“Goddamn, that’s a huge pile… you sure your berries were stolen or something?” I asked as I gazed at the 8-foot-tall berry pile at the end of the storage building.

“Oh dearie, that’s only a teensy tiny fraction of the berries we had harvested. Just know that the pile reached the ceilin’ because of its size!” Methra corrected, raising her claw in clear pride.

I blinked and tried to imagine a pile of colorful fruits reaching the size of a behemoth. Ooh boy, when I got my hands (or… ugh, paws) on the missing berries, I was gonna suffer trying to drag them all the way back here. Like, I needed to get the hang of psychic power or, like, turn into a horse Pokémon or something to carry all of those in a wagon. No way in HELL I’d be able to take them all here.

Hmm… maybe teleportation was on the table? … I’d cross that bridge when it came to it.

We were now in the berry storage building that Methra and her son led me to. It was way bigger than I had imagined and, with the slither wing’s explanation, it completely made sense why it was way bigger than ordinary rudimentary storage. Still… that doesn’t explain why or how an entire mountain of berries disappeared overnight without a single trace of the thief/thieves being left at the crime scene.

I took a few steps forward while looking around, trying to find something or anything that’d be important to find the thieves. Nothing stuck out to me; they were just the same wooden walls with a few traces of steel plates along the wood. A few tools hung from the wall (which were made for Pokémon like the moth family to hold) and a few bags of… something inside of them. Still, nothing that could strike me as odd… yet. Man, there are no clues to sniff-

Sniff… oh my God, I’m gonna let that dog in me out.

I turned to the two bipedal moths and held out a paw. “I have an idea. Just a sec.” The two bugs tilted their heads confusedly before I focused. I then began to glow with the same pink light again as my body shifted and morphed into the Pokémon I had in mind. 6 or so seconds later, the transformation fully finished, leaving me to stand on four paws as the glow left my body. I had become a rockruff.

And I immediately almost regretted it, goddamn, the smells of the berries were overwhelming!

After shrugging that slight headache caused by my brain registering the many smells in this storage, I shook my head and lifted a paw. “Time to sniff for clues, baby!” I said excitedly, feeling my tail wag behind me.

Nothris gasped silently, his mandibles visibly parting and revealing his toothless mouth. He then explained. “T-that’s amazin’! I saw you in other forms but I never saw you transform like this! What is that light? How do you do it!?”

I tried rubbing my nose smugly only to remember that I had paws instead of hands so I got a full whiff of dog smell right in my face. Oh well, not that’d matter much. “Well, I kinda just think of a Pokémon I wanna turn into, like, imagining myself acting as that Pokémon and boom, I transform. Strange ability, sure, but still, plenty useful.”

Methra nodded before crossing her arms. “Yep, just know that this wee ability of yours is plenty of amazing work. You’re a gifted wee kiddo, Lucas.”

I blushed a bit before looking aside, my (very flexible, goddamn) paw rubbing the back of my head a bit in embarrassment. Look, I received very few compliments that weren’t from my family, so shut the hell up, I’m still learning how to deal with them!

Focus on the mission at hand!

My moment of embarrassment passed and I looked at the slither wing family again. “Okay, so… in case it wasn’t obvious by this form I took, I’m gonna try to find some sort of scent that may lead to any kind of clue.”

Nothris scratched the side of his head and spoke. “I know I’ve seen some canine Pokémon do this. If I remember correctly, one of the guards back on Cavestone is a stoutland, and I usually see her sniffing the ground as if her nose was following a trail… do you even know how to do this?”

I raised my paw and answered with a smile. “I’m about to find out!” The two moths looked at me with shocked expressions before I ignored them and turned around. “Fortunately, back where I came from, there’s a certain tutorial that I watched that may give me an idea of what to do.” ‘Beastars, if you are right about how scents worked when Legoshi did it, I’ll uh… I’ll finally admit that I only watched the series because that dog in me leaked out, okay?’

I sighed before closing my eyes, following how that anthro wolf did in the anime. I then took a deep breath and took in all the smells my snout could pick up along with all the sounds my ears could identify. I then focused solely on the scents and smells around me, my brain doing the work for me and separating them from each other and the oxygen.

The first and obvious scent was the mushy, earthly, and sweet scent that most of the berries in the pile had. However, my nose scrunched a bit once some of those smells were too much for me. I then decided to focus on the next batch of smells. It smelled a bit musky, with the scent of ashes and fiery fragrance around the source of the smell, it also seemed to come from behind me. Ah, that probably must’ve been the slither wing family. Then I could smell the rusty iron coming from the slates around the storage, the wood from the planks-

Hm… hol’ up, I’m cookin’. I found a strange scent that lingered closely among the planks.

I subconsciously started walking in its direction, my nose sniffing it more so it got familiar with every part of the scent and where it was coming from. It was like I was following some kind of trail while blind. Just like Bea- No, brain, focus on smell!

It smelled of musk but also combined with a scent of earthly grass that created a… not so good mix of smells. Still, it was a trail, and this trail took me… somewhere, I couldn’t see, I was only following the trail, just letting my body move along the scent that seemed recent enough but not that recent so it was kinda hazy. But I could get where it was going at least, it was basically like following footprints, but instead of relying on sight to see where it led, I was relying on olfactory functions.

I felt the air around me change, making me notice I was already outside. But I didn’t care, my body was telling me to follow the smell until the source was found. So I kept walking and walking, trying to find where the trail of smell would end-

“Woah!!!”

I was suddenly grabbed from behind and lifted off the ground, feeling my paws touch the air. I opened my eyes and looked at the Pokémon who caught me with such hard claws. It was Methra. “Och, wha are ya doing, dearie? You were walking towards the forest outta nowhere. Were ya really thinkin’ you’d track that hooligan’s scent all the way onto the forest? You could’ve gone lost, ya know?”

A bit of awareness returned to me as I glanced into the forest ahead, the canopy of the woods looking a bit menacing with the shadows caused by the foliage of the trees. Yeah, uh… if horror movies and games taught me anything was to never go into unknown territory in the woods alone, or else you’re cooked.

I whimpered a bit and looked back at the slither wing, sheepishly grinning. “My bad, got a bit too focused on the smell.” ‘And of course, that should be cause for concern because, uh… hello? Instincts are fucking taking over my body momentarily! I need to escape the furry allegations!!!’

Nothris crawled beside his mother and got onto two feet again to look better at me. “But you did confirm there was a trail to follow, right?” He asked before I nodded in confirmation. His wings flapped a bit, a few ember scales scattering around. “Nice! That means that we can track that pesky bampot of a thief and recover our berries!”

“Now hol’ on to your wings darlings!” Methra said as she put me on the ground. “Just because ya have a lead, doesn’t mean ya can just waltz into whatever hideout that numpty has without a plan whatsoever. Now, before ya say anything, I trust y’all’s abilities and powers, but what if they have some kind of trap prepared? What if they have some strong members in their wee group?”

Nothris’ wings flapped a bit more as his tail shook a bit. “B-but Mom, I didn’t start a team back at the guild for nothing! If I don’t do anything, then what is the point of me getting stronger to protect our farm?”

The bigger moth swayed her red tail to the side as her mandibles clicked. “And who said I wasn’t gonna leave ya to your wits?” She shook her head and crossed her arms. “What I was intendin’ to say was for neither Lucas nor you to charge blindly into numpty territory. Y’all would get overwhelmed easily ‘n I wouldn’t want to be responsible for losing ya both for that.”

I sat down on my rear and tilted my head. “So… you’re suggesting we make a trap or something to get an advantage over them?”

“I was gettin’ to that part but yes, that’d be ideal.” The golden-winged slither wing said. “Thing is… I dunno what would attract the thieves again unless it’s more berries…”

Nothris tapped on his chin and asked. “But… don’t they already have enough berries to satisfy themselves? Why would they need more?”

I chimed in. “Exactly. Which is why we need something to lure them out of their hideout. Something bigger and better. But first…” I turned around again and faced the forest. “We might need to scout where they are to find out what they might want besides berries…”

“Yer not suggesting…” Methra trailed off, a look of worry on her face.

I looked back at her with a toothy dog grin. “Lady, did you forget who you were speaking to?” I said before the light of transformation took over me again, making me shrink and morph into another form. When the light went away, I was fully transformed into a joltik. The two moths looked at me surprised. “If I wanted to, I can just transform into any Pokémon that is awesome for stealth missions!”

I shall honor your legacy, Solid Snake! Hmm… maybe I should transform into an ekans… yes… for consistency's sake!

Methra still had her look of concern before her son stepped in and advocated for my magnificent plan. “Come on, Mom! You didn’t call Lucas’ help for nothing, right? You can put a little more faith in him!”

The big moth mom had a thoughtful look on her chitinous face before sighing. “Welp, you can’t have a lush berry tree without plantin’ a few seedlings.” As I transformed back into a rockruff, the slither wing continued. “I just hope ya know what you’re doing, Lucas.”

I gave her a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing. Dare I say, I’m an expert when it comes to stealth missions!” ‘Video games count, right? I mean, uh… I did learn a thing or two when it comes to stealth. Hell, I can even transform into different body types to better aid in my stealth.’

Nothris raised a claw. “And I’ll help with that!” The orange-winged Pokémon then turned to his mother. “This is what I signed up for after entering the guild! I need to get stronger to protect our farm from further harm and theft like this!”

Methra, this time, didn’t waste any time lingering on her thoughts and instead released an accepting clicking of her mandibles. “Alright, darlings. I suppose I shouldn’t let you here instead of tryin’ to solve the problem. Haste ye back dearies, don’t let a bunch of eejits stomp all over ya!” She finished while flapping her golden wings and clasping her claws.

“Heh, I’ve already gone against a few strong guys so I’ll be careful about that.” I said with a smirk as I felt my tail wag behind me and I turned around, calling out to the smaller slither wing. “Let’s go, Nothris. Those berries ain’t gonna get themselves back!”

The moth fell onto a quadrupedal stance as he nodded. “Heck yeah, let’s do this!”

With that, we went into the forest, passing by the fence as Methra called from behind us. “Stay safe, dearies!”

Once we were a bit into the forest, I stopped and scanned my surroundings as the sound of nature started filling my ears. Fresh air flowed through my nose as I gazed at the canopy of trees above, bigger than I was used to because of my smaller form than my human one. Leaves rustled in the wind and small chirps from the feral bird Pokémon could be heard all around us. If it were any other situation, I’d be chilling going on a nature walk…

But nah bro, it’s showtime, just like Snake says!

