I woke up groggy and confused, with a sore back and wet clothes. I blearily opened my eyes, only to have a copy of my own face, except with button eyes and a creepy, stitched-on smile, staring back at me.

"Gah!" I called, scrambling back away from the monster.

Hobbes chuffed out a laugh as I fully woke up and remembered the previous day's events. The sun was barely peeking over the horizon; as uncomfortable as my 'bed' was, it didn't take more than the slightest bit of light to wake me up. Coupled with the morning dew coating all of the surroundings -- including me -- I would have to rate it as a less-than-pleasant way to wake up.

"Is this gonna become a thing?" I wryly asked Hobbes as I rolled my neck. Like pretty much all ghost pokemon, Hobbes enjoyed a good prank. With his normal disguise, he was limited in his options. But with his new ability to transform...

Hobbes just laughed again in response.

I hadn't been too worried about spending the previous night out in the open. This close to Merraga, it was unlikely for there to be any pokemon powerful or aggressive enough to pose a serious threat to Hobbes or me. My bag, however, was another issue, and after stretching I hurried to track down my wayward equipment before any curious ditto fusions could dig around for the food stored within.

It didn't take long to locate it. Hobbes and I hadn't exactly been subtle in our earlier day's travels, and it was easy enough to follow the path of bent and pushed-aside grass back to where Hobbes and the ditto had fused. Luckily, my backpack was still there, fully zipped up and with all the supplies intact.

I breathed a sigh of relief before breaking out breakfast for myself and Hobbes. "We'll have to get you tested once we get back to a pokecenter, but for now you'll have to stick with your normal pokechow," I stated. It was unlikely, especially since Hobbes looked so similar to how he looked as a mimikyu and because it was a ditto fusion, but there was always a chance for a pokemon's diet to shift or require special additives after fusing. It wasn't something we'd know until we got back to a pokecenter and had him scanned, but it wasn't a big enough issue for me to feel obligated to rush away from Merraga immediately.

"So, I was thinking," I said around a mouthful of granola bar as Hobbes cheerfully ate his own breakfast. "We spend at least a day training to make sure you're familiar with your new form. I'd usually say you'd need much longer, but you've only gained one move. Transform will take ages to master, though, so it's something that we'll have to continuously work on as we travel. In the meantime, we just need to make sure you're able to use all your old moves with your new body."

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Kyu?"

"Yeah, you don't look different, but what if one of your moves reacts differently? You're most likely part normal-type now, so I'm sure that will have some effects on something. Better to be safe than sorry." I was unsure exactly how same-type-attack-bonuses -- better known as STAB -- worked in this world. It was widely recognized that moves matching the type of the pokemon using them were typically stronger than moves of different types, but that could simply be a matter of familiarity. Hobbes' possible new typing would give me a good chance to figure out the nuances behind the mechanic. "After that, I was thinking maybe we'll check out the mine before leaving Merraga. It's supposedly been abandoned for years, so I bet there are quite a few cool pokemon in there." As close as I had lived my entire life to the infamous Rock Tunnel north of Lavender Town, I'd never actually been inside any of the many natural caves that dotted the Kanto region. Kisses' zubat half had originally been caught in Rock Tunnel, and I knew there were tons of other unique pokemon that could only be found in the underground cave systems. But my parents hadn't allowed me to explore, citing the dangers of cave-ins and getting lost, in addition to the wild pokemon. And after my adventure in the Lavender Tower, I had been inclined to follow their directions.

But I was on my pokemon journey now. If I wasn't willing to brave a little danger to explore someplace new, what was the point of it all?

And besides, the abandoned mine was unlikely to have nearly as complex of a cave system as most of the natural caves, and I doubted it had been abandoned for long enough for any pokemon truly powerful to have claimed it as their own.

Plan made for the day, Hobbes and I hurried to finish our breakfasts before I packed away the rest of the supplies.

"Oh! I almost forgot," I exclaimed as I noticed my flip-phone, forgotten in the side pocket of the backpack. "Mom and dad made me promise to send them pictures of you after you fused." I flipped it open and pointed the front towards Hobbes. "Say cheese!"

Hobbes stayed in his normal form for the picture, his purple arms barely visible in the shadows of his familiar disguise. I figured he wanted to save his creepy human-transformed form to prank my parents like he had me -- which was fine with me. I'd been annoyed at first, but I had learned to appreciate a good prank almost as much as Hobbes.

I snapped three different pictures from a couple of angles, and frowned when my phone seemed to glitch before each one, static momentarily appearing around the edges of the screen before it returned to normal. I opened up the gallery to make sure they were all there, and they all seemed normal, so I tucked the phone back away without further thought. Hopefully, the morning dew hadn't been enough to damage any of the internal electronics.

Even if I'd had service, my phone wasn't 'smart'. I wouldn't be able to send the pictures back home until we got to a pokecenter or someplace that had a computer I could upload them to and then email my parents, but I figured it was good to take the pictures now anyway. I wanted to capture the memory of Hobbes' first day as a dimikyu -- if not for my parents, then for myself.

A few minutes later, with food eaten, pictures taken, and supplies fully packed, we began our day of training.