Author's Note: This one's nice and long for those of you reading this story! I've been fighting myself to try and get this chapter done, and I'm glad I did! This is just the last part of the improvised and expanded Team Plasma encounter in Nimbasa City. I wanted to do something with the Subway Bosses in the Nimbasa visit, and I'd say I did a good job. Regardless, let's see what you think of it. Enjoy!

The somewhat dim lights acted as our guide through the small corridor. The straight path we were told to go down seemed to go on forever, but Haley and I eventually reached the left turn. As we approached the unlocked door, I stopped Haley from barging in by pulling back his prepared fist of interruption.

"Not yet," I said, leaning my head in at the door.

"Is it done yet?" I heard a male Grunt ask from the other side.

"No! Just keep waiting, will ya?" the female Grunt snapped as I heard the sound of keys furiously being tacked away at. "A few more clicks, and the Battle Subway security will be defective!"

"Ha! Those Pokémon in the storage don't stand a chance!"

"Oh no they don't!" Haley growled, "Hynden, can we go in now?"

"Yup!" I shouted, kicking the door open. "Not so fast, Team Plasma!"

"Gyah! And who do you think you are?!" the female Grunt demanded, clenching her fist as she turned to us.

"Tch, don't worry, it's just two little runts," the male Grunt scoffed, rolling his eyes. "How come the esteemed Subway Bosses couldn't come and try to stop us?"

"Ingo and Emmet are preoccupied with the rest of your toadies at the moment," I said, taking out a Poké Ball. "But don't worry; Haley and I'll have no problem taking care of both of you in their place."

"Ha! You two are really gonna take us down?" the female Grunt taunted. "Fine. I'll take the spiky-haired brat, and my associate will take you."

"Wh-What?! Wait now, I wasn't-"

"You're on!" Haley and I exclaimed.

Against the startled male Grunt's Trubbish, I called out Rubella since she was the more efficient choice compared to Tidus. In the meantime, Haley's choice of Pokémon to use against the female Grunt's Watchog was Ace the Pignite.

"Rubella, Confuse Ray!" I commanded.

"Trubbish, Stockpile!" the Grunt retorted.

When the expanded bright ball of discombobulating light sprang from Rubella's enlarged mouth, Trubbish opened its own mouth and swallowed it right up with no side effects. It flashed brightly for a split second and appeared slightly bulkier when the attack was consumed.

"Trubbish, Sludge!" the Grunt commanded.

Trubbish swished the gunk inside of its puffy cheeks around and fired a dark purple and foul-smelling ball of sludge straight at Rubella, sending her tumbling backwards mid-air. She fervidly shook the gunk off of her face and glared at Trubbish.

"Rubella, give it one more Confuse Ray!" I exclaimed.

This time, my Golbat swiftly flew in towards Trubbish. When it prepared itself for another attack, Rubella flew right past it and shot the Confuse Ray ball in its direction. Trubbish had no time to defend itself and wound up losing focus rather quickly.

"Urgh… why, why is there two Golbats?" Trubbish slurred, slumping from side to side.

"Rubella, Wing Attack!" I shouted.

Rubella's wings illuminated and she flew straight at Trubbish, inflicting critical damage on it. Trubbish tried to attack by running and jumping at Rubella, but its charge was futile as it instead crashed into its Trainer.

"Oh, my aching back," the Plasma Grunt groaned before slumping backwards.

As the male Plasma Grunt and Trubbish laid unconscious, I turned over to Haley's battle. Ace had just used his last Rollout move to subdue Watchog. When the female Grunt recalled her Pokémon with a disgusted eye roll, she gasped when Haley suddenly grabbed her by the neck and pinned her to the ground with his dagger positioned at the skin layer.

"What, what are you…?!" she coughed.

"Shut it!" Haley snapped, "Now, here are two options: You could either A., give me information about the Purrloin your associates took from my baby sister, or B., I slash your damn neck open. Choose wisely."

