New Age: World of Pokemon

by Hyperjade

Welcome to the world of humans and pokemon! The events of the world have been quiet for far too long, and one boy is going to change it all. Lost, only to be found. Strong, only to be stronger. Humans and pokemon alike will be in awe at the events to come. Legends arise, only for danger to follow. One boy, only to find more adventures than any other human could possibly handle.

21. Chapter Twenty-One: Exposition

Hello, everybody. Hyperjade here, and welcome one and all to chapter twenty-one of New Age: World of Pokemon!

It's later at night, so let's respond to reviews! Yeah, Gauge's use of the phrase 'this is the longest we've gone without dying' was very intentional. See, it's such a cliche that it is the ultimate way of telling the reader that something bad is going to happen. Sorry that the impact of the godchildren's anthropomorphic forms was lessened for you, West. And well said about Ember, by the way. She was meant to be seen as weak by the characters, and if some readers were thinking that, then they would read about Ember planning revenge and might think that it would be rather anti-climatic, resulting in (hopefully) surprise when Ember pulled the massive power boost.

Jango: And I think you and Hyper had a whole conversation about the whole scene between Sigilyph aiming that psybeam and shutting it down.

Amber: Uh... So Jango. Has Frost popped up lately?

Jango: A few times. The chick can't take a hint, which is great news for me. I can get my prank quota out of the way daily with no trouble with her around. It's been absolutely brilliant. She's so fun to mess with and tease.

Amber: ...What.

Jango: Please don't beat me into the ground. Aaanyways, that pokedex thing will be explained, What Lies Beyond. Yes, implications are a thing, and yes, Ember turned out to be a big threat. Ah, memories. That is, one memory, but whatever.

Me: If you recall, ArataTheLegend, Riley and Mesa battled and it resulted in a tie. As for physical strength, I'll let the story play out in that regard.

Phillip... Yeah, I didn't really think the dragon typing thing through. I tend to ignore the weaknesses and strengths of the dragon type aside from the fact that fairies and other dragons can hurt dragons pretty badly. I'll consider the whole 'esque' thing, and try to find and fix that issue. Thank you for pointing it out.

And finally, thank you for the praise, GGuy12345.

Jango: Okay, that's all said and done, and now we can get onto the interesting bits. The shenanigans and explanations garunteed to occur in chapter twenty one of New Age. Get reading, people!

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Chapter Twenty-One: Exposition

"Why can't I get this?"

Riley sat next to Kurenai on a couch as they looked at a book once more. Kurenai looked very frustrated, and Riley was rubbing her back slowly and methodically, working to calm her. "You're going to be fine," he assured her.

Kazekai sat beside Kurenai, staring at the book she was trying to read. He didn't look like he understood what was happening whatsoever.

"I don't know why you chose something so difficult to read." Riley commented softly "Heck, I don't know what some of those words mean. Are you sure you don't want to read something simpler for practice?"

Kurenai stubbornly shook her head. "I can do this." she proclaimed, staring at it. Word by word, she read aloud from the large and difficult book grunting in annoyance whenever she failed to pronounce one properly. "How do I… Ono… mato? How the heck am I supposed to pronounce this?" she asked, staring at a word. Kazekai shrugged, baffled.

"I think it's… Ono-mato-p-oh-ia?" Riley muttered. "Ono-Mato-Poe-ia. Onomatopoeia. That has to be one of the weirdest spellings I've ever seen."

"I thought you had a freaking metagross for a teacher," Mesa said, appearing near them. "The 'O' is generally treated as silent in the common tongue, and the 'T' is either silent or used depending on the speaker, but it's not like that 'T' really is the defining factor, so that's fine."

"I did have a metagross for a teacher." Riley muttered, "Never in my life have I heard this one before."

He suddenly pointed at Mesa. "How do you know how to pronounce it?" he demanded.

Mesa pushed a book in his face for Riley to see. "...Oh." Riley muttered as he made out 'dictionary' on the cover. And she then opened it to the page that her finger had held, and showed the word and its pronunciation.

"I can't believe that you're trying to teach someone how to read without a basic dictionary on hand, you idiot," Mesa said, dropping the book on Riley's lap. Then she turned to Kurenai, and her tone was less tough and kinder. "And color me impressed, Kurenai. You're doing very well for a book like that."

Riley sat back, defeated, while Kurenai glowed with happiness after the praise. Mesa started walking away, looking back over her shoulder. "Be sure to put that back on the shelf when you're done." she instructed "It belongs to the pokemon center. Riley, you come with me and we can make a few calls"

Riley nodded. "Okay, Kurenai. Maybe you can get Kazekai to help you with that. Just tell him to search for the word you can't figure out in the book." he instructed. Kurenai had already started reading again and instructing Kazekai on what he should do. Kazekai happily moved to help his sister with the reading, despite not being able to understand the words. He was the page turner, they supposed.

Riley followed Mesa to the nearest PC. "We can do video calls with this," she explained. "Yeah, we can do the same with our phones, but honestly, this screen is many times bigger than that one."

"Okay?" Riley asked, blinking. He was feeling a bit tired at the moment. Maybe the 'constantly nearly dying' thing was actually starting to take a toll on him. He wandered the last few steps over to where Mesa was waiting and watched as he stepped up.

He halted. "Uh… Who do I call first?" he asked dumbly.

"Moron, call your mom first." Mesa punched him in the shoulder. "I'm sure she'll want to know you're all right."

Riley stiffened.

Mesa looked at him. "...Riley." she said slowly "When was the last time you called your mother?"

"Eh…"

Amber and Mesa both facepawed and facepalmed in unison, sighing. "If you hadn't lived so long without her, I'd probably be judging you more," Mesa muttered. She dragged Riley front and center and watched him check his phone to remind himself of his mother's number. His embarrassment had caved into a weird sort of exhausted sorrow.

Mesa couldn't help but feel bad for Riley. He had been through more in a month than most trainers deal with in their lifetimes; Life or death situations perpetrated purposely by other beings just aren't that common. And this kid had survived many attempts on his life thus far. Not only that, but concerning all of the banter, he was carrying all of the emotional weight so that the pokemon following him would not suffer from that weight.

Nevertheless, she was not going to protect him from the earful he was about to receive. He needed a wake up call anyways.

She watched him dial the number on the screen's interface, and stepped back to simply exist in the background.

Riley found that his mother answered practically before it rang, which surprised Riley enough, but then he jolted when her first words were: "Where have. You. Been!?" she shouted.

He jolted back, seeing that her hair was a bit messy and she had a wild look in her eyes. "Uh… Hi mom?" he said carefully.

"That's all you have to say!?" she exclaimed "For weeks, all I've heard of you is information from Jenny! 'Yes, he's okay, Mrs. Oras', 'no, he is no longer in danger, Mrs. Oras', 'your son was involved in a dangerous about of combat with what can only be described as a demon, but he is fine now, Mrs. Oras', do you have any idea how terrified I was!?"

Riley was nearly cowering by this point. His mother's expression was more frightening than any enemy that had faced him ever was. The expression was one of terror and pain. "I…" he tried, but faltered. His eyes felt heavy right now.

"What do you have to say for yourself!?" she demanded "Why haven't you contacted me!? Why haven't you stopped and rested!?"

"I-I… I don't... Know…" Riley wilted miserably, unable to meet his mother's eyes. "It's… I didn't… Everything's been so…"

"I can't take this, Riley!" she shouted at the boy "I wake up every morning wondering if this is going to be the day that Officer Jenny comes to my door and tells me that my only son has died in combat!"

Riley looked up, managing to meet his mother's eyes. "What should I be doing?" he asked miserably, shakily. "I need to protect pokemon, and right now there are two criminal organizations trying to put them in danger. I can't just… Walk away, I can't!"

"But why do you have to be the one to do it!?" she demanded.

"Because unlike all of the police, I actually understand them!" Riley suddenly exclaimed, "And I can't abandon them! I've seen what humans do to them. I've seen them dead in cages, enslaved against their will, and looked down on constantly by humans! And being part pokemon like I am, I have a duty to them!"

Calia broke down further, beginning to really cry. Riley couldn't think of anything to do for her; He had to continue what he was doing. He had to. He gripped the sides of the PC and leaned closer to her. "Mom…" he said quietly, just barely loud enough to catch her attention. "Please… There can't be that many things left capable of killing me anymore. I've put a ton of them into the ground, and I've been able to handle myself so far." he tried to reason with her "Besides, I'm part Dialga. I've got a god's powers on my side."

"Please tell me something, Riley." Calia pleaded after a moment.

"Anything," Riley promised immediately.

"I… Never got the full details of these situations you were in." she said quietly "You keep coming so close to death… Please tell me, how close have you come?"

Riley lowered his head. "I've been saved at the last moment several times…" he admitted "knocked out for days by Dizzy, nearly went from blood loss by Mute and Zach… I was barely prevented from getting shredded by a monster by Amber, almost got melted in lava the same day…" he trailed off. "I'll admit it, I'm exhausted, mom, but I can't stop. Everything's happening at once and watching people and pokemon be killed is just something I can't... I can't do."

Calia looked horrified at his list of injuries and his admission. "Please rest…" she whispered "At least for a few days? I know I can't stop you… I know you barely know me, I don't know how much of a mother you think of me as, but do this for me, please!"

Riley stared at her for a full minute. "...Of course, I think of you as my mother," he stated.

Her expression, still tearful, brightened nevertheless. Riley nodded firmly to her. "I can rest when I get to Celadon City." he continued "I promise I will."

She shook. "Thank you… My son…" she murmured.

He grinned. "No problem," he replied easily, cheerfully. His mother saw right through it. She could see how tired he was. His somewhat short hair was messed up, his eyes had dark spots under them to show that he hadn't been resting properly recently. His eyes were droopy, and his posture sagged. He needed a serious vacation, but he still kept up that cheerful and assuring facade for as long as he could manage.

Calia could not stop worrying about her son, but at the moment, she was resigned to the fact that she could not stop him from doing his job. "...Are you going to introduce me to your new friend?" she finally asked, not wanting this contact with her son to end so soon.

"Oh, this is Mesa." Riley gestured to the dark skinned girl, who stepped forward. "She's the one who's saved my ass in this last attack."

"How eloquent," Mesa muttered dryly as she stepped forward. "It is a pleasure to meet you."

Calia smiled warmly at the girl. "You have my gratitude for saving my son." she returned.

Mesa frowned. "It was tough. Like, really tough. I had to go full groudon on that woman, the one named Ember."

Calia blinked. "Groudon? Ember?" she asked.

