Beyond Human

Lane had probably spent more time imagining how mew lived than any human alive.

Even before he'd got his hands on the Celadon University genetic report, he'd imagined a tropical habitat for the Pokémon. He pictured soft nests high in the trees, hunting using their powers and raising young under the moonlight. It was obvious they could fly, so maybe they spent most of their time up near the clouds, playing and watching the stars.

The ruins of an ancient city seemed determined to prove him wrong. Korina led him from the bedroom to a wide space that was obviously a dining room, with enough raised surfaces and cushions around them for a dozen Pokémon her size, maybe more.

He hesitated in the little doorway, staring around in awe at the walls and ceilings. Aside from two entrances on opposite sides, the room was a dome. The walls seemed to be playing an image of the world outside, with clouds drifting over distant trees on one side and the ruined city overgrown by the jungle on the other. The sunlight didn't just look real, it felt real against his fur, warm enough to make him want to find somewhere to curl up for a few hours.

Then his stomach rumbled, reminding him that he'd never eaten in this body.

Korina looked up from a cushion that had been worn and squashed flat, near the center of the room. She gestured, and something yanked Lane out of the air. He tumbled, landing on the much fluffier seat right beside Korina.

He rose up onto his hind-legs, reaching for the berry as he might've with his hands. Well, he knew that shape as an oran berry. It was about the same size as he was, with an overwhelming scent to match. "Share," he said. "Please?"

The berry glowed, splitting itself neatly in quarters. One lifted away from the others, landing right in front of him. "Let's start with enough not to pop your little stomach, okay kitten? Little bites. Pace yourself."

Lane had never cared much for raw food before, even fruit. This time, his tongue rebelled. He did have teeth, sharp enough that he could tear away at the meal he'd been given, spraying sweet-smelling juices all over the table and his fur.

He didn't start to feel full until the table in front of him was empty. Korina didn't share any more, so he licked the rest off his paws and chest, without a thought for how stupid he probably looked.

Mew didn't interrupt him, and seemed to finish her own breakfast at about the same time. "You're here one day, and already I wish I'd done this sooner." She stretched in her cushion, gesturing around the room. "A little more pink is just what this place needed."

"Where are we?" Lane asked. He wanted to make it another demand to be changed back, but ultimately thought better of it. "The ruined city Elisa and I found?"

"Found." Korina stuck her tongue out at him. "Those ruins are Atico. You're in Starfall now. I wouldn't call it a city, though. You need a population for one of those, and we never really…" Her eyes lingered on all the empty seats. She took off into the air, doing a full summersault. "You have a lot to learn, Lane, but I don't plan on teaching you down here. How are you with teleporting?"

He hopped up on the edge of the cushion, managing a respectable hover. Somehow it felt like where he belonged—when he was in the air, he wasn't being crushed. While he touched the ground, his body fought for survival. "Isn't that a Pokémon move? I know there are some psychic types that can use it to shortcut from city to city. I'm not a trainer, though."

"You say these words like they meant what you think they mean." Mew gestured, yanking him through the air. She touched his body up against hers, holding her protectively with a paw. "Trainer. Those Pokémon serve because they love you. They aren't there to be trained."

"Not me," he argued. "I've never had Pokémon. My mom had a cinccino who helped around the house, but… that's the closest I've ever been. Can I really teleport now?"

"Can she teleport now?" Korina repeated. "How's your four-dimensional vector calculus? Watch the orbit, don't want to send us hurtling out into space." She bent down, licking warmly at Lane's forehead again.

He squirmed and wiggled, trying to get away. Neither did any good, mew's grip was far too strong.

"I'll just take care of the hard stuff for now. That's what big sisters are for, right?"

Lane opened her mouth to reply, and was suddenly blinded and deafened. Lights flashed in his eyes, and his ears rang with a crack of thunder—at least for a few more seconds.

Korina pushed him away with her paw, though he didn't drift far. His vision cleared, and his mouth hung open at what he saw.

They'd been up high before, but now—Lane looked down on Atico from so high it looked like a model. Thousands of trees were the details of a painting, small enough to cover with a paw.

"Welcome to the sky," Korina said. "We're up here a lot, so you should get used to it."

Lane's heart pounded in his chest, mouth opening and closing but no words coming out. He flew faster than he ever had, right up onto Korina's back. He spread out as wide as he could, holding securely to her fur. "I hate it I hate it I hate it I hate it."

"Careful." Without turning around, Korina lifted him from her back, her psionic grip firm enough that Lane couldn't possibly resist. She moved him until she was about a paw's reach away, then let go.

Lane started to fall, mewling in terror as the dead city of Atico rushed up to meet him. Only a short distance from Korina and the wind started to buffet him, howling as it drove him violently to the side.

