Chương 6: Ignorance is Bliss I

Now that I caught all members of my team in Hoenn, I was very much done with this region. Feebas, Beldum and Bagon… I was still happy as hell that I succeeded in getting them all and it must have shown in my body language because Gaia hadn't released me yet. She was happily cuddled into me and I just pat her in satisfaction, getting a happy mewl out of her. Actually, she might have been this clingy because she was still worried about that scar I got on my midsection.

The pain was mostly gone now, besides a dull buzzing, and it practically vanished altogether, by the time I made it to Southern Mauville. After getting the fuck out of Meteor Falls and Route 116 in general, I swiftly rushed through Rusturf Tunnel and decided to set up camp on the outskirts of Verdanturf Town, after verifying that there was in fact not a Salamence hunting me down to get their daughter back. The nice thing about Hoenn, was that there were literally trees everywhere.

They naturally littered the region everywhere you went and because the region had so much rain and sun, they grew to gigantic heights that provided great cover. If I thought Johto was full of vitality, Hoenn must have been vitality itself. I went to sleep without wasting any time because that whole debacle with Fraxure, left me goddamn tired and I had traveled without rest from Meteor Falls to Verdanturf. Needless to say I fell asleep quickly, before waking up early and rushing through the routes and Mauville.

This city was awful to deal with when it was filled to the brim with all those people. They would cut my time down by an amount I didn't want to deal with. It was a good thing that waking up early was a universally hated thing. Mauville had been barren, save for some kindly old man, with an aged Manectric, who waved at me. I sent a single wave back because he was old. Being rude to old people wasn't cool unless they were rude first.

That brought me here, to the southern part of Mauville right at the entrance of Route 110. Hoenn's routes in general, tended to be a lot bigger than in Johto and Kanto and Route 110 was no exception. It wasn't as big as the Route 119 and 118 combo, but it was still a time consumer… If you didn't own a bike. Without a bike it'd take at least a day if you walked, but if you had one? Life was easy! Thankfully, I did own one! A nice little foldable bike that I permanently borrowed during my stay in Johto.

On Route 110, there was a massive structure called the Seaside Cycling Road that provided a very swift shortcut between Mauville and Slateport City so long as you had a bike. Seriously, it reduced the trip to like an hour or more if you utilized it. Perfect. The faster I could get to Slateport, the faster I could go to Kanto. I ignored the guard signaling for me to get on the bike and idly flipped him off, before getting onto the cycling road. It was obvious to see why it was called the Seaside Cycling Road.

I was offered a gorgeous view of the expansive ocean that seemed to go on forever while pedaling over to Slateport. Clear blue, no signs of pollution and all those water types. I even caught the huge ass shadow of what could only be a Wailord, just lounging about as I cycled. Hoenn was amazing and I'd never state otherwise. It was as if humans attempted to impose their will on it but the nature fought back and they compromised instead.

The only thing not amazing about it, was the fact that I was willingly attempting to give myself a heat stroke due to trying to maintain anonymity. At least the wind from going so fast was doing me wonders. There weren't much people on the road. It was still fairly early in the morning so I only saw some dedicated cyclists who had the gear on and all. Those guys were really dedicated for their cause. They only glanced at me and gave me a thumbs up once we flew past each other.

They probably assumed that I was insane as them and working out this fine morning. I guess that was a valid assumption, this really was a workout. Cycling for this long, was doing wonders to my legs and combined with the fact that I woke up ridiculously early, I just wanted to book my trip and got to a hotel so I could sleep. Unfortunately, I couldn't sleep just yet because I had things that needed to be done. At the very least, I had long done my research on Slateport so I didn't need to aimlessly wander around.

If I had to aimlessly wander around in this city, I'd lose my mind because Slateport City was almost as enormous as Mauville. Much like Mauville and Lilycove, Slateport was a very popular tourist spot in Hoenn. It was one of the most populated cities in the entire region and it fully embraced being a port city. It almost reminded me of Olivine but on steroids. There was even a beach further south that was very popular by the masses. Huh... Lilycove and Slateport were pretty similar.

Naturally, I didn't give a damn about any of the tourist attractions this city had to offer at the moment. The only thing I cared about, was getting a ticket to Kanto and sleeping. Thankfully, the Slateport Harbor wasn't very far from the entrance I entered Slateport through so it didn't take me very long at all to find the place. In a move that I was getting dreadfully familiar with, I approached the receptionist there with a single purpose on my mind.

"Fastest boat to Kanto?" I asked curiously, skipping all pretenses and getting straight to the point. Look, I'm tired, I've been walking for a long time, my legs were killing me and I had a new scar on my body because I couldn't stop being an arrogant ass. The poor receptionist must have seen the exhaustion in my eyes because he didn't even question my sour mood. He just smiled sympathetically and typed something on his computer.

"Tomorrow at 5 pm to Vermilion City," he said kindly.

"It'll be 6000 Poke." I aimed my Pokegear at the machine offered to me and glanced at the successful transaction. I wonder how that worked. I heard Porygon and Porygon 2 were the driving force of the internet and whatnot in this world. Porygon-Z were almost impossibly rare in this world to the point that just finding information on them was difficult. Unlike with Milotic, not a single person actually knew how to evolve it, barring the scientists who worked on Porygon...

For natural reasons they did not disclose information on how to evolve Porygon2 into Porygon-Z because Porygon-Z was considered a failure of a pokemon... Huh... I knew how to evolve a Porygon2... but I'd rather get the necessary items (Upgrade and Dubious Disc) to do that before actually catching the Porygon. Food for thought.

"There's a hotel about 10 minutes away. Pokemon friendly and cheap despite how lavish it is," the guy over the counter informed me, handing me my ticket.

"…" I said nothing for a while, just glancing at him, before I nodded my head.

"You're not half bad," was all I offered. There's no way I was going to apologize for my terrible etiquette… but this guy didn't deserve my moody nature. God, what did Fraxure do to me? The receptionist even seemed to understand that was my way of apologizing and just smiled knowingly.

"Have a good day," he offered.

"... You too," I said gruffly, marching out of the harbor. One day. That was fantastic. I was going to go to that hotel, I was going to get some sleep and I was going to laze in there until I thought of something to do. I needed to relax. I had been running myself ragged for a really long time so now it was time to just take it easy for the rest of my stay in Hoenn. Now to find that hotel… Turns out that receptionist was right. This hotel was fairly cheap for how nice it was.

I landed on the bed with a relieved sigh and released my entire team. Without really thinking about it, I deftly caught Gaia and placed her on my chest, gazing at the grass type with a tired smile.

"I must be more tired than I thought… are you getting heavier girl?" I asked with a raised brow. Gaia smiled smugly but said nothing. Instead she began urging me to get some sleep and I yawned in agreement.

"I'll probably go to sleep for a long time. Do whatever you want but don't destroy anything," I instructed, allowing the Chikorita to jump off me.

"Loki, you're in charge. Make sure they don't kill each other... or me." The Zorua nodded in affirmation and I shot them a thumbs up.

"Have fun. G'night," I told them. Then I passed out without further prompting.

"Why are you in charge?" Ares asked with narrowed eyes. The Bagon was gazing at Loki with suspicious eyes.

"Because that's what Silver wanted," Loki replied easily. The Zorua had been about to start warming up, before Ares initiated conversation with him. Ares sniffed.

"My vassal simply doesn't understand because we've not been bonded long enough. Soon he whose eyes roar like the moon, will recognize my might and when I spread my wings, I will be fully in charge!" Loki sweatdropped at the Bagon.

"If that's what you want, but Silver has to approve it first." He was admittedly, quite surprised that Ares was so refined in speaking. He honestly didn't expect it of her. Freyja, normally so kind and patient, snorted.

