It was pretty late when Dee delivered the pokeballs, being followed by Liar. I had stayed up, wanting to wait and see. Surprisingly, all three Mightyena were marked green, while the Houndoom were only marked red. Liar’s pokeball had also been marked green, though I kind of thought that was unnecessary.

  The moment the door was closed behind the little nurse, everyone jumped from the pokeballs and immediately climbed up onto the bed. I had been sitting, watching television when I was suddenly covered in Pokemon, laughing. “Okay, okay. We’re going to bed.”

  I had been watching a news report covering the Pokecenter attack. They hadn’t released my name, but had referred to me as a Pokemon Expert. Which was a pretty dead giveaway to anyone that wanted to find out considering one of the other Experts was currently in the hospital, and the other was missing. But there weren’t any images of myself or the Pokemon, so there was that. Although that was probably because no one had thought to record the attack, despite everyone having cameras. This was probably the first time I was thankful for that. Otherwise I’d have been plastered all over the news with video from some random person's phone.

  Settling against Dee, I turned off the television. Looking over, I could see Liar sitting on the chair, staring at us. Clearly confused at the sight in front of them. “Do you always sleep so close together?” they asked after a moment.

  “Yes,” I said with a bit of a nod.

  “I usually sleep in my pokeball,” they said slowly.

  “Well, if you’d like you can do that,” I said as I pointed out where Dee had put their pokeball. “Or anywhere that’s in this room.”

  They didn’t respond, just nodding as they settled onto the chair.

  ~

  When I woke up in the morning, I looked around slowly. There was a bit of grogginess that I had to get rid of, but other than that I felt pretty good. I was still under a pile of pokemon, though Rio, Scoly, and Primarina were back to watching Mystery Dungeon. They were really addicted to that show, but I couldn’t really blame them. I had been the same way with Pokemon growing up.

  Looking over there was a sight that made me smile. My coat had been pulled down into the chair, mussed up into what could only be described as a nest, and in the middle of it was a large snoozing cat. Liar was an interesting thing, and I wondered if I should keep them. I know I shouldn’t, but there was that want to keep them safe and care for them. Finding someone who was going to not just take care of them, but pamper the poor cat was going to be difficult…

  That was going to be the case with all of the wolf pack. I would have to go through every single one, see how they felt, find out what they wanted. But at least Liar had been easy. Pokebeans had been an extremely good starter, so I would lead with that and go from there. But first…

  I struggled for a moment to get myself out from under all the Pokemon. Surprisingly Cara was still asleep when I started to move, although she woke up immediately the moment I tried to get up. She seemed even groggier than me, but helped unbury me.

  Now the question became if I should leave anyone behind. There were a lot of good reasons why I shouldn’t and I don’t even know why I thought that I might want to do that. There were people after Essy and Diancie, and they’d attacked us twice now without fear of consequences. Maybe they’d be a bit more wary after two failed attempts but it was better not to chance it.

  “Alright everyone,” I looked around the room as all eyes fell on me, even Liar opened its eyes to look at me. “We’re going to the Laverre Gym to see Valerie and work some things out, as well as probably have a gym battle.”

  Immediately there was a lot of excited chatter. “I wanna fight first!” Sliggoo proclaimed. “I wanna do an actual fight.”

  I chuckled a bit. “While I love your enthusiasm, she’s a fairy type Trainer, and you’re a dragon type.” She seemed to deflate at my words. “You’ll get first up against the next one, alright?”

  She perked up a bit and nodded, which was more just wiggling her head. “Okay!”

  “Who will be fighting?” Cara asked, looking around at the group.

  “Rio, Scoly, and Dee,” I said with a bit of a smile. Dee flinched at her name, staring at me wide eyed. “Dee needs a lot more battle experience.” And although I wouldn’t say it out loud, she needed to overcome her instinct to freeze up. “You beat one of the Kahuna’s Pokemon, have a bit more faith in yourself.”

  She just nodded a bit in response, clearly her confidence still needed a lot of boosting.

  I cleaned myself up a bit, before coming over to Liar. “Would you be alright going into your pokeball for a while?” I asked softly.

  They glared at me for a moment, probably contemplating if they could trust me or not.

  “I won’t lock it,” I added. “You can come back out at any time if you feel you need to.” I reached over and pulled their pokeball from the table, holding it in front of them. “I don’t like keeping the rest of them in their pokeballs, but I can’t just give them free reign when I don’t know how they’ll act.”

  They just looked at me for a moment before they huffed. “Fine. But I want another pokebean.”

  I smiled a bit and nodded, standing up to get at my bag. I gave them a pokebean before giving everyone else a pokeblock. The cat watched as I did so, probably curious as to what they were getting, but they didn’t ask.

  After they finished their bean, Liar reluctantly returned to the pokeball. That was when I actually got a good look at my coat. I didn’t know whether to laugh or be annoyed, as it seemed the cat had gone to town on it. It was just one of the flaps, but it was practically shredded.

  With a bit of a laugh, I pulled it on, putting Liar’s pokeball in my coat. “Okay everyone, we’re heading off.” I held my coat open. There was some grumbling, not about having to leave, but leaving before the episode was over.

  Once everyone was back, and Eevee stuffed in my hood, I slung my bag over my shoulder and made my way out. It was sometime around nine or ten. Thankfully I knew where the Gym was, not like it would have been hard to find considering it was a massive tree. Seeing it once again, I thought about the man who had been talking with Jenny. That had been the father of the child. I couldn’t remember what he looked like. I’d never met the child. Never got to speak with the Zweilous. They had all just… disappeared.

  That was a terrifying thought. Whoever could do that was not only heartless, but ruthless. Someone who believed efficiency was more important than lives. Had it been Lysandre? Or Director Yellow? I needed to find some sort of source for artificial Mega Stones. If I could find that out, I’d have some sort of lead to find who was behind that.

  I pushed those thoughts aside as the automatic doors slid out of my way. There were quite a lot of people and Pokemon milling about. It was comfortingly lively. Scanning the room I noticed a reception desk, the pink haired woman talking with a black haired Trainer. On the desk was a Ralts that the two seemed to be discussing.

  Quite a few people performed a double take when they saw me walking across the room. There were a few whispers as well, but I didn’t really pay any attention to them. The conversation between the receptionist and the other girl faltered as I got closer. Honestly it was like they were trying to make me feel as unwanted as possible.

