I am back with an actual attempt at punctuality this time. I mean it. Maybe. Let it be known that I haven't been called a truther often. Regardless, I'm back with the Chapter 18. Let's kick it.


Luke knew that he should be in the stands of the gym to watch Brendan and Julia battle Brawly, to offer them support whether they won or lost. Especially if he was going to try and pull a fast one on them too.

After all, it's what they had done for him, and what he'd done for his friends in Unova.

But the blue-eyed boy couldn't bring himself to go there. He couldn't trust himself not to send Heracles or Gojira to attack the gym leader. As good as it would feel, it wasn't the right move and would cause more trouble than it was worth.

Death was a simple fact of life. Pokemon died, people died, plants died, everything did eventually. Anyone who'd been an outdoorsman as long as Luke knew that death was necessary to keep balance in any kind of ecosystem. Innumerable deaths had been caused by competition and the simple need for nutrition.

Even in civilization, accidents happened. A pokemon uses a stronger attack than they meant to, or a missed attack hits a trainer. Buildings fell, fires started, people tripped. Things happen.

But what Brawly had done was different. His Makuhita emerged with the express order to kill even if the gym leader hadn't given that specific order in the battle. In a regulated league match.

The notion that he did it to save face only made the teen's anger rise even more, pressure building inside a soda bottle getting ready to pop. Publicity wasn't a good reason to kill someone's pokemon. Granted, revenge with the defense of 'I was mad' weren't exactly good reasons either, but the Makuhita had it coming. Brawly deserved much worse than just the newly vacated pokeball at his belt for training his pokemon to go for the kill as a primary option, but Luke knew he couldn't be the one to give it to him.

So instead of being there and risk losing his temper, Luke went to the beach with only Franz out as company. Any of his other pokemon would have garnered him more second glances and attention that he didn't want right now between Rebecca being an endangered species, Amelia making a ruckus every time she walked anywhere, and Dart having become famous after tearing a gym leader's pokemon to bloody shreds on local television.

The Poochyena's fur was getting darker thanks to the black oily substance his species and their evolved form secreted on their backs. Which in turn made the hair stiff and alerted them to changes in the air around them. If he continued getting the proper exercise and nutrition, Franz would be evolving in no time. A comforting thought given the boost in power and bulk he'd receive making him that much more durable and harder to kill.

Had Luke slept, he knew Shigure would have joined Ewan in the chorus of screams in his nightmares. Instead, he'd spent several hours speaking to Bel and Dubs, followed by a trip to the hospital to get the cut above his eye looked at, then walking through the town until morning, which brought him to the beach.

No matter how far he could walk though, he'd have to stop eventually. Either to get food so his pokemon would feel comfortable eating or when the exhaustion and stress finally overcame his desire to avoid nightmares and the guilt that always came with them.

So instead of supporting his friends, here he was on the beach, with nothing and no one but his Poochyena to try and console him, but Franz didn't bother.

Pack members died. Sometimes from sickness, sometimes from trying to hunt something stronger than they were. Deaths were mourned because the pack became weaker and more susceptible to attacks from other packs or stronger predators. But there would be no stronger pack than his own. He was close to ascending and becoming what would be an alpha in any wild pack, yet he was far from the strongest in his own. The tree-walker had strength and speed he could presently only dream of, and the sky-serpent's power exceeded even hers.

The wing-brother would be missed. But the pack would go on.


Julia didn't blame May for not leaving her room to come to Brendan's battle. Even less when she arrived in the stands to see that the blood from the Makuhita had been allowed to sit and stain the gym's floor, a grotesque smear of dark brown just off center of the indoor battle plot.

Brendan stood confidently in the challenger's box below her vantage point in the stands. His composure was steady, not betraying any hint of his outrage. He was absentmindedly fiddling with his pokeballs, fingers flicking over Salazar and Usopp's in particular.

