We All Live In A Pokemon World...

by 4428Gamer


Cacturne of Events (Episode 1)


Max’s POV


“Well, either the gym leader’s electric-type based, or they’re obsessed with technology,” As we exited the elevator, Kirlia began to project her voice once again. “Either way, this is unsettling.”

“Yeah. You’d think that the room would be a bit more well lit.” While the pathway was lit up well enough for someone to walk on, the rest of the room didn’t have too many lights. In fact, most of the light from this room was due to the static electricity that was coursing through the glass columns alongside the pathway.

“It’s not just that.” Kirlia started to look around suspiciously. “I can’t sense anyone’s emotions around here. It’s almost as though this tower is abandoned.”

“Abandoned? But that’s impossible, some of those trainers said that they saw the gym leader. So he’s gotta be somewhere around here, right?” It took only a few more steps as we came up to a metal door and a large monitor hanging over it. As we stopped and listened to the hum of electricity, the monitor booted up and lit up with the familiar Pokélightning emblem rotating on the screen.

Welcome to the Lumiose Gym.

“Oh, uh, hi there.” I tried looking around for a camera that was watching us, but with the dim lights I couldn’t see anything so decided to keep watching the screen. He probably had some kind of speaker somewhere near the screen anyways. “You’re the gym leader, right? My name is Max and I was hoping that maybe I could talk to you about something.”

“Max, I’m sure that something’s wrong. I can’t sense anyone in this entire tower.” Her eyes were glowing blue again as her voice was filled with caution. On average, she could sense emotions about twenty feet away from her without having to focus. However, she could extend the range if she wanted to look for someone farther away.

How many badges do you have?” The voice ignored my questions. This was getting a little too strange.

“Oh, well, we just got to the Kalos Region,” I took this chance to back up a step or two, as did Kirlia. “So we don’t have any badges yet. But if I need a certain amount to fight, that’s fine, I can come back. I just wanted to—”

You have none?!” The voice suddenly rang out as if it had some emotion to it. However, Kirlia didn’t look at all responsive to any spike of emotion. If this wasn’t a real person than it seemed pretty realistic. “Not a single gym badge?! In order to challenge the Lumiose Gym, you must have accumulated at least four gym badges!” Well then, I guess it’s safe to say that this is a recording.

Before I could try to say anything in response, two active tesla coils were lowered towards us from the upper corners before the static began to grow more wild and more menacing. “Please leave immediately!

This was a pre-recorded message asking us to leave with preset tesla coils already charging up. It wasn’t giving us a warning, it was some command. There was no escaping the coils in time and now chance to reason with the voice. Not without some kind of deactivation code.

“Kirlia, use Protect!” She instantly dashed forward and held out her hands, forming a small green dome of energy on all sides of us. Good thing too, because as the two tesla coils began to unleash all electricity it was holding, the other machines started to divert more electricity from behind us.

“Good call,” Kirlia projected. Sadly, just as the coils started to retract, the floor underneath us slide out from under us. With no ground below us, Kirlia lost her focus on the shield and we both fell through.

“Kirl, Kirlia!” With her focus gone, I couldn’t understand her anymore as we kept sliding left and right through several vents. Still, I managed to find her hand and held onto her as I saw a light open up ahead of us.

Not a second later, both of us were shot out from the Pokélightning emblem and sent flying towards the cushion below us. However, the cushion was still destroyed.

I gripped Kirlia’s hand as tight as I could. “Kirlia! Teleport!” As we reached the arc of our throw, Kirlia’s eyes brightened up with a bright blue aura and in an instant we appeared only a foot or two above the ground. With the shorter distance, we were safer, but not done.

Teleport is better done whenever you’re standing still. If you’re running or falling, the momentum carries with you. That in mind, I quickly brought my feet forward and managed to stumble to the ground without falling flat on my face.

KIRL!” From beside me, however, I could see Kirlia behind me, clutching her leg and wincing as she tried to put any kind of pressure on it.

“Kirlia, what happened?!” I got up as fast as I could and ran over to pick her up. Still, she was seizing her leg in pain.

A__kle. __rts. H__t, hu__, ___!” Without realizing it, she transmitted her emotions to me as she tried to explain it. I obviously couldn’t read emotions anywhere near as well as she could, but I was able to read this one. Pain.

