FSE

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It was a fortnight after Teal had started working at the Cerulean Gym. Already he had saved two lives, one was a young girl who slipped into the pool and couldn't swim, and the other was a teenaged boy who had developed a cramp in the middle of the pool and couldn't keep himself afloat. Misty had praised him for that, something he was sure his old master would never have done. Though new to the staff, and therefore not sure who was a regular and who was new to the pool, he never noticed the newcomer to the gym, a young wild Mismagius that slept on the roof and snuck into the building every day. She had first snuck into the pool by accident, phasing right through a wall whilst running away from a chasing Houndoom pack during closing time, where she first caught a glimpse of Teal. She soon knew much about him, reading his mind for little tidbits of information about him; who he was, what he liked and disliked... Anything. She learned how to swim by reading his mind, and now she raked her mind for ideas on how to approach him.

For Teal, little had changed; happily he went about his day, watching the swimmers and getting a lap or two himself every so often to make sure he kept his physique. He'd had a pleasent fortnight under the ownership of Misty; he never dehydrated dangerously, was healthy and well looked after, but had a certain amount of freedom, which was all he could ask for. He didn't have to drive the bus or a car, because Misty lived practically right next door. He could access the pool whenever he wished, so long as he didn't make a mess and he let no-one else in. After a few nights he had grown used to sleeping in a different house, but he often woke up from nightmares, and had to go to the pool to get his mind off of it. Misty had become worried about her latest addition, he barely slept and what little he did sleep would be interrupted by nightmares he would awake from screaming and in tears.

Today, his lack of sleep caught up with him. He had been sitting by the pool as per usual, exhausted from his sleepless nights, when Misty swam over and leaned against the side of the pool. She wore her usual blue swimming gear, a Cascade badge pinned to her top.

"Teal;" she began, "I don't know what to do with you." She said, giving him a worried look. "You've not been sleeping, and that concerns me. You'll not be at your best if you are barely awake, and you're no good to me as a lifeguard at that point."

Teal turned his red-rimmed eyes to his trainer. "I'm sorry, master." He said weakly. "I can't sleep."

"Teal, go and try to get some sleep now." Misty ordered. "I'll get someone's psychic type to hypnotise you if I must, but you're no good to me like this."

"Alright." Teal replied. "I'll try, for you... Master..." And with that, he slumped forth, letting his exhaustion take control and put him to sleep. He slowly drifted to the bottom of the pool, where another humanoid pokemon, Aqua, tried to lift him out.

"Leave him there, Aqua." Misty said, her voice barely carrying through the water. "He'll be fine."

"He'll drown!" Aqua protested.

"No, he'll be alright." Misty assured her as she surfaced. "He's breathing through his gills, under the ruff around his neck. Just leave him there and he'll wake when he's ready."

"And if he doesn't wake until nightfall?" One of Misty's Elites, Louis asked as he lifted her from the pool.

"He knows he's perfectly safe here while I'm not, just so long as he stays in the security feeds. He can be seen at the bottom from that camera up there." She pointed one out that was covering the entire pool. "This gives us an opportunity, too." She said. "A Mismagius broke in the other night, and we're unsure where it is; maybe having someone here after dark will help us." A sudden burst of bubbles from the pool and an almost invisible sound grabbed her attention, and she looked back to Teal on the bottom of the pool. He was clutching his head in pain as he writhed, screaming at the top of his lungs; the nightmares had struck again.

Later, after Teal had resurfaced and Misty had made sure he was alright, a psychic trainer who happened to be in the aquatics center that day had his Mr. Mime hypnotise Teal into a deep sleep that, even with nightmares, would take a very long time for him to wake from. He was allowed to sink back to the bottom of the pool, where he slept restlessly. Soon night fell, and Misty was the last to leave, making sure that Teal slept on at the bottom of the pool before locking up. She was worried, endless nightmares were a bad sign, especially if they caused lack of sleep for one of her lifeguards. She walked for only a short while, eventually walking her front door and locking it behind her. She strode into the kitchen, where she stopped. There was someone sitting at the table facing away from her, petting her Azurill.

