"Hey! You're the new student, right?" the chocobo waved to the squirrel as he walked up to him. 



"Yup, that's me." he nodded and smiled. "I'm Roland, nice to meet you!" 



"I'm Erakir, the pleasure is mine!" the chocobo introduced himself. 



Erakir had been attending the college for a few years, being an upperclassman and experienced student. The chocobo was a part of a kind of mentorship program that would help incoming freshmen learn the ropes of how everything worked. After all, moving into a dorm and living on campus was a big change for a lot of people! So having someone to help with that transition was something many freshmen appreciated. 



And Roland was a freshman who enrolled in the program. While he wasn't anxious about his new lifestyle coming up, he did want to learn the ropes of dorm life and get a bit of a kick-start on making new friends since he didn't know anyone else attending the college. 



Erakir walked Roland around the campus, giving him a tour of all the notable places. The cafeteria, the rec rooms, the dorm areas themselves, and what Roland enjoyed learning about the best - the library. It was a lot to take in, but Roland was loving every second of it! The tour was coming near its end, with Erakir taking him to the student gym. 



"And here we are!" Erakir exclaimed grandly, going to open the door only for it to instantly be caught on a hinge, preventing it from moving much. He tried a few more times to no avail. 



"Uh...do you need a key or something?" Roland suggested. 



"No, it's supposed to always be open..." Erakir said quietly, looking around for any sign of why the door was locked. 



"It's closed." the two heard a woman's voice speak from behind them. Turning to face the source, a Lucario woman dressed in a tank top with a low cut so her chest spike could poke through and in a pair of yoga pants. She was dressed to exercise, though with a closed gym that might prove harder to do! 



"Really? It was just open yesterday!" Erakir said a bit surprised. 



"Yeah, I was disappointed to." the Lucario sighed. "It's a bit annoying, I like working out with other people, can't do that with a closed public gym." she stopped herself. "Where are my manners?" she let out a small giggle and hand wave. "My name's Linda." 



"I'm Roland and this is Erakir." the squirrel introduced the two. 



"Roland's new around here, I'm showing him around." Erakir explained. "I was going to show him around here so he can see the machines, but I guess that's not going to happen anymore." 



"Oh well, what are you going to do? If it's closed, it's closed. I'll just have to look inside later when it's open again." Roland shrugged. "No big deal." 



"Well hold on." Linda chimed in. "I was actually on my way to where I work out, maybe I can talk you along. You can use it until this gym is open again." 



"Uh...sure!" Roland looked to his new chocobo friend who gave a slight nod. Erakir wouldn't mind a gym he could use while his main one was closed! 



"Great! Come with me." Linda nodded her head and instructed the two men to follow behind her. The trio walked a few blocks off campus, chatting and getting to know each other better until they came to a house. 



"Here we are! Come on in." Linda said, unlocking the door and stepping aside after she swung it open. 



"This is it...?" Erakir raised an eyebrow as he looked to Roland who seemed just as confused as Erakir that the Lucario had taken them to a house instead of an actual gym. 



"Yup! Is there a problem?" she asked, her tone of voice hard to read if she was offended and asking rhetorically or if she was genuine. 



"No no, not at all!" Roland answered hastily. "We were just expecting a proper gym is all, we didn't know you'd be taking us back to your house." 



"It's not JUST a house silly." Linda giggled. "I'll show you." 



Linda walked in after the squirrel and chocobo entered. She led the two into a room that had various weights, an elliptical, and a treadmill. "Welcome to my own person gym!" 



"Wow, this is awesome!" Roland walked around in awe, seeing just how much stuff was inside. 



"Yeah, you got just about everything! Strength training, cardio, it's impressive!" the chocobo couldn't help but laugh with glee over how much stuff there was! 



"Yes, but like I said, I hate exercising alone, and my roommate graduated last semester and I had no one to replace her." 



"Well, we'll be happy to fill in those shoes!" Roland exclaimed. 



"Yeah, we have to spend a semester in our dorms but maybe we can move in here next one!" Erakir suggested. 



"No, that won't be necessary." Linda said slightly ominously as the tendrils hanging off of the back of her head start to rise up, a blue aura surrounding them and her body. 



"Uh...w-why not? Sorry if that was sudden, I just got excited..." Erakir rubbed the back of his head nervously. 



"It's not that, I think it's a great idea!" Linda answered. "Unfortunately, I'm not a patient person. Luckily, I can make some adjustments to the aura of reality." 



"A-aura of...reality?" Roland stammered out, taking a few steps back. "What does that mean?" 



"It means I can awaken the aura from within you and weave it into whatever I like." Linda explained. "I can make it so you were born in a different time, different area, hell, I can make it so you were an object that was created instead of a person that was born!" she was practically cackling. 