I turned to the behemoth of a moth following behind me as I tried to remember the musky and grassy smell from before. “Alright, I’m gonna go into smell mode again until we get to the place. Can you direct me out of any obstacles while I’m sniffing?”

Nothris nodded as his wings fluttered. “You can count on me! And if any dafty wild Pokémon try to interrupt ya, I’ll punch ‘em to the sun!”

“That’s the spirit! You’re so based!” I complimented before turning to the direction I was heading and taking a deep breath. I closed my eyes again and focused on my olfactory senses again, letting the different smells all congregate into one before mentally separating them. I could smell the greenery of the leaves and grass, the sulfuric smell coming from the slither wing behind me, and the sweet scent of berries on the bushes too.

There were also other smells that I failed to recognize, probably coming from other Pokémon judging from how… musky and meaty they were. Hell, I could even smell some dung which almost threw me out of my zone.

Eventually (and miraculously, so many smells for me to keep track of), the smell from before returned to my focus. “There!” I said with my eyes closed before I rushed to the source of the smell, kicking dust from the pads of my feet.

“Wait for me, Lucas!” Nothris shouted from behind me. I could hear and feel his heavy footsteps keeping pace with me.

It felt like I was on a trail, an invisible one made out of just smell alone. I felt the minor instincts keeping me from going off the path of the smell, making me locked in on the smell alone and nothing else. I turned left and sometimes right while following the smelly path, going full speed in my sprint. Eventually, I could hear a couple of shouts from the orange-winged moth telling me there was a tree or a bush in the path, making me dodge the oncoming obstacles during my blind rush. This went on for minutes and minutes.

The adrenaline was taking over me at this moment, feeling the wind brush through my skin and fur, going wherever that grassy and musky smell was taking me, it felt exciting. Was this how dogs normally felt? Just running along the fields in search of the source of an alluring smell… is that why they’re normally like that? It felt so damn good…

Wait, why was my tongue out tasting the wind-

“Lucas, stop!”

I heard Nothris' voice snap out of my trance, slamming my forepaws on the ground with force and skidding to a stop. Awareness returned to me before I opened my eyes, scanning around before looking back at the slither wing that approached quickly (and rather menacingly). “Ye-yeah, Nothris?”

The moth stopped beside me and stood up, his tail swaying left and right. He stared up before pointing his claw to where he gazed. “Look, up there!”

My eyes drifted into the place he was pointing at and, consequentially, I saw what he wanted to show me. Since we were in an area with tall trees and big trunks, of course, the foliage in them would be massive as well, right? So… not only were we below the massive canopy of the large trees that blocked out the sun, but we were also below a massive tree society.

Hidden among the many leaves of the trees, wooden buildings were strung around the place with vines from the foundation of them dangling from underneath them. There were many buildings around the trees, varying in sizes, and with more of them hidden further inside the foliage too.

And are those wooden catwalks connecting the trees too???

It almost felt like we stumbled upon a hidden society or something. But instead of having any secret buildings underground, they were high above the ground, constantly watching the surface beneath them. Or, at least, it felt like it, I didn’t see any ‘mons watching us from high up or something.

It was during my tree-gazing that I felt a certain smell entering my nose… a very sweet one that I remember all too well from back at the berry storage. I gasped and commented. “That smell-!” I turned to Nothris. “The berries are up there!”

The slither wing’s eyes widened as he registered the information in his head, his fur fluffing up and his wings twitching. “Huh!? Really!?” His gaze then returned back to the treetops above, his eyes now narrowing as his wings started flaring up a little. “So that’s basically the thieves’ hideout…”

With that confirmation out of the way, it meant that step 1 of the plan was now complete. Now… onto step two.

I took a few steps forward, my ears flickering as I swiveled my head around, almost sure I saw something. Although, I ignored it, hard-focusing on the task ahead. Welp, it was about time I had to try one of these forms eventually, I needed to get the hang of flying, after all.

The pink glow of transformation took over my body again, my body started to morph and shift to the Pokémon in my mind. My hindlegs morphed into talons, my posture changed to a semi-bipedal one, my forelegs shifted with a flare into wings, and my muzzle turned into a small beak. Once the transformation was fully finished, the glow disappeared as I opened my new wings. I had transformed into a starly.

I turned to look at the moth as sheepishly as my new bird features would allow. “Okay, so… listen. This is… kinda my first time trying out wings and shit, so… uh… sorry if I don’t get the hang of it immediately.” ‘Even though the new instincts kinda beam tutorials in my head on how to do shit as certain Pokémon.’

Nothris shook his head. “Don’t worry. If you can’t do it, I’ll crawl with you all the way up there. My claws can pierce wood just fine.”

I grinned. “Sweet! But still, just because I can, I’mma act smugly and overconfident just to trick my brain that I can do it. Sooooo…” I did a small salute with the feathers of my wing. “See ya at the top!”

With a bit of effort, I jumped and started flapping my wings, slowly gaining altitude before a gust of wind propelled me forward and upwards. I let the low wind guide me for a bit, trying to remember from seeing how birds in video games, animations, and even real life usually do it. And that was working, I was probably a few feet in the air right now and I would only reach higher!

… if not for a gust of wind push me back down. Look, seeing something is hella different from experiencing it!

“Woah! Shiiiiiit!” I screamed as I tried (and miserably failed) to regain control of my flight, flapping my wings in a very panicked way.

“Lucas!” I heard Nothris scream from below and I looked down at him during my rapid descent to the ground. He rushed torwards my landing location and jumped, turning around midair and catching me in his furry arms. He clutched me onto his fluffy chest as he landed on the floor again, holding me tightly. He released his hold of me and let his arms dangle to the side as he looked down at me. “Are you alright?”

I shook my head out of the vertigo of falling before responding. “Me, physically? Yes, I am. My pride, mentally? Hell no, it ain’t recovering until I do that shit right.” With that out of the way, I looked over my body to see if there was anything wrong with it on a superficial level. Once I was done checking my body (and as much as I’d love to just sit on Nothris’ fluff for an eternity), I jumped off his body and spread my wings again. “I’ll do it, dammit!”

“Um… ya sure about that? Dinnae fash yersel, like I said, you can just let me carry you to the top.” Nothris suggested as he slowly got up beside me.

I glared softly at the slither wing and explained my piece. “Look, Nothris, I very much appreciate the help, but still, I need to learn this myself. I need to get good at this thing if I’m gonna eventually be turning into birds on the fly once I get good at transformations.” ‘After all, the fate of the world might be depending on it. I still don’t fully trust what Shadow Deity in my head was saying.’ I tilted my head. “Can you at least, like, give me tips on how to do it? Since, uh…” I trailed off, motioning to the moth’s orange blazing wings.

“Huh? But I don’t fly, ya ken? Sure, I can lift my body off the ground for a few seconds with some flaps, but that’s it. Besides, my wings are different ” I stayed silent, staring at him with a pleading look while rubbing my wings on each other. He relented with a sigh and shrugged. “Alright, I’ll try my best to explain then, with some of the lessons I was given.” He turned around, showing me his back and the full size of his six orange wings, spreading them. “Like you were doing before, you always flap your wings to keep your body in the air. And remember this, the lighter you are, the easier it is to keep flying with as small flaps as possible.” He demonstrated with a jump and a few powerful wing flaps before landing on the ground with a thud, managing a few seconds off the ground.

I nodded in understanding. “I see… but…” I thought back to the reason I fell in the first place. “But… the downside of being lighter is that the wind can blow you away more easily?”

The big moth nodded back after turning back to me. “Exactly, that’s why you need to have control of your wing beats to beat the wind on its own game, blow the wind back if you don’t plan on riding it. But if you do, you should let the wind carry you, and you won’t need to flap your wings a lot.” He scratched his chin and chittered. “That… seems to be the gist of it, at least.”

I thought about the info in my head and imagined myself doing it very crudely and cartoonishly. It finally registered in my head an inkling of what I should be doing. It was worth a shot. “Alright, I… think I got it. Good explanation, the only way I fail this is because of my stupidity.” I said with a cheeky grin at Nothris.

With that, I jumped back a bit and spread my wings further.

“You can do it, Lucas!”

“Thankies!” With that, I gave a few flaps and took off again, rising in altitude as my body slowly distanced itself off the ground. ‘No falling this time, dammit! I’ll fucking do it!’ Rhythmic flapping sounds filled my ears as I pressed on, closing my eyes and slowly rising into the air.

It was then that another gust of wind hit my body, trying to send me tumbling to the ground again. However, I was prepared. I opened my eyes and pressed on, changing the direction of my body in a way that I was facing the wind directly. And then, I started flapping my wings rhythmically, sending my own wind gust against the wind current assaulting me. It… it was working, I wasn’t falling!

“Yes!” I exclaimed with a grin before the wind picked up a bit, blowing me back and throwing off my mojo, and I started falling. “Shit!” I flapped my wings harder, recovering the small attitude that I had lost. Eventually, I managed to stay in place while flying, wing flaps keeping me steady as I registered the situation in my head. I was… flying, legit, all by myself. No wingsuit, no plane, nothing. I was in the air, flying like a bird. “Heh… hehehe, holy shit! This is legit so cool!”

As I levitated with the help of my wings feet away from the ground, it was like a third eye opened and my brain remembered all the moves that bird did while flying around. Some could even say that I cracked the code.

With that mental realization, I grinned as wide as my beak would let me and I descended down into the ground a bit before picking up my momentum by spreading my wings again just like a glider. ‘I got it! I finally got it!’ The downward slope turned into an upward one as I rose once again, my sharp eyes fixated beyond the foliage. ‘I thought that my wings were pure instruments that made me fly. No, they’re an extension of my body, an organ reorganizing the wind flow around it and letting me defy it.’ I shot straight through the leaves, dodging the wooden buildings embedded in the treetops. And eventually, I flew to the highest point I had ever reached, finally surpassing all the leaves. And then, I saw it…

Mountains were visible from the distance along with an endless ocean. Hills and trees of lush greenery were strung all around. I could see ahead some flying Pokémon soaring through the skies, be it wild ones or even explorers. Looking up, I saw the sun raining down its rays upon me again as a gentle breeze passed through my feathers. It was this sight and this sight alone that made me realize something. Despite the problems that this world clearly had… it was still beautiful. It felt like I was staring at a canvas, something that simple video games would never be able to replicate.

Words weren’t enough to describe this beauty.

“Hahaha…” My wings flared in excitement as I let off a shrill excitement. “This is one of the best things EVER!!!”

