(I have broken up this chapter into two parts because of its length. If I had kept the entire chapter as one single block, it would have been over twelve thousand words. To keep these parts roughly the same length, I have decided to break it up)

*Sombra's POV*

...

As my consciousness returns, my mind blurs, and I try to process everything that's happened to me since my leave from my forest home.

So I went to this town, Percy's Toxicroak knocked me out. Then he brought me back and sent me into virtual reality, where I could experience the worst pain I've ever felt, at the hands of a "fake" Arbok's stomach. Then, I went down to Percy's library, and an Espeon transported me to the forest, where I met Risk, a Riolu with a mission to save his lost friend. Then, I fell asleep and woke up to Percy looking down at me, who was really panicked. He took me to a secret room, hooked me up to some electricity, and then left me. Then, while my body wasn't responding well... What happened...? Wait a minute! The water?! What happened to the...?

I slowly open my eyes, to be greeted by the scariest sight since the Arbok- the inside of another Pokemon's gut, exponentially tighter than the snake's own. The familiar red innards, however, seem to be painted a bright blue for some reason.

This place looks like... The inside of a stomach!

My entire body freezes up in terror, and I have no idea what to do. Feeling returns to my paws once again a few seconds later, and I realize that I'm standing, about chest deep, in a clear liquid that sloshes and stirs all around me.

Remembering how much pain the clear digestive juices from the Arbok hurt me, I push outwards with all my might, wracking my forepaws on the cramped blue mass of flesh all around of me. The attempt makes a splashing sound, both from the wall and my paws re-entering the liquid. Oddly, however, the fluid doesn't seem to harm me. It's almost as if...

As if this isn't stomach acid at all... But, if that's so, then where am I?!

Breathing heavily, trying to contain the panic attack rising inside me, I slowly let my head droop and extend my tongue until it comes into contact with the liquid.

It's... warm?! But it doesn't hurt- it's almost as refreshing as real water!

I let my tongue soak up the unknown liquid for a few more seconds, just to make sure that my mind wasn't playing tricks on me.

No, this isn't stomach acid. This is definitely pure, unchanging water! But why is it here, of all places?

However, after I've confirmed that the substance that I'm standing in is, indeed, water, an annoyed voice echoes all around me, seemingly from everywhere at once,

"If you don't settle down in there, I'll liquefy you faster than you can blink! Get comfy- you're staying in my gut for a while until Arcadia tells me what to do with you."

"In my gut?"

I shudder and pound my paw on the blue walls around me again.

"No, please!" I shout,

"I don't want to die!"

I hear a loud sigh come from outside, and the voice replies,

"As much as I'd like to liquefy you, I have orders to let you live. So, make this easier for the both of us- be a good little Umbreon and settle down!"

I look at the walls of my newest fleshy prison and close my eyes. Although I'm terrified of the thought of being in a Pokemon's stomach again, I'm also relieved that this specific Pokemon isn't killing me.

At least, for now...

The depressing thought forms in the back of my head, as I slowly edge myself against the walls of this Pokemon's belly and try to fall asleep. If I'm really allowed to live, there's no use fighting with my captor about it. I don't want to accidentally change its mind and die in here.

The water sloshing around me begins to weigh down my fur and slow down my movement, but I'm able to shift myself around in the cramped quarters enough that I can rest my head on the stomach walls in an area where the water is shallow enough for me to keep my head above it without moving and without sinking further into it.

With that position assumed, I futilely try close my eyes and get some sleep, but the warm, stuffy conditions inside the Pokemon's stomach don't really make it easy to "settle down." Every time I feel like I'm getting comfortable, my surroundings move again, and I'm forced to re-center myself to avoid slipping into the liquid while I attempt to fall asleep.

Eventually, I just give up on rest entirely, and I space out, staring at the blue walls that encapsulate me, as well as the soft pitter-patter of feet under me. Little do I know that things are only going to get stranger and stranger the longer this nightmare of my life continues.

Will I ever be free from all of this?... The answer is probably a resounding, heartbreaking, "No."

