=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=In the attic=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Dipper smiled as Ryu was able to sit up and eat something on his own. Dipper had been using some medical equipment to ensure his continued nutrition, but there was only so much he could do to feed the unconscious Pokémon without pulling out the IV bags, and he couldn't do that properly because of how different Gallade was to a regular human.

Pacifica had to return home, but she allowed Aika to continue to spend her nights here. The little Kirlia hadn't put any thought into how long she had stayed here, completely forgetting what day it was. But she had at some points helped Dipper get Ryu to eat, so Dipper had been calling her his helpful little nurse.

Mabel was torn as she stood there with a sweater that looked like a nurse outfit. She wanted the role of nurse, but it was absolutely adorable seeing Aika sitting there and helping her crush get better. Rosette was there with the two boxes of tissues, one for her own tears, while they cried over the romance.

In the end, Mabel wound up making an adorable nurse outfit for Aika, meaning that while she was using a cool wet rag to clean some sweat off Ryu's brow, the boy woke up and blinked at her. Mabel quickly got her picture for the scrapbook, before she and Rosette left the two alone.

Aika was a bit embarrassed, Ryu was just sore and having trouble thinking straight, so he just tried to sit up before Aika forced him to keep laying down, speaking calmly but with a slightly raised voice as she berated the boy for his actions and how worried he made everyone. Dipper walked in as Ryu was laying down with Aika in his arms as she cried a bit into his chest.

Dipper ignored the young girl as he gave Ryu a checkup, before giving him a proper meal. Now, plenty of people may ask how Dipper can just ignore a secondary creature on top of the one he is checking up on. A simple word here or there makes her curl up and hide her face into one side, clearing up the first half, before he flops her to his other side and scans Ryu again.

Aika was rather embarrassed after the event, while Ryu was blushing as well. And after Dipper finished checking the health of his partner, he swatted him upside the head with a rolled-up newspaper. "I told you before Ryu, everyone starts off unmanly, you just have to work into being the kind of man you want to be. Robbie is an example of someone who is so far away from being manly, there is no point in giving him the attention he craves. He has a lot of things to learn before he even grows from a child, let alone becomes a man. He is insecure and socially unstable, he tries his best to be cool, and fails miserably."

Ryu glared as he shed a tear, hating how he let himself do this to himself. He had learned what he needed to evolve when he played the game with his father, and he showed him how to keep himself from becoming the form with a dress. Dipper had shown him the Dawn stone before, but in his desperation to do the evolution before Dipper was there, he didn't realize there was a difference between the mega stone and dawn stone, causing him to desperately eat both in a similar manner to the candies, and it was painful as he evolved twice in quick succession.

Dipper sighed, "Robbie is still a kid. He may be older than me, but he has insecurities over his own short comings, and that causes him to lash out at others. He is mostly doing it, not to tear others down, but to tell himself that he is better. He doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut, and he isn't as good as reading the insecurities of others as he would like to think he is, but something I should have taken into account before threatening to murder the boy for his careless comment, is that he doesn't understand himself or others. He is just a kid lashing out in hopes to overcome his own doubts. He is intimidated by you, he can see that you are going to be cooler than he ever could be, so he took a shot while he could, before you became badass, his foul mood over Wendy dumping him didn't help. But he knows the games, and he knew what you were going to become, and he was jealous of you."

Dipper placed his hand on Ryu's head, smiling as the Pokémon looked up at him. "Just remember, any man can hold a grudge, take revenge and hurt others. A real man proves he is more than his anger, more than his rage, and can stand above simple notions. A real man can rise above his darkness and stand in the light without his shadow swallowing him."

Dipper stepped out of the room as Ryu thought on his words, Aika remaining at his side, keeping quiet to let Ryu think without interruption.

Mabel was standing outside the room waiting for him as she raised a brow towards her brother. "Where was all that wisdom when you were threatening to murder the guy?"

Dipper frowned. "On the backburner as I was doing my best to make sure my son lived through a bad decision his loudmouth caused. Every man is prone to forget any amount or form of wisdom when their heart is distracted with the wellbeing of their loved ones. I at least told the other teens to handle him instead of launching a magical blast that would have blown up the car with him hiding in it. If I had punished him while being as angry over Ryu as I was, I would have killed him, no questions asked. But I was at least able to focus my attention on helping Ryu instead of falling to the desire for vengeance."