I would’ve loved to enjoy the moment even more, but of course, my brain had to remind me about… uh… what was it again? OH FUCK, THE MISSION! BERRIES! METAL GEAR SOLID MOMENT!

I shook my head before grunting in annoyance. I’d get to enjoy the air another time, meanwhile, I got a place to scout to develop a plan. Those berries needed to be recovered today, pronto!

With that, I dived a bit down and analyzed my surroundings with sharp eyes. On the top of the tall trees, there were some wooden buildings spread around the highest sturdy branches of the trees. They looked like very rustic treehouses that served more like watchtowers rather than appreciating the beautiful scenery with how they were spread around.

I also noticed some Pokémon were watching from there. I couldn’t see exactly what kind of Pokémon they were, but I noticed they were oddly bipedal, had a tail, and had purple fur covering their bodies. Either way, this was a stealth mission, and I only needed to lose sight of them and enter one of those buildings since one of them was looking at me.

‘I just need to pretend I’m just a wild starly and they’ll leave me alone, hopefully.’ I thought before gliding a bit down and keeping level with the building, making sure I was in the Pokémon’s line of sight. As I approached the building, flying beside it, I realized that the watcher was an aipom.

I flew beside the building where the monkey Pokémon stood on watch, and after I was out of his line of sight, I soared up again and landed on the building, my talons touching the tip of the building. The wind breezed through my feathers as I observed below. “Hm… where to go, where to go…?” I scanned around until I spotted an open window on a cylindrical wooden building, devoid of any Pokémon passing by it or watching through it. That would be my entrance. “There!”

With that, I opened my wings again and started flying torwards the building, aiming at the window. Fortunately enough for me, the window was big enough for my small body to enter, so I went through it just fine, even though it threw me off my rhythm. I crashed onto the wooden floorboards face-first. Hopefully, no one saw or heard that…

I got up and shook my head from the pain and dust that got stuck in my head. I whispered to myself. “Landing with style! Now it’s truly showtime!” I then transformed again, kissing goodbye to my wings and going back to a four-legged creature, a very small one. Once my transformation was finished, I had turned back into a joltik. ‘I would’ve turned into a rat for funny references but no, I needed the smallest Pokémon possible for this. Oh well, time for scouting, Metal Gear Solid style (or most 3D horror games for that matter)!’

I looked at the wall beside me, remembering that any arachnid Pokémon are excellent climbers and masters of stealth. So… would I be able to climb walls as well? In this episode of Mythbusters-

I looked at the nub that I considered feet and nodded to myself. I took a deep breath and mentally prepared myself for it. I thought that all I needed to do was just to firmly press my nubs on the wall and I’d stick to them, so that’s what I did. I walked to the wall and pressed my forelimbs on the wall, getting a tad bit ner- ‘Nervous? Me!? Nuh uh, watch this sick ass wall climbing!’ I mentally reassured myself as I gulped dry.

Why did my saliva have different properties and why did my throat not like it? Never do that as a bug type ever again… like getting sidetracked right now! (So true.)

Eventually, I got my hind limbs to try and stick to the wall. Oh wow, would ya look at that, I did it, and kinda easily too! ‘Hell yeah, I’m so awesome and cool!’ I said as I took a few steps upwards, my nubs still not failing on me yet. ‘I can take on the world now! This achievement is gonna go down in history-!’

“What in Giratina’s name a wild joltik is doing here?”

A new voice made me cringe a bit, making me turn to the source of it. I saw a groo- no, uh… what was that middle evolution again? Oh yes, Thwackey! (Ugh, such a forgettable middle evolution. Really puts the mid in the name.) A Twhackey was staring at me with his arms crossed, a curious look on his face… FUCK, I GOT SPOTTED!

‘Uh, um, SURPRISE ELECTROWEB ATTACK!’ A viscous and tingly substance formed in my mouth after I directed my core’s energy along with my will. After my cheeks filled in half a second, I shot out at the grass monkey a single rope of electricity-made web before it spread into the trademark octagonal spider web. The Thwackey was caught by surprise as the Electroweb clung to his face, shocking him a bit and eliciting a grunt out of him.

“Ngh, what the-!”

‘Time to skedaddle!!!’ I shouted mentally and remembered joltik’s running animation. That derpy-ass hop that they did since their tiny legs were not made for running. Quickly, I jumped off the wall and hopped high into the air, almost losing my balance after surprising myself with how high I could go. Instinctively, I managed to correct my posture before landing on the ground again. Then started the process of hopping like a maniac to get out of there before the monkey got out of his sticky and electrifying confinement.

I hopped and hopped like a frog until I found two wooden doors on the circular corridor, likely leading to different rooms. I stopped hopping, letting my dizzy brain recover from all the jumping I did. Once it did, I looked at the doors again, finding a small and narrow passage beneath the door that I could slide through with my current height. I grinned and did just that, entering the room without the need to even open the door.

I quickly thought of a big-brain move, my fanged grin widening further. I turned to face the door and jumped on it, softly pressing my nubs on it and sticking myself on the door. I stayed silent, not moving a muscle as I tried to hear any sort of movement from beyond the door. I prayed to the universe that this door would be pushed from the other side rather than pulled.

‘Spider senses, be my savior in this scenario!’

Eventually, not only could I hear, but I could also feel the footsteps approaching. From the other side, I could hear a very annoyed Pokémon grumbling. “Fucking bug types. Pain in my damn ass with their disgusting webs and creepy crawly attitude…”

The sound got louder until it started lowering itself, the Thwackey obviously getting further away from the door. Once I deemed the sound far enough, I jumped off the wall and landed back on the ground. I let out a sigh of relief after getting away from such a close call. I took a few steps forward and thought to myself. ‘Colonel, I’m trying to sneak around, but I’m dummy thick. And the clap of my ass cheeks keeps alerting the guards.’

I snickered a bit at the meme before I analyzed the contents of this room. It had a simple wooden desk with paper, a quill, and a pot of black ink on it. On the other side of the room, there was a ladder that led down, probably to the other treehouses below this one.

“Well, only one way to go and that is down.” I whispered to myself before walking to the ladder. I started walking on the base of the ladder, slowly descending. I realized that this was going to take a bit because of my small body, so I thought. ‘No fall damage for bug types… right? I mean, I saw a beetle fall from a tree, into the hard concrete AND survive!’

I stopped and stared down at the long drop ahead of me, making me shiver at the mere thought of falling. But… I’m a Pokémon now, I have more resistance to basically, like, anything. I can take a fall like this… hopefully.

“Me? A pussy? Never!” I whispered to myself before I jumped away from the wooden ladder and started falling and falling as the wind blew through my fur. I wanted to scream so bad, but yet, I knew that my high-pitched joltik voice would echo all around the big trees. So… I just braced for impact, steeling my feet until it made contact with the floor.

I winced once I felt the hard wooden floor make contact with my nubs, pain traveling through my nerves as my body shivered from the impact. I wanted to grunt, yet… I didn’t. Also, I realized something once the pain went away. ‘I… I’m not dead… no broken bones either! Yes, Pokémon bodies are amazing!’ I freeze for a moment before realizing what I thought. ‘Ayo, pause-’ I shook my head and started walking out of the ladder space, squeezing underneath another door. ‘Anyway, I gotta find where they’re keeping the berries. It must be a big room and probably heavily guarded.’

I looked around, taking in the new surroundings. It was another hallway, but this time, it was a narrow and straight one, filled with other rooms around it. Some ceramic pots were strung around the place, signifying that this specific building might be more than just a watchtower.

‘No Pokémon around here so maybe I could go back to rockruff to find the berries faster. Don’t want this to be a Persona 5 moment where I’m gonna waste hours to find the treasure.’

With that mental reminder, I scanned the hallways even further. With no sounds or vibrations of encroaching footsteps. I got lucky, so hell naw I’d waste this opportunity.

I immediately bolted underneath one of the tables with a ceramic pot on it and started transforming. Once the transformation was finished, I was back into the form of a rockruff, and- goddammit, the tsunami of smells struck again!

I shook my head from the overwhelming sensation, and, when that wasn’t working, I decided to do something stupid. I raised my foreleg and bit into it, making the pain jolt me from the overwhelming sensation of the smells. I shivered a bit as I lowered my paw back to the ground. ‘Alright, that’s dealt with, berry-hunting mode now.’

I took a big whiff of the air, getting assaulted by musky scents spread all around, the smell of wood covering my surroundings, and the strong and sweet smell of berries that basically overshadowed many other smells.

Strange… why was smelling something… smokey? It smelled… familiar but a bit more intense?

Anyway, not the point, probably some fire type making dinner or something. I needed to follow the scent of the berries!

Doing the Legoshi strat once again, I started following the scent trail blindly. I did this very slowly since I didn’t wanna ram my head onto a wall. Not only that, I also didn’t want to get caught in 4K by some Pokémon patrolling around the place. So, I kept my nose and my ears sharp as I traversed the halls of the place.

The sweet and tangy scent of the berries ever so slightly grew in intensity as I kept walking around. It seemed I was on the right track so I followed the trail thoroughly, turned sharply to the left, and immediately bumped my head into a wall. I opened my eyes and annoyedly glared at the wall in front of me. I huffed and whispered to my imaginary friend, Lucas. “This is stupid… hella agree there.” Amusedly, I turned away and sat on my haunches, looking at the ceiling. ‘Maybe I can do the Legoshi strat with my eyes opened? I need to try that out-’

I paused that thought when one of my ears flickered. I heard faint sounds getting closer to my location. My eyes widened and I bolted away from there, turning a corner and hiding on the ledge of the wall. I peeked over the corner and my eyes noticed my muzzle poking out, one of the many curses of having a long snout. ‘I swear if this gets me caught…’

The sounds started becoming more clear. It was both footsteps and voices, and both were heading in my direction. And then, two blurry figures in the distance could be seen until they got more resolution in my eyes. My eyes widened at what I saw. ‘Is that…!’

Walking beside an infernape, a familiar figure that I’d seen before and deeply remembered as the sole reason I went to a Mystery Dungeon on my first day here, forcing me to learn about my new powers. It was the same buff simisage from before, and from what I could tell, still speaking in that heavily accented voice.

‘That smell…’ I thought, my nose wrenching a bit as it caught a whiff of the smell I was tracking to reach this place, growing ever so slightly in intensity. ‘The grassy and musky smell was coming from him!?’

“So yer sayin’ that ya caught a lil’ bug, eh?” The simisage seemed to ask, rubbing his finger on his chin.