...

*???'s POV*

"What's taking you so long? Having some fun with him first, my Vaporeon friend?" a voice outside the laboratory door for me asks. I know who it is without even having to look- it's the wonderful voice of my Trainer.

He doesn't wait for a reply to continue.

"Well, don't kill him! Remember, I need that Pokemon alive- he's quite critical to our plans!" he consoles me, slowly entering the room, himself. I turn to look at him, and I smile upon seeing his face. Although he towers over me when I'm on my haunches by more than three feet, I don't really mind- he's sort of like a tower that I can always cling to whenever I'm hurting. His large pair of oversized blue-rimmed glasses hides his opaque green eyes, neither taking in, nor giving forth any of their secrets. Seeing the two emerald spheres give me a sense of comfort, because they remind me quite a bit of my own enigmatic personality, something that I've never really understood, myself. His flowy, black hair is always unkempt and left to its own desires, but he'll never straighten it. He tells me that he keeps it that way because it's the same way that he found me, when I was on my last legs those few weeks ago...

I slowly look at my reflection in a large puddle of water that I had probably tracked in here when I had assimilated around that Umbreon. A smile crosses my light blue face, and the three yellow decorative fins around my eyes seem to nod in approval. I flick my split-finned tail back and forth expectantly, and my dark blue spine complies. Even with the large amount of extra weight, my distended stomach still didn't look nearly as imposing as I had guessed it would after it had an Umbreon inside it.

The man nervously scrawls a few notes on a small, beaten-up clipboard that he always keeps with him, no doubt about "Sombra," this Umbreon. I've asked why he uses only that clipboard for everything he does, but he would only reply with:

"Basque, it's because it reminds me of you. You're different, but that doesn't make you inferior. This clipboard is the same way- faithful 'till the end!"

I nod and look at my distended stomach, carrying the Umbreon inside it.

So this is Sombra? He tastes so good, and he would probably liquefy just as well... But, my Trainer wants this particular Pokemon for some reason, and I can't just say, "No," to the man that's given me so much.

I promptly turn, purring when the sloshing sound of that Umbreon trying to right himself reaches my ears.

The feeling of having a Pokemon in my gut like this... It's something that I'll always cherish. And I'll never forget the man that helped me to live because of it.

I close my eyes, and the memories of how it all started begin to come back to me...

*Flashback: Arcadia (Basque)*

Nngh... My body just hurts and throbs all over, like I've been stabbed with a million needles... Where am I?

Fear threatens to overtake me, but, at the same time, I can feel a substance surrounding me, slowly draining: spiraling downwards...

I open my eyes at once and look around. I'm trapped in what seems to be a large metal dome, with a glass viewport on one end. The liquid that had been draining is revealed to be water, refreshing as always, while feeling is slowly restored to my entire body.

Since the dome didn't support my size very well, I press my face against the glass viewport and strain myself to take in the scene in front of me.

In one corner of my sphere-bestowed vision, I can see a large black table, papers strewn all over it. A tall man in a red lab coat is sitting at the desk, furiously scrawling notes all over the paper in front of him. Then, the two begin to talk, although I can't understand what they're saying, as it's not in a language that I recognize. The only two words I pick out are the two men's names.

"What am I going to call him when we finally succeed in creating it? This Vaporeon in there- what should his name be?" he asks, to a speaker that I can't see from the viewport.

I can't make out the other person's response, but the man at the desk laughs.

"Percival..." he jokes,

"No, not that! I want him to have a name that will make him unique. I know! His name will be Basque- a people that can never be conquered, a forger of his own path."

He looks at the other person expectantly, who steps closer to the desk and into view. I can see that his defining features are a purple lab coat, as opposed to a red one, broken glasses, and matted brown hair.

"It's your experiment, Arcadia. Call it whatever you'd like. All I ask is that it meets my specifications."

The man in the red coat, apparently named Arcadia, nods.

"You want it to survive without having to rely on external energy sources, I know. I've done all I can- I've activated the right genes, I've examined his vitals, and his internals, I've even found the perfect Pokemon for this experiment to work. This should be the one, our first completely self-reliant Pokemon," he beams,

"Then, we will be one step closer to..."

