I don't look like me.

I stared at the dead girl. Her right eye was ringed in the deep purple of a black eye, but even then the twin orbs were that ever bright shattered orange. Her hair was such a deep and varied blue that I wondered how such a color could possibly exist, let alone do so on her head. Her chin was sharp, she had a cute little button nose, and her cheeks had just a bit of childhood chubbiness to them.

I ignored her and proceeded to brush her teeth, pointedly not looking at the reflection in the bathroom mirror.

I thought I would get used to it at some point. The whole seeing the wrong face in the mirror, but no. It's like everytime I see it it's even more wrong. It's such a jarring thing to see and even feel. I miss my tattoos, my piercings, my arms, my legs, my chest, my everything. I miss me.

Oh well, no fixing this problem. Better to just suck it up and avoid mirrors.

Maybe get a tattoo.

Lets see, I need to drop off the necklace, grab a copy of todays local paper, mail the hat and the paper, and finally go check out Citrines thing. And probably train after all that. A half decent list of things compared to my regular schedule of train, travel, and nap.

Best get to it.

"You guys really don't have to come with you know."

It was the day after the train incident. The police had gotten everything they wanted out of us after a very long day of interviewing and bullshit paperwork. They escorted us to the nearest pokemon center for us to rest up afterwards. I had gone straight to my room, passed out and slept for a full thirteen hours. It would've been fourteen except the other two were far too invested in this delivery job and refused to let me sleep in until it was finished. I didn't argue much after Citrine literally dragged me out of bed.

I mean, I absolutely smacked him in his bruised ribs for that, but I didn't argue.

They had helped me with getting the necklace back and ruining that dudes plan, so it seemed only fair that they got to see how this little misadventure ended.

Not that it made it any less annoying.

"Are we there yet?" If I had to hear him ask that one more time I was gonna smack his ribs. Again.

"We'll get there when we get there!" I snapped. "And you volunteered to come with. You don't get to bitch."

I went back to trying to decipher the directions Dr Brooke gave me. She couldn't just give me an address, nooo. She had to write out how to get there from the train station. Which would be fine if she didn't have the handwriting of a drunk.

I showed the note to Lazuli, pointing at my next puzzle, "Is that a G or a Q?"

She looked at it for a moment, "I think it's a 9?"

"Give me that!" Citrine swiped the paper from my hands like the little shit he was. He scanned it for a moment, and then another, and another.

...

"You cracked the code yet Enigma?"

"I'm working on it!" He sneered at the page before very obviously pointing in a random direction, which just happened to be right. "It says to go that way."

"It said to go left." I corrected him. "Can you not read?"

"I can read!" He snapped back.

"I've yet to see any evidence of that." I snarked back, now scanning the street for plan B. Oh, there's one. "HEY, YOU!"

I ran up to the man who was clearly up far too early for his liking (I feel the same buddy) and sweeping off some leaves from his buildings steps. "Do you know how to get to Somnium Labs from here?"

He took a minute to think, whether that was because he had trouble remembering or because it was far too early in the morning to think about anything other than coffee was unclear. But in the end he gave me some directions that were far more cohesive than the note. The first step of which was 'Go left'.

So I went back and rubbed it in Citrines face, which he grumbled about. Then we were on our way.

Alomosa town was a sleepy place. Not in the sense that we were up earlier than most people, but in a slow, lazy kinda way. From what I saw yesterday most of the residents were enjoying their retirement here. I had swiped a brochure at the train station yesterday and found that this place had functioning hot springs and even a fairly impressive flower park nearby. Perfect for relaxing.

The buildings were charmingly rustic. An older style but well taken care of in their age. Various shades of red colored brick made up the bulk of building materials around us, masterfully laid to give a surprising swath of variety to the homes and businesses around us. Black iron fittings held potted plants and streetlamps, like delicate fingers gently curling around their charges. Moss, vines, and flowers clung to the walls and arches, creating a beautiful garden feel to the place. The contrasts of dark reds and vibrant greens both made the town feel bold and yet calm, highlighting itself with little pops of color from the blooms crawling over the town.

I could see why so many people head here to retire, it's very pretty.

We walked for a bit, me and Citrine arguing on his questionable ability to read while Lazuli held onto his shirt, letting herself be led around the unfamiliar pathways. It wasn't long before we arrived at my destination, despite Dr Brookes best attempts to get us lost via scrawled handwriting and vague instructions.

An older building, some of the walls cracking just a bit, the surrounding flora taking advantage and climbing up the brick work and letting their flowers out for the world to see. An aged bronze plaque green with oxidation was bolted into the wall next to the glass doors and read 'Somnium Labs, Where Dreams Are Reality'.

Charming.

