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Poke Tekken Critic: Thank you so much! I was really debating whether or not it was veering away too much from Pokemon. Enjoy the next chapter!

Chapter 2: Old Rivals

Hoenn, Two years ago

"Come oooonnnnnn." I look at Brendan with pleading eyes, but the effect is lost because he's facing the other way, and speed walking away from me.

"I said no and I mean no. There's no point." He retorts over his shoulder, still walking away fast. "And we don't have time. We have to finish this assignment."

"Pfft, we have time." I say to myself. There's a short break in our conversation as he continues to walk forward and I continue to chase him. Once we reach the designated spot, where we're supposed to be researching Pokemon, specifically, the ones in the area that have mega-evolutions, I continue to pester him. "How could you be 20 years old, but be so boring?" I say, pouting and folding my arms over my chest.

He doesn't even lift his head from his notebook before saying, "How could you be 17 and be so immature still?" He scribbles something on the pad of paper as a group of Sirskits skitters by. I assume its something like. 'Sirskit- does not mega evolve. Serena, you're an idiot.'

"Come on! What's the harm in one little battle?" I ask, trying to put on an innocent face.

"For the last time, no!"

I growl and stomp my foot on the ground. "Fine then! I'll do my work, but I'm doing it far away from you!" And with that, I turn and stomp away in the opposite direction. I keep walking until I'm too far to hear him.

"Dang it! All I want is one little battle! But nooooo, it's always his Pokemon are out of commission." I say, putting air quotes around the last two words. "I've been asking for weeks! How long do his Pokemon need?"

The truth is, it's super boring in Hoenn. There's nothing to do, so I just thought if we had a battle, have our Pokemon meet, it'd get more interesting. But apparently, Brendan is fixated on keeping his boring, uninteresting tone that he gets whenever he sees me!

"Princess!" I hear him shout behind me.

My eye twitches. "What?!" I yell back, sounding as angry as possible.

"I'm moving over to the next area! Don't get into any trouble!"

My mouth drops open. Seriously? Did he really just say that? We're supposed to be partners! He's supposed to tell me to come with him!

Rrrrrrgggg! I hate him so much!

I stomp loudly through the grass, hoping to find something to hit. A tree, perfect. Slam! My fist impacts the bark, but does little to the tree, and hurts my hand. I wince, and shake it, trying to make the pain subside.

I never thought I'd say this, but I wish Calem were here...

"Are you sure you want to leave just yet?" Mom asks, looking up at me from my perch on Charizard.

"Don't worry, mom. I'll be fine. Besides, it's not like I'm not coming back for two years again." Upon hearing this, Mom smiles and nods at me.

I turn my attention back to Charizard. "Alright buddy. You remember where Lumoise City is?" He grunts, as if to tell me How could I not? "Alright then, let's go." I pat his neck, and immediately he takes off. His enormous wings flap once and get us off the ground, then another time to send us flying into the air.

The wind rushes through my hair, and I get the familiar feeling of flying. Charizard puffs a little smoke out from his mouth to express his elation at this moment as well. Looking to my right, I notice the sun is already beginning to fall below the mountains, casting a yellow, pink, and slightly grey color throughout the entire region. Charizard tucks down his head and flaps his wings, making us go from a cruising to jet speed.

I can see the high rises below me in a matter of minutes. Their metal and glass reflects the sunlight in the most beautiful way, which can only be truly appreciated from above. I have to smile at my next thought. Lumoise City, indeed. Suddenly, Charizard drops his head down all the way, and nose dives towards the city.

I grab tighter to his neck as the ground gets larger and larger in my vision. Before we both splat, though, he masterfully spreads out his wings so that we slow down right before we hit ground. He does it so perfect, in fact, that he catches his own updraft and gets pushed back up a little. He then lands gracefully on the pavement.

"Woooo!" I cheer after I'm sure we're safely landed, and I'm not going to hurl. "That was awesome, Charizard! I didn't know you could do that!" I tell him, digging his pokeball out from my bag. He scratches the back of his head like, Aww, it was nothin', and I press the button on the surface of the ball, returning him to it. "Take a rest, buddy. You deserve it."

I spin around and try to find my bearings. But it was really hard, considering it felt like I was in a completely different city. New shops, new cafés, new apartments; I didn't recognize any of it. "Is it just me, or did every part of this damn city change in two years?" I mumble to myself. As if I didn't get confused enough, they had to go and change the puzzle on me...

I shrug it off, deciding where I was going, it wouldn't matter anyways. Good thing I landed on South.

I begin walking walking down the large, rounded street, looking for a glimmer of familiar in the city that's always changing. Nope, that's new. That's new too. Oh, hey! Glad to see that café stuck around. I breathe a sigh of relief seeing my ultimate destination: Sycamore lab.

