"So I take it the battle went well?" Kari asked as Kevin tossed the Cobble Badge into the air, catching it again for the hundredth time. He chuckled, holding the small piece of silver up to the sinking sun to see how the light reflected off of it.
"It was too easy, really. Styler did really well for a rookie and I barely got hurt at all," He paused, slightly frowning. "Mist needs a lot of work, though. As soon as she figures out how to use some more powerful attacks, she should be fine."
It was around four in the afternoon, and it was already starting to get dark. It didn't bother him that much, though. Right now, Kevin was still caught up with his victory. The way the orange lighting complimented the badge's own colouring helped.
"Five more to go, then. At this rate, it shouldn't take that long at all," Kari beamed. Suddenly, she remembered something. "Oh hey, why is Lana all gloomy?"
Kevin flinched. "Well… I don't know," he said quickly. Kari saw through the lie easily and glared at him.
"Yeesh. You've gotta learn to stop making other people feel bad, otherwise you'll end up just like—"
"Like Shady, I know. That's all you ever talk about," grumbled Kevin. He was really getting tired of being compared to dear old Uncle Mono.
Kari turned her head, her face mildly annoyed with him. "It's not my fault that you two are pretty much twins. If it weren't for the age difference, I'd think you were."
"We're nothing alike," Kevin stressed. It wasn't hard to tell the difference, really.
"Dear," Kari said. Kevin shot her a glare.
"Would you quit calling me that? Like I said, I'm not him."
She seemed a little taken aback. "I… you're right. You're not, and I should know that…" Trailing off, she quickly changed subjects again. "So, um, what are you planning to do for the next gym?"
"That depends. What type is it?" He kind of wished that types were standardized across all the regions so he'd know already, but whatever.
"Water," Kari replied steadily.
Damn, that sucked. "Oh. That's nice," he said sarcastically.
Kari started to trot over across the clearing to Cheri. "Thought you might say that. C'mon and tell the rest of us how to win."
"Wha— Hey!" Kevin yelled after her before stumbling to catch up.
All members of the team save Kevin himself sat attentively and listened to what he had to say. Truthfully, he was lacking in the fighting-against-waters department. Kevin tended to avoid them a lot due to the dangers of getting his flame doused. He only took them on when he was sure he could win, like the pink sluggish thing he'd battled when he'd evolved. To be honest, Kevin wasn't even sure if he could battle Mist confidently, weak attacks and all.
Kari was definitely in the gym battle group. That much he could figure. The traits that made her a terrible choice for the last gym made her somewhat useful for the upcoming fight – water types were generally slow Pokémon, with only a select few being above average in speed. Kari could probably do some damage, as long as none of them packed Ice Beam or something.
Speed was a good thing here, yeah. Cheri would be good, then, even if she was a horrible attacker. Wherever water type gyms were found, Gyarados were sure to be there. The only reason it wasn't used in Sootopolis was because the gym leader liked "beautiful" Pokémon, right? Yeah, that was it. He hoped the gym leader here was sensible enough to use Gyarados regardless of how it looked.
…Wait, no he didn't. Gyarados were really good. It'd be better if they didn't have to take one down. Oh well, Cheri would be on the team anyway. Fast electrics were useful.
So that left Nini, Mist, Styler and himself. Kevin had figured that Buneary were pretty much the equivalent of Skitty from Hoenn: cute, but kind of bad. Mist was okay, but water versus water wasn't exactly a good match up either. Styler could probably work, but potential Ice Beams and intimidates from Gyarados would be something to look out for. And himself?
His grandmother had always used Thunder Punch to counter water types. He'd never inherited that, though, and he had no idea how to go about learning the move. What else was there? Solarbeam was a no-go unless he wanted to evolve. Other grass type moves? Razor Leaf, Magical Leaf, Stun Spore, Giga Drain, Grass Knot, Absorb…
Well, Grass Knot was just making a knot out of grass. Maybe he could learn that? There was no way he'd be able to perfect it without a lot of practice, though. And where was he supposed to get the grass from indoors? Kevin sighed internally. He was going to have to rely on the others for this gym, but he'd get back in the game after. Unless the next gym was ground or something.
"'Kay. Here's the deal. Styler leads as a sort of test run. He'll be like Mist last match and try to do as much damage as possible. Then Cheri, I guess. Um… Just Thunderbolt stuff. Kari, you're last. Just Razor Leaf like heck and Bite if they get too close. That sound good?"
"Je ne fait pas le Thunderbolt," replied Cheri.
"What? You… You can't?" What kind of electric type didn't have Thunderbolt?
"J'ai le Spark," she said. "C'est bon?"
"Uh…" Couldn't she sprinkle some more English in there? "Spark's like Flame Wheel, right? It should be okay… I think." 'Okay' was being generous. Physical moves against a Gyarados, even if they were quadruple-effective, wouldn't be doing the damage they needed. But it was better than nothing.
She smiled and said something else in French. Kevin chose to smile and nod back, even if he had no idea what she said. He looked around to the others. "All good?"
The others all shrugged or nodded. Then Kari decided to take the lead.
"All right, then, it's settled! We should all get some training in this evening, so meet back here once it gets to dark, okay?" Slowly but surely, the rest of the team went their own separate ways to battle some more wild Pokémon, leaving Kevin and Kari alone.
"Could I talk to you again?" she asked, quickly snapping her head up to face him. He looked at the Grotle, shrugged, and sat down by a tree.
