"Thanks… I'm going to go now." Matthew passes by a man who looked dejected that his moves towards Matthew were promptly rejected, even after a battle.

"Damn it… What did I do wrong? All of those moves worked before. Why didn't they work now?" The man pondered to himself as he falls to the ground.

'Maybe you shouldn't be such a gosh darn creep… Or the fact that I'm not gay.' Matthew thinks to himself as he walks through the city. 'Well. At least the guy was nice enough to give me the directions towards the train station. Huh? There's a worker… He's blocking the entrance.'

The worker notices Matthew walking over towards him. "Sorry kid. There's a power failure. You got to wait before you can ride the train to Route 1."

"Huh? Then… Have you seen a girl named Melia? I was supposed to meet her." Matthew says looking around.

"Jenner's daughter? After she heard that the power was out, she immediately ran off towards the east parts of the city." The worker states.

"Oh really? Alright. Thank you. Hope this isn't a big failure." Matthew turns around and walks a few steps before immediately stopping in his tracks. He turns around with a slight chuckle. "Would it be possible if you had directions here?"

"Huh? I mean sure. But it should be on your CyberNav." The worker states taking out a small device.

"CyberNav? I thought it was just a special device for listening to music." Matthew takes out the CyberNav that's connected to his headphones. He scrolls a bit through it as it connects to a public Gearen City network. Almost immediately, it shows a map of the whole city. "Oh wow. This is really convenient. How have I never noticed this?"

"It's a new thing that the Blakeory's made just for new people coming into Aevium. Ya don't have to worry about being stuck."

"Really. That's actually quite neat! Thanks a lot!" Matthew looks through a bit of the map before pocketing it and walks off.

"How funny. You rarely see kids his age be polite." The worker ruffles his hair.

Pokemon Rejuvenation: Interceptor

By: NexusMHX

Chapter 4: Shiny Poison

"Stop trying to hit on me! I'm underaged!" Matthew yells out towards another guy as he lets out a sigh. He decided to let Alister outside his Pokeball for a little while as he sits on Matthew's head, listening to some classic rock music coming from his CyberNav. "I swear. Sinnoh was so much more pleasant than this place."

Matthew walked through a small area filled with people trying to sell in vendors. Matthew took a look through some stuff, buying simple items like canned food, for himself and Alister, and other such. He had an allowance from Nancy that he has never used in his life until now. So it was better now than any. He leaves the shopping area to hear a faint sound of music. As he walked through the street, the music became louder until he eventually reached a small house sitting in the middle of the street. He thought it was just nothing special until he heard a booming voice of authority yelled out louder than the music that sent a chill down Matthew's spine.

"Veronica, turn that MUSIC down this instant!" The voice of authority yells out.

"WAIT, THE BEAT IS ABOUT TO DROP." The girl probably named Veronica yells back.

"I've had enough of your insolent bantering and noise pollution!" The voice yelled out. "The neighbors are furious! The police have come to this house at least THREE TIMES THIS WEEK!"

"SCREW THE POLICE!" Veronica yells out with Matthew kinda understanding what was going on. He starts to walk away, not wanting to be rude by listening over a parent and child discussion. He walks away, with a yawn before the music suddenly stops and a loud crash appears from behind him. He immediately looks over to see a girl with long purple hair had crashed from the roof and toppled into the ground. Almost immediately, Matthew runs over to the girl as she groans in pain.

"Are you alright?! Hey! Say something!" Matthew gets on his knees, shaking Veronica, seeing if she was alright.

"It looks like… I've been totally wounded." Veronica groans in pain. "That awful old wretch… she's gone too far this time. Listen, this is the end… I need to ask a favor of you… A Pecha Berry… from The Berry Emporium. I need to taste a Pecha Berry one last time before I go… Please."

The request was so sudden to Matthew, not as sudden as this whole scene taking place. His first thought should have been to call an ambulance. Yet he wasn't even thinking, Matthew immediately ran over towards the Berry Emporium. Luckily it was not that far from here. He was almost out of money from all of the supplies but he had enough for a few Pecha Berries. After buying it, he immediately runs over and hands it over to Veronica.

"Th-Thank you… Even though we've just met, it feels like we've been friends for a lifetime..." Veronica states as she slowly eats the Pecha Berry. Matthew stands up, looking over Venam. "But this is the end for me… I can see the light on the horizon. I-If only I was able to have one last Oran Berry too..."

Suddenly, something clicked inside Matthew's head. It took a second, almost like a clock ticking towards an alarm. 'The light on the horizon' was a phrase commonly said in movies and such. But never actually something a person would say as their last words. From that, Matthew realized properly. 'This girl was full of shit.'

"Yeah, uh, you can leave whenever you want. S-Seriously… You don't have to just stand there. Just let me die alone..." Veronica grunts. Matthew raises his eyebrow as he crosses his arms. Veronica takes a quick peek before sighing. "You're not buying this for a second, huh?"

"Light on the horizon? I almost bought it. Till that." Matthew chuckles.

"All right, all right… I'll give it up." The girl stands up while stretching. "Sup, the name's Venam. Remember it."

