Waking up to the vision of a strange sky was disorientating. And that feeling got worse when I could parse that it was actually just a fake ceiling, painted to look like this sky. It was pretty, but the artist definitely took some liberties in what a sky should look like. There was just something off about it that I hadn’t noticed before, but I couldn’t quite figure out what it was.

  After blinking a few times to get rid of the sleep, I realized it was the colors and wavy way it was displayed, and then I realized what it was. It was done from the perspective of being underwater. That was very impressive. I wondered who had not only had the idea for that, but the skill to do it. Maybe I’d ask Valerie if I remembered.

  Shifting a bit, I looked more at the pile to see who was still on top of me. Mikyu, Banette, and Sliggoo were piled on my stomach. Although I could barely see them over the top of Primarina’s head. Everyone else seemed to have gone off, which meant that Primarina had probably been woken up by Scoly and adjusted rather than getting up.

  I reached up to gently stroke her hair. A smile pulled at the corner of her mouth as she shifted, and I heard her mumble a soft, “Papa…”

  That easily brought a smile to my face. I still wasn’t used to the thought that I essentially had a bunch of children now, but it was nice. “Are you gonna let me up?” I asked softly.

  She made a sort of thoughtful noise for a moment. “No.”

  I snorted, continuing to pet her. This was probably her way of showing that she was upset that I hadn’t been giving her enough attention. That had been the unfortunate case lately. A lot of things were happening in rapid succession, and I wasn’t giving any them enough attention. Probably why they’d been rather rowdy the day prior. Or maybe they were just restless? There was a ton of tension still lingering in the area.

  Or at least that’s what I thought before I looked over towards the tables. I was absolutely stunned for a moment, my brain trying to process what I was seeing. And the second that I figured it out, I burst into laughter.

  Pokebeans were scattered everywhere.

  Quite a few Pokemon were flopped over, clearly having overstuffed themselves and simply fallen over where they stood, Dee fretting over them. Those that were still upright were sprinting around nearby. It seemed Rio, Keo, and Scoly had somehow asserted themselves as some sort of leader amongst the younger pups, and they were happily chasing after them.

  Once I had gotten my laughter settled, I lifted Primarina off of me. She let out a few noises of annoyance, before I stopped, holding her mostly aloft. Was she always this light? Wait, was I always this strong?

  The little group on my stomach realized that I was getting up and quickly hopped off of my stomach, but I was so caught off guard that I didn’t move for a moment. I wasn’t actually expecting to be able to lift the seal. She gave me a rather perplexed look, staring down at me and probably wondering why I was just holding her up.

  With a bit of difficulty, I got up and just straight up lifted her off the ground, which got quite a loud noise of surprise out of her. Now that I had her in a princess carry, I could more accurately gauge my strength. Primarina was about one hundred pounds, a bit more if I had to guess. And while she wasn’t exactly light, she certainly wasn’t very difficult to carry.

  She put a flipper around my shoulder to help steady herself, her face red. “What are you doing?” she grumbled at me.

  There was a smirk on my face as I started to walk towards my bag, which had mysteriously appeared on the table. “Oh, well you seemed a bit touch starved, so I decided I’d indulge my favorite wet dog.”

  She let out quite the indignant huff, a few bubbles escaping her mouth as she did, but she didn’t complain further.

  When I finally reached my bag, I took note of the little passed out feline atop a throne of beans, her belly bulging slightly. Essy looked to be in both a state of bliss, and discomfort. Clearly having eaten far too many beans, but having enjoyed it too much to really care. “Bean gremlin,” I muttered.

  “I tried to dissuade them,” Cara said, suddenly standing beside me.

  I looked at her for a moment. “Uhuh…” Quite unceremoniously, I tossed Primarina up over my shoulder, now carrying her like a sack of potatoes. She made quite a few disgruntled noises, and slapped my legs lightly with her flippers to show her distress. I ignored her, and instead reached forward, plucking a small crumb of pokebean from the corner of Cara’s mouth.

  Her perplexed expression soon melted into one of horror as she realized what I was now holding in front of her. “I… uhm…”

  Without letting her finish, I shoved the little piece into her mouth. That caused her entire face to flush red. “How many beans have you eaten?”

  She stammered for a moment, trying to form a cohesive sentence, before managing to get out an embarrassed, “Three…”

  I just shook my head, ignoring the grumblings and slaps I was receiving from an irate seal as I checked the bean bag. To my surprise, there were still quite a lot in there. “How many did Burnet give me?” I mumbled.

  I’d already gone through so many, but even with what was probably a few hundred eaten, and hundreds more scattered about, there were still so many in the bag. Had she given me a few thousand, or something? She must have. The bag probably had an extremely high capacity and she seems to have filled it.

  Which again raised my curiosity. I picked one of the beans up off of the table and after a moment took a bite. Immediately I understood. It was… so good. A burst of flavors in my mouth that I could hardly describe at first. A sort of delicious tangy sweet that almost made me think of… barbecue sauce? Really, really, really good barbecue sauce. But there was also something more: chocolate. It had the same texture and crunch, a bit like biting into a high quality chocolate bar. It didn’t melt in your mouth like one, but there was definitely a hint of chocolate.

  “So… To sum up, pokebeans are like a darker chocolate covered in barbecue sauce, with the crunchy texture you would expect from something like an apple,” I mused to myself, taking another bite of the bean. “But better.”

  Cara gave me a puzzled look, watching as I ate the bean.

  Looking over at her, she quickly shied away from my gaze, her face still red. “What do these taste like to you?” I asked.

  She had a puzzled expression again. “Uhm? I dunno. I’ve never had anything comparable… They’re… Kinda sweet? But they’re also… mmm… Tangy?” She made a few more noises, unable to really put it into words.

  “Have you ever had barbecue sauce?”

  Her brow furrowed as she stared at me, her ears twitching. I wasn’t sure if I had ever seen her thinking this hard, but it was cute how her ears fidgeted as she thought. “No?”

