The Masks Come Off

Basically, I'm going to flip all of your perspectives as to who did what and when.

But what else is new?

This is the last early update for a little while so… Enjoy!

National Suicide Hotline:1-800-488-3000

Do we truly see what we think we see?

"Man Lou, what have you been eating," I laughed, shifting Lou higher on my back. I don't know how he did it, but he fell asleep in the middle of the Battle, "You're so light."

"(We want to be carried too.)," the Eggsecute shouted following shortly behind me.

"I can't carry all of you guys. Besides, I'm kind of tired myself," I kind of whined, "When we get to the Pokémon Center I'm going to call Jade, tell her where we are, that we're safe, and then take a big nap."

"(Well, you know she's going to kill you.)"

"(Quiet Crack.)," I'm guessing Tar scolded.

"(But, she is…)," Crack commented back.

"I can't help it if Lou blew our cover," I said as we made it inside the Pokémon Center, "Maybe if I plead with her, she'll let me live with Grandad when she turns me back into a Growlithe."

"(Jade's always been nice to us.)"

"Big surprise there," I sighed, reaching the counter, "Hello, I… um…"

No one was behind the desk.
In fact, no one else was in the entire waiting area.
"Where is everyone?"

"(Make way!)," a pair of Chansey nearly ran us down.

"(Hey, watch it!)," the Eggsecute shouted.

"Must be something happening," I put Lou down on a bench, "I'm going to call Jade. You three watch him."

"Tyrone? What are you doing here," I heard Brandy behind me.

"I could ask you the same thing," I turned around to see an unfamiliar guy in shades and a familiar hat. I knew it was Brandy by his scent though, "But I think that I'll should ask you why you're wearing that?"

"Well, that's kind of hard to explain…," Brandy took the glasses off.

"Can't be that hard. Hey, is Tyler with you?"

"Well, he was…," Brandy laughed nervously, "But he's fainted from… all the excitement."

"Is that what all the commotion is about?"

"Well, it's part of it… They found John's Treeko last night and well-"

"They found Terry," I snapped, "They busted Team Rocket? That's great! Man, if only John could have lived long enough to…"

"I didn't think that you cared," Brandy lifted an eyebrow.

"Of course, I care," I was slightly insulted, "John was my Rival."

"Your Rival?"

"Don't tell me you thought that I was bullying him too," I huffed, "we've been competing like that since we were in kindergarden."

"Well, that's not what it looked like to me," Brandy pointed at me, "It seemed like every week you two would send each other to the Nurse's Office."

"You don't honestly think that I won any of those fights do you?"

"With the way you were always bragging…"

"I may have dominated with Pokémon Battles, but John dominated with real fights," I explained honestly, "You'd brag like that too if you finally surpassed your Rival at something."

"I don't think that John knew that you were rivals."

"It's the truth, we've been friends since we were babies. Even after…," I stopped.

"Even after what…?"

"Please, keep this to yourself okay…"

"Cross my heart: Only you, me, and John will know."

"Even when John's Dad… I can't remember how it happened, but he just wasn't around anymore."

"If you can't remember then what's so significant about it?"

"John changed," I sat down, "When he was told that his dad wouldn't be home ever again, he just avoided everyone for a while."

Brandy sat down next to me, "So you two just stopped being friends?"

"No, we are… 'scuse me, were still friends. It's just that in the next few years, John avoided getting close to people, even me. So I branched out and got other friends. But when he finally came back out in public, I… I," I stood up and started pacing, "God, I betrayed him. He was my best friend and I betrayed him."

"Betrayed him?"

"I should have stood up for him. I should have told everyone the truth sooner. I should have–," I kept pacing, I barely felt my nails percing my flesh, "God, it's my fault he's gone now. Mine. I pushed him too hard. I drove him to it."

"Tyrone, it's not your fault. Stop pacing," Brandy grabbed my arm, but quickly released it, "Whoa, you're hand's bleeding."

"I'm fine," I barely looked at my bleeding hand, "… Excuse me, I need to call Jade."

"Call Jade?"

"I thought I told you already, I'm watching her kid brother. She doesn't even realize where we are."

"You shouldn't fix that hand first."

"It's just a little blood," I said licking it, "See, cleans right up."

"Wow… that is…great. Really great," Brandy backed up.

…Did I do something wrong?…

"(I wont let any of you escape!)," I heard mother howl as she attacked the small village of humans with a multitude of fire attacks. It didn't take us long to find where she went. Even though she didn't attack the domestic Pokémon, she was endangering their homes as she was burning down the human's homes. The first place we went to was William's farm. Their barn was on fire.

"Hurry get out of here," William was shooing the domesticated Pokémon out of the barn, "Get to safety. Hurry!"

"(Your scent!)," a pair of glowing eyes reveled themselves from inside the barn. Mother attacked with a Fire Blast. William dodged out of the way only out of pure luck.

"(William!)," Kubbi's heart jumped.

"(You're the one who sides with the Yin.)," mother leaped at William, but Kubbi pounced on her first. She flipped over her and bounced her back into the fire.

"(William!)," Kubbi got back onto her feet to check on William.