"I thought it was Veronica… From all the yelling. How did you survive all that?" Matthew questions looking over Venam with a troubled look. She took a blow that blew a hole on her roof and fell down to the ground, yet without a single scratch on her which troubled Matthew a great deal amount.

"It's Venam. Call me Veronica and you'll need more than an Oran Berry to heal your wounds." Venam laughs with Matthew letting out a nervous chuckle. "And don't worry about this. I get kicked out by my mom all the time. It happens on a weekly basis so I'm not too concerned. I play music too loud, I get kicked out, and then I get some poor sap to buy me free food. So does that mean you're the poor sap this time around?"

"I guess so…" Matthew states with a dry voice.

"I'm just teasing you! You don't have to look at me like that." Venam states. "Uh…"

"Matthew…" Matthew answers.

"Matthew. Why don't you come hang out with me and my friends?" Venam states with a smile. "I promise you it'll be fun. My friends are more responsible than me so it won't go bad. We usually hang out south from here. If you don't show up I'll find you and demand that you buy me more food and I assure you that I have expensive tastes all around."

"If I'm paying, I'll choose the food." Matthew gave a snarky comment with Venam chuckling.

"Hilarious, man. Hilarious. I like you already!" Venam laughs, walking away, leaving Matthew by himself. He looks up at the hole in the roof before shrugging.

"South from here? What's over there?" Matthew wonders to himself as he goes down the path to see Venam laying on the ground with a familiar-looking guy standing over her with a sigh.

"My mother has done it again… I have been fatally wounded… I cannot go on anymore." Venam says pretending to be wallowing in her own self-pity. "All I… *cough* ask before I pass… The Berry Emporium… Oran… Berry… I need the taste of the succulent, beautiful, EMPOWERING taste of an Oran Berry."

"Cut it out, Venam. It's Ren. You've tried this one on me before." Ren states crossing his arms, giving an impatient look.

"PLEASE," Venam shouts out.

"Honestly, just get up, Venam. Or should I say, Veronica…" Ren states as Venam jumps onto her feet with fire in her eyes.

"DON'T CALL ME VERONICA," Venam yells with a growl.

"Yeah, yeah. Just open the door." Ren brushes off what Venam states.

"Ren, you're horrible. You wouldn't grant a dying girl's wish?" Venam pouts while crossing her arms.

"You're a girl? Could've fooled me." Ren comments bluntly.

"Matthew! Do you see how this guy treats me? It's awful." Venam yells out as Ren looks over. Matthew had returned Alister back into his Pokeball and was just readjusting his headphones to put over his neck. He looks up at the two before slightly chuckling.

"Yeah… Awful." Matthew says awkwardly as he gives a blank expression. He was still in the middle of readjusting his headphones and wasn't expecting him to call him out. He takes a minute as he wraps the headphones around his neck.

"Oh, Matthew is here? Is this the one you were talking about before?" Ren states.

"Yes, he is. He granted a dying girl's wish. Unlike SOMEONE we know." Venam states sticking her tongue out at Ren.

"You fell for it?" Ren asks Matthew.

"Yeah I did... Until she said "light on the horizon"," Matthew said with a hint of shame.

"I see. Anyway. Can ya open the door finally?" Ren says with Venam shrugging as she opens the door towards the building.

"Presto. Let'sa go go go!" Venam walks into the building with Ren and Matthew following her.

"You know what? This works out well for everyone." Matthew gives Ren a confused look to what he was saying. Ren stops before looking. "Sorry for eavesdropping, but I heard the Professor talking to you about meeting Melia in the forest."

"Oh… yeah. The worker at the front said that she left once she realized that the power was out. I was in the area if I could find her," Matthew states with a faint chuckle.

"Well. In a way, you made the right choice. There's an old power grid that the city still uses despite the actual sewer system being abandoned. Recently it was shut down by an unknown source. Melia decided she wanted to see if she could fix it herself." Ren states with a smile. "Professor Jenner is good with machines, so I bet he's taught her a good few things. Anyway, we shouldn't keep the ladies waitin'. Let's go."

Ren and Matthew make their way downstairs. Matthew immediately groans at the putrid smell.

"Eugh... It stinks." Matthew grunts in pain.

"Don't worry about it, man. You'll get used to it eventually. Let's go. Venam must be pulling a fuse at this rate." The two make their way through the sewers until they see the purple-haired girl waiting around impatiently.

"You guys took your sweet ass time! I've been withering away over here! Anyway. We're supposed to meet in here." Venam walks into a room..

"Did we take that long?" Matthew asks scratching the back of his head.

"I don't think so. We kinda went straight. Only detour that we took was with that new Pokemon that you caught. But that took like no time at all for you." The two walk into the room to see Venam on the floor. Ren simply walks over with an annoyed expression.

"At this point, I feel like you're doing this just to be annoying," Ren states bending over, next to Venam.

"Annoying? What are you talking about…" Venam yells out with Melia working on a computer calls out.

"Venam, I'm trying to focus here. Could you quiet down a bit?" Melia calls back from the computer.