  I nodded, taking another bite of the bean. Now that I was thinking about it… had I seen barbeque sauce at the Pokemart? There had been spices and I knew ketchup existed, since Ash’s Pikachu had been absolutely obsessed with it for a bit. But that was also in the episode Ash had a gun pointed at him. I hadn’t seen any firearms since arriving… I had too many questions, although when thinking about who I could ask I realized something. “Have you seen my phone?” I suddenly asked, changing the subject. I couldn’t remember where it had gone after my phone call with Farm Joy.

  Cara blinked at me, her eyes going to my bag. “I think it’s in your bag?”

  “Thank you,” I said as I looked through the pockets, finding it after a moment. I hesitated for a moment as I noted the time. It was almost ten. “Damn I overslept again… I’ve been sleeping in a lot lately.”

  “We’ve all been tired,” Primarina said from somewhere behind me. “You especially.”

  I sighed softly and looked over at Dee, who was nearby scolding one of the many dogs about over indulging, and how they needed to pace themselves when eating. It looked like she had been at that for a while now. “Dee?”

  She looked over, tilting her head. “Yes?”

  A smile crept onto my face. “We’re gonna go to the Pokecenter real quick so you can get a full checkup before your battle.”

  There was a bit of a frown on her face before she nodded, taking a deep breath. “Okay.”

  “Has everyone had their pokeblocks?” I asked as I flipped Primarina back into a princess carry, which got another noise of alarm out of her.

  She started to lightly slap at my chest. “Stop flipping me around!” she complained.

  I laughed, and did a twirl, using her tail to slap Cara as I did. The look of utter indignation the blue canine gave me was even funnier. She was clearly going to complain at me before I shoved Primarina onto her, causing the two to topple over. “Hey!” Cara exclaimed.

  “Rude!” Primarina added, but it wasn’t long before the two of them were laughing.

  Trying to shake off this tense and uncomfortable funk was difficult, but messing around with everyone definitely made me feel better and lifted the mood.

  Dee just looked baffled at the interaction, but she was also clearly amused. “I think everyone has?” She answered my previous question.

  “Good. Come on.” I gently rubbed her head. “We can even spend some time at the Pokecenter.”

  That got an even bigger smile on her face. “Okay.”

  “Cara,” I turned to watch the struggling dog. I knew she had the physical strength to lift Primarina, but the seal was not about to make it easy for her, squirming and pushing at her in order to sabotage her attempts to get up. There was a moment where I thought about changing who I was about to leave in charge, but everyone else was either liable to cause more problems, or passed out. “Keep everyone in here, and try to keep them from burning the building down, okay?”

  She looked up at me, an exaggerated look of betrayal on her face. “Help?” she asked, gesturing at Primarina.

  “Good luck,” I said as I pulled on my coat. “Let’s go, Dee.” I grabbed my bag as I made my way towards the door.

  “Help?!” Cara called out, a bit more concern in her voice as she started wrestling the seal.

  Dee looked conflicted, but quickly waddled after me as I held the door open for her. She went out first, and I looked back to the two on the ground. “Alright, Primarina,” I called out. “Let her up.”

  Both of them looked over at me, and the large seal huffed exaggeratedly as she rolled off of Cara. I gave a bit of a nod and let the door close.

  Getting out of the gym was actually pretty easy since there were a lot of signs, but I worried I was going to struggle to find that room again. Dee walked beside me as we went, and she seemed… worried. Hesitant maybe?

  Looking at her out of the corner of my eye, I watched how she kept glancing towards me, and then back forward. It took a few glances before I noticed that she was looking at my hand. So I reached down, and grasped her hand. She tensed for a brief moment when I grabbed it, but then relaxed and seemed to smile a bit more.

  “You don’t have to be nervous,” I said, squeezing her hand a bit.

  She sighed, though she chose not to say anything until we were properly outside of the gym. The receptionist seemed very confused to see me exit, but the two of us just waved.

  Once out on the street, Dee spoke up, “I can’t help it…”

  “I know. I’m just letting you know you don’t have to be.” I could feel her grip tighten.

  “But I am… And I… Arceus, I’m so nervous that I was about to beg that you hold my hand,” she said with a tired tone. “I used to do this with my children all the time, but now I’m on the other side.”

  I nearly stumbled a bit when she said that, because I had completely forgotten that she had children. I have no idea how I forgot that, since it had been her children who had asked me to help her. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting a bit of comfort,” I said with a smile down at her. “If you want to hold my hand, or need a hug, I’m not going to say no.”

  She let out a slow breath. “I think I need a hug…” she muttered.

  Without any further prompting I knelt down, wrapping my arms around her. She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly as she pressed into me. I rubbed her back as I simply let her decompress. It was pretty clear to me that she was stressing herself out.

  After a few minutes she started to pull away and I loosened my hug so that she could. “Better?”

  She didn’t give a verbal response, just nodding before grasping my hand again.

  I smiled at her as we continued walking. And it wasn’t much longer before we reached the Pokecenter. It was empty, aside from the Nurse Joy behind the counter.

  “Hello, welcome. How can I help you?” she asked, giving me a smile. However I immediately noticed it didn’t reach her eyes. There was a faint darkness under her eyes, and they were a bit puffy.

  “Are you alright, Joy?” I asked as we came up to the counter.

  Her smile faltered for a split second, before reasserting itself. “Yes. I’m quite alright, just-” she hesitated, “Some difficult news.”

  “About the sticker system?” I guessed.

  Her smile faltered again as she looked a bit puzzled at me, and then seemed to notice Dee for the first time. “Ah. You’re-” her voice cracked, and she cleared her throat, her smile was gone and her expression was now rather sad. “You’re Jason. Right… Yeah.” Her voice had gone a lot softer now and she was staring at the table in front of her rather than at me.

  “Would you like to talk about it?” I asked softly.

  Her gaze flicked up at me before she took a deep, shaky breath. “Do you mind?” she asked, gesturing behind her to the door.

  “Not at all,” I said as I rounded the desk, Dee practically pulling me along.

  While I had been through this door before, I had been a lot deeper and hadn’t gone into the small side room. It was a small sitting room just inside, probably where Joy’s took brief rests when they weren’t actively doing something. Just a little place to relax while they waited for Trainer’s. There was even a little screen that displayed the Pokecenter’s entrance.