Percival looks at him with a mixture of regret and satisfaction before he can finish his sentence.

"Shame it took so long to finally correct our research," Percival notes,

"the experiments we had to perform to find the genes we needed... That was..."

"Tedious," Arcadia finishes,

"I know. But, look how far we've come. This is the fruition of all this research! This is what we've been waiting for! Maybe... Even enough to save..."

Percival quickly interrupts him.

"Don't remind me of her condition. All I want are answers that will save her. If this Pokemon is proven to be what you claim it is to be, then all we have to do is correct the gene on my poor little Esper, and..." he trails off, lost in thought. He seems on the verge of grief.

Arcadia stands up and places a hand in Percival's shoulder.

"Percival, you and I both know that we're trying everything to save her," he says,

"I just want you to know that, even if we fail, I will always remember Esper. She brings an atmosphere to the lab that..."

Percival quickly slaps the other man across the side of the head, leaving a large purple welt on his face.

"Don't act like we can't save her! We will save her life! I don't care what it takes- she means the world to me!" Percival yells at Arcadia. He raises his hand to broadside Arcadia again, but Arcadia quickly grabs his wrist before he can strike.

"Look, Percival," Arcadia states calmly,

"Look at the test chamber."

He points in my direction with a smile on his face.

"Basque stirs! He lived the activation! He's alive!"

But Percival quickly wipes away the satisfaction on Arcadia's face with a gesture towards me.

"Is he alive? Yes," Percival replies, without so much as a twinge of emotion in his voice,

"Is he what we were trying to synthesize? That remains to be answered. Will you do the honors?"

He turns to Arcadia and points to something outside of my vision. Arcadia nods and walks over to it with a smile on his face. The sound of a button being pressed down can be heard faintly, and a burst of steam enters the small chamber I'm trapped in. The hot air burned my skin slightly, but it didn't hurt enough for me to care too deeply about the slight discoloration it causes.

My reaction, however, seems to be greatly appealing to Percival and Arcadia, and a smile begins to cross even Percival's face. He looks at me with approval, and he waves.

"Basque, can you hear me?!" he asks me.

I nod, not knowing what to say in response, but he seems to take my gesture well. He turns back to Arcadia.

"Ah, I understand the choice, now. Vaporeon's genome isn't that vastly different from an Espeon's. If you can activate the gene there..." Percival begins to say.

"Correct, I can most likely do the same for Esper. Now all that remains is to see him in action," Arcadia finishes. He presses another button, and the glass viewport begins to slide out of place, allowing me a way to escape the chamber.

I slowly stick my head out of the now-open hole and exhale deeply into the surrounding air.

Musty... The air is rank with water vapor, but that's probably from where I just was- a tank originally filled with water. At least my body has stopped throbbing, so I can move adequately.

The two men gesture for me to fully leave the chamber, and I begin to squeeze myself through the opening. Oddly, even though the opening is smaller than my torso and tail are wide, my sides simply brush up against the metal sides of the "door" without any pain whatsoever, like water is simply running over it. I don't question the apparent bodily reflex, myself, but Arcadia notes it and writes it down on a clipboard that he must have picked up from the desk that he had been sitting at.

I slowly flick my tail back and forth through the air to adjust my spine, letting my entire body fully stretch out in this new environment. I look around and inspect the area.

In one corner, I can see a giant, imposing metal panel with a few buttons on it. Charts and graphs stem from one end of it to the other. I can only guess as to what they are for. On the other side of the room, past the desk Arcadia had been sitting at, is a massive iron door, open for some reason.

Perhaps the two were just letting in some air... I don't particularly care for the reason- I just know that I have a plan of escape if anything begins to happen...

"So, Arcadia," Percival points to me after a few seconds,

"When can we begin testing? To truly determine if you've succeeded or not?"

"As soon as you give me that module of yours," Arcadia responds enthusiastically. He points to Percival's wrist, and the man shrugs, taking off his watch and slipping it onto Arcadia's right hand.

