Kevin really didn't blame everyone for being a bit off. Things had happened a little fast.

But really, it wasn't that incidental, not to him. He'd been holding off on evolving for a while now, finding it more convenient to master (and learn) some of his moves beforehand. That way, he'd be stronger later, right? That's what experts tended to say. He thought it made sense, even if nobody else did.

Although everyone else congratulated him on evolving, Kari was less than impressed. Sure, she'd sized him up and remarked that he looked "a bit more balanced, at any rate" in her raspy reptilian voice, but Kevin couldn't help but get the vibe that something was going on.

But what did he care? Kari wasn't his problem, even if she'd begun to laugh hysterically at his new nickname. (Was Slick really that bad…?)

It was a while before he'd remembered it was supposed to be his birthday, a fact which still creeped him out. As he swallowed his muffin, he cleared his throat, preparing for… the worst?

"So… Apparently it's my birthday," he said to nobody in particular. Just what was he expecting?

"As you said the other night, Chump," Kari drawled. "What do you want, a cake?"

He blinked. "Um…"

Mist the new team member looked up. "Does your species celebrate those?" she asked without faltering. Kevin stared.

"…Doesn't everyone?" he replied, looking at the sky. "Well, either way, I just… Could I maybe… Can I call my mom?"

Nobody said a thing, instead opting to stare at him. Kevin began to sweat. Great, just great. Oh yeah, talking Pokémon were normal here, but it's crazy if you feel like calling your mom and telling her that you're in an insane asylum and need help getting out. Oy vey. Then again, not that many wild Pokémon had telephone access. He tended to forget that.

Lana dug around in her pocket before pulling out something metallic pink. "Um, here."

Kevin took it. "You have a cell phone?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. At least, he was pretty sure it was a cell phone. Lana must have been super rich or something, because it looked totally futuristic, touch screen and everything.

"Doesn't everyone?" she mocked, grabbing another muffin. "Just don't take too long, okay? I'm on a texting plan and I don't have a lot of minutes."

He nodded, getting up and stepping a few feet away from the rest of the group. He could feel Kari's eyes follow him, and he shuddered. She had to be the one running the whole thing, he thought, but he quickly dismissed it. He had to keep his head, here.

Due to his fingers being a bit bigger than they were the day before, he had a bit of difficulty dialling the number he'd dialled plenty of times before. The phone on the other end barely rang once before it was picked up.

"Hello?" asked a voice without turning on the video function. Kevin fumbled around for the video on his end before answering.

"Uh, hey," he said once he pressed what he hoped to be the correct button. "Mom?"

"Kevin? Wha— KEVIN?! Life of the sun," breathed his mother. He blinked. That didn't sound good. "Life of the sun" never sounded good.

She took deep breaths. Kevin could tell that she was trying not to overwhelm herself. Then, carefully, she said, "Sweetheart, start from the beginning."

Uh, what? Kevin blinked a few more times, and then answered, equally careful. "Well, I was captured back in Lilycove, then brought by some bratty moron to the middle of Crazyland McColdsville, then I was traded to someone okay, and then I evolved earlier today. And apparently we're a week ahead or something with the date, because everyone says that it's October twenty-third. Um… Mom?"

His mother's lip was quivering.

"Kevin, it is October twenty-third, darling."

"Well yeah, I know that now, but I thought you'd— Wait, then— Mom, are you okay?" His mother's brown eyes started watering, and Kevin couldn't help but notice how tired she looked.

"Sweetheart… oh no, Cory…"

"Cory?" said Kevin, but the Monferno on the other end shook her head.

"Honey, I'm going to call you back, all right? Just please, please stay out of trouble!" Click.

She hung up. His own mother hung up on him.

She hung up so that she could go and call Cory, somebody who hadn't been around for years. Somebody that just up and left his family one day because he was apparently sick of having fire constantly burning on his head mere days after evolving into an Infernape. Somebody who'd decided that being a dad was something that you could take time off from.

He kicked a pebble on the ground. Fantastic. He was in an alternate dimension where everything had gone completely out of whack. And the only person who could have helped him in any way had hung up her phone.

Kevin trudged back over sourly to the group still eating dinner. Fine. If he had to do this himself, he had to do this himself. No problem. None at all!

Kari stopped him before he got there. Frowning at her, he towered over the turtle and, rather rudely, said, "What?"

"You don't have to bite my head off!" she exclaimed indignantly. Okay, maybe he was overreacting, but he tended to do that whenever he thought about what a wonderful father he had. He grunted and muttered an apology, still eyeing her as if she was the reason there was a sour taste in his mouth. (Had she poisoned his muffin…?)

"Look, Chump, I know there's something… different about you, and I just want to make sure I know exactly what it is." He scoffed.

"Really? Just like how you thought that 'Chump' sounded familiar? I go by Slick now, by the way. And I'd never met a Turtwig before I met you, all right? You've got the wrong guy, whatever it is he's important for," He eyed over her to the rest of the group, but they were either letting them talk in private or putting on a good show of pretending to.

"Wrong guy, hm? Well, I guess that my sources could have been a little shady," she smiled, apparently thinking that she'd gotten him.

The thing was… she hadn't. "What are you talking about?" he asked, giving up on trying to get a clue out of the emphasis.

She narrowed her eyes. "You do realize that he's been looking for you for around a decade now, right? Everything he's done, he's done to find you," Once again, Kevin was lost.

"Somebody's been stalking me since I was a toddler? Really? Golly, I'd better watch my back," he smirked at Kari's fury. "Seriously? You've got a screw loose. There's nothing shady about that."

He strode over to the others with a bitter smile. He knew he was mean, yeah, but she wasn't exactly as sweet as sugar either. She'd caught him at a bad time. His comebacks weren't even that witty. And she totally deserved it, too.

…Okay, maybe not, but whatever. That was the way he was. Years of defending himself from the snide remarks of various woodland creatures were to blame. To be honest, he kind of missed it. Despite the ridicule, everyone knew that he was good with fire and messing with him was the last thing they'd ever do.

In fact, the last time he was messed with was when some Taillow's mom got really pissed at him. He smiled, remembering how he'd been precisely eight feet away from the tree they were nesting in and how a freak of nature like himself couldn't ever be near her children, ever. His dad had gone berserk and beaten the Swellow to a pulp… and evolved…

Crap. The sour taste came back. And sour was the one taste he hated.

"Slick?" asked Mist tentatively. Kevin realized that he must have made a face and smiled.

"Yeah, what?"

"Oh… I'm sorry. It just looked like you were angry about something." He stared at her. She was being excessively formal for one reason or another, and was eating very slowly and neatly as to not get a single crumb on the ground. If he had to use one word to describe her, it'd be "odd", but then again a lot of things were odd in Crazyland.

He looked round at the others. Lana and Styler were at least a little sloppier with their food, so it must have been a personal thing. Kari wasn't eating anything.

He sighed. How could things be so weird and so normal at the same time? After they'd eaten, Lana had returned them all into their Pokéballs, announcing that she'd get a head start on traveling before she would tuck in. And with that… Well, he was in the Pokéball again, left to wonder.