From bad to worse.

  The moment I spotted my liaison, that was all I could think. She wasn’t just standing there, waiting for me. Oh no. She had a huge sign that she was holding, with the words ‘Jason Over Here!’ written on it. I wondered if I could somehow slip past her, but before I could formulate a plan, she spotted me and began waving the sign. As if it was possible to not see her.

  As I got closer, and was about to ask about the sign it suddenly began to melt, gaining a pink tinge to it before eventually becoming a sort of glop of silly putty on her shoulder that quickly retreated down the back of her jacket. “Alola,” she said with a smile. “Welcome back to Kalos.”

  I was still reeling a bit from the sight of a Ditto. That was for sure not something I had expected in the slightest. But it would be rude to not respond. “Thank you. That was a Ditto, right?”

  She nodded and reached into her jacket, practically dragging the thing out. “This is Pudd, short for Pudding.” The pink thing seemed very keen to return to the safety of the jacket. “Sorry, Pudd’s a little shy when they’re not transformed,” she said sheepishly as she gestured for us to start walking.

  The little pink thing had finally managed to break free of her grasp and return to hiding in her coat as I followed. “It’s fine. I’m just surprised you have Pokemon,” I said with a shrug.

  Her expression became puzzled and she gestured for me to follow her. “Of course I do?”

  “Well, you just never mentioned them.” I gestured a bit at her. “And I’ve never seen them, or any pokeballs on you.”

  Now she looked thoughtful, putting a finger to her chin. “I’ve never talked about them before?”

  “Nor mentioned them.”

  She frowned a bit. “Huh. I was sure they came up at some point.”

  I shook my head. “Nope. You only ever talk about the Association.”

  Her brow furrowed as she frowned a bit more. “That doesn’t sound right…” she mumbled.

  At this point we got to the car, and both of us got into the back. “What other Pokemon do you have?” I asked as I settled into the seat.

  She tapped the window separating us from the driver, and I noted there was only one person up front today. “Oh, just Pudd and Kit, my Delcatty. She’s at home though, lazy thing,” she said with a little giggle.

  “Did you never go on your Journey?”

  She shook her head. “No. My parents were Associate members, so I wasn’t allowed. I had to continue my schooling,” she said wistfully. “I would have liked to at least gotten one year to see how it went, but then I probably wouldn’t have gotten Pudd... It was the reward I got for valedictorian.”

  “So you went to college? What did you major in?” It was nice to actually have a conversation with her that wasn’t about the Association.

  “Business and personal relations,” she said happily. That made a lot of sense…

  Before we could continue the conversation, the car stopped.

  “Oh good, we’re here,” she said as she got out. “The Director is eager to talk to you.”

  We traveled through the building, not being harassed by security even once on our way. Probably because they recognized Emma and weren’t about to stop her. I was fairly confident that she held quite a higher position in the Association than I had originally thought. Which made me wonder why she had been assigned as my liaison. It didn’t make sense to me.

  She was at least second generation corporate, and both of her parents sounded important. The fact that she skipped her Journey and went straight into higher education showed that her path was planned well in advance. But she was doing the job that could be given to an intern. Was I that important? Had she volunteered? Was she forced to take this task? Was this a honey pot like I suspected? Or was there something I was missing?

  Sure, Professor Burnet had been my liaison in Alola, but that seemed more out of lack of anyone else to do it. It was hard for me to parse out if something was off, or if I was actually just being paranoid again. That was always a problem. In an attempt to sooth my mind, I pulled out my phone and set it to record before settling it in the special holster on my bag.

  Eventually we came to a rather heavy steel door with a keypad at the side. Emma input a code and the door slid open. “The Director is just over there,” she said with a smile and a slight bow, apparently she wasn’t coming inside.

  As I stepped in, I nearly tripped as I caught sight of the room and its contents. It was large, with a high ceiling. The walls, floor, and ceiling were made of what looked like metal plating. The place reminded me of some sort of training or testing room. There were even monitors off to one side that were displaying different things. There were two people standing by the monitors, and a Pokemon. There was the old man that I recognized, and the one with large glasses that had been there for the Brute Bonnet.

  But none of that was what surprised me. It was the Pokemon. Standing beside the old man was a tall, bipedal, and mostly gray. Its face was rather feline, with two short blunt horns on top of its head. It had a tube extending from the back of its head down to its back. That was the unmistakable form of a Mewtwo, but instead of purple, its stomach and tail were a sort of pale blue.

  “Ah, Jason,” the old man said with a smile, the door closing behind me as he spoke. “You’re finally here. Good… Good.” He gestured for the other man to settle down. “Now, if you don’t mind, we’d like to get a look at your Pokemon.”

  “Especially the newly discovered one,” the man in glasses added, clearly eager.

  The old man shot him a glare. “Yes. That one is of particular interest to Expert Gale; he specializes in ghosts,” he said as he gestured to the man in glasses. That would mean the old man was the Director. He definitely looked the corpo type. The old money sort of corpo whose family had been around since dirt was discovered.

  I nodded and opened my coat a bit. “Alright. That’s not difficult.” Everyone burst out into red light, most of them looking around a bit confused at where we were and what was going on.

  “That is quite a lot,” the Director said, looking over at them all, but I saw the way his eyes lingered on Mikyu. “Is this all your Pokemon?”

  I hesitated, wondering if I should mention Eevee. But technically everyone was not in pokeballs. “All of my Pokemon are out,” I answered after a moment. That bad feeling at the back of my head was starting to get worse when suddenly I felt an odd energy wash over the room.

  Glancing around, no one else seemed to have noticed. I wondered if I had been the only one to feel it. “Good… Good… All of you Pokemon, go and line up over there,” he said, gesturing to the side.

  All of them did so, a bit to my confusion. As I watched them I saw that their movements were a bit… rigid. Forced. My attention turned to the Mewtwo and I could see their eyes glowing with soft pink energy.

  The old man approached me, a big smile on his face. “Such a hassle, dealing with young people like you. You think you know everything, and so you go galavanting around. Throwing your weight around like you own the place.” He stopped in front of me.

  I was confused, and was about to say something when I suddenly thought better of it. This felt… strangely familiar.

  “I was fine letting you be, slowly work you over into joining the Association…” He frowned. “But then you had to go and threaten to leave. Flying off to some Arceus forsaken islands. And for what? A vacation? You’re far too young to need a vacation.”

  My mouth twitched as I tried to remain passive. Now I realized why this felt familiar. This bastard was monologuing like some cliche villain.

