He really, really shouldn't be getting used to running so much. Granted, being able to run for long periods of time while still having energy is something of a sign of good health and physicality. However, Anto would have rather had gained this ability over actual practice and of his own choice rather than being forced to pick this up in his journey due to the many, many, many, many situations that required him to be on the run or die.
"H-Hey? You alright?" He asked as he saw the girl sitting down on the ground gasping hard for breath.
"I-I… I'm… just… out of breath…" She panted hard with a blush on her face as she sat on the ground from utter exhaustion.
"So, I think it's safe to say we lost that girl. Whoever she was. Why was she after you?" The mute asked.
"G-Gimme… a break…" The girl spoke out again between gasps.
The mute felt a little uncomfortable and decided to check where they were exactly; it felt like he ran all the way to another city.
Anto looked over to a nearby sign that read Aspertia City. He knew that city in the map; he ran and dragged this girl two a city away!? Well thankfully Kryx could just Teleport them back, but wow. He's got some stamina on him.
The place looked rather peaceful, but he had to admit this place was chilly. He couldn't help but notice some people were staring at him and the girl, and he could have sworn they were all whispering mean thing about how he looked standing over a tired girl.
"I'll be right back…" Anto shyly spoke out as he left quickly. He was getting embarrassed from all the stares.
He didn't notice the girl look surprised and weakly call out to him to wait.
As he left, he noticed a young girl and a young boy walking up a stars to a higher platform in the city. He smiled at how excited they look and how the young but older looking boy was holding the little girl's hand and dragging up the stairs. If anything, they were acting like brother and sisters and they looked adorable.
It was then he realized that he really needed to heal his Pokémon since he was escaping with the girl. He only had Takezo and Sentinel conscious—speaking off, he did have an Antidote with him that he picked off from the ground during his travels.
Anto let out Sentinel's Dusk Ball, the undying Pokémon looked like he was dying… ironic.
"How you feeling, Champ?"
"Like I'm dying! … Even though I'm supposed to be undead!"
"Well I'm kind of far from a center, I got distracted, but here's an antidote."
"Where'd you get that?" Sentinel asked as he felt relief as he felt the soothing medicine of the antidote, but was still fairly weak from his battle with Roxie's Garbodor.
"The ground. You would not believe the amount of things I find while walking around. I think I found a gold nugget once that Wes later took…. I kinda want that back now." Anto deadpanned.
Meanwhile.
Jamie screamed. "You had a golden nugget!? Why did I have to pay for everyone's meals!?"
"Because you are a good person and I am not." Wes spoke out.
Benga swallowed his food while the two went on. "OMNOMNOMNOM."
Back with Anto.
"I'm never getting it back, aren't I?"
Anto was scowling before deciding to glance around for the Pokémon Center.
Sentinel then seemed to notice something and pointed behind Anto. "Hey why do those two look familiar?"
Anto turned his head, and noticed two adults walking tow where the two children went. However, what caught his attention was that they were wearing Team Plasma uniform.
"Those are the guys that follow N around. Team Plasma right? Ugh… they hate me for accidentally putting one of their leaders in a body cast… twice." Anto admitted with shame. It wasn't his fault the guy softened his landing twice. "Still, what are they doing?"
There was this peculiar feeling in Anto's stomach to go find out what they were doing. As he climbed up the stairs, he started hearing the sounds of battling and quickly brought out Takezo.
"What is going on?" Takezo asked as he was surprised he wasn't fully healed.
"Not quite sure myself, but I hear fighting up ahead." Anto quickly briefed Takezo before he, Sentinel, and the normal type climbed up the stairs to see the Team Plasma Members attacking a Trapinch and a Purrlion with their female Frillish and Dieno.
The trio stared in shock as the adults willing attacked the kids without mercy. The girl, tears starting to run on her face recalled the Purrlion—only for the female to step in and grab the ball mid return.
The boy tried to grab it back, but then the Dieno tackled the older but small boy in the chest.
It was then those team Plasma Grunts had made one of the greatest mistakes of their entire lives. They ticked off Anto and his Pokémon like never before.
"This is the First Pokémon we liberated!" The female of the Team Plasma Duo cried out in joy as they ran away from injuring a small child and left an even smaller girl crying for her brother.
The male looked obliviously happy. "Let's report this to the Sages—"
CRACK!
The male sage paused in utter shock as Anto appeared from nowhere and punched the woman straight in the jaw. The woman flew to the ground unconscious with a huge bruise on her face and the teen quickly picked up the Poké Ball containing Purlion and quickly ran towards the boy and the girl.
"Hey kid?! You alright?" The teen spoke out. He didn't quite know what came over him, the moment he saw the young boy attacked, he flew off ahead without Takezo and Sentinel. All that came over him was this insane drive to beat the crap out those monsters as he didn't even notice how hard he just punched a woman of all things. Manners be darned, they had that coming!
After taking the Poké Ball, he quickly ran towards the kids to see if they were alright.
"P-Purrlion…" The boy weakly spoke out, but he was too weak to notice that Anto was communicating to them telepathically.