It probably didn’t hurt nearly as much as her ability was transmitting, but right now the emotions were so strong I could almost feel her pain myself. It took all the strength I had not to fall to the ground myself.

S-S__ry,” The emotions faded faster than they came, but my head was still aching a little. “Can we tr_ to get to the Pokém__ Ce_ter?

“Don’t worry, I’ll get you there as soon as I can.” I reached in towards my side pocket and pulled out a Pokéball. “I know that you don’t like it, but let’s have you rest up for now. That way you won’t get hurt on the way to the Center.” Most of the time she was like Ash’s Pikachu. She liked to walk around with me outside her Pokéball to see the world herself. Of course, if she was hurt or the weather was too bad then she would prefer to be in her Pokéball.

“...Okay…” She let go of her leg and reached out to touch the button on the Pokéball. Although just as she was about to press it, I saw her start to shudder. “Oh no…

“What?” She drew back from the Pokéball and looked over my shoulder. "Is something wrong?"

"He's here."

"He's..." All of a sudden the crowds around us started to quiet down until there was nothing but whispers. Finally, as I turned to look where Kirlia was staring, I could see a group of people making their way through the crowd with sets of camera equipment set to record. And at the front of them all was a condescending grin wrapped in a Pokémon costume.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t the “Princess of Hoenn’s” little brother, Max.” The cameramen stopped just in front of the crowd and were recording both Harley and us.

Oh, why now…” It was under my breath, but my face explained it even louder. So doing my best to keep a neutral frown, I turned to face him and only him. It was almost impossible ignoring the spectators at the Pokémon League. Compared to that, the small crowd and few cameras were nothing. “What do you want Harley?”

“Simple. I want to battle. When I heard that my dear rival’s brother had come to Kalos to hide his shame from his horrible lose back in Hoenn, I wanted to show everyone that it wasn’t just some stroke of bad luck.” It was almost painful how obvious he was playing up for the camera, but I wasn’t in a place to call him on it.

“I’m not battling you Harley,” I took a second to adjust how I was carrying Kirlia before I went on. “Kirlia just got hurt and I need to get her to the Pokémon Center.” I could see the red roof from just behind him. Besides, I wasn’t about to grant Harley his fifteen minutes of fame.

“Cact-Cacturne, turne, turne.” While Harley was thinking of just how to egg me on, Cacturne stood there staring at Kirlia, chuckling to himself.

Max. Put me down.” I looked down only to see Kirlia looking up at me with a determined look on her face.

“Kirlia, I can’t put you through this battle right now. If your ankle gets any worse than I don’t know what might hap—”

Max, that living cactus just called me frail. There is no way that I’m letting him get away with that. Besides, a twisted ankle isn’t going to stop me. I’ll just kick his butt with the other leg.” With each word I could hear her calm demeanor slipping.

“Man. However he said it, it must’ve really ticked you off, huh?” I began to slowly let her down as she balanced herself on her good leg.

Well, that was just the straw that broke the Camerupt’s back. What I’m more concerned about it the cameras. If Blaziken ever hears about how I was too injured to fight, I’ll never hear the end of it from him.

Why am I not surprised? With a sigh, I looked back up to match Harley’s smug grin. He had my conversation and that was all it took to know that Kirlia had changed my mind. Thankfully, the whole time I was talking with Kirlia, she had been taking whatever she was telling me and verbalizing it as well. If she didn’t do that then people might think that I was a crazy person.

Harley placed a hand on his hip. “So I take it that you’ve changed your mind?” His voice sounded so grating at times. Honestly, how does a guy that dresses in spiked pajamas become the bully?

“Yeah, we’ll battle you Harley. As long as you don’t cheat like you do in your contests.” Seeing that this was going to be shown on TV, I know that Mom was going to be mad at me for stooping that low. Still, it’s only fair since he used the Hoenn League on me.

“I-I have no idea what you’re talking about, you little liar!” He quickly tried to right himself before the camera landed on him. Too bad it wasn’t working. “Now then; a one on one battle seems long enough to prove your lack of talent.”

