A/n: I'd just like to say thank-you to the reviewer who made Emily up. A personality of crazy with a fear of fire and needles was just the sort of character I needed for an extra, although I ended up using her pokemon more than herself.
Also folks, there is a slight point of view change here and a time jump, so please do not get too confused. For clarity, Leos is the animalistic younger self, Charm(ander) is the civilized one who died and was reborn. To answer, Betty Black will likely appear again later but I'm not giving anything away.
Untrue World
7.
Ghosts dancing, ephemeral, in the light, make for easy belief in angels in the night - Xatu's Truthisms
For as long as Leos could remember, he had a guardian watching over him. As he grew, he felt them seem to go dormant and more distant, and found it harder and harder to remember what they were like. He knew they were a charmander like him or perhaps a charizard (so much more impressive!) though, haunting his dreams and scaring away his nightmares. His guardian was strong.
He thought he felt disappointment from his guardian, when he showed little interest in the human things like television or computers, books or cars, or even such things as where his food came from. Leos was content, although he was a little confused as to why his name was Leos. The Masters always called him Charm, such nice masters they were, even though, silly humans, that was his guardian's name, not his. He slept while they went away; his guardian wouldn't let him destroy the house (even if the furniture would look better burnt!), and the strange terror that flooded through him from them was enough to make him fearful of whatever strange punishment that might result as well.
He loved going outside, but only when his Masters were around too, especially the Master Abraham, playing fetch and even tolerating summer games of squirt bottles. Abraham had been ignoring him more and more lately, absorbed in his studies, and Leos hated it. Still, sometimes he was let out in the yard alone. There he would chase rattata and try to catch and eat them, though he never managed to yet, and harassed the neighborhood dogs and cats who passed by the fence. Somehow, he got the feeling he disgusted the dream-angel whenever he did this.
He knew the dream angel was real, because of one time he had gotten into real trouble. He had been brought over to a friend's house by Polly, and they had been babysat by a woman named Emily.
Leos saw a strange pokemon he had never seen before, with funny looking leaves and a sort of four legged dinosaur like body. He thought it seemed kind of girly, and decided to say so.
"You girl?" He had never met a girl pokemon before, not that he remembered. They smelled sweet, like a plant Abra's mother brought in the house with funny colors. His guardian had told him those were called 'flowers'. He thought flower was a funny name for a color.
The pokemon blinked. "No!" it seemed insulted. "Am Cooper, a boy grass type."
"Oh." he titled his head. It was a Chikorita.
The chikorita seemed quite proud. "Am shiny, cost a lot, and rare starter like you."
"Me?" he looked down at himself and his reddish orange skin. "I cost a lot?" He had been bought, like vegetables? He shrugged. Chikorita was a vegetable, and they talked, so he supposed it wasn't so bad.
"Not as much as Cooper. Weird colors make lot for some reason." Cooper stated matter-o-factly. He thought Cooper seemed about the same age as he was, and wondered if maybe they had a person in the back of their head too. "But maybe close?"
Neither pokemon were particularly bothered by the idea of being bought. Why should they? They knew no different, and liked their trainer/owner.
Another plant came up to him. Was this one a girl? He decided not to ask since that might insult it, but thought they smelled like a girl. This one had yellow leaves, and he thought he recognized the kind as a bellossom from television, which is why the leaves struck him as wrong.
"Hello Yasmin." said Cooper to the bellossom. In another room, a shriek of children playing could be heard. Leos yearned to go after Polly, but she had gotten bored of him after showing him off to her friend.
"You sick?" he asked Yasmin.
"I don't believe so, dear." said the bellossom. "At least, I don't feel sick. Not that I would know, she never takes us to the doctor, mind, she's terribly afraid of them. Needles." she whispered the last part.
He remembered getting poked once in a check up by Nurse Joy for a 'vaccination', and nodded. He hated needles too. Bellossom seemed older than him, so he simply assumed she was extremely wise. "I'm bored." he said, and looked to her, as if expecting her to answer his every whim.
She stared back at him and shrugged.
So much for that. He looked at Cooper, who looked bored too. "I know, we battle." Cooper suggested. "I fought before."
The thought of rough housing made his blood rise like only chasing rattata to try and eat them ever could. His tail burned and swished furiously as he stood up. He really wanted to. Was it a good idea? He'd never fou- a faint memory of a fight reached his mind. Maybe he had fought before. Then it should be easy!