I pushed the doors open and continued into the clinical space inside. Slightly off white walls and white tile speckled with gray flecks gave it an almost sterile feel, though the lack of the smell of harsh cleaning chemicals kept it from feeling too much like a doctors office. The small waiting room sat empty with an abandoned receptionist station protected by a thin plexiglass screen at the side, wedged snuggly between a wall and the only other door in the room.

I walked up to where the receptionist should have been and rang the circular bronze bell in a rapid and obnoxious manner letting the sound bounce around the building before calling out. "OI, I GOT A DELIVERY!"

After roughly a minute of ringing, and Citrine griping about the ringing, a red haired man in a lab coat stepped through the side door.

"Uh, can I help you?" I sure fucking hope so for your sake buddy, if not then I'm going to be seven different kinds of pissed, and possibly charged with assault. I would not be denied my victory at the finish line.

"I got a delivery for Somnium Labs." I reached into my pocket and pulled out the necklace, stifling a yawn from a sudden wave of drowsiness as I did so. I knew I should have gotten that fourteenth hour of sleep. "And we went through hell to get it here."

His eyes lit up after seeing the package, "Oh, you're the kids from the paper!" He started ushering us deeper inside of the building, "Please come in, I'll give a tour! It's the least we can do for all the trouble you went through. I hadn't realized you were the ones delivering the necklace, I thought Dr Brooke was to bring it personally."

"She had a flight to catch, family stuff." I shrugged as we walked through the side door. It opened up into a wider floor, strange machines and multiple computers dotted the area giving it a very college lab vibe. I noted it was a lot more messy than Prof. Rowans place, he certainly had less empty coffee cups scattered around. I wonder if I can swipe a full one when he wasn't looking. "What's this place do anyway?"

"We study the effects of pokemon induced sleep and its applications." He began, motioning to a hypno I hadn't seen before hidden in the corner. The odd yellow man shaped thing waving its pendulum in front of an expensive looking camera while remaining still as stone. "More specifically, we study and attempt to replicate and augment their abilities via technology for medical purposes. We have to make a lot of our own equipment and study different materials' effects on said equipment. Which is why the Celestic museum sent us that necklace."

I looked down at the odd item still in my hand. A material that can exhibit dark type properties would pique any researchers interest, and apparently the interest of would be thieves. I wonder how much something like this is actually worth. Was I holding several million dollars worth of string right now?

I'm getting distracted.

"Then take it." I held it back out to him before temptation started gnawing at my wallet, "The faster I get rid of it the better. I had to kill a train just to get it here." Don't get me wrong, I would absolutely do that part again, it was so fucking cool. But I don't wanna go for round two when that thief shows back up. If they lose it to him that's their problem.

"Oh! Of course." He took it and inspected it for a moment, suppressing a yawn as he did. Figures working in a sleep research lab makes you tired. "Interesting, it seems to be in remarkable condition for being well over a thousand years old."

I'm super not telling him it was in my pokemons mouth like three times. That thing's beyond old and it was probably soaked in more saliva yesterday than it has been in its whole existence.

Alas my musings of artifacts and spit were rudely ended as a thin gangly weight unceremoniously shoved its way past me. The bodily contact sending signals of discomfort and brain zapping annoyance as he went past without so much as an 'Excuse me'. Instead he just started yammering to... what the fuck is his name again?

"Dr Thompson," Oh, he looks more like a Mitch. "I was hoping to speak with you about our budget." The new arrival was a skinny, pale, light pole of a man. He was tall and lanky, a human being seemingly made with nothing but sharp elbows and whatever pvc pipe happened to be nearby at the time of his haphazard construction. Unshaved patchy stubble infected his chin and clung to any strand of his long greasy hair that hung down within its grasp like velcro. The bags under his eyes suggested that he hadn't slept properly in weeks and the seemingly permanent frown resting on his face said that he genuinely believed sleep was for the dead.

Which is ironic considering where he works.

"Dr. Darbon, if this is about the Egron contract again-" his exacerbation was quickly cut off by needling insistence.

"The money they're offering is more than enough for the project. The remainder can go into projects you want to complete faster and-" The way he spoke was both weasley and not as convincing as he seemed to think it was. A vague smug undertone cut through any reason he presented like alcohol in a badly mixed, over priced bar drink.

"We are a medical research team. Not weapon designers." Those last two words caught my interest. This was clearly a conversation that they had repeated several times and was quickly sliding back into its usual rut. But I had yet to see any weaponry past something you would see in a local hardware store in this world. I know they have guns and lazers and lazerguns since they appear in the anime but firearms don't seem as readily available as they are in America.

Not that I want any past my melee options, I'm mostly just curious how they stack up to pokemon. I need to know just how bullet proof your average critter was here.

