Obviously, the Gym Challenge for tonight had to be put on hold. I spent the rest of the evening hiding in Elesa's office on the top floor. Elesa was cooperating with Nimbasa Police Force with the investigation and her gym trainers were ensuring that the spectators exited the building safely. The entire building was being cordoned off and I simply waited. If the gym trainers had any comments for me, be it about how I helped subdued the wannabe terrorist or how I'm not helping them out with ushering the spectators out of the gym, they didn't say it.

"So this is where you were hiding."

"Is it done?" I asked from where I was lying on a couch in her office, tilting my cap a little higher from its position on my face where I was using it to shield my eyes from the lights to take a nap. I spotted Elesa standing just right beside me, arms crossed, with an unimpressed look and exhaustion evident on her face.

"I had to pull out all the stops to prevent the police from investigating you. That wasn't fun."

"I suppose letting the boldores explode will be more interesting then?"

"You know that's not what I meant," Elesa sighed as she took off the decorative earmuffs she wore on her head. "Still, thanks. I don't know if I could resolve the situation with no casualties like you did if it wasn't for your help."

"Nobody got injured?"

"Surprisingly," Elesa nodded as she placed her earmuffs on the office table and started packing things into her handbag. Her emolgas climbed up the couch I was lying on and sat on my chest, looking at me curiously as I patted them on their heads.

"See this, Grumpy? Why can't you be as cute as them?"

Grumpy decidedly ignored me. So uncute.

"I'm locking this place up. You coming or not?" Elesa asked and I slowly stood up. We both walked out of her office and soon, locked the front gates of her gym. It's way past midnight and even her gym trainers had returned back to their homes a few hours ago. It's just us now.

"The media is going to have a field day with this," Elesa grumbled as soon as we teleported back into her home with her alolan raichu. "I can already imagine the headlines, Elesa the supermodel nearly jeopardising the crowd with her show, or write something like how was it even possible for a Plasma fanatic to sneak his way in blah blah blah."

"Plasma?"

"You didn't hear him screaming about those liberating all pokemon crap? He was taking the crowd hostage and trying to force me to give up my pokemon's pokeballs to him until you stepped in."

"I didn't pay attention to the crap he was shouting about," I admitted, "but aren't the Plasmas getting a little too bold these days?"

"I annoyed them too much because my influence alone was preventing more people from converting to their cause. It's inevitable that I will catch the attention of the wrong kind. When a supermodel like me who the entire region is crazy for publicly denounced them, acts of revenge like this will happen. They want to see me fall, they want to see me developing a bad rep and shatter the public's image and trust in me because once they do, that's one hindrance less to their plans."

"Makes sense," I agreed, understanding firsthand just how crazy Unovans are over Elesa and that a few words she posted on her social media is enough to turn the public sentiments in favour of the League instead of the Plasmas. That is just how influential she is within Unova.

"So, what's going to happen next?"

"For now, I'm shutting the gym down for the whole of this week to conduct "investigations" on this matter," Elesa replied as she kicked off her shoes and seeing as how her untidy self was not going to place them back on the shoe racks, I decided to do it for her because seeing her throw her things everywhere was driving me crazy.

"Okay, "investigations", I get it. In truth?"

"I'm going to crack down on those Plasmas hiding in my city, hard. Like you said, they are getting way too bold and we Pillars have to make a statement if we want to put the public at ease. I'm not going into details, but we had interrogated some information from the terrorist earlier and now I have a good idea on just where they might be hiding, so I might as well do some cleaning," Elesa revealed as she put her handbag down on the sofa before going to the kitchen to get herself a drink. "Nothing for you to concern yourself about but it will definitely take a few days, which means that you also get yourself a few days off since the gym will be closed in the meantime."

"Sounds nice to me," I hummed in thought before turning back to face her. "Are you sure you don't need my help?"

"Nah, I can handle them just fine. I will let you know again if I really need your help."

If she says so, who am I to say otherwise?


"Why are you guys here this early? No, wait. Why are you guys here in the first place?"