"Real men are molded more by their choices they make under stress than the choices they make any other time. Making the teens go off and take Robbie with them to get him away before I was unable to hold back from killing him any longer was the best decision at the time."

Mabel smiled as she hugged her brother, giving him a kiss on his cheek. "That is what makes you the best bro."

Dipper smiled as he felt Rosette jump up to wrap her arms around his neck as well and give him a kiss on the other cheek. "Okay you two goobers, let's go get some lunch."

Later, after everyone managed to get up and began to stretch out, Dipper had to tell Ryu he was unable to train for the next week. The boy looked sad as Dipper told him this but calmed as Dipper explained. "You might have been emotionally distraught, pushed to act while in duress, but there are consequences to our actions. You forced an evolution before you were ready, before you were strong enough to handle it naturally, and now you must slowly build your body's strength to be able to handle all this power without hurting yourself. You also must keep yourself moving slowly so you can get used to this power and learn to control it. If you had waited, you could have built up quicker, learning and preparing your body as you grow slowly, but you just jumped over a flight of stairs and now we have to go about this differently."

Ryu could only nod as he understood where Dipper was coming from. In his rush to look manly, to feel better about his physical appearance, he shot himself in the foot. Pacifica had come over not too long ago, during lunch, having been spending a good deal of time here because of the condition Ryu was in, because Aika was almost glued to Ryu as he was resting.

Ryu was doing his best to control his blush whenever the Kirlia's worry was brought up, or when people mentioned her nights clinging to him. Mabel and Rosette played up the romantic aspects of the situation, the princess worrying over her handsome knight, until the point that Rosette asked Mabel about her own knight.

That was something that threw the girl off. Mabel froze, shifted her eyes to her brother, and started to try and think of something. Dipper took pity on his sister, "listen, Rosette. You can continue to look out for a guy or gal just right for you, but only you can answer who your knight is. There is someone out there for everyone, and whether you fall in love with a different Pokémon that I will create in the future, or maybe even a human, no one can tell you who to love but yourself."

And now, Rosette looked to be trying to describe who her knight would be, using gestures and saying her name in different tones that made it look like her description changed between each gesture. Mabel smiled and mouthed 'thank you' to her brother. Mabel hoped that one of the Pokémon her brother creates could be a great knight for her little girl, but she also knew the stereotype for humans that looked into dating Pokémon were, and it scared her.

She is really hoping that her innocent little girl won't be tricked into falling for some dirt bag that just wanted her to satisfy some fetish instead of loving her for who she was. Maybe she could convince Dipper to create another Gallade or look up a different Pokémon that she could date and start a family with.

As Dipper was dealing with everything so far, he was also helping Mabel create some costumes for them all. Mabel had made her best attempts at a quick costume setup after she found out there was a Halloween during summer, but Dipper had beat her to the punch, setting up Ryu and Aika with a Link and Zelda costume. Dipper also went out of his way to get Rosette a Princess Peach costume, seeing as she wanted to be a princess.

Dipper wound up getting a Disney's Hercules outfit, seeing as Pacifica wanted to go as Megara. After seeing Dipper get roped into joining Pacifica, Mabel went and got a daisy costume to match Rosette's theme, who was more than happy to pair up with her momma.

As the gang were all dressed and getting ready for their walk around the town to collect candy, Dipper did his best to ignore the tall trick or treater at his door. "Hey trickster, take your pick, try to stick with two or three please."

The trickster tilted his head. "Why the limit like that?"

Dipper shrugged. "Summer-ween and Halloween both are times of scares and haunting, and your costume isn't very scary. If you really want to get a better rep, you should try to get a scarier costume together. Everyone does the scarecrow thing too often in media, and it's kind of lost it's scare tact. If you go to the library, I am sure there are some chatrooms and other social media pages filled with spooky ideas for you to look into to improve your intimidation factor. At this rate, I question if you have enough Summer-ween spirit, if you're not even willing to step up your scare game at this rate."