I grinned at him. “Fine by me! I only need Kirlia anyways!” That was a bold-faced lie, however. There was no way I’d let her go through a battle if there was any other way. Sadly, she was the only Pokémon I had with me.

I just hope that this won’t come back to bite us.


Spike’s POV


        “Makuhita! Makuhita are you there?!”

I ran across what had to be the fourth overpass in this town and down another road of nothing but houses. None of them looked all too interesting, nor did I think that Makuhita would just run into some random house. At least I don’t think that he would.

So without a reason to stop, I turned the corner and found myself on one of the main roads. This one was also big enough for these weird metal carriages to pass by in the middle so I made sure to stay on the sidewalks.

As I turned to my left I saw a man walking some well pampered dog, Pokémon, thing towards my direction. “Excuse me,” Both of them looked towards me. “Have you seen a Pokémon called Makuhita? About this tall, kind of big, boxing gloves for hands?”

“No, I don’t think so, sorry. Is it your Pokémon?”

“Uh, no, not really. It’s...Well, I’m pretty sure he said that it belonged to somepon—err—someone named Professor Kuku? Cocoa?” It was only the fourth professor I had heard of today, why was I blanking out on his name?

“Oh, it belongs to the professor?” The man paused for a second. “Would you consider him to be more of a wild Pokémon then?”

“Uh...Sure?” I shrugged.

“Well if it’s a wild Pokémon then you might wanna try the Shuckle Shack. It’s the red and yellow noodle stand just down the street and to the left. You can’t miss it. Trust me...” He pointed behind him for emphasis.

“Uh, o-okay, thanks!” I took off running again down the street, giving every person and Pokémon a wide berth as I kept going. And as I passed them I tried to note every single Pokémon that I passed. Most of them looked somewhat like animals that you’d find back in Equestria, but a few of them I couldn’t begin to compare to anything.

Finally, after only half a minute or so of running, I rounded the corner and immediately spotted the most out of place store on the block. Every other building there looked the same as most of the buildings in this town save for a few that were only two stories tall. However, this building was even smaller than them.

Instead of looking like a rectangular building, it was a curved, red dome-shaped building with these odd yellow tentacles folded along the sides and made into benches with tables set up in front of them. Towards the top of the dome I could see two holes, one on each side, towards the top with the rims of each hole painted white. Not only that, but the holes had a very small amount of steam emitting from them.

Finally, there was the entrance. As if the entire building didn’t look distinguishing enough from the color and shape, there was one last white rimmed hole towards the front of the building. Only this one had a yellow, noodle-like, head sticking out of it with only a black line for a mouth and two thin vertical eyes looking off in the distance. In the head’s mouth, however, was a very simple yet noticeable wooden sign that read only:

Shuckle

Shack

I rubbed my eyes to see if it would go away, but sadly that didn’t work. What made it even more confusing is that a few of the people on this street didn’t even make any movement to pay attention to it. The only thing I could really notice is that a majority of the people on this street were on the opposite side of the road from this “noodle stand.”

As I kept staring, the only thing that had managed to snap me back to reality was the twitch of my nose. For some reason I wasn’t even near the building and yet I could smell the amazing aroma of broth from the place.

“I wonder how the girls would respond to this place...” The thought alone almost made me laugh. Fluttershy would be terrified, Rarity would faint from the atmosphere, Pinkie would be drooling from the smell. Honestly, the place looked like it would get a reaction out of anyone.

Once I made my way over there, I was able to look through the windows of the restaurant. Although instead of having anyone in there, all I could spot was a lady in a blue vest stepping out of the store and messing with some sort of weird blue and white notepad looking thing.

Upon looking up, she finally spotted me. “Oh, Hey Spike! What are you doing here?”

After a few seconds I realized that it was that woman from this morning. “I’m trying to find a Pokémon called Makuhita. One of the windows in Professor Sycamore’s lab broke and he was one the two that ran off.”

“A Makuhita? Hold on a second,” She walked forward a few more steps, sitting against some weird metal bike. Next she started tapping and sliding her fingers back and forth on the notepad. Finally, she pressed some kind of white button towards the bottom, making some weird blue aura appear out of the notepad.

Woah!” I took the chance to take a step towards her and the thing. “I thought there wasn’t any magic here!”

