ANW Chapter 6

A New World: Chapter 6
By
WYLD STALLYNZ

o.O.o

"!on si rewsna eht, em ot od uoy tahw erac t'nod I" The man shouted.

"Stop talking backwards!" Lati replied, shaking the poor human again. "Gah, can someone teach me how to use 'Psychic' correctly?"

"!wonk t'nod yllaer I !eromyna em ekahs t'nod esaelP"

"Uh, what if he doesn't know, Dice?" Cassie asked, blinking at the the Latias, who was holding the human grunt high above the others.

"Told you, just call me Lati from now on," Lati growled, looking away from her prisoner for a second. "And that's nonsense, everyone knows that a random grunt will always have highly secret information that should only be available to their superiors. That's how things work." She turned her eyes to the grunt. "Now, I'm going to ask one more time and I am going to use Psychic again on you, and you are going to reply. Understood?"

"!soireehc ni deirf-peed gnieb si niarb ym ekil sleef ti taht od uoy emit yrevE !ycrem evaH !esaelP !on ,esaelP" The grunt begged, sobbing desperately.

Lati gave him a kind look. "I don't understand a word you are saying. Sorry. But make sure to tell me later what it feels like to have your brain deep-fried in cheerios." Her eyes lit up with ethereal blue flames and the man screamed.

"Shouldn't someone... you know, stop her? This is getting out of hand," Blade asked, shivering as the human screamed.

"Now, where did they take them?!" Lati demanded.

" jIH yImev Sov jaH DoH mej jIH mob!"

"The hell?" Lati shook her head. "I thought I had it right this time!" She gave an exasperated sigh as she tossed the man down onto a bunch of crates.

"Yay! Does that mean it's my turn to play with him? Is it is it is it?!" Kaye asked excitedly, bobbing around the room excitedly, flying in circles.

"Do you think I should give it a try?" Moon asked Luna hesitantly, glancing at the man in worry. "Part of me says that I couldn't make it any worse, but what are the odds of my making it any better?"

Luna turned to Kaye, hollering, "No, not yet! Geeze, go... Play with those computers or something! Gosh," she muttered, massaging her forehead with a free paw. "If she's how the first Mew acted, it's a wonder how any of us were born, or created, or whatever..." Looking over to Moonstone, she sighed, frowning for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, sure, why not? Even if you don't make it better, maybe you'll learn how to use your powers or something, and some result is better than nothing. Just treat it like another experiment!" she finished happily, getting up eagerly.

"Well, alright then. Here goes," Moon muttered, walking over to the near-unconscious man. He focused on the man, before he slumped over, blacking out. "... Well, that's just FUNDERFUL now isn't it?" Moon muttered darkly to himself, kicking a loose rock on the way back to Luna.

"Duuuude, you just have to relaaax," Sage said. "It's like, the universe... conspires to help, you know? Like when you turn on the lights, but they don't go on because, you know, something... and then, it turns out that if they had you would be, like, totally dead."

"What-" Lati dragged her palm down her face. "Why do you say that stuff, really? I mean, it can't be just because you're high, right? It has to come from somewhe-"

"Yay! The computer is doing something!" Kaye shouted in glee. "Now I can watch the newest episode of My Little Ponyta!" she giggled, clapping her paws happily.

"What?!" Moonstone exclaimed, rushing over to the computer, absently shoving Kaye out of the way, sending her spinning through the air.

"Wheeeeeeeeeee! Spin me faster, spin me faster!" Kaye cheered, before being interrupted by Moon.

"How did you... What was the password?! What did you type in?"

"Oh, you know, words! First I tried to look up Twilight Spark, and the computer was all 'Bzzt', and then I was like, 'Okay Mr. Meanie Head McMeanie Pants! Lemme look up what a Black Snooty is!' and the computer was all 'Brrtz', and then I was like 'Well FINE! Be that way, you great, big, Jerky McJerk face!' and I typed in a search of Celest's Banana cannon thing, and poof! It worked!"

Moon and Luna looked at each other, struggling to follow what the purple hyperactive Mew had explained, not understanding what she just said in the slightest. "Uhh..."

"So... let me get this straight," Lati said. "The password was 'Banana Cannon?'" She groaned. "Well, Moon? Is there anything in there other than porn?"

