Murky Waters

Summary: Kid goes to a village to relax but ends up doing the opposite. Maka and Black Star carry on without him as Maka tries to catch a new pokemon.

A/N: I said in the past that basically only pokemon up to gen 3 would be here. IDK why younger me did that. All gens are here. Because of that, I also might have made the tourist joke before. Sorry if I did. Also, I know I skipped a few episodes

Kid's eyes shot wide open. He sat up faster than humanly possible and looked around frantically. "Where am I? What have you witches done to me? Where are Liz and Patty? And Murkrow and Magicarp?" He wasn't talking to anybody in particular. It seemed like he was on a hospital bed and in completely different clothing than usual. It was a plain black T-shirt with a pokeball symbol on it which was a few sizes too big on his slender frame.

"It's okay, you're safe," a voice said.

Kid spun around in the bed, his hands glowing with a weak dark energy but he stopped with a sigh of relief seeing who did the talking. "Nurse Medusa. How did I get here? Where are my pokemon?"

The nurse took a few steps and grabbed a black backpack and handed it to him. He immediately started holding it in a way that could be described as a hug. The twelve-year-old reaper looked even younger as he held onto his backpack like it was a security blanket or big teddy bear. "Your pokemon are in there safe and sound. Masamune was taken care of as well, so it won't be a problem anymore. Maka said that Team Salem members attacked you while they were in the cave, but they don't know the details. The good thing was that everybody was safe, although the Team Salem members did escape. Ryoku helped your friends bring you here. He's back and fine too."

As the nurse talked Kid started squeezing the backpack in his arms tighter. His friends did all the work and what did he do? No new information was gained, the Team Salem members were still on the loose, and he was no help with the threat that he wanted to stop in the first place. The only thing he did was almost get captured by the evil team, which would undoubtedly do horrible things with his reaper abilities, and look pathetic in front of his friends and his dad's fellow gym leader.

Medusa watched as Kid shoved his head into his backpack and started making noises that undoubtedly sounded like crying. "I'm a pathetic excuse of a grim reaper. I don't deserve pokemon, I deserve to fall in a hole and die. I almost gave an evil team an ultimate power over what? Spit and scissors? Dad, I'm sorry. Liz, Patty, Maka, Black Star, I'm so sorry."

Medusa listened in silent delight. The poor child was nearly at a breaking point. She couldn't just steal him away while he was in the pokemon center, too many people know that he's supposed to be there with her, but if the grim reaper were to be separated from his friends vulnerable and alone, one final defeat could not only allow Team Salem to successfully take him away, but he'd be easier to mold his broken mind into what they want. It seemed so perfect. Unfortunately, she had to act like the tears of children didn't bring her so much joy.

She started rubbing Kid's back comfortingly. That made his sobs instantly stop, as if it suddenly reminded him that he wasn't alone. "It's okay. Don't talk to yourself like that, it's not healthy." Medusa stopped the rubbing. "I think you need a break. A pokemon journey can be pretty taxing on kids when they don't have evil teams following them. I can't imagine what you're going through. Quietus Town is not far from here. Maybe you should go there and relax for a while then come back. How does that sound?"

"I-I can't… I have to stay with Maka… and Soul… Father said… and so did Stein..."

Medusa knew full well that Kid knew much more about her experiments than she'd like, likely including what was going on with Soul. Even more of a reason to get rid of him. "It'll only be for a day or two. I can tell your friends where you're going. I'm sure you can leave only for a little bit and everyone would be happy. They do care about you, and your mental health should come first."

Kid was still a moment. "Quietus Town?" he asked quietly. He didn't know much about Quietus Town, but he did know how cities were given their names. The word quietus meant something that has a calming or soothing effect, so it did sound like a good town to get away from all that's happened. It also meant death or something that causes death, but every city had macabre undertones, including Macabre City, so that didn't really mean much. Maybe there was a reason they didn't get as many tourists in Jotia compared to other regions.

Kid took his head out of his backpack to look at the nurse. She had a map with Quietus Town circled and held it out to him as he wiped his eyes. Kid had his own map, having the city highlighted was nice. Medusa worked for his dad just as much as Stein and Spirit, so Kid did feel inclined to listen to her. "I suppose a day away won't hurt anything…"

Medusa smiled sweetly at him. "That's great! You can leave now if you'd like. Maka and Black Star are asleep, but I'll tell them where you are when they wake up. Sound good?"

Kid slipped his backpack onto his back and pulled out his flying skateboard. "Yes," he said, but it didn't sound confident. "And thank you."

With that, Kid jumped onto his board and flew away. It made a strange noise as it flew, but Kid didn't pay much attention to that. Medusa gained a sinister grin when he was gone. "Oh Crona~ I have a new job for you~" she cooed.

/~*~*~*~*~\

"Now Umbreon!" Black Star said.

Tsubaki nodded and turned from the psychic type to the dark type. It wasn't the first time Black Star had it change evolutions needlessly. He was very fascinated by it.

Maka ignored her companion since she had bigger concerns. "Why did you never tell me you can talk?" She asked her pokemon.