  She sat down in one of the plush seats, and I sat down nearby. “I… I just…” She went quiet for a moment. “We received the new procedure last night,” she began, her voice quite low. “A lot of Joy’s have been put on leave for their mental health.” She swallowed. “Especially those in the older crowds.”

  I remained quiet as she spoke, but reached out my free hand towards her. She glanced at it, seeing Dee holding onto my other and realized what I was offering.

  To my surprise, she took it quickly, clearly needing some sort of physical affirmation at this moment. She had one hell of a grip. “I just feel so lost… And I keep asking myself… How many?” Tears were welling up in her eyes, but she was apparently refusing to let them fall right now. “How many did I kill? How many did we all kill? How many are suffering… because they know… they’ll be put down?”

  Now the tears were starting to fall and I squeezed her hand.

  “And I can’t stop crying,” she mumbled, using her other hand to wipe her face. “None of us wanted to do it…”

  “I know,” I said softly.

  “It was all just stupid procedure. And procedure is what saves lives. That’s what we’re taught. Six years of schooling.” She was still wiping at her face. “And they fucking lied. They said it gets easier. And it doesn’t. It doesn’t get easier. Every time I had to do it I felt like I was carving off a part of myself.”

  I had to let go of Dee’s hand in order to grab hold of Joy’s other hand to stop her from rubbing at her face like that. She was going to cause problems with how hard she was rubbing, as if she could scrub the tears out of her face. What little makeup she had on was now completely smeared and ruined. “Hey, hey…” I said softly. “Breathe with me.”

  I started to take in slow breaths, holding them for a few seconds before letting them out slowly, holding it out, and then repeating. To help focus on me and the timing I moved her hands in a matching rhythm.

  It took several minutes for her to calm back down, and I patiently continued the breathing pattern until I was sure she had. “Better?” I asked softly.

  She looked at me, and then let out a breathy sort of laugh. “You’re really good at this sort of thing,” she mumbled, pulling one of her hands free to grab some nearby tissues and wipe her face. “Are…” She seemed hesitant to ask, but after taking a deep breath, she continued, “Are those Pokemon okay?”

  “Yes,” I said with a nod. “Some of them are in better shape mentally than others… But overall, they’re all okay.”

  She took in a shaky breath before nodding. “Can… Can I see them?”

  A smile pulled a bit at the corner of my mouth. “They’re currently residing in Valerie’s gym. I decided that part of their recovery is allowing them a lot of time out of their pokeball to make them comfortable and reassure them that they’re okay.”

  “You just… Left them alone?” she questioned, concern clearly in her tone.

  “My other Pokemon are there, aside from Dee. Valerie and I have a battle today, and I wanted Dee at one hundred percent before.” She looked over at the pink Pokemon who gave her a smile and took her other hand.

  She looked at Dee for a moment before smiling. “Right. Right…” She took a few more deep breaths. “Right. Okay. Let’s make sure you’re all tip top.”

  For the first time, I was actually allowed to watch the full process. I had to hand over Dee’s pokeball, which made sense, and Joy returned her to it. She placed it into a rather large and odd machine. It was reminiscent of what I’d seen in the anime, with an odd sort of table with divots in it. However it was enclosed.

  Joy closed the lid, and took a seat at a computer that was attached to the machine. The lights of the room dimmed and the table glowed. I couldn’t even make out what was being displayed as code flooded the screen like in some sort of cheesy hacker movie. It was another reminder of just how absurd some of the technology was in this world. I was literally looking at what Dee was made of.

  “Does this work on humans?” I asked softly, trying to catch even the slightest details. I did notice that while most of the text was green on a black background, some sections of code were different colors. Blue and red were all I could really catch.

  “Technically it could?” she replied, typing away. “If a pokeball was capable of capturing a human, then it could in theory. Although, technically that is possible… if extremely unethical.”

  I blinked at her. “Humans can be caught in pokeballs?”

  “A Masterball, yeah. They’re extremely powerful, and the only thing of forcefully capturing and controlling a true Legendary.” I noticed that she was focusing on the red lines, and… rewriting them? She was literally overwriting injuries?

  “That’s pretty terrifying…”

  She giggled a bit. “Well, you’ve nothing to worry about. No one would waste a Masterball on capturing a human. They cost billions, and there’s only a few in circulation. Well, I can’t even say circulation as they’re all occupied. At least, all the ones we Joy's are aware of.”

  And I broke one. The Yellow clan probably hated my entire being. “And you’re just able to… rewrite this code?”

  “Mmm pretty much…” She made a sort of thoughtful noise. “Although it’s more like… influencing the code? It’s difficult to explain… And it wasn’t really something I paid too much attention to during my schooling.”

  I snorted. “No, I get that. It’s hard to remember everything you learned in school. But it is strangely fascinating…”

  She nodded. “Pokeballs are an interesting sort of technology. They’ve advanced and changed so much throughout the centuries. The technology of making the original pokeballs was lost a long time ago. All we know is it had something to do with spacial storage, and suspended animation. Nowadays, Pokemon are digitized into data, and-” she paused. “I’m surprised you don’t know this?”

  With a chuckle, I rubbed the back of my neck. “Not my area of study. While I think it’s fascinating, I’ve never really needed to know this stuff?” All of this sounded like some weird sci-fi nonsense. But then again, I was literally carrying some sort of high tech spacial bag that, as far as I understood, folded space to create some sort of large area. It sounded like straight up magic…

  “Yeah. Okay. Fair.” Her fingers were flying across the odd keyboard. It wasn’t qwerty, and had a lot of symbols that I didn’t recognize. “I guess the only reason I really know as much as I do is the Pokeball Factory is just up north and a lot of those sciency guys come in a lot.”

  That’s right… that was close by. Maybe I could get a tour of the building? But I wanted to get back to the part that interested me. “Okay, so you’re influencing the code. How much can you do?”

  “Honestly quite a bit, but not that much in the grand scheme…” She sighed a bit. “We can help the healing process a lot, and make it more efficient. Remove scrapes, cuts, and bruises. Turn broken bones into fractures. More severe external injuries require actual sprays, and maybe some surgery if they’re super bad. Then we can put them back in the machine and heal that up. More internal things are difficult, like we can't completely heal fractures, or missing organs. But we can heal damage to the internals. We also can't restore missing limbs.”

