"Oh, when the weather outside is—"

"Don't start."

Kevin had heard many songs and other wonderful things about snow. Growing up in such a tropical region, however, forbade him from ever getting the chance to see it. Seeing it now made him glad he was saved the torture.

It was almost exactly like rain, except ten times as cold and it could pile up on the ground. Every single time a snowflake hit him, his body evaporated it in an instant. But since there were so many, there was only so much Kevin could do to keep up with them all, and he soon became very, very wet. He was not very happy.

He wished for nothing more than to be safe inside somewhere, even if that meant going back inside his Pokéball. But no. Little Miss Lana was too cold and too wet and decided that Kevin would be perfect for melting a pathway all the way up to the city in the north.

…It was two hours by snowmobile, and if this kept up, they'd be lucky if they made it by nightfall.

Kevin wanted to know whose bright idea it was to place an official Pokémon gym in such an obscure town. There were plenty of other spots. Jubilife, for one, was a gigantic city reminiscent of Lilycove in Hoenn, and yet it didn't have a gym. Come to think of it, neither did Lilycove. What the heck were the league officials thinking?

It wasn't even just a hike up a snowy hill to get to Snowpoint, either. No, first Kevin had gotten the pleasure of scrambling through the mountain that divided Sinnoh in two. Seeing as he'd just battled the hell out of every rock type ever on Iron Island, he wasn't too thrilled with yet another cave. And more Bronzor.

So once he stumbled out of the cave, he was expecting something more pleasant. The shower of snow and hail that greeted him wasn't all that great, to put it lightly. And now here he was, acting as a living snow shovel and trudging his way through the two foot deep snow mounds. It wasn't very amusing when you were only three feet tall to begin with.

"I'm just trying to l-lighten the mood," said Lana, her teeth chattering slightly. Kevin figured she wasn't shivering madly because his tail was creating enough heat for her to be only mildly chilled, or something. He narrowed his eyes.

"It's not working. I don't want to hear anything about snow for the rest of my life."

"You're grumpy," mused Lana, shoving her gloved hands into the pockets of her winter coat.

"Well excuse me, princess, but I don't exactly enjoy being forced to do all this backbreaking labour," Kevin seethed, the steam from the melting snow becoming slightly denser.

Lana huffed. "Why don't you just Flame Wheel through it all?"

Kevin shook his head. "No way. There's way too much of it to do any good. Just keep walking. Quietly."

He felt her glaring at the back of his head, but he didn't care. He had too much on his mind for that.

He'd put all his focus into the gym battle the day before because he had so desperately wanted to win. So much, actually, that he'd postponed mulling over what he'd last heard on the radio. And now that he was out walking and needed something to make him forget about the cold, now was the perfect time to catch up with his own mind.

So. Uncle Mono actually admitted to being related to him, did he? That was odd. Last time Kevin checked, the clan wanted nothing to do with "demons" like him. He could see his brother being more readily accepted for sure. Kyle looked a great deal like their mother and therefore more like a normal clan member. But for Uncle Mono to go and say he was related to him on a public radio broadcast was just out of character.

Obviously, he must've planned something out. What, though? Kevin gritted his teeth. Perhaps it was to lure Kevin into false security so that his uncle could pull something? But his uncle couldn't possibly think he was stupid enough to fall for that.

Kevin narrowed his eyes and kicked a wad of wet snow in his path. Kari knew what Uncle Mono was like. So did his mother. If anything, getting their opinions on the matter would be helpful. But Kevin didn't want to get his mom wrapped up in anything, and he doubted Kari would be that willing to talk about good ol' Shady. So he was stuck.

He spat out a flame. Things had definitely changed since he had been captured. Pokémon rights, gym battles, crazy, half-blind turtles… But he supposed it was a good thing. He'd left home out of boredom, and had somehow gotten into an adventure, if you could even call it that. Even if he wasn't a chosen one or otherwise all that special.

