Chapter 1: (Just Like) Starting Over by John Lennon

Fuck yeah, some John Lennon to open a story. So this is me, djsoresupon3 again, with my last new story. Honestly guys, this is the last one… for a while… probably… maybe. Anyways, so a brief summary of how this story was created was simply while I was browsing , I noticed that Sylveon was rather lacking in depth of all the stories I found. And also that most of them featured female Sylveons… even though the gender ratio is 87.5% male to 12.5% female. AND, none of these stories really seem to touch up on how life with the ability Cute Charm would be. I mean, if people could fall in love just by touching you, who the fuck would even begin to trust you? This story is set in a PMD country with my made up towns and people. Anyways, this is a long author's note so let's just jump into the story.

The streets were bustling in Chance Town's center. Most foreigners were confused by a name like Chance Town, but it was a fitting name as many adventurers and exploration teams started here. There were three big guilds located in this city and they all offered a little something for everyone. But we're not here to for the guilds. We're here to follow this cloaked figure that has been watching the Job Bulletin Board for quite some time. From the outline, you could easily guess that it was some quadruped. It was watching from quite a distance and no one was taking notice of it. Suddenly it moved with purpose, diving between people on the street and weaving through the crowd until it arrived at the board. However, it skipped the request section and went straight towards the outlaw section. It quickly scanned it before swiping a paper and disappearing back into the crowd. The cloaked figure walked to the outskirts of town and didn't stop there and kept going until it had entered Sohn Forest. It found a creek and stopped to sit on its haunches, slightly panting from the pace that it had been walking.

It took out the paper that it had swiped from the outlaw board and unraveled it. It depicted a Sylveon with a sinister smirk on its face. It had a bounty of ₽10,000, which wasn't exactly a high amount for an outlaw. But the interesting thing was the danger level. It had two rankings, a C ranking for males and an A ranking for females. The cloaked figure raised a paw and lowered its hood, revealing a Sylveon. Its ribbons were wrapped around its neck like a scarf but came undone once it took off its hood. The Sylveon went back to studying the paper. It read the list of crimes listed 11 counts of disturbing the public, five counts of harassment and one attempted rape all with continuous evasion of exploration teams. It lowered the paper to stare at its reflection in the creek before looking at the illustration of the Sylveon. It frowned before using its ribbons to rip apart the paper.

"You know that is the property of the Exploration Committee, which is considered a crime?" A voice said behind the Sylveon. It whirled around in surprise to see a Bagon and a Seviper behind it. The Bagon had spoken and it was identifiable as a male.

"But for sssssuch a pretty girl, we might be able to… lessssssen the penalty", the Seviper said, smirking. The Seviper was also male. This caused the Sylveon to frown again and sigh.

"Well I'm not a girl", the Sylveon spoke in a voice that was maybe higher than a usual guy's voice… but it was still undoubtedly a guy's voice. This caught both the Bagon and Seviper by surprise.

"Wait… that's a guy?" The Bagon asked the Seviper. The Seviper seemed to do its equivalent of shrugging its shoulders. Suddenly a look of realization was plastered on their faces. "Wait! You're the outlaw Greg, aren't you?!"

"My name is Greg, but I am no outlaw", the Sylveon replied, scowling.

"So you're saying that you just happen to be a male Sylveon with the same stupid name?" The Bagon asked. Greg's eye twitched a bit.

"Why does everyone say my name is stupid? I like my name and I don't see anything wrong with it. And I'm not an outlaw because I haven't done anything wrong", he said. The Seviper hissed at him.

"Yeah right!" The Seviper yelled before lunging with a Poison Tail. The move easily sliced through the fabric of the cloak, but the one who inhabited it was gone.

"Behind you!" The Bagon shouted, but it was too late as the Seviper was tackled from behind. Greg then turned to face the Bagon. Now that he didn't have the cloak on, the bag that was slung around his body was clearly visible. "H-How did you move so fast?"

"Well it's not really that I'm fast, it's just that the both of you are pretty slow", he replied. This clearly ticked off the Bagon.