"Porn? Is that an abbreviation for popcorn? I LOVE popcorn! Gimme!" Kaye exclaimed, shooting for the computer.

"NO!" Moonstone exclaimed, quickly hitting the 'home' button on the keyboard. "No, it's uh... Umm... Lati!" Moon exclaimed, glancing to her in desperation. "Why don't you go down the hall and buy some popcorn from that vending machine we passed, and make us some treats?"

"Are you sure you don't want to share the one in the computer?" Lati asked. "I mean, it's there already, right?" she grinned.

"Duuude... sharing the love is like, nirvana, man..." Sage nodded at the group. "There should be, like, no limits you know... the love is there, bro, we just need to let it flow..."

"Love is always throbbing, ain't that right, Dude?" Lati asked.

"Hallway. Now," Cassie ordered as she walked past Lati, blushing. "And don't talk about that around Kaye."

"Hey, you sound an awful lot like Twilight Spark!" Kaye giggled, hovering around Cassie for a moment, before gasping in shock. "Ohmygoodness! You ARE Twilight Spark! Ohmygosh! You even look like her and... Oh WOW! Can I have your autograph?! Where's Dashie?!" the little Mew asked passionately, hovering right in front of the ponyta with large, begging eyes, threatening to water.

Lati blinked and hovered down to float in front of Cassie. "You know, she's right. You do look like a goth vampire ponyta♀fooler."

Cassie's eyes started burning with inner flames. "You watched that show, Lati? I didn't know I was hanging out with a Ponysister."

Lati's eyebrow shot up. "Oh, and how do you know the term?"

"Guys, can we get food?" Blade interrupted. "I've got the munchies."

"Fine," Lati sighed. "Come on, Kaye, let's get some popcorn while uncle Moony backs-up the porn."

"Yay! Porn!" Kaye giggled, flying after Lati.

Moonstone opened his mouth, before letting his head drop unceremoniously onto the keyboard, letting out a long, deep sigh. "She was right... She warned me, and I didn't believe her..."

"Right about what?" Luna asked, hopping up next to Moonstone, trying to comfort him by leaning against him.

Accepting the companionship, Moon leaned against her as well, before typing away rapidly on the keyboard, deleting folder after folder of worthless or otherwise inappropriate material. "Good grief, how much crap is on here?" he muttered, searching folder after folder.

Several minutes later, he was confident that he had deleted all of the porn, but that still left many more to search more thoroughly.

The vending machine suddenly flew through the door, smashing into pieces on the other side of the room.

"I brought dinner!" Lati announced, following after the machine.

"Porn!" Kaye shouted, digging out instant popcorn from the machine.

Cassie glared at Lati. "Do you realize how awkward it's going to be taking Kaye anywhere now?"

Lati shrugged. "Eh, she'll get over it."

"Guys, heads up," Blade suddenly warned. "We have visitors!"

The group turned towards the entrance, where a group of Pokemon had gathered behind a Vulpix.

"There he is!" she exclaimed, pointing at Sage. "The One! The visionary!"

Lati blink-blinked as the group of five Pokemon, four females and one male gathered adoringly around the Axew. "Wait... what?

"Oh, Great One!" The Vulpix knelt in front of Sage. "I have spread your message to the other Pokemon that shared similar feelings for their trainers; thank you for opening our eyes!"

Lati face-palmed.

"Thank you for teaching us that we have to take love in our own paws!" A Growlithe said.

"My master and I are now joined in ways we never imagined!" The male Machoke added, eyes glistening with thankfulness.

"Duudes..." Sage sighed, nodding at the gathered Pokemon with a smile. "Love is like, the super-glue of the universe, you know? It... binds us, and the more we spread it, the more the universe is like, awesome..." his eyes went wide as his short arms opened, seeming to encompass the room and beyond. "You have discovered it, and that, bro, that is just... it's just... like, duuuuude, you know?"

"Oh, Great One," the Vulpix gushed. "How can I ever repay you? My master was startled at first, but once I-"

"Okay, okay..." Lati interrupted. "No need for details..."

"Yay! Love!" Kaye whistled past Lati to float around the group of Pokemon. "I love love! Can I also love too? Can I be the second in command? Please? Pleeease?"

"Or the mascot," Lati suggested.

