Pokemon: The Gathering 
A Fusing Time

Police officers and paramedics checked over the citizens as the press tried to get near the hall to get the best photos and the juicy details for their channels and papers, albeit unsuccessfully, as the police kept pushing them back and confiscating any information regarding what had occurred inside the hall. One woman with a Helioptile on her shoulder watched from afar, stroking her chin thoughtfully as she stared down at her notebook with dates and names under the heading. “Kalos Kidnappings.”

“I really hope the police actually start doing something about this,” the woman muttered, “I would hate for public interest to turn to fear.” She shuddered, imagining the panic and the chaos that would sweep across the nation as it had done several years ago during the Kalos Incident.

Within the hall, police officers searched the area, a squad heading up into the control room and the rafters, all under the orders and guidance of Anabel. 

Chloe knelt down next to the discarded gloves. “Gloves don’t just come off,” she pondered. She turned her gaze at the heavy footsteps of Brock running down the stage.

“I’ll check down here!” Brock called. 

Anabel nodded, “The rest of you spread out and search the area!”

Brock skidded to a stop at the stairs, hearing the scared cries echoing up the stairs.

“Over here, it’s me. It’s Aria. Help me!” Aria cried out through her voice and repeated, “Sylvee!”.

“It’s no use,” Miette told her, “You never understood me when you discovered and captured me. Unless we’re a Zorua, we can’t communicate with humans.”

“I-I refuse to give up.”

Brock strolled down the stairs, closely eyeing the discarded clothing and the two Sylveons. “Hey there, you two,” he greeted, kneeling down to their height. “Don’t suppose you know where your Trainer is?”

“It’s me. It’s me!” Aria cried, jumping up at Brock as Miette shook her head.

“Easy!” Brock comfortingly petted Sylveon's head. “We’ll find her.”

“I told you, Aria. The only thing we can really do now is hope to Arceus they find a way to reverse this. Could it be worse? Can you imagine being a Muk or Gastly?”

“Brock, is everything okay? I heard cries,” Anabel called, appearing at the top of the stairs with Chloe.

“No, nothing is okay about this. Aria's gone missing, leaving these two here.”

Anabel sighed heavily, rubbing her eyes. Chloe thought at first she was trying to hide a frustrated expression, but when she saw a tear glistening in the corner of Anabel’s eyes, she knew in the pit of her gut what she was going to say.

“These clothes are Aria’s performance ones, and those two Sylveon must be her partners. Witness statements recall her being on stage with one at the time of a nightmarish scene,” Anabel began. “Another recalls some sort of hallucinogenic smog and bright lights that made them see Aria turning into a Pokemon.”

“That’s impossible unless it’s a Ditto or a Zorua,” Brock pondered, “It could be the effects of a Stanler or Misdreavus for the kidnappers to abduct Aria, but why?”

“Ransom?” Chloe chimed in.

Anabel snapped her fingers. “Could be, but what about the other disappearances here in Kalos. Reports stated that no demands have been made.”

“Would I be able to see all reports, including those of the Kalos Incident?” Chloe asked, folding her arms. “It’s not much, but I can be quite thorough. Maybe there’s something that’s been missed.”

“Great idea,” Brock praised, “While you're doing that, you can multitask and look after these. Sylveon can’t risk them wandering out there alone.”

“Why can’t you?”

“Because Ash once told me about an old friend he made in Kalos. With Serena and Shauna still unaccounted for, we need extra help, and who better than a Gym Leader,” Brock explained.

“Aren’t you a Gym Leader?” Anabel quizzed, raising an eyebrow.

“Former.”

“Okay then. In the meantime, I’ll have my men search the area. We'll gradually widen the search radius. It's slow, but…”

“Sorry for the interruption, Anabel,” an officer called.

“What have you found?” Anabel asked, cocking her hip, expectantly eyeing the frantic glint in the officer’s eye.

The officer took a deep breath and held out a hexagonal piece of metal marked with a futuristically styled “G”.Anabel went pale; Chloe stepped towards Brock, fearing the worst as she watched Anabel tense up.  “We found this with some strange equipment in the control room.”

“Have the men secure everything carefully and send it to the Lumiose Police Headquarters. I need to get back and inform the looker!” Anabel barked, starting up the stairs.

“Wait!” Brock called, “What’s going on?”

Anabel turned on her heel. “Team Galactic. Bunch of misfits from the Sinnoh, they're dangerous.”

“Right. Chloe, you get to the Headquarters straight away. Once I have the Gym Leader, I’ll join you,” Brock stated.

“Come, you two,” Chloe said, gesturing for the two Sylveon; however, whilst Miette did, Aria hesitated, to linger around her former clothes. Chloe gently picked Sylveon up, cuddling it close to her chest as she ascended the stairs.

