“Would it help if I said I was sorry? Again?” I asked, looking at Valerie out of the corner of my eye. She was just standing there, glaring at me. And she had been doing so for the last half hour. I had apologized several times, but she was still mad. Of course, I didn’t blame her. While I hadn’t done anything egregious, I hadn’t told her.

  “You knew she was Team Flare,” she said. Again. The accusatory tone just got even thicker every time she said it. Malva had left a little over half an hour ago. Well, left would be the wrong way to put it. Diantha and a few Officer Jenny’s had shown up and politely requested she come with them, and we were still standing in the lobby.

  “Yes, I did. I’m sorry,” I said with a sigh.

  “And you didn’t tell me,” she said, again.

  “Yes, I didn’t. Again, I’m sorry,” I said with another sigh.

  “Why?” she demanded.

  I let out a longer and even heavier sigh than my previous ones. She was just asking the same questions over and over again, as if she was expecting a different answer. It was starting to get annoying, but at the same time I really did understand. Her girlfriend just got arrested, and I had essentially been the one who called the cops. My first reaction was to tease her over it, but she was clearly not in the mood for that.

  So instead, I remained patient and just explained it again, “Because I knew you would be good for her. She was part of Team Flare because of her view on the world, and I knew that you being part of her life would change her outlook.”

  It wasn’t even like I did that much. I just didn’t tell her certain things, and encouraged the relationship. Mostly it just worked out on its own. “But why didn’t you tell me?” Valerie asked, breaking me out of my train of thought.

  I turned a bit to fully face her. It seemed the loop of questions and silence was finally broken. “Because it wouldn’t have helped. Knowing wouldn’t have helped anyone. And I know it was…” I sighed, rubbing my face as I tried to think of the proper way to say it. Thankfully she remained silent as I gathered my thoughts. I folded my hands, placing them in my lap as I looked at her. “It was the only way I could think of to get her to leave Flare.”

  “So you used me,” she said bluntly.

  And I winced. It probably did look like that from her point of view. “I just encouraged you. Both of you can be happier, and the world can be a better place.” The words ‘For the Greater Good’ came to mind, but I stuffed them down. I wasn’t about to let my line of thinking follow that path.

  Valerie went quiet again, her brow furrowing. She was probably thinking back to past interactions, or replaying my words in her head, or trying to think of what to say. “Well… I guess I shouldn’t complain too much…” she said eventually, sighing. “I talked with Malva a lot, and… There’s a lot of things she did that I don’t like, but she wants to put in the effort…”

  I nodded, not really having anything to add.

  “And I get why you didn’t tell me anything, but I’m still upset.” She stomped her foot. “Arceus, Jace. What if things hadn’t gone the way you planned?”

  “I had confidence,” I said, a bit of a smile pulling at the corner of my mouth. “In both you, and how Malva was going to react. She’s not as crazy as most of Team Flare.” I wasn’t sure how exactly to explain all the knowledge I had without just telling Valerie the truth about my origins… Maybe I should do that?

  Valerie huffed, turning away from me and looking out the front door of the gym. It was silent in the lobby. Allie wasn’t even there, as she had left to do her own thing for New Years and hadn’t come back yet. That’s part of what we were waiting for. Valerie didn’t want to leave the front unattended.

  It was silent for a few minutes more before I spoke, “I really am sorry. I really hate doing things like that… But I was honestly worried.” I sighed, leaning against one of the pillars as I looked outside. “And I really was confident that it would work out. But… I’m honestly not sure if you would believe why I know that. It’s been pretty hit or miss on if people actually believe me…”

  She was looking at me, studying me as if trying to see what sort of meaning my words had. “Would you tell me if I asked? Even if I didn’t believe you?”

  I chuckled a bit and nodded. “Yeah. Just know it’s… pretty wild.” The only reason I was so hesitant was because of Sycamore. Finding out that not only did he not believe me, he had actually told other people without asking me really soured my willingness to tell people. But that wasn’t really fair to Valerie.

  There was quite a contemplative look on her face, and her head tilted to the side slightly as she thought. “Does it really matter?” she said after a while.

  A snort escaped me and I shrugged. “Depends. Doesn’t change who I am, but it would explain a lot of the things I do.”

  Again she fell silent for a moment before she just shook her head. “Nah. I don’t think it matters. I’d rather just think you’re weird.”

  I laughed. “Yeah, that’s fair.”

  It got quiet again, but now it was a comfortable silence. Or at least a more comfortable one, considering that she was still mad at me. But at least now she wasn’t stuck in some sort of questioning loop anymore. And after a few minutes we could see Allie running towards the gym.

  She practically kicked open the front door, staring at the two of us, and breathing heavily. “What the hell happened?!” she shouted.

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “What makes you think we would know?” I asked, though she wasn’t wrong.

  She pointed at me accusingly. “Don’t give me that! I know for a fact you know what happened! I know you’ve been doing all that…” She flailed her hands. “Team Flare stuff!”

  “True,” I said with a nod, still laughing a bit. I then gave her a rough explanation of what happened.

  Allie just stared at me. “You got Malva arrested?!” she shouted, running over to Valerie and dramatically throwing her arms around her. “How could you do that to Val?”

  Again I laughed, shaking my head. “Of course that’s what you’re focused on… Malva should be fine. The League and Association will probably bury the fact she was Team Flare, since that would be really bad publicity.”

  She fell silent, and then looked at Valerie who nodded. “Ugh… How annoying,” she muttered as she walked over towards her desk.

  Valerie went over as well, giving me a bit of a glare before turning away. Probably would be a while till she stopped being mad.

  I took a step outside, wanting a bit of fresh air. It was quiet, and hardly anyone was around. There would probably be some backlash that this happened over a holiday, if there wasn’t already. But it was the best time.

  Judging from the mostly undisturbed snow, it had snowed sometime during the lockdown. The only footprints I could see were those left by the Jenny’s, Diantha, Malva, and Allie. I slowly traced them as I let my mind wander.

  I just stood there for a moment, breathing in the cold air. My body felt oddly tired, but that was probably the cold. Mikyu was still working on repairing my jacket, so I didn’t have much protection from the weather.

  But that was fine. The cold was… soothing. Grounding in a way. And yet I couldn’t help feeling this longing to just… go home. Sit on my couch, drink a beer. Maybe smoke a cigarette. Damn when was the last time I had wanted a cigarette? More than ten years, surely. Was it more than fifteen now?

  That was something I refused to indulge in again. I’d gone down that path once before, and it was a hell of a fight to get off of it. I had people to take care of now. I couldn’t be like my mother and spend food and rent money on booze and smokes. I refused to be like that. Not when my new family relied on me.