"Suuure..." Sage replied. "Dude, it's like, you know... Meeew... and she's like, whoa! Like, love, man! And she's like, the first Pokemon, and imagine all the loving she needed to make that many more Pokemon... dude, it's like... LOVE, you know, not little love, it's like, totally BIG love..."

Lati floated up to Moonstone and Luna. "Hey Moony, aren't you even slightly disturbed by all of this?"

"Hmm..." Moonstone pondered as he kept typing at the computer, only half paying attention. "Well, I've given up on trying to figure out anything that Dude does, and Kaye is free to do whatever she wants. Not like we have any particular responsibility for her, and as long as she's not doing anything inappropriate, what's wrong with letting her have some fun?"

"Moon, she's just a kid. With how she's acting, she can't be more than, like, six in human years. You're seriously saying you'd let a child make their own decisions?" Luna asked, ears drooping slightly in disappointment.

"Well... Huh... Didn't think about that," Moon admitted, looking at the floating purple Mew, who was cheerfully floating around, cheering on the other Pokemon. "But... She only wants to help... Do you really want to be the one to explain things to her, and make her lose her innocence? That's the one thing that makes children children. Their imagination and innocence, willing only to see the best in everything. After being turned into a Pokemon, she's carefree and happy. Do you want to change all of that? It just... Doesn't seem fair. Yeah, fine, we can try to supervise her, but I refuse to be the one to take away what little joy she may have left in the world."

Luna observed the Mew a moment longer, before sighing, leaning back against Moonstone absently, eyes starting to glaze over the longer she looked at the screen.

"Fine, I'll explain the Pidgeys and the Beedrills to Kaye," Lati sighed. "Might as well, if someone else did she might end up with a complex and reject the fun aspects of it."

"Reject the what now?!" Moonstone replied, spinning his head around, his eyes wide and his face burning. "Y-you... that... Don't encourage her! She's just a kid, damn!"

"What does that mean?" Kaye asked, popping up behind Moonstone.

While Moonstone jumped five feet into the air, taken by surprise at the sudden appearance of the Mew in question, Luna answered quickly, "He wasn't done talking! He was saying, umm... That dams are too complicated to talk about right now! Yeah!"

"Look, Kaye," Lati started. "There comes a point in life when two pokemon really, really like each other, and if they really like other pokemon as well, they all get together... but that's a bit more advanced; take Luna and Moon for example..."

"What?!" Luna and Moon burst out at the same time, both slightly red in the face. They glanced at each other before looking away in a huff, continuing, "We are NOT a 'thing'! I mean, come on, don't be preposterous! An inventor and his pokemon? Come on! What would everyone else think?"

"Y-yeah," Luna continued, looking away. "What would everyone else think?" she echoed, her eyes spacing off a little.

"Well, that would depend if we get to watch, Luna," Lati grinned.

"Watch what?" Kaye asked.

Luna froze up, her ears shooting straight up as her face darkened heavily, unable to come up with a coherent reply. Moonstone, however, was oblivious to her reaction as he snapped, "Lati, would you please stop acting like a child?! We're supposed to be an example to Kaye on how to act, not teach her to be lewd!"

"Lewd? Come on, stop using words I don't know and stuff. I don't know what you're talking about!" Kaye objected. Huffing, she stuck out her tongue, floating off back to Sage, complaining, "You guys aren't fun anymore, so there! I'm going back to my fun friends who have porn!" She floated a bowl of popcorn over to herself, munching a pawful aggressively, before becoming cheerful once more.

Lati chuckled and floated next to Luna. "Hey, sorry about that, I was just teasing," she whispered. "But... seriously, it's kinda obvious. Think about it." She then flew off after Kaye.

Moonstone opened his mouth, glanced to Luna for a second, before closing it and looking away, a light blush across his muzzle. "W-whatever, I have science to find! On the... computer thing! Yeah..."

Moonstone fell into an embarrassed silence as he started searching the folders, looking for possible keywords that might be relevant. "Vacations? No... Travel Expenses? Maybe... Recent Expenditures?"

"You could always try requesting for the information in the search bar or something," Luna suggested absently, starting to clean her face.

"... I knew that," Moonstone answered sullenly, typing in several new commands. "Let's see, relocation of Harburg labs... Relocated to the Orange Islands off of Kanto region? Great, that's like two regions over! Of course they couldn't just move nearby, they've got to move to another bloody continent! Let's see, access files of... What? Oh come on, don't give me that inaccessible crap! It's in a stand alone computer? That's not fair!"

