I was glad to hear the positive response toward my decision to redo my story. I'm happy to say that I've got a lot of plans cooked up to tell my story better.

Anyway its pretty funny to say that I wrote this chapter and it wound up being way longer than I expected, so under some advice from my beta readers, I decided to chop it up into two parts. The second part will be uploaded sometime on Monday or Tuesday, hope you enjoy ^_^.


Chapter 1: Dreams are made of Gold Part 1

"Gold, Gold get out of bed it's time to come downstairs!"

I opened my eyes and watched my ceiling fan swirling above me. It's cool breeze and spinning shape vaguely echoing imagery from a dream I was in the midst of. I could hardly remember it now, despite just waking up, but I could recall something about being on top of a snow-capped mountain in the middle of a blizzard and I saw a pair of giant Pokémon flying above me. I think I remember one or maybe both of them saying something about 'enslavement'?

It was always frustrating for me to try and remember my dreams, especially my good ones. The only ones I can ever remember clearly were the boring, or down-right weird ones.

I groaned as I stretched my arms and arched my back, before throwing my comforter off of me so I could sit on the edge of my bed. I then fished around the side of my bed for a pair of gym shorts I could put on before heading downstairs. As I dawned the pair of week-old shorts I turned to my phone on my nightstand and taped the screen to see it was eight o'clock. I frowned as I remembered that today was my birthday and wondered why my mom was insistent I wake up this early. Of all the days I should be allowed to sleep late I thought it would be my 18th birthday.

I yawned again and took a quick look around my room, seeing my dresser next to my cluttered desk, which was covered with loose paint brushes, super glue, and x-acto knives from an unfinished wargaming miniature model I was trying to convert. On the other side of the room was a pair of bean bags set up in front of a flat screen with controllers from various consoles scattered on the floor. Hanging from the wall next to my closet was my poster of the trainer Red posed with his famous Charizard behind him.

As I stood up from my bed I could feel that my dark blue hair was a mess, and I lazily tried to brush it to one side with my fingers.

I then opened my door and called out, "Alright mom, I'm coming down!"

"Ok dear, come to the kitchen when you come down!" She hollered back.

Feeling groggy I bumbled my way down the stairs to our living room, where I saw that the tv was on. It was some news station covering a story about this guy with short light blue hair in a white suit. He was waving to the camera before being handed a pair of comically oversized scissors to cut a ribbon in front of a building. He was surrounded by a crowd of people and broadcasters from other news stations. The caption for the story was 'Philanthropist, Archer Wake, opens Goldenrod Tower to the public.'

I quickly picked up the remote to turn off the tv since no one was really watching it. I then stretched again before I rounded the corner from the living room into the kitchen

Rubbing my eyes, I stepped on the cold tiled floor of my kitchen and muttered, "Good morning Mom."

"Happy birthday Gold!" two clearly distinct voices cheered for me and threw me off guard.

Pulling my hands from my eyes and blinking a few times, I was shocked when I saw that not only was my Mom in the kitchen, but for some reason Lyra was there too! The two of them were sitting at the red granite island in the center of our kitchen with a cupcake that had a lit candle in front of them.

"W—what the heck! Lyra, what are you doing here?!" I stammered, feeling a little awkward as I was only wearing my loose fitting gym shorts and my hair was a mess.

Lyra, who wore her favorite pair of overalls, red shirt, and stockings, snickered as she noticed how embarrassed I was.

"Morning douchebag," she waved at me in a taunting fashion, "You wake up on the ugly side of the bed again?"

"Lyra! What did I say about using that kind of language in my house." My mother lightly scalded her.

Lyra laughed, twiddling her thumbs awkwardly, "Oops, my bad. I'm sorry Mrs. G."

"Anyway," My mom turned to look at me, "Its ok Gold, I invited her over to help me wish you a happy 18th birthday, I thought you'd like to have her over."

"Yeah, I mean that's great—but couldn't you have warned me she was here. For God's sake, I nearly walked down here in just my boxers." I half-heartedly chuckled as Lyra snorted, trying to hold in some laughter.

