I Don't Own Pokemon

Returning back to Liberty Garden was a thing in of itself, it lead to many thoughts I would have later on, would spark the beginnings of a drive in me that I would later use for the rest of my life. It would take a good while for it all to come to head of course, but it would, and it would be the single most defining moment of my life, besides maybe my choice to go to The Liberty Academy perhaps, but that's a question for another day.

"Cole!" I turned around and already had an arm out. Vale just sort of half hugged me for a moment before pulling away as we shared a grin before he turned to give Khione a grin as well. I kept her out but let Charon stay in his pokeball. I was use to him being out but figured it'd be best for him to adjust being in there as well, though Iris was still just floating about as Vale turned to him and smiled to the phone and said.

"Hi Iris, I'm Vale, it's nice to meet you" Iris buzzed a bit as a green thumbs up showed up on the phone screen as Vale nodded back.

"Glad to see your as excitable as ever" Vale just huffed before taking a step back, I was fine with him being in my personal space, but he was still nice enough to not crowd around me as I watched him roll his eyes as we turned and headed to the boat to get back to the island.

"Come on, its just nice to be back. I kind of missed it all" I nodded, I sort of got it, but I already had my own problem with that idea not to long ago so I didn't prod much further.

"Even with your room mate being a massive dickhead?" Vale rolled his eyes again, which said something about how used to my cursing he's gotten that he didn't go red anymore. Or at least he was use to me bashing Tomson, which I did, often... What? The guys a prick.

"Tomson's not that bad, we just don't talk much, if you didn't antagonize him so much he'd probably even be nice" I didn't believe that for a second.

"He's been in a terrible mood since the moment we got to the island, I don't see why it's my fault to call him out on it" Vale gave me a look at that.

"You know your not the best either right? Who knows how many times I've caught you sulking" That just wasn't fair.

"Ok, I actually have reasons for my quickly declining mental health I'll have you know!"

"Yeah? What did you jump out another window?" I shouldn't... I really really shouldn't... But his face when I tell him though...

"I mean, the window was already broken, and the other one was me jumping into it, not out of so I don't know if it counts" What? I'd tell him eventually, it wasn't that big of a deal, plus I kind of just want him to know anyway, it felt nice to talk about what happened in Castilla with him, so maybe letting him know about Clockower would be nice to. We didn't really talk much about anything when we were texting, you know, using a whole lot of words with nothing being said. It was like that.

Admittedly, a large reason was because I was hoping that Iris would take a picture of that moment when Vale froze in place for a second before turning to look at me like he wasn't sure if he should be taking me seriously or not. The look on my face must have given him the answer to that question as he slowly took in a long breath, then said.

"Excuse me?" I just shrugged.

"So you remember how I said I met Iris and Charon by helping them out right?" Vale stared at me for a long moment, before tilting his head to the side as he gave me that look where his eyebrows furrowed as he gave me an almost pleading look.

"You didn't right?" I glanced away, trying really hard to not to laugh a bit because that look was just not fair, he looked like a cat who just got told he was about to be forced in a bath.

"Did what?" He sighed.

"Did something stupid where you could have gotten really hurt because someone was doing something to threaten a Pokemon?" I mean, when he put it like that it did sound a bit reckless. Personally I'm just really glad I got the patches off my face so he didn't see them. I didn't scar up either which was ok.

"Define stupid? Cause I had a whole plan and personally I think it worked out pretty well. Only one person shattered a bone and I only broke two windows... and a building, but that's not important" It was weird, I didn't see a reason to talk about it much before now, personally I kind of got annoyed when one of the people in the town talked about it all, because what did they know? But I did want Vale to know, cause I... I guess cause I wanted to know what he thought about it.

I cared about what he thought, yeah that's it.

So maybe that's why I couldn't hold back the small snicker at the look of genuine, 'what the fuck', on his face. Then he blinked a bit before frowning, looking actually... something, I wasn't sure what the word for it was.

"A house? What happened? Was the person ok? Are you ok? That sounds a lot more dangerous than you just punching someone" I blinked, before grimacing a bit to myself. Forcing the sounds of screams out of my head as well as all the guilt at what I had basically done to the building out of my head as I glanced over at Iris.

"Iris recorded it, I uh. It was a lot I guess, but it's fine. I already worked something out for the house and it's not like the guy didn't deserve it" Vale frowned at that.