"W-Wait a minute, I think I've heard of you!" she gasped, horrified. "They've informed me that some child single-handedly murdered two of our associates back at Castelia City! Oh, I know what you'll do to me! You'll just slice my neck open, stab me multiple times until I bleed to my death! Then you'll devour my flesh to the point where I'm nothing but a mutilated corpse and you've been satisfied for your own amusement!"

"Th-That's disgusting!" Haley gagged, cringing at the morbid thought, "I just want Julia's Purrloin back!"

"O-Oh! Well in that case, it's none of your business! Do I know where the Purrloin in question is? Who the hell knows-"

The female Grunt gasped when the dagger started going deeper into her neck until blood slowly poured from the staining silver and to the floor. I went over and grabbed Haley, yanking him back until he fell flat on his bottom and the dagger was out of his hand. At the same time, the male Grunt rushed over to his female counterpart with great concern.

"Terri!" he cried, covering her blood-dripping neck with his glove. "Are you alright?"

"I should be…" she breathed, "Luckily, the brat didn't cut too deep or I would've been screwed." Terri coughed up a bit of blood before trying to keep her shaky balance. "Look kid, I honest to Arceus know nothing about your sister's Purrloin, so you're shit outta luck. Barty here and I are among the newer members, so what happened then is none of my business."

"You gotta know something! All you Plasma scum are alike and probably exchange private info-"

"Shut up already! I just said I know nothing about past events, so drop it! You want the Purrloin back, ask someone else without cutting their windpipe out!" Terri coughed up more drops of blood, even with Barty's hand protecting the cut. "C'mon, Bart, we're outta here… At least these two are too dumb to fix the Battle Subway security system…"

With one benign Poison Gas attack from Trubbish, Haley and I were rendered violently coughing as rapid footsteps were heard. When the smoke cleared, we saw that Barty and Terri escaped nimbly with their Pokémon. Before Haley could turn away, I grabbed him by the wrist harshly, making him squirm in my painful grasp.

"Ouch! Not so tight, Hynden!" Haley cringed.

"What was that about, Haley?!" I demanded, "I thought I told you to stop trying to murder everyone around us!"

"I wasn't gonna kill her if she didn't comply! Not that she didn't deserve to die, but I was only going to go that far unless she told me what she knew!"

"She didn't know anything about Minnie! Team Plasma may be evil, but attempted murder isn't necessarily the answer to your problems!"

"Like I said, I was only gonna kill her if she knew about Minnie but wasn't telling me. And since she didn't know jack, I let her go!"

"Yeah, only after I yanked you off! You could have gone too far if I didn't do anything!"

"I would not have! She looked ready to cave, so I was gonna pull the blade away! Stop assuming things, Hynden!"

I rolled my eyes in frustration at Haley failing to listen to my reasoning. Sighing, I told him to keep looking in his Team Plasma investigation, but that he'd also better stay true to his word on not taking things too far. Otherwise, I'd have to make him keep it. Suddenly, several alarms went off from the three screens displaying the complex structure of the Battle Subway. The screens were flashing red and the words "WARNING: SECURITY BREACHED", only exacerbated when I panicked and furiously tacked away at random keys.

"Come on, shut off!" I pleaded, only for more invalid alarms to be triggered. "How do you do this?!"

"Step aside, rookie," Haley said, moving me away from the keyboard as he got to work. "Alright, access the I/O path, here's the HTTP port, disable their TCP scan, complete this damn algorithm, aaaand… done!" Haley declared, pressing one more key confidently as the system's alarm was disabled along with the regular security being rebooted.

"Since when do you know how to code?" I asked him, impressed.

"My mom's a scientist, so she's gonna know a thing or two about Java," Haley explained. "When I was younger, I kept asking her and asking her to teach me, and she gave me these cool lessons whenever she was free!"

"It looked really complicated. How'd you do that without breaking a sweat?"

"Pffft, complicated? It's like learning a new language, only this one's 'Computer-ese' as I like calling it."

My Xtransceiver suddenly rang off, prompting me to answer it. On the other line were Ingo and Emmet, both of whom looked rather distressed and scratched up.

"We could use a little backup," Emmet coughed with a strained smile.

