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Fusionistics 2

By Kendo Kawabata. Final Editing by Keleem Macintyre.

For Kaleem Macintyre

Pokemon and the Machine

When a roadblock is set up it usually means that someone is looking for something out of the ordinary. Like an eighteen wheeler that hasn't been washed in several days with obscene messages written in the dust. Or a pickup truck that is caked in mud with stuffed animals sadly tied to the grill. Perhaps even an old panel wagon with faded paint, chipped windows, cracked headlights, and the words 'Free Candy' written on the side of.

These were usually the kinds of vehicles which would send the needle way over the limits on the creep-o-meter and exactly what the police who had set up the highway checkpoint were searching for.

Of course, like everything else in life, a simple thing like this quickly turned to shit when dealing with the rest of the population.

The idea was to pull over any and all trucks that passed through, seeing as the local Torren police department had received an anonymous tip that there was supposed to be a pokemon trafficking operation going on within the next couple of days, however the officers on duty hadn’t been told any specifics…which meant that those assigned to this detail were little less than enthusiastic about the job they had been given.

“And this is why I prefer desk duty…” one of the uniformed men sighed as he watched his tubby partner scarf down another doughnut. “…what’s the point of having us out here looking for something we don’t know anything about? It’s stupid. I wish the chief would have done a more in depth intel before having us freeze our asses off out here.” As if on cue a cold blast of air decided to brush across the section of highway the two cops were station at causing both to shiver. “Fuck this.” The officer swore as he rolled the window up on the police cruiser he and his partner were sitting in. Hot air blasted throughout the interior two seconds later when his partner reached out to roll a greasy finger around the A/c knob. “Thanks man.”

A garbled grunt was his only answer.

The checkpoint was spread across the incoming lanes that lead into the city of Suntouched, so that meant that anything going out wasn't a bother to them. It was just the coming in that the officers didn’t want since, according to the ‘tip’ they had been given, the cargo they were supposed to be on the lookout for was to enter into the city sometime soon.

Of course, during the day this would have been almost impossible for anyone to pull off, what with the rush hour traffic taking over most of the morning and afternoon. The drivers of those hours were perhaps a sub culture of the worst of the human populace. Constantly angry at everyone and everything, hammering their horns as if it would magically make their commute go shorter, the dayshift cops often were forced to take LONG pauses in dealing with people crammed into SVUs and convertibles too small for comfort during the sweltering day. Then there was dealing with those traveling with Houndooms or Mightyenas that would bark and snarl at every other car that passed by, not to mention the kids.

The officers found themselves being sworn at, cursed, having cups of coffee thrown at them, and more than once they were sprayed in the face by some annoying brat’s Marrill that thought it was funny. The checkpoint was just another minor inconvenience that most people tended to turn into a major one.

Quite a number of people had been tossed over the hoods of their cars for throwing their Mac-Mime burger wrappers at the officers for adding an extra minute to their long ass commute.

By the time the sun began to set and the traffic died down, the dayshift was more than ready to go; half probably on their way to some dive bar to wind down the evening with a few shots of something much stronger than coffee. Just before night fell the department sent in floodlights to illuminate the highway along with a disgruntled second shift. The officers chosen for this duty groaned and grumbled as they pulled their squad cars into position along the highway, knowing full well that all they were going to deal with tonight were joyriding kids and stray pokemon.

“Fuck this,” Officer Kyle thought as he leaned back into his seat, dark green hair spilling over his disgruntled face. Grey eyes closed just in time to see the officers on the other side of the street pull over a sandy hair punk and a red headed kid riding atop a large, gold colored Arcanine. “you take over watch, Dan. I’m getting some sleep.”

A grunt from his partner made him chuckle.

Officer Dan grumbled as he heaved his large bulk upwards from where he had been leaning back in his seat so that he could glare at his snoozing partner. Had anyone not a cop been looking at the obviously overweight man they would have wondered how in the world he could still be an policeman, what with his uniformed shirt stretched tight over his gargantuan stomach, chubby thighs, dark circles under his eyes, and fuzz covered face. That his pants were stained with coffee drippings didn’t help with the cop’s image any.

Not that Dan cared about how he appeared to others anymore, what with having been sitting behind a desk for several years now.

Across the road at the controls of the boom gate which separated the east and west side of Suntouched city, the other officers finished ticketing the sandy haired punk for his recklessness at riding on his Arcanine at such a late hour just as Dan finished the last of the doughnut he had been trying to scarf down. That the teen was shouting at the officer was no surprise to the chubby officer; the punk looked like he came from money and those types usually thought that the law was a formality that they could ignore whenever it suited them. The snarling Arcanine standing next to the two teens on the other hand was something that caused Dan to narrow an eye, though.

From the healthy look of the shiny furred hound, the punk was definitely a damn good trainer; maybe even a badge carrier by the way he held himself.

Officer Pickle, a thirty-two year old beat cop, was hardly afraid.

Hand clasped neatly onto the side of his pants, it wouldn’t take more than three seconds for the officer to subdue the sandy haired teen while calling out his own pokemon partner to assist him.

Thankfully for all, this never happened.

Instead of the much taller officer having to wrestle the shouting kid down onto the ground, a gentle hand came up to rest on both the Arcanine and sandy haired teen’s side. Instantly, the incensed pair calmed down before turning their heads to stare at the other boy who had gone slightly forgotten shaking his head warningly. By the way the two stared at each Dan could guess that the kids were probably fucking each other. This fact was driven home even more as the red head reached out to take the ticket the sandy haired teen had been given before ushering the other kid back onto the Arcanine. Getting a hand up, the red head nodded to the officer before reaching around his friend’s waist and then holding on tight as the golden canine sped off through the night on to the east side of town.

Dan snorted as he watched Pickle turn to look at him, shake his head, and then return back inside his own patrol car.

Yawning, Dan turned and pulled out a book from the dashboard, totally forgetting about the incident as he turned on the police cruiser’s dome light.

It was almost an hour later before anything else of importance happened.

“Truck coming through,” Dan said around his nearly empty travel mug of Starmie Coffee, the liquid still semi warm as he watched a vehicle in the distance coming their way.

Officer Kyle snorted as he brought a gangly hand up to his face as sleep quickly left him.

Blinking his vision into focus, the half-awake cop said, “It's a rental,” in a groggy voice as he caught sight of the black and gold coloured markings symbolizing a 'Machoke Movers' truck coming up into view.

“Which means this might be the ones we’re looking for,” the sarcasm which dripped from Officer Dan’s voice was so thick that Kyle couldn’t help but chuckle.

As the moving van pulled to a stop several feet from the boom gate, the lights spread across the road shining down upon the vehicle like piercing lasers, Kyle grunted when he noticed that he couldn’t make out the face of the person driving.

“You want to do this one?” Dan asked, even though it was clear that the chubby officer didn’t want to budge from his seat. His crossword wasn't going to finish itself, after all.

“Nah, I'll do it.” Kyle responded as he pulled his Maglite torch from his belt while opening the door to the cruiser. Stepping out into the cold night, the lanky human shivered; a puff of warm air ghosted free from his lips as he exhaled suddenly. Stepping over around to the side of the other vehicle, the green haired cop sighed underneath his breath before tapping the end of the Maglite against the moving truck’s window.

That the window and the windshield were all tinted made an odd note ring out within the officer’s mind, but when the driver’s window rolled down a muscular arm popped out Kyle let the feeling die a silent death.

“Can I help you, officer?” the driver asked in a low, gravelly voice. A sickly smell from the inside of the cab made the lanky policeman pull back from looking deeper into the truck’s interior.

‘At least the guy had manners, even if he stinks to high hell.’ he thought to himself.

“What are you hauling tonight?” Kyle asked even though he was already making his way around to the back of the truck, completely ignoring the painted visage of a Machoke hefting a large wooden crate over the top of its grey painted head. That there was no dust or mud on the sixteen foot truck’s exterior suggested that the vehicle hadn’t been rented all that long ago.

Kyle smirked.

This wasn't going to take long.

“Some furniture I'm taking to my grandmothers. We were delayed on Route 33 due to a Snorlax passed out on the road.” the driver explained somewhat annoyed.

“Wish those things weren't allowed out in public, you know?” someone else chimed up from within the truck’s cab.

‘He has a passenger,’ Kyle noted offhandedly. ‘and a tough one at that if they can survive the smoke coming from inside of the cab.’

Tapping his Maglite on, the police officer looked down at the tires, somewhat unsurprised that he couldn’t see anything suspicious with the rubber. A quick whiff of the air revealed a lack of motor oil or other fluids which could signal that there was something amiss with the engines, though the stench from the interior seemed to perfume the area surrounding the truck.

“Yeah, true that. The fat fucks,” Kyle chuckled. Yeah, he could get them out of here in the next minute or so and then he could try and go back to his nap.

The driver said nothing; neither did the passenger beside him as they let the officer do his inspection. Dan barely paid any attention to what was going, that just how engrossed he was in trying to figure out the next clue in the crossword. “75 Down - Leads children away with a lulluby : 5 letters.”

Once Kyle got to the rear of the van he shone his light across the back of the metallic doors. As expected, he found nothing special, save for the locks. Moving to round himself over to the other side, the lanky police officer did a double take.

‘The hell they need this much protection for?’ Kyle peered closer and found himself greatly befuddled at the sight of three locks keeping the doors sealed. Looking them over, the green haired man realized that each device was different as one required a key, another required a combination passcode, and the third that was one of those new brands that needed a thumbprint to open it.

‘Either this guy really loves his grandmother or else Machoke Movers must have shit insurance if your stuff gets stolen.’