The fire monkey crossed his arms, speaking in a smooth and grave tone. “I would say it’s more of a big bug, but yes, one of our fellows caught him staring at our base with a starly before they flew away. So, we ambushed him and brought him to our reinforced holding cell.”

‘Wait… did they fucking capture Nothris!?’ I thought with a shocked expression on my face, stifling a gasp. I stopped watching them and fully hid behind the wall. ‘Well… in hindsight, I guess getting close to the base of operations while in the territory of what seemed to be a mockup mafia gang was a bad idea… but I didn’t even know the thieves would be them!’ I shook my head and then gritted my teeth. ‘Ugh, whatever, I’m on borrowed time. Not only am I in the base of the Elemental Discount Kongs, but they also captured Nothris? Shit, I gotta be fast with this. Find Nothris then find the berries and THEN get outta here! ’

I then stopped listening to the conversation and bolted out of there, shifting my focus to the smells again. ‘That smokey smell, was that Nothris trying to use a fire move? Well then, I just need to follow the smell of burning and I may find him.’

While running down the hallways, filtering through smells, I found the smell of smoke lingering in the air, coming from deeper down the treetops. ‘Got it! Now to find the stairs- wait a minute, I don’t need to.’

My throttle came down to a stop when I came across a glassless window embedded in the wall, a few leaves passing by it. I grinned a bit as I started transforming, taking a few seconds until I fully transformed back into a joltik. ‘Heh, Perfect!’

I jumped onto the window and crawled to one of the branches around the building. I stopped to look around, marveling a bit at the sights of this tree civilization. There were bridges connecting to wooden houses and stuff, and the buildings themselves came in varying sizes, cylindrical and rectangular.

Without needing to smell anything, my eyes caught a trail of smoke coming from the lower parts of the base. The source of it seemed to be a big rectangular building at the center of other constructions. With my sights set on that particular building, I noticed a small problem. The gap was way too large for me to jump and land safely on one of the walls. ‘Dammit, it’s a long trek to there, and if I used branches to get there while walking in this form, it’s gonna take minutes to- … wait, can I?’

I managed to do an Electroweb earlier, right? So… what if I used the same shit but as a tether or grappling hook? Like… Spiderman…

My weird mouth and mandible hybrid curled up with a fanged grin as I imagined myself doing slingshots left and right through buildings as a joltik, just like Peter Parker does daily. ‘Brain, I fucking love you for coming up with that idea, now let’s see the execution…’

Preparing an Electroweb in my mouth, I aimed my face at a nearby branch, staring at it while focusing a bit. And with the adrenaline starting to kick in, I jumped, getting a huge distance forward before finally releasing the fuzzy web. ‘Reach!’ The electricity-made strand stuck on the branch I was aiming, and instead of falling down to a miserable death (or not, could’ve survived, probably), I swung slowly before I released my hold of the ‘rope’, flinging me forward and onto the building I was aiming for.

I landed on the wall, another shiver going through my exoskeleton as my legs bent a bit. Once the shiver was done, I looked around and assessed my surroundings. I looked back and saw the electrifying web hanging limply from the branch before fizzling out of existence after its charge ran out. I almost squealed in excitement but managed to tone down to a silent tapping of feet onto the hardwood.

“That was AWESOME!!!” I whispered to myself. “I’m learning more cool shit every day! Just imagine when I reach peak Pokémon capacity!”

Once my glee died down, I started walking around the outer wall of the construction where I landed. Fortunately for me, I found a crevice between the wood planks, a hole that led to the inside it seemed. I noticed that the planks of the buildings weren’t that thick, so they could be broken down very easily if someone wanted to.

While slipping through it, squeezing my body between the cracks like the bug I was at the moment, my mind wondered about something after a small realization. ‘Wait, if the walls are as thin as a sheet of cardboard, then why didn’t Nothris even try to escape? He’s a fighting type with access to fire moves after all…’

Something that the infernape said bothered me a bit, something about reinforced holding cells? What did he mean by that?

In any case, whatever kind of cell it was, I’d bust Nothris out of there no matter what-

My body shivered for a moment, my eyes shooting wide open as I turned to face a side of one of the rooms I stumbled into. I saw a panpour already shooting a jet of water from their tail at me, and on time, I leaped out of the way, not quite sticking the landing as I rolled on the floor. Lying on my back, I looked back at the panpour glaring at me angrily while I spoke. “What in the actual-”

“Just stay still, dumb bug, I’ll end your suffering so you don’t need to pester anyone else.” The blue primate said as its hand glowed a bright white glow, his fingernails growing to an unfathomable length. (Slay queen, hehe.)

I flipped myself back on my feet. “That’s kinda racist, ain’t it-”

I couldn’t finish my sentence as the water type lunged at me, reeling his fist back before throwing it at me, trying to cut me with what was probably a Scratch attack. I narrowingly avoided it with a hop to the side, landing inches away from the white glowing claws. There was also a new scratch mark on the floor that easily pierced the floor. “Ugh, stay still!”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Nuh-uh!” I declared before spraying the panpour with a strand of Electroweb on his chest before it could explode into a net. But that’s what I needed to stagger him back a bit and make him suffer a bit of electrical shock throughout his body. The monkey grunted and twitched from the pain. I spat the web from my mouth and tried to run away. “See ya, wettie!”

“You’re too cocky for a normal wildling bug!” The panpour said as I heard the sound of something getting ripped. I turned around and found out that the monkey had removed the electric strand from his chest and thrown it away, and now he was aiming the tip of his tail at me. “Take this!”

I didn’t react fast in time, almost frozen like a deer in the headlights as a jet of Water Gun was shot straight at me. As the water impacted my body, I felt pain surge through me as I was launched backwards by the force of the water, making me impact the wall close to a candle. I groaned in pain as I slumped back to the ground. My fuzz was all wet now, some of the water sticking really close to my breathing holes on the side. ‘Shit, it would’ve been better if I was in a stronger electric-type body.’ I shook my head and slowly stood up again, the vertigo of being launched away slowly leaving my head. ‘My transformations aren’t fast enough yet for me to transform mid-battle. I need to make do with what I have!’

The panpour smiled smugly as he gripped his tail harder like a hose gun thing. “My boss won’t appreciate this place being bug-infested. So how about ya leave or face the consequences, eh?”

“Nah, you guys stole some things and I plan to bring them all back!” I took some steps forward. “And besides… I’m not just a normal joltik!”

I grinned and looked upwards, shooting an electrical web at the ceiling. The moment the panpour stopped registering my words, he already was shooting another jet of water directed at me. I dodged the jet by pulling myself up with my Electroweb and swinging with it like a vine. I let go of it once my momentum sent me forward to the panpour, making me land on his wet and humid fur. The water monkey noticed me on his head and growled, letting go of his tail and trying to grab me. “Get off!”

I avoided each of his grabs, running around his head and weaving each hand swipe the wet monkey did. “You’re too slow~!” I taunted in Sonic’s voice before making a quick decision as I remembered something. Spider bite. I’m a spider. I shall bite.

The panpour shook his body, water particles flying around him angrily as if trying to get me off his head. And just like the stubborn little troll I was, I still maintained a hold on his head, sinking my nubs onto his moist fur and wrapping them around my legs. It would be the makeshift reins I need to not eat shit and fall off the horse.

Eventually, I managed to gain my footing again and prepared myself for the taste of greasy flesh in my mouth. ‘I sure hope this monkey's moisty body isn’t just for show and he washes himself!’ After that thought, I bit down on him. After my fangs sunk into his skin, I forced my core to produce electricity around my body and focused the fuzzy feeling more on my mouth.

The monkey beneath me spazzed and spasmed, getting hurt a lot by the electro “massage” I was giving him. That’s what you get for having water all over your body, bitch! It was super effective!

After I felt the fuzzy feeling run out, I let go of the panpour’s head and he fell limply on the floor, a small bit of smoke rising from him. I landed on the floor after his fall and got back up again. I looked at the water monkey who had twitchy limb movements, his eyes closed and still breathing. ‘Thank goodness I didn’t kill him. I was worried for nothing, this form is too weak anyway.’

I shook my head and sighed, starting to transform into a small but more powerful form. Eventually, I finished and the glow died down. I decided to settle for a more versatile type in case there is a Pokémon that can negate most of my attacks, so I settled for a normal type. A zorua, the hisuian variety of course.

I remembered the lesson from yesterday so I knew how to stabilize my form so I didn’t flicker out of existence.

Ghost typing was one of the types I knew would be hard to grasp. Like, the sheer abnormality that this one type possessed (pun not intended)… it was hard to understand how not only some Pokémon work but also what all of the moves work. Like, legit, how the fuck do I think about when it comes to a ghastly? How do I levitate? How do I levitate things? How do I turn invisible? How do I do ghost moves? Actually, now that I’m a zorua at the moment… how to illusion in a situation like this???

Hm… I was gonna need a mentor later, and who’s better than the one ghost fox who owned a flower shop?

I shook my head and decided to think about that later. At that moment, I ran away from the room, thankfully the door was opened so I didn’t need to transform again or jump until my forepaw reached the door handle. Wait… didn’t zorua fur move on its own?

… Yeah, yeah it did. After that realization, I could feel very small tendril-like limbs in every crevice on my body sans some parts.

I decided to test that theory out while running around the hallway. Since the biggest tuft of fur close to my eyes was the one on the top of my head, I decided to try out the new… limbs, moving them downwards and waving them in front of my eyes. It felt like had some kind of rubbery tentacle that I could stretch, stretch, and stretch to lengths that no hair could ever achieve. ‘What the fuck is this? No, seriously, what IS this fur?’

“Maybe it’s ethereal energy coalesced into the form of fur…? Could be-” The smell of smoke entered my nostrils, making me skid to a halt and stop messing with my current body. I looked around and saw a trail coming from one of the closed doors ahead. I noticed that the door was wide and made out of a different material from all the others I’ve seen so far… metal. “I sure hope this is not the door to the kitchen or something. Because if someone’s cooking in there, I’d feel very stupid for taking the wrong lead…”

After whispering to myself that, I made my way torwards the door, the smoke becoming more potent. I knew that this body had lungs but would it be bad for them if I kept inhaling the bad and nono smell? Hmm… well, I wasn’t coughing, so all’s well in my book!

I looked up and saw that the door handle was far away than I expected. There was no way with my current height I’d be able to reach there… if it wasn’t for the fur tendril thingies. With the same tuft of fur from before, I extended it further than any normal fur could go, feeling like a thousand tendrils as I controlled them. I wrapped them around the handle, pulled, and pushed the door… only for it to not budge at all.

