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I've recently gotten back into Pokémon GO, and what do you know, 2 Team Go Rocket balloons in 2 days, one of them being Jessie and James. Sure is exciting! Especially when you catch a shadow Pokémon that will actually serve a purpose because it's worth evolving. And soon, my CP 1054 purified Omanyte will destroy everything.

Also, new text formats!

NA: Text is a text- DM? Yeah, that.

I use text-to-speech, and that is formatted like normal talking, so nothing special.

Now go! Read!

RB: So, what's up Athena?

AS: Oh, you know, Popplio stuff. Went for a swim last night.

RB: How did it feel? Was it hard?

AS: Really natural.

RB: Cool!

I smiled. My best friend Rachel was as much of a Pokémon fan as I was, but unlike me, she had played some of the games. Her specialty, however, is Dungeons and Dragons. She's played a few campaigns and created 12 characters. Tapping my nose with the stylus, I considered dropping "the question". I had sent her a photo of my new body, fins and all, right away. She was quite excited, and began asking if I had learned any moves (yes, Bubble), if I had eaten anything that tasted weird or different (yes, raspberries), and if the changes made me feel negatively about myself (no, the pros of being able to use Pokémon moves and the prospect of evolution outweighed the cons, namely the language barrier and being too small to reach anything). I decided that it was necessary to ask her if she had transformed- she had been so kind and considerate to me. I hoped to repay the favor, because I never would want Rachel to suffer in silence. If she hadn't told me by now, then she would be telling me right now.

AS: Did you transform?

RB: Haha no, would've been cool if we both did!

AS: Oh that's good to know.

RB: Good how?

AS: Just stories I've been reading. Lots of the transformed were thrown out of their homes. Some were suicidal, some just died when their cars crashed. Just existing like this is dangerous.

RB: But it's so cool!

AS: Imagine being an adult with a successful career. A single parent with three kids. There's many people who consider us- consider themselves 'freaks'. Unfit to act like a human or live like a human. Only slightly more than a pet.

RB: Why would anyone think that? If you're any evidence, the transformed think exactly the same as they used to. They're the same internally. Maybe I should start an Instagram campaign- Transformed Lives Matter? We need to get a better name for you.

AS: Yeah. I'm not feeling 'the transformed' or 'Pokémon', seeing as Game Freak and Nintendo are, what, denying any relation?

RB: Trump's doing a thing today. You gonna watch it?

AS: My mom will tell me if anything special happens.

RB: Alright. Bye then!

AS: Bye!

"Athena? You awake now?" My mom popped her head into Auntie Belle's bedroom. I shoved my phone into the sleeping bag. How will I get that out? "Are you using your phone in there?" Nevermind.

"Nooo… Definitely not." Don't be suspicious, don't be suspicious-

"I'll take that," she said, kneeling next to my sleeping bag and digging around. Her hands ran over my belly, dangerously close to tickling me-

"Aah- aha- hahaha! Stop- stop…" I curled up and wove my flippers around like a wiggly tube man- the inflatable ones. I inhaled a balloon and coughed out a Bubble, Mom watching as they flew to the ceiling and dented it.

Eyes wide, Mom asked, "Is that new?"

"Might need to explain this." I pointed to my notebook.

"So you and Piper stayed out all night, playing with other Pokémon?"

I nodded.

"And you learned to use a move?"

I nodded again.

Mom held her head in her hands. "Anything else?"

"I found a held item."

She read it with confusion. "Held item?"

"Look up Mystic Water."

She grabbed her phone, opened Safari and found Bulbapedia. "'This teardrop-shaped gem boosts the power of Water-Type moves.' Don't tell me- you've tested it."

"Mhm." I picked up my pillow and showed Mom the ocean-blue stone. "Could we make it into a necklace?"

"We can try, but I don't know of any jewelers around here."

"Could try using craft wire."

"I'll tell your dad to pick some up. He's out getting groceries," she pauses. "What do Pokémon eat?"

