The Poisonous Paradise- Keith's Secret Base

[Lass El]

Jessica, Keith, Marion, El, Hyrem, Jake, Okiku, Connor:
El was more than impressed by the spread of foods available for the party goers. In fact, were it not for her focus on finding something to help calm Nikki's nerves she could have spent an embarrassingly long amount of time just staring at all the choices. Not that she almost didn't anyway, but a gentle nibble by her draconic friend was more than enough to get El back on track. She adjusted her hold on Nikki so the little dragon could point towards what it was she wanted, eventually settling on something El could only identify as meat. It smelt delicious, sure, and El was quite tempted to try some herself, it was just that the girl's culinary skills didn't extend far beyond omelettes and microwave meals.

El watched with mild curiosity as Nkki ate the treat. How a creature with such a large mouth could be such a restrained eater was something El was fairly sure she'd never fully understand, it looked to be far more effort that it was possibly worth. Still, if that was how Nikki wanted to eat, she wasn't exactly one to argue with something she'd taught to breathe fire.

A distraction from the eating habits of a dragon wasn't far from coming though. El soon found herself being interrupted by another attendee of the party, holding out a berry El had apparently dropped during the commotion with Lucy. She stared at it for a bit in a vain and pointless attempt to confirm that yes, the berry really was hers. The attempt was foiled by the fact that it is rather hard to distinguish between individual berries, so she just accepted it with a sigh.

"Thanks," she said with a meek smile, "I wouldn't have realised it was mine!" Not that the loss of a lone berry would have been much to worry about, but the gesture was much appreciated nonetheless. It was nice to have someone else break the ice for her. She wasn't surprised in the least that the next thing to be bought up was Nikki, the little ball of scales did tend to get her fair share of attention when El took her out.

"Yes yes! This is Nikki. I didn't actually mean to bring her..." El drifted off as it suddenly hit her that it mightn't be a good idea to admit to her new potential friend that she's forgotten both that Nikki was in her Pokéball and that said Pokéball was in her backpack. "'Cause, y'know, it's meant to be an Eevee thing. But I didn't exactly feel comfortable leaving her alone, y'know? She's the sorta Pokémon jerks would go after even though she has a trainer so I like having her on me and then this thing with my Eevee happened and she got let out accidentally and it was all a bit of a mess." She looked down at Nikki, who was just about done, mostly to hide the half-truth she'd told. "You can pat her if you want, she's friendly!"

"And oh yeah! Our names!" El had gotten so caught up in trying to explain Nikk's presence in a way that didn't make her look like a horrible trainer that it had slipped her mind entirely. "Jessica, that's a nice name! I'm Eliza, but everyone just calls me El so, uh, yeah. Say hi to Jessica, Nikki!"

The Gible chirped and waved at Jessica with a bit too much vigour and ended up scratching El's arm. She just sighed, and made a mental note that she still hadn't bought that new pack of band-aids since she'd run out last month. Her active lifestyle meant she went through the things almost as fast as she went through chocolate.

"So, I guess you're here because you have an Eevee, huh?" El said mostly in the interest of keeping the conversation going. "Is it much of a handful? I can hardly take mine out even with supervision at times, she must think she rules the world or something."

[uhhhhh]

OoC: Ugh, my writing's gotten really rusty I think OTL

Jessica, Keith, Marion, El, Hyrem, Jake, Okiku, Connor: After listening to Keith's explanation, he nodded and laughed a little bit, "Ah, I see. It's all right Keith, I'm not really a fan of wearing fancy outfits anyway. Never have been. It makes me feel... stiff," he said while looking away a bit as if thinking about something while trying to find something to focus on until he spotted the party food. "Anyway, I'll go eat first okay? When you and Cyanide are ready, just say the word after I'm done okay?" he grinned as he turned to Todd, "As for you little guy, why don't you go to your siblings and say hi? Go and have a good time with them! I'll be around if you need me for anything okay?" he smiled at him before he headed to where the food were.

As Connor grabbed a plate and pretty much have grabbed one of everything that was available on the menu, he had heard the conversation between Jessica and El, with the latter asking about whether or not raising Eevees were a handful. Once Connor had filled his plate with so much food, he headed towards the two and joined in, "Hmm, well, I haven't had too much of a problem with raising mine... though it seems mine is at a conflict on what to evolve into. I told him that it's completely his choice as to what he wants to be, and that I'll support him all the way but... I worry for him sometimes," he said to the two as he grabbed a sandwich from his plate. When he realized a few seconds later that he was probably being rude for just barging in to the conversation, he quickly apologized, "Oh, so sorry! I seem to have a knack on poking my nose in on your conversations El... ehehe..."

Todd, Happy: After Connor had left him to join his fellow siblings for a while, Todd felt a little lost on what to do next. He had spotted that some of his siblings have indeed evolved already. Does he just go to them and say hi? What will he do if they comment on him still being an Eevee? It was then that another Eevee had surprised him with a cheerful greeting of his own. Todd looked at this particularly Eevee and replied back, "Oh, uh... hello there. Yeah, I'm a sibling of Carla's... the Espeon over there right? I'm Todd, nice to meet you Happy," he said with a shy smile.

[Gemini Spark]

From what Carla heard from Coin, she started to see her in a different light: what the other Eevee thought as stealing and hoarding toys away from them was actually her trying to share with others who wouldn't get the chance to play with those toys in the first place. A Pokemon version of Robin Hood, no doubt. Carla was still skeptical about Coin, and Team Pocket in general: now that she was an Umbreon she could do a lot more and could be bolder with her crimes. And Carla had heard about the "Team Pocket Protocol" from Selina before, and it seemed a little too subjective for her taste. "So you would steal a duplicate valuable item from someone just because they have two of it and 'don't need both'?" the Espeon asked. "I still say stealing is stealing, no matter how good of a cause you feel it's for." She also still felt worry due to a premonition she had gotten a few nights ago: each member of Team Pocket, including Coin and Selina, were disappearing in that dream, absorbed by a big, red "R". It was a bit too cryptic to understand fully, but all she needed to know right now was that her friends would likely be putting themselves in danger if they were to continue down this path.

Meanwhile, Taki replied that she would have been happy to share, and all Coin needed to do was ask. "I agree with Taki, had you told us about what you were doing, I would have been fine with sharing my things too (the shop keepers always did give me more toys than I wanted)." Suddenly, Carla could hear a voice in her mind, and it sounded a lot like Taki's... She wanted to play with someone? How could they know, she was always too quiet and... Carla slowly approached Taki before she came in close to whisper, "Perhaps you should try asking us yourself," then gave her fellow Espeon a sisterly nuzzle before smiling at her for some encouragement.

-----------------

Lee, now Ron, nodded at the mention of his new name, but was then called over by Peeves to help move the pool. Before leaving Hyrem, he shook his hand. "Nice to see you again, later!" Hyrem replied. He was relieved Ron was enjoying himself more. Not only did he have a more experienced trainer to raise him, he was able to help out where needed. Oh, and having Helga around to show off his tricks probably helps. Yeah, Hyrem knew he made the right decision by trading him away in exchange for Sejuani.

After that, the next thing that caught Hyrem's eye was a shiny Gible in the arms of the girl from before standing at the food table wondering what her big mouthed friend would want to snack on. Jessica was also there talking with the girl, so he waited off to the side for either of them to notice so he wouldn't be seen as barging in on their conversation unlike Connor, all the while looking at the shiny Gible. He had Marik, a fun little set of chompers of his own, but shiny Pokemon weren't something that appeared very often, and with Brea's recent addition to the team he considered himself very lucky to have the gray Slugma.

-----------------

As Happy met this new Eevee named Todd, he was told that he was indeed one of Carla's brothers. "Wow, she really does have a lot of brothers and sisters! Must've been awesome to live in such a big family, so many others to play with... Say, since you haven't evolved yet either, you've gotta have one of them you really want, right? I wanna be one of the cooler ones, like an Umbreon or a Jolteon, they're just... well, cool!"

[OkikuMew]

Inside Treehouse - Okiku, Helena, Vermillion:

Before Okiku had the chance to complain more at the plate-stealing Torkoal, another plate of sandwiches magically slipped on the table. Perplexed now of seeing one appear before her eyes, she looked around the table to find the source of the new plate trick, when she heard something coming from her right, at eye level:

"Sorry about that," the soothing voice spoke.

Okiku turned around, expecting a human face, but she was startled to see a Shuppet instead!

"Luckily," the ghost continued to actually speak by no telepathic means, to the Psychic specialist's amazement, "we have plenty of sandwiches, so feel free to help yourself. And I think the burgers are almost done as well. Anyway," she smiled sweetly, "my name's Helena. What's yours?"

After a few moments of slience in stupefaction, Okiku quickly shook her head to wake herself up then responded to her. "Uh I-I'm Okiku, nice to meet you!" she smiled back. "Sorry I was surprised for a moment. I mean, I've heard of Pokémon actually speaking English before, but I never thought I would meet one! Not to mention that my own Shuppet has never spoke to me before... Oh!" she remembered waht Helena said earlier, "So the burgers are coming? Awesome! I was actually trying to resist eating too much of what's on the table already, because man just the smell of the meat cooking makes my mouth water! Say..." she tilted her head, "would those burgers have any bacon with it, by any chance? I dunno, I got a craving of 'em ever since I stepped in the base."

___________________________________________



Outside Treehouse – Coin, Himiko, Taki, Carla:

"...'No one ever wanted to play with me'?" Coin tilted her head the other way in response to Taki's telepathic message, "But I WAS playing with you, silly!" She playfully stick out her tongue, then became increasingly excitable. "That I pick... up you stuff without you noticing IS a game! My favorite one, too! It's 'Banker and Robber'! You were the banker that keeps the treasure, and I came and steal your stuff! ...Ok I didn't keep the stuff at the end, but hey, it was still fuuuun! And man, you might have sucked at this game, but you always perfectly nailed down 'paranoid banker' character, at least!"

Himiko couldn't help to facepalm (or should I say "facepaw") to Coin's side of the story, then spoke to Taka telepathically, worried to not hurt anyone's feelings. "I am really, very sorry for what Coin has done to you, as much as she was – and is – oblivious to what she has done... I do hope you understand she meant it well, despite her... naiveté. One thing for sure: you can count on me to look over her so she doesn't bother you again. Or anyone bothering you, for that matter." The Sun Pokémon nodded towards Taki, smiling. "I can promise you that."

Carla, after realizing Okiku's Umbreon true intentions, asked if she would steal a duplicate valuable item from someone just because they have two of it and 'don't need both'. The Moonlight Pokémon paused for a moment, in thought, then answered the best she could.

"Well... first of all, what the protocol means by 'don't need both' is the... 'borrowdee' have to not actually need even one of those valuables in the first place, yet somehow have two, or, that it's completely unnecessary for the 'borrowdee' to have two valuables instead of just one. ...For example, it's ok for someone to have two tvs at their home because hey, you're not gonna tow around a big tv all over the house if you want to watch tv in another room! But... isn't it wrong or unfair if someone buys twice as much food but doesn't even eat half of it, throwing it away anyways? Or has all of the same super-rare piece of a collection just because he wants it all by himself? Or... someone owns two cars but doesn't even touch one of them? Well those are just examples; I mean, I don't think none of us could take a car, especially since they're designed for humans and none of us can drive..." she chuckled a bit, "but ANYWAYS, wouldn't it be better if the unused things were given to someone else that can put it to good use?" She shrugged as she heard her Espeon sister criticized how 'stealing is stealing, no matter what'. "But meh, to each their own opinion on the matter, I guess. I just think a little bit of fairness and equality for absolutely everyone wouldn't hurt, ya know? I'm tired of people who got everything in the world and choosing how things should be just because they're on the top! Others want to have things so they can do more things, too! Others want to choose how things goes too! ...Ok, not everyone's ideas are good and not everybody will properly use some things, but some might have better ideas and thoughts than those who are doing the choosing for them, some might use those things in ways nobody thought of before! But they can't..." Coin's ears drooped as her voice surprisingly takes a sad tone. "because they have nothing. Nothing but other people who thinks they're better than them; other people who uses their so-called 'power' to silence them, control them, talk about them behind their backs, twist their own words and ideas behind their backs, blame them for things they don't understand or even are not even related to them..." the Umbreon took a deep breath, then held her head up high. "But I want to change that. Little by little, I want to share things between everyone. I might not be able to take and share power and thoughts..." she frowned determinedly, "but I can take and share things." She smirked. "And that's exactly what I'm doing."