  The holidays were really the worst time of year.

  I wondered if my parents knew I was missing. Was I missing? I still had no idea what happened. If they didn’t know before, surely they knew by now. My aunt would have done her yearly Christmas call to check in. And wouldn’t have gotten a response.

  “Good riddance,” I could imagine my father saying.

  “What did he leave for us?” my mother would comment. Actually that was probably giving the woman too much credit. I don’t think she would have said anything. We haven’t been on speaking terms for… has it been ten years already?

  I shook my head, stuffing my hands into my pockets as I let out a long sigh, watching as my breath fogged, the water vapor condensing and crystalizing in front of me. A simple aspect of life that a lot of people don’t think about, myself included. But it was something nice to focus on rather than my own thoughts.

  Everything had finished up in such a way that it was almost anticlimactic. It put me on edge. A niggling feeling in the back of my head. I wanted- no, I needed a list. I needed to know who got away. Who I needed to watch out for… Maybe I was just being paranoid… Lysandre had been one of - if not the - largest benefactor for Team Flare, and with him gone they should be severely crippled. I just had to hope they couldn’t recover. And didn’t find out about my involvement…

  My phone buzzing brought me out of my thoughts, and when I looked down I noted two things: Diantha was calling me, and I had been out here for over two hours. And as if realization was the trigger, I realized just how damn cold I was.

  “What’s up, Diantha?” I asked as I made my way back inside. Allie gave me a quizzical look, clearly wondering why I had been outside for so long just staring at the snow. I just sort of waved off her curious look as I made my way back towards the training room.

  “Malva has been cleared,” she said with a big smile. It seemed she was quite happy about it.

  “That was quick,” I commented, raising an eyebrow at her.

  “The League didn’t want to drag their feet. She is an Elite Four member after all. If she was detained for too long, people would start asking questions,” she explained, sounding oddly joyful.

  “I see. Good,” I said with a nod, leaning against the wall beside the door to the training room. I wanted to go in and warm up, but I knew I was going to be swarmed with Pokemon when I opened that door and pestered with questions.

  “Also found out something quite curious from the Association representatives,” she said in a conspiratorial manner before looking around, making a show of making sure no one was listening in.

  I rolled my eyes. “Yeah? And what’s that?”

  “You have a Fennekin egg, don’t you?” Her tone was almost teasing.

  But even if she was playful about it, I couldn’t help the way that I straightened up. “And?”

  She seemed to notice my tension and frowned a bit. “And not just any Fennekin egg. It’s from… that special Delphox.”

  My eyes narrowed a bit as I looked at her. “And?” I repeated.

  “And that was one of the Association's prized starter breeders. She belonged to one of the old Champions, and when he died she was given her freedom in exchange for giving her eggs to the Association.” She sighed a bit. “Which was the first time I heard about it.”

  “And how exactly did you hear about it?” I questioned.

  “They started being weird during Malva’s questioning, and tried turning the focus on to you. When they started asking about if you had an egg, it got us all suspicious. Because that is a very odd and very specific question.” I realized that her playful tone was her trying to maintain her composure.

  I dragged a hand down the side of my face. “So that’s what the man hunt is about…”

  She nodded. “That Delphox has always produced high performing offspring. Your roster is just too tempting. The variant, the Mythic, and an egg laid by a former Champion’s Pokemon.”

  “So it’s just straight up greed,” I said with a sigh, and she nodded. I paused before a thought occurred to me. “What the heck is up with variants, anyways? All this Team Flare nonsense kicked off because of one, but I just don’t get it.”

  “Well, they’re worth a lot of money. And are usually abnormally strong for their species,” she explained.

  I remained silent, waiting for more. However, she didn’t continue. “That… That’s it?”

  She nodded. “Yup.”

  Again I fell silent for a moment. “So you’re telling me… that all of that nonsense started because there was a chance that Essy would be stronger than the usual Espurr?”

  She nodded again. “Yuuuup.”

  I really was not sure how to process that. Team Flare attacked a Pokecenter because there was a variant there. And from what I knew, the attacking force hadn’t even known about Diancie until they got there. So I couldn’t even chalk it up to a ‘two birds one stone’ scenario. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “That is so stupid.”

  Diantha laughed, nodding. “Right?” She gave me quite a big smile. “In better news, the League essentially told them to fuck off. With Malva cleared, she immediately jumped to your defense. Which means with me, and three Elite Four members on your side, the League has no choice but to support you.”

  “Three?” I questioned.

  “Siebold and Drasna have advocated for you, and with Malva joining in and Wikstrom remaining neutral, the League officials had to shift their stance,” she explained, that large smile still on her face.

  My brow furrowed. “Why would they support me?”

  She shrugged. “Dunno. You’ll have to ask them yourself. I would still avoid the Association if I was you, but you won’t have to worry about the League.”

  “I will still worry about the League,” I said with a bit of a scoff. “The fact they were so quick to jump on me leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”

  There was a frown on her face but she slowly nodded. “Okay… Yeah that’s fair. Alright. I still have work to do. Stay safe!” she said suddenly before hanging up, not giving me a chance to respond.

  A soft laugh escaped me as I leaned against the wall. I was really dragging out going in and talking with everyone for some reason. Honestly I was starting to get annoyed with myself, but at the same time, I just wanted a distraction.

  As if to answer my request, my phone started to ring again. I blinked and looked at it before answering. “Evelyne? What’s up?”

  “I… Uh… Jace… So uh… What uh… What are we supposed to do with all of these Pokemon?” she asked, fumbling a bit with her words. The Joy looked like an absolute mess. One of her hair loops had come undone and the other didn’t look too far behind. And her nurse outfit was a mess, covered in dirt and what looked like soot.

  That was a really damn good question. “Uh… hm… I’m actually not sure… The Reserve isn’t done yet, as far as I know… And it’s going to take about a month for it to be in any sort of working order, as far as I’ve been told. I think we just have to wait.”

  “A… A month…” she mumbled and let out a heavy sigh, closing her eyes. She almost looked like she had black eyes with the bags under her eyes. “Okay… We can probably limbo them for a month or two…”

  “How… How many Pokemon are there?” I asked hesitantly. I realized I wasn’t sure if I wanted the answer to this.

  She kept her eyes closed for a moment before opening them slowly. “Three thousand, seven hundred, and fifty two.”

  I felt my back tighten a bit as the hallway suddenly felt very, very quiet. “Shit…” I muttered.

  “All of them are assigned to you,” she said, and clearly took pleasure in the horrified expression that crossed over my face.

  “All of them?” I asked incredulously.

  “You don’t have a Pokemon limit. And we can’t have them unassigned because then they would get… processed,” she said slowly, and I saw the way she shuddered.

