CHAPTER 23: HELPLESS

Moon Continent Explorer’s Guild, West Coast Branch, Infirmary, The Morning of August 8th

When Kori woke up the next morning, she refused to open her eyes, hoping that the events of yesterday had all been a bad dream… that she could feel pain in somehow… and that she was still a human, and would wake up aboard the Pernautica.

Please don’t be real, please don’t be real, please don’t be real…

She finally opened her eyes to the very same room she had seen yesterday, additionally bringing an arm into view. To her disappointment, it was still a paw, covered in lavender fur and featuring pink pads. She sighed, flopping her head back down.

Awh… no dream… she thought. I really am a shinx…

The shinx looked around the room, noticing that there was nobody else in the room with her. She didn’t expect to see the four pokemon that, she assumed, had brought her to this room, but the lack of a zoroark was surprising. All she saw on his bed was a pile of raggedy looking clothes and a pair of ruined boots.

I wonder what the commander is up to? She thought as pulled herself to the edge, then proceeding to fall off of the side. She slammed face first onto the hardwood floor, yelping in shock from the impact with the floor.

Forgot… I can’t walk… she thought, struggling to get up as she rubbed her nose with a forepaw.

“Commander?” she called out. “Commander Martin? Where are you?”

She did not get a response.

“Commander? This isn’t funny. I know you’re here, where are you? I need help getting back onto my bed!”

“Is everything okay?” a voice asked from above Kori.

Kori lifted her head and looked around. “Who said that?”

Into the shinx’s view stepped an audino donning a white apron with a red cross on the center. The pink biped looked concerned.

“I did. Now, answer my question. Is everything okay?”

Kori frowned. “No, everything is not okay,” she complained. “I’m stuck in a body that’s not my own, in a place I know absolutely nothing about, and I can’t even walk. How could I possibly be okay?”

The audino nodded understandingly. “I see. You’re one of those… space humans Felix told me about, right?”

The shinx nodded. “Yeah?”

The nurse lifted the shinx back onto her bed. “I have a feeling that it will take you a while to adjust to this new body if you aren’t willing to accept the fact that this is what you are now. Ryan accepted his new body quickly, and you’d likely never guess he used to be human if he hadn’t told you. Even your own partner seems to be doing just fine, though his being bipedal may be helpful in that regard.”

Kori nodded in agreement. She hadn’t initially believed that Ryan used to be human when he had told her, so he could probably help. She did also feel a hint of jealousy that her boss would likely have an easier time adapting than her.

“Whether there’s a way to turn you human again, I can’t say,” the audino continued. “I would suggest seeking out Jirachi, but they’ve just returned to their thousand-year slumber eight years ago. What I can say is that, at least in the meantime, you are a shinx, and you will have to live with this, I’m afraid.”

Kori sighed with resignation at this. “I know…” she muttered, disappointed.

It was at that moment that a zoroark carrying a bath towel stepped into the room. His jet-black fur still appeared to be somewhat damp.

“This place should really get a plumber in here,” Martin remarked. “The showers’ water pressure isn’t nearly as high as it should be.”

“Commander!” Kori said, mood lifted by a familiar voice. “Where were you?”

He chuckled. “Please, drop the formalities and just call me Martin for now. We can’t exactly consider ourselves as being ‘on duty’ right now, can we? Anyways, I was in the shower. Can I just say I’m so relieved that I’ll at least be able to properly keep myself clean while we’re stuck here?”

“You know, if we’re lucky, we’ll be able to get back to the Pernautica by tonight if we can find Lena’s ship,” Kori replied. “The problem is that we don’t know the exact location of it… and I don’t know how to walk in this body, so there’s that, too.”

“If I may interject,” the audino interjected, “Ryan showed you a… video, last night? And it showed where Lena landed?”

Kori nodded, and then realized something. “Wait, if we look at the video again, maybe we could use it to backtrack to where the ship is!” Her face fell at another realization. “But it’s on Ryan’s laptop and we don’t have the password…”

“Maybe not,” Martin said, “but before he came back to take his laptop, he did let me copy the file to my holophone. It’s a good thing they’re backwards compatible with mp4’s.”

“Then let’s do it!” Kori cheered, trying to get up but flopping face first onto the bedsheet again. “But, uh… could you please carry me, Martin?”

“Sure, can do,” the zoroark answered, picking her up and gently placing her and his holophone among the fur of his mane-slash-tail, and slung his pack over his back. Kori stuck her head out, planning to look behind. With that, Martin rushed out of the room.

“Wait!” the audino called after them, waving a small stack of paperwork. “You haven’t been cleared for release yet!” She sighed in defeat, facepalming. “It’s always the eager ones.”

