Stepping out of lab seventeen, Ryan led the small group from the building and through the streets of the university. Unlike the large vagrant leading the way, many of the pokemon were not use to walking for such long periods of time. The hawk sat on Ryan's shoulder and the odd tentacled creature drifted along easily, but the creatures confined to the ground grew weary and had trouble walking. Scooping the old Flareon up into his arms, and lifting Annwn up to hang off his back, Ryan looked about for a place to stay the night and rest. A large tower to the north of the city, an ancient lighthouse, stood out above every other building. The Tower of Mastery it was called, the Vagrant had been there before when he was much younger. It was a large building with several large rooms, each free to stay in. At least it was when he last visited. Patting his thigh, Ryan looked from the tentacled creature to Embeee, who weakly dragged her legs along the ground as she walked. "We're going there." He pointed to the tower not far in the distance, speaking to the tentacles. "Are you able to carry her that far?" the large man asked, looking from the creature to the lion cub. It bobbed down, wrapping it's many appendages around under the pits of the front and rear legs.
The Tower of Mastery was once a lighthouse. It sat on a small island with a collection of buildings surrounding it, led to by a long sand bridge. One half the tower was peaked by large pillars that rose almost the length of the tower again above it. A grand arch entrance stood proudly above the vagrant as he wandered through; A Braixen hanging from his neck and down his back, A Fletchinder perched on his right shoulder, and a Flareon cradled in his arms. Fyr's nose began sniffing interestedly. A mixture of the ancient stone and mortar, the sea breeze and the smell of trees and flowers on the small island must have been an amazing new experience. It barked happily and rolled over in Ryan's arms to get a better position to smell the world around him. Annwn lowered himself down onto the sandy road, signalling to the Inkay to place Embeee back down as well. Knowing how close they were to a place to stay, many of the creatures took to carrying themselves the last stretch.
Ryan and his group were not the only to arrive at the tower at that moment though. Somehow, Shauna and Mr. Cabberin have a habit of showing up at the same place at the same time. The lass with the long brown hair let go of what she was holding, smiling and waving to the older man and the many pokemon surrounding him. Serena raised her hand, instead of letting it swing by her side, to push open the large oak door leading into the building. Inside the tower was lined with an enormous winding ramp. In the center stood a four story tall statue; of a black banded, spiked arm bipedal jackal. The giant statue was of a Lucario, though it looked different to normal, and no-where near as wolf-like as those the skating woman had shown. Shauna skipped in, calling out for the 'Mega Evolution Guru' as she went.
As if in answer to her calling, a door beneath the great statue swung open, an old man walking through to stand in the main hall. The man was followed by four others, most being the other children Ryan remembers being attacked by the men in red suits back in Aquacorde town. The fourth little duckling was a woman with a helmet and roller skates, she was very up herself from their meeting a couple days prior. "Hmm! Looks like everyone is finally here." The man began, ignoring the vagrant that edged along the wall to sit near the beginning of the ramp. The large man in a tattered trench coat whispered to the pokemon around him to take a short rest before they climbed to a room for the night. "This is my granddaughter Korrina. She's Shalour City's Gym Leader." The old man gestured to the roller skate woman. Many of the kids grew quite interested, though the vagrant could tell Shauna's interest was not as sincere. She already knew this woman. "So, Sycamore's pupils. Now that you're all here" the greying man continued. "I suppose I should explain Mega Evolution to you." He grinned, even if the kids couldn't hear it, the old teacher could almost smell the script the old man was reading from. "I assume you all know about Pokemon Evolution?"
Shauna perked up, her hand shooting into the air. Ms. Armeniox was always a good student, she really did love to learn, and if what she was learning interested her; she would put her all into understanding. Sitting by the railing of the ramp upward, the vagrant began pressing his fingers each in turn against the bars, bending them unnaturally and painfully. Shauna explained as best she could her understanding of Pokemon Evolution, a process that changes a creature's form as they grow stronger. Her friend Serena cut in, adding that they might change based on pure friendship or the area they inhabit too. "Exactly! And it's likely that Pokemon evolve in a lot of other ways as well." the old man responded, the curled lip and tense hands behind his back signs he did not appreciate an actual answer. "Mega Evolution is a transformation of Pokemon that were thought to be unable to evolve any further!" He continued, returning to the script he had many times recited. Fyr lay beside the tall man, sniffing at the stone and licking at his best friends leg. "It's a whole new level of power!" The script seemed designed to be organic, to seem as if the old man was truly interested. "So in an Evolutionary line like Charmander, Charmeleon, and Charizard, Charizard would be able to evolve even further" He smiled, stretching his back and reveling in the expected awe of the children in front of him. At his final remark, Shauna knelt and turned to her right. Her body and those of the other children blocked the vagrant's view of what she was doing. But the flickering shadows cast in that area told him she was facing her Charmeleon, maybe even petting it.
"But not all Pokemon have a Mega Evolution." the man smiled, of all the children, the lass 'Serena' and black haired boy 'Ryan' seemed most interested. "There's a reason why I used the word 'transformation' a moment ago." Mr. Cabberin rolled his eyes, his mouth moving in sync to the man's very next sentence. "Mega Evolution differs from Evolution because it ends after a certain amount of time." He didn't know much about Mega Evolution himself, but from everything that had been said, he could simply assume that. Just as he could assume the look on the face of the two other boys. "In other words, it's a temporary Evolution." Shauna was surprised, looking up from her little red leather friend. That a Pokemon would return to it's previous state wasn't a new concept to her; Ditto, Rotom, Shaymin and Castform all change shape for an amount of time. What surprised her was that this was considered special or new.
