Poison sleep was pleasant at first. It was like being submerged in Wooloo fluff, soft and warm, the skin prickling with sweat. Brandy, despite the name, had never actually gotten drunk, but she imagined it couldn’t be far off this comfy feeling where everything seemed warmer and lighter on her skin.

But eventually, it changed into a strange dreamscape where she was staring up at the sky, looking at her own giant face with some kind of stupid grin on it. It ruined the mood, and she let out a long sigh, hoping her breath would blow away the image.

“Oh, hey! It worked. She’s awake.” Sparky said. The very real, very present Sparky said.

Brandy screamed.

“Oh, she’s really awake!” Sparky cackled.

Brandy flailed her arms out at the giant Brandy, her arms shaking like her muscles couldn’t quite keep them upright. “Sparky! Why am I big?!”

“Oh, sorry!” Giant Brandy said, her tone peppy, with a hint of bashful embarrassment. “It’s me, Remi! I did an ability swap. Check out yourself!”

Brandy lay there instead, staring up at the sky. Rolling her head, she realized she was lying in Calcine’s lap, the Rock Pokémon running a hand through her hair to soothe her. “It’s fine,” Calcine said, “You’re well looked after”

Sparky hopped over to poke Brandy’s sound, which did not help settle her head after seeing a giant version of herself. The finger made her skin ripple, feeling like Sparky had hit her with a quick blast of Water Gun.

“Yeah, come on,” Sparky said, excited about seeing her reaction. “Check out the new you!”

Head still feeling groggy, Brandy shuffled her shoulders up, and her gaze couldn’t help rolling over the giant version of herself. She’d never thought much of her appearance, but now she had no choice but to take it all in; Brandy had to admit it wasn’t that bad. Brandy might be tall, ridiculously so now. Still, she’d always thought of herself as lanky as growing up. The push into adulthood had helped fix some problems with being tall, filling her out, so she looked more sporty than a bamboo stalk.

Maybe she could pick up some of Calcine’s muscle when she inherited from her, and it’d complete the sporty tomboy look. Or she could get Sparky’s curves and become a bombshell instead. Brandy would not let her mom have the credit if she got curves. She’d waited for ages to inherit those and got nothing! Even as a colossus, she had little to look at there.

Also, she had holes in her pants that someone should have told her about! She’d have to review her own ass if it got any worse. She really needed some new clothes badly.

“I don’t think she meant to check out Remi,” Calcine said, giving Brandy’s hair a ruffle, “Though we have all enjoyed checking her out. Look down a bit more.”

Brandy felt the bite of frustration that they were dragging this out, but she squirmed her shoulders to get higher to look down at her body. It all looked fine? She took a breath, and something was off about it. Then Sparky raised both hands above her head and smacked them down on Brandy’s stomach, and her whole body rippled like Sparky had dropped a massive rock into a pond.

“Ah, what the fuck!” Brandy squeaked, “Sparky!”

“Slime Girl Brandy! You’re like a Pokémon now. That’s so cool, right?” Sparky gave her another smack, the ripples flowing out over her body to meet the ones coming back and making everything shake. “I could do this all day.”

“Stop, stop, stop... Remi, what do you call this?”

“Foreplay?” the giant Brandy said with a shrug.

“No! Sparky, stop splashing me. It tingles!”

Sparky looked at Brandy as if he was mad, raising her arms again for another slap. Brandy shot her hand out and rubbed it all over Sparky’s face, the downright strange feeling of fingers that weren’t quite solid and weren’t quite liquid mussing over the Joltik’s face. It sent Sparky spluttering, clawing at Brandy’s hand to get her to stop, but to no effect, as her hands just sunk right into the flesh. Being slapped felt weird, but this was worse, a shot of intimate contact more intense than a kiss, and Brandy felt her cheeks heat until Sparky threw her head back to take a gasping breath.

“Okay, okay! Don’t drown me in Brandy,” Sparky coughed. “I mean, unless you want to use your thighs? Then maybe.”

