The stadium's heavy assortment of advertisements loomed overhead, informing everyone rather pointlessly that they were at the Pokémon League. Of course, for someone like Kevin who couldn't read or even see them well, the signs were even more pointless, but at least they brightened the place.
As per regular happenings on day one of a league tournament, the official torch was lit and people started to register. And that was the problem. Kevin didn't know if it was him or Lana who was signing up for this thing.
He was using Lana's Pokémon, and legally, he belonged to her himself, but one thing was clear. Kevin was the one who trained everyone, not Lana, and thus he was the trainer. But then, did that exclude himself from a match? What if he fainted? Would Lana take over the battle from that point on or…?
Kevin shook his head, attempting to clear it. He supposed that would get cleared up during the screening rounds. Right now he just needed to get his (or Lana's) name on the list.
Sucking in his breath, he walked up to the woman at the registration counter, who looked just like a Nurse Joy in a different uniform, and cleared his throat. Chikoro, who had insisted on following him, walked behind him. Nurse Joy looked at Kevin expectantly.
"Um… Can I sign up?" Kevin asked, his voice cracking. Oh, great, just great.
The nurse eyed him for a moment before turning to her laptop. "Trainer's licence."
"Huh?" Kevin said.
"I need a trainer's licence in order to allow you to participate," she said, not slipping a trace of emotion into her voice.
Damn. It was looking like he'd have to go get Lana. "Well…"
"No licence, no entry, no exceptions," said the nurse curtly.
Kevin felt Chikoro puff up in anger behind him. "Hey! Do you know who this guy is? Slickky! Mr. Slick, nephew of the Shade! Let him enter!"
Kevin groaned. "Chikoro, shut up," he said quietly.
"Why should I? You have a right to enter this league as much as anyone else does! Who cares if you don't have a flimsy piece of plastic? You have skills," Chikoro said, looking quite confident. Kevin couldn't help but chuckle.
He turned back to the nurse. She appeared to be visibly uncomfortable after Chikoro's outburst. "I'm sorry, but that's the rule. We cannot verify that you've obtained your badges legally unless you have a trainer card."
Chikoro was adamant. "You can just call the gym leaders, can't you?"
Kevin frowned. "Well, maybe not…" he said. He hadn't actually gotten that first badge; Lana had it before he joined the team. Which would mean he actually had seven badges. Damn it.
Chikoro opened his mouth to say something else but was interrupted by someone Kevin didn't know. "Nurse Joy, is there a problem?" said a monotone voice.
Kevin looked up to see an old man in a brown coat staring at him. Immediately, he shuddered. There was something about the man's piercing stare that was off. Chikoro and the nurse also seemed to be intimidated.
Nurse Joy snapped out of it and shook her head. "No sir, Professor Rowan. Standard regulations make it clear that no one may register for the Pokémon League without a trainer's licence, and this, er, young man has none."
Kevin frowned. Young man? The only one who'd ever called him that was his mom.
Chikoro blinked. "Wait, you're Professor Rowan? Oh!" He turned. "Slickky, Kari would know him, right? Maybe he can help us!"
"What? Kari hates him—" Kevin blinked. "Er, I mean…"
The professor shook his head. "Save your explanations. I know what you mean. You are trying to enter this competition so you can go and find 'Mr. Shade', as they call him now, are you not?"
Kevin blinked, stunned. "Y-yeah," he replied.
Professor Rowan said nothing and turned to Nurse Joy. "Since this trainer is a Pokémon with no legitimate method of obtaining a trainer's licence, the rules for humans should not apply. I believe this trainer has the right to participate."
Chikoro's jaw dropped. "Seriously? Thanks, professor!"
Nurse Joy stared. "P-professor!"
"If need be, I will discuss my opinion with Champion Cynthia and Charles Goodshow," Professor Rowan said. "However, I do not think it will come to that. After all, if word got out that this trainer was prohibited from the competition, the media would have a field day, as they say."
Nurse Joy nodded quickly and began to tap away on her keyboard. "Of course, sir."
Chikoro grinned. "Awesome! Hey Slickky, why does Kari hate this guy? He's great!"
"Um…" This was the guy who had kept Kari in the lab against her will? Talk about favouritism. "No idea," Kevin lied.
Professor Rowan nodded curtly. "I must be off. Give my regards to Kari, will you?" he asked.
"…Okay," said Kevin in confusion.