Aside from adventure, for the first time in his life, Kevin got to meet people without automatically being branded as some creepy abomination that was never meant to be. He talked? Okay, everyone else does, too! He wanted to basically be a trainer? Sure, go ahead! It was like Sinnoh was the idealistic place he'd dreamed up as a kid, just with an inadequate climate and a couple of human-shaped hurdles along the way.

He wondered if Hoenn had changed that much while he was locked away in storage. It probably had. He doubted Sinnoh was always this way and by the same logic, Hoenn couldn't be the same. Well, that was good. To see the looks on the Taillow and Swellow's faces when they learned that the "demon tongue" had spread into wide usage would be priceless.

Kevin looked up. There was a clump of snow-covered trees at the horizon, along with what looked like something tall and yellow to the right. He stopped.

"Is that the city over there?" he asked, squinting to try and get a better look. He was lucky to make out the yellow, with all the snow falling everywhere.

Chilled, Lana nodded. "Y-yeah, I think so. It's not like they'd leave a random crane in the middle of nowhere," She shivered. "C-can we hurry?"

Kevin blinked. That was a crane? Guh, he had some awful vision. "Er, okay," he muttered, speeding up as much as he could. Being near neck-deep in snow, though, it was difficult.

It was about half an hour before they finally reached the city, and the sun was just starting to set. Thankfully, the citizens of Snowpoint kept their main roads relatively clear of snow, making it easy to book it to the Pokémon Center and breath a sigh of relief.

Kevin was happy to be warm again. Being a fire type, he knew he wasn't as cold as Lana must have been, but it was still pleasing to get his internal temperature back up a hundred degrees or so.

Lana had scrambled over to the seat nearest the Center's fireplace as soon as she got in the door. She was presently seated, coat and all still on, huddled in a little ball. Kevin made his way over to her.

"Um, you okay?" he asked. She nodded tenderly before reaching into her coat and pulling out a Pokéball.

"I know you want to talk to her, so here," she said, handing him the near-frozen ball.

He took it, a little surprised, but he left Lana on her own. Since Kari didn't want to come out in the blizzards, inside was the only place they could really talk. He headed to the other side of the room and released her.

"Hey," she said upon emerging. "I take it we've arrived. You're singing the carpet, by the way," She looked down along with him at his feet, which, sure enough, were creating a black spot in the otherwise white carpeting. Kevin quickly lowered his temperature again.

"Sorry, I'm not really used to being cold," he said. "Um, Kari, can I ask you something?" He hoped she'd at least give him an idea of how to approach the Shade.

She smiled. "What is it?"

"How well do you know the Shade?" he said carefully. She frowned slightly, but still answered.

"Hmm. It's hard to say. I thought I knew him, up until he abandoned me. Why?" Her blind eye gave him a stare he hadn't received for a while.

Kevin shrugged. "Well, um, he was on the radio the other day, and he said he was related to me—"

"Did he, now? He always told me he wanted nothing to do with you," Kari said in amusement. "Why did he say that?"

"The reporter kind of cornered him into answering it," Kevin answered.

Kari laughed. "Ha! And he thinks he's charismatic," Kari said.

"Yeah, but even then, it's kind of weird for him to go and admit it like that, isn't it?" Kevin pressed. She had to know what he was going to do. She had to.

Kari sighed and lay down. "Let me tell you what I think, because I think I might know him a little better than you do," Kevin nodded. "Look at it in perspective. He's totally stressed over you right now, with you suddenly showing up after all these years. He's going to do some odd things and say stuff that he'll regret. You'd do the same, wouldn't you?"

Kevin frowned. "So now you're telling me to pretend to be him? Funny, you were saying the opposite just the other day," he said.

Kari's eyes widened. "What? I didn't mean it like that, you idiot!"

He smirked. "Yeah, whatever. So you don't think it's a trap or anything, then?"

"A trap? What would he need to trap you for?' Kari asked, her eyes narrowing in confusion.