I stared at the three people who rang the doorbell in the wee hours of the morning. None of them looked apologetic.

"Hi hi, we heard from uncle that Elesa is conducting a raid today so we-"

"You guys are not coming with me," Elesa put her foot down as we let them enter. Amelia visibly pouted while Lexus simply shrugged. Iris ran up to me and glomped me with a hug as soon as she spotted me.

"Jayce, Jayce!"

"Morning, Iris," I greeted as I patted the little girl on the head. "How's it with you and haxorus?"

"Haxy is so strong! And he's really nice too!" Iris gestured excitedly before she revealed the real reason why she was here.

"Grandpa Grim said that Elesa is going to fight some bad guys. Can Haxy and I come too? Please?"

"Grandpa Grim?" I asked, perplexed, and looked at Lexus for an explanation.

"Mikhail intended that as a joke when he taught Iris to call uncle that. Now that name's stuck, can't get her to change no matter how we try," Lexus elaborated as he looked around the place. "Damn, Elesa, since when was your sty this tidy? Are you really the same Elesa I know?"

"Sty?! Now look here you tattoo freak-"

"Let's ignore them," I led Iris away as Elesa and Lexus began to bicker. Iris still hasn't given up on asking to join the raid.

"No, no, and no," I rejected each and every of her requests. "You are not ready yet. I'm also not going to the raid."

"You are not?" Iris looked a little surprised at the revelation and I nodded.

"I'm not going. Elesa said that she will be enough."

"Oh, then I'm not going too," Iris decided as she rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet. "Are we going to play today?"

"Why not?" I decided, seeing as how I have nothing better to do since the gym is now closed for the entire week. "Anywhere in particular you want to visit?"

"I dunno. Never come here before."

"Oh, let's go see a movie!" Amelia piped up as she butt into our conversation.

"I thought you wanted to join Elesa in the raid?"

"She's such a spoilsport, I can handle myself," Amelia groaned, and I knew that Elesa must have made it very clear to Amelia that she was not allowed to join her.

"Wait a minute, don't you have school?"

"I skipped it, obviously," Amelia looked rather proud about that with her hands on her hips. "Daddy doesn't care how many lessons I skip as long as I maintain my grades at the top percentile of my cohort. I always get the best scores in school, so he doesn't say anything."

"Parenting at its finest," I cannot help but humour her. Amelia grinned, grabbed and swung my arm from left to right, right to left, then left to right again.

"What now?"

"Movie, please!"

"My only job is to pay for the food and tickets, you handle everything else."

"Deal!" Amelia agreed instantaneously and hollered for Lexus. "Lexus! We are going to watch a movie! Are you coming?!"

"Yeah, yeah," Lexus walked over while rubbing a finger against his ear. "Damn Elesa, must she shout in my ear like that? I'm going deaf."

"Don't make a scene," Elesa pointed at Lexus and Amelia in warning before she walked out of the door to do what she needed to do as the Gym Leader of Nimbasa, before her finger pointed at me.

"And you, please keep an eye on them. I have no idea why Grimsley thought that letting them come alone without supervision was a good idea, but trust me when I say that putting these two together is a recipe for disaster."

"Roger that," I did a lazy mock salute and Elesa left.

Taking things slow might be a good change of pace.


Nimbasa is a sleepless city, boasting a huge shopping district that operates twenty four hours per day and it was where we were spending our time until it was time for us to head to the theatres. Since the earliest movie available will only start screening at around ten thirty, we decided to walk around in the nearby shopping district and let Iris have her fun.

This is the first time Iris had truly explored a city as huge as Nimbasa. She's awed at the sights and could not stop asking about this and that, and was especially excited whenever she spotted any advertisements featuring Elesa for the products she endorses. One of us had to hold onto Iris' hand at all times lest she ran off by herself in her excitement.

"Urgh, save me," Lexus groaned when Amelia excitedly pulled Iris into another bookstore again and checked the time against his watch. "Damn, it's only nine thirty? When is this going to end?"