  “Good morning,” I said with a smile as I pulled out my identification. “If Valerie is available, I’d like to have a chat with her.”

  “She’s not,” the woman responded, not even glancing at the card. “She’s booked on battles for the next week.”

  I blinked, taking note of the hostility in her tone. “Ah, this isn’t about a battle. I have-”

  “Then what are you doing here?” the black haired girl said with a huff, folding her arms. The Ralts mimicked the motion, and the huff.

  A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth, but before I could respond the pink woman continued. “This is a gym. If you’re not here for a battle or to schedule one, I’d like to ask you to leave.”

  I frowned a bit. “I don’t understand where this hostility is coming from, but you see-”

  “Oh please, you’re just like all the others. Just because Valerie is the newest gym leader, everyone thinks they can bully her for favors.”

  Now I was actually frowning. “Bullying? Who’s bullying her?”

  All three of them, as well as several other Trainers nearby made a “Tsk” noise, which startled me a bit.

  “Valerie is our beautiful goddess, and we will protect her,” someone said from behind me, and when I looked over my shoulder I saw that everyone in the room was now looking at me.

  Now I was actually a bit nervous. When I turned back to the receptionist, she was glaring at me. “Look, I’m just here for a chat. If that’s not possible, I’ll just sign up for a battle and talk to her then.”

  “Yeah, right. Like she’d ever talk to-” she finally looked down at the ID that I was still presenting, “A Pokemon Expert.”

  There was silence for a few seconds, her eyes suddenly darting back and forth between my identification card and my face.

  “Pokemon Expert?” was whispered behind me, and I heard several conversations explaining what that meant. I was kind of glad that not everyone knew what that was.

  A door to the side flew open with a bang. “Did someone say Pokemon Expert?!” A shout came from it and Valerie took a step out, arms outstretched. Although it was hard to tell if she could really do anything but outstretch her arms considering her costume. It was also hard to tell where she was looking considering her eyes were almost a solid gray. But I knew immediately when she spotted me. “Jason!” she shouted.

  “Yes?” I managed to say before she slammed into me, doing her best to give me a hug. I was more than a little caught off guard by the interaction, unsure what to do. “Glad you’re okay,” I said as I gave her a few pats on the top of her head.

  “Where the hell did you disappear to?” she snapped, taking a step back. “After that whole incident you just… Left. What the hell. Who does that? I nearly died!”

  “I mean… you were fine when I left?” I said slowly, feeling the mixture of looks on me. This was going to cause some very strange and annoying rumors.

  “Well what are you doing here now?” She was holding me out at arms length, looking me over. She was a head shorter than me, and would probably be even smaller if not for the massively tall boots she was wearing.

  “A few things, actually. Do you have time to talk?” I asked, looking over at the receptionist.

  She looked over at her, too. “Uh,” the pink haired girl struggled for a moment to look through the book she had in front of her. “You’ve got about ten minutes till your next match, but then you have two hours after that until the fashion show.”

  Valerie leaned a bit to look at the chart, her eyes scanning her schedule before she turned towards me. “Do you mind waiting?”

  I shook my head. “Nah that’s fine. Who are you battling?”

  The black haired girl flinched at the question and my eyes snapped to her, the Ralts having a similar reaction. “Me,” she said as she regained some of her confidence as I studied the Ralts. They didn’t look uncomfortable under my gaze, clearly able to sense my intent.

  “Pretty strong bond,” I commented with a bit of a nod. “You’re taking good care of them. Though they are leaning pretty hard into their fairy energy. If you can’t get good pokeblocks, try and get some payapa or mago berries for them to boost their psychic energy.”

  Everyone just stared at me, including Valerie. “Berries can do that?” the young girl asked.

  My brow furrowed a bit as I reached into my bag, pulling out one of the books. “You should have learned this in school.” Her face began to turn quite a shade of red as I flipped open to the section about how to train your Pokemon. “While these books are lacking in so many ways, they’re good for the bare basics. See,” I showed her the page and read aloud, “Berries are a great supplement to a Pokemon’s energy reserves.” I then paused, looking back at the book. “Wait, that’s it? I thought it said more,” I muttered as I started to flip pages.

  There was some murmuring nearby, people asking each other if they knew about that. I did hear some affirmations, but the majority seemed to have no idea.

  Eventually I gave up on the book. “Well, your teacher should have gone over it,” I said as I snapped the book closed and put it back into my bag.

  “What berries are good for fairy energy?” another girl asked, and I turned to see a mop of long green curly hair.

  “Pecha and roseli are best to increase fairy energy.” I turned a bit to face the gathering crowd, and for the first time in a while I switched into lecture mode. “But of course the returns of just berries will be low. That’s why people use pokeblocks, as they have supplements added to them to make the energy more potent and beneficial. To get the maximum use out of berries, you need to make sure the Pokemon gets a lot of nutritional food as well. And I don’t mean that cheap crap. You should ask Nurse Joy what your Pokemon needs in their diet, and buy the appropriate pokechow. Some of the cheaper chows are mostly filler and are harmful to your Pokemons growth and development. Questions?”

  Several people suddenly raised their hands and I smiled a bit. I pointed towards a girl with blonde curls. “How do we check which pokechow has what we need?” she asked.

  “Ah, good question.” I reached into my bag, pulling out one of the sacks of pokechow that I had. “Right here, you can see the nutritional information, just like on all sorts of foods.”

  There were a lot of puzzled expressions. “Nutritional information?” someone asked.

  For a moment I had no words. “Arceus, what are they teaching these kids in school,” I muttered. “Yes, nutritional information. Food items will have a label on them, telling you how much a serving size is, how many servings it contains, and how much of each thing is in a serving.”

  The next hour devolved into me explaining nutritional information and how to read it. Some of the kids knew what I was talking about, but there was a worrying amount that didn’t. Valerie and the black haired girl had disappeared at some point for their battle, returning after ten or twenty minutes. Once all of their questions seemed to be answered, the crowd started to disperse back around the room, some of them excitedly talking about what they learned and how strong it was going to make them, while others complained how that was way too much information.

  “Sorry about that,” I said as I turned to Valerie, reaching back and fiddling with my ponytail a bit. “Been a while since I’ve gone all teacher mode.”