Aria looked up at the young girl's worried expression; she could feel Chloe’s heart racing and licked at her hand as if to say, “It’s alright.” although Aria did have to wonder if she was saying it to herself as well. 

Meanwhile, somewhere deep underground, Shauna grunted, awakening to a sharp chill, and the deep throbbing beat of machinery drifted around her. She blinked several times to clear the fuzziness clouding her vision; her body ached like she had taken a rough tumble down a cliff.

“Serena!” she cried, eyeing Serena lying out cold nearby.

She jolted up to her feet, moving towards her friend, crying out in pain as her head struck the solid, cold glass. Shauna padded the glass, following the curve of its cylindrical body that kept her separated from Serena. She banged and called out rapidly, her hands aching and voice rasping, but she kept going until Serena slowly stirred.

“W-What happened?” Serena groggily asked.

“Last thing I remember was an explosion and you disappearing right before my eyes,” Shauna began.

“A simple little teleport we worked up. Makes transportation so much easier thanks to Galarian and Paldean tech,” a voice echoed over the intercom. “I hope you’re not too injured from the explosion.”

“What the hell were you thinking?!” Shauna exclaimed. “Where are we?”

“Our temporary base Shauna. Yes, we know about you and dear Serena. I apologise for the explosion, but we had to prevent any interference you could have presented in our experiments on the Kalos Queen.” Shauna’s blood ran cold at the calm tone of the speaker, glancing over at Serena. “You should feel greatly honoured. During our time here in Kalos, we’ve been perfecting the DNA. Ideas and made amazing advancements, and you will be the next subject in another advancement. I shan’t say anymore, or I shall spoil the next events!”

Shauna clenched a fist as a faint hissing filled the air. “Serena, can you move?”

Serena shakily pushed herself up. “I should be alright in a minute. Where are we?”

“No idea, but we were in a bad way being held prisoner by our attackers,” Shauna stated, her eyes widening, “We’ve been kidnapped like those suspected disappearances that have been happening.”

“Is this…is this what happened to the others?” Serena muttered, “We have to escape.”
 
“But how?” Shauna asked, checking around and seeing no sign of her Pokeballs, Serena’s, or their bags. “Must have been taken when we were knocked out.”

“Delphox….Pancham,” Serena muttered softly, fear growing in her eyes.

Shauna rallied herself, pressing her hands against the glassy surface. “Serena, focus. We’ll save them and get out of this if we work together. Remember, we helped save Kalos before.”

Serena swallowed hard, nodding in agreement. “So what do we do?”

“So we first need to….”

Shauna grunted, her hands clutching at the centre of her chest. Her breathing quickened as a strange tugging grew within her chest. “Somethings…not right,” Shauna groaned, pushing her chest outwards in an attempt to ease the pain but only seemed to increase the pain.

Something grew from her chest, pressing into her t-shirt, the fabric protesting against a distinctive point. Serena gasped, covering her mouth as the fabric of Shauna’s t-shirt tore around a lengthening red fin-like horn protruding from her chest.

“What’s happening to me?” Shauna whimpered as a rounder fin grew out of the centre of her back, tearing through her t-shirt.

“I don’t know, but that thing looks like a Gardevoir fin,” Serena muttered, remembering Diantha’s partner she and Ash had encountered during their Kalos travels.

Shauna stared at the fin; however, her eyes focused past the fin towards her legs at the splotches of white staining her tanned skin. “H-How? How is this happening?”

“Whatever this Team Galactic is doing, it’s beyond normal science,” Serena pondered, shrieking as pain rose in the base of her spin.

Shauna whimpered, eyeing her friend closely. Serena’s eyebrows thickened, lengthening upwards at forty-five degrees, becoming cream, tufty-like fur that stiffened. All the while, Serena focused on the growth rising out of her back, the pang of new nerves and the itch of hairs sprouting out of the rounding mound of flesh that remained concealed under her top.

“Serena,” Shauna muttered, “Serena. You're changing; look at your eyebrows!”

“How can I look?” Serena thought, catching her mouth before the words could speak them. Instead, she reached up, letting out a shrill scream as her fingers touched the soft, fluffy fur, gripping and tugging at them, causing her to shriek in pain. Shauna couldn’t stomach looking at  Serena as her friend’s ears lengthened.

Serena whimpered frantically as she felt her ears growing longer and broader as if some unseen force was pulling them outwards. The insides of her ears turned dark pink as the tickle of soft, fine brown hairs grew out of the skin. “Whoever is doing this, stop right now!” Serena cried out, her ears folding over.

The brown hair continued to sprout partially down her ears as they stopped lengthening, reaching just below her chin. Fine clumps of cream hair that thickened alongside the brown hairs into fluffy fur added more weight to her ears as the fur extended the length of her ears until they crept to a halt near her thighs.