Riley clapped Mesa on the shoulder. "Mesa here is like me. She's the godchild of Groudon. Pretty much how I share Dialga's power." he explained easily "And Ember's the fire woman who led the experiments in the old power plant and recently seemed to gain the ability to build stuff out of fire."

Mesa further explained: "She created non-pokemon monsters out of pure fire and attacked with them. Thanks to our teamwork, along with the other pokemon, we managed to scrape by without permanent injuries."

Calia sighed. "I'm glad…" she murmured. Then, her eyes opened and she met Mesa's with a fierceness that the girl had not anticipated. "I want to know more about you," she said flatly.

Mesa quickly recounted the story she had given Riley from a while back, being certain to also explain Riley's potential's similarity to hers. Calia nodded once or twice, considering. Finally, she smiled. "I am glad to know that Riley has someone similar to him now that he can relate to, and that you can keep him alive."

"As long as he doesn't make that difficult for me." Mesa glared at Riley for a moment, who was sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck, "That should be just fine."

The girls talked for a while as Riley glanced around. He sweatdropped. Several of the trainers in the pokecenter had been alerted by the loud conversation earlier and were staring at him. He supposed it was good that he hadn't discussed where Dialga actually was. He was probably going to have to answer some questions.

"Riley, can I ask you a question?" he heard, and turned back to the PC.

"Yeah, go ahead, mom." he waved a hand in a 'go on' gesture, but that led Calia to exclaim in surprise.

"Show me your hand first," she commanded sternly. Riley blinked and opened his palm in her direction, letting his mother see the zebstrika-stripes looking scars on his palm and fingers. "What is this, Riley? I thought you had no permanent injuries or scars!?"

"That was from Dizzy…" he muttered, "When I crushed her gem-eye-thing in my hand."

Her stare was piercing. "What other scars have these situations dealt you?" she asked harshly. Riley was about to change the topic, looking embarrassed, but Mesa muttered and grabbed the bottom of his shirt, pulling it up to reveal the many burn scars on his chest. Calia gasped, and Riley looked at Mesa in a 'why would you do that!?' expression.

"Ah… That was just a little magma…" he muttered.

"Just a little magma!?"

"Well, yeah," Riley responded, pulling his shirt out of Mesa's grip and back down. "So what did you want to ask me?"

This change in topic shocked Calia, who wondered how her son could possibly think that being covered in lava was somehow not the most important part of his injury list and the one that needed to be immediately addressed. Nevertheless, she managed to recover and promised herself that she would interrogate him about the extent of his injuries at some other time. "Yes… I heard Mesa say that she considered Groudon to be her father… Do you feel the same way about Dialga?"

Riley stilled. "Well…" he hesitated "Dialga wasn't exactly a big part of my life, like, at all. I met him for the first time just before I left, honestly. Metagross acted as a teacher, not a parent. Honestly, the most parental figure before I met you was Kangaskhan, and I didn't see her daily or anything."

He frowned. "I mean, I figure that if Dialga wanted to try and get to know me like that, I could be pretty open to it. I mean, we got along really well the first time we met. He'd need to put some effort into it, though. I've had Kangaskhan and you, both acting motherly towards me."

"...And so you have never had an actual father figure." Calia murmured sadly "And I can't really provide one."

Riley looked confused. "What do you mean?" he asked. His mother looked very uncomfortable, looking away from her son.

"...Your father disappeared soon after you were born." Calia revealed slowly. "No words, no reasoning, his actions didn't seem to scream out some sort of problem… He just disappeared. He must have walked straight out the door with as many of his things as he could carry. It didn't make any sense."

She looked at Riley carefully, gauging his reaction. She was prepared to face the music in this case, expecting Riley to be angry at the thought.

Riley shrugged. "Oh well." he said carelessly "If he left, it was on him."

Calia was slack-jawed. It was almost as if Riley did not actually care much about whether he had a father or not! Was his culture from the pokemon world so different that his lack of a father did not affect him as much? Or… Was he faking it all?

Calia could not tell how much he actually cared about his parentage. It was like he was… Detached. It clicked then for Calia: He was detaching himself. He was hoping not to make as heavy of an impact on everyone if he was killed in combat, and the only ones he treated differently from that was the pokemon, who he trusted to be able to move on without him. His mother though, Calia, would hardly recover if her boy was destroyed and he had connected so thoroughly with her. He saw that, and attempted to detach himself.

Calia reflected on how brilliant her boy was in his analysis and attempting to console her. She tried to think that he was telling her not to grow too attached to him, but after witnessing his selflessness and knowing all about how he acted under pressure and how he acted only for others… Her heart soared with pride even as she feared that he would be in danger soon.

"...Alright…" Calia murmured "Please, please be careful, Riley."

"You bet." her boy nodded.

"Who, whoa, were you about to hang up without calling us over!"

Mesa and Riley started at the voice as Riley's mother's personal space was suddenly invaded by a leafeon and a manectric as they got right in front of the screen. Then Riley raised a hand in greeting. "Hey, guys." he greeted the two.

The female manectric huffed at the word 'guys', but still smiled as she and her male leafeon friend started jabbering about all of the recent things going on and wanting to know what was happening with Riley.

Riley glanced around for Amber, finding that she and Gauge had joined up with Kurenai and Kazekai after being treated by the nurse. Scarlet had joined them, so all were accounted for. Then he looked back and began telling the two excited pokemon several short stories about the most amusing things that had happened on their journey so far, the banter, the different shenanigans of the group, etcetera. Calia listened just as intently as her pokemon, even finding herself chuckling at points.

By the time he was nearing the end of the happier version of an overhaul, Amber had gotten bored of Kurenai's reading session and had bounded up to Riley and clambered up to his shoulder. She greeted the others, who waved right back.

"Figured out what you want to evolve into yet?" Leafeon teased. A standard question. Ever since humans started putting so much stress and worry into deciding how to evolve their eevees, eevees have been teasing each other about it as well.

Amber smirked, remembering that these two had no idea how awesome she was. Her necklace flashed, and she shifted into a jolteon right then and there, making Leafeon almost fall off the counter where he was sitting in pure shock. Then Amber quickly shifted back to avoid being too badly exhausted by the energy it took to do so. Then, she grinned at the leafeon and shifted again into a vaporeon form, her now much more obvious weight tempting Riley to take her off of his shoulder until she shifted back once more.

"...Whaaaaaaaat." Manectric muttered slowly, monotonously, and slightly disbelieving.

A winged luxray, an eevee that could shift eeveelutions at will, an absol who was liberated from a dark ball and his sister, and who knows what abilities the pichu had. Calia smiled. That was quite the tough bunch her son had with him. He was protected on all fronts.

"Yeeeeeep." Amber mimicked her tone, smirking at her. Leafeon was quite suddenly sulking, more in the background than he was before.

"I wish I could do that…" he said.

Riley started laughing as Mesa gave a chuckle. Calia smiled, despite not knowing what the pokemon had said. Amber chortled at the leafeon, teasing him. "Eevee master race, fool!" Amber called, pumping her paw in the air.

"Humble as always, fox." Riley sweatdropped.

"The name's Amber." the fox replied, slapping her tail across Riley's face. "Learn it."

"No," Riley smirked.

Calia wished she wasn't the only person in the area that couldn't understand the eevee.

Mesa cleared her throat. "We do have some important questions for professor Oak, Mrs. Oras." she proclaimed.

"Oh?" Calia asked.

"Uh… Yeah, the psycho flame woman kind of nicked my pokedex… For some reason." Riley rubbed the back of his neck "I figured I'd ask Oak why that is."

"If I get my hands on that woman…" Calia growled "I would like to know as well. We can contact him by simply adding him to the call."

She typed at the computer, and a small request window popped up on the PC screen on their side. Mesa quickly tapped it because she assumed Riley would be hopeless with it, and the screen seemed to split (to Riley, anyways), and show an image of a phone ringing.

They waited patiently while Riley leaned confusedly to the side so that his face was directly across from his mother's again. Calia could tell her son that she could still see him front and center like normal, but… He looked too cute leaning over with that puzzled expression. It reminded her a shocking amount of how Leafeon looked when confused. Or any quadrupedal pokemon. An interesting sight on a bipedal… Human.

Calia wondered as she waited for professor Oak to pick up on his computer whether her boy was more human or more pokemon. It was more curiosity than anything; Who he was mattered not to the woman. He was still her son. He could be a full Dialga and still receive her blessings… Even if he couldn't fit in the house.

"My, that was an odd train of thought." Calia thought to herself, having come to an image of a Dialga attempting to fit inside her front door.

Professor Oak finally managed to get to his PC and accept the call. His hair and clothes were messy and his outer coat had burn and tear marks all over it. "Yes, yes, I'm here, what is it?" he asked hurriedly.

Amber laughed. "What happened, old man? Got in a fight?"

Professor Oak held up a familiar device. "Did your eevee just call me an old man again?" he asked.

"...Nooooo…" Amber muttered.

"Yes," Riley confirmed, and Amber smacked him immediately as a consequence. "Oak, we need to have a discussion. My pokedex was taken from me by a member of the criminal organization that seems to be running independently of team Rocket."

Mesa and Calia looked over at Riley, startled at his sudden change in demeanor. Amber was used to it, and so failed to react, but the two women mostly seemed to see the witty and confident warrior that he was when not talking to someone of authority.

Mesa frowned until she thought of a potential reason for this: His being taught by a metagross. The walking computer that the species is would probably have that sort of influence on the guy.

"...Your pokedex was taken!?" Oak shouted, loud enough to cause Riley to rub his right ear with his hand. "By who!?"

"This nasty piece of work named Ember." Riley supplied. "Uses fire, makes weird physical weapons out of it, and these weird bone and magma monsters."

"We need to know why the pokedex would be taken," Mesa added.

Oak sighed, remarkably calm about the situation on the outside. On the inside, he was panicking so badly he feared he would have a heart attack. "Do you two know what exactly a pokedex is?" he asked.

"It's a pokemon encyclopedia," Mesa responded immediately. Riley closed his mouth, which had opened to answer (incorrectly), and looked at her.

Oak scowled. "It is much more than a simple encyclopedia, young lady," he informed her with a tense voice. "Tell me, if it was so simple, why do you think they are always empty originally?"

Mesa blinked, and stopped. Riley shrugged, not having a clue either.

"The pokedex is an incredibly powerful computer and data analyzing device." the professor explained "In fact, the data it takes is immense. It scans the entire pokemon, and scans pokemon of its species as well. Each time a trainer uses the pokedex to refresh their memory on the available data on pokemon, the dex scans the pokemon again and takes new data. The technology is the most powerful to date in our world! Everything from the DNA structure to the most likely instinctual habits is calculated based on the data that the pokedex is capable of taking."