  She had a rather amused smile on her face. “Well, it looked like you had fun.” She paused. “You were a teacher?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. Long story, but now I’m a Pokemon Expert.” She looked me over, clearly calculating if she believed me. “How’d your battle go?” I asked to get the subject off of me.

  “Oh not bad,” she said with a shrug. “She won. It was a low difficulty battle. She’s a local.” Her eyes were focused on the door, even though the black haired youth had left a while ago. “Poor girl was really sick till last month and had to postpone her journey, but I think she’ll do well enough.”

  My gaze also went to the door as I nodded slowly. “That Ralts has a lot of potential.”

  “Right, you wanted to talk to me about something?” she said, suddenly changing the subject. “Come, I have tea prepared.”

  A bit of a chuckle escaped me as I followed after her. I was still getting a lot of curious or suspicious looks from the crowd. We didn’t travel far, going through three doors before coming into quite an impressive looking tea room. I felt a slight tightness in my back as I straightened up. “I’m going to have to apologize for any sort of etiquette I fumble.”

  She laughed, waving one of her wing flap things. “No, no. Don’t worry. Only my parents care about that crap,” she said as she sat down at the table, and I spotted the Sylveon poke their head out from under it.

  They bristled, staring at me for a moment before recognition seemed to dawn on them and they relaxed. “Oh it’s just you…” they mumbled as they crawled out.

  “Nice seeing you again, too,” I said with a slight nod and sat down across from Valerie.

  I just got a grunt in response.

  “Oh don’t mind him. He’s grumpy because he hasn’t had a good fight in a while,” Valerie said, giving a rather poignant look at the pink and white Pokemon, who seemed a bit annoyed at the words, but didn’t have a rebuttal.

  Instead I watched as they used their ribbons to serve tea. “I know the type,” I said with a chuckle.

  I looked at the cup for a moment before taking a sip. It was rather good. I was suddenly quite taken aback when suddenly an arm extended out the front of Valerie’s kimono costume and reached for the cup.

  “Are your arms even in there?” I asked, gesturing at the massive wing like sleeves that were constantly extended out to the side.

  She giggled. “They can be. But holding my arms like that all day is exhausting.”

  I laughed, nodding. “Yeah, I can imagine.”

  There was a moment of silence, the two of us simply sipping tea. I was trying to figure out what kind of tea this was. That wasn’t something I was ever good at, but it was tasty.

  Suddenly she took a deep breath, putting her cup down and stood up, drawing my attention. “I never got the chance to say it.” She bowed deeply. “Thank you for saving me.”

  I smiled. “Anytime. But, yanno… Try not to?”

  She let out a breathy sort of laugh as she sat back down. “I’m trying. First real incident after becoming gym leader and I messed it up really bad. I really let the new title go to my head, and I got my ass beat for it. And I- Don’t just nod your head!” she practically shouted.

  I laughed, as I had just been nodding and agreeing with her as I sipped my tea. “Well it just really seems you know what you did wrong and learned from it.”

  “Yeah, but… I almost died!” she exclaimed.

  I shrugged. “I’ve almost died a bunch of times. I almost died in that encounter as well, and if you hadn’t battered the Hydreigon, or if those Quagsire hadn’t helped out, I probably would have.”

  “But you just… You didn’t hesitate. You just rushed in…” she seemed to be floundering with her words, confused at the way I was just sort of brushing it off.

  “Valerie. I won’t undersell what I did. But you did a good job.” I took a deep breath, giving her a smile.

  It took a moment before she smiled back and nodded. “Right. That was just… That was a lot.”

  “It was,” I said with a nod.

  She took a few deep breaths, and then nodded. “But still, it’s thanks to you that I survived it. So, thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” Again we fell into silence. The room was actually very comfortable, and even when it was quiet it was nice.

  “So, you’re here for a badge, right?” Valerie said suddenly.

  “That’s one reason I’m here, yes,” I agreed.

  She gave me a puzzled look. “One?”

  “What do you know about Team Flare?” I asked instead of answering.

  Her brow furrowed. “That’s the villain team active here in Kalos. I’ve had a few run-ins with them so far.”

  “Are they the ones bullying you?” That had been concerning to hear from the receptionist.

  Rather than answering immediately, her face went very red. “No. No. That’s… That’s different. It’s not bullying. I’m not being bullied.”

  I arched an eyebrow at her, wondering why she’d gotten so nervous. “You’re not being bullied?”

  “No,” she said confidently, straightening up in her seat. “If I was, I can handle myself.” She fidgeted a bit. “Some people are just uh… a little forward.”

  “Ah,” I said, nodding. “Okay, that makes sense.”

  “Yeah. And I’m uh… not really good at dealing with that…” She was turning her teacup around in her hands, obviously embarrassed at the subject.

  “Understandable. It’s… not an easy thing.” I set down my empty teacup. “Also very much outside my wheelhouse,” I said with a chuckle.

  She blinked, and quite blatantly looked me up and down. “Really?”

  I snorted. “Yes, really. I’ve only ever had one relationship, and it exploded on me so badly that I’ve never wanted to get into another.”

  Her mouth opened, and I could tell that she was about to say ‘it couldn’t have been that bad’ but thought better of it, closing her mouth. “So I guess I can’t ask you about relationship advice?” she asked with a bit of a laugh.

  I scoffed. “You can ask, but my advice ain’t gonna be good.” We both laughed.

  It took a moment before we both settled down. “Well, even if it’s bad advice, it can’t be worse than any I’ve gotten already.”

  Sylveon was refilling my cup after I tried to reach for the teapot, only to get a ribbon slap across the back of my hand. While Valerie didn’t seem to care about proper tea etiquette, the ribbon beast sure did. “Oh it sure could,” I said with a smile as I rubbed the back of my hand.

  She had a distant look on her face, a bit of a smile on her face. “I just… What do you do when people pester you, asking for a chance, but the one you want to be with hardly even looks at you?”

  I was about to go for my teacup but instead sighed. “You make yourself impossible to ignore.”

  Her brow furrowed and she stared at me.

  “What? I said it was going to be bad advice,” I said before laughing at the face she made. Clearly she hadn’t liked my answer.

  “I don’t know what I expected.” She sighed as she suddenly flopped backwards, her Sylveon catching her before she hit the floor, using his ribbons to sit her back up. “You’re a Pokemon Expert, not a Relationship Expert.”

