Kyogre
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Kat sighed and thought about whether to crash in the center or at her friends, before deciding to head to the center. Her friend worked there, so she could harass him there for housing if she really wanted to, and perhaps see about getting Mike some pants. "To the center we go then." She said, more to herself before heading into the red and white building.
He followed her in, looking around the pokemon center. It was pretty vacant for the place people normally would crash in weather like this, he noticed. Behind the front desk, a female raichu morph in a nurse's outfit greeted them. "Welcome to the Fortree pokemon center," she said happily.
"Hey." She greeted warmly as she walked up to the front desk. "Is Alex hanging around here anywhere?" She asked her curiously, seeing if her buddy was hanging out in his usual spot or if he had gone home already. She ignored the vacant feeling of the center, as you never know what might be the cause of it all. Maybe it was the virus, maybe it was the fact that it was pouring rain outside and no one had been stuck here.
"He was working in the back," she said, pointing to the door behind her. "He had been treating pokemon while I was going through my condition," she motioned to herself, "and now he's following up. You can go back there if you want," she nodded to them.
"Alright, thanks." She said before heading to the back and gesturing for him to follow. She spotted her friend, grinned and waved to him. "'ey! Alex!" She called over.
He had been treating an injured Bulbasaur when the two of them walked in and he had to blink a couple of times before he recognized Kat. "Jeeze, what did you get yourself into now?" He asked in disbelief.
"My job," She replied as she sat on one of the empty medical tables.
"Shuppet and Absol attacked you both?"
"Nope, this was voluntary." She replied, grinning at his look of disbelief. Alex now looked to Mike. "Did she drag you into this?" He questioned already thinking he knew the answer already.
"No, the pokemon did. It's a bit of a long story," he shrugged a little. "We'll fix it, though." he waved a hand.
"Hey, Alex?" She asked, his attention turning to her.
"No, you can't have Duskull." He declined right away.
"I was going to ask for that later, but alright. Three things, though: one, can we crash at your place, two, do you think you might have some pants that fit Mike, and three, and do you have a skirt?" She asked him with her head tilted slightly as she ticked of the points with her fingers.
He simply sighed and mimicked her. "If you insist, I might, and do I look like a cross dresser to you? Wait. Don't answer that." He said annoyed before turning back to the Bulbasaur. She was going to have to find a pair of bottoms on her own, but that was fine.
"Alright, shall we go trash his place then?" She asked Mike with a grin as she slid off of the metal table.
He laughed a little, crossing his arms. "Fair enough, I'll find some pants while we're there." he went to the door, waiting for her with a small smirk.
She followed with a small smile still on her face as she nodded. "Good, I'll have to find a skirt somewhere else though I guess." She said before gaining an evil smirk. "Though, I wouldn't be surprise if the good nurse had a few in his closet."
"I can still hear you in the Pokemon Center!" Came the response yell. She just laughed.
"Alright, let's get out of here." She said before opening the door and heading out into the rain again. She led him to a tree house and found the key under the mat. She unlocked the door.
"Welcome to temporary home." She said with a grin.
"Good security," he said with a small sweatdrop, looking inside as she opened the door. "Not bad for a tree house," he supposed.
"Well, all of Fortree's houses are tree houses so..." She shrugged. It was a small circular room, hollowed out from the tree trunk. There was a small table in front of a couch and between two chairs, and that's where she dropped her bag off. She went over to the small cooking utensils and food supplies looking for something to eat, though she wasn't exactly hungry. Force of habit, she supposed.
"Want anything to eat?" She asked him, glancing over her shoulder.
"Pick something out for me," he shrugged, stepping inside and sitting down on the couch, exhaling as he did so. He placed his bag next to him, watching her. He found it a bit strange she was offering him food from someone else's refrigerator, but he was hungry, so he didn't complain.
"Tofu, tofu, tofu... soy... tofu... Aha!" She cried triumphantly. "Meat!" She said with glee as she found some non-soy burgers. She hummed to herself as she cooked up the meat. "Medium rare alright with you?" She asked him.
"Rare works. However you like em," he said as he looked around the room absentmindedly, not really doing anything. "Need any help?" he offered after a moment.
"If you can find wherever he keeps the plates and stuff, that'd be helpful." She said as she flipped the burgers over and let them cook on the opposite side. She never really paid much attention to Alex's cooking whenever she was over, so finding the utensils was now a challenge she didn't have to face if he found them.
He nodded, getting up and searching some cabinets for the plates. After a few minutes of searching, he found a few paper plates and plastic utensils in a nearby drawer. He placed them out on the counter for her.
"Thank you, and now food's ready." She said happily as she put the burgers onto the plate. They were more on the rare side then the medium side, but he had said to do them the way she liked to, and so she had. She took her plate and utensils and sat down on the couch.
He took his plate, sitting down next to her. He then realized he was still wet and it was getting on the couch, standing up again. He pondered a moment, considering shaking his fur out right here, but it would get everywhere if he did. Instead, he went outside and shook his wet fur off, even though it was still raining out. It was the most adorable thing she had ever seen done by anyone over 10. She couldn't help a small smile though. He was still going to be wet when he came back in.
She stood back up and headed up the small staircase in the back and shortly returned with a towel. "Here, if you want to dry off." She said before tossing him the white towel.
"I got most of it out," he muttered, drying himself. He realized how much work cleaning his fur would be with a small sigh, but continued rubbing his fur down until it was somewhat dryer. He held out the dripping towel and looked at her, as if asking what he should do with it now.
"I'm sure you did, shaking the water off in the rain." She said with a shake of her head. "Anyways, I'll take that, if you don't mind." She answered his non verbal question with taking the towel, turning around and heading upstairs.
