“Oh? Who’s this?” Nurse Joy asked as I placed Essy down on the table. The Pokecenter was rather empty, with only two other Trainers who were lounging in the waiting area and discussing something. I didn’t usually pay attention to the other people when I came inside a Pokecenter, but they caught my eye because they looked young and were showing off their badges to each other. One of them seemed to have six already, while the other had two. I didn’t recognize any of the shapes, so I guess they were minor gyms.

  I paused for a moment as I thought about how to properly word my response to Joy, only slightly distracted by the other people. “A little cat that’s been following me around for months,” I said with a chuckle, placing all of my other pokeballs down onto the tray, though I kept hold of Eevee’s.

  She had a smile on her face as she examined the feline. “Well she’s a little cutie. A very interesting color variant. Wild?” she asked. Her Nurse Wigglytuff was helping to situate the little cat and using a washcloth to wipe her down a bit.

  I nodded. “She seems very keen on following me, but I haven’t caught her yet.”

  Joy nodded in response. “A bit uncommon, but not unheard of for people to bring in wild Pokemon. Psychic Pokemon tend to be very picky about their Trainers, so a bit of stalking is actually quite common.”

  My brow furrowed a bit. “Stalking, hm? I hadn’t really thought about it like that.”

  Essy was just staring at me with a rather vacant expression while she was being fussed over by the pink balloon Pokemon.

  “You can think of it as long term observation from a distance,” she said with a bit of a giggle. “The only type more picky about their Trainer than a psychic is a dragon.”

  “She seems young…” Wigglytuff said as the two of them continued their examination. “We’ll give her a proper examination and clean her up.”

  “Alright,” I said with a smile and a nod. “I’ll be staying here tonight, so-” I was cut off as Dee burst from her pokeball. I glanced at her. “She can come deliver them to me.” I vaguely gestured at the pink Pokemon.

  “Oh!” Joy had a rather large smile on her face. “You’re Jason. I’ve heard so much about you.” It was rather humorous that Dee was the most common reason for me to be recognized.

  I watched as the Wigglytuff and Dee happily greeted each other, grasping each other's hands and doing a sort of little dance in place. Joy was watching them with an amused expression when suddenly her brow scrunched a bit. “I heard you’d be doing your circuit this year, but isn’t Anistar a bit of a strange place to start?”

  I shrugged a bit. “I had some business with Olympia and wanted to get it out of the way before starting. And…well, challenged her while I was here to save me a trip in the future.” As evidence I pulled out the badge from my bag.

  Her eyes widened a bit and she let out a soft gasp. “Oh! An elite badge.” Out of the corner of my eye I saw the other two Trainer’s heads whip in my direction. “Ah. I guess that’s to be expected from a Pokemon Expert, though… I shouldn’t be surprised.” She nodded, mostly just talking to herself. Joy’s were always fun to talk with. She seemed to rummage for a moment behind the counter before giving me a keycard. “Here you are.”

  “Thank you,” I said as I took the key. “Now, Essy.” My words got the little cat's eyes to focus on me. “Be good for Nurse Joy, and you can have a pokebean when you’re done, okay?” I wasn’t entirely sure how she would react to an examination, so I was covering my bases with a bribe of treats.

  “Beans,” was her response as she put her hands in the air.

  “If you keep only ever saying that, I’m gonna start calling you Beans,” I said as I pat her head softly. She just tilted her head as she stared at me.

  Joy giggled before picking her up, Dee grabbing the tray of pokeballs. “Alright. This shouldn’t take too long,” she said before heading off towards the back with Dee and the Wigglytuff hot on her heels.

  “Ah, wait,” I called out, remembering something important. “One of my Pokemon is newly discovered. It’s a little costumed one.”

  Her eyes seemed to sparkle a bit. “Oh! I read the report on that one!” She looked from me to the pokeballs, and then back to me. “Mimikyu, correct?” I nodded. “Don’t worry, all the Joy’s have been notified of their special circumstances.”

  I nodded. “Good,” I said before she disappeared through the door. I took a deep breath before making my way down the familiar hallway that contained the rooms. The first thing I did once inside was make sure that Eevee was comfortable on the bed. She opened her eyes for a moment to examine where we were before going back to sleep. I watched her for a moment, gently petting her before putting my bag down on the table and tossing my coat over the chair. Right now all I wanted was a shower so I made my way into the restroom.

  When I removed my shirt my reflection caused me to pause. I looked completely fine. I had sworn that I would have had some bruising, but apparently Dee’s healing got rid of all that. However, I still felt bruised. And tired. So damn tired. Had I not been sleeping well and not realizing it? Maybe I should take a month or two off to destress before continuing the circuit… Since I still had months to do it.

  Then I looked down at the clothes in my hands. They looked a bit rough. Well, more than a bit rough. No holes yet, but they looked like clothes I’d worn for years, not months. I’d been doing my best to keep them clean and in good shape, but I would be the first to admit that I didn’t treat my clothing with care. I also didn’t have many sets… So I would need to go shopping soon. I should have picked up some clothes in Alola. Some souvenir clothing would have been fun. Something for next time.

  I took a quick shower, or at least I had planned to. I ended up spending several minutes just standing under the warm water and enjoying the feel of it. The showers at the research center hadn’t really been comforting or very warm. But I’d been getting used to using lukewarm water. A fire type would be nice.

  That was an interesting thought to have as I was drying myself off and getting dressed into cleaner clothes. I guess I was adapting really well to this world. My first thought for conveniences weren’t items, but Pokemon. It was a lot like having friends with superpowers.

  I looked down at my hand and then back up at my reflection. I had power as well… but how do I use it? It was energy, but how do I manipulate that? I should have asked Olympia about it. Maybe she would have known…

  My thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. Of course, the knocks had just been a courtesy as it soon opened and Dee walked in with a tray. “You know, you’re supposed to wait for a response before entering,” I said with an amused smile.

  Dee blinked at me. “But it’s my room, too?”

  That caused me to pause before I nodded. “I guess that’s fair.”

