--- Dark Cave Transit ---
It had taken Sally's help, but Alexa finally had a name for her new Dragon/Electric form. Admittedly a new one as they couldn't find any prior cases of the new Dragon/Electric pokemon, but it now had been registered as the "Crackleling". Which Alexa thought was a bit silly sounding, but Sally had liked the shape a lot after getting a chance to try it with Suicune's human change pendant, so it felt right to have the Charmeleon choose its name. Although the plan wasn't to turn the Charmeleon human long term to just be that.
"I'm impressed with how fast you got a new one of those made," William pointed out as Sally put on the first attempt to make a transformation hoodie, a rather nice looking Crackleling one with little gemstones sewn onto the ends of the fabric spikes. It was impressive looking even without the fact that it was made for a species less than a month old. William had been the one to suggest they start with a brand new one that could be more comfortably lost if something went wrong, but Alexa would still be a bit upset if such a nice new one was ruined.
"I have a cousin who likes making these for me," Sally replied while the Charmeleon's parents just sort of stood at the edge of the room they were trying this in. "He saw Alexa when she came into town and started on it then. I don't like all the pokemon he's made for me, but he's really good at making them." The pokemon paused for a moment to think and to inspect the floppy fabric spikes. "If this works, I will probably want to try it for the ones I don't like too. They aren't that bad of pokemon that I wouldn't want to at least try being them."
"It should just take tugging the hood down, and well pulling it back up again," Alexa explained the rather tricky thing Suicune had walked her entire team through doing to the fabric. "I mean, the hoodie won't really be there after you change, but it should work about the same."
Sally followed that instruction, and as the hood went over the Charmeleon's face her entire body morphed into the same Crackleling shape they had seen Sally become a bit earlier. Then before anyone could comment Sally made another movement to tug at the front of her face and shifted back into a Charmeleon wearing a Crackleling hoodie. "How quick can you do that to the rest?" Sally asked quickly before tugging it back on again.
---
"We probably couldn't do that for someone other than Sally," Alexa noted, with her entire team out, as they took some time in the Pokemon Center they were staying at to plan their next moves.
"No, which is why I wanted you to try it with her," Suicune confirmed, once again going for the Walking Wake form. "It is important to know where your limits are, and part of that is knowing what kind of thing pushes you past where they normally sit. You did that to a degree before with the Miltank issue, and have been testing it with Gatpotear changes, but I could tell that Sally was the sort of situation where you could do something unique because of her own nature. Something you might not try if you stuck with just what you can do normally."
"So it is good practice, even if that took all of us working on Sally's whole wardrobe for a whole day," Bellossom summarized, then flopped onto her belly. "Can we not do that again for a while? I like knowing about the options with people who have a big connection or whatever, but we still have to get ready for the League."
"I don't think we are sticking around here," Charizard said bluntly. "Alexa was having enough trouble with locals crowding her before we gave the local talking pokemon the ability to change forms." Which was a nice way to say she had not been through Blackthorn outside of a pokeball since the first day.
"Usually I head back to the first Gym I did in a region," William offered as he looked over the local map. "Admittedly in Kalos that was because they were the person who got me started off during my first League, but going back to where you began in a region can help tie things together pretty well. Although we probably aren't getting a chance to try again with an extra eight Badge challenge like I normally do."
"Huh, have you won a Tournament before?" Alexa asked as she considered that idea. The other end of Dark Cave wasn't too far from Blackthorn, and a part of her did like the idea of checking out how that Gym made out this year. It was the Gym using type changes as part of the challenge, and the only one she went against before becoming a pokemon for the first time. "That sounds like a big thing to try every time."
"I think the first time was just to make sure that I was still going to stay a trainer to be honest," William admitted wistfully. "My first League was obviously my worst one, and it was a nice battle to remind me how far I got."
"I like the idea," Charizard said in response to that. "Leader Douglas was using Soak, and maybe other changes too. We should check how he managed, and maybe show him how far we took the idea. Not to mention we can head through Dark Cave this time."
"So, would we stop in the same spots?" Herman asked with interest. "I think we can probably find the place where Alexa turned into a Mephagic the first time again."