“It’s locked…!? Dammit-!” I paused my whisper, remembering an important fact about my fur. I looked at the lock below the handle. “No way… can I…?”

Before I reached my one decade of life, wanna know what my mother used to teach me? Lockpicking. She used to teach me lockpicking when she was still alive, and sometimes, after her death, I put those lessons to use by practicing them on my own, mostly when I was bored or had nothing else to do or when the internet would go down. I still don’t know the full reason why she taught me that stuff, even Arthur got taught how to lockpick. The reason she taught me that stuff was… uh… for a very strange reason that I didn’t realize how weird it was back then. She basically said, and I quote: “In case you ever lost the key to your home, you can use this useful skill to always come back in without the need to use keys!”

In hindsight, Mom was a bit weird… just like me, for real!

I shook my head, getting my head out of memory lane and back to the present. My mom gifted me an ability that is really useful at a time when I don’t know how to ghost, so… yep, I’m gonna use my lockpicking ability to save someone! But with what tools? These tendrils seem thin and dexterous enough, sure, why the hell not?

Making sure I was controlling the right amount of tendrils, I moved and separated them from the same tuft I was controlling, shifting them around into the keyhole. I was more adept at doing this with actual tools like a screwdriver and some other stuff, but uh… since tools are kinda like extensions of people to reach places they never could… my fur tendrils were basically that, tools!

So there I was, shifting my tendrils around and tilting the springs inside of the hole with precision. I was starting to get a bit desperate, and that was making it a bit difficult trying to unwind the springs in the back center of the hole. This was not a lock I was used to, they definitely used some different kind of key here. Instead of being a keyhole with multiple springs inside them, it was one and two in the middle…

‘Well, makes it easier to unwind all the springies at the same time and-’

CLICK

“There we go.” I spoke with a smirk as I pulled away my fur, making sure I did not get it stuck on anything on the way out. I eventually tried opening the door again by pulling the handle, and this time, it opened. “I was so lucky choosing the right form for lockpicking!” I whispered to myself. However, in hindsight, if I trained a little more in this form, I may have been able to get in by going through the wall like an actual ghost… but still, I didn’t know so I had to make do with what I had in my repertoire.

I entered the room and took in the sights as I returned my fur back to normal. The room was very dim and held very little lighting on its own. I only saw two or three candles in the whole room and the room was large. The place only had one thing in the middle and it was steel bars that separated the two sides of the rooms. The other side had no windows and no doors… and it also held… “Nothris?”

The big moth was flapping away his burning orange wings, scales scattering around the place burning flames dancing around the mouth. Bro, this room didn’t need candles, HE was the candle. I winced and looked away from the intensity of the flames, however, they quickly died down, making me look at the scene again. The moth grunted and groaned before collapsing on his feet. For some reason, even with those intense flames, nothing burned.

Actually, why couldn’t he just bend the bars and leave? He was strong, right?

I approached the cage with a bit of worry and concern. “Nothris, are you alright?”

The slither wing perked up and shifted its big body to look at me while still lying on the ground. “Those eyes… Lucas, is that you?” As I approached the bars, Nothris mirrored the action. I nodded at him and he perked up. “It really is, nice! How did you find me?”

“Well, when you smoke up the place really bad, it’s kinda hard not to notice, ya know.” I said with a huff of amusement. “Besides, how did you even get caught anyway? I thought those monkeys couldn’t leave a dent on you if they tried.”

Nothris rubbed his chin a bit and sheepishly laughed. “Uh… I got ambushed… they threw a fire-resistant steel net over me…”

“Bruh… anyway, can’t you bust out of here? You’re strong, aren’t ya?” I asked while sitting on the ground. “You could break the bars with your strength.”

“I could… if it wasn’t for that.” The slither wing pointed at the side of the room, pointing towards a strange purple crystal that released some purplish sparks around it. It was infused with the wall and a metal bar too.

“What the hell is that…?” I asked as I got up and walked to the strange crystal. Damn, the meth in this world was insane.

“That’s a Weakening Crystal. It does exactly as the name implies for the Pokémon behind these bars...” The moth looked down at his claws as he flexed them a bit. “I can barely walk while in here. It’s like an invisible force is just draining my energy… my fire barely did anything but cause smoke.”

“I see… so this thing drains the life force of a Pokémon…” I said before grinning and transforming. The pink light died out after a few seconds and I had turned into a machop. I cracked my knuckles. “Welp, not anymore!”

With that, I charged a bit of energy in my fist, reeled it back, and then punched the crystal in its entirety, shards of purple crystalline rock were sent flying to the other side of the room. And suddenly, the oppressive energy that was clouding the entire room (how the fuck I didn’t notice that before?) was gone.

“Phew! Awesome!” I said while flexing my fist for a bit. I then turned to look at the moth. “I think you can leave now.”

Nothris clicked his mandibles, his wings twitched a little as he flexed his claws. “Oh yeah, I can feel my strength returning!” With that, the moth aimed his chitinous claw at one of the bars in front of him. With no build-up, he immediately threw a punch at one of the bars before throwing another quick one on the pole beside the other. Both bars bent easily under the force of the punches. The fighter bug then passed through the bars, pushing them away easily before turning to me. “Thanks a bunch, Lucas! You saved my carapace!”

I blushed a bit but tried to play it cool with a grin. “While I do appreciate the compliments to my awesomeness, you can save them for later.” I walked back to the door. “Right now, we gotta find the berries first. At this point, we need to move ahead to step 3 of the plan, which is just secure the berries and get the hell outta here.”

“Oh, I know where the berries are!” I looked at Nothris in bewilderment, registering a bit late what he said. “When they were taking me to this cell, I saw a vault room or something like that, and I caught a whiff of what was inside. It was a bunch of berries.”

“For real though!?” I asked a bit in disbelief and the moth nodded. “Alright then, lead the way. I’ll figure out a way to transport all the berries in one go once we get there.”

“Got it.” Nothris’s wings flared as he started stomping through the hallways. “I’m gonna show those numpties real payback for stealin’ not only Summers’ property but also ambushing me like cowards!”

“Talk to ‘em!” I backed up as I rushed behind the slither wing, keeping pace with him as he ran around on four legs. We exited the “prison” building and rushed to the bridge connecting to another construction site. When we got there, I noticed two Pokémon on the other side of the bridge: An ambipom and a rillaboom. “Oh shit!”

The two primate Pokémon noticed us and started rushing to us on the bridge. However, instead of Nothris stopping, he rushed right into the bridge, the bridge rocking back and forth because of the speed and his weight. I stopped at the beginning of the bridge, seeing Nothris charging against the two opposing Pokémon. He shouted as his body began to get enveloped by orange-bright flames covering him head to toe. “Get out of my WAY!”

I saw the two monkey Pokémon shriek in surprise as they tried to flee the other way with their tails between their legs, not wanting to get rammed by a big, fiery, and angry moth. However, their efforts were proven fruitless as Nothris reached them, headbutting into both of them. The two Pokémon were launched off the side of the bridge and fell onto the ground below.

As the slither wing continued, the fire around him dissipated, and flames began consuming the bridge. I leaned close to the edge to see the two Pokémon falling. However, I couldn’t get a good look once I heard my name being called. “Come on, Lucas!”

I looked at the slither wing which had stopped on the other end of the flaming bridge. I noticed my time to cross it was short, so I bolted through it, running as fast as I could with my short machop legs. “I’m coming, I’m coming!”

Smoke filled my nostrils as the fire around the bridge grew ever stronger. I was on borrowed time; as wide and sturdy as this bridge seemed, it would give in to the fire eventually. Right on the money I was when one of the ropes holding the bridge together seemed to snap and the bridge began to tumble a bit. I fell on my feet, the adrenaline numbing the pain. I raised my head and saw the fire only consuming the bridge further, reaching the middle. It was about to snap soon…

“Shit!”

I immediately got up and rushed to the end of the bridge, jumping and rolling until I was safely out of the bridge. As I jumped, the bridge had completely given in to the flames, the ropes holding it snapping and the two halves getting limp and being consumed by the fire. I looked at the other building and saw a bunch of monkey Pokémon just staring at the damage.

“Welp, at least they can’t get to us.” I said with a smirk while getting up and dusting myself.

“But… how are we gonna carry back the berries? We’re so deep into this now, we can’t go back to bring a wagon or something.” Nothris inquired, sounding a bit concerned about the situation.

“Hm… fuck, it might all come down to that then…” I muttered to myself, starting to doubt if I could pull that off in the heart of the moment or not. Whatever the case, it was a huge gamble, one that I had to try to succeed in the mission. I know my luck was hella doo-doo, but I needed to use that doo-doo luck for something. “Alright, let’s go. If the berries are here, we can’t go back now.”

“Yeah, you’re right. We’re this far, we can’t turn around now!” Nothris said before clapping his claws together, a bit of flaming sparks coming from him. “I’ll right my wrongs and bring my berries back! That festival is gonna have their meal one way or another!”

I nodded and grinned. “Exactly!”

Nothris got on his forelegs again and instead of rushing off like a bull again, he turned to me and spoke which caught me a little off guard. “Hop on.”

I blinked a bit and asked a bit dumbfounded. Did… did I just hear that correctly? Did I just hear that bro wants me to ride him like a fucking horse??? “W-what? You tweakin’ or something…? For realsies?”

The moth clicked his mandibles and nodded. “Yep! Don’t wanna outrun you, after all, so why not just ride on my back? Just be careful with the wings, they heat up whenever my emotions flare.”

Holy shit, I was actually gonna ride a big alien moth like a horse, that was so fucking awesome. Deep breaths Lucas, it was not the time to glaze about how that shit was lit… although, I couldn’t help but let out a small squeal of excitement. “Okay, okay, hold on for a moment!” I said before starting to transform again, after a few seconds, the glow died down, making me see again. I looked down and saw that the transformation was correct, I turned into a raboot. I shoved my white paws onto my fur pockets, trying to see if they were legit like hoodie pockets. And indeed, they were. I also pulled the fur mask covering my mouth, up and down. It was just like… a fuzzy mask although attached to my body. I put the mask down for now and I glanced back at Nothris with a grin. “Now I can handle some heat!”

I went to Nothris’ side and hopped on his back, staying between his head and his wings. “Alright, all comfortable over there?” I nodded, adjusting my legs a bit as I gripped the moth’s fluff as makeshift reins. He turned his head to face the closed door as his tail shifted and his wings fluttered, orange scales scattering around. “Aye. Here. We… GO!”

