Pokemon RWBY Chapter 8

Mysteries Just Find You

Maybe it was just a desperate need for someone to talk to who wasn't as old if not older than her father. Or maybe it was a need to talk to 'anyone' and it would have felt just as nice regardless of who it was. It just felt 'right' to talk to the kid, Katsumi.

Sure, he was younger than Ruby, and she'd caught him glancing at her chest a few times, but it was nice. She didn't feel like a complete freak like she had when she'd asked for directions to the store or to the center. She wasn't quite comfortable enough to start 'teasing' him though. And good god, the fact that she'd even 'consider' doing that felt like a bad sign in itself. Sure, good kid but he seemed more pathetic than even 'Jaune'.

At least Jaune would have thought to have a sleeping bag when on the road even if he was stupid enough to forget a tent. "It's not that bad. It's not like it's rained lately or something."

She rolled her eyes at that. "Hey, if you're desperate enough to try napping on a random bench, you're not sleeping right. What, you worried that you won't have enough money or something?"

His answer caught her off guard. "..yeah, let's go with that."

Huh, well that certainly sounded like he had a problem and didn't want to talk about it. Part of her wanted to pry if only because hearing someone else's problems was probably better than festering in her own. Still, they'd only just met. It was already awkward enough that they'd been talking this long and he'd followed her from the center to Kai's Den.

So she just gave a shrug and said, "Well, I've got things to do and someone to talk to in there. If you don't want to even look in the store then that's your business. Nice meeting you, kid."

She barely heard the "It was nice meeting you too." before the door shut, probably because she held it open just long enough for Phyllis to walk in, and she looked around. Despite the fact that it was definitely during business hours, there were fewer people in a general store than she'd expected. Hell, the workers outnumbered the customers about two and a half to one.

Still, there were few enough people that she could easily see the old man from last time. He seemed more comfortable watching how his employees worked than actually doing anything. Given the slow moment it was hard to say what he was looking for. But he certainly noticed Yang as she walked towards him. "Ah, a pleasure to see you again, young lady. How is the professor doing?"

Well he was eager to pretty much force the lost cripple to get used to this new world. So the professor was kind of an ass, even if she understood at least part of why he did it. "Well he threw a big job at me the day after I delivered his stuff, so probably busy. Part of why I'm here really. He said you might be able to help?"

Giving a short "hm", he gave her a reassuring smile. "Gladly. If Samuel Oak trusts you to do something than I'll be happy to help. Just tell me what's giving you trouble."

She gave a short, humorless laugh. "What isn't? Apparently I have to go to eight gyms to 'interview' the leaders. He gave a little speech about how people don't know enough about them, and here I am, probably going to come across as an idiot when I ask a lot of clueless crap because I don't know what I'm talking about!"

One or two of the people in the store gave her a hard to read look for a moment, and part of her felt it probably would have been better if she'd whispered or something. It's not like she'd burst into tears or started yelling, just that she was starting to get the impression she no longer liked attention. After around seventeen years of enjoying being the life of the party, it was a little jarring.

Thankfully it looked like the old man caught at least part of her anxiety. "Yes, that would be more than a little unnerving. Shall we go to my office, such as it is, and we can go into more detail about what you feel you need to know, maybe go through a practice interview to get a feel for how to handle the real thing?"

Based on the look of the store his office was probably downstairs, away from any uncomfortable stares. "Yeah, that sounds good. Lead the way."

Calling it an office seemed more than a little too generous. A couple of plastic folding chairs were set up, one sitting next to a rusting filing cabinet. Three more chairs were leaning against a wall alongside a board with folded up legs. Kind of gave the impression that the room wasn't used much. Add in the lack of a computer or windows and it was a good thing she wasn't turning claustrophobic, too.

Phyllis didn't seem to be much of a fan of it, either. A few sniffs, a tentative swipe against the side of the filing cabinet and a look of disgust at the sheer amount of 'fur' from the clearly underused metal. What, did the guy buy the building and nobody decided to throw out the furniture nobody actually used? And why didn't they do anything to clean the cabinet? The chairs were a lot less dusty.