  “But now you’ve forced my hand. You and your little group are going to require some more… permanent alterations. A bit of memory tweaking to your heads will get you in line,” he practically growled as he spoke.

  Memory tweaking? My brow furrowed slightly. Gale hadn’t said anything or moved from where he was, clearly on the Directors side or under his control. Mewtwo was supposed to be capable of altering memories and erasing them, so this man was using them to… what? Remain in power of this branch of the Association?

  Clearly he wasn’t done monologuing. “You think you’re the first little punk that’s gotten in my way? I’ve crushed so many… isn’t that right, Gale?”

  “Yes, Director,” the other man replied rigidly, a rather glossy look in his eyes.

  “You’re lucky that you actually have some skill, and knowledge. Otherwise no one would ever even worry about a body… If only you didn’t have this awful habit of collecting Pokemon… Disgusting creatures.” He spat on the floor in the direction of the group. “You need your way of thinking to be corrected. You all need to be corrected,” he sneered. “Shall we start with you? Or perhaps…” He turned to look at the group of Pokemon. “One of them?”

  The moment his head turned, I raised my hand. Slowly pulling it back as I balled it into a fist, trying to remember the steps of how to properly throw a punch. Curl the fingers, tuck the thumb, strike with the knuckles.

  “Perhaps one of the Lucario’s?” he asked with a rather wicked smile on his face as he turned back. “I’m sure that-” His sentence was cut off as I Sucker Punched him straight in the jaw. He crumpled immediately to the floor.

  “I knew you were a piece of shit, but I didn’t think it went this far. How does a person who hates Pokemon get to be in such a position?” I pulled back my leg and went to kick his teeth in, but his body was quickly dragged across the floor and away from me. I looked up at the Mewtwo who had a rather strained look on their face.

  “What the hell are you doing?!” he shouted as he stood up, holding his mouth that was dribbling blood.

  The Mewtwo had its hands up, the three fingers on both hands outstretched. Clearly it was trying to use its psychic energy but it wasn’t working. Did I have high resistance? Was that something that Arceus had done? Was I immune, or resistant to psychic so that my knowledge couldn’t be probed into? Or was it-

  “What do you mean too many targets?!” the Director shouted. “I don’t want to hear your excuses!”

  That actually made a lot more sense. There were eleven Pokemon that it was trying to control all at once as well as me. Well, ten Pokemon if you didn’t count Eevee, but there was also Diancie who was a mythic. And judging from the strained look on all of the Pokemon lined up, they were fighting to regain control.

  “I told you to keep them in check!” he continued shouting, rubbing at his jaw. I hadn’t broken it, but he was clearly missing teeth. My hand also hurt a little. How long has it been since I actually punched something? “Fine, then just go and-” he paused, and that wicked smile appeared back on his face, which caused him to wince. “No… wait. Make that one do it.” He pointed directly at Cara. “Have that one beat him into submission.”

  I blinked and looked over at Cara who was slowly approaching. She had a pained expression, demonstrating that the Mewtwo wasn’t able to express full control and was letting some things slip. But it was clear that her body wasn’t listening to her. Had he chosen her on purpose? That was probably the most cruel choice he could have made. Being forced to fight someone you depend on, again. Against your will. Again. Before I could really try and think of what to do, she was suddenly in front of me, her paw thrusting forward.

  I leaned to the side in panic, desperate to not get hit. And much to my surprise, and the surprise of everyone else, she missed. No, wait… I dodged? She stood there, frozen in place. Judging by the look on her face, she was also shocked that she hadn’t hit.

  “What are you doing?!” the old man shouted again. “Get him!”

  A second palm, again dodged. A third; dodged. She couldn’t seem to hit me. As the fourth blow came in, I realized what had to be the reason. She was fighting it. With all of them fighting, the Mewtwo was having difficulty with having Cara output her full force. She wasn’t even using any actual attacks or applying energy.

  This happened for several more moments, and I actually lost track of how many strikes I had dodged. It was actually getting easier. Not because Cara was winning against the mental pressure, but because I could see her pattern. My brow furrowed a bit, and as she thrust out a palm, missing once again, I reached out and pat her with an open hand on the side, right at the bottom of her ribcage. “You’re open.”

  Everyone stopped once again as she just stared incredulously at me. Clearly upset that I wasn’t taking the situation seriously. The break didn’t last long as we were soon continuing the little exchange.

  But I was just trying to think of what to do. I would tire out far quicker than Cara would, so I needed to do something. “Open,” I said again as I tapped her again in the same spot. As we continued our little dance, I decided that this was a good moment to try and teach her. “I told you not to repeat yourself so much. Open.” I tapped her cheek lightly. “If a novice like me can see them, an expert would have floored you.”

  From her expression, I could tell she was starting to get frustrated, which was partially what I wanted. Emotions were supposed to be a good way to overpower psychic powers, right? “What are you doing?!” the old man shouted, not at me, but at the Mewtwo who was clearly struggling. Even at this distance I could see the sweat dripping down its form.

  This Mewtwo didn’t look very young, but was clearly malnourished and not cared for. The fact that it was here at all was a huge deviation from what I knew from the show. Had there been multiple cloning projects? Had there been more subjects at Giovanni’s lab? So many questions, but I couldn’t focus any time on thinking about it.

  After another moment of exchanges, and another tap with another “Open” comment, I decided that maybe actually striking would work better. Mentally I walked through the steps to throw a kick. Set stance, place footing, twist with the hip and extend the leg as you go to make contact, aim past your target not at it. However my foot never made it that far as Cara grabbed hold of my leg before it even struck her. “Oh… Uh… I got cocky,” I said with a bit of a chuckle.

  Then I watched as she gripped my leg with both paws and set her footing. I instantly knew what she was about to do, and a fraction of a second later she twisted her body and flung me across the room.

  I hit the wall.

  Hard.

  The air was knocked out of my lungs as I crumpled to the floor.

  My ears were ringing.

  I think I dented the wall.

  Had I hit my head?

  If I did, that was going to be another concussion.

  Yeah, definitely concussed.

  My thoughts are sluggish.

  Scrambled brain.

  Faintly I heard someone scream.

  "Papa!"

  That was Rio.

  What a good girl.

  I didn't realize she saw me like that.

  That was a nice feeling.

  When I forced my eyes open my vision was blurry.

  My back hurt, but surprisingly my head didn’t.

  Had I just blacked out for a moment?

