Darkness, yet again.

Back into the weird dream void thingy I was, floating around an endless black that surrounded all my sides as my eyes opened. As usual, I felt like I was floating underwater without actually feeling that moisture all around me yadayadayada, the usual gist of the dream.

I looked down at my hands- I mean, paws. Memories from the real world started flooding back to me, reminding me of what form I slept in. I was still in my dewott form from when I was in the restaurant with Zygar- Ahem, Zephaniel . After scarfing down my meal, I returned to Basi’s house and spent the rest of the day with her. How I wasn’t melting from boredom since I wasn’t rotting on the internet was a huge mystery…

But welp, I was here again so that meant two things. One, big and super duper scary (real) .EXE eyes mumbo-jumbo, or shadow deity again. Man, if only I had a coin to decide which of these two dream scenarios could be-

Suddenly, I could feel something within the grip of my paw, something cold and metal. I opened it up and saw a US penny on my paw pad. I blinked in confusion, a bit surprised at having that in my paw before it hit me. “Oh yeah, this is my dream, technically. At least my own headspace.”

Heh, no time like the present to determine my dream!

“Heads for deity, tails for mumbo-jumbo, let’s-a go!” With my conditions set, I flipped the coin upwards with a smug grin. However, before I could see my result, a voice diverted my attention.

“Well done, Lucas.”

I looked behind me and saw Shadow Deity behind me, his shade still being covered by the pink light. Before I could do anything else, I felt the coin hit my head before I saw it fall down the dark and bottomless abyss below. “Aw fuck.” I muttered quickly before fully turning to my mind’s visitor. “Welp, doesn’t seem like the coin was necessary. To be honest, was hoping to see you.”

The deity huffed. “I’m flattered, warming up so quickly to me after the revelations I’ve bestowed upon you.” His tail flicked to the side as he added kinda smugly. “Surely you’re not saying this thinking I shall give you the answers you want, right?”

I was about to lie but then I remembered bro was in my mind and was probably reading it like an open book, so I sighed and just took the L on that one. “A bit, being honest, but from all I know you’re not gonna tell jack shit.” However, something from the last time we saw each other got me curious so I thought I’d ask right away. “So… about last time. Can you at least tell me what the hell was that about?”

I could feel the smug tone disappearing from him as I could feel his yellow-eyed stare tilt to the side, avoiding my gaze. I tilted my head in confusion, thinking if he was about to keep a secrecy act again, however, he decided to spill out. “About your theory… yes, that was not your dream, but my… nightmare.”

Thinking cap: activate. So, I was right, the creepy eyes and mumbo-jumbo were not my dream, it was literally this deity’s dream. It made me wonder. If those dreams had started a while before I was sent to this world and the way the deity knew about video games and how they worked, he was probably in my mind for a while now…

He was probably reading my primary thoughts right now, so, any reaction to that, Shadow Deity?

…

… and that’s just a theory, a GAAAAME Theory!

The deity sighed and seemed to be rubbing his temples or facepalming, couldn’t tell because of the shade over their body and the light behind him. “Listen, Lucas, just know that was a nightmare and that’s that, okay? I do not feel comfortable sharing it just yet. Besides, that’s not why I called you here in the first place.”

I sighed while rolling my eyes, crossing my blue furry arms, and leaning my body backwards like I was sitting in an invisible chair. “Sure, fine. So, why call me here?”

“Well, first of all, I wanted to congratulate you on defeating your first of many ordeals in this world.” He turned around and shrugged. “I’m sure once you’ve mastered your powers, that sunbloom would’ve been nothing more than a pushover, however, credit is where credit is due since you are young and still learning.”

My face morphed into a humorless expression. “Damn, you sound like my tail getting roasted and the fact Evon almost became a pancake was pure skill issue…”

“Oh no, I wouldn’t say that. I was merely saying that you were just biting more than you could chew at this moment.” The deity turned back to me. “But that’s not to say I’m not happy with the results. Not only did you certainly prevail, but you have gotten a step further in dominating your forms. A small step, but a step nonetheless.”

“So… like, all middle evolutions unlocked for me? Can I use all of them now?” I asked while tilting my head to the side.

