Battle for Peace

by SugarcaneSoldier

The war was over, and Tanya won. Then, Being X destroys her second life and makes a mistake. Tanya is no longer under his thumb, for now. He'll be back though, and with an unknown deadline, who has time to mess about with a bunch of magical animals?

15. Chapter 15

This woman was not real.

Tanya had been expecting this interview. She'd received the notification informing her it would be taking place last Friday. She had received an email yesterday containing a document detailing the particulars and minutiae of the meeting.

Tanya had been expecting a lot from this interview. The order not to talk about their specific experiences was skirted around, or even flat out ignored, by most. They claimed that their experience aligned with the email they'd been sent, and the mystery and anxiety surrounding the disappearance and reappearance of each member of Silph Company Translations, Team Four had dissipated like morning fog by ten. Tanya's own anxiety had almost abated.

It was back, now, pinching her heart, because this woman was not real.

The investigator from the Autumna Metropolitan Police Department was real. His disgruntled expression and the lethargic circles around his beady eyes were genuine. His ring finger had a band of lighter skin and a missing ring. His hair was disheveled and hidden by a hat, his clothes were creased, and he hadn't shaved in a day or two.

The lawyer in the employ of a mid-size firm specializing in labor rights was real. Her smile was inviting, her eyes wide. Her hair was red, her own black suit jacket and skirt were clean but not creased. Her teeth practically sparkled.

Her words, recounting how her firm was being funded by Silph Co., the Autumna Metropolitan Government, the Kanto Regional Government, the State of Japan, the United Nations, the International Pokemon League Federation, the Rokyo and Zenrorengo labor union federations, and Interpol to ensure the distribution and limitation of bias, accompanied by a flurry of hand movements gestures, were explicitly meant to calm and soothe any fears of being mistreated. Each word was real.

She hadn't consciously taken in the existence-confirming details of each upon entering the room, of course, because such small details were often unimportant. For her, those details observed by her subconscious would fade from her mind as soon as she left and never had to see them again.

This woman, however, forced her to catalogue the inconsequential details, just to make sure.

For weeks, Tanya had been aware that something was not quite right with her mind, from her reactions to that explosion from a Pokemon battle to her inability to act when their floor had been under attack by Ultra Beasts, even if she couldn't have realistically done much. None of that even went into the relative fulfillment she'd derived from advancing her career versus furthering her grasp of naginatajutsu.

This could just be another mental… obstacle.

She nodded to the thing in the shape of a person sitting in the third of the three desks arrayed across from her own. It smiled at her, just as warm as the lawyer.

Her eyes flicked to the other two. The investigator offered her a few words to calm her, the lawyer barked that he shouldn't be trying to get Tanya to lower her guard. She smiled at both in turn and took in more details.

She noticed how the lights, from the LED above them and from the wide, open windows to her left, across from the door, lit their skin and reflected off of their clothes and teeth and eyes and mingled with their hair. She took in the shape of the shadows given off by both sources of light, and of how their skin pressed into the desk and coffee mug.

She looked away from the lawyer and investigator and looked at the third thing arrayed across from her.

It claimed to be Aoko Smith, an intern working at Interpol and assigned to the Ultra Beast Task Force. It claimed that it was just there to take minutes for the interviews today and to pass on those minutes to its bosses. It said its superiors were working on tracking down rogue Ultra Beasts and determining what had caused the incursion, if the incursion had been 'caused' by anything and was not instead the result of random happenstance.

It smiled at her. It claimed testimony like hers might reveal something important only when taken together with everyone else's. It told her to do her best, ignore it, and focus on the other two.

It was almost perfect, but almost wasn't good enough.

Tanya had led the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion. Her standards for even being considered for the augmented battalion were high, and the method by which she'd narrowed the playing field resembled the situation she found herself in now.

Just as excellence and success had been hallmarks of the battalion, so too were optical formulas. She'd selected for the mages most able to see through such 'illusions' by having an illusory general tell interviewed mage pairs that a change in plans had occurred and that they were to report somewhere else.

Her attempts to secure yet more time away from the front may not have panned out and she might not have been in the Empire, but even after six months away from the front, her skills were sharp.

The sound coming from the mouth was synced with its movement, and though it did not have to move much sitting behind its desk, the movements it did make were natural. When the clouds of the overcast, wintery morning moved, there was no lag between what the illusion displayed and its environment.

If Tanya were honest with herself, it was one of the best illusions she had ever seen. Better than her own, even.

There was, however, always something. A fabric whose weave wasn't quite consistent, fur or hair that didn't move quite right, or light that didn't quite give off the same qualities as the skin it was mimicking.

In this case, it was the reflection of the light off of not its eyes or its teeth, but the inside of its mouth. The light glistened a hair too brightly off of its saliva. After that, it was easy to spot a few more inconsistencies that could have been written off as happenstance. Despite the seeming quality of her shirt and jacket, the fabric was put together incorrectly. Her freckles were only ever one of four different distances apart. The lights above them and streaming in from outside didn't penetrate her skin as deeply as it should.

The presence of an intern at such a meeting in the first place was also suspect. Language models were advanced enough that something as pedestrian as a meeting's minutes could be recorded by consumer-level personal devices. That, however, could be explained by a desire not to have such minutes tainted or altered by a biased interviewer, a need to give field experience to newer members of the organization, or even just purposeful waste in an effort to spend an expanded budget and a desire to be seen as utilizing all resources given.

Alone, or even together, they may have painted another picture explained away by the oddity of this world or her own paranoia, but Tanya's senses screamed that this woman wasn't real.

The implications for the rest of her meeting were dire, and she fought her instinct to grab her Poke ball.

"Now that the pleasantries are out of the way," the investigator said, his voice gravel in a blender, "We'll reiterate the circumstances of this testimony: No one will be or is compelling any truth that would incriminate you in any activity or action unrelated to the matter-of-the-day. No one will be or is reading, scanning, or otherwise observing your mind psychically. There will be no Pokemon with the capabilities to read, scan, or otherwise observe your mind psychically present in this room or in the nearby rooms for the duration of your testimony."

He made a show of getting up and checking the nearby offices, outside of which were other officers of the municipal police she'd passed on her way in. He sounded bored to tears at having to say the words. If he'd been saying them for the past few hours, she would think less of him for his lack of vigor in doing his job.

If he'd been saying them for the past week, then she would praise him for sounding as neutral as he did instead of drained.

He unclipped a ball from his belt, out of which popped a Pokemon taller than her.

She stared up at the avian Pokemon. Its green head was large for its body, around which its multicolored wings were clasped. The plumage of its chest resembled two red, slitted eyes. It didn't blink as it stared around before inclining its head down to stare into her eyes.

"Xatu."

Before Tanya could ask what it was there for, or move her hand close to her own belt to grab her own Poke ball, the investigator continued. "Xatu has been trained and possesses the accreditation to confirm his ability to sense other Psychic-type Pokemon. Do you sense any, Xatu?"

Tanya blinked, looking between the bird and its trainer. Did he expect-

It shook its head, and the investigator sighed in relief. "Good. Return." He set about placing it in the PSS terminal connected to the computer on the desk haphazardly shoved into the back of the room. She briefly recalled that Psychic-type Pokemon were smarter than the average intelligence of Pokemon and then returned her attention to the investigator, the lawyer, and the thing claiming to be an intern, putting the Pokemon out of her mind.

"Do you suspect that someone would want to?" she asked, halting to give the appearance of considering her words while she gathered her senses after seeing the perplexing creature. "Is that… normal for Japan?"

"'Course not," the investigator replied. "A waste of-"

"It's the law," the lawyer chimed in. "If we didn't have such safeguards in place, criminals could claim to have been influenced, either to commit a crime or during testimonial interviews like this one."

The investigator grumbled. "Clara-"

"The law," she said with the tone of finality.

"She's a-"

"Person with all the legal responsibilities as any other person, Rei," she retorted.

He sighed, opened his mouth, and then reconsidered. "I said we were done with the pleasantries," he muttered, with a glare towards the lawyer. She ignored his words.

Tanya felt the briefest hint of sympathy for the person sitting between them for smiling after however many hours of testimony the three had been gathering together… until she remembered the person in the middle wasn't real, and that their bickering might be just as fake, even if they were real.

"First, a clarification," he said. "According to the testimony gathered today and by the hospital following the incursion, you did not possess a Pokemon." The lawyer's right eyebrow rose, but he ignored her. "Was this change a result of the incursion?"

Minor charges could be brought against her if she lied and such lies impacted their investigation in a measurable, negative way. She told the truth.

"The Pokemon I caught had been living in my apartment for over a month. I decided to capture it after I returned from the hospital."

The thing in the center wrote, the investigator tossed a resigned, expectant look at the lawyer, who only sniffed and gave a minute nod. He turned back to her.

"If you are ready," the investigator said, "we'd like you to recount what you experienced. If you don't feel up to it, then a delay can be arranged until such time that a therapist-"

"I am ready," she replied, biting back the sir. She could almost pretend she was giving an after action report, or meeting with other officers to implement the goals of their latest offensive.

