“All right, testing sample, take three.” Rika Tona grinned from ear to ear as she held aloft another TransFun sample. She’d pulled an all-nighter to perfect this trial run, and she thought that she had it down perfectly. All that was left was to test it…
The door slid open behind the girl, and she spun, widening her eyes as her boss walked into the room.
“Oh, Miss Mira! I didn’t expect seeing you hear so soon!” Rika yelped, standing at attention.
Mira laughed, waving her down. “Easy, I’m just here to check the progress of our new flagship project.” She looked to Rika with a small smile, trailing her fingers along her cheek. Her eyes flicked to a computer screen, reviewing the species data.
“Going with a classic, I see?” Mira nodded towards the screen, still looking at a familiar yellow subject. It was a hard sell, but Mira had finally managed to get Nintendo to allow them to create Pokemon serums. While she’d rather see something less cliché, it was only fair that their first mass-produced serum would be the series mascot.
Rika blinked and nodded eagerly. “Oh! Well, yes. I mean, once we got access to the trademark, we had free license to do pretty much everything else. And let me tell you, working with some of those rune-heads down in the M-Labs? Eye-opening. As I’m sure you knew, of course.” She said with a smile.
Mira chuckled, recalling some of her own experiences with gathering the lab’s more… eccentric employees. She brushed a hand over the side of her head, changing her ears from human to tiger.
“I never get tired of watching you do that.” Rika chuckled, walking over to her room’s testing area “To think that there’s some people capable of transforming without the use of serums! It’s absolutely magical, as The Amazing Mark would put it.”
Mira rolled her eyes. She still couldn’t believe he’d made his company title ‘The Amazing’. Then she returned her attention to the business at hand, glancing back at the screen in front of her. “So… Pikachu. How are we making these things safer?”
“Safer?” Rika tilted her head with a smile.
“Well, yeah. They are Pokemon, you know. The ‘monster’ is in the title for a reason.” Mira paused, pulling her Nintendo handheld out from her purse. She clicked it open a moment later, booting up a game. “Haven’t you ever looked at the Pokedex?”
“Yes, I have.” Rika sighed, checking the testing equipment around her for the hundredth time. When no response came, she looked back to find Mira clicking away at the game. “Don’t you dare read from the Pokedex.” Rika frowned, loudly complaining.
“Machamp: ‘It uses its four powerful arms to pin the limbs of its foe, then throws the victim of the horizon.’ In other words, it’s capable of launching people into low orbit; which I hardly think would be safe for kids.” Mira began with a slow smile.
“No no no, hold up. First off, that’s hyperbole. Second off, I know—”
“Camerupt: ‘If angered, the humps on its back erupt in a shower of molten lava. It lives in the craters of volcanoes.’ Lava? Can you even imagine how unsafe that would be for children to be around?” Mira continued.
“Mira, you—”
“And let’s not forget about a personal favorite of mine: Honedge. ‘If anyone dares to grab its hilt, it wraps a blue cloth around that person’s arm and drains that person’s life energy completely.’ In other words, it steals souls.” Mira looked up with a small smile, clearly having no intention of stopping.
“You want to know how it’s safe! I’ll tell you! Just stop reading!” Rika stomped her foot on the ground, her face flushed.
Mira laughed aloud, clicking the clamshell case of her came shut. “Fine, fine. Just giving you a hard time. But that’s not to say that I’m not curious as to how you made them safe.”
“Believe me, it wasn’t easy.” Rika sighed.
“So how did you go about it?” Mira asked, arching an eyebrow.
Rika sighed patiently. “We worked on reverse-engineering some of the components for creating safe magical duels, inserting certain little runes into the creation of these serums. Basically, unless it’s a marked object or someone who’s been TransFunned with one of these serums, the Pokemon can’t attack.
