He was certain he'd seen movement.

There wasn't a chance of it being a misjudgement; there wasn't only traces of movement, there was also a subtle voice to be heard near the forest floor, alluding to a presence that spoke out over the occasional whisper of the spring breeze.

His mind snapped to an immediate course of action. Watch, listen, and wait.

For all he knew, they could be hostile. They could be searching for him. There was not yet a guarantee that Seviper had been eradicated from the area... and if this was one, it meant his entire life had the potential to be altered once more.

For once, his fight or flight response told him to stand his ground. It had only been a mere month since the first change. He'd risk all he had left over losing his hold of his clan's territory. What he had left was this land, and himself. He'd survived the atrocities. He held these grounds in their place... restoration to his home could come later. It was now that he had to act, to keep his gaze steadied and claws unsheathed, it was now he had to defy fate, should it come with intent to take his home from him.

Hisoka heard the noise drawing closer to his position.

Obscured within the branches of the tree that he'd held himself in as soon as he got wind of the potential threat, his eyes stayed veiled in the shadow of broad leaves; otherwise the distinct red tint of his gaze would reveal his location, like two shining scarlet spotlights. The case was identical for that of his fur; red and white patterning simply could not be hid by the camouflage of leaves, made vividly green by the touch of spring. His wispy tail was tightly curled like twine around a branch to avoid letting a single strand of cottony white hair poke out through his concealed position.

Eventually, the Zangoose could confirm that beneath him, there was a being on two legs.

He didn't lose all his tension entirely, but at least he had verified that whatever this was, it wasn't a Seviper. However, getting a distinctive look at this individual was impossible from where he laid; all that could be seen was the top of their head, obscured by a broad hat to block out the sun's rays, and a duffel bag thrown haphazardly with the opening at the bottom, pressing to the ground beneath where the owner was lounging.

Hisoka would pivot his ears down towards the earth underneath the sprawling branches he'd nestled into, a voice soon being picked up by them. "Heavens," it spoke out, in a breathy tone signifying exhaustion, "is there not a soul out in this stretch of the wilderness? I walked so far just to get out here, and I'm running short on water..."

The Zangoose had ascertained some knowledge on English, along with his own name, thanks to travelers such as this one that had been in the outskirts his territory beforehand, and as such, he realized that this individual was yet another human. What in the world was their purpose here? Had they known of the calamity that happened in this very forest only a month ago? He shook off those questions, to answer them would mean revealing himself, and he did not yet know if this human was a viable threat to him. He decided that he would remain concealed, listening in. Hisoka knew that he would at least gain more of a vocabulary while they were here...

"Hmph. The charts did show it hasn't rained here in a month, perhaps there'd be a stream or other body of water here, but what guarantee is there that it's full, or drinkable? None! But the water cooler back at the mobile lab, on the other hand... oh, who am I kidding? I suppose I should be getting back, in that case. It's against my nature to take an uncertainty over a certainty, after all..." The wanderer gave a brief chuckle, standing themselves up before clearing their throat. "As is talking to myself. Oh well. Wherever you go, you've always got company in yourself!" With that last quip, footsteps could be heard heading away from the trunk of the tree, and the duffle bag had disappeared.

Within a few minutes of the human having disappeared into the horizon, away from his clan's territory, the Zangoose had unveiled himself from the branches, and hopped down to the forest floor once more. His eyes were immediately drawn to a darkened shape that had taken the place of where that bag had just been laying...

Curiously, Hisoka took it into his paws, his claws lowering so that he wouldn't poke any holes into it. There was a unique feel to the object. His pass had never felt such a thing previously. Slightly cool, smooth fabric. For a Pokémon dwelling in the wild, it was foreign. Though, upon rotating it around in his hands and eyeing it all over, the potential purpose of this unknown object came to mind.

What if this was something that the humans usually wore? What was the word, what was the word... clothing! The Zangoose hadn't even come near to having any in all his time alive in the wilderness... it didn't seem threatening, or have any other purpose but to put it on to one's self. The question was, what would happen when it was put on? The humans didn't seem to be affected by it at all... surely that would be the case for this as well, if he were to put it on.

