"Hey, um, Slick?" asked Mist after an hour or two. Kevin, who had been glancing around for yet another opponent, turned to her.
"Yeah? What is it?" he asked breezily. Come on, somebody that wasn't a Golbat…
"How come yours and Kari's personality didn't change when you evolved, but Styler's and Nini's did?" she asked. Er… What?
Kevin shrugged. "I don't know," he said. How was he supposed to know? He wasn't a professor or anything. Seeing Mist's face, though, he decided to make a makeshift explanation. "It probably depends on the species or something. Or how long you've been in that evolution stage."
Mist frowned. "But Slick, how do I know if my personality will change? I don't want it to…"
Kevin shrugged again. "Sorry, Mist, but I really don't have a clue. But judging by Styler and Nini, personality change doesn't seem to be a bad thing. You don't have anything to worry about."
Mist sighed, thanked him, and then walked away to find an opponent for herself. Kari, who had just finished battling yet another Graveler, walked up to Kevin. She was chuckling.
"Yeesh, Chump, what did you say to her?" Kari asked, smiling.
Kevin shrugged yet again. "Nothing! She just started asking about evolving and personality changes, and I didn't know, so I told her I didn't." Kari was shaking her head. "What?"
"She has a crush on you, d-Kevin," Kari said. They both mutually decided to ignore the almost-dear without a word, but it took Kevin a second to process the actual sentence.
"Wait, what?" he asked. This was new.
"She's been thinking that you're cute ever since you became something of a celebrity," Kari explained, "as I'm sure many other girls are. The same thing happened when he became famous… Though I believe he's gotten far more attention than you have."
"Really?" Kevin asked, raising his eyebrows. He found this hard to believe. For one, he was pretty sure he looked like his father, which would mean he looked uncanny, not cute. Secondly… The notion was just absurd. People hardly liked him, let alone liked him.
Kari smiled knowingly. "Look, Kevin, it doesn't matter what you look like if you're famous, there's always going to be some people harbouring unrequited love for you. That seems to be the rule, anyway. Most of these people will be young preteens, unfortunately," She laughed. "Though I suppose since you're still fourteen, that isn't a bad thing for you."
Kevin frowned. "Right. No." Once again, he was discussing that subject with Kari. Last time he checked, Kevin thought Kari was ten years older than him. And a turtle.
Kari seemed to remember this, as she quickly shut up and went to go battle somebody. Kevin looked around, finally found someone he hadn't already challenged that day, and went to battle them.
As Kevin started fighting his new opponent (a hefty Steelix, who would be good practice for the gym), he found himself wondering about the Shade. He hadn't really learned anything new in the past little while, and it was bugging him. So the Shade almost died. Okay. And? He didn't see how this knowledge would help him at all.
Well… He did get confirmation of Kari's creepy love for the Shade, though. He'd guessed that she liked him before, but hearing her say it was true made him uncomfortable. What would have had to happen between a Monferno and a Turtwig for them to fall in love? Surely trying to escape a laboratory together couldn't bring two completely different species together like that. Could it? Maybe it depended on the people involved.
So. The story was as follows: The Shade somehow got captured by Professor Rowan, and wanted to escape. Kari, who also wanted to escape, started working together with him. The two broke a window, got horribly injured but survived, and fell in love. Then the Shade decided to be a dick and left her at the lab so he could escape on his own. Then he got famous for… er…
He'd forgotten to clear up whatever vague Pokémon rights thing they did. He knew they'd been changing laws around to try and be more fair and whatever, but how did they get to the point where people listened to them?
…That would probably have something to do with everyone's ability to speak human, too. He'd almost forgotten it wasn't normal since it was so widespread in Sinnoh. Hmm, he had plenty of things to ask Kari. Kevin just prayed she wouldn't get upset again.
He concluded his battle and his thoughts with a satisfying Close Combat attack, a move he'd become fond of. It was the most powerful attack he'd ever used, and it was awesome to move at the speed of light delivering punches and kicks this way and that. It left him kind of fatigued after using it, but that drawback wasn't too big of a concern, at least not for his battle style.
Kevin stretched for a minute, taking a break. If it weren't so cold (on an island, no less), Iron Island wouldn't be too bad of a place to live. Tourists were plentiful, meaning he had an endless supply of fresh opponents to tackle. The only downside would be the lack of food. He wondered how the Golbat lived. Could they suck blood from the Graveler somehow?
"Slick?" he heard someone say. He turned towards the voice and widened his eyes.
Mist had evolved. She had grown tall, much taller than Kevin, and the yellow ring that used to be around the Buizel's neck was now larger and went around her back. Other than that, though, she seemed to just be a bigger version of a Buizel.