"It's not a weapon! It's for non lethal crowd control, its harmless." I've seen 'non lethal' options for weapons before. It's always bullshit, bean bag rounds can crack skulls, rubber rounds can pierce eyes, even tasers can cause permanent damage if not used correctly. No such thing as non lethal weapons, just less lethal.

"I'd hardly call putting everything to sleep in a 50 yard radius, harmless." I'm with this guy, that shit seems incredibly easy to exploit. The wrong person gets a hold of that and bam, knock a whole bank out at once and rob them at your convenience. Or put a bunch of trainers under and steal their pokemon while they're helpless.

Sure some pokemon have the ability Insomnia, I glanced pointedly at the hypno in the corner, but it's uncommon enough that it could still prove to be a huge problem.

Darbon opened his mouth to argue again but was cut off with a wave of Dr Thompsons hand and a stern tone "I understand that they are offering a large sum but I founded this facility in hopes of helping people. Not give people power over others. I will not tolerate this subject any more. Especially not in front of visitors." He gestured towards me and the other two brats.

Darbs turned and finally acknowledged that we were here in any capacity. In fact, judging by the look of slight surprise, I'd say he hadn't noticed us until this very moment.

Prick.

"Here" He handed the necklace thing to him, "This is the artifact from the Celestic Museum. I'll put you in charge of studying it for the moment. Find out what you can about this and give me the results at the end of the week." His voice softened to a much less, 'I'm your boss' kinda tone and into something more familiar. "Try and get your mind off of Egron. I know an offer like that can be enticing but we need to stick to our morals. If we don't then the world would be that much darker. ok?"

Darbs looked like he gave no fucks about Dr Thompsons 'morals'. But quickly fell into line and politely took the necklace with a half hearted, "Yes sir." Before marching back the way he came.

Through my group.

I heard the other two scuttle out of the way of the adult. I however stood my ground even as he muttered a distracted 'excuse me'. My refusal to move stopped him as we quickly settled into a stand off. His annoyance in full display and my pissy sneer presented without shame.

He loudly cleared his throat before trying again, this time louder and much more authoritative. "Excuse Me."

"Go. Around." It was a response that refused to accept any bullshit.

A few more seconds as the air grew just a touch more tense as this spidery adult attempted to out will a literal (pseudo) child. He failed. In the end he walked around, muttering a few obscenities. I maintained eye contact as he went past, seeing Lazuli clinging onto a confused Citrine out of the corner of my vision.

I do not like that guy.

Pointless battles for social dominance aside, I'm pretty sure my work is done here, and the visit seemed a bit soured by the worlds thinnest incel.

"Hey Citrine," I spun around and addressed the little martial artist, "Didn't you have something you wanted to do while you were in town?" That was the whole reason they were here right? Never did find out what it was, I meant to ask on the train but that idea got derailed.

Hehe. Still funny.

He perked up, thankful to have a new topic to wash away the old one. "Yeah! There's a dojo in town that I wanted to check out." That makes perfect sense. Of course he would want to check that out. "Brycen Bevins trained there for a year before he got into show biz." Now that's a familiar name.

"As in the unovan gym leader?" Wait, would he be one by now? I need to think before I speak. Or before I do anything really. It's getting to be a real problem lately.

I could almost see the stars in Citrines eyes as he practically vibrated in place. "Yeah! He's my hero! He's the whole reason I got into martial arts. I've watched all of his movies, and got tons of merch, and I even bought his biography!" Ok, was not expecting him to be such a nerd. Struck me more as a jock kinda dude. But whatever, no harm in being a fan of something.

"He traveled the world training at different dojos until he was able to master their styles. So I want to do the same thing. I made a list a while ago of all the coolest dojos and fighting schools I could find on the pokenet so I'm gonna travel until I find the right ones, and then train at them. My first stops here at the Alamosa dojo!" Very big nerd. But a nerd that could break a grown mans fingers like chopsticks. I know he could, I saw him do it the day we met. It was hilarious.

"Well then lead the way." Excitement for his journey either overrode any want to see the rest of this place or he lost interest after the argument. Either way he spun around and practically dashed towards the door, Lazulis clinging being the only thing to slow him down.

I turned back to Thompson, he seemed a bit disappointed about us leaving so soon. Seems about right, the few scientists I've met in my life just love to talk about their chosen research subject. Even had a girl invite me back to her lab once, that was a weird date. Good, but weird.

"Sorry Doc, we're gonna bounce. Got some sightseeing to do. It's been fun." I followed the other two towards the door. Maybe I could pick up a move or two when we get there. I'm a quick study, I can watch and learn.

I bit my tongue as I held back a laugh at what we were staring at. Lapis patted Citrines back in an effort to comfort him while orange boy himself simply stared on in disappointment.

"So Citrine," I turned to him, "How old's that list?"