"Deserved it or not, it sounds like he got really hurt, that's not ok Cole" I blinked, glancing at Vale as I noted Iris was bringing up the video, I waving the Pokemon off, he could watch it water if he really wanted to, but this was a bit more important.

"He'll be fine, I don't get what the big deal is" I ignored the memory of that stinging instant of panic that the idea I could have killed him, and instead just pushed that all the way down as Vale shook his head.

"Dude, it's not alright to just hurt whoever just because they did something wrong. I mean, I get it, and it might be necessary but you shouldn't act like it's nothing" Nothing? It wasn't nothing, I had to fling myself off the side of a building because of that asshole, Pokemon almost lost their home, and possibly my life! I was there when I thought about what could have happened, I knew it wasn't nothing!

"I know it wasn't nothing, I was there. I... It doesn't matter, I get it, but it could have gone worse, besides the guy's getting treated. He'll be fine" It was weird, normally when confronted about something I'd puff up and get angry and just be to stubborn to bother listening to them... I guess I was getting somewhere with my temper, or maybe it's just I really didn't want to get mad at Vale.

He didn't get it, and that was... fine. A lot of people didn't get a lot of things that I do. Their minds just didn't work like mine, it was understandable. It's just... it kind of felt bad in a way. That little reminder that I really was just stuck being me, the person I doubt anyone would really and truly understand, really fucking sucked and dropped my mood like an anvil.

"Still... I guess you would know. Come on, let's just get on the boat" I sighed but nodded, kind of happy the conversation had died out, which was weird but I didn't care right now, it was fine.

"Yeah let's go" The awkward silence filled the air as I shifted about, having no idea what the hell I was suppose to do, everything else I did on break was related to what happened at that mansion, and I really didn't want to tell Vale I just casually signed away a few thousand dollars like it was nothing to pay for the reconstruction of half the building. Well, not causally, I had a near yell match with a stubborn old man to get the proper routes for trade open so I could buy the materials that were requested.

Business is a pain in the ass, and I hate every moment of it.

"What's happening?" I glances over at Vale who looked confused towards the boat, moving out of my own thoughts as I let my ears focus in on the sounds as I titled my head before looking up at the continuing welling mass of kids and teens at the ramp up to the boat... But no one was actually moving up.

I let my mind extend a bit as I felt out the area, before getting a general picture.

There were two men stopping access to the boat, people weren't happen, most of the students were complaining, the two men where shouting about order and stuff... Madison was also approaching from the side and about to ask for an answer, but I can't hear exactly whet they're saying. To far away and way to many voices to sort them all out.

"Iris, look into my emails, see if the bordering process was changed and I just missed it" I didn't, there was dozens of students in front of me, literally hundreds in fact, and they all were going to the same elite school, it would be ridiculous for them all to make the same mistake. Besides, Iris liked keeping me up to date with my emails, mostly since a lot of the business stuff was sent there for me to look over and approve for the reconstruction.

"None. Found" I nodded a bit and frowned. Vale moved up a bit and tried to ask one of the people what was happening, but the student just ignored his basically. Ignoring the want to break the man's knees, I turned back to Iris and asked mostly to check.

"Check news articles about a place called Liberty Garden, and or about Liberty Academy" Iris bobbed a bit, which was how he nodded, while Vale moved back, pouting a bit at being blown off but not that upset.

"Information. Found"

I frowned and turned as Iris moved into my hand as Vale moved and leaned over my shoulder, sort of, he wasn't tall enough for that so he was half way moved past my shoulder to see. Normally I would have given him time to read along with me, but I was to curious as the moment, and as such my eyes zipped around the new page that Iris had brought up, scrolling down much faster than Vale had any chance of reading at.

The article was... informative, there was a break in on the island, not a big one where something was stolen. Honestly it was weird, the school or the Pokemon weren't even touched, it was the lighthouse of all things that was attacked. Guards that were patrolling the place, more skeleton crew than actual security, found the people who were breaking in, and managed to run them off, but not before a battle broke out, one was lightly injured and the other is currently in the ER undergoing surgery.

It was bad then, there was a full on investigation going on at the moment, which was probably why we were being barred from going to the island, a bunch of teenagers probably weren't the best to not have evidence messed with... Still, we should have been told something...

"Hey, stop being smart, I can't read that fast" I blinked and turned back to Vale who was pouting still.

