Great Phione Migration (Melt)

Melt watched the small Phione fusions play amongst themselves. They weaved in and out amongst the large coral branches of Corsola Cove playing either a game of hide and seek or tag with each other… possibly a combination of both, but he couldn’t really tell. If one of them was gone for too long, either hiding underneath the ocean waves or behind a particularly large branch of coral, Melt would begrudgingly start to move only for it to pop back up again at that moment. 

He sighed, wondering why, once again, he agreed to do this. His mind wandered, thinking back to the events leading him here. The three Phione fusions, a Mudkip, Torchic, and Seel all combined with the little sea prince, had been brought into camp a couple of days before. Apparently after an unfortunate run in with some water delta Pokémon they’d been displaced and needed some help getting back home. Melt didn’t volunteer or even speak up about wanting to do it… but Sundae foisted the responsibility on him anyway.

“And how, exactly, am I supposed to help them?” Melt asked at the time. Sure, when it came to stamina he wasn’t the worst option. But his forte was in dancing, not swimming, and they had no idea how far the Phione would need to go. And when it came to Pokémon, none of his were quite up to the task of carrying him across the ocean.

“Well… I’ve been hearing about this thing that’s been happening… I’m sure it’ll work out.”

Melt protested, demanding he elaborate, but Sundae seemed less inclined to do so. He left the Phione in Melt’s possession and waved him off saying he should probably just head to Safe Shallows. At a loss for what to do, and with no one in the vicinity to complain to, he trudged his way to the beach. The Phione were immediately excited seeing the water and hastily made their way there to play in the waves. Melt, on the other hand, stood on the edge of the beach warily looking at the water. Although it wouldn’t help much he decided to release Sangria from her pokeball. The little Flabebe/Pheromosa fusion was just as much at a loss as he was, which was only to be expected really.

”Uuuugh how annoying!” Melt scratched the back of his head rapidly. “Does he expect me to just sprout fins and gills suddenly?”

Melt kicked his shoes off, Sangria barely avoiding one of them, before walking into the tide up to his knees. The Phione fusions were already quite a ways away, though thankfully still in view. Sangria floated around his head in circles either trying to be encouraging... or maybe just bored. He felt ready to give up and hand the Phione off to someone better qualified.

“You can’t say I didn’t try. I’m no Milotic or Primarina.”

Melt shrugged his shoulders. He started to turn around, ready to call out for the three Phione to come back, but as he did he got a strange and indescribable feeling. Sangria, too, noticed something off and cried out for his attention. Before Melt could make sense of what was going on he felt himself fall drenching himself in the shallow water. Instinctively he tried to get up, but his legs weren’t working right. Only when he bothered to look at where his legs SHOULD be did he see the problem; somehow they’d been replaced by what looked like the bottom half of a Primarina. In fact a strange set of frills sat around his neck and shoulders as well, and he felt pearls on top of his head.

“For the love of...” It took Melt a few tries to turn himself into a sitting position. “That’s why he didn’t elaborate then.”

This kind of thing wasn’t new to him. He hadn’t been on the island long when he experienced his first transformation... it was with a Mega Banette at the time, if he recalled. Out of all the unexplained phenomena though he could already tell this would be the most inconvenient. Sangria floated down to his level, curious herself to what was going on, while the Phione also took notice and finally came in from the deeper ocean.

”Looks like I don’t really have a choice now.” Melt sighed. He felt more annoyed than he reacted, but if this was anything like before he would eventually turn back to his normal self. How long that would take though….

Eventually he decided to just play with the cards he was dealt. Sangria chose to rest on the top of his head while he followed the whims of the Phione fusions through the water. The Mudkip/Phione seemed to stick the closest to Melt while the other two swam every which way making his head spin. Eventually they decided to stop by Corsola Cove, wanting to play amongst the coral branches.

So Melt and Sangria sat on the sand near the water watching over them. Sangria herself inspected the coral with curiosity, but Melt felt less inclined to move around with his new… form. He found himself wishing it was at least warmer though. Spring had only just begun, so the cool water wasn’t what he would call “refreshing.”

”Phi!”

An alarmed cry from one of the Phione caught Melt’s attention. The Mudkip/Phione, which still kept closer to him than the rest, darted out from behind a large coral branch with something swimming on its tail. Sure enough, just as Sundae had warned (and Melt barely listened), it looked like a Pokémon was taking advantage of what it considered easy prey. He made his way into deeper water with Sangria on top of his head again.