With a roar, he charged at Cooper, who laughed and easily dodged. Dang, how did they get so fast with such short legs he pondered? They shot leaves of all things whipping at him, sharp and gleaming at high speed, and Leos at first didn't really believe he was even trying to avoid them. They were just leaves. But ouch, dang did they hurt as one whipped by him!
Yasmin shook her head, exasperated. Boys.
Leos scratched Cooper with his claws, but it didn't seem to be too affective, or maybe Cooper was just better at ignoring pain than he was, because they immediately retaliated by spitting a strange white gleaming ball of energy from their mouth. Leos crashed into a lamp in the other side of the room.
"What was that?" he heard a human ask.
Ignoring that, riled far too much now he launched himself again, spitting smoke at Cooper and slashing wildly. Although Cooper seemed to have more difficulty telling what was going on with smoke around his eyes, and shot off a few missed attacks, including a purple powder of some sort, they didn't really seem to be at all hurt from Leos's own attacks when they struck.
"You try ember, if you have it?" suggested Cooper helpfully, looking amused. "I be better trained than you, so you'll need an attack that's super effective."
Leos paused, and tried, spitting a few tiny, puff ball bits of fire that withered up into sparks in a flash of a second, and frowned. Then, a voice spoke, a bit sleepily in his mind as if just waking up. 'You need to breath in deeply. I can help.' Then it sounded a little confused. 'What's going on?'
'I'm battling. It reaallllyyy important!' Leos whined in his own head, desperate.
'Battling? That was never supposed to happen. It must be serious. Alright, here.' He felt a presence fill his limbs, a strange tingling force.
"I guess you can't do it quite just yet then." the chikorita sounded disappointed. "Pity, I was hoping you'd be a challen-"
FWOOM.
A massive plume of fire blasted from Leos's mouth, and he got a startled feeling from his inner guardian, as if even his powerful self was surprised at how well that went. It consumed almost the entire room, setting ablaze both Yasmin, who screamed in fright, and Cooper, who yelped in surprise but grinned like he thought it was awesome.
"MY ROOM!" screeched a human girl, Polly's friend, and Leos suddenly realized how bad it looked and winced, lowering his head and looking shameful. That was his only way of avoiding punishment, as he could not explain in words to them it was an accident. They would think it deliberate.
Cooper got up, badly singed after dropping and rolling but looking quite satisfied. "Good one!"
"My poor pokemon!" the babysitter yelled, but shivered, unwilling to enter the room as parts of it were still ablaze. "Ohgodohgodohgodfirefirefire." she put her hands over her eyes, trembling as she slowly pried a hand away from her eyes and reached down to enlarge a pokeball. "Falehn, rescue us!"
A large, feirce red and white pokemon appeared in a flash of light, and it did not look pleased. Taking one look at the situation and at the injured Yasmin and Cooper, it, or rather he, immediately launched an attack on Leos, who meeped in fright.
"W-waits!" Leos began, dancing out of the way, but the zangoose was too fast and launched a punch straight into his gut, bowling him over easily. He was much stronger than him. Outstretching an arm while standing on top of him, they sent a stream of water around the room, setting out fires and dissolving some of the poisonous looking goop on the floor. Then, they aimed straight at him, shooting a blast of water in every direction; it seemed impossible to dodge.
Leos fainted.
When he woke, the situation had been mysteriously taken care of, and Cooper congratulated him on his quick thinking for pretending that Cooper's fragrant smell made him sneeze fire. He didn't remember ever doing that.
It was as if another being had taken over Leos's body for him. Happily, he thought of his guardian. (definitely a charizard, he decided.) Maybe they were... the ghost of his mom or dad? The thought stilled him. He had never thought about his parents before, or wondered about them, but the idea of one sticking around as an angel to protect him appealed to him happily.
After that incident, he had not seen or felt his guardian angel in a long, long time. But he knew they had to be there, he thought happily, daydreaming. They were his secret Charm. No one else knew about them, and he bet nobody else had one either, at least not anybody he knew. But that was okay, because he'd protect the Masters if they didn't have an angel of their own. He could be their protector, even if they were growing up taller than him, particularly Master Abra. It seemed like yesterday they'd celebrated his eighth birthday, but now he was ten years old.
He didn't wonder how old he himself was. It never occurred to him, just like it never occurred to him to wonder where he came from or how he got here as a baby.