  “Are you decent?” I heard Nurse Joy ask from somewhere outside the room. “I’m here as well.” That was a bit surprising, and also a bit worrying.

  “Yeah.” I leaned a bit out of the bathroom. She had a rather concerned look on her face, holding Essy in her arms. The little feline was asleep. “Something wrong?”

  Joy shook her head, both of us watching as Dee entered the room and everyone began popping out of their pokeballs. “Not wrong. Tana, the other Joy, just got a rather… odd phone call while doing the examination.”

  Rio sprawled onto the bed, and was laughing at Scoly being unable to get on the bed because she was too big. Cara moved to stand near me, though she didn’t say anything. Primarina, Goomy, Banette, and Keo all piled onto the bed next to Rio as Mikyu raided my bag for her sewing things and dragged it all under the bed. Diancie went for the remote and turned on the television.

  I moved over and reached out for the Espurr and Joy let me take her. “Odd call?”

  She nodded slowly, looking at Essy. “There was someone demanding the variant Pokemon that had just been brought to the Pokecenter.”

  A snort escaped me as I walked over towards the bed. Scoly, Dee, and Diancie had sat on the floor to watch the screen. They had put on the Mystery Dungeon show and it had gotten almost everyone’s attention. “Yeah, like that’s gonna happen.”

  “Yeah, she told them that it belonged to someone and then hung up on them.” She sighed a bit as she leaned against the doorframe with crossed arms. “It’s not the first time that that’s happened… and it’s getting more frequent. I don’t know how these people get the nerve to make demands of us.”

  “It’s rather ridiculous,” I replied as I walked back into the room and laid the cat down on the bed beside Eevee and Banette before returning to near the door to continue the conversation. “Something similar happened in Alola. Some rich kid demanded I sell them Rio.” The jackal’s head snapped towards us when her name was mentioned.

  Joy sighed, shaking her head. “Some people really lack any sort of sense.”

  I laughed and nodded. “Too true.” I leaned a bit against the wall and looked over at the sleeping cat near all the others. None of them seemed even the slightest bit phased by the random new member. “So how is she?”

  “Ah- Right. Well, she’s fine. A little malnourished, that’s very common to see in wild Pokemon, but otherwise healthy. She’s about three years old, which is… a lot older than we originally thought. We figured less than a year since she’s smaller than average and we thought she was still in her adolescent phase and still growing, but she’s just small.”

  “A small bean,” I said with a smile and a nod.

  That got a bit of a giggle from Joy. “Yeah. She just needs more consistent food. Mentally she seems a bit… detached. It’s hard to get her to focus on things.”

  I nodded slowly as I thought about how vacant her stare looked. “Nothing physically wrong, though?”

  She shook her head. “No, she’s healthy. Some old injuries that appear to have healed well, but… I’m just concerned. She was confused when we gave her food, but started eating when she saw others doing it. I fear she’s going to be a difficult case.”

  Vaguely I gestured my hand to the menagerie of Pokemon watching television. “I’m used to that.”

  A small smile appeared on her face. “Yes, I can see that. As for everyone else…” She looked over the Pokemon for a moment. “We took the liberty of doing a more in depth examination of everyone, since you’ve been out of the region and the event that happened at the Association Branch.” She pointed at Rio, “That Lucario has some lasting damage to her ribs. Nothing serious, but she needs to avoid taking any hits there for at least a few weeks. I don’t know what hit her…but it caused a lot of damage.”

  That was a bit concerning… To think that even after so long the Z-Move was still affecting her. “I see… It was a rather hard blow.”

  She nodded. “Your Audino is in a similar condition, though it’s more in her arms and shoulders.”

  My attention turned to Dee, who quickly avoided my gaze. “I see… I wasn’t aware.”

  “Your Scolipede has some evidence of past microfractures in one of her horns. They’ve been healed, and aren’t of any concern,” she continued. “I’m actually not sure how they happened, since they are scattered fairly evenly throughout the back side of her left horn.”

  “She did that to herself,” I said with a bit of a laugh that had no humor in it. “It’s a move she calls Meteor Horn.”

  A soft scoff noise escaped Joy before she shook her head. “Well, I would suggest she not use it very often. If she uses that move back to back without any healing she’d probably lose a horn.”

  I looked over towards the large bug. “You hear that, Scoly? Try to use Meteor Horn sparingly or you might lose a horn.” I knew I couldn’t tell her to not use it, otherwise she’d get upset that her most powerful move was out. And maybe if she used it enough her horns would strengthen enough to not be damaged.

  Scoly’s attention was pulled away from the tv in order to look over when her name was called. There was a bit of a frowning expression on her face before she nodded.

  Joy nodded a bit in agreement, also knowing the temperament of Pokemon. “Your Goomy is close to evolving.”

  That got everyone's attention. “You can tell that?” I asked.

  She nodded. “We have some machines that can give us a rough estimate. It’s easier with Pokemon like Goomy that have a long first stage.” In the games they did have to reach a rather high level. “But we can’t tell how close. Probably a few more battles, or a week or two of training? It depends.”

  I nodded slowly, quite interested in the fact it was possible to even tell when a Pokemon was getting close. “I see… That’s very good news.” I looked back at Goomy with a smile. “See? Your hard work is paying off.”

  She had a rather fierce look on her face as she nodded.

  “Your Vulpix has healed quite nicely from her injuries. I’ve never seen a Pokemon that was injured that badly and actually survived… Can I-” she hesitated. “Can I ask what happened?”

  I looked back at Keo, wanting to make sure it was okay with her. I got a nod from the little fox, so I turned back to Joy and explained it.

  “That’s… Ugh… That’s awful. To think they would abandon her after she managed to survive…” she mumbled.

  “I don’t think it was the kid's fault, but the parents,” I explained.

  “That makes it worse!” she said with a huff and a flail of her arms.