Julia assumed he was trying to decide which to use first. His Grovyle was unquestionable stronger than the Wingull, but the bird could create space to avoid most of the damage from fighting moves, or just hang back and pepper his opponents with water gun. If she had to guess, Usopp would lead and have Salazar in the back for the second pokemon. A similar strategy to the one Luke had used.

Her brother had mentioned that no matter how well the first battle went, he'd be sending out a fresh pokemon to fight Brawly's second to avoid anything like what happened to their mentor's Tailow.

That's when Brawly entered, walking towards the middle with all the swagger a man in his mid-twenties could summon. He was wearing a carbon copy of the orange tank-top from the previous day to show off his muscled arms but had swapped the sweatpants for a pair of blue athletic shorts. After he and Brendan shook hands and exchanged words nobody in the bleachers could hear, both returned to their boxes.

A Wingull and Machop were sent out simultaneously, and the battle began.

Brendan squatted in his box, and although she couldn't see them Julia was sure his eyes were darting between the pokemon and the other trainer. His mouth never stopped moving, providing the bird with a constant stream of orders and information as it flew in and out of the grey humanoid pokemon's reach, slamming it with jets of water at every opportunity.

It took several minutes for either trainer to change tactics despite neither making any real headway in the battle. The jets of water weren't strong enough to do much more than push the Machop back, and the fighting-type wasn't willing to overextend for risk of a counterattack. It was a defensive showdown, testing both trainers' patience and ability to recognize what could become a stalemate between the two. Whoever changed first would be at the disadvantage based on the other trainer reacting to whatever the new strategy their opponent employed was. And Brawly cracked first.

"Tsuln, seismic toss!"

Brawly's shout could be heard clear across the arena, while Brendan's immediate reply went unnoticed unless you were watching for his lips to move.

The Machop had to jump in an attempt to grab the bird, but Usopp was too fast, slipping out from between the fighting-type's arms. Only to then grab onto its leg to hurl the muscle-bound combatant to the ground. When the bulky pokemon was trying to get up, the Wingull pressed the advantage, slamming into it with his beak, wings, and talons.

Dark blood was leaking from numerous shallow wounds across the Machop's body when Broly finally recalled it. As soon as the referee awarded Brendan the round, a red return beam absorbed Usopp. Brendan wanted to take no chances with his pokemon's safety.

A moment later, a Meditite materialized across from Salazar's emerging body, and Brendan's mouth started moving again.

Unlike the previous bout of two defensive mindsets, both trainers were focusing on offense. The Meditite set up defensive barriers to reduce the damage it was taking, and then started throwing haymakers in an attempt to take the Grovyle out in one shot. Meanwhile, Salazar rushed around all of his enemy's attacks to land fury cutters judging by his movements becoming erratic and more violent.

Then, in an unexpected move, Brawly stepped forward and threw something at the Grovyle's face, causing him to stumble as the dual-type finally landed a hit to Salazar's jaw, just above the neck. Time seemed to slow as the Grovyle was launched into the air, blood and spittle flying from the gecko's mouth, until he crashed to the ground in a heap.

Brendan's mouth was open, but not moving for the first time in the battle. Salazar's ball was in his hand, but he didn't return his starter.

As soon as the Meditite turned away from its opponent to face its trainer, Salazar struck like a gecko from Hell. It wasn't a fury cutter, or an absorb, but he moved like a green streak until he blindsided the smaller pokemon with a vicious clothesline that had it spin a full rotation and a half in the air before it landed on its head, completely unconscious.

Julia's brother finally managed to close his mouth to celebrate with a simple fist-pump as Salazar stumbled back to him, breathing heavily. Brendan stroked his starter's head leaf several times before recalling him into the pokeball stasis.

The two met in the middle of the arena to shake hands again as Brawly presented him the Knuckle Badge he'd earned. All that Julia could think of, however, was how she was going to have to deal with fighting Brawly.


Luke had caught the end of Brendan's battle when he was passing by the battle club on his continuous walk to delay sleep. He wouldn't have even noticed it if Franz hadn't given a happy yip when he saw one of the humans he knew of the screen.