The Trickster looked like he was getting annoyed with the boy, glaring at him and ready to deliver his ultimatum. Dipper rolled his eyes. "You do realize that criticism is a part of life. You should look through the comment sections on the internet, and find out how nice I am actually being, especially since I am giving you advice on how to improve."

The trickster actually thought about that and saw the boy's point. "Fine, I will do research on my off time to improve my scare tactics. Though you don't have to be scary to have the Summer-ween spirit, mister just throw on some armor."

Dipper scoffed, "I am going to trick or treat with my girlfriend, and we are doing a theme. Something you might never be able to understand since there isn't a female amalgamation of hatred and unloved candy."

Mabel stepped up and swatted Dipper upside his head, offering the bowl of candy back to the guy. "Ignore him Trickster, he is just being rude. Take a couple more pieces if you want."

The trickster sniffled as he grabbed another piece or two, before he just walked off in a slouch, still sniffling over Dipper's words. Mabel turned to Dipper with a frown. "Why did you have to bring up the whole lack of others of his race? Didn't you just tell Rosette there was someone for everybody, shouldn't that also pertain to him?"

Dipper rolled his eyes. "Mabel, as much as I am sounding like a hypocrite, that guy is nothing like you or Rosie, who just haven't met your prince charming, he is an ass that eats kids just because they don't like to eat loser candy."

Mabel raised a brow, "but you eat loser candy."

Dipper shrugged, "all the same to me in all honesty. No real flavor that makes it worth the energy to chew it, but yes. I can eat whatever is put on my plate and I purposefully trade off my better candy so you can enjoy your haul more than myself. Just remember that we have Pacifica with us this year, so I won't be trading as many of my good candy with you."

The trickster, who heard everything, honestly felt a bit conflicted. The brat that just called him out on how scary he was, eats his candy. Well… fuck. There goes his plans for vengeance against him, maybe he should do some research into being a bit scarier with his outlook.

As Pacifica and Aika came over, the twins got a surprise as the rest of the teens, minus Robbie, showed up. They were actually all dressed for the holiday, mostly in generic monster costumes, Lee and Nate as zombies, fake scars and everything, possibly temporary tattoos with how they looked to be peeling already. Tambry was wearing some faux jewelry, mostly plastic if the texture was anything to go by, and a dress that gave her a Cleopatra look. Thompson was dressed as what Dipper could only think was Igor from the Frankenstein story, with something shoved down the back of his shirt for his hump, possibly a pillow. Wendy, however, was wearing a Luigi costume, while Paul the Scyther was wearing a Mario costume.

Tambry stepped over and offered the kids a flier, advertising a party at her house. "I understand if you are still angry over what Robbie said to Ryu, but if you guys feel like coming over, you are welcome to."

Dipper looks the flier over as Ryu and Rosette stepped out. Dipper shrugged, "possibly. It's their first Halloween-esc event, so we were gonna take them out to trick or treat. We might stop by and hang for a little after we get our fill."

Wendy chuckled as she stepped up and tussled his hair. "We kind of had similar plans dude, Paul was curious about it all as well, especially after my dad and brothers went off to do so themselves. He acted interested, so after hearing I was taking him out, everyone decided to tag along. Wanna join us?"

Rosette displayed her happiness with the invitation by tackling Paul, having gotten the full story behind her character, she recognized his outfit from the pictures she was shown. Mabel looked to Wendy with a smirk. "So, why did you get Luigi?"

Wendy shrugged, "Mario and Luigi were the easiest costumes to make, just needing some work boots and overalls, before finding out some of my younger brothers' old gamer hats. The red and green shirts were actually the hardest to find, but my brothers came through again and let Paul wear one of their red ones, while I found one of my green flannels that wasn't a button up."

Rosette was thrilled that two more people were joining in her theme and started to talk Paul up as her hero. Dipper might be the only one that understood what she was saying, due to his extensive knowledge of… Okay, he cheated early in the timelines and gave himself the ability to understand them, but everyone understood when Paul started to blush as the Kirlia continued to talk his ear off.

Seeing the way, the Pokémon were reacting to the situation explained a bit about their maturity growth rate. Apparently, they matured in conjunction with who they spent their time with, Paul maturing as he learnt from Wendy, Rosette was the same with Mabel, and Aika with Pacifica.