"Don't worry, you're friend is right here." Anto spoke out as he gave the Pokémon back to the little girl who gasped in joy.
"T-Thank you, mister!" The girl said.
The boy seemingly looked towards Anto, a look of gratefulness in his eyes before he dropped unconscious.
"Hey! What is your problem!?" The man shouted angrily and with shock as he looked towards the young teen while caring for the woman who was out cold.
Anto's smile turned quickly into an angry frown as he turned back towards the male. "My Problem? Did you even see what you just did to these two kids?"
"We we're saving their Pokémon, you psychotic brat!" The man angrily yelled.
"Does this look like saving to you!?" Anto motioned to the injured boy and crying girl he was standing in front of to protect.
"You will never understand and I don't want you to! Frillish, Dieno! Hurt him and take those Pokémon back!"
The two Pokémon charged right for Anto, but the young boy placed a hand back to the two children.
A shadow appeared over the Frillish's head as she looked up and was smacked hard by a dark empowered wooden blade. The Dieno looked to the side, but didn't see the Ghostly Skeleton appear right in front of his path with Dragon Claws unleashed.
"Attacking the weak and stealing from them!? Have you no shame!?" Takezo declared despite the male not being able to hear him.
The young girl looked at the Patrat and the Pokémon she never saw before stand right next to the older teen that helped her and her brother.
"Y-You! You're a Pokémon Trainer!?" The male shouted out as he pointed to those Pokémon.
"Alright listen up you bas—jerk!" Anto's eyes trailed to the little girl before he stopped himself from cussing out loud. "Get your friend, get your Pokémon and get out of my sight!"
The male started sweating, and looked to be snarling angrily.
"What happened?!"
Everyone looked towards the stairs were more as half a dozen more Team Plasma members came up and looked in shock at one of their own being knocked out cold. Each of them had Pokémon following after them.
"Kid, get behind me…" Anto spoke out as he kneeled over to carefully pick the boy up his back. Sentinel and Takezo carefully stood in front, but admittedly they were still a bit tired from Roxie's battle.
Anto started to sweat as the other team members were informed of what happened in that person's deluded version of what happened. It got worse when some of them recognized him as the person who injured "Lord Ghetsis".
"Oh right that's his name. I keep forgetting." Anto spoke as all of the team Plasma members and their back up Pokémon surrounded the boy and the children. Slowly they were backing into a corner, or the fence that looked off to the nice view.
"You'll pay dearly for your actions you—"
"Uh uh uh! Language!" Anto spoke out as he recalled the little girl hiding behind his leg. He focused his thoughts towards Sentinel. "Think you can pull us into a Phantom Force?"
"A bit weak, but I can try. It won't last long though." The Ghost type spoke out.
Takezo and Sentinel prepared themselves. This was going to be tricky.
"HEY!"
Everyone turned back again to see the girl Anto came to town with was looking around the large group of people surrounding the teen and two kids.
"What are you doing!?" She yelled.
"Beating up an evil man! And saving Pokémon!" One of them angrily spoke out.
"And he also cries himself to sleep every night because of how much of a disappointment he was to his family!" Anto taunted in between.
"That's a lie!"
"Keep telling yourself that. I'm sure people will believe you eventually." Anto leered.
"Why you! That's it! Attack!"
Before anyone could react, the teenage girl Anto came with threw out a Poké Ball revealing a Belossom, "Belle, Petal Blizzard!"
"Lala!" The Bellossom cried out in an off tune before blinding the entire place with petals. Anto saw his chance and quickly told Sentinel to use his phantom force now and quickly picked up the smaller kid. The briefly phased through the group, making Anto appear next to the girl.
"Come on! We're out numbered!"
The girl looked shock. "Wait huh?! How'd you—wait! How are you still able to run!?" She cried out before she sighed, returned her Pokémon, and ran after him while the rest of Team Plasma were confused by the flurry of petals.
[Later]
"Your Pokémon are all healed up. Please come again." Nurse Joy spoke out as she gave back Anto's Pokémon.
"Ahh man thanks! And um sorry for making you run. Again." Anto take back his Pokémon as he looked towards the girl sitting on the bench.
Even though she didn't have a bag on her at first glance, the girl had a change of clothes on her. She still kept the cute white beret, but now she was wearing a long sleeved shirt white shirts under a pink short vest while still wearing the same skirt and long black pantyhose.
"It's fine. I just wasn't used to it." The girl spoke out before smiling politely.
A pretty girl smiling at him? Was his luck finally changing?
Wait, was the universe giving him a free bone? Why would it suddenly send him some good luck instead of bad luck? Wait! What if he was dead? He was dead wasn't he!? That was the only reason why a pretty girl was giving him a lot of attention wasn't it! Oh Arceus! He can't die now! … Again!? Did he even die a first time!? Does dying a second time count as an actual death or does that like nullify his first death in the first place, if he even did die—
"There he is!"
Anto looked behind him and saw the two kids, the older brother looking patched up and better. The little girl with Purrlion in her hands came running towards him "Thank you so much for saving us mister!"
"I can't take all the credit. It was with the help off…" The mute trailed off as he looked to the girl. He still didn't know her name did he?
