Non-Newtonian Nest

Bed was a strange thing for a Pokémon. Lane hadn't been aware enough to notice on her first night, when her mind was still utterly unable to process what had happened to her body. There was no such mercy on her second night.

"This way, kitten," Korina prompted, forcing her to fly the whole way. If Lane's tail even dragged beneath her, the big mew shoved her up against the ceiling, so fast she was dazed momentarily by the impact. "Our nest is here, in case you forgot."

"I didn't," she squeaked. "Can't I get my own? Starfall is huge!"

"Not a chance." Korina stared flatly at her, utterly unmoved. "I've been sleeping alone for centuries in this ruin. I'm not going to stay alone in the dark for one more day."

Lane had already seen the little bedroom once, though at the time some part of her had still thought she might escape. Without her transformation weighing on her, she saw it clearly.

"Nest" wasn't the worst description for it. The door was high in the ceiling, stacked among several others on the walls. There was no space for desks or bookshelves or other personal possessions, just a floor that remained firm while she moved on it, but sunk down around her as soon as she stopped moving.

There were a few pillows, though each of them was so much bigger than Lane that she couldn't imagine they had the same purpose. Each one was shaped roughly like a cat curled up, in pink fabric not that different from Korina's own coat.

She lifted into a low hover again, pawing at it cautiously. "You have… non-Newtonian carpet?" she asked, awed. "But you're a Pokémon!"

It was a stupid thing to say, and she knew it was a mistake the instant she saw Korina's face. "What's that supposed to mean?" she asked. "I don't think humans are in any place to judge, Lane. You had the whole planet to yourselves for like… a hundred thousand years or something. You only discovered how to fly in like… what, the last ten centuries?"

She reached down, tapping Lane's forehead with her paw. "Kittens in dirty sand shouldn't kick at others."

"Sorry," Lane muttered, though she wasn't even sure what she'd done to make Korina upset. "I, um… I'm guessing that mew aren't animals. You made a place with… indoor plumbing, and electric lights." Not only that, but they'd built infrastructure that kept working without maintenance into time periods that would've baffled any human engineer.

But Korina was still grinning down at her, she didn't look upset. Maybe this was her chance to learn something useful. "Is it true that mew are the last common ancestor of all Pokémon? That's one of the few things people know about you. You can learn any move, and you transform."

Korina reached out with both paws, snatching Lane from the air, and pulling her up against her side. The ground swallowed them, though it reacted differently to their different weights. The adult cat sunk so low that Lane would've been swallowed, though it wasn't above her shoulders. Even an inch or so for Lane was enough to press her sideways against Korina, the only safe direction for her to move.

"You say 'moves' like that's something we would want," she muttered. "You're talking about that dueling sport, aren't you? Mew don't make others fight against their will, and we don't quantize their talents with silly names."

"Hey, I never made anyone fight either!" she argued. "But I knew lots of trainers. Elisa never forced her Pokémon to fight. They only went into battles that seemed fair, and they stopped before any Pokémon got seriously hurt. It's not as bad as you think."

Korina turned up her nose. "You say that, but you've never asked any of them how they feel, have you? Don't worry, you'll get the chance now. Unfortunately, the degeneration away from people into the… specialized bioforms you know… wasn't kind to the mental faculties of the survivors. You were able to talk to me when we met… to comprehend abstractions, the future, and problem solving. You made a costume to imitate me, you had to research to find me here.

"Most Pokémon can't do that anymore. For a few minutes you'll convince yourself that you're getting through, that maybe they've learned something… but you come back the next day, and they're getting themselves killed banging against the same problem all over again.

"I've seen the way Pokémon trust you, even love you. Forcing them to fight for no reason seems like abusing that trust."

She didn't give Lane the chance to say much of anything after that, draping one oversized paw over her shoulder and pulling her closer. "Now you sleep, kitten. You have a lifetime to learn all these awful things. But with a few more like you, maybe this planet will have people again. It's about time."

When Lane slept, her mind drifted back to places she could not understand. This time she didn't fall, she floated through gulfs so vast they felt like regions away. Shadowy creatures loomed, so large that she could see only glimpses of their limbs, and the pinpricks of light that were their glowing eyes.

"Hello?" she called into that lonely space, her voice small and pathetic. "Is anyone there?"

There were many creatures, but none of the Pokémon seemed to care. It might've been easier if she could identify any of them, but their bodies were so strange to her. Alien things, watching with the skepticism of endless lifetimes.

A pair of eyes settled on her, buzzing so low it was almost level with her. Her nostrils bristled at the smell of sage, strong enough to make her eyes water. "Soon," said a voice. "Action, reaction, movement. Stay the course, purpose realized."

