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“Come on, Furyia; we’re almost there!” I called back to my faithful companion, shielding my eyes from the intense downpour.
“Doom Hound!” I heard her bark back, leaping through the dense shrubs and running through the trees.  I turned and ran through the grass, trying to get to Fortree as quickly as possible to avoid the rain.  After a few minutes of running, we arrived at the city, jogging into the Mart to get out of the rain.
“Hey Jack.  Bit wet out there, is it?” The shop assistant smirked as I wiped my fringe out of my eyes.
“You tell me- HEY FURYIA!” I cried, covering my face as Furyia shook herself dry, sending water everywhere.  “You’re supposed to do that outside the shop!”
Furyia simply gave me a look that said quite plainly: “But I’ll just get wet again!”  I relented and gave her a quick scratch between her horns, my fingers gliding through her wet, silver fur.
“Dammit, I just can’t stay mad at you, now can I?”  Furyia gave a happy yelp and licked my face.  I stood up and turned to the Shop attendant, who was wiping water off the counter with a small rag.
“That’s the third time today that’s happened.  First it was a Growlithe, and then a Riachu and now Furyia!”
“Wow, this place has been popular today.” I remarked, picking up a small basket walking over to the medical area.
“Are you out of Antidotes again?!” The attendant called from the counter.
“Nah, Paralyse Heals this time.  There’s a swarm of Oddish near my home and I want to be ready in case things turn ugly.  But that reminds me: I’m running low on those too.” I said, picking up half a dozen of the pale grey bottles and dropping them in the basket, then placing some slightly darker grey bottles in there as well.
“Oh, there’s an Oddish swarm, is there?  I didn’t know that it was swarming season.”
“There’s more than one reason I live where I do, you know.” I said, dropping a few white and grey Hyper Potions into the basket.  I suddenly felt a cold, wet nose against my hand; Furyia was nudging me with a Doll in her mouth.
“You didn’t tell me you got Poke Dolls in stock.” I said, taking the Pikachu doll and looking at it.
“Oh yeah, they messed up the shipments to Lilycove, so we ended up with a crate of Dolls.” The attendant called while restacking a shelf of Ultra Balls under the counter.  I smirked and dropped the doll in the basket to Furyia’s delight.  On the way to the counter, I quickly grabbed a few cans of Super Repel and dropped them in the basket and placed the whole lot on the counter.
“You’re well and truly stocking up.” The attendant chuckled and scanned the whole lot.
“I don’t want to go through a repeat of what happened last time I was unprepared.” I remarked, which earned a small bark from Furyia.
“Yeah, I suppose you’re right. 7600, please.” The attendant said as I forked over the money.
“Anyway, I have to get to the post office and get back to my place, so I’ll see you around.” I said, whistling to Furyia and heading out the door.
“See you later Jack!”
Mercifully, the rain had stopped when I left the store, so I casually walked to the post office and checked my P.O Box.  Inside were four letters, one marked with a glossy wax seal, another with a sticker and the other two with sticky tape and a small parcel.
“What’s this?” I asked as I pulled out the parcel.  The parcel was no bigger than a Soft Drink can, with a black paw print on the side.  Confused, I turned the parcel over, expecting to see an address, but there was nothing.
“Doom?” Furyia said, sniffing the parcel as if to say: “What’s that?”
“I dunno, Furyia.  We’ll have a look when we get home.” I said, dropping the parcel into my bag, along with the four letters and heading back to the path leading to Route 120.
I guess before I continue with my story, I had better give you some background history on me.
My name’s Jack: I’m 18 years old and I live in Route 120 in Hoenn.  I started as a Pokemon Trainer about 3 years ago, but not in the way you would expect.  After a reasonably large prank by my numbskull of a brother where he turned off my alarm clock so that I would oversleep and he would get a Pokemon instead of me, I went for a walk through the woods to clear my head and found a Pokemon Egg.  Taking care of it for the next 2 months, it hatched into a Houndour, which I claimed as my starter Pokemon.  After about 3 months, I found out that Furyia was a Shiny Houndour, which startled me because I didn’t even know: for those of you wondering how I could miss that, it’s because I suffer from a rare condition called Monochromacy, or to put it bluntly: Colour-blindness.  Over the years, I became a very powerful trainer; specialising in Dark Type Pokemon like my Umbreon, Absol and Mightyena, and taking pride in training Furyia to be the best Houndoom she could possibly become, but also training other species of Pokemon to help counter their Weaknesses, like my Skarmory for a counter to Bug Types and my Gardevoir to protect against Fighting types, earning me a well known reputation as an expert Dark Trainer.  Some trainers even started calling me “The Shadow Lord” because of my impressive skills, which I thoroughly dislike, I might add.  Because there wasn’t a Dark Type Gym, even in the distant Sinnoh region, Trainers would come from all over the world to battle me because I was the next best thing besides Karen or Sidney from the Elite Four.  After a couple of years, I settled down and made my home in Route 120 where I had a Secret Base in a large bush for about 2 years beforehand, nestled in a mountainside near where Registeel was rumoured to lay dormant.  There aren’t as many trainers coming to see me anymore, but I still get a few visitors from time to time, either for battling or for advice on how to raise their Pokemon.
But anyway, on with the story:
I climbed the rocky steps leading up to my home, with Furyia leading the way.  I smiled when I saw the Lum Berries I planted beginning to bloom; for such a rare berry, they’re tricky to grow properly, but once you know what to do, it’s a breeze.  Opening the door, I stepped inside and dropped my bag on the bench, pulling out the Pikachu doll and tossing it to Furyia.
“Here you go.  Go nuts.” I said as Furyia caught the doll and carried it over to her collection of Dolls, placing it neatly among them.  Shaking my head, I stacked away the potions into my shelves and sat down at the table, pulling out the letters and parcel.  Opening the Sticky taped letters first: one of them was from a fan of mine in Lilycove, containing a Card and a Photo of herself and her Quilava, sending me their thanks for helping them a few months ago, and the other letter was a Newsletter from the Pokemon Fan Club in Slateport.  Opening the letter sealed with the Wax stamp next, It was from a friend of mine in Lavaridge, who I helped out last year with his Ponyta; we’ve been pen pals ever since.  The Last letter was a bit of Advertising mail for a new Radio Station being built in Johto that was powerful enough to reach Hoenn.  Pushing all of these aside, I opened the parcel and pulled out three things: A square of folded paper, a small bag full of pale grey Poffins and a small wooden box.  I opened the letter first and read:

Hey Jack!  I haven’t spoken to you in a while, so I thought I’d find out how you were.  How’s Furyia coming along?  I can tell she will love the poffins I made for her; there are some of the Grepa Berries you sent me mixed in there too, so I’m sure that she will like them with her Relaxed and care-free Nature.  I wouldn’t recommend eating them yourself or giving them to your other Pokemon though; they’re still very sour.

“Hey Furyia: Catch!” I said and tossed her a Poffin, which was promptly snapped up with a relish.  I chuckled and went back to the letter.

Anyway, the main reason I am writing to you is because I recently found a whole pile of different items and I saw one of them that I knew you would like and decided to share it with you.  I can guess that you haven’t opened the box yet, so I don’t want to ruin the surprise for you.

I hope you can come to Sinnoh sometime soon; it would be nice to meet up again.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Your favourite Morph,

Peter.

I smirked when I saw the three toed Paw print that Peter used as his signature; the signature he used as a Lucario.
“Houndoom?” Furyia asked me, as if to say: “Another one please?”
I sighed and tossed her another Poffin and picked up the box.  Whatever it was inside gave a faint rattle: it sounded like it was made of stone, so I undid the clips on the side and tipped the contents into my hand.
“Oh my god.” I said when I saw what it was.
It was a Houndoom Fang.  A large, pure white Houndoom Fang with two holes drilled in the roots with a string threaded through it like a pendant.  I turned the fang around in my fingers a few times, examining it from every angle.
“Doom?!” Furyia yelped seeing the fang.  I turned to look at her.
“My friend in Sinnoh found it, Furyia.  I can tell why he sent it to me though.” I said, placing the fang around my neck and looking at my reflection in the window.  It did look good, standing out perfectly against my black shirt.  I stood there for a few minutes, admiring the fang while Furyia sat and watched me, chewing the Poffin.
“Hey, Furyia:” I asked, turning around to face her with a glint in my eyes and a smile on my face.
“How do you feel about travelling the world some more?”