"Uh...is this normal...?" Roland asked nervously to Erakir. 



"No...I can't say it is..." he frowned. 



"No need to be afraid!" Linda spoke softly, though her voice echoed through the room. "By the time I finish altering your aura, you won't remember any of this! These versions of you would have never existed, only your new forms, new aura, new reality! It'll be a good new existence, well, for one of you~!" she cooed. "I can't have both of you living here, it's only a two bedroom, one bathroom home! Three living here will get too crowded. Don't worry, you'll still be around." she pointed to Erakir. "My new roommate," she turned to Roland, "needs their own treadmill after all so we don't have to share~!" 



With her speech over, Linda amplified her aura, grabbing Roland and Erakir's and began to twist it, altering themselves and their place in reality. The two couldn't do anything, having a quite literal out of body experience as Linda transformed the two, both changing at the same time and would be coming out the other end drastically different than how they came in! 



Roland's ears found themselves altering in shape, the side becoming a bit more pointed as they took on a diamond shape as opposed to their triangular one prior, the overall size of them becoming smaller. The exterior of Roland's ears had the brown fur replaced with black, while the insides of them turned blue. The hair at the top of his head would all form into a thick mohawk-like hairdo, which was a snow white color that went down the back of his neck, each thick strand curved and pointed backwards to give it an electrified look. 



The width of Roland's muzzle became thinner while the length became slightly longer. His nose drastically increased in size with his nostrils enlarging and flaring out. His buck teeth sucked back into his snout as all of his teeth became flat and even. Like his ears, the fur on Roland's head mostly all transitioned to black fur with a few streaks of white. These were found in a triangular pattern at his snout going up his muzzle as well as a few triangular streaks from the sides of his eyes. Speaking of, the whites of Roland's eyes turned yellow while his green eyes shifted to a blue color. 



The transition of Roland's fur color continued, with the two shades of brown vanishing. Instead, the base of Roland's fur color was the same light shade of black that formed at his head, with white stripes going down his body in a lightning bolt pattern. The digits of Roland's paws pressed together as the size of his paws became much smaller, becoming even with the width of his legs themselves. They hardened as the fur vanished off of them, turning a dark black color as the paws were now hooves. 



Roland was gaining a lot of extra things behind him, namely, a continuation of his mane that went all the way down to the base of his tail. It matched the volume and coloration that started with his hair, a large, electric-like white mane going down his whole backside. Roland's tail lost a lot of its business, becoming both thinner and shorter, now just slightly shorter than the length of his legs. Like the white stripes in his new fur pattern, his tail became a bit more jagged to give it the appearance of a lightning bolt, with the tip of it forming into a circle with points sticking around to reassemble a spark. With this change, Roland was far from a squirrel now, but a Zebstrika. 



The changes continued, with his eyelashes multiplying and becoming thicker to make them more visible on his face. His eyebrows did the opposite as they became pencil-thin, almost burning underneath his black fur coat. The lump inside of Roland's throat shrank significantly, causing his voice to rise up in pitch to give it a feminine tone to go with his now much more feminine face. 



Roland's shoulders slimmed down, losing their broadness while his arms became thin and slender. The size of his hands shrank to a more petite size to fit in with his new proportions. The opposite was happening lower on Roland's body, with his hips widening outward into childbearing proportions. His rear built up extra mass, making it more pert and pronounced while his legs became curvy as well. This left Roland with shapely toned legs as the bone structure of them altered, making them digitigrade as well in the process. 



Back at Roland's upper body, his back was sucking inward while his chest inflated outward. This ultimately left Roland with an arched back and a pair of breasts at his chest. The sides of Roland's body shoved inward to leave indents, and gave Roland a clear and defined hourglass figure. Between his legs, Roland's manhood slipped away and was quickly replaced by the workings of the opposite sex inside and out, leaving Roland as a squirrel man no more, but a Zebstrika woman. 



Roland's outfit changed significantly, with his jacket vanishing entirely. The tee shirt he wore had the sleeves shrink into thin straps, while the cut dipped a bit past his chest. It rode up Roland's stomach and didn't stop until it reached just underneath his new bosom, his shirt now a sports bra. His khaki pants became tighter as they rode up Roland's legs, turning into a pair of tight gym shorts instead, leaving Roland in his own workout gear. 



While Roland was changing, so was the chocobo. Unlike Roland, Erakir wouldn't have the luxury of staying animate. Instead, he went down onto his knees, his legs merging together and becoming wider and flatter. This continued until they became about as tall as Erakir himself. The brown turned into a kind of conveyor system, turning into a ribbed pannel that would move along as someone walked on it. The sides turned into a tough plastic with extra bumpers on the bottom that would prevent Erakir from moving around. 