That gave Alexa a strange feeling to think about, but it did appeal as well. "I think I'd like to see that lake I tried swimming in as a Lobasalt for the first time again," she admitted. "I have more forms that would like to try there now."
---
Training for the League Tournament was different from training for a Gym match in a number of ways that made it easier for her team. The advice Alexa had received from both her parents before the Kanto League was that the average trainer in the tournament would be weaker than the eighth Badge challenge team you faced, but mostly as a joke that you were also weaker than that team when you entered the tournament. Gym Leaders had a known style and composition, which meant you knew ahead of time what they could do, and could maximize your ability to face them.
Tournament trainers on the other hand both didn't have fixed teams, and also needed to deal with their opponents not having fixed teams too. You could try and just power through any challenge with the strategies that worked for you best, but that meant you weren't as adaptable if something countered those strategies, and you could have issues with later rounds once people knew what you were doing. For trainers with more than six pokemon it could also need a degree of luck and skill for picking who to use when. The televised bracket was a place Alexa had not reached, but it was also the first time you could know who you were against well enough to strategize again. With the downside that you could only know as much as any trainer had shown off in matches you had been able to catch or hear about.
With that in mind, Alexa's team was working on what options worked best for each of them against a variety of possible targets as they went to the entrance to Dark Cave. The type changes and tactics that worked best for each of her pokemon, and how to do them as quickly and effectively as possible.
Charizard was sticking with a mix of his natural type and the optional Water type variations he liked. Her Starter seemed to be moving towards just raw power with changes of his own types if needed only, and to change opponents when it was the most surprising. Soak and Chitin Powder were the main things he wanted to work with so far as attacks.
Kingler was similarly working mostly on just her base Dragon/Water form, with Soak and Dragon Contagion moves as what Kingler liked the most to use against others. Fire and Steel typed changes for herself were something Kingler had suggested trying, but they had not really focused on those yet.
Bellossom wanted to stick with Grass/Electric and Fire/Electric types as what she was, with a main plan of making her opponents Grass typed to exploit the Fire type's strength against them. Although Bellossom was considering trying some new forms to add to the options they had.
Herman was currently going for the idea of continuing with the Flying type for the rest of the League, as he had enough practice now for it to be worthwhile and it was one they couldn't easily change into during a battle. What type he would use with Flying was more of an open question though.
"I think we're on the right track," Alexa told Rhydon as they worked together on her final pokemon's plan for the League, to freely change types at will. She was trying while Spectslurry shaped for the moment, although that didn't seem to help much with the slight tension that attempting caused for a while after each try. "That is sort of how we make the Contagions, so if we can just apply it to ourselves we might be able to use that to shift to any Contagion types and forms." She had been through most of those so far, and wanted Ground/Ghost for the trip through the caves.
"I'd like to have more than just the Contagions, but it is a place to start," Rhydon happily agreed with a look over at where William was talking with some of the locals. They had spotted the entrance to Dark Cave just a short time ago, and it was unlikely that they would be able to continue training for a bit while inside the town part of the cave. Now it seemed that something was going on.
"We have a situation ahead," Chesnaught told them in the pause Rhydon gave William's Starter. "Ignatius and Craig are here, apparently dealing with the largest group of Lobasalt in the region while they get ready for their own trip to the League. The guy we met here apparently is a Vipercury, they have a good number of those too."
"Alexa, did we make any notes about which jars of Contagion we sold here?" Charizard sensibly asked.
"We were too busy dealing with Alexa barely staying human for a day," Bellossom answered him. "I don't think any of us were really thinking about that when she was going straight to Vespikiln for the first time."
"Also we were almost out of money from the new tent," Alexa reminded him unhappily with a bit of a twist to float in the air and see ahead of them better. "I think I was hoping to get more actually, we might have sold a bit of everything. Did they mention any Mephagic?"
"I didn't hear about any frog people, but it does sound like the Vipercury and Lobasalt have been here a while," Chesnaught pointed out. "It doesn't sound like Ignatius and Craig had problems with their ideas for Lobasalt. Honestly, the problem might be the other way around. A fair sized town that is now full of Lobasalt and other former human pokemon that like their ideas."
