Chapter 2: Transformation

The first thing Quinn knew was pain.

It burned through everything, so powerful that it should've sent him into shock. Maybe it had—he lay flat on the floor, barely breathing. It hurt so much in fact that he couldn't clearly feel one limb from another—all was pain, broken only by the occasional few notes of that strange melody echoing in his head.

He mouthed along with it through numb lips, taking something, anything to keep himself from drifting away again. There were other sensations here, if only he could focus on them.

We were about to fire the tachyon accelerator. But he couldn't remember actually pushing the button. One moment was darkness, the next… Am I dead?

He twitched, forcing his body to move at his command. Yes, those were his legs, he could move them! He kicked out against the floor, and found it strangely soft, and much warmer than the concrete of the accelerator ought to be.

I didn't break my spine. Quinn twitched again, forcing his focus down to his feet. They didn't feel right, but nothing did. "I think… someone shot me."

He must've blown out his eardrums too, because that voice was nothing like his—a high-pitched squeal, barely intelligible in his ear.

Quinn finally opened one eye, but there was nothing to see. Just darkness, broken by a brief flash of something bright red, shining through fabric.

Then he heard it—blaring noise, broken by the synthesized voice of the university's AI. "Critical containment failure! All personnel, please follow the marked evacuation route. Critical containment failure…"

Damn that siren was loud! Quinn lowered his head, reaching up to try and cover his ears. He reached in vain, but couldn't find them, or much of anything else that made sense. "Shut up!"

Something groaned, metal bending—then sparked, clattering against the floor. That awful blaring alarm didn't stop completely, but at least it became more distant, fading to an echoing claxon coming down the hall.

His yelling did something else: it made the ground start to move—from the slope on one side of his head to the flat section under his feet, the whole room was tilting!

He squealed in surprise, flailing out with his arms to try and catch himself. Something did, but it wasn't his arms. Instead, it was—something else.

Cloth walls fell away from around him, revealing the same observation room where the experiment first took place. Only—it didn't look quite the way he remembered. The lights were all out, except for a row of flashing red LEDs leading along the ceiling towards the security door. The heavy blast door had slid about halfway down, exposing a dark space beyond.

The experiment had failed, but much more importantly than that—where was his best friend? Where was Sirius?

He found the latter huddling near the desk, looking up towards him with wide, confused eyes. The Pokémon was terrified, and Quinn couldn't blame him. He felt much the same. What the hell had just happened?

Finally, he found Avery, on her back covered in several loose pieces of cloth. Black slacks, and a white shirt with thin green stripes, which toppled back from her as she sat up. How had his clothes got there?

Avery stirred, wiping away dirt from her face. Her eyes locked on Quinn, and he felt something else in that contact—her voice, though her lips never moved. "Celebi?"

Quinn knew the name instantly—how could a time-travel researcher not know the name of the most famous time-traveler? It was the reason he kept his hair up so absurdly, even if he didn't quite devote the time to keep it dyed.

He spun all the way around, scanning the room again. His hair twitched as he did, finally dislodged by the explosion enough that it came apart. Yet all it did was jostle slightly. There was no sign of Celebi, just a Meowstic cowering behind Sirius in the far corner.

"I don't think a Celebi would come anywhere near this experiment," he said, turning back around to face her. Though now that he thought about it, he couldn't exactly tell how he was moving, or what kept him at that level in the air. Were his legs just dangling?

Quinn looked down, and felt the world jerk suddenly out from under him.

Yes, he was just dangling, what looked like at least twenty feet up over empty air, with nothing but concrete covered in broken glass to catch his fall. He gasped, then screamed in terror a second time, tumbling sharply sideways through the air.

Something lurched up to meet him, something soft and warm, with white fabric stained by fleshy sides—arms! They caught him with a jerk, wrapping gently around him.

"Careful, Celebi. This isn't the kind of place to be smacking into the walls. Covered in… broken glass."

It took a few seconds for Quinn to catch his breath, and realize where he was really sitting.

