The enraptured little faces aimed my way were really satisfying to see, as none of them had caught on to my little deception. I hadn't even known my nose was purple, honestly, so I shouldn't have felt so satisfied with myself, and the old man had caught me with just a glance. But I wanted to bask at least a little bit! The kids murmured among themselves, with phrases like "So cool!" "How did he do that?" "What's a Ditto?!" "I want one!" sounding more than once through the group. The old man laughed and I dodged around from over-eager hands from my place atop the table. They seemed to be interested in finding out what my amorphous, blobby body felt like. "Now, now, kids! Don't torment poor Ditto too much! If you calm down and ask nicely, maybe it'll let you get close."

Mable's warning seemed to calm the kids only marginally, and when I wasn't at risk of being grabbed, I decided to move around the edge of the table. It let the kids get a better look at me in turn, and I shook hands with any of them who seemed to want it. Well, they wrapped their fingers around the pointed nub of my 'hand', but still. Mister Patel took that moment to continue his discussion, while I was introducing myself to each of the kids in turn.

"Ditto is a very special kind of Pokémon. It's known as, appropriately enough, the Transform Pokémon due to its ability to mimic other Pokémon. They are known to be able to produce a seemingly perfect replica of the Pokémon they can see and use as a model, but as we saw with this fella', they don't get all the details right if they try and do it from memory. More experienced Ditto are able to bypass this to an extent, and even a Ditto who hasn't mastered this ability can be a very formidable Pokémon because of the flexibility and options permitted to them. After all, a purple-nosed Bibarel can still fight like a Bibarel!"

The group echoed soft "Oooh" sounds of understanding as the old man spoke, or at least they all made the sound, even if some were copying their neighbors. "Now, I'm sure all of you are thinking the same thing right now. 'Doesn't that make Ditto the strongest Pokémon, because they can always end up in an advantageous fight?' Am I wrong?" Many of the kids shook their heads. Mister Patel stepped closer to me, and rest a wrinkled, gnarled hand atop my head. It wasn't exactly unpleasant, but it sure felt a little weird. I squished myself lower, moving away from the contact, and he laughed, seemingly not bothered. "While Ditto is certainly a Pokémon with strong flexibility, can anyone think of any problems that might happen for trainers who decide to use a Ditto?"

After a pause, the girl in the yellow dress raised her hand again. "Go ahead, Annabelle." "They would need to be able to know a lot of transformations in order to maintain their advantage?" "Very good, that's correct. While in theory a particularly dedicated Ditto can transform into every Pokémon they've seen from memory, in practice it isn't quite that easy. A poorly-formed transformation may capture but a fraction of the original target's strength. After all, it's about copying, and unless done perfectly, it will invariably wind up with lesser results." Even I was staring at Mister Patel alongside the kids. He had my rapt attention, as I doubted that chances to have a teacher's lecture about my species was going to be a common occurrence. "Anyone else?"

A new boy raised his hand, and Mister Patel pointed his cane at him, "How many times they can transform?" "That's another very good answer. I expect that a lot of you were thinking that Ditto could be your Ace Pokémon, a secret weapon you can pull out to sweep entire teams of enemies, adapting on the fly to whatever the opponent sends out. Again, an extremely powerful, intensely-trained ditto might be able to handle that sort of scenario. The issue is that Ditto expends a great deal of its energy when it transforms. No matter how short the transformation, it's going to take a lot of energy in the process of changing shape! So if you want your Ditto to shape-shift to counter your opponent, it's going to need to have the energy to transform over, and over, and over. Many Ditto struggle to display any sort of combat prowess after a third transformation without recuperation. They fare best in flexible pivot roles, where they can deal with a single unexpected problem that is an issue for your other Pokémon."

"Keep it going, kids, you're doing good." Mister Patel encouraged the group, but the hands weren't raising at this point, a few not even pretending to be thinking about possible answers. "Come on, it's similar to something brought up already, someone can make the connection. … No? Alright then." He sighed, and looked disappointed. "It's not just about knowing the transformations that it can use, it must also know and practice using moves in that transformation. Each Pokémon is going to use a move slightly differently. Blastoise, for example, has powerful water cannons on its back that it uses to launch its water moves."