He let her take it and shrugged a little, watching her go upstairs. For a moment he could have sworn he had seen up her 'skirt', but shook it off. He wandered around the hut, poking into cabinets and such as he explored. There wasn't much, just a few odds and ends here and a few pictures there, and two pokeballs that seemed custom made, lying side by side. That must be the pokemon Alex kept. One of them, most likely the black one, was the Duskull that Kat had mentioned when talking to him, but the other was a mystery in its contrasting pinkness. But then Kat walked back down the stairs.
"Hey, I stole some pants for you, though I'm not sure if they fit." She said offering the jeans to him that she had gotten out of the closest. Despite what she had said, it seemed her friend didn't wear skirts, so she had simply gotten rid of her ruined jeans and walked in her natural skirt she had gotten when she had transformed.
"your just going to wear that, then?" he asked as he slipped into the pants she gave him. he felt uncomfortable a moment, then a slight tearing sound came from his behind, where his tail had ripped through the fabric. "woops." he blinked, but at least the pants felt better now. They were a bit small, and didn't leave much to the imagination, but they would do.
She shrugged. "Well, there's not much for me to wear over, though I did slip on a pair of shorts under it." She said, and her skirt lifted a little so he could see the edge of her kaki shorts before instantly falling back down again. "If I'm going to have to wear anything over it, I have to wait till I get my hands on a skirt." She said, obviously loathing the idea, but there was little she could do about it. She hadn't worn a skirt since her mom forced her into one when she was seven.
He blinked a bit as she lifted her skirt without her hands, but figured it was to be expected; it was part of her, after all. It was a bit strange to him, though, but he shook it off. "You seem to be doing fine without a skirt, it's not like it's exposing anything, right?"
"True, true. I said if I was going to wear anything over it, and as you pointed out, I probably won't have to." She smiled. She was still wearing a skirt, no matter what she did, but now she didn't have to wear layered ones. She sat down on the couch and leaned her head back a little, just letting her mind drift.
He sat down next to her, and then something seemed to fade into his mind, clouding his judgment suddenly. He wasn't quite sure what it was, but it made his senses flare up and then find something to focus on, a small scent in the area. He sniffed a little, finding it an interesting yet enticing smell. He looked around, blinking a little. She watched him as he sniffed and looked around suddenly alert about something.
"What do you smell?" She asked curiously, wondering if it was something she should be aware of or not. She couldn't pick up any smells herself, so he was sort of her nose she supposed.
"Something good," he muttered, poking his head out a window, looking around outside. He couldn't see anything outside of interest, but there was definitely something around here that smelled so good. He sniffed again, wandering around the circular room. She smiled and watched him circle the room. Perhaps her friend had hidden something sweet away somewhere. After a few moments, she got up as well and decided to help him look for the elusive smell.
"What sort of good stuff does it smell like?" She asked. Though she was little help when it came to the smell itself, she could still help him look.
"I dunno... kind of..." he thought for a word, sniffing again. "Kind of musty, but flavorful, you know?" he explained, trying to find it. He went around one way of the circular room, sniffing around, as she went the other way. He got down on all fours, blinking as he sniffed. She shook her head. No, she hadn't a clue and certainly not now, but she still looked for it. In the fridge, in the cabinets, pretty much everywhere she could think of, but nothing she saw had a musty and flavorful smell. She sighed and floated over to his side. "Nothing like that over there." She said with a small shrug.
He blinked a little, sitting down and shrugging. "That's odd," he pondered, "I'm sure it wasn't just my imagination or anything..." he sighed a little.
"Sorry, I wish I could help..." She said and sat down next to him, though she still looked over the room. "Did you ever smell it when you were human?" She asked him, wondering if it was something that it was a normal smell just more apparent now with his heightened senses.
He shook his head, sniffing again. "Eh? Its back." he sniffed, then turned to her. He sniffed her a little.
"Hm." He moved a little closer, blinking a bit. "Ah, it's on you!"
She blushed a little at being so close to him, though the little dash of pink was hardly noticeable on her dark purple skin. "M-me?" She asked before laughing slightly. "Guess I must smell more then I thought I did." She said shaking her head, thinking that she smelt bad from being drenched in rain water.
He sniffed her again, moving a bit closer as well. "No, not bad," he muttered. "Actually, it's pretty nice," he said quietly. he wasn't thinking of how weird it was being so close to her, he was enjoying himself, after all, as he inhaled again.
"What is it?" he asked, looking up to her a moment.
"It's...um..." Now her blush was noticeable from both his closeness and his question. "It's my natural reaction at being so close to a guy, I think." She finally decided on that answer. She had almost added in 'a cute guy', but decided to leave that out.
He blinked, and then laughed as he backed off a bit. "Uncomfortable, then?" he asked, sitting back and looking her over. He figured it was something like that, but he didn't want to impose the question right away like that. She smiled as now she could breathe normally, though a part of her was disappointed that he had backed off a bit.
"Mmm...I wouldn't say uncomfortable..." She said honestly. It was uncomfortable, but in a different way. Half of her wanted to see what he would do now, and the other half said to just leave. Of course, she defied logic and stayed.
He smiled, putting a hand out to her. "Then what?" he asked, acting a bit playful as she seemed to be conflicted. She paused and thought before shook her head. It was a confusing and complex emotion at its center. How was she supposed to describe it, let alone explain it?
"I can't really describe it but....I like it." She added the last part a little shyly, blushing lightly again.
He looked slightly surprised, but then bent down to her again, sitting on his haunches as he looked her over. He had studied things like this before, but never in a human morph like her. He considered asking about it more, but let her deal with it. "Like it..." he whispered to himself.
She was silent for a few moments before she shook her head. "Sorry, I'm being an idiot." She apologized and moved a little away so they weren't so close. She couldn't believe she just admitted to liking it. Maybe this virus was affecting her brain as well...
He titled his head a little, blinking again in a questioning look. "It's fine by me if you're feeling something," he said, stepping forward a little to see how she reacted. "Even if it is just your body and not your mind, it's something, right?" he said, smiling gently. "So you must want something, but.... what?"