Completely astonished by her teammate roaring speech, Himiko just stared at her in silence, blinking.

[Missingno. Master]

Outside the base: After helping Okiku up to the entrance to Keith's base, Luna was more than glad to do the same for Jessica. Then came Connor, who told Keith to just let him know when he and Cyanide were ready to have their picture taken. "Will do," grinned Keith. "Of course, all you need to do is mention taking pictures near Cyanide, and believe you me, she'll be ready," he added with a slight chuckle. And then as Hyrem entered, Keith went back inside, and entered the living room where everyone else was.


Inside the base: Okiku seemed highly surprised by Helena's gift for human speech, but recovered after a moment. She introduced herself to the Shuppet, and explained the reason for her surprise. "That's all right," smiled Helena. "Keith actually has quite a few Pokémon that can speak English for some reason or another. In my case, I was human when I was alive, so it still comes pretty naturally to me. Just don't be surprised if you ever get to meet Keith's Meowth, Numel, Banette, Dusclops, or Haunter, they can all speak English, too. Oh, and his Paras, but only when the mushrooms are in control of his mind." Okiku then asked whether there was any bacon to go with the burgers, and Helena smiled. "Yep," she replied. "I'd be surprised if you couldn't smell it when you came in, to be honest. Keith's Torkoal is helping to cook the bacon, her smoke gives it a unique flavor. Oh, I love your dress, by the way," the Shuppet added, noticing what Okiku was wearing.

Around this time, Keith entered the living room. Looking around, he walked over to Hyrem, but before he could open his mouth, a puff of white smoke floated in through the living room door and came to a stop in front of Keith's face, taking the form of a cheeseburger. Decidedly unusual though this must have appeared, Keith seemed remarkably unfazed by it. "OK, everyone," he announced to the room, "I just received word from the kitchen that the burgers are ready. My Nidoking and Wartortle should be bringing them in via Confusion attack any minute now, so please keep an eye out for levitating plates of bacon cheeseburgers." He then turned back to face the Trainer he had approached. "Hey, Hyrem," Keith greeted him. "So, how's the Swinub I traded you?" he asked. "I would've kept her for myself, but... something with an overly sensitive nose being mothered by a Skuntank, somehow I doubt that would've gone well," he chuckled weakly.

Sure enough, true to Keith's word, numerous plates piled with bacon cheeseburgers started hovering in through the doorway and landing gracefully on the food table. Walking in through the door was a Wartortle, her eyes glowing blue as she focused intently on the plates. And anyone looking through the doorway would see across the hall, a Nidoking standing in the doorway of the indoor pool room, his eyes also glowing blue.


Upstairs, Ginny and Stewie were still circling each other warily in the hallway. You know, where they were the whole time. And totally not in Keith's room. Which never took up the entirety of the second floor. What Secret Base renovations?! Er... ahem... Until the Shadow Ledian stopped near the elevator, anyway. Ginny's eyes narrowed as she noticed this.

"And just what the hell do you think you're doing?" demanded the Pawniard.

"If I can't show my face at that party, then fine," stated Stewie. "I have things to get done in any case."

"And just what do you have to get done?" asked Ginny suspiciously. "Why are you edging closer to the elevator?"

"Why, whatever do you mean?" asked Stewie in a fake innocent voice that wouldn't have fooled even Dudley.

"I think you know EXACTLY WHAT I MEAN!" Ginny shouted, for at that moment, Stewie pounded on the button, and the elevator doors opened up. He zipped inside and jabbed the "Close Doors" button, but Ginny was too quick, she followed him inside, making it in just before the doors slammed shut.

"Blast!" Stewie grunted. "What the deuce do you think you're doing, vile woman?" he demanded.

"I could ask the same thing of you, minus the 'woman' bit," Ginny retorted, folding her bladed arms.

Stewie jabbed at the "Open Doors" button. "Get the hell out of this elevator!" he ordered.

"Make me, why don't you?" Ginny challenged him. "Bearing in mind, of course, that I'm more than capable of slitting your throat the exact instance you get within range of me."

"You're bluffing," scoffed Stewie.

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not," said Ginny. "Either way, you willing to risk your life on that?" She unfolded her arms, the metallic blades gleaming in the light from the small lights built into the elevator ceiling. Stewie eyed these blades warily for a moment.

"...Fine," the Shadow Ledian spat. "But hear this- what you are about to see, you are forbidden to speak of to anyone, least of all the hat man."

"That's for me to determine," Ginny replied stubbornly.

"I thought you might say that," nodded Stewie. And then, without warning, his entire body let off a sudden and blinding Flash of light, forcing the Pawniard's eyes shut. As she tried to blink away the sudden blindness, she heard the sound of a button being pressed and the elevator moving, but once she regained her vision, Stewie didn't appear to have changed position.

"What was that about?!" demanded Ginny. "And where are we going?" she added suddenly as the general commotion that was the party seemed to rise above them. "We're going lower than the first floor? What button did you even press?"

"If I wanted you to know, I wouldn't have used Flash," said Stewie. "Now kindly shut up."

For a few minutes, the elevator went down, down, down. They were surely deep beneath the ground by this time. And then, the elevator finally came to a stop, and with a dinging noise, the doors slid open. Stewie flew out of the elevator, grinning evilly. Ginny warily hovered out, and her eyes widened at what she saw.

They were in a single, small, windowless room, lit primarily by the dim glow of several large screens up against the wall, each of them displaying a different room in the Secret Base. One kept alternating between the kitchen and the dining room every few minutes, and another kept alternating between Keith's bedroom and the indoor pool. On another wall hung an arsenal of sharp weaponry, all of it kept almost unnervingly clean and ready for action. Directly across the room from the elevator was a PC on a table, and Stewie was currently doing something with it. Last but not least, as if to complete this strange and ominous picture, a skull sat in the middle of the room. Ginny zipped over to the PC and looked at the screen, but in the time it took her to fly over, Stewie had jabbed a red button on the keyboard. Now the screen had gone blue, and printed on it in white text were the words, "Lord Stewie commands you to stop peeking at his personal work! Please enter password to resume evil activities." Below this was a space for entering a password.

"What is this?" demanded Ginny.

"Welcome to my lair," Stewie grinned evilly. "This is where I plan and plot for my eventual world domination! Ahahahahaha!" he laughed diabolically.

[lilboocorsola]

Jessica, Keith, Marion, El, Hyrem, Jake, Okiku, Connor:

Jess grew nervous as El stared at the dirty Berry in her hand, afraid the other girl would doubt or deny such a trite offering. Perhaps she had made a mistake and should've just left it be. Now she must look like some kind of weirdo who goes around picking up other people's trash.

Fortunately El seemed to at least understand the gesture enough to appreciate it, and accepted the return. Jess smiled as El introduced herself and Nikki, inviting her to give the dragon a pat. Though worried by how the excited Gible's greeting ended up scratching her trainer's arm, Jess could tell the creature meant no harm. Still, she steered clear of Nikki's claws and teeth as she gently displayed affection.

"Mm, I know what you mean. I have a Shiny Corsola myself, but he's back at the Base right now. He's a tough guy though, so he can take care of himself. Nikki seems like she'll grow up big and strong too."

As the conversation turned to the main topic of the Eeveening, Jess chuckled at El's description of her own bundle of fur, though her face softened a little bit when she thought of the contrast to hers. Before she could respond Connor suddenly barged into the conversation. Jess took the moment to grab some appetizers for herself while waiting for the main course. As she did so, she spotted Hyrem lurking nearby, eagerly eyeing El’s Shiny Gible. El sure wasn’t kidding about Nikki’s popularity. Jess grinned and waved at him, inviting him to join the chat before turning back. Munching a sandwich, she listened sympathetically to Connor’s plight and nodded.

"I hope he finds what makes him happy… For Taki, it just came about naturally. Happy emotions are probably what caused her to evolve into an Espeon, so it was kinda the other way around, if that makes sense. As for whether she’s a handful, I wouldn’t say that, but… It’s hard to take her out as well, but for the exact opposite reason. Due to events in her past, she seems scared of the world. She’s gained a bit more confidence recently, but I wonder if it was really okay to bring her here… Hope she’s doing all right."

Taki, Link, Coin, Himiko, Carla:

Taki stared in baffled silence when Coin answered that she had thought they were playing together. Fortunately, Himiko comforted her mentally, and Carla approached as well to reassure, giving a friendly nuzzle. Taki was surprised by the gesture, especially from another of her own kin, who surely knew her strangeness. Carla had never necessarily snubbed her by direct intent, but she was always so elegant and refined despite being the smallest of the bunch… (If anything, her size added to her appeal.) A favorite amongst customers and even staff, who showered her with gifts. She seemed out of Taki’s reach, so she had been too afraid to approach – lest her outbursts startle the clients and hurt her sister’s chances of being adopted. Though she couldn’t convey these thoughts in words, they passed subconsciously through cerebral pulses between the Psychic Types, aided by contact. Even Himiko, who felt as close as a sister at this point, received some of them.

The lone black sheep dog in the group (well, not counting Link) interrupted the moment of spiritual bonding by launching into a righteous speech defending her practice. Taki barely understood any of it, but… Being blamed for "things they don't understand or even are not even related to them"… She knew that feeling, after all the times she was called a liar and troublemaker for the fault of spirits. And could she really bring herself to blame Coin for not realizing how her actions affected her siblings personally? In her own way, the Umbreon was trying to do what she thought was the right thing, to help others.

She turned to Carla.

"I- I don’t really get what’s going on, but this 'Team Pocket' you’re talking about… I think they’re all right. One of my trainer’s Pokémon – Kief – I heard he’s the leader. I don’t know him that well, but… He doesn’t seem like a bad guy. My trainer trusts him, and Kanna – his girlfriend – er, no, they’re not dating yet but I can tell she’s in love with him. (Even though he can be kinda tactless at times.) She doesn’t approve of what he does either, but she’s known him for years, and that he’d never intentionally hurt anybody… Or allow harm to come to his allies.”

By this awkward attempt at assurance, she was referring more to the dream Carla had, which Taki had accidentally glimpsed a flash of earlier when connected.

[OkikuMew]

Inside Treehouse – Okiku, Helena, Shelly, Hermione:

Okiku was quite curious and amazed of all the talking Pokémon Keith owned, and the reason why Helena had that skill, but she facepalmed when the Shuppet mentioned Meowth as one of Keith's talking Pokémon.

"I forgot about Meowth! Well, I didn't meet him, I only saw him briefly talk to Keith through his Pokégear. It was a good while ago, and not to mention the first English-speaking Pokémon I saw was a Meowth, on a tv show when I was a kid... My brain probably got the two mixed up somehow... No wonder I forgot!" She embarrassingly scratched her head and nervously chuckled, but not only from her silly forgetfulness, but to the fact that she was omitting another probable reason of it, being that night when she met Keith was a little... bit too much filled with drinks.

When the ghost confirmed that the burgers' fillings included bacon, the girl lightly clapped her hands and let out a satisfied "rooooh" deep from her throat, distinctively rolling the 'r'.

"Oh, I did smell somethin'! But I thought it was just the meat! ...Well the burger patties I mean. Bacon is also meat after all...!"

Her eyes became wide though as Helena taught her that Keith's Torkoal was the one cooking said pork strips of deliciousness.

"You mean Shelly!? Oh my gosh, it's been a while I've last seen her! I'm the one who hatched and traded her to Keith! I'm gonna have to go and see her again!"

Then the Shuppet, just noticing Okiku's clothing, complimented on her appearance. The young woman simply thanked her, not without her usual blushing. She wouldn't admit it easily through, despite looking obviously off compared to the others, she was getting used to the praise others were giving to her, and actually started to enjoy it.