"Go ahead, Arcadia. He's your experiment, after all. Seems fair that you should be the one to talk to him," Percival sighs, sitting down at the desk and watching Arcadia and me with idle curiosity through his glasses.

Arcadia begins to approach me, lowering himself to his hands and knees, and asks,
"Well, how are you, Basque? You seem a little, well, stressed out."

I'm astonished. This time, Arcadia's speech is delivered in perfect Eevee, fluently and understandably.

I nervously reply,

"I... I'm fine. Why am I here? What's going on?!"

Arcadia laughs and moves his hand next to my neck, probably to pet me, but I swat his hand away. He smiles.

"So you're not one of those that want to be touched? Alright, I can understand that. I just want to show you something- a little surprise that I've made for you, in the other room. Want to come check it out with me?"

He motions to the half-open door with eyes full of determination, but, at the time, my mind was in other places- more edible places...

A few seconds later, my stomach growls, but not an ordinary low sound. When I first hear the sound, I'm almost dumbfounded at its intensity, making noise as if my stomach hadn't had anything to fill it in weeks on end. The rumbling in my gut honestly shakes my entire body more than anything I've ever felt before.

It's like there's an earthquake inside me... And, this gnawing in my gut... Why does it feel so... real? Like my stomach is actually threatening to digest me from the inside out...

I begin to clutch my stomach in pain, and Arcadia lowers his hand again to touch it, smiling at me. This time, I don't refuse his arm, because I have no idea what's happening to me- my only thought being that he probably knows what's happened better than I do.

"Basque, Are..." Arcadia begins to ask me. He looks at me with earnest, pleading eyes, hoping for an answer that I didn't even know, myself.

"Are you hungry?"

Three simple words, plain and simple. But those three words, unbeknownst to me, would change my entire life depending on my response to the question. I look Arcadia straight in the face, as if he's trying to trick me, but another loud growl from my stomach changes my mind and legitimizes the question. I soon answer with a short, slow nod of my head, and the entire room falls into chaos.

Arcadia looks at me like I'd just murdered his best friend, and he tries to speak to me, but the words seem to be stuck in the back of his throat,
"You're... hun... hung...?"

After a few seconds of struggling, he finally manages to force out the word, "hungry."

I nod again- the gnawing pain in my gut has only continued to increase the longer I sit here, waiting for Arcadia.

Percival points an angry finger at Arcadia, who looks back at him with alarm and fear in his eyes.

"For a fellow pursuer of science, you're useless!" Percival screams, looming over Arcadia and kicking him in the face while he's looking at me and probably breaking his nose.

Arcadia groans in pain as he falls backwards and lands, face-first on the tiled floor under him. I immediately touch his forehead with my paw and realize that he's still conscious.

Maybe, if he was asking if I was hungry before, he could possibly have something for me to eat? But, this pain in my gut... What is it coming from?!

I can only watch, in awestruck horror, as Percival reaches down and grabs Arcadia by the neck and hoists him back to his feet. What he says next, I can't tell, but it's not pleasant-sounding.

"I'm through dealing with your constant failures, Arcadia! I took you under my wing so that you could help me! It looks like all of that was one, massive mistake, time-sink, and waste of resources! Finish your own research- I'll save Esper on my own!"

He throws Arcadia to the ground, after which a cracking sound is heard, grabs a few papers from off Arcadia's desk, and leaves through the half-open door.

I immediately turn my attention to Arcadia, who's freezing up with pain on the floor. A bit of blood trickles from his mouth, leaving a red stain on the floor in front of me.

"Arcadia..." I mew, turning my attention to him,

"What... What just happened? And why does my stomach hurt so much?!"

I cringe in pain, but Arcadia simply stares off into space, slowly getting up from the floor back to a kneeling position again, so that he could meet me eye-to-eye. He takes a deep breath and begins to talk, again in Eevee.