"A lot of backup, actually," Ingo added. "These Plasma creeps keep sending more and more reinforcements, and we can only take so many! One of you head to the Double Line, and the other to the Single Line with me."

"Roger!" I confirmed, shutting off the Xtransceiver. "But first, we gotta find a way to get the rest of our Pokémon back."

"Hynden, look what I found!" Haley pointed out, gesturing to the slot labelled "BP Card here". "Let's see what it does."

Haley took out his Battle Point Card and inserted the proper end into the slot. The screen changed, processing the copied data until Haley's full team appeared. With a few keyboard tacks, Naya was registered back into his team.

"Hales, you never cease to amaze me," I remarked, overjoyed as I inserted my card after Haley removed his.

I typed away at the keyboard after my own team showed up onscreen. The means of re-recruiting everyone was pretty simple, and the task got done in a few keyboard types. Removing my Battle Point card from the slot, I was happy to see that the Poké Balls of Leon, Eris, Percy, and Michi re-appeared on my belt.

"Let's go!" Haley declared, "I'll take the Double Line, and you go to the Single Line!"

"What? And have to put up with lip from Sourpuss Ingo? I don't think so," I scoffed. "You go help him; I'm helping Emmet."

"No way! I've seen the way that bastard looks at you… Why don't I go deal with him instead? I'm sure it'll be much easier…" Haley insisted with dimming eyes and a grimace.

"Nice try, O'Malley. I know that look anywhere. I'm going to the Double Line, and you handle the Single Line, okay?"

"There's really no way to reason with ya, is there? ...Fine, meet us in the Gear Station after you win. Hopefully by then, I'll finally have the answers I need from those Plasma bastards!"

As if on cue, I got two messages on my Xtransceiver. Each one was from Ingo and Emmet, but instead of being a written message, they turned out to be copies of the Battle Subway map. I forwarded one of the maps to Haley so he knew which way to go while we were apart.

"Team Plasma, you're fucking dead!" Haley screamed, following his own path at a hasty rate once the map was on his device.

"He oughta be busy for a long time," I thought, running in the direction the map instructed. "All I gotta do is find the Gear Station!"

I kept running south from the security office. With several left turns and one right, I made it to one of the rest stops of the Double Line. I could only assume the regular Trainers had been evacuated once this whole kerfuffle began, but the only others present were Emmet and several other Team Plasma Grunts.

"Glad you could make it," Emmet panted, still winded. "Think you can help me take these four down?"

"I know I can!" I boasted, running to Emmet's side and facing two of the Plasma Grunts.

"Alexis, Archeops, full speed ahead!" Emmet cried out, summoning his Eelektross and prehistoric Flying-type from their Poké Balls to fight the Liepard and Watchog.

"Leon, Michi, take the stage!" I shouted, summoning my Growlithe and Azumarill against the Scraggy and Krokorok.

"Ah, freedom at last!" Leon cheered before looking at me. "Hynden, what happened? What's with all the scratches?"

"I had to jump off a train, let's leave it at that," I answered. "Now, use Flame Burst on Scraggy! Michi, you use Bubble Beam on Krokorok!"

From Michi's mouth shot a jet of lethal bubbles, which pierced Krokorok several times before it fell unconscious. With Leon, however, the Flame Burst attack only dealt minimal damage. Because of that, Scraggy was able to use Headbutt against Leon's stomach. What happened next was probably the most fortunate thing in the battle.

"KWAH!" Leon yelped, unintentionally releasing a flurry of flames at Scraggy, rendering it wounded and burnt.

"...Ouch," Scraggy coughed before falling unconscious.

"Leon, are you okay?" I asked him. "Was that a Flamethrower you just did?"

"Doubt it. Dumbfuck must've hit my heat sack or somethin'."

"Heat sack?"

Activating my Pokédex, I searched for the entry on the Growlithe line. Under the section "Biology", I was told that members of the Growlithe and Arcanine family had special heat sacks in their stomach pits. When struck with great force, it caused an often lethal burst of fire to eject from the gut. Turning off my Poké Dex, I was suddenly ambushed by another Grunt, who sent her own Liepard pouncing towards me.

