Ezekiel had a lot of regrets in life, but having his family wasn’t one of them. The thirty-nine-year-old Lucario was a stay-at-home father, although he occasionally taught at the local fighting gym. 

In his youth, the Lucario was a Pokémon champion. He and his brothers vied for the title in their youth, but he’d always stood out from the pack. At the age of nineteen, he was renowned for his prowess in the tournament world. Their family had a long legacy of producing top-notch fighters, so this was no exception. 

Nonetheless, he resented how his family cared only about performance. He was lucky since he’d always been the best of the bunch, but the same couldn’t be said for his brothers. He always promised himself that he would never become like his father if he ever had children and would allow them to do whatever they wanted.

	He was placed into an arranged marriage with another tournament family. He would’ve denied the political arrangement, but he soon found himself in love with the young female Lucario Sharla. She too resented her family for their single-minded devotion to fighting. Together, the two absconded away and married in secret away from the machinations of their respective families. 

They each found happiness in their own professions. Sharla became a gadget developer and Ezekiel taught young Pokémon fighting skills. Their sudden absence from the tournament world was felt, but the two managed to find their own little patch of quiet at home. And while they eventually reconnected with their families, they maintained a healthy distance from their schemes.

	When Sharla bore him his first son, Nick, it was the happiest moment of Ezekiel’s life. But it’s also where the worst of his regrets began. 

Nick took an early interest in his father’s teachings at the gyms. He mimicked the older boys and soon found himself obsessed with becoming the strongest fighter.

Ezekiel subconsciously found himself in the same patterns as his father, criticizing every failure of his son until it was too late. By the time he realized that he’d turned his son into another tournament lifer, he couldn’t reach him. He knew that his son was stressed but didn’t know how to teach him about slowing down and finding happiness in life.

When their second son, Kevin, was born ten years later, Ezekiel vowed to not make the same mistake. He wouldn’t rush his son to do anything other than be happy. The Riolu certainly took it a bit to an extreme, playing the part of a toddler well into his sixth year.

Although he initially had his doubts, a clear difference could be seen in their happiness. Kevin was a well-adjusted boy. He participated in tournaments as well, but he played games and had other hobbies. He still had friends outside of the tournament world. 

The biggest difference was that Kevin had evolved into a Lucario despite being 10 years Nick’s junior. That, and Nick’s sudden incontinence once Kevin had taken an interest in beginning his training.

Ezekiel regretted that he hadn’t honed his ability to read minds more than surface level emotions, since he wasn’t good at asking questions directly. He sensed that Nick somehow enjoyed the treatment of being a baby at times, yet his mind was resisting it. 

And so, along with his wife, they thought of a solution. They needed to start Nick over.

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	Nick was ashamed about the events of the past year, but he was ready to get past them. In just a few short months, he’d turn eighteen and he could decide on his own how he wanted to deal with his incontinence. His family meant the best by putting him in the diapers and somewhere inside of him, he enjoyed the feeling of wearing them along with the comfort that came with it, but he needed to get serious about his training.

	This year would be his last year competing as an adolescent. And it would be his most important one. Seventeen-year-olds that do well in the regional tournament get scouted by gyms to compete on their national teams once they are of age. It doesn’t usually make sense to scout them any younger since they might lose interest in between that time. He’d won the last regional tournament for the first time, but that was a year ago and he’d been confined to diapers and light training since then. He needed to double his efforts if he wanted to have any shot.

	It didn’t help that he hadn’t evolved. Certainly, Riolu could be just as strong as any Lucario. He knew that. There were disadvantages to size, but those could be turned into advantages if you were clever and quick. But it was abnormal for this to happen, and he often worried if the scouts would worry that he was somehow ‘broken.’ 

	What was perhaps worse was that he’d been functionally incontinent at night for almost a year now. Daytimes were an occasional occurrence. Because of his size, this meant that he needed to be changed by his little brother and parents frequently. It also meant less time training. 

He’d gotten used to sleeping in the crib. He kind of liked it since it was so high up and confined. What he still hadn’t gotten used to was being punished for leaving it. He had to wait for his little brother to wake up and change him before he could leave the crib. 

This morning, the teenage Riolu was surprised to find that only darkness greeted him. When he tried to move, he found himself restrained tightly, with no give. Upon making a noise, swirly lights assailed his senses and a dull hum.

“What’s going on?” he asked, being met with no response. Nick tried to break free by activating a move, but it was already too late.

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	“Are you sure that it’s safe to use this on him?” Ezekiel asked, delicately pawing at the helmet meant for his son.

