Episode 29: A Thank You for "Them".

She was feeling cold as she visited Snowbelle City that day. Despite wearing a thick jacket that bundled her up, she still shivered when she stopped moving in the snow for one second. So her answer? Don't stop moving.

That was something her parents wish she would stop doing.

"***! Be careful!" The mother warned sweetly until the young girl fell into slippery ice face first.

The young girl started tearing up. It was painful and it was so cold.

The mother scooped up her child and hugged her close to her chest. "Now what did I just say?"

The young girl stopped crying as she felt the warmth of her mother. She smiled and snuggled closer to the soothing embrace…

[Years later…]

She was feeling cold as she stood under the heavy rain. Despite wearing a rain coat and holding an umbrella, she still felt shivers as she read the two newly dug gravestones in front of her. She didn't know what else to do…

"Mom… Dad…" Her voice cracked.

She started crying, all alone in the cold with no one left to help her.

[?]

"Yo pops, I'm bored!"

The father smiled as he continued his work on the desk. "***, you said that two minutes ago."

"Noooo," The young boy drawled as he stared lazily at the ceiling from lying down on the couch. "It was two minutes and 36… 37 seconds ago."

The busy father chuckled and turned to his bored son. "Well then, how about you help me out with this new fangled contraption, eh?"

The boy quickly got up and got close to his dad as he took out another magnifying glass.

The father fixed his glasses before he made a showy display of cracking his hands for a warm up. "Alright, Slick, let me show you how a master works his magic…"

[?]

"Again! Again!" The little girl cried out excitedly as her mother tucked her to bed.

"Really? ***, I've told that story four times already. It's getting really late."

"B-But… I like it when you read me stories," The small girl as she brought her blanket closer to her face. "And you aren't always here…"

The mother frowned slightly for a second before lovingly kissing her daughter's forehead and rubbing it gently. "Hey it won't be for long I promise. And who knows? One day, I won't be away from home, and instead you'll be out there with me—maybe even helping me out at work."

"Really?!" The small girl gushed.

"Yep." The mother smiled. She would later realize how much she underestimated her daughter's passion for both her work and herself.

[?]

"It's alright kid…" He spoke weakly as he rubbed the head of his son. His own father meant a lot to both him and his grandson. He knew it was almost time for his dad to pass on, but it still hurt to say the least.

The child still sniffed as he placed a flower on the coffin.

His father dried his eyes and kneeled to his son's face with the brightest smile he could muster. "Come on, ***, it's going to be alright!"

The young boy rubbed his eyes. "Dad… are… are you going away too?"

"… How about I tell you a little something?" He spoke softly but his smile became more genuine and was strengthened. "Did you know that your grampa isn't gone?"

The small child sniffed. "… He's not?"

"No, no," The father poked the chest of his young son. "He's right here. And that stubborn oaf will be with you no matter what, I promise ya."

"He is?"

"Not just him kiddo; me, your mom, and anybody that touches that waaayyy too big heart of yours will always be there, no matter what."

"No matter what?" The boy asked with hope filling in those huge eyes of his that may be a bit too big even for his head.

The dad chuckled. "Trust me, *** my boy, not even forgetting by memory will make them leave."

~Wake up in the morning feeling like P—

"Panic! Flee! Save yourselves!"

Anto's eyes snapped open as the first thing he woke up was the sound of terror and people screaming. A fine way to start his morning he might add. He quickly got up from his bed, still wearing rather plain long pajamas and his hair gracefully taking a magnificent bed hair style of pointing every single direction possible.

As he stood up from his bed to put on his socks and shoes, his other Pokémon woke up.

"What's going on?" Lily asked as she rubbed her eyes.

"I don't know! People just started screaming…. Where's Kryx?" Anto slowed down after realizing that only four of his five Pokémon were currently in the room.

Chaos abound and a missing Pokémon that was a little 'eccentric'? Not the most comforting of circumstances…

They were all distracted when the screams from below got worse, one high pitched scream sounded like Nurse Joy!

Anto and his Pokémon bolted out of their room, racing down the stairs as some of the other trainers and his friends were poking their heads down the hall.

"Anto?!" White cried out as the mute raced by her standing out her door.

"No time to explain White!" The Amnesiac yelled before continuing on.

He and his Pokémon slid as they entered into the main lobby. To all of their shock: the Pokémon Healing Machine had grown metallic spider limbs with its machine cords all twisted up together to form tentacle like objects that scattered around and grabbed several bystanders nearby, including Nurse Joy.

Its light was lit up in two different directions in such a way that it looked to have eyes and the panel where you usually place six Poké Balls

"What happened to the machine!?" Nurse Joy yelled before she was swung around by one of the cords.

