Zeratoed (Species)

Zeratoeds [ゼラトード *Zeratoodo*] are legendary hybrid Pokemon creatures that appear prominently in the Soras Adventures roleplay as human hybrids. Natural ones are rather rare to come across, as they can be only created in a lab or by a small, minuscule chance of breeding a Politoed and a Zeraora together: A feat that is rather impossible by many breeders.

## Biology

### Natural Zeratoeds

Natural versions of Zeratoeds are rather rare to see. They are small, green, and have fur surrounding their bodies except for their swirly belly. They have sky blue whiskers and a single curly piece hair on their foreheads along with a pink cat nose. Zeratoeds have cat-like ears along with three floofs on each side of it's face. It has black paws for feet and furry green paws with lightning bolts on the front of it's arms. For it's neck scarf, it is colored to that of an Eevee's neck fur.

### Human/Zeratoed Hybrids

Like any other human, Zeratoeds that are fused with human genes are very humanoid in appearance without all that fur. They are rather small in stature when compared to most humans. The only differences that they have compared to regular humans are their cat-like mouths, green skin, swirled bellies (most cover them with clothing), frog-like feet, slightly bent legs, a tadpole-like tail, cat-like ears, and peridot/olivine claws that can sheathe and unsheathe below their nails.

## Origin and Creation

### Natural Zeratoeds

Because of a Zeraora's inability to breed as a legendary, it's impossible to naturally breed a Zeraora and Politoed together unless it was created in a lab through horrific gene splicing, and can be cloned like Mewtwo. However, the process is rather difficult, and many scientists give up before getting even close to successfully creating one. To create a natural Zeratoed, one must fuse Politoed spit with a strand of Zeraora fur and construct the DNA from there. There is only one known natural Zeratoed in existence created from this method. The rarest method is to breed a Politoed and Zeraora together to eventually create an egg. The odds of creating one is about 1/11192, even rarer than obtaining a shiny Pokemon from any generation. The first natural occurrence of a Zeratoed being bred by an egg was documented 500 million years ago before humans appeared on the planet. It soon died from living a long and healthy life at 501 years old, presumably dying from it's regenerative powers getting weaker overtime.

### Human/Zeratoed Hybrids

Human Zeratoed hybrids are only created by scientific methods. It is impossible to create one naturally due to their inability to breed, presumably being anatomically impaired as a Ken doll. Once a human is turned into a Zeratoed/human hybrid, they can never go back. To turn a human into a Zeratoed, the victim must drink a potion with Politoed Spit, ground up Zeraora fur, and optionally, Apotoxin 4869 to boost the shrinking process. Other ingredients are allowed to be fused with the brew to trick the victim into tasting a nice glass of juice. Since the liquid is clear, it can be mixed in with other drinks. Once the victim drinks this potion, they will slowly yet painfully start to gain the traits of a Zeratoed, green skin and all. They will either shrink or grow to 4'5" depending on their height. The last thing all Zeratoed/human hybrids will obtain is their cat like mouth and their ears will become big and cat-like. Depending on the victim, it is gained instantaneously or through slow stages the more they stay a Zeratoed. They keep their hair, personality, and clothing (now oversized) upon transformation. All Zeratoed/human hybrids will share traits of natural Zeratoeds with a few differences, whether they like it or not.

#### **Ethics**

Turning people into Zeratoeds is ethically debated in the scientific community of the Pokemon world, but some (like Melvin) believe that it is the next stage of human evolution, allowing them to have superhuman abilities and live longer lives. Although true, some debate that getting turned into a Zeratoed/human hybrid will, especially against their will, slowly forget about their humanity (especially when enraged) and suffer the difficulties of being short or gain low self esteem.

## Abilities

**Increased Durability -** Zeratoeds can survive from large fall distances, but when taking massive amounts of damage, their bodies quickly regenerate any lost skin or bone material. This ability weakens once they reach around 500 years old.

**Non-Senescence -** Zeratoeds cannot die of natural causes like any human would. However, it is said that they can live up to 500 years or more, so they're not *entirely* immortal.

**Night Vision -** Whenever it gets dark, Zeratoeds are able to see as clearly as they would in the daytime without any restrictions on their vision. However, natural Zeratoeds are able to see the ultraviolet spectrum in this state.

**High-Pitched Squeaking -** Due to being very small, Zeratoeds have tighter vocal cords, which means their voices are high pitched regardless of alterations. They can also squeak when they're happy, sighing, angry, or are in shock. Natural Zeratoeds, however, use this squeaking as their natural language like how dogs bark at one another to communicate, while human Zeratoeds can switch between this and their original language to be able to talk to Pokemon.