  Again I laughed, nodding. “I’m probably the worst person to ask. Actually, my ex would be worse, but who cares what they think. That’s the other thing.” I snapped my fingers, pointing at her. “Those people that come at you, if they won’t take no for an answer, beat them up.”

  She was doing her best to frown, her face scrunching a bit before she burst into giggles. “Yeah. Okay. That’s really bad advice. You’re doing that on purpose.”

  “Yup.” I picked up my cup, smiling at her. “Don’t want people thinking I’ve actually got good advice about something as disgusting as romance.”

  She scoffed. “That sucks. You suck.”

  I laughed, and she soon joined in, the two of us just laughing for a few moments before settling down.

  “Well, at least I feel better about it,” she said before taking a deep breath. “But, what was the thing about Team Flare?”

  “Ah, right. Back on topic.” I leaned forward a bit, setting my teacup down. “I was wondering if I could borrow a sort of training space you have.” She gave me a puzzled look, but let me continue. “I have thirty two Pokemon that have been taken from Team Flare and I need a place where I can safely assess them.”

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Her expression was rather blank, her teacup hovering in front of her as she processed what I had just said. “How many?”

  “Thirty two,” I repeated.

  “You… You have thirty two Pokemon on you… right now…” she said slowly.

  “Technically I have forty four Pokemon on me, but thirty two of them are undergoing rehabilitation under my guidance,” I said, amused at her reaction. Clearly she was struggling to wrap her head around the sheer amount of Pokemon that I was claiming to have.

  “Rehabilitation,” she muttered before suddenly she seemed to refocus. “Rehabilitation?”

  I nodded slowly. “Team Flare, and honestly most, if not all, villain teams abuse their Pokemon quite severely. It’s why many people become villains. To abuse their Pokemon. To them it’s a shortcut to power.” Of course, there were some that didn’t, but the amount that did was rather staggering.

  It took a minute for her to mull it over before she slowly nodded. “Okay… You can use one of my training areas. We have a couple in the gym. Do you have any requirements?”

  “No,” I said, shaking my head. “It just needs to be able to withstand a possible battle or escape attempt.”

  She nodded a few times, having a far away look in her eyes. That seemed to be her thinking face. “And once you’re done, you’ll want to battle?”

  I snorted softly and then nodded. “Yeah. Although it might take days for me to finish.”

  Again she nodded a few times. “That’s fine. We have guest rooms that you can stay in.”

  I blinked at her. “Guest rooms?”

  “Yes,” she said with a smile. “What, did you think your advice was so bad that I can’t be a good host to my savior?” That got us both laughing again, much to the annoyance of the Sylveon.

  “Oh great, you’re going to be here longer,” he grumbled.

  “Well at least I can say it wasn’t my idea,” I said with a smirk at the angry bundle of ribbons.

  He flinched slightly at my words, eying me up and down. “You’ve got good interpretation skills, I’ll give you that.”

  “Oh it’s more than that,” I said as I sipped my tea. “I can understand every word you speak.”

  There was silence for a moment, and for that moment I honestly enjoyed the reaction. It had been a while since I’d revealed that to someone. “What?!” both Valerie and her Sylveon shouted.

  I laughed. “Yeah, it’s one of the big reasons I’m a Pokemon Expert.”

  “Wow… I’ve never met anyone else that was able to do it,” Valerie murmured.

  That caught all of my attention and I looked at her. “You can talk with them, too?”

  “I… Not all of them,” she admitted, looking down at her cup. “It’s something to do with types, I think? Anything with fairy, psychic, or water typing I can talk to just fine. But there are exceptions, which is why I don’t exactly know.”

  I rubbed my chin, theorizing. “That is extremely interesting… I haven’t met anyone else that could talk to Pokemon like I can.”

  She nodded. “Usually it’s just a case of good interpretation, which I’m not bad at when it comes to other types, but those three I’m best at. Olympia says it’s because I have high amounts of fairy energy.”

  My brow furrowed a bit. “Interesting… very interesting… I have dark energy, myself.”

  Her eyes seemed to go a bit wide. “Really?!” she exclaimed, leaning over the table and nearly toppling forward, and probably would have if Sylveon hadn’t grabbed hold of her to keep her up. “That is really rare!”

  I chuckled a bit. “So I’ve been told. But, so is fairy energy, right?”

  She seemed to hesitate a moment, seeming to realize her own uniqueness. “Oh. Right. Yeah I guess it is,” she said as she sat back down, giggling to herself.

  Sylveon huffed, clearly annoyed by her antics. But there was also a sort of careful gaze from the Pokemon, watching every move she made with care. I also noticed her teacup was never empty, whereas mine was empty again. Protective and attentive. “Did you become a fairy type Trainer because of your Sylveon?” I asked.

  Her entire body jolted slightly at the question, and the ribbon beast's attention snapped towards me. “What?”

  I put up my hands. “Sorry, I was just curious.”

  She gave me a rather puzzled expression, glancing at her Sylveon, who also looked puzzled. “I… I dunno, I guess? Ren was my first Pokemon. Back when I was still living in Johto.”

  That was honestly something I was a bit curious about. “If you don’t mind me asking, how did a girl from Johto become a Kalos gym leader?”

  That got a bit of a laugh from her. “My grandfather's brother was the previous gym leader. He never had any children, so when he got old… Well, he didn’t want it to fall out of the family… And since I was the best in the family… Yanno I actually got to fight Lance.”

  “Oh? How’d that go?” I asked, going for my teacup but remembering it was empty. It was at that point that Ren actually realized my cup was empty and refilled it.

  “I got stomped,” she said with a scoff. “I barely got past the Elite Four. And Champions… Champions are just… On a completely different level. It’s no wonder they change so rarely and have to actually retire.”

  “I see.” That was actually very interesting. In the games you could just power level to the point you could take the Elite Four and Champion with one Pokemon if you wanted, but in real life there were no levels. A Champion got to the top, and then just sat there because it was the top. There wasn’t anything higher. No one had even gotten the chance to challenge Diantha at the last League. Just how strong were her Pokemon? How high was that peak? Was Diantha even at the peak?

  “Anyways, thanks to that I got shipped over here and shoved in this box,” she said with a huff.

