Pokémon Trainer Hero

Chapter 84: Hero Killer Arc, part. 6; The Public Perception. Act 6

"You think more people will come to my second public appearance? Today? Because…?", Gar asks Photo as the two of them walk down one of the many busy city streets, dressed up in his Flying Type outfit.

"Of course! It's bound to happen! I can feel it in my gut!", Photo exclaimed exuberantly while grabbing her shirt.

"Hope your intestines are right this time.", Gar sassed from the side of his mouth.

"Even if it doesn't, you'll still be showing the public that you're approachable!", Photo added on while raising a finger to make a point.

"I guess-.", Gar began to agree with her until she grabbed his face and pulled it next to hers.

While in the face squishing clutches of her overly manicured nails, she exclaimed while pointing with her free hand, "Shut up for a moment and look over there!"

Gar looks out further down the street and sees what she was pointing to. A very tall and lanky blonde with perfectly styled, wearing pants on pants on pants!

Gar hoped he wasn't who she was talking about as he answered a question, "Are you talking about the tall blonde dude with the wackest sense of style I've seen? Next to you of course."

"Yes!", she exclaimed while pushing his face away and yelling, "YOU-HOO! Jeanist!"

Bakugou, who was walking behind Best Jeanist, heard the unbearably high and screechy voice call out to his temporary mentor, and peaked out from behind him. When he did, he saw the ugliest lady he had ever laid eyes on! And on top of that, she was racing up towards them!

In a disgusted tone, he asked, "Eh? Who's that bitch?"

Jeanist sighs at his comment and tells him firmly, "That lady would be my old mentor in the public status profile media industry. She scouted me out when I was first starting and helped me climb the ranks quickly. Her name is Photo Finished."

"Stupid ass name.", Bakugou says just before she makes her way to them.

Jeanist makes a humph sound in his throat before replying, "Her name may be ridiculous but she gets results. And it seems she has a new scout."

Bakugou looks out beyond the woman and sees a much taller figure following slower behind her he squints his eyes and asks, "Wait….is that-?"

Before he could finish that thought or get a good look at the person, Photo finally made it to Jeanist and loudly proclaimed while wrapping her arms around him in a hug, "Jeanist! How are you? How is one of my brightest stars!"

Jeanist greeted her warmly and chuckled back as he replied, "Photo. It's been a while. I've been wonderful. I'm here with my shadow to teach him about good public image and approachability."

Photo pulls away with a widely happy expression as she exclaimed, "What a coincidence! I'm here doing the same! I'm sure you know Garfield."

Bakugou, who was focused on Photo and her craziness, heard that name and felt dread run down his spine as he said, "What?...oh no."

"Ka-tsuki?", Bakugou heard his name, slowly turning his head to see the flabbergasted expression of the one person he wanted to see the least right now!

Before he could even breathe to shout something, Gar broke down into uncontrollable fits of belly laughter, practically yelling, "BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!"

"OMA! Is it you?! Holy Dialga! You look-!", he tried to ask before trying to hold in his laughter, "You look-!", he tried again, "You-!", he tried once more, failing, even more, to hold it in, "You-!", he snorted, trying to get his thoughts across but eventually just breaking down again and yelling between laughter, "I CAN'T! I JUST CAN'T!"

Gar fell to his back and began wildly laughing up a storm until he was red in the face and choking! The reason for this was the way Bakugou was dressed. He no longer sported his sharp angular and threatening-looking mask, and gauntlet grenades. Now sorting a softer mask, blue jeans, and all of his usually spiky hair now tamed and slicked off like Best Jeanist.

Going red in the face from both embarrassment and anger, Bakugou shouted back as I'm his voice cracked, "STOP LAUGHING PURPLE FUCKER!"

Eventually, Gar got up while wiping the tears away, and holding his stomach he rubbished through his pockets, saying, "Wait wait wait! Hold on a minute! I gotta show everyone this!"

In an instant, Bakugou grabbed the phone that Gar was about to pull out and yelled, "Like hell, you're gonna take my picture!", He then noticed something strange about the phones feel, looked down, and saw it wasn't a phone at all, commenting aloud, "A…biscuit?"

In his hand wasn't Gar's living phone companion, Rotom, instead it was a Japanese biscuit with the wrapping still on. With that, he heard the sound of a camera photo being taken and he looked over to see Rotom floating in the air before dashing over to a giggling Gar, who chanted, "Send it, send it, send it!"

"I'm sending, I'm sending, I'm sending!", Rotom chanted back while also laughing with him.

"YOU ASSHOLE!", he yells at the two of them, his face even redder than before and his voice cracking.

"This is the greatest thing ever!", Gar proclaims while he continues to laugh. But not that very moment a shadow goes over him and his laughing is cut short as he asks in his normal voice, "...why do I hear boss music?"

"You.", he hears a voice say to him.

Slowly turning his head around he sees Best Jeanist looming over him with a shadow covering whatever was exposed to his face.

With a small hitch in his voice, he asks while pointing to himself, "M-Me?"

"Your hair.", he says vaguely while pointing at Gar's head.

Gar gulps dryly and asks with dread, "W-What about it?"

"It needs…shaping.", He says ominously while taking out a pair of scissors and a comb, as a sparkling glint illuminates in his eye.

Gar goes pale with fear, and Bakugou puts on a shit-eating grin as he quips, "Get dunked on fucker."