The skitty shrugged. "I don't do the whole translation thing, so it's easier to just say 'skitty'." it smiled. "Besides, I told you my name when we met."

Maka knew she didn't have an argument against that. "But why can you talk? And can you at least translate some of the time? I have no idea what pokemon are saying."

"I ate a chatot once. Is that a good reason?" Maka looked at the cat sceptically. Blaire sighed. "Fine, my dad taught me how to talk. And I could, but don't get used to it. If you release me just to translate then I won't."

"Yeah, okay, fair enough I guess…Wait, your dad taught you? Why can your dad talk?"

Blaire didn't answer, instead it just returned itself to its ball. Maka sighed in annoyance at her uncooperative pokemon. She couldn't wait to catch another one.

The two trainers and their pokemon were walking on their way to Needle Village. It was a small village that didn't connect to any other towns but Expiry, so they planned to catch/ train there for a day and then meet up with Kid again. Nurse Medusa wasn't very specific about where Kid ran off to. Maka was honestly worried about him. Yes, he was a well-traveled and high-leveled trainer with a lot of tricks up his sleeve, but if yesterday was anything to go by, that meant nothing to somebody that knew his weakness.

Maka shook the thoughts out of her head. He was a grim reaper; he could take care of himself.

If anything, she should be worried about herself. It was the oddest thing. In her dreams she was back in that strange room with the blagre. It was talking to her, tempting her to do something, but she can't remember what it was. She almost did it too, although she woke up right before she could. Oddest of all, she woke up coughing. It was hard to tell, but it seemed like she coughed up something black.

Maka shook those thoughts out of her head too. Everything was fine. It was just a dream, and Kid will come back to Expiry City feeling better. It'll all be fine.

\~*~*~*~*~/

Kid stood at the edge of Quietus Town looking out to the water. The cloak he put on to hide the generic shirt Medusa gave him blew in the wind. It made him look like his father, along with the mask. Liz never liked it when Kid put on the whole cloak-and-mask get up. It seemed so emotionless. It and Patty were both out of their pokeball and they definitely had bigger issues than Kid's outfit. In front of the three were huge unnatural cliffs that looked like they were made with humongous teeth.

Something took a bite out of the earth.

"So much for a peaceful, relaxing trip," Kid muttered.

"Plusle! Plus, le plus plus!" Liz complained.

Its trainer nodded. "Yes, we have to fix this."

Patty laughed. "Miin min~" it sang.

"Plus? Plusle plusle?" Liz asked

Kid didn't respond, he just stared into the horizon. It was hard to see anything through the thick clouds, but something was out there, he could feel it.

"You think you can stop what did this?" a new voice asked. Kid and his released pokemon whipped around to who was talking. It just seemed to be some man. Kid closed his eyes and opened them again. VILLAGER Michael lv 7 it said. At his age, being such a low level meant he was likely not a pokemon trainer.

"Yes, I do. Why do you sound so skeptical?"

The man had old, scarred eyes. Eyes that were much older than the rest of him. "I've seen it. The mist. The beady black eyes. The hideous teeth. It came from the ocean and ate our village. No little kid can stop it, I don't care how strong you think your pokemon are, you're no match for the Black Dragon."

"Black Dragon? Is it a dark dragon type?"

The man laughed. "They really did brainwash you. Not everything has to do with pokemon types and levels."

Kid narrowed his eyes at the man, but his mask hid that. He didn't like the man's distaste toward pokemon. Regardless, the villager left Kid and his pokemon at the cliffside. "Right," Kid mumbled. "It came from the ocean, so that's where we go." He jumped onto his skateboard, but it didn't start floating, it just started making a gurgling noise. "This isn't good…"

"Plusle pl? Usle?"

Kid nodded. "It does seem to be that way. Looks like Beelzebub is unavailable. We'll need another way to get around."

Patty started jumping excitedly. "Minun!"

"Yes Patty, like a boat."

/~*~*~*~*~\

"So, there's no gym here?" Black Star asked as they walked into Needle Village.

Maka nodded. "No, there's not, but there are pokemon here. I'm going to catch one."

The young trainer tilted his head, which made his eevee fall off of it and onto his shoulder. "Are you going to catch that weird duck-beaver thing that the gym leader had? That thing looked lame."

"Shut up, no it didn't. It looked like a powerful pokemon."

He shrugged. "If ya say so."

A throat cleared behind the two, catching their attention. There was a middle aged woman standing there. She had short, black hair that parted in the middle and a bulkier build. Her clothes were nothing special, just a red V neck and white skirt. "Sorry, I couldn't help but overhear, are you talking about platypoi?"

"Yeah, do you know where we can find one?" Maka asked.

"Oh yes, just follow me."

With that, the three started heading deeper into the village. Right down the middle of the small town, there was a murky brown river with dark, indistinguishable shadows moving around inside. The river wasn't too wide, maybe about 20 feet from bank to bank, but it was hard to tell how long it was since it seemed to stretch into the horizon.

"Here we are: Needle River. You can find a Platypoi in there."

