I walked out of the Pokémon Center with Entoma on my head, Gargantua in his ball, and my new egg safely in my backpack. I had woken up at a reasonable seven in the morning this time around, so I was prepared for the trip back to Castelia. It seemed that fate had a different idea, though.

A man with exceptionally long and vivid green hair in a black and white outfit was followed by two men in fancy grey uniforms with the Team Plasma. The very poorly named "King of Team Plasma" himself, N. Judging by the amusement park in the direction they were walking towards, the whole debacle on the Ferris Wheel was about to happen.

Then... yup, there it is.

N mentioned something to the two Team Plasma members, causing them to talk to a lady playing with her Patrat next to a bench. While they were otherwise occupied, N quietly slipped off and left the two to pronounce the glory of PETA on their own.

Now, the real question. If I go now, I could probably help the protagonist. Some street cred with the person able to command a couple of legendary Pokémon is not something to scoff at, even if they will disappear within a couple of years. On the other hand, I might become a target to Team Plasma, and since I don't have N's favor, it may make things difficult.

Eh, fuck it. I'll be in Alola soon enough anyhow.

I wait a minute and set off after the glorified lord of hipsters. I tap Entoma's leg to get her attention and mutter to her, "Change of plans, girl. There's a decent chance we'll be getting into a fight, so keep aware. Remember, no Toxic."

Entoma tapped back in confirmation. Excellent, glad we're on the same page.

The amusement park was a short walk away. Apparently, no zoning or city planners felt it would be a poor use of land to put an amusement park inside a major city.

The amusement park was curiously low on visitors, but I can only assume it's because it's the early morning. It may also be a workday, I'm honestly not sure what day of the week it is. I should probably figure that out sometime.

N was prowling around the entrance, clearly unaware that loitering is a serious crime. He gave me a raised eyebrow and an amused smile when he saw Entoma resting on my head. Keeping appearances, I rubbed Entoma's head and gave him a smile back.

N seemed very pleased at my interaction with Pokémon, probably because it reinforced his strange anti-Pokéball ideology. Now that I think about it, I never understood their ideology. Did it just not make sense to me because I'm a narcissist with a cold, dead heart, or was it just a poorly developed ideology? Maybe I'll never know.

Regardless, with N not caring about me aside from being a bit of evidence for beliefs, I continued into the park. I made sure to find a bench far enough away from the Ferris Wheel to keep it in sight while far enough to not make anyone assume I'm staying here to assist a random trainer.

I called out Gargantua while I waited, seeing as I didn't know any of its moves.

"Hey, bud. Need to figure out what moves you got. I know you got Dig, but we're likely going to be in a fight in a minute, so I need to know it all."

With the bait of the fight, Gargantua was very excited to start showing me his tricks. He turned around and his claws started to glow with a light green. He started to swipe with them, and with every swipe, the hits grew more violent and speedy.

"Fury Cutter, then? That'll be nice. Next."

Gar nodded, turned, and began to shoot some fist-sized rocks at the nearest wall.

"Ah, Rock Blast. At least I believe so. The rock variant of Bullet Seed may suck in the games, but a rock-based machinegun attack sounds pretty damn good."

Gar then launched a head-sized rock in an arc. Once it reached its peak, it stopped going forward and slammed directly down to the ground.

"If I had to guess, Smack Down? Good to have, fliers suck."

Then, he slowly approached the wall, no attack prepared. The next thing I know, he slams a claw covered in dark energy at it.

"Shit, Sucker Punch? Nah, needs an attack to be Sucker Punch. Feint Attack, maybe?"

Gar nodded and did nothing else.

"That it?"

Another nod.

"Alright, we can make it work. Try to stick to Rock Blast at range but swap to Smack Down to try and throw them off if they start dodging. Once you get close range, favor Feint Attack and Fury Cutter. I'll try to guide you, but I'd like you to have some pre-planned strats."

And just like that, we were prepared. I had Gargantua sit down on the bench next to me while Entoma maintained her high ground. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait long.

N had the main character following him. Her appearance was just as I remember, the same hat and brown hair with strange bulges in it, a black vest over a white t-shirt, boots, and a ridiculously small pair of torn booty shorts. I could have sworn the game came out in 2010, how did they get away with that character design?

I couldn't help but find it a little strange when N led the female Black and White protagonist into the Ferris Wheel alone. Her name was Hilda, I believe? I remember reading it when looking up Pokédex info, but it's been a while since then.

I just kind of sat there for a bit, as the Ferris Wheel took a couple of minutes to make a full few rotations. The protagonist didn't seem particularly happy with N when they came out, but N seemed to be happy. He gave some grandstanding speech that I couldn't hear, then challenged her to a battle.

I figured I would wait until the grunts come around and intervene. It would be awfully strange if a random individual came up to try and fight N together with someone they've never met, but someone coming to help a girl surrounded by three strange men? Not an issue at all.

The battle went a little rough, but the girl was clearly better. She had a Dewott which beat N's Sandile and Darumaka with a fair bit of damage taken. N sent a Scraggy in next, which managed to knock out Dewott with a well-placed Feint Attack followed by a headshot Brick Break.

She called out a Pansear to fight it. Instead of being tired from the last fight, the Scraggy seemed stronger. I can recall some Scraggy having Moxie, perhaps N had just gotten the luck of the draw with abilities. With the newfound strength, the two pushed each other to their limits. Finally, with a last Incinerate, Scraggy fainted, leaving a badly beaten Pansear.

N then called in the bane of my childhood gameplay, his Sigilyph. Back when I played Black, I would always choose Snivy so that thing would fuck me up every time. Speaking of fucking Pokémon up, Pansear went down to a single Psybeam. Can't say I'm all that surprised.

She sent out a rather interesting choice, a Liepard. Not interesting as in it being a bad matchup, because it was a rather good choice. More so that I had never actually used a Liepard in any of my playthroughs, and her having one was unexpected. I mean, it's not an inherently bad Pokémon, but I just found it strange.

Regardless, Sigilyph's inability to use psychic moves rendered it merely "pretty dangerous." The living totem pole could fly around at frankly ridiculous speeds and its Wind Cutters were very powerful. The Liepard eventually managed to defeat it through a mix of Fake Out, Pursuit, and Hone Claws, though not without sustaining significant damage.

N appeared to be out of Pokémon but seemed inordinately pleased as he gave yet another melodramatic speech I was just too far away to hear. As his little talk winded down, the wayward Plasma grunts came rushing through the amusement park, their panic giving way to relief as they spotted their "Lord N!"

Now, time for me to assist. I got up and motioned for my two bugs to follow me. I got over to the shindig just as N gave the orders to have the two Grunts delay Ms. protagonist.

"Hey, you need some help?" I called over to the girl, who gratefully nodded.

The grunt nearest to her summoned a Watchog, which she responded to by calling out a Blitzle. The grunt closer to me decided that I should probably be stopped, as I was someone attempting to assist, so he called out a Trubbish.

Oh, God, the smell of the thing. I pinched my nose and tried to breathe through my mouth for the remainder of the fight.

I point to the Trubbish and start giving orders, "Gar, you take point. Try and keep to the ranged rock-type attacks if you can. If you get close, stick to Feint Attack."

Gargantua gave the same battle-cry screech he gave when I met him, but instead of trying to bumrush the Trubbish, he followed my instructions and started pelting rocks he got from God knows where at the Trubbish.

The grunt did not seem to like that I was pelting his Pokémon with multiple fist-sized stones, and promptly ordered, "Trubbish, Acid Spray!"

The Trubbish opened its mouth and a large spout of acid burst over in Gargantua's direction. Gargantua was unable to dodge the high-velocity purple liquid and was thusly covered in it.

"Gar, get that off you using Dig!"

Gargantua managed to ignore the burning sensation likely all over his body and immediately began to tunnel underground. I figured the mix of dirt and soil would cause most of the acid to be washed off as he burrows deeper.

Rather than simply using Dig to get the Acid Spray off him, Gargantua took the order to the next level by erupting out of the ground right beneath the Trubbish, who was promptly knocked about ten feet in the air and covered in soil. That attack has some ridiculous power, I'll have to use it more often.

Before the Trubbish could recover, I called out, "Gar, Smack Down!"

Gargantua let out a cruel giggle and blasted a large rock above Trubbish. The grunt let out a shout of "NO!" as the rock violently swapped into downward momentum just above Trubbish. A "Thud" sounded out as the Trubbish was turned into thoroughly tenderized beef.

As the grunt recalled his Trubbish, he seemed almost mournful about the damage his Trubbish took. He acted as if there wasn't a machine a few blocks away that could completely heal his Pokémon, the fuckin' idiot.

The protagonist girl had just beaten the other sycophant's Watchog with a Flame Charge, and he also recalled his Pokémon.

The Watchog-owning grunt turned to the Trubbish-owning one and remarked, "We may have lost the battle, but we have fulfilled our lord's objective. Let's retreat for now."

They began to jog off into the city. If I'm completely honest, I had forgotten about N. Slippery bugger left without a trace. Well, the girl didn't seem in a rush to follow them, so I stayed behind.

I turned to the girl and asked, "Hey, what was that all about?"

She turned to me and gave an uncomfortable giggle, "Ehe, don't worry about it. I'm Hilda, by the way! Nice to meet you!"

Ah, good. When she didn't respond with anything but a nod when I first yelled out to her, I was worried we had a case of the silent protagonist. It's a whole lot easier to get friendship points with a peppy teenage girl than a silent type.

I turned the charm to the max and introduced myself, "Well, Hilda, it's lovely to meet you as well. I'm Nico, Nico Moore. A certified professional at fighting strange men in uniforms if you must know."

The girl giggled again. She seemed to like doing that. A mite irritating, but I can put up with it for the sweet, sweet Legendary assistance.

"Well, Nico, thank you for your professional help! I'll be sure to call you whenever I need help with strange men in uniforms."

"Ah, it must happen often then. Don't worry, it's a normal thing."

Another giggle, followed by the slightly irritated reply, "More than you'd think. I mean, c'mon! It feels like every town at this point."

"Really? Sorry to hear that. I'm not going to be in Unova for much longer, but I could give you my X-transceiver number for when I'm around. Never know when you need professional protection, after all."

"Well, it wouldn't hurt, would it? Where are you planning on heading, then?"

"I was thinking a bit of an Alolan vacation. Find some new mons, get a bit of R&R, the usual."

Hilda's face lit up in delight and she exclaimed, "Alola!? I love it there! It's been like three years since I went there, but it was so fun! I didn't get any Pokémon because I wasn't a trainer then, but they were all so cool! If I weren't doing the gym challenge here, I would totally go there sometime."

Chuckling, I reply, "Well, if you change your mind on it within a couple of days, feel free to call me. I've got to get going, so hopefully I'll see you around."

"I will! Well, I won't. But I'll remember!"

I gave her my X-transceiver number which she promptly entered into her device. Now that we had a line of communication established, I gave my farewells and set off.

If I had stayed too long, I may have incited suspicion. But, with my departure shortly after the issues were resolved, I had established myself as a friendly passerby who was easy to talk to and willing to assist people in danger. Perfect buddy material for a hero-type character.

And, just like that, I had an in with Ms. Soon-to-be Champion.

Well, time to head back to Castelia. Oh, God, it was time to head back to Castelia.

I'll spare the details. Because I was a bit more prepared for what I was about to do and wasn't looking for a Dwebble, the trip back was only about three hours. I had been hoping to make the return trip today, but my body just wasn't capable of it. I figured that I better just wait until the next day to continue.

It took about thirty minutes to find the market that sold the Rage Candy Bar. The shop was sequestered away in a busy street of the city, between a couple of other specialty stores. A lovely lady was manning the Kantonese market, but ironically she was an Alolan native rather than a Kanto one.

I got two Rage Candy Bars for about forty-five Pokédollars. Overpriced as all hell? Certainly. Would it get me some very needed money? Hopefully.

I passed out at the Pokémon Center once again, now officially below a thousand total. This better net me some quick cash, or I may be fucked. The round trip from Alola to Unova will run you about a thousand and a few hundred, depending on the day. If I didn't get that research bonus, I would have to find some other way to get the funds to get to Alola or give up on it entirely.

So, in the morning, I made the trek back towards Nimbasa. I didn't even stop in the city for some rest this time. My path was straight for the desert resort.

Arriving in the entrance building, I immediately sought out Dr. Stanley. I figured a friendly face would help me get this done faster. I found him looking over some documents while resting on a bench.

"Hey, doc," I greeted. "I think I got an idea on the Darmanitan statues. Hate to ask, but could I get you, one of the experts on the statues, and someone with a pretty strong Pokémon to come with when you get the time?"

Dr. Stanley looked up from the documents with a few confused blinks. Composing himself, he responded, "Well, I'm sure I could find some time to do that. I'll have to talk to the others, too. Might I ask what your idea is?"

I grimaced, "Well if I'm honest, it's hard to say. Mind indulging me just this once? It wouldn't cost more than a bit of time."

"Perhaps," he seemed to think over it. "A strong Pokémon? If you're trying to attack it to get it to do something, that's already been tried. The psychic shields protect them from any damage, and we don't want to risk damaging the samples with dark-type energy."

"Nah, that's not it. Trust me on this, man."

He pinched his nose, sighed, and nodded.

"Alright, I'll see to it. There isn't a head of researching the statues, but one of my colleagues is particularly interested in it. One of the local rangers should have a sufficiently strong Pokémon on hand. Follow me."

Dr. Stanley set aside his papers and got up. Walking over to another researcher, a brunette in her late thirties, he started talking to her.

"Hey, Rose. We've got a kid who thinks he has some insight into the Darmanitan statues. He's a bit clammy as to what, but I figured we may as well indulge him. Got nothing to lose."

The researcher, Rose, I presume, looked at Dr. Stanley and then at me. She snorted, "Well, I've got the time. If nothing comes of this, you owe me a morning coffee tomorrow."

Dr. Stanley grimaced but accepted. He then began walking towards the Rangers with us in tow.

"Hey," He greeted the Rangers. "I don't suppose either of you have some decently powerful Pokémon with you?"

One of them responded, "I've got a Krokorok and a Swanna, would that be good enough?"

I butted in, "That would be perfect, actually."

"Well, then, would you mind coming along with us for a bit? Got some research at the ruins to do," Dr. Stevens asked the Ranger who spoke up.

"Certainly."

Ah, I love it when a plan comes together.

We arrived at our destination shortly. I had the three accompanying me stand back as I pulled my Rage Candy Bar out.

"Is... that a candy bar?" Rose confusedly questioned. "George, did you bring us out here so a kid could feed- Oh."

I had unwrapped and fed the Darmanitan statue one of the bars while she was talking. Her sudden pause was caused by the mouth of the Darmanitan opening and biting down and chewing on the food.

Yea, shut you up really quick, didn't I?

It took about five seconds for the Rage Candy Bar to kick in as the formerly blue skin swapped with a wave of red. The now completely normal Darmanitan began to beat at its chest as what must be some enraging effects of the Rage Candy Bar kicked in. Is that why they're so expensive? Did just buy some kind of steroid or pre-workout?

Regardless, I fucked off real quick. Scrambling behind the Ranger who tossed both his Krokorok and Swanna out to keep us safe. The two researchers had also scurried behind me as four feet of roid-raged fire gorilla began to charge at us.

The Krokorok did surprisingly well at hold it back; It lacked the brute strength necessary, so it made liberal use of rock tomb and other entrapment moves. The Swanna kept the pressure up from behind the crocodile, covering the Darmanitan with blasts of pressurized water.

It didn't take long for it to be knocked unconscious. Thank God I had brought that ranger, I have no doubt I would be turned into paste if I even tried to fight it as I am now.

As the ranger threw a Pokéball at the knock-out Pokémon, the researchers finally composed themselves. Rose was already muttering and writing data down in a notebook. Dr. Stanley turned to me in abject confusion.

"How did you know about this?" He almost demanded.

"I guessed."

"You... guessed?"

"Yup. So, I heard there was a reward for finding out this sort of stuff. I don't suppose you could point me in that general direction?"

I love being a smug bastard.

Dr. Stanley took a deep breath, "Alright, we'll figure it out. Stick around when we go through some paperwork back at the site. Just... I would appreciate it if you told us how you found this out eventually. I could mean a lot for the future of researching this site."

"I'll keep it in mind."

I almost feel bad for the man, but I don't think that "I'm an extradimensional being cast astray from the strings of fate, trapped in your world which was once but a fiction to me" would be a good explanation to him. I guess a bit of mystery in life is inevitable, though.

We walked back to the building with me ignoring Rose's rants and questions. She was very excited about the new revelations about the Darmanitans, enough that she only asked a couple of times about how I knew. She was very excitable, and a little obsessed with the statues.

The paperwork was awfully boring. A form here, a signature there. I had to reference my trainer ID quite a few times, but thankfully they didn't care about any sort of next of kin. I'll figure out exactly why everyone is so grossly negligent eventually. My current theory is that the utopic circumstances have rendered everyone so unused to accidents and tragedy that it just slips their mind that perhaps a minor shouldn't be going around and handling his finances.

Not my problem, though. If anything, my ability to do things a child reasonably shouldn't do is only benefiting me and the world.

Once the paperwork was completed, they told me to come back in three days to figure out what exactly I would get as a reward. That led me to my next issue, I was getting low on rations.

I had been eating the high-calorie survival ration things that had come in my backpack for as long as I had been here, but they were running low. As I found out when I went back to the Nimbasa, stores sell them in bulk for about five hundred dollars. For that five hundred was significantly more food than I had previously owned, but that would put me in the sub-five hundred range.

It really wasn't an option, though. It was enough to keep me going for months, and I'm just not one to pass up a deal like that. I'm starting to regret the binge night Roxie and I spent being generic tourists in Castelia. This reward better be worth it.

I decided to spend the days training my Pokémon. Now that I had two of them, I could have them train with each other for more intensive progress. Dodging practice and ranged moving target practice were the same exercise with two Pokémon. Just have them keep their attacks weak and swap who is getting targeted occasionally.

For my training grounds, I had chosen Route 16. This little slice of heaven was the route just off to the right of Nimbasa. More importantly, there was the Lostlorn Forest just off the beaten path to the bridge.

In Lostlorn Forest, I could set up my tent and not have to use my rapidly dwindling supply of money to sleep at a Pokémon Center. A bit less comfortable, sure, but nowhere near as uncomfortable as running out of money.

Today went as previously described. I made sure to switch it to maximizing the power of your shots by the end of the day so that they didn't make a habit of using underpowered attacks. Everything went pretty well.

I decided to switch it up for the next day and focus primarily on physical attacks. As much as I love ranged moves, sometimes you can't just keep a distance on foes. Best to have a physical trump for when that comes along. Plus, both Entoma and Gargantua will be primarily physical attackers when they get to their more mature evolutions.

It was a rather exciting day, both Entoma and Gargantua developed a new move. Entoma figured out Poison Tail when a random Swadloon waddled its way through our camp. Thankfully, she was well learned in my philosophy of indiscriminate violence and bashed its head in with a well-placed glowing, purple tail to the head.

Despite his more naturally violent disposition, Gargantua did not learn his new move through assault. Instead, he learned it in an entirely natural way during a mock battle with Entoma. Let me tell you, she was not happy when he entirely swapped up his strategy to enthusiastically use Bug Bite on her underside.

He realized this may have been a mistake when she began to swap from mock-battling to genuine attempts to hurt him. It's amazing how she can swap between this blank-faced cuddle bug to a little ball of fury.

The third and final day was the more important of all. We took that day off to just chill.

Look, all work and no play makes you kill your family, and I'm not about that life. We were meeting the researchers the next day, so we made sure to wake up early and head their way.

Dr. Stanley was waiting for us and ushered us into the building. We walked towards a corner where a small crowd was talking. Rose, a tall, dark-skinned lady I assumed was Lenora, and a few other individuals were discussing the discovery when we approached.

Rose saw me, pointed, and said, "That's the kid there."

"So, you were the one who figured out you could make these statues wake up by feeding them a- what was it? A Rage Candy Bar?" the lady I was still assuming was Lenora asked me. "And you claim you guessed, am I correct?"

"Yup, that's me," I nonchalantly replied.

She furrowed her brow and gave me a look of irritation. Just as she was about to speak again, I presume to interrogate me, a booming laugh resounded behind me.

"Well, Lenora, I think we can be glad for the lucky guesses of the youth! Don't bother the lad too much, he's done quite a bit for us already! My, I think we should be thanking him!" The deep voice of the formerly laughing man resounded behind me.

The man had an impressive amount of red and orange hair, purple eyes, and wore a tan cloak with orange highlights. The wrinkles on his face were just enough to show his age without detracting from the sturdy face behind it.

Ah, yes. I had somehow managed to miss fucking Alder entering the room. I need better situational awareness.

He turned to me and spoke, "Well, boy, I wouldn't be one to break my word." He took my hand, giving it a solid few shakes. "Thank you for giving us this discovery! I'm fascinated, to think that there was a Darmanitan variant capable of calming themselves enough to use psychic abilities. I know my Darmanitan is far too active to have ever even considered giving it a try. Might I know your name?"

"It's, uh, Nico?" I hesitantly replied, a bit unsure of how to handle the cult of personality that was Alder.

"Ah, a good name. Short and strong, seems perfect for someone like you!"

The rudeness of being called short snapped me out of my stupor. I gave a little grimace before composing myself.

I voiced out my intentions, "Look, I don't mean to be rude, but if I'm completely honest, I mainly reported this for the reward. I'm getting pretty low, and a man's got to feed himself and his."

Instead of being off-put, Alder just laughed again before responding, "Ah, I remember when I first started traveling, living from dollar to dollar. A simpler time, I think. Well then, I'm more than willing to offer fifty thousand as a bonus!"

Holy shit, that's way better than expected. My shock must have shown on my face, as Alder immediately burst out into another laugh.

He pulled out a wad of bills and handed them to me. "Judging by that face," He chuckled, "you seem to be happy with that."

"Well, I can't say I'm dissatisfied." I managed to choke out.

Another laugh, "Well, if that's all you wanted, then you might want to leave while you can. This lot will just be trying to pry whatever information they can out of you."

Well, who am I to disagree with the Unovan champion?

Before I set out, I pull the remaining Rage Candy Bar out of my pocket and toss it to Alder.

"That should get you some data or whatever it is you like. Have a good one, Dr. Stanley, everyone else."

I couldn't help but chuckle under my breath as the group protested my departure.

I had enough money to keep me in a nice bed, get me to Alola, and keep me alive for a while. Sometimes, it's the simple things in life that keep you happy.