That said, Yang plopped her butt on a chair and pulled out the dex. "May as well start with this since it's still fresh on my mind. While I like the fact I can use this thing anywhere and write notes one handed, the fact is it's got either vaguely interesting trivia or nondescriptive nothings. So my first thought to read from this to get some kind of foundation to work with? I'd call it a waste of time if there was anything else I could have been doing other than just keep walking."

That certainly caught his attention as he pulled his chair in arm's reach of hers and took a seat. "Not informative enough, or at least not in the right places. An interesting insight. Would you mind giving an example?"

Accessing the entry about spearow, Yang handed the device over to him. "Ran into one of those on Route One. You have to go to a completely different section to know if it's usually seen in that area, and it isn't. You have to know the exact name of the thing you've run across to even get to the right entry, which I didn't until 'after' I got the poor bird to a center. I even checked under flying type. No links to any species, nothing about any kind of first aid, or even how the types interact with one another in any way! Just a broad flying types can fly sort of thing. So I have to rush a 'very' hurt bird I can't even name to a center I've never been to and just hope that 'moving' it didn't aggravate its injuries."

He nodded at each point she made, scrolling through the Pokédex but clearly paying attention. "Hm, I see. Looks like they used the Encyclopedia Unova for the Pokémon entries. A fun read, but it's better for people who already know a good deal from the start. And I can't think of many starting trainers who would know enough for that to suffice. Nice of you to catch that. For curiosity sake, what kind of wounds did this spearow have?"

The kind that no predator or Grimm would settle for, and yet beyond a vigorous self-defense. "We're talking a broken leg and internal bleeding. Whatever the little guy ran or flew into was small, strong, and 'vicious'. Like it wanted to see what would break first, the tree or the bird, and it just left the poor guy to die painfully."

That got him to stop looking at the dex and frown in thought. "That..is definitely odd. And there was no sign of the rest of the spearow's flock?"

She shook his her head. "No. Either they decided to get out of there when things went bad or they weren't there to begin with."

Handing the device back to her, he leaned back in his seat, staring at the ceiling in an unfocused way. Like he wasn't actually looking at it, just pointing his head at something and letting his brain digest what he'd just heard. "The second possibility feels a lot more likely but still not all that plausible. While it's not unheard of for a spearow to break from the rest of its flock, they aren't long range fliers. And even if one decided to go off on its own, they would certainly come help if they heard anything that would leave that kind of aftermath. Very strange. I'll ask around if this is a one time thing or the start of a disturbing trend.."

Great, so a bird getting mauled like that was as new to the old man who lived in this world his whole life as it was for the girl who had no idea what normal was around here. Was that supposed to be reassuring or terrifying? All she felt was annoyed. "Was kind of hoping for a more comfortable answer than that. Still, if you don't know either than you don't know. I don't suppose you know more about Pokéballs than me, do you?"

His eyes became more focused again. "While I wouldn't be able to build one from scratch, I'd say I have a solid idea of how to get them to work and their effect on Pokemon."

"Yeah, it's the second part that I'm wondering about. I may not know much of anything about that bird, but I could tell just lifting it up was a terrible idea. Human or otherwise, internal bleeding isn't pleasant. But I had to get it to help 'somehow'. Sure, I had a ball but I've got no idea if it made things worse or something. All I know is it's supposed to be 'convenient'."

He gave her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, you did the right thing. When a Pokéball covers a Pokémon in light, it essentially slows down time for the creature. I'm not sure about the exact mechanism of it myself, but what it amounts to is this. A half hour in one translates to about a second and a half to the creature inside. While that means any fatigue it felt before going in would still be a factor, hunger and any toxins in its system are slowed down to a crawl. And I'm very confident that storing that spearow in one slowed its bleeding."