"Thank you so much," Maka said. She looked to the clouded water of the river. "Now, I know that there's two ways to catch pokemon in the water. Surfing and fishing. I don't have a fishing rod, so could I borrow Tsubaki for a second. I just need her vaporeon's surf for a bit."

"Sure thing. Tsubaki, baton pass."

"Eev-"

"Hold on!" the lady interrupted. Tsubaki never even got the chance to change "You can't surf in Needle River. It's way too polluted. Your poor pokemon will get poisoned, and water types especially get really sick after going through it."

"Oh…" Maka mumbled. "Okay then, Tsubaki, let's not. Do you know any place where I can get a rod then?"

The lady sadly shook her head. "I'm sorry. I wish I could help, but I wish you luck, trainer."

"Thanks…" With a sigh, Maka looked back at the river. There wasn't much she could do then. It was a shame. They walked all the way out here, and Poltipus looked like an amazing pokemon. And it was strong enough to become the signature pokemon of a gym leader too even though it wasn't fully evolved. Grated, the strength of said gym leader was questionable, but still, it would have been great on her team.

"So what're ya gonna do?" Black Star asked.

Maka didn't respond, instead she watched a plastic bag fly in the wind and land into the river. The current was slowly moving it closer and closer. It drifted to be right in front of the two trainers, close enough for Maka to grab it, so she did. Already it was full of disgusting browned water. The whole sight was pretty sad. "I'll pick up litter."

"What? Why? It's not like it's your trash."

"I know. It won't do much, and I still won't be able to catch a platypoi, but hey, at least it's something, right? Maybe in a few generations trainers will be able to surf here again."

Black Star looked at his friend skeptically. "You're weird." His stomach growled, catching his attention. "And I'm starving. You should be able to find such a big star like me once you're done with… whatever you're doing… Come on Tsubaki, let's go find some food!"

Rolling her eyes, Maka started following the river, gathering the plastics found in the dirt around it. She never expected Black Star to help her anyway. What she didn't notice is that one shadow seemed to be following her.

\~*~*~*~*~/

Kid was standing at the head of a motorboat, Liz and Patty at the back shocking the motor into making them move, since actual fuel was apparently off the table. Even with the mask off, it was incredibly hard to see anything around him, the fog was just that thick. "Liz, don't use iron tail while here. It'll never hit."

Liz groaned. "Plusle plus plus. Plus plusle plu."

"Stop complaining, we're almost there."

"Plusle?"

"Yes, I'm sure." He closed his eyes, then opened them again, now seeing some random magikarp boxes in the water as they moved. One box in particular was all he cared about. Nidhogg, female, level 40. "A nicknamed pokemon is just up ahead. I don't know its species, but it's called Nidhogg, AKA what locals called Zekrom before they knew what it was. A dragon type known as the deep black pokemon fits the bill of a 'black dragon', so this must be it." Kid put his mask back on. He'd have to see solely off of his meister vision regardless, so it didn't change much. "And Liz, I know you won't like this, but whatever it seems to be swarmed with gastlys. You need to be prepared to fight."

"P-plusles?" Liz gulped. "Plus plus plus plus plus plus plus!" It was shaking its head rapidly, obviously repeating 'no'. "Plusle plusle!"

Kid didn't respond. Looking dead ahead, it finally came into view. Nidhogg. Whatever pokemon it happened to be, it was almost unrecognizable through the combination of fog and the fact it was covered in wood, giving it a boat-like look. The only things to identify it were a small opening in the wood showing a black dot of an eye in the middle of a flat, blue surface, and the fact that it was absolutely huge.

Liz shut her eyes at the sight of it. 'Plusle' it kept repeating ad nauseum. It seemed to be so focused on complaining it didn't notice that Kid put it and its sister onto shoulders as he climbed up the ship frame's ladder.

The top was ship-based too. If he didn't know any better, Kid would have thought it was an inanimate object, but the boxes everywhere said otherwise.

It was strange. According to his special ability, gastlys should be surrounding him, but he couldn't actually see any. Or feel any bump into him.

Liz finally opened its eyes again. Screaming, it jumped off of its trainer. "Plusle!"

Giggling, Patty joined its sister on the ground. "Miinuuuuun!"

"Shh," Kid shushed. "Something's not right here…"

"You're a smart lil Reaper boy, aren't ya?"

Kid spun around to not see a girl like the voice suggested, but instead there were two Dhelmises floating in front of his two released pokemon. "Liz, Patty, thun-"

"Dhelmises, whirlpool!" the unknown voice called. It sounded so familiar though.

The sea creeper pokemon did as they were told, making two spirals of water completely surround the two electric types. When the water disappeared, Liz and Patty were gone, leaving only two water stains in the wood where they used to be. "What did you do with them!" Kid yelled.

"Simple," the voice said. "We just prepared them for annihilation!"

"And doubled the assassination!" a new one said. It became painfully obvious why the voices sounded familiar now.

"To exploit the evils of mischief and magic!"

"To spread destruction, no matter how tragic! Dhelmise, use defog!"

The mist cleared away along with all of the gastly HP boxes revealing only the boxes for none other than WITCH Eruka and ?.