"Oh right, well there was a break in at that old lighthouse about a week ago, the police are looking into it, it's probably why no one's allowed on the island at the moment. Hopefully it's just a conflict of interest and the school with get us sorted before long" Vale frowned at that.

"A break in? What would someone want with the lighthouse?" I shrugged.

"No idea. Whatever it was they were looking for, they got caught and ran before they could get it" Vale still looked a bit distraught at the idea though.

"Still, that's kind of scary, the idea some people could just show up while we're there" I wasn't sure if I wanted to say anything or not, comfort wasn't my thing, but I still said.

"Eh, we'll be fine, they'll boost security there after this, not to mention it's a Pokemon academy, half the teachers on staff have fully evolved Pokemon, the guards had like herdiers. It's why they tried it when the island wasn't full of trainers, now that everyone's back? No chance" Vale seemed to think it over before nodding, put at ease a bit, while I gave myself a pat on the back in congratulations at my expert abilities in simple communication. I was getting ok at this!

"Yeah, your right... Huh" I turned my eye to the direction in which Vale had been looking and watched in a bit of surprise as Tomson stood there, looking up at the boat, with a glare on his face, like an actual one.

The dude had resting bitch face, he always looked pissed off, and his face would scrunch up when he got angry. I would know, I liked making him angry, but this? It was something else all together, their was actual rage in those pools of black that was his eyes.

I knew that look, I had it on my face often growing up and was scolded on it more than once by a number of manner instructors. It was the unbridled fury that came with being confined in a box by someone else.

For the first time I wondered just what Tomson's story was.

Cause something must be going on to put a stick up the guys ass, and doubly for that look... I pushed the thoughts away, it didn't really matter, honestly I was more interested in the lighthouse thing right now more than anything, because that was weird, and if I've learned anything in the last few days, it's that I loved a mystery about an old building, and that lighthouse was pretty old so I sho-

"Oh motherfucker" Vale jumped a bit as I cursed as a number of eyes zoomed at me in slight contempt or annoyance. I held back the want to flip them off and instead of remembered that I had been so busy over the end of the break that I never got the chance to actually go back and investigate the mansion! I never figured out the mystery! It just completely slipped my mind because there were other things in the fore front of my mind at the time.

"What?" I turned my attention back to Vale, and did no in fact pout, but I admit my shoulders slumped and I was feeling a bit dejected.

"Just remembered I forgot to do something and now I don't have the chance anymore" That really sucked... Well whatever, I can't really do anything about it right now... maybe I could have the crew coming in take pictures of the place, I never did manage to get into one of those rooms, there might be something in there... In the mean time though, I have an itch for something so I just turned to look at Vale and asked

"What do you think the chances are I can out detective the police and figure out what those criminals were looking for?" I'm pretty sure I'm smarter than most adults already, so I could probably manage something, and I was a very quick study, I'm sure I could figure out the basics of police work in a few hours. It's just a mindset more than anything, it couldn't be that hard.

"Your kidding right?" I turned to stare blankly at Vale who took one look at me before sighing.

"The police are trained professionals, and we're not allowed by the lighthouse" I just blinked and continued to stare at him as Khione turned her head away from the crowd and did the same, the matching looks made his face scrunch up.

"Stop making that face!" I, in the end, did not stop. Vale threw his hands up into the air, sighing.

"Why are you like this?!" I did answer that one.

"You never did answer the question" He sighed as he hunched over a bit, as I felt a smile pull a bit on my face as I watched his shoulders shake a bit as he tried to keep it in, before eventually he broke an let out a laugh before sighing, looking put out and fond.

"What did I do in my past life to get a crazy friend like you?" I shrugged.

"Probably something terrible, but I think I'm good company" He laughed a bit more before nodding.

"Yeah I guess... I don't think you'll find anything new that they wouldn't find, your smart but... no, still it would be kind of fun I guess to see what happened" Yes! I knew I'd be able to get to him. He acts like he's this paragon of good decision making and virtue lawabiddingness, and honestly, for that second one he's a hell of a lot better than me, but he's my best friend for a reason. Because he actually finds my rants about random stuff interesting, meaning he likes the idea of learning or being curious enough to look into something as well! Perhaps no where near as much as I do without thinking about it, but it's still there.

"Exactly! A few more things like this and I'll have successful moved you to the dark side" Vale snorted at that.

