Chapter 4: the dreamyard

A/N: Hi guys, I hope you like this chapter, and don't forget to leave a review at the end of what you think; it can be anything.

Chapter 4 START

The Dreamyard was considered one of the wonders of Unova. Despite being a research laboratory, many tourists made sure to take a tour inside and see the numerous kinds of wonderful projects there. It was also a great place to meet a renowned Pokemon professor, who would pop up from time to time.

It was made to research greener ways of producing energy using the powers of Pokemon other than electric types. This could include taking advantage of certain grass types' enhanced photosynthesis capabilities, the body heat of fire types, etc. However, the most notable of all were the ones surrounding the dream mist produced by a Munna or its evolved form, Musharna.

Dreams have always been considered a mystery, so when the opportunity came to study what they're capable of, lots of sponsors came to enlarge the facility into a towering sci-fi glory. That was when it really popped off. A few of the smaller yet significant projects had been completed so more focus was put on the 'Dream Science' project.

Unfortunately, something went wrong. They don't know what caused it, but a huge explosion near the ground floor destroyed its surroundings and came down crashing the rest of the tower. The steel framework collapsed, the glass windows shattered, and families were crushed. The tourists outside also felt the impact. It was all over the news, known as one of the worst things to happen in Unova.

The team trenched through the surrounding landscape, looking in interest at the gray architecture hiding behind a chipped brick wall. It was a distance away. Sticking out were steel beams bent from their original position like pins in a string ball. The second floor mostly had no ceiling, so the sun shone on the completely discolored walls. The ceiling that remained was chained together to stop more devastation from happening.

They were all surprised when they could walk through the grass like how they would in the park even though they expected there to be debris everywhere. Guess they must've cleaned everything outside for safety. Actually, why did they come here? Oh yeah, Sarah's mom used to be a doctor here and luckily didn't have a shift that day. If it was even one day earlier… Sarah cut off the thought before it could continue. So she recommended her to come here, thinking it would be a good learning experience.

Theodore desperately wanted to see the inside, salivating from the unique experiments the Pokemon world had in store for him. Pokemon are much more durable than a stupid ape. I want to see the testing they did on them. Unless they were more on the lovey-dovey side then the research they'd gained wouldn't be much

After a long walk that didn't even cover most of the Dreamyard's perimeter, they reached the gigantic gate.

"Do not enter." Theodore read the red graffiti. "I don't know if you know this gate but I listen to my own rules." He tried to push the double doors to no avail. The rust accumulated after so long kept the doors together.

Plan A failed then it's time for plan B

"Wait what are you doing?! We're here to sightsee not break the law." Sarah exclaimed.

"Who cares there's no one here. Besides don't you have other things to worry about like your Pokemon's moves?" He sneered. But she couldn't understand what he was saying so in disregard, he jumped the whole ten feet onto the wall.

"Fine you big meanie, we'll go inside." She pouted before looking for a way to get in. It was just a wall but she wasn't a climber to climb through the small cracks.

"Athena, do you know psychic?" Theodore asked. She shook her head. Right because they gain it once becoming more powerful. How should I get them over?

He looked around for anything on this side of the wall. There certainly was debris the cleaning team couldn't be bothered to clear up. There was a long rope on the floor. Some barrels too, probably empty. There wasn't anything useful here either except broken concrete and steel beams. Pondering around, he noticed something on the overhanging ceiling. There were three rotating pipes that used to be used as part of an elevator when constructing the wall. Theodore clicked his fingers.

That's it!

"Sarah." He got her attention.

"Weave Weave Wea Weavile Vile Wea." He said, pointing at the ceiling over her head before jumping down on his side and getting the rope before jumping over. Attached to the end was a big rock. The two girls looked in wonder when he jumped and wrapped the rope around the three pipes in a weaving way. It was long enough for the rocky end to reach them.

"Weavile Weave." He was now pointing at the rock.

"Y-you want u-us to get on it?" She asked unsure. Even when he nodded, they were still uncertain but got on anyway. Athena jumped into Sarah's arms before Sarah planted her feet onto the rock and held the rope.

