I was eight again, in a room with multiple other children ages ranging from six to fifteen. We were all dressed in completely white identical looking long sleeve shirts and baggy pajama pants. The room itself was a light blue colour with painted clouds on the ceiling.

All of us were sat down in a row, attention on the man with glasses in front of us. Contrary to us, the man was in an all black suit and dress pants. His name tag, which hung around his neck read “Rudolph Ludwig”. We were told to only address him as Dr. Ludwig, Mr. Ludwig or teacher.

Today Dr. Ludwig was once again teaching us the importance of our gift. How it was a miracle that we were born and we should be using our gift for a greater cause.

We were able to not only understand people but also any species of pokemon. This was the fundamental truth that separated us from normal people. We were better, better than the rest of the stuff that walked the earth. We were superior beings.

It was Dr. Ludwig’s job to extract any flaws or misled ways of thinking, and teach us how to be leaders of humanity.

In order to become better we would constantly be competing against each other in “games”. Today's game was pretty simple, chess. Some days we would be playing a mock quiz show, in which they would list multiple scenarios and we had to say the best way of handling the situation. While the game was different every day, there was one constant. The losers were given half of what they normally eat while the winners got the other half.

There wasn’t a lot of comradery between us since, for one, every game played was specifically chosen to pit us against each other, and two, we were told that you should never do anything unless you can see a benefit to it.

There was one time where one of the other older guys made a friend with one of the younger kids. Turned out he was taking advantage of their “friendship" to get the kid to throw every match against him.

While a pretty scummy thing to do, it’s hard to hate the guy since before this he was usually on the losing end of games for months. He barely looked like he was getting by on the food given to him.

Dr. Ludwig was actually surprised with this development and rewarded the older kid with a guaranteed share of the winning food, regardless if he won or lost that day. From that moment onwards the only time anyone talked to one another was when it was necessary for the games.

After the day's games the next section was spent running drill battles. Everyone was to bring their assigned pokemon.

After the fights it was only the winner that was healed, which usually led to a snowball effect of the loser going into fights already injured making the battle a one sided slaughter. The only time we were able to switch pokemon was when our current one permanently couldn't fight and “was no longer useful”, evidently this only happened to the constant losers.

As people who can understand both humans and pokemon, it was only logical that their purpose along with the rest of the world was to elevate us. That at least was the reasoning Dr.Ludwig had given.

Dinner today was a mixture of potatoes and some kind of meat. I was one of the winners, like always. I look up to see a group of the losing kids whose expressions ranged from rage to complicit.

At the end of the day we were all sent to assigned rooms. Every door was white with a black name tag in the middle. Every room was sorted alphabetically. I walked down the long hallway of doors passing multiple names and cameras that hung on the ceiling, until I stopped at the K section. I turned to face my assigned room.

Kenny

—

It was about 4:30 am when I woke up. I spent some time staring at the ceiling, contemplating my dream. That specific dream wasn't a first, but it's been a while since the last time I had it. About Three years give or take.

Then I remembered the coffee shop. Now's not a bad time to get going. As I get up a sour stench assaults my nose. Well so much for the air freshener I scan the area. The place is a mess. There's a bunch of half eaten food in random places, the garbage was knocked over, and worse, the idiots responsible litter my floor. I carefully maneuver around, recalling each one. Then I spend the next 45 minutes cleaning the apartment.

After the place looks as good as before and doesn't smell like a zoo, I prepare myself for today and what comes tomorrow.

I should probably bring in Blitz, and Tora. If Tora could get the old teleporters in the building working it would make traversing the place a lot easier. Blitz on the other hand is basically a portable tank. If things get unfortunate I can probably just send him out to deal with it.

After doing a bit of thinking I finally decide on the other four I'll bring tomorrow. I write down a list of the things I'll probably need to restock on. Just some potions and elixirs if things get drawn out.

On my way to the coffee shop I stop by the market again. Reaching into my bag, I pull out Ashley’s pokeball and toss it in front of me.

As soon as it opens a wave of heat hits me as Ashley springs out of the ball.