"Dark side? You mean being a bit to morally grey to be heathy?" I mean, yeah, that's basically my life, a bit to much to be mentally heathy was a perfect summary of my existence. I was about to make a joke about that, when over some PA system.

"All those boarding at Gate C-15 for Liberty island, there will be a two hour delay, then boarding will begin" I listened to the exact same groan from over a hundred teens and preteens ring out as I listened to the message play again as I hummed to myself. Khione leaning back to try and find the speaker that was... forty feet to my left and about fifteen feet behind me. Another was sixty feet in the same dimensions but to my right instead.

"Well that sucks" I just nodded, but instead of bitching I turned my head and waved for Vale to follow.

"Yeah, but that just means we have some time to kill. Let's see if we can find some of our friends and get some lunch and sit around. You could tell me a bit more about what your family got up to while the rest catch up" He nodded, smiling a bit at the idea as we moved about, loaded backpacks on our backs still as we walked , Iris being the best phone he could be, had already begun looking up places nearby.

"Hey Richard, Jenni" I have a half nod to the two as I saw them, Vale on my right as we moved about the lunch room. The two just sort of awkwardly stood there, well, Richard did, Jen just sort of half glared at me, more I think out of habit at this point then her actually disliking me, as I gave them a nod before walking past. I had already talked to Richard of course when we got back.

We actually meet up with him on the docks while waiting and managed to find Jan and Jen then as well. It was neat, having all my friends together in the same spot, but also a bit awkward as well in a way even if we all could admit it was fine and a bit of fun.

Everyone got along with Vale of course, but that's a given, but Richard was of course awkward with the hyperness of Jan, Jen didn't like me and was to shy or something to really talk much, Jan sort of overpowered Vale a bit to much when we all tried to have a discussion, and I sort of noticed I kept falling back into roles, which made everyone look at me funny when I'd mutter something back and forth with Richard before switching and getting into a good natured but loud argument with Jan before moving on to having a light and peaceful chat with Vale.

I hadn't even noticed it much before Jen glared at me half way through when I was changing out how I was interacting with them all just a bit. It was a weird thing to catch myself doing, but it wasn't that big of a deal. It's just how I interact with people, has been since I was born basically, either that or I was taught it, but it's just who I was now, besides everyone acts a bit different around different people. Right? It's dumb to think your the same all the time no matter what.

Personal biases or wanting to be respectful to certain people or a number of other things effect how we are all the time when we talk to people, you'd talk to your brother differently then you would your boss or your kid after all. I think Jen just liked a reason to glare at me, but it was something I noticed all the same at the time, and, well, it was enough to think about it this much I guess.

"I don't really get how your friends with that guy sometimes, he's so quite and nice and reserved... and your not" I huffed a bit as Vale made that observation as we sat down at a table with lunch trays in hand. The food here was still ab it weird, but I had long since gotten use to the portions and made sure to always usually either ask for smalls or mediums because I still couldn't image eating as much as some of the other people around us.

"I don't see why we wouldn't get along, he's really smart and it's nice to be able to just talk about theory with him, even if we focus on different areas usually, he's a really good guy to just hang around with and get ideas from" Vale rolled his eyes at that

"I can't tell if you just called me and everyone else stupid or not" I snorted before snarking out.

"That's cause I was. No offense of course" I gave him a grin at that, and he knew I was joking enough to just smile back a bit good naturedly at the light jab.

"Yeah yeah, you geniuses need to stick together before the rest of us normal people rise up and take over" I rolled my eyes but didn't comment.

We just sat around for a while after that, it was no big thing to bother with, I didn't se a need to talk, our Pokemon were currently in their pokeballs, as much as I loved my Pokemon I was still a bit introverted from spending my entire life by myself basically until a few months ago, and so I did need some times to just be alone, sure I still had Vale but I also had been around my Pokemon for the last two weeks of break basically so I still liked the minor break from it all.

Besides, both me and Vale could just sit around and not talk and be fine, it wasn't like conversation was required right now so we just let it be... I'm pretty sure Vale was an extrovert, with how outgoing and easy to make friends as he is, but he was good at just chilling as well which was nice.

Of course those thoughts about how I could just relax without any communication went right out the window as Vale spoke up to start a conversation.

"Uh, hey, by the way. Remember when you met my Dad?" I blinked, because it was either that or show just how panicked I was at that, he hadn't brought it up in the last two days since we returned and I kind of had been hoping he's just not mention it. I guess I wasn't that lucky.