"Aleyoop!" Theodore jumped down. Sarah and Athena gasped when they were moving against gravity and smoothly reached the top of the wall. Taking a step, they looked down at the whole ten feet. Theodore jumped back whilst still holding the rope. He then demonstrated his use of the rope slowing his fall down the other side of the wall via the rock. Throwing the rope to Sarah, she did the same thing.

No one spoke when walking through the junkyard grassfield to the remains of the facility.

"How did you do that?" Athena jumped off of Sarah to walk beside him. She looked at him in admiration, curious Of the mechanism she'd never seen before.

"It's called a pully system. With the pivoting points, you can create tension force from the ceiling to the rope and reduce the amount of force needed to pull someone up. It's how I picked you both up despite weighing less and I've lost you haven't I?"

"…I know what tension means." She said sheepishly.

"The more cylinders you wrap the rope around the easier it is to pull someone capiche." She nodded.

They reached the building. Despite losing its height, it was still humongous in width. Most rooms they saw were exposed as no walls were covering them. There was a signboard remaining on its last legs next to the doorway. On it was the plan of the first floor. It was simple. Most were facilities for tourists most definitely run down now. There was one in particular catching Theodores' eyes, 'Data Room'. My man legged it before Sarah could put her arm out. She didn't bother chasing him, if he had the intelligence to do what he did back then then he could probably navigate the place without getting lost. On the other hand, Sarah was interested in the facilitated battlefield. Slightly ecstatic she went off, looking forward to any tips she could gain to help her as a trainer.

Theodore's POV:

"Awww how good it feels to get my hands on a computer." I quickly reached the room. At first, when entering, I was pissed off at how run down the place was. Moss was growing in the corner, there were pieces of glass I narrowly maneuvered through, and the still intact Pokemon test tube had nothing in it. However, once removing the spiderwebs under the desk and blowing the dust off the monitor, I booted up the PC and got aroused by the screen glowing. It took a moment for it to show the desktop which was more advanced than one back at home.

"100 petabytes holy shit!" I looked into the computer's info

What kind of storage is that! And such processing power! For what is considered a slightly advanced computer it is too far forward than ours which makes it all the more exciting!

Going onto documents, I didn't have the patience to read through the files' titles so clicked on a random one. Forget about a synopsis and just get reading.

"Yes, it worked, they didn't need a password. Come on babes show me what you got. Let's see it's 20th October 2023 and during the 26th test, we finally got a signal. After recalibrating the electron gun's wavelength to a certain frequency, they were able to collide with the dream mist particles and cause a higher generation of electricity compared to what we started with. Considering the amount of dream mist produced by a single Muarnna is about insert numbers and units here then these results could bring us a cleaner/higher energy source than any other method used." My jaw dropped. For a moment I didn't see the room around me as the words in front of the screen etched themselves into my brain.

Do you have any idea what this means? It means these guys were incredibly close to finding a better way to generate electricity than even nuclear fusion. If you didn't know, we on Earth were currently investing tons of money, labour, and time into a project called ITER which was meant to emulate the sun and produce energy by sacrificing mass. After 35 years we barely have anything to show for it. Incredible, simply spectacular. I have nothing but utter admiration for the ones who accomplished this research.

All they needed to do was build more electron guns and from there it would have been energy heaven. If the facility hadn't blown up, the people of this planet would have reached a new age.

In the midst of my thoughts, my pointed ear flicked towards the right wall after hearing a sound. It was so small that if it weren't for these sensitive ears then there's no way I would have noticed. Probably some screeching metal.

"So now to the next day, the file says- HEY! Whichever of you two is whimpering quiet down or I'll slap you. Don't you know a genius is at work here, I don't want to deal with a papercut…. Jesus Christ." I facepalmed. The only good thing I've come across in this world and it gets disrupted immediately. Listening carefully, I noticed that the whimpering wasn't too far off from here. Actually, it's on the other side of this soundproof room.

"The exit should be right about here. There we go. Alright, which cocksucker is disturbing my love time. Is it you- what the hell happened to you?" What am I looking at right now? It was a bipedal dog creature. It was sitting on its skinny black legs. It had black fur in its twiggy torso that contained dirt and little sticks and protruded a small lackluster spike. Its blue face was the biggest indicator that it was based off of a canine creature with its black fur moving up to its eye, covering it like a mask. There were two tear-drop bangs on the side of its head looking like they were able to sense something. Its eyes though were a very dim red like they had no more weight to them as tears easily fell down its cheeks.