She described the events that occurred last week, careful to stick to describing the events and censoring any and all thoughts she'd had. Her conversation with Kailani Aoi was recounted, as she would remember it happened and Tanya had no desire to engender suspicion by excluding the event from her testimony.

They were, overall, satisfied. Tanya was not.

Why was the optical illusion there in the first place? Its quality meant the illusion couldn't be a distraction, since few would recognize it as an illusion. Her presence in itself wasn't distracting from the antics of either of the other two. If they wanted to maintain their legitimacy by adhering to the law, she couldn't be a cover for a psychic or a Psychic-type Pokemon.

"There are just a few questions left," the lawyer said, encouraging Tanya to keep going, "and then we'll be done." Tanya smiled and continued her train of thought internally.

Then, if the optical illusion was a cover, what was it supposed to hide, and why bother? Was it some sort of disguise for someone not supposed to be listening to these meetings, in which case, did the other two even know?

If they didn't, would she be rewarded for pointing it out? Would such a reward be worth the increased scrutiny, whether they knew or not?

"Have you learned anything else about the phenomenon since its occurrence a week ago? Are there any questions you'd like answered?"

"My first extended contact with the phenomena was during the incursion," she said, skirting around her inability to quantify how she'd ended up in Arceus's realm and how she'd left. "I've gone to the library to research it in the week since."

She waited a beat. "As for answers, I suppose I'd like to know why it happened here. I know," she said, recalling Hideyoshi's stricken face in the hospital, "that some of my coworkers are wondering the same thing."

"You and the rest of the world," the man muttered.

"We're working as hard as we can, investigator," the supposed intern said, speaking for the first time since the interview began. He gave a sharp nod and turned back to Tanya.

"Well," the investigator said, "while they are not likely the source of the incursion, the Task Force believes that one or more Fallers may have arrived before the incursion. Do you know what they are?"

She nodded. "Yes, I read all about them. If there really are Fallers, I hope you find them soon, before something happens," Tanya replied, giving what she presumed would be the standard response to learning that an individual could draw abnormally strong Pokemon to them just by existing.

"Yes," the investigator continued. His next words came out in a rush. "Do you think any of your coworkers might be-"

The lawyer jumped to her feet. "Rei, I told you, that question-"

"If we can get other people reporting-"

"The last thing we need is a witch hunt-"

They argued, and cited laws and guidelines and the supposed interest of this or that group, and by the end, the intern said that the question was retracted and that Tanya would not be answering it.

They had a few more clerical questions about her current residence and identity, so they could contact her if they required further clarification. While it was clear the investigator wanted to dig into what her past was like, the lawyer protected her from lines of questioning that might have revealed a simple undocumented migrant or refugee, which also happened to protect her from either having to lie or giving the appearance of lying by telling them where she'd actually grown up.

An orphanage around the location of the one she'd grown up in hadn't existed for hundreds of years.

The investigator sighed as Tanya provided him with her phone number and email. "We are satisfied with your testimony as it stands at this stage of our investigation. We will contact you if that changes."

She waited, stiff-backed and anxious, until she remembered the people in front of her were not her superior officers and would not dismiss her. She rose to her feet and bowed to the three of them, thanking them for their hard work.

They all acknowledged her words, and Tanya turned around, headed for the door Mr. Chatteti had led her through.

Her eyes, cast downwards in false-respect for their station, almost missed it.

As she caught sight of the corner of the room, her senses screamed in the back of her mind.

It was innocuous. She couldn't detect a single thing wrong with it. It was just the corner of the room, just like the others, and it was fine. Gray carpet on the floor, walls painted white to the sides.

Even if she couldn't see it, even if her brain was telling her that it was fine, some instinct honed by years of war shouted that something was wrong with that corner of the room. Tanya did not like trusting her instincts over her logic, which said the corner of the room was fine, but those instincts had served her well, connecting dots logic alone had been unable to completely bridge.

The corner was fine, though. Right?

She licked her lips and began turning around. Perhaps the thing calling itself an intern had been a distraction after all.

"Ah, if I needed to get in contact with any of you or your organizations specifically, and it wasn't an emergency, of course," she said with a deferential nod to the investigator, "how would I do so?"

They gave her numbers and emails, and then, looking down at her phone and muttering about the time, she left the room.

She walked past the officers, giving them friendly nods and smiles, as well as Chatteti. They called him in, which perplexed him, judging by the confusion on his face, but she continued walking and put it out of her mind.

Her past was full of holes, and while the lawyer had protected her under the basis of right to privacy and the protection of migrants and refugees, those kinds of reasons wouldn't be enough, if desperation set in. She didn't know if her past looked any more or less suspicious compared to any other migrant. She didn't know if Interpol would pursue 'aggressive measures' if public pressure built up enough.

She gave smiles and waves to her coworkers as she passed, shutting down questions about the interview by saying it was 'just like the others.' She got back to her and made sure she looked busy.

She didn't want to leave Silph Co. If she got educated, or even just proof of the education she'd obtained in her first world, and put her nose to the grindstone, she could rise high, she knew it. She doubted she would be fortunate enough to join a company just before it was acquired in a corporate merger again… but her job wasn't worth her freedom or life.

She needed more. More plans, more alibis, more information, more Pokemon.

Silph Co. was a multinational corporation, so perhaps if she were transferred abroad, she would be safe? She would have to determine if she were actually a Faller, and if she was, if there was a way to remove the Ultra Energy contaminating her body.

She gulped, and looked down at her phone for a brief moment. She needed to accelerate her plans. She rose from her desk to go to the bathroom, and instead headed for the breakroom. She called the number she'd been given a few days ago.

"Aeon?" she asked as soon as the call connected.

"Tanya? You actually called me? I thought for sure you'd-"

"I was wondering," she said, cutting him off, "if we could meet tomorrow and discuss… Pokemon battling."

He was silent for only a moment. "Why not now? You would not believe how bored-"

"I'm at work now, and I'll be at work tomorrow, but we can meet afterwards." She licked her lips. "If you wouldn't mind?"

He hummed, enthusiastic and curious. "Yeah, sure, sounds fine to me! We can work out the details after your job today, but I'm not really doing anything."

She sighed in relief. "Thank you, Aeon."

"No problem! Are you on break, or having your lunch? Oh, wait, where do you work? You mentioned a career and dissed the gym circuit, so I guess that means-"

"Goodbye, Aeon," she said as she ended the call. She grimaced and shot him a quick message about not being on break and having to get back to work, and then she thanked him. Her phone vibrated, and then continued to vibrate. She was steadfast in ignoring it, instead splitting her attention between her work and the section of the floor being used for the interviews, just in case.

-OxOxO-

"You… wanted to see me?" Chatteti asked.

The investigator raised an eyebrow. "You thought we wouldn't want to talk with you?"

His smiling response was a touch too wide. "Well, I gave you my testimony already, yeah? I didn't think-"

The lawyer was also on the investigator's side, this time. "There are a few matters that have to be answered, Chatteti. Nothing about Degurechaff, of course; she's far enough above board that we don't need to find out particulars unless she gets involved in crime. No, we'd like to talk to you about your hiring practices and the paperwork you did."

His eyes landed on her, his mouth opened to ask, but she held up a hand. "I'll sit this one out, since you're not interviewing him."

He began blubbering, but she ignored him. She was part of the Task Force, not the municipal government, so whatever issues they wanted to press him on off-the-book weren't her problem.

She took her suitcase in hand as they began to grill him. She made her way to the PSS terminal, retrieved the Pokemon she needed, and then left the room right as they pulled out a bundle of papers he'd failed to fill out during his employment at his parent's company.

It didn't concern her. She took a few long strides into one of the other rooms guarded by the municipal officers, shut and locked the door, and pulled out her suitcase.

From behind her, the Pokemon that had been in the room materialized in the blink of an eye.

He was a rare Pokemon, and most found their true appearance off-putting. While that wasn't an ability he could have, considering the prodigious talent the species had with creating illusions, their normal form was meant to inspire disquiet and fear. According to some papers, it was theorized to be a last line of defense.

The red mane evoked the color of most Pokemon's blood, while his gray body was meant to signal his dark-typing to the Psychic-type Pokemon most likely to see through their illusion. The unruly, poofy hair was meant to trick those unfamiliar with it into thinking it was bigger and harder to take down.

When on a job, she'd found sleeping bags just couldn't compare to how comfy his hair was.

He scampered around the room, switching from staring up and inspecting the ceiling on two feet to crawling around on four. When he found no person, Pokemon, or listening devices, he ran back to her, panting.

The intern smiled, and then it faded into the orange mask of the Essentia Suit as the illusion terminated. The helmet gave a pop, and Emma took it off and set it aside with a sigh as she opened her suitcase and stowed away the notes she'd taken on the latest interview.

Degurechaff had been a bit nervous and had probably migrated to the country illegally, but her paperwork was up to snuff now. Emma ran a hand along her head, the hair beneath her fingers tightly braided and pressed to fit beneath her helmet. Degurechaff's name would be noted with other possible migrants for a slightly higher rating, but-

The whining sound that emanated from her Pokemon was not one she was accustomed to hearing. Where the whine of vulpine Pokemon that were smaller was high pitched and yappy, her Zoroark's was deeper because of his size and off-putting to those who were unfamiliar.