The Master was coming, he looked up, excitedly listening to their footsteps and then watching them walk in and sit down at their desk, writing. Bored, he put his head back down again. Abraham paused, and looked at him, and Leos's heart skipped a beat as they came over to him and pat him on the head. "Hey boy, you are starting to develop a bit of a bump there, aren't you? You'll be Charmeleon soon, I think."
Charmeleon? Was that like Charizard? 'Do I get wings?', he thought with eyes widened.
"In another year, I'm going to go off and be a trainer maybe." Abraham hummed thoughtfully. "It will be very difficult to convince mother to let me, however. She considers my studies to be ever so important, and I do agree on this, don't you?"
Leos had no idea, but he nodded anyway because it was what Abra wanted.
"Still, I must think that there is some usefulness in going off and seeing the world. I may be able to take you, although there could be difficulty if you evolve too soon. They often disallow beginning trainers from starting with pokemon that are considered too dangerous. I don't think I'd have that problem with you though." he smiled. "Charmeleon are aggressive and are hard to control, but I know you never would be, right?"
He guiltily thought of his battle he'd illicitly had, but shook his head as if he once again agreed with Abra in every way. It wasn't like Abraham was going to accuse him of lying when he couldn't talk to him.
Abraham had grown so much, he reflected. He talked so old and well-mannered for his age.
"Polly would throw an absolute fit." Abraham mused tiredly. "But I just can't see myself working with a pokemon with a personality I don't like. Of course, I know, I know how you are supposed to love and appreciate every one according to the children's shows." he chuckled. "But I don't think I could deal with a mean one or a lazy one too well."
Leos worriedly wondered if he was lazy and mean, and tried to think of what he had done that was useful and nice lately. Distraught, he couldn't think of anything.
"Some say there is no such thing as a mean pokemon, but I respectfully disagree. Mrs. Hanson's Granbull is a nasty creature, it bit me just for sitting nearby where it wanted to sit at the park earlier. It didn't even bark first!"
Leos thought that might have something to do with the fact he taunted the granbull every time it walked by the yard for fun. Didn't mean it wasn't mean of course, but... it had more provocation than maybe Master realized. He wished that Master had taken him to the park with him, which he never did anymore, then he would have taught the granbull a lesson for him! Then Leos could be useful and nice for the Master.
Abraham yawned. "I hate maths. Oh well, best be finishing them before it becomes much too late."
Leos didn't have to do maths, and so rolled up and went to sleep in contentment. He was going to go with master on an adventure.
x-x
A noise woke him. It was dark, with only the moon dimly shining silver through the open window. The charmander felt frightened, until he moved his illuminating tail in front of him like a candle. Then he felt much better, and was relieved nothing was there. Just the dark. He felt so silly!
Wait.
The open window? Master always closed it. Sitting up abruptly, he looked with jerking, sharp movements everywhere around and tried not to tremble. He flared his tail and looked at Abraham's sleeping form underneath all the blankets at the bed, and peeked to see a foot. All normal and secure there.
Turning around, he felt his eyes adjusting to the lighting, and wished for once that his Masters did not have such large rooms. As a pokemon that could always expect to have a light source, he did not have the best night time vision, so beyond the tiny light of his tail it seemed almost stark black at first, the silvery rays of the moon filtering through faintly.
Abruptly, something moved. Heart thudding, Leos stumbled backward and gave a cry. "Chhaaarrrrr!"
A big hulking form emerged in front of him, a man's lower body. He looked up to see a scowl. "Shush, you little worm!" The darkly dressed man had a bag stashed full of valuables. "Drowzee, get him!"
Arms seized him from behind, and he squirmed, hissing and flailing, burning his assailant with his tail flame. It dropped him, and he saw the man leaping out the window, and Abraham yawning and waking up. "What's going on..."
A strange yellow pokemon with a piggish head waved its arm, "Drooowwwze," it muttered, and Abraham's head thunked against his pillow again, sound asleep. What did it do to him? Furious, Charm launched himself and sunk his teeth into a leg. Mmm, pork flavor. It screeched and swiped at him, trying to get him off. A strange pain filled his head, and he felt his body lifted against his will and slammed against the ceiling mysteriously.
As he collapsed back on to the ground, the drowzee stood in front of him, and placed its hands on his head. An alien, foreign presence flooded his mind, urging him to sleep, and he suddenly felt very, very frightened. This was wrong, this one was not supposed to be there! It was where his angel liv...
x-x
Charm's eyes flickered open, and Drowzee looked confused.
