I have issues. If you had grown up with shapeshifting parents and gotten kidnapped by your insane grandfather in the process, you'd have issues too.

My name's Dewdrop. If I were human, it'd probably be Dewdrop Ketchum, though I haven't heard of any humans named 'Dewdrop.' And I've done some soul-searching and I discovered that I have a chronic fear of being alone.

For the first six months of my life, things were normal. Wait -- scratch that; the first *five* months were normal. Then my sister Blossom got captured. I hear her trainer's really good, though, so I can't complain. She was always itching to leave the den, come to think of it. I, on the other hand, wanted to stay put for the rest of my life. Things were good now; why change it. So imagine my surprise one morning when Mom and Dad walk out of the den, grab hold of some glowing stones, and turn into humans.

Boom. There goes everything I ever knew. Next thing I know I'm going to sprout wings and fly and space aliens will land and --

Yeah, I was a little unnerved by it all. And then one day, I just snapped. I looked at that human, that lanky, red-headed human... and I tried as hard as I could, but I couldn't make myself believe that she was my mom. So I ran out. I didn't know the way, but I was going to run away from all this metal and exhaust and human stuff and back to my den where my real mom was. Then everything would be alright... right?

There was a ninetails waiting for me outside the door, and he promised to help me. Once we were away from my parents, though, he started acting completely different. I couldn't tell what he wanted from me, but I knew it wasn't good. From what I remember, he said a lot about how humans were evil and my dad -- his son -- was trying too hard to be human. You'd think I'd agree with that, but...  the way he said things, the way the fire danced around him, the way he seemed like he would kill you at any second... well, if you were there, you'd understand. I didn't want this lunatic ninetails; I wanted my parents. And they came.

My *real* parents came, and my Mom defeated the ninetails with one attack. Ever since then, I've known that I want to be like her when I evolve.

Of course, my parents couldn't stay vaporeon and jolteon forever. My dad is actually a very important human, and I'm actually proud of that. All his life he's been training pokemon like me to be more powerful, and he's trained all five of us very well. And I know that inside him is the jolteon that I grew up with.

So yeah, my parents are shapeshifters. But I am okay with that now. That doesn't mean it's easy, though. I still prefer them when they're pokemon, but that happens less and less nowadays. Especially with Mom, since, well... we have a new sister. And she's human. So Mom's had to stay human all the time in order to feed the baby. And Dad's had his hands full with gym challengers. Uncle Pikachu evolved and ran off into the woods somewhere about a year ago now, so he's not around anymore either.

The five of us had grown up quite nicely. Ember's human vocabulary had grown considerably, and it seemed to be at the expense of his native tongue. I mean, we can still hold a conversation; he can understand me and I can understand him, but neither of us speaks the same language. I guess it's okay; I heard that he translated a tip from Sparky that helped my parents find me that night.

Sparky is something else right now. He's never been a very good sleeper, but now he's become what Mom calls a 'night owl.' He stays up all night and sleeps until at least four in the afternoon. And at night, half the time he just stares at the sky. He says he's listening to the stars... whatever that means. I hope he's okay, personally.

Dreamer is the last brother, and he's always the active one. He and Ember are usually roughhousing, and when that isn't happening he's training with some of Dad's gym pokemon. Dad said that after he evolves, he might use him in the gym against trainers.

Sunshine is my other sister. She's been really interested in the new baby