Well, good for Brendan. He kept his team safe and earned the gym badge. Luke would have to congratulate him whenever he saw him next. But if Brendan had already finished with his battle, it meant that Julia's would be in a couple hours, the last battle scheduled before the lunch break.

As he absentmindedly watched the advertisement that popped up on the television when it cut away from the gym, Luke felt a knot of stress uncoil in his stomach. Diminutive compared to the larger whole, but still that much less he needed to worry about. He was relieved that Brendan's team had emerged relatively unscathed, although the blow his Grovyle took was worrisome, and that Brawly hadn't seemed like he'd been trying to kill Brendan's pokemon.

Knowing that Julia still had to battle was hard though. She was a different archetype from either himself or Brendan. Her passivity only ever being interrupted by outbursts of either insight or strategy changes set her apart from her brother, while her lack of basic set-play and structure made her different from him. Luke really hoped her style wouldn't come back to bite her in this battle, given Brawly's casual disregard for leaving his opponents' pokemon alive.

"Hey! You're the guy who battled Brawly last night, right? The one with the Gyarados?" A voice from the battle club's doorway cut through his thoughts.

Luke turned to see the speaker, a teenager who looked just a little too young to get his trainer's license with reddish-brown hair and a stocky build. He was a bit shorter than Luke, probably around 5'5" or so, dressed simply in a black polo tucked into a pair of khakis.

The trainer groaned internally when he processed who the kid was and the likely reason he was announcing his presence. He was going to congratulate, criticize, or apologize for the way Brawly killed Shigure. Or get upset that he beat the gym leader of his town. One of those options.

"Yeah, that's me," The Unovan said with a fake smile, "what's up?"

The blue-eyed boy did not actually want to know what was up and wasn't entirely sure why he even responded to the boy. But he already had, so now it was time to deal with where the storm blew him.

"Dude, you've got to come inside! The me and the others would love to talk to you for a bit." Instead of waiting for a response, the boy took Luke by the wrist and pulled him into the clubhouse, through the main hall, and into a side room that was a lounge judging by the couches, coffee table, televisions, and fridge.

An assortment of people sat on the couches, seven in total, although Luke didn't have the time to process what any of them really looked like before the boy from the front pushed him in front of the main television, obstructing the other peoples' view of the screen.

"Isaac, what are you doing?" A girl with curly red hair asked, moving her head in an attempt to see around him, "The next match is about to start, and I want to see how they go through the first exchange."

"It's all good Stacy," the boy, Isaac, said, "don't you recognize this guy? He's the one from last night with the Gyarados!"

After Isaac said that, Luke suddenly felt eight pairs of eyes on him. He'd literally just been dragged into a clubhouse for some kind of interview or interrogation without his consent. Granted, he could have pulled away from Isaac at any time, but he hadn't and had to deal with it now. Well, he didn't have to, but he would. No point in making a bad reputation worse.

Instead of bolting form the room, Luke stuck one hand in his pants pocket, and raised the other one up in a wave as Franz ran up beside him.

"Yo."

The match on the television was instantly forgotten as the members of the battle fan club started firing questions, and the biases that Luke had been expecting came out. Stacy was ecstatic to meet him and seemed to have nothing but compliments and an apology for what happened to Shigure.

A bald man who looked to be in his thirties scowled and criticized him for a lack of strategy and finesse. He seemed more disappointed in the lack of tactics than in the fact that two pokemon died.

A woman with long blonde hair practically refused to speak to him because Dart killed one of Brawly's pokemon. With no regard for the fact that the Makuhita killed one of his pokemon moments before Luke had summoned the Gyarados.

The others didn't particularly care about him, instead asking them to move out of the way of the television, which they did. Until one of them, a woman with a young face, curious eyes, and short black hair asked a question that made his blood freeze.

"Are you related to the trainer 'Bloody' Williams?"