She loses her train of thought though as Keith showed up and announced that the famous burgers are ready and soon to be served telekinetically by his Wartortle and Nidoking with their Confusion attacks. Sure enough, a big flying saucer (ha!) made its way to the table, followed by a Wartortle, which Okiku recognized her as Chance, deeply concentrating on the plate with her glowing blue eyes. As the plate made its careful landing on the table, The drooling trainer eagerly grabbed an empty plate and quickly placed a burger on it. Before heading out to see the "bacon cook" in the kitchen though, she made sure she at least get one bite out of the chef d'oeuvre she (and the other Pokémon) created. Like a true food connoisseur, she first looked at the balance of the quality of each ingredient, then felt the texture of the warm, slightly toasted bread on her hands, then took a good whiff of the burger's aroma, and finally took a nibble big enough out of it to make sure she have a bit of each ingredient in it. As she munched and rolled her bite around her tongue, Okiku hummed in delight. She enjoyed the balance between the freshness of the salad, saltiness and fattiness of the bacon and beef patty, the sweetness of the relish, the bitterness of the mustard, and the basic flavor of the bread, all rolled into one delicious and lovingly-textured package. The only thing that could've made it better is if there was some hot peppers in it too, but that's just her personal taste. Now knowing how scrumptious the burger was, Okiku gave a small polite nod to Helena before headed out to the kitchen, where her previously-owned Torkoal and Keith's Weedle, Hermione, are.

"Hello!" she greeted them both, "I gotta say, compliments to the chef... er, chefs! Those hamburgers are amazing!"



Outside Treehouse – Coin, Himiko, Taki, Carla:

Himiko definitely felt through her fur how Taki was surprised but glad of the care she and Carla has given to her, and what seemed to be some relief related to her past... although the Espeon didn't quite catch the details on that point, either because of both their low strength of their Psychic powers, or simply Taki didn't want to divulge that much information to her. Either way, it didn't bother Himiko.

When Taki reassured Carla about Team Pocket, Coin couldn't help to slip a little "Preach it, girl!" during her tell of her thoughts. She also confirmed a few things she said about Kief, one of the founders of the team.

"Well Chief – well Kief for you but Chief's how everyone call him in Team Pocket – is not really our leader," Coin explained, " as we don't really believe in full... leadership? Is that how we say it? Anyway yeah, we work as a team as all equals! But Chief's the one who cheers us on everythin' and gives us a huge boost and drive to do whatever we need to do!" She smiled, remembering the days when he was really supportive. "He's awesome! As for the whole 'Chief/Kanna' thing..." she chuckled before continuing, "It's WAY to obvious that girl's likin' him! But Chief's too blind 'n' busy to notice!" she laughed some more. "Anyhow, yeah, we don't hurt a thing unless it's really necessary, and when things gets tough, nobody gets left behind! Or forgotten!"

[uhhhhh]

~Evolution, huh...~ upon hearing Happy mentioning on what he wanted to be, Todd's ears had drooped down followed by a sad expression on his face, ~I... I just don't get it... how can one decide on a path they want to take so soon? My other teammates... they say that I have lads of potential... Th-that I can be who I want to be! While they... they're stuck with what they have, their path already laid out for them. I think they have it much easier than me...~ Todd looked at Carla from afar with the same expression, ~My sister...she already chose a path or her, while I... I want to evolve, more than anything! But, whatever I decide... I don't think I'll ever be happy... The choice is eating me up so much...~ At that point, Todd was almost on the verge of tears, the topic of evolution an incredibly sensitive topic for him.

[Missingno. Master]

1f:

Kitchen:

Helena, Okiku, Shelley, Hermione: Okiku facepalmed, embarrassed at having forgotten about Meowth, having witnessed Keith talk to him on his Xtranceiver. "Ah, that was when Keith was at the Nightclub, right?" said Helena. "I remember- Meowth swiped his Pokédex and used the videophone feature so Keith could check on us." Once the subject turned to the food, however, Okiku seemed nothing short of thrilled when Helena confirmed that the burgers did indeed have bacon on them, even moreso when she heard who was responsible for cooking the bacon. "Oh, Shelley used to be your Pokémon?" Helena replied. "I'm sure she'd be pleased to see you again!"

It was around then that the burgers came flying into the room, and Okiku wasted no time in trying one for herself. Even if Helena hadn't been capable of tasting emotions, she'd have had no trouble figuring out that Okiku loved the burger, she was making no effort to hide it.

Okiku then exited the living room and walked into the kitchen, where she saw Hermione and Shelley, and wasted no time in complimenting their cooking. "Weedle," Hermione replied, with a polite nod and smile, grateful for the praise. Shelley, meanwhile, perked up at the sight of Okiku, and greeted her former Trainer with a big smile. Then, she puffed some white smoke out of her shell, which formed into a gigantic smiley face in midair.

Back in the living room, Helena used Psychic to secure herself a burger. She took a bite, and found that Okiku was quite right to react to it as she had done- this was probably Hermione and Shelley's best work yet!

b1f:

Stewie's Lair:

Stewie, Ginny: Elsewhere, however, things were not so peaceful. A considerable distance beneath the kitchen sat Stewie's lair, and the Shadow Ledian responsible for its existence was currently glaring at the Pawniard who had seen fit to intrude upon this secret room.

"OK, now tell me, just what the hell are you doing that you even need a secret lair?" demanded Ginny, brandishing her blades threateningly. "I want answers, and I want them now."

"The answer is, none of your damn business," Stewie retorted, now hovering between Ginny and his computer. "My lair, my business. Now get back to the party and leave me to my work."

"No can do," Ginny replied defiantly. "I want to know just what the hell you're up to."

"Over my dead body," hissed Stewie.

"That can be arranged," Ginny hissed back. She took a swipe with one of her blades, but Stewie deftly evaded it. He flew over to the wall and took one of the swords off of it, brandishing it threateningly. He and Ginny flew close to each other and started fighting then and there, Stewie swinging his sword around, and Ginny making excellent use of her own blades, the clanging and swishing sound echoing around the room and making it sound like something right out of a pirate movie.

[Gemini Spark]

Carla sighed and put a paw to her face at about the same time as Himiko after listening to Coin's notion of a "game" with Taki. But as she listened to Coin's reasoning behind her acts of theft, Carla could see she was acting on a noble motive, even if the acts themselves were wrong. "Well, just...do be careful who you steal things from," she said with worry in her voice. She could tell that Taki was also trying to comfort her feelings about Team Pocket, but she still took it upon herself to worry about what her siblings were up to. At the same time, she relayed thoughts back to her fellow Espeon sister showing appreciation for her reservedness in the past, but that she had no need to worry about that anymore. Carla was more than willing to be with Taki now; she was her sister, after all, and quite possibly her most favorite sister to be around.

Then the four began discussing the leader of Team Pocket, Taki's teammate Kief. Both Taki and Coin expressed how fun he was, that he wasn't necessarily a leader per se, and that it was blatantly obvious that the Zigzagoon and a Furret named Kanna were in love, although neither had admitted it to the other yet. "Yes, I do believe I heard Selina talking about this Kief fellow. Leila too, she had met them when she was a Sneasel, and she could tell they were very much in love. Why," she actually gave a slight giggle in between, "she told me that Kief gave Kanna a big kiss right in front of her! And Kanna was absolutely blushing about it!" She covered her mouth as she giggled again; she just couldn't help sharing with her sisters what Leila said about Kief, even if it may have been a little rude to do so. It simply goes to show how much Carla the Espeon was starting to give in to her sisterly instincts.

---------------

As Hyrem heard the announcement that the cheeseburgers were ready, he was more than ready for some good food. "Can't wait!" he called out to Keith. Then Keith approached him, asking about the Swinub he traded him. "She's doing just fine!" he replied with a smile. "Sejuani's become the team's 'detective', in a sense...the sense of smell, you know!" he quipped. Then he saw Chance come in levitating a plate of hamburgers, with a Nidoking levitating another. "Whoa, you've got a Nidoking?" he said with awe. "I haven't seen one of those before. They're pretty strong, aren't they?"

He then turned his attention back to the Shiny Gible when Jessica waved to him and invited him over to where she, Connor, and the Gible's owner were talking. "Hi there," he tentatively said to the girl. "I couldn't help but notice your Gible; I've got a Shiny Pokemon too, a Slugma, actually. I saw you before, but I haven't actually met you. My name's Hyrem, what's yours?" he asked. He was tempted to ask if he could pet the strangely-colored Gible, but having owned a Gible himself he knew there wasn't a good way to pet one without getting bit, so he refrained.

Meanwhile, Happy couldn't understand why it was so hard for Todd to decide, why Todd would get so sad about it. To him, evolution was something he was totally ready for as long as he evolved into something awesome. "You know," Happy said out loud, "maybe you shouldn't worry about it. Once you evolve, you'll evolve! And it'll be the one you're s'pposed to be!" Then Happy got an idea. "Hey, I know! Maybe if I show you some of the stones my trainer has, you'll know if you really wanna be that evolution! Aye, it's not much, but it'll be somethin'~"

Happy then walked over to Hyrem's backpack. "Now where are they..." He began searching through all the smaller pockets hoping to find the place where he kept the evolution items, but it wasn't until he poked half of his body into the big pocket that he opened a small case with a bright red stone in it, the rock holding a tiny flame inside. "Here's one~" he said with delight as he tried to squirm his way out of the backpack but found he had a difficult time doing so. "Mmmph, ugh, I can't get out! Todd, can you help me?"

"Happy, what are you doing in my backpack?" he could hear his trainer's voice ask.
"Uh oh!" the Eevee cried as he struggled to get out faster. He knew he would be in trouble if he was caught messing with Hyrem's evolution stones. Suddenly, with one last push from his hind legs, his body popped out, and he tumbled to the ground and fell on his back. He was free from the backpack! Then he realized his hands were empty...he wasn't holding the case!!

"Oh no!" Hyrem blurted out as he ran over to the scene; one of the cases holding an evolution stone of his was flying in the air! If the stone got out, it could get damaged from the fall and possibly wasted! He had to jump for it...but he was able to catch the case with his hands. "Whew, that was close," Hyrem sighed as he checked inside...but the stone wasn't there! "Where did-" He barely asked the question, and it was answered with a soft thud nearby...

No sooner did Happy realize that he wasn't holding the case than something fell onto his belly. Something warm. He lifted his head to find the same stone he was looking at earlier right on his body. The flame inside soon mesmerized him as he sat on his back looking dumbfounded. Suddenly, the stone began to glow a bright red before the warmth he was feeling started to enter his body.

Hyrem soon noticed a red glow that was coming from behind him. He turned around to see his Fire Stone being absorbed into Happy's body. "No... no, no, no, no, I didn't want to use that on him!!" He rushed over to his Eevee in an attempt to pull the stone away from his body, but it was too late; by the time he got there, the stone had been completely consumed and Happy's entire body was now glowing red. Hyrem tried touching his Eevee but recoiled from the heat being given off. He could only watch as Happy grew to almost three times his size, with his tail growing longer and his fur reaching...well, maximum fluffiness, I don't know how else to put it! Once the glowing stopped, it revealed what was basically a bigger Eevee but with a red body and a fluffy tail, collar, and tuft of fur on his head, all colored yellow. "Fwe?" the new Happy mewed before coughing out an Ember, not fully aware of what had happened to him. "Aw man, I was hoping to use that stone once I got a Vulpix..." Hyrem moaned in defeat. "Well, guess I'm stuck with you now, Happy...whatever you are." He then took his Pokedex out of his pocket to check on what Happy's new form was:

Flareon, the Flame Pokemon, and the evolved form of Eevee. The fur around its collar is mainly used to release heat from its body and keep its internal temperature cool enough. It has a special organ in its body that stores a flame that can be allowed to reach 1,650 degrees Farenheit before it overheats. To attack, it breathes air into this flame sac then releases the breath to produce flames of over 3,000 degrees Farenheit. Any burns from this flame can cause permanent scarring even after treatment.