"Who are you?" it uttered, sensing it was not the one it had just lulled to sleep in their own mind.
"A nightmare." Charm answered simply, and slammed Drowzee against the wall. "I was not existing very nicely, thank you very much." he snarled. "Don't ever bother us again, pissant."
It whimpered and slid to the floor. "I won't. I was merely following orders." It crawled to the window, and Charm frowned, wondering exactly what had happened again. He looked toward the human Abraham, and found him soundly snoring alright, safe and sound. Perhaps the drowzee had been trying to devour his dreams. That made sense. But how had it gotten up here? He glanced through window, and saw the drowzee climbing down by a rope.
That had to belong to a man. A thief had been in the house. Reluctantly, he glanced back. He knew it could be risky going after, a pokemon like himself could be stolen after all. But who knew what the man had stolen? Credit cards? The wallet and car keys? A priceless family heirloom? The TV and video games (which he wouldn't mind losing, as Polly watched far too much from what he remembered) ? All of the above?
Charmander shook his head, making up his mind and bouncing down, grabbing on to the rope to smooth his fall a bit before landing. It was more difficult to grip things with this body properly, as the muscles were unused to it and handling objects is a tiny bit like riding a bike. In this world, a pokemon had to usually be trained to use a rope. That told him this probably wasn't the duo's first heist.
He had to be careful, he thought, as the man unsheathed a knife and backed towards the fence, where a get-away motorcycle was propt up. With a growl, he loosed flames- and was surprised to see they weren't as powerful as the last time, when Leos had asked him for help. What was going on? Was he loosing control over this body, fading from it over time?
The man slashed at him with the knife, and ordered Drowzee to step in line and fight for him. Drowzee looked reluctant.
One day, Leos would no longer need him, anyway. That child didn't remember the ultimatum given about not wrecking the house, but Charm merely needed to stick around a little longer to keep him out of trouble, and then Abraham would take Leos on an adventure. Abraham had been growing up to be somewhat responsible, even if he neglected Leos a little more than he should. He would take care of the boy and train him to be strong. Then Leos could do whatever he wanted with his own life. No need for Charmander to stick around.
Merciless, the thief charged him. An inexperienced pokemon might think it a joke; humans didn't fight, they couldn't, right? But Charm knew better, and twisted out of the way of the knife. Even then, it slit against his skin slightly, cutting far too close for comfort. Charm grabbed the man's arm and twisted the knife out of his hands, blasting fire to distract and pain them, as their thumbs were better equipped to keeping the knife than Charm's claws were to taking it.
Charm scorched himself on the arms, but didn't mind the pain. It was only a little bit burnt. With a snarl, he knocked the now defenseless man down, and before he could fully control himself, poised his fangs over the man's neck. He froze, unable to believe what he had just almost done, and backed off.
He wouldn't turn into an animal.
The lights in the house turned on. They had heard the racket, and his snarling. The man scrambled to get away, and Charm bit him on the leg and dragged him back.
For the first time, Abraham's mother looked pleased to see him as she went outside and found the burglar being sat on by him, all her valuables still there just laying there in a bag. Relieved, but worried the security system hadn't gone off, she awarded him, or rather Leos, who started to wake just then, with a steak.
Charm felt himself drift away.
x-x
Leos, what did you do? Charm thought, baffled as he came into existence again, stirred by fear. He could feel their heart thudding, a terrified confusion, and watched a room from their eyes that he recognized as being the house. Their skin was red, far redder than before, and their arms seemed thicker and more muscled. He felt them pace back and forth in the empty room, extremely distressed.
'They've been gone for days now! They said they'd be on vacation but I didn't think it would be this long!' he heard Leos creening in his own mind, not yet noticing Charm's presence.
However, Charmander noticed something. A new game laying on the television, called 'Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Advanced'. Mystery Dungeon? Those things were from his world, he thought excitedly! Maybe someone else had traveled to this world. Maybe they knew how to get back, he had to go look at that game.
He tried to take control of the body (he'd apologize to Leos later) but found he couldn't, not quite. It seemed to jerk in two directions, recieving contradicting signals. He felt Leos become confused. 'Angel?'
'I'm here. Calm down.' When did the kid start calling him angel? That was new.
