Chapter 10: Safer and Sounder

By SmashUniverse64

The house in Hearthome City was spacious and wide, most of the room being dominated by the computer and the giant server base it was connected to. A living room area with a few stools and couch were in front of the huge HD TV. It was on and showing some kid's show, but that was not the focus of the house's only inhabitant.

The blonde haired girl sat at her computer screen, running diagnostics on the new software she had been co-developing with some friends from around the world. A new unified Pokémon storage system, a cloud based one that could allow for trainers to easily transfer their Pokémon worldwide and not just locally within the region. She was working coding the new UI for the project, absentmindedly thinking about the girls who were just here.

"They said to expect a visitor… not sure if they are just playing pranks on me or not," she mused to herself. She had been told to keep her window open by the little girls she always saw outside the city.

"We can't tell you why but it's really, really important!"they had said. Even Danielle, the eldest and wisest of the children had insisted the same thing before leaving her house.

She had decided to keep her word just to be nice to them, but the high noon sun was really making her regret it. "That's such a pain… is someone gonna dive through the window or something? Come on…"

A hard thumping of feet from the outside made her head turn her head to the large window right next to her.

"Look ouuuut!" someone with a female voice cried out. The girl had no time to brace herself for the huge black, grey and red ball of hair that launched itself through her window.

"Aaaaaah!" Bebe screamed as she and the indiscernible fluffy mass collided, becoming a tangled heap of limbs on the orange and yellow tiled floor. After taking a moment to catch her breath, Bebe looked at just what had arrived through her window.

It was at that point that Bebe froze. The creature, the one who looked like a Zoroark but with the body type of a human woman, was in full view, the light of the sun shining directly upon her. As the creature tried to rise up, using one arm to support her and the other to rub her forehead, several questions were running through the blonde scientist's head.

Human body shape… yet it looks like a Pokémon? How is that possible? Where did it come from? She hardly noticed when the creature got a good look at Bebe and smiled widely.

"Hey Bebe! Holy crap, it feels like forever since I've seen you!" the creature said in a decidedly female voice.

The easily understandable human speech was something Bebe noticed, snapping her out of her trance. "What the hell… are you?" she said quietly. "And how do you know my name?"

The creature didn't know what to say in response to that. "Well, I… uh…"

Not even a few moments after the creature spoke again, her door was assaulted by six thumps one after the other. Evidently someone on the other side managed to turn the doorknob because two small girls, Lil and Emma, and four Pokémon of varying sizes fell through the door and landed in another pile on Bebe's floor. Bebe gawked at the sight, but the creature seemed amused. Behind them stood someone else Bebe knew, Danielle. She was cradling an Eevee in her arms who looked just as shaken as Bebe in that moment.

The Eevee waved at her, crying out in voice that she couldn't understand. "Hello, nice lady!"

"Hey there, Bebe," Danielle said with an awkward grin, walking through the door past the second pile of people of people and Pokémon that had formed on the floor over the last two minutes. "Don't mind us, we're just dropping off Aaron and we'll be on our way."

"That means us…" Lil and Emma said at the same time, trying to force the Ampharos off the top of them. That only seemed to make the Ampharos laugh.

Bebe blinked, glancing between Danielle and the strange creature. "Aaron? You mean… Aaron Grey? That boy who used to hang out around here years ago?"

All of those present including the Pokémon nodded, looking directly at the creature. Bebe slowly turned her head back to focus on the creature as well, her mouth agape as she understood the implications.

The creature lowered her head, chuckling nervously. "I think it was exactly four years ago that I kept on coming in here to pet your Eevee that you gave to Lucas… I never apologized for being so annoying, so I guess now is as good a time as ever."

Bebe, eyes wide and full of disbelief, slowly put her hand over her eyes and shook her head. "You've gotta be kidding me…"

"And that's basically how this all happened and how we got right here," Aaron finished explaining. At that time, Emma, Lil, and Danielle had left Bebe's house so now only Bebe, the transformed Aaron and his Pokémon entourage were left. Aaron was sitting in a wooden chair and his Pokémon were sitting around him.

