Ms. King moved Adams arm to the left, tsking. "You can't make dresses from one sheet of cloth. Not with such an active lifestyle."

She moved on the raised platform to point more easily. "Seams are not just for binding cloth, but to provide acceptable damage absorption points on the design. A popped seam is quick to repair, torn cloth is another story. That begins to require patches, color matching, edge reduction, and more."

For a woman that was barely tall enough to reach his waist, Ms. King knew her fabric. "I always have four or five emergency sleeves and a one inch band of fabric connecting it to the torso area. Most of the time, that gives enough weak points to leave the majority of the outfit whole even after the most emphatic of flexing."

Throwing an exasperated look of love at her husband, she sighed. "Well, most of the time. Drag-Queen has trained so hard he is able to destroy cloth at distance if he isn't cautious. I tend to pack him four or five outfits for emergencies."

Adam shifted to allow her better access to the Princess Dress shoulder area. "How did you two meet?"

She hummed as she made a few temporary modifications. "Oh I suppose it was simple curiosity. I was having a bad day when a man came up to me, flexed, and asked who my tailor was. One thing led to another and we were married a few months later..."

Her smile was soft. "Young man, let me give you advice. Many would assume that Drag-Queen is strong because he can lift so much, or because he has so many willing Pokémon followers. Others would claim it is his amazing ability to connect people from so many social circles, or his astounding endurance."

She watched with fondness as the Drag-Queen King of Fashion bustled everyone else off the stage and the music started. Kiss, by Prince... Which existed here, apparently.

...The poses and flexes were amazingly coordinated.

Her gaze was warm. "No, true strength comes from having goals and not being ashamed to reach for them. My man was so dedicated to showing the world his vision, he legally changed his name to Drag-Queen King and convinced our home village to relabel itself as 'Fashion'. When the world tried to drag him down with insults and mockery, he stood tall and self reliant."

Ms. King finished Adam's left sleeve as the music rumbled, man and Pokémon clapping to the beat and moving to the groove. "How strong would you have to be to accept not being 'cool'? To say 'Dignity is what I define it' and let society's criticisms fall away?"

They watched special effects flare, oiled muscles pulse, and a look of pure joy radiate off stage.

She nodded. "My husband is the strongest person I have ever met, and I hope one day you too will meet such strong people." Her smirk was coy. "After all, you have to 'Flex your way to your dreams!', don't you think?"

Adam chuckled. Mr. King was a lucky man.

The crowd roared with applause as the song ended, twenty Pokémon and one man posed in glorious formation, reaching towards the stars and lightly coated in sweat.

Ms. King refocused. "Now, you did some good work fundamentally with designing this little pouch for darling Abra, but you need some changes to make the colors match better and encourage proper rest. And we need to improve this princess hat, the cone style can be handled so much better than this."

He pouted. It was his first try, cut him some slack!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Anita sighed as she and Pidgey sat at the edge of the crowd. Everyone was nice and stuff, but the amount of exposure was honestly a bit much for her delicate background.

It was interesting to watch the bustling crowd though.

Aside from the random bystanders that were expected, she saw over a dozen TV, Online, and Radio reporters. The booth was far more popular than she had been expecting really, to draw this kind of attention.

And of course, there were the two slightly competitive cheering sections.

One chair section was full of women, oohing and awwing as they fainted into each other's arms!

The other area of the crowd was full of many men... doing the exact same thing. All the way down to dramatic renditions of 'Back of hand to forehead, and SWOON!'

As far as Anita could tell, neither group was mocking the other. It was just... an odd experience.

She smiled and accepted a treat from a small muscular Machop wearing a lovely dress, only to realize that the newly accepted dessert was an ice cream pop shaped like Drag-Queen King of Fashion.

His delicious body was curled and tensed with a glorious glint (made of vanilla) sparkling from his smile. The chocolate dress had strawberry flowers.

...Was she supposed to put this in her mouth!?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The shadowed Boss network of Team Rocket watched the hidden video stream with mixed reactions.

One of the younger members was shouting. "I KNOW that guy! He showed up during an operation of mine. Half my team ended up ignoring their damn duties and joined him in some sort of flexing competition."

The following conversation was harder to hear until exasperation made him speak a bit too loud. "That would have been acceptable, but the responding officers didn't even bother to arrest my agents. Said losing so badly was punishment enough! I had three agents quit from SHAME that month! Another four now spend all their time at the gym!"

One of the highest shadow winced. THAT had been an awkward month, and the 'in depth' reports needed had been... odd. "Well, he is currently distracting our Target and slowing his progress, which will give us more time to clear out our operations that might be on the path the two Trainers plan on following."

One of the female Bosses purred. "I hope ALL distractions are this manly."

The guy next to her nodded. "Those arms could flex me any day."

A sigh rumbled. "Focus. Please focus. Have we warned the locals to be cautious with Target Adam?"

Glasses were adjusted. "Twelve percent have not responded to stage one contact, in three and half hours we will be escalating to stage two contact via standard protocols. Thankfully whatever hardware the two use to connect over our network did not expose the nature of the connections to those they contacted, everyone involve should assume that strange Pokédex is using a standard satellite connection as long as they ignore the connection signal strength and network transmission speed."

The oldest shadow nodded. "Thank goodness SOMETHING is ahead of schedule. We are documenting everything right? This will likely be used to establish future protocols when interacting with Target Adam."

There was a sigh. "Everything we can. Whatever the girl browses on her device is undetectable, some sort of program scrambles our monitoring methods when we try, but we are able to inspect the stores and such they shop from easily enough. Video feeds and so forth are being copied as expected, though something is interfering in that as well occasionally."

The man nodded. "Good work everyone, we will continue at the next schedule meeting."

The conversation paused as the muscled man and his many Pokémon assistants belted out another song... `I'm Too Sexy`, by Right Said Fred? Huh. Those Hitmonchan really knew how to show off some moves. The lace didn't even slow them down!

One woman raised a hand. "I volunteer to study the stream in case unexpected emergency action is required."

The guy next to her hummed. "No, better make it a committee effort." He watched the glory of muscled motion. "Yeah, better safe than sorry."

The older member was exasperated. "You can stay and watch if you wish, I however have more than a bit of work to do."

In the end, only four of the administrative members were able to get back to business for a while.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam was humming along as the team finally made their way out of town, heading on Route 117. Drag-Queen King had made both Trainers accept his personal number, some merchandise, and a small action figure with a dress that could flex catch phrases.

Only a few people were freaked out when his bone limbs unfurled and began modifying the road again. Weirdos.

Anita was pouting. "Who even makes 'sweat flavored' ice cream?"

Pidgey had at some point replaced her fine painter hat with a work-out headband and a white muscle T-Shirt, and Anita's mood wasn't improved when her flying friend refused to wear anything else.

Adam chuckled. "I was surprised that Ms. King knew so much about armor maintenance. I normally just trust my Angels to handle all those issues, but learning from an expert was a whole new experience." He glanced at his metal wearing companion. "Her changes did make it easier for your to move yes? And look at my little Abra!"

Abra's new crown was less stressful for her to wear and didn't bump into her back-pack-barrel-pouch palm tree shade, but even so she had refused to wear it until Adam remade it himself. Ms. King found her adorable, and fussed enthusiastically over the little one.

Honestly, he couldn't blame anyone for finding Abra so adorable.

Route 117 was beautiful, by the way. Tons of flower gardens, peaceful ponds, small forest glades and flat grassy areas that seemed perfect for picnics. Compared to the shady forest on the previous Route, this was paradise.

It was even MORE enjoyable once Adam realized his presence was an issue again and he pulled it all back in. Normally that would be the default state of his nature, but well... he WAS recovering from visiting Queen Administrator's Realm. Occasionally his still healing soul would release a tiny pulse of power every now again... but nothing had exploded yet so it was probably fine.

Anyway, once he was 'hidden' again, they began to see far more previously hidden Pokémon enjoying the good weather. Bug and plant Pokémon bustled about, and he was pretty sure he saw a bubbly Marill floating around in a pond they passed. The general atmosphere of nature was soothing in a way, and helped relax the group in general.

He still was having issues with Abra detecting random items dropped by Trainers and deciding to Teleport them to 'Safety'. Also known as: Adam's head.

But it wasn't that big a deal, not enough to bother waking the little one up or trying to get her to stop. And who knows, she may find something neat in the process!

Lost in his thoughts, Adam reviewed the recently purchased so called 'Ultra Ball'. Normally only sold to Trainers who had defeated at least three Gym Trainers, Anita's account was somehow 'authorized' to buy all sorts of stuff when she had been shopping. And so she did. Enthusiastically. Good thing he added so many extra funds.

Back on point, the name alone of this 'Ultra Ball' implied something amazing and awesome! Which made it all the more disappointing when Adam actually examined the stupid thing.

Apparently, while 'Great Balls' used advanced designs and materials to maximize the Trainer's stored Aura for capture... these 'Ultra Balls' cheated.

They compressed the Aura from their users and refined it, making them feel more powerful and dedicated than they really were. Basically they lied to the capture target, or at least exaggerated his or her abilities. At best, it was showing off POTENTIAL ability.

Adam Gathered the thing into energy with a scoff. "Yeah, you should toss out any 'Ultra Balls' you find Anita, any partner you catch with one will likely be disobedient or angry."

Because it hurts to be lied to.

The following conversation and her shock at how they actually worked was satisfying, as he was sure not many Trainers knew the details on what was different between tiers of capture orbs. Feeling reassured at his friends honesty, he moved on to the other interesting Pokéballs.

The 'Nest Ball' had a module inside that attempted to reflect the atmosphere of nature, the attuned ambient Aura of the wilds. This other energy acted as a buffer, making shy or younger Pokémon feel more at ease during the capture process and lowering the impact a powerful Trainer might have on a weaker creature.

Hmm. This 'Heal Ball' he had seen before, so no reason to waste time on it. Instead Adam focused on the expensive 'Luxury Ball'... and its cost was clearly justified.

All materials were high quality, the units had additional parts that reduced confusion when Pokémon were released or returned. There was also a delicate purification unit that used stored Trainer's Aura as a filter to ensure ambient energy is properly purified for a Pokémon's use when passing through. And the compression components could theoretically make the ball's travel size even MORE tiny than standard, although at that point it would be dangerously easy to lose track of the stupid thing. The protective coating to resist stains and liquids was just icing on the cake really.

With a sigh, Adam double checked the designs Simmy and Sammy already came up with. "Guess I can't add EVERYTHING to a single Pokéball without conflicts." Some units worked by handling Aura in different ways, adding all of them would just counteract the previous components in action. Other parts required too many resources to be added, which he could do, but would make it incompatible with Pokémon Realm technology.

With only a few modifications, his Construction beam formed the most tested prototype so far into actual existence. Reinforced and coated bottom half sphere, the top was orange like Abra's skin and had small panels to make it look like her cute face. Even as it fell into his palm, his energy began to flow into the creation like a river.

Anita walked closer. "So is this the final version?"

He grumbled. "For now. I have other materials that might be better but those need lots of testing first." Not to mention the Star War's materials and how THOSE may be useful as alloys.

He examined the ball carefully, extra limbs pulling components out and returning them as he searched for flaws. "It has low level continuous healing ability, though it needs time to recharge so it can't fully replace the benefits of a Pokécenter. It transmits my Aura and other energies pretty well, and has storage capacity to hold way more than other commercial offerings. About a dozen times more, give or take. That purification filter idea from the 'Luxury Ball' was brilliant, so I stole that and tried to improve the concept."

Adam pulled the orb back together. "Unlike generic versions this modified prototype should theoretically allow Abra to use 'Telekinesis' on her own ball, as well as 'Teleport' to get away from danger even when resting inside."

Carefully, he tapped the orb on Abra's nose... and she faded in a beam of light quickly into the new 'Abra Ball'. A mental sense of excitement and even more comfort radiated from within, as well as a slight reluctance to go back outside with all that annoying sunlight.

He smiled at Anita. "She likes it!" Pidgey hopped over to his shoulder for a closer look and seemed impressed. "I don't think she wants to come back out right now though."

The younger Trainer looked at his backpack. "Seems a shame though, after all that work you put into making her little snuggle-bundle."

Adam chuckled as he Gathered the carrier into energy. "It is easy enough to rebuild later, the important thing is that she is comfortable with her new home."

Anita winced as Pidgey began tugging her ear, and sighed. "Could you build something similar for Pidgey? She was also impressed by the new ball."

He tossed a small orb that she caught and curiously expanded. "No problem. This doesn't have all the same features, as I have some abilities you don't, but it is a big upgrade to Pidgey's previous Pokéball."

Not that the new features would appear to matter much, as Anita watched her friend coo over her ball's image. The surface was showing the glorious design of her own face. "How much would one of these cost anyway?"

He shrugged. "Component material wise, around $1,500. Not sure on how much the custom artwork would raise that, but since we had to design some of the extra chip units and all that... and well, this thing is one of only two 'Adam Customized Pokéballs' ever made... not sure. For comparison, the component material cost of a standard Pokéball is around $3, and for 'Luxury Balls' it is around $112."

Adam ignored her shock. "Then again, while I used a grand or so on materials the alloys my wives designed... well, those things are cutting edge stuff that I don't think even exist on the current markets, or at least cost so much that marketing it seemed unprofitable and thus pointless. I guess even my rough estimate for a final cost is pretty low."

He snuggled the compressed Pokéball, Abra pulsing back sleepy happiness thoughts, then with slight consideration placed her orb into his magically flaming hair. A few wires held it safely in place, and the energy would keep Abra comfy.

Anita was staring at Pidgey's new orb with slight concern, as if she may damage something very valuable by breathing on it wrong.

Pidgey on the other wing seemed to only care about how awesome her face looked on it.

The bird probably had the best attitude at the situation, in Adam's opinion.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Thanks to how much better maintained this Route was, the pair of adventurers had reached Mauville City by nightfall easily enough.

It ended up becoming a conversation topic, as Adam and Anita talked about how BAD Route 116 was compared to 117. The one they met on had massive, dense forests, the road was overgrown and easily missed in low light levels, and all the facilities were run down. It was trash.

By comparison Route 117 looked like an advertisement for Sunday walks. The path was not only well cared for, but had gutters to guide rainwater away, solar powered lighting along the street, rest stops that clearly were cleaned regularly, and a variety of gardens that were dearly loved. Oh, Adam had touched it up, reinforced the street to near indestructibility, and added a couple of automatic restaurants, but it was basically untouched.

Anita's opinion on the topic was a bit cynical, as she believed that Route 116 was deliberately kept in a more lawless state. After all, there was a reason her classmates didn't join her on her journey that direction: Shady stuff happened there. Not normally as bad as what SHE went through, but sneaky sneaky stuff, certainly.

Black market deals, people 'finding' interesting things, clandestine meetings. The poor repair levels meant a significantly lowered amount of foot traffic, while the OTHER two high quality Routes into Rustboro City ensured that city tourism and trade didn't drop off. Meanwhile that one dark, lonely route saw all sorts of unusual visits from powerful, busy people.

It would be interesting to see how the 'improved' area back there would change this type of night life activity. Especially as the recent changes had become something of a local attraction at this point, according to the web forums Anita tended to browse. Ah well, it wasn't something that would have stayed secret forever anyway.

Unlike Verdanturf Town, Mauville City had apparently undergone a massive redevelopment plan recently. Which might explain how lovely the Route they just traveled had become, now that he thought about it.

According to Anita, the new place was the lifelong dream of Wattson Ogata, the local Gym Leader and man of the town. Known as 'The Cheerfully Electrifying Man!', he specialized in raising powerful electric Pokémon and wanted his town to show off the benefits of doing such. Step by step, one man led his whole city into developing the City into an advertised wonder!

The new catch phrase for the area was 'The Bright and Shiny City of Fun!' and it had an atmosphere of Las Vegas to the area. Most of the city was now indoors, within a massive structure covered in gardens and greenery on the surface. Adam wasn't sure if it was DESIGNED to be an armored fortress, but it was interesting to note how thick the defensive walls were, even if the general crowds didn't seem to notice or care.

Inside the buildings however, it sparkled! Dominating the area was the Gym of course, as well as the Mauville Game Corner which had everything from roulette to slot machines. Everywhere around these two monster structures were bright signs, glowing lights, and bustling crowds. Shops of every size and design were hidden all around, and it seemed 'Getting Lost' was a popular activity for people looking for something interesting to find.

Adam honestly felt a bit overwhelmed.

In Rustboro City, it was barely evening before almost everything but the Pokémon Center shut down, and the two Trainers had to use emergency rooms to get through the night.

Here, things were still jumping! Lights like stars covered the inside, a soft glow of energy flickered around making everyone feel like they were experiencing a dream world. These masses moved past loud shop stands and food salespeople declaring how marvelous their wares were, trinket salesmen and small ride operators, con-people and show-people were everywhere!

Even while searching for a hotel to sleep, Adam ended up getting Abra and Pidgey some Pokéberry Pops, while he and Anita split some candied bread snacks that smelled too good to just walk by unnoticed. There were attractions and even rides, all powered by the massive electricity the local Gym's Pokémon generated during daily life.

Smells filled the air, lights pulsed and glowed, and the sounds were walls that bustled and hummed.

Honestly, by the time the pair actually found a Hotel and checked in for the night, they were exhausted just from that short journey... and eager to explore after some sleep and recovery.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Anita woke with a start, before realizing she was safe. Nothing was hunting her (Or more accurately, Haunting her), and the unusual sounds were from the still bustling nightlife from outside the hotel.

And hadn't THAT been a shock! This was the first time she had traveled so far from the Academy, at least without teachers or whatever, and the only time they had passed through Mauville City her minders had pushed quickly through without explanation. At the time no one had made a big deal out of it, and the groups just moved on to their various assignments.

It was now a bit more obvious why the Adults tricked them, as getting students to NOT go nuts in a place like this was unlikely. As it was, she had tears from staring too hard at all the crazy things going on and a headache from the amazing sounds and shouts and songs. Her body pulsed with excited energy. It was amazing!

She had stayed up a bit too late last night getting a list of things to do, once she convinced Adam to stay a bit. The famous 'Crooner`s Café' was here, which was SO popular that people actually had Pokémon battles over the right to order and wait for drinks alone, forget the ability to hear the astoundingly talented performers.

There were rogue Trainers that could and WOULD help teach others their secret and special Pokémon moves (If you could afford their fees), a Battle Institute that was well known for having a vicious Battle Test to show your worth, a popular TV station that sometimes ran local contests and had awesome prizes, and more!

And the Food Court! She and Adam had barely passed through there before they were suckered into buying those warm, delicious sugar coated breads. NOT buying them was clearly not an option, and each bite had been so seductively wonderful to the taste-buds. It was like she could FEEL the energy soaking into her system!

Blinking and wiping away any potential drool, she checked her Pokédex's clock again... no, it was still too early to get up and get more, even if she COULD convince Adam that desert bread was a perfectly healthy breakfast.

With disappointment and growing hunger, she forced herself to try and sleep again. Stupid maturity, stupid responsibility. When she was a grown Adult, she would eat stupid things all the time and tell everyone ELSE to eat right and all that junk. 'Do as I say, not as I ravenously consume!' or whatever.

She slowly drifted away again, images of mountainous snacks being explored and devoured drifting by as her mind fell deeper.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam frowned.

What the HELL had been in that bread!? It hadn't been dangerous or Simmy would have stepped in, no question. But while there had been heavy energies in most of the food the two had seen last night, some clearly caused by Pokémon move residue and others from rare ingredients that naturally gained Aura from their environments, that bread snack had been on another level.

Those strange snacks they ate? The things had RADIATED power. And while Anita had clearly been distracted, ADAM had noticed that the booth they had purchased the Pokéberry Pops and snack bread from had no other customers. The raw power generated off of the available goods had caused everyone else to subconsciously avoid the area, and if Anita hadn't been exposed to Adam's energies over the last few days SHE TOO would have passed the odd place by.