  It was rather interesting to see the composure of a Joy falter. It was starting to happen more often, and I wondered if it was just certain ones or if they were starting to get more comfortable with me. The Joy clan had made it perfectly clear that they were on my side, and all sorts of information got passed between them. I wondered for a moment what they say about me?

  “Ugh. Anyways.” She sighed a bit, shaking her head in an attempt to regain some of her professionalism. “Other than that, everyone else is perfectly healthy. It was a treat to get to examine the Mimikyu. It was quite satisfying to find out she’s a bit ticklish.” She nodded a bit with a smile on her face.

  One of my brows arched. “She is?” I glanced over towards the bed, and could see two gleaming eyes peer back at the two of us. “That is interesting…” The eyes seemed to retreat further under the bed and I laughed.

  Joy laughed as well. “Once you get over the initial shock of what she is and how she moves, especially the noises,” she said with a shudder, “She’s quite cute.”

  “She’s adorable,” I agreed, nodding.

  She nodded as well. “Alright. That’s all I needed to tell you.”

  I smiled a bit and nodded. “Thank you, Nurse Joy.”

  Suddenly she had a rather large smile on her face and bowed slightly. “Have a good night, Jason.” With those words, she closed the door.

  I stood there for a moment, thinking over the conversation. Rio and Dee still being injured was concerning, but they would heal. I made my way over to the table with my bag. “Alright. How about we all have a treat?” I asked as I pulled out the pokebean bag.

  Everyone immediately got excited, and Essy’s eyes snapped open like I had said some sort of magic words. Once everyone had one and a pokeblock, I sat down on the bed and watched the show. I’d not paid too much attention to it last time, simply noting that it was like the Mystery Dungeon series, but now that I was paying attention… It was scarily accurate to the setting in the games. Since it starred real Pokemon, that just made it more interesting. It was clear the Pokemon were being dubbed over, and I wondered if there would be arguments for subbed verses dubbed on some sort of online forums?

  This particular show was following a gold rank rescue team composed of a hard working Snivy named Rigatoni, and a glutton of a Raichu named Cinnamin Rol. They lived in a town called Pannacata, located in Streusel Hills. All of the Pokemon seemed to have food names.

  It was actually extremely interesting. But there was something that tickled the back of my head. The episodes didn’t really seem to be connected, but there was an overarching plot. Something about a Shadow Lugia. That was a bit concerning. That Shadow Pokemon were something that existed in some way. But it was something about the show itself that was bothering me.

  I just couldn’t figure out what it was.

  Watching the credits, there was a little ‘Brought to you by Sinnoh International Television’ near the end. I had this odd, nagging feeling like there was something important in Sinnoh. That was where Team Galactic was. Probably one of the most insane teams in the world. When I have the time to go and investigate, I should contact Professor Rowan.

  Cara nudged me, and I turned my attention to her. “Hm?”

  She smiled a bit and then pointed. Looking over, I saw that everyone had fallen asleep. Scoly had her head laid on the bed, with Dee and Diancie laying against her and Goomy on top of her head. Rio and Primarina were leaning against each other, with Keo and Essy on the canines lap, and Eevee and Banette laying on the seal. Looking down, Mikyu had a hold on my leg, though I could tell she was still working.

  It seems I had been lost in thought while we all watched television. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d actually sat and just zoned out like that. Usually when I had spare time I’d play a Pokemon game, but now that I’m living it I guess I have time to do other things. “Can you turn it off?” I asked softly.

  She nodded as she got up and retrieved the remote from Diancie, turning it off. Now there was only the sound of soft breathing of several Pokemon. It was almost impressive that none of them snored, though a couple of them did occasionally make noises in their sleep.

  I shifted a bit, putting a hand down to wave under the bed. “I’m going to sleep, Mikyu,” I said softly. “You should get some rest, too.”

  “I’m almost done,” was her only response, but she did let go of my leg.

  With a smile I laid down on the bed, getting as comfortable as I could considering that most of the bed was taken up by a massive seal and a dog. I should get some sort of big bed for the tent. While all the blankets and such were comfortable, there’s something about a bed that just can’t be beat.

  Before I had a chance to fully doze off, I felt Cara press her face against my shoulder. I started to gently rub her back as she gave out a heavy sigh. “What’s wrong?”

  “I just…” Her fists clenched slightly on my shirt. “I can’t… I can’t get over that I attacked you…”

  She was back on this again. It was very up and down, but she seemed to always come back to it and beat herself up. “You have trouble letting things go,” I said with a bit of a chuckle.

  I got a huff in response.

  “I know it’s hard… but everything’s fine.” I continued rubbing her back, focusing on the spot between her shoulder blades. That seemed to be the place that felt the best since it never failed to get her to relax, and this time was no exception. “I think I know a way to make you feel better. Do you want to hear it?”

  “No,” she responded immediately, but I saw her tail starting to wag.

  “Are you sure?” I asked, unable to keep a smirk from creeping onto my face. “Because I’m sure it will help.”

  “Shut up,” she whined softly.

  “You’re a good girl,” I said as I scratched her back. She pressed her face harder into my shoulder and grumbled, but her tail was wagging. She always got so embarrassed when she was praised.

  ~

  When I awoke, the television was on again. I wondered if they make portable tv’s? Everyone seems to enjoy it so much that it might be a good motivator. But… wait. Thinking about it, they don’t have satellites, do they? If they did, they'd have a lot more knowledge of the world. So that meant everything was done through cables and towers, including phones. That was an interesting thought, and something to maybe look into. If my island plan was going to be real, I would need my own sort of antenna.

  Sitting up, I looked around. Everyone was still in their same spot, with the exception of Cara, who was sitting beside Rio instead of laying on me. Looking over at a clock in the room, it was nearly noon. “Mmm, I overslept,” I said before yawning.

  Dee pat my shoulder slightly. “Everyone got their pokeblocks, but I don’t know what to give- uhm… Essy was it?” She was looking at the little feline.

  “Right, I need to go shopping…” Thankfully I had gotten a good amount of money from beating Olympia. “I’ve only got a few more weeks of pokeblocks, and I’m missing a lot to make more… I also need some new clothes.” Dee nodded as I spoke.