	“I wouldn’t be suggesting it if it weren’t,” came the understanding reply as she took the object from him and placed it on the table.

	The helmet was a reset switch, of sorts. It overwrote memories of Pokémon so that they believed that they’d just being born. It was an experimental device deployed in secret by juvenile detention centers, but it was a product that Sharla herself created. She saw firsthand how it allowed Pokémon with tragic pasts to relive their lives in a healthy environment. Perhaps somewhere deep down, it was a subconscious wish that the same thing could’ve happened for her.

	The couple had talked about using it for years now. Nick showed the same signs of extreme competitiveness that had plagued their families and they wondered if they hadn’t caused it. When his bedwetting started, that debate intensified. Eventually, they decided on using it.
 
There was a secret that Sharla had which no one knew about which helped her influence her husband to this end. While Ezekiel hadn’t developed his innate ability to read thoughts, she had. She knew that Nick and Kevin had switched places for the month. She knew that Tyler was the cause of it. She even knew that Kevin was sneaking into Nick’s room to make him wet the bed at nights. She hadn’t interfered because there was something inherently therapeutic in it for all of them. Tyler needed to get back at his older cousin in a healthy way, Kevin wanted to be like his older brother without getting in his way, and Nick’s body subconsciously craved the affection that came with being little. She even found out about the everstone that was hidden in Nick’s room and discarded it, but it was too late for him to evolve because his body had given up on trying.

To that end, she’d modified this device in a way that she could never let anyone know was possible. She found a way to physically regress Pokémon with nanomachines. The nanomachines would read the Pokémon’s DNA and change any physical developments that had occurred since birth. If the technology got out, it would be dangerous, and the world wasn’t ready for it. But as a parent, she couldn’t let the opportunity slip by. She didn’t want to punish her son for wanting to be like them. She just wanted the benefit of a do-over, same as her husband. 

So, once Ezekiel agreed, she took care of the rest. Everyone else was gone from the house except for herself and Nick. Her husband and Kevin were out on a morning jog. As she placed the helmet on her son, she kissed him on the cheek.

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It was a strange feeling for Nick. He felt his strength being sapped. It wasn’t unlike his aura promise where he’d suddenly gotten weaker, except it was constant feeling rather than abrupt. It didn’t hurt, but it was panicking him. He felt a paw being placed on him and from the warmth he knew immediately that it was his mother. He tried to call out, but found only babbles escape his maw.

When the helmet was lifted, he saw her face with a fair bit of worry as she asked, “Nick?”

Nick tried to call out, but his body simply wouldn’t respond. The muscle memory and strength of even his vocal cords had been reduced to that of a newborn. 

Sharla picked him up and held him to her chest. There was a strange sensation of probing in Nick’s mind as she did so. He had no way of defending against it, but he didn’t feel the need to. Worldlessly, the situation was imparted onto him. The feelings of his parents and younger sibling for his health all subconsciously entered his brain as she continued to hold him against her chest.

A bottle of formula was offered to Nick, the teet against his muzzle. The former teen, happier than he thought he ever could be, began to suckle, accepting this new start.
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Ezekiel didn't question how Sharla had managed to get a new birth certificate for Nick. He'd learned over the years that she was never to be underestimated and she'd tell you if she wanted you to know something.

Kevin had to be coached on how to broach the subject. They couldn't have it getting out that their new "baby" was in fact their former teenage son. He didn't understand, but he was happy that he got to be the big brother 100% of the time rather than just for diaper changes.
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Years passed and the secret that Nick had retained his memories remained a secret between himself and his mother. He fully enjoyed the benefits of youth, including using the diapers that he'd grown so frustrated with before being reset.

It was quite nice having an older brother for a change. He grew to love the diaper changes and the intimacy that they brought. Similarly to Kevin, he waited until he was seven-years-old before he did any training whatsoever. By that time, he had an amazing older brother to teach him all the ropes and his limits. The two spent most of their time together, training or no.

This time around, Nick did evolve, albeit a little later than Kevin. At around ten-years-old, Kevin finally became a Lucario. But his youth didn't stop. At tournaments, he was a fierce competitor. But as soon as he came home, he was Kevin's "little Riolu." Even if he didn't use them, the two enjoyed the exchange of affection that came from the nightly ritual of putting Nick in a diaper.

Eighteen years after Nick's restart, he shared a handshake with Kevin. They'd both been drafted to the same Pokemon league in the same group and would be fighting partners. And what soggy secrets occurred in the locker rooms? That was their little secret.