"Eruka!"

"Free!"

"Team Salem flies as fast as a broom!"

"Surrender now, or face your doom!"

Kid found their commitment to doing the same motto over and over again applaudable in a way, and it was odd not hearing a rattata at the end, but bigger things were on his mind. Looking down, it seemed like Liz and Patty were in fact okay, just somehow below the floorboards.

"You probably noticed our temporary pokemon," Free said. "We weren't supposed to use our normal ones on this mission. They weren't the right ones to make you-" the wolf earned himself a sharp punch in the gut from his partner, instantly shutting him up.

"What he meant to say was, wets see da poor babie weapur win a fight witout him poe-kee-mans?" Eruka taunted.

Kid's eye twitched. He reeaaaally hated it when people mispronounced Pokémon. It was such a common word, there should be no excuse. "I have more pokemon than them!" he hissed. He slung his backpack around to grab the two pokeballs he kept in there."

That made Eruka laugh. "Sending a Murkrow and Magikarp out as partners? A bird and a fish? Those aren't even close to each other~"

Free joined in with laughter. "The only way someone can make it symmetrical would be to send out one pock-e-men at a time, but sending one pock-e-men out for a double battle would be ridiculous~"

It was obvious what they were doing. The two Dhelmises in front of him were level 17, which wasn't strong enough to do much damage, which they weren't even trying to do, but enough to make him sick just looking at it, which it was wildly successful at doing. What an awful number. And they were right, he couldn't send out both his pokemon, but he couldn't only send out one either, and he couldn't stand in as a pokemon either, it just wasn't right. They kept saying pokemon wrong too, but weren't even butchering the word the same way. The whole thing was making his skin absolutely crawl.

He put his hands over his ears. "Stop it!" he yelled. "Get out of my head!"

"What are you talking about? I'd hate to be in your head. It's surrounded with all those white things," Free said.

Eruka nodded. "Well, the left half anyway. The right just has nothing~"

Kid had nothing to do but scream, trying to drone them out. He couldn't listen to them, they would just make it worse and worse. He needed Liz and Patty. They were so good at helping him with things like this, and they could double battle symmetrically too.

He caught them just so something like this wouldn't happen. Everything is double battle this, triple battle that, battles that seemed impossible to do symmetrically without two of the same pokemon, but if those trainers with six magikarp have taught him anything it's that having the same pokemon was a detriment.

It was in Unova, Kid was looking for his first pokemon. He had Murkrow with him, which was a gift pokemon, so it didn't come up as registered to Kid. Nobody actually knew Murkrow's original trainer. Regardless, he never actually meant to find Liz and Patty specifically, Unova was just the closest region with wild Bronzor (the most symmetrical pokemon), but as he walked it happened. Two pokemon jumped out at once, a minun and a plusle. They had a dark type gleam in their eyes, despite their actual typing. That alone drew in the Reaper's attention but so did their tails. Unlike what he knew most plusle and minun's looked like, they both looked identical. In battle, their backs would be perfectly identical, besides the color, but that wouldn't spoil the beauty. He instantly knew he needed them on his team.

The two pokemon were threatening to shock him if he didn't hand over money, but he didn't care. They were perfect.

Kid screamed even louder at the thought of them. It was hardly a minute since they disappeared, but he missed his two cheering pokemon so damn much already.

Below, Liz and Patty heard their trainer screaming. 'That can't be good…' Liz mumbled.

'He's so funny when he cries' Patty giggled.

'Come on, the faster he stops crying the faster we can leave this haunted ship.'

'Then come this way!' a new voice suggested. Of course, what it actually said was "Gaaastly gastly!"

Those two words made Liz freeze. She absolutely hated each and every ghost type. Never in her life has she met one that didn't make her want the ability run away

'Okay~' Patty purred happily following the ghost.

With little choice, Liz had to follow. It wasn't just going to abandon its sister. Together, they were the electric devils of Unova. They owned the place, could defeat anybody, and happily did. Stealing money from whited out trainers wasn't something any pokemon needed to do, but they always did just for the fun of it…

Of course, they weren't really unbeatable. That's just what they thought. When that group of trainers showed up they should have been done for, but then in came Kid with his rich boy potions and quick skateboard. He saved their lives, then gave their attacks direction. Liz would never admit it, but it genuinely admired its trainer so much and already missed him, even though it's just been a few seconds. There was just something about him. He made it feel braver in a way...

"Haunter~"

The haunter's greeting snapped Liz out of her thoughts. It was even bigger and scarier than the gastly's surrounding them. Oh Arceus, there are so many gaslys! When did that happen?!

'Those bad S humans trapped us down here,' a gastly said

Another one pipped up. 'There so mean…'

'You two can get rid of the bad S humans, right?' the Haunter asked.

Liz and Patty both nodded, one much more terrified than the other. Liz let out a scream as the Haunter grabbed it and its sister. 'No no no no no! You're going to eat us aren't you! But we're supposed to beat the humans!'

The haunter and Patty both laughed. 'Watch your heads,' the ghost poison type cooed.