"Dragon Breath!" He yelled before breathing out flames straight at Greg. Greg stood there in confusion. Everyone knew, especially dragons, that dragon moves couldn't hurt Fairy types. So Greg didn't move as the attack neared, but at the last moment, he dived away. He looked back to see the area where he had been was completely scorched.

"What… was that?" He asked himself. He turned back to the Bagon. That move definitely seemed like it could have hurt him. The Bagon wore a very serious expression on his face.

"Tch. He saw through it", the Bagon said. The Bagon then shot another stream of flames at Greg. Greg jumped up and dodged these flames to meet another stream. He narrowly dodged these only to see a third stream of flames. It took everything Greg had to dodge it, but mid-dodge he sensed that the third flame was different from the first two. He didn't have time to figure out the reason as the Bagon had closed the distance between them in a short time.

"Headbutt!" The Bagon yelled. Greg didn't have time to move so he was sent flying. Despite being fairly slow, the Bagon was still powerful. Greg got up quickly though and stared at his opponent until he remembered about the Seviper. He looked all around him but still couldn't see the Seviper. He felt the ground beneath him shift and he instinctively dived. A Seviper's tail burst through where he had once been. He stopped focusing on it as he saw the Bagon was closing the distance. The Bagon stopped though and shot a stream of fire at Greg. Greg quickly identified these as the flames that would hurt him and decided his only escape route was up. He jumped high into the air, only to have the Seviper shoot out of the ground like a projectile. As the Seviper flew at him, Greg understood that he had to get serious. He calmly inhaled and exhaled.

Small blue orbs formed around Greg and flew at the Seviper. Having no way to dodge, the Seviper prepared itself for the attack. The blue orbs met their target and the Seviper landed with a heavy thud, not getting back up. The Bagon stood shocked as Greg landed back on the ground gracefully.

"What was that?" The Bagon asked.

"Psyshock… though I held back so I don't know why he was knocked out… maybe he landed on his head and that did it?" Greg mused. The Bagon grew furious and launched himself in a headbutt at Greg. However, the Sylveon's ribbons wrapped around it and held him in place. The Bagon struggled in Greg's grip but found himself unable to break free. Slowly, the Bagon fought less and less before stopping completely. Greg took this opportunity to use one of his ribbons to pinch a nerve where he hoped was on a Bagon which made the Bagon lose conscious. Greg thanked that the nerve was easy to find, especially on bipedals. He took the Bagon and laid him against a tree. He then went over to the Seviper and dragged him over to the tree. He laid him down in what he assumed was a comfortable position for snakes. He then went over to his cloak, only to find it completely sliced in half. He sighed and made a mental note to either buy a new one or find someone who would repair it. He stuffed it into his bag and walked away from the scene. He pulled out a map and decided to head west into the Daunk Wastelands. Which weren't actually wastelands, just a desert terrain with several bandit towns. Yes, bandit towns. The whole towns were full of bandits and outlaws alike. There were even 'bandit guilds', which was just a bunch of bandits gathering around a really strong bandit for protection. They weren't peaceful places. They were suicide nests for exploration teams and only crazy civilians would even try to go through them. But Greg was an outlaw so he didn't have much to worry about… even though he wasn't well liked. There was going to be someone there who would either help him or sell to him. The merchants in the bandit towns were the best. As long as you had the money, they sold without discrimination. Greg checked the sun's position and headed off east. The journey would at least take a day.

As he traveled through, his thoughts drifted to the exploration team he encountered. At least, all of the signs pointed to that. Their combat skills were definitely above average to be civilians. And their teamwork together suggested that they at least had some training together. Their moves suggested that they didn't learn them all naturally as the Seviper knew Dig. Also, there was the Bagon. Greg deduced that it had been using two different moves. One was Dragon Breath while the other was probably Flamethrower, which it couldn't learn naturally. Greg wondered if they were part of the Draco Guild that was oriented in Chance Town. As the name implied, it was a more Dragon-oriented guild. Anyone could join but since the Guild Master was a Salamence, it specialized in training dragon types. Greg shivered at the thought of the stories he had heard about that Salamence. He had even been nicknamed the Fairy Killer because he had a flawless catching percentage against Fairies. Greg didn't know if the Salamence had ever actually killed a fairy... but the stories he had heard made him sound like a savage.