The deity thought for a moment before he stated while lifting a finger. “Not exactly. Some middle evolutions are powerful in their own right, such as a magneton. They are not exactly stronger than a magnezone, however, they can be faster than one if they train hard enough. So I believe you have to train a little more to tame those forms.”

I groaned, letting a bit of my impatience get to me. Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy. “Eh, fine, I get it. Or else it wouldn’t have been fun having a lot of powerful forms at my disposal.” I put my paws on the side and asked. “So, do I have to use my knowledge and try to hard guess who the more powerful mid-evolution is so I don’t go feral if I transform into it?”

“Unfortunately, that’s the only way I can think of. I cannot tell you what species your body can’t handle since it has been a long time since the last one to hold that power was in your situation.” Shadow Deity explained, his arms folded behind his back. “You are on your own on that part.”

I shrugged nonchalantly. “Well, I managed to find the right Pokémon that doesn’t turn me into a feral, so this is just another Tuesday morning for me.”

The deity nodded before the void started shaking, like an earthquake happening while there was nothing. “Ah, you seem to be waking up.” He said while looking around before focusing on me again. “Before you wake up, I need to tell you something else quickly.”

I tilted my head again before asking. “What is it? Say it fast!”

The earthquake started getting louder and Shadow Deity’s voice was growing distant. “Trust… the… zygarde…!”

With those last few words spoken, the void disappeared and my eyes opened up again, this time to a brown dirt ceiling. I blinked multiple times, trying to adjust to the dim lighting of my room. The door was slightly opened, letting the light from the torches outside the room seep into it.

I rubbed my eyelids with a paw while groaning before shifting my position on the hay bed, lying on my side. I yawned as I thought. ‘Welp, that was the convo of all time.’ I scratched my tail, the burns from yesterday almost having disappeared entirely, save for the itchy feeling. “At least I got something out of that. Sucks I couldn’t get more info.”

I began wondering about what he said at the end there. Trust the zygarde, huh? I mean, sure, I wasn’t about to get on the wrong side of that dude anyway, lest I’d want to get Core Enforcer directly shot at my ass. But like, the way he said it felt like the white doggo was gonna offer me something in the future and the Shadow Deity knew about it. And from the way he predicted such an outcome, it seemed like he either had some kind of foresight or could predict what Zephy doggo was going to do since he probably knew about him.

Eh, either way, I don’t think that fact alone is gonna change anything. I guess I SHOULD probably be more open with him if he wants me to trust him.

With that, I got up from bed and stretched my body. Subconsciously, I started licking my arms to groom my blue fur before starting to brush my paws all around my body to straighten my fur. Midway through, I snapped out of my trance once my paws reached my whiskers and realized what I was doing. I sighed. “Body, please, you’re not helping me beat the animal allegations here!”

Yeah, nope, back into human form I go.

After fully transforming back into human form, with my backpack and everything, I pulled out my phone to look at one of my favorite memes that I saved to get back into shape and get those animal thoughts away from my mind. However, I noticed something that made me a bit worried.

My phone was finally running low on battery.

Sure, I was stretching a little, it was around 30% left but still, my phone was already giving me warnings about it. Sure, for some reason its battery was lasting longer than I was expecting it to last, but it was about to run out eventually, one day or another. “Gee, the day of reckoning is approaching it seems…”

However, a certain idea flashed through my mind, and, holy fuck, I felt so stupid for not even thinking of doing this before just to test it out.

I put away my backpack and put my phone on the bed as I stood away from it. I muttered to myself. “I had the answer to this problem all this time. That one scene from the Shazam movie taught me how to do it but I didn’t remember about that ‘till now… honestly great timing.”

I stretched my hands and arms and spoke again. “Hope this works. Overused Pokémon power assemble!” With that, I started transforming again. My body started shrinking little by little. My ears grew pointed at the top of my head, I gained a short muzzle with chubby cheeks and I’ve grown a big lightning-shaped tail. Once the pink light faded away, I looked at my yellow-furred paws and noticed how flexible they were compared to other paws. “Hehe…” I pointed at the ceiling with my new pikachu form. “You can’t get me Nintendo! I’m in another world where you can’t send your dumb ninjas! Get fucked!”

