I felt numb.

  Even as I fumbled into my coat, pulling out Dee’s pokeball and letting her out beside me, I couldn’t seem to feel anything. She was briefly confused, but she immediately had a grim expression on her face. She checked the Delphox, but I already knew it was too late. It was too late before we even got here. The healing machines can’t replace things that are missing.

  “What do I do, Dee?” I asked softly, getting her attention. My head felt fuzzy, and it was a bit difficult to see through my own tears.

  She gently pulled me away, and I sat down on the ground. I wasn’t sure how long I was sitting there, but eventually Ezekiel came up. “Everyone’s dead,” he said, his voice rough, either from the smoke or trying to keep his emotions in check. “Four Team Flare members and all their Pokemon. Is-” his voice caught as he saw the sight.

  Nothing needed to be said, and all of us remained silent as Dee went about helping clean the egg of blood and…other stuff that it was caked in. She also tried to clean me up, but most of my coat was already stained a darker shade. The only noise was the crackling of burning wood.

  Eventually, it was Ezekiel that broke the silence again. “I knew this one,” he said, clearly struggling to get the words out. “She’s one of the strongest Pokemon in this part of Kalos… They must have-” his words faltered for a moment. “They must have tried to capture her right after she laid… Pokemon are… Are extremely vulnerable at that time.”

  I don’t know why he was talking. Honestly I would really rather he be quiet so I can work out what I was feeling. The numbness was starting to fade.

  But he continued. “There’s quite a few of her young that get to be starters…”

  My eyes snapped to him as I realized what he was getting at. “Ezekiel,” I said coldly. “If you try to take this egg from me, you’re gonna have a bad time.”

  He actually flinched at my statement and took a step back. I was also very keenly aware that his hand had moved slightly closer to his belt. “It’s a regional starter, Jason. Those are extremely guarded.”

  “Apparently not,” I hissed, gesturing with a hand towards the body of the Delphox. “Don’t try,” I continued before he could even open his mouth. “You’re not going to win this argument.”

  “I’m not the one you have to be worried about,” he said, clearly trying to diffuse the situation and backpedal. “The Association-”

  “Won’t do anything,” I interrupted, slowly getting to my feet with Dee’s help. He actually took another step back from me, but I ignored him. Instead I put my focus on Dee. The scene around had clearly upset her - her hands were shaking - but I couldn’t help but feel proud at how well she was handling things. Although Ezekiel wasn’t helping things. “Finish your survey. I’m going back,” I said as I turned, heading towards Scoly.

  My pace quickened when I actually saw her expression. Dee was quick to match me, realizing it as well. She was in shock. Eyes seeming to have glazed over. Dee wordlessly took the egg from me, swaddling it in some blankets that she had pulled from my bag. To be able to do that while moving at a quick jog was extremely impressive. Dee was such a good nurse.

  “Hey. Hey. Scoly. Look at me,” I said the moment I was in front of her.

  She didn’t even glance down at me.

  I made sure to wipe the blood off of my hands before I reached up and grabbed her horns, forcing her head down, partially to block her sight and partially to make her look at me. “Scoly.”

  Her eyes seemed to focus and immediately started flooding with tears and she shoved her head against my chest, and would have taken me off my feet if I didn’t have a hold of her horns. I began to gently rub her head and neck as I gently pulled on her, leading her away. She didn’t resist and followed.

  This was probably really hard for her to look at. Her first experience with death. Or…maybe it wasn’t. It honestly might not be, now that I was thinking about it. While the thought had crossed my mind a few times, I never asked how the little bug came to be with Cara. This could just be a reminder of awful events. I would need to talk to Cara about it.

  “You’re okay,” I said softly as I guided her away. “I’m here… I’ve got you, my big bug…” She pressed harder into me, which just caused me to walk a bit faster than I intended, but I continued to whisper soft words of comfort.

  I reached out to place a hand on Dee, making sure to keep a close watch on her as well. She was quietly crying, cradling the egg in her arms. Of course, I wasn’t much better. I wasn’t sure when I had started crying again, but I was. Although I had managed to calm down considerably, I was still reeling from that.

  Mutual destruction.

  They had come here with the intention of either capturing her, or killing her. She was a source of, most likely, powerful starters. It wasn’t that much of a leap to assume that Team Flare wanted her to either join them or die. Bunch of zealots probably weren’t even concerned they might not survive.

  Why would they be? Lysandre could just… bring them back or something when he remade the world. Whether that was possible or not didn’t matter, as long as they believed it to be true.

  But those Pokemon…

  That was where all my grief came from.

  The humans knew what they were getting into. Knew the risks. They wouldn’t have gone after her if they didn’t understand what they were getting into. Unless they were complete idiots. Which…yeah, okay, that is pretty likely. They could have just been idiots. They do follow Lysandre, afterall.

  Or, well, they did.

  Past tense.

  Probably shouldn’t make jokes like that, but screw those guys.

  I am upset and am allowed to use a bit of dark humor, right? To cheer myself up?

  My internal dialogue was disrupted when I bumped into a tree. None of us had been paying attention to where we were going and now I was pinned against a tree. Scoly was starting to calm down, but she still had her face firmly pressed into my chest, which means her horns were tucked around me. I could feel her many little legs gripping onto my coat, and I was briefly reminded of how Scolipedes hunt.

  “You’re okay,” I said softly, not having stopped rubbing her head and neck. Now that we had stopped, Dee had moved closer, pressing her face against my side.

  We stood there for probably an hour before Dee spoke, her voice a bit hoarse, “We’re going to need a lot of things… to take care of this one…”

  “We are,” I agreed, rubbing the back of her head. “I’ve never taken care of an egg, or newly hatched Pokemon.”

  Dee huffed. “We’ll need three months worth of specialty food while it’s in the infant stage. But… if this was freshly laid, and I think Ezekiel was right about that, we have a while before it hatches.”