"Basque," he says quietly,

"I ruined you as a Pokemon. I took you from your habitat and forced you to come here. Percival and I experimented on you. We wanted to create the perfect Pokemon, one that could be both self-sufficient and reliable, by stimulating certain parts of your genome. I've had enough of it all- just kill me and get it over with! I shouldn't be allowed to live!"

I step backwards in alarm.

"Is... Is all of that true... Did you really...?!"

He nods his head slowly, and a smile crosses my face.

"Thanks," I tell him bluntly. He looks at me like I'm insane.

"'Thanks'? But... Why are you thanking me? I've done nothing but harm you?!"

I shake my head in refusal.

"My home in the forest... I didn't like it at all. Everywhere I looked, there was always a predator hiding behind the nearest bush, waiting to stop me in my tracks. If you wanted the perfect Pokemon to isolate and befriend, you picked the perfect one. My family was long gone by the time you found me, and I didn't really care too much about living. When I woke up here, I was silently hoping that life would be different. Arcadia, will you give me that hope?"

I groan again, clutching my stomach with both forepaws in pain.

It feels like it's burning! I've never felt this much pain before...! Ngh...!

Arcadia simply stares at me in disbelief for a few seconds. Finally, he takes a deep breath and asks,

"Basque, I know this is going to sound ridiculous after what you just saw, but we're going to stop Percival. And we're going to do it together. Do you want to help me?"

I look into Arcadia's green eyes, and, for the first time in my entire life, I feel like I have a friend- a confidant- and an ally.

But the moment only lasts for, well, a moment, because my stomach starts growling again- this time, much louder than last time. The pain in that region also doubles, and I contemplate whether there's something tearing me apart from the inside or not.

Arcadia laughs hollowly.

"But first, we have to do something about that hunger of yours. Something tells me it isn't normal..." he trails off.
I can't understand the last sentence he says, but the fact that he wants to address my hunger makes my entire body shake with gratitude.
"Come on, let's go," Arcadia tells me, slowly standing up and walking through the still-open door. Without hesitation, I follow him through the door, knowing that I can get something to eat from him, and, instantly, my surroundings are made into a hunger-induced blur. The only things I can focus on are the large doors, matching the one that we had walked through, along a massive hallway.

I don't really look at everything around me, but Arcadia continues to make comments about seemingly-random things as we pass certain doors.

"Dead... Dead... Dead... All dead because of me... But this one is going to be different. I'm going to stop Percival from what he's attempting to do. And you're going to be the instrument of his downfall, Basque!"

The comments continue, as I follow Arcadia further and further down the hallway. We come to a set of stairs, and my legs immediately lock up, followed quickly by my chest. Whatever's going on in my stomach has got to be quite serious! It's completely paralyzing me from weakness, and it won't stop... burning...

My eyes begin to sag, and Arcadia turns to look at me.

"No, Basque! No, no, no!" he consoles me, though it sounds more like he's consoling himself,

"You're not dying on me! Whatever's happening to you, I'll fix it, or I'll die trying!"

He painstakingly lifts me off the ground and begins to carry me up the stairs. However, after about the fifth step or so, the burning sensation in my gut spikes once more, and I pass out from the pain.

...

...

"Basque?! Hey, Basque, are you awake?"

Arcadia?

I nervously open my eyes and am greatly surprised to see where we are- back in the forest that I used to call home. The same green trees lining the entire horizon. The same large bushes, bearing their fruits of yellow Sitrus Berries. The same blue lake, glinting in the sunlight. Even the Magikarp and Goldeen that jump in and out of the water appear the same to me. However, perhaps the biggest surprise of all, is that the ever-growing pain in my stomach had stopped completely and replaced with a new sensation of liquid filling me from the inside out. While I'm not used to the feeling, I can only assume Arcadia knows about it and will deal with it in due time.

I nervously turn around to look at the man who had brought me home.

"Why... Why are we back here? I thought I said... I liked it better there..." I stutter weakly. Apparently, all of my body strength hadn't fully recovered from the strain put on it in the weird room with the metal panel.

Arcadia looks at me lovingly.

