Isn’t this a familiar sight. Just the two of us, alone in the woods, both covered in blood.

  I didn’t realize how tired I was until now. It seems like today's events are finally taking their toll. It’s weird since I don’t remember doing much, but that doesn't really matter at the moment.

  Ashley stood in front of me, hands still dripping with the Garchomps blood. Her eyes had a tinge of red and were unmoving. She was just staring at me. For the most part her expression seemed completely neutral, which was both kind of annoying since I couldn’t get a read on how she was currently feeling, and frightening since she almost beat another pokemon to death and now she's looking at me. It’s obvious that she's waiting for me to say something, and while I thought I knew what to say going into this, the words died in my mouth as soon as she was let out, leading to this stare down. I already fucked this conversation up so theres no way I’ll do it twice, right?

  “WHAT THE FUCK was that?!” I yell waving towards the direction of the cave, or atleast the direction I think it's in. The first part of that sentence came out clear, the rest came sputtering out like I just had the wind knocked out of me.

  Amazing start.

  Ashley looks down, expression staying the same, and takes a few seconds before answering. “That thing was going to attack us, so I attacked it first.”

  “No! No it wasn’t! It was backing off! I was in the middle of telling Taion to stand down and then you came in and nearly killed the poor thing.”

  She grimaced, but was apparently still ready to die on this hill. “How do you know that? It could have-”

  “Ashley! We went close to its nest... area... thing, and made too much noise! It was trying to get us to leave and you made things worse!”

  This time she looked up. The neutral look she had until now had changed to anger. She started to walk toward me, making me move back a bit in surprise, but stopped within arms distance.

  “Then why were YOU in there then! YOU chose to go in there, even against Taion’s warnings! When that thing approached YOU fell on your ass and couldn't move! YOU keep putting yourself In these situations and WE need to bail YOU out!”

  She emphasized each “you” by jabbing a finger into my chest.

  I didn’t have a great answer for that. Partially because I felt like some of that was true, but also because I don’t even know why I went in myself. What do I even say, ‘because it felt right’, ‘because I needed to’. “That’s besides the point!”

  I take a breath, trying to arrange my thoughts. It’s now that I notice how scrambled my mind is. My head's pounding, each pulse feels like there's a metal rod being hammered through my brain. I put a hand on my forehead. Damn, it’s burning. Ah, this sucks. “I was in there because it was my job to be, got it? That Garchomp was just protecting its territory. There was no need for violence! Period! What you did was completely unnecessary! That is the bottom line. This is why you listen to me, so you don’t go fucking things up!”

  If she looked pissed before, she looks livid now. She might actually hit me this time, but this can't go on any longer. While I don’t like to agree with Kane’s methods, there is definitely truth in what he said about how she's affecting everyone.

  “Since when were you so caring about anything happening to a rando! It doesn't affect your job, does it?! You don’t need to worry about getting in trouble with your boss, do you?”

  “Okay, so there have been times where someone gets hurt on some of the jobs we’ve done. Did I care…” Did I actually not care? “Maybe not. but we’ve never been the ones to cause it and they knew what they were getting themselves into!”

  “SO WHAT WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO?! ARE YOU SAYING THAT I SHOULD HAVE DONE NOTHING?!”

  “Yes! That's exactly what I’m saying!” I knew how stupid it sounded, but that would have been the right thing to do at the time. To my simple response, Ashleys face went through a flurry of emotions before finally coming back to pissed off. She turns around and starts walking away.

  “FINE! You made your point. Now FUCK OF-”

  “No.”She stops and turns to look at me. The blood, now dried, chips as she clenches her fists. The flame on her head growing bigger, flickering wildly, and if looks could kill…

  “Excuse me?”

  Maybe this isn’t a great idea after all.

  “This stupid tantrum you’ve been throwing for the past few days, you need to cut it out. It’s affecting everyone, not only me. I saw that fight with Jack, how long until you seriously hurt someone or even kill them. From what I saw, I’d give it two days. Maybe not even that”

  Well no going back now.

  “What, so I am the problem now?! I did everything I-”

  “Yes. You. Are.”

  When the realization of what I said hits, her expression changes for a second. For just a moment she looked genuinely worried at the fact that I had said that.

  “W-What!? How!? What I did to that thing was to protect YOU!”