"Yeah, I know, but…" Venam lifts herself up pulling her hair in frustration. "I'm soooo bored right now. Are you done fiddling with that computer yet?"

"Unfortunately, that's super negative. I can't pinpoint the source of the error." Melia turns around in frustration. "It's hopeless… I'll never figure it out. Maybe I should just- Oh! Have we met before? You look familiar."

Ren looks between the two with confusion. "Have you met Matthew already?"

Matthew thinks about it for a bit before putting it together. "Yes. I accidentally bumped into you earlier today. Sorry about that."

"Oh right! You don't have to worry about that. I wasn't paying attention. I'm Melia!" Melia states introducing herself. "I was on my way to the forest, but the Railnet was closed due to some power failures."

"Welp, the trip's canceled. Let's go back home and do nothing." Venam says with a bored expression.

"Aw, that's a shame, but I guess I can always go tomorrow." Melia sighs with a shrug before looking around. "As long as we're here, we should check up on our experiment!"

"Experiment?" Matthew asks.

"Melia left some trash bags lying around. Melia was trying to see if the rumors about Trubbish and Garbodor are true. If you leave trash in filth for a few days, there's a chance it will mutate into Pokemon!" Ren explains.

"Yep! It's been a few days so we can check it out." Melia states with a smile.

"Hold up y'all. That's not all we're testing!" Venam intervenes with a look of interest. "We're here to put Melia's hidden ability to the test!"

"What kind of hidden ability?" Matthew felt like he was out of a really small friend group at this point and felt like he was crashing in without permission.

"Venam, I don't have any hidden abilities… Stop saying things that aren't true." Melia points out. Venam turns around and points at Melia.

"You have a bunch of Shiny Pokemon. No one else has this luck!" Venam states. "It's a hidden ability and that's that."

"Isn't Shiny Pokemon, like really rare? Like. Winning the lottery rare?" Matthew asks with Ren slowly nodding.

"Studies have stated that some people can go on whole journeys without ever meeting a single Shiny Pokemon," Ren says.

"So either Melia is extremely lucky… or maybe Venam is up to something." Matthew said thinking about.

Melia sighs at Venam's claims. "I'm sure the experiment will be a failure anyway. There's no way trash bags can mutate into Pokemon in the first place."

"Melia. If you're so sure, then just check already! Where are the trash bags?" Venam asks looking around. Everyone looks around to see any bags of trash with none in sight.

"Are they not around here? That's strange…" A loud noise as the four looks towards the other direction to see an oddly colored Garbodor eating the wiring of the sewers.

"I bet they're the reason the power's been all over the place!" Melia points out.

"Wait, the color of that Garbodor is strange? That isn't how a normal Garbodor looks, right?" Matthew asks taking out his Pokedex pointing it at the Pokemon. "Yeah. The picture here is green while that one is purple."

"Then… that could only mean…" Ren states.

"It's shiny! Just like I said it would be!" Venam yells out in excitement before wondering towards herself. "Wait. Where are the bags that I placed here then?"

Suddenly two Trubbish appear out of nowhere as Garbodor jumps, landing on the massive computer with a roar. Melia slowly takes a step back as Ren and Matthew walk forward.

"Don't worry Melia! Matthew and I will take care of this!" Ren states taking out a Pokeball.

"I guess now would be a good time to show my new Pokemon," Matthew whispers to himself as he takes out a Pokeball. "We'll take care of this. Just leave it to us!"

"R-Right! Sorry about this!" Melia goes behind Ren and Matthew.

"Go Growlithe!" Ren calls out sending out his fire dog, Pokemon Growlithe with Matthew looking at his Pokeball with a firm nod.

"Alright, Batman! Stand by for battle!" Matthew calls out as he sends out a Woobat in front of him.


Wassup my homies! This is NexusMHX here with another episode of Pokemon Rejuvenation: Interceptor! The plot is really starting to drive now, isn't it? Since our player character in most Pokemon fangames is usually mute, adding a voice to them in dialogues in which are already planned out heavily is a massive challenge in it for me. So I hope that the way that I'm executing this in a way in which this is still enjoyable yet not breaking the overall narrative and still having Matthew and everyone's personalities in check. Though I kinda felt like I went a little OOC for Matthew a bit. Speaking of which the "this girl is full of shit" was a general idea and not his actual thoughts. Thought I should state that right now. I would say what kind of personality he has, but we're supposed to learn this as the story goes on, right? On another note... Mind if I asked you all something? I plan on switching Pokemon in this fanfiction. (I already got plans to take out two Pokemon in a proper manner.) There will be times where I change the party, mostly cause I changed the teams in the games which are a shift I guess. In any case, what would a proper way of taking out party members of the team? Should I send it through this PC? Send it back like the anime? This is a situation where I don't really know what to do? So I hope that I can ask you guys what to do with this? There are a few Pokemon that I'll bring back once they leave the main team for a short while but that's it. Once their part is over, they'll go back to the box (and the instances where I take them out even are rare in it of itself.) Anyways. I'll try to think more about it as I write the next chapter. This is NexusMHX signing off! Stay Classy!