After stuffing himself with food Kyrio had slept. It had been an emotionally taxing day. Waking up as a feral animal, being forcefully introduced to the new instincts that his body would follow if provoked in the right way. He’d been so tired he had barely noticed when someone returned him to his pokéball.

The world inside the ball was tranquil, he could sense the exterior world. How warm it was, the sound of people talking, the odd impression of a room or location. But overall it was just dark, warm, cosy and quiet inside the ball so the blue, latex charmander just continued his post food nap!

A voice saying “Kyrio I choose you,” woke him up however as the darkness ended and with a flash of light and a very peculiar sensation his body returned. It felt like he was being turned inside out, the thoughts that made up him were pooling down inside a heavy mass that twisted and formed itself around him. Until with a snap of motion Kyrio was back, crouched on all fours, claws digging into the soft sand that covered the floor.

His tail flame was high, his body was blue with purple stripes and he was still very much a charmander. Shifting up onto his hind legs Kyrio turned to regard the figure who had released him from his pokéball. It was the purple furred, horn sporting, nidoran like pokémon trainer who had captured him and taken away his life as a human.

Turning Kyrio placed his front paws on his hips and glared up at the trainer, he’d taken more than his life as a human. Kyrio didn’t mind that so much, being a pokémon was amazing. Being kidnapped and forced into it was a bit of a sore point as well as a few, other points.

the trainer said in the poké language,

Kyrio snapped, interrupting him, snorting a cloud of black smoke out of his nostrils,

Nido knelt down and held out a hand,

Kyrio span and slammed his thick ‘mander tail against Nido’s hand, knocking it away, he huffed more smoke and glared up at Nidonocu,

Nido nodded as he nursed his hand and Kyrio just huffed,

Nido started,

He was cut off as Kyrio bared his teeth,

Kyrio was the one who got cut off this time as Nido pointed the black and red pokéball at him and ordered his return. The sensation of being inside the ball only lasted for a few moments before with another whirl of light Kyrio was back out.

For a moment he stood on all fours, disoriented and confused. Then slowly he lowered his head and looked between his front legs at his groin. It was still smooth and featureless and lizard like. But he could feel what was waiting inside, nestled snug and safe behind the vent that was now present between his hind legs.

“Ok… how did… you put that back so easily, wait… i’m speaking English again.. How..” Kyrio’s head came up and he frowned in suspicion at the pokémon trainer.

Nidonocu sat down and patted the sand next to him, “Sit,” he said, “I’ve got a lot to tell you, but the main answer to your question is this.”

Nido held out the pokéball and cautiously Kyrio moved over to look at it. The smooth black sphere with the indented red line around the middle looked so harmless. Kyrio knew however that he was now intimately linked to it and the technology that was hidden inside.

“This is a very special pokéball, my friend Russet made them for me. Vikris is held in one, as are my other pokémon Flint and Nall,” Nido turned the ball to show Kyrio the back of the top hemisphere. There were several small switches and three number selectors. The metal parts like those you’d see on a padlock for picking the correct combination.

“Ok… fancy but what do they do?” Kyrio asked with a frown,

“Well they let me do things like make you a neuter, or switch it so you can only speak pokéspeak.”

“Ok… and the numbers?”

“Ah now that, that is where Russet has been a genius, watch this, Kyrio return.”

“How can I watch if you…” Kyrio trailed off as the red light once again enveloped his body. With a shudder Kyrio allowed himself to relax and be drawn into the ball. It was so weird, to have his body just twist and melt and fall into the light. He lost all sensation of limbs and body, the air on his latex skin, the feeling of his lungs rising and falling. Once again there was warm, peaceful darkness except this time there was something new.

It was a tingling sensation that made him want to twitch his limbs and wiggle his body. Which was odd as in this state he didn’t have a body just thought but the tingling increased and then with a snap of light Kyrio was released once again.

So much shifting from physical form to energy in quick succession left Kyrio feeling disorientated. Sitting down with a thump he rubbed his muzzle with his short front paws and tried to clear his hazy eyesight. He felt weird, wound up, and his fur was prickling, filled with static electricity that left him leaving a trail of swiftly dying sparks scattering from his limbs and thick, zig-zag yellow tail…

Kyrio froze as his brain caught up with what he was seeing and feeling. Lowering his hands he stared at his bright yellow fur, pressed his tongue against the back of his rodent like buck teeth. Looking down he stared at the yellow fur coating his chest and stomach. It was coarse, thick, rodent like fur and such a bright shade of yellow. Slowly Kyrio pressed his front paws to his cheeks and felt the red circular patches that sparked and crackled at his touch.