  Looking forward I was surprised to see a mass of brown, which slowly took the shape of Eevee as I focused. Standing on wobbly legs in a defensive posture. Poor thing had probably hit the wall pretty hard, too.

  I was at a bit of a weird angle, as further ahead I could see the expression of my family. They all looked so upset. It took a moment before I could finally find Cara. She was shaking, still holding the stance from when she had thrown me. Tears streamed down her face.

  Getting up was a struggle, but I was managing now that my lungs didn’t feel like they were on fire. I slowly raised my hand and gave her a thumbs up. “Good throw,” I managed to say, my voice a bit strained as I got to my feet.

  I was now much closer to the Director and the Mewtwo, who was now visibly struggling even more to hold on to control. The old man was facing towards me, clearly wary of the little brown fuzzball of a Pokemon in front of him. “You missed this one as well!” he shouted at the Mewtwo, pointing accusingly at the Eevee that was struggling to stand. Clearly this man was dumb, or blind, or both, considering he actually saw the little thing as a threat.

  She also seemed unaffected by the psychic control, probably because she hadn’t been grabbed by the initial wave. It was a good thing she had been in my hood. Had I blocked it from hitting her? Or was it because the Mewtwo couldn’t see her?

  All of the others were slowly forcing their way forward, Rio having made the most progress as stalked towards them, just brute forcing her way through whatever the Mewtwo was doing. Clearly the Mewtwo was losing control. Brains over brawn, and brains were losing. “What are you doing?!” the Director shouted. “Don’t let them move! Keep them still!”

  The Mewtwo was now drenched in sweat with the struggle, its arms shaking as it tried to do everything it could. I didn’t know how powerful this Pokemon was, but trying to control this many Pokemon was clearly beyond its capabilities. It apparently tried to communicate this with the Director, but he was having none of it.

  “Don’t give me excuses!” the Director shouted, pulling something out of his pocket. He held up an oddly colored pokeball. It had a white bottom, purple top, with two rose colored orbs and a white M imprinted on the front. “You will listen to me! You will do as I tell you!” he screamed desperately. “I own you!”

  “Give me that,” I said as I ripped the ball from his hands. With slight force I pulled it open, and with a twist there was a loud crack that filled the room as the ball snapped into two pieces.

  The room was suddenly filled with pressure, and everything became silent. I couldn’t even hear the sound of my breathing. “What have you done…” I looked up as the Director spoke, just in time to see the Mewtwo appear in front of him, its hand around his throat. There were tears in its eyes, and absolute hatred painted on its face. But being this close, I could also feel a subtle but intense feeling of relief.

  Slowly it lifted him off the ground, the Director grasped at its wrist, trying to struggle and break from the grip. And then for the first time I heard its voice. Everyone heard it, I was sure of that. A voice filled with so much rage that it choked the entire room. “I’m going to make you regret ever existing.”

  And then they were gone.

  Everyone started to gasp for air, finally able to breathe now that the pressure was gone. Immediately I scooped up Eevee and put her on my shoulder as I took several steps towards Cara. I tucked the halves of the masterball into my bag before pulling her in tightly. “It’s okay…” I said softly, rubbing the back of her head. She was still crying as she gripped my coat tightly. This was the first time I had ever seen her cry. “I’m okay…”

  Dee was behind me, using her healing on me and checking me over. “You cracked your skull again… but I can fix it,” she mumbled.

  Again I thought back to how the Mewtwo’s psychic energy couldn’t affect me, and yet Dee’s could. I wondered why that was and almost immediately got an answer. Beneficial effects ignore type immunity. That immediately raised another question. I had a type? Humans had energy types? Or was this something that Arceus gave me?

  Thinking about it a moment more, it made a lot of sense. Humans could be psychic. Humans could learn aura. So those humans would have the psychic type, or fighting type. That was really interesting. So this would mean that I had either psychic or steel type energy and was resistant to psychic, or more likely I had dark type energy since it specified that I was immune. That would also explain why the Professor's machine would have seen a lot of dark type energy when scanning Mikyu.

  That would require testing, but I wasn’t keen on getting hit by any attack infused with energy. Thus far I had managed to avoid it. Even when Cara threw me, it hadn’t been using fighting energy but just raw strength. Yeah maybe I wouldn’t test that… just getting thrown hurt enough.

  While I was thinking, everyone else had come in as well. Rio had been the first to reach us and wrap her arms around me and her mother, followed by Scoly and Diancie. Eevee pressed her head against Cara’s, as Goomy, Mikyu, Banette, and Keo all squeezed themselves into the group hug. Then Primarina practically draped herself over the group.

  Dee was pressing into my back, and I could feel her shaking slightly, probably also crying. I could only imagine how frustrated she must be at having to stand and watch something happen when she could do nothing, again.

  This had been really close.

  Probably closer than I was really willing to admit out loud. I was tired and my whole body ached, even after being healed. “It’s okay…” I whispered softly, gently stroking the back of Cara’s head. Her grip just tightened in response. “I’m here…”

  The fact that she made no noise while crying worried me a bit, because that would imply she had learned to break down quietly. I could imagine that she’d done so to not worry Rio…

  It was several minutes before Cara started to calm down. That was fine by me, though I had one concern. Gale was still in the room. However when I looked over, he was on the ground and unmoving. I was a bit worried for a moment if he was dead, or just passed out. Looking past him I could see where I struck the wall, just to the side of all the display screens there was a sizeable dent. Just looking at it made my back hurt.

  Slowly I pulled out my phone still recording. Oh good, all of that would be good evidence against that guy if he ever pops up again. Although, judging from how that Mewtwo reacted, he would not. I fiddled with the phone for a moment to make sure the video was saved before I called Sycamore.

  It took a few moments before he answered. He looked to be sitting in some sort of laboratory, working on something. “Ah, Jason? You back in Kalos? I heard you- what’s going on?”

  “Uh… So… Hm.” I thought for a moment realizing I probably should have thought of what to say before calling. “Can you call Officer Jenny and have her come to the Association Headquarters? Things got… Okay, so short of it is the Director has been mind controlling people using an experimental legendary Pokemon, and probably also murdering people.”

  There was a rather long pause as the Professor just sort of stared at me. Finally he spoke, “That’s the short of it?”

  I just sort of shrugged as best I could considering the group hug. “Gale is currently unconscious, I think, and the Mewtwo disappeared with the Director. And I have everything recorded, and boy did he like to monologue.”