Bruno was just about as lazy but lovable as Stan, and a bit more open to receiving and giving love, but the boy could always be found just lazing with Stan as they watched TV or gave tours. Several people even found it adorable when Mabel made Bruno his own Mr. Mystery outfit, causing him to become Mystery Hound. He was a hit with the kids.

Larry followed and did plenty with Soos, able to pick up light items and carry them to the handy man with enough ease that Soos always carried some blueberry snacks that the little guy just loved. Soos would give the little guy a snack every time it asked, and always explained everything he was doing to the little guy, how he fixed or built things, the Tadbulb always looked to be so focused as he took everything in. Soos had been so happy when Larry started to retrieve tools for him before he could even ask for them, realizing the little guy was learning everything he was teaching, and celebrated it with a small party and a trip to the diner for lunch.

Rosette felt more childlike because Mabel was a young girl that enjoyed life. Paul turned out more mature, cool and laid back, because that was how Wendy was, though both were somewhat nervous about matching their expectations with the lumberjack profession. Aika was a reserved princess, because her main influence was Pacifica, who was treated like she was a princess, even throughout the "conditioning" she received from her father early in her childhood. Aika took after what she saw in Pacifica, who only showed the mature young smart girl that was still shy over her shortcomings with her social life.

Ryu was in the most interesting placement, because Dipper never showed his true self. Instead of the apathetic godlike being that was just creating his race to entertain himself, he got someone to guide him. So instead of reflecting on his trainer, he grew as a pupil. He didn't reflect Dipper as his partner, but as more of a son and student, and that was the difference between someone who knew how to raise someone, rather than just care for them. The others cared for and led by example, Dipper cared and raised by guidance and explanation, explaining how Ryu acted more separately to Dipper.

Dipper gave off that fatherly aura, which was lacked by the other young ones raising a Pokémon, leading Ryu to grow a more separate personality than him. Because of how Pokémon were born, that led the others to treat them more like siblings instead of their children, and it showed.

As the gang were all getting over their chuckles at Rosette and Paul, Candy and Grenda walked up to them all, carrying their own eggs. (You all probably thought I forgot about them, didn't you?)

The teens each groaned over the missed opportunity, realizing that Robbie possibly cost them the chance to receive their own Pokémon. Candy was dressed in a nurse outfit, looking rather similar to nurse Joy from the Pokémon games, while Grenda dressed in an outfit to make her look like Blissey, while her own real Pokémon egg was in her "pouch".

Candy smiled at Dipper as she spoke, "thank you for the idea for our costumes Dipper, as well as helping us make them, Mabel. You guys are the absolute best."

Tambry turned to Mabel, "you made these costumes yourself?"

Mabel smiled, "yup. I make more than sweaters, and crafted everything we are wearing, by hand, as my bro here bought the materials."

Dipper shrugged, "I sell a couple inventions online, such as the auto-toaster knife."

Lee, Nate, and Thompson each gasped as they bowed. "We are not worthy to bask in the mind that invented the atknife."

Wendy chuckled, "so that gets you worshipped, but bringing Pokémon to life doesn't. What kind of thought process is that?"

Wendy started to laugh some more as Tambry somewhat joined her, as she took a picture of the dorks bowing before Dipper. Dipper understood better that the boys are just goofing off to have fun, and maybe show Ryu they all weren't so bad. Possibly to butter him up to get their own eggs as well.

So, everyone started to move along, Tambry was forced to head home, seeing as she had to finish the set up for the party, Lee, Nate, and Thompson following to be extra muscle for her. The gang were just walking along the street, stopping by the houses and collecting candy as Aika and Rosette enjoyed having the heroes of their stories there, Aika happy that Ryu was okay and able to enjoy this event with them, even though she constantly worried over the Gallade, asking him about his health often, no matter how many times Dipper mentioned that he would be okay as long as he didn't tap into any of his abilities, and allowed his body to adjust.

The next couple of days would be spent with Ryu just relaxing as his body adjusted, before he started with light training, and control on his weakest points. It would be a bit before he could test his limits again, like when he was training as a Kirlia, because now instead of pushing his limits, he was learning to control them.