It was at this time that Happy had gotten up to inspect his new form. He still felt very warm inside. So warm, in fact, that he could feel the heat coming from all around him. He was literally a portable heater that didn't require batteries...and that was awesome. He looked up at his trainer and gave an excited, "Fwe fwe~!" He just had to go show his new body off to Todd and Carla-

"Happy..." Hyrem said sternly, to which the newly-evolved Flareon stopped in his tracks and turned to face him. "You knew you weren't allowed inside my backpack! And you still went in it!"
"Fwe fwe fwe, fwe, flareon!" Happy barked while pointing back to Todd, trying to explain that he only wanted to show the Fire Stone to Todd.
"I don't care what you were trying to do, that's not allowed! And now you used my only Fire Stone {OOC: at the time} that I was saving for when I would get a Vulpix! What do you have to say for yourself?"
"Fwe..." he whimpered sadly, his ears and tail drooped, and his Baby-doll Eyes conveyed to Hyrem that he was truly sorry for what he did.
This display was enough to soften the trainer's heart, and he scooped Happy into his arms for a hug. "Aw, I can't stay mad at you for long. I know it was an accident; you probably wouldn't have touched it on purpose (unlike other Pokemon I have), at least I think you wouldn't. Anyway, what I'm tryin' to say is, I forgive you."
This perked Happy right up. "Fwe~" he barked before stretching his face up so he could give a few good licks to Hyrem's chin.
"Haha, stop, that tickles, you're cute enough already!" he laughed before setting the Flareon down. "Now, you can't possibly do this specific thing again since you already evolved, so it's okay for you to touch my stones now...just don't go poking in my backpack again without my permission, okay?"
"Fwe, fwe! (Aye, sir!)" he said before saluting with his paw.
"Okay, go ahead and show yourself off then! Oh, and be careful not to spit fire indoors! ...Well, I guess I have a Flareon now, haha!" Hyrem gave a little chuckle before rejoining the others near the food table, grabbing a couple of bacon cheeseburgers and putting them on a plate while he was there.

Meanwhile, Happy ran up to Todd in his new form and looked completely excited. "Hey Todd, did you see that? I'm a Flareon now, this is such a cool evolution, isn't it!?" he asked the Eevee who still hadn't decided what he wanted to evolve into...or did he?

Use: Fire Stone on Eevee
Evolution!! Eevee evolved into Flareon!
New Move! Flareon learned Ember!

[Missingno. Master]

1f:

Living Room:

Keith, Hyrem, Happy, Chance, Godric: Hyrem confirmed to Keith that the Swinub he had traded him, now going by the name of Sejuani, was doing just fine, and that she was practically the team's detective, making a quip about her sense of smell. "Yeah, I figured she'd make good use of that nose," Keith nodded. "She wouldn't have done well on my team, it'd have taken her a long time to get used to the likes of my Weezing and Skuntank. I mean, Hermione's got an excellent sense of smell, too, but she at least is already a Poison-type herself, which I think helped matters."

At that moment, Chance and Godric brought in the burgers, the latter of whom caught Hyrem's attention. He was in awe at the Nidoking, and made no effort to hide it. "Heh, they sure are," Keith grinned in response to Hyrem's question about how strong Nidoking were. "Godric's an awesome Pokémon. Kinda hard to believe he used to be a little Nidoran small enough to ride around on my shoulder. What's pretty cool is when he evolved- he just used Confusion to levitate the Moon Stone out of my backpack and into my hand." Keith grinned at the memory. "Only I wish I could've seen him evolve from Nidoran to Nidorino- that happened when I left my Pokémon at the Tree Grove," he added. "Didn't find out until I came back to pick them up- hey, Hyrem, isn't that your Eevee?" he added suddenly, for indeed, an Eevee was digging through Hyrem's backpack.

Indeed, the Eevee was Hyrem's, and at the sound of his Trainer's voice, Happy frantically wriggled his way out of the backpack, though had in the process sent an evolution stone case flying. Keith was all set to help catch the case, but Hyrem caught it with no problem. Well, OK, there was one little, tiny, minor problem- the case was empty! The mystery, however, was quickly solved as the Fire Stone landed right on the Eevee's belly. "Oh, boy," Keith remarked, knowing full well what was coming next. Hyrem was upset by this, as he hadn't wanted to use the Fire Stone on Happy, but there was nothing he could do now, the stone was already being absorbed into the Eevee's body, and the evolution process was already underway. Happy tripled in size, his tail and mane becoming fluffier and fluffier, and sure enough, the glow faded to reveal a Flareon. Hyrem scanned his new Flareon with his Pokédex, then scolded him for digging through his backpack (though a quick use of Baby-Doll Eyes softened the Trainer up considerably). Oh, good lord- Keith started imagining just what Cyanide would be able to get away with if she had that move in her arsenal. "Heh, well... congrats, I guess," he grinned, just as Hyrem returned to the food table. "Even if you were saving that Fire Stone, I gotta say, Flareon's pretty cool. It's actually what I was planning to evolve Cyanide into at first, but then she became Umbreon basically out of nowhere. And she was all set to be a Flareon, too, so that really came as a surprise. Actually," he chuckled, "That whole thing with how Happy evolved, something similar actually happened to me once..."

Originally Posted by Flashback

A 20-year-old Pokémon Trainer was walking through the Cable Club, past dozens of trading machines. Given Keith's distinct lack of wardrobe changes over the years, the only thing that hinted at this having occurred years ago was the lack of a Meowth on his shoulder- indeed, Meowth hadn't even hatched at this point of time, much less been traded to Keith. So it was by himself that Keith made his way over to the trade machine where a Trainer named Karmas was waiting. The Poison-type Trainer excavated four Rare Candies from his backpack and placed them on his end of the machine, as Karmas placed some sort of rock on his end. The switch was thrown, and in and instant, the Rare Candies and the green rock swapped places.

"Cool," grinned Keith as he examined the Leaf Stone. "Now just gotta wait for the right moment to use it." He proceeded to walk towards the door, with the Leaf Stone still in his hand- he'd buy a case for it later, he figured- when his foot caught on a loose floorboard. "Wha- GAH!" Keith exclaimed as he tripped and fell to the floor, flat on his face. As he proceeded to pick himself back up, he realized that the Leaf Stone was no longer in his hand. As he frantically looked around, he saw it- flying through the air. He had involuntarily hurled the fragile, valuable evolution stone into the air as he fell. "Oh, craaaaap!" Keith gasped. He fumbled with the Poké Balls on his belt, finally plucking one. He enlarged it, and tossed it up desperately. "Catch it, Poochyena!" Keith exclaimed.

However, Keith very quickly realized that in his haste, he had grabbed the wrong Poké Ball. Instead of his Poochyena, out came a yellow bell-shaped Pokémon with a small brown stem growing out of its head. "Bell?" the Weepinbell said in confusion. As he saw the falling stone, however, Keith's words of "catch it" echoed in his head. "Bell!" nodded Weepinbell as he hopped forward.

"Whoa, whoa, Weepinbell, wait-" Keith began, but even as he spoke, the Leaf Stone landed safely and softly in the Weepinbell's leaves. And then, as Weepinbell examined the object he caught, it dawned on him just what it was he had caught. And then, Weepinbell began to glow. Keith stood back up, eyes on the Grass/Poison-type the entire time as he changed shape. The stem grew into a long vine and repositioned itself closer to the mouth. The body's shape in and of itself didn't change much, but was turned practically upside-down. The leaves stayed centered on either side of the body, and grew a bit larger. Finally, a third, larger leaf sprouted from the end of the vine connected with the mouth, and with that, the glow faded. Keith took out his Pokédex and aimed it at the new Pokémon.

"Victreebel, a Flycatcher Pokémon. The evolved form of Weepinbell," droned the device. "Said to live in large colonies deep in the jungle, but nobody has ever returned to confirm. Uses a sweet aroma to attract prey, and then swallows it whole."

"Well," Keith remarked as he approached his new Victreebel. "I gotta say, I was thinking maybe you'd spend a bit more time in the Weepinbell stage, y'know?" The Victreebel gave a short, sharp screech in response. "Still, though, congratulations, Victreebel," Keith added, now with a smile. At this, Victreebel gave a second, happier-sounding screech, and jumped up, clamping down on Keith's head. Startled by this, Keith had less than a second's notice to remove his hat. However, given that this was merely an affectionate gesture, no digestive acid generated anywhere near Keith, whose appreciative laughter echoed throughout the Victreebel's body. He managed to pull Victreebel off of him, then pulled the Grass/Poison-type into a hug.

"...Of course, the Leaf Stone was for Goyle in any case," Keith admitted. "Still, though, this all took place just hours after he evolved from Bellsprout, so yeah, I had kinda been hoping to wait a little bit."

[uhhhhh]

(OoC: just a reminder that this party happened before Gen VI introduction in FB so... =x)

While Connor was enjoying his time in Keith's base, he had decided to check up on Todd to see how he was doing. He looked around the base from him until he had spotted him near another Eevee. He then saw the other Eevee happily talking to him then head towards Hyrem's bag. "Huh. That Eevee must be Hyrem's then," Connor had then started to approach Todd when he saw a bright light coming from the corner of his eye. He turned around to see the source coming from inside Hyrem's bag. "Is that... Hyrem's Eevee evolving?" Realizing something, he suddenly turned back to face Todd.

Oh. Oh no.

Connor knew evolving was a very sensitive issue to his Eevee, and him having seen an Eevee evolve in front of him like that, recklessly if he may add, would definitely not help in Todd's situation. Meanwhile, Todd didn't know how to react to Happy's evolution. Happy evolved recklessly, just like that and he actually took it in stride. He couldn't understand how ~Why... you just evolved, like that, something that's irreversible and you just... shook it off like it was nothing?! Just... why?! How can you, and I---~ Todd stopped as he had just realized his outburst. He realized it unfair to stop Happy being happy with his own evolution due to his own beliefs. He quickly apologized to him, ~I-I'm sorry. It's none of my business, isn't it? How you should feel and all that. It's just... no what am I saying...?~ Todd had shook his head to stop himself, ~I'm--I'm h-happy for you, H-Happy. You look... great. Congrats,~ Todd weakly congratulated Happy on his evolution. As soon as tears had started to come out of Todd's eyes, Connor went over to Todd and held him up to his shoulder and comforted him.

"It's okay Todd, there there..." he silently comforted his Eevee, "You know I'm your trainer, right? I should be helping you expand your horizons, to help you decide what you want to be in your life. To see you like this... it means that I failed to do even just that," he whispered solemnly to his Eevee. "I know very well that I can't force you to evolve, that it has to be you who decides. And I know that you're still troubled by what you want to be. But... you know that I want to help you, right? Not just as your trainer, but also as a friend. I'll admit, I may not have the answers you seek, and I know that even I have my own shortcomings, but... will you allow me to help guide you? Can you trust me to help decide what you want to be?" For a few moments, all Connor could hear from Todd is basically nothing. His shoulder had gotten slightly wet now but other than that, Todd had not uttered anything back to him. Just then, he saw a glimmer of light at the corner of his eye, its source coming from Todd. Wait, is he...?

"What the... Todd? You're..." Connor had gently let his Eevee down to the ground, knowing that whatever he was evolving into would be bigger and heavier than his previous form. As he saw his Eevee grow, he noticed that Todd was beginning to grow more sleek in his form, his tail slowly becoming less fluffy and more curved. His ears has grown to be slightly longer and then two bows had started to appear on him, one just underneath the right side of his ear, the other underneath his face. The bows had then grow two strands on either side. It was then that Connor had realized that this form was nothing that he had seen before.

Once the light had faded, Connor was able to clearly see Todd's new form. His brown fur had now changed colors to a creamy pink, his brown eyes had now become blue. The bows and even his feelers had the same pink color with his feelers ending with a blue color. What was most interesting though was that this Eeveelution was unlike anything Connor had seen or known so far. "Wait, Todd you're... what did you evolve into?" Connor said as he had brought out his Pokedex and scanned him. Surprisingly enough, the Pokedex did not turn up any results. "What, no data? Now this is intriguing... I've never seen any evolution like this! What triggered it?"

Meanwhile, Todd had now just realized that he had evolved. ~I... I've evolved, what did I... evolve into?~ Like Connor, Todd too had shared his confusion on what he had become as he brought out his feelers (he realized he could actually move them around) in front of his sight.