  Part of her explanation stuck with me. How in the hell did I forget about potion sprays? Why am I just remembering those exist right now? Hello? Knowledge? Is that not part of whatever nonsense power I have? I sighed heavily, shaking my head. “I need to remember to pick up some sprays when I go shopping.”

  Joy nodded before seeming to be done with whatever she was doing and the screen went blank as the lights came back on. “They’re good to have on hand,” she said as she wheeled her chair over to the case and lifted the lid. She released Dee before handing me the pokeball. “Well, she is in extremely good shape. She doesn’t have any current injuries, but she shows a lot of signs of previously healed muscle strain.”

  Dee fidgeted. “It’s not that bad…” she muttered.

  I rubbed her head, smiling. “She trains hard. Probably harder than any of my other Pokemon, if I’m to be honest.”

  Joy nodded. “It’s not bad, and it seems like you’re pacing her well in her training.” She hesitated for a moment, glancing between the two of us. “I’ve honestly never seen an Audino with that amount of muscles.”

  The Pokemon in question went red and I rubbed her head more. “She practically lives in training weights, so I’m not surprised.”

  The nurse nodded. “That would do it… What does she usually have?”

  “She’s maxed out the one hundred pounds one we have, so we need to get the more advanced one.” While I wasn’t sure if Dee had truly gotten used to the maxed out weight, it was good to start looking at the more advanced ones anyways. Then I’d have to see who wanted to wear the old one.

  Joy gaped for a moment before regaining her composure. “That… That would definitely do it.” She glanced between the two of us again. “Anyways… Her diet is very good. Like, immensely good. I have to ask, who do you go to for nutritional advice?”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “Ah- uh…” I hesitated. It looked like Joy was about to say something before I spoke, “I do all that. I make customized pokeblocks for all of my Pokemon, and make sure they have all of their dietary needs met.”

  Again she gaped for a moment, but recovered quicker this time. “I… I see. Well, you are the Pokemon Expert I guess.”

  I chuckled a bit, and nodded. “Pokemon are my area of expertise,” I agreed.

  She smiled at that, though it didn’t last for long. “Can I… Can I ask you about… About the things? With the… stickers?”

  “Of course,” I said with a nod.

  Joy took several deep breaths, clearly trying to calm herself. “What do I do? I mean, I read the memo, got the basic instructions, but… But I just need to hear it…”

  “The first thing you need to do is reassure. They are not being put down, and they need to be told that,” I started, and then spent the next hour explaining how to go about things. What to avoid saying, what to do in certain extreme scenarios. Finally I ended with what I thought was the most important point, “And they are not being put down. You need to completely put that option out of your head. That’s the mindset you need. The only time any of them should ever be put down is if they’re suffering and can’t be saved. And even then, it should be their choice.”

  She was a bit teary eyed again, but nodded. “Okay. I’m… I’m going to be talking about this with as many Joy’s as I can. That’s alright, right?”

  I smiled. “Please do.”

  I didn’t think there was much left to talk with Joy about. Until she started asking me more about therapy, and psychology. We fell into a discussion on how to deal with trauma, followed by explaining the varied reactions from the wolf pack and how they were soothed. Then she asked something that really surprised me. “Can I… have some of them?”

  That got me to pause and think. While I had considered it, turning members of the wolf pack into therapy dogs to help soothe others that are rescued seemed like a long term goal. It was going to be incredibly difficult. “Are you sure?”

  She didn’t respond verbally and just nodded.

  “It wouldn’t be easy. Not at all,” I started slowly. “They are traumatized. They’re untrusting, and might act aggressive. They might even lash out at you.”

  Again she nodded, taking a deep breath. “I… I just have to… I have to help them. We need to have a better program and I’m willing to do the work.”

  I looked at her for a moment. Her makeup was still smudged and she had a pained expression, but… she seemed sincere. “I’ll talk with them about it. And if any of them agree, there are going to be a lot of things I’ll have to explain. Rules. Restrictions. Do’s and don'ts.”

  “Right. Yeah. Okay. I can do that. I can… Even if it’s going to be extremely difficult and a lot of work, this will be for the best,” she said as she sat up a bit straighter. “I’m a professional, and this should be part of my job.”

  A smile pulled a bit at the corner of my mouth and I nodded. “Alright. Just don’t feel bad if none of them want to come,” I said as I fished around a moment in my pocket to pull out my phone. While I had the device out, I checked the time and found I still had thirty minutes until the battle. “Okay, give me your number so I can text you about it.” I held the phone out to her, more of a smile on my face.

  Joy returned my smile and took my phone, quickly adding herself to my contacts before handing it back. I glanced at the contact and noted her name was Evelyne Joy. “I’ll discuss it with the other Joy’s stationed here, but I’m sure they’d all be willing to help out.”

  I nodded. “Good. You’ll probably also have Valerie’s help, considering she seems invested in the dogs.”

  That got a bit of a giggle from her before she stood up. “Right. Let me see you out.”

  Dee was quiet as we left the Pokecenter, but she did grab hold of my hand once we were outside. I started to walk back towards the gym, but was unable to get very far. She didn’t seem entirely ready to start walking, and held me there. It was at that moment that I realized I wasn’t going anywhere unless she let me.

  Her grip wasn’t tight, but it was firm, her expression rather blank. Although her brow was furrowed, like she was thinking about something but unsure how to feel about her own thoughts. “Would Flare attack this Pokecenter if they had some of their dogs?” she asked suddenly, looking up at me.

  I reached up and started to rub the top of her head. “Maybe. But I don’t think so,” I said softly, giving her a big smile. “Especially not after we’re done with them.”

  She tilted her head to the side, both in confusion and also to lean more into my touch. “What are we going to do?”

  “Well, since a lot of the wolf pack seems rather on a revenge path, that I’m sure Cara is encouraging, we’re going to put as big a dent in the organization that we can.” I crouched down a bit in order to be eye to eye with her. “And that means a lot more Pokemon. And while I love those fluff balls of trauma, I’m not going to be able to do much more on my own. So we’re going to be taking a bit of a risk at the start.”