  “He’s always been long winded…” he said slowly. “Can you send me the video? I’ll send it to Officer Jenny.”

  Again I started to fiddle with the phone as I nodded. “Yeah. It’s kinda long, but the important stuff is pretty early.” I sent him the video, and shortly after I could hear the audio. He must have his phone connected to one of his work stations as his focus was off to the side. Or was there some sort of call forwarding? Didn’t matter right now. I could clearly hear the Director talking and ranting about things.

  “Alright…” he said with a sigh after it started to get into the fighting. I’ve sent the video to Officer Jenny. Where are you now?”

  “Locked in some sort of… training room? Experiment room? I’m not sure. Somewhere in the Association Headquarters.” I looked over at the door. “I actually haven’t tried to get out, so I don’t know if I’m trapped or anything, but the room required a code to enter.”

  His brow furrowed. “I don’t know of any room like that.”

  Then I had a thought. “Do you think he’s messed with your head?”

  Suddenly his eyes went wide as if he hadn’t thought of that. “That…” he paused to collect his thoughts and then nodded. “Yes, that seems rather likely…” He sighed.

  “I’m fairly certain he messed a lot with my liaison’s head. She seemed rather… Uncertain of things. And it also explains the interactions I’ve had with her.” I was comparing the conversation in the car with Emma compared to the other times I’d talked with her. “And Gale looked completely out of it.” Again I glanced over at the man on the ground. “I’m uh… Not sure if he’s dead or just unconscious.”

  The Professor just nodded slowly. “You can see him collapse in the video shortly after you… Did you break that masterball?”

  I nodded. “It was the first thing that I thought to do.”

  He sighed. “Those are so expensive…”

  “I think the well-being of that Mewtwo is far more important,” I retorted a bit testily. “Look at the state of that poor thing in the video. He was clearly abusing it.”

  “And you let it go,” he replied.

  “And hopefully that was enough,” I said with a huff. “I’ve no idea how the Association got one, but a Mewtwo with a grudge is something that I want to avoid. Hopefully my actions were enough and it only hates the Director and not all of humanity.”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  He paused for a moment and then sighed. “So you know a lot about that Pokemon?”

  “Yes. It’s an artificial Pokemon.”

  His brow furrowed. “That’s not-” he stopped and then rubbed the side of his head. “Damn it. The Director must have planted false memories…”

  “That’s something that makes Mewtwo so dangerous. Mind control. Memory altering and erasing.” I sighed softly. “They’re one of the most powerful Pokemon, but this one was clearly starved, and kept weak to be easier to control.”

  “How powerful are we talking?” he asked as he was doing something with the terminal.

  That was a good question, and I had to think about it for a moment. “I would have to guess that some are at the level of a pureblood legendary.”

  He froze. It took him several seconds before he finally spoke again, “How many of them are there?”

  I shook my head. “No idea. I know of several, but I didn’t recognize this one.”

  He rubbed his face. “So there’s an unknown number of these things running around?”

  “And they have two Mega Evolutions,” I added, which just caused him to groan in frustration. “Most of them don’t seem bad, though.”

  “Most?” he asked, exasperated.

  “Well, there is one in particular that is a bit concerning, but either it’s already been handled and calmed down, or has taken some sort of different path,” I explained, looking at the Pokemon around me, who were all still just holding each other and me in a big group hug.

  “What makes you think that?”

  “The event should have already happened, since the main people involved seem to be alright, the situation must have resolved.” I thought about Ash and how he was in Sinnoh, meaning the whole thing with Mewtwo should have already happened.

  There was a bit of a pause as he looked over at me. “You’ve been keeping track of events?”

  I shook my head. “Not on purpose. No, this one I just happened to come across.”

  “Well, that’s at least good news… However, the message I just got is not…” He was staring at the screen ahead of him. “Officer Jenny is at the Association Headquarters, and everyone is unconscious.”

  I frowned for a moment as I thought. “When the Mewtwo was freed, it unleashed a lot of psychic pressure. It might have had some kind of backlash to anyone that it had mentally altered within a certain range.”

  “That implies literally every Association employee in the building has had their mind altered,” he said in a very concerned tone as he focused his attention back on the screen.

  “Yeah, that would make sense. The Director would have had to have everyone at least slightly changed so that they wouldn’t ask questions,” I said, nodding.

  “But you weren’t affected?” he glanced over at me.

  “My memory hasn’t been altered. And… I seem to be rather resistant to psychic energy.”

  He turned his focus towards me, giving me a quizzical look.

  I shook my head. “I’m not sure why.”

  “Alright… Well, Officer Jenny is requesting that you exit the building,” he said as he turned his attention back to the screen. “If you can. I’m on my way as well.”

  I gave a nod. “Alright. Talk to you soon, Professor.”

  He just nodded as he reached over and ended the call.

  “Rude,” I said with a chuckle and put my phone away. “Okay… Let’s get out of here.” I pet the top of Cara’s head.

  She nodded, but didn’t say anything as she pulled away. Her doing so caused everyone to slowly separate. I straightened up a bit, looking around at everyone. They all looked alright, at least physically. It looked like some of them had cried, or were struggling to not. I was going to have to have a long talk with all of them. Maybe try to figure out how to prevent that.

  Everyone followed as I moved over to the door, and as I suspected there was a keypad. I frowned, staring at it for a moment. Thankfully it didn’t take long for me to have an idea and I pulled out my phone. It was a good thing I had started to record before getting to the door.

  Honestly it was a really bad security habit to allow others to record in a place like this, but I’m sure they didn’t have any regulations. The angle was a bit off, but after watching it a few times, I did my best to mimic Emma’s movements. It took four tries before I got it right and the door opened. “I’m in,” I mumbled to myself and then snorted. “Or wait… out?” Shaking my head I looked around the hallway. Rio and Scoly gave me a puzzled look but I just waved them off. “It’s nothing.”

  I hesitated a moment as I saw Emma slumped against the wall, Pudd sitting on her lap and seemingly trying to wake her. The pink dough froze when it realized it was being watched and hurriedly hid within her coat. Part of me wanted to help, but I wasn’t sure what to do.

  “Dee.” I looked back as I moved forward through the hall. “Can you check on her real quick?” I asked, gesturing to the woman.

  Dee was quick to nod and move over. After a moment I watched as a pulse of healing went over her. “She didn’t hit her head. She’s just unconscious… But I can’t tell why.”

  “You’re sure she’s okay?” I took a few more steps down the hall to make sure everyone was out of that room. “How can you tell?” I was honestly curious because it didn’t look like she did much examination.