"Who are you?!" she yelled, dropping her back and picking out her Golduck. "Don't make me get Golduck to kick you out of here!"

"Relax, Misty." The man replied, his voice sounding familiar. She lowered the pokeball.

"Professor Oak?" She stammered. "Is that you?"

Oak stood up and turned to her, holding out his hand. "Hello again, sorry that I let myself in, but I'm on important business and I have little time to chat." Misty shook his hand and he sat down again, returning to carefully running his hand over Azurill. "I'll fill you in on what's happened." Oak said.

Back in the aquatics center, Teal slowly woke. He's finally gotten enough sleep to replace that he had lost, and he swum to the surface. At the speed he could generate in five meters, he burst from the water and landed on his feet, slipping a little on the tiles. He looked about the empty gym and sighed, yet again he was alone in the big empty hall. Idly he stepped onto the pool and walked across the water, looking down at the bottom; people were messy creatures, and often times he had found at least twenty pokedollars in lost change at the bottom. He noted out the positions of several coins and let himself sink into the water, swimming back to the bottom to fish them up and into his velcro-sealable pockets. Above him, watching him glide through the water gracefully, the Misdrevius stood. She had phased back into the gym to watch him sleep, and he hadn't noticed her when he had awoken. She was almost entranced as she watched him move. Neither of them knew how much danger they were in.

"What do you mean, more than a few?!" Misty snapped. "And how long ago was it?"

Oak scratched the back of his head. "W-well, it's not that many..." He said nervously. "Only about ten or so. And they escaped roughly a fortnight ago."

Misty grumbled. "And you tracked them here, to my town?" She asked, displeased.

"Yes." Oak replied. "Misty, they're extremely dangerous to be loose; you've got to help me."

"How do you expect me to help you catch almost a dozen Haunter?!" She snapped angrily. Oak waved a hand to calm her down.

"Don't fret, they should be easy to locate due to their behaviour." He said. "They torment targets with nightmares while feeding off their dreams with Dream Eater. I've been able to track them here by all the claims of these exact symptoms."

Misty put two and two together and stood up in a hurry, grabbing Oak by his wrist.

"You're coming with me!" She snapped.

Back in the pool, Teal had collected almost all of the coins. He swam over to the last one, made sure he had the rest of them safely in his pocket before he reached down and tried to pick it up. At first it resisted, as if it were glued to the bottom of the pool, but when it finally came free he was knocked back as a Haunter pushed him.

"Mine!" It shouted. "Mine! Mine!" It hurled a shadow ball at Teal, which threw him from the pool and onto the tiles. The Haunter floated up and more appeared around the room, all glaring angrily at Teal. "Kill him!" The Haunter shouted.

Teal barely dodged the first barrage of Shadow ball attacks, and he felt one graze his tail as he dove back into the water, where he could defend himself easier. He swum in loops and swirls, dodging hurled shadow balls and confuse-rays, occassionally spinning to face the attacking group and throw a Water-Pulse back at them. He only hit one or two, but nowhere near hard enough to take them down. Another Shadow Ball struck him, dead in the spine, and he cringed from the pain. He didn't want to use a wide-field power like Surf or waterfall, he might do more damage to the aquatics center than to the Haunter. The Haunter clutching the coin held up a hand that crackled with lightning.

"Mine!" He shouted, releasing the Thunderbolt into the pool.

Misty and Oak reached the front doors as the fibreglass walls lit up. Misty fumbled with the door's keys for a moment or two.

"My new Vaporeon, Teal, has been unable to sleep for almost two weeks." She said, opening the door and rushing into the building, followed close behind by Oak. "He's been having terrible nightmares and has awoken on several nights in extreme pain."

She led Oak into the main pool area, where the Haunter were surrounding the pool that Teal was floating motionless on the surface. The Mismagius that had been caught on the cameras was floating over him, using Protect to deflect Shadow Ball and Thinderbolt attacks that flew their way.