No! I'm not going to die today! Lane caught himself, slowing to a stop in the air perhaps five hundred feet above the ground. The wind still roared around him, ruffling his fur and pushing him slowly in one direction.

There was another bright flash, and a little pop of air—and Korina was in front of him again. "Good, Lane! This is the first thing you have to learn—the air is where you belong. Sky's ours, and nothing can take it away."

She circled around him once, then gestured with both paws.

Something soft and pink appeared under them both, a bubble that expanded until it was several times Korina's size. It caught Lane from underneath, lifting them both up fast enough that his stomach dropped from his chest.

"What is this?" he asked, poking it with a paw. "You can already fly, right? What's the point of a balloon?"

Korina stretched out, and the soft membrane sunk slightly under her weight. Lane slid along its surface, landing on her chest. The mew pulled her close, just as she'd done several times before. "You can't tell me humans have a reason for everything. Sometimes it's just supposed to be fun."

They kept rising, high enough that Lane no longer wanted to look back down. It was like his first time skiing—he might have stopped a few times safely, but the snow still felt unpredictable. One wrong move, and he might slide off the side of a mountain to his doom.

"Humans understand fun," he said. "We just… don't usually do it so dangerously. I'm a fan of video games, maybe you'd like those."

Mew watched him closely, big blue eyes seeming to look right through to his thoughts. Without understanding why, Lane started remembering the time he spent in Pokéventures Online.

Korina stretched one paw, and the bubble popped, leaving them hanging in the air. She straightened, glowering down at him. "You've created a… shared virtual universe where you play a Pokémon hero fighting fantastic monsters," she said, indignant.

"I mean, yeah." He looked away, tail curling up between his legs. It was so long that it kept going, up and over his shoulder. "It's a nice distraction on the road. My friends and I only get together a few times a year, and it's something we can do together when we're far apart."

Korina floated right up to him, her voice barely audible over the wind. Yet with her close, they floated almost still in the air. She must be doing something to shield us. "You. Pretended. To. Be. A. Mew. There. Too."

Warmth rushed to his face, and Lane curled up as tightly as he could. "Shouldn't you be flattered or something? I was your biggest fan! I wanted to meet you, know about you… but Pokéventures Online was the next best thing."

Korina giggled, pulling Lane into a tight hug. There was no mistaking the gesture, even if the Pokémon probably had some other name for it. "Maybe waiting this long was right after all. That kid and his pikachu didn't want to stay with me… forget them. He didn't deserve to be my kitten."

"Does this mean you won't erase my memories?" Lane asked, voice timid.

"If you behave." Mew let go, pushing him away again. "And you pay attention. Flying is a good place to start, but it's also the easiest. If I'm going to show you off to him, you need to be a proper mew. You need your fundamentals. If you're a very good student, I might even teach you some transformation. If, Lane. Big if."

Could he hold out that long? But Mew could read his mind, couldn't she? Even thinking through that possibility would be inviting her not to help. He stopped thinking about it, instead focusing on their last conversation and his mew character, "Havengald."

Aside from being a Pokémon, that character had basically been him. Being a boy, wearing clothes, having people respect his personal space… what fantastic luxuries. "Can I at least send a message to my friends? If I don't come back tonight, they'll be worried about me. I don't know what they'll do after that."

Korina giggled again, but like before the sound seemed far more malicious than amused. "You're worrying about the wrong things again. Don't think about what they'll do, think about what I'll do to them." She gestured, and they started falling. Not uncontrollably, though—the mew was directing them with purpose, towards the jungle rather than the city.

Lane surged with indignation and anger, but fought it back. He wasn't safe, not even in his own head. He couldn't call Mew evil for kidnapping him, or threatening his friends who had done even less to bother her than he had.

Maybe she wasn't reading his thoughts all the time, because she didn't call him out. Just watched, waiting patiently for his response. "If I'm good, will you at least leave them alone?"

"Depends on how good you are." They sped up, not so much falling anymore as diving down towards the trees. "Humans aren't the dumbest Pokémon there are, I give you that. But you still have a whole lot of remedial lessons before you're a person."

Lane twisted in the air, so his head faced out vertically and his tail trailed away through the wind. "Humans… Pokémon?" he shouted. His little voice didn't do well in the wind, but he tried anyway. "We're not Pokémon! We're the only thing that isn't!"

Korina laughed again. Even if the sound was lost, the thought came through clearly. "Is that what you think? Let me imagine your evidence, don't tell me. The stasis prisons you made don't work on humans."

They slowed as they finally reached the trees, weaving together through the canopy. And just like that, Lane was completely lost. "Well, uh… I mean… I guess when you put it like that."

Mew patted him on the forehead. "Like I said. Remedial lessons. We'll work on it."