"As if a brute like you has what it takes to be in charge when all you think about is violence. Go headbutt a wall until you faint. Loki will always have my vote as leader over you." Ares snarled immediately and glared at the Feebas.

"Be grateful that my vassal fancies you! One headbutt to your body and you wouldn't be alive to feel it!"

"Ridiculous," Beldum said simply, floating off to hone their skills. Loki sighed.

"Why do you two have such a problem with each other in the first place?" He asked curiously.

"She's rude to me for no reason!" Freyja announced with a deep frown.

"Because she's weak!" Ares said bluntly, pointing a stub at the fish.

"Unable to do nothing with draconic abilities but make a mockery of it! If not for my intervention, you'd have let our trainer die before he could recognize and unleash my potential!" If not for Ares firing her own Dragon Breath at that troublemaking Fraxure, her vassal would never have been able to catch her! Such a future was preposterous! She had known he was her trainer from the moment she laid eyes on him spying on their village, with no one but her sparing a glance! They were destined partners!

Freyja scowled in return.

"I'm not… strong enough yet but I will be! I'll be as strong as possible because Silver believes me and I won't let him down! Then, when I'm strong enough, I'll beat you too!" The Bagon snorted disbelievingly.

"You? Beat me? No matter how strong you may become, all of you will pale in comparison to my eventual might! Banish such preposterous thoughts, bottom feeder!"

"Just you wait, brute!" Freyja replied in determination. Loki gazed at their third teammate with a curious eye. Freyja was shy on the best of days so he never imagined she'd so strongly fight back against something. Hmm, perhaps this would help the Feebas in the long run then. Some competition was always healthy and based on what Silver said… Bagon would become one of their hardest hitters in the future. He'd monitor them for longer before making a set decision.

For now, so long as she was motivated, it'd be useful.

"Enough arguing, Silver is trying to sleep here! If he wakes up there's gonna be hell to pay!" Gaia demanded, waving a threatening vine and making them all go silent. The Chikorita nodded in satisfaction and smile triumphantly.

"Now that that's settled… Loki! I need your help! I wanna surprise Silver when he wakes up!" Loki gazed at his friend with a curious look, before nodding.

"Sure, what do you want to do?" He asked. Gaia's smile widened. Catching up on sleep, was definitely one of the nicest feelings in the world. During my trip from Fortree to Meteor Falls, I didn't actually sleep and to be fair, Tropius had cut my trip down by so much, that I decided to just finish my journey to the Stone Residence. Then I finally slept in Meteor Falls… but I didn't quite sleep for too long for the time I was in there.

I would get some rest, but there was still the mission to accomplish so I always woke up early. But now, I could fully get some rest with the knowledge that I was completely done with Hoenn and I'd enjoy it. Sure, I'd probably be resting some more during the ship ride there but I'd for sure be studying and training because the grind never stopped. Right now? Just fully resting. I yawned and peered at my Pokegear. Huh, I had slept the whole day. I really was exhausted wasn't I?

It had still been morning when I fell asleep yesterday... It was early morning of the next day and I had a good bit of hours left before I had to go back to the harbor so I could laze about for a bit before turning productive. I lazily pushed myself up and caught the gaze of Beldum. Their single red eye had a flash of purple, for a moment and I tilted my head.

"Mornin," I waved at it. Beldum didn't really like me at all but at least it tolerated me enough to not kill me in my sleep. He continued gazing at me and I could have sworn they looked almost… confused. Why?

"Are you trying to look into my head?" I asked suddenly, raising a brow. Beldum looked surprised that I managed to figure it out and I snorted.

"Here, go ahead and try," I offered, relaxing a bit.

"Communicating with you would be fun, but I doubt you have enough power for that… and apparently my mind is weird." If anything, that seemed to interest Beldum even more and I watched as it actually begin approaching me. The little steel type began floating over and once it got close enough, they began focusing. For a long while, I felt nothing. Like I said before, Beldum's output was just not strong enough. Even Jasmine's Bronzong seemed to be struggling.

The other psychic hadn't even been able to pierce my mind because I had my guard up the entire time I was talking to my friend. Beldum would very likely struggle even despite the fact that my guard was fully down for him to attempt to establish a connection. Judging by the slight frustration in Beldum's eye, they weren't making much success. Despite having little psychic reserves, Beldums were innately good at establishing connections because they were apart of a hive basically.

As I spent more time with Beldum, his connection with their hive in Rustboro, would eventually whittle into nothing, making him unrecognizable by them. So he was preparing for that by forming a connection with me. They were dependent on having that bond but I didn't realize they'd be so reliant on it.

"Don't push yourself. Try establishing a connection when you get more power," I informed him. In the first place, I was surprised he even wanted to form one. I kinda kidnapped him and all that. Maybe the large distance we made from Rustboro, had cut the established connection? There wasn't much detail that went into how Metagross operated. Beldum didn't look satisfied by that and continued in their crusade of establishing a bond with me. Was it that big of a deal? Was this an attempt to ruin my mind?

I doubted it, especially considering how fortified it seemed to be against psychics.... Maybe it was just not being used to not being connected to his hive and it was finally catching up to him. I closed my eyes and tried to fully relax, which was not very easy considering I was almost always on edge but since I just woke up… Honestly, I wasn't sure what type of block I had in my head that made it so difficult for psychics to peer into my mind… Was it something I always had from my previous version of Silver?

Or was it something else? Otherworldly energy… That's what Bronzy had said that one day… whatever this otherworldly energy was, made it capable of draining an elite Bronzong. Hm… I think I had a pretty decent idea what was going on but I couldn't be too sure if my thinking was correct because Legendaries were at play here. For now, I needed to let Beldum try and establish a connection and to do that, I needed to not be thinking things that would make me more stressed.

I didn't have anything that made me particularly happy, so my best bet was to just try and empty my mind completely. Think of nothing… just… completely… empty —"Bel!" I popped open an eye at that victorious and metallic noise, before feeling a little nagging feeling at the back of my head. Beldum triumphantly gazed at me and I couldn't help but return the smile… before it was wiped off my face at a startling realization. Wait a fucking second... My eyes widened in horror.

"Beldum, hold on you need to disconnect from me right now!" I said urgently. A look of shock crossed my features as Beldum seized up and began shaking in place. I hastily grabbed him.

"Hey, woah woah. Calm down Beldum," I hissed, wincing at the cool metal of its body. Damn it, was I stupid?! I already acknowledged that whatever was going on with my body was legendary in nature... so why the hell did I let a Beldum try to connect to me? Not even Bronzong could speak to me for long and Beldum was trying to do even more.

"Don't even think about killing it," I snarled venomously, hoping that whoever the hell was tainting me, fucked off and didn't break my Beldum. Before I could find a solution to Beldum's problems… it seemed to miraculously stop on its own... No that wasn't right, for a brief second, I saw a blue aura surrounding my psychic, before it vanished. I watched in confusion as Beldum stilled… and blinked its single red eye. Then it gazed at me as if I were a new person…

At the same time, the nagging in the back of my mind took complete root, before I finally stopped registering its presence.

"St... r... a... ng... e." I gazed at Beldum in shock. Were they speaking to me? It was extremely broken but how? Most baby psychics didn't have the capacity for that until evolving. Even despite Beldum's former hive, it should not have been possible until it was at least a Metang and even then, it would only truly be able to communicate proficiently as a Metagross.... I don't know at all. At the very least, just that one word seemed to exhaust Beldum and it continued gazing at me like I were some type of puzzle.

"I guess that means you accept me as your trainer now?" I said blandly, brows furrowed by the turn of events. Beldum nodded it head and a mental image of a black and green figure appeared in my head.

