AOF: Everybody who reads this story, please review. ;-;

AOF: Reviews are my lifesource. I love reviews. X'D

Astro.

The Next Afternoon.

"This is...God. I'm angry. This is angering me."

The next day found Riley hanging upside down from a rope around his ankle. His baseball cap fell on Riolu's head. His backpack tumbled to the ground. He kept hold of his Adidas bag, though.

"Trainer!" Riolu squeaked, looking out from under the hat.

Dee snickered. "Havin' fun, Riley?"

"Shut up and get me down!" Riley barked back. His face was near purple. "Before the blood rushes to my head!"

We got Riley's knife from his bag, but there wasn't a rope around the base of the tree to cut this time.

Amber looked nervously up at him. "Um, Riles?" She called. "There's no-"

"Ah, crap, did you two-Gardenia!"

A skinny guy, about eighteen, jumped out of the tree. He landed right in front of Dee.

Dee jump back. "Christ!"

The guy looked about as intimidating as Flint. He had ashy, blondish-gray hair, sunburnt skin, and dark green eyes. His hair was cut short in a ridiculous bowl cut.

"Dammit, where are you two?!" He barked again. Guy had a loud voice. "Aaron! Gardenia!"

Two little kids, a boy and a girl, came out from behind the tree, giggling. They looked about Amber's little brother's age, seven. The boy had green eyes and bright green hair, and the girl had red hair with brown eyes.

Riley wriggled around. "Are they the ones who set this thing up?!"

"Yup!" Before the older guy could answer, the little girl, probably Gardenia, did. "Me an' Aar did it all by ourselves! Right?"

The older guy sighed, facepalming. "What you and Aar are doing is giving me hypertension. Look, kid, we'll get you down, alright?"

Big dude had Aar and Gardenia climb up and cut the rope, and he caught Riley to make sure he didn't land on his head. He was a lot stronger than he looked if he could catch a full-grown thirteen year old.

"There you go." He set Riley on the ground. "I'm so sorry. I've had to run around this whole damn forest all day, disabling their traps. Kids, huh?"

Riley quickly swiped his baseball cap from Riolu. His hair stood up in messy spikes and tangles.

"It's alright," He mumbled. "Thanks."

"Those aren't your kids, are they?" Amber asked, eyes wide.

Before Big Dude answered, of course they did.

"He's our brother!" Aar bubbled.

"And he's a great battler!" Gardenia added.

Big Dude swore under his breath. "Liars go to Hell, Aaron. No, I'm not related to them. I'm Aaron W, gym leader of the fine Eterna City gym."

Dee laughed harshly. "You...both your names are Aaron?"

Aaron W shrugged. "We call him Aar, or little Aaron. C'mon, I'll lead you guys through."

I'll be the first to admit, he didn't look like a gym leader. He looked pretty weak. But, I'd also never seen a gym leader before.

Aaron seemed to be a pretty chill guy. He lead us through the forest, taking a lot of shortcuts we would have never found, shaving at least a day and a half off of the trek. Then, the forest opened straight out to Eterna City.

Eterna was pretty rustic, compared to Jubilife and Floraoma. A quiet little town at the side of Mount Coronet, with not very much to show.

"Aaron and Gardenia are my apprentices," Aaron W explained as he lead us to the Pokemon Center. "I hope to retire from being gym leader in a few years, and I'll have to choose between them to be my successor. They take turns refereeing each gym battle. I'd love to battle you, Riley, but I'm just exhausted. Three challengers came in at the same time, so I had three back-to-back battles, not to mention the situation with Gardenia's friggin' traps. So, please excuse me; I've got to go close the gym up for the night."

Aaron dropped us off at the Pokemon Center, not stopping for a second breath. Gardenia and Aar followed after him.

I coughed. "Wow. Anyone else have trouble following that speech?"

"You're telling me." Amber shook her head as we entered the Pokemon Center.

It was smaller than we were used to, but still cozy. In the sitting area, we spotted a pair of legs in gray jeans draped over an armchair, accompanied by a head of curly red hair.

"Tess!" Dee squealed. She ran over, where Tess was sitting on a couch near Flint. They hugged, of course, because last we'd heard, Tess had broken her ankle or something.

Well, it'd been a sprain.

Me, Amber, Riley, and Riolu joined them over at the sitting area. Volkner was sitting at the other side of the couch, looking as angry and angsty as ever.

"Hey, guys," He greeted us. "You won't believe the shit we've already had to deal with this week."

"You think your life sucks?" Riley asked, laughing.

Amber gave me six bucks, to go buy soda from a vending machine while they all swapped stories. I came back, Riolu holding three of them, just as Volkner finished his story, and I assumed he went second.

"...So, that lady, she knows my dad, apparently. And now I, personally, am on this 'Team Galactic's' blacklist. Yippee." He grabbed a soda from me and opened it. "Gah. Thanks, Amb."

"Whatever," I muttered. I passed out cans, and Amber pulled me into her lap.

Riley gulped hard at the mention of Team Galactic. "Y-you, too?" He asked.

Flint sat up a little. Until then, he'd been about half-asleep in his armchair. "Whaa? You guys meet 'em, too?"

Amber ended up telling about the cave outside of Jubilife City, when Riley'd saved all of our butts, all the way to when she befriended Magby.

All Volkner had was a sigh. "Well, this'll be...interesting. An organization with no morals, seeking my engineering skills, obviously drilling for minerals. Must be building something."

Tess sipped her soda. "How do you figure that?"

Volkner shrugged. "If you guys can't see it, then I'm confused. It's obvious. They wanted Riley's dad's mine, a previous site for iron mining. Then they were at another cave, drilling. Then they get desperate enough to try and recruit a thirteen year old just smart enough to know a blue wire connects to the red." He sipped at his soda, sighing again. "God, I love root beer."

I coughed again. "Jeez, dude," I hooted. "You literally just pulled that out of your ass?"

"Volkner's really smart," Three voices chimed at once. Tess, Flint, and Amber.

They all kept on talking, interrupting each other and buzzing about Team Galactic. Allof the excitement gave me a dull pain in my head.

I slouched against Amber's stomach, sighing. "What time is it?"

"Like, six...you okay, Azzy?" Amber sounded concerned.

"I'm fine. Don't worry."