  “More food might be needed, too. Since we have a new member,” Dee added, looking over at Essy.

  Seeing that I was awake, the little feline walked over and flopped over into my lap. Without really thinking, I reached down and started to pet her. “Right. And I’ll need to find out what sort of things she likes… Can you get my bag?”

  Dee nodded as she went to the table to retrieve my bag. With a few bits of berries, I did my little test on Essy. She liked sweet, and really hated bitter. So she had a naive nature? I still wasn’t sure if natures were an actual thing, but they seemed to at least hold some sort of weight. Though it was clear they weren’t a tell all or very accurate. Still a good way to help me remember what flavors everyone liked.

  I looked over everyone for a moment, finding them all watching the tv. Even Cara seemed interested. Of course a show about Pokemon would interest them. Honestly I know I would have been extremely interested in it myself in my previous life. Well, there were those anime specials, but from what I could see of this show there were multiple variants set in the same world.

  “I’m going shopping,” I said as I lifted Essy off of my lap. The little cat stared at me as I set her down beside Eevee. “Does anyone want to come?”

  “I will,” Cara said as she stood up.

  “Me too,” Dee added with a smile.

  No one else seemed to want to go, or more so they all wanted to watch the show. Apparently it was a rerun of some sort of massive crossover movie. I chuckled a bit and nodded. “Alright. We’ll be back in a few hours.” I grabbed my coat and bag before leaving.

  As I made my way out, I stopped at the desk to talk to Joy. “I’m going out shopping for a bit, my Pokemon wanted to stay and watch tv, so they’re still in the room. I have their pokeballs, so let me know if they cause any problems.”

  She put up a hand to cover the smile on her face. “Oh, I see. Thank you for letting me know. Will you be spending the night again?”

  I thought about it for a moment and then nodded. “Yeah, I want to do something tonight and will probably leave tomorrow.”

  “Have a route planned for your circuit?” she asked curiously. So this was probably the same Joy that I had talked to the previous night, unless they all talked to each other about it? How many Joy’s were even here? I had no idea.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “I’m still thinking about it,” I said with a shake of my head. “I’m tempted to go in reverse order,” I said with a rub of my chin. “Which would make Laverre my next stop…”

  “We can see if that one woman is alright,” Dee said. I realized I never did check in on Valerie to see if she was alright after the Hydreigon incident.

  “Well, that sounds like a plan,” I said as I reached over and rubbed the top of Dee’s head. At least I had my next stop decided.

  We said our farewells to Joy and made our way towards the Pokemart. It was snowing softly, adding to the thin layer of snow already covering everything. “I’m surprised you wanted to come,” I said as I nudged Cara.

  She huffed a bit. “I don’t… I don’t want you to be out of sight…”

  I smiled a bit, laughing softly. “You make it sound like I’m some sort of troublemaker.”

  Again she huffed, and Dee covered her mouth to keep herself from giggling. “You do get in trouble a lot,” she retorted.

  I blinked, and thought about it for a moment before nodding. “That’s fair.” We all laughed a bit at that.

  At the Pokemart it took a few hours to actually finish shopping. And it cost so much more than I thought it would. Apparently at this time in the season, pokeblock ingredients got a lot more expensive. Ended up being thirteen thousand just for another month's worth for all twelve of them and myself. But I would at least get paid twice before I ran out at the end of next month. Food supplies cost another two thousand to make sure I’d have enough food for the same amount of time.

  While every day I would be spending in a Pokecenter would make that stretch out, I didn’t want to rely on it. It was good to have more than enough food just in case. Dee asked for a heavier weight harness. The original one had cost over two thousand, and the next step up was five. I felt a bit bad telling her that it would have to wait for our next gym battle, or the end of the month, but we’d put it on our list for the next shopping spree. Especially since she wasn’t even maxed out on the current one. Although she was at eighty five right now, so by the time I had the money she might actually need the next step up, which went all the way up to five hundred.

  I didn’t really care about clothes and bought the cheap stuff, but what I wasn’t about to skimp out on was a new pair of boots. The ones I had been wearing were pretty worn out, but they had been cheaper. I actually found the exact same pair for five hundred, which was annoying since I had paid a thousand for them last time. The next pair I bought were two thousand and of much better quality. The rest went to new shirts and pants, as well as undergarments. At the end I was left with two hundred pokebucks.

  Maybe I was a bit too loose with my money, but what was the point in having it if you didn’t spend it?

  “I don’t like that shirt,” Dee said, her face scrunching a bit.

  I laughed, shaking my head. There had been a t-shirt with a bunch of nurse Pokemon on it, as well as two doctors. Apparently it was some sort of show. I had been suggesting I get it, much to the horror of Dee. “But it has an Audino on it,” I teased.

  Her face scrunched up even more and Cara was giggling on my other side. “I don’t want to see it. I know that Chansey, and she never took her nursing seriously.”

  “Probably why she went into television,” I said with a bit of a chuckle. We were leaving the Pokemart and making our way back to the Pokecenter. The snow had lightened quite a lot and now there were only a few flakes falling. It looked quite nice.

  “They should have actually gotten nurses,” she said with a huff.

  “They’re just actors. Real nurses would be in Pokecenters or hospitals,” I said as I rubbed her back. It was interesting how much this had actually upset her.

  The next words she was about to say weren’t able to escape her mouth as there was a sudden flash ahead of us. I hadn’t even managed to form the questions of ‘Lightning?’ in my head before we heard the explosion.

  I didn’t even have time to register what I was seeing before I started running. Smoke was rising in the distance and it wasn’t long before I could see where the fire was. The front of the Pokecenter building was missing.

  Without thinking I pulled out the remote and turned off Dee’s weight vest. “Cara, go and help!” I shouted. “Dee-” I turned but she wasn’t there. I skidded to a halt as Cara took off towards the building.

  Looking back I saw Dee, frozen in place. The only sign of movement from her was the shaking of her hands and the tears cascading down her face.