"Life's not fair, get used to it," Luna advised. "So we know where the main computer is, so all we have to do is go there and bust in, right?"

"Yeah! That sounds like my kinda plan! Kick the door down, kick ass, take what we need and maybe take names later!" Blade grinned, slamming a fist into his open palm and then cracking his knuckles. "But... the Orange Islands are very far away... how are we getting there? Airplane ride?"

"Good question... It's not like we can just hop on any plane we want to, not without a trainer, and even then, they don't like having to deal with 'pets', and especially with how many of us there are. We know from earlier, thanks to my dad, that Pokeballs don't really work on us, so unless he can figure out how to modify them, we'll have to travel there on foot. Err, paw, whatever." Moonstone replied, scratching his head.

"How about we just travel there?" Lati asked, floating up to them with an unconscious Kaye in her arms. "She ate too much candy and passed out." She explained at the looks. "But anyway, Moon, unless we can all get into some sort of vehicle, we'll have to somehow make our way there by foot. Or wings, in my case."

"Yeah... Well... I guess we should head back home, then. I'm not seeing any other useful information on this computer, and if we're going to bring this to the authority's attention, we need more proof than this little computer can give us. Ugh, this is going to take a lot of planning," Moonstone complained, jumping back down to the ground.

"Finally! I've been looking all over for you! I thought you had been taken again!" Mr. Scifo exclaimed, bursting into the room, panting heavily.

"Finally, the cavalry arrives," Lati chuckled. "I just wish we could communicate more effectively." She turned to look at Moonstone. "Hey, Moon, how about we go back to your place? I don't think there's much else we can find here. And we need a plan."

"Yeah, might as well. No point in hanging around here any longer, though uh... Dude? Whatever your name is, we're not bringing your uh... followers. They'll have to stay behind."

"Erm, what's going on?" Mr. Scifo asked, looking back and forth between the pokemon present.

"How to explain..." Lati mused. Then she smiled and beckoned Mr. Scifo to the computer, where she typed: "The information we need is in another place. We need a plan."

"Duuude," Sage nodded. "I have taught them what I can; the rest, it's like, dude, they'll get it when they free their spirits from the constraining force of the system, my friend... like, totally."

"We will, oh, great one!" the Vulpix said, eyes shimmering with tears of gratitude. "We will spread the word, like the seed that–"

"Yeah, well, you do that," Blade interrupted. "But not here. Go... now."

"One of the chosen prophets has spoken!" Another pokemon shouted. "Let's go!"

"We're... prophets now?" Blade blinked.

"I... guess," Luna answered, trying to comprehend.

"Dibs! Dibs, totally calling dibs on 10 percent of their tithes!" Kaye muttered for a moment before falling asleep again.

"Yeah, whatever, just so long as I don't have to actually instruct them or anything, or forgive their sins or whatever all else might happen, kay?" Moonstone commented, sighing. "Now let's get home. I think some food will help all of us relax and think more clearly. No sense in trying to plan on an empty stomach!"

"Sins are in your head dude," Sage nodded sagely. "It's the imposition of centuries of–"

Latias held her hand over the axew's mouth. "Okay, so... food? Planning? Travelling? Sounds good! Let's go back to your place and move the story along!"

.o.O.o.

"MOONSTONE SCIFO, YOU GET YOUR FURRY BUTT IN HERE LIKE A PROPER HOST OR I'M TAKING AWAY YOUR INTERNET FOR A WEEK!" Mrs. Scifo screamed into the living room, before turning back around at her somewhat stunned audience. "What? It's not like the news is going anywhere, and it's rude to leave our guests alone if they need help!"

"Yeah, because Luna can't help them find anything if they really needed it, right," Moonstone grumbled, having turned off the news he was trying to watch.

"What was that, mister?" his mom hissed, narrowing her eyes at him.

Moonstone blinked, trying to figure out how she knew what he said, before remembering that she could still hear his tone of voice, and thus her 'mom sense' didn't need to know what was said, only how it was said. Taking a seat at the table next to Luna, he muttered, "Nothing..."

"Yay! Food!" Lati whirled in the air before settling down. "I'm starving! Who knew shaking grunts to death could make you so hungry?!"