The sign on the building didn't say Alamosa Dojo. It read Dragonites Cuisine. The place was a noodle shop now, and a fairly busy looking one at that. It had certainly been a dojo at some point though. The front wall had been knocked out letting the whole place be open air and for the smell of frying vegetables, meat, and spices to waft seductively out into the street. The floor was still that of its old life, brandishing the pattern of white lined sparring rings. While busy, it still held a comfortable atmosphere and had plenty of tables open for more guests. The last little detail that really seemed put there just to rub it in Citrines face was a framed picture of Brycen himself in costume resting in the front. An enthusiastic sign above it claiming that 'You Too Can Eat In The Same Place The Legendary Kung Foo Movie Star Brycen Bevins Trained At!'

"Shut up." Was his response.

"Welp, as long as we're here." I made my way to the counter for some grub. I had had breakfast at the pokecenter a few hours ago but rehydrated eggs and oats aren't particularly filling or satisfying.

Citrine begrudgingly followed me with Lapis on our tail.

We were quickly seated, had our orders taken and were now having second breakfast like a bunch of overly colorful hobbits. We had also found out that they let pokemon eat here as well, so we let a few of our own out. I chose Mark, my team had eaten already but Mark always seemed to have room for more so long as he had food in front of him. I wonder if that's cause he's a desert pokemon? I know his species is highly opportunistic, most pokemon in extreme biomes are.

Lapis had her doduo out, a massive omnivorous bird that often hunted in packs according to a quick scan from my pokedex. Its left head was scarfing down a large plate of fried rice while the right instinctually kept a lazy look out.

Citrine ordered his shroomish a plate of spiced raw veggies and let the admittedly adorable little mushroom happily eat to its hearts content. The simple dish making it hop around at times in excitement.

I had two orders of ramen, one for me and Mark each. He was attempting to scarf the nearly boiling soup down with limited success. Dude seemed to have no concept of 'letting it cool off' and just kept sticking his hands in to try and fish out noodles, and then yelping at the heat. I had considered just dropping some of my drinks ice into it to help him out but now I was curious to see how long he would just keep burning himself. Because it was funny.

"I Challenge You To A Battle!"

The table jumped as two new hands slammed into it making our food rattle and threatening to tip over our drinks and my pokemon. I snapped my head around, metaphorical hackles raised and ready for a fight. Citrine immediately steadied Lapis's drink, then turned to the newcomer, while the mousey girl jumped and shrank in her seat. Her double brained bird giving an aggressive hiss at the interruption to their meal.

I relaxed as I saw some scrawny blonde kid in a fancy ass navy blue suit starring me in the eyes. His obnoxiously shiny hair was perfectly quaffed, his flawless pasty skin almost reflected the sun, and wait do I know this kid? He looks real familiar.

"Do I know you?" I'm not the best with faces or names, but his suit is familiar. Was it something recent?

He sputtered at my question, "I am Augustine Rosen!" I stared at him blankly, no memories coming to mind. "Of the Rosen Family!?" Nope, nothing. "We battled in a tournament in Celestic city!" A flash of recognition hit me at that.

"Were you the kid with the yanma?"

He sputtered again while trying to come up with some kind of response but stopping himself a few words in everytime.

Lapis leaned forward to me and quietly reminded me exactly who this kid was. "I think this is Augles Rogles." A flash of recognition zapped my think meat.

"Augles! You were the other finalist, you had a breloom!" I gave a mean spirited chuckle, "I have a video of you getting nailed with a drink."

"You WHAT!?" He blanched.

I turned to my friends and took out my pokedex, "Do you guys want to see it? It's hilarious." I asked, fully intending on embarrassing some random kid I vaguely remembered.

"Give me that!" He lunged across the table for it, ultimately failing at grabbing my pokedex but very nearly succeeding in spilling Marks soup, which clearly pissed off the little lizard.

Mark snapped and hissed at the interruption to his lunch as Augles annoyingly kept trying to take my pokedex. Fucking brat.

"NO! FUCK OFF!" A thought occurred. "Wait, why do you want another battle? I kicked your shit in last time." And he was in a completely different place as well. I rode and killed a train to get here. "And are you fucking following me, how did you find me?"

He backed off, dusting off his fancy pressed suit of non-existent dirt. "You got lucky last time!" He pointed at me, as if picking out a criminal in a police lineup. "And on top of that you humiliated me in front of everybody. I need to beat you, and put you in your place. I am of the Rosen family and we will not be insulted like that."

"As for how." he reached into his pocket and pulled out a neatly folded piece of grey flimsy paper that he quickly unraveled. "You haven't made any attempts to lay low."

On it was a picture of me, Magic Mike, and the pinsir. It was from the corner of the train car, I was in a decent pose with my back turned and hand holding a webbed pokeball. The Pinsir clearly charging up is Focus Blast in a failed attempt to take down Luke who could be seen just on the edge of the paper. The headline reading "NEWBIE TRAINER STOPS TRAIN HEIST"

I had forgotten about the camera guy. But not the hole in the back of my jacket. Still haven't decided how to patch that. Maybe I could make myself a logo.

