Little Leavanny In The Big City [Pokémon, Reincarnation/Light SI]

Chapter 32 - Red Light
~~~ Ch. 32 - Red Light ~~~​

The last few days have been a shock for us all. I am with you on that. I have been looking for all I have achieved. It was all nearly entirely unwound in less than a few hours. Our entire efforts for a better Unova, a better world. It would have been gone in mere moments. I sound like a broken record by now, but search your heart. See how precarious our position is, and we use it to do what—perpetuate a cycle of violence and isolation from our neighbors? A weight has fallen upon our shoulders. It is a call to do better. And we must do better. But that does not mean we are demanded to be perfect. To be stronger, to improve, it does not mean perfection.

We all have our doubts. Even me. Every morning, when I get up, I look in front of me. I do an evaluation. Who am I? What are my goals? I review the tasks that we must complete in order to achieve them. I review the work we have to do. I feel like an imposter. I feel like a liar. I take a breath. I feel as though it could all come crashing down, and we lose all we've built and worked for. I recenter myself in a moment of quiet motivation. I am reminded, every morning, of all of you who have chosen to stand by me, as we work for a more fair Unova. Do not let your inner voice beat you from realizing true freedom. Do not be afraid of letting others know who you are— together, we will fight for pokemon. We must treat them better, we will be a better example. And we must not hide from the rest of the world.

To all of you who feel alone, or weak, or like you will be abandoned by friends and family for taking this higher road, I want to have a few words with you. You are not alone! And you are not crazy! Our society has been crafted this way, and to see the flaws and seek to improve them is natural. You are not alone in this! Along the way, you may or possibly do have doubts in your chosen path. None of you are truly isolated in this journey, though you may occasionally feel so, especially during times of tragedy like these. We will learn from these experiences.

I have learned from these experiences. Over the coming weeks and months, I will be retreating from my participation in Unova's business world and focusing my efforts on helping Unova improve. We will improve Unova. We will show the world a better path. We will demand better from our neighbors in return.

I am not alone.

You are not alone.

You will not be alone.

Join our cause and show the hurting pokemon of the world that they are not alone.

Be a part of the change that shows the world there is a better way.

We will end the circle of endless violence.


- Ghetsis, via FREEDOM RADIO

~~~​

I cut through the air, jumping up, into the tree's branches, hooking my arm into the nearest tree-limb on the down swing, kicking my leg again, using the downward momentum and my hook on my upper branch to swing my legs up and around, straddling the branch limb. A slapping noise erupted from below, the sharp vibrations echoing from near where Lanky and Leaf had been, the echo and reverberations of each slap quickly muted by the litany of indoor trees. The slapping noise approached, then quieted.

I grabbed a couple leaves off the branches. Lanky and Oust both stared up at me. Wasn't about to redo the terrible patch-job on my left arm-blade, but I hadn't necessarily finished patching what remained, either. I was up, at approximately twice Lanky's height, and he was tall, generally a couple inches taller than most. I was a good height above the tree limb for the hammock we'd not finished. Lanky watching, I clicked my tongue in satisfaction, dropping down to the ground, my skirt first acting as a parachute, then flying up under the force of the air. Unfortunately, I wasn't as used to shoes as I'd thought— landing, I hit them off-center, rolling and falling into the thick clay-dirt of the gym floor.

Oust and Leaf had both watched, a saccharine scent rolling off of them at my quick, theatrical display. Standing, Lanky picked me up, putting pressure on the little appendages near where I'd taken my boots off. I approached my bowl next to his, Leaf's smell was tinged with a soft, yet confused, lemony tone. Lanky's metallic scent, by comparison, was strongly reinforced and strongly emanating. It's not as if human smells are the same as bug-scents. They're not. But they are different enough from bugs that I can tell.

Feeding Oust some more veggies and fruits, I finished off the bowl of veggies in moments. Lanky turned off the gym lights. Holding Oust, I climbed into the tree. Leaf's scent oscillated unpleasantly between sweet and a kind of unsure biting citrus. Oust held close to me, I laid down in the tree, above Lanky. Leaf climbed our tree, paused, stared at me. I stared back at him. He continued his pause. I reached my antennae out, tapping his in a soft, mutual dance. That citrine scent undergirded him. He was nervous. Quite nervous.

I gave him a couple distinct taps, in an attempt to reassure. Knowing it wouldn't work, I allowed him to climb and share the branch next to us. Despite his anxiety, his own state muted, entering into torpor. I turned my face back down, facing the floor directly, my eyes peeking over the edge of the branches. Oust in my arms, the kid had turned a grayish purple, a body of goop. I hummed, ever so slightly, in amusement. Lanky put away his tablet, all the lights which were not from the skylights gone, I laid on the branch, playing with the goop in my arms.

Oust continued shifting, returning to their primary form, turning into a patch of dark grey fur with red highlights, growing legs, but staying the same size and mass, a distorted goopy mass of fur. Holding them out while I lay down on the branch, a pair of eyes poked out of their gelatinous, fuzzy mass, no mouth or nose, before disappearing again.

That's not what they wanted, kid.

Lanky rustled, a sweaty, yet soft saccharine of anticipation diffusing into the air. Still laying down, I pulled Oust back up to our spot, causing the branch to wobble. Sleeping was something that just wasn't going to happen, and Lanky, rolling over, seemed to agree.

If you do this, there really is no going back. They're not dumb.

Oust in one arm, I climbed down the tree, avoiding the noise for the silent, anxious, sleeping leavanny. Lanky watching, I skipped to the swing I'd made for Oust, picking up the leaf-sash I'd made for him, the light of my purple shoes lightly reflecting the light that came through the windows in the ceiling of the gym.

Doesn't mean he'll tell anyone. And even if he does, what of it?

I was pulled from Lanky, by individuals in black suits, Oust was gone. Being held in a room. I looked down at my arms and legs, they ended in plastic, red tubes, I was hooked into machine after machine, shoved through MRI's. Robotic arms picked me up and held me to a metal table as knives cut into and dissected my abdomen. Everything turned to leaves.

When I woke up, I was alone. I tried to move my head, but I couldn't. I screamed, a bug locked to an inhumane hospital bed. The vibrations of the world were gone, my blades were gone. The room was moving slowly, the tables, the desks, the lights in the ceiling were small. The detail, it was like… like the difference between standard- and high-definition televisions. I turned my eyes down. I couldn't see my body or thorax.

The room was turning darker, though the lights were already off. I turned my eyes right, the room ended in a growing dark. I raised my right arm. A ghostly white sheet lifted with it, before the strap resisted my movement. I flexed my forelimb, rotating it up. A meaty clump at the end rotated back to my face. The dark encroached on my vision, passing over my body and bed, turning my vision black. I stood, released from the restraints, the gym fading into view. Little drops of dark fizzled in the air.

That's not going to happen. That's… that's not how it works. Not how any of this works.

Putting Oust in the sash, I walked to Lanky in the dark of the room.

Please, Arceus.

It wasn't supposed to have been a gamble, anyway. I could already think of a bunch of things that I've done which implies I'm no bug. And I've seen Leaf and the swadloon do smart things. And I have talked with psychic types. Humans have to know that psychics have telepathy, right?

I paused, my little purple shoes reflecting off his shiny sleeping bag. The kid looked at me, as if to say "what?" It was a small change of plan. But I just went up to the door to the hallway, softly pushing on it, opening the door into the darkened halls of the night gym. Sleep wasn't going to arrive any time soon. I held the door open. Lanky glanced at the tree we'd left Leaf in, then grabbed his shoes and backpack. Lanky took the door and held it, slowly letting it click shut behind us, leaving Leaf in the atrium.

Lanky slipped his shoes on as I skipped through the halls, twirling and spinning, my shoes giving off the occasional squeak. We approached the door to the front of the gym, the night lighting up the street before us. He set down his backpack, his tone moving to soft apologetics as he put it on me. It was annoying, but if it kept me from needing to meet police officers again then I wasn't about to complain.

I was so full of energy that I needed to burn, it didn't matter either way. I was not about to just… sit inside. When we exited the front door, I immediately looked south towards the docks. The night sky was black, the city's street lights managed to activate my leaves, if the effect was only incredibly slight. Looked to the north. What felt like endless buildings and high-rises, though at my height, any slight shifts in height of the land coupled with my shortsightedness made it hard to properly gauge these qualities. The slight salty scent in the air entered my antennae, acting as persistent reminders that we were a coastal town, and the gym was only a few blocks from what was the region's largest shipping and receiving docks.

Lanky did one last check on his shoes, then mine. Tugging my little velcro straps tight, he stood up, and we started a late-night jog through the drifting, chilly air. Floating past the first block of buildings, the first interesting change of smell was a faint floral chamomile. We continued, on our north, block after block, and it eventually grew stronger. A strong, soft bass entered into the air as we came upon the source of the strong smells.

I paused.

A strip of buildings, not quite high-rises, but at least three-four stories high. Humans, practically dancing in the street, neon red dancing around and in the story windows to the tune of human forms spinning in displays. The strong, perfumed scent mixed with strong tobacco. I was yanked forward, dragged. "Ley!" I shouted, almost involuntarily, as my dress did its job, keeping me from getting scraped. Lanky stopped, a half-second later. I stood back up, as the kid looked at me. The scent in the air was too strong. I turned back to the route we had come from.

Tonight wasn't the night. Maybe another one. I would investigate these smells and the curious vibrations. I'd heard what felt like music before, but nothing so consistent, nothing so caked in the floral scent. We began to walk again, Lanky taking the moment to catch his breath. The pockets in my abdomen were able to draw the air, cooling and recirculating around, practically autonomously.

We continued on our jog to the north. It went for blocks, and blocks and blocks. It felt like miles. We hit a large curve, and eventually, I found we were heading back down and to the south. From staying slightly faster than Lanky, to about even, he slowed down, matching my pace. I still felt like I was running at full speed. I was no wolf. There would be no long-term outrunning humans on bikes. And if the humans were fit? Lanky was fit. Probably fitter than most humans, if he could keep up and out-endure a pokemon. Or, bugs just didn't have the endurance I thought that I'd had?

Lanky and I returned to the gym. Down in my satchel was Oust. Partially, anyway. They'd decided sitting half in my thorax was more comfortable, apparently. I hadn't even noticed. Were there side-effects to having a ghost sitting inside your body for a long time? Probably wouldn't be any worse than being part-ghost and eating a bunch of distortion, at least, I'd figured.

Lanky took the strap off of me as we entered the gym. He was rolling with salty sweat, but I was dry. Bugs don't sweat, you know. Yeah, I was aware. And yet I still hadn't heated up enough to need to breathe particularly hard through my mouth. Lanky let us into the atrium gym, where he decided to instead of joining us, return to the lockers. It was well enough. Walking out, letting Oust out of the sash, I set him on the ground.

The run was good, and we'd burned at least an hour or two, but I was still awake and had some more energy to burn.

Are you still there, latias?

There was no response. It made sense— they had no reason to stick around. I went to climb the tree, and Leaf's red eyes looked down on me, lying down on the branch. The poor bug was still asleep, and the atrium door opening hadn't even awoken him. Climbing up the tree, I found my perch, watching to see what Oust would do. He waddled to the base of the tree, then looked at me.

Then, without any thought or perceptive effort, he practically floated up into the air, joining me on the branch. It wasn't long before I was dreaming of pleasant, hopeful dreams of our futures, including Oust, Leaf, Lanky, Tug, Bonk, and the rest of the swaddlies all in a greenhouse, growing and selling flowers and potted sunflora and more general flowers. Unfortunately, when I awoke to the smell of berries, I was greeted with the face of the professor, Lanky, and Aurea, and I felt the weight of the loss, as though that particular future was one I'd never have.
 