"Alexis, use Discharge on Liepard!" Emmet exclaimed from nearby before a jet of electricity shot out at Liepard, resulting in its ultimate fall.

"Thanks, Emmet," I said to him, giving him a thumbs up while recalling Michi and Leon. "You're a lifesaver!"

Just as Emmet recalled his Eelektross and Archeops, we were ambushed and surrounded by several Plasma Grunts, all of whom holding either crossbows or types of blades. With malicious looks in their eyes, they held their weapons up high as a female Grunt wearing white epaulettes and a silver sash adorned with the Team Plasma symbol (as opposed to having it on her black uniform) stepped forward.

"You may have won this fight," she taunted with a smirk, "but this battle is only just beginning. If we can't win a petty Pokémon spar, then let's see how you do in physical combat. Neo-Team Plasma, attack!" she shouted, pointing forward with all five of her fingers open.

At her command, the group of Plasma Grunts began attacking. I dodged the attacks as fast as I could, but still managed to get cut in the arm by a few crossbow bolts. Inhaling sharply through my teeth, I gripped the cut to slow the bleeding, but kept moving. One Grunt attempted to slash me with his clip-point blade, but I yanked myself backwards and nimbly dodged it.

"There's no way I'm leaving here with a second eye scar!" I growled, unsheathing Storm's Blade and holding it firmly with both hands while standing in the proper stance I'd been taught in the past.

I nimbly deflected every physical attack by swinging my blade. While I knocked the blade out of one Grunt's hand and knocked him to the ground, I was eventually caught in a scuffle with another. She managed to leave quite a few cuts on my body and small tears in my clothing. In addition, she left a gash in my left arm, causing me to scream in pain and clutch it while holding onto my katana for dear life.

Just as the struggling fight was starting to get tiring, I heard the sound of a crossbow fire. Before I had time to react or think, the bolt hit the female Grunt directly in the calf, stunning her entirely.

"How did…?" I wondered until I saw who fired the crossbow. "Emmet?! You shot it?"

"Yep! Thought I'd disarm the guy who tried shooting me," Emmet answered, smiling as he slugged and knocked away two more Grunts with little effort.

While I fought off some more Grunts with Storm's Blade, Emmet used the filched crossbow to his advantage. Although his remarkable aim was nearly flawless, I noticed he desperately averted his gaze from the previous target to the next with each shot. Soon, every last Grunt in the room was worn out with defeat and wounded with katana blade cuts and some crossbow bolts lodged through their flesh.

"Retreat!" they all shouted, limping and trudging away while clutching their wounds.

"Grr… you haven't seen the last of us!" the female Grunt commander snarled before absconding. "Hopefully, the Single Line wasn't as lucky with its defense!"

Once the Double Line was entirely Plasma-free, Emmet dropped the Plasma crossbow and I sheathed Storm's Blade once again. We were both exhausted from the nonstop brawls, but also equally relieved at the lack of Plasma Grunts. Just as we exchanged encouraging words of thanks, I cried out when a sharp pain pierced my upper left arm and gripped the area.

"Hynden, what's wrong?" Emmet asked me.

"My arm hurts. Don't worry, I'll live…" I insisted as blood seeped through my fingers.

Emmet looked down at my bleeding arm, and at that moment, I could have sworn his face turned paler than his uniform. His expression once adorned with his common smile was now fearsome and anxious with his profusely sweating forehead. Not only that, but the white-clad Subway Boss looked at though he was trying to prevent himself from vomiting or fainting, judging by the way he was inhaling sharply through his teeth and tightening his face with shut eyes.

"Emmet, what's…" I breathed, suddenly feeling lethargic and weak.

The gripping on my bleeding arm soon ceased as every nerve in my body started to go into hiatus. My exhaustion only threw salt in the proverbial wound, and my legs felt as wobbly as jelly. I saw Emmet reaching out to me, but nothing else as my vision went black and my body made contact with the hard floor.

