A/N: And we're back! Sorry, Legends Arceus has been taking up a lot of my time lately (among other things...like my computer trying to die and maybe planning some tie-in stories in the YGO DM and GX eras). It's gotten to a point that I might be tempted to do a side story that's inspired by it. Well, that and one other story has come back up to my brain because I watched Bones again and started to get tempted to do the YGO 5D's/Bones crossover with my other OC Aurora. I know it might confuse people as when I showed her in Dragons' Souls, she's with another OC but that's due to the fact that in her stories she's paired with Yusei like Ren. I figured that maybe when they show up in the others' stories I'll do a crackship deal instead to keep from doing a love triangle thing (or possibly none at all if I can't come up with something). That includes any times I'd do a collab/gift/whatever that Ren guest stars in. Yes, I'm possibly hinting Ren makes a random pop in with one of Aurora's stories, but which one could it be...? Anyway, enough rambling, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's nor Pokémon. Both go to their respective owners. I only claim my OCs. And prepare the soap for Ren's potty mouth.

Chapter 8:

(Ren's POV)

"Jason, where did you get that?"

"Mrrr."

"We talked about this. You're not supposed to be stealing whatever looks shiny."

"Mrrow."

"Now, give me the bracelet and-"

"Reow!" Jason dodged my hand, running away.

"Jason! Get back here!" I yelled, chasing after the Purrloin. This was a bit unlike him, but for the past week he had been acting out a lot. It started with him showing up during training with a whole lot of berries (which I definitely know he must have snagged from wild Pokémon), and now it evolved into grabbing anything that caught his eye.

I didn't have to chase the Dark-type for long as Argen snatched him up by the scruff, causing him to drop the bracelet. I picked it up with a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Argen."

"Luxsh!" Argen replied, though it sounded a bit funny with him still holding Jason.

"Did you get the bracelet?" Yusei asked.

"Yeah, finally, thanks to Argen." I stood back upright. "Though, I'm starting to regret having him learn that little 'Thief' move I picked up."

"Pretty sure it goes beyond that. Purrloin usually like to nick the occasional item or two."

"Yeah, but Jason never seemed interested about that until recently."

"It might not be the move, though, but rather that he's close to evolution."

"Wait, really? But it seems a little-" A bright flash happened beside us which caused us to turn to see what happened. Now instead of a little Purrloin being scruffed, it was a Liepard, blinking in surprise with Argen. "-early..."

"Huh, guess that little criminal streak of his gave him some experience." Argen released Jason who shook his fur out once free. "Uh, Ren? You o-"

I sucked in a breath and let out a squeal (yes, so manly, I know; sue me) of happiness, hugging Jason. "Oh my Arceus, you're such a handsome big boy now!" I yelled.

"Well, that's quite a reaction to seeing your Pokémon evolve."

"Lux."

(Yusei's POV)

I gave the bracelet back to its owner while letting Ren calm down from his excitement at Jason evolving. The Liepard at first was a bit taken aback by the reaction, but he quickly started enjoying the attention. It was good to see him less withdrawn, compared to earlier in the journey, but there was still a ways to go it seemed. Especially since there seemed to b something that was bothering him since we left Virbank.

"Ah crap, next Gym is Bug-type, isn't it?" Ren groaned, looking at his X-Transceiver. "And Burgh has a part Rock-type, so even Toil will have problems." He rubbed a hand over his eyes. "Maybe I can fake out that one with Toil and get Auren in to-"

"Is something the matter?" I cut in, causing Ren to freeze up.

"Umm...no, why do you ask?"

"That tone says differently. Plus, before we even docked, you kept looking at the calendar and sighing. Pretty sure anyone can put two and two together there."

"Promise you won't laugh?"

"Okay."

"Well...it's just...I feel like I'm going to fast in this, but at the same time it feels like I'm lagging behind compared to other Trainers. Hell, AJ already had half the badges when she was over in Kanto for her journey by this time, and she dropped her Trainer status to go into Contests the year after! Pretty sure my brother had a full team with half being fully evolved."

