The Hearthome Gym battle did little to save Kevin from his wandering thoughts. Now that he knew the reason he was in Crazyland was due to a stroke of pure misfortune, he couldn't shake his mind off it. Of course, it'd be hard to stop thinking about why he hadn't aged for ten years regardless, but it was really irking him.

He admitted that he felt a little cheated. As a child, Kevin had always fantasized about going on an adventure only he could complete. He'd ramble on and on, reciting what would happen to his mother and hearing her replies of "That's lovely, sweetheart," while she only half-listened. And now, when he was told that this pseudo-"adventure" had nothing to do with him and that there was nothing special about it, all that was left was the sour taste of defeat.

Cut it out. Focus on the gym battle, he thought to himself as he dodged an incoming Shadow Ball from the leader's Gengar. He rarely addressed his conscience like this, but then again, Pokémon were rarely shoved in a box for ten years without aging. His tail grazed the blob of otherworldly energy and he cursed.

He fired a Flamethrower at his opponent. What Kevin really wanted to do right now was go home. He just wanted to forget about the Shades, Kari, Sinnoh, and everything else to go home and curl up in his favourite pecha tree without a care in the world. And then, magically, it'd be as though nothing happened; it'd still be 2000 and he'd still be one of the only talking Pokémon around.

He'd been avoiding the subject of thinking what had changed back home – who knew, maybe the pecha tree was gone, in its place just a lowly stump in the loamy soil, devoid of fruit like Sinnoh had come to be. Maybe the flock of Swellow that had called them demons for so long had moved on to a different forest. And maybe his mother was reaching the end of her life.

Kevin gulped down the increasingly foul taste. He charged into a Flame Wheel to avoid an attack that barely registered, spinning a little slower than usual. He had dreaded his mind wandering to the subject as it had several times the night before, but he supposed he couldn't help it.

His mother wasn't exactly young when she had her first child. Being three years older than his father must've been awkward, Kevin thought, but that wasn't the main issue. The fact remained that his mom was twenty-eight when Kevin was born – an age fine for humans, but quite late for Monferno.

True, Monferno lived a fairly long life span usually, but since his mother was wild and not domestic, her life was considerably shorter. There was also the fact that Uncle Nick had died at age thirty, and although he was not exactly a standard Monferno of any kind and it wasn't even a natural death, it made Kevin worry a bit more than he would have.

So if he'd done his math right (which Kevin was sure he did because he actually knew how to count), his mother was currently fifty-two. No wonder she looked different on Lana's phone.

Unless a miracle happened and his mom lived to a hearty eighty, he doubted he would get to see much more of her. And the more time spent hunting the Shades, the less time he'd have with his mother once he got back home.

Kevin's eyes stung when he was hit with a Shadow Punch to the back of his head. Oh right, the battle… He needed to focus on the battle…

Somersaulting in the air with a flourish, Kevin launched himself into a Flame Wheel and quickly aimed for his target – his little brother, who, as usual, was eating part of his everlasting supply of apples.

Kyle cried out upon the strike. "Hey! Mom told you not to do that, Kevin!" he whined, shuffling away from his attacker.

Kevin laughed. "You're so weak. Maybe if you ate something other than those apples for once, you'd actually stand a chance against me," Kevin mused, trying to get a reaction out of his brother. After all, he was bored and he'd already knocked out all the Wurmple in the area.

His brother huffed at him, his deep brown eyes trying to hold back tears. "That really hurt! And I don't want to battle you! Just leave me alone."

Kevin mock-pouted. "You're not any fun at all," he drawled.

"Well if you feel that way, then why don't you leave? I'm sure it'll be so fun for you to go and get beat up yourself for once. Yeah, see how you feel when an Aggron totally destroys you!" Kyle said bitterly.

Kevin blinked. Kyle's idea wasn't actually half bad. Minus the getting destroyed bit, at least. Oh, yeah. He'd travel around Hoenn, get reallyawesome, and then show his dumb little brother how awesome he was. Perfect.

He shot Kyle a grin. "Sounds good. I'll leave tomorrow."

That was a year ago— No, no, it'd be eleven years ago. That was in the summer, before he'd turned thirteen. Had he really been traveling that long? And to think, Kevin hadn't seen the little weakling since, save for a cameo in the background of a few phone calls home. To be honest, Kevin kind of missed his little brother, not that he would admit it out loud.

He really ought to call home and talk to them. His previous phone call had been cut short, after all. Soon, soon he would, as soon as he finished the battle.

Oh crap, the battle.

He hadn't even noticed what was going on for the past several minutes. Thank Arceus his subconscious was skilled enough to keep him relatively out of harm's way, though his tail had been grazed quite a lot. Okay. Kevin was going to focus now. There was nothing left to think about, anyway.

…Right?

He said nothing while he accepted the silver and purple badge. Though his mind temporarily stopped thinking about anything painful, he was now plagued with the thought that nothing rhymed with silver or purple. Unless Wurmple counted, of course.

For some reason, the next gym was located upon the western coast of the region, a place that one had to either cross the sea or sky to get to. Upon hearing this, Kevin shuddered. Styler was unfamiliar with the way to go, which meant they'd probably swim over… and Kevin did not want to do that.

"Then go in your Pokéball like the rest of us," said Kari. Kevin shot an incredulous look at the Grotle.

"Are you serious? I'm not going back in that thing," Kevin insisted, his look turning into a steady glare. "You of all people should know why."

"The ball alone didn't do this to you, it was storage. You have nothing to be afraid of," she retorted, her eyes narrowing as usual. "So are you going to let a little water impede your quest for justice?"

"Since when was it a quest for justice?" he mumbled. Kari laughed.

