It's hard to write Thomas. I have to make him sound calm, furious, evilish, civilized, and a lot of things at the same time. Also, there's the fact that this is a humor story, so I have to make parts funny. The finished version is the fourth draft!

Chapter 18: The Machine

Thomas stood there stunned for a while before turning around. He didn't know who, but someone had thrown a full can of soda at him when his back was turned.

Once he saw who it was, he was surprised to see it was a pokemon that didn't reach two feet off the ground. He cracked his knuckles, "Well, little guy, you must not be from around here, if you had enough guts to throw a can of soda at me," he then cracked his neck pretty loudly, "You don't know who you're dealing with!"

Jonathan gave a little laugh, "Ah, Tommy. I see you're still stealing cheesy quotes from wherever you can find them!"

"Allow me to introduce myself, I am Thomas. It would be in your best interest to say you're sorry for throwing that can at me!" he said, clearly making a threat.

"You suck."

"Good," Thomas said, believing Jonathan had apologized, "But that still's not enough to appease my anger."

Jonathan could feel Thomas's anger increase. It didn't matter that he had (not) received an apology, he was still going to beat up the pokemon. Fortunately for Jonathan, the moment Thomas had stepped towards him, the mudkip that was trapped under his foot ren towards Jonathan, turned, and shot water straight into Thomas's face.

"Gah! Someone get that pokemon!" he yelled to his cronies. All of Thomas's followers ran towards Finn at once, causing them to slip on the puddle around Thomas and on top of him. Thomas took a deep breath and breathed out slowly.

"GET THE HELL OFFA ME!!!" they got off him in a flash for fear of getting their faces pounded in. Thomas got back up and remembered what he was doing. "Oh, right. The annoying little Poke-"

BONK!

"What's wrong with you, Ralts?!" Finn yelled at Jonathan for throwing another can at Thomas.

"I don't think we've been properly introduced. I'm Jonathan."

"I don't care, that human looks like he could easily crush you beneath his foot!"

"Yeah, but he wouldn't dare attack anyone, human or pokemon, in public."

"But what when we're out of the public!"

"He doesn't hold a grudge very long, though he would still act like a jerk around you. Just make sure you don't annoy him in a private area."

"(Gulp) Why not?"

"He tends to carry weapons everywhere he goes, and he isn't scared to scar/end the life of a pokemon as long as no one's looking." Unfortunately for Jonathan, while he was explaining the dangers of Thomas, said danger had snuck up on them. Fortunately for him, though, I decided to give him another small burst of luck.

"Tommy, leave him alone!" One of the managers had heard a commotion coming from their area and asked Jennifer to check it out. She was now glad she didn't refuse.

"Don't call me Tommy, Jennifer," Thomas said with a venomous tone.

"I won't if you step away from the Ralts." Thomas complied. "Now, please leave. You're driving away out customers." Indeed, some of the customers had left in a hurry the moment they sensed trouble brewing. Some had even left the moment they noticed Thomas was there!

"I was planning to go once I noticed you worked here," Thomas grumbled as he left. All his cronies followed as well.

Jim, who was freed when the bullies left, went to Jennifer to pick up his Mudkip. "Thanks for running them out," he said.

"No need for the thanks, if I hadn't run them out, then someone else would've. It's not the first time it's happened."

Jim noticed that there was a blue bowtie tied around the young Ralts' neck. "Finn, is that the same Ralts we met yesterday?" She hadn't noticed it before, but once Jim had pointed it out the memory returned. She nodded a yes.

"So you're the Ralts' trainer then?" he asked a little glumly.

"Well, I wouldn't call myself a trainer, but I do own his poke ball."

"Great, he does have a trainer. No wonder they wouldn't let me catch it! Man, it's very hard to find those guys out there in the wild! Oh well, I'll probably find another one if I look hard enough. I know, I'll go search right now!" Jim then ran out the door almost forgetting Finn. He remembered in time and withdrew her before he was out the door.

"Wow, he's got quite a bit of energy."

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After a while, everyone had forgotten that incident and had gone back to what they were doing. Jennifer was running to and fro collecting orders, the customers were eating, and Jonathan was eavesdropping on their conversations.

Just as Jonathan was about to hear about someone's private life, he spotted a machine that he had always adored. It was a machine where you put money into, and if you were lucky, you won a prize.

He ran up to Jennifer and began tugging on her sock to get her attention (think 'cute'). "What is it, little guy?" Jonathan pointed towards the machine he wanted to use. "Awww, you want to play the crane game, don't you Jonny? Here's a dollar, good luck!" she then went back to her work.

Jonathan walked towards the machine, and as he passed the crane game he thought, I didn't notice that a crane game was installed recently. He then arrived at the machine he was aiming for.

He put the dollar in and picked the one with the most promesing results. The machine made a whirring noise and out popped what he wanted. He took it and used one of the coins he got for change to scratch. "……Seven!…… Seven!!!... Pikachu……… damn."

Jonathan tossed the lottery ticket in the trash and went back to eavesdropping.

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Jennifer sighed, relieved that she could go home now. It had been a long day, with more people ordering than usual. Not to mention someone threw up on Jonathan. That was a hassle.

"C'mon, Jonny, let's go home," her grip on Jonathan tightened. He found out why when Jennifer said, "It's been a while since your last bath."

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Jonathan was sitting on the couch squeaky clean. His hair was pure green again, as was his body white and his face red. The red went away after a while.

Jennifer sat down next to him. She was wearing more comfortable clothing and the red returned. Jonathan was glad empathy didn't work both ways.

"This just in!" the TV announcer spoke up, "Local resident Thomas Fros has just won first place in a contest he had entered! Millions of envelopes were mailed, and out of all of them, the one, single envelope Thomas had mailed won at a random draw! Thomas will be spending the next month on an all expense paid trip to the Sevii Islands!"

"Why does that jerk get so much luck?" Jennifer asked.

"Who knows. Probably some dark ritual or something," Jonathan joked. "Still, I hate that lucky son of a-"

End of Chapter 18.