Phione already scared me a great deal.

So the thought of meeting its mother was not a big relief for my nerves.

I floated there awkwardly as the two continued the conversation, while I still had not seen any sign of said mother.

"We've talked about this."

"Yeah, but..." Phione hung its head. "I was just playin' around. That's all, just having some fun."

"And what have we said about when you decide to play with humans?"

"'Make sure not to force them into something against their will.'" Phione pouted.

"I must be losing my mind..." I muttered to myself.

The mother voice buzzed. "Oh! I'm so sorry, I almost forgot you were there! I should have introduced myself, oh I'm sorry!" The strange sound to the voice, as if it were echoing across the whole ocean, was slowly disappearing, and from a collection of coral on the seafloor came another blue creature.

It was very similar to Phione in appearance, but was a little bigger. Two large eyes sat on its face, with yellow highlights around them. Two large sort of strings flowed off the top of its head, ending in small blue balls, and, despite not seeming to be physically connected, they floated together in perfect synchronization.

"Hi, I'm Manaphy. So sorry about all this, he's just a kid, you know? Just trying to show him the ropes of the world..."

"Yeah..." I said, still feeling very overwhelmed.

It looked at me. "So then, are you the human he was talking about? I mean clearly you aren't a human right now, but what I'm saying is that-"

"Yes." I interrupted, her persistent nature reminding me of Ed (except then the thought of Ed having kids came into my mind, and I had to re concentrate on the situation in order to prevent my mind going to much darker places).

"Well, again, I'm really sorry about you've been through, I hope you haven't been in too much danger or anything like that."

I rolled my eyes. "Just peachy."

Manaphy smiled. "Great! In that case, allow me to explain a little."

Manaphy waved a small arm out across the sea. "I hatched a long time ago, and I just wanted to move. I regularly travel beneath the waves, finding where the water is best. Eventually, I found my way to Sinnoh, and though I do still move around a bit, I prefer staying here to other places."

"After a while, I felt an urge to go home, to where I hatched, and there I created an egg. And low and behold, from it came the rambunctious child you know as Phione."

"Right. I assumed that when you said you were its mother."

It sort of smiled at me. "You are as...arrogant as he said you were...but I hear you've also changed a bit, haven't you?"

I stopped her. "Look, I know the way I've been screwing around, and I'm sure that you can't do anything for me, so I'm just gonna go."

It seemed surprised at that. "Well of course I can do something for you, don't be silly. I can fix you in a jiffy."

I was surprised that underwater ancient Pokemon species were aware of the term jiffy.

I felt a strange sensation, as if my mind were being pulled out of my body. The paws I had grown used to began to lose feeling, and soon, I couldn't feel any of the water around me.

That lasted for a few moments, before I felt everything in reverse, except this time with human body parts. I clutched my fingers again, and relief washed over me as I let out a sigh.

I then opened my eyes quickly and swam to the surface with the water in my mouth.

I popped up and immediately spewed the seawater back out, coughing as I did. Human lungs, all right. Although I did kinda miss breathing underwater.

Manaphy poked up next to me. "Whoops. Probably should've thought of that before I changed you back."

I just hugged it.

"Well, isn't this nice? Oh, you might wanna let go, we're sinking."

---

After that, things went very quickly. We got a ride from a nice guy with a Flying-type Pokemon back to Solaceon, where I was dropped off. Understandably, my mom had become very worried with my leaving suddenly and randomly disappearing. I couldn't really figure out how to tell her what had happened, so I just expressed it as some "me" time to figure out who I was now (which, not gonna lie, was basically what the whole excursion turned out to be). It certainly didn't make her very happy about it, but it worked.

I offered for Ed to stay a little while, and helped train his Pokemon a little (just because I didn't have any didn't mean I wasn't aware of how to handle them). I helped him teach them good moves, and I think that, just maybe, they wouldn't be completely helpless anymore.

As he prepared to head off, seeing as he was still about the same distance from Oreburgh, I decided to join for a goodbye.

"Well, it certainly has been quite an adventure, has it not?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I guess it has."

He reached a hand out and ruffled my hair. "You weren't terrible company."

I smiled. "I certainly hope not."

We stood there in silence for a moment.

"That's it?"

"What?" I replied.

"You aren't gonna say anything about me?"

"I figured that was implied."

He gave me a half frown. I gave him a light punch on the shoulder to show I was kidding.

"You know, if you ever want to come around in the future, I think you'll be very welcome."

"Well, that's much appreciated." He sighed. "I suppose I must get going." He spun around to face me, holding out his hand. "Until next time, then."

I looked down at his hand, and nodded as I took it. "'Til next time."

---

My birthday had never been at an opportune time, for whatever reason. And now, the school district opened up the day after my birthday. So that was just wonderful.

But I digress. The party was still fun, probably only because it had been a few weeks since the whole incident, and my mom had mellowed over time. It was unfortunate not having any real friends to have for it, but I guess Ed would substitute.

Afterwards, after everyone (relatives) had left except for Ed, mom took me to my room, where she set a small box down on my desk. "Go on, open it."

I shrugged and pulled it apart to find a Pokeball. The device rested in my hands, not at all comparing to the excitement in my head. I jumped up and hugged mom.

After I let go, I opened the Pokeball. From inside came a small, brown Pokemon, its tail swishing about eagerly.

"Surprise! It's an Eevee! You have no idea how expensive these things are..."

I glanced at Ed, and we both just kind of shrugged at the irony. I picked the little guy up, and he looked at me with big, bold eyes.

"Welcome to the party, bud."

And he responded by licking my face.

---

Author Note:

Thanks so much for reading! It's not quite over yet, but you'll have to wait a little while to see what I mean. I like this story. I've always liked fun, comical characters, and this story gave me an opportunity to cut loose and have fun with them. I hope you guys enjoy it, especially considering how long I planned on abandoning it (I wrote all of chapter one and it didn't save, long story). Anyway, I suggest you check out my other stories! Until next time, peace out! (That probably wasn't cool, was it?)