At Erakir's knees, they formed into a kind of joint system that had a cylindrical shape and would be how the belt was able to loop itself around constantly as someone ran on the treadmill-part. This would be the strongest area, but was still made out of plastic for cost-effectiveness. 



Erakir's arms slipped away into his torso, vanishing entirely. Most of his body would vanish as well, hollowing out fully leaving only the sides of his form remained, nothing in between them. These formed into long silver poles that would conjoin again at his shoulders. 



Lastly, Erakir's head would flatten entirely, his facial features from his eyes to his beak all vanished. Instead, it flattened into a small screen with his brain replaced with a computer only capable of two things - keeping track of how long someone had been running on him and the amount of calories estimated to be burnt. A hatch system also formed that allowed Erakir's form to be folded up as needed and left the chocobo as a dinky, foldable treadmill. 



As Erakir's new form had no need for clothing, unless Roland's which changed to better suit his form, Erakir's disintegrated from reality entirely. It wasn't just that which was erased from existence, but Erakir himself! His aura was permanently altered, making it so the chocobo had always been a foldable treadmill made in a factory rather than a chocobo or anything else he may have been before hand. He was now and forever just a treadmill, even Linda not aware of the aura's original state due to how powerful aura alteration was. As such, his fate was sealed to be stuck like this forever, or at least, until it eventually broke down, Erakir wasn't exactly a pristine item! He would go for at most $20 in a shop! 



Meanwhile, Roland would be getting a new mind instead of losing one entirely. Memories of ever being a squirrel man named Roland slipped away to never be reclaimed, and even the experience of being a freshman in college did as well. The Zebstrika was a few years older now, a few years into her college journey and matching Linda's age - the two Pokemon girls now having known each other since freshman year. She was big into fitness and exercise, much like her roommate was! That was something that rubbed off on the new Zebstrika the longer she spent with Linda. The Lucario was almost infectious in that regard! Roland wasn't Roland anymore, but Kara, the Zebstrika woman! 



Kara felt like she was just waking up from a nap, shaking her head and holding it. "Sorry, I must have zoned out there." the Zebstrika gave an awkward giggle to her roommate and best friend. 



"It's alright, it's probably because we haven't got our morning workout in yet!" Linda laughed as if nothing had actually happened. And despite Linda being the cause, to the Lucario, nothing had happened! She felt that she had used her aura manipulation abilities, but what those did was beyond her. 



"True! We have to fix that pronto!" Kara said, looking into their shared exercise room. "Man, we really got to replace this thing. I feel like it's going to break any minute." she gently kicked the foldable treadmill. "Not to mention you can barely run on it! Feels like I have to move it like a skateboard just to get the tread part to actually move!" 



"No kidding, but hard to replace it when we're on college kid salaries." Linda shrugged and laugh. 



"I know, I know. It gets the job done well enough I guess." Kara sighed. "I can't wait for the school gym to re-open so I don't have to keep using it. Why can't I use yours?" 



"Because I paid for mine!" Linda defended. "You can buy yours and keep me from using it too you know~?" she teased. 



"Fiiiine." Kara groaned. "It's not like it'll be permanent anyways. Soon as the gym opens back up its going back in the closet! Hopefully forever. This thing sucks! I swear just trying to use it normally is an exercise in and of itself." 



"Then it's doing its job!" Linda winked. "Come on, let's get our workout going!" 



"Can't disagree with that! Let's do it! You doing arms or legs today?" 



"It's a leg day for me, care to join me?" 



"That's what I was going to do today too, so let's pump it!" Kara cheered. 



And so, the two former men's new fates were sealed. There were no traces left of the squirrel freshman, all replaced with the upperclassman Zebstrika. The reality altered so that everything she "owned" was now in the room that didn't belong to Linda, with the decorations even having pictures of the Zebstrika and Lucario together as if they had always been living there together. 



For Erakir, he would remain a janky piece of machinery that the girls reluctantly used. It wasn't the greatest, but at least it got the job done! Eventually they'd be able to sell it off and replace it with a proper treadmill, but it was going to be a while until that day came! So for now, at least Erakir would be able to enjoy being used - not that there was much of Erakir left to actually enjoy it! At least - until the school gym opened back up and Kara could use a proper treadmill! 



The two Pokemon roommates worked out together every morning, and sometimes in the evening as well after classes or to rest their minds in long nights of studying. The room - and Erakir - got a lot of use by the Pokemon ladies, though Kara didn't particularly enjoy having to use Erakir. But, it was what she had to do! The Zebstrika was always putting aside money to save up to replace it with a treadmill of her own so Linda could stop rubbing her "real" treadmill in her roommate's face.



None the less, Kara enjoyed living with Linda despite the teasing of Kara's "lesser equipment." And the house was the perfect distance from school to get a jog in between classes! It was a good life!