"I evolved… Um, Slick, I don't think my personality changed, I mean, I still think the same and I speak the same but my voice sounds weird," she rambled.
Kevin blinked a few times. "Er… that's good, then! You must be way stronger, too!" He felt very awkward looking up to see her face. Maybe it was because up until now, he'd been the tallest member of the team at a whopping three feet. Wait, no, Nini was taller than him now, too. Arceus, the world must look so different from such a high point of view.
Mist nodded. "I think so, yes… I'm sorry, Slick, I would have evolved sooner but I was worried I was going to change—"
"It's all right! Really! There's nothing to worry about, okay? How about you go outside and take a break?" Kevin said, awkwardly hand waving.
"Well… okay," Mist said, scurrying out of Iron Island's stadium. Kevin sighed with relief. If he remembered correctly, Mist was only about twelve years old. Talking to somebody two years younger than him yet at least half a foot taller than him? Yeah, awkward.
So two evolutions in one day. Not bad! He wondered how Styler was doing. Actually, Kari, too. She hadn't told him if she'd decided to evolve again or not. Kevin knew she didn't really want to, because apparently her evolution was a slow, hulking tank that she didn't want to be. He didn't blame her. A part-human Infernape was hardly a rose, either.
He looked around, trying to place the grass type reptilian. He couldn't see very well, but with squinting he could make out a green and yellow blob fighting… a Golbat. Why had she gone and taken on one of them? He sighed, making his way over to her.
As he got closer, it became clear that she hadn't initiated the fight. The Golbat was steadily backing her into a wall, mouth open wide, not that that was unusual. Kari was glaring at the Golbat.
"I'm not fighting you. I already told you that," she said, baring her herbivorous teeth. The carnivorous bat chuckled.
"And I already told you I'm hungry, toots," the Golbat backed her in closer to the wall.
"You can't just eat me!" Kari said indignantly. She didn't seem to be that serious, though. "Go eat whatever you usually eat!"
"Graveler skin is such a pain to sink you fangs into, though," said the Golbat.
"Mine's hardly better!" said Kari.
Kevin laughed. "You want some help, there?" he called to Kari.
She eyed him and grunted. "No. You can't take a Golbat," she said bluntly.
Kevin was taken aback. "Yes I can!" he said, frowning.
"Oh, really? So you've been avoiding them all this time for no reason, then? I can handle it, Kevin." She looked intently at the Golbat.
"Ho hum. I'll feed your friend to my kids, I guess," said the Golbat. She then plummeted into a dive, going for Kari's neck.
Kari tucked her head in, an action that reminded Kevin a little bit of a Sandshrew's defense mechanisms. The Golbat missed her head completely, crashing into the rocky ground. Kari stomped her foot on her enemy's back, causing her to whine. She held her there, not letting her move more than her wings.
"Honestly, Kevin. I may be lab-bred but I have survival instincts when I need them. Don't tell me you never had any predators in Petalburg Woods." Kari pressed the Golbat into the ground a little more.
"I… All the Swellow ever ate were Wurmple! There wasn't anything big enough to eat me!" Kevin said, crossing his arms. He doubted he had any survival instincts beyond the lacking ones of a human being, anyway.
Kari sighed. "At any rate, you should learn to take on types you have trouble with. Otherwise, you'll get nowhere at the League." Kevin raised an eyebrow.
"Are you seriously trying to give me battling advice, Kari?" he asked, incredulous. "Since when did you battle competitively?"
"I'm just saying that if someone like me can take down an opponent with the advantage, you of all people should be able to, too," Kari said, her expression stoic.
"You hardly took her down! All you did was step on her!" Kevin exclaimed, pointing at the Golbat, who was flapping her wings in frustration, trying to get out from under Kari's foot.
Kari scoffed. "Fine. I'll take her down, then," she said. She surprised Kevin by biting the Golbat's head nonchalantly. He heard a sickening crack, and the Golbat went limp.
"…Did you just—?" Kevin asked, horrified.
Kari grimaced. "No…" She spat something out. "I broke off a tooth. Ugh. Don't make me do that ever again," she said.
Kevin shuddered. "Fine. Just do me a favour and never bite anyone any more, got it? It's totally gross."
She nodded. She was about to speak when she winced. She seemed to be shivering, or at least shaking uncontrollably.
"Kari? What's wrong?" asked Kevin, walking up closer to her. Kari shivered more intensely.
She tried to say something again and failed. Instead, she started glowing. "Hey! You're just evolving, what's the matter?" Kevin tried. She glared at him.
The glow faded, then reappeared stronger, then faded a little again. She was fighting off evolution as best as she could, but evolution seemed to be winning. Kevin bit his lip.