"I'm Tiana, I never really got your name too."
"Anto. And uhh, as you all can see, I speak right now through my mind."
"WHOA." The little girl cooed with her eyes widening. "You can talk with your mind?!"
Anto put one of his hands behind his head bashfully. He explained to everyone that he had the ability to communicate to others, even Pokémon. The three were surprised, but the girl was super excited as she brought up her Purrlion up towards him.
"Can you hear what Purrlion says?"
Anto looked to the cat Pokémon who looked away. "… Thanks for getting me back." it softly said not to show weakness in its pride.
"Waaahhh!~" The little girl cooed and looked towards the cat Pokémon. "I understood that too! Whoa!"
"Mister, can all trainers do that?" The brother asked. However, the mute denied this and told him he had some unique circumstances behind that. It didn't stop the smaller boy into giving him a determined and idolizing look. "I-I wanna be strong like you mister! So that won't ever happen again!"
That gave Anto a wrong impression for some reason. "… Hey kid? What's your name?"
"I'm Hugh and this is my sister, Jill." The boy spoke up quickly.
"Hugh huh? Want a little tip from a trainer in his own quest towards the Pokémon league?"
"A-A tip!?" The boy looked wide eyed and paid a lot of attention to Anto as he knelt down to his level and gave a calm smile.
"Being a good person can also mean being a good trainer."
Everyone looked at him weirdly. "What does that mean?" Young Hugh asked.
"Some adult Jargon you'll figure out later. Trust me it is good advice. And when you become a stronger trainer, wanna battle?"
"Sure thing! Look out, I'm gonna be stronger than you!"
"Atta boy, Hugh. But you and your sister better get home. I'm sure your parents would be worried about you two."
"Oh right! Come on Jill! Good bye!" Hugh spoke out to the two teens.
"Bye Mr. Anto, bye Miss Tiana!" Jill cried out as she ran out of the center with her Purrlion.
At this moment Tiana walked up to the strange mute. "So what exactly did you mean by good person and good trainer?"
The amber eyed trainer let down his smile as he stared at the door. "Hugh seemed angry at Team Plasma. What they did was wrong and cruel, but… I guess I didn't want him to be so obsessed with getting revenge, so I told him that being a good person would translate in being a good trainer since having a healthy relationship with others usually brings out the best in people."
"And you choose that way to do it?"
"I had to just think of it on the spot. I thought it was good advice." Anto thought before realizing the strange situation he was in because of the girl in front of him."By the way, who was that girl we were running away from a while back?"
Tiana frowned and groaned as she recalled, "That," She paused before her face fell with a heavy sigh. "… Was my sister."
"You're Sister!?" Anto blanched the thought of meeting the angry woman did not bode well for the young teen, but that brought up something really strange. "Wait then why were you running away from her?"
At that the girl deflated even more. "She was being so… suffocating! I wanted some time away from her!" She shouted.
"Oh so it's a sibling argument?"
"It's more than just that! She-She always coddles me and treats me like I'm some fragile little girl, but I'm 13 years old and have participated in my share of battles too! I even have a full party of Pokémon, but she still treats me like I'm four! I want my own life!" She complained in a fit of rage before sighing and blushing. "I-I'm sorry you had to see that…"
"No, trust me I get. I also get frustrated by things outside my control. But what can I do? But usually talking things out with someone makes you feel better from my experience." Anto thought back to Takezo's talk recently.
"I-I do feel better… but I'm still angry about my sister."
"I don't wanna be that guy, but you are going to have to go back to her and have a proper talk with her, aren't you?"
Tiana huffed. To Anto, she was kinda cute when she did that. "You're my age, why do you sound like an adult!?"
Anto recalled his Pokémon and frowned as he recalled the trouble they bring him almost every day. "Because my Pokémon are immature enough for me for the rest of my life."
"Huh?"
"I guess being responsible for a lot of Pokémon mellowed me out. I'm starting to see why parents get proud of children." He was so proud when he finally thought Ohko how to count up to ten. He almost shed a tear. Almost.
Then he actually cried when Ohko completely forgot the next day.
Though the day after he never forgot again.
It was an experience only a parent could understand. … Probably…
Tiana lit up at the mention of Anto's Pokémon. "Oh right them! I saw you and Roxie's battle! They were amazing! I've always wanted to meet them!"
To his surprise, Anto repeated what she had said in the form of a question. "You want to meet them?" The girl only nodded with excitement. "Umm they're kinda… quirky…"
"No; all the more reason why I want to meet them!" She said excitedly.
Anto was a little nervous, but he didn't really have the guts to say no, so he told her he would show them but outside in the Pokémon Center. He wasn't aware that there were people currently watching him and the girl.
As they got to the back of the Pokémon Center, Anto released all six of his current party members.
Tiana cooed and bent down to meet some of them. "Wow so these are your Pokémon?! They're a lot more colorful up close."
They all looked at the girl, and then looked at their Trainer. They looked back at the girl, then their trainer.
"Congratulations Danger Damoiseau! You have acquired a Damsel in Distress! You are one step closer to being a hero! Now toss her off a building so you can catch her!" Super Nut declared.