Kyle hand brushed against one of the pokeballs on the back of his belt, almost going for his Kadabra partner on instinct as something rang out about this not being right all of a sudden.

Three locks on a moving van that had tinted its windows, plus he didn't get a good look at the driver…that made a strange feeling ooze down the back of the policeman’s mind.

And then he decided not to worry over it, removing his hand from his belt as he shook his head.

The truck probably just had antiques in it or something else equally as valuable to a little old lady. There was no point in bringing out his partner just to check on a good looking van.

Officer Kyle turned his Maglite off and made his way back to the front of the truck, deciding that there was no point in going to check the other side of the good looking vehicle. Striding his thin frame back up to the driver’s side door, the cop saw that the window was now rolled almost all the way back up, the arm which had been hanging out before having been pulled back in.

“Everything seems to check out, and I have to say, those are some expensive locks you have back there.” Kyle said as he smiled up to the darkened cab. “Your grandmother must have some pretty pieces furniture in there if you went through so much trouble for her.” he said as he put the light back into his belt and then placed his hands on his waspish hips.

“Yeah, she has a thing for expensive items.” the driver said simply.

Kyle said nothing as he looked into the cab without trying to make it look obvious. The cabin seemed darker than normal, the two occupants moving like shadows within.

The officer again considered getting his Kadabra out; it wouldn't hurt for the pokemon to do a quick scan over the two occupants. In truth, it would take less than a minute for the psychic type to sense what was actually going on inside of the vehicle, but again, it was late and he was tired. Not to mention the truck was in just such good condition that it seemed almost stupid to rouse his pokemon just to look over something as mundane as a moving van. Yawning, Kyle realized that he was in sudden need of coffee. And a nap.

Deciding that he didn't have the patience to deal with this unwanted bullshit at such an ungodly hour, the police officer stood back and waved for his co-worker on the other side of the boom gate to let the driver pass.

“Hope your grandmother appreciates the effort you went through,” Kyle said at the same time he turned to look at Dan, who was still immersed in his crossword.

"Thanks, officer. Sorry to take up your time.” the sound of the window being rolled back up was muffled by the truck’s engine quietly rumbling to life.

Kyle nodded as listened to the gate being silently lifted and the moving van passing through unperturbed while trundling off to its destination. Kyle let the boom gate lower as he watched the van head down the highway towards the city. Dan didn't even look up as he ticked off another clue, '27 Down – Perfect for Breeding – 5 letters', and then proceeded to open up the box of donuts.

Kyle grumbled as he stomped his way over towards the police cruiser. Throwing open the door and slipping inside, the lanky cop suddenly realized just how cold he was as the warm heat billowing inside of the slightly cramped interior quickly warmed his bones.

“Anything about those guys I should know about?” Dan asked, even knowing full well that nothing could have been wrong, otherwise his partner would have made a motion for him to get out of the car to come and have a look.

“Nope, just a couple of dudes delivering furniture for a little old lady,” Kyle grumbled as he settled himself down, tugging his police cap over his face so as to black out the light streaming from the outside of the police car. “Gotta say though, that was a damn good looking truck they rented.” And with that, Kyle shut his eyes for another quick nap.

Meanwhile, a little farther down the road, neither occupant of the van said a word as they continued their solitary drive down the near deserted highway. As to be expected, their destination was not some elderly lady’s house in one of the older neighbourhoods that dotted the east side of town, instead, the moving truck made its way to an abandoned take away store located on a seldom used off ramp located in the middle of a forgotten truck stop. It seemed that once upon a time someone thought that it would be a good idea to set up a hole in the wall eatery here, sad to say the place was closed down not too long after opening.

Apparently the ‘establishment’ served poor quality food, even for take away standards.

The Kentucky Fried Blaziken store was rotting from the outside, exposed to the elements after being left abandoned for so long. The windows had been boarded up, though whatever glass was left in them had long since been destroyed by idiot teenagers, while the outside walls had been tagged with numerous bits of graffiti by those who thought the world absolutely needed to see their creative spray-paint art.

The moving truck slowly pulled onto the old ramp off the highway, running over several ancient clumps of weeds that had managed to poke through the concrete, not to mention the letters of the take away store’s namesake, which now latter shattered onto the ground. The man driving pulled into the parking lot, noting somewhat impassively that only a few barely registrable lines of paint to indicate where the parking spaces used to lie. Settling across three spaces to save time, he cut the engine but left the lights running.

As if on cue a nondescript car materialised out of the darkness, its headlights flooding the parking lot with blue beams of light.

Unlike the moving truck, this vehicle supported a classier look; one could almost swear that it had been made specifically to intimidate as the sleek black beast shone underneath the light of the half-moon like a black diamond while the powerful engine within roared silently throughout the night.

The sporty looking car stopped several feet away, but the engine kept purring even as its headlights continued to light up the black and gold painting of the moving truck. Two men stepped out of the car suddenly. Both looked almost identical to each, what with their black suits, blank expressions, and the slightly apathetic scowls on their faces. If anyone had passed those two in the street, they would have been forgotten about pretty quickly, which was exactly what they wanted, given their specific profession.

Putting on his best tough guy face, the driver of the rental turned towards his partner and then signalled for the two of them to get out.

If Officer Kyle had been able to see the driver when he had the chance, he more than likely would have pulled his pistol and shot the entire magazine into the door in an effort to kill what stepped out of the truck’s cab.

The creature that dropped down onto the ground was definitely no elderly lady’s grandson. He was absolutely hideous. With his head somehow fused into his shoulders, deep purple tinted skin, bald head, hollow tubes that looked like small open volcanoes where his ears should have been, this thing was something out of someone’s worst nightmare. The top of his head was covered in a skull and cross bones while from his mouth two large protruding tusks split the corners of his thick, blubbery lips.

Wide and sickly yellow eyes stared out at the two men in front of him who seemed slightly perturbed at having to deal with what was obviously a horribly deformed Fused that had chosen a Weezing as his partner.

Ironically, the person that came up next to the ugly Amalgam was as normal as normal could be. Standing beside the Weezing was a thin, reedy man with a mop of curly black hair and thick large glasses perched over his cloth covered nose. He was draped in a white lab coat and surveyed the scene before him with obvious nervousness, unlike his partner.

The sound of clopping hooves met the air a second later.

“You’re late,” a mellow yet displeased voice stated making all heads turn.

The Weezing grunted, his deformed body tensing as streams of noxious smoke began to steam out from the holes where his ears should have been, however, the wiry man next to him spoke up before he could cause an incidence, “There was a roadblock three miles back,” the scientist explained nervously. “but there weren’t any problems, sir.”

A whinnying snort made the skittish human jump slightly just in time for a towering Zebstrika Fused to step in between the lights of the two vehicles. Crossing his arms in front of himself, the black and white stripped hybrid shook his head in a very equine manner causing his long black hair to cover the two large zigzag shaped horns protruding from his forehead. Snorting, he reached up to push the veil of hair out from his face, while at the same time glaring daggers at the ‘deliverymen’ who had been hired to carry around his new merchandise.

“That is beside the point.” the Zebstrika stated flatly. “You know very well that we are on a tight schedule.” he said clearly uninterested in excuses.

“I...I understand,” the scientist muttered as he adjusted his glasses. “but...but we're here now, and we so can go ahead with everything.” he said.

The Zebstrika Fused snorted and took a step forward, “How close is your section to finishing up?”

“We...we just got through processing the latest shipment of stones and are now 85% closer to... unlocking the secrets to the human-pokemon fusion.” he said while unconsciously tilting his head towards his partner.

“85% is not good enough!” the Zebstrika shouted. “You were told that a 100% success rate was to be expected by the delivery date. We are losing far too many of our subjects to the government’s quarantine laws. We cannot afford to move ahead on anything less than a 100% success.”

“The... the original stones that we’ve managed to access are harder to unlock then we first believed, sir. But we are getting closer, we just need more time to unlock the final separation process.” the scientist implored.

The Zebstrika thrust his hoofed hand out and there was a blast of electricity that arced from his fingertips and shot over the distance between him and the van behind the two men in front of him causing both to duck.

The bright yellow thunderbolt struck the front of the van and arced its way into the engine under the hood. The lights suddenly grew brighter as the van’s electrical equipment started to go haywire. The radio blasted through multiple stations as the horn started to honk, along with the anti-theft alarm that began to blare.

The window wipers started dashing back and forth as the van began to rock on its axels, the entire vehicle going crazy from the amount of electricity that was suddenly poured into its batteries.

Then there came the smell of burning circuits and smoke began to pour from under the van’s hood as the vehicle came to a stop, sinking down onto its axels as the entire van was short circuited in one attack.

“Gentlemen, you do remember that failure is not something that we tolerate on this matter, don’t you?” the black and white striped hybrid asked calmly. The Weezing and his scientist cohort turned to face their benefactor, both of them horrified by the power of the true Fused. Unnoticed by any, the two men who had accompanied the black and white hybrid had also taken a cautious step away from their boss.

Nothing was said between anyone present for several moments before a ringing tone sliced through in the air.

“It's the home office,” one of the guards said as he held up a paper thin cell phone to his ear. The Zebstrika Fused grunted as he waved for the device to be handed to him. Once the horse has the cell phone in hand he placed it against an ear his already angry face became much sourer as he was listened to…whoever was on the other end barking at him.

When the equine man spared a glance over to the scientist and the poison type hybrid they both gulped rather visibly. “No.” was all the Fused said before shaking his head against the conversation that was going on against his ear.

“Your group has three days left.” The Zebstrika said before he closed the phone and tossed it back to the guard. “If you cannot crack the stones by then, your research team will be liquidated and we will find a team who can handle this project.” he said firmly.