"I ate raspberries last night. Tasted better than normal. So berries?"

"Got it. Anything else?"

"Fish sounds good. Sushi."

"I suppose seals do eat fish. We'll get some tonight if we can find someplace that's open."

"Piper! Please, you need to go outside before you pee on the floor!"

"I don't wanna!"

Auntie Belle was dragging Piper to the back door, apparently for Piper to relieve herself. Piper's claws (which I didn't know she had) were scraping across the carpet, but they were more for scratching and not for gripping.

"Is there a problem, Belle?" My mom walked into the living room.

"I assumed that since Piper's a dog thing now, she'll pee outside." Auntie Belle grunted. "But she refuses to go!"

"Have you considered that Piper's never peed outside before? Probably only in diapers?" Mom bent down to pat Piper's head. "She doesn't know why you're dragging her outside to go- she expects you to change her diaper."

"I can't put a diaper on that wolf pup."

Barking, I held up my notebook. "She's still your daughter. Treat her like one."

"Athena, that's rude."

"She's rude." I rolled my eyes.

"Why am I going out? A-am I in trouble?" Piper started to tear up. "I don't wanna go outside!"

Auntie Belle glared at Piper. "She keeps screaming gibberish at me! I don't know what 'Eevee vee' means, especially since she's two months old and shouldn't know how to talk!"

"Maybe not humans, but a two-month-old Eevee knows how to talk."

She stared at my sentence, first confused, and then more confused. "How? We never taught her to."

My mom grabbed Belle's shoulder firmly. "Let's get you some coffee."

As Peter Solstice pushed the cart through Meijer, he passed a bipedal jackal-like Pokémon with blue fur and a metal chest spike. It was wearing a blue vest and- stocking shelves? Apparently the people who ran this place just needed workers. They didn't care if they could possibly be carrying a strange disease. A text came through on his phone:

NS: Athena says berries. Also wants craft wire for an interesting rock she found.

"Hm- hey, you."

The jackal-Pokémon turned around. "Car?"

"A- are there any good berries here?"

"Lucar, cario." Lucario, it sounded like, pointed to the produce aisle.

"Thank you, kind sir."

"Rio." He pointed to a nametag on his vest. Luke.

"Thanks, Luke." Peter headed to the produce section. In this section, he grabbed cherries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries. "I hope Belle has a blender," he thought. "These are too ripe to save."

"I'm home!"

Mom came over to answer it, and saw dad with three full bags in his arms. "What did you buy?"

"Five different kinds of berries, Cheerios, milk, and a carton of Goldfish crackers. Should hold us over for a while." He sets the bags down. "By the way, I saw a Lucario stocking shelves at Meijer. He was a nice guy. His name was Luke."

"I thought that transformed people were supposedly carrying a disease?"

I flopped into the room. "Disease? Why haven't you told me?" I typed that into a text-to-speech app that I had downloaded, and held it up. "Disease? Why haven't you told me?"

"What?!" Mom bent down and looked at my phone. "A text-to-speech app! How creative!" She picked me up and spun around with joy, not caring about my phone that just flew onto the couch across the room. This could be an opportunity to try something… I squirmed out of her arms and lept towards the couch- when I felt myself falling, I blew a balloon and let it fall to the floor. Using it like a trampoline, I cleared the distance to the couch and got my nose stuck between the cushions. But hey, still made it.

"Nice trick, Athena!" Piper walked in. "I smelled breakfast!"

I climbed down, holding my phone in my mouth, dropped it, and seriously considered getting a tiny backpack. If I had been turned into a Delibird, I wouldn't need a backpack. Eevee and Munchlax can stash stuff in their fur… Just my luck. I flopped over to Dad and peeked in the grocery bags. One of them smelled like heaven. Must have been the berry bag. I stuck my head into it and took a deep breath- one that went on and on and on. Is that a Popplio thing? Around 10 seconds later, I exhaled (which took another 10 seconds). "Aaah…"

"Eat! Eat! Eat! Eat!" Piper jumped around the bags with energy that only a young child could muster.