  “When I use Heal Pulse, I can see the injuries that it’s healing,” she explained. Which made the move sound even more useful than I had thought. That’s why she could immediately tell my skull had fractured.

  I nodded and we all started to make our way down the hall. Cara was beside me, having not let go of my coat for even a moment. This incident could really damage all of the work we’ve done to help her deal with her trauma. In the worst case scenario, she might have a complete mental breakdown… Dee seemed to have handled it better, but from her expression it was clear that she was heavily affected.

  “I think we all need a pick-me-up,” I said as I reached down and grabbed the bean pouch. Everyone got a bean, the treat lightening the mood a bit.

  They were still munching on them when we came out into the lobby and I spotted Officer Jenny. She froze as she saw me, the Arcanine at her side immediately going into a battle stance. “Please identify yourself,” she said, eying me and the group.

  I pulled my identification out of my back and held it out. “Pokemon Expert Jason. I called Sycamore about this incident, and was also the one who recorded the video.”

  She studied the ID for a moment before moving closer for a better look. A relieved sigh escaped her as she pat the Arcanine. “Glad to see someone conscious… Any idea why it happened?”

  “Psychic energy backlash, I think,” I said as I put the card away. “You watched the video, right?”

  She hesitated, but nodded. “Yes. And what I saw is… Extremely concerning…”

  I nodded. “The Pokemon in the video is a Mewtwo. An extremely powerful, artificially created psychic type. And… Well, you saw what it was capable of, and there’s probably going to be a lot more evidence of what it was used for.” As I spoke, there were other police officers that were coming in and heading off deeper into the building. They all seemed to eye me with a bit of suspicion, but didn’t interact since I was talking to Jenny.

  “I see…” She glanced around for a moment and then looked at my group. “Would you mind returning your Pokemon?”

  I felt Cara’s grip tighten on my coat. “Considering the circumstances, I’m afraid I can’t comply with that,” I responded.

  She sighed, putting her hands on her hips. “You’re going to fight me on this?”

  “Yes, I am,” I said firmly. “I mean no disrespect. But they’ve just had a traumatic event, as have I, where they were forced to watch as one of them was made to attack me against their will while they could do nothing to help.”

  There was a moment of silence as she studied me for a moment before she nodded. “Alright. Fine. Just… head on outside and try to not get in the way. And please don’t leave.”

  I nodded. “I can do that.” I put a hand on Cara’s back as I nudged her forward and we all made our way outside. It took a moment of looking to find a place that we could all sort of gather that was out of the way. There were a lot of police cars in front of the building, as well as ambulances and firetrucks, which I hadn’t seen before now.

  There were a lot of people moving about, and eventually people started to be taken out on stretchers and loaded into the ambulances. I spotted several Nurse Joy’s, which was always a bit of a trip to see multiple at once.

  Scoly was blocking me from most of the area, with Goomy, Mikyu, Banette, and Keo all on her back. Eevee was sitting on my shoulder, while Dee, Primarina, and Diancie were on my right near the entrance of the building, as if ready to block anything that came out.

  Cara had still not let go of my coat, standing close to me. In fact everyone was standing quite close, watching the people just like I was. The big difference was everyone but me was on edge. I was just annoyed at myself. I practically knew that the Association wasn’t good, but I didn’t act on it.

  Again my inaction had gotten people hurt.

  This was extremely frustrating, and I started to brood on my choices again. It had been a good thing I hadn’t told Sycamore about things, because then the Association would have found out. No, I should specify; the Director would have found out.

  Eventually I’d have to figure out what the heck that guy's name was.

  He probably knew that I was from a different world, and probably a bunch of other people, too. Hopefully none of them believed it. That would be something I’d have to watch out for. For now I was just kicking myself mentally, but also trying to reason that I didn’t have the resources to do anything.

  Sure there was evidence that the Association was corrupt, as all large organizations like them tend to be, but I can’t be sure if I can pin this whole event on them, or on the Director in specific. Did he work alone or with accomplices? Was the Association as a whole aware of his actions? If so, were they just ignoring him or encouraging him?

  Cara’s head hit my chest, breaking me from my thoughts. “You’re upset…” she mumbled.

  Everyone’s attention turned to me. “I am… frustrated.,” I admitted. “I feel like I should have been better prepared for this, but seeing that Mewtwo had thrown me for a loop.”

  “Yeah, that sucked,” Rio grumbled, her brow furrowing. “It was like… my head went all fuzzy and I couldn’t control myself anymore.” The others all nodded and murmured their agreements.

  Cara’s grip tightened, and I worried if she was going to rip my coat. “I couldn’t…” She hiccuped, trying not to cry anymore.

  “It’s alright…” I said softly, rubbing her head.

  “I couldn’t stop myself…” she mumbled, pressing her face against my chest. “No matter how hard I tried…”

  “But you fought it,” I said softly. “And you managed to hold back.”

  There was a moment of pause before she looked up at me, her eyes wet and threatening to burst again. “I didn’t hold back? I couldn’t…”

  That caused me to pause as I looked down at her. “You were trying to hit me for real? But you never used any actual move, or channeled energy.”

  “I couldn’t… It was… it was like something was blocking it…” she said, tilting her head.

  I had to think about that for a moment. “Maybe that was the Mewtwo’s act of defiance, or maybe it requires more energy to do something like that…” I murmured.

  “You thought I held back?” Cara asked, rubbing her face to try and keep herself from crying.

  “Well… Yeah?” I waved a hand vaguely. “You didn’t hit me once.”

  She frowned at me. “I-” she stopped, and then turned her head away. “Not for a lack of trying…” she mumbled.

  My eyebrow arched a bit. “Oh? You were trying to hit me?” I said with a bit of a smirk.

  “You-” She pointed up at me accusingly. “You were teasing me. Taunting me.” She paused for a moment and then looked embarrassed as she looked away. “And I just… I got frustrated.”

  I snorted, trying to keep myself from laughing and failing. “Well, it’s a good thing that I could dodge.”

  “Yeah, how did you do that?” Scoly asked.

  I thought about it for a moment and then shrugged. “I honestly have no idea. I think that Cara was actually holding back, or maybe the Mewtwo wasn’t actually trying to hurt me.”

  “Aren’t you just faster than Cara?” Keo asked.

  That caused me to actually laugh as I shook my head. “There’s no way. That was the first fight I’ve been in in decades.”