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Chapter 33 - Cues
~~~ Chapter 33 - Cues ~~~​

Leah and the god-child sat at their bowls eating. The other leavanny had woken up earlier than her again. He hadn't thought of a name for him still, even after having both for weeks. The run must have worn them out, he thought to himself.

"You know that I do realize she's not human, right?" Artemus questioned Aurea. Professor Juniper had run off, leaving him, Aurea, and Emily, Avery's mom, to decide what they were going to do. Emily had light brown hair, preferring not to use not to dye it like Nurse Avery, her daughter. The middle-aged woman was about two to three inches taller than Aurea, but still quite a bit shorter than he was.

"Of course, Artie," Aurea said, watching his pokemon eat. "The issue isn't your perception, whether you think she's human or not. The issue is—" she dragged the word out as Leah looked up at her. "—the issue is that you're the one most exposed to her, and she's learned your cues."

"Uh-huh." He said. "I guess I can see it. She's learned to respond to my body language and vocal cues."

"Exactly, and more, even." Emily said, speaking up. "And it can be more than that. You see her antennae? How they occasionally tapped the air?"

"Yeah. I am quite aware they can pick up scents with their antennae." He said. "It sent her and my other leavanny here to the pokecenter the day you two got back from your research trip."

"No, it's not just that. She's picked up not just your scent, but your shift in scents."

"Oh?" He asked. He knew they'd learn to recognize him by his scent, and he knew that meeting leavanny and other friendly bugs was easier if you already had scents on him. "You can't mean…?"

"Yes. Humans put out a pheromone that shifts as their internal body shifts- they can tell if you're anxious, sad, and stressed." Emily stated.

"She'd be reading my intent by reading my scents?" he said, looking down at Leah as she fed the sewaddle in her lap another berry.

Aurea smiled, turning to Emily. "You know, that sequence of papers on bond I've been reading? There's quite a dearth of information about the benefits of bug-types and bug-type trainers." She turned back to him. "My father never gave you a proper research task when he gave you your pokedex, did he, Burgh?"

Art shook his head. "I thought taking care of the swadloon would be enough."

Her face turned dark for a moment. "Yeah, that sounds like something my dad would do, implying you were going to be useful in some way."

He just wanted us and the swadloon out of his hair. Whatever. The old man was probably going to retire before long anyway. Once Aurea made her way through the remaining Elite Four.

"So you want to give him an actual research project?" Emily asked. "Like what? Measure his ability to distinguish smells? See if he starts getting an unhealthy addiction to women's conditioners?" She said, glancing at his long hair.

Burgh had a good use for the stuff, though he hadn't used it yet. He smiled at the thought of what the bugs would do the first time he did. He had to use it at least once, just to see what they would do.

"Yeah, I mean, bug-bonds are well-known, in that people DO bond. But the exact specifics are under-studied. If the bugs have a sub-typing, the trainers still demonstrate some benefits of the subtype, even if the pokemon have three or more types... And, I disagree with my dad. Everyone who goes through Nuvema should get a research assignment." Aurea said.

"... But," Emily added. "You can't make any of those responsibilities official without your father's approval."

"Which you won't get, at least until I have my second badge, at least." Artemus added.

"Wait what?" Aurea asked, her face turning flush.

"The man made it crystal clear. He doesn't want his name on my public record until I get my second badge, at least."

Aurea closed her eyes, putting her hands to her temples, rubbing them in circular motions.

Emily chuckled, speaking up, "that stops us from even beginning to put out any research or collecting data for publishing. Even related to Giratina's kid we've got here, nothing can go official without Cedric's endorsement. Stubborn old man."

Artemus bent down to pick up the bowls. The bugs had all finished eating, Leah inspecting the swing she'd been sewing, the one that sat on the branch of the gym's nearest indoor tree. Deciding it was worth it to continue her efforts on the swing as the three humans conversed.

They hadn't even entertained trying to get the old man to change his mind, he thought.

And yeah, that tracked from his experience with the smiling demon. He exited, taking the bowls back to the little cafeteria. Aurea groaned, kicking the dirt of the gym floor before the door closed. They'd learned a lot of things the night before, and he'd managed to surprise the professor. Not quite as much as the Latias' Pressure had surprised the old man.

Leah had been moving dramatically slower the last couple days, and Artie had his own suspicions of that. Learning there was a new variant, like the latias? That was rare, but not unheard of. It wouldn't be world-changing.

He entered the door to the cafeteria, the place well-dusted and cleaned by the old janitor who kept the place clean for Alder and the city. Putting the bowls in the sink, he gave them a good rinse with soap, washing them. It would be a while before they returned, he'd make sure to clean up his own mess.

Learning that Giratina had a child, so soon after those archaeology teams managed to get the first real scans of the Creation Trio, after they'd uploaded said scans to the international pokedex databases? And that the kid was found, thousands of miles away, in the care of a leavanny and trainer who had no badges? He smiled, laughing to himself. Then, the image of Leah backing away from him and Kate popped in.

Don't laugh like that in front of her again, you've only had her for a few weeks, she's not acclimated to humans yet. Don't want another pokecenter-style incident again.

A single professor, regardless of how well-known he was, in his late sixties, literally delaying the progression of science and the understanding of pokemon. The pokecenter had assigned the god-child to him. Which was… strange, now that he thought about it. From the cafeteria, he pulled out his pokedex, and opened up the license page, double-checking the language about pokemon ownership.

"This license hereby given to the signed, certifies the trainer to keep two pokemon for use within the league, increasing by one with each earned gym badge, until the seventh badge is earned, at which point, this limit is removed."

Below that, he read:

"The league maximum of six pokemon for the purposes of battling remains. Though trainer pokemon may be used for commercial purposes, refer to your local township or city's rules for pokemon owned exclusively for non-league reasons."

There was nothing about pokemon being kept for use outside of the league. It made a kind of sense, but there were limits even on public non-trainer ownership of pokemon. He put the pokedex away, putting the bowls back in their proper drawers and cupboards.

He'd have to ask, later. Regardless of whether he or the pokecenter were technically breaking the law or not, no one challenged his ownership of the god-child. Not that he would have had many complaints giving the kid up. That is, if it wasn't for the clear relationship Leah had with the baby. Re-entering the atrium, he'd already lost the question he was going to ask. Both Emily and Aurea had taken to watching Leah from a distance as she worked on the swing she'd been working on for the last week.

You already know she has impeccable forethought and planning. At least, when it comes to something she actually focuses on, he thought to himself, picking up his pack off its resting point on the hook in the wall. He looked around.

"Sooo," he said, catching his elders' attentions. "We can't actually perform the studies on pokemon without your father's endorsement of the research? Which he won't give until I have two badges under my belt?"

"Pretty much," Aurea said, frowning.

Biking to the nearest city would take him a full day, and he didn't expect Aurea to teleport him around everywhere. The first gym challenge would be a breeze; he was confident both of his leavanny could execute the first-tier of mastery challenges. Then, he could head east, to Nuvema then Striaton, and have two badges. At least by physical distance, assuming no black-and-pink latias or random portals from the god-child opened up to ferry his pokemon away, it would take that much time.

Perhaps she's friends with Hoopa too?

He pulled out his pokeball, "Leavanny!" he called. Leah paused, then immediately turned back to her work, as her nest-member returned to him, and was sucked into the pokeball. While Alder was kind enough to consider him a member of the gym, and he received a small stipend as a low-tier member, they couldn't stay in the city for long.

He looked up in the skylights. The sky was still dark. It had only been a few weeks, but his sleep schedule had already begun to adjust to the bugs' insane nightly "sleep".

If Leah wasn't under the weather, how much trouble would she have gotten in? Artemus pulled the medication the nurse had given him from the bag, walking up to his best friend. It was to be applied every eight hours, to both pokemon. The nurse didn't specify exactly what it was supposed to do. It wasn't your standard hyper/super potion, though, and he hadn't looked up its purpose just yet, but the effects of the last night were obvious.

He gave Leah and the mini-tina— heh, he thought. I'm gonna call you Minitina— he gave them both a good spray, making sure to get Leah's extremities, per instructions.

"We were talking while you were out," Aurea said, approaching him, "and we can study the swadloon and the leavanny. They're technically from the same nest, so should have similar cognitive profiles as Leah does."

He sighed. Only Leah demonstrated a proficiency with picking locks. Only Leah had demonstrated any real long-term planning, though her reasoning was sound. "Even if I can't collect data from Leah or your little Giratina—"

"Minitina," he said, interrupting her. "I've named them Minitina."

"Aaalll right. Well, even if neither I nor Emily are allowed to collect data on Leah or Minitina here without my father's signature, you can still take notes. When we get my dad's approval, we will set up a controlled environment, and study the pair when we can, but we can send you a couple tests and you can record them."

Leah had backed away, as she tended to do when people were standing over her. He could work with a plan like that.

"Even if I am suggesting this to you, don't think we'll be able to use it in a study, we really won't be able to. But if you think you can break some kind of language barrier with her over the next, what? two? three? weeks," she stated, smiling, "that means we'll be able to start that much further ahead. As for Minitina, the scans the pokecenter uploaded to your dex, hopefully mini's going to be fully healed by then."

The scans the archaeologists had gotten of the third member of the trio hadn't been enough to build a full image of the creature, and they had only had enough time to register the creature's existence in the international dex databases. To study the kid would prove invaluable to understanding the gods themselves. But for some reason, despite having a deity in his own leavanny's care, he just couldn't stop thinking about Leah.

Physically, the girl would probably be able to bench as much as he could, run twice as far without a rest, even for being three feet tall. But that presentation of her power just wasn't present in her demeanor. A barely-trained bug pokemon giving an elite-four-tier ampharos trouble. Looking down at Leah, he could practically taste his own anticipation in the air.

Just how far will we go, little one?

He looked back down at Aurea, several feet away. Despite her own physical strength, after the Ampharos incident, and her father's stumbling under the new Latias variant's Pressure, the regional enigmas had lost a lot of their own presence, even if it had only been a couple days since he'd met her.

"Sounds like a plan to me," he said. "But," he began, turning to Emily, then back to Aurea. "Forgive me if this sounds harsh, Juniper." Aurea Juniper grimaced. His own stomach sank, but he continued. "Let's say I get these two badges. What's the chance your father actually changes his mind, or gives me the swadloon or the other leavanny?"

Aurea turned to Emily, deferring to her father's aide, who spoke up. "If Alder was around to help you train them or care for them? He probably wouldn't have any issues. But, having worked with Cedric since graduating college… And without Alder around, your chances of him softening up after two badges were significantly better before last night's incident."

Artemus shook his head. "So it probably will be more than two badges, even with Minitina here."

"Yeah, probably." Aurea spoke up. "And well, to explain a bit— my dad and I, we don't really care about new species discoveries too much." She said, her face turning a bit sheepish.

Yeah, for a person the public considers to be the next region champion, she's definitely not made of steel. Maybe her dad is stubborn as steel.

Aurea continued, "of course, we'll do a basic biology run-down of Minitina, but we aren't really worried about the so-called gods? We're studying pokemon behavior. New pokemon were always Oaks or Elm's things." Oak was in his late eighties, though yet to retire from the professorship, if Minitina had Pressure, the weight of the force would probably straight up kill the guy. It wasn't like Artie would be getting a passport any time soon, regardless.

But even with those thoughts in mind, he'd already agreed with them. He could still go to a university, go public with the information right away with a stop at Opelucid or even Castelia's own local research facilities.

There would still be no rush. Unless Giratina themselves was after getting the kid back. It was hard to imagine that the god-child, who could rip open planar portals, wasn't just allowed to run free, able to return home to their parent any time they wanted.

Logically-speaking, the prioritization of group and mass pokemon behavioral study, in a way, did make more sense— during the Coronet event, not a single legendary was reported to have attacked a city or a trainer. Thundurus, Landurus, Kyogre, Groudon, Reshiram or Zekrom, none of them or others showed up. No, the ghosts had just shown up in overwhelming numbers, as distortion rolled through the world.

Finding a new pokemon was commonplace. Finding one that was effectively a god? Significantly less so. Finding a manaphy or latios or latias egg was rare, and would absolutely make the news, but it wasn't world-breaking. Having the confirmed child of a god? It would still change things. But that was less because of a paradigm shift, than potentially setting off an arms race to see if there were kids of Dialga or Palkia running around, or bad actors vying for power. It would do well to keep a relatively low profile with the ghost-god's child, at any rate.

"In that case, this is my plan," he said. "I'm going to head east, and hit all the gym badges I can over the next couple months. In the meantime, I'm going to keep Minitina." he looked at Leah, then back to Aurea and Emily, who were themselves ready to go. He called Leah to him, picking his bug up, exiting the Castelia city gym, locking everything up as they left.

He sent a text to Kate, telling her not to come back to the gym later. Pulling his bike out of its collapsed container-form, setting Leah in the basket. Saying short goodbyes to Aurea and Emily, he and Leah went to the northeast, to the central roundabout everyone passed through on their way into the city, where he received a buzz on his phone.

Where are you goin? Kate had texted him.

He responded. Headin' east for first badges.

Good luck! I'll head there next too.


Thanking her for the help at the gym the last couple days, Artemus put his phone away, continuing his and Leah's bike ride through the city, through the burgeoning populace biking and walking into their places of work. Following the signs, fighting the morning traffic of people migrating from their apartments and homes into the early morning city, Leah and Minitina both sitting patiently in their basket, Leah content to observe the greater layout of the city, clutching Minitina when he occasionally wobbled from his inexperience of riding. Aurea or Emily would send him some simple memory and language tests to use on Leah that night.

Hours later, Artemus pulled out of the city, sun well over the eastern horizon and risen high in the clear sky, shining right into the teen's face, but his bangs did well to keep the worst of the sun out. Bikers passed him, giving courteous waves, bird types fluttered about in circles above, catching updrafts of heat from the massive steel and concrete bridge. Approaching the SkyArrow, the largest suspended steel bridge in the region, he was struck with awe as it stretched for literal miles.

Leah's head followed birds flying low, ferrying passengers over the expanse of bridge and ocean. Artie looked back at the path he'd come, just following the signs from Castelia to the SkyArrow. One of the region's key marvels of engineering, forethought, and planning sat before them. More than fifty miles of bridge, long enough that there was a mall and restaurant in the middle for weary travelers, sat in front of them.

He reached his arms forward, pulling Leah, eliciting a slight squeak from her as she was lifted out of her basket. He hugged the bug, then set her back, taking a breath as she readjusted her leaf-dress.

They set forward, the beginning of their first real adventure together.
 
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Chapter 34 - SkyArrow
~~~ Chapter 34 - SkyArrow ~~~​

I've been thinking the last couple days, after being in the presence of the Members of Creation, however short the period was. The Pressure they exuded, our boots were glued to the ground. It took all my strength just to get my pokedex pointed at them. I wouldn't be surprised if they were even holding their Pressure in, too. It was a valuable learning experience. I will be re-examining the stories in a new light.

- Doctor Hanlay

~~~​

When Lanky set me back down in the basket, he set forward to cross the bridge. The basket was large, but I had to fold my leaf-dress under my abdomen, as the wires were cold. Birds flew across the bridge, some circling, others with purpose, going into the city. The vast majority of people were on the other side, going into the grand city we were departing.

The sun was in our eyes, and the steel suspension cables rose up, long until they blurred out, as far as my short-sighted eyes could see, turning into looming, shiny grey blobs in the limited distance. Some bikers heading into the city turned their heads at us as we passed them, as if they'd never seen a leavanny before. Birds crossed overhead, and I was weary. It was approximately an hour of soaking up the sun and misty ocean breeze, lazily watching the world around, for the stream of humans and their pokemon crossing the bridge, to eventually trickle down from a steady stream, to a more limited one.

The sun was up higher and almost, but not quite above us when Lanky took his first rest. With my purple shoes on, I just barely kept my legs from poking through the wires. Without them, my legs would stick right through the holes in the basket, at least until they hit the cuff-links below the leg-joint. Lanky held his hand out, and I grabbed his arm. He was covered by, and smelled like sweat.

As he set me on the ground, we were on a kind of concrete and grass outcropping, the ocean easily fifty feet below us, at least judging by the sound. There were benches, a small building, some vending machines, and— a water fountain. It was a strange little park in the middle of a bridge, but it made sense. Wingull and Pelipper floated in the air in circles, following the updrafts of the concrete as the bridge was warming up in the midday sun. One Pelipper dove down below the bridge. Oust and I watched as moments later they came out from below, their mouths notably fuller with water. Presumably having found their prey, they flew back under the bridge and disappeared.

"Leah!" Lanky said, holding the water faucet down, pointing his finger at it. I groaned. There were far too many birds in the air for my tastes. I wasn't too worried about them, but bug instincts haven't seemed to care about what I thought so far. Doubt they were going to change. I strolled up to the water fountain. Water poured out the side, spattering onto a covered drain. A little lever was at the base.

This place is thinking about pokemon.

I pushed on Lanky's leg, telling him to step back. He did, graciously. I stepped my left foot forward, my shiny purple shoes sparkling in the sunlight as I did. I pressed it down, and water came out! This place really knows how to design for pokemon! I thought, moving my head forward, screeching a little as my face was immediately covered in ice-cold water, some of it dripping onto Oust, causing them to squeak in surprise, looking up at me, as if to say "you betrayer!" I then squeaked a second time, when a trail of the ice-water rolled past him and onto my thorax. Lanky let out a chuckle.

I stepped back. I wasn't about to let this ice-water defeat me. I put my head into position, opening my mouth. Then I put my shoe down on the pedal, and lightly pressed it. A small trickle of water came out, satiating my thirst. I took my foot off the pedal, then pulled Oust out, holding his head under the faucet. He wiggled in my arms, resisting my attempts to give him water. Eventually, he stopped wiggling and I held my foot down, barely pressing it, as a drop fell down, he phased out of my arms and floated out of the water.

Fine, if you don't want a drink, I'm not going to make you! I thought at him, clicking. If he wanted to be thirsty, then it wouldn't be my problem. The cold water sloshing inside, I stepped away from the fountain. Lanky pointed at the bench where he'd parked the bike, and said, "stay there." He'd motioned for the restrooms, and while I was a bug and the smells inside didn't bother me as much as they should… I was content not to follow him into the boy's room. As nice as the mid-bridge rest-stop was, I had no desire to explore there.

So instead, I sat on the bench, watching as the occasional biker passed us. Most heading to the west, into the city, which was now mostly just a gray blur poking through the massive cables which were still rising, higher and higher into the east. A wingull landed several feet in front of us. Being a grass-type, and them being smaller than me when standing, I wasn't too worried, though if a pelipper took notice, my tone would change.

I was either too short, my vision was too far, but I could not see land in the direction we were heading. We'd already been on this bridge for an hour. The bird approached, stepping, their head wobbling, as I bobbed my shining, glinting shoes on the bench, my feet sticking out. Another bird landed. I pulled a pair of leaves from my cuff-link. My abdomen vibrated ever-so slightly, when a splash of water hit me in the face from above, and both birds grabbed my shoes, pulling me off the bench, my head bouncing on the ground, only protected from the blow by the leaves on my head.

I pull my right leg in, that assailant flapping their wings, hopping back with a squawk. I twist my body, their partner dragging me along the ground. It was only a moment, but they were gone again, a human shouting, waving their arms in the air, the birds scattering, flapping away in squawks. I stood back up. My shoes hadn't budged, Lanky had cinched their velcro tight. A small stream of water drills me in the head. This time though, I'm slightly disoriented. I still held the razor leaf in my arm. Looking up, seeing my attacker fly by, circling back for another spray, I launched my leaf at it.

A short "ghrk!" and they tumbled to the bridge's concrete on the other side. I turned to look at my rescuer- a bulky man with dark hair, a red and black uniform and hat. I returned to the bench, watching the sky a bit. They pulled out of their pocket, a dried fruit of some kind, approaching. The tall man sat on the bench next to me, giving me a piece of fruit. How could I say no? They both rescued me and gave me fruit! As I mashed the fruit, and my saliva began to digest the small meal, they eyed Oust, held in my sash.

They talked to me, presumably saying something like: "What have you got there? A kid, huh?" I know, I know stranger danger. Lanky still hadn't returned. A couple of cyclists pulled off on the other side of the bridge, waving at the guy who sat next to me, who waved back, which was a bit comforting. I pushed Oust deeper into the sash— no reason to make it too easy for someone to scan them with a pokedex, assuming pokedexes needed line of sight to work.

I wiggled my legs again, testing the shoes. They had managed to stay on tight. The person in the red-and-black suit got up and walked across the bridge, heading to the opposite side, leaving Oust and I after a short verbalization. Lanky returned, filling a bottle of water. He looked at me, back on the bench, and gave me a thumbs-up. Happy to have my partner back, and the birds gone, I hopped in the basket of the bike, and off we went, again. Only to stop a few moments later, as Lanky looked down at a bird, struggling on the cement, with a leaf in their midsection.

He looked at me, then back down at the bird. Then back to the person in red and black on the other side of the bridge. They waved at each other, shouted some things, then we were off again. What I didn't expect was just how long the bridge was. We passed through the first rise-and-falls of the suspension bridge's cables. The bridge and journey not looking to end any time soon, I pulled my helmet down, closing it tight. A few hours later, I'd curled up as tight as I could, cinching together my leaf-helmet to protect my eyes, and slept in the day, soaking up the sun and sounds of the rolling concrete, a few clouds rolling in from the south.

My vision drifted in and out as I entered torpor, sleeping in my basket, letting my leaves gather up the energy I'd need for later. The salt in the air reduced ever so slightly, the murmurs of other cyclists and even a few motorbikes passed us in both directions, the torpor had been light. Lanky was slowing, coming to a stop. The evening sun was falling. We'd finally crossed the bridge, and entered land. Here, another set of restrooms and some fliers were out and about.

We weren't the only ones who'd stopped here, the clouds had moved in overhead. The air pressure was lowering, my thorax had slightly expanded, and was pressing up against the leaf armor. It was not going to rain yet, but soon, it would. Stopping the bike in the new rest area, Lanky shuffled, pulling his backpack forward, pulling out his jacket. He was getting ready for it as well. The temperature was dropping significantly, too. I looked down in my sash. Oust had disappeared while I'd slept.

I can't protect you if you run off.

I clicked, annoyed, rubbing my blade-arms together.

Thinking you can protect them. Tasty dream.

Shut up,
I tell the inner-voice. I wasn't about to let inner doubts get in my way. With Oust, I had purpose. Something to protect. Without him? Without Oust? I had. I had Lanky. I had Leaf. I had Bonk.

Without Oust, you're j—SHUT UP! I said. No. I'm not just another bug. Besides, what's so bad about being a bug?

Bugs sprayed with pyrethroid fall to the ground, unable to move a muscle, paralyzed because the sodium holds their nerve channels open, and cannot be reset. You are just a bug.


If Oust had wanted to leave, there's nothing I could do to stop them. Still, it was nice, having them around. My head and vision was swimming as I stood up. The sky was dark, and I was sitting on a bench near a clearing of trees. No birds had decided my shoes were worth stealing while I'd been passed out. Lanky approached again, coming from the restroom, bottle of water in hand. On the bench next to me was a curious toy that smelled faintly of sugar, a multicolored cube stay there.with each side decorated in different-colored squares, and a piece of chalk.

Lanky held the bottle out, flipping off the lid, then put his hand in my mouth, lightly pressing them open—he'd never given me a drink from a bottle before. Ugh. But I was dizzy, and leaves floated in and out. I opened my mouth, and he poured a couple squirts of water in. The next moments, Lanky blurred, as he picked up the three items on the bench, putting them into his pack, full though it was. He pulled out the spray bottle the nurse had given him the other day, and sprayed me with it.

My vision slowly coalesced, the leaves fading. He picked me up, the dizziness and noise of the leaves reducing. We'd stopped. For how long? Lanky was holding me in his arms. Internal pressure, an uncharacteristically cold air chilling me from the inside reduced. With one hand, Lanky unzipped his jacket, and set me inside as he biked, continuing south. I kept my helmet clasped down, pulling to my trainer's warmth. The sky was getting dark.

How long had I been out? Had I been shivering?

The approaching rainstorm, the sun had crossed the horizon, and we'd hooked south, following the road, the number of travelers biking as fast as they could increasing dramatically. Where it had one person every few miles, people seemed to appear out of the woodwork. A number of large birds had launched into the air overhead, to the northeast, which presumably was our destination. We had hooked south, following the road, crossing into tunnels, passing people and their pokemon who had set up camp near the forest's wilds.

I hope you're okay, Oust. I thought. Thoughts and visions of Cebi, the celebi flying through the woods pervaded as we crossed through the large forest, with massive trees, when the first drops of the southern winter rain fell in. I pulled my head back in, and let Lanky zip his jacket all the way up. I wasn't keen on getting wet and washing off the miracle medicine. I pulled my arms together in the warmth, avoiding slicing his jacket up. I was the smallest Leavanny I'd met so far, and not even my crest of leaves had reached as high as the old-man janitor-man's mop. The rain began to pelt down, and Lanky's legs were slowing. He needed food and rest. A beep emitted from his waist, and Lanky pedaled harder.

The rain stopped hitting his jacket, and he pulled the bike to a stop. The pokeball had been beeping frequently by now. Voices of several people greeted us through the sound of rain, distorted by the tunnel's echo. Leaf's pokeball was beeping. He unzipped his jacket, and I stuck my head out. Greeted by a shriek of surprise from a girl in red and black—dressed in the same colors as the guy that saved me and my shoes from the water birds on the bridge—her own pokemon, a green monkey stood in front of her. As if I was going to threaten anyone.

Lanky hopped off the bike, his entire body covered in sweat, water rolling down his face and the hood of the jacket. The sky was dark, but the tunnel was lit, an incredibly smooth dirt road running through the center. The concrete had ended and I hadn't even noticed. Lanky let me down, collapsed the bike into its canister-form, then released Leaf. The pokeball no longer beeping, he collapsed to the dirt, out of the rain and out of the main thoroughfare of the tunnel road. I smelled just like him. The monkey—a pansage, decided to ignore us once the ranger-girl relaxed.

A pair of swadloon were also in the tunnel, though on the opposite side of us. A pair of young girls were relaxing and playing with their own grumps. They smelled nothing like my nest-mates, though it wasn't an angry warning "DO NOT TRUST" smell like the venipedes had. Leaf had turned, and was watching, mesmerized at the falling rain. The other trainers and people stuck, hiding in the tunnel from the rain, turned to their own business, as Lanky pulled small packs of dried berries from his bag. He took a sip from his canteen, and chewed a thick bar, smelling of protein and minerals and saccharine sugars.

Once the three of us had finished our food, Lanky pulled from his bag two of the three items from earlier. The first one had four holes, one in the center, and three holes on each side. He held the center between two fingers, and gave it a spin, the noise drawing Leaf's attention. He showed it spinning to Leaf and I, holding it in different ways. He handed it to Leaf, who for some forsaken reason, decided to put it into his mouth. "No!" Lanky practically shouted, pulling Leaf forward, trying to lever the idiot's mouth open with his fingers.

I wouldn't want to fight my own chomps. I thought to myself.

Instead, to help our trainer, while Leaf is pinned down, I pick up Leaf's armor, exposing his abdomen, and give him a kick— "Ack!" The idiot gags, their mouth popping open, spitting out the spinny-toy, launching it into Lanky's face, pegging him in the eyebrows, covering him in leavanny saliva. I pick up the toy, and take it back out into the rain, washing off the remains of Leaf's saliva.

When I got back from the tunnel entrance after shaking off the worst of the rain, I held the spinner at the end of my arm, and was playing with it, spinning it in amusement at the motions. The girls that had their own swadlies were staring at me. When they saw me staring back at them, they looked away. Lanky, and Leaf, however, did not look away, much as I had wanted them to.

Lanky held up his phone and took a picture. Then, Lanky pulled out the leash strapped Leaf to it, the leafbug verbally whining at their predicament, then went to sleep, along with the other trainers. Unfortunately for me, I still had no idea where Oust was, and Leaf and I had both had more sleep than we normally get in days.

And I wasn't about to sit around and not explore a pokemon forest. It just—just didn't feel right. Especially with the energy from that potion and everything. I'd already sat all day in a basket. I needed to DO something!

The spinner was pretty fun, though.

I'd take it with me.
 
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Chapter 35 - Schism
A/N: Some of the set-up and delivery in this could be better. Regardless, I hope you enjoy it. Will revisit in the edit pass, which is currently one-eighth the way through.