"Yes... Mega Evolution is a special kind of Evolution." The Gym leader interjected. "That said, we still know very little about it." She lied, She was learning her grandfathers script, and was not particularly good at the blatant lies spattered through it. "What we know now is that it requires special items." She continued, more comfortable with the weaker lies as she drifted slightly on her roller blades. The vagrant scoffed, coughing lightly before grabbing the bottle from his trench coat. Absinthe, powerful stuff. "And the most important element is the trust between Pokemon and Trainer." She continued, many of the people ignoring the group by the base of the ramp, only the young boy 'Ryan' taking note of the strange fellow. "To make Mega Evolution work, you need two items: a Mega Stone for the Pokemon and the Mega Ring, which has a mysterious stone set in it, for the Trainer." The pile of rags poured a couple drops of the alcohol onto his hand, offering it to each of the creatures around it in turn. "Since Professor Sycamore entrusted each one of you with a Pokedex, I would like to give these items to all of you" She finished, her head lowering as she mumbled the ever famous 'but'. Well done, the vagrant thought, a way to slim down the number of people continuing the quest.
"Sorry, but presently, I have only one Mega Ring" the old man took over, his apprentice looking quite strained after everything. "It's a very precious item." He held up a single ring with an oddly coloured green, red, or maybe brown, stone set in it. It was impossible to tell from where the vagrant sat, though at this point he was more interested in the fact that only Annwn didn't appreciate the taste of the Absinthe. He didn't hate it, it simply wasn't his taste. "So, I want all of you to decide among yourselves which one of you will be the one who challenges the Mega Evolution Successor" The old man finished his script, gesturing to his granddaughter and watching the children react. The largest boy pirouetted before claiming that battling was not his scene. Shauna backed away, it would make a nice memory, but wasn't for her. The vagrant chuckled, she figured it out too, this was a way for her to step out on her own without any 'quest' watching her. The shortest boy, the red haired child Mr. Cabberin knew as Trevor, claimed he'd rather finish the Pokedex first, obviously an adventurer by nature. Of all the children that left only Shauna's friend Serena, and the young boy 'Ryan'.
Stepping to the side, the lass Serena smiled. "Ryan, let's battle for it!" The wicked light in her eyes and half grin were both serious and excited. The black haired boy swept his hand through his hair before nodding his agreement. "Whatever the reason, a battle gives us an opportunity to compete and see who Vaniville Town's best Trainer really is!" She continued, pulling a pokeball from her hip. His reply was less than humble, and perhaps slightly chauvinistic, making the may by the ramp who was still stretching his fingers, shake his head in pity. The boy was easily outmatched, Serena carried with her only three pokemon, but none of the boy's five could stand against them. The longest struggle was between a lion cub that growled, bit and even seared it's opponent, and the lass' oddly armoured plant-mammal creature. Even then, the grass- type pokemon conquered the fire- type, against which it had a distinct disadvantage. The vagrant chuckled to himself, taking a small swig of Absinthe as the boy with the jet-black hair stormed over to him.
The boy lent down over Ryan, insulting the way he was dressed, asking what was just so amusing. "Y-yu-you didn't stam a kanse" The vagrant intentionally slurred his words, the child's nose wrinkling and his lips curling in disgust. What gave him the right to judge, he was nothing more than a filthy fucking bum. "Y-You don, dun, dunt remimba mii. Du ya" Shauna covered her mouth to hide the snicker and the smile. Cabberin's slurred words were convincing to most, but humourous to her. The boy didn't remember him, he didn't need to. The boy grabbed the taller man's trench coat, lifting him slightly to bring their faces closer together as he insulted the poor man. "Ya knu why you lost to her kid?" the man on the floor's slurr melted away as he grabbed the young man's shirt just as his own coat had been seized. "You don't pay attention" his head cocked to the side, a toothy grin leaking Absinthe that sat in his cheeks. "You're this close to a man with Absinthe in his cheeks, and four fire breathing pokemon around him." The boy looked around, apparently only just realizing his mistake. "It's no wonder you lost" He pulled the boy closer, swallowing the alcohol still sitting in his mouth. "He who knows all, sees nothing." he threw the lad off him, smiling as he staggered a couple steps before rushing out the main door.
The old man and Korrina appeared quite taken aback. An elderly arm moving to block the skating woman as she intended to intercept the vagrant, whom now began climbing the ramp with his collection of pokemon. The Flareon hung in the man's arms, it's front paws over one arm and it's back ones sitting on another. The little black nose sniffed furiously at the air as the group trudged up the very long but gentle slope. A door on the second flat area was unlocked. Stepping in, Ryan found a group of beds and some very concerned looking people. Annwn's hands raised and lowered in a calming motion as Ryan spoke. "I'm so sorry to intrude upon your abode. We simply require a place to rest. We won't take up much space, and if you have any food you could spare for my companions, it would be greatly appreciated." He bowed, moving to a corner to sit in silence.