(Happiness and Fairies)

[Missingno. Master]

1f:

Living Room:

Keith, Hyrem, Connor, Luna, Happy, Todd: As Keith was telling Hyrem about when Goyle evolved into Victreebel, the newly-evolved Flareon had bounded over to Todd, Connor's Eevee, and was showing off his new form. Todd, however, Keith noticed, was not taking this development too well. Once Keith was done with his story, he listened curiously as Connor picked up Todd and tried to comfort him. As it happened, evolution was something of a sensitive subject for Todd, and Happy being, well, happy with his new form like that seemed to have upset him.

His curiosity satisfied, Keith listened in no further, but this proved to be meaningless, for not a second later, a bright glow caught his attention. "Whoa," he murmured, as Connor set his evolving Eevee on the floor. He watched, curiosity renewed and then some, as Todd changed shape, his body becoming sleeker... weird ribbons sprouting from his body? What was Todd evolving into? And then the glow faded... but Keith's question still went unanswered. Todd was now a cream-colored... something. He appeared to have full control over the long ribbons he had sprouted, like some sort of tentacles. Connor, it seems, didn't recognize this new form either, and took out his Pokédex, but surprisingly, it provided no help. This prompted Keith to take out his own Pokédex and point it at Todd, but only a question mark appeared on the screen.

"Cannot identify," droned the device. "Pokémon species unknown."

"The hell?" murmured Keith. "I... what type is it? I don't even..." He pressed a few buttons on his Pokédex as he said this, hoping the device could at least scan Todd and discern what type he was. It was useful in determining that the new species of Pokémon he had discovered on Venom Island the previous summer were Poison/Flying-types, even though the Pokédex couldn't identify them, either.

"Cannot identify," repeated the Pokédex. "Type unknown."

"...Whoa," Keith remarked. This was a new one on him. Not only was this Pokémon completely unknown to him, but the Pokédex couldn't even work out its type? What was this?

As Keith tried to make sense of this, a Swoobat flew down to the equally confused Todd, who knew that he had evolved, just not so much what it was he had become. Luna looked at Todd, her head tilted, though his decidedly unique form didn't seem to surprise her. "Hi," Luna finally said to the unknown Eeveelution. "I'm Luna. I've never met a Sylveon before. I did have a vision of me meeting one, though," she added, smiling at Todd. "So you're Todd. It's always nice to finally meet those I have visions of meeting."

[Heather]

Amidst the lonesome and imposing trees scattered about the large campus of sorts that surrounded The Hidden Mansion, a young girl, her two Pokemon on her shoulder and head, wandered about with little sense of direction.

"Face it, Heather! We're lost!" An Emolga, perched atop the girl's head, said, frustrated.

"For the last time, Grace, we are not lost! We just took a wrong turn, we'll get back to the right way eventually!" The girl replied, her striking blue eyes clouded with frustration as well, as she nervously tugged at some of the ends of her red hair.

"Heather, we've been passing the same scenery for the past hour! WE. ARE. LOST." Grace insisted.

"Okay, fine! You win, we're lost! Now what do you propose we do about it!?"

"Well, we should find a place to crash for a while. We need our energy before we go on, anyw-" Grace began to suggest, before being cut off by the Plusle on Heather's left shoulder suddenly making a fuss.

"Plusle! Plus Plus!"

"Wuzzat? You see something, Ryuko?" The Emolga asked.

"Plus, Plusle Plus!" Ryuko said, pointing out to the left. A rather large clearing was visible, where the forests were less dense. However, what had caught the Plusle's eyes wasn't the clearing, but rather, what was in the center of it. A tree, or the remains thereof, black as night. Heather would assume it was charred, if not for the large structure built atop the stalwart trunk. It was a house. A literal house, with a deck and all.

"Hey! Maybe we can ask whoever lives there if we can rest up a bit! Good eyes, Ryuko!" Heather said, petting the Plusle's head gently. Grace merely rolled her eyes.

"Her eyes are a lot better than your sense of direction!" The Emolga said, teasingly.

"Hey, you better be nice!" Heather said, reciprocating the mirthful jab. "Remember, without me, you're walking, or gliding, on your own!"

"At least I wouldn't be getting lost!" Grace replied, as Heather arrived at the base of the ladder that led to the front entrance of the house.

"If you say so...anyway, I don't think I can carry you up that ladder, so it looks like I'll have to leave you two in the Ball while I go up..." Heather said, recalling her two partners, and scaling the ladder. Once at the top, she let them both out again, placing them back on their previous perches. "Now, you two, be on your best behavior." Heather said, in a more serious tone. Swallowing her usual nervousness about knocking on a stranger's door, she did so, and stood awkwardly as she awaited an answer.

[Missingno. Master]

It was a day like any other in the Fizzytopia regio- OK, no, it totally wasn't. Just hours ago, Keith had arrived back at his Secret Base from the Cable Club, where Peeves, his Dusclops, had finally evolved into Dusknoir. So enthralled with being able to float again was Peeves that the Gripper Pokémon had actually carried Keith the entire way back. Now, however, things had settled down somewhat, and Peeves was floating around the first floor, casually passing straight through the walls like the ghost that he was.

Meanwhile, Keith Masters, the man himself, sat on the couch in the living room of his Secret Base. Ariana, his Trubbish, was seated next to him, and Meowth was lying lazily on one of the armrests.

"Man, dis was a big day, wasn't it?" Meowth asked idly.

"Damn straight," came Peeves's reply as he passed through the wall from the entrance hall, only to turn left and pass through the wall leading into the dining room.

"Heh," Keith chuckled. "Yeah, it was, Meowth," he replied. "Peeves is a lot happier now that he's finally evolved."

"Trubbish..." Ariana murmured. She was thinking about her own evolution- she knew Trubbish evolved into Garbodor, and was wondering when she'd be strong enough to evolve.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. Keith blinked in surprise, not having expected visitors today, but then he caught sight of movement in the entrance hall that spurred him to take action- one of his Pokémon was headed for the door, and the last thing he wanted was for her to frighten off some lost traveler.

The front door swung open, revealing the Pokémon who had opened it, a short, humanoid creature clad in metal armor, seemingly made entirely out of sharp blades- a Pawniard, she was, and judging by the yellow aura surrounding her body and the fact that she was currently floating in midair, she was clearly under the effects of her Magnet Rise move.

"Identify yourselves!" the Pawniard exclaimed (at all three of them, even though only the Plusle and Emolga would be able to understand Pawniard language- at least, as far as the Pawniard knew), brandishing her blades, but before the unwary visitors could have much of a chance to react to this, Keith came running over to the door.

"Ginny, at ease," he said sternly. In response, the Pawniard backed off and saluted her Trainer, though still glanced at the visitors, as though still suspicious of them. Keith sighed, then addressed the girl at the door as well as her Pokémon. "Sorry about that," he said sheepishly. "My Pawniard- she's obsessed with security and keeping me safe. So... who are you, and what brings you here?" he asked.

[Heather]

Heather hadn't known what to expect when she knocked on the door, but she certainly hadn't expected a floating Pawniard. The small Dark Type, blades drawn, shouted something at the group. Heather took a step back in surprise, as a man suddenly appeared at the door.

"Ginny, at ease." The man, who seemed something like a cowboy, given the hat, said to the Pawniard, which immediately backed off, saluting its Trainer. "Sorry about that, my Pawniard, she's obsessed with security and keeping me safe. So...who are you, and what brings you here?"

"Oh, Er, it's quite alright!" The girl said quickly, blushing a bit. This wasn't a situation she was used to. "Um, I'm Heather. I just got registered as a Trainer here recently, and I was traveling out here, but, well...I kinda got lost, and we're just looking for a place to rest up a while." Heather explained, still a bit nervous around the floating Pawniard security detail. "So, your Pawniard is really big on security, huh? You must be pretty lucky to have a Pokemon devoted to your safety like that..." Heather said, trying to distract herself from her nerves with small talk. Grace, however, had her piece to say on the subject.

"You say that like I'm not willing to go out on a limb for you!" The squirrel said, somewhat indignantly.

"Sure, you're willing, as long as the limb doesn't involve someone waking you up during our longer walks." Heather replied, with a sly grin on her face.

"Touché." The Emolga muttered, knowing it had no answer to that. "Either way, that Pawniard might be well intentioned, but I won't have it threatening anyone." It added, matter-of-factly. Ryuko, however, still being quite young, was easily intimidated-and the Pawniard's routine had scared her. She had fled Heather's shoulder, and climbed on top of her Trainer's backpack, where it held on and shivered. Heather, conscious of the extra weight on her back, spoke to the Plusle.

"It's okay Ryuko, the Pawniard won't hurt you, it's safe..." The girl said, finally managing to conceal her nerves. The Plusle, reassured, slowly climbed back to its old perch, though it eyed the Pawniard warily. Heather spoke up again.

"So, if it's alright...could we come in?" She asked.

[Missingno. Master]

The girl introduced herself as Heather, a newly registered Pokémon Trainer. She had gotten lost while traveling, and was hoping to rest up a bit. As she spoke, though, she still seemed rather nervous about Ginny, as Keith did not fail to notice. She then added how lucky Keith must be to have a Pokémon so devoted to his safety. "Yeah, for sure," Keith nodded. "Though as I'm sure you've guessed, Ginny can be a bit... overzealous at times. She means well, though, and she really is a big help, especially with a certain Shadow Pokémon of mine..."

At that moment, something happened that Keith hadn't been expecting at all- the Emolga spoke up. In English. Human language. She expressed indignation at the implication that she wouldn't be as willing to risk herself for her Trainer as Ginny was for Keith. Heather was all set with a comeback, to which the Emolga had no retort, except to state that she wouldn't stand for Ginny threatening anyone. Keith raised his eyebrows at the sight of a talking Emolga, but otherwise didn't seem all that surprised, almost as though this wasn't his first experience with a talking Pokémon.

"That's not gonna be a problem," Keith said to the Emolga. "Ginny's wary of strangers, but once she realizes you mean no harm, she's perfectly alright. Right, Ginny?" he added, with a glance at the Dark/Steel-type, who saluted Keith in response.

After reassuring her Plusle that everything was fine, Heather then asked Keith if it was alright for them to come in. "Sure," Keith nodded. "Oh, by the way, my name's Keith," he added.

[Heather]

Heather stepped inside and shut the door to the base. "Keith, huh? That's a nice name." she said, pretending she hasn't heard anything about a Shadow Pokemon just moments ago. She certainly did not need the young Plusle atop her shoulder coming away with any traumatic memories of her first meeting with another Trainer. However, her train of thought was derailed as Keith responded to Grace's assertions over Ginny.

"That's not going to be a problem. Ginny's wary of strangers, but once she realizes you mean no harm, she's perfectly alright. Right, Ginny?" The Pawniard saluted in return, which set Heather and her partners more at ease. Suddenly, however, something clicked in Heather's mind. Keith had heard Grace speak with no warning whatsoever, and yet he was practically unfazed.

"Yeah, I think we can all rest easy with that in mind. Although, normally, people's first reaction to Grace talking isn't as smooth as yours was. I'm pretty sure you're the first person to take it that well, actually."

"Oh, come on, it's not that bad..." the Emolga insisted.

"Objection on the grounds of the Kindler." Heather replied bluntly.

"Okay, was it MY fault he broke the first rule of Fire Pokemon safety? Never leave the part that breathes fire behind you!" Grace retorted.

"Yeah, considering that, he probably had it coming." Heather admitted. "Though you'd think he would have been better about it, considering it was a Magmar...at least there was someone with a Water Type nearby." she said, turning back to Keith. "Let's just say it's gone horribly before. A lot." It was at this point that Grace decided to change the subject.

"Anyway, enough about Noodle Incidents! Quick question, Keith-do you have any younger Pokemon Ryuko could play with?" the squirrel asked.

"Grace, don't just spring things on people like that!" Heather protested.

"She needs it. You haven't noticed the ears yet?" Grace replied. Heather looked to see that Ryuko's ears were getting a bit twitchy, which she had quickly learned was a sign that the Plusle was bored, and leaving her that way for too long had...negative consequences. Negative, as in negative potential differences of the electric variety.