~~~ Chapter 35 - Schism ~~~​

Do souls really exist? In one sense, we're not sure. We've yet to see any compelling evidence in favor of the existence of souls. Practically, the medical and academic fields operate as if they do not exist. In fact, we do know that ghosts do not possess in order to "consume souls"; as to why possession happens, and how it happens, however?

We're not sure, and data is minimal. The various stories have individuals, post-exorcism, having frequent waking dreams, unable to tell reality from their own imagination. Due to the cultural relevance of ghosts and the myths around ghosts, in the next article, we only rely on what's been reported from reputable sources, though we will have a section evaluating myths and local stories.


~~~​

I walk up to the entrance of the tunnel, my shoes splashing in the puddles of bits of water that were streaming in. Lanky was out cold, even in the tunnel's yellow lights. He'd biked for more than twelve hours, and he'd only just learned to bike a couple days ago. As I approached the entrance we'd entered, I was reminded of a previous life—of deciding I'd get a bike and use it to get fit. I had saved up for a year for the bike, and spent a lot of money on it, only for the bike to sit in its box in the living room, eventually moving to a basement closet when my housemates had gotten annoyed. My abdomen clenched as my mind replayed the panic when the box had disappeared.

Are you going to abandon and forget about Lanky, Leaf, or the others too? Then cry when you find out they got tired of waiting for you?

No,
I whispered back to the voice, my shoes sloshing as I walked.

Maybe they'll get tired of you and put you in Bill's PC and forget about you.

No. Animals aren't bikes.
I looked back at Lanky, who continued their slumber. One of the girls who was holding a swadly, her head was following me. Away from the people who'd gathered in the center of the tunnel, out of the running water and splashing puddles, I was too far away to see the trainer's face or catch her scent.

My left forelimb sticking through the center of the spinner, I pulled up my right arm, giving it a good spin, then adjusted the clasp of my helmet. This was a cold tropical storm, rain was coming down quite hard, the rhythmic noise at the edge acted as a buffer between the front of the tunnel and the rest of the world, absorbing echoes of the semi-melodic thrumming of the drops of rain. I took a glance around, at Lanky as he lay down, Leaf annoyed at the leash, puttered back and forth, tied to our exhausted trainer's wrist.

Just get in the pokeball next time. Leaf was in there, what, twelve hours? And his consolation is what? To be leashed for however long Burgh sleeps?

My insides went cold.

Burgh? I question the voice. You're not my inner-voice at all, are you? You're not even instinct! You're a piggy-backer! How long have you been there?

The voice had gone silent. I shivered. No. I took my first step out into the rain, the cascading sheets drilling and causing my leaf-helmet to vibrate. My overcoat protected me from the worst of the rain.

As I walked out into the rain, in my search for Oust. My search for purpose. I was back in a greenhouse. Rain pelted my dress as I walked, a pair of bikes, led lights blinking as they rolled past, splashing. I was in the greenhouse, the nursery of plants, the air smelled sweet, Lanky was ringing up a customer holding a pot of sunflora. Oust wasn't there. I needed to find him, I needed to. Stepping off the muddy, dirt road, my purple shoes sloshed as I put my feet down.

Leaf was there, in the greenhouse. He'd gotten into a bag of fertilizer, making a mess as he munched. The other grass types had seen him chowing down, and were lining up to compete for their early lunch. I bopped him in the head, annoyed at making the mess that he did. I was in the woods, the rain washing most of the scent. Through the trees and thick foliage, I trudged, step by agonizing step as the other half of my mind was back in dreams.

The customer walked out with their new sunflora pet? Plant? Lanky had come over, dressed in a white apron, covered in greens and soils, gently pushing us out of the way, a broom and pan appeared in his hands. The Petillil had all left their potters, more than one spilling their soil all over the floor. Daffodils and roses, a bulbasaur helping to pick up—NO! That's wrong! That's not it! I stumbled out from under a tree into the rain, the thrumming, the pitter-pattering of the rainfall, a flash of light from behind me, the water in my shoes, I stumbled. I tried to pull it off, but it was still cinched too tight.

I got up, stumbling into a tree, setting down the spinner toy. I pulled my right legs up first, contorting my right foot to my mouth, clamping down on the two pieces of velcro, pulling the velcro off. I was back in the city again, dancing in front of the camera, showing off my new shoes. There was so much hope, so much warmth.

Things were getting better! They can and are getting better! And I can still be me!

Peeling apart the velcro on both shoes, I set the shoes down, under the tree. I'd dropped the spinny-toy in the back.

You're not me! You're not Oust! I shouted, clicking, rubbing my blades together as I stood back up, running deeper into the woods. Oust! Where are you! I cried. The night was black, only the occasional glimpses of fading light of the tunnel, and the occasional flash of light told me where I'd been heading. I ran out into the forest, dropping the spinner, arms clutching my head, tripping over trunks of massive trees that towered over me, little green pokemon stumbling out of my way as I ran, deeper into the forest, plagued by visions I'd never be able to have.

Why can't you just be happy? Why can't you just enjoy what you have? Look at those dreams—I lurched, climbing, tripping, falling to my face out into the rain, eating mud and dirt, the pounding rain hitting my leaf-helmet. No. It's okay to want better. Just because you don't know a way there doesn't mean anything.

Lanky and I, from not so many weeks ago, sitting in the professor's back yard, his trees missing a good third of their leaves, from our day in the past, a flash of green from inside the professor's home. The house, the back porch, the grass, lanky, everything, including my smell and taste of the coastal air. It all wobbled again, stuttered. A flash.

Are you ready to die again? Stupid girl. Stupid bug.

The celebi, glowing, their eyes dripping black, they smiled. My mouth filled with saliva. The day was sunny. I was behind the gym, my wings resting, holding my heat inside. Resting on my fuzzy red abdomen, I was shivering. I was tired, my fuzz had slight sheens of gold to them. The lines of gold, their form, reminiscent of a nightmare forgotten. I continued to shiver, even as my trainer held me in their lap, petting my fur. Sundresser and her team had their water, as they often did before we fought. I would fight, and I would win. But I also wanted to sleep.

I shivered, standing up. Looking down, my shoes were gone. The spinner toy was gone too. I continued my aimless march into the forest. Running from the sprite, I was not following any light. But traversing into the darkest patches I could, following a familiar taste of distortion, my mouth drooling of its own accord, another part of my vision diverted by my unwelcome internal guest, the volcarona's fur turning flaky gold, Sundresser in the background, vocalizing alarm to Alder, my trainer. That image faded, and I was back in front of Lanky and Sundresser, who were crawling to me, rubbing my leaves, flakes of orange dust in the air, coming off.

My body and leaves soaked, the water rolling over my hydrophobic eyes, I'd grown quite numb to the pounding rain, quite numb to the cold of the air, not quite as numb as my abdomen was cold. I tripped again, rolling to the ground.

This time, the world did warp, and I continued stumbling, falling into a stream of water, drops of rain obscuring my visor, the icy water on my abdomen splashing, ending the nightmare of the volcarona.

"Cebi said you wanted to be special," another voice said, giggling. "It looks like you picked up a passenger along the way. So I guess that's pretty special!"

I scrambled up, knocked fully back to reality, warped though my vision was, and ran, even harder into the woods, my head scraping against low branches, stepping on and kicking some leaves of unfortunately grass types soaking up the rain in the storm.

"Lebi's here! I do say that you've caused me some problems, you know. That girl was supposed to be locked."

Dead. You wanted me to kill her.

"Not directly! And it's not death! It's called being locked."


I continued stumbling my way forward, further into the forest, running through trees and branches, coming to, and running through a small clearing, skipping over a running stream, my legs sloshing on the wet forest floor.

You and Cebi are liars.

"Maybe we are~"
Lebi said, "Don't think it matters a whole lot~" the sprite said, the world around me turning grey, momentum carrying me into the walls of her boxes of time.

What was I looking for, again? I thought to myself, as much to my unwelcome guest, as I stood up again.

"Hello? Is anyone home? You're literally stuck in time. I-I c-could l-l-literally kill you and r-rewind i—" I backed up as she began to stutter, the way she did when she was either lying or speaking in half-truths. Forward, pressing on the edges of the gray box, I brought my arms up, leaning against it, pushing.

You're not ready to die, are you, little one? I asked myself—the visions I'd been stuck in had ceased and not returned, though my passenger was hungry.

No, you're not.

"You know, that voice in your head?"
Lebi asked as I applied more and more pressure against the edge of the box, pushing on it. I wasn't the strongest pokemon, but I could taste the vestiges of distortion in the air, colliding with reality. My abdomen had begun to vibrate, and the box was too.

"It's a ghost, you know. They hitched a ride when you were running around the mountain. I know how to get rid of it. I can teach you if you do me a favor."

The part of the ground not frozen in time, was pushed back as the ends of my legs dug in. I held my arms out, pushing on the translucent gray filters.

"Most ghosts aren't as smart as you, you know. They get in your head. They take your own thoughts, ones you don't think, the ones I can't read. They bring them up, back into the top of your mind, plucking your thoughts like a meloetta plucks a harp. Unlike meloetta, they don't know what they're saying. They don't know what you're actually thinking." Lebi said, floating in circles around me from outside my prison.

"And as they pluck your thoughts, they find the ones that make you dream. Other people's nightmares, other people's dreams, your own nightmares, your own hopes and thoughts for the future, it doesn't matter if it's sad or happy. And boy, is that stuff tasty for them. You're lucky it's just a weak little baby ghost. You can tell because you're still in control of your body. A little older and once they've eaten all your dreams, your imagination is gone. Next time, you'll need a little more evil in you."

The wall shudders, my abdomen vibrating. A stirring below me pressures in the air. The wall shudders, and disappears. The world goes from gray to black, the rains continue to fall again, and I stumble forward, seeking deeper into the forest, running as fast as I can. Seconds later, the world turns gray, and I've run into the wall, falling down once more.

"Nice job, that's actually… Pretty good." Lebi says, flying into the confines of my stopped box of time, a looming shadow of pure black forming in the greater forest in front of us, frozen and tinted gray. The distortion in the world around me froze too.

Lebi pays them no mind.

"Look, honey. I know we got off to a bad start and all, but I can keep doing this all day, hehe, I mean, I can do this for longer than you'll be alive. Now, here's the deal— I fix the mess that I started, I remove your little baby ghost 'friend'. And you—" Lebi says, flying into my face, pushing me back before I can do the same against this box on the wall.

I needed—I needed to get away from here. I needed this stupid forest sprite out of my life. I need— "—you do me one teensy-tiny favor." The Celebi shoved her face into mine again, turning her head directly into my left eye. Drool fell to the ground. In my other eye, the reality beyond our gray box, in the time-frozen world beyond, a shimmer in reality appeared, but was not moving. Another shimmer.

"Hello! There's one way out of here! I need you to do me one more favor, then I'll never ever ever talk to you again, think about it for just a moment! When they eat everything they can from you, humans won't be able to fix you! And good luck finding anyone who can! I just need you to do me a favor." Lebi said.

Tentacruel games. They knew what they had been playing at. What I'd wanted. Life had to have meaning, right? Else, what was the point? As a human, I'd died in a hospital bed. I woke up as a pokemon, what, three? Months ago by this point? I'd lost track, but it didn't feel super long. And what was death for me then? I'd already made it through one death before.

"I-I can h-help you u-understand h-humans again! It's s-simple! A-All y-you n-need t-to d-do is: Finish. T-The. J-Job." Lebi said, her green face and dark eyes practically dripping.

It wasn't a conscious thought. Not one from me, anyway. One moment, the sprite was in my face, hugging my head, her eyes cloudy and dark, asserting her position of power over me, showing that they could read my mind, that they knew my fears. The next, she was in two, her body parts floating slowly apart, held in a kind of stasis the same spot she was floating in. The gray went dark again, her magic ceasing, the rain pouring down, a black ooze from one half, a pink ooze in the other.

Yeah, I guess I do want to be important. Just not that kind of important.

My body spasmed, my arms moved of their own accord, trying, and failing to lift the dripping, black goo of dark, my mouth opens, body falling to the ground, the passenger attempting to gorge themselves on the corpse of the dead fae. I push back, with my arms, rolling away. The thought of consuming another being that had once been living was repulsive to both myself and my instinct. Together, we rebelled and struggled against our unwelcome guest, writhing on the forest floor in our struggle, even as the tears in reality opened around us, distortion spilling out.

As we roll, our vision turns purple, a small specter, not a foot tall separated from us, filling our vision. The taste and smell of distortion, fading, the small, effeminate pokemon, with short, yet wispy locks of hair highlighted in red had separated my mind. The small misdreavus floated out from our head immediately picking up the remains of the celebi, slurping up the black goop oozing from the Lebi, the now-dead celebi's body.

The pokemon began to contort. The gray having fully faded, time resuming to normal around us, the black shadow coalesced, a long point then proceeding to stick out, the top of their head turning into long white hair, their upper body a masculine black, and red, the midsection of the shadow widened, and before us stood the god of nightmares themselves.

The misdreavus' arms lengthened, their hair turning conical like a witch's hat, their arms growing longer, before us, a mismagius floated, already beginning their chant. They turned to evaluate us, then back to Darkrai themselves. The portals of distortion rippled, then faded, before another hole was opened, finally tearing through. The black and pink latias we'd left behind emerged, all of us getting soaked in the rain.

"Ahem," Darkrai made to speak. I held up my arms, and shrugged. The only way we would be talking is if Darkrai himself took me to their nightmare realm, but the tension in my abdomen said that instinct didn't care for that idea too much. My recent experiences told me it would still be a one-way affair.

Oust, still in sewaddle form, held in the latias' arms, the yellow and green of the fake sewaddle, even in this rain and dark, was an excellent contrast.

Yeah. They didn't NEED ME at all.

Darkrai looks down at the bisected Lebi, then at the newly-evolved mismagius. Then to me. I still didn't understand language at all, and it looked like he was able to speak, but…

What was I supposed to say, anyway? I ask. The black and pink Latias could at least read my mind. Maybe they could bridge the communication gap?

The Lat shook their head. I clicked, annoyed.

Thanks for the attempted rescue? I say, amused. Did they think they could beat a Celebi? I had managed to surprise Cebi that one time, at least, so it wasn't completely out of the question, I suppose. I looked back down at the Lebi, miniscule drops of pink in the air boiling off into the air and the world around them. Seeing the Celebi dead, the Darkrai's white cloud of hair had shifted from calm to standing straight up, to deflated, their posture loosening considerably.

Looking back up to the newly-evolved mismagius, her hat and arms like tassels, highlighted by pink at the ends. She was floating, keeping her distance, drifting towards the distortion portal that was open, and leaking her(?) second(?) favorite food.

Darkrai, pointing at the portal Oust had opened, spoke a single word. One that I could guess the meaning of.

"Go."

My ex-headmate, the misdreavus, who'd, by pure instinct? Assisted from a psychic bid by Lebi to make me agree? Who'd save me from Lebi. She did not understand the term. Or rather, they made no change in their motion, just staring at Darkrai as they drifted towards the leaking distortion. But it was too slow. Darkrai's arm snapped, extending like pure black shadow, their arm lengthening, grabbing the misdreavus, shoving them into Oust's portal. A moment later, it closed.

With no ceremony whatsoever, the corrupted Latias, holding the sewaddle-form god in their arms, disappeared. Darkrai turned to me, giving me a… thumbs-up? As their body collapsed back into itself, fading into a shadow form, dispersing beyond my sight?

If anyone could threaten Oust, it would probably be the strongest Dark type I knew in existence save for maybe an unbound hoopa. Once again, among the many times that night I had already done so, I fell to the ground, sensations of water of the pounding rain settling back in, my abdomen numb. This leavanny was once again alone in more ways than one. With the three deities gone, it was all well and good. Except for one part—the one where I was in the middle of a forest in the middle of the night.

Heh. Guess I'm important enough that Darkrai themselves will show up in person. I mused to myself. A bit late, though. I couldn't help but be grateful they'd taken the misdreavus. Being alone with myself and my instincts was bad enough. I shivered at the thought of them possessing me again. Animals who learn where easy food is, will return to the source. I shuddered. For the best that they didn't get too comfy in my brain.

Thank you! I thought, to no one in particular, even as my eyes were stuck in the mud and grass. The moon wasn't out, so I didn't expect any responses from Cresselia. But it was probably for the best, anyway.

A clicking noise sounded nearby me, chirping, like the sound of my nest-mates. A pokemon was poking at my legs, pushing on them. I rolled to my right, clocking the pokemon with the end of my leg, knocking them over, they squealed, falling over. I sat up, observing the swadly, picking themselves up. They were covered in mud and leaves. I picked them up. Up close, I could see. They had a real problem: their leaf-blanket was half as long as it should have been. I picked the bug up, pulling them close.

Are Leavanny that rare? My whole body shivered—How many sewaddle and swadloon had no one to care for them or teach them to craft? I set the tunnel-mate on my head as we walked back, roughly the direction we came, occasionally picking up a leaf, sewing it, and attaching it to their coat. It was a paste-on patch job, and wouldn't look good. But a swadloon without a full blanket was just wrong. Each time I snapped one down, their faces didn't change, but their scent did.

Together, on our way back, the swadly and I danced about in the rain, twirling my leathery leaf-dress. In the dark of the pouring rain, no moon, no sky, no stars, I could barely see the trees a few feet in front of me. Though we could, through the rain, hear a faint shout from, and flashlights of humans through the woods, glistening in the dropping rain. Hopping along, crawling through large carved trunks, walking through dripping grass-type pokemon soaking up the summer rain, I was warm and my body felt light, even with the swadly in my arms. I tore off the now-tattered leaf-sash. I'll make another if Oust comes back.

Glimpses of the light from the tunnel we'd left behind became more and more frequent through the trees, lighting our way back, as we silently passed some people I hadn't recognized visually, shouting into the rain behind us. Walking up to the tunnel's entrance, entering the dim, yellow light, stepping out of the sheets of rain, the shouts were drowned out, and Lanky was still sleeping, though Leaf, who himself looked at me, with the swadly in my arms. I looked down. My legs, outfit, and whole body were covered in mud.

I set the swadly down on the ground. Her trainers were nowhere to be seen. I clicked, tapping her on the head, then picked her up, setting her next to Leaf. Lanky's eyes opened a brief second at Leaf's renewed movements at the new company.

I'd left my shoes and the spinner in the forest, and nearly lost the spinner during my travels! I didn't want to wear those muddy and soaking shoes, so I'd taken them off. Much more composed, I walked back out into the rain, retracing my original steps to try and find the tree I'd left the spinner and shoes at. It didn't take long, though by the time I did, my thorax had retracted slightly, evidenced by the leaf armor covering the chest-area chafing a lot less frequently. The tropical storm was moving on.

Returning back to the tunnel, spinner-toy and purple shoes in tow, Leaf and the swadloon were play-wrestling, the swadly's trainer nowhere to be seen. I had used the walk back in the midnight storm as an opportunity to wash the mud off the shoes, setting them out by Lanky's backpack, on a piece of rock, trying to let them dry. I put the spinner-toy on the ground, out of Leaf's reach. He needed to be monitored, regardless of how much he verbally complained about being bored.

Passing shouting humans with flashlights, I ventured back out into the forest. An hour or two later, of wandering in the rain, no thoughts, head empty, just enjoying exploring the woods, the yelling humans were now either out of range or had given up on their futile shouting in the rain. I'd already recovered the spinner and shoes. I did feel bad for Leaf, being in the pokeball all day long. And I had no way of telling how far our destination would be. Another two, three days of this. I was scared of being in the pokeball too long. It still was a nightmare for me. To lose your life to a pokeball? I shivered. So I resolved. I'd give Leaf a chance to not be in a pokeball all day. To see what it was like, dumb though he was.

Returning to happier thoughts, and doing my own little dance, running around in the rain, from my own little world, was a blonde-haired girl, hunched over on the ground, herself covered in mud, making choking noises. Had she followed me out in the rain?

The mud and the rain had made it impossible to gauge how she truly felt, but a human hunched over probably meant they were lost. I held out my arm to the girl as I drew close. Her eyes were closed. "Eeeaaa," I said. She opened her eyes, jumping. I held out my arm, proffering it to her. The mud on her face streaked as drops fell from her eyes.

After she'd recovered from the startle, she reached out her own hand, her thin jacket crinkling in the air as it reached out from under the dripping tree. I tugged, and she stood up. She was not nearly as tall as Lanky, nor did she have as much mass: pulling her back to the tunnel was pretty easy, and was only a foot taller than me. Through the lighter, though-still-pouring rain, I led her back to the tunnel we had camped out in.

Once we arrived, the girl continued her choking sounds, her face red, her partner squealed, nearly bowling the lost girl over in an embrace, reunited just inside the tunnel barely outside the reducing sheets of water, their feet splashing in puddles as they danced around. Together, they walked back to the drier portions. I looked over at Lanky, and he was still asleep, despite the commotion.

Which was fine by me. I wasn't about to tell anyone the story.

I'm a fucking bug, I clicked, smug at my machinations. I didn't owe explanations to anyone. The swadloon, playing with Leaf, chirped, drawing their trainers' attention, who squealed, then picked their pokemon up, spinning them in the air, pulling them close in a hug. I clicked in distaste.

What were Lanky or any of the others going to do? Force me to learn their language, then ask me what happened? I'm happy as an average, run-of-the-mill bug, doting on swadlies neglected by bad trainers, rescuing said bad trainers, and helping protect my fellow leavanny from choking hazards, having internal schisms.

You know, totally normal leavanny bugstuff.
 
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Chapter 36 - Fidget
~~~ Chapter 36 - Fidget ~~~​