"Why is a Riolu, tied by its hands, feet and muzzle, sitting in an abandoned facility… unless you were used in a science experiment. Yes! So the humans in this universe are just like at home- abandoning others for power." The Riolu flinched when I mentioned the word 'power'.

I went to remove the small rope tied around his muzzle to hear an explanation, but when close, he weakly shrugged back. His legs moved so slowly, it was clear he had no energy left. I moved closer and reached for the rope despite the strained turn he tried to make.

"Now that you can talk, fess up. Who left you? I know a high-class professor doesn't have the heart to do this." He responded with silence, looking at the ground with those half-lidded dim eyes. At first, I thought he couldn't due to extreme thirst, but after a solid 10 seconds

"…Useless…" He muttered with the voice of a young boy. It was raspy like scraping metal with sandpaper

"Hm?"

"I am useless." This time it was louder but came out more lifeless. "..trainer abandoned…too weak…"

"Using my all-knowing brain I can put it all together. Your dodgy-looking trainer saw you as a gold bar because of your evolution line and took you in but after losing so many battles compared to the rest of his strong Pokemon, he tied you up, made up some sob excuse for doing what he's doing then left you." His eyes fully opened for the first time before looking at me gobsmacked. Got it on the dot.

"So now that you've chosen to take his words to heart are you just going to sit there and slowly decay away?" The Riolu once again looked towards the ground, squeezing himself with his arms more as a cold breeze of wind flew past.

This is so juicy. Sitting on a small smooth Boulder over there, I grabbed a small pile of rocks at the side.

"Useless." I threw one at him. He didn't respond at all.

"Hey useless, I'm calling you." I lazily threw more, one at a time just to get the satisfaction of it.

"Your trainer *clunk* abandoned you because you're weak *clunk* you're a useless *clunk*. You're a loser." This is nice.

"Loser loser loser." I didn't know it but deep within the canine's head were these words reverberating over and over again.

Riolu POV:

Loser loser loser loser loser loser loser. These words wouldn't escape from my mind. They kept coming over and over again like rain droplets onto a puddle during a dark, gloomy thunderstorm. It was then that I remembered something.

(Flashback)

"Riolu use brick break!" A mug voice called out. I ran towards the flying Pidove, jumping into the air, ready to give him my strongest attack.

"Hah your Riolu hasn't been able to hit my Pidove once. Pidove use air slash." His wings glowed brightly before he descended with immense speed. I had no time to react as a strong combination of a punch and a slice hit me in the stomach, sending me to the ground. It was hard to get up but I can keep going…just a bit more. My eyes slowly closed before turning into black swirls, the last thing I see is Conner getting out my pokeball with the similar look he gave during my previous losses. Although, this time I had a bad feeling about it.

"Useless." I barely hear before getting sucked in.

(Present)

Conner said I was useless and now he is too. Am I really so useless, why can't I do anything right? All I wanted Conner was for you to be proud of me, but no matter how much I tried, I kept failing. Sniff I'm sorry I was too weak to do what you wanted me to do. It's okay though, I'm going now forever and ever and hopefully, you'd have found a better partner than such a stinking Pokemon like me.

But I don't want to go. Why WHY am I so useless!? I don't want to be weak, I want to win. Please somebody out here, help me. Sniff.

"Sniff…please…"

"Hmm got anything to say, if you do make it worthwhile."

3rd POV:

"…want strong not…uselesss…" He struggled to get out. He looked at Theodore with red eyes filled with more tears. They stared at him, their hues becoming a brighter shade of red as they held a small bit of hope. Theodore took a step back as an unfamiliar feeling hit him.

His eyes were those of that of a puppy being kicked, but there was the oddity. Theodore used to cause those when injecting mid-stage vaccines into puppies to see their effects. Not going to lie he may have punched a few to get them to comply better. They had shown similar eyes- the look of abandonment but this time was slightly different. Somehow it moved him. Maybe it was because of the intelligent difference between the dog Pokemon and an actual dog- he can talk after all. Theodore didn't know but he certainly didn't like the feeling.