He turned and was walking away before he stopped. "By the way, you resemble your uncle. I suggest becoming more mature to avoid his fate." And with that, he left.
Kevin, Chikoro and the nurse all stood there, speechless. One thing was certain, and that was that Rowan was a very odd professor indeed.
"Uh, Slickky? You look nothing like your uncle," Chikoro said.
"Yeah, well," Kevin muttered, "maybe he was talking about the other one. I don't know, it was too vague to tell." He narrowed his eyes. "I mean, he's talking like a robot or something."
Chikoro smirked. "Maybe he is a robot!"
"Ha ha. Whatever. We're in now, right? So let's go and get the screening round over with," Kevin said, stretching. It was finally time to get started.
Screening was essentially identical to the appeals round of Pokémon Contests, except instead of being beautiful and sparkly, the goal was to battle as best you could and hope you passed. Something like that, anyway. It was the one round Kevin didn't have much knowledge of, what with it being left out of the TV broadcasts and all.
The rules were simple and nearly the same as the first round's: three Pokémon, single battle, but with switching allowed. From the looks of things, the league was accepting the standard sixty-four competitors, too. So overall, things were pretty normal in Crazyland.
Kevin took a quick glance around the stadium and saw that most entrants were beginner trainers and preteens. He wondered for a moment where he stood. He wasn't much older than them himself, but he'd been battling since he could walk and that had to count for something.
He was snapped out of his thoughts by a leisurely slur of a voice. "Hello there!"
Kevin almost jumped out of his skin. Turning around and seeing the all-too familiar face of Chuno, he glared. "What do you want?"
The Raichu laughed and shook his head. "My boy, are we really rehashing our lines from our last encounter? Really now, be original."
Chikoro blinked. "Uh, who are you?" he asked.
"Chuno, of course! A child such as yourself may know me as 'that lunatic person who hates the Shade', though." He smiled, and then turned back to Kevin. "How's he doing, anyway? Have you seen him yet?"
Kevin rolled his eyes. "No. That's why I'm here." If someone like Professor Rowan knew what he was doing, why didn't Chuno? Unless he was just joking around for whatever reason.
"Ah, yes, yes. Silly me. Well. After that rude departure last time, I decided to follow you again. I see you got someone else to fill that little gap in your team, too." Chuno gestured to Chikoro.
Chikoro was still confused, but Kevin didn't pay him much attention. "Look, Chuno. We're kind of busy here. Screening, you know? So if you could just leave us alone for a while…"
The Raichu grinned. "If you insist. I'll be cheering you on from the bleachers, though! And give my love to Señior Sombreado when you see him!"
"What?" Kevin asked flatly.
"Sombreado. Shady, en español. See you later!" He then ran off on all fours, giggling.
Kevin growled. "He's so weird," he said.
"Weird? He's like a three year old!" exclaimed Chikoro. "He's not one of your fans or something, is he?"
Kevin almost choked. "No! Arceus, Chikoro! He's some guy who has this massive grudge on the Shade. He's totally nuts. Just— Just ignore him." Thankfully, Chikoro shrugged and didn't press the subject any further. Kevin took the opportunity to find an empty section of stadium he could be evaluated in.
He found an unoccupied section headed by an old, balding man and walked over to it quickly, overtaking the slower people who had the same idea. The man eyed him uneasily, with a look much like the one Kevin had first gotten at the grocery store way back when in early November or so. Chikoro didn't seem to care, grinning childishly at the man.
"Hey! You gonna screen us or something?" he asked, once again flipping his leaf to the side of his face. The old man's look changed to one Kevin called the what-is-it-with-you-kids-these-days face as he nodded. Well, at least this guy wasn't going to give him any trouble.
Kevin glanced around, looking for Lana and the rest of the team. If they were going to do the screening, everyone had to be there. He had a feeling that this was the part where the officials tested for illegal drugs, too, and having over half your team missing was overly suspicious. Finally spotting them beside a vending machine, he waved them over, and the old man started.
"Right then. Trainer name?" the man asked.
Chikoro answered, "Slickky!"