Adam had a sneaking suspicion that, should the two of them return to that place, the man and his stand would be gone.

As far as he could tell, no Pokémon Gods were involved... but something suspicious had been at hand there. In retrospect, the fact that the vendor had NO electronics on his person should have been a warning sign.

Letting it go for now, he refocused inward.

Marshadow had made progress. His newly refined attitude thanks to the Angel Twins was still... aggressive... but not madscowled ragemadness. The Grid of Confinement cell that contained the creature now produced two tainted Aura fields, 'Fighting Aura' and 'Ghost Aura'.

Simmy had confirmed that the Cell was being designed further to host Pokémon of all natures, and that more could be confined in the same general spot without issue or conflict. This was due to a slight effect of the space to prevent mental damage to those confined, as Betty had explained there was a feeling of dream-walking. No hunger or weariness, no fear or sadness... just a drifting feeling. Even so, new regions within the cell should make it feel more home like to any possible future captures. Even now, volcanoes and rivers and forests and stuff were being developed and expanded.

Anyway, after several songs of Angel, Marshadow was now... drifting through something similar to a bone forest within the cell. His shadow would combine and flow between the forest silhouettes as he silently wandered. He seemed happier and more calm now, at least.

Adam moved his focus back to his own body, focusing on a hand that slowly smoked and turned black with 'Ghost Aura'. If desired, he could probably convert his body temporarily into such a state... and if he analyzed this more, there was no reason the couldn't do so with ALL of his Aura effects. Eventually, anyway.

Though using his own power would just convert him into living blue Aura Metal, as if he was that one Parahuman... Weld? The metal man from Worm.

He wasn't sure what combining his body with 'Fighting Aura' would do. Maybe turn him into a body builder?

Theoretically if Abra took a nap in there, Adam could see what 'Psychic Aura' was like, how his body would respond. And now that he thought about it, he WOULD get a chance in the future when heading home since Abra and any other Pokémon would have to stay in Confinement for safety during transit through the Abyss.

But the idea of not being able to pamper the little one was unpleasant.

So she stayed in her Pokéball as Adam coated it with blue magical flames, and he continued 'tasting' these two new Aura flavors Marshadow provided.

And it WAS something like a flavor, or taint, or food coloring. It caused Aura to act like an amplifier for certain energies, a dampener for others, and so forth.

It was likely what caused 'Type Weaknesses' and 'Super-effective Attacks', as the closest thing to an actual 'Pure Aura' was the so-called 'Normal Move' attacks.

Everything else? Flavored Aura. No wonder bonding with a Trainer boosted the creature's power, once they connect they can redistribute all of the energies wasted on generating their base attack Aura and focus only on creating their own 'Flavors' to add to their Owner's energies. Or add their own 'Normal Attack' to the power provided by the Trainer during the fight.

Adam watched Abra's Aura, which had slowly been shifting towards something similar to his own. Being bathed in Magic, powerful Faith energies, and Adam's unusually dense Aura fields... well, Abra's tired and weak systems had THRIVED with the abundant powers available.

Her field still felt and tasted like 'Psychic Aura', but being exposed to his mash of energies had a sort of... purification effect on the stuff. It was likely how the tiny thing was able to modify 'Teleport' to work in more adaptable ways, or how she was using 'Telepathy' to begin scanning devices as WELL as creatures. Not to mention using 'Telekinesis' to scare off Pokémon Adam might want to capture, to keep her partner to herself.

And yes, Abra, he caught you doing that. You aren't THAT sneaky.

He grinned at the embarrassed feelings he got from the Pokéball.

She was adorable.

Back on point, what would happen if he added the 'Psychic' flavor to his Aura? Would his form go ghost-like, or would he shift physically to better support mental attacks and abilities?

It would almost be a half-Semblance, this ability to modify one's Aura flavor.

Hmm... Ghira would probably want to know about it.

Meh, later. This is vacation time.

This town was a bit of a shock though.

It wasn't technically an Adult Only event, of course, and there were crowds of Pokémon and Trainers wandering about with normal Citizens in crowds of interested people... but some of the costumes? X Rated, easily.

It wasn't even treated as a big deal, if Anita's lack of reaction was any example. Considering how prudish the girl is in many other respects, the sheer LACK of reaction to beautiful women and men in the various booths trying to attract attention was a bit of surprise.

Maybe it was because of how adult like the kids in this reality were? The maturity level of the young ones was more than a bit odd, now that he thought about it.

Anyway, big differences: This was a Las Vegas that let kids gamble. No ID, no laws of certain ages being restricted, straight up 'Go knock yourself out kid' levels of nonchalance gambling.

And considering that one of the two largest buildings in this night-life town was a casino, they were going to see a LOT of too young kids gambling FAR too much money. Hopefully that won't cause issues, but it was honestly out of Adam's hands.

Some discrete questions sent via Pokédex to that Female Grunt did answer a few of his concerns though.

People who gamble TOO much are not 'vanished' or sold into slavery or whatever... but most ended up in the lowest levels of society's work force.

Which, considering how powerful and wide reaching it is, tended to mean Team Rocket. If they got out of debt and showed promise, they could eventually work their way up to 'Grunt' or higher... But the type of people that gamble until they fall into a gangster's lifestyle tend to not be competent enough to become better people.

Still, the world had many basic and annoying jobs needing to be done, so at least these mindless many were helping out society on some level.

Adam sighed as he felt Anita bouncing, the raw power of that suspicious bread forcing her to act like she had a sugar rush explosion delayed after three years of consumption. Theoretically this experience should help the girl handle the Aura pressure against stronger opponents... but right NOW it meant that she was going to 'wake' Adam up damn early and drag him back out into the mess of people and lights.

With a sigh, he tried to relax. Being forced to be around people sounded like a 'normal' thing to happen to other people on vacations too... he should just consider it a sign of experiencing real life a bit more accurately.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Anita was furious. "I can't believe he is GONE! How can you run a business like this!?"

Adam chuckled as her rant got more bizarre and whiny, slowly transforming into a speech about how sweet bread treats TOTALLY counted as a balanced breakfast and so on and so forth.

Eventually she fell to grumbling. "Well, we will just have to come back tonight or catch him tomorrow, but I am SO going to complain!"

One of the closer shop-keeps chuckled. "Good luck, Mr. Ogata is so busy he only gets to run his stand once every few months or so. If it makes you feel better, you really made his day! He normally only sells one or two snacks if any, no matter how delicious he claims they be."

Adam chuckled. "To be honest, I wouldn't let you eat anything else of his anyway. You are still over-energized from the bread, until it gets back to reasonable levels... I mean, are you even hungry right now?"

She blinked. "Huh. No, I guess not." Her frown came back hard. "But I COULD have been, if I could just get some more of that stupid bread!"

The candy merchant spoke up from the left. "If it REALLY bothers you that much, you could go visit his other job."

She turned to where he pointed... "The Gym? Wait, that was Wattson Ogata!? Why is the Town Mayor and Gym Leader selling super bread!?"

The merchant shrugged. "Asked him once, he said electrified desserts were 'Shockingly Good' and then tried to make me eat a biscuit."

Her gaze blurred. "So... so even if we stay here for months, I won't get my bread snacks?"

Adam sighed and gently patted her head. "It wasn't like the things were even that good tasting, you just really got a high off the raw energy. It is easy enough to duplicate."

He booped her nose, pushing the hope off her face. "Not that I will until you come down from your 'sugar rush'. Now, Where are we going according to that list you made?"

After some more wheedling (didn't work) and some complaining (Meh), she eventually directed the group towards the 'Crooner`s Café'. The place was surprisingly small for how famous it was, but while other people were constantly trying to intimidate others away and get better spots, a small area of space followed Adam as Anita traveled behind him.

He hummed. "Not a huge fan of coffee to be honest, although I love the smell of it."

She sat next to him, the unusually empty stools on either side preventing any crowding. "I'm going to try a cup, I heard it is WAY better than drinks elsewhere."

Adam shrugged and ended up getting a cup of hot chocolate. It was not nearly cold enough for the stuff, but temperature was not a good enough reason NOT to drink something hot and sweet. The custom home made marshmallows was a lovely addition.

Anita LOVED the coffee... but it didn't help her calm down much. Thankfully the smooth, mellow music that sauntered through the room helped keep her from flying off the walls or whatever.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Shawn lightly pushed Keven closer. "YOU sit next to them."

His friend frowned. "Hell no. Look, they seem to be pulsing with power. Like they got hit by a 'Thunderbolt' or something. That guy in the green shirt right there was shocked!"

Shawn waved a hand. "It was static or something, don't be a wuss."

Keven poked his shoulder. "I don't see YOU trying to get that free seat. Either one. Just admit it, those two are weird and it would be stupid to try and take advantage of that."

He glanced at the two, UNCONTESTED seating options. Maybe...

A pulse of energy crackled with static shock over the two sitting at the bar... and NEITHER Trainer seemed to notice.

Yeah, maybe not. "Isn't Steve here somewhere? He owes me a favor, I can cash it in to steal his spot."

Keven sighed. "Not today, he has to watch his sister's kids. And we need TWO seats, unless you want me to sit in your lap or something when we order."

Shawn's gaze drifted. "Hmm."

He frowned. "No, convincing everyone to double sit has been tried before. Caused complete chaos. Nearly got a dozen people permanently banned from coming by."

The friends wandered further into the café, ignoring the strange Trainers and their area of denial seating section.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Aura tainted food was used almost like seasoning here. There was clear traces of 'Dark Aura' and 'Fire Aura' in the hot chocolate, and the coffee had 'Fairy Aura' and 'Flying Aura' of all things from what Simmy and Sammy could detect.

The interesting stuff was how Anita's system handled the stuff. The 'Fairy Aura' didn't do much and was basically absorbed by the girls energy field, but the 'Flying Aura' almost seamlessly passed through her bond to Pidgey, who seemed extra peppy this morning.

He flared his hair around Abra's Pokéball, but she seemed happy enough to sleep away inside and didn't want anything from the café at the moment.

The music was... slightly odd. Less vocals, more instrumental. Still, it was soothing and sweet and flowed well. Made the food extra fulfilling, and sort of resonated slightly with the energies contained by the drinks.

Thankfully the placed served a decent breakfast, even if it wasn't the magical energy bread Anita had been desiring. Before long the pair had finished, paid and tipped the staff, and went back to the bustling crowds of the City.

Speaking of which, it had not really calmed down much. From what he could detect, there were shifts of people working that overlapped. As one went home, another arrived, and the massive customer base fluctuated thusly.

It explained why the hotel was so heavily insulated. Noise levels would be an issue otherwise, as people constantly lived life in this strange unending twilight city.

Oh, and Adam was stealing data like crazy. Every Trainer was checked to see if they had interesting Pokéballs, every shop was scanned, every Pokédex was checked for any custom modifications, and all the raw data was passed to the two tinkering Angels in his fishbowl.

Abra's ball had therefor been updated a dozen times by now. She could even answer phone calls and view camera feeds from inside there at this point, even if the device as a whole barely counted as a Pokéball at this stage. Not that she could speak English, so the calls would be a bit pointless... but meh, why not?

It had been interesting updating the device without Abra coming out first. Not too difficult, even if the first time Adam moved his bone arms had... surprised... the general crowds. Thankfully the Pokémon Realm was MORE than a bit used to strange and unusual people.

Seriously, more people should have more arms. He only had eight total right now, that was practically nothing. Squishy had passed a thousand limbs WAY long ago, everyone else should just get over it so he could try out a few dozen without scaring the town. Or city in this case.

No, stay focused.

Adam had been using the process of wandering around and visiting famous places with Anita to not only steal local data but to explore this massive structure over the city itself. Because while most of it was armor, heat ventilation, and power lines, there were small modules scattered throughout that had all sorts of functions.

Air purification, fire fighting (Both through water attacks and gas suppression, likely duplicating Pokémon abilities), light redirection, water guidance, and so on and so forth. These designs were clearly unique one-off creations, as there were no standardized parts in them and no manufacturing meta data included. Probably designed by the mysterious bread dealer, Gym Leader Wattson 'The Cheerfully Electrifying Man' Ogata.

The 'Electric Aura' flavor was everywhere in the building, used to guide power, redirect external attacks and internal electrical discharges, even improving the efficiency of the lights themselves! Clearly the man had a dream, and that dream was electrified.

The result of so much attuned Aura was the strange glow-fog atmosphere inside the city, this dream-like field of power that drifted in the area. Even without touching the walls or devices, the 'Normal Aura' was slowly being influenced into becoming 'Electric Aura' energies.

It would enhance anything related to electric Pokémon, from training to relaxation, just as a side effect from the buildings design... and Adam wasn't sure if it was done on purpose or if Wattson Ogata just got lucky due to his love of shock.

With THIS much electricity in the air though, it was obvious why the temporary bread seller had no high tech on his body. They would likely short out quickly if he tried, unless he built a Pokédex during a thunderstorm or something and let all the parts get zapped over and over again.

...Which would probably melt the parts.

Anyway, aside from the technological espionage, the main focus Adam had was absorbing samples of various Pokémon Aura's from the many passing Pokémon in the crowds. Simmy and Sammy would analyze the energy fields, learn how to duplicate the 'flavor', and then gather more and more similar samples to ensure that the 'flavor' was captured correctly.

Unlike Marshadow, who was helpfully contributing free power sources of 'Fighting' and 'Ghost' Auras, these other sources were basically flavor packets that Adam could pass his own energy through to generate the needed fields.

One of his sources was not only 'free' but building up massive Aura stockpiles... the other filter sources needed power supplied to generate working samples.

That said, Adam wasn't willing to capture a dozen types of Pokémon inside his Grid of Confinement just to make things easier. Not unless the creatures he ran into were EQUALLY dangerous to the general public as Marshadow was.

So he just had a small portion of his Aura constantly passed through each of the filters Simmy and Sammy constructed. The reserves of different flavors would build up slower and have the possibility of running out if he didn't support them directly, but at least he wouldn't have to gather Pokémon that he didn't actually want.

It was interesting to note that the dual nature Pokémon had DIFFERENT flavors than those with a single nature. Because a 'Steel' and 'Rock' Pokémon could have different ratio of flavors, some being more 'Rock' and only slightly 'Steel', and visa versa.

And this MATTERED. A whole LOT.

It effected personality, ability, growth rate based on location, and more. Heck, the 'Steel' type Pokémon actually improved FASTER if they stayed within man made structures, while 'Rock' type almost required constant camping trips to stay happy. It was fascinating, and also making proper 'flavor filters' annoying to construct. At least his Angels were entertained.

His thoughts were distracted as he detected... huh. Really?

Adam watched three morons fill up both ends of the alleyway, blocking Anita and him from passing through.

He glanced down at his own massive form. He checked his hair... yeah, still on fire.

How was he NOT intimidating the underworld right now?

Anita was clearly used to having Adam around, as she didn't even pretend to be nervous. "Yes? Can we help you?"

The shiftiest man, wearing all black and with a mask, stepped forward. "You two... are you strangers in these parts?"

The two in the back and three behind the pair chuckled.

Anita nodded. "Yep."

Adam sighed. "Yes, we arrived yesterday."

The man's smirk grew. "I knew it, you two smelled too innocent for our dark and twisted world. I believe you could use some edu-mucation. Some old fashion larrning."

One of the back hecklers cheered. "You learn her good boss!"

Anita... wasn't sure how to handle this. "Uh. Sure?"

The man whipped back his cloak, exposing his hidden hand.

He waved it in the air. "Now look you young'un, dis here is the third artistic circle you just past, you follow my numbers?"

Ignoring her expression, his dumb looking partner on his left had already extended a collapsible pointer and aimed it at the now unfurled map.

The cloaked man continued. "You bout to run into OUR territory. And no one can just wander into OUR territory like they own the place."

She frowned. "Why not?"

The man nodded. "We be painting. People like you, outsiders, get your nice clothing all messed up. And then we got to be painting again."

One of the group flanking them popped up. "Yeah, and them Artistic Circle people are expensive! You don't know the cost of paint job patch ups in today's economy!"

Adam wasn't sure what was happening, but the leader continued. "See, you need to take the alley two turns that-away, winder-shins like, you follow? Don't let ignorance ruin your clothing and our painted message of self expressionism."

His assistant seemed to have lost his own self restraint. "Damn girl, you been LEARNED!"

The two trainers stared blankly as the six men began informing each other of how much learning had been accomplished today, and how thoroughly schooled the general situation had become.

Adam nodded. "Right, we will be leaving now."

The man snarled. "That's right, and don't you be underestimating the joy of art again! Not in OUR town!"

Anita groaned, her Pidgey trying to flip the crowd with herself. "This is your fault Adam, somehow."

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

In the end, they didn't report the issue to an Officer Jenny. Technically, the 'gang' had not assaulted or even inconvenienced the pair, and one of the thugs passed them a helpful map for guidance on the way out of the alley. To better learn them.

Still odd though.

After a few more stops and no more 'surprise education moments', they ended up hanging out near one of the yearly attractions. The 'Annual Trick House' contest was a ways off apparently, but the pair got to see the space normally used for it. The building now showed off videos of past challenges and examples of the many various tricks used once upon a time. It acted like an interactive museum, and Anita found it fascinating while Adam scanned the various tools and devices for interesting technology.

Some past prizes were even on display, though not the 'Rare Candy' (If it even really existed in this universe). The one Pokéball shown was fascinating!

The 'Timer Ball' would build up charge during a battle, gathering Aura from both the Trainer, the Target, AND your own Pokémon. It not only made it easier for new Pokémon to understand their future user, but it actively calmed them down during capture by exposing them to familiar energies, both their own and their recent foe.

Not really needed in Abra's ball, as she was more than happy to be Adam's partner already, but an interesting trick to use when on adventures and paired well with the features from the 'Nest ball'. Anita may want the feature added to her personal stock... should probably ask her later.

Anita hummed as they looked at a massive spring. "I mean, does 'King of Tricks' custom make these or just order spare parts?"

Adam's eyes flashed with 'Technomancy'. "Not sure, part registration doesn't seem a big deal in this region and individual manufacturing seems easier with the assistance of Pokémon in general. That said, this metal matches the stuff in the other traps, so it is all from the same source I think."

She watched the video showing how the fake floor panel would launch people. "Seems very well made. I doubt someone could make something this large and precise without a lot of time and dedication. Maybe he is friends with a smith?"

Adam hummed. "Maybe. I wonder how much the guy earns... Especially if he is able to dedicate his life to making trap challenges and still make a living. Or maybe he IS a secret amazing designer and metal worker, and his work through THAT career is what pays him enough to do THIS."

Pidgey was asleep on Anita's head, and Abra was actually awake in her Pokéball, poking at some of the massive working example of traps with her 'Telekinesis' to see if she could set stuff off.

He blinked. "Wait, I think that contraption over there is a fake fake trap." He pointed at a clearly artificial floor panel. "It looks like a pit fall or something with a crappy designed cover, but the surrounding panels are the actual weak points. Even though it is transparent, there is a thick layer of glass-plastic panels. Could hold up a thousand pounds easily."

She looked closely at the edge. "Wouldn't thin layers like this make it less sturdy?"

Adam shrugged. "Depends on the plastic used. Certainly more complicated than a thick slab of glass or whatever, but it should work well enough." He waved at the example corridor. "Passing through would be easy if you had the confidence to leap directly on the trap first, which would show off the weakened panels surround it. Then you could hop over the other side and be on your way."

Anita frowned. "Huh. Easy enough once someone figures it out though. Stands out too much."

He shook his head. "Nah, see the next example? That is a fake fake fake trap. Looks the same on top, but the layers of plastic are deliberately faulty to allow people to fall through safely. Without being careful, telling the difference between the two could be an issue."

Pidgey chirped, and Anita nodded at her friend. "Right, and they could swap out the glass/plastic layer so even going through the maze twice wouldn't help you cheat. They look so similar you would have to check every time."