"Wait…" Riley muttered, his mind catching the professor's emphasis on 'available', "Then why isn't that information available when people use it?"

"Mostly because the pokedex's true value is meant to be hidden." Professor Oak's voice was lower now. Nobody had heard his explanation earlier other than the present people because the others were across the room and nobody was shouting anymore, thankfully.

"Why?" Riley asked.

"Because that information can be dangerous," Oak said grimly. "If this organization learned what data could be found within the pokedex, and somehow acquired the equipment to acquire it, they could use it for all sorts of nefarious purposes. With that information, any engineer can build a device to use it. Brain patterns and signals are included in that information."

Mesa flinched, remembering Ember's words: "I, dear, am first and foremost an inventor. And that is the most powerful position one can have. An inventor can eventually overcome anything! Even the gods."

"She's building something." Mesa muttered, "She said that she could overcome the gods."

Riley tensed as Mesa made the connection. He gritted his teeth, considering the implications. "I don't see how. I've never used my pokedex on a legendary." he commented, "And I doubt it would even work on the Guardians, because they're human."

"...What guardians?" Oak asked before Calia could.

"Oh, just these mega-powerful human guys and gals that have been around lately." Amber replied, causing Oak to immediately consult the translator he still held "Xerneas seemed to be scared of the Guardian of Life, but she seemed kind of harmless on the outside."

Oak muttered and showed what the translator had said for confirmation.

"She said 'mega', professor, not 'ultra'." Riley supplied, and the professor excitedly wrote that down.

"And that's Xerneas, not Xephos," Mesa added. The professor wrote that down as well, and then froze.

"...Why didn't you tell me you met Xerneas?" he asked far too loudly, causing other trainers in the room to suddenly get very restless.

"Professor!" Mesa hissed.

He jolted as he realized what he had done, and Mesa turned to keep her back to Riley. "I'll hold the rabid trainers off." She said flatly "You continue talking. You're good at that."

"Got it." Riley nodded. "Was there anything else I should know, professor?"

"I will be having a private meeting with several other professors and police officers and raising awareness of the danger because of this data." Professor Oak decided on the spot "We will need to be cautious so that no other criminals learn of this, of course…"

"Got it." Riley nodded again. "I'll call Jenny and ask her whether I should change course."

Oaks grim expression became even more pronounced. "Then that's that, I'm afraid." Oak closed his eyes and sighed. "It seems we are going to have to crack down on this organization."

"You can count on me," Riley said, slamming his fist into his chest and grinning. The professor shut off his feed, leaving Riley to face his mother once again.

"Be safe." she whispered.

"I'll do my best," Riley promised.

They mutually terminated the call and Riley looked at his phone again for Jenny's personal number. The emergency line was for current emergencies, after all. Then he dialed the number on his contact and set it to his ear.

"Riley?" he heard a moment later.

"Hey, Jenny." Riley greeted Officer Jenny of Cerulean. "Listen, things are starting to get hectic here. The criminal organization, remember, the one with the 'X' on all of their uniforms, has something that they might use against pokemon in general. I'm not sure exactly now, none of us are, but Ember mentioned the gods."

"Hang on, slow down!" she exclaimed, blasting his eardrum again. "Let me get this straight. You believe that this very dangerous criminal organization has just become more dangerous!?"

"You sound like you're surprised," Riley muttered. "Honestly, my luck's only going to get worse. Do you want me to search out these guys or am I still headed to Celadon?"

"Celadon." Jenny answered immediately "Because we have zero incidents with these people in Celadon. Promise me you'll stay there for a while too. I'm not sure my heart can take another few days of near-death experiences with you. Especially with you involved!"

"Yeesh, I get it, I get it. Fine. Celedon it is." Riley muttered defeatedly "You know, I think… Some rest might actually be nice."

"Finally. Something sensible leaves your mouth when we discuss danger." Jenny grumbled "Just head that way tomorrow. Tonight, you get a hotel and a shower and everything we can possibly give you if you promise to stop nearly dying on me!"

"Yikes… You know, I don't pick these fights…" Riley defended himself.

"Tonight, you rest, tomorrow, you head for Celadon to begin a vacation," Jenny stated before hanging up. Click.

Riley stared at the phone for a while as Mesa appeared by his shoulder again and looked down at it. "I heard that last bit." was all she could comment. Riley nodded mutely and sighed.

"Yellow's turn," he said. Mesa and Amber started, eyes widening slightly comically before Mesa took a step back.

"Go for it. I'm going to check on the others." she decided.

"Bailing." Amber leapt straight from Riley's shoulder to Mesa's, and the two got away scot free. Amber balanced on her haunches and covered her ears with her forepaws as the two girls fled to find the others, who were by the couches still. Some trainers had taken to watching Kurenai read the book, or to admiring Gauge's wings. Gauge, of course, was totally ignoring them.

Riley listened to a male trainer actually exclaim 'so cool!' when he saw the wings before he turned back and dismissed his friends' odd behavior in favor of dialing Yellow's number. She picked up on the second ring, looking surprised. "Riley?" she asked.

"Hi."

"..."

"..."

"That's it?" Yellow asked, tense. "'Hi'?"

"...Were you expecting more than that?" Riley asked, digging himself deeper into his situation unknowingly. He had certainly dug himself deep enough for the pit to serve as a grave anyways. And yet… "Honestly, I thought you'd get bored of hearing how close I've come to dying again."

Every girl in the room, pokemon or human, whether they knew Riley or not, whether they could hear the conversation or not, could have sworn that the room's temperature had suddenly dropped ten degrees.

"..." Yellow's stare could freeze a magmortar, but Riley didn't notice in the slightest. "Listen, we just figured we'd give you an update." Riley continued slowly "We're headed to Celadon City next, and I've been ordered to take a long rest by Jenny. And, you know, to mention that I am still alive."

It was at that point that Yellow noticed something in her friend's expression. Something new. Something that calmed her considerably as she considered it. "Riley…" she whispered "Are you… Tired?"

He blinked slowly and shook his head. "Fighting magma bone monsters was pretty tough." he admitted, "And Ember almost had me beat."

"Ember?" Yellow asked, "The one who got away from you?"

"Yeah… She somehow started creating things made out of fire, stuff that turned into magma, bone, and this weird silver metal filled with orange energy." Riley looked down, his eyes half closed. "She almost got me with those things." he muttered "Not that I'm not used to it by now, but… Yeah, I'm tired."

He met her eyes again. "How have you been holding up?" he asked slowly.

Yellow looked uncomfortable. "I've been safe for a long time now, since I… Left," she muttered, feeling a sudden surge of guilt. Why guilt? Why now? Yellow gritted her teeth in a way she hoped wouldn't alert Riley. She wasn't supposed to be feeling guilt right now for doing her duty. "But the gym leaders have been called to a meeting in Celadon, so… I'll be there very soon. I was arranging for transport just now, and I'll be over there in maybe five days."

Riley brightened considerably. "We can meet there." he breathed, relieved. "It's been a while since I've seen you in person. I know everyone will be overjoyed to meet you. Except maybe Gauge, he's probably going to scoff at you at first because so far I'm the only human he trusts besides Mesa. I don't know exactly why he trusted Mesa right off the bat."

"Any new pokemon decide to join you?" Yellow asked. Riley nodded and pointed over to the crowd.

"We happened to find Kurenai's brother, Kazekai," he said, pointing out the absol next to Kurenai. "He was enslaved by a man named Pariah, who was using dark balls."

This bombshell left Yellow with her hands cupped over her mouth in horror. She had not often come across dark balls, but when she had, she could hardly stand the strings of thoughts erupting from the enslaved pokemon that she couldn't tune out; Those thoughts were too loud and too violent and hate filled… In fact, most of them were completely incoherent. Just pure rage and bloodlust reaching her mind through her connection to the minds and hearts of pokemon. She had taken down each dark ball user she had found, and they were relatively easy for her to find because of the roaring in her mind that appeared when a pokemon affected by a dark ball was nearby.

"Exactly." Riley nodded. "I broke his dark ball, but the other one I broke was just a recolored ultra ball that contained his sigilyph. I've... I've never seen a pokemon act just as badly as humans…"

Yellow realized that Riley was hurt by this revelation that, rare as it was, pokemon could be just as bad as humans could when they wanted to be. She grimaced. Even for her, who had much more experience with the human side of things than Riley, had very few moments in which she meant truly bad pokemon. Not knowing how exactly to console him, she settled for a sympathetic gaze.

Riley looked down. "I failed to save the other four pokemon in the dark balls as a result," he whispered, and he didn't continue that train of thought.

Yellow needed to change the topic. "So the other pokemon you got to come with you was this 'Mesa'?" she asked, "Who's that?"

Riley brightened considerably. "Nope!" He said in a much more cheerful tone. He turned away from the screen and pointed straight at the dark skinned girl. "That's her. She showed up a while back, and started traveling with us"

Yellow stiffened.

"She's pretty nice. Not that she's afraid to whack me over the head when I do something stupid. Wakes me up, actually, and she's just like me."

"...You… You…" Yellow whispered.

Mesa's instincts kicked into gear and she turned to view the conversation. She saw Yellow gaping directly at her before turning her gaze slowly over to her. She looked at the rest of the girls in the room, pokemon and human alike. "I suggest we cover our ears," she said, bringing her fingers up and promptly plugging her ears.

The rest of the girls reacted instantly, plugging their own through various methods. Whether they cupped their hands over their ears or used their fingers, or in the pokemon's' cases, either folded their ears over or adopted a defensive position with their paws over their ears. This left the males of the room feeling incredibly mystified.

Mesa saw Kazekai and Gauge looking about confusedly, wondering what the girls were doing. Poor saps.

"YOU REPLACED ME!?"

Gauge and Kazekai instinctively covered their ears as a response to the incredibly loud shriek, but it was too late for the boys. Swirls for eyes, they were left to suffer through the ringing in their ears. Mesa released one ear, a big risk in itself, and raised it in a 'wait' gesture before plugging her ear again.

"YOU KNOW FULL WELL WHY I'M UPSET, RILEY! DID YOU FINALLY GET BORED WITHOUT ME AROUND!? WHERE ON EARTH DID YOU EVEN FIND HER!? SHE DRESSES LIKE SHE'S GOT SOMETHING TO BLOODY PROVE! LIKE… LIKE… LIKE SHE'S SOME SORT OF MOVIE CHARACTER MEANT TO STUN ALL THE GUYS WHO WATCH HER!"

Mesa again risked the 'wait' sign. Her ears were starting to ring even with her ears plugged.