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I sat on the back of my Skarmory, holding onto the harness I made for him as he flew through the sky towards New Bark Town, where I arranged to rest for the night before heading further east to Kanto's Pewter City, and then North to Sinnoh.  I have never gotten Skarmory to fly this far before, so I made sure I organised plenty of rest stops along the way.  It was a week long flight to Sinnoh: My first stop was in Fallarbor Town, north-west of my home, and then my next stop was at Cianwood City in South-west Johto, where I was held up by a few trainers who wanted autographs.  After a refreshing night, I took to the skies again and made good progress to New-Bark Town from a helpful tailwind, where I stayed for the night at Professor Elm’s Lab.  The next morning, I delayed in New Bark Town for a few hours to watch the new Trainers that were getting their Pokemon that day and unfortunately; I was noticed.
“Hey, is that Jack?” I heard someone say in the crowd outside Professor Elm’s lab, and the first thing I thought was: “Oh, crud; here we go.”
Before I knew what was happening, I was surrounded by dozens of trainers, all clamouring for an autograph, except for one uptight trainer who shoved a little kid out of the way to get to me.
“Hey, wait your turn.” I snapped at the trainer, helping the little kid to his feet.
“He’s weak; he doesn’t deserve to get your Autograph.” The punk kid said, holding out his hat for me to sign.
“And you do?” I said to him, taking the little kids pen and signing the little trainers shirt instead.  This didn’t go down very well with the trainer.
“Yes, considering I can beat you.” The Trainer said smugly.  “I’ve trained Heracross better than that Dog of yours.”  I glanced up at him, sizing him up, before looking at my watch.
“Well, I guess I could stay for a bit to give Furyia some target practice; care to prove that comment?” I asked, waving an arm behind me and all the trainers and adults stepped right back to clear a space for our battle.
“Lets make this quick: I have to get to Pewter City before night.” I said, taking out Furyia’s Pokeball.  “And don’t start whinging at me when you get pummelled into the dirt, because I’m really tired of that happening.”
“Prepare to lose.  Go, Heracross!” the Trainer shouted, calling forth the Horn Pokemon, who growled at me.
“Furyia, let’s get this over with.” I said, tossing her Pokeball in front of me, calling her forth.  Furyia glanced at Heracross for a moment, before turning and looking at me with a look that plainly said: “Is this all you called me out for?”
“Heracross, use Horn Attack!” the Trainer announced.  Heracross bounded forwards and slammed Furyia with a glowing horn, which didn’t even faze her.  Furyia simply sat back and scratched her head with her back paw.
“Look, I’ll give you two more chances to actually deal some significant damage, alright?” I said to the trainer, sitting down on the ground and holding up two fingers.  This had the effect of greatly annoying the trainer.
“Grr… Heracross, use Megahorn!” he shouted.  Heracross flew forwards and tackled furyia, who dug her claws into the ground to stop her from moving too much.  Furyia simply yawned and I lowered one of my fingers.
“Last chance: make it a good one.”
“Heracross, use Focus Punch!” he screamed as Heracross raised its clawed fist into the air.
“Furyia, Detect.” I said as Furyia rolled to the side, with Heracross’s fist slamming the ground harmlessly.
“Times up:  Furyia, use Flamethrower!” I said, setting to my feet.  Furyia took a deep breath and spat a column of fire at Heracross, who fell to the ground and failed to get up again.
“What?!  No!  That isn’t possible!  I trained Heracross to level 94, Furyia’s only a level 71!  How did you beat me?!”
“It helps to raise your Pokemon with training instead of Rare Candies.” I said, giving Furyia a scratch between her horns.  When the trainer gave me a startled look, I smiled and added:  “I could tell that you used Rare Candies to raise Heracross because firstly; his horn isn’t as battle worn as it should be for a level 94; there should be chips and scratches all over it from the constant battling.  Yours is in almost perfect condition: meaning he hasn’t battled much at all.  And secondly; his shell is far glossier than normal, meaning he had been raised on a diet rich in Sugars; like those found in Rare Candies.”
The trainer gaped at me, speechless at how I knew his raising strategy by simply looking at his Heracross, before returning his Pokemon and running away in tears.
“Why do they always run away crying?” I asked myself in dissapointment as I returned Furyia to her Pokeball.  The young trainer stepped forwards and shook my hand.
“Thank you.  He has been bullying me and my friends for weeks with his Pokemon.  We have tried to beat him many times, but his Pokemon is too strong for my Pidgey.” He said, pulling out a small Pokeball with a sticker on it.  I smiled and crouched down beside him.
“No Pokemon is unbeatable: no matter how strong it is.  When I started, I lost dozens of times with Furyia, but that didn’t stop me from training her even stronger.  Don’t give up with training Pidgey; just remember that you have a huge advantage over him: you have been training Pidgey properly.  A Pokemon that is raised right will be stronger than any wild Pokemon; never forget that.”
The kid smiled and nodded as I got to my feet.  That was the highlight of my day, aside from a friend of the little kid naming his new Torchic “Furyette’ in Furyias honor.
“Sorry for leaving so abruptly, but I have to get to Pewter City before dark.” I told Professor Elm, getting on the back of my Skarmory.  Waving goodbye, I gave Skarmory a slight squeeze with my heels and he took off, heading for Kanto.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hang on, Skarmory.  We’re almost there!” I called from Skarmory’s back, spotting Mt. Coronet in the distance, which earned a weak shrill “Skar!” from Skarmory.  I was astounded at his endurance; He had refused to stop for nearly the whole flight from this little island between Kanto and Sinnoh that we stayed on for the night, so I knew I had to get him to rest when we arrived.  After a few minutes, we arrived at a city next to a giant swamp, where Skarmory collapsed into a heap upon landing.
“Excellent work, Skarmory.  Here: have a good rest.” I said, pulling out his Pokeball and returning him inside before pulling out Furyia’s Pokeball and calling her out.
“Come on, Furyia.  Let’s get Skarmory to the Pokemon Centre.” I said, heading into the city, with Furyia hot on my heels.
After a few minutes, we found the Pokemon Centre, where I dropped off Skarmory to be healed.
“We had a long flight, so he’s feeling a bit under the weather.” I told Nurse Joy as she took his Pokeball.
“Don’t worry; He’ll be as good as new in a few minutes.” Nurse Joy said as she gave Skarmory to a Chansey.  “How far did you come?”
“Over the last week, we came all the way from Hoenn.” I said, pulling out the maps I stuck together for my journey and showing the nurse.
“Wow, you came all the way from Hoenn?” Nurse Joy exclaimed as Furyia scratched herself behind one of her horns.
“Yeah, and we still have another stop to go to get to Jubilife.” I said, rolling up the maps.
“Oh, you’re heading for Jubilife?  I think you overshot it a bit; its back the way you came.” Nurse Joy said, handing me a map of Sinnoh and pointing out Jubilife City.
“Crud.” I said, rolling up the map and stuffing it in my bag.  “I guess we still have one more flight to make.”
“That would probably be better: you’ll get to see more of Sinnoh from the sky.” Nurse Joy said, handing me back Skarmory’s Pokeball and giving me her little curtsey.  “We hope to see you again!”
“Thanks.” I said, whistling to Furyia, who came bounding over and we headed outside.  I had another look at the map as I called out Skarmory, who flapped his wings in anticipation for another flight.
“From what I can see Skarmory, there’s a campsite with Cabins available in this little town south of Jubilife called Sandgem Town.  We can stay there in case Peter doesn’t have accommodation for us.” I told Skarmory, who nodded and crouched down, letting me get on his back.
“I’m guessing we have about two hours before the sun sets.  Reckon we can get there in time, Skarmory?” I asked, patting him on the neck.  Skarmory gave a shrill “Skarmory!” as if to say: “Just watch me!” and took off without another sound.
“Furyia, Return!” I called from Skarmory’s back, returning Furyia to her Pokeball before I flew out of range.  “Skarmory, next time wait until I get Furyia before you take off!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The flight didn’t take as long as I thought, with Skarmory arriving at Sandgem a good half an hour before sunset.  Taking the opportunity while it was still light, I went to the Pokemon Centre and deposited everyone in my team except Furyia.
“I’ve never been to Sinnoh before, so I want to see if there’s any interesting Wild Pokemon around.” I told Furyia, who looked at me in confusion, then realised what I meant.  I went back outside and strolled down to the beach, booking a cabin at the shoreline for the night.  After settling down and getting up to date with the local news, I decided to head down to the beach with Furyia to have a look at the view.  The beach was less than a few minutes walk from the cabin, so I was there in no time, standing on the rocky cliffs overlooking the ocean on Route 219.
I sat by the cliffs edge, staring out over the ocean with the waves rolling silently onto the beach below me, the stars sparking on the still water.  I leant over and gave Furyia a scratch between her horns, touching the fang Peter sent me a week ago, still around my neck.
“This is beautiful.” I said to Furyia, gazing at the glimmering sea.  Furyia gave me a content growl and rubbed her horns against my chest.  I smiled contently and stared at the sky for a moment, before standing up and turning around.
“Come on; let’s get back to the cabin.” I said, strolling back inside with Furyia following me.  I busied myself with cooking some fresh pasta for my dinner and slicing up some chicken fillets for Furyia; which she roasted herself, enjoying a calm night before heading to Peters house tomorrow.  After we finished eating, I decided to have a shave before going to bed, so I got up and stepped over to the bathroom.
What happened next changed my life forever.