As they continued through the displays, Adam realized that many of these traps could EASILY be lethal if slightly modified or if they misfired or had mechanical flaws. The amount of safe guards and design work were all the more impressive when examined internally, but all the more confusing about how one guy could pay for this. Or even design it to begin with.

They did spend some money at the gift shop at the exit. Adam found a neat hat that had a small spring panel bouncing on top, and Anita got a few humorous shirts and spent a while trying to convince Pidgey to stop wearing that embarrassing muscle shirt outfit.

Didn't work though.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam blinked. "What the hell? Is that an 'Escape Rope'?"

Anita looked over at his area in the Poké Mart. "Oh yeah, I've used those before."

He leaned forward. Nope, it had no technology in it. "How does it work?"

She blinked. "It is a rope. You tie it to stuff. Or set it up to cross small gaps, or better hold your stuff together, etc."

Adam pointed. "Then why call it an 'Escape Rope' and not just a 'Rope'?" The chances of the thing actually teleporting you to a cave exit seemed beyond silly.

Anita hummed. "The manufacturer is the same people that make 'Repel Potions', and they soak the ropes in the stuff. It isn't strong enough to hold off anything too interested, not like if you had a fresh dose of 'Repel Potion' used, but it DOES keep Pokémon from messing with your line, eating it, cutting it, etc. Use a normal rope and something may decide to snack on the thing at a bad time."

Huh. "So that's why it costs so much? Why would anyone buy another one?"

She shrugged. "If you don't buy new ones every so often, the effects of the soaked in potion get weaker. And for it to last as long as it does, I think they use a concentrated version of 'Max Repel', so the rope option is actually pretty cost effective and can really help someone out in a pinch."

Anita pointed at a bundle. "When going into caves, we tend to buy 'Climbing Packs', which have a couple low cost 'Repel' items, several yards of compressed 'Escape Rope', and a few basic potions like 'Antidote' or whatever. The rope is ignored by monsters, the 'Repel Potion' makes creatures stay away from the Trainer while climbing up or down it, even if that cheap stuff wears off quickly, and the other potions make sure you have the energy to actually USE the 'Escape Rope'."

Adam examined the items. "Looks like 'Repel' corrupts the local ambient Aura fields into something odd."

She shrugged. "No idea how they work, but Pidgey hates them. I try to avoid the need to use them when possible."

They continued to banter back and forth as they slowly collected a massive selection sample of the stuff on sale. Adam's ability to duplicate rare high quality Pokéberries made their funds quite flush (thank you very much) so shopping sprees like this had been a common event over the few days spent wandering the carnival like city. And they were a more healthy option to buy than the candies and snacks being advertised.

Anita sighed at the checkout. "We have to leave soon. Especially if you want to catch your two chosen Pokémon on Route 110 before I have to head back to the Academy and report on my trip."

He blinked. "Huh. Your report is going to be odd."

She shrugged. "To a certain extent, it is expected. John's last adventure ended up involving a submarine, and Susan started a small religion."

Adam winced. Change topic! "Do you think Team Rocket will give you any grief?"

Anita shook her head. "I've stayed in contact with Grunt. The female one I mean. They will fight back if I interfere with any operations I stumble upon, but that is standard procedure and part of their internal expenditure profile when operating in regions, so apparently they have no hard feelings. I will be fine."

She glanced at her Pokédex, the device now more advanced than anything SHE had heard of, and the hidden information within. Because helping out with that crazy Marshadow incident had Team Rocket actually paying her a bounty of all things. So yeah, she wouldn't have fallout from that whole mess.

Adam sighed. "Well, I've had fun for a bit and I have gathered a lot of schematics while here... I suppose we can get going after a night's rest. Because it is close to midnight right now."

She blinked and looked up at the unchanging lighting inside the building. "Wow... this place really messes up my internal clock."

He nodded. "That and the super-charged bread that won't let you sleep and makes eating unnecessary. You seem to be recovering from it now though."

Her eyes were wide. "BREAD!?" She caught herself before dashing around to frantically look. Again.

Adam winced. "Mostly recovered." Seriously, how much 'Electric Aura' was IN those cakes?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam stared at the awesome raised pathway. "Why can't we use THAT path?"

Anita glanced over. "Ah, the 'Cycling Road'. Bikes are more than a bit expensive, but if you invested in one you can use that to pass by the..." She glanced at the Route. "Less repaired option."

He frowned. "Well, I could whip up some bikes I guess, they aren't that complicated."

She chuckled. "If you didn't examine the ones back in Mauville City then don't bother. Not only do their bikes have authentication modules needed to use that path, but they are pretty advanced. They have to be, to survive the Pokémon attacks that Trainers will inevitably get involved in. And you CAN just walk on that path if you want, it was just designed for cycles first and foremost."

Meh, he could fake a bike easily enough. Or brute force a better option. Ah well, he wasn't likely to see many Electric Pokémon on the ocean.

Adam walked towards the 'Main Route' for Route 110, the road near instantly falling apart into very thick grass. Yeah, screw this.

All six bone limbs unfurled and began Gathering rocks, grass, leaves, and muck from their path. Two swapped back to Construction beams, forming the high quality rock foundation, the nice water drains seen on that garden path on Route 117, high quality paving stones designed way back when, and solar powered street lights.

Unlike the well maintained Route 117, clearly all funding on THIS path was spent for the more popular 'Seaside Cycling Road' that extended over the sea. To the point where Adam's choice of traveling was almost being rebuilt from damn SCRATCH as Adam advanced toward near invisible way-points. Seriously, how long had this travel option been neglected? Years at least.

Anita hummed as Pidgey flew ahead, pausing on various branches to flex. "I heard the non-cycle path was a bit rough, but they really let this area go." She looked over at Adam, ignoring how his trap-door hat bounced with flames as he continued to wear his princess outfit. "So what is the plan for this play?"

Adam sighed as their progress slowed significantly, his limbs basically forcing a nice orderly path to exist. "Around half way to the next town, I'm going to set up a big automated hotel, restaurant, and performance center. Stage, lights, the works. We can practice a few times before going live, and hopefully a we meet some interested Plusles and Minuns in the opening audience."

Anita glanced at the tunnel Adam was carving into Nature that at one point had been a Route/Forest. "Are we actually going to have any audience at all? Look at that tall grass, if I wasn't with a living lawn mower then I certainly wouldn't risk it."

He chuckled. "Well, maybe not at first..." He glanced at the near pristine path with well tended vegetation on either side that followed their trail. "But I think curiosity will draw a few people."

Adam absently pulsed his Aura, a near invisible metallic wave sending the thick tall grass rustling as unseen creatures fled. "And the path will END at our theater, which will also have the only high quality rest area and restaurant on this whole path. At least, until we finish and continue on to Slateport City. I'm sure a few people will stay for a free production."

Anita looked torn between interest in seeing what crowd showed up and pure horror at performing the silly script they had been practicing. At least HER parts only had some naughty language here and there, some innuendo.

Poor Adam had a dance number.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

If Adam was being reasonable, a basic stage and some equipment would be enough for his plans. The play was not THAT complicated, and if he really had to... Well, Simmy and Sammy could just direct him to the two most compatible electric Pokémon in the area.

But the point of this was showmanship!

And he KNEW how to impress... Go Big.

Anita, Pidgey, and Abra (Whom had a newly constructed Back-Hive with a more relaxing color scheme) were provided with some benches as Adam began making a massive clearing.

And to get into the proper mood, the princess outfit was retired so he could wear some bright orange construction gear. Manly men wear protective gear during work hours!

Some quick 'Growth', 'Purification', and 'Manipulation' let him shift all the trees away to form a MASSIVE clearing in the forest. To prevent those now smushed together trees from dying due to lack of sunlight and other resources, he forced 'Manipulation' and 'Bind' to fuse the mess into something like an outer wall, the leaves at the top turning darker and closer to black so that the available light would be absorbed more efficiently. The roots were sent FAR deeper, creating a net in the process to hinder soil dwelling creatures from passing though easily.

This had a couple of advantages. First, the new meadow Adam was creating now had a protective border to keep most Pokémon from wandering in accidentally. Secondly, it helped keep the sound waves sure to be caused by the new Theater from polluting the surrounding area. The light issues would still exist though. Just in case, he modified the tree wall to be extra 'spongy' to absorb noise and extra dark to better absorb ambient light pollution... it hopefully would help.

Just to ensure the overall protective nature of the plant life barrier, an internal foam web structure of metal and stone was formed inside the tree fence line itself. Covered in Glyphs, it should encourage stronger wood formation over time and faster recovery should something attack it. Maybe create a bit of 'Don`t bother me' field to the wall too, if a weak one. At least, anyone tearing open the trees would stumble into a rocky issue or two.

Anyway, the point was to make some damn room for his new creation. Now that a massive, football field sized area was formed with lush grass and a tree wall... he could move downward.

The building would look like a Pokéball when seen from the sky. The white, bottom half would be exposed to nature, for outdoor productions when weather permitted. No tickets required to attend this one, and it could draw in crowds from the entrance to the new performance meadow. On the other hand, the red, top half of the stage was to be enclosed, and able to act as a standard movie theater when plays were not scheduled.

Looking like a trainer's belt, the massive wings on either side of the 'Theater Ball' facility would have separate purposes. The right half would hold the performer's facilities. Multiple sound-proofed practice areas, apartment complexes for staff and family, automated restaurant, enhanced computer labs, costume and proper design departments, etc.

The left side was closer to the official entrance of the meadow, and was for the public to use officially. Bottom level of the structure acting like a standardized rest top, even if the facilities were a bit more advanced than one would expect. Multiple automated shops that Adam designed after the stores they had visited on the way here, with enhanced products using the tricks he stole and enhanced, here they would be sold at a premium. Several automated restaurants and plenty of room to relax. It was meant for a bustling group on the move, really.

Second floor had other entertainment options. An area that was designed to act as a 'Contest Hall', another (again, automated) reproduction of the Game Corner, and a very high quality hotel dominated this floor, while the smaller setups would be booths that Trainers could rent and use to sell goods and services.

Top floor? A massive garden and pool area, meant to simulate the nicer areas he had seen on his travels. A few areas were enclosed in clear 'plastic' (It was Transparisteel, but no one needed to know that) so people and Pokémon could enjoy the facilities in bad weather, and a few areas simulated forests from other biomes (Fire Aura enhanced plants, Electric Aura enhanced trees, etc).

At least, that was the plan.

Right NOW, Adam was Gathering more and more soil and rock as he emptied a pit downward. DEEP downward, considering how many Ground type Pokémon existed in this Realm.

As he quickly vanished further and further into the massive pit that would soon become a heavily reinforced and defended power production area and resource creation warehouse, he activated a custom designed Pokédex that was basically combined with tricks from RWBY's Scrolls, and made a call.

"Ms. Grunt? I was wondering what your hiring rates were. I am going to need a few hundred employees to arrive on Route 110 willing to work as customer service."

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Anita watched Adam's six strange bone limbs whip into a frenzy as he just... forced space into the dense forest.

Seriously, every step on this path had been more and more impressive. At THIS point, the trees had gotten so thick that the Route he had created looked like a tunnel in a mountain, completely covered on all sides with wood from various trees moved out the way and forced aside.

The street lights had been modified into hanging lamps in that section, reinforced wires apparently reaching up through the thick wood covering to reach sunlight for power. Not that she could tell, the only way to find out how they worked had been to ask Adam directly. And most of his answer went over her head ANYWAY.

At the time, she had been impressed. Now? That was nothing.

Adam just pushed at something, and the too dense forest just exploded backwards.

And it WAS too dense. REAL, normal forests... well, the lack of light would cause the smaller vines and bushes to die and become mulch. The thicker the thicket, the more space available to Trainers at the roots level basically.

Not here, not on this Route. The amount of Grass energy was staggering, pushing the local Ground, Rock, and Water energy to near nothingness. The plant life was thick, vicious, and domineering.

Then Adam got annoyed, and BOOM, the forest ran away like terrified Torchics. Or like chickens in general, she guessed.

As Anita carefully cleaned little Abra's chin from her most recent snack, resting on a very comfortable bench (One of many Adam made for this side of the clearing), the man himself had caused beautiful grass fields to spread like a blanket... then he sort of fell into a massive hole. A huge, sharp edge void in the ground.

The soil didn't look right either. On every edge of the ever growing hole, the loose dirt and expected roots looked more like heavily compressed stone, forced into a repeating structural pattern.

She took more pictures. Her report was going to be awesome this year!

Her attention was drawn however to the sky pretty quickly.

Why the hell was there a series of hot air balloons in the sky?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The female Grunt (Agent 21142, ready for duty!) felt something inside relax a bit when she saw the young girl Anita gaping up at their rides. She had been a bit worried that the little one would have run into problems being so close to such a Target as Adam. Probably unwarranted concerns, but the heart didn't usually work on logic.

Powerful people did not always make good companions or guardians, after all.

And he WAS powerful. Even as the ships were carefully landing, she could see the clearly artificial clearing and the stupidly massive hole with something red glowing in the deep depths. Likely her future employer, no doubt.

She lept from the descending balloon and swept the girl into a hug. "Anita! I'm so glad to see you again!"

The girl squawked but eventually returned the hug. "Good to see you too, Ms. Grunt."

She smirked. "Actually I got promoted!" Mostly because she had been assigned to work with Target Adam, or Target Outsider as the internals had labeled him. "You can technically call me Alice now, and I am officially an 'Underling'! One more promotion, and I will become an actual Team Rocket Trainer!"

The girl clapped. "Congratulations!" She looked over to the many unloading people and their baggage. "And your friends?"

She glanced at the teams and made some hand signals, the masses giving a rapid solute and then getting to work. "These Grunts are some of the more talented customer service people, our Bosses are more than interested in investing in Adam's new project. Especially if it shows such high standards and quality as the other facilities he constructed on the way down here."

Anita sighed. "Did anyone tell you what his plan is right now? Why we are really doing this?"

She blinked. "Isn't he making an entertainment facility?"

The girl sighed towards the ever deepening hole. "Well, yeah. Sorta. Although it is becoming more an entertainment town at this rate." She shook her head. "Adam wants to catch a Plusle and Minun for two of his wives. Since they like to cheer, being cheering Pokémon, he decided the best way to do this is to put on a show for someone to clap for."

The Rocket Underling blinked... and turned toward the massive, black hole in the center of an artistically and artificially created park surrounded by what seemed to be a black-leaved demon tree wall. "Huh."

Then her brain hiccuped. "Wait, wives!?"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam finished the bottom layer of metallic foam and began creating his Conversion Generators when his 'Technomancy' detected the arrival of all SORTS of electronics above. "Oh, Team Rocket acts quickly."

Good, he needed people to ensure this place was run right when he left, and didn't want to leave droids or drones behind. Ignoring of course the customized 'Repair Drones' he may or may not have installed in all his facilities. They didn't count. At least, they didn't have a full AI installed.

Layer after layer of reinforced shielding and flooring was added as he slowly built the foundations upwards. Oh, there WOULD be access tunnels and tubes to reach the equipment down there... and maybe a drone or dozen to repair any issues, even if they would never exit this basement... but at the surface, it would all be sealed up. Only the redirection of power, supplies, and cooling would be allowed into the foundation stations.

No reason to expose this Realm to his more interesting technology so easily. It wouldn't bother him if someone broke in down here, but there was no point in making it an easy process to accidentally stumble upon either.

Simmy and Sammy had been making suggestions as he progressed, and there was a layer of metal Glyphs forming a rune circle under the entire clearing now. It generated a Purification field to promote healthiness, better health, and prevent disease and poison. Because Poison Pokémon exist.

Not much was invested in defenses, aside from a feeling of disease and paranoia to anyone with malicious intentions... the staff and security personnel and Pokémon would have to step in there and fill in the gaps. It should be more than enough, considering how unobjectionable the building should be.

Speaking of staff, he finally reached surface level again! The final flooring of metal was rapidly covered by a carefully grown wood surface using 'Manipulation' and 'Growth'. The walls themselves would also be part of this single Tree, even as metal and wiring was embedded within. Should prevent flooding too, as the roots would suck that stuff up. Oh! "Grunt!"

The female Team Rocket Member was distracted... oh, right, his extra limbs. "Ignore those. I am so glad you all showed up so quickly! Who do I talk to leadership wise, I want to go over these schematics before I finish construction."

She recovered well enough. "Good day Adam! I got promoted to Underling, and I am in charge of... whatever it is you are doing here. So I can go by Alice now instead of Grunt."

He blinked. "Oh. Well, congratulations! Got any team leads under you then? Because I have some schematics I would like to run by your people."

Even as she began calling over several workers, Adam made a wooden table with a scale model of the area on top. "The public stuff is obvious enough, but I added labels for you to easily tell what is what. I'm sort of stealing the cooler things I ran into along the way here, like the second level that has some features from Mauville City and a couple of buildings from Verdanturf Town."

He gestured. "I want to add a police station and a Pokémon Center on the first floor, but I don't know the procedures to do so officially."

A few quick conversations with her people and she turned back to him. "Right, move these around a bit. They will be too popular, and create massive crowds that will cause traffic issues if they are that close together. Add some more elevators here and here, and emergency staircases as well."

Her people were... really good at this. "The Hotel should be closer to the entrances to the theater and the pool/park elevators. Move the main entrance leading to the second floor over here, closer to the middle. That way anyone heading to the main entertainment sections will have to pass by the Hotel itself, that should increase staying customers. And you need a gift shop, as something this complicated is already more than some circuses or theme parks I've seen. Take advantage of that. I suggest over here, near the main entrance."

One of the Grunts stepped forward. "I can get schematics of what needs to be available locally for any City trying to set up a new Pokécenter or Police Office. if you have it all set up and contact the officials, they will send someone over near instantly. They are supported by all the local Governments, so the paperwork is easy."

Adam watched as the model changed in real time according to their suggestions. "I CAN make areas underground, and I added some access areas under the theaters for actors and stuff as well as moving props around, but I want to keep people above ground as much as possible, especially non-employees. I could increase this side to four floors if needed, but I would have to expand the employee side to match the aesthetics."

The structure twisted and shifted as the group made suggestions, Anita popped in and gave her point of view as a kid who thought various things would be cool, Pidgey made a good suggestion about having areas for people flying in (As riding Pokémon through the air was VERY common), and so on and so forth.

In the background, plant based lighting fruits began forming on the now black colored bark covering the tree wall, the grass coating the ground was mutating into a thick moss that curled into itself rather than threatening to grow up into tall grass, and the wooden Theater continued to build up mass for the future growth plans.

Abra's eyes slid open ever so slightly.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The world was energy, the dreams were many.

Floating, twisting, growing. Hopes and dreams and greed.

Her fishbowl Trainer had many limbs, and they danced in the world, in the air.

The ground was on fire, and within the flames a star was born. Energy fueled the Aura of life, an unending source that rapidly flowed into the foundation of a new endeavor.

A message from her fishbowl. Two Angels, demon and saint, plans within plans.

But the message was valid. Her partner needed assistance.

Her small, cat like orange head pulsed slightly, her eyes glowed purple.

Who said 'Telepathy' was restricted to passing messages?

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The Trainer nearly fell off his bike. "THE HELL!?"

Seriously, what WAS that!? It had been... like, out the corner of his eye. Something shifting that shouldn't have been there.

Looking over to ensure it wasn't some sort of ambush... he blinked.

Had that path always been there?

He glanced at the sign. "Route 110 Urban Renewal Project: Come see the new 'Theater Ball'! Free entrance tickets on opening... night?"

Looking at his friends catching up (He WAS the fastest, take that Dave!) he waved them over. "Guys, did any of you hear about this 'Renewal Project' thing?"

As the curious Trainers followed the very lovely trail into the woods, they failed to notice the sign fading away.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Anita walked into the new Pokécenter, even as the surrounding facilities were being formed by thick, metal-like wooden growth. It looked... disturbingly like the Pokécenter back in Rustboro City honestly. Even if it had a bit more storage available and the supplied medicine was going to be higher quality than the stuff normally available to such a place, overall it felt like she had stepped back in time to their last visit.