  “You didn’t want to come?” I asked, noting the obviously displeased tone and wording.

  “No.” She looked down at her cup, a frown on her face. “I-” she hesitated, “I wanted to try again. They didn’t even let me take my full team… Now the only thing I can do is run the gym, try and find a replacement, maybe aim for one of the Elite Four spots…”

  “One of their spots? How does that work?” New information was always nice.

  “It’s hard. You have to challenge for the position, which is a painful amount of paperwork. Top that off with you needing at least five years as a Gym Leader and your pool really narrows. Then you have to be approved by the League to challenge them. Only after all that do you actually get to fight them, and if you lose, you can’t challenge the same person until you’ve successfully challenged and failed against the other three.”

  “That is a lot,” I muttered, going over all that she explained in my head.

  “And you have to have a full six team of Elite Pokemon.” She shifted a bit, and I realized she had folded her arms inside of her costume. “I only have three. And they couldn’t even beat a souped up Hydreigon.”

  I nodded slowly. “But I barely beat them with over a dozen Pokemon fighting it, so that’s understandable.”

  “Not according to Wulfric,” she practically growled, and I saw the way that Ren’s fur bristled at just the mention of them. “He has at least eight Pokemon at the Elite level.”

  “And they’re all jerks,” Ren added.

  Valerie nodded in agreement. “Yeah, they’re all jerks. Just like him.”

  “Never met him,” I said with a bit of a shake of my head. Although I remember him a bit from the anime… He sounded like he might be a lot, but I never really thought of him as a bad guy. Passionate, and caring for his Pokemon. Was that not the case? That was a concerning thought. Maybe it was just a conflict of personalities, like the one I have with Professor Sycamore.

  “Well, when you fight him, knock him down a peg for me, okay?” she asked with a big smile on her face.

  I laughed. “Alright, I can try.”

  She laughed along with me for a moment before she let out a long sigh. “I have to get ready for my show.” She placed the teacup down, a bit of a frown on her face.

  “I thought you liked those?” I asked, also putting my teacup down.

  “Oh don’t get me wrong, I love doing them,” she said as she stood up, and I got up along with her. “But what you’re doing sounds so much more interesting.”

  A snort escaped me as I shook my head. “Interesting, maybe. But it’s going to be a lot of work.” I sighed softly, looking at the bag at my side. “Thirty two abused Pokemon that I am going to have to take the time to, at the very least, assure that they are safe now.”

  Her eyes wandered to my bag, a bit of a frown on her face. “Right. Interesting, but not fun. Let me show you to the training room.”

  We walked a short way, but it was long enough of a walk that I had to question just how large this building was. We passed by numerous other doors, and down a couple different hallways before stopping at a door that honestly looked like a lot of the ones we had already passed, with the exception being it was heavily reinforced.

  She started to struggle with the door, and I immediately realized that it was because her costume was in the way and the door was heavy. When I moved to assist I realized just how heavy it was, and saw why when I saw the door's profile; it was six inches of steel.

  The room itself was massive and decorated like a rather bare garden. There was a water feature on the opposite corner to the right that even had its own waterfall that cascaded from the wall. “I’ll be back after my show,” Valerie said with a smile as she gestured to the room. “Don’t worry about breaking anything.”

  I nodded a bit as I stepped in and actually jumped when the massive door slammed behind me. I looked back at it a moment before turning my attention forward again, sweeping the room with my eyes. To my left was a sort of sitting area with a few tables and chairs, and a television. Convenient.

  “Alright,” I opened my coat and that seemed to be the only thing that everyone needed to burst out.

  “Whoa! Are we still inside?” Rio asked as she dashed forward, quickly followed by Scoly with Primarina on her back and Keo hot on their heels. They were swiftly followed by Diancie, who was giggling and twirling as she went.

  Dee and Cara came up beside me as everyone scattered to explore the large room. Everyone but Essy, who Cara scooped up. “What’s the plan?” the canine asked softly.

  I frowned a bit before making my way over to the table. “I do my best,” I said softly as I put my bag on the table, and then pulled Eevee from my hood. “Everyone will stay in this corner of the room. No fighting. No training. I’ll be depending on Cara for support if things become violent, but everyone will keep their distance.” As I spoke, I put my coat down on the table, retrieving Liar’s pokeball before wrapping Eevee in the coat.

  Cara frowned. “I don’t like that…”

  “Just keep close enough that you can help using Extreme Speed.” I turned on the television.

  Rio and company were immediately there. “So what are we doing?”

  “All of you are gonna watch tv,” I said with a bit of a smirk as she was already staring at the screen. I’d turned it to Mystery Dungeon.

  “Can we train?” she asked, looking at me.

  “No.”

  She frowned, but nodded. “Right… Don’t want to spook them.”

  I smiled a bit and nodded. “Exactly.” I tossed Liar’s pokeball and they burst into form and I snatched the pokeball. I wondered how the heck they got the return feature to work when you tossed the ball. It was like it lazily tossed itself back and was pretty easy to catch.

  Liar looked around, puzzled. I could tell they wanted to ask questions, but instead they hopped up onto the table and frowned when they saw Eevee hogging the coat. With a huff, they laid down on the table.

  They were quite upset when I then tossed a large pillow beside them, glaring at me. “Get comfortable. We’re going to be here for a long time.” I put two beans down next to them which seemed to immediately calm their anger. Then I gave one to Essy, since she was just staring at the colorful treats.

  Cara put her down on the table beside Eevee and both felines started to munch on their beans. “I still don’t like it.”

  I pat Essy’s head softly as I picked up my bag. “What’s the range my aura spreads out, Cara?”

  She jolted slightly, looking at me. “Uhm… about ten meters?”

  I nodded a bit and then moved over, hoisting one of the tables up with a bit of difficulty. “Okay, that’s what I thought.” She was puzzled, but didn’t question it as I made my way across the room with the table. “Everyone, settle down over there and listen to Dee.”

  There was some grumbling, mostly by Diancie. I could hear Cara explaining to them what was going on as I walked. I stopped when I was about three quarters across the room, putting the table down. I stretched a bit, taking a few deep breaths. This was going to be difficult.

  Pulling out a bunch of blankets, I made a sort of makeshift shelter out of the table. I left plenty of gaps, so that anyone inside could look out and see around the room, but it made it harder to see inside and made the area feel like a fort. A place to hide and feel safe.