  Her expression became a bit more sour as I explained that, but after a moment she nodded. “It’s necessary…” she mumbled.

  “It is,” I agreed with a nod.

  I expected that to be enough, but she still refused to move. “So… we’re going after them?”

  I smiled at her and nodded. “Yes.” I stood up straight, looking down at her. After squeezing her hand, I asked, “Now, are you ready?”

  She stared at me for a moment, her brow furrowing. “Now? We’re going after them now?”

  A snort escaped me and I shook my head. “No.” I rubbed her head a bit hard. “For your battle.”

  She continued to stare at me for a moment longer before it seemed like she suddenly realized what I meant and her eyes widened a bit. “I- what- wait. Oh…” Her face turned from pink and cream to red. “I forgot about that…”

  Watching Pokemon blush was actually quite interesting. While I hadn’t given it much thought, as I was smiling down at Dee I took a bit more notice of it. The blush itself was like a slight haze that tinged their face. On a person it was caused by blood rushing to the face. Maybe it was some sort of energy acting like the same? That would suggest that a Pokemon’s energy was stored in their blood, which made sense. I should ask a Nurse Joy about it. Or maybe I could ask Dee?

  “Wh-why are you looking at me like that?” Dee mumbled, trying not to make eye contact.

  “You’re blushing quite a bit,” I said with a bit of a smirk.

  That just made her turn even more red and she let go of my hand to cover her face. “And?” She sounded both exhausted and offended that I would bring it up.

  I rubbed her head. “Just curious how it worked, considering your face is furred. And Scoly has her exoskeleton, but I’ve seen her blush as well.”

  Her face had lost a lot it’s blush now as her hands slowly dropped down, her face scrunched up in thought. “Well, energy and blood have a lot of similarities, and travel through the same channels.”

  “So energy flows through the veins?” I questioned, now quite interested in the subject.

  “Sort of? It’s more like energy flows along the actual vein, while blood flows inside it,” she explained.

  “Fascinating.” I had managed to coax her into walking as we talked now that she had something to focus on. Sometimes I forget that she was trained to be a nurse and worked as one for a time. Although I wasn’t entirely sure how long she did, since that was a very sensitive topic. But it was nice to see that she was enthusiastic about it. “So as energy control increases, and becomes more powerful, what happens to the veins and arteries?”

  “Research about that is actually pretty inconclusive, because it seems to vary depending on Pokemon species category. Canine Pokemon tend to end up with veins that have increased in density more than anything else. However, bipedal Pokemon have tougher veins. And then bipedal canine Pokemon have more of a balance.” It was obvious she was bringing this up because of Cara and Rio. “And then most insect Pokemon, that have an exoskeleton like Scoly, have tough veins but also more. And some veins don’t even carry blood, and are just used for energy.”

  “That partially explains why Pokemon get tougher as they get better at using energy,” I mused. The energy is physically conditioning their body and increasing how tough they are, down to their veins.

  She nodded. “Yes. It’s honestly an interesting field of study, though I didn’t really do more than dip a few toes in,” she said, giggling at her own little joke.

  “Well it’s more than I knew.” I smiled down at her, rubbing the top of her head again.

  We paused outside of the gym, and I looked at her for a moment. She had stopped, looking up at the tree that the gym was built in front of. I could practically see the way her nerves unraveled. She was scared, but I wasn’t sure if it was more of the fight or of losing.

  “You’ll do great,” I said softly, placing a hand on her back and giving her a little push.

  The lobby had quite a few more people in it this time, including Valerie. “There you are!” she called out before jogging over.

  I raised an eyebrow. “Yes? I wanted to make sure Dee was in top shape before the battle and went to the Pokecenter. Got a bit distracted talking with Joy.”

  She huffed. “I went to the training room looking for you and got worried when there were only Pokemon,” she complained before slapping me with one of her costume wings. “Come on.” Immediately she turned and started walking.

  Quickly I followed after her, chuckling a bit. “Sorry. I can imagine that was a bit worrying. But I wasn’t expecting to take that long. I’m still early for our battle.”

  Again she let out a sort of huff, but this time it sounded like more of a laugh. “I guess. But I don’t know if you can imagine how it felt to open the door and call out for you, only to get stared at by a few dozen Pokemon?” Her entire costume shuddered a bit. “It was terrifying. They all were looking at me like I was intruding. In my own building.”

  “They’ve probably associated the space as a safe place, and you’re mostly a stranger to them,” I explained. “So they probably did think that. I’ll have to properly introduce you to them later so they understand that you’re safe.”

  “Safe?” She questioned as we entered a massive room. It was like a mixture of a zen garden and martial arts arena. Four large bridges crossed sand rivers and that led to the center arena. It was almost completely identical to the one from the anime, the big difference is that on the upper platform there were rows of seating, and much to my surprise, a few dozen people in the audience.

  “They’ve been through a lot, and most of them are very untrusting.” I glanced around, seeing the cameras and the people look over towards us. “We’ll talk more after.”

  While I made my way across the arena, Dee following behind, I nearly tripped when I heard a very familiar voice. “This is an official gym battle between the Gym Leader Valerie, and the Pokemon Expert Jason,” the referee announced, pointing out both sides. The same referee. The same exact referee. “One on one. I or the Trainer will determine if a Pokemon is unable to continue battling. Expert and Gym Leader have already decided on their chosen Pokemon.”

  Okay that was literally the same referee. Or maybe they were like the Joy’s and Jenny’s? Was there a clan of Referees? Not something that I can focus on right now.

  I turned, standing in the Trainer position, Dee stood just on the other side of the line in the arena, wringing her hands nervously. On the other side, Valerie had already released Ren, the Sylveon looking ready to go. I could hear some of the audience voice their confusion. This was known as a high level gym, so one on ones were definitely not the norm. And the fact that we had discussed which Pokemon was probably even weirder.

  Although a lot of the confusion was at Dee and her appearance. While I hardly noticed them anymore, a lot of her scars were fairly visible. Plus, Audino’s weren’t known to be battling Pokemon. Just wait until I find a piece of Audinite.

  “Ready?” The referee called.

