//------------------------------// // The Beginnings of An Adventure (Episode 2) // Story: We All Live In A Pokemon World... // by 4428Gamer //------------------------------// Kirlia’s POV Once Max and I had all gotten to the lab we noticed how everything was already starting to calm down. Spike was given an antidote for his poison and was apparently resting up in his room. From what the Pokémon around here had told me, he had already been through enough today so he was going to just be staying in a room for the night. Thankfully the professor had three or so rooms since a majority of the lab aids were doing some projects outside of the lab. As for Makuhita, I saw him in what I could only call a makeshift Pokémon Center. They had all the necessary things to help me and him with our injuries. In fact, I was already up and walking after about an hour or so. Although Makuhita was still resting when I headed out to see Max about his call with May. Except there was a problem with that. Apparently after talking with her earlier today, she already headed off to the next town, Striaton City. That’s what the Nurse Joy had told us at least. She overheard May and another girl named Dawn making plans to go to this popular restaurant that was located there. That being said, Max had no choice but to wait for the next chance to ask May about Harley. He went ahead and put in a notice at Striaton City’s Pokémon Center ahead of time to let May know that we’re trying to get a hold of her, but aside from that we didn’t have anything else to do. To make things a little nicer for us. Professor Sycamore offered us a place to stay for the night. Apparently the Pokémon Centers around here, emphasis on the plural, never had too many vacant rooms for trainers. So we gladly took the professor up on the offer. That led me up to this point now. At the moment, Max’s parents had finally received word about what happened here in Kalos so he was trying to explain everything to him. And with how angry Max’s Mom seemed, I was thankful that I couldn’t sense their emotions through the phone. Still, that left me without much to do. So to try and fight off boredom, and get as far away from Max’s phonecall as possible, I was heading for the biodome that the professor told us about. If I wanted to go visit, then I was free to do so. It didn’t take too long to find the place either. It was just down the stairs, turn right, and voila. A glass door leading into the biodome. What made it even better was that the door wasn’t secure from a psychic-type opening the doors. Usually these kinds of rooms made it so that way psychic-types and ghost-types couldn’t just phase through the doors or force them open manually. Once I was through the entrance I let the doors close on their own and began to walk forward. The entire room was like its own little forest in a bubble. I had thought that it would just look like some kind of park, but the entire room was pretty in its own right. “Huh. You’re new.” Over towards my right I saw another Pokémon, a Tyrogue, leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest. He looked adamant, but his emotions didn’t make him out to be quite that negative. He was angry about something, but not me. “You get caught too?” I raised an eyebrow towards him. “Caught?” I shook my head and changed the subject. I didn’t come here to have this conversation. “Do you know where I might find Makuhita?” In an instant I could sense his anger gravitate towards me. With a huff he stood back up and uncrossed his arms. That allowed me to see the symbol on his chest as he squared up to me. “Okay seriously, why is that guy getting so many fans for losing a match?” Without waiting for a response, Tyrogue turned on his heel and started walking off in a random direction. He then pointed off towards the stream that led deeper into the trees. “He’s over there with the rest of his fanclub.” And with that, he turned to go around this large rocky hill. “Well...Pleasant guy,” Still, I had my destination and started heading out. It didn’t take too long considering that the room was much smaller than an actual forest and I could just teleport onto the opposite side of the stream.         “I still don’t get it,” After teleporting, I could hear a familiar voice from my right. “How could Cacturne play so unfair? That’s not how a battle’s supposed to go.” Next came a sigh from a higher voice. “I swear, you are too innocent sometimes. Obviously the fight wasn’t meant to be fair in the first place.” “The little lady’s gotta point,” A rougher voice had agreed. “Seems ta me that they had it all planned out. Well, excluding you and that kid jumping out in the battle.” “Still, you have to wonder why that Cacturne and his trainer were so mean to that first trainer.” Another young female’s voice, coming from the Happiny from beside Makuhita. She was apparently applying bandages to him despite him not needing them whatsoever. "I think I know why." My voice startled a few of them, but others were happy to see me regardless. All except for the Happiny who let out a sharp gasp. "What are you doing walking around like that?!" After securing a liberal amount of bandages on Makuhita's arm, she rushed over to me with an entire new roll of bandages in her hands. "You're ankle is still messed up!" I could only chuckle. "Don't worry about it, I