As the kids were having fun and were reaching the time frame to head to the party, the final house they came to, was the Valentino residence. Dipper didn't think much of it, but Wendy had failed to notice the next target the younger ones chose to hit before heading for the shack to store their loot. Wendy didn't know what she expected when Mabel hit the doorbell as the Pokémon and her friends were surrounding her. Dipper and Pacifica were more at the back, as Robbie answered.

Wendy cringed as she took notice of Robbie's slightly disheveled appearance and might feel a bit bad over it, considering she and the rest of their gang have been giving him a bit of the cold shoulder since his words to a child, that was technically only a month old at best. They wound up leaving the boy thinking he had possibly killed a kid with his words, and though he still followed and knew Ryu was okay from Mabel's posts, she and the rest still felt terrible about ignoring him for the past week.

Speaking of said posts, Ryu and Aika were trending at one point, the internet shipping them as if it were an actual love story from the show. Some people had even called for the head of the person that caused what happened, so no one mentioned names over the posts.

But yeah, Robbie had been left alone to dwell on his actions. She and the rest didn't know, but he even sat down and talked with his parents over his feelings on the issue. Robbie took a deep breath as he noticed who he opened the door to. Holding the bowl of candy in his left hand, he looked like he belonged in the grave at this point, seeing as he looked like he was having trouble sleeping, bags under his eyes, his shirt was a mess, while his pants were torn more than usual.

Before they could say anything, Robbie sighed. "Look, I didn't really expect you to drop by, I kind of thought Wendy and them would have led you away from my place. But I do want to say, I am sorry for what I said back then. I didn't plan for my words to push you that far, and I regret letting my mouth run away from me. I didn't think about how my words would hit you differently with what you were. I never even thought I would speak with a Pokémon, and I fell back on my common insults for other boys by picking on your manliness. I didn't even believe them myself. I hope you can forgive me."

Ryu smiled as he listened, before he spoke up himself. "Okay, I will forgive you. I can tell you mean it, and even though I still feel some anger, I don't wish to dwell within that hate. I wish to grow into a real man, worthy to be a hero to those precious to me, a man I can be proud of. A man those around me can look to for inspiration and strength. Maybe one of these days, you can grow into a better man than you ever thought you could be, and we can test our manliness against one another like they do in those movies Mabel showed me. Or maybe you could join me in my training, and we can look for a good path out of your darkness together?"

Mabel, Candy, Grenda, and Rosette were each crying as they had their tissue boxes, that they somehow had even when not at the shack, as Aika was swooning.

Grenda turned to Candy and Mable. "Did either of you guys understand a word he said?"

Candy and Mabel shook their heads in the negative as Mabel answered, "Not a word."

Candy sniffled once more as she spoke up, "he just sounded so… caring, I couldn't help but cry."

Grenda and Mabel sniffed as they both responded with, "I know right?"

Wendy and Pacifica looked between everyone, wondering if they should speak up about wanting context, because they were a bit lost, though they got the implications that Ryu forgave Robbie, if his gestures and smile were anything to go by.

Dipper stepped forward and handed Robbie an egg. "If you mistreat it once, I don't care how often you apologize, or how much you regret it, I will kill you."

Dipper began the walk back to the shack, everyone watching and taking that as Dipper forgiving him as well, though Robbie was the one to ask. "Where was he keeping this thing? I can't see any bags other than his candy bag."

Robbie's question actually caused everyone else to think on where he was keeping it as well, because they didn't even see him leave the shack with it. Everyone watched as the boy continued to walk away, all wondering the same thing now.

Dipper turned his head back as he spoke up, "if you all are done checking out my ass, there is still a party to head to. Maybe since Ryu forgave Robbie, he can join without people ignoring him."

The rest of the group shook their heads, the girls each blushing at what he was implying, while Mabel glared at him with a pout. Robbie chuckled as he shouted that he was heading out, before following the rest of the group after grabbing his hoodie and wrapping the egg in it.

As the group reached the shack, they found two kids that were shouting for Stan to give them candy, before Dipper walked up the steps. "Get lost twerps."