"Urggg fine! Get up." He walked up to him.

"Huh?"

"I don't like pitiful beings who never win. I reject weakness and only respect power. If you truly want to be strong then you have to do everything in your power to get it. Or you can simply fade away, forever knowing that you gave up as a loser. So do you want that huh do you truly want to stop being useless." Riolu gave a small nod.

"Then get up and make a difference. There's a little girl with a Ralts looking for a new partner or as she would say a new family member. You can join because God knows she certainly needs the help. Having a Riolu in the team would be anyone's dream and I know she's going to put in the effort to train you and her Ralts." He didn't forget the look of conviction when Cilan told her to work on her glaring weaknesses.

He used his claws to carefully cut off the remaining ropes, allowing the Riolu to move freely. It took a bit of effort, but he did manage to get up while using the wall behind him as support.

"Holy shit, you're malnourished as fuck. Stay here, you can't be moving without any energy. I'll see if I can find any Pokemon food around here. It's a research facility so there's probably some long-lasting cans somewhere." And he left.

Sarah's POV:

I was here. It was a small battlefield made from blue metal which had dent marks. There was a lot of rubble from the ceiling on it making it impossible to battle on. It was surrounded by many sensory-looking objects and had a few seats on the side. At the edge was a small glass pane where a room filled with computers faced the field.

They went to it as the field had no use for them but the research may help. Psychic types are usually researched the most and Athena was a Psychic. She entered and switched on the light. She looked over the computers. Broken. Then the papers. Shredded. Maybe the books might have something. A Felines Guide to- no. The Muscle Fibres of a Machop- no. A Trainer's Guide to Battling by Shauntal of the Elite Four YES this is what I'm talking about.

Page 1) if you're a starter trainer then you may be thinking 'How do I win my first gym badge'. Well no worries, I got you covered even if you lost your first battle because you didn't know your Pokemon's moves.

"…Anyways."

And that should be your first step; learning your partner's moves. This will determine how you should battle e.g. if your Pokemon has more long-range attacks then you should try to keep them at a distance. If they have more short-range attacks then you should keep them close to their opponent. Also, che-

"Ralts!" Athena startled me with a loud shout. She pulled my sleeve desperately and pointed to the back door of the room. She didn't have that smile of hers that I always see. I didn't hesitate to pick her up and go where she wanted me to.

After walking through the mossy hallways, Athena kept pointing at the various junctions in silence which gave me a sense of unease. As we got closer to wherever we were heading, her soft grip held my arms tightly. I've seen her like this before and I didn't like it.

After a few more empty hallways, it was then where I heard a loud cry.

"Munna!"

Coming from the next room was the cry of a Pokemon I hadn't seen before. Peeking around the corner, I saw it had a round body, its skin a soft shade of pink, and it had a distinctive pattern resembling floral shades on its plump cheeks. The ruby eyes were large and expressed fear. Its overall appearance was charming and somewhat dreamlike.

I would have thrust my arms at something so cute, making sure it would be cuddled next to me if I ever wanted to go to sleep. However, I couldn't when seeing how terrified it was. Sneakily ducking behind what was left of a wall, I looked at the more clear view and saw 2 people talking.

There were 2 men with average looks you could find from any generic guy; normal height, normal physique, and normal features. However, they were dressed in the same clothing. They wore loose white and grey hoodies, gloves and boots with a black shirt and trousers underneath. The most notable feature was their emblem which portrayed a P over a black and white shield. I had seen these type of people back in Accumula Town where they were preaching something about Pokemon liberation. I didn't really get what they were saying, I was paying more attention to some strawberry drops in the sweet shop at the corner.

They were towering over the Munna, their shadows encompassing her as she anxiously tried to back away. It was hard when she was right in the middle of the two.

"Come on Munna give us your dreammist!" The one with black hair shouted. Munna only squinched her eyes together.

"Come on Munna give it to us!" The other one with ginger hair also shouted yet yielded no results.

"GIVE IT TO US!" My breath got stuck in my throat while Athena looked on with completely wide eyes. He had just kicked the Munna powerfully, making her cry out in pain. I can't believe what I'm seeing. Did that just happen? I almost dropped Athena to the floor.