"Keep away," he shouted, Kubbi stepped back for a second, but tried to get closer anyways, "Okay, fine… just make it quick."

"(But William…)," Kubbi put her head down low, "(it's me.)"

"That bandage…," William laughed, "It's you, the black Vulpix… You evolved."

"(I'm glad that you're safe William.)," I nuzzled up to him, he stroked my fur like I was still that little Vulpix, "(I wont let mother touch you.)"

"You saved me…," William hugged her, but her job wasn't done yet.

"(Who are you?)," Mother snarled, coming out of the fire, "(How dare you side with humans!)"

"(How dare you attack Innocent beings!)," we roared back.

"(Innocent? They invaded our home! They're taking our land, cutting down our berry trees, and enslaving our fellow beings…)," Mother started to circle William and me, "(As a Yang, how can you call them innocent?)"

"(The same way that we can call you guilty.)," Brother stepped out from the woods behind Mother.

"(A Yin!)," Mother hissed, "(What are you doing trespassing in our Territory?)"

"(Defending our land.)," Brother said coldly.

"(This isn't your land…)," Mother yelled again, "(This land belongs to the Golnar Pack.)"

"(Don't you recognize us… mother?)," Brother sneared, "(Must be hard when our apparent roles seemed to have been reversed.)"

"(No, You can't be my~*****~~~~~*~*~*~*~*~*~~***……… I woke up to nothingness. It was as if there was some kind of dark secret that my mind refused to accept.

"(Good morning sunshine!)," one of the Blissey nurses was right next to me, "(You're now at full health!)"

"(Ow my head, what happened?)," I was groggy.

"(Fa la la! I contain absolutely no depth what so ever!)," the Blissey skipped out of the room.

"(What the…)," I said tilting my head.

"Good morning, Tyler," Brandy was sitting nearby, "Did you sleep well?"

"(Yeah. I did, dad.)," I saw that he was glaring at me, "(Is something wrong?)"

"Stop playing so innocent."

"(What's up with you?)"

"It's nothing," he lied, then noticed that I knew he lied and so he snapped, "and just leave it at that!"

I took a quick look around the room, "(Where's Terry?)"

"He's still in the Healing Machine. We wont know about him for a little longer," Brandy pulled up a chair, the back facing me, "Tyler, I spoke to Brandy. He told me about you."

"(Oh great, here we go…)"

"No, he told me about you two," Brandy laid his head down on the back of the chair, staring at me, "about how you two used to be friends."

"(No, we weren't friends. Never, no…)," Brandy continued to glare at me, "(…how much did he tell you?)"

"Everything."

"(Oh, shit… then you know about…)"

"How you faked being a victim to a bully?"

"(Not all of it! At first we did, but…)"

"Then things became more serious and you both grew apart."

"(Yeah, he just wouldn't keep off my back. It was our usual routine: he throws a few insults, I throw a few back, we fight, I lose then he impresses those dimwitted rich kids.)," I confessed/explained, "(but then he went overboard with the teasing. He became more violent and eventually he went all out bully.)"

"Why would you do something like that?"

"(It was all for a prank. We wanted to see the looks on everyone's faces when a non-rich kid becomes top dog at the RTC's.)"

"A prank? How can beating each other up all the time be a prank?"

"(Oh, no. The fighting each other was just us being us.)," I laughed, "(We pitted our Pokémon against each other to make them stronger. That way no matter which one of us won, then the victory would go to a lower class… oops.)"

"Don't worry, I already know about Tyrone's status quo too."

"(Well, I guess that it doesn't matter now. I threw away the chance to see the end of that prank.)"

"You know, he blames himself."

"(Well, he should. He took it too far.)," Brandy grabbed my head with one hand and lifted me off the table, "(Ow! Okay! Ow, ow, ow!)"

"Listen John," Brandy squeezed, "I don't know if you realize this or not but he does care about you. He's in the other room having a nervous break down about your little stunt on Thursday. He keeps going on about how he betrayed you and keeps pacing the room like some wild Pokémon in a cage."

"(Then he needs some serious mental help.)," I laughed, but Brandy flicked me between the eyes, "(Ow!)"

"John, you were his best friend. Now that you're gone he has no way to cope."

"(Sorry dad…)"

"And another thing, stop calling me 'dad'. It's…," Brandy sighed, finally putting me back down on the table, "Look… just because I am technically your dad doesn't mean that you should call me that. I mean, it's nice that you think of me that way, but I don't want to…"

"(Why are you so worked up about it?)"

"I don't want to be the replacement to your dad."

"(Calm down, Brandy. I just call you 'dad' to tease you. It's a joke.)," I shrugged, "(I've gotten over my real dad a long time ago.)"

"Really?"

"(Really.)," I nodded, "(Seven years since he's vanished and I haven't shed one tear about it.)"

"Seven years… are you sure that it was seven years ago?"

"(I don't see why it's so important, but… yeah, I'm sure it was seven years ago.)," I raised an eyebrow, or the part of my face that would have an eyebrow when I was human, "(Why? Did something happen?)"

"That was the Chicago Incident."

End

Oh, great yet another incident.

But it's a key incident.

So look forward to reading about it.