Author's Note:
Hey everyone! Sorry for the not-so-great chapters as of late. Due to work and some game dev activities, I haven't had nearly as much time to write as I need, which means these chapters aren't quite as polished as I would like them to be. Hopefully I make up for that with this LONG chapter.
Miril2050: First fic? You picked a weird one to start with. But thanks for sticking around!
Phillip Harbindinger: You would be correct on the "yea"s. I'm not sure where I got the odd spelling from, or maybe one's the quick neutral response and the other is the enthusiastic response? I'll have to go back and correct them in my master document. Thanks for the point-out. As for your prediction, while I could answer that, I'm not going to. The only thing I will say is that I am going to do my best to not make you mad at the end of the story. I've read a few stories where they kill off a main character right near the end of the story just to add feels or make the ending unexpected. I hate that! I think you will have to really engage in the dynamics of the story to accurately predict the ending, because it isn't as obvious as I assume many of you suspect, but hopefully one you will all appreciate!
Thanks for the typo catch. No worries! I greatly appreciate the feedback. As for the phrasing, I was missing a transition! That's why it seemed incoherent. And the cringe is real! I definitely need to figure out which stories to put there, and build up the dynamic properly. And apparently my body language pass iteration changes at the end of the chapter never saved! Ugh! That makes me mad!
Alright! So I like this chapter a lot better. There's still probably a few mistakes here or there, but I don't think it's as bad as the last two chapters. Anyways, enjoy this one!
Today is 6/25/2016 and this chapter is 5700+ words!
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, just dream it.
Chapter 22: The Battery Bros.
"Muaaaaaaaahyeeeaaaaaaaaah," Kieren yawned as he exited the elevator at exactly 1:26 PM of the LightWay Hotel off of 14th Street and Carmen Drive. Humans were very much a perfect order sort. Everything needed to be exact and have a name. Luckily, Mason the ninetails was able to guide Kieren through the hotel and show him everything he needed to know about food, sleep, and bathroom breaks.
"Humans are weird problem solvers," Kieren thought to himself as he made his way out the front doorway, where the sunlight greeted his face once again. He had bought himself some time to settle and find a new life, thanks to his last adventure with Melody, and now was not the time to waste it! Off to another adventure!
The magical automatic opening doors welcomed Kieren back out onto the street. The life of downtown could be heard only a few streets away. Street by street, the noise grew louder, until Kieren was able to spot the first signs of life, minus the strange human transport systems that spewed choking gas fumes if one got too close. On one side of this new street were several men in clothing that seemed to match the bags they held. They all wore black on their legs and the rest was either blue, purple, or white, with a dangling strip of strange colorful patterns down the middle. All of them were standing in an area marked with white. A giant silver transporter stopped by, and the men flocked inside of it and disappeared as the transporter took off with a smoky, toxic farewell Kieren successfully eluded.
On a bench along the corner of the street, Kieren could see a woman, albeit young, with a strange small rectangle-thing in her hand. She would hold the object in front of her while making strange faces at it. Then she would bring it closer to herself as her thumbs would go wild touching the front side of the purple box. Kieren watched this pattern repeat several times before advancing to the next street.
Finally, Kieren made it to the source of the loud noises - Downtown.
The sheer number of humans and Pokemon, mostly humans, were staggering. Many of them held bags as they walked around between the different shops. Some of them held similar looking devices to the girl on the bench, either mimicking the girl's actions, or holding the thing up to their ears while talking. Two little boys were feeding a nidoran and a zigzagoon while what appeared to be their parents watched them contently. A guy and a girl, both about the same age as the one on the bench, were walking along the opposite side holding hands. A delcatty and crocanaw marched ahead of them. Two younger girls walked out of a shop with blue icy drinks.
Kieren averted his gaze from most of the trainers that walked by. He didn't want to draw attention to himself, especially without the ability to communicate with them. The thought of being with a trainer did cross his mind, and Kieren had to admit, it was a good option. He would make new friends, explore the world, and not have to worry about food and shelter. However, now was not the time. He still had a deal with that Mitch-dude; plus, he never really got a chance to say goodbye to anyone. But after the tournament, after one last trip to the edge of the forest, well that was a likely option. But Kieren would have to choose a trainer carefully if he chose that route. He heard that some could be rather rude and pushy, and many more would not be skilled enough to handle an evolved pokemon. While avoiding the gaze of trainers, Kieren made a game out of how many pokemon he could or could not successfully identify. Surprisingly, he recognized almost all of them from visits his ex-tribe would receive from time to time. A flaaffy, a meinfoo, a spinda, a ghastly and a shuppet that played around with two little girls and their parents, and a grovile, which travelled with a trainer who hid his face with his hat.