“I...I understand.”

“I hope that you do because let me be clear on this: if you don’t get that 100%, you, too, will be liquidated.” the scientist shivered.

“Now, show me the prototype.” the Zebstrika commanded as he reached inside of his pocket. “and you had better pray that it works as specified. The home office is not impressed that things have taken so long. Or that Team Fusion seems to be one-upping the company at ever other turn.” The striped equine paused for a moment. “This thing is ready for tonight’s field test, isn’t it”?

“W-well, um…you see…it...it just needs some fine tuning. This is the prototype after all!” the scientist stammered as he adjusted his glasses again.

“I understand the concept, but you HAVE at least seen if it can walk and understand basic communications, right?!” the Zebstrika asked with a growl to his voice

“YES sir!”

“Then bring it out.”

The scientist nodded and then quickly turned to look at the now fuming Weezing. Shaking his head as he saw purple smoke getting ready to exit from his partner’s lips, the wiry researcher reached out to grab onto the creature’s shoulder so as to calm him. The sickly yellow eyes of the twisted hybrid turned and the two stared at each other for several seconds without saying anything.

It was a cough that broke apart their silent communication.

Turning to look at the bored Zebstrika, the scientist quickly released the Amlgam to fumble for the truck keys inside his pocket. That his fingers were shaking so badly he almost dropped the keys on the weeds that were poking through the cement at his feet was of little surprise to anyone.

Once he had control over himself, the researcher quickly made his way to the back of the moving truck, the rear lights no longer working as they had short circuited from the attack. Grabbing the first lock, he paused in time to hear loud, heavy footsteps rapidly approaching behind him.

‘That can’t be the cops!!’ the researcher was sure that his neuralizer had made the police officer back at the checkpoint so disinterested in them that the guy probably wouldn’t even be able to recall the name of the rental the truck had come from tomorrow.

Following that fact, there were only two possibilities as to who could be coming out to such a remote location so late at night.

“Sir!” the researcher said as he popped his head around the truck. “I think we have a problem!”

“Get the prototype. Now.” the Zebstrika ordered causing the two guards behind him to nod wordlessly. Reaching into their jacket pockets, both men withdraw handguns instead of pokeballs.

The scientist was frantic as he worked to try and get the back of the van open, but being so unused to working under this kind of stress his hands fumble so hard that he was unable to get the key into the lock.

"Kill anything that moves.'' the Zebstrika Fused said as he rather calmly made his way back to his seat in the car. “And I do mean ANYTHING.” His company had been very careful in arranging this out of the way trade off. If they were sprung, that would not bode well, especially if those two idiot delivery boys got caught.

The two guards aimed their guns towards the entrance of the parking lot, both expecting to see several police men or even a swat team heading their way.

However, they didn't expect something to appear right in front of them, literally materialising from thin air barely a foot away from them. It took only a moment for their shock and confusion to register and a further moment for actually understand what it was that they were actually seeing.

It was an Alakazam, a tall humanoid psychic pokemon with a long flowing moustache and two very large spoons in its hands. However, the creature was definitely a fused, as no Alakazam was as tall as the monster before them was, nor did their kind wear the rather flamboyantly purple jacket and tie style suit the pokemon before them had on.

The psychic type whipped his trademark spoons in front of the two guards before either had a chance to react, and with just one thought, the two spoons bent in half.

The two guards cried out in pain as they were suddenly blinded by the immense Flash of light that erupted from the silver spoons. The pair fell to their knees as they clasped at their eyes, their pistols dropping from their hands as they tried to wipe away the whiteness which now colored vision.

"DANNY, DO SOMETHING!!!" the scientist shouted as he desperately tried to get the key into the first lock.

The poison type pokemorph nodded, even though his focus was on the psychic type in front of him.

Taking in a deep breath, his chest cavity expanding rather grotesquely, the Weezing Amalgam belched out a cloud of pitch black smoke which quickly poured over the parking lot.

The rest of the invaders found their steps coming almost to a dead halt as they were met with a thick blanket of jet black Smog.

The poison type gave a hideous smirk as he strode forward, advancing on the Alakazam as the psychic Fused began a slight coughing fit. Holding a hand over his eyes, the putrid smoke causing his orbs to water badly as they began to burn, the Fused barely noted how the two guards were fumbling on the ground, trying to blindly grab at their guns, all the while covering their noses with the back of their hands.

The Weezing felt his lips water and drool as he let Acid build up in his mouth. At this close range the Alakazam wouldn't be able to dodge it, even if he tried to teleport, so that meant that the damage would be near permanent, if not fatal.

Not that the Amalgam really cared.

The Weezing blinked when a yellow clawed hand suddenly reached in front of him and grabbed him by his nostrils. Before he could think to counter, the twisted Fused found his huge head pulled forwards, straight into the path of a connecting leather clad knee. He opened his mouth to cry out from the pain as he turned, sending a spray of Acid and blood and fragments of his teeth through the air. Said spray connected with the side of the van, coating the driver’s side door and part of the painted Machoke on the side.

As expected the metal cracked, creaked and started to bubble like cheese in a microwave as the potent sludge ate away at the metal, causing the door to cave in as the painted Machoke disappeared into a dripping pile of metal that blooped onto the ground like melting wax.

The poison type cried out again as he was suddenly wrenched backwards by two hands grabbing at his shoulders. Yelping in pain as a pair of legs that kneed him viciously in the back, the Amalgam had just enough time to appreciate a sickly crunching sound before his world suddenly devolved into pain. He screamed, blood bile leaking from his broken mouth as he fell to his side, everything below the waist slowly went numb.

Meanwhile, the researcher was still desperately trying to get into the back of the van, his hands fumbling so badly that he dropped the keys onto the dark and smoky earth ground.

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!!!" he whimpered as he fell to his knees in a desperate search for the keys. He had to get the prototype out of there before whoever was attacking them got their hands on it otherwise the company was going to kill them. Literally. "Fuck, fuck, where are they?" he smiled when his hand came into contact with something.

That happy grin of relief was very short lived however as he realized that he did not have his fingers placed around the keys he needed, but instead a clawed foot. Specifically, a foot made out of dark red scales and large white claws. Slowly, the researcher tilted his gaze upwards, over the long and slender legs, past the incredibly small cut off denim shorts settled around almost twink slim hips, on further past a muscular torso to the face of a Charmeleon Fused looking smugly down at him.

“Good evenin.”

The scientist made a rather pitiful squeak of horror as the fire type brought his fist back to punched the man on top of the head. It wasn't even a strong punch, but to the geeky scientist it was super effective at knocking him out.

‘This is certainly a terrible end to an already stressful evening.’ the Zebstrika thought in annoyance as he watched the action unfold from behind the windows of his car.

He groaned into his hand as he realised tonight’s operation was now a resounding failure as he watched the Weezing crumple onto the ground while a slim yet muscular female Blaziken Fused stood above the fallen Amalgam, her eyes burning with an indignant rage.

‘The company is not going to be pleased about this, and they definitely wouldn’t be sending out a rescue party to try and salvage this mess.’ Once discovered, they would deny knowing anything about what was going on, subsequently leaving everyone present to their fates in order to have absolute deniability before sweeping this version of the project under the carpet.

Of course at times like this it was a good thing that he kept some insurance on him.

‘Whoever these people are, I have to admit, they’re good,’ the Zebstrika couldn’t deny this fact as he watched the Blaziken and Alakazam fade into darkness.

A sudden bumping noise on the roof the car stopped the Zebstrika just as he finished punching in a code on a small panel along the back of the seat in front of him.

‘Oh bother.’

For a moment he thought about attacking the ceiling, but he decided not to do that given the small enclosure he had unconsciously trapped himself in. Despite having fused with an electric type, he didn’t relish the thought of catching a kickback from his own electricity, since, as he had found out the hard way, having a natural affinity to his element didn’t mean he wouldn’t suffer pain from said element.

Another bumping noise made the Zebstrika swear as he chanced a glance at the window.

SMASH!!!

The window beside him exploded inwards as a muscled black and blue furred hand grabbed him by his neck, fingers and claws digging into his thick white scruff as he was suddenly pulled towards the open window.

He struggled of course, clawing his hoofed fingers against the grip around his throat as he was heaved through the broken window, his expensive suit and monochrome fur getting torn to shreds as he was dragged out onto the smog covered ground. The Zebrstrika instantly started gag as the putrid smell of rotting eggs, expired milk and sweat filled boots invaded his nostrils, washing over his tongue and sliding down his throat like pungent ooze. He curled up on his knees as he tried to catch his breath, eyes watering from his stinging vision, the Zebstrika was just able to make out a pair of black and blue furred feet with sharp black claws set before him. Slowly he looked upwards to find himself staring into the apathetic face of a Fused Lucario.

Who just so happened to be wielding a large glowing white bone baton .

“Who…are…y-you?”

Unexpectedly, there was no snappy one liner from the jackal’s lips as he simply struck the end of the aura made baton onto the Zebstrika’s head. Hearing a rather satisfying clunk, the fighting-steel type simply blinked as he watched the other Fused crumple onto the ground in a heap.

Slowly, the putrid smog began clear around the group of invaders, revealing the devastation which had been visited upon the area in their wake and the four pokemorphs responsible for the now unconscious group of bad guys scattered around the area.

"All clear?" the leather clad Blaziken asked even as she inspected the area like the bird of prey she was.

"Yep! They’re all down and out." the Alakazam replied.

"I must say, that went rather well, given the intel we had on hand.” a new voice proclaimed, making everyone’s head turn.