"What in the-" Misty gasped.

She didn't know what she was doing. She didn't know why she was doing it. When the Thunderbolt struck the water and she watched Teal sieze up she almost screamed, and she dashed to him and started using a move she discovered accidentally while floating past a berry tree. Every so often, an attack would get through and she'd bear the brunt of the attack; but it was taking its toll on her, and she could feel herself weakening fast. She heard a splash and saw Misty resurface next to them. She put a Max Revive into Teal's mouth and dove back out of the way of fire. Another Shadow Ball went right through Mismagius' shield and she screamed in pain as it smashed into her. Now she was weak, and she couldn't possibly use another Protect to save them even if she tried. A final volley of Sadow Balls came her way, but before they could connect Teal grabbed her and pulled her down under the water with him. He was at full strength now, and Mismagius could see the water around him pulse gently with his strengthened heartbeats. Misty swum back to them and wordlessly rubbed a Hyper-potion wipe on Mismagius's wounds. She felt revitalised, and her mind was refreshed; she felt smarter than ever, and she had a feeling she knew how to use her new vitality.

"You ready?" Teal asked her, a boyish smile on his face. She nodded, and he glently let her go to sink further to the bottom. "Let's go, then." He said, kicking off the bottom of the pool and rocketing past.

He had it all planned, he used a quick but powerful bite to take down the first, then he leapt to the next and hit it hard with Hydro Pump. He dove back into the water while they tried to recover from their sudden loss in numbers while the Mismagius would appear as randomly as possible to do as much damage as she could. She proved to be quite potent, her unseen yet powerful psychic attacks carving through the ghosts like they weren't there. She was amazed at how hard she was hitting them with such simple attacks, but she didn't notice the Thunderbolt attack that was swung at her from behind. Her eyes went wide as her back singed, and she fell to the water, where Teal caught her and quickly handed her to Misty.

"You did good, kid." Teal said. "Now it's my turn." She nodded at him as Misty carried her away to the edge, narrowly being missed by Shadow Balls as she climbed out of the pool. Teal had sunk to the bottom again, and now the water churned angrily around him. His form blurred, and then vanished altogether as he let himself dissipate.

"Now, Teal." Misty mumbled. "You've got it as turbulant as you're ever going to get it; release your anger and catch them in a whirlpool!"

Sure enough, the water erupted out, catching the Haunter in a swirling vortex of water. With himself hidden inside it, Teal popped in and out of solidity to land a bite or a small Water Pulse on the hapless pokemon. The raging water eventually settled again, and fell back into the pool in a massive splash, raining water down on the three watching. Teal stood ontop of the restless water, which slowly settled down around him as Oak meandered about and collected the Haunter back into their pokeballs. Teal cautiously walked over to Misty and looked up at her, the level of the pool's water now a great deal lower than before.

"I... Didn't go too far did I, master?" He asked, to which she shook her head. Teal looked about the room at the remaining Haunter. "I guess this means no more sleepless nights?" He hazarded rhetorically.

Misty carried the Mismagius back out of the building, handing her to Teal when they got to the door so that she could lock up and then they walked back to Misty's house. Along the way, teal ran a claw through Mismagius' hair, getting out little knots he found and he even pulled a bur out. She was happy, her mouth curled into a cheerful smile as she leant into him, cuddling up to his warmth. He was a little surprised that she was so affectionate to him, but even more surprised when she started to shine and he accidentally dropped her in his momentary shock. She bounced painfully on the pavement, and the shining light blinded the group momentarily as it lit the area up like daylight. Eventually the glow faded, and she lay on the pavement giving Teal a pained expression. Her body had changed, become more humanoid, and now she looked more like a purple Gardevoir; her beaded necklace hanging around her neck instead of a spike through her chest and she still had a hat on her head, but it looked more like hair than a normal hat. Her body had changed what looked like a dress before into an actual dress, giving her some decency at least. Teal apologised and lifted her back up. He had to admit to himself, she was much more attractive now... He shook his head faintly, she'd never go for him, and even if she did, they were seperate egg-groups, their pairing would never produce young. But... Maybe the new evolutionary leap put them into a different group? One that all pokemon joined?