**Sulfuric Stench -** When they are submerged in rain or any type of liquid substance like water, Zeratoeds can produce a small-ranged sulfuric stench from their bodies that smells like 50 rotten eggs in a dump truck. When any creature goes near them for a couple of seconds in this state, they instantly black out until the stench subsides. Thankfully, all that is needed to get rid of it is to air dry them or use a towel to get all the water off. In the wild, Zeratoeds use this as a defense mechanism to ward of predators when taking a bath.

**Abnormal Secretion -** When nervous or in a tight fix, Zeratoeds can produce inhuman amounts of sweat from their tiny bodies. This is used to wriggle themselves out of danger or as a mucus shield in a fight or flight situation.

**Playing Dead -** When attacked by predators of any kind (or experience a large amount of fear), Zeratoeds can go completely limp and temporarily paralyze itself to make them think they are dead. While in this state, they become extremely lightweight and can be picked up with ease. Despite looking dead, the Zeratoed is conscientious of everything around them, but cannot move a single muscle until the danger has completely subsided.

**Feral Nature -** When Zeratoeds feel extremely stressed or enraged, they go into an uncontrollable primal state that can be only healed by psychic type Pokemon. Not even it's trainer can stop it from going crazy, which is why expert natural Zeratoed handlers have it's Pokeball on standby to return it before they cause any more damage.

**Permanent Dwarfism -** Zeratoeds cannot get any bigger or smaller through any means (including shrinking/growth rays), and are stuck being 4'5" forever.

**Glowing Green Bodily Fluids -** Zeratoeds have glowing green bodily fluids as the main source of their regenerative properties. This includes their vomit, spit, urine, blood, and stomach acid. The fluid seems purple when inside the body, which explains why their tongues are purple, but when exposed to the oxygen outside, it immediately turns glowing green. For natural Zeratoeds, this glowing green "blood" is used as a defense mechanism to ward off predator Pokemon while it's regenerating.

**Cold Resistance -** Zeratoeds can survive any cold weather without problems due their fluctuation of body temperature. However, they can shiver as a response to this weather change, but this does not mean they're suffering from it.

**Heat Resistance -** Zeratoeds can survive any warm weather without problems due their fluctuation of body temperature. They are immune to warmth-related illnesses like heat syncope and mirages.

**Regeneration -** Zeratoeds can regenerate any body parts that have suffered a lot of damage. However, it takes around 10 seconds for a them to regenerate, regardless of what it is. However, as they get older and reach the age of 500, these properties weaken.

**Hunger and Thirst Immunity -** Because Zeratoeds can store energy in their bodies for a later date, they do not have to eat or drink anything to survive for an extremely long time. But once they eat or drink something again, they'd have to eat more to gain more energy due to their low metabolism.

**Purring and Purr-like Snoring -** Like any cat Pokemon, Zeratoeds can purr when extremely happy or nervous. It can be used to calm themselves or others down. They can also purr while they sleep, regardless of if they're dreaming or having a nightmare.

**Super Scent -** Zeratoeds, both natural and humanoid, have an enhanced sense of smell. Because they can pick up so much, they can choose to lock onto a particular scent to find objects or people. However, when a Zeratoed is hungry, they will be only able to smell food until their appetite subsides.

**Enhanced Hearing -** Because Zeratoeds have such big cat-like ears, they are able to hear things clearly and pick up sensitive sounds like those in ASMR videos. They can also understand other Pokemon this way, too, and humanoid Zeratoeds can fully understand Pokemon overtime as they stay a Zeratoed for longer and longer. Unfortunately, this heightened sensitivity in hearing leaves them vulnerable to really loud noises or even dog whistles. Their ears can twitch when excited or happy about something, or droop when sad or angry.

## Known Zeratoeds

### Natural Zeratoeds

There have been no natural Zeratoeds discovered in Soras Adventures yet. However, in an alternate roleplay universe that's not canon, the protagonists discover a natural Zeratoed that can write on trees and communicate through squeaking. It is often judged as a "cute animal mascot" of the roleplay.

### Zeratoed/Human Hybrids

Many people have been victims of Melvin's "Operation: Become Zeratoed" scheme, but these are the few known ones in Soras Adventures:

**Professor Eli Wolftree** - The first victim of Melvin's plan who was a former well-loved worker of the Aether Foundation. She got transformed into a Zeratoed against her will from an unstable cure all potion that was absorbed into her skin, transforming into a Zeratoed/human hybrid. Her cat-like mouth was gained much slower in stages due to the ingredients in her potion clashing with the others. She hated being a Zeratoed for becoming outcast and unloved by many strangers, her co-workers, and even her own parents (until they accepted her later in the series) until Professor Davies, still human, reached out to her and helped her with her predicament. This person varies depending on the universe. Sometimes, it's even her own Pokemon, particularly Crimson the Silvally (formerly a Type:Null at the time). It took her a long time to finally accept her Zeratoed form and live with it.