  “You used to fight?” Rio asked, her and Keo’s eyes lighting up.

  “Hardly,” I said with a bit of a laugh. “Just some scuffles when I was a teenager.”

  Before they could ask anymore questions, a car suddenly pulled up, its tires screeching a bit as it slowed and parked nearby. It was a car that I recognized, and its owner was confirmed when Professor Sycamore stepped out. He had a rather worried look on his face as he looked over at the people being wheeled out of the building.

  He glanced over at me and gave a slight wave to acknowledge me before he went over to talk to an Officer Jenny. There were at least four of them here now that I had spotted. How does anyone keep track of who’s who? How did Brock do it? That had to just be some weirdly strong obsession to be able to notice such minute details to be able to tell them apart at a glance.

  Looking down, I could see Cara glaring at the Professor. She was probably blaming him for this, which I didn’t think was entirely correct but I also couldn’t confidently defend him since I knew so little about the overall situation.

  He spoke with Officer Jenny for several minutes before he made his way over to me. He had a sour expression on his face. “Jason,” he greeted me with a nod. “Do you mind coming over to the research center?”

  I stared at him a moment, unsure if I should accept his offer, but not really having a reason to deny it. I couldn’t tell if I was just being overly paranoid, or if there was something actually wrong. Rather than commit, I asked, “Why?”

  The sour expression on his face intensified before he spoke, “Officer Jenny wants you away from the site, but she also doesn’t want you to leave Lumiose until the investigations are over.”

  My brow furrowed. “Investigation? And how long will that take?”

  He shook his head. “No idea,” he said with a sigh. “But she implied that you could either come with me to the research center… or go down to the station.”

  I frowned as I looked over at Officer Jenny who was watching us. She wasn’t glaring, but it was clear she was upset. “Fine. Do you at least have an area where I can continue training them?”

  Once I had gotten confirmation to that, I tried to get everyone back in their pokeballs. It had been a struggle to convince everyone, but in the end I relented and allowed Cara to stay out and ride along in the car, which was enough of a compromise for the rest. Professor Sycamore didn’t seem to mind.

  As we drove, Cara spoke up. “Is there any way to keep that from happening again?”

  I glanced back at her, and then looked at the Professor who was watching the road. “Is there any way to prevent that sort of control from a psychic Pokemon?” I asked.

  His brow furrowed a bit and he glanced over at me before looking back at the road. “Not something you’re aware of?” he asked.

  Shaking my head, I responded, “No.”

  He thought about it for a moment. “Well, it’s hard to say if there’s really a method. It’s mostly just being prepared for it.”

  I frowned. “So if we had been expecting it, it would have been more difficult for the Mewtwo to control everyone?”

  That got a shrug in response. “It’s just like any other attack, right? You just have to not get hit.”

  My frown deepened as I looked at him. He clearly didn’t have a very high aptitude for battling, but what he said made sense in the most simple of ways. “I guess that’s one way to think about it. Disrupting it, or avoiding it… But that’s not entirely helpful in that situation.”

  “Yeah, it was able to control all of your Pokemon within seconds,” he paused for a moment. “Have you had any of your Pokemon fight psychic types?”

  I had to think about that for a moment before I slowly shook my head. “No… They haven’t.”

  “That’s probably the problem. I’m sure you can train them to sort of… block out that sort of thing?” he questioned, unsure.

  Something told me that it was possible. But how to do it was the question. Maybe I could go to Anistar City and ask Olympia about it? She’s a bit eccentric, but very good natured. Then I slapped my forehead as I realized something.

  “What’s up?” Sycamore asked, glancing over at me with a confused expression.

  “Nothing… Just… I think that I know too much. It makes it difficult to remember specific details if I’m not thinking on the right path,” I tried to explain.

  He just laughed a bit. “That must be annoying.”

  “Yeah…” I sighed as I leaned back in my seat more. Olympia was a powerful psychic with the power to see the future and past. I could try and ask her about some things… “I should go and talk with Olympia,” I said aloud with a nod.

  “Olympia?” Sycamore just looked even more confused. “You’re having problems with psychic attacks and you’re going to challenge the psychic gym first?” Then it was like he realized. “Oh. Yeah, that’s actually a good idea. Olympia would be able to help you with things.”

  I nodded a few times. “Exactly. I wasn’t planning to do the gyms in order, anyways. But I think Anistar will be my first stop.” I paused as I thought about it. “Actually… Maybe I’ll do Santalune first. Or… hm…” My brow furrowed. I hadn’t thought about what order I would do the gyms in. I had just assumed that I was going to do them in order, but did I have to do that?

  As if he knew my unasked question, Sycamore smiled a bit. “While there is a suggested gym route, you’re not required to take it.” As he spoke we finally reached the research center and he showed me to a large open area. It sure looked like a training area.

  He said it was a test area, where they would do things that were not safe to do inside. Mostly it was where he had tested Mega Evolutions, but it hadn’t seen use in some time as no new stones had been discovered. He let me set up my tent right up against the building, and to improve everyone's mood I gave them a pokeblock and instructed them a bit on how to train.

  Most of them actually seemed reluctant at first, but with Rio and Keo being the eager little battle junkies they are, it didn’t take long to convince them. Even Cara decided to join them, though I think it was because she found a new reason to train.

  Right now I was standing on a balcony, leaning on the railing as I overlooked them as they trained. The spot looked familiar, and it wasn’t long before I realized that this was where Professor Sycamore usually called me from.

  As I realized that, the man himself came out from a heavy metal door, moving over to join me at the railing. He sighed a bit as he looked down at the training Pokemon before he held out a bottle towards me. “After a day like today, I think we both need a drink.”

  I looked at it for a moment, hesitating before I sighed and took it. Without thinking, I brought the bottle up and bit down on the bottle cap, giving the bottle a little tug as I popped it open. I placed the cap down on the railing before looking at the bottle.

  “That’s a neat trick,” he said with a bit of a laugh.

  “Something I learned in my early college days,” I said, smiling as I thought back to it.

  “You went to college?” he asked, turning a bit more to face me.

  “Yeah,” I said with a nod before taking a small sip. Afterwards I looked at the bottle again, actually reading what it was. It was a mead, when I was expecting a beer. An odd shock to the tastebuds to be sure.

  He seemed to think for a moment. “You know… I never did ask much about you, did I? About your life. What did you used to do?”

  “I was a teacher,” I said, still smiling as I reminisced.