"Oh, I see what's going on here, don't think I don't! This is some sort of messed up trick, isn't it!? I doubt you just FIND a girl that freaking pretty out in the open! Not even YOU are that lucky, so where'd you go to bloody find her, huh!?"

Mesa nodded while her ears were plugged. The girl's voice was going down. She removed her fingers from her ears, and the rest of the girls followed suit, checking up on the boys and finding them in various states of disarray, with the exception of the boy using headphones and listening to music, who hadn't even noticed.

"That kid must have really screwed up." a girl with pink hair commented.

"No kidding." a girl with green hair next to her said. Their clothes matched their hair, but the clothing on each girl was the same and so was the hairstyle. Like color coded twins.

"Oh don't even start with me, Riley! I know you're too busy getting yourself freaking killed to get yourself someone like that. I don't believe she was even traveling with you in the first place at this point! I guess you just pointed to the most pretty girl you could see when you called me! How long are you going to guilt me over doing my damn job!?"

Riley blinked away his exhaustion, straightening. He felt stares, probably because he was still standing. Granted, his ears needed some restoring, but that was hardly something that couldn't be fixed. His tired look suddenly shifted, and Yellow froze. That was more of a piercing glare than anything.

"I met Mesa on the path to Vermillion, and we had a dual. It was a tie," he explained, his finger tapping at his quarterstaff. Yellow blinked in shock while Riley continued: "Mesa's managed to save my life, actually put a name to my abilities, and so far, has respected my abilities more than you ever did."

Mesa walked over, deciding to end this now. She was slightly impressed by the boy who stood beside her now, as he had managed to not have his ears destroyed by the verbal lashing he had just received. "I fear that there have been a few misconceptions on your part, Yellow," she said.

Yellow glared at her. "Oh yeah?" she asked, still hostile.

"Yes. I did join Riley in his journey several days ago. Your assumptions about where he found me are incorrect. Riley and I are alike in many ways, including the origin of our abilities." Mesa explained. Yellow's glare slowly started fading away over time. "I have my doubts this guy has the forethought to make me some sort of replacement, and to my knowledge, you left him to have his journey alone, while in danger yourself, many weeks ago. You and I have nothing to do with each other."

Yellow slowly calmed down, and Riley was immensely grateful. "Thanks, Mesa-" he started.

Clank!

Riley was on the ground, releasing a pained whine with a nasty looking bump on his head. Mesa's fist was where his head should have been. "Dense male," she growled. "Yellow may have made some serious assumptions, but let's be honest, you've been as stupid as possible when talking to her thus far. Both of you are at fault."

Yellow blinked, having not expected that turn of events. Then, she felt a surge of mirth within her that she struggled to destroy before it got out of hand. She failed. Giggling, she looked at mesa. "Finally, someone who's willing to give him a good smack on the head and do some real damage," she commented. "And you know what, I completely failed to notice Amber on your shoulder. You have to be trustworthy for that ball of sass to be anywhere near you instead of Riley."

"Took you long enough," Mesa grunted, honestly not happy with either of the teenagers. "No, you don't get to kill him when you get to Celadon."

Yellow pouted, and then she laughed at her own motion, signifying that it was intended as a joke. Mesa found it humorous as well, threatening to crack the serious position she held at the moment. She would have preferred not to burst out laughing amongst a lot of boys. For some reason, boys seemed to find her attractive. Laughter out in the open like this sometimes encouraged the dense little buggers to approach her and try to strike a conversation.

"So you two are alike, then?" Yellow asked. "Moving freakishly fast, etcetera?"

Mesa shook her head. "No. I was raised by Groudon, not Dialga," she responded quickly. Yellow, startled, did not say a word. Mesa decided to continue: "I consider Groudon to be my father, actually."

Yellow got her voice back. "But what does that have to do with your abilities?" she asked.

"When we were young, both Riley and I had special items bonded to us," she explained. "When Groudon found me, he fused me with a drought stone that he himself built and took me in. I can only assume that even though Riley doesn't remember it, he was bound to Dialga's Adamant Orb. Like me, he is physically part legendary."

"Woah, hang on." Yellow held her hands out in front of her in the universal 'wait' gesture. "You lost me at 'part legendary'."

"It is as I said." Mesa proclaimed "We have the power to shift into forms in which both our legendary fathers' forms and our own forms mix into an anthropomorphic form of sorts. However, Riley has not taken his 'true' form for his entire life. His body almost rejects it now. I will be trying to train him to take it, but his godfather is… Well, a very powerful god. Groudon is a god, yes, but Dialga is more powerful than my father, and so, Riley is ultimately more powerful than me."

"...Wow." Yellow muttered. "I would like to see that."

Mesa allowed herself a smirk. "Who, Riley or me?" she asked in a teasing tone.

Yellow hadn't thought of that at all, but envisioning him with Dialga's armor on his chest and with the metal running across his limbs, possibly having huge claws and… Maybe blue hair? The image she made for herself was pretty impressive looking.

Mesa raised an eyebrow at the girl's silence… And the heated cheeks. "Hey, I know it's a nice thought, but is it fair to say he friendzoned you already?" she asked, using the same tone.

Yellow jolted out of her thoughts at the jab. It did not feel malicious, but Yellow was still hurt by it. Riley was certainly her friend. However, Yellow had no idea what else to think about him. He was too infuriating. Still, if Mesa was going to joke about something that, as far as Yellow was actually aware, didn't happen in the first place, then why not play along?

Her shoulders slumped. "It's not fair." she mock-complained. "Boys aren't supposed to friendzone girls. It's against the natural order of things."

Mesa was certainly feeling a spark of friendship with the girl. Smiling, she added: "To be fair, Riley's been breaking the natural order of things from day one. How many times has he cheated death again?"

"When I lost count, I started ordering him to cut it out," Yellow stated.

"...He really is some kind of moron, isn't he." Mesa commented after a moment, looking at the boy on the ground.

"Ow." Riley stood up rather easily, to the girls' surprise. "You keep hitting me, Mesa," he commented. "Not that I'm complaining, honestly."

"I think I've smacked him so many times he's started to get used to it," Amber commented. Yellow could not read Amber's mind over the phone, which caused her to frown while Mesa mentally considered the possibility that Riley really had been indoctrinated after such treatment to be perfectly fine with it. Amber must slap him across the face more often than she thought.

Mesa vowed not to strike him unless he really deserved it. The problem was that she figured that Amber did follow those guidelines, and she still hit him a lot. And her first instinct was to hit something if it was being irritating.

"Seriously, though." Yellow said "I am intrigued by these other forms you might have… As is your new fanbase you've managed to develop by talking about it too loudly."

Mesa turned, finding every trainer from the room standing around her and Riley. Gauge was actually keeping the crowd from getting any nearer, flaring his wings and setting them aglow with electricity, making a rather effective wall with his electrified wingspan. "...Yeah. So I do." Mesa muttered. "Well, it's not like I was keeping it that much of a secret anyways."

"Um… I was supposed to keep a few things quiet about myself, but I don't think my powers were one of those things." Riley pointed out. "And if I tried to shift here, Mesa would probably stop me like last time."

"Oh, drop the look," Mesa growled in his direction.

"What look? There wasn't a look." Riley said innocently.

"There was too a look. You gave me a look." Mesa insisted.

"Geez." the green twin muttered.

"Get a room" the pink twin added.

Both godchildren glared at the girls, before Mesa sighed. "Alright." she decided, and stepped forward. Gauge's wild electricity arced onto her when she passed him and as he folded his wings, but it did nothing to her. She was already summoning the ground typing that was a part of her groudon traits.

As everyone watched, Yellow included, Mesa drew the energy she had within her outwards and felt her body grow and change, her skin becoming red. Her clothes still fit her, although she had managed to become two inches taller. Her change completed, including the black grooves in her armor-like skin, Mesa looked around at the trainers that surrounded her. They all held her image within their gazes with awe.

"It's a bit odd that you don't have the tail," Riley commented offhandedly. Mesa glared at him.

"That cannot be your only comment." she said, her voice deeper.

"No, I mean, Matt had Xerneas' tail." Riley pointed out. "I mean, it's downright inconsistent."

"Shut up, Riley," Mesa grumbled, crossing her arms. The trainers around them chuckled nervously.

"Aside from that, you look great." Riley complimented her. "I mean, the thick gray skin that goes down your chest really jumps out against all the red and black. You look awesome."

Yellow coughed while Mesa stared at Riley, frowning. Was she supposed to take that in the way she thought she might be?

"I just noticed something else," Riley muttered, looking at Mesa quizzically. "Even though your face turned red as well, your face is mostly human shaped. But Matt had the antlers and his hair was all different."

Mesa bared her teeth in response. He stopped short at the sight of the sharp teeth that filled her mouth. "Shutting up now." he decided wisely.

Then his eyes widened slightly. His hand went to his staff, but Mesa's hand shot up and snagged the flying pokeball out of the air.

There was dead silence for a moment, followed by everybody turning. Some kid had walked into the pokecenter, had seen Mesa, and pretty much instantly thrown the pokeball. Mesa's eyes met his, and the black where the white should have been and the yellow irises poured terror into the boy quickly. The ball cracked in her grip, and then she closed her fist, shattering it. As she dropped the pieces to the ground, she said "Pokeballs don't work on us. Believe me, trainers have tried occasionally when I was younger. And imagine, for a moment, if it did actually work, and imagine for a moment that I was actually caught."

Her eyes narrowed. "What do you think my father would do?"

The boy turned to run, but he found Riley there between him and the door, his staff pointed straight at the kid's face. "When you saw her, you threw that pokeball instantly." he said, deadly calm "Why?"

"I-I-"

"Spit it out."

"Okay, okay! I saw another freak legendary wannabe a while back! I tried to capture him, but…"

"What did he look like?"

"W-well, my pokedex said he was a xerneas, but the picture didn't match…"

Riley sighed. "Well that one's been accounted for," he said. Mesa stepped forward, shifting back into her fully human form and facing the boy, who was surprised at her change.

"The next time you see something like that, don't bother to throw a pokeball. It won't work, you'll look stupid, and you'll have attempted to capture a human." Mesa growled, pushing the boy away.

He turned to run away from the girl, scared out of his mind, but he ran straight into Riley and fell backward against the floor. Riley had intended to let him pass this time around; this collision was not his fault. Nevertheless, an idea came to him. "Why don't you show me what pokemon you have." Riley ventured "I would like to meet them."

The kid started stuttering. "W-w-why?" he asked, his voice quieter.

"Because you attacked without a second thought," Riley responded, stepping back. "It is my duty to make certain that pokemon are being treated well, as someone who was raised by pokemon."