Bebe had been meticulously taking notes on her computer the entire time Aaron spoke, but when Aaron stopped talking she took her hands off the keyboard. "Aaron… this is all really hard to believe, but I can't exactly deny what I'm seeing in front of me either." Surprisingly she found herself smiling. "Kind of an exciting paradox I suppose."

"Trust me, I know all of this sounds crazy. I've lived it for the past…" He paused, scratching his chin. "Well, really only the last day."

"You realize that by being the way you are right now, you're probably the biggest and greatest scientific discovery the world has ever known." Bebe stood up the chair and closed the window Aaron had dived through not even thirty minutes ago.

"I'd say that she's right," Zoey agreed.

"Duuuuuh," Sparks commented, stepping up next to Aaron directly gesturing toward his full body. "I mean, anything that can have an amazing body like that and still be a Pokémon is pretty crazy!"

"Ugh Sparks, stop it!" Aaron groaned, turning away from Sparks and crossing his arms to block the view of his breasts.

Bebe giggled when she saw this exchange. "Being able to understand Pokémon speech as if you were fluent in it... that part is also pretty incredible." She had a look of concern suddenly. "Have you been dealing with these changes OK or…"

Aaron sighed, putting his arms back down and facing Bebe. "Things… aren't too great. Being part Pokémon is one thing, but taking away my masculinity in a literal sense? That's a hard pill to swallow…"

While all the Pokémon showed sorrow on their faces Sparks looked to be the most guilty given what she had just said, sitting back down and looking downcast. "Sorry, Aaron…"

"It's fine, Sparks." Aaron consoled her by patting her on the head.

"I guess you've been taking it rough then," Bebe said, her voice full of pity. While Aaron didn't say anything right away, his other Pokémon were stirred by those words.

"Guess we haven't really been much help," Blaze commented, looking guilty herself.

"It's all been in the interest of trying to keep things normal, but you're right. We've all been ignoring the problems this must be causing," Rin said, deeply saddened too.

Eevee hopped into Aaron's lap and curled up there, prompting Zoey to rise to her feet and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah…" Aaron finally responded to Bebe, staring down at his own body. The alien feeling of being in a body he didn't recognize never fully went away even when he had tried to ignore it over the last twenty-four hours, but he was able to deal with it even when he had run into his old friends. Here in front of Bebe though, the gravity of his situation hit him like a truck. He clenched his fists, looking back up to meet Bebe's eyes with a pleading, desperate face. "I wanna be my old self again... more than anything."

Bebe nodded. "I understand…" She glanced over to the notes she took on her computer and back to Aaron, giving him a hopeful smile. "Don't you worry. You were out in the woods by yourself, but now you're safe and sound here." She winked. "Plus, you happen to be with someone who has a lot of helpful connections."

"And a working way to communicate beyond a stone's throw," Aaron said with a chuckle. The Pokémon around him also had a bit of a laugh. The situation need a bit of levity, so everyone decided to take it.

"Ha, yeah." Bebe turned back to her computer and saved her notes to a file on her desktop. "Hey, I just had a thought. You know how I maintain the Pokémon Storage System here in Sinnoh?"

"Yeah?" Aaron was confused as to why she would bring that up, but then he thought about it a little bit. "Wait… are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?"

"Why not?" The blonde scientist opened her desk drawer and removes an original Pokéball from it. "It would be a way to gather some more data on you and you'd get to experience what all of your girls have experienced when they are in their Pokéballs."

"Oooo! I love being in my Pokéball!" Sparks cheered. "Getting to meet all of the other Pokémon that pass by is so cool!"

"Not me," Blaze huffed. "Training in a digital space isn't near as fun as actual sparring."

"We all know you pig out on Poké Puffs, Blaze," Zoey snickered. All of the other girls and Eevee too joined in the laugh.

Blaze growled, shaking her head. "I hate you all."