With that, Nothris charged forward, busting the door open with his hard head. I held his fur as tightly as my bunny paws could hold, not expecting him to go this fast and almost breaking metal fucking doors with ease. ‘Holy shit, this dude is a literal powerhouse!’

He kept charging in a straight hallway with an aura that basically said ‘If you stand in my way, your existence is gone, reduced atoms.’ Even so, what seemed weird was that there were no other Pokémon in the vicinity, just a long hallway with some doors and a huge area in the back. In that area, I could see something big, and the smell that entered my snout made me register what what colorful pile in the back was. “Wait, isn’t that…”

Nothris slowed down a bit but still charged like a straight-up bull. “Aye, it is! Come on!”

It didn’t take long until we reached the large room, Nothris skidding to a halt when we passed over the archway. Now that I could see the monstrous pile in 4K resolution… yeah, Methra wasn’t wrong. This shit WAS huge. There were so many berries, the color and size differing between each one.

I stopped holding with my dear life the moth and hopped off his back as he stood on two feet again. I took a step closer to the pile and whistled. “Goddamn, there’s so many berries here…”

“Yep, and I can tell they’ve been hit with the Vitalis’ process. So these berries are definitely from our farm.” The moth spoke beside me. “But still, how are we gonna get them back?”

I turned to him with a raised digit, smiling all the while. “And that’s-”

“‘N that’s where ya learn dat y’all never have ‘em back!”

Another voice spoke from behind us, prompting us to turn around. However, a bright light shone in our eyes as we heard the sound of something being broken on the ground. Before I could even register what that was, my body lost control of my limbs as it suddenly became very hard to move. I grunted in pain as slight jolts were jabbed at my articulations, my movements becoming twitchy and sluggish. “W-what the… h-hell…?” I questioned with a bit of difficulty, even my mouth didn’t escape the pain.

It also seemed that Nothris was in the same peril as me, judging by his voice. “W-was that a… P-Petrify Orb…?”

“Indeed it was, ya fat bug.” I looked at the source of the voice slowly, realizing it was the buff simisage. He stood on the archway of the area, surrounded by a pansage, a pansear, and a panpour. The grass monkey boss looked so damn smug… “I would’ve used a Slumber Orb if my crew had ‘em, but alas, gotta make do with what ya have.”

“M-motherfucker…” I whimpered as my legs gave in to the pain, making me kneel on the ground. I felt so weak at the moment.

“L-Lucas…” Nothris weakly let out as his body spazzed from the paralysis.

“Lucas, eh?” The simisage said as he got out of his little protection formation, taking a few steps towards me. “So yer da Pokémon dat not only was a lil’ canine Pokémon when ya waltzed into our territory, turned into a flyin’ type tah enter our base, and then now yer a rodent, huh? Gee, quite da arsenal ya have there, ain’t it? Now tell me, why does dat name sound familiar?”

“Remeb-ber… this?” Even while paralyzed, I still managed to transform back into my human form, taking a few more seconds than usual. Once I finished, I appeared shirtless ‘cause I had forgotten that I had taken off my shirt. After all, it was too stinky. Eh, who cares, not like they don’t mind seeing a skinny and sedentary teen, after all. Although, the simisage seemed a bit surprised about my human form. “The guy who boldly entered your territory without facing any consequences whatsoever.” I teased.

“Oh yeah…” The grass monkey said in recognition before he suddenly punched me across the face, launching me to the small mountain of berries.

“Lucas!” Nothris shouted as I tried to recover myself from the sudden punch. In my hazy vision, I saw Nothris’ wings flare as heat started building up around his wings. “I’ll burn your arse-!” He stopped himself once his paralysis got stronger, making him fall to the ground while trembling. “Ngh!”

The simisage simply ignored Nothris and walked straight to me. “So not only ya have da balls to invade my territory, but ya also have da extra balls to come back ‘ere, make a mess in my base ‘n try tah steal what’s MY property?”

I chose to not pay attention to what the Donkey Kong here was saying and instead, I decided to assess what the damage was to my body. Yeah, my nose was definitely broken AND bleeding, I could even taste the iron from my blood in my mouth. I wasn’t that worried about the wound, I already dealt with it before in my first year of being targeted by Andrew and Droz. Although, what I was worried about was how to get out of this situation…

“Ya know what the punishment for dat is, right? It’s very obvious by this point, brat.” The simisage spoke with a calm yet bitter tone, a tone I’m used to hearing from mafia bosses from movies and other kinds of media.

Even with those threats, that part of me couldn’t help itself during moments like this. It instantly leaked something that I started doing to my bullies. “Oh, w-what would… th-that be? S-... sucking your dick?” I said with a smug smirk.

The monkey stared at me for a solid moment with no reaction whatsoever. However, the silence was immediately broken with a snicker that changed into a full-blown laugh. He laughed for a solid ten seconds before it fully died down, he even had a tear in his eye. “Oh, Arceus… ya know what? Ya have tenacity, ‘n I like dat! Maybe I’ll sweeten the sentence just for you…” He said, a mischievous glint in his eyes as he scratched his chin with his fingers.

I blinked and registered after some light twitches in my muscles. That seemed sus as shit. “W-what…? F-for real…? Are y-you j-just gonna throw me away… i-in a dungeon for the rest of my life?”

“That? Nah, silly, ya made yer point!” He started pacing from side to side, his tail swishing while his arm folded behind his back. “After what ya said, ya got me thinkin’... if ya have all those pretty transformation powers, then ya can transform into those hotties female Pokémon, right?” I froze when the word hottie came out. He wasn’t about to ask- “Assuming from da silence, I think I’m right… then in that case. This is yer punishment. Ya will be mah new playmate~”

Even with my paralysis, I could feel the blood rushing into my face as I let out a very loud “WHAT!?!?”

“Ya heard me right. In fact, your current form reminds me of a jynx… but prettier.” The simisage as he leaned his body close, licking his lips as he lustfully looked at me. “I’ll make sure that my new toy will be comfortable.”

Nothris tried to crawl to me, but the paralysis was taking a toll on him. “D-don’t you dare touch him… ya eejit creep!”

This was taking a toll on me. Was this dumb monkey really gonna… he was gonna… AW HELL NAW!!!

Shaking my head quickly, the pain of the paralysis and broken nose getting numb as my head started getting heated. “No, no, no, no, NO! You know what? Fuck this! I wouldn’t mind getting wild and mauling your pedo ass right NOW!” With that, my hands started shaking as I started thinking of the Pokémon to transform. A second later, the pink glow enveloped my body as I started changing slowly with a piercing scream, feeling the power of this one specific transformation flow through my veins.

I felt myself getting bigger and bigger almost reaching the roof of the building. My skin turned into scales, my neck enlarged, I grew a second pair of thick limbs and a tail, and my hair morphed into a hard natural helmet that enveloped my entire head except for my face, I felt my new long neck grow three plates around the back of it like a natural armor. And to top it off, I felt large wings extend from my neck plates as well.

I felt the paralysis finally go away and I couldn’t help but smile a bit. I felt my body shift from two legs to six legs, making the floor rumble a bit from the impact. I could feel them… I could feel them all in this room. Tiny specks of flames that varied in color and sizes. I could feel their very essence, their cores, their souls. The power I felt coursing through my body… felt overwhelming, yet… unmatched. Ohoho, the pedo monkey is definitely messed up now!

“Mhahaha… HAHAHAHA! You dumb monkey, this is what you get for being a pervert!” I said in my booming and deep voice. Hoping that the scare factor was enough. “Now, you’ll pay for your sins, for you have awakened…” The pink glow disappeared and the transformation was fully completed. I opened my eyes and saw a terrified Nothris just staring at me, frozen with his paralysis, and the trio of chimps running away while probably wetting their pants. All that was left was the simisage who stared wide-eyed at me while taking a few steps back. “Giratina!”

The fluffy moth meekly mouthed through his paralysis. “L-Lucas…?”

“G-Giratina…? St-stop yer tricks, brat, this is just ‘n illusion!” The scared primate said while putting his hands up defensively.

I almost wanted to chuckle at the small analogy I could make to Super Mystery Dungeon, however, I decided to keep playing my role. “An illusion, you say, eh?” I chuckled at that, my smile widening further. Right, if anime taught me anything, just a demonstration of huge power might leave him quaking in his boots (even though he doesn’t wear any). “Tell me… can an illusion do… this?”

Hm… has Pressure activated yet? Hm… I don’t think so, how do I… hm… will this work?

I flapped my wings forward as I glared at the simisage a lot. It seemed his feet gave in beneath him and he fell on his knee, trying hard to keep his composure. Ah, there we go, now the pressure hit. Now… to resolve things peacefully (even though I kinda wanted to beat the shit out of this guy, but I know it wouldn’t last that long). “Now… leave this room immediately, or else, face the wrath of a deity-”

“Give in to your instincts. You shall be set free…”

My muscles tensed as I began to tremble a bit, my forelimbs succumbing to the outside force taking a toll on my body. ‘Fuck, not now!’ I gritted my teeth in pain, struggling to maintain a hold of my body. I closed my eyes and, subconsciously, I let out a loud roar in pain that shook the entire building we were standing on. ‘Transform, transform, TRANSFORM!’

Thankfully, my wishes were heard I quickly felt my body transform back into a raboot again, panting heavily while lying on my belly. Okay, as improvised as all of that shit was, I was ALMOST doing it right! This would've been over fast if it wasn’t for that stupid voice thingy about instincts or whatever. I was reckless, now, I’m wide open for anything that damn pervert monkey throws at me! And remember when I said about going wild? … uh… about that-

Still though, thank goodness I managed to turn into a raboot to retain the type advantage.

“Ya lil’ bastard…” I managed to look up again and saw the simisage limply getting up; it seemed that I hit him with the pressure a bit too hard. “Yer one bag full of surprises, eh…? Dat stunt ya pulled would’ve almost won over me… but ya bit more than ya could chew.” He started limping over me, readjusting his posture as he walked to me. I tried to move, but it was like all of my body battery had been sapped out of me after I used that form for a small while. Shit, I really didn’t think this through. “So… I guess ya wanted to take the other punishment then…”

I saw the monkey grip his thorny tail and lash it around like a whip. The tip of his tail glowed and its edges seemed to become harder and spikier. My eyes widened at what he was about to do. And I couldn’t even move an inch to prevent it.