'Okay daddy. What should I do? I'm all alone!'
Charm felt embarrassed to crush his delusions, but... 'I'm not your daddy.'
"My mommy?" Leos said aloud. It must have seemed very strange, if anyone had been around to hear him talking to himself.
'No.' Amusement filtered through. He definitely wasn't his mommy. 'Think of me as... an older brother. Leos, I'm going to teach you to do a fun human thing, okay? See that TV? Do you remember the humans spending a lot of time with it? You can play games.'
'Games?' Leos seemed very puzzled about this. 'It just shows boring pictures and makes noises.'
'Let me show you, kid.' he soothed the younger one's panic, and managed to wrest control, walking over to the case, opening it and, careful not to scratch it, placed it inside the gaming device. He hooked the gaming device to the tv, turned it on, switched it from cable to displaying the game's bright and cheery image, and sat back with the controller on the couch.
Immediately, he heard a protest. 'We aren't supposed to sit on the sofa or be on the furniture!'
'It's okay. I know what I'm doing.' assured Charm, who actually didn't know what he was doing. He hadn't played this game before. But it couldn't hurt to chill back.
In a few minutes, Leos was extremely enjoying himself. They were kicking back, playing as a Cubone after taking a personality quiz, fighting pretend pokemon with a charmander partner (of course). The game was a bit weird, because Cubone was supposed to be a human turned into a pokemon. The storyline reminded him of his own history, a bit, but they hadn't gotten very far.
It was pretty weird to play a game with someone sharing the same body as yourself. Eventually, Charm noticed Leos was getting hungry.
'You want to take a break?' he asked.
'I'm having too much fun to pry away. I never realized I could do this.' Leos thought, bouncing up and down in his seat and almost setting fire to the upholstery, but Charm stilled his tail just in time.
'Suit yourself then. In a few more minutes, perhaps. You can go down to the kitchens to eat.'
"Wait, eat?" Leos dropped the controller. "Why didn't you say so, let's go!" The rambunctious youth scurried, letting Charm guide his way gently, though the youth's own movements were anything but gentle in his hyper excitement. They saw Mr. Mime sweeping, and sat. "Hey there! Anything cooking?"
"No, the Masters are away, so I decided to clean." stated Mr. Mime. Personally, Charm thought that was a retarded name for a pokemon, but decided not to mention it even to Leos. He'd gotten good at hiding his thoughts from him. "There should be dried food in your bowl."
Pokechow? Blech. Leos devoured it without a thought however, and even thought it tasted good. Kid had no style.
"Thanks! Say, Mr. Mime, you want to play a game?"
"No." stated the Mr. Mime coldly. "I would not. I have work to do that is more important than chasing your tail and making the house dirtier."
Leos frowned, loneliness filling him, and drooped his head. "Ah, okay then..." At least he had Charm, right?
It made Charm guilty for thinking about going away again. This game had pulled up next to no clues, it was just a childish children's game about a human with amnesia. Charm remembered very well where he was from, and certainly hadn't been turned into a human. It seemed hopeless.
As Leos beat up his first virtual legendary, he paused. "Hey, um, Charm...? Why don't we do this all the time? You showing me stuff, playing with me. Taking care of me." A thought of food flashed in their mind.
'You don't have to speak out loud, you know.' Charmander thought to him. 'But... I guess there is no real reason. I just wanted to let you live your life without me interferring too much.'
Leos felt pained. "But I want you around!" he whispered. Not what me meant, he thought in annoyance, inside voice. Leos picked that thought up and felt embarrassed. 'Sorry'.
'It's nothing. If you really want, I guess I can be with you.'
"YAY!" Leos bounced around, tail flailing.
He glanced at the game, where a defeated legendary screamed "noooo!" dramatically.
'It's no problem at all.'
x-x
That night, he showed Leos how to cook food, much to Mr. Mime's amusement, who couldn't believe such a thing. They made a bit of a mess, but it was all cleaned up afterwards. He taught him how to boil pasta and meatballs, and how to make sandwiches. He wasn't sure how much nonmeat was safe for him to eat in this world, as he seemed very carnivorous, but neither of them felt ill afterward, so he decided it was a success.