“Uh...What?” She couldn’t help but chuckle a little. “It’s not magic.”

“I-It’s not?” Seeing her cock an eyebrow at me, I cleared my throat. “I mean, I knew that.” I crossed my arms and looked back towards the weird blue aura. “So what is it then?”

“It’s called a Pokémon Identifier. PokéID for short. It’s made to help those of us keeping the peace identify Pokémon and come up with ways to safely take care of any situation involving them. Of course there’s a criminal database in here too, but it’s not used all too often.” As she kept explaining it I saw her start to tap the semi-reflective part of the PokéID with the aura reacting each time.

“It’s not that new either,” She continued. “It came out a few months ago and it uses the same kind of technology that a Holo Caster uses. But since you’re working as Professor Sycamore’s assistant, I’m guessing you’ve already heard about the Holo Caster and Lysandre Labs, huh?”

“Not really,” I shook my head. “I’m his assistant, but I just got here a little while ago. I’m from...Sinnoh.” I didn’t sound all that believable, but thankfully she was still tapping on the PokéID. Between some of what Professor Sycamore was trying to teach me about Pokémon, he thought it would be a good idea if we came up with a story to tell people.

“Well, in that case, watch this,” With one more button press all the symbols and small pictures from the aura disappeared and were replaced with writing and graphs that only made my head spin. The only part of it I could recognize was the picture of Makuhita in the center of it.

Makuhita. The Guts Pokémon.” The PokéID announced. “This Pokémon stands at an average of three feet and three inches tall and weighs around one-hundred and ninety pounds. For small towns near forests and caves, a wild Makuhita sighting is not uncommon. However, for towns far from forests or for most larger cities in general, Makuhita sightings are quite rare. They are not normally aggressive and do not try to become a threat to others unless challenged. However, due to their large diet and harsh training regimen, there threat level is Above Average.

“Wow! That’s definitely better than a book!” She simply smiled at that as she started to tap on the PokéID again.

“Couldn’t agree more,” I watched as a small file symbol showed up with the picture of Makuhita going into it at the same time she slid her finger across the weird do-dad. “Still, you can usually tell which Pokémon are dangerous or not. Either way, it shouldn’t be too hard to find a Pokémon like this. Provided no one catches him first.”

As the aura faded back into the PokéID, she put it in some kind of holder strapped to her belt and turned towards me. “And luckily for you I’m looking for him too.”

“You are?” She nodded. “Why?” Within moments, her smile disappeared and her shoulders slouched a bit.

“Well, apparently Professor Sycamore’s Makuhita found his way here not too long ago,” She gestured towards the noodle place behind her with a nod of her head. “From what I can guess, he was probably drawn to the smell of the broth and came in to starting eating the first bowl of noodles he saw which was supposed to go to a customer. Long story short, things got out of hand and before I could get here in time, the owner ended up chasing him out of here himself.” She gave me a sad smile. “Aside from the incident regarding you and that Gastly, you could say that today’s been pretty slow.”

“Yeah, I wish.” With a sigh, I looked back in the restaurant. All I could see in there was a few of the Pokémon that the building was designed after making their way around the shop, helping the owner clean up the knocked over tables. “So where do you think he went?”

“Well, the owner said that Makuhita left the store and made a left so if I had to guess than I’d say that he’s almost at Prism Tower by now.” To emphasize her point, she pointed towards the tower in the distance.

“Oh great,” I deadpanned. “How am I supposed to catch up with him now?” I turned back towards the woman just in time to catch a blue helmet.

“Easy,” With a twist of her wrist, she turned the handle on the bike, causing it to give out a small roar. She then gestured to the back of the bike as it continued to hum. “Get on.”

I looked back down towards the helmet and then back towards the tower. It definitely wasn’t how I wanted to get there, but it was the only option I could think of. “Okay then,” Reluctantly, I put the helmet on, strapped it together, and climbed on the back of the bike.

Before I could even tell her I was ready, the bike suddenly blasted forwards with me holding onto dear life in the back and screaming like a foal.


Max’s POV


        After Harley and I had gotten to our respectful sides of the field, the crowds were still in the process of clearing while at the same time getting bigger. Thankfully there were still lines on the cement for the Pokémon field, so people knew just how far back to get.