Liz panicked even more. 'What do you mean by that?!'

Back up above, Eruka and Free didn't slow down. "Da widdle weapur can't even beat Team Salem gwunts."

"Bet the big reaper man is soooo disappointed in him."

"Those poor poe-kee-mans of his are being held back."

Their taunts got interrupted by two purple hands crashing up through the floorboards. They dropped a pair of cheering pokemon onto the deck. While one definitely looked traumatized, the two were ready for battle.

"Minuuun!" Patty called out.

Kid looked to his pokemon, his eyes shining with releaf. "Liz, Patty! Helping hand, discharge!"

They did just that, shocking everyone on deck, including Kid, the two Team Salem Grunts, and the two Dhelmises, fainting the weak pokemon.

"Hey, uh, weren't they supposed to stay trapped…" Free mumbled, flattening out his hair from the shock.

"Yeah…"

Just then, a muscular, pitch black horse pokemon fell from seemingly nowhere, the force of the land rocked the whole boat.

It made Eruka smile again. "And that's our cue to go!"

"See ya later, Reaper boy!" Eruka and Free both jumped off the side of the boat, probably landing in a dinghy of some sort.

Kid started to run toward them, his pokemon following, but the black horse stood in his way. He recognised it nearly immediately from the pictures Stein gave him. It was the demon pokemon.

Out of the fog came a pink-haired child that seemed connected to the horse by its long black tail. Stein also told him about them. Crona, they were called. "Ragnoirok, return."

The pitch-black horse turned into sludge and slithered its way back into the trainer's bloodstream, reforming as a reverse centaur emerging from the child's back. Liz backed up from it, obviously disturbed. She would have continued to back up, but Kid's legs got in the way.

"Scream Resonance…"

The horse flashed its humanoid teeth at them all before letting out such a blood curdling scream it put Kid's one from earlier to shame. He and his pokemon desperately covered their ears, even as everything vibrated from the screaming. It was nearly impossible to hear the ship break apart at the seams, but that's what it was doing. All of the wooden planks around them were breaking off, falling into the cold ocean below.

In a split second decision, Kid returned his two pokemon and jumped into the air as high as his reaper body let him, which was pretty high. The wood all fell, crashing waves into the water, but Kid didn't pay much mind to that. He landed on the pokemon he knew was beneath the boat-like shell. A wailord. It didn't change anything, it just made the haunter and hundreds of low level gastlys visible.

"Bloody needle," Crona said. The horse on their back reared its legs and then pounded down onto Crona's stomach, making them cough up a pile of black blood. It separated itself into drops, floated up, and turned into points.

Before he could do anything, all the points sliced through the ghost types surrounding them, fainting them all instantly. No, killing them all. Asymmetry was one thing, but murder was another sin entirely. Kid watched in horror as the exp came in and the level of both Crona and Ragnoirok grew. From level 31 to 39. Just like that, his level 32 plusle and minun went from a slight level advantage to a stark disadvantage. At this point, Murkrow was only level 28 and his level 9 magikarp would not do any good. Still, he had three pokemon, Ragnoirok was only one, even with the level change there would still be a chance at winning.

In the back of his mind a voice kept yelling that he couldn't win. That stupid voice that Eruka and Free made so much louder. He always ignored it, but it did have a point. Strength wise, Minun and Plusle weren't the best, and everything else was lacking in both strength and level. But on the other hand, he knew full well that he might end up dead if he didn't manage to defeat the demon pokemon. Even worse, his pokemon could die. The demon sword could reach level 100 and become unbeatable. Kid couldn't let that happen, any of it.

With a horrible crunching sound, the horse on the kid's back morphed shape, reforming itself into a larger, deadlier looking steed, but now with wings as well. It was a pegasus. That didn't make Kid's mindset waver

"Demon Pokemon Ragniorok and Wielder Crona, hear me." Kid yelled. "You have killed too many pokemon to be let free. I will do whatever necessary to end your crimes. Surrender now or I will not show mercy."

Crona looked Kid dead in the eyes. "You know it too, don't you?"

"What?"

The child lifted their hand slowly to tap their temple. "That hell inside your head. You know it too. I-I'm scared of everyone. I need to get better, but to do that I need power… You need to get better too, don't you?"

Kid stood there, silent. Is this what the plan was? Have Eruka and Free torture him, then have the demon sword come in as the good cop? And how did Team Salem learn so much about him?

"She can help you get power… she's helping me." Crona held out a hand, which Kid stared instantly at. "You have to join Team Salem. I-if you refuse, I will kill you."

"I don't care how many times your lackeys call me asymmetrical, I will never join Team Salem!" Kid threw down a luxury ball, putting the other in his backpack. Out popped his Plusle. "Liz, use thunderbolt over and over again!"

"Plus." it said in affirmation, then started doing just that, electrocuting the trainer and pokemon together. Crona screamed in pain as it did. It wasn't doing too much damage HP-wise.

"Training is necessary, but killing just for the sake of the experience points is disgusting! That won't make the fear go away, that'll only make you feel worse! Liz, Discharge!"