With their long-term memory, problem solving, and creative use of tools, Leavanny are on the upper end of the bug-type intelligence spectrum, though still considered low in comparison to the more intelligent pokemon. They may be quite stubborn, though with their creativity, have been known to learn mildly-complex battle-strategies and plans over time. [...]

In terms of physical limitations, leavanny are considered to be sharply limited by their physical mass, though they easily make up for it with their surprising speed as well as their crafting and creativity. The league allows leavanny to use their own crafting and creations in battle. For example, many Leavanny make their own Razor Leaves, rather than "summoning" them. [...]

Their height, as logged in the pokedex, is measured by the full extension of the tarsi at the bottom of their legs, to the tops of their heads, minus their antennae or leaves, and can range from 3'2" at the smallest-known, to 4'3" at the tallest-known measurements. After evolving, Leavanny do not moult, and thus do not grow in height. [...]

They have been observed to live to fifteen years in the wild. Like other pokemon, trainer-owned Leavanny can live much longer lives given proper care. [...]


  • Unovan Pokedex Entry on Leavanny
~~~​

In the yellow light of the cavern, Art rolled over in his sleeping bag. He'd fallen asleep, and barely awoken to the various tugs of the leash he'd lashed to his wrist. Pulling his cellphone out of his bag, he squinted his eyes open at the time. 6:48 A.M. He'd slept for ten hours. Groaning, he sat up. Several text messages awaited him. He returned the phone back to his bag. Whatever the messages were, they could wait. Few people even had his phone number—Alder, Kate, the professor, Emily and his own father. He hadn't called his dad since he'd left Anville. Rubbing his eyes, Leah was lying down, asleep on the tunnel dirt. Leavanny, whom Art had yet to name, was a foot away from Leah.

Their faces in a permanent grin, their sleep was indicated by their lack of motion and their dark red eyes. He didn't see Minitina anywhere, no fake sewaddle. In fact, he hadn't seen them since the bike ride.

"Hi—", one of the girls from the other night spoke to him, drawing his attention. "Sorry to bother you!", the girl said, holding her swadloon in her arms, her blonde hair tied back in a hasty ponytail. "Is your name Burgh?" She'd asked.

Despite the fact that he was still struggling to wake up, being called Burgh had his attention. She looked a couple years younger than him. "Eey", he croaked, before coughing. "Sorry," he said, pulling up his bottle of water, and taking a quick drink. Still in his sleeping bag, the girl was talking before he could set the bottle down.

"Uh, you dont haveto sayanything ijustwantedtosay yourleavannysaved mylittlesisterlastnight and wesawthevideoof yourleavannydancing and iwantedtosay yourleavannysreallygreat and we havetogonowbye." He swallowed the swig of water he'd taken as the girl immediately went back to the other side of the tunnel, to her younger sister, hopping on their bikes, ditching Art. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes, then laid back down. His calves and thighs were voicing their strong objections to moving.

When he awoke again, it was to the tugs on the end of his wrist, as the Leavanny was rolling around, wrestling—and losing— to Leah. The sun was shining in the tunnel entrance, and a pair of bikers on electric cycles rolled through, their quiet motors humming as they rolled through the middle of three tunnels through Pinwheel Forest. He pulled up his pack, pulling out another container of compressed food he'd packed at the gym, drawing his two bugs up next to him.

He was still half asleep, and instead of reaching for the bowls he'd brought, decided to dump the bags into their mouths. The tunnels all had water fountains in the center, which was only a few feet away. Opening one bag, he dumped the contents in Leavanny's mouth, who immediately proceeded to mash them down as fast as possible, spewing their drool. The food was hyper-dense, and was, like many foods, modified to be ultra-nutrient dense. Even dried, one of these fruits in these packs had the density of four or five of the wild variants. He smiled, as Leah came forward.

Leah had so far been a more peculiar beast, in terms of mannerisms and behaviors. The pokedex said the leavanny line was particularly well-known for their creativity, but there was more to it. His girl wasn't any ordinary bug. She was a rescuer, and had a bit of a knack for getting into unexplainable trouble. He opened her bag of berries. She held out her leaves. Even with the potion application, he could tell— she'd been rubbing her arms again. She had been anxious. She twitched a bit, brushing them ever-so-slightly together—she was still anxious.

He held out his hand and bag, pouring it into her leaf-blades, cupped together. "Minitina ran away on you?" He asked. Of course, he had no idea what was really bothering her, though the missing leaf-sash his armored girl had crafted was as good an indication as any other. The other option was general anxiety of being in a tunnel or enclosed space. Reaching into his bag, he pulled out his own hyper-dense nutrient bar, stretching his legs out in the bag from the warming day.

He stood up, stretching his legs, feeling the nutrients of the bar hit his stomach, the soreness of his body fading as the food hit his bloodstream, healing the torn muscles, building them stronger. The road was either more empty than he'd expected it to be, or he'd slept through the worst of the traffic already. It didn't matter, it all just meant that he could have a slow start in the morning and wouldn't have to feel bad about it. Picking up his sleeping bag, he dusted it off, then rolled it up and compressed into its storage capsule. The continuing light drizzle and mixed cloud cover said he'd need to wear his jacket again.

The soreness wasn't completely gone, but as he stretched, doing a pair of lunges and touching his toes, Art was feeling pretty good about the remaining three-hour ride to Nacrene. It was a Friday, and the trickle of traffic said that some had traveled through the worst of the night's rain to get out of the city. Packing the capsule into his backpack, he decided to walk for the next few hours, giving the nutri-bar additional time to work. Spraying Leah with the elixir, he decided that it would be a good idea to get off of the road and do a hike through Pinwheel Forest. It would give the leavannies more time outside the pokeball, him some extra time to think and to plan, and maybe he'd even be able to do some extra training.

Putting on his backpack after putting the last of the garbage and stuff in his pack away, he took his first step to walk to the other side of the tunnel, when Leah chirped at him. Had he forgotten anything? He looked at her. Her little leaf-dress was covered in mud, and hid her leaf-leggings, but the tarsi at the bottom of her legs were still visible. Her shoes were missing, which was fine. Wait, how did she get them off? And where are they!? His stomach had dropped at the thought of replacing them. Bug-types didn't often get shoes, and that specialty store in Castelia was probably the only place with booties designed for bugs, and they had been expensive. The relief was fast- the shoes were at his feet. She'd dropped them for him.

He chuckled at his brief panic. He'd been right in his estimate— she was smart enough to get velcro off. In comparison, the other leavanny hadn't managed to get any of the velcro straps leashing him off. Art picked up the shoes, and was reminded of the girl who'd thanked him, hazy though the memory was. "Burgh," he whispered to himself. The shoes were sopping wet, and would get everything in the backpack wet too. Instead, he hooked the shoes' velcro together, hanging one off each strap of his pack. He gave Leah a quick bow, smiling to himself, then when the mud-covered bug reciprocated, he laughed out loud.

"Come on, let's go," he said to her, waving at her to lead the way. The goober at the end of the leash hadn't quite figured out the trainer-pokemon relationship yet, but followed Leah around in approximately everything she did. As they walked forward, Leah had reached over to a little outcropping of the rock wall, picking up the fidget spinner. He smirked. If Leah hadn't been so full of surprises, he'd have said another trainer was being nice, keeping it out of the dirt of the un-paved tunnels. The events of the past few days told him that she'd probably placed it there on purpose, probably to keep it out of the dirt. Or out of the reach of the conditioner-addicted goober. As she spinned the fidget spinner, the trio walking their way to the little misty morning sun, he paused and opened his pokedex. He had a name for the leavanny now. Fidget.

After entering the name for the male leavanny and putting the old dex away, he checked his phone. No calls, just texts. One from Aurea and another few from Kate.

"Talking to my dad, trying to get him to come around, but you were right. He'll retire when I get through Caitlin and take the regional champ title."

Leah had continued walking.

"You really gonna take the title of Burgh!? At first I didn't think it was u when I heard it, but they mentioned a dancing leavanny this morning. I thought you s—" his reading was cut short as Fidget tugged on him, pulling him a step forward, a step closer to the mist and late morning. Leah had found some interest in a hollowed tree that was just off the path. Ugh, he thought to himself, putting the old, battered phone away. You weren't supposed to take a trainer title until you had a few badges under you. Some people never actually took a title. To be assigned one? And with the pressure on from Cedric? The thought made him grind his teeth. He was glad the old man was so old-fashioned he didn't even own a television.

Artemus stepped forward, walking out into the trail, taking varying strides and lunges in the rain to stretch his leg and let the nutri-bar hit. Another couple hours, the soreness would be gone, and he'd be able to bike at least as far as he had the other day. He walked up to the hollowed-out tree Leah had walked into—he had to bend over to enter it, but both Leah and Fidget were able to get inside and stand up, a good foot or two of room between the leaves behind their heads and the roof of the trunk. What had Leah found? It was a patch of sweet-smelling moss and mushrooms. Fidget sliced a bit off with his blade and licked it, then decided following Leah was a better idea.

As they crossed the little canal and stream, the drumming mist of rain came to an end. Emerging from the tunnel, little blue pokemon bounded out of the way, using their large flippers to run deeper in the grass. He whipped out his pokedex, and managed to scan one before they completely ran away. Tympole. "You scared them away!" a voice shouted, startling the three of the adventurers. A pansage emerged from a thicket of trees first, followed by the signature red and black uniform of the regional rangers. It was the ranger from last night. Leah and the pansage eyed each other, the pansage's fur prickling and ears perked, ready for a fight.

The lady smiled. She was shorter than Art, like most people, but taller than Leah. Also like pretty much everyone, except young kids.

"Sage, relax!" she said, as her pansage drew to the ranger's side. When she turned her head to him after Leah didn't also retreat, his face went flush.

"Oh, sorry! Leah!" His bug perked up. "Come here!" He said, bringing Fidget and Leah back to him.

"Still working on control, huh?" The ranger asked.

"Yeah, something like that."

"Hmm…", she said. "You're going to need a lot more practice if that's where you're at. Are you sure it shouldn't be leashed too? It seems like the type to get itself into trouble."

"Her name's Leah. And uh, the one I'm most concerned about is already leashed." Art said, chuckling dryly. "His name's Fidget." The air was drying, the clouds thinning. Fidget had taken to trying to wrestle with Leah, who ignored him, choosing instead to stare. Not at the pansage, but at the ranger instead. The lady smiled. Looking to be in her mid-twenties and in rain-gear, the ranger was quite muscular.

"Right. Where are my manners," she said, picking up her pansage in her arms. "Name's Irene. I'm one of the rangers patrolling Pinwheel, and this little guy—" she tickles the little tuft of broccoli-like green—"is Sage."

"Name's Artemus." He said. She raised her eyebrow at him. She'd been expecting me to say Burgh.

"Well, Artemus," she began, her pansage hopping off of her to climb up a tree. "I apologize for being rude a moment ago. Your leavanny saved a girl last night, all while you slept, after wandering out in the rain. She'd thought she lost her swadloon, but turns out it had just been playing with your other leavanny, while Leah here had been out roaming in the night."

"Oh," he blushed, looking at Leah, patting her on the head, eliciting a little click from the bug's jaw. She moved out of his reach, like she usually did. "Thank you!"

"I'm serious. She's shown she can handle herself well even without her trainer watching over her all the time. I'm impressed at the trust you have with her, and she's quite the chaotic dancer, apparently. Do you plan to enter her into any beauty, talent, or other contests?" She asked.

This time, he laughed. "No, I don't think so." Bugs were never a favorite in the first place, so it wasn't even a consideration for anything outside of the competitive circuit. Fidget was beginning to fidget again, annoyed that Leah had walked out of the range Art was willing to let him go with the already-defensive pansage. The ranger seemed to have noticed as well. "At any rate, it was nice to meet you- I'm sorry, what was your name again?"

"It's Irene."

"It was nice to meet you, Ranger Irene, but I'm trying to get this one some more exercise before we bike the last stretch into Nacrene. That is, unless you want to try out a few rounds of training battles?" He asked, motioning toward Fidget, who was clawing into the bark of a nearby tree.

"No worries, Artemus. Sage and I are taking a break from battles for a few days as we work out some of his aggression, though he's been calming down." She turned looking up, holding up her arms out, saying "Come down!" Fidget watched as the sage jumped from high up in the tree into her arms.

As the ranger and her pansage stepped into the fallen, hollowed out tree, she paused. "Good luck against Lenora, you're gonna need it. She goes the hardest against no-badgers like you."

"Thank. You?" He asked, following up with a real question. "Before you go, any tips?"

"Not really?" she said. "She's why I'm a ranger. I only have six badges." Ranger Irene waved, leaving the trio behind, Art pausing as he looked at Leah, then at Fidget, who'd stripped the bark from the tree, chomping on it.

He sighed at his two goobers, smiling.

"Come on, let's get going on our little nature hike," Artemus said, calling Leah over, the trio setting off into eastern Pinwheel. As they walked, he made sure to keep his pokedex handy, half his mind cloudy with excitement and dreams of the near future, the other half cloudy with concern of just what exactly had been posted of him online and in the news/radio.

Then, he remembered what the guy with the mic had said.

Alder's Protege.

In the quiet of the woods, he laughed.

Oh, he laughed at the endless absurdities that continued to slide onto his plate.
 
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This is really well done. The surrealist aspects are cool, but the contrast between the legendary-tier shenanigans and the normal stuff is a bit extreme. Like, the character really shouldn't matter in these large scale political things? I mean, I guess it makes sense because she's able to plan mentally much better than most other Pokémon, but still.
 
@Young Pyromancer

You're definitely asking good questions, and you're kind-of right! But you're missing some details. To point you in a direction, the answer is: "there's reasons for it, and it's a bit of a puzzle".

For some hints:
- There's reasons that professor Cedric Juniper is so jaded, and why he and Aurea are focused more on the "lesser" pokemon's mass behaviors.

- There's reasons that Lebi was focusing on Leah, rather than other species that have trouble telling if it's them in the mirror, while also ignoring higher-order int pokemon to do her bidding.

Some people read Little Leavanny and might think I'm rolling with Anime-int or PMD-int pokemon.... And that's not the case here.

Pokemon intelligence is much more animalistic than 99% of fics. This isn't the only reason why Leah is selected, but it's a start. The rest you'll have to take a guess, starting with "was Lebi a good person"
 
Nothing to see here, just totally normal bugstuff such as interacting with gods with increasing frequency, as well as using superior know-hows to prevent unessesary visits to the poke-center!
 
Chapter 37 - Justified
~~~ Chapter 37 - Justified ~~~​