“But more than that, we’ve even added safety runes to ensure that things that aren’t TransFunned can’t even be hurt by them. Secondary effects, like petting a Charmander’s tail, won’t hurt you; only make you feel a little scorched for a second. If you want a realistic experience, you’ll have to be made TransFun-safe.”
Rika paused, sitting up to tap on a nearby test dummy. “And Baxter her is covered in runes from head to toe.”
“So when you take the serum…” Mira began, a dawning smile of comprehension on her face.
“Bingo. You give the orders, I’ll demonstrate the moves.” Rika winked, looking down at the test tube in her hand. She’d rather it be in a Pokeball-shaped case, but those would come in after she demonstrated her serum worked. And as far as the demonstration went…
Rika downed her serum in one go, shivering slightly as the lemony taste. It sent a positively electric tingle running through her body, and she looked at her boss with a huge grin. Her cheeks tingled first, and she grinned as they began to literally spark.
A pair of red dots crackled into existence on her face, and Rika giggled. The sound was a little higher-pitched, coupled with a staticy undertone. She hurriedly held her hands up, looking at Mira. “Don’t worry, the vocal underlay is just a little shift as my body gets used to being all sparky.” She said.
Mira laughed at that. “I hope so! That little reverb wouldn’t sound good when you start ‘Pika’ing.”
Rika nodded, shivering as her whole body began to itch. “On that note, you’ll really love when I lose my voice. We based some instinctive changes on, and… you’ll see.” She itched at herself, slipping off her lab coat and shoes as yellow fur started to race along her body.
Rika slipped the rest of the clothes down, hurriedly looking around to make sure that her coloration was correct. Sure enough, she had brown stripes up and down her back; and the fur on her ears was a deep black.
Her spine ached, and Rika hurriedly fell to her hands and knees, bracing herself for this change. “I haven’t been able to work out all of the kinks with this part.” She explained. “Tail growth is a little… violent.”
At that, a large lightning-bolt shape tail erupted from her rear with a crackle of electricity. She bucked forward, her back arching as her new appendage burst from her backside. A pair of bumps pushed out from the tip of its flat length, leaving her with a heart shape at its end.
Rika shivered from head to toe, her new appendage beginning to crackle as it lengthened and expanded. She could never really get used to how awkward her new tail felt. There was something about how… Bent it was. That said, it was perfect for conducting electricity.
The transforming girl waggled her tail, feeling sparks begin to leap from ridge to ridge on her tail. Then she was distracted by her torso changing. Rika’s belly trembled faintly as it expanded a little, and she looked down in alarm.
The scientist had almost forgot to take off the rest of her clothes! She immediately set to work undoing the rest of her clothes, her tail wagging idly from side to side, letting off little thunderbolts. As she continued to work, she looked up to Mira, beginning to talk and work at the same time.
“The tail took a hell of a lot to get right, too. We had a hell of a lot of trrrouble with…” She blinked, noticing the warble in her voice.
“Oh, having some trouble there?” Mira asked, picking up on it as well.
“Yeahhka. You’rrika gonna here something good.” Rika smiled, looking down at her hands as they became a pair of small yellow paws. Then she cursed under her breath, realizing that she couldn’t unhook her bra with the short and child-friendly hands of a Pikachu.
So if she couldn’t do that, she might as well explain her favorite part of the transformation. Rika looked back up with a wide smile, beginning to speak as fast as humanly possible. “Instinctive changes make the subject say therrika! Rika!” She shook her head faintly in disappointment. “Rika…”
“Say only their names before the changes finish off their voice? That’s brilliant!” Mira clapped her hands together, grinning from ear to ear at the changing girl. Already her mind was racing with the possibilities of this.
Did it work if the person went by a nickname? What about titles? And what about longer names; what would happen to those? Mira wanted to ask Rika about how her serum worked, but she was fairly certain the girl would only respond with ‘Rika’. She flipped out her notepad, jotting down a few more notes.
Then the transforming girl let out a loud “Rika!”