When I opened my eyes again sometime later, my vision slowly came to full focus. I could make the scenery to be some sort of office, and the fact that I was laying on a small sofa. But, I yelped and bolted awake when something large, slobbery and soft ran up my cheek several times.

"Ah! Hey hey!" I cried as the slobbery feeling went away. In front of me was now a large Arcanine, whom I looked at with confusion. "Oh, hey there. Did you lose your Trainer, Arcanine?"

"I almost did!" Arcanine exclaimed in a familiar voice, "But now that she's awake, there's nothin' to worry about anymore!"

"...Leon?!" I wondered, recognizing the voice as his large head leaned into my chest. "Oh Arceus, it's you! When did you evolve, boy?"

Before my new Arcanine could answer, in came the Subway Bosses and a worried Haley. Leon pulled his head away from me when Haley rushed over and hugged me while crying out with worry.

"You're okay!" he wailed, "I thought I was gonna lose you for good!"

"Yes, Haley, I'm fine," I assured him as I got him to let go again. "How did I get here though?"

"Emmet brought you to our office," Ingo answered. "Apparently, you blacked out during your physical encounter with Team Plasma. Considering the scratches and cuts on your body, I'd say it was a pretty rough one."

"You physically fought those monsters?" Haley asked, amazed and surprised.

"That I did!" I confirmed confidently, flexing my half-bandaged arm at the same time I gripped it. I winced when the sharp pain returned to my bandaged upper arm briefly, but straightened my face when it mitigated.

"Careful, bengel," Ingo warned. "I didn't bandage that arm just for you to open the wound again. And it'll be your fault if Emmet has to see blood again."

"Oh, right," I scoffed, rolling my eyes, "do you really expect me to believe you bandaged my arm?"

"It's the truth!" Emmet insisted. "Bruder knows first-aid! He was able to patch that, urgh… störend wound right up!"

"Exactly," Ingo pointed out with a scowl directed only at me. "If it weren't for me, you'd have probably gotten an infection. Now, isn't there anything you should say?"

"...Thanks."

"Bitte."

Ingo's tone was just as reluctant and bitter as mine, if not more than it. On the other note, I was pretty curious on why Emmet was so unnerved at the sight of my wound before it was treated. However, my mind couldn't process the thought anymore once Leon started nuzzling against me and licking my face joyfully.

"Oh, that's right!" I said. "How did Leon suddenly evolve? Where did he get a Fire Stone?"

"A few Plasma Grunts attempted to raid the Battle Shop," Emmet explained. "When we were putting the items back, your once-Growlithe got curious and picked up a lone Fire Stone. The rest just followed suit."

"So, you just couldn't wait to evolve, huh, Leon?" I asked my Arcanine.

"Nope! The minute I saw that Fire Stone, I was ready baby!" he boasted, wagging his large tail excitedly.

"Aww, now you're my big strong boy!" I cooed, scratching Leon's larger belly until he was panting on his back. "Who's a good boy, Leon? You are! You are!"

"Yeah yeah yeah! I'm a good boy alright!" Leon panted excitedly, his leg shaking with his excited wagging tail.

Due to Leon's increased size, the tail wagging and leg shaking caused some nearby stuff in the office to shake, fall, and scatter everywhere until Ingo made me stop rubbing Leon's belly.

"Any more, and Emmet and I won't have an office," he said. "Since you've clearly made a recovery, I see no reason for you to lay here any longer. The Battle Subway is under maintenance due to the damage to the Multi-Train, so Emmet and I have work to do today."

"Fine, I wasn't planning on staying near you anyways, Deutschbag" I sneered, getting off of the sofa and recalling Leon to his Poké Ball. "Now if you'll excuse me, there's a Quake Badge in Driftveil City with my name on it!"

"Wunderbar. Emmet, let's go."

"Eine minuten, Bruder," Emmet insisted, shooing his brother and a suspicious Haley out the office door. "I still have that 'special proposal' to ask of Miss Hynden. And it's verrrrry confidential!"