I slipped on the bath rug and landed flat on my face, screaming in pain when I felt something embed itself into my shoulder.
Getting to my feet, I looked down and saw that the Houndoom fang had slipped and was buried deep in my arm, oozing blood onto my shirt.  Thinking quickly, I grabbed the fang and ripped it from my shoulder, screeching in pain as the fang was torn free.
“Doom? Doom-Houndoom?” Furyia whimpered as I put the fang back around my neck and placed a hand on my shoulder to stem the bleeding.
“Ow.  I’ll be fine; I just got myself with that fang is all.” I said, stepping into the bathroom and stripping down to my boxers to have a shower: not to get clean, more so to wash the blood off.  “Buzz off, Furyia.  Wait outside until I’m done.” I said and Furyia nodded, stepping out onto the veranda and pulling the door closed with her tail.  I winced as I stepped into the shower, letting the hot water wash over the puncture wound, stopping the bleeding relatively quickly.  I looked down and saw that I hadn’t even bothered to take off the fang, which was still stained with my blood, but was glowing oddly bright in the light from the shower, and then dulled down again, without even a smear of blood on it.
“What was that all about?” I wondered; letting the fang fall back against my chest as my shoulder started itching around the wound.  I gently scratched the skin, careful to avoid the wound; but there was nothing there.
“What the-?” I asked myself, noticing that the wound was gone; with only a slight redness indicating where it was, that was slowly spreading around my shoulder.  I attributed this to the shower water being too hot, so I turned it down a bit and started washing my hair.  I started scrubbing for a few minutes, before letting the water rinse my hair clean, wincing as I felt some soap suds trickle into my eyes.  My shoulder was really starting to itch, so I gave it another quick scratch.  It felt like the hair on my shoulder was growing longer, but I couldn’t see because of the soap in my eyes, so I got out of the shower and started rubbing my head dry with a towel, blindly wiping the steam off the mirror in front of me as I did so.  I took the towel away from my face and noticed something terrifying in my reflection:
My shoulder was growing fur; dense, black fur.
“What the heck?!” I said aloud and looked at my shoulder, grabbing the fur.  The fur was glistening with water and felt very soft, like I was touching soft wool.  I tried pulling it off, but it hurt like no body’s business.  I was about to pick up my razor and shave it off when I noticed something that made my heart stop:  it was spreading.
I stared in horror as the black fur slowly spread down my arm, leaving an incredibly painful burning and itching sensation as each of the hairs forced their way out of my skin.  I desperately scratched at the fur, trying to get it off me, but all I managed to do was give the fur a slight ruffling.
“What’s happening to me?!” I shrieked as the fur started to grow on my belly in a glistening silver colour.  I turned around and craned my neck, staring into the mirror as the fur spread around to my back.  The itching was unbearable as the fur kept spreading down my body.
“Doom?  Houndoom Hound?” Furyia whimpered, scratching at the outside door as if to say “Jack?  What’s going on?”  I didn’t say anything as I watched the horrifying sight of the black and silver fur growing all over my body.
“ARGH!” I screamed as I felt something splinter in my chest.  Grabbing my chest, I felt my ribs slowly growing longer and forcing their way backwards towards my spine.  I yelped as I felt something force its way painfully out of my back, like someone was pulling my ribs out through my shoulders.  Turning around, I saw that a large bone growth had forced its way through my skin, like someone had made a large ‘C’ out of bone and stuck it to my back.  I screamed and tried to pull it off, but it felt like I was trying to pull off one of my ribs.  I stared in horror as I felt my ribs break one by one and another two bone growths start to force their way out of my back.  I cried as I saw the fur spread down to my knees and almost completely cover my hands, leaving me with a multitude of furry fingers with my palms, the inside of my fingers and nails being devoid of fur.  Unable to watch any more, I ran back and collapsed on my bed, hoping that it was only a dream and that I would wake up.  I cried and put my head in my hands, and just as quickly took them away when I felt something sharp poke me in the eye.  Squinting, I saw that my fingernails had grown longer and start to mould into long claws, and the bare patches of skin on my hands had turned dark grey and leathery.  I screamed and bolted upright, crying as the fur fully covered my body from neck to toe; if I wasn’t so terrified, I would have wondered why my head wasn’t changing, but something very painful started happening in my legs that distracted me.  Actually, make that six things, because my legs gave a series of gunshot like cracks as they broke just below my ankle, in the middle of my shins and just above my knees.  I screamed so loudly that I’m surprised that no one heard me; the pain that was shooting through my legs was unthinkable.  Furyia was so desperate to get to me after I screamed that she slammed the door with enough force to break the lock open.  Leaping into the room, she froze when she saw me.
“Hound?  Houndoom Doom-Hound?” she whimpered as if to say “What?  What’s happening to you?”
I found it difficult to scream anymore, because my chest was starting to contract, crushing my internal organs together and squashing them into new positions.  I gasped in pain as my lungs were forged further back into my chest, unable to breath properly and feeling dizzy from the lack of oxygen to my brain.
“Furyia!” I choked, placing my furred hand on her neck.  Furyia started licking my face in assurance, unsure how to help me.  I felt something grind backwards in my chest and I felt my lungs fully open again.  Taking a shuddering breath, I felt another band of bone start to sprout out around my neck, leaving a gap at the front the about the size of the bottom of a soft drink can… the perfect size for a large pendant.
Wait a second… I though about this for a moment, before I realised why this was happening and more importantly: What was happening.
“The Fang!” I yelped, putting a hand to the Fang hanging around my neck that Peter had sent me.  “It’s turning into a Houndoom!” I shrieked, pulling the amulet off and hurling it out of the window.  I thought that the transformation would stop now that I had gotten rid of the thing changing me, but I then felt a large bony lump poke out of my chest.  Looking down, I saw that I now sported a large bony Skull exactly like Furyia!  Out of fear, I drove my long claws behind it to try and pry it off, but all I managed to archive was to break one of my claws.
“No!  Get it off me- AARRGGHH!” I screamed as I felt something start to force its way out of the back of my skull.  Clapping a hand to the spot in question, I felt two small lumps slowly growing longer and sharper: I was sprouting Houndoom horns!  The pain was unbearable as I felt the bones in my legs start to grind up against each other, forming new joints and reshaping my legs.  The pain I was feeling reached a point where no sound emanated from my lungs.  I simply lay on my bed, silently screaming as my fingers and toes started fusing together into three toes paws and the bones in my arms shatter and reform into new forelegs; with a brand new claw bursting out of my finger where I just broke it off in a splatter of blood.
“Why is this happening to me?” I thought as I felt my spine start to painfully lengthen.  Knowing what was happening and ignoring the agony that was flooding my body.  I rolled over just as a long, wiry tail burst out of my backside ending in a large arrowhead.  I felt the pain start to lessen in my body as the transformation started to end, but I knew that the worst bit was about to start.  I screamed out in pure agony as I felt my face start to push outwards, forming a long muzzle with bright silver fur sprouting all over it.  The new fur tickled my nose causing me to sneeze, but when I did, I say the wall get splattered with blood that slowly oozed down to the floor.  I spat out a mouthful of blood and saw a few teeth get ejected with it; some of my old teeth had fallen out and the few teeth I had left take on a sharpness like I had never felt before, with new, sharper fangs forcing their way out of my gums: all the while, the fur spread over my head, turning black everywhere except my muzzle, where it turned the same colour silver as my belly.  I sat writhing in pain as my body finished changing into a Houndoom, including my feet growing new sharp claws, the bone rings sprouting out of my wrists and ankles and my vocal chords changing shape to fit my new neck, then I felt every muscle in my body start stinging as my brain recalibrated the nerves and muscles in my body.  I lay on the bed, twitching as my body readjusted to my new shape, then the pain reached a pitch where I passed out and I lay still on the bed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke up about an hour later to the feeling of something warm and wet being rubbed across my face; Furyia was licking my face to wake me up.  I groaned and sat up, rubbing my forehead with my paw.
“Ohh… what the hell happened?” I asked myself, stretching on the bed and scratching my neck with my tail.
Wait… tail?!
I screamed so loudly that I’m amazed no one came to see what was happening.
“WHAT THE **** HAPPENED TO ME?!” I screamed, looking at my paws in horror
“I don’t know, but I’m happy it’s over with.” Furyia said, licking me on the muzzle.  I flinched when she did this, but relaxed when she rubbed her head against my neck in affection: then I froze in surprise.
“What a minute; How did I understand you?” I stammered, staring at her.  Furyia simply smiled at me.
“I think it has something to do with the ‘turning into a Houndoom’ thing.” I put a paw to my head in annoyance; I should have realised that.  I stood up and jumped off the bed, looking around.
“This is a weird feeling.” I said, taking in everything with my new senses.  I sat down and admired how different my world looked having grown about 1’6” shorter until my eyes started hurting, like I had a headache.
“Ohh, my eyes…” I groaned, squinting and stumbling into the wall, smearing the blood on the wall a bit with my fur.  Furyia jumped over and put her paw on my neck.