When he stepped forward, she had taken another small step to keep the distance. Now it was time to listen to reason and reason dictated that she keep a nice distance and avoid getting so close again. When he asked her what she wanted, she shrugged. "How should I know?" She asked in response. She had a pretty good idea of what she wanted, but this time she kept it to herself.
He leaned forward, not taking a step towards her this time. He looked her in the eyes, pondering a little as he seemed to be staring her down. He leaned back again, but then shrugged a little. "Fair enough. I'll be right back." he turned to the stairs, heading up in the direction of the bathroom. He figured she would clear her head with him out of the way. Or perhaps get worse, even, he thought with a light smirk. She watched him go up the stairs and disappear before sighing and falling down onto the couch, and lay out from head to toe. She stared at the ceiling as she felt her heart start to beat normal again, racing from nerves more then actual fear. She lightly closed her eyes and rested until he came back from wherever he went. She wondered what questions he would ask and just shook her head. Such weird questions....
He came back after about five minutes, walking over to her and looking down. He didn't say anything, though, just wondering what she was thinking. it was a bit weird, he knew, to look down at her like he was doing, but he was a scientist, so he had to study something, right?
She muttered something in her light sleep, and then the feeling that she was being watched crept into her mind. She opened an eye to look back up at him as well. "Hey, welcome back." She said as she smiled and waved at him from bellow before she sat back up on the couch. It seemed she had cleared her head out of the confusing event from before or just put it behind her as quickly as possible.
He smiled a little, crossing his arms. "I see you're comfortable," he joked, sitting down on the end of the couch. "Sorry for making you so confused, though." he said with a small sigh.
She shook her head. "It's no problem, I'm just not used to being so close and asked questions." She said with a shrug. "Sorry for freaking out a little about it." She apologized a bit sheepishly, knowing that her nervousness had shown when he stepped forward and she had stepped back.
"Maybe..." he paused, then turned away and blushed slightly, "I would probably have done the same," he thought after a moment. He put a hand out to her, as if offering to take her hand. "I don't mean any harm, you know. Don't let me intimidate you or anything," he sighed lightly.
She smiled and slipped her hand into the hand he had offered. "Alright, I won't from now on. But I can't promise the same." She said with a mock evil grin to show she was only joking around. With her other hand, she lightly ruffled his hair, even though she was much shorter. It was just a friendly gesture she was used to doing whenever something was settled.
He smiled as well, shaking his head as she ruffled his hair to get it back how it was. He patted her head with a hand, as well, knowing it meant something to her. He was careful for the slight horn in her head, though, not wanting to get poked. She smiled back and then leaned back on the couch, just thinking. She left her hand in his for a couple of moments until she realized she had left it there.
"Hehe, sorry." She apologized as her hand pulled away and settled in her lap. Now she realized that there was another problem. Sleeping arrangements. Alex had a double bed upstairs, but she wasn't so mean she would kick him out of it. So that left the couch and the floor. She sighed softly. She would sleep on the floor, she supposed, she wasn't going to kick Mike off the couch either.
He blinked a little, tilting his head as she seemed to be thinking. "What's a matter?" he asked, putting his hands behind his head casually as he watched her think, wondering what it was about. "Ah, just thinking about the sleeping arrangements." She replied with a small shrug. "Lucky you, you get the couch tonight, cause I'm too nice to kick Alex outta his bed." She said, sticking her tongue out impishly. Though it would be really rude to kick the poor guy out, seeing how she had already sort of taken over the house. But that was alright, she did that often.
"Well what about you?" he asked, sitting down next to her. "I bet the couch is big enough for two," he offered. "And it wouldn't be very chivalrous of me to make you sleep on the floor, you know."
"Well, I was going to sit on the floor, but..." She trailed of as she looked at the couch. It would be just about big enough for two. She nodded in agreement. "Alright then, we can both sleep on the couch, but if I accidentally roll on top of you, feel free to push me off onto the floor." She said, knowing fully that she had a bad habit of moving and talking in her sleep. Usually it was one or the other, and usually it was moving.
He chuckled a little. "Fair enough," he smiled, and with that decided he got up and went to the window. It was still raining out, but it seemed to be getting darker as well. "Almost dusk," he figured, but wasn't exactly sure. Too bad he couldn't read analog clocks, he sighed. She got up as well, but now sifted through a drawer, which had a bunch of junk her friend kept. Where did he keep that little bugger....?
"Aha!" She grinned as she found the little magnamite watch and read that. "6:12." She said, and placed it back on the pile of stuff she had fished in before glancing out the window herself. "I wonder when it'll quit raining..." She wondered aloud, watching the water streaks run into each other on the glass pane.
"Ugh, you're right..." her muttered." The path to mauville is probably overflowing by now with all this water. It's going to be hard to get through when it stops..." he groaned.
She grinned. "I can just float above it, so no trouble for me. But it is going to be difficult to get there..." She pondered. For a minute, she had a crazy thought. "You don't think a pokemon might be causing all this rain, do you? She asked him, though as soon as she said it out loud, it seemed impossible. Some pokemon had the ability to change the weather, with moves such as rainy day, but they were usually contained and didn't last nearly as long.
He thought about it. "The only pokemon who could have enough power to keep this rain going for two days now, and show mo signs of stopping would be..." he stopped, then shook his head. "No, that's just a legend..." he muttered, but still look as if he was thinking hard about it. "Kyogre, perhaps..."
"Mm, the legendary pokemon of the water, Kyogre..." She thought of it as well. She knew the legend well, but as he had put it, it was just a legend, a story to tell kids in order to get them to shut up and fall asleep. "Still, even if the legend was true, it couldn't be Kyogre." She sighed. There was a serious flaw with the theory if they looked at the whole legend. "At the end of the battle between Groudon and Kyogre, they both were sealed up, and that's why we have both land and sea. It couldn't be Kyogre." She shook her head. Could it be?