  “Would anyone even do that?” I asked, a bit concerned.

  “I… I don’t think so…” she said after a moment. “But none of us wanted to chance Association or League interference. It’s easier to just… put you as their owner than process them as unclaimed or something.”

  I nodded slowly. “I’m not… upset or anything. Just… It’s a bit shocking to find out that I have over thirty seven hundred Pokemon.”

  She let out a tired laugh. “Yeah.”

  “We’ll have to set up some kind of special categorization of the reserve…” I said with a sigh. “That way if something happened to me, they wouldn’t all just be-” I paused, not wanting to finish the thought.

  Suddenly Evelyne looked a bit concerned. “Are things still bad?”

  “I’m currently really high on the Association’s shit list. The League is sort of backing down, but there are still a lot of powerful people who don’t like me for some reason,” I said with a bit of a smirk.

  Evelyne giggled tiredly. “Can’t imagine why…”

  There was a nice moment of silence, and I could see that Evelyne was in a better mood. “Have you seen to all of the Pokemon?”

  She shook her head. “It’ll take a few more days… We still have normal duties to perform, but the Elder has sent us extra hands… Feel like I’m at a family reunion every time I enter the break room,” she said with a bit of a smile.

  I smiled a bit more and nodded. “Right. Well, don’t rush, okay? We have time..”

  “Right,” she said with a nod. “We’re actually getting pretty fast at getting through things. There’s been a dozen new procedures made, and twice that have been thrown out…” She seemed to fall silent for a moment and her eyes were downcast as her expression soured.

  It looked like she wanted to say something, but at the same time didn’t. I remained quiet, letting her process whatever was on her mind.

  “We’re starting to get requests from other regions…” she said eventually.

  I blinked. “Other regions?”

  She nodded slowly. “Team Flare isn’t the only criminal organization… And other Pokecenters have to deal with abandoned Pokemon. There’s already talk about having them transferred here.”

  I sighed as I slid down to the floor. “Okay… We can do that, I think. We just… We just need the facility up and running. And more Joy’s.”

  That seemed to brighten her mood a bit. “We’ve been getting quite a few requests to join, actually. From outside of the region.”

  “Really?” I asked, smiling a bit. “I think we’ll take all the help we can get.”

  She nodded. “Yeah.” She glanced to the side. “Okay, my break’s almost over. I still have another ten Pokemon to check before I can clock off.”

  “Okay,” I said with a smile. “Keep up the good work.”

  All I got was a huff in response as she hung up.

  Rather than put my phone away, I quickly went through my contacts. It was only a few seconds before someone picked up. “Hello?” came a rather groggy voice.

  “Emma? Were you sleeping?” All I could see was the underside of what looked like a lamp, and the ceiling. I could also see something pink at the edge of the camera. Her phone was probably on a nightstand, and her Ditto had answered. “It’s well past noon.”

  There was silence for a few moments before sudden almost frantic shuffling and the phone was snatched up and Emma came into view. “Jace? What happened? Are you okay?”

  I put up a hand. “I’m fine. I just wanted to check in, since you’re my liaison and all.”

  She scoffed. “Not anymore. They fired me yesterday.”

  “Huh… Well, okay that actually makes this easier,” I said with a shrug. She gave me a look that was both confused and pissed. But before she had a chance to voice her frustration, I continued. “I have a job for you.”

  “A…job?” she asked slowly, her brow furrowing.

  “It won’t pay well, if at all, and is probably going to make the Association hate you even more,” I explained, a bit of a smile pulling at the corner of my mouth.

  She let out a long sigh. “You make it sound oh so wonderful,” she said, sarcasm dripping from every word.

  “But you’ll be able to help Pokemon. A lot of Pokemon.” I smiled a bit more. “And I mean a lot.”

  Now she just looked confused. “Okay? So what would I need to do?”

  “I don’t know laws and regulations,” I admitted. “But you do. And while I think Diantha can strong arm her way through most issues that come up, I want someone who can talk legal at the bastards who’ll get in our way.”

  “I’m not a lawyer," she said with a bit of a soft laugh. “But I could help.”

  “Good.” I nodded a bit, glad to have her on my side. Her personality had definitely shifted now that the mind control wasn’t influencing her. That car ride was probably the first time I ever saw the real Emma.

  “So… What are you doing that requires someone with my sort of skills?” She rolled over to lay on her stomach, resting her head on her arm. She looked like some preteen talking about boys. I could swear I even saw her legs kicking in the background.

  “We’re starting a Pokemon Reserve for abandoned and confiscated Pokemon-”

  She suddenly shot up, and was now standing. “That’s what you’re up to?!” she shouted, now looking pissed off again. “I got fired because you and Diantha were doing something and I didn’t know what it was!”

  I remained quiet as I watched her fume for a few moments. “They fired you because you didn’t know something that not even they knew was going on?”

  Emma took a few deep breaths before sitting down with a huff. “Well, I also refused to get the information, since I was suspended and all. I wasn’t obligated to help them until I was reinstated… So they just fired me instead.”

  “So… they fired you because you refused to do a job you weren’t being paid to do.” She nodded and I sighed. “Typical management…”

  She nodded a few times. “Okay, so you’re making a Pokemon Reserve… And Diantha is helping. Who else?”

  I flexed my fingers a bit before switching which hand was holding the phone. My hands were still cold and actually hurt a bit. It didn't look like I had frostbite, but I should really try and warm up. “Both Jenny and Joy clans are assisting, the Joy’s moreso.”

  She whistled. “Damn…”

  “We also have Valerie, and maybe Malva.” I wasn’t sure if the Elite Four member would be willing to assist, but I could probably get her on our side by letting her interact with the wolf pack and maybe befriending a Houndour or Houndoom.

  “No wonder the Association has no idea what you’re doing… Aside from buying a ton of land, and hiring almost every construction crew in Kalos.” She rubbed her face, as if trying to rub what little sleep was left off of it.

  “I don’t know the details,” I had to admit. “Everyone has been keeping me in the dark, because Diantha thinks it’s funny.”

  She laughed, honestly really hard. Hard enough that she doubled over and nearly dropped the phone. “That is so like her!”

  “So I’ve been told,” I grumbled a bit, but couldn’t help but smile.

  Emma wiped a few budding tears from her eyes when she finally stopped laughing. “Oh jeez… I needed that.”

  “So, will you help?” I asked, not actually having gotten an answer.

  She hesitated a moment. “Are you sure you want my help? Clearly you don’t need it considering all the people already helping.”

  A snort escaped me. “Yes, I’m sure. An ex-Association personnel of your skill would be extremely helpful.” And I felt bad about how I had treated her when she was being mind controlled. Sure, all my suspicions had been correct, but I was still a jerk about it.