"Woah, you were raised by pokemon?" a ten-year-old kid asked. He looked small for his age, and somehow he hadn't grasped that Riley was like Mesa during that whole conversation.

Riley grunted. "Perhaps we should have been quieter when we talked about things like this," he muttered. "Yes, I was. But we don't really need to be celebrities or anything, so please, everyone here, don't go chattering about our existence. I don't care if you tell close friends or something, but ending up on the news wasn't the plan."

The boy Riley had intimidated pulled out three pokeballs; One released a spearow, one released a kakuna, and the other released a mankey. Riley quickly took his attention away from the younger kid, having seen him and the others around him nod quickly for various reasons, he crouched in front of the pokemon standing on the ground.

"Hello." Riley greeted the two. "What are your names?"

He sensed the boy stiffening slightly. "Spearow." the spearow answered gruffly.

"No, no, not what your trainer gave you as a name." Riley amended "The name you were given by your parents in the wild. Do you remember it?"

"I never was in the wild, bozo!" Spearow screeched loudly, aggravated.

Riley frowned. "What? So you've spent your entire life in captivity?"

Spearow looked away from him, refusing to answer any more questions. Riley looked expectantly at the boy that owned the spearow. He was sent shivering by Riley's piercing gaze again, beginning to stutter.

"W-well, Spearow was raised by a breeder..." he explained.

"Never met his actual parents?" Riley asked, frowning deeper.

"Well… Not to my knowledge, no."

"See to it that he does meet his parents at some point, okay kid?" Riley ordered, and at the boy's fearful nod, he turned back. "I'm sorry about your predicament." he apologized to the bird.

"Shut up! I don't need to see my-" Spearow was stopped cold in his words by Riley closing two fingers over the small bird's beak, ceasing his words.

"Yes, you do," Riley replied softly. "Take it from me. Everyone should know who their parents are if they can manage it."

He turned to the mankey, and discovered that the monkey pokemon was turning red with anger. "If you're gonna make eye contact and then break it without so much as a word I have a lesson to teach you!" the pokemon roared as it threw a punch at Riley.

Riley brought his palm up and stopped the small fist with it, his expression unchanged. Mankey promptly tried to get past the offending hand with a swarm of punches, all of which were blocked by the same hand as Riley moved it from side to side to block the strikes with total ease and a single, solid expression.

The mankey attempted to leap at his face to try and claw it off, and Riley just tipped him over onto his back, where he flailed. "Calm down," he ordered, looking away. Mankey struggled for a bit longer, before promptly becoming tired out and sitting down, crossing his arms.

"This isn't over." he promised.

Riley turned away from the exhausted Mankey to the kakuna, which balanced in place and stared him down. Riley knelt lower to its eye level and waited, not breaking eye contact so much as once. There was a long, awkward, tense silence.

Kakuna blinked.

Riley's mouth upturned into a smile.

Kakuna blinked a second time.

Riley slowly brought his hand up to Kakuna and patted the top of his head a few times.

Kakuna gave him an eye smile.

Riley stood up then. "They're physically fine, all of them, and Kakuna and Mankey are just fine mentally. But I can tell you treat them more like pets than like sentient beings. If they're fine with that, okay, but these three aren't the kind that would be fine with that. You have to recognize that to get anywhere in a world like this." Riley explained calmly. "I have a feeling with a little course correction, you'll treat them just fine."

"Uh… Thanks?"

"One more thing." Riley suddenly pointed his staff in the boy's face again. "Do not throw pokeballs at my friends, do not throw pokeballs at particularly young pokemon because their parents might still be caring for them, do not throw pokeballs at pokemon who look like they will soon have kits. Work out ways to observe them, to make certain that they are not losing very much when they join you, and I seriously recommend catching pokemon that agree that they want to join you first."

"Y-yes sir!"

Riley smiled. "Then we're done here. Now git."

The boy bailed, returning his pokemon to hand to a sweatdropping Nurse Joy, who had witnessed everything. Mesa sighed to herself, and Riley could hear Yellow sighing from the PC where she was still watching.

"Should I just go?" the pokemon mind reader asked. Riley didn't have anything to talk to her about now, so he shrugged. The girl rolled her eyes and terminated the call.

"Well," Mesa said as she stepped up to Riley and started steering him towards the couches where Kurenai was still reading. "That was incredibly awkward."

"You said it." Riley agreed, starting to ignore the other trainers. He didn't need to check everyone he came across… They had all listened to him pretty well after the whole 'Dialga and groudon' bombshell. He walked over to Kurenai. "So how are you guys holding up?" he asked.

"My brother is rubbish at page turning," Kurenai grumbled.

"Not my fault…" Kazekai wiggled his claws for emphasis.

"Kazekai really wanted to help, so I didn't wind up offering to take his place," Scarlet explained. "Besides, I don't have a clue how to use a dictionary, not that Kazekai does either."

"So…" Riley rubbed the back of his neck

"So I'm basically doing exactly what I was doing before," Kurenai muttered.

Riley smiled and picked up the bookmark, slipping it onto the page that Kurenai held open, and closed it. "You look tired," he noted kindly. Despite his hypocrisy, he was right. Kurenai was slightly tired after staring at the pages.

The boy suddenly, gently picked Kurenai up as if she was a small puppy. "It's about time we all got some rest without a crowd of nosy humans" he commented. Gauge gave a deadpanned expression and proceeded to lightly shock Riley as he passed, not that Kurenai had struggled at all.

"You have to stop doing weird things like that," Amber commented as she hopped onto Riley's shoulder.

"I know you used to do this to run at great speeds and all, but we're hardly going anywhere quickly." Mesa pointed out.

"Wait, why not? The city is so easy to move around in, and I'm much faster when I use those weird metal light things." Riley asked.

Mesa crossed her arms. "I am certain you've noticed by now," she said. The boy wasted his opportunity by giving Mesa the dumbest look in the history of dumb. She sighed. "I can't move around like that." she continued "And Kazekai has joined us as well, preventing you from carrying everyone."

Riley, feeling insulted, set Kurenai down gently and then crossed his arms. "I can totally carry the both of them at the same time!" He proclaimed.

"While being able to see where you're going?"

"Yes."

"Idiot." Mesa deadpanned.

Riley shrugged as Scarlet joined Amber on his shoulders. "An idiot who's survived murder attempt after murder attempt over and over and over again." he pointed out, patting his staff and preparing to walk out of the door, gesturing for everybody to follow him. Leaving the trainers behind and making certain that they hadn't accidentally carried any books off with them (Because after the few displays Kurenai had given of her ninja abilities, nobody doubted she could somehow sneak a book out of here), the large team of pokemon and godchildren left the pokecenter.

"That… Really could have gone better." Riley muttered.

"I have never been so foolish," Mesa grunted in agreement. "Just by raising our voices, we compromised the fact that we exist in the first place and what we are."

"Followed closely by actually answering the questions that they asked." Riley frowned. "I mean, it was polite to do that, so…"

"I think we handled the situation after they learned what we were relatively well." Mesa decided, her frown fading slightly. "We could have done far worse in how we reacted to our own mistake. However… We are likely going to be mentioned on the internet. Maybe people will think it's a hoax. I didn't see any pictures being taken."

"Which is good enough. Hey, I'll meet you at the hotel!" Riley exclaimed, suddenly snatching up Kurenai like he had done before, startling the poor absol and her sibling. "You keep Kazekai and Gauge with you, while we run."

"Rude!" Kurenai exclaimed.

"This is a crowded city, Riley." Mesa groaned "It's the crowded city of Kanto!"

Riley just looked up at the 'L'-shaped lamp posts along the streets. He grinned happily. "It's not crowded up there," he said. Before Mesa could say another word he had leapt with the three female pokemon and landed lightly on top of the bar. "Have fun on the ground," he told Mesa before starting to bound from one light post to another with consummate ease.

Mesa waited one second, two, three, four, five…

Riley bounded all the way back, stopping on top of the nearest light post. "Uh… Where are we supposed to end up?"

Mesa sighed. "He's cool, he can even act cute at times, but he's a bloody moron!" She thought.

---

Footsteps echoed through the air, accompanied by the sounds of leaves being crunched. A gloved hand placed itself on the nearest tree trunk and a heavy boot stepped out into view, both limbs barely visible in the dark of night.

Sigilyph floated into view, facing the building that the thick tree blocked from view. "Pariah. The archaeologists are nearly gone for the night." he intoned with his growl-like telepathy. "They will not return anytime soon."

Pariah finally turned to look. He had managed to change clothing, dressed in dark clothing. He wore a black mask concealing his mouth. The man had changed from his more extravagant attire into a black cloak with an upturned collar and jet black shirt and leather pants with many deep pockets. His eyes narrowed at the sight of the ruins, which were lit with the flashlights of the archaeologists that were still within there.

"I do not like this," he grumbled. "Was there no way to keep the rest of the pokemon with me?"

"You remember what that girl did to us with one unown," Sigilyph growled back. "The ruins of Alph are Swarming with those same unown. Your dark balls would explode the instant you got within two hundred feet of the place, releasing all of your pokemon and freeing them from your control. We may even die as a result."

"That does not mean I have to like it," Pariah muttered. "Will you be able to take on the unown?"

"Not if they all swarm me at once. This may not be your strong suit, but don't aggravate them." Sigilyph replied. At that point, a flashlight beam nearly crossed them, and both swiftly stepped back behind the conveniently thick tree.

---

"Why haven't you gone to sleep yet?"

Mesa's question jolted Riley out of his thoughts. He was lounging on the armchair within their hotel room. It had gotten dark out. "I should be keeping watch," he replied calmly.

"No, you should be sleeping, Child of Time," Mesa replied harshly. "Believe me, this is probably the safest place we could possibly get for the night. And after the Sylph incident, the police are so paranoid about team rocket that it's probably one of the safest cities out there."

"Paranoid?" Riley asked, "We'll all get along great then."

"Sleep before I knock you out." Mesa threatened, standing up from where she sat on the bed and walked closer to the chair where Riley sat, her eyes flashing and her form kind of silhouetted by the ceiling light, creating a threatening image.

Riley rolled his eyes. "Come on, are you actually-"

Wham!

"Yes," Mesa said, retracting her fist from the boy's stomach as he lost consciousness. "Never underestimate a punch worthy of the second most physically strong god out there."

Mesa heard a bark of laughter. "Get wrecked, Riley!" Amber exclaimed.

"That was kind of rude…" Kurenai whispered, "But I get that he needed some serious sleep."

"At least she's doing it for him and not for the hell of it." Scarlet murmured.

