Styler flitted around overhead, occasionally swooping low to the ground to graze the tall grass with his tiny wings. They were situated somewhere in the middle of Route 206, down on the lower path due to Lana not bringing a bike with her on her journey. Above them, cyclists zoomed by on the upper road, apparently having dangerous Pokémon battles while doing so.
Since Lana also lacked any traveling companions, she'd decided that having her Pokémon out with her would suffice. For the most part, Kevin agreed to this; he certainly preferred fresh air to the odd state that the Pokéball encased him in, but the normalcy of the whole situation was still unnerving. He figured that now was better than ever for learning a bit more about Sinnoh.
"Kinda funny how it's normal to walk together now, isn't it?" He hoped that by laying the thought out there, he'd at least get some new information that wasn't another vague mentioning of "the Shades."
To his dismay, Kari was the one who answered. "Are you blind? We've been getting odd looks from all those cyclists up on the bike path," She gestured with a nod of her head up to one of the people above them.
Kevin glanced upward. All he could really make out was a smudge of different colours that probably made up a human. He opted for a sort-of comeback. "Point is, it's not wrong."
"You say that like it's supposed to be a crime," Kari said, narrowing her eyes. "Honestly, you're acting more like a human than a Pokémon."
He was? Damn it. "Yeah, well, I grew up—"
"In the ever-so-exotic land of Hoenn where nobody did this. Yeah, we heard you the first time. Newsflash, kid. It's not nineteen-ninety-nine any more."
Well duh. New Year's was almost ten months ago. "I know tha—"
"Really? Do you? 'Cause you act like it was only yesterday. Exactly how deep in the forest did you have to live to not notice the last decade of social advancement? You're pretty much a walking—"
Freezing, Kari whipped her head around to look at him. "What's the year?"
"Not ninety-nine," Kevin replied, walking ahead of her. He honestly had no idea why she kept randomly changing subjects like that. Creepy turtle—
"No really, tell me. Please." Damned determined, too.
"Fine! It's two thousand! Two. Zero. Zero. Zero. There you go," He glared at the reptile with as much disdain as he could muster.
Above him, Styler chirruped. "Heh, you're pretty funny, Slick!" The Starly smiled and flew over to Lana, settling on her shoulder.
"Funny? Wha—" Suddenly, Kari stepped on his foot. "Arceus, what the hell do you want?"
Her expression was surprisingly softer. She lowered her voice. "How were you first captured?"
He blinked. It wasn't any of her bloody business, thank you very much. When he didn't answer, Kari pressed on.
"Let me ask you something else, then. Do Pokémon talk in Hoenn?" Her scarred eye gave the impression of staring right through him. He glared at it.
"No, they don't. There are a couple of exceptions. Me, for one. But the circumstances were different for us, and they'd be difficult for one of you crazy Sinnoh people to understand. Difficult for anyone to understand, really." Kevin was nearing dangerous territory, here. One slip up and he'd be far worse off than being a little girl's possession.
"Do these circumstances have anything to do with the fact that you're different yourself?" she whispered softly.
His eyes widened. "Where the hell are you getting this from? Just because I like contests doesn't mean I… Screw off." He trudged over to the front of the group, far away from any more creepy questions.
Seriously, though. Where was she getting her information? His name, his… differences. She wasn't out of her Pokéball when that Iffy guy or whatever his name was was battling. Yet she still knew something.
He thought back. She could possibly have been one of his father's friends back when he was young. But she was too young for that to be likely, and didn't exactly have the same cheery demeanour that Bill or Uncle Nick had.
He really missed Uncle Nick.
Kevin shook his head. The last thing he needed was to get depressed from old memories of a time where things weren't messed up. A time when the most he had to worry about were the random Wurmple and Taillow who called them freaks. And yet, by telling himself not to remember that, he remembered it anyway. Which lead him to think of other things he need not think about, like breathing and blinking. And now he had to force himself to manually breath and blink until he started to do it subconsciously again.
And now his head hurt.
He looked up from his semi-slow pace to see Styler engaged in battle with a wild Ponyta. Well, actually, Styler apparently just beat it, because everyone was cheering. The bird then started to glow white, and Kevin realized that he was evolving.
It took two seconds or so to walk over to Styler, and thankfully he wasn't too late to view the evolution. He'd seen evolution only twice before – once when his father evolved into his final stage, and his own. He smiled. It was actually pretty cool looking to watch.
Styler's wings grew rapidly, increasing to twice their size. In general, he seemed to be just growing into a bird that was double his height. Then again, most first evolutions were like that. As the glow faded, a very similar yet nonetheless different avian Pokémon was in front of them.
"Oh, awesome! You're as strong as Slick now, right?" Lana asked, a big grin on her face.
Styler flapped his wings once or twice before turning to her. "I suppose you could say that. I really doubt that I'll be able to defeat him without proper planning or training, though… what?"
Lana and Kevin stared at him. "The hell happened?"
"What do you mean? I don't see anything out of the ordinary," Styler replied.
"But you're all… wordy, and stuff," Kevin said. Nothing made sense here.
Nini sighed. "You've got to be kidding. Everyone knows that most Pokémon undergo personality changes when they evolve. It's part of getting a more mature body. I'll bet you were a sweet little boy too before you evolved into your arrogant self."
"Not really," replied Kari, who'd managed to catch up to them.
"Oh… I see what you mean now. I didn't realize that you didn't know about it, Slick," Styler added.
"Still acting like a human," Kari remarked.
He snorted. "I'd tell you what you're acting like, but there are kids around."
"You're a child, too," Kari said, frowning.
Kevin said nothing. He didn't understand why Kari felt the need to keep triggering arguments. They were always the same, too. Couldn't she give him any useful information while insulting him? It'd at least give him a reason to listen to her…
His thoughts were interrupted by a loud, feminine scream that sounded eerily like Lana's.