--- Blackthorn City ---
Alexa knew what Blackthorn used to look like. She had seen a picture from when her mother was on a League from this Ice Path exit towards the city, although the stories she had heard of that time weren't really helpful here from what it looked like now. There used to be a good distance between the cavern entrance and the city itself you needed to cross, and there used to be a lot of open areas around the city where you could train or find local wild pokemon that were visible from the cave.
Those spaces outside of the city were not there anymore, and there were a lot more buildings larger than anything that had been shown in the picture. Alexa wasn't sure exactly why Blackthorn had grown so much, although it was possibly because of the Hoenn disaster, but she did find it an unpleasant discovery to see a city that now seemed to rival Goldenrod for size.
"I'm half tempted to vanish into my ball again," she admitted to the others as she felt her sparks start to be a bit more uncontrolled. William, Suicune, and Charizard were with her, and all currently part Dragon too, so they were drawing a notable amount of attention.
"I think I understand why, but please stay out at least long enough for us to figure out where we need to go," Charizard requested, but he was clearly busy looking around. "I have a feeling this could get complicated. I can see a few transformed around, but they aren't looking at us the way the locals are."
"There is a lot of Dragon themed clothing on the locals too," William growled thoughtfully as they looked at a number of humans, and a few pokemon, wearing clothes that looked like Dragon type pokemon parts. "I think we should start with finding the Gym. I also think we shouldn't have arrived with the Dragon type." Among the locals was what Alexa could only call the most jealous looking Charmeleon to ever look at her Charizard, wearing a rather nice looking Garchomp themed hoodie that was clearly older than most clothes on display.
"Water for my secondary type, to be clear," Charizard actually called out to the little char, who sighed dramatically at the clarification. "Also this one doesn't last long at all."
"None of them last long enough," the Charmeleon complained, and a little translator hidden in the hoodie repeated her words. "I don't wanna just fly, I want to do something interesting."
"And what do you think is 'interesting'?" Alexa had to ask now that they were talking with the pokemon. It was still a bit odd to see a pokemon with a translator, but the oddest part here was that Alexa couldn't see anyone with the char. Admittedly Alexa couldn't be sure the Charmeleon wasn't older than she was, but even with some clothes and a translator she didn't expect to find a regular pokemon on their own already.
"I guess swimming is okay, and I'd like to tunnel more, but it is hard to pick just one thing," the Charmeleon said gruffly. "I'm Sally, and I am not a battle pokemon." That sounded like it was something the pokemon said a lot. "Are one of you 'Alexa Larch'? Cause none of you look normal."
"Yeah, my trainer is Alexa." Charizard looked at the smaller char carefully as he pointed at Alexa. "I assume you evolved as quickly as you could?" he more quietly asked as they approached the local pokemon. "To not be a Sally-mander."
"I'm fine with being a Sally-mander, I just wanted my horn," the Charmeleon answered with an amused huff. "This is the Dragon Clan's city, you need to look the part." The statement was entirely sarcastic, or perhaps a quote from someone Sally knew. "If you are Alexa then maybe you can actually help me try to be interesting for longer?"
"I can try, but I do want to hear more about you first," Alexa specified carefully. "It looks like about half the people here probably want to try the Dragon type."
"Please don't just give out the Dragon type to anyone," Sally sighed in agreement and tugged the hoodie over her head. "If you're up for it I can probably explain the crowd. Come on, the Gym's this way, and I doubt we will find a better place to talk."
That clearly was a reaction that amused both Suicune and apparently William, but at least it was an easy way to find the Gym. Sally quickly showed them the way, clearly familiar with the place as they were led down a number of side streets full of older buildings away from the larger crowds. Admittedly not the safest place to follow a strange person, but Alexa doubted that it could be too bad of a trap for her current group without also being dangerous for them to not take the chance too.