  “How long?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “We’ll have to go to a Pokecenter to check… And get an incubator.”

  “Are there portable incubators? I don’t want to leave it somewhere…” Thankfully Dee nodded, though she didn’t respond otherwise. The words Ezekiel had said about the Association being difficult about this was not something I was going to take lightly, so keeping the egg with me was a given. I was more than prepared to fight tooth and nail to make sure they didn’t take Alma.

  Which was another matter entirely. I knew that this egg was Alma. It was like…someone told me. Was that the Earth Mother? It wasn’t really a voice, but there were definitely some semblance of words. That had to be the Earth Mother, or maybe it was the Delphox? They were a psychic type so that was possible.

  Either way, the words had been clear, even if I hadn’t really heard them. They had been clear; “Please take care of Alma.”

  And whether it was the words of some powerful god-like being, or the dying request of a mother, there was no way in hell anyone was taking Alma away from me.

  Leaning down, I pressed my forehead against Scoly as I took deep breaths to steady myself. It was always interesting to me that her carapace was warm. When I looked at her for some reason I expected her shell to be cold to the touch.

  I thought about calling out someone else. Cara might be able to help. But I didn’t want to expose anyone to what was happening. Not yet. Not while we were still that close. Even if I couldn’t see the bodies, I could still see the smoke. Still see the burnt trees.

  I wanted to get away, but Scoly and Dee were still clinging to me. I felt horrible that I brought Dee out. I should have returned Scoly the moment she froze to minimize her exposure to it. So many things I should have done. So many things that I shouldn’t have.

  My mind was a mess of what ifs.

  I felt sick.

  The shock of the situation was starting to wear off, and comprehension was crashing into me hard.

  Fuck I was still covered in blood.

  It had all dried by now. My coat was going to have darker spots on it forever. The sleeves especially. Would people be able to tell it was blood? Was it going to smell like blood?

  I was trying very hard to not have a mental breakdown.

  I’d never seen a dead body before.

  Why would I have? I wasn’t a violent man. I did my best to avoid dangerous situations. Sure, I got into a few rough spots, but no one ever died… That I know of. But I never got into any situation like that. I was a teacher for fucks sake. My biggest concern was making sure those damned kids didn’t get themselves hurt climbing a rope or something.

  And Ezekiel sure seemed to brush off that shock real quick. Immediately starting to try and take Alma from me. What the hell was with his priorities? Had he seen a lot of death? My mind went back to the numbers I’d been told. Seventy percent quit, fifty percent due to injury or death. What was the exact percentage of deaths?

  That was so stupid. I was sure those statistics were like that because of people withholding knowledge. Or these damn villain teams. How many of those injuries and deaths are because of villains like Team Flare?

  Turning some of my emotions towards anger was doing quite an oddly good job at calming me down. Well, not quite calming, moreso settling. My skull felt scrambled. Muddled like I hadn’t slept in days. Or I had another concussion.

  “Let’s go,” I said softly, wanting to get further away from the smell of burning.

  I was extremely thankful that the only thing I could smell was burning wood.

  It took a bit more coaxing to get Scoly moving again. Not because she was reluctant to move, but more because she didn’t realize the reason she couldn’t just keep walking was there was a tree in the way. She was really out of it.

  After we walked to the point I couldn’t smell the burning anymore, we finally stopped. We’d probably gone further than needed, and I had just been catching the scent clinging to me, but it was fine. Being far away from that was a good thing.

  Scoly seemed to agree that we’d gone far enough, as the large bug's legs seemed to give out on her. Not from physical exhaustion, but from being mentally drained. She nearly toppled both Dee and I when she collapsed.

  I took a moment to center myself before letting everyone out. I had been doing my best not to let them see what was happening, since I knew they could vaguely see from the pokeballs, and from how confused they all looked and the barrage of questions, I had succeeded.

  Cara was immediately on high alert the moment she was out. Her stance was tense and she started to check me over rather roughly. Pulling on my coat this way and that, and shoving me around. From the way her nose scrunched, I figured she could smell the blood. As could a few others it seemed, as there were quite a few worried gazes on Scoly, Dee, and me.

  Dee had blood on her as well. I don’t know how I didn’t notice that before. And she was still cradling the wrapped up egg.

  “You should have brought me out,” Cara scolded as she continued to fuss over me.

  “Yes, I’m sorry,” I said softly, slight amusement creeping in.

  “What if there had been more danger?” she continued.

  “Yes, yes.” I reached towards her to pat her head but stopped, looking at the blood that was still staining my hands. It was all mostly clean now. Was I just imagining that there was still blood on it? Maybe just a trick of the light making my hand look a bit more red than normal.

  The motion didn’t go unnoticed by her and she grabbed at my hand before placing it on top of her head. She took in a deep breath, not saying anything more. She was upset. That had clearly shaken her, even though she hadn’t seen it first hand, her sensing abilities were well above and beyond anyone else's. It wouldn’t be lying to say she could perceive the area around better than I could with my eyes. While I watched the Delphox die, she probably felt it.

  Quite abruptly she moved away and began to check on Scoly. She gave her quite a similar treatment, being quite rough and checking to make sure she was okay. I noted that Scoly didn’t get a scolding, but instead Cara was full of words of comfort and reassurance.

  Dee let out a soft sigh as she handed the egg over to me, as we both knew what was about to happen. The moment the canine was done with the bug she moved on to the nurse. It was immediately apparent that she was far more gentle about it.

  Scoly and I exchanged looks before I shrugged and Scoly decided to go and join the rest of Team Speed Shell, whom Rio had managed to get started on training. On the surface the younger blue canine looked fine, but it was clear to me that she was distracting herself. While her aura sensing wasn’t as good as her mothers, I had no doubt she’d felt it, too. Training was a good distraction for her.