You know what. Fuck it. If he came all this way to get his ass kicked, I might as well kick it. It would be rude not to.

"Ok, but I get your suit if I win." We were roughly the same size. It might hang a bit odd on me, he's a touch broader, but I could pull it off. Besides, I might need fancy clothes at some point, my journeys barely begun and it's already gotten this weird vibe to it, best to have it just in case. "And your shoes." They were shiny, I like shiny.

He paused at that. Appearing to actually consider the consequences to his actions for a moment before declaring, "Very well, but when I win you have to delete that video from your pokedex. Do we have a deal?"

"Deal." I already sent a copy of the video to Prof Rowan and Nurse Joy. No skin off my back. "One on one?"

He stepped back into the street as I got up and made my way to the front of the store. The rest to the customers in the shop changing positions to get a good view of the battle. Someone jumped forward, a teen girl, maybe about fifteen, volunteering to be a referee.

"I'll only need the one to beat you." He stopped at the other side infront of a- how the fuck did I miss a limo pulling up outside? It's like 6 windows long! Is that how you measure limos, with windows? I'm getting off topic again.

"Challenger picks first!" I had to raise my voice a bit at this distance.

"Of course!" At least he knew basic battle courtesy. "Go, Ursaring!" Oh, right. His whole strategy is overpowered heavy hitters. I forgot that last time after his breloom just straight up started ignoring him. Which ended up making that a much tougher fight.

The grizzly appeared in a flash of red. Tall, angry, and bulky. The large thick yellow ring on its front feeling oddly enough more like a threat display than a decoration. Its well kept fur shimmered faintly in the sun as it stretched its arms, ready for what it surely assumed to be a short battle.

I raised my pokedex and let it do its job.

"Ursaring. The hibernator pokemon. An excellent tree climber. It snaps trees with its front legs and eats the fallen fruit. Its keen sense of smell allows it to find food, even if buried." Neat, that's not helpful at all. But the stats of the average specimen on the screen are. Crazy high strength, shit speed, mid tier everything else. I should probably use Karen, she could ruin it with status effects and keep her distance just fine. Unless it has Hyper Beam.

I thought about my opponent for a second.

It definitely has Hyper Beam.

"Mark you're up!" I called back. He's got Low kick and Swagger, he'll be fine.

My answer was the sound of him trying for the noodles one more time, and burning his hand again.

"GET OUT HERE AND BEAT UP THIS DUMB ASS THING! YOU CAN EAT AFTER!" A single indignant whine before he hopped off the table and out in front of me grumpy at his meal being interrupted. Damned little glutton.

Though I did notice the bears grimace deepened a touch when it was insulted. Maybe I can use that.

"This will be a one on one match!" Our volunteer ref raised up a fork. "It will continue until one pokemon faints or a trainer forfeits! The match will start once this fork hits the ground." A bit odd, I wonder if that's a local thing. "Trainers ready?" We nodded.

And he tossed the silverware into the air. The spinning piece of steel commanding the audiences attention as I ran through strategies in my head.

The key will be speed and evasion, Marks tough but one good hit on him will probably end it. I'll need him to Dragon Dance to boost up at some point. Need to Swagger it as soon as possible so I get that chance.

The fork came back down.

'Clang'

Augles went first, calling for a Mega punch. Predictable, but still a problem.

The massive hulk of flesh dashed forward, its short hind legs pushing it as best as they could. Which wasn't terribly fast. It might be able to out sprint me, but Mark was a slippery little bastard with the agility of a greased up cat.

The paw came down, intent on ending the fight embarrassingly fast, but whiffed it as Mark bounced away. The Mega Punch crushing the asphalt underneath as easily as potato chips in an angry toddlers grasp.

Mark was a heavy hitter, good for some damage but bad for versatility. His move pool consisted mostly of 'Hit it' and 'Hit it with tricks' with a few defensive and distraction techniques mixed in. Good for all out brawls, so long as the other guy can't one shot you.

This being said, his species is naturally talented at fucking with the enemy, albeit in packs. So lets see if we can't trip it up a bit.

"Low kick." It was an interesting fighting type move. The user powered up its foot with energy that would then sorta trick physics into thinking it had more mass than it actually did in some weird fucky kinda way. Allowing smaller pokemon to trip larger opponents. It would temporarily coat the opponent in the same energy and the impact would be much more damaging. Of course, it has limits, if the fake mass isn't enough, or the user's not strong enough, a larger pokemon can just shrug it off. Which is what happened with Pinsir yesterday.

