I was out of supplies by the time I found my first human being.

When it had gotten dark, I had decided to test Monotone's limits by asking him to float really high and report anything he saw. Turns out he could actually float in space; it had taken him around two hours to get back, and when he said he had forgotten what I had asked him to do, I had to wait another 20-ish minutes for him to get back.

He had said there were light coming from a certain direction, which I assumed to be Striaton City. It took us another hour of travelling in the complete darkness before we found a large clearing, with some trees arranged in patterns and a large, eroded, partially buried building. There were even some humans. The area was lit by many lamp-posts giving off soft purple glows.

It was the Dreamyard.

"Whoa! A monster!" A lass screamed. Everyone in the general area turned to look at her, and they traced her gaze to see me.

I raised an eyebrow, wondering if eastern discrimination was really this rampant in the Dreamyard. Then I realized the lass had probably screamed because of all the dirt and other things clinging to my skin. Well, it could have been worse; I didn't have any blood on me.

"My lord, I can eradicate the nuisance if you desire," Grime said, growling.

I patted her on the head. "It's fine, I would probably do the same." Then I walked closer to the Lass.

"I wish to know where Striation City is!" I said in the scariest voice I could manage.

The lass, instead of shying away in fright, put on a defiant face and released a pokemon. It was a Munna.

I facepalmed, more than tired of dealing with that species. "Will you tell me if I defeat you in a one on one battle?" I asked. All of my pokemon were weakened considerably, but they all had more than enough practice with Munna.

The lass hesitated, then nodded slightly. "Fine then. If you lose, you're taking one of my pokemon!"

"Fine then, I'll fight tooth and nail for my pokemon!" I released Aack, eager to check out his skills in a trainer battle.

The lass laughed. "I said you can take one of my pokemon if you lose!"

It was my turn to laugh. "You got a screw loose? I get something good either way! Although I actually don't accept other people's pokemon."

"Heh, heh," I heard Aack mutter. I ignored him.

The lass shook her head, however. "No, I would give you one of my Panpour, Pansear, or Pansage pokemon."

It took me a few seconds for that to sink in. Then I realized I was talking to the famed Dream-Giver. The mysterious girl who randomly gave young trainers a Panpour, Pansear, or Pansage. Legend had it that she hadn't aged for the past twelve years. Even in my secluded life at Littleroot Town, I had heard of her at some point.

"If you're the Dream-Giver, wouldn't you be nice?" I asked.

"Well yes, normally. But you're a monster."

"You say that yet think you're nice?"

"A monster is a monster. I'm simply stating a fact."

"Today, I escaped a murderous madman and had to travel through the neighboring forest for the entire day. Now, I want to find civilization, but you're not helping me!" My voice had started out low and solemn, but at the end, I was literally screaming.

The lass kept quiet for a few seconds, then pointed in a certain direction. "You can legally enter the city through there. But I want you to come back here before dawn to meet me, alright?"

"Well, I'm actually still jet lagged and sleep deprived right now, so-"

"Alright?" The lass's voice had an edge to it that, for some reason, made me salute and say, "yes ma'am!" It kind of reminded me of Ms. Werchestire from trainer school; we all had to salute to her at the start of each of her classes.

I returned Aack, who had been pretending to sleep, and I ran off to Striaton City.

Ray took out his last pokeball, gritting his teeth. If he failed now, he would have to go back and buy more balls, then return and have to find another Noibat.

"Master Ray!" One of his two servants shouted, grabbing him before he fell off the cart.

Ray was with his two servants, riding in a mine cart going at extremely high speeds. They were inside Terminus Cave, chasing after a Noibat; what Ray wanted as his third pokemon. They were one of the rarest pokemon in the world, so finding one had taken quite a lot of time. Ray wasn't about to let the Noibat get out of his sight.

Ray threw the pokeball, hoping against hope he could catch the Noibat.

The pokeball hit dead-on. It fell to the ground, and Ray jumped out of the cart. His servants followed suit, and the mine cart zoomed off into the darkness.

Ray watched as the ball shook once. Then twice. Finally... he caught it. Ray picked up the pokeball, examining it.

"Master Ray, congratulations," one servant said.

Ray nodded in acknowledgement. "Where should we sleep?"

"Anywhere you wish."

"Then, how about we go to Hano Grand Resort?"

