“Go, Chu-Chu!” Aoife shouted.  Chu-Chu advanced threateningly on the Seadra, who sweatdropped.  Its owner, a Team Rocket member whom Aoife had caught attacking a defenseless old man, wore a matching sweatdrop.
 “Chuu,” Chu-Chu smirked.
 “S-seadra…” the Seadra stammered, backing away from Chu-Chu.
 “Thundershock, Chu-Chu!” Aoife cried.  Chu-Chu complied, forcing her Rocket opponent to recall its fainted Pokemon.
 “Eh, that old guy probably didn’t have any good Pokemon anyway,” the Rocket sneered, turning to leave the battle scene.
 “Sour grapes!” Sora called after the Rocket.  She dashed to the side of the old man whom Aoife just saved.  “You okay, mister?”
 “This is amazing!” Aidan, who had been taking notes the whole time, exclaimed.
 Aoife sweatdropped when she saw what Aidan had been doing during her battle.  “What are you taking notes for?”
 “It appears,” Aidan said excitedly, nose buried in his notes, “that Chu-Chu’s power has increased since that thing with the Thunderstone in Eonville!  You know, when you accidentally evolved it and then devolved it again?”
 “Of course I remember that,” Aoife said.  “It was only probably the scariest moment of Chu-Chu’s life, that’s all!”
 “Pii,” Chu-Chu agreed, remembering the incident.
 “But it’s funny, isn’t it?” Aidan went on.  “You’d think evolving and devolving in the same day would wear Chu-Chu out.  But now look!  Chu-Chu’s so much more powerful than before!  It’s almost like it has the abilities of a Raichu, but it just returned to a Pikachu’s body.”
 “What doesn’t kill us,” Ferio quoted, “only makes us stronger.”
 “Yeah, you could say that,” Petra agreed.
 “Are you guys going to sit there and talk all day,” Sora broke in, “or are you gonna help this guy?”
 “Oh!”  Aoife immediately rushed to the old man’s aid.  “Sorry, sir.  Are you hurt?”
 “No, no,” the man said, “just fine.  But thank you for saving me, anyway.”
 “Oh, really, it was nothing,” said Aoife, striking a dramatic pose.
 “You, young man,” the old man said to Aidan.  “What’s your name?”  Aoife facefaulted.
 “Um, it’s Aidan, sir,” Aidan replied.
 “Aidan,” the old man said.  “My name is Dr. Kobi.  I’m a Pokemon researcher, as are you, apparently.  Would you mind if I had a look at your notes there?”
 “Oh, of course!” Aidan said, handing over his notebook.  “Yeah, I want to be a researcher.  That’s why I sometimes take notes…well, what do you think of them?”
 “Hmm.”  Dr. Kobi pored over Aidan’s notes.  “Very good observations.  I really think you have a promising career ahead of you.”  Aidan beamed proudly.  “Would you like to come back to my lab for a while?  I have a new experiment that may be of interest to you.”
 “Would I!” Aidan grinned.  “Er, that is…if you guys want to.”  He turned back to his four friends with a deploring look.
 “Fine by me,” Aoife decided, and the others agreed.
 “Fantastic!” Dr. Kobi said.  “Very well then, come with me.”
 As he led the group to his laboratory, Dr. Kobi said, “I found another group of trainers, about your age, and they’re in the lab too.  It’s a girl and three boys…” he looked around at Aoife’s group—“much the opposite of yours.”
 Aoife suddenly had a feeling of dread.  “A girl and three boys, about my age?” “Um, Dr. Kobi?” she asked.  “Would this girl’s name happen to be Fawn, by any chance?”
 The researcher looked stunned.  “Yes, that’s her name!  Fawn, Fawn Oak, the great-granddaughter of a colleague of mine, Professor Oak.  It’s an unusual name, isn’t it?”
 “Yeah,” Aoife said gloomily.  “I know her.  We both left home at the same time.”
 Dr. Kobi, oblivious to Aoife’s newfound despair, stopped in front of a medium-sized white building.  “Well, here it is!  The laboratories.”
 They went inside and found Fawn, Steve, Bert, and Charlie sitting on leather couches in the lobby.  “Well, if it isn’t Aoife Ketchum and crew,” Fawn said, standing up as Dr. Kobi arrived with his new guests.
 “Aoife, Fawn, I believe you’ve already met?” Dr. Kobi said unnecessarily.
 “Yeah,” Aoife said, glaring at Fawn behind Dr. Kobi’s back.  “Unfortunately.”
 “Well,” Dr. Kobi said.  “I might as well show you all what I’ve been working on for the past six months, eh?”  He led the way down a long white corridor, with Aoife’s group and Fawn’s group following behind.  “Come with me.”
 “This is so exciting!” Aidan was practically skipping after Dr. Kobi, notebook in hand.  “I can’t wait to see what new developments are going on in the Pokemon world!”  Ferio rolled her eyes.
 Dr. Kobi stopped before a door almost at the end of the hallway and opened it, bowing.  “Guests first.”
 “Thank you,” Aoife said politely as she and the others entered the room.  On the other side of the room, under a glass case, was a small box marked “TM51” with a string on either side.  There were security cameras and alarms set up around the room, and Dr. Kobi had had to enter a combination to unlock the door.
 “May I present to you,” Dr. Kobi announced, “TM51.”
 There was a pause before Fawn said, “So?  It’s a TM.  What’s the big deal about this one?”
 Aidan would have hit Fawn over the head at that point if she hadn’t been surrounded by older guys who would have probably beaten Aidan up if he had done that.  “Don’t you get it?  There are only 50 known TMs, but apparently Dr. Kobi has created another one!”  He turned admiringly to Dr. Kobi.  “Is that it?”