---

Luneria Beach

They did remember for certain that the place Lena had been transformed was on the beach, so they opted to start their search there. Martin pulled out his holophone and pulled up the video again.

“Okay, so at the last moment before Lena lost consciousness, from her viewpoint there was several palm trees to the right, a foggy cave to the left, and a view of the ocean in front, with her back to the forest,” the commander said. “Her things likely aren’t there- probably stolen or something along those lines- but that’s okay. If we can find the exact viewpoint, we can just turn around and we should find the ship. She did appear to walk in just a straight line from her ship, after all.”

“Sounds good,” Kori said. “But if we do find the ship… I don’t think we should leave until Team Seekers get back from… whatever they’re doing. I mean, they saved us, so I think it’s only fair that we at least thank them before we go.”

Martin shrugged. “True.”

Soon, the two arrived at a certain point along the beach. The zoroark turned to face the water. The beautiful view of the ocean gave him pause, and he thought about how this might be a nice place to retire when he gets to that point. He shook that thought out of his head and looked around. To his right, three palm trees, swaying in the warm breeze. To his left, a cave, obscured in fog, which he recognized as that strange cave that he had piloted CSP-374 into several weeks ago. And to his back was the jungle. He nodded.

“Yep, this is the spot,” he said simply. “Now if we just head away from the water, we should hit the ship before too long…”

He spun around on one foot, a task made simpler by currently being on sand, and, with Kori in tow, delved into the jungle. Until he had gotten into the shade of the forest, he hadn’t realized how hot he had felt in the tropical sunlight from his jet black fur. The forest was mostly quiet, only the occasional chirps of birds could be heard, the occasional bug climbing the trunks of the trees. Even though he doubted there was anything here that would eat a zoroark, he still felt a bit uneasy due to the silence.

Fortunately, he did not, in fact, have to venture too deep. As they entered a clearing, they found a silver-colored ship, with the occasional signs of rust due to a lack of maintenance as well as vines and moss growing on it, but nothing that would suggest inoperability. Kori poked her head out of his mane.

“Wow, that ship has certainly seen better days,” the lavender colored shinx remarked.

Martin shrugged. “It’s probably still operable, though; it has only been here for a couple of months.”

Kori nodded. “True.”

Martin walked up to the ship, finding that the door was still unlocked. She must have forgotten to lock it, which is good news for us, he thought as he looked around the interior of the ship. The inside didn’t look nearly as bad as the outside, as if it had been untouched for months, which was probably true. It was quite dark in the abandoned ship, but both Martin and Kori were turned into species that can see just fine in the dark, so it was not a big deal. The zoroark looked around for a spare key, knowing the main one was likely lost forever, and he left nothing unturned that wasn’t fastened down. He double, triple, even quadruple checked every possible place that the spare key could have been placed, fearing that the worst had come to pass. After the fifth round about the ship, he finally resigned himself to the reality of the situation, sighing.

“Welp…” he said, disappointed.

“What’s wrong?” Kori asked, not really having been paying attention to what her boss had been doing.

“I’m afraid… that… the key… is missing…”

“So?” Kori inquired. “Just look for the spare key!”

“I was looking for the spare key. The main key was taken by Lena when she left the ship, remember?”

Kori’s eyes widened in fear. “Wait… but that would mean…”

Martin nodded solemnly. “I’m afraid so.”

Kori was about to scream in distress but then remembered something. “Wait a minute, we still have the distress signals! Not all hope is lost!” she exclaimed, raising a forepaw into the air. She lowered it again, adding, “but we left them back at the infirmary.”

“That’s no problem, we’ll just go there and use one of them. Now let’s go.”

With that, the duo left the ship, dark and empty once again.

---

Moon Continent Explorer’s Guild, West Coast Branch, Infirmary

“What were you two thinking, running off like that?” the audino scolded Martin and Kori. “I had come in to do your physicals to hopefully clear you to go, but you just ran off and forced me to wait for you to come back!”

Martin put an arm behind his head. “Ahaha, sorry about that, we just thought we had a lead on getting back to where we’re from.”

The audino hmphed. “Well, you two do seem to be doing just fine, so I can probably just clear you right now.” She handed each of them the paperwork that they would need to sign, along with a pot of ink so they could stamp their pawprints on the sheets. “I just need your pawprints…”

Each pokemon provided their print, and were cleared for release.

“Unfortunately, you can’t stay here; it’s pretty unsanitary in here, what with being an infirmary. So, you two will have to find somewhere else to stay until you can find your way back to where you’re from.”