"We might as well follow them," I followed after the girls, seeing no wrong with visiting a bookstore. Lexus visibly wilted for having to follow after the girls in their little shopping spree.

"Look alive. Take this as training for when you start dating in the future," I patted my younger cousin encouragingly on his back. That did not seem to help one bit, so I pointed at an empty seat within the bookstore which Lexus immediately ran to sit on without delay, happy to simply be able to rest his weary legs for a little while.

Weak.

"Thanks Jayce!"

Half an hour later, Amelia happily dumped an entire basket worth of books by my feet and looked up at me expectantly. I can see some children's picture books that I am sure were chosen by Iris, as for the rest…

I picked up some of the books from the basket and began to read the titles of the books one by one, as loud as I could.

"The time when I was reincarnated as Champion Harlow's male consort… Help, my wife turned out to be the tyrant prince and he's not letting me go… Is it odd that my gardevoir is trying to flirt with me… The strongest immortal Ability Holder... I became the villainous Champion with a cheat system… I am the childhood friend of the Yellow Flash and I suspect he is trying to seduce me, volume 3... How I built a harem of-"

"Shh! SHHH!" Amelia's face flushed a bright red and immediately tried to cover my mouth with her hands but it's an impossible endeavour for her because I'm so much taller. Deciding that this was enough teasing, I simply took out my wallet, opened it, and gave her a few notes.

"Here's the money, pay for it at the counter yourself."

"It's kinda… embarrassing so can you… help me…?" She pleaded sheepishly and seeing how my eyebrows were rising higher and higher, she resigned to her fate with a weak sigh.

"I will do it myself."

Amelia dejectedly picked up the basket and headed over to the counter to pay for her… novels of questionable taste. Funnily enough, I recognised the pen name of the author for most of those books, and that author in question was undoubtedly Elite Four Shauntal. Iris cocked her head to a side, unable to understand the reason for Amelia's earlier reactions.

"Who is that?" Iris asked before I could keep my wallet back in my pocket. I looked down at my still opened wallet, seeing Iris pointing to Jane's picture that I had kept in it.

"Someone important to me," I replied as I pocketed my wallet and started to walk over to where Lexus was resting at his chosen seat and waiting for us to be finished. Iris followed after me with a hop and a skip.

"What's her name? Can I talk to her? Where is she?"

"She's dead, had been for a long time now," I replied honestly to Iris' questions, also feeling a little surprised by how peaceful those words came out. Whenever I used to think of her it's filled with nothing but sorrow and grief but now, all that my heart feels is just the peaceful acceptance of her death, all my mind thinks about are the fond memories that we once shared.

Maybe I had really learnt how to let go. Is this a good thing? Maybe, probably. I don't know.

"Oh. Um, sorry…"

"Don't be. She would love to meet you if she's still alive," I ruffled Iris' hair as we continued walking in our quest to look for Lexus.

"What's her name? Does she like dragons too?"

"Her name's Jane. As for dragons… she never had one."

"I can teach her about dragons. Maybe I can even teach her how to talk to them!"

"Sure you can," I agreed as we finally found Lexus snoozing away in a hidden corner of the bookstore with his scrafty. I nudged him lightly on his shoulder.

"Hey, wake up."

"Huh, we're done?" Lexus woke up groggily and Iris let out a giggle at how funny Lexus was looking right now in his half-awake state.

"Yes, Amelia is paying for those books at the counter. Let's meet up with her at the exit."

"Her and those damn stupid books," Lexus grunted as he stretched himself.

"They are rather... unique."

Lexus simply snorted.

"Yeah, unique. Unique."


Since we have an impressionable child with us, the movie we chose ended up being a children friendly superhero movie. To be perfectly honest, I slept through for more than half of it and was only awake at the beginning and towards the end. However, Iris and Amelia enjoyed the movie immensely and to me, that's more than enough.

"It's so cool! All the pokemon coming together at the end and kapow! And did you see, Jayce, that there were dragons? So many druddigons!"