“You’ll receive… death!” With that, I braced as the simisage reeled back his posture to whip his tail at me. However, instead of receiving very tiny spikes to the face, I saw a burning blur slam into the simisage’s side and launch him away to a wall. “GAH!!!”

Once the grass Pokémon slumped down, the flames around the figure suddenly disappeared, revealing Nothris panting a little bit before he shouted at the monkey. “That’s what you get, you fucking bampot!” The big moth turned to me and asked, a hint of worry in his bug face. “Lucas, is that really you? You’re not… the… Banished One, right?”

I rubbed my head a little bit from the migraine and answered after a small grunt. “No, of course not. I just wanted to scare that pervert for using my own joke against me in the literal sense.” I felt shivers run down my body as I remembered that proposal. ‘Ugh, I think this guy grew up without knowing the age of consent.’ I managed to roll my body and started lying on my back. “I feel so weak…”

Nothris looked around before his eyes landed on the small mountain of berries, he rushed to it and grabbed what I assumed was a sitrus berry. He then crouched down near me and offered me the fruit. “Here, eat this. This should restore at least some of your energy.”

I plucked the berry from the moth’s claw and held it close to my mouth before eventually biting a chunk off of it, my big rabbit incisors tearing through the hide of the berry easily enough. After eating a bit, I felt the soreness slowly disappear from my body. I felt a certain type of heat come back to me in full force, and now I felt more reinvigorated than before.

As I sat up, finishing eating the remainder of the berry, the simisage’s voice made our attention turn to him. “Ya lil’ shits…” I saw him get up on steady feet, still gripping his tail. “Congratu-bloody-lations, if it’s a fight ya wanted, a fight it’s what ya gonna get…” He raised his head, a pissed-off stare passing the message across in an instant. “Because I’m gonna love tearing yer bodies tah pieces!”

I got up fully and threw the leftovers of the fruit on the side as I got into a battle position. “Here he comes, Lucas!” Nothris spoke as he spread his wings beside me. “Get ready!”

“Mothy, I was born ready!” I said with a smirk as I raised my fur mask to cover my mouth. Now I get to beat the shit out of that monkey in style. “Bring it on, bitch!”

The simisage said nothing, instead, he shrieked like the monkey he was before he… pointed his tail at the ground below us?

I looked down and saw the wooden floor around me and Nothris getting brighter. Wait… shit what is that!?”

“Dodge!” I called out behind my mask before diving and rolling out of the way out of a big green pillar of light that erupted from the ground, sharp leaves circling it like it was a green tornado. And then, it was gone, good thing Nothris dodged it too from what I could see. ‘That move… was that… Grass Pledge?’

I shook my head, shoving those thoughts aside for now and focusing again on the battle. The worse part about this was that I couldn’t even predict what moves the simisage would do, because, holy shit, was that ‘mon very forgettable. Did they even appear in the Switch games? … no they didn’t!

“Take this!” Nothris shouted as his wings burned a bright orange for a moment before he flapped them in front of him, releasing a fireball directly at the monkey Pokémon. However, he was fast, he quickly dodged the incoming fire attack and jumped to grab one of the vines dangling from the wall. “Get off from the wall!”

The moth started flapping his wings rapidly, releasing gusts of wind that rocketed the vines back and forth, however, the simisage held tightly as he released another monkey screech, pointing his tail at the ground again.

“Shit, it’s happening again!” I screamed and tried to run away from where would certainly be the pillar of light’s target. However, I quickly got surrounded by small twisters of leaves, making me stay in place. Because of that, I got hit by the beam of green light, a scream of pure pain erupting from my mouth as cuts from leaves and burns from the beam did a number on my fur. The beam ended, making me fall on the floor again on one knee. Even though the damage wasn’t much because of the type of disadvantage, it still hurt like hell.

Nothris shouted as he extended a claw to me. “Lucas-! Gah!” However, he got interrupted when a meteor of a monkey came down on him, slamming the moth on the side with his hard tail before pinning the moth on his belly with his foot. The slither wing grumbled beneath the pain as he looked at the simisage. “Why you… ngh!”

The grass monkey didn’t let up on his assault, relentlessly pounding the moth with his hard tail and even punching him with his free hand like a maniac. Of course, I couldn’t see that and let that happen. I bit through the pain, shouting a little as I let my core produce flames over my entire body, covering myself with fire before rushing into the two Pokémon in a dash of flaming adrenaline. “Take this!”

The simisage looked at me just a bit too late as I jumped and kicked him with a flaming foot on his gut. I sent him a bit far away, freeing Nothris from the beating he was taking. I looked down at the moth and saw that his fluff was ruffled in some places and the exoskeleton on his horns a bit cracked, nonetheless, it wasn’t that big of an injury. “Thanks, Lucas.”

“No problem, now keep moving before he can get the advantage over us again!” I said as I looked back at the simisage, who was clutching his stomach with a hand.

“Not bad, brats, not bad…” The grass monkey spoke before dusting himself on his stomach and cracking his back. “Still, I think it hasn’t crossed over yer heads yet who yer dealiin’ with!” He took a stomp forward, his tail releasing a bit of needles on the floor. “Da name’s Maxim, Sage Maxim, and I’m the king of these woods! Every lil’ bit of dis forest belongs to me! Even dat berry field those bugs claim to be their farm!”

“Haud yer wheesht! You’re the king of nothing!” Came Nothris’ immediate reply to that claim as he got up. “You’re just some self-proclaimed eejit who came here one day and decided to be greedy and cause a kerfuffle!” He exclaimed as his wings buzzed a few flaming scales off it. “You have the right to no throne whatsoever! If that was the case, my family would’ve bowed down to you generations ago!”

“Silence! I’m da king of did forest ‘n nothing that you say has any power here! For you have to have power, ya must be unbeatable, fearless, and complete control over yer own territory!” The now-named Maxim gripped his tail again, whipping against the ground to his sides. “‘N to prove my authority to this place, I’ll defeat ya both, here and now!”

He swung his tail in front of him as it glowed, releasing seeds that flew directly at us. We both jumped back from their range, watching the seeds explode once in contact with the floor. I used the smoke of the explosion to charge in at the monkey when he least expected. Going through the smoke, I felt the need to kick something, so I charged some of my core’s energy to my legs and, of course, they reacted with an orange glow.

Once I got close to the simisage, getting out of the smoke, I launched a kick aiming at the side of his head, however, to my surprise, he fucking parried the kick with his stone-like tail, almost stinging me a bit with the needle-like fur on the tip. I gritted my teeth before trying to strike him with another foot after dropping the other one. However, instead of parring my foot, he fucking bit it with his surprisingly sharp and fucking filthy, why there was so much black stuff in those gums, eww! “Ngh, let it go, let it go, fuck!”

However, before he could thrash his head around with my foot caught up in those filthy teeth, Nothris, the fluffy angel that he was, came to my rescue as he came from the air, dive-bombing Maxim with an outstretched foot. The monkey couldn’t do anything as he got his skull bashed in by a chitinous foot, releasing my foot and letting me back away from the moth pinning the simisage down, all in a second.

The slither wing rubbed his foot on the monkey’s cheek, his nose and mouth bleeding a bit from the impact of the stomp to the head he received. “Like I said before, you’re the king of nothing! So just give up already and let us go with the berries!”

“A king…” Suddenly, the grass monkey was starting to glow a baby blue color as he began resisting the larger Pokémon’s foot. “A king never gives up!”

With a renowned energy that came out of nowhere, he slammed his hands on the ground and shoved his legs up, sending the moth flying to the air with a surge of strength. I shouted as I saw that sudden movement. “Nothris!”

That little lift into the air wasn’t enough as Maxim jumped up from his position, lined himself in front of the wall, and used it as a boost to fly directly towards Nothris, punching him. And it didn’t end there, he fell on the ground and used his tail to spring back up to deliver a kick to the moth’s back. He then ended the combo as he got a bit higher than Nothris, dunking him down on the gut with his two fists.

As the slither wing landed on the ground, I couldn’t help but wince at the impact. I would’ve tried hitting the simisage with an Ember or something, but goddamn, he was moving so fast! How could I have tried to hit him when I could’ve hit my ally??? Unfortunately, friendly fire is always on IRL.

I would’ve checked on Nothris, but I couldn’t let my eye off Maxim. That guy had experience with fighting. My leg was bleeding a bit which… wasn’t good, but thankfully he hadn’t bitten any articulations so I could still move them. I just needed to make do with what I could while Nothris recovered. ‘What to do, what the hell do I do? I’m not 100% right now and I have a powerhouse of an ally down… no more reckless shit, it’s game time.’

The grass monkey was staring at me a bit. I started moving to the side while he moved to the opposite side, starting to circle each other. So… what moves did I have in my arsenal as a raboot? Hm… Ember, Tackle, Flame Charge, Double Kick, Quick Attack… hm… maybe I should focus on out-speeding him the best as I could. Quick Attack sounded like the way to go… I just had to do like all the other moves up until now, focus on my will, my core, and-

… Wait a second… oh my god, I’m so dumb! This is not a game, I don’t need to do one attack at a time, I could combo them into each other!

“Should’ve stuck bein’ my doll, brat. Yer too ballsy for yer own good.” Maxim said as he griped his tail as he walked, likely preparing another move with it.

“Yeah, no, you stink of bananas and probably don’t shower, yeah, no chance I’d risk getting aids from you.” I said accusingly while pointing a paw at him. I then put a paw on my mask as I started cooking up some improvised combo attack. “Now, if you excuse me…” I pulled my fur mask down and spoke. “I got a monkey to roast, and that’s you.”

With that, I sucked in a small breath and shot an Ember fireball directed at him. However, I didn’t stop there as I coated myself with the aura of a Quick Attack. I felt everything around me slow down to a crawl; the fireball traveling at a walking pace, Maxim trying to dodge out of the way slowly, and one of the berries rolling down the mountain of them very slowly. Of course, I couldn’t help but make a reference. “King Crimson!”

With that, I rushed to the grass monkey’s side tackling him to the ground with an elbow as time resumed back to normal. The fireball impacted the wall, the berry finally finished rolling to the ground, and, of course, Maxin rolled on the ground after my elbow attack, jumping back to feet and skidding to a halt.

He spent no time with words and immediately pointed his tail to the ground again, preparing another collum of green light and leaves. I didn’t play around the bush this time and instead, I coated myself in flames to burn the leaves that blocked my path as I ran out of the range of the Grass Pledge, a beam of grassy green light erupting behind me. I jumped and used the momentum of the flame charge to deliver a flying kick to the grass monkey directly in his chest, staggering him backwards and making him release his tail.