Well that was a lot less technical than Victor's explanation. Still, something about stuffing your supposed "friends" into little balls and stuffing them in your pocket was disturbing on plenty of levels. At least to her. Was it wrong that she'd used her only one on a creature she'd just met instead of Phyllis? Would Phyllis even 'like' getting stuffed in a ball if she was embarrassed needing help getting down the stairs?

Apparently he caught some of her worries just looking at her. "There's nothing wrong with not wanting to put a Pokémon in a ball and letting them roam free. It's all about what makes you and your team feel more comfortable."

She felt herself twitch at the word 'team'. If he noticed he didn't ask, just continued his previous line of thought. "That said, a Pokémon that is linked to a ball has, for lack of a better way to put it, a shield. So even if you don't actually leave yours in one, just registering a ball with a Pokémon can prevent someone from accidentally capturing or easily stealing them."

And then his smile turned more mischievous. "I'd be happy to give you a good deal on some. If you buy ten, you'll get one free."

Maybe it was the timing, the delivery, or a combination. Something about the way he said that cheesy sales pitch got her laughing. Not a full on, knee slapping laugh but still heavier and freer than anything she'd done since the start of the Vital Festival.

Giovanni was many things. A supremely skilled trainer, a gym leader, a father, a businessman and someone willing to take risks for his ambitions. When he'd heard that the lab he'd paid good money for had a disaster, he'd dropped everything and rushed there as quickly as possible. Nobody knew what happened, all anyone could say with any certainty was that something had gone wrong and nobody, not even a janitor, could be contacted. And this was one place he couldn't afford to have any "mysteries" leave him in the dark.

While there wasn't anything 'incriminating' at the lab, there were a number of projects there he'd wanted to keep under wraps. The fossil revival project, the cloning experiments, and most importantly the Porygon and MewTwo projects. They were to be his trump cards when he gathered enough resources for more than backroom deals, money making schemes, and gathering the people and Pokémon he'd need. A goal thirty years in the making. It wasn't absolutely 'necessary' for it to be completely unknown to the rest of the world, just preferred. Especially since he didn't want anyone else with a good sized budget thinking of creating their own Pokémon in vats and other artificial means.

So as he approached the lab and saw the officers at the perimeter, his stride shifted from his usual, confident gait to something more aggressive. These people were in his territory, and regardless of their "duty" he would learn what happened here. They only deserved scraps of information at best, and the fact that they had arrived on the scene before he had meant someone had screwed up. He'd find out who and deal with them later.

The first thing that caught him off guard was when one of the two at the front door radioed someone. "Mr Acerbi has arrived, sir."

He was expected, and referred to in a respectful tone. He hadn't called ahead to warn anyone, he hadn't even known he'd be arriving here today or what kind of disaster had happened. Most officers outside of Celedon and Viridian wouldn't know who he was by sight, and the ones in Viridian only knew him because he was that city's gym leader. Technically this was good news, better than the sort of mindless honest cops who'd try to keep him out of his own property he might have expected, but still. Police, even police that he owned, had better have a good explanation for being here. Especially since the number of squad cars and trucks implied this wasn't something his influence could sweep under the rug.

The officer in charge walked through the door, and it took Giovanni a moment to recognize him. Howard Branden. Second in command of Cinnabar Island's Precinct 5. He was only loyal to his paycheck, not to his bosses or any cause. He wouldn't have come here for damage control unless Giovanni outright told him to. So whatever happened here was big. As if the other indications weren't aggravatingly ominous enough.

The man looked..paler than last time Giovanni had seen him. Sickly, shaken, the sort of emotional crash you'd expect from some vegetarian who'd never seen blood before just got a tour in a butcher shop. Curiouser and curiouser. The man had killed some people on Giovanni's orders before, so it wasn't that he was squeamish..

Branden extended a hand, a shaky one, in greeting. "It's good to see you, Mr Acerbi. Hell, it's good to be out of that 'morgue'."

Gripping the hand firmly, the combination of oddities had drained whatever anger he may have had. "I had heard there was trouble at the lab, but nobody could tell me any specifics. Perhaps you could enlighten me."

