CHAPTER 10: MR FELIX GOES TO MIOBACH
by icekittydanielMoon Continent Explorer’s Guild, West Coast Branch, Yesterday Evening
For quite a while now, Felix had been pacing back and forth in his office as the sun set below the tree line outside, thinking about Team Seekers, and the fact that three of them were former humans. The lucario had heard of instances in the past of humans joining an exploration team, but he certainly never expected it to happen in his own guild. However, he was jolted out of his own thoughts when he heard a knock on the door.
“Whoever it is, come in!” he shouted, knowing that someone with malicious intent wouldn’t knock on the door first. Sure enough, it was just Erin, who had two smoothies in her paws. Felix stopped pacing and tilted his head to the side.
“Shouldn’t you be closing up your shop right now?” Felix asked.
“Oh, don’t worry about that. I already have,” the meowstic answered, placing the larger cup onto Felix’s desk. “But right now, I need to ask you something. Is everything alright with you? You’ve been in here for the better part of an hour, missing a gorgeous sunset.”
“Nah, I’m fine,” he said, taking a long sip of the smoothie, which contained a blend of pinap and sitrus berries. “It’s just… have you heard about those humans? You know the ones… they got turned into pokemon, formed exploration teams with someone, then the duo would go on to stop some world ending event?”
“Let me guess, you think that eevee you recruited today- Ryan, was it?- is a human that was sent to stop a world ending event?”
“How did you-“
“I saw that very same eevee in the shop tonight. The way he walks… I can tell he isn’t very used to quadrupedal movement. That would be odd for most eevees, but for a human who was just turned into one mere days ago…”
“Huh,” the lucario said, placing a paw behind his head. “I was about to tell you he was human; I didn’t realize you’d figure it out yourself.”
She took his other paw in hers. As he expected, the lucario sensed a sour feeling: one of concern.
“Felix, you of all pokemon should know that I’m an expert at thinking logically.”
The lucario lowered his right paw from behind his head and waved it dismissively. “Yeah, I know. What you might not have known is that Ryan isn’t the only human.”
The meowstic raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“Was there a sneasel and an pachirisu accompanying him when they were at your shop?” Erin nodded in response.
“Yeah, there was. The pachirisu actually tried to climb onto the human relics shelf, and it nearly fell right on top of him.””
I’m glad it didn’t; he would’ve had to go right back to the infirmary.” Felix laughed a little bit. “But yeah, they’re both humans as well.”
She nodded again. “Makes sense that they’d want to stick together, but what about the litten?”
“Oh, I already know that he’s Cinder and Marcy’s son. He’s lived in the village his whole life.”
“Mmm,” Erin vocalized thoughtfully, a paw to her chin.
“Enough about all that for now, though. I’m glad you’re here, because I need to ask something of you.”
“Alright, shoot,” Erin responded before taking another sip of her smoothie.
“I want to do a bit more research on human-to-pokemon transformation and spatial displacement, so I need to head out to Miobach City and their world-class library. While I’m gone, I’ll need you to take my place as guildmaster.”
The she-meowstic nearly choked on her drink in response. “You want me to do what?“
“It’ll only be for tomorrow- thank goodness for our badges and their teleportation functionality- but I think it’ll be a good experience for you, especially since you’re first in line to take over for real if something ever happens to me.” The lucario shrugged. “Considering I’m such a capable fighter, though, I doubt that’ll ever happen.”
Erin hugged her partner, careful to avoid his chest spike. “I sure hope not. I’d hate to lose you.”
The lucario then explained to her what she would need to do the following couple of days, including Team Seekers’ entrance exam, and to call him on her badge’s communicator if she needed help, or even if she just wanted to chat with him. He also told her that he would leave her a helpful reminder of everything she needed to do the next day.
After he finished his smoothie, Felix decided it would be best if they both turned in early tonight because they both had a busy day ahead of themselves tomorrow. As a yawn escaped her mouth, Erin nodded in agreement, so the duo headed up to their room to go to sleep.
Felix woke slightly early the next morning, at around seven, and, before even eating anything or waking his partner, quietly snuck out of the room, activated the teleporter to Miobach City, and was whisked away in a flash of blue light.
Even though the teleportation was instantaneous, since he got warped some distance to the east, the sun was slightly higher in the sky than back in Luneria when Felix rematerialized, badge in hand, outside Miobach library, in the midst of a massive crowd of noisy pokemon. The library in question looked fairly similar to the building that his own guild was headquartered in, only with four floors instead of three. Much like the aforementioned guild headquarters, it seemed fairly out of place. However, instead of being surrounded by a ruined human town, on either side were tall towers constructed of concrete and steel. The lucario had always wondered why, and how, the humans that originally built these towers built them at such dizzying heights, and why the pokemon that lived in this city chose it over the wide-open spaces that somewhere like Luneria Village offered.
