Chapter 3

Locke tossed the tennis ball and watched as Chip took off after it, secretly pulling out a second one as she called for him to bring it back. Chip had always brought back anything she tossed for him to fetch. Whether or not he actually let the person take the item from him was another thing entirely, which was why Locke always made sure to bring two tennis balls, because the instant she tried to take it from him, he would and never give it back. She watched as the two pokemon began to chase each other, sitting on the bench with Luna who was taking a nap in the sun. Pumpkin always gave Chip a good workout with his serpentine way of running, darting this way and that with Chip at his heels, unable to catch the tiny raccoon pokemon.

Chip was such a smart pokemon. He was at the perfect age to train and had so much potential. Rockruff evolved differently depending on the time of day and ability they had, and outside of Chip's few behavior problems like being spoiled and easily distracted, things that could be trained out of him as a puppy, he could have grown up to be a great pokemon. Why couldn't her neighbors see that?

Switching to that thought process made Locke's skin burn so hot in anger, she thought she was going to start spitting acid. Instead, a different kind of rancor came out. "Those mother-fuckers!" she screeched, startling Chip who had dropped the tennis ball next to her. Locke quickly recalibrated and tried to shift her face into an apologetic smile. "Not you, sweetie. Sorry if I scared you." The Rockruff tilted his head curiously before he jumped onto her leg in an effort to reach the second tennis ball. "You want it? GO GET IT!"

Putting her anger into this throw, Locke lobbed the tennis ball with all her might. Chip took off like a shot towards the neon ball as it dropped ten feet away from the edge of the park fence, leaping up in the air to catch it on the second bounce. Locke's mouth dropped back into what others would call her 'resting bitch face' the instant the Rockruff's attention shifted elsewhere. How dare those insensitive assholes abandon Chip and leave him with her! It was one thing to be impulsive or reckless because of ADHD, something Jerry and Tom- sorry, Joseph -had claimed to have, but this?! This was despicable and deceitful, and she felt manipulated. They had taken advantage of her good-naturedness and dumped a young, unsuspecting pokemon on her. Now, in addition to being saddled with another pokemon to be responsible for, she had to figure out how to tell this innocent Rockruff that his owners had probably abandoned him. She felt like an old sock, used and dirty, like she had been somebody's chump to dump all their problems onto or worse, privy to all of their illegal practices and now an accessory to their dealings.

She kept a watchful eye on their interaction when her pocket started to buzz, playing "Skull Punk" by DJ Spinda and the Grunts on her phone. Her first panicked thought was that it had was her sister with her daily life check phone call, but when she checked the screen, the name of her vocational rehab counselor was on the caller ID and her body slackened.

Rick Patterson was the man who had been with her since she first set foot into the working adult world. Unlike other kids who had been trusted to leave home for their pokemon journeys at the age of ten, Locke had been diagnosed with autism and was forced to stay home to learn social skills and finish school in order to function in a world that didn't cater to neurodivergence and disability. As a result, it left her with a debilitating case of decision paralysis, anxiety, and all the other fun pitfalls of being on the autism spectrum. Thankfully, her mother had helped her find the resources that led her to Rick. He, out of all people, would understand what she was going through. After waiting a few more seconds for the song to finish, Locke finally picked up.

"Hey, Rick. How are you?" greeted Locke, hoping the smile in her voice would be enough to mask the heart attack she experienced only seconds before. A friendly male voice answered her like it was made out of sunshine. The enthusiasm gave her a little more energy to break the bad news.

"Hey, Locke. I'm doing great, thanks. Just checking in to see how the job interview went at the Cylinders went. How are you?"

"…Not great, Rick," she admitted.

"Uh oh… Did the interview not go well?"

"Worse. I'm being evicted."