"Ah because of the events with Fraxure," I muttered. Well, that made sense but I still didn't understand what happened between Beldum and I. Why were they able to stay connected to me even with my guard back up? Did I become apart of its "hive" now? I sighed. Best to just do some research on it later. For now I needed to wake up my dead to the world team — I froze completely as I finally took stock of the room. Everything was a mess. They had clearly been having way too much fun despite me saying not to make one…

At least nothing was broken. But that wasn't even the most surprising part of this entire ordeal. No, the most surprising part was the fucking Bayleef sleeping happily away right beside my bed. …

"Why can't I just catch a break?" I sighed miserably. Turns out, while I was sleeping Gaia and Loki decided to spar because she was actually way closer to evolution then I thought.

"Bay!" Gaia cheered, butting her head against my chest and getting a disbelieving laugh outta me.

"As proud as I am that you've evolved…" I began. All my Pokemon went stiff, at the sight of my smile completely vanishing.

"I know I said not to break anything... but that doesn't mean completely ruin the room. Not to mention, I missed the first evolution on the team," I said with a small frown. They all winced, barring Beldum, at my severe expression and looked away. I sighed.

"I'm not all that mad… but no more surprise evolutions please. I wanna be there to see it." They all nodded and I smiled.

"Now, all of you are cleaning the room, except for Beldum," I instructed. They began protesting immediately.

"Bag?!" Ares said incredulously.

"I'm not stupid," I rolled my eyes.

"All of you played a part in messing this room up except for Beldum. Even after I said not to break anything, you guys went and did the next best thing," I said with a stern frown.

"Congratulations on evolving Gaia, we'll check you out after this room is cleaned." They gazed at me in shock before saying what could only be, "Fineeee," in their respective tongue.

"Bel," Beldum said smugly, floating over to me. Now that I had properly punished my team, it was time to get the day started and prepare to leave this region. I was pretty excited. It was time to finally begin the process of getting stronger and pitting myself against Gym Leaders was filling me with a thrill that wasn't as addictive as my stealing streak… but definitely up there. While I wanted to do them in order, it made the most sense for me to fight Surge first because I would be landing in Vermilion City.

Afterwards… yeah I could just cut through Diglet Cave to Pewter couldn't I? Then I'd traverse through Mt. Moon, beat Cerulean and then I'd be back on pace because I could head to Celadon relatively easy from Cerulean... The good thing about Kanto was that all the cities were very close to each other... it just had stupid ass video game plots preventing you from reaching them. Alright, not bad at all. I had a plan and it sounded pretty good to me. Was I expecting the plan to stick? Nope...

but it was best to at least have a mental map formed of my path.

"Ares, Freyja. Stop arguing," I demanded, watching the two make biting remarks towards each other. Kudos to my adorable Feebas for doing her utmost to clean up the mess they all caused, but she wasn't really effective. I snorted at seeing the two reluctantly back off from each other and sighed. Ares and Freyja had quite a bit of animosity towards each other and from what I understood, it was because my most recent member didn't acknowledge Freyja's strength. I'd need to make sure there were no grudges being formed.

For now, it was giving Freyja quite the competitive air and I'd, hopefully, have a Milotic before a Salamence. If Freyja became a Milotic… the power dynamic between the two would shift dramatically until Ares evolved into her final form. Hah, their competition would be very uneven for a while but I'd make sure Freyja didn't get dejected by it. We were trying to build her confidence here, not plummet it by pitting her against a dragon.

"Alright alright, you guys have no clue how to clean properly," I sighed. While Loki and Gaia were doing a pretty good job, Ares and Freyja were not. I'm pretty sure they were actually making it worse and I don't know what I expected really. Freyja had no limbs and Ares' were really tiny... and they probably never cleaned before either. I lazily rolled off the bed and landed on my two feet.

"I'm hungry and I wanna bathe so I'll help you out." All my Pokemon (not Beldum) perked up at the word bathe and I resisted the urge to groan out loud. Goddammit…

"Ares… by chance, do you also want to bathe with me?" I asked slowly. Much to my annoyance, the Bagon nodded without any hesitation, almost looking at me like it was a ridiculous question and I did groan this time. Ridiculous. Now that everything was settled, I was taking the time to inspect Gaia and her new form. She looked far different from the Chikorita she had been before and I marveled at the fact that she was already experiencing evolution.

Sure, she had been showing signs but I didn't think that meant she'd change so soon! Well, I suppose it made sense. Starter first forms evolved fairly quickly and I imagine I had been traveling long enough to be on pace to get my second or third badge. We had been training the entire time as well, exhausting ourselves just about everyday… Now that I rationalized it, it was beginning to make sense that Gaia had evolved. I thought my lack of fighting trainers was going to bite me…

but I was still getting visibly stronger because of my crazy shenanigans in this region. Training was scarily effective and I could thank both my research and Jasmine for that. Huh, would you look at that. I actually missed Jasmine. I wonder how my shy and adorable big little sister was doing. I'd check up on her during the boat ride. She hadn't called me in a while so she must be busy with gym business. But I digress, Bayleef and Chikorita shared almost no similarities with each other.

Her hide was yellowish now, losing the green coloration up until reaching evolution again, she was a lot taller now, but surprisingly, she didn't get much heavier. I could comfortably still lift her. Her leaf had changed in appearance as well, protruding from her forehead instead that curved a bit with a sharp edge. She grew her tail out as well from that tiny thing it had been before. Finally, her neck beads had sprouted far more, giving off a delightful aroma that seemed to energize me just by inhaling it.

Huh, was Gaia a walking drug? Nah… apparently, Bayleef's leaves were actually very healthy for people and just standing next to one, allowed the fragrance to give off a combination of simulating, energizing and rejuvenating effects. And people didn't like this Pokemon? That was incredible! Just being in the presence of the Chikorita line, was beneficial to a person. I wonder what prolonged exposure would do… hopefully I didn't become addicted to it.

Upon evolution, Gaia had learned one new move and that was Reflect. My eyes took on a manic glint at that. I had her demonstrate it to me and upon seeing the shimmering Blue glass-like material, I realized that Gaia was already just a few steps away from being completely insufferable. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Naturally it wasn't perfect, but we had time of course.

Mastering this move was imperative for my Bayleef and I had discovered some very interesting things about the technique as well. Gaia preened under my attention, enjoying every moment of it and I pat her leaf at a job well done.

"Riding on my shoulder might be a little impossible now, girl," I said sheepishly. Her happy look, immediately turned into one of horror and I couldn't resist the chuckle that erupted from my body.

"Alright, I'm gonna go turn in this key and then we can go shopping until it's time to go," I told all my clean Pokemon. They let out noises of affirmation before I returned all but Loki. Like clockwork, my first pokemon jumped into my jacket and I snorted.

"I'm thinking of upgrading all of your diets and it sounds pretty expensive… so I won't be paying for it," I informed him.

"Zor," he nodded in agreement, already knowing what his job to play was.

"Yeah, this trip is mostly for you guys. I want to get stuff just to make your lives more comfortable," I added. Specialized brushes, specific foods, stuff like that. My little soldiers needed to be well kept if I wanted them at 100% so that's what I'd do. Loki smiled at my list and just gazed at me with proud eyes. I snorted and ruffled his tuft.

"Aren't you just too adorable. I'm gonna miss you hiding in my coat when you evolve." Loki just laughed. Damn, I already knew it before hand... but stealing must have been my special characteristic because this was getting pitifully easy. I was even doing it in people's faces. Most of the shops that catered to Pokemon, were outside in stands… meaning I had to get up close and personal to the vendor. Easy work when you had a Zorua. I didn't even have to go fully invisible.