  Back when I was a counselor, I had a similar place in my office. Sure it was usually for the younger kids to hide away while I tried to help. But… The amount of times I had found older children hiding away in there was disheartening.

  I had spent so long building a good reputation. That first year spent just convincing kids that it was okay to talk to me about anything… That I wouldn’t judge them. Wouldn’t get mad at them. Wouldn’t hurt them. That I could help them.

  And then that damn school board ruined everything.

  Before I stepped away I set three pokebeans down inside the shelter. I stood about seven meters back, hoping that my aura would actually have a calming effect like Cara said. Even if it didn’t, I had multiple ideas of how to handle this.

  Cara stood a distance away, farther than I thought she’d be comfortable, but she was fast. I was relying completely on her if things went wrong.

  But now I had to make an extremely difficult decision.

  How was I going to start this?

  I had thirty one Pokemon to go through. Should I go by species? Type? Stickers? Start easy, and work my way up? Start with the difficult ones?

  I sat down as I thought about it, pulling out the papers and going through the list. The two original green stickers had been a Houndour and a Mightyena. But the Mightyena also had a purple sticker… Then there were the ones at the high end marked with pink. Two Houndoom, and two Mightyena. Everyone else was marked with red.

  There were only two that didn’t have a yellow sticker from that first batch. The green Houndour, and one of the pink Houndoom. That was going to be the hardest to deal with. Extremely hostile and not afraid.

  Although maybe it would be one of the purples that would be the most difficult. One of the Sneasel, two Poochyena, one of the red Houndoom, and a red Mightyena. So two of the Mightyena in total.

  “Let’s start with the majority,” I mumbled to myself as I grabbed the pokeball for the green Houndour. I had twelve of these little dogs to get through, afterall. “So let’s start it out slow.” I looked at the black banded pokeball, fishing for a moment in my pocket for the little key. “Houndour. Male. Less than one year old. Freshly caught…” I mumbled, looking at the papers in my lap.

  I tossed the ball at the shelter's entrance, and it flashed red. There was an extremely confused looking canine that popped up. It looked around for a moment, looking for a fight, but seemed to relax when it realized there wasn’t going to be one. Its eyes locked onto me for a moment before it trotted over. “Hi! You’re new!” he said, his little tail wagging.

  I took a deep breath, glad that I was starting out with a real easy one. “Hi there. My name’s Jason, but I prefer Jace. I’m your new owner.”

  He sat down in front of me, his back leg going up to scratch behind his ear. “My name’s Guff. Where’s my old master?”

  “They got arrested.” As I looked Guff over, it was clear they were on the younger side like the papers had said.

  His head tilted to the side. “Arrested? What’s that mean?”

  “It means they were bad, and are being punished.” Immediately his ears went back. That was a concept he knew of. “Are you hungry? I have a tasty treat,” I said as I pulled a pokebean out.

  Immediately he perked back up, his tail thumping against the ground. “Oh! I know what treats are!” I put the bean down in front of him and he happily began to eat. “Tasty!”

  I pulled out a marker out of my bag, writing Guff on the top of the ball, as well as the number that was associated with his page before removing the sticker. “Did you like your old master?”

  His face scrunched. “He was kinda mean, but he fed me a lot. But his treats weren’t this tasty. But he made me train really hard. But I got treats for training. Why’d I get this treat?”

  A smile was pulling at the corners of my mouth. “It’s my welcome gift. If you’re a good boy, you’ll get more treats.”

  That tail was going wild. “I’m a good boy! Old master said I was a good boy!” I guess the grunt who owned Guff wasn’t as bad as some of these others. Suddenly they looked around. “Is Rough also here?”

  “Rough?” I asked, glancing at the bag.

  He nodded. “Rough is my older brother. He evolved into a Houndoom last month! He’s super strong, but everyone says he’s mean. But he’s not.”

  I hesitated a moment before pulling out the four Houndoom pokeballs from the original conflict. “Do you know which pokeball is his?”

  He took a moment, sniffing at the pokeballs. “That one,” he said, placing his paw on one of the balls. Pink and yellow sticker.

  “Okay.” This was either going to make things easier, or complicate things. I put the other Houndoom back into my bag before removing the band around Rough’s ball. I tossed it towards the shelter. When it burst into light, the Houndoom immediately dropped into a battle stance.

  Their eyes locked onto mine, but their aggressive demeanor immediately shifted into a defensive one when Guff ran up to them. “Rough! Rough! Our new owner has tasty treats!”

  The larger dog immediately put a paw onto the Houndour and shoved him behind them. “What’s going on?” He barked out and I saw out of the corner of my eye the way that Cara tensed. This Pokemon had an air about him that permeated throughout the area and actually made me feel a bit uncomfortable. Was this the Unnerve ability?

  “My name is Jason, but I prefer Jace. I’m your new owner,” I said slowly.

  “Where’s our owner?” he snapped, practically snarling.

  “They’ve been arrested,” I said simply.

  “Rough! Rough!” The little dog was trying to get the larger dog's attention. “He’s our new owner!”

  Rough’s eyes narrowed at me, clearly sizing me up. “Am I going to be put down?” I tensed at those words. “That’s what he always said would happen if we got caught.”

  “Put down? What’s that?” Guff asked, but Rough was ignoring him.

  “No.” That seemed to be the right answer as I saw the way Rough relaxed.

  “So he lied,” he growled, clearly pissed off, but at least it wasn’t aimed at me.

  I opened my mouth, and then closed it. The motion didn’t go unnoticed as his ears seemed to swivel to me. “He didn’t lie. I…” I paused, trying to think of a way to say what happened without making it sound like I was trying to win them over. “It was decided that you would instead be placed under my custody, and I would be allowed to try and rehabilitate you.”

  He tensed, lowering himself a bit and flattening his ears back. I could see Cara about to rush over to intercept any sort of charge. “And if you can’t? What then?”

  I sighed, shaking my head. “Then nothing.” That seemed to take the wind out of his sails a bit as now he just looked confused. “There’s nothing else. You’ll just stay with me. I’ll feed you, take care of you, and try to help you, whether you like it or not. Whether that help is staying with me, finding a Trainer that you like, or releasing you.”