Ohh, I see now. "...is that all?"

"Huh?"

"Ren, a journey is more than becoming a strong Trainer. It's different for each Trainer which is the point. Other than certain circumstances, it's supposed to be taken at whatever pace is comfortable for the Trainer and Pokémon. If you want to take it easy, you can."

"But-"

"No, don't be comparing yourself to others even your own siblings. It's not going to help your self-esteem, and your partners will pick up on it. I doubt it'd help them if you pushed yourself ragged. Even the best Trainers take it easy every now and then."

Ren was quiet for a few moments before heaving a sigh. "Still, I'm not sure if I can exactly relax with the whole you-know-what and Plasma thing going on. You saw how much damage Toil did with that influence."

"But it's only tied to your emotions for the most part, so if you have a calmer head, it shouldn't flare up as much."

He snickered a little. "Was that a pun just now?"

"Maybe. At least it worked to get a laugh out of you, didn't it?"

"Yeah." He gave another sigh. "You do have a point, though. I've been so hyper focused on this-" Ren clutched his marked arm that was covered in bandages. "-and everything that it's brought that I've forgotten how to take it easy. Acting in the PokéStar Studios seemed to help make me forget what's been going on even for a short moment, and it felt good to at least act like a normal person again. All right, let's take it easy for a bit then."

I nodded. "Well, what's first then?"

"I kind of want to go to Nacrene if that's okay. I heard they have an opening exhibit over Hisui that I want to check out. Just to see if any new info has come out about it."

"Into history, huh?"

"Well, a bit. As long as it's not a huge project I have to work on. I hated the writing I had to do for school. The city is past Skyarrow Bridge and Pinwheel Forest. Hopefully this time no one's stolen the Dragonite skull like last time."

A few minutes later, we reached the terminal, only to be interrupted by one major detail.

"You have to be f***ing kidding me," Ren grumbled, seeing the 'Bridge Closed' sign blocking the exit. His head dipped. "The universe officially hates me."

"Huh, I hadn't heard anything on the news app. This must have just happened," I added, crossing my arms.

"Arceus dammit, I was really hoping to see it." Ren lifted his head back up, rubbing the back of his neck. "I thought I heard that there was brand new information that was found from old texts that Professor Bakura and his wife translated."

"Guess that throws that out for now. We'll have to wait until things get fixed up before going."

"Well, maybe that means there'll be less of a crowd when we do, but now what...?"

"If I recall, there's an art museum here among other things. Burgh likes to showcase his latest piece every month or so. There's also Nimbasa's carnival, or..." I looked back to see Ren was eyeing an advertisement on the bulletin board in the terminal. I came up to take a closer look to see that it was advertising the opening of a training ground at the new building complex on Route 4. It was inviting any Trainer to come by and try it out. "You wanting to check it out?"

"A little. There's supposed to be some visiting Trainers coming in for a big event at Driftveil later on. Maybe meeting other Trainers of various experience will help in figuring out strategies for Gyms."

"All right, sure. Let's get going."

(Ren's POV)

On our way to the Route 4 terminal, there was a bit of a commotion that caused us to pause in our walk. A flock of Woobats were flying about in a frenzy, probably coming out from the entrance to the Relic Passage that had opened by accident. Right as we stopped, one of the Woobats crashed right into my face. I reached up and pulled him off.

"You okay?" Yusei asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Do I have a broken or bloody nose?" I replied, opening one eye after closing them from impact.

"Mm...no, but you'll have a nice heart print for a little while."

"Guess that's better than dealing with that mess." I looked down at the Woobat who was now curling up in my arms. "And I guess I've got a new Pokémon now. He's getting comfy."

"I wouldn't keep that one if I were you, kid," one of the people on the street said. "The whole flock had the 'Klutz' ability. Wouldn't do you any good in the long run."