 “Absolutely!”  Dr. Kobi carefully unlocked the glass case and held up his new TM as though it were the Holy Grail.  “Ladies and gentlemen…the Humanize TM.”
 “Humanize, eh?” Petra said, already having some idea of what the TM did before Dr. Kobi told them.
 “The Humanize TM,” Kobi went on, “when used on a Pokemon, gives the Pokemon the ability to change into a human version of itself whenever it wishes to!  It retains its original character, and its human form usually resembles its Pokemon form in hair color, eye color, complexion, and appearance.”
 “Like a Pikachu using Humanize would have…say, blond hair with black tips?” Ferio speculated.  “And whatever eye color the Pokemon had, like Chu-Chu using Humanize would have brown eyes.”
 “Pi?” Chu-Chu looked up at the mention of its name.  It did not look so thrilled at the idea of learning Humanize.  “Pii, pika.”  It buried its face in Aoife’s shoulder.
 “Right,” Dr. Kobi said.  “This is one of a limited number of this TM, and it’s only the first version, you understand.  We plan to improve upon the formula a little before we make it available to buy.”
 “Of course,” Aidan nodded.  “You don’t want to release an imperfect version to the masses.”
 “The masses?” Ferio snorted.  “Gee, Aidan, you almost sound as though you know what you’re talking about.”  Aidan looked hurt, and Sora glared at Ferio.
 “The only downside to this TM,” Dr. Kobi said, “is that it cannot be used in battle.  The Pokemon League has decided that to use Humanize during battle—to turn your Pokemon into its human form—is as good as forfeiting.  Because humans cannot compete in battle with Pokemon.”
 “That makes sense,” Petra said.  “Yeah.  For humans to battle with Pokemon…well, that’s Pokemon cruelty, isn’t it?”
 “Absolutely,” Dr. Kobi says.  “As well as the fact that—”
 SLAM.  The door to the laboratory slammed into the wall on the other side of the door, forming a crack in the wall.  When Aoife turned to the doorway to see what it was, she saw none other than Bonnie and Clyde, who wasted no time in performing their motto.
 “Team Rocket, flying in the night!” Bonnie finished.
 “Surrender now, or you’ll lose the fight!” Clyde said.
 “Team Rocket?” Dr. Kobi repeated, backing away and clutching his TM protectively.  “Stay away from me!  I’ll…I’ll call the police!”
 “We don’t fear the police!” Bonnie replied boldly.
 “Speak for yourself,” Clyde mumbled.
 “Now,” Bonnie went on, “if you don’t want a fight, hand over the TM!”
 “I…I won’t!” Dr. Kobi said defiantly.
 “Don’t worry, Dr. Kobi,” Aidan said, stepping forward, “we’ll take care of these guys.  We’ve done it before and we’ll do it again.”  He grasped a Pokeball and threw it towards Bonnie and Clyde.  “Go, Jolteon!”
 Out came Aidan’s new Jolteon that he had gotten in Eonville.  “Jolteon!” it said.
 “Go, Growlithe!” Bonnie said, throwing her Pokemon into battle with Jolteon.
 “Grooooowlithe!” Growlithe cried, preparing to tackle Jolteon.
 “While they’re busy…” Clyde set his Vulpix, Sundance, on the ground.  “Sundance, go get that TM!”
 “Oh, no you don’t!”  Aoife noticed what Clyde was doing and sent out her own Pokemon to counter his.  “Go, Vaporeon!”
 “Vulpix!”  Sundance jumped up and grabbed one of the strings on the side of the TM box in its mouth.
 “Hey!” Dr. Kobi tried to snatch it back from Sundance, but he was unsuccessful. 
 “Get it, Vaporeon!” Aoife urged.  “Come on, you can do it!”
 “Vaporeon!” Vaporeon jumped over Sundance and landed in front of it, taking the other string in its mouth, resulting in a tug of war between the two Pokemon over the TM.
 “Don’t do that!” Dr. Kobi looked horror-struck.  “Let go of the string!  It’s going to burst!”
 “Burst?” Aoife repeated, watching the two Pokemon.
 And sure enough, it burst.  The two ends of the box came apart like a firecracker, and powder exploded from the inside.  Most of this powder landed on Sundance, who started to glow in a strange manner.
 “Uh-oh,” Dr. Kobi said in a trembling voice.  “I think…I think…it just…”
 Sundance seemed just as scared when the changes started.  First it grew in size and mutated in shape, until it was five and a half feet tall and human-shaped.  The crest on Vulpix’s head unfurled like a flag into a head of long red hair, and its tail disappeared altogether.  Its paws changed into feet and hands before the glow subsided.  What was left was a very beautiful young woman of about Bonnie and Clyde’s age, with long wavy red hair like Fawn’s and black eyes…wearing nothing at all except for a surprised look on her face.  This set Petra off, and she was staring at the girl, blushing.
 “I think,” Dr. Kobi finished his sentence, “the Vulpix just taught itself Humanize.”
 Everyone could only stare at Sundance’s human form, thunderstruck, until she threw back her head and screamed, “Well, what are you standing around for?  GIVE ME SOME CLOTHES!”
 
 
Author's Notes
*frowns at episode* Too short, but hey, what can I do, it's already been written.  Four pages.  Feh.  Guess that's to make up for the last seven-pager.  And not even any commercial breaks either, so it all looks really long and cluttered, but again what can I do.  Hmm.  I do like Sundance's new form, though, and that was basically the only function of this episode, so...yeah.  Also I'm not sure what a TM is really supposed to look like, but I think that's what they were like in the manga.
 
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