down hills, and finally halfway up the side of a mountain before it ran out of strength and collapsed. After that, it was easy to weaken the pokemon enough to catch it, seeing how the Jigglypuff was too worn out to even use any attacks. A few tackles and it was caught. "Yay! I caught a Jigglypuff!" Lauren shouted in glee. David sighed. "Are we going to have these little celebrations whenever we do anything of the slightest importance?" "It's starting to look like it." Bob replied. Everyone was out of breath from the epic Jigglypuff chase, so they all sat down on the grass to catch their breaths. Bob took out some food from his backpack and fed his pokemon, Jack and Lauren stared into each others eyes, and David made fake puking noises. Actually, Jack and Lauren stopped staring into each others eyes when they both got up to hit David on the head, and David stopped making puking noises when he got hit on the head, but other then that it was peaceful. They all followed Bob's lead and fed their pokemon, then watered them at a nearby stream. It was a peaceful mood, until Bob spoiled it by looking at a map, and realizing that in their headlong chase after the Jigglypuff, they had gotten themselves completely lost. "You mean you have no idea where we are?!?!?!?!" Lauren shrieked, losing it slightly. "I don't know where we are, but I'm sure we can find our way out if we just look around," Bob said, trying to comfort Lauren so she wouldn't go homicidal at him. "Listen, let's walk to the top of that hill over there, and maybe we'll be able to see something that will allow us to get our bearings." They reluctantly got to their feet, and climbed the hill. As the reached the top, they saw what appeared to a an abandoned old house. Actually, it was more like a mansion, sprawling over the entire hillside, on one side going into the rock wall of a sheer cliff, and on the other side stopping near a stream that ran down from the hill the group was standing on. "Wow!" Bob exclaimed, "I bet there's all sorts of pokemon in that mansion! Let's go explore it and see what we can catch!" Everyone was eager to catch new pokemon, so they all trooped into the old building to see what they could find. They had been wandering the old house for an hour, and had only spotted a few Pidgeys and Rattatas, and hadn't even been able to get close enough to any of those to catch them.. They were getting discouraged, until Jack heard a low growl coming from around the corner. "This pokemon is mine." He said, pulling out his pokeballs. He slowly looked around the corner to see a dog-like pokemon. He took out his pokedex. "Fire attacks+ICY- Then can I borrow your squirtle, David? This hall is too narrow for my Gyrados." David silently handed Jack a pokeball. "Squirtle, go! Use water gun!" The Growlithe, surprised by intruders into what it thought was it's secure territory, growled at the blast of water, then launched a blast of fire back at squirtle in response. Squirtle withdrew into it's shell before the attack hit, taking almost no damage from it. Squirtle then popped its head back out, then used another water gun, following it up with a tackle that took down the Growlithe. Jack threw a pokeball, which wobbled twice before stopping and going 'ding!'. "Yay! I caught Growlithe!" "Yes," Bob said to David, "I think we are going to have these celebrations whenever anything happens." They kept walking, their spirits lifted by the proof that there really were good pokemon in the mansion, until they came to a large steel door set into the cliffside. "I wonder what's behind this door+ICY-" Bob mused. "Maybe it's some rare pokemon!" With this thought to motivate him, he tugged open the door, which wasn't locked or even shut tightly. The group walked in the room that was revealed behind the steel door. It looked like a lab, with tubes, and beakers, and incubators, and pipes, and big complicated-looking machines all over, except this lab also had different pokemon strapped to tables all over the room. Some of the pokemon were badly abused, for instance, there was a Pikachu missing a leg, and a Seel with puncture wounds from needles all over its stomach. "Oh my god," Bob exclaimed. "We need to free these pokemon! It looks like they're performing some sort of experiment on them here." He immediately walked over to the nearest table and started taking the straps off the pokemon there, a Charmander. Unfortunately, when David moved to help, he kicked over a trash can that had been sitting right next to him, causing a loud clanging to go echoing around the lab. "Who's there?" Came an annoyed voice from the back of the lab. "Rhydon, go! Get rid of those intruders!" While Bob quickly finished freeing the Charmander and put it in a pokeball, a large, armored pokemon formed out of white energy at the back of the lab and charged straight for the group, smashing through the lab equipment with no regard for the consequences. The group raced back the way they had came, fleeing for their lives from the vicious Rhydon. They covering in a few minutes what had taken them hours to get through, going the other way. About