I giggled a bit before walking to the phone and picking it up, my ears flickering as I subconsciously sniffed it. “Alright, now… how do I do this…” I started thinking of a solution to the problem. Now, this was my first time as an electric type Pokémon, so I didn’t know how to regulate electric attacks for personal use. I needed to do something that didn’t use as many volts as possible.

Before I could think about it, Basi’s voice sounded from the living room. “Lucas! Are you awake yet!?”

I looked back and shouted. “Yeah, Basi! Hold on, I’m just doing something!” After no response came, I looked back at my phone and started to think, and then I remembered something about Pikachu. “Oh yeah… wait, does that fact still apply to this world even with the existence of cores…?”

I started rubbing the red spot on my chubby cheek, massaging it a little and hoping for something to happen. It honestly felt relaxing and a bit pleasuring for me to do that, like, my paws were made for this kind of stuff from how soft they were. However, not even a second into my massage, I was already feeling light electrical shocks on my paws that… honestly tickled instead of causing me pain, confirming that the electricity sacks were still there.

“Good.” With that, I brought my phone close to my face and muttered. “Please, for the love of God, don’t zap my phone to oblivion…” With that, I started rubbing my phone against my cheeks slowly but surely. I didn’t wanna do it too fast or else I might release too much electricity to burn my phone away. I felt a fuzzy feeling against my cheek, although, I couldn’t see if it was working or not because I had my eyes closed from such bliss of having my cheek rubbed.

Damn, why are pikachu’s cheeks so damn sensitive?

After rubbing it for half a minute, I stopped and turned on the screen to check the battery. My eyes widened once I looked at the battery percentage on my phone, muttering to myself. “Holy shit, a 100% in less than a minute!? Damn, my body goes crazy when it comes to charging shit!”

Crisis averted, my phone was fully charged once again!

I started messing with it, feeling its surface on the palm of my paw. Unlike when I use my phone while charging, this time it didn’t feel like it was overheating even after a quick charge like that. It felt like it rested appropriately while it charged. “Goddamn… despite being overused to hell, you do have some uses.” I said as I rubbed my belly.

My stomach grumbled and that was the reminder I needed to remember that not only Basidian had called me, but I also had to eat breakfast. So without any delay, I rushed to the living room and the table with my phone in paw. I saw that food was already on the table, covered with that sizzling oil from the heatran. I noticed she was already on the table, eating some of the berries on the pile.

She turned to me and smiled warmly. “Good morning, Lucas!” She tilted her head curiously. “Did you switch forms while asleep?”

I put the phone on the table before answering sheepishly. “Hehe, no no, I just transformed just now for an occasion.” I grabbed my phone and showed it to the elder. “You see, cellphones don’t have infinite energy to work. They have an internal battery that runs on electricity.”

A look of understanding flashed through the heatran’s face before she nodded. “I see. So you transformed into a pikachu to charge your phone?” I nodded in confirmation. “Interesting! At least you can just switch forms when not in battle to recharge your precious device!”

I nodded before putting the phone on the table again and grabbing a piece of bread. “Yeah, it’s great! Back home, since I didn’t have this power, I had to find any available out-... station, charging stations for my phone. Since almost every human has a phone, it’s very hard to find one.”

“Oh wow, that must be quite a hassle to deal with.” Basi commented with a chuckle.

“Oh, it is. And don’t even get me started when all of them are filled up with something and I have to fight with my siblings for the last available ones.” I said before taking a bite out of the bread while chuckling muffledly with Basidian.

After giggling a little, the elder spoke again. “Say, you and Evon aren’t planning to go into another mission today, right?”

I gulped the bread before responding. “Yeah, we aren’t. Like I told you yesterday, that sunbloom from yesterday really whooped our butts, and after we went to the clinic, Media told us that Evon broke a few bones so he needs at least a day to heal them. Short and sweet version, yeah, break time.”

As I started eating the rest of the bread, Basidian hummed before she said. “I see. So you might be able to do it…” I hummed in confusion and tilted my head while munching on the bread. “You see, a friend of mine visited yesterday. She was hoping to see you, actually.”