"We need to see this," Alexa admitted as she spotted a few curious and uncomfortably young looking Vipercury. "Because those are kids, and I don't know if these guys have had something like Contagion Cure very long." The idea that she might have accidentally gotten some kids transformed without a way back was terrible, and her team clearly agreed as they hurried to catch up.
Then proceeded to get piled onto by a collection of very eager young children who had a lot to say about how their new pokemon forms were awesome and cool, and asked if there were any more they could try to see what kind of Starter they could end up.
---
"It took coming home to find out my family had joined in before I was even changed," Craig admitted to them as they moved through the tunnels. "The Lobasalt around home are happy to have Contagion Cure now, a couple of them were unhappy with needing to use pokeballs for a week to turn back. Although I'm just happy they figured out that method early on so they at least had something."
Alexa found they had underestimated how many transformed humans were present. "I'm not sure I see too many humans here right now," she said instead of the less kind response. Which was that there were only three human shaped people visible, and she was fairly sure two of those were Kanto Zoroark. She had seen almost every pokemon form she had encountered so far.
"They've mostly worked out which specific pokemon form they want to be at this point," Ignatius explained a bit awkwardly. "But I'll admit the two of us have mostly been trying to get everyone calmed down a bit. It doesn't help that there is a new pokemon-started town on the other side of Blackthorn. Now the locals think it is perfectly fine to be mostly pokemon."
"How did you get the other Spectslurry?" William asked with uncertainty.
"It turns out we have a Spectslurry who lives in town," Craig started to answer, then cringed as someone approached them.
"So, this is the trainer who is spreading around Heart Clay like-" an older Spectslurry started to complain at her, but halted as Alexa turned around to face him. "Ah, I mean it is something I have concerns about, Powerful Legendary. The clay that creates my kind from still living humans was not typically shared."
"You knew that it worked like that already?" Alexa had to ask with interest.
"We knew that... immersing someone into the Heart Clay that you sleep within has a chance of making another Spectslurry. One that could be restored to humanity with a lot of effort," the other Ground/Ghost carefully specified, and clearly implied a darker activity. "Admittedly we did not realize it was just the clay that caused that, but we also didn't really think it could be that simple of a thing. I died to become like this, and only learned of how that could happen at all from a meeting with an older Spectslurry."
"So, you tried the ways to change back to human already?" Alexa asked, although she didn't really want to test if she could force that particular change in this case. Although he apparently heard her implied details too as that made him float backwards a fair distance. "I would think you would need to explain why it didn't work on you at least once."
"I suppose Craig did splash me with Contagion Cure because I was unclear about how I was changed," the Spectslurry admitted more calmly. Then Craig looked very worried when Alexa turned to glare at him. "No, don't worry, I worded things very badly. I wanted him thinking I was changed by accident, and didn't realize he could fix that easily." Then the older pokemon started to look a bit worried as well. "Not that I actually mind my species, I do not want to try another like half the town."
"Its more than half from what I can see," Charizard pointed out with a grumble.
"Oh no, the other half of the pokemon-humans here are visitors trying to work out how to be pokemon-humans," the other Spectslurry said with a bit of a glare at Ignatius and Craig. "We are having something of a convention at the moment."
"Oh? So we might be able to talk with the Kanto Zoroark as a group here then?" William asked thoughtfully, and Alexa smiled at that idea.
"Yeah, I have some concerns about them in particular," Alexa said with an agreeing grumble from Charizard that seemed to really worry the two Lobasalt and the Spectslurry. Actually a few of the visible Zoroark seemed to become worried even though they probably were too far away to hear her.
---
Alexa was quite sure this wasn't going the way she liked, but not for the reason she expected. Every conversation she had so far had been slightly stilted, every human turned pokemon, and pokemon who was really close to their former human, clearly knew she was Legendary, and that this was a Legendary laying down what they wanted.
Alexa was also quite sure she didn't like having her status be an open secret, and even more sure she didn't like the consequences of that open secret on the people she wanted to keep from going too far, but she needed to keep them from going too far. It was her "domain" as so many other Legendary pokemon were calling it. These people were doing this because she let them, and that mattered more than just because she didn't want to be the cause of a disaster.