"Dude, I remember the last time I got the shakes..." Sage spoke up.

"Did you die?" Lati asked.

"Duuude, I was like, gone, man. Like totally out of my body. I think I saw Deoxys... it was, like, tubular... and the universe opened up..." Sage's eyes were wide. "It was like I was a muffin inside a pancake inside a chair."

Blade blinked. "I have no idea of how that could even possibly feel."

"A muffin, inside a pancake inside a chair," Lati repeated, then started singing: "One of these things is not like the others..."

"Even if it were," Blade snapped. "How can you even imagine that feeling!?"

"Oh! Oh! I know this one!" Kaye said excitedly, floating around the room randomly. "It's the chair, right?!"

"A very astute observation," Blade grumbled.

"Yayifications! I'm so smart! Let's play again, again!" Kaye cheered, grinning widely as she latched onto Mrs. Scifo's head.

"Dear, you're going to get in the way if you stay on my head like that," Mrs. Scifo chided gently. "It's harder to balance and serve food if you don't move."

"But it, it's fun up here!"

"Come on kid," Lati spoke up. "We're all waiting for our poke-chow!"

"She's... not going to feed us Poke-chow, is she?" Cassie asked, nervously looking at Moonstone. "I mean... I know I'm a Pokemon now, but..."

"... You guys really think I feed Luna Poke-chow? Really? Are you TRYING to insult me?" Moonstone asked, quirking an eyebrow. "Pokemon can eat normal food too, you know. Most trainers just choose Poke-chow because it has vitamins and minerals, yada yada yada. My dad invented a juice substitute that could be added to water that gives Luna what she needs, so that she can eat regular food too. Found out that Poke-chow doesn't... really taste all that great, but lots of Pokemon put up with it because that's all they're offered, aside from a few berries here and there."

"So, no Poke-chow! Awesome!" Lati smiled. "Being a Legendary Dragon-type, I think my diet consists of some sort of meat. And beer."

"Beer sounds good," Blade nodded. "I just wish there was a way we could communicate this to our hosts... since Moonstone cannot speak to them..."

~Yeah, because I can't just, you know, write or type out what we want,~ Moonstone thought sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "You know, I-"

"You should, you know," Lati said, not looking at him and keeping her eyes on Mrs. Scifo. "Type it, I mean. Would save me time from doing it myself!"

~Did she just... Nah...~ Moonstone blinked, then shrugged. "Fine, whatever. I guess I'll be right back, then." ~Since I'm sure everyone would yell at me for asking Luna to get it, or something.~

"Geez, if it's such a big deal I'll go get it," Blade muttered. "Where is it?"

Moonstone paused, looking back up to the table he had just leaped from. "Huh? If what's a big deal? I said I'd be right back." ~Something wrong with his hearing?~

"No, you just keep whining about sending Luna to get your computer," Blade growled. "You've been complaining all along!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Luna interjected heatedly, turning to give Balde a death-glare. "He hasn't been complaining! Take that back!"

"Well... he has..." Lati spoke up, turning to look at the three pokemon. "He started complaining that he could just write what we wanted... then it was the one about how we'd all yell at him if he asked Luna to get the laptop–"

"And then you said I had bad hearing!" Blade added, frowning at Moonstone.

"... I never said... any of what you guys just accused me of," Moonstone said flatly, though his mind was racing.

"Yeah, I think I would have heard him grumbling, considering he was, you know, sitting right next to me," Luna added, still glaring at their guests.

Lati stared at Luna for a second. Then her gaze floated to Moonstone. She smirked. "Oh... this... this is precious. Come on, Moon... do the math..."

Moonstone blinked, thought for several moments, before he mouthed 'no'. ~... You guys are a bunch of assholes...~

"Well, that's rude," Cassie muttered.

"MOONSTONE SCIFO, WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE!" Mrs. Scifo yelled from the other room, taking some food out of the oven. After several seconds of silence, however, Moonstone jumped when he heard glass shattering in the kitchen. "Daren?! Can you come here, honey?!"

"One minute, darling!" Mr. Scifo shouted down from the lab. "I'm almost done here, is it important?"

"... I don't know! I'm hearing things, does that count as important?"

"Um, what sort of things, dear?" came the reply. "I'm doing something terribly important right now, so unless you're hearing voices in your head, I think it might just be your imagination!"