"Anto!"

The mute saw that on the other side of the rampaging machine, being tied up by another cord tentacle, Kryx was being flailed around.

"Oh not this again—Kryx!?" Anto shouted in surprise. "What's going on!?"

"I-Iiii trriiieeddd to maaakeee the machhhine more e-efficient!" Kyrx mentally projected as she was being swayed around wildly.

The machine looked towards Anto and his Pokémon before somehow roaring at them.

"How is this more efficient!?" Anto cried before his party split to avoid a metal spider leg from crushing the spot they all were on. "OK fine! Takezo, cut the cords! Lily, catch the hostages! Sentinel, distract it! Ohko, wait until everyone's clear then punch it."

His Pokémon moved quickly, Sentinel froze some of the legs in place, which caught its attention as Takezo primed his blade to slash the tentacles carrying some people. Lily used her Magical Leaf attack to catch and move the others into safety. When Takezo and Lily freed Kryx, Sentinel backed off behind Ohko who clenched his fist and punched the machine right through the wall, smashing it an leaving a huge hole in the center before it sparked and twitched to life before dying down.

The extraterrestrial Elgyem floated nearby Anto. "I see, next time I shall tone down the Neonic Voratla Amplifier…" She mused.

"Kryx please don't work on other people's machines. You need permission to do that. And please, please, please! I do not want another repeat of last night." He begged as he rubbed his forehead hard at the far more insane events that had transpired last night.

The psychic type tilted her head slightly. "Permission? What is this… permission?"

"We're going to have another long talk now, aren't we?"Anto recalled considering earlier last night where he was especially tired of trying to convince this certain Pokémon and cram as much basic knowledge as much as he could before he was completely drained… along with explaining it to Ohko and Sentinel.

Then the event happened that he wished didn't happen.

It was times like these he wishes he got back in his bed and slept the day away.

"Hey!" The mute looked over to Nurse Joy getting back up and looking rather disheveled. She looked uncharacteristically frustrated and angry towards the boy. "Was that your Pokémon that caused the machine to go crazy?"

At this moment, the other previous hostages glared at Anto but looked slightly dizzy from the ordeal still. (Ignoring the fact that they were also saved by him.)

Anto shook his head slowly… before bolting back upstairs before the other trainers could get their bearings.

The pseudo telepath packed his belongings for the day before sneaking out the center a little early that morning.

[One hour and contained explosion later…]

"Alright Kryx," Anto coughed and dusted himself off from a mishap with Kryx trying to 'tweak' a toaster. "From now on, I'm keeping you away from human appliances."

"But I must learn how they work! That object known as a toaster was able to produce heat from electricity without a Convert Cell!" The ash covered Pokémon cried out as she floated around Anto.

The boy had been recently kicked out (Or ran away) from a breakfast diner due to the fact Kryx, in her zealous passion for all earth objects, snuck into the kitchen and made all appliances spontaneously combust and explode.

Then fix themselves up… then explode again.

After that third debacle, Anto has been walking around town and trying to explain things to Kryx not to be so 'enthusiastic' about messing with technology from this planet.

"Kryx, please. … Can you at least ask my permission before trying to make an experiment? I don't want you to do what you did to your Poké Ball." The simple red and blue ball Anto originally bought for her literally walked up and ran away. Somehow the alien messed with the technology from the inside of the sphere and manipulated the machine to have artificial life and metallic spider legs. Anto was also warned that there was a slight possibility that said rogue Poké Ball possibly/maybe had sworn vengeance on human kind for being the inferior race…

That was one of the longer nights Anto had trying to chase that blasted tiny sphere across town to prevent him from absorbing all of Driftveil City's electronic power in order to hack into all of the world's computers and force every single satellite to fall on the most heavily populated and defended areas of the world. Anto and his Pokémon were the only ones present stop the maniacal, palm-sized sphere's plans and did a rather climatic battle in a junkyard (Which involved Break dancing, Chess, Karaoke, and Anto singing despite being mute). Only for The rogue Poké Ball in the end to realize that beauty of human faults and give a noble sacrifice to stop the countdown before the virus knocked down all satellites in the world. Kryx cried for it after it made its noble sacrifice; Anto started considering if it was possible for him to start drinking in his age?

Oh right, yeah. That adventure happened, and Anto technically saved the world (and endangered it) all in one night, but it wasn't interesting at all.

Regardless, Anto held her new container, a Premier Ball, in his palm and told the psychic alien not to tamper with it in such a way that wouldn't make it move or potentially harm him, preferably both, but he had a sinking feeling that was asking for too much.

"Yo, mute!" Wes walked up to him with Jamie walking behind him. "Still having amnesia?"