  “You’d release me?” he said, standing up straight. The movement almost caused Cara to leap at him.

  “If that’s what you want. I can find a nice place for you, but you’d be on your own and might get captured again,” I explained.

  Rough suddenly had a rather thoughtful expression and actually sat down, Guff running around him and purposefully bumping into him. The little dog was peppering him with questions, but Rough was ignoring him, clearly used to the antics of the energetic little dog. “I wasn’t caught wild,” he suddenly admitted. “My mother was a breeder, the same breeder as Guff…”

  There was a moment of silence. “Are you hungry?” I asked as I pulled out a pokebean.

  They eyed it warily. I could practically see the gears turning in their head. Slowly they stood up. “How can I trust you?” They were starting to approach, stalking forward, the movement was clearly bothering Cara. Honestly I was just impressed that they didn’t trip over Guff.

  “All I have are my words,” I said with a bit of a smile. “But…” I looked away, which was the first time I’d taken my eyes off of the large dog, looking over at the group enjoying the television. “All I’m asking is for a chance to show you that I can help. That I want to help.”

  When I turned back, the massive dog was standing in front of me, looking down at me. Damn I forgot that Houndoom’s are over four feet tall. Guff had already snatched the bean from my hand and was greedily devouring it. Rough stared at me for a moment before sitting down. His red eyes just stared at me for a moment before he let out a long breath, a bit of flame escaping from his mouth as he did. “Alright.” There was a sort of resignation to his tone, but I could also hear the hint of hopefulness.

  I smiled up at him, pulling out another bean. “Here, have a pokebean,” I said softly.

  He looked at for a moment, and then down at Guff, who was devouring the other one. Rough seemed more than a bit reluctant, but took it from my hand. I knew the moment that it touched his tongue as his eyes widened and he practically inhaled it.

  As I watched them, I thought about the stickers. Rough had reacted badly because neither Guff or his Trainer were there and he didn’t know what was going on. The last thing he probably remembered was being beaten unconscious, and then he wakes up in the Pokecenter without his owner or brother. Of course he would panic. It was clear just from the way that he sat so close to his little brother that he cared a lot about him. That was probably also part of the reason he agreed to accepting my help.

  A protective older brother, trying to keep his young and naive little brother safe.

  “Do I have to go back in my pokeball?” Rough asked once he was done with his bean. He was looking around, taking in his surroundings.

  I shook my head. “Not for now, as long as you behave.”

  He seemed to mull that over for a moment before nodding. “Alright…”

  “Rough! Rough! They’re watching television!” the little pup exclaimed, bouncing back and forth. “Can we go watch?!”

  Rough looked down at Guff for a moment before looking at me, asking with his eyes. I nodded. “Yes,” he said and the little dog practically bolted towards the group of other Pokemon. Rough sat for a few more seconds before standing up with a sigh and following after him.

  The other Pokemon seemed a bit unsure at first at the new arrivals, until I heard Guff ask them what they were watching, and Rio practically exploded into an excited explanation about Mystery Dungeon. Rough sat down a bit away from the group, not wanting to get too close to them, but close enough to keep an eye on his brother.

  I took a deep breath, turning my attention back to the fort. It was pure luck that my first try had gone so well. I knew that. None of the others would be even half as easy as this. There might be a few that were mislabeled because of the circumstances, but I wasn’t going to rely on that.

  Pulling out the next Houndour pokeball, I checked it against the list as I removed the band. “Houndour, male, between five and six years old.” I tossed the ball, letting them out.

  The moment they had solidified they took a fighting stance, legs spread, teeth bared, ready for a fight. It took several seconds before their eyes started to dart around, their expression becoming confused. They were waiting on an order, but weren’t getting one. He risked a look behind, searching for his owner, but when he didn’t see them he started to look around in a more frantic manner.

  I just remained quiet, watching them. They stared at Cara for a long time, waiting to see if she would attack him. But she was far away and not moving. Now he was just confused. Eventually his gaze turned back to me, eyes looking for answers.

  “My name is Jason, but I prefer Jace. I’m your new owner,” I said, knowing that I was going to have to repeat that line so many more times that it was going to get annoying.

  His head flopped to the side, now even more confused. “I’m… Bleak,” they said softly and I wrote it down on their ball.

  “Hello Bleak,” I said with a soft smile. “Would you like a treat?” Yeah that seemed to do it. Immediately he perked up and sat, trying to sit as still as possible, but I could see his tail wagging. I reached into my bag, pulling out a pokebean. “Come here.”

  He hesitated, his ears folding back as he eyed the unfamiliar thing for a moment before getting up and slowly approaching. It wasn’t surprising that he didn’t know what the bean was, but the way he was hesitating to approach was a concern. Each step seemed reluctant. He didn’t want to be close.

  I held out the bean as far as I could, making no other movement. The closer he got the more hesitant his steps were. It was clear he was worried that I was going to lash out. Or yell at him. It was why he sat down immediately at the mention of a treat; he was expecting me to throw it to him. Or worse, at him.

  This is a bit more like the difficulty I was expecting.

  But I just had to take it slow.

  Finally Bleak was close enough and slowly took the bean from my hand. I slowly pulled back my hand as the dog took a few steps back. “It’s okay,” I said softly, noting how they flinched at my words. “It’s okay.” I put my hand onto my lap as they backed away a few more steps.

  I didn’t like that untrusting look they were giving me. They slowly laid down, putting the bean on their front paws before they began to eat. They started to relax as they ate and I looked away, looking over at Guff and Rough. Rough had sat down, while Guff was just blankly staring transfixed at the screen, tail wagging.

  Turning my attention back to Bleak, he was just laying in front of me, staring at me, his ears still back. “You’re my new master?” he asked, clearly feeling a rather large mixture of emotions.

  “For now.” He tensed at my words. “If you want to stay with me, that’s fine. But my goal is to either find a nice Trainer who will take care of you, or release you.”

  He frowned. “Trainers aren’t nice.”

  “Some are,” I said with a smile. “But I will admit that a lot aren’t. Which is why I’ll take care of you until I find a good one.”

  They just stared at the ground between us for a moment before nodding. “Do I have to go back in my pokeball?”

  “Not right now. As long as you behave.” That seemed to relax them a bit as they untensed.