Mesa stood back and watched Riley. The boy had begun to grow on her, and she recognized that he was perfectly comfortable with her usual roughness. That was new and interesting. And the fact that he could match the average pokemon in his facial expressions, the way they look sort of cute when confused but powerful and dangerous when angry.

And peaceful when sleeping as well. Mesa broke her gaze from Riley and met eyes with the others. "I'm going to shower before we get to bed." she announced, walking to the bathroom of the hotel room."

"You know, it's kind of hard to tell that you're the kid of the god of the earth when you try to wash the dirt off of yourself," Kazekai commented.

"Can it," Mesa muttered as she opened the door. "I only find myself really liking the dirt when I go half-groudon, anyways. And no, I don't hate water either. Sure, it packs a punch when I've shifted and am thus susceptible to water attacks, but not in my human form."

Then she closed the door.

"Someday, I will make her laugh." Kazekai declared.

"That'll be the day." Gauge rumbled.

"What exactly is that supposed to mean?" Kazekai asked.

Gauge looked at him evenly. "You aren't funny."

"Gauge, don't be rude!" Kurenai admonished the winged luxray.

Kazekai looked away, uncomfortable. He didn't know how he was supposed to act anymore. For so many years, the first thought he had when he saw something, anything, was "Kill!"

Now that that was gone, it was like he was just leaving a chunk of his existence behind, something that would just sit there in his past, glaring at him without being able to do anything. Even if it did little to him, it did take up space. It left Kazekai feeling empty, useless. Kazekai closed his eyes.

"Brother?" he heard his sister's voice, and he snapped to attention to see her worried, compassionate face. He could not help but smile at the mere sight of it.

"I… Well, I'll just have to move on," Kazekai said. "I don't have any experience to use when trying to make conversation. Except with you, because I remember you from before all of this happened."

He drew closer and pressed his head against Kurenai's, closing his eyes. "And you haven't really changed at all. It gives me some comfort," he admitted.

Gauge scowled and turned away. Kurenai noticed this, but waited. "Brother…" she whispered "Anytime you want to ask me for help, even if we're surrounded by people who could judge you… Please don't hesitate."

Kazekai chuckled. "Yes ma'am" he nodded.

Gauge gave a small grunt as he padded over to the door and laid down facing it, closing his eyes. Kurenai frowned in his direction and looked back to her brother. "I'll... Be right back."

He smiled in understanding. "Find out what's up with him, okay?" he requested

"You got it." Kurenai nodded, "Now get some sleep."

"Of course, Sister." Kazekai used his paw to give Kurenai a few rubs on the top of her head before turning tail and walking off and leaping into the bed, quickly curling up. Kurenai noticed with her trained eye that he too had faced the door.

Sighing, she walked over and walked in front of Gauge. "I know you're awake," she said.

"What's it to you?" he asked gruffly.

"You're not happy with my brother." Kurenai stated, "And a problem you have with my brother is a problem you have with me."

Gauge started, opening his eyes and looking at Kurenai with surprise. She continued: "So you need to explain it to me." Kurenai told the winged luxray. "Because I just got my brother back and you're known for your short temper and overpowered lightning strikes."

Gauge felt a stab of betrayal. "You… Don't trust me?"

Kurenai shook her head. "My trust in you is fine, Gauge." she replied, "But no matter how much I trust anybody, my big brother comes first."

Gauge sighed. Why did he feel relief from a simple statement that she trusted him? "Okay. First, I'm having trust issues too. Kazekai has permanent damage from that dark ball. I don't want him to put you in danger if something happens and he… reverts."

Kurenai blinked. "Me specifically?"

Gauge flinched. "Everyone in danger." he hastily amended. "Listen, I trust Kazekai. I just don't trust the dark monster that's still somewhere in there."

Kurenai decided to let the whole 'Kurenai specifically in danger' part slide… For now. "We're his family, all of us. And he's our family now. It's not his fault." she started quietly "And if something like that happens, we have to support him, not fear him."

Gauge looked down. Thinking rationally, Kurenai could probably kick Kazekai's ass anyways. "Alright…"

"So what's the second problem?" Kurenai asked.

Gauge didn't say anything for a while. "...I don't have any memories from before I was a lab experiment, Kurenai." he murmured, feeling some emotion take him on the inside, not that he showed it on the outside.

"I don't understand," Kurenai responded.

Gauge gestured to Kazekai sleeping on the bed. "I hear Kazekai complaining about not having experience with other people. Complaining about trying to make jokes and failing, complaining about not getting along with the others, complaining that a huge chunk of his life's been filled with destruction and hatred." he explained, "But at least he remembers it."

Kurenai's face softened.

"What's more…" Gauge continued softly "I felt nothing but anger and resentment and pain before Riley came and saved me. Then, I had to start experiencing other emotions that honestly freaked me out when I had them. Seeing certain people, experiencing even more terror, and then… All the positive stuff. Your brother complains about not having enough good memories. I have so few good memories that all the times I've felt good were more alien to me than anything. I feel like some sort of doll or something, following along with the group without any sort of purpose. I'm just the flying overcharged luxray with no actual past."

"And Kazekai… Reminds you of that." Kurenai whispered.

"Constantly."

Kurenai paused for a moment, and then laid down next to Gauge, who stiffened. "Gauge, at no point did Kazekai complain about the good memories he had. He just… Explains why things are confusing to him. So he's taking a complaining tone. He doesn't mean it. Having memories like his makes positive feelings way more alien to him than they are to you, because you don't have years and years of experience that tells that there is no such thing."

She nudged him with her paw. "And the fact that he's trying, the fact that he's working to recover from all that whether he can or not… I think he might be the bravest of all of us."

Gauge was still. "I am brave." he said, "I do not allow emotions into myself, and can thus battle without that burden."

"Now you're just being daft." Kurenai rolled her eyes. "Displaying emotion is brave. It's the bravest thing you can do, because shutting yourself down? That's hiding. Literally, hiding."

Gauge glared at the absol. "You think I'm hiding?" he asked dangerously.

"Yes."

Gauge looked her in the eyes. They were filled with honesty and emotion. She considered emotions to be a sign of bravery. She considered honesty to be the best policy. And there was respect. Kurenai respected him. She wanted to help him. Gauge slowly closed his eyes and went back into his resting position. Kurenai was close enough for him to feel her warmth. "I guess I'll think on that." he decided quietly.

"You do that." Kurenai walked over to the edge of the bed. "Good night, Gauge."

As he began to fall into a light sleep, Gauge heard her jump on the bed and join her brother. That was before everything faded and Gauge was in a deep sleep.

"You actually think I'm brave?" Kazekai asked quietly, his eyes closed.

"...I didn't know you were still awake." Kurenai murmured, lying next to her brother and pressing herself against him, the two siblings sharing warmth. "But yeah. I do. I really, really do. And I believe you can succeed."

He smiled. "Thanks, sister."

"You're welcome, brother."

Both fell asleep quickly with the warmth being shared between them making them feel drowsy.

Amber and Scarlet broke off from listening in to jump on Riley's lap and go to sleep right there. They didn't care that Riley might wake up and want to use the bed. They figured he was used to sleeping without human comfort items like beds anyways.

Mesa exited the shower to find several potential sleeping places totally compromised by everybody else. Her eyes narrowed. Someone was going to be ejected to sleep somewhere else in the room.

---

Pariah's odd arm guard device showed many holographic screens, rectangular and circular, showing graphs and data. "Those old coots that run this archaeology division really get into their work," Pariah muttered through his mask, his eyes narrowed. "No point in attacking them unless they interfere."

"Agreed," Sigilyph replied, forgoing telepathy for a direct psychic link with Pariah.

The two started walking into the ruins. Pariah kept a flashlight handy in his left hand, while his right arm bore the digital multitool. The flashlight was not yet lit, but he could still see from the light of the moon. No sense in alerting anybody that he was about to sneak in.

The two moved silently into the path through the ruined buildings, stepping lightly up to a nearby building, and looking into a torn up portion of the wall. "Most of these buildings lead to various convoluted pathways that all lead to a major chamber and hallway downstairs," he muttered aloud.

"Why must you be so distracted that you forget that I can hear you."

Pariah blinked. "Heh… It's been a rough week"

Sigilyph did not appreciate the humor. His greatest ally was acting rather strangely after his loss against Millicent. The man seemed more troubled, and yet he seemed to also find humor in things faster. Sigilyph considered this change a direct contradiction by default.

"Just focus" He ordered. "We are here because one of two REburst devices were discovered here and it is likely that the other is here as well."

The two walked into the building carefully, keeping their eyes open and out for any unown. The irritating little letter-creatures would swarm them if angered. Pariah's eyes caught one embedded in the wall, settling in the middle of a set of grooves in the wall. All the pits in the wall were shaped like unown, but the wall only had three of them filled with the pokemon. "Where are the rest?" Pariah asked mentally, looking at the thirty or so empty spots.

"Either caught by trainers or… Sneaking about." Sigilyph responded, mentally frowning. "I fear that being watched constantly may be detrimental to our ultimate goal."

"Not bloody likely." Pariah growled "There's nothing stopping us from escaping them. Yeah, they have freaky powers that change depending on their numbers, but they can't handle me. I have my doubts that the unown know of my physical prowess and combat training."

"Don't get cocky."

Pariah grunted and walked on out the opposite door, emerging into a moonlit area that was blocked from the rest of the path by water and boulders and the buildings on either side. The view was nice, but it did not concern Pariah in the least. He had a job to do.

The rooms began to look the same as Pariah walked between them, eying the unown on the walls and memorizing their locations. Something began to feel off to him. The rooms did indeed begin to look the same…

Pariah stopped. Sigilyph stopped with him.

"No building in the Ruins of Alph are this large," Pariah said aloud. "We have been trapped in some freaky loop."

"Yes, we have. Only the unown change." Sigilyph stated mentally. Pariah frowned. That was right; The unown were changing. The grooves in the walls were the same, but the unown that were actually in place were different. "...Keep walking, but face the wall to your left constantly. See if you can piece together the meaning."

Pariah nodded and slowly stepped forward. With each step, he had his head turned, glaring at the letter pokemon that watched him with those wide, creepy eyes. Pariah was furious inside; He had been trapped so infuriatingly easy.

It took Pariah ten minutes, but eventually he read: 'The path you seek lies fifteen to the west, and four to the north' on the wall he faced. How glad he was that the unown seemed to be entirely inactive; He felt as though once again he had underestimated something.

"Every time I have underestimated something, I lose," Pariah noted. "Also, what the fuck does that mean?"

"What else is in this room?" Sigilyph asked.

A single oddly colored tile was what was notable in the room. Darker than the rest. The tiled floor was mostly a light tan, but this one was not. The tiles were about three feet in size, which was indeed odd because those tiles were uneven with the floor itself. Pariah fearlessly walked up and stood on the tile. Nothing happened.