"No! That's not how it works!" Anto cried out.
"Oh tight! Is this one of those mating things, Tak keeps talking about, boss?" Ohko innocently spoke out.
Anto blushed furiously. "No no no no! Guys! This is Tiana! A friend! Say hello!"
They all said hello in varying degrees. Super Nut went on a heroic Monologue, Ohko just said hi, Sentinel just waved his claws, Kryx wanted to probe her, Lily also greeted her kindly, while Takezo was polite… though his smirk towards Anto annoyed the trainer to no end.
"W-Wow your Pokémon are really something," Tiana spoke out before looking towards Kryx. "Please don't probe me."
Anto blinked, he was sure that he wasn't allowing his powers to translate his Pokémon this time since he was kind of scared their characters would scare the girl away. So how did…
"Why, you can also understand Pokémon?" Anto asked in shock. He knew they were supposed to be rare, but he was running into a lot of people that could understand other Pokémon as well.
"Well uh yeah. You see my Sister is an Aura user, you know like those Lucario? But to a lesser extent and she taught me some Aura tricks as well. Mostly how to talk to my own Pokémon though."
"That's still really cool though. I've heard about how aura can technically make someone super human. Is it true?"
"… That depends on who it is and how much aura they have…" Tiana stood back up with a nervous look on her face as if she recalled a specific person. "I don't have a lot, so I just keep to some basics."
"What about your Pokémon?" Ohko asked. "What they like?"
Tiana visibly winced. "Umm, well… I love them all very dearly."
Anto blinked. "Is something the matter?"
"My Pokémon… aren't like yours."
"What do you mean by that?"
"They're kind of… off."
"Of what?" Kryx, Sentinel, and Ohko asked.
Tiana hesitantly got all six of her Pokémon. "Just promise me you won't laugh alright?"
"I already saw your Bellossom. I'm sure you have nothing to worry about." Anto spoke out before a sudden sense of unease came over him.
"Ahh alright. Come on out everyone." She spoke out hesitantly before throwing the spheres into the sky.
In a flash of light, six Pokémon came out. A Croconaw with a pirate hat and an eye patch, a Pupitar, a Linoone with a top hat, a Bellossom, a Granbull with a black wrestling mask on, and finally an Elekid wielding a wooden pirate sword wearing two eye patches over both his eyes.
The fastest to react was the Granbull as he pointed dramatically into the sky. "The Fang accepts this challenge!"
"Wait whaAAAAAAAK?!" Anto tried to say before he was tackled into the ground by the Fairy type and put into a choke hold.
"You got nothing on me, punk! Cause the Fang's Number 1!" The Granbull pulled harder.
"Whoa guys! That dude's a number!" Ohko sounded impressed as Anto started choking in pain.
Tiana shrieked and ran up to him with Pupitar close behind her. "No! No! Fang! He's not a wrestler! Do not Choke Slam him!" She panicked as she tried to get the purple fairy type off him.
"I'm more surprised none of us are actually trying to help him." Lily spoke out as Tiana pried the wrestler off Anto.
Suddenly, the Linoone with a top hat came very close to Lily with a rose in his teeth and a glint of passion in his eyes. "Ah ma dame! Comparerai-je votre beau visage à ce du jour d'un été ? Quand j'ai d'abord posé des yeux sur vous, j'ai été charmé par votre beauté!" (Ah, my lady! Shall I compare your beautiful visage to that of a summer's day? When I first laid eyes on you, I was entranced by your beauty!)
Tiana looked over to the Linoone. "Rico! Arrêtez de flirter avec chaque nouvelle femelle que vous rencontrez!" (Rico! Stop flirting with every new female you meet!)
She spoke out in an exotic language—which Anto found insanely attractive despite him getting the air back into his lungs. Though for some reason, he thought he could understand her despite the language barrier?
The Linoone known as Rico turned back dramatically towards his master. "Mais la Maîtresse, comment peut je pas admet la beauté d'art dont ce Arceus a sculpté pour capturer le coeur et les âmes d'hommes! Tis une honte et une faute si une femme n'est pas complimentée profondément de l'âme!" (But Mistress, how can I not acknowledge the beauty of art that of which Arceus has sculpted to capture the heart and souls of men! Tis a shame and mistake if a woman is not complimented deeply from the soul!)
"Great, I never thought there would be someone who is harder to understand than Kryx when she starts speaking like an alien, but here we are." Lily spoke out.
"Wait he was talking? I thought he was having some kind of seizure!" Kryx declared before pulling out a probe. "I must probe his mind! HAAA!" Kryx spoke out before Lily jumped into holding her from probing the mind of the Linoone.
"Oh no not this again…" Anto spoke up as he tried to get back up before he was tackled down by the Croconaw.
"Argh landlubber! Gimme your booty or else I make ye walk the plank!"
"Why am I always being attacked by the crazy Pokémon!?" Anto yelled out loud.
Tiana put Fang down near Super Nut and looked back towards Anto with Croconaw on top of him. "Oh Arceus! No Coco! Please stop pillaging everyone that looks rich to you!"
