Chapter 14: Trust

Kai regrouped with Clive and Nemona, who was now on her feet but trying hard to fight back laughter every time she glanced at the man beside her. Kai's phone floated beside him as he approached the two. All the while, Tinkatink continued to gnaw on Kai's ankle.

"Are you two finished?" Clive asked.

"Yes, we are," Cassiopeia said. Kai crouched and grabbed Tinkatink, picking her up and putting her at a slight distance away from him as the Pokémon lurched and squirmed about, trying to reach for Kai's face.

"Me and this…creature…" Kai grumbled. "Are going to try to storm the hideout."

"I've discussed with Kai regarding the details of our strategy. Nemona, Are you going to be assisting Kai?"

"Nope," Nemona said. "I really, really REALLY want to, but nope. I think it'd be better if Kai did it on his own, so he can get stronger!"

Clive nodded. "I agree. As much as your help would be appreciated, it'd be better for Kai's learning experience."

"So we're agreeing on letting Kai go in alone…? All right." Cassiopeia said. "Do note, that you're approaching the Fire crew Leader Mela's base. I'll leave it to you guys."

Kai's phone turned off and flew back into his pocket.

"All right-" Nemona said. "Kai, Direc…"

Clive raised an eyebrow.

"Dirrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeecccccccccct…." Nemona sounded like she was at a loss for words. "D-DIRECT us to the R-Right location!" Nemona laughed nervously.

"Uh…" Kai tilted his head. "Oookay…?" Kai walked on, Clive turned to Nemona and sighed, and Nemona chuckled and scratched the back of her head.

The three went on their way. Ahead of them was a dirt road and grass that flowed like the ocean as the wind brushed by. For a good while, there was nothing, but then, in the distance, the three saw a massive fort with many team star insignias drawn across the area. In front of the front gate was a single team star grunt with their arms crossed and a mean look on their face. The trio approached the lone guard.

"Hey-" Kai said, aiming Tinkatink at the guard as though he planned to use her were supposed to intimidate the guard. Tinkatink wasn't aiming her aggression at the right person, however, for she was still trying to attack Kai. "Do yourself a favor, and move!"

"Or what?" The Male Team star member said. "With how your Tinkatink's acting, it may as well be at two on one!"

Kai sighed in frustration as he stepped forward as his two teammates stepped back.

"All right- Enough's enough! If you're not gonna behave…" Kai dug into his pocket and pulled out his Tera orb. "Then fine!"

Particles of Light gathered to the young boy's Tera orb. Then, he crushed it, and a pillar of light erupted below his feet like a laser beam as the teratilization sigil appeared before Kai. Then, the light exploded and dispersed like fireworks. Kai's invoker armor was engaged- and was now glowing pink. As for his weapon, he didn't have the usual Fairy Type weapon- instead, he held a sledgehammer in his hands. He aimed his weapon at the team star member and smiled as the light particles around him flew wildly once more.

"So, are you scared now?"

Suddenly, Kai's sledgehammer began to shake. And suddenly, it moved, pulling Kai along with it and causing him to stumble foward. "Whoa!" Kai cried as the hammer flew another way and pulled Kai along with it. "D-Dang it..!"

"Pffft…" The team star member giggled to himself. "I was thinking about crushing you, but instead, I'd love it if you were to get crushed by our Star Barrage!"

"Star… What..?! AAH-" Kai nearly tripped as his weapon nearly flew out of his hand. "Stay still…Darn you..!" Kai grumbled, using both hands to keep a hold of his weapon.

"What's this Star Barrage?" Clive asked.

"Well… for starters… To make sure the intruder who's messing with us is worthy of fighting the leader… Everyone in the base is going to attack you all at once!"

"Oh?" Clive said.

"OOOOH!" Nemona cried, pumping her fists in excitement. "You're so lucky, Kai!"

"Stupid.. Thing..!" Kai was too busy trying to stop his weapon from flying off his hands. "Stop… moving!"

"How many team star members are in your base today?" Clive asked, adjusting his glasses.

"Hmm…About…100!"

"ONE HUNDRED?!" Kai cried, turning his head to the guard. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, 100!?"

"I mean 100! And we're all gonna fight you- ALL AT ONCE, BABY!"

"NO!"

"YES."

"NOOOOOOOOO."

"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEES." The team star member shot a finger at Kai. "Take one step into our lair and you're toast, buddy!" The team star member then turned and ran inside the base. Leaving the three operation starfall members alone.

"Ahh, I get it. Toast, because this is the fire specialist's base." Clive chuckled to himself.

