Pokémon Trainer Hero
Chapter 80: Hero Killer Arc, part. 3; The Public Perception. Act 3
"An interview?", Gar asked as he stood backstage on a live TV talk show, wearing his Electric Type Outfit.
"That's right!", Photo confirmed after not telling Gar what they were doing until they got there. She then went on to tell him, "Although you have a magazine and merch, those will still take time to come out. And before they do, we'll post your face in the immediate public eye through television. Then in person on the streets!"
"First this, then public interaction! Shouldn't there be more steps or at least a break in between?", Gar told her with an aggravated groan.
"The public's vision and opinion on things can change overnight, so we have to take full advantage of it!", she told him with an assuring tone.
"I….can see your point.", Gar begrudgingly admitted.
"Mr. Hero Trainer. You're on in five.", a stage worker told him before vanishing.
"Well, as they say in showbiz, break a leg!", Photo cheered him while slapping his back.
"I did that three years ago.", Gar snarkily commented back, making the woman roll her eyes and playfully push him.
"Wasn't that just precious.", the TV show host said as the video behind her ended. A screen off camera blinking a 'CLAP' to the audience who did just that. "Now everyone, here today we have a very special guest on our little talk show.", she told the audience while they responded with questioning awe. "You might know him or have seen him before. But if you haven't, I'm sure you have seen his Pokemon. I know the producers have. That Ratata problem is still strong, but we should have them eRATicated, before very long.", the sign said 'LAUGH' and they did at her terrible joke before she exclaimed, "Ladies and Gentlemen, put your hands together for the one and only, Pokemon Hero Trainer!"
The crowd cheers at this and grows even louder as Gar walks out into the stage and waves with the most natural smile he can muster. Mimikyu sitting on his shoulder and waving at him. Once he comes to his seat he sits down the audience grows silent in seconds.
Once things are quiet and settled between them, the host greets Gar, saying, "Welcome to the show, Hero Trainer."
"Thank you Yumi-san, but please, call me Garfield. I'm not a hero.", Gar thanks and informs her.
"You're not?", The host, Yumi, asks him inquisitively.
Gar shakes his head and replies, "No, I don't have a license or anything like that. I'm just a citizen doing my part in helping the community in a crisis they do not know about countering.", Some silent muttering goes around the audience before Gar says, "The whole 'Pokemon Hero Trainer' thing came from the media and several others as a joke."
A small bit of laughter emerges from the audience while Yumi also chuckles.
"Okay, Garfield. I have several questions from myself and our audience here tonight. You're okay with that, right?", she asks him.
"So long as it isn't math related, I should be fine.", Gar jokes, making more laughter erupt.
After the audience dies down again, Yumi takes some papers and asks him, "So is it true you come from another dimension?"
Gar laughs dryly and replies, "Well if I didn't, it would sure be weird to have so many undiscovered species show up at once and in one local area."
"So what brings you to our world?", Yumi continues.
"Total accident. My incorrigible friend wanted to challenge a Legendary Pokemon to an eating contest, long story, and I ended up taking a sour-filled ride across the space-time continuum.", Gar assures her.
"You've currently been staying in UA, correct? Why to continue to stay there?", she inquired.
Gar then looks off to the side in thought while counting on his fingers, "Security, privacy, finances, stuff like that. My currency holds no value in your world, so I wouldn't be able to live anywhere else. At first, it was supposed to be a temporary place for me to hide until I could figure out a way to leave or until someone came for me. Buuuuuuuuuuuut then things got crazy."
"I assume you mean that attack on UA's USJ, and of course the appearance of that Bayo character?", Yumi asks further.
Gar nods in confirmation and says with held-back stress, "Yep. That's the one. He came onto the scene just as I found a way to get back home, and I simply couldn't leave."
"Oh, that brings me to my next set of questions.", Yumi chapelry tells him before shuffling through her papers, making the man tilt his head to the side. She then found her bearings and asked, "Why did you bring him here with you if you just wanted to leave?"
Gar opened his mouth to reply, but then he realized what she asked and asked back, "What?"
"Were you just dumping your problem on someone else? Do you consider some other world that's not yours just you're dumping ground?", Yumi continues.
"Wait-.", Gar tries to stop her, his mind already doing a reset.
"How does it feel to take advantage of all the chaos to skyrocket your fame?", Yumi blabbers on, not giving him a chance.
"Now hold on-.", Gar tries to plead with her.
"Are you working with Bayo in some game of 4D chess? Making yourself look like the good guy as you pretend to stop him while he works in the background?", She insinuates without a break to her multi-question rant.
"What are you even-?!", Gar tries to make sense of this, getting extremely uncomfortable and making Mimikyu angry.