Julia wasn't sure she was ready to face Brawly. Luke hadn't responded to the messages she sent that morning or the night before after his match, May still hadn't left bed to her knowledge, and Brendan had gone back to stay with and comfort May.

She'd be facing Brawly alone. No support from any of her friends in the crowd, no final words of encouragement before the battle started. Just her and her pokemon against a trainer who'd killed one of Luke's. Normally she was more confident in her pokemon than in herself, but not so for this battle.

The teen knew how well Luke trained and prepared, but even that didn't save Shigure from being killed. She wasn't half the trainer or battler that he was, so how was Julia Carols supposed to win this battle?

As she walked across the arena floor, Julia's right hand found Oliver's pokeball. The Marshtomp was the only pokemon she felt comfortable sending out to battle in the gym. Selina had a type disadvantage and wasn't remotely battle ready. Chocolate was ready to fight but wouldn't be able to take many of the supereffective hits without fainting or worse. Kord's downfall wasn't his type or battle experience, it was his attitude. He just didn't want to fight and as such didn't bother to do so. Zattara, her Abra, had displayed an aptitude for teleporting and nothing else, so he couldn't battle either.

Which left the bulky mudfish she relied on so heavily. Julia knew that Oliver believed there was no enemy he couldn't beat, but she knew that he could lose as easily as any other pokemon against the wrong opponent. Her team didn't exactly offer her any other options though.

Brawly's introduction and handshake barely seemed real to Julia. Everything was slightly out of focus until she arrived back in the challenger's box when everything snapped back to clarity, colors becoming vibrant and edges defined. The knot of anxiety in her stomach loosened as a feeling of resolve spread out from her core as she looked down at Oliver's pokeball.

Oliver hadn't failed yet, and he wouldn't now. Even if she didn't believe in herself, she did need to trust in her pokemon, especially the leader of her team. And if he couldn't win the battle on his own, Kord would get over himself and be the clean-up crew.

At the referee's signal, Oliver appeared from his capsule ready to fight. Just like in Luke and Brendan's matches, Brawly started with a Machop.

Without needing a cue from Julia, Oliver jumped forward, spraying water on the ground between himself and the fighting-type. Then, he waited, keeping the slick floor between himself and his opponent. The Machop was hesitant to approach, but eventually did so.

As soon as the humanoid pokemon set food on the wet area, Oliver launched forward, sliding on his belly to close the distance and tackle it far faster than he would have been able to otherwise. A brief grapple struggle later resulted in Oliver pinning the Machop to the floor and blasting it point blank with a powerful jet of water, knocking it out cold.

The referee called the round for Julia as Oliver came back to her side of the ring, facing the gym leader down. Brawly smiled.

"Your Marshtomp's got guts girl, I like it. He's a brawler through and through, with the strength and skill to back it up. This round's going to be fun."

"You say that," Julia said in a normal speaking voice as Brawly sent out a Makuhita, "but the last time I saw one of those it killed one of my friend's pokemon." Julia's eyes could have been cut from actual steel as she glared at the man across the arena from her. She didn't think he'd be able to hear it, but the sigh he gave off said otherwise.

Oliver was off as soon as the referee announced the start of the battle, covering ground more than twice as fast as the Makuhita as they slammed into each other on Brawly's side of the arena. To everyone's surprise, the fighting-type was sent sliding back a full meter.

Which was just enough space for Oliver to launch another jet of water before attacking the rounder pokemon from the side as it recovered from the water blast. It was a tour de force for her Marshtomp until Broly's pokemon grabbed him.

The image of Shigure's neck being snapped flashed through her mind as a terror flooded her system. Oliver, her starter and protector, being killed in front of her eyes. Oliver, who had killed to keep her alive and safe. The thought alone nearly made her sick.

Then Oliver slammed his rear legs into the fighting-type's thighs, then it's knees, causing them to collapse, allowing him to make an escape. In no time Oliver was all over his opponent again, mixing brutal body-checks with powerful sprays of water.