  “Dee!” I shouted, but she didn’t react. She’d locked up the moment she saw the building. I couldn’t waste time right now, but I couldn’t leave her. “Dee!” I shouted again, but she didn’t react. “Deeno!” Her full name seemed to finally get her attention as she looked at me. “What the fuck have you been training for if you’re just gonna stand there?!” I screamed.

  Maybe that was a bit harsh, but it seemed to snap her out of it as she started running. I started running again as well, and she quickly overtook me by using Quick Attack for bursts of speed. The moment I could actually see in the building, the first thing I saw was Cara kicking away Houndour that went flying through a partially collapsed wall and past me. And a ways behind her, a red haired man in a red suit, wearing a pair of red glasses. A Team Flare grunt.

  A few flames were scattered throughout the room, but before I could even get through the hole that was once the entrance, one of the other doors burst open, and a gaggle of Pokemon, as well as a few more Team Flare members, flew out and crashed onto the floor. They were followed by a very big, and very pissed off bug horse.

  Rio vaulted over her a second later after she stopped, slamming her foot into one of the grunts' faces, shattering his glasses and sending him careening into a wall.

  The door behind the counter suddenly burst open as well, another grunt unceremoniously being ejected from the back room by Dee, who had apparently gone straight for that door to make sure the Nurse Joy’s were alright. He hit the desk at a bad angle, and I honestly wasn’t sure if he was going to get back up.

  The grunts were struggling to get up, though the Pokemon were quick to get back on their feet. I could hear more fighting from inside the building, so I had to assume there were more. In the room now there were eight of the Team Flare grunts, two Houndoom’s, six Houndour, two Poochyena, and three Mightyena.

  Only Cara, Dee, Scoly, and Rio were here, so everyone else was probably still fighting. And Scoly and Rio didn’t look to be in good shape. But neither did the majority of the Pokemon in the room. One of the Houndour was already knocked out, and several others looked almost as bad.

  Cara was facing off against a Houndoom and the three Houndour, now two, that were apparently left in the lobby. “Rio, where’s Primarina?” I called out. “We need her here to douse this fire.”

  “Dealing with the other hallway!” she shouted as she rushed to assist her mother, drop kicking one of the Mightyena who had just stood up.

  “Scoly, play ball,” I said and she got a rather interesting expression on her face that in other circumstances would have concerned me. She sprang and balled up before beginning to spin at high speed.

  Seeing this, the few Pokemon around her hesitated, which was a big mistake as they were then unceremoniously bowled into as she launched forward.

  After that, the fight was practically over. The four team combo easily overpowered the group of what I suspected were low level grunts.

  Nurse Joy suddenly rushed from the back, blood dripping down the side of her face. Immediately she looked relieved to see the situation handled. “We’re all fine back here, evacuation is done.”

  I gave a nod. “Dee, help Joy and keep her safe, Rio, Scoly, you go with them. We don’t know if there are more around so it’s better to travel in groups.” I moved through the room towards the door that Scoly and Rio had come through, heading towards the rooms. “Cara, with me.”

  As we rushed down the hall, I noticed that there was a big problem. No alarms. Not for whatever that explosion was, and not for the fires. Surely they had alarms, right? Were they turned off?

  My thoughts were interrupted as I spotted the red coat of another grunt. Cara moved to intercept, but before she had a chance he turned around. He was flailing about, struggling with his hands up, clutching at his horribly disfigured face. No, wait. Something was covering his face. It took me a moment to realize that it was Goomy, clinging tightly to the man's face. That was a bit scary.

  Cara delivered a rather hard blow into the grunts' diaphragm, causing him to collapse. Goomy stared wide eyed, frantically looking around a moment before spotting Cara. Without a word she leapt from the man’s face and into the canine's arms. “It’s okay,” she said softly, “I’ve got you…”

  “Stealing my lines now, eh?” I said with a smile as I walked beside them, patting Cara on the head.

  Her face turned a visible shade of red. “Sh-shut up.”

  Further down the hall, I could see Eevee, Mikyu, Banette, Keo, and Essy peeking out of the doorway of what had been our room. I could only call it a doorway, since the door was gone. All of them aside from Keo rushed towards me. I knelt down and scooped them all up. Keo looked noticeably relieved, but I also noticed she had quite a lot of new scratches.

  As I moved forward I felt the building shake slightly. “What happened,” I asked when I got to the little white fox. But I didn’t stop and kept walking towards the sounds of fighting. There were a few Pokemon knocked out in the hallway, two Sneasel and three Houndour.

  “Someone knocked on the door, and Rio went to answer. There were a bunch of red dressed men that told us they wanted Essy,” she explained as she fell into step beside me. “Rio slammed the door in their face, and was making a joke about it when the door exploded.” For a moment I wondered what the joke would have been. Guess I’d have to ask her later.

  “And so you all started fighting,” I said, noting the damage to the hallway.

  She nodded. “Rio told us to guard the room while they went out to fight.”

  We came up to a doorway that had been exploded open. It had been a door that led out the side, some kind of emergency exit that I didn’t know even existed. There were a few grunts on the ground, and several Pokemon.

  Diancie and Primarina looked perfectly fine, unlike the gaggle of people on the floor. They both rushed over when they saw me. “We got attacked!” Diancie said excitedly. A bit too excitedly.

  “Yes, I can see that. Primarina, can you go to the front and put out the fires?”

  Her eyes widened and she started to rush off in a rapidly flopping manner, Mikyu and Banette following after her.

  I sighed a bit and made my way around the building, seeing a few Nurse Joy’s and Wigglytuff’s going around and tending to a few Pokemon, and to my surprise a few people. Scoly, Rio, and Dee had set up a sort of perimeter around the evacuation area, and were joined by some of the Wigglytuff. I moved straight up to one of the Nurse Joy’s. “Has Officer Jenny been called?” I asked.

  “Yes, she’s on her way,” another Joy responded.