already had it looked at yester--" "No!" I blinked and watched as the Happiny gave me a disapproving pout. For someone that looked younger than me, she was acting too much like a mother. "Those scientists know nothing about treating injuries! The last time I left their work unchecked, the bandages weren't secure and Snubbull had an infection!" Happiny's narrowed her eyes at me. "So come sit down and let the professional check your ankle." "...Okay," Slowly I nodded along and slowly followed her back to the group before sitting down with them. "Thank you~!" All of the previous anger had turned into happiness as she began to play nurse. As she did I saw a few of the other Pokémon rolling their eyes, but they said nothing. "So what was Cacturne's problem anyways?" Happiny looked up to me for a second before continuing to examine my ankle. "Well apparently his trainer Harley is a Pokémon Coordinator, as is my trainer's sister, May." "Coordinator?" The same Eevee from yesterday was among one the group. "What the heck is a Coordinator?" "A better version of them Pokémon Performers." This time it was the Geodude that spoke up. "Instead of dressing up the Pokémon and having some kinda talent show, they use their moves in these creative ways and battle each other with a point system instead of last Pokémon standing" His voice sounded gruff and elderly, but that was probably far from the actual truth. His tone and emotions pointed towards something of a teenager. To make it even more confusing, however, a teenage Geodude sat somewhere around 80 years old. Honestly it was almost as confusing as dragon-type Pokémon. To make this even weirder, that gruff voice had explained Pokémon Contests with some kind of high regard. Resulting in everyone slowly turning towards him with looks of confusion. "What?" Geodude wasn't all too thrilled by the looks and crossed his arms. "Am I not allowed ta ya like Contests?" Once he saw my shiver of disgust, he began to tighten his glare at me. "Oh, I'm sorry Ms. Ballet! Didn't know it was that unbelievable fee you ta hear!" "No, no, it's not that." I held up my hands in defense. "I was just picturing me in one of those Performances." "Oh. Pardon the glare then." He dropped his frown before finding someone else in the group who looked creeped out by his opinions. "Why hate those performance things then? Stage fright?" A Piplup cocked his head to the side. "Oh please, I couldn't care about crowds," I looked down towards Happiny as she continued. She had put the bandages away and was doing one last check for any other problems. Despite her childish personality, she apparently took being a nurse seriously. "The bigger problem I have is the performance itself. Trying to impress the crowd with these useless tricks, points instead of a straight battle, having to dress up..." Another shiver went down my spine. "It's just not for me. I'd rather be in real battles and be in the Pokémon League." "Pokémon League?" Makuhita chimed in for once in the conversation. Before now he was just stretching a little whenever Happiny wasn't looking. "That sounds kind of familiar. What's that about?" "You've never heard of it?" I looked at him confusedly. He merely shook his head. "Nope. I don't think they have one of those in the Alola region. And before that, I was only in the Hoenn region for three years." "Alola? Huh, I've never heard of that region before." I pondered over the name for a few seconds before going on. "Anyways, the Pokémon League is basically where a skilled trainer and up to six of his Pokémon go through a tournament of battling with other trainers. "In order to even compete in the League the team must defeat eight gym leaders and earn eight badges from across the region. So far, Max and I have only been in one Pokémon League." I decided it was probably best that I leave out how we lost for now. "Woah..." I could almost hear the light bulb about to activate in his mind. "So, you fight some strong Pokémon there than?" "Yep," I nodded with a triumphant smirk on my face. "It was actually pretty tough if I'll be honest." Now if only we got to fight more than one other team. "Huh...Okay then." With a nod, he jumped up to his feet. "I'm going to this Pokémon League thing." "Huh?" Happiny stood up and gave me a nod, signaling to me that I was good to go. "What do you mean?" "I'm gonna be in that Pokémon League." Makuhita made a wide smile. "Uh, you can't just say that you're gonna go there you know." I gave him a disapproving look. He had no idea how difficult it actually was. "But I just did though." He looked confused. "Besides, it sounds fun." "Hey, Kirlia." The Minccino looked over at me with a bubbly emotion about her. "You might as well go along with it. Makuhita doesn't say no to much of anything." "Yeah. He's as stubborn as that one trainer that came by here." Geodude closed his eyes and thought back. "Both him an' that Pikachu a his were so determined ta save Garchomp." "Pikachu?" I turned towards Geodude. "There was a Pikachu that came by here?" "Sure as a rock slide," Geodude nodded along. "Apparently that Pikachu an' his trainer were runnin all the way here ta save that little runt, Froakie." “Hey, don’t talk bad about Froakie!” Eevee, a second one, chimed in. “Froakie’s been here longer than most of us! Besides, that trainer was the nicest one that Froakie’s