There was an attempt to laugh to get the tension out, but it was more of a coughing whine. "It's a horror movie in there. Most of the people we've come across are dead, and that's just in the areas we can reach without security clearance. I doubt those will look any better."

One word in particular caught his attention. "Most?"

"There were a few survivors. We brought them in for questioning but..well, they're downright 'feral'. One of them just 'tore' his hand out of the handcuffs. Peeled off some skin and muscle so he could gouge the eye out of the officer holding him. Both of them are in the hospital now. Another killed herself smashing her head against the window of the car that tried to take her away. We had a psychic look at them, and he said it was like something had poured white out in their minds and threw a 'need' to fight in there. That it was lucky whatever did that didn't blank over the need to 'breath'."

One of the officers guarding the door gave Branden a look, like he was flabbergasted his superior was just saying all this to a civilian, even if they knew eachother. Giovanni paid it no mind. He was..stunned. Horror movie indeed. Psychic explosion of some kind?

No, nothing in the Porygon line had shown the power to do anything that severe. And certainly not the inclination. They were essentially blank slates, psychics that had no personalities installed into their artificial bodies at this stage..or at least the state they were in before the lab stopped sending daily reports.

Perhaps MewTwo? No, too early. The projections were optimistic about its power when it would finish developing, but it still wasn't in any shape to be born. Hell, it shouldn't even be able to perceive the world around it yet, much less interact on any scale other than what the machines connected to it could read. Heart-beat, brain activity, various things to project its current health and what it was projected to become based on the readings.

Still, those were the only two psychics he knew the lab was working on unless the one fossil they'd brought in was a psychic and nobody knew it. The idea of a rock/water type had him curious, but he'd been assured..no, assurances apparently didn't mean anything at this stage. Staring at the door with a determined glare, he gave Branden his orders. "Get me two of your best men, I want keen eyes and sharp minds. Not brainless drones."

For a second the man cringed, either because Giovanni gave him an order out in the open or just the thought of whatever he'd seen in there. "Are..I'm afraid.."

Yes, it was quite obvious he was afraid. But it would take more than a useful pawn being timid to stop the leader of Team Rocket. "Something happened here that cost me a good deal of skilled, specialized manpower and years of investments. I want to know what caused this, something internal or if there was a break in. If it was then external I want to know who and why, and if not specifics than very educated guesswork. I also want to know if there's anything to salvage from this disaster. Written records, recordings, anything that will ensure this is not a total loss and that might give us a better understanding of what happened here. And on the off chance there's anything locked up in there that's still dangerous, I want anyone with me to have their best Pokémon out."

Branden just opened and closed his mouth like a fish, wordlessly. The perimeter officers had unconsciously straightened their backs, even if they didn't recognize his authority they could 'feel' it. Whatever the police learned he could deal with later. Those he couldn't buy or frighten were distant. Right now he had a very serious problem, and he wanted to know just how deep it went. Then he could think about shovels, both proverbial and literal, to solve the problem and the spiderweb of other issues it was libel to create.

He didn't bother waiting for his orders to translate to action. They would. He just walked towards the door, ignoring the intimidated guards as he thumbed the ball for Rhyhorn. Possibly a bit too heavy for the upper floors, he'd have to switch to Sandslash or Persian, but for the bottom floors a large rhino of rock should smash through anything in the event of his codes not working for some reason.

Yang still felt like she didn't know much if at all. Maybe because she was the type to learn through experience better than someone telling her crap. Or just the fact that she was taking seventeen years of prior experiences and filing them under 'non-applicable'.

Not that talking to the old man was a waste of time. Every question she'd asked, he'd answered to the best of his ability, never seeming baffled at how little she knew. It wasn't a sort of patient babying, or the kindly forceful attempts to help her adjust to her new environment like the professor seemed to go for. It was observant but not prying, clearly capable of seeing when there was more to her question than she said and only addressing those unspoken things if it was something she considered uncomfortable somehow. Hell, the guy threw in the occasional joke when appropriate, that put her on her good list for sure.