“Are you OK?  What’s wrong?”
“It’s my eyes; they’re stinging.” I said, looking at her silvery fur for a moment before the pain spiked and I covered my eyes with my paws, shutting out the light.
“Oh, it hurts so much.” I moaned, hoping the pain would end.
Suddenly, the pain disappeared, leaving me with no feeling whatsoever.  I took my paws away from my eyes and gazed at Furyia, her blue fur sparkling in the moonlight.
“That’s odd, it just stopped.” I said.  Furyia looked at me with a confusing gaze.
“Ok, that’s weird: even by your standards.”
“What is?” I asked, looking at my body as if to see something odd happening.
“Your eyes: they’re glowing bright silver.” Furyia said, pointing to the mirror with her tail.  I walked over to the mirror and jumped up, placing my front paws on the bench and gazing at my reflection.
Sure enough, my eyes were glowing bright silver, like someone was shining a torch on the surface of a silver goblet.  I admired the way that the colour of my eyes matched perfectly with the shining orange fur on my belly and muzzle, glistening in the soft light.
“Hang on a second.” I said, looking around quickly at the blood stained wall.  “Am I… Did… Am I seeing colours?!”
“Is my fur Blue and Silver?” Furyia asked, looking at me.
“Yes, Why?” I asked, looking at her with confusion.
“Then you’re not colour blind anymore.” She smiled, batting me playfully with her tail.  I thought for a minute about what had happened; about how I became a Houndoom.
“Wait; Peter sent me that fang, which transformed me.  He must have something to do with this.” I growled, staring out the window before getting up.  “Come on Furyia; let’s get to Jubilife.”
“It’ll be nice to go for a night time run with you.” Furyia giggled, leaping out of the open door.
“Don’t start.” I muttered before I walked out of the door and climbed down the stairs, heading into the forest leading to Route 202.  Before too long, I saw something bright glinting above me; the Houndoom Fang that Peter sent me.
“I’m going to need that.  If Peter cursed that thing to turn me into this, then he must have a way to reverse it.” I said, blowing a small jet of flame and cutting the twig the Fang was hanging from before picking it up and wrapping it around my tail.
“Come on, Jack!” Furyia called from about 50 metres ahead of me.  I growled and sprinted off after her; the pair of us running up Route 202 side by side.  I think I startled a couple of trainers, who were having a stroll through the forest when I sprinted past them with Furyia, because I heard one of them say; “What was that?”
Before long, I came across a house with a light on inside, and a Latias sitting outside gazing in.  I knew instantly that it was Peters Home, because he was the only person I knew of that owned a Latias.  I slowly stepped out of the bushes, deliberately standing on a twig to get Latias’s attention.  Latias spun around in surprise and gazed at me.
“Oh hello there.  Are you lost?” she asked, looking at me in curiosity.
“No; I’m here to see an old friend.  I have a bone to pick with him.” I growled, holding up my tail and showing Latias the fang.
“Oh, you’re another of Peter’s Friends.  Hang on.” She said, leaning over and tapping on the glass.  “Peter; you have a visitor.”
After a few moments, I saw the door open and a Lucario step out.
“Oh, hello Jack!  I didn’t expect to see you here.” He smiled warmly.  I simply glared at him.
“I’m not exactly in the most appropriate position to give salutations in case you haven’t noticed.” I growled, tossing the fang at Peter’s feet.  “What in Ho-ohs name have you done to me?”
Peter sighed and stepped back, holding up a paw for me to come inside.
“Come in.  I have a lot to discuss about this.”
I stepped inside, with Furyia close on my tail.  Sitting down next to a dying fire, I glared at Peter, who simply sat down next to his computer and opened a folder labelled ‘Pk-morph Research’.
“I made the mistake of sending a whole list of items to other friends I have all over the world, so you’re not the first one to be affected.” Peter said, scrolling through a long list of different Items that he had sent away, including from what I could see; a Typhlosion fang, a shard of a Scyther’s claw, a Moltres Feather and an Absol horn.
“I don’t care how many people got transformed; what I want to know is can you reverse it?” I growled, spitting a fireball into the fire, setting it alight in an instant.
“I’m not sure if I can reverse it.  Here; take a look at this.” He said, opening a picture and showing it to me.
“What in the world-?!” I exclaimed, upon seeing the most disturbing sight I had ever seen: a hybrid of a Lucario and a Lugia!
“This was how I found out what was happening with those items.  Because you can’t see, the feathers are blue and the-”
“Save it.  I can see colours now: one of the few benefits of being a Houndoom.” I said, pointing at my glowing eyes with my tail.
“Oh, sorry.  Anyway; I found out that these items are imbued with a magical energy from Mt. Coronet that has the effect of fusing Pokemon DNA with the holder, turning them into Poke-morphs.  Depending on the item, it takes a different substance to activate the transformation, like starlight, touch or something like that.”
“Does blood count?” I asked, gently rubbing my shoulder with my tail.
“Probably:  It depends on the item.  Why?”
“I transformed after I accidentally stabbed myself with that fang.  I fell over and it went straight into my shoulder.” I said, not fond of the memory.
“Ouch, that must have hurt.”
“What do you think?” I growled, glaring at Peter.
“Anyway, over the next few days, I found out a way how I could change back into this form from the Lucario-Lugia Hybrid.”
“Do you like ‘Lucaria’ or ‘Lugiaro’ better?” Furyia giggled and I shot her a ‘shut up’ look.
“Another friend of mine called Kuro was turned into an Aerodactyl about a week ago.  She was exactly like you at first, where she wanted to change back, but after a while, she liked her new form.” Peter said, whilst typing away at his computer.
“Peter, can you find out a way to fix this or not?” I growled, my patience wearing thin.
“I’ll try, just give me a minute.  It took me almost 5 days to reverse my changes, so it’ll take some time to figure out a way to reverse yours.” Peter said, not even looking at me.  “But keep in mind that I was already a Poke-Morph, so unless you’re really lucky; I think you’re going to be stuck like this.”
“Just do your best.” I said, sitting down on the floor and scratching my head with my tail.
“Jack, while Peter’s figuring out a way for you to change back, how about you have a think about what life as a Poke-Morph could give you?” Furyia said, rubbing her head against my neck in affection.
I sighed and turned to gaze into the fire; the flames flickering up towards the chimney and out of sight.  I thought about how it would be to be a Houndoom, and what it would be like to live life as one.  Despite me being turned against my will, being a Houndoom was wonderful!  I felt like I was never out of breath, I could run faster than I could have imagined, I had the elemental powers of a Houndoom at my control, and for the first time in my life; I was able to distinguish something other than Black and White.
But the best thing was that I could now fight side by side with Furyia as a Houndoom, conquering any foe in our path.  The more I thought about this, the more I liked the sound of it, until I made my decision.
“I suppose I could get used to this… It’s not every day you get to become a Poke-Morph I guess.”
Peter sat at his computer for the next three hours, silently typing away whilst a small frown slowly crept onto his face.
“No, it isn’t working.  I could reverse it if you were already a Poke-Morph, but I can’t if you were still human.  I’m sorry, but you’re stuck like this.”
“Oh well, stuff happens.  If it’s any consolation, at least I managed to keep my vocal chords.” I said, smiling and heading for the door, picking up the fang and wrapping it around my tail.  “Thanks for your help anyway, Peter.”
“No problem.  Are you heading back to Hoenn now?”
“Nah.  Although I’ve got some explaining to do when I get back to Hoenn; I’ve never been to Sinnoh before, so I think I’ll have a look around while I’m here.” I said, smiling at Furyia, who grinned at me.
“Fair enough.  I’ll keep in touch with you to see how you’re going.  I’ll see you around.” Peter said, turning back to his computer, researching some more on a Lugia feather.  I turned and headed to the door and paused for a second, noticing an open sack of items on his desk.  I started thinking about what Peter had said earlier… about how the Lugia Feather had mixed him up as a Lucario-Lugia hybrid.
If he was able to do that, could I become a Hybrid with other items?
“Hey, Peter.  Do you mind if I borrow one of these?” I asked, gesturing at the open sack of items on his desk.  Peter turned to look at me with a questioning look.
“Not really; why?”
I reached into the bag and started rummaging around with my tail.
“I just thought if you were able to turn into a Hybrid using that Lugia feather, do you think it would be possible if I could with another item?”
“I don’t know.  It sounds possible, because it happened with me.” Peter said thoughtfully as I rummaged around in the bag, not searching for anything in particular.
“You could use it to study some more on how the items interact with each other.  What do you have to lose?  Ow!” I winced, feeling my tail poke something sharp in the depths of the bag.  Pulling my tail out, I saw a long fang sticking out of the end, caught by some of the fur on my tail.
“Is that a Gliscor fang?” I asked, holding my tail in front of my eyes to look at the fang.
“Yeah; I found it near where I found that Houndoom fang.” Peter said, holding the Lugia feather in his paw and gazing at it in deep thought.  I flicked my tail and tossed the fang back into the bag.
“You really did find everything but the kitchen sink, didn’t you?” I joked, dipping my tail back in the bag.
“I suppose it would be useful to find out about these items.  What did you have in mind about hybridising with?” Peter asked, getting out of his chair and stepping over to me, dropping the feather on his desk as he went.
“I dunno.  How about I just pull something out at random and see what I get?” I said, wrapping my tail around something in the bag.  “Here goes something.”
I pulled whatever it was I grabbed out of the bag and looked at it.
“Oh, this is going to be interesting…” I smirked when I saw what I had grabbed…

