Stepping onto the train was an oddly nostalgic feeling. It hadn’t been that long since I’d been on one, but for some reason my time in Alola felt like a long time. Maybe it was just because so much happened there and when I returned.

  My destination was Anistar, one of the easternmost cities in Kalos. In the last few days while I was under house arrest- … tent arrest? It was a rather bothersome time, but it gave me time to think and gather information. Adria had actually given me some really good information before I left this morning. Apparently that had been their only masterball, and the only Mewtwo the Yellow family had.

  Which was interesting because they admitted that it was theirs, but refuted any knowledge of what it was being used for. They also didn’t elaborate where it came from, but their evasiveness had backfired and Adria actually managed to get her request to investigate approved. Hopefully their not having another Mewtwo was true. Adria had said she was inclined to believe them judging by how upset they were, but she wouldn’t bet her life on it. There were even threats of monetary lawsuits over the loss.

  As if I would ever pay them.

  Did I think I was above their law? Yeah, I kinda did. Well, I more felt like their laws didn’t apply to me. Which I admit was a bit conceited of me, but I’ve honestly had enough of following dumb rules made by stupid people.

  I should reign back this arrogance streak I was on before it bit me.

  Anyways, I had been thinking of what to do. My first step was going to be Olympia, and I felt like that was going to be a really long conversation. If she had the time for it, that is. Kalos was still in the midst of this year's Journey, and she might not have time.

  She was the seventh Gym Leader in the circuit, but I had no idea how most Trainers did things. Maybe one gym a month? That made the most sense to me, and might be what I did if I had been starting from scratch. Spend one month training and trying to beat the gym, then move to the next and repeat.

  And that wasn’t even factoring in the minor gyms. I had bothered Sycamore quite a lot to go into more details of how gyms worked, and how badges and things allowed access to the League. It was something I had wanted to ask him about a while ago, but it slipped my mind.

  The League was interesting, as it was its own sort of entity. It was run mostly by former Champions and worked very close to the Association, but was very much separated from them. They had a lot to do with gyms, as the League had to recognize the gym in order for it to hand out badges, though that was apparently easy. The eight major gyms were ones that were recognized by both the League and the Association, as well as the region's government. Three different acting bodies had to approve of them and the acting Gym Leader.

  Something else that was a bit surprising, apparently two minor gym badges were the equivalent of an Association approved gym as far as getting to participate in the League was concerned. But you had to have two official badges at the minimum. Which would mean someone could battle twelve minor gyms, and just do two of the easier official gyms.

  Which sounds all well and good, until you start looking at the minor gyms. Every city has at least five or six, with Lumiose having over ten. It was no wonder that the League was filled with unqualified Trainers.

  It also wasn’t hard to become a minor gym. Sycamore explained that you only needed a building, and to file some paperwork with the League and government. So the only problem was the money for setting up the facilities. It had become a privilege of the wealthy, and many families considered it a great achievement to own a gym. And then they staffed the gym with their children who had just finished their Journey, just so that they can brag that their kid is a Gym Leader.

  So they were easy targets for people who just wanted the fame of making it into the League. Apparently just being able to say you participated is a great honor, even if the current way things were run meant pretty much everyone who succeeded on their Journey went to the League. You could get scholarships depending on your performance. To make matters worse, you don’t have to actually own the Pokemon you use in minor gyms, so people can borrow stronger Pokemon from relatives and then trounce a bunch of low difficulty gyms. And they allow this so that the League has plenty of ‘fodder’ to pad it out.

  What an absolutely scuffed way to run things.

  But even after thinking about it, I wasn’t sure how to fix the situation aside from culling some of the minor gyms and not allowing their badges to count towards the League. They were still necessary for poorer trainers, since beating them had a cash reward and there were no consequences for losing aside from recovery time. They could also be used as great ways to teach Trainers if done right. But I suppose that’s what the schools were supposed to be for? Although not everyone got to attend those. Apparently they cost money.

  The League seemed rather apathetic to the whole situation, which is kind of to be expected by a bunch of old retired Trainers. The only reason it ran as well as it did was because there were a few that actually cared, but most just delegated their tasks to the Association. Which led to the current problems.

  Ignoring minor gyms, even official gyms had different difficulties to them. There were three different levels you could essentially battle: low, intermediate, and elite. Low and intermediate got you the same basic badge, but it was the high difficulty that got you the star badges. That meant every Gym Leader had at least three teams, though Sycamore said that some Gym Leaders had five.

  And I thought I had a lot of Pokemon. But then again, their teams could be as small as just a pair, and the most was a team of six. He wouldn’t give me details on who had what teams, but I also didn’t ask. I already had a rough idea of who had what teams from the games. The question would be if the game team was their low, intermediate, or elite.

  Thinking about it honestly made me pretty excited. I wasn’t sure what level I was at, but I was fairly confident that I could beat most, if not all, of the elite difficulty teams. And I had a full team of six. Cara, Rio, Scoly, Dee, Primarina, and either Diancie or Keo. Keo wasn’t quite on the same level as the others, and Diancie was… a bit different from the others, but I was confident she could fight.

  Goomy, Mikyu, and Banette weren’t quite there yet. Mikyu and Banette also didn’t seem very interested in battling when I talked to them more about it. At least I think Banette wasn’t interested, since she never spoke. But she nodded along when Mikyu talked about it. I wouldn’t even consider Eevee until after the League, even though she seemed eager to start training.

  As I thought about Eevee, I reached back to check on her and she nibbled at my hand in response. She popped out of my hood and onto my shoulder, which caught the attention of some of the younger people on the train. The little fox was a cute and popular choice after all. Most of the train seemed to be younger, mostly Trainers on their Journey or families as far as I could tell.

  “I like the train,” Eevee said. “But I’d like it better if I could feel the wind…”

  “Maybe you should evolve into a Jolteon or Espeon then? Then you could run really fast,” I said softly, smiling as I scratched under her chin.

  “Can I be something that flies?” she asked, pressing her cheek into my hand.