She turned to the bipedal fox, an eyebrow raised as he ran his claws together. "Really? I thought she was quite well put together."

He shook his head, and then he gestured to her belt. She sighed and released the Pokemon within. Her team was getting a bit too reliant on him for communication.

She released him and raised an eyebrow. "What's he got?"

Vasprulhare's white face raised a delicate petal eyebrow. He crossed his arms, the brown, flakey tunic covering his paws resting against the pink, white, and purple petals that poked out of his dark green elbows. One of his feet tapped.

"Sorry," she apologized, "I'm just eager for lunch." Eight hours of interviews and note taking without time for much of a break would do that to a woman.

He smirked at her; or, he did the best he could to approximate a smirk as a human would understand it with his lagomorphic features, which was actually pretty close. He spun around and began to converse with Zoroark. "Vas, prulha, revas?"

Zoroark shook his head. Vasprulhare shook his shoulders, his collar of dried roots and glossy black pearls bouncing with the movement as he went to work. A brief wave of nostalgia overcame her as she looked at her two Pokemon, recalling how they'd first met…

She shook her head. "C'mon, don't do that," she admonished. "I'll get you a treat if we do this quickly." With any luck, Looker and Anabel would have a lead from all of their sleuthing in the Autumna Underground. Even after a week, the Task Force just didn't have the infrastructure to conduct city-wide investigations on the scale of a city this big. In the meantime, they were stuck doing grunt work, chasing ghosts, and following hunches.

"Vas," he muttered.

Emma grinned as his voice echoed in her mind, clear as a bell. "He says she noticed the illusion."

Emma's eyebrow shot up her forehead. "Really?" She almost wanted to track her down and her how. The Essentia suit had come a long way in the decades since Xerosic had used her to test it. While she was always considering upgrades she wanted to make, even Looker the great disguise aficionado had trouble identifying them.

Vasprulhare paused, dark-green lips fluttering over black-and-pink eyes. "Hare?"

Zoroark nodded, glum. "Maybe not just yours," her Psychic and Grass-type Pokemon muttered mentally.

Emma blinked, her mouth popped open, and she asked, "What?"

That sort of thing wasn't supposed to be possible for humans. Some Pokemon who lived close to Zoroark learned eventually, especially if they were fighting, fairy, ghost, dark, or psychic – the five so-called spiritual types – but humans? Their illusory prowess had evolved with the goal of tricking the human mind.

If you were a human, you didn't see through a Zoroark's illusion unless it wanted you to. Period.

Zoroark whined, nervousness even more evident with how he played with the end of his man, and Vasprulhare shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe. She might have just been staring off into space?"

An edge of mockery slipped into his mental tone as he waved a brown finger at the vulpine Pokemon. "He's really nervous."

He barked at him and growled, but Vasprulhare just chittered, running a hand along one of his variegated petal ears. Zoroark yanked on of the longer petals on top of Vasprulhare's head with his sharp claws, eliciting a growl and the faint glowing of the symbols strewn throughout the multicolored mess that colored the ears and petals peppering his body.

She ignored them as they continued to bicker and began to chase each other. Perhaps the girl had been born with access to infinity energy? The deceased Sabrina, renowned for her illusions, came to mind, as did a dozen other psychics, but surely someone with enough power to sense the Dark-type Zoroark's illusion would have been noticed, even if they were displaced from their home.

Her eyes widened. Perhaps that was why she'd left Germany in the first place? Or, perhaps, Ultra Energy could have that effect? Even after decades, the practical effects of the energy were understudied, and the Ultra Recon Squad was no more willing to share information on the subject today than it had been since the termination of their agreement with Interpol decades ago.

She sighed, snatching her briefcase right before her partners overturned the empty table. It was hard to say. She'd seemed far too aware of herself to be suffering from the common side-effects of Falling, the foremost among them being memory loss. More importantly, other than that singular quirk, there was nothing indicating she was a Faller that couldn't be explained by other, more simple explanations.

CRASH

Her Pokemon froze, looking between the toppled table and Emma. When she didn't snap at them, they went back to chasing each other.

She stared off into space. The Task Force just didn't have enough trainers with Ultra Pokemon. They were a rare encounter, and few partnered with the alien Pokemon for long. As it was, those that were most amenable to recruitment to the Task Force were already in the field, searching for the Ultra Pokemon that had scattered across Japan and even further, in the case of the aquatic and airborne ones.

Gathering more such resources took time and effort, and a week just wasn't enough time.

She shrugged, and then she shook her head at her Pokemon. "Alright, that's enough you two." She helped them put the table back to sorts as they apologized to her. It was a sheepish, half-assed attempt, but she couldn't really be mad at them since they were helping clean up… this time.

They must have been more nervous about her than she thought… or more jittery from the lack of battles in the past week.

Their equipment for testing for Ultra Energy was also all in the field, just in case the Ultra Beasts were tracking the Fallers they were after, or even different Fallers. The best hospitals could also test for it, but it was a hassle and it really didn't matter to most, so its absence from any particular person's records wasn't noteworthy.

Degurechaff, like everyone else, would have her name placed on a list as potential faller candidates. Most, including the ones who had spent decades living in Japan or with easily traceable histories, would be designated level five. Those with less documentation would be ranked level four, while she assumed Degurechaff would be ranked a three because of her trick.

She shared the ranking with thousands of others, there were two lists of even higher likelihoods above the one she was on, and the Task Force had hundreds of thousands of people who'd been present in downtown Autumna at the time of the incursion. Her trick with the illusions was noteworthy, but hardly condemning.

As she finished righting the desk, she decided the girl probably had nothing to worry about, and then she put her out of her mind.

"Now!" she announced, "Let's go meet them for lunch. With any luck, they won't have maimed each other yet."

Her Pokemon snickered like the hellions they were, as she returned their laughter with a fond roll of her eyes. Honestly, you could never know with those two.

"Us, or them?" Vasprulhare asked rhetorically. Emma snorted, put her helmet back on, and returned her Pokemon. Aoko Smith left the room headed for lunch.

-OxOxO-

Feverishly training Beedrill yesterday afternoon had driven him to the cusp of level thirteen. One level and a fraction of a second one would see him reach his limit.

Now, after another nervous day at work where she'd been waiting to be confronted, waiting for her name to be called for a second time, waiting for any hint of an illusion in the world around her, she was standing in front of the entrance to the subway closest to her apartment in the Sleet ward, waiting for Aeon to show up.

He'd promised he had something 'fun' for them to do, in which Beedrill could gain experience. She wasn't overly interested in that specific past-time, but she could imagine putting up with more unpleasant things for the money she was going to have to… beg him for.

She scowled. Oh, how she'd just prefer to work overtime to earn the money, but company policy forbade doing so, and she wasn't going to work off the clock when it was chiefly her money she was interested in.

At least the wonders of the modern economy meant she got paid the hour she clocked out.

"There you are!"

She looked up from her phone to see the boy who'd bumped into her last week. He wasn't dressed in outdoors equipment but sporty streetwear. Despite the informal nature of their meeting and his relaxed gait, he was still wearing all grays and burgundies. Even his tennis shoes were in those particular shades of gray and red, which she didn't imagine many outlets offered normally.

Five balls were clasped to his belt, though at least a few seemed to be different to the five he'd had last time.

"Aeon," she said, presuming familiarity but bowing her head in respect for his decision to make time for her. "Thank you for taking the time-"

"No problem, don't sweat it, it doesn't even matter to me! You wouldn't believe how bored I've been! I've got an attendant, he's a Champion-ranked trainer, but sometimes he is der arsch for not letting me battle him more than once a day! Latterlig! I mean, what a koński skurwiel, am I right?"

She returned his expectant look with a blank stare at the European-language words mixed in with the Japanese. "I think," she said, "that you've probably taken my foreign language lessons to heart."

His grin was victorious. "Thank you! Markus was a total wet blanket about it, but my dad got a good laugh out of that, which was what I was going for! Plus, Markus taught me some wicked Italian slang, so, y'know, bonus! Anyway, you mentioned you wanted to talk shop about Pokemon? I'm not an expert yet, but if you need help with anything, I have no problem theorycrafting with you. Plus, hey I got another three badges since we last met, so I have access to some of the restricted stuff on the more stratified websites! Can't wait till I beat a League, but Markus and I decided to get another two sets of badges so I have a chance of getting into an Amateur-level tournament instead of trying for the League championship."

He motioned for her to follow him into the underground, and she was torn. With a mental sigh, she adapted to his pace of talking.

"What do you mean you got three badges? We met a week ago. Why are we going down here?"

His grin stretched bit by bit as she spoke, and kept speaking, quickly.

She nipped the idea in the bud. "Please," she begged, "we don't need to talk so fast."

He sighed in mock exasperation. "Fiiiiiiiine. Well, the day after we met, I figured out where all the gyms are and read up a bit on them and came up with strategies. The day after, I fought the water gym, then I got ready for the ice gym. The day after, I beat them, and worked on the next one. The day after, I did the same at the fighting gym. The water gym was fun and the fighting gym was intense, but that ice-type gym can Jdi do hajzlu, y'know?"