And about Adam's various machines, NO. She WASN'T sure how Adam could just make a vending machine auto-refill its own supply automatically. Alice's suggestion of 'Don`t Ask' had turned into something like a mantra for the poor girl, even as she continued to take random photos documenting the process.

She blinked when the door, finished and functioning only twenty minutes ago, automatically slid open AGAIN with a cheerful ding. "Oh! This is quite lovely."

Turning, Anita blinked. "Hello?"

Nurse Joy and five Chansey's entered with a smile. "Yes, we were told this was the new Pokécenter that applied for service?"

Well damn that was quick. And at least she wouldn't have to wait a long time down here. She shook hands with the nurse while smiling. "Yes, I'm Anita. Adam is the one who made this place, and he wanted to make sure you had everything you needed to make this new center work out. Any changes or questions you can give to me and I will make sure they are addressed."

Did she get extra credit for this? She felt like she deserved extra credit.

Nurse Joy was already bustling behind the counter, having moved WAY faster than Anita had expected. "We received Mr. Burn's paperwork earlier today, and he said something about a basic stock of medication being already available... Oh. Oh my!"

Her hands shook as she moved supplies during her examination of the shelves. "Max Ethers, Max Elixirs, Vitamins, Revives and Max Revives, and the standard potions for various status effects... and so many available!"

Her pink, egg like Pokémon chirped. "Chanse! Chansey sey sey Chansey."

The nurse blinked. "Evolutionary stones!? And not just a full set, but with duplicates! These are QUITE hard to find in such large quantities and with this level of purity."

Anita winced. Yeah, Adam had been disappointed in those. Apparently they were just really condensed, physical forms of 'Aura', or Pokémon types. Apparently he had run into something similar in the past, and had expected more. He had grumbled about it for hours afterwards.

The professional wandered back to the front counter and fussed with the tools. "The equipment provided like the 'Automated Recovery Tool Station' seem to be even BETTER than the standard supplies provided to our facilities. This is beyond all expectations!"

Her face slowly fell. "But I am not sure we can afford to station here with the amount of Government subsidy provided for facilities this size."

Nurse Joy waved some notes she had somehow had time to make. "Just the medication alone Mr. Burns provided is beyond high quality and very expensive. The compensation process would be unsustainable... Even if he offered to sell them at cost, the stipend wouldn't cover it."

She looked with longing at the over-stocked shelving. "If we somehow got donations to help find the budget... no. No, things like those stones or the improved diagnostic machines... even some Regions may not have enough to pay for this. I have no clue how Mr. Burns gathered it all in the first place, it must have been a lifetime of effort."

Anita coughed. "Actually, this uh." No, don't mention that he just magicked it all up in a few minutes. "Adam... I mean, Mr. Burns is not concerned about money."

Several Chansey's joined the Nurse in confusion.

Anita waved at the counter. "Adam is... very wealthy." Cause he can just make whatever he wants after seeing it once. Talk about cheating. "He doesn't expect you to pay for anything here, this was all just provided to ensure you would have not issues getting started up. A 'Welcome' gift of sorts, I guess."

She moved the stunned nurse towards the back facility, opening a specific door. "See this room? Adam made these Vending machines to offer resupplies of everything currently in the Center. And it costs about 10% less than market value, or 2% lower than manufacturing cost value according to what he could find out about the market."

Yeah, no clue how these things work. Anita waved at them. "Use the stipend or whatever that is on these to resupply the Center, and don't worry about what Adam gave already." Because he was busy building above them right now, and shouldn't be distracted. No one wants to be buried under a building because the one magical worker is distracted by technicalities.

Nurse Joy walked with wonder, seeing how many products were listed on the many devices. "What... what an astounding selection. How much of this supply is currently available?"

No idea. "Adam says it won't be an issue." Cause it is magic anyway, or something. "Everything should be in stock for... a very long time."

The nurse chuckled. "Now I feel terrible asking Officer Jenny to help me carry all those supplies into the building." She watched the Chansey crowd begin moving crates into the back. "Especially since Mr. Burns has provided almost a decade's worth of high quality materials. Forget resupply, we can probably build up an emergency reserve of cash by saving the stipend month to month."

Anita blinked. "Wait, Officer Jenny is here?"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Being part of nature, connected to the unreal and to the Fairy energy of the unseen, allows one to be sensitive to change.

This is both good and bad, as his partner and child had to follow closely as he searched for somewhere they could securely raise their young.

His kind often worked closely with Humans, due to their nature and ease of communication even if talking was off the table. That said, this same understanding meant finding a GOOD human was at times difficult.

And his standards had rose sky high when his little one arrived. Family first, family forever.

In the dense woods, he suddenly felt a possible future. His Psychic nature felt... colors. Bright lights. Songs and dances. The world. A Stage.

His family needed safety... and he could feel it out there. Far closer than expected.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Alice sweat dropped. "No, Officer."

Officer Jenny's Growlithe grumbled as she crossed her arms. "Because I am seeing a LOT of 'Team Rocket' logo's in the area."

She coughed. "Look, I may or may not be employed by certain well known organizations, but I swear we are not the ones leading this construction project."

The police woman tapped her foot. "I assumed so when this 'Mr. Burns' fellow built a police station overnight using more funding than most capital cities. I could arrest a thousand people and secure them down there..." She glared at the Underling. "And I WILL if I need to."

Jenny sighed and relaxed slightly. "Look, your various 'freely organized group fans' and so such WILL follow the laws while in this territory, is that understood?"

The Underling quickly nodded. "No problem! Adam... I mean, 'Mr. Burns' has no plans on making this into some sort of scam or whatever. I can show you the development plans, give a tour... it is on the up and up, 100%!"

With a sigh, the officer tapped her thigh, Growlithe returning to her side and on duty. "Very well. Where is Mr. Burns anyway?"

The Underling waved upwards. "Building the second and third floors for the next few hours. They have a play they want to do this afternoon or tomorrow, and he wants the electrical system up for a few practice performances before his big number. I'm just trying to make sure the customers wandering in are staying out of the construction zones."

The officer stumbled. "Wait, what!?"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The shadowy bosses had met more in the last week or so than they had for months.

One Boss tapped the desk. "Estimates?"

A Grunt gathered his notes. "As there are no external supply chains detected and the internal Vending Machine supply devices are all selling at below cost, the shops and restaurants are massive profit sources."

Another nodded. "This is compounded as only sales people are being hired. No chefs are needed, no supply warehouse support groups, just those needed to clean, restock, and sell. The wages offered by this 'Theater Ball' are almost double the working average as well, and the work hours are reasonable. Also, the percentage of profit offered to those of us sponsoring various facilities is overly generous."

One of the older members was still grumbling. "I still say we should steal one of those vending machines. SOMEHOW they are being supplied with VERY rare materials, if we can force one to deliver for free it would be pure profit!"

The higher boss sighed. "No. Aside from the fact that this entire endeavor is pure profit ANYWAY, as we had no need to invest in construction, local land clearing, and so forth... Target Outsider is clearly testing us with this."

He smacked the table, making a few people jump. "I do NOT want to be responsible for pissing off a man who can restructure a city by accident. Especially not when he is insisting on giving us profit, gainful employment for our people, and good public relations."

An analyst chipped in. "Not just that, but he isn't likely to stay long. The Underling Alice reports that the entire project is a side effect of his real goal."

Several people blinked. "Which is?"

The man sighed. "He wishes to catch two Pokémon."

The grumbling one sat forward. "Legendaries? Maybe some rare variant?"

He shook his head. "No, a common Plusle and Minun."

The silence grew. One woman spoke up. "Don't we have like... a few hundred of those in reserve for new members who are compatible?"

The Boss shook his head. "If anyone asks, NO."

The glare went around and nods were given.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam grinned, standing tall on the 'Pokéball Dome' of his new Theater.

From here you could easily see the exposed open air performance area, the waterproof curtains and seating ensuring no damage should they continue being exposed to the elements. The floor had special patterns to prevent slippage if the ground was wet from weather, and could be heated to prevent snow or ice from being an issue... as well as helping keep the crowds warm on colder days.

It had all taken... WAY longer than he had expected. Not using Drones had slowed everything down a lot, but it had gotten done eventually. That said, it was a bit too late to have the proper preparation time for a play tonight... Anita would have to be told that everything would be delayed until tomorrow afternoon. Maybe later, should something else crop up.

Suddenly he felt someone tapping his shoulder.

...And he was WAY above ground level.

Turning, he saw... nothing.

His shoulder was tapped again, somehow feeling... down. And near the entrance to the Tree Wall.

The hell?

Stepping off the wall, he fell to the ground as his metallic Aura absorbed the impact and converted it to potential energy for later. Walking past the many busy people trying to get the facility running, he headed to the entrance near the Route trail.

And blinked. "Uh."

The short people waved. The tallest was about four feet tall, or a one and a third meters. The tiniest one was held in the loving arms of its mother.

Adam coughed. "Hello."

Another wave.

He nodded. "How can I help you, Mr. Mime?"

...Uh huh.

Yeah.

Alright.

Damn it, he was terrible at Charades. "Hang on, let me get little Abra back from my friend Anita, I think she can act as interpreter."

He got two thumbs up, the baby Mime Jr. was too busy sucking on his little fist.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Anita watched Mr. Mime, his wife (Also Mr. Mime), and Mime Jr. (Who wasn't really paying attention) make animated gestures towards a very asleep Abra. The topic seemed intense.

The tiny sleepy thing then telepathically gave Adam the gist of whatever it was being debated. Anita had no clue at this point.

The man nodded. "Right, I can see that. And I think most people would understand the need for a safe place when kids are involved."

Was this normal? Pokémon just wandered up to the guy. Forget catching them, most of the time Adam was actively avoiding the things, and stuff like this still popped up.

Adam hummed. "I'm not actually sure what the laws are about hiring 'uncaptured' or 'wild' Pokémon as staff. Not that I'd let the law stop me, honestly." He looked toward the mostly completed Theater. "Hmm."

Pulling out his VERY modified Pokédex, he made some quick motions and a call. "Hello Ms. King! I had a few questions about your backup dancers in your Husband's production troop and their legal status. Are all of them captured by your husband?"

Anita winced at the loud background voices from the call, seeing Pidgey flex EVEN HARDER in the background.

He nodded. "Right. But... yeah, alright, I can see that. Is there a work around? I may not be in the area for long, and I want this place to continue operation." Adam paced back and forth slowly. "Huh. Well, a local manager seems reasonable enough."

It's not like Anita didn't want to support Pidgey in her life choices, but she was a bird. Teaching a creature with hollow bones to become super fit seemed... unwise. Might actually make flying harder to do, for one thing.

Adam seemed inspired. "Right, but that assumes I am operating a town or guild... but what are the rules for Gyms?" He glanced at the many Team Rocket members. "Yeah, I may know some people."

Still, Anita wasn't quite able to burst Pidgey's dreams of being 'SWOL', whatever that meant. Young people today and these 'hip new phrases'... God, she was starting to sound like her parents.

He grinned. "By the way, would your Husband's team be willing to perform some shows at my new place once in a while? He would get a large percentage of the profits of course." Adam paused. "I didn't mention? I just finished building a professional theater here on Route 110. The 'Theater Ball' is going to have a grand opening... and I'll be honest, I'm inviting your husband mostly so I can take advantage of your costuming skills for future plays... Hello?"

Adam stare at his Pokédex as it flexed in half. "Huh." He nodded. "She seemed interested." Turning towards the still motioning Mr. Mime, he waved. "Guys, I have to talk to Alice first, but I think we can hire you on without problems once I get this Theater registered as a 'Performance Gym' and make Anita the Gym Leader."

She blinked out of her thoughts. "Wait, what?"

He nodded. "Right, I'll get on that." He ignored Anita's ever growing concern and questions and began searching. "I think Alice was getting the hotel staff in order, so... this way."

The little girl was getting a bit frantic, even as the Mime family casually followed the pair. "No, LISTEN Adam, there are a lot of rules about working a Gym and... Hey, pay attention!"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Bribery rocked. In the end, it only took a half hour to get things done!

Team Rocket Underling Alice nodded, and pointed at two smaller subsections. "And here... and sign there." She carefully photographed the paperwork and tapped some buttons. "And... Done! Congratulations Anita Sands for becoming the Theater Ball 'Theatrical' Gym Leader. Your account will receive your new paycheck automatically."

Adam nodded with satisfaction, even as he waved Mr. Mime forward and everyone ignored Anita's confusion and questions. "Mr. Mime, who wishes to go by the name 'Stage Hand', will be the highest authority for anything concerning the plays and productions in the Theater. Aside from special effects, which he quite impressed me with, he will also be the one in charge when it comes to hiring more Pokémon whom wish to preform but do not currently desire a Trainer."

A thumbs up.

Adam then pulled Alice forward. "Mr. Hand, Alice here will ensure that no one attempts to capture you or your people, and will act as an interpreter for any human interactions required between you and the rest of the facilities. Just to ensure no confusion occurs though when walking about, there will be a standard uniform provided to all employees, human or otherwise, so that they can be identified as staff."

Alice nodded. "You would be surprised how hard it is for some members of management to communicate normally. Being good at non-verbal interaction is mandatory for high level Team Rocket Members."

He grinned. "Good... and with Team Rocket being the ones to ensure no one tries to 'steal' my Pokémon staff, I can rest assured."

Motioning Mr. Mime to follow him (As his wife and child had already been shown to their family staff apartment), Adam walked back towards ground level. "Just in case though, I would like to introduce you to Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny, in case you or your team need medical care or protection in the future."

Behind the dispersing group, Anita was still confused and trying to explain to the nobody around how impossible this was.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam was just exiting the police station (Officer Jenny was a bit intense but a nice woman), when he heard a muscular shout of passion. "GLORIOUS!"

He blinked. "Mr. King?"

What the hell, he only contacted his wife a few hours ago!

He reached the entrance to see a LARGE train of people entering the new meadow carrying all sorts of things. "I, the famous Drag-Queen King of Fashion, have arrived!"

Mr. King's tight explorer's outfit covered him completely, even if it showed off a bit of cleavage and leg. "And WHAT an AMAZING creation! Princess Muscles, where are you?"

Adam paused half way outside. "Wait, what?"

The famous Drag-Queen King of Fashion saw him instantly. "Princess! My marvelous wife heard tales of Fashion, Fame, and Fortune! A Theater that even now is astounding the Region online with tales of quality, entertainment, and potential!"

Adam blinked... and looked down. Now Simmy giving him a blue princess gown to change into after getting his other clothes filthy during construction made more sense. "I feel I must point out that I am not royalty."

The King barely moved, seeming to float into the center of attention almost by accident as he FLEXED a glorious smile. "True royalty flexes from within! But you must tell me... Are you truly offering my wife an opportunity to prepare actors for the world of theater!?"

Adam sighed.. then stood tall and FLEXED, his rippled form causing the lace trimmed dress he wore to dance in the air. "My skills are many, but when I need Fashion I need the best! Ms. King has shown me the way, but only her ideals can lead us to glory!"

Turn, point, tense, FLEX. "I do not need your wife to dress my people! I need your wife to DESIGN the FUTURE of our ART!"

Mr. King was mid-response when a tiny hand patted his head. "That's more than enough honey, thank you."

His smile was glorious. "Of course love!" And with a twist and turn, he formed muscled steps down from the pack his wife apparently rode in.

Seeing Adam's expression, she chuckled. "You think I didn't get inspired from little Abra's backpack? Once I made a version for testing purposes, my husband insisted on being my Rapidash in shining armor."

Her husband rose from his stance. "The ability to assist my love while earning a workout!? Of COURSE!"

Adam was still sort of paused mid-flex before he spoke quietly. "Would you prefer this with or without the posing?"

She waved him off. "I'm sure there will be lots of time for flexing later, tell me more about what the plans are for this place."

He nodded. "Right, high level highlights: I've turned this Theater into an entertainment facility, got an official Pokécenter and police station, stuffed it with shops and restaurants, and so forth."

Adam ignored her a bit as a bone limb unfurled from his back and began Constructing some notes to pass over. "To allow me to hire some uncaptured Pokémon, I then turned it into a Theatrical Gym with a 10 year old Gym Leader, Anita." He paused. "I think she is ten. Not fifteen, at least. You'd think this would have come up in the paperwork." Well, whatever.

Moving on. "Human Resources is controlled by Ms. Alice, she is something like the contractor lead for the area and her people work the counters, the cleaning staff, and so forth. You and any helpers you need however would be working directly under 'Stage Hand', a Mr. Mime who joined our Gym to safely raise his child and protect his family."

Adam passed the paperwork over to the woman. "You would have full creative control over ALL outfits for all plays, though Mr. Hand would be giving you any requirements needed for the various characters being preformed. You keep all rights to your works and all credit after public disclosure. If you decide to allow costume duplication to be sold by our shops, you would receive 80% of the profits, while the last 20% would be invested into the Theater itself. Any and all fabrics and materials will be provided at 10% below market cost, and our materials are top notch."

To his surprise, Ms. King instantly passed the paperwork to Drag-Queen King of Fashion, the massive man pulling thin glasses from somewhere and rapidly reading through the legal documents. REALLY rapidly. Adam's Lawyers in his home Realm didn't work this quickly.

Apparently he had some hidden depths.

The man hummed. "I should have expected chivalry and fair play from a man with your muscle density, yet I am still pleasantly surprised." He FLEXED to the next page. "I am a bit unsure why you are allowing so much profit sharing when it comes to merchandising though. This is almost TOO generous."

Adam chuckled. "Look around." He waved at the massive building. "I made this today. This was all forest yesterday, and that upgraded Route 110 forest trail you traveled? I will be building that same style of path further on my way Slateport City."

He smiled at the bustling building. "I don't need profit. I don't really need more power either. I need people with dreams that would support this place when I wander onward."

Adam paused as manly tears poured from Drag-Queen King of Fashion, his face a mess. "To cast aside worldly concerns and build such a glorious stage without concern for personal gain... To allow self expression without censorship or to push your own agendas.."

Without a pause, Drag-Queen King of Fashion and his many muscled Pokémon carrying supplies behind him all FLEXED. "HAIL PRINCESS MUSCLES, PROTECTOR OF DREAMS!"

Ms. King giggled at Adam's shocked expression. "Well, too late to stop this now. Let's head inside while the boys work all this out of their systems and we can talk details."

Adam absently was led inside and eventually provided Ms. King a tour, while the wandering Trainers and curious people coming to visit the new Theater (Gym?) watched the many muscled Pokémon flex with a muscular god out front. It turned out to be good advertising, oddly enough. At least, it was trending well online.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Anita was trying not to cry. "HOW did you get a Gym badge designed already!?" It looked like a tiny stage. But cute or not was not the issue! " I can't make Pidgey fight people! Not so early in my career, not against the thousands of Trainers that will show up!"

Alice laughed and pulled the panicking girl into a hug. "Don't fall into the trap of trying to solve all your problems with violence. This isn't an elemental Gym or whatever. Didn't you read the paperwork?"

The girl looked back at the tower of paper. "No." And she would have too eventually. Damn it.

Alice chuckled. "Short version, Gym Leaders can do what they want mostly. They fight because that is considered the easiest way to judge the bonds between Trainers and their partners. But there ARE other ways."

She waved towards the stage, hidden at the moment by the many walls. "As the 'Theater Ball Gym Leader', if you attempt to get things done through fighting alone, I'm sure it would disappoint people."

Anita forced herself to consider the situation. "So... I should act like the Contest Hall? Have people prove how well bonded they are to their Pokémon by how well they can preform?"

The Team Rocket Underling nodded. "Make a series of challenges. In a fight, it is more than possible to 'get lucky' or even pull tricks like challenging a leader until their Pokémon are too tired to fight well. But on stage?"