  I thought about it for a moment, but then shook my head. “I don’t know of an eeveelution that can fly.”

  She had a little frown on her face. “I can be so many things, but I can’t fly?”

  I opened my mouth to say something, but paused. A long time ago there had been a leak, saying there was a flying eeveelution planned. “Maybe there is?” I mused. “We can try to find one if you want.”

  She just huffed, settling down to lay over my shoulder. “That sounds like too much effort…” she mumbled.

  A soft laugh escaped me as I rubbed between her ears. “Just something to keep in mind. We’ve so much to see, and so far to go. Who knows what we’ll find.” Eevee seemed exhausted at just the thought and retreated back into my hood.

  The train jerked slightly as it came to a stop. I checked to make sure that we were in Anistar before getting up and exiting the train. This city was honestly quite a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. But then again, on top of being a town with a gym, it also had the Showcase Theater, as well as the Sundial. That was honestly my second reason for coming here.

  Something that allegedly came from space, that had something to do with Mega Stones. In the games, you could use it to upgrade your Mega Ring and use it to find Mega Stones. I didn’t have a Mega Ring, but I didn’t really need one since just having the Key Stone was enough to Mega Evolve a Pokemon. I should probably have some sort of accessory made for my Key Stone, rather than just carry it in my pocket like I am now.

  That was what Professor Sycamore did, but I didn’t really like that. A bracelet wasn’t really my thing, and I already had one of those. And those mega gloves that some people used kinda looked weird to me. Maybe a necklace? Or I could copy Misty and have some kind of hair tie thing? I don’t know why but that made me think of Lisia’s tiara thing, and for a brief moment I thought about myself wearing that.

  A soft chuckle escaped me and I shook my head. I was making my way toward the gym, as I had decided it would be my first stop, and the Sundial would be tomorrow. I wasn’t in a rush. I wondered for a moment if the gym would be like in the game, as an unassuming house with teleport puzzles, but I was disappointed to find it was the same as from the show.

  The gym was large, with a domed roof and several gold half ring decorations. Honestly the building was huge, maybe bigger than the one in Laverre. Although the Laverre gym was definitely taller, even if you didn’t count the tree.

  Something I found odd was that there was no one around.

  Pushing the door open, there was a rather plain looking reception area. I was immediately hit with an intense sense of familiarity. This was a school.

  There was also no one at the desk.

  Hesitantly I walked forward. This was annoying. I could practically feel my paranoia spiking. It was like a tingling sensation on the back of my neck. The incident with the Association had frazzled me quite a bit, I guess. I had to stop and take a few deep breaths to recenter myself.

  Which probably looked a bit weird, as I was just sort of standing in the middle of the lobby doing breathing exercises. It had been a while since I had to actually use them, but they helped. I just needed to remain calm and keep a level head. Everything would be fine, right?

  Everything had already worked out fine.

  Sure, I was stuck in a dead end career.

  Sure, I was beaten to death with a bat.

  Sure, I was now in another world and had to start from scratch.

  Sure, I had been forced into a position that I didn’t want to be in.

  Again.

  And I just nearly had my brain torn apart at the hands of an unwilling Pokemon under the orders of a psychopath.

  I’m spiraling.

  Breathe.

  “Center yourself,” I muttered, closing my eyes for a moment as I simply took deep breaths.

  After taking a few minutes to calm myself I moved up to the desk, confirming there was no one there. I leaned over the counter a bit, trying to see if maybe someone was down below, hiding behind it or something, but no luck there. There were a few slips of paper on the table, but a quick glance told me they were nothing interesting.

  I looked around for a moment until I spotted a sign that read ‘Gym Floor’ and headed that way. I’d probably find someone eventually. It’s not like this place could be empty, right?

  The signs quickly led to a set of double doors that I pushed open, a hallway that led to another set of double doors. When I opened those it revealed a massive chamber. Stands surrounded the arena, which looked to be some sort of shimmering projection above what looked like the inner workings of a clock. It was rather impressive to look at, but didn’t look very practical for battling.

  The stands were empty as far as I could tell, so I walked downwards towards the arena. I could almost imagine how this place must feel when it was in full swing. As I thought, I must be too soon in the circuit to really get the full experience. The gym might not even be open right now.

  But hey, no signs, no problem.

  I paused when I was finally at the battle area, and it really looked like it was made from light or something. Stepping up onto it, I took the place of where the Trainer would stand and looked across to where the Gym Leader would stand. This was bigger than any battlefield I’d been on yet.

  “I was told you’d come,” a voice said, jolting me out of my own imaginings. “Pokemon Expert Jason. The man out of place.”

  When I looked over to the side I saw a darker skinned woman, her hair was purple and done up in an interesting design. She had a silver hoop around her shoulders, as well around her wrist that matched the outside of the cape, but the inside looked like a galaxy. “Gym Leader Olympia,” I said with a slight nod. “Sorry for wandering in here, but there’s no one at reception.”

  She looked like she was about to say something but stopped, her brow furrowing. “There should be someone…” she mumbled. “Perhaps they have gone to lunch… It’s good you came here.”

  “I wanted to see this place in person,” I said with a bit of a smile as I looked back at the arena. I still didn’t think it was practical. “I also wanted to ask you some questions.”

  “I have questions, too. Sycamore has told me much. So we’ll both ask things.” She moved over to the side and sat down at a little tea table that I was sure wasn’t there a moment ago.

  I nodded as I stepped down from the arena and walked over. “Also, if it helps with your haiku stuff, you can also just call me Jace,” I said with a bit of a smirk as I sat down across from her.

  She smiled in return. “Then Jace it shall be. May I ask my questions first? Or would you like to?” There was a teapot that she was now pouring tea from. Again I was sure that wasn’t there a moment ago.

  “By all means, please,” I said as I gestured for her to go first.

  “You are not from here. Not from this reality. That is what I’ve seen.” She took a sip of her tea, watching me carefully.

  I nodded. “Correct. I am from…well, not here.” I did a quick explanation of how I came to be here. She didn’t say anything as I told my short little story.