"Yeah, it was quite memorable when he practically drooled in my face about the idea you were dating, which was really weird by the way" Vale winced at that a bit, as I tried to not smack myself for being an asshole, but that really was what I remember the most about the conversation, it had been really weird and had pissed me off a bit at the time.

"Right, sorry about that, it's just one of my older cousins, remember the ones who are already in their twenties? Well one of them is having a kid soon, and well, I guess my dad is just really excited about the idea of being a granddad, he knows he's going overboard, but seeing my cousin get married apparently set him off on the idea and he get's really excited about that sort of thing" I just felt my face shift into confusion, cause I did not get it at all. It sounded really stupid in my opinion. Vale just sort of laughed a bit at the look it was awkward but there.

"Right, you still see everyone as meat bags right? You really couldn't have called my dad something else?" Oh, right, glob of meat were my exact words I believe. I just shrugged.

"I mean, yeah cause it's true. Everyone's like that for me" I thought about it for a second, before continuing, mostly lying right now, but I wanted to say something for a bit now and this would work out "Personally I'm pretty curious about it all. I got a bet with Khione and Charon actually about which side I'm going to fall on. I personally don't care but Charon's going for Bi and Khione thinks I'm to boring to be anything but straight which is so rude. I'm very interesting thank you very much!.. I should ask what Iris thinks at some point, he's the one who took the bets"

I thought about that for a second, before deciding it would be neat to actually do that, cause it was an interesting thought, I didn't get it, still found the whole idea of it all to be gross on all sides, but when I didn't, it would interesting to look back on it and see what my thoughts were back then. Plus I might get bragging rights over my Pokemon which would be funny.

I tuned back into reality when Vale balked a bit and just stared at me for a long moment, his eyes doing that little back and forth thing people did when they were trying really hard to figure something out after being surprised. I just waited. Already having an idea about what it was about, and why I had moved the topic here anyway. I wasn't going to force anything, but I've recently figured out getting validation on something is kind of really nice.

Plus I really wanted to keep away from the idea of him asking why I was acting so weird. I didn't mind explaining I could be nice to give good impressions when I wanted, but I didn't want to really think about where those questions could continue to later on.

"Y-you... You just don't care?" He sounded like the idea of it was foreign and had no idea what to do with it, I just shrugged, stating my honest opinions on the matter.

"Should I? Guys, girls, if I end up with a preference, it's whatever. Doesn't change anything about me, so all I'll be figuring out is what I like looking at more. It's literally just a preference thing, nothing wrong with any of the options" Unova was making stride to all that recently which was cool, but being honest here, once again I would like to say Sinnoh is just better about it. Like, no one gives a shit about that sort of thing, as long as you don't force it on someone then hardly matters what you do or who you like.

Still, Vale looked a bit star struck at the idea, which honestly just made me sad. I didn't like that this wasn't just common, it was honestly just annoying. Because I just didn't get why it mattered in the first place. It's not like anything crazy about it, I mean, it's hardly the same as something like me with my attention disorder, that's actually something wrong and I have to constantly get annoyed at myself to keep on top of it, but even then that was a personal thing damn it!

"I- Thanks Cole" I just blinked and shrugged.

"Your welcome? No idea what I did but alright I guess" I knew exactly what I was doing, but like my thing with my fucking mental disorder that I still fucking hated to think about so much, it was a personal thing and I would have hated it if someone butted it and just tried to make me talk about it myself... It wasn't the same obviously, I just made that point, but the fact it was personal was close.

Vale has done a fuckton for me, like, I'm a pain in the ass and he just puts up with it because he's awesome, so something like this is the least I could do to help him out without being even more of an ass and pry into it.

"Oof" I grunted in annoyance as I twisted a bit as my shoulder was rammed into by some second or third year as I turned and gave the dickhead dude a glare. Said guy seemed completely fine with glaring right back, as he stumbled back a bit from the impact like a wimp, though I did notice the fact that he was pretty damn tall.

"Watch where your going idiot" I blinked at that as I felt Jan bristle up to my side as I took a deep breath, trying to reel back the worse comments I could make, before giving into the snark, saying.

"For calling me an idiot you sure don't know how to walk" He literally had turned and shoulder checked me, I would have fucking noticed if he hadn't been meaning to do that or not, because, well. I'm fucking me, I always notice shit like that, so if he wanted to start something then I was down to throw down. He just glared down at me as I glared right back up at those brown eyes.