Mira looked up in surprise, sniggering as she saw the developer begin to shrink down onto the pile her clothing, her arms becoming short and stubby. The woman slipped off her bra with a contented sigh, looking down to see that her breasts had already disappeared into her fur.
She looked back up to Mira, her ears twitching as they finally began to change. Rika pawed at them idly, feeling their long and pointed tips tingle with stored electricity. She let out a high-pitched giggle, crouching a little and building up a little electricity in her cheeks.
That was her favorite part. She could feel the tingling of the building static, almost like a warm and fuzzy massage. The tingling only grew as Rika built up more and more stored energy. She shivered, a small smile on her face even as her lips drew to the unique quirk of a Pikachu.
Then she released the charge, letting it course across her changing form. Rika shook herself out as her hairs all stood on end, a calming and pleasurable rush running down her body as she let out a faint and happy chirp.
“Not a bad display.” Mira nodded, watching as the woman continued to transform.
Rika beamed, wagging her tail slightly at the compliment. Then she crouched down, feeling her legs and feet begin to transform. “Ri!” She yelped, releasing more and more crackling electricity around her. Her thighs and calves shortened even as her feet lengthened.
She thumped her transforming feet on the ground with another loud “Ri!” As she did, larger and larger thunderbolts cascaded around herself. They crackled to the ground in faint rippling waves of energy, and she looked up at Mira excitedly.
“It’s like something out of Super Smash Brothers.” Mira half-cooed, her eyes wide as she looked at the almost complete Pokemon.
Rika nodded repeatedly. “Rika! Rika Rika Pi Rikachu!” She grinned from ear to ear as her voice changed and her muzzle begin to develop. Her nose flattened out on her face and she smiled, pawing at it with her small hands. Slowly but surely, her mouth and jaw pushed out.
Rika looked up with a grin, exposing her lengthening canines. Finally her eyes darkened slightly, some color fading from the world even as her new ebony orbs began to witness electrical currents. That was her favorite part: the ability to see electricity in the world; even the faint tingling of a human’s natural aura.
Rika rolled herself onto her back, looking at herself in an office mirror to make sure the transformation was absolutely perfect. Then she rolled back onto her feet, looking at Mira. The fully transformed girl let out a triumphant “Pikachu!”
As she did, she called down a small thunderbolt onto herself. It tingled harmlessly around her, and the Pokemon let out an excited yelp of pleasure. It felt good to be charged, like she was on the world’s largest sugar rush!
Rika twitched one of her ears, bouncing up to Mira to leap in the woman’s arms. She nuzzled Mira more and more, chirping with laughter as the woman’s hair began to stand on edge. Mira noticed that too, laughing as her hair became a little frizzier.
“Well done indeed!” Mira clapped and pet Rika’s head affectionately. As she did, small tingles of energy went up her fingers, and Mira laughed, looking down to her fingers to see small tingles of electricity running across her digits.
“Amazing work.” Mira beamed, poking at Rika’s cheeks. This time, it felt like a joy buzzer had hit her, and she snatched her hand back with a wider grin. “I take it you played Pokemonamie quite a bit for this, then?”
Rika nodded eagerly. “Pika Pi!” She beamed, nuzzling a little deeper into Mira’s scratches. It was a lot like being a cat: being scratched was just too good! Moreover, she could feel herself discharging a gentle current into Mira’s body, even as Rika drank a little of the woman’s bioelectricity.
The Pikachu’s ears twitched as Mira held her up, inspecting her all around. “So, I’ll need to ask you about the generic functions other than this, but… Before we get this tested out further; let’s work on a quick battle simulation.”
Rika bobbed her head eagerly, bouncing from her boss’s arms to sit next to Baxter the training dummy. “Pika Pi!” She beamed.
“Oh, right.” Mira flicked her hands idly, magically moving the dummy so that it sat in a vacant spot in the room.