He pointed his cane at me again, "Let's say for the sake of argument that this little fella' knew how to transform into a Blastoise. He practiced his water moves intensely, perfecting how much energy to use to get the intended effect without pushing too hard and wasting energy, and had his aim down to a bullseye. Suddenly, he needs to use a water move when he's not transformed into Blastoise. The opponent sent out an electric Pokémon, and the trainer commands them to transform into, say, Swampert. Swampert is another water type, but is also ground type, nullifying the threat of electricity, and offering super-effective responses to the electric type. But the enemy is always jumping up, or flying, to evade the ground based moves. Now it's time to blast them to the ground with water, and then finish them off!" Mister Patel raised his fist in a clench, the kids all leaning forward and holding their breath, caught in the excited image of the supposed battle he was laying out.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"So, now the problem is, Swampert doesn't have water cannons to aim with. Swampert fire their water moves from their mouth! It's an entirely different way of using energy. Power and aim will be completely thrown off course, and the Ditto-turned-Swampert will have to know how to use the same move under a wildly different circumstance, or it may not work at all. Some of you might be thinking that this problem is very specific, but suddenly you expand it to each and every Pokémon Ditto can transform into. Now it's not one move between two forms, it's every overlapping move and every overlapping form. It would take an absurd amount of work, perhaps an impossible amount of work even, to achieve ultimate flexibility. And for many trainers, this is for one of their six Pokémon. They have to split their attention to train their other Pokémon as well!" Even I slumped down a little at the description of how much work lay in front of me if I wanted to grow into a dedicated battler.

Some of the kids seemed to be less excitedly staring at me after the reality call, but a few of them still seemed excited in the idea of a flexible problem-solver Pokémon... or maybe just the idea of how flexible transforming was. "Now, I'm not going to discourage you from trying to find a Ditto if you're interested in them. They are wonderful Pokémon with a few strong suits you won't find in other Pokémon, especially for those of you going on a journey. A well-trained Ditto can be an absolutely amazing ally for traversal. The ability to transform to cross land, sea, or even air is a very strong power. Flight is asking a bit much of most Ditto, but kept to short distances they can still help you cross a ravine or a downed bridge!" Mister Patel ground his cane into the dirt for emphasis as he finished his little lecture, looking pleased. This field trip likely wound up far more educational than expected.

I hadn't even thought about the utility options of transforming, beyond idly wanting to fly. Wait, fly? Shoot, I hadn't transformed into a Butterfree like I wanted to when they were nearby. I hadn't studied them close enough to try and do so from memory, even though I thought I knew exactly what the Pokémon looked like. I would have to experiment more later with trying to take advantage of my prior knowledge and if it could be exploited into transformations later on. It was out of my reach for the time being, at least. Mable clapped her hands, jarring me from my thoughts, and called out "Alright, kids, free time! Stay inside the fence and you can go and explore and play with the Pokémon! Remember, don't go near any Pokémon that are battling each other, they're just practicing, but they might wind up getting too rough by accident if you startle them or interrupt them!"

At her call, many of the kids ran off. Many of them went toward the pond, and I hoped they would burn some energy out of that turbo-Azurill, while a few went to play in the mound of dirt with the Dunsparce. Only one boy headed off toward the trees in the back, shouting about how the rest "Just didn't get how cool bugs are!" Yeah, he was going to grow up to be one of those kids you found in Viridian Forest in the games, wasn't he? More power to him. After all the down-talking I had heard about my own species as being difficult to train, I figured that I should root for other Pokémon perceived as being the underdogs. Two little girls were desperately chasing a Bunnelby with terror in its eyes at their enthusiasm, both of them shrieking about how it was "So cute!" Good luck, pal.

I had a trio of fans of my own, who wanted to take turns holding me, squishing my amorphous body, laughing among themselves. They tried to goad me into transforming into one of the nearby Dunsparce, but I shook my head. After the lecture about how multiple transformations would tire me out, I didn't want to transform for no reason. Partially because I wanted to save my energy for after the kids left so I could experiment with transforming from memory, but also because it was sort of nice being carried around and pat. Weird? Absolutely. But I was slowly growing more used to it with the times Mable had picked me up, and the kids seemed content enough just carrying me around as they talked to their friends.

That was how the next couple of hours passed, with the main new diversion being the kids 'assistance' during lunch. They wanted to hold out handfuls of kibble and giggle as the Bidoof munched it right off their palms, or try to lure the Pidgey or Fletchlings into arms reach with a handful of seeds. I was hand-fed my own share of Oran berries, which left me feeling pretty content. As the time wore on and the kids wore themselves out more and more with their playing and running about, it seemed like they were slowly getting ready to leave.

"Bye everyone!" Mable called out, waving at the kids, and they called out a smattering of "Bye!" to Mable or to certain Pokémon, and I was surprisingly pleased to pick out a few clear "Bye Ditto!" that left me feeling pretty good. "Nice job today, Ditto. Good job, many Pokémon have trouble with how... excited and friendly the kids can be." Mable flashed a grin my way as I wandered back out to the pasture, heading off to try and find some quiet section of grass to myself.

It was time to do some real Transformation practice! Now, what should I try and turn myself into first...?