"What are implying shrimp" Oh fuck this guy.

"I'm implying your a dumbass incapable of basic manners, you ran into me, so how about you just walk away before this becomes a scene" We just glared at each other before Jan grabbed onto my arm and pulled on it a bit, she wasn't near strong enough to actually drag me off if she wanted to, but I got the message as I took a deep deep breath, trying to get my temper back down, because I was annoyed and I didn't want to punch some teenager right now.

"Come on, let us not waste our time with this rude dude" I took a deep breath again before nodding, turning away from the guy as he just snorted.

"Guess your lucky your girlfriend saved you from getting hit" Oh the things I wanted to say. I clenched my teeth and left with one last remark

"Not my girlfriend, but with how many friends you probably have, I get why you'd get confused, you probably never got to figure out the difference" I didn't know the difference, but fuck him as I could practically feel the rage pooling off him as we walked away. I just muttered under my breath "Fucking asshole"

Jan just snorted.

"Yeah, but you shouldn't fight him, that guy's bad news. His name is Aydan Grimes He's some third year jock nerd who get's all pissy when people do better than him at stuff" I raised an eyebrow at that as Jan shrugged. "What? I talk to a lot more people than you because I'm actually capable of having more than like five friends"

"Ok, no matter how accurate, that's just rude" She just snickered a bit but I let it go, as I turned and glanced back down the hall, the guy was gone, that was just weird and annoying.

"So what, he has a hate boner for me because I'm the smartest person in the school?" She shrugged, though she did grin a bit at the crass words.

"I guess? I mean, you are the smartest person in our year, that midterm placement test even showed that. A ninety-eight average on eight subjects, by the way, which is just stupid" Oh right, that happened. I'mma be honest, I'm so done with school, I just kind of just show up and do whatever they put in front of me and that's about it, which is why I hate projects, cause I actually have to pay attention then.

"I think you mean smart" She huffed.

"Nope, definitely stupid, if you didn't bring up the curve so much I think a few of the other nerds in this school would have had a revolt against you, because you act like you don't care" That's because I really didn't care, at all. I just did the work so I didn't get bitched at by my parents later on or have to deal with Vale looking at me disappointed. Beyond that I didn't see a reason to bother with school, much less bother trying that hard at it, while everyone else just slaved away at books for some reason.

"Charon Ember behind now! Khione Quick Attack right!" I watched as Charon spun, his wick blazing to life as a blast of purple flame shot towards Khione who was surrounded by a silvery white energy as she blasted to the side before shooting forwards to impact against Charon, using Foresight to make sure she'd hit as I called out.

"Now Charon Will-O-Wisp rapid-fire !" Charon's wick flickered before motes of that purple flame shot out right in Khione's path as I watched as she managed to just barely cut her own momentum of her move off to slide past the first one, and barely managed to hop the second before hitting hit straight on with the three wave as I held back from instantly calling the match out of half panic, instead I took a deep breath and called out.

"Full throttle Metal Claw. Charon Dodge" It was a chess game in my own mind, I knew what they were capable of, of how fast they were, how quickly they could react, how strong their moves were. I knew how this battle would turn out, but I kept going, it was for experience for them both, they countered each other to perfectly to just have them train on their own, and they both had such determination to get stronger, that I couldn't hope to stand in the way, so I just helped out.

Still, the image in my head played out the exact way I knew it would, as Khione was simply way to fast to be dodge yet by Charon, who cried out as the hit slammed into his side, flinging him into the air, because even at half strength because of the Burn, Khione was much stronger than the small candle Pokemon, I took a second to wait for the impact to dull before calling out.

"Follow up Khione. Telekensis block Charon" Khione blasted forwards with a Quick Attack as I watched as a large-ish rock flung up, a faint purple aura around it, as it was thrown right in the way of Khione who cried out in shock before slamming into it, causing a cloud of smoke puffing up as I called out right after.

"Charon Ember, Khione Icy Wind to dodge" I kept watching, as a blast of purple flames slammed right through the dust cloud right as I watched as Khione just barely got clipped by the flames as a wave of icy air currents pushed her out of the way of the main blast.

I had to give it to Charon, he could only battle at this level for a few minutes, but he's Special attack was something impressive even without that much training, Khione was still stronger of course, but Charon had a lot of potential.