I gulped the bread and asked while slowly stroking my chest fur. “Why? Did she need something from me?”

“Yes, actually. She wanted to ask you a favor. But being honest, it’s more of a task for you.” The heatran explained as she motioned with one of her big claws. “I said to her that you were busy with guild work and I would tell her when you would be free to do so.” She then shook her head and smiled warmly. “But it’s okay if you don’t want to do it.”

I stroked my chin while I thought about the situation. “Hm… beats just being in my room just messing with my phone and training with my forms. Sure, why not?” I picked up a sitrus berry and bit onto it, the oil making the bitter taste of the berry so much better. “Whot ish the tashk about anyway?” I asked while munching.

“I don’t know. Once I said you weren’t available, she just left. But oh well, you could just go to her house and ask about the task if you want to. But before that, don’t forget to take a bath!” Basidian said that last part with enthusiasm.

I frowned and rolled my eyes at that. “Alright, I will...” I sighed. “Geez, I thought you of all Pokémon wouldn’t care much about a bath since fire type and all.”

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

“Oh no, I really don’t since my skin isn’t prone to getting dirty or smelling. But you, on the other paw, most Pokémon I see you changing into have fur, and your original form also can have a musky scent that some Pokémon don’t like. Your clothes also stick with that scent, as felt from your shirt.” Basidian explained and, unfortunately for me, I couldn’t really deny her…

“Ugh… fine, you’re right.” I said before taking the last bite out of the sitrus. ‘Speaking of hygiene, how the hell do I brush my teeth here? I’m gonna- or at least my human form is gonna get cavities at this rate. Ugh, more reason to stick with Pokémon forms and use my human form for the least amount of time possible. I can endure a bad breath.’

I grabbed my phone and went back to my room, putting it inside the backpack and slinging it on my back. I then felt the weight of everything upon my shoulders. Since I wasn’t in my riolu form, it wouldn’t be that easy to lift my backpack in a pikachu’s body, but I would manage it.

Once I stepped out of my room, I asked. “Hey, Basi, where even is your friend’s house anyway?”

“Oh yeah, was forgetting to say.” She said before smiling. “She lives outside the village but close. She owns a berry farm, just a bit northeast of the village’s entrance. You’ll find it if you keep walking in that direction.”

“Alright, thanks! See you later, Basi!” I said while flashing the heatran a thumbs up… or was it a paws up? Wait, pikachu has a very small thumb so maybe a thumbs up.

“Bye Lucas, don’t forget to say hi to Methra for me!” Basi said before I nodded and left the house.

Before leaving the village, I went to the bathhouse to wash myself quickly and drink a bit of water. I needed to be at least clean enough so Basi didn’t throw me out of the house just because I stank. Hey, at least this time there wouldn’t be any wet dog smell like last time since I was a rodent this time.

After cleaning myself, I left the bathhouse and decided to pay a visit to Evon to see how he was faring with his injuries.

I was getting better at navigating the tunnels of Cavestone Village, at this point, the route to certain places was already engraved in my mind. Maybe once I finished the task, I could explore more of this place and see what it had to offer. Maybe I find a fun place to goof around.

Eventually, once I reached Evon’s home, I knocked on his door, and after a small bit, he answered the door. Once it fully opened to reveal the eevee, his eyepatch lacked the badge. He tilted his head in confusion before something clicked in his mind. “Oh, it’s just you. Hey, Lucas.”

“Yo, Foxy. Just swingin’ by to check up on how you doing. Are your bones healing well?” I asked with a grin, adjusting the backpack behind me.

“I’m managing.” Evon smirked. “Don’t worry, I have experienced and endured more than just a few broken bones. I’m not as frail as you’re probably thinking to come and check up on me.”

I smiled smugly while crossing my arms and looking away. “Alright princess, if ya say so. Just tell me next time if you need a kiss on your lil’ booboos.”

He rolled his eyes. “You never cease to amaze me every day with your nonexistent sense of humor.”

“Heh, bitch, I don’t humor, I meme! Not like a princess like you would understand such sophisticated language!” I said while mocking a fancy noble tone, mimicking my paw twirling a glass of wine.