  “I counted twelve Team Flare grunts,” I said as I looked around. “Eight in the main room, one in the residential hall, and three in the side courtyard.” As I finished speaking I could hear sirens, and started to make my way back around the building, putting Eevee in my hood so that I wasn’t holding multiple Pokemon.

  As I walked I pulled out my phone and quickly sent a message to Adria, telling her that the Anistar Pokecenter was attacked by Team Flare, that I was alright, and that they were after one of my Pokemon. I didn’t wait for a response before I put my phone away, but hopefully that would be enough of a warning to stop anything from going bad on the law side of things.

  Essy just stared curiously at everything around. Cara was close behind me, still carrying Goomy. When I rounded the corner, I could see Primarina spraying water on the fires, and she was joined by a Swanna and Vaporeon that were wearing vests with little police badges on them. Mikyu and Banette were standing beside her, watching the area. I wondered if it was some sort of instinct for Pokemon to watch each other's backs when they were occupied with something. “How much fire is left, Primarina?” I called out, both to announce my presence and to make it known that she was my Pokemon.

  “Almost out,” she replied before focusing on the task.

  I let out a breath, relaxing slightly. Officer Jenny approached, a Manectric at her side. “Excuse me, you’re Expert Jason, correct?”

  “Yes,” I said with a nod, pulling out my identification card and showing it to her.

  She visibly relaxed, and I hadn’t even noticed how tense she was. “Can you explain what happened?”

  “I wasn’t here when it started, but from what my Pokemon have told me, they were after this one,” I said as I lifted Essy up a bit, who tilted her head to the side as she stared at the Officer.

  That got a bit of a groan. “A variant?” She shook her head and sighed. “Yeah, that makes sense… Variants are worth a ton of money to collectors… Enough to buy several Pokecenters…” she grumbled. “Do you mind hanging around over there by my vehicle? Your Pokemon is doing a great job helping with the fire.”

  “Of course,” I said with a smile and a nod.

  She glanced at Essy before nodding and turning away to return to talk to the other police officers and what looked like some sort of emergency team. I made my way over to the police car as I had an interesting thought. Did they not have a fire department? I suppose with Pokemon, you would just need the appropriate types to deal with emergencies.

  At that moment I saw three Machamps exit the building. They were wearing reflective vests with badges, as well as masks over their face that I recognized as some type of rebreather. They were carrying people and Pokemon out of the building.

  “There’s more on the side of the building,” I called out, gesturing to the unconscious grunts and then pointing towards the side of the building.

  One of the Machamps nodded as he started to jog that way, while the other two went back into the building. One of the Joy’s had come around to the front and was checking over the Team Flare members before they were either put on a stretcher, or cuffed and stuffed into the back of a police van. All of their Pokemon were also being returned, and an odd device was being clasped over the pokeballs. Some sort of pokeball lock?

  Eventually the fire was out, and the Swanna and Vaporeon thanked Primarina for her assistance before they separated. The duo went over to the emergency team, I suppose to report the fire was out, while the seal came over to me.

  I started to rub her head the moment she was close enough. “Good job,” I said with a smile. Mikyu and Banette both leaned against my leg.

  In response she pressed her head against my side and let out a long sigh. “That was kinda scary,” she said.

  “Oh? Was it?” I asked, continuing to pet her.

  “You not being there made it scary,” she replied, and I could hear a slight quiver to her voice.

  “You all did such a good job.” I noticed that Mikyu looked a bit fidgety and smiled a bit. “You can go get your supplies now,” I said as I knelt down to pat her head. “Just don’t get in anyone's way, alright?”

  She quickly nodded her head and rushed off, Banette taking off as well to follow her. “Where are they going?” Officer Jenny asked as she came back.

  “Now that the fire is out, they’re going and getting the stuff left in my room,” I explained as I stood back up.

  She hesitated, clearly wanting to protest, but she just nodded instead. “Alright. I’d like to get your statement of the events,” she said as she pulled out a familiar little recording device and placed it down on the trunk of the car between us.

  “Of course,” I said and waited for her to start. Once she did, I started my explanation from when I heard the explosion and rushed towards the building, skipping over the part when I yelled at Dee, but otherwise did my best to explain the events. “And when I heard the sirens, I came up to the front of the building to check on Primarina, Mikyu, and Banette, and talk to you,” I finished.

  “So you ran toward the building because you knew they were there for you?” she asked.

  That was an extremely leading question and I narrowed my eyes a bit at her. I had to put my hand around Primarina’s muzzle to keep her from piping in. “No, I didn’t know that until after I arrived and got to my Pokemon. I ran here because my Pokemon were here.”

  “Right, right. Of course.” In addition to the recorder, she had been writing things down.

  I pulled out my phone, checking to see if Adria had gotten back to me. She had responded that she and several other Jenny’s were on her way to Anistar. She said she would be there in thirty minutes, and that was about twenty minutes ago. “Have you had any previous run-ins with Team Flare?” she asked.

  “No,” I said with a shake of my head.

  “How did you know they were Team Flare?”

  Ah, there was a loaded question. “Professor Sycamore told me about them,” I replied, which wasn’t entirely a lie.

  She was writing something down. “Do you think this attack could have anything to do with your recent issues with the Yellow family?”

  In response, I reached over and clicked the stop button on the recorder which caused her to stiffen. I frowned at her. “Officer Jenny.” She looked up from her notepad. “I hardly think that something like brainwashing the entire branch of the Association can be labeled as a mere issue. But I will answer your question with one of my own. Are you implying that Team Flare is working for the Yellow family?”

  There was a moment of silence before she seemed to pale a bit and shook her head. “No, no. No, of course not.” She furiously scribbled out something in her notes. Judging from her reaction and facial expression, it seemed that she wasn’t trying to catch me in some sort of trap, but was a bit too curious for her own good.

  “However. In my opinion, if Team Flare isn’t working for the Yellow family, they are at least working with them.” I clicked the start button so that the device was recording again. “I don’t think that the events are related. Team Flare, by their own admission, was after the variant Pokemon I have.”