  “That’s interesting. Do you know why you are here? What your purpose is?”

  I shook my head. “No. I wasn’t told. The only thing that I have found out is that I am a… Bridge of some sort.”

  She arched an eyebrow at me, so I decided to explain what I had found out. Once I was done with my explanation she had quite a thoughtful look on her face. “So you are a bridge… That is interesting. I’ve not heard that term.”

  Shrugging, I leaned back in my chair a bit. “I’ll be told eventually.”

  She took another sip of her tea and nodded. “My final question.” She gave me a rather warm smile. “How can I help you today? I will do my best.”

  A snort of a laugh escaped me and I nodded. “Alright. Thank you... I do have quite a few more than you did.”

  I spent the next few hours conversing with Olympia, asking her all the questions that I had. It wouldn’t have taken so long if she wasn’t insistent on that odd speech quirk of hers. But I actually found it really amusing rather than annoying, so I didn’t complain. It was impressive.

  The first and most important being how to prevent the psychic control that my Pokemon had been subjected to. Her answer was a bit disappointing, but not entirely unexpected. You just have to power through it, and build up a sort of tolerance to it.

  Apparently Trainers are bound to run into numerous weak psychic Pokemon on their journey, and so they will slowly build up the necessary resistance. That was something that my training had not accounted for and could be seen as a flaw. Only Keo had faced a psychic Pokemon, so it was rather easy for the Mewtwo to initially overpower all of us. However, due to the training, all of the Pokemon had vast, dense energy reserves and were able to exert a lot of force.

  My next question was about future events, but she just shook her head. Her visions were sporadic and unreliable due to the future constantly changing. And she said she couldn’t see mine, due to the amount of dark energy within me. She explained that she could see the future of others that interacted with someone she believed was me, but I was just a sort of dark smudge in the vision rather than an actual person. And those that had a lot of interaction or spent a lot of time around me became cloudy and unreadable. It seemed she had been doing a lot of trying to see around me and my future.

  So the future of those that met me could be seen, but mine couldn’t, nor could those who spent a lot of time with me.

  I questioned why that was, since beneficial things are supposed to ignore type immunity, but she just claimed that seeing the future was considered neutral. Apparently because it could show good or bad things, it wasn’t considered good. Which sounded like bullshit to me, but she was the expert psychic.

  She also revealed that there were odd energies swirling around me. My dark energy was being channeled into the area around, giving me a strange aura the likes she had never seen. It was like it was reaching out to the world around me and doing something. She couldn’t tell what it was doing, but it was as if it was protecting me from something. But it made me and the things around me muddled to her psychic energy.

  Which led me into my next question, about humans having energy types. She confirmed that it was indeed a thing, though fairly rare. Of all the theories about how it happened, genetic mutations seemed like the most likely of them all. This mutation could come about randomly, from interspecies mingling, or from a bloodline gift from some legendary Pokemon. Bloodline gift was a rather interesting concept. Of course the energy type would be inherited by their children, which is why those with psychic powers tended to have children with psychic powers. Sure it could crop up seemingly randomly in a child, but it was usually discovered if anyone looked that someone in the family line was also a psychic.

  Psychic was also the most common energy type a human could have. When I asked her why, she wasn’t sure. She believed it had something to do with the fact that it was the easiest energy type to identify in a human, and there were entire families dedicated to collecting psychics. She didn’t use the word collecting, but that’s clearly what it was from the way she described it.

  It was quiet for a time after that as I considered things. This trip hadn’t been entirely helpful, but at least there were some bits of interesting information.

  Then I turned the conversation towards something that I knew would be uncomfortable. “How did the Director get away with all of that when you’re around?”

  She stopped, holding her tea cup in the air as she frowned. “I have no excuse. I don’t know how he did it. My vision was blocked…”

  I frowned a bit as I looked at her. It was clear from her expression that it troubled her, and I could only imagine how much regret she probably felt. “So there are ways to block and twist the vision of psychics...”

  “That Mewtwo is strong. Or should I say limited? It’s highly focused.” She took a sip of her tea before putting the now empty cup down. “Physically weak. But it’s energy is dense. And I can’t find it…”

  “Well it was able to hide from you all this time,” I said as I gestured vaguely. “Why would that change?”

  Her brow furrowed a bit as she seemed to think on this before nodding. “Yes, that is very true.” She paused. “Do you think it’s dangerous? Will it be a threat?”

  I wanted to immediately say no, but the fact is that I didn’t know. After a moment I sighed and shook my head. “I’ve no idea. I’d like to think no. That everything will be fine. But I don’t know them, so it’s just wishful thinking.” I leaned back in my chair. “Abused children have varied reactions when they are finally free of their tormentors.”

  “You think it’s a child? You said that you don’t know them. What makes you think that?” She started to pour herself another cup of tea. While her statement clearly wasn’t meant to be condescending, it still bothered me a bit.

  I was a bit annoyed at her question, but I supposed I didn’t make that much sense. “Perhaps not a child in the sense that most people think… Pokemon mature rapidly through their adolescence, unlike humans. So by Pokemon standards, perhaps it’s not a child.” I waved a hand vaguely. “I’m getting off topic.”

  She made a gesture for me to continue.

  “My point is that its actions will be hard to predict. It might simply be relieved that its tormentor is gone and be at peace, or more likely, without some kind of mental help, it will spiral into extreme anxiety and paranoia. It might lash out violently, or it might go into reclusion and shun any sort of contact.” I realized that I was fiddling with the edge of my coat, and I clasped my hands together in my lap to stop.

  “But will it be a threat? Is there cause to be worried? Or will it be fine?” She took a sip of tea after speaking.

  I just stared at her for a moment. “You’re talking in circles,” I said with a sigh as I stood up. “Like I said. I don’t know. I have no way of knowing. I don’t think even the Mewtwo knows.”

  “Are you leaving now?” she asked with a bit of a smile. “You’re not going to challenge me? I’m prepared for battle.” There was a sort of mischievous glint in her eye.