"Fifteen west, four north." Pariah thought.

"And the only other odd part of these rooms is the single tile." Sigilyph followed up.

"So the fifteen and four are-"

"Tiles"

With the thoughts of the two antagonists in sync, Pariah remembered the direction the moon had been rising in when he entered. Hoping that whatever messed up space distortion they were experiencing was not changing their direction as well, Pariah moved fifteen tiles away from where the moon had begun to rise. Then, he slowly stepped four tiles in the direction he had initially been moving.

Click!

Sigilyph grabbed Pariah with his psychic attack and caught the man before he could fall into the hole as the tile dropped from underneath him. "Thank you." he broadcasted calmly.

"Save the thanks for after we break through all of these traps," Sigilyph responded. "I do not trust the darkness within there. I cannot see through it. We shall fly down."

Sigilyph and Pariah moved through the hole, Sigilyph protecting Pariah from falling with his psychic abilities. The two descended into the abyss without hesitation. After an entire minute of drifting down, a ceiling and walls suddenly materialized around them and encased them in an odd stone room. In the center of the room stood an ellipsoid with missing pieces. Many small rooms extended beyond the main one.

"..." Pariah narrowed his eyes at the rock. "Trapped in a room with a single rock." he growled "Typical."

"This is an entirely new scenario." Sigilyph deadpanned in his dark telepathic voice.

"Yeah, fine." Pariah grumbled "But it's shit like this that makes me regret not just dropping off the map forever years back"

"REburst first, lamenting on the past later." Sigilyph scolded the man.

"You're right. I'm acting like a child." Pariah apologized quickly "Not that this isn't bullshit, of course. How are we going to deal with it?"

"The symbols are meaningless…" Sigilyph muttered as he floated up to the ellipsoid. "A leaf? An eye? They have nothing to do with unown. If the unown brought this test about, they did a poor job of following any sort of code."

"...Use psychic and get this boulder out of here." Pariah ordered. Sigilyph set his eyes aglow and the ellipsoid glowed alike.

However, it didn't budge. Sigilyph made a grunting noise, signifying the difficulty he was having. "I cannot explain it, but this boulder seems far too heavy for my psychic abilities." Sigilyph proclaimed while waiting for his slight headache to go away.

Pariah growled and began pacing. "Is this supposed to be some sort of puzzle or some such nonsense?" he asked, tense, "All we've got is a rock with missing pieces and a bunch of empty rooms. That's it."

Sigilyph could not agree more; This was complete nonsense. He analyzed the stone from top to bottom, glaring at the shaped holes in the side of the ellipsoid and then retreating to float about the room, searching for some sort of imperfection that screamed out 'I matter to this puzzle!'

He found nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Pariah stepped into one of the many rooms alongside. Moving slowly, he pressed his foot down in several places. It was possible that the floor could break again if pressed in the right spot. Growling, Pariah kept up the tedious and irritating task.

Until, of course, his foot hit something. Pariah's scowl shrank into a regular frown as he tested the space with his foot. Then, he knelt and set his hand on an invisible object.

"I found something," he claimed, picking the object up. He grunted for a moment as he heaved the object upwards. It was rather heavy, even for him. "Sigilyph, find invisible items in each room."

"I will, Pariah." the psychic type agreed, seeing a way out of this ridiculous puzzle.

Pariah felt the object wit his hand, recognizing the shape. He then walked over and roughly slammed the offending piece in its proper hole in the ellipsoid. A flash of blue later, and the hole was gone. "You lose, rock," he muttered, silently wondering if he was losing it. Talking to rocks… It was something a child would do after accomplishing a difficult task. Pariah wondered now if the alakazam from before had secretly attacked him while he was in battle, causing him to act oddly. "Sigilyph, is my mind being interfered with?"

Sigilyph floated up, a psychic glow surrounding the next two invisible objects that floated alongside him. Their outlines were defined by the glow. His eyes glowed as he hovered close to Pariah. "Not that I can detect." Sigilyph muttered "However, you have been acting strangely. Do you want my help?"

Pariah took the items from Sigilyph as a response, showing that he did not want the psychic becoming distracted. He fit them into place with a frown on his face. Sigilyph looked into his partner's mind, interpreting the thoughts he found.

And what he found spooked him for a moment. A spark of doubt existed in his partner's mind, and within that… It was like something was pushing at it, attempting to spread that doubt. Sigilyph recognized this interpretation. Pariah had spent a long, long time suppressing everything in favor of hatred and destruction and power. Someone had gone and poked holes into that facade, and because of how long it was maintained, its shell was weak. Pariah needed justification for his actions immediately.

Sigilyph's resolve came from serving the man who had brought him back to the world of the sentient after his time in a dark ball. He felt no such doubt, but he intended to follow Pariah. Sigilyph tried to reach for that doubt, knowing Pariah would want it destroyed. However…

Doubt was a very volatile emotion. Sigilyph knew that if he attacked it, he could either accomplish his task… Or make it unnaturally worse and harm Pariah. Furthermore, if he succeeded, he could do too good of a job and turn Pariah into an emotionless shell until he recovered enough to get back to the job at hand.

So the psychic floated back. "I cannot fix this." he decided grimly. Pariah was silent. His partner was rarely so insistent that he would fail. Also, his words suggested that there was indeed a problem with his mind.

"Give it to me straight." Pariah sighed as he walked over to the next room and began brushing his foot across the floor, looking for another invisible item.

"Doubt."

At least it was straight to the point. Pariah felt a flash of anger at the word, but this was Sigilyph, the one he trusted. It would not do to fly into a rage now. "...Doubt," he repeated, finding the next item and hauling it up.

"Doubt, and as a result of that doubt, your mind is rebelling against you." Sigilyph proclaimed.

Pariah growled. "Well that's just bloody perfect." he swore sarcastically "Help me get this done, won't you?"

Sigilyph did not bother to answer verbally or mentally, instead answering by bringing the next piece over from another room and pushing it into place with psychic power. The rooms disappeared as the objects were removed, thankfully enough. It allowed the two to do the job without having to remember which objects were where, so they would not search in empty rooms.

By the time they fit the last one in, a surprisingly short amount of time had passed since they put the first one in. The ellipsoid began glowing a brilliant blue… And nothing else. Absolutely nothing else happened.

They waited in silence for a full minute, confusion and untempered rage building quickly. The impatient duo's stares turned into glares and their postures changed to that of combat as they prepared to hit the object. Sigilyph blasted it with psybeam and Pariah delivered a strong kick to the object. Neither male found success in this action.

"I can't believe this!" the human roared, turning away from the stone with his hands on his head. His cloak billowed out behind him as he walked away. "What the hell are we even doing in this room!?"

"Absolutely nothing, apparently!" Sigilyph snarled, just as angry and confused.

"What a waste of our fucking time," Pariah growled. "Trapped in a room with a glowing rock and nothing else. Nothing at all!"

The two eventually had to stop pacing, and began to rest. Mentally running over the situation they were in over and over again in their minds. Two puzzles and a worthless dead end, fabricated by the unown. Pariah wanted every last one of the letter pokemon destroyed. However, he knew he did not have the ability to do so. There were likely thousands in these ruins, and there were only two of them, Pariah and Sigilyph.

Sigilyph's self-estimate of how many unown he could kill before he was overwhelmed was rising over time.

Pariah was looking at his hands and wondering if he could just snap the unown, or if they instead had a lot of tensile strength.

A period of time passed, and Pariah began to feel tired. Sigilyph felt the same.

"I figure it's near morning by now." Pariah muttered, "Some sleep might be good."

"Perhaps." Sigilyph replied slowly "However, we must be aware while in this room. We may fall asleep and miss our opportunity."

"Maybe…" Pariah grunted, his eyes closing of their own volition. Groggily, he wondered why he was suddenly so tired.

And then Sigilyph's eyes flew wide open. "We are being put to sleep!" he hissed, fluttering about and launching another psybeam at the rock, which continued to glow with a blue light. "This light must be a form of the hypnosis attack!"

"Weak enough not to be noticeable at first," Pariah growled, struggling to get up. He turned away from the rock, but the exhaustion persisted. "Looking away is not helping," he grunted.

The two struggled against the exhaustion for some time, but eventually, Pariah collapsed into a sitting position, glaring at the ellipsoid that glowed. "Why… Trap… Us…?" he asked slowly.

Sigilyph did not answer properly, instead letting out a growling cry of 'sigilyph', meaning 'Too tired…' He had been too exhausted to use telepathy or even transmit his thoughts in the human language. The pokemon then sank to the floor as well.

Pariah's eyes began to close, his vision beginning to blur. Just before he was going to, he saw a strange sight.

Two glowing green eyes filled the space above the glowing stone. A silhouette of something seemed to step into view behind the rock, and a hand reached into his blurring vision and was set upon the ellipsoid.

It cracked. And it cracked some more. Originating from the hand, the cracks traveled down through the boulder and the glow faded away. Pariah felt his energy come back within instants as the stone fell to the floor in pieces. He leapt to his feet, staring as the silhouette became something much more comprehensible as his vision cleared.

"We have a lot to talk about." the girl he had met in the alley said, her glowing green eyes fixed on Pariah.

---

"Are you certain she's in here?"

"Yes, sir."

"Is our sniper in position?"

"Tell him to use sleeping darts."

Two men stood in front of a tall building. They wore dark clothes with red 'R's on them. The team rocket members spoke quietly, determinedly.

"Why sleeping darts?" one asked.

"Because if any of them actually wind up dying, I don't think team Rocket is going to survive." the other said flatly "And don't give me any lip. It's time we started respecting these guys. We're going to knock out the people that we can knock out, and get the eevee and go."

The first man had opened his mouth when the other mentioned team Rocket's survival. The first man had shut him down relatively quickly, though. "...Fine," he grunted, picking up a communicator. "Load with sleeping darts," he ordered.

"Are you sure?" came over the line.

"...Yes."

"Roger."

The second man nodded grimly. "We have to go up fifteen floors in this hotel." he said "So we'd better get started. You go on the outside, I'll go on the inside."

"Fine." the first team rocket member held up some odd looking tools for cutting glass. "I'll climb up the side of a skyscraper while you take the goddamn elevator."

"Exactly. Glad we understand one another." the second turned and walked towards the nearby ally. "You get started on that. I'm going to change into a suit."

The first grunt watched the other man disappear. "Arceus, I hate those 'hiding in plain sight' bozos."

His communicator beeped. "Sir, did you mean to transmit that to me?" the sniper asked.