Can't you at least talk in complete sentences?

The speaker didn't answer, just buzzed back off into the air to join a shadowy congregation that didn't even care she existed.

Then Lane woke up.

At least she didn't rise to shock and confusion at her pathetic stature, to relive the day's terrible memories all over.

I'm still a mew. That part wasn't a dream.

She blinked, shaking out the last vestiges of sleep. The nest-bed was made all of soft fabric, which sunk in to cradle the sleeper against the oppressive weight of the planet. It smelled like Korina had been here recently, as she'd been beside Lane when she slept the night before. But she couldn't quite tell exactly how long had passed since the big cat was there.

Guess she doesn't need as much sleep as I do.

"Hello?" Lane called, shaking herself out and finally lifting into the air. She hovered over the bed, one paw trailing along the soft fabric as it rose back up to its original shape. "Korina, are you there?"

She waited, bobbing slightly in place. Korina might be right about a mew's inheritance of the sky, but that didn't mean holding still was easy for her. Lane kicked out with her paws, as though she were swimming through the air. It felt like it worked, and she could kick her way in one direction or another—but was it doing anything, or just some subconscious mapping of familiar actions to unquantifiable Pokémon powers?

If Elisa could see me now. 'Hey, I found mew. Turns out she was me all along!' At least she would probably see the bitter humor in it.

She kept floating there, alone. Korina didn't reappear, and after almost a minute of hovering Lane landed again to catch her breath. Hovering was a bit like standing on one leg—easy at first, but a strain on her body the longer she kept it up.

She caught her breath, considering what to do next. Could I get away from Korina? Maybe I could reach civilization and ask for help.

But after everything she'd seen from the Pokémon, did she really think that Korina would let her get away? As soon as she appeared, Lane had been completely under her power. She was a legendary Pokémon, who could protect Lane from that?

More importantly, what could any human authority possibly do to help her? Maybe if she had just been kidnapped. But being transformed into a kitten was considerably more significant, and probably much harder to reverse.

If I play along long enough, I can transform myself back, she said so herself. And I don't risk getting my memories erased so she can have her obedient little pet.

Lane looked longingly out the bedroom door, but ultimately dismissed the idea of flying away. At the very least she wouldn't give Korina an excuse.

Surrounded by half a dozen cat-shaped dolls, Lane couldn't help but feel a little sympathy for her. Mew had been living all alone in this place for longer than Lane had been alive. From the way she acted, she'd been going slowly insane for so long that there was little sanity left anymore.

She never said I couldn't explore.

Lane lifted into the air, more purposeful this time. Hunger gnawed at her again, but that was less interesting than what might be waiting in Starfall. Why did the mew call it that, anyway? What was hidden here? This was her chance to find out.

Lane floated up towards the opening, peeking her head out and glancing in both directions. "Korina, are you there?"

Again there was silence. Where did she fly off to?

Lane's tail curled subconsciously around one of her back paws. She never would've admitted it, but she felt afraid. Korina might be her kidnapper, but she was also big and warm and safe in a way that the buried city of the ancients was not.

Lane floated out into the hallway, bobbing up and down as she did her best to stay in one place. Even white light glowed from the ceiling overhead, a cone that shone from behind her to illuminate only the direction she was looking. If she spun in place, she could catch it failing to track her head, if only for a split second.

There were a dozen identical openings stacked on top of each other, each one probably leading to their own empty nests. Off to the right was the familiar part of the city, with the baths and living quarters and a few locked doors she hadn't seen into yet.

But off to the left was entirely unexplored to her. Lane waited one more second to see if Korina would appear, then flew off. She couldn't quite manage a straight hover, but flew more like a sine-curve, trending down for a few seconds before catching herself above the ground and shooting back up again.

The city was built out of identical hallway-sections, like flying through a sideways-tilted honeycomb. But unlike the human ruins she'd poked around inside, this place seemed pristine. There were no dark green creepers pushing their way through the rocks, or any rock at all for that matter. It was all identical silvery metal, with soft carpet lining every surface.

Lane slowed as she came to a bigger space filled with heavy equipment, where strange machines were assembled from overlapping metal plates connected by clear conduits thicker than her whole body.

She tried to follow one as it moved from machines on one face of the room to another, with no regard for the direction of gravity. She tilted herself around, her flight more like a spiral now as she dodged between quietly humming machines until she finally settled on a patch of clear ground.

Not carpet like in the other parts of the city, but a strangely warm, plasticky metal. For a few seconds she remained in place, trying very hard not to see the world around her. But no matter which way she looked, she couldn't tell which way was up. Why would you build six rooms in one?

More importantly, she was lost.