Still, she had to come back to the center. This was about the time that the nurse had told her the bird would be at one hundred percent health and aura. Granted, two hours seemed 'very' short considering how extensive the damage was, but this world had some kind of drink that restored aura. That kicked the ass of any medical tech that Remnant had, and that was just stuff they sold in a store. The stuff their hospitals had was probably a good deal better than that. Too bad there wasn't anything that could regrow limbs..

She shook off that line of thought before it really got started, opening the door more carefully this time than when she'd first come in. She wasn't really embarrassed by the damage she'd done in her rush, if anything the fact that the damn thing was still attached to 'some' of the hinges was pretty impressive. She'd known 'walls' that wouldn't have held up to force like that. It's just that she wasn't in any real hurry this time.

Still, the nurse immediately noticed her entrance, perking up for some reason. Possibly the fact that there weren't too many other people in here. Come to think of it, why wasn't there a chair behind the reception desk? Just standing around like that had to be a bit of a pain.

Not that she showed anything other than happiness at seeing Yang again. It wasn't a plastic, plastered on smile of someone who just wanted to look happy because it was part of the job. It was warm, genuine..or just extremely practiced to the point that it was hard to tell. "Ah, miss! Your spearow is ready for you to reclaim."

She picked up the Pokéball from under the counter and held it out. Taking it, Yang still couldn't help feeling conflicted about the very idea of these things. It was like Blake was in her ear trying to debate the morality of this sort of thing and nobody was giving a counter argument. Rolling it in her hand a moment, she asked, "Any complications I should know about after this? Leg a little gnarled, that sort of thing?"

The nurse had a split second of confusion, as if the question needn't be asked, then an even shorter instant where her eyes zipped from Yang's face to the stump of her arm and then back to her face before returning to the warm smile from before. Yeah, definitely a well practiced smile. "No, he's perfectly healthy now. I understand your concern, though."

Oh she bet the nurse did, the same way she'd bet Pyrrha could sympathize with someone getting their ass kicked. Still, it was nice to know she was 'right' this time about the gender she was referring to the bird as. Fifty/fifty chance, so at least she wasn't 'too' unlucky despite recent events. Putting the ball in a jacket pocket for now, she pulled out her wallet as she asked, "Okay, so how much do I owe you?"

This time the confusion didn't disappear in a split second. "Pardon?"

For a moment Yang felt her eye twitch. Hopefully it wasn't turning red due to annoyance at asking a second question nobody else apparently would in less than a minute. Did this lady mean to say that a Pokémon Center, a place that looked so clean and apparently had state of the art medical equipment, didn't charge people for using it? Just how the hell did they 'pay' for all of this, then?! Still, she managed to keep those burning questions inside and shifted to the other possible thing needing payment. "I kind of broke your door last time I came rushing in. Didn't you notice?"

Based on the way her eyes shifted to the door and she mouthed "oh", she hadn't noticed. Good god, a significant section of the upper corner had been completely splintered, a hinge hanging limply from the wall! How do you not notice something like that for several hours when there's nothing else to look at?!

Once she recovered from her surprise, the nurse once again went back to that smile. "Oh that's no problem. We have more than enough surplus funds for that."

Surplus funds from 'what'?! If they weren't going to make people pay for their medical help or damages, then how were they getting their 'money'?! And along those same lines, just what did the professor have in mind for paying 'her' while she was on the road?! Still, Yang didn't voice those frustrated questions. She just put the wallet back in her pocket and tried to look nonchalant as she shrugged. "Okay then."

As she turned around to leave, she couldn't help noticing the concerned look in Phyllis' eyes. Apparently her little partner was observant enough to see something was bothering her, even if the nurse was oblivious as all hell. The woman's parting line 'definitely made her eyes go red. "We hope to see you again!"

She hoped Yang would come back with more wounded Pokémon. She..'wanted'..the very creatures that the professor claimed were 'friends' and 'companions..no, simmer down, don't break the door even more on the way out. Deep breaths, wait for Phyllis to go through the door, then slowly shut the door and resist the urge to 'scream' in directionless anger.