…it was a small clipping of bright yellow Lucario fur.

Description
“Come on, Furyia; we’re almost there!” I called back to my faithful companion, shielding my eyes from the intense downpour.
“Doom Hound!” I heard her bark back, leaping through the dense shrubs and running through the trees.  I turned and ran through the grass, trying to get to Fortree as quickly as possible to avoid the rain.  After a few minutes of running, we arrived at the city, jogging into the Mart to get out of the rain.
“Hey Jack.  Bit wet out there, is it?” The shop assistant smirked as I wiped my fringe out of my eyes.
“You tell me- HEY FURYIA!” I cried, covering my face as Furyia shook herself dry, sending water everywhere.  “You’re supposed to do that outside the shop!”
Furyia simply gave me a look that said quite plainly: “But I’ll just get wet again!”  I relented and gave her a quick scratch between her horns, my fingers gliding through her wet, silver fur.
“Dammit, I just can’t stay mad at you, now can I?”  Furyia gave a happy yelp and licked my face.  I stood up and turned to the Shop attendant, who was wiping water off the counter with a small rag.
“That’s the third time today that’s happened.  First it was a Growlithe, and then a Riachu and now Furyia!”
“Wow, this place has been popular today.” I remarked, picking up a small basket walking over to the medical area.
“Are you out of Antidotes again?!” The attendant called from the counter.
“Nah, Paralyse Heals this time.  There’s a swarm of Oddish near my home and I want to be ready in case things turn ugly.  But that reminds me: I’m running low on those too.” I said, picking up half a dozen of the pale grey bottles and dropping them in the basket, then placing some slightly darker grey bottles in there as well.
“Oh, there’s an Oddish swarm, is there?  I didn’t know that it was swarming season.”
“There’s more than one reason I live where I do, you know.” I said, dropping a few white and grey Hyper Potions into the basket.  I suddenly felt a cold, wet nose against my hand; Furyia was nudging me with a Doll in her mouth.
“You didn’t tell me you got Poke Dolls in stock.” I said, taking the Pikachu doll and looking at it.
“Oh yeah, they messed up the shipments to Lilycove, so we ended up with a crate of Dolls.” The attendant called while restacking a shelf of Ultra Balls under the counter.  I smirked and dropped the doll in the basket to Furyia’s delight.  On the way to the counter, I quickly grabbed a few cans of Super Repel and dropped them in the basket and placed the whole lot on the counter.
“You’re well and truly stocking up.” The attendant chuckled and scanned the whole lot.
“I don’t want to go through a repeat of what happened last time I was unprepared.” I remarked, which earned a small bark from Furyia.
“Yeah, I suppose you’re right. 7600, please.” The attendant said as I forked over the money.
“Anyway, I have to get to the post office and get back to my place, so I’ll see you around.” I said, whistling to Furyia and heading out the door.
“See you later Jack!”
Mercifully, the rain had stopped when I left the store, so I casually walked to the post office and checked my P.O Box.  Inside were four letters, one marked with a glossy wax seal, another with a sticker and the other two with sticky tape and a small parcel.
“What’s this?” I asked as I pulled out the parcel.  The parcel was no bigger than a Soft Drink can, with a black paw print on the side.  Confused, I turned the parcel over, expecting to see an address, but there was nothing.
“Doom?” Furyia said, sniffing the parcel as if to say: “What’s that?”
“I dunno, Furyia.  We’ll have a look when we get home.” I said, dropping the parcel into my bag, along with the four letters and heading back to the path leading to Route 120.
I guess before I continue with my story, I had better give you some background history on me.
My name’s Jack: I’m 18 years old and I live in Route 120 in Hoenn.  I started as a Pokemon Trainer about 3 years ago, but not in the way you would expect.  After a reasonably large prank by my numbskull of a brother where he turned off my alarm clock so that I would oversleep and he would get a Pokemon instead of me, I went for a walk through the woods to clear my head and found a Pokemon Egg.  Taking care of it for the next 2 months, it hatched into a Houndour, which I claimed as my starter Pokemon.  After about 3 months, I found out that Furyia was a Shiny Houndour, which startled me because I didn’t even know: for those of you wondering how I could miss that, it’s because I suffer from a rare condition called Monochromacy, or to put it bluntly: Colour-blindness.  Over the years, I became a very powerful trainer; specialising in Dark Type Pokemon like my Umbreon, Absol and Mightyena, and taking pride in training Furyia to be the best Houndoom she could possibly become, but also training other species of Pokemon to help counter their Weaknesses, like my Skarmory for a counter to Bug Types and my Gardevoir to protect against Fighting types, earning me a well known reputation as an expert Dark Trainer.  Some trainers even started calling me “The Shadow Lord” because of my impressive skills, which I thoroughly dislike, I might add.  Because there wasn’t a Dark Type Gym, even in the distant Sinnoh region, Trainers would come from all over the world to battle me because I was the next best thing besides Karen or Sidney from the Elite Four.  After a couple of years, I settled down and made my home in Route 120 where I had a Secret Base in a large bush for about 2 years beforehand, nestled in a mountainside near where Registeel was rumoured to lay dormant.  There aren’t as many trainers coming to see me anymore, but I still get a few visitors from time to time, either for battling or for advice on how to raise their Pokemon.
But anyway, on with the story:
I climbed the rocky steps leading up to my home, with Furyia leading the way.  I smiled when I saw the Lum Berries I planted beginning to bloom; for such a rare berry, they’re tricky to grow properly, but once you know what to do, it’s a breeze.  Opening the door, I stepped inside and dropped my bag on the bench, pulling out the Pikachu doll and tossing it to Furyia.
“Here you go.  Go nuts.” I said as Furyia caught the doll and carried it over to her collection of Dolls, placing it neatly among them.  Shaking my head, I stacked away the potions into my shelves and sat down at the table, pulling out the letters and parcel.  Opening the Sticky taped letters first: one of them was from a fan of mine in Lilycove, containing a Card and a Photo of herself and her Quilava, sending me their thanks for helping them a few months ago, and the other letter was a Newsletter from the Pokemon Fan Club in Slateport.  Opening the letter sealed with the Wax stamp next, It was from a friend of mine in Lavaridge, who I helped out last year with his Ponyta; we’ve been pen pals ever since.  The Last letter was a bit of Advertising mail for a new Radio Station being built in Johto that was powerful enough to reach Hoenn.  Pushing all of these aside, I opened the parcel and pulled out three things: A square of folded paper, a small bag full of pale grey Poffins and a small wooden box.  I opened the letter first and read:

Hey Jack!  I haven’t spoken to you in a while, so I thought I’d find out how you were.  How’s Furyia coming along?  I can tell she will love the poffins I made for her; there are some of the Grepa Berries you sent me mixed in there too, so I’m sure that she will like them with her Relaxed and care-free Nature.  I wouldn’t recommend eating them yourself or giving them to your other Pokemon though; they’re still very sour.

“Hey Furyia: Catch!” I said and tossed her a Poffin, which was promptly snapped up with a relish.  I chuckled and went back to the letter.

Anyway, the main reason I am writing to you is because I recently found a whole pile of different items and I saw one of them that I knew you would like and decided to share it with you.  I can guess that you haven’t opened the box yet, so I don’t want to ruin the surprise for you.

I hope you can come to Sinnoh sometime soon; it would be nice to meet up again.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Your favourite Morph,

Peter.

I smirked when I saw the three toed Paw print that Peter used as his signature; the signature he used as a Lucario.
“Houndoom?” Furyia asked me, as if to say: “Another one please?”
I sighed and tossed her another Poffin and picked up the box.  Whatever it was inside gave a faint rattle: it sounded like it was made of stone, so I undid the clips on the side and tipped the contents into my hand.
“Oh my god.” I said when I saw what it was.
It was a Houndoom Fang.  A large, pure white Houndoom Fang with two holes drilled in the roots with a string threaded through it like a pendant.  I turned the fang around in my fingers a few times, examining it from every angle.
“Doom?!” Furyia yelped seeing the fang.  I turned to look at her.
“My friend in Sinnoh found it, Furyia.  I can tell why he sent it to me though.” I said, placing the fang around my neck and looking at my reflection in the window.  It did look good, standing out perfectly against my black shirt.  I stood there for a few minutes, admiring the fang while Furyia sat and watched me, chewing the Poffin.
“Hey, Furyia:” I asked, turning around to face her with a glint in my eyes and a smile on my face.
“How do you feel about travelling the world some more?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I sat on the back of my Skarmory, holding onto the harness I made for him as he flew through the sky towards New Bark Town, where I arranged to rest for the night before heading further east to Kanto's Pewter City, and then North to Sinnoh.  I have never gotten Skarmory to fly this far before, so I made sure I organised plenty of rest stops along the way.  It was a week long flight to Sinnoh: My first stop was in Fallarbor Town, north-west of my home, and then my next stop was at Cianwood City in South-west Johto, where I was held up by a few trainers who wanted autographs.  After a refreshing night, I took to the skies again and made good progress to New-Bark Town from a helpful tailwind, where I stayed for the night at Professor Elm’s Lab.  The next morning, I delayed in New Bark Town for a few hours to watch the new Trainers that were getting their Pokemon that day and unfortunately; I was noticed.
“Hey, is that Jack?” I heard someone say in the crowd outside Professor Elm’s lab, and the first thing I thought was: “Oh, crud; here we go.”
Before I knew what was happening, I was surrounded by dozens of trainers, all clamouring for an autograph, except for one uptight trainer who shoved a little kid out of the way to get to me.
“Hey, wait your turn.” I snapped at the trainer, helping the little kid to his feet.
“He’s weak; he doesn’t deserve to get your Autograph.” The punk kid said, holding out his hat for me to sign.
“And you do?” I said to him, taking the little kids pen and signing the little trainers shirt instead.  This didn’t go down very well with the trainer.
“Yes, considering I can beat you.” The Trainer said smugly.  “I’ve trained Heracross better than that Dog of yours.”  I glanced up at him, sizing him up, before looking at my watch.
“Well, I guess I could stay for a bit to give Furyia some target practice; care to prove that comment?” I asked, waving an arm behind me and all the trainers and adults stepped right back to clear a space for our battle.
“Lets make this quick: I have to get to Pewter City before night.” I said, taking out Furyia’s Pokeball.  “And don’t start whinging at me when you get pummelled into the dirt, because I’m really tired of that happening.”
“Prepare to lose.  Go, Heracross!” the Trainer shouted, calling forth the Horn Pokemon, who growled at me.
“Furyia, let’s get this over with.” I said, tossing her Pokeball in front of me, calling her forth.  Furyia glanced at Heracross for a moment, before turning and looking at me with a look that plainly said: “Is this all you called me out for?”
“Heracross, use Horn Attack!” the Trainer announced.  Heracross bounded forwards and slammed Furyia with a glowing horn, which didn’t even faze her.  Furyia simply sat back and scratched her head with her back paw.
“Look, I’ll give you two more chances to actually deal some significant damage, alright?” I said to the trainer, sitting down on the ground and holding up two fingers.  This had the effect of greatly annoying the trainer.
“Grr… Heracross, use Megahorn!” he shouted.  Heracross flew forwards and tackled furyia, who dug her claws into the ground to stop her from moving too much.  Furyia simply yawned and I lowered one of my fingers.
“Last chance: make it a good one.”
“Heracross, use Focus Punch!” he screamed as Heracross raised its clawed fist into the air.
“Furyia, Detect.” I said as Furyia rolled to the side, with Heracross’s fist slamming the ground harmlessly.
“Times up:  Furyia, use Flamethrower!” I said, setting to my feet.  Furyia took a deep breath and spat a column of fire at Heracross, who fell to the ground and failed to get up again.
“What?!  No!  That isn’t possible!  I trained Heracross to level 94, Furyia’s only a level 71!  How did you beat me?!”
“It helps to raise your Pokemon with training instead of Rare Candies.” I said, giving Furyia a scratch between her horns.  When the trainer gave me a startled look, I smiled and added:  “I could tell that you used Rare Candies to raise Heracross because firstly; his horn isn’t as battle worn as it should be for a level 94; there should be chips and scratches all over it from the constant battling.  Yours is in almost perfect condition: meaning he hasn’t battled much at all.  And secondly; his shell is far glossier than normal, meaning he had been raised on a diet rich in Sugars; like those found in Rare Candies.”
The trainer gaped at me, speechless at how I knew his raising strategy by simply looking at his Heracross, before returning his Pokemon and running away in tears.
“Why do they always run away crying?” I asked myself in dissapointment as I returned Furyia to her Pokeball.  The young trainer stepped forwards and shook my hand.
“Thank you.  He has been bullying me and my friends for weeks with his Pokemon.  We have tried to beat him many times, but his Pokemon is too strong for my Pidgey.” He said, pulling out a small Pokeball with a sticker on it.  I smiled and crouched down beside him.
“No Pokemon is unbeatable: no matter how strong it is.  When I started, I lost dozens of times with Furyia, but that didn’t stop me from training her even stronger.  Don’t give up with training Pidgey; just remember that you have a huge advantage over him: you have been training Pidgey properly.  A Pokemon that is raised right will be stronger than any wild Pokemon; never forget that.”
The kid smiled and nodded as I got to my feet.  That was the highlight of my day, aside from a friend of the little kid naming his new Torchic “Furyette’ in Furyias honor.
“Sorry for leaving so abruptly, but I have to get to Pewter City before dark.” I told Professor Elm, getting on the back of my Skarmory.  Waving goodbye, I gave Skarmory a slight squeeze with my heels and he took off, heading for Kanto.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hang on, Skarmory.  We’re almost there!” I called from Skarmory’s back, spotting Mt. Coronet in the distance, which earned a weak shrill “Skar!” from Skarmory.  I was astounded at his endurance; He had refused to stop for nearly the whole flight from this little island between Kanto and Sinnoh that we stayed on for the night, so I knew I had to get him to rest when we arrived.  After a few minutes, we arrived at a city next to a giant swamp, where Skarmory collapsed into a heap upon landing.
“Excellent work, Skarmory.  Here: have a good rest.” I said, pulling out his Pokeball and returning him inside before pulling out Furyia’s Pokeball and calling her out.
“Come on, Furyia.  Let’s get Skarmory to the Pokemon Centre.” I said, heading into the city, with Furyia hot on my heels.
After a few minutes, we found the Pokemon Centre, where I dropped off Skarmory to be healed.
“We had a long flight, so he’s feeling a bit under the weather.” I told Nurse Joy as she took his Pokeball.
“Don’t worry; He’ll be as good as new in a few minutes.” Nurse Joy said as she gave Skarmory to a Chansey.  “How far did you come?”
“Over the last week, we came all the way from Hoenn.” I said, pulling out the maps I stuck together for my journey and showing the nurse.
“Wow, you came all the way from Hoenn?” Nurse Joy exclaimed as Furyia scratched herself behind one of her horns.
“Yeah, and we still have another stop to go to get to Jubilife.” I said, rolling up the maps.
“Oh, you’re heading for Jubilife?  I think you overshot it a bit; its back the way you came.” Nurse Joy said, handing me a map of Sinnoh and pointing out Jubilife City.
“Crud.” I said, rolling up the map and stuffing it in my bag.  “I guess we still have one more flight to make.”
“That would probably be better: you’ll get to see more of Sinnoh from the sky.” Nurse Joy said, handing me back Skarmory’s Pokeball and giving me her little curtsey.  “We hope to see you again!”
“Thanks.” I said, whistling to Furyia, who came bounding over and we headed outside.  I had another look at the map as I called out Skarmory, who flapped his wings in anticipation for another flight.
“From what I can see Skarmory, there’s a campsite with Cabins available in this little town south of Jubilife called Sandgem Town.  We can stay there in case Peter doesn’t have accommodation for us.” I told Skarmory, who nodded and crouched down, letting me get on his back.
“I’m guessing we have about two hours before the sun sets.  Reckon we can get there in time, Skarmory?” I asked, patting him on the neck.  Skarmory gave a shrill “Skarmory!” as if to say: “Just watch me!” and took off without another sound.
“Furyia, Return!” I called from Skarmory’s back, returning Furyia to her Pokeball before I flew out of range.  “Skarmory, next time wait until I get Furyia before you take off!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The flight didn’t take as long as I thought, with Skarmory arriving at Sandgem a good half an hour before sunset.  Taking the opportunity while it was still light, I went to the Pokemon Centre and deposited everyone in my team except Furyia.
