Sorry about the name mix-up! Gabriel is male; Gabrielle is female. I learned that after I read a fic containing a male character named Gabriel and then I searched the names.
That was a fail.


Gabrielle's amber eyes rapidly scanned the computer's screen as she sorted through it for useful information.

"Junk... Junk... No... That looks dumb... Honestly? That is just idiotic... Hm... No..."

She was appalled at how stupid people could be and how wild some of their ideas were. How many clichéd, predictable online Pokemorph stories could there be about teenagers being kidnapped by some evil organization and tested on? Countless masses of them, apparently. And what was with the insane concept that injecting DNA into someone would instantly change them? In real life, if someone found a way to do it, it would be a much slower process. Even then, how would the addition of new Pokemon DNA replace the already existing human DNA that the body would be used to? How would it know to only modify certain parts of the genetic coding? What would be placed in the Pokemon DNA to stop it from completely turning humans into ordinary Pokemon instead of the extraordinary, super-powered Pokemorphs they're pictured as?

It's not meant to be realistic, a part of her mind argued. It's fiction! It's supposed to entertain! Why do I have to be so picky about everything? Gabby battled back. Well, who in their right mind would actually do that sort of thing? Look at Team Rocket. Giovanni may be a criminal, but he's not a crook. He does have a sense of honor. The process to becoming a Gym Leader has a lot of complicated steps and tests, and Giovanni was trusted enough by the League to pass them before Red exposed him as Team Rocket's leader, wasn't he? Anyways, didn't he learn his lesson about tampering with Pokemon after Mewtwo and Zapmolcuno? If Team Rocket ever created Pokemorphs, Giovanni would make sure that they were treated carefully. He would've known the dangers of having beings with the intelligent brains of humans and the potential power of Pokemon grow up treated harshly and spending most of their life locked up in a cell. The cruel, abusive idiots portrayed in these illogical fantasy stories were just asking for their experiments to escape and kill all of their captors as painfully as possible. If they actually wanted the Pokemorphs to battle alongside and help them to actually use them to benefit the organization, which would presumably be why they created the Pokemorphs in the first place, they would be nice. They'd respect them. They'd raise them with the care a parent would give to a child. If you thought about it, they had the chance to give the Pokemorphs two viewpoints of life:
A. You're freaks. You don't deserve to live. You are only our slaves, and you will never be more than that.
B. You're amazing and gifted. We created you and brought you into this world. We will help you use your talents.

No one would really be stupid enough to deliberately give them Viewpoint A, but writers seem to think that it makes a story better, Gabby scoffed. The only people in real life that would be that dumb are the blundering fools of Team Magma and Team Aqua, and they were disbanded quite a while ago, weren't they?

But it does make the story better! It gives the main characters motivation, the determination to break free! It's the angst, the frustration, the hatred towards the jerks that mutated them that helps the reader sense the feelings of the characters! And there that doubt went again. I could go on debating this all day, you know. You can just shut up, she told herself. She had wasted enough time arguing with herself; the reason she began this research was to discover more about Pokemorphs, half-human, half-Pokemon hybrids. Half and half? Exactly? How is that measured? How do - Stop distracting yourself, Gabby.

As far as scientists were concerned, Pokemorphs were entirely fictional. Gabby had been appalled at how well Ethan's father had covered his tracks. She hadn't been able to find anything about real life Pokemorphs. Had he somehow sworn the entire town of Twinleaf to secrecy about Ethan? There were a few 10-year-old articles about his father, at least. She tried them.

David H_

- Retired, Former Sinnoh Pokemon League participant -

David left from his hometown of Floaroma on his journey with his starter Pokemon, a Buneary named Victoria that has since evolved into a Lopunny. He possesses the remarkable and rare ability to communicate with Pokemon. He made it to Round 3 of the preliminary section of the 20XX Sinnoh League Championships.

He temporarily became a minor celebrity after the 20XX championships. He had gained fame for his special skill and has said that it allowed him to strengthen his relationships with his Pokemon and know them better than other Trainers can with theirs. "I can sympathize with them, care for them, and know when they're troubled. When you travel around the continent with your faithful companions by your side, you teach each other, you go through every challenge together, and you save each others lives a few times here and there, your bond is unbreakable. It's the kind of love to last forever, that you know will always stay in your heart."

David currently resides in Twinleaf Town with his wife and son.

No further information.