Before the boys could say anything, as they turned to Dipper, they saw something with his face as they screamed and ran away, shocking everyone catching up to him. Only for Dipper's face to look completely normal when he turned to look at them and tell them to hurry up and store their candy.

As everyone stored their bags in the attic, deciding to come back and hang for a bit before heading home, Wendy, not wanting to deal with her brothers and dad until after they settled down from all the sugar. When they all got to Tambry's, the rest of the teens were surprised to see Robbie with them.

Dipper further surprised them by giving each of them an egg for themselves, claiming he didn't know what would hatch from them, "so don't ask."

The gang smiled as they got used to Robbie's antics once more, the gang feeling complete once more since the week started. Though each of the teens took notice how there was less bite to Robbie than usual, like he was more comfortable in his skin, and not trying to be as edgy as usual. Maybe this incident was ending on a high note.

Lee and Nate started to ramble on and on about what Pokémon they would have, and what they would teach them, what they would name them. They were rather adamant about it being either a dragon or legendary.

Dipper scoffed when he heard them, as if he would allow them to have either. Legendarys were reserved for himself if or when he desired to destroy or rule the world. And it would take far too much effort to create them for these guys. Pacifica giggled over his annoyed expression that she noticed as he handed her a cup of juice, guessing right for the cause, but mistaking the reason behind it.

Mabel was busy taking pictures of Rosette and Paul as they were dancing, Paul blushing up a storm as Rosette pulled him along the dance floor, not too far from Ryu and Aika, who were also dancing calmly as the music was playing.

Tambry chuckled as she went and reminded Mabel not to post the pictures on the net, leaving Robby and Wendy sitting alone. Wendy sighed as she turned to the boy. "So, you actually learned your lesson about being a bully?"

Robbie sighed as he turned away from his egg towards Wendy. "Yeah, get your "I told you so" out of the way. I remember you always telling me it was going to bite me in the ass someday, and this time it cost me my friends and own ease of mind. Thinking of what I pushed the kid to do has already been haunting me."

Wendy smiled, "well, I was going to ask if you were up for another try with the whole relationship thing, but if you just want me to tell you I told you so…"

Robbie looked surprised at her, "are you serious?"

"Well, you have been through a lot, and have grown from the experience, you have matured. You are a totally new guy now, I could see it as you apologized to Ryu, I can see it now as you watch over your egg, and I am willing to give you a chance to prove you are better with a second chance. You do only get one more chance, fool me once, twice, and all that."

Robbie smiled, "I honestly wanna save my chance then."

Wendy stared at the boy in shock over him turning her down, Lee, Nate and Thompson were in the same boat, shocked and wondering if they heard the boy correctly. Tambry stepped back over and plopped down next to Wendy, "did I just hear you turning down Wendy as she offered you a second chance?"

Robbie laughed at his friends, "well, I kind of feel like I should reevaluate who I am, before I drag anyone down with me. I have been doing a lot of soul searching lately, and until I can understand who 'Robbie Valentino' is, I shouldn't add more to the mix."

Tambry smirked. "You got that from a self-help book, didn't you?"

Robbie blushed as the gang all laughed. Turning to Wendy, "I really do want there to be an "us", but I first have to figure out "me". If you are willing to give me the chance to solve my own mysteries, I would really appreciate that second chance."

Wendy smiled.

=-=-=-=-=END=-=-=-=-=

The first thing I need an opinion on, is Robbie's egg. I am honestly a little torn between giving him a Shroodle named Doodle, and a Galarian Zigzagoon. I would need ideas for Zigzagoon's nickname though.

Other than him, the other Pokémon are already decided, I just need ideas for the nicknames. Candy is getting Pawniard, Grenda is getting Tinkatink, Lee and Nate are getting Toxel, Lee lowkey form, and Nate amped form and Thompson is getting Pawmi.

I was thinking of giving Tambry Rotom, but I feel she wouldn't like not having her phone in her hands, and Rotom would basically be playing keep away with it. So, I was thinking Gothita, Mincinno, or Bounsweet. I wanna get your guys' opinions on this stuff, because I am open to suggestions if you all think my choices make little sense. Last time I outsourced for answers, I got very little.