His pokemon switched attacks, making Crona scream again. While a weaker attack, it had a bigger chance at paralysis, which is what Kid was aiming for. The damage being dealt wasn't amazing regardless.

"Whether you realize it or not, all those lives you took are weighing on your soul, which will stay weak if you keep down this path. Do the noble thing and your soul will be strong enough to hold the weight of it all."

It spread its new-formed black wings and flew it and its meister up above, away from discharge's range. Crona looked down at Kid with their soulless gray eyes. "I thought you were different. You were supposed to be like me. She told me that you cry so… so much… But so did the little one, and it couldn't understand either… Of course a Grim Reaper could never understand me…"

"No, I understand you perfectly," Kid said. "You're the one who doesn't understand me."

A flash of what can only be described as pain came across Crona's eyes. "You're wrong!" They and Ragnoirok come plummeting down for the air, bashing Liz in the process, fainting it upon contact, and luckily only fainting it.

Kid returned his Plusle and reached for Patty's ball, but got attacked by the demon pokemon first, making him drop his backpack.

"I hate people! A-and I hate pokemon! I don't understand anything! I can only deal with things I understand, and everything is so much easier to deal with if it's dead!" Crona cried. "Ragnoirok, Super scream resonance!"

A meaty tongue emerged from the black pegasus's mouth as an ear piercing scream make the wailord under Kid's feet vibrate. Crona joined in screaming, making the giant pokemon vibrate even harder. The water type's huge HP stat dropped to zero, but the screaming wasn't stopping. Attacking after already fainting is what sends pokemon to graves, and the wailord seemed seconds away from joining a watery one.

"I will not let you kill any more pokemon!" Kid yelled. An indescribable yet incredible rush of power surged through him, making his hands glow a deep shade of yellow, very similar to his eye color. "You shall receive the ultimate JUDGEMENT!" as he said that, black beams of light erupted from his body, shooting into the sky. It turned into a ball in the air, then exploded, raining down beams of black onto Crona and their pokemon.

The two stopped their attack, saving the wailord, but it was still fainted none-the-less and slowly sinking. Most notably Ragnoirok and Crona's HP went from barely being dented to flashing red. Kid actually hurt them.

He looked at his hands. They weren't glowing anymore, but they were shaking. That was probably from enduring scream resonances. Whatever he just did was gone now. "What was that… Kid mumbled to himself.

"Th-this wasn't the plan!" Crona cried.

"Ragnoirok! Ragi Ragnoir!" Kid couldn't tell what it was saying, but he saw its wings flexing and knew that it couldn't be good. The two were flying away.

Kid snatched his backpack off of the whale's back and ripped out his skateboard. "Not so fast!" Kid yelled, jumping on. His board flew after the demon pokemon for a second before the hideous gurgling sound came back, filling Kid with dread. Before he could do anything, He started plummeting toward the cold, wet, ocean.

/~*~*~*~*~\

Maka crouched beside the river bed, trying her best to reach the plastic soda rings floating in the water without accidentally going into the less-than-clean water. It was the last piece of trash she could see, so after that, she'd be ready to call it a day. Her arms were barely not reaching it. By some miracle, a small wave came out and pushed the rings towards her, even though the current wasn't heading that way.

With that, she could reach them and put it in her full garbage bag. "There, all done!" Maka told herself. "I should probably find Black Star before he picks a fight with the whole town." She began heading back toward the village, but a small crackling noise caught her off guard. She looked back to see a crushed lemonade can sitting on the shore that wasn't there a second ago.

"Well," Maka said louder than she had to. She saw the dark shadows of the water shifting and assumed a pokemon was listening. "I guess the waves washed this up."

She picked it up and continued on her way. It didn't take long before another small noise of something being dropped in the sand caught her ear. Maka smiled. It was honestly really cute of the pokemon, if it really was a pokemon.

Turning around again now it was an empty and broken super potion. "Oh boy, these waves really are nice~" She picked it up too and started walking again.

Once again, there was a plop in the sand. This time Maka pretended she couldn't hear it. Plop. It was closer this time. Still, she kept walking.

"Platy!"

That made her turn around. An incredibly round, turquoise, duck-billed head was poking out of the water. It dove down before Maka could really see it well, but even without a pokedex she could have guessed it was a Platypoi. Looking to the beach, the new piece of litter was a pokeball split into two. That gave her an idea.

Of course, Maka picked up the litter and started walking again like usual, but this time she '''accidentally''' dropped a net ball, which she bought specifically to catch a new water type, from her pocket.

Instead of a plopping noise, there was a shaking and jingle of a ball capturing a pokeball. Turning around, Maka didn't see the pokeball at all. "What, where'd you go?" Plop. Behind her there was something else being put in the sand.

Standing there on the shore was a small, oddly green shade of turquoise platypus-like animal. It has a lime green bill and beaver tail that was entirely made of the same murky water found in the river beside it. The hind legs it was standing on were bright purple which gradiented into the rest of the fur color. Its tiny blue eyes looked up to Maka sweetly. "Platypoi~" it cooed.

"Hey there, Platypoi. Do you want to join my team?"