"Yeah- real funny joke...Ah–!" Kai's weapon flew out of his hands. The hammer end fell to the ground with a thud, leaving a slight crack on the ground below it. "What am I going to do..!?" Kai cried. "I can't even get Tinkatink to fight with me, it's not going to be a 100 vs 2, it's going to be a 101 vs 1!"

"Well…" Nemona said, crossing her arms. "I can't think of a better way to get to know your Pokémon than through battle!"

Kai turned to Nemona. "If you say, 'get in there and fight all 100 of them,' I'm going to hit you."

Nemona just smiled at Kai.

"S'worth a shot!" She cried.

"No- no it's not. I'm going to get pummeled."

"Trust me," Nemona said, placing a hand on her chest. "Even the most stubborn Pokémon are able to learn that they need their trainer to win the toughest battles. That's something I learned from personal experience."

"I'd rather fight you going all out against me than go out there and embarrass myself in front of all those people..." Kai grumbled.

"Really?"

"Really."

"Okay, sure, but on one condition: I'm going to turn up the difficulty against you this once," Nemona said.

"Huh?" Kai said, tilting his head.

"I remember this one time, a while ago, when I first caught my Lycanroc. She really, really didn't like me at first, just like you and your Tinkatink. But then we fought against this super strong wild Pokémon, the strongest that I've ever seen…It looked like a robot, even."

"Oh?" Clive said.

"Though-while me and Lycanroc didn't beat it, Lycanroc and I learned to be more of a team, because we had to adapt. I have a feeling the same thing'll work with you and your Tinkatink." Nemona pulled Fuecoco's ball from her pocket and pulled it toward her chest as she began to smile. "I won't be using my Pokémon from my actual team… and I'll stick with Fuecoco, But I'm going to try a little harder than usual to beat you."

"...Huh…" Kai said. "Uh…C-Can I fight the 100 trainers, instead?"

"Oh- Okay…" Nemona said, frowning. "That's fine, too…"

Kai frowned.

He knew he didn't stand a chance against Nemona- he didn't want to embarrass himself. But at the same time, he saw the genuine disappointment in her eyes… and then winced.

"UGHHHHHHH!" Kai grumbled. "FIIIINE! FINE! I'll fight you instead!"

"Really!?" Nemona shined like a lightbulb as she beamed with excitement all over again, losing all trace of her disappointment.

"...Really." Kai grumbled.

"KAAII! YOU'RE THE BEST!" Nemona ran over to Kai and hugged him tight, pressing her cheek against his. Kai didn't hug her back, he just grumbled as his cheeks became slightly red.

"Yeah, yeah," He said.

Clive crossed his arms. "I suppose this means we're going to leave the base first? It'd be wise to make sure to have room for your fight- if any crossfire from your attacks reached the base, we may have a problem on our hands."

"Yeah, good point!" Nemona cried. "Thanks, Direct…..UH- DIRECT US TO THE RIGHT PLACE, CLIVE!" Nemona laughed very awkwardly as Clive shot a glare at the girl.

Clive cleared his throat. "I'll do just that, Nemona," He said.

Kai tilted his head. "You're weird, Nemona."

"Yeah!" Nemona cried. "Really weird! Super weird!"

"Uh..huh." Kai said.

Kai turned to the pink sledgehammer that was stuck to the ground. He grabbed the sledgehammer by the handle and started pulling it sledgehammer wouldn't budge, as hard as Kai tried, he couldn't lift it up.

"Ugh! Stupid thing! Nemona, Tinkatink's being stubborn and won't let me move her! How can you turn this transformation off?!"

Nemona shrugged. "I dunno."

"UGHHH! Fine! I'm dragging this weapon with us instead!"

Kai grabbed the handle and started dragging the massive sledgehammer across the ground. Nemona smiled as she led her friends onward to where she and Kai would have their fight.

...

All systems green.

System Restart… complete.

Energy Level back to 100%

Parameters set.

#083020201 engaged.

Slowly, Aeon opened his eyes. What he saw first was a ceiling. He rose from what looked like a hospital bed.

"Oh-!" Arven, who sat beside him, nearly leapt from his seat. After briefly taking in a breath, Arven looked to Aeon. "You're awake…"

"Yes," Aeon said. "I'm fine. Where are we?"

"Where else? We're in the hospital," Arven said.

"Were you watching me the entire time?"

Arven said nothing and turned his head away. Aeon tilted his head.

Arven's current Emotion: Conflicted

Reason for emotion: Unknown

Proceed with caution.

"Oh! He's awake!" Nurse Joy entered the room and closed the door behind her. She walked to Aeon and Arven. "What a wonderful surprise!"

Aeon's hands suddenly tensed.