met yet.” That’s gotta be him. “I need to go find Max,” I stood back up and dusted the grass off my skirt as I did. “Sorry for bothering all of you.” “Oh! Can I come with you?!” Without waiting for an answer, Makuhita hopped up onto his feet, ignoring the complaints that Happiny was shouting. “I still need to find that Spike human and say sorry.” “And you also you want to go to the Pokémon League.” I added with a raised eyebrow. “...” His smile slowly diminished until it shared the same amount of guilt as his aura. “Well, yeah. But I still want to see if he’s okay though.” I nodded along and smiled. “Well in that case, come right this way. I think I saw him and the professor just next door to my trainer.” “Awesome!” He threw his arms up into the air with a huge grin on his face. However, he had failed to notice the bandages on his left shoulder loosening. “Hold it right there!” Running towards him, I could see the ends of Happiny’s hand’s glowing faintly. Then, as she ran right up in front of Makuhita, the light transformed into long, sharp claws. “You’re not going anywhere, you!” “AH!” Makuhita tried to shield his face, but his guard was dropped. So without any defense at the ready, Happiny began to claw at Makuhita’s face. However, with as wild as her attacks seemed, she had avoiding hitting any of the bandages anywhere on Makuhita. “Hmph,” She stood beside him with a huff as the claws retracted back into light before fading entirely. “Now sit down so I can fix your bandages. “Yes mam.” However, instead of sitting back down, he just collapsed onto his back and let Happiny joyfully correct his bandages. “Good choice~!” Her tone was very sing-song as she, quite professionally, tightened his bandages. “That was metronome, wasn’t it?” I looked back towards Happiny. “What if you used a stronger move by mistake?” “Well then I guess Makuhita would learn the hard way then, wouldn’t he?” She gave me a wink before checking over the rest of his bandages. “Okay then, get going.” “Really?” I couldn’t help but smirk at the exchange between them. “Aren’t his bandages going to loosen if he starts walking off?” Her smile quickly diminished into a tired sigh. “Yeah, but he’s going to go whether I want him to or not.” Quickly, an idea hit her as she looked up at me. “If he’s going wherever you are, do you think you can keep an eye on him for me? You know, to at least make sure that he doesn’t go into any more battles for the time being?” I could only chuckle as Makuhita jumped up to his feet, which made Happiny glare at him. “I can try, but I make no promises.” “Trying is all I ask.” With a nod, she went to pick up her set of bandages and tucked them away in her pouch right beside the egg-shaped stone. “So, how do we get through the door anyways?” From behind me Makuhita hurriedly making his way towards the door. “Huh?” I spun around to face him, narrowing my eyes in his direction. “You know I’m supposed to lead the way right?” I ignored the responses of the group behind me and decided to Teleport right beside the door. Other psychic-types might call me lazy for using Teleport in such an irresponsible way, but I didn’t really care. Pokémon didn’t have too many chances to Teleport ‘responsibly,’ so why waste the move if you have it? “Woah, you’re fast!” I rolled my eyes at the comment and used Psychic to open the glass doors with a wave of my hand. And apparently it was enough to make his eyes light up momentarily. “You’re a little too easy to impress you know?” Nonetheless I accepted the silent praise as we went through the door and closed it behind us. “The room we’re looking for should up the stairs and to the right. Follow me.” Spike’s POV         “Ugh...I think those poison needles made me groggy. Maybe I should go back to bed...” The professor chuckled. “Nice try, mon amie.” A pat on the back didn’t help me to snap out of my daze either, but that didn’t stop him. “Besides, it’s better for you to be awake by noon at the least.” “Not if this guy has anything to say about it.” I gave out a tired yawn before spotting the other guy in here. “Hey, uh, Max?” “Yeah?” After he went off to talk to someone, he came back here with a look of relief before seeing if I was okay. It wasn’t that I was unthankful, I just wish I could’ve slept in a little more. “So who was that guy anyways? He seemed really angry at me for some reason.” I reached over to the coffee table in front of me and helped it serve its purpose. Holding my coffee. I guess that was a perk of being here; Twilight couldn’t keep me from having the very thing that kept her awake all morning. “Oh. That.” He took a second to glare off to the side before turning back to me. “His name was Harley. And for some reason, he has it in for my sister, May. They’re both Coordinators.” “But what does that have to do with either of us?” “That’s a good question, isn’t it?” Max just nodded along. “For some reason, he just gets offended by everyone, no matter how little a thing it is. And now I think we’re both on his list.” “Great…” Not half a minute has gone by and already I need to reach for my coffee again. “Let’s hope that I just never run into him again.” “Hey, if you do, then at least you’ll have Makuhita to help take him down. You almost had him yesterday.” “Have Makuhita? What do you mean?” After another sip of coffee I decided to just keep it in