He had often imagined what it might feel like to be this close to Avery, close enough to rest his head up against her breasts. None of those fantasies ever involved her holding him off the ground, with arms almost as thick as his whole body. He looked down, resting one tiny hand against her skin, where Avery's Mobius tattoo melted into her freckles.

"You see him, Baast? Where'd he go?" She was so close, so loud! Since when was Avery's voice so deep?

The cat rose, stretching herself out and shuffling forward on dainty paws. "You're yelling, almost deaf. Right there."

Quinn's mouth hung open a second time, focusing on the cat. Baast wasn't mewling in useless Pokémon sounds anymore! Her words came with something sour, a flavor under each one that required no sound. How?

Avery looked back, then shook her head once. "Sorry, Baast. All I'm getting is your… annoyance with me. You think it's obvious. But how?"

She looked down, nudging aside the clothes on the floor. "There's no blood. No ash either, it's not burned…"

She hesitated, looking down at Quinn in her arms. Not exactly the angle Quinn had expected to look at her. This is not how this was supposed to go!

They'd gone so far off the script that it was in another region!

"Did you save me, sweetie? Arceus, I'm holding a Celebi. Do you want me to let you go?"

"No!" he called, clinging to her arm with both of his. "Don't drop me!"

Avery gasped. "Did you… talk to me?" She whimpered, crossing the wrecked observation room towards the computer. But even that had been ripped off the wall, with sparks occasionally flashing out through a naked conduit.

"Yes! I mean, no! I'm not Celebi. I'm Quinn!"

Avery hesitated near the broken computer, wilting. "I'm sorry, Celebi, I'm not strong enough to—" She froze. "Wait, did you just say—"

"Master!" Sirius bounded over to them, the first sparks of light in the shadowy room. Heat radiated from his coat, flickering steady orange and yellow. "Master, there you are! You got smaller!"

Quinn stared back, about eye level with his Pokémon, while still in Avery's arms. "Sirius! It's me!" So it wasn't just the cat that was speaking a language he understood. Meanwhile, Avery looked down at him without comprehension.

"Sirius, do I look like a Pokémon?"

The fox removed his stick from his tail, then poked it gently against the side of his head. "Yeah, master! You're soft."

"Fairy," said the other Pokémon—Baast. Both crowded around him now, close enough to touch him. "Saved deaf cat. Almost deaf now."

He remembered—the flash, then the blast shield killing both of them in gruesome fashion.

"You're both as interested as I am, I see," Avery muttered. "But what the hell happened to Quinn? Arceus, he would want to talk to you. Maybe I can remember his questions for him."

"Why can't you understand me?" Quinn asked, lifting his voice a little. As though it would help.

"Master never listens," Sirius said, with a little annoyance. "Have to go slow. Gestures."

"My cat not as dumb as yours," Baast insisted, nudging the fox away. "Ever since she started finding rocks. Remind her to focus, hear without hearing. Deaf before, getting better."

"I don't think he's in here," Avery whispered. "Shit. Did you teleport him, Celebi? He saved my fucking life. I'm not leaving here without him."

"Send it into her head!" Baast suggested. "You're stronger than me, green. Be loud, go extra slow! She tries her best."

Into her head—"Telepathy?"

Baast didn't say more, because at that moment, something moved in the hallway. Heavy boots thumped, and a familiar voice called out from behind. "Is someone there?"

"Yes!" Avery called, stepping towards the door. "There was an explosion, but we're here! Me and—"

Quinn bit her arm. It hurt, and he didn't draw blood. It didn't taste particularly good either, all dirt and sweat. He bit anyway.

Avery squealed, her grip loosening. But she didn't let go, not with his arms clinging to her. If that wasn't enough, he shook his head sharply to either side in the clearest, human-like gesture he could. "Don't tell! The guards are with team plasma! They can’t know there’s a celebi here!"

That did it—did something, anyway. Avery trailed off. "Security door looks broken, but I think we can get through. Get some distance! My friend will open it for me."

"Here we go," Baast said, rolling her eyes. "Almost-deaf always wants me to do things for her. Train, train, train, but not her." She lowered her voice, whispering to Quinn. "But she's good at brushing, so I guess it's okay."