"I ran a few tests on your vitals after you passed out back in my lab," he says,

"Tests that indicated that you seem to possess two odd qualities for a Vaporeon because of the newly-activated genes in your DNA. First, you now have an incredibly fast metabolism, which, when left to its own devices, can and will eat you alive from the inside out."

I look at him, trying to process the implication of this new "ability."

An incredibly fast metabolism... Perhaps that's what the burning sensation was- it was my stomach wanting more food, and, when it didn't get any, it settled on my insides. Just means I need to eat more. I'm not opposed to that idea!

I stifle an inward laugh, and Arcadia continues,

"Second, your cellular structure is much more flexible than other Vaporeon. This means that you will be able to not only melt into the water of your surroundings, but you will also be able to transport yourself from place to place as water, giving you much greater control of the water molecules that make up your body. Does that make sense?"

I nod. I had always been able to blend into nearby water- it's just a natural ability for a Vaporeon to have.

But... Transporting myself from place to place as water? What does he mean by that?

I look at Arcadia, a million questions flying through my head, but he just looks and points at the lake in front of us.

"You can see the water in front of you, and you can become part of it with little to no trouble, right?" he asks.

I dip my head to indicate a, "Yes," and step into the clear-blue liquid in front of me.

Instantly, I can feel my forepaws disillusioning themselves with the idea of being part of my body. I look down, and I see that instead of simply being camouflaged by the abundance of water and become a part of it, I can still control the part of me that was my paw, as if it's still attached to my body.

Surprised and alarmed, I quickly send an impulse for my paw to move, and the water that it had dissolved into, assimilated back into the familiar blue forepaw. I look at it with amazement and turn to Arcadia, who has a vague smile on his face.

"Can I... Can I control that?! That transformation?!" I ask expectantly.

He looks at me and nods, motioning for me to do it again. I smile and quickly dip my paw back into the water, watching as it liquefies, and laughing when it assimilates as I withdraw it.

This... This could be prove very useful. I wonder if there are other applications of an ability like this...

I prepare to leap, entirely, into the lake, to be completely one with the water, but my stomach begins to growl again. I immediately tense up, remember what happened last time my stomach started making noise, and Arcadia looks at me, walks over to a nearby bush, and picks a ripened Sitrus Berry. He places it on the ground in front of me.

"Here," he says,

"Eat this, and you'll probably feel better."

I glance down at the yellow Berry and lick my lips. Hungrily, I open my mouth as wide as I can, stuff the entire object, stem and all, inside, and begin to slowly chew it.

My entire mouth lights up with flavor when the juices inside the Berry touch the tip of my tongue, but it doesn't stay for long. Almost as soon as I cram the Berry in my mouth, I swallow it without regret.

Food was always just, that, to me- food. You eat or be eaten in the forest, and this new metabolism only compounds that. Now, all that remains is to continue eating during every opportunity that I can until it leaves me alone for good.

I notice that no predator, or even a potential innocent Pokemon, had ventured near this lake in the entire time that we had been experimenting with these new abilities of mine. I turn to Arcadia and tell him,

"It isn't safe here. If we stay here too long, there will be Pokemon ready to rip me apart, and they wouldn't find a human that hard to dispose of, either."

Arcadia slowly laughs and brandishes a small, red-and-white sphere in his hand.
"Don't worry, Basque," he says,

"My Beedrill is already on that. Anything that gets too close to our area is quickly apprehended and skewered. You're in no danger."

I look around warily, trusting my instincts to guide my thoughts, while I look for his Beedrill, which supposedly patrols this part of the forest.

Perhaps, with help from Arcadia, I'll be able to come back here, any time I need to, and continue to get food. That is an opportunity that I will not waste.

Arcadia watches me with anticipation. He pulls out his clipboard that I'd seen him with earlier, and jots a few things down with a smile. Meanwhile, I turn back to the lake and lean my head down to drink some water from it. As soon as I let my tongue loll into the clear water, I begin gulping in as much as water as I can hold (which is actually quite a bit considering most of my body is made of water). However, as soon as some of the cold liquid passes down my esophagus, I begin to feel sick to my stomach, and I clench my throat muscles as tightly together as I can. I know what's about to happen, and I don't want it to come out.