Leos's primitive mind struggled to take in the concepts Charm told him, of TVs, of stoves, or written words, and in the end, couldn't take it. He could do the basic tasks like turning on the stove for seven minutes and stirring food, or hitting the A button on the control when characters were speaking in the game, but he didn't understand the tasks at all, despite being a few years old now and not a baby charmander anymore. He was even developing into a charmeleon, which was surprising to Charm. Apparently, evolution wasn't as dramatic in this world as it was in his, where it usually happened in a flash of light. He wasn't sure what would happen when Leos turned fully into one, as Charm had never evolved himself.
Leos was very tame and submissive, and Charm's fears of taking over his life flared up again as Leos seemed to simply cave in to any orders. Still, Leos insisted, having him around was what he wanted. He trusted Charm not to hurt him or tell him to do something bad.
So it was with trepidation he led Leos outside, showing him how to manipulate the door handle, and went for an unscheduled walk without Mr. Mime's knowledge (the pokemon had apparently been assigned to take care of them and feed them while the owners were out). The yard was massive, but there were few things to do in it. He couldn't exactly go diving in the family pool, and Leos had zero interest in the newspaper.
He felt unsure as he hovered at the fence. Was the collar around his neck enough to ensure no humans would bother him if he went out?
'What are we waiting for? Are you having trouble figuring out what to do? If we can, I think we should go to the zoo! I heard it's really nice this time of year.' Leos thought. 'Unless... we can't leave?' Leos looked up to him, as much as if he was a human trainer. He would obey without questioning why.
'No, we can leave.' he assured, and manipulated the locks. The gate swung open, and he closed it behind them with a smile. Immediately, he felt himself jerked over to smell the pavement, and the flowers, and all the little interesting smells that Leos seemed to find absolutely enticing. Charm took a backseat, letting Leos wander about while keeping track of where they were.
Around the corner, he saw a certain infamous grumpy granbull being walked by Ms. Hanson, and quietly warned Leos. Immediately, he felt an aggressive rush fill Leos. 'I want to smash that dog, that's the one who bit Master Abra!'
'No, you can't!' Charm warned. 'You'd get him and us in trouble.'
Leos relented, and turned. The purple hound spotted them, and immediately they heard barking.
"Oh my goodness!" Miss Hanson gasped. "That boy's pet, Charm is loose! The one that is always heckling my poor dear Snubb, hissing at you." she patted her pet, who was pulling madly. "Get away now, shoo!"
Charm would have rolled his eyes, except Leos was using them to navigate. They went down a few streets, turned and arrived at Mulberry Lane. Traffic honked at them. A skitty fled in fear.
And there was the sign leading to the zoo, he noticed. Waiting until he reached the corner (he was polite enough not to jaywalk, although he didn't think it made a difference to anyone's opinion of him!) he crossed the street and went to go see the animals.
As he walked through the tollboth, the lady giving out tickets paused and rubbed her eyes. "Uh..."
He offered her a twenty dollar.
"Go right through?" she sounded confused, taking the money. She turned her head and Charmander passed right through. "Harv, what's our policy on pets?" he heard her ask.
"Not allowed, why?"
"Err... no reason." The woman watched Charm waltz straight through and look at the tryanitar exhibit, then the goldeen pond.
He tried to pay for a shake and popcorn, but the seller refused to stop hiding behind their stand. Leos wanted a plushie of a mew, which Charm thought was rather adorable, and a t-shirt. He ended up leaving a ten. He was running out of money fast, but didn't mind.
People stared at him as he walked by, holding a mew plushie and wearing a t-shirt. A little girl started following him around, and her mother, too busy smoking, didn't care. He set her back on the jungle gym and Leos played there for a bit with a children. He heard a concerned parent talking on the phone, and decided it was time to leave to see the Seel and Dewgong water show. There was a Walrien too there.
People gave him space at the stands, but some nerdy guy in a charmander costume decided he must be a cosplayer, sitting down next to him and chatting aimlessly. "What an excellent costume you have sir, how do you do it?"
He smirked, and looked around for something to write on, making a scribbling motion.
"Oh, paper and a pen? To show the design? Here."
His handwriting skills were atrocious, but something of his drawing skills remained despite his shaky lines and he drew up a rather inventive design about a scaly suit with a special hook up to make a safe, contained flame on the end of a fake propped up tail. He felt confusion from Leos, who didn't understand what he was doing, and it was with great amusement he gave it to the guy.
The man titled his glasses, and smiled. "How ingenious! Thanks a lot. Say, how about a pokemon battle after the show? Someone like you must be a pokemon fanatic!"
