Chapter 11: Recording

"You're a ROBOT!?" Kai exclaimed. Aeon closed his eyes and lowered his head.

"Oh god, that- that makes sense, it all makes sense! That time when that huge Klawf was sent flying, there wasn't a Pokémon that did it- it was you!" Kai cried. "You- you used some sort of robot power or whatever and sent it flying! You-"

"Kai… I don't think you understand," Aeon said. "My entire mission hinges on the fact that Arven must not know my secret. You know too much. I cannot let you leave."

The moment those words left the android's mouth, Kai stopped breathing. His body became paralyzed as wind howled in both of the boys' direction. The robot boy's feet left the ground slowly. The sound of Aeon's built-in jetboots igniting hammered the young human boy's ears. Kai looked up to see the moon behind his friend. The moonlight covered Aeon in shadow, he was like a silhouette.

"Completing my mission is a matter of life or death to me. Please understand, and please do not resist," Aeon said.

Aeon's hands sunk into his arms and took the shape of arm cannons. He combined them into one giant cannon, and a loud humming noise rang as light gathered in front of the android. Kai dove for the ground, narrowly avoiding the flying projectile that flew his way and exploded upon touching where he last stood.

"Wait-Wait- wait- WAIT!" Kai cried as he stood back up.

Aeon shot another cannonball made of light his way.

Kai managed to do a backflip with one arm to dodge the attack. As the dust from the explosion flew past him, Kai pulled a Pokeball from his pocket with his free hand while his feet fell toward the ground. After landing on his feet, Kai finally tossed his ball, and out of it came Quaxly, who leapt with furious determination.

"Aeon, we can talk this out!" Kai cried. "It doesn't have to be this way!"

"I understand. But you have to understand that I have just recently met you." Aeon said, raising his arms and separating them. His hands erupted back into place as he bent his thumb and extended his other fingers. A beam-like aura exploded from his fingers, and started buzzing like it were a holographic saw. "And so, I am hesitant to trust you. Your incapacitation is required."

Fear commanded Kai's hand into his pants' pocket- and before he knew it, he engaged his Invoker armor by pressing the symbol on his wristwatch. Slowly, Aeon descended to the ground, his eyes locked onto Kai as the human pulled a Tera orb from his pocket.

"Quaxly, we need to fuse, now!" Kai commanded.

Aeon watched as Quaxly waddled over to his trainer and climbed onto his shoulder. Kai crushed the ball, and a pillar of light exploded from under the boy's feet. The terestialization sigil formed in front of the pillar before it exploded and dispersed like fireworks.

Kai's armor shined like crystals, and his helmet was gone. In his hand was a long water-type katana that shined like sapphire. As Kai raised his blade above his head, it left behind a trail of water in its wake, like a paintbrush would with paint. Rays of light erupted from below his feet and exploded into starlight-like particles after he pointed his blade Aeon's way.

Silence hung around the two as they stood still.

Aeon crouched before his body flew like a rocket over to Kai. Kai gasped and swung his sword down to defend himself, clashing with the holographic saw that was buzzing around Aeon's hand.

The two entered a deadlock as they glared at each other.

"I can keep your secret, Aeon!" Kai cried. "It doesn't have to be like this!"

"I will not repeat myself."

"I don't know what you're gonna do... but I'm not gonna let you!"

Kai grunted, pushing Aeon back. The two swung their weapons wildly, clashing blades with every attack. Splashes of water flew out of Kai's blade with each collision.

Kai kicked Aeon away and threw his katana which flew like a windmill toward his staggering opponent. Aeon regained his posture, sidestepped to dodge Kai's flying weapon and sprinted after Kai who was starting to retreat. After his water-blade flew past his opponent Kai flicked his wrist and the Katana U-turned and flew right back like a boomerang. Without even turning back, Aeon fell to his knees and slid under the whirling blade that flew right over his face, and closed the distance after Kai caught his blade.

The two attacked at the same time, and entered a deadlock once again. Their blades dug into each other. Kai glared while Aeon had a horrifyingly deadpan expression as a shadow loomed over his eyes.

"I'm going to finish this," Aeon said.

"No you won't..!"

Kai bellowed a warcry as he pushed on, Aeon swung his hand with enough force to send his opponent stumbling back. Kai dashed in and swung downward only for Aeon to deflect the attack with an upward swipe of his arm. While Kai staggered back, Aeon stepped forward, using his free hand to strike his friend's face with his open palm. Kai gritted his teeth as he recoiled, and then lunged, swinging his head slamming it directly onto Aeon's forehead. After landing his attack, Kai clutched his forehead and screamed in pain as Aeon watched.