“You know Max,” From the other side of the field I saw Harley standing there with his hand resting on his hip. His experience as a Coordinator made being on camera easy for him. “You could just admit your faults right now and I’ll call it even!”

“Call what even? You’re the one that keeps pestering me and my sister!” I saw one of the two cameras focus in towards me, nearly making me cringe. Whether it was two cameras or two hundred, I was not cut out for TV.

“Pestering?! Why you little twerp!” Almost all in an instant he went from a walking cucumber to a steaming vegetable. And with a huff, he turned up his nose. “And to think I offered you a way out.”

“Huh, twerp...That’s a name I haven’t heard in a while.” I couldn’t help but smile at the memories, only making Harley even angrier.

“Alright then, if both sides are ready!” Suddenly, both of our attentions were brought towards a man in overalls with a light green flat cap stood of to the side of the field. “My name is Meyer and I’ll be the ref for this battle! So, as stated before, this will be a one on one Pokémon battle between Max with his Pokémon Kirlia and Harley with his Cacturne!”

As he finished introducing him, I could hear what sounded like several dozen girls cheering Harley’s name with Harley simply giving out some “polite” waves in return.

Max? Was Harley always this popular?” Kirlia’s voice rang out in my mind as she stood directly ahead of me. Thankfully, Kirlia has perfect balance, so her leg wasn’t really an issue right now.

I couldn’t respond to her without speaking out loud, but she had a good point. Harley was a good Pokémon Coordinator, as much as I hated to admit it, but he wasn’t really so good as to warrant a fan club or anything.

“So, if both sides are ready,” As Meyer brought all attention back on him, any sign of Kirlia speaking to me faded out. That was the biggest downside with her speaking telepathically. She needed plenty of focus to do it. It wasn’t exhausting, but it just wasn’t possible if she were in a battle.

“Let the battle begin!”

From across the field I could spot Harley with a smug grin. “Alrighty Cacturne! Let’s end this quick with a Feint Attack!”

With little warning, Cacturne began to rush forward at an alarming rate towards Kirlia while keeping low to the ground.

“That’s what you think! Kirlia, use protect!” Waiting until he was directly in front of her, Kirlia rose up a single arm before a near-invisible force field formed around her. Just in time to as Cacturne brought up one of its knees with the intent to smash into Kirlia’s side.

Instead, the force field caught the blow, the strength rippling across the shield. Harley gave out a growl as Cacturne tried to jump back.

Too bad he wasn’t about to get far. “Kirlia! Hidden Power!”

Immediately protect faded odd as Kirlia held out both arms, one on each side, and focused as pure energy began to collect in her palms.

“Kirl!” Her attention snapped up towards the still suspended Cacturne as she brought both arms forward, forcing the two balls of energy to form into one. What resulted was a strong blast of water directly to Cacturne’s face, redirecting him further back away than what he initially intended.

However, as Cacturne slid to a stop, all the water remaining on him suddenly faded away and was instead replaced with a light green aura. And as the green light faded, Harley’s grin grew.

“Well thanks, Maxie! How’d you know we were feeling thirsty?!” Both he and his Cacturne were laughing at us whereas we were both gritting our teeth in anger. I forgot that Cacturne had the ability Water Absorb.

As I narrowed my eyes, I spotted a small part of the ground under Cacturne was now a puddle of water. Perfect!

“Well if you like that so much, than how about this! Kirlia, Charge Beam!”

“Kirl!” She brought her arms back in front of her and held her hands as if she were cradling a small sphere in her hands. It didn’t take long before I could see the sparks emitting from the small orb of lightning she created.

“Good, now aim for his feet!” Instantly, Harley and Cacturne looked down and spotted exactly what my plan was. Sadly it was too late as the orb instantly became an electric beam, shocking not only the puddle, but Cacturne at the same time.

“Oh no, Cacturne, hun!” instantly, all the water from the puddle was reduced to nothing as Cacturne was shaking off whatever static remained.

“Caaaac…” Slowly, I could see Cacturne eyeing Kirlia from under his hat. As he did, both Kirlia and I could see that whatever he was thinking, it wasn’t good.

