On a mountain trail, a hunter lay in wait. Patient, silent, subtle. He stalked his prey and-

"PIKACHU! USE THUNDERBOLT!"

-Was actually none of those things. The loudly-yelling black haired trainer in the red cap was Ash Ketchum, instructing his most trusted companion Pikachu to attack.

Unfortunately, despite seemingly knowing Pikachu as if for decades, Ash frequently forgot that it wasn't the most precise attack, and the pokemon he had hoped to try and catch simply watched in confusion as the human was struck by lightning.

"GHRRRK!" Ash managed to say as he was electrocuted, but had built up a slight tolerance. Smoking slightly, he sighed.

"...On the other pokemon, Pikachu. And... Oh, never mind, it's running off."

Ash put the pokeball back in his pocket, and sat down on a rock. A strangely orange rock, like a giant sunstone.

"Pikachu?" Pikachu asked.

"It's okay buddy, can't win 'em all... But I'm gonna take a little rest here for a bit," Ash replied, and set his hand down.

And a small burst of static struck out from his finger to the rock, making him wince.

"And, uh, maybe let myself uncharge a little..."

As he sat there gathering his slightly frazzled wits, he didn't realise something was approaching, until the Helioptile had already jumped onto his head.

"Whoa! Where'd you come from?!"

The electric/normal type simply looked down confused, wondering why a human was sitting on her favourite rock.

Pikachu, however, did not appreciate random pokemon jumping on his trainers head, and charged up.

"Wait, Pikachu, no!"

Ash cried out, the Helioptile was baffled, and Pikachu soon realised the error of trying to zap another electric type.

"Helio!" She taunted, and jumped off unharmed, as Ash once more smouldered.

"...It's a good thing that doesn't really harm me do much bad wrong bleh," Ash said, and fell off the now glowing rock.

"Or maybe it does" he tried to say, but actually said "Olive waffle syrup" as steam gently rose from his ears.

"Pika-chu..." The yellow pokemon sighed in apology. Ash gave a still sparking thumbs up.

And another arc of lightning shot out of that thumb into the rock, which glowed brighter.

"Pika?"

"...That doesn't seem good," Ash managed to say once his brain rebooted.

 Especially once he also began glowing.

"Yep, not good at all," he groaned, as his glowing intensified, and the world kept on spinning around him.

From his angle, he felt a bit dizzy overall, and even if he had felt like moving his limbs just weren't responding. He also felt an odd tingle all over, like the electric shock without the actual shock. It seemed to flow up and down his body, and it felt like his limbs were changing shape. He managed to glance down... and noted he was shrinking. A shaky hand was raised, and he saw his fingers seemed to be turning black, and merging into a hand or paw with only three digits.

He felt something poke out of his back and turned over, as a yellow tail sprouted, tipped with black at the end and an orange band just below the black. Most of his skin was turning yellow, slightly scaly like a lizard, and his neck stretched as his limbs grew a little shorter. An orange crest began emerging at the base of his elongating neck, as his skin above it was turning the same black as his hands, feet, and tail-tip. He grunted a little as his eyes shifted towards the side of his changing head, and eventually, felt like it was over.

"...So, uh, you turned into a pokemon. Again," Pikachu said.

"If I had a pokemon dollar for every time that happened I'd be rich," Ash groaned, and looked at himself, having squirmed out of his clothes that hadn't changed with... him.

"Wait, that Helioptile was a girl, what if... Oh, phew, I'm still a guy!" The pokemonified human sighed in relief.

"Dude, you're a heliolisk and that's what you were worried about?" Pikachu raised an eyebrow."

"Well, like you said, it seems to happen a lot, though I guess this is one of those times I'm saying 'helio' and 'lisk' a lot since we're understanding each other?"

"I dunno, I'm not an expert in this, you're the one it keeps happening to."

Pikachu then remembered something.

"Also I can understand you just fine as a human, you just don't understand me all the time."

"Fair point. Uh, can you give me a hand getting my stuff gathered together, I'm a little wobbly..." Ash said, realising he wasn't quite used to his Heliolisk form.

***

Officer Jenny was a little bewildered to see a Pikachu and a Heliolisk walk down from the mountain carrying a bundle of clothes, with the Heliolisk wearing a red cap. The pair of pokemon spotted her, the Heliolisk sighed, and produced a notepad and pen.

She watched it awkwardly fumble with the two digits and one thumb it had, and handed the pad up to her.

"I'm ASh KetChum, a huMan, goT turnEd into a pokEMon again," the paper said.

The officer blinked.

"...Again?"

"Pikachu," the pikachu said.

"Lisk!" ASh KetChum said.

("Yeah, it happens like every couple of months to him."

"It's not THAT common! Like every three at most...")

Jenny did not catch a word of this, of course.

"Well, uh... if this is a prank your trainer is in deep trouble but for now, I'll take you to the Pokemon centre..."

***

"Yep, he's human turned pokemon all right. I recognise the hat, and Ash doesn't really do that kind of prank," Nurse Joy said.

"Oh. Wait, it really is common for him?" Jenny asked.

"Apparently, some of my cousins have helped him out before.I'll call them for more details but thanks for bringing him here, Officer."

"Lisk," Ash nodded.

Jenny left, and Joy looked over the pair.

"Now, explain what happened this time and I'll try get in touch with my cousins. Just type it on the computer," Joy said, and headed to her phone.

Wigglytuff, wearing her own nurses hat, spoke up.

"So, what's it like being a human?"