"AGHHH!" Kai cried. "WHAT ARE YOU MADE OF!?"

"Metal."

Aeon took a step, placed a hand on Kai's shoulder and aimed a headbutt that hit Kai's head. The trainer fell to the ground.

"I was programmed to be incredibly strong, Kai. Stronger than you could ever imagine. The Klawf you fought against is nothing compared to me."

"Oh… okay..!" Kai said as he clutched his forehead. "Good to know… that means I can do this without worrying!"

"Do what-"

Kai raised his Katana at Aeon, and the tip of the blade fired a water gun, thin, but strong enough to send Aeon flying into the air. Kai flipped back onto his feet, spun his sword sideways and placed an open hand on the blade.

"The ocean's waves…" Kai spoke as a white aura erupted around the boy like a blazing flame. "They're calling to me!"

Kai grinned widely. He had always wanted to say something cool like that.

Waves of water exploded from behind him as he entered a battle stance.

"Quaxly…" Kai spoke as he closed his eyes. "Give me your strength!" The katana Kai wielded, in which Quaxly resided, shined bright in response to his plea.

Kai's eyes opened.

"Take this..!" Kai cried as he raised his sword above his head. "Surf combined with AIR CUTTER!"

By the time Aeon spun and recovered in the air by activating his jetboots, he saw several waves of water flying at him. They all had the shape of thin crescent-moon shaped waves. Aeon dodged them one by one, ducking and swerving over the salvo of attacks Kai was unleashing with his sword, swinging and sending more thin crescent-shaped waves that flew out of his weapon.

Aeon rocketed toward Kai, twirling and spinning about while dodging Kai's attacks. The android extended his hand, and suddenly, his hand flew out of his body like a rocket, aiming for the boy's throat.

It grabbed and latched onto the boy's neck within seconds.

Kai spattered and gasped the moment Aeon's fingers dug onto his throat. Because Kai had stopped attacking, Aeon was able to land on the ground safely.

Kai tried desperately to pry off his hand, and Aeon frowned.

"It would be so easy to choke the life from you. Far too easy. I am only using a fraction of my power, and yet...Hm. A human life is much too fragile for my liking..." Aeon sighed.

Kai fell to one knee as his lungs demanded oxygen. Every breath he took had to be earned, and he wasn't earning very much of it.

"I'm sorry," Aeon said. " I am so, so, very sorry. This is my fault. If I had been less careless... then you wouldn't have to suffer. Worry not, Kai. I do not plan to kill you. I plan to erase your memories, and to do that, I had to neutralize you." Aeon came closer, and his eyes began to shine white.

Kai raised his Katana and threw it before falling to the ground. It flew like an arrow. Aeon simply tilted his head to the side as it flew by his neck. Aeon came face to face with Kai, went on one knee, and raised Kai up by his shirt.

"All I need you to do now is-"

Kai flicked his wrist.

Aeon suddenly screamed in pain. The moment he did this, the grip on his friend's neck released, and Kai gasped as though he surfaced from underwater.

Kai's Katana had found its way into Aeon's back.

"Tch..!" Aeon grunted as Kai slowly stumbled back to his feet while breathing heavily. "I forgot that you have the power to call back your sword like a boomerang... you showed it to me during our fight... I should have kept note of it..."

"Yeah...!" Kai said, slowly regaining his breath. "Yeah, you should have...!"

"I thought of you as just a novice trainer..." Aeon cried. "I didn't think you'd get the chance to wound me like this... Underestimating you was another mistake I'm paying for right now...!"

Yellow electricity sparked around Aeon's wound.

"But no longer...Gch..!" Aeon's eyes widened with fury. He grit his teeth.

"WAIT!" Kai cried.

Aeon's entire body began to shine. Countless red veins began to appear around the android's skin. "Now Entering combat mode. Level-"

"OKAY, OKAY! ERASE MY MEMORIES!"

Aeon nearly gasped. The red veins around his body faded.

"What..?" Aeon said.

"If it makes you feel better... then do it." Kai said, finally regaining his breath. "Erase my memories. If I forget this ever happened, you'll feel safe...right?"

Aeon said nothing.

"You said earlier that Arven finding out is a matter of life and death. I don't know where you came from or who created you... but I get it. Trusting someone you just met with your life...I wouldn't be able to do that. No matter how nice sounding the other guy is. It took me time to warm up to Nemona, too, y'know? Sure, she prodded me and annoyed me a lot, but now... I trust her with my life if things were to go south for whatever reason. But that took time."