The battle was still going, but both trainers and most of the spectators knew who was going to win. The gym leader's pokemon was tired and overwhelmed while Oliver, although breathing heavily, never took his fin off the gas.

With a sigh, Brawly returned his pokemon before Oliver could pummel it into unconsciousness and walked forward to meet Julia in the middle.

"Congratulations, you earned the Knuckle Badge. And I am sorry about your friend's Tailow," Brawly said before Julia could get a word out, "but I was just doing as I was told. I pissed a lot of people off with it, breaking league protocol and killing a challenger's pokemon, but I didn't have much of a choice."

Julia glared at him before looking down to his belt and then back to his eyes. "What do you mean you didn't have a choice? You're a gym leader, the only ones that can order you to do anything are the elite four and the champion. Or the mayor of Dewford about something relating to the civilians, but I don't think that applies here."

"I wish," Brawly said with a sigh, "but I can say it wasn't any of them. Nothing more than that though. Especially with the wet season coming up here in a couple weeks. It should have started already, but the fronts haven't gotten here for some reason. Anyway, good luck on the rest of the circuit, have fun."

As Julia returned to the locker room, she couldn't help but feel uneasy about what had happened. A non-league entity telling a gym leader what to do? She had no idea who or what it could be, and she didn't really want to find either.


The next morning, the four teens were back on a Briney Co. ship headed towards Slateport City, the second largest port city in Hoenn, only slightly smaller than Lilycove City on the other side of the region.

As soon as the ship was on the open water, Julia felt better. Her stress about what Brawly had said fell away along with the pressure of having Luke with the group and acting normal again, as though Shigure hadn't just been killed. Frankly, it disturbed her to see him swing from the anger at their argument to the anguish of Shigure's death to return to normalcy as though none of it had happened. After all, just because she felt better didn't mean her curiosity went away, or her concern.

She wanted to get him alone to talk to him but hadn't found a good time to do so. He was almost always either playing cards with the rookies, sleeping, or absorbed by the 'nav he'd criticized so much at first.

Finally, the night before they landed at Slateport, she caught him alone on the deck at sunset. He was leaning on the railing, propped up on his elbows, wavy brown hair that normally came down to his eyebrows blown out of his face by a gentle breeze. He gave her no acknowledgement when she came up beside him, looking out over the orange sea to the dark clouds brewing behind them.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, breaking the silence with what she felt was a safe question to ask. His breathing remained even, and his eyes remained locked on something beyond the horizon. So he had known she was there, despite not acknowledging her presence.

"Eh, I'm alright." He said after a sigh. "Been better, been worse. Gotta say though, I'm not the biggest fan of Dewford. The island or the city."

Then he yawned, stretching his arms as far above his head as they could reach. In no time, Julia was yawning too, slumping forward on the railing. The top half of her body was hanging over the edge, but she didn't mind. Even though she hated being up high and hated looking down from them even more, she was fine looking down at the water below, despite having no idea how deep it was. It was water, not ground or air. She could swim, and Oliver would be able to help her if she did fall.

Luke must have thought otherwise, placing a hand on her shoulder and pulling her torso back over the ship. "Enough stuff has gone wrong recently, let's not tempt fate to throw you off."

She shrugged off his hand before leaning her shoulder into his chest, resting her head on his shoulder. Luke was only a few centimeters taller than her, but the angle she was leaning at made it easy. His breathing was deep and regular, not quite in time to the rocking of the ship. To her surprise, he made no move to push her off or pull away from the contact.

"I wanted to apologize for losing my temper after the cave, and for the argument in general." His words surprised her, mostly because she felt the vibrations coming from his chest as much as she heard the words he spoke. "I should be more honest with you three about things like that, things that can wrap around and affect the entire group. There are still going to be things that I won't talk about, but if it concerns any of you three, I'll tell."

"Waves and winds," Julia said as she straightened, grabbing Luke by the sleeves of his vest as desperation crept into her voice, "we never found Steven to deliver the note! Mr. Stone is going to-"

"He's not going to do anything," Luke said as he pulled her hands from his vest, returning them to her sides before gesturing back towards the distant Dewford, "because I delivered the note while I was off."