"Avast! Quick first mate! The other Captain is trying to stop us!" The Croconaw shouted to the Elekid with two eye patches and seemingly trying to feel around.
"Right Cap'n! Distract plan go!" The young Pokémon saluted before blindly throwing his wooden pirate sword at Sentinel.
"Ow." The Delta Pokémon spoke out before picking up the wooden sword that bounced off his skull. "Aww cool! Now I can totally be like Takezo!"
"Hey wait! That's mine give it back!" Elekid shouted as he pointed at a different direction where Sentinel was.
"Well maybe if you remove those eye patches and walk in my direction, I might be able to give this back." Sentinel said as he played around with the small wooden blade.
Ohko looked at him. "I thought ya don't have eye balls, so how can ya see?"
Sentinel paused as he truly didn't have eyes in his eyes sockets but could see just fine. "That… is a good question. Hmmm…" Both Sentinel and Ohko pondered about that as the Elekid wandered around blindly with his hands in front of him.
Tiana looked over to Elekid as she picked up Coco, her Croconaw. "El! I've told you, stop wearing two eye patches at the same time! It does not make you look like a cooler pirate!"
Meanwhile, The Masked Wrestler, Fang locked gaze with the Masked Hero, Super Nut.
"What you think you can take on The Fang!? Imma Crush you in The Ring little man!" The Granbull flexed his muscles as hard as he could.
"You can never crush Justice! For I, Super Nut, fight for the innocent!" Then the two started a monologuing battle against each other. Both of them did more talking about fighting than actually fighting.
Bellossom, who was briefly known as Belle if Anto recalled, looked around. "Oh gosh! An audience! It's time for me to sing! LAAAAAA~" She screamed off tune.
Takezo looked at the chaos unfolding around him and looked over to the Pupitar standing next to him.
"Hello."
"Oh, hey," The Pupitar spoke out as he stepped away from Linoone running away from Kryx who was being chased by Lily. "Umm sorry about my friends. My name is Pit."
"And I am known as Takezo, but it is fine. It's nice to know that there are people who have the same problem as we do."
Pupitar and Takezo looked back as Tiana and Anto struggled to make Coco let go of Anto's collar.
"I suppose you're right." The rock and dark type said as chaos ensued around them with Belle's horrible off key singing.
However, for one second Takezo felt something off and looked behind him. He thought he sensed… perhaps it's better to tell Anto later.
"Oh? How odd, you would never expect one of the most common Pokémon in Unova to be so sharp."
[Later…]
Tiana bowed her head in shame. "I am so sorry!" She shouted as the two were back in the Pokémon center.
"It's fine really." Anto really should have seen this coming. He thought that now that he had six Pokémon, the chances of him encountering weird Pokémon would stop—how naïve of him to think that.
"No, I wasn't expecting my Pokémon to act like that! I am so sorry for that." Tiana called out. "Aww I knew I shouldn't have shown you them!" she wined before burying her face.
"No seriously, it's fine Tiana, I have some weird Pokémon as well."
"They're not weird, they're cool. I saw how your Patrat took on that Scolipede, how your Ferrothorn took on all those super effective hits one after the other. You're Pokémon are amazing while mine? It's no wonder my sister coddles me with Pokémon like that." She sighed as she sat on the couch.
Anto laughed and sat down next to her. "Do you wanna know how Takezo and I first met?" He asked before regaling about each individual story of how he met each and every one of his Pokémon. Each story became stranger and stranger than the last until Anto finished with Super Nut grabbing him and shooting them both off like a catapult.
Tiana laughed a few times as Anto explained some of the funnier parts, while gasped at some of the surprising parts, but she was amazed at how weird their stories were.
"My Pokémon are the strangest people I ever met. But I've grown so used to them that I think no other Pokémon fit me better than these six. Your Pokémon are wonderful Tiana, just like you. So just believe in them, and they'll believe in you." Anto smiled sweetly.
This caused Tiana to blush and glance away to the floor. To be honest, not even her sister said such nice things about her Pokémon. But here, for the first time ever, she had someone say that her Pokémon were nice very sincerely? This was a nice new feeling.
If Takezo was still out, he would be shouting that Anto does have 'game' despite his shy nature.
"Thank you Anto…"
The mute stood up. "Now umm, I kind of gotta go back to Virbank City. My friends gotta be worried about me."
[What said "Friends" were doing…]
"There are you happy? I'm treating us to go see a movie for the heavy breakfast you let us have." Wes spoke out as he, Benga, and Jamie were in a screening at Poké Stars Studio.
"Oh my gosh! I love this movie!" Jamie excitedly spoke out as she ate out from a bag of popcorn.
"Yeah nothing like a movie after a hard concert, right guys?!" Roxie spoke out to her band members before the entire arena told them to be quiet.
"Me too!" Benga said as he started eating some hot dogs. "OMNOMNOMNOM."
[Back with Anto.]
Ignoring this feeling that he was completely missing out on something fun, Anto continued on. "So I think I'm going to go back now."
Tiana's eyes snapped open. "W-Wait! Please don't go yet! I'm not ready to face my sister."