"Doesn't it feel good to be a liar?", She asks him with a wry smile.
Finally, Gar gets his bearings and shouts in defense, "What are you even saying!? Where is this coming from!"
"I'm just asking what's apparent. You came here for no reason and somehow this Bayo guy comes out of nowhere not too much longer? You capture the hearts of people and act like a hero despite not having a license. Seems suspicious.", Yumi connects with an impish smile.
At this point, Gar is already red in the face and ready to lose it! But then he stops, he plays back the scene in his head, and thinks for a moment. Something was off….very off. He then secretly takes out Rotom and has him do a secret scan of the woman's face and eyes. When the results come in, Gar's suspicions are confirmed, and knows what he has to do.
He relaxes into his seat and rubs a Pokeball on his belt. While doing this he tells the woman, "Before I answer any of that nonsense you just spouted at me. I want to introduce you to someone…. Special."
Before the host could reply, Gar touches the button and it pops open to manifest a truly unruly-looking Pokemon! It resembles an upside-down squid with several purple tentacles with bright blue undersides sprouting from the top of its head. It has yellow eyes with black sclerae, a dark pink beak-like mouth, and lighter purple eyelids. Its main body is dark purple and has six circular yellow lights on the front and back. There is also a yellow stripe nearly encircling its upper body. Covering its main body is a transparent mantle with two white fins on the bottom that function as legs. On each side of the mantle is a long tentacle with dark pink at the top and white, scythe-like fins at the ends which look very sharp.
"What is that!?", Yumi screams in fright as the floating creature glares down at her like a piece of fresh meat!
"Yumi-san, meet Malamar.", Gar nonchalantly introduces them before turning to the monster and saying, "Malamar, do your thing."
Malamar smiled evilly at the frozen woman and immediately snatched her up with his tentacles! After grabbing hold of her he brought her up from the ground and stared at her dead in the eye! Yumi was frozen with fear as she stared back into his rectangular yellow eyes, not even trying to squirm free or anything, just staying there unable to move. Even the crowd was sitting deep in their seats in a perpetual state of anticipation as they waited in fear for what was to happen!
Malamar's head tentacles then began to wriggle around before suddenly grabbing the woman's head, causing her to not only jet her head back but also causing her eyes to roll back! In turn, causing a stir of panic and horror from the audience! Her head rocked back and forth as Malamar's tentacles swayed and squirmed. This continued for a few minutes until Malamar suddenly let go of Yumi and let her drop back into her seat, causing the audience to scream out in fright from the suddenness of it! After a few seconds, Yumi's eyes went back to their normal position and she grabbed her head in pain while trying to readjust herself into her seat.
"Well, Yumi-san. How do you feel?", Gar asked the woman as Malamar floated right back to his side.
"Oh…my head.", Yumi moaned in pain while rubbing her temples. She opened her eyes and looked around in confusion while asking, "What happened? Why am I at the studio? Who are you?", she then noticed Malamar standing next to gar and screamed in fright, "And what is that thing!"
"Cut cut cut!", the director of the set shouted as the camera cut out and a huge curtain was drawn over the stage, while several crew members rushed from behind the stage to assess the situation alongside the director.
"Yumi-sama. Are you okay?! What's happened to you!", the director asked the panicked woman who was looking around like a panicking animal.
"Gar! What did you do?!", Photo yelled at him, running from behind backstage.
Nonchalantly, Gar put his feet up while reclining back and answered, "I helped her."
"Helped her, how?!", Photo demanded.
Gar let out a sigh and stood up from his seat, walking up to the host, several guards tried to stand in his way but one glare from Malamar was all it took for them to back off. Even the Director and the stagehands inched away from him.
Gar stood in front of the woman and asked, "Yumi-san. Do you know who I am?"
"Not a clue.", she answers, still very disheveled.
This led to a round of confused expressions from the stagehands and director, who asked, "What? How do you not know? You specifically told us you'd be talking with him on today's show. You asked for him by name."
"I…..did?", Yumi asked back, looking just as confused."
"What do you remember last, before right now?", Gar asked her, keeping on topic.
Yumi went silent for a moment as she thought back, then explained, "I was at home, in my apartment, watching TV, when I heard a noise at the window. I went to check on it and then…..I was here?"
"What the heck is going on!? What did you do!", the director asked in a panic of confusion and anger.
"I saved her.", Gar replied vaguely.
"Saved me?"Yumi asks.
"You were being mind controlled, I found out using an app on Rotom.", the phone popped up, and winked at her before going back into his pocket. "Malamar here broke the connection.", Gar told her in more detail, motioning to the Pokemon standing beside him,
"I….I was?", Yumi asked herself, trying to make sense of and absorb everything. She then grabbed her head and asked with a grunt, "Then why is my head still swimming?"