The old man raised an eyebrow and looked up from his papers. "So you're the one they're talking about nowadays, eh? Seems like just yesterday they were more concerned about Clefairy invasions…"
Kevin chuckled nervously, wondering if Bill could have possibly originated from one of the supposed "invasions". He nodded. "That's me. Um, that shouldn't be a problem, since we got it cleared up at the front desk—"
"By Professor Rowan himself, no less, I see. We have nothing on file for you, though, so I'll have to ask you some questions," Kevin felt Kari tense up behind him. Oh, right. He'd have to explain that to her later. He nodded again.
The old man put on his reading glasses and picked up a pen. "Full name?"
Arceus, did they really want to know everything? Figuring they couldn't possibly have any way to verify he was being truthful, Kevin answered, "Slick."
"Shall I put the surname as Monferno, then?" asked the old man.
"Sure." Kevin shrugged. Slick Monferno. That sounded like a bad movie or something. Why had he thought it sounded good, again? He didn't really feel like giving any alternates, though, since "Slickky Monferno" was even worse, so he went with it.
The old man scribbled Kevin's new name on the paper, the looked up. "Date of birth?"
Kevin blinked. This was going to be harder than he thought, but he had no idea what else to say. "October 23rd, 1986," he said slowly, noticing everyone else stare at him in alarm. He sighed. Why was there always something he had to explain?
Chikoro's jaw hung open. "Eh? You're not that old, are you? No way!"
"But that's the truth," Kevin said, regretting it. Why couldn't he just say he was a decade younger and be on with it? He looked up to the old man, who was looking at him with a disdainful expression. "Look, that's when I was born, and that's what the question's asking, okay?"
The old man shook his head in disbelief. "Whatever you say. There have been stranger claims before," he said. Kevin was just glad that the guy wasn't giving him hell. "Hometown?"
"Petalburg Woods, Hoenn," Kevin replied, hoping there wasn't anything wrong with his answer this time. Thankfully, nobody gave him any grief, so the old man continued with the questions and Kevin continued answering them. Eventually, they finally moved on to the battle portion of the screening, which was so uneventful that Kevin barely paid any attention. After that, they were free to go to the competitors' quarters and hang out for a bit.
Kevin wanted nothing more than to take a nap, but the angry glare that Kari had been giving him for the last hour or so was starting to wear him down. Finally, he caved, and walked with Kari outside to explain things.
"Rowan just showed up and told the nurse to let me compete, I swear. Then he told me to tell you 'hi', and left. Other than his creepy stare, he wasn't that bad," Kevin said upon reaching the frigid air of the outside courtyard. Kari sighed in frustration.
"And I'm your mother. I don't buy it, Kevin. What really happened?" She sent another glare straight for him, this one colder than anything outside.
Kevin shrugged. "But I'm not lying, really! I don't know why he did that for me, but it got us into the league, so I'm grateful for it. You sure there aren't two Professor Rowans or something?"
Kari shook her head in exasperation. "I just can't see him doing a favour for you just like that, especially considering he never let me out of the lab." She eyed the ground, crushing the remnants of an autumn leaf. "And he didn't say anything else?"
He crushed a leaf as well. "Other than that I resemble my uncle and I should be more mature? No," he replied.
"You don't say," Kari muttered. "Well, I suppose he had some sort of ulterior motive that I can't fathom. Whatever it is, I don't care. Professor Rowan can go to hell."
Kevin chuckled. "That's a bit violent by your standards, don't you think?"
"Well, that's how much I hate him. You can like him, that's fine, but I sure as hell never will." She paused, fishing for something else to say. "Um… So how does the league work, anyway? Everyone seems to know except me."
Kevin smirked. "The standard league is a six round tournament. Usually, the first three rounds are three on three knockout matches and the last three are full battles. As far as I know, the rules are standard for this one."
"And the trainers? How do you prepare against who you're battling?" asked Kari.
"Everyone's profile is put into the database, and you can look up their teams there, I think. Pretty simple," Kevin said.
The turtle nodded. "So all we have to do is wait to see who we're matched up against, then look them up on the computers? Okay. So when do we see our opponent?"
Kevin shrugged. "Screening should be over by now, so, any moment?"
Out of curiosity, Kevin glanced over to the giant screen set up to give people outside the stadium a view of ongoing matches. Sure enough, the screen was lit, and the matchups were being posted. Kevin and Kari wandered over closer, mostly to give him a better look.
"Hell no," Kari muttered. Kevin squinted to see who he'd been paired up with.
He felt his stomach turn. Beside his hastily taken picture was another orange face, this one grinning, with overly large teeth and eyes.
Naturally.