I could tell she had an inappropriate joke cooked up and desperately wanted to say it, but she didn't want my mom scalding her again.

"I'm sorry, honey, but I wanted it to be a surprise." My mom replied, "Now come and have a seat. We both have presents for you." she gave me a warm smile.

"Umm, can I put a shirt on first?"

"Sure, there's some of your shirts hanging up in the laundry room."

"Thanks," I said, as I quickly dashed to the laundry room at the other end of the kitchen, hearing Lyra snicker again.

After returning to the kitchen with a new shirt, I sat across from the two and blew out the candle on my cupcake.

"Watcha wish for?" Lyra asked.

I then sarcastically replied, "To get a do-over on this morning."

"That's a pretty lousy wish." she pouted, "I can think of five better ones off the top of my head."

"Look, its bad luck to say what you actually wished for."

"Well that's lame" she fiddled with a fork.

"Well, maybe I'll tell you some other time," I replied as I took a bite out of my chocolate cupcake.

"Anyway, Lyra would you like to give Gold your present?" My mom asked, which it still felt weird to hear my mom using a nickname Lyra had given me instead of my real name. I guess 'Gold' was just really catchy, or she liked the charm of it.

"Sure thing, " Lyra reached under her chair and then handed me a small wrapped box with a bow on it. The wrapping paper was a bright yellowish-orange with cute chibi Charmander designs all over it.

"Thanks, Lyra," I took the package from her and quickly tore apart the paper to open it up, and saw that inside was a trading card.

"Whoa, what's this?" I asked as I pulled out the card and saw it was a collector's Trainer Card that depicted the trainer Red.

It was foiled, holographic, and it had him in a dynamic pose with the Pokémon team he had when Red became the champion years ago.

Astonished as this was a notoriously hard to obtain card, I asked, "Wow, where did you get this!?"

"I have my ways," Lyra replied coyly.

"Man, I can't believe you managed to get one. Thank you, I really like it."

"I knew he was your favorite trainer, so felt I had to pick it up. Plus it fits really well with your mom's gift." She gave me a sly smile.

"Wait, in what way?" I asked as I looked up from the card towards my mom and she gave me a suspiciously happy smile.

She then shed a tear from one of her eyes before she wiped it away and she said, "Gold, before I give you your gift, I want you to know that I'm so proud of you. And that I knew you'd be able to make it." She shed a few more tears.

"Mom? Are you ok?"

She sniffled as she handed me an envelope from under her chair. "You've worked so hard interning for Professor Elm these past three years, and it looks like he kept his promise."

Realising what my mother was trying to say, I looked at the envelope and muttered, "No way. You're joking, right? He actually did it?!" I couldn't contain my excitement as I tore open the letter and emptied its contents onto the counter.

And there it was, next to a letter that was handwritten by Elm was a trainer's license with my name and face on it. "Oh my God," was all I could say as I held my hand over my mouth, gasping as I picked up my very own trainer ID.

Its format was set up horizontally, the top had a banner of a desaturated skyline of Mt. Silver with text that read 'Johto/Kanto League' in a black pixelated format. Below that on the right was a head-shot of me smiling that must have been taken about a year ago. To the left was a list of basic info, like age, birthdate, hometown, and date the card was issued. All this info was superimposed on top of the league's symbol which was faded on a dull yellow background. Along the bottom was a grey band where I could add mini-stickers of any Pokémon Gym badges that I may have obtained.

I couldn't believe it, it had taken nearly three years of interning as a researching assistant, and now I finally have it! I can finally own a Pokémon! I felt my eyes water slightly as I thought that I had to be dreaming.

"Oh my God, don't start crying." Lyra interjected, "Cause if you start crying, I'm going to start crying, and then your mom is going to cry even harder than she already is. And it's just going to be an ugly mess."

My mom and I chuckled at her snarky remark, as I wiped my eyes before a tear could form.