I just had Zorua practice his precision with Illusion by making him cover specific parts of my body. Namely, my hand. Hard to see a hand swiping something off the shelf, when it looked like said hand was in that person's pockets. For the more complicated things, I had Zorua spread out the illusion so I could safely grab at it and stuff it into this awesome bag of mine. Fun fact, I did my research...

and the intricacies of this bag sounded almost exactly like the Storage System in the games that you would put your overcaught Pokemon. I guess a storage system to keep your Pokemon would be a little (extremely) unethical so they focused that kind of technology to other things, like the inside of a Pokeball or this bag of mine. I love technology. Those bags of food were not small at all but with this storage bag, you wouldn't think it was even in here.

The horrifically crowded market streets, helped me out in troves with my stealing. There were honestly so many people, a natural disgust crawled through my body. But I'd tough it out for my team. They deserved the best. Hell, I was even learning how to cook for us. Making food for them (and myself), was actually really healthy. I managed to secure myself a bunch of berries, a Berry Pot that originated from the Johto Region and a Berry Mixer that was very popular with contests people. Damn, I needed to relax.

I was beginning to feel bad at how many things I was stealing… Oh who am I kidding? No I didn't. I even stole some stickers to differentiate between my Poke Balls. I'd be applying those during my trip. After nabbing everything I needed, I decided to just chill until it was time to go. Thankfully, I was actually allowed on the S. S. Tidal earlier than the departure time and after flashing my ticket, I was promptly directed to my room by the pretty lady.

If there was one things I appreciated about the ships, it's how nice the setup was. Every room I had been in, even the one from Cherrygrove to Olivine, had been very nice. The rooms of the ships that brought you from region to region were fantastic. And every room was large enough to accommodate nearly all sizes of Pokemon except for the ludicrously big ones. I released my team at once and let Zorua jump out of my jacket.

"Alright you all, we're gonna be headed to Kanto in the next few days and we'll be training the whole time in this room... unless you guys want some fresh air out there," I began. They nodded at my words and I smiled at having their undivided attention.

"We're gonna all learn a utility move, because I don't want you guys really destroying anything. Practice the moves you already do know and get a more firm grasp of them too," I said. I had already picked out utility moves for all of them to learn too.

"First… Loki, I want you to learn Agility," I listed, beginning with my first Pokemon. Since he was born with Extrasensory, Loki's psychic reserves were good enough for him to dip into learning more psychic moves earlier. While he couldn't learn any other offensive psychic moves besides Extrasensory, he didn't need anymore offensive moves regardless. It just allowed him to learn the other psychic moves he could learn easier. Pretty neat.

Loki nodded and I showed the move to him so that he could understand the basics.

"Gaia, you're learning Light Screen," I turned towards my Bayleef, flicking to that move next.

"I was gonna save this for later, but since you learned Reflect, getting the basics of Light Screen should be easy. As long as we get a working version, it should be fine. Mastering both of these moves will be imperative to our goals." Gaia nodded confidently and I smiled at her in return.

"Beldum, there's nothing you can learn at the moment," I informed it with a small frown.

"For now I want you to refine the moves you already know. By the time you evolve, you'll have them all down pat." Beldum's were just not good at emitting their attacks until evolution. They were better at harnessing it inside of their metallic bodies but pushing it out, was incredibly difficult. It's why they couldn't even learn confusion until evolution. Young Metang's were just dipping into being able to emit attacks. It was the reason why Metagross favored physical attacks so much.

When they were all you could rely on in your first evolution, and you took forever to reach the final stage, you'd get pretty good at your niche. My Beldum would be good in both. That was without doubt. Beldum sensed my intent and nodded, a passive metallic sheen making its way over their body. I was glad that the steel type was warming up to me faster than I imagined.

They'd never fully acknowledge me until reaching its desired state, but my actions at Meteor Falls seemed to increase its respect to a level that made them at least decide, that it was safe to consider me as apart of their "hive". Weird now that I thought about it, but eh… weirder things had happened to me.

"Ares, you'll be learning Scary Face," I said calmly. Funnily enough, Ares would actually not have that easy of a time learning Scary Face… because she had Sheer Force. I don't really know the specifics of it and it was a little to sciency for me, but Salamence born with Rock Head followed by Intimidate were more common for a reason. It helped them more in the wild. Having a naturally Intimidating aura, did wonders for being an indomitable creature. The ones born with Moxie…

were very out of control, to put it nicely. To be honest, from what I read. You'd have to be insanely unlucky to catch a Bagon that would evolve into a Salamence with Moxie. Salamence were aggressive, but they wouldn't go out of their way to cause untold mayhem. No Pokemon was wild enough to do that quite frankly. Salamence with Moxie were a whole different story.

Moxie was an ability that slowly but surely released the inhibitors that held back a person or pokemon's will, the more foes defeated hence the "raise attack on every defeat". For Salamence, more defeats meant it's bloodlust would rise more and more. Even one defeat, was enough to send a wild Salamence on a complete rampage and most of the Dragons that had been forcefully put down, were due to having Moxie and causing destruction. Huh, what a dark and twisted way to explain why it was a hidden ability.

Salamence were quite frankly, too dangerous naturally and adding something that released their inhibitors… You couldn't give an apex predator more power. Salamence with Moxie were hunted down in the old days or kept in captivity, plain and simple. That must have been one of the reasons why Ares' mother, kept her so close. Judging by how battle hungry my little adorable Bagon was already… there might have been more behind that Salamence kept her daughter on what seemed to be a tight leash.

I doubted it was just the future Moxie because I'm sure there were worthy trainers but that had to have played a part. Raising a Salamence with Moxie… wasn't smart. For one, you needed to have a team that could handle its rampage and when the Pokemon rampaging was one of the most dominant dragons in existence (Up there with Dragonite, Garchomp and Hydreigon in sheer destructive power), not many trainers had that. Only well established trainers were equipped to deal with them. Huh. Go figure.

So basically, Ares understood that she was probably never going to get an actual trainer and decided to take matters into her own hand. What a go getter. If you want something done, do it yourself. I could get down with that. But before I went off on that massive tangent, I was saying something about Scary Face being more difficult to learn for her… Well Bagon's with Sheer Force had differences from their brethren. Thinner helmet, smaller fangs, more lithe body.

Overall an appearance that was much less physically imposing. But goddamn did they make up for it in aggression. I was kind of excited by the prospect actually. Ares nodded in confirmation and I finally turned to Freyja. The Feebas gazed up at me in curiosity and I pat her head.

"So Freyja, learning moves as you are now… isn't very easy. So I decided on a workaround." Everyone of my team piqued in interest, as I shuffled for something in a specific section of my bag. A small disc, colored a light blue greeted them and I smiled.

"It's Rain Dance, to give your water moves a little more oomph and to give you more speed too," I explained. I wanted to get more TMs… but the selection I saw, weren't all that useful so I just opted to steal this TM for Rain Dance instead. Something that was useful was seeing the sheer price this TM cost. I'm pretty sure these were permanent. If they weren't, a scam was being ran on us all. Well only one way to find out.

"I'm going to return you now," I told my excited Feebas. She nodded rapidly and I put her in the ball, before taking the disc and slotting the hole into the little poke out button of the Pokeball. Pokeballs, for their basic appearance… were actually really advanced in nature. These things would have the greatest geniuses from my old world salivating. One of the nifty features was being able to transfer the information of Technical Machines, into whatever Pokemon resided in the Pokeball.

The Pokemon wouldn't master it immediately, but it would get the basics down enough to actually use the technique. Extremely convenient. Rich trainers normally jacked up their Pokemon with a bunch of Tms and it backfired eventually because they never bothered mastering it. I released Freyja from the ball and gazed at her with curious eyes.