  Although she still sounded furious, I can now hear some panic in her voice. I wonder why.

  “Earlier, when I was sparring with everyone, I was trying to get better! No one else was taking it seriously! But I was!”

  Her eyes were no longer filled with anger, instead they now looked stressed. Her voice gets more shaky with each sentence. At first her argument sounded like normal justification for what she’s doing, but now it sounds like she's trying to prove something.

  I chose to not say anything. It may seem a bit cruel, but just reassurance doesn’t seem like a good enough answer right now. Can’t really solve a problem you don’t understand I guess. I also just don’t trust myself to say the right thing after last time.

  “What else do I have to do to make you happy!? When will you be satisfied with all the shit I have to do!?”

  …

  “I’ve done more than anyone else! Everyday I work my ass off just to meet your bullshit expectations!”

  …

  “What!? Can’t say anything!? You know it’s not my fault! You know I did what I could against the Garchomp!”

  ‘I did what I could-’ She's finally addressing that. I don’t like thinking about it either, but it seems necessary at this point. I try blocking out the mental image of Ashley covered in blood and open cuts. The memory of a strong metallic smell and the feeling of being stabbed by multiple rocks. Was I also crying back then?

  “You saw it! There was nothing else I could do.”

  …

  “I AM NOT USELESS!”

  …

  “SAY SOMETHING ASSHOLE!”

  Usually now's the time most people in movies would say something reassuring to calm down the person who's clearly in emotional distress. My mind is screaming at me to say something like “You’re not useless” or “Everything’s fine”, but almost subconsciously, I decide to question it further.

  “Why are you doing this?”

  She stops and blinks.

  “What?”

  “I thought I knew before, when we talked earlier. Back then you said you were pissed off at me for not caring about what happened to you guys. Honestly that felt pretty valid, but nothing you're saying at the moment has anything to do with it, at least not entirely. So you just tell me; what’s the problem?”

  Once again her expression shifts multiple times.

  I’m hoping what I said was right. I don’t have too much evidence to back that claim that the two aren't entirely connected, but it just doesn’t seem like her to fixate on something like this.

  “Well that’s not… It’s still…FUCK!!!” She yells in frustration before slumping over the base of a tree.

  She sits there, fire crown still burning bright as she brings her arms up to her head, burying her face in them. Her fingers tightly grip the strands of fur the line the opposite arm. Even with that I can see tears rolling down her cheeks.

  I take a seat next to her and stare into the distance. For a few moments all I hear is the whistle of wind through the trees and the scratching of grass.

  This reminds me of the first night we met, clinging to a tree in the snow for survival. Although that was years ago, I’ve never taken the time to sit down and have a genuine heart to heart conversation with her before. Not that I've ever done so with anyone else. But with her it was always mostly about what comes next, what needs to be done and complaining about work.

  “Do you hate me?” I hear her ask, finally breaking the silence.

  The question catches me a bit off guard due to how completely out of nowhere it seemed. At first I thought of how silly it sounded. Like something a kid would ask their parents when they get mad. But now thinking back, recently I haven't done anything that would say otherwise. After the mission the two attempts at a conversation before this were sour and before then the whole rain thing happened.

  “Even if I do, what are you so worried about?”

  There’s a pause as she debates whether or not to finally open up about whatever was bothering her.

  “I don't want to go.”

  Now I’m more confused than I ever was before. “I don’t want to go.” What's that supposed to mean?

  “I don’t understand. You don’t want to go where?”

  “I don’t want you to release me, dumb ass!”

  Release her? The only time the idea ever popped into my mind was when Kane practically brought it up. Although I was the first one to actually say it, so maybe there is a bit of truth to that.

  The flame on her head dies down a bit. I'm hoping that means something good.

  “I said before that I understood whatever the hell was going on, but clearly I don’t-”

  I awkwardly put my hand on her shoulder, risking it getting burned off.

  “So can you please explain it to me.”

  She stays silent for a few seconds before bringing her head up. Her eyes were puffy from crying. There was none of the previous anger or panic, however she still looked tense.

  “Back in the lab, when I was fighting that Garchomp, I saw you near the exit-.”

  She pauses for a second to wipe her eyes

  “And honestly I was ready to die. If it means that there was at least a chance you made it out fine, I was content with things ending there. But then you stopped and tried shooting the thing. You took its attention off of me and… did you see what you looked like after..”

