Chapter 5 of LOP is finally here! Hoo-ray!

We had been walking for the entire day. It was mind numbing just thinking about how many steps we'd taken and how many minutes passed.

"So where are we, exactly?"

"Well, I caught you in Ilex forest. That's also where we fought the grunts, by the way. We just left from New Bark, so we're somewhere on Route 29. Probably close to Cherrygrove. In fact – "

We stepped onto a paved road.

" – We're already there!"

I took in the sight of the city. It was unlike anything I had seen before. There were small houses like Nikola's, but there were also tall brick buildings with white paint.

"This is huge!"

Heck snickered.

"That's what the busboy said to the cook."

I shot him a look that clearly said 'shut up' but he continued talking.

"But really, you think this place is big? Wait till we go to Goldenrod. That's a real city. The biggest building here is three stories high. It barely qualifies as a city."

Rukia punched him square in the gut. Heck slid backwards, coughing violently and clutching his stomach. He looked up and screamed at Rukia in a shrill voice,

"What the hell was that for? What did I ever do to you?"

"Shut up. This is where Holden came from, remember?"

Heck just turned his head down.

"I was trying to forget."

"Would both of you just get over it?"

Cream was the one who said it.

"You both know Holden hated humans. He hated everything about them. That's why he's not on the team anymore. Holden is no longer your teammate. He's a traitor. Don't bring him up again."

They both nodded meekly.

I looked up at Nikola.

Holden was the first Pokémon I had caught on my own. He didn't get along with Cream very well, and well, one day he tried to…kill her… so I did the best thing I could, and that was to let him go.

I just blinked.

"Well, we're going to need a hotel for the night…"

Nikola trailed off, and suddenly she bumped into somebody. Somebody with long, red hair…

"Hello, weakling."

She groaned.

"Marc. What do you want?"

He noticeably stiffened, although I guess the others didn't notice.

"I…well…I have a bit of a dilemma. It seems I don't have enough money to get a hotel room, and so… I just was wondering if you were willing to share one while we split the rent."

Nikola snorted.

"What makes you think I would do that? You'd just steal my stuff. Jack off."

The Redheaded Stepchild's face didn't falter, but his eyes betrayed him. He looked disappointed and downright rejected. Something told me that was exactly what he was going to do. He started slowly walking away.

Nikola sat down on a bench and took her backpack off, setting it down in her lap and unzipping it.

She checked one of the smaller pouches.

"Shit, I don't have enough money for a hotel room either! Marc, wait!"

He hadn't gotten very far, but he stopped and turned around.

"Second thoughts, huh?"

She bobbed her head up and down in confirmation.

"Okay."

We all walked in silence. The streets were fairly crowded, and the streetlamps were on. The air was humid and smelled warm and starchy. We stopped at the front of a tall building that displayed the words Pokémon Lodge in a bright flashing neon sign.

The Redheaded Stepchild just swung open the ugly steel door and stepped in. Nikola caught the door and let us in before stepping inside herself. She walked up to the clerk, who was flipping through a magazine, and asked him how much one night would cost.

The clerk turned a page in his magazine and responded in a flat monotone.

"1200."

They split the bill 50-50, and the clerk tossed them the key, not once looking up to see that he had given a couple of 15 year olds a hotel room.

"Room 69, first floor."

The clerk jerked his thumb to point to a dark hallway.

"Thank you."

He simply grunted in response.

We walked quietly down the hallway, and some dim old lights on the ceiling turned on. I looked at the signs on the doors. Room 61, 63, 65, 67…

We reached room 69. The door was an ugly steel door, just like the other one. Nikola unlocked it and pocketed the key. The door opened inwards, and we treaded in.

It was pretty run-down. The wallpaper was peeling and a bulky box with a shiny black surface sat on an unstable-looking oak table. The bed, because there was only one, looked lumpy and uncomfortable. A small door led to a yellowish bathroom. The tub was yellow, the shower curtains were yellow, the tiles were yellow, the sink, the toilet – everything was yellow. If one were to let a Hypno stand in the bathroom, all you would see would be the white ring of fur around its neck. I just hoped the yellow was from bad design choices, or perhaps aging.

Nikola surveyed the room, and her vision landed on the bed. She cleared her throat.

"I'll sleep on the floor."

The Redheaded Stepchild was not very pleased with this arrangement, and so he did what humans usually did and had been doing since they came to be, and that was to get another human into bed with them.

"It's probably filthy. I bet there's a ton of cobwebs on it. I bet Ratata poop all over it. But by all means, sleep on the floor."

She glared at him.

"You're a big jerk, you know that?"

Nikola pulled the ugly sheets on the bed down and fell back on the mattress. She pulled up the sheets over herself and shut her eyes. The Redheaded Stepchild did the same, but his eyes remained open. Cream curled up on top of Nikola's backpack. Rukia and Heck shared a striped cushiony seat in the corner of the room. Me, I jumped up onto the bed and placed myself between The Redheaded Stepchild and Nikola. I didn't trust him. He probably realized this, because he turned himself to look at me.

"I'm not going to hurt her, you know."

I shook my head. I didn't believe him.

"Look, I know I must seem like a total jerk to you, but I really, really don't hate her. Or you. Or anybody."

I tried to speak.

"You call her weakling. Nikola isn't weak."

"Look, I know I call her weakling, and all that. I've told her that she's stupid to form bonds with her Pokémon, I've told her a bunch of things. But…don't tell her this, okay?"

I nodded. If this kid wanted to spill his beans, it wasn't my business.

"My dad used to tell me those things when I was little. I caught this Unown, you see. It was pretty dangerous because I didn't have a team then, but I wanted to make him proud of me. And I named it. I named it Glyph. Glyph became my friend, my playmate. I was only four. My dad saw Glyph one day and asked me, and I quote, 'What the hell is that, and where did it come from?', and I told him that I caught it myself and its name was Glyph. And you know what… he scolded me. He told me I shouldn't name my Pokémon, that naming it would make me attached. And so I got more Pokémon. I caught Lectro in a power plant I broke into when I was six. I caught Mai in a cave I had stashed stolen food in when I was eight. Five years ago, I stole Cinders from the Pokémon lab. And I named him as such to spite my old man. I named all of them to spit on his ideas. But…"

He drew a breath in.

"I couldn't get that damn crook's voice out of my head. And so I let it out on Nikola, who had chased after me when I stole Cinders. And she beat me… nobody had done that before. I won battles against adults. That's how I made my living sometimes. And when she beat me, it was like all of that wasn't relevant anymore. And I've stopped caring about them, because they beat all those grown men and women, all those professionals, and yet they couldn't beat her. They're so useless! They can't do anything right!"

I rolled my eyes. What a stupid, childish notion. Nikola was simply that good. If he couldn't accept that, then he needed a therapist or something.

"Why am I even telling you this? Even if you could talk to me, I wouldn't understand it!"

He sighed, closed his eyes, and I watched him fall asleep.

There's where we stop! Please tell me what you think.