“No way…” Kyrio breathed, twisting around to look at the brown stripes down his back. He toppled onto all fours and twisted, moving in a slow circle to get a really good look at his body, “No way… Nidonocu what… how…”

“The ball,” Nidonocu held it out, “It let’s me set your species of Pokemon to anything I want… well anything you are strong and experienced enough to be.”

Shaking his body Kyrio screwed up his muzzle and tried to emit a spark. Electricity rippled out from his cheek patches and through his fur but it was uncontrolled. It sparked in several directions at once and made Nido yelped as he got shocked by the wild undirected lightning.

“Ok I am going to have to practice that,” Kyrio admitted with a grin up at Nidonocu, “So… what did you mean by strong and experienced enough?”

“Well like most pokémon you need to train and evolve. The ball won’t let me set you to say Dragonite or Raichu until you’ve proven yourself strong enough to evolve into that form.”

“Ok… and why is this body furry and not all blue and latex like charmander me?”

“Only the first shape I captured you as will appear as shiny and latex. That’s a foible of how the ball’s technology works, under all that yellow fur and rodent teeth your core being is still living biopolymer the ball can reshape.”

“I see… but what’s to stop you giving me grabbing a thunder stone now and evolving into raichu?”

“That’s where I come in,” Nido smiled, “I’m the trainer, but we are a team. I help direct our battles, decide what form you should appear in for a particular fight. But mostly I help your training, we all work together not as slave and master or pets and owner but as a proper pokémon team, working as friends to be the best.”

Sitting up slowly, trying to contain his urge to spark and send lightning everywhere Kyrio peered up at Nidonocu, “I see… and you’re qualified to train us?”

“I think so, I’ve been training pokémon all my life, Vikris and the others on my team. We all work together to train and improve ourselves. It’s not easy work but you need someone on the training field or battlefield who is watching the big picture. That’s my job, I respond to what others are doing and give you instructions and advice based on what you can’t see from down there on all fours.”

Kyrio rubbed his fuzzy chin and frowned, “I think… I still need some convincing. Can you show me this… training style of yours?”

“I can,” Nido nodded and held up the ball, “If you’re willing to work with me? I can help you push through a whole evolutionary chain by the end of the day.”

“What’s the catch?” Kyrio asked suspiciously, “Most pokémon chains take a whole lot of training to reach the final form.”

“True,” Nido nodded, “I can’t push you from charmander to charizard in a day. But a bug pokémon is easily done, if you are willing to work with me.”

“Well… it’s sort of neat experiencing new things so ok… but I get to pick what type of bug?”

“Sure thing, but I should warn you a lot of the starting forms you may find weird.”

“Yeah I imagine so, but ok I pick weedle,” Kyrio stood up and brushed his paws through his yellow fur, scattering little sparks of lightning all over, “So make it happen, turn me into a bug and we’ll see if you can make good on your promise.”

-0-

Life as a bug was so much different from being a lizard as Kyrio was finding out as he inched up one of the metal poles used for practicing gymnastics in the gym. He had twelve small legs now, that rippled in tandem on either side of his body as he inched and wriggled his way upwards.

His big bulbous nose was very sensitive, he could detect all sorts of scents and smells. The world around him was one big patchwork of overlapping scents and impressions whereas his eyesight was pretty poor like this. It was so weird, he’d barely gotten used to being a charmander now here he was a wriggling, crawling, inching along the ground caterpillar. It had been bamboozling to his senses at first but now he was getting the hang of it.

Crawling around the balance bar Kyrio pulled himself on top and turned his head. There was a persistent breeze blowing on him from above, the scent of bug… tilting his head back he focussed his thoughts on the large horn atop his head. Wobbling up onto half his legs Kyrio turned his head and tried to headbut the diving ledian. His horn scraped along the bigger, flying bugs foot, poisonous sap oozing out of his hollow horn as he tried to stab the buzzing Vikris.

The red and cream exoskeleton clad bug veered off to one side and hoovered, wings beating the air rapidly as his huge, multifaceted eyes focussed on Kyrio,

Kyrio muttered back,

Vikris crowed in delight, his four arms waving in the air as he held still,

Nido called up as he walked out to stand below the gymnastic bars,

Kyrio would have blushed if he could, this move was so very undignified, clinging to the metal bar with all four feet he swung his heavy, spike mounted tail around and bore down. Thick, sticky strands of spider-silk erupted from the tip of his tail spike, a string of spiralling thread that darted through the air and layered itself in a spiral around Vikris’ legs. The ledian buzzed his wings, beating the air and cheered Kyrio on, which wasn’t as encouraging as the other bug probably thought.