Perched atop the melted moving truck there stood a naked Umbreon Fused with silver glowing rings pulsating quietly along his ears, arms, legs, and tail. Cold green eyes watched the surroundings with an ever vigilant stare before the hybrid jumped down to land squarely in between the slowly gathering group of Fused.

"I can’t believe that the officers at the roadblock actually let them through." the Blaziken growled as she rather easily picked up the two knocked out guards and laid them face down on the front of the black sports car. Without missing a beat, she removed the belts from their pants and began to tie their hands behind their backs.

At that, every but the fire-fighting type turned to look at the Lucario Fused dressed in the policeman uniform which made the Aura hybrid flick an ear in annoyance.

"I'm not going to make excuses for their unprofessionalism." the bipedal jackal grunted as he dispelled the bone-like weapon he had conjured.

“No one’s blaming you, James.” the Umbreon offered as he walked up to rub the fighting-steel type across the head.

“I thought I told you not to do that!” even as he said this the taller hybrid’s tail began to wag furiously.

“But you look so cute when you scowl like that, that I just can’t help myself.” this caused the Lucario to growled and pull back to snap at the Umbreon’s fingers.

“I am NOT your pet!”

The dark type merely chuckled at that.

"We should be glad they were let through," the Umbreon stated, completely forgetting the strange ritual he and the Lucario had just gone through as he turned to inspect the van. "I don't doubt that that Weezing would have killed everyone if they had tried to arrest him.” Uneasy murmurs resounded throughout the air as that thought.

"I can’t believe that someone actually bound themselves to a Weezing," the Charmelon thought out loud even as he tossed the still unconscious scientist he had knocked out over with the rest of the humans.

“Considering what these guys have been up to, can you really be all that surprised?” the Alakazam shrugged.

“When you put it that way, not really, but still…damn. I almost feel sorry for the guy.”

“Don’t.” The Lucario cut in drawing all eyes towards him. “You’ve all seen what we’ve had to deal with these past couple of months, so there’s no reason to assume that he didn’t want this.”

There was silence after that as everyone thought back to the troubles they had encountered while on the hunt for these people.

"All the same, we got them.” The Umbreon pipped up, breaking the growing tension.

“Good thing Matt got our tipoff through to Officer Jenny about their smuggling operation." the Charmeleon added after crossing his arms while nodding. “I guess it really pays to have dedicated members of the police force working with us instead of against us these days, right James?” the fire type snickered as the Lucario growled a warning at him.

“Knock it off,” the Blaziken said while tying up the Zebstrika’s hands.

"But honestly, I believe that it was mostly good fortune that they actually planned to move their items tonight of all nights instead of any other." the Umbreon admitted as he stepped around the melted van, completely ignoring the still smoking hole in the side of the truck, towards the back of the vehicle. "Now let’s see what they’ve got for us back here."

"Be careful, this guy’s mind is running a repeated mantra about something called the prototype," Alakazam said as he continued to read the scientist’s mind. "and from what I’m reading off of him, it seems like this thing is not a new model of pokeball, either."

The Umbreon said nothing as he carefully reached out to grab two of the three locks still sealing the van shut. A quiet growl filled the air as his green eyes began to glow with firefly bright light. Seconds later a hard crunching sound filled the night as the dark type forced the molecules of the metal to disintegrate. Smiling almost deviously at the controlled display of destruction, the dark type grabbed the handles of the doors and literally ripped them from the hinges before tossing them off behind him.

“Show off.” the Lucario said from where he stood with the others.

The black fox-like pokemorph pulled himself around the side of the truck to curl his bicep for the Aura type’s viewing pleasure. The jackal could only roll his eyes at the childishness of the other.

Moving back around to the now opened rear of the moving truck, the Umbreon quickly looked inside to find several dozen cardboard boxes neatly stacked inside of the unmoving vehicle. Unsheathing a claw, the black fox-like pokemorph sliced through the tape sealing one of the boxes.

What he found forced a snarl from his lips.

“Catch.” The Lucario’s hand snapped out just in time to grab an object shooting towards his head.

"Is this what we were chasing tonight?" he asked after taking note of the large egg shaped ball of glass filled with sparkling bubbles he now held "More of these counterfeit transformation stones?" the Aura pokemorph asked, slightly annoyed.

"No. That, along with those assholes, are Team Fusion’s gift to the dedicate officers of the Torren police department, to prove that, despite being an underground circuit of law breakers, we are still upstanding members of society who will perform our civic duties when needed."

“On behalf of the citizens of Torren, I thank you for your generous gift.” The aura pokemorph replied while pocketing the stone.

The Umbreon snorted before hopping in and rummaging through the various other boxes. A metal thump followed by a poetic curse made everyone turn their head. The dark type hissed as his stubbed toe throbbed angrily at him. Turning his emerald gaze down over an unmoving metal crate, the black fox reached out for the four foot long container. A crackle of electricity was the only warning he received before a surge of energy swept throughout his body lighting the dark type up like a Christmas tree.

Everyone froze as they heard their leader yelped as he was thrown from back from the truck.

“What the hell happened?!” the Blaziken shouted after jumping over the van to land beside the quivering Umbreon with the Alakazam teleporting right next to the pair a second later.

“I…don’t know.” The dark type let his ears hang low as he stared in awe at the truck. “It looks like someone put a protective barrier over that metal crate in there.”

“Let me handle this, then.” said the psychic pokemorph as he turned to point a bent spoon at the door of the van. The spoon glowed brightly for a second before it straightened out, but once it did the metal box began to lightly vibrate.

The sounds of electricity crackling through the air brought the Charmeleon around to see what was going on while the Lucario kept himself on lookout for any trouble that might decide to pop up because of the noise that was being made.

When a small explosion echoed throughout the air, the Aura pokemorph was immediately up in arms.

“Are you guys ok back there?”

“Never better.” The Umbreon answered.

“What did you find?”

The answer to that question came in the form of four startled gasps.

The sounds of near inaudible murming followed for almost a solid minute before ending with, “THIS IS NOT UP FOR DISCUSSION!!!”

“What? What's in there?"

“James, you’ll have to deal with this mess. We have something we need to take care of RIGHT NOW.” The black fox’s words were met with unquestioned obedience as his three subordinates all nodded together as one.

“What?!”

Before James could inquire further, the air surrounding the back of the van began to shift and then contort. When next the Lucario morph blinked he found himself all but alone in the middle of the vacant parking lot.

By the time the police arrived on the scene James had fully diffused himself from being merged with his Lucario, Christopher, not that the aura pokemon appreciated this any as he continued to glare at the men and women working around his partner.

“Hell of a thing to just so happen to be out here while all of this was going down, officer.” one of the uniformed cops said as he compiled James’s statement. “You’re sure that you and your partner got here just in time for this Team Fusion to get away?”

“That’s what I said.” The blue haired man didn’t bother to take the bait the other man was trying to throw his way. Being the decorated officer that he was, James knew full well that as long as he kept his statement short and to the point there was little the other would have little to incriminate him with. The only hitch might come from the testimony of the Zebstrika who had seen a Lucario in a police uniform, something Chris was not wearing at the moment but which James was, but the blue haired man was almost certain that the other wouldn’t talk until they managed to wake up his lawyer.

“Ok.” The shorter black haired man nodded before turning away. “Though I have to admit, jogging outside in this weather in your uniform is really something. If I was anyone else, I’d never believe that someone would do such a thing, especially since you said you live on the west side of town, right?”

Beside him, Chris gave a short growl.

A steady hand down the side of one of his hair extensions soothed the annoyed jackal, though.

“You just can’t stay out of trouble, can you?” the blue haired man turned just in time to see a familiar dark skinned man walk up to him.

“What can I say; trouble seems to be following me like a hungry fox these days.” Matt chuckled at that.

“In that case, let me get you to some place so you can unwind for the evening.”

“Hold on,” the black haired cop pipped up. “We still need to take him to the precinct to get a full statement.”

Matt merely waved his hand at that, “Don’t worry. I’ll be responsible for making sure all that’s taken care of.”

“But…” James, Matt, and Chris were moving before the other officer had time enough to think up an excuse to try and grill the blue haired man anymore.

Getting into Matt’s truck, the dark haired man kicked up the engine, speeding the trio away towards downtown before anyone could stop them.

Halfway into the city Matt asked, “So, what did you find?” Brown eyes twinkled as they looked out through the on duty officer’s peripheral towards James.

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean?”

“The asshole took whatever he and the others found back to their base before letting me see this so-called ‘prototype’.”

“Have any idea of what it might have been?”

“Mimi suggested that it wasn’t a new kind of pokeball, but that doesn’t mean much, all things considered.” Chris nodded while crossing his arms almost sagely.

“Think it could have been a new kind of weapon?”

“Depends on how you define weapon.”

Matt let out a hum of at that.

More silence followed with, “He must have had some reason to keep this from you, James.” Matt offered gently as he noticed the lines of anger converging onto the shorter man’s face.

“I know that, but I don’t like being kept in the dark.”

“Well remember, he and everyone else are still the ‘bad guys’ in this case. There’s only so far that they can pull you into their world.”

“Says the veteran member of Team Fusion.”

“Hey, can I help it if I joined a high school buddy’s gang?” Matt laughed apologetically.

“You could at least tell me more about how he was back when you both first met.” Despite working with Team Fusion, Peter, the de facto leader of the group, was still very much an enigma to James.

“Uh-uh,” Matt shook his head, getting a glare from both the Lucario and human seated next to him. “if he wants to let you know something, he’ll tell you.”

“In his own sweet time!”

“You don’t get to be the boss by having a loose set of lips.” Matt sing-sung.

James growled at that.

“Hey, have you had any problems diffusing with Chris?” that caught James slightly off guard.

“No, why do you ask?”