"Those two looked kinda lost back there. Think we should help them?" asked a combusken walking ahead of his trainer.
"I wouldn't worry about it," spoke the snivy next to him.
Right behind them were three trainers, the third being a slightly shorter girl with a little fletchling on her shoulder, grooming the girl's hair.
As the group passed by, Kieren began to make out two pokemon he did not recognize standing with giant sheets of paper. He would have guessed they were some form of mutated pichu by their stubby yellow bodies and large ears. One had blue markings with a streak across its cheeks while the other one had red ones outlining crossing streaks of pale. They both possessed colored ears, hands, and tails, with the tails matching each's odd streaks on their cheeks.
"Heyo, looksie! An umbreon! Think he's one of 'em?" Kieren heard the red one ask. He quickly turned away and kept walking, not wanting to be involved in whatever they might be plotting.
"Yo blackie!" the other called for him. "You from da valley?"
"What's it mean to you?" Kieren muttered somewhat dryly without giving a glance.
"Ouch, man. That's cold," the red one told him.
"Shhh! Cut the punk act," the blue one warned with a stiff elbow to the gut. "Something ain't right here." The blue-eared creature turned back to Kieren, who had stopped when he caught the scene play out from the corner of his eye. "Listen umbreon sir. The two of us are from a pokemon city out west of here."
"A pokemon city?" Kieren asked skeptically. He wasn't really in much of a mood for these weirdos. But their question meant he couldn't ignore them yet.
"Yeah! We from dis place kinda like dis here, 'cept instead of all dese humans runnin' everything, Pokemon are in charge!" the red one explained, throwing its stubby arms up in the air dramatically.
"Yo man. We're lookin' for the Valley Reserve. Legend says a powerful tribe based on eevee and its evos are down there," the blue one interrupted.
"Oh. Them," Kieren huffed as he turned to resume his path across downtown. "Across the walking path bridge on the outside of downtown, take a right until you see an entrance to the forest."
Kieren ignored whatever the two said and began on his way, but just as he shifted focus on what lied ahead, the two came tumbling back in front of him.
"Yo blackie!" the blue one shouted.
"Whaaa? What do you two want?" Kieren spat a bit annoyed.
"Sorry to bother ya, blackie, but you're one of them, right?" the blue one asked.
"Was," Kieren answered as he stepped around the two.
"Wait!" the red one squealed as the he tried to cut him off.
"Right. Don't mention me," Kieren quickly answered. "And don't contradict their leader or things'll get primitive!"
Kieren could hear an audible gulp in the red one's throat as he left their vicinity. He also heard the blue one's reaction to his partner as they faded away.
"What's the matter with you, Eddie? You don't just pester someone like that immediately after they reveal to you something dark from their personal life! You're lucky he didn't trample ya and send ya to the ER with a broken e…"
Kieren wondered if he eventually needed to get as far away from the area as possible so he didn't have to be reminded of his past. The trainer option was looking better and better. Those two had also mentioned something about a "Pokemon City"? Drake had mentioned the phrase before, but now it was confirmed that such a thing probably existed. How did the lapras know so much about the outside world, anyway?
Just as the first thoughts of painful memories returned, the sound of a lake battle caught his ears. Curious as to the noise, he cautiously trotted over to see the commotion.
He was surprised to discover that it wasn't a battle at all. Instead, he saw a small pond filled with little kids and their pokemon. The pond wasn't like any normal pond he had imagined, but was formed by pavement and had weird waterfall-like contraptions. Despite its unnaturalness, it was entertaining everyone around, which Kieren justified as a good enough reason for its existence.
Glancing around, Kieren noticed a small patch of grass in the corner underneath the shade of a maple tree that seemed somewhat out-of-place in the city. Fairly exhausted from walking for the last hour on the hard pavement, Kieren decided it a better time than any to lay down in the shade and watch the kids and their pokemon have fun in the water.