It was embarrassing, firing something like this out of what was essentially his new butt. It also felt oddly satisfying, doing what Nido wanted and succeeding, hitting his target. They had been making him hit stationary targets but it was a lot more challenging to hit another pokémon, even if they were remaining stationary.

Nido shouted,

He was so wrapped up in extruding silk and firing it Kyrio acted without thinking. He threw himself off the bar and lunged at Vikris. It was quite a leap but his bulbous bug body had quite a surprising amount of spring to it and he latched onto Vikris easily. His legs instinctively clung to two of his arms as he chomped down on one of his hands with his mandibles. Once, twice he bit and gnawed and then dropped back to the ground. It was only after he let go he realised how high up they were but he landed somewhat ungracefully before scampered back up into a ready position.

Nido called out,

Purple powder dusted down all around them as Vikris went into a tight spiral. The ladybug buzzed and Kyrio swung his tail up and fired another string of silk. He missed, then missed again but he kept at it, shifting his body from side to side, firing sticky jet after sticky jet of bug silk at the ledian.

Shaking his body to try and shift some of the cloying, sticky, pollen like yellow powder Kyrio realised he was slowing down. It was starting to adhere to his body, to make his muscles twitch and spasm but he refused to give in. Pushing through the paralysing agent he swung his body around, bug feet skittering and hit Vikris square in the wings with a sustained blast of weedle silk.

Vikris yelled as his wings gummed up and the ledian dropped out of the air. He landed awkwardly and Kyrio pounced! Bug bite… poison sting, bug bite in quick succession whilst his foe was down! Vikris gave up on trying to get up and went limp,

Kyrio refused to stop though, scuttling back and forth, laying out bug silk in thick strands he wrapped it about the prone ledian. Using his upper legs to guide and weave the silk the weedle quickly and instinctively cocooned Vikris. His voice grew muffled as Kyrio wrapped and spun and covered and wound his silk around his defeated foe, leaving him as a wriggling white cocoon of glistening silk.

Kyrio bunched up his body and waddled backwards to admire his handiwork. Vikris was gone, now there was just a white oblong shape that wriggled and squirmed helplessly, Kyrio asked confused then with a happy, high pitched “WEEDLE!” he arched his tail and slinked from side to side,

It was half cry of fear, half sigh of release as Kyrio’s tail swung up above his body and he released a torrent of silk from his string shooter. It felt good, the weird tension that had been building up inside his body had an outlet and Kyrio’s thoughts were bowled aside as instinct took over. Head low to the ground, legs gripping the floor, tail arching upwards further then before Kyrio continued to spray his silk down across his body.

Not that he had any choice, now he had started he couldn’t stop, it felt too good to give into this peculiar urge. Silk started to build up atop his body, covering his soft, squishy bug body, coating his eyes and horn as he was infused with an intense need to change. For a moment longer he held that pose, string pouring down over his body and then he started to glow. His body twisted, shifted and the flow of silk expanded, spinning a tight cocoon of solidifying flesh all around him. The outside world faded away, he could vaguely hear Vikris and Nido cheering him on but all that mattered was enjoying the sensation.

Kyrio could no longer feel the floor, or his limbs and tail or the endless torrent of caterpillar silk bulking up around his body. There was a new outer layer, slowly he opened his eyes and realised he couldn’t move, he had no legs, no lungs. Inside the soft remnants of his body were melting, he could feel the liquid moving to fill his new body.

he tried to speak but it was hard, in fact it was impossible, he had no lips, no lungs, he was just a solid hard shell full of warm life energy. Nido moved into view and reached out to place a hand on the top of his shell.

Kyrio’s trainer stepped back and after a few minutes the ledian that was his partner moved into view scraping the remnants of silk cocoon from his exoskeleton. Kyrio tried to roll his eyes, to search for Nido but he couldn’t twist his head or body to keep him in sight. Flicking his gaze back to Vikris he watched the ladybug as he settled down on the ground before him and smiled.

he moved his hands, all four of them, in a circular motion,

Kyrio found it hard to follow what Vikris wanted, the implication being he should find it happening naturally when really all he could do was sit there. He closed his eyes, it was peculiar being able to see and yet not move and tried to focus inward. Pressing, feeling, and there was something, he sort of pressed his thoughts into the warmth that filled his core and will it to press outwards. It moved! Sluggishly at first and then with more speed until it washed against the interior of his new cocoon and flowed inwards. Once he’d done it once it was easier to do again and press the warmth inside him against the shell of his cocoon.