His accent was terrible, but she assumed whoever understood him through the accent would be touched by the attempt. Teyanen certainly would have been.

She brushed the melancholy of remembering the others who'd served under her in the 203rd aside and refocused on Aeon. "And the second question?"

"What better time to talk shop than during training! You've been training in the Underground, right? I mean, I guess there are a few places you might have a better time, but with how urgent you made it sound, I guessed you weren't going to fish for Magikarp and fight only stuff you knew you could beat. Sure, there are a few things down here that might cause you a problem, but there's plenty for a Beedrill to take advantage of, and…"

He cleared his throat. "I've got a proposition? You see-"

Finally, she'd been given enough time to actually absorb everything he'd been saying at an electric pace to realize he'd made an offer to help her if she ever needed anything. That seemed to be a lot of leeway to grant someone he'd met precisely one time, but she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Aeon," she cut in, "you said you'd help me if I needed it?"

He blinked. "Yeah, what's up? Is-"

He cut himself off and crossed his arms as they reached the bottom of the underground. Tanya cast a quick look around, and she ducked into an alcove between a clothing store and a Poke Mart. He followed.

It still shocked her that an entire lower level now existed beneath the Tokyo she'd once called home, especially considering not just Japan's earthquake prone position on the planet but the increased tectonic activity this version of Earth was subject to, but here it was.

"I… was wondering if you would be willing to lend me some of your TMs?" she asked hesitantly. Ichigo had been a dud in regards to TMs, as he'd sold most of his. A single Pokemon didn't really need them more than once, unless your Pokemon hadn't bothered to use the move in years.

He put a mock-scowl on and extended an admonishing finger. "For shame, frau Degurechaff! TM sharing is-"

"Frowned upon, I am aware. I… don't have the money to buy all the ones I need for my Gym battle tomorrow."

His expression morphed, bit by bit, from a playful grin to a stricken, nervous line. "Ah."

He cleared his throat and stood up straight. Tanya cursed her own foolishness – he'd clearly thought she was closer to his social station and was-

"My apologies for teasing you like that, Tanya, that was very inconsiderate of me, I am aware that I am somewhat insensitive to monetary matters on account of my family's wealth and my own upbringing. I don't mean to make light of your economic circumstances, and don't want you to feel uncomfortable in my presence, so if, you do think, ah, that me making, um, fun of you, is too much of a hurdle, then I, of course, wouldn't want you to feel, um-"

"Aeon," she began, attempting to impart as much sincerity as she could through her tone, expression, and words, "the only thing worse than your rambling is when you're struggling to talk. Apparently." She paused. "And there's no hard feelings."

He breathed a long sigh of relief. "Thank the birds." Tanya blanched at the turn of phrase she'd seen and heard and never had the heart to look into. "Alright, I am not sharing my TMs with you, but," he said, preempting the flash of annoyance she'd shown, "if you'll be my partner in some Highs-and-Lows battles, then I'll help you out."

She narrowed her eyes. She wanted a more concrete commitment, but she didn't want to reduce their relationship to a purely transactional one. He didn't seem to be the type to want a list of every little thing they'd done for or against each other.

Tanya was going to keep that list, she just wouldn't share it or the fact that it existed.

Still, she pressed forward a little. "What kind of help? I've got enough for two of the three I need. If you loaned me some cash, I could have it repaid-"

He rolled his eyes. "C'mon, you really think I'd fuss over the details?"

"They matter," she reiterated, and then, based on his earlier teasing, she pressed, "Besides, I think you have more money than you know what to do with."

"Well" he said as he drifted out of the alcove and towards the turnstiles, "I do, but that's because of the quantity of money, not for a lack of ideas. Anyway, the money's whatever-"

He cut himself off, looking stricken again. "Wait, no. Maybe it's not whatever to you, but to me. Not a problem. For me. Uh," he cleared his throat and then asked, "Do you know what Highs-and-Lows even is?"

She said no, they walked through the turnstiles and headed for the train, and then, regardless of whether they were waiting in line or getting pressed into the thick crowds of the end-of-day crush, he talked.

Oh, how he talked.

"Alright, so Highs-and-Lows. The purpose is in the name: double battles, standard ruleset, but with a few additions. One person has to use a strong Pokemon, while the other uses a weaker Pokemon. Usually there's a gap of a few dozen levels. There's a whole bunch of reasons that people like it. It lets stronger trainers coach weaker ones, which covers a whole gamut of relationships, y'know: familial, an old friend just getting you into battling, some people make a business of it by having strong people help them train up weaker ones. Plus, you know how double battles in the simplified ruleset are usually pretty quick, especially compared to singles? Well, Highs-and-Lows lets you hit a midground of speed between the two, though I personally think those kinds of over-generalizations are super bogus. It's all good fun! Anyway, I'll supply the strong Pokemon, you'll use Beedrill. You still only have the one? No, no problem at all, it just limits us to people who also only want a quick battle, and there are extra rules regarding targeting if you're using more. It'll be great, and then we can get you sorted out on TMs, and, hey, maybe we could do some more training? I've got two Pokemon new to my team that you might be able to beat, though they're definitely stronger than Beedrill."

Then, when he finally ran out of steam and gave her a weak grin for her incredulous, raised eyebrows, he asked, "So, uh, Germany! And a bunch of other places… unless you just learned all that slang in Germany? That would make sense with the whole, 'center of the Federation' thing they have going on and all. Anyway, why'd you move here? You said you've got a career, right? Did you join before or after getting here? How's working at Silph Co., anyway?"

Tanya had no desire to get into her past when she was already stressed about thinking about work, so she countered, "I don't want to talk about my past before I came here, if it's all the same to you." He cringed, but her tone stayed light and conversational. "Say, as a native of Kanto, can you tell me about the Underground?"

Having him blab would keep him unfocused on her past, and would hopefully engender good feelings towards her.

He cleared his throat, and then he inhaled… and kept inhaling.

Tanya promised not to regret her question.

"In the sixties and seventies, when Saffron was getting really big, the four biggest cities around Saffron wanted to avoid it for a whole bunch of reasons, including the increasing corruption, the rise of Team Rocket, this trainer named Sabrina – oh, she was the Psychic-type gym leader for half a century before she died in the third world war – being a bit of a prick when she was a child, and a desire to remain distinct from Saffron, so they built some infrastructure to specifically avoid the city. There were a few car tunnels, a rail line or two, and even a quaint footpath that went under the city. Oh, the Cycle Expressway used to be just a bridge across the bay, so that counts too. Anyway, the Saffron municipal council got infiltrated by Team Rocket in the mid-seventies, and they began a huge infrastructure buildout as a way to award contracts to subsidiaries of Silph Co. and companies owned by Team Rocket and their boss Giovanni Sakaki, and the idea got really popular, so they couldn't half-ass it as much as they wanted in diverting funds to their coffers. Anyway, the underground infrastructure grew bit by bit, and then, in the lead-up to the third World War, a bunch of people thought that building more stuff underground in case we needed to shelter from Chinese nuclear weapon and the nuclear winter was a good idea, so a bunch of companies, including Hynautica, which is the company my Dad works for, invested money in technology to minimize the damage earthquakes could do to subterranean structures. It helps that there's only so much room to build, and if skyscrapers get any taller, they're going to start interfering with Pokemon migration patterns and intraregional air travel instead of just intracity flights. So digging down is the only option, until we start hitting, like, subterranean caves with ground-type…Pokemon or some long-forgotten… ruin with ghost-type… Pokemon."

Finally, mercifully, he'd run out of breath.

He began inhaling again. For her part, Tanya used the pause to reexamine her promise not to regret asking him the question.

"It's not contiguous, y'know, 'cause of all the rivers and the nature preserves and parks and stuff. The biggest section is beneath Saffron, obviously, then it's Celadon, Vermillion, Fern, and then a big section between the lake and the bay in the Bayward ward, but those are just the big pockets. There are little nooks and crannies scattered throughout the city. Some of them aren't even connected to the subway! There are even," he said conspiratorially, "some hidden sections. False walls in train stations or in the tunnels between sections and doors that supposedly lead to maintenance areas and places marked off on development maps as being unsuitable thanks to bribed surveyors."

He cleared his throat and took another breath. "Of course, we're not going to any of those."

She reveled in the silence, and then, despite her trepidations, asked another question. "Do you want to have a conversation, or do you want to keep talking at me?"

He stared into her eyes in silence for a full five seconds. "How about a conversation?"

She sighed in relief. "Alright. I don't imagine Autumna has the only Underground in the world?"

He shook his head. "Nope! It's not even the biggest, in contiguous or total size! Off the top of my head, Lumiose, Allium, Sommereal, Shi Abo Rei, and Huaxia all have bigger undergrounds, and I think the US east coast has a pretty big one somewhere as well? Or maybe a few scattered across the seaboard?"