  Her brow furrowed a bit as she seemed to think it over. I thought she was about to answer, but instead she just yawned.

  “Why are you so tired?” I asked, chuckling a bit.

  “Ah, me and my sister stayed up all night drinking,” she replied sheepishly, rubbing her eyes. “We don’t usually do that…but I had just been fired, and it was New Years.”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “Mix of celebration and sorrow,” I said with a nod. I knew that pretty well, so I wasn’t going to judge them.

  “Exactly.” She fell silent for a moment before nodding. “Alright. I think I can also get Kaitline to assist, if that’s okay?”

  “Of course,” I said with a smile. “The more people helping, the better. Just know that we’ve essentially got zero income. Diantha is footing the bill for everything right now, for some reason.”

  “It’s probably a good reason,” Emma mused, putting a finger to her chin in thought. “She’s done a lot of weird things in the past, but there always ends up being a reason. And it’s not like she’s lacking in money. She’s the Champion, and one of the most famous actresses in the entire world.”

  “Alright. Well, I’ll pass along your information to her and explain things.”

  “Eh?” She suddenly startled. “W-wait. You want me to talk with Diantha?”

  “Well, yeah. She won’t tell me anything, so it’s not like I can play middleman,” I explained as I sent a message to Diantha, explaining who Emma was as well as her contact information.

  “W-w-w-wait. Wait wait wait wait wait wait. You… You can’t… You can’t just do that!” She seemed almost panicked. “Diantha is a very busy and very important person.”

  “And now that very important person has your phone number,” I said with a bit of a smirk, as I received a reply from Diantha saying that she would reach out to her when she had a chance.

  “Huh?!” she made a noise of panic.

  “Thanks for the help, Emma,” I said before hanging up. Emma started sending me messages, mostly saying that I couldn’t do that, but I just put my phone away as I stood up.

  When I entered the training room, just like I thought, I was bombarded with questions. They all wanted to know how everything went. What was going to happen now. It took Hate actually barking at them to shut up in order for me to be able to answer.

  I spent time explaining what I knew, and I didn’t sugarcoat it. I explained to them how there were some that got away. When I explained how many had actually been rescued, there were a few that apparently didn’t understand how ridiculous of an amount that was and had to be told.

  Explaining everything was just as annoying as I thought it would be, and took several hours. Mostly it took so long because I had to explain things more than once, and there were also a lot of questions I couldn’t answer that they simply kept asking.

  Eventually they all seemed satisfied. And once that was done, I gathered everyone and everything up and went back to the other training room. It wasn’t that I disliked hanging out with the wolf pack, I just needed to make dinner and wanted to relax. They also seemed… not quite nervous around me, but it was clear there was some sort of disconnect. I wasn’t part of the wolf pack, but they were very much aware I was in charge of them.

  At least none of them were scared of me.

  ~

  It was two days before Mikyu had finished with my jacket. And it honestly looked better than when it was new. She had also taken the liberty of increasing the amount of space for pokeballs. “How many do you expect me to have?” I teased her as I was investigating.

  “I…well… I don’t know…” she muttered, fidgeting a bit.

  I picked her up, giving her a tight hug as I thanked her for her hard work. She returned the hug, and honestly it took a long time for her to let go. I didn’t mind. It seemed like she just wanted a bit more attention than what I had been giving her.

  After that, the next few days passed oddly peacefully. Up until-

  “Freedom!” Rio shouted, her arm no longer in a cast.

  I snorted as she rushed away from the Nurse Joy who had brought her out. “Feel better?”

  She nodded, flexing her arm and throwing a few punches at the air. “Much.”

  I nodded a bit as the Joy approached me. This wasn’t one that I knew the name of. “She’s all healed up. She did well not aggravating it during her recovery period.”

  A sigh escaped me and I nodded. “If only her mother would be the same…” Cara had been extremely grumpy about having to be sedentary. Dee had to practically be with her constantly to keep her from doing something that would hurt her or aggravate her injuries, which meant I had neither of them with me. Of the two of them I really hadn’t expected Rio to be the more level headed.

  “Ah, yes… I did hear about what happened…” She looked around, as if to make sure no one was listening. “Everyone’s really glad someone finally stood up to Wulfric. Thank you.” She bowed slightly.

  “It’s fine,” I said, waving it off. “When Wulfric is reinstated as Gym Leader next season, he’s going to be held to quite some serious scrutiny. So hopefully something like this won’t happen again.” My eyes wandered over to Rio, who was still shadowboxing the air.

  “I can’t believe they’re letting him come back,” she whispered harshly, her brow furrowed.

  “Same.” I nodded, also annoyed. But, I had been informed a few days ago that the investigation had completed. I was apologized to and reinstated, with backpay. Which was nice, but honestly I don’t think I would have been too heartbroken if they had terminated me. Especially when I was told that Wulfric’s official punishment was suspension for the rest of the season without pay.

  And that was it.

  When I had pressed for more information, they said that the League would be in charge of monitoring him next season. And any sort of punishment for misconduct would be handled by them. Not the best solution, but apparently that was all they would be willing to do. This was being classified as his ‘first incident’ as nothing had been reported previously.

  I wasn’t in trouble at all, but apparently my reaction is why his punishment was lessened. They counted my retaliation to nearly being murdered as justified, but also part of his punishment. Which was both frustrating and interesting. If I hadn’t hit him, he would have had to go through a lot more. At least I could take solace in knowing he was going to be in the hospital for a while, and eating with a straw for the next few months.

  Speaking of pay, I did actually get paid for the gym battle on top of my monthly salary, a hefty combined total of seventy thousand. It was pretty clear that part of that was sort of hush money to make me drop it, but I guess that was fine.

  What wasn’t fine was that Emma was still fired and they weren’t going to rehire her. Someone in the Association had finally found my contact details somewhere. Which is where I got all this information from; my new liaison Gaston. And holy damn is his name fitting. No one’s big like Gaston. No one’s neck’s as incredibly thick as Gaston. The dude’s absolutely huge. He has biceps to spare, and not a bit of him's scraggly or scrawny

  “Ah, so you’re Jason? All finished up?” Gaston said, having waited outside of the Pokecenter for me. He was impossible to miss. Seven feet tall, and built like a brick house. The towering man had a big smile on his face, which was a bit crooked in quite the handsome sort of way. I had agreed to meet him in person at the Pokecenter today since the Association apparently had a job for me, though details had been scarce. He reminded me a bit of the Gaston from the animated movie, but his personality was completely different.