Martin sighed, disappointed. “Understood.” He pushed himself off of the bed, stuffed his clothes in his bag, and Kori into his mane, and left the room and the guild.

Once they were outside, Kori poked her head out and asked, “Now what are we going to do?”

The zoroark hummed in thought. “We could stay in Lena’s ship for the time being.” He nodded. “Mmm, yeah, I think that’s what we’ll do,” He added as he took up their bags.

Luneria Village, Town Square

As the duo was just about to leave the village, they were interrupted by a pink fox with fleshy ribbons.

“Glad I caught you, because I’m gonna need to stop you right there!” the sylveon said.

Martin tilted his head curiously. “And why?”

Using one of his ribbons, the sylveon grabbed ahold of his arm, pulling Martin along as he walked back toward the village. “I was told by Ryan when he came by my bakery this morning to keep you in the village until his team gets back. Something about seeking a possible insight as to why you were transformed, I think?”

“Wait, how do you know them?” Kori asked, poking her head out of Martin’s mane again.

“Oh, I’m Ryan’s father,” Jack said, confusing the two pokemon he was leading. “It’s a long story; I’ll tell you later. For now, though, I assume you need somewhere to stay?”

Martin nodded. “We actually did have somewhere to stay. You see, we have a spaceship in the forest that we were going to go to.”

“Okay,” Jack said, “but that seems like it would be a bit lonely, don’t you think?”

Neither of the other two humans-turned-pokemon had a rebuttal to that.

“…fine,” Martin relented, “but only until they return from their mission.”

The sylveon smiled, releasing the zoroark’s arm from his ribbon. “Good. Now, follow me,” he said, continuing to lead them alongside him.

---

Jack took the duo into his bakery, where, behind the counter, an electric blue jolteon carefully pushed a tray of freshly baked cookies into a display case using her maw.

“Ah, Jack, you’re here!” Angela said. “You just up and left me with the kid and the cookies in the oven!” At one of the seats near the counter, a small eevee giggled playfully.

The sylveon sheepishly rubbed the back of his head with a ribbon. “Sorry for bailing on you like that. I just… remember when Ryan briefly stopped by earlier today? He told us to keep a lookout for a zoroark with a shinx and make sure they don’t leave the village.”

“Oh… yeah, I remember that,” the spiky blue fox answered.

“As soon as I caught a glimpse of them out the window, I had to go make sure they didn’t go anywhere. I missed my chance earlier so I resolved to not let them go this time.”

“You’re making them sound like they’re villains of some kind, when it seemed like Ryan didn’t want them to go for a different reason. I do wish I had been down here to see him, but, well, I was busy showering…” Angela then looked around the pastel-colored room. “Er… Jack, you said there was a shinx. Where is it?”

Martin reached behind him, pulling Kori out of his mane. “Oh, she’s right here,” he answered. “I had her in there because, uh… she doesn’t know how to walk.”

Angela gave a look of pity. “Can I ask why that is?”

“Oh, uh…” Kori started, before whispering to Martin. “Should we tell her?”

Martin nodded. “If we don’t, the sylveon will, so I say it should come from our own mouths.” He cleared his throat. “You see, jolteon, the two of us used to be humans until yesterday. Obviously I ended up as a bipedal species, as you can tell, but Kori wasn’t so lucky.”

“That’s odd…” Angela began, then proceeding to explain that her and Jack were also humans, how they ended up in this world, and how they ended up giving up on finding a way back to their own world after not figuring out any ways to do so.

“According to what Terry told us,” the jolteon said, “we’re presumed dead in that world anyways. Since Ryan is here now, too, that means Evelyn is the only person left for us in the other world, and from what he’s told us she’s doing well for herself anyways. And to be completely honest? I’m happier here anyways.” She shook her head. “But, back to the subject at paw. I think it’s time you set down your… is she your daughter?”

“Intern, actually,” Martin corrected as he carefully lowered Kori onto the floor. Kori then tried to stand up, doing so shakily. The shinx felt a boost in confidence that she could at least do that much.

“I’ll show her how to walk, then possibly an electric move or two if she’s interested,” Angela said, turning to Jack. “Keep an eye on the bakery and on Riley while I’m outside with the shinx, okay, Jack?”

The sylveon used a ribbon to salute. “I won’t let you down,” he responded.

The jolteon nodded, carefully picking up Kori by her scruff and carrying her out the back door as Martin followed.

“Now watch what I do and do the same,” Angela said after setting Kori down in the grass behind the shop. She strolled around the shinx, who watched intently as the jolteon said to.