  Dread was painted her face as she recalls how I looked after I passed out

  “You were laying in a pool of your own blood, there were multiple rocks sticking out of you, and half your eye was on the floor next to you!”

  I never got to see any pictures of what I looked like, only how I looked after I woke up, so hearing this felt so surreal.

  “I thought you were fucking dead! Almost everyone did. We thought that for three months, then you waltz back in looking like that.”

  She waves to both the metal brace and my glass eye.

  “Then you refuse to even address what happened and brushed it off like it was nothing. I thought I could too, but ever since then ever since moving here I could tell that you were miserable and it was all because of that day, It was my fault!”

  She hangs her head, completely exhausted.

  “So in that cave, when I heard another one. I couldn’t let it happen again. I-I’m sorry.”

  She faces me with a look of defeat. So tired and worn after pouring her heart out. Her eyes were still wet with tears and her breathing jagged.

  “Please don’t leave me alone.”

  At that moment I did something I’ve never actually done to anyone before.

  I leaned over and hugged her.

  Usually this is Juno’s thing and I don’t really like to be touched by other people, but it just felt like the right thing to do at the moment.

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  I could feel tears and some of the Garchomp’s blood wipe off onto my shirt, most likely permanently staining it, but that doesn’t really matter now. Tomorrow's problems are for tomorrow's me.

  It took me a while to realize that my head was dangerously close to the burning flame on her head, but surprisingly I wasn't getting the burning sensation I normally would if one were to put their face next to an open fire. It felt like a nice summer day. Warm enough to be relaxing while not hot enough to give me a heat stroke. I guess it’s true that you can touch the fire on a pokemon if it trusts you, I’ve just never been willing to test that statement.

  When I finally let go, I stood up, almost losing my balance as I struggled to find my footing with the leg brace.

  I look back at Ashley. She now seems… good? Content maybe. Wherever it is, it’s better than how she was before. I still do have a question to ask.

  “Why do you care so much? About staying, about what I think, about if I di… *ahem* anyway at this point it seems likely that you could most likely make it on your own, maybe even do better without being told when you can and can’t fight. Don’t you still want to be the strongest pokemon in Sinnoh or something like that?”

  For a moment she sat there in stunned silence before rolling over and laughing. Did I say something wrong?

  “Dude, I’m not an idiot. I stopped thinking about that shit like a few years ago. You didn’t really expect me to actually think that was still possible.” Ashley says recovering from her laughing fit.

  ‘I mean like, with all the other stupid shit you do-’ before I could finish the thought I realized I said that out loud as a clump of dirt hits my stomach.

  “Well I don’t need to aim to be the ‘strongest’ in the region, not while I can maintain being the strongest on your team.” She says with more enthusiasm than anything she's done in the past days, or technically weeks I guess.

  Time to shoot it down.

  “Well sort of, you still lose when Blitz-”

  I was able to turn fast though to dodge the second clump of dirt.

  “Anyway for the first part of that question, I mean do I really need to say anything.” She says in a somewhat serious manner.

  “I mean yeah. Like I said, it would almost be a positive for you, no?” I say, still confused.

  That’s when I got the ‘you’re a fucking idiot’ look.

  “Uh, why wouldn’t I. Okay, here's a question: why did you try to save me instead of leaving?” She asks.

  “Because we’re friends?” I respond, sounding a bit more unsure of my answer than I probably should have.

  “Wow, is the little detective finally putting his thinking skills to work?” Ashley says in baby talk.

  “Wow, you’re so funny.”

  “Well it’s not only that, but you're also like my first and best friend, so that’s super special. Can’t really just let that go can we?” She says with a smile.

  I suppose so… wait a minute. From what I’ve said about what I’ve done before, she probably thinks that she’s my first friend too. Sucks that it’s not entirely true. Well I guess first friend in the outside world. No problem with the best friend part, I don’t really have too many contenders for that. Let’s see, I wouldn’t really call any of my coworkers a friend so that crosses out almost everyone I work with. The only one I have somewhat positive interactions with is the boss. He’s nice, but that feels more like an obligation as a worker. Okay on to my pokemon I guess. There’s Taion, he’s high up, but that feels more professional than super close, same with Blitz. Jack is a pretty close second. Fun guy, always happy to do whatever, but we don’t talk very much.