"Woah dude!" His partner shoved him back from the Munna. Like getting out of a trance, he realized what he did.

"Oh gosh, I'm so sorry." He shakily apologized to them both. He looked at the pink Pokémon before unsteadily taking a few steps back and using his hand to hold his other arm. Pokemon abuse from a human was considered a severe taboo, not because of the physical attack itself as it didn't do much, but more of a symbolic sense.

"It's okay dude. But please don't do something like that again. I think you've been spending too much time with that scientist."

"Brrrrr don't remind me. I can't believe Lord Ghetsis thought bringing him to Team Plasma was a good idea. I trust the Lord but seeing him replace Professor Colress with that madman does make me question what he was thinking."

"I know, and you've seen a few more experiments of his compared to me when he asks for your assistance sometimes."

"Yeah, after the first few times, I was done. I couldn't handle seeing such horrible and inhuman behaviour from someone. He had no sympathy for those Pokemon, NOTHING! Is he even a human being, those were things no human from this planet would ever do." His breathing was quickening.

"Dude calm down. We'll just get this dream mist and go home." He relaxed his friend. I think that is the first sign of a panic attack.

I can't keep watching the poor Munna be attacked like this. I was admittedly scared from what was in front of me but I'm not going to run away no matter how much I want to hide and forget about this whole thing.

Although, how am I supposed to win? I already lost horribly against the Gym, so why will anything end up different here…OF COURSE! It's exactly like the book said, you need to learn about your Pokemon's attacks before going into battle.

Taking out my Pokedex, I went to Athena's information which was automatically put in when I captured her. Regrettably, I had the settings on 'read out loud' mode.

"Ralts's moves are confusion, psybeam, and double team." A robotic voice said aloud, startling all three people including the Team Plasma members, letting them know of my presence. There was no point in hiding, so I stood up and faced them. They looked at me in bewilderment.

Why would anyone be in this abandoned facility? But they smirked after seeing Athena.

"Well well well look at what we've got here. A little kid and her Ralts wondering about lost in their tracks. Shouldn't you have been walking along with mommy while holding her hand?" He laughed as he grew closer to me.

"Yeah, now hand it over or we'll take it away from you. " they had taken out their pokeballs, attention away from the Munna, and now onto me. This is what their goal is; Pokemon liberation.

I tightly hugged Athena, there's no way I'm going to give away my best friend.

"Go Partrat!"

"Come Purloin!"

The respective Pokemon came out and immediately stared us down. I shook slightly. I was nervous, but I'm going to take the first charge.

"A-athena use psybeam at the Patrat." She released a beam of purple rings at him and it was surprisingly fast that he didn't even get to dodge it. He yelped and was knocked back quite substantially.

Wow, I didn't know Athena had that much power. Despite being only born a few weeks ago she packed quite a punch.

"Purrloin use fury swipes." The Purrloin had unsuspectedly jumped at Athena from the side, striking her with many swipes with her long glowing claws.

"Ralts!"

Oh no! She won't last much longer if this keeps going and that Patrat is already getting up. Two on one really isn't fair.

"Athena jump and use confusion on Patrat!" She evaded a swipe by jumping onto the erected pipe behind her. Her eyes glowed blue before staring deeply into Patrat.

"Come on Patrat, we can't let a little girl beat us. Use tackle." But he couldn't because when he looked into Athena's glowing eyes something strange happened to a few of his senses. The Plasma grunt watched on as he kept tackling against the left wall, hitting it with his head until small cracks started to appear. But it was too late, by the time his senses went back to normal and he broke out of the confused state, the cracks increased in size until the whole wall collapsed onto him, burying him in the rubble.

…uhhh great. I totally meant to do that.

"Now's our chance Athena, we can win if we take of them while they're isolated. Use psybeam again." She tried from her elevated spot but Purrloin was too quick.

"Dodge it then use sucker punch." If that hits it will be game over. It was then when I remembered something.

'If your Pokemon has more long-ranged attacks then you should try to keep them at a distance.'

"Use double team." Purrloin stopped her advancement and froze in her place as there were now many copies of a Ralts all around her. She growled at each one that was looking at her with a calm smile. However, the one furthest away from her smiled a bit menacingly.