"I wish my amnesia applied to events after waking up in that Pokémon Center." Anto answered back but was glad to see a friendly face.

"You always say that." Wes pointed out.

"It always happens and makes me want to say it." The boy countered back.

Wes shrugged his shoulders, seemingly taking that comment as a regular conversation. "So what are you going to do now?"

"After last night," Anto fought the urge to sigh tiredly."I'm going to stay away from machines for a while. Probably work on my battle with Clay. Lily is an obvious option. Ohko is going in because ground types usually have a rock double type, and there are some steel dual types as well. My third option is Sentinel due to his ability to use ice, and from then on, I'll see what I can do from there." Anto explained.

"Well I heard that was a swap meet today, so I was heading there." Wes explained casually.

"I heard about it as well," Jamie added in. "I wanted some more souvenirs while I was still in Unova."

The mute gave the older boy a deadpan look. "A swap meet?"

"Oh don't give me that look! I can totally go in there without stealing a thing!" Wes countered back, making Jamie stare at the Snagger.

Anto folded his arms. "Wes, I didn't even say anything about stealing."

"Well you're mute, so usually I don't expect you to say a thing, but there you go talking and communicating normally anyway. If anything, I should be disappointed in you!" The boy from Orre argued back sarcastically.

"Get used to it. At least you aren't some kind of cosmic comedic relief for the universe." The amnesiac smirked but rolled his eyes.

"Wow, is this how the conversations between the two of you usually go?" Jamie asked.

"Mostly it's the same but it varies in different levels of sarcasm and whining." Wes answered the newcomer before looking to Anto. "So you coming?" Wes asked.

Anto thought about it for a bit. "… Thanks for the offer but nah, I was going to train a bit before going… hey, where's White?"

Jamie pointed towards the end of town. "I think she went towards the gym."

The mute raised his brow in surprise. "She's going to the gym? I thought she stopped making challenges?"

"Well she went anyway." Wes said rather plainly, but there was a slight undertone to his voice. Anto saw that there was something more serious in the tone of his voice. He may have been alluding that something was off with the brunette.

"I'll go check on her. Try not to get into trouble at the swap meet." The amber eyed boy called.

"Hey, causing trouble is your job, not mine." Wes joked back before Anto and Kyrx made their way.

"Anto?" The psychic type asked as they were a bit away from Jamie and Wes.

"Yeah Kryx?"

"… Humans are strange…"

"What makes you say that?" Anto slowed down in his walking pace and looked concerned to his new friend.

"From what I was able to understand from my translator, I understood the conversation just fine… but… I felt that the dialogue between you and Wes seemed… to have excess…"

Anto paused for a second and thought about what she had just said. "Humans are like that Kryx; it's not just through language can we express ourselves."

"That sounds very wise."

"I learned that all from my grampa—…" Anto froze as that Freudian Slip came out. His… Grampa?

"Anto?" The psychic type inquired.

"S-Sorry," He shook his head. "Let's go to White."

[Meanwhile…]

Jamie was left to silence as he and Wes walked in the swap meet, just window shopping and looking at whatever oddities were available here. There was a rather impressive amount of object here he had to admit, he thought he saw a bundle of rare candies being sold somewhere along with evolutionary stones, fossils, and other not so Pokémon related objects such as clothes, bed frames, lawn mowers, skate boards, and even a grandfather clock.

Jamie stopped briefly and turned back to Wes. "Wes? Something wrong?"

For once, the boy clad in blue did not answer back. He looked almost hypnotically at the old but obviously still working grandfather clock. It kind of stood out, but that was because it was beautiful. The wood around it looked dusty, but beneath the dust, it looked lovingly polished. The chimes in the body of grandfather clock were revealed to be silver behind a beautiful ornate and mosaic glass that looked to have a Tailow and Pidgey etched into them. Then there was the clock itself, you could see the black hands of minutes and hours pointing to the exact time it was at this very moment, but the seconds hands was making this wonderful and soothing ticking noise every time it moved. You could even see the gears behind the time counters because it also was see through. You could see silver chromed gears working together beautifully.

At this, the vendor of this stand came out to greet the two of them. He was a rather lanky, but small man with purple hair and huge round glasses. He wore a simple collar yellow shirt that had a front pocket and wore khaki pants. "Ahh, I see you are interested in this beauty! A wonderful grandfather clock supposedly made by a master craftsman!"

Wes seemed to ignore the vendor and walk towards the clock almost hypnotically, which Jamie found to be rather strange. Why of all things was Wes so attracted to a grandfather clock? Granted it did look beautiful… but why was Wes so interested in it?