  “Are you still awake?” Ashley asks.

  Ah, zoned out again.

  It’s pretty late, nice talk, but I should wrap this up. Yikes, never been any good with endings.

  “I’m not gonna lie, this definitely sucks-” I say as I gesture to my eye. “But, I'm fine, just gotta make the most of it, ya know.”

  I guess that goes for everything now. It is definitely possible to make the most of this town. Boring as it may be, the food here is at least nice. The people are friendly

  Nevertheless I give a reassuring smile as I offer my hand out.

  She accepts my gesture and takes my hand. Really bad idea.

  Under both our weight my bad leg gives out and I fall flat on my face.

  In a struggle to get up I'm lifted off the ground. I find my legs and neck being supported by Ashley as she walks towards the house.

  “I’m not a child, you can put me down.”

  She looks down and smirks.

  “Does the widdle baby want to play in the mud again?”

  Again with the baby talk. I roll my eyes, but say nothing.

  I can’t remember what happens after that cause almost instantly I slip into unconsciousness.

  —

  I woke up in the room I took a nap in, at least thought I took a nap in. I didn’t dream up half of yesterday, did I? Oh that would suck. That would suck a lot. Great for the Garchomp that may or may not exist. The sun seems to be just about rising so it’s still pretty early. It’s definitely possible that I just slept all the way from the afternoon till now, but that would mean everything that happened was just in my head.

  I make my way downstairs and check the kitchen counter. The five pokeballs that I left there before I went to talk to Ashley were missing.

  For a second I felt kind of sad. One of the only genuinely nice talks I’ve had was just in my head. That might have been a bit worrying. My fears were unfounded as I turned around to see Ashley sleeping on the couch, the five pokeballs lying empty on the table next to her.

  Then I look down and realize that my shirt looks like shit and is still covered in dirt and blood. Well I guess that answers that.

  With the assurance that everything was in fact real, I could comfortably start the day. I walked over to the fridge, honestly pretty good about myself, until I opened it and then remembered why I constantly go to that one breakfast restaurant. There’s barely anything in here. Well going one more time couldn’t hurt.

  I make a mental note to buy groceries and make an actual note of my whereabouts, make myself look at least presentable, grab my bag, andleave for the day.

  Still feeling nice as I walk through the forest while my leg brace clanks over and over, scaring the nearby inhabiting pokemon, giving me time to think to myself.

  The morning breeze is cool, a nice contrast to the burning heat of yesterday, and the skies are clear, with no hint of any weather changes. Honestly if everyday could start like this, maybe if everyday started like this, this place wouldn't be so bad.

  As I walk into town some people wave at me. For the first time, I wave back. I’m going to have to be here for a while so may as well get used to doing it.

  “Excuse me sir, can I ask you something?”

  I turn around to see a woman in a dark blue zip-up sweater with light blue accents waving to me.

  “Yeah, what do you need?” I ask as I walk over taking in the rest of her outfit.

  She has crimson red hair that is cut pretty short. The shorts she's wearing are almost entirely covered up by her giant sweater, which on second thought seems a few sizes too big. Finally she wore twin red boots that matched her hair.

  As I get closer I also notice that she seems to be slightly shorter than me.

  “Hey, I just came here from Johto, I was wondering if you could give me some directions to Veilstone?”

  Ah yes, another reminder of what my job has been degraded to.

  I point down route 210.

  “Well if you take the path there you will eventually come acr-”

  In a swift motion she wraps an arm around the remaining one at my side.

  I flinch at the sudden movement, now uncomfortable that she decided to cling to my arm, seemingly out of nowhere.

  “Uh, what are you doing?”

  She gives a creepy smile and points to a line of trees opposite of where I was looking at the time.

  At first I didn't see anything strange, then I noticed that one tree seemed to be slightly misshapen. On closer inspection the tree wasn’t misshapen, it was just a Decidueye standing next to one, arrow knocked and sting drawn back.

  Well shit.

  I look down at the woman's left hand, nothing out of the ordinary, then at her right, which was wrapped around my arm, and… yeah, my suspicions are confirmed as I notice that her pinky finger is completely gone.

