Chapter 33: This isn't goodbye

Kai stared at the inside of his backpack, which contained the egg Mela gave to him as several nurse joy and Chancys were picking up the team star members. The medics were everywhere, pulling up the unconscious bodies of team star one by one. Many of the nurses were tending to the Reveroom that had its car parts destroyed.

"I wonder when this thing'll hatch…" Kai thought, staring at his Egg.

A nurse joy poked Kai on the shoulder from behind him, and the boy turned around. "The Gym leader you faced wanted me to give you this," She said, handing him the first Gym badge that he earned.

"Wait-" Kai said, blinking quickly in disbelief. "I forgot it!?"

"Nice," Arven and Aeon said at the same time.

"Shut up, both of you!" Kai said.

"Jinx!" Arven shouted.

"What?" Aeon said.

"Aw, c'mon! You don't know the game? It's when two people say the same thing at the same time, the first person to say 'Jinx' can say that the other person owes them a soda! So now you owe me a soda!"

"I've literally never heard of this before." Aeon said.

"Well that sounds like-"

"Your problem," Both boys spoke at the same time,

"Wait-" Arven said.

"Jinx!" Aeon shouted.

Aeon chuckled as Arven glared.

"I suppose the owed sodas are equal, yes?" Aeon said.

"Heh, get wrecked, idiot," Kai said,

"Ugh- Both of you shut up!" Arven shouted.

Kai and Aeon chuckled.

"No, I'm fine..!" Mela's voice cried out, and The three boys spun to her. She was sitting on the ground and trying to stand up by herself. A Nurse Joy and a Chancey was attempting to stop her but Mela shrugged them off. "Make sure to check on everyone else before me..! I've gotta say something to a friend..!" Mela shouted.

The three boys watched as Mela approached Kai. Their eyes met, and Mela offered her hand to the boy.

"Good fight," She said,

Kai chuckled and shook her hand. "Yeah, good fight," He said. "And- WAIT- OHHH...NO!" Kai put his hand on his face as he came to a realization. "I COMPLETELY forgot!"

"What'd you forget?" Mela asked.

"I completely forgot to use Quaxly- Wait, I mean QUAXWELL- to put you into maximum power! Ugh. Now i have to fight you another time AGAIN."

Aeon and Arven smacked their own faces at the same time.

Mela stared in disbelief. "...are you serious?" She said.

"YES. It's important. I gotta kick your butt the way I want to! So, I'm definitely going to fight you again, you hear? Though next time I fight you, I'll be so strong I might now even get hit!"

Mela scoffed. "You've got to have a lot of guts to want to do that again. Is audacity your new thing now?"

"I plan on making it so you can't look up the word audacity without finding at least one picture of me."

Mela smiled, and suddenly patted Kai's head. "I'm so proud of you," she said.

Kai began to blush, and Aeon noticed this. Without thinking, Aeon pressed a button on his temple. The android's eyes began to zoom in on Kai as Aeon began to read the boy's emotions through his vision.

"Oh- uh, thank you," He said, scratching the back of his head. "I uh, did come far, right?"

"You sure did." Mela said. She sighed. "Still… it's going to be odd no longer being a leader of Team Star…"

Kai's eyebrows rose.

"Wait," He said, "You're not going to be a member anymore?"

"Yeah, because you beat me, remember? When you challenge a team Star Member and complete the gauntlet," Mela continued, "The leader loses their title if they lose, and we give a special badge…."

Mela went into her pocket and pulled out a badge for Kai. "Here you go." She said.

Kai just stared at the badge.

"Well?" Mela said. "Are you going to take it?"

"Does taking it officially show that I've beaten you?" Kai asked.

Mela tilted her head. "Uh, yeah..?"

"Then keep it."

"Huh?" Aeon said.

"What?" Arven said.

"Wh-..." Mela looked the most surprised of all.

Kai shook his head to himself. "I can't accept your badge knowing that I'm taking away your title. You guys… are good people. You literally helped me become… a better person. Keeping team Star around means that you'll continue to give courage to people like me, and-"

"The rules are the rules, Kai," Mela said, grabbing Kai's hand and placing the badge on it. She used her other hand to close Kai's hand into a fist to hold the badge he earned. "You have to accept the badge."

Kai lowered his head. "Give me a reason why I shouldn't throw this badge as far as I can," He said.

"Because it's the rules."

"Well your rules STINK!"

Kai raised the hand that held his fire badge and pulled his arm behind his head, ready to throw it. Mela grabbed his wrist.