Anto thought back and thinking about how teleporting back there without Tiana might actually get him killed by her older sister.
"Oh right. She won't actually kill me if I showed up without you, right?"
Tiana looked away nervously. "My sister… worked with some shady people in the past…"
Oh Arceus! Who did he get tangled up with!?
"Don't worry! My sister is still one of the nicest people I know!" The amethyst eyed girl poked her fingers together. "I was just hoping that we could wait a little for her to cool off."
"That sounds like a good idea." Anto spoke out automatically before his stomach started grumbling. "Oh right, I haven't eaten yet…"
"I could treat you to something. It's the least I can do for having you going through my Pokémon."
"Really? Thank you!"
As the two went out, they didn't notice a group of people spying on them in the distance.
"There he is! … And is he on a date? … Man that girl is waayyy out of his league."
"That's not the point! He's vulnerable and it's possible for us to capture him and bring him to the boss. Don't mess this up you two."
[Later…]
You wouldn't believe it, but Anto was talking and enjoying himself in a seafood restaurant with a girl. Alone. With. Her. If he didn't know any better, he would say this is his first date… that he can recall. Did he have a girlfriend before this? Wait he died, did that mean they broke up? Was she also hot as Tiana? OK Anto, stop thinking about that and focus on the conversation.
"So that's how you caught Rico?"
"Yeah, all those French language classes really paid off. Though I must have sounded really stupid saying all that."
"No no! You were really," Hot is the word Anto almost said. "Fine! I-I mean you were alright not like fine as in 'fine' you know?! Wait no! Y-you weren't mediocre at all! I think French sounds cool and you made it sound cool! Just as cool as you letting your Pokémon keep you bag pack so you can keep your stuff in a Poké Ball!" Anto stuttered as he tried to find the right words.
Tiana giggled—oh Arceus she sounded melodious, or was it just Puberty kicking in? Dang it, Anto, keep it together man! You are just enjoying lunch, or breakfast, or brunch with a really pretty girl on a not-date! Stop letting your heart beat so fast!
"Excuse—"
"Yes!" Anto turned around too quickly before realizing he used his telepathic voice on a normal person. He quickly recalled that he could technically puppet his mouth to make it sound like he could talk normally, so he did so again and mouthed out, "Yes?"
There were two people standing in front of him with a brochure on a spa. "Sorry for interrupting your date, but would you be interested in a free trip to Kanto?"
"Kanto? I heard that place was really lovely." Tiana spoke out.
However, Anto stared hard at the two approaching him. Then his eyes widened in realization before pointing at the two accusingly. "It's you two! Team Rocket! Butch and whatever that other name was!"
"You are the only kid that bothers to say my name right."/ "It's Cassidy, you brat!" The two spoke out at the same time.
Cassidy shook her head. "Wait a sec! How'd you know it was us?!"
"You're just wearing some glasses and new earrings! You did nothing to hide your face or hair color! Only idiots would believe that would work and even bigger idiots would fall for something like that!"
All around the world, certain people sneezed at the same exact time. These people were all previous and current traveling companions to Ash Ketchum, the trainer himself, and a group of Team Rocket Grunts with a talking Meowth.
Back in Unova, Tiana looked shockingly at the two. "They're Team Rocket!?"
"Oh for the love of…" A different woman, a worker here in the café the two were eating at stepped in. She looked at the two. "I can't believe you two got caught! Just hurry it up with this next part will you?"
"What are you ta…lking… ab…" Anto wearily said before he fell face first into the table.
"Anto!?" Tiana yelled before the third woman dropped a smoke pellet that exploded around the café.
Tiana, along with the rest of the people in the café, ran out coughing up a storm. The girl looked around, but couldn't see where the three had went—
The girl from Kalos stopped as she saw a strange figure down the road. He was hard to miss wearing such a large black full body cloak, but he was standing right next to an alley way and pointing in that direction. A few more seconds passed before the figure walked into the alleyway and out of her sight.
The trainer felt confused, what was that? Was that person… helping her? Seeing no other clue, Tiana raced after the figure, wondering what Team Rocket, a criminal organization in Kanto would want with Anto.
Team Rocket placed Anto in a cell in Agent Domino's personal plane before handling the boy's party to Cassidy and Butch.
"Cassidy, push in the coordinates for Kanto. Bull, put this kid's Pokémon away."
"Yes mam." They both said before Butch futility tried to correct his name.
Agent Domino looked towards their prisoner when suddenly their ship shook violently.
"What was that!?" The blonde agent cried out.
Cassidy quickly came back in. "Mam! That girl has somehow found is and is bombarding our ship from leaving!"
"What!? You two, take her out!"
To Tiana, she had a lot of questions in her mind relating to the mysterious stranger that made sure to point her in this direction, but right now she didn't care. The huge R logo was a dead giveaway this was the infamous Team Rocket. If it wasn't for the thick forests, no one would have noticed them.
She and her Pokémon were attacking and wrecking the engines so as not to let the plane fly. At this moment, Cassidy and Butch came out with a dozen or so Pokémon.