The boy from Orre stared at the clock's face; he wiped some of the dust away from the face and he saw a see-through reflection looking back at him. He stared at it as if he was completely in a different world.

"Wes?" Jamie called out again.

The Snagger turned to the vendor of this stand. "How much is this?"

"It's worth 10,000!" The vendor beamed with pride but the blue clad boy didn't seem to be really listening.

Jamie raised his hand because something didn't quite click with him. "Why are you selling something obviously professional looking in a swap meet? Wouldn't it be better if you sold it online or something?" The note pad said.

The vendor looked nervous and slightly panicked at the rather valid point brought up by the boy from Kalos.

"Well, you know… Internet these days, y-you can't always trust them at first glance ya know? Gotta make sure you're selling off the real deal? So what? You're both trainers ain't cha? I'm sure you can buy this baby if you pool your cashings!" He wiped the sweat of his brow with his arm.

"Still though, 10000? Isn't that a lot? How do we know you aren't scamming us?" Jamie narrowed his eyes.

"It's real alright," Wes finally spoke which kind of surprised everyone in how distant he sounded. "The wood crafted to make this has over a dozen bits of hardwoods and veneers. Cherry, Crotch Figured Mahogany, and Boxwood to name a few. The decorative polished brass lyre pendulum features a cast center disk with a spun silver background. Complementing polished brass finished weight shells are embellished with decorative bands with a silver-tone background. The gears have been polished to shine and have traces of Steelix Chrome in that they are sturdy enough to last a oong time, yet are beautiful to look at if polished correctly. The glass that was used a see through case was hand designed and melted along with the arts to fit the wood carefully, and the numeral dial features custom cast corners, center, and moon arch ornaments unique to this clock."

Everyone was silent as Wes listed off the details of such a clock. The vendor whistled in admiration.

"Dang kid, you sure don't look like it, but you're definitely a clock expert." The vendor admitted.

"Still, even a 10,000 is too much. The highest value this is worth was 6000, you're over charging." Wes spoke out.

"Erk!" The vendor winced. "Ok fine, 6500! But that's as low as I'll go!"

Jamie seemed to continually notice something off about the vendor. "Why are you in such a hurry to sell it?"

"O-Oh? A-am I? Apologizes, I guess I'm still a little jumpy from my travels…"

"Where did you get this clock anyway?" Wes asked, his eyes narrowing with his hand still placed on the window sil.

"U-Uh well I got it from a good friend?" He glanced around worryingly.

Before the two could question even further how obviously dubious this dealer was, they heard a scream.

"There he is! Get him!"

Anto saw White looking at the front of the gym almost wistfully before her phone, which was already opened up in her hand, started ringing. She seemed to sigh before talking into it, Anto catching terms that probably meant that White was helping out with her mother's company.

He recalled Kryx for a minute before simply waiting for White to finish her call. It didn't take as long as he expected and White ended her call rather early before sighing.

"White?"

The girl wearing the same colored hat as her namesake looked back surprised. "O-Oh Anto!? What are you doing here?"

"Well I was going to the gym… are you really quitting the gym challenges?" Anto asked.

White put away her phone. "I'm not quitting the challenges, I'm just putting it off till next year… I mean it can wait till my mom gets better." She started walking towards the cliff nearby the Gym.

The mute boy followed after her and rubbed the back of his head. "I'm really sorry about that."

"Why are you apologizing? You weren't the witch who hurt her." White looked at the boy in surprise as they both stood at the cliff facing the large river.

"They only did that to go after me, didn't they? I can't help but feel I'm not just causing trouble for myself, but others."

White looked sadly out to the distance in front of them. "Now don't think that, Anto…. I admit that I was very horrified when I saw my mother get shot… sometimes, I still have nightmares about it… but you shouldn't feel bad about it. In fact, it's probably my fault for not being with my mom as much as I should have been."

"No it isn't! Anto quickly answered.

"Now do you see how I feel when you tried to take the blame?" White looked on to the amber eyed boy.

Anto looked down to the water where vague images of his reflection where showing. "I guess that was kind of dumb at me… but why do I still feel so guilty about it?"

White sat down on the cliff before Anto shortly followed and sat down just a little away from her.

They both sat on the cliff and stared at the water in front of them in silence.

"Hey Anto?" White started as Anto looked back at her to see her getting back up. "Do you want to battle?"

The mute blinked. "Huh?"

"Come on," She motioned him to get up from sitting down. "Let's have a battle, two on two."

"What for?" The boy got up.

"Just… have a battle with me. I still owe you one for helping out with the movie." White spoke as she brought out a Poké Ball.

Anto slowly took out Lily's Poké Ball. "Speaking off, how was that movie?"

