[Non-canon?] I Will Help You Reach The Skies (3)

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Chase Karlson.

The kid was an asshole. Plain and simple but this behavior wasn't lost on me. Ever since my first circuit, I've come to make peace that new trainers needed to hype themselves up with confidence. Except overconfidence was a big no-no since that led to arrogance, and arrogance leads to suffering, and suffering…

Blah, I wanted to sound Yoda wise but sort of lost where I was going with the message. Anywho, the kid was super confident in himself when challenging me to a battle. A whole crowd of pokémon center goers had gathered to watch us with some abuzz with the word that Chase Karlson was going to be in it. Others seemed to give me wary glances and wide berths after my challenger had announced me as the "asshole with the Gengar".

Was I missing something? Was there some sort of stigma that Gengars seemed to have in this dimension?

I put these questions to bed because I had a battle to focus on, and it was quite a nice change of pace. The kid was fairly skilled, but he didn't really bring much to the table. Him being a new trainer was one of them and his pokémon seemed well trained and in great physical condition. It was his synchronicity with his pokémon that had been a glaring flaw to me.

He was pissed when I fielded Leonardo instead of Kidd, but his anger soon took a turn for the worse once my Squirtle handedly defeated his Riolu. His Riolu was downright amazing as his skill and technique was beyond anything your standard Riolu was capable of. In fact, judging from what I can sense from the pokémon's aura, it seemed about ready to evolve to a Lucario. The multifaceted layers to it's aura also spoke of a huge discrepancy I noticed between Chase and the pokémon.

Chase at first deferred judgement to Riolu once he assumed Squirtle would be an easy knock out. Once Leonardo turned the tides with a held back Water Gun that nearly KO'd Riolu, he snapped back into giving orders. Albeit more respectfully and confidently than his Charjabug and Houndour.

The Riolu fought at a stage that clearly showed it was ready to be a Lucario, and from what's sensed of his aura told me that he's way older than his trainer, hell even me. Yes, me, adding my past life with my current one, I am approximately 44 years old, mentally. So that's hella old for a pokémon belonging to a beginner to have.

So that left me with questions and an answer for why Chase's other two pokémon fell faster than his Riolu.

After the battle's end, my landslide of a victory in our 3 on 3 battle had caused a clamoring amongst the crowd while Chase looked…ugh, he looked about as rocked with his defeat as any overblown trainer who's too overconfident with himself. Crossing the field to him, I snapped him out of his funk with an outraised hand out of good sportsmanship. The way his face scrunched up and glared at it like the devil told me exactly what he thought of my gesture, but some part of him acknowledged the loss and begrudgingly shook my hand.

I groaned. Trainers like these are a pain to deal with and they're a dime a dozen nowadays. I felt some déjà vu hit me from how familiar the experience of Leonardo having defeated a beginning trainer and a pokémon from Lucario's evolution line. Still, I had questions that I wanted answers to so I rejected the standard rule of receiving money from my defeated opponent to instead request another reward.

I wanted to speak with him about his Riolu and give him advice regarding how to improve himself as a trainer.

"Didn't ask. Don't need it. Go fuck yourself." The results were expected, but I was more than pleased with his rude rebuff. If he were actually pleasant and had given me a simple "No", I would have just taken the money and dipped. Unfortunately for him, he's been an ass this entire time I've had to interact with him, called Leonardo, the strongest Squirtle in the Indigo League, a weak little turtle, and still chose to be disrespectful towards the victor of the battle who defeated him.

This officially gave me the liberating option to also be a dick.

"Well tough shit. I don't want your pitiful change since it'll barely amount to what I even want, so I'd like to have a chat about your disastrous loss to me because leaving you like this will leave a bad taste in mouth." I chuckled.

The boy snarled. "Fuck off, I don't need your pity!"

"Kid, pity's all I have for you. Besides…" I leaned in and allowed a bit of my aura to maximize my presence. "I won and you lost. The terms are mine to decide and you're literally losing no money whatsoever. Hell, you're even being given advice from a senior who's done this for way longer than you. So, lets skip you licking your wounds and get this over with capiche?"

"Y-You-!" He now looked ready to punch me, but I noticed that his legs were beginning to shake and his fists slowly unclenching. Good, he does have some sense in him.

"Lets have this chat somewhere with a lot more privacy." I sighed as people who watched were recording us and it took me unveiling Fafnir and Typhon to clear them away before they stormed the two of us for questions. Chase seemed more mollified with the appearance of my two Pseudo-Legendaries and easily complied to follow me.