"Point taken." Heather replied.

[Missingno. Master]

Keith's reassurances about Ginny seemed to set Heather and her Pokémon at ease, but something else seemed to occur to Heather. She told Keith the way people tended to react upon first hearing Grace talking, and that he must have been the first person to take it so well (Grace objected to this, but Heather reminded the Emolga of some incident evidently involving a Kindler and his Magmar).

"Well, to be honest, Grace isn't my first experience with talking Pokémon," Keith admitted. "My Meowth can talk, and so can my Numel, my Gengar, my Shuppet and Banette-"

"And his Dusknoir," added Peeves, casually passing through a wall into the entrance hall.

Keith nodded. "Yeah, that too," he said. "Oh, yeah- Peeves, this is Heather, and that's her Emolga, Grace, and her Plusle, Ryuko. Heather, Grace, Ryuko, this is Peeves, my Dusknoir."

"Hey," Peeves greeted them.

After that, the Emolga asked Keith if he had any younger Pokémon Ryuko could play with. "Sure," he nodded. He turned his head to look through a doorway. "Hey, Ariana, come here," he called.

In response, a small, shy-looking Trubbish made her way through the doorway, looking up nervously at the visitors. "Uh... um... h-h-hi," she said shyly.

"Ariana, this is Heather," Keith said, crouching down next to his Trubbish. "And these are her Pokémon, Grace and Ryuko. Why don't you and Ryuko go play?" he suggested.

"Uh... Um... O-OK," Ariana nodded. Though before she stepped forward, she reached up at Keith, who took the cue and pulled the Trubbish into a hug. After setting her back down on the floor, Ariana looked a little less shy. She stepped forward and looked up at the Plusle on Heather's shoulder. "Uh... w-wanna play?" Ariana asked Ryuko.

Keith, meanwhile, stood back up, smiling as he saw his Trubbish making an effort to make a new friend. "Ariana can be pretty shy sometimes," he explained to Heather, "but she really is friendly when she warms up to someone."

Just then, another Pokémon walked into the hallway. "Keith, wat's goin' on?" he asked. "Did Stewie order a bunch o' dose 'onion lover' pizzas again-" At that moment, however, the Meowth noticed the newcomers.

"This is Meowth," Keith said to Heather. "Only one of my Pokémon without a nickname, at his insistence."

"Ya got dat right," Meowth nodded, as he climbed up onto Keith's shoulder. "Pleased ta meet ya."

[Heather]

Keith explained that he actually had talking Pokemon of his own, namely a Banette, Gengar, a Shuppet, a Numel, a Meowth...as the list went on, Grace seemed more and more surprised. Suddenly, a Dusknoir passed through the wall, startling Heather a bit.

"And his Dusknoir." it added, to complete the set. At this, Grace experienced a brief moment of Color Failure, while Heather's sole thought was Two of these things are not like the others...

"OHMIARCEUS I THOUGHT I WAS SPECIAL!" The squirrel shouted, flailing her arms, as Heather chuckled. Keith introduced the Dusknoir, who went by the name of Peeves, who greeted the visitors with a quick "Hey."

In response to Grace's request for a playmate for Ryuko, Keith called for a Pokemon by the name of Ariana. A bashful-looking Trubbish walked into the room. Keith gave the small Pokemon a warm hug before placing it back down on the floor.

"Uh...W-wanna play?" the Teubbish asked Ryuko, still a bit shy. The Plusle immediately perked up at the offer. Heather scooped her up, setting her down on the floor with Ariana, the two now eye-to-eye.

"I'd love to play! Um...your name was...Ariana, right?" Ryuko asked the Trubbish. "Keith seems like he's really nice to you. Heather's nice, too, but there isn't anyone besides her or Grace to play with." she added, seeming genuinely happy at the chance to meet a new friend. "So what do you want to do first?"

The entourage was soon joined by another new arrival, this one another one of the English speakers.

"Keith, wat's goin' on? Did Stewie order a bunch o' dose 'onion lover' pizzas again-" The Meowth stopped mid sentence as it realized the visitors had nothing to do with pizzas, onions, or any abominable combination of the two.

"I guess every Trainer has a Noodle Incident..." Heather said, with a sheepish grin. Keith introduced Meowth as the one Pokemon he had without a nickname (apparently at the Scratch Cat's insistence).

"Ya got dat right. Pleased ta meet ya." it said, climbing onto its Trainer's shoulder.

"Pleased to meet you too, Meowth. I'm sure Grace is as well." Heather replied, smiling. Grace nodded, though anyone could tell she harbored a bit of resentment over not being as special as she thought. "But onion lover pizza? Sounds like this Stewie has a dark sense of humor." Heather said, chuckling.

[Missingno. Master]

Keith couldn't help but chuckle at Grace's, er... not-so-graceful reaction to the list of Pokémon Keith had that could talk. "Well, for what it's worth, they each have their reason for being able to talk," Keith said fairly. "Myrtle, my Banette, she... er, she was a Pokémon with a lot of strange powers when she was alive, so I'm thinking that contributed to it. Also, she's pretty smart. Chuck, my Gengar, spent eight years learning secrets of the spirit world before he was reincarnated as a Gastly, which according to him includes human speech. Helena, my Shuppet, she was a human herself when she was alive. Vinny, my Numel, he actually taught himself, apparently to convince Trainers to want him- Numel are pretty common finds in the Fizzytopia region," Keith explained. "I taught Peeves myself, back when he was just a Duskull. And Meowth here, he's been able to talk ever since the trade machine malfunctioned while he was being traded to me."


Ryuko seemed more than happy to meet Ariana, stating that she'd love to play. She also remarked on how Keith seemed to be really nice to the Trubbish. "Y-yeah, he is," Ariana nodded, smiling slightly. "H-he always gives me a hug whenever I need one. M-my first Trainer wouldn't do that," she added sadly. "H-he thought I smelled too bad for him to get close enough, but Keith has so much experience with Poison-types th-that my smell doesn't bother him at all! A-and there's always lots of Pokémon to play with around here," Ariana added. "S-some of them aren't... aren't so nice," she murmured. "Th-the Umbreon, the B-Basculin... the... the Shadow Ledian... b-but the others are much nicer," she said.

As Ryuko asked what Ariana wanted to do first, the Trubbish had to think for a moment. Her plans for the afternoon as far ahead as she'd thought thus far more or less entailed sitting on the couch next to her Trainer and relaxing. But now that she was making a new friend, Ariana kinda wanted to play. "W-we could play near the pool," Ariana suggested, gesturing to a nearby door. "I... I can't swim, but there's always a beach ball in there, we could throw that around. A-and you might even get to meet some more of my friends," added the Poison-type.


Meanwhile, Heather remarked on how Meowth had mentioned the incident with Stewie and the onion lover pizzas. After greeting Meowth, she remarked on how Stewie must have a dark sense of humor. "Yer tellin' me," agreed Meowth.

"Stewie's my Shadow Ledian," Keith explained. "One time he managed to get onto the Pansear Pizza Parlor website and put in an order for... geez, I don't even remember how many of their 'onion lover' pizzas." Keith pulled a face at the mention of the pizzas. "I'm by no means a picky eater, but onions are not my thing. Luckily, they were pretty understanding about the whole thing- turns out the manager has a Shadow Azumarill himself, so he understood what had happened as soon as I said the words 'Shadow Ledian', and I didn't have to pay for them. Getting rid of those things, however, that was a whole other swarm of Yanma altogether. I don't know if you've ever seen their 'onion lover' pizza before, but it should say something about it when my Muk wouldn't touch it. Thank Arceus I have a Swalot," he grinned. "They eat anything."

"Dat's no exaggeration," Meowth added. "Crabbe, his Swalot, I seen him eat a block o' cement wit ranch dressing. And he claims he had an eatin' contest wit an Aron where da two o' dem devoured an entire abandoned city."

Keith nodded at Meowth's words. "Stewie can be a real handful," he continued. "I'm just glad I have Ginny- she really helps to keep him in line. But anyway, you want to come in, have a seat?" he added, gesturing through the doorway of his living room, which had several comfortable-looking seats within, in the form of a few couches and chairs.

[Heather]

As Heather listened to Keith explain how his Pokemon attained the gift of human speech, Grace seemed to lighten up a bit about that point.

"My mom taught Grace the language herself. She was a bit hesitant to let me do this at first, but with a Pokemon that could tell me what other Pokemon were thinking, she had a bit more peace of mind." Heather explained.

Ariana confirmed that Keith was indeed a very kind Trainer. Apparently, her previous Trainer couldn't handle her "smell," but Keith had experience enough with Poison-Types that it didn't bother him. She then mentioned that some of the other Pokemon weren't as nice as the others, namely an Umbreon, a Basculin, and a Shadow Ledian. Ryuko tilted her head in confusion at the last one.

"Shadow Ledian? I've heard of Ledian before, but never a Shadow Ledian. What is it?" Ryuko, being incredibly young, was still sheltered about a few things, and the horror of just what a Shadow Pokemon was was one of them. As Ariana suggested the two play by the pool, and possibly meet some of Ariana's other friends, Ryuko's eyes lit up, especially at the mention of a beach ball. "I'd love to do that! Beach balls are a lot of fun to play with!" the Plusle said excitedly. She was also thrilled by the chance to meet some new friends-after all, if she could get a few other Pokenon to play with her and Ariana, they'd have even more fun!

As Heather mentioned Stewie's dark idea of a prank, Meowth spoke up in reply.

"Yer telllin' me." it agreed, as Keith explained.

"Stewie's my Shadow Ledian," he said. There were those words again. Shadow Ledian. Heather knew what Shadow Pokemon were. She'd been a particularly studious child in the subject of Pokemon, and she had read about Cipher and their designs. Keith continued his explanation.

"One time, he managed to ggt onto the Pansear Pizza Parlor website and put in an order for...geez, I don't even remember how many of their onion lover pizzas." Heather grinned slightly at the face Keith made as he recalled. "I'm by no means a picky eater, but onions are not my thing. Luckily, they were pretty understanding about the whole thing. Turns out the manager has a Shadow Azumarill himself, so he understood what happened as soon as I said the words 'Shadow Ledian,' and I didn't have to pay for them. Getting rid of those things, however, was a whole different swarm of Yanma altogether..." Keith recounted. While Heather had never seen one of these pizzas, the image that came from her being told that Keith's Muk wouldn't touch one was enough not only to explain, but also to make Heather's colors fail for a moment. However, Keith explained that his Swalot ate them all. Meowth added that the Swalot, Crabbe, would eat anything, even a cement block with mayo, which was an amusing mental image, and had thus gotten into an eating contest with an Aron, the food being an abandoned city. Heather wasn't sure if she wanted to know who won. Keith corroborated Meowth's story, and mentioned again how Ginny was vital in keeping Stewie in check, before inviting Heather into the living room.

"Thank you." she said, as she sat down on the nearest couch. Grace hopped down onto the cushion next to her, curled up, and quickly fell asleep. Heather shook her head, smiling. "She's quick, that one..."

[Missingno. Master]

Heather revealed that her mother had taught Grace human language, for her own peace of mind- evidently, she was a bit hesitant to let her go out and travel as a Trainer, but considerably less so with a Pokémon that could translate the speech of other Pokémon for her. "Ah, OK," Keith nodded. "My parents were pretty OK with the idea of me becoming a Pokémon Trainer, though. In fact, I'd have left home as soon as I turned 10, but I couldn't decide on a starter Pokémon," he admitted. "I could've chosen from the standard three choices for new Trainers in Hoenn- Treecko, Torchic, or Mudkip- but none of them really stood out to me."


Ryuko expressed confusion as the Trubbish mentioned a Shadow Ledian. She'd heard of Ledian, but never Shadow Ledian. "Sh-Shadow Pokémon are... they're n-not very nice," Ariana explained, shivering at the thought. "Th-they're a lot meaner than regular Pokémon." Ariana was very glad for the change of subject that the mention of a beach ball brought about- the Plusle was of the opinion that beach balls were a lot of fun to play with, which brought a smile to the Trubbish's face. "Follow me," she said, as she pushed the door open, revealing a large room, much of which was occupied by an indoor swimming pool. Numerous windows in the walls allowed in plenty of sunlight, and a TV was mounted on one of the walls, but was not turned on.