  I paused, hesitating for a moment. I would have to fight her sooner or later, and doing so now would save me a trip. But was I ready for that? Was everyone else ready for that? Eventually, I nodded. “Yes… I think it would be good to try now. If I lose, I can just try again later.” There were no restrictions against trying gyms again.

  “Excellent!” I jolted as a man suddenly crawled out from a small hatch in the floor. “Please designate the team you will be fighting with.” This man looked… extremely familiar, but I brushed off that thought as it wasn’t possible.

  “Since this is a gym, I can challenge with as many as I want, right?” They both nodded, and I reached into my coat, touching the pokeballs that I had. There were a few ways to do this, and I was considering what the best one would be. Olympia had four Pokemon that I knew of. Two Meowstic, a Slowking, and a Sigilyph.

  But the question was; how does a leader's elite team match up to the Elite Four? Or to a Totem?

  Sure, I could probably tire out her entire team if I used six, but where was the fun in that? “I’ll use a Lucario, a Scolipede, and a Primarina.” Let’s see how Team Speed Shell did against a Gym Leader.

  Stepping up onto the platform that I had been on earlier, Olympia was already standing across from me. I glanced back at the table, which was now gone. Was she a psychic or a magician? “Then we shall match you,” she said as she pulled a pokeball from her cape. “Three on three this match shall be. For an Elite badge,” this was said towards the Referee, who nodded as he moved to his position.

  I pulled out my phone to start the recording before glancing to see if she did the same. She just smiled and gestured around. My brow furrowed, but I did look around and could see several cameras. “Ah. I see…” So they recorded gym battles… good to know.

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

  The referee took a deep breath as he straightened up. “This is an official gym battle between the Gym Leader Olympia, and the Pokemon Expert Jason,” he announced, pointing out both sides. His voice was amplified, so I figured there were also speakers around the gym. “Three versus three. Both sides may swap Pokemon freely. I or the Trainer will determine if a Pokemon is unable to continue battling. A Pokemon that leaves the battlefield must return as quickly as possible, or be counted as knocked out. The Gym Leader will reveal their Pokemon first. Gym Leader, if you are ready, please release your first Pokemon.”

  She gave a nod. “Go!” she called out as she threw a pokeball. I expected her to say more, but was surprised that that was it. The Pokemon that appeared was one I was familiar with; Slowking. I could see its brow furrow as it looked back at Olympia, its eyes glinting pink as it had a silent conversation with her.

  I briefly considered sending out Primarina to negate the water advantage, but that wasn’t the point of me limiting myself. So I decided instead to even out the type advantage. Once Scoly appeared in front of me, apparently both surprised and eager to be chosen first, the Referee nodded and raised his hand. “Begin!” he called as he dropped his hand.

  “Horns,” I said before Scoly had a chance to curl up. I hadn’t taken the time to go over possible battle strategies beforehand because I didn’t originally plan to battle the gym. But this would be a great chance to also see how well they adapt.

  Scoly had already hopped into the air slightly in order to roll up when she heard my order, and didn’t start to charge up her spin after curling up. Instead she immediately rolled forward at the Slowking using Extreme Speed.

  The crowned Pokemon seemed to just observe the rapidly approaching Pokemon for a moment. Clearly it wasn’t taking Scoly seriously. Since I had said I wanted the Elite badge, this was a Pokemon from Olympia’s strongest team. It didn’t move, but its eyes flashed pink and Scoly was lifted slightly off the ground.

  I frowned a bit, a brief moment of worry coming to mind as I wondered how someone was even supposed to counter something like that, until I realized something.

  The Slowking realised it at the same moment, as its hands suddenly shot forward and it tried to use more strength. But Scoly’s forward momentum hadn’t slowed even a little. She sprang from her ball form, her horns busting into that yellow green of bug type energy, with a swirling compliment of purple.

  She didn’t hesitate to slam her energy coated horns straight into the Slowking’s face. I was always impressed at how good Scoly was at taking advantage of momentum and using her weight efficiently.

  The Slowking was flattened into the ground from the blow, and it looked like the energy floor actually cracked.

  What she did next surprised me a bit as she began to just rapidly fire Pin Missile’s at point blank. But the large needles were being suspended in the air, inches from hitting the Slowking who had a rather frustrated look on its face. “I told you to be serious,” Olympia said with a sigh. I guess she dropped her speech pattern during battle?

  Scoly wasn’t letting up, firing more and more until I couldn’t see the other Pokemon anymore due to the blanket of little missiles. Then she suddenly leapt upward and… okay, well I guess that was one way to do it. She landed on the makeshift wall of pin missiles and forced them down with her weight.

  I could only imagine how much it must have hurt to have those spiky needles slammed into you by something weighing more than six hundred pounds. And that’s not even taking into account the actual bug also slamming into you. I actually winced at the thought.

  For a moment I thought the fight might be over until I saw Scoly being covered in a soft pink light and begin lifting off the ground. The Slowking was slowly standing up, a rather frustrated expression on its face as it continued to lift the large bug. It was clearly struggling with the weight, but the fact it could lift her was impressive.

  The large bug was wiggling, her legs flailing as she was trying to grab onto anything. “Don’t like this!” she announced.

  There was a soft laugh from the Slowking as it continued to lift her up. Judging from the expression that Scoly had, it was talking to her and wasn’t being nice. With some effort, the Slowking made the absolute biggest mistake possible as it threw Scoly upwards as hard as it could.

  “Oh…” I said softly, glad that what was about to happen was over there, and not close to me. “Olympia, you might want to step back.” She gave me a puzzled look, as did the Slowking.

  Scoly hit the very high ceiling, but rather than immediately come back down, she clung to the rafters for a moment. Even from here, I could see she was mad. I would have to ask her later what the Slowking had said to her. The metal beam she was clinging to actually buckled slightly from the force she leapt off of it.