"Right, so. First off, this is an older translator. Well, not this one, but my old one was an old one," Sally started once they were next to the Gym, where a trainer who seemed to be standing guard at the entrance clearly recognized the Charmeleon. "My parents weren't, well- They aren't both- They couldn't have kids, and I didn't want to fight. We fit together."
"Sally is the adopted daughter of two of our Clan members," one of the local Gym trainers clarified, although sounding like he was leaving something out. "We got her one of the first translators we could find so she could speak with people outside the Clan." Alexa looked at him with a bit of interest from how he worded that. "Chars are close enough to Dragon types for us to understand them too."
"It is nice to be able to talk to all humans instead of just some of them," Sally agreed with a huff. "Honestly... Honestly, if you could make me human I would like to try that, but I know that's harder."
"Sorry, I'm more about turning humans into pokemon than pokemon into humans at this point," Alexa grumbled as she really looked at the Charmeleon's clothes. They were made for the other girl, clearly custom stuff but not brand new stuff. Well cared for and used. "But I guess I can at least make you a bit more unique if you wanted."
"Sally, you're back," Leader Clair then said distractedly. "I don't suppose you found Alexa Larch on the way home?"
"I did, mom. I was just asking her about stuff," Sally then said to the Gym Leader, and Alexa felt a lot more uncomfortable about talking with the young pokemon first.
"Sally, please wait until after my Gym battle with Legendary Larch and her team for any new type changes," Clair requested with a sigh. "I'd like to avoid knowing too much about what she can or can't do until afterwards."
"She's growling," William said quietly. "Like a pokemon, I didn't know humans could pull that off that well." Which implied Clair might not be a normal human, but that wasn't actually that odd by this point.
"The Dragon Clan has always been close to Dragon pokemon," Clair answered, apparently still able to hear him. "I've heard that you have access to a few fusion relic cores, ones old enough to work without the rest of the artifact that is meant to give the gemstones that property."
"Um, well we started with one, and sort of just made some more," Alexa admitted, hoping that she was right about this being about Hydreigon Spinels. "Are they sacred or something?"
"No, they are just hard to make," Clair replied looking at Alexa with much more consideration. "They are used, at least in this Dragon Clan, as a way to bond more closely with our pokemon."
"Mom says that it isn't usually like how she 'bonds' with dad," Sally said to Clair's immediate embarrassment. "You still haven't told me what that means!"
"I'm going to assume that usually it is sibling like," Alexa said aloud to try and not think about what exactly that detail implied. "But I guess you mean there are long term side effects?"
"It is a degree of closeness," Clair said with a bit of a look at her confused daughter. "Which when used enough bleeds through some features, although only over generations of use normally. Dragon typed pokemon raised by the Clan are more human in nature, but Dragon Clan humans are more Dragon in nature as well. We are talking openly about this because it concerns your own nature, Legendary Larch." The Gym Leader looked Alexa in the eyes seriously. "You are capable of changing that sort of nature for both humans and pokemon more directly. Which means that there is now more impact on this city than we already faced from its rapid growth."
"I was going to tell them," Sally said to her mother gruffly. "Everyone wants to be like Dragons. Half the city wants to train Dragons, the other half wants to be them, and everyone wants to join the Clan."
"Sadly, the decision to house a number of refugees during the Hoenn crisis did not go well for us," Clair admitted, but nodded at Sally to let her daughter continue.
"They all showed up, and then we found nice stuff while digging out the mountain more for places to put them. So a lot of them stayed here," Sally then more happily continued, although it didn't sound like Sally was old enough to have really seen this herself. "Then we just kept getting bigger and bigger. They dug out the caves that lead here more, and now people are living in Dark Cave and I've heard that the Delibird are making a 'Snowdrop Town' in the Ice Path. So we've got even more people here, and dad doesn't like humans outside the Clan that much."