She learned that those names were this world's rough analogues of Paris, Chicago, Montreal, Singapore, and Beijing. She also learned that the majority of colonial states in the Americas had been around for over a thousand years in some cases, and 'merely' half a millennium in the case of the youngest.

He managed to keep himself from going on a tangent again. Soon, they got into the nitty-gritty of theorycrafting for their upcoming fights.

Beedrill did not have a lot to contribute, though Aeon had tried to soften the blow, as if she couldn't observe an objective fact, and the sheer wealth of knowledge Aeon had was both astounding and headache-inducing. He was proving to be a good acquaintance to know, even if she might have to break out some painkillers.

-OxOxO-

After getting registered, they didn't have to wait long for their first battle.

Actually starting the battle was the hard part, however.

"Well well, if it isn't the bumbling blabbermouth Bishuma!"

Faizal and Kirtan Chokshi were, to Tanya's eyes, a brother-sister team. More than that, however, was the elder brother's familiarity with Aeon. Their families must have operated in the same circles, or at the very least, they were in the same tax bracket, based on the fact that both of them were wearing silk clothing to a Pokemon battle.

The sister, a few years the junior of her brother, Aeon, and Tanya herself, rubbed her forehead.

Aeon tried to give the boy a disarming smile, but he seemed utterly uncaring, blowing a lock of dark hair out of his face.

"Have fun gathering Kanto's badges like a plebian, Bishuma?"

"Faizal, we don't need to-"

"We're not on a first-name basis, Bishuma. Are you ready to lose?"

Finally, he seemed to register Tanya's presence. He gave her a once over before sneering. "When I told you to accept your place, I hadn't thought you'd go and start associating with riff-raff out of desperation."

She raised an unimpressed eyebrow at his taunting, but she didn't say anything in response. His sneer just grew.

"You haven't beat me yet," Aeon said, voice quiet. The boy snarled. "Luck is the only reason you've prevailed so far, you-"

"If you're going to attempt to shift the fault of your own inadequacy and incompetence away from yourself out of a desire not to self-reflect, might I suggest something more concrete than a force as nebulous and unprovable as luck?"

"Are you talking to me?" He bit back after pausing for a moment. Tanya continued, "For starters, your parental figures undoubtedly deserve some of the blame for neglecting to teach you manners, though considering their tax bracket, perhaps the fault lies with some caretaker they hired so they wouldn't have to bother raising you?"

Her smile was equal parts sardonic and acidic. "I can understand why they would want to spend as much time away from you as possible."

He attempted to intimidate her by getting into her personal space, but she was an inch taller than him and countered by taking a step closer to him. They were almost nose to nose. "Well? Nothing to say?"

The girl grabbed his hand and mumbled something Tanya couldn't hear. He sneered and stepped towards the field. "My victory will be made all the sweeter by making you and your- your girlfriend cry, Bishuma."

He quickly entered the box on his side of the red-hued clay court, glaring daggers at them and tapping his foot. Tanya looked back to Bishuma, who was staring at her wide-eyed. She rolled her own as she strode towards their own side. "Any clue what we'll be up against?"

He shook his head and rushed to catch up. "Uh, we fought a year ago? He keeps trying to get into arguments on Chatter by atting me whenever he's bragging about his Pokemon and calling me a hack? Anyway, his Pokemon are Linoone, Luxray, Copperajah, Donphan, and Azumarill, I think. I've kinda been expecting this, so I've got a plan for him, though I have no clue what his sister has."

Tanya pulled out her phone and texted the Pokemon she would be selecting to the referee, while Bishuma thought for a moment. "Does he know what you have?"

"Mostly, but considering we're only using one Pokemon each, I think he's going to go for whatever has the highest chance of beating most of my Pokemon." He let out a forlorn sigh. "I'll go with Pidgeot. If Metang were Evolved, then they'd be my best bet, but he's not." He typed a message to the referee number.

Tanya nodded, and after a few moments, they received identical texts. They'd be up against a level 16 Togepi and a level 48 Linoone. With a nod towards the referee, she put her phone in her pocket. That was all the information they'd be getting. They wouldn't know what items they had, and they couldn't look up their moves.

Across the court, the brother let out a loud scoff as he received their Pokemon, but he said nothing else. The announcer, a kid sitting in the booth next to the small set of stands, began rattling off the information about their Pokemon and them, hyping up the crowd and reading off his phone.

Tanya took a deep breath and tuned out the small crowd of other trainers. They had two minutes to plan.

"Okay, I was right. That Linoone will definitely have a Figy Berry and is going to go for Belly Drum right out of the gate. Togepi… has Follow Me, I think?" He shrugged. "That and Metronome… though I don't know if it will have learned that yet… or even Follow Me." He paused for a brief moment. "We'll have to respect the option and act like it does. With any luck, Heat Wave will burn the Linoone."

"And the Linoone?"

"Oh, after it uses Belly Drum, it'll probably just spam Extreme Speed trying to finish the fight with priority. I don't remember if he bragged about maxing out its EVs or IVs, but if he chose it because he thinks it can win no matter what I have, then it probably does. It'll knock out Pidgeot in one hit, which means he needs a Focus Sash. Dodging that move is a hassle… although, since it is a Linoone…"

Her fingers itched for her phone so she could look up the vocabulary she didn't understand, but since she could, she asked, "Won't you move first? You said Pidgeot was fast, correct? And what is 'priority?'"

His head whipped towards her and away from the spot on the ground he was staring at, befuddled for only a brief moment until he saw the pained expression on her face. Then, his eyes widened in wonder while his mouth formed a gleeful grin. "You have so much to learn. You haven't heard of-"

"I thought," she said, "It was… a meme."

While the internet as a whole was an excellent source of knowledge and technology for networking and increasing efficiency, Tanya had considered most of social media a waste of time meant to act as attention-sinks for the undisciplined during her first life. Consequently, she had spent as little time interacting with such attention-sinks as she could. That was possible, in the early twenty-teens.

That was no longer possible in this world, and Tanya had felt every one of her four cumulative decades when she attempted to parse the memes of the modern era, especially since some of them were decades old.

His eyes flicker to her hands like he wanted to grab them. She edged away from him, so he just sighed in contentment. "I can explain it all later. Attack Togepi, you'll either break its Focus Sash if it doesn't use Follow Me or finish it off after Pidgeot uses Heat Wave. I should be able to end the match in one hit after that, once he gives me an opening. As for Beedrill… once Togepi can't disrupt my targeting, use Poison Sting, just in case you manage to Poison it-"

"DO AS YOU'RE TOLD!"

The talking of the announcer was cut off at the shout of the elder Chokshi sibling. The sister lowered her head and sent out her Pokemon. After a moment, the brother followed suit.

The referee looked at them, expecting them to do so now that the two minutes were up, and so they did. She grabbed the Exp. Block Aeon was loaning her and arranged the odd headgear on Beedrill's head, doing her best to make sure it didn't pull or push his antennae.

"Bee?"

She almost reassured her Pokemon that they were just there to give Aeon a partner so he'd help her buy the TMs he needed and get some more experience in trainer battles. As her mouth opened, she realized she didn't need to waste her breath when he wouldn't understand anyway.

She cleared her throat. "Do your best," she said instead. He didn't understand the words, but her voice seemed to reassure him. It was odd, how he could derive contentment from the voice of the person who'd been kicking him out of her apartment for over a month in just a week.

He buzzed, nuzzling his head into her still lingering hands, and Tanya found a fond smile worming its way onto her face.

She turned to find Pidgeot towering over his trainer. At around five feet tall, he was taller than her, too, though he wasn't looming over her. For all that his coloring was more bland than the Xatu from yesterday, the cream of his underside and tan of his plumage only made his warm-colored crest feathers more outstanding.

He let out a loud screech, flapping his wings and he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Despite the avian screaming directly into his face, Aeon didn't flinch, or even seem to mind, as he fastened a headband to the Pokemon's head.

He backed away, his smile broad and infectious. "Knock 'em out, Pidgeot!"

It turned and took a few experimental flaps of its wings, rising a few feet off of the ground. He wouldn't have much room to maneuver in the underground arena, but he could certainly fly in place. He let out another triumphant screech as Beedrill hesitantly took his place next to his partner.

She surveyed the competition.

Togepi resembled an white egg. Not a white chicken egg, but a foot tall egg, with large, blue and red shapes and markings scattered across its body. Tiny cream feet and small cream nubs that might have been its hands poked out of the body, while the cream-colored, penta-pointed head poked out of the white body. She had no idea what kind of animal it was, though considering its resemblance to an egg, perhaps it was avian? It looked less like a reptile than it did a bird.

It seemed nervous, constantly glancing back towards its trainer, who shared its nervousness. She seemed to be trying to gather her resolve by readjusting her sleeves. Perhaps seeking to copy its trainer, it gingerly touched the red headband tied beneath the crown of horns on its head. "Pi pi!" it called across the court.

Linoone was a less bizarre creature by a wide margin. Standing at around a foot-and-a-half at its shoulder, the long Pokemon appeared to be some kind of weasel or badger-like mammal covered in tan fur that was shot through with brown stripes.