There was a gasp at the end of the phoneline which helped Locke feel vindicated as she went onto explain all the dirty details, how her whole interview at the Cylinders had been way over her head with how underqualified she was to her finding an eviction notice on her door that resulted in her leaving the property manager's office in tears. By the end of her explanation, her words sounded almost strangled from the choking sensation building up in her throat.

"That does sound bad. I'm sorry to hear that. That sucks…"

"Thanks…" Locke absent-mindedly started petting Luna, needing some stimulation to ground her. The Umbreon opened one crimson eye before resting her head on her paws and sighing in contentment. "Now I'm saddled with another pokemon to take care of and an even shorter deadline to get a new job."

"I can try and see if there's anything new coming up. I have a free spot opened up this week if you want to meet earlier to discuss more job applications."

Locke's shoulders sagged with the amount of the weight she felt on them. "I dunno, Rick… We've been at this for months. It took you nine months just to find me my last job, and we both know how that ended. I'm just… so tired of it all."

"Well, we could reevaluate your goals for what job you'd want. I can do that right now if you'd like and then we can meet on Wednesday to go through the listings."

"…I guess that's alright." What other choice did she have?

"Great! Let me just get a form." Rustling papers and keys being punched on a computer keyboard could be heard from the other end as Rick came back to the phone after a moment. "So, since the last time we talked, you said you wanted a job with health insurance and a higher salary, preferably as an office assistant doing clerical work. Given how the last job ended, is there anything else you would like to do? We don't have to just look for office jobs. Do you want to go back and see if I can hook you up with another daycare job-?"

"No!" Locke said a little too quickly, her fingers gripping her phone so hard it nearly slipped out of her hand. She readjusted her grip and spoke sternly into her phone, "Oh no no no, I am not doing that again. I can't go back there again."

"Are you sure? One bad place can't be as awful as-"

"You don't get it, Rick. It's not just there- it's everywhere! I asked my other coworkers who worked there. The understaffing, the demanding workload, the burnout, and emotional anxiety- it's all the same no matter where you go! I just-" Locke broke off, trying to fight the bile climbing up her throat and swallowed.

'Why can't you do as I say?'

'Four years of working here, and I can't think of a single thing you've done here.'

'You only got this job because of Professor Elm.'

'Maybe you should go find another line of work. You don't have the right personality for this kind of job.'

"…I can't go back to that again. Never again. I would rather go hug a Slugma."

"Alright, alright. I hear you. I just wanted to check, but with an eviction pending, you don't really have the option to be picky. Is there anything else you'd like to do? You said you were interested in working with pokemon, but that's a bit vague. Anything specific?"

Locke bit her lip. "I haven't really thought about it... maybe something with horse pokemon? I liked caring for the ones my grandpa had on his farm."

"Hmm… I'm not sure how we'd apply for something like that. I don't think we ever heard back from the ranch you applied to. They never called me back for a walking tour."

"That's fine. It was just a thought," Locke shrugged. She hadn't been horse crazy since in middle school. She didn't know what she had been thinking recommending the idea now. She didn't know the first thing about running a farm, let alone a ranch.

"You mentioned wanting to work with healing pokemon at one point. Any chance you'd like to look into some vet tech or lab assistant jobs?"

"I don't have the degree for that kind of work. I think you need to be related to a Joy to do that, along with four more years of med school. Plus, being a scientist is not stable at all. You have to write grants to get money for your research, and I'm terrible at that." Locke could recall the small stipend she had been given to travel for Professor Elm as one of his paid interns. The pay rate was unstable if it came at all, sometimes decreasing unexpectedly to cater to other budgetary issues. At its best, it had barely been enough to buy groceries. Thankfully, she had been staying with the professor since her mother was good friends with his wife, so she at least had a place to sleep, though she could hardly think the lab provided the most comfortable cots to nap on, especially since Elm was a bit messy. For anything else involving unexpected expenditures, she had to live off the emergency credit card her mother gave her for important things, and that was severely monitored. In the end, she had to learn how to stretch a buck, like relying more on foraging for medicines instead of buying potions and healing items at the Pokémart and to not take an entire team of six with her when she was travelling long distances. Unfortunately, once she could afford to buy things as an adult, that frugal thought process had backfired. Thank god healthcare for pokemon was free, and that Pokémon Centers provided complementary room and board to trainers, otherwise Locke would have never made it.