my hands. Never know when you need another sip. “He and I just got caught in the middle of the field.” “Wait, so, Makuhita isn’t your Pokémon?” Max took his turn to start asking questions. Although before I could answer… “Max, that’s a great idea!” Professor Sycamore smiled before turning towards me. “Spike, you can take Makuhita with you on your journey!” “Wait, you’re going on a Pokémon Journey too?” Max looked over at me with some surprise. “That’s great Spike!” “...” Meanwhile, I was enjoying a long sip of coffee as the both of them only got more and more excited. “Maku-maku!” Suddenly, the door swung open as Max’s Pokémon and a heavily bandaged Makuhita came running in, causing me to choke a little bit on my only liquidy friend. There was now only a third of it left. “And speak of the Pokémon and he doth appear.” The professor chuckled as Makuhita rushed over to me, stopping directly in front of me as he started saying his name over and over again in different ways. “H-Hold on, hold on!” I gave a sad goodbye to my coffee before setting it back on the table. “A-Are you okay? Why do you have so many bandages?” And after seeing his face as he stood still, I noticed something. “And what’s with all the claw marks? Did you get scratched up by a cat or something?” “Hii,” Makuhita shook his head with a bashful smile. “Mak makuhita! Ku, hita mak?” “Uh…” I don’t even think I could pretend to understand that. “I think he’s trying to see if you’re okay.” Max gave me a small smile as Makuhita nodded along. How did he get that? “Well, I guess I’m fine. Or at least, better than you’re doing right now.” Makuhita looked confused before I pointed towards the bandages on his shoulder. The professor just gave out a sigh. “Seems like Happiny didn’t think we did a good enough job helping Makuhita. Still, at least he’s in good hands.” He stood up and began to head for the door. “I’ll be right back, I just need to get a few things. In the meantime, I think you have a question for Makuhita, right Spike?” By the time I even opened my mouth to respond, he had left the room. “Gee, thanks for the help professor.” Shaking my deadpanned expression away, I turned towards Makuhita. “...” Wait a second, just what exactly am I supposed to ask him? Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Max’s Pokémon taking a seat next to him on his couch. Neither of them seemed to say anything, but they were looking towards each other for a second. Then, after a few more seconds of it, Max spoke up again. “You know, I’ve been meaning to ask you guys, what’s with the paint on Makuhita?” He pointed towards the Makuhita’s chest, but he was making eye contact with me a little too much. Almost as if he were trying to give me some kind of signal. But what? “The paint?” I shook away the feeling for a second and looked down at the Makuhita’s chest. “Oh, that. Well, the professor says it’s supposed to resemble something. I think it was called Way of the. Fist?” The Makuhita shook his head and made a punching mot— “Punch! Sorry, it’s Way of the Punch.” He nodded in agreement. “Way of the Punch?” Both he and his Pokémon shared a look. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that.” “I just heard about it yesterday.” I shrugged as Makuhita got in a boxer pose, similar to how he stood in the fight yesterday. “He’s trying to learn every punch move there is. And,” Makuhita decided to give them a demonstration. He wound up his right arm until he had some momentum behind it. Although instead of throwing a punch, he instead swung upwards just as his arm seemed to give off some kind of bright shine to it. And just as that shine faded away, his entire arm seemed to be coated in metal as if it were some kind of robot arm. Sadly, at the same time the bandages on his shoulder flew off of his arm and landed besides him lifelessly. Upon seeing the bandages, Makuhita folded his arms behind him as the metal faded away. He then gave a nervous chuckle towards Max’s Pokémon before saying a few more things. “Kirlia,” However, she merely dismissed Makuhita’s worry with a small wave. Max just smiled along. “Well there’s still a lot more punching moves than that. It sounds like he has a pretty long road ahead of him.” The Makuhita nodded along with a look of triumph. “Yeah, it actually sounds pretty cool.” After Makuhita untangled himself from the remaining bandages, he started hopping in place, psyching himself out in the middle of the room. As he did, I saw Max and his Pokémon looking over towards me. Neither of them were saying anything though. “...” Slowly, we all kind of went into an awkward silence with Makuhita blissfully unaware of it. In fact, he was doing the exact opposite as he just started punching in a random direction before ducking under an imaginary swing from the enemy. It was almost hilarious had I not been directly across the room from the other two. “Um…” I slowly reached for my coffee without breaking eye contact. Then as I took a sip I saw Max nodding his head in a weird way with his Pokémon’s expression quickly going into an impatient one. “So, what are you guys going to do no—” “Oh for the love of Arceus, I’m not doing this; ASK HIM ALREADY!” “Waugh!” Nearly dropping the mug of coffee, I clutched my head in pain as something akin to the Canterlot Voice kept echoing off in my brain. “Ow, what was…?!” “Makuhita’s