There appeared to be three different 'parts' to the pond. The first was very basic, consisting of only shallow water. An azurill was joyously being chased around in the water by a bunch of little girls. She had just weaved through all of them to the other edge of the clearing where she was playfully taunting them. A little boy, who was apparently also part of this game, was very quietly sneaking up behind the bouncing blue ball. At first, he had tried taking careful steps to make as small of a splash as possible with each step. However, he quickly learned he could approach much more quietly by dragging his feet under the water slow enough to not disturb the water's surface any more than the splashing azurill did. As he got close, he held his breath. He reached out his arms and leaned his body forwards until he was inches away from the azurill. As sudden as a lightning strike, he dove at the azurill with a large splash.
Unfortunately for him, the azurill had sensed him the entire time, and at the last moment, sprung into the air with its tail. She bounced down on his head before landing to the side and chanting, "Gotcha! I win!" The kid who had just had his face shoved under the water looked up, only to redden at the girls' giggling fits. Kieren couldn't help but lightly chuckle at the scene.
After watching the azurill outmaneuver the kids for several more minutes, Kieren shifted his lazy gaze over to the second part of the pond, which had been previously unoccupied. Small "geysers", as a vaporeon had once called them, jumped out of the water in fixed seemingly random locations. Several kids were trying to suppress them using their hands, feet, butts, and whatever other creative posture they could come up with to block all of them. What Kieren noticed was that every time a geyser was blocked, the others grew in size. Eventually all of the geysers seemed to be manned (but not necessarily blocked) except for one.
"Hey Ally, can you come block this one for us?" one of the boys in the group asked. All of the kids gave each other knowing glances as a young girl with blond hair wearing a blue bikini ran over to them. As soon as she reached the unmanned geyser, the geyser exploded into her face before shooting upwards and crashing back down on the rest of her body.
She quickly backed away and wiped her eyes muttering, "Oh… my gosh!" "Stacie!" she called up to where she came from outside the pond. "Look what they did to me!"
To Ally's horror, her presumed friend Stacie walked past her and told the group, "My turn!" before leaning over the small geyser. The group gave a short countdown before causing the geyser to explode like before. The girl seemed shocked after it was all over, but asked for the guys to do it again, which they did. Kieren assumed she was enjoying some kind of adrenaline rush by her strange facial expression. Many others got curious, including Ally, and soon, all the kids were trying to invent new ways to make the experience as wet as possible.
Nothing they tried, however, could compare to what was going on at the third part of the pond. Three towers of strange contraptions spit out water onto obstacles that scattered it. The two smaller towers were identical. Kieren observed some of the kids playing with one of them and noticed how when parts of the tower's base were rotated, certain obstacles and water sources also rotated. Other strange levers and gears seemed to also have effects on the large tower. In some parts attached to the towers, the water would fill into buckets. Once the buckets got too heavy, they would dump their contents down, sometimes on more contraptions that scattered the water, and sometimes, directly on the head of an oblivious bidoof.
As for the third tower, no one really cared to play with it, and soon Kieren could see why. All of the rotating water sources and obstacles were placed in such a precise orientation. The water from the tower as well as its larger neighbor accumulated into one place forming a small but steady waterfall. Sitting underneath the waterfall was a young girl with dark brown hair. Her legs were crossed in front of her as she sat up, letting the full force of the water crash onto her head and run down all sides of her body. Next to her was a mudkip, which she massaged with her hand and spoke to. The two were perfectly relaxed, as if they were sitting on a bench on the street, except here a layer of water was constantly wrapping the girl's entire being. Kieren was tempted to get up and ask the mudkip if the girl had arranged the water to flow like that to begin with. However, he wasn't sure if he was allowed to enter the pond, so he remained where he was at, and closed his eyes.
"Ding!"
"Do you think he'll show up?" Kat asked.
"I don't know. It wouldn't surprise me if he didn't," Trent answered. His fur was ruffled slightly with unease.
"When's the last time you've seen him?" Kat asked, beginning to worry more.
"Right this instant!" shouted the water, accompanied by a brilliant white splash invoking Trent to step back a few paces. "Seriously, you two could not have timed your arrival any better," Drake hastily applauded. He finished with a deep exhale of air.