Inside the pool, several Pokémon could be seen swimming around. A bright blue Slowbro was drifting lazily on the surface of the water, a vacant look on his face. The golden Shellder on his tail, on the other hand, noticed Ariana and Ryuko immediately and said something to the Slowbro he was attached to. When this failed to catch the Slowbro's attention, the Shellder, irritated, bit down harder on the tail. A full five seconds later, the Slowbro finally reacted to this, looking back at the Shellder, who muffled again and looked over at the Trubbish and Plusle. The Slowbro slowly followed the Shellder's gaze until he too saw them and started to swim over to them.

"H-hi, Dudley. Hi, Kenny," Ariana greeted the Shiny Slowbro and his Shellder. "Th-this is my new friend, Ryuko."

"Dudley pleased to meet... to meet... R... Ryu.... R... Plusle name confuse Dudley. Dudley sorry," the Shiny Slowbro finished apologetically. Kenny, the Shellder on Dudley's tail, rolled his eyes and spoke up, his speech, as always, muffled by the Slowbro's tail, though the tone made it clear enough he was saying hello to the Plusle.

"D-Dudley's nice," Ariana whispered. "Sorry he didn't get your name- a-any name with thr-three syllables or more g-gives him trouble at first."

And then, another of the Pokémon in the pool had swam over to them. This one looked like an oddly majestic combination of an impressive dragon and a clump of dead kelp. "Hi, Ariana," the Dragalge greeted the Trubbish. "Who's your friend?"

"Hi, Neville," Ariana replied. "Th-this is Ryuko. Ryuko, this is Neville, he's really nice. Um, N-Neville," Ariana added. "Wh-where's the beach ball?"

"Here," called yet another voice from the other end of the pool. Neville moved aside, giving Ariana and Ryuko a cleared view of the Tentacruel at the other end, who was reaching for the beach ball with one of her many tentacles. Carefully, she grabbed the beach ball and tossed it towards Ariana, who caught it with ease.

"Th-thanks, Aquarius!" smiled Ariana. The Trubbish turned to face her new friend. "H-hey, Ryuko, can... can they all play, too?" she asked Ryuko. The Tentacruel, Dragalge, and Shiny Slowbro all voiced their agreement with this sentiment. Even Kenny muffled approvingly and nodded excitedly.


Heather entered the living room and sat down on the first couch she could get to. Grace, with remarkable speed, hopped down onto an adjacent cushion, curled up, and fell asleep in about the amount of time it took Keith to blink. Heather remarked on how quick Grace was at this. "That's nothing," chuckled Keith, taking a seat on the unoccupied couch. "You haven't seen Meowth here when we get back from an adventure. As soon as we got back after that time we went to Aduro Island, once we got inside, Meowth was in here, on a couch cushion, fast asleep."

"Yeah, well, youse was no better," Meowth pointed out. "Youse went ta sleep not long after me, apparently."

"OK, bad example," Keith conceded with a chuckle. "In my defense, that really had been a long day," he added to Heather. "That was probably one of my biggest adventures since coming to the Fizzytopia region. I'll tell you about it if you want, but it starts to get a little hard to believe near the end."

[Heather]

Heather listened to Keith explain that he would have started earlier, had he been able to choose a starter, but the Hoenn Starters hadn't appealed to him much.

"Yeah, I kind of had the same deal. None of the Unova starters struck a chord with me, y'know? I just prefer Electric types. That's what bugs me about the whole thing, they only give starters out of the Water, Fire, and Grass types. Doesn't leave a lot of room for those of us who like other types. By the way, what's your favorite? I assume it's between Ghost and Poison, given those are the types I've heard of most from you."

Outside, the Trubbish seemed to shudder at Ryuko's inquiry.

"Sh-Shadow Pokémon are... they're n-not very nice, th-they're a lot meaner than regular Pokémon." the Trubbish said, which sent a small chill down the Plusle's spine. It seemed practically relieved at Ryuko's excitement for the beach ball, and began to walk towards another door, as she called to Ryuko, "Follow me." The door led into a large room, well lit by windows, a dormant TV on one wall, but the biggest attraction was the large pool in the room. Ryuko gazed about the place in wonder. A Shiny Slowbro floated around mindlessly, as the Shellder on its tail bit down for a reaction time of five seconds, before the Slowbro approached. Ariana introduced the aquatic Pokemon as Dudley, however, Dudley couldn't get Ryuko's name down just yet, for which he apologized, and Ariana noted that Dudley was a very nice Pokemon.

"Don't worry, Dudley. It took Grace a while to get it down, too." she reassured the Slowbro. "And hello to you too, Kenny!" Ryuko added. It wasn't a hard concept for Ryuko to grasp that the Shellder had a mind of its own. She'd seen a Slowbro in town before, on her way back from the Move Tutor, and Heather had told her lots about them, for lack of a better conversation topic. She hadn't known they could be blue, though. "I like your colors. They're cool!" she noted.

Suddenly, another Pokemon swam over to them. It looked something like a dragon, but with aspects of dead kelp on its body. Ryuko had never heard of any Kalos Pokemon (except for, of course, the Electric Types). Ariana introduced the Pokemon as Neville, who was also very nice. Ariana asked the Pokemon where the beach ball was. The Pokemon moved, to reveal a Tentacruel, which tossed Ariana the ball, the Trubbish catching it quite handily, as she called out a thank you to the Tentacruel, named Aquarius, before asking if the other Pokemon could play too.

"Yeah! More friends means more fun!" the Plusle said, happily. "But...what Pokemon is Neville? I've never seen anything like him before." Ryuko added out of curiosity.

In the other room, Keith chuckled at the speed with which Grace fell into slumber.

"That's nothing. You haven't seen Meowth here when we get back from an adventure. As soon as we got back after that time we went to Aduro Island, once we got inside, Meowth was in here, on a couch cushion, fast asleep." Keith recounted. Meowth, however, would not take that lying down.

"Yeah, well, youse was no better," Meowth pointed out. "Youse went ta sleep not long after me, apparently." it said, with a hint of indignation.

Keith chuckled, admitting it was a bad example, as that adventure really had been a long day, and offered to tell Heather the story.

"If you want to, go ahead. You've told me so many stories, and I don't have any of my own yet, really..."

[Missingno. Master]

Heather knew what Keith was saying- she revealed that the Unova starters didn't appeal much to her, either, that Electric-types were her specialty, and complained that the starters given out were always just of a certain selection of types. "I hear that," Keith nodded. "I mean, if I came from Kanto, that'd be a different story. I actually have an Ivysaur, a Venusaur, and a Blastoise." On that note, she asked Keith what type he preferred, guessing that it had to be either Ghost or Poison, based on what she'd seen so far.

"The Poison type," Keith replied almost immediately, a smile forming on his face. "Poison-types are some of the coolest Pokémon in the world, as far as I'm concerned. In fact, I've actually owned all known species of Poison-type Pokémon, with the exception of Garbodor, and even then, Ariana's on her way there," he smiled. "She actually learned Toxic Spikes just a few weeks ago. "It almost seems like just yesterday I left Lavaridge Town with just a young Koffing by my side."


Ryuko was in awe at the pool room, and was more than happy to meet some of Ariana's teammates. She wasn't even offended by Dudley not being able to say her name, and even happily greeted Kenny, who spoke back to her in a pleased, albeit muffled, tone of voice. Finally, the Plusle commented on Dudley's unusual coloration, declaring that she thought it was cool.

"Dudley happy Plusle like," Dudley said, sounding pleased. "Dudley Shiny Pokémon. Dudley not pink like other Slowbro."

The subject soon changed to playing with the beach ball with the other Pokémon, and Ryuko was more than happy to allow the others to play, though she asked what kind of Pokémon Neville was, having never seen anything like him before.

"N-Neville's a Dragalge," Ariana explained. "H-he's a Poison and Dragon-type fr-from the Kalos region."

"Apparently there's not a lot of my kind in this region yet," Neville added. "So I'm not surprised you haven't seen anything like me before. Even at that Friend Safari event, I think only one other person caught a Skrelp. It was an event to introduce the Pokémon of the Kalos region into this region," he explained. "My first Trainer caught me there, before trading me to Keith, who helped me get as strong as I am now."


Meanwhile, Heather told Keith to go ahead and tell the story if he wanted to, remarking on how few stories of her own she had to tell just yet. Keith nodded understandingly- back when he was starting out, he didn't have a lot of adventures to talk about himself. Just him, a Koffing, and an Oddish for a while. There had also been the Tentacool, long before Aquarius was even born, which wound up going back to the Adoption Center, on the same visit where a certain Qwilfish caught Keith's eye. But he reminded himself that that wasn't the story he was about to tell. "So it all started when me and my Nidoking, Godric, got off the ferry on Aduro Island- it's the biggest island in the Cascadia archipelago, and used to be constantly expanding with volcanic activity. Until quite recently, actually, but more about that later. Me and Godric were exploring the island, and we came to this river flowing with lava. And then we hear a commotion- this clueless reporter is shoving a TV camera into the faces of a pair of Magcargo, and wondering why they're so angry." Keith rolled his eyes as he said this. "As you could guess, it didn't take long before the Magcargo snapped and started attacking him. He saw me, he hid behind me, begged me to help, so I sent Godric in to fight them. And for a while he was doing pretty good, though this was before he learned Bubble Beam or Aqua Tail, so he didn't do quite as well as he'd have done nowadays. But then, a Lava Plume attack comes out of the river, hits Godric square in the back, and burns him. I'm wondering how that just happened, and then I see two more Magcargo crawling out of the river!"

"Normally, I'm not one to run away from a battle, but two against one was one-sided enough. I wasn't fool enough to try my luck against four of them! Besides which, the reporter's urging me to run away, so I withdrew Godric, and we hauled ass outta there. The guy led the way, though I still think he was running a pretty long distance to just escape from a few Magcargo. I have a Magcargo myself, and I'll tell you, they do not move fast. We probably had a three-day lead on them with just half the distance we covered. Moreover, to my complete lack of surprise, the reporter seemed to have a lot of experience running for his life. Anyway, once we'd stopped, he introduced himself as Kyle Styles, this guy who was trying to get his small-time news network off the ground by investigating the strange behavior of Aduro Island's Pokémon. And he wasn't just talking the Magcargo, he was being serious about this. We parted ways after that, though he gave me a tip as to where I could find a cave with precious gems within. At that point, this guy comes out of his Poké Ball," he added, gesturing to Meowth.

"Yeah, I normally don't go in da ting," Meowth said. "But da sea was real rough dat day, and I was close ta gettin' seasick, so I told him ta withdraw me until we got ta land. And once I realized he must'a forgotten..."

"In my defense, defending a reporter from attacking Magcargo will have that effect," Keith interrupted.

"Yeah, keep tellin' yerself dat," Meowth said dismissively.

Keith rolled his eyes, but continued with his story. "Me and Meowth, we made our way across the rocky landscape, looking for the cave Kyle told me about. I actually kinda felt right at home with the warm temperatures and traveling rocky terrain- it felt like I was back in Hoenn, exploring the Jagged Pass near Lavaridge Town. Anyway, Meowth spots the cave, we go in, but there's no gems in the walls. The ceiling, on the other hand, that was a whole other swarm of Yanma. There was a League Champion's ransom in gems above our heads, but before we could try and get ourselves set for life... the place started to cave in."

"Yeah, and dis dummy started runnin' da wrong way," Meowth butted in.