Shauna meanwhile stared at her legs, the white colour spreading down to her feet. She winced in discomfort, holding back her screams at the feeling of her skin pinching and bones and muscles compressing within her legs as they slimmed down. Cramps preceded numbness sweeping across her feet and toes as the latter retracted into the former. Her shoes loosened, sliding off her feet as her feet retracted into her matchstick-like legs.

“Serena, we need to do something!” Shauna called, gripping her shorts tightly as they loosened against her narrowing, cracking hips.

However, Serena didn’t respond; she seemed lost in her fear, gazing at her thumbs and little fingers receding into her hands whilst brown hairs grew out of her other fingers. The nails popped out of their beds as hair grew from them. Cream hairs, starting thin and short, sprouted out of her wrists, becoming thicker and fluffier. Mirroring her eyes, Serena, it was as if someone had stripped the clouds from the sky and formed them around her wrists.

“Serena?” Shauna gently said, watching Serena’s skin on her arms disappear under a coat of thickening brown hair. She glanced down at her own arms, turning green, the colour slithered over her chest and back as cramps spread into her fingers. “Serena. We need each other. We need to figure a way out.”

“Normally, Ash would be here to save the day,” Serena muttered, tears welling in her eyes. “He always knew what to do. What to say to get you through the toughest of battles.”

Shauna’s fingers spasmed, cutting her off from speaking as well as releasing her grip on her shorts. Much like Serena’s hands, Shauna’s thumbs and little fingers retracted into her hands whilst her middle fingers thickened. Her ring and index fingers drew closer to her middle ones, partially shortening. She glanced over at Serena, taking note of the baggy clothing indicating the regression in Serena’s weight and body unseen by both brown hairs sprouting across her body as cream fur engulfed her lower legs.

Shauna turned away from Serena as her friend fell backwards, the black trainers flying off her retracting feet. She scanned the cylindrical glass cage that trapped her, seeing no visible door or hatch; however, as she looked upwards, she spotted a long series of winding cables and metal spanning outwards from a pipe that hung in the air. A thought stirred in her mind, “Maybe just turning them into Pokemon wasn’t all they were doing?” she thought.

The pain soon distracted Shaun as sections of her skin around her eyes rose up, lengthening outwards whilst large sections of her abdominal skin pulled away from her, both becoming as white as her legs. The growing skin stretching out from around her eyes hardened, forming a masquerade mask of sorts, whilst the lengthening skin from her abdomen flowed gracefully, elongated down past the stumpy points of her legs, gaining a green inner colour.

“I always thought Gardevoirs wore gowns,” Shauna muttered.

“LOP!”

Shauna jumped at the shrill cry, turning towards Serena in time to witness the final pieces of honey-blonde hair falling from her head. Serena’s eyes were squeezed tightly shut, and cries of pain and fear escaped her mouth, exposing the receding teeth every time she opened and closed her mouth until only four teeth remained in the centre. All the while, Serena’s skull reshaped under the fur-sprouting skin, becoming sleeker with more curves as her nose and mouth pushed out into a small snout, her nose shrinking, turning pink and triangular in shape, tipping her muzzle. 

Serena’s eyes snapped open, the whites fading under a pitch black whilst her blue eyes became contained with a shimmering pink. She could only muster singular cries of a Lopunny as she stared at Shauna, pressing her hands into the glass. Unknown to Shauna, her face was turning white, the colour slithering down her neck, forming round patches around the centre of her upper back and chest. Then it hit her, the crunching, compressing pain of her skull reshaping, her hair shortened, losing its signature pigtail style and brown colour to a green one; its style thickened, the back section curling inwards towards chin whilst a thick section slipped over her left eye down to her chin.

Her ears sunk into her head, white skin growing to conceal the holes left behind as a red colour spread across her irises.

“Shauna…Shauna….Shauna!”

Shauna turned. “Serena? Wait, how the hell can I understand you?” “Garde?”

“I’m sorry I froze….I’m sorry I couldn’t…” 

“Take a breath. We still have our minds, and we can….” Shauna trailed off as waves of heat erupted from above them.

Electricity crackled through the cables above them as blinding white lights grew, concealing each other from view. Their shrill, frantic cries echoed around as they felt something intruding into every fibre of their bodies, threatening to rip them apart. Their cries faded out, memories becoming a muddle and blur. A Fennekin and Bulbasaur fused into one nightmarish fusing in their minds as memories of Ash, Clemont, and Trevor blended into one nightmarish muddle; even the separate journeys overlapped, but then Serena felt something, something snap inside of her, everything she was, everything that was her friend and rival Shauna slipped away the mentality of a Lopunny merged with that of a Gardevoir, knowledge on using Fairy type moves alongside Normal typings as well as Psychic pushed towards the forefront of her mind swallowing the dual identities of the girls with a singular name replacing their old, human ones. Lopvoir.