“It’s Remi’s Ability Swap,” Calcine said, lips tight as she tried to avoid smiling at Sparky’s antics. “She’s swapped her body traits with you briefly,”

Brandy raised her hand and flexed her fingers. It all felt normal to her until she touched something else, and then her body had some give to it, letting things pass through. She passed her fingers through each other and shared a yelp at the feeling of it, Remi laughing from above.

“Yeah, humans find it hard to deal with! But it’s a lot of fun. Tanya loves it when I use it and-“

“Body traits?” Brandy says in a rush, cutting off Remi before she gives Sparky ideas. “That the same as abilities?”

“Oh my god, did you learn anything at school?” Sparky groaned.

“Yes! I wasn’t that bad. I just didn’t dive into the fine details of Ability Swap, is all.”

Remi held out her hand, which was Brandy’s hand also, and Brandy was happy she’d gotten that shower after the gym. She wasn’t sure she could cope with a giant Brandy who looked like Orchid and Calcine had fucked her through several flowerbeds.

“So my body can bounce anything that isn’t a physical punch.” Remi said, “If I swap that with you, then all that poison in you can’t do anything. No blood to mess with!”

“I don’t have blood?!”

“Yeah, it’s cool, right!” Remi said, beaming manically. “I got it right now, and it’s so noisy. I feel like that time I got stuck in a washing machine once.”

“I...” Brandy stopped, narrowing her eyes at Remi. How in Arceus’ name would someone that big get stuck in a washing machine?

Remi blushed and looked away. Oh, right, it was probably a sex thing. Slime girls seemed very complicated to deal with.

“She’s even more fun to make blush when she’s big,” Calcine said, padding her fingers over Brandy’s cheek. The contact was a distracting drumbeat of sensation as her fingertips sunk into her skin.

“No secondhand teasing of me. Remi’s been really helpful.” Brandy looked up to Remi, mind buzzing with questions about this ability. “So you could give me Sparky’s eyes. Or Calcine’s heat-powered speed?”

“Yeah,” Remi nodded. “It’s a great team ability and very handy for when I’m helping Tanya look after her trainees. There’s always someone who’ll somehow land on a Qwilfish, and you know Poison types, they just love to be mean.”

Brandy nodded, batting at Calcine’s probing hands to try to keep them back. Not that she had the force to push her right now. “Very familiar! Why we’re in this situation. Ugh, I don’t get why anyone would want to date a mean Pokémon.”

Sparky snorted, Calcine biting her bottom lip as she looked down at Brandy. Her orange eyes glowed brighter briefly in a flash of amusement.

“What?” Brandy said, “What did I say?”

“You’re so precious. We love you, Brandy,” Calcine said, intertwining her fingers with Brandy’s hand while Sparky rubbed her stomach. Brandy squirmed at the rippling feeling of it all.

Sparky kept up the rubbing, grinning at Brandy’s reaction. “Maybe we could find Mercury. I bet she could get Brandy to like a mean Pokémon.”

“No!” Brandy snapped. “We’ll help Maple tomorrow, and then we’ll take it easy. I got a slime body, and I still feel exhausted.”

“Take it easy? So Date?” Calcine said, voice hopeful.

“Oh! It’s going to rain tomorrow, and I always find that romantic. But maybe it’s just how it feels on my skin,” Remi said. “Maybe you could curl up somewhere cozy and listen to it?”

“Date!” Sparky agreed. “You’re so good to us.”

Brandy hadn’t agreed to any of this, but she was outnumbered and outsized. “We’re still broke.”

“I’ll pay,” Calcine said. “They give you a little money for handing in new names. I got Lapidary registered before the fighting all broke out.”

“Really?” Brandy said hopefully.

“If you beg, you can have some,”

Brandy puffed her cheeks. Like hell she was begging for it. Calcine pinched her puffed-out cheeks and her fingers sinking into them made Brandy moan in a way that got everyone looking at her with eager eyes.

“Not a chance, you horndogs,” Brandy said fast before they pounced on her. “Remi’s way too big and way too me right now, and I want a meal and a warm bed before I’ll be up for anything.”