  Well at least she doesn't want me dead, for now, judging by the fact there wasn't already an arrow in my head. Honestly, now I feel more frustrated than worried that I walked into this.

  “First I want you to give me your gun, only use your thumb index on the handle. You’ll die if I see a finger anywhere near the trigger.”

  I do as she says. The second it's offered she snatches it and puts it in her sweater pockets.

  “Next your pokemon.”She says.

  “I don’t have them.”

  “Don’t worry. You’ll have them back when we're done. I won’t hurt them, I’m not you.”

  Well now, what’s that supposed to mean? Okay, okay let’s focus on the positive. At least she's willing to let me walk away after this, and with my pokemon. Of course there’s always the chance she's lying, but either way it doesn’t seem like she believes that I genuinely don’t have anything else on me.

  “I can assure you I don’t have them with me right now.”

  She gives me an annoyed look and pokes at my bag.

  “What’s in there then?” She asks, sounding a bit agitated.

  “Dominos.”

  She gives me an unamused look.

  “Are you fucking serious.”She says through gritted teeth.

  “Go ahead, check it if you want.” I respond

  She opens the bag and reaches into it. Disbelief washed over her as she came up with a fist full of white dotted rectangles.

  “You- You weren't kidding.”

  “Nope.”

  After recovering from the shock of the moment, she immediately went back to threatening me. “Keep walking to where you were originally going. I wanna have a small chat with you. Try to run and I’ll get Arthur to put an arrow through your other leg.”

  I mean being held hostage over breakfast doesn't sound like the worst thing in the world. It also doesn’t seem like too many people have noticed what’s happening. I’ve seen some of the people I usually meet whenever I walk through the town in the morning and none of them seem to understand the semi-dire situation I’m in. I got some waves and a few smirks. They probably know that this person is new to this town and- ah shit. They’re still clinging to my arm, I really hope they don’t get the wrong idea.

  “Fine, but can you let go of me?” I ask. My arm’s starting to hurt “It’s not like I can do anything to you anyway.”

  She stops to think about it for a second. I guess she too realizes that I can’t realistically do anything without getting shot since she lets go and pushes me forward.

  As we make our way through town I think about the last time I encountered her.

  “It’s nice to see you without the mask on.” I say, trying to get some sort of reaction.

  She doesn’t respond.

  “It’s Leano right? I hope I’m not mistaken.” I ask.

  It’s a shot in the dark, but hopefully I’m right.

  She rolls her eyes.

  “Yes, but for now you have to call me Wendy.” she says, sounding a bit more frustrated than before.

  I have to hold in a laugh after hearing her name.

  “Wait actually? Like, as in the fast food place? Is that why you dyed your hair re-”

  She hits the back of my head which hurts way more than how much I would have expected it to.

  “Watch your mouth dickhead, unless you want me to shoot you with your own gun.” She hissed.

  “Out here in public? Let’s see where that takes you.” I grumble

  I feel something hit my leg brace, making me stumble a bit. When I look back at her she’s looking away.

  Stupid bi- oh were here.

  I stop in front of the restaurant and look at my would-be kidnapper.

  “You know, I don’t think it matters how good of a shot Arthur is, I'm pretty sure he won't be able to hit me inside the building.”

  Leano, or I guess Wendy sighs and waves at a clump of trees far from the ones the Decidueye was hiding behind. Faster than I could blink, a figure skyrockets through the leaves and within seconds lands besides me.

  The Decidueye gives me a death glare, our last encounter probably living rent free in his head.

  “That’s enough Arthur.” Wendy says as she recalls him into his ball.

  She brings out another one and releases whatever's inside. There's a flash of light and before me stands a Lucario. Because of their rarity around here, I’ve almost never seen one much less upclose. It was a lot shorter than I expected.

  “Wow, a new place!”

  The hyperactive canine beams with excitement as they take in their surroundings.

  “Can we go on a hike or something around here later? Or how about-”

  Wendy grabbed his shoulder which stopped his sporadic movements.

  “Louis, I promise you we will go exploring later, but for now I need you to make sure this guy doesn't run away.”

  The tone she uses to talk to the Lucario makes her sound like a really sweet and caring person. It's definitely a contrast from the pushing and threatening later.

  The Lucario looks over to me as if noticing that I'm there for the first time and takes a step back.

  He nods, but looks pretty worried.