“Hell yea! Who are we fighting today!”

I hand the excited primate the list I made along with some cash.

“We're doing something tomorrow. You’re on shopping duty. If there is a single cent spent on something that isn't on the list, you can forget about getting that protein stuff for a while. You can find me at the coffee shop down the road when you’re done.”

She takes a look at the list, then to me.

“You're not actually serious are you? First time I'm able to do something this week and it's just this?”

“Look, we are doing something important tomorrow. I don't care if you haven't got to fight in a while, or if you think that you can be doing something better right now, just do it.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

She groans and turns to enter the building, but not before tripping me with her tail as I turn to leave.

“Whoops”

I get up and dust myself off.

Really. It's just one thing, does she have to be petty over it.

In the meantime I take a trip to the pokecenter, switching a few of my pokemon for others who would be a bit more beneficial for the current task. Other than Ashley, I now have Blitz, Tora, Taion, Juno, and Lucas.

During my little excursion it had started raining. Not too much of a problem for me since I'd be waiting inside the shop next door, but Ashley's still out getting stuff.

Maybe I should have checked the weather.

Eh, who cares. It's on her if she can't handle a little water.

After getting the preparations sorted out I sit at my usual spot at the shop and take out my dominos. After spreading out the white rectangular pieces I turn my attention to the TV.

Today they’re broadcasting the aftermath of the Aether Foundation incident, one of the cases I actually asked to be a part of, but they refused. Said that I “didn’t have enough experience” so they chose Looker instead. I would be more mad, but this is one of the rare moments where they picked the objectively better person, so I can’t really complain.

The report goes into detail about how the head of the company used a portal to go into another dimension. Where have I heard that one before?

After that broadcast the news switches to some incident in Unova where two people went missing near Seaside Cave. An investigation was conducted, but there wasn’t a single trace left of them.

A flash comes from the window next to me. I turn my head to see that in the few minutes I've spent here, it went from a light drizzle to a thunderstorm and completely pouring.

I feel like I'm forgetting something. Must not be important so I turn my head back to the TV.

A few minutes go by. While they are conducting interviews with some of the foundation staff members, I hear the door open and the store's temperature jumps up way more than it naturally should. Oh yea that's what it was.

Knowing who it is I decide to take the mick and act like I don’t notice. If she wanted to be petty then two could play that game.

As she walks closer I am able to get a good visual without needing to turn my head. She's soaked and fucking livid.

The longer I ignore her the more pissed off she gets.

By the time she's right beside me she looks like she's about to explode. Even so I'm not too worried.

I take a look at her, giving my best poker face.

“Whoops.”

Due to her little display of a tantrum all eyes are on her, and I know the she wouldn't-

Then it happens in slow motion. Out of the corner of my eye I see a white bag. It gets closer and closer until, *THUNK*. The bag full of supplies makes contact with my face. The force at which it was swung and weight of its contents are enough to knock me off my chair.

As I fall my arms hit the domino stack next to me knocking half of the set and my now cold coffee off the table, which all happens to land on me.

After the initial shock wears off I stare up at Ashley. She raises the hand with the bag, ready to do it again.

I quickly grab her pokeball out of my bag and recall her.

The bag falls to the floor. No sounds signaling that anything broke so that's at least a positive.

As I get up I take a second to assess the situation. I've been hit in the face by my own Infernape, which led to coffee being spilt all over my work clothes, and creating a mess of coffee and dominoes all over the floor, in front of a good handful of people.

Fucking hell this sucks.

I throw my dominos into my bag, grab the supplies and tip a few more dollars than I usually do.

Once I'm outside I notice it has stopped raining, one of the only fortunate things that happened recently.

On my way back to my apartment I avoid looking at anyone.

As my pants cling to my leg due to the moisture forcing me into an awkward waddle, I hear the laughter of one of the Murkrow from yesterday. I have half a mind to fire off a blank near it, but I refrain from doing so, don't need to get into any more trouble right now.

Once I reach my apartment I change out of the coffee stained attire, ditching white dress shirt for an azure blue one and the red tie for a yellow one.