"I need comforting, Daren, so Arceus help me, get your butt up here and keep me sane before I come down there and-!"

~Geeze, mom, chill. It's not like I finally figured out how to use some of my psychic powers to talk directly to you or something crazy like that!~ Moonstone thought as his mother slowly turned to see him sitting on the counter, smiling as smug as a catterpie in a rug, tail wrapped around his forepaws. ~... I can has hug naow?~

Amidst Mrs. Scifo's screaming, Lati couldn't help but hug Moonstone. "I knew you were somehow really my brother!"

~No! Hug from mom, not from you! Quit it, Sissy!~ Moonstone thought quickly, before Lati started to scratch behind his ears, effectively shutting him up.

"There is no escaping the ear-scratch attack!" Lati chuckled.

"Scratch attack!"

Luna leaped forward, foreleg extended as she slashed Lati's arms, causing her to yelp and drop Moonstone. "Oops, I'm sorry, Lati. Habits die hard," Luna simpered, before starting to clean her claws delicately.

Lati's eyes became watery as she looked from the scratch marks to Luna, then back to the scratch marks. She whimpered. Then she sniffed and floated slowly back before tears started to roll down her cheeks. "B-but I was... I was just s-scratching his ear..." her lower lip trembled. "What did I do wrong?"

"... Luna, bedroom, now," Moonstone said shortly, staring at the Umbreon. "Lati, just... Clean the cuts, I'll be back in a minute..."

"So, what did I miss?" Mr. Sifo asked, walking out of the basement and looking around.

"Dude," Sage spoke up. "There was nothing to miss man, the world is always full of stuff... it's like... a soda drink, man; you can see the bubbles, and even the ones you don't keep bubbling away."

Lati was going to say something to that, but the sound of muffled yelling from upstairs made everyone go silent. It continued for a little while, and Mr. Scifo looked at his wife with some concern. When she shook his head, he frowned, but soon after the yelling stopped.

In the silence that followed, a small ding sounded, causing Mrs. Scifo to jump, hurrying back to the oven. While she fussed over the food, Lati heard Moonstone ask, ~Hey, Lati, can you come up for a minute? Need to talk to you.~

Lati stole a glance around the room before slowly making her way up the stairs. When she saw Moonstone, she hovered a bit, before arching an eyebrow. "What's up?"

Moonstone stepped aside, revealing a miserable-looking Luna. "H-hey... I'm sorry for..." Luna swallowed hard, staring at the floorboards, only managing to glance up enough to see Lati floating in front of her. "... Sorry for scratching you, and for... for being mean. M'sorry..."

Lati blinked. Then suddenly felt terribly guilty. "I uh... it's fine, Luna... I-I don't mind, it wasn't that bad, really."

She turned to look at Moonstone and grimaced. "I'm really not sure what to do other than that, Moon... I mean... I'm kinda pushy. I can see why Luna would get annoyed with me."

Moonstone looked between them, before sighing. "I... Look, we need to set some boundary rules, alright? Just because I'm cat-like doesn't mean you can just treat me like one and pet me or scratch me whenever you want. I never even did that with Luna, and we couldn't even talk to each other then! So we need to work something out, alright?"

.o.O.o.

Mr. Scifo looked up as his son, his adoptive daughter and Luna walked into the basement, where his computer had produced a holographic image of a Pokeball's blueprint.

"Ah! You're finally here! Good!" he said, motioning for the late additions to step closer. "As you can see, I have devised a plan that will let you travel the land unhindered."

Lati tilted her head while looking at the blueprints. "Uh... Moon, I have no idea how that is a plan. At all."

"Well, let's see..." Moonstone said to himself, hopping up to get a better look. His tail swayed slowly as he pawed through the files, mumbling to himself absently. "Hmm, yeah, that could... No, that's just stupid... this one looks... interesting, but..."

"Is it just me, or is there an echo in here?" Lati asked, blinking in confusion when she heard a feminine voice repeat what she said. Mostly. "Except echoes are supposed to say the same thing you did. I am confused."

"Echoes have the property... of... Hey, you're right," Luna broke off, looking around. "Did we leave a PA system on or something? Is Gracie trying to call us?"

"No," Mr. Scifo said suddenly, a smile spreading on his face. "It just means that it works!"