"Plaaatyyy!" It threw the ball in the air with its tail and jumped up, returning itself.

Picking the net ball up, Maka held it to the air. "Alright! I did it! I caught a pokemon! … Well, I guess it ended up catching itself again too, but still! Welcome to the team Platypoi! Let's go show Black Star!" The ball shook with joy.

Maka set on her way back to Needle Village, this time with more skip in her step and fewer distractions along the way.

It was honestly a bit too easy to find Black Star once she made it back. He screams so loudly. "Doesn't anybody in this stupid town have pokemon to battle me with! I want to show you how cool Tsubaki's new forms are!"

Said pokemon tugged on Black Star's clothes, trying to get him to stop yelling at the poor villagers. "Eev eevee."

"Looking for a battle?"

Black Star grinned once he saw who was talking. "You made it back! Did you pick up enough trash to fish or something?"

"Something like that, yeah." Maka flicked up the newly filled netball. "Besides a pokedex, battling's the best way to see a pokemon's strengths. Wanna do it?

"Do you even have to ask?" Black Star held out his arm and Tsubaki jumped off. "Just 'cause your pokemon's new doesn't mean I'll hold back."

Maka threw down her ball, sending out her platypoi. "I know."

"Alright! Tsubaki, baton pass Umbreon!"

Maka almost fell over in disbelief at that command. "U-umbreon? You know that I have a water poison type, right?"

Black Star blinked, obviously clueless. "Yeah… And?"

Sighing, Maka couldn't help but hang her head. Her partner was such an idiot. But thankfully so, she would have lost in seconds against a Jolteon or Espeon. Even a Vaporeon with its water absorb would have been a bit harder, but against an Umbreon it was a fair enough battle. "Alright then… Platypoi-" she blinked her eyes into meister vision. It made her see the four moves of her own pokemon, which were water pulse, sludge, venom drench, and toxic spikes.

Toxic spikes would be useless, Black Star famously had one pokemon, and if she remembered correctly, venom drench wouldn't be much use unless the pokemon was poisoned. Of the two left, one move was obvious. "- use sludge!"

The platypus pokemon jumped onto its tail, lifting its purple feet off the ground. With them, it started making an oozing ball of what can only be called sludge.

"Feint attack!"

Tsubaki jumped at Platypoi disarmingly before slamming into it with its head. That didn't stop it from sending an attack of its own, covering the umbreon in poisonous ooze. "Umbre!" it hissed. The attack poisoned it.

With a flick of the ooze, it tried to synchronize Platypoi into being poisoned too, but it was a poison type itself, so it didn't work.

Maka smiled. Underleveled or not, she had a chance. "Vemon drench!"

"Poi!" Once again from its feet it made a ball of purple and shot it at the dark type, drenching it in odd poison.

"Confuse it, Tsubaki!"

With its glowing red eyes, it did just that.

"Venom drench again!"

"Bite!"

Both moves hit. Maka's heart fluttered seeing her pokemon with one HP left. And it was confused too. At this point, it was faster, but fainting itself without even getting another attack in was a real possibility. Only one thing made sense at this point. "Come back Platypoi, go Blaire!"

Of course, once out Blaire became poisoned, but that wouldn't be an issue long.

Black Star crossed his arms. "Hey, no fair!"

"You never set any rules, so I'm just going off of what the official league requires. And yes, multiple pokemon is an option."

"Well, it doesn't matter! Bite again!"

"Disarming voice!"

Tsuabki was so slow at this point, Blaire's super effective attack hit first. The umbreon's bite hardly hurt after two attack drops and one last poison damage got it to red HP.

"Finish her off with facade!"

Blaire grumbled, probably pissed off at the realization she got poisoned on purpose, but did the move anyway. Tsubaki was down, and that means that Black Star was out of pokemon.

The assassin was in disbelief. "W-what?! No way!"

An evil grin spread on Maka's face. "Yes way. Trainer tokens please~" Begrudgingly, he handed over three of his five. "Thank you! Let's go back, Kid's probably waiting for us."

"Yeah, whatever," Black Star grumbled.

\~*~*~*~*~/

Kid walked into the Expiry City pokecenter, oddly wet. "Where's the phone?" He asked meekly.

Medusa stared at him for a second. He was supposed to be either dead or in Team Salem, so him being back there shouldn't have been a possibility. Looks like they failed. His voice sounded on the verge of tears, so at least her fake advice didn't accidentally work. "It's right through there," she said, pointing.

After a quiet 'thank you', he ran in that direction. Medusa sneaked closer to the phone, hoping to eavesdrop all she could.

It was ringing.

Ring ring ring, click. "Hi-ya Kiddo! What's up! Oh, you look so grown up when you wear that cute little cloak of yours~" Lord Death was on the screen, sounding happy as ever.

The phone Kid's hand started shaking. "D-dad, I…" It became quickly obvious to Lord Death that his son was probably only wearing the mask to hide the fact that he was crying. He did cry a lot, probably more than most twelve-year-olds, but this time seemed different. "I can't do this anymore!"

"Hey, Kiddo, it's okay. What's wrong?"