"Might regret this… but Freyja, use Rain Dance. I'll deal with the mess afterwards," I ordered. Freyja pondered my demand, before summoning a little rain cloud over her head only, causing a light drizzle to hit her skin and save my room from terrible things. I gazed at the little cloud and heard Ares snicker in the background. Rain Dance was supposed to fully alter the weather and cause a drizzle to appear... in a much larger area. Really proficient users could cause it to storm with thunder and everything.

Hell they could even wrestle control of the weather from opponents.... Freyja was a long ways away from that. Freyja looked rather dejected but I simply smiled, as ideas began brainstorming through my mind.

"Hey Freyja, could you move to the left for a bit," I suddenly asked, ignoring the light patter wetting the floor. Dejected eyes landed on me, but my Feebas followed my orders.

"Now focus real hard… and make the Rain Dance move left too," I instructed, eyes pondering. Freyja looked puzzled by my command but nodded, shutting her eyes tight and straining on the connection to the rain cloud. Much to my delight, the little cloud followed her.

"Amazing… I didn't know Rain Dances output could be reduced to this," I muttered, brainstorming with ideas. I lifted Freyja up and placed her in the tank for water types.

"Freyja, I want you to practice Rain Dance as much as possible," I said with a pleased smile.

"I want it to seem like it's second nature for you to summon rain. Increasing the power is important, but controlling it is even more important right now. Focus on making the drain vanish, before increasing its size, then increase the size and repeat." If Rain Dance could come out this small… I wanted Freyja to master it to the point where she could cause a flood if she so pleased. It made sense that different Pokemon could make different levels of rain.

Kyogre wasn't the only pokemon with Drizzle as its ability, but Kyogre's ability to summon rain nearly flooded the world. If Drizzle was naturally that dangerous, we'd be suffering another Moxie problem where pokemon would be forcefully hunted down... but it wasn't. You could control the output of the rain... that was amazing! She looked at my eager expression with wide eyes, shocked that I was excited by something she was displeased with, before the little Feebas began nodding, absorbing my own excitement.

Freyja's tiny stores, had inadvertently shown me that you could control Rain Dance more then I initially thought. Making it that small… while it wouldn't give her the power boost a full fledged Rain Dance would, it could reduce the benefits to just her. I doubted I'd have discovered this if she was a Milotic or any other water type in general. The control needed to maintain this… As long as you used your power wisely, you could be formidable.

Forget increasing Feebas' power output, that was just not probable at her stage. Control was what I needed to focus on. Control to make her weak attacks impactul and energy conserving… and then control to make her eventual strong attacks, downright deadly. Power came later… Since Feebas had small stores, it would be far easier to grasp and get a control of, helping Freyja in the long run with understanding the steps needed to make her powers submit. This was the correct answer.

Make her bring out the full use of what she was equipped with, before finally trying to increase it. By the time she became a Milotic, Freyja would be able to switch between a needle and a hammer at a whim. Perfect for a water type. That type of flexibility...

"Freyja, It's not gonna be easy… but I want you to try your best at letting out a steady stream of Water Pulse, while maintaining some control over Rain Dance. Build up how long you can do it."

"When you can't do that anymore, practice with doing the same stream with Dragon Breath. Alternate between strong and weak versions until you have a perfect feel for all of it. Gauge the power for both, try to find a middle ground and try to mold it into different shapes. We need to fight smart." Freyja had been given rather simple tasks by me before so this one understandably caught her off guard. She looked a little unsure but I flashed her a reassuring smile that made her eyes light up.

Then, she glared at Ares and nodded fiercely.

"Atta girl," I praised. I stood up and stretched.

"Alright. Let's get started, no time to waste. We got a few days before we land in Kanto so lets make the most of it." They all let out choruses and got to work. I sighed. Time for me to do my work too. I idly tossed a Pokeblock over to Ares and watched her gulp it down without hesitation. The Bagon finally nodded in satisfaction and let out a satisfied roar, that sounded more like a bark.

"So Ares likes spicy," I mused with a contemplative expression, jotting it down in the page dedicated for my Bagon. Besides training and studying, I had taken on the arduous process of learning how to cook a meal for me and my team. Maybe that's why the limit was 6. You could actually hold more than 6 Pokemon, but things would get expensive very fast. Type specialists existed for many reasons. Easier to train your Pokemon, likely similar diets, easier to become an expert in your craft…

It was overall a lot cheaper to be a type specialist, especially if you weren't sponsored by a notable trainer. What type would I have even chosen if I went that route? Probably Psychic, Steel or Water. But anyways, I sucked at cooking currently. I was a decent cook back in my previous body by virtue of living alone for a while… but none of that translated to my life currently. Sucks but oh well. I'd get better in time. At the very least, my Pokemon didn't have to suffer like I did.

All of them had different diets but there were similarities. Zorua, Bagon and Beldum had fairly similar diets in regards of what they eat. Zorua typically ate anything without much complaint, but meat was what they preferred. Bagon were mostly carnivorous, but had no complaints about what went with the meat. Beldum, surprisingly, ate meat as well but they did prefer metals. Feebas mostly ate insects and plankton. It changed once becoming Milotic, evolving into also eating smaller fish and what not.

Finally Chikorita and subsequent evolutions, were herbivores and also gained sustenance from Photosynthesis. Some Meganium's were documented only needing the barest of sunlight to sustain themselves. That was pretty cool. Naturally, there were specific meals catered to specific Pokemon, condensed and stored so trainers didn't have to be like hunters of the past, getting their own food by slaughtering whatever they encountered. This world catered to Pokemon in every possible way in every single detail.

I took a variety of different foods that were packed with the specific nutrition needed. Carnivore centered packs, omnivore centered packs, herbivore centered packs and even one for Pokemon that dwelled in the sea… this would be sufficient for now and there were very helpful reviews on them that let me know I picked the right choices for my team. A thief should be fully prepared! What type of thief would I be, if I didn't even know what I was stealing?

Slateport was a practical goldmine so of course I'd do my research beforehand on what was worth taking. If I had done my research on Lilycove, I would have probably stayed there and stole a bunch of TMs for myself… Hmm, guess I could research Celadon for later. They'd probably have neat TMs for me to take. Besides getting food catered for them, I also began learning how to make Pokeblocks too. The little snacks were useful and were also quite packed with their own nutrients.

You just had to blend some berries together and bam, easypeasy. It was a wonder only contest people did this. Though, I suppose getting all the stuff for making a portable Pokeblock maker would start adding up. None of this looked very cheap and buying berries over and over again would start to get really expensive.... Which I accounted for too. With my Berry Pots growing 5 berries for me at a time, I had my very own resource and as a result, I didn't think I'd have to go hunting for berries like a maniac.

I didn't get every kind of berry, but I got a ton that enhanced Pokeblocks... and I even got the ones I noticed naturally, like Oran, Sitrus, Leppa... all the status healing ones! When you were gonna steal, might as well be effective as possible. They didn't even take all that long to grow either. The Berry Pot promoted their growth without me having to find a random patch of earth to build a garden on and in only a matter of days, I'd have a fresh batch. The technology in this world was absurd.

Guess when you weren't focused on constant warfare, you could evolve different things to an impressive degree. Why focus on furthering your warfare, when you had monsters to do it for you? Focus your efforts into something else and be progressive. But yeah... I decided to dabble in making different Pokeblocks and feeding it to my team to see which ones they liked. Once I got a firm grasp on which ones each of my members liked specifically, I'd slowly but surely mass produce them.

Based on plenty of experimentation, I managed to basically get the gist of what every member of my team liked. Loki heavily preferred bitter Pokeblocks, with some partialness to spicy as well. He was willing to eat sour ones, but didn't much like the dry or sweet ones, though he'd still finish whatever I offered him. His favorite was a mix of bitter and spicy from what I noted. Gaia hated the bitter Pokeblocks. She wouldn't hesitate to spit it out if I gave her one.