  The only one that didn’t join the training was Primarina. She was leaning against me slightly. She hadn’t said anything, and hadn’t looked at me, nor at the egg. It didn’t look like she wanted to talk. Just…wanted to be close. Which I was fine with. She was probably going through a lot in her head.

  Members of Team Noncombatant however seemed very interested in the egg. Mikyu especially seemed interested, as she actually climbed up onto my shoulder to get a better look. Her eyes were absolutely shining. “Egg…” came her soft voice.

  “This is the newest member of our family,” I replied softly

  The head of her costume turned a bit to face me, and I almost fell for her puppetry before remembering that her eyes were actually down in her torso, and those little eyeslots hadn’t left the egg.

  A soft tug at my coat brought my attention downwards. Essy and Banette were also at my feet, the latter the one doing the tugging. Kneeling down and leaning against Primarina a bit, I showed them the egg. Banette seemed absolutely fascinated, much in the same way Mikyu was. Was this a ghost thing? They both seemed absolutely enraptured.

  Banette’s coat didn’t match mine anymore.

  Essy just looked curious, but that was the expression she usually had when not stuffing her face full of pokebeans. But there was something a bit more there. Perhaps all three of them were feeling the psychic energy? Or maybe they were just enamored by a Pokemon egg.

  Turning focus onto the egg turned out to be a fantastic way to ground myself back into reality. Everything had lost that sort of haze around the edges that I had just started to get used to.

  Apparently Dee had completely cleaned the egg. It looked nothing like the game or anime. First off, it was several shades of red. It wasn’t smooth, and instead had quite an interesting texture to it. Something similar to large symbols or designs all across the shell. They were like swirling flames. What did match was the size. It was easily larger than any egg I’d ever seen in my previous life. And I’ve seen an ostrich egg.

  My attention was soon grabbed by the crashing of a tree nearby.

  Looking over, everyone had stopped what they were doing to look at the tree. After a few questioning - and a bit accusatory - gazes sent towards the training group, it was easy to discover the culprit. And of course, she looked so pleased with herself.

  “This is why we train in clearings,” I scolded lightly, pointedly looking at Diancie as I spoke.

  Of course the small floating rock Pokemon was oblivious to any wrongdoings. She was simply lifting another large chunk of earth, and then looked around confused when everyone else seemed to no longer be playing her game. Her Gravity wasn’t active, which was rare when they were training, but someone must have convinced her to not do it with so many trees.

  That was the struggle with training Diancie. She was extremely powerful, but she treated it all as a game. It made me reluctant to use her in battle. She had never been truly attacked. Everyone was always hesitant to get her attention by attacking her, as she tended to hard focus on anyone who did. I needed to have a conversation with her about if she wanted to battle seriously, or just play fight.

  “Let’s have an early dinner,” I said as I stood up. It was a few hours earlier than normal, but I wanted to do a task. Something to busy my hands with. And so that I could wash up.

  No one complained at my plan, and quickly moved to help set things up. Having the new kitchen was more of a boon than I could ever really explain. It made things so much easier. I even changed one of the counter spaces into a deep sink. Emptying my pockets and placing everyone's pokeballs down, I had Primarina fill it with water before shoving my coat into it.

  The water immediately turned a very dark red.

  With a frown, I drained it and filled it again. It took three times before the water stopped turning red, and I left it to soak for a bit as I went about making dinner with Dee. Primarina refused to leave my side, and I nearly tripped over her a few times. Dee had to physically move her several times. She was being very clingy.

  Once everyone had their food I glanced at my phone before putting together my own plate. We were still out of service range. Probably wouldn’t get back into range until sometime tomorrow. Since I had no plans of meandering and exploring, it probably wouldn’t take too long to get back to the gym. A day or two probably. While Ezekiel and I had been going fairly quickly, we hadn’t been in a rush.

  I still wasn’t in a rush, but I would let Scoly run as fast as she wanted tomorrow. Hopefully it would be a good distraction, and a good way for her to let out her emotions.

  But it was annoying. I had a phone call to make. And I had probably received some.

  My thoughts were interrupted by a sudden rippling pressure.

  Cara was immediately in front of me. Between me and the one that had exuded the pressure. A very familiar looking blue bellied Mewtwo was standing at the boundary of where my kitchen ended. They looked…curious. I put a hand on Cara’s shoulder, squeezing it slightly as I pulled another plate towards me. “Glad to see you’re doing well. Want something to eat? Do you know what sort of flavor you like?”

  There was silence for a moment as I looked over what we had for leftovers. Cara’s head slowly turned to look at me, she practically screamed at me with her expression; ‘Excuse me? What are you doing?’

  “Flavor?” It was an oddly familiar voice, but it very much lacked any of the bite that it had last time.

  “Yeah, like… Do you like spicy? Sweet?” I looked over things. “We’re out of dry,” I mumbled, but that wasn’t surprising considering that Dee the glutton was very fond of dry curry. Primarina and Disaster were also big fans, but that pink Pokemon could put away more food than those two combined.

  They were suddenly on the other side of the counter, curiously looking at the things I was doing. Cara whipped around to face them again. Clearly she had been caught off guard by the speed of the moment, but that had been teleportation so it was no wonder she couldn't track it. Did she have any experience fighting someone who could teleport? Psychic Pokemon weren't super common, so probably not.

  Now that they were closer, I got a good look at them again. They still looked haggard and malnourished, but there were some slight improvements. They didn't look like they were in pain. The poor thing was lacking in every single type of nutrient and vitamin. Were they using their own energy to keep themselves going? Was that a thing? More likely it was the fact that Pokemon were so much tougher.

  I remained quiet as they seemed to study all of the different remnants of curry, giving them curious sniffs. They looked so tired. I didn’t think a Pokemon could have eye bags like that.

  Hesitantly, they reached forward and I saw the way that Cara tensed, but they pointed at one of the pots. “That’s sweet curry,” I explained as I plated some rice and poured a good heaping of curry onto it. I really needed to get that pasta maker to get the variety I wanted. Discovering the kitchen had completely pushed that thought out of my head.