  As we walk into the restaurant I lean closer to Wendy and whisper into her ear.

  “So do you talk to him like that because he’s-” I point to my head. “Ya, know. Slow~”

  She shoots me a glare.

  “No you dick. He’s still young and I treat people the way they deserve to be treated.” She snaps.

  Good to know she's a triggerhappy psycho only a little bit of the time.

  We take the seats by the TV, Louis opting to stand.

  Shortly an Audino comes to the table with a waiter name tag on its chest.

  I look down at the plethora of option I have to choose from and decide to go with the same thing I've picked everytime I go here.

  “Just eggs, sausage, potatoes and a cup of tea.”

  I turn over to look at Wendy.

  “You?”

  She doesn’t answer, instead just gives me an irritated look.I look back at the waiter. “Two.”

  As the Audino leaves Wendy finally speaks up. “So what were you planning on doing here?” She asks.

  “Eat breakfast.” I respond matter-of-factly. She gives a look that once again tells me that she doesn’t believe what I’m saying. “Really? That’s it. You were not meeting up with anyone? Or planning for your next job?” I give her a plain expression, or at least what I hope looks like one.

  “Nope, none of that, this is how my life is now after what happened a few months ago.” At first I see a look of shock then a bit of pity on her face. It’s quickly covered by a smirk and a taunting voice.

  “Boo hoo, little Kenny went poking around things he shouldn’t have and paid the price.” I can’t even kick her under the table lest the Lucario next to us punches my teeth in. Speaking of, his attention is entirely on the TV.Maybe I could get one kick hit in.

  “Oh that’s right, you changed your name to Alvis or something. And you think my new name is bad. You make it sound like you’re gonna start singing with some rodents.” Wendy taunts.

  It might be worth the punch. My frustration must be visible, cause she has an amused look spread on her face after glancing at me. “Well if all we’re doing is eating I may as well get straight to the point. The Garchomp we were keeping, I’m sure you know that it was special.” She says, lowering her voice to a whisper. “Yeah, I also thought it being bulletproof was a little off, just by a bit.” I say.

  She ignores my sarcastic comment. “And because of that it was a heavy loss when you killed it.” She continues. She takes a moment to think. “How did you manage that?”

  I’m honestly not sure. I passed out before it died, and never got to ask Ashley what really happened after, all I know was that it died from one of the metal fragments piercing its heart.

  “I don’t really know, I wasn't awake when it died.” I say. Wendy lets out a groan along with a few mutters about a useless dickhead. I wonder who she’s talking about.

  “Well then we will cross that bridge when we get there. Anyway, It took multiple people to track down and secure that one pokemon. The operation to do it cost us 15 people and 10 pokemon.”

  So that thing was found and not made. That’s interesting.

  “While holding it in captivity we were able to study it and from that we found an energy signature that didn’t match any other Garchomp. We were able to develop a tool that is able to pick up on it but it’s relatively new and we didn’t know if the energy signature was exclusive to this Garchomp or if any other pokemon had it. So for the most part all it was good for at the time was detecting the Garchomp’s general area, and that’s far as the research went before you came in and fucked everything up.”

  “Yeah I’m so sure that your buddies would have done something useful with that thing.” I say.

  Oddly enough there's a look of agreement.

  “Anyway, I was able to grab one of the tools and while trying to find you, it picked up on another energy signal here.” She says.

  “So I’m guessing you want me to grab it for you since I handled the Garchomp on my own last time.” I ask, dreading the answer.

  Wendy gave a sinister smile.

  “Exactly. You should be thankful. The original plan was to get revenge on you for shooting my finger off, but if you do this thing for me, I might let you go.” She says in a demeaning voice.

  Yeah that’s probably not happening.

  “Oh and don’t worry, I’ll help you. Can’t let this special opportunity be stolen by some reject cop.” She continues.

  Fuck off.

  “Now you just need to wait while I find-”

  “There’s a cave in the east section of route 210.” I blurt out without even thinking. “ People are complaining about strange noises there. Haven't been able to find out what it is yet.”

  I have no idea why I told her that, and apparently neither does she. She sits there for a second, taken aback by how quickly I just threw out that information.