"I don't know, maybe so he can strike when I least expect it or something—"

"Arceus, Kevin, do you honestly think he's seriously intent on hurting you?" Kari said, her voice suddenly changing from cheerful to incredulous. "I really doubt that."

"He hurt you!" Kevin exclaimed, crossing his arms. "Is it so hard to believe?"

Kari sighed and shook her head steadily. "That— That was a completely different situation, Kevin. The only person he could ever hurt like that is me. The idea that he would want to actually kill you is absurd!"

With an angry sigh, Kevin turned around, setting his gaze on the frosty window across the Pokémon Center lobby. "Maybe it was a bad idea to talk to someone wearing rose coloured glasses," he said, flicking his tail.

"Rose coloured— I'm hardly being nostalgic here! What makes you any less biased than me, anyway?" The giant turtle stood up and took a few steps closer towards him, stopping close enough to breathe down Kevin's neck.

"For one, I'm not the one in love with him," Kevin said darkly. "You know what? It's fine. I'll handle the lunatic on my own. I don't care if you think he's harmless, because I know he's not."

Kevin threw the Pokéball behind him, taking Kari by surprise as she was sucked back into the depths of the red and white sphere. The ball dropped to the ground, but just as Kevin was about to pick it up, it burst open again.

"Before you go and mope in a corner, wait up a second," Kari said, shutting her eyes in frustration. "Let's just… Let's go over the new gym battle plans or something."

Kevin raised an eyebrow, but decided to go with it. "Fine. Unless the leader's bent on freezing their Pokémon to death, I'm assuming it's ice type this time?"

Kari stretched her neck. "I would think so. You're not going to make me battle, right?"

He smirked. "Nah, I can take everyone out by myself," he said, stretching his arms out.

"Mm hmm. Ego-face, did you forget you couldn't do the last gym by yourself? Type advantages don't mean everything; you of all people should know that. Have you even fought an ice type before?" She smirked as well.

Scoffing, Kevin flicked his tail again and shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe not, but I've seen battles against ice types, and they kind of suck. They're weak to like, everything."

"Really?" Kari was skeptical, but he supposed that was because she was weak to ice.

"Yep, including both of my types. Piece of cake, Kari." He cracked his knuckles.

"I don't get it. How is this different from the last gym?" she asked, frowning at him. "Regardless of whether you can win on your own or not, you should still make a strategy with the rest of the team."

"Guess so," Kevin muttered. He gazed out the window. "Right… I feel like a walk. See you later." Without another word, he left. It was better that Kari didn't follow him outside, anyway.

Walking through the city was like something out of a winter fantasy. Somehow, the snow in the populated area of the north fell majestically onto the brilliant, uniform red roof buildings, unlike the spastic blizzard that had attacked the route before. Kevin decided that snow was actually okay when it was easygoing.

Despite being so far north, Snowpoint seemed to be full of commerce, too. The downtown area was lit up with festive decorations and sales behind the frosty windows, eager to catch customers. If he could buy stuff, he would, but Kevin didn't have any money and he doubted Lana would lend him some. Even then, he caught himself window-shopping.

He was just about to turn himself away from the breathtaking electronics display when the televisions switched to a news piece. Normally, it wouldn't have caught Kevin's attention at all, but the person in the interview looked eerily familiar.

The man had messy brown hair and glasses, which were common features, sure. But this guy looked a lot like Kevin's deceased grandfather. Kevin squinted, nearing his face a few inches to the window. The man's eyes were blue. Holly-family blue.

Frowning, Kevin went inside the store so he could hear the interview. After all, Kari had told him he was about as skilled with reading lips as with reading words. Thankfully, some of the televisions were not muted, allowing him to hear what was going on. He stood in front of a TV positioned for customers inside the store and listened.

"Professor, we're essentially asking you the same questions we did when the Shade first showed up. Are you willing to give us answers this time?" Sinnoh must have had only one reporter, because Roxy was back again, pestering this Grandpa Holly lookalike the same way she bothered the Shade.