He began noticing that the trees were thinning out. He found a creek and walked up to while using a ribbon to dig around his bag until he fished out a canteen. He judged that the creek's water was fast enough to at least not be harboring billions of bacterium. He dipped his canteen in and brought it back up and poured the water out, trying to see if there was anything visible in the water. After experimenting several times, he concluded that the water was safe enough to take a risk on. He left the creek behind to advance towards the Wastelands. Ah, this would be a good chance to look into the past of our protagonist, wouldn't it?

As you can all tell by now, Greg is a male Sylveon. He is 22 years old and living life to the fullest… well, maybe not quite so much. Greg was raised in a family with three sisters. However, while he was young, his parents died. Greg's sisters never explained to him how or why they died, but they vowed to take care of him in their place. His eldest sister is Phayara, obviously a Flareon. She's hyperactive and constantly teased Greg about his non-existent love life. The middle sister is Elektric, obviously a Jolteon. Surprisingly, she's the calmest of the group and the most responsible and the reason why they all survived really. The youngest sister, but older than Greg, is Ruwa the Vaporeon. She helped settle disputes and kept the family together. All in all, Greg had a fairly normal upbringing and grew up without a problem. That is until he was 16. He evolved fairly late for an Eevee, but evolved into a Sylveon. Of course, many people know that an Eevee evolves into Sylveon through affection and knowing a fairy type move. Greg knew Baby-Doll Eyes as a way to beg to his sisters. Now that only leaves the question of his affection. Being around his sisters non-stop led to some… rather controversial feelings. Greg didn't know though that the feelings that he began harboring as an Eevee were unnatural or considered wrong. So after he evolved, and with a rather unanimous decision, his sisters agreed that it would be best for Greg to leave home and travel. So at the age of 16, Greg left home and ventured out into the world with high hopes.

The world, however, was much different than his sisters had described. For two years, Greg went around and was constantly shunned. The public did not take kindly to a 'male disguising himself as a girl to prey on girls'. Nothing major had happened for two years. But then one day while in Sebu City, Greg got involved in something he'd regret for the rest of his life. He still isn't sure what happened that day. But one moment while out on a nightly walk, a girl collided with him, a guard (specialized members of guilds who specialize in keeping the locals safe) came around to ask what happened, she accused him of rape and he became a criminal. Of course in his panic, he resisted arrest and escaped the local authorities. Here we are, 4 years later and each mishap and misunderstanding has lead to a small increase in his bounty. The majority of his bounty is made up of the attempted rape that he had been accused of while the rest was mostly from his continuous evasion of exploration teams. Nowadays, Greg could hardly ever be seen smiling and always traveled wearing a cloak in public. Oh, you're probably wondering who I am and why I know so much about Greg. Well don't worry, I'm not important to this story. Hey, look, Greg's arrived at the bandit town.

Greg stood at the outskirts of the bandit town and finished off the rest of the water that had been in his canteen. He stomached the slightly off taste but he was thankful that so far he hadn't gotten sick. Normally, a person would be exhausted from a day's journey, but Greg was used to it. He just needed to eat, but it was early in the morning and no place would probably be open. He checked the signs on the outskirts of town and confirmed that this was the town that was inhabited by a very powerful Aggron. His bounty was even up to ₽2,000,000. But Greg wasn't interested in that. He just needed to find someone who would give him temporary residence. He strolled through town and searched the many buildings that were built. He found an inn and thanked Arceus that it was open. He walked in and there was a Pidove at the counter.

"Well howdy there girly, what can I do ya for?" The Pidove asked, it was a girl and seemed even younger than Greg. He was put off by being called 'girly' as an actual noun.

"I'd like a room please, just for one night", he said in a falsetto and putting on a bright smile. If he imitated a girl's voice he could foul most guys and girls usual took a while to figure it out… plus he usually got cheaper prices.