Eventually they made it back to Misty's house, and they waved goodbye to Oak at the door before Misty locked it behind her and Teal carried Mismagius into the kitchen. Misty sat at a chair while Teal went about getting his master a drink.

"So." Misty began. "What to do with you now." She began. Mismagius tilted her head as Teal handed Misty a soda. "Don't play dumb." Misty said. "I can't let you free now that you've evolved to this stage, but I'm unsure as to whether or not to keep you."

Teal flicked an ear and walked into the next room, listening to Misty talk to Mismagius as he gathered his bath towel and some clean clothes.

"I don't have a position to put you in that springs to mind." Misty said. "But I've also no friends that'd like a humanoid Mismagius." She leant back on her chair and stretched. "I'll think about it over sleep." She said, standing up. "Don't break anything while I'm in bed."

Teal poked his head in the door to the kitchen quickly. "I'm just going to go have a shower, master." He said, his ear flicking once more.

"Alright, Teal." She replied, waving at him backhandedly. "Use the one in the spare room, I'll be in the Master shower."

Teal nodded and then headed to the spare room upstairs. It was unique at the moment, set up for his physique. It was always cool, to keep him from drying out during the night, and he had a bowl of water in the corner at all times in case he did dehydrate a little too much during the night. Unlike most pokemon, he didn't like to be kept in his pokeball, and Misty had no qualms in allowing him to stay in the room so long as he didn't make a mess. He closed the door behind him and locked it before heading into the bathroom and locking that door behind him, too. He wasn't paranoid or anything, but he was worried that problems might arise if Misty caught him undressed, which was one of the things he found scarier than a rampaging Rhyhorn. He stripped off, turned on the water and stood under the spray, humming to himself lightly as the warm water washed the pool chemicals off his thin coat of fur; he even allowed it to flow into him, using the clean water to purge the chemicals bonded into him out of his system before he became sick.

Mismagius stood outside the door to his bathroom, listening to him hum to himself. She bit her lip as she leaned against the door, careful not to let it make a sound. She'd not been able to get this close to his personal life at the aquatics center, and she was having a really difficult time trying to get him out of her head. She made up her mind and slipped out of her clothes, turning herself invisible as she slid through the door and into the bathroom. She floated silently up behind Teal, wrapped her arms around him and allowed herself to become solid. Teal jumped at her sudden intrusion, but she put a finger over the end of his muzzle.

"Shhh." She said calmly. "I've been watching you for some time, Teal." She said. "And I think I've grown attatched on a... More serious level." She moved her finger away when she felt his jaw open silently as he pondered this. "I... Think I might love you, Teal." She said.

Teal searched for words, unsure of what might happen if he said anything at all. "But we're different species." He said, deciding to fall back on biological knowledge. "We'd never-"

"How do you know if you don't try?" She asked.

Misty stepped into the upstairs hallway, faintly aware of a tapping sound. She wandered to the end of the hall, where it became more of a dull thud against the wall. She rubbed her eyes and sighed.

"Oh, Teal..!" She breathed, disappointed. She walked downstairs and gave Brock a call. Surely, being an experienced breeder, he might have some idea on this unique situation. She idly looked around the kitchen as the phone dialled, and her eyes stopped upon a note on the refrigerator that was being held up by a single magnet. In large, badly scrawled letters a message had been left behind by Mismagius. It read, simply: 'On the table, I'm sorry'. Misty looked over to the kitchen table, where a lone pokeball sat. Brock groggily picked up the phone.

"Hello?" He asked.

"Sorry to wake you, Brock." Misty said. "But I've a breeding question to ask you."

"Let me guess." He said, still sounding sleepy. "Humanoid pokemon?"

"Yeah, how'd you guess?" Misty replied.

"It's fairly recent news." Brock said. "All pokemon evolved to their final stage enter the Humanshape egg group." He said. "I take it two members of your party are in deeper than you thought?"