It really has been two years. Wonder how everyone's changed?

I eagerly cross the street and hop up the stairs. Since it's not really that formal of a workplace, I just walk right in. I swear, everyone turns to me at the same time and shouts a cheery "Bonjour!" But then they realize it's me, and their greetings vary. "Serena! You're back!" From one, and "How was Hoenn?!" From another. I gotta say, I sorta feel like a celebrity As I walk across the first floor. I turn to the receptionist before entering the elevator.

"He is... up there, right?"

She smiles at me. "Everyone's up there." I step into the elevator and press 3. "Oh and Serena?" I glance over curiously. "They have not been expecting you. Surprise them."

Thedoordings and closes. On the way up, I think of clever ways to get the best reactions out of them, but decide to just wing it.

The elevator doors ding again and open.

"-all been working extra hard for the lab but I'm afraid we're just going to have to wait another year for Serena to get back." Is what I hear as I casually tread my way up to the professor's lab. "Without her, we're missing an essential piece to the puzzle."

Its just too perfect. I turn the corner. "Hey, now you know that's not true." I say oh-so-smoothly. It's so hard to keep my cool in this situation, but I manage. "Without Serena, you're also missing you're best field worker." I look around at the others, who are completely speechless, then point at myself with wide eyes. "Oh! Shit! That's me!"

Three out of four of my closest friends run up to me and tackle me, yelling "You're back! Serena!" and other things. Trevor, Tierno, and Shauna all hug me tightly. Only Calem remains speechless. They let go of me once they notice I've lost my smile, and am staring straight at him.

I take a few steps towards him, not really sure what he thought of me. Hate, for leaving? Does he... Resent me? I get up close to him. He's gotten taller than me... good for him. We stare at each other until he cracks and gets a huge grin strewn across his face. This, of course makes me smile as well.

I grab the lip of his hat and pull it down to cover his face. "How ya been, Walnuts?"

He snickers lightly and adjusts his hat. "Welcome home, Ser-Bear."

Woah! Deep voice!

For a second... Nevermind.

I guess I should explain the nicknames.

Ya see, it was right after we had started our journey. Our little group suggested we all give each other nicknames. Calem and I said we couldn't think of one ourselves, so Shauna said something like, "I think Serena's should be something cute, like... Ser-Bear!" For them, it stuck instantly. Calem, I could see was the most enthusiastic. But I couldn't tell her that it was a horrible nickname, so I just smiled and said, "Yeah, okay!"

Well, if I was gonna get crappy nickname, then so was Calem.

"Oh! I know what Calem's nickname should be!" I said enthusiastically. "Walnuts. Cause he chose a Chespin as his first pokemon." His eyes widened instantly. I grinned evily as everyone gave their approval.

And that's why I'm called Ser-Bear. And it's also why I hated being called Princess. By then, I was so done with nicknames.

"So, that's pretty much the gist of it." I report to the professor, slumping back down into the padded chair. "There's really nothing of interest to report. Hoenn was pretty... Boring." For me, that pause held the entirety of the past two years, bottled up into two seconds. It was a lot of memories. And I had just brushed them all aside with a little white lie.

Professor's head droops. "So it really is a dead end after all."

I scratch the back of my head and fake an embarrassed smile. "Yeah, sorry, I didn't find anything."

"Well..." He sighs deeper than the ocean. "Nothing is still something! We can work with nothing! That's how science works, after all!" He tries to bring his enthusiasm back up, but fails and falls back into his chair. He props his head up with his arm. "So, Hoenn. How's Birch?"

I tilt my head. "Wait, you know each other?"

He smiles genuinely, as if seeing an old friend. "Of course. Why do you think I assigned you to Hoenn?"

A huge hole opens in my stomach, and I feel my face go pale. "Do you... Keep in touch?" I ask gingerly.

Professor gets up an turns to look out the window. He pauses for a moment, then answers, "Yes. In fact, he called about a month ago." My hands begin to tremble as they grab the arm rests as tight as they can. I can feel the cold of the sweat and the fear crawling down my back.

"What... What did he say?" I ask, almost too quiet and meek for human ears.

Sycamore turns back around to face me. His expression is deadly serious. "Serena. I know what happened." How could I have been so stupid! Why did I go here?!... I have to run.

"You don't have to tell me anything." He states, closing his eyes. "I got all the data from Birch a few weeks ago. He... told me not to bring it up, so I won't." I gasp in a huge sigh of relief once I remember how to breathe again. But the empty void in my stomach remains unfilled.

"Let's just never talk about it, alright? I mean, ever." I turn away from him, as if not seeing him will make the whole situation disappear.