"What? No further information? This doesn't even say who his wife is! Hmph. So a human loving a Lopunny is too scandalous to be published in the news. "remarkably rare"? Have any other people been known to be able to speak to Pokemon? How many of them became Trainers? Why does this say nothing about Ethan and Victoria? And why is the person who contributed this article only marked as 'Anonymous'?"

Gabby's research efforts had proven fruitless. She gave up for the day.


"Hey, Dad. Joe and I are back. We met a new girl our age at the park. She moved into Twinleaf on Friday, and I'll meet her when the school year starts tomorrow. She's a good person; she's not terrified of Joe and me or anything like that, unlike some people when they come to Twinleaf."

David looked up from The Sinnoh Weekly Report he'd been reading while relaxing on the living room couch. Ethan had just entered the house, sporting his favorite baseball cap; he had retrieved it from his bag after he had parted ways with Angela. It had a green, brown, and white color scheme and read CHARGIN' CHUCKS in a stylized font.

"Good to know. Get her address the next time you see her. We'll go through the usual welcoming and introductory routine sometime this week to make sure she and her parents don't tell people from out of town about you and Joe, then. How are you doing? You left pretty early this morning. Joe took a nap while you were out?"
"Yeah, at the park. You know, it's kind of funny how Pokemon sleep more than humans. So, we get tired when Joe feels sleepy in his body, but when we switch to my body, the drowsiness is just gone. Weird, huh?"

"Yeah. Hm? Oh, interesting..." Dave continued examining the newspaper. The occasional, though rare Pokemon-centric article had popped up in The Report. "Wow. They're always discovering new things about Pokemon. Apparently, Magneton can evolve further at Mount Coronet. Some scientists were like, 'Hey, look, Mt. Coronet has a strong magnetic field that can evolve Nosepass into Probopass, so can it magnetically affect other things?' so they got some Magnemite and Magneton and brought them to Mt. Coronet, and the Magneton started changing. This new evolution, called 'Magnezone,' is completely different from its counterparts!"

"That's cool! Have they tried doing it with any other Pokemon that have shown reaction to magnetic forces? Maybe they could do something with certain Steel-type Pokemon. Or... Hm... Hey, what about Plusle and Minun?"

"No, they haven't thought of that. We should tell that team of Poke-scientists your theories. Heh! Maybe you might get some kind of award or recognition if the Plusle and Minun thing works out," Dave chuckled. He loved having conversations on the subject of Pokemon like this with his son. He always had bright, sometimes even funny, ideas. His son brought quite a lot of joy into his life.

Ethan rummaged around in the pantry and pulled a Pokeblock bar out of a box. It had a colorful label designed to attract attention.

"POKEBLOCK BARS, a tasty snack for for your pet Pokemon!
WARNING - Not fit for human consumption"

Ethan unwrapped the bar. "Ooh, pink. I love these. They're so sweet!" he exclaimed as he started munching on it.

"I still can't believe you can healthily digest those things! You eat way too many of them for them to actually be good for you." Dave was afraid that Ethan would become full-out addicted someday.

"Hey, I've never had a problem with 'em. There must be something in Joe that does some thing to my tolerance for this stuff. I dunno and I don't really care because they taste so good! You want one too, Joe?"

Ethan took his jacket and shoes off and concentrated on transforming. When he and Joe changed into each other, the one that began the process had control over the whole thing. Ethan first let Joe's ears grow out, laughing as he playfully batted them. Brown fur steadily spread across his body. He moved on to the nose as its bones dematerialized and it started to shrink and become a little pink dot. His jaw changed shape and his head was became an almost perfect ellipse shape. Fluffballs that were a creamy shade of yellow formed around his lower body. His feet became rounder, and their soles got flatter, and tiny little Joe was lying there on the floor, slightly winded.

Joe caught his breath, picked himself up, grabbed another pink bar, happily sucked on it, and squealed with joy and delight. "Buuneeeaa! Bune, Buneary!" he shrieked.

How cute, David thought as he snickered to himself. Joe's enjoying himself a bit too much. I wonder if I should try stop him from eating through the entire box.

"Hey, don't forget to save some for your mother, Joe!" Dave reminded the Buneary, laughing uncontrollably at the hilarious sight of Joe trying to pour out of the box as many Pokeblocks as he could.


Peter stood up. The young, glasses-wearing Asian boy surveyed his well-kept room. When he had taken proper satisfaction in its tidiness, he sat down at his desk and read a book.