  I wondered if they had sent him to intimidate me, but honestly the guy was very polite and seemed almost happy to meet me. When he reached out to shake my hand, I almost hesitated because damn his hand nearly engulfed mine, but he didn’t even try to crush it. It was just a firm handshake. “Yes, I’m Jason, but I prefer Jace. You’re Gaston?”

  He nodded, standing up a bit straighter. “Indeed I am. I’ll be your new Liaison due to Emma’s unfortunate termination.” He actually sounded a bit annoyed. “So this is one of your Lucario, yes?”

  “Yes, this is Rio. We were here to get her cast off,” I explained.

  Again he nodded. “Is she the one who delivered that incredible punch?” He did a sort of pose that was similar to how Rio had stood and threw a sort of mock punch at the air. “Hell of a move that was!”

  “Yup, this is her.” I gave Rio a pat on the shoulder. She was looking at Gaston curiously.

  “I wish I had a Lucario. You see, my specialty is fighting Pokemon, if that isn’t obvious.” He laughed as he flexed, slapping his bicep. The man could probably crush a skull with that arm. “But they’re a bit rare, and I never get the time to go out and look. And you have two…” The last line was grumbled a bit.

  “How come they made you my liaison?” I asked, unable to help my curiosity.

  He slapped his chest and nodded. “I volunteered. You’ve got a reputation for being…” He seemed to falter a bit, clearly debating if he should actually say it. “For being problematic. But, with how Emma talked about you, I know that that’s exaggerated, if not a straight up lie.”

  “So you know Emma?” I asked, curious.

  There was a smile on his face and he nodded. “Yup! I… Well, she hasn’t been answering my calls since she got fired, but I’m sure she’ll reply soon!”

  I stared at him for a moment. “Did you volunteer as my liaison in hopes of Emma talking to you again?”

  His entire body seemed to stiffen and he quickly turned away. “Of course not! Now, c’mon, off to the Association!” He quickly walked towards a truck.

  “Well at least he doesn’t seem like a bad guy…” Rio whispered.

  “Yeah… Hopefully Emma thinks the same,” I said with a sigh before returning Rio to her pokeball and getting into the truck.

  Honestly it was a nice truck, and it seemed to be the perfect size for Gaston. Which meant I felt like a child trying to get into it. Gaston didn’t say anything, probably used to people struggling to get into his vehicle. Once I was buckled in, he gave me a smile before we started driving.

  After a few minutes, I asked another question that I had been wondering about, “So were you one of the people in a coma?”

  The smile on his face seemed to falter a bit. “Yeah. That was an absolute mess…” I watched as his grip tightened on the steering wheel. “And the fact that ex-Director Yellow just got to go home like nothing happened is frustrating.”

  “So that’s the story they’re telling everyone?” I mused as I got more comfortable.

  His eyes flicked towards me for a second. “What’s that mean?”

  “The ex-Director is very much dead,” I said simply.

  He was silent for a moment, clearly processing what I had just told him. After a moment he gave a slight nod. “Good. Men like that shouldn’t have power.”

  “Agreed,” I said as I pulled out my phone, sending Emma a quick message, ‘What are your thoughts on Gaston?’ Out loud I continued to conversation, “So did you eat a lot of eggs growing up?"

  He blinked, glancing at me. "What?"

  I shook my head. "Nevermind... What Pokemon do you have? Since you’re a fighting type specialist… Pangoro?”

  He puzzled over my words a bit but eventually chuckled a bit, nodding. “Pangoro is one I’ve got. My other two are Mienshao and my partner Hawlucha.” From the way he talked, he sounded very proud of his Pokemon. “During my Journey, Hawlucha and I soloed almost every gym. I thought we were hot stuff, until we got to the League and got knocked out in our second qualifier match!” He laughed again.

  “That quick?” I asked, glancing at him.

  “Never went against any of the main gyms. I thought quantity over quality for my badges, but quality over quantity for my team. Second round through, I got my Mienshao and Pangoro. Course they were a Mienfoo and Pancham when I picked them up. Almost made the top ten that year, but everyone had full teams of six and I couldn’t get very far.” He didn’t seem upset about it at all.

  Emma sent a reply. ‘Ugh’

  ‘That bad?’ I sent back. “And you didn’t try again?”

  He shook his head. “Nah. Ran out of funds, and had to get a job. Got picked up by the Association after that second showing, though. Four years later, here I am.”

  ‘He’s not bad.’ Emma replied. ‘He just keeps asking me out.’ The messages continued, ‘And don’t get me wrong, he’s damn good looking. And we get along pretty well. But we worked together a lot.’

  “Sounds like you got pretty lucky,” I said as I looked at the large man. ‘Well you’re not working together anymore, right? So why keep him at a distance?’

  “Oh for sure. Usually they send me to investigate wild Pokemon attacks, or out of control Pokemon. I was actually on my way to that Hydreigon incident when I got a call that it was over.” He glanced at me. “Good job on that, by the way. I have no idea why they called you first, though.”

  “I think the ex-Director was trying to get me killed, or something,” I said with a shrug.

  Gaston snorted. “Yeah, from what I’ve pieced together, you really pissed him off. My memories still a bit fuzzy about some things.”

  “Wasn’t very hard,” I said with a bit of a laugh.

  He laughed as well, nodding. “Never took much to get him mad.”

  The conversation after that became more about what I had been doing, about my gym battles and other fights. He was really interested in the fights against Team Flare. So of course we started talking about the recent Flare Raid, as that’s what it’s being called by the media. I think it’s a bit of a dumb name, but honestly this world, and Pokemon in general, have this habit of making rather uninspired names.

  When we parked near the Association headquarters, I remembered what had happened the last time I had been here. That felt like both a very long, and not long time ago. We approached the building at a leisurely pace, and Gaston talked about what it was like working there. He wasn’t there very often, but he supposed that now that he was my liaison he’d be spending a lot more time here.

  Emma never responded, which I found amusing.

  As we entered, there was a moment of bustling. Even though it was a sort of lobby, I could see quite a lot of people rushing around. Numerous people were waiting, chatting, doing their jobs. And it all came to a halt as we entered.

  For a moment I thought it was just Gaston, but I quickly realized that everyone was staring at me. I rubbed my chin a bit, missing my beard once again, as we made our way over to one of the secretaries.

  Gaston talked with the man behind the desk as I absentmindedly rubbed at my wrist. I was wearing the Z-Ring, just in case, and hiding it beneath the sleeve of my coat. I had honestly started wearing it more often. It was oddly comforting. Although, I really needed to start training my other Pokemon in how to use the moves that I had crystals for, but right now I figured that one All Out Pummeling from Rio would decimate the building enough for us to make an escape if things went bad.

  Was I being paranoid? Probably. But considering how my last visit went, I felt extremely justified.