  There was a choking noise beside me, followed by a small coughing fit. I looked over at the Professor as it seemed he’d just inhaled some of his drink. After a moment and a few pats to his chest he seemed to regain himself. “Sorry. Sorry. You just… Seem a bit young to be a teacher.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “Professor, I’ll be forty in the spring.”

  He stared at me in disbelief for a moment before he shook his head. “You don’t look it.”

  Reaching up, I rubbed my chin a bit. I hadn’t even grown any stubble. “Yeah… I’m as surprised about that as you are,” I said with a chuckle.

  “How long were you doing that for?” he asked, clearly curious.

  I nodded slightly. “Fourteen years,” I paused. “More if you count the time I was just an intern.”

  We fell into silence for a few minutes, just watching the Pokemon train before he spoke again. “So what did you get your degree in? Since you went to college.”

  “I’ve got a bachelor’s in health science, and another in education.” I let out a soft snort. “And more minor degrees than I honestly know what to do with.”

  He leaned more against the railing, again turning his focus on me. “So you were in college for…five years?”

  I shook my head. “Seven. I started out going for an engineering degree, but-” I hesitated, wondering how much I was really willing to open up. “Stuff happened.”

  “Does it have to do with your little bottle trick?” he asked with a joking tone.

  “Kinda sorta,” I said as I made a wobbling motion with my hand. “My time in college was… complicated.”

  “Oh?” He leaned a bit more into the railing. “Do tell.” He sounded like a kid waiting for his parents to read him a bedtime story.

  I glanced at him before sighing and taking another sip from the bottle. It was a pretty good mead. I wondered if it was from Combee or Beedrill as I mulled over where to start. “Well, I suppose the best place to begin… I’m not really good at talking about myself. But… I fell in love. Absolute fire of a romance, and we were so infatuated with each other that we went for the same degree, same school, same classes.”

  He was quiet, and honestly looked a bit less eager to hear the story as he was a moment ago.

  “We did everything together. We partied. Got the whole college package. And we did it all together… I thought it would last forever…” I sighed. “But then it all crashed and burned. Hard.” I took another sip, thinking back on those days. “So I changed everything. Went to a different college. Changed my major to health science. Got lucky and managed to get into a really good program that was paying for my schooling in exchange for me working. Was going really well, until the one running the program lost his grant money and the whole thing was shut down.”

  “Ugh... I know that too well,” he said with a tired grimace and a bit of a nod. “Getting and keeping grants for research projects isn’t easy.”

  I nodded as well. “I was at a complete loss of what to do for a bit… until a friend of my fathers offered me a deal. If I got my education degree on top of my health science one, and signed an employment contract, they’d pay for my college. Twenty years working at their school.”

  “So you didn’t finish your contract?” he asked, a bit of a smile on his face.

  I let out a soft snort as I shook my head. “Nope. But it was still great… Being an intern teacher was annoying, but once I became a substitute things got better. Four years as a sub, and then they made me the physical education teacher, as well as one of the science teachers.” I paused. “Which is kind of a weird combination?”

  He laughed and then shrugged. “Well, I guess they put you where they thought they needed you. What ages did you teach?”

  “I guess?” I shrugged with a slight laugh. “I taught kids anywhere between twelve and eighteen. But anyways, two years of that, and then I became a guidance counselor. Those were two of the best and worst years of my life… Constantly butting heads with the school board, fighting for them to treat those damned kids as actual people and not just names on paper.”

  There was a moment of silence as I took another sip and thought about that time. “So that’s why you have a problem with authority,” he said, not phrasing it as a question but as a statement.

  That caused me to laugh. “Oh, one of them. I’ve just seen so many people abuse their authority that it’s hard to trust them. Or in some cases, they neglect their duties.”

  He grimaced slightly at my comment. “Maybe the new Director won’t force me to do work outside of my expertise and actually hire proper people.”

  I nodded. “He probably just wanted to keep you busy.”

  “Busy is an understatement. Man ran me ragged,” he said with a short laugh.

  I laughed a bit, too. “Well, it didn’t last long,” I continued, “After two years of fighting them, they had enough and I was moved back to a teaching role. But I wasn’t an actual teacher anymore… so I was just an assistant teacher. They didn’t want to fire me because I was still locked into the contract, and while if I broke it there’d be some serious consequences, but if they broke it I’d get off clean and free.”

  “Teaching the same subjects?” he asked.

  “Yeah.” I nodded. “Mostly physical education and substitute work. Six years of that before…” my voice trailed off as I thought back on the incident.

  “Before you came here,” he finished and I nodded.

  Once again we fell into silence as I slowly sipped the mead. He seemed fairly content with the lull in conversation. I couldn't really say it was quiet, due to the hoard of fighting Pokemon below us. “You know…” I said after a while, the sun started to go down. “Sometimes I wonder… when I’m laying down and trying to sleep… I wonder if it was one of my students.”

  Sycamore didn’t say anything, clearly not having an answer.

  But then again, I didn’t have an answer either.

  After a few minutes I finished off the bottle before setting it down on the railing. “I’ve gotta go make dinner for them. Thanks for the drink.”

  He nodded. “Officer Jenny will be by in a few days to get statements.”

  I just nodded as I made my way down, gathering everyone up for dinner. They seemed a lot more energetic, since Cara had told them about what we’d talked about in the car. They were eager to find a way to increase their psychic defenses. But that would have to wait.

  It was actually two days before Officer Jenny came to discuss what happened. Again I was up on the balcony, watching the Pokemon train when Jenny came out. “Ah, Jason.” She quickly moved up, taking out a familiar looking recording device and setting it on the railing. “I apologize for how long it took to get to you but… well, as we started digging into this branch of the Association we just kept finding more and more…”

  “It’s alright,” I said with a bit of a smile. “I kind of expected as much.”

  She nodded. “Unfortunately your whole situation has been moved to a far lower priority. Especially because we can’t locate Director Yellow.”

  My eye twitched and my full focus was now on Officer Jenny. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the way that Cara’s full attention snapped to us. She had such good hearing. “I…honestly don’t think anyone is going to find him.”

  Again she nodded. “We’ve reached the same conclusion, but the Yellow family is…” She sighed. “Influential within the Association. They were quick to cut ties with the Director before anything could be linked back to them, but I still put in a request to investigate just in case he had conspirators within the family…” her voice trailed off.

  “But they’ve blocked all of your requests,” I finished her sentence and she nodded. That was an extremely interesting bit of information. Chances were that Andrew was a member of this Yellow family, since big powerful families like that don’t like it when the average rabble shares anything in common with them.