He dashed forward in between its short legs and swiped a super powered foot at the things ankles. But, as I expected, it was too heavy for the scraggy to actually move all that much, it just slid its paw a few inches. He rolled away as its foot came up and back down hard where his head had just been.

"Keep it up! Try and knock it off balance." If we could trip it it would have the same effect as a true Low Kick.

What followed was both impressive and disheartening. Marks martial arts training was clearly paying off, as he wove between stomps from several hundred pounds of ursaring and the constant pendulum of Mega punches ordered by Augles, each one making a new pot hole in the road. Every twist and turn followed by a glowing kick to an ankle or shin. But unfortunately the bear clearly had decent training in foot work as it never so much as tilted let alone fell.

So that's a bust. Change of plans.

"Protect and Sand attack."

My lizard halted, a green bubble forming around him before the bear could capitalize off of his moment of stillness by slamming him with another Megapunch.

Man, that's getting old. But it had helped in the long run. As now there was plenty of potholes filled with broken asphalt and dirt to throw in its face.

Mark shoved his foot into the suddenly loamy soil and kicked an impressively sized scoop of grit into Ursarings eyes just as the shield fell. The cloud of dirt meeting the sensitive organs, making it back off in a fit of discomfort and rage.

"Dragon Dance, try and keep your distance from the big idiot." The bear snarled at me for the insult, giving Mark just a touch more time to build up his buffs.

Oh I'm so using that to my advantage.

"It's in front of you!" Augles called, "Run forward and punch it!" I didn't even need to tell Mark to dodge, the bear whiffed it by a good six feet.

"And now the stupid are trying to lead the blind, hilarious." It snarled at me again, did it think 'Blind' was an insult or was it pissy about me insulting his trainer that time?

"NO! More forward, and to your left!" Called Augles. Mark bounced away as the energy laced fist came down a foot from where he had been standing. He's in more danger from shrapnel than a direct hit at this point, at least until the grit clears from its eyes.

And it'll be too late by then.

This continued for nearly 20 seconds. Enough time for Mark to get properly powered up and the bear to get significantly pissed off. Which was good on both fronts, it hitting harder and more aggressively made no difference when a clean hit could've dropped my lizard from the start. So now it was just being sloppy on top of that.

"Low Kick the stupid thing and be done with it" Take two. With enough of a strength boost it should actually knock it down this time.

The scraggy dashed forward, his speed now boosted until he was a blur, foot glowing as it snapped out aimed for its ankle. Most likely intent on finishing this up so he could get back to his meal.

Except that didn't happen.

No, Smokey the Bear finally wisened up and stopped listening to its trainer.

Marks mad dash was cut short by a green shimmer of crystal like energy, instead of another Mega Punch that Augles ordered, stopping him dead in his tracks. The Low Kick failing to even budge the Protect, making no more than a glass like 'tink' noise and fizzling out.

Thats pretty fucking bad. I might not get those shoes after all.

The sudden jolt of the failed attack was enough for the ursaring to reach him with a paw. The claws practically plowing through the dropping shield and grabbing mark firmly by the head and effortlessly lifting the much smaller pokemon.

And then it looked at me. Not at Mark, squirming around in its grip and hitting him with unboosted Facades. Not at Augles yelling at it to pummel my scraggy with Mega Punches. No, it looked at me.

Then it drew its arm back, snapped it forward, and I had to dodge a flying pokemon in a trainer battle for the second time in my career.

Mark literally screamed past my head as my reflexes barely let me lean out of the way. There was a clattering crash of wood, ceramic, and meat further into the restaurant as he found quite a lot of breakables to break his fall. A quick look back told me that he had hit our table and that brunch was ruined, the lizard himself was obscured by the mess.

I whipped back around, fingers resting on my remaining pokeballs in case I had to put down Charmins pissed off mascot in a hurry.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" I barely even insulted the stupid thing and it's already hurling my own pokemon at me? In the battle with sandwich lady, the cryogonal almost bisecting me was a genuine accident. That was an attack on a trainer. "That's a foul, right?!" I turned to the current judge.

"Foul!" She gave a quick nod and raised one of the restaurants red plates, a clever replacement for a red flag at the moment. She took a second to decide what to do about it before. "Punk trainer gets a short recess!"

"She was heckling!" Was Augles response as he got into a quick argument with the ref. I took the chance to run back to Mark and check if he was ok.

He sat on the floor, sounds of ugly crying coming out of him. My heart jumped into my throat, Mark was tough, and I had never heard him do much more than yelp.

"Mark, are you alright!?" I knelt down to look him over. He turned, genuine tears streaming down his face and held up a handful of noodles.

His bowl of soup had hit the ground and shattered, spilling broth, veggies and noodles all over the floor. He wasn't hurt, he was upset about his food being ruined.