Alexa looked carefully at the rest of her group at that last detail. William was giving Leader Clair a strange look, Suicune looked far too amused, and Charizard clearly had decided to not think too hard about the implications of who Leader Clair was with. As long as they didn't face a two headed Dragon that was both of Sally's adoptive parents at once, Alexa didn't want to comment on it.
Unfortunately the grumpiest looking Dragonite Alexa had ever seen walked in and gave Alexa's group what she could only think of as a fatherly threatening look. "Clair, are we having the Legendary Gym Battle now?" the Dragon/Flying typed pokemon questioned. "I want to see what they can do." Despite the dark look he seemed happy to meet them. "And I know our daughter has been excited to see them as well."
"Dad!" Sally cried out and tugged her hoodie down tighter. "Don't say it like that!"
"I think we are ready whenever you have time," Charizard suggested, and Alexa would honestly be happy to hear they could do it today. "From the sound of things we have more time than any Gym Leader has right now."
"No, Terence, we are not ready for a Gym match against a team of Legendary pokemon today. We already have the spot filled today, and the plan is to give them a slot two days from when they told me they were ready," Clair sighed with an exasperated look at her- Alexa realized she did not know what Clair and Terence were to each other, and that she didn't know how to ask. "As much as my family wants to do it immediately, I have full slots for today and tomorrow, but if you are ready two days from now I can fit you in a slot I've been keeping somewhat open for you."
"Which has been working well," Terence admitted a bit unhappily. "It is nice having a spot for whoever shows up during the day that isn't planned ahead very far, but I want to get an actual fight. Not just standing back and playing Gym Leader. I've dealt with being a pokemon most of my life by getting to battle, not going back to human stuff."
"Okay, now I'm a bit more confused," William finally said to address the oddity going on. "You two aren't just a regular human and a regular pokemon who are together?"
"I am technically a former human," Terence answered with a sigh. "Changed when I was young into a Dratini by an artifact I mistakenly touched. A rare risk for Clan children, my father was responsible for that particular artifact and did not store it quite properly. It is meant for the purpose of helping Clan members who prefer the pokemon side of existence over the human, but I was too young for that choice at the time. Unfortunately the human change counterpart was lost some time ago."
"It's only been twenty years, Terence," the other Gym trainer present cut in. "Don't make it sound like it was ages ago, it happened like a week before. There is a reason your dad didn't stay the one in charge of those things. We're pretty sure he lost it in the Dragon's Den somewhere, and we'll only find it again when a new human comes out angry about being changed randomly."
Sally looked uneasy with that particular topic, and Alexa was half tempted to try and look for the thing if they could in the two days they apparently had before the match.
"I'm not sure it is the best suggestion, given she's the Fairy type Gym Leader, but Leader Gardevoir of the Iridescent Gym is a trinket maker," Charizard suggested carefully. "I don't know enough about that to know if it causes issues with the specifics, but it is an option."
"We have a Fairy type Gym?" Sally asked with confusion. "There aren't any Fairy types in Johto, not unless you import them. We nearly don't have any native Dragon types, and Fairy types just didn't stick without common Dragon attacks."
"We do have some Dragonair that are hoping we get it back to become trainers," Terence admitted in a bit of a defeated tone. "We might need to go to the Legendary Fairy for a new one."
"It will have to wait until we don't need every Gym Leader level trainer doing the most matches they can handle," Clair pointed out. "But you are right, especially with the new changes to the world. We had the ability to change between the two cases for a long time, and we likely will want it back sooner rather than later."
---
Sally didn't comment more about that, but did stick with them as they went over the open time slot for the Gym match. Then with her parents permission, and a request not to allow the Charmeleon to ask about changes, they left with Sally to visit a few places around the city that were noteworthy.
"So, so I'm a couple of years from being able to be a trainer," the Charmeleon admitted as she took them to a small restaurant that sold a variety of pokemon focused meals. "And I haven't decided if I want to do that yet, or if I want to be human at all."