A sigh. "No, no I didn't."

The team rocket trio set their plan into motion. One man loaded sleeping darts into a sniper rifle equipped to handle both those and regular bullets, lying on the top of a building that was fifteen stories in height, equal in height to the room where their targets slept. Another man put on gloves with an odd surface. He rested the glove on the strong window of the building, and slid it down about an inch. The material of the glove suddenly caught and stuck. The man experimented with pulling and lowering his hand, finding that unless he brought his hand straight up, the glove was stuck. The third man stepped up to the front door, a nice suit hiding his uniform. He acquired a mysterious smile, and smoothed his nicely-cut brown hair.

And Team Rocket advanced.

The suited grunt walked into the front door, giving an infectious smile and a nod to the receptionist. She smiled back, as the man walked past her and to the staircase. He took the stairs purely because his partner had mentioned taking the elevator.

Said partner now had similar foot pads to accompany his gloves, and the man was climbing straight up the building. He had chosen the side of the building not subjected to the moon's glow, so he was less likely to be spotted. He moved up slowly, knowing that his partner would not enter the room without hearing the impact of the sleeping dart on the target they could reach and considered the greatest threat or the easiest to wake. Then he would slip in and get the eevee out of the room, drugging it and putting it to sleep.

When he reached the correct floor, he moved to the side until he was at the window with the view he wanted. Everyone was asleep because of course they were. It was the dead of night and the kids had been through a ton and had been assured over and over that it was safe. The perfect time for an attack.

Reaching for his tools, the man set one hand on the glass and drew the glass cutter. A silent energy blade the size of a finger segment came into existence. Without hesitating, the man swiped the blade around his hand, giving his hand a foot radius of space and silently cutting a circle of glass out. He swiftly dropped his cutter back in the pouch and set his free hand on the glass to prevent a dangerous fall. Finally, he pulled the glass circle out and slipped it into the bag on his back, pushing his hand correctly to separate it from the glass and then moved to the side.

He had successfully created an opening for the sleeping dart that would strike whichever target they chose. Slipping away from the window, he set his communicator to talk to both of his allies at once and spoke into it. "The eevee can't be reached, and the boy would feel the impact anyways. Hit the luxray instead. That should be an easy enough shot. Steve, the luxray is right in front of the door, so be careful. The eevee's on the redhead's lap, but is not in his arms. Use extreme caution when picking it up."

"Okay." 'Steve' replied from within the building.

"Roger." the sniper took aim, slipping some technologically advanced goggles over his eyes. He gave it a moment to ensure that his aim was true, and then he fired.

The sleeping dart struck home in Gauge's neck. The pokemon stirred for a moment, and then stopped moving.

"Clear." the man on the glass stated.

The undercover team rocket member slowly picked the lock on the door and carefully slipped in. He turned away from the door only to be slammed straight into it with a huge crashing sound. He blinked in shock at the giant luxray that had him pinned against the wall with one paw, the other paw hanging limply. It growled a bunch of words at him that he didn't understand because it was a pokemon roaring quite loudly at him.

His other teammates froze in their places at the sound of the roar. The sniper fired again, but this time, a very angry orange-haired boy deflected the dart with his staff and glared at the man across the way. Mesa was standing as well, also glaring. Kurenai had shot to her paws, and was attempting to wake up her brother.

"Mesa." Steve heard the boy growl "I'm gonna get some fresh air for a moment."

"They're screwed." Steve thought to himself as the girl said that she had 'this guy' and advanced on him while the absol took a position at the winged luxray's back, claws ready to defend against more attacks.

Gauge was not happy, but he could not miss the opportunity for a quick quip. "I was just done telling this guy how he'd need more than one of those damn sleep darts to take me down," he said.

"I'll do the interrogating." Mesa decided "He can't understand you."

"Unfortunately." Steve agreed. He would have loved to know why the sleep dart had not worked on the luxray. Then again, perhaps the experiments the electric and flying type had suffered through had helped with that.

"You don't speak unless you are spoken to." Mesa declared while Riley leapt straight out the hole in the window, swinging on the glass that was not sharp enough to cut him to launch off to his left and there was a shout of pain, followed by a scream. Then the boy was back in view, having somehow managed to use a ridge on the building to launch himself straight across the street to a lower building and begun the trip to beat the snot out of that sniper.

"This didn't go well for me, huh?" Steve asked with a winning smile.

"Shut up," Mesa growled, as a loud scream and then silence rang out as Riley reached the sniper after having leapt to the correct roof.

"But you spoke to me." Steve kept his smile going. He accepted that he had no way around this. This girl was new to the team; he didn't know if she was going to kill him or not. Even so, he had failed, and he had no backup plan.

Mesa's eye twitched. "I'm okay with Riley talking back like that, but you doing it?" she pointed her staff at his face "That pisses me off."

"I don't know. I think it's kind of brave of him." Gauge muttered, "When he has my claws at his throat."

"Still pisses me off," Mesa growled. Then, everyone froze at a new sound that reached their ears at the same time.

"Hah… Hahaha…"

Their heads turned slowly, seeing Kazekai. His eyes were wild, and filled with a freaky mix of rage and mirth. His growl was low and dangerous, and he was facing Kurenai. "Did you wake me up?" he asked, then began laughing madly again. "Hahahaha…"

"...Brother?" Kurenai asked, worried.

"A dark ball leaves the brain damaged permanently after release…" Mesa grunted.

"I'm gonna break every bone in your body. Hahahaha…" Kazekai continued, stalking towards his sister.

"Restrain him until he wakes up properly," Mesa ordered. Kurenai felt tears coming to her eyes as she caught Kazekai's lunge and twisted him onto his stomach, pinning his legs and keeping herself on top of him, pinning him down. The others in the room watched grimly as the absol attempted to escape, growling and promising pain, bone breaking, and blood.

Mesa turned back to Steve. "How many of you are around?" she asked.

"There's a lot of paranoia about team rocket in Saffron, so they only sent a few people." Steve answered immediately "Four. One of us got caught at the gate."

"And Riley just destroyed the two others." Mesa nodded. "Maybe if they're lucky, Riley set him on a balcony before going after your sniper."

"I did."

Mesa turned, and Kazekai snarled in his terrible state at the boy who was now hanging from the circular hole in the window. "I'm not that bad, am I?"

Then he noticed Kazekai. "What happened?" he asked.

"Remember how dark balls have a permanent effect?" Kurenai choked out "I guess it got triggered when I woke him up."

"You look ridiculous." Mesa said, seeing the boy hang there "Get inside and call the police while I interrogate this guy."

"Sure thing." Riley managed to roll into the room again, rolling into a kneeling position to soften the blow from the fall. He stood and brought out his phone.

Kazekai suddenly went limp in Kurenai's grasp, breathing heavily. Kurenai watched the rage in his eyes disappear in an instant, leaving him gasping for breath. "Brother!" Kurenai released her hold on him and moved around to get a better look at him while he struggled to his feet.

"Ugh… I… What was I…" he muttered, and then everything clicked for him. The absol started to shiver, staring down at his claws. "I…"

Mesa slowly turned back to the team rocket member. "You chose a bad time to mess with us," she said. "Now where were we?"

"I… I tried to hurt you all again…" Kazekai whimpered, still shivering.

"Kurenai practically bounced to press against her brother. "Remember, it's not you when you do that." she reminded him as gently as she could. "You are my fun loving brother who isn't afraid to share how he feels and isn't afraid to ask or help when you need it. "You are a kind person willing to help, and a dashing one at that. Big brother, All this time you've been the victim. You need to let us help you, and you can do that by quitting this whole 'blaming yourself' deal."

She looked him in the eyes. "Deal?"

Kazekai had stopped shivering, staring at his sister in wonder at her comments, running them through his mind. His eyes suddenly began to sting, and he forced the tears back. Crying right now would be incredibly embarrassing, especially after a motivational speech like that. Finally, he met her eyes with a genuine smile on his face. "...You really think I'm dashing?" he asked, the smile turning into a smirk.

Gauge facepawed, balancing with his other forepaw on the man he held captive. He dragged his paw down his snout. "It's hard to even remember that this guy's here with those two talking," he grumbled.

"Hey, Jenny," Riley said, on the phone. "Boy, have I got a story to tell you. And believe me, you are going to laugh!"

Everyone but Gauge were able to find ways to cover their ears. Heck, even his captive was able to bring his hands up to his ears. "Wait, why does he get to-" Gauge started.

But that was when Jenny, eye twitching on the screen of the phone in her pajamas and with incredibly messy, straight up unrecognizable hair, finally managed to process that Riley had somehow managed to put himself in danger in the middle of Saffron City, which was supposed to be safe for the whole group, and not only that, she hadn't been notified when the first grunt was caught at the gate, and that the other three had advanced equipment, sleeping darts and whatnot, and that Riley had jumped out of the fifteenth floor of a building to get the other two, treating the rooftops and sides of the buildings like some sort of uneven and messed up parkour course.

When the shouting started, Riley set the phone down and let it play out, having covered his own ears to block out the noise. "Why is everybody yelling at me today?" he asked.

---

This chapter is long because it marks my success at archiving a MILLION WORDS!

You heard me right. One freaking million.

Jango: yeah, yeah, blah blah blah. You've SAID a lot more than a million words out loud. I don't get why a million words on paper is any different.

Me: That, you uncouth prankster, is because I am an author and you are not.

Jango: Meh. Anyways, while he's over there being all proud of himself and all that nonsense, I might as well take over sending you lot off this time. I hardly think he can focus on it. Well, I personally approve of the humor and the foreboding stuff being haphazardly thrown together in one large chapter. That's the kinda chaos I love.

Amber: (nudges Jango aside) and before he starts insulting you guys, let me just kind of take over. Thank you guys for reading this chapter, and I hope you enjoyed it. I may not be in this story, that's the other Amber, but I still root for these guys. Please review, telling Hyper how you felt about the chapter and what you enjoyed or thought could be better. We really appreciate feedback.

Jango: (Pushes back into frame, grinning) I'm sure you just can't wait to find out what's going to happen next, feel free to spam Hyperjade's review section with speculation on what good ol' Alex is gonna do to Pariah and how Yellow's gonna deal with seeing Riley again. I don't care if that speculation's regular or of the mad hatter variety, I'll certainly love seeing Hyper try to read the crazier theories.

Me: Please tell me he didn't just encourage tormenting me.

Amber: (Sighs) he did...

Me: I do encourage speculation, though. Spectulation and finding clues and having some story elements cleverly hidden is just one of the things I like to do. But yeah. Everybody, I thank you for waiting on this chapter, and I hope you continue to enjoy my work. Have fun, and good day!