The girl blinked as her thoughts raced. "I can make them preform a script together to show how good their teamwork is, have them do a skit with other trainers to show how good they are at improvisation, do a play in front of an artificially harsh audience to show perseverance and resilience... and how they handle adversity."

Alice blinked. Huh. She was just going to suggest having challengers do silly things for personal amusement, but that sounded actually useful for determining how advanced the abilities of Trainers actually were. She would pass the concept up the chain, Team Rocket had a history of giving performances anyway. "Right! Exactly what I was thinking."

Anita seemed to be on a roll. "I bet I can get Adam to make different environments, so I can see if the Trainer can adjust to unfavorable terrain while still accomplishing missions... and those that do really good can be hired as assistants and even future performers, we can show off the most amazing performances online and in videos and it would basically be free advertising..."

The Team Rocket Underling blinked as the little girl began rapidly designing one HELL of a 'Gym Challenge' setup. Ironically, the new 'Gym' would likely be one of the most harsh but fair progress evaluations in the region if these plans went as well as they probably would... And people would likely throw themselves into the hell challenges to get a chance at becoming famous and being shown online.

Maybe Target Outsider knew something they didn't when he put the girl in charge.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Narwhal was starting to regret throwing a party to watch Adam's play on his video stream.

Not because the play was going poorly, but because somehow Simmy had convinced her man to preform on a stripper pole with slick skin and no shirt. While singing.

And he was doing a good job, not that it mattered much as most of the women and a few of the men had checked out mentally while watching sculpted muscles twist on stage.

She glanced at Nightmare Moon. She had drifted away from Adam's circle over the last few months, and was now mostly dating Twilight Sparkle when she could be pulled away from her research... but she may be showing up again for one of her random 'visits'. Possibly with Twilight, depending on what her current project was and how progress was going.

At least Dragon and Armsmaster wasn't an issue. The woman was digital and had been for a long time, the internet helped keep her more than a little grounded.

Armsmaster however grunted. "That dancing class is STILL the most awkward thing I have ever been dragged to participate in. Couldn't wear armor either. Would have damaged the pole."

Several people turned to stare at the armored man. He frowned. "Adam made some logical arguments that learning such skills would eventually increase efficiency."

Narwhal grinned as the gazes turned towards a VERY blushing Dragon... who nodded. Well played, Adam.

Betty squealed from the couch. "OOH! He dove into oil!"

All eyes snapped back to the screen. Mmm, efficiency.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Ms. King again tried to get her man and his Pokémon to settle down, even as she internally knew it was a bit unlikely.

The play was going well.

Little Abra was in an adorable modified princess outfit with a cute little crown, the materials and workspace provided by Mr. Burns very acceptable and easy to work with.

Anita's armor was outside her abilities with the time available, but she had been able to suggest modifications that Adam could put in place near instantly... it was much quieter and easier to work in now, even if awkward to actually put on and take off.

Adam's dress had to be slightly altered to allow the tearaway sections, and to better hide the stains that the heavy oil would leave after his dousing. Her husband always had a quantity of high quality sensual oil for emergencies, so she had lots of experience with finding lighter materials that could handle a good soak.

She grin widely as Pidgey worked her lines in that adorable muscled outfit. Apparently it wasn't exactly the costume the play originally described, but the bird had been VERY insistent and happy with the results. Of course the Drag-Queen King of Fashion approved highly, but for some reason little Anita seemed a bit put off. They reached some sort of compromise, and Pidgey was having a lot of fun out there tonight.

Another animated stuff prop acted like living vines to prevent the young knight from her handsome princess, much larger apparently than previous rehearsals as Mr. Hand had taken over the 'Telekinesis' portions of the job so Abra could relax a bit more. That Mr. Mime truly had skills when it came to projected force manipulation, and the play had benefited greatly from his talents.

Oh, the big musical finale!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Anita gasped for air, her face (Partially hidden by her helm, thank goodness) beet red and her body sweaty. The bright lights of the stage and the heavy work had burned all her energy, even with her costume being so light and comfortable. Pidgey had flown around inside the Theater, too worked up to join them onstage.

Adam, the jerk, seemed fine as he joined her on stage again, accepting another wave of applause and bowing to the crowds.

And what crowds! She had been shocked when the seating down there rose up to become a sort of half globe styled stands for better viewing, but even as everything was prepared for their performance some part didn't really believe anyone would show up. The idea itself seemed too hopeful and unlikely.

She had severely underestimated the communication abilities of Team Rocket.

Even now, the facilities were near bulging from the crowds. The (slightly more) normal theater on the other side of the stage dome was even now showing movies she had never heard of. Meanwhile, a number of smaller, more normal sized theaters had been constructed by Adam underground and were now full of visitors and likely to stay that way.

Alice's people had somehow gotten permission to show all kinds of current and popular films on the market, and those underground theaters were giving advanced showings of stuff that technically shouldn't be out yet for the general public. Something like 'Advanced Screenings', which implied that Team Rocket's reach was... very wide and diverse.

As for the other facilities... The park up top was filled with bustling people, Trainers, and Pokémon. The Hotel was pretty much booked solid for weeks. As were several of the smaller clubs and dance halls. The 'Contest Hall' area was hopping with confusion and interest, the Game Corner ripoff of Adam's was operating at full speed, and the many shops and restaurants had such customer turnover that they would have run out of stock by now if it wasn't for Adam's magical supply vending machines supporting the whole mess.

Her dazed confusion was broken as Adam pulled her away from the overwhelming noise and clapping, the crowd still causing her to feel lost slightly as they retreated to the shadowed sides of the stage. "I... I can't believe we did that."

Adam was pulling her to a resting room, where he collapsed onto a couch and carefully sat Abra back in her cocoon. "It was a bit of a turnout, yeah. Went well I think."

She snorted. 'Went Well' would have been having a dozen people show up. But with the amount of fame the internet threw at them, it had gone nuts. "Oh god, the things I said!"

He relaxed into the furniture. "Meh, I had Simmy check. It technically only hit PG13 at most."

She grumbled. "So I can't watch my own performance?"

The door opened before Adam could ask, some Staff pulling in serving trays with snacks and drinks as Alice floated in. "That was AMAZING! Who was working the lights?"

Adam chuckled. "Stage Hand is amazing at his arts. He used 'Telekinesis' to animate the props, control the lights, set off sound effects, and move the curtains." He nodded. "Yeah, I'm doubling his pay. If you single handedly do the work of a dozen people, you need the paycheck to show for it."

Alice seemed focused on her Pokédex, face lit brightly. "The hotel is stuffed and reservations are being fought over, the stores are basically just shoveling cash into the accounts, some of the strange food on sale has started a craze on the internet, and your merchandise has been selling like Rare Candy! It's amazing! And the sales predictions are breaking the model, I can't get accurate numbers beyond the 'Unbelievable' range. We need to wait for the visitor rates to stabilize over the next few weeks."

Adam nodded. "Yeah, but I'm glad we are done with that honestly."

Anita and the others (Except little Abra) blinked. "What?"

Adam waved a hand. "The purpose was accomplished, we can now leave things to you and Stage Hand from now on. Just have to wait for the specific Plusle and Minun's to show up and we can get back on the Route towards Slateport City"

Anita blinked. "I thought we had to do this play for that?"

He shook his head. "No, the point of the play, this theater, and all that was so I could gather enough data to make this."

From his hand a swirling globe of energy pulsed.

Lights! Stage! Action! Bright Lights! Big City! Gotta Dance!

Anita felt soft costumes, smelled hot lights and grease paint, could hear the squeaks of equipment and a wooden stage, the pulse of overhead speakers and the pounding of her heart as the world looked on! No, as she looked upon the world! Words of unknown, tunes of lost times, movements never seen... the hearts of strangers all performing, all creating, all together!

Her fingers wanted to tap, her toes twitched to move, her hips needed to swing, her shoulders to shake...

For a moment, she was blinded by the stage again, the feeling of her pulse racing as she fought to remember the next line. Just an instant, she cooled with triumph at the last word, the last line of script, the feeling of flying as her world darkened and the crowd burst into raging applause!

Adam held the pulsing light softly. "Theater Aura." He waved at the walls. "Now that I have a good solid sample of that energy, filled with the thoughts and feelings of active crowds of people, Trainers, and their partners, I have a good... no, a high quality sample to work with. The play was designed to have different themes and sections to appeal to a wide range of possible Aura patterns. This is the final product."

He waved absently back towards the stage, that would act as the Gym's 'battle' arena. "All the emitters in the building will now be able to convert ambient Aura into 'Theater Aura' from this point forward. Any Pokémon that works with acting, singing, dancing, and so on will benefit just by being in the area. Art and such things will be easier to accomplish as well when training nearby or even just relaxing in the building."

Alice's shocked expression made him chuckle. "Stole the idea from Mauville City. Wattson Ogata accidentally began converting his cities ambient Aura into 'Electric Aura' due to how many electrical devices he built into the walls and structures. I'm just a bit more efficient at the same process."

Alice nearly dropped her device. "You... you can just MAKE area's conductive to training different Pokémon types?"

He blinked. "Yes? Why, do you think people would want that?" He hummed as Anita just slid into her chair and seemed to be close to falling asleep. "I guess I could add some training rooms under the Entertainment Wing with an exit next to the Pokécenter in case of emergencies. I would have to add some Aura absorbing devices and special materials to protect those rooms from damage, but it should be easy enough."

Alice... sighed. "Yes. Yes it would be something people would want. Please do that thing you said, while I try to tell my Bosses about this. Somehow."

He chuckled as she drifted out of the room before reaching for the dishes brought in. Ooh, little bread poof things with some sort of cheese spread inside! Awesome.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The forest, so long filled with the energies of life and nature... began to pulse.

A rhythm, a rhyme. The natural beat of existence slowly began to line up and follow the more powerful energies being released by the strange area walled off from the wilderness. It wasn't so much a change of elements, such as the explosion of volcanoes or the flooding of land, but more an... alignment adjustment. Creatures that focused on being alone, on fighting, on avoiding human society... they could feel the familiar energies slowly merging into their territories and begrudgingly began to shift to more comfortable areas.

On the other hand, some wandering and hidden Pokémon began to feel the call.

A song they had searched for their entire life, but could only find short verses and thin acting... now in the dark, there stood a stage.

It was wide, it was imposing, and from the nothingness the lights were beginning to glow.

Here, you can sing.

Here, you can dance.

Here, you can act.

Here, you can be who you were meant to be.

Come, and join us! Come, dance with glee! Our song is our people...

And here we be free.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The side effects of so much purified 'Theater Aura' showed up disturbingly quickly. And were slowly ramping up.

Adam hummed as he finished another 'Training Stage' below the Entertainment Wing. The exit and entrance actually passed THROUGH the Pokémon Center, and Nurse Joy would have permission to forbid Trainers who seemed to have adverse effects when training down there. Safety first after all.

After some discussion with Alice, they decided that there would be a total of 20 of these 'Training Stages' being built, and none of them were dual Typed or whatever. Because that would take forever, and could be duplicated by visiting one Stage after another anyway. It would also cut down profits, as one had to pay a fee to rent the stage for a set amount of time... dual natures meant dual fees!

He tapped the finished door's electronics, watching the emitters inside Gather and Construct the entire field. It would happen after the Trainers left the Training Stage, ensuring that after using the place no long term damage would built up in the facilities... but it also seemed to accelerate those same side effects caused by the Theater.

Rocks became foam, Trees were transformed into cutouts or models... basically, everything in these 'Training Stages' were being slowly replaced with stage props. And themed music was starting to play automatically EVERYWHERE in this stupid Gym.

Deep breath. Calming thoughts. Anyway, back on topic.

Of the stages he needed to build, he had completed 'Normal', 'Fire', 'Fighting', 'Water', 'Flying', 'Grass', 'Poison', 'Electric', 'Ground', and 'Psychic'. They may each look like scenes from a play, but that only BOOSTED the effect those Types had on anyone training inside, thanks to 'Theater Aura'. The same Aura also reduced the damage caused by attacks, preventing self harm and allowing precision to be more easily improved.

Adam sighed and moved on to the next, lower level to finish the next ten: 'Rock', 'Ice', 'Bug', 'Dragon', 'Ghost', 'Dark', 'Steel', 'Fairy'... and his two special Training Stages.

First, 'Null Stage', which absorbed ALL Aura in the room as soon as it appeared, converted it to 'Theater Aura', and pumped it out of the training area into the buildings. Waste not, want not... or whatever.

And Second, the 'World Stage'... which (aside from the purified 'Theater Aura') tried to push an even amount of each Type, evenly distributed. The air in the test room had felt thick and heavy, but it was bearable.

Unlike normal background energy, the 'World Stage' was artificially created. Each of the 18 Aura Types were refined and purified, then pumped in equal amounts. NORMAL ambient energies included all sorts of sub-types, dual or triple affinities, and so forth. This stuff was like a concentrated soup in comparison. It was good for any new Pokémon that needed to grow, but was unsure which Type would be best to focus on at the moment. It may also unlock weak Type abilities, but Adam wasn't sure about that yet.

The 'Null Stage' felt strange to the skin when Adam tested it. However, the true benefit he was aiming for would be to help Pokémon clean their systems of the many odd Aura's they may have been exposed to, reaching a cleansed base state where outside influences were cleared away. It should reduce difficulty in growth and training, without fighting off those other odd energies.

Both of these custom stage concepts had really impressed Alice when he showed them off, and the Team Rocket PR committee had started a campaign to advertise the new features heavily already. To the point where Adam had to expand the Hotel by another floor and increase the floor space in the other facilities in the Gym. It was what delayed him from completing these 'Training Stages' already, really.

He blinked in the middle of setting up the 'Rock Stage', which unlike the 'Ground Stage' had no soil, grass, moss or whatever... just pebbles, rocks, boulders, and so forth. Somehow one of the rocks had been replaced with a cardboard cutout that had the words 'Rock Substitute' written on it. In crayon.

This... this just felt cheap. It only took a second to replace the thing with another foam-fake-facade of big-bulging-boulders. Seriously, sometimes things went odd now that the concept of 'Entertainment' was becoming part of the natural Aura type. He would need to carefully examine the entire structure after this.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Anita's 'Gym Leader Throne' was surprisingly comfortable, but her small size made this feel more than a little embarrassing. "And you wouldn't mind helping out?"

The Drag-Queen King of Fashion had a huge, flexing smile. "Mind? To work in a Gym that focuses on Art and the Theater? Where I and my wife can both pursue our passions, and my Pokémon followers can both train, dress fashionably, AND perform!?"

His body twisted, the room shrinking a little as his smile glinted. FLEX. "I would LOVE to help!"

Anita couldn't hold back a smile. "Then... Thank you, Mr. King. Staff Leader Alice had me more than a bit worried about running the place, but since I am so young the Pokémon League has provisions like this available."

She passed over some paperwork. "You would be my stand-in when I need to go to school or travel, like with Adam. There is also a requirement that you help guide me during my first few years as Leader, which I would greatly appreciate."

He nodded regally. "Being a leader of men is not something easily understood, but... I must say, you have a dream I admire." He held up the long term plans she had developed. "The concept of bestowing Gym Badges based on the ability to preform, to show your talents under the critique of the people, to prove your worth through the lights of the stage... I tell you, I feel a calling."

Her smile was a bit crooked. "I'll be honest, the whole thing was a surprise to me... but the idea of helping people who are unsure about their own future feels like helping myself from the past. It is easy to assume that power and rapid strategy is all that one needs to succeed in life, and I met many people who were very strong and could easily win normal battles... but the world could use more entertainment."

Anita blushed. "Hopefully less embarrassing entertainment, at that. I can't BELIEVE I let Adam talk me into preforming that play... Oh god, when my parents see it..."

Drag-Queen King of Fashion grinned. "Speaking of which, my people REALLY want to work that play ourselves. My wife especially liked the oiled pole scenes, said I had enough talent to handle the part."

She glanced at his massive, defined muscles... "Yes, you would likely be popular trying that role." Anita hummed. "Then... do you want to handle the other showings of the play then? We were just amateurs, and now that Adam got what he wanted I'm sure he wouldn't mind letting you guys give it a try."

While she was honest about how well Mr. King would likely preform, and understood that letting his muscular partners take over the other parts would be quite a spectical... well, to be honest...

She just couldn't handle saying those perverted lines again.

God, the embarrassment.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam hummed as he left one of the many clubs and bars, having already visited the ones on the second floor. The same effects were showing up here on the third floor as well.

There... there may be a slight Master component to this Theater Aura.

Each of the bars had initially been fairly similar, but NOW...

The 'Feedback Soundtrack Club', 'Spotlight Saloon', 'Catwalk Canteen'... they all had different energies, interesting themes, and even their own individual soundtracks.

Yesterday? They didn't even have customized signs! But on stage, if it wasn't interesting enough then it wouldn't be included in the production, would it?

The carpets everywhere were now warm red colors, the lights seemed more appropriate for the stage, the noises of the people wandering around was actually developing into a harmonious background hum of all things... it was odd.

Then there were the subtle things.

Clean places, like the restaurants, the hotel, etc? They were becoming self regulating now. Spills and stains seemed to vanish over time. Chairs and counters were slowly shifting... they were becoming idealized versions of themselves, slightly exaggerated in much the same way that makeup was overdone to make it easier for the audience to see effects from the distant stage.

Dark areas? Shady clubs or restaurants? They weren't becoming dirty or whatever, but the night sort of stuck to you... the shadows would cling. Several edgy and dark clubs now had a slightly haunted vibe, with no actual Ghost Pokémon present.

Well, NOW they were in the area. Trainers who specialized in Darkness or Ghost Type Pokémon flocked to those clubs and diners, it called them like a Siren from the shore would call sailors.

Oh, and the gambling area was now marked as the 'Gambling Futures Casino'.

The Casino had almost gone a bit cartoonish, the lights a bit too bright and the devices slightly shivering when someone won. Heck, it had already been a bright wonderland before any changes had occurred, but NOW it seemed to be partially made from dreams and desires! Heck, the slot machines would occasionally produce play tickets or Pokémon related items instead of tokens, for example. Adam didn't design that! NO one designed that!

Pulled in customers like crazy though.

Adam loved the changes to the hotel, which was relabeled 'Opening Night'. While the place seemed to have more room than he had designed or built, the many high quality options had interesting themes... Narwhal would love the room with Adam's body painted on the walls, mid-twirl. Not sure how he felt that 'his' room was a wedding suite, though.

So yes, the changes were many and very varied.

At least the changes were mostly positive. Hygiene for example... because the people on stage always looked perfect (Thanks to a TON of behind the scenes work), visitors would slowly become cleaner, better smelling, even healthier.

And if there was something interesting going on, you were more likely to bump into it... so that could be useful. Or horrifyingly bothersome. Depends on luck really.

Heaven help you though if you were TRYING to look like a bad guy though. You may end up with an evil, twirl-able mustache. At least robbers would be easy to spot, the area would likely force you to wear stripped clothing an carry a big bag with a dollar sign on it. Adam would have to let Alice know about that.

Adam paused as a small crowd of kids dashed by, heading towards the swimming area. The previously boring square pools were now strangely shaped, and had interesting fake reefs, sunken ships, and other story related such for people wanting to sight-see.

He blamed the Gather and Construction emitters that were supposed to ONLY clean the pool for that massive modification. Still, it was a popular change... yeah, if anyone asked it was totally on purpose. As was the ever expanding designs on the walls.

Well, at least the building wasn't alive yet. Or at least, not sentient. And the effects OUTSIDE were more restricted... the black bark tree wall was taller, the wood looked like the night sky from recent color changes, and small glowing fruits looked like stars.

And the grass was now a thick green moss that was slowly modifying itself into an ever growing and complicated pattern. And smelled more like freshly vacuumed rugs than grass.

...Were they slowly transforming into plastic? The hell?

