Creation began on 06-27-22
Creation ended on 07-06-22
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Progress Delay
A/N: A lot of people across the United States are unhappy with what the Supreme Court decreed, and it's up to the people that still believe in the rights to decide what to do with their bodies to try and undo their decision, similar to how it's up to the people to choose how to progress in something they believe to be right.
It was win or lose, rise or fall…and Shinji's Pyroar had risen over falling. Even as it seemed nearly impossible, Leo had managed to overpower Clembot's Heliolisk's Parabolic Charge with his Incinerate. This led to Shinji winning the fifth gym match of his time in Kalos.
"Congratulations, young man," Clembot praised Shinji as it approached him and his Pyroar after putting the defeated Heliolisk back inside its Poké Ball. "You did well."
"Thank you," Shinji replied, and then looked at Leo, who seemed to be seesawing between fury and agitation. "Leo?"
"Grr," Leo growled; either the last battle made him go up a level…or it wasn't enough for him to win against an adversary that was different from the last one. "Grr!"
"Leo, stay calm," Shinji told him, holding out his Poké Ball. "Be calm, Leo."
Clembot took notice of Leo's behavior and suspected that the Pyroar was at a level that could be managed if his trainer had the right number of badges, which he didn't right now due to being one badge short.
"You're going to need this more than ever right now," it told Shinji, holding out a small shield with six lightning bolts shooting out of it. "I present to you the Voltage Badge."
Shinji bowed his head and accepted the badge from Clembot.
"Grr," Leo growled more, but then stopped, no longer baring his fangs at Shinji, either.
It was like, the moment Shinji received his fifth badge, whatever issues affecting his ability to listen to the young man…just burned away. "Hmm."
"Leo?" Shinji asked him. "Are you alright now?"
Leo nodded his head in the positive.
"He was under level seventy," Clembot stated to them. "You shouldn't have a problem until after he goes over seventy, after which you will need your next badge until you have eight."
And having all eight will ensure that Leo won't misbehave, Shinji thought as he put the badge in his badge case. Five down…and three more to go.
Misato came over to Leo and inquired about his current behavior.
"Eee?" She went.
"Rrrargh!" He replied.
"Eevo."
"Rrrrah!"
"It looks like Leo's going to be fine now," went Hanmyo to her cats.
It would seem that Shinji really did require five badges for the time being to keep him in line, Mata and Kemi stated, observing Shinji shaking hands with the robotic gym leader.
Shinji Ikari, Kemi expressed on her own to Hanmyo, he exhibits quite a strength that is nearly impossible to comprehend sometimes, and he's different from other people.
He is not too different, added Mata, but he walks a path that is different from what others older than he originally intended for him to walk, choosing to create his own path to take that deviates from the original. If there was a fate he was preordained to accept, his deviance affords him multiple opportunities to turn away and pursue different goals.
"And was the original path intended for him positive or negative?" Hanmyo asked them.
If his path is one full of discomfort, both physically and emotionally, then it had to be one of negativity, they told her. However, as he has been here for more than four years now, his mind has expanded upon its original knowledge and his heart has endured what it couldn't before. If fate tries to turn him against his pursuit of free will and choice in favor of the previous outcome, he will fight back and break from the hold of those that seek his fall from grace.
Hanmyo looked as Shinji got licked on his face by his Pyroar, causing him to groan in happiness and mild disgust…and thought about how fate was often cruel to those that wanted only to have a happy future.
But maybe he's one of them, she thought. Maybe he's a defier of fate, willing to shatter the metaphorical stone that depicts his original future and carve his own future that is his to decide, unbound to the previous intentions desired. Shinji…if you had been from my world and my boss had put a hit out on you, I'd come after you without hesitation and remove you from the grand design. But thankfully, you're from a different world where traveling beyond the solar system hasn't transpired yet. What does fate have in store for one such as yourself?
-x-
NERV had been forced to resume its original routine of dealing with the Angels after the last one, the strongest one they had ever encountered and was able to contain with the aid of Palkia, a Pokémon that was unlike what they had understood of other creatures, and now this new Angel had them all on uneasy thoughts because of its current status and their current tension that was hard to fully fathom.