He continued to think, and then gasped lightly. He turned around to her quickly, his eyes wide. "Where did they say this virus came from?" he asked urgently. She blinked, surprised by his urgent need of the information. She hadn't said anything that important, and what connection did that story have to the virus anyway?
"Uh, no one really knows for sure, but since it started in the water, it might have been resting in an underwater cave or seabed and an earthquake might have disturbed it or something, though there's been nothing about an earthquake, so there goes my theory out the window. Still, for certain it started somewhere in the water." She said, still not seeing the connection that he had suddenly reached. "Why?" She asked, seeing if he could link the two for her.
He paced around a little, thinking again. "Water... Underground cavern... There is a good chance that Kyogre is involved, if that's true..." he muttered. "Perhaps, even... whoever released the virus wasn't looking for the virus." he said quietly. "IF it was a person who released it, though." he continued thinking, trying to think of the possibilities. He had to admit, it was plausible...
She thought for a moment. Who in hell's name would want to flood the planet or bring Kyogre back into the picture? "You don't think... Team Aqua or Magma did this?" She asked in disbelief. Sure they were criminal organizations that were famous throughout Hoenn, and often they had made the odd remark about water or land ruling, but... Were they insane enough to try and bring back a legendary pokemon?
"I'm not sure... perhaps, even, they were looking for the virus and awakened Kyogre by mistake. Maybe they didn't mean to flood the world this time," he pondered, recalling the last time they attempted that. "Maybe Kyogre reacted to..." he stopped again, his eyes widening once more.
"Not Kyogre... someone who..." he sat down on the couch in thought. "Kyogre might have had the virus... and someone came in contact with it... and... This," he motioned to the window weakly, "was not Kyogre's doing, but..." he trailed off.
"A Kyogremorph." She finished his sentence before leaning her head against the window and sighing, her breath not making any sort of mark on the glass. "I think we just stumbled onto something huge..." She said softly, almost so that he couldn't hear her. She thought for a moment, and then spun around to face him as he now sat on the couch.
"So, are we going to change course for Sootopolis?" She asked. That was where the legend Kyogre's cave was meant to be, that's where they would find the best clues on where the Kyogre morph went to, if there was such thing.
He nodded, still thinking on the couch. "it's only a theory, but... given the circumstances..." he muttered, shifting a bit, and leaning his head back." But how would they have morphed someone into Kyogre? You'd need a DNA sample to do that, and even then it's a legendary pokemon..." he pondered, thinking again.
"It wouldn't be too hard if Kyogre had the virus to begin with. All they would have needed to do is perhaps scrape themselves on Kyogre's rough scales, or teeth, and bam, we have a Kyogre morph. Or while they distracted it with a battle, one of them could've snuck up behind it, gotten a bit of blood and now we have a virus throughout Hoenn. Very risky and stupid, but that's how teams like them work." She explained the theory she had thought out about the Kyogre morph, but when he mentioned that it was a legendary pokemon, her theory was turned upside down. "Of course... this is assuming Kyogre's not just a legend. Who knows? Maybe we're just getting a really bad monsoon."
He chuckled a little. "It's the middle of summer. We don't get monsoons this far inland at this time of the year." he smiled slightly. "It's something we should look into, anyway. The Cave of Origins probably has some answers in it." he nodded a little. She nodded back.
"Even if this has nothing at all to do with Kyogre or the Teams, we still might be able to find the origin of the virus and maybe an anti-toxin." She added, so at least it felt like they were still pursuing their first goal and not chasing after a legend. "So we'll leave tomorrow morning?" She asked.
"yeah." he nodded, closing his eyes a little, and then sighing. "All this theorizing is making me tired." he joked. Mike gave a yawn, sitting up. "Want to get some rest?" he asked, nudging his head back to the couch. Again, she nodded in agreement with him. "Yeah, best get some sleep before we head back. Wait a second while I find some blankets." She said and headed up the stairs for a few moments before coming back down with what seemed to be a Charizard themed blanket. "Here ya go, sorry about the decor, but it was the only thing I could find." She said as she offered the blanket to him.
He laughed a little at the theme of the blankets, but figured it would keep them warm in a pinch. "This thing folds out, right?" he asked, looking under the cushions. Luckily, it did, and he pulled the beat out into the center of the room, putting the blanket over it. "Alright, just gotta... oh." he blinked a little, then glanced away. "I ah... I usually... er... sleep... ah..." he motioned down then to the bed, then whispered something to her quickly.
She blushed slightly, trying to think of what to say. "Well, I guess it'll be fine if we're just sleeping. I promise not to look." She teased him, but really, they would be under the covers and sleep on opposite sides of the bed, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. At least, she didn't think it would be. She herself was planning to sleep without pants, although her case was a little different since she had a skirt covering her up. Well, she supposed he had fur.
He shrugged a bit, and then turned away. He glanced behind him as he undid the pants she had given him, pulling them off and tossing them to the side in a moment. He made sure everything was in check down below, and nodded a little, turning back to her with his arms crossed. He wasn't ashamed, but at the moment there wasn't much but fur down there. She had her own back turned to him and quickly lifted her skirt for a moment while she slipped off the shorts from beneath and let her skirt cover her back up again. She kept her shirt on though, having skin rather than fur. She turned slightly and fell back onto the bed, bouncing slightly, testing to see how comfortable the bed was. "I deem this couch... sleepable!" She declared before flopping back onto her pillow.
He smiled, walking over and slipping into the bed on his side, grabbing a pillow of his own. He got under the blanket, shuffling a bit to get comfortable with a smirk. "Good to know it's approved," he joked.
"Of course, wouldn't want to sleep on a bed full of little bedbugs." She joked back before getting beneath the blanket and snuggling to get comfortable. She looked over to Mike and smiled. "See you in the morning then." She bid him goodnight with a small smile.
"Yup, night." he said with a smirk, shifting in the bed a little to get comfortable.