"That's because the puppet master is still trying to reconnect the strings.", gar answered before looking over to one of the rafters in the building and pointing up to a spot while shouting, "And there he is!", within a second, a small shape flew out from its hiding spot and attempted to make a mad dash of an escape behind the blinding lights! Gar pointed at the dark blob and yelled, "Grab it!"
Malamar was the first one to react before any others and flew up towards the lights and crashed after the shape! It was fast, but Malamar was faster, and before anyone could blink the Pokemon caught the wiggling screaming blob, bringing it down to the stage.
Gar commended the Pokemon and told it, "Nice work Malamar."
Everyone circled the Pokemon to look at the prevaricator, and saw something very strange, which asked the director, "What is that?"
"That would be Inkay, Malamar's pre-evolution. And the thing controlling your mind.", Gar explained briefly.
Inkay is a blue squid-like Pokémon. It has a transparent mantle with a rounded, pink body inside that has several yellow, circular lights. There are four lights at the front and two at the back. Attached to its mantle are two transparent tentacles; its remaining tentacles are part of its main body. It has round black eyes and a pink beak-like mouth.
Everyone stared at the hissing screeching little squid Pokemon in Malamar's clutches, and Yumi said aloud, "I can't believe something so small could be so strong."
"That's Pokemon for ya. That's why I've been taking the lead in things regarding Pokemon, despite not being a hero.", Gar told them with a shrug.
"Wait, then that means….you're the Pokemon Hero Trainer: Garfield, right!?", Yumi suddenly realizes this, turning around with an excited expression while pointing at him.
Gar sweat drops at her erections and replies, "I guess we haven't been introduced yet. Yes, that's me. But please, just Garfield."
"But why was she being hypnotized? Do these Inkay just do it for no reason.", the director asks him.
Gar shakes his head and tells them, "Normally they hypnotize their prey or other Pokemon to hone their skills. But this is much more calculated. If I had to guess, it was Team Freak. They must've sent that Inkay to control you, then set up this interview with me to perform slander over live TV."
"Well, I don't know what to say except….thank you.", Yumi says to him, still a bit woozy. She then looks back over to Malamar and asks in discomfort, "Hey what's your squid friend doing?"
Gar, along with everyone else, looked at the Pokemon, only to see a horrific sight! Malamar had already started to consume the Inkay head first! The little Pokemon scratched and screamed trying to get free, but Malamar only took its time in eating it alive!
"Malamar! No!", Gar jumped up, trying to stop the Pokemon, only to have it turn away and float up out of reach to continue eating it up till he only slurped down its tentacles. Gar gave up and with an angry groan, he yelled, "Oh not again! Seriously!? What's the point of feeding you if you always do this?!"
Malamar only gave him a wry smile in return.
Utterly confused and horrified by this, Yumi asked, "Why….did it do that?"
"Malamar is a Dark and Psychic type. The worst combo imaginable. Not only are they smart, but sadistic too. Malamar will readily cannibalize their pre-evolutions and even one another. I lost a few Inkay I bred because of their appetite.", Gar explained with a groan before turning back to the Pokemon and yelling at it, "And you know I needed that Inkay! I could've used it to track down Tema Freak!"
Malamar only stuck his tongue out at him.
"Well, I'm glad that's over, but is there any way I can thank you?", Yumi offered.
Photo quickly came to him and whispered into his ear. To which he replied, "Well….. there's one thing."
A Few Minutes Later
The giant curtain opened back up once again, and the blinking sign told the still confused and fearful audience to clap. To which they begrudgingly did. When it opened all the way, the intro music played and revealed Yumi sitting back in her chair, with Gar back in his, and Mimikyu dancing along to the music on Yumi's desk. When the music stopped and the people were told to stop. Yumi took the moment to explain everything that just happened to the disheveled audience...
"And we're back. So sorry about that ladies and gents. But some juicy developments have been happening behind the scenes.", she apologized in front of the still unsettled people, before explaining further, "For starters, it turns out I was being mind controlled by a Pokemon sent by none other than the evil organization known as Team Freak.", the screen behind her showed a picture of Inkay, and the audience gasped at this and talking broke out, but it was quickly halted and Yumi told the cameras, "So to all those of you in the media industry, If your boss or coworker is acting strange. Look for little flying squids in the area.", the audience still looked worried but Yumi assured them saying, "But don't worry, I'm free once more! All thanks to our special guest, who I'll be interviewing properly this time around, Garfield!", to which the audience clapped once again, and their interview truly started.