"Yeah, I saw them. Quite powerful," I easily lied through my teeth. I'm very certain that I had slept through that part of the movie too.

"Hey, wanna meet up with sis for lunch? She's in town too," Lexus called out after us and grabbed our attention.

"Leticia is free for lunch?" Amelia asked in surprise.

"She usually isn't?" I asked Amelia and she shook her head.

"Leticia is a very busy person, more so ever since Team Plasma became a real problem because uncle has to devote his attention to them instead of handling family matters. I mean, she's so capable and she's helping uncle to handle the family's affairs most of the time, so…"

"I see. Lexus, is she really free? If not, we won't impose."

"If she says she is, then she is," Lexus affirmed as he texted something back with his phone, presumably to Leticia. "I told her that we will be meeting up with her. For now, we head over to her office. Come, follow me, it's not too far from here."

Lexus led us through the streets of Nimbasa until we finally came to an office building. We took the lift up to Leticia's office after getting the all clear from the security guards. On the fourteenth floor was where the office of the company she founded was located.

"Let!" Iris ran up to Leticia excitedly the moment she spotted her. Leticia simply bent down and caught the girl before easily lifting her up with both arms.

"Hello, Iris. Ah, everyone has arrived too. Hmm, Amelia, are those books I see? Of the educational sort, I hope?"

"Very educational," I replied on Amelia's behalf as her face quickly turned into a shade of bright red. She immediately hid the books she had been carrying in a plastic bag behind her back.

"What are we eating?" Iris asked excitedly and Leticia laughed, using a hand to help comb through Iris' long hair and tucked the stray strands behind her ears.

"What does our dear Iris want to eat?"

"Meat!"

"Of course you do. Let's get meat for lunch then."

Leticia drove us to the place she had in mind. It wasn't long before we arrived at our destination, got our seats, placed our orders, and served with food. Lunch was an enjoyable affair, mainly with Iris going on and on about dragons, Lexus complaining about the movie, Leticia teasing Amelia about her choice of reading material and Amelia being too embarrassed to say or do anything for the entire duration.

"I didn't know you work in Nimbasa," I told Leticia as we watched Iris hold Lexus' hand with one and Amelia's with another as my younger cousins accompanied Iris to the nearby playground. Leticia and I were sitting on a nearby public bench and she simply shook her head and smiled after hearing my words.

"The office you visited was just the Nimbasa branch office, I don't usually go there. Most of the time I either work in the lab at Castelia City or the one back at Lacunosa."

"Sorry, it must be hard trying to juggle everything alone. I should be there to help you."

"I don't find it hard and truthfully, I don't mind as long as I don't need to make decisions for the family in the capacity as the future leader. That will be your job in the future," Leticia disagreed with a serene smile on her face. "I know that you have things that you are planning to do which need to be done, be it for your sake, for the family, or for Unova, so go and do what you need to do. I will hold the fort here, so don't worry too much about it. Besides, even if I am really unable to do everything there are still our aunts and uncles to rely on. They still help run a large part of our businesses, both aboveground and underground."

"I really should get myself acquainted with the family's affairs after all of this is over," I admitted. "I will be counting on you to teach me the ropes then."

"I'm definitely looking forward to it. Maybe I can finally get myself a vacation after you take over," Leticia replied with a laugh. "So, how's it like working as Elesa's gym trainer?"

"Boring as hell."

"Boring? Certainly doesn't seem that way from what I've seen on the news," Leticia quickly scrolled through her phone and showed me the headlines.

"The hell?" I groaned when I realised the news article was writing about how a powerful unknown trainer, namely me, had beautifully resolved the terrorist bombing situation last night. There were some who had managed to make the connection that I am the gym trainer with a pikachu that sent every challenger with tears running down their face in defeat on that very same afternoon due to Grumpy being spotted helping to take down those boldores. The only thing to be grateful for was that nobody managed to snap any pictures when I was assisting to resolve the hostage situation because everything was so chaotic back then and everyone was too busy trying to save their own lives to do so.