Evon huffed in amusement. “Sure… sure… anyway, got any plans for today since we aren’t going out on missions?”

“Well, I wasn’t planning on it until Basi said someone was looking for me to do a task. So I’m going to that Pokémon to at least try and do her task.” I shrugged. “You feel like coming with me or nah?”

“No, I have other stuff to do. And I’m probably gonna be occupied through most of the day talking to my parents and catching them up on stuff. It has been a while, after all…” He said, a grimace appearing on his face, probably from guilt.

I smiled softly, putting a paw on my side. “I’m sure they’ll be happy to see you again. You need to tell them about how we beat that sunbloom to the ground, bet they’ll be really proud of ya!”

Evon managed to smile a little, clutching his pendant with a paw. “Yes, I’m pretty sure they will.”

I flashed a silent thumbs-up before turning around. “Anyway, Imma go do the task now whatever that is. See ya, Evon!”

“See you.” I heard the eevee reply.

After that convo, I decided to grab my headphones and put on some music to listen to while walking torwards the cave's exit. Adjusting the headphones felt very awkward since they weren’t made for beings with very pointed ears. Although I managed to slip them in and lock them in place, it was quite uncomfortable.

But if I could hear some video game bangers while just walking for a long time, I would ignore the uncomfortable feeling to the best of my abilities!

I got out of the village and started walking in the direction that the heatran pointed out to me. I hoped that I remembered the direction correctly because getting lost would NOT be favorable. Although… I guess I could just turn into a flying ‘mon to figure out where I would be. But there would be a huge problem… learning how to fly… I thought. Well, maybe it would come naturally just like all the other things that do when I transform into a Pokémon… hopefully.

Wonder what would happen if I transformed into a levitating Pokémon…

I then sighed after all that theory crafting inside my head, deciding to just focus on listening to my music while walking through the rather peaceful woods. “I’m hanging on to the other side! I won’t give up ‘till the end of me! I’m what you get when the stars align! Now face it, you’re just an e-ne-my!!!”

It felt rather silly to think about an outside perspective seeing a Pikachu just walking through the woods with headphones singing a video game song. Honestly tho, if I got back to my world with these powers still active, the amount of reactions that I would gather from people would be astronomically high and funny. Haters gonna be saying it's AI when I post photos of myself in Pokémon form, hehehe.

Even though I sang loudly to myself, no other wild Pokémon decided to appear, although I could catch glimpses of some Pokémon that seemed to be civilized pass by some of the threes. It seemed like they were heading to Cavestone Village. Heh, hopefully, they didn’t mind my great singing voice!

After walking through the forest a bit more, just singing my way through and smelling the aromas of the forest while hearing the wind and the flowing sound of a river nearby, I finally saw some tall wooden fence in the distance. I squinted my eyes to see a bit further and saw that beyond the fence there were some bushes with some bluish objects. Then, the smell finally registered in my nose and I realized that those bushes had berries in them, oran berries.

I paused the playlist once it was done and put my headphones around my neck, walking closer to the fence. ‘That must be it.’

Once I reached the fence, the scent of berries around me strengthened, like I was swimming in a pool of them. I had forgotten that rodents’ noses are very powerful as well, so I was getting a bit overwhelmed by the smell. I got near the fence, seeing a bush brush past it with a few berries sticking out. Even though I’d just eaten, my new body was getting a bit hypnotized by the smell, a certain urge to pluck some of those orans out of the bush and stash them somewhere…

As I extended an arm to reach through the fence to pick a single berry, a female voice stopped me in my tracks. “OI!”

My fur stood up on end as I looked to see the source of the voice. I started trembling with a frightened frown once I saw the source of the voice. A big shiny slither wing was angrily stomping towards me, her golden yellow wings spread wide like the wings of a seraph and a red tail swishing back behind her. I fell on my butt as the fluffy bipedal moth approached.