Hisoka fiddled with the sweatshirt in his paws for a few moments more, processing it in his mind, before coming to the decision that he wished to try it on, for not much reason other than blatant curiosity. In slipped his head first, right into the large opening at the bottom, his arms extending outwards and filling the sleeves at the sides. As his head sunk further into the fabric, his paws reached up to pull the hoodie back, since his ears would be squished by it otherwise. A witty solution came to him, his claws extending once more to poke two holes for his ears to fit through at the top. He chuckled to himself silently, recalling how he was worried about tearing this beforehand.

Once all was said and done, the Zangoose looked down at his chest and spotted a red marking matching that on the fur underneath the clothing. His sleeves, too, would be changed from the way they were when first inspecting the sweatshirt; matching the scarlet patterning present on his paws and wrists. Stepping over to a clear stream to get a look at himself using the water's reflection, the mark on his face had also been imprinted onto the clothing, matching the coloration underneath.

Hisoka blinked, and the all the red colorations on him became blue.

Stumbling back in shock, he fell right onto his backside and his paws froze the ground underneath him, then after blinking again, the frosted over spots had become puddles, with bits of scorched grass surrounding them. The Zangoose stood himself up, stood in front of the water, and raised his paws. They lit themselves aflame when his markings were red, and the fur frosted over when his markings were blue.

The rest of the day, along with the next few weeks, were spent on honing this newfound ability.

...

"And I think that was... all there was to it," Hisoka concluded, shifting in his seat a bit, leaning back and looking up at the top of the tree he was seated by, "this is the same tree that I was in before I got this clothing..." He tilted his head back down, putting his Floatzel companion that had come to visit him again back within his vision.

"Mmh," Franz began to reply, the both of his tails swishing behind him, "y'know, one thing about that story kind of sticks out to me, Hisoka. Kind of subtle, and it may not lead to much, but... I want to point it out." He gave an inquisitive look to the Zangoose, as if to ask permission to let him in on his thoughts.

"Ah... go ahead, Franz." Hisoka focused his attention on the water type.

"Well..." The Floatzel rubbed his paws together for a moment, his eyes staring off up and to the side as he recounted the details of Hisoka's story mentally. "The way that the human who left that hoodie behind was talking interests me. They returned to a mobile lab... who knows what that could entail? It could be the same group that took me in, it could be a group that knows more about the properties of that sweatshirt." He brought his eyes back down to Hisoka and gave a snicker. "Maybe they could get me some magic clothes, too."

The other male smiled at this, his cloudy white tail flickering through the air as if it were a puff of smoke. "Maybe so, Franz..." He looked down upon his sleeves, idly rubbing the fabric of the hoodie they had been speaking of.

Franz had a grin work its way onto his muzzle. "We could try and find out." Those words drew the attention of the Zangoose right away, his ears perking up as the Floatzel quickly elaborated more, in order to answer to Hisoka's potenital questioning of how they'd go about doing such a thing. "Since we're already at this tree here, if we go out a bit from your territory, we can go see if that lab is still there."

"Franz," Hisoka replied with a drawn-out, near silent exhalation, "you know how I feel about... about going outside of my clan's land..." He lowered his head a bit, his expression looking almost saddened before he would look back up at the Floatzel with a slight squint. "Besides that, how do we know it is still there..? They did mention that the lab was mobile, after all..."

The water type shook his head and laid a paw on Hisoka's shoulder reassuringly, his wider smile losing intensity as it was traded for a warmer, more comforting one. "Going to look for it won't take much time. Besides... if they're somehow connected to the people who raised me, I'd love for you to meet them... I've got to show them the success I've had in meeting good people like you from all this time spent travelling."

Hisoka laid a paw over top of Franz's, his lips curving upwards as he smiled, the cottony fur of his tail responding positively as well to the weasel's words with a contented sway. He gently lowered his head, then raised it in a gradual nod.

"Alright. Let's... let's get going then, Franz."