  “Ready!” Valerie announced, doing a sort of cutesy pose with her wings outstretched and a leg raised like some kind of magical girl pose. I couldn’t imagine doing something like that, especially on camera, but the audience seemed to love it judging by their cheers.

  A bit of a smile pulled at the corner of my mouth. “Ready,” I said with a nod.

  The referee glanced at the both of us as he raised his hand. “Begin!” he shouted as he dropped the hand.

  Dee immediately locked up from the shout, and the Sylveon immediately took advantage of the hesitation, clearly taking my prior warning seriously. He rushed forward, ribbons launching forward and wrapping around Dee. But then he froze. His face scrunched in concentration, the ribbons glowing white.

  He was trying to lift her, but was finding he couldn’t. So instead he pulled himself forward, slamming into her at full force, causing her to stagger back. The spots where the paws hit had a soft white glow to them, evidence of the attack used.

  But Dee just stood there.

  “Dee,” I said softly. She looked back slightly at me, her expression one of confusion. Like she was lost. I didn’t want to resort to yelling at her again, so I needed to think of something else. “The only way I’m going to be disappointed with you over the outcome of this battle, is if you don’t fight back.”

  She nodded before turning back, She only hesitated a few more seconds before actually running at Ren. His eyes widened a bit and he leapt out of the way as Dee’s glowing fist slammed into the area he was in.

  And the ground exploded.

  Mega Punch, if I had to guess. It was one of the harder hitting moves that she knew, and was actually confident in using.

  The audience had gone silent at the show of strength, and the only noise for a moment was the sound of bits of the arena clattering against things.

  Ren’s mouth hung open as he gaped for that moment, his eyes darting from the new hole, to Dee, to me, and then back. Now he was definitely going to take this seriously.

  When Dee looked up towards him, he leapt backwards, little sparks of energy appearing around him and launching at his opponent. The little stars slammed into Dee, but she hardly seemed to notice as she kept her focus. The pink energy of psychic removing any marks left by previous attacks.

  This didn’t go unnoticed by the canine as he continued to fire the little sparky stars at her as she tried to close the distance. But he wasn’t letting her, using the clear advantage of his speed to keep distance.

  That was just annoying her, and she took a page out of Diancie’s book, slamming her foot down suddenly and causing cracks to form. In a swift motion she dug her fingers into a crack and hefted a chunk of the arena floor up. It was almost twice her size and she pitched it with the practiced aim of someone who had spent literal days throwing rocks.

  While it certainly caught Ren off guard, he was able to easily leap out of the way. However Dee hadn’t remained stationary after throwing it. She had used it as cover as she ran forward. His eyes went wide for a moment before she twisted and slammed her little foot into his side. Mega Kick wasn’t something she had a lot of practice in, because her legs were so small she said it was difficult.

  Of course that didn’t really matter and the move sent Ren careening into the wall. The bang he made was so loud that I swore it shook the building. It took a moment for the dust to settle, and when it did we all could see as he used his ribbons to pull himself from the crater. He was scuffed up, for sure, but honestly didn’t look that much worse for wear.

  Suddenly he slammed into Dee, having practically shot himself from his point and into her. She staggered a bit from the Quick Attack, and attempted to retaliate with another punch, but he used her as a springboard to make distance again.

  I made a mental note that I needed Dee to practice some ranged moves as they fell back into the same routine of him using Swift while she tried to close the distance. She tried the rock throw again, but he wasn’t going to fall for the same trick. In fact, it occurred to me that Dee hardly knew any moves. She didn’t grow up battling, so she didn’t learn many. That was definitely a mistake on my part.

  “Focus on hitting him instead of distracting,” I called. Immediately she switched to throwing smaller rocks at my prompting, returning fire in response to the Swift’s the Sylveon was sending at her. But she wasn’t even using rock energy when throwing the stones, which was making it easier for Ren to dodge. Her hands were glowing white with the normal attuned energy in order to lift and throw them so easily, but that was only helping her throw, not hit.

  Valerie seemed to be getting concerned, as a lot of the rocks were pretty close to hitting, and Dee was just healing through every hit that she took. It was a battle of attrition; who had more energy, and Ren was already at a disadvantage because while the nurse Pokemon had taken more hits, the Sylveon was the one with damage.

  And the canine was getting tired from the constant dodging. Some of the rocks were starting to clip him and it wouldn’t be long before Dee started hitting. “Ren, we need to lower her accuracy!”

  That was the biggest mistake they could have possibly made, and I winced when Ren hit Dee with a Mud-Slap.

  She froze, rock hefted in the air and prepped for throwing. There was an odd sort of tenseness in the air as the arena fell silent, the only noise was the rock hitting the ground as it slipped from her grasp. Again Ren tried to take advantage of her nonmoving state to grab her. I wasn’t sure what his goal was, but I’m sure he wasn’t expecting for his ribbons to be snatched out of the air.

  Dee held the Sylveon’s ribbons with one hand, using the other to wipe some of the mud from her face. She looked absolutely furious. Ren was trying to pull his ribbons back, but that was only causing him to slide towards her, his little paws not being able to find enough purchase on the battered arena floor.

  Then he saw her face, and his ears folded back, pupils dilating, as he realized his mistake too late.

  Far too late.

  She yanked his ribbons, pulling him forward, and pulling her fist back in one motion. “Why mud?!” she screamed as she slammed her fist into the rapidly approaching canine. Ren hit the ground hard enough to not only form a small crater, but bounce back up when the ground couldn’t give anymore from the force of the blow.

  Of course Dee wasn’t done, grabbing the ribbons in both hands and twisting around to face the other way. With an overhead pull and swing, she slammed him into the ground.

  I was more than a little surprised to see him slowly trying to get to his feet, only to get another Mega Kick to the side and be launched away. But he didn’t hit the wall this time as the ribbons hit their maximum extension in his dazed state. It was interesting that they only extended so far if he wasn’t concentrating on them. And Dee was making it impossible to concentrate.

  She yanked him back, letting go of the ribbons and stuck out her arm, clotheslining him as he was going to fly past her. The move sent him spinning in the air, and he continued to spin for a moment after hitting the floor.