"So did you," Keith swiftly retorted. "Some big rock had fallen right behind us, and before we knew it, we were running further into the cave," he added, addressing Heather once more. "We were doing OK, until a Dugtrio tripped me. Before I could get up, a wall collapsed, covering my legs in rocks. It hurt like hell, but it could've been worse- had they been rocks from the ceiling, I'm sure they'd have broken my legs. Fortunately, my Poké Balls were still within reach, so I called out Helga, my Hariyama, who moved the rocks off my legs, and also destroyed a big one that would've hit me right in the head. Meanwhile, Meowth had to confront an angry Torkoal, and managed to defeat it, though not before gaining a piece of information- someone or something that called itself 'the great one' wanted me and Meowth the hell out of its mountain. Of course, at that time, I wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of that mountain, but everything behind us had caved in. Now, while Meowth had been fighting the Torkoal, a Doduo showed up out of nowhere and helped Meowth win the fight, and once I was able to stand up again, and Torkoal was defeated, Doduo seemed to want us to follow it, but I knew that at the rate the cave-in was going, I wouldn't be able to outrun it. So I withdrew Helga, had Meowth get back on my shoulder, and I called out Vernon, this Tauros I used to have. Climbed on his back, and Doduo led the way to safety. And had I not been riding on Vernon, we wouldn't have made it. I had my reasons for trading him away, but I still owe that Tauros my life," Keith stated.

"Ain't arguin' wit dat," Meowth nodded.

"Once we outran the cave-in," Keith continued, "we ended up in this huge chamber. I mean, it was massive. If you filled it up with water, a Wailord would find it quite roomy. But there was still trouble- Doduo led the way over to none other than Kyle, who was shielding a pack of Heatmor from a pair of Magmar." As Keith spoke, a Heatmor entered the living room and sat down, looking at Keith with interest. He knew the story from this part onward, but he always liked hearing Keith retell it. "The Doduo, as it turns out, was Kyle's, and he begged me to help him out- he had theorized that there was some sort of conspiracy, and now he claimed he was right- that everyone in the mountain was out to get the Heatmor pack. So I sent Vernon in to battle the Magmar, but not before I had a stroke of genius- I used my Pokédex to scan the Heatmor pack, and sure enough, their leader had Flash Fire. So I had Vernon use Role Play to copy Flash Fire before sending him to fight the Magmar. And good thing I did, too- one of them tried using a powerful Flame Burst on him, but thanks to Flash Fire, it had no effect. And Vernon did pretty good, too, though at one point, the Magmar were ganging up on him while he was trying to get back on his feet. At that moment, both Doduo and the leader of the Heatmor pack sprang into action- Doduo attacked one Magmar with Peck, while Heatmor used Tackle on the other one. Didn't hurt them much, but it provided adequate distraction to allow Vernon to get back up, and back into the fray, and that's what counts. But then, things got grim," Keith sighed, his grin fading slightly. "Not for us, no... but once one of the Magmar was defeated, the other one seemed to realize it was screwed, but before it could make an escape, a huge rock fell from the ceiling and crushed it. And it was no accident- we all heard a booming voice calling it useless."

Keith sighed. "Meowth's translation abilities were invaluable here," he continued. "He found out the truth from the Heatmor- the 'great one' that Torkoal had mentioned was this god that ruled Mt. Aduro, and eliminated Pokémon it deemed unworthy to live in its mountain. The Heatmor pack we had just defended were the last of their kind on the island, and the great one had already diverted the flow of lava specifically to wipe out all the Durant nests, purely to eliminate the Heatmor pack's primary source of food. I was nothing short of outraged at that point, and I vowed to help the Heatmor out any way I could. I dug my last berry out of my backpack and gave it to the Heatmor pack. They refused it at first, since they weren't sure how to split it evenly among them, and that was a big thing with them, but I had Meowth here Cut the berry into equal portions for them. At that point, the great one challenged me to come to him, if I dared. Well... I dared," he said simply. "The great one opened up caves in a nearby wall, with the implication that they would lead to him. I withdrew Vernon, and we picked a tunnel. But when we tried the first one, there were holes in the tunnel that spewed flames at regular intervals. There was no way to get past them safely. Kyle left the group at that point, having changed his mind about the first tunnel before I did. So we tried the other tunnel, only to find that..." Keith shuddered. "...This part still sickens me... the tunnel was lined with mangled Weezing corpses. Hundreds of them. And they were still leaking Poison Gas, too. By the time I realized this, all the Heatmor had been poisoned. I was fine- years of working with Poison-types made me pretty much immune," he lied- he was indeed immune, but not for quite the reason he claimed to be. Still, he wasn't sure he wanted to tell that story just yet. "And Meowth, while not immune, has been on the team long enough that the stuff didn't hit him as fast, and he knew to keep his mouth covered once he knew what it was. So I sent out James, my Vileplume, who healed up the Heatmor with Aromatherapy as we made our way through the tunnel. Finally, we got to the other side... only to find a huge lake of lava before us!"

"It was massive," Keith stated. "It stretched from wall to wall, so there was no way around it. Only way to cross it were on these stone platforms that kept rising up out of the lava and falling back in at random intervals, but I didn't like my chances. I actually started to lose my cool a bit, but Meowth knocked some sense into me," he said, with a grateful smile to the Scratch Cat Pokémon."

"Ehhh, it was nuttin'," Meowth smirked.

"So I sent Godric back out- I had a plan," said Keith. "First I had James use Aromatherapy once more to heal Godric's burn, then I let that Vileplume of mine take a rest. Meanwhile, I had Godric use Confusion to transport us across the lake of lava. Or at least, that was the plan," he admitted. "Turns out he only had enough juice in him to get the Heatmor pack across. He was exhausted by the time he tried to move me and Meowth. I knew he needed a rest too, so... well, we had no choice, we had to take our chances with the rock platforms. I had Meowth looking behind me from up on my shoulder, and together, we didn't miss a single rock. But about halfway across, the rocks stopped rising up. Thankfully, the one we were on didn't fall, but the great one was pretty pissed we had made it that far. It demanded I feed the lava something of value as a tribute, agree to leave the Heatmor to their fates, and I'd be allowed to leave. And if I refused, well..." Keith gave a small chuckle. "Seeing as I was standing on a rock that was mysteriously floating over a boiling lake of lava, I had a shrewd idea as to what would happen if I refused. But when I make a promise, I keep it or die trying," he added. "So I called upon my last hope- Gemini and Mustard, my Weezing. I grabbed ahold of them, and they floated us the rest of the way across the lava. Just barely, too- I mean, I'm not a heavy man by any means, but at the same time, it's clear Weezing were not built to support human beings in flight. They almost dropped me near the end, but Mustard, the smaller head, found that last bit of strength in him and got us to safety."

"The celebration didn't last long, though," Keith sighed. "As we started to go through the tunnel, the great one spoke up again, and he. Was. Furious. He made the rock platform we had just been standing on crumble away, which wouldn't have been too bad, except... except two of the Heatmor were still on it," he sighed. The Heatmor sitting nearby wiped a tear away from his eye. "I tried to pull them to safety, but Gemini and Mustard stopped me, lest I fall into the lava, too. And as if that wasn't bad enough, we then found Kyle. The great one had gotten to him- he was being forced to fight us, in exchange for letting us live. But I didn't want to hurt him or his Doduo, so I had Meowth try and use Hypnosis on Doduo while I tried talking Kyle out of it. I asked him to come with me as I tried to take down the great one, since he wasn't going to convince me to turn back. And he knew perfectly well I outclassed him thoroughly as a Trainer, too. Unfortunately, his fear of the great one kinda took priority in his mind. He stopped trying to battle us, just so Doduo wouldn't get hurt, but he wouldn't come with us, either. It pained me to leave him in that tunnel, but there was no convincing him. So we reluctantly left him there, and made our way to the end of the tunnel. Turns out, it had led us right to the heart of the volcano. The great one's throne room, as it were. He had us go up against his 'champion'- a gigantic Magmortar, bigger than any Magmortar I've ever seen. I was thinking about using Gemini and Mustard to battle it, but instead I sent Helga back out. And she was magnificent," Keith grinned. "She got burned by Magmortar's Flame Body when she used Arm Thrust, but this in turn triggered her own Ability- Guts. The battle really took off from there- Helga eventually paralyzed Magmortar with Force Palm, wore it down with powerful moves, then landed a horribly powerful Smelling Salts attack, and wrapped the whole thing up with a super effective Brine. Only thing is, just after being hit with Brine, it fell in the lava, and Helga pulled it out so quickly that the Magmortar had actually turned to stone. I don't know exactly the science behind whatever happened there- my Weedle would be able to explain that better than me. Anyway, by this point, the great one is pissed off, he causes the tunnel behind us to cave in, and now decides he's gonna handle the situation himself. He finally reveals himself as- I kid you not- a gigantic legendary Pokémon, Heatran. I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty freaking scared. But I wasn't about to give up, having come so far, so I sent Gemini and Mustard in to battle."

"Things didn't start out so well, though. We tried a Sweet Scent-Zap Cannon combo, but Heatran just destroyed the Zap Cannon with Lava Plume. Hidden Power did a lot of damage, though- Gemini and Mustard's Hidden Power is a Ground move, and Heatran being Fire and Steel-type, you get the picture," grinned Keith. "It was looking pretty one-sided, and then Gemini and Mustard were outright defeated by a Magma Storm attack. Things looked pretty bleak at that point, until Doduo, battered, beaten, one head dead, rose from the rubble, clutching Kyle's backpack, before the other head... joined the first one." Keith sighed. "I had a feeling that there was a reason Doduo used its last bit of strength to bring me its Trainer's backpack, so I looked in- sure enough, there was a Max Revive and a Dire Hit in there. And I knew just what to do- I used the Max Revive to heal Gemini and Mustard completely, and I used the Dire Hit on the leader of the Heatmor pack, who had started to join in on the fight. Things really started to take off once Heatmor's Lick attack caused Heatran to become paralyzed. Heatmor had licked Heatran's metal helmet, and if that caused paralysis, I realized there must have been some kind of tiny crack in the helmet- a weak spot to exploit! So I ordered Gemini and Mustard and Heatmor to focus their attacks on the helmet. Sure enough, after a powerful Hyper Beam from my Weezing, there's this huge fissure in Heatran's helmet. But by that point, Heatmor's fainted, Gemini and Mustard were recharging, Meowth was worn out... and Heatran was making one final attempt to save its own hide. It started to use Magma Storm on the remaining Heatmor, but told me it'd stop the attack and spare the Heatmor if I let it live. Of course, considering what's happened thus far, I was in no mood to believe Heatran's promise. More to the point, I knew that if I could get just one attack fired into the crack in its helmet, I could stop that Magma Storm right at the source before it was fully formed. So I told Helga to use Focus Blast."

"She fired the attack as the Magma Storm continued to form all around her and the Heatmor pack. It was a tense couple of seconds, but the Focus Blast hit. There was a tremendous explosion, kicked up dust everywhere, but once it cleared, I could see that the Magma Storm had stopped. And Heatran... Heatran's helmet had crumbled away to nothing, and its body was melting into the lava. Moreover, once it had melted completely, all the lava in the volcano cooled and hardened. Heatran was keeping the volcanic activity going, and when it died, so did the volcano." Keith grinned. "The local Pokémon considered me a hero- turns out that most, if not all of them, were merely acting under Heatran's orders out of fear of him, rather than any semblance of respect. The locals gave me a Flame Orb that Heatran had considered his crown jewel, and an Iron Ball that had formed out of part of Heatran's helmet, but I ended up trading those to Trainers who had practical uses in mind for those items. Once the time had come for me and my Pokémon to depart, I turned to the Heatmor leader. He and I had been fighting side by side throughout the whole adventure, helping each other out at every turn... a real bond had formed between us, and I knew it. So I asked if he'd be willing to come with me. As you can imagine, he was pretty conflicted, as he had a family, but they were all for him coming with me- now that the mountain was safe for them, they weren't so much in need of his protection anymore, and they could focus on rebuilding the mountain's Heatmor population." At that moment, Keith turned and smiled at the Heatmor who'd been sitting nearby for some time now. "I think he made the right choice in the end. Right, Kyle?" he asked the Heatmor.

"Heat! Heatmor!" nodded Kyle.

"I named him after that reporter," Keith explained, "because he's brave. OK, maybe Kyle the reporter was a bit of a coward, but when things got tough, he put his life on the line to save his Doduo. Not to mention all the times he'd helped us out in there- it just seemed fitting to honor him like this."

"Heat mor," Kyle agreed.