"You're right I'm sorry, I'm just so happy that you can finally own a Pokémon, Gold. That ID is going to open so many doors for you sweety." My mom wiped a few tears from her eyes. "It must be such a relief for you, I mean now we can forget about all that stuff from your school years, you can finally put it behind you."

I smiled at her, sensing her trying to hide a sense of guilt behind her smile. I've secretly known for a while now that my mother partially blamed herself for why I couldn't grow up with the option of owning a Pokémon like everyone else. It was her concern for how hyperactive I was as a child that led her to seek out a neurologist; however, there was no way she could've known how his diagnosis would affect me.

"Yeah, you're right," I said as I flipped the card over to see the magnetic strip that ran along the edge as well as a barcode of some kind.

But as I looked closer, I found something I didn't expect printed on the back of my ID. Written in a small red box near the bottom left corner were the words, "History of Mental Disorder." In an instant, it felt like the whole world crashed around me and I was just delivered an emotional gut punch. My arms tensed up and my grip on the car tightened as I stared at those accursed words staring back at me like a terrible reminder of years past.

I snapped out of my emotional trance when I heard Lyra ask, "Yo Gold, is something wrong?"

"Yeah, dear, did they print something wrong?" My mom added.

I quickly placed the ID face up on the table so that they wouldn't see, "What? Oh, it's nothing, I just kinda zoned out there for a second. Y—you know me, heh, sorry." I nervously lied, I didn't want my mom to see what was on the back after what she just said.

"It's ok sweety," My mom smiled, "Why don't you read the note Elm left for you." She picked up the letter and handed it to me.

"Oh sure." I took the paper from her and unfolded it.

The letter read,

"Dear Ethan, I appreciate all the help you've given my team and I over the past three years. It's been great having you around, you were quite the nice change of pace from my stick in the mud colleagues. Now then it took a lot of time and effort for me to get through the League's miles of red tape but I kept my promise, and I managed to call in a favor from an old friend. I'm sorry it took so long though, you need to understand that trying to reverse a license denial, even accidental ones, is astronomically harder than getting an ID with a clean record. To be honest, it might have been easier if you had tried to build a time machine or something and made it so that you were born like three years earlier before that policy was enacted. Sorry, I'm rambling again, I hope you get this before your birthday, if not happy late birthday I guess! Anyway, when you get your ID I want you to stop by the lab, I have something for your birthday, or late birthday, I don't know the postal service is very unpredictable. From, Professor Elm."

Feeling a bit more uplifted from reading his letter, I said, "Hey, he says I should meet him at the lab. Apparently, he has something for my birthday."

"Awe dude, kickass!" Lyra exclaimed, slapping her hands on the countertop, "You're going to get your first Pokémon today!"

"Hold on, what? You really think so?"

"Well uh, duuuhh." She looked to me with disbelief, "What else would he give you, a fucking milky way bar?"

"Lyra, language!" My mom sternly scalded my friend.

"Sorry, sorry." She quickly apologized, before turning back to me, "Come on, go get dressed and let's go to Elm's lab! I wanna see what kind of Pokémon you get!" Her chocolate colored eyes lit up with excitement.

"Oh that sounds like a great idea, here I let me throw this stuff out, and you can go get dressed dear." My mom added, grabbing the wrapping paper and opened the envelope to throw them out.

"Alright," I nodded, then turned to Lyra, "Meet me on the sidewalk, I'm gonna get dressed."

"Kay dude." She stood up from her chair and headed for our front door.

I grabbed her gift and my ID and quickly made my way back up to my room. I then fished through my dresser for something to wear. I settled on a pair of black cargo shorts, a white t-shirt, and my favorite red sweatshirt. On the way out of my room, I stopped and pulled out my ID to look at the back.

That red box stared back at me and all I could think of was how unfair it was. It was hard enough to get this license in the first place, and they can't even give it to me without rubbing it in my face why the League wouldn't let me it in the first place.