**Professor Derrick Davies** - A minor Galarian Pokemon professor who chose to become a Zeratoed out of free will. It was mainly to show Eli that she's not the only Zeratoed and so that it wouldn't feel as awkward to have Zeratoed parents as a human. Unlike Eli, he seems to accept his Zeratoed form rather well, but as time goes on, he starts to have doubts of being a Zeratoed and eventually runs away from the gang to try and cure himself. However, he realized his mistake and came back to the lab. Later in the roleplay, he was revealed to be merely a mirage formed by Eli's imagination (and also to get himself retconed out of the roleplay altogether by his original roleplayer).

**Sara Meyer** - Melvin's second victim the from the Sinnoh region who wasn't interested in being a Pokemon trainer. Her parents were friends with Melvin, who went by a different alias, Tom, until Melvin slipped the potion in her drink while she went to the bathroom. Eventually, Melvin left, and once she drank her soda, she was turned into a Zeratoed. Despite seemingly being used to her Zeratoed form and still loved by her parents, she resents Melvin to the point of attacking her while he was a Zeratoed.

**Henry** - One of Melvin's many victims. Henry was transformed against his will after taking a drink that was potion infused after Melvin poured it into his drink while he was away. Unlike most victims, he had turned into a Zeratoed in front of normal civilians that turned on him afterwards for being different. Like Eli, Henry is more self-conscious about his Zeratoed form, even more so than Eli is, constantly feeling embarrassed from his Zeratoed instincts and has a harder time of controlling his feralness. He often needs his talking Slowking to reverse his feralness back to normal.

**Davies' Parents (Amy and Josh Davies)** - The last victims of Melvin's Zeratoed scheme. They befriended Melvin as Jim before they woke up as Zeratoeds against their will. Both of them seem to be taking their transformed states well, acting as if nothing happened after pleading for revenge on Melvin to the protagonists.

**Melvin Nightsworth** - The one who started turning everyone into Zeratoed/human hybrids in the first place. Ironically, he was turned into a Zeratoed by Eli to get a taste of their own medicine. Because his heart was turned evil by his father, Giro Nightsworth, he slowly became an impure Zeratoed, which is a type of quadruped Zeratoed that retains the physical features of a natural Zeratoed like it's green fur and cat-like ears, but is the size of an Eevee, which is around a foot long.

**Rash Screwup** - While not in the anime or mainline roleplay series, Rash is from an alternate Zeratoed universe where everyone except for one immune person is a Zeratoed. He is a parody of Ash Ketchum from the original Pokemon series, possessing the same personality traits like being clumsy, naive, and like his name suggests, a screwup, except these traits are taken to the extreme. Since Zeratoeds can't breed, Rash was the first kid Zeratoed to be created in a lab, and as a result, is rather childish. Everyone seems to hate him, but despite this, some have opened up to him and accepted him for who he is.

## Fan Reception

Despite Zeratoeds being described as "ugly" in the series, many fans have called both species phrases among the lines of cute. This cuteness in design was intentional by the creator due to wanting to make Zeratoeds an "ugly cute" species, where it is perceived as ugly in real life or the show, but is adorable to fans outside of the show. Because Zeratoeds are an open species, many have chosen to create "Zeratoed-sonas" as Zeratoed/human hybrids. Some weirder cases are Animal/Zeratoed hybrids, despite it not being canon for Zeratoeds to be fused as other Pokemon. Some draw themselves as their Zeratoed-sonas, while others ask the creator to draw it out for them for free. In real life, they would be coined as Froguars (cat frog hybrids), but they look drastically different from their Zeratoed counterparts, even though they have the same abilities. However, despite the overwhelming positive feedback of the species, some have called it "weird," "cringe," "are everywhere," "annoying," or "related to Peridot from Steven Universe." Some have even been racist towards these creatures by proposing death or nukes to them. The creator has gone out of her way to say that Zeratoed/Human hybrids are almost heavily inspired by the appearance of the titular Steven Universe character, but are not related to her in any way, shape, or form. This small Zeratoed-sona fandom has surfaced in micro-communities on Discord, and most of them are shown to be generally nice people.

## Trivia

* Zeratoeds are the embodiment of childhood innocence. If someone with a Zeratoed profile picture decided to break this trend, it would be frowned upon with great dishonor, especially from the creator.
* Human Zeratoeds from any region of the UK/Galar (England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, etc.) have a lower jaw fang instead of an upper one that other regional Zeratoeds have. This is because their accents sound fancier.
* Because human Zeratoeds are made of more than three species, they are considered a type of chimera.