Again and again he gathered everything together at the core of his being and then presssed it outwards in all directions. It would then hit the outer shell of his body and rush back toward the centre. In time this grew faster and stronger, the waves he was creating inside his body added warmth to his being and strength to his shell! Then without warning the outward rush of warmth hit his shell and Kyrio mentally cried out as it split all along the back seam!

As soon as he felt air against his insides Kyrio pushed outwards, the goo that was his being rushed to escape but was blocked. The thick membrane that coated the interior of the shell however inflated outwards! Gleefully Kyrio allowed himself to rush outwards, to fill the membrane that was pushing out of his cocoon!

In fact he realised he couldn’t stop it, the pressure difference between inside the cocoon and outside was such that he was literally being forced to fill it. It felt good though, liberating, freedom was his, all he had to do was embrace it. So Kyrio allowed himself to flood outward, to fill himself and lift out of the cocoon.

It was over quickly, Kyrio settled into the segmented shape of his body, his legs twitched, his arms lifted up and the large solidifying stinger drills on the end of each arm thickened into shape. His body was yellow, his abdomen banded with black. The gooey liquid that had filled the cocoon was now inside the beedrill and spreading, filling. No part of his body was left unfilled and as he settled the endoskeleton hardened, the soft membrane he had filled to capacity solidifying into his new exterior shell.

Slowly, he felt his wings twitch, Kyrio beat them once, twice and then again and again beating them rapidly, drying them out. As they grew dryer he flapped them faster, then started to buzz and rise up off the floor. Once he was in the air he paused and turned his head to look down at himself his body looked amazing. Segmented into three pieces like a proper insect it was so alien, so different from anything he had been before. His abdomen was yellow, banded with two lines of black and as he swung it around he realised he could control it, pointing it ponderously in any direction he wanted. This let him aim the powerful yellow stinger that capped it and as he focussed on it Kyrio shuddered in delight at the way his stinger shifted. It pulsed in and out, allowing a thick nectar to ooze out of the base of his abdomen. It was so peculiar he’d never felt anything like it in his life but he wanted to try it out on something and soon.

Tearing his red eyed gaze away from his stinger Kyrio twisted his head around until he could see his torso. It was smaller than his abdomen by a lot and he had no heartbeat that he could sense. His blood was pooling, pouring through his body under pressure from the sealed system beneath the hard outer yellow exoskeleton shell. It felt good though and his arms and wings were anchored into his torso. Blood filled his wings now and they buzzed, creating the distinctive drone whilst his arms where very heavy.

Kyrio had to work to hold them up, they ended in deadly, metallic like sharp points so no dexterous manipulation of objects for him. Not like this, as a bug, as a beedril he’d be stabbing and fighting and maybe being distracted by how good the flowers smelt. Turning his head Kyrio focussed on the flowers filling the greenhouse, the antennae atop his head where straining toward them and their promise. The flowers were singing at him, sex and need and pleasure… all he had to do was fly down there and sample their nectar. Sure he didn’t have a cock or any way to breed like this but the promises those flowers were whispering into his antennae meant he didn’t really need any of that.

Letting his long tubular tongue hang free Kyrio buzzed toward the nearest bush and without a care for who was watching let the slick, tubular flesh dropped down into it. Nectar, pollen, it was bliss, Kyrio buzzed his wings and let his tongue do its thing to suck up that nectar, drinking it and shuddering in ecstasy at his first taste. Pulling his tongue back into his mouth Kyrio tucked his legs in beneath his body, hefted his powerful arms and looked out across the greenhouse.

Vikris was there, the ledian watching him with those wide black eyes and beyond his fellow bug his trainer Nidonocu was there. He buzzed down, shedding moisture from his yellow body until it was properly dry. He lifted his hands and then settled on Nido’s upheld arm and regarded him with a bzzzzzz.

He buzzed and it really did. He felt powerful, compact and strong and ready to try anything. His antennae were twitching, feeling the wind, sampling the air and his whole body just felt wired, ready to take on anything.

“I am glad you think so,” Nido said with a grin, “So have I convinced you yet?”

Kyrio buzzed,

Nido laughed and turned so he could point at Vikris, “Ok Kyrio, double drill attack go!”

Kyrio launched himself at the ledian, buzzing into the air and thrusting both his arms forward! Life as a pokemon was turning out to be really sweet he couldn’t wait to see what he got turned into next.