“You wild hooligans don’t know when to quit, eh?” The moth spoke in a very Scottish-accented voice as she finally reached me. “Try all ya want to steal mah berries. I’ll send y’all back to your gang with a wee fist of searin’ heat-” She then stopped speaking out of nowhere before staring at me for another moment. She tilted her head. “Wait a sec… that getup you got there… are you civilized…?”

I put my paws up defensively and spoke. “Y-yeah, yeah, I am! Sorry, I just couldn’t help myself, I’m still coming to terms with this body’s instincts!”

The slither wing tilted her head and asked confusedly, her wings slowly retracting a bit. “‘ This body's instincts?”

“Uh…” I sheepishly grinned and shrugged. “I’m the shapeshifter from Cavestone Village.”

“Oh… oh! Oh, my bad, dear!” She crouched and extended her claw to me. “Here, let me get ya up.”

Hesitantly and mentally recovering from the scare of a large monster moth power-walking towards me, I took her claw as she pulled me back up with minimal effort. She then started brushing some dust off my shoulders, and once she was done, I spoke. “Uh… sorry for trying to steal your berries. Dunno what came over me.”

“Oh, dinnae fash yersel. It wasn’t fully intentional, and besides, it’s just wild ones who are a pain in the arse for being lil’ thievin’ bampots anyway.” The large bug spoke dismissively, a friendly expression on her face being a large contrast from the pissed-off look she had earlier.

‘Holy shit, Scottland doesn’t exist here but she’s Scottish by soul!’ I thought to myself before rubbing the back of my head. “Yeah… you know how they are. Just want easy food and all.”

The slither wing nodded and changed the topic. “Oh welp, it is what it is. Anyway, it’s so nice to meet ya in the flesh, Lucas the Shapeshifter! The name’s Methra Summers, just ya local farmer producing what she can to gain a wee bit of income as you’ve probably figured.”

I smiled while adjusting the straps of my backpack. “Nice to meet ya, Miss Summers!”

She waved a claw lazily while giggling. “Oh, no need to fancy yourself with all that Miss blether, makes me feel old! Just call me Methra.”

“Heh, alright then. Then I’m sure you’ll handle all the youngster nonsense I’m about to spew.” I said with a chuckle.

“Eh, I’m used to it. My son’s up with the trends of nowadays after all!” She said as her wings twitched a bit, bits of flaming golden ash falling a bit from them. “Anyway, so… if you came here, I assume ya heard about the favor I was about to ask you. But if it’s necessary, I can reward ya.”

I shook my paws with a sheepish grin. “Oh no, no need to. I’d be happy to help. Besides, got nothing better to do anyway.”

“Yaldi! Hope you don’t mind about my wee problem, dearie.” She then turned around, turning slowly and being careful with her red tail so she didn’t slap me with it. “Let’s get inside so I can discuss further about the lil’ thing. Don’t want any wild numpties catchin’ a glimpse of my plans.”

I nodded silently and followed the moth closely while putting my headphones back in my bag.

As I followed Methra through her farm, walking towards her house, I couldn’t help but stare at the fluff covering her body. In the games, slither wings were shown to have quite the fluff covering their bodies. But, holy shit, the amount of fluff Methra had was insane. She looked like a large pillow of fur that would make for an amazing place to sleep. I’m only imagining… the soft belly with the soft white fur being used as a cover as I sleep away on such a fluffy soft body…

No, eepy virus, I just woke up, I know she looks like a nice bed but I have a favor to do!

I started looking around, trying to fill my head with other thoughts so I wouldn’t just grab onto the moth and fall asleep right on her. I saw the vast amount of berry bushes that were grown around us, sporting several berries around us, mostly oran. Again, their smell was hypnotizing me a bit, just slowly motivating me to steal one of them. But in the end, I decided not to since I (mostly) knew about self-restraint. “Wow, so many berries…”

The slither wing turned her head to me. “Ya like what you see, dearie? The Summers family had this farm for generations, passed down along so more of those wee delicious berries fill Pokémon stomachs.” Methra spoke with a hint of pride in her voice. “Although, it has seen its fair share of hooligans wanting to steal the berries for themselves. There had been seasons where production was scarce because of some pests.”

