[attr="class","samjermain"]

It said something about his life that staring Dialga in the face was not the weirdest thing to happen to him at Littleroot. Nor, amazingly, was it watching his boyfriend fight in sync with a tiny version of a weather god.

Memo peeked into the empty gym, ensuring once again that no one was home, before shutting the door behind him and cutting on the lights.

Alex’s gym thrived on non-traditional challenges which required both participants to be airborne-- meaning it was a large, open space, exactly perfect for the shenanigans he was about to get into. Whatever the hell they were.

When Shivani had Mega-Evolved at Littleroot, something even weirder than Dialga’s sudden appearance had occurred: a strange, seeping feeling, like something dark and cold backflowing into him.

She’d tried to warn him, he remembers, though it had been a vague notion at the back of his mind, at the time; something far distant to his anger. You know not what you do.

The rest of it he remembers in a haze of darkness: a blink where his vision went out, and then a slow, slinking coldness, crawling up his veins like frost on a tree.

Later, after everything had calmed, a bit, and he’d had some time to reflect, he imagined it had something to do with Mega-Banette being so powerful that it curses its own trainer.

“...so we’re gonna test it,” he said, as Shivani floated in circles around him, “and see what we come up with.”

Her zipper mouth immediately curled into a frown and she shook her head, vehemently.

“C’mon, Shiv,” Memo said, voice taking on the air of a wheedling teenager, “we gotta figure out what happened so we can use it in the future.” She still didn’t budge, so he continued with “Or else we’re gonna be forced to pull it out again in the middle of a fight. You’d want to go into it prepared, right?”

She seemed to consider this. After a moment, she pressed one of her floppy arms to her forehead and pretended to faint backwards-- her way of referencing Alex.

“...what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him?” Memo supplied, to which Shivani scowled. “It’ll be quick, and if I start to feel funky, you can just back out.”

More intense staring.

“I promise, I’ll be safe.”

Eventually, she gave in, flopping with a huff, before floating up in front of him. Memo took her Mega-stone out of his pocket, rolled it in the palm of his hand, swallowed, and closed his fingers around it.

“Okay. Here we go.”

All the warmth in the room blinked out, like a candle being snuffed. Memo shivered. Whisps of dark energy began to encircle Shivani, her form blackening, like an impenetrable shadow, as her transformation began.

Memo suppressed a shiver and forced himself to stay calm, stay coherent, watching with fascination as the veins on his wrist turned deep purple, then bruise black.

[attr="class","samjerpoke"]