A servant nodded, and released an Alakazam. The Alakazam had been nearly everywhere in the world, so she was able to teleport the group anywhere the wanted.

They went to Hano Grand Resort, booked three rooms for one night each, and they all slept in luxury.

Alone in his large bed, Ray grinned. Those servants had made a mistake by taking different rooms from him.

Striaton City was a medium-sized city known for its buildings made with unique architectural designs. It also contains of the largest gardens in the world; creatively named 'Striaton Garden'.

I walked around the streetlight-lit streets, noticing a drunk man moaning loudly as he stumbled around. He had purple dreadlocks and a large scar over his left eye. I avertex my gaze and tried my best to stay out of his line of sight.

I waited until he left, but instead, he fell to the ground and started flopping. I watched with interest as he threw his green beer bottle in the air above him. When the bottle was about to land on his body, he stopped flopping and suddenly turned around, catching the bottle between his jaws.

Then he jerked his head directly towards me, and crushed the bottle between his teeth, causing teeth to fall out and blood to burst forth.

I took a step back in fear. I was across the street, so if he made any moves towards me, I had ample time to release all three of my pokemon.

"Heyo!" He yelled. Then he started mumbling some other stuff which didn't make any sense.

As he started flopping around again, I took the chance to run away, without looking back.

"Cuh-baa!" The man groaned loudly. "Cuh-baa!"

I ran even harder, and I finally noticed the pokemon center just around the corner. It was quite large, almost the size of Petalburg City's center. I took a few quick glnces behind me, then walked inside, breathing a sigh of relief.

The lobby was semi-full, with various young trainers talking excitedly among each other. I walked up to the nurse, whose eyes bulged when she saw me.

"A room for two nights and healing for these pokemon, please," I said, setting my three occupied pokeballs and my trainer's license on the marble counter.

"Alright! Your room is 101, please go there right now and take a bath. I should have your pokemon ready by then," the nurse said, swiping my license on the room-register-device.

I thanked her and ran to my room, which was on the same floor. I swiped my card, closed the door behind me, and took a shower. When I was done (it took around 20 minutes), I changed and went out to the lobby to collect my pokemon.

"Ah, you look much better! I have you're pokemon here." The nurse took out three pokeballs from beneath the counter, and I pinned them all to my belt. I felt vulnerable without them, and having them on me made me feel much better.

"Also, young sir, you seem to be thirteen years old. Are you participating in the gym challenge tomorrow?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Gym challenge? Sorry, I'm not from Unova, so I don't know what that is..."

"Ah, I see. Well, every Monday, our gym opens; it's peculiar that way. The building is a actually a fancy restaurant on the other six days of the week. So on Sundays, like today, trainers have to sign up for the gym challenge, another feature unique to Striaton City Gym, where trainers fight each other and hired gym trainers to get a chance at challenging one of the gym leaders."

I nodded. "Well, yes, I'll participate. Thanks for the information."

The nurse signed me up on her desktop while asking me basic questions like my name and age. She told me to be at the gym by dawn.

That meant I would have to go back to the Dreamyard now, If I wanted to sleep. But did I need to go back and see the girl? I wasn't especially interested in getting the help of a free pokemon to defeat a gym leader. I was confident I could win on my own strength. So I decided to just sleep, wake up early, and take on my first gym without worries.

Then I remembered the lass's voice at the end when she had said, 'Alright?'. My blood turned cold, and I decided the bath had given me enough energy to spare some time to return to the Dreamyard.

I got up, exited the pokemon center, and released my three pokemon.

"Alright guys, we have to get to the Dreamyard. Don't attack anyone, but make sure no weirdos try attacking us," I instructed.

I noticed Aack was pretending to sleep. I sighed and picked him up in my arms. "I'll just carry you," I whispered in his ear.

"My lord, are we allowed to kill humans?"

I shook my head. "Please don't, just injure or scare them. I don't want to be a criminal again."

We all retraced our steps back to the Dreamyard in the dark. I was hoping the drunk would've gone somewhere else during my time at the pokemon center.

The drunk man was still there. And he was still flopping around on the ground, grinning wildly and screaming incoherent nonsense.

"Trainer, what kind of pokemon that?"

"Monotone, that's what we call a freak. Make sure to stay away from them."

We walked off, and I breathed a sigh of relief. The man hadn't noticed us.

"Heyo! Don'go! Don'go!" The man screamed, getting off of the ground. Then he sprinted towards me.