  He was hesitant, but eventually he got up, walking off into the garden. He avoided going towards the other Pokemon, choosing to instead wander to the other side of the room. His pace quickened as the further he got away until he was running. There was a happy look on his face as he just ran.

  I watched him for a moment as he just sprinted back and forth by the water feature. Eventually I pulled out the next ball and unlocked it. “Houndour, male, six years old.” Tossing it, they had the same reaction as Bleak had. Tensing up and readying for a fight. However they panicked when they didn’t see their Trainer. They shifted back and forth, eyes darting around.

  I introduced myself, and explained that I was their new owner. And they… collapsed. Simply flopped over. Their eyes closed as they just whimpered, curling in on themselves. “It’s okay,” I said, keeping my voice low. “No one's going to hurt you.”

  I wasn’t sure if that would help, but I just continued to gently reassure them that everything was fine. After about twenty minutes they seemed to calm down enough to actually look around at where they were. Again all I could think of was how this poor thing wouldn’t have even gotten a chance.

  Maybe I needed to teach a class to Joy’s on how to calm down traumatized Pokemon? That might be a good use of my time. Their sticker system was good, but they weren’t giving the Pokemon long enough to get a good read on them. My heart ached at the thought of how many Pokemon were put down because someone was rushed and didn’t take the time to give a proper diagnosis.

  My thoughts were interrupted as the little canine had crawled forward, literally crawled, not even daring to stand in my presence, and was now directly in front of me. He didn’t make eye contact, his eyes were unfocused but appeared to be watching my hands. Slowly and carefully I pulled out a pokebean, gingerly placing it in front of them. “It’s okay… Here’s a little treat for being a good boy…” I said softly.

  His eyes refocused, staring at the bean. He was shaking slightly. He was expecting to be hit. It took a few more minutes before his eyes flicked up towards my face before locking back onto the bean.

  Slowly his neck extended, his head turning to the slide slightly as his mouth opened. Gently he grabbed the bean with his teeth before pulling it back towards himself. “Do you have a name?” I asked softly.

  There were a few moments of him just absolutely focused on the bean, enjoying the taste of it. “Rascal…” he mumbled.

  “Okay, Rascal. You don’t have to go in your pokeball for now, as long as you behave, okay?” I said softly.

  He gave a very slight nod, his eyes darting around.

  “Bleak is over there by the water,” I said with a slow gesture. “And Guff and Rough are over there watching television with the rest of my Pokemon.”

  Slowly he stood up, still not making eye contact or even really looking at me, before he slunk away, making his way towards Bleak, who had run out all his energy and was laying on the bank of the artificial pond.

  I took a deep breath and pulled out the next ball. “Houndour, male, eight years old,” I mumbled and tossed the ball. Rather than having an aggressive reaction like I was expecting, they seemed to just sit there, unmoving. I made my introduction, but they didn’t respond. Their eyes were a bit glossed over and unfocused.

  For the first time so far, I actually stood up. The movement not getting a reaction from them. Slowly I walked over, careful with every step until I was standing in front of them. They hadn’t moved. I knelt down and reached out slowly, placing my hand on the top of their head. My eyes started to wander over them, trying to see if I could tell what was wrong. They were breathing, but other than that seemed unresponsive.

  “Hey,” I said softly. “Are you okay?”

  He just slowly blinked. How did Joy think that this Pokemon needed a red sticker? Had he gone catatonic like this during the examination, or in the time after? Gently I grabbed hold of the Houndour’s muzzle by the lower jaw, turning its head slightly. Its eyes continued to stare blankly, though they were vaguely aimed at me. That was a relief, that there was some awareness in that head.

  With my other hand I reached into my pouch and pulled out a pokebean and held it up. “Do you want a treat?” I could see the slight way that his nose twitched and his eyes seemed to focus a little more. Gently I pulled open the canine's mouth and put the bean between his teeth.

  The little dog didn’t bite down on it, but he did grip it in his teeth. He sat there for a moment before laying down and starting to eat the bean. That far off, unfocused look never left him. Clearly he was having some sort of psychological shell shock.

  Slowly I backed away, letting him slowly nibble at the bean. Once I felt I was a good distance away, I looked over at Cara, who also seemed a bit puzzled. I made my way towards the group of Pokemon, Cara staying where she was in order to watch the Pokemon. “Dee,” I said once I was nearby.

  The pink Pokemon had been sitting on a blanket, with Mikyu and Banette in her lap, the three of them watching tv. She turned to me. “Hm?”

  “This one,” I said as I held out the page and pointed at the entry. “Joy marked them red and yellow, however they are…” I looked back at the dog that was just slowly eating, even from here I could see that some of the bites it took missed the bean entirely and got nothing but air. “Some of these are very wrong.”

  She looked past Cara and me at the Houndour, her brow furrowing a bit. “I… I honestly wasn’t paying a lot of attention to what she was marking them as,” she admitted, her brow furrowing quite a bit as she thought back to it. “Do you think…”

  “No. I don't think she did it on purpose,” I said as I put a hand on her shoulder. There was that moment where Joy had broken down, because she didn’t know what to do. She wasn’t trained on how to do this and she knew it. “I’m just trying to figure out the reason for the inconsistencies. How long did she give to assess each Pokemon?”

  “A few minutes? Once they were healed, she would note how they acted for a few minutes, and then document,” she explained slowly. “That’s the uh… standard procedure.”

  I don’t think I could frown more than I was frowning now. “A real psychological evaluation would take an hour. Maybe thirty minutes if you’re really good at it…” I mumbled and then sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose as I thought. “I can’t rely on these at all… The entire system is scuffed…”

  With another sigh, I pulled out my phone. This was going to be a long and annoying conversation.

  Lucario - The group mom

  Lucario - Craves violence

  Scolipede - Pokemon transport unit

  Primarina - Doing big seal things

  Audino - Trained Nurse Pokemon

  Diancie - Big sparkly that just wants to throw rocks at people

  Eevee - Living that sleepy hood life

  Sliggoo - Deadly chew toy

  Mimikyu - Very skilled seamstress

  Banette - Silent but persuasive?

  Vulpix (Alolan) - A bit too battle hungry

  Espurr - Little cat that likes pokebeans.

  Houndour

  Houndoom

  Poochyena

  Mightyena

  Sneasel

  Liepard - Big hungry cat