"Don't," She said.

"I- Then what am I supposed to do!?" Kai cried. "Let you lose your title?! So you can't help anyone anymore?!"

"I don't need a title to help people, Kai." Mela said with a smile. Kai gritted his teeth and lowered his arm.

"I can't do this," Kai said, shaking his head. "I can't- I can't do this."

"Taking my badge doesn't mean Team Star will end,"

"But I'm taking my first steps to end it! Isn't there a loophole or something?"

"Kai."

"I'm a member, right?! You said I was a member of team star! So doesn't it not count or something?!"

"Kai."

"There has to be something that can be done, you can't- You can't just leave!"

"Kai!"

"I can't-"

Mela moved in to hug Kai, and Kai's eyes widened.

"Listen to me," Mela said. "Team star won't ever die as long as the other members are there to maintain it."

Kai felt tears running down his cheeks. "I…"

"Why're you crying?" Mela said, pulling away and keeping her hands on her friend's shoulders. "It's not like it's goodbye."

"It feels like it is…" Kai said, sniffling.

"I'll see you again, don't you worry," Mela went into her pocket and pulled out a handkerchief and used it to wipe Kai's tears. "So until then, don't let that flame of yours die out."

Mela patted the boy's shoulders and stepped away only for Kai to move to hug Mela, who gasped.

"...I wouldn't have found it if it wasn't for you…" Kai said. "Thank you so much."

Mela smiled and patted the boy's head.

After a while, the two pulled away.

"What're you going to do now?" Kai asked.

"Well," Mela said, "Team star isn't gone yet, so I suppose I'll just report what happened and talk to them to update me. It's not my place to do so anymore, but I guess you can say I'm an eternal member of Team Star."

"An…eternal member.." Kai mumbled.

"Whatever you decide to do in your life," Mela said, "Be sure to remember that flame that you showed me, and let it burn. The flames of passion can drive us to do incredible things."

Kai nodded. "Y-Yeah," He said, wiping his tears. "And- don't you worry! Okay?! I- I won't let Team Star die. I promise! I want to challenge the other Team Star members, but I won't challenge them for their titles. Team Star is going to live on, I promise!"

Mela chuckled. "You think you should have thought of that before fighting me?"

Kai laughed. "I'm not very good at thinking of the consequences of my actions,"

"Yep," Arven said.

"We know," Aeon said.

"Hey!" Kai cried, turning his head, "Shut up!"

Arven went to Kai and patted his shoulder. "Don't worry about it, bud! Aeon and I have you covered. Isn't that right, Aeon?"

Aeon nodded. "Arven and I will make sure to keep you out of trouble," The android said with a smile. "...As long as you listen to us,"

"I mean, I do…" Kai replied. "Kinda."

"No you don't."

"Yeah I do!"

"No you don't."

"I've listened to you at least once!"

"You haven't."

"I have! Remember that time when… uh…" Kai scratched his head. "Huh."

"Yeah."

"Shut up!"

Aeon grinned as Kai glared at him.

"I think it's about time I took my leave," Mela said. "I've gotta check on the rest of the team star members, make sure they're fine after they're nursed back to health. Take care." Mela waved before walking away.

"It's about time we took our leave too, yes?" Aeon said. "We should venture to where we last found the transformed Titan Pokémon, Arven."

"Dude," Arven said, "You sound like a robot. I mean, I get it, because yo-"

Aeon raised a finger to his lips. Arven raised his eyebrows, looked at Kai and back at Aeon, tilted his head, and then shrugged.

"Nevermind," Arven said.

"No, what was the joke?" Kai asked.

Aeon had to change the subject into something else. Fast.

"Kai," Aeon said. "Um...if you defeat this Titan Pokémon that Arven and I need to fight...I may or may not give you a kiss on the cheek."

"WHAT!?" Kai cried. "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!"

Kai started sprinting off on his own so quickly that dust was rising in his wake. The sound of a car engine roaring blasted the boys' ears.

"Wait- is he running so fast that he sounded like a car?" Arven cried.

"No." Aeon pointed his thumb over his shoulder, showing that the one who made the conveniently timed car-engine noise was Reveroom, who was being carried away by Nurse Joys and Chanceys.

"That was a little too well timed..." Arven said. Aeon chuckled a bit.

Arven turned to Aeon. "Uh…Anyway," Arven said. "Why do you want me to not tell Kai that you're a robot?"

"I'll explain later. We have to catch up."