"Ah… Come on, you can do it." Kevin didn't really know what to do; or if he even could do anything. Kari was trying to say something still, but he had no idea what it could be. Finally, the glow overcame her body and shone brightly.
She grew larger, bigger than Kevin would've thought. Her shell, which had seemed to be attached to her neck when she evolved into a Grotle previously, was now detached again. The bushes on her back both turned into completely different things, one a set of rocks and the other a large, bonsai-like tree. The golden spikes adorning her jaw grew larger as well. When the glow faded, all traces of her yellow shell had completely vanished, and Kari was now a behemoth of a turtle.
Kari shuddered, blinking rapidly. She shifted her feet a little, getting used to her new weight. She sighed. "Oh, this is wonderful." Her voice was deeper and croakier, though surprisingly still somewhat feminine.
Kevin stood there. "So…" he said, getting the feeling that Kari was mad at him.
"Somebody who can't read words should at least try reading lips!" Kari growled, eyeing him in the creepy way only a reptilian creature could. "If you had knocked me out, I would have stopped evolving! That's what I was trying to tell you!"
"W-well I'm sorry! I didn't know that and you couldn't speak!" Kevin said, narrowing his eyes.
She growled again, eyeing him maliciously. Then, after a moment of glaring, she stomped the ground, causing a small shockwave to rumble through the ground and knock Kevin off his feet. "Hmph. Somehow, being able to beat you up with Earthquake isn't enough of a consolation prize," she said.
"Earthquake?" Kevin questioned, bringing a hand up to massage his head. "What, you're suddenly ground type now?"
"Yes, I believe so. What, is that going to hurt your ego?" she said in amusement. Well, at least she wasn't hissing at him.
Kevin ran through what he'd memorized of the type chart in his head. "Well, I don't think that changes anything much, but… Grass and ground, huh? That's not a bad type combo. If you ignore the weakness to ice, that is," Kevin said.
"But we've got you for that," Kari said.
"Yeah, we do," he concurred.
Kari smirked. "Hm. That's fine and all, but you're not the giant tortoise who can only move one tenth the speed of what she used to. But… there's no use crying over it if I can't change it, I suppose. My training here is done, then."
"Uh… 'kay. Let's get out of here," Kevin said. The two walked (slowly) out of the underground stadium and out through the main entrance of the cave. After a few minutes of lumbering along in which Kevin whole-heartedly agreed he'd take speed over power any day, they finally reached where Lana was with Cheri and Styler at the shoreline.
Kevin's eyes widened yet again as he saw that Styler had evolved as well. "Hey, Slick! How do I look?" the large avian asked him cheerily. Had he regressed back to his personality as a Starly or something?
Kevin shrugged. He felt very small, now. Mere hours ago, he'd been the one everyone else was looking up to. Now, the only one he towered over was Cheri, and that didn't help much. "Awesome. I guess all we needed was another solid day of grinding, then?"
"Looks like. We all seem to be around the same level if we've all evolved at the same time, right?" asked Kari.
Kevin nodded. "That's good. An even team is one you can count on," he said. Thinking back, that's probably why Canalave Gym didn't work so well before. Everyone counted on him, meaning that when he failed, there was nothing they could do. Hadn't Uncle Nick told him that was one of the most important rules of battling? Well, he certainly wasn't going to forget that again any time soon.
He looked back at the cave entrance. "We should go get Mist and Nini, I guess," he suggested.
Styler flapped his large, gray wings. "I'll go," he offered, looking like he just wanted an excuse to test them out.
When Styler finally came back with Mist in tow, he was frowning. Kevin was about to ask about Nini, but Kari beat him to the punch.
"Where's Little Miss Cottontail?" she asked.
Styler frowned further. "Mm, well… That's kind of a problem," he said.
Mist nodded, her expression similar. "She doesn't want to leave," she said.
Kevin raised an eyebrow. "She seriously wants to battle more?"
"No, that's not it," Mist said, shaking her head. "Um… Nini doesn't want to leave that nice tour guide," she said.
Kari blinked. "You can't be serious," she said, her tone quickly becoming rather poisonous. Kevin was glad it wasn't directed at him for once.
Styler looked at Kari helplessly. "We tried dragging her off, but she wouldn't let go! She kept saying that that Lucario was her soul mate and refused to leave!"
Kari shook her head slowly. "Has she lost her mind? Come on, Kevin, we need to talk some sense into this girl," she grumbled, stalking off heavily.
"Uh… I guess?" said Kevin. He didn't know why he was being dragged along, but he figured Kari knew more about the situation than he would and had a good reason for it. He followed her, struggling to match her slow pace.
…Something about this wasn't going to be good, he could tell.