  As I expected, they were hesitant to touch the plate when I pushed it towards them.

  “It’s better when it’s still warm,” I encouraged softly as I plated up some for myself, making it very obvious that I took some from the same pot when I did. I turned my focus to Cara. “It’s alright. Go finish your dinner.”

  “But-” she started to protest, but stopped when I smiled a bit at her. She looked between me and the Mewtwo a few times before she huffed. “I’m watching you,” she grumbled at the other bipedal Pokemon before she moved back to her food. Though she quite pointedly moved closer before she started eating.

  I leaned a bit against the counter before starting to eat, paying attention to the Pokemon on the other side, who was still staring at the plate. “Why?”

  “Hm?” I looked up at them, a bit confused at their question. I could guess what their question was, but couldn’t be sure.

  “Why did you destroy the ball?” Their mouth didn’t move as they spoke, clearly communicating telepathically.

  “Ah, you mean this thing,” I said as I reached into my bag, pulling out the two halves of the Masterball. They tensed and the pressure rise was almost immediate. I could practically taste the fear that radiated off them. Before they got too worked up, I put the broken ball down in front of them and went back to eating. “Easiest way to stop things.”

  They visibly relaxed when they seemed to realize that the Masterball was still broken. Just the sight of it had caused them to start spiraling. “I have…been worried.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  I paused, looking at the two halves for a moment. “That it would be fixed or something?” They nodded. “I don’t know if that’s possible. Although I took it to make sure no one could use it against you. Honestly surprised you showed yourself to me.”

  “You saved me,” they said simply. As if that was all the reason they needed to expose themselves to a Trainer.

  A soft snort escaped me. “I saved myself and my family. While I hoped you would stop if I helped you, I had no guarantee you wouldn’t have kept attacking. Your species is…” I tried to think of how to word it.

  “Destructive,” they offered. “I am not the strongest of my siblings, but I might have been able to bring down that accursed building.”

  I felt a chill run down my spine at the mention of siblings. I wanted to ask how many there were, but something told me that would be a bad idea. “I was hoping that you’d turn your focus onto that man and we could escape.”

  Their hand clenched at the mention of the ex-Director. I was very glad I’d not mentioned him by name. “Your gamble was correct.”

  I nodded a bit. “Please eat before it gets cold,” I said as I turned my attention back to my own plate.

  They hesitated, but I could actually hear their stomach growling. Their hesitation continued up until the moment they took that first bite. Food was truly the greatest way to make friends. If a Tapu, a sort of Legendary, had succumbed so easily, what could this poor, starved and mistreated Mewtwo do to withstand the allure? Now they were practically shoveling it into their mouth, looking like they were trying to not cry.

  There was a certain pride to seeing someone enjoy the food I made. Although it was more that I felt smug about it? No one had turned down my food. Sure, it wasn’t my recipe. Sure, I felt like I was cheating. And there was definitely something almost supernatural about the curry and its effects. But I could say the same about pokeblocks and pokebeans. This world definitely worked on a very different sort of logic than my old one. Thankfully it wasn’t like Food Wars. Although… I guess I wouldn’t have to worry about clothes flying everywhere considering Pokemon didn’t wear them. Well, Cara and Rio wore pants. Right? I think? Wasn’t that officially confirmed at one point?

  When I zoned back in, the Mewtwo was staring at the empty plate in front of them. The plate looked like it was unused; completely clean. Did it know how to feed itself? How to get food in the wild? I didn’t want to pry, but this felt important enough that I should risk offending them. “What do you normally eat?” I asked, being very careful in how I worded my question.

  “Berries… sometimes…” their voice came out, softer than before.

  There couldn’t be many berries around. It was the middle of winter. So many conflicting thoughts and questions bounced around in my head. Did I want to take them with me? I didn’t even want to ask. That seemed like an extremely dangerous train of thought. If I don’t take them with me, how do I help? Can I help them?

  Their eyes suddenly moved upwards and locked onto me, making me realize I was staring. Although, their gaze didn’t make me stop looking at them. “You need to eat more,” I said bluntly. “A lot more,” I added, before turning my attention back to my food and finishing my food.

  There was no response. Whether this was because they just didn’t have anything to say, or I had stunned them into silence, I had no way of knowing. When I glanced at them they looked… thoughtful? Confused? Their expressions were actually hard to read.

  “What do I eat?” they asked, having decided to ask what was on their mind.

  I hesitated. That was a good question. My gaze immediately snapped to Cara. She was the only wild Pokemon that would be able to properly explain things to the Mewtwo. Of course, Cara seemed to immediately know what I had in mind and frowned at me. “Cara?” I questioned softly.

  She glared at me for a moment before sighing. “Alright. I’ll… teach them…or something.”

  “Thank you,” I said with a smile. The Mewtwo looked confused at the interaction, and so I decided to explain. “Cara is going to help you figure out what to eat.”

  They nodded slowly after a moment. “Okay.”

  I watched them for a moment as Cara started to explain hunting and foraging before moving out to the other Pokemon to gather dishes. It looked like everyone was finished eating now. But I was concerned about this Mewtwo. They were extremely powerful, and intelligent, but they were severely lacking in knowledge. How much time had they simply spent in the pokeball, only ever being able to see the outside world when they had a task? How often were they fed?

  My eyes traveled to the broken Masterball on the counter. They hadn’t even looked at it after they realized it was still broken, but actively kept it in their peripheral. Like a kid trying not to make it obvious they were looking at their phone during class. The thought made me smile a bit.

  When I got back to the sink I frowned and sighed, pulling my coat out of the water. I had actually forgotten about it. The water was still tinted a bit red, but this would have to do until I could give it a proper wash. I wrung it out a bit before emptying the sink and having Primarina help me wash the dishes.

