from: THE INFINITE FUTURE
An Alternate History of
The Together Again Universe
Chapter Three

Hold!" a harsh sounding voice snapped in a tone of authority. Both Fuu and the demon turned to look in the direction from whence it came. A little girl stood there, with red hair blowing in the wind. She glared at the beast. "Perhaps you are of a sort that does not know me. If so, I do forgive your insult. I do not forgive your assault on my person, futile though it was." And *then* Fuu noticed the strange red glow in the air around her. Her eyes suddenly jerked back to the girl. It's her, she realized. Somehow, *she's* doing this. The girl lifted her left hand up and extended it before her. "By the Friends of Man, come forth." An black iron staff appeared just beneath her hand, and she seized hold of it, whirled it so that it stood lengthwise for a moment, then slammed it into the ground. "By my True Name, let the True Form be revealed!" And in an instant, the girl became a woman. Her hair streamed out to a greater length, and the sailor uniform she wore disintegrated into shreds of fabric -- which reformed into a dark blue gown. A glowing form around her brow gained solidity, becoming an iron crown. "I AM BERYL! FIRST MAGE OF THE KINGDOM OF EARTH! WHO IS THIS DOG SHIT THAT COMES BEFORE ME?"

"I trust the experiment worked?" Giovanni commented.

Sanimi nodded as he brushed his daughter's now bright red-faded to black at the end hair from her face. "It worked on the physical level," Sanimi pointed out. "But there's no way of knowing if it worked on a psychological level.

"Either way, I'm pleased that you've made so much progress in this area of the field."

Sanimi nodded as Giovanni left. He then turned to Arti and picked her up in his arms. "I can't believe I did this to you.."

Sanimi kissed his daughter on her cheek and laid her back down where she was. She looked almost nothing like she had. Before she was eight, and looked it. Now, she was eight but looked 16! Sanimi hadn't thoght that the pok�mon's ages would effect the appearance of the human, but it seemed he was proven wrong. Even Gary looked older then he was supposed to be. He seemed to be near 17-18 now.

Sanimi laid the second paper back down and left the room, not noticing one of the "experiments" was waking up.

"Where? Wha'?" Arti groaned as she sat up accidentally knocking Articuno off her onto her lap. Arti didn't know what question to ask first but knew she felt horrible. What the hell happened? she thought, rubbing her throbbing head, only to stop dead still and looked at the "hair" flopped over in her face.

"Red...? Fire...??" Arti asked holding a lock of it further from her face so she could see it better.

She began to look over her body to see what else had been changed but closed her eyes as she looked down and began to blush. "I'm dreaming.." she declaired, petting Articuno and feeling around for something to cover herself up with.

When she had aged she'd also out grown her clothes leaving her naked with nothing to wear to replace what she'd lost. Articuno climbed around on Arti's lap a bit then laid up against her, trying to cover Arti itself. "Cuuu Articuuuno?"

Arti blinked twice noticing his voice seemed to have changed and he looked older, like she guessed she did too. "Gary?" she asked, making sure it was him.

"Yeeea- what the hell?" he started to reply then stopped as he laid eyes on Arti with only her Articuno covering her and looking like a mess. "That's the final outcome of what they did?"

Arti was tempted to slap Gary knowing where his eyes were staring even if the lights weren't on at the time. "You're not exactly 'normal' yourself, or clothed for that matter," she pointed out, crossing her arms and legs as she turned redder.

Gary grinned slightly and walked over to Arti, wrapping his arms around her, freaking her out completely. "I can't help what happened." He smiled, taking the whole thing overly lightly Arti thought. "I'm not the only nude freak here so I don't mind."

Gary pulled Arti against him and kissed her.

Arti pushed Gary away as he tried to kiss her again. "Don't.." she whispered keeping him an arm's lenght away from her. "Just cause we look older doesn't mean we have to... well, you know."