"Uh, there there man, it's just soup." I gave him a pat on the shoulder, "Tell you what, if your still conscious by the end if the fight I'll get you a new-"

"RIIIINNG" I turned back to see the bear stalking over, apparently upset about waiting for more than fifteen seconds. "URSA, URSARING!"

"SCRAG, SCRAGGY SCRAG!" He stood back up noodles squishing between his fingers in pure rage as he stared down his massive opponent. He took a deep breath and screamed at the top of his lungs.

And then he started glowing.

And stretching.

And changing.

And as soon as it registered what was happening, and why.

I screamed too.

"SOUP!? ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!" I can't believe this shit, "WE GOT THROWN OFF A GODDAMNED MOVING TRAIN YESTERDAY AND YOUR EVOLVING OVER FUCKING SOUP!"

The bear at least had enough courtesy to not interrupt his metamorphosis, whether that's because they had manners or because they were surprised by my tirade of screaming 'soup' I'll probably never know. But as soon as I saw color return to him I grabbed the asshole by his new frill and dragged him back on the street. Not even giving myself enough time to inspect his new form.

"GET YOUR GOKU ASS OUT THERE AND USE HEADBUTT!" Fucking shit, I am pissed about that.

My newly evolved Scrafty ran forward, his large stiff red frill glowing a bright white, reminding me of an ax, as his now longer legs carried him forward. Ursaring threw up another Protect resulting in a resonating 'GONG'. Their paw snapped forward, intent on catching him again and likely flailing him into submission.

But we had seen that trick already.

"Catch and throw!" As soon as the arm burst through the failing green membrane Mark slipped away and gripped its forearm with enough force to make the grizzly wince.

Mark was still short, in fact it looked like he only came up to my chin thanks to his mohawk-like frill. His arms were spindly, a bit thinner than mine and his chest and waist were slender, streamlined. All in all he was built a bit like a teenaged fuckboy. But none of that mattered because Mark was a fighting type. And that meant that Mark probably weighed three times as much as one would assume, purely from his new hyper dense musculature.

Mark was a scrawny little thing that could hit like a professional boxer.

So when he spun on his heel and threw the several hundred pounds of mammal over his shoulder, the only ones surprised was the bear and his trainer.

They came down with a resounding 'thump' knocking the wind out of ursaring and showing that this one sided battle had evened out very quickly. Mark scrambled on top of his downed opponent, grabbed them by the ears and with vengeful wrath that quickly turned to viscous delight started repeatedly slamming his glowing crest into their face.

It took four Headbutts before Smokey the bear got his shit together and yanked Mark off by his parachute pants like skin. Mark was slammed to the asphalt hard enough to wind him in return, giving Ursaring enough time to right itself to its feet, keeping a firm grip on the sadistic lizard.

This however gave Mark enough time to get the wind back in him and show the ursaring the benefits to having such loose skin. Despite having a grip on the back of Mark pants the dark type simply turned himself 180 degrees, like a honey badger. The new angle let him crush the bears wrist between both an elbow and knee strike with a sickening 'PoP'. He was dropped with a pained yelp as they drew back what might have been a cracked wrist bone.

"Low Kick" He dashed forward, his foot glowing and powered up from both an evolution high and Dragon Dance. It plowed through both legs, completely taking its footing away and giving it a faint glow as the fighting type energy transferred into its target with malicious intent.

He dashed forward again, the speed boost allowing him to jump up high before Ursaring hit the ground. Fist shining with a move I didn't immediately recognize, he brought it down just as the mountain of meat impacted the ground directly into its surprised snout with a bone cracking 'snap'.

And then another, and another, and another.

I was a bit too distracted trying to remember his natural move pool to realize that Ursaring stopped moving after the second strike. And didn't notice until the fourth.

"OI! Lay off him man, he's down." Marks shining fist stopped as he pulled back for another. Crazed sadistic giggling calming down just a touch, but not completely stopping. He glanced at me and then back at his new 'toy', clearly weighing whether or not it was worth hitting the unconscious mammal one more time for shits and giggles.

My eyes narrowed, "If you hit him again you're getting nothing but plain kibble for a week. No salt." That made him drop his fist and scramble back to me, making a show of how 'well behaved' he was and totally didn't deserve to have his flavor privileges taken away.

The ref looked down for any activity from our opponent and on seeing the number Mark had done raised a hand. "Ursaring Is Unable To Battle. The Winner Is Punk Girl!"

"My name's Alice Thorn." I told her as I stepped over the very concussed bear towards my spoils.

Auugs just stared dumbfounded at his pokemon. Completely baffled as to how he had lost again. I leaned against his limo in the most asshole-ishly casual way I could think of. Giving him a few seconds to finally return the poor bastard.

"Man, that sucks total dick. You should like, stop losing, or whatever" He turned to me, bafflement slowly giving way to annoyance.