No, more importantly: Why was 'Harmony' detecting SONGS from the damn artificial plants!?

Adam watched the path leading from Route 110 into the building slowly changing color from green moss to something more fluffy and red. But still technically living plants.

So overall, minor changes. Mostly.

As he felt the many tiny but unending changes continue to shape the Gym, he began hoping Simmy and Sammy's future friends would show up sooner than later. Plan 'Adam be subtle' may have slightly gone awry at some point, though he was not sure when. With a nod, he headed back in to make sure Abra stayed close by at all times in case he had to run. At this point it was pure luck that the powers-that-be hadn't showed up here already!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

In one of the less popular gardens on the top floor, a pink bubble bounced between the strange plants. Plants that were slowly changing into plastic props... but still somehow living and growing.

She floated upside down and poked the strange not-a-banana.

How odd! How fun!

Her gaze turned towards the fishbowl that, even now, was bumbling around and poking life and reality.

How interesting.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam coughed and continued wiping the dust off his outfit.

Right. Time for a break.

Climbing back to the upper levels, he blinked as he entered a busy Pokécenter full of Trainers and visitors staring at his dust covered body.

Glance behind... nope.

He coughed. "Right, so the twenty 'Training Stages' are all up and running, see the lovely Nurse Joy for details, but the lower levels are under construction."

Oh, there is Anita!

Oh... she looks exasperated.

Adam blinked. "I mean, there ARE no lower levels, and so don't worry about it."

Was that enough? That was probably fine then. "Also, don't try to make 'Explosion' style training arenas, because that was surprisingly unstable."

Good enough, now ignore the creepy looks and see if Anita can show him where Stage Hand ran off to.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Anita sighed as Adam scampered off to meet the new 'hired' Pokémon in the theater area, the tour of the facilities fully disrupted. "That was my head of construction, Mr. Burns. He is... eccentric." REALLY eccentric.

A boy somewhat close to her age raised a hand. "Why was his head on fire?"

She shrugged. "Never asked. Seems to just be something he does. Now, before we continue I would like everyone to check in with Nurse Joy, a requirement for anyone attempting to challenge my Gym. I will not have your performances sullied because you did not ensure the health of your actors."

Half the fight getting her gaggle of tourists together was basically implying that she both knew what she was doing AND was too bored to explain anything else. Such as WHAT SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DOING.

Deep. Calm. Smile.

She beamed. "As Mr. Burns mentioned, let's talk to the lovely Nurse and introduce the Training Stage facilities."

Please don't ask me things.

Another hand went in the air... dang it.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam shook the hands of the Jynx, her purple skin slightly glowing. "I'm just glad you are enjoying the change of pace."

Little Abra sent him more mental translations... her work was beyond amazing here. And all while sleeping too! What a oochie goochie woochie woochie.

Whoops, focus. "No, we are just staying here for a limited time period. My wives have two partners that will be visiting the area, and I am waiting for them to meet up."

Had to build a room under the facility wing too, one that blocked nearly every detectable energy he could find. THEN cover THAT with layers of 'normal' energy, then THAT with layers of 'Nothing to see here', etc.

Because introducing a Plusle and Minun to Sammy and Simmy would make some waves. Heck, half the energy fields he was preparing as cover were honestly guess work. Never made a 'Not My Problem' field before, not idea how Pokémon would react to the stuff.

Sigh... a disturbing amount of his life was basically 'I am doing my best and hope everything is fine' really.

Shaking hands with a young Mankey wearing a stylish hip-hop outfit, he smiled. "I'm sure you will do great, I've heard you and your partner really surprised some people. After fixing the small issues from the audition, of course."

The room shook slightly as the Mankey's partner grumbled. "Tiny, I already made sure the stage is reinforced, promise. That won't happen again. Just get Mr. Hand to schedule your training times and you can preform without any damage to the structure."

No, he didn't name Snorlax 'Tiny', it was his own choice. And as expected, he was a massive, massive thing to see in person, both in regards to height and width. When the guy moved into the room, the ROOM noticed.

His dance slippers were reinforced now though. Ms. King did amazing work. "Have you... ever practiced ballet before? I assumed the duet thing was your staple act. Or is this a new passion?"

Tiny's voice... well, it was more a low rumbling grumble, as if it was too much effort to fully communicate. The sheer size of his lung capacity just made the room vibrate with a feeling of lazy Sundays and sleepy every-other-day.

Adam glanced down. The reinforced metallic foam was holding up surprisingly well! "Well, I wish you the best."

He meandered through the crowd. He felt a bit bad about not knowing half these Pokémon without cheating using his Pokédex, but at least it was easy enough to be polite as he moved around practicing acts, confused actors and actresses, and bustling assistants.

He caught a slip of blue paper. "Finally, I was really starting to feel out of my depth." Waving a hand to Mr. Hand, he worked his way to the 'meeting' room. Designing the Glyphs to encourage the right Aura's, block Endbringer signatures (hopefully), and trying to have small talk with Pokémon when he was barely able to communicate... it was stressful.

Adam stepped happily into the meeting room, missing the pink bubble drifting behind him.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

They came from the wilds, and followed the song.

He pulsed with interest, she slummed in intrigue.

They followed the busy, they listened to the excited.

In the depths of the forest, they found a cavern of art! People and Pokémon were called, pulled, summoned to this hole in the dense growth. Yet within this glade, it still grew densely... just not of the earth. Sounds. Ideas. Dreams.

He found young ones eager to prove worth. She observed adults desperate to share concepts.

They moved in a building reshaping itself to desire. To dance, to sing, to build, to show... to perform!

Yet inside, he felt the call of Adventure, she wore the emotions of Excitement.

They danced inwards to their own stage, prepared for them alone.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam shuffled. These Pokénuts were supposed to be like a snack, not catnip or whatever. And in the end, it was a request from Simmy, so why not!

...Unless she expected him to NOT do it, and he was messing things up by being too 'helpful'. Or she expected him to self doubt, and thus didn't require the nuts at all and was leaving him something to do while waiting.

Smart wives were scary.

He blinked as the door opened. "Hello?"

A red eared yellow Plusle cartwheeled into the room! "Plus Ploos!"

The blue eared yellow Minun slowly entered, closed the door, and bowed. "M."

Then the Plusle jumped on the nearly stationary Minun, his tiny hands sparking electricity... which turned into tiny pom-poms as he balanced on her form. "PLOOOOOOS, Plus Plus PLUSLE!"

Adam grinned and clapped. "Oh, very impressive."

There was... a cycle here. His over abundant chaotic energy was refined by her slow methodical refined power. A Yin-Yang situation of some sort.

His electric pom-pom nearly clipped his partners head... and she vanished.

...What?

Adam blinked. The Plusle had taken a bit of a tumble, but seemed more confused than concerned or hurt.

"M."

Oh. Adam moved his backpack, seeing that Abra had somehow made enough space to share nap time with her new Minun friend. Dawww.

Adam shifted slightly, looking at the other Pokémon that had begun to slowly poke his friends head. "Right, my wives really wanted to meet you two... is it alright if I call them over?"

Seeing the interest in the energetic Plusle, Adam focused.

"Summon:Simurgh."

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

She bounced behind, feeling the world tilt slightly as the strange fishbowl seemed to pulse.

Sort of turned inside out, then didn't, but did. Her bubble moved to the side to see how the strange letters and such seemed to act as a tiny porthole in the fishbowl.

And from the aquarium, two beautiful fishes swam forth. One of thought and dream, one of might and muscle. Blue and Orange, Dark and Light. Born from one soul, sharing one portion, mute but full of song.

How odd. How strange. How new!

Without thought she flicked away the thoughts and queries the others tried to use. She was busy here, they could have fun later.

She chirped when the blue one secretly gave her some sort of white peanut.

How delicious!

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam shook his head. Seriously, how handy WAS it that Simmy and Sammy only needed one socket? The Faith one was enough for this two-for-one special.

Though something felt a bit odd... he just couldn't place it. Something like a background hum?

Better to focus. "Right Plusle meet Sammy, she enjoys... and you're both gone already."

Looking back at his backpack, the remaining Minun nestled in Abra's bag was now being hugged by Simmy, her arms and wings wrapped around the two tiny Pokémon as they slumbered.

...Daww.

Looking back at where Plusle and Sammy had vanished from, he sighed. All that effort to be secret and hidden, and she just... left. Somewhere.

Well, she would be fine.

His eyes flashed blue. She had BETTER be fine.

Adam sighed... and unfurled his bone limbs. A few modifications to the room and Simmy was relaxing on the finest bed he could construct... and he joined her.

It had been a LONG time since his last cuddle, and it got lonely. One arm made sure to pet Abra as she slept, as he just... relished. Treasured the feeling of his arms full with love, Simmy's warmth soaking into his skin like sunshine piercing the shadows, rain on the sand.

He didn't sniffle, because he was a manly man, and therefore any so called 'tears' were simply leaky masculinity thank you very much.

...Hopefully Sammy will take her time.

He would wait here until then.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Anita blinked. "What?"

Officer Jenny glowered. "Suspect is around nine feet tall, bright orange, winged, and nude."

Anita nodded. "What."

The Officer sighed. "I thought it was some sort of performance or whatever, but the reports were all very consistent."

Adam. It had to be Adam. "One moment."

She tapped on her probably illegal Pokédex. In front of an actual Police Officer. Cause damn it, this was important. "Alice."

Hearing her acknowledge, she sighed. "I need you to find Adam... I mean, Mr. Burns, and ask him why there is a naked orange angel throwing electricity pom-poms at the Gothic and emo Trainers."

Officer Jenny scowled. "Please don't call them that, it is just a... phase or something."

Anita glanced at the makeup wearing Trainer, his black clothing and 'dead' face not matching the massive poofy ball his hair had become. Every now and then a spark would pulse over the hairdo. "Right." Back to the call. "Ask him why the giant flying naked woman is harassing the perfectly normal, non-emo young boys and girls who enjoy angry loud music in dark environments with loud laments and doom comments."

She started to pace. "Oh, and make sure your people don't try to do something like attack her or something. If this IS related to Adam, it will either do nothing, set off the Apocalypse, or set off Adam... which is probably worse." Thinking back on the dark limbs that consumed Marshadow, she nodded. "Definitely worse."

Alice's voice was hesitant. "What?"

Anita threw her other hand hard into the air. "That is what I said!" She pointed at the grinning Drag-Queen, King of Fashion. "And no, Flexing is NOT the answer."

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

She scowled hard. "I can not BELIEVE that Flexing was the answer."

Mr. King was taking one step at a time with furious focus, his muscles twitching and oil following sweat as he pulsed his way towards Adam's visitation room. The Orange Angel was acting like climbing bars so the over-hyped Plusle could comfortably cheer, his pom-poms bouncing like thunder as the electricity destabilized with each flex.

Needless to say, the crowds were really busy watching closely and telling everyone and their neighbor to look away. Any time now. Yep.

Anita groaned. "I just... I don't want my Gym to be synonymous with nudity. Not after all that paperwork."

Officer Jenny was even MORE frustrated. "Well, I can't believe that this is legal. I hadn't even heard of half the forms that winged woman filled out, I had to call headquarters to verify they were even legal."

Alice was just staring blankly. "Side note, if you DO decided to go the x rated route, I have people for that." She watched the oiled muscles FLEX followed by the angelic nudity. "Just... let me know."

Anita grumbled. "I still say she doesn't count as a foreign dignitary. I've never heard of those places, how can she be related to some Queen? And who would name their kid 'Administrator' anyway!?"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam woke, warm and wrapped around his girl and two little Pokémon... feeling wonderful.

True, there was a muscular man flexing nearby with Sammy and her Plusle cheering him on, but hugging his wife made everything alright.

That said, he had plans. "Right, everyone up! Except you two cuties, you two just sleep all you want."

Abra snored. Good girl.

Absently his back unfolded and began rebuilding the meeting room as the 'bedroom' dissolved. "Anita, have you caught Alice up on our plans?"

She nodded, waving at Mr. King. "I got a Gym Assistant officially recorded, and Mr. King has temporarily led a Gym or two in the past. Plus, I left a lot of notes."

He glanced at the flexing man, who nodded. "Great! Let me just warn Alice about the mess below the 'Training Stages', get some people to clean that up."

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Team Rocket Underling Alice stared at the text message. Again. So much hassle caused by so few words.

Right, best pass this up.

Her Pokédex connected with a click. "Report."

She took a steady breath. "Target Outsider has had an issue when experimenting with the 'Training Stages' design."

The voice hummed. "How long a setback? Marketing is pushing those training facilities hard."

Alice paced. "The requested 20 stages are all completed, operational, and currently undergoing testing. No, the Target attempted to make some unusual stages further down and had... issues."

Her Boss was set back. "Really? I thought construction would take at least a week. Still, what issues?" He paused. "He didn't destabilize the foundation or something? I remember the fiasco on base 322 when they did unauthorized underground expansion."

She winced. Yeah, that had been a disaster. "No sir." Deep, calming breath. "I need top mining teams and some experts shipped down here. And a subtle way to export high quality, possibly illegal material."

Feeling she got his attention, she nodded. "While trying to create an 'Explosion' type training stage, he accidentally exposed rock and soil to high intensity energy waves. A large portion of the ground below the Training Stages is now composed of Evolutionary Stones of various types. I've been informed the majority are previously unseen 'Theater Stones', as that is the energy that the Target has been establishing here."

She paced. "I've sent some of my followers who can be trusted to stay quiet to get some measurements, but the Target says that the conversion process is not stopping yet. Thankfully it is only converting downward, otherwise there would be a crystal mine on the surface by now."

The phone was quiet. Suddenly, noises of papers being sorted and messages being typed came over the line. "I'll have survey teams over in 40 minutes or less, an overseer and manager for the mining operation will arrive by the end of the day, at the very latest. Keep that site locked down, keep Trainers away, and keep the Target happy."

She saluted the empty room. "SIR!"

Thank goodness it wasn't HER responsibility now.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Ms. King passed on her templates, her assistants helping to keep the room tidy and her next work load ready to begin.

The new facilities were amazing! Not only were there seemingly unlimited amounts of material and so many specialty tools, but her more esoteric creations could be put in the scanning device and easily duplicated to prevent damage during adjustments or to provide replacements for a performance! It was now standard policy to make templates of all uniforms and costumes before a production, and had come in handy twice already.

Mostly due to the new Pokémon not normally wearing clothes, fashionable or otherwise. And little Mime Jr. was so cute in his new little hat!

Her hands slid slowly as the material adjusted, her fingers checking for consistency. Just the opportunity to work with these high level materials would have tempted her to join this new Theater Ball Gym, but the high paying positions offered combined with the little girl tasked with giving direction... Well.

She hadn't seen her husband so motivated, so hopeful and energetic... not for some time. It made the entire crew pulse with passion, and each performance so far had gotten larger crowds than expected, the online streaming services had subscribers in ever growing numbers, the saved past performances (Not even a weeks worth!) had sold numerous copies online...

All because little Anita had a dream. It was something Ms. King could taste in the air, that longing for self establishment, the desire to show others how to avoid those past mistakes.

That little girl reminded her of her man, once upon a time.

And to be honest, she reminded her of herself.

Of course, the extra living quarters didn't hurt the situation either.

Years of gathering those people and Pokémon abandoned by society meant the fashion couple had very little free room in their home... but in this Gym, they almost had TOO much space.

It was lovely.

She flipped the cloth... no, the edge needed redoing. It would work fine like this, but a powerful Flex would weaken this after only a few hundred days or so.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Andrew was pacing in the hotel room. "No, I'm serious Paul. My Charmander nearly evolved after only a few hours in the 'Fire Stage', and she doubled her control easily. You need to bring your Magmar here, screw your Dad's family Trainer. A tutor is NOT as useful as these stages."

He glanced at his notes. Not all Trainers kept documentation, there were styles of Trainer that ranged from 'gut followers' all the way up to 'hardcore statistics', but Andrew was proud of his attempts to give his girl the optimal learning environments. His Pokémon deserved no less.

Paul hummed. "Look, I know there was a lot of hype online, but we've been rivals for years! Why would I trust you on this?"

Andrew rolled his eyes. "Look twerp, we may have a fight or two but if I find a literal pile of Rare Candy I can't just ignore you. You can barely offer me a challenge NOW, how do you expect to catch up if I hide the good stuff?"

The voice scoffed on the other end. "THERE'S the Andrew I know and loathe. Look, my Uncle would NOT appreciate me just vanishing. Although my sister mentioned some strange things about that Gym you are at... anything extra to add?"

He hummed. "Bring extra cash. These Training Stages aside, I've seen lots of Potions and items that shouldn't be available here. Or anywhere. Hell, they even have Max Elixirs on sale! Even with Trainers buying them like crazy, they hadn't run out when I left for my room. And despite the massive crowds, NOTHING here has sold out. It is nearly unnatural."

Andrew paced a bit. "These shops could multiply costs by 100 and still have an army of people begging to buy. But for some reason, maybe because of how recently it opened, everything is cheap. Nearly too cheap... I am sending some of this stuff to the Professor to verify it isn't a ripoff, but the chance is too good to not take the risk."

Paul hummed. "I think Uncle Gary would actually take me with him down there if I tell him that. Might tell Mr. Ketchum too, not sure though."

Andrew nodded. "Don't forget to mention the Training Stages, those things are stupid cheap to rent and are big enough for several Trainers to work within without conflict. Well, accidental conflict anyway. Don't mention the rides and stuff though, he might take the place less seriously."

Paul's voice paused. "Wait, what?"

Andrew hung up.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Leaving the 'Theater Ball' Gym was... freeing. Adam felt a weight leave his shoulders. Figuratively, at least... both Simmy and Sammy had shrunken in size and were riding his shoulders backwards, Abra and Minun sleeping in the bag on his back.

Anita had given up on asking questions after trying to find out what Pokémon the two Angels were, and was focused on accepting Pidgey's brand new work out fit (Ms. King did amazing work!)

Plusle refused to be carried, or stored in the new Pokéballs Adam had provided. He was darting back and forth as the group walked, tiny pom-poms sparking with power as he danced all over the place. In the front, dashing through the thick weeds... in the back of the group, exploring the new tiles, pathway, lamps, and decorative bits that Adam tossed out for fun.

Oh, and the Route 110 reconstruction process was VERY annoying to do with angels on Adam's shoulders. He had to only slightly unfold his bone limbs, the Gather and Construction beams could only point backwards... so Adam and Anita were walking through the mess of forest while a lovely road anyone would enjoy traveling on showed up BEHIND them, where it was completely useless. Sigh.

There were also a few Trainers and Pokémon following behind the team, as they found the path creation process interesting... and were recording it all.

Adam SHOULD stop it, try to be secretive... but with Simmy and Sammy out in the world, being subtle was gone. If the Gods here didn't notice them, then they were ignoring the planet (Hopefully), or didn't care (Possible... maybe)... or something else was keeping them from noticing. Hopefully something friendly.

Because while Simmy was fairly subtle, Sammy was a bull in a china shop. And not a normal bull, because those animals are surprisingly dainty and don't like knocking things over, but an ANGRY bull that was drunk AND dizzy.

Her orange energy kept weaving tree branches into various patterns, tossing aggressive Pokémon into the distance (The ocean shore WAS nearby, after all.), and generally messing with people. Subtle, she wasn't.

Still, having his girls out made the world feel less lonely. Anita was lovely company, but he felt more like a guardian or babysitter than a companion really. Though if she ever needed help, he would step in... she felt... something like a niece. Or distant cousin.

It was a bit of a surprise seeing her step up when offered authority though. Made him feel proud and impressed, she saw a challenge and got things done.

Blinking, he formed another paper bag and filled it with faith Peanuts. "Sure, here Simmy." Not sure why they were so hungry today.

Anita stepped carefully over a stone. "Where do you keep getting the snacks from anyway?"

He offered her a few peanuts. "It is actually a type of energy. Humans can eat them, but if you are not able to process the energy then they just taste good and will vanish from your system. So... a fat free snack, basically."