three-fourths of the way back, the Rhydon's horn got stuck in a wall, but the group didn't notice and kept running, until finally they noticed they appeared to have lost the Rhydon and collapsed on the hill just outside the mansion. While all this was going on, something was happening in the lab. A slowly growing stream of chemicals was flowing closer and closer to a sparking wire that had been torn out of the machine it was supposed to go in by the Rhydon's mad charge. Some of the pokemon in the lab watched the flow with hope that they would finally be released from the torture they had to go through, some watched with dread, knowing what would happen when the sparks touched the chemicals, and some were to broken to care. The chemicals got closer and closer until- "Wait a second+ICY-" Bob said, as everyone lay panting on the hill, "Wasn't there a lot of machinery and strange chemicals that the Rhydon wrecked?" "Yeah, so?" "Well, I would think that those chemicals might be-" The lab exploded in a large fireball, destroying the mansion. Even worse, the explosion sent the chemicals in the lab showering down all around the site of the mansion, but also on the group. The sheer force of the explosion knocked everyone unconscious. About a half hour later, when everyone woke up, they realized Bob was yelling something at them. "Wa--- ---- ----" "What?!?" Everyone's ears were stunned by the blast. "---- Of- -------" "WHAT?!!?!?!?!" Everyone else screamed back at Bob. "I SAID, WASH OFF THE CHEMICALS QUICK!!!" Bob finally screamed at the top of his lungs, then demonstrated by jumping in the stream and splashing around to get himself clean. Everyone else jumped in too, and the water ran strange colors for a few moments while they scrubbed the chemicals off their bodies. After everyone had some time to get their hearing fully back, Bob talked to them all. "I don't know what effect those chemicals might have had, and I don't know how long we were unconscious, so we'll just have to watch for any side effects of or exposure to these chemicals. Hopefully there will be nothing life-threatening, but you never know. One thing we can tell however, is that it's almost nighttime, so we should probably find a good place to set up camp." They hiked away from the ashes of the mansion first, just in case anyone came along to investigate the explosion, but then they set up camp near a stream a few miles away. Chapter 7 They all had strange dreams that night. Jack dreamed of flying, of soaring through the air. Bob dreamed of lightning, controlling it, calling it into being, bring it down from the clouds or bringing it from himself, having it crackle along his body. David Dreamed of changing, being himself, then being smaller and different, and then changing, and evolving. Lauren dreamed of having many limbs, each completely flexible, with no bones to worry about in them, and flailing them around. If there had been anyone watch the group of four tents that night, clustered around the embers of a dying fire, they would have wondered at what they saw. From one tent came occasional flashes of light, illuminating the tent. From another came sounds of flapping, but not like bird's wings. From the third could be seen a constantly changing sillouhet, shifting from one from to another and then back again, and then in the fourth you could see images of what looked like many tentacles waving in the air. By some odd coincidence, the next morning everyone woke up at the same time, and came out of their tents at the same instant. They all jumped backwards in startlement at what they saw, except for Jack, who instead jumped ten feet into the air and hovered there. Everyone's appearance had changed some over the night, so to speak. Lauren's hair had turned blue, and was thrashing around in surprise, while several vines had extended from her back in her surprised, and kept her from falling when she had jumped backwards. But she wasn't the only one who had changed. Over the night, Jack had grown a pair of Butterfree wings, which he was currently using to keep himself in the air. His hair had also turned purple, he had grown a pair of antennae, and his eyes had turned red, like a Butterfree's. Bob's hair had turned bright yellow, with a few brown stripes in it, and had two Pikachu ears poking out of it. and bright red spots had appeared, one on each of his cheeks. Also, if you looked closely you could see what looked like a large Pikachu tail sticking out of the back of his pants. David, at first glance, appeared to have changed the least of the four. His hair had turned brown, he had grown Eevee ears, and you could see a small tuft of brown fur sticking out of the back of his pants. "Well Bob," Jack said from his lofty position, "Were these the kind of side effects you were thinking of?" "Not exactly. I was actually thinking more of people dying from toxic chemicals, but I don't think that's going to happen." David, who had been silent this entire time, burst out "Oh my god, we're all freaks!" and started whimpering. "Hey, he's getting shorter." Jack noticed. "And he's growing more hair." Bob pointed out. David shrunk and shrunk, until finally there was just a lump in his clothes. Then the lump moved, and a brown-haired face poked out. "Eevee!" He said. Jack flew into his tent and grabbed his pokedex, then came out and pointed it at the pokemon. "Well, that explains-" <*Beep* Scanning+ICY- This Eevee has a more unstable genetic code then usual. It may unexpectedly change shape between Eevee shape and evolutions, and evolutions will probably be temporary. May also evolve if exposed to large enough quantities of elemental energy.