  I did my best to pretend the Mewtwo was just another Pokemon. At the very least, they were an extremely good distraction. Something to keep my focus on.

  Once we were done, we cleaned up everything and put it and the portable kitchen into my bag. I left the Masterball on the ground and I tried to think of what to do about my soaked coat. I glanced at Bungle and Disaster, but that felt like a bad idea. So I just hung it up on a branch and started to set up the tent. Thankfully that went quickly as everyone started to help out.

  From the occasional glance at Cara and Mewtwo, the two seemed to be in deep conversation, with Cara showing the other Pokemon a lot of things nearby. The Mewtwo seemed absolutely fascinated.

  Eventually the two of them came over to me as I was sitting just inside the tent, simply watching the Pokemon. Eevee was curled up in my lap, and Primarina was leaning against me. The large seal was doing her best to comfort me in her own way and I really appreciated it. “Well, they won’t starve,” Cara grumbled as she entered the tent and sat down beside me.

  I chuckled softly. “Good. Thank you.”

  “Yes, thank you,” the Mewtwo said, bowing their head.

  I hesitated a moment, but I needed to ask, “What are your plans for the future?”

  Their brow furrowed a bit and they stared down at the ground. It took quite a bit for them to answer, “I don’t know.”

  A bit of a smile pulled at the corner of my mouth. “Well, you’re welcome to stay in these woods. I technically own everything from the city to the river.”

  They blinked at me. “You hold such a large territory? It is no wonder I lost to someone so powerful.”

  I couldn’t help but snort. “Not in that way. Humans have a thing called property.”

  “Ah, I have heard of that,” they nodded. “Papers and money are exchanged for that.”

  “Yes. Well, according to humans, I own this land.”

  Again they nodded, but looked at me curiously. “I feel that I must ask… It makes sense that you were able to withstand my control, but how did that little one?” Their eyes were focused on Eevee.

  My brow furrowed a bit. “I don’t know enough about how energy works to give you a good answer, but I assume that it was because she was asleep, close in contact with me, or I blocked it from getting to her. Or some combination.”

  Their face scrunched. “That is not… or… wait…mmmm maybe?” They tilted their head to the side, studying the small Pokemon in my lap. “From what I know, none of that should have stopped it. But I am not all knowing.”

  “Maybe you missed her?” I suggested, now also curious.

  “No, I sensed her when I attempted to take control of you all. But she…” Their head tilted to the other side. “Resisted?”

  “Would her not having a lot of internal energy be able to prevent it?” I asked.

  The Mewtwo’s eyes suddenly glowed, and Eevee gained a similar tint. Everyone nearby tensed. “Hm… Their energy channels are damaged… Perhaps the flow was not able to flow properly because I was being too broad with my control…” they mumbled to themself as the glow faded. They nodded, seemingly satisfied with that. “The world is vast and my knowledge is lacking.”

  “Which sort of brings me back to my previous question,” I reminded, relaxing now that I realized they were just examining the little fox. “What do you want to do?”

  “I don’t know,” they said, much quicker this time. There was also a slightly bitter undertone to their voice.

  “Well…” I started slowly, trying to think through if this would be a good idea. “If you stay on this land, I can at least partially guarantee that you won’t be bothered by most humans.” When they gave me a confused look, I explained to them about my idea for a Pokemon Reserve, and why I had so much land. They seemed interested, but it was clear they didn’t understand.

  “So… if I stay in this place, people will not attempt to recapture me?” they asked.

  I shook my head. “Unfortunately, no. It wouldn’t be a zero chance, it would just be less of one. I want the Reserve to be a safe space…but there are some truly awful people out there.”

  They seemed to think this over for a moment before nodding a bit. “Then we shall see.”

  There was another question that was burning in my head, about the ex-Director. But I had a feeling it was safe to assume that he was dead. “It’s just an option. The world is vast, as you said. I’m sure you’ll find your place in it.”

  “A place in it?” they mumbled, tilting their head. “What is your place?”

  I laughed softly. “No idea. I’ve not found it yet. Some kind of… Wanderer, maybe? I’ve not really got a place to call my own. Even though I technically own this land, it’s not mine. It belongs to the Pokemon that live here, now and in the future.” I sighed a bit.

  Primarina nudged me a bit, and I smiled as I started to pet her head. “Most wander,” Cara said, a bit of a frown on her face as she watched the Mewtwo. I was honestly really glad that she was dealing with this so well.

  The Mewtwo was watching us curiously, though I wasn’t paying them too much attention. After a moment their gaze slowly moved away and off into the distance. “I must find shelter,” they seemed to decide suddenly. Clearly that had been something Cara had explained to them during their little lesson.

  “Take that with you,” I said as I pointed at the remains of the Masterball.

  They were obviously hesitant to even glance at it. “Why?”

  “So that you know where it is. And can… I don’t know, destroy it or something?” I paused. “If I keep it, I’m going to eventually be tempted to have someone look at it.”

  Their eyes narrowed a bit at me, and the two halves were enveloped in a soft light before they floated over towards the standing figure. “Farewell.”

  “See you later,” I said with a bit of a smile.

  Then they were gone.

  Cara immediately let out a sigh of relief.

  I reached over and nudged her. Her expression suddenly turned rather fierce towards me. “Why were you so nice to them?”

  I blinked at her. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “Because they are our enemy,” she growled.

  “Were,” I said. “Past tense. They were our enemy. But they aren’t anymore.” I gestured vaguely at where they were standing. “They were being forced to do what they did, just like you were.”

  She looked like she wanted to continue arguing, but my words had clearly taken all the wind out of her sails and she slumped. “But they attacked us…”

  “You’re too quick to hold grudges,” I said as I grabbed hold of her, pulling her into a hug. “They didn’t want to do that,” I spoke softly.

  Cara made a half-hearted attempt to push away, but didn’t really put any strength into it. “Why did they even show up?”