Avery looked at her pokemon. "Can you get through that door?"

"There were two people in there," said a voice on the other side. "What about the physicist? Is he there?"

"Yes!" Quinn called, before realizing what he was saying. So maybe not the best at keeping secrets.

If the soldier on the other side had made any sense of that, he didn't react. Avery, though—he couldn't see her face very well past her chest, but Quinn felt it even so. It washed over him, a taste like half-melted chocolate and a few little flashes of mint.

The security door began to glow, its edges radiating sharply blue.

"Won't… do this forever, big deaf. You should train harder!"

The Meowstic's ears tilted towards the door, which turned bright orange, groaning under the sudden force.

The door smashed forward, slamming into the concrete wall, then crashing backward. The walls pulsed and shook, weeping hydraulic fluid. Another second later, and the huge door dropped, splattering molten metal towards them from where it had severed.

Quinn only had a split second to react, but that was so much more than he needed. He didn't want to get burned. "Stop!"

It did. Several bright orange pieces froze in the air in front of them, frothing and bubbling. Then they dropped, clattering cold to the cement floor.

The cat glanced back in their direction, attention focusing on Quinn again. "You make it too easy, she never learns."

Avery whimpered, stepping forward towards the broken door. "Thanks, Quinn. Second time you saved my life today."

"Not really. That would've burned, but not killed someone. Not enough…" He trailed off abruptly.

The guard stumbled around the corner, shining a flashlight in their direction with one hand, while aiming a handgun in the other. He kept the gun low, but the light blasted directly at them. More precisely, it shone directly on Quinn, illuminating a body of soft green.

That was about the moment he realized he was naked. Something moved atop his head, reflecting his embarrassment. Soft appendages folded backward, poking into Avery's dress. But there were more important things on his mind.

"Put down the Pokémon," the soldier barked, gesturing with the gun. "Nice and slow. Keep your hands where I can see them."

"I thought you were here to help me!" Avery squealed, taking a single step back into the hallway. "We were just in an explosion! I'm injured… think all of us are…"

"Put the Pokémon down," barked the guard, lifting the gun towards her this time. "Then we can help you. On the ground just past the door, where it won't be burned. Nice and slow…"

Quinn's antennae twitched, and he saw. Avery moved nervously over the broken door, put him down—and the guard shot her dead before they could blink.

"Alright, alright!" Avery said, taking a tentative step over the melted door. "I'm doing what you said. Just put that gun away."

"No you aren't!" Quinn gestured, and the man's gun jerked upward, yanked from his fingers. "Sirius, Psyshock now!"

The Pokémon peered around the corner, searching for the opponent. He followed Quinn's shouting, and saw the handgun floating there, spinning in a slow circle.

Then he moved, gesturing sharply through the air with his stick.

The guard lifted off his feet, and crashed up against the wall, combat knife spinning away from his fingers to slide along the floor. "Attack human? Why?" the fox asked, slowing to catch his breath.

The man groaned, then slumped unconscious to the floor. Quinn whimpered, and the handgun dropped in front of him, clattering off the cement. Had he done that?

Avery shuddered, her grip faltering around him. "Uh… Quinn? Did you—"

He twisted in her arms, frustration washing over him in waves. If only she could understand, this would be much easier!

Then he saw it—a mind, far larger and more complex than the little cat and fox on either side, albeit somehow cloudy and diffuse at the same moment—unfocused.

Quinn pressed closer to her, but not her body. There was plenty of room between her fear, confusion, worry for him, intense pain she was fighting to keep on her feet. All he needed was a little gap. "He was going to kill you! I saw him do it!"

Avery reacted, twisting her arms to the side, extending the one holding him so she could meet his eyes.

She was so huge, her head alone bigger than his whole body. Yet despite the strength in those arms, he felt safe there. She wasn't going to crush him. She couldn't exactly hide her intentions with her thoughts all spread out like that! "Quinn, if that's you, keep using telepathy! I can't speak Celebi!"