  She nodded. “R-right. I was jumping to conclusions since the events happened so close to each other.” She took a moment to take a few deep breaths before clearing her throat. “Thank you for your cooperation. We’ll reach out to you for any further questions,” she said before stopping the recording, noticeably sagging.

  I pat her shoulder slightly. “You should be more careful with what you say, you know? Especially when recording.”

  “Yeah. My mentor always says my mouth is quicker than my brain,” she said with a sigh.

  That got a laugh from me as I pat her shoulder again. “That’s not entirely a bad thing, but it’s going to get you in a lot of trouble.”

  Again she sighed. “It always does. I’ve almost been fired a few times.” She laughed in a self deprecating manner.

  “Well, your thoughts are on the right track, I think,” I said as I rubbed my chin a bit. I realized that the action probably looked a bit odd as I was trying to stroke a nonexistent beard. “I think there’s a connection, but I haven’t figured it out.”

  “It’s just suspicious, you know?” She looked around to make sure no one was nearby. “Team Flare never hits anything that has anything to do with the Yellow family,” she said in a low voice.

  “They might just be afraid,” I suggested, but I knew it was a bit suspicious.

  “That’s what I keep getting told, but to never do it? Not even accidentally in all these years?” That was definitely more suspicious. “And the reverse is also true. The Yellow family never interferes with anything that’s connected to Team Flare. There are even cases of the Yellow family pulling out of something, only for it to be hit by Team Flare.” She had pulled a separate notebook out of her coat, and was showing it to me.

  “So probably not a coincidence,” I said as I looked over the pages. The pages were filled with dates and times.

  “Some of these happen within hours. It could be that Team Flare has an informant, but this one in particular. This research lab.” She points out a specific line. “Four minutes. The Yellow family breaks ties with the lab, and then in four minutes, bam.” She snapped the book shut and tucked it away. “There’s a Team Flare raid.”

  I thought about it for a moment, my brow furrowing. “The only other explanation is they were planning to attack a Yellow family backed facility, and the Yellow family got lucky, which also would have broken the pattern…”

  “Or it was planned,” she said excitedly. “Arceus, I tried so hard to be the one to interview you after the event, but Adria got it because of previous connections.” She let out a sigh.

  A soft snort escaped me. “She was worried there are Jenny’s on the Yellow family’s payroll.”

  Her eyes suddenly went wide, that thought apparently not having occurred to her. “That-!” she stopped, coughing a bit as she pulled her notebook back out. “That makes so much sense,” she mumbled as she jotted a few things down. “And that explains why four Jenny’s were retired the other day… Emaline always gave me some weird vibes, and her budget was always so large for no reason…”

  My brow raised a bit. “Who is that?”

  She looked up, staring at me for a moment. “Ah! Right, you wouldn’t know. She was the Snowbelle City Officer Jenny. Her and her understudy were retired two days ago, but they didn’t say why.”

  “Where were the other two Jenny’s that were retired?” I asked, curious at who exactly was on the payroll.

  “Lousette of Coumarine City,” a voice suddenly spoke up to the side and our attention snapped to another Officer Jenny. I could almost immediately recognize them as Adria. “And Maryse of Ambrette.”

  The Jenny I was talking to seemed extremely panicked, but I wasn’t bothered. In fact, I realized something. “That explains the aquarium.”

  Primarina pressed more into my side and I could feel her shaking slightly, her flippers wrapped around my leg. The action did not go unnoticed from both Jenny’s. “What happened at the aquarium?”

  I rubbed Primarina’s head as I explained where I had gotten her, and the neglectful treatment she was receiving.

  Adria made a “Tsk” noise. “While that’s not technically under our jurisdiction, Maryse should have reported that.”

  “Sycamore said he had a talk with them,” I said, which calmed down both ladies.

  “Still… a whole year,” the unidentified Jenny said. She knelt down, rubbing Primarina’s back. “Poor thing…” This Jenny was definitely one in my good book.

  “Celine,” Adria said and the other Jenny stiffened, standing up straight and saluting. So her name was Celine. “Report on the situation.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” She pulled out her notepad, the one that was clearly used for official police business, and began running through everything.

  While she did that, I knelt down to comfort Primarina, as did Cara and Goomy. Even after so much time, the mental trauma from being isolated like that clearly heavily affected her. “It’s okay… I’m here… You’re not alone…” I said softly, rubbing her back as she buried her head into my chest, taking deep breaths.

  I spent the time comforting Primarina to listen to the report. As I thought, there were twelve Team Flare members, all of whom were arrested. The damage to the building was extensive, though not enough that the building was in any danger of collapse. Most of the fighting had been in the entry room, with some in the hospital wing, and residential.

  Then they listed the total Pokemon, which drew my attention. In total, there were four Houndoom, twelve Houndour, four Poochyena, four Mightyena, and two Sneasel. All of which were heavily injured.

  “What’s going to happen to those Pokemon?” I asked, interrupting the report.

  Both of them seemed to hesitate, before Adria spoke, “There will be an attempt to rehabilitate them, but chances are they will be put down.”

  Primarina and Cara’s head snapped around to stare at the two as I shot up to my feet. “Put down? Why?”

  Celine tried to explain, “They’ve all been trained and conditioned by Team Flare… We do our best to try and undo some of that conditioning so that they can be given to suitable Trainers, but the truth is…”

  “It often doesn’t work,” Adria finished. “They’re too violent. Too aggressive. So in the end it’s just…” her voice faltered.

  “Just what? Easier?” I heard my voice crack at that last word.

  “I know it’s upsetting… but we can’t. It takes so much-”

  “No,” I interrupted. “No. Unacceptable. Give them to me.”

  Both of them stared at me, unsure of how to respond.

  “Give them to me,” I said again. “That is twenty six living, thinking, breathing things that you are suggesting be disposed of because they were raised by shitty people. You’re going to give them to me, or I’m going to take them.”

