It was sunny, it was summer, and Kevin was having the time of his life. It had rained the night before, so the ground was slightly damp and the fruit on the trees still glistened with water droplets, but he didn't mind. After all, all he had to do was channel heat to his feet, and the water evaporated before it even touched him. He'd learned that trick from his dad.

Said dad was following along behind, keeping an eye on him, and being a bit more careful that he didn't accidentally step in a puddle. Although the trick worked most of the time for the both of them, Kevin soon realized that he was far better at it than his father ever was – Cory just didn't seem to be able to use his fire all that well.

Regardless, Kevin kept on running along, occasionally scaling a tree to grab a berry or two for a snack. There was a mutual agreement in the Holly family that deemed pecha berries to reign superior compared to others (save for Kyle, who hated them), so Kevin threw a couple of the heart-shaped pink fruit to his dad. Cory smiled and ate his, too.

The scene would have been picture perfect if it were allowed to last. But when was the last time anything had been perfect?

There happened to be a small nest on a branch of the pecha berry tree, which also happened to house a young, baby Taillow. The Taillow, being an infant and all, assumed that Kevin was going to attack, seeing as he'd climbed up the tree. She screeched, calling out for her mother, who quickly flew over to see what was wrong.

The mother Swellow, upon seeing him and his father on the ground near the tree – Kevin had climbed down to eat – went utterly berserk. She made a dive for Kevin with her talons, and just barely missed when his father pulled him away. Cory and the bird then started to argue, neither side appearing to get their point across.

"Really, we weren't going to eat her, we're herbivores! You're the top predator in this forest, remember?"

"You dare speak to us in that tongue, demon? How dare you! You were planning to infect my baby!"

"Damn it, would you just listen?"

"I shall not pay any attention to that vile language of yours, you monster!"

"Fine! Is this better?"

"We should have gotten rid of you the moment you stepped foot in our forest! Die, demon!"

To an outsider, the Swellow's words would have sounded ridiculous, but to Kevin, they were terrifying. He didn't understand. Why did speaking the way he did make you a demon? It's not like he'd ever hurt anybody…

The argument had turned into a full-fledged battle now. Cory was at a disadvantage; his part-fighting type being weak to flying, of course, but he was putting up a decent enough fight. The baby Taillow in the tree continued to shriek, yet the other Taillow and Swellow who came to investigate meekly stood on the sidelines.

Kevin was confused. The mother Swellow had been the first Pokémon to ever actually pick a fight with his father. The rest had all claimed something about demonic powers that would let him always win, yet… Kevin could see, even at the age of five, that his dad was having trouble fighting off just one of them.

That was right, Uncle Nick was the better battler. But his dad couldn't lose. What would happen then?

Cory's signature move of sorts, Aerial Ace, was countered quickly by the Swellow's own version of the move. Cory was pushed back a little, fatigue starting to set in. This wasn't right… No… Kevin's dad told him that he beat a Rhydon…

As the Swellow swooped in for the final blow, Cory unleashed a Flamethrower. Kevin stared at it transfixed; he'd only ever seen a Flamethrower on their lousy little television before. But the way the flames looked when he saw it for real was amazing.

The attack was too much for the Swellow to bear. Of course, that made sense; his father was actually pretty physically weak looking, now that he thought about it, so his special moves worked better. But if a Flamethrower was that powerful, why didn't he just use it before?

Before Kevin could wonder any more, however, he'd already been scooped up and carried off towards their little nook hidden deep in the western portion of the woods. He glanced up to see his dad's face, which smiled back at him. The flesh around the smile was charred, though.

"It gives me a sore throat when I do that," whispered Cory. "That's why I never—"

Cory began to glow, startling him enough to almost drop Kevin. "Damn it, the everstone's back at home…"

Kevin's eyes widened. "Dad?"

Cory swore as he started to evolve. "Why do I have to evolve now?" He quickly lowered Kevin to the ground.

"But you said evolving is good, right?" Kevin said, watching his father with concern.

"Not for me, it's going to—" Cory muttered, his voice sounding croaky.

"But…" Kevin trailed off. His father grabbed his glasses off his face, and Kevin could see why; They'd begun to melt at the ends from the fire that had erupted out of Cory's head. The bright light from the evolution began to clear away to reveal his father's new form, which was kind of scary.

He'd seen an Infernape before, one called Inneo. He'd come to Petalburg Woods to find Kevin's mother, who had run away from their clan. Kevin couldn't remember that well, but he was pretty sure that Inneo was the one who first called his father a demon.

His father looked nothing like Inneo, though. Cory was at least a foot taller than the Infernape he'd seen before, maybe even two… And that wasn't even counting the fact that Inneo was hunched over. No, the Infernape that Kevin was looking at was lanky and bony, with dull eyes and misshapen looking armour.

Cory just looked wrong.

Kevin walked over to his father. "Dad?"

"I bet I look terrible," he managed to choke out. "I feel sick."

"Should I call mom?"

"No, I'm not dying," Cory answered. "At least, I don't think I am. I'll be fine, don't worry."

Don't worry.

Don't worry, even though in a few days, his father would be long gone and he'd never see him again.

Kevin absolutely despised himself whenever he had that dream.

When he woke up the next morning, Kevin tried to forget what he'd relived during the night. He really doubted that it was an accurate memory, of course, seeing as his father was so heroic and amazing in it. Kevin just couldn't believe that someone like fake-dream Cory would go and leave his wife and kids like that. The memory had probably been skewed from his more idealistic days as a small child.