"Well, that's something that's going right, at least," Moonstone commented, still sifting through the papers. "Think you can reverse engineer that so that the others can talk English, or is that going to be a lot more complicated? Also, dibs on a small island."

"What? Wait, you... That's amazing!" Luna cheered, tackling Moonstone, gently, hugging him tight.

"I'm lost," Lati said. "I feel very, very lost."

"Dude, you're not lost, like... ever, mon; the whole world might look like a confusing place, but, it's like, dude... when Ho-Oh flies around and you're like, whoa, mon! Was that really like, a giant bird of fire? But... yeah man, Ho-Oh is never lost, because she knows, man. She knows."

"She knows what?" Blade asked, instantly regretting it.

"She knows who she is, mon. And, dude, if she knows who she is, how can she be lost? Because if you know who you are and that you're where you are, then how can you not know where that is?"

Lati took Mr. Scifo's hand. "Please. Save me."

"Come on, Moonstone, we talked about this," Mr. Scifo sighed impatiently, tapping his foot. "You can't call dibs on a private island until you're 21!"

"But daaaad, I am 21 now! Technically, I'm roughly 39 now, so... Gimme! I called dibs! You can't go back on dibs!"

"Yeah! Everyone knows about the universal Dibs Protocol!" Luna added, defending her master automatically.

"And the No-Take-Backs Accord!" Kaye added helpfully, excited to be contributing.

"... I'll talk it over with your mom, but don't count on it. We MIGHT consider your own house, but not your own island, not yet! You would never come vist!" Mr. Scifo opposed, his arms crossed.

"What are you guys talking about?" Blade shouted, obviously exasperated.

"Every time we make a new patent, everyone in the family gets to choose something to splurge a little bit of money on, like a new kitchen appliance, piece of furniture, stuff like that. Ever since he was seven, Moonstone has been dead set on getting his own island for... some reason I don't even know, because he won't tell anyone." Mr. Scifo explained.

"Oh, okay, I get it!" Lati said, nodding. "But what I don't get is... how can you understand us?"

Moonstone grinned at his 'sister', purring. "... Okay, Lati, you made fun of me before, so now it's my turn! Use your brain... What did... Luna say at the beginning? You know, that part about... about patents?"

"I'm sure I don't know, but it sounded something like: yay," Lati deadpanned.

"Moon, that was dad who said that, not me."

Moonstone, however, wasn't paying attention to either of them. His eyes were following a moving light on the ground, his tail twitching slightly as he followed it avidly, slowly getting up, crouching back down to chase the light. "Gottagettheshinything..." he mumbled to himself.

Lati looked at Luna and grimaced. "I really, really want to say something... but I get the feeling that I might piss him off."

"I don't know, he looks really focused to me," Blade commented, looking at the Espeon's eyes.

"... Okay, this is freaking me out," Luna mumbled, backing up an inch or two. "I... I'm going to regret this, but... Go ahead, I guess... Oh Arceus, I regret it already," Luna moaned, facepawing.

"I-" Lati hesitated. "No... it's not worth it. Anyway... so... Mr. Scifo can now understand us. How does that help us? I mean, we could just type away on the computer."

Mr. Scifo smiled. "Here's where it gets interesting," he said, typing away at the keyboard. New schematics came up, but also an entry on Latias and Latios. He scrolled down until he seemed to find what he was looking for. Grinning, he highlighted it and motioned for the gathered Pokemon to take a closer look.

Lati's eyes widened. "Wait... are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"That... Wait, so that..." Luna looked back and forth between the blueprints and the screen, her eyes growing wide. "You want us to be her partners while she masquerades as a human?!"

"Who did what now?" Moonstone asked, blinking as he looked back to the screen, the 'shiny light' having disappeared.

"Wee! We can turn into humans?!" Kaye exclaimed, nearly plastering herself to the screen to read. "Yayifications! Can I turn into anything?! Oh! Cool, I can turn into one of the characters from My Little Ponyta! This is so awesome!"

"This has all the likelihood of ending in disaster," Lati stated, eyes narrowing for a second before she smiled. "When do we start?"

Mr. Scifo raised an eyebrow. "Once you learn to do it."

Blaze sighed. "I get the feeling I should go stock up in beers. This'll take a while."

Lati grinned manically. "For the chance of getting the lot of you into Pokeballs? Mon, you won't have to wait long."

End Chapter 6