CHAPTER 2 HIDING OUT & BLENDING IN

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(Jenna)

Zorua and I spent the night in my old hidden base, an underground grotto. She got in through the secret tunnel that lets in the light while I shadow-jumped. I would've used the tunnel too, but I'm not seven years old anymore, and the tunnel is too small for me. (That's how I know it's safe from adults. Only small kids or Pokémon can get in.)

My old base has an old moss-covered rug and a recently dusted-out sleeping bag. (The kind you can use as a blanket when you undo the zipper all the way around.) I had to use the top part of my Gardevoir costume, the part that looks like a dress, as a pillow. My base was pretty small for a teenager on the brink of adulthood, but I spent a reasonably comfortable night in there.

After Zorua and I stopped crying, that is.

Our growling stomachs woke us up, and we left the base and foraged for berries in the woods. While Zorua was picking Oran berries from a tree as a Mankey, I found a Pokéball under a Sitrus Berry Tree.

"Zorua, look what I found," I called out to her.

"Is it more berries?" she asked hopefully as she climbed down.

"No. A Pokéball," I replied as we placed our pickings on a nearby tree stump. An idea began to take form in my brain.

"Don't even think about catching me," Zorua said when she saw the look on my face after transforming back into herself. "I refuse to end up like my brother." She paused as she remembered that he was under the influence of Kontororu's mind control. "Somewhat."

"Do you have a better idea? 'Cause unless you already have a Trainer, you'll end up caught by either Kontororu or someone else," I told her as we ate our berries.

Zorua thought about it for a moment then she sighed; "Fine. If I'm going to have a human's help rescuing my brother, it might as well be you, Jenna."

We finished our berries, and I was about to toss the Pokéball when Zorua stopped me with some questions. "Wait," she said as she held up her front paw. "Before you toss that, how do you know that doesn't already belong to someone else?"

"We have a rule in this world: Anything found without ownership tags in random places, it's finders keepers," I told her.

"What's it like inside there?" she asked as she sniffed the ball suspiciously.

"I don't know, I'm not a Pokémon. Any more questions?"

"Just one. Won't that Kontororu guy recognize you or me when we leave these woods?"

Her question made me pause. "Hmm. Good point." I thought for a moment, then emptied my waist bag and showed her the berries I got from Alola. "If you eat one of these berries," I said as I held one out to her. "It will reverse your color markings."

The berries looked a little bit like Haban berries except they are smaller, almost black with a bright green stripe around them, and their center is a purplish color.

"You don't say," she sniffed it. "Well, down the hatch."

After she swallowed it whole and made a comically sour face, her fur changed color. Her red markings turned blue, and her eyes changed from blue to red.

 Her red markings turned blue, and her eyes changed from blue to red

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