As the cloudfare thinned, Leaf, Lanky and I walked through the forest in relative silence, going deeper, passing the occasional nest of grey birds with yellow eyes and black-tipped wings. Pidove chicks hiding in the underbrush. Other times, we passed little lilligant and sunflora, jostling for the best places under the rays of the sun, peeking out from behind the clouds. Occasionally, Lanky would point at a tree, and command, "Razor Leaf!" or "Leaf Blade!" as we went. There was no real target practice, unless 'the bark of a dead tree' counted, so there was nothing really measuring my ability to hit a precise point. Nor did we ever find a good area for long-range practice. The trees were too thick.

"Cut!" Lanky shouted, pointing at a thick bush. I had a couple approaches. The boring—walk up to the bush, slash my arms through it, maybe do a scissor motion, but this time, I wanted to do something fancy. When you're girded in a leaf dress, what was the point if you didn't get some spinny? I took a few steps back, then ran at the bush, at the last second, kicking up and around, rotating my whole body, holding my arms together, accelerating the spin, then as the three-sixty neared, let my right arm out, slicing the bush in half, horizontally, revealing some little pieces of uneaten fruits on the inside. I plucked a few off as my reward, tossing some to Leaf.

Deeper into the forest we went, Lanky occasionally pulling out his pokedex, scanning more and more pokemon that we spotted. A pair of butterfree floated in the path we wanted to go, Lanky scanning them as we approached. His fingers twitched, reaching down to his belt, tapping one of the pokeballs, before deciding against the course of action. Instead, we continued together into a deeper thicket, following chirps, buzzes and the occasional waft of honey floating in. As we crossed, there were occasional gash marks against the trees. Beedrill and butterfree floated about, visiting the tree and flower alike. A sewaddle poked out from a tree above us, their own cape still glistening from the morning mists. Lanky silently pulled Leaf into his arms, setting the bug on his shoulders. Leaf startled at the change in position, yet uncomplaining.

Leaf and Lanky walked out into the clearing, Lanky's eyes wide open as he spun at every buzzing, every flap of butterfree wings, and every chirp in the forest. Deciding the duo would be fine without my immediate attention, I climbed up the tree, checking on the sewaddle. A pair of cotton-puffs with eyes watched from even further up. Sewaddle chirped a little, short chirp, their body covered in leaves, though the job was shoddy and patchy. The waddle's leaf-armor was covered in sticky, wet specks of cotton that had floated down from above. I felt a light muteness on my antennae, a tasteless scent dampening the world. I didn't see anything that looked like a nest in here. And, well, it just. It felt right, okay? I picked up the cotton-covered sewaddle, holding it in my arms.

I heard a single, muted "click" after I dropped down, when I was confronted with another leavanny limping, their leaves and carapace covered in blotches of purple, staggering. Moving closer, we tapped one another's antennae, their scent familiar, yet obfuscated by the smell of poison. They then tapped, tickling what I could only assume was their child, before taking a few more steps, sitting down in the grass and sun, the muscles in their arm beginning to twitch and contract. Setting the sewaddle down, I ran to Lanky, tugging, trying not to make any major noises amidst the bees. He looked down at me. I reached out my arm, pointing at the twitching leavanny and their sewaddle. Lanky's eyes widened, and grabbing on to Leaf's legs, jogged towards the ailing bug.

I didn't know which berries were which at all, but anything that could help, we would try. Leaf, my taller counterpart, hopped off Lanky's shoulders rolling onto the ground, then approached the ailing leavanny and sewaddle with Lanky, before giving the baby his own antennae-tickles, wiping off some of the sticky-wet cotton. I ran through the woods, tapping every fruit bush we'd passed, spearing every unique kind that I could, before running back, my arms a kind of berry-kebab. Even as my own mouth watered with the sweets in hand, running back to Lanky, I didn't realize one thing: leavanny aren't the only ones attracted to the smell of juicy sweets. As I ran back into the clearing where I'd left Lanky, who was ruffling through his bag, I had to push Leaf off, a beedrill and butterfree catching the scent, drifting close.

The first fruit I pulled off and shoved into the ailing leavanny's jittering mouth, was yellow and pear-shaped. I sliced it in quarters, Lanky pouring a bit of water in the leavanny's mouth, putting two in the patient's mouth. I then threw half the berry out at the approaching flyers, hoping that would be enough. The world was oddly mute. Not waiting to see if I'd found the right berry for poison, I pulled a red one. Lanky tapped me on the head, instead gently grabbing my arm, and pulling off a smaller, hollow pink fruit. The purple on the bug's carapace remained, nor did the contraction of the bug's muscles reduce, as Lanky shoved one berry into the leavanny's mouth, yelping as the jaw twitched, mashing his fingers. He then picked the second one up—holding it in front of our eyes, vocalizing a word, before shoving it into the leavanny's mouth.

More beedrill had begun to gather in the field—I tasted sugar, then skin and sweat and dirt, my antennae lightly tugged, I had to hold in the yelp, concerned about causing problems with the bees, and sounds returned, a growing buzzing in the air. Lanky held out his hand, a big piece of cotton, he balled up and dropped to the ground as the purple on our patient's carapace began to reduce, beginning from the face, thorax and abdomen areas. I had to shove Leaf away from my berries, as Lanky packed up the contents of his bag that he'd spilled onto the ground. Looked around, then glanced down at the sewaddle and the recovering leavanny, he sighed as he stood up. There were about four beedrill, one pushed out of the group fighting over the fruits I'd thrown, instead deciding to float to us. With the sweets in the air, I was drooling. I picked up the red, cherry-like berry. I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I ate it. And my mouth and tongue erupted in metaphorical fire, causing me to heave and lose sight. My writhing was interrupted by a sharp pain on my arm, where the last fruits were. My vision returned, and what I expected—a beedrill biting down—was instead my own nest-mate.

I ceased moving, fire in my mouth forgot. The world slowed, my abdomen buzzed, Leaf realized his mistake, a wind picked up around us. He released the clamp on my arm, as I stood up, the sun turning hot, he fell to the ground, curling, shrinking like a poisoned bug before me. Beedrill found other, more interesting things as I hovered over the traitor in sheer, unyielding rage. The warmth of the sun concentrating in my center, the buzzing in the world fading. A flash of red light, and I was in the dark, the world mute around me, the energy of the rage circling and burning.

As one does, I lost time while in the pokeball. I pushed, I prodded, I tried to roll, but I could not re-enact the same escape that I had accidentally orchestrated the month before. But the heat, the reminder of the anger was there, and it would not let go. It needed, it DEMANDED to make itself known, it did not care. I was released from my pokeball and immediately the energy in my chest-area escaped the thorax, pushing its way out slamming me off my legs with a high-pitched scream, rolling out through the grass, my overcoat of leaves taking the bulk of the rocks and roots as I tumbled. My vision began to recover, afterimages of a black and red and yellow larva fading from my eyes. The world was moving slow, the sun still beating down, hotter than a summer day. Lanky moved in slow motion, appearing overhead with the potion he'd been spraying me with, giving me a quick squirt of it, then as I sat up, held out his bottle of water. The heat inside was gone. He poured some water into my mouth. I did not see or smell the leavanny/sewaddle pair we'd rescued.

Good, I thought.

Flocks of birds took to the skies, screams of wild pokemon erupting in the distance. I stood back up. We were still in the same meadow from earlier. The sun was still hot. Lanky was still moving at half-speed. A green quadruped with a wide head and thick neck stood at the edge of the treeline, limbs blasted off the trees, a large black gash down its side. A dark silhouette of a pokemon fell out of a tree behind the forest protector. A dark line proceeded from the center of our onlooker's forehead to the back of its skull, the head an ultra-wide v-shape from elongated horns extending out the sides, ending in bulbous shapes. It looked as if it was dressed in a suit of green, the grass coat ending in a light tan colour, its legs ending in boot-like grass.

Virizion. Caught in the crossfire. I groaned at the legendary's presence and misfortune, staring up at them. They returned my contest. Unfortunately for them, I cannot lose at blinking contests. Unfortunately for me, I am a bug. The bees and butterfree had chosen, wisely, not to return just yet. Lanky turned. Lanky joined the stare, his hands slowly trembling as he held out his pokedex. Virizion did not move. Tired of the wait, I threw a leaf. If it was possible to feel an aura of general disdain, I felt it in that moment. The pokemon took a step further, the feeling growing stronger, the feeling that they were doing what was right, that it was inevitable, what was going to happen in just a few moments. Even in their slow motion, even under the beating, they stepped slowly, leisurely. Lanky was staring at his device. I reached up, poking him where all humans were most vulnerable—the belly. A bit too hard, perhaps, as Lanky nearly dropped the pokedex.

I clicked "Virizion is coming, you idiot, and you're staring at your screen!" the antelope-like grass type stepped out into the meadow. They were easily three hundred meters away, but kept walking with mosey. I pushed Lanky, verbally chewing him out, clicking, pushing the kid, when his eyes widened, hopefully realizing what was happening. He reached to grab my pokeball from his belt, but I slapped his hand.

"At least get out of the field!" the teen's movements at half-speed, he finally got the clue and stepped back into the trees, a red light, and Leaf was out. I didn't see how Leaf would help, but at least Lanky would have someone to help protect him after I'd died. I stepped further out into the field, approaching them, rubbing my blade-arms together, judgemental asshole approaching. I hearkened back to my anger. My anger at being used, my anger at being betrayed. Instead of pulling it and trying to hold it all in, I held it in the air, my body beginning to vibrate, the wind swirling around me. A single hoof hit the ground, and a blade of grass under me rebelled, knocking me on the ground and on my ass.

Judgement's come.

The world around me sped up as I tried to stand, the virizion's eyes glowing, it was as if my leaves were sliding from the sun into pitch black, their energy diverting to the demigod before me. My limbs fell limp, and I struggled. Then, the feeling of judgement was gone, the light of the sun returned to my leaves, virizion continuing their trot toward me, going deeper into the woods. Life sapped, I rolled back over, facing into the sun, Lanky by my side.

Both Leaf and the leavanny we'd saved appeared out of nowhere, their movements unnaturally fast. Lanky held up his bottle of water, but it only dripped a few drops. He was out of water. Leaf came over, and dropped a few of the red cherry-looking berries by my side, before disappearing again. The leavanny we'd saved had done the same, sewaddle on their head, they dropped one of the yellow, citrus-y, pear-shaped fruits.

Lanky gave them to me, and minutes later, it was Lanky who was slow again. I clicked my jaws, mashing the last of the berries, sitting back up, happy to be alive, I was ready to get the hell out of the forest.