"How so?" Kat asked, completely missing Drake's body language and facial expression that screamed "Just escaped stressful situation!" Trent was about to intervene, but Drake was quicker on the trigger.
"Mom is being difficult, and I'm starting to get fed up with it!" he huffed.
"Would this be a bad time to ask about things concerning Kieren?" Trent tried.
Drake inhaled another deep breath and closed his eyes. After a few seconds, Kat nudged Trent.
"Perhaps we ought to change topics," she whispered. "He may not even know what happened to Kieren."
Trent nodded, and just as he was about to ask Drake what golfing was, Drake raised his fin. Kat and Trent stopped, realizing this was now a game of patience. After a few seconds, Drake finally looked up and opened his eyes, immediately catching the attention of the two in front of him.
"Sorry. I needed to clear my thoughts. As for what happened to Kieren, Kat, he told me everything on his way out. In case you need to track him down, the species name is 'Umbreon'."
"Umbreon," Trent tried on his tongue. "We'll have to inform Melody about that."
"As for the other things that happened," Drake continued, in a serious, yet wisdom-like tone only his species could pull off, "I don't want to say anything misleading, and there's still some things that don't quite make sense. Mother isn't helping either, which is why I need you two."
"Us?" Kat gasped. "We didn't even know what he was until you told us!" she complained.
"Irrelevant!" Drake asserted. "Trent, you remember Tara's conversation with Kieren, right?"
Trent nodded. "I think I know where this is going. Celestia tells Tara everything?"
Kat knowingly grinned.
"Exactly. This may sound shady, but I want to…"
"Eavesdrop on their next conversation and find out what they've been hiding," Kat interrupted. "Welcome to Operation Alpha Intel, or O-A-I for short!"
Drake raised an eyebrow.
"Melody came up with the name," Trent established.
"Creatively lacking, but I'll roll with it," Drake remarked.
"Right now, we are guarding the shore to prevent the conversation from happening until we find a way to successfully eavesdrop on it," Kat continued.
"I see," the lapras acknowledged. "Well, since I am now a part of OAI, how about we fix that part of the plan a little bit?" Drake offered.
"Huh?" Kat gasped astonished. Trent just raised an eyebrow.
"There is a party going on right now, is there not?" Drake began seriously.
Trent nodded.
"You know how they have those tables full of equipment?"
Trent and Kat nodded again.
"And there's always one that's never used?" Drake continued.
"It never works," Trent commented.
"That's because it's not a music player," Drake began before taking in a deep breath. "It's a recorder," he said while dropping his stare to the ground.
"What?" Trent and Kat asked simultaneously.
"Let me guess, you want us to persuade the crew to let us try and fix the table, take off with it, hide it somehow, and then record Celestia and Tara when they feel comfortable talking?" Trent guessed.
"If it isn't too much to handle. You two catch on quick," Drake complemented.
"Hey! Umbreon!"
"Ugh," Kieren moaned.
"Umbreon! Over here!"
"What's going on?" Kieren mumbled. Was someone calling for him? He was an umbreon, right? As soon as he realized what he had just asked himself, his eyes darted open and he sprung to his feet, fully alert and cautious of whatever was trying to get his attention.
"This way!" the voice called, pulling Kieren's attention towards the street. Realizing he didn't have a clear view of who was calling for him, he cautiously approached the street, sticking along the fence. On the other side of the road were some people wearing striped orange shirts and hats. With them were several machoke, carrying logs made of some man-made material.
"There you are," said one of the men, turning to Kieren. "Would you mind helping us with one thing? We promise we won't try anything funny. I can get you a drink in return."
Kieren stared at the man hesitantly.
"Don't worry man," said a machoke. "He won't try and catch you or anything. We just need someone small with a stable footing to help us for a bit."
Kieren retreated a step, narrowing his gaze to hide his fear with skepticism.
"Relax. No need to panic. Unfortunately this isn't the first time we've had something like this happen," the machoke stated, rubbing the back of his neck somewhat sheepishly. "In the past we found Pokemon that could help us and in return gave them something to eat or drink. And then they went back to whatever they were doing before. But we really need help from someone like you right now."
Kieren let his gaze relax slightly. He still wasn't in, but the two of them sounded honest, and somewhat desperate, so he'd hear them out.
"Umbreon, do you see that tall thing?" the man asked, pointing at something.