Scanning..

Scanning…

Name: Nurse Joy.

Threat level: 0.

"Hello," Aeon said with a nod. The tension in the boy's hands left.

"It's wonderful to see you are finally awake! I'm sure Arven's even more happy to see you're awake! He's been next to you waiting for you to wake up ever since he brought you here."

Arven sighed as Aeon turned to him and smiled.

The moment Arven saw Nurse Joy, was the moment Aeon sensed frustration from Arven. He didn't need his system to analyze him and tell him of his frustration- he could feel it. Arven then slowly stood up.

"All right, Nurse Joy. Thank you so much for helping. Aeon and I are gonna go now,"

"All right-" Nurse joy said, noticing Arven's emotions. "Take care, okay?"

"Yeah," Arven said.

Aeon slowly hopped off of bed. He looked up to Arven, who didn't look his way and left the hospital room without even telling him that he was leaving. Aeon followed him out of the hospital room hurriedly. Soon, the two of them left the Pokécenter, designated next to the Pokémon League area, and were outside again.

"Where are we going?" Aeon asked.

"...I'm going to the next Titan Pokémon."

"...Without Kai?"

"I wanna get this done," Arven said, sounding slightly annoyed.

"Why not wait for Kai to join us?"

"I don't want to."

"It wouldn't be wise. We should wait for Kai."

Arven stopped walking suddenly, and Aeon stopped along with him.

"There you go... talking like a robot again." Arven said. "Although it shouldn't be surprising, considering you are one."

Genuine fear washed over Aeon's body. His body just held still as he kept staring at Arven's back. Arven slowly lowered his head.

"I should have known." Arven said. "My parents didn't have the time to look over their only child, so instead of taking care of me, they sent a robot my way." Arven's fists began to tremble as he clenched them both.

"...Arv-"

"Don't. Talk to me." Arven said.

Aeon held his breath as a silence hung between them.

"...You wanna know how I found out?" Arven asked. "The nurse said that she'd never seen anyone like you. You had no vitals, no pulse, no nothing. They told me that you were a machine. That you were low on power, and that you needed to restart, or something."

Aeon had no idea what to say. It was as though some invisible force was keeping his mouth shut.

"I don't know why I even bothered to stay in that hospital room with you. I should have left the moment I found out."

"Arven… please…" Aeon reached out to him. "I- It doesn't mean that I don't care about-"

"You care about me?" Arven said, turning his head. Right…" He nodded to himself and chuckled a bit. "Yeah- right, of course! It's it because you were programmed to, right? It's so funny I could laugh!" Arven chuckled again. "It's like a joke! A prank! My parents sent a robot my way, telling me that you were my new younger brother! A robot!" Arven kept laughing. "They couldn't love me themselves, so they programmed a robot to do it! It's the funniest joke I've ever heard!"

"Arven-"

"Stop TALKING!" Arven cried.

Aeon's eyes widened in horror.

"Everything you say just makes me angrier! Just stop talking!" Arven roared.

Aeon kept his mouth shut as though his life depended on it. Arven sighed and turned his head.

"...I'm going to go find the next Titan Pokémon. You can do what you want. Follow me, don't, I don't care. But don't you ever…..say a single word to me again. Understand?"

Aeon trembled.

"Understand?!" Arven cried.

Aeon nodded quickly in fear.

Arven slowly turned around, and started to Aeon watched Arven walk away, he saw letters appear above Arven's head that formed words.

The words said "ERASE HIS MEMORY. NOW." In bright red letters, and it blinked again and again.

With a sigh, Aeon took steps forward to follow Arven.

"All right, this should be far enough!" Nemona said, putting her hands on her hips. Behind her was Clive, and Kai, who was dragging along the Pink Hammer Tinkatink had become.

"UUUGHHHH…" Kai grumbled, "Finally!" He cried.

"Alright you two. Have at it," Clive said. He took several steps back, getting far away from the two of them.

Nemona grinned as Kai dragged the pink sledgehammer in front of him.

"Remember," Nemona said, pulling out her Fuecoco's Pokéball again. "This fight's not about winning… it's about earning the trust of your Pokémon."

"I'm not sure if I even can do that if I can't lift this stupid WEAPON!" Kai kicked the pink hammer. Then, the pink hammer rose from the ground, and then landed on Kai's shoe. Kai's eyes widened in pain before he yelped- pulling his foot and holding it as he hopped again and again.

"STUPID- LITTLE.. AAGHHH..!" Kai shouted.

Nemona giggled.

"This is gonna be fun," She said, raising her Pokéball close to her cheek. "I finally get to cut loose a little…!"