I gripped the card tightly, angry that they wouldn't just let me forget, and I almost bent the card in half. I stopped myself from ruining it at the last moment and took a deep breath. I wasn't going to let this stupid card taunt me when I finally had a chance to start over, so I quickly went to my desk and fished through my model paint set. I picked out a glossy white that matched the color on the back of the card perfectly. I grabbed my best brush and began to paint out the red box.

As I finished and fanned the card in the air to dry the paint, I muttered, "I'm not going to let you ruin my life. Not again."

I stared at the card, happy to see the text was no longer visible and I felt a hint of relief to be rid of a shitty stain on my life.

"Hey Gold!" I heard Lyra calling out from outside my window, "What the hell is taking you so long!"

I quickly put my ID in my wallet, and I walked over to open my window. I looked down to see Lyra impatiently waiting for me along with Bliss waddling around next to her. "Sorry Lyra, I was looking for my wallet."

"Again? I told you, you need to get those tracking stickers that hook up to your phone." She pulled out her own wallet to show the sticker on it with a Pokéball design, "They make finding shit way easier, now get your ass down here already!" she stamped her foot impatiently, and Bliss playfully mimicked her by stomping too.

"Alright, alright, I'm coming down, just cool your jets," I answered back, closing my window.

On my way out of my room, I picked up my black and gold baseball cap that was hanging on my doorknob. I've had that hat since middle school, it was a bit faded, but I have yet to find another hat nearly as comfy.

Besides, it was the same hat I was wearing when I met Lyra, so I kind of considered it my lucky hat, but I'd never admit that to her, I'd never the hear the end of it.

My mother waved to me on my way out, but she quickly walked up to me to say, "Oh, Gold, I want you to be careful on your way across town today. I saw on the news someone robbed a convenience store last night and it wasn't far from here and the police are still looking for him. So just stay clear of any shady characters you might see, ok?"

"Alright mom, thanks for the heads up. Love you." I waved to her as I went outside and made my way to the sidewalk to meet Lyra.

Walking up to her I said, "Sorry that took so long, my wallet was buried in my laundry basket. And then my mom stopped me, something about a guy who robbed a store."

She looked up at me with a bit of a disapproving look as I walked up to her.

"Hey, whats up? Something wrong?'

"I thought I told you to stop getting taller." She pouted.

"Oh god not this again," I sighed, "Look I can't help it if you're short." I looked down at her as she was nearly a head shorter than me. "And weren't you taller than me just a few years ago?"

"Yeah, by like three inches, but then you became a freak of nature and had a growth spurt." She teased me, "How tall are you now? Come on cough it up, I wanna know." She tapped her foot, I could tell that any answer I gave her she wouldn't like.

"Umm, five foot ten." I lied,

"Liar! I know you're at least six feet!" She pointed accusingly at me.

"Alright you got me, I'm really six foot one." I scratched the back of my neck.

"I knew it!"

"Yeah, yeah." I remarked dismissively, "Can we get going now?"

"Hmph! Fine," She scoffed before she looked down to her side, "Alright, Bliss, let's go see who Gold's first Pokémon is going to be."

Lyra's Pokémon gave a gleeful squeak as we all started walking up the street. We decided to take a shortcut through a few backyards and before long we left our neighborhood and we started walking down the main street of our town. As we talked on our way to Elm's Lab, Lyra quickly veered our conversation to something ridiculous.

"Ok Gold, I have a new one. Fuck, marry, kill?" She smirked at me.

"Oh god, really?" I rolled my eyes. "Alright fine, what are my choices?"

"Ok, its three people from Smash Bros,"

"Alright, who are they?"

"Peach, Samus, and Zelda." She gave me a dirty smile.

"Ughh fuck, man. Why do you always give me the hard ones."

"Cause its funny to watch the gears turn in your head." She giggled.

"You know, normally this game is played between two guys, right?"

"You think I give a fuck what other people do?" She sassed me, "Now stop stalling, and give me your answer." She lightly punched my arm.

"Alright fine—umm… let me think," I scratched my chin, "Ok let me get the easy one out of the way, I'd have to say I would kill Peach, because she's kind of a boring character who doesn't do much."