"I-... I don't understand…" Aeon said. "I was attacking you earlier… I could have severely injured you… I even called you a novice… and yet you're deciding to be this kind to me...?"

"I mean, yeah, you're right, I am a novice..." Kai mumbled sadly. He narrowed his eyes. Suddenly, he blinked, and as though a switch were turned on, and he puffed out his chest. "Heh- I-I mean, I totally know that you'll start to trust me!"

"..I see."

"You still have some doubt on how good I am?" Kai said. "I'm a novice, but I'm also a novice that kicked your butt! Ha! In your face!"

Aeon closed his eyes and smiled knowingly. "I am much more powerful than you think." He said. "I was only using a fraction of my po-"

"Oh, 'A fraction of your power', huh?" Kai grinned widely. "Yeah, yeah, and next you're gonna talk about how you eat Scooby Snacks and say 'Zoinks'."

"...What?"

"It's a reference! Try searching it up with your robot-brain on the internet."

"...I see." Aeon lowered his head and frowned. Kai frowned in response.

"Don't be sad!" Kai cried. "You're going to undo your mistake! I won't even know what happened."

"I still wish things didn't have to be this way. I wish I could trust you."

"Same here," Kai said. "But uh, do me a favor? Actually, do me two favors."

"All right," Aeon said. "If it is within my ability, and within reason, then I will."

"Favor one: Do not, under any circumstances, EVER show Nemona your power. I know you were using a fraction of your strength or whatever, but the nanosecond Nemona sees your abilities she's going to flip. Not even Arceus would stop that girl."

"I see."

"Come to think of it..." Kai raised a bent finger to his lower lip. "She might... forget about everything and just fight you instead of me. Huh...That's a depressing thought," Kai shook his head quickly. "Let's just ignore that."

"Do not show my power to Nemona. I can do that."

"Awesome. Favor two: If you come to trust me with your life, tell me that you're a robot. I can be real supportive and can keep secrets really well! You'll see."

Aeon smiled lightly. "I will."

"OH! One more thing! The moment you tell me about your secret, fight me again. Say something scary like 'I made a mistake, I shouldn't have told you' and be all scary like you were before! Anything that gets my heart going so I can get ready to fight!"

"...Why?"

"Because I want to challenge myself and see how far I've come!"

Aeon smiled. "Would you like me to record a message for you instead?"

"Huh?"

"I can record a message and save it for your future self instead of fighting you. I fear that by the time I come to trust you, you would have the ability to push me far enough to use more strength than nessesary."

"Oooh, that sounds cool!" Kai said, pumping his fists. "Maybe I'll be in some rut or something and my past self would give me the push I needed to win! Oooh- that sounds really cool! Let's do it, let's do it!"

Kai jumped up and down with glee, and Aeon nodded.

"I'm recording," Aeon said. His eyes shone red.

"Hey, future me! It's past me! Heh, I bet you're super strong, probably beat Nemona a billion times already, got all the badges, all that stuff. Well, I wanna just say that you're awesome! And uh, hm. That you can do anything, too! And if you're stuck in a rut or something or you're sad, remember... hmm... What's something cool I can say... Uh... Remember that uh.."

"Remember your reason for fighting?"

"Yeah! Your reason for fighting!" Kai cried and jumped for joy. "Yeah- remember that you're fighting so you can become confident, more confident than anyone else! It doesn't matter if you're pretending or whatever, or trying to act all cool, what matters is gaining that confidence and being the cool guy that you always wanted to be!" Kai shot his fist at Aeon.

"You're doing this so you can Be cool for real. It's fine to pretend to be confident as a crutch until you learn how to do it naturally. You got this!... is that good enough?"

"Do you think it's fi- Gch..!"

Yellow electricity sparked from Aeon's back wound again.

"Oh jeez- I completely forgot my sword's still stuck in your back! I thought of removing it but I didn't because I thought it'd hurt, and-"

"Go ahead and do it now..." Aeon said. "I'll be fine."

"Okay, three, two... ONE!"

Kai flicked his wrist and Aeon shouted loudly. Kai's katana flew over to his hand, and he grabbed it.

"Are you okay!?" Kai cried.

"Yeah...Yeah. I'm fine... I have nanomachines in my body... they'll repair my back."

"Uh, Nanowhatchama'call-it? Gotcha."

"It's 'Nanomachines'. It's not hard to pronounce."

"I was doing a Nemona impression. How'd I do?"

Aeon smiled. "Dimwit."

"Pfft- no, you're a dimwit!"