I crossed my arms as I listened. “I see… so like, does this favor have something to do with helping you with some farm tasks or…”

“Oh no, nothing of the farm kerfuffle I’m used to darling. It’s about a recent issue that brewed outta nowhere and our farm’s gonna suffer the consequences if we don’t deal with it. I’ll tell ya more about it when we’re inside, let’s not dawdle!”

With that, the conversation died as we kept walking through the fields. Seconds later, I could see a building a bit ahead. The building was a simple one-floored house made out of carved rocks and a bit of wood around the edges, even the door was a simple but large wooden one with a small lantern above it.

We entered the building and I took in the interior of it, feeling a warm and homely vibe of the house. Just like the outside, the interior was also simple. The living room had large hay seats in the middle of the room surrounding a stone table. On the walls, alongside some candles, there were some shelves with some books and orbs on them. Besides the shelves, there were, surprisingly, weapons with some hardened silk sticking them onto the walls.

Sitting on one of the hay seats and supporting their arms on the table while reading a book, there was another slither wing, this one having orange wings but still having a red tail. The orange-winged moth looked at us, already speaking. “Hey, Mom-” He interrupted himself once he noticed me, his eyes widening a little before tilting his head. “Uh… who is he?”

“Oh, he’s the shapeshifter from Cavestone Village!” Methra spoke cheerfully while pushing me forward a little with her tail. The orange-winged slither wing’s eyes widened before his mother motioned to him. “Lucas, this barry fella right here’s my wee son, Nothris Summers!”

I lifted a paw to the smaller moth. “Yo dude.”

“Wait… y-you’re the shapeshifter?” Nothris asked and I nodded with a thumbs up. “I-if you’re him… then that means…” He dropped the book onto the table and walked towards me. Once he was a few inches in front of me, I realized that even though he was smaller than Methra, holy shit he was still tall as fuck. The moth then bowed in front of me. “I’m very sorry about my friend yesterday. He didn’t mean to make fun of your strange true form!”

I tilted my head and looked at the orange-winged moth in confusion. “Yesterday…?” My mind went back to yesterday, after the whole drama with the sunbloom and everything. During my stay at the restaurant, I remembered something about rumors… oh yeah, the jynx comparison. There was a slither wing with that crustle. “Oh yeah, now I remember…” I waved a paw in dismissal. “Nah, don’t stress it, dude. I wasn’t really that mad, I found it a bit funny, to be honest.”

The moth stood up again and smiled softly. “I-I’m glad he didn’t hurt your feelings then.” He then turned to his mother and asked. “Mom, is he here to solve all that berry kerfuffle?”

I took my backpack off and looked at the shiny Pokémon confused. “Berry… kerfuffle?”

“Oh dear, that’s what I’ve been wanting to tell ya.” Methra said before sighing. “If ya want to sit while listenin’ to me ramble about it, ya can, alright?”

I nodded and went to sit in one of the hay seats around the table, putting my backpack beside me. I leaned my back on the stone, getting as comfortable as I could before speaking. “So… berries, right? What happened here?”

“Aye, so… makin’ things short, our berries supplies were stolen.” Methra cut right to the chase, shrugging with her short arms. I frowned at that information. “Och, dinnae fash yersel, it doesn’t mean we’re gonna starve because of that, it’s about another thing we’re worried about, really.”

The orange-winged slither wing added for his mother. “Ya see, those berries we had stored were supposed to be shipped to a city for a festival that’s gonna happen there. The Pokémon from there were gonna pick up the berries in a day from now…”

I blinked at the severity of the situation, a little surprised about the situation being that dire. The situation was serious, if they didn’t have those berries delivered, they wouldn’t get any payment, or that might tarnish the reputation of their farm… “Do you guys know who did it?” I asked while crossing my arms.

Both moths shook their head before the female and shiny one spoke with a sigh. “No, we don’t. It happened overnight while me and Nothris over here were sleepin’. From the way the heist was committed and the eejit carried a bunch of berries overnight, we suspect it was either a group who did it or a psychic type.”

Nothris scratched his orange horn while looking aside a bit disappointed. “Whoever did this covered all their footsteps too…”

“Hm…” I hummed in thought before suggesting. “The berries grown on the fields that I’ve seen… are they enough?”