  The crowned Pokemon, as if sensing the danger it was now in, turned its attention back to Scoly and put its hands up, the shimmering wall of the Protect move coming into life. Just past the Slowking, I saw the way Olympia’s eyes widened before she turned and dove backwards. Apparently she’d gotten a glimpse of the future.

  As the bug rocketed down, Scoly screamed out what was probably her favorite move. “Meteor Horn!”

  That Protect didn’t do a damn thing. Well, maybe it bled off enough of the force to mitigate some of the damage, but it for sure didn’t stop it. A good portion of the arena shattered, and shards were sent flying. Thankfully they dissipated quickly into nothing before going very far, or else that would have been dangerous.

  Scoly leapt out of the hole, taking a few wobbly steps back. Her recovery time from using that move was getting much better, but it still staggered her. There was a groan from the hole made, and I heard a muffled, “Ow…”

  Olympia stepped back up into position, looking down into the hole. I couldn’t quite see inside it from where I was due to the spider web of cracks all throughout the field that were slowly healing. Having an arena that could repair itself probably saved a lot of time and money.

  The referee raised a hand upwards. “Slowking is unable to battle.” It looked like the Slowking was trying to get out of the hole, but was clearly struggling to move. I could see clear imprints on its chest where Scoly had hit, and one of the horns on the crown had snapped off.

  “Maybe now you’ll learn,” Olympia said with a frown. “You’ve grown far too arrogant. Just because you’re strong.”

  There was a frustrated look on the Slowking’s face, and it looked like it was about to argue, but its expression fell and then it nodded.

  I reached into my coat and pulled a pokeball, tossing it to the side. “Dee, go and treat them,” I said as soon as she was out. She gave me a slight bow before jogging over to the other side of the field.

  “Thank you,” Olympia said with a smile. “Go on.” She gave the Slowking a slight shove over to the side.

  They didn’t look happy about it, but they moved off to the side to let Dee look them over and heal them.

  I nodded before turning my attention to the wobbly bug. “Good job, Scoly,” I called out, and she gave me a rather dopey, happy expression. Maybe I should discourage her from using that move too often. It wouldn’t be good if two people in our family had head injuries.

  “Gym Leader Olympia, please send out your next Pokemon,” the Referee said.

  Olympia glanced over at Slowking being treated, and then at the referee, before looking back at me. “You’ll have to forgive me for underestimating you.”

  I smiled a bit. “It’s fine,” I said as I returned Scoly. “Most people do.” I tossed out another pokeball, which she matched. Scoly could still fight, but I wanted everyone to gain experience in real fights.

  On my side, Primarina appeared, letting out a rather excited noise of, “Ohh! My turn!” She’d gotten a lot more upbeat and playful since she evolved. Or maybe it was from spending time with Alma and all of those other Primarina? Either way, it was a good thing.

  On the other side appeared a mostly white feline Pokemon, with blue accents. The Meowstic’s eyes immediately flashed with pink energy as it used a psychic move. Considering nothing happened, I assumed it was some sort of buff. Probably Calm Mind.

  Primarina responded with an Aqua Ring. “Sub won’t work,” I warned, since if this was the same Meowstic from the game, she would have the Infiltrator ability that allowed her to bypass most damage blocking moves. Primarina didn’t respond, instead suddenly blasting a highly pressurized jet of water at the Meowstic.

  It sidestepped the stream with ease, and then jumped over the stream as Primarina swept it to the side to follow. The feline's eyes were glowing with a soft pink light as it stared at the water shooting seal. It was predicting the future and moving out of the way of the attack before it got anywhere near it. Or was it reading Primarina’s mind, and knew where she was planning to attack?

  I wanted to see if Primarina would realize what was going on, but from looking at her it was clear she was just getting frustrated as she continued to shoot jets of water. “They can see your attacks coming,” I said, which caused her to pause.

  “She can see the future?” she questioned.

  “Probably. You’re going to have to do something that she can’t avoid, even if she sees it coming.” A bit of a smirk came onto my face, as I made a suggestion, “Try something with a lot of area coverage.”

  I wasn’t sure what Primarina would do, but she didn’t hesitate to listen. The Meowstic’s steps faltered a bit, apparently seeing what was about to happen and unsure of how to react to it. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t have enough time to formulate a plan as Primarina raised herself up on her tail, and began to sing softly as bubbles began to rapidly fill the space around. The bubbles began to rapidly fill not just the arena, but the area around it.

  And these weren’t small bubbles, either. Most bubbles were at least a foot in diameter, but ranged to as small as a few inches and the largest ones were bigger than Primarina. I was actually really surprised she was able to make this many bubbles so quickly. Sure, their line was supposed to be bubble focused, but this was… I realized what this was. This was Sparkling Aria.

  I felt an odd energy from the Z-Bracelet that drew my attention. The Primarium was shining. For a fraction of a second it was as if it had a will. As if it wanted something. Like it wanted to be used. I quickly removed the bracelet and shoved it into my bag.

  Primarina’s voice had grown quite loud now, and several of the bubbles had begun to coalesce. The Meowstic looked to be stunned, as did Olympia. The bubbles caused the lights of the room to shine and shimmer in all sorts of colors. It was honestly a mesmerizing sight.

  And then the Meowstic exploded. It had reached out curiously to one of the bubbles, and it had exploded as if it was full of extremely pressurized water. The force of the blast had launched it several feet to the side, and it passed harmlessly through several bubbles before it collided with another charged bubble that burst in a similar manner.

  I eyed one of the nearby bubbles warily. So apparently some of these were water bombs? That wasn’t quite what I knew the move to be, but I guess it made sense. “What the heck did Alma teach you?” I muttered.

  Primarina just sang louder in response, a clearly pleased expression on her face. The explosive force of some of the bubbles had apparently broken Olympia and her Meowstic out of their trance as they refocused.

  Before it really had a chance to regain its balance, bubbles began rushing towards the Meowstic. Its eyes flashed into a bright pink as it began dodging and striking out at bubbles with energy. After a moment of watching, I realized it couldn’t tell what bubbles were pressurized and which ones weren’t. I guess because Primarina didn’t know. She was treating them all like they could explode, even if they popped harmlessly.