  “We’ll just be in the conference room down the hall,” Gaston suddenly said, bringing me back from the depths of my thoughts.

  “Alright,” I replied with a nod, and the two of us made our way towards a nearby door. As we walked, I could hear the mutterings and whispers behind us. From the bits that I heard, none of it sounded hostile.

  When we entered the room, I nearly tripped at who I saw. Malva was sitting at the table, her arms folded. She clearly did not want to be there. And she looked just as surprised to see me as I was to seeing her.

  Four of the other five people in the room weren’t people I recognized. However, I did recognize Gale, one of the other Pokemon Experts in Kalos. He seemed confused when he looked at me. Did he not recognize me? Or was he also not told I would be here?

  “Good. Everyone is here now,” one of the older men said. He was a bit on the shorter side, and a bit stocky, with a completely bald head. “Everyone, please have a seat.”

  Gaston and I did as asked, but I noticed that two of the men didn’t. They were standing ramrod straight, hands folded behind their backs. Clearly those were body guards. The other man was sitting by Gale, and I assumed that he was his liaison.

  “For those of you who don't know, I am Director Lem,” the bald man said. He was clearly looking at me when he introduced himself, as I was probably the only one in the room who didn’t know who he was. “We are here to discuss things.”

  I arched my brow. “I was informed this was a job.” Everyone seemed to give me a sort of puzzled look, aside from Malva who just smirked.

  His eye twitched. “Rest assured, you will be paid for your time.” He cleared his throat before continuing, “Team Flare has officially been labeled as a terrorist organization. While the Jenny clan is facing repercussions for their actions, we will obviously be lenient since they did it for a very good reason.”

  My brow furrowed a bit. I was honestly a bit confused as to why this needed to be a meeting. Again.

  “Which brings us to the topic at hand. Malva was, up until now, the League’s planted spy in Team Flare. Any information you find regarding Malva is to be dismissed. I don’t expect any of you to have any run-ins with the remnant members, but it’s something that must be addressed.” He cleared his throat again, looking down at papers in front of him. “Malva.”

  She straightened a bit, clearly a bit nervous as to why she was here. “Yes?”

  “Thank you for your assistance,” he started, looking at her for a moment before turning his attention back to the paper. “I would like to request your full cooperation with the Association in getting rid of the remnants of Team Flare.”

  Wait… Was I here to help intimidate Malva into working with the Association? From the look Malva gave Gale and me that was the only thing I could think of. Were Pokemon Experts supposed to be on the same level as an Elite Four member? Or did Director Lem just assume things?

  “I’m more than willing to assist, Director. Don’t worry. The League has given the full go ahead for cooperation,” Malva said, a bit of a smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth.

  “Excelent,” the Director said with a smile, and then his attention turned towards me, and his expression soured. “Now, then. Jason.”

  “Yes?” I replied with the most innocent tone I could manage.

  “I would like to apologize for how the case between you and Wulfric was handled. However, I would like to request in the future that you be more cooperative.” It seemed that cooperation was the Director's favorite word.

  “That will highly depend on circumstances,” I said slowly, watching the way his eye twitched. “In this case, there was no request made of me. I was being demanded to come and relinquish my Pokemon. I was treated as a villain.”

  “You went rogue,” the Director said, clearly trying to keep his composure. “You should have complied and turned yourself in.”

  “So that you could steal my Pokemon, just like ex-Director Yellow attempted?” I said, my tone quite a bit colder than it had been. “You of all people should know how that ended.”

  “Are you threatening me?” he spit through gritted teeth. The two bodyguards shifted, but I didn’t move.

  I just smirked at him. “Oh it’s not a threat. I don’t make threats. All I’m doing is stating facts.”

  “You are not allowed to have that egg!” he shouted, slamming his hand down on the table. Clearly he was too pissed off to keep his composure.

  “What egg?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. “I thought this was about my mythic?”

  His eye was twitching really bad now. “The Fennekin egg that you stole!”

  My brow furrowed. “Stole? I never stole any egg,” I said calmly, folding my hands in front of me on the table.

  “All of the eggs from that Delphox are Association property,” he managed, taking deep breaths to try and calm himself down. His face had gotten quite red.

  “So you are saying that you wanted me arrested because I hypothetically stole a theoretical egg that you say that you own?” I asked with a bit of a frown.

  “We know you have it,” he practically snarled. “We knew that Delphox was close to laying, and we received Ranger Ezekiel’s report that you took the egg, despite his protests.” He was jabbing his finger towards me.

  They really wanted this damn egg. But I wasn’t about to let them take Alma. “Okay, I think that’s enough,” I said with a sigh, and shook my head. “You’re not getting that egg. The Mother asked me to take care of it - to take care of her child - and I am not about to hand them over to you. Especially with how you’ve been acting.”

  The room went silent, and there was a certain tenseness that had been creeping in as I spoke. The Director sat up a bit straighter. “You-”

  “Ah, before we continue.” I put up my hand to stop him. “Allow me to introduce you to a new friend of mine who I think should be part of this conversation. Mewtwo?”

  The sudden pressure of Mewtwo’s arrival caused several people to shift backwards. “Yes?” they asked, looking around the room curiously. The only one who didn’t shy away was Malva, who just looked amused.

  “Mewtwo? Allow me to introduce you to the new Director,” I said as I gestured at the bald man. I could see the sweat forming across his forehead. “Director Lem, allow me to introduce you to Mewtwo. Although I’m fairly certain you are well aware of them.”

  Mewtwo shifted, standing behind me. They were clearly uncomfortable around so many humans. I reached back, offering my hand to them. They placed their fingers against the palm of my hand rather than grasping it. It was an odd little thing that they did. They didn’t want to be grabbed, or be touched, but over the past few days I had found that they find comfort in touching.

  “I have been asked by the Jenny’s to help acclimatize them to the world and its laws and rules.” It was probably overkill to bring Mewtwo out in this situation, but I didn’t feel like arguing with them. Sometimes it’s better to just show your hand and make your opponent fold. “Now then, Director. Is there anything else you wanted to discuss?”

  I could feel Mewtwo drawing little shapes on the palm of my hand. Honestly they were adorable. Clearly mentally stunted, but that wasn’t their fault. And we were all working to help them. Of course, no one in this room aside from Malva knew that if a fight were to break out, Mewtwo would probably Teleport away.

  It was several moments before the Director seemed to recollect himself. “No. I was going to bring up the subject of the Mewtwo, but I see you have taken the initiative and are already working on that.”

  My eyes flicked to the two bodyguards for a moment before I nodded and stood up. “Then I will be taking my leave. I don’t like this place.”

  Malva also stood up. “I think this meeting is over, so I’ll be leaving as well,” she said with a big smile on her face.