One of the brown stripes resembled an arrow on its forehead. If this were her first or second life, she would have presumed it was just a genetic quirk, but she'd lived in this world for six months. Even if she didn't know what it meant, the arrow had to mean something.

Beneath small tufts of fur where its ears stuck out, beady blue eyes glared at them.

It snarled, high pitched, warbling, and reedy. The sound brought to mind not a snarling wild animal but an overconfident shiba inu.

Their Pokemon responded to their opponents with cries of their own, while Tanya glared back at the mammalian Pokemon. The Pokemon was much stronger than her Beedrill, regardless of how much less intimidating it was. She glanced, between Aeon and then the referee standing at the entrance to the battlefield. He looked to the blue starfish with the gem at its center standing next to him. The gem glowed, and psychic walls rose around the court, glowing a faint pink.

He began rattling off the rules, which Tanya had memorized. Tanya licked her lips, waiting, the tension growing, the anger on the brother's face evident for all to see, the-

"BEGIN!"

They waited a fraction of a second.

"Belly Drum quickly, Linoone!"

"Follow Me, Togepi!"

"Heat Wave, now!"

"Wait, Beedrill."

A flurry of movement overtook the battlefield. Pidgeot rose an extra foot into the air, while Togepi rushed forward as fast as its little legs could take it. Linoone remained behind, standing up on its hind legs and smacking its stomach with its forelimbs.

To Tanya's confusion, the sound of a large drum emanated from the mustelid, and a red glow began suffusing its body, seeming to emanate from the very ends of its fur. "Li NOONE!" it cried.

In front of it, the Togepi waggled one of its hands, waving it around in large, obvious circles. Tanya stared at it, and kept staring at it, and then, when she realized she was still staring at the Pokemon waving its arms around, shouting, "Pipipipipi!" she tore her gaze away.

"PIDGEOT!" Aeon's Pokemon cried. With a flap of his wings, a wave of hot air blasted towards the other half of the rectangular court. Tanya's eyes widened as the air, visible from the shimmering of the heat, raced towards their enemies.

"Poison Sting the Togepi, Beedrill," she commanded. He shook his head, also having been entranced by the diminutive Pokemon waving one of its arms around. As he began to barrel forward, Tanya watched the wave of heat impact their opponents.

The Linoone moved fast. It shook its body, and when an object fell from its fur, it scarfed down what Aeon had called a Figy Berry. The red haze engulfing it remained, and though it cried out in pain from the hot air engulfing it, the Linoone's reaction paled in comparison to the Togepi.

It was blown back by the force of the air, rolling across the ground and calling out its name. "Togepi!" the trainer cried out in shock. Finally, the wave of air passed.

Only for the purple Poison Sting, shot from Beedrill's abdomen, to lance right into the Pokemon. In a burst of light, it shrank, returning to the girl's Poke ball. She sniffled.

Her brother didn't pay her any mind. "You fools! Linoone's going to destroy you now! That stupid Beedrill or a Giga Impact or a Hurricane aren't going to matter when we nail you with Extreme Speed, you apes, you neanderthals, you-"

"Unless they have a Focus Sash too."

The brother blinked and then looked down at his sister. "Eh?"

"Nitwit. I was trying to tell you-"

"Heat Wave again!"

"Poison Sting, once more."

"Cunt!" he swore. The girl gasped, wide eyes visible even from across the battlefield, while the referee held up a yellow card, but he paid neither any mind, his eyes bouncing between the Pidgeot that was rising again and the glowing purple abdominal stinger of Beedrill, before finally landing on Aeon.

"Extreme Speed, get close to Beedrill, but don't knock it out. Keep it between you and the damn bird!" The Linoone growled-

Faster than Tanya could react, could speak, could even move, the Linoone had blurred until it was standing right behind Beedrill, snarling. Beedrill spun around, shocked, and looked towards her for guidance.

"Don't hesitate when your next move is obvious!" she snapped, covering her own shock. He rushed in, stinger glowing, while the Linoone dodged backwards, backing towards the left wall with each move, its dodges perfect.

Aeon still wasn't doing anything. She looked between the Pidgeot and Aeon, her expression growing more and more incredulous. "Well? What are you waiting for?"

He blinked wide, confused eyes. "Huh?"

"Attack! Use that move again. You only need two or three more, right?" she asked. He pointed a limp wrist at Beedrill, whose attacks had slowed-

"Keep it busy," she ordered Beedrill, only sparing a glance to see he'd still not managed to land a hit.

She turned her full attention to Aeon. "As long as victory is achieved, then nothing else matters." While absolute victory didn't seem to be his goal with this excursion, considering his rather flippant attitude, winning would make him happier than losing, meaning a higher chance she'd get the money he'd offered.

"Switch to String Shot," she ordered Beedrill as he continued to fail to hit the Linoone. The webbing sprayed from his abdominal stinger, and the Linoone had to move much more to avoid the substance. "Start separating from Pidgeot so it has a clear shot at both of you."

"Follow it, and get closer," their opponent ground out, sneering, "the brat won't do it." It jumped over blobs of webbing just fine, but it struggled with making the nimble moves to avoid Beedrill's String Shot.

It was fast enough that, even struggling, it outpaced Beedrill. "String Shot, and I don't care," she replied, nonchalant as her gaze returned to Aeon. He looked between the two of them, eyes widened in anxiety. He glanced at Pidgeot, she followed his gaze to see the bird let out a low growl.

Aeon's expression morphed into nonchalance mirroring Tanya's own. She turned back to Beedrill, breathing a sigh of-

"Substitute, Roost, and when you see an opening, use Hyper Beam."

Her glare was open and unhappy. "Why-"

"You-"

Her gaze snapped back to the brother, who swallowed his words. "Extreme Speed the Pidgeot!" As he started talking, Tanya acknowledged that Beedrill was just getting in the way.

"Let it go and stay back," Tanya ordered. She saw her Pokemon stiffen. The Linoone hadn't yet moved, eyes focused on the Pidgeot and apparently unwilling to move around Beedrill, for whatever reason.

"Roost," Aeon called. She glanced at the Pidgeot only to find that there appeared to be two, one behind and the other in front. They both landed on the ground, preening carefully while keeping a beady eye trained on Beedrill and Linoone.

She shook her head and refocused. "Beedrill," she said, warning him. Finally, he moved.

"Hyper Beam."

The Linoone shot forward, aiming for the Pidgeot in the front, blurring and crossing the court in a fraction of a second. The birds launched into the air, but they were far, far too slow, and the front one was torn into-

Only for it to disappear in a puff of smoke. "AGAIN!" was called, and the Linoone blurred, inches away from its target.

In front of the bird's beak, a small orb of bright white light grew from the size of a raisin into a watermelon-sized globe of power. "PI!"

The Linoone lunged.

"DGEOT!" cried the bird, and the ball of power turned into a molten lance of heat and light.

The light was almost blinding, the shaking of the ground as the beam tore into the Linoone almost made her stumble, and the force with which the enemy Pokemon was propelled into the opposite side of the court, where the formerly translucent psychic wall was now visible, glowing, and cracking, almost made her wince.

Instead of closing her eyes or casting her hands out to regain her balance or averting her gaze from the prompt defeat of their enemy, she simply held up her Poke ball and opened it. Beedrill, hugging the wall of the court in front of the referee, promptly began to shrink and return to her.

Then, the light show was over, as was the battle, and the Linoone lay defeated on the ground.

The crowd erupted into cheers, and Tanya looked away from where she'd been staring into the light and cleared her throat. "Good job," she said, not sure what she should say in response to the attack.

He grinned and turned to Pidgeot, who was panting hard. "Y'hear that, Pidgeot? She thought you were awesome as hell! Right up there with the greats!"

After landing and catching his breath, Pidgeot stepped towards her and screeched loudly while extending his wings. She clasped her hands over her ears and gave him and Aeon a weak smile to cover her irritation.

None of Tanya's battles had been anything like that, which… it wasn't as heart-pounding as combat, but it was heart-pounding, and it was a lot safer, and perhaps it was even fun.

After praising his Pokemon once more, he returned the bird. Tanya's attention refocused on their opponents.

"Nitwit! Idiot! Knucklehead!"

"Kiri, I didn't-"

"No, you didn't! You got caught up in your head and fumbled the win again! Stupid!"

They glanced between the siblings and then towards each other. Aeon snickered, while Tanya rolled her eyes with a smirk.

He saw, and he began to storm over. The referee, who'd been cataloguing the match on his tablet and making hand gestures at the announcer, perked up, as did his starfish Pokemon.

"Hey!"

The boy stopped, discomfort and dread on his face at his sister's shout. She jumped up and grabbed him by his long hair, causing him to shout. She ignored him and muttered into his ear, after which she let him go and crossed her arms.

Nervous and touching the part of his head that had been yanked, he made his way over at a much more sedate pace. "Ahem," he began, "sorry. I'll… stop arguing with you online. Um… bye."

He turned tail and fled. His sister growled his name, but he ignored her and continued to flee. The sister followed. Tanya breathed a sigh of relief. They were done.

"That was great!" he exclaimed. "There were a few kinks, but hey, we're a work in progress, and we even managed to win." She nodded her head automatically at his words, ready for the deluge of words he was about to unleash.