Abra loved them, although Adam only found out when Simmy asked for a few today.

His tiny friend hummed and examined the snack. "It smells like... like... hmm."

She nodded. "It smell's like a really, really old tree. And ancient paper. And... sounds like some sort of song? But with lots of people."

Adam tossed one, shell and all, into his mouth. "Mmm. Yeah, the fresh ones like these have a weaker flavor, but it is closer to the original source. My older stock all taste like past adventures and scenarios."

He chewed the whole mass with satisfaction. Not like the outer shell was any different from the inside anyway. The crunch tasted of wafers and dry bread, but the flavor was rich with passion and past miracles. Sometimes. Honestly, after they stayed in his Soul long enough, these kami gained flavors based on where on peanut mountain they rested. One whole section tasted like pot roast, for example.

Anita chewed on hers slowly. "Huh. It is like eating a memory or something."

Adam hummed. "Not really, memories have more zest. Right, I think we can hit Slateport City by the end of the day, see the famous 'Slateport Market'... then we will have to part ways."

She stumbled a little. "WHAT!? But... but what if I need help with the Gym!?"

He waved at her Pokédex. "Simmy added an Application on your Pokédex to communicate with us, and I will come around if you need something, but I need to head back. Something I have been waiting for is finally going to happen at home... and to be honest, I probably should have gone back after finding Minun and Plusle here."

Anita slumped a little. "Is it really important? You can't stay another week or two?"

Adam glanced inward, Squishy poked his memories.

The Crystal Kingdom, the Parasite Tumors, the Distributed God Warrior, the Golden Avatar...

The Consuming System.

He sighed. "Yeah, I better be there for this."

His heart felt danger and prepared.

His mind found options and chose.

His eyes saw Shards and hungered.

Adam grinned with sharp teeth. "Don't worry..."

"It won't take long."

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Narwhal waved at the screen. "HOW DOES HE NOT SEE THAT!?"

CD hummed. "Got a theory. Mew in general are very high powered. And it doesn't have to mess with Adam's mind, Soul, or memories to stay hidden... it can just tell reality to ignore her and BAM! It acts like those Realm blind spots. Anyone THERE will just be unable to recognize the thing. It's my best guess, anyway."

Narwhal gestured harder. "But it is IN the carry bag with Abra and Minun. Simmy keeps feeding it peanuts!"

The blue angel on screen turned, winked at Narwhal, then held up a peace sign.

CD sighed. "She may be messing with you, dear."

Narwhal grumbled. "Mess with me? I'll have Adam tan your hide, THEN who will be messing with whom!"

Simmy blushed like a schoolgirl and turned slightly the side. While handing Mew another peanut.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Reaching Slateport City was a fairly relaxed affair, considering how the dense forest blocked most traffic.

Well, USED to block most traffic. The groups meandering journey had picked up a lot of tag-a-longs, as Trainers tend to be curious things at the best of times. Thankfully they didn't get too close or become bothersome, just filmed the progression of the Route as Adam modified it.

He stretched, the path becoming more and more civilized as they approached the city. "Finally. I guess we should rent a room and sleep the evening off, then try out this market tomorrow?"

Anita also seemed tired, Pidgey slumped on her shoulder and leaning on her head. "Yeah, I could use some down time. I'll be honest, not having you around feels stressful with all the new stuff I am going to be responsible for."

Simmy and Sammy flew off with Abra and the twin Pokémon... so they had plans. Well, they could handle things on their own. "I'm thinking about adding some support to your Gym, actually." He glanced at the curious kid. "Ever heard of Adventurers? Basically a guild of people who accomplish tasks and quests designed by you, brought around by me. Thinking about making your Gym an 'Adventurer Hall' or 'Guild House', could help you out if trouble shows up."

The discussion continued from there, as twin Endbringers carried the (three?) Pokémon into the city to look around. Pidgey was too tired for that, and ended up resting in her Pokéball half way through the ongoing discussion.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Mew pointed left, and the group floated that way. The Angels were being lazy, floating through the City on paths that would be unseen by others, Abra was sleeping, and Plusle and Minun were... just distracted by everything.

Absently, the pink cat like creature brushed more attention away. These were HER playmates, the others could go do something else.

She accepted another of those amazing peanuts from the blue Angel, as she directed the group towards some of the better tasting berries that grew in hard to reach areas.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The 'Slateport Market' was bustling and crowded, people and Pokémon moving in mass confusion.

Adam was fascinated by the mess, stalls and stands everywhere covered with items and oddities. Anita was just wandering along, more interested in the food stalls being passed.

He looked over another electronic modification stand, 'Technomancy' allowing him to gather scans quickly. "And what does this do?"

The salesman smirked. "Not that I know where it came from, say no more, say no more, but this is a modification for the generic model Pokédex on the market. Not quite up to standard to be honest, but very low cost... it triples the range of detection, at the cost of lowering the accuracy of the scan."

Adam examined the insides... it was actually a more expensive mod chip that legal Pokédex's had, but with manufacturing errors on the board. No wonder it cost so little, these couldn't even be defective in standard ways... but it was still better than tossing the finished product due to quality issues.

He moved to the next ones. "And these?"

The man grinned. "Know a guy who knows a guy. Install this on a spare Pokédex and you can detect plants, specifically berries and the more rare fruit trees. Better be a spare one though, it loses access to the standard databases to work."

Anita had lost interest a while ago, but Adam continued examining the offerings. Some original stuff was sold here, but a good portion was just defective products that had been repurposed into black market modifications and 'unusual items'. The chips were so tiny in this Realm that even random manufacturing flaws made the units do SOMETHING interesting, if it didn't just burn out completely.

Sort of like old video games, which were so tiny and compressed that injecting random code would cause 'Cheats' to occur in game. Or crash everything.

Oh, and Rare Candy exists.

He hummed as he moved on to another stand.

Unlike the Evolutionary Stones, which was basically just Aura Dust Crystals, Rare Candy was more raw Aura condensed into liquid, sealed in a very, very thin shell of Aura Dust Crystal. And you didn't feed it to your Pokémon directly, the Trainer ate it instead and it filtered through his bonds to his closest partner.

Side note, apparently humans can EAT Aura crystal. It just needed to be thin and have a certain structural pattern... made the thing dissolve into energy instead of sharp shards of faith crystal. The liquid stuff was even more strange, as it was a slurry of magic, faith, and potential energy. The fluid was constantly shifting in the Rare Candy during the analysis process, and yet turned gel like unless exposed to a Trainer's Aura.

It also tasted like maple syrup and caramelized sugar. With a smoky aftertaste.

He only found two for sale here, so maybe there were all kinds of flavors out there.

Another side note: it wasn't suggested to just chew on them non-stop, as the energies would be too pure. Trainers NEEDED the random fields they stumbled upon in life to give the power certain accents, without that the Pokémon would lack strength. Rare Candies would technically provide enough energy, even enough for evolution!

But it would be boring, weak energy. Not flavored with life and experience. Not tainted with loss and gain and bond growth.

So it would be added to the stores back in the 'Theater Ball' Gym, but there would be limits sold per officially registered Trainers. Sometimes a Pokémon just needed a tiny push to reach the next level, so it wasn't like Rare Candies were worthless.

Oh, and ONLY Trainers could buy the candies. Without a 'Bond', the power would just pop someone.

A mental nudge had Adam moving to another stand, this one less popular. "Hmm..." Mostly junk, some odds and ends...

Adam tapped an odd item. "What is this?"

The woman shopkeeper glanced over. "That is a 'Shell Bell'. Add it as a necklace to your Partner and it can absorb part of the damage it causes as healing energy."

He hummed, his mind connecting the strange bell to the various games. Normally a Pokémon would hold one of these, and 1/8th of damaged caused would be used to heal the attacker. But his senses couldn't detect any technology.

A flick of thought and 'Harmony' activated... this bell created a psychic connection to the target. Damage would cause the victim to spike in energy to both defend and heal itself, and this bell could harvest a portion of that healing energy for the owner instead.

It operated similar to Voodoo, or the developed practices of African Diaspora. Manipulating the bonds between people, or in this case Pokémon. Step one, create a bond... in this case, the bond of attacker and victim. Step two, an exchange... giving energy in the form of an attack, accepting energy in the form of healing.

This deal of course wasn't fair, so to lower the difficulty in making a 'deal', the healing energy was far less than the attacking power 'offered'... and the contract didn't care that the attacking power had negative effects on the user. Step three kept the deal going until the 'bond' was broken... in other words, until the two Pokémon were no longer 'Attacker' and 'Victim'.

Adam bought the thing with little care for the seller, moving with Anita back towards the hotel.

This... this was an interesting path that required kami and magic to work. Faith was used to form the bond, Magic was used to control the transaction. More interesting was how the pattern of energies inside the bell were... flexing. Shifting. Whomever created this thing didn't need a specific material, or shape, or resources. Even a rock could be formed into this 'Shell Bell' with little difficulty.

No, the valuable material and the shape enhanced the final product, but neither was required.

Still, they mattered. The shape, the noise caused by attacking while wearing this bell, it drastically improved the bonding rate. It would ring during attacks, making the process more efficient. And the materials reduced the energy needed to form the 'Shell Bell' while increasing the amount of power transferred and the length of time said item would continue to work.

Anita's tugging of his sleeve brought his attention. She also peered at the item. "So is that bell what you were looking for?"

Adam nodded. "Yes." It entered his soul storage as he sighed. "And with that, I must gather my people head home."

She shuffled... before awkwardly hugging his arm. "I'm going to miss you, Adam." Pidgey flexed in agreement.

He chuckled, ruffling her hair. "You should be hooked up to our 'Skyword Networking System' via your Pokédex by now. I'll stay in touch."

Adam walked towards an open area of the City, waiting for his wives and Pokémon companions. "You going to head back to the Academy?"

She shrugged sadly. "No, going to stay the rest of break back in Theater Ball Gym. Although Mr. King will be helping me keep that running."

He waved a hand as the rest of the group arrived. Simmy, Sammy, Plusle, Minun, and Abra all faded away, the two Endbringers returned to their Confinement Grid cell and the four... no, three Pokémon sent into Marshadow's rehabilitation area. The twin Endbringers said the crazy little thing was better now, and that was good enough for Adam.

With a grin at the young girl who had traveled with him for so long, he gave a smile. "See you soon, Anita Sands."

Her wave was cut off as a massive blue metal skull consumed her friend and vanished.

She froze. "...What?"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Mew blinked, turning nowhere and looking at no-when.

One of her many avatars just... vanished.

No pain, no panic, no concern. Gone.

She watched time reverse, following the path she already traveled, hearing sounds already heard, feeling life.

How odd! How fun!

A fishbowl turned inside out, going nowhere, leaving no trace, carrying many things, places, and people.

How interesting.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

This place had no name.

The land died long ago, before the shards fell from the sky.

No one ever lived here. No animals ever survived this land, no plants ever grew.

In every respect, this was just one Realm dimension among countless more. A small subset, as at least dirt and soil existed.

For there were endless realities with nothing but energy. No mass, no planets, no stars.

In a space with no light, on a rock with no purpose, a skull formed and allowed Adam to exist.

There was no reaction. Not from the thing here, nor from the rocks.

This shard cluster, this planet, it did not have the equivalent of eyes. Of sensing organs.

It was a sort of core.

Glowing crystals expand every direction. None with any true abilities, none with any true skills.

No, this planet was formed of endless portals. The most essential router, the unending index, the ever reaching connection.

Zion, the Avatar of the Warrior Entity, he wasn't here. His projection shard was connected to this one.

Eden, the Avatar of the Thinker Entity, she wasn't here. This core was the one she communicated with when alive.

If the shards were the many limbs of the eldritch tree, this was the most core branch, root, and trunk.

This was the binding that held the energy space whales together. The network. The pathways between realities.

Adam watched with a sense of accomplishment as the many colored, flashing crystals... slowly became infected with blue.

His blue.

The System.

Originally, according to the many memories he gained of this Realm, the foes fought the Avatar. Scion, the golden nude warrior man. They fought across worlds, tore reality apart, attacked mentally, physically, emotionally. They eventually won. They lost much. They had fractured, broken, scared, but alive.

Now? Now that scenario was not needed.

The most essential component was being converted. Would finish in minutes.

And from this spine, every single shard, active or not, would become part of Adam's System.

Eden's shards would take longer, but were no longer directed. The many lost connections between Thinker and Warrior would be researched and eventually used to reconnect her shards to his System as well.

His eyes glistened as he watched gate after gate turn bright blue with System's attention. Those nearly uncountable Shards would be consumed, purified, refined, enhanced, then used as a power base for System itself.

And at the very least, one person would hopefully be unable to set off Armageddon. No madman or crazy woman would grip reality to death so easily.

After the minutes of infection, it only took a day or so for the planet to no longer pulse with the rainbow. For the blue fire to make this backbone shift and reform. To refine itself, and become more powerful and less wasteful.

True intelligent design, carved from the organic development forced to occur over thousands of millennia.

As the last gem glowed blue, the Entity Zion was now helpless... and Adam felt a new connection build.

===SYSTEM v32.012: Interdimensional Edition===

~Full Initialization Complete, Optimization Underway.~

"Roads? Where we are going, we don't NEED roads."

As the windows flashed in and out of existence, Adam felt a grin start to grow as connections began to strengthen.

From Adventurer to Adventurer, from node to node, from Realm to Realm... System was coming out of 'standby' and 'stealth' mode.

In the darkness of an unknown planet, a Crystalline Entity's dimensional backbone began to breakdown... and a System began 'Conversion', 'Growth', and 'Purification'. A pattern observed as Queen Administrator formed her own planet was now being constructed here, somewhere in space. A pattern analyzed, improved, and optimized.

This planet would become Shards, this Index would become the System Index, and this node would become Central.

Without consideration of others, the growth was exponentially faster. The signals were stronger, the backup connections exposed, whole clusters rewritten with new and better protocols rather than forced to use the organic mess that the Entities had stumbled upon during development.

Powers belonging to Adam's faithful were twisted, reformed, taken off line and rebuilt, while messages from System could finally be direct and honest without triggering emergency responses from high above.

On a planet that quaked with changes and screamed in construction, a skeleton man with a white suit stood with bony hands clasped behind him. Blue flames danced in his wired hair, his eyes shining into the dark.

With this, his greatest fear was handled. His most vulnerable people were secured.

A broken part of Adam's soul finally connected fully with System, helping both heal to some degree. Faith poured into his fishbowl, was cleansed, and returned as power to the many. Prayers were automatically assigned quests where appropriate, miracles were bestowed, and peace was delivered. A self supporting cycle of improvement, continuous growth, continuous change.

With a deep breath... Adam let it go.

Back to the depths of his being, automated. No longer mastered by his soul.

He was not ready for direct action.

His people offered him their free will, and he rewarded them by not taking it.

With a sharp nod, he headed back to his loved ones. The blue skull consumed his form as he went to the place he most longed for.

Home.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Narwhal sighed. "Yeah, he stole Mew."

CD grumbled. "Doesn't count as stolen if she was a stowaway."

She waved her arms at the screen. "IT LOOKS BAD! We can't just steal Gods, accidentally or not! That is BAD public relations."

Cyber Dragon's eyes pulsed with code. "The public seems fairly sympathetic. Or distracted by the giant gem light show just now."

Narwhal pouted. "Don't care, the new rule is no kidnapping Gods. Or Catnapping. Period."

Betty slammed the door closed, balancing several bags of groceries and chips. "I brought snacks! What did I miss?"

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

A flex released the tight 'Bind' on his soul, the fishbowl now slightly visible through the many loosened black ropes.

Adam sighed with comfort, a stress unseen finally relaxed. 'Research' slid into place, examining the changes in System and himself, now that the connection could be run on far lower levels of security. 'Harmony' and 'Purification' ensured the energy cycling through his system would become more beneficial to his followers and less dangerous.

He glanced at his skeletal hand, a pulse spawning enhanced flesh over his form and filling out his white suit.

Tugging his collar, he smiled and pushed back his blue wired hair, his magic and Aura pulled densely into his bones beneath his flesh.

Finally.

Opening the door to his home underground in the restricted area of Variance Villa, he couldn't stop the smile. "I'm Home!"

A series of impacts pushed him backwards a few feet as the small Betty and much larger Narwhal smashed into him, his arms wrapping tight as he returned the hug.

Betty's muffled voice was around stomach height. "Adam! I've got so much to tell you!"

CD sauntered into the room, more relaxed as she hugged Narwhal and Adam from the edge of the cluster. "Later Betty. Adam, come over to the living room... you need to spend some time with us."

Freed from his soul, Simmy and Sammy joined the hug as the group struggled to move towards the couch, the awkward shuffling from the mass hug making progress slow and giggly.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Adam leaned back, Simmy and Sammy hanging over the back of the couch while Betty snuggled in his lap. Narwhal and CD were on either side, and the excuse of watching a movie or something fell flat as no one wanted to move to turn something on.

He chuckled. "So what changes occurred? I felt some of them."

Narwhal sighed. "No natural triggers for power is possible now. Instead, everyone is getting a generic 'Follower' class, that they can change at any Temple. It allows the System to protect anyone born in this Realm, or at least on every dimension Zion had infected."

CD nodded. "The new update considers the old tumors used by Shards to be damage and heals them, along with most minor medical issues. People in general will be more healthy and therefore live longer, and lawless zones will develop some level of stability now that penalties for especially vile behavior are punished." She caused virtual windows to open. "Loss of System Powers for bad offenses, redeemable through difficult Quests. For those who become major issues, Quests and Bounties become involved. Sort of like the old 'Kill Order' list."

Betty wasn't paying attention. In fact, she may be asleep. Narwhal wiggled closer. "Now that we can't set the Entities off, transportation restrictions are way lowered. Large portal centers are being set up in major cities by Dragon's Adventure Guild, with minor Quests for transporting goods and people. Off world Quests have increased quota limits and duration. Realm Trade will be increased, and restrictions there will also be lowered. Private information about the System and how it works will be less censored, and we will be publicly publishing some stuff."

Adam hummed, leaning into his girls. Narwhal smiled. "Queen Administrator said lots of stuff changed on her end, but she is still looking into it. No report yet. Oh, and slightly off topic... Nightmare Moon and Twilight are an item now. Might be trying to set up something with Dragon and Armsmaster too, but that couple is very private. No idea what will happen there."

The conversation wandered a bit before he felt Abra want to join the cuddle party. 'Grid of Confinement' had different security levels, lowest being basic passenger transport, highest being mind breaking loyalty enforcement... so it was easy enough to pull the orange fox like creature into the world without needing the power boost from including a power socket.

Narwhal squeed! "OH she is adorable!" Pulling the still asleep Abra into her lap, Narwhal used her force field to pull a blanket over. Wrapping the little one like a caterpillar, she smiled. "Watching you and little Abra didn't do her cuteness justice!"

Adam chuckled. "I may spoil her a bit, but she is such a good girl it is hard not to. I wish all kids were as well behaved, really."

Abra just enjoyed the mental waves of comfort and relaxation. Safe was here. Safe was everywhere here.

CD's data shifted. "Right, almost forgot." She sat up and got Adam's attention. "Were you aware you brought over an extra passenger when coming home? A stowaway, as it where."

He paused. "Uh..."

A quick review. Anita, Pidgey, Abra, Pokécenter, Team Rocket, Marshadow... journey, fix roads, energy bread, make theater, turn into Gym, hire Team Rocket for security, met lots of Pokémon, hire lots of people, found Plusle and Minun, call out Simmy and Sammy, carry the three in the pack, fix the roads into... into...

Three?

Thoughts pass in his mind, memories that seemed perfectly normal now different... and still perfectly normal. No, they were never different, he just... interpreted them as something else. Even as his thoughts stayed clear and untouched.

He blinked. "Where the HELL did a Mew come from!?"

Abra snorted and rumbled as Narwhal pet her.