"It's still in its editing phase. Might come out later this year…" White spoke out as she went a good distance away from where Anto was.

Anto took another unsure glance back to White. "You sure about this?" Anto asked with the Poké Ball in his palm.

"Anto, yes! Now come on out, Sawsbuck!" White cried out as the seasonal Pokémon appeared in her Autumn form.

The boy gripped the sphere in his hand as he reclined his hand backward. He didn't know what the purpose of this battle was, but as he let go of the sphere into the air, Anto decided that would be for later. He was going to give his all in this one.

Jamie had to admit he honestly didn't know what to expect when he first arrived in Unova when in comparison to his home region of Kalos. However, he was not expecting that among the potential differences (and similarities) the two regions had, being caught in a gang fight would be one of them.

Apparently that vendor both he and Wes had originally met was actually a traveling smuggler and conman/swindler, name Holsan and he just so happened to con two very prominent mafia groups from the Kanto and Johto region.

"H-How did you all find me?!" Holsan cried out in surprise as a group of trainers with Kanto native Pokémon surrounded them. "I even heard Unova was currently on lockdown!"

"Well that's actually lucky for us, Holsan," One of the cockier gang members spoke out. "We came in here before the attack at Nimbasa City since we heard you were on your way here. Now about all of that money you owe us…"

Despite there being two different gangs, they both closed in around Holsan, Jamie, and Wes.

Holsan tried to placate the offending parties. "Oh don't be like that guys! We can all talk this out like civil men, and I was really going to give you the money!"

"Save it Hols! We're better off bringing you to the boss! Either of them will do!" A man from the Johto side called out before everyone pulled out their Poké Ball into their hands.

"Doesn't this type of thing happen to Anto?!" Jamie yelled out as he slowly reached for his Poké Balls.

"I'm starting to think it's contagious." Wes spoke out.

"Hey!" One of the members called out as he was in the tent Holsan was selling from. "He was trying to sell our stuff!" He and his Hitmonchan spoke as they walked closer to the tent, particularly the grandfather clock Wes was so interested in.

Wes threw out his party and pointed angrily at the man. "Don't you dare touch that! Espeon, Psychic!" he angrily cried out before his Pokémon pushed away the two.

At that trigger, everyone started launching attacks all across the place.

Jamie threw out his party, consisting of his Fletchinder, Sylveon, and Golurk. "Flecthinder, scatter with Double Team! Golurk, Phantom Force! Sylveon, Dazzling Gleam!"

His three Pokémon burst into action to counter some of the flying blasts launched by other opposing Pokémon.

Wes and Jamie mostly lead the fight, taking on the grunts from attacking them, and were handling them quite well. But neither of them noticed that Holsan was slowly sneaking away from the brawl.

The smuggler crawled on the floor as chaos was tearing the now empty place apart, but he kept his head down to avoid getting hit by a stray Pokémon attack. However, as he kept moving, his head bumped into something, he looked up slowly only to see that he had bumped into the legs of a much tougher looking gang member.

"Now, about your payment." The deep voiced thug smiled as he bent over to the smuggler.

Even though the two were doing fairly well against a group of over a dozen other trainers, Jamie and Wes were being pushed back because of how outnumbered they were.

But because there were so many of them, even while they were fighting some of them, others started looting all of the goods Holsan had, even the grandfather clock.

"Everyone!" they all turned to the tough looking gang member with Holsan slung over his shoulder. "I got what we came for! Let's move out before the police come!" He shouted before every one of the ganga members made a break for the back parking lot.

"Wait! Stop!" Wes cried out before some of the last members fired their own attacks that warded the Snagger away so they could escape easier.

After the attacks died down, Wes saw the group of mobs getting away.

"Come back here!" Wes screamed as he ran after them madly.

Jamie was surprised. "Whoa!? What!? Wes, come back! What's with you!?" He shouted as he ran after him.

As they all raced outside, Wes looked over to see around three vans being filled up with people in trinkets from Holsan's tent. The one furthest away was just about to be closed with the main thug leader driving that van. But just before it closed, Wes saw both Holsan and the clock at the back of the truck before it sped away.

The second one shortly followed after, but the last one was picking up the last of the people, and Wes wasn't going to have any of that. His own Pokémon raced out quickly as Wes immdeaitly pointed to the last van about to leave.

"Espeon, freeze that last Van!" While his Pokémon were confused, they still all did what they were told. "Wartortle, kick them all out of the seat!" Wes spoke out and the ninja Delta faded into the shadows and appeared into the drivers section.

Wes and his Pokémon ran up to the van, with Wes recalling Zwelious and Umbreon and with Jamie shortly after him.