"I tried traveling Unova and Alola and couldn't stay that long in any of them. I can't even travel around Jotia! I'm a failure of a Grim Reaper! I-I can't even fill out my pokedex right, and I just abandoned the people I'm supposed to travel with! Team Salem keeps beating me, and everything they said was right, and I couldn't do anything to the demon pokemon! I somehow broke my skateboard too because I'm just that useless! I did this thing and I have no idea what it was or how to do it again, and I should care about that but all I can think about is how my clothes are wet and how awful I am for letting them get like that!" He slammed his head onto the phone box. "I don't deserve to take over your gym! I'm just an asymmetrical piece of garbage you probably don't even want around!"

"Kid, don't say that," Lord Death said. "Of course I want you around, I love you, and I just want what's best for you. You can come home at any time, okay?"

Kid sat on the ground, knees to his chest, and with the phone still at his ear. "But I don't want to leave Maka and Black Star either. They're so nice, and battle so amazingly… Dad, I don't know what to do."

"How about this: The master program is having its anniversary in a few days, and I'm throwing a party to celebrate. You and your new friends can come back to Death City for that, and if you'd like to you could always stay. But if you want to keep traveling, that's completely fine too. Does that sound like a plan?"

The young reaper was silent in thought for a second. "Yeah… Okay… Thank you, Father. I-I love you…"

"I love you too Kiddo."

With that, Kid put the phone back onto the hook, hanging up. Still, he continued to sit there, lost in thought.

Medusa listened to the whole thing. It was wonderful! If Kid, Maka, and Black Star all went to the upcoming ball, that'd be three less pesky pokemon trainers to worry about as her plans continue.

Both trains of thoughts crashed as new voices entered the pokemon center. "You only won because you cheated!"

"Knowing type match-ups and using more than one pokemon isn't cheating, it's what trainers are supposed to do."

"Trainers are supposed to cheat? What kind of rule is that?"

"Pla pla ty~"

Kid took off his mask and looked around the corner to see Maka and Black Star walking in. That in itself was pretty unsurprising, their voices were very distinct. What caught him off guard was the small, turquoise platypus pokemon waddling beside them. He'd seen one before at Stein's house, but this one looked different. It's fur was lighter and blue, as well as its green beak being slightly smaller. It seemed too different to just be a normal difference. After a quick soul perception, the reason why became obvious: Stein's was male, but Maka's was female. It was one of the first gender differences that Kid saw in person, and it was so awe-striking that he forgot what he was upset about.

Without thinking, Kid jumped up and slid over to the pokemon "Wow, a playpoi~" he cooed. Plucked a small hair off of its head and put it into the pokedex, adding a second set of data for the second gender. It was basically identical, but still cool none-the-less.

"Platypoi. The pollution pokemon. Platypoi make their homes in polluted waters. It makes their poison incredibly potent, but tends to make them sick," his pokedex recited.

"Kid, you're back! How was your trip?" Maka asked.

"Hey, why does your thing keep saying different stuff? Didn't it say the type last time, or something?" Black Star asked.

"The trip was…" Kid didn't like lying, but he didn't want to talk about his day either. "...fine… And my pokedex has a lot more information in it than what it actually says, I just keep changing the settings on it."

"Why?" Black Star asked.

Kid shrugged. There really wasn't a good reason, he just felt like he needed to change it every now and again.

Maka was a bit less clueless than her companion and could tell that Kid didn't really want to talk about the things he does compulsively, or about the day he had, so she changed the topic. "So, Kid, now that you're feeling better, you know where the next gym leader would be, right?"

That earned an awkward smile from the Reaper. "Heh, about that, I was thinking we should go back to Death City…"

"You think we're ready to take on the old man, huh?" Black Star started laughing. "About time!"

"No, trust me, you're still nowhere close, but Father is throwing a ball in a few days. Actually, all the gym leaders are supposed to be there, and any close by Masters too. They won't battle, but talking to them could probably help you come up with strategies. Plus, parties are fun, right?" Kid explained.

The two trainer's eyes lit up more and more as Kid talked. "All the gym leaders!?" Black Star yelled.

"Strategies and a party! That sounds amazing!"

Black Star grabbed both Maka and Kid's sleeves and started dragging them to the door. "Well, what are we waiting for!"

They easily got out of the trainer's grasp, Kid wasting no time to start smoothing out the new wrinkles in the grabbed sleeve. "I think Death City is about a two day's walk from here," Maka explained. "We've got plenty of time, we should at least heal first."

Groaning, he knew she was right. "Fine, if you wanna be a square about it…" The three of the trainers all handed their pokemon over to Medusa. With a smile, she happily took their pokemon to be healed. Everything was working out well.

A/N: That was a long one. It looks like our heroes and their new pokemon are off to a party, but they have some time. What shenanigans will they have in the meantime? Will Kid decide to stay with Maka and Black Star or his dad? And what's that nurse up to? You probably know the answers to all these, but hey, Maka never went to Needle village in the original so anything can change. Just make sure you follow and pretty please leave any review you want to as the journey continues!