Kieren looked up and indeed there was a giant tall thing. He had no idea what it was, but it fit the basic description the man gave.
"So it has this loop hanging down from it. Could you climb up onto that beam and attach it?"
Kieren looked up and quickly caught on to the dilemma. There was an intricate pattern of "beams" as the man had called them that lead up to a large cliff where a few men were standing. One beam in particular seemed like it should have been connected to the cliff, but instead it was drooping in the opposite direction. Without the beam being connected, it would have been difficult for a human or a machoke to reach the beam's perch since the surrounding beams were too narrow. However, it would be a cinch for Kieren. With a nod, Kieren crossed the street and began his climb up the intricate 3D pattern. His slim build, four limbs, and low profile made it easy for him to navigate the narrow beams as he made the ascent. The beams were of some man-made material, and were extremely stable. Soon Kieren grew comfortable with their feel and began jumping across gaps from one beam to the next.
"He makes that look so easy," Kieren could hear one machoke say. Kieren couldn't help but look back with a slight grin. It WAS easy. In just a matter of moments, Kieren had already reached the end of the droopy beam, still stable enough to support him upright despite its disconnected state.
"Great, now wrap the loop around the beam you are standing on," one of the men instructed. Kieren saw a rope with a loop on the end dangling in front of him. The other end was attached to the giant tall thing. Without too much effort, Kieren successfully had a hold of the rope and strung the hole around the disconnected end. He turned back towards the others on the cliff across the gap.
"One last thing, there's a loose end on the loop. Can you yank on that until it's tight?"
Kieren didn't need any more explanation. He had already recognized the type of knot the loop was tied in. His ex-tribe would use ropes with similarly tied knots to lift fallen trees after storms.
With the rope clenched in his teeth, he told his muscles to push away from the knot's center. He could hear the rope slip until it no longer gave in to him. He turned around to see that the loop around the beam was pulled tight around the edges. The machoke on the platform gave Kieren a thumbs up, and Kieren turned to make his descent.
Boom! Boom! Smack! Tch Tch!
And at once, everyone was bouncing in rhythm to the music that enveloped the forest. Everyone except Connor, who was too preoccupied by a red flash he thought he had spotted in the forest beyond the clearing. Intrigued by the fact that someone was hiding just outside the party, he decided to investigate. Andy took notice and chased after the young eevee.
"Hey! What's up!" he asked.
"I saw someone," Connor answered hushed and on alert.
"Wait, what?" Andy exclaimed. "Where?"
"Over there," Connor directed, his fur stiff with excitement and anticipation for adventure. The two of them glanced at each other and dove into the forest and out of sight of the party.
"Andy?" a voice whispered, freezing the two in their tracks.
"Both the flareon and the eevee looked up to see a similar duo standing on the outskirts staring at them.
"Trent! And Kat!" Connor exclaimed. He and Andy rushed over to them.
"What the hell are you two doing here? This place will drive you insane!" Andy greeted.
"We need to borrow some unused equipment, specifically the broken DJ kit," Trent answered seriously. He turned to continue walking, not wanting his mission to be interfered with.
Andy began staring at his feet while the two passed him without regard. He had decided that it was now or never to regain their trust.
"Wait!" Andy shouted, drawing the attention of the other three.
"If you don't mind, we're kinda busy and don't have time for games," Kat told him. She had that same determined expression she carried when she destroyed Paige in battle earlier.
"Kat! Just listen to me!" Andy countered.
"Fine. What is it?" Kat gave in.
"Kat! I want to apologize for the time I betrayed you eight years ago."
"That was eight years ago!" was Kat's response. She turned back to glare at him. "Why?"
Andy inhaled, taking a brief moment to solidify his thoughts.
"Because I lost something important to me, and while it took me damn forever, I finally see my fault. I lost your friendship, and I lost your trust. This apology is long overdue, so right now I am apologizing for everything. For doubting you, ever since the day you left the training squad. For not sticking up for you, and leaving you alone for so long. And for being too ignorant to realize that you were hiding a bigger issue from us. Kat, we used to be good friends way back then. I'm sorry for ruining that. It is perfectly reasonable if you cannot forgive me, but I wanted to let you know I truly, truly regret everything."
"I'm sorry too," Connor confessed. "Until recently, I had no idea just how unfairly neglected you were."