The imagery was accurate, though. His father was a very uncanny version of an Infernape that was very hard to forget. He'd figured out why a little later, once he'd gotten a bit smarter, but seeing his father like that again almost made him cringe.

"But Mom still loved you, regardless. She didn't care," Kevin barely noticed that he was talking aloud.

He surveyed his surroundings from the tree that he'd chosen to spend the night on. He could see what he deduced to be Hearthome City only a ten minute walk away, along with a couple of paths branching off from it into the distance. He grimaced; that meant that if he'd missed Lana and the team, he'd have to ask around to see which way they went.

Kevin smoothly climbed down the tree. He didn't really know if Kari would know the location of the Shades' hideout or if she'd even give it to him, but he didn't know what else to do. Surely it'd be suspicious if he started asking around, right? He didn't want to get himself caught by the Shades.

Suddenly, Kevin remembered how the Bidoof-part-two had been some sort of Shades fanboy. If only he'd asked him before he'd run off…

Kevin wished his hindsight were his foresight sometimes.

The well-worn path underneath his feet quickly led Kevin to Hearthome, but once he got there, he felt pretty lost. The city seemed to love signs with words only, leaving Kevin to make his best guesses as to what everything was. Thankfully, he at least knew what a gym from this region looked like, so he found that soon enough. When he tried the doors, though, they were locked. There was a note taped to them, but he had no idea what it said.

There was a weird laugh from behind him, making Kevin turn around. A female Yanma was giggling at him, her wings transparent-looking from beating so fast.

"The gym's closed. It says so right there," She smirked. Or, at least, it sounded like she smirked, but it was hard to tell with a Yanma. She cocked her head. "Oh, wait, weren't you that Monferno that girl had?"

Kevin blinked. "So you're the Yanma that guy had?"

"I guess that means yes. Um, yeah, my trainer's just giving us some air," She glanced over to a bench across the street, where Henry was playing a Gameboy or something with his Pokémon nearby. Kevin wasn't sure what it was; it had two screens.

"Oh… Hey, have you seen Lana?" Kevin asked quickly before she darted back to her group.

"Your trainer? What, you lost her or something? I'll go ask Henry." She flew over to the kid, and yeesh, she was fast. It wasn't even five seconds before she zoomed right back.

"He says he hasn't seen her since Eterna. Sorry." She looked about as sympathetic as a giant red dragonfly could look. "I hope you find her!" And that was it. She took off back towards her trainer.

He sighed. He figured he could at least figure out which gym was next, though, so he followed the Yanma over to the group of hopeful league-winners.

Aside from the Yanma and that Iffy guy, there was also a Haunter. He didn't seem to be paying attention to anyone though, just floating, suspended in midair with only his shadowy hand anchoring him to the bench. Henry looked up from his double-screen Gameboy and raised an eyebrow.

"What are you doing here?" he asked with an air of not caring in the least.

"I'm kind of looking for Lana, so… Do you know where the next gym is? Since this one's closed, I mean," Kevin asked with as much politeness as he could stand. This kid was annoying.

"East," he grunted.

"Can't you just point in the direction or something?" Kevin asked. He was getting tired of answers like that.

He pointed straight out in front of him before returning his hand to the A button. Kevin muttered a dry thanks and started heading in the direction he'd been shown. After several minutes of walking, however, Kevin was met with a dead end.

"Craptacular," he drawled before deciding that he'd just wander around to try and find the Pokémon Center. Kevin remembered that when he'd seen the city from the tree before, based on the position of the Pokémon Center, he'd just have to go right, then up, then right, then up, and then he'd be out.

Except it wasn't like he was playing a video game. Kevin sighed. Wasn't there someone friendlier that he could ask?

It wasn't the mindless wandering that bothered him. He'd done that a lot while he explored Hoenn. He was just starting to get pretty homesick, especially so since he was getting hungry again. At this point even nomel berries would be good, and those things destroyed your taste buds for three whole days.

And… as much as Kevin hated to admit it, he really liked being able to talk to other people while he walked. Of course, he didn't like the fact that ninety percent of the time the person he was talking to insulted him, but that was normal enough. He'd grown up being called a demon child, after all. Being called stupid or moron was nothing.

Okay, okay. Maybe he kind of liked being on a trainer's team. It wasn't nearly as bad as some forest inhabitants had made it out to be, and in the end… Well, after he got all this Shades business sorted out, he'd probably stick with Lana and enter the Pokémon League. He'd always liked to watch it on TV. Actually participating would be awesome.

Somehow during his wandering and wondering, Kevin had made it to the Pokémon Center. Maybe there was a map inside or something? At any rate, he figured that it couldn't hurt.

When he stepped inside he saw Henry and company again. He paid them no mind, instead focusing on the walls to try and spot the thing that would tell him where to go next. The ones in Hoenn had little badge pictures on the cities to show which one you were supposed to go to next, and he hoped that Sinnoh did too. Pleasantly, they did, but Kevin was met with another predicament.

Both paths out of the city lead to gyms.

Kevin cursed. He didn't know which one was technically the next after Hearthome's gym, but judging by the length of the routes, he assumed that the southern path was the one that trainers were intended to use. After all, who'd waste all that time to take the long way to the diamond-shaped badge's town? No, the blue circle badge was definitely closer.

So, that was that. Lana most likely went to get the blue circle badge, and Kari was with her. And once he got Kari to spill the location of the Shades' base, he'd go and confront them and hopefully not wind up in a terrible situation. And after that, he'd participate in the Sinnoh League and then go home. Heh, Kyle was going to be jealous for sure.

He grinned. Awesome.