Err...I’ll show you! Cacturne! Use Bullet Seed!” He held out a hand in our direction, playing up the crowd as he went on. Meanwhile, his Cacturne’s smile began to grow a bit wider.

“Cac, turne-turne-turne-turne-turne!” With a small breath, he began shooting seed after seed with them first striking the ground and then slowly making its way towards Kirlia.

Instincts took over and Kirlia tried to take a step back, but there existed the problem. The moment her bad leg touched the ground she out a yelp and held her leg for comfort only for a steady stream of seeds to strike the same bad leg.

“No, Kirlia!” Suddenly, the seeds brought with them a small amount of steam, covering Kirlia in a kind of smokescreen. “Are you okay?!”

“If she is then she won’t be for long!” I looked back up to see Drew sucking up to the camera some more. With a small spin, he pointed down towards the smoke where Kirlia was sitting. “Cacturne, keep that Pokémon on the ground with Needle Arm!”

“WHAT?!” My hands clenched upon hearing his command. What was Harley doing, he can’t just attack Kirlia now! She might be unconscious already!

“Kirlia!” I regained my attention on the smoke, knowing that Cacturne was charging towards it from the other side. “If you can hear me then use Teleport, quick!”

Caaaaaaaac…” From the other side of the smokescreen I could see Cacturne jumping up the smoke with every single thorn on its arm extended almost threefold, ready to skewer Kirlia. “Turne!

It dove down, disappearing into the smoke before all of us could hear the loud crack of cement from the center of the arena.

“Ha!” Harley struck a pose in victory. “Game. Set. Match.”

I leaned back, letting out a sigh of relief that I didn’t realize I was holding in. “Check again Harley.”

“Huh?” His grin turned sour as he tried to get a clearer look inside the smoke that was finally beginning to subside. So far, everyone could see Cacturne’s silhouette, but they couldn’t tell much else.

For a few more moments the crowd was just as silent, trying their hardest to see what was in the smoke. The only noise that came from them was the sound of some kind of bike screeching to a stop.

“Any sign of him?”
“No! Check near the tower!”

Finally, the smoke began to clear and to everyone’s surprise the only thing they could see was Cacturne with one or two needles from his arm embedded into the ground. There were several cracks in the ground, but aside from that, there was no sight of Kirlia anywhere.

“Cac, turne! Turne!” Cacturne was looking around with a scowl, trying his hardest to pull his needles out of the ground.

AHH! Cacturne!” Harley tried striking me down himself with a scowl of his own. “You little brat! You set us up!”

“Not yet, I haven’t! Kirlia, come on back!” Looking past the helpless Cacturne, Kirlia teleported right behind him with her eyes glowing with a faint blue aura. She was still crouched low to the ground, hugging her leg, but as far as she was concerned she was too angry to care.

“Cacturne, honey, get outta there quick!” Harley was clutching his arms in fear, worried about the position he was in now.

“Now so great when the tables are turned, huh?! Kirlia, use another charge beam!” Cacturne froze, looking up towards me with a mixture of fear and anger.

“Cacturne! Try to block it with—” Harley couldn’t get his command out in time as suddenly Kirlia shot the beam forward, striking into the center of Cacturne’s back.

Cacturne immediately convulsed as the electricity made its way around his body and as soon as the beam faded away, Cacturne fell to his knees with an heavy look to him. It was winded, but I knew that Kirlia wasn’t doing even worse than he was.

“Alright, that’s it! I’m done playing nice! Cacturne!” As Harley called for him, Cacturne snapped to attention. It gave one last scowl at me before finally busting out its arm. “Time to bring this charade to an end!”

You mean he’s not even tired?! I stood in shock as Cacturne slowly craned his head towards Kirlia, who was taking a moment to try and get back on her good leg only to fall to her knees once more.

I knew that this was a bad idea, I thought to myself. If this keeps up, Kirlia’s going to end up needing much more than an afternoon at the Pokémon Center.

“Now, hon, let’s show them once and for all who they're dealing with.” Harley hid his face under his hat as though to keep any more surprises from breaking his composure. “Poison Sting!”

“Turne,” Cacturne stretched out its arms towards Kirlia.

“There you are!”
“Maku?!”

