Though he lost the understanding of his own human language, his thoughts remained as something that could only be described as stunned silence. He looked and looked, he held up what used to be his hands... they weren't. They were smaller, just as HE was. The hook he'd so easily grabbed the mask from moments before was two or three times beyond his reach. He touched his cheek and cried out in shock and dismay when it sparked a little. He looked at his now somewhat tubby belly, flipped a glance back to see a long, thin lightning bolt tail.

"Rai... chu..." he whispered. And... amazingly, the feeling he was experiencing wasn't panic, but a kind of dreamlike wonder. Could this really be happening to him? He tried one last time to speak a sentence out loud, knowing by this point that he had absolutely no understanding about how to speak like a human anymore. "Chu? Rai rai... rai... chu?"

He heard footsteps climbing casually up the spiral stairs. It was a human! Err... another customer! The raichu formerly names Ty looked guiltily behind him and saw that it WASN'T another customer, but rather the human girl who had annoyed him so much before. She smiled at him in that same slightly bored way that was both angering and appealing.

She sighed. "Well... You just had to see for yourself, didn't you?" She said. Raichu didn't understand the words, but somehow the idea she was conveying still got through. Must be some kind of instinct thing, he thought. "Well, you said you absolutely HAD to be a raichu for this party, and I guess that you were right."

"Chu..." He sparked a little, feeling somewhat betrayed.

"Calm down... you down want to accidentally shock some customers, do you?"

"Chu." he hesitated, then looked away.

"Well... you got your wish. You WILL be a raichu for this party. And the next one and the one after that," she said, shrugging.

"Rai? Raichu?" Raichu asked, turning back around. He saw a Poke Ball in her hand.

"See... the mask is permanently bonded with you now. You can never take it off and your body will always be in this form from now on. So I guess that means... You're store property, now!"

With that, she threw the Poke Ball.

---

Man. I KILLED myself on shading this picture. I desperately wanted to finish all three of these today, and that friggin exhausted me. I hope you guys like the shading, the story, and just... well... everything.Now I'm gonna take a well-deserved break before getting to work again!