Trent watched carefully to make sure they weren't pulling any tricks, but what they said seemed genuine. He looked back at Kat, unsure how she would react. They all waited a full minute. Andy watched in genuine sorrow. Connor was trying to reimagine all the times Kat was neglected and shunned by him and his friends whenever she passed by. Trent continued studying all of their expressions.
Kat didn't say anything, but Trent noticed tears starting to escape. He quickly embraced her to try to keep her calm. After a few moments of sniffling, her face changed from grief to deep contemplation. Finally, she sighed. "Sorry, but it is really hard for me to accept your word after so long. It'll take a while until I can trust you."
"That's fine. You should still get away from here though," Andy warned. "Let Connor and I get that kit for you. Dock work?"
Kat nodded.
"You sure about this?" Trent asked, both skeptical and concerned.
"Count on it!" Andy answered defiantly. "It was in the way anyways."
"That was some impressive agility," spoke a friendly machoke after taking a sip from his bottled beverage. "You have a trainer?"
"Nope," Kieren answered. He bit the bottle and raised it with his left paw, successfully pouring the contents into his mouth. His eyes blew open at the taste. "This is really good! What's it made from?"
The two of them were sitting on a bench, watching the people on the platform try to move the beam back in place.
"It's strawberry moomoo milk. Fresh from miltank and mixed with a strawberry blend," the machoke answered. "So I'm guessing you're new to the city then?"
"You could say that," Kieren answered, taking another sip of possibly his new favorite beverage. "Mind my ignorance, but do you mind telling me what you lot are doing?"
"Well, we're one of the few local construction companies in this city, which means we build things like buildings and roads," the machoke explained with added hand gestures.
"That explains a lot," Kieren acknowledged with a nod. "So what exactly are you guys building anyways?"
"See all that water over there?" the machoke asked while pointing back at the pond.
Kieren nodded.
"The place is called a splash park. It is free to people and pokemon to cool off in the summer," the machoke explained, while leaning back against the bench. "You see that girl over there next to the mudkip? She's one of the trainers at the new gym. Gyms are places where trainers can test their skills. Each gym is led by a gym leader, one of the strongest trainers in the region. Defeating a gym leader is an impressive feat. Few succeed, yet many try and work towards improvement. Anyways, the gym leader requested we build another splash park, except it will be hidden by a wall, and instead of water, will be filled with some other thing the gym trainers are fond of, except that girl. She just arranges all that water to fall right where she's sitting. Anyways, I have to get back to work. It was nice chatting with ya. Feel free to stop by tomorrow. We might just need your help again. Haha. Take care!"
Kieren stared as the machoke stood up and disappeared into the construction site. The machoke's ramblings left him with more questions than answers, but also a lot of hope. If he was going to find a competent trainer, then perhaps this gym place could possibly play a beneficial role in his search?
"But what the heck would you prefer in a pond over water?" Kieren asked himself as he hopped off the bench and began his return back to the hotel.
Following another hardy meal with Mason, Kieren was back out on the street exploring another sector of Eon City. The sun was slowly showing signs of departing, and the changing sky exposed new tints previously hidden inside the skyscraper walls.
"Hey Mr. Umbreon!" called a voice Kieren thought he recognized. He turned only to realize he was looking at the two weirdos that had harassed him earlier that day. He was about to look away, but the blue one's actions surprised him.
"Is this you?" the blue one asked, pointing to the wall.
Either those two were clearly mental, or they were pointing out a serious threat. Wishing to ensure the former, Kieren silently approached and examined the paper hung to the wall the two were pointing at. Sure enough, there he was, or rather a picture of him, right smack in the middle of the paper! Kieren jumped back in alarm.
"It says you're a golfing prodigy entering the next tournament," the blue one told him.
"Oh," Kieren sighed. "That's right." Realizing that it was all a false alarm, Kieren paused to dictate his next course of action, when he suddenly realized what the blue creature just did. "Wait? You can read?" Nevermind being mental, these two had Melody intelligence!
"Yea, we're from a Pokemon city," the blue one explained.
"So you like really good atta golfing?" the red one interrupted.
"I only tried it once," Kieren admitted. The blue one accepted his answer without question and turned back to the poster. Anticipating the gap in silence, the red one peeped in.