"Alright, now who's your fuck and marry?" She coyly nudged me.

"Ok um, uh." I felt my cheeks blushing. "I guess I'd um—fuck Samus?" I shrugged awkwardly, and Lyra giggled. "I don't know I hate these kinds of questions, I guess she's really fit and everything, so she might be good for a one-night stand or something like that. I don't really see her as marriage material if I'm being honest, she's probably a stick in the mud."

"So you'd marry Zelda?" Lyra added.

"I guess so, but if I had to choose I feel the version of her from Breath of the Wild would be best, she seemed more fleshed out as a character and—and why the hell am I explaining this to you." I shoved Lyra lightly as she was a bit too enthusiastic to hear my answer.

"What? It's funny!" She shoved me back.

"Not to me!"

"That's what makes it funny dumbass!"

"Ughh fine, it's your turn. Fuck, marry, kill! It's um… uh, let's say Bowser, Ganondorf, and Link!" I looked at her with a fire in my eye.

"Easy." She shrugged, then listed off her answers on her fingers, "Kill Ganondorf, fuck Link, and marry Bowser, cause that turtle is rich as shit." She then gave me one of the biggest shit-eating grins I've ever seen.

"Well shit, that wasn't nearly as satisfying as I had hoped it would be." I lamented.

"What, you jealous of my turtle husband?"

"Eww, no." I laughed, which prompted her to chuckle with me, as we rounded a corner down the next street.

"So, change of subject." Lyra began, "What do you think you'll do with your new ID, and the Pokémon Elm is going to give you?"

"I—I really don't know." I shrugged, "I'm not even sure Elm has any Pokémon to give."

"Sure he does." Lyra assured me, "You remember my pen pal from Cherrygrove, right?"

"Um, yeah wasn't her name Crystal or something?"

"Well, she prefers Kris now, but yeah not too long ago she graduated from the Pokémon Ranger Academy, and she had such high grades she got an offer from Elm a few months ago, and she got a Chikorita from him."

"Wow, really? I didn't know Elm was involved with the Rangers."

"From what my mother told me, he used to be one before he became a professor, so maybe he's a patron of the academy or something," Lyra suggested.

Confused, seeing this was the first time I heard about this, I said,"Huh, how about that. I guess he never really brought it up when I interned for him. He's always been very focused on his work."

"What did he work on? I know he's friends with my mom, but I never really heard about what he actually researches."

"Oh, that? He's mostly interested in how Pokémon evolve, as its a process that not a lot of people understand very well," I explained.

"How so?"

"Well it's due to the fact that when a Pokémon evolves it has a lot of factors involved," I elaborated, "You see, almost anything can affect or trigger the process like its health, how old it is, how strong it is, and even has social aspects as well, like its bond with a trainer and such. Plus its really hard to get a Pokémon to evolve on command as you can probably guess, so its next to impossible to conduct experiments when the thing you're trying to test is unreliable."

"Did you ever see it happen?" Lyra leaned in, very curious to hear my answer.

"Well, I've seen it happen by accident twice, once with a Rattata, and another time with a Metapod. I remember Elm was pretty ticked off that he didn't have any of his equipment ready when it happened. Then there was this time he managed to get a Grimer to evolve into a Muk on command when he fed it a lot of toxic chemicals. It's the best data he has at the moment."

"Oh, that's cool," Lyra exclaimed, "I've only ever seen Bliss evolve. I've told you this story, right? You know the one where I trapped my foot between two boulders and Bliss evolved from Azurill to Marill?"

"Yeah, I remember that story. Didn't she use a water gun to erode the rock or something?" I answered and heard Bliss let out a triumphant chirp.

"Yup, I was so proud of Bliss," Lyra smiled as she picked up her Pokémon to hold the rodent in her arms. "So anyway, segwaying back to my first question, what did you want to do with the ID now that you have it?"

"Well," I scratched the back of my neck timidly, "I felt it would be safe to try and become a Pokémon researcher, you know maybe become a professor one day like Elm."