"Well, we're getting back at him for what he did to me, right? That counts as justice in my book." She smiled, showing her teeth, which Kevin found oddly creepy seeing as she tended to not do that.

He sighed and surrendered to the ocean as Lana returned him to his Pokéball. He supposed even the greatest heroes lost battles to inanimate objects… At least, when they were fire type Pokémon who couldn't swim.

Within the confines of his Pokéball, Kevin was free to think alone without being bombarded by attacks. At first he thought of basically the same things as before, worrying about his mother's state of health and whatnot, until it him. He was twenty-four years old.

True, his body hadn't grown in the last decade, but Kevin knew he was alive the whole time, thinking much like he was doing now. During his time in storage, he found it hard to tell time. sometimes it'd feel like he'd been there forever, but other times he'd feel like he was only there a second. Regardless, he had maintained conscious thought for ten years, and to him, that was enough.

Of course, in every other sense, he was still fourteen. Yeah, it wasn't like his brain decided to age by itself. So he looked like a fourteen year old, thought like a fourteen year old, and was really twenty-four. Huh. He wondered if he could abuse that somehow.

Eventually, Lana and Mist got to the opposite shore where Canalave City lay, and the rest of the team was released from their confinement. Kevin glanced around, unhappy with what he saw. If this was supposed to be a beach, it sucked. There was no sand to speak of, and the air was so cool, it was a wonder Lana and Mist were able to swim this far. Apparently Kari noticed him wrinkling his nose, because she started laughing again.

"Did you really expect it to be like down south?" she chided, looking up at him.

"There could at least be something resembling a beach. How does anyone stand it here again?"

Kari shook her head. "If everyone in Hoenn is half as whiny as you two, I think I'll stay up here in the cold."

Kevin frowned. She just had to keep casually mentioning Mr. Shade like that, didn't she? She was kind of obsessed with him…

"Oh, and by the way, there is a beach. Two, actually. In Sandgem Town and Sunyshore," she said.

Kevin threw his arms up in the air. "Your region makes no sense. It's freezing and there's no fruit, but there's a couple beaches in some random towns and a mountain straight down the middle. Is anything consistent here?"

"Not really, the Battle Zone's a tropical paradise even though it's farther up than Snowpoint City," Kari said absentmindedly.

Kevin groaned. He knew a lot of people hated the amount of water in Hoenn, but at least it had the decency to be warm everywhere.

"I want a battle." Well, that was a way to be straightforward.

They had been walking across the giant bridge connecting the two islands that made up Canalave City together when Lana's rude friend Henry showed up out of nowhere and demanded a battle.

Lana started to speak, but he cut her short.

"Not with you, with him," he said, pointing to Kevin.

Rolling his eyes, Kevin replied, "Mind if I ask why?" Truth be told, the team probably needed the battling experience. After all, nobody had evolved for a while even though Kevin thought that they would by now. (He certainly felt powerful enough to do so, even though he'd been resisting.)

Henry's borderline-angry expression was unchanged. "They say you're good. I just want to see if you're some cheap Shades imitator or not."

Kevin's fists clenched. Did everyone have to constantly compare him to the guy? Maybe if Monferno were more commonly used it would stop happening… but that wasn't likely. Kevin crossed his arms. "'Kay. What kind of battle do you want?"

"Single, one Pokémon," said Henry without missing a beat. That was nice for a change, so long as it wasn't a water type—

Oh, was that what the brat was trying to do? Get him with an unfair weakness or something? Henry was clasping a particular Pokéball with confidence, so he wouldn't put it past him to use a cheap strategy. Kevin smirked. Well, not today. He'd already lost to water once.

Henry chucked the Pokéball a few feet in front of him and released… an Infernape.

Oh.

Well, okay, Kevin wasn't going to lose to one of those, either! Infernape sucked, because the two Infernape Kevin knew sucked, so… He shook his head. The rationale didn't matter, but the battle did. And this time, he was going to focus.

He opened with a Mach Punch, narrowly missing the Infernape's jaw and hitting the golden shoulder armour instead. The Infernape glowered down at him, and something about him looked familiar, but unless it was Inneo the Demon Hunter or something it was unlikely he'd met the guy…

"Stone Edge," called Henry. Wha— Damn.

Kevin jumped backwards in time to avoid a large hunk of rock that seemed to appear from nowhere from slamming into him. The Infernape smirked at him, his eyes flashing with cockiness. Wait a minute… Oh, this was that Iffy guy from before, wasn't it?

Well, even if he didn't have anything against Iffy, Kevin wasn't going to go easy. No way, he was just getting started.

Kevin jumped up to perform Aerial Ace, an attack he'd been practicing for a while for no reason in particular. He liked it for its quick and simple style, that and the fact it never missed, like, ever. Plus, it had come in handy in one gym battle, so why wouldn't it in another? True to form, upon Kevin's descent he managed to get Iffy's shin and knock him a bit off balance.

Henry told his Pokémon to use Mach Punch, to which Kevin responded with his own quick fist as well. Meeting knuckle to knuckle, Kevin felt a very unpleasant sensation course through his hand and drew back quickly, jumping back to distance himself. Iffy was definitely a strong opponent, he'd give him that.

The battle continued on, with both sides taking little damage from each other's attacks but being worn out from constantly dodging. Their fight had somehow monopolized the entire left half of the bridge, and a few angry commuters were shouting at them to move out of the way. Kevin laughed, smiled at them, and even learned a few new swear words to use.

It would've gone on longer if it weren't for the fact that they were interrupted. If it weren't for the insane amount of laughter emanating from the Raichu's mouth, Kevin wouldn't have paid him any attention, but here he was laughing his head off.

"Oh, don't stop your fight because of me, boy!" said Chuno with glee, the Naturalist's large teeth sparkling.