That much was obvious as I watched as Khione, who had been burned for at least a good minute now, continued to glare ahead, after taking a Fire type attack almost head on, as she landed on the ground while Charon, who was panting and clearly nearly wiped out with how tired he looked, continued to float up in the air. He had only been hit twice but he was almost down. Time to end it for both of them so I can give them a spray down of potion and get to more general training.

"Khione Quick Attack into Metal Claw. Charon, Ember, direct it with Telekinesis!" It was two combinations to boost their power. For Khione, it increased just how fast she was as she slammed her claws into her opponent, while for Charon, who had an issue of aiming, it let him have much finer control over his attacks at the cost of his energy, but he was already on fumes, there was no point in holding back as I watched the sight as it came to an end.

It was about what I expected as Khione tensed her body before blasting forwards, her body glowing with that silver aura as she, in a few moments, had rushed up a tree, her claws beginning to glow white as she shot up into the air at Charon who was gathering a ball of his fire in front of him, the flames glowing a bright purple, almost blue color, before blasting it forwards, the fire twisting and shooting right at Khione.

I just watched as Khione seemed to twist, before slashing as hard as she could into the flames, and just like I suspected, a large couth of the flames were blasted away from her strength, as she continued, still going up from her jump, then she was at CHaron's level, her claw straight up and ready to bring down on the Ghost type. The Pokemon to tired to do anything to defend himself as I called out instantly.

"Stop! That's enough" And just like that Khione reacted instantly, her claw losing it's glow as she sort of rammed into Charon, but not hard enough to knock the Pokemon out as the two fell and landed on the ground as I just nodded to myself. They were getting there... But for right now, I pulled out a Full Heal from my pocket, cause Khione was still Burned.

"Good job you two" The both cheered a bit as I worked on their injuries. It was a stressful way to train to be honest with you, and terrible for my heart, but I couldn't argue with the results.

Everyone is valid blah blah, your fine how you are, blah blah. Cool, that out of the way, fine enough chapter, introducing the plot line for the rest of the year with the first portion, and the rest was just there as filler and stuff. Showing off a minor battle, sort of, and showing how Charon currently stands in relation to Khione as well as some other things. Like the thing with Vale, which was the whole valid joke at the start of this end note, but still. I just wanted to put that there. Cause like, this is going to get a bit real so skip to the line break for more plot relevant talk if you want, but I've never dealt with any form of internalized homophobia, I've always been a bit to good at just accepting things, even faults to the point that I didn't think of trying to work to better myself for a long time, but that's not what I'm getting at. I grew up in the south in America, I know how weird it can be at time, even if no one is saying it directly, it's the preconceived notion that this is how it is, it's one guy and one girl, and nothing else is even considered, and that can fuck you up a bit when it feels like the whole world doesn't consider what your thinking about as any sort of option. Vale's still young, and very confused about everything, I doubt he has it all sorted out himself or has come to any real answer right now about his own identity, but that doesn't mean that after dealing with that that when suddenly someone close to you just causally mentions that the thing your struggling to put words on it completely ok, expected and normal? Well, it's something I've seen cause a great deal of relief over, and honestly, I'm doing this early on cause I don't want Vale to have to deal with that, cause it fucking sucks, so Cole is going to be a great and supportive friend cause fuck you I want it that way basically.

Now, that rant out of the way, talk about the plot. This... won't be as long, but I just want to mention that I fucking love this story so far, but god damn is it slow as a rock, like seriously, this is the slowest story I've ever written and then some. But I wanna start speeding things along to the interesting things, which is what's been happening, the plot is getting faster basically, in the last few chapters we've had a break in, talk of exploring it, capturing a new Pokemon, having a chase scene, and the furthering of character development along with a nice sprinkling of foreshadowing... Basically in the last three chapters, more has happened that the last ten before it. I want to keep that momentum, cause while this story has already been stated to be pretty slice of life right now, I did also mention in the summary -which by the way this site fucking sucks about summaries, I barely have enough room to get the basic idea of this story across ad the tags fucking suck- that this story was very action packed with crazy shit happening all the time. And well, we're getting to that finally, or at least the beginning portions. I kind of need the build up in threats otherwise it's going to school for a few months then fighting gods for no reason. There has to be a power scale basically... Anyway, I've somehow broke my word and made this rant go on for even longer so cutting it here. See ya.