Pocket: Liquid Steel (March Week 2, EC 2)

"You picked the weirdest flask design," Oracion commented to his sister, gazing down at the small glass figure she had made. The two had wandered into some lab owned by a mon named Cam, who had let them make this glass figure. His sister, ever the artsy one, had insisted to choose the design, but she of course didn't pick anything expected.

"It's not weird! I really like it," Petra insisted, turning the glass figure over in her hands. It was a Ditto, of all things, an unevenly-shaped white blob with a smiley face embossed into the front. "Ditto don't get near enough attention. They're cute and gooey, like Goomy-line mons, like mom... and they have the ability to become whatever they want! They could fly as a Pidgey, swim as a Goldeen, dig as a Sandshrew, or run as a Ponyta! I think it'd be amazing to have that power."

Oracion shrugged. "Yeah, I guess that would be nice."

"Hey, you two," Cam, the feline who ran this lab, called out to them in the middle of their conversation. They looked up to see him gesturing to a door. "Come with me, and I'll show you one of the newest machines we've been working on. Maybe you could try it out."

"Really?!" Petra broke into a grin, scurrying to follow the cat, her brother just behind her. "What is it? What does it do?"

Cam led them to a room with a large machine. Some parts of it seemed to be in pristine condition, but other parts... rather battered. "This can take the power of a move and make it into a liquid form! If we cut a whole in that glass flask of yours, we can fill it up with whatever move you want. Just be sure to only use one, since using multiple elements at once overload the machine and might... y'know... go boom. You'll loose your eyebrows like one of my lab helpers."

That didn't sound overly safe to Oracion, but Petra was too enamored with the machine's bizarre capabilities to care. She brought her glass Ditto over to have a hole cut into the top, babbling on with questions about how the machine worked, if it could really make any move into a liquid, if they had tried using extremely powerful moves on it, and other such things.

Finally, though, she turned to her brother. "Oracion! You should use a move on it!"

"Me...?" Oracion blinked, taken aback. "Why?"

"Because! I made the glass, so you get to do this part," Petra replied with a smile, holding up her weird little flask, which now had a cork in the top.

Oracion let a soft purr into her throat, nodding. "Okay... I'll give it a try." He turned to the machine, regarding it with curiosity. Fire seemed too obvious of an option, so maybe he would try something a little different.

Leaping up off of the ground, he spread open his wings and rushed towards the machine's target area, where it was covered in scratches, dings, and scorch marks. His feathers suddenly shimmered like steel, the edges becoming sharp, and he swung his right wing forward to strike the machine, landing a direct hit with Steel Wing.

Oracion then fluttered back and landed again, while he and his sister watched what happened next. They stared in awe as the machine made a series of strange noises, flashed with light, and then produced an oozy, bright silver liquid. It really worked?!

Cam helped to pour the strange liquid into the Ditto jar, making it from a peculiar flask, into a rather pretty ornament.

Petra cooed with joy and hugged it to her chest, breaking into a wide grin. "Thanks, Cam! I think this'll be a nice gift for my mom, Sol! She really likes stuff we make!"

Oracion smiled faintly, too. He wouldn't mind giving it to their mother. It was always nice to remind her that she was loved.

The sibling pair shuffled back out of the lab room, debating on where to go and what to do next. As fun as it was in the lab, there was so much more to explore in the city!