"Not sure how to describe it, sorry," Ash admitted, as he typed carefully.

"It's weird. I got turned human once, they act so strange, like, what's the big deal about not wearing those clothes things? I mean, I'm not wearing any now!" Pikachu said.

"It's a modesty thing, Pikachu, I told you then. So did Misty, Dawn, and May..."

Ash finished typing, and hopped down, rooting through his stuff for his pokedex

"Let's see what it says about Heliolisk, I don't know it that well," He noted, and searched through. However, he accidentally went onto the page for Luxray.

And began glowing again.

"Oh, hey, you're turning back?" Pikachu said.

"Oh good... Oh no!" Ash realised, quickly scrabbling to put his jacket on and trying to make his jeans fit.

However, this was not going to happen, as rather than turning back human, he was instead growing black fur, his body was shifting again, and his tail was growing a star-shaped tip.

"...Uh, that looks more like a Luxray?" Wigglytuff scratched her head.

"Wha... How?! I just looked at a picture of one and..."

Ash sat there for a second and pondered. And glowed again, this time shrinking down and his fur turning yellow. Soon enough, there was a second Pikachu.

"Oh... Oh cool! I just think about a pokemon the right way I shift into it?" He said.

"So you can try turning human again thinking about it?" Pikachu (the real one) said.

"Maybe?"

He was about to try this, but realised a few problems. His small size meant redressing was going to be complicated.

"I need a bathrobe or something to try... Or a different shape. But I should let Joy know first!"

Pikachu scratched his head.

"Ash, don't take this the wrong way but how come you seem to get a lot smarter after you get electrocuted, because that's the kind of forward thinking you never do."

"Hey!"

***

Joy was baffled to return to a Zeraora sitting at her computer desk, but the three pokemon present simply let her read the screen.

"Hmm, well... My cousins gave me some of the cure ideas they said worked before, but if you think you can do it yourself, give it a try!"

With permission from the medical expert and a large bathrobe to spare his blushes, Ash tried.... And succeeded.

"Ha ha! Got it!" He cheered.

"That's good, but... I do wonder. Can you still shapeshift?" Joy realised.

Ash considered this, and tried to think of another Pokemon.

"I guess not, I was trying to be a Lucario but it didn't work."

"Well, you said it was an electric pokemon you met, Helioptile?" She said, and Ash nodded... and glowed.

"Ah. I think I'm not cured," he said as he shrank down.

"...Helioptile," sighed the pokemon that was now in the collapsed bathrobe, and then the eyes widened.

"HELIO!" she screeched, and glowed again, quickly growing into a male Mareep.

"Mareep," he sighed happily.

"...Why a Mareep?" Pikachu asked.

"He felt sheepish?" Wigglytuff suggested.

"I panicked, I'm not used to turning into a girl!"

"Not as common as being turned into a pokemon," Pikachu explained.

"So, Ash... Since you're still shapeshifting and this seems different from before, I think maybe you need to hang around for observation while I try get in touch with another expert," Joy said.

"Mareep," he agreed.

"Uh, what?"

"Mareep."

"Ash, you're a Mareep, I can't..."

A blue hoof facepalmed on a wooly head, and he glowed again, becoming Zeraora once more, using the paws and slightly larger size to his advantage to type.

"I'll wait around here for a bit then, who is it you're thinking of calling?"

"Maybe Professor Rowan or Sycamore, they deal with evolution expertise, and the big rock you were near might have been a sunstone or something similar from how you described it. Hmm, but Professor Juniper knows a lot about pokemon origins, so she might have input..."

Joy rattled off various names, Ash only knowing a few, and the baffled transformed human simply sat as she eventually finished.

"...Though I really don't know what Sada actually specialises in come to think of it," she concluded.

"Pika," Ash said to confuse everyone, because he was still a Zerarora.

"Huh, you can say other pokemon names?"

"Luxray," he confirmed.

"Try a non-electric..."

"Zeraora. Zeraora? Zeraora..."

"Hmm... No idea what that means but it's like you can speak every electric language!" Joy noted.

She then made to leave again.

"I'll start contacting experts, wait here a bit!"

Wigglytuff sighed.

"She gets like that if there's weird things happening. She kinda wants to be a professor herself..."

"I guessed. She seems to know a lot about other professors. Except those last two. Who are they anyway?" Ash said.

"Dunno. Wait, a Zeraora's a pretty rare pokemon and you can become one, so... what about other rare pokemon? Mythicals, legendaries..." Pikachu realised.

"Huh.... I wonder..."

Ash began glowing, and growing wings. Feathers sprouted, yellow in colour, as the Zeraora shifted to Zapdos, flapping off the bathrobe and hovering just below the ceiling.

"Sweet! Maybe I should stick with this and not get cured, flying would save so much time..." Ash said happily, but his sounds provoked a sudden return from Nurse Joy.

"...Aaaand he's turned into a Zapdos now, because of course he has," she said, and then had a horrible thought looking at the pokemon bird that was about a metre and a half tall, not that much bigger than a human, but her centre's ceilings were low...

"Ash, I'm going to go finish the call, please do NOT turn into anything bigger!"

She ran off.

"...Bigger like what?"

"Like Raikou, it's two metres tall I hea... OH NO!" Wigglytuff realised as Ash glowed.

Fortunately, the ceiling was a little bit taller than the four-legged legendary.

"Sorry... couldn't resist," he chuckled.

"At least you didn't say Zekrom," Pikachu noted.

Wigglytuff screamed in horror as Ash began glowing again....