Aaron was torn on this idea. On one hand, any information he could learn about his new body and how it works would only help him as he went forward trying to fix this mess he'd gotten himself into, but on the other hand…

"I'm not too sure how I feel about being captured by someone else," he said with obvious anxiety. "I don't even know if it's possible for something like me to be contained in a Pokéball… doesn't it have to register the Pokémon data in the Pokédex registry?"

"Well, yes… but this Pokéball is only rigged up to my local server here in my house," Bebe explained, pointing to the giant server that took up a whole corner of the house. "I use it for testing purposes, so you have no fear about your data being uploaded to the worldwide server if it even works at all."

"OK, thank goodness. So I guess there's also no fear of me… belonging to you then?" Aaron asked somewhat sheepishly.

"That's what you're concerned about here? What kind of monster do you take me for, Aaron?" Bebe laughed.

That reaction was just was Aaron needed to crack a smile again. "Just making sure. Who knows, I could be pretty enticing for a trainer... I guess you could say I'm a rare specimen."

"Yeah, no crap," Blaze said.

"Some would say you're enticing for other reasons…" Rin said under her breath, Aaron lightly growling at her.

"Man, I wish I could understand what they were saying," Bebe said, turning to adjust setting for her personal server. "They aren't making fun of me, are they?"

"Oh, Bebe… you wound me!" Sparks whined, crying fake tears.

"There's nothing to make fun of. She's smart, pretty, and friendly!" Eevee said cutely.

"Awwwww, that was nice," Aaron said, patting the little guy on the head. "So I guess I'd be down for trying this out." Aaron reached over for the backpack Zoey was carrying, pulling out four Pokéballs, all of them different models. "That is if all of my girls can join me in there. I don't wanna be alone in there."

"Big baby," Blaze teased, still a little bit peeved from the others making fun of her, but still willing to crack a joke.

Eevee seemed freaked out by the prospect of entering the datascape. "Uh… I don't have to do it, do I?"

"Of course not," Aaron said reassuringly. "You can stay out here with Bebe."

"Little guy is scared, huh? I'm guessing that he's wild," the blonde scientist said, going over to her server rack and pulling out a cart she had sitting next to it. It had an odd machine with six half sphere shaped slots in it.

"Yeah," Aaron said, picking up Eevee and setting him on the ground. "Saved him when I was about to make the journey up Coronet only two days ago. Seems so long ago now…"

"I bet." Bebe smiled when she watched the little Eevee bound over to her, brushing against her leg. "You know I've got a soft spot for Eevee anyway."

"We took him in when we found out he was being followed by some shady guys. We don't exactly know why someone would be after him, but we decided it would be to travel together until we find out," the hybrid explained, shuffling around the Pokéballs in his hands.

Bebe was finishing her set up, the machine powering on with a blue light. "Oh boy, hope it's not another group seeking world domination… again."

"Hey, you never know. They could be looking to build an Eevee clone army to dominate the world with fluffy adorableness," Aaron joked, causing the entire room to burst into giggles.

"Best apocalypse ever," Zoey said. She looked down at her own Pokéball, the only original one in the group before looking back to her trainer and fellow Zoroark. "Well, ready to go?"

Aaron smiled. "Yeah… let's do it." First he grabbed the basic Pokéball, pointing it at Zoey. "Zoey, return." The red beam launched out of the ball and enveloped Zoey, her body disappearing just mere seconds and being absorbed into the ball.

Bebe sputtered, almost laughing out loud. "You know, I just witnessed a Zoroark returning another Zoroark into a Pokéball. It's pretty surreal."

Aaron could only shrug. Maybe things were finally gonna get better.

"Sir… the target is now inside of a local residence. Do we strike and get it out of there now?"

"No, that would be too reckless. They've only just arrived. Give them a little time to relax and get comfortable… then we shall have our chance."

There was a pause. "What do we do about the hybrid then?"

"Try and capture it too when the time comes. There's no doubt that a specimen as perfect as that would be of use to us."

"Roger. I'll prep the special unit."