  I gently started rubbing her head. “They came to apologize and thank us for helping them. Even though they didn’t say it, that was their intent. They’re just… They don’t know how to interact with others.” I wondered if they had been keeping track of me. Honestly that probably would be easy for a powerful psychic, since according to Olympia I show up as a big black smudge or something. Otherwise it would be one hell of a coincidence that they would find me the moment I was alone, in the wilderness, where I couldn't contact anyone. It was a good thing that their intentions weren't malicious or there would have been one hell of a fight.

  The only thing that Cara gave as a response was a huff.

  The rest of the evening was uneventful, and eventually we all laid down to sleep. Dee kept the egg with her, since she argued she was the most qualified. Of course I didn’t argue, though she continued to explain it for several minutes. I had to reassure her that I no problem with her doing that. I was just really hoping I wasn’t going to be plagued by nightmares. Thankfully I wasn’t.

  Unfortunately, Scoly was.

  I was shoved rather hard suddenly, toppling over other Pokemon into a heap of Eevee, Banette, Mikyu, Rio, Cara, and Diancie. It took a moment for me to figure out what happened, quickly moving over to her and wrapping my arms around her neck. She had woken up, and was thrashing a bit as she was trying to figure out where she was.

  “Scoly. It’s okay,” I said, trying to hold onto her tightly. Everyone else was quick to join in, and Dee was easily able to hold her in place. It took several minutes for her to calm down enough to be able to realize where she was.

  She was crying, and just sobbed harder when she came to her senses. It took an hour or so before she settled down enough to fall asleep again. The sleeping arrangements had changed, and I was sitting up, leaning against Cara and Dee with Scoly’s head in my lap. Due to her size, there wasn’t really much room for anyone else on me, but no one was bothered by this and just piled on top of Scoly instead.

  I wasn’t sure if I could fall asleep, especially with Cara and Dee talking softly behind me. It looked like they couldn’t sleep either.

  Eventually everyone else was asleep, and I was just staring out into the darkness of the tent. Portable television. I needed one of those. And a pasta machine. Because we were out of service range, we probably wouldn’t have access to any shows. Did they use DVD’s? Disk technology was a thing, so that was probably a thing.

  “Jace?” came a soft voice from behind me. It was Cara.

  I made a slight noise of confirmation that I heard her, “Mm?”

  “Oh, you are awake…” she mumbled. "Your breathing had not settled."

  “Yeah,” I replied softly. There was a few minutes of silence before I asked a question that I had thought of earlier. “Cara? What happened to Scoly’s parents?”

  It was silent for a long time, but that was fine. Eventually she did respond, though her voice was so low that I barely heard her. “I killed them.”

  I didn’t say anything, and just nodded. That was one of the possibilities I had thought of. I wasn’t about to judge her on it. Thinking about the Delphox, and how close in age Rio and Scoly seemed to be, I could reason why.

  “I didn’t have a choice,” she continued, her voice a bit louder, clearly wanting to make sure that I heard her explanation of her actions. “Their pack was hunting us. They cornered us. And then that… One of them said they were going to eat my child and make me watch… for being difficult.”

  Reaching back, I grabbed hold of her hand. She was shaking slightly.

  “Rio had just hatched. She couldn’t defend herself.” She took in a few deep breaths. “I just… Started fighting. And didn’t stop. Most of them fled, but I killed a lot of them… And found Scoly on one of the Scolipede. She was… too young to take care of herself, and I felt horrible… So I took her and raised her along with Rio.”

  I nodded a bit, squeezing her hand. We fell into silence for a few moments before I asked a question, “Does Scoly know?”

  Cara nodded. “Yes… She saw it. And we’ve talked about it a few times. She’s never… never really brought it up on her own. She’s said she understands what happened, and why. But it doesn’t make me feel any better about it…”

  “Yeah…” I looked down at Scoly, gently running my hand over her head. I wasn’t sure if I was happy about getting the explanation, but it was something I needed to know. It did a lot to help me understand the big bug. The reason why she was so eager to cling to me. Why she didn’t hesitate when I asked if they wanted to join me. There was probably some sort of mental barrier between her and Cara that she could never really get over, so she jumped at the chance to have a parental figure.

  I wasn’t sure if I eventually fell asleep, or just completely lost track of time, but morning came. Everyone got their pokeblocks before returning to their pokeballs. All of them made a fuss about it, not wanting to.

  “I’m going to be riding Scoly back to the gym,” I explained. “Some of you can’t keep up with her.”

  That had been enough to get them all to give up. The problem was the egg. I couldn’t put it in my bag - something to do with living things outside of pokeballs not being able to go into expanded storage - so I had to carry it.

  With Dee’s help, we made a sort of makeshift carrier out of a blanket that I could tie around my chest. Made me think I was carrying a baby. Which… I guess technically I was? Pokemon eggs were interesting. Nothing to do with steps like in the games, which honestly thinking about it was a weird concept? How would the egg going a certain distance hatch it? I guess it was just the only mechanic they could think of.

  Once everyone aside from Scoly was back in their pokeball, I moved up to the bug, grabbing hold of her horns and pressing my forehead against hers. “You’re a good bug. My big bug horse,” I said softly. “And I want you to know I’m here. Okay?”

  Her face had gotten a bit red, but she was returning the pressure a bit. “Okay.”

  “I’m here for you, and you can talk to me about anything.” I started to rub the back of her neck.

  She didn’t respond, and we stayed like that for a bit before I pulled away. I rubbed between her horns a bit before clambering up onto her back. It was a bit more difficult to get up with the egg, but I managed.

  After making sure I was properly seated, I nodded. “Okay. Let’s see how far we can get before nightfall.”

  The big bug didn’t need any more prompting and took off through the trees. We’d been going for quite a while when I suddenly started getting pings and notification noises from my phone. Apparently we had gotten back into service range.