"Alright, you little bouncy ball, let's make you a smoothie."

It was a beautiful smoothie. Orchid purple with blackberries on top and a smell so good that White Barn was put to shame. Sadly, I could not drink out of a cup because the cup was around two-thirds of my height, so bowl it is. Piper's and my parents sat at the table, sipped coffee, and talked about their predictions for Trump's thing today. Everyone agreed that the transformed needed their own name.

"How about Changelings?"

"No. Something about metamorphosis?"

"Maybe we shouldn't use 'change' or 'morph' at all. 'Transformed' didn't work for that same reason," my dad said. "They're only different on the outside."

"Yeah, you're right. Maybe something to do with their powers?"

"We'll see. By the way, it starts in 10 minutes. Do you want to watch it, Athena?"

"No," I said, cheeks stuffed with berries.

"I'm going to assume no. Let's go, then."

Piper eagerly licked the bottom of the bowl, and then stared at me. "You gonna eat that?"

"I've been pretty hungry lately, so yeah." I tipped the bowl and lapped up the smoothie that was left over. "You can have what's left."

"Yay!" She jumped into my bowl and hopped out, licking her front paws. She forgot to clean her back paws, though, and tracked smoothie onto the carpet.

"Piper, wait, no!" I flopped to the living room- I must be improving, I'm going pretty fast- and saw everyone laughing at episode one of Pokémon Indigo League, Piper curled up on some smoothie that she stamped into the carpet.

"Oh, Athena! Are you good with Elementals?" Auntie Belle paused the show.

"I think it's perfect," Mom added.

"It is perfect!" I hopped to the couch and stood on my back fins, but still couldn't reach the top. "Help?"

Mom reached down and lifted me onto her lap. I wanted to protest, but she was warm. She's always warm, actually, but it felt warmer on my tiny body. They must have had the air conditioning on 60 degrees, it was freezing! If I hadn't known any better, there could have been an Ice-Type in their basement.

"Is it cold in here, or is it just me?"

It turns out that there was an Ice-Type in the basement. A snow-white Darumaka huddled under a blanket in the corner of the room, near a broken window. A huge chunk of ice sat on the floor near the window, but it looked more like a frozen snowball.

"There's people looking, I just know it, hide me…"

"Hello? Is there someone in here?" Auntie Belle picked up the blanket he was stuffed under. The Darumaka's stubby arms flailed and reached blindly for cover, but Auntie Belle picked the snowball up and patted his head. "What's your name, cutie?"

"Ollie…" He pouted.

"He says his name is Ollie," my TTS app said.

"That's so cute! What a precious name for this little snowball!" She paused. "Let's call you Snowball! As a nickname, of course, but it works so well!"

"Yeah… I like it too!" Ollie rolled out of her arms and spun down to the rough carpet.

"How old are you, by the way?" Judging by his voice, Ollie was young, but I could never be sure.

"I'm 6 years old!"

I flopped over and blew a balloon that was the size of my head, doing a handstand- finstand- to bat the balloon towards Ollie. "Catch!"

Excitedly, he jumps barely an inch and the balloon bumps his chest crystal, freezing solid and landing on the floor with a thud. He pokes it and it shatters, releasing a wave of freezing air.

My dad shudders and I watch as his hair stands on end from the wind. "S- so do you w- want to go outside?"

"I want to see the whole house! And where I sleep and the kitchen and I want to eat!" Ollie chats as Auntie Belle carts him upstairs to begin his new life as the Redd family's adopted son, and I'm still frozen in the basement. Yay.

Authors Notes

About the Galarian Darumaka- I wanted a Pokémon that Athena couldn't look up on Bulbapedia. It gives it a certain feeling of mystery. And it has been discussed- people were transformed into Galarian Pokémon. I think someone said Prince Charles was transformed into a Yamper?

Anyway, Mira out! Also, do the poll on my profile.