Neither Ingo nor Haley had time to object because Emmet closed the door on both of them. When he turned to me, he straightened up and cleared his throat while composing a genuine smile on his ruddy face. I raised a confused brown eyebrow, but I was certain the proposal had to be some kind of important battle since there was no other possible favor in mind.

"Miss Hynden, I called you here to ask you-" Emmet began with a smile.

"Say no more," I insisted, throwing one of my Poké Balls. "Michi, it's battle time!"

Rather than the favor being returned and Michi having an opponent to face, I instead received a look of bewilderment from Emmet followed by a few lighthearted chuckles.

"What's so funny?" I asked him with a raised eyebrow, "You said you wanted to have a special battle against me!"

"No I didn't," Emmet chuckled, the smile failing to leave his face. "As much as I love Pokémon battles, that's not what I wanted to propose to you."

"Then what did you want?"

"Well…" Emmet began, clearing his throat again and straightening up, "When I met and battled you this morning, I saw… lots of potential in you. And our fight against Team Plasma made me see that you're just as strong as you are incredibly pretty!"

"Okay, thank you…? What are you getting at?"

"What I'm getting at is I'd like to know more about you! So… how about one date?"

Michi and I both looked at each other and blinked in surprise before I turned to face Emmet again. He caught onto my reaction, and his expression was now one of complete embarrassment when he bit the side of his thumb and blushed while looking away.

"S-Sorry this is so sudden," he squeaked. "I was planning on taking you to Nimbasa Park sometime later tonight because I thought it'd be such a nice place to take you…"

"I was actually trying to find time to go there myself," I pondered, "but, a date proposal's a little surprising and soon-"

"Hynden, say yes!" Michi urged, tapping my arm with her hand.

"Michi, butt out!" I whispered back to her, "Not that spending time with Emmet has been or would be bad, but don't you think it's even a little awkward?"

"Come on! He obviously likes you! Besides, what's the worst that could happen if you accept? Didn't you go on a date with Haley?"

"He probably considers that a date, but I'm not thinking so much of that. Maybe if I do go, it can't be all too bad…"

"Hynden? Are you and your Azumarill having an interesting conversation over there?" Emmet asked with an amused tone.

"As a matter of fact, we are," I answered with a smirk. "She wants me to go with you to Nimbasa Park."

"So… will you?"

"Hmm, that's a good question. Will I, or won't I?" The smirk was still tight on my face as I paused for a few moments in thought, fully aware of the nervousness in Emmet's eyes. "To answer my question… I will."

"You, you will?!" Emmet repeated with joy as his usually ghostly silver eyes lit up. "Ah, wunderbar! Sehr wunderbar!"

"Why not? You seem like a pretty cool person to go with. Better than your salty brother, that's for sure…"

"Ah, scheiße!" Emmet cursed, "I forgot; I'm supposed to help Ingo with the new Multi-Train maintenance in Anville Town!"

"Oh. I guess that means the trip's off?"

"Nein! Bruder and I have had to replace some of the trains in the past, so I doubt it'll take long! I should be ready to go by this evening. Sound good, Miss Hynden?"

"Yep! Just call me when you're all set, and I'll come by Anville Town. See you then, Emmet!"

When the younger Subway Boss and I left the office, he headed off in another direction until he was out of sight completely. I turned around to leave the building, only to jump and shriek in surprise when I suddenly faced Haley.

"Kh-hah!" I yelped as I got huffy and placed my balled fists on my hips, "Haley! What did I say about sneaking up on me?!"

My irritation mitigated when I noticed Haley hadn't responded. I also saw his maroon eyes were dull and furrowed as opposed to their usual fiery liveliness. Haley looked in the direction Emmet had walked off to, and that made his eyebrows crease with more anger.

"Haley? Is something wrong?" I asked, waving my hand in front of him.

"What, me?" he laughed, finally facing me with the same darkened eyes. "No no, Hynnie. I'm peachy! I was just waiting outside for you so we could walk out together is all. But while doing so, I couldn't help but hear you and that bastard Emmet talking."

"You were listening in on my conversation?!" I gasped, now irate.