The Torchic and Seel Phione quickly tried to help their friend, doing their best to appear scary to the Pokémon, but all it saw was more food. Melt finally identified it as a water-type haunter… it blended into the water so well it’s no wonder they couldn’t see it until now. 

“It’s still too deep under the water though…”

Melt called to the Phione to swim toward him instead. They quickly gave up on the idea of trying to scare the Haunter off, and did exactly that, immediately using him for safety. Upon noticing the Phione weren’t actually alone the Haunter gave pause. It was either desperate or extremely confident, though, and continued its attack. Thanks to his new form Melt was able to grab the Phione and get out of the way with ease. When Sangria got her chance she floated off his head and used a vine whip trying to catch the Haunter. She managed to barely graze it… angering the Pokémon.

”Persistent are we…” Even he felt a little bad about this, but his reluctant job was to bring these Phione home in one piece. “I’ll lure it then.”

The quickest way to disarm it would be getting it into shallow water. It would hopefully be slower, and easier for Sangria to get a hit on. Because the Haunter was in a rage it didn’t realize how close they were to shore until it couldn’t fully submerge itself in the water anymore. Sangria saw her chance before the Haunter could correct its mistake and delivered a heavy hitting Vine Whip. She continued to bombarded it until the Pokémon decided this was no longer worth it and swam away… noticeably slower than before. 

Five minutes of silence, and no signs of retaliation, passed before the Phione were able to relax. Sangria too relaxed only to suddenly be enveloped in a bright white light. The Phione became startled again, but Melt just released them from his arms so he could focus his attention on Sangria.

“Guess that Delta was the last push you needed huh?”

Melt had the feeling Sangria was close to evolving. It was part of the reason he brought her along, though it was also partially because he had very little pokemon who could stand up to water types. The Phione watched curiously as the light faded and Sangria’s form changed. From a Flabebe/Pheromosa to a Floette/Pheromosa she stretched her arms and admired her even more beautiful flower as well. 

“Heh.” Melt stifled a laugh. “Still pretty small though huh? It’ll be awhile until you grow bigger.”

Sangria began to smack his head with her flower not very fond of being made fun of. Of course it didn’t really hurt... it was a flower. The Phione looked awed and confused, but began to excitedly swim around deciding whatever was happening was a joyous occasion.

“Alright I’m tired of this already.” Melt said. “The sun isn’t going to be up much longer either. No more distractions, the three of you are going home.”

They didn’t have to go much further past Corsola Cove when they ran into another, far larger group of Phione fusions. Melt had returned Sangria to her pokeball at this point knowing he’d have to be diving underwater where she couldn’t follow. It was a unique experience, being able to see what lay underneath the waves without needing to come up for air. The Phione were excited to reunite with each other and he soon lost sight of the three fusions he brought.

“With a large group like this they’ll probably be fine...” He once again looked at where his legs should’ve been and sighed. He didn’t know if this would resolve itself when he reached Safe Shallows again, but he sure hoped so. He watched the Phione swim around in excitement for a bit longer before they began making their way slowly to another part of the ocean. Melt, too, decided it was about time he left. He hadn’t expected to spend a whole day on this frankly.

“Phi!”

With a cry one of the Phione broke away from the group making its way towards Melt before he left. He recognized it as the Mudkip/Phione he’d been helping.

“What? Upset I didn’t say goodbye?”

The Mudkip/Phione swam around him in circles. Then it swam away again, but in the opposite direction of the Phione group. It was heading back toward Safe Shallows and turned around waving its arms happily.

“You know I can find my own way back...” Melt said slowly making his way to the Phione fusion. As he got closer the Pokemon would slowly float backwards.

“Phi, phi!”

“Haven’t had enough of me yet?”

It seemed to agree with his statement and stopped allowing Melt to finally catch up. Melt didn’t really know if it was ‘right’ for him to accept this fusion coming with him. He was supposed to bring it home, nothing more, and honestly he really didn’t know the details that well. But if the Phione wanted to come with him of it’s own accord it was probably fine.

“Alright, alright.” Melt relented. “I better not get in trouble because of you though.”

Melt swam along with the Phione/Mudkip fusion all the way back to the mainland. He didn’t really know what he’d do if this transformation lasted longer than a day... but he did know that, as soon as he got back to normal, he’d need to have a talk with Sundae about everything.