as pumped up as he’s going to be! Just ask him to travel with you NOW!” Wait a second. That voice… “Twilight?” I ignored the echoing as much as I could and looked around. I swear, it sounded exactly like her...Almost like her...A little, like her… “Kirlia?!” Max turned towards his Pokémon and talked through gritted teeth. “What was that for?” “Sorry! Sorry.” The same voice came the other side of the room like a soft speaker. More specifically, it came from the Kirlia that had a faint flow to both of the red things sticking out of her head. “It’s just that this is such an annoying situation. I mean both of them want to travel with each other.” The more I heard that voice the more I found the similarities. It was almost exactly like Twilight’s voice. The only difference was that the voice had the same kind of ‘ready for action’ tone as Rainbow Dash, so it seemed just different enough to tell the difference. But only barely. “Maku?” Makuhita stopped shadow boxing and looked over towards Max’s Pokémon. “Hita?” “Oops.” Quickly, the Kirlia covered her mouth with her hands. Even though she wasn’t talking through her mouth. Or was she? “Okay, that was my bad.” “Mak. Hita?” Makuhita turned towards me with a curious look. “Um, well…” I still couldn’t understand him, although I wish I could, so instead I went ahead and put the mug down, empty. “So, what do you think? Do you want to travel around? You might be able to learn how to get other, erm, punching moves.” “Hii…” He kept looking at me as if he were trying to figure out if this was all real. But in seconds it all drained from him and he jumped up as if to tackle me to the ground. “Maku-hita!” “Woah! Okay, okay!” The guy was standing beside me on the couch, shaking my shoulders until I couldn’t feel them anymore. “I get it, you really want to! Stop it!” Despite the pleas, I was laughing through it all. Not to mention all the grogginess was shaken out of me now. “Well, at least it’s all taken care of now.” Max was laughing along with us while Kirlia joined in with her actual voice instead of whatever that speaker voice was. “So, I guess all that’s left to do now is figure out wherever we’re going.” Once the Makuhita had stopped shaking me, he settled for just relaxing on the couch. “Maku. Makuhita!” Makuhita threw up a hand with a huge smile. “Did you already forget what I told you?” Kirlia’s speaker voice was back as she frowned towards Makuhita. “You need to go through eight gyms before you can go into the Pokémon League.” “Pokémon League?” I looked towards Makuhita before turning towards Max. “What’s that?” “You don’t know what the Pokémon League is?” His expression looked dumbfounded. “Uh...Well, I mean, obviously I’ve heard of it. I just wanted to know what. You…” The combination of both his and Kirlia’s flat faces made me drop the lie. “No, I’ve never heard of it.” I slumped down a little. “Maku maku.” Makuhita just nodded along in agreement. I guess he didn’t know either. “I told you about it not ten minutes ago.” Kirlia’s expression got even flatter. “Ku. Hita,” Makuhita wore a guilty smile as he scratched the back of his head. “Right, well anyways,” Max righted himself before going on. “The Pokémon League is where Pokémon Trainers compete with other trainers who have collected eight badges in the region. There’s one in every region and they’re all kind of broadcasted live everywhere.” “Broadcasted? You mean all over the place?” “Yeah,” He took a second to take a breath before going on. “It’s kind of like that battle you had with Harley, only I don’t think that went any further than Kalos and a few parts of Hoenn.” “So you’re telling me that if we get to the Pokémon League, then people will see me all over the place…” They could all see the gears turning in my head, but I wasn’t sure if they knew why. “That means my friends could see it!” “Probably, yeah.” Max nodded along, not understanding why I was so excited. “They’d probably be really happy to see you on there too.” “No,” I was about to shake my head, but I stopped. “Well, I mean, yeah, they would, but that’s not it. You see, I’m trying to find them.” “Find them? Are they lost or something?” “Yeah. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity...Twilight,” I bit my lip as I thought about wherever they might be. All those professors I talked to yesterday told me that the same shock wave in Equestria came from a place called Sinnoh. And yet Kalos was one of the places farthest away from Sinnoh. In fact, they said I was probably lucky that I showed up at Professor Sycamore’s lab. If I could’ve appeared anywhere between Kalos and Sinnoh then I might’ve woken up in the middle of the oce... “...I wanna try and find them as soon as I can.” I swallowed my nerves and looked up. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to say all of that.” “Huh…” Max looked guilty as he leaned back into his seat. I guess he was upset about asking. “Well...How about we help you?” I looked back up at him with eyes wide as my face could let me. “What?” “That’s a great idea,” This time Kirlia spoke up. “If you’re trying to get into the Pokémon League, than you’re going on the same Journey that we are. Besides, we’re looking for a friend of ours too.” “Really?” Huh, talk about coincidence. “Who are they?” “His name’s Ash Ketchum,” Max leaned forward again. “We travelled with him about two years ago with my sister May and another friend of ours. Last we heard, he came here to Kalos.” “Actually, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that.” Kirlia stood up and walked towards the center of the room. “While you were...busy,” I could hear her clear her throat despite still not talking. “I went down to the biodome. While I was there, the Pokémon told me about a trainer and his Pikachu.” “No way!” Max jumped out of his seat. “You mean he was here?!” “From what I heard, yes.” She turned towards our couch. “Makuhita, you and the others said that a trainer and his Pikachu came by here not too long ago, right?” “Ma-ku!” He nodded along. “Hita, mak mak Maku makuhita Hita.” “He brought Froakie here and helped Garchomp out.” Kirlia interpreted. “The others also called the trainer nice and determined.” “Yeah, that kinda sounds like him.” Max chuckled. “When was he here last?” “Hita,” “Three days.” Kirlia translated. “And from what you’ve told me, he’s probably headed off towards the first gym of Kalos.” This time it was my turn to jump in. “Well which gym is that?” “That would be the Santalune Gym.” As the door opened, Professor Sycamore came in pushing a cart with a few select things on it. “What’s all of that?” I looked towards the others and they had their own reactions. Max seemed to recognize some of it, Kirlia was too busy covering up her red horn things from the professor, and Makuhita looked just as confused as I did. “Well, since Makuhita’s going to be travelling with you, you’ll need his Pokéball. I just had to talk with Professor Kukui and he agrees that Makuhita going with you would be the best course of action.” “Pokéball?” I went over as he handed a small red and white orb the size of a marble. And noticing a button between the two colors, I pressed it and watched as it suddenly grew to the size of a baseball. “Woah!” Professor Sycamore smiled, but managed to stay focused. “I also took the liberty of getting all of your things packed and ready for you to take on your journey. Not to mention I also got you some essentials for travelling the Kalos region.” As he went over a few of those ‘essentials,’ he handed me the backpack that was on the top shelf of the cart. Whether he intended to get one that looked like it or not, the backpack kind of resembled me. Or at least, the colors of my scales back in Equestria. The majority of the backpack was colored purple with a scale design to it. The zippers and small clips were all a darkish green color with the side pockets looking jagged in appearance to resemble spikes. Finally, there was a small ‘swoosh’ kind of symbol on the main pocket. It was in a dark yellow circle that shined like a gem and the swoosh inside of it was pure black with a small eye shape towards the front of it. As I looked it over I saw that underneath the symbol was a single word: Dragon. “Finally, there’s a small journal in there.” My attention was brought back to Sycamore. “Okay, it’s not really essential, but I figured it would be nice to add. Arceus knows I have enough journals lying around here anyways.” “Thanks Professor Sycamore.” I unzipped the top pocket and sure enough, all the stuff was in there. I knew that I’d have to look through it sooner or later to actually remember what’s in there. “Next, I have something for both of you.” As he said this, Max and Kirlia walked over to join us as Sycamore held up these two red square objects. “Since you both got here yesterday, I’m pretty sure that neither of you have a PokéDex. So, I’d like to take the chance to give you both your own.” “Awesome!” Max happily took his and immediately started to look it over. “I was hoping that I would get one for the Kalos region!” “Wait a second, this looks like that PokéID that Officer Jenny had.” The only difference between them was the color and lack of a black screen. “Well it works a bit simpler than that. Simply face it towards a Pokémon that you want to learn about and press the button towards the bottom. The PokéDex will take care of the rest.” I looked it back over before getting an idea.“Hey Max? Kirlia? Do you two mind if I try it out?” “Sure. Can I try mine out on Makuhita?” We both agreed and rose up our new PokéDexs. “Kirlia. The Emotion Pokémon. And the evolved form of Ralts.” I watched as a picture of Kirlia appeared on screen with some details on the side. Meanwhile, Kirlia rested her hands on her hips as she listened in. “Whenever Kirlia have closely bonded with their trainers, their psychokinetic abilities become stronger. At the same time, their emotions will begin to grow parallel to that of the trainer’s.” Once it finished telling me all it had to say, the PokéDex gave off a catchy four note tune. “Well at least that one wasn’t embarrassing.” Kirlia relaxed and smiled once again. “Makuhita. The Guts Pokémon.” Makuhita saw the picture on the PokéDex and tried to copy it as best he could. “Whenever you hear a rhythmic echo in a forest or cave, it may just be Makuhita in the middle of a rigorous training regimen.” Makuhita just chuckled along and rolled his shoulder to show off. “Finally, I think I have something for you Max.” The professor reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny little puzzle piece looking thing. “You had mentioned earlier that you needed to update your PokéNav, correct?” “Wow! Thanks