"I can't wait for the next one!"

Tanya's relief fled as she remembered he'd said he wanted to fight a couple of matches.

-OxOxO-

They decided, after heading to the healing station, that they'd give Beedrill half an hour to rest. They spent two-thirds of that time going over the battle, during which he brought her awareness to a number of intricacies of the battle to which she was ignorant.

Linoone was a Normal-type Pokemon, Togepi was a Fairy-type, while Pidgeot was a Normal and Flying-type. Extreme Speed and Follow Me both had increased priority. Linoone had the Gluttony ability. Belly Drum drained the health of a Pokemon by half in return for increasing the physical damage that Pokemon would do by the maximum of three times. A Figy Berry restored half of a Pokemon's health if it was consumed when the Pokemon only had a fourth of their health left. A Focus Sash would allow a perfectly healthy Pokemon to survive an attack that would have knocked it out with a single hit point. Substitute drained a quarter of a Pokemon's health in return for creating an illusory copy that could take hits in that Pokemon's place. Hyper Beam was a move with a period of recharge. Linoone as a species had difficulty maintaining their high top speeds when turning. Roost restored 50% of the health of the Pokemon that used it. When used by a Flying-type, Roost negated the Pokemon's Flying-type while Roosting. Heat Wave was a wide area-of-effect move with a chance to burn and a chance to miss.

He didn't explain what exactly priority was, beyond it allowing a Pokemon to 'move before everyone else,' and, beyond mentioning that they existed, he did not go into concepts like tempo, momentum, positioning, psychology, or battle styles. She felt she might have more of an idea about the last group of ideas that seemed like they might be ways of thinking instead of something battling-specific, but for all she knew, they weren't.

"Can I look any of this up?" she'd asked.

He'd considered the question. "Markus always says you don't know something until you can teach it, so let me try to explain it to you, uh, after your Gym Battle, before you spoil the answers. Some concepts can be… obtuse."

Then after telling one of the organizers they were ready for another round, they'd settled in to watch some of the matches until another pair battling with a Pokemon each were ready. Some were quick, some were not, but one stood out in her mind.

She was not unfamiliar with Magikarp and Gyarados. They were Pokemon known throughout the word and were ubiquitous in marketing for a wide variety of products. Magikarp tasted like a blend of every fish she'd ever had in both her lives.

Across from them, owned by boat workers whose ship had stopped in Autumna, was a pair of floating swords called Doublade, which counted as one Pokemon, and a floating keyring.

A goddamn keyring.

Tanya did not use the word 'goddamn' lightly, especially not within her mind. She hated religion, meeting a self-purported god had only inflamed that hatred, meeting a less egotistical one had not quenched those flames, and that hatred reflected in her vocabulary.

Still, she used the word goddamn, because not only was it a keyring, it was an internationally known keyring. Despite its lackluster stats and its fucking appearance, Klefki were desired by professional battlers because it had one of the best typings, it had the ability Prankster which bestowed priority to status moves, and it had a moveset that took advantage of that ability.

In the end, the pair of floating swords and the KEYRING had defeated the giant, serpentine dragon and the fish.

As the match ended and no one, not even her own Pokemon who was mimicking the crowd by slapping his lance-hands together, thought this turn of events was odd, Tanya went along with the crowd. She sighed as she clapped.

She despised this world, sometimes.

-OxOxO-

It only took a few more, much less ridiculous battles for them to be up again.

They also knew Aeon.

"You."

Darnell Satou, the person striding towards them, was either a teenager or a young adult. Tanya couldn't tell which because the bright white hair of his head, eyebrows, and eyelashes added an ethereal quality to him. Her first instinct was to balk at the vitriolic contempt they had for a tween, until she remembered this world's different perceptions around age and maturity.

At that point, when they loomed over Aeon much more menacingly than his bird had, their clothing a collection of sharp, stylish angles contrasted with the serial numbers marking it as a uniform, she just wondered what he'd done to piss them off, and if she should really be friends with a person who seemed intent on making enemies.

He squinted at them. "Who are you?"

"I work for Dedrick Kayano, you miserable lying pipsqueak-"

"Oh!" he exclaimed. He glanced at her for a second, and then turned back to them, placing his hands on his hips. "I wasn't lying when I said that place was easier than Lavender's gym."

They growled. "Because of you posting that in a chat on Chatter and going semi-viral in Kanto, Mr. Kayano's gym is being audited again."

"What's going on?" asked the diminutive voice of their other opponent, Takoda Yuki, who wore a similarly stylish ensemble as Satou.

"Nothing," they ground out as they spun around. "I'm using one of my personal Pokemon," they claimed as they stomped towards the court. "What? We're supposed to practice for-"

Their argument continued, while Tanya sighed and gave Aeon an expectant look. He blinked at her.

"I think," he said, "if you become a parent, your kids are going to become either very good at lying to you or very unwilling to try."

She sputtered, but the referee was waiting, so they submitted their next picks.

"Alright," he said, ignoring her miffed look, "Kantonian Golisopod is who I'm using. He's an Ice and Bug-type with Ice Scales, his best stats are his physical attack and his defenses. He's slow as a glacier, but if they're from that gym, they probably learn towards special attackers, so they'll have a hell of a time breaking through him. First Impression packs a wallop and will take down anything without a sash in a single hit, so-"

Their opponents' Pokemon were texted to them. A level 50 Kantonian Whimsicott and a level 16 Snorunt.

He groaned. "What?" Tanya asked. "Is Kantonian Whimsicott bad?"

He raised an eyebrow at her and his defeated expression faded into one of amusement. "Years, I tell you, I'll be teaching you for years- no, nevermind. Whimsicott has the Prankster ability and the move Thunder Wave, which inflicts Paralysis… although I have to wonder why they chose that one? It's not meant to be an attacker…"

He giggled. "Man, I hope they didn't assume that I was just going to use Pidgeot again. Anyway, timing is going to matter in this battle… though it wouldn't as much if Beedrill could do more."

"That's why I want the TMs," she griped. He nodded, focus absent. "Snorunt… maybe it was supposed to fish for a freeze? No, wait, it has Helping Hand. Uh," he looked up from where he was strategizing, "that boosts the power of a partner's attack."

He ran through a few plans with her, and then their two minutes were up and they sent out their Pokemon. Beedrill was still wearing the odd-looking Exp. Block headgear. "Do your best," she encouraged again. He buzzed, though he didn't lean into her hand as he did so. She raised an eyebrow as he japped a few times towards their opponents.

"Well," she said, "It looks like you want to fight. Would you like the Exp. candy we picked up so you level up and learn Bug Bite?"

He hissed at her, which caused her to blink. She didn't know he could do that. "Do your best," she said, injecting false cheer into her voice.

She turned to Aeon and his Pokemon.

Somehow, it was even taller than the bird had been. Close to six feet tall, the snow white insect stared down at her, the bushy antennae above his eyes looking somewhat like eyebrows. One of his smaller arms quickly waved at her before rejoining the other three in hugging onto the Pokemon's body. Ice covered or jutted out of portions of its carapace on its head and on its two primary arms. The wicked, ice-covered claws also made a show of waving to her before it turned back to Aeon.

"Don't worry," he said to Tanya, "we can work around that. Besides, one level and a move aren't going to make or break this battle."

Beedrill stared at the Pokemon for a moment and looked down at its own hands. He buzzed, and then turned to face the battlefield. Aeon finished his meaningless pep-talk and handed over a small, cube-shaped item to his Pokemon.

Tanya responded. "We shouldn't have to work around it. I just don't get why he has such a… thing about eating Exp. candies." She'd almost said he had a complex, but he was just an animal.

Aeon shrugged again. "Well, it's not like it matters-"

"Here?" she asked, "No, it doesn't, but in a real fight, it would. All that matters is that we come out on the other end in the best position possible, to win, to-"

He opened his mouth to retort, but a cry of "Sno!" interrupted their talk. She glanced across the court.

Snorunt was just as tiny and arguably adorable as the Togepi had been. It… maybe it was shaped like a cone? And was the yellow covering part of its body or some sort of article of clothing?

She couldn't tell. Regardless of the fact that the room was actually quite warm, it shivered, bouncing on its two small feet. Their Pokemon returned its call.

"What are you talking about?" Aeon asked. "This really isn't that serious, it's just a bit of fun…" he trailed off, glancing at her with concern. She felt the urge to verbally reject the look.

She didn't.

"Unless this is that serious for you? I-" he cleared his throat. "I'm going to pay you regardless of if we win. You know that, right?"

"Of course," she replied, because telling him otherwise would make her seem untrusting towards him, which was unacceptable when she'd already sunk over an hour into this escapade and she needed the money for the TMs for the badge for the stipend so she could-

He fished a hand into his pocket and handed her a roll of bills that caused her eyebrows to skyrocket towards her hairline.

She tried to eke out a few words, to ask why now, why her, to thank him for the charity when every scrap would bring her closer to safety, to throw the charity back in his face because she was competent and didn't need it.

She said nothing, and he grinned.