"Ending the recording."

Aeon's eyes stopped glowing.

A silence hung over the two boys.

"It's time," Aeon said.

Kai nodded. "Quaxly and I are fused, so you'll erase our memory at the same time. Two birds, one stone."

"...Do you really want to do this?" Aeon said.

Kai nodded. "Yeah. To make you feel better. Oh, one more thing. Rate my one-liners out of ten. What's the coolest thing I've said? I wanna know now, and in case you say they're bad, I won't remember since my memories will be gone."

"...The 'coolest' thing you've said to me was 'Erase my memories.'"

Kai's eyebrows rose.

"Really?" Kai said.

"I'd say… that you seem to be the type that is cool when you're not trying to be cool. Otherwise, everything else you say is cringe-worthy."

"HEY!" Kai cried, pouting.

"Although… I suppose you're not hopeless when it comes to oneliners."

"Ugh… I thought I could take the insults, but I was wrong- just erase my memories already! How do we do this? How does it work?"

"My eyes will shine white, and it'll allow me to see into your electronuro-"

"Okay, skip the whole science-y part please?"

"You just have to look into my eyes."

"Oh, uh, Okay," Kai said.

The two boys stared at each other for a bit, and Kai's heart began to race. His eyes averted Aeon's gaze.

"You do realize you and I have to remain in eye contact, yes?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm trying. I'm just-... I'm scared, y'know?"

"There's no need to be afraid." Aeon's eyebrows rose. "Hm..? There is heat rising on your cheeks." Aeon said. "Are you blushing?"

"I- I uh- No! I mean, I'm just embarrassed...Looking at you."

"Why?" Aeon asked.

"C-Can you just erase my memories already?!" Kai cried. "This is too much…"

"Your face has become even more red-"

"I SAID ERASE MY MEMORIES!"

"Okay. Now erasing your memories."

Aeon's eyes shined white, and the moment they did, Kai's eyes widened wide. After a bit of time passed, Kai fell unconscious with his eyes open. His shining invoker armor disappeared with a flash of light. The sword Kai wielded turned into a blue orb, and the orb took the shape of Quaxly before the Water-type Pokémon appeared. Kai's starter Pokémon was also unconscious.

"Thank you, Kai." Aeon said, reaching for Kai's eyelids and closing them. "You may forget this, but I will not. I will repay you the moment I get the chance. I swear it."

Yellow electricity sparked from Aeon's wound, which had not closed yet.

"I-... Must... rest..." Aeon said. He fell to the ground, right beside Kai and Quaxly.

The morning sun blazed above the two boys and Quaxly, who were still lying on the ground. Arven came running to the both of them, clearly out of breath. After taking a bit to catch his breath, he took in a big one, and then...

"WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU TWO DOING OUT HERE!?" Arven roared.

Kai screamed like a frightened little girl and bounced from the grassy ground he was lying on.

"Do you have any idea how worried I was when I found out you guys weren't in the cave!?" Arven shouted. "You had me worried sick!" Kai, still in a state of shock, realized just then that he was outside of the cave.

Why the heck was he outside of the cave!?

He looked down and saw that Aeon was lying next to him with his eyes closed. Kai screamed like a little girl again and crawled away from Aeon in a state of panic.

"Holy…Oh my god… Oh my god…" Kai put a hand on his heart as he started taking deep breaths to calm himself down. "How… why am I out here…?"

"That's what I want to know!" Arven cried. "Did you sleep walk or something?!"

"I don't know- OWWW…!" Kai clutched his back. "Oww… My back…! Jeez… sleeping on the ground's the worst…! Never doing that again..!"

Kai slowly went up to his feet.

"Here," Arven said, handing Kai two Pokeballs.

"What're these?"

"One of them's Miraidon's ball, the other's is a Tinkatink's ball. I figured it was yours."

"Oh-" Kai reached and grabbed Miraidon's Pokéball. Right when Kai was about to reach for Tinkatink's ball, the ball opened by itself- releasing the pink menace immediately who yelled a warcry that sounded like a squeak toy noise. She looked up at Kai, and then immediately charged after him and started whacking his shoes with her tiny hammer.

Kai narrowed his eyes.

"Okay- You do realize that doesn't hurt, right?" Kai crouched down, attempting to pick Tinkatink up. Tinkatink leapt for Kai's face and hung onto him by his cheek. "AAGHH! GET OFF!" Tinkatink climbed her way on top of Kai's head, and then started banging her hammer on top of his head over and over again angrily.