"Basque, are you ready to..." Arcadia begins to turn to me, and a bright white light returns to the sphere in his hand. Then, as soon as he sees my face, a look of horror transfixes him.

"Oh... Oh, that's not good... Why are you...? All that's in that stomach of yours is water and a Sitrus Berry! That should be perfectly normal for a Vaporeon to eat! Oh, Basque, I don't even know what happened, but I can fix it! Hold still for a moment!"

He leans down and wraps both arms around my chest, an awkward position for the both of us, especially since my tail is practically in his face.

The place that he has his arms... Wait... That's around my stomach?! Is he going to...

"Do you trust me?!" Arcadia asks.

I cringe, knowing that he's probably about to clear my stomach, which will cause the insatiable hunger to return, full-force once again. Again, Arcadia asks,

"Do you trust me, Basque?"

I close my eyes, knowing that if I say, "No," I may lose some of his trust. As Arcadia is a human that allows me to feed, I don't think it a good idea to decline his offer of help.

Against my gut instinct, I nod my head, and he tells me to point my head in a general direction away from him. I simply do as he says, and he begins to squeeze my stomach with his arms.

The shock of the strain immediately wretches itself up and out of my mouth as a soft whimper, but, to my chagrin, my silent plea for help isn't the only thing coming out of my mouth. Knowing that Arcadia's trying to move the disagreeable food up with his almost-rhythmic constrictions of my gut, I relinquish my throat muscles and begin to gag. The sounds of pain coming from me at that time are indescribable. For one reason or another, my stomach did not like the idea of breaking apart a Sitrus Berry.

To both my own horror and Arcadia's, the Berry I had eaten is the very first item to come up, coupled with a large volume of water. Although, if I look at the water for a little bit, I can sort of see a whitish haze inside it. However, what makes it so much worse, is that, with the Berry gone from my stomach, the insatiable hunger pains from before come crawling back with twice the intensity.

Questions carve through my mind just as effortless as the pain does, and I double over.

Wha...?! What is that?! And why was it in my stomach?!

Arcadia seems to be just as confused as I am about the mysterious substance, and he quickly sucks up some of the liquid up with a syringe. He looks at it, studying it while it's inside the syringe, then, finally, places it in a small metal device about the size of my paw with a display reading on it. The machine gives off a few whirrs, and Arcadia looks at its small screen with worry. I take that to mean that the white haze is abnormal.

"Well, Basque, I have some interesting news for you," he says, biting his lower lip, and I quickly give him a look that plainly reads, "Just tell me."

Arcadia adjusts his glasses around his eyes and looks at the display reading one more time just to prove whatever he had already figured out.

"Well," he begins,

"There is no acid in your stomach. All that's there is water."

It takes me a few seconds to process the alarming truth of that statement.

Wait... No acid... Means... I can't digest anything! How am I supposed to eat?

"How... How am I supposed to live?!" I beg Arcadia, my voice quivering,

"Without... Without a stomach acid, I can't...I can't gain energy from anything. And... coupled with my new hyper-speed metabolism, I'll be dead within a day!"

Panic seizes me just as painfully as my now-empty stomach.

"Arcadia..." my words catch in the back of my throat, and the man quickly lays a hand on the back of my head.

"Basque, wait, I didn't finish telling about that haze!" he stops me before I can become too afraid of what digesting myself could possibly be like. Excruciating, no doubt...

I turn my head to look at him. Something in those eyes tells me that he has a plan, so I decide to just grin and bear the intense burning sensation in my stomach until he tells me just how to cope with it.

"Basque, I did tell you that there was no acid in your stomach," Arcadia explains,

"However, what I didn't tell you was what I found in its place."

In its place? What could be a suitable replacement for the acid that breaks down my food?!

Arcadia checks the liquid in the syringe with his machine one more time to make sure.