The three of us walked, heading back north a couple of hours as we trotted forward. I dreamt of the swaddlies, wondering where they were, what they were doing. Leaf was off the leash, Lanky apparently deciding to trust the little traitor. My taller counterpart shrank whenever I'd look at them, pulling their arms back, they rubbed their arms together, their antennae twitching. I inspected the right blade-arm, the one they'd bit. It was mashed pretty good, flat lines where they'd chomped, a good v-like puncture in my leaf-blade from the fore of their beak giving it some extra aerodynamics. Something I hadn't had since making a leaf-cup to drink at the fountain, after my first "fight" with the rockruff. Back when I'd first met Lanky, in train-town.

The leavanny/sewaddle pair apparently realized where we were headed, and with no fanfare, decided to run back off, deeper into the woods, hopefully to make a new nest. Ones a bit further from cotton pokemon, beedrill and butterfree. Leaf had apparently been feeling bad, when he picked up some leaves off trees, and made me a little patch. I accepted the gift, gluing it on over the other leaves that had been patched on, though not yet fully integrated. Holding his arm out, proffering the patch to me, his own leaf-blades were unhealthily thin. The traitor's leaves were being shaved off through the hike, even long after I was betrayed.

Leaf and I both relaxed when the strong summer sun reduced, followed by Lanky speeding up. The teen was covered and smelling like sweat after running through the woods when we stumbled on a little stream. Lanky filled his bottle, and both Leaf and I took drinks from the stream, cooling off the heat we'd been building from the energy that we'd been burning. There, Lanky pulled out packs of dried food, giving us some lunch and taking a break, spinning the spinner he'd apparently picked up after I forgot about it.

Letting Leaf's blades fall apart simply wasn't an option, so I took the break-time to pull together some leaves, and make a set of patches. Our trainer was content to rest and stretch, occasionally watching me work, or following Leaf as they poked about, not looking at me, their earthy scent following them as they agitated various forest pokemon. The final product of my work was two sheets of leaves sized to the length of my arm, so probably a bit small, compared to the traitor's. The leaves were still soft and the sticky silk had yet to dry. I found him, wiggling under a bush, poking at a hiding pidove, pulling his arm back as it pecked. I nudged the bug's leg, startling them, the pidove taking the opportunity to flee. Standing above him, despite his height, the bug cowered, shrinking, scrunching their abdomen under their armored leaf-skirt.

I tapped him again. Then a third time before Leaf finally got the clue, standing up, holding their arms close to their chest, making little circular motions, causing their blades to friction. Pulling the traitor back to my little work area, I held the bug's arm out, slapping my patch-coverings on for them, their scent becoming saccharine. Once the patches had been applied for them, they just… laid down on the ground, un-moving, though their antennae twitched. The leavanny was still dramatically weaker than me, but it never felt like our gap had been this big. His leaves didn't have the punch mine did, nor his kicks or cuts or chops. But his bite had a lot of oomph. It was a good, if obvious lesson, at least. Avoid punctures and jaws and beaks. Shivering at a dream I'd once had, of being swallowed by a bird, beaks were definitely to be avoided, and my instincts agreed. Leaf, with his saccharine and earthy scent, tried to give me every other berry or fruit he could find.

When we found ourselves on the trail, it was empty except for a pair of joggers running along the compact, dirt road, waving at our trainer, who waved back. Leaf gave me another berry. When Lanky pulled out the bike, pulling out Leaf's pokeball, I objected.

I pressed my arm on the button of my ball, hanging off Lanky's leather belt, my world disappearing into dark, chirps of an annoyed bug echoing, then fading, along with conscious thought.
 
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A little hard to follow what happened with the legendary there, but I think that's intentional. Really intriguing how being a bug is affecting her mind here. I mean, it always is, but this chapter displays it more than most.
 
Chapter 38 - Detective
~~~ Chapter 38 - Detective ~~~​

When I awoke, I was on the ground, lying prone. My vision was still gone, not yet returned from my sleep. I was outside, on manicured grass, or at least, freshly cut. Light entered my vision again, vague shadowy blobs forming, coalescing into my slightly clear-yet still blurry sight. We were on the side of a large building, its steep height casting a long shadow over us. A brick fence more than thrice as tall as me jutted out of the side, topped with a curve of cement surrounding it, chirps of some barking dogs on the other side. The wall and building gave off a similar scent as the gym's courtyard, and surprisingly, it was similar to the road of the bridge we'd crossed. I was glad. Vision fully returned, I stood up, looking at Lanky. The smell of humans and general town-life was welcome.

A sweet smell drifted through my antennae, and I immediately rolled over, sitting up. Lanky was holding a bag, the source of my next meal, ready for the snacks. A few feet in front of him was a man in dark, almost-purple pants with a tan, corduroy jacket that had big, dark buttons down the front. His shoes were black leather, a gross synthetic smell rolling off of them, threatening to ruin the citrusy and cherry smell. The man nodded to Lanky, who nodded in return before sitting down in front of me on the grass. It wasn't night, the sun was still up, but the clouds had all dissipated/moved on, the sky a vibrant blue-ish purple.

I stood up, the guy flinching, looking at lanky, who said what I could only assume was some reassuring words, as I stepped a few feet out of the shadow of the building, and into the afternoon sun. The man chuckled, and shifted, turning to face me. Lanky was watching me. I could read his expressions pretty well by this point, at least while I was in range of his own scent. The building I was now facing was incredibly ornate, even for a gym. The man opened his briefcase, pulling out a tablet, pointing it at me for a moment. My mouth watered, and I looked at Lanky, who just stared at me, saying the word I knew for "wait/stay". The man pulled out a sheet of papers.

Do they know? I asked myself. I didn't think anyone knew. I just wanted to be happy, I just wanted to live my life. No, I told myself. They didn't know. How could they? I looked down, I was fidgeting. I turned back to Lanky.

What kind of berries are those? I thought to myself, my arms relaxing as I imagined what they'd taste like just from their smell. They had a similar scent as the cherry-conditioner. The man motioned to his left, talking, almost mumbling. Lanky sat down, next to me. A tall, dark-skinned woman with turquoise hair stepped out of the building. We were at a gym. Yeah. I knew what this place was. A second later, the gym leader held the door open for a significantly shorter woman walking beside a large dinosaur-like pokemon. The girl had brown hair and dressed plainly wearing a faded red hat and loose long-sleeved T-shirt and jeans.

The dinosaur-like pokemon was light-green with massive red flower-petals all around its neck. The gym leader let the door close shut, the shorter girl and pokemon glancing over at us as a third person, this one dressed in a silver tracksuit and sunglasses jogged out, giving us a wave. I didn't recognize the guy, the shorter girl or Meganium, but I sure as hell knew the other lady from my past life. Lenora. I didn't know which gym I'd fought her in, but it didn't take a whole lot to guess what was going to happen soon, even with this detective in front of us.

I looked back at Lanky. It was hard to imagine him as the future Burgh. The guy with sunglasses waved at the detective in front of me, speaking and jogging over. The detective looked over, speaking some words. He had a pair of bottles of water in hand, giving one to the detective, tossing the other to Lanky, before jogging off, back inside the museum-gym. I knew what the questions were going to be about, but what I didn't know was how they were going to ask them. The first thing the man did was lay down in front of me a picture of— a picture of several humans and pokemon. A bunch of pictures of ghosts, misdreavus, mismagius, all in the ruins that Lebi sent me in. An absol, what looked like a future version of an absol? Does absol have an evolution? A picture of Oust, a penguin, and a girl with blue hair and a pink-and-white beanie.

Lanky put his hands on my arms, gently pushing them down. "Do we really?" I asked. He responded, of course, but it was in an "I'm talking to my cute bug pokemon" tone, not his "I'm talking to another human" voice. He pulled out a berry, pointing at the assortment of pictures. Lanky seemed confident. Had Lebi given me away, as one last act of spite? Were they waiting to spring this on me until now? I reached out for the berry, but he pulled it back. At least give me some payment before we start this! I squirmed. I could run up a tree? Up to the top of the building? I could climb our gym's walls. I could. I could—Lanky put his left hand on my head, his voice and presence reassuring.

The detective took a sip of his drink. I took a brea—no. I shut my mouth with a loud clack, interrupting the manual inhalation of air. I held still for a moment, letting my abdominal pockets do their work instead. They didn't know anything. I'm fine. Lanky's face shifted, before speaking to the detective, who gave him a thumbs-up. He gave me the berry. The berry was small, but the outer layer of it immediately melted off, the sugars mixing, dripping down into my thorax, energizing every part of my body it touched. The inner layer had a hint of cherry, not the same as the conditioner, clearly, as it had no fats or metals or greases in it, but was not far off it too melted, leaving a final, hard piece. The center was not as sweet, but filled with a thick, dense nitrogen core. It was approximately the size of a skittle, though hard as a rock. I opened my mouth, mashing the rock along my flat, inner ridges.

Taste of goodness lingering, I returned to the reality in front of me, swishing my tongue back and forth, collecting stubborn syrups even as the core defied the chops. Detective had changed strategy. In front of me were two pictures, instead of a hundred. One picture was blank. The other was a picture of a swadloon, in particular, it was the swadloon from the other night. How'd they get that? I shook my head and tapped the swadloon. Dogs yelped in the distance, behind the gym walls. Swadloon was replaced with a picture of a black dragon. Zekrom. I tapped the white one. A picture of a charizard. I tapped white. Blue hair, white beanie, pink skirt. I tapped the girl. An overhead picture of the black and pink latias showed up, hovering over the gym courtyard. Lanky's hand, still on my head, stiffened, my antennae tapping his phalanges.

I tapped the latias. The pace quickened. A picture of pig-like pokemon, a musharna lying, strapped into a bed, a pair of tubes coming out of them. I tapped white. The sweet taste of the candy in my mouth faded. A groudon. Nope. Empty. A picture of some ruins at the top of a mountain. Nope. Blank paper. The detective set out a picture of an absol, two stones around its neck. I never saw them in person? But they were related. I'd dreamt about them. I'd dreamt about being killed by their team, after getting the girl killed at Lebi's behest. They made me angry. The sweets were still in the air, but no. A picture of a celebi. A picture of squidfriend. A picture of a slew of faces I didn't know. The next picture was a volcarona.

Tentacruel games.

I let go, rolling struggling, "Ne Ne Ne Ne", clack, clack, clack. This whole thing was stupid! No. I don't care any more! Lanky and the detective both jumped away. I tossed and turned and struggled in the grass, carving into the dirt. I stood up, Lanky and the detective keeping their distance. I stood up. Lenora and the girl who'd left moments ago had returned, and were watching me. Lanky had my pokeball in his hand. I ran off into the street, to the east. I didn't look back. I ran and ran and ran, past people and pokemon walking along the street, a short thicket of trees, I ran through grass again, crawling over afternoon picnickers, shoving baskets and kids out of the way, running out of the sun into safety of the dark, deep into the thickets. I walked. And jogged. And walked again. I was in the midst of bushes. No birds, no bees. No spiders. A little pair of venipede antennae poked out from some roots, their angry scent all through the area.

I looked down at them. They didn't seem to be too aggressive at this point. I could nest here. I followed along a wide dirt path, finding a large, circular area in the middle of tall flora, the area sitting in the sun. This is as good a place to start a nest-garden as any other, I tell myself. I hear shouts of "Leah!" in the distance. Not going back now, not right now. No siree. The shouts draw closer, and I feel a rhythmic rumbling, the angry scent of a venipede in the air draws closer. My blades are frictioning together at the approach. Instinct doesn't like it, but no, I clamped down, refusing the panic-breathing.

I am staying here! This will be our nest! Nevermind the fact that there's no other nest mates. Yet.

The place needed flowers and berry bushes. The rustling grew closer, I took a breath. That was the first thing I'd do. Yes. Get a bunch of berries, and they'll grow wherever I nest. The courtyard and gym floor had already been sprouting greenery, even after only a few days of me living there. My blades were rubbing again. Shouts drew near, a shadow towering above me. I took a breath, turning to face my new guest. A large, dark, segmented belly towered, angry markings, with an angry scent, drops of purple dripping from its mouth, yellow eyes with a helmeted head, and two massive, stationary antenna jutted out, the whole body writhing, its red armor and pink circles telling the only story I needed to know.

No. No no nonono.

The foreposition of the massive bug's body came crashing down, body slamming me flat into the earth. Not over not overnot overnotovernot— The body of the pissed scolipede lifted up off me— not deadnotdeadnotdead. I didn't want to anger the bug even more, but I ran into the west, screaming, "NNNNNNNNEEEEEEEeeeeeeyyyyyy", while the angry scolipede chittered and slammed trees, rocks, and everything else out of the way in their pursuit, drops of poison falling from them. I ran, sliding under roots, jumping over bushes, and trails, the only thing stopping me from suffering another flattening being the damn thing toppling trees it slammed into.

What I didn't expect, and maybe possibly should have, is that if there's venipede around, and a scolipede nest, there is another. Which I found out when another pair of red and pink antennae poked out in front of me, looking at their partner. "LLLEEEeeee!" I screamed again, reaching out my arm, using the momentum to swing me south, as the new scolipede also screamed at me, beginning their own charge, before being bowled over by their partner who had been unable to shift their momentum. They both screeched, turning their way to me as I hooked back west again, heading back into town. "Ssaaaaaveee meee!" I screamed, only the usual nonsense of my inhuman vocals coming out, my abdomen pumping hard as I ran through the forest, two angry scolipede chasing after me.

There was no place to hide—this place was their nest, and I could not trust any hiding spot. I was breathing through my mouth as I ran, alternating between screams, my pursuers refusing to let up their chase. Meganium was running toward me, Lanky and the other girl I hadn't recognized at the gym jumped off at the sight of the two stampeding scolipede, a screen of light erecting in front of the meganium, followed by a glow between us both, as Lanky shouted, standing up. He shouted again, the leaf-dinosaur charging past me as I ran, chancing a glance behind me, a loud crack and the lightscreen immediately shattered as the meganium tanked the blow, the other scolipede diverting to chase after me.

It's more than twice my size, and more than ten times my mass! I thought. Lanky shouted again, "Cut!", and well, I don't know what I was thinking, but I grabbed onto a tree, spinning to face the charging monster, bolstered by his confidence. Clamping my jaw shut, I pulled, my body clamping tight, the world, including the speeding scolipede slowing down to a much more manageable pace. I met the scolipede head on, sliding under its belly with my blades, the titan unable to slam into me, its body moving forward too fast by the time it had tried to body slam me again. The red, pink and black blurred into afterimages, before finally coalescing into one, a single image jittering as it sped up, not quite done with me yet.

I glowed ever-so-slightly, focusing on my opponent as they changed their strategies now that I was facing them directly, little drops of ichor falling from their large underside, like they'd just gotten a papercut. My abdomen vibrated. It had almost worked against Virizion, and it probably wasn't the best time to practice, but I pulled the anxiety in, mutually circling my opponent, the light of the sun coming down, shifting into a beautiful, thick violet. My opponent, holding half their body high, towering over me, their angry yellow eyes staring me down. I thought of the swadloon from the night before, their blankets of leaves unkempt, no caretaker to help them, their trainers not helping. I held onto that instinct, the other girl shouting at her meganium, its own leaves turning white in the beautiful, burning ultraviolet afternoon sun.

My opponent took advantage of my standing still, spraying me with a mass of purple goop. The energy of my leaves had diverted to my thorax, my abdomen heating up, struggling to keep the heat down as the world vibrated. The purple goop slid off of me, as if I was wearing a hazmat suit. Vision cleared, scolipede running at me, I dug my legs into the ground, leaned forward, putting all the force in my muscles down, I opened my mouth, releasing the pent-up energy, my vision going blank, my body going cold and numb. The beam screamed into the air, followed by a second scream not my own. My limbs fell to the side, and yet I stood, mouth agape.

My last conscious thought was: "Congratulations! I've learned Solar Beam!"

~~~​

When I awoke, it was in a pokecenter. Again. A speaker beeped, my arms and legs restrained in my sleeping position. Air flowed through my mouth, and I tried to close it, but couldn't, jaw held open with a spacer tasting like plastic, dripping a sour liquid into my throat. "Eeeerrrgh" I moaned, wiggling. I turned my head at the source of the beeps. A screen hung off the countertop, the silhouette of a leavanny on the screen, all green except for my abdomen, which flashed orange.

Damnit, Leah. I'd been to a pokecenter probably every other day since we left the professor's house. I was done with this shit!

"You didn't meet the scolipede on your way into the city, now did you, child?"

Ugh.
Just what I needed. A new voice in my head. The door to the room opened. A girl entered the room. She had blue hair. I turned my head to follow her as she moved about.

"Fret not, worry not, dreamer."

My vision turned a milky pink, and I was thrust once more into a world of dreams. Once again, I was in the center of a forest. I felt pleasant. I wasn't hungry. I wasn't anxious, I wasn't angry. The sun kissed my leaves and lulled me into the world of dreams. A windy breeze brushed against my antennae.

I could see forever, and the forest was massive, and it went on for eternity. I was in the center of all the trails that spiraled out from the center. A figure of green coalesced, their leaves, antennae and eyes appearing, before the rest of their body. My antennae could not smell them, but by their height, by their leaves, the patch on their arm, it was Leaf. Next to me, staring into my eyes. He held out an arm gently next to me, opening his mouth to speak.

"Walk with me, my love?" he asked.

I reached out, tapping the end of the back of my right forearm arm with his, the little feelers we usually used to grab leaves or climb trees locking our arms together.

"That sounds nice," I voice my consent.

The sun was pleasant, the forest chirping to life. After images of other leavanny walking together or walking alone floated behind us, through the forest. One was always my height on each path, each time the trail forked. The afterimage's partner was Leaf, the partner was Bonk, or other leavanny I had yet to meet. Occasionally I was alone. Other times when I wasn't alone, I wasn't holding their arms. I returned to the center, Leaf's arm next to mine.