"Wes, what's going on!?" He yelled out again before he saw a bunch of thugs being thrown out of thier seats and Wes jacking the van of his own and following after them.

Jamie looked towards Golurk after returning his Sylveon. "Can you give me a lift? Fletchinder, go after him!" Jamie called out as he got carried by his large ghost type Pokémon and his flying type raced after Wes.

As the giant ghost carried him, Jamie wondered what the heck was with Wes? What was with him when he saw that clock?

As he was being carried over, he saw that Wes was driving furiously after the other two vans and the front two vans opened their backs. Some of the gang members had their Pokémon out and started shooting at Wes' van, but the attacks were repelled by a bright wall of light, which meant that Wes was using a dual move to prevent the attacks from stopping him. However, instead of slowing down, Wes's car sped up towards the very front one with Holsan in it.

"What is with him!?" Jamie cried out. "Fletchinder take care of the guys in the second van! Golurk, bring me closer to the first Van!"

With a dive, Fletchinder dropped before suddenly raising himself and launching himself at full speed towards the second van, forcing everyone there to start focusing their fire on the speedy bird Pokémon.

Jamie heard alarm bells ring throughout the city. Did this mean that the police of this town were coming soon? There was also one more thing that caught the boy's attention especially since he was up so high in the sky. There was this huge cranking sound he didn't quite understand but sounded awfully familiar.

When Jamie looked out, he saw what was making that large cranking sound, the Driftveil Draw Bridge was slowly being raised. He quickly looked down, but saw that all the vans were still heading towards there that direction!

"Oh this can't be good."

Meanwhile, the van in the front simply upped their speed after they turned the corner and raced towards the drawbridge.

Wes saw this as he was driving after them. "Oh this can't be good."

Espeon, sitting right in the seat beside Wes looked kind of concern. "Uhh Wes?"

As the draw bridge started to rise, the front van started to move even faster. It even came to the point of it ramming right through some of the wooden posts that would have stopped the car from moving forward. At the sudden movement of the continually speeding car, the other members riding at the back jumped off, as if they didn't want to ride that crazy train anymore.

Inside the van, the thug who had capture Holsan was speeding up his drive. The man believed he would be able to make the jump and escape. As he saw people jumping off along with some items and such, he simply thought of them as cowards.

The second van had already stopped in their tracks as the draw bridge was already reaching a 45 degree angle.

Wes saw this and gritted his teeth. He looked at the back of the first van, and the items slowly started falling out of the opening. His eyes fell on the grandfather clock and then he crushed on the accelerator.

Jamie up ahead saw what Wes was doing. He looked towards the first van and saw that Holsan's unconscious body was still there. "Golurk, get closer to that van! We need to get Holsan!" It was true he may have been a smuggler, but the poor guy didn't deserve to die.

Not to mention the draw bridge kept rising higher.

Back at the front, the gang member was now starting to have second thoughts, but instead simply pressed on the gas pedal as the bridge was now reaching over 60 degrees.

Wes knew he was too far, so he looked to Espeon. "We're getting off! No way we can follow them!" He said as he opened up the car and jumped towards the large fence at the edge of the road. With help from both Wartortle and Espeon, the Snagger grabbed on to the fence as he was slowly feeling gravity pull him down.

The last van started falling back down with no one behind its wheel and started rolling back down… right into the second van before everyone got out of the way then making both of them explode.

Wes and Jamie saw that the last van had just jumped off the draw bridge, but because they were so high up, the rest of the junk and Holsan fell off. Not only that, the draw bridges were raised so high , the van was not going to make the Jump. Everyone looked away as the Van crashed into the bridge in another fiery explosion.

Jamie saw Holsan and was able to lead Golurk to catch the guy before he fell into the water. While Wes saw the grandfather clock falling.

"Espeon, catch that clock with Psychic!" He commanded as the psychic Pokémon in his arms started glowing. As the grandfather clock froze in the air, Wes sighed in relief. The Psychic type then tried to slowly bring it closer to them, bringing it back over to the bridge.

"Hey Wes!" The Snagger looked up to Jamie with both his Glurk and Holsan. "What is with you and that clock!?"

Wes hesitated for a second. "It's complicated! But I'll explain when we get down from here, you got room for one more?!" He shouted back.

Jamie rolled his eyes—

"Metal Sound!"

The Golurk winced in pain as he was blasted by an unpleasant sound, forcing him to lose balance and make both Jamie and Holsan fall.

"Jamie!" Wes yelled in panic.

The falling boy was able to grab the very edge of the bridge before he fell, and was seemingly able to grab on to Holsan as well. "AAAH!" He yelled in a high pitched voice as he hung on for dear life.