“Your eyes are glowing.”

The blue haired immediately reached up to grab the visor above the passenger seat. Flipping the flap down, James noticed that, yes indeed, his augmented crimson eyes were in fact glowing. Turning to regard both his pokemon partner, James was not ready to see the predatory smirk which covered Chris’s muzzle as he stared back at his human.

“This…is normal, right?”

Matt said nothing for the rest of the drive towards the blue haired man’s apartment.

****

Three days later James found himself seated on top of his favourite barstool sipping away at a protein packed fruit shake, his mind in a whirl.

‘Ok, so I have now confirmed that I’m indeed turning into a pokemon.’ the cop part of him had gone over and analysed the spare few facts that he had, dividing them by other rational possibilities, minus said possibilities that didn’t match up with the look that Chris had sent his way. A shiver racked up the side of James’s spine as he looked through his peripheral to find his jackal partner glaring lustfully at him from where he was seated in front of the bar’s only flat screen. ‘So either I, A, stop using our fusion ability, or B, get ready to find out what life’s like on the other side of a pokeball.’

While James wasn’t sure if a pokemon hybrid could actually be caught in the traditional way a normal pokemon could, he had no desire to find out the hard way.

A thick blush covered the blue haired man’s face as he watched his partner lick his lips, the blue canine going so far as to reach down and stroke over his muscular chest and abdomen as though to entice his human to come over and play with him.

Stop it, James mouthed, to which the Lucario merely ignored him and continued fondling his chest and torso.

This was also something that had been troubling James of late.

Turning his head so that he could watch Kevin, the bartender for the Protein Shot, wipe down the counter’s surface, James tried very hard not to think about how...rebellious his partner had become during the last few days. While, yes, he had never gone through the standard route of training his partner as other people did – letting Chris stay out of his pokeball and feeding and sleeping with him as though he were a good friend instead of a pet – it was still well established who was the leader between the two of them.

Or at least it had been before now.

‘Maybe getting assfucked by him on a constant basis is making him so bold?’ turning an eye to watch how the Lucario was now rubbing a thick black paw over his full testicles, James had to bite his lip as he recalled how great it had been to feel those plump orbs slap across his ass the fighting-steel type bred him hard and deep just last night.

Growling at his partner, James tried not to bare his fangs as he watched the masked canine spread his legs in open invitation.

"You sure he's coming?" Kevin asked breaking the strange spell that had fallen over James. “I mean, I don’t want to be rude, but every hour the bar’s closed is another hour we’re not making money.” James blinked as he watched the black haired man set a tray full of glasses into the dishwasher underneath the counter.

“I know, and I thank you and everyone else for setting this up for me, but let’s not forget that this is the Chief of the Torren Police Force who’s coming down here.”

“Yeah, I know.” the other man growled.

“Stop it.” Kevin snorted but reigned in his ire. “I told you all before, with the Chief’s help it’s going to be easier to go about finding out who’s behind these latest cases of imperfect fusions.”

“I KNOW that, but look at it from our perspective, this guy is the biggest threat to us and he’s going to be literally at our doorstep today.”

“So that means that this place is Peter’s main ‘office’?”

Kevin chuckled while shaking his head at that, “Oh no you don’t! The boss has already told all of us to keep you out of the loop on our main location.”

“Keeping things from me at this point is all too easy for you guys, what with this place being a part of your operation from the get-go.” James grumbled as he thought about how blind he had been not to put two and two together to realize that Team Fusion must have had some base of operation within his own city. After all, it was not too far from here that he first caught wind of the strange rumours about ‘bipedal quadruped pokemon’ that had put him on the trail of Peter and his gang.

Chris snorted into his Miltank drink as those words drifted across his ears. James flipped his head over to have a look at his partner, instantly regretting doing so as he watched a thin dribble of white drip down from the blue jackal’s lips onto his fully engorged erection. “Don’t act smug!” James shouted as he snapped his head away, his cheeks quickly heating up. “It’s not like you noticed what was going on around here either.”

“Well, we did hide it pretty well,” James had been shocked speechless the first time the younger black haired man had showed him the hidden door in the back of the cold room, the one hidden behind the large stacked section of kegs that were far too heavy for a human to move. It had all been part of a fake wall that swung open easily to reveal one of the hidden stockrooms which acted as Team Fusion safe house/meeting place. “Honestly, who have thought to look for an underground gang of revolutionaries in a gay milkshake bar?" Kevin admitted, his cheeky hazel eyes glittering like stars.

“Everyone who’s ever read a comic book, that’s who.” James grunted as he dropped his head onto the top of the bar in defeat.

That got a chuckle out of Kevin.

“Anyway, about that thing you all found...”

Kevin merely raised his hands in front of him while shaking his head at that. “Nope. Boss said that you weren’t to know until he was ready for you to know, so don’t ask me anything.”

James snorted.

"By the way, why did the Chief of Police agree to meet you here, anyway?" Kevin had yet to wrap his head around that one.

“Maybe he needs some protein in his beer,” James suggested with a chuckle before he realized what he just said. “Ok, this is getting out of control.” Kevin raised an eyebrow. “Hey, have you ever had an issue between you and Craig after diffusing from each other?”

“Can’t say that I have.” Kevin admitted honestly as he turned to watch his Charmeleon partner wiping down the empty tables surrounding the bar.

Sensing that he was being watched, the bowtie wearing lizard turned to wink at his master before lifting his long and thick reptilian tail up. Both humans got an eyeful as they spotted the glossy looking tailstar of the fire type wink at them.

A rough growl made both men turn to see Chris snarling openly at Craig. Murder shining clearly within the masked jackal’s crimson eyes, the flame tailed lizard quickly lowered his tail and then scooted over to the other side of the bar, well away from the glowing aura pokemon.

“Though I can say that the overbearingness should be expected, given what we do.” Kevin chuckled as he noted the Lucario turning to face James as though warning him without words what would happen if he even thought about straying off with some other pokemon.

“Oh great,” the blue haired man said aloud. “as if someone wasn’t already over possessive as is it.”

Chris merely stuck his tongue out at his human for that quip.

“But seriously, should I expect anything…weird to happen, like not being able to diffuse him with Chris one day?”

“Not really. I meant, the boss and his sister have always been able to fuse and diffuse whenever they’ve wanted to, and they’ve been doing this the longest of anyone.”

James let out a soft murmur at that.

The sound of the front door opening made every turn.

James gave a short salute as he looked to the imposing figure that casually stepped into the near vacant establishment.

“James,” said Chief Stark as he walked over and sat himself on the stool beside one his best and most aggravating officers.

“Welcome, Chief.” The slightly grey haired man gave a rumble of acknowledgment before turning his head to the drink the younger cop had. “It’s not alcoholic.”

The older man said nothing.

"Drink sir?" Kevin asked politely while trying not to run out of the building screaming.

From what he could see, Kevin now understood why his boss wanted the team to steer well away from the imposing man who now glared at him as though he were a child who had be caught doing wrong. It was easy to tell that Chief Starks was a by the books type of man; everything from the way he sat, to the crisp, clean folds of the uniform he wore symbolized the kind of person who would hardly ever turned a blind eye to injustice and disorder. Though some of his body had gone to seed because of his choice to work more behind a desk, rather than walking the beat like the rest of his officer, this man was masculinity incarnate and the lowly ranking member of Team Fusion tried to do everything he could to stop himself from getting on his knees and spilling his guts out to the man who bore into him with aged, brown eyes.

“A soda water will do.”

Kevin nodded before quickly bending over to pull a bottle of Blastoisoda Water out from the shelf underneath the bar top. Fingers shaking madly as he pulled a freshly washed glass from the dish washer, the younger man grabbed his rag and polished the glass until it shone under the dim light shining up above. Settling the cup down onto a coaster, Kevin popped the cap on the soda water top, getting a hiss of bubbles as the air met with the carbonated water. Fixing the ordered drink with a slight flourish, Kevin gently slid the glass towards the police chief then hurriedly excusing himself, signalling for his Charmeleon to join him out the back so the two could talk in private.

Once they were gone Stark turned to notice the only of creature in the room, Jame’s Lucario, who was currently turned away from them and watching some exercise program on the television. “So, what's so important you asked me down for a chat in your new favourite hangout?” Stark inquired as he took a sip of his drink.

“I’d ask why you’d know something like that, but I’d be scared of the answer.” Stark said nothing. “Anyway, sir, I wanted to ask about the group that we managed to collar.”

“I assume that Jenny didn’t tell you yet.”

“She currently still hates my guts.” Even though it had been months, his ex had not been all that forgiving for the outburst which had all but broken them up after James had returned from his undercover mission down in the Black Market.

“You didn’t ask Rupert for any details?”

“Come on, sir! It’s kind of tasteless to ask a friend what my ex…captain knows!”

Stark chuckled at that.

“To tell the truth, we’ve been blindsided.”

"How so?" James asked even as he felt his Lucario’s eyes on him, the aura pokemon silently trying to tell him without words to keep his cool.

“You know the Ison Corporation?" Stark asked as he took another sip of his drink. James nodded. They were the biggest medical company in the Torren Region. They supplied every pokemon center with the equipment they needed to care for the injured creatures, not mention the healing items bought at the pokemon marts, supplied the finances for the local radio station, and regulated the gyms.

"An hour after we put them in the sweat tank, the Zebstrika changed back into a person and his pokemon.” Stark shook his head as he thought of something. “The Weezing didn't. Claimed he was stuck as is. We were about to start interrogating him when a lawyer from Ison turned up." he said.

"He came for the guy who bonded himself with the Zebstrika, right?" James asked.