  I had Scoly slow down a bit as I pulled out my phone. I had a few messages. Diantha was annoyed that the Rangers were now pestering her about the Reserve and all that. Which made me smile. Valerie sent me messages, annoyed that I didn’t tell her that I was going off into the wilderness. Apparently Hate had told Ren, and Ren had explained it to her. I guess it did slip my mind. Finally… Missed calls from Professor Kukui… I knew what that would be about.

  I hesitated for a few moments before sighing, and calling the Professor. It rang quite a few times, and I realized I had no idea what time it was in Alola right now. I was about to hang up and just try later when it suddenly connected. “Alola, Jace. There you are.” While I could tell he was trying to be be his usual upbeat self, there was clearly something weighing on his mind.

  “Alola. Yeah. Sorry, Kukui, I’ve been outside of service range,” I explained.

  He arched a brow at me, clearly curious, but there were more important things to talk about. “I… The reason I called you.” He took a deep breath. “Alma passed.”

  “Yeah, I know,” I said, sighing rather heavily.

  “We found him on the beach… I guess he was waiting to watch the sunrise and-” he paused. “Wait, you know?”

  I nodded a bit. “Do you believe in reincarnation, Professor?”

  He looked puzzled for a moment, before nodding slowly. “Yes.”

  A smile pulled a bit at the corner of my mouth as I tilted the phone down to show the swaddled egg against my chest. “Well, I was told that this is Alma.”

  His expression shifted from confusion into a sad understanding. “Ah… I see.” He let out a long, slow breath. “So that’s what you meant by knowing. Damn…”

  “He told me he wanted to have a Trainer like me,” I said with a sad chuckle. “Glad he got his wish.”

  Kukui nodded a bit. “He talked about you quite a bit. I feel…kinda bad. Because he asked me to check in on you, and... I never got around to it.”

  “Well, looks like he beat you to it.” That put a bit of a smile on both of our faces. “I’ve been busy.”

  “Yeah? How many badges you got?” he asked, leaning against the railing of wherever he was. Probably on the balcony of the lab, since I could see the ocean in the dark background.

  “Just two.” He arched an eyebrow at me. “Got caught up in dealing with Team Flare,” I explained and shook my head.

  “Team Flare?” he mused, tilting his head. “That’s one of those villain teams, right?”

  I nodded. “Speaking of which… How’s Team Skull?”

  He snorted. “I don’t know what the hell you did to Guzma, but he’s had quite the shift. They still have a sort of... gang feel to them, but they’re at least trying to be helpful now. Still getting in trouble constantly, though.”

  I nodded again. “How is Guzma specifically?”

  “He’s… different?” he said, clearly a bit puzzled. “He’s still as sarcastic and abrasive as ever, but he’s got a certain drive to him now and he’s not lashing out as much.”

  “Good,” I said, nodding. I was very glad that I was able to get through to him and have it stick. I had been worried that he would just slip back into how he was.

  “Yeah. I gotta ask… What the heck did you say to him?” he asked with quite a big smile.

  “You’ll have to ask him yourself if you want to know,” I immediately shut that down. “It was a lot of personal stuff.”

  The smile on his face faltered a bit. “Fine. Alright. Well, I’m going back to bed.”

  “Sorry for waking you,” I said with a chuckle.

  “No worries. Alola.”

  “Alola.”

  He hung up, and I just stared at the phone for a moment. If what I had told Guzma had really stuck, then Alola was going to be very different by the time I got back there. Thankfully it didn’t seem like I was fighting against some sort of god-like power of fate or something.

  I apologized to Valerie about not explaining things. She eventually accepted my apology, but made quite a big deal about it. As for Diantha… I sent a rather simple response; ‘Hahahahah.’ To which she replied with a frowny face. That honestly caught me off guard. The first emoji I'd seen anyone use, and it was a frowny face.

  We ended up having to camp again, although I thought we made really good progress. We had stopped for afternoon pokeblocks, and to let everyone stretch a bit. Even though I was fairly certain that wasn’t necessary, it was probably good for their mental health. We didn’t have another visit from the Mewtwo, which I was thankful for. Even though they weren’t hostile, I would be lying if I said their presence didn’t make me nervous.

  The night passed without another incident, though I was fairly certain Scoly had another nightmare, she didn’t have a violent reaction to it.

  Much to my surprise, we actually arrived back at the edge of Laverre before night fell. I wasn’t aware we had meandered that much during our trip.

  Despite what I said, our first stop wasn’t the gym, but was instead the Pokecenter. Scoly had been a bit confused, but understood when I pointed out the egg.

  Riding through town was quite an experience. I wasn’t entirely sure why Ezekiel and I hadn’t done so when we were leaving. There weren’t any laws against riding Pokemon in town. I had to dismount Scoly when we finally got to the Pokecenter, which thankfully was easier now that I had some practice. Who knew a large egg would throw off something like that so much?

  I returned Scoly before entering. As usual, there weren’t too many people. It took me almost the entire time as I walked across the room to figure out which Joy was at the counter. “Hello, Jason,” she greeted with a smile.

  “Hello, Delphine,” I greeted in return, also giving her a smile.

  Her eyes shifted to the bundle of cloth tied against my chest. “Is that…”

  I nodded. “Yes. The circumstances about how it came into my care are…grim…”

  She sighed a bit and nodded. “Evelyne is at the gym… do you want me to have her come over?”

  I shook my head. “Not if she’s busy. I just need my Pokemon checked over and this one examined,” I said with a gesture at the bundle.

  Again she sighed and nodded. “Come on back.” She led me through the door, and when she knocked I noticed two Joy’s. One was Rebecca, and the other I didn’t recognize. “Rebecca, can you assist me? Our Expert here has a lot of Pokemon that need checking, and an egg that needs examining.”

  Rebecca gasped. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen a Pokegg.”

  “Don’t call them that,” the other Joy scolded, though it was clearly in an amused way.

  The other Joy’s just giggled. Clearly this was some kind of inside joke that I was not privy to. “Alright. Come on.”