It’d be worse if this street didn’t go east to west, because at least I can see the sun here, he thought as he pushed his way through the crowd towards the library. This feeling of claustrophobia and insignificance is exactly why I left this place.
He heaved a sigh of relief as he stepped off of the crowded four-lane-wide strip of asphalt onto the sidewalk adjacent to the library, but there was still the noisy chatter of voices behind him. Am I ever glad I’m going in the library, where it’s nice and quiet.
He pushed the doors open and was immediately greeted by a rush of cold air. Felix shivered from the unexpected chill, having forgotten that they used elemental-gem-based technology for climate control in the city. The most that these gems were used for back in Luneria was for the few appliances that existed there, which several businesses had imported from across the Lairondacks, such as the café’s blender or the guild’s kitchen appliances.
I should probably pick up a box of fresh gems while I’m in the city, he thought. I’m gonna need to eat something eventually anyways, but for now…
The lucario walked up to the front desk, where an indeedee donning tiny reading glasses was poring over a list of books that were overdue as of today. She looked up from the page as she heard the door close behind Felix.
“Hello, guildmaster Felix,” she said quietly. “What brings you here today? Does Erin want the newest ‘Inteleon Kil, P.I.’ book? I heard it’s quite the ride, so I can’t fault her.”
“Not today,” the punchdog shook his head, “but maybe another time. I need something about human-to-pokemon transformation.”
“Hm? How come?”
The bipedal jackal explained everything to her, leaving out what pokemon they were turned into and their names to respect Ryan’s desire to not have attention drawn his way.
“I see. Follow me.” She hopped down from the stool she had been standing on in order to reach the desk and led him to the non-fiction section on the third floor, using ESP to pull down a heavy book from the top shelf and placing it onto a nearby table.
“If you flip to page 259 of ‘Phantastic Phenomena, by Phanpy Penelope’ you’ll find the beginning of the section on human-to-pokemon transformations.” The indeedee began to head back to the front desk on her own. “Let me know when you finish so I can take care of it. Good luck finding the information you need!”
Felix activated a nearby table lamp, embedded with a luminous orb, and turned to page 259 in the book, which, as expected, had the header ‘Human-to-Pokemon Transformations’, printed in unown-script as the rest of the book was. It detailed the process of transformation for a few species that humans are rumored to have commonly been transformed into in the past, a group primarily composed of the pokemon known to humans as ‘starters’, as well as pokemon like riolu, eevee, pikachu, and vulpix, though humans can be turned into any species in theory. The process sounded very painful. Although some lucky souls had their, well, souls transferred from a human body into the newly-formed body of a pokemon, another way it could happen involved the total rearrangement of bones, muscles and internal organs. The lucario, knowing that he knew three pokemon who may have had to go through this process, wished he could forget what he had just read. How the author found this information out, he did not know, and he certainly didn’t want to find out.
I guess it is true that sometimes, ignorance is bliss, Felix thought as he turned the page.
On the next page, the book mentioned that there were only five confirmed instances of human-to-pokemon transformations, a wartortle and gengar on the Air continent, a sceptile on the Grass continent, a haxorus on the Mist continent, and a dewott on the Water continent. Despite this, the book continued, there are rumors of even more humans being transformed into pokemon. Perhaps they never did anything noteworthy to gain fame, or they don’t remember if they’re human, or maybe they simply don’t want to share that information. It would then detail possible causes, including divine intervention from arceus or another legendary, a ninetales’ curse brought on the victim by tugging on one of the fire fox’s tails, an accident caused by travelling either through time or between dimensions, or possibly even something in the very atmosphere of the planet. Felix found those theories to be quite outlandish, the last one especially. The segment concluded by stating that of the known cases, all involve humans that aren’t from their own universe, but another. Despite this, it noted, there are stories of humans from this universe being affected as well.
The last major segment of the section detailed about the impact on one’s memories. The known cases all woke up as pokemon that only remembered their name and that they used to be human, with the exception of Gengar. However, the book detailed that it is possible for the transformed to remember more than that, potentially having minimal memory loss, or even remembering everything. Terry falls into the second group, and Ryan into the third. Speaking of the eevee, this might be useful for him to know… Felix thought, referring to a line that stated that this transformation induced memory-loss doesn’t seem to wipe the memories, but simply makes them dormant, and they theoretically can be peeked into with the right resources.