"Indeed." Stark said. "Turns out, the whole group worked for the company. All of them had signed NDAs. I’m going to guess that Ison put some serious pressure on these guys to get them to sign that paperwork, because, beside the Zebstrika’s owner, these people are idiots." he continued with another swig of his drink.

“He wanted to remove the guy who just changed and the scientist, but we still have them in lock up over a couple of technicalities with their story that we are still in the process of verifying.” James chuckled at that.

“Considering all those imperfect Fused who are still in the quarantine section at the hospital, it seems a little careless for such a big company to come out and try to snag a perfectly Fused person from the police.” James said while looking into his now empty glass.

“We’re working on that angle as we speak, but the red tape is thick on this one.”

“I can imagine.” James sighed. “What about the others?”

“Unsurprisingly, the lawyer didn't seem to care about them.”

“Goons are a dime a dozen, after all.” James hissed. “Do you think that Ison created the stones the other guys managed to obtain?”

“Not sure. We’re trying to get the scientist to open up, but that lawyer keeps shooting us down every time we go in to ask him anything.” Stark growled at that. “If I hear one more ‘you can’t answer that’ from the guy, I’ll find someone to audit his company.”

James bit the inside of his cheek to keep from snickering.

“What have you managed to get out of the guy so far?”

"The scientist’s name is Wayne Hodges, and apparently he’s the head of Ison’s research and bioengineering department.”

"Bioengineering department for a medical company? Please don’t tell me we have another mad scientist group on our hands. Didn’t we get enough from those assholes who tried to graph the ‘ultimate evolution stone’ and then use said stone on a bunch of Eevee?” the experience had become a worldwide scandal just two years prior, but it seemed like nothing had been learned from that tragedy.

Stark finished the last of his soda water before he continued to speak. “It’s just a hunch, but I have reason to believe that these people are close to perfecting their own version of the Fusion stone you found for us.”

“Arceus help us all if they are.” James prayed.

“As I said, it’s just a hunch. Mimi is still looking into it, but she’s almost 85% sure that they’re very close to cracking the stones secrets,” the older man paused before reaching into his pocket to pull out something. “but given the fact that we have their head researcher, we have some time before they either find someone else to do research on those stones. In that light, I’m making you part of a new taskforce which is going to start looking into the Ison Corp’s personal and private affiliations starting tomorrow.” James gaped as he watched the chief put down a shiny platinum badge onto the counter top in between them.

“S-sir, I-I…can’t be…”

“Too many people have suffered because of Team Fusions antics, so someone needs to come in and clean up the mess they’ve made.” Crimson eyes blinked as James stared up at his commanding officer. “I can’t think of anyone else who’d be more fitting for the job than you, James.”

“But why? I mean, for all intents and purposes, I failed to bring them down.”

“Did you?”

James blinked.

“You may or may not know this, but after you had us infiltrate their supposed hideout in the Black Market, their activity dwindled to almost nothing.” The blue haired man fought not to whimper as Stark stared at him with a dreadful intensity. “Now I find it very odd that after their near disappearance that the Ison Corp is caught nearly red handed with similar kinds of stones. This leads me to think that the two are more connected than anyone realizes, and why you, of all the detectives at the city’s disposal, would be just best for taking care to unearth the truth behind what’s really going on here.”

James turned his head away at that.

Silence hung in the air for several minutes, save for the chattering background noise coming from the infomercials playing on the tv.

“Do you think that Team Fusion could have broken away from the Ison Corp and that this is why we’re suddenly seeing an emergence of so many newly deformed fused?” Kiki, James pink haired nurse friend, had been all but in tears after seeing so many more people half combined with their pokemon being brought into the hospital.

“I’d bet money that they were tied in some way.” Stark began while ruffling through his pocket again. “It’s just too convenient that after you bring Team Fusion into focus, this situation happens to crop up.” James eyes widened as he watched the older man place a glowing aqua green item onto the table.

“Awww, Chief, I’m touched but green’s not really my color.”

A hand popped the younger cop onto the back of the head before he could think to duck.

“We confiscated this it off a guy that was found masturbating on his front lawn while fused with his Tauros. It’s the same kind of stone that you brought back for us to analyse after your month long tour in the Black market.” Chris snorted into his drink as he thought back to the several months of hell his mate had suffered through before turning his attention back to the new Bow flex machine that was being highlighted.

Stark pulled another stone from his pocket, though this one held bright amber color about itself. "Know what this is?" he asked.

“The false fusion stone.” James said, even though he knew well enough that it wasn’t.

"Bingo. We pulled it from the van you collared." Stark grunted. "Yet unlike the other one, it seems to respond well enough when given the right…stimulus."

"It does?" James reached over and picked up the sparkling egg. Bringing it up to the light, the blue haired man could see that, though the two were fundamentally similar, there was a key difference in Peter’s stone and this one.

“There’s a void in the middle of this stone,” James thought aloud. Deep in the center, spreading outwards like a fanning tree branch, sat an empty space that was very hard to see...unless you were paying close attention to it. He grabbed the real stone and inspected it for the same void.

Nothing.

“The Weezing we arrested attested to having used one of those amber stones, but when we showed him the other one, he said he never seen it before. This leads me to believe that there’s something Team Fusion has or is making that Ison can’t quite replicate." Stark admitted.

"Do you have any idea what that could be?"

"The machines the lab used haven’t been able to come up with anything viable as of yet, and Mimi’s almost ready to pull out her hair in trying to define what this missing element is.” James snorted. “She’s sending the stone off to a young professor over in the Johto region to see if he can help.”

"Why do you think that Ison would run the risk of making these defects?” that was something James had been curious about ever since stumbling over these false fusion stones.

"Think about it, James,” Crimson eyes turned to regard Stark blankly. “all the previous ‘teams’ out there had some kind of an end game strategy they wanted to fulfil. Rocket had world domination. Aqua had sea expansion. Magma had land expansion. Even N had his plot to liberate all pokemon." James nodded. “But so far, Team Fusions endgame doesn't seem to be there. I get the ideology behind their group, but there’s not ‘end’ to it.”

“What do you mean?”

“You can try and give every person in the world one of the true stones, but it doesn’t mean that everyone in the world would fuse with their pokemon. The sense of individuality that separates them from those other creatures is why our world is shaped the way it is and why that individuality would always remain present in the face of even the most ideal utopia that could be created.”

“So, even if you gave people the key to true bliss, some just won’t take it?” James asked tiredly.

“I’ve been a cop for over forty years and I have seen some of the worst of what people do in the name of freedom from conformity, even if said conformity is the reason they possess the choice take or forsake the ideology they have been presented with.” Stark sighed as the weight of his years rolled from his shoulders.

“Could that be why Team Fusion broke away? Because they realized that, no matter what they tried, you just can’t give people the keys to happiness. They have to struggle for it for themselves in order to be happy.”

Stark pat the younger man on the shoulder, a deep barrelled chuckle in his throat as he shook his head as he got up to walk out of the bar.

James said nothing as he contemplated everything he had just been told.

"You are not getting a Bow Flex Machine." he said, not even needing to ask as he turned to watch his partner come over to stare up at him with big, puppy dog eyes. “I don’t care how big your eyes get; you’re not getting more exercise equipment.”

If the Lucario could swear he would have as he growled under his breath and looked extremely disappointed.

James chuckled.

Rubbing his partner on the head to show that he still loved him, the blue haired man got up to head to the back door of the bar.

******

“Hey Kevin, we need to talk. The Chief thinks that...” James was interrupted as he opened the door and came face to face with the sight of Kevin on the floor of the stock room, his cargo pants around his ankles as he lay on his back, his Charmeleon happily riding his eight inch cock like a professional pole dancer.

“Oh hey,” the black haired man grunted as he licked his tongue across the back of the fire lizard’s neck. “you done with your meeting?”

“You're doing this now?” James asked incredulously, although he really should not have been surprised. Ever since he had been initiated into the joys of fusing with Chris it was like his hormones were constantly set to overdrive.

Thinking back to this morning, James could barely keep his pale cheeks from turning red as he recalled waking up to the Lucario’s balls dangling onto his face as the masked jackal worked to mark him with his musk.

“Oh come on, we had to pass the time somehow.” Kevin moaned as Craig grabbed the shelf beside him and used it as leverage to push himself down onto his master’s lap even harder. With the fire type’s tail raised high into the air, James got an all too perfect view of that muscular backside spread around the black haired bartender’s thick length. Watching as the other man’s shaft was buried over and over again into the tight confines of the Charmeleon’s taut rump; James couldn’t help but whimper as he felt a paw reach out to stroke over his crotch.

Wait. What?

Dropping his head down, the blue haired man watched as a familiar pair of steel hard arms wrapped around his waist, squeezing him tight as if promising to never let him go. Turning, he found Chris looking up at him with a hungry, almost possessive gleam within his crimson canine eyes.

“This really isn’t the time for…” was about as far as the man got before a rumbling growl from his mate forced a shiver to run throughout his entire being.

A nudge from the aura pokemon’s waist informed James that Chris was more than ready to force the issue.

James sighed but smiled as he shook his head.

He knew he'd be lying if he said that he didn't want what Chris was so obviously offering, but at the same time, with everything that was going on, James wondered if this was really a good idea.

Sensing that his mate was trying to use logic to get in the way of what could be a round of sensual fun, the Lucario decided to take things into his own paws. Unzipping the blur haired man’s pants, Chris reached into roll his trio of chubby fingers across James’s heavy balls, sparking a rising groan from the other. Smirking as he caught the heady musk that symbolized his mate’s willingness to breed rising from off of his skin, the aura pokemon didn’t give the human any time to object as he sneaked his other hand around to press over a, here to unseen, silver bracelet hidden underneath the collar of the sleeve of James’s shirt.