"You can't read? What kind of powerful… UGH!"
"Anyways!" the blue one emphasized impatiently as the red one mumbled something while rubbing his stomach. "Says here winner gets a cash prize of dang! Y'can buy a shack with dat dough"
"Shack?" Kieren asked confused.
"Dat's right! You dee outdoorsy type. Ya'know how humans live en em indoor places?" the red one asked.
"Houses?" Kieren asked, recalling a few details from Melody's lecture.
"Yep! Like the ones down this street here, but for city poke's," the blue one explained.
"Roof, bed, bath, mailbox, the works!" the red one chimed, raising his stubby arms up in the air again.
Kieren stared blankly in response.
"Say, how long you've been in the city?" the blue one asked.
"Not long," Kieren responded casually. These two were still kinda weird, but they had information, and he was in a better mood now.
"You been to Eon Park Square?" the blue one asked.
"Haven't heard of it," Kieren answered.
"Would you like us to give you a tour, since you were headed that way anyways? I'm Leon, by the way," the blue one offered.
"Kieren," Kieren introduced himself. The weirdos could read, and they were offering to teach him things. Plus this conversation was going much smoother. He'd give them a second chance.
"Nice meeting you, Kieren. That plusle there is my brother Eddie," Leon explained while Eddie was distracted by a shiny thing on the ground. "Sorry for his inappropriate behavior."
"It's fine," Kieren waved. "I could use a few friends to teach me city things."
"Well let's get going then!" Leon cheered. "Eddie, you go on ahead and count how many golf posters you see."
Eddie did not hesitate to dash off down the road and nearly out of sight.
"What's he counting for?" Kieren asked as he and Leon turned about and began walking towards Eddie's general direction.
"Keeps him busy," Leon answered absentmindedly. Kieren broke a grin.
"Plusle, huh?" Kieren tested his tongue.
"Yep. I'm a minun in case you're wondering. Care to tell me all about your adventures in the city? I'd love to hear how you got into the golfing tournament!"
Kieren chuckled to himself. "Well, this is my sixth day here. I received a tour the first day from a friend, and then we went golfing. I spent the next four days in the PCER, and now I'm here."
"You were in the PCER for four days?" Leon nearly freaked. "What happened?"
"I got hit by a stray ball on my last putt on the last hole," Kieren answered casually, unbothered by the mishap.
"And you're golfing again in a tournament? I would be traumatized!" Leon confessed emphatically.
"Good luck! Kid," Kieren uttered with a tap and a knowing grin. The minun turned to him in puzzled awe, provoking an amused look from the black creature. "Which reminds me, what made you two decide to visit the valley?"
Leon glanced over at the umbreon with a concerned look. When Kieren showed no signs of pain, Leon answered brightly.
"Eddie and I make a backup band called the Battery Bros."
"The Battery Bros?"
"Yea. It's actually our family name. I'm Leon Battery. We're not like an ordinary band though since it's just the two of us. Instead we team up with solo musicians and put on live shows. We were hoping to get some business in the valley, but between you and that other girl, we've backed off that idea."
"Other girl? I think I know who you're talking about," Kieren commented. Quickly not wanting to shift topics to his past, he followed up with more questions. "So music, huh? What instruments do you play?"
"I play just about anything: guitar, bass, keyboard, a couple times even the violin. Depends on what our client needs," the minun answered while humbly rubbing a fake itch behind his ear.
"And your brother?" Kieren asked curiously while taking a glance at the zigzagoon-wannabe Eddie ahead.
"He plays drums," Leon answered. "Keeps him busy."
Author's Note: Wow! That was a long chapter! It won't be the last of them either! There's a few coming up like this. Because of that, and because I haven't had as much time lately, I'm going to raise the stakes a bit for the bonus chapter. Don't worry! This isn't permanent! A couple of you have sent some really good name suggestions publicly and privately! And while I have some candidates, it'd be really cool if I could get a good list of them, because your suggestions have been really good, and as you probably know, have been filling up other character name slots left and right! So for the bonus chapter, I'm going to request three more name suggestions between at least two different people. I think that's fair, right? Feel free to start some forum or something to discuss it and PM me the link, if that works better. Anyways, for all of you in the States, safe travels for the upcoming holiday! Just think, 10 more years… See you all next time! ~Dreaming I'm Latios