Misty growled to herself. "Yeah." She said. "Thanks for the info." She added.

"No problems, I'll see you later." Brock said.

"See you." Misty finished, hanging up. The thumping had stopped now, and she heard the water turn off in the bathroom. Discreetly, she crept back to her own room and went to bed.

Morning came quickly, and Misty woke Teal by knocking on his door before she headed downstairs to find the Mismagius sleeping on the couch. Misty had to admit, for a ghost pokemon, she looked cute when she was sleeping. Misty quickly got herself a bowl of cereal before sitting in a chair opposite the couch, watching Mismagius sleep peacefully. She could hear the usual thumping and complaining upstairs of Teal getting ready for work. Soon he'd come downstairs after making his bed and make himself a quick breakfast; and Misty had made up her mind. True enough, Teal blundered down the stairs, tripping the last three and landing on his face before getting back up and grabbing his own breakfast. He reappeared in the living room and wagged his tail when he saw Misty.

"Good morning, master." He said, sitting on the floor cross-legged. Some things are just too difficult to deprogram, even from humanoid pokemon, and Teal couldn't sit on the furniture without the looming impression that he'd be swatted with a newspaper.

"I heard you two last night, Teal." Misty replied solemnly.

Teal almost dropped his cereal all over the floor. "Y-y..! I...!" He stammered.

"You weren't exactly quiet." Misty said, giving him a sly glare. "Honestly, I don't know what to do with you; you're more trouble than you're worth."

Teal's eyes fell to his cereal, which now tasted like sawdust. "I'm sorry." He mumbled.

"No you're not." Misty teased. "But this only complicates matters. If you two have a child, I'll be incapable of looking after it with you. I can find Mismagius a place to work at the gym, but then I'm all out of positions, and no matter how pleading, no begging you do can change that."

"I understand." He said, a lone tear rolling down his face. "But please don't make me leave her... Please..."

Misty sighed as she finished her cereal and put the bowl down. "I'm not saying that." She said. "But this is as far is you two can go."

"Yes, master." Teal said miserably.

After a few annoying pokes, Mismagius finally woke and sat up on the couch. She scratched one of her eyes sleepily before stretching. Misty threw a uniform into her lap, which she looked at puzzled.

"Put it on." Misty ordered. "You catured yourself in one of my pokeballs, so you need to obey orders I give you." Mismagius gave her a worried look. "You're going to be joining security at the pool." Misty informed her. "And you'll be sleeping in the same room as Teal if you don't want to stay in your ball." Mismagius gave a big smile and jumped up to hug Misty.

"Thankyou!" She cried happily.

"No problems." Misty replied. "Now, Umbra;" she continued, giving Mismagius a nickname, "I've got some things to talk to you about."

Umbra sat back down in the couch. "If it's about younglings, you needn't worry." She said, opening her dress and showing her stomach, where a large scar crossed over her. Misty was momentarily stunned.

"I-" She said before Umbra continued.

"When I was little, I was attacked by a feral Mightyena." She said, doing her dress back up. "I was lucky to survive the attack thanks to a passing Nurse Joy; but the damage was irreversible, I can't have children thanks to that damned dog." She shrugged. "I don't miss out on much, in my opinion."

Misty sat in silence for a moment before she opened her mouth again. "I'm sorry." She said.

"It's alright." Umbra replied, waving a hand. "Like I said, it was long ago; there is nothing you could have to apologise about, so don't let it bug you."

Slowly Misty nodded, and then pulled Umbra back up from the couch. "This is no time for you to be sitting down." She said, tapping the uniform. "Go upstairs and change into this, you can keep your skirt and hat, go on!"

Umbra smiled and nodded before rushing upstairs and closing the bedroom door behind her. Teal walked out from the kitchen wiping the cereal bowls dry. Quickly he gave Misty a peck on the cheek and then headed back into the kitchen.

"Thanks." He said.

From bus driver to loved partner, Teal's life had begun rockily; but now, life was sweet.

End of Teal storyline.