Tiana pointed to Rico. "Rico, utilisez "ventre" suivie dans "tambour vitesse extrême"!" (Rico, use Belly Drum followed by Extreme Speed!)
The Linoone hurt itself hard in the chest before vanishing in a blur and body checking several Pokémon with the power of a locomotive.
"Belle! Give him cover, Petal Blizzard!" The Grass type danced around, before unleashing a blinding flurry of fast moving petals. Tiana acted fast, commanding Pit and Coco to perform Dragon Dance before the petals scattered, allowing them to assist Rico.
The Charizard burned the petals, charging right for the Bellosom until Fang used take Down on the Charizard and into a Play Rough attack. While the type was resistant, Fang was able to put the fire and flying type into a choke hold.
Hypno came in and aimed right for an Elekid nearby… but he was wearing two eye patches, so his Hypnosis did nothing.
El then punched him in the jaw and was proud he actually hit the right target this time.
Tiana was glad she was keeping up the offensive up.
What was that near her—
"Tell your Pokémon to stop, or else, you'll know exactly what 300 kilo volts will do to the human brain." Agent Domino spoke out as she grabbed Tiana by the neck and placed the shock stick near her face.
All her Pokémon stopped fighting as soon as they saw (El actually had to remove his eye patches) Their trainer caught by the third member.
"Did you really think you could just come in and take on Team Rocket girl?" The blonde Rocket agent spoke out.
"What do you want with my friend?!" Tiana cried out.
"Your boyfriend has caught our attention ever since Nimbasa City. That's all you need to know."
"He is not my boyfriend—"She shut up when Domino applied more pressure to her weapon.
"Now then, Bilch, Cassidy! Take down her Pokémon and bring them with us! That'll teach those who mess with Team Rokcet."
"N-No!" Tiana cried as her Pokémon grouped up together and were attacked from all sides.
"Never Fear! Super Nut is here!" Suddenly, a blur shot out of the ship, revealing Anto's Ferorthorn coming right in the middle of Tiana's Pokémon and activating Protect to prevent all attacks from harming them.
"What the!?" Butch and Cassidy looked back towards the ship before they backed away from Sentinel and Ohko attacking the spot they were previously.
"Tiana!? Are you alright!?" The boy spoke out before he ran out of the ship with Lily.
"The heck!? How did you escape your cell!?" Domino cried out in surprise. What's more surprising was that the drug Anto swallowed was supposed to last hours, not minutes.
"I was in a cell? But the doors were left wide open." Anto looked surprised as he simply mentioned.
Domino's eyes went wide with surprise. "What!? No they weren't, I locked them myself!" Those cells were not open when she last left him, did someone carelessly open the cell?!
The mute raised a brow. "Then someone done goofed."
"Belch!" Domino looked to the male.
"My name is Butch and there's no way I let that happen!"
Domino gritted her teeth. "Still we have a hostage! Get back in your cell, or I shock your girlfriend's pretty little head!"
Anto blushed. "S-She's not my girlfriend!" He denied quickly.
Lily looked at him incredulously. "Why are you focusing on that!?"
The mute coughed while he walked towards where Sentinel and Ohko were. "I had a feeling something might have been up. Psychic types are really awesome."
Domino wondered what the boy meant until she realized that only four of his Pokémon were out instead of six. She quickly turned around—
Bam!
Domino staggered and let Tiana go as Kryx swooped in and teleported Tiana right beside Anto.
The mute asked the girl if she was alright before the female trainer noticed that Takezo and Kryx were originally behind Domino and that the normal type had just bashed Domino in the head.
"With the tables turned, what do you say we end this?" Anto asked as he looked back to Tiana. The girl returned the look with a smile.
They both looked towards the battlefield where Super Nut let down his force field after the attacks.
"Kryx, Lily, make them reach for the sky!"
Cassidy and Butch quickly felt something int the ground and noticed that they were stepping on a pile of leaves they never noticed before and were also under all of their Pokémon. Suddenly, all of the lives shined brightly before lifting them and their Pokémon high into the sky and trap within a crushed pile of magically and psychically held leaves.
"Everyone, let it rip!" Tiana called out as while they were in the sky, Anto and Tiana's Pokémon unleashed a huge combination of ranged attacks on the gathered target and made it explode.
"Dang it! This is usually Jesse and James' thing!" Cassidy complained as they were trailing towards the skies.
"The worst part is that we can't go back without the kid!" Butch cried out.
"So for now it looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!" The two screamed as they all got shot out of sight.
"Umm do you think they'll be alright? We kinda did launch them up high." Tiana spoke out.
"Something tells me they'll survive. I mean they have before," Anto spoke before looking around. "Now what about the third… she's gone!?" Everyone looked around for the third Team Rocket member but she was nowhere in sight.
"It looks like she escaped."
"Well she's not taking the plane that's for sure. I had Kryx damage all the systems and let her take all the tech from it as she wanted. I doubt you could get this thing to even power up any more." Anto pointed his thumb back at the ship. "But Tiana, how did you find me?"
"I just... followed this weird guy…" Tiana said as she recalled the strange man.