He nods in agreement. After a long pause, he speaks up again like that had never happened. "So, did you come back for any reason in particular? Or did you just come home 'cause you were homesick?"

I turn my head back, playing along. "Actually, about that. Do you know if the Bureau is still on the same street? Everything is so weird and unfamiliar now."

"Oh, came back for the Bureau, did you? Ah, yes, it's still in the same place."

"Right." I stand from my chair and head for the elevator. "See ya later!" I wave.

"Au revoir!" He waves back as the large metal doors close. Now, the ding doesn't sound as friendly. I ride the elevator down two flights of stairs with an uneasy feeling in my gut, that could certainly be described as dread.

Or maybe it's the scar that runs down the center of my stomach that gives me that feeling...

The streets of Lumoise are lit up by the street lamps and the apartments and shops by now. It was really a whole different city at night, even though the light made it seem like it was as bright as it was in the daytime. Well, except in the alleyways. And that's where I'm headed.

Like I said, it's almost pitch black in the alley; my only light source is the crescent moon and the light from a café that was already closed. But I have a purpose for being here, in this dark alley. Because across from that lit up, vacant café, is my ultimate destination:

The Looker Bureau.

I shove my hand in my right pocket. "Keys, keys..." I mumble, now searching the left one. Not finding it there either, I quickly open my bag. "C'mon, where are you, you damn things?" I search through the cluttered black hole that is my handbag and come up with nothing. I sigh in spite of the situation. "It was in the letter, so where's-"

Oh, right. It was in the letter. That is sitting on the table. At home. God, I'm such a dumbass!

I look in the window, thinking if Emma is there, she can let me in. But no dice; the blinds are covering the windows. So, I have one last resort. I grasp the doorknob in my hand and twist.

And it spins all the way, and the door opens. "It's... not locked." I state as I enter the familiar space. It looks like Emma has kept it practically the same way, although now it looks more like an apartment, with the large bed off to the side. I saunter over to the desk that is still located in the back and sit in the swivel chair. It creaks loudly when I lean back in it.

"Mrwwaaaaa!"

I instantly get a smile on my face and turn to the source of the sound. "Mimi!" I exclaim, and pick up the little ball of grey fluff.

"Mraawr." She mews tiredly.

I hold her in my hands, careful to be gentle with her fragile Meostic body. "Where's Emma, huh?" I tilt my head and ask the grey pokemon, not expecting to get an answer. When I don't, I set Mimi on my lap and pet her soft, fuzzy head. She falls asleep in a matter of minutes, purring lightly.

It's not two minutes later that I start to doze off too. I should really wait 'till Emma gets here before I sleep, I figure. I sigh and gather my purse, retrieving the small blue and white box of cigarettes from the front pocket, as well as a lighter.

Yes. I smoke. So what?

I fish one out from it's case and put it to my mouth. The flavor of this pack isn't that great, but I need it to stay awake, so I spark my lighter and put the flame to the end of the stick. Besides, I've been craving one of these ever since I got off the plane. And I especially need one after the whole ordeal at the lab. Don't judge me.

The first drag does it's job; warming my entire body and calming my frayed nerves. I know I probably shouldn't smoke in here. Whatever, I'm doing Emma a favor by coming back here, so...

I don't even get halfway through it when there's a rattling of keys at the door. The doorknob then jiggles. "Ah! Son of a bitch! I forgot to lock it again!" It's obviously Emma, but she sounds a lot different. Like... older, more mature. The door opens. And in steps... Emma, but never like I've seen her.

Instead of her usual long, poofy, black hair, it was short: shoulder length at best. She looks better with it short, it really brings out the intensity of her blue eyes. I can really tell she's grown a lot, too, because now her figure is more pronounced. Her style has changed from the usual raggedy appeal to an outfit quite like mine; a brown skirt, black vest.

She enters the dark room with bags of groceries in both her arms, making it a struggle to turn on the light. She flips it on and light invades the room. "Mimi? You asleep...?" She turns to the front, finally noticing me. I wave and smile at her nervously.

I pull the cigarette from my mouth. "He-hey." Some ash falls off the end of it.

Then, the grocerie bags drop to the floor as she stares at me in utter surprise.

A/N: So you've probably noticed that I still don't have artwork for this fic yet. That would be due to my lack of artistic abilities, and my laziness. So, if you feel so inclined, I would LOVE if any of you could make the cover art for this one. It has some parameters, though.

It has to have both Emma and Serena in it (not necessarily the older versions, either) and it has to have one of them wearing the CSI Miami gold sunglasses. Because, well, you know.

I will give credit where credit is due! Thanks, and pm me or post in the replies the link to the cover art.

Anyways, please review! It helps out a lot!