"Jamie!" Wes yelled before looking to Jamie's Golurk, he was being attacked by a Skymory being ridden by the driver of the van! He must have escaped at the last second.

"That's it Holsan! If you're not going to pay, you're going to pay with your life!" The gang member yelled as he threw another Pokémon out, this time a Pidgeotto. "Skymory, take care of the Golurk! Pidgeotto, take care of Holsan and that kid!"

The bird Pokémon flew towards Jamie. However the normal flying type was interrupted by Jamie's Fletchinder coming to the rescue and warding away the opposing flying type. However, both of Jamie's Pokémon were now busy fending off their opponents and the boy in question was starting to slip.

"Wes! Help!" Jamie cried out.

"Espeon! Grab them with Psychic!" Wes quickly shouted as he tried to make his way climbing up.

"But Wes! I'll drop the clock if I go for them!" Espeon spoke out.

"Wait don't!" The Snagger quickly shouted.

Wartortle looked at him. "Why do you care so much about that object?"

"It's important to me OK?! I haven't seen it in years!"

"Wes please! I can't hold on!" Jamie yelled back as he felt his muscles burn at trying to hold two people up.

"Wartortle, can't you help any of Jamie's Pokémon out?!" Wes asked almost desperately.

"I'm sorry Wes, but I'm out of range from here. I'd have to climb up and fire from where Jamie is, but then they might aim for me with Jamie being unprotected!"

Wes panicked as he looked between Jamie, and the clock, Jamie, and the clock. He closed his eyes and clenched hard at the fence that was holding him and his Pokémon up.

"WWEEESSS!?" Jamie's voice hit a high piercing note as he finally fell.

The Snagger finally decided. "Cruse it all! Espeon, grab Jamie!"

The psychic type lost focus as he grabbed the falling two people with his psychic power. The clock however fell back onto the concrete and smashed into many pieces.

Wes saw how it broke and looked back up to where the gang member was still fighting Jamie's Pokémon. "Wartortle, you're clear. Knock them out of the sky."

Wes' delta Pokémon nodded solemnly before using a Shadow Sneak on the bridge to get to the very top. He launched a rapid succession of Vacuum Wave that knocked the gang member off Skymory, and forced the steel fire type to back off and catch his falling master. Wartortle was about to turn towards Fltechinder's fight until he saw the fire and flying type defeat his opponent in a blaze of fire.

The owner of the two flying types saw his falling flying and normal type after he was caught by his Skymory and recalled him back in his Poké Ball. He looked back at Wes who was galring daggers at him before he decided to escape towards the river.

Wes sighed deeply before seeing Golurk pick up both Jamie and Holson. Espeon let go of both of them, feeling a little tired from all his psychic usages today.

"Good job buddy…" Wes complimented as he looked back down.

[Later...]

Wes was standing over the broken remains of the grandfather clock. He bent to the ground and picked up one of the bent, ornate clock arms and sighed deeply.

Jamie walked up behind him. The police had come now and were rounding up almost every bad guy who caused this chase. "So why where you so fixated on some clock of all things? Sure it was pretty but…"

Wes looked between Jamie and the bent Ornate hand before throwing it into the ocean. "… It used to belong to my dad."

"What?" Jamie repeated in shock.

"My dad was a clock maker, when I was a kid, he used to fix and create all kinds of clocks from digital to grandfather ones. The one that was… just here… was one of his finest works. I thought I would never see it again after I was chased out of my home, but there it was, here in Unova all along." Wes managed to speak truly as he looked at the rest of the remains of the once beautiful clock. "My… my dad is dead. But you should have seen him, he was so proud of this grandfather clock… H-He meant a lot to me and taught me so many things I know now… but I… I was stupid…" For once, the Snagger was starting to choke up at the memory of his dad. His eyes were getting misty before he wiped them dry and sniffed only once. "T-The point was, that after seeing it still in one piece after all these years, I thought I could finally have something to remember my dad by besides my memories. So I just… wanted it back…"

Wes lightly moved a chunk of wood with his foot, his eyes down cast at the piece of work his father once worked so hard to create.

"I know what it's like…" Jamie started. "I… I lost my parents too." He spoke out after chocking on his own words a bit. "Heck, I even lost my brother and I always thought he would be invincible… I was also pretty stupid just looking back…"

Wes seemed to take that information silently.

The two stood together and looked down on the broken clock in front of them.

"Hey! You two!"

The two trainers looked back to see Holsan walking up towards them.

"I thought you would be arrested!?" Jamie called out as he pointed to the smuggler.

"Well yeah, but ever heard of loopholes? No one called me a smuggler, not even you two apparently, and they don't got proof of me ever being dishonest down here in Unova. Technicalities, gotta love em."