"You could always give being a professional pokemon trainer another shot. You mentioned being a tournament champion-"

"Regional Champion," I corrected. "Tournament Champions are minor tournaments between trainers held by smaller divisions in any location. Regionals is the major league tournament that involves challenging the Elite Four and the current Region Champion at the Pokemon League."

"Right, sorry- Regional Champion, the last time we had worked on your resume. You'd think being any kind of 'pokemon champion' would get you into a few doors."

"You would think," Locke chuckled though it held no mirth. Having a whole summer to run across the Johto Region as Professor Elm's gopher, becoming champion of a league had been almost an afterthought, just something she thought she had to do while she was there and able to travel, and when the time came that she was champion, she went back home to Limston almost the day after it happened. She still wasn't sure if she even still held the title since she wasn't there to defend it. Maybe they had her abdicated or treated her absence as a long, extended sabbatical, having not been a Johto citizen. Returning a year later for another summer internship to try her luck at the Kanto League had made this status even more confusing.

"Maybe use your champion title to your advantage. What do you think about running or working at a pokemon gym?"

Locke thought for a moment, getting up now and pacing as she walked the border of the fenced-in park, and then shook her head. "Nah, being a Gym Leader is too competitive of a position to get, and I'm nowhere close to being on the short list. Plus, there's no way I could limit myself to one type of pokemon. Then there's the whole managing a facility and dealing with all the trainers that work under you. Being someone's boss is not in my wheelhouse." Locke's gaze ventured over towards the action at the end of the park to see what her charges were up to. It shifted over Chip and noticed how he was chasing and tackling Pumpkin in a rougher manner than before, and her attention immediately focused. "Hey! Chip, knock it off. Stop picking on Pumpkin. You know he's smaller than you. Don't make me come over there!"

The Rockruff ignored Locke's warning and continued his 'game' with the Zigzagoon. To someone who didn't know better, they would have looked like they were playing, but Pumpkin's body language was quickly turning more defensive and anxious, his tail tucked-in and showing that he needed space to reestablish his boundaries. Chip, being younger and bigger than Pumpkin, did not recognize that and kept pursuing the tiny raccoon pokemon, the game of play becoming more predatory by the second as the two pokemon began to start growling and biting at each other without either of their fangs touching the other. Then in one swift movement, Chip grabbed Pumpkin by the scruff and began to shake him like a ragdoll. The little raccoon screamed in protest, frantically trying to get out of the dog's grip.

"Chip!" Locke snapped, her voice sharper than before as she pointed to the ground. "Drop him NOW!" This time Chip looked over at her but quickly backed away as she approached, like she was about to take his favorite chew-toy away. Locke was about to start grabbing collars and pulling out pokéballs when Luna decided to intervene, having been disturbed from her nap long enough to catch the tail end of the action and recognize the horror in her trainer's voice. Without even having to get up from her place on the bench, Luna snapped at the two pokemon with a loud Screech attack, causing both pokemon to freeze in place. Chip quickly dropped the Zigzagoon and cowered with his tail between his legs, forepaws pressed into his ears in pain, one of which had been turned inside out from all the roughhousing. After checking Pumpkin for injuries and ruling out that he had been fine, Locke went to take her place back on the bench and gave Luna an appreciative head pat between the ears as the two playmates wandered off to play at opposite sides of the field.

"Sorry about that, Rick. My pokemon were starting to roughhouse a bit. What was it you were saying?"

"I was just saying that you could be a Gym Leader. That doesn't interest you?"

"Not particularly, no."

"Alright, so you don't want to run a gym. Then why not challenge another pokemon league?"