It was a book of a collection of essays concerning various topic about different Pokemon. He admired its author and always found endless entertainment from his works. Some of them were well-thought out studies. Analyses of behavior in the wild; reports of inter-species activity, ranging from friendly community meets between organisms that shared living space in an environment to predatory wars between entire species such as Zangoose and Seviper; documentations of observations found from viewing Pokemons' symbiotic relationships in the wild.
Others were humorously oriented, written by the author to amuse: He comically explained possibilities of humorous theories, such as the outrageous idea of Clefairy and Cleffa originating from the Moon or the proposal that Spinda were deformed Teddiursa, or the potentially limitless, exploitable power of, say, a Shuckle.

No matter how the author adjusted his style, he always wrote marvelously convincing exposition. He was Peter's role model, a person that was at an intellectual level that Peter knew he would someday aspire to.

Peter had studied the Pokedex, the mechanics of Pokemon battling, and the Pokemon Storage System that had been developed by that prodigious prodigy, Bill. He looked up to the Pokemon Professors, experts of their fields of Pokemon research. He was a library of information. He -

"OH, MY GOD! GYNNAAAARRRGHH! MYTHUMBMYTHUMBGGGGMYTHUUUMB! Gyeuh... hh... Dangit, Joe, you -"

Peter sighed as his train of thought was interrupted as a shout erupted through the window from down the street. It was his friend, Ethan. Is that the typical happening of a day in the life a Pokemorph? he thought as he pulled on his sky blue jacket and calmly walked out the door.


I had fun showing Gabby's critical personality here, which contrasts with the friendly, caring attitude she had last chapter while introducing herself to Ethan.

I'm sorry about that "debate." I'm not trying to mock Pokemorph mutation experiment fics; I'm just trying to show how they're impossible in the world of Lasting Bonds. If any other Pokemorphs appear here, they'll be born naturally, children of a human and a Pokemon, like Ethan and Joe.

In fact, in the future, I'm going to write a Pokemorph fic set in a different world of Pokemon about some kids being kidnapped by a criminal team. I could do so much more with my "double-minded" Pokemorph concept in that story. Imagine teens having Pokemon's minds and features put into their bodies. When I write that story, I'll do the kind of Pokemorph that is anthropomorphic with some Pokemon features, not the kind that can switch between Pokemon and human bodies, like Ethan/Joe. I mean, think about how the Pokemorphs would feel after being merged with actual Pokemon, not just a sample of a Pokemon's DNA. The progression of the of the friendship between the human and the Pokemon who are forced into the same body would be awesome to represent. They'd start out with "WHAT THE HELL IS A POKEMON DOING INSIDE MY HEAD? WHAT THE CRAP HAPPENED TO MY BODY?" and "WHAT THE HELL IS A HUMAN DOING IN MY HEAD? WHY AM I SO TALL?" and work together until they eventually reach the level of partnership that was shared by Ethan and Joe since birth.
Oh, no. I got an awesome fic idea stuck in my head. Now I won't be able to forget about it! Ever!
... But I have no ideas for a plot to use for that fic when I make it. But I feel like I've just got to write it now! I even came up with a name! How does Symbiosis For Beginners sound?
If you don't know what symbiosis is, take some biology/life science classes.

"Chargin' Chucks"? Maybe Nintendo still exists in this world. Or maybe not. Chargin' Chucks could be the name of some football team, perhaps.

"The occasional, though rare Pokemon-centric article had popped up in The Report."
The newspaper Dave is ready is called The Sinnoh Weekly Report, not some stupid name like The Poke-Times. I don't get why everything in the Pokemon universe that you see in the games is centered around Pokemon. Trainer Battle Watch? A Pokemon weather report? What does a weather report have to do with Pokemon? In my fic's world, there are also news shows about real people, not just Pokemon wildlife. TV shows or channels that are focused on Pokemon in this world could be compared to things like the Animal Planet of our world, I guess.

As a result of writing this, I now have a sudden urge to write a oneshot fic about a Trainer traveling through Mt. Coronet that owns a Plusle and a Minun. It could happen. Maybe I'll invent some kind of evolutions of them that looks more like a Pikachu than a Pichu. I feel like making the Plusle and Minun brother and sister.

Yes, Pokeblocks do exist, even though this is set in Gen IV. In my world, while most Pokemon Trainers currently prefer using Poffins on their journeys, Pokeblocks are a common Pokemon treat at many houses. And I just like using the phrase "Pokeblock bar" because it just sounds cool to me.

Oh, I didn't put Victoria in this chapter. It was because I didn't feel like it... And I haven't decided on what she's like.

Review today and you get a banana split. With blueberries, whipped cream, and chocolate syrup.

Umbreon22, are you enjoying your donut?