On the contrary, she loved the sweet and spicy ones. She also liked the dry snacks and tolerated the sour ones. Her favorite was naturally, a mix of sweet and spicy. Freyja proved to be the pickiest of my Pokemon surprisingly. She loved dry and sweet blocks the most and hated all the others. She especially couldn't stand spicy and sour so I'd have to be careful what I fed her. Beldum preferred sour and bitter Pokeblocks the most.

They didn't dislike any of the others and would eat them if offered, but it reacted most well, when I gave them one of their preferred ones or a combination of the two. Finally, Ares loved spicy and sour, hated sweet, didn't care for bitter and liked dry. Funnily enough, she despised any combination I attempted, preferring to eat them alone. I sighed as I finished noting all this down. This was hard work!

I had spent practically a whole day figuring this stuff out but I had a good idea of what worked and was pretty proud of the results. My Pokemon also loved it because I gave them free snacks in the process of learning… greedy little squirts they were. Now, I just needed to get better at cooking human food. I get that I was 12 and all that but seriously, this was ridiculous. I was talented at a lot of things, but taking care of myself did not seem to be one of them. Well, that was fine.

I already excelled at all things Pokemon, so it was time to excel at all things human. Which meant fulfilling standard human affairs and not ending up a complete recluse (Joy's words not mine)...

"Silver?! You're calling me first?!" Jasmine asked in clear surprise. There was a joy in her tired eyes and I felt a wry smirk forming.

"Yeah, I thought you died because you haven't been blowing up my phone for a while," I greeted.

"O-Oh!" She gasped.

"I've been a little busy with duties and it's been a little stressful… but I didn't want to burden you with my issues…" Jasmine trailed off as she noticed my unimpressed expression.

"Are you fucking serious, Jasmine?" I said slowly, frowning slightly at that. She flinched at my words and I sighed.

"You don't gotta be reluctant to call me just because you're struggling with stuff… we're… friends and a friend will listen to your worries," I explained patiently. Granted, I wasn't a very good friend to have when your a shy and introverted girl but still, I wasn't that terrible.

"Look Jas, if you're going through something, don't bottle it up. I get you probably confide in your Pokemon, but you can tell me too." I had been in this world for a decent amount of time now and besides my Pokemon, Jasmine (and recently Joy) was my most consistent form of communication with an actual human. It's not like I found her annoying or anything either… Jasmine was a great friend and she was way too nice for her own good.

Sure I might have been annoyed when we first met, but being rude to a person like Jasmine was like… kicking a puppy." Silver…" Jasmine sniffed, looking exactly like said puppy. I watched in confusion as actual tears began springing up in her eyes and for a moment, I thought her troubles were more serious than I initially thought." T-That's the first time you called me your friend!" She exclaimed, wiping the tears from her eyes with a happy smile. …

"I thought it was obvious we were friends. I respond to all your messages and answer all your calls," I said blandly." Well… that's true… but I don't know. I didn't want to burden you with something I can't even go into much detail about. Wouldn't that be rude?" she asked, looking doubtful.

"90% of what I say is rude, idiot. Don't go assuming things either, it's better if you just ask me so I can tell you straight up if I mind or not," I chastised her with a disappointed frown.

"Don't go making up scenarios in your head alone. You're stupid so it'll never work out well for you." The sound of a haughty penguin in the background agreeing with my sentiment, caused me to snort. Jasmine's face burned red and she turned to the left to glare at Empy.

"Alright, what's got you stressed out?" I asked curiously.

"... Ah well… make sure you don't tell anyone," she requested. I shot her a flat look.

"Jas, you are the only person I like. I hate speaking to everyone else." Her face lit up a dark red at that." Really?!" She asked in shock. I raised a brow.

"Are you really surprised by that?""... Actually no I'm not. I'm just surprised you like me," she replied, a hint of exasperation on her face.

"Hey, I've come to appreciate your insistence. You're a good friend which is why I haven't deleted your number yet," I assured her. As expected, she beamed at my compliment and I watched the tension leave her face. A bit scummy by me, but I was curious about what had her feeling stressed.

"Well, I'm not sure how much you know about them, but Team Rocket are becoming a more prominent threat in both Kanto and Johto… I've even heard of some sightings in the archipelago's of Kanto." She sighed." They've recently been spreading their influence en masse and we're no closer to finding out anything far too prominent about them." Team Rocket eh? Makes sense that they'd be cause for concern.

"It's getting bad. More trainers are turning up missing. Some are in Team Rocket. Others…" The Gym Leader sighed and I furrowed my brows.

"The worst part is, we don't have any solid leads on any of their high ranking members or their motives. Whenever we might have one, they slink away into the shadows again." Yeah, it'd be hard to get a solid lead of the criminal organization when their leader was the strongest Gym Leader in Kanto.

"Silver I know you're very averse to the idea, but please consider getting a companion to travel with. I… don't want anything bad to happen to you and Champion Lance is adamant on continuing the gym circuit for this year." I nodded.

"Makes sense. Canceling the circuit would let Team Rocket know that they're winning. It would be disastrous in the long run for their confidence but either way, unless you find some things out, it's still a loss regardless of intent." Jasmine looked at me with wide eyes and I blinked.

"I'll also consider getting a traveling companion?" I added in confusion." Silver, you're really smart. That was basically what they were saying too," she informed me. I nodded with a thoughtful expression. There was no way I could out Giovanni without being a prime suspect myself and besides, it would be the word of a trainer without a single badge against the strongest Gym Leader of Kanto. Normally I wouldn't care either… but Team Rocket couldn't only be getting victories.

A lead would turn the League ravenous and I'd be even more in the clear as they focused on destroying each other… Jasmine was a Gym Leader too. My suspicions would be laughed at but hers would be taken far more serious and she trusted me almost unconditionally.

"Have you ever considered a mole in the league?" I asked curiously, cupping my chin to really sell the idea. Jasmine's brows furrowed in confusion.

"A… mole?" I nodded.

"Yeah… I'm sure the league isn't full of complete idiots and Team Rocket has been a ramping threat for a while now. It's a little suspicious that besides some names, you hardly have any more leads on them. Suspicious enough for me to think someone might be feeding them information," I mused. Jasmine's doubt, slowly but surely faded away, as the logic of my words were processed by her and I withheld the urge to sigh. The people of this world were so naive. I don't get it.

This world was definitely darker than most pokemon depictions… but then I got moments like this, where people won't even cast doubts on the idea of a traitor.

"That… makes a lot of sense," she muttered, brows furrowed.

"Surprised no one thought of it," I shrugged truthfully.

"If I had to guess, it's probably in the Kanto region, since that's where they're most prominent… and it might be someone influential." This might be suspicious… but 90% of the time, I complained to Jasmine about how much studying I did and how much I hated it so knowing stuff like this, wouldn't be too weird.

"…" Jasmine's brow furrowed more and more. She remained silent for a long while and I imagine she was having a conversation with Bronzy. Psychics were insanely useful. I let her mull things over, idly running a brush through the dozing Loki's fur. I had taken to caring for them beyond just training and that meant self care as well. I even had a nice little specialized rag for Ares' helmet! My attention flitted back to my screen as Jasmine spoke up again." What should I do?

This does sound like a valid concern I should bring up… but how would I go about it?" she eventually asked. Despite being a Gym Leader of 2 years, Jasmine was still only 16 years old. She was still very young so I wouldn't fault her even a little for being lost… In the first place, I just didn't like seeing so much stress on her face.

"You need to make sure your suspicions remain between you and one other person that's not me," I said easily.

"Raise your concerns to a trustworthy source that can look into your claims. The less it spreads, the more likely you are to get a solid lead."