We walked through the path, the distance between forks growing larger and larger. The field opened up, a poisoned leavanny staggered back into their nest, sewaddle surrounding it. The leavanny disappeared, the path before us split, and we walked to the left. We were in train-town again, a leavanny on the roof, their team of swadloon and sewaddle making their nest. Lanky was there, a bag of soil in hand, contraptions of leaves reaching out from a faucet, feeding water into lines of pots. No battles or pokeballs to be found.

The path twisted again; a leavanny was in the Anville pokecenter. Instead of getting annoyed with the nurse, she'd responded, and worked with her, eventually teaming up with the nurse. Running a pokecenter, a greenhouse off to the side, specializing exclusively in grass and bug pokemon. The path diverged again, the leavanny helping the blue-haired nurse care for and assure stressed pokemon and trainers. Lanky nowhere to be found.

Leaf and I took another turn, still further from the center, the sun somehow warming us both. Another path, and Lanky was climbing a mountain, three leavanny above him, climbing, his hands covered in gooey silk, helping him maintain balance alongside the rocky cliff. Again, the scene shifted as we walked down the path in silence.

A celebi had been more clear the first time. A leavanny died in the mountain that day, a mountain erupted in flame, magma flowing out of the region. Two sleeping titans rose from their slumber at the challenge of the newcomer. None would win, but there would be losers.

Leaf and I paused at the next fork. He held his right leaf to his mouth, as if thinking. "You should see these next few yourself. I'll meet you up ahead."

I nodded, leaving my nest mate behind. I didn't really think about which path to take in this dream up to this point, and wasn't about to start now. Lanky and the mirage of me were in the gym, the massive building, along with an atrium, had a library and a museum in it. Lanky held out a chalkboard, talking to me. Lenora peeked around the corner, watching Lanky with interest. On my left, I watched myself rubbing my leaf-arms together, lanky's face turning to worry each time, before deciding to pack it up. On my right, I was fighting the meganium. Each time, I was shoved out of the ring with ease. Fight after fight, no matter how hard I'd push, the meganium wouldn't move unless it chose. I was growing stronger. I was getting faster, but it didn't matter. Each time we left, the guy with the sunglasses gave Lanky a pat on the back, and a "better luck next time".

On my left, Lanky was given a badge. On my right. Lanky was given a badge, even with our total loss. On both, he was there. On both, he was with me, cheering me on.

I continued my journey, the scenes rewinding as I continued to progress out from the center.

This time, on my left, I'd fallen to the floor, frustrated, struggling in annoyance, causing lanky to pull out his pokeball to stop the struggle from tearing up the museum. On my right, I'd fallen into a groove, giving up as my moves and attacks did precisely nothing, only executing the exact words Lanky called out, like an unthinking robot. Lanky and I left the city and gym in defeat. On either side, I'd given up. On both, I was the one who gave up on me. Later, Lanky would return to that gym, with other pokemon, and he would claim the badge, but it would be a different partner with him instead.

I continued walking forward. In one, I'd run away from town, this time, with more success. I'd live in the wild, have a nest, and adopt pokemon. In another, we returned to the city, Lanky with his two badges, the gym would open to the trainers again, and people from all around would come to see our greenhouse, others, come to train and fight. A young teen with green hair stayed in the gym with Lanky, now Burgh, their eyes aglow at our craft as we'd turned that gym into a nest of our own, alongside humans and inside the city.

The kid knelt down to the mirage of me, smiling, holding out his hands.

Leaf shimmered into existence as the vision faded. "Welcome back, love." Leaf said, holding out his arm. I reached out, joining mine to his, and we continued traversing our dreams of endless futures, some with Lanky, some with Burgh, some with the Nurse, others with N, the kid with green hair.

My vision began to lose the vibrant color, the canopy of the trees fading into fluorescent whites, the forest trail and scenes we'd passed slowly dissolving, the sounds of the world the first to fully disappear, the leaves and trees fading as Lanky's face staring down at me as my antennae explored the air, tapping for what scents they could taste. He held me up, and I was in the lobby of the pokecenter, in the teen's arms once again, the last vestiges of the dream-world fading. I voice my first, and final question to the Leaf from the dissipating dream.

"Human in a bug's body. Do you ever wonder…?"

"Yes, little dreamer."
 
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Okay, I'm going to elaborate.

First off, this chapter began to bring to a head the identity conflict between the bug-like thought patterns and the human personality. A great example of this shows up here: "I took a brea—no. I shut my mouth with a loud clack, interrupting the manual inhalation of air. I held still for a moment, letting my abdominal pockets do their work instead." Here, the human habit of breathing is having to be suppressed to pretend to be a bug. In contrast, there's also times where human proccesses are suborned by bug-borne limitations; The quote "I could read his expressions pretty well by this point, at least while I was in range of his own scent" involves Leah having to work with scent to read human expressions, something that never would be possible, much less necessary, as a human. The chapter also shows that people are taking note of these weird events, which is very realistic, especially since some of it would be recorded by Burgh's Pokedex's entries. There's also possibly some implications that the detective here is considering the human idea, though the chapter makes a point of clarifying that Burgh doesn't think that ("but it was in an 'I'm talking to my cute bug pokemon' tone, not his 'I'm talking to another human' voice").

Additionally, there's the whole 'dreamer' bit, which WOULD be confusing, but the author previously set up dream-visions in two previous chapters. The idea of dreams being sent as messages was introduced by the whole dream cult thingy, which the portrayal of specifically focused on Darkrai. Then, we had Darkrai crop up again and were told that they couldn't communicate with Leah while she was awake without taking her into the shadow realm. This is an excellent example of how foreshadowing can be used to explain things to the reader without breaking the first-person perspective, or having the character figure it out themselves.

So, yeah. Excellent chapter. Best one so far, IMO.
 
This thread deserves a lot more attention than it's been getting. It's the least I can do.
Fully agree with Pyro here. There's far too little stories where a human in a nonhuman body has to deal with things such as instincts, perspective, and new organs doing their thing. Even if this cattegory was the more common one, it's incredibly well written.

Edit:
forgot to mention this in my sleep-depraved haze yesterday, but what I was going for with it's 'incredibly well written' I mean that 'I'd still watch and read this story even if the stories where instincts and new sensations play a more active role were more comon.' That is all.
 
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Chapter 39 - Candy
~~~ Chapter 39 - Candy ~~~​

I have questions, Cresselia, I stated. Lanky and I walked out into the night, Lanky holding my forelimb. People on bikes cycled along the road, nary a car in sight. The moon shone its bright yellow lights from above, only the lights of townhomes, lofts above small stores lit the road. Joggers and pokemon walked about through the night of the city, many bearing reflector for the occasional biker. I had been asleep for quite some time.

"The moon is full. You may ask."

Lanky pulled from his pocket, another candy. My mouth opened, the future gym-leader dropped the treat in. Clamping shut, the outer layer of the candy dissolved under my mouth's digestives. I had already played heartgold. I had played Black and White. I could be happy. What happened to Tug? Or Bonk? They would return. Oust? I wanted to see them again. What did Lebi want? Why me?

Was that really what I wanted to ask? Did I care? Why did Lebi choose me? Lanky was looking down at me, his mouth in an upward curve, eyes squinting. The inside of my mouth was coated in the syrup of the candy's second layer. A door to our left opened as we walked into the west. The man stepped out, waving at us. A bipedal, humanoid pokemon with a piece of wood in its arms stepped out. Timburr. A kid, not my height, stood in the doorway with a pokeball in hand. The man and pokemon stepped out into the street as the boy stared at me as Lanky and I passed. The timburr ignored me, but was instead staring at the boy in the doorway. The older man, possibly the kid's father? Called to the boy as they went out into the street.

We continued on our little walk, passing residences and stores in the remarkably dense, yet compact town. Only the light hum of air conditioning and people going about their lives sounded in the air, trees so nearby they muffled anything louder. No rumbling cars or car horns, no boats. No skyscrapers for the sounds to echo off of. It really was natural. It had only been a few moments, but I'd already reached the inner core of my candy. I'd already taken too long trying to think it through. I couldn't make her wait any longer. But I couldn't come up with any good questions on the spot!

"Can you eat candy? What's your favorite kind?"

Looking up at the moon, I rotated my head up to see the big… blob of yellow. Because my eyes can't see that far. I didn't think there were any clouds out right then, either. Not a single star was visible in the sky. They never were. We entered a 'T' section of the road. Lanky turned left, and we headed north together. We turned back west again, heading down out of the center of the city, further and further out. Leaf's smell was the first thing that hinted someone on our team had been here before. It was a set of four townhomes with a large brick fence, not as thick and sturdy as the gym, but it easily thrice my height.

"How about an easier question, Cresselia. What does dreamer mean?"

The front door to the house opened, and the lady from earlier stood there, holding it open for Lanky. He sighed, stepping on to the path to the front door, waving at the trainer. We entered the home. It was… spartan. Reminded me of the professor's house in nuvema, except not even a pair of token pictures on the wall. The only thing placed higher than I stood was the woman's backpack hanging off a rack and some books placed on a countertop.

The first floor immediately opened to a couch. The detective guy was kneeling on the main room floor, sets of pictures strewn about. A force hit me from the front, knocking my arm out of Lanky's hand, bowling me over onto the floor. When I got up, a large leaf-blanket was hanging off my thorax. Leaf had made me a present while I was gone? Lanky had left Leaf with the Detective? Judging by the printed pictures that littered the ground, he'd received the same questioning as me. Without me there. Like a gunshot, a single CRACK, snapped through the room, my jaws crunched what was left of the phosphoric core of the candy with a single mash.

Clever detective.

Everyone in the lower floor jumped, followed by multiple pokeballs in the room beeping their warning noises, the lady who'd let us in, grabbing her bag and running outside through a tall glass door. Leaf had jumped back at the gunshot sound of the mashed treat.

"Caramel Oran"

My antennae twitched, my vision turning pink, and I was in the middle of a field of sugary sweets and candies.

Can it wait? I asked. Cresselia apparently decided to oblige, since my vision returned. The detective and Lanky were both staring at me. I had things I needed to deal with, or the guy was going to follow us around. The beeping of the lady's pokeballs panic mechanisms stopped. How large was her team? I was lucky the girl hadn't had any of her pokemon out. I could taste the smell at least six distinct pokemon, if not seven or eight. The humans talked in short sentences, Lanky chuckling, picking me up before heading to sit on the couch as the detective re-collected the photographs that leaf had strewn about or tore through.

The detective turned their head up, looking at me, then Lanky, speaking some words. He stood up, then Lanky looked me in the eyes, his in a position I could only assume was questioning. High off the sugar, I walked outside as the lady with brown hair walked back. She has a meganium. And with that, I had a name for her. Megan. Megan the trainer of a meganium. Getting frustrated and struggle-bugging on the ground probably wasn't the best idea for the inside of the house. Everyone seemed to agree, at least, when I stepped outside and Megani turned the backyard porch-light on. We went through all of the pictures over again. I paused the tapping when they'd pulled out a picture of Oust in his non-sewaddle form. There was no background. Had they pilfered the scans from the pokecenter?

It was probably uploaded and added to a pokemon database online somewhere.

We made it through the whole pack of pictures, and I managed to keep my blades from rubbing two of the four times I noticed! Lanky and Leaf watching from a step on the porch, Lanky breathing a sigh of relief. Leaf had watched, though his antennae had been so still I was pretty sure he fell to torpor. When the detective packed up his briefcase, he gave Lanky a thumbs-up, going inside, stepping over my sleeping leaf-bug companion, who didn't move. Yeah, Leaf had fallen asleep.

Megan released her meganium, letting it out into the backyard, before taking her bag and disappearing up a staircase. The man opened their pantry door, pulling out a slab of dehydrated meat, tossing it to the dinosaur, who laid down outside, before going upstairs, leaving our small team to ruminate in their backyard, in the company of the dinosaur. Lanky went inside, swept up the mess of leaves Leaf had left in the kitchen, and turned off the lower floor lights, choosing to sleep, not on the couch, but with us bugs in the backyard.

Apparently they'd reached a deal while I was in the pokeball? Or… sleeping. Lanky pulled out a packet of food, holding them out, pouring them into my blade-arms, I ate. The meganium watched, lying down as Lanky pulled out his sleeping bag, sleeping in the small backyard of the wooden fence. I looked back up at the yellow moon overhead.

"So, Cresselia." I thought, my vision fading to pink all over again. This time, the pink was significantly more literal. I was before an ocean of pink. A blue fruit, covered in caramel emerged, followed by the crescent goddess herself. She had a blue, swanlike body with a yellow underside. No arms, but this was her domain. Her dream world. I stood up, my spindly legs rippling the pink liquid.

"Hello, Little Dreamer," she said, taking a bite out of the candy fruit. "This… 'candy' is pretty good. Our partners unanimously recommended it."

"Leee aavvv aaa eee," I spoke, the words echoing out through the void, voicing my agreement. Candy was pretty good, I agreed. Nitrogen-filled rocks hit the spot too, but what were the chances her tastes lined up with mine? My tastes told me what was healthy for me and my leaves. They probably wouldn't align with hers.

Cress nodded her head, her body swaying, little waves of pink reaching out from her body. "I suppose you have more questions?"

"Eee vvv aaa eeennee", I asked. The thing about dreams is how personal they were. I wasn't about to ask things she didn't know. But she could answer the most basic question. Though, I wasn't exactly interested in being tugged around at their whims, either. She bobbed for a moment, before considering her answer with grace and thought, her pink eyes shining in the dull twilight of this world.

"Willingly or not, you have cultivated your dreams. Many get dreams of happiness, many get nightmares, all feed into these realms. Others enter and leave dreams of their own will. This is why. We do not choose who does or does not dream with us. You stand before us of your own accord."

She bit into her candy, both levitating and bobbing in sync, the bottom of her belly bouncing in and out of the nigh-motionless sea, save for our mutual waves.

"Nyyy eee vvee aaa neee vaaa?" Was it going to be a common thing, these dreams? Would I be sucked into them while waking again and again? I mean, she probably only ever gets questions about "fate of the world" type stuff. But at the same time, too much sugar will rot your teeth. If you have teeth. Which I didn't. And still don't.

Off in the distance, a blob of pink arose out of the ocean.

"There are many who seek to be dreamers, little one," cresselia said. Another cresselia made themselves known, a shade of twilight gray passing over the pink water, before arriving, sending their thoughts through our shared channel of dreams. A third cresselia, one off to my left, bobbed out of the eternal pink.

"Those who seek to cultivate it, gain, and use access to these worlds. They learn many things. But it is also… fraught with mistakes. We cannot interpret them for you. Our will is not always embedded with the message the dreams send."

The cresselia in front of me bobbed, taking another of her miniscule bites of her candy berry. A fourth arose, off to my right.

"We shape the current and the flow of these oceans. Dreams are from times past, they are from times present, they are from times future. The oceans of experiences, both those had and not had. Here, they invite themselves to be made real. The contents are yours. They are not ours."

Another, this cresselia arose from behind. "Through your interpretations, the dreams are also made fake. We are mirrors who present before you different, yet same dreams. You must take the meanings yourself. We show the dreamers the leaves. It is up to you to craft what you wish. This is our warning."

The one immediately before me spoke this time, chewing the last bite of their candy fruit. "Little Dreamer, that is our warning. We care not the content of your dreams. We die as dreams cease. We live as dreams are made real. We control the currents of these oceans, but dreamers must ride the tides as they are pulled by stronger forces than I"

The other cresselias in the dream floated, miles away, I saw other blobs of pink popping up in the distance, even as the nearer ones, save the one before me, faded down into the abyss of pink upon which I stood.

"Neeeee" I said. What was I supposed to do with that information? That's cryptic as fuck.

"Dreams aren't real. And yet they grant power."

Ugh.

"Little Dreamer. You have learned to harness the sun into pillars of screaming light, no?"

"Vaa," I said. Yeah, I can 'Solar Beam'.

"How do you harness that?"

I… didn't actually know. It just kinda happens, my abdomen vibrates, I'm angry, and the energy just… coalesced inside?

"The way to rid yourself of unwelcome guests—"

Lebi's face in mine, "You need to think more evil thoughts," she'd said.

Cress continued—"one method starts with nasty thoughts. You feel the energy build, and you hold the energy inside, until the passenger must leave. The strongest, they learn to control it, harness it, without the thoughts."

The lunar goddess drifted closer to me, floating through the liquid, belly barely in it, her pink rings drawing trails through it.

"Aaannee" I said, responding, indignant that only made it more confusing. Cress hadn't even answered my question!

"Being a dreamer is the same, little one. Like all pokemon, you must learn on your own if you wish the aspect to grow."

I thought about Lebi, their split form from the other night, oozing pink and black which boiled into the air. I imagined myself, my insides being filled with whatever these substances were. Lebi's had been filled with a pure, oily black. Then, I was in my mind, in front of the latias, their body a pitch black, their outlines in pink. One who, while unable to communicate like a psychic, still could read my mind.

Tentacruel games.

My body, my abdomen was oddly quiet. The energy was in my legs, held by my subconscious. Like I'd pulled the energy of the sun together, concentrating to hold the mass energy of light in, I pulled the energy from my legs, into my abdomen. It took a moment, but I sunk into the ocean, my vision and world turning from pink, to black and gray. I did not gasp for air, when I came to. There, before me, Lanky was sleeping. The meganium was also sleeping, their body in a crescent-shape, curled in on themselves.

I moved, standing up, but I was instead covered in leaves. They rustled about on me. It was not a coherent design, it wasn't a blanket, shirt or dress. Leaf was nowhere to be found, but Lanky's eyes did open, to see my arms and body and armor all coated, covered in leaves that were attached at one point, moving and rustling with the slightest movement or slightest piece of air.

The question that no one asked, I was left to ask myself. Did I want to get involved in the games of the gods? Lanky giggled at my comical state of dress, moments before his eyes went wide, presumably realizing his mistake—letting Leaf roam free.

I had a juvenile Leavanny and a teen who needed some badges. If the gods wanted me in their games, they could ask directly. We could strike a better deal.
 
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I actually found the latest chapter quite nice. It's as well written as a dream sequence that isn't entirely cryptic or disjointed as a dream sequence can be... usually by design. Although I tend to prefer more surreal dream sequences, this one was quite the joy to read, even though I have the feeling that most of what was laid down within it will remain as dormant (hehe joek) elements that might contribute to Leah's growth later on.

Alternatively it could just be regular foreshadowing and I'm looking too deep into it.

Also, and I might be misinterpreting this, it appears that while Pokémon are more animalistic in this timeline, there are some non-legendary ones, Like Leah, that Malmar back from the Mass Outbreak, and possibly Leaf (although I'm not too sure about him to be entirely honest) who are capable of reflection and growing as individuals rather than just learning new things (which is odd to say, because it feels like this might be a choice? Not too sure about this point either, although I think It'll be answered in the future). I get this conclusion from the Cresselia talking about 'Many dreamers', and 'Many Seek to be come dreamers' and (what I believe to be the nail in the coffin), "Like all Pokémon, you must learn on your own if you wish the aspect to grow."

Of course, while this may mean that they have the potential to grow as individuals, I don't think this means they have human values. Even Leah's values (I might be confusing them with her attitudes) seem to have changed ever so slightly since she woke up as a Leavanny, although not entirely for the worse. She definitely became more caring towards other Pokémon as time went on, even if she had to come to the nasty realization and shock that the Swadloon couldn't live by their own.

Even now, I'm not entirely sure that one of them didn't get eaten going after Leah, but I'll put my insomniac thoughts aside because they're off topic.

Going back into the topic of Self-Aware Pokémon... I have no doubt that if a member of a species such as Houndoom achieved self-actualization, they wouldn't be as nice as a Leavanny. Chances are that their empathy would be selective at best, even more so with Pokémon such as Hydreigon, Malmar (we didn't see much of him), or heck, even Volcarona might not have the same values that we do.

I think in this way, Leah might have gotten lucky with the species she became. Leavanny aren't carnivorous, aren't terribly violent unless deffending their young (although I'm mainly assuming this off even more dialogue that I'm too tired to search for now). I can only dread how one would change if they ended up in a Gourgeist or Froslass, to pick two particular Pókemon with nasty behaviours that I have not mentioned before.
 
Chapter 40 - Extract
~~~ Chapter 40 - Extract ~~~​