"Psybeam the most powerful one you've got!" All clones were charging up their attack. The grunt and his Purrloin watched anxiously; helpless to do anything. She was right in the middle of the clones without anywhere to jump. They all released a large psybeam that were double their normal size and hit her.

"Purrloin!" The grunt shouted, wondering if his Pokemon was okay, however, he was stupefied when she got back up without any visible injuries. In fact, it was like she wasn't attacked at all. "Whoops, I forgot dark types are immune to psychic types. Ha ha ha Purrloin finish this off."

Athena kept taking steps back when Purrloin's claws glowed white again. She kept walking back until she bumped onto the corner and looked at her awaiting misery. Sarah watched on while tears started to form in her eyes.

"N-no Athena."

3rd POV:

"PEAKABOO!" Everyone looked at the grey furball who came sprawling in with a shadow-enveloped claw and slammed the surprised Purrloin to the other side of the room.

"Weave Weavile."

"Big brother I'm so glad you came!" Athena jumped and clung to Theodore's face. She cried as teardrops fell onto his fur, staining them while he was trying to get her off his face.

"Ghtt ggrreet ge-get off me! Jesus Christ, why do you have such an iron hug?"

Behind him was Sarah who held her heart in relief. Her friend had come just in the nick of time. She thought she would lose and they would take Athena forever. She wiped her tears as a new sense of hope lit up in her heart.

Theodore sprinted with his shadow claw.

"Quickly Purrloin dodge it." Fortunately, even Purrloin couldn't match the speed of a Weavile, especially a power hungry one. With one more devastating slash, she was out.

"Grr Purrloin return."

"That's one down, one more to go." He watched Patrat, who had finally dug himself out of the rubble, get ready for what was looking like a tackle.

"Patrat use bide." Charging himself with the damage he had taken from the walls collapse, he gained a powerful red glow and went to tackle Theodore. The grunt smirked. This was Patrat's most powerful attack and it has never failed him so far. Theodore uppercutted him and he fainted.

"That was dramatic." He said as the grunt returned his Pokemon before they both ran away. They left the Munna, who shivered when they went passed her.

Sarah collapsed. Her heart was racing a thousand miles per hour. In one hour she had faced more stress than she had ever faced in her entire life. Athena walked to her before she was quickly swooped and given a look-over. She was fine, not that badly damaged.

"Oh yeah by the way, here's a Riolu." He casually pointed at the rare, famous Pokemon like you see it every day on TV. He was fearfully peaking around the corner, observing her behaviour. Sarah noticed how thin his arms were and how his cheeks drooped like sacks. Her heart welled when she saw the after marks of the ropes and immediately knew what happened to him.

She gently walked over to him, slower after he retreated around the corner.

"It's okay it's okay. I'm not going to hurt you. I don't know who did this to you but I'm not like him. You can trust me." She went around the corner and the Riolu was sitting and heaving large amounts of air. His stomach hasn't fully digested the canned Pokemon food to give him the energy to move anymore. The walk here was already straining enough. His eyes showed fear when she opened her arms.

Sarah saw his bangs slightly rise which was a sign a Riolu or Lucario was sensing something using its aura. He must be sensing whether her feelings were genuine. He was shocked. He couldn't sense any sort of fake emotions from her. There was no darkness in her aura. He thought for a moment.

Can I really trust her?

It was a risk he didn't want to take. Already giving his trust to a human didn't pay off so why should she be any different? Her arms wrapped around him in a gentle hug like a mother would with her child. She soothingly caressed his fur.

"I told you can trust me silly." She giggled. "I'll help you get back on your toes, and I promise I won't abandon you. We will look after you; me, Athena and Weavile will be your new family."

She took out a pokeball.

"Do you want join us?" Riolu hesitated to put his paw onto the pokeball, but ultimately let himself get sucked into it. He made his decision and was taking a risk because he wanted to be happy.

He wanted to feel loved.

Theodore yawned at the scene while Athena watched in delight.

"Yay new big brother! Or is he little brother?"

"He's definitely older. Anyway, now that you guys have got a new member, can we please go to Nimbasa City."

"Mhmmmm I agree. I don't like this place, it has weirdly dressed people who are really mean."