A gentle nudge at her shin took some of the rowing tension away, and she knelt down to pet her little buddy. "Yeesh, and I thought 'Weiss' went through culture shock when she first came to Beacon. This..definitely going to take plenty of getting used to. Just when am I going to 'stop' feeling so confused around here?"

Phyllis made what was probably supposed to be a comforting noise, almost like a meow, as she nudged her head against Yang's hand. In some ways it reminded her of Zwei, but as good as her dog was, as helpful as he tried to be, there was just something..deeper here. She couldn't really explain it. Zwei was part of her family, but would she ever think to have a one sided conversation with him?

Because that was exactly what Yang felt like doing right now. "Seriously, I've been around for over a week and it just feels like I'm getting way more questions than answers. Maybe 'that' is why the professor wanted me to do the whole interview thing, I'm so clueless that I'll downright make the people I'm talking to stumble because I'm asking stuff nobody else 'needs' to ask. I swear, even as a 'kid' I never felt like such an idiot."

Still kneeling, she shifted her hand from Phyllis' head and pulled the ball out, expanding it and releasing the bird inside. He certainly looked in better shape than when she first saw him. He stood up, stomping the ground a bit as if to test just how firm his previously broken leg was before he was satisfied. Then he took a moment to look at his surroundings, taking in a breath before turning to face Yang. Those narrowed eyes were respectful but evaluating.

Giving him a smile, she hoped it was a comforting one and didn't show any of the anxiety she was nearly constantly feeling at this point. "Nice to see you aren't in any pain right now, but how do you feel, little guy? Do you feel good to go?"

Flapping his wings a moment, he gave a caw, and the blond couldn't help chuckling at that. "Yeah, somehow got the feeling you'd say that. So now the question becomes, do you want to keep hanging out with me, or do you want to go off on your own, maybe get back to your friends and family?"

He didn't even hesitate, just took off for a short bit to land on her right shoulder, giving another caw. While part of her was annoyed he chose 'that' shoulder to land on, it was the same minor annoyance as when Phyllis had wrapped her vines there for stability earlier. Moving her left hand to pat him on the scalp lightly, the two stared at one another. Yeah, she'd just made a new friend. Not one that could talk back to her but still, it was..nice.

Now all she needed to do was think of a name for him, because "little guy" felt way too generic to keep calling someone she'd probably spend a lot of time with. Kestrel? No, didn't have a color associated with it. Rowan? Hm, while there was red on him that was just the wings. His head and back were brown, his belly tan..well, since most of his body was brown, maybe a name that took that into account was a good one. "Okay, I was told that giving my partners names was a thing, so..how do you feel about the name Duncan?"

He took a moment to turn the name around in his head. He probably didn't know what the name actually meant, so he was just going by sound. Then he gave a nod, and Yang's smile widened a bit. "Right, so Duncan it is. Nice to meet you. You already know Phyllis down there.."

The pair started making noises at one another, that strange talking without actually using language thing again. If this was a movie or video game there'd probably be subtitles, and suddenly she wished the dex could offer something like that. Still, they seemed to be getting along.

Now, what was she going to do next with her day? While she 'could' go off to find the local gym, she still didn't feel comfortable enough to go to a guy who apparently was part of some test for trainers trying to get to more competitive things. And going back to the old man just to ask aimless questions somehow didn't feel right either. But really, what else 'could' she do other than..

..a piece of paper blew towards her. Something that looked like it was torn right off a wall by a gust of wind, and she saw the corners of the sheet sticking to the side of the Pokémon Center. Wind that didn't feel anywhere near strong enough to rip paper..and that wasn't even blowing in the direction the paper was flying. Her two Pokémon also noticed that bit of oddness and stopped talking, staring at the paper as it just..circled around Yang in what seemed like a simulation of wind. Okay, creepy.

Reaching out, she didn't even have to grab it. The paper just stopped moving once it was clear she was curious enough to look at it and turned so she could read it. The image of a stadium of some kind, with some rather bold text in a box under today's date.