  He staggered to his feet, head spinning from the blows and the aerial summersaults that he’d just been forced to perform.

  But there was no way that Dee was about to let him regain his balance now that he was within range to grab. Her arms wrapped around his lower waist, and she threw herself back as she suplexed him into one of the craters she’d made.

  She rolled over, coming back onto her feet. This time, before Ren even had a chance to get up, she reached down. One of her hands grabbed hold of his tail, while the other grabbed the scruff of his neck before she hefted him into the air. Her arms weren’t long enough to lift him over her head, but as her body shimmered and lit up into a burst of shining white energy with swirls of pink, I could tell this was going to hurt.

  Suddenly she leapt several meters up into the air. Just at the peak of her jump she pitched him down at the ground, creating another crater next to one of the many others she had made. Then all of the energy that was swirling around her suddenly snapped to her fist, glowing brighter than anything I’d seen her do as of yet.

  Was she mimicking Scoly’s Meteor Horn? She had combined her normal and psychic energy together into whatever this was. I guess I couldn’t say that Scoly was the only one in my group to combine moves now.

  And apparently she’d named it. “Giga Psyshock!” she shouted as she came down.

  The entire arena crackled with energy when she struck. I had to close my eyes from the brightness of the move, but when I managed to look, I could see Dee standing there, Ren in the crater. He had blocked it with his ribbons. Or at least tried to. That, and it looked like he had used Endure to prevent himself from being KO’d.

  Dee was breathing hard, but so was he as the two stared at each other, unmoving. “I think that’s enough,” Valerie called out, sounding more than a little worried. Both Pokemon looked over at her, like they couldn’t believe what she was saying, although while Dee looked confused, Ren looked offended. “Ren can’t keep fighting,” she explained hurriedly.

  It looked like the Sylveon in question wanted to argue, but as he jumped to his feet and opened his mouth to retort his eyes rolled back and he slumped to the ground. “Sylveon is unable to battle!” the referee called. “The winner is Pokemon Expert Jason!”

  I flinched at the sudden noise from the crowd. I’d forgotten they were even there. They were… cheering? Well, most of them were cheering. Some of them were apparently booing, or complaining about the fight.

  Walking over to Dee, I looked her over. She was staring down at Ren, clearly unsure of what just happened. “There’s an injured Pokemon,” I said as I put my hand on her shoulder. “Don’t you have another job to do?”

  There was a moment as her brain seemed to reboot at my words and she suddenly jolted. “Right!” She moved to Ren and began to check him over, using her Heal Pulse to help him recover.

  Valerie walked over, sighing. “I can see why you gave him a warning. If he had treated this battle like he usually did, she would have mopped the floor with him.”

  I nodded. “This was confirmation of a theory I had.”

  “Oh?” She looked at Dee, and then around at the crowd. “Is it… uh… something you want kept private?”

  Following her gaze, I noticed that a lot of people were listening. I shook my head. “Nah, information should be shared.”

  She giggled. “Well, you are a teacher,” she mused, sounding interested.

  I smiled a bit. “Yes, well. Anyways, I had a theory that a Pokemon has to sort of circulate their energy to actually be able to fully utilize it. Because energy strengthens and toughens a Pokemon, if they are ready to use it they fight better. So a Pokemon who is ready for a battle and ready to do their best will be stronger and tougher than a Pokemon who isn’t taking the fight seriously. That’s what happened during my battle with Olympia. Her Pokemon weren’t prepared to fight with everything they had, and by the time they realized it was serious, they’d already taken a beating.”

  “So… Ren did better because he was expecting a difficult fight?” Valerie asked, clearly interested. “That sounds like the Battle Focus Theory.”

  Now it was my turn to be interested. “Battle Focus Theory?”

  She nodded. “It’s a fairly old theory that says something similar. Pokemon fight better when they are focused on the battle.”

  I nodded. “Yes, that sounds pretty similar.”

  “And it is a confirmed thing that the more energy a Pokemon has the stronger they are,” Valerie added. “But I never really considered that circulating it before a fight would actually make them fight better.”

  “I think that’s why my Pokemon have been seemingly better than anyone else they’ve faced. Most of their opponents aren’t expecting a difficult fight,” I explained.

  She nodded. “That makes sense.” She suddenly straightened up. “Anyways. Pokemon Expert Jason, for beating me and proving that you are on a high level, I offer to you the Elite Fairy Badge,” she said as she retrieved the badge and held it out to me.

  With a smile, I took it. “Thank you. It was a good fight.”

  “I’m tired,” Dee complained.

  “Everything hurts,” Ren added, now awake again.

  Valerie giggled. “Well, you wanted a fight.”

  I smiled a bit more. “Ah, right. I wanted to talk to you about some things, if you have time? And I’ll introduce you to the dogs.”

  She smiled at me. “Of course. I’ve got some time before my next battle.”

  Back in the training room turned dog shelter, Cara was in front of me the moment I entered the room. “You didn’t say you were going to be gone that long,” she scolded, checking me over as if she was expecting stab wounds.

  “Sorry,” I said with a short laugh. “Got distracted by Joy. Speaking of which,” I turned to Valerie, who was looking at the wolf pack. They were a bit more tense than when it was just me, but me being there was thankfully a source of safety to them so they didn’t seem too distressed. “I spoke with one of the Joy’s, Evelyne, and she wants to help with recovered Pokemon. I wanted to know if you wanted to help as well?”

  Valerie stared at me for a moment before a big smile came onto her face. “Of course! I’d love to help. What would I need to do?”

  “Well, mostly it would be supplying space and food,” I admitted, which caused her excitement to deflate a bit. “But I’m sure Nurse Joy would love some assistance in actually helping with the actual Pokemon. Especially since you can talk to some of them.”

  Her excitement returned and she nodded. “Yeah. I can do that.”

  I nodded as I pulled out my phone, and texted Evelyne. ‘Hey, this is Jason. Just letting you know that Valerie wants to help out and is willing to offer space and financial support. I think that we can do a lot more than just let you have some of the dogs. Is it alright if I give her your number?’ I put my phone away, planning to wait for a reply.