Professor!” Even more excited than the PokéDex, Max took the puzzle piece and took out another weird looking device. All the beeps and lights probably made sense to him, but I’d rather just stick to the PokéDex and ID. “So, I guess that’s everything then.” I pocketed the PokéDex and shrunk the Makuhita’s Pokéball back down to marble size. Although, as I watched it shrink, I realized there was one last thing I had forgotten. “Hey, Professor Sycamore,” I put Makuhita’s Pokéball in my other pocket. “I almost forgot to ask, what’s his name?” He hummed in confusion. “You mean your Pokémon? His name’s Makuhita.” He pronounced it carefully so that I could memorize it. “No, I already got that.” I looked over towards Makuhita, who only seemed lost. “I mean, what’s his name. I mean, he has his own name, doesn’t he?” The professor took a moment to think it over before shrugging sarcastically. “I guess you’ll both have to come up with one for him.” I looked back down at the Makuhita as he did the same to me. He didn’t seem too against the idea, but that just made it even harder to come up with something. It wasn’t like he was my pet or anything, or I didn’t think of him as one at least. If I was going to give him a name then it had to be something respectable. Only how was I going to name something that was supposed to be my partner? ? ? ? POV         “Ugh...Failed again…” “Is it really that much of a shock?” “No, but tha twerp’s Pokémon sure was…” With a groan, I sat up on the branch I had so graciously landed on. As previous experience has taught us, we could have landed in worse places like on a rooftop or in water rapids. There were better landed spots to end up in for sure. Sometimes we’d land in a lake or something else that would break our fall. Of course if anyone outside of our team saw how us land in a lake then they’d say that was bad luck. “Oh Yeah~!” After an awkward enough amount of time, a loud, upbeat, and oblivious voice cried out with a salut. “Let’s do it again!” This was one of our partners. A Pokémon partner to be exact. He wasn’t my Pokémon, but anyone with eyes could have figured that out. He was just another Pokémon that worked along with us. Although seeing as how I was the brains of the team, maybe he did work under me. He was actually the only that’s been with us from Johto onwards. Even the boss had him staying at HQ and yet somehow he still managed to join back up with us. This was Wobbuffet. One of Jessie’s first Pokémon. He wasn’t that bad of a Pokémon to be honest. Others have been more annoying than him before. Not to mention he can take attacks that would tear me to shreds like my own fury swipes. “Ya know,” Wobbuffet turned to us while standing on a lower branch. “After the seven hundredth time, blasting off is pretty fun!” That never-end smile of his was still on his face as he saluted towards Jessie. “Wobbuffet Return…” She tiredly held up a Pokéball as beamed him back inside. “Well at the very least we have a little bit of ample room.” Above me I could see a tendril be pulled back up onto the branch above me. It, as well as the poindexter voice, both belonged to Inkay. James’s new Pokémon. Inkay’s cheerful tone went on after rubbing his head. “Oh, what a pleasant surprise! We seem to have returned to Lumiose City.” “Huh—OW!” I tried to jump onto my hind paws, but my head slammed into the branch Inkay was on, causing him to land on top of me as I rubbed my aching forehead. “Whadda mean we’re in Lumiose?” “Well at least we know where we are.” James, who didn’t bother to sit up from his branch, added. “Oh who cares where we are?!” Meanwhile, Jessie had finally found her rage and glared at the three of us. “The only thing that matters right now is tracking down those twerps, again, and teaching them a lesson! Starting with that Pikachu!” James and I only slumped in defeat. “Right…” “Um...Question.” Inkay held up a tendril as he sat upon my head. That only lasted for a few more seconds, however, since I shook him off and left him to float beside me. “I know that I am still new to the team, so I don’t know the correct protocol, but why do you refer to the targets as twerps?” He used his tendrils as air quotes for the word. “Do you not know their names? Because if so, I could,” “Of course we know deir names!” I frowned as Inkay shut his mouth with a smile. “It’s just easier ta call ‘em twerps is all. Besides, da main twerp—” “Ash Ketchum.” Inkay corrected. “Yeah, yeah, whateva,” I waved him away. “He’s always tradin’ out twerpy partners for new ones. Callin’ ‘em twerps is just easier.” “Alrighty then! Thank you for the clarification Meowth.” And with that, Inkay floated over towards James as he finally started to sit up. Inkay was probably one of the smartest, if not the smartest, Pokémon that’s been on the team. Aside from me that is. The only other ones that were actually worth considering “smart” were Yamask and Yanmega. Still, all three of them had their issues. Yamask was a crybaby whenever James wasn’t babying him. Yanmega was just always full of herself and practically repeated every compliment Jessie gave to her. And then there was Inkay who… “Oh! Good news master! You have only suffered minimal damage!” Inkay spun around in front of James as though he were dancing. ...He found the bright side to things a little too often. “Hmm? That’s funny…” As James