"Weird guy?"
"He was wearing a full body cloak and hood so I couldn't… wait… thinking back… I might have noticed blonde hair?"
A little ways away, Domino was retreating from the bad situation. Everything was going so fine, what could have possibly gone wrong!?
She was so busy running and plotting her next attempt to catch Anto that she didn't notice and bumped into a taller man. She bounced off and fell into the ground. "Hey watch it!?" She screamed before she realized in horror who she bumped into.
She recognized that uniform all too well.
"A Pokémon Ranger!?" The woman said as the tall blonde man with blue eyes looked down on her that almost looked… empty. "Hey wait a sec, I've seen your files… your that Ranger Jack during the Manaphy Incident in Hoenn aren't you?"
"You. You tried to take the Host away from Unova, away from his great destiny. Had I not intervened and opened his cell, our dreary cycle would have continued…" The ranger spoke out with a strangely lifeless tone.
"Wait, you opened that cell!? The heck?" Domino spoke out before she stood back up and slowly backed away. However, someone suddenly grabbed her hands like vice grips and did not let go. A smaller boy with brown hair and the same lifeless look in his eyes was holding her in place. This boy was also wearing a ranger Uniform.
"The Host must complete his task. He must end this false cycle with true destruction." The two rangers spoke out at the same exact time.
"W-What the heck are you on about!? Let me go!" Domino spoke out as she tried stepping on the Ranger's foot. However, no matter how deep her heels dug in, or seeing blood starting to come out, the ranger holding her did not flinch, like some kind of dark puppet. Her senses were going haywire, something was horribly wrong.
"You who threaten the truth from revealing itself…" The both chanted in unison while Jack slowly brought up a glowing right arm with pale purple light. "Behold the lies you have come to believe."
"St-Stop! Seriously what are you doing!? STOP STOOPPPP!? AAAHAHHHHHHH!?"
[… Time Passes… (Mid Afternoon)]
After telling the police about the Team Rocket Ship, Anto and Tiana stood at in front of the Aspertia City Pokémon Center. Kryx was floating around doing something to a strange glowing cube.
"Ready to go back now?" Anto asked.
"I'm feeling a lot better now. My sister does get on my nerves and she does have a point, but now I can finally bring out the best in my Pokémon and show her I can take care of myself."
"Ok then, Kryx are you ready? Teleport us back to Virbank City!"
"You got it fellow Scientist!" Kryx spoke out as she floated between Tiana and Anto and held both of their hands before glowing and vanishing in an instant.
In an instant, Anto found himself back at the familiar room of the Pokémon Center in Virbank City.
"Aahh, finally I'm back…" The mute spoke out before he noticed Kryx rapidly looking at him and seemingly using the cube to jot notes down and record things. "Kryx, what are you doing?"
"Research!" She said a little too excitedly, even for her.
Anto then realized something. If Kryx was there floating right in front of him… then who was still holding his hand?
He looked down and saw that his hand was holding Tiana's (soft) hand.
Before he could react, he heard a familiar voice.
"So that's where he went. Wow Anto, I didn't know you had it in you." Wes spoke out as Benga, White, and Jamie stared at shock that Anto was holding hands with a pretty girl.
A blush came from the face of the two teens. "W—Wait!"
"YOU!"
Before the mute could explain, he quickly let go of Tiana's hands and looked behind him to see Tiana's older sister looking like evil incarnate with a bunch of really powerful and intimidating Pokémon surrounding her.
"I SAW THAT YOU LITTLE PUNK! KILL HIM!" Tiana's sister cried out.
"Sugar Honey Iced Tea!" Anto ran for dear life despite Tiana's best efforts to call on her sister, Trinity.
As chaos descended, Kryx continually put on notes on her floating chronicler. "This experiment is yielding more results than I could ever imagine! Yay for Science!"
{Author Notes}
Not bad for your first (not)date, huh Anto? I figured I have to throw you a bone every once in a while.
*Explosions and bloodthirsty screams for Anto's bones in the distance*
Hmm… there could be a slight, tiny, little, super small, and microscopic chance that I could probably be too hard on the boy. Maybe.
But don't worry boy, next we head towards your seventh badge! And Familiar face is returning soon!
Speaking of familiar faces, Jack and Keith are back after almost 30 chapters! And something looks horribly wrong with them. What could this Truth and Cycle things could they be talking about?
One little note that I thought would be fun would be how Tiana carries objects with her without a bag. Since Pokémon can bring items with them into their Poké Balls, Tiana gives her Bellossom her bag pack with all her clothes and things so when she brings out her Pokémon, she can bring out her items as well since she doesn't need to carry them around a lot. She told Anto this over lunch and he's going to have a little fun with Kryx upgrading one of his own empty Poké Ball for a hammer space.
But the final stretch of the Unova Saga can be seen! If you thought things were crazy now? Oh, I have not begin to tell you how deep this rabbit hole goes!
Look out Pokémon Universe, Anto is here to knock the socks off you!
(Thanks again for MangoLimePie's permission to use some of his characters. If you are curious, you can go to his account and read his Pokémon work there.)
Thanks for reading.