I turned around and yelled, "Grime! attack him with your claws and fangs!" My Poochyena nodded and dashed at the drunk, about to tear at his chest, but the man dodged. Then he fished around in his dirty pant pocket, procuring a pokeball.

"Heyo!" He yelled, releasing a Trubbish.

I paled. A battle? "Aack!" I whispered urgently to the Slowpoke in my arms. "We need your type advantage! Just use your Confusion against the Trubbish!"

Aack opened his eyes and glanced at the Trubbish. "I'll try to keep your other pokemon out of my view. Give me a slap and I'll get going."

I sighed, slapping Aack hard on the cheek. He moaned in pleasure for a few seconds before jumping out of my arms.

"Trainer, what was... no, I no need ask," Monotone said. He then turned to the Trubbish, and started using Peck. Grime was focusing on the drunk human, who still managed to dodge my Poochyena. That was indeed surprising.

It took only one Confusion from Aack to get the Trubbish to start attacking the road, after which a few Pecks from Monotone finished it off. Aack went back to 'sleep', and I picked him up.

The man fell to the ground, now covered in bloody wounds. "Grime! That's enough!" I shouted.

"But my lo-"

"NO! Who knows, he might have hemophilia or something and he could die and then we all go to jail and then-"

"Trainer."

"Sorry. Well, let's get going then." And we all went on our way back to the Dreamyard. Unova was full of some really weird people.

I found the Dream-Giver standing under one of the purple lights, humming softly to herself. I walked closer after returning all of my pokemon. There wasn't anyone else in the area anymore.

"Hello, " I said.

The Dream-Giver looked at me. "You must the one who used to be a monster. Which pokemon species would you like?"

"I didn't want a pokemon from you, actually."

"Then why did you come?"

"You wanted me to."

The Dream-Giver smiled. "You came to see me!"

I nodded. "Well, yeah, I guess."

The Dream-Giver's eyes shimmered. "Y-you don't think I'm a freak?"

I shrugged. "You're a mystery, sure, but not a freak. Just different."

The Dream-Giver started sobbing and crying. I raised an eyebrow, and simply stood there awkwardly, unsure of whether or not I should've done something or not.

"Thanks, young boy. Thanks. Everyone thinks I'm a freak because of my curse, and you're the only one who actually thinks of me as a human!"

"Curse?"

The Dream-Giver covered her mouth, shock evident on her face.

I sat down on the grass, feeling tired again. Confusion really emptied my energy reserves.

"It's nothing. So are you challenging the gym tomorrow?"

I nodded.

The Dream-Giver clapped her hands together. "Then please come back here after your challenge! I will have something ready to thank you with!"

I shrugged. "Sure." To be honest, I kind of liked having someone think I was interesting.

"Well, I have to sleep, so I'll go back to the pokemon center," I said. The Dream-Giver nodded, and I walked away, contemplating what the Dream-Giver had said. I realized I was finding a lot of freaks. Grime was considered a freak, Aack was considered a freak, and now the Dream-Giver. And I was apparently a 'good' person. I always hated my own personality. Maybe I actually was nice?

I walked down the streets of Striaton City, thinking about freaks, when I saw the drunk man from before. He was on the ground, moaning in pain, with small pools of blood scattered around his body.

He was a freak. And I had judged him based on that. But he did attack me... well, he had just ran towards me. He did release a pokemon... well, that was most likely self defense. His fainted Trubbish was lying next to him.

I looked over at the guy's face. "Can you hear me?" I asked.

The man weakly nodded.

"Sorry about that. I want to help you now, though. Are you an official trainer?"

The man shook his head.

I sighed. Of course he wasn't. Trainers were kind of like an elite group. Even a badge-less trainer like me had a lot of rights a normal citizen anywhere wouldn't have. I took off my backpack and set down three cup noodles next to him. Then I left to go back to the pokemon center, feeling guilty for having judged the guy just because he was a drunkard. I didn't deserve the Dream-Giver's thanks. I would go tell her that tomorrow, after my gym challenge.

Chapter 16 MC/age/pokemon changes:

Ray catches a Noibat

.-.-.

Monotone - Peck, Growl, Acid, Venoshock

Grime - Tackle, Howl, Odor Sleuth, Bite

Aack - Yawn, Tackle, Confusion, Water Gun