"Who… would be trustworthy enough?" Jasmine asked, looking unsure of how to approach this. Aww, she was so adorably innocent. She had no clue how to do this at all.

"You're best bet is speaking to the Champion himself. I wouldn't trust anyone else in the league with this but him… and if even he's untrustworthy, then we've got a whole other issue to worry about." Jasmine went silent again, mulling over my words. Then, I proudly watched as her expression turned serious, befitting of her Gym Leader role.

"Alright, I'll schedule a one on one meeting with Champion Lance and express my concerns to him. Though it's certainly not a guarantee, it's not an option we should rule out at all."

"Sounds good," I nodded.

"Thank you Silver… you might have just opened a lot of eyes with this new perspective."

"Don't mention it. I'm just trying to peacefully get stronger," I told her with a roll of my eyes. She nodded, a look of worry in her eyes as she gazed at me. That made me tilt my head a bit in confusion.

"What's the matter?" I asked curiously. Jasmine flinched back, eyes wide at being called out and I pursed my lips. Did I reveal too much? Was even innocent Jasmine suspicious of me now? That wasn't good. Jasmine knew a lot about me.

"Um… I know you said I shouldn't be afraid to ask but I'm still a bit… No, I'll ask," she eventually said, pepping herself up.

"Silver… do you have history with Team Rocket?" Jasmine asked quietly, afraid to even ask the question. … Huh? What the fuck? Wait, did I actually end up revealing too much information? Did Gold leak my identity and Jasmine was making false connections? While Giovanni was my sponsor, I don't know what further connection I had with Team Rocket and stealing Gaia was my first heist... but I was still a thief so it was logical to make the connection.

"That's a bit of a weird question to suddenly ask," I pointed out, not willing to further incriminate myself by answering said question." I know it is! But it's just… the moment I mentioned Team Rocket… you had the most angry expression I've ever seen on your face… and I don't even think you realized." I froze completely.

"…" Seriously? Clearly my hate for Team Rocket ran deeper than I thought because I hadn't even noticed that my expression changed. I thought I was normal the whole time... But why exactly did I hate them? Even if I wanted to truthfully answer Jasmine's question, I wouldn't be able to because I didn't know. But this feeling…

"They've done something unforgivable to me is all," I said tersely. Based on this feeling, that seemed as honest as I could get. There was a flash of sorrow and pity in Jasmine's eyes and only the fact that I genuinely did warm up to her, stopped me from hanging up in her face and never calling her again right then and there. Thankfully, she didn't pry (not like I had anything to give her) and instead said,"Alright Silver, I'll call you later after a few phone calls. I missed talking to you!" I inclined my head.

"Sure, see ya Jasmine." She smiled shakily before the screen cut and her face vanished. I immediately sighed. Unfortunately, there wasn't much more I could (or wanted to) do in regards to Team Rocket, without looking massively suspicious. Even now, I felt like I stuck my neck in too much but maybe my innate rage at the criminals played a part. Which begged the question… what was my deal with Team Rocket? Where did this rage and hatred stem from? I know Giovanni was my sponsor but what did he do to me?

What was this interest in me? I was from Viridian and I had no contact with either of my parents... but I hated my mother... did she abandon me to Giovanni? Was she also connected to Team Rocket? Was it because I was from a wealthy family? Rich parents tended to be douches so maybe that's why I had called my mother a bitch… Ugh. I was missing something important here. Trying to figure this all out was impossible.

I know I came to terms with my identity, but at this rate, my past that I didn't know about was going to bite me. Should I also add Team Rocket to the list of criminals I need to permanently get rid of? I wasn't strong enough to do so, but I could work in the shadows to take them out, leaving anonymous tips to the league... Well, only time would tell. I was in the middle of getting stronger. I was not strong yet.

I'd be strong when Magma/Aqua/Galactic came into play but Team Rocket was heavily active during my most vulnerable stage of being a trainer. It'd be reckless to throw myself at them. Who do they think I am, Red?

"Good morning passengers! In approximately three minutes, we will be arriving in Vermilion City! Make sure to view the city when the sun is setting, you won't regret it!" I heard that message in the middle of blow drying my hair and idly pulled the electric toothbrush out of my mouth.

"You guys heard that right?" I shouted to my team. A chorus of noises, was my response and I nodded.

"Alright, I'll be out in a sec so get ready to leave," I instructed, turning my blow dryer on again. The trip to Kanto was as peaceful as every other boat ride I had taken. I remained holed up in my room, except for when I wanted food, and trained with my team to help them hone the moves they knew. On the bright side, being in such close proximity with my team at almost all times, increased all of our familiarity by quite a bit.

I had verified that while Ares and Freyja had animosity towards each other, it wasn't detrimental to my Feebas. The little fish just looked up at me with determination in her eyes and shook her head no, when I asked her if she wanted me to tell Ares to back down. That surprised me a bit. Freyja was really shy and reserved so I thought she would have wanted me to tell Ares to calm down for a little. Maybe Freyja was using it to fuel herself.

I didn't want to overwhelm her with compliments all the time, but I did compliment her whenever I saw fit, refusing to let her confidence dwindle even a little. If I saw her rivalry with Ares negatively impacting her, I would step in immediately but right now, it didn't seem completely necessary. I was sure Loki was doing the same thing as well so that was good. Besides that, Freyja and Gaia seemed to get along really well…

Granted, my Bayleef was very outgoing so she got along well with everyone on the team but Freyja seemed to admire her quite a lot and Gaia was a big fan of it so the two were shaping up to be quite the good friends. Surprisingly, Ares got along great with Loki. The two had taken to some very light sparring with each other and though my Bagon was stronger, Loki managed to get the victory more often than not in their quick bouts.

He was forcing her to think instead of throwing herself into every fight without logic and it was doing wonders for my very brave Bagon. That had gotten the two rather friendly and Ares' mother must have been a tired person because the two were starting to become quite the mischievous duo… well, whenever Ares wasn't nose-diving off my bed head first. I only let them get away with it so often because I liked seeing Loki's mischievous side… the Illusion pranks were not cool though.

Imagine waking up to a Salamence staring you down. Heart attack inducing I tell you but I couldn't even stay mad because Loki had been genuinely remorseful at that one in particular. Beldum was as much of a loner as I opted to be, so they tended to channel their abilities near me, while I studied or did whatever activity I thought of. I'm also fairly sure they did extra training at night when everyone was sleeping. Regardless, it tolerated the team just fine.

They weren't especially close with anyone but that was no surprise. Beldum would warm up to them all eventually so for now, this was perfectly fine. Now it was time to get started. I had spent a whole lotta time preparing myself for this part of the journey and now it was time to really get the show on the road. I returned my entire team, pocketing them in their customized balls and grabbed all my things.

I dumped my blow dryer (I still couldn't get rid of that damn cowlick) and toothbrush in the bag, placed my sneakers on and shrugged on a violet jacket with red lines. It was early in the year, I heard Kanto would be decently cold at around this time. As I stepped off the S. S Tidal, I let out a pleased sigh as an actual cool breeze brushed against me that contrasted the boiling heat of the Hoenn region.

Next time I'm visiting Hoenn, it would hopefully not be as a criminal so I didn't have to deck myself out in so many layers of clothing… Or I could invest in more clothes that counteracted their extreme weather. Surely in a world as dominated by nature as this, that would exist. Huh... why didn't I look into that earlier? Well, regardless, the air of Vermilion city, despite carrying the sea breeze smell that I was getting very tired of, felt very nice. Vermilion was one of the more normal cities I encountered.

There was nothing too unique about it besides its incredible proximity to the sea and how large the port was. It was still nice all the same. As I walked on the stone pavement, I took in the sights with a curious eye. Vermilion, much like Slateport and Olivine, had a diverse amount of people. It wasn't very easy for me to identify what region they likely hailed from based on features and whatnot, and I didn't really care to, but they did have their differences.

