Whenever there was a sighting of the disease, every platform was wallpapered with any and all info about it. That wasn’t what bothered the twins though. Emmet couldn’t even look at the link Hilda had sent them, opting to bury his face against his eelektross' blubbery body as his brother read the article. The incident in the terminal had been a disaster, the likes of which the subway had never seen in Ingo and Emmet time as bosses. There were many reported injuries as a result of the blind panic, people shoving each other, pushing one another out of the way, many people left bruised and sprained from being thrown against the ground, or falling down the stairs to the exit.

    It broke Ingo’s heart to read.

    He couldn’t help but feel at fault, what had all their work been for to uphold the safety rules if so many of the passengers got injured on their watch. The older twin knew it would haunt him for weeks. The gengar turned off his phone with a sigh, looking at his brother, who was stroking his pokemon’s slick body for comfort. Somehow Emmet had been managing to avoid a panic attack, if only just barely. While talking to their loved ones put them at ease, once the calls ended, their apartment felt so much colder, the silence near deafening while waiting for Elesa to return. Had it not been for their pokemon providing much needed comfort, the two might have broken down.

  While their Pokemon had been confused at first when the twins released them from their pokeballs, the creatures adjusted much quicker than hoped to their trainers' new appearances. It was an amazing comfort to them after everything, that their long-time partners and teams not only recognized them, but accepted them as themselves. Feeling her trainer’s mood worsened after reading the articles covering the panic, Flare, Ingo’s chandelure, gently nudged the gengar with her glass body, trilling softly. Even though Ingo was now part pokemon, he still could not understand her through words, but he could still understand her in the way he always had.

   “I am alright my dear,” the man turned pokemon gave the ghost type a reassuring pat, “It has just been a very… very…. Long day…”

-✧-

  It only took around two weeks, but it felt much longer to the twins. Day after day spending in their apartment trying to regain their original forms. It wasn’t an impossible feat, after all the first person to contract the disease had managed after a while, or so the news had stated, but in practice it was much harder without a frame of reference on how to do it.

  At first, the two were riddled with anxiety over getting their original forms back, striving to regain some semblance of normalcy with returning to work being their conjoined goal. But maybe that was what had given them tunnel vision. Cloud had been left incharge, but she was reluctant to relay information about status and details, urging the two too to stay home until the mess settled down. Her reasoning was they needed to only focus on themselves, and not on work. But that only made their anxiety worse, to the point Elesa had to take away their phones so they could focus on recovery and getting themselves under better control. During that time they had also gotten many visits from their friends and parents, though their uncle could only manage through the phone, he was busy with something, though he had yet to share. Still, the visits and time to talk with others seemed to be what kept the twins sane while practically confined to their apartment.

  “Quite the change in uniform… I wasn't expecting for this kind of paint job for my cab's exterior…” Ingo sighed looking over himself in the mirror. Next to him in the reflection was Emmet, who was also looking at some odd results. “I am Emmet, and I do not look bad in pink. I still do not like this though.” The uniforms that they had been wearing that day (which at the time were the only things that could comfortably fit their bodies) had changed slightly in shape and color. Despite their best efforts and hours more of trying, the hybrid twins couldn't fully retake their original appearances. Rather the two men in their human forms, looked as though they were attempting to cosplay a Gengar and Clefable, while in pokemon form looked the opposite. Their coats, under dress, and their hats had changed colors to suit their pokemon forms. Even their physical bodies had minor changes. For one their ears had slight points to them, but more noticeably, their hair had changed color and type. Emmets had become a soft pink like a Clefables fur, and had obtained a slight curl to it, whereas Ingo’s air had become an ashen purple tone, and had become much coarser than before. They tried for some time to tame their hair properly, but eventually gave up when realizing that the tufts that stubbornly would not lay flat insisted on springing back up, mirroring the vague shapes of pokemon ears. It was annoying but paled in comparison to some of the worst of the changes.

  Emmet’s eyes had turned a hot pink, which by all means looked natural, whereas his brother was a different story. Ingo’s eyes had become a deep violet surrounded by a wine red where the white flesh of his eyes should have been. At the end of where their tail bones should have stopped, one twin had a small midnight colored fuzzy tail nub, while the younger twin had a much longer fluffy tail that curled in a spiral. This worried them quite a bit on how on earth they could hide them. "If this is the only track we are able to take… we will just have to make further adjustments to ensure our engines run smoothly." Ingo sighed as Emmet put on his now pink conductors jacket, the length at least doing a decent job of covering his tail. "I am Emmet, and my tail still feels uncomfortable…."

  Just like when they transformed into pokemon, transforming back was equally painless, although mentally tiring after many failed attempts at keeping those forms. Some of which also resulted in the infinity energy that powered their abilities to shoot off like a fuse box with a messed up wire. First time, Ingo accidentally set the curtains on fire, second time their dragon had to hide away when Emmet managed an accidental dazzling gleam that nearly hit him, causing the poor creature to hide in his ball. Oddly enough getting the Infinity energy coursing through their bodies under control was much easier to get a handle on compared to not transforming back into pokemon after only a few seconds or minutes. It was like their bodies had trouble remembering their original form.