Rika stared in awe, like a kid in a candy shop. She mentally made a note to use either Mira or one of the M-Lab techs for research on Psychic-Types. Then, she settled into a battle stance, grinning from ear to ear as she charged herself up again.
That was always the best. Rika had occasionally taken to changing into robots and the like, and charging was often equitable to eating. But this… This came with a sense of pride. It was like she was a master chef, creating a gourmet dish to dine on. And it didn’t just leave her full; it left her energetic!
Rika looked back to Mira anxiously, her tail crackling loudly with the pent-up energy.
Mira grinned, leaning back in her chair and crossing her legs. “Rika. Thunderbolt.”
Rika’s tail stood at full attention, and she let out a mighty “Chu!” With that, a large corona of energy coruscated before her, blue arcs of lightning giving the room a blue glow. Then, a giant bolt lanced from the azure halo.
Air ionized, crackling as the bolt punched into Baxter with a loud clap. The scent of ozone wafted towards Rika’s nostrils, and she beamed with pleasure at the results of her efforts. Sure enough, there was a fist-sized hole in the dummy’s shoulder. It still smoldered a little, and Rika chirped out another pleased “Chu!”
She spun to find Mira was frowning, and she tilted her head in confusion. One of her ears twitched, and she bit her lower lip nervously. “Chu?”
Mira sighed. “That’s wonderfully impressive and all, but doesn’t it strike you as a little... Powerful? I don’t think kids would approve of their pets blowing holes in each other.”
Rika frowned, shaking her head and flopping her ears as she spoke. “Pika Pika Chu Chu Pikachu!” Too late, she remembered that she had lost her voice, and she crossed her arms. Then she patted her chest and sent a surge of electricity across her own form.
Luckily, Mira had been able to catch onto the gist of her researcher’s intentions. One of Mira’s tiger-ears twitched, and she leaned in a little closer. “Correct me if I’m wrong… But you’re telling me that you built your Pokemon to last… And that they can take as much punishment as they can in the games?”
Rika nodded, slapping a tiny fist into her open paw. She then held her arms out at her sides, eagerly waiting to see what Mira could do with this knowledge.
“Hm…” Mira looked at her right hand with a small frown. She’d never really been the best with combat magic. That said, she was still more than capable of performing a basic fireball. She twitched one of her ears, grinning with amusement as a small flame sparked in her hands.
Rika arched an eyebrow, snorting derisively. Then she yelped as it expanded to a basketball-sized orb of fire, smacking her square in her chest. It didn’t hurt, but she didn’t feel anywhere near at a hundred percent after that. It was like she’d been running all day; all of her limbs felt a lot more tired.
“Huh. How about that.” Mira leaned back, looking at Rika. She looked noticeably worn out, and there were scuff marks on her fur where the fireball hadn’t hit her. In other words, she looked like a damaged anime character; probably the look that she was going for, too.
“So…” Mira clicked her fingers and popped a can of soda into existence before her. “Do these work like they do in the game?”
“Pika.” Rika said flatly, the verbal equivalent of a shrug. She tiredly bounced onto Mira’s lap, opening her mouth obediently.
“Spoiled, aren’t you?” Mira chuckled, summoning a straw for the drink. Then she angled the straw, placing it in the Pokemon’s mouth.
Rika chomped down with a happy “Pika”, sucking on the sweet beverage with a huge smile. As she drank more and more, she felt herself get back to her usual levels of energy. Her tail began to wag like mad, and she hugged the can closer to herself, nuzzling it as she drank.
Mira watched with wide eyes as the scratches and scuffs on the Pikachu’s body began to heal, disappearing as through they’d never existed. “Well, then… Next up is making Potions. But even with this…”
She popped a cupcake into existence, giving it to Rika with kind smile. Rika chirped with amusement, taking it in her paws and burying her little yellow face into the treat.
Mira giggled, scratching the Pikachu around her ears. “Even with this, we’re gonna make a lot of money. PokeFun Serums is hereby established.”