They wanted to still be human, but they also wanted to have their own pokemon habits, and they wanted to be something special. Not always all at once, there were a couple who did think all three of those were compatible, but mostly just one thing or another they wanted. Most of them had not said their personal feelings to the other groups, and Alexa had ended up mostly just getting the various groups to talk to each other and actually confront those issues.
And maybe explain to Alexa why they thought each of their specific ideas were good ideas, because she felt a bit invested by this point, and some of those ideas were strange enough to need a bit of work. Like the people who had also had the idea of "we should make underwater towns", but didn't actually know what those would look like or how they would work for people who couldn't deal with being underwater.
"This is not a project we can handle before the tournament," Charizard quietly told her as the meeting they attended ended. "I think we helped a bit here, but if we need to deal with this now, then we probably can't go to the League."
"I'm fairly sure this is a problem that can wait for the tournament to be over with," William countered tiredly. "Those Zoroark are Zoroark enough for my standards," he then complained. "This has just been a year of meeting former humans who have done more pokemon things than me."
"I think it is safe to move on for now," Alexa agreed with the general idea from both of them. "We got them thinking, and they know I really care about this now." Even if she wasn't sure she liked how much that mattered to everyone more than the thinking part. "It's a start for when I have to try and fix this properly some time after the League."
"It is good to consider that a 'when' rather than an 'if'," Suicune agreed with her wording as they made their way towards where they were staying the night. "I might need to talk with father about how far this has gone myself after the League too. This might become a project for all of the region's Legendary pokemon, and we likely will want to work with the League on that."
---
Traveling through the caves let them listen to the pokemon side of the changes a bit. Unlike Ice Path, the local pokemon of Dark Cave were much more annoyed by the new presence of translators and talking pokemon, but they were also used to the main path being an actual Route by this point so most were just complaining about not having gone deeper into the caves to avoid the issues.
It turned out that it was a place where Alexa could work with her team on faster changes mid-battle. Along with how to handle those herself without getting an extra layer on whatever form she was using. That was a tricky enough aspect to the training that Alexa was getting more success with trying to shift types at will than with not splashing herself when they moved quickly enough to matter in a high end fight. The little spheres she had purchased near the start of the League that had kicked off this whole thing would be better, if they were allowed.
Instead she had a few of those still full of the first Toxin Contagion that changed her into a Mephagic the first time, and a whole lot of empty ones that were just sitting in the bag doing nothing because they weren't fighting wild pokemon enough to justify having them on hand.
"You still have those things?" Charizard asked as she took them out of the bag while sorting through it.
"I haven't gotten rid of them yet, and it is probably not safe to get rid of the ones I filled," Alexa admitted as she counted out the filled ones, and found that there were a few she had put Magma and Mercury Contagions into. "Which looks like at least half of them." They were at the other end of the Dark Cave now, back at the stores that she had gone into in a rush to get her tent, and Alexa had decided on Vespikiln for the day because of that.
"The local tent shop is where you got your tent, right?" William asked them carefully as he returned from a check to see who could remember buying Contagions from her. Alexa nodded at that with a cringe that possibly worked with mandibles. "Because they aren't outright saying you bought one from them, but they are using a bunch of different forms to advertise their tents as being great for the side effects of getting a pokemon form."
"Is that a problem?" Alexa half heartedly questions after a moment to try and work out why it obviously was one to William.
"The local tent shop is full of workers who clearly are just in pokemon form for their job," Suicune clarified, in human form to help with checking places for details. "Also, nobody is talking about what you may or may not have sold, they got those materials perfectly normally and don't know why someone so important would have just casually sold them some."
"I don't think there is any problem with having a form just for a job," Charizard pointed out as Alexa found that she didn't really have a strong feeling about that idea either. "If they are stuck like that then it is an issue, but I've seen someone use Contagion Cure just a minute ago, and it sounds like most people here have a pokeball by this point." Her Starter then laughed. "Actually, you probably won't find a better place you can get rid of those spheres." Then more seriously added, "I hope. I'm not sure I want to see a better one."
---
[Author's Note]
Here we begin the likely short revisit of the start of the region before the League. Also some more Legendary antics to show how that side of the story has developed.
... it has reached the point where the number of people who know Alexa is a Legendary is much larger than the number who will admit that in public.