  It was clear that the Meowstic was panicking, and not taking stock of its situation. All it had to do was use a wide range move to eliminate the bubbles, and attack Primarina. But instead it was too focused on just not getting hit. It flinched every time a bubble struck it, but more often than not nothing happened. However occasionally the bubble would explode and stagger it, which usually lead to several more bubbles making contact.

  Glancing at Olympia, she looked focused. She was trying to help the little feline dodge? So this was an oversight by both Pokemon and Trainer.

  This assault wasn’t going to end anytime soon, as Primarina’s voice was just creating more and more bubbles, launching them at the other Pokemon. But she would run out of energy soon. I could see sweat forming on her, although her voice never faltered.

  Suddenly there was a rush of electricity that zipped around the battlefield, popping practically every bubble and halting the singing. I saw Primarina's body lock up from paralysis. The Meowstic had just used Thunder Wave.

  Electricity crackled around the feline, which seemed to be amplified by the fact that it was sopping wet. Primarina used another Aqua Jet to try and hit the cat, but it easily sidestepped and then shot back with a bolt of lightning.

  Primarina cried out in pain and surprise. This was probably her first time being hit with an attack she was weak to. And it was clearly too much for her. She had become a sort of glass cannon, which was usually fine since she had good mobility, but the paralysis was hindering her.

  I returned her, just before a second bolt struck the ground she had been in. The Meowstic looked pissed. Clearly it hadn’t liked getting soaked and ping ponged around. “Primarina is out,” I declared before sending her out to the side so that Dee could look her over.

  “Primarina is no longer able to battle!” the Referee called.

  I watched as Dee started to help Primarina, who looked rather rough just from a single Thunderbolt. The second one would have probably taken her out. Especially since the first one had been strong enough to flat out shatter her Aqua Ring. That was a good thing to know, moves like that could be broken. “Good fight, Primarina,” I said and gave her a thumbs up.

  She returned the gesture with one of her flippers, which made me smile.

  I briefly wondered if I should send out Cara instead of Rio, since I had only declared a Lucario as my third option and didn’t specify which, technically both were an option.

  As much as I wanted to give Cara more experience fighting psychic Pokemon, she was still rather frazzled from the event a few days ago. So it probably wasn’t a good idea to send her out right now into a situation where she might be overpowered again. So I sent out Rio.

  She seemed a bit surprised that I had chosen her, but her surprise almost instantly melted into excitement as she stood up straight and shifted into a fighting stance.

  I caught a glimpse of Olympia’s hesitation, clearly debating whether to swap Pokemon, or see how this went. However she didn’t have time to decide as Rio dashed across the arena. She was so close to being able to use Extreme Speed, but that didn’t mean she was slow.

  The way the Meowstic’s eyes widened, it clearly saw the attack coming but wasn’t fast enough to get out of the way of the steel energy coated paw. Something I realized lately was that Rio usually used Meteor Mash rather than Metal Claw, and since Meteor Mash raised attack strength, all of her hits would get stronger the more she fought.

  Unfortunately the Meowstic was lifted off the ground from the blow, and Rio wasted no time and delivered a steel coated foot to its side.

  As the feline skipped across the battlefield floor and over the edge I had a thought. Maybe Rio was the uh… wrong choice to send after the poor cat. First she was practically drowned, and now she was being knocked around like a punching bag.

  Olympia apparently had a similar thought as she shook her head. “Okay… Meowstic is out…” she mumbled.

  The referee raised a hand. “Meowstic is unable to battle!”

  “Dee?” I looked over at the pink Pokemon who was already rushing around the arena towards the little cat. “Ah. Good.”

  Before I had the chance to say or do anything else, Olympia sent out her third Pokemon. It was probably one of the strangest Pokemon I had seen. It was a multicolored totem-like thing, with a black head with a single cyan eyespot. Its body had a black zigzag pattern surrounded by green and two more of those eyespots. Its…wings and tail were mostly yellow, with blue and red coloring on its feathers. Sigilyph was such an interesting looking thing.

  Olympia had an apologetic look on her face. “I apologize. Most Trainers cannot stand this. Try not to pass out.”

  There was a rather sudden rush of force and Gravity increased. That was interesting. Rio looked around, probably trying to spot Diancie, but then she realized who had done that. I was about to speak, but Rio beat me to it. “Is that all?” She looked over at Sigilyph and Olympia. She started to talk towards the odd totem-like Pokemon.

  I wondered briefly why Gravity affected me, since it was a psychic type move. Maybe it wasn’t affecting me directly? That was the only thing that I could think of for a reason. So you could bypass energy immunity by affecting things in a different way? I didn’t know enough about how the move Gravity worked to be able to figure it out. A question for others, since my knowledge ability didn’t tell me. Actually, since I was here. “Hey, here’s another question… Why does Gravity affect me, anyways? Shouldn’t I be immune?” I asked, looking over at Olympia. Despite my dark energy nature, she seemed to expect me to be affected.

  “How-” her words were cut off as Rio delivered an absolutely devastating haymaker coated in steel energy into Sigilyph.

  I just gave her a smile in response, not about to admit my training method while being recorded. It wasn’t like I was being secretive about it, and I’d probably tell people if they asked, but it was one thing to discuss it in private and another to publicize it.

  “The move Gravity affects the world around us, not individual people or Pokemon,” she explained. I realized that even she and the referee were struggling under the force of the move. But this wasn’t even to the strength of Diancie’s Gravity, so Rio and I were just fine.

  So the move was actually influencing literal Gravity. That made the move much stronger than I thought if it could alter the laws of physics. Originally I had thought that it was just some sort of pressure exuded by the psychic energy, but if it affected me then that meant it wasn’t the energy doing it. Instead it was applied to something else that caused gravity to increase. All this meant that energy could actually change the laws of physics. Or maybe the laws of physics were different in this world? I honestly hadn’t done any research on that. Might be a good idea to take a look and make sure the speed of light was the same. “Interesting…”

  While I was thinking, Rio was attempting to strike the Sigilyph again. It was actually quite fast, and judging by the light blue and pink energy swirling around it, it was augmenting its speed with both flying and psychic energy to increase its speed. Unfortunately that was all that it could do as Rio wasn’t giving it a chance to counter attack.