Julia slumped back into him as she felt her knees lose strength in relief. He caught her and held her up, holding her slightly away from him until she found her legs again. Steel eyes met blue as she straightened, a smile pulling at the corner of her mouth.

"Carry me?"

"The momentary failure of your legs didn't convince me. Your words will not either."


The tall, dark skinned man finally stepped off the borrowed Mantine that took him across the sea, and onto the beach of Slateport City. Step three, accomplished. Now it was time to move onto the most important step.

Keith was hungry. And nothing would stop him from accomplishing step four: finding food.

As it turned out, getting conflicting sets of directions from a pair of children would stop him from accomplishing step four on time. Even though he hadn't eaten, Keith wasn't too bothered. It was a nice walk.

That's when it happened. He saw the structure that had his salivation. The Seashore Restaurant. A blessed establishment that allowed trainers to battle for their meals instead of paying.

Keith walked into the restaurant and marched up to the counter. The other patrons parted ways for him willingly.

After all, Keith was huge compared to most other people. He stood at 200 cm, nearly 205 if you counted his flat-top, and was built like a tractor, with well developed muscles almost bulging out of his arms.

When he got to the counter, he unbuckled his backpack, set it down next to him, and looked the employee dead in the eyes before speaking in a deep, calm voice.

"Will you help my parents feed me?"

All eyes in the restaurant were on Keith, nobody quite ready to grasp the absurdity of the question he just asked.

"W-would you like to t-try our battle special, s-sir?" The cashier managed to stutter out. This man was seriously freaky. And intimidating.

Without breaking eye contact, Keith nodded his head. The employee reached into a fishbowl nearby and drew out a slip of paper. He calmed down quite a bit when he read the name on it, evident from his sigh of relief.

"Rebecca! You're up for the dinner challenge!"

"Sounds good! I'll meet them out back!" a feminine voice shouted back from the kitchen.

As Keith walked out the back door to the battle plot someone unwrapped a sandwich.

Immediately after the sound was made, the heavy and luxury balls clipped to his belt opened and released a Munchlax and Buneary respectively. The Munchlax looked up at Keith and made grabby hands.

"Not now Boss. Battle, then snack." The blue-furred pokemon looked down dejectedly before stretching his arms up and yawning. Finally, the small pokemon turned and nodded to his trainer. The Buneary seemed like it was giggling.

"Mimi, you can be his tagout, since you're out already." Keith spoke to his pokemon as he walked to his spot of the sandy field, stretching his arms to the sky as his pokemon did their things. Boss sat down and scratched at his stomach while Mimi bounced around happily.

"So, you ready for the dinner challenge?" the feminine voice from earlier shouted across the plot to Keith, cutting his stretching short.

"Yes, I am ready to eat," Keith said confidently as he turned around, still looking to the sky, "that is what I get when I win, right?"

Keith's confidence didn't slip when he looked down and saw Rebecca. Definitely not his confidence. Only his focus on the battle that was about to sent out something, some pokemon, Keith wasn't paying attention. Instead, he just shooed his Munchlax forward, his eyes never leaving this Rebecca person. He trusted Boss' training, abilities, and instincts. Well, maybe not the last one, since his first instinct was always to eat and his second one was to sleep. Not unlike his trainer.


Enter Keith. I have fun with Keith. Keith is fun, and the character would appreciate that.

As always, huge thanks to maycontestdrew for the reviews!

In general, I'd like to have more reader interaction, feedback, and engagement though, since I only really get to hear a handful of people's opinions on this story when I know there are more of you out there. SO! What would you like to see me do more of, either in the story or author's notes? What would you like to see less of? I'm a curious guy, let me know! Plus, since you've all been either bored or kind enough to give my story a look-see, I'd like to do something back.

Anyways, I'll be gone until I'm back again. Stay safe y'all.