  “Thank you, Mewtwo,” I said softly to the feline. “You can go.”

  They nodded, looking around the room for a moment. It was apparent they were a little confused at what was going on, but I had explained that they can always ask me questions. And I knew they were going to have a lot of questions for me later. In the next instant they were gone.

  As I left, I was aware that Gaston tried to follow but was told to stay. Someone who was also told to stay, but blatantly ignored the order, was Malva. She hooked her arm around mine as she practically dragged me out of the building. We got quite a few weird looks, but Malva ignored them.

  When we got outside, she sighed. “Bastards have been interrogating me for the last two hours,” she said before letting out an even heavier sigh. “And it’s not like it’s anything new. I literally told the League everything I knew, and they put it in a file and sent that to the Association. And-” I tuned her out as she went on a rant. A rant that lasted all the way to where she was taking me, which was a cafe. She dragged me inside, and stopped her tirade just long enough to order some sort of ridiculous sounding mocha drink before turning to me. “You want anything?”

  I stared at her a moment before turning to the barista, who looked absolutely star struck at the fact Malva, the Elite Four member and one of the best known news reporters was in front of her. “Just a hot chocolate,” I said after a moment of thinking it over.

  The barista nodded and Malva paid before I even realized, and then dragged me over to a table near a large window. Finally she let me go as she sat me down, and sat down across from me. Suddenly it was very quiet between us, and the only noise was the subtle sounds of the cafe.

  As I sat back, folding my hands on my lap I turned my attention outside. It hadn’t snowed in the last few days, but everything was still covered. It created quite a nice scene. “I’ve always liked the snow,” I said after a while of silence.

  Malva made a slight noise as she looked outside the window, “Mmm. It is rather pretty.”

  I nodded. “It is.”

  A few more seconds of silence passed before Malva spoke again, “How did you know?”

  “I know everything,” I said with a bit of a smirk. She let out a scoffing noise, shaking her head. But I continued, “There’s a lot of things that I know that I’m not supposed to. And it’s a lot of stupid nonsense of why I know what I do. But I’m not infallible. Not a Psychic. Nor am I some sort of prophet. Just someone to not provoke.”

  She snorted, leaning back in her chair. “You’ve got that right. And Lysandre learned that the hard way. Or should I say Xerosic learned it the hard way.”

  “What about the other scientists? Aliana, Bryony, Celosia, and Mable?” I asked, curious.

  “They’re trying to get amnesty. Xerosic threw them to the wolves in order to escape,” Malva said with a sigh. “And both the League and Association are considering it. Four of Team Flare’s top scientists? Hard to pass that up.”

  I nodded slowly. “I would probably do it. Though I’d have them under heavy watch… I’m guessing Xerosic got away?”

  She was about to answer, but the Barista came over, placing down our drinks. “Here you go, Malva. Choca Matcha Sour Berry Mocha,” she said with a big smile. “And a hot chocolate for you, sir.”

  “Thank you,” I said with a smile as I pulled the cup towards me.

  “Thanks so much,” Malva also gave her thanks, eagerly taking the cup in an almost giddy manner. “This is why I love this coffee chain. I don’t usually come to this one, because it’s so close to the Association. But there’s one in League City and I am there all the time.”

  I chuckled a bit as the barista retreated.

  It was silent for a moment before Malva sighed. “But to answer your question… Yes. Xerosic was one of the people who got away. Fucking psychopath…”

  “What’s your history with him?” I asked, waiting for my drink to cool.

  “None. I avoided him as much as possible. Guy gave me the creeps. Always leering… Claimed he was ‘examining me for potential energy’ or some nonsense. Didn’t explain why the only people he ever examined seemed to be women.” She shuddered.

  “Ugh. That’s worse than I thought… But good to know that I have to watch out for him, is there-” I was interrupted by my phone ringing. My brow furrowed a bit. “Sorry, one moment.” It wasn’t a number I recognized, but when I answered it I saw a very familiar face. “Nurse Joy?”

  “J-Jace? Oh thank goodness.” She let out a sigh and the lights behind her flickered and went out. “Evelyne gave me your number, and said you could help.” The lights kicked back on.

  “What happened?” I asked, sitting up a bit straighter.

  “While we were going through the Team Flare Pokemon, we came across a Rotom from the laboratory…” she explained as he looked around.

  “Oh shit,” Malva said as she stood up. “We only have one Rotom and it’s extremely unstable. Xerosic practically tortured the poor thing.”

  I stood up as well, grabbing my hot chocolate as the two of us rushed outside. “You’re a Joy in one of the Lumiose Pokecenter, right?” That was where they had been doing most of the sorting.

  She nodded. “We’re the Eastern Pokecenter,” she confirmed.

  “Lucky that we’re in Lumiose then,” I said as I reached into my coat and pulled Scoly’s pokeball, releasing her. Technically riding Pokemon aren’t allowed, but who cares. I don’t have a car.

  Scoly immediately tensed, facing off against Malva who quickly put up her hands. “You-”

  “It’s okay, Scoly,” I said as I jumped up onto the bug. “Malva is on our side, remember?”

  She huffed before turning away. “Where are we going?”

  “Eastern Pokecenter,” I said as I pointed in the direction.

  “I’ll meet you there,” Malva said with a bit of a forced smile as she looked at the massive Scolipede. However, the large bug didn’t care about her words and used her rear antenna to hook under Malva before she started to run. The woman made quite the undignified noise of surprise as she was suddenly hoisted onto the bug horse.

  I laughed. “Guess she decided you’re coming with us!” I called out, still laughing as Malva struggled to cling onto Scoly. She wasn’t even going as fast as possible, but Malva was still screaming for her to slow down.

  Of course, she didn’t listen and we quite quickly made it to the Pokecenter. Even from outside I could see the flickering lights, and the door snapping open and closed. Scoly didn’t even hesitate, though I wished that she had, as she barreled through the door and smashed them in.

  The entire room froze as several Joy’s and other people stared at the massive Pokemon. “Scoly, what the hell?” I said with a sigh as I got down off her back. “Did you have to take out the door?”

  She seemed to sag and had the decency to look embarrassed. “Sorry…” she muttered as she lowered her head.

  I sighed as I rubbed between her horns. “Sorry about her,” I said to the nearby Joy’s. “She got a bit too excited… Do we know where the Rotom is?”

  There were a few moments of silence as everyone just stared at me before one Joy burst out from the back. “Jace! You’re here! Come on, we’re pretty sure it’s somewhere back in the generator room.”

  With a nod, I returned Scoly, which dropped Malva to the floor. I had forgotten she was there. Thankfully, she landed on her feet. She dusted herself off as we both followed the Joy. “That was horrifying. How can you do that without a saddle?”