Kori then stood up on all fours and shakily took her first steps. As she kept going, she became more and more confident in her ability. It did feel a bit weird to her at first to walk on all fours, yet it also felt completely natural at the same time. Before long Kori was able to not only walk but run as if she had always been a shinx, and she was very proud of herself for that. In fact, when Angela asked Kori if she wanted to learn an electric move, the jolteon was met with a resounding yes. She smiled.

“I bet you feel like you’re on top of the world right now, huh?” The electric fox asked. “You remind me of me when I first got here…”

One thought led to another, and now Angela was thinking about Ryan and how he desperately wanted to get back to their own world for seemingly no reason. She sighed.

“…something wrong, ma’am?” Martin asked.

“Oh, you can call me Angela. How rude of me to not introduce myself before,” she said sheepishly, extending a forepaw in greeting, which Martin took. After being released, the jolteon answered his question. “But… I was just thinking about my son… he wants to make the four of us- Jack, himself, Terry, and I- be able to get back home, but… we don’t have a way to, and Jack and I don’t even want to… I can’t speak for him, but I feel happier here than I did on our earth. I bet Ryan is too and doesn’t even realize it.” She pawed the ground. “I think he can find a way back, but if he does, what then? They’ve probably been presumed dead by now, and if they go back, they’d probably be put on some kind of watchlist, because, let’s be real here, it would be awfully suspicious if someone just… vanished for two months and then suddenly returned.” She sighed again. “I… I’m just worried for him, you know?”

Martin nodded in agreement, sitting down next to her and placing his paw on her shoulder. “I know how you feel,” he responded as he watched Kori charge at a mannequin with a spark attack. He explained about how his last couple of months had been going, ending with a smile. “It was quite a pleasant moment for me when I learned that. In fact, it was the whole reason I came down to the planet… but then, well…”

“Ah…” the jolteon said. “I see.” She stood back up. “Well, we’ve got a guest room that the two of you can stay in until you’re able to go back.”

The zoroark waved a paw. “Oh, you really don’t have to-“

Angela shook her head. “It’s the least Jack and I can do for you in your predicament. Plus, I think Riley would enjoy having Kori around.”

Martin shrugged. “I suppose there’s no arguing about that.”

“No, there’s not.”

By now, Kori was resting on the ground. The lavender shinx was panting heavily, her fur matted with sweat and dust, and she groaned from exhaustion. As for the dummy, it was still crackling with the occasional spark, and it would likely have zapped anyone who touched it.

“Can we go back inside now?” Kori moaned, pushing herself to her paws. “I am in serious need of a bath…” Her stomach growled, and she realized that she hadn’t eaten a thing since yesterday morning, before they had even left the Pernautica. “…and something to eat…”

With that, the three pokemon walked back inside of the bakery. While Kori headed to the bathroom and its quadruped friendly bathtub to get clean, Martin sat down at an open table, with the baguette Jack had given him to split with his intern placed on top. He then proceeded to pull out his distress signal.

Knowing how the IEF’s bureaucracy is, it’ll probably be some days before they actually respond, the zoroark responded to himself, so I should probably set this thing off now.

Carefully using one claw, he pressed the power button on the side of the PDA-like device, but nothing happened. Confused, he pressed it again, this time holding it down for several seconds. Still nothing. He opened up the back, as it is one of those devices with a removable battery, to check if the battery was damaged, but it seemed fine. He would have checked the internals, but he lacked the proper equipment to check that right now. Although he was a bit worried, it wasn’t too bad, since he still had Kori’s to try.

This is why I’m glad we brought them both, he thought to himself as he exchanged his own camo-design distress signal for one that was simply the stock grey base model that all IEF interns had. Martin then tried all of the same things he had tried on the other device, but still, nothing worked. There was only one thing left that the zoroark could do now.

“Sylveon, if you don’t mind,” Martin warned calmly, turning to Jack who was behind the counter, “I would advise that you cover your daughter’s ears.”

“Say no more,” the sylveon said. The ribboned fox, who had been busy making frosting for cupcakes, then proceeded to set down the bowl, leap over the counter, and cover each of Riley’s long brown ears with with a pink, frosting stained forepaw. The sylveon then covered his own ears with two of his ribbons due to how loudly Martin bellowed out a certain word that started with a certain letter.

A sopping wet, sudsy Kori, along with Angela, who had been helping her wash, burst out of the bathroom.

“Martin, I heard you shout! What’s wrong?” the lavender shinx shouted out of concern.

The zoroark, who was still seething with rage and was taking deep breaths to try to calm himself, turned slowly to face his intern. “Kori, you’re not going to like this…”

After being told what had happened, the shinx took her turn to vent her frustration at the situation.