"That was Team Plasma; the liberators of Pokemon trainers. Thou holy people who truly think they're doing what's best for the world. It's like a cult. And their cult master, Cyrus, has done a great job at tricking them." Theodore maliciously smiled.

And that's what makes him such a good character, he lies to others to get what he wants.

"Anyway, now that the PC's emergency battery finished, I have no reason to be here. Let's hurry to Nimabasa City already."

They all left through the same route. Theodore was pleased by the whole experience; learning the anatomy of a new creature, seeing this world's advanced technology, and slapping a cat across the face. What more can one man ask for? However, Sarah was uneasy. The sight of a Pokemon being abused and one being abandoned and left to starve had her stumbling a bit across the grass. She stared a hole into the Riolu's pokeball.

I promise you'll get the love you deserve, no matter what.

The Munna was watching them leave. Her crying had stopped as she was left stupefied. D-did they forget about me?

They were on their way to the Pokemon centre much to Theodore's dismay, despite only leaving it a few hours ago. When asking Nurse Joy to heal the Riolu she caught, without telling her about his special circumstances, she simply nodded and did so. She thankfully didn't read his data as she assumed it was a normal catching.

Afterwards, she let him out in a quiet area in the park. He was still malnourished, but clearly in better shape. His fur was clean, his toned muscles were sticking out of his healed skin, and most importantly his eyes were brighter. They now held a small crimson glow.

"Hello Riolu, I brought you to the Pokemon centre and you're already looking much better. I want us to introduce ourselves properly this time. My name is Sarah and these are my partners, Athena and Weavile."

"Hi, I'm Athena!" She squealed delightfully.

"I'm not actually her partner I'm just going to be using her for my own benefit." Theodore crossed his arms.

"And as a new member of the family you get to have your own name. I was thinking Anubis would be good." Theodore looked at her wide-eyed.

Tha-that's a pretty good name. I know some Pokemon were inspired by ancient Egypt mythology but I didn't think they would have some sort of history with them here.

Riolu liked the name, so he weakly nodded.

"Great! I said I wouldn't abandon you, so to show that promise I'm going to leave you out of your pokeball. We're going to Nimbasa City which isn't too far away." She said before going in for a small head pat. Anubis recoiled when her hand got too close. She pulled back in wonder before Anubis slowly walked and hid behind Theodore.

"What are you doing?" He asked him.

"I d-don't like humans." He said, looking at Sarah anxiously.

"I don't care, why would us humans care when someone isn't of use to us? I just hope you aren't going to be behind me this whole walk."

But he did. Theodore got annoyed while his female travelling partners giggled seeing his face as his patience was wearing thin. Anubis kept holding onto him and flinched from every movement in his surroundings from the trees bristling to the man promoting his noodle stand. It made Theodore feel like he was being a babysitter to some PTSD kid. To make matters worse, his legs became tired due to his slow recovery.

"C-can you c-c-carry me," He asked, timidly.

"…what?"

"I-I said-"

"I know what you said!" Anubis flinched from the loud shout. "What makes you think I'm going to carry you, I thought you said you were going to stop being useless."

That was the wrong thing to say as he looked down before his eyes became watery. That same feeling from before that Theodore couldn't recognize hit him in the heart. It was uncomfortable.

"Grrr fine! I'll carry you on my back but I'm not holding you, you better hold tightly." He lowered himself a bit so he could get on, piggy bank style.

"Aww that's so nice of you Weavile. Helping your fellow little brother." Sarah cooed.

"He's not my brother nor friend."

"After him can I have a turn?" Athena asked. "It will be like what my dad used to do. I do miss him but I'll see him again in one of those magical glass things. Sarah promised her parents we'll talk to our family back at home once we reach Nimbasa City."

"First of all, it's called a monitor. Secondly, no you can't have a turn. I'm only doing it this one time."

They had now reached the end of Striaton City. There was a beautiful garden over a small metallic bridge. It was even better than the ones in the park.

Everyone stared in awe for a moment at the sight before them. At the side there was a small green sign pointing up ahead, saying 'Route 3'.

Theodore was the first to walk ahead. Getting to Nimbasa City would be the next step to reaching Shinigami.

It will be a flash before I get back home, just you wait.