“I’ve never been to Sinnoh before, so I want to see if there’s any interesting Wild Pokemon around.” I told Furyia, who looked at me in confusion, then realised what I meant.  I went back outside and strolled down to the beach, booking a cabin at the shoreline for the night.  After settling down and getting up to date with the local news, I decided to head down to the beach with Furyia to have a look at the view.  The beach was less than a few minutes walk from the cabin, so I was there in no time, standing on the rocky cliffs overlooking the ocean on Route 219.
I sat by the cliffs edge, staring out over the ocean with the waves rolling silently onto the beach below me, the stars sparking on the still water.  I leant over and gave Furyia a scratch between her horns, touching the fang Peter sent me a week ago, still around my neck.
“This is beautiful.” I said to Furyia, gazing at the glimmering sea.  Furyia gave me a content growl and rubbed her horns against my chest.  I smiled contently and stared at the sky for a moment, before standing up and turning around.
“Come on; let’s get back to the cabin.” I said, strolling back inside with Furyia following me.  I busied myself with cooking some fresh pasta for my dinner and slicing up some chicken fillets for Furyia; which she roasted herself, enjoying a calm night before heading to Peters house tomorrow.  After we finished eating, I decided to have a shave before going to bed, so I got up and stepped over to the bathroom.
What happened next changed my life forever.
I slipped on the bath rug and landed flat on my face, screaming in pain when I felt something embed itself into my shoulder.
Getting to my feet, I looked down and saw that the Houndoom fang had slipped and was buried deep in my arm, oozing blood onto my shirt.  Thinking quickly, I grabbed the fang and ripped it from my shoulder, screeching in pain as the fang was torn free.
“Doom? Doom-Houndoom?” Furyia whimpered as I put the fang back around my neck and placed a hand on my shoulder to stem the bleeding.
“Ow.  I’ll be fine; I just got myself with that fang is all.” I said, stepping into the bathroom and stripping down to my boxers to have a shower: not to get clean, more so to wash the blood off.  “Buzz off, Furyia.  Wait outside until I’m done.” I said and Furyia nodded, stepping out onto the veranda and pulling the door closed with her tail.  I winced as I stepped into the shower, letting the hot water wash over the puncture wound, stopping the bleeding relatively quickly.  I looked down and saw that I hadn’t even bothered to take off the fang, which was still stained with my blood, but was glowing oddly bright in the light from the shower, and then dulled down again, without even a smear of blood on it.
“What was that all about?” I wondered; letting the fang fall back against my chest as my shoulder started itching around the wound.  I gently scratched the skin, careful to avoid the wound; but there was nothing there.
“What the-?” I asked myself, noticing that the wound was gone; with only a slight redness indicating where it was, that was slowly spreading around my shoulder.  I attributed this to the shower water being too hot, so I turned it down a bit and started washing my hair.  I started scrubbing for a few minutes, before letting the water rinse my hair clean, wincing as I felt some soap suds trickle into my eyes.  My shoulder was really starting to itch, so I gave it another quick scratch.  It felt like the hair on my shoulder was growing longer, but I couldn’t see because of the soap in my eyes, so I got out of the shower and started rubbing my head dry with a towel, blindly wiping the steam off the mirror in front of me as I did so.  I took the towel away from my face and noticed something terrifying in my reflection:
My shoulder was growing fur; dense, black fur.
“What the heck?!” I said aloud and looked at my shoulder, grabbing the fur.  The fur was glistening with water and felt very soft, like I was touching soft wool.  I tried pulling it off, but it hurt like no body’s business.  I was about to pick up my razor and shave it off when I noticed something that made my heart stop:  it was spreading.
I stared in horror as the black fur slowly spread down my arm, leaving an incredibly painful burning and itching sensation as each of the hairs forced their way out of my skin.  I desperately scratched at the fur, trying to get it off me, but all I managed to do was give the fur a slight ruffling.
“What’s happening to me?!” I shrieked as the fur started to grow on my belly in a glistening silver colour.  I turned around and craned my neck, staring into the mirror as the fur spread around to my back.  The itching was unbearable as the fur kept spreading down my body.
“Doom?  Houndoom Hound?” Furyia whimpered, scratching at the outside door as if to say “Jack?  What’s going on?”  I didn’t say anything as I watched the horrifying sight of the black and silver fur growing all over my body.
“ARGH!” I screamed as I felt something splinter in my chest.  Grabbing my chest, I felt my ribs slowly growing longer and forcing their way backwards towards my spine.  I yelped as I felt something force its way painfully out of my back, like someone was pulling my ribs out through my shoulders.  Turning around, I saw that a large bone growth had forced its way through my skin, like someone had made a large ‘C’ out of bone and stuck it to my back.  I screamed and tried to pull it off, but it felt like I was trying to pull off one of my ribs.  I stared in horror as I felt my ribs break one by one and another two bone growths start to force their way out of my back.  I cried as I saw the fur spread down to my knees and almost completely cover my hands, leaving me with a multitude of furry fingers with my palms, the inside of my fingers and nails being devoid of fur.  Unable to watch any more, I ran back and collapsed on my bed, hoping that it was only a dream and that I would wake up.  I cried and put my head in my hands, and just as quickly took them away when I felt something sharp poke me in the eye.  Squinting, I saw that my fingernails had grown longer and start to mould into long claws, and the bare patches of skin on my hands had turned dark grey and leathery.  I screamed and bolted upright, crying as the fur fully covered my body from neck to toe; if I wasn’t so terrified, I would have wondered why my head wasn’t changing, but something very painful started happening in my legs that distracted me.  Actually, make that six things, because my legs gave a series of gunshot like cracks as they broke just below my ankle, in the middle of my shins and just above my knees.  I screamed so loudly that I’m surprised that no one heard me; the pain that was shooting through my legs was unthinkable.  Furyia was so desperate to get to me after I screamed that she slammed the door with enough force to break the lock open.  Leaping into the room, she froze when she saw me.
“Hound?  Houndoom Doom-Hound?” she whimpered as if to say “What?  What’s happening to you?”
I found it difficult to scream anymore, because my chest was starting to contract, crushing my internal organs together and squashing them into new positions.  I gasped in pain as my lungs were forged further back into my chest, unable to breath properly and feeling dizzy from the lack of oxygen to my brain.
“Furyia!” I choked, placing my furred hand on her neck.  Furyia started licking my face in assurance, unsure how to help me.  I felt something grind backwards in my chest and I felt my lungs fully open again.  Taking a shuddering breath, I felt another band of bone start to sprout out around my neck, leaving a gap at the front the about the size of the bottom of a soft drink can… the perfect size for a large pendant.
Wait a second… I though about this for a moment, before I realised why this was happening and more importantly: What was happening.
“The Fang!” I yelped, putting a hand to the Fang hanging around my neck that Peter had sent me.  “It’s turning into a Houndoom!” I shrieked, pulling the amulet off and hurling it out of the window.  I thought that the transformation would stop now that I had gotten rid of the thing changing me, but I then felt a large bony lump poke out of my chest.  Looking down, I saw that I now sported a large bony Skull exactly like Furyia!  Out of fear, I drove my long claws behind it to try and pry it off, but all I managed to archive was to break one of my claws.
“No!  Get it off me- AARRGGHH!” I screamed as I felt something start to force its way out of the back of my skull.  Clapping a hand to the spot in question, I felt two small lumps slowly growing longer and sharper: I was sprouting Houndoom horns!  The pain was unbearable as I felt the bones in my legs start to grind up against each other, forming new joints and reshaping my legs.  The pain I was feeling reached a point where no sound emanated from my lungs.  I simply lay on my bed, silently screaming as my fingers and toes started fusing together into three toes paws and the bones in my arms shatter and reform into new forelegs; with a brand new claw bursting out of my finger where I just broke it off in a splatter of blood.
“Why is this happening to me?” I thought as I felt my spine start to painfully lengthen.  Knowing what was happening and ignoring the agony that was flooding my body.  I rolled over just as a long, wiry tail burst out of my backside ending in a large arrowhead.  I felt the pain start to lessen in my body as the transformation started to end, but I knew that the worst bit was about to start.  I screamed out in pure agony as I felt my face start to push outwards, forming a long muzzle with bright silver fur sprouting all over it.  The new fur tickled my nose causing me to sneeze, but when I did, I say the wall get splattered with blood that slowly oozed down to the floor.  I spat out a mouthful of blood and saw a few teeth get ejected with it; some of my old teeth had fallen out and the few teeth I had left take on a sharpness like I had never felt before, with new, sharper fangs forcing their way out of my gums: all the while, the fur spread over my head, turning black everywhere except my muzzle, where it turned the same colour silver as my belly.  I sat writhing in pain as my body finished changing into a Houndoom, including my feet growing new sharp claws, the bone rings sprouting out of my wrists and ankles and my vocal chords changing shape to fit my new neck, then I felt every muscle in my body start stinging as my brain recalibrated the nerves and muscles in my body.  I lay on the bed, twitching as my body readjusted to my new shape, then the pain reached a pitch where I passed out and I lay still on the bed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke up about an hour later to the feeling of something warm and wet being rubbed across my face; Furyia was licking my face to wake me up.  I groaned and sat up, rubbing my forehead with my paw.
“Ohh… what the hell happened?” I asked myself, stretching on the bed and scratching my neck with my tail.
Wait… tail?!
I screamed so loudly that I’m amazed no one came to see what was happening.
“WHAT THE **** HAPPENED TO ME?!” I screamed, looking at my paws in horror
“I don’t know, but I’m happy it’s over with.” Furyia said, licking me on the muzzle.  I flinched when she did this, but relaxed when she rubbed her head against my neck in affection: then I froze in surprise.