"Hey, I didn't mean to hear it. I just so happened to. So, I heard you're going on a date with him…"

"Well, that's what he said it was. Haley, I've never had the time to actually enjoy a visit to Nimbasa Park, so I agreed to go with him. I wanna get to know more about him." I saw that my explanation didn't make Haley's dull eyes revert one bit, and his face was still dark and irate.

"You can't go… you just can't! Wouldn't you rather spend time with me? Someone you've known longer than this bastard?!"

"I spend time with you enough, Hales. Look, you're my best friend in the whole world, but I'm allowed to hang around others too. After this, I'll get to know Emmet a little more and have some fun! Now, I'm going with him tonight, and you can't stop me."

His eyes widening and gripping the sides of his head, Haley looked down darkly as his breathing became shallow. I always got worried when he got like this, so I tried getting his attention in a gentle manner. When he looked up at me, Haley's eyes were noticeably closer to their normal state, and he had his usual smirk on his face.

"...You're right, Hynden," Haley decided. "I can't stop you from going, and I've got no right to. As your closest and best friend, I'm never gonna stop you from doing your own thing! Besides… I've got some Plasma Grunts to hunt down."

"Hmm, you're really okay with this?"

"Yup! More than okay! Have fun, Hynnie! I'll catch ya later!"

As Haley and I went our separate ways, the last thing I saw was him waving me goodbye. I also noticed his waving was slowing down and his eyes started furrowing the further I got. Gulping, I just kept walking until I was up the stairs from the Gear Station and out of the Battle Subway. Around the building were several police cars and officers arresting several captured Team Plasma Grunts.

"Justice has been served," I remarked.

My attention was grabbed when Michi tapped on my leg a few times. For someone so usually relaxed, her expression was now pretty worried and unsure. I stopped and finally faced my Azumarill to speak to her.

"Michi?" I asked.

"Hynden, that Haley kid gives me the creeps," Michi shuddered. "His dead doll eyes just scream 'bloodthirsty psycho'! How can you stand to be around someone like that?!"

"I've known Haley since we were little kids, so it's something you build endurance to over time. He's also got a good side to him, you know. But… I hope I don't have to keep him on an emotional leash for too long. I'm not sure why he's suddenly so possessively jealous towards everyone I make friends with."

"But, you're not gonna let him stop you from making new friends, are you?"

"Hell no! Haley said himself he wouldn't stop me from doing what I want. And even if he did, there's no way I'd listen to him! I'm going on that date- I mean, trip, with Emmet tonight!"

"Good! That funny-looking Subway Boss guy would make a way better boyfriend than your other friend anyways."

"B-Boyfriend?! Michi, I'm not going out with Emmet like that!" I sputtered, a rosy color flushing in my cheeks. "I'm just going with him to Nimbasa Park tonight is all!"

"And what could be more romantic than a trip to an amusement park on a beautiful summer evening?"

"Enough, Michi. He's just a new friend is all, and that's it!"

Flustered and blushing, I recalled the sly Azumarill to her Poké Ball and ordered myself a room until morning. Once in my temporary room, I looked in the mirror and felt rather displeased at my scratched up self and somewhat torn outfit. Grabbing some different clothes from my bag, I discarded the torn version of my usual outfit and headed into the bathroom to start getting ready for my future evening event.

Pokémon obtained: None.

Badges earned: 4/8

Boxed/Unboxed: None.

Author's Note: The German translations for this chapter:

"Bengel" = "brat"

"Bruder" = "brother"

"Störend" = "disturbing"

"Bitte" = "you're welcome"

"Wunderbar" = "wonderful"

"Einen minuten" = "one minute"

"Sehr" = "very"

"Scheiße" = "shit"

And now, for the actual A/N. I developed a HC that Emmet's hemophobic (intense fear of blood), contrary to how most people portray him. There will be an explanation for that come the next chapter, you'll see! Also, his Eelektross is indeed male; "Alexis" is a unisex name in some places, and I've had the name for him for quite some time. Lastly, I did take Programming this year, but I didn't understand too much of it, so sorry if it's not accurate in the story! Anyways, see you in Chapter 19! Go ahead and review this chapter!