"Good morning, Dawn." Her nurse spoke as he entered her Jubilife hospital room. She raised her arms, waving them at the man. He was a couple of years older than her, in his mid-twenties. He smiled, his teeth in perfect alignment. He had long, black hair, not unlike her own slate-blue. She waved him in, pressing the button to raise her hospital bed and sit her up.

"One last checkup and today will be your last day," Nathan said, the nurse staring down at his tablet through slim glasses outlined with tasteful black rims. As much as she enjoyed Nathan's company, she was eager to get back out there. She'd sent the messages to Looker the previous night. The man seemed to clue into everything that was going on in multiple regions at once. Organizations and conspiracies are a web, they'd come to learn. Galactic group had relations to the finally-uprooted Rocket organization. All that was left of Giovanni's legacy was a Johto facility Cyrus had funded from defunct members of Giovanni's old science crew. She couldn't say exactly when, but if Dawn knew of the operation, Silver and Lance were going to be all over it, and soon.

Dawn smiled at the nurse, who was waiting patiently for her to come from her reverie. "Sorry, I've had a lot on my mind," she said.

Nathan returned the smile. "So you must have. It's certainly been all over the news the last few days. You should turn on the TV and watch it," he said. "If you want a distraction, anyway. Apparently there's a bit about a dancing leavanny out in Unova. My wife was telling me about it last night. It's supposed to be a super cute story."

"Haha," Dawn said, raising her hand to pull her hair back behind her ear. She couldn't tell if she was blushing or not. "Maybe later today, when I'm out of the hospital," she said. The nurse had neglected to mention that particular detail until then. She didn't have quite enough time to ruminate on that, as the nurse immediately launched into the routine that had been theirs for the last few days since the Mount Coronet incident.

"All right then!" Nurse Nathan said. "Time for your last check. Deep breath!" And so they went through the various checks for distortion poisoning—checking to ensure your inner ears and general abilities were within their baseline. She'd lasted a lot longer in the distortion than she should have. They said she was incredibly lucky. And Dawn was lucky. But she'd trusted her alakazam to help her out the last stairwell after her empoleon, Pip, had taken down the mega absol. The galactic member had let her go, apparently aware of her condition, choosing instead to stay behind in that room, smashing as many of the red crystals on the walls as they could. No one, not even Looker, had asked her much about the fight yet.

When the checks were over, the nurse spoke, "it looks like you're all recovered! Your MRI and other deeper scans came back fine. The doctors all recommend that you. *ahem*. Avoid strenuous activity, fields of distortion, ghosts, psychics, magnetic fields, et cetera. For at least three weeks. But as far as we can tell, you're fine. You're free to leave."

"Thank you," she said, giving her a courtesy-bow for the medical care and advice. Unfortunately for the doctors, Dawn wasn't exactly ready to let the galactic expedition sit and fester for three-four weeks. Alone in her room again, she changed out of her hospital gown into her casual clothes, which were just a regular tank and a pair of loose sweatpants she kept in her bag when she was out traveling and wasn't trying to impress anyone.

Back out in the Jubilife sun, she'd opened her bag—oh. Right. Barry was taking care of her pokemon while she was sick. She pulled her phone, and called him. She took a stop by the local shop, picking up a cup of boba tea. Sipping it down outside in the shade of an umbrella in the midmorning sun, Barry appeared at their local meet-up spot with both Looker and her alakazam.

"Awe, you didn't get any for me," Barry said, Looker taking his seat at their little table. She rolled her eyes in annoyance as Barry went inside to get him and Looker their own cuppas. Barry knew the deal. Ever since they'd picked up Professor Rowan's pokemon by the lakeside, the last person who lost was the one to buy the drinks. It'd been more than four years since then, and she nor her team had lost to the kid yet. She pulled out a bag of small candies, tossing them up in the air, her alakazam's eyes glowing. As they all coalesced into a stream, flowing into the psychic pokemon's mouth piece by piece as she chewed.

Dawn smiled when her pokemon gave her one of its spoons. She popped the lid completely off, stirring the beads of sugar, scooping them out one by one.

"That's quite the trick," Looker said. "Don't think I'll ever get used to seeing an alakazam give up one of their spoons."

She winked at him, smug in flaunting it in public. Pokemon emotions don't translate one-for-one to other pokemon, but by the stares they got from some of the smarter pokemon in the city, particularly when a lucario or gardevoir passed by, she couldn't help but feel her alakazam's own sense of pride. "Do you have a relationship like this with YOUR trainer?" She imagined it gloating.

"Looker, is something on my face?" Barry asked, handing the chuckling detective an iced coffee. "Dawn, are you laughing at me again?"

"No, now why would I do that?" Dawn said, playing coy. "My mom always taught me it was poor form to make fun of people in second and third."

"Oh my gosh, not this again!" Barry said. "Look, I saved your life multiple times now, you know that!" He was right. Barry always came in clutch with heals on the worst of days.

Looker ignored their banter, pulling out a couple pieces of papers. "We have no confirmed bodies," he said. "I've got a few informants across various regions, members of our agency have polled and interviewed the usual spots. Cyrus is probably dead."

Dawn's stomach sank. Probably wasn't good enough. The man needed to be in prison, or confirmed dead. The moment Looker had said that, her mind was made up. Barry ground his teeth.

"Dawn, no. You can't—" Barry fell silent. They played a fun game as friends, but she'd never actually cared for her rival's opinions. The guy had rushed headfirst, and then when she tried to rush in, all of a sudden Barry would develop a sense of caution. And well, there might have been a bit of truth to it. She'd known she was rushing into a distortion zone, and hadn't brought a mask with her, nor had she stopped to pick a mask up. But she'd made it out fine. She tossed her alakazam another set of mini-treats, these ones locked in a puzzle which released treats each time it got unlocked, before the code would change again.

Dawn stirred her boba with her alakazam's spoon, ruminating over the events over the last few months, using her other hand to flip Looker's coded debriefing card. It wasn't the most secure system, in that if there were prying eyes or pictures taken, it could be decoded in a couple days without the ciphers, but usually Looker kept the really sensitive stuff to himself and his cohorts. She looked the detective in the eyes, then gave the spoon back to alakazam, before finishing the last of her delicious tea. People said the effects of the alakazam spoon on what you ate was just a myth, and if it really did work the way it was said, it was "just" placebo. But she didn't care, if it made everything you scooped it with taste great, does it really matter?

The detective frowned under her stare, before glancing at the TV of some purple shoes and the unovan bug, before smiling.

"Let's take a walk into the woods," Looker said, eyeing the various masses of people and pokemon passing back and forth on the street. Finally, Dawn thought, sighing. Barry was fidgeting as the three walked out into the park trail, before she had her alakazam teleport them to their real debriefing spot.

Taking a sip of his coffee, Looker pulled out his briefcase. "We have a member of our team down there with Lyra."

"The Lyra? Like Kanto and Johto champion?" Barry asked. Looker just smiled.

"Yes."

"What's she doing in Unova?" Dawn asked. "No one's had her whereabouts since she put Silver in jail and pushed Red off the mountain." Silver was out by now, of course, and Lance was back as Kanto champion again. That had been literally years ago, and Giovanni's son was doing good work across both Johto and Hoenn. Looker just shrugged.

"She wants to be an Archaeologist," he said. "She's an Unovan native, but her mom was born in Johto. No one down there actually knows who she was." Dawn nodded. She was growing in popularity too. In fact, she'd been lucky no one on the street had accosted either her or Barry, asking for autographs. Neither Dawn nor Barry had beat Cynthia yet. Dawn didn't feel like she had an answer for that damn garchomp.

"At any rate," Looker continued, "the reason why I say we don't think Cyrus is dead, is that he's supposed to have a killswitch device on him." In the open, dense mountain air, the detective lit up a cigar. "The device supposedly pings out to a remote server somewhere in his company's offices, and one of his techies had said that so long as he was living, the money was to be wired to an offshore account in Unova. We haven't traced where that money's going, or why yet. But we've laid some lightly-irradiated bills trying to trace where the physical money ends up, as well as some blackhats working to trace the digital lines down."

"Neither Barry nor I can help with that," Dawn said, taking a step away from the smoke, sitting down on the grass, leaving her alakazam out. The high-level psychic's presence was more than enough to ward off even the most aggressive pokemon that lived in the area. She poked at her belt, pulling up Pip's pokeball. Barry had known she was getting out of the hospital today, and had already loaded them up. She clicked the ball, releasing Pip. She'd not seen him since he defied the mega absol. The six foot tall pokemon towered over her, before noticing she was in front of him, flopping on top of Dawn, in the only way an oversized penguin can show their affection. He'd been in shambles by the time the galactic grunt decided it wasn't worth pursuing her or the rest of her team.

For that, she was glad. Even a moment's delay, and the doctors were sure the damage would have killed her, if not caused her an extra week in the hospital or possibly permanent damage.

"I've got an informant up north, who says they saw Cyrus' commanders and what's left of the more… dedicated grunts who'd followed the man around, but weren't on the mountain. We're monitoring their movements, but we don't have anything we can act on for at least another couple days." Looker said, ignoring Dawn's reunion with her penguin, smoking his cigar.

"So we think Cyrus is alive, even if it's in the distortion world?" Barry asked. "And he's running his commanders from Giratina's domain?" Barry puzzled out.

Dawn managed to push Pip off, tossing the penguin a treat from her bag. She'd sent for several bags while in the hospital. Pip deserved it, though occasionally she wondered how Pip's power had scaled so high in the midst of a mega evolution. Mega's weren't just evolutions that scaled from being bonded. Megas tended to only come out when you were fighting against an impossible threat with an overwhelming advantage. She shivered—the absol had already been in mega evolution form when the grunt had burst into the room. But the doctors said she was probably already coming down with the symptoms by that point.

"Cyrus is alive. I'm sure of it." Dawn said, drawing Barry and Looker's attention. "It could be a busted device, but the man's way too smart to just die from distortion poisoning. You did say he had a mask, right? What if this had been his plan? Get Giratina's attention and get pulled into the distortion world? Isn't the distortion world where souls are purified?" she asked while giving Pip some pats.

"That's one understanding of the myth. Among many." Looker said.

"I really can't believe this," Barry said. "I saw the man get pulled into the flotsam and jetsam of distortion."

"Did you see where the red chains went?" Looker asked. "Or the piles of equipment the crew had pulled up to the top of the mountain?" The detective pulled out a sheet of paper from his jacket. "They'd carried enough refills and supplies to last their entire thirty-person team three days inside the ruins. Giratina's portals pulled all their oxygen supplies and a fourth of the food and water that had been carted all the way up. You know I've already done the numbers, Barry. It is improbable that Giratina's either adopted Cyrus or doing Cyrus' will. Yet the man could still be alive. It's only been a few days."

Unfortunately for Dawn, she had already passed out by the time Giratina had shown up. The mountain entrance had sat at twenty-thousand feet. Spear Pillar, at the very top, had been at thirty-three thousand feet. She hadn't been cognizant by the end to even eat a nutri-bar to help her muscles heal from the hike. There was more than one reason the mountain hadn't been breached. And it wasn't just because of the magnezones and magneton that infested the mountainside while it wasn't spewing the ambrosia of the ghosts.

Barry just shrugged at Looker's answer. The impulsive guy's face turned, defeated.

"That's enough for me," Dawn said. "But how do we get in there? It's not like anyone has hoopa or members of the creation trio on speed-dial, and I'm pretty sure any actual holes into the distortion world would already be documented."

Looker smirked. "That's what we're working on right now, Dawn. Do you remember seeing a Leavanny at the mountain that day?"

"Don't think so," Dawn said. She'd blown right past the front guards, not really observing her surroundings. Looker pulled out a pair of small photos, tossing them to her.

"Apparently a leavanny, an unovan-native species, was at Mount Coronet that day."

Okay? She thought. "I mean, there were Galarian ghosts in the s—" a leavanny with a particular skirt. One that she'd seen briefly, if momentarily, on the television at the coffee shop not a half-hour ago.

"I am SO lost in this," Barry said, pulling out a pokeball of his own. "In fact, I'm just gonna take my card and go after Mars and Jupiter. Dawn, take care of yourself. Looker, keep in touch. The next time you see me Dawn, Cynthia will be bumped down to the Elite Four." Looker just waved as Barry ran off, throwing out the pokeball and taking flight. Dawn didn't even acknowledge his departure. It had taken literal years to convince him that Cyrus was going to be a problem, and now she didn't want to deal with whatever… that mess was. Happy to have Barry gone, she gave Pip and then Alakazam both chin rubs.

"So, Looker. What's the plan?" Dawn asked, switching between the picture of "Leah, the dancing Leavanny" and a picture of what looked to be an un-evolved giratina, pilfered from an unovan pokecenter.

Looker glanced over, looking at her alakazam. "Well, Dawn. We need some information from a bug. And as you're probably aware, it's a bit difficult to question them." He pulled a breath of his cigarette, puffing one out in a donut-like shape. Dawn looked at her alakazam. It had only been about a week or so since the day on the mountain. She was confident they could extract the needed information. She smiled.

"We'll need to practice on some other leavanny first. How much time do we have?"

This time, it was Looker who smiled. "How long does it take for a kid with no badges to beat a multi-region champion?"
 
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Can't tell whether that was an expression, or he's saying that they have until Burgh beats Lyra. Not sure why that would be a condition for how long they have to get ready though.
 
Can't tell whether that was an expression, or he's saying that they have until Burgh beats Lyra. Not sure why that would be a condition for how long they have to get ready though.

Part of it is that it's just a euphemism for "we have all the time we need"--

There's another part that is, once Burgh's out of Nacrene city, they'll have to keep tabs on him/follow him around, and that becomes significantly more annoying, while not fully incognito, they're not trying to announce their movements to the world either.

There's a few other parts to it which means while he's in Nacrene is the best time to do it. That may or may not come up later.
 
Okay. Kinda sounded like they had until he beat all 8 gyms and became champion for a second, but Lyra was being talked about just before, so it also sounded like beating her, but it's not clear why he would try to beat her, as she's not the champion of that region? It's a bit confusion.
 
Okay. Kinda sounded like they had until he beat all 8 gyms and became champion for a second, but Lyra was being talked about just before, so it also sounded like beating her, but it's not clear why he would try to beat her, as she's not the champion of that region? It's a bit confusion.

Looks like you're missing a few details, but you'll see the setup soon enough. It's a lot more straightforward than that...
 
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