“What a minute; How did I understand you?” I stammered, staring at her.  Furyia simply smiled at me.
“I think it has something to do with the ‘turning into a Houndoom’ thing.” I put a paw to my head in annoyance; I should have realised that.  I stood up and jumped off the bed, looking around.
“This is a weird feeling.” I said, taking in everything with my new senses.  I sat down and admired how different my world looked having grown about 1’6” shorter until my eyes started hurting, like I had a headache.
“Ohh, my eyes…” I groaned, squinting and stumbling into the wall, smearing the blood on the wall a bit with my fur.  Furyia jumped over and put her paw on my neck.
“Are you OK?  What’s wrong?”
“It’s my eyes; they’re stinging.” I said, looking at her silvery fur for a moment before the pain spiked and I covered my eyes with my paws, shutting out the light.
“Oh, it hurts so much.” I moaned, hoping the pain would end.
Suddenly, the pain disappeared, leaving me with no feeling whatsoever.  I took my paws away from my eyes and gazed at Furyia, her blue fur sparkling in the moonlight.
“That’s odd, it just stopped.” I said.  Furyia looked at me with a confusing gaze.
“Ok, that’s weird: even by your standards.”
“What is?” I asked, looking at my body as if to see something odd happening.
“Your eyes: they’re glowing bright silver.” Furyia said, pointing to the mirror with her tail.  I walked over to the mirror and jumped up, placing my front paws on the bench and gazing at my reflection.
Sure enough, my eyes were glowing bright silver, like someone was shining a torch on the surface of a silver goblet.  I admired the way that the colour of my eyes matched perfectly with the shining orange fur on my belly and muzzle, glistening in the soft light.
“Hang on a second.” I said, looking around quickly at the blood stained wall.  “Am I… Did… Am I seeing colours?!”
“Is my fur Blue and Silver?” Furyia asked, looking at me.
“Yes, Why?” I asked, looking at her with confusion.
“Then you’re not colour blind anymore.” She smiled, batting me playfully with her tail.  I thought for a minute about what had happened; about how I became a Houndoom.
“Wait; Peter sent me that fang, which transformed me.  He must have something to do with this.” I growled, staring out the window before getting up.  “Come on Furyia; let’s get to Jubilife.”
“It’ll be nice to go for a night time run with you.” Furyia giggled, leaping out of the open door.
“Don’t start.” I muttered before I walked out of the door and climbed down the stairs, heading into the forest leading to Route 202.  Before too long, I saw something bright glinting above me; the Houndoom Fang that Peter sent me.
“I’m going to need that.  If Peter cursed that thing to turn me into this, then he must have a way to reverse it.” I said, blowing a small jet of flame and cutting the twig the Fang was hanging from before picking it up and wrapping it around my tail.
“Come on, Jack!” Furyia called from about 50 metres ahead of me.  I growled and sprinted off after her; the pair of us running up Route 202 side by side.  I think I startled a couple of trainers, who were having a stroll through the forest when I sprinted past them with Furyia, because I heard one of them say; “What was that?”
Before long, I came across a house with a light on inside, and a Latias sitting outside gazing in.  I knew instantly that it was Peters Home, because he was the only person I knew of that owned a Latias.  I slowly stepped out of the bushes, deliberately standing on a twig to get Latias’s attention.  Latias spun around in surprise and gazed at me.
“Oh hello there.  Are you lost?” she asked, looking at me in curiosity.
“No; I’m here to see an old friend.  I have a bone to pick with him.” I growled, holding up my tail and showing Latias the fang.
“Oh, you’re another of Peter’s Friends.  Hang on.” She said, leaning over and tapping on the glass.  “Peter; you have a visitor.”
After a few moments, I saw the door open and a Lucario step out.
“Oh, hello Jack!  I didn’t expect to see you here.” He smiled warmly.  I simply glared at him.
“I’m not exactly in the most appropriate position to give salutations in case you haven’t noticed.” I growled, tossing the fang at Peter’s feet.  “What in Ho-ohs name have you done to me?”
Peter sighed and stepped back, holding up a paw for me to come inside.
“Come in.  I have a lot to discuss about this.”
I stepped inside, with Furyia close on my tail.  Sitting down next to a dying fire, I glared at Peter, who simply sat down next to his computer and opened a folder labelled ‘Pk-morph Research’.
“I made the mistake of sending a whole list of items to other friends I have all over the world, so you’re not the first one to be affected.” Peter said, scrolling through a long list of different Items that he had sent away, including from what I could see; a Typhlosion fang, a shard of a Scyther’s claw, a Moltres Feather and an Absol horn.
“I don’t care how many people got transformed; what I want to know is can you reverse it?” I growled, spitting a fireball into the fire, setting it alight in an instant.
“I’m not sure if I can reverse it.  Here; take a look at this.” He said, opening a picture and showing it to me.
“What in the world-?!” I exclaimed, upon seeing the most disturbing sight I had ever seen: a hybrid of a Lucario and a Lugia!
“This was how I found out what was happening with those items.  Because you can’t see, the feathers are blue and the-”
“Save it.  I can see colours now: one of the few benefits of being a Houndoom.” I said, pointing at my glowing eyes with my tail.
“Oh, sorry.  Anyway; I found out that these items are imbued with a magical energy from Mt. Coronet that has the effect of fusing Pokemon DNA with the holder, turning them into Poke-morphs.  Depending on the item, it takes a different substance to activate the transformation, like starlight, touch or something like that.”
“Does blood count?” I asked, gently rubbing my shoulder with my tail.
“Probably:  It depends on the item.  Why?”
“I transformed after I accidentally stabbed myself with that fang.  I fell over and it went straight into my shoulder.” I said, not fond of the memory.
“Ouch, that must have hurt.”
“What do you think?” I growled, glaring at Peter.
“Anyway, over the next few days, I found out a way how I could change back into this form from the Lucario-Lugia Hybrid.”
“Do you like ‘Lucaria’ or ‘Lugiaro’ better?” Furyia giggled and I shot her a ‘shut up’ look.
“Another friend of mine called Kuro was turned into an Aerodactyl about a week ago.  She was exactly like you at first, where she wanted to change back, but after a while, she liked her new form.” Peter said, whilst typing away at his computer.
“Peter, can you find out a way to fix this or not?” I growled, my patience wearing thin.
“I’ll try, just give me a minute.  It took me almost 5 days to reverse my changes, so it’ll take some time to figure out a way to reverse yours.” Peter said, not even looking at me.  “But keep in mind that I was already a Poke-Morph, so unless you’re really lucky; I think you’re going to be stuck like this.”
“Just do your best.” I said, sitting down on the floor and scratching my head with my tail.
“Jack, while Peter’s figuring out a way for you to change back, how about you have a think about what life as a Poke-Morph could give you?” Furyia said, rubbing her head against my neck in affection.
I sighed and turned to gaze into the fire; the flames flickering up towards the chimney and out of sight.  I thought about how it would be to be a Houndoom, and what it would be like to live life as one.  Despite me being turned against my will, being a Houndoom was wonderful!  I felt like I was never out of breath, I could run faster than I could have imagined, I had the elemental powers of a Houndoom at my control, and for the first time in my life; I was able to distinguish something other than Black and White.
But the best thing was that I could now fight side by side with Furyia as a Houndoom, conquering any foe in our path.  The more I thought about this, the more I liked the sound of it, until I made my decision.
“I suppose I could get used to this… It’s not every day you get to become a Poke-Morph I guess.”
Peter sat at his computer for the next three hours, silently typing away whilst a small frown slowly crept onto his face.
“No, it isn’t working.  I could reverse it if you were already a Poke-Morph, but I can’t if you were still human.  I’m sorry, but you’re stuck like this.”
“Oh well, stuff happens.  If it’s any consolation, at least I managed to keep my vocal chords.” I said, smiling and heading for the door, picking up the fang and wrapping it around my tail.  “Thanks for your help anyway, Peter.”
“No problem.  Are you heading back to Hoenn now?”
“Nah.  Although I’ve got some explaining to do when I get back to Hoenn; I’ve never been to Sinnoh before, so I think I’ll have a look around while I’m here.” I said, smiling at Furyia, who grinned at me.
“Fair enough.  I’ll keep in touch with you to see how you’re going.  I’ll see you around.” Peter said, turning back to his computer, researching some more on a Lugia feather.  I turned and headed to the door and paused for a second, noticing an open sack of items on his desk.  I started thinking about what Peter had said earlier… about how the Lugia Feather had mixed him up as a Lucario-Lugia hybrid.
If he was able to do that, could I become a Hybrid with other items?
“Hey, Peter.  Do you mind if I borrow one of these?” I asked, gesturing at the open sack of items on his desk.  Peter turned to look at me with a questioning look.
“Not really; why?”
I reached into the bag and started rummaging around with my tail.
“I just thought if you were able to turn into a Hybrid using that Lugia feather, do you think it would be possible if I could with another item?”
“I don’t know.  It sounds possible, because it happened with me.” Peter said thoughtfully as I rummaged around in the bag, not searching for anything in particular.
“You could use it to study some more on how the items interact with each other.  What do you have to lose?  Ow!” I winced, feeling my tail poke something sharp in the depths of the bag.  Pulling my tail out, I saw a long fang sticking out of the end, caught by some of the fur on my tail.
“Is that a Gliscor fang?” I asked, holding my tail in front of my eyes to look at the fang.
“Yeah; I found it near where I found that Houndoom fang.” Peter said, holding the Lugia feather in his paw and gazing at it in deep thought.  I flicked my tail and tossed the fang back into the bag.
“You really did find everything but the kitchen sink, didn’t you?” I joked, dipping my tail back in the bag.
“I suppose it would be useful to find out about these items.  What did you have in mind about hybridising with?” Peter asked, getting out of his chair and stepping over to me, dropping the feather on his desk as he went.
“I dunno.  How about I just pull something out at random and see what I get?” I said, wrapping my tail around something in the bag.  “Here goes something.”
I pulled whatever it was I grabbed out of the bag and looked at it.
“Oh, this is going to be interesting…” I smirked when I saw what I had grabbed…

…it was a small clipping of bright yellow Lucario fur.