Kat sighed and thought about whether to crash in the center or at her friends, before deciding to head to the center. Her friend worked there, so she could harass him there for housing if she really wanted to, and perhaps see about getting Mike some pants. "To the center we go then." She said, more to herself before heading into the red and white building.
He followed her in, looking around the pokemon center. It was pretty vacant for the place people normally would crash in weather like this, he noticed. Behind the front desk, a female raichu morph in a nurse's outfit greeted them. "Welcome to the Fortree pokemon center," she said happily.
"Hey." She greeted warmly as she walked up to the front desk. "Is Alex hanging around here anywhere?" She asked her curiously, seeing if her buddy was hanging out in his usual spot or if he had gone home already. She ignored the vacant feeling of the center, as you never know what might be the cause of it all. Maybe it was the virus, maybe it was the fact that it was pouring rain outside and no one had been stuck here.
"He was working in the back," she said, pointing to the door behind her. "He had been treating pokemon while I was going through my condition," she motioned to herself, "and now he's following up. You can go back there if you want," she nodded to them.
"Alright, thanks." She said before heading to the back and gesturing for him to follow. She spotted her friend, grinned and waved to him. "'ey! Alex!" She called over.
He had been treating an injured Bulbasaur when the two of them walked in and he had to blink a couple of times before he recognized Kat. "Jeeze, what did you get yourself into now?" He asked in disbelief.
"My job," She replied as she sat on one of the empty medical tables.
"Shuppet and Absol attacked you both?"
"Nope, this was voluntary." She replied, grinning at his look of disbelief. Alex now looked to Mike. "Did she drag you into this?" He questioned already thinking he knew the answer already.
"No, the pokemon did. It's a bit of a long story," he shrugged a little. "We'll fix it, though." he waved a hand.
"Hey, Alex?" She asked, his attention turning to her.
"No, you can't have Duskull." He declined right away.
"I was going to ask for that later, but alright. Three things, though: one, can we crash at your place, two, do you think you might have some pants that fit Mike, and three, and do you have a skirt?" She asked him with her head tilted slightly as she ticked of the points with her fingers.
He simply sighed and mimicked her. "If you insist, I might, and do I look like a cross dresser to you? Wait. Don't answer that." He said annoyed before turning back to the Bulbasaur. She was going to have to find a pair of bottoms on her own, but that was fine.
"Alright, shall we go trash his place then?" She asked Mike with a grin as she slid off of the metal table.
He laughed a little, crossing his arms. "Fair enough, I'll find some pants while we're there." he went to the door, waiting for her with a small smirk.
She followed with a small smile still on her face as she nodded. "Good, I'll have to find a skirt somewhere else though I guess." She said before gaining an evil smirk. "Though, I wouldn't be surprise if the good nurse had a few in his closet."
"I can still hear you in the Pokemon Center!" Came the response yell. She just laughed.
"Alright, let's get out of here." She said before opening the door and heading out into the rain again. She led him to a tree house and found the key under the mat. She unlocked the door.
"Welcome to temporary home." She said with a grin.
"Good security," he said with a small sweatdrop, looking inside as she opened the door. "Not bad for a tree house," he supposed.
"Well, all of Fortree's houses are tree houses so..." She shrugged. It was a small circular room, hollowed out from the tree trunk. There was a small table in front of a couch and between two chairs, and that's where she dropped her bag off. She went over to the small cooking utensils and food supplies looking for something to eat, though she wasn't exactly hungry. Force of habit, she supposed.
"Want anything to eat?" She asked him, glancing over her shoulder.
"Pick something out for me," he shrugged, stepping inside and sitting down on the couch, exhaling as he did so. He placed his bag next to him, watching her. He found it a bit strange she was offering him food from someone else's refrigerator, but he was hungry, so he didn't complain.
"Tofu, tofu, tofu... soy... tofu... Aha!" She cried triumphantly. "Meat!" She said with glee as she found some non-soy burgers. She hummed to herself as she cooked up the meat. "Medium rare alright with you?" She asked him.
"Rare works. However you like em," he said as he looked around the room absentmindedly, not really doing anything. "Need any help?" he offered after a moment.
"If you can find wherever he keeps the plates and stuff, that'd be helpful." She said as she flipped the burgers over and let them cook on the opposite side. She never really paid much attention to Alex's cooking whenever she was over, so finding the utensils was now a challenge she didn't have to face if he found them.
He nodded, getting up and searching some cabinets for the plates. After a few minutes of searching, he found a few paper plates and plastic utensils in a nearby drawer. He placed them out on the counter for her.
"Thank you, and now food's ready." She said happily as she put the burgers onto the plate. They were more on the rare side then the medium side, but he had said to do them the way she liked to, and so she had. She took her plate and utensils and sat down on the couch.
He took his plate, sitting down next to her. He then realized he was still wet and it was getting on the couch, standing up again. He pondered a moment, considering shaking his fur out right here, but it would get everywhere if he did. Instead, he went outside and shook his wet fur off, even though it was still raining out. It was the most adorable thing she had ever seen done by anyone over 10. She couldn't help a small smile though. He was still going to be wet when he came back in.
She stood back up and headed up the small staircase in the back and shortly returned with a towel. "Here, if you want to dry off." She said before tossing him the white towel.
"I got most of it out," he muttered, drying himself. He realized how much work cleaning his fur would be with a small sigh, but continued rubbing his fur down until it was somewhat dryer. He held out the dripping towel and looked at her, as if asking what he should do with it now.
"I'm sure you did, shaking the water off in the rain." She said with a shake of her head. "Anyways, I'll take that, if you don't mind." She answered his non verbal question with taking the towel, turning around and heading upstairs.