The man was noticeably uncomfortable. "I gave answers last time," he said quietly.

Whoa. That voice… Wait a minute…

"Well, now's your chance to reiterate what you said, based on new findings. You are the inventor of the pill that allows Pokémon to speak English, correct?" Roxy asked.

"They could always speak English. A better term would be 'human'. But all the pill does is act as a soothing treatment to their throats, restructuring their vocal chords to allow for a greater variety of sounds." The man straightened up in his seat, but he still looked nervous.

"That sounds like it could get complicated," said Roxy.

The man shrugged. "For some species, yes, it can. As most people are aware, a pill doesn't exist yet for Pokémon without throats, like some robotic Pokémon. A Pokémon like Porygon can be easily reprogrammed to speak, but the same can't be done for, say, a Metagross. But for most mammals the pill is pretty much a long lasting cough drop."

Roxy's eyes widened. "Does that mean Pokémon can speak English— er, human, rather, by just taking cough drops instead of your invention?"

"Actually, if they're motivated enough, cough drops aren't even necessary. None of the original Shades took cough drops to help them speak, for example." This was all too familiar…

"And exactly how are you aware of this, Professor Holly?"

The man paled. Kevin did as well. This wasn't happening.

Acting like a nervous wreck, Professor Holly waved his hand. "It's obvious from analyzing the data from our test subjects. Pokémon who didn't use the pill to learn human often have more noticeable difficulties producing the required range of sounds. The Shade himself is the one exception." Kevin breathed; he didn't realize he was holding his breath.

Reporter Roxy seemed to be satisfied, as she moved onto her next inquiry. "Interesting. So, the creation of this pill and the Shades… Surely, the Shades must have inspired you to create such a thing?"

"Well, sort of, maybe…" Professor Holly frowned. "I've always wanted humans and Pokémon to be weighed as equals. But I remember thinking, um, 'Unless some talking Pokémon that humans respect enough shows up, nobody's going to pay attention'. And then the Shade showed up, so…"

"In other interviews, Professor, you've always been pro-Pokémon, and claim you were before the Shade became famous. Would you please elaborate on how you obtained this opinion?" Roxy asked.

Professor Holly blinked. "I… Look," he said, folding his arms as his expression became irritated. "My father was a professional trainer. He treated his Pokémon with respect, and even though he couldn't understand them, he tried his hardest to. I was raised to do the exact same thing, and my children were, too. That's all."

Roxy nodded hesitantly. "Right. Thank you so much for your time, Professor. Stay tuned after the break when we'll talk with the Champion of Sinnoh about what it takes to be a top trainer!" The interview then cut to commercial.

Kevin stood with his arms folded across his chest. Well…

So that was what became of his father. He succeeded in turning human and somehow secured a job as a professor of some sort. No doubt Bill had helped him, what with his millions of dollars from inventing the storage system.

But… Nothing made sense. Why would Uncle Mono voluntarily stress out his vocal chords to speak human? He hated "demons". And even if he did, why would Kevin's dad want to help him out by inventing a pill that let everyone talk? They were mortal enemies!

Well, maybe not mortal enemies, but Kevin knew Uncle Mono would be glad to take the life of a demon contaminating the earth. Unless his father was trying to make peace with him or something, it didn't make any sense.

…Unless, of course, it was out of spite for Uncle Mono, and the pill was made to enrage him by spreading human language around. But Cory Holly was hardly a spiteful person, even if he did leave the family when Kevin and his brother were little.

Any way Kevin tried to wrap his head around it, it just didn't fit. Uncle Mono seemed more like a Naturalist than anything, and it was odd for Cory to acknowledge his brother-in-law, let alone invent something because of him.

Something didn't add up in the equation. Kevin thought he had all the numbers, but something was turning out to be an incorrect variable. But which one?

He would have stood there and thought about it more, but a voice called out to him.

"Hey, aren't you that Slick guy?"