  “Some of them are trying to blame you, but the evidence of your recording is so damning that they can’t actually put together any sort of argument.” She smiled a bit. “Good job on that, by the way.”

  At that point I realized that this wasn’t the Officer Jenny that I had seen yesterday. This was the Jenny from Santalune who had helped me. There was something about her face that was a lot kinder. “I suggest that people do it more often,” I said as I returned her smile.

  “I’d agree to that. If we had more people doing that, we’d have an easier time finding who the bad guys actually are…” She shook her head. “While a lot of the Association building has cameras, most of them were turned off before you arrived.”

  I arched an eyebrow. “So they…didn’t want anyone to find out that I was there?”

  She shrugged. “We don’t know. Everyone we’ve interviewed has had their minds scrambled. Some of them are so bad that they can hardly even be considered alive…” I could see the way that she shuddered at the thought. It must have been extremely unpleasant.

  “I’ll have to be careful of the Yellow family…” I muttered. Especially because I doubted they were going to be alright with my actions, and my future actions. “Who are they, anyways?”

  “They’re an old Champion family from the Johto and Kanto region. They’ve had nine Champions in their family scattered about different regions. It would be eleven, but two of them were discredited and lost the title when it was found they had cheated.”

  “So an old family of scummy cheaters.” I was frowning and then stiffened slightly when I realized something and glanced down at the recording device. Immediately I relaxed when it was obvious she hadn’t turned it on yet.

  “They have a ton of sway in the Association and practically control all the Leagues… You’re going to have a hard time if you plan to participate.” That was clearly a warning.

  I smiled in response. “Thanks. But they’re going to have an even harder time getting the drop on me now, considering that I’m aware of them.”

  She let out a soft sort of giggle. “Well, considering that they couldn’t even keep you down with that artificial psychic legendary, you’ve probably got a good shot… But, if you need help, either come ask me, or one of the Joy’s.”

  That made me narrow my eyes a bit. “Not just any Officer?”

  Her eyes darted around for a moment before she shook her head. “We’ve already found evidence that at least two Jenny’s and several officers are on the Yellow’s payroll. I don’t know if they just don’t see the Joy’s as a threat, or we just haven’t found anything yet but… They seem safer.”

  “It’s that bad?” I asked, looking around a bit.

  “I had to fight to be the one to interview you.” She leaned against the railing with a sigh. “And the only reason I was allowed was because I knew you, and argued you’d be more willing to talk to me.”

  That was something I nodded to in agreement. “Yeah.”

  There was silence for a few moments before she straightened up. “Alright. Now that I’ve said all that, let’s do this interview so I can get you off this leash,” she said with a smile before clicking the button on the machine to start.

  I then had to explain everything that happened from my perspective as best as I could remember it. She didn’t ask many questions, just a few clarifications. Especially when it came to the Mewtwo. That seemed to be the biggest point of contention, and while she held it from her voice, it was clear by her expression that she didn’t want me to actually answer any questions. So I kept it vague, mostly about what I had observed.

  Surprisingly none of her questions were about how I knew it was artificial, but that was probably because there were a few of those. Mostly the focus was on how I knew what it was. In response I just said that it told me. None of what it said, aside from its parting words, were caught on the recording, so it was impossible to disprove that.

  Eventually it seemed that all of her questions were answered and she thanked me for my time before turning off the recording, but didn’t make any movements to leave. “Are you alright?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” I said with a nod.

  “It didn’t mess with your head?” There was an odd sort of concern to her tone.

  I let out a soft chuckle and shook my head. “No. I’m not entirely sure why, but it wasn’t able to force its will on me. And no, I don’t know why,” I said before she could ask, “I only have theories.”

  She took a moment to think about that, before she nodded. “Okay. Well, here. Lemme give you my number so that you’ve got access to the police.”

  I actually laughed a bit as I got my phone out. “I actually don’t even know the number for the police, so that’s a good idea.”

  She stared at me for a moment, hesitating to take my phone. Then her eyes widened. “Oh! Right! Someone would have to tell you that.” She shook her head as took my phone and entered her contact details. “Well, as long as you’re in Kalos, use that number.”

  I nodded a bit as I took the phone back, and looked at what she had entered. She had put herself as Adria Jenny, Santalune. I felt like my entire brain froze for several seconds as I stared at it. “Your name is Adria?” I managed to ask before she turned around.

  There was a puzzled expression on her face. “Yes? Did you think that my name was Jenny?”

  I didn’t answer. I couldn’t answer. All I could feel was embarrassment.

  It took a moment before she started giggling, which turned into full blown laughter. She had to grip her sides she was laughing so hard, and it took almost a full minute before she managed to talk .”Sorry…sorry…” She cleared her throat, trying to regain her composure. “Jenny is the clan name. I guess you wouldn’t know that… Sorry.”

  “It’s fine,” I lied. I had never even considered the fact that it was their last name. Wait…did that also mean… “So Joy is a clan name, too. Right?”

  She looked to be fighting back more giggles as she nodded. “Yes.”

  Now I felt a bit bad that I’d never gotten any of the Nurse Joy’s names that I was on good terms with. I wondered what Farm Joy’s name was? “Alright. If I have any trouble that needs police help, I’ll give you a call.”

  She nodded and smiled as she turned to leave. “You better,” she said with a laugh and a wave.

  Thankfully that was a good interaction. Adria was not the type that I expected from an Officer Jenny, but with so many it was obvious that there would be many different types. At least she was on my side.

  Unfortunately, it still took a few days before I was able to finally leave the research center. Apparently there was a lot of paperwork, and some pushback. But it was hardly anything more than just a little inconvenience. I still had more than eight months to complete the gym circuit, and all that did was give me time to think of my route. I decided that the first thing I should do is go talk to Olympia and talk with her. Then from there…

  Well, we’ll see how I’m feeling.

  End of Arc Zero: New Trial on Life

  loooong time.

  Lucario - Mother of Rio, trauma wounds reopened

  Lucario - Craves violence, cares a lot about her family

  Scolipede - Pokemon transport unit

  Primarina - Doing big seal things

  Audino - Trained Nurse Pokemon

  Diancie - From Reflection Cave

  Eevee - Living that sleepy hood life, but still brave

  Goomy - Full of dragon slug vibes

  Mimikyu - Collected from the Supermart

  Banette - Collected from the Supermart

  Vulpix (Alolan) - Bread and butter Ice Beams