"Sicott cott," said another Pokemon on the field across from them. She glanced towards it.

Bright yellow, spiraled horns jutted out from the sides of its head, resembling thunderbolts. Its body was dark brown. A collar of yellowish cotton accompanied the cotton on top of its head and presumably jutting out of its back. It rubbed its paws together while smiling, and electricity sparked through the cotton.

"I'm here to have fun," he said, drawing her gaze back to him. "I battle because it's the most fun thing in the world, among some other reasons. There are important battles, but this isn't one of them. If we lose, we learn more for the next one!"

She nodded and turned to the battlefield. With a sigh, she reoriented herself. Losses were to be expected, and if he'd given her the money…

Then it was only right she participated in a way he found acceptable.

She turned to the battlefield. The referee was glancing between the two teams. The opposing one nodded, and Tanya nodded back. She eyed the ref-

"Aren't you going to apologize to Beedrill for being rude?"

She fought the urge to raise an imperious, skeptical eyebrow at him. "Sorry, Beedrill." She recalled what Aeon had told his Pokemon and barely kept herself from rolling her eyes as she repeated his words. "I believe in you."

The referee shouted, "BEGIN!"

"Rain Dance!"

"Fake Tears, then Helping Hand!"

"Fi- Icicle Spear on Whimsicott!"

"Fury attack on Whimsicott, now!"

He'd thought they'd play things safer and use Protect on one or both of their Pokemon. If only one, they would have both focused it down, but now they didn't have the option.

The Whimsicott cackled its name as it did a little jig, skipping around where it had been standing while tossing its hands and head into the air. The referee, a new one with a Hypno, said something to his Pokemon, and the barrier above them flashed as it extended upwards to the ceiling where thick, dark storm clouds had begun to brew.

The Snorunt, by contrast, cried big, fat, wet tears and waddled backwards from the Golisopod. His pace stuttered for only a moment and then it was rushing towards the Whimsicott.

"Dodge it!"

Golisopod raked his arms through the air, and with each swift jab he made during his advance, conical spears of ice formed in the air beside it and began hurtling towards the little hellion. It chattered, repeating its name, and it began moving.

One after another, it dodged around the thin, knife-sized spears of ice.

The dodged ice curved in the air, hurtling back towards it.

Tanya did not question the power of the acid-green item Aeon called a 'Loaded Dice.'

Still, it dodged, bouncing off the ground like a hyper-active basketball, pirouetting through the air, almost seeming to skate across the ground, causing each and every attack to eventually crash into the ground or the walls it was nearing.

Golisopod continued running towards it, but as it bounded towards the midfield, the Whimsicott lunged forward.

The drizzle became a downpour, and the footing of all the Pokemon seemed that much more unsure. Golisopod almost slipped, the Snorunt exclaimed its own name through its tears, and Beedrill fought against the turbulence that was erupting.

Beedrill arrived soon after and tried his best to hit it, but like trying to catch gnat, it dodged around their every move until it was now standing between their Pokemon and them. Despite the weather and the way its cotton seemed to be weighed down, it moved like the rain didn't exist.

"Thunder!" Finally, the Pokemon disengaged. As it did, two of the icicles finally made contact, sending it spinning away, shouting the end of its name over and over as it tumbled end over end across the field.

"Helping Hand, quickly!"

The Snorunt bounded forward, faster than Tanya had thought it could move.

"Ice Shard on Whimsicott!"

Tanya's expression pinched. "Are you sure you can hit it?"

"We'll just have to believe he can!" Aeon shouted.

Those words sent a tremor of disbelief through her. "What?" she asked.

"Y'know, power of friendship-"

She couldn't suppress a groan at even the thought of such a farcical notion. "Beedrill, Fury Cutter on Whimsicott!"

A chunk of ice, larger than any of the spears, formed between Golisopod's arms and mouth and then shot off like a rocket. A golden glow began to surround Snorunt's body, but it seemed it would arrive after-

The Whimsicott, recovered from its spin, rolled beneath the Ice Shard and hi-fived the Snorunt. In the blink of an eye, the light leapt between their touching limbs and now suffused Whimsicott. It twisted in the air, the grin aimed at Golisopod filled with unbridled malice.

Electricity and the light gathered in its cotton, shot up into the clouds above them. She glanced up-

"BEE!"

Tanya missed Beedrill's attack. Whimsicott went flying again, quickly reorienting itself while Beedrill disengaged from the Snorunt.

It waved goodbye to Golisopod.

The light descended.

Bright, blinding white forced Tanya to close her eyes as the world shook from the force of the descending electricity.

When the shaking finally ended, Golisopod was still standing. Shaking from the exertion of standing, it looked around and found Whimsicott, which snarled at him between its own heavy breaths. He reentered his fighting stance, the ice poking out of his carapace reforming.

"Again!" Aeon cried. "You heard him," Tanya echoed to Beedrill.

Their opponent smirked. "Thunderclap!"

"No!" Aeon shouted, but it appeared to be too late. Ice was already forming-

A bolt of bluish-electricity arced up from Whimsicott, rushed down, pierced the still-forming ice, and shocked Golisopod again.

"Ice Beam!"

The beam lanced out of the Snorunt and hit Beedrill, who pushed through, landing a second Fury Cutter on the Whimsicott. It cried its names, went rolling backwards…

And struggled to its feet, even as Golisopod collapsed into white light and returned. It wore a feral grin as it stared down Beedrill. The tears of the Snorunt were long dried.

Her hand began moving towards her Poke ball.

"C'mon," Aeon said. She raised an eyebrow, not looking away.

"Don't end it like that. Besides, we'll get kicked out."

She sighed. "Beedrill, Fury Cutter," she ordered. She felt disappointment and resignation welling up within her, but she tamped down on them.

Then, as his hands began to glow pale green, made eerie by the still-pouring rain, another emotion rose to the surface.

"Give them something to remember!" she shouted.

Aeon clapped a hand on her back, and she watched, a hope she knew was deluded and doomed to failure swelling in her chest.

It didn't matter.

He moved faster, swung harder, tried more, eclipsing and surpassing what she thought was his best effort. The sickly green of his lances carving streaks of light through the darkness of the rain. The tempest no longer bothered him as he flitted around.

It didn't matter.

Every move, the Whimsicott dodged. It was not dodging with ease, as it lumbered about in an echoing mockery of its former dexterity and agility, but it still dodged every single attack.

Then, it used a finger to pull down the skin around an eye and stuck out its tongue.

"BEE!" Beedrill cried, but another lance of pale blue, icey energy slammed into him, and he was down for the count. Tanya sighed at the inevitable defeat and looked down at the Poke ball he'd retreated into.

-OxOxO-

They'd stuck around for a few more battles. The hard-ass failed to get the reaction he wanted out of Aeon when he just congratulated him on the win instead. The other trainer, a new hire at the Ice-type gym in the northwest of Autumna apologized for his behavior and thanked them for the battle.

They'd gone over how the battle had gone and discussed what they could have done differently, and what their opponent could have done differently as well. Her mindset regarding battling was markedly different to his, but he didn't think that was a problem.

They watched a few more battles, and he'd explained what was going on for her between the announcer doing the same but worse. If nothing else, she'd discovered the sheer amount of information she needed to memorize was daunting and would require weeks of investment if she wanted to avoid death at the hands of an Ultra Beast and months or years if she wanted a chance to avoid capture by Interpol.

"Eh," he'd said when she'd admitted she had a lot to learn, "the amount of information you have going into a battle can vary a lot depending on the tournament or rules. Few tournaments leave participants as blind as casual battles like this, but the unpredictability is part of why they're fun!"

As the clock drifted closer to eight, they departed. The ride back was far more quiet. She didn't prompt him for information, and he let her think about her battle with the Gym Leader tomorrow.

As her stop came up, he finally spoke. "So, when are you battling the Leader again?"

She rose, straightening her clothes as she prepared to thank him for his help. "Tomorrow, around ten-ish for my preliminary match."

His smile grew. "Great! I'll be cheering you on," before she could process that sentence, he rose from his seat. "I presume you want to get Beedrill to level 14 and practice the TMs you're getting?"

She began to walk out. He followed. Well, if he insisted…

"Yes, I do. I don't suppose you'd be willing to help me, even with how late it is?"

He waved a hand and blew a puff of hot air as they went through the turnstiles. "What do you take me for, hmm? I don't have a bedtime."

The ghost of a smile crept onto her face. "The fact that you even had to clarify would seem to imply-"

He groaned, and dragged her to the Poke Mart. She let him.

She didn't like to lose… but the battle hadn't really mattered. If she was going to get good enough at battling to protect her safety by concealing her past and learning how to escape if it was uncovered, then she was going to take some losses on the road to get there.

As today had proven, the losses she took would even be fun sometimes.

-OxOxO-

A/N 1: If you'd like to donate to support me monetarily and read chapters a week ahead of time, search for Sugarcane Soldier on the website of the Patrons.

Thank you to WarmasterOku, Theewizzz, Afforess, UNSC_Kawakaze, Vee, malenkaya, and Saito Tachibana for supporting this story and everything else I write. Make sure to vote if you haven't yet!