"…As long as it's outside of our long-ranged weapons, we can't attack it," Hyuga informed them as they saw the Angel on the monitors.
"What is it waiting for?" Misato wondered.
"Probably nothing," went Ritsuko.
Even though they had five pilots, they still only had three Evas that could function; Unit-01 was off the combat roster and Units-00, 02 and 04 were the only ones that could deal with the Angels, leaving Toji Suzuhara and Hikari Horaki as bystanders.
"What about Palkia?" Maya asked, reminding them that they could get assistance from the Legendary Pokémon if they needed it.
"We've contacted Giovanni, and Palkia's willing, but there's only one problem: Palkia, unfortunately, requires oxygen like we all do, as it has never gone into an environment that was deprived of oxygen." Shigeru informed her. "We'd have to get the Angel to come closer to the planet before it could do what it did to the last Angel."
This was a stalemate; so long as they were unable to attack the Angel with their weapons, the Angel was untouchable, but at the same time, as long as the Angel didn't do anything to give them any clue of how to defend themselves, they couldn't proceed in a safe manner."
"How close would the Angel have to get for Palkia to be able to trap it in another spatial rift?" Asuka asked them.
"If the Angel came close enough to the stratosphere, Palkia could get it," Ritsuko answered.
"Then we just need to bait the Angel."
"Yeah," went Kensuke, "except that would mean having to go out there and be at the mercy of whatever it is this Angel could do to you?"
"If you have any better ideas, I'm listening."
In Unit-04, Kensuke had no idea on how to deal with baiting the Angel without inviting a possible risk of harm. Even if the Evas were considered the safest place to be, he didn't believe that. With an Angel high above their heads and waiting for its chance to strike, nowhere seemed safe, not even NERV HQ.
"There is another alternative with minimal risk," went Fuyutsuki, getting their attention.
"Sir?" Ritsuko spoke, wondering if he was referring to…that item.
"What other choice is there?"
-x-
"…Are you alright, Shinji?" Hanmyo asked as they were in the cafeteria of the Pokémon Center, noticing that he barely touched his lunch. "You've barely eaten anything."
"I'm just wondering how the others are doing," he explained to her. "I was actually expecting to see them earlier today, but nothing yet."
"It's probably just a minor delay. You get that all the time with machines. Even the first grappler arm-equipped ships didn't work properly until a few adjustments later."
"Maybe. Maybe…"
Looking at their Pokémon as they were eating their lunch, Hanmyo suspected that, while Shinji did take that into consideration, he was just wanting to see his friends to talk to them, to know what was going on in their lives. She couldn't fault him for that; they were only human, and humans needed to be around other humans, even during times where it was unnecessary because they craved socialization to varying degrees. Even as the mere thought of being able to one day return to her world became more than a fantasy, she thought of seeing that boy, Jim, again, no matter how brief it was.
Mata and Kemi looked up at Hanmyo and expressed, You're thinking about him again.
"Thinking about who?" Shinji questioned, curious.
"Nobody," she defended.
Before we were displaced, there was a boy around her age that she liked, and she never got to see him again, went Kemi. We were facing this ship, the Outlaw Star, and we were blown to space debris.
"Or you were just displaced, making it possible for you to return to your world one day, and she can see him again."
Do you truly believe in that possibility? Mata wanted to know.
"Yes, I do. I know what I need to do to find my way back to my world, but I'm in no rush to do it, because I can't rush something like that. Two Pokémon that need to be captured, unlike the ones I've caught over the years, can't be found unless one has patience and self-control. That's wanting a miracle and not expecting disappointment in return. I expect to be disappointed. Even if I found them, there's no guarantee that I'd even catch them."
"Why?" Hanmyo asked him.
"They could be stronger than my own Pokémon, I could be unprepared, not having enough Poké Balls on me, my Pokémon could be at a disadvantage, or they could simply run away. All of these are factors that have to be taken into consideration. Some Pokémon Trainers can spend their whole lives looking for just one Pokémon that aroused their interest…and not find it at all."
"Still, I hope that you do find them someday, Shinji."
"Thank you. Until that day, I still have other things to pursue, such as the training and encountering of many Pokémon and getting into the Pokémon League of each region I visit. There's always something new to learn."
"I'll be honest right now, when I imagine you on your way to greatness, I see you and Misato in the middle of the basic stadium in the Pokémon League as the sun rises. She's on your left shoulder as you face into the sunlight, as if awaiting the challenger that will be standing in your way. Your friends and admirers and I are watching from the sidelines, just watching you face what could be the greatest battle of your lives."
"That's not a bad fantasy. I sometimes imagine facing the Pokémon Trainer I've heard about that's been visiting here in Kalos longer than I have."
"That Ash Ketchum guy that desires to be a Pokémon Master?"
"Yes. We're both aiming towards becoming the league champion of this region… I hope that I get to meet him in person and on the battlefield."
"You two hear about each other…but you never really met or spoke with one another?"
"Fate is a strange thing when it comes to where, when and how we'll meet one day."
"Heh-heh…you are so strange, Shinji."
-x-
Fuyutsuki knew that this went against Gendo's scenario, even going against the Committee's scenario, but it no longer mattered since the majority of NERV's personnel were starting to have hope that the Giovanni Corporation could eventually achieve the goal of bringing Shinji Ikari and Pokémon to their world and being able to restore the planet. It seemed like a dream, but even he wanted to believe in it, so he gave Rei the order to go to Terminal Dogma and retrieve the Lance of Longinus; if it could be used to bait the Angel into coming closer to the planet and enabling Palkia to trap it, then there'd be minimal risk to the pilots' safety. And if they lost the lance, then it was a risk they had to take; there were some fates that were far worse than death and extinction.
"Are you sure about this, sir?" Ritsuko asked him as Unit-00 returned with the large, red bident in its hands.
"It's better than doing nothing," he responded. "Whose synchronization score is highest out of the three Evas?"
"The Second Child, why? Do you plan to have her bait the Angel?"
"No. All three will be baiting the Angel."
This was unprecedented and unprofessional. It would've been more efficient to use the pilot with the lowest synchronization ratio, but to have all three pilots exposed to the Angel was a gamble of the highest sort. If it had been Gendo in charge, he'd likely send only one out and with only a rifle, and let them suffer if he believed it would give the other pilots a shot to defeat the Angel. But Fuyutsuki wasn't Gendo, and he wasn't some arrogant bastard of a man that treated others like they were expendable. This was only a baiting maneuver; once the Angel was vulnerable to Palkia, the pilots would be pulled out from the danger.
All three Evas were catapulted up to the city with the bident; Unit-02 would target the Angel and Units-00 and 04 would assist in the hurling, but it would only be that if the Angel didn't come any closer.
-x-
It was a surprise for all of Lumiose City. The weather shifted from sunny to rainy in a few hours, and not many people were out on the streets.
"I hate the rain," Hanmyo expressed as she and Shinji sat around the Pokémon Center.
"I'm used to it," Shinji told her.
"Yeah, that's you, and you travel a lot."
"You've been traveling, too."
"Eevo!" Misato added.
"Where's the next gym you're going to for your sixth badge, anyway?" Hanmyo wanted to know. "I checked around, and the closest city in the north is Laverre City. It's supposed to have a tree that's been around for over fifteen-hundred years."
"Laverre City. Sounds like the next city to travel to, but let's explore Lumiose City some more. It'll be a while until the Kalos League begins here."
Hanmyo smiled as Shinji pet his Eevee on her head, earning a put of gratitude from her.
-x-
"…Ready?" Asuka asked Rei and Kensuke as they prepared to throw the bident into the air towards the Angel.
"Ready," replied Kensuke.
"Ready," added Rei.
Under her targeting headset, the pilot of Unit-02 aimed at the Angel, which looked like some sort of crystal dragon with malformed wings that resembled tree branches, and frowned at its presence out in the ocean of stars above them.
You're about to become history, Angel, she thought as the targeting system locked on the Angel.
SHINE! All three Evas were suddenly bathed in a white light.
"Aaaaaaurgh!" Kensuke screamed as he grabbed his head. "What's going on?!"
"Aaah!" Rei yelled as she felt like her skull was splitting in two.
Asuka felt pain, but it was not what she would've had thoughts about before. Images of Shinji flashed before her eyes, but they were filled with sadness. Feelings of distance, isolation and heartache that could go on for days erupted in her, but she put on a front to mask it.
Dammit, she thought as an image of Shinji's back as he walked away with his Eevee towards the unknown flashed in her mind. Shinji, there's a reason why we can't see you right now, but we will. I hope you understand this.
It felt like the Angel was trying to probe into her mind, but wasn't getting much results from her memories or feelings.
The Evas dropped the bident and fell to their knees as NERV's alarms went off to inform them that the pilots were in danger of mental contamination.
-x-
Palkia, watching and realizing that it couldn't just wait for the Angel to come closer to the planet where it was safer for itself to take action as it floated inside the command center of Central Dogma.
"How long do they have?" It asked the personnel.
"A few minutes, maybe," Maya revealed. "We weren't expecting a psychological assault."
"I'm going out there. If I don't come back in one piece… Do whatever you can to help them."
Palkia opened a rift between Central Dogma and Tokyo-3 and went through it, appearing in front of the Evas, and was immediately bathed in the Angel's light ray. Flying around the three behemoths as it created another rift in space, the Dragon Pokémon felt like its past was being explored by the Angel, seeing everything that it had ever done. It didn't hurt as much as it had expected this assault to, but it was different for the three teens, as they were vulnerable and in pain, and it needed to get them out as fast as it could.
"You're getting out of here," it told the children, and the behemoths fell into a rift that left them in the artificial lake of the Geo-Front, out of the light's reach.
Then, it flew up into the air, into the unwelcoming light, almost invisible due to its obscuring brightness, but if one squinted closely, they could see the bits of purple in the white.
-x-
In the quiet confines of their plugs, Asuka, Rei and Kensuke felt their minds returning to their respective calmness after being removed from the Angel's light.
"Ah…my head," went Kensuke. "Is everyone alright?"
"I… I've felt better than how I feel right now," said Rei; her time spent with with everyone in the Pokémon world gave her more vocabulary than her time at NERV HQ.
"I'm fine now," Asuka replied as she laid back in her seat. "Did anyone else see images in that light ray?"
"I saw my father," Kensuke revealed. "He was standing in front of a tombstone with my name on it. Was that a vision of the future or something?"
"How could the Angel show the future?" Rei questioned. "All I saw was myself in the darkness…alone. I called out to everyone I knew…but no one replied."
"I saw…Shinji," Asuka told them, "but he was walking away from me. I don't think we even spoke about anything, but he walked away, like something had happened to…to push him away."
As the three Evas sank to the bottom of the lake, the red bident touched the bottom and lay where it fell, waiting for when its holders would retrieve it once again.
"Asuka," they heard Misato's voice over the intercom, "Rei, Kensuke, are you alright?!"
"We're…in one piece," Kensuke responded; none of them were okay in the actual sense, but they were conscious and away from the Angel. "What's happening with the Angel?"
"Palkia is dealing with it now. It is…probably a lot stronger than even it realized."
-x-
A lot stronger than it even realized was just one way to describe Palkia as it flew in space to fight the Angel. It still felt the need to breathe oxygen, remedying such a requirement by opening small rifts around them that connected back to the planet so it could slip its head through them and reinvigorate its lungs with air. Basked in the Angel's light, Palkia only saw brief flashes of its own past that was irrelevant to its current emotional state; even if this Angel was seeking to understand it, it would be for naught, as there was no way it could allow this Angel to escape.
Flash! Palkia was only momentarily impeded by its memory of ending up in this new dimension and left weakened from the relocation, but put that memory aside as it generated a large portal behind the Angel and a larger one behind itself.
"Rrrrrrraaurgh!" It roared, generating a large sphere of superheated energy within its mouth.
This, courtesy of Kensuke, who received it from Shinji sometime in the past, was Palkia's Hyper Beam attack. It was a surprise that a Technical Machine was able to function in this world where Pokémon didn't exist, despite the fact that Kensuke had at least ten of them and barely used them. To discover that they did work and Kensuke was able to teach Palkia an attack that would help it in future actions was just an unexpected delight.
BLAST! It fired its Hyper Beam at the Angel and pushed it into the rift behind it.
When the Angel fell into the rift, Palkia moved out of the way and let the other spatial rift consume it like with the previous Angel. Then, it created four more rifts, just to be sure, and collapsed them all together into a small sphere in its right claw.
This is a strange world I'm living in, Palkia thought, but I believe in these humans because of their positive qualities, so I will help them to the best of my abilities, past and present.
With the mission to deal with the Angel, more or less, accomplished, Palkia closed its oxygen rifts and flew back to the blue, green and brown sphere where various forms of life thrived with its new prisoner.
-x-
"…It did it," went Maya as they all saw Palkia capture the Angel and return to Earth.
"That was a new move it used," Ritsuko stated.
"Yeah, Hyper Beam," Misato revealed. "You gotta hand it to Shinji for making sure Kensuke had a couple of TMs handy in case he needed to teach any Pokémon some new moves."
As Palkia created a rift to enter the Geo-Front, the Evas had climbed out of the artificial lake with Unit-00 carrying the bident.
"I gotta say this," said Shigeru. "It's the first time I've seen a Legendary Pokémon that was, lack of a better word, pissed."
Fuyutsuki, simply because he had seen Palkia step up for the children, had to agree with that opinion, even if only slightly. Any Pokémon, rare or common, trained or wild, could be surprising if they were capable of being, like any human being, pissed off.
Palkia landed on the ground in front of the Evas as they knelt down and set down the spatial rift cage…and then fell back on its hide.
"Grrrraaurgh," it groaned.
-x-
As the plugs expelled the LCL and opened up, Kensuke saw Palkia collapse and climbed down onto the ground below.
"Are you alright, Palkia?" He asked.
"I feel like I need what you would refer to as a vacation," it responded, "and a nickname of my own, an identity."
Rei and Asuka came over and smiled.
"You leveled up," the redhead told him, looking at the cage the Angel was now trapped inside. "You definitely deserve a vacation…and a nickname."
"I'm gonna…just lie down for a moment," Palkia expressed, and then fell backwards with a ground-shaking thud.
Thud! The ground shook for a second.
"I'm with you, Palkia," Kensuke added, and fell to the ground beside the Pokémon.
-x-
The rain had only lasted for four hours, but it had dampened the buildings and streets enough to leave large puddles scattered around Lumiose City. This prompted Shinji to go to the Poké Mart and a clothing store for more essentials.
"I probably never asked before, Hanmyo," he told the girl as they were in the clothing store, "but when was the last time you updated your wardrobe?"
"Eight months ago," she answered him. "Slightly. There needs to be freedom of movement in what I wear."
"So…no sense of style to go with the sense of function?"
"No, there's some style, just not so much of it. Why the school boy look?"
"Old habits die hard."
"Well, I gotta hand it to you. You're the only person I know right now that makes that style actually work."
"Thank you."
Shinji had found a new windbreaker for himself while Hanmyo, taking Shinji's suggestion to get more clothes for herself, bought herself a pair of blue shorts, a yellow shirt and pink leggings; they were aesthetically pleasing, but they were also for freedom of movement like her previous outfit. With that accomplished, they set out to have one last go around the city before heading towards Laverre City.
"Eee?" Misato spoke to Mata and Kemi.
Your trainer has had quite an impact on her, Misato, Kemi told her.
"Eevo!"
In the end, went Mata, Hanmyo looks up to Shinji like a hero.
-x-
This time, the newly-captured Angel was being housed within a vault inside the base with an armed guard in case someone tried to get in and release it, not that anyone was considering doing so and risking the safety of the personnel. This success, along with making sure the pilots and Palkia were in fine health, gave NERV another calm between storms to take advantage of.
"How are they doing?" Fuyutsuki asked Ritsuko, as she was doing the medical evaluation on all four of them.
"There was limited mental intrusion caused by the Angel," she revealed, "but they weren't exposed for too long. It's possible that the Angel was trying to examine the human mind, but was unable to explore three of them simultaneously. And as for Palkia, there's no telling what was examined in its own mind; because Pokémon are different from humans, their minds are likely to be more expansive than our own. But physically, they're all fine, just exhausted."
"That's good to hear. Thank you."
Meanwhile, in the locker rooms, redressing into their clothes, Asuka and Rei found themselves wondering how long it would be until the next Angel showed up and how long it would be until this Angel decided to end its own existence because it couldn't escape from its prison.
"…All I saw was Shinji walking away," she expressed as she buttoned her shirt. "We weren't even talking about anything. It was just me standing there…and him walking away…like I was never going to see him again."
Rei really could sympathize with her. Her perception of being alone in the darkness…was just as awful when there was no explanation for it beyond mere fear of it actually happening.
"Could it have been…that he was just going to face his next opponent to get closer to entering the Pokémon League?" She suggested.
"It looked like that," Asuka replied, "only I've seen him walking towards the light to the arena beyond it…but it felt different. It felt like some sort of dispute happened…and I pushed him away from everyone. That Angel could've shown me memories of my mother or stepmother, but it showed me memories of Shinji…walking away."
"Loneliness?" Rei suspected as she tied her skirt.
"What?"
"You saw Shinji walking away from you, Aida says he saw his father standing in front of a grave with his name engraved on it, and I saw myself in the darkness. Could each of these represent the fear of being alone?"
Asuka thought about it, and it sounded right. Loneliness could represent itself in many forms to many people. Someone you know walking down a path in front of you as you watch them depart, standing alone in the darkness with nobody else around you, or envisioning a future where something happened to yourself and those left behind are affected by your passing. This sense of loneliness and the fear of it ever coming to pass…could affect you for a while. It could hinder you until you were able to move past it…or it shattered you.
"I'm worried that Shinji might feel we've forgotten about him because of the delay," she admitted to the albino girl.
"But he knows that we have not," Rei said. "Every program, including programs such as the interdimensional one where opening doorways to other worlds, can have periodic stopgaps that hinder progress. Just because we're being delayed by such factors, it doesn't mean that we won't go back once the next opportunity to do so makes itself known."
As she slipped on her shoes, Asuka sighed. While Rei was right, it still bothered her to have to wait for when they could return to the Pokémon world and just enjoy a sojourn with Shinji. He helped make it possible for them to learn that there truly was another universe, a completely different world, just around the corner, and that through the research and development into interdimensional travel was becoming a reality they couldn't ignore any further. Not only that, but it eased a lot of people to learn that he was alive, that he wasn't dead, despite the immense danger he had been placed in during the Twelfth Angel incident. That, in and of itself, relieved a heavy burden of guilt for the people that felt responsible for the outcome of the incident.
"And it's only been two days since that phantom Groudon appeared and injured Palkia and caused the delay," Rei reminded Asuka. "We'll know for sure if it takes longer to repair and replace the damaged equipment the day after tomorrow."
"Three days or a week," Asuka stated. "That's going to feel like a long time."
Both girls vacated the locker room and met with Kensuke.
"I gotta check up on my father and Brute-Chan," he told them. "That Angel, although it was only a psychological assault, it did a number on me."
"It did a number on all of us," Rei expressed.
-x-
Crack-Flash! Some of the wires in the control console crackled as Antonio and the other workers reconnected them.
"I don't believe this," Antonio heard one of the women say as she looked at one of the cables that needed to be replaced. "Normally, these cables weren't so sensitive. I don't understand how they were able to be severed so easily."
"Nothing is meant to last forever," he heard a man say to her as he marked off another item that needed to be replaced. "This makes seventeen items that need to be replaced. How's the console looking so far, boss?"
"So far so good," he replied. "Three circuit boards were damaged, but we have the replacement parts needed, so that's okay. However, we need new power cables and four new cameras. And just to be on the safe side, we're gonna probably need fifty memory cards to backup the data."
"We'll be looking at a week, won't we?" The man asked.
"Only if the necessary cables can't be replaced during that time, but nearly everything can be repaired and replaced in about five days."
"Electrode," went Electrode as it bounced over to the console. "Trode."
Antonio rolled out from under the console and looked at the Ball Pokémon, his face covered in grease smudges, and chuckled.
"Yeah," he uttered, "even the scientists that developed Poké Balls had to start with a box of scraps before the first prototype hit off the development of refined versions that are mass produced for consumer use."
"You actually understood what it said, sir?" The woman asked Antonio.
"A little, but yeah."
"Electrode."
-x-
The sight of the entire city from atop the Prism Tower was stunning, as well as how a flock of Fledgling and swarm of Vivillon made the sight a bit more amazing.
"You know what I love about seeing a city from up on high?" Hanmyo asked Shinji.
"No, tell me," he responded.
"From up here, all you can see is the beauty…and it's beautiful…even when it isn't."
"Yeah. Cities like this, they are beautiful…even when they're not."
"Tell me something, Shinji. During the time you were in another region of this world, did you ever see anything…that didn't belong?"
"That didn't belong?"
"A building, for instance?"
"Yeah. Misato and I did see a building that didn't belong while in another region. The Old Chateau of the Eterna Forest."
"Eee," Misato reacted with fear and disgust. "Eevo."
"When we saw it in Sinnoh, we didn't need a repeat of the last first and last time we went to that place. Going inside that haunted house once is enough to leave nightmares that haunt you for a while. Did you see it while in another region?"
"Yeah. Once in Johto and twice in Kanto, always in a forest."
"Places like that building, just desperate to have people come take a look inside."
Mata and Kemi looked at Misato and could see that neither the Eevee or their trainers had a positive experience regarding that despicable building haunted by Ghost Pokémon.
"Let's get going," they heard Shinji say. "The chances of seeing that place again in a region it shouldn't be in are slim, but I don't want to risk it when in a forest again."
"If I see the Old Chateau again, I'd run," Hanmyo told him.
"Ain't no shame in running away."
The Pokémon followed suit. It was going to be a while before they reached their next destination.
-x-
"…Ugh," groaned Asuka as she fell onto her pillow in her room. "I don't ever want to face another Angel like that again, even if it's to bait them so Palkia can trap them."
"Yarp," she turned and saw Pen-Pen looking at her, holding a berry in his claws.
"A Sitrus Berry?" She questioned. "Where'd you get that, Pen-Pen?"
"Yarp, yarp," Pen-Pen expressed as he held the berry in his left wing and gestured something with his right wing, like he was holding or using something, and then pointed to his head, specifically his eye.
"Kensuke Aida?" Asuka asked, and the penguin nodded. "You took that from his backpack?"
Pen-Pen nodded, and then offered the berry to her.
"Thank you," she praised him, and then broke the berry in half and gave one half back to him. "You want to see Shinji again, too, don't you?"
"Yarp."
"Short time to see him again…but a long time to wait to see him again."
"Yarp."
Then, the two ate the Sitrus Berry in relative silence. It was quite a good berry, too.
Meanwhile, in the living room of Misato's apartment, Rei was eating a Pecha Berry; despite it being a type of food not found anywhere in this world, the albino vegetarian found it to be delicious due to its unique properties in treating poisonous afflictions, as she had eaten ten of them before.
Aida-San is fortunate to have some of these berries in his backpack, she thought. We should grow these here.
To be continued…
A/N: And that marks this chapter's completion. Quite the predicament that they face when forced to wait for the opportunity to return to the Pokémon world and see Shinji. I did need some spice in the last conversation between Shinji and Hanmyo, so I brought up the Old Chateau again for the sake of expanding the time Hanmyo and her cats were on their own, discovering that they have seen it one time more than Shinji and his Eevee have, and how they didn't want to see it again. And as for Palkia, I guess you could say that the combination of being attacked by a phantom Pokémon, its subsequent recovery and facing the Fifteenth Angel has resulted in it leveling up, not just obtaining a new attack. What do you expect to see in the next chapter? Until then, stay sane, healthy and alive.