I looked from the guy to the Woobat back to the guy. Then, without breaking eye contact (and a lot of surprising ease on my part thanks to the Woobat gripping my arm), I pulled out a Poké ball and tapped it on his head. The ball shook a bit in my hand before clicking. "Well, good thing I didn't ask for your opinion." I walked back on ahead, putting the ball on my belt.

"Not a fan of listening to strangers, huh?" Yusei said, falling into step with me.

"Eh, tends to come and go depending on my mood. I'm still a bit pissed at not getting to go to the museum."

"Ah, I see. Any name ideas for the new member?"

"Um...maybe? I don't do too well in the name department for the most part, as you can guess from the names I've given so far."

"They're not that bad. Your Pokémon like the names and respond to them."

"Mm, I guess."

We finally got to Route 4 and the location. There was a bit of a crowd that had gathered with Trainers of all ages. Out on the practice field was a battle going on between a Staraptor and a shiny Exploud. The Staraptor circled high out of the reach of the Exploud, but the Exploud kept a close eye on the flying bird Pokémon.

"All Griffin, time to finish this! Brave Bird!" the Staraptor's Trainer ordered.

"Starrr!" the Staraptor cried. He circled back to the Exploud and dived down, a blue energy surrounding his body.

"Felix, counter the attack Power-Up Punch!" the Exploud's Trainer responded.

"Ex...ploud!" The Exploud clenched a fist which turned red with the move. As soon as the Staraptor got closer, the fist collided with the bird. However, the Staraptor overpowered the Exploud and sent him flying back onto the ground. He tried getting up once, but he fell back and fainted. The Staraptor landed back next to his Trainer, wincing a bit at the sparks of recoil after the move.

"Okay, the ad wasn't kidding about Trainers of any level invited," I mumbled as the two Trainers recalled their Pokémon. I had let out my team to let them watch the battles. All of them were watching with interest save for Jason who curled up by the railing and started napping. Yusei also let out Argen which caused some of the Trainers nearby us to back away a bit due to the Luxray's size. "Feeling a bit...overwhelmed."

"There's probably someone that shouldn't be too much for you around," Yusei replied.

Just as he finished saying that, I heard a yell of, "Hey! You with the Lucario!"

I looked to the field, seeing the owner of the voice. It was a guy around Yusei and my age with short, spiky orange hair. He had an Azumarill at his side. I glanced around to see if there was someone else he could be talking to, but I couldn't see any other Lucarios. I pointed at myself. "Me?"

"Yeah, you. How about a little spar, eh?" He held up a Poké ball. "Your Lucario vs my Tranquill? You up for it?"

"A Tranquill? Auren should be able to handle that," Yusei said.

I looked to the Lucario. "You up for it, bud?" Auren nodded with a determined expression. "Well...guess we can see how we stack up to others. Emerald, you and the others stay here please."

"Vine," Emerald chirped with a pout.

"You wanna see how high you can fly against the Tranquill like you did the Pidove the other day?" He snorted, slumping where he was. "Yeah, didn't think so."

(Yusei's POV)

Ren and Auren made their way to the field. Auren stepped up as the other Trainer sent out his Tranquill. There was something a bit strange about the Tranquill, however, Some of the Pokémon's feathers were a bit darker gray where it would be a lighter gray and the red above the eyes was barely visible. The Tranquill must be close to evolving. That might make things a bit tricky.

"Okay, Sya, start this off with an Air Slash!" the Trainer commanded.

"Quill!" The Tranquill flapped her wings and then sent a small spiral of air hurling towards Auren.

"Detect!" Ren countered.

Auren tensed as the attack headed for him, the appendages on the side of his head raising. Before the attack hit, he jumped out of the way. The Air Slash caused a cloud of dirt to explode from the ground. The Tranquill didn't look to pleased that her attack was so easily dodged.

"Okay, no biggie. Follow that up with an Aerial Ace!" the Trainer ordered.

"Trrr...anquill!" The Tranquill dove for Auren, energy streams enveloping her.

"Just wait for it, Auren!" Ren said.