‘He’s disarmed, now I can-’ My thoughts were interrupted and Maxim’s tail slammed corrected itself, turned harder, and smacked me across the face. “NHGAH!” I was launched onto the wall, my arm taking most of the damage of the impact as I collided. I slumped to the ground and watched as the simisage walked to me. The pain finally made my body go numb, the adrenaline leaving my body. “Y-you… bitch…”

“Ya’ve been a pain in my arse… but yer fun ends here.” Maxim raised his tail and pointed at the ground below me. I could feel the vibration of the energy building up below me. “Adios, Lucas-”

“Don’t you DARE!”

The energy building up died down and we both looked at the source of the scream, seeing a giant fireball just rushing directly at the grass monkey. Looking at it more closely, the center of this flaming orb was none other than Nothris himself. He didn’t waste any time as he slammed himself directly at Maxim, pushing him directly into a wall and straight up breaking through it. Nothris, fortunately, managed to not fall off the building, however, Maxim went straight through the hole because of the impact, flying directly off the building with a scream that got distant and distant…

We were both left panting, catching our breath after such an exhausting fight. However, once I rested enough, the realization dawned on me through the pain I was feeling. “Holy fuck… we did it! Hah! You launched him off Smash Bros style!”

Nothris slowly turned around and blinked with his beady eyes, not quite believing what he had done. His carapace was cracked all over, and some of his fur was stained in hemolymph and a bit of the monkey’s blood. “I… I did it… I defeated the thief and got the berries back!” He laughed a bit, his voice a bit hoarse from everything that just happened. “I proved myself, I protected the farm!”

I flashed him the best thumbs up I could with my paws. “I knew you could do it- ngh!” I winced in pain, my left arm hurting a lot. “Fuck, I think I dislocated my arm a bit…”

The moth’s eyes widened a bit before he stomped over to me. “Wait, really? Are the bones on your arm misplaced?”

“Yeah, think so… listen, could you do me a favor and uh…” With a lot of effort and pain, I lifted my pained arm a bit. “Pull my arm? I dunno if this will work or not, but from what I’ve seen in pieces of media, it seems to work- ACK!!!”

Nothris didn’t even let me finish my explanation as he gripped my wrist with his chitinous claws and yanked my arm with a lot of force. For a second, I thought he’d rip it off, but no, all he did was just pull very hard. Thankfully, the misplaced bone in my arm seemed to snap back in place.

The moth released my arm and gasped. “I’m sorry! I’m not a Pokémon who has a skeleton so I didn’t know what to do right and-”

I gasped for air a bit as the pain was leaving my body, only leaving minor aches all around the place. “No, no, it’s fine. You did it right. It’s supposed to hurt like that, after all.” I groaned a bit before grunting and getting up again. “I can go without some berries at the moment… I think. You clearly need it the most.”

The slither wing looked at the hoard of berries behind him and his mandibles clicked a bit. “But I don’t wanna use these berries, the only reason I used that sitrus on you was because you desperately needed it.”

“I see… alright then, let’s bring these berries back. I already have a plan in mind.” I said as I walked to the mountain of berries. “It all comes down to Teleport.”

“Huh? Are you gonna try and teleport a whole mountain of berries back to our farm? Do you even know how to do it?” I said nothing and slowly looked back at the slither wing with a mischievous smile on my rabbit face. “Don’t tell me…”

“Exactly! And what a good way to learn that move during the thick of moments like these!” I then looked back at the pile and smirked, already thinking of me teleporting around in the form I chose. “Let’s-a go!”

I started transforming, becoming a bit smaller, my fur getting replaced with hard skin, my tail enlarging and my paws turning into claws, all the while my head changed shape. Once the pink glow disappeared, I had been fully transformed into an abra. Just like with my rockruff body, I felt a huge headache as I was bombarded with a sensation I never felt before, overwhelming my head as I was forced onto my knees.

It was like so many thoughts forming all at once that all rang in my head under different frequencies. My mind felt expanded, so much so that it felt like my skull would burst from the overwhelming sensation. Yet, those thoughts that appeared did not feel like mine… in fact, one of those thoughts seemed more potent than others and resembled a familiar voice.

‘Lucas!’

“Lucas!”

I turned to the source of the voice, seeing Nothris crouch down near me. Geez, him being so close up looked so menacing sometimes- wait a second… the thought and the voice…

“Are you okay?” The slither wing asked as he analyzed me up and down with his beady eyes. ‘Please don’t let this be another moment like the Banished Pokémon.’

I blinked a bit, registering in my head as the overwhelming sensation left little by little. “Y-yeah… I think I can hear your thoughts in my head now.”

“What? Oh, wait, you’re an abra now, right?” The moth asked and I nodded. “That may be it. Can you filter out… uh… my thoughts?” ‘Pretty please? Having my head invaded is creepy…’

I hummed as I focused on pushing the moth and many other Pokémon’s constant thoughts aside. Wow, just like clouding my mind with brain rot to push negative thoughts away, it worked! “Well, can’t hear ya inside my noggin anymore so it must’ve worked. Now… to the main problem at hand… teleportation.”

I decided to first try and teleport myself. I stretched my fingers a bit and then clenched my claws, focusing on the psychic-type core within me. See, the main reason I chose abra in the first place was because they’re the only Pokémon (besides Cosmog but I won’t get to legendary territory again for a WHILE after the stunt I pulled) who has Teleport in their entire movepool before evolving. So it should be easy to try to use it without me pulling a Psybeam out of my ass.

However, no matter how hard I tried, thinking of the location I wanted to teleport to (the place being behind Nothris just to spook ‘em), how much brain power I put to willing myself to move some inches, I couldn’t pull it off. ‘Shit, I really needed to watch the earlier episodes of Dragon Ball to figure out how Goku did this shit so I could maybe-’ I interrupted my thoughts right there as another thought struck me, feeling like Picasso being hit by the biggest wave of inspiration ever. ‘Wait… psychic power comes from the mind, right? What if I… pretend I’m Goku and do his version of teleportation? Trick my mind into thinking that I’m a master at this and…. Ohoho, please fucking WORK!’

Nothris tilted his head and asked. “Lucas… are you sure you can do this?”

“I think I figured it out.” I put two of my fingers on my forehead and thought of the same location. “If I do this and think of the location, maybe…” I closed my eyes and I felt a strong force almost knock me off my feet for a bit, feeling the wind rush through my skin. I stumbled back a bit and opened them again and realized something. I wasn’t beside Nothris… I was behind him now without moving my legs a single inch. “Woah… woah, woah, woah, woah, WOAH! It fucking worked! Holy shit, I did it!”

The slither wing whipped his body around and stared at me incredulously. “Wow, you managed to do it, nice!”

I was feeling a bit light-headed after doing that, but who cared about that, I fucking did it! I learned how to teleport!

“So… can you actually teleport other people and objects with you too?” Nothris eventually asked, making me shake my head out of the slight dizziness.

Okay, enough glazing myself over learning that. Gotta do this quickly in case the Elemental Discount Kings call reinforcements. I ran to the mountain of berries and looked at them. However, as I stared at them, wondering how would I be able to teleport all of them at once, I suddenly got struck with a thought I hadn’t considered before. ‘Wait a sec… when I found that smell back at the berry storage… it obviously belonged to Maximus… Maxie? Whatever, the simisage. I only found his scent there, but… something was bothering me. I hadn’t detected any other smells besides his and there was no way he could’ve easily carried thousands and thousands of berries in a single night all while almost dropping no clues whatsoever besides his smell… was there a third party involved?’

I shook my head a bit, not like that’s my business. I had a mission to complete and I was so close!

‘Rule of cool, please save me on this one, I don’t wanna tire myself out by teleporting small piles of berries.’ I put my claw on the pile, touching a few of the berries while I touched my forehead again. I looked at the slither wing behind me and asked. “Yo, touch my shoulder. I wanna teleport everything at once back to the berry storage back on your family’s farm.”

“What!? Are you sure you can do that? I don’t think that’s even possible!” Nothris said as he walked over to me, hesitating in putting his claw on my shoulder pad… thingy.

“Listen, dude… a few weeks ago, I thought that a lot of things were impossible. But now, here I am doing things that I thought I’d never be able to do.” I grinned a bit, showing a small fang. “And I wanna break the impossible even more if I can. So, come on. Watch me destroy the impossible.”

The moth blinked before silently nodding and putting his claw on my shoulder.

I then started focusing, channeling a bunch of energy around me as I used the power of references in my mind to try and grab as many berries as possible before teleporting to the location I was thinking of. It was then that I heard a sudden sigh… directly into my mind.

You know what? The simisage was right, you do have the tenacity to try dumb stuff like this. Fine, I’ll give you a little boost, I guess you have earned it.

Wait, wha-

And, suddenly, as I blinked, I felt the wind rush by me before my feet were taken off the ground. I opened my eyes and I fell on the dirt of a building followed by Nothris who landed beside me. I didn’t have the time to groan and fully open my eyes as I saw berries rain down on us. “Oh shit-!”

Nothris and I had no time to do anything as we were buried in a pile of fruits. Our bodies get pelted left and right by berries of many sizes and colors. Ah great, I couldn’t breathe… I needed to get the hell outta there.

I swam through the pile like I was swimming through a really deep and smelly ball pit. Eventually, I emerged through the mountain, taking a deep breath before I panted from pain and exhaustion, not fully taking my body out of the pile. ‘H-holy… holy shit…’

Nothris emerged on another end of the pile, throwing a few berries onto the ceiling. “Yaldi!” He then looked at me with an excited chitter of his mandibles. “Lucas, that was pure dead BRILLIANT! I can’t believe you actually teleported this amount of stuff along with me all at once!”

“I did…?” I was becoming a little dizzy, ooh boy, I was seeing double and my head was pounding like crazy. “Guess I did…!”

“What’s going on here!?”

We both turned to the source of the voice and saw a golden-winged slither wing with a red tail, looking completely shocked by the scene before her eyes.

“Hi Mom!” The orange-winged moth spoke. “We managed to bring all the berries back! I’ve grown really strong, I was finally able to protect our farm!”

I lazily waved an arm to the golden-winged moth. “Yo Ms. Summers, we… we beat the shit outta… monkeys and brought the good stuff back, now if ya excuse me. Nappy… time…” It was then that my body went limp and I fell asleep… with half of my body stuck in a mountain of berries.