It was true now that the two thought about it. They were so focused on explaining the chase to the officers, both Jamie and Wes neglected to mention that Holsan was technically a swindler to the officers, so they thought he was just a innocent bystander used as a hostage.

Wes sighed before looking back at the broken clock. "So why are you still here? I figured you'd want nothing to do with this place after being questioned by the police like we were."

"Well, I may be a…" He looked back at the cops putting the caution tape around. "You-Know-What. But I pretty much owe you guys for saving my life." He fished for his pockets. "Hey, blue kid?"

Wes looked at Holsan strangely. "Excuse me?"

"You really wanted that clock huh?"

Wes just scoffed before laughing it off. "Yeah. Yeah I really did…"

Holsan tossed something quick to the boy from Orre. Catching it with one hand, Wes wondered what was just tossed at him.

"Keep it. I found it in my 'travels'. It looked a lot like the clock, must have been made by the same guy, so I kept it with me. I was originally going to try to make you cough up more money with it after you bought the Grandfather clock, but… consider us even." Holsan smiled.

The smuggler then saluted off before walking casually back to the police, as if this was the first time he was comfortable being around so many officers of the law.

Wes finally looked over to what Holsan had tossed over to him, and his eyes widened in surprise.

It was a beautiful bronze Clock Master Stopwatch (Pocket Watch) etched with gorgeous details of Lugia and Ho-oh mosaics in the front with a light blue chain.

"T-This is…" Wes stared at the thing in his palms in utter disbelief. He quickly opened up the pocket watch and saw another beautiful face of a clock that was see through and had both gold and silver plated gears working in the back ground as the seconds, minute, and hour hands slowly moved around.

Then there was one more thing. At the back of the opening lid, there was this engraving.

"This one is for you, Slick. Don't sell it off a pawn shop."

"Wes?" Jamie looked on with a huge smile appearing on the Snagger's face. "What is that?"

For the first time, in a long time, Wes felt truly relieved and happy. It was like holding the object was like lifting a heavy burden on his shoulders he always wore. He was glad to finally have this back after giving it away all those years ago…

"This," Wes started with his first real smile in years. "This, Jamie, belonged to my dad, Kay, The Master Clockwork, and one of the best people I've ever known."

Jamie smiled for him. He was genuinely glad he had something to remember his parents by.

"By the way Jamie," Wes started off, breaking the mood and making the other brown haired boy with light green eyes look at him strangely. "There's something I want to ask you."

He raised his brow as Wes pointed back to him.

"Are you a girl?"

{Author Notes}

There we go, folks.

Anto has saved (and endangered) the world: scratch that off the main character bucket list.

And for the record: he did it all in one paragraph/flashback sequence.

*Drops Mic*

Beat that OC stories that require an entire story to save the world! (Joke-Joke! Do not take this seriously.)

Now what else is there to do in this story?

… "Find a love interest"?

… Uhh…

Wow, why is writing about saving the world so easy, but romance is like some kind of foreign language?

Anyway, I originally tried to write about fighting Clay for his gym battle, but then as I started writing, this happened instead, so I'm going to have to save that for the next chapter. (It's the second time that happened!)

Second the theme of this story are parents. You could obviously tell from the not so subtle hints of this chapter.

A shout out for the people who help shape our lives one way or another.

Now I'm taking a short break from Anto, and focusing more on White and Jamie as characters. They are the new guys in this group so they would of course need to be focused on soon. (I might do an Interlude on how Summer and Tracey are actually doing later on…)

White, I'm going to work on a little later, but what takes most president is Wes and Jamie's little adventure they had today! (Man, it really is always an adventure with Anto and friends huh?) Remember around chapter 5, I briefly referenced Wes having a pocket watch?

That's the same one he got back in this chapter! I thought that making Wes' father a Clockwork/Clock maker would fit him well in that he would get his more mechanical side from him because his dad would help him see how things and gears work then get translated to engines and hardware.

Soon, very soon, Wes will explain his full backstory of what happened to his dad, and how he lost him, but until then. Let him be happy that he finally got back something he thought he lost forever.

Well thanks anyway for letting me speak me mind about this. Thank you all for reading! Please support this fic by reviewing, favoriting, and following.

Edit: Thanks to azure blue espeon for making me realize I missed a sentence or few.

{Extra: Deleted Conversation}

"Do you know? When I have nightmares, I laugh like crazy in them?" Anto talked to Wes as they entered a crowded area.

"Why?"

The Snagger swore he saw both of Anto's lower eye lids twitch. "Because they are pathetic compared to real life."

"OK. Anto, I think you're starting to lose it."

"Can you blame me for it?"

"Yep."