> "Ok, that explains why David just changed into an Eevee. Unstable genetic code." Jack was moving to put away his pokedex, when he accidentally pointed it at Bob for a moment. <*Beep* Pikachu, an electric rodent pokemon. When several of these pokemon get together, they can cause electric storms.> "Wow," Bob said, "Looks like we're all pokemon-human hybrids now. See what everyone else is." "I think it's pretty obvious I'm a Butterfree, but I'll check." Jack pointed the pokedex at Lauren, who was petting David. She looked up at the sound of the beep. "You know, he's not as obnoxious when he's a pokemon," She pointed out. "So I'm part Tangela. So what?" Lauren asked, her hair writhing. "Well, looking at what your hair is doing now, it may mean that if you concentrate, you'll never need to brush it again." "Cool!" David, still an Eevee, jumped off Lauren's lap and walked into his tent. Some noises came out of the tent, and then David, the person, walked out. "That+ICY- was strange." He commented. "So why exactly did I turn into an Eevee?" "Well," Bob said, looking up from his pokedex, which he had been fiddling with, "I would guess that since you were feeling a very strong emotion just then, the endorphins coursing through your system must have upset your genetic balance, causing your body to become confused and change into an Eevee. Probably any strong emotion will have the same effect. You could also probably change if you concentrated really hard on changing." "Great. So if I really feel about something, I change into an Eevee. Great." "You can also change if you try really hard." Jack interjected, smiling. "Oh shut up!" David tried to hit Jack, but Jack flew up out of his reach and hovered there, wings beating. "You just got lucky." David mumbled, "Changing into a butterfree." "Stop fighting you two!" Bob said, thunder shocking them both into submission. David and Jack fell near each other and lay there, groaning, fried to a crisp. "That's better." He said, dusting off his hands, even though the electricity came from his cheeks. A few minutes later, after David and Jack had recovered from the thunder shock, Jack pointed out how the group could find their way out of the mountains if Jack flew up and directed them, because he could see much farther from up in the air. Everyone was enthusiastic while packing up their stuff for transportation, until Lauren noticed one important thing. "Umm+ICY-. Guys? Shouldn't we wait to return to civilization until after we've figured out a way to hide our pokemon characteristics?" She pointed out, staring pointedly at Bob and David's tails and ears, Jack's wings and antennae, and Bob's electricity glands. Everyone fell over. "Oh. I can see where that would be a problem." Jack agreed. "The sooner we figure out ways to disguise ourselves, the sooner we can leave." Everyone burst into action. David pulled out a hat and stuck it on, hiding his ears, and shoved his tail under his shirt. Lauren pulled out a mirror and concentrated on her hair until it shifted into the shape she wanted and stayed there. Bob also pulled out a hat at put it on, hiding his ears and hair, then tucked his tail under his shirt. He wasn't sure what to do about his electricity glands, (it wasn't like he could wear a hat on his cheeks, and the red spots were very noticeable), until Lauren caught sight of his predicament. She rummaged in her backpack for a moment, then pulled out a jar. "Here," she said, handing it to Bob, "Try this." Bob opened the jar. It was full of what appeared to be a whitish paste. "What's this?" He stuck a finger in the paste and swirled it around. "It's makeup. Developed by Silph Co." (They make everything.) "You apply it, and it turns the color of the skin it is put on, hiding anything under it completely. Try it!" Bob doubtfully took his finger out and stared at the white goo on it, then rubbed it on one of the red spots on his cheeks. "Ahh!" "What? Why'd you yell?" "That stuff felt really weird! It's cold, and it shocked me or something!" "Oh, that was just it adjusting to fit your skin color. Look!" Lauren held up her mirror, and it was true. Where Bob had rubbed on the paste, you couldn't tell that his skin was actually red under it, or that the paste was there at all. "The only problem is that this stuff can't resist electricity, so if you use any electric attacks, it will melt off." Bob grinned. "If I use an electric attack, I doubt anyone will care if I have this goo melting off my face or not." "You have a point there." David, who had been listening in on the whole discussion, commented. Meanwhile, Jack