"...Okay." Arven pulled out a Pokéball that contained Koraidon and threw it. Koraidon cried out as Arven and Aeon went to mount it. "Also, are you really going to kiss Kai?" Arven asked as he took in the reins.

"I had to think of something to get his mind off of what we just said, and that was the best line I could think of."

"You didn't answer my question. Are you, or are you not going to kiss Kai?"

Aeon sighed and said nothing.

Koraidon started to move.

"...Aaaanyway...speaking of Kai, When Mela was having her moment with Kai, didja get jealous?"

"Why would I be jealous?"

"I mean, he was blushing when he got patted on the head, he looked at her with that dazzling look, y'know? Did you not think for a second that maybe, maybe you wished that was you?"

"Kai was looking at her like she was an older sibling. I checked his emotions the moment he started to blush."

"Wait, you did?"

"Yes."

"...Why would you check?"

Aeon was silent for a moment.

"...I was curious to see what he was feeling at that moment," Aeon continued, "I wanted to know what it was like to feel that emotion of being embarrassed, and-"

Arven snickered.

"What?" Aeon said.

"Your silence was deafening there, lil' bro."

"Don't overthink it. I feel platonic affection for Kai. But as of right now, I am unsure if I am even capable of romanti-"

Arven started laughing out loud. "You checked to see if he was catching feelings for her!" Arven cried. "That's so cute! There's literally no reason to check for his emotions when he started blushing! Why else would you do it? To check if you had competition!?"

For the first time in his life, Aeon was starting to blush. "No- that's not true..."

Arven laughed as Aeon sighed to himself. He remembered the words of the Professors who asked him to destroy Kai's confidence.

Why did he offer to kiss Kai? What was he thinking?

'I can't let Kai get any closer to me.' Aeon thought. 'I have to somehow destroy Kai's romantic love for me so the professors don't use me as a weapon to destroy him. Kai's… a good person. He doesn't deserve any of this.' Aeon lowered his eyes, because he didn't want to lose a friend in the process.

But at the same time… he didn't want anything to change between him and Kai. Aeon did want to tease him and have fun with him. He actually liked doing that. But now it felt like he had to put on a mask and pretend to not care about the boy's flirtations...Aeon lowered his eyes. Kai was beginning to grow on him, as much as he didn't want to admit it.

Not that he was developing feelings for him!

He simply could not. No, no. He was a robot- he cannot feel any romantic feelings for a human.

Right?

So why was it that when he saw Kai blushing in front of Mela, that he felt the need to check Kai's emotions? Was Kai beginning to grow on him more than he thought?

If Kai was beginning to grow on him... it would make it even harder to tear himself away from the boy... This dilemma made him want to not talk to Kai at all. but that would be painful to Aeon. He was required to destroy the boy's confidence, and the closer they get... the easier it will be. And that was the excruciatingly painful part. Because even when he's trying to push him away, he can't help but be willing to tease him for fun, or happily do things with him. He couldn't help but smile at Kai's terribly corny jokes. Or admire his spirit when he put his mind onto something.

Aeon wished that he was an emotionless robot once again, because if he didn't have these feelings, he wouldn't have an issue with pushing Kai away for his own safety. It was the most logical and effective choice. But it was so difficult to do because of these stupid emotions of his.

Aeon sighed loudly.

"What's wrong?" Arven asked.

Maybe his big brother could help, Aeon thought. Maybe if he worded it in a way that Arven wouldn't understand what's truly going on...

"Don't you dare," The voices of the professors speaking in unison echoed in his mind. "Don't say a word to Arven of what our plans are, or we will shut you down right here, right now, permanently." Aeon's eyes widened in sheer terror.

"I…" Aeon mumbled. "Nothing."

"Thinking about Kai, huh?" Arven said.

Aeon said nothing.'You have no idea,' Aeon thought.

A girl with red hair dyed with white was sitting on a computer in her dark room. The only light in the room was the one from her computer monitor, and her phone. The girl was wearing a black hoodie, an Eevee backpack, and round glasses along with a skirt. She wore grey leggings with blue and red X patterns on them.

She was typing away at her computer as she was listening to a recording on her phone.

"And- don't you worry! Okay?!" Kai's voice repeated itself through the recording. "I- I won't let Team Star die. I promise! I want to challenge the other Team Star members, but I won't challenge them for their titles. Team Star is going to live on, I promise!"

The glasses-girl sighed.

"All right then, Kai," The girl said, pushing in her glasses. "I'll do my best to make you reconsider... and if you decide you're not with me… you'll be against me."