He felt embarrassed, and made a gesture like holding out bare pockets.
"You don't have any? Oh, too bad. Well, if you ever want to talk to me, here's my phone number."
He nodded his head, and noticed just then officials walking by, talking to people and looking for a wild charmander. They paused to look at him, glanced at the man in the costume, and decided to go on their way. It was embarrassing how everyone was buying this, but perhaps he shouldn't have underestimated how far people would bend over backwards to ignore weird and bizarre conclusions. There was no way a pokemon could have used money and gotten himself in to watch his fellow pokemon in cages! That was just demented!
Chuckling to himself, he left, stopping at the mankey cages to observe them talking about how bored they were and how funny that kid in with the round nose on the left looked picking his nose. The mankeys paused in surprise to see him. "Hey wait a second, how'd you get out there!?"
"Not telling." he stuck his tongue out, childishly, or maybe that was Leos doing that. Yes, he was pretty sure it was. Little ruffian.
Going home, he felt pretty satisfied at the harmless mischief he'd had. He felt bad about the pokemon in cages, but, there wasn't much he could do about it. Many seemed pretty satisfied to be there, and they were probably, he consoled himself, leading a better life than they would if they were out in the wild.
It was that thought that allowed him to rest as Leos headed home. It was a gilded cage, but a cage nonetheless in his viewpoint that they were returning to. He sighed. At least Leos was having a fantastic time. The boy played more video games before eating dinner and going to bed.
x-x
The owners came home. Leos looked up, bigger and no longer as excited to see them as he once would have been. There was a lazy confidence and even anger there that had not been there before. How dare they leave him behind, Leos thought irritably, standing up. They had barely even said goodbye or given any details, though he'd overheard something about the beach in Heonn.
Abraham laughed at something Polly said as he came in, then stopped in his tracks as he spotted Leos.
"Charm," he stared. "You've grown."
Well, duh. They were gone for three weeks! It was all he could do to keep from snarling aloud, and even then, a slight growl made its way from a curled lip as he turned his head.
"I mean, look at you. You're Charmeleon now!"
That gave him pause for a moment. The change had happened so gradually, he hadn't even realized, didn't know it had completed. He glanced down at his red, long limbs, and felt the new knob horn on his head. He liked the changes, he decided with a snort.
"Hey, someone finished the Mystery Dungeon game while we were gone on the pokePlay!" complained Polly. "I hadn't even gotten past the first level."
Abraham got a queer look. "Maybe one of our butlers came in for a cleaning and got bored? Or Mr. Mime did it. I hear psychics are pretty smart."
"Mr. Mime wouldn't know a game if it hit him on the butt!" Polly looked about, snarky. "I think someone was playing with my toys, too. Charm, was that you?"
Leos looked guilty. He may have drooled on one or two of them... Then he snorted. A little drool wouldn't hurt anything. She could get over herself.
"Hey, there's a strange mew doll here I don't recognize..." Polly grabbed it, then went upstairs to see if her room was messed up any. She would likely throw a screaming fit if it was, but thankfully Leos had enough intelligence to leave that place alone without being told.
Abraham sighed. "I wish you could have waited a few more months to evolve. Now I don't know if I can manage to take you on my journey or not. I know if I get a badge I'll be able to for certain, but... that would be hard. I'd need an actual pokemon for that."
Leos stirred, and felt annoyed. It was not like he could control it, honestly. He just changed as he grew bigger and stronger, as he aged. He couldn't expect him to be a sweet and docile baby who snapped up to be a handsome full adult on command, now could he? Not wanting to listen to Abraham anymore, he stalked out of the room.
"See what I mean?" Abra laughed at him. He hated being laughed at.
He wanted something to fight to take him off his bad mood. Maybe Charm would know something? Bah, Charm was a ghost. He didn't need a protector anymore, although... he liked having Charm around, he privately admitted.
'I'm glad to hear that.' a voice floated into his head.
'Cut that out.' Leos snarled. 'Give me some privacy, you eavesdropper no name little punk.'
'As you wish Leo.' He felt the other recede.
A part of him wished he hadn't snapped at him, so he could ask a question. Meh. He could ask himself a question, he snorted. Where could he find a dang battle around here? Or some food?
Hmm... how about the kitchen?
Yeah. He didn't need anyone! He could take care of himself. He was so much more powerful now. The idea of one piddly little badge impressing him made him laugh.