“Kirlia, Double Team!” She looked back up towards me and upon seeing Cacturne, narrowed her eyes before quickly making one image after another, creating plenty of other targets for Cacturne to aim for.

“Cacturne,” Cacturne’s gaze narrowed in response as small needles of poison jutted out from both arms like sprinklers as he mowed down the entire set of Kirlia. Once most of them had faded, Cacturne finally struck the real Kirlia and continued to focus the rest of his Poison Sting on her alone.

“Kirlia?!” Instead of falling to her knees, she fell to her hands. She had reached her limit and even the referee could tell.

However, just before he could call the match, Harley smirked from under his hat. “You should’ve stayed with May, kiddo. Cacturne, time for the encore!”

“No, wait, stop!” The ref tried to call off the attack, but neither of them paid him any mind. Meanwhile, I had given up trying to call out to Kirlia and instead took the chance to run forward.

“Makuhita, slow down!” From the left I could see a Pokémon running out onto the field at the same time as me, although with the path it was going it was going to go somewhere between Kirlia and Cacturne.

“Not so fast!” Suddenly from the opposite side of the field a woman in blue stepped out of the crowd, holding out a hand towards the Pokémon and causing him to skid to a stop. Directly between Cacturne and Kirlia.

“Kirlia!” Kirlia called out towards the new Pokémon, earning its attention for a moment before it looked ahead and spotted the Cacturne about to unload poison.

HITA!

“Lookout!” Finally, a third person came running onto the field just as I managed to get halfway towards Cacturne. This time it was a kid about my age and right behind the Makuhita.

Sadly, all of this had happened so quickly that not even Cacturne could stop his own attack from going off. So with little choice left, the kid jumped in front of the stray Pokémon, taking the attack a point-blank range with nothing but his own arms to help block the shot.

All of us, Harley and myself, the crowd, and the cameras could only stand there and watch in horror as dozens of stingers struck every part of this kid, causing him to only recoil in pain with each hit.

To Cacturne’s credit, once he saw that what he was hitting was definitely not Kirlia, the Poison Sting ended as soon as it could, leaving the kid to slowly lower his arms with a painful hiss.

“H-Hita...?” The Pokémon behind the kid, who had braced for the attack himself, slowly looked up and saw that he was perfectly safe. Then, he noticed that the kid in front of him, shaking from what had just happened. “Maku?”

Oww,” The kid looked over his shoulder with stiff movements and found the Pokémon behind him. “Uh,” He tried to look over the Pokémon. “Are you okay?”

“Maku maku.” The Pokémon nodded along, walking up next to him to look him over as well. “Hita?”

“Huh?” The Pokémon pointed towards the kid’s ripped up clothes to try and get the point across. “Oh, yeah, I’m...Fine?” It sounded as though he were unsure of the answer himself, but as he checked around his chest and arms he looked more confused than injured. “Huh. That’s weird. No needles.”

From behind him, Harley began to clear his throat, earning the kid’s attention. “Excuse me. I think you’re interrupting something!”

“Interrupting?” The kid took the chance to look around for the first time, seeing the group of people, the Kirlia on the ground, the cameramen, and finally the Cacturne standing directly in front of him.

Gah!” Instantly, the kid jumped back, not daring to break eye contact with the Pokémon. “Dude, that’s creepy.”

Cac!
WHAAAAAAT?!” Both Harley and Cacturne took double-takes at what he said. “Did you just call my darling Cacturne creepy?!” Harley’s tone went from whiny to high-pitched annoying as he glared holes into the back of this guy’s head.

Was he really not paying any attention to the battle?

“Uh...Darling? I dunno...” The kid looked over his shoulder towards the man, and within a second he spotted the clothes Harley was wearing. “Um, why are you dressed up in the same way that he is?”

From where I was I could see Harley losing it the more this kid kept asking questions, his eye twitching, his hands trying to make some kind of gestures while he kept stumbling over every syllable.

Meanwhile, I could spot the Pokémon that had run out here make its way over to Kirlia, offering a hand to help her back up. One that she gladly accepted.

Thank you,” Kirlia’s telepathy went out to both the Pokémon as well as myself as she knew I was just as concerned about her if not moreso. Still, as she got up to her feet, she winced in pain from her leg being targeted during the battle.