Locke paused. Why hadn't she ever challenged another pokemon league? Well, there was the easy answer- she couldn't. She had still been in school when she had done it the first time, and that had been more of a right place in the right time kind of situation. There was no way Mom would have let her leave home for something like that. Then college had happened and then her mother had gotten sick two months after she had graduated, so the idea of finding a good, stable job had been more of a priority. Eventually, she forgot all notion of challenging a league again, despite her love of pokemon battles. She wasn't as wild as she used to be. She just… settled, having been beaten down so thoroughly by the world that she didn't have the energy to fight back.

"Yeah, but wouldn't training for a league be a temporary fix? It doesn't come with health benefits or dental, and the income varies between trainer to trainer. I think I got five bucks for beating a ten-year-old the last time I tried going independent. Most people stop challenging you once they know you'll beat them every time."

And that was putting it mildly. Not only had it been hell to her public image, but her dating life had also suffered. The instant that someone sniffed out that she had been a pokemon champion, people either wanted to challenge her or felt too intimidated to even bother getting to know her. Back then most people didn't take kindly to being curb-stomped by a girl, much less one who had only just started wearing bras. It severely bruised the egos of those that tried and frightened off the ones that didn't. Either way, she had never lost yet felt like she didn't win either. It was one of the reasons why she didn't like to parade it around.

"It would be more money than you're receiving now…" Judging by the cadence in his voice, Locke could tell Rick was about to gear up and her gut clenched in anticipation. "Locke, let me be real with you. My job is to help find you permanent work, but since you're in a bit of predicament, you might need to loosen your ideas of what you would consider as a job. You're one of the most independent individuals I've ever had a client. Most people I work with that are on the spectrum are still living at home and don't even have a driver's license. I know you can do this. Besides, there's nothing that says that whatever you choose for a job will stick forever- you're always welcome to come back to me if it doesn't work out -but it wouldn't hurt to look into any job you think you can handle to help get your foot in the door to future jobs, or at the very least give you enough money to still have a roof over your head."

"...Yeah, I guess… I never really thought about doing it all again, the whole pokemon league thing." But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that she could. It would be easy money. She could leave home now because there was no job or responsibilities holding her back, and she wouldn't have to worry about training new pokemon for it because she already had a team of champions. It would have to be a major league to make a difference though, and the major leagues were on the west and east-coasts where there were tons of people and commerce. Hardly anyone cared about the Limston Region, since the Midwest was too big for any one league to exist in. How could you spread eight gyms across 750,000 square miles, most of which was farmland, and expect people to get behind building a league for them all? There were minor brackets, sure, but the competition to even sign up had a two-year waitlist and the cities that housed the gyms were hours apart from each other. Unlike the regions in Europe and Japan, things weren't as compact in America. They were a good chunk of the continent's landmass.

"Why don't you leave that idea open as an option while I try and look at some more job opportunities for you? Then we can reconvene on Wednesday."

"Alright… sounds good, Rick. Thanks for checking in. Tell the wife and Ripley I said 'hi,' and that I hope that they are doing well."

"I will and they are. Thanks for asking. I always love that you ask about them."

"No problem. Ripley should be about five now, right?"

"She is. She's going to start kindergarten soon. She's very excited."

"I'll bet. Welp, I won't keep you much longer. I hope you have a better day than I did."

"I will, and I hope that your day looks up."

"Thank you. I hope so." Then they both said their goodbyes and hung up.

By this point, both Pumpkin and Chip were staring up expectantly at her, like they hadn't been fighting moments ago. Locke gave them an exasperated smile and reached out to give them both head-rubs. Knuckleheads... "You two are lucky you're both so cute." She got a few more scritches in on Chip's head before he rolled his head around to nip at her fingers.

"Hey, no biting," Locke warned, wagging her finger. "We talked about this."