I roll the discarded clothes into a ball and send out Taion to take them to the laundromat.

Reviewing the bag of supplies, there are a few Full Restores, 5 revives, some Antidotes, bottles of Paralysis Heal, bottles of Burn Heal, and elixirs. Exactly what was on the list.

I stare at the different shaped bottles for what feels like a century.

I should probably apologize, what I did was pretty shitty. I reach for Ashley’s ball, but decide against it last second.

I check the time. It's only 8:00 am. The chief’s not really expecting me to come in today since this is supposed to be my day to prepare, so now I gotta figure out how to spend the rest of the day.

I check my fridge. Everything that has been cooked is gone, barely anything that wasn't is left.

Porkchop, let's go with that.

The oil sizzling is the only sound that can be heard while I cook the slab of meat. That's when I realized for the first time in a while that it’s quiet. I didn't actually let anyone else out except for Taion.

Sitting down to eat, I take in the silence and the fact that I've been in my apartment for a few minutes and it hasn't been trashed. The gift of being alone.

Looking at the meat in front of me, I get thoughts of what kind of pokemon it was when it was alive. I mean it was labeled as Grumpig meat, but what kind of stuff did it do when it was alive, was it considered good by whatever lived with it or was it an asshole.

I had to quickly dismiss these thoughts from my head, else I wouldn't be able to eat the thing.

Half way through my meal I see something to the right of me move. When I turned to look I saw a Zorua. It was sitting on the floor staring at me. My mood immediately dropped.

“Zeke?”

The Zorua didn't react. It just sat there unmoving. I got up and started to approach it.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. I instinctively turned my head to the sound, then looked back.

The Zorua was gone.

A bit worried for my mental state, I trudged over and open the door. Taions back with my clothes. Thankfully nothing stained so as thanks I let him eat the rest of my breakfast, I completely lost my appetite.

I walk over to my room, taking out the evidence given to me for the case.

Before leaving work yesterday, the chief gave me a few copies of the surveillance tapes. While I have the basic information, it wouldn’t be a waste to review them. Sure enough from every so often there are silhouettes of people moving in the building. It happens so few times that I have to fast-forward through most of the recording. For the most part, the camera’s too far away to make out anything about the people in particular, but on the third tape there are a few noticeable features on one of them.

One silhouette that gets close enough to the camera seems to have a practically bald head with a wisp of hair stemming from around his forehead. I recognise him as Petrel, one of the Executives of team rocket who assisted in the Goldenrod radio raid.

So I guess that confirms that the organization is still being run by half-wits.

I keep on scrubbing through the footage, not finding anything too interesting, until I see a different silhouette.

This one is outside of the building. The actual person is standing outside of the camera's view. I watch for a few seconds, but the person doesn't move. They just stand there in front of the building. I skip a few minutes ahead, The person still hasn't moved. I skip an hour then two, still no movement. Then out of nowhere the silhouette disappears. I rewatch the clip over and over, it’s there one second, but is gone the next.

I try to look for any signs of the footage being cut or modified, but from what I can gather it’s completely untouched.

Well now I not only have to deal with a bunch of morons, but also a teleporting weirdo. Fun.

I wonder why this wasn’t brought up when discussing tomorrow's mission. It’s definitely possible that this was missed. If it was, maybe I should investigate it before reporting it to the brass.

Deciding to keep the information to myself, I start taking notes on what has been found on the tapes.

By the time I'm done it's about 6pm.

Leaving my room I spot Taion sleeping on the couch. I walk over to the fridge and take out a box of frozen pizza, one of the only things that wasn’t gone.

I throw it in the oven that has been beaten up a few times, but is still going strong and set it to heat up for 20 minutes.

I sent out Juno and Lucas. I usually don't let Tora out in spaces with technology that they shouldn't be in and Blitz is a definite no in an apartment.

I hesitate on Ashley. Don't really know if I want to deal with something that is probably deserved right now.

I give her ball to Juno telling her to let her out once the pizza’s done.

I mope back to my room, closing the door behind me and collapsing on my bed.

The gift of being alone…

Tomorrow will be a better day.