“Tanya likes it,” Remi said, leaning down to put her elbows on either side of Brandy, towering about her with a smug expression. Brandy hadn’t thought about what she looked like while trying to be sexy, and she was realizing she was more powerful at it than she’d given herself credit for. Her voice was a low roll that rumbled at just the right pitch to really do it for Brandy. “You think I’m too big, but you’d be surprised what a slime body can take.”

Slime bodies clearly couldn’t sweat because Brandy would create a small lake right now if they could. “Well, maybe...”

All three of them burst into laughter, Sparky raising her hands high in victory.

“I told you she’d go for it! I won!” Sparky said triumphantly.

“I thought she’d be too tired.” Calcine said, “Clearly, I underestimated her.”

“What?” Brandy asked, mind spinning at the sudden shift in mood.

Remi poked a giant tongue out at her. “They bet if you’d fall for me like this, I thought it’d be a bit too much for you.”

“Oh, fuck you guys!”

“Haha, exactly!” Sparky giggled. “Usually, the Trainer has to keep the Pokémon in line, but you’re worse than us!”

Brandy ducked her head, frowning at them. Which just seemed to amuse them further as she sulked.

This wasn’t fair at all! Could she help she was hot while a giant? No. Could she help that Pokémon were all wicked hot? No!

“Not that I’m trying to change the subject,” Brandy said, trying to change the subject. “But what exactly happened in The Poke-center? Why did everyone lose it?”

“Bond scare,” Calcine said. “Rumor going around that a group has found a way to mess with Bonds, and everyone was rushing in to make sure theirs were okay.”

“Oh shit, really?” Brandy said, eyes wide. It could take years for a Trainer to build up Bonds. Brandy had barely started, and she already felt she’d put tremendous effort into it. Losing a few days of work would have devastated her. For people who’d been doing it for months, maybe even years? No wonder there was a panic.

“Just rumor,” Remi said. “People freak out about something every year. Last year someone claimed they’d gotten pregnant with a weak Bond, and everyone was freaking out about that. It turns out they were just a pair of huge idiots who didn’t realize how much they’d grown to love each other.”

Brandy could understand that, too. Having a kid was a big deal and usually took an unshakable relationship. She knew her mothers were ridiculously sappy with each other when they were together. And loud, annoyingly, persistently loud.

“So people started fighting because the center wasn’t checking them?”

Remi shrugged. A big shrug that Brandy took some notes on; she should shrug harder more. It made things move that could distract quite nicely. “They’re not really able to handle big rushes like that, and people panicked. You know how it is when Bonds tangle up. A minor panic can become a lot.”

Brandy bit her lip. Wait a minute. “So if you had a lot of Pokémon fighting you, for example, you could use the Bond to influence them?”

“I guess! If you were really strong about your emotions with them or got them interested in you going at someone else! We have to be careful when training new swimmers to not let them panic, else it can bounce around enough that no one can think straight. Then Tanya has to yell at them.”

Well, wasn’t that interesting? Maybe she’d learned something for her repeat Gym Battle already.

“Thanks, Remi, for turning me into slime and everything else.”

“Anytime! And I mean, anytime, you’re cute, and I’d love to lap my tongue right i-“

“Thanks, Remi!” Brandy yelled again, a little louder. “We’ll pay you back sometime.”

Remi giggled. “I’ll hold you to it. Tanya can show you all a good time, I’m sure.”

Brandy was a little worried about exactly what that would entail exactly. She’d learned much about Tanya from this talk, but at least now she knew why someone would date a giant slime girl. She would not survive a good time with that person.

“Okay, drag me to bed.” Brandy said, flexing a hand out to Calcine. “Uh, after I get my blood back. No offense, Remi, but this is weird.”

“You’re weird,” Remi said, and Sparky and Calcine nodded in agreement.

“Ganging up on me! Jeez, Pokémon really do stick together.”

“Oh yeah,” Sparky said, nuzzling Brandy’s side as she stood up. “We’re doing a lot of sticking together tonight. You owe me. You owe me big. Bigger than Remi, big.”

Brandy looked up at the giant version of herself and gulped. Maybe tonight wouldn’t be the peaceful rest she’d hoped for.