"Ruff! Ruff!" Chip barked in defiance, spinning around before he got distracted chasing his own curly tail and decided to make catching it his own personal mission. Pumpkin, however, still sat at her feet, one paw out on her leg.

"What? Do you want to play fetch again?" No reaction. Finally, Locke noticed that instead of Pumpkin's usual signal to play, he stood at attention and rested on his hindlegs, the signal that he had brought her something he found with his Pickup ability. Instead of the tennis ball like she had been expecting, something else was in his mouth, something flat and colorful. "Whatcha got there?" Pumpkin placed the scrap of paper onto her outstretched palm, leaving only teeth-marks on the outer edge. It had been one of the flyers she had seen shoved into her mailbox. It had been a brochure for buying tickets to upcoming events, like sports and concerts. Most of it had been locations for upcoming pokemon contests and league tournaments. One highlighted in red in the close future was the Galar Regional tournament. Locke had heard of it, having seen a few seconds of ads for it before she skipped past it. She hadn't thought much about it because outside of it being the reason why her country fought for independence two hundred plus years ago, it was across the ocean. Despite being a pokemon champion, Locke hadn't paid much attention to the careers of other trainers or tournaments. She had no interest in watching someone else play a sport when she could do it herself. Now that she was getting back into the game, however, maybe she should be.

Punching in the info into her phone, Locke checked to see how much the championship title was for winning the Galar League. Locke's eyes almost bugged out of her head. The prize was for one million dollars. Holy shit, how had she missed that?! Jesus fuck, how much money were these colonizers making over there to spit out that kind of cash!?

Of course, Locke knew champions made a lot of money, but she didn't think it had ever been that much. Hell, she had technically beaten two Pokémon Leagues, and it had never been this much, not that she had seen a dime of it since it had gone to help pay for her college tuition.

Locke pushed back the glasses that had fallen down her face back into place and started to pace. She could think of a lot of things she could buy with a million dollars, first on her list being a good lawyer. Hell, if she won, she could live in her apartment indefinitely if she wished. Sure, it probably wouldn't be able to buy the complex, but it would be enough that she could live there for decades. Money talked in this capitalist society, and what spoke louder than a million smackers?

"Do you think I should challenge another pokemon league?" Locke asked the small pokemon at her feet.

"Goon! Zigzagoon!" Pumpkin barked in affirmation. Chip joined in with his own bark, though it was most likely because Pumpkin had started it, not having a clue of what was going on.

"What say you, Luna? Wanna take on one more league before we kick the bucket?" The Umbreon, which had been peacefully napping in the morning sun, was now fully awake, dull eyes now a sharp crimson full of fire and determination, her eyes sharp black slits full of focus, no longer the compliant looking house-pet.

"Bree..." she growled.

"Wow, that look should come with its own boss music," Locke chuckled. "Right... I guess that's it then. We're really doing this." She leaned back against the fence, her stomach already turning in anxiety but excitement too. She hadn't been kidding that had been a while since she had seriously battled anyone. It had been well over a decade since she had seriously challenged a league, but honestly how rusty could she be? It's not like her team was that old. Still, getting to Galar would be expensive, and she'd have to do preliminary research on the competition.

Locke glanced back at the wrinkled brochure in her hands. The tournament would be starting in about two weeks, right around when Key would be in Freezington visiting her best friend, Mia, which gave Locke a little over two weeks to get her affairs in order, such as packing, renewing her passport, procuring her team from all the different places they were staying at, file a motion to dismiss her eviction with the court, schedule a hearing, find a lawyer, and prepare a defense case if the dismissal didn't stick before the league opened. It would be close. The Galar League's Championship match was in late August, just a little under a week before her eviction was finalized. However, if everything went according to plan, she would get the money and be home in time to defend her case with the best damn lawyer money could buy.

This could work. She just needed to make a few calls and get Key onboard with her plan. She just needed to convince her that the endeavor was worth it, and that they would need a little monetary compensation.