"Why. Are. You. Doing. This-?!" Kai spoke a single word with every bonk that hit his head. He sighed and groaned. "Why are you angry!? Is it because I didn't let you whack Klawf more?!"

Tinkatink roared a tiny roar.

"I'll take that as a yes..." Kai grumbled.

"Glad to see you two are getting along," Arven said.

"This isn't 'getting along', she's whacking me. She's literally bonking my head right now."

"I mean, if she wasn't, I would be."

"Are you still mad about me leaving the cave?! How was I supposed to know I was gonna sleep walk outside!? I don't remember a thing!"

"Maybe Aeon can tell us. Hey, Aeon!" Arven said, crouching down and prodding the android.

"Wake up. C'mon. Wake up."

Aeon didn't move.

"Aeoooon! C'mon! Rise and shine!"

He still didn't move.

"Aeon?" Kai asked.

No response.

Arven sighed. He put both of his hands on Aeon's shoulder and started shaking as hard as he could.

"AEOOOON! COME ON! WAKE UUUUP!" He cried. Kai watched and furrowed his brow.

"Uh… why isn't he waking up?" Kai asked.

"He's… either a really deep sleeper…" Arven said, rising from his feet. "Or he's unconscious."

"Unconscious?!"

Arven raised a hand, as though to stop Kai from screaming before he started screaming from panic himself. Kai took a deep breath as Arven crouched and picked Aeon up bridal-style.

"I'm sure he's fine…" Arven said while visibly sweating. He was clearly trying his best not to panic. "I'm gonna take Aeon to the nearest Pokécenter. You go on without me. Go train up or something. Fight a gym leader."

"R-Really? What about your problem?"

"I'd love to finish the task that I asked you to do… but the titan pokemon that are coming up are gonna be miles stronger than the one we fought earlier. That Klawf was the weakest of the bunch, and it shook us up, hard. We need to get stronger if we're gonna safely get what they're feeding on to get so big."

"Yeah…" Kai said.

"So get stronger, okay? Maybe catch a few more Pokémon while you're at it."

Kai nodded ."Okay. I'll be good on my own, just get Aeon somewhere safe!"

"Y-Yeah!" Arven turned and ran off.

Kai sighed. "I hope Aeon's okay…" He moaned.

All the while, Tinkatink kept bonking Kai's head. Kai felt the sensation the equivalent of a human poking him on the head with their finger.

"That's enough," Kai groaned, pulling out his Pokéball and returning Tinkatink into her ball. Five seconds later, Tinkatink broke out of her ball again, appearing in front of Kai once more. "Huh- What th-"

Tinkatink charged after him again. Kai returned the Tinkatink back into her ball. After two seconds Tinkatink broke out of her ball again, appearing in front of Kai and rushing after him.

"Hey- NO! Stop!" Kai returned her into the ball again.

After one second, Tinkatink broke out of her ball.

"Are you getting BETTER at breaking out of the ball!?" Kai cried. "STOOOPP!"

Tinkatink chased after Kai with a loud squeak-toy-like cry with her tiny hammer raised. The two ran around in circles for a while.

"Heeyyy!"

Kai stopped after hearing a familiar voice. Tinkatink took her chance, latching onto Kai's leg and bonking it again and again.

Coming from the distance was...

Nemona.

She had a wide smile on her face and a hand raised to wave. "Hey, Kai! What's up!?" Nemona roared.

"NO." Kai cried. "NONONONONO- RUN AWAAAAAAY!" Kai spun and ran off, and Tinkatink cried out as she tried holding onto Kai's leg. And even still, the Pokémon kept bonking on it.

"Where're you going!? Get back here, Kai!" Nemona started sprinting after Kai.

"GET AWAY FROM ME YOU MONSTER! GET AWAAAY!"

"Get back here and FIGHT MEEE!" Nemona shouted.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Nemona managed to catch up and tackle Kai to the ground. The two tumbled to the ground together, and Nemona had Kai pinned to the ground.

Nemona was close enough to Kai that he could feel her breath on his face. Their eyes had met. In the past, Nemona had done things like put her arm over Kai's shoulder, or even play-fought with him, but never had she been so close to his face.

Kai's heart skipped a beat. He even began to blush.

"Heh, that was fun!" Nemona cried, grinning wide. "We should do that every time!"

"Y-You're too close!" Kai cried. His face became even redder. "Too close, too close!"

"Oh, whoopsie!" Nemona leaned away. "So, wanna fight?"

"Get OFF OF ME FIRST, YA WEIRDO!"

"Oh- my bad!"

Tinkatink, despite all of this, was still whacking Kai's leg.