There were some extra bits of information that wouldn’t have fit in elsewhere in the section, including that evolution doesn’t seem to impact a transformed human’s memories any differently than it would for an ordinary member of the species, even if the human isn’t willing to evolve when it happens. Felix already knew this, but it was useful to know nonetheless.
By the time he had made notes of everything, it was approaching eleven in the morning, and his stomach’s growling made him remember that he hadn’t actually eaten anything yet today. He borrowed this book, as well as several others, including ‘Unlocking the Secrets of Dark-type Minds’, ‘A Simpleton’s Guide to Interdimensional Travel and String Theory,’ and, for Erin, ‘Inteleon Kil, P.I.: Can’t Kil Them All.’ The librarian indeedee raised an eyebrow at his selection of books but didn’t inquire further about it as he showed his badge, as this library allows guild members to borrow as many books as they want for as long as they want. After placing the four library books in his bag, he headed out into the now relatively quiet street, and spent the next several hours between visiting a diner that served a fine burger and an amazing chocolate shake and a shop that sold the gems he told himself he would pick up earlier. It was after that last shop that Felix activated the teleportation function on his badge, a feature only present on badges held by gold rank explorers or above, and warped back to Luneria Village.
The lucario rematerialized outside his guild, right in front of the reason he headed out to Miobach in the first place: Ryan, along with his teammates. The eevee stumbled backwards a bit, startled at the sudden appearance of his guildmaster in front of him.
“Whoa! Can’t a guy get a break from being taken by surprise all the time?” Ryan cried.
“Oh, sorry,” Felix apologized, “I didn’t expect you four to be here right now… did you finish your entrance exam?”
Ben nodded in affirmation, displaying his badge for Felix to see. “Yup! Me and my teammates are now official members of your guild!”
“Yeah, but the entrance exam nearly took a horrible turn,” Ryan added, recounting his near-contact with the mossy rock. “I came far closer to evolving than I would’ve liked.”
Felix tilted his head, placing a digit to his muzzle in confusion. “But how would that be-“
Lena chimed in for Ryan. “He doesn’t really want to talk about it.”
“Nah, it’s fine,” the eevee said. “It’s just that I don’t really want to draw too much attention my way is all.”
The lucario shrugged. “Yeah, I get it. Some people just don’t like taking up the spotlight.” He knelt down and placed a paw on Ryan’s shoulder. “But, you being an unevolved adult is, in and of itself, going to turn the heads of some mons anyways. Plus, evolving is probably the easiest way to get stronger. Trust me, I would know.” Ryan couldn’t really argue with that logic. “But hey, some mons don’t want to evolve, and that’s perfectly okay.” He shrugged again. “If I were you, I’d hold onto an everstone. You may have dodged an accidental evolution this time, but next time, you might not be so lucky.”
The lucario reentered the building, and Ryan pretty much disregarded last two lines Felix said immediately.
“Meh, I don’t really think I need one,” the eevee said indifferently. “I could always just… avoid situations that could cause me to accidentally evolve.”
Lena looked at him like he was crazy. “Uh, what if you can’t?”
“Pretty sure I can. I mean, we can just… not take any jobs in the Bamboo Backwoods, right? And I doubt we’re headed north anytime soon, so the ice rock won’t be a concern either. Not to mention, it’s not like it just rains evolution stones or anything.” The eevee leaned back on his haunches and attempted to shrug. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
While the eevee wasn’t looking, though, Ben slipped his own everstone into Ryan’s bag, giving a wink to Lena and Terry.
“Thanks for distracting him,” Ben mouthed to the sneasel, “and don’t worry about me, I have two.” Lena didn’t respond to avoid giving away what the litten had just done.
After the lucario ‘accidentally’ dropped off Unlocking the Secrets of Dark-Type Minds by Team Seekers’ door, he let himself into Erin’s office, where the meowstic wasn’t doing anything in particular.
“So Erin, I got you something.” He pulled out from his bag the Inteleon Kil, P.I. book that he borrowed from the Miobach library.
She smiled. “Oh, you shouldn’t have,” she replied.
Felix shrugged. “Only a fair exchange after you took over guild duties for today.”
“To be honest, Felix,” she said, “it wasn’t actually as difficult as I thought it would be. After Team Seekers left for their entrance exam, all I had to do was a bit of paperwork and then I was basically done. So, not difficult, just boring.”
“Sure, but you still did a good job of making sure the guild didn’t spontaneously combust or something while I was away.” He leaned in for, and got, a hug from Erin. “Thank you very much.”
She nodded and simply said, “You’re welcome.”
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