The Lucario tensed up, similarly to when using Detect. The Tranquill was getting closer and closer. What's Ren planning? Right as the Tranquill got a few feet in front of Auren was when I got my answer.

"Now! Force Palm!"

"Oh shit! Pull up, Sya! Pull up!"

Even if the Tranquill wanted to, it was too late. Before the Pokémon could get out of the way, Auren leaped forward, placing his palm at the center of the Tranquill's body. A burst of energy sent the bird Pokémon flying across the field. She managed to stop herself to prevent crashing into her Trainer and winced as the paralysis effect made itself known. Ahh, I get it. He wanted to get her close enough to hit and not be able to dodge in time. Looks like the times Emerald had to be rescued from flocks of angry Pidove helped quite a bit.

"Sya, you good?" the Trainer asked, bending down to her. The Tranquill ruffled her feathers, spreading her wings with a cry. "Okay, probably about time to test out that new move, eh?"

"Tra!"

"All right! Hit 'em with a Facade!"

"Auren, we've got to finish this quick. Metal Claw!" Ren commanded.

The Lucario crossed his arms, the spikes on his wrists glowing before growing into claws. He rushed forward as the Tranquill was also flying toward him, coated in a gold aura. He reared an arm back to slash at the Tranquill. The attack, however, missed as the Tranquill twirled out of the way and then slammed hard into Auren's stomach. Auren tried to keep standing, but the attack was too much and sent him into the dirt of the practice field. He rolled to his front, tried to get back up, and passed out from taking too much damage.

Right as the Tranquill flew back to her Trainer, she became enveloped by the glow of evolution. Now stood an Unfezant instead of a Tranquill. The Trainer recalled her as Ren went to help Auren up.

"Auren, you okay?" he asked. Auren waved a paw in an 'I'm fine' manner.

"Whoo! That was still close. I didn't think that Facade move was going to be enough," the Trainer said, walking up to Ren after recalling his partner.

"I'm...still a bit new to a lot of battling."

"Yeah, I was kind of more expecting an Aura Sphere than those physical moves."

"Uh, why?"

"You didn't notice? With how he attacked with Force Palm and Metal Claw, it looked more like he was used to a longer distance move than a hand to hand combat attack. You might want to look into having him learn special moves than physical. It'd help with opponents like Sya or floaters."

Ren had been eyeing Auren as his opponent explained. He turned back to him. "Oh, well, thanks for the tip."

"No prob. It's a bit hard to tell unless you've been around enough Pokémon. See ya!" He and his Azumarill headed back to the other side of the field while Ren and Auren made their way back.

(Ren's POV)

"Well that was an experience," I muttered as I climbed over the railing, trying not to lose my footing like when I was heading in. "Sorry about not seeing your battle style sooner, Auren."

"Gruff," Auren replied.

"You would have won if that Metal Claw had connected," Yusei pointed out. "The Unfezant took advantage of the move's accuracy for that split second."

"Yeah, sure. Kind of doubt it, though."

"Considering how much damage Force Palm did—even with Auren having the wrong battle style—the Metal Claw would have done enough to beat the Pokémon. There was also the chance the paralysis could have kicked in before the Facade connected."

"Still, I kind of doubt-" I got cut off when my Xtransceiver rang. I looked at it to see that it was Chelsea calling me. I answered. "Hey, sis. Is something up?"

"Hey Ren, you two at the Pokémon Center?"

"Not right now, but we can get there pretty quick. Why?"

"I've got a surprise for you. Just get there as soon as you can!" She hung up before I could ask what she was talking about.

"Sounds like it's time to head back into Castelia," Yusei said.

"Yeah, I'm a bit curious what this 'surprise' is."

(Pokémon Center)

We made it back to the city, not encountering the flock of Woobat like when heading for Route 4. They must have flown off back to the passage or just out of the city in general. Once there, I set up a video call at the PC system. Chelsea quickly answered it.

"Okay, so what is this surprise and am I going to get in trouble with it?" I asked.