  Both of them flinched at my words, and reached for the belt. The Manectric at Celine’s side tensed up, while Primarina and Cara did the same. “You- you can’t just threaten an Officer,” Celine said slowly, but I could hear the note of panic in her voice.

  “I’m not threatening anyone,” I said calmly. “I’m giving you two options. Give them to me, and I will take responsibility for them.”

  “And what if you can’t rehabilitate them?” Adria asked, still quite tense, though it didn’t look like she was as worried I was going to attack them.

  “Then I will do everything that I can to help them,” I snapped. “I might not be able to help every single Pokemon on the planet, but I am not going to ignore some when they’re shoved in front of me.”

  “What if they don’t want help,” Celine asked, seeming to calm down and relax a bit since I was talking and not trying to fight them.

  “They’ll get my help whether they want it or not,” I said and took a deep breath, putting a hand on Cara and Primarina to calm them down. “I’ve seen too many be tossed away because of how they were raised. Because of how they grew up. Just for being born.” I took another deep breath, attempting to calm myself down. “If you’re not going to give them a chance, just give them to me. You can write them off as… disposed.” The word tasted foul in my mouth.

  The two of them exchanged a glance and Adria nodded, both of them relaxing. “Alright. You can take them, if you think you can handle them.” She made a gesture to Celine who gave a reluctant nod and walked over to the police van. “I hope you know what you’re doing,” Adria said softly.

  “I’m giving them a chance,” I responded. “A chance they’re going to take, whether they want to or not.”

  She let out a small breath of a laugh. “Right.” She paused. “Sycamore was right about you.”

  “Oh? What did he say?” I smiled a bit.

  “He said that you are the most frustratingly competent man that he has ever had the displeasure of meeting,” she said with a perfectly straight face.

  I laughed. Hard. All of the tension of the previous situation being released. Adria even smiled a bit as Celine returned with a large case. She put the case on the trunk of the car before pulling a key to unlock it and opening it to reveal twenty six pokeballs. Every ball was in their shrunken form with a metal black band around them.

  “These are pokeball locks,” she explained, pulling out a sort of key, but it didn’t have any prongs on the end and was instead flat. “You’ll need one of these to release them.” She glanced at Adria, who nodded, and she put the key down.

  I passed Essy to Cara before placing my bag beside the case and took the key first, putting it in my pocket to make sure that I didn’t lose it. All I could think as I began loading the pokeballs into the bag was that this was a lot. It’s one thing to hear twenty six, or even say twenty six, but to actually see so many was a bit staggering. “Thank you,” I said with a bit of a smile.

  Celine just nodded, still growing a bit. “I wish you luck with your new wolf pack.”

  “Technically there are two felines,” I said with a smile at her.

  She just rolled her eyes, smiling a bit. “Right. Well, good luck with your wolf pack and two cats,” she said with a shake of her head and walking off.

  “So, what are you going to put in your report?” I asked, glancing at Adria.

  There was a moment of silence as she thought about and then shrugged. “I’ll just say that they didn’t survive the battle. Since-” she hesitated. “Not all of the Team Flare members survived.”

  That caused me to pause. A flash of the man that flew through the door and bounced off the counter ran through my mind, and I nodded. “Right…” There was a bit of bile that tried to push its way up my throat, but I swallowed it down and pushed that scene out of my mind. “Sorry about being so pushy.”

  “No it’s-” she hesitated, trying to find the right words as I put the last pokeball into my bag and closed the case. “I understand. I don’t like it either, but it’s just how things have always been done.”

  “Tradition is just peer pressure from the dead,” I retorted.

  Her face scrunched a bit, but she didn’t have a response. So she changed the subject. “Are you going to keep all of them?”

  I shook my head. “No. Helping them will also include finding them good homes and Trainers.”

  She arched a brow at me. “What’s the difference?”

  My brow arched as well as I looked at her. “Not all Pokemon need to fight? Some of them might just want to be pets and live relaxed lives.”

  “Oh.” She blinked a few times, clearly not having thought about that. “I figured that they would want to fight.”

  “Not all Pokemon do. Mikyu doesn’t really like fighting. Ah, the one with the Pikachu costume,” I added to her puzzled look. “She said she doesn’t want to fight, so I’m not going to make her.”

  Adria nodded slowly, clearly not having thought about that. “Well… you can contact me when you start looking for homes. We do have a sort of adoption program for confiscated or surrendered Pokemon. Any Joy can tell you more about it.”

  I nodded a bit. “I’ve heard it mentioned… I’ll talk with them about it.” I touched the new key in my pocket as I thought about how this was going to work. They needed to be healed. Which meant that I was going to have to talk quite a bit with Nurse Joy. Maybe I could talk to Farm Joy? I did still have her number…

  “Do you… uhm…” Adria hesitated. “If…something like this happens again… Do you want me to contact you?”

  All of my thoughts halted. Could I do something like that? I know that I wanted to. I had played with the idea before… but actually seeing it first hand, and actually having the pokeballs in bag made it a far more daunting task. “How often does this happen?” I asked instead of answering.

  She frowned a bit. “Not often… Usually it’s just… a couple. We snag a member or two being dumb. It’s been a long time since a raid like this has failed.”

  “Then yes.” Even though I might regret it… “There’s no reason to just ignore it. You can contact me, and if I can take them, I will.”

  She sighed and nodded. “Alright… I’ll see if I can manage something. Hope you have a better day,” she said and pat my shoulder before walking away.

  “Is uhm… this a good idea?” Cara whispered to me, watching Adria leave. “That’s a lot of mouths to feed…”

  I nodded. “I’ll just have to go fight some gyms to get the money. That with my salary should be enough to sustain us all.” I rubbed the top of her head. “Food isn’t the problem. Room is. We’re going to have to find a large enough space for them all, and assess their mental states.”

  Cara just gave me a puzzled expression, clearly not understanding.

  “Don’t worry about it.” I looked over at the Pokecenter, which still had several people milling about in front of it, checking things. “I’ll figure it out.”

  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.

  Houndour

  Houndoom

  Poochyena

  Mightyena

  Sneasel