{Viridian City and the Indigo League Presents: Pokémon Tournaments

Just starting your journey? Try your skills in the Little Cup. More experienced trainers sign up for the Poké Cup, and those on the Elite level should test their skills in the Prime Cup.

Join us in this week long extravaganza! Prove your skills, meet new friends, and see if you've got what it takes to be a champion!}

There wasn't anything that said any particular time of day, or when the cutoff point to signing up for any of these was, that apparently was still stuck to the wall, though for curiosity's sake she checked what was left on the wall for the address. Not that she'd decided to go there..what the hell was even going on?

("Do you believe in destiny?")

Yang's whole body went rigid, standing up in a rush. She knew that voice, but could only whisper the name. "Pyrrha?"

No answer. No sign of the rather distinctive person, at least nowhere close enough that her voice, soft and oddly shaky, would be that clear to hear. It was like..like there were two of her, saying the same thing at the same time through both of Yang's ears.

She didn't fall for the temptation to just say her name louder. She just looked at her two Pokémon and asked, "Did you hear someone else talk just now?"

Phyllis gave an uneasy nod, shivering a little, eyes going all over the place to try to find the source of a directionless voice. Definitely not a result of the temperature..and Yang couldn't blame her for being freaked out. The newly named Duncan was scanning the area, eyes darting back and forth, trying to find whatever had caused the directionless sound and simulated wind with no luck, legs gripping Yang's shoulder more tightly. If that was due to the speed Yang had gone from kneeling to standing or just his own version of nervous reflex to something creepy, she couldn't' tell.

Yang had a moment of remembering how it felt after she'd broken that Mercury guy's leg, of looking at the world and unable to comprehend why everyone was acting like she'd done something wrong when she'd clearly 'seen' the guy try to hit her when the match was over only to break his leg while he was just laying on the ground, as if he hadn't moved. That was when things had started going wrong. Gripping the point where her right arm stopped existing, she tried to help Duncan scan the area, her danger sense screaming something was very wrong.

Not that the wandering pairs of eyes knew what to look for. What passed for its skin, a material that looked more like primitive computer graphics than any organic or even solid substance, had shifted colors to match its surroundings. They might notice an odd path of ground that looked like it was displayed on an oddly shaped computer screen, but they wouldn't think it had any connection to the odd things that had just happened.

For it was a prophet of a freshly born god, and while its main goal was to just observe the inhabitants of Viridian City, The Horned Cat was curious about the Golden Flame. Her light had dimmed since the Veil had broken, but it was still there. The question was, would the Flame rise again, or would it sputter out as it ran out of fuel?

Whatever the case, the prophet felt it had done enough to raise the Flame's curiosity. Now it could continue observing, examine just how ready this world was. And what steps the Horned Cat would have to take to protect the world from devastation.

Author's Note: Well that certainly felt ominous.

Felt I needed an explanation for why Giovanni isn't at his gym for Yang to do her questions from the start. Not too sure when chronologically he would first go investigate the lab, but he'd certainly be busy trying to figure things out and piece together the puzzle while Yang is still spreading her proverbial wings.

And while I don't plan on MewTwo, or "The Horned Cat" to be doing anything active anytime soon, it also felt like a good time to give some hints of how he's different in this story compared to the Origins anime and the original movie. Suffice to say the pre-birth psychic exploration of Remnant before Ruby did her big chosen one explosion left an impression or three. Since I'm not too sure about the whole rating system, is MewTwo and his potential mindfuckery and brutality enough that I should consider changing the rating on this fic to mature once he does take that more active role?

And how does everyone feel about the name Duncan for a spearow? My original idea was Kester, but that didn't feel right for a name Yang would come up with.

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed the chapter, we'll see when the next one comes out. Things are going to be a bit more action packed but friendly as we start a tournament. I'm not sure yet if Yang will participate or just watch, but Katsumi/Red will certainly be eager to try showing he's the best like no one ever was. And we'll probably get to see some Azul/Blue/Gary Oak as well. Until then.