The lights died down, revealing the empty chambers as the light grew in the spare chamber. Electricity flashed, and smoke hissed out of the vents as the body of a Lopunny was reformed inside of it, sporting a thick tuft of cream-coloured fur on its head that swept down between the eyebrows and over the left alongside the gown and fin-like horns of the Gardevoir.

The Lopvoir collapsed onto its side, crying out in exhaustion. Venus smirked from eyeing the footage of the Lopvoir, her eyes turned to the other footage displaying monstrous fusions from a Muk and Pikachu that had blended both bodies unsuccessfully to a female trainer locked in agonising pain as Quagsire's head was locked in a perpetual state of eating her head.

“Log this result and capture it,” Venus ordered, standing up. “Then instruct all grunts to move the gear to the teleport chambers and evacuate to our second base.”

“Commander, why would we leave?” a grunt asked.

Venus scowled at the question. “Because we don’t want to risk leaving evidence or trail like those morons did when they left the hall!” she paused, composing herself. “Which is why we’re going to booby trap the base and hopefully remove any threats to us or the Gathering.”

“Understood, ma’am.”

“Make no mistake, only take the successful fusions and unfused Pokemon. The rest can burn,” Venus stated.

“Yes, Ma’am.”

Within the Police Headquarters, phones rang, and people buzzed about running between the desks with various reports. Chloe stared down at the chaos, her stomach knotting as her eyes caught sight of the reporters and news crews piling up outside, all keenly waiting for the juicy scoop of what had occurred in the hall and the whereabouts of Aria.

She lowered her head as the two Sylveons comfortingly wrapped their feelers around Chloe’s wrists.

“This feels weird almost,” Aria began.

“Natural,” Miette interjected. “It’s mostly likely your mind catching up with your body like the natural instincts are growing within you.”

“Thanks, you two,” Chloe said, returning to a large oval table.

Papers lay scattered across its surface, some detailing the Kalos incident, others citing reports concerning those that had disappeared across Kalos. As the door slid open, Chloe slumped into a chair with Miette jumping onto her lap.

“Any luck?” Brock asked, stepping into the room.

“Slow progress, but no positive leads yet,” Chloe replied, eyeing the blonde-haired boy and the young blonde girl behind Brock. “You found the Gym Leader then.”

“Indeed. Chloe, this is Clemont, the Lumiose Gym Leader and friend of Ash.”

“And I’m Bonnie. Also a friend of Ash!” the young girl introduced, stamping on Brock’s foot.

“Greetings. Brock filled me in on the situation, and I believe I can help you,” Clemont stated, “If we use technology at our hands, we can compile everything down and start filing through for crucial information.”

Brock hummed thoughtfully as Clemont got to work, tapping away at a nearby computer. Bonnie hurried up to Sylveon, greeting them with a warm smile. 

“Are these two cuties yours?” she asked, petting Aria’s head.

“Not mine, they’re Aria’s….sadly, she’s disappeared.” 

“Well, I’ll help look after them. After all, I’ve been caring for my friend Dedenne,” Bonnie said as the tiny mousey Pokemon peeked out of her bag. 

“Another Pikachu clone,” Brock thought, eyeing the Pokemon closely. “I think we’re going about this from the wrong angle.”

“What do you mean?” Clement and Chloe asked in unison.

“Put yourself in kidnapping shoes. What would you need for it?”

Clemont pondered, feeling uncomfortable. “A target, movements of the target to find a suitable location to strike.”

“But you wouldn’t be able to do that at a performance. Not unless you had assistance,” Chloe added, “Like the smoke and illusions from the reports, but that wasn’t stated in the other reports.”

“Pokemon...having a Pokemon helping you in matters like that would be valuable,” Clemont continued.

“Wait…roll that back,” Chloe called out, scrambling through various papers. “Every report on the disappearances in Kalos stated that the clothing would be found alongside a Pokemon except for this one about a Miette.”

“You’d also need a super secret base to hide out in and keep your victims safe while waiting for the ransom,” Bonnie said.

“You’ve been watching that detective show again,” Clemont sighed, rubbing his eyes. “Guess I’ll have to relock the remote…again.” 

Brock snapped his fingers. “Bonnie’s right, though, and where would you find your base?” 

Clemont pondered the question as Chloe flicked through different papers. Brock patiently waited with a knowing smile on his face. 

“An old Team Flare Base!” Chloe cried out at last.

“Like those that weren’t decommissioned following the Kalos Incident,” Clemont added, “There’s one about twenty minutes from Lumiose, and if there’s a chance, Aria might be there.”

“And Serena.”

“I'll let Anabel know. Good work, you three. Keep it up and pray that the others have as much luck as we have.” Brock turned, hurrying away.

Clemont flashed a double thumbs up towards Chloe and Bonnie. “Figures anyone around Ash has had a brain growth.” He adjusted his glasses. 

“Thanks. I guess?” Chloe muttered.