He let her take it and shrugged a little, watching her go upstairs. For a moment he could have sworn he had seen up her 'skirt', but shook it off. He wandered around the hut, poking into cabinets and such as he explored. There wasn't much, just a few odds and ends here and a few pictures there, and two pokeballs that seemed custom made, lying side by side. That must be the pokemon Alex kept. One of them, most likely the black one, was the Duskull that Kat had mentioned when talking to him, but the other was a mystery in its contrasting pinkness. But then Kat walked back down the stairs.
"Hey, I stole some pants for you, though I'm not sure if they fit." She said offering the jeans to him that she had gotten out of the closest. Despite what she had said, it seemed her friend didn't wear skirts, so she had simply gotten rid of her ruined jeans and walked in her natural skirt she had gotten when she had transformed.
"your just going to wear that, then?" he asked as he slipped into the pants she gave him. he felt uncomfortable a moment, then a slight tearing sound came from his behind, where his tail had ripped through the fabric. "woops." he blinked, but at least the pants felt better now. They were a bit small, and didn't leave much to the imagination, but they would do.
She shrugged. "Well, there's not much for me to wear over, though I did slip on a pair of shorts under it." She said, and her skirt lifted a little so he could see the edge of her kaki shorts before instantly falling back down again. "If I'm going to have to wear anything over it, I have to wait till I get my hands on a skirt." She said, obviously loathing the idea, but there was little she could do about it. She hadn't worn a skirt since her mom forced her into one when she was seven.
He blinked a bit as she lifted her skirt without her hands, but figured it was to be expected; it was part of her, after all. It was a bit strange to him, though, but he shook it off. "You seem to be doing fine without a skirt, it's not like it's exposing anything, right?"
"True, true. I said if I was going to wear anything over it, and as you pointed out, I probably won't have to." She smiled. She was still wearing a skirt, no matter what she did, but now she didn't have to wear layered ones. She sat down on the couch and leaned her head back a little, just letting her mind drift.
He sat down next to her, and then something seemed to fade into his mind, clouding his judgment suddenly. He wasn't quite sure what it was, but it made his senses flare up and then find something to focus on, a small scent in the area. He sniffed a little, finding it an interesting yet enticing smell. He looked around, blinking a little. She watched him as he sniffed and looked around suddenly alert about something.
"What do you smell?" She asked curiously, wondering if it was something she should be aware of or not. She couldn't pick up any smells herself, so he was sort of her nose she supposed.
"Something good," he muttered, poking his head out a window, looking around outside. He couldn't see anything outside of interest, but there was definitely something around here that smelled so good. He sniffed again, wandering around the circular room. She smiled and watched him circle the room. Perhaps her friend had hidden something sweet away somewhere. After a few moments, she got up as well and decided to help him look for the elusive smell.
"What sort of good stuff does it smell like?" She asked. Though she was little help when it came to the smell itself, she could still help him look.
"I dunno... kind of..." he thought for a word, sniffing again. "Kind of musty, but flavorful, you know?" he explained, trying to find it. He went around one way of the circular room, sniffing around, as she went the other way. He got down on all fours, blinking as he sniffed. She shook her head. No, she hadn't a clue and certainly not now, but she still looked for it. In the fridge, in the cabinets, pretty much everywhere she could think of, but nothing she saw had a musty and flavorful smell. She sighed and floated over to his side. "Nothing like that over there." She said with a small shrug.
He blinked a little, sitting down and shrugging. "That's odd," he pondered, "I'm sure it wasn't just my imagination or anything..." he sighed a little.
"Sorry, I wish I could help..." She said and sat down next to him, though she still looked over the room. "Did you ever smell it when you were human?" She asked him, wondering if it was something that it was a normal smell just more apparent now with his heightened senses.
He shook his head, sniffing again. "Eh? Its back." he sniffed, then turned to her. He sniffed her a little.
"Hm." He moved a little closer, blinking a bit. "Ah, it's on you!"
She blushed a little at being so close to him, though the little dash of pink was hardly noticeable on her dark purple skin. "M-me?" She asked before laughing slightly. "Guess I must smell more then I thought I did." She said shaking her head, thinking that she smelt bad from being drenched in rain water.
He sniffed her again, moving a bit closer as well. "No, not bad," he muttered. "Actually, it's pretty nice," he said quietly. he wasn't thinking of how weird it was being so close to her, he was enjoying himself, after all, as he inhaled again.
"What is it?" he asked, looking up to her a moment.
"It's...um..." Now her blush was noticeable from both his closeness and his question. "It's my natural reaction at being so close to a guy, I think." She finally decided on that answer. She had almost added in 'a cute guy', but decided to leave that out.
He blinked, and then laughed as he backed off a bit. "Uncomfortable, then?" he asked, sitting back and looking her over. He figured it was something like that, but he didn't want to impose the question right away like that. She smiled as now she could breathe normally, though a part of her was disappointed that he had backed off a bit.
"Mmm...I wouldn't say uncomfortable..." She said honestly. It was uncomfortable, but in a different way. Half of her wanted to see what he would do now, and the other half said to just leave. Of course, she defied logic and stayed.
He smiled, putting a hand out to her. "Then what?" he asked, acting a bit playful as she seemed to be conflicted. She paused and thought before shook her head. It was a confusing and complex emotion at its center. How was she supposed to describe it, let alone explain it?
"I can't really describe it but....I like it." She added the last part a little shyly, blushing lightly again.
He looked slightly surprised, but then bent down to her again, sitting on his haunches as he looked her over. He had studied things like this before, but never in a human morph like her. He considered asking about it more, but let her deal with it. "Like it..." he whispered to himself.
She was silent for a few moments before she shook her head. "Sorry, I'm being an idiot." She apologized and moved a little away so they weren't so close. She couldn't believe she just admitted to liking it. Maybe this virus was affecting her brain as well...
He titled his head a little, blinking again in a questioning look. "It's fine by me if you're feeling something," he said, stepping forward a little to see how she reacted. "Even if it is just your body and not your mind, it's something, right?" he said, smiling gently. "So you must want something, but.... what?"