  Now there was something else to discuss. I smirked a bit, looking at Valerie out of the corner of my eye. “Now then… About our bet.”

  Valerie jolted, trying to avoid looking in my direction. “Bet? What bet?”

  I snorted. “Don’t give me that. I won. So you have to confess to this crush of yours.”

  She squirmed uncomfortably. “I… but… I don’t even know what to say. How would I even do it?”

  “Just send them a text, asking for a date,” I suggested with a wave of my hand.

  She fumbled for a moment before pulling out her phone. I watched as she went to her contacts, and then just stared at it.

  Before I had a chance to say anything, there was a soft ping from my phone. The noise caused Valerie to flinch slightly, but calm when she realized it wasn’t her phone. I pulled out mine and read the message. ‘Oh thats great! Fantastic! Wonderful! I have two other Joys that want to help, so were getting permission from the Elder. Knowing we have Valeries help is great and will make that so much easier.” The lack of apostrophes was a bit annoying, but I supposed everyone texts differently.

  ‘Great. I’ll give her your number.’ I replied and put my phone away again.

  Looking over at Valerie, she was still staring at her phone. I sighed slightly, giving her a few minutes to work up the nerves. While she did mental gymnastics to try and send a simple text, I looked over at the wolf pack. There were still tons of beans scattered about, which was amusing, and they all seemed to have relaxed now that it was clear Valerie was fine.

  It looked like a few of them wanted to come over and talk with me, but didn’t want to while the other human was there. So to make them more comfortable I stepped away from her to give her space.

  Almost immediately Hate came up to me, with Malevolence right behind her. “We wish to make Team Flare suffer and rescue more of our fellows,” Hate said, a rather sadistic looking grin on her face.

  I nodded. “I figured you’d want to. I’m working on setting up a proper system to help out your… fellows. There’s a few Nurse Joy’s that want to keep you all safe, and happy, by going against the current system.”

  “Ah, rebels aligned with our cause,” Malevolence said with a sagely tone, nodding to herself.

  “Right…” I agreed hesitantly. “Anyways. Valerie also wants to help, so this is probably where you’ll all live for the time. Of course, the offers of finding Trainers or being released are still on the table.”

  “Some have voiced they want to stay with you,” Hate said, sounding a bit reluctant.

  “That’s fine, too. But anyone who stays with me is going to be training. A lot,” I emphasised.

  The two of them looked at each other and then nodded. “We will tell them,” Malevolence said.

  I nodded. “Now, how do you want to help?” I asked. I knew a bit of what their ideas were since I’d overheard them, but I wanted to hear it from them.

  Hate seemed to straighten up. “Being the Pokemon of a former Admin, I was taken to many places. I know the location of twenty six Flare bases.”

  Immediately my head spun a bit. That many? “And talking with everyone else, we have confirmed more,” Malevolence added. “We estimate thirty two in total. Although we think some of them may be overlaps.”

  Okay now my head was definitely spinning. There were that many bases? I guess that made sense since there were thousands of members, but seriously? That many? “Adria is going to hate me by the end of this,” I said with a chuckle.

  The two of them looked at each other, puzzled by the statement. “We are unsure how to explain their location… but we know that we could find them if we are brought nearby.”

  “That’s no problem,” I said with a bit of a smile. “We’ll do trips around Kalos and pinpoint them, and give the information to Officer Jenny. But before that, we need to get prepared for what is going to be a massive influx of Pokemon…”

  They both nodded. “We shall help in any way that we can,” Hate said.

  Malevolence expressed her agreement. “We wish to end them.”

  “I don’t know if we can do that… but we can cripple them,” I said with a smile and reached out a hand to each of them. I hesitated, unsure if they actually wanted to be pet. Malevolence huffed and walked away, but Hate pressed her head forward into my hand. I smiled a bit more as I rubbed between her ears. “Explain to everyone the plan then, and tomorrow we’ll introduce everyone to each other.”

  Hate nodded, enjoying the physical contact for a moment longer before stepping away and trotting off towards Impulsive and Smug.

  I turned my attention back to Valerie, who was still standing there. Just staring at her screen.

  With a sigh and a roll of my eyes, I walked over. “Did you send it?”

  She flinched, glancing at me and then looking away. “No… I just… I don’t know what to say. What if she doesn’t agree? Or thinks I’m weird, or something? She’s just…so cool…”

  I sighed, shaking my head. “Come on, Valerie. You won’t know if you don’t ask.”

  She didn’t move, staring at the ground now.

  “Okay.” She blinked, looking up at me. There was a hopeful expression on her face, which I immediately dashed as I snatched her phone. “I’ll do it for you.”

  “Ah! No!” She immediately tried to get her phone back, but I just held it up out of her reach. “Curse your height!” she cried, hopping up, but her fancy boots made the action practically useless.

  ‘Hey, I was just wondering if you’d like to go get coffee sometime?’ I typed on her phone and sent it.

  Valerie cried out some more. “No! You can’t do that!”

  I laughed, holding her phone up out of her reach. “Well, it’s not like you can stop me.”

  She continued to whine and complain until there was a soft ping and she froze. I looked up at the phone and read aloud. “Oh, Valerie! Long time no hang out. I’d love to go get some coffee. I’m in Lumiose this month. How about that one cafe you showed me next Tuesday? Noon?” I put her phone into her hand, a huge smile on my face. “There. Now you have a date Tuesday at noon.”

  Valerie remained quiet, stunned. I was worried for a moment that she had broken before she started muttering. “She agreed? She actually wants to see me?”

  “Of course she does,” I said with a smile, patting her on the shoulder.

  Her eyes seemed completely unfocused, her face was red, but she had a big, almost dopey smile on her face. “I have a date with Malva..."

  Lucario - The group mom

  Lucario - Craves violence

  Scolipede - Pokemon transport unit

  Primarina - Doing big seal things

  Audino - Wrestler extraordinaire, and a good nurse

  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.

  Houndour

  Guff

  Bleak

  Rascal

  Dilly

  Fret

  False

  Grubby

  Muddle

  Gabby

  Bungle

  Dwindle

  Crass

  Houndoom

  Poochyena

  Mightyena

  Sneasel

  Liepard - Big hungry cat