Suddenly, I'm thankful that the gym will be closed for an entire week because otherwise I would have definitely been swamped by some rabid reporters wanting to get a scoop. This hype should die down by the time next week rolls around.

"Look, buddy, we are famous," I sarcastically remarked to Grumpy as I pointed at the screen of Leticia's phone. Grumpy simply lightly smacked my face with the flat part of his tail.

"Hey, rude."

"I've been wanting to ask, where did you get this cutie from? Elesa?" Leticia queried as she scooped up Grumpy in her arms and brought him close to her chest, stroking his fur and cooing at it. Grumpy let out a purr in delight as he melted into a pool of yellow fur, clearly enjoying the treatment.

"Cutie? Allow me to correct you. This, Let, is the embodiment of all murderous intent manifested into a living ball of yellow fur, the purest breathing bundle of negativity that ever graced this planet. This bugger actually tried to challenge me into a fistfight when we first met and kept trying to make an attempt on my life until we reconciled."

"Feisty," Leticia smirked as she continued to give Grumpy the spa treatment with her hands. "And fistfight? I would pay to see it happen. Do you still have front row tickets available for sale?"

"Come on," I groaned, prompting another laugh out of Leticia.

"No, seriously, he's cute."

"Cute? He's permanently grumpy so his name is Grumpy. Grumpy the pikachu, was a crotchety prickly soul. With a yellow tail and a button nose, and two eyes blacker than coal," I recited and lightly sang along the lines of my own rendition of Frosty the Snowman with Grumpy as the main character instead, making sure to make the tone of my voice as mocking as possible just to annoy Grumpy.

"What song was that? A Kanto children's song?" Leticia asked in curiosity and I shook my head.

"Nope, it's the grumpy song for Grumpy the pikachu, composed specially just for him. Grumpy the pikachu is a grumpy prat they say. He's a ball of hate but the children know how he came to life one day."

Grumpy tried smacking my face with his tail again but this time, I had fully expected this to happen and tilted my head enough in time for him to miss me entirely.

"There must have been a lot of negativity in that pikachu egg they found. For when they hatched it and it grew in hate he began to-"

Grumpy didn't let me finish my song this time as he lunged at me with a scowl on his face, tackling me with such force that I fell off from the bench I was sitting on.

"-slaughter the town. Damn it, Grumpy, this hurts. I think I broke something."

Grumpy simply stood on my chest in triumph, showing me that damn sinister grin of his. Fucking murderous rat, he will really slaughter an entire town one day, I swear.

"You guys are perfect for each other."

"Why are you saying the same thing Elesa did?" I groaned in defeat from where I was lying on the ground. How is this perfect for each other? I'm living my life with the constant possibility of being butchered by an insane pikachu.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Grumpy turned out to be the harbinger that the darn prophecy had prophesied will bring about the end of the world. This pikachu is definitely going to be the cause of an armageddon.

Definitely


AN: I think this is already the 44th chapter I've posted since the start of my update spree? Since today's the end of the month it looks like a good time to end my update spree here so that I can catch a break. I also need to review the future chapters and see if any changes needs to be made. Not sure when I will start posting again, so see you guys when I see you. Ciao~

Name: Jayce Dandolos

Age: 22

Pokemon Team:

1. Ninetales, female

2. Exeggutor, male

3. Weavile, male

4. Honchkrow, female

5. Umbreon, male

6. Hydreigon, male

7. Drapion, female

8. Zoroark, male

9. Bisharp, male

10. Shiftry, male

11. Porygon-Z, (Nosy), genderless

12. Greninja, male

13. Spiritomb, male

14. Pikachu, (Grumpy), male

Name: Elesa Euclid

Pokemon Team:

1. Zebstrika (Dazzle)

2. Emolga (Mimi)

3. Emolga (Nana)

4. Ampharos

5. Galvantula

6. Eelektross

7. Stunfisk

8. Luxray

9. Dedenne

10. Alolan Raichu

11. Jolteon