When he stepped forward, she had taken another small step to keep the distance. Now it was time to listen to reason and reason dictated that she keep a nice distance and avoid getting so close again. When he asked her what she wanted, she shrugged. "How should I know?" She asked in response. She had a pretty good idea of what she wanted, but this time she kept it to herself.
He leaned forward, not taking a step towards her this time. He looked her in the eyes, pondering a little as he seemed to be staring her down. He leaned back again, but then shrugged a little. "Fair enough. I'll be right back." he turned to the stairs, heading up in the direction of the bathroom. He figured she would clear her head with him out of the way. Or perhaps get worse, even, he thought with a light smirk. She watched him go up the stairs and disappear before sighing and falling down onto the couch, and lay out from head to toe. She stared at the ceiling as she felt her heart start to beat normal again, racing from nerves more then actual fear. She lightly closed her eyes and rested until he came back from wherever he went. She wondered what questions he would ask and just shook her head. Such weird questions....
He came back after about five minutes, walking over to her and looking down. He didn't say anything, though, just wondering what she was thinking. it was a bit weird, he knew, to look down at her like he was doing, but he was a scientist, so he had to study something, right?
She muttered something in her light sleep, and then the feeling that she was being watched crept into her mind. She opened an eye to look back up at him as well. "Hey, welcome back." She said as she smiled and waved at him from bellow before she sat back up on the couch. It seemed she had cleared her head out of the confusing event from before or just put it behind her as quickly as possible.
He smiled a little, crossing his arms. "I see you're comfortable," he joked, sitting down on the end of the couch. "Sorry for making you so confused, though." he said with a small sigh.
She shook her head. "It's no problem, I'm just not used to being so close and asked questions." She said with a shrug. "Sorry for freaking out a little about it." She apologized a bit sheepishly, knowing that her nervousness had shown when he stepped forward and she had stepped back.
"Maybe..." he paused, then turned away and blushed slightly, "I would probably have done the same," he thought after a moment. He put a hand out to her, as if offering to take her hand. "I don't mean any harm, you know. Don't let me intimidate you or anything," he sighed lightly.
She smiled and slipped her hand into the hand he had offered. "Alright, I won't from now on. But I can't promise the same." She said with a mock evil grin to show she was only joking around. With her other hand, she lightly ruffled his hair, even though she was much shorter. It was just a friendly gesture she was used to doing whenever something was settled.
He smiled as well, shaking his head as she ruffled his hair to get it back how it was. He patted her head with a hand, as well, knowing it meant something to her. He was careful for the slight horn in her head, though, not wanting to get poked. She smiled back and then leaned back on the couch, just thinking. She left her hand in his for a couple of moments until she realized she had left it there.
"Hehe, sorry." She apologized as her hand pulled away and settled in her lap. Now she realized that there was another problem. Sleeping arrangements. Alex had a double bed upstairs, but she wasn't so mean she would kick him out of it. So that left the couch and the floor. She sighed softly. She would sleep on the floor, she supposed, she wasn't going to kick Mike off the couch either.
He blinked a little, tilting his head as she seemed to be thinking. "What's a matter?" he asked, putting his hands behind his head casually as he watched her think, wondering what it was about. "Ah, just thinking about the sleeping arrangements." She replied with a small shrug. "Lucky you, you get the couch tonight, cause I'm too nice to kick Alex outta his bed." She said, sticking her tongue out impishly. Though it would be really rude to kick the poor guy out, seeing how she had already sort of taken over the house. But that was alright, she did that often.
"Well what about you?" he asked, sitting down next to her. "I bet the couch is big enough for two," he offered. "And it wouldn't be very chivalrous of me to make you sleep on the floor, you know."
"Well, I was going to sit on the floor, but..." She trailed of as she looked at the couch. It would be just about big enough for two. She nodded in agreement. "Alright then, we can both sleep on the couch, but if I accidentally roll on top of you, feel free to push me off onto the floor." She said, knowing fully that she had a bad habit of moving and talking in her sleep. Usually it was one or the other, and usually it was moving.
He chuckled a little. "Fair enough," he smiled, and with that decided he got up and went to the window. It was still raining out, but it seemed to be getting darker as well. "Almost dusk," he figured, but wasn't exactly sure. Too bad he couldn't read analog clocks, he sighed. She got up as well, but now sifted through a drawer, which had a bunch of junk her friend kept. Where did he keep that little bugger....?
"Aha!" She grinned as she found the little magnamite watch and read that. "6:12." She said, and placed it back on the pile of stuff she had fished in before glancing out the window herself. "I wonder when it'll quit raining..." She wondered aloud, watching the water streaks run into each other on the glass pane.
"Ugh, you're right..." her muttered." The path to mauville is probably overflowing by now with all this water. It's going to be hard to get through when it stops..." he groaned.
She grinned. "I can just float above it, so no trouble for me. But it is going to be difficult to get there..." She pondered. For a minute, she had a crazy thought. "You don't think a pokemon might be causing all this rain, do you? She asked him, though as soon as she said it out loud, it seemed impossible. Some pokemon had the ability to change the weather, with moves such as rainy day, but they were usually contained and didn't last nearly as long.
He thought about it. "The only pokemon who could have enough power to keep this rain going for two days now, and show mo signs of stopping would be..." he stopped, then shook his head. "No, that's just a legend..." he muttered, but still look as if he was thinking hard about it. "Kyogre, perhaps..."
"Mm, the legendary pokemon of the water, Kyogre..." She thought of it as well. She knew the legend well, but as he had put it, it was just a legend, a story to tell kids in order to get them to shut up and fall asleep. "Still, even if the legend was true, it couldn't be Kyogre." She sighed. There was a serious flaw with the theory if they looked at the whole legend. "At the end of the battle between Groudon and Kyogre, they both were sealed up, and that's why we have both land and sea. It couldn't be Kyogre." She shook her head. Could it be?