Chris gave out a happy bark as his middle digit caught onto the hard outline of something that bore a spherical shape.

“Damn it, CHRIS!!!” James howled as a brilliant aqua green stone glow spread throughout the room.

James hissed as felt his partner start melting onto him as the canine’s body penetrated through his clothing and onto his skin. It felt hot and warm, giving him goosebumps as his partner’s formerly solid form spread like butter underneath his clothing and across his body.

He grunted, groaning out as his body started to change internally, bones cracking and popping as they were enlarged and realigned to suit his rapidly changing body. He fumbled with his pants as he undid his belt, his fingers slowly changing into thick paws.

The changes were much more rapid as he/Chris tugged his hard length, feeling the sheath wrap around the base as his cock started to enlarge and change shape as well. It always made them hard, always feeling so good and oh so arousing as his balls doubled in size to contain both his and his Lucario’s seed.

A tail burst forth behind him, wagging furiously as he gripped the wall behind him for support as he felt the hot liquid mass of his partner rush up around his neck and begin to change his head. His skull popped and expanded as Chris’ face covered his own like a flowing latex mask, though that was nothing compared to the strange explosion of thoughts and instincts which wrapped inside of his brain as his/Chris hair extensions rolled down the back of his head.

The whole change took less than a minute for him, yet by the time it was down, the newly changed Fused left, panting as saliva dripped from his now canine muzzle.

“Damn it, why did I do that. I mean you…you do that.” James growled as he fought to admonish his partner…even though he was his partner.

A strange sense of amusement passed through the hybrid as he continued to stroke himself.

“Well, now that you’re ready, why don't you come over here and put that cock somewhere nice and warm.” Kevin said startling James out of his annoyance as he recalled the fact that there was indeed somebody else in the room with him.

Looking over to the human, James found himself oddly unimpressed with the other. However, as he listened to the furless creature moans as his Charmeleon ground his bubbly rear up and down onto the man’s lap, James found himself nodding at the thought of burying his knot deep inside of that plump lizard’s ass. The fact that he could see a faint bulge inside of the other pokemon’s stomach only served to excite the Lucario even further.

“Hehe, alright. But no complaints if I put it someplace that ends up surprising you.” James growled with a grin as he slowly smeared his hot pre seeping out from the tip of his pointed cock over his length.

“Oh really?” Kevin asked as his Craig slowed down his grinding and bouncing long enough to look over his shoulder at the Fused Lucario.

The fire type narrowed his eyes as he found himself looking into the almost feral crimson orbs which shown back at him.

The fighting steel type mere grinned, his pointed fangs gleaming within the hanging light up above the storeroom as he wagged his large, knotted cock in the air.

When James came over to the pair, the Charmeleon was not ready to find himself suddenly pushed forward into his master’s chest. The masked jackal didn’t waste any time as he pinned the red lizard down, forcing the other mon’s fire lit tail up as he exposed the other’s well stretched ring to the air.

“I have to admit, Kevin, for a human, you’ve got a nice dick on you,” James grunted as he took a moment to admire the almost beer can thick cock. ‘Though it’s a pity you don’t have a knot.’

Kevin merely chuckled at the compliment as he reached around to hug his squirming partner.

Craig’s tailhole was stretched wide and it was dripping with lube and precum that had collected inside him, dribbling around the stretched band. The ring itself was a dark, almost hungry red, and each small movement of the Charmeleon’s hips made squelching noises against the shaft.

James grinned as he thought about breaking that tight seal open, forcing the fire lizard to cry out in submission as his knot popped in and out until it was left oozing with jackal cum. Trailing an eye over to the moaning human, the aura pokemon hybrid wondered if maybe he should treat the black haired man to the same treatment. After all, what was good for a pokemon was good for their partner.

That wicked idea was followed by the fighting steel type kneeling behind and then impaling the fire type pokemon in one smooth thrust. Craig whimpered in discomfort as he clutched at his trainer’s naked body.

“Wait, are you go-OH GOD!!” Kevin cried out as he felt the pointed tip of James’s canine shaft push up against his own meat, the masked jackal attempting to double stuff the fire type. A second bulge quickly appeared in the Charmeleon’s gut, spreading along his stomach and pushing up against his trainer’s body as the Lucario began to drill himself into of the red lizard rectum.

“Shhh, it’ll be alright.” James whispered as he leaned over the other mon, his voice so soft that only Craig could hear him. “Just breath and think about all the fun you’ll have when you have your human eat our cum from out of your hole.”

The Charmeleon groaned at that, his mind painting a very clear picture of him sitting down on top of his master’s face while streaming of gooey white froth trailed down onto the human’s face and lips.

“And just think, after that, you can fill his little mouth with your own cock, getting him to choke around your nice, fat piece of lizard meat while your balls churn against his throat.” The Lucario chuckled as he felt a shiver run up the side of the red reptile’s backside. Craig whined and whimpered as Lucarios paws grabbed his hips and held him down, keeping him in position as his ring was stretched even further.

The aura pokemorph hissed as he felt the tight confines of the Charmeleon’s butt wrap even tighter around his pointed meat.

Kevin panted as he felt that beastly cock rub up against his shaft as the Lucario pushed forward, his shaft starting to slide into that ring as it stretched even further. The fire lizard’s tongue slowly began to loll from its mouth as his eyes rolled back from the new found pleasure started to overload his brain.

“I expected him to be tighter,” the masked jackal puffed as he pulled him beastly cock out from the warm innards currently hugging him. “I guess I’ll have to be extra diligent if I want to get some good stimulation going here,” An almost menacing snarl shook the Charmeleon and his master as the Lucario hybrid pushed forward, sinking half of his length into that red fiery butt before slipping himself out again.

“Seriously?” Kevin yelped as he felt his cock getting squashed against the almost foot long canine dick pressing up against him. Panting, the black haired human tried everything he could to keep from passing out as his partner’s butt suddenly became extra tight around his cock as the dominant Lucario began to quickly jack hammer into the fire lizard’s pre-cum soaked tunnel.

All three of them gasped whenever James brought himself up to the hilt inside of the fire type’s rump. His hips pressed flush against the other pokemon’s butt, his own large black fuzzy balls lying on the human’s sac, no one seemed to notice how the Lucario’s crimson eyes seemed to be glowing as he stared down at the two submissive beneath him. The aura pokemorph grinned, his fangs shining with saliva as he slowly pulled out, getting a groan from the both of them before he suddenly thrust back in. The sound so delightful against his up turned ears, he wondered if maybe keeping these two as his sex pets would be feasible.

Feeling his knot slowly starting to inflate as more blood welled within his shaft, the fighting steel type could almost imagine it; coming home and having the Charmelon and his master on his bed, the two facing each other, their tight holes gleaming at him in readiness to be bred.

Neither of Kevin or Craig was prepared for James to start pounding even harder against them, the dominant Fused hips ramming almost painfully into the double stuffed pokemon. Wet sticky slurping bounced against walls of the storeroom as the soft thumps of hips slapping against a bubbly butt followed by three conjoined moans overlapping one another as the Lucario’s continued to pound forward.

“FUCK!!” Kevin cried out as his Charmeleon moaned out some kind of slurred version of his name. Each hard thrust pushed them down against the floor of the storeroom. It felt like Lucario was fucking them both at the same time.

Craig was a mess of shivers as the two cockheads pressed against his prostate. The fire type never knew such pleasure before. Another hard thrust the Charmeleon howling, his head lifting as his senses went into overloaded, white sparks sparkling inside of his mind’s eye. Unseen by anyone, the red lizard’s cock was streaming a constant blurping of thickening pre which spread over his trainer’s stomach, matting the both of them down with the sticky slime.

The fighting steel type leaned forward, his paws moving up to plant themselves firmly on either side of the black haired human’s head as his hips bucked and slammed forward, at the same time he graced the furless creature with a slobbery lick across the bridge of his nose.

‘Mine.’

The growl the Lucario released sent a chill down the spines of his lovers’s spine that was impossible to ignore, and yet at the same time it brought a feeling of euphoria to the pair that drew them closer and closer to their respective orgasms.

Kevin all but purred as he felt his balls begin to draw up.

Lucario grunted above them, a smug yet determined look planted firmly on his canid face as he smirked down at Kevin. The sight of the other gasping as his saliva dripped down the sides of the gasping man’s lips to his chin brought a strong sense of pride into the aura pokemon’s chest, and in bucking his hips back and forth more firmly, the fighting steel type found himself almost getting drunk on the sweet sounds of his and the human’s cock squelching inside of the Charmeleon’s booty.

Charmeleon was first to release, unable to hold back once he felt the Lucario place a firm, possessive lick onto his neck. Letting out a cry as he suddenly went cross-eyed, the firelizard threw his head back and roared as hard length fired hot streams of musky cum over his trainer’s stomach, adding to the sticky mess that flooded the gap between them.

Kevin cried out a second later as the near scalding liquid sent shockwaves of blissful pleasure throughout his entire being. Unable to hold back against the constant grinding and thrusting his balls exploded, shooting almost cool seed deep into the Charmeleon’s guts. The squelching sucking noises grew louder and even more lewd as the fire type’s ass was suddenly flooded with cum.

As they both hit their peak, a light began to shine in the storeroom that grew in intensity till it became almost blinding.

The Lucario Fused felt the fire type’s insides shift around, twisting and rubbing together as the humans cock started to all but melt into the goo within the reptile’s tight tunnel. The gap in Craig’s ass soon vanished as it wrapped snuggly around the Lucario’s cock like an iron glove, the insides growing hotter as the cum and pre heated.