nudged Inkay aside, Jessie put her attention towards the street below us. “That kid looks somewhat familiar…” “More than likely,” James rolled his eyes. “We were in Lumiose City not three days ago.” After a swift reaction from Jessie, James joined her in watching the streets with a large bump on his head. “Wait a second, you’re right!” I moved a few leaves out of the way and sure enough I spotted a small group below us made up of two Pokémon and two trainers. One of which did seem pretty familiar. “Huh. Maybe he’s friends with da twerps er somethin’.” “Oh, he’s friends with them alright…” As she spoke, James instantly started retreating further into the tree while covering his head. Probably for the best too as Jessie looked ready to burn the tree down with her rage. “He’s little brother to the twerp who ruined my chances of fame back in Hoenn.” “Hey, yer right! It’s all comin’ back ta me!” As I kept staring at the twerp it all started to come back to me. His name was something along the name of Mac and he ended up running around with Ash back in Hoenn. Mac’s sister was a Coordinator starting out in Hoenn, and the same could’ve been said about Jessie. Still, because she was part of Team Rocket, Jessie couldn’t be that good a Coordinator. Or at least, that what she blames her skill on. The other thing she blames it on is Mac’s sister who was probably gallivanting around as a Coordinator to this day. Regardless, Mac left the twerp brigade after what I think was a year or two now. I guess we never really paid him too much mind since he didn’t even have any Pokémon back then. I mean, even the new little twerp has a Pokémon n her little bag. Although now that he does have some Pokémon of his own… “...” As the group began to pass us, I could see the two Pokémon taking up the rear. One of them looked like a jolly kind of guy and the other one looked a bit prim and proper, but still pretty strong in her own right. However, as the group went underneath us, the prim and proper one began to slow down. “Huh?” The second Pokémon turned to look at her. “What’s wrong Kirlia?” A Kirlia? Now that’s a Pokémon ya don’t see everyday. “...” She kept quiet as she scanned around the area, looking for something. “I’m not sure. I just feel something...Above us.” “Hide!” The others barely had time to react as we all ducked further into the tree and used as many leaves as we could to hide from them. “Above us? But I don’t see anything.” “Hmm…” It was Pokémon speaking, so none of the people around here were going to think much of it. Still, there was an uncomfortable silence as neither of them said a word. “Maybe it’s a flying type up there?” The jolly one offered. “...Yeah...Maybe you’re right.” And with that, we could hear them hurry off to catch up to their trainers. “Okay, too close.” We all shared a sigh of relief before making our way out of the tree and onto the ground. And aside from a few odd looks from the passersby, we were in the clear. “Alright, who’s the loudmouth who almost gave us away?” Jessie started to look over all of us irritatedly. “No idea,” I shook my head with a huff. There was no point in trying to point out the obvious to her. “Actually, I don’t think that was it.” Earning both our attentions, James pulled out a small deck of cards before finally finding whatever he was looking for. “According to this, that Kirlia could sense our emotions.” James held up the card for us to read over and sure enough there was a small picture of a Kirlia with a few bullet points of info. Since we didn’t have any of the tech that most of Team Rocket had, James had these cards of Pokémon that we were supposed to be keeping a lookout for. Of course Pikachu was always in the deck, which was why we went after the twerps, but since Kirlia was here too… “Well then it looks like we got some sorta side project on our mitts!” With a turn, I looked up towards the two of them. “I say let’s take a break from the Posse O’ Twerps and take a practice swing at Twerp Duo. Besides, that Kirlia would be perfect for da boss!” “You think so?” Jessie turned to look back in the direction that they were going. Meanwhile, James started sifting through a different set of cards. “Picture it like this; the boss gets out of a meetin’, practically miserable wit no one ta understand his woes. So he comes ta his office and locks himself in to escape the stress o’ work. At that point, who else to help him speak his mind then a lovely Kirlia?” “After helpin’ him through his problems, he’ll have no choice but to commend Meowth and Team Rocket for givin’ him the best Pokémon he could ever need!” “And with a commendation comes a big check!” Her eyes turned to dollar signs as her face lit up. “Now we’re talkin!” “Too bad we won’t have a chance to double down.” James fanned out another set of cards, each of them being fighting-types. “Apparently that other Pokémon that was with them isn’t on the list.” “Well who cares about that?” Jessie turned up her nose. “One Pokémon is more than enough to turn some heads.” “Then what are we waiting for?! That Kirlia’s practically gift wrapped for us!” “And with no Pikachu, there’s no risk.” James jumped in. “Which means,” Jessie locked eyes with all of us before the three of us cheered on while Inkay and Wobbuffet stood beside us. “Easy promotion for us! YAY!” “We are sure to succeed!” “Ohhhhh Yeah~!”