  Every now and then it brought up a shimmering wall in an attempt to stop her, but they shattered after two moves at most. This was actually a good way for Rio to let out her emotions. She had been rather distant towards me since the incident, probably out of embarrassment from her outburst during the previous incident. I tried to talk to her, but she was avoiding me.

  It was really hard to not just force her to talk to me, but that tended to backfire if not done at the correct time and in the right way. I couldn’t just brush it off like it wasn’t a big deal, because for her it might be. It might have been a slip of the tongue, or it might have been her genuine feelings. Cara hadn’t commented on it, but she’d also been quiet. She wasn’t avoiding me, but she wasn’t as talkative.

  Maybe we needed a few weeks outside of civilization to refocus ourselves. It’s funny that I used to hate camping, but now it’s my default. Maybe I should look into getting a house? I wonder how much that would cost? I’d never owned a house, but I had my condo. I wonder what happened to it? And all my belongings?

  Focus.

  It doesn’t matter.

  Rio finally made another solid connection that slammed the Sigilyph into the ground and it didn’t get back up.

  “Sigilyph is unable to battle!” The Referee announced. “The winner is Pokemon Expert Jason!”

  I blinked. I had really zoned out for that entire fight. That was bad. I rubbed my face and looked over at Rio who was still in a fighting stance, breathing hard. As I walked over to her I pulled out my phone and ended the recording. I also noticed that I had a notification that I’d received ten thousand dollars for beating the gym. She was still focused on the Sigilyph as if she hadn’t realized the fight was over when I got there. I placed my hand on her head, causing her to jolt slightly and look up at me. “Good job,” I said, smiling as I rubbed the top of her head.

  She looked away, a rather embarrassed look on her face. She just nodded and I continued to pet her head. It was fine if she didn’t want to talk about it, I just had to be there for her when she wanted to and let her know that things were fine.

  “Congratulations,” Olympia said as she came up to us. I could see Dee already helping the Sigilyph, though it looked more like Rio had just exhausted it rather than beating it to a pulp. “You have battled well today. And here’s your reward.” She held out a small pin. It was mostly gold in the shape of wisping smoke, with several purple pearl beads, and one large one at the bottom. The bottom pearl was inlaid into a gold star.

  I looked at it for a moment, thinking about the battle. It was about as difficult as a Trial? A big part of it was that Slowking was extremely arrogant, and the Meowstic was rather easily overwhelmed. “That was your Elite team, right?” I asked after taking the badge and putting it in my bag. I didn’t have any special case or anything to put it in yet. I’d need to get one.

  The smile she had been wearing faulted a bit. “Yes.”

  I put up my hands. “Sorry. I was just… I was a bit surprised. It was a good fight, but I was kind of expecting to get floored.”

  She stared at me for a moment before she nodded. “That was partially my fault. I underestimated you in every fight. I didn’t think you were already at the level of an Elite Trainer, but I guess you aren’t an Expert for no reason.”

  I chuckled softly before shrugging. “My Pokemon still need battle experience.”

  Olympia nodded to that. “They do not give off the aura of battle hardened Pokemon, which would normally be the case of a Pokemon that strong.”

  “So that’s why people keep underestimating us…” I mumbled as I looked down at Rio, and she looked up at me with a puzzled expression. She sure didn’t give off any sort of aura that I could feel. “That’s dumb,” I said.

  Rio nodded. “Very dumb.” I had tried to emphasize taking every fight seriously, no matter your opponent. That was an extremely basic concept in sports. It doesn’t matter who you’re against, you have to treat them like a serious threat because all it takes is them getting lucky and you lose.

  Olympia giggled softly and shook her head. “Well, I suppose I must instill that in my teams better.”

  I nodded a bit before I looked at her, my eyes narrowing a bit. “Since you’re talking normally, I wanted to ask… Were you using your future sight to be able to make sure you got each one correct?”

  She just smiled and didn’t answer, instead she waved her hand to dismiss me. “Have a good day, Jace. This has been entertaining. The League should be fun.” With that, she turned and walked away, returning her Pokemon as she did.

  When I returned Dee and Primarina, I looked back only to see that she was gone. I frowned slightly. “More a magician than a psychic,” I said with a slight laugh. “Let’s head on out.”

  Rio nodded and followed me as I walked back the way I came and into the long hallway. She let out a rather heavy sigh that caused me to stop walking. “I hate being weak…” she mumbled.

  I started to run her head again. “You’re getting stronger so fast. That Pokemon couldn’t even touch you.”

  “But I still couldn’t do anything. When mama… When you…” She was staring at the ground, struggling to fight back tears.

  I knelt down a bit, putting my arms around her and pulling her in close. “I know… That jerk caught us off guard… But it’s something we can prepare for. Something that we can train against.”

  She nodded, pressing into me and gripping onto my coat in an almost identical way to how Cara had. “I was just… I was so scared…” She was taking deep breaths as she spoke. “I’ve never been so scared…”

  “I know.” I continued to gently rub her head. “But we were too strong for them. All that training paid off and we beat them.”

  She nodded, falling silent.

  “Did I miss the fight?” a sudden voice mumbled from my shoulder and Eevee crawled out of my hood. “Aw… I did, didn’t I…”

  I chuckled a bit as I reached up and scratched under the little foxes chin. “You should have told me you wanted to watch. I would have woken you up.”

  She huffed. “Of course I want to watch.”

  Rio giggled a bit as she looked up. “Well, Team Speed Shell won easily. So it was hardly a fight.”

  I tapped her on the nose. “Don’t say that. Even you’re tired after that fight.”

  She puffed at my finger as if trying to blow it away. “But I didn’t get hit. Even you said so.”