  “Got used to it I guess?” I replied with a shrug. “At least she didn’t sprint.”

  She looked at me incredulously. “She can go faster than that?”

  “That was her jogging speed,” I answered with a nod. “She can go faster, and even faster than that if she uses Extreme Speed, but we haven’t tested how well that works when she’s acting as a mount.”

  “A Scolipede with Extreme Speed? That’s terrifying…” Malva muttered.

  “That’s why she’s part of my battle team,” I said with a smile as Joy opened a door, and we all nearly got fried by electrical bolts when she did.

  I grabbed Nurse Joy by the back of her top and dragged her back away from the danger. She let out a noise of surprise, but quickly backpedaled into the two of us when she registered what was going on.

  I looked at Malva. “I don’t have any ground types.”

  Malva shook her head. “Me either. I’m a fire type specialist.” I knew that, but I was still hoping she might have something.

  Looking from her to the door, which wasn’t sparking anymore, I let out a sigh. “Alright. Well, I’m gonna try and not get fried then…” I muttered as I rather unceremoniously shoved Nurse Joy into Malva and approached the door.

  The room was dark, the lights blown out from the looks of it, but I could see the several large generators from the sparks.

  “Can we talk?” I called out into the room, pulling away from the opening so that I wasn’t a target. I looked back at Nurse Joy. “Where’s it’s pokeball?” I hissed as quietly as I could.

  She shook her head. “It… It didn’t have one. It was in some sort of weird computer. But when we tried to communicate with it, it freaked out.”

  I had a frown on my face as I peeked back into the room. There were less sparks now, but it hadn’t responded. “You’re not in trouble,” I said, softening my tone. “But if you break these generators a lot of Pokemon are going to get hurt.”

  The room sputtered into darkness as the sparks stopped. I shifted more, putting myself into a more vulnerable position so that it could get a better look at me from wherever it was. Thankfully it didn’t attack.

  Slowly, I sat down in the doorway, doing my best to telegraph my moves. “My name is Jason, but I prefer Jace. Do you have a name?” My eyes were scanning the dark room, trying to catch a glimpse of the little electric ghost. When I spotted it peeking out from beneath a generator I didn’t stare and instead pretended I hadn’t seen it but kept it in my peripheral vision.

  It didn’t respond. Rotom’s were supposed to be very smart, so it was probably being extremely cautious. I really wished that I had Banette with me… Should carry her around just so that she can play diplomat with other Pokemon. She's proven herself oddly good at that.

  “Do you know where you are?” I asked, continuing to pretend to look around. “This is a Pokecenter. It’s a safe place.”

  “Safe?” came an incredibly small voice.

  “Yes. Safe,” I assured softly. I made sure that it could see my hands at all times.

  Slowly it came slightly out from under the generator. It would probably be pretty hard to spot if it wasn’t essentially a dim lightbulb.

  “Do you want a pokebean?” I asked softly. “They’re tasty treats.” I was fairly certain that Rotom could eat pokebeans. Only the cocoon type Pokemon couldn’t eat them as far as I knew.

  It looked at me curiously, and I slowly retrieved a bean from the pouch and held it out. Slowly, ever so slowly, the little thing made its way over to me. Although it was hard to actually call it small. It was actually over a foot tall. When it finally got to me, it seemed to study the bean. Leaning in, it nibbled slightly on it, contemplated what it was tasting for a fraction of a second, before it began eagerly chowing down.

  A smile crept onto my face as I watched it eagerly eat. I was really just glad that it could eat. When it was done, it just seemed to stare at my hand for a moment before looking up at me. It had quite a curious expression on its face as it floated up to be eye level with me. “More?” it asked after a moment.

  Now I was full on smiling, and I nodded slightly as I got out another pokebean. This one it ate a bit slower, relishing the taste of it. When it was done, it just blinked slowly a few times before yawning. Without even a word it suddenly zipped into my pocket. The same pocket I had my phone in.

  A jolt of panic ran through me for a second. But when I pulled out my phone to see that it had indeed possessed the phone, I just smiled a bit and returned the device to my pocket. With a bit of a sigh, I stood back up and looked at Malva and Joy. “Welp, add this Rotom to my list of Pokemon, I guess,” I said with a chuckle.

  Joy smiled a bit and nodded. “Yeah. We can do that no problem.”

  “Well, that was easy!” Malva said with a laugh. “And here I was worried you were gonna get zapped.”

  “Well, at least I would have been in a Pokecenter. Best place to get injured.” Malva and I laughed, but Joy just scowled at us.

  “I’d prefer no one get hurt,” she said with a huff, but she had a bit of a smile on her face. “Thank for the assistance.”

  “Of course. Anytime.” With that, Malva and I exited the Pokecenter.

  She stopped suddenly. “Okay. Well, I’m going to go back to League City. If I don’t see you before the League Tournament, stay safe, okay?”

  I looked at her a moment before laughing. “Did you forget that I’m practically living at Valerie’s gym? We’ll probably see each other a lot.”

  Malva blinked. “Ah, right.” A smile formed on her face. “Well, then I’ll see you when I see you. Stay out of trouble!” she called back as she walked off.

  “Not promising that,” I said with a scoff and started to make my way to the train station. “After all, I have Mega Stone plan B to initiate.”

  do not care what other people are doing, I won't be posting chapters early. It is purely for supporting me and nothing else. Because doing that breaks site rules, and copyright laws. And yes, I know other people do it, but some of those people also get nuked out of existence, and with the odd amount of hostility I get from some people on this site I doubt it would be long before someone reported me, and then all of you get no more story. So do not argue with me about this, okay?

  Lucario - The group mom, battered and out of action

  Lucario - Craves violence, back in action!

  Scolipede - Pokemon transport unit

  Primarina - Doing big seal things

  Audino - Trained Nurse Pokemon

  Diancie - Big sparkly that just wants to throw rocks at people

  Eevee - Living that sleepy hood life

  Sliggoo - Deadly chew toy

  Mimikyu - Very skilled seamstress

  Banette - Silent but persuasive?

  Vulpix (Alolan) - A bit too battle hungry

  Espurr - Little cat that likes pokebeans.

  Liepard - Big hungry cat

  Houndour - Just a little pup

  Houndoom - Bit of a space case

  Mightyena - Super serious

  Fennekin) - Not up to too much yet.

  NEW Rotom? - - Zappy phone ghost

  Houndour

  Guff

  Bleak

  Rascal

  Dilly

  Fret

  False

  Grubby

  Muddle

  Gabby

  Dwindle

  Crass

  Houndoom

  Poochyena

  Mightyena

  Sneasel