Adam glanced at the two VERY INNOCENT looking Endbringer sisters. "Well?"

Blue paper slips fell into his hands.

Each one listed a note from the tune they were trying to silently whistle.

Right.

Adam grumbled as he reached into his soul. "Excuse me, Mew?"

From the 'Pokémon' Grid of Confinement Cell, a soft 'Mew!' was heard.

He frowned. "Please get out of my soul."

"Mew."

...Great. "Pretty please, with sugar on top, get out of my soul."

"...Mew. Mew?"

"No, I am not angry."

"Mew me me mew."

His eye twitched. "Alright, NOW I am getting a bit annoyed, but no. I am not angry."

"..."

The Cell closed up.

What. The. Hell.

Adam coughed. "Well." Great. "Turns out that if you are strong enough, you can just... close my Aura's Semblance from the inside. Because my ability is all about self control and confinement, not expulsion."

He glanced over... yep, both Angels had left. "So for now, I am just going to... ignore the situation. The energy output of my Grid may be a bit higher for a while, but I am sure eventually she... it? Mew will get tired and leave."

Mew was a Psychic Type, yes? So the absorbed power would go to the same outputs as Abra and half of Marshadow.

He felt his anger spike a little as Mew somehow pulled a massive amount of Faith Peanuts into her Confinement Cell. It didn't actually lower his abilities at all, his reserves of kami was stupid high right now, but she could have at least asked or something.

Oh, and Plusle had escaped his Grid with Sammy. Same with Minun, whom left with Simmy.

Sometimes he really didn't feel in control of the situation.

Focusing on the warm love from his girls, he let it all go. "Thank you for pointing her out to me, CD. I don't think she will be a problem in the long run, but it is good to know so I won't be blind sided later."

COULD he fight Mew? Maybe. Something about this one felt... hollow. Slightly less real. But that same emptiness was being reduced according to his senses, as she ate those Faith Peanuts. Which... hopefully wouldn't be a problem. Plus, any actual fighting would occur INSIDE his Soul, which seemed like a stupid idea.

So... no reason to force conflict. Every source said these creatures were powerful but playful... and stealing soul snacks aside, she hadn't really done much to him. Thus, no attacking the pink hobo god cat soul-squatting creature.

For now.

CD hummed. "We were less worried after seeing Simmy so relaxed, but yeah, it was a concern. Also, Narwhal added some rules to your trips."

His girlfriend looked up from petting the adorable Abra. "Yeah! No more kidnapping gods! Or Cats! Or God Cats! Period! It... it really stressed me out."

Adam activated 'Manipulation' and warped the couch to pull her to his side for a hug. "It won't happen again. I'll have Simmy confirm any passengers with me from now on, I'm sure she will ensure no issues will crop up easily."

He made sure not to mention that anything that could avoid Simmy's senses was out of his league anyway. To the point of being helpless, most likely... or at least, in great risk.

The conversation became more rambling from that point onward. The girls rescued from Lung were doing good, Queen Administrator was having wacky hijinks now that she had a little sister and two dads, and Boro had something of a food epiphany from watching his video stream while exploring another Realm. Oh, and vegetarian dishes would be going through a Renaissance thanks to the data brought by Adam that was being slowly absorbed into the System.

Seriously, when every animal could theoretically learn to read and write, the ability to prepare food using non-sentient plant took a quantum leap in improvement. Though several tools and methods needed strange energies and Aura's to operate, the sheer variety of crop species was astounding. Several ocean cities in Queen Administrator's Realm Planet now automatically grew all kinds of plants, the drones harvesting them and putting them on the System Market at a rapid pace. The stored food reserves had nearly tripped just from the improved options now available!

At least getting the aid to the people who needed it would likely speed up. While Adam couldn't visit her Realm without severe consequences, no one else in the System seemed to share that issue... and now that everyone could be less subtle without risking galactic death, humanitarian Quests had gone through the roof. World after world was getting shrines to purify land and water, food was being traded or outright bestowed, beasts were being fought back and homes secured.

Even as the small group relaxed on the couch, Cyber Narwhal was happily doing the massive amounts of required paperwork, enjoying the emotions and feelings of her organic half snuggling with her man and hugging her new Abra friend. Things were bouncing along well enough.

Still, Adam knew better than to offer help. Paperwork was NOT his strong point, and if anything would likely SLOW progress if he tried to get things done that way.

He relaxed as his powers swapped in and out of Sockets, using the relaxing atmosphere to the fullest by updating the Villa with technology and skills that were too flashy to risk installing on this planet before. Previous materials that didn't exist in this Realm, Purification Dust Crystals, advanced robotics that made Tinkertech look a bit old fashion... upgrade after upgrade slowly formed as the building shifted below.

Most of the enhanced energy generation and matter creation would be unusable for a long time, at least until the various needs increased, but it was good to prepare for the potential future.

Hugging his girlfriends, he turned on some soft music. "I admit, some part of me didn't believe it was even possible to make this Realm this safe. Luck was on my side, even if I did end up pushing some things faster and further than I was comfortable with."

Betty rubbed her eye as she shifted on his lap. "Will you have time to stay a bit?"

He chuckled. "I'm going to wait till our home stabilizes a lot before starting my next big project. Unfortunately, the next trips will be... much longer. And very restrictive on me, as Squishy says it will take a LONG time before I can just start growing new abilities safely without outside help."

Seeing Narwhal pout at the idea, he grinned. "I just went through all this trouble protecting my home with System, and I think we should take time to celebrate that a bit... but I think my next goal is clear."

Adam felt the Abyss calling, deep in the back of his mind. "Obviously, now that the System is under construction... well, I should improve it. No?"

Judging by the groans from the girls, they seemed less than thrilled at the concept of Adam vanishing after being gone for so long.

Which was fine. After all, he had time before his next trip.

He spent the rest of the evening sending notes, messaging people and staff, and wasting time with his friends and girlfriends/wives. Projects and time in his workshop was scheduled, resources were debated and chosen, and much time would be needed to examine his technology base, powers, and abilities. Refinement, improvement, consolidation, and testing... all needed to bring stability to his work.

But he had talented people, large amounts of resources, near infinite energy and materials... eventually he would be ready to head out again.

It should be an interesting Adventure.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

Legend frowned, even as his phone rang. Eventually she picked up. "Rebecca?"

The groan on the other side was long. "Why. Are. You. Calling. Me."

He winced. "Sorry, it is important."

Her grumbling deepened. "It better be, it is one in the morning. What happened?"

His sight drifted to the left. "I may have been visited by two nude angels and a floating pink cat."

The silence was damning.

She sighed. "I'll call Master/Stranger Protocols. Your husband and son are fine, right?"

He watched little Keith giggling while the pink cat balanced him on it's pink bubble. His husband was nearby, but he's seen some shit... so he was taking it well.

With a sigh, he glanced at the two nude angels, the blue one flashing him a smile and a thumbs up. "Yeah, I think so. Still felt I had to call this in."

Rebecca's side shuffled papers. "I'll show up as Alexandria while my Chief Director identity 'submits' this paperwork. Be there in twenty minutes, if anything looks like it is getting dangerous, ignore protocol and use a 'Door' to get your family out of there."

Legend watched his child slowly float around the room. "Understood."

He tried to hold back a sigh as the orange Angel held one of the small cheering creatures, tiny Pompom's flapping in the air. Unknown creatures with energy control, some sort of barrier based flight technique, what seemed to be some form of gravity nullification... the paperwork was going to be ridiculous.

At least the atmosphere was fairly festive.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The planning session started with a basic overview. Profits were up, businesses were booming, complaints were low, and people were starting to realize that 'Variance' may be responsible for the global takeover of 'Classes' and the various new powers. Meh, can't win them all.

Adam gestured towards the text. "Now that we have some stability, let's talk about how to improve the System."

Narwhal was slouched in her chair, as work had ramped up these last few weeks. "Why bother? Won't you just declare 'Improve the System' when activating your trip?"

He sighed. "Too dangerous. This next trip will be... very risky." A small list showed up. "Did some research and some test queries first, and found that the type of Realm I will be visiting will be conceptual in nature."

A few images showed up. "Most Realms I visited so far were based on biology, or magic, or whatever. These places have something our System is lacking: A path forward, a procedural path from nothing to power."

He showed some images pulled from his investigation. "These worlds however have a process, from a normal mortal to immortal existences. Through drugs, meditation, rituals, surgery, and so on... you can transform yourself to represent ideals, social concepts, and martial legends. With the support of the local culture modifying reality, lethal actions can lead to fundamental improvements in health, lifespan, and abilities."

Adam glanced at the images and videos he had gathered. "Downside? Some of these Realms allow individuals to reach deity levels fairly consistently. So you get a lot of VERY petty people with huge power levels. Risky."

With a sigh, he pulled up his restriction list. "Simmy came up with this idea to help protect me during the next journey. Using what we learned from various Avatar abilities, like Scion's body and the Siberian projection, I will be sending a subsection of my existence into this Realm instead of visiting directly. It will take a week or two for me to recover here, and the copy of me over there will be... limited..."

Very limited.

He nodded. "But I as a whole will be safe. Anything learned by my Avatar will be returned to me when he finishes his trip or if someone manages to kill him, so there is no risk of this being a waste of time... and this will also protect me from various soul attacks, mind adjustments, mastering attempts, and so forth."

Narwhal frowned. "Is... is him dying a big possibility?"

Adam chuckled. "Well, technically yes. The whole culture there is based on betrayal, resource collection, exploiting graves and past heritages. Society groups together to defend itself, share resources to the most talented individuals, and create safe areas in a world where one person can theoretically become a God at any time. I plan on cheating all I can though... I will be using 'Research', 'Growth', and 'Purification' for my powers."

CD was still reviewing the data. "Will that have a significant impact?"

He nodded. "Immense. 'Research' will allow me to safely comprehend concepts, adjust cultivation methods and techniques, and hopefully find clever solutions to any problems. 'Growth' will improve my speed at growing in power, my ability to work with various plants and resources, and speed things up in general. 'Purification' will reduce the chances for bottlenecks in my progress, reduce corruption or cultivation deviance, and allow me to safely use resources others could not."

Narwhal tapped the table. "Maybe you should use 'Recovery', 'Consumption', and 'Tithe'? Should let you heal, absorb all kinds of stuff, and make your followers give you strength."

Adam sighed. "No, the Realm is conceptual. 'Demonic' and 'Evil' paths of cultivation exist, and the further down those you travel, the more it twists your personality and abilities. I need VERY positive natured abilities to help resist those issues, and while 'Recovery' would not cause a problem, both 'Consumption' and 'Tithe' could be used to absorb souls, drain followers, and so forth. Not worth the risk in my mind."

He gestured. "'Research' is more important than healing anyway. At high levels of understanding, it is possible to not just heal yourself, but to regenerate from a single drop of blood, to create living clones that you can use as a second body if someone kills you, to survive as a spirit and rebuild a body from scratch... and more. The world rewards self discovery and deep thinking... and I can't use the active parts of 'Recovery' anyway. Otherwise I would just scan a few people and change myself to use the best setup... assuming their body actually uses organics at all."

Seeing the confusion, he shrugged. "It is possible to replace flesh with conceptual materials, creating bodies that can transform into monsters or elements, adding metaphysical organs or potential energy sources... 'Recovery' would have issues with that. For now."

CD hummed. "Odd... the culture seems to have aspects of various myths and legends."

He nodded. "Yeah, this cluster of Realms are odd. Concepts are... literally the most important thing there. Mental ideas can be physically used to attack, planets exist for far too long and are far too large... gravity alone should crush everyone there if it followed our rules. Some planets are literal planes... infinite in each direction, infinite in depth, and so on."

Betty was tapping her notes. "Several species too. Beasts, Demonic Beasts, Demons, Monsters, Elves, Beastkin, various Human Half-breeds, Living Artifacts..."

Adam added some data. "Depends on the Realm. One was focused on gathering the souls of Demonic Beasts and using them as power and ability sources. Created a series of rings, where the older the Beast the more powerful the abilities. Another Realm gathered the energy refinement cores from these Beasts as a cultivation resource, or for potion and pill ingredients. This one over here is similar to Pokémon, where you bond to spiritual beasts and can summon them to and from your soul, enhancing them would enhance yourself."

CD hummed. "And not all these revolve around monsters or beasts. Some Realms have dungeons, or something similar to System's Quests. Not to mention the ones where their version of the System is physically viewable."

He nodded. "Yeah, worlds where you gain power by choosing classes, mastering them, then unlocking branching class paths. Those are interesting, as instead of gaining levels yourself you actually level up each class individually, gaining permanent bonuses upon mastery. On the other hand, this one has 'paths' that you can master instead, where you gain points for mastering skills and can spend them on various 'paths of development' to gain bonuses, extra abilities, or special effects."

Narwhal glared at the... MASSIVE list of options. "Are we going to be reviewing this stuff forever!?"

Adam chuckled. "Maybe, I guess. Haven't even talked about game related Realms where the System is silent and invisible while creating structure for society. Or the ones where System gives you an OP boost, like your own personal cultivation dimension or the farming system from a mobile application." He tapped the smaller list. "But I am probably going to enter one of these 'Cultivation' Realms. The real problem, and the reason I will be stuck there so long, is the cost of transfer."

She blinked, and looked back at the notes. "Huh? But... it doesn't seem that expensive."

He sighed. "The cost bump is due to me spending MOST of my points on the most important feature: I need a Cultivation Realm without a story line. A 'Slice of Life' fic is literally life saving."

Adam waved a hand, many stories showing on the table. "In most Cultivation stories, the main character rapidly grows in power... and meets equally dire consequences. You start off in a small town, then move up to a city... a state... a continent... a world... a solar system... a reality layer... and so forth. At several steps along the way, the possibility of a foe killing an entire region of people becomes an issue. Entire worlds can be lost during conflict."

He glared at the paperwork. "I do NOT want to put up with that shit. Why should I risk the planet blowing up because two upper level existences were arguing over who was showing too little respect to whom? So no, I am accepting several penalties and risks to ensure that my visit will occur during one of the many, MANY ten thousand year intervals where absolutely nothing interesting happens."

Narwhal blinked. "Ten... wait, how long?"

Adam shrugged. "Sects with thousands of years of cultivation history are considered 'new' and 'edgy'. Plants that take a hundred years to mature are common. Regions that have a million years of history are respected, but not uncommon. This kind of thing is a side effect of having conceptions be so vital to existence. Doesn't hurt that some families and Sects were founded by a person who grew so strong that they basically became immortal."

He sighed. "Honestly, the cost of preventing main character shenanigans was low compared to finding a place without constant war and invasions. Oh, they will still occur, but at least I won't be sent directly into a never ending war to build up contribution points or whatever. Death and murder is near constant, but by comparison to the alternatives I will practically be having a peaceful vacation."

He felt her arms wrap him in a hug. "Still... will you be alright?"

God he would miss her. Or to be more accurate, the him traveling will miss her. "Yeah, to be honest my emotions don't quite line up with normal humanity at this point. I won't go around torturing people or anything, but if you attempt to kill me then don't expect to get off scot-free."

He felt her frown into his neck. "He may be an Avatar of you, but I still want him to be careful."

Seriously, she was just wonderful.

Betty separated a page. "How are you going to handle this? You don't have enough points to learn the language, or gain a history, or anything."

He winced. "Right, that goes back to the long time investment issue. In return for safety and enough time to build up strength there... I am going to have to basically reincarnate there. As a baby."

Their eyes got large. And sparkly.

Adam sighed. "Yes, I will have Squishy save memories. And ensure that we can make pictures later."

To be honest, this particular 'drawback' wasn't a huge issue. He had no memories of being a kid, and there was a strong possibility that he had spawned here in Worm as an adult, memories needed just squished into his brain. So maybe the chance to have a family and all that would be a positive one? He could always help them cultivate as well, letting them live long enough until Adam got enough power to safely bring them back here.

He blinked when he felt his soul open, let a small pink cat inside, then slam shut again. "WHAT!?"

Seriously, when the hell had Mew LEFT his soul!?

His thoughts were distracted when a door in space opened up and Alexandria floated through. "Excuse me, normal man of not much importance. I was in pursuit of an artificial pink creature of very slight importance. Have you seen a floating cat pass through here?"

Everyone pointed at the door. Mew had been giggling as she hid inside his 'Grid of Confinement', which once again was locked from inside. Somehow.

She nodded. "Thank you for your time."

...And she was gone.

Adam frowned as Simmy and Sammy floated into the room. "Have... have you guys been messing with the Triumvirate?"

The red-eared Plusle cheered on Sammy's head, while the blue-eared Minun was sleeping on Simmy's lap.

Narwhal chuckled. "Dragon sent me some notes on that. Poor Eidolon has been chasing Mew around the continent all day. Didn't know Alexandria got in on the act though." She blinked. "Didn't know she could make that portal thing either, really."

He grumbled. "Wish I could travel like that. Whenever I use 'Transfer' I keep getting that giant metallic skull thing. It was cool, but not remotely subtle."

CD was still reading the massive amount of data Adam had provided. "Your flaming blue hair isn't subtle either. Or the spider bone limb thing. Honestly, I'm just happy you have been including flesh with your bodies... I guess my expectations have dropped a little, now that I reflect on it."

He winced. "I'll have you know, I had a human like body for the ENTIRE trip this time!"

Betty giggled. "And six spider bone limbs."

Narwhal nodded. "Don't forget him being on fire all the time. Seriously, people from the Pokémon Realm were FAR too accepting."

He was NOT pouting. Jerks.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

This was the fourth try. The previous three were all aborted for a high cost and fairly good reasons.

Adam took a slow breath.

The first attempt? He passed out from pain. It had been SO LONG since he had actually suffered, he was completely unprepared.

The method designed by Squishy required... just a tiny bit of soul damage. Nearly invisible, a single grain of glass extracted from his 'Fishbowl', used to channel his powers to the Avatar.

The problem? He had refined his soul using the hunger of the Abyss.

His soul was solid. Beyond stable. In the end, the first attempt managed to get a tiny grain free... but it had NOT been pleasant.

The original two week downtime was judged based on how long it would take for his soul to heal. And... well. It was a bad estimate. Neither he nor Squishy took into account how much longer it took to repair a soul so hardened, so refined.

He got over it eventually.

The second attempt had to be dropped because it involved a magical object, a mystical cube that absorbed souls for refinement. The Main Character (MC) was supposed to get this thing, and it was the driving object of that whole Realm... in other words, he would BECOME the story for that Realm if he had fully committed. It would have invalidated all the damn points he had invested to make the target location safe! Seriously, the Entity that had designed this travel system was an ass.

Third attempt was in progress... when the target Realm destabilized. It was apparently 'safe' to travel to because it was about to END. Not the whole Realm, just the individual planet he was supposed to grow up on. Because in THAT Realm, once you reached a certain level of cultivation you BECAME a world. With an inner planet, where your beliefs and abilities turned into creatures and places... and the guy who you were supposed to be born within got killed in battle. He didn't even get to stay long enough to determine which Realm it was, it ended so quickly.

It was a strange place anyway. It was entirely possible for a guy to have a cosmos inside, where on a planet was a girl with a solar system in her cultivation, where on a plane there was a cat with a planet inside it, and so on and so forth. Russian nesting dolls of reality.

This time, he had invested even more energy so that the universe would have some damn time for him to visit. And that his origin point would exist long enough to grow up to some degree. But it came with a cost... He would have less energy when he arrived, and it would take longer for his powers, abilities, and memories to 'activate' for his Avatar.

Part of this trouble had to do with how the transit ability worked... the more open the request, the more wiggly it got. This time though, after some discussion and a week or two of recovery, everyone was fairly confidant it would succeed!

Adam gave a sharp nod.

"Transfer: Abyss."

Into the dark, a glint of glass vanished.

~~~Broken Adventure~~~

The adventure continues in Broken Adventure: Arc 2: Cultivation.