had been sitting on his pack and trying to figure out how he could disguise himself. He had also put a hat on, to disguise his antennae, and had curled his wings in as tightly as they would go, but with his red eyes and wings it was still obvious that there was something strange about him. He had been going over in his mind everything he knew about Butterfree, trying to think of something that would help. Suddenly he snapped his fingers. "That's it!" He exclaimed. "What?" David asked. "How I'll be able to disguise myself!" David looked critically at Jack. "Have you gone insane? The only way to disguise your red eyes is to maybe wear thick sunglasses, but even with your wings folded up as tightly as they are now, they will still make a gigantic lump under a shirt, or be very conspicuous out of one." Jack looked smug. "Just wait and see." (Sound familiar?) He concentrated, then started to glow. The glow attracted the attention of Lauren and Bob, and they came over to watch. "What's happening to Jack?" Bob asked David. "It looks like he's evolving or something." "I don't know." David responded. "He just was acting smug, told me to watch, that he figured out how to disguise himself, and then started to glow. For all I know he could be evolving." "But what would a Butterfree evolve into?" Lauren wondered aloud. While this discussion was going on, Jack's form had started to shift. His wings disappeared, his eyes turned back to normal, his antennae disappeared, but his hair stayed purple. "Taa-daa!" he went. "My disguise!" "Where did your wings go? How did you do that?" Bob asked. "Well, you know that Butterfree is part psychic, right?" "Yeah, so?" "So I'm part psychic, right?" "Yeah, so?" "So feel my back." Lauren rubbed her hand along Jack's back, or she would have, except her hand ran into some obstacle. "What's this?" she asked. "It's my wings." Jack replied. Seeing how I'm part psychic, I'm able to create the illusion that I have no odd characteristics. The only problem is, if I want to battle, I think I'll have to let go the illusion so that I can concentrate on battling." "Then why did you keep the purple hair?" David asked, puzzled. "Is it because your powers aren't strong enough to change it? You can't affect things that are purple? It goes against some psychic rule to change it?" David was really getting carried away in a flight of fancy. "It's some conspiracy, and if you use too much power, they will find and attack you?" "No, not any of those." Jack replied. "I just like the color." David fell over. Jack then pulled out a hat and put it on. "This will make the group nicely coordinated. All the males wearing hats." "Well, now that we have our disguises, why don't we get going to Mount Moon. Jack, go find the path please." She smiled brightly at Jack. Jack unfurled his wings and took off. About ten feet up, he shimmered and appeared to become a butterfree. "Show off." David muttered, annoyed at Jack having psychic powers, while he was just an Eevee. Lauren slammed David on the head. "We've only been part pokemon for what, half a day, and already you're becoming jealous of not turning into a different pokemon?!?" Bob chuckled, then contributed "Hey David, look on the bright side. You could always have changed into a Nidoran female instead of an Eevee." Several hours later, they trudged out of the hills near Mount Moon, tired and dirty. When they caught sight of the pokemon center, they all cheered, then ran for it. "I'm gonna get something to eat!" "I'm gonna take a shower!" "I'm going to sleep!" "Eevee!" Everyone stopped and stared at David. "Sorry." He blushed. "I got carried away." "If you do that around other people, you might get us in trouble. Work on it." Once they got inside, they dropped their pokemon off with Nurse Joy, and then rushed for the bedrooms to drop their stuff off. Because the pokecenter wasn't in a town, it was almost like a shopping mall. It had stores and restaurants scattered around the building. Bob spotted an all-you can-eat and went to stuff his face, Lauren peeled off when she spotted the showers, and David and Jack went to sleep. Late that night, Lauren snuck into the room the group was sharing. This pokecenter was arranged with several rooms, each with four bunks in them, and the group had just claimed one room instead of getting one each, and possibly having to sleep in the same room as strangers, if more people came in. Lauren paused for a minute before going to bed, to gaze at Jack. She gazed contemplatively at his face, his arms, his wings+ICY- Wait a second, his wings? She shook Jack awake. "Your wings are showing," she said. Jack slowly open his eyes to the sight of Lauren. "Whazza?" he mumbled intelligently. "What's going on?" Lauren pointed. "Your wings are showing." She said, simply. Jack looked back, and noticed that his wings were visible. In the day, when He was concentrating, he hid them even from himself. But now, anyone walking in could have seen them. "I'll have to work on hiding them while I'm asleep," he said, concentrating, as his wings blurred out of sight once more. "Good night.