Lyra then gave me a disappointed look when she heard my answer before she took a few steps ahead of me and turned around to stand in my way, stopping me in my tracks.

"No, Gold, I asked what 'you' wanted to do." She stood defiantly.

"I—I told you I want to be a researcher." I stuttered, my voice giving off no confidence whatsoever.

She tapped her foot impatiently, giving me a scrutinous look, and said, "I know for a damn fact that's not what you want to do. What about all that stuff you and I would talk about for hours when we were still in school? About how you wanted to be a trainer? Did you just forget about all that?"

Feeling a tad ashamed, I struggled to explain, "N—no Lyra… I didn't forget, its just… that—"

"Just what?" She stepped closer and looked me dead in the eye.

"Just that…" I stammered before I took a deep breath and explained, "Look, I don't want to be a trainer, not anymore. I'm too old to start now, most people started when they were 15 and I only just got the license, I'd be way behind in experience." I felt a bit defeated as I continued, "Look, Lyra I wanted to tell you that I was going to give up a while ago. I never thought I was going to get the license until today, but even so I don't think I'm cut out to compete in the league."

"Oh please don't tell me you still think there's something wrong with you, do you!?" Lyra exclaimed angrily, stamping her foot.

"But Lyra, there is something—" I tried to answer, but was cut off by her.

"No there isn't! You know, I had completely forgotten about that whole mental diagnosis crap until today. You wanna know why?"

I hesitated before I nodded nervously.

"Because I never noticed anything was wrong with you this whole time we've been friends. Sure you're a bit loud sometimes, and you don't always know when I'm being sarcastic, and you have trouble focusing on stuff that bores you, but who freaking doesn't! If you ask me they must've made a mistake, cause my ass you weren't fit to own a Pokémon." She was practically fuming after what she said before she calmed down and she looked at me with a sincere look, "Gold, I don't want you to give up on your dream of being a trainer just cause you think you can't do it, because I know you can."

I gulped nervously and replied, "You really think so?"

"Yes, I've seen you kick ass when you play those strategy games you love, I mean how many times have you ironmaned XCOM on the hardest difficulty?"

"Umm… 24 times, and um—16 times on XCOM 2." I admitted

"You see what I mean, you have a knack for shit like that!" She playfully punched my arm. "You just see and understand shit most people don't even notice, and I've heard that Pokémon battles are almost nothing but pure strategy."

"You… really think I have what it takes?"

"I know you do." She smirked at me, before turning around and started to walk.

After taking a few steps to catch up with her, I said, "Alright, alright, you convinced me."

She then gave me a relieved look when she heard that.

"Any time buddy," She chimed, "let me know the next time you have another stupid emotional crisis. I was thinking I'd take a more direct approach next time and just kick you in nuts to knock some sense into you."

"Please don't."

"No promises." She winked while smirking at me. "Besides, if Kris could go from having shitty grades in school to graduating honors from the Ranger program, I'm sure you can handle being a trainer."

"Yeah, I guess you have a point," I said before I started to laugh and she began laughing with me.

"What the hell would you do without me?" Lyra joked.

"I don't know probably—" I tried to respond, but I was cut off when I felt someone run into me while I was distracted.

The guy must have been booking it, cause when he hit me it knocked the wind straight out of me. It happened so fast I could hardly register my surroundings as it all rushed past my vision in a blur. I could hear Lyra calling out in distress along with the sound of glass breaking and someone blurting out obscenities as I hit the concrete of the sidewalk with a hard thud.

It took a few moments before my lungs caught up with me I could take in a sharp wheezing breath. I painfully tried to lean up to try and to see what had actually happened. I looked up and saw Lyra was kneeling next to me and trying to get me to take her hand to help me up. I felt dazed and couldn't quite hear what she was saying to me, but she looked very concerned. I then tried to find who ran into me and looked forward to see some guy trying to get up from the ground.

He had long, ratty, red hair that looked greasy and unwashed. He was wearing a black jacket with red trims around the pockets and front zipper, along a pair of dirty, baggy jeans.