He could hear both Charmeleon and Kevin moaning as they merged, the transformation lasting only a few seconds, even as the aura pokemon felt his balls draw up.

James tilted his head back and let out a triumphant howl as he thrust forward, his eyes slamming shut as he buried his knot in deep into the tight reptilian sheath. It was a second later when the Lucario Fused came, his canine seed being sucked up quickly as the Charmeleon Fused body drank up the potent liquid like water spilled over a barren desert.

Panting as he started to come down from his high, Lucario slowly opened his eyes as he saw that the glow had vanished. Finding himself looking down into the glittering brown eyes of a tall and twinkie Charmeleon hybrid, James grunted, his balls all but throbbing as they worked to expel the last few drops of his cum into Kevin.

Lying on his back and sporting a cock larger than anything a normal twink should have had, the fire type pokemorh let a dopey, silly grin spread onto his handsome face. Tongue lolling out and his eyes rolled up in his head, Kevin let his legs spread wide, almost as if he were trying to do a split, while feeling his clenching tailhole flex around the Lucario’s rock hard knot.

The fighting steel type licked his lips as waited for his bulb to deflate, though while he waited he made sure to lean forward and lick his tongue across the Charmeleon’s snout.

Kevin smiled.

It almost thirty minutes later when the aura pokemorph was soft enough to pull out. Gripping the sides of the floor to steady himself, James slowly began to exit from the squish insides of the flame lizard’s rump, his cock making a wet lewd slurping noise as he slid himself through the overfilled ass of the fire type hybrid.

The Charmeleon Fused gave a moan when the masked jackal’s dick fully popped out of him, his cock twitching and dribbling a spurt of cum onto his already messy stomach.

Neither Kevin nor James said anything after that, the two merely breathing slowly as they looked at each other, a very different array of thoughts fumbling throughout their minds.

It was the sound of a cell phone ringing from somewhere out the front that drew the Lucario’s eyes away from watching his cum drip from Kevin’s well stretched hole.

James made his way back to the bar, his softening length dribbling musky, yellow cum onto the floor with each step as he searched the top of the bar for his ringing phone. Finding it sitting beside a bowl of peanuts, he picked it up in his large furry paw and then swiped the lock screen before he brought it up to his ear.

“Hello?”

“It's me.” he heard Peter’s voice on the other side. “Glad to know that you and Kevin had a good time after your meeting with the chief of police, but seriously, I thought you preferred bottoming?”

It actually took a minute for James’s brain to catch up to what he had just been told, having never expected to hear such a statement/question from someone who, for all intents and purposes, probably wasn’t even in the same zip code.

“How the hell do you know what I’m doing?!”

The leader of Team Fusion merely chuckled.

“Do you think he expects anything?” Peter asked making James roll his eyes.

“Of course he does.” James growled as he leant against the bar, his spare hand fondling his recently spent balls slowly. “But from what I could gather, I don’t think that he’s going to be sending anyone to sniff around your tail, but all the same, I’d be very careful about how you decide to move in the next few weeks.”

“Aww, and here I thought you’d be the only one sniffing under my tail.”

“In. Your. Dreams.”

“You have no idea what’s in my dream, James, so be careful what you suggest to me.”

A sudden thrill shot up the Lucario’s Fused spine at that.

“He’d still have me and everyone else arrested?” Peter inquired.

“In a heartbeat.”

James grumbles as he listened to the other man ‘tsk tsk tsk’ on the other end of the line. “And this is why people don’t show gratitude anymore.”

“You’re still a criminal, Peter. No matter how much you want to do is just bring people and pokemon together.”

“Does he have an idea who we are or who is behind those people we helped to bust?”

“On the former, I’d have to say no.” James thought about how much effort Matt and Mimi had put into trying to cover Team Fusion’s tracks, going so far as to purposefully omit any and all details as to the whereabouts of Peter and the gang’s base of operations.

Even keeping said detail from James himself.

“However, on the latter, he suspects that it may be the Ison Corp behind the creation of the stones.” James murred as he continued to rub his sore balls. “Apparently they were ready to extract the guys we brought in the moment they arrived, and have been hindering any and all questioning ever since.” he explained.

“My my, that sound like it’s going to be a problem for you.” Peter chuckled.

“You have no idea.” James grumbled. “If Ison Corp is really at the heart of this then it means we’re going to have to move VERY delicately in the future, since they control just about every medical facility within the world and could easily erase any and all evidence of their actions if they felt like we were getting to close to them.”

“That wasn’t what I was talking about, but I agree with you wholeheartedly.” a chuckle on the other end of the line made the Lucario Fused pause for a moment before looking around.

“You aren’t…”

A flash spread across the phone screen causing James to pull his phone away. When next he blinked, the aura hybrid saw the message flash on the screen to turn to accept video chat. After a couple of missed prods, he managed to accept the invitation and soon a familiar silver ringed Umbreon’s face appeared the screen, in front of what looked like a grey brick wall.

“We’re going to have to work a lot quicker to find and bring them down, if that’s the case.” The dark type said as he smirked playfully at the other man.

“Peter, if he’s right, then we might be a little bit in over our heads.” The Umbreon gave the other man a strange look at that. “Ison isn’t just the biggest pokemon medical group in the region, they have ties to the Pokemon League, the police department, and several dozen smaller corporations around the world. If we go up against them, we need to have a game plan, and then a backup to it, and then a backup to that.”

“I know.”

“Do you really, because this is…”

“Why are you suddenly so nervous? We already knew that this might go all the way to the top when we first found out about the copy transformation stones.” A playful narrowing of the other Fused eyes made a knot tense inside of James’s stomach. “Don’t tell me that you’re suddenly regretting getting involved after coming this far.”

“Of course not.” The Lucario growled, his hand quickly abating from fondling his half full testicles.

“Then what’s the matter.”

“I just don’t want anyone to get killed, ok?” There was just something about the way the Umbreon looked up at him suddenly made all of James’s protective instincts flare to life.

Or perhaps, that was just Chris nudging against his psyche.

“By the way,” Peter cocked his head to the side, one ear flopping down onto his head at the expected question he could almost feel was coming. “What was in that truck you didn’t want me to see?” the black fox’s entire body went tense at that. “Or is that something I'm not allowed to ask about?”

There was silence on both ends of the phone as the two Fused stared at each other.

“Peter, I know that there are some things you won’t or can’t tell me about, but don’t hide the obvious from me.”

“It’s not you that I’m worried about on this one.”

“What do you mean?”

“James, if I had to ask you your honest opinion about something, would you give it to me?”

“Depends on the question.”

“See, that’s why I keep things from you.” The black fox sighed. “You’re sometimes too honest for your own good.”

“If you’re worried that I’ll blab something to the chief, you should know by now that I won’t.”

“That’s not what concerns me.”

“Then what does?”

“I’m worried that you might do something you’ll regret if you see too much of what’s in the world I live in.”

“That’s very poetic, but don’t forget that I was the guy who spent eight months in the Black Market trying to find you.”

“Yeah, I know.”

More silence spread between the two after that.

“If it makes you feel any better,” the Lucario hybrid began. “I'm now heading a task force to look into the Ison Corporation.” The fur on Peter’s body shot up at that, not that James let that stop him from speaking. “I’m going to be digging into their finances, their commercial affairs around the city, and, if I’m lucky, going to be tracking down where those false stones are being produced at.”

The Umbreon’s face turned deathly serious as he contemplated what James had just told him. “A task force alone might not be enough to bring down what you’re going to be facing. You might end up needing a damn army.”

“You know what I’m going to be facing?”

“I have some idea.”

“Don’t keep me in the dark.”

The phone suddenly turned and James tried not to blink as he saw several images fly past before the phone was brought back up to the Umbreon’s face again, except this time, instead of leaning in front of a brick wall, the dark type was standing in front of what looked like a power generator.

“I think we’ve found the reason why the fake stones fuse two people together but leave them only halfway combined instead of fully merged like the rest of us are.”

“Do tell.”

“We think that it is because they're not trying to replicate our temporary fusing,” Peter explained somewhat sadly causing James to tilt his head. “They're trying to create a permanent fusing.”

“Is that possible?”

“We think that's what they’re testing at the moment, though from what we can gather from the files we managed to find, things aren’t working well enough on humans, so the people heading this plan are working on fusing Pokemon with something else entirely.” The Umbreon suddenly turned and Lucario found himself staring at a sight which made his jaw drop and his eyes go wide.

Inside of a large cylindrical tank filled with a frothy blue solution was a shiny Riolu. This in itself would have been barely interesting to James had it not been for the fact that the little cub’s eyes were wide with fear as it valiantly tried to throw its little paws against the glass of the tank. Mouth open as it struggled to say something over and over again; James could swear that Chris was screaming inside of his head.

However, that wasn’t the worst part.

No, the worst part was that James could see patches of fur missing from the pup’s body, as though someone had sheered it off in favour of leaving the Riolu bare to the elements. And yet, what was revealed beneath was not the tender skin of a young pokemon, but cold and hard silver metal.

Looking on further across the pup’s body, James and Chris noted that they could see metallic plates and tubes and circuitry exposed all across the starter version of the Lucario race. To add insult to injury, one of the Riolu’s hands had been transformed into a skeletal robotic set of digits topped with a set of steel claws while its left leg was nothing but a metal prosthetic, devoid of fur and turning with gears on the inside.

One of the little one’s golden eyes had been taken from him to instead be replaced by a glowing blue orb and surrounded by circuitry that was staring wide eyed at everything around him.

“They're fusing pokemon with machines.”

The swell of aura tinted rage James let loose at those words caused all the windows within the surrounding neighbourhood to shatter.