He continued to think, and then gasped lightly. He turned around to her quickly, his eyes wide. "Where did they say this virus came from?" he asked urgently. She blinked, surprised by his urgent need of the information. She hadn't said anything that important, and what connection did that story have to the virus anyway?
"Uh, no one really knows for sure, but since it started in the water, it might have been resting in an underwater cave or seabed and an earthquake might have disturbed it or something, though there's been nothing about an earthquake, so there goes my theory out the window. Still, for certain it started somewhere in the water." She said, still not seeing the connection that he had suddenly reached. "Why?" She asked, seeing if he could link the two for her.
He paced around a little, thinking again. "Water... Underground cavern... There is a good chance that Kyogre is involved, if that's true..." he muttered. "Perhaps, even... whoever released the virus wasn't looking for the virus." he said quietly. "IF it was a person who released it, though." he continued thinking, trying to think of the possibilities. He had to admit, it was plausible...
She thought for a moment. Who in hell's name would want to flood the planet or bring Kyogre back into the picture? "You don't think... Team Aqua or Magma did this?" She asked in disbelief. Sure they were criminal organizations that were famous throughout Hoenn, and often they had made the odd remark about water or land ruling, but... Were they insane enough to try and bring back a legendary pokemon?
"I'm not sure... perhaps, even, they were looking for the virus and awakened Kyogre by mistake. Maybe they didn't mean to flood the world this time," he pondered, recalling the last time they attempted that. "Maybe Kyogre reacted to..." he stopped again, his eyes widening once more.
"Not Kyogre... someone who..." he sat down on the couch in thought. "Kyogre might have had the virus... and someone came in contact with it... and... This," he motioned to the window weakly, "was not Kyogre's doing, but..." he trailed off.
"A Kyogremorph." She finished his sentence before leaning her head against the window and sighing, her breath not making any sort of mark on the glass. "I think we just stumbled onto something huge..." She said softly, almost so that he couldn't hear her. She thought for a moment, and then spun around to face him as he now sat on the couch.
"So, are we going to change course for Sootopolis?" She asked. That was where the legend Kyogre's cave was meant to be, that's where they would find the best clues on where the Kyogre morph went to, if there was such thing.
He nodded, still thinking on the couch. "it's only a theory, but... given the circumstances..." he muttered, shifting a bit, and leaning his head back." But how would they have morphed someone into Kyogre? You'd need a DNA sample to do that, and even then it's a legendary pokemon..." he pondered, thinking again.
"It wouldn't be too hard if Kyogre had the virus to begin with. All they would have needed to do is perhaps scrape themselves on Kyogre's rough scales, or teeth, and bam, we have a Kyogre morph. Or while they distracted it with a battle, one of them could've snuck up behind it, gotten a bit of blood and now we have a virus throughout Hoenn. Very risky and stupid, but that's how teams like them work." She explained the theory she had thought out about the Kyogre morph, but when he mentioned that it was a legendary pokemon, her theory was turned upside down. "Of course... this is assuming Kyogre's not just a legend. Who knows? Maybe we're just getting a really bad monsoon."
He chuckled a little. "It's the middle of summer. We don't get monsoons this far inland at this time of the year." he smiled slightly. "It's something we should look into, anyway. The Cave of Origins probably has some answers in it." he nodded a little. She nodded back.
"Even if this has nothing at all to do with Kyogre or the Teams, we still might be able to find the origin of the virus and maybe an anti-toxin." She added, so at least it felt like they were still pursuing their first goal and not chasing after a legend. "So we'll leave tomorrow morning?" She asked.
"yeah." he nodded, closing his eyes a little, and then sighing. "All this theorizing is making me tired." he joked. Mike gave a yawn, sitting up. "Want to get some rest?" he asked, nudging his head back to the couch. Again, she nodded in agreement with him. "Yeah, best get some sleep before we head back. Wait a second while I find some blankets." She said and headed up the stairs for a few moments before coming back down with what seemed to be a Charizard themed blanket. "Here ya go, sorry about the decor, but it was the only thing I could find." She said as she offered the blanket to him.
He laughed a little at the theme of the blankets, but figured it would keep them warm in a pinch. "This thing folds out, right?" he asked, looking under the cushions. Luckily, it did, and he pulled the beat out into the center of the room, putting the blanket over it. "Alright, just gotta... oh." he blinked a little, then glanced away. "I ah... I usually... er... sleep... ah..." he motioned down then to the bed, then whispered something to her quickly.
She blushed slightly, trying to think of what to say. "Well, I guess it'll be fine if we're just sleeping. I promise not to look." She teased him, but really, they would be under the covers and sleep on opposite sides of the bed, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. At least, she didn't think it would be. She herself was planning to sleep without pants, although her case was a little different since she had a skirt covering her up. Well, she supposed he had fur.
He shrugged a bit, and then turned away. He glanced behind him as he undid the pants she had given him, pulling them off and tossing them to the side in a moment. He made sure everything was in check down below, and nodded a little, turning back to her with his arms crossed. He wasn't ashamed, but at the moment there wasn't much but fur down there. She had her own back turned to him and quickly lifted her skirt for a moment while she slipped off the shorts from beneath and let her skirt cover her back up again. She kept her shirt on though, having skin rather than fur. She turned slightly and fell back onto the bed, bouncing slightly, testing to see how comfortable the bed was. "I deem this couch... sleepable!" She declared before flopping back onto her pillow.
He smiled, walking over and slipping into the bed on his side, grabbing a pillow of his own. He got under the blanket, shuffling a bit to get comfortable with a smirk. "Good to know it's approved," he joked.
"Of course, wouldn't want to sleep on a bed full of little bedbugs." She joked back before getting beneath the blanket and snuggling to get comfortable. She looked over to Mike and smiled. "See you in the morning then." She bid him goodnight with a small smile.
"Yup, night." he said with a smirk, shifting in the bed a little to get comfortable.