At that moment, Best Jeanist descended upon Gar like a lavishly put-together God! Swarming around him like a cloud of insects! It was hard to tell where the hero started and the Pokémon trainer ended. Bakugou watched on with glee, phone ready to take pictures of Gar when he inevitably looked like him. Sweet sweet revenge!

Gar's enrapturement only lasted for a few minutes, but when it ended the result was truly astounding! Best Jeanist pulled away from his victim and stated with a proud look, "There, all done."

Bakugou went to snap some pictures and laugh at him, but he stopped at actually seeing what happened, and he yelled, "WHAT THE FUCK!?"

Gar opened one eye, and the other, and looked around to see what happened but noticed no difference in himself. The. Rotom came up to him, holding out his mirror mode, and showed the man his face, which he became floored by! Instead of something horrible or looking exactly like Best Jeanist and Bakugou himself, he looked like…..well himself. Just better groomed and with newly dyed hair that matched his Flying Type outfit: a beautiful sky blue with bits of white.

"Wow! I look…..really good actually.", Gar commented, enthralled by his newly groomed hair.

Jeanist made a self-proud noise in his throat as he explained, "Your hair was so long and all over the place, your split ends looked like the cracks in a canyon, and your dye was diluted, your hair was becoming an ugly shade of blood orange blond."

Photo looked delighted by his new groomed look, Bakugou looked angry, while Gar gave his thanks to the hero, saying in a slight daze, "Well…thanks Jeanist. I thought you'd make me look like…..well him."

"Everyone has their innate style, no reason to change it to mine all the time.", Jeanist told him while putting away his tools and patting him on the shoulder.

Gar then thought about what he said, glanced over at Bakugou, and asked in a hushed voice, "Really? Then what's his?"

Jeanist chuckled in a low tone while answering, "Everyone has their innate style….except for him.", Gar snorted at this.

"Hey hey! You there, hero guy!", Bakugou heard a small voice call out to him. Looking down he saw a small group of kids looking up at him. One of them asked, "You're a hero right?"

"Yeah? So what's it to ya!?", Bakugou snapped back.

"You don't look like a hero! You look scary!", Another child commented.

A tack mark exploded on his head as he screamed at the children, "AH? What did you say to me, you little shits!"

The children all screamed in fear and ran away while crying.

Jeanist looked at this and stated, "Bakugou, don't scare or insult the children."

"I didn't become a hero to act all goodie goodie with snot-nosed brats!", Bakugou snaps at him.

Gar narrows his eyes at the teen's statement and shoots back, "Then why did you? If you can't even talk to people normally, why bother trying to be a big popular hero? Why not a small-time hero, or an underground hero, or even better yet, a sidekick."

"I completely agree!", Photo chirps in.

"Who asked you!?", Bakugou yelled at the woman.

"Hey! You're the Pokemon guy, right?", Gar hears a small voice at his feet, looking down to see the same group of children from before.

He inwardly sighed as he commented to himself, 'At least they didn't call me the Hero Trainer part.'

"That's me.", He confirmed.

"Show us a Pokemon!", One of the children's halves yelled without hesitation.

"Show us! Show us! Show us! Show us!", A group of children all began to chant louder and louder.

"Alright alright alright! Sheesh! Keep your pants on.", He was conceited by the children's constant pestering, even though he was going to do it anyway. You then pulled out a Pokeball from his belt and told them, "I have just the Pokemon.", He threw out the device and shouted, "Go Incineroar!"

The device popped open and out came the huge Pokemon, Incineroar! Incineroar is a humanoid feline Pokémon with a muscular build. It has a short snout with a small red nose, bright green eyes with the yellow sclera, and tiny, pointed ears. Large tufts of red fur extend from its cheeks, and much of its face is also red. The upper half of its muzzle and the top and back of its head is black. A thin red stripe runs vertically along its head to its snout, where it splits into a V-shape over its eyes. Its torso is gray with several black stripes and seems to resemble a wrestler's tank top; the front and back both have a single vertical stripe up the center, crossed by two horizontal lines. Around Incineroar's waist is a belt formed from flames that somewhat resembles a championship wrestling belt. In the front center is a small, yellow flame shape. The arms, legs, and tail are all red with black stripes forming bands around them. The arms have three stripes, spiky tufts of black fur over the shoulders, and large five-fingered hands with white claws and a single light red pad on the palm. Its legs have only two stripes and simple three-toed paws, and the tail has one stripe and a tuft of spiky black fur around the tip.

The fire belt burnt with huge roaring flames as he roared like a volcano! Ultimately screening off the children once more, making them run away while screaming and crying even harder than before.

Gar realized what he had done a little too late and squeaked, "Oops."

"That didn't help at all.", Jeanist sighs with disappointment.

"What in the world made you think the giant dudley fire tiger would be a good choice?!", Photo scolded him.

"Well, Incineroar loves kids.", Gar argues back.

"It does?", the two of them ask in unison, looking at the menacing tiger Pokemon, only to be shocked by what he saw.

Incineroar sitting on the ground, hunched over, eyes big and watery, sulking in himself as Rotom played Wake Me Up Inside on full blast.

The two adults looked both confused and shocked by this, before unanimously agreeing, "I guess it does."

Gar then walked over to the Pokemon, turning off Rotom's music, and soothing the huge cat while assuring him, "Oh, it's okay, Incineroar. You just went on a little too strong for them."

Incineroar looked at his trainer, eyes still watery, and made a raow sound while pushing his head in Gar's chest, where the man stroked it soothingly.