Methra frowned before her golden wings drooped a bit. “No… they aren’t. Besides, the berries grown in these fields are harvested before they’re put through the process of Vitalis to be more healthy and more effective with their effects.”

I tilted my head in confusion. “Vitalis…?”

The orange-winged moth walked to me and explained, his tail swishing from side to side. “Oh, it’s a process where we get a grass-type Pokémon to purify the berries we harvest so that their effects are enhanced and have a lot more time before they rot.”

I put a paw on my chin as I thought. “So harvesting more berries ain’t enough…” I sighed and got up from the hay seat, putting my paws on the side. “Alright, show me where the berry storage is. I need to see the crime scene so I can find anything suspicious or any trace of the thief.” ‘Mind, don’t think about the red astronaut or I’m going to- fuck! I thought about it!’

“Aye then, follow me.” Methra motioned for me to follow, so I did along with her son.

----------------------------------------

“Alright, Evon, deep breaths, deep breaths. You can do this. Just don’t mention anything about that beach and you’re good, they didn’t need to worry more than they were already worried…”

I supported my forelegs on the table as I tapped away on the communication orb, attempting to connect with my parents’ orb. I was a bit hesitant about doing this, but I needed to do this, I’d kept them in the dark for too long. They were probably so worried about me, being months without contacting them.

I finally thought about their side of the matter, grimacing as scenarios rushed through my head about their current situation. Were they alright? It had been months since I last spoke to them after all, who knows if anything had happened to them during one of their missions? Were they hurt? Have they been trapped somewhere by some disgusting criminal gang? Did… did they-

No, those thoughts are the worst of the worst. I couldn’t keep thinking like that or else it’ll throw away my entire resolve. I needed to be positive, maintain good and cheerful behavior, and never mention that I went to the beach to them. Simple as that. They were alright, Dad’s disaster sense would always keep them away from big problems.

I decided to do this call on the same day and at the same time they always called me since those were the times where they likely were still home and not out on missions.

With all the mental preparations ready, I took a big sigh and held my paw to the communication orb, activating its instantaneous communication feature. Once it was activated, I put my paw away and just stared at the orb for a moment, seeing it glow brightly as it tried to connect with my parent’s orb.

It had stayed a bit like that, around 45 seconds or so, which gave me a bit of anxiety. Eventually, the connection went through and the orb produced a see-through image of my parents above it with a blue aura around it. The image focused itself, and once the figures in the image became fully visible, I managed to smile softly.

There they were, in all of their glory. Even if some months had passed, they still hadn’t changed a bit which was good. Mom, the pink vaporeon that she was, was still the same as I remembered, her pink-colored scales, her red eyes, her long fins on the sides of her head that looked like wings, and the scar that passed through her muzzle. Then there was Dad, an absol with a spiky and jagged horn, emerald green eyes, and a star-shaped birthmark on his forehead.

Wait, was that a scar on Dad’s mouth- wait, never mind, it was just a piece of meat that he didn’t lick off. As usual, he’s so thick-headed he didn’t even realize that was there.

I sucked in another breath and just did a simple wave with a paw. “Hey, guys-”

“EVON!!!” The two Pokémon shouted through the orb, my ears falling numb followed by a white noise. Geez, I get that I didn’t speak to you guys that long but that didn’t mean you needed to destroy my hearing…

“Hi Mom… hi Dad…” I managed to say while recovering a little.

“Evon! You had no idea how me and your mother have been worried sick about you!” Dad spoke in a stern tone, but even so, I could hear the shakiness of his voice. They probably thought that I’d died or something… “You weren’t answering our calls and we got worried and-”

“Dad, Dad… it’s fine, it’s fine. I’m here. It’s just… a lot of things happened.” I said, looking away with a frown.

“Your… your eye…” Mom commented next, finally taking notice of the donphan in the room. “That’s… that’s not for cosmetic purposes, right…?” I stayed silent for a moment before shaking my head. The vaporeon’s ear fins dropped slightly. “Dear Arceus… what exactly happened…?”

I sighed before finally letting out. “Mom… Dad? I… I have a lot to say for today.”