"Sure," he answered. What else was there to talk about anyway?
"Um… If it's too personal, you don't have to answer, but… Where did your father go?" Kevin's face contorted into an unpleasant frown.
He crossed his arms and scoffed before answering. "According to Mom, he left to become a human."
Naturally, Kari was surprised. "Really? How would he do that?"
"With a machine or something, who knows?" Kevin said as he got up and walked away. The truth was, he did know, but he really didn't feel like telling Kari anything about it. Besides, what did it matter to her? His father hadn't had anything to do with his life for years now.
Kari followed him, excited. "Oh, come on! This is important! If Pokémon can turn into humans somehow—"
"Then that would be bad. Trust me, I've met some of my dad's friends. They're all so weird." Kevin sighed.
"Oh really? How so?" pressed Kari. Kevin shot her a look and attempted to explain further.
"Their instincts make them crazy. One of them has to do a creepy dance ritual every Monday night." Kari laughed at this.
"What Pokémon are— Er, were they?" she asked.
"Clefairy," said Kevin, which made her laugh even harder.
"Ha! But seriously, though. It's actually possible… That is, if I'm to take your word for it. Why doesn't anyone know about it, then?" The two stopped walking. Huh, she had a point.
"Not sure. I guess they wanted to keep it secret." Kevin cracked his knuckles. "All right, let's see if we can find some kid trainer to battle us for once."
The next few days were a blur of uninteresting events for Kevin. They'd found a restaurant with tons of trainers who were willing to fight them, and that had certainly toughened them up. There were other trainers here and there that they'd battled too. Overall, it was just more grinding, but it was grinding they needed.
He decided to be nice to Lana (after all, he had kind of stolen her spotlight at Veilstone) and let her command the team in the Pastoria gym match. Unfortunately, the first time around resulted in a loss. Although Kevin really wanted to just jump in there and battle himself, if they were going to win the league, Lana had to be skilled too. So for the rest of the day, he trained her instead.
By the end of the week they'd obtained their new badge. Lana seemed to be feeling a little better, but she also still seemed to be sore. He shrugged it off, though. She could deal with her own problems. He had more important things to think about.
The whole time, Kari was becoming even friendlier, which was kind of disturbing. He couldn't count how many times he told her that he wasn't the Shade, but she ignored him and kept on treating him like he was. She couldn't get her memories out of her mind, he guessed.
The one thing Kevin wasn't sure was good or bad, though, was actually somewhat intriguing. He didn't know how or why, but for some reason, he was starting to get sort of famous. Trainers would come up to him and ask him if he wanted to battle instead of Lana, and people seemed to be recognizing him, even when they made their way back up to Hearthome City.
It wasn't until they were taking a break in the Pokémon Center that he realized how major it was.
Kevin was lounging on one of the couches when the report went on the radio. At first, he didn't pay any attention to it; if it wasn't a battle or a contest it wasn't worth watching, or listening to, for that matter. Once the reporter mentioned the Shades, though, he perked up to listen to what she was talking about.
"…However, inside sources claim that this new Monferno entering the playing field is in no way affiliated with them. We will now begin our exclusive interview with Mr. Shade himself."
The reporter's voice was replaced with another woman's. "This is Roxy, here with Mr. Shade! All right, let's cut to the chase. Do you know anything about this 'Slick' character?"
Kevin blinked. Slick? But that meant…
"Like I keep saying, no," said a deep voice. Kevin did a double take. Okay, that voice sounded eerily familiar… But he supposed Uncle Mono would have a tone similar to his mother's, but male. Still, it sounded pretty deep for someone barely three feet tall.
"But you must have some idea of who he is or where he's from, right? Or are you saying that he's just an imitator?" asked reporter Roxy. She sounded pretty into the interview.
"I don't even know what this kid looks like," said the Shade. Kari, who was previously a few feet away from Kevin, had scuttled up to the couch.
"Eyewitness reports describe him as three feet—"
"Obviously," the Shade cut in. He sounded like a grumpy person, no doubt.
"—with blue eyes as the most striking feature," finished Roxy, unfazed. There was a pause.
"Are you sure?" said Mr. Shade.
"Definitely. Do you know who Slick is, Mr. Shade?" Roxy added, her excitement becoming clear. "Oh, I know! Why don't you say a few words to him, in case he's listening?"
"Give me a minute, I've gotta word this right," the Shade said. There was a brief hesitation before the sound of a throat being cleared was heard. Roxy waited patiently for him to answer.
"Mr. Shade?" she asked, her voice practically oozing with curiosity.
"Okay. Listen, Slick. I know who you really are. And if you don't get over to the Battle Zone soon, some chump's gonna pay, all right? That's all." The Shade's conclusion was hastily followed by Roxy again.
"Well now! It sounds like we have a new rivalry going on!" she sounded like she was grinning.
"It's not a rivalry, I just wanna kill him," muttered the Shade. The interview then cut to a commercial advertising the Veilstone Game Corner.
"So that's what he sounds like, huh?" Kevin muttered. A few pairs of eyes were on him, but he paid them no mind.
"His voice never used to be that deep," acknowledged Kari.
"He knows my old nickname," Kevin remarked.
"Well, yeah, why wouldn't he?" Kari asked, clearly perplexed.
Kevin sighed and shook his head. "We'd better start working hard. I wouldn't want someone innocent to pay for my lateness, would I?"
He was looking forward to meeting the Shade in person, he really was.