As he stood up, I saw him stumble a bit as it seemed his legs were uneasy, but soon he stared angrily at me, and I saw his eyes were a bizarre, cold shade of silver.

He wiped some dirt off his face and yelled at me, slurring his words, "The fuck is y-your problem! Why don't you w-watch where your fucking going next time, huh?!" he then walked up to us, staring down at me with fists clenched, "Well? Explain yourself, you little faggot."

"Hey chill out it was an accident you—," Lyra barked back at him, but he quickly snapped at her, saying, "I'm not fucking talking to you brat, I'm talking to your limp dick friend here!" He looked back down at me, one eye obscured by his red hair, "Well, bastard, what makes you think you can just fucking knock my ass on the ground, huh?"

I was scared, the guy looked as if he might be drunk because his stance was a bit shaky, and I was worried he might do something violent. I tried to speak, but just stammered and stuttered out some gibberish.

"The fuck is wrong with you," He snarled, "You slow or something, fucking spit it out you retard!" He then kicked my leg, and continued, "Come on slowtard, fucking say something, I wanna know what gives you the balls to get in my fucking way!"

His words cut deep into me, and his stature over me made me feel small. I felt choked up, and I tried to will myself to speak, or even move, but nothing would happen. All I could think of was how awful I felt staring down my bullies in middle school.

"Hey piss off, or I'm gonna call the cops!" Lyra shouted at him as she shoved him back, and Bliss hissed at him.

The guy looked infuriated by this and it seemed like he might retaliate, but he stopped when I heard voices coming from around the corner up the street. The drunken bastard turned his head toward the voices, and he cursed, before looking back at the two of us.

He spat on the ground, before snarling, "I don't have time for this, out of my way!" He then quickly rushed past us, nearly knocking Lyra to the ground before darting down an alleyway.

Lyra stumbled as her Marill reached up to steady one of her legs.

When she got her footing, she quickly walked up to me and offered a hand to help me up, "Are you okay Gold?"

I took her hand and stood up with her help, saying, "I'm… I'm fine, he didn't kick me that hard,"

"What a fucking freak." She cursed, looking at the shattered bottle on the sidewalk, "Drunken bastard."

It was then that Lyra and I saw two police officers appear around the corner at the end of the street. One had a Jolteon following him, and the other had a Poliwhirl wearing an officer's hat and utility belt.

Without hesitation, I called out to them, "He went down that alley, officers!"

The two policemen looked to me and rushed down the road to where I pointed, the shorter of the two said as they passed, "Appreciate the help, don't worry we'll catch him!"

I stood there and watched as they disappeared and eventually couldn't hear them anymore. When they were long gone, I wanted to move on, but for some reason, I felt like I couldn't budge. I just sorta stared off into space as the thought of how powerless that guy made me just feel lingered in my head, and it left me feeling sick to myself. The words he used to curse me out were echoing through my mind, giving life to a feeling of alienation that I haven't felt in years. It was suffocating, and for a brief moment, I felt alone and scared like the whole world despised me.

"Gold?" Lyra tugged on my sweatshirt's sleeve, prompting me to snap out of my daze and look at her, "Are… are you ok?"

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I stuttered, "What… oh—oh y-yeah I'm ok."

"Are you sure? You looked really upset for a moment there, was it what that guy said to you and—"

"I said I'm fine, just fucking drop it!" I barked at her, cutting her off with a rather nasty attitude.

In that moment though, the almost frightened look Lyra gave me when I yelled at her made me instantly regret what I had done.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you," I apologized as I looked toward the ground and held my arm nervously, "Look can we just drop it? I'm not really in the mood to talk about what just happened, ok?"

"Umm—sure, if that's what you want." Lyra looked worriedly at me.

"Thanks" I stood upright doing my best to forget about my little anxiety attack, and said, "Look, let's just hurry up and get to Elm's lab, ok?" I tried to act cheerful.

"Yeah, sure, let's get going." Lyra agreed as she put on a smile.

I tried to smile back, and I motioned for us to move on.