Ditto lunged forward, and Hobbes dashed forward to meet it. But rather than make a move toward me as Hobbes had expected, all of ditto's focus was on Hobbes. It glomped onto Hobbes, flexible body surrounding him in as close of an approximation to a hug as he could manage with a body as gooey as his was.

Hobbes looked up at me from under his disguise, desperately asking me what to do, and I just laughed.

"That's a good sign, I'd say. Seems like he's eager to get fusing." In response, ditto simply hugged Hobbes harder, his disguise deforming under the ditto's body. "Okay, okay, let's back up. You're not gonna fuse by hugging."

It took another few seconds, but eventually Hobbes managed to push ditto off of him, and ditto looked up at me in question.

"We'll be using this," I said, holding up the DNA splicer. "This'll cause you and Hobbes to fuse together, permanently merging into a single pokemon." Ditto lunged forward to grab the splicer, but I pulled it back out of its reach at the last second. "Whoa. I'm glad you're excited, but this is important. There's no taking this back, you know -- if you choose to do this, you have to be committed. Are you sure?"

"Ditto!" ditto called, still reaching for the splicer I held above my head, and I sighed before looking at Hobbes. I hadn't been planning on fusing ditto and Hobbes so quickly. At the very least, I'd have liked to leave the field we'd found ditto in before starting the fusion, and more preferably I'd had liked to make it back to a pokemon center to check ditto's information and have a nurse oversee the process. But ditto seemed unwilling to wait that long.

I looked to Hobbes. "You willing to get this started now?" I asked. While I'd have liked to do it in a pokemon center, there honestly wasn't any reason for me to delay. While I wanted the best possible fusion for Hobbes, this wasn't like the game where you could catch pokemon by the dozens and then release any that didn't have good enough stats. Beyond the cost of buying so many pokeballs, each trainer was only allowed by the league to have a maximum of ten pokemon at any time, and even released pokemon counted toward that number for a full year after being released.

And even if the league didn't have that limitation, I now knew this wasn't a game. I had no intention of treating my pokemon -- living, breathing, intelligent beings -- as playthings that could be discarded if they weren't 'good enough.'

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Hobbes looked to me, then to the ditto, then back to me before giving a resolute nod. "Mi!" he said, confidently, and nodded.

There was typically a certain amount of danger involved in any fusion, a risk that any two pokemon wouldn't be compatible, killing both of them in the fusion attempt. Pokemon centers had equipment that could marginally lower that risk, which was part of the reason I had wanted to return to a larger city before attempting the fusion, but I didn't have to worry about that with this fusion. Ditto was the only pokemon that had a one-hundred percent success rate of fusions, something about its transforming nature allowing it to fuse with any and all other pokemon. So, it was with only a small amount of trepidation that I placed the Silph Co. DNA splicer on the ground and showed ditto the prong it needed to touch. Then, after admonishing the small pokemon to hold tight to the prong for the entirety of the fusing process, I turned to Hobbes at the other end of the device.

"Mi..." Hobbes said as he hugged me, perhaps sensing my apprehension, and I smiled at my friend.

"I know, I know. We've talked about this before. It'll be fine. I...I just worry."

"Mi mi, kyu."

I smiled again at my pokemon before presenting him with his own prong and stepping away, wiping my watery eyes with the back of my hand.

I knew Hobbes would be safe, that there was no danger of a rejected fusion. I knew he'd still be there at the end of the fusion. But I also knew...he'd be different.

Changes were a fact of life -- much more so for pokemon than for people. Perhaps that was why pokemon seemed so much more willing to fuse, joining together -- and potentially losing -- aspects of their personalities that made them unique. The possibility was always there for so many pokemon that had evolutions, the chance that they would change so dramatically. Such as magikarp evolving into gyarados -- both their bodies and minds changing so drastically in their constant pursuit of power. Most pokemon accepted it. Embraced it, even, as shown by ditto's enthusiasm for fusing.

But it was harder for me to embrace. Not when I'd potentially be losing my best friend.

Not entirely -- but pieces of him might be different. And those potential pieces already seemed like they were too large of a price to pay.

But it was what my friend wanted. More than just wanted -- yearned for above almost everything else. Despite how calm he looked compared to the pokemon opposite him, I knew Hobbes had much more enthusiasm for the coming fusion than ditto. It was what we'd been planning and working toward for so long, after all.

So, after checking to make sure that both ditto and Hobbes were each touching their own prongs, with no pieces of grass or anything else obstructing the connection, I gave my friend one final, bittersweet smile.

And then I pushed the button on the connected remote, initiating the fusion.