Maybe enough time here would help me spot the differences. I cared very little about learning of other people so I certainly wouldn't research it. It's not like I wanted to talk to them so what's the point in learning where they likely hailed from? I sighed as I entered the Gym of Vermilion City and approached the receptionist there. It was a really big guy, who looked like he ate bricks for breakfast and squatted weights as a hobby.

"What do you want, kid?" He said gruffly, gazing at me with bored and intimidating eyes. I sneered, utterly nonplussed by the fact that this dude could fit my head in his palm.

"I'm here to sight see your ugly mug. Why else do you think people walk in a Gym, dumbass? I want to schedule a battle with the Gym Leader." So my people skills didn't get any better… but it's not like I was trying to make it better… it was kind of funny being an unabashed asshole to everyone. Besides, he started it! I saw an actual vein form on the guys head and he glared at me.

"Name?" He asked through grit teeth.

"Silver. S-I-L-V-E-R," I said slowly.

"I know how to spell it," the receptionist cut in, brows furrowed. Heh, he must have not expected my attitude. I wasn't gonna let anyone bully or intimidate me no matter the size difference. I smirked in what had to have been an insufferable manner and shrugged helplessly.

"Coulda fooled me. I'm surprised you can even type without busting the keyboard. Now hurry up and continue with the questions, old man." I wasn't intending on being this rude, but I was getting really irked with people calling me kid. It grated on my ears like a personal ick and made me rather sour.

"…" The receptionist took a deep breath to compose himself and gazed at me with a measured expression. Huh, surprisingly smart for a guy this muscly. I was expecting someone like him to have exploded by now. I guess they didn't just hand out this job to anyone.

"How many badges do you have?" He asked slowly, no doubt realizing that someone way younger than him was setting him off.

"Zero," I replied easily. He shot a brow up at that and gazed at me searchingly, before coming to a decision.

"Listen, normally you'd be able to without a hitch but right now, Surge is upping the ante for trainers challenging him by a lot. Go fight another Gym Leader else your team'll just end up in the Center." My brow raised at that. Surge was upping the ante? In the games, he was the third gym leader and that Raichu of his was pretty damn annoying to face… Jasmine admitted that she was actually the second strongest gym leader of Johto. I wonder who the strongest to weakest were in Kanto.

How did the Kanto and Johto leaders fair against each other? Who was the strongest Gym Leader in the Indigo League, Clair or Giovanni? Food for thought… but…

"You're really shit at your job," I said blandly.

"Are you some type of pervert? Why are you keeping me here longer than I want to be? I'm here for the gym challenge. Should it really be this difficult to schedule a match?" I glowered at the guy wasting my time.

"The match. Schedule it. I don't give a fuck if he's upping the ante." The man spluttered, face going red and he stood up to regard me.

"Now listen here you little —," Whatever he was about to say, was cut off, as booming laughter reached our ears. The sound of footsteps approached from further within the gym, until a massive palm grabbed the door that separated the interior of the building and a person stepped through. Well damn. If I thought the receptionist was big, this freak of nature was something else. I had to strain my neck just to look at this guy's face. Wasn't that a thought? I was short but still. Lt. Surge cut a massive figure.

He was the type of guy to be the tallest in the room without trying and he seemed to love that fact. He wore a green shirt with no sleeves, camo pants, large boots and some shades that were currently in his hand so he could regard me with a raised brow that he clearly perfected.

"If the kid wants to get his confidence shattered this early on in his journey, I say let him!" Surge bellowed, voice carrying effortlessly through the entire room. I pursed my lips and gazed at the electric gym leader with a searching expression, stifling my annoyance at being called a kid again.

"So you're the gym leader," I said, wholly unimpressed by my ordeal here to schedule a match.

"Maybe you're slightly smarter than the dumbass you hired but I'll still make it easy for you to get. Me. You. Battle. Badge." Surge glanced down at me and unlike the easy to rile up receptionist, he simply let out another bellowing laugh.

"Schedule the match, John," Surge said eventually, slapping the receptionist on the shoulder.

"This kids got guts! I wanna see what he's made of!" John (oh he had a name tag), didn't even bother protesting Surge's decision and just typed something on the computer. He almost looked relieved at not having to deal with me... or maybe that was relief that Surge was going to put me in my place.

"The match is scheduled for 3 days from now," the receptionist said after a moment.

"Hear that?" Surge asked, turning towards me with a cocky grin.

"3 days from now, meet me in here and I'll give ya a battle that'll shock you straight!" I rolled my eyes at the pun.

"If you decide the rules, make it a 3 on 3. I wanna get experience off this battle." The gigantic gym leader began laughing even harder.

"You heard all of that and still wanna fight 3 on 3? I like this kid! He's got a spine on him! Silver you said? Alright, don't disappoint me!"

"Whatever," I scoffed, marching out of the gym. I deftly dodged the body of the girl I was about to run into, relying just on instincts to do so and began mulling over my scheduled match in three days. To be honest, I was a little thankful that my match was in 3 days… after all, the last trainer I battled was Gold. In Johto. I could use these 3 days to properly battle trainers and train too in preparation to beat Surge.

A 3 on 3 and allegedly, Surge was getting rough against trainers, so this would be more difficult than any first badge fight I'd normally have. No sweat. Couldn't become strong without struggling. I'd beat Surge here and make my statement properly. Besides… I'm very confident that I'm much stronger than a 1 badge challenge regardless and I wanted to be pushed in all my Gym Battles. I nodded to myself and decided that Route 6 was a good spot for me to check out.

According to my map, it was littered with trees and was probably a hotspot for trainers as well. Alright, let's go fight some trainers —"Hey! Wait!" A voice shouted, making me twitch slightly. Naturally, I ignored it. Why the hell would that be for me? I literally just landed in the Kanto region." I guess I can visit Pokemon Center's now huh? No need to avoid them like the plague anymore," I mused. My team was in a good state.

They didn't need the center at the moment but since I'd be fighting trainers, trips would be inevitable. Fighting Surge 3 on 3 would be great. I already knew who I'd be using too so I'd be using these 3 days, to get them ready — I paused in my gait at the rushed footsteps and instinctively clenched my fist in preparation to strike, only for the footsteps to stop in front of me as a figure cut my path off.

"It's rude to ignore a girl calling for you, Silver! You nearly bumped into me back there too!"... I glared at the person with enough venom in my gaze to make most people freeze. Bumped into? When the hell did I almost bump into someone? Oh back at the gym.

"Who the hell are you and how the hell do you know my —," I froze completely, sentence dying on my lips as I took proper stock of the person I was currently staring at. The longer I stared, the more the horror coursed through my body.

"I was listening in on your conversation back there at the gym and I was in so much awe! I have no clue how you were able to talk to those two giants like that so easily! You have like, no fear at all in your heart and I thought that was pretty cool… Oh! Where are my manners!" It was a girl with very messy long brown hair, wearing a short black dress.

She was a tad shorter than me, with a smile on her face as she regarded a complete stranger with familiarity that no human being should express on their first meeting. But that wasn't the problem. No there were much bigger problems then a stranger treating me like we were friends. No, the problem were those big, real bright, forest green eyes staring at me with clear interest. Ah fucking — Give me a break. I knew who this was.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Leaf Green, but you can just call me Green! That's what all my friends call me," the girl finally introduced, smiling at me like I was one of those friends she mentioned. …

"Oh and this is Vee! He's my first friend!" She exclaimed, pointing at the sleepy Eevee that seemed to blend in with her jungle of hair. Green's smile turned into one of confusion, as I let out a miserable groan.