"One night for a room? That'll be ₽1,500", she said. He nodded and pulled out a smaller bag from his travel bag. He used a ribbon to pull out the needed amount from the bag. Unknownst to the Pidove though, the money was stolen. Money was quite pivotal in today's society and there were only two ways to get it. You either worked for it and earned it, or you worked and stole it. Having ribbons that pacified anyone really came in useful when stealing. She took the bits and gave Greg a key. He thanked her, took the keys and left to go to his room. He found it quickly and entered. There was a hallway with two doors. He investigated and saw that one door was a small closet and the other led to a bathroom. The hallway ended in a bedroom with a single queen-sized bed. He set his bag on the side of the lone nightstand and laid in the bed. He closed his eyes and his body began unwinding. His mind began drifting off into darkness until something shook him. Actually, it was more like something shook the building. His eyes opened and the building shook again. He groaned and got up and looked outside. All was quiet until an explosion blew up a few blocks down. Greg stared at where it happened.

"I really shouldn't", he said. "It's not my business or anything."

His door broke down, startling him to squeak. But it was a manly squeak mind you. Very manly. A Skiddo was at the door, breathing heavily. Greg waited for it to catch its breath.

"There's an Exploration Team wreaking havoc!" He unnecessarily shouted at Greg.

"An Exploration Team? Here in town?" Greg asked. The Skiddo nodded frantically.

"They're a Master Rank team!" He shouted before bolting away. Greg's eyes widened in shock. Master Rank Exploration Teams were not a group that you wanted to meet. He walked over to his bag and opened it. His ribbon grabbed hold of something that he wished he didn't have to grab, but he was worried about that Exploration Team. He brought out the Special Band he had stolen… okay, he steals a lot, let's just get that out of the way. He put it onto his left foreleg. He left the room with his bag in tow and bolted out of the inn. He didn't make it down the block before a building blew up in front of him. A big object flew and crashed only a few feet in front of him, causing him to fall back in surprise. When the dust settled, Greg saw the hulking figure of an Aggron unconscious.

"Oh… that can not be good", Greg muttered. He was about to go around the Aggron but two figures stood in his way. A Blaziken and a Lopunny stood in his way. He quickly spun around but a Medicham stood in his way.

"Well girls, it looks like we have another runner", the Medicham spoke. It was a female and by the way she addressed the others, Greg guessed that the other two were girls. Greg had to steady his breathing and began breathing in and out in timed intervals. This didn't escape the Medicham. "What's the matter? You scared, girl?"

"... I'm not a girl", Greg stated for Arceus knows how many times. This surprised the Medicham.

"Oh, so you must be Greg the Sylveon", she deduced. This took Greg by surprise. "Taking in both the Aggron and you who's been singlehandedly out running the Exploration Committee for the past four years will get us quite the recognition."

By the time she finished, Greg had steadied his breathing.

"If you're going to take me in, there's kind of a problem", He said as he began lightly trotting in place. In all honesty, it looked pretty cute.

"And what would that be?" The Medicham asked.

"Well you're all girls", Greg stated.

"... And?" The Blaziken behind me asked.

"Well, my ability is Cute Charm, which causes infatuation upon physical contact. And you're all physical fighters so you're at quite a disadvantage", he said, glancing at all three of them. However, they all began laughing.

"So? We're Master Rank team. We can still fight and take you done while avoiding touching you", the Lopunny said. Then as if to prove a point, she began glowing and then her form changed. Greg had heard of Mega Evolution but he'd never seen it in person.

"Oh? That's where you're all mistaken", Greg said, finishing his trotting. "The problem isn't you avoiding touching me-"

They all suddenly jumped away from Greg as his ribbons had somehow snuck through their attention and stroked their faces.

"It's keeping me from touching you."

Phew, that was a type. I hope you all enjoyed this little prologue of Greg. Also a rather unusual narration for me so sorry if it's really weird. And if you like his character now, or if you even hate it, it's going to change. That's why this story's title is both a simple parody and also fitting to the kind of 'theme' of the story. The transformation that Greg goes through as the story develops will be extremely noticeable. Anyways please review and favorite/follow or whatever it is if you enjoyed this. And if you didn't then leave a review or PM me why you didn't like it. I'm always open to change.

~Djsoresupon3 signing out

Next update: Being the 'Hero'