"There seems to be some sort of enzyme mixed with this water," he muses,

"An enzyme that isn't usually present inside a stomach like yours.. I've never even seen anything like it before! However, I do notice something odd about it- it seems to have an affinity for only certain substances. Could you bring me that Sitrus Berry that you threw up earlier?"

Trying to figure out what Arcadia had seen before him, I quickly realize, is next to impossible. He knows much more about my innards than even I, myself, do. But I slowly pick up the discarded remains of the Sitrus Berry and hold it out to Arcadia, while it falls apart in my hand. He takes the outer shell from me and grinds it to power in his hand, then places it in that machine along with the syringe.

A few more whirs later, and Arcadia has a smile on his face.

"Aha! I've figured it out," he declares triumphantly, while I stare at him with a blank expression,

"That enzyme isn't present anywhere on the outer skin of this Berry. Do you know what that means?"

I shake my head, "No," and he continues,

"It means that the enzyme cannot and will not react with plant fibres. Which means that, if we are to activate that enzyme, we need to give it a substance it reacts with. My guess would be a meat of some sort. But where would we find a..."

Before Arcadia can finish his sentence, I've already dove into the lake behind me. My body, oddly, hasn't automatically become water yet.

It's almost as I can control whether I'm made of water cells or Vaporeon cells... Let me try this out...

I close my eyes and imagine a sole Vaporeon, swimming in a large lake for hours. Then, I open my eyes and glance down at my paws.

Blue Vaporeon appendages. Just like I expected.

Next, I close my eyes again. This time, I imagine that the same Vaporeon begins to become water- one with its surroundings. I open my eyes and look at my paws again.

They're... Water! I can control it! Interesting...
But working my new ability isn't the real reason I had jumped into this lake. I, more than any other Water-type in this forest, know how to hunt here, and it's not long before my eyes catch a small, blue and purple fish, lazily swimming by on its journey to accomplish absolutely nothing in life besides become food for other Pokemon.

Other Pokemon... Just like me!

I zip through the lake's water without making a sound and grab the fish firmly between my two forepaws, transferring it to my mouth so that I can swim more easily. With the Finneon secured between the two parts of my jaw, I head back to shore and show off my catch to Arcadia, who beams proudly at my success.

"Excellent, Basque," he says, patting me on the head. As I'm not expecting the sudden touch from Arcadia, I look up, so as to shake the hand off of me, but the jolt upwards sends the miniature fish tumbling down the back of my throat. I breathe for a moment, remembering that it's there, before I swallow as hard as I can to push the fish down my esophagus, idly tracing the bulge it makes on its way down with my paw.

Most interesting, however, is, after the fish lands in my stomach, I begin to feel a wave of relief wash over me, like I had just finished the best meal I've ever tasted, and I smile. Arcadia sees this expression on my face and laughs.

"So, it seems your new diet is going to consist of meat, meat, and more meat. Apparently, that's all the enzyme in your stomach can handle... Oh, Basque, before we leave this forest, I wanted to ask you something. Do you- do you want me to be your Trainer?"

Trainer?

I had heard stories of Pokemon that are caught by humans, who then go by the title of "Trainer." Did I really want to entrust my life to Arcadia? I mull over the concept in my mind.

He gave me food, and he's offering to take me away from the nightmarish forest. I see no reason to not stay with him...

It only takes me a few seconds to decide. I turn to Arcadia and nod my head, while he produces another red-and-white sphere and points it at me.

"You're sure?" he asks one more time, just to make sure.

This is my only chance to have a better life- to have at least a chance to survive. There's no doubt that I'd die in the forest without Arcadia. I owe him my life, at this point...

"Yes," I tell him,

"You can be my Trainer."

"Alright, Basque. Let's stop Percival, together!" Arcadia crows, and he throws the sphere at me.

...

I can see it coming- I know I can dodge it easily, but I don't. It's what Arcadia wants me to do. The sphere, which he calls a Pokeball microseconds before impact, hits my side, and it immediately opens. Time seems to stop as a bright light envelops my body, and I quickly pass out from whatever it is that's inside this "Pokeball."