"Don't worry, I got clearance for you. There were a few eggs that hatched that Trainers hadn't picked up and declined to, so I thought maybe you could add them to your roster," she explained.

"Chels, you sure that's a good idea? Can't you call AJ to take them?"

"AJ isn't answering any calls right now, and I don't want to give them to that obnoxious cousin of ours either. No doubt he'd throw them out into the wild without even considering if they could survive on their own or not. Some are species that are found in Unova while others aren't and would be invasive. So what do you say?"

"...okay, I'll just take two of them, though. I want to be able to build a team without too much help."

"All right." She moved off the screen before coming back with a clipboard and her reading glasses on. "Let's see...the eggs that hatched had a Swablu, a Porygon, a Togepi, a Bronzor, and an Igglybuff. Any of those catch your interest."

"Erm...I think the Swablu and the Igglybuff might work."

"Okay. I'll get them sent over as soon as I can. You can send any Pokémon to the ranch if your team would be too full. Talk to your later, little brother!" She hung up the call.

"Does this kind of thing happen often?" Yusei questioned.

"Not really, but sometimes when Trainers get the Pokémon they want hatched, they tend not to care about the other eggs left. Chelsea spends time and energy to get those adopted out to good Trainers whenever she can."

"You would think after the Team Plasma fiasco, the Trainers would be a bit better with their Pokémon."

"You'd think."

About an hour after talking with Chelsea, I got the notification about the Poké balls being ready. I sent Auren to the ranch for a break. Since catching Cupid (the Woobat I caught before we went to Route 4), I decided that Auren could take a rest while training Cupid to take on the trickier Bug-types in the Gym. He can be good backup for Toil once he gets working on his Confusion. I let out the Swablu and Igglybuff, checking their information via the new app on the Xtransceiver. I blinked before letting out a, "Holy shit!"

"Ren! What's wrong?" Yusei said.

"Chelsea neglected to mention that these two had their rarer abilities. No wonder she really was reluctant to reach out to Gareth."

"Huh, wow. Congrats."

"Thanks, but now I'm kind of nervous. I'm not sure if I can train these guys well enough. Maybe I should try calling AJ to-"

"No, none of that." I felt his hand on the top of my head. "You're more than capable of training these two. If you weren't, Auren wouldn't have evolved so soon, and Emerald would barely listen to you."

"Sure, but I still get nervous training Toil and there's still the threat of Team Plasma in the shadows. How the hell can I make sure they don't get hurt?"

"You're getting better with Toil slowly but surely. As far as Team Plasma is concerned, Argen and I can handle them along with Cross and Ciel should they think to try anything. Let's focus on one thing at a time. Worrying about everything that can go wrong isn't going to help."

I sighed. "Well, if you're sure..."

"I am. Though, we are going to work on that confidence of yours, too. You beating yourself up isn't doing us any favors."

A/N: Okay, can I just say how hard it is to figure out what Pokémon should say based on the anime? It is very hard to know what to write how a Lucario sounds to someone who doesn't understand Pokémon speech! Anyway, putting that aside, I had to brush off a few old Ocs I haven't touch in years as well as a Nuzlocke character I recently updated. Also, made a tiny hint at a Yu-Gi-Oh! DM OC if you caught it in the text. Which brings up the poll. I changed it as I'm curious if anyone would like to read possible prequels/tie-ins to not only this story but also Dragons' Souls as my muse has been slowly coming up with ideas for some. I am going to warn that both stories are going to have different OCs for the DM and GX eras as when I made Ren I never had the idea for him to be connected with any (well, I guess aside from his mom if you've read that Surprising Each Other prompt where I revealed his mom's side of the family). I had some with Aurora, but I forgot the name of the GX character (among other things) and also kind of never came up with a full story with the DM character(s) (also changed a few things after getting a bit of inspiration form perusing reader inserts). Just a heads up if you get confused when reading the story tie-ins for this and then the ones for Dragons' Souls (if I do write them; I've got a working future scene involving Ren meeting the other two in Dragons' Souls but not sure where to put it yet). See you in the next chapter!