"Maybe learn how to battle? That might help. Or go back to beating up toddlers that seemed to work pretty good." I gave him the most sarcastic grin I could manage.

"You-" he began, pausing for a moment as if to collect himself, "You have not heard the last of me Thorn. I'll beat you next time." He turned to open the door to his limo but was pulled back by his collar.

"Are you forgetting something?" He refused to meet my eyes.

"N-no?"

I leveled a look at him.

"Please don't" a smile matching Marks earlier one crept onto my face as he realized how serious I was. "This is a Lysander. I don't have any extra clothes with me."

"That sounds like a you problem."

The next moment was a scramble as he desperately tried to pull himself into his getaway vehicle and I tried to get my suit off of him. "MARK, GET OVER HERE AND HELP ME STRIP THIS NERD!" Marks delighted cackle truly did mark Oogles doom.

Two on one was already unfair but one being a fighting type was just overkill and soon enough I had a snazzy new suit and shoes.

He dove into his car yelling the most pompous, soft hitting expletives I've ever heard, covered by a pair of boxers and an under shirt. The door slammed shut and the window rolled down a crack.

"YOU'RE A BARBARIAN!" Get fucked loser, "I WILL NOT REST UNTIL I'VE HAD MY REVENGE! FROM NOW ON. WE. ARE. RIVALS!"

"Doesn't that imply that we're equals? Because I've got skills, and" I raised up my new blue trousers, "Pants. You've got neither, bitch boy."

The limo took off, tires squealing just a bit as they tore down the road, no doubt putting on speed at Ugs behest. His head popping out before he turned a corner, "RIIIVAAALLLS!"

Oh he is definitely gonna be more interesting than the bees.

I considered for a moment if I should feel bad about bullying a child before shrugging it off. He's rich, some emotional distress might humble him a bit.

A warm uncomfortable weight settled on my shoulder. A quick turn of my head revealed a grizzled looking dude in a greasy apron and a frown.

"Someones gonna pay for my plates." Oh fuck, thats right. Property damage.

"Don't you have insurance or something?" I questioned, already wondering how fast I could ditch the place.

His grip tightened, "If you can't pay then you can work off the debt." That sounds like a no, or a gamble for free labor. Wait, I just took that kids pants, did I also-?

I dug through my new pants before finding my secondary prize within. I pulled out a brown fine leather wallet I found inside. Flipped it open to find a wad of hundreds. Trainers are supposed to get money for battling. And poor little orphan me definitely needs this more than a spoiler rich brat. Besides, his stupid bear was the one who did it.

I handed him a couple, pocketed the rest and threw the wallet into the closest street drain, uncaring as to what was in it. I'll count that later.

So, I got a fancy new suit and some nice shoes that may or may not fit, a wad of cash with another just a phone call away, and a fully evolved pokemon. Today was certainly interesting, and even if Mark evolved for the stupidest fucking reason at least I won the battle.

I reached down to scratch along Marks new frill only to find that he wasn't there. I looked around, confused and a little worried that he was getting into trouble with his newfound height. But no, he wasn't starting shit.

He was eating the fucking soup off the floor.

"Why…" I just glared at him, befuddled. "If you were just gonna eat them anyway then- The whole reason you evolved was-" he looked up to me, shoving a handful of now cooled down noodles into his mouth, looking so incredibly pleased with himself. Smug about something only he understood.

"Shut up and eat your breakfast."

Alice Thorn

May 9

Team

Jack

Buneary

Moves: Pound, Foresight, Frustration, Sweetkiss, Defense Curl, Baby Doll Eyes, Quick Attack, Jumpkick, Shadow Ball, Low Kick, Swagger, Protect, Fire Punch

Ability Limber

Luke

Golbat

Moves: Absorb, Super sonic, Astonish, Bite, Whirlwind, Wing attack, Confuse ray, Air Cutter, Swift, Protect

Ability Inner focus

Karen

Cottonee

Moves: Absorb, Fairy Wind, Growth, Leech Seed, Stun Spore, Mega Drain, Poison Powder, Protect, Swift, Razor Leaf, Cotton Spore

Ability Infiltrator

Mark

Scrafty

Moves: Leer, Headbutt, Sand Attack, Feint Attack, Swagger, Low Kick, Dragon Dance, Protect, Endure, Facade, Pay Back, Brick Break

Ability Moxie

6518¥

In Box

N/A

I have been struggling with this goddamned chapter for over a year. I've opened the file and stared at it over a hundred times. Only sometimes finding the words to add to it. And then I read about one dumb trick to help with writers block and finally got the last thousand words down in the past two days. So if your a writer, and your stuck, try putting your writings in Comic Sans. It sounds stupid, but you can thank that weird little black magic font for this chapter today. It also apparently helps people with dyslexia. No idea how.

Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone