I don't mean to steal from Transformers here, but the chapter title will make sense once you read it. This is the chapter when you realize this isn't a kids show, so to speak.

More Than Meets the Eye

The night that Chris spent at the hotel, he had been lying down in the most comfortable bed he'd ever slept in. Because of that, when he woke up to look at the clock, he saw that it was already noon when he woke up. "Fuck." He whispered, knowing that he was an hour past the check out time. The hotel had a late fee, but if he's lucky than the discount he got for earning the Oreburgh gym badge would help him in this scenario as well.

As Chris got down into the lobby in the hotel, he ran into Dawn. Or rather, Dawn called out to him. "Hey Chris!" Chris turned around to see the cute blue-haired girl approach him.

Chris smiled, and waved at her. "Hey Dawn, how are you?"

"I'm good. My Turtwig evolved, and I beat Roark yesterday morning."

"Really?" Chris said, as he suddenly realized just how hard Roark really works. "I got the badge last night. You haven't left town yet?"

"No, I wanted to stay in the hotel, so I found some ways to pass the time. I was actually heading back to Jubilife City, when I realized I left something in the hotel room."

"Fair enough. Do you know where the next town in the gym challenge is?"

"I DO!" Barry's voice suddenly yelled out. He dashes onto the scene, apologizing to a hotel worker who tells him not to yell. "Hey guys! I just beat Roark an hour ago, then got some food. I was curious to see if either of you were here." Barry paused to clear his throat, then continued. "So, the next gym is in Eterna City."

"We should be able to get up to Eterna City through Route 207." Dawn starts. "That's what the town map indicates, anyway."

"No good." Barry says. "I went to check it out, and there's a sign that says you have to have a motor vehicle to take the bridge to Eterna City on Route 207."

"Then we'll have to get to Eterna City by passing through Floroma Town." Chris says. "That's how I got to Jubilife City two years ago."

"Did you really live on the streets Chris?" Barry inconsiderately asks."

"Barry! Really?!" Dawn chides him.

"It's okay Dawn. I was, yeah. I was treated like shit in the foster care system, and I reached a breaking point. I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I did it anyway."

Barry looks at the ground for a brief second. "Sorry Chris. I didn't mean to put it like that."

Chris shakes his head. "Its alright."

Barry nods. "So, I'm going back to Jubilife City. It was good to see you both. Next stop, the Eterna Gym Badge! Ten seconds before I dash! Nine... Bah! Who's got time to count?!" Barry turns around, and runs right out of the hotel room, not paying attention to the same hotel employee yelling at him again.

As Chris and Dawn stand alone once again, Dawn shakes her head. "Always on the move." She says. She and Chris continued to speak, sharing some flirty glances as they spoke with each other. Dawn got up to the front desk first, and they quickly got back her Pokédex from her room.

"The Professor wouldn't have been happy with you." Chris says teasingly to her.

She giggles at him, and lightly pushes him. "Shut up, Chris." She says with a smile. Chris laughs lightly, and then gets a hug from Dawn. "I'll see you later, handsome."

Chris smiles brightly, then lets her go. "You too." He says, as he watches her walk away.

"Sir?" The employee at the front desk says to get Chris's attention.

Chris snaps out of his train of thought. "Yes, sorry." He steps up to the front desk. "I'm here to check out."

"Sir, checkout time was a little over an hour ago. There'll be a fee attached to a late check out."

"Is there any discount to that for someone who won the Coal Badge?"

The employee lets a scoffing sound escape his lips. "Yeah right. If you were good enough to earn that badge, you'd have enough discipline to wake up on time."

Chris looks cross at this man. "Seriously dude? Don't you have a record that says that I got the discount?"

The employee suddenly looks up and down judgingly at Chris. "The person who worked here last night might have believe that you didn't steal the badge from the gym, but I don't."

"What the hell did you just say?" Chris says.

"You heard me. Now I don't feel like filing out paper work by calling the police to arrest you, so pay the late fees and be on your way."

Chris shakes his head, fighting the urge to crack this man's skull. The man prints out the bill for him, as he suddenly gets a phone call. It's from Mrs. Medina. He answers the phone, and manages to answer it calmly despite his anger. "Hello." He says.

"Hi Chris!" Mrs. Medina says on the other end of the line.

"Hey Mrs. Medina." Chris responds.

"Oh please, sweetie. Call me Alexis." She says. Before Chris can reply, she continues. "I just heard that you won the Coal Badge. Congratulations!"

"Yeah, thank you." Chris says in a dejected tone.

"You don't sound very excited. Is everything okay?"

Chris reads the price that the hotel is trying to get out of him. "Not really. I missed the checkout time for the hotel, and they're trying to charge me more money than I have to let me checkout now." Chris notices the smirk on the employees face as he says that, and can see him picking up the phone.

"Oh, don't worry about that sweetheart. Let me talk to him."

Chris raises an eyebrow, before speaking. "Okay, hold on." He looks at the employee, and hands him the phone. "Its for you."

Another scoffing sound escapes the man's lips, as he takes Chris's phone for a moment. "Hello." He says with a hint of sarcasm. He then converses with Mrs. Medina, and his own facial expression becomes dejected. He types a series of numbers into his computer, then hands Chris back the phone.

"What just happened?" Chris asks Mrs. Medina.

"I just paid the bill for you, dear." She responds in a happy tone.

"Y... You did?"

"Of course I did, sweetie." Chris starts to walk away from the front desk, as she continues. "I won't let anyone mistreat you in any way. You don't deserve that."

"Th-thank you. I really thought he was about to call the cops on me. He accused me of stealing the Coal Badge."

"Don't you worry about none of that nonsense, Chris. Come on back to Jubilife, and have dinner with us tonight. Our treat."

"O-okay. Thank you mis- Alexis."

"Your welcome, sweetheart. We'll see you tonight."

Chris exits the hotel, and heads back through Oreburgh gate. His walk back to Jubilife was largely uneventful, save for nearly managing to capture an Abra before it teleported away. As it did, Chris repeated the same sentence he said when he saw an Abra for the first time. "One day."

Chris had decided to make the short trip back to Sandgem Town to see Professor Rowan for a bit, and also get his phone number. The very first person he ran into in Jubilife City however, ended up being the agent from the International Police he met a few days ago, Looker. "It is good to see you are well." Looker says as he approaches Chris. "Have you met any shady characters in your travels?"

"None in particular, but I did meet an asshole earlier today." He answers, still fuming over that hotel worker.

"Unfortunately, I cannot arrest someone simply for being an asshole." Looker says with a chuckle. He then pauses for a brief second to look around the City. "There appears to be no shady character in Jubilife City either. Though plenty of assholes as you'd say, young Chris. I shall therefore take my investigation elsewhere. I would suggest that you remain vigilant for shady characters as you continue your gym challenge." Looker goes to turn around, but stops himself. "Oh, one more thing. I do not know if you have ever met the esteemed Professor Rowan. If you haven't, and would like to, I suggest you head over to the gate at the northern part of the city, and see if you can catch him on a good day. Goodbye for now." Looker turns back around, and enters his car.

As Looker drives away, Chris silently thanks him for letting him know that Rowan was in town. He then heads northward, but pauses for a second when he sees a group of bikers passing by on their Harley-Davidson's. Chris cracks a half smile, and whispers to himself "I gotta get me one of those."

As Chris approaches the north gate of Jubilife, he spots Professor Rowan and Lucas talking to two strange men. Their uniforms make them look like their preparing for space travel, and they both have light-blue hair in a bowl cuts. As he gets closer, he hears what the strange men are saying to the Professor. "Now, now, now!" One of them starts in a very impatient tone. "Professor Rowan, you must comply. Hand over all your research findings. For free, naturally."

The other strange man suddenly forcefully grabs Lucas by his jacket. "Failure to comply will result in a painful time for your assistant."

This sight angers Chris. In the short time that he has known Lucas, he has considered him a friend. He manages to restrain himself from rushing the two strange men, and instead simply makes his presence known. "Is there a problem here?" Chris boldly asks.

Professor Rowan immediately looks away from the strange man in his face, and addresses Chris. "Ah, Chris." He starts. "How are you, my boy?"

"I'm doing well." Chris says, the anger on his face masked only by the smile he gives to Rowan. "I managed to defeat Roark in Oreburgh City."

The Professor's face clearly shows his surprise. "Impressive!" He exclaims. "Yet you've only just begun as a Trainer. It seems that it is a second nature to you."

Suddenly, the strange man holding Lucas by his jacket interjects. "Oh, professor of Pokémon, must you be so difficult? We are speaking to you on business. Because this is work for us. We demand you comply with our demands."

Rowan then suddenly snaps at both of them. "Quiet, you lot! Why must you be such a nuisance? Let me list some lessons you still need to learn. Don't loiter about for no good reason. Don't interrupt others while they are attempting to converse. If you don't get your way, don't raise your voice to be intimidating. Don't think you've grown strong simply because you're in a group. And lastly, what is with those outlandish outfits you have on, and that ridiculous hair style. My goodness... you call yourselves adults? I hope that these two don't become anything like you sorry specimens."

Suddenly, the strange man in Rowan's face pulls out a knife. "You just had to make it personal, old man." He looks at Chris, and gets closer to him with the knife. "Hand over all of your research, or-"

Before he can continue, Chris grabs his wrists, twists his arm around, and pulls his elbow violently down to his knee, breaking his arm. "Or what?" Chris says tauntingly as the strange man screams in pain. His pushes him down to the floor, as his friend lets go of Lucas, and comes at Chris. "You want some, too?" The other one goes to try to punch Chris, but Chris blocks the punch, puts his leg behind the friend's backside, wraps his arm around his throat, and flips him over his body onto the floor. Before the friend can react, Chris is on his back, and has him in a choke hold. He keeps the man in the hold, until he loses consciousness.

As Professor Rowan and Lucas observe all this in total shock, a cop arrives to observe the scene. "Alright, break it up, break it up!" She says. Chris knows that the man is out cold, and so he carefully lowers his head onto the floor.

Before the officer can touch Chris, she realizes that Professor Rowan is there. His word carries much authority. "These two cretins were the aggressors in this scenario, officer." He says. "This good young man here was defending myself, and my assistant."

The officer notices the knife on the floor, as well as the still writhing first strange man with a broken arm. The cop believes the story, and calls in a report. After half an hour of statements being taken, a couple more cops arrive, and take the two strange men away. Once Chris is alone with Rowan and Lucas, Lucas breaks the silence. "That was... something else Chris." He says.

"I put up with a lot of physical abuse from 10-13." Chris responds. "Eventually, you get tired of taking beatings, and learn how to fight. I'm self-taught mostly though, because some of the people who beat me were the ones who I lived with."

"You may need those skills later. There was a symbol on their garish attire. Perhaps they have friends that won't be pleased with you."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Lucas then looks over towards Route 204, and spots something in the distance. He suddenly becomes very excited. "Professor, look. Its an Eevee!"

All three men look over to where Lucas is looking, and spot the little brown Pokémon eating a berry. "Indeed it is." The Professor says, as he turns his attention to Chris. "Eevee is a Pokémon that is said to be able to evolve into a staggering eight different forms. Would you be so kind as to capture that Eevee, and raise it to see what it will evolve into?"

The idea of a Pokémon being able to evolve into eight different kinds of Pokémon was a highly intriguing one to Chris. "I'll see if I can." He says, as he slowly makes his way over to the Eevee. He takes a short moment while the Eevee hasn't noticed him, to put his Pokédex on silent so that he can not startle the Eevee, and read up information about it. Because it's a normal-type, he sends out Skarr to battle it. "Skarr, use Spark!" Chris's Shinx emerges, and hits the Eevee with an electricity-fueled tackle. It takes the Eevee off its feet, and also paralyzes it. Chris activates an empty Poké Ball from his belt, and throws it at the Eevee. The little one is absorbed inside the ball, and is captured.

As Rowan approaches, he's applauding Chris for a job well done. "You most certainly do have the instincts for being a Trainer, Chris." He pats the young rookie on the shoulder. "I see it was the right decision to teach you, and to let you take that Chimchar with you."

"I think Caesar would agree, Professor. He's evolved into Monferno."

Rowan chuckles. "Take my number boy. Keep me up to date on your progress."

Chris nods. "Yes sir." The two men exchange numbers, as Professor Rowan takes his leave. Lucas stays behind however. "You're not going back to Sandgem Town?" Chris asks Lucas.

"Professor Rowan wants me to look into something for him in Oreburgh City. I'm also thinking of challenging the gym while I'm out there." Lucas extends his hand. "Thanks for your help, Chris."

Chris shakes his friend's hand. "Not a problem. I'll see you down the road?"

"Yeah. And I'd also like to have a battle with you, at some point."

Chris nods. "Let me know when."

Lucas nods back, then heads off to make the walk to Oreburgh City. Now that he's been left alone, Chris heads over to the Medina's house. Mr. Medina isn't home yet, but Mrs. Medina greets Chris with a warm hug. "Oh sweetie," She says. "Its so good to see you."

"You too, Alexis." She smiles at him, and brings him inside. She watches a movie with Chris, while waiting for Mr. Medina. Once he's arrived, it seems he decided to bring pizza home, as he had worked too late today to want to cook for them. Still, Chris's Pokémon were well fed despite this.

As Chris speaks with the Medinas, with Mr. Medina telling him to call him Craig, suddenly Skarr calls out in pleasure, and then starts to glow. Its the same brilliant blue light that Chris's three other Pokémon shined with as they evolved. Skarr's body grows, a mane sprouting around its headf. Its ears become more rounded, and its tail elongates. When the glow fades away, Skarr has evovled from Shinx to Luxio. Its cry now shakes the windows a bit.

Chris smiles, and takes a look at Mr. Medina. "I think I can do this, sir." He says.

The man puts his hand on Chris's shoulder. "Then do it."

Chris smiles, and mentally prepares himself for the trip to Floroma Town in the morning.

I'm well aware that Eevee cannot be found on Route 204. I just wanted to write something more interesting than it be given to me by a character I'll never feature in my story again.