  “Well then… I guess we'll see if your hunch is correct. You will prepare to help me contain it tomorrow. Meet me here at 12:00pm and show me the way. I think you know what happens if you try to chicken out of this, or if you’re lying.”

  Before I can answer, the waiter arrives with our food.

  As soon as the plates in front of me I start to cut at the sausage.

  Wendy on the other hand just stares at the food.

  “What the fuck is that?” She blurts out.

  I look up at her, a bit confused.

  “Uh, it’s food.”

  She gives me a disgusted look. “No this shit looks like it came straight out of the garbage.”

  “This is just breakfast restaurant food. What kind of stuff are you used to eating?”

  Wendy immediately got a look of superiority on her face. “Well aside from being a member of rocket, I was also a champion of Kanto, now Johto league for a time. So I was able to eat better things than this low-end sewage.”She says, looking like she's about to throw up.

  There was a lot of buzz in the news about a former Johto champion getting into an “accident”, I guess that was the cover story she gave for her injuries.

  I roll my eyes and as I do I notice something.

  The Lucario was no longer focused on the TV, but was now staring at Wendy’s plate. His eyes looked longingly at the untouched meal and his tail was rapidly wagging from side to side.

  “If you're not going to eat that, can you at least give it to the Lucario so you dont waste it?” I ask.

  Once again she gave me a disgusted look. “I’m not letting him eat this barf.”

  I turn to look at Louis and he… looks sad. He was giving those puppy eyes smaller dog pokemon make when they beg for things.

  “Come on, you're breaking his heart, I thought you cared for him.”

  She stared daggers at me. “Kill yourself.”

  But she relents and gives the plate to her pokemon, who in turn looks like he's about to have an aneurysm.

  He immediately takes the plate and scarfs down its contents within seconds.

  The sight is both disturbing and kind of nice since it reminds me of everytime I buy Ashley protein, which is definitely being charged for way more than it should.

  The bill comes and like usual, there is a pretty sizable discount on the stuff I ordered.

  Before I can quickly take the receipt Wendy grabs it and reads it over.

  “Too poor to pay the full bill?” She asks. This doesn’t even sound mocking, just curious.

  “Apparently fucking up your leg gives you the cancer treatment around here.”

  She smiles. “Well then, maybe you should thank me.”

  You're not looking too great yourself, nine fingers.

  “Well I guess we're done here now.” She says, getting up to leave.

  There is still one more thing I wanted to ask so I got up and followed her outside.

  “Wait.”

  She turns around, confused as to why I followed her outside, then reaches into her pocket and throws something to me. When I catch it I realize it’s my gun. I check and there’s no ammo in it. I'm surprised she even gave it back, but that’s not what I was looking for.

  “Can you tell me what happened to everyone? After I was gone? How come everyone else was marked off as dead except for you?”

  She immediately tensed up. She spent a good few seconds thinking, probably debating whether to tell me or not. Just as it seemed like she decided not to tell me, taking a few steps away without looking back, she let out an audible groan and turned around.

  “I told you about where to find another one of those things, so I think it’s only fair that you tell me something that couldn’t possibly do any harm at the moment. After you left and Dr.Ludwig was found dead, some of the others… a stupid amount of them, tried to create an uprising and free themselves like you did. For a while they were winning, which got almost everyone else on board with the attempt, but they were eventually outnumbered by rocket grunts. They didn’t take going back as an option.”

  She looked down, avoiding eye contact with me.

  “I lived, because I never helped. I did nothing, just stood by and watched. I saw as every single one of them died fighting for freedom or took themselves out before they got caught. I didn’t do anything. But neither did you.”

  I open my mouth to say something, but then I hear a voice at my side.

  “Hello Alvin.”

  I spin around to see the old woman from yesterday. “It’s Alvis ma’am.” I say, correcting her.

  “Do you remember the pie I made yesterday? It came out pretty nice. Would you like to come over to have some?”

  “I- uh…”

  I turn back to look at Wendy, only to find that she's far into the forest, Louis following close behind her and eventually she's gone.

  There were still a few more things I wanted to ask. I guess that could wait for tomorrow.

  “I know my house is not much, but I would love the company.” The old woman continues.

  Do I really want to listen to more of her ramblings? I think I may lose my sanity after a few hours. On the other hand, I don’t have much to do other than get ready for tomorrow, and there's apparently more free food.

  Eh, why not.