"You don't have to be one to be the other," Charizard had to point out as it became increasingly clear that Sally was aware enough to only talk about this sort of thing where only other people in her Clan could hear, but also apparently thinking that meant she could keep it a secret from her parents. "Honestly, by next year you'd probably be more left out if you hadn't tried both with how it is going."
He looked over to Alexa for help, but the restaurant catered mostly towards Dragon typed and dragon-like pokemon tastes, and apparently from how quickly the meal was disappearing that was the stuff Alexa liked best. In fact, he was slightly worried about interrupting the Dragon/Electric pokemon.
"Yeah, would you believe that the new transformed humans are actually better about the whole Dragon Clan thing than the rest of the tourists?" Sally admitted more cheerfully. "Mom thinks they already know better what they want to be, so they aren't wondering as much about working with Dragons. Although they have made everyone else start asking more about being Dragons, but at least they aren't asking that with them."
"It has been a while since I've been home, but I think we did get a few tourists like that," William admitted thoughtfully as he picked at the food. Even as a Dragon type instead of a Dark type it appeared the Zoroark wasn't as fond of the dragon focused foods. "Who now might actually be able to become Zoroark," William added with a look over at Alexa. Who still was entirely focused on the food. "Okay, I think we might have to wait for the food to be gone before we hear anything from Alexa."
"It is good food," Suicune said carefully. "But I do not think most of us think it is that good."
"You weren't there when we went over what kind of food to buy for everyone now that we change all the time. Alexa gets this sort of stuff for herself, just nowhere near this quality," Bellossom pointed out. "Which is possibly why she's doing as well as Goodra with this place."
"I'm still listening, I'm just really happy with what they made here," Goodra commented idly. "I haven't had food this good in a while."
"I wish I could say this is the first time I've seen that sort of thing," Sally laughed with amusement shared with the staff of the place. "But it is actually pretty common for Dragon types that aren't from here. This place makes really good food, but I'm really used to it by now."
"We probably wouldn't be going here normally," Charizard had to note since Alexa was distracted. "We've only recently managed to avoid budget issues, and I can tell this place is expensive. I'm afraid we might end up with new budget problems after Alexa gets done."
"You do charge for the changes, right?" Sally then asked a bit harshly. "Because giving that stuff out isn't good business."
"It isn't about business," Alexa said before Charizard could, which probably said a lot about how strongly they both felt that it was the thing that distracted her from the food. "If someone has found us for a change, if they really want it that badly, then I don't want to charge them for it."
"Not that we wouldn't take stuff for doing it, but we want to use this to help others," Charizard tried to clarify. "We like changing, and we like helping others change if they want to try. Making it something we sell doesn't feel right."
Sally still looked like she wanted to argue, but Suicune cut her off, "They are Legendary, and when Legendary pokemon talk like that it isn't something that changes easily." The still Walking Wake shaped Beast then smirked at Alexa. "Although I personally agree, you probably should ask for something when you are approached by those wanting to change. Even just asking for a story or a reason, but it would be best to not set yourself as too casual of a source for changes. That would make you a rather chaos making Legendary."
"When you put it like that, I guess it does make sense that they don't charge for it," Chesnaught said slyly from where she was not enjoying the food as much as the rest of her team. "I know they threw my team into chaos this year, and we aren't even that bad off compared to the rest of the region."
"Chesnaught, I didn't think you thought so lowly of us," Charizard joked even if what she said was a bit harsh. Although Chesnaught apparently had been looking forward to the Dragon typed Gym, and it was possible she was just still upset about not getting a chance this League. "Even if that is probably true." He then waited for Alexa to say something about that for a moment, and looked over at her when she didn't. "Okay, that's true enough to not be enough to distract Alexa from the food."
---
[Author's Note]
This one ended up uncertain if it would be split into two or not, and that ended up with it being split here.
The name for the Ice typed town comes from ShiningDarkness on Sufficient Velocity.