“Maku,” The Pokémon picked up on her injury right away. “Makuhita?”

No, it’s not from the battle. At least not initially. I twisted my ankle before they challenged us,” She then looked up towards Cacturne, who was going back and forth between the kid and Harley right now as their one-sided argument got even more heated. “Tall, dark, and pointy over there didn’t mind making it worse, however.

“Hita?!” The Pokémon turned to glare down the Cacturne. “Makuhita, maku!” Cacturne stopped watching Harley by this point and had turned to look back towards the Pokémon with only a satisfied grin to give in return.

Yes. It was pretty unfair,” Kirlia nodded along. “Then again, I would’ve beaten him if I was at my best.

“Haven’t you heard of me before?!” Suddenly, all attention was brought back onto Harley. “The name’s Harley, shrimp! Harley Cassanote! The same Cassanote that became Top Coordinator in the Sinnoh Region!” Oh, if I haven’t heard that enough times.

My sister ended up taking second place to this guy and while she was hiding it pretty well, I knew that she was dying inside because of that. It was also probably why she took on Unova with Dawn. She knew for a fact that Harley wasn’t going to the same region.

“Nope,” The kid shook his head. “I’ve never heard of you.”

GAH!” In that moment, Harley looked about ready to collapse. I made sure I wasn’t in the way of the cameras as that happened. “Why you…!

Once he righted himself, he took a few steps forward, getting right up into the kid’s face and started talking just quiet enough where the cameras and crowd couldn’t hear him. “Now look here. I didn’t come here to be ridiculed by some young critic. Besides, you’re the amatuer trainer that barged onto the field with his hideous Pokémon.”

MAKU?!” The kid’s Pokémon looked enraged, but thankfully Kirlia was able to calm him down before anything became of it.

As the kid stood there with Harley standing in his face, he started to glare back, finally realizing this was an argument. “Hey! I’m not the one that tried to shoot needles at a defenseless Pokémon!” He pointed towards both of them, so it was hard to tell whether he was talking about Kirlia or his own, especially from an outsider’s point of view. “Besides, if you didn’t wanna be critiqued so badly, than why are you in your pjs?”

“...” Harley’s jaw hung loose as he straightened his back, looking down on the kid thanks to his height advantage. “You little brat! I’ll have you know that my fashion sense is the best you will ever find!”

“Pfft, not a chance!” He just crossed his arms and glared Harley back down. “Anything Rarity makes is ten times better than your cactus clothes!”

From the left of me I could see a small group of girls give out a collective gasp of horror. This whole time they have been doing nothing but cheering Harley on and now they were glaring daggers through this kid.

“Fine then. How’s about you try and back up those claims then?” Cacturne took the chance to walk over beside his trainer. “Just one battle. Myself and my darling Cacturne versus you and your Pokémon over there. That should be more than enough to jog your memory of who I am.”

“My. My Pokémon?” He looked back towards his Pokémon who was trying to keep from swinging at both of the figures in green. “You mean the Makuhita?” And finally I have a name! I didn’t have a PokéDex with me so I couldn’t find out what his name was.

The kid looked back towards Harley. “I mean, he’s not really—” Before he could explain, Makuhita called out, running up beside the kid.

“Maku! Maku-hit-hit-hita!” He started making a few jabbing motions before just standing in a boxer’s pose.

“You...You want to fight?” Makuhita nodded. “Uh…” After looking around a little, he finally stopped at me since I was the closest to him. “C-Can I really just do that? Here?”

“Yeah, sure. We don’t mind. Right Kirlia?” She simply gave out a small cry of her name, nodding happily as she turned to look towards Makuhita.

I got him all warmed up for you. Be sure to give him a good punch for us.” Kirlia held up a hand, looking just as determined as she had before.

“Maku-maku,” The Makuhita made a gesture towards the weird symbol on his chest before giving out a chuckle.

Good to hear.” Kirlia’s spirits looked even better as she went ahead and used Teleport to appear right beside me. It was kind of a way of the move, but she knew that she was probably getting to a Pokémon Center sometime soon.

“Well o-okay,” The kid gave out a small cough before turning back towards Harley. “I guess we’ll battle then…”