  “Right. But that wasn’t easy, because it was able to defend for a very long time. Could you have done that?” I asked, ruffling the top of her head as I stood up.

  Her mouth opened as she was about to say something, but stopped and frowned at me. She folded her arms. “I still didn’t get hit.”

  “Which is good, because that’s what you’re supposed to do.” I rubbed under her chin to make her look up a bit. “You’re supposed to block and deflect attacks. And while you weren’t getting attacked in that fight, I’ve seen how you’ve been training. I’m going to have to change things up again for all of you.”

  Rio let out a soft groan. “Fine.” She opened my coat and returned to her Pokeball.

  I laughed and shook my head. “Silly dog…” But at least she had shaken off some of what was bothering her.

  Eevee agreed before yawning, and returning back into my hood.

  When I made my way back out into the main entry room, it was still empty. Or at least it was at first. As I walked, I looked over at the desk and spotted a pink thing peering over it, its little eyes locked on me.

  Without really thinking about it, I reached into the pouch on my bag and pulled out a pokebean. “Want a snack?” I asked with a bit of a smile.

  It just stared at me.

  After a moment I walked over. It ducked a bit more behind the desk, but not enough that it couldn’t see me. I placed the bean down and took a few steps back.

  It seemed to hesitate for a moment before standing up a bit more and struggled to get onto the table, fumbling to claim the bean. It sat there, staring at me as it began munching on the snack.

  “Why are you following me?” I asked, looking it over. It was the first time that I had gotten a good look at it. It had always been far away, or I’d only caught glimpses of it. It looked… rough. Its fur was messy and unkempt, covered in splotches of dirt and mud.

  It didn’t answer, just absentmindedly eating the bean and not breaking eye contact. The more I looked, the more I got a sense of some sort of familiarity. Like I knew this Pokemon.

  Then I had a chilling thought.

  What if this was my Pokemon? What if I hadn’t physically come over, and possessed someone? Someone that looked like me, or was changed to look like me? Maybe I was actually crazy and the whole other world wasn’t real and was actually something that my strange knowledge power made up in order to justify things?

  I didn’t like this train of thought and had to take a few deep breaths to calm myself down. I was starting to get really close to having an anxiety attack… It had been years since I had one of those. The last one had been when I had received that letter from the school administration saying that I was demoted. That I wouldn’t be a counselor anymore, and would go back to being a substitute.

  Pushing all that down took so much effort…but I had to. I had to keep myself emotionally stable. None of that mattered, as I was now who I was. Whoever I was previously didn’t matter. If I existed here in some form, then I would have to figure that out.

  What mattered right now, is that I knew this Espurr. I know them. I know her. Then I suddenly realized why. She was trying to talk to me. Psychically. But my dark energy was muddling it and making it difficult to hear her. Had she been trying to talk to me every time we saw each other? Is that why she felt so familiar? I didn’t know as I wasn’t hearing her words. What I did get was her name. “Essy, come here,” I said softly as I crouched down.

  Bean still in her little hands, she stood up and came forward, hopping down from the desk before coming to a stop in front of me. She tilted her head a bit and I had to focus really hard to hear what she said, “-beans?”

  I blinked, my brow furrowing a bit as I tried to figure out what she was trying to say. “You want more beans?”

  She nodded. “Yes.”

  Okay, at least I had figured out how to open up a way she could communicate. “You can have more beans. But can you repeat what you said? I haven’t been able to hear you.”

  Her head tilted to the other side. “You feel weird,” was her response.

  I stared at her for a moment and then nodded. “It’s because I’m full of dark energy.”

  She just stared at me, and I had no idea if she understood or not.

  “I couldn’t hear you, but now I can,” I tried to explain, but judging from her vacant expression she probably didn’t get it. “Your name is Essy, yes?”

  She nodded. “I am Essy.”

  “And why have you been following me, Essy?” I asked again.

  There was a moment of pause before she held up the mostly eaten pokebean in her hands. “Bean.”

  I smiled a bit. “Yes, that’s the pokebean I gave you. Is that why you followed me?” It wouldn’t quite make sense, unless she saw some sort of future where she saw that following me got her pokebeans.

  She looked down at the bean, her brow furrowed. “Bean…” She started to munch on the bean again.

  Unfortunately it looked like I wasn’t going to get an answer anytime soon. “Alright…” I sighed a bit as I stood back up. “Well, Essy, I’m going to go now. I’ll see you around, I’m sure.”

  I made my way out, and started to head towards the Pokecenter. As I did, an occasional glance backwards showed that the little feline was close behind, looking around as she followed. I noticed quite a few people looking over and pointing at the little cat.

  Out front of the Pokecenter I stopped and turned around, Essy running into my leg as she hadn’t realized I stopped. “Are you just going to keep following me?” I asked with a bit of a smile.

  She stared up at me. “Mom said to follow you, cus you’re nice.”

  I blinked a few times and looked down at her. “Your mom told you to follow me?”

  She shook her head. Then she stopped, and then nodded.

  “Do you mean the Earth Mother?” I asked, wondering if that was the answer.

  She shook her head. “No. My mom.”

  That was just even more confusing… “Where’s your mom now?”

  Her head tilted to the side and she again didn’t answer. I wondered if it was actually the Earth mother who told her? Though I don’t really know how in either case I would be the optimal choice. Sure, I’d take care of her without hesitation, but it’s a bit surprising.

  “Alright.” I crouched down and held out my hands. “Let's get you cleaned, alright? And then you can have another bean.”

  A big smile appeared on her small mouth. “Beans.”

  Lucario - Mother of Rio

  Lucario - Craves violence

  Scolipede - Pokemon transport unit

  Primarina - Doing big seal things

  Audino - Trained Nurse Pokemon

  Diancie - From Reflection Cave

  Eevee - Living that sleepy hood life

  Goomy - Full of dragon slug vibes

  Mimikyu - Collected from the Supermart

  Banette - Collected from the Supermart

  Vulpix (Alolan) - Bread and butter Ice Beams

  Espurr - Little cat that likes pokebeans.