  The three of us headed down the hall, meeting a Wigglytuff on our way, who was quite confused at what was going on. “Wigglytuff, can you help me with all the Pokemon? Rebecca, please see to the egg,” Delphine ordered. She clearly had some sort of seniority, but I wasn’t sure how that worked.

  They both nodded, and Wigglytuff came over to me with a tray and I started to unload the Pokemon I was carrying. Sixteen pokeballs, the last of which went on the tray after I returned Eevee. “Fuck that’s a lot of pokeballs,” Wigglytuff said, clearly caught off guard.

  I laughed. “Perks of being an Expert.” Her cheeks went bright red when she realized I understood what she said. I wondered if she had been told, or if it was just obvious.

  Dee was quick to pop out after that. “I shall assist.” The two Pokemon greeted each other, and started to quite animatedly chatter at each other about things. Dee had apparently started calling herself a Field Nurse, and I wondered where she got that from.

  “This way, Jace,” Rebecca said as she guided me to a different room. “We have a special nursery exam room for eggs and infant Pokemon, since they can’t be put in pokeballs.”

  I nodded as they followed. I was aware eggs couldn’t go into pokeballs, but infants couldn’t as well? That was interesting. That meant I would have to keep Alma out for quite a while until I could put them in a pokeball.

  The room looked a lot different than any of the other exam rooms. This was probably one where they brought Trainers into. “Please place them there,” she said as she pointed to a sort of pillow under a bunch of things. I actually recognized some of the devices. They were similar to the examination machine that Kukui and Burnet had used.

  It took a moment for me to un-swaddle the egg. Dee had maybe done a bit too good of a job at making it secure. Rebecca had to actually come and assist, giggling the entire time as she did.

  “Wow…” she murmured as she looked the egg over now that it was situated on the pillow. “This is hardly over a day old.” She looked over at me as she started typing away at a control panel. “Parents?”

  “I don’t know about the father, but the mother was a Delphox.” I hesitated. “Deceased.”

  She froze, taking several seconds before she managed to look over at me.

  “Team Flare,” I explained simply, and her mouth tightened into a thin frown. “They tried to capture her while she was weakened from laying the egg…”

  “And killed her in the process,” she said with a heavy sigh, continuing her work. “Fuck, the Association is going to be pissed…”

  “They’re going to be even more pissed when I refuse to hand over the egg,” I said with a bit of a smile.

  A soft little snort escaped her and she nodded. “Oh that’s really going to piss them off. Someone getting a regional starter without permission… They’re going to throw a fit.” She moved back, folding her arms as she leaned against the wall. “Well, the egg is healthy. Delphox eggs take about three months till they hatch.”

  “How difficult would it be to get a portable incubator?” I asked.

  Her brow furrowed. “You’re not a breeder… but I don’t see why we couldn’t give you one.”

  “Only breeders can get them?” That was interesting. Breeders were another profession in this world that I hadn’t had any interaction with.

  “Usually, yeah. Trainers are really discouraged from breeding their own Pokemon, because it is a huge responsibility. Pokemon in the infant stage require near constant attention. Although… since you have a nurse Pokemon, she should be able to take care of it.”

  I nodded. “So how do I get an incubator?”

  “Oh, we can give you one,” she said with a rather mischievous looking smile. “We have a lot, since the breeders get them from us.”

  Again I nodded, and smiled back at her. “Good. I was worried that it would be difficult.”

  “I’ll be right back with one,” she said as she pushed herself off the wall and quickly rushed from the room.

  The Joy’s were really all so different… It was interesting. I felt like Rebecca had a bit of a rebellious streak in her, judging by her expression. Clearly there were a lot more steps in getting an incubator that she was glossing over. Not that I was about to complain.

  However, what I was going to complain about was the large backpack that she returned with. It was a large cylinder with straps attached to it. It was clearly not meant to be carried indefinitely, but for moving things from one place to another.

  “Here you go,” she said as she gestured to the top. “This little panel shows a rough monitoring of the egg.” She punched in a few things, and the capsule opened with a soft hiss. She was extremely gentle as she put the egg inside, and closed it. It had quite a lot of padding, but the egg was still clearly visible.

  Now that there was something in it, the screen had lit up. It was a simple display, showing ‘Healthy’ and below that was ‘96 Days’ which was clearly the time left till it hatched.

  “It can’t display things too detailed, but it shows a rough estimate. As long as it shows healthy, everything’s good. If it ever changes, bring it to a Pokecenter as fast as possible,” Rebecca explained. “And if anyone asks, you have permission to have this,” she added with a pat on the incubator.

  I raised an eyebrow at her. “Okay. You make it sound like someone is going to ask.”

  She waved a hand vaguely. “Nah. Probably not. Maybe.”

  I chuckled softly. “Alright. Thank you.”

  There was a massive grin on her face. “You’re welcome.”

  Rebecca was definitely the type of person that I was glad was on my side.

  Lucario - The group mom

  Lucario - Craves violence

  Scolipede - Pokemon transport unit

  Primarina - Doing big seal things

  Audino - Trained Nurse Pokemon

  Diancie - Big sparkly that just wants to throw rocks at people

  Eevee - Living that sleepy hood life

  Sliggoo - Deadly chew toy

  Mimikyu - Very skilled seamstress

  Banette - Silent but persuasive?

  Vulpix (Alolan) - A bit too battle hungry

  Espurr - Little cat that likes pokebeans.

  Liepard - Big hungry cat

  Houndour - Just a little pup

  Houndoom - Bit of a space case

  Mightyena - Super serious

  Fennekin) - Not up to too much yet.

  Houndour

  Guff

  Bleak

  Rascal

  Dilly

  Fret

  False

  Grubby

  Muddle

  Gabby

  Dwindle

  Crass

  Houndoom

  Poochyena

  Mightyena

  Sneasel