He muttered that he needed to take his pokémon to the Pokémon Center, but I assuaged his worries by releasing Angel to treat their wounds. Floaroma Town, no matter the dimension, had open fields for days. So, it didn't take long for me to find just the right spot to set up some tables and chairs, make some stew that Brock taught me to make, prepared some pokéfood for most of my pokémon that wanted to come out for some fresh air along with Chase's recovering pokémon, and finally get the chance to speak with the gobsmacked kid who was too busy gawking at my assortment of pokémon.

Hmph, little bastard should appreciate that I'm even feeding him despite his loss to me.

"Electavire, Gengar, Charizard, Rapidash, Fearow, Blissey, Togekiss, some sort of fucked up looking Primeape." He gulped as Macaque's red eyes glared at him before they returned to lividly staring off into space as he sat in a meditative pose. "A Squirtle, Scizor, Dragonite, Sylveon, Beedrill, Lucario, Dragonite, and a Garchomp. J-Just the lineup is…how many pokémon do you even have on-?"

"A bit more than this, but they wanted to stay in their pokéballs and rest." I happily ate my wonderful stew. "Now about what I wanted to talk to you about…" I noticed him staring off at all of my pokémon again, in particular, his Riolu having a chat with Auron, my Lucario. Snapping my fingers, I coughed, "Hey, kid, my eyes are over here."

Broken from his daze, Chase growled and batted my hand away from his face. "Don't do that!"

"Then listen." I shot back blandly. "Why'd you suddenly come out to face me all of a sudden?"

Chase sniffed. "Isn't it obvious?"

"If it was I wouldn't ask you, dude." I groaned.

He spat to the side. "It's because you were the one who…cleaned up that whole mess at the Valley Windworks."

"Ah, that…" Guessing from his attitude and how he was one of the few people to see me at the scene… "You wanted to take a crack at me because I took care of everything while you just barely managed to scrape on through the front door."

"We held our own!" I deadpanned at him.

"You and your pokémon looking like you just barely managed to survive a Tauros stampede begs to differ, but to each their own." I ignored his growling to enjoy more of my stew. Damn this was good, if this kid wasn't going to eat his own portion, then I'll just help myself. "You going to eat that?"

I reached out for his plate only for him to snatch it off the table. "I might!"

I shrugged and continued with my questions. "So, you wanted to beat me for handling everything? Is that it?"

"There's talk about you on the Pokénet when you left Valley Windworks with the Champion and the cops. Everyone's making conspiracies and some shit about how your some hot shit or whatever. I wanted to show to everyone that it was a load of crap and how you're just some lucky Doof that managed to beat me to the punch." The kid paused in his explanation mid-step bite of his bowl before quickly digging into the meal.

Ah, so he wanted to make me eat shit and get the attention onto himself. "And how well did that turn out for you?"

"Fuck you…" Chase grumbled before shoving his bowl at me. "More." Wow, he ate that whole bowl fast.

"Say it politely."

"More please you bastard."

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Sheesh this kid was rough around the edges. My eyebrow twitched as I grabbed the nearby ladle, scooped up some more stew for him and continued my questions. "So, about that Riolu of yours…"

"Yeah, what about it…?" The kid burped and set aside his empty bowl. Damn, he eats just as fast as Ash. Their was quite a bit of edge in his tone.

"Well, during our battle I noticed a couple of things off with it. Particularly with how skilled it was."

"And…" Chase growled.

"Okay, I'm just going to rip off the band-aid. That Riolu is far too old and skilled to belong to a new trainer like you."

"That's none of your-!"

"Quiet." I placed more presence in my tone that had the kid slamming his jaw shut. I wasn't going to push him for the story, but I certainly wasn't about to put up with anymore outlandish screaming. "I'm curious, but I'm not going to pry. Everyone has their own story and hopefully you won't dig into my own circumstances."

To recover his pride, the kid crossed his arms and jerked his head to the side with a sneer. "Like I'd give a shit about some shitty bastard like you." The way you keep glancing at my pokémon then back to me begged to differ, but I'll let it slide.

"Good, nice to know we're on the same page." I nodded. "Now Riolu's skill is definitely impressive, but your overreliance on him has significantly hurt your progression as a trainer when commanding your Houndour and Charjabug."

Chase clicked his tongue. "Piss off, I'm one of the best trainers in this Circuit. I officially have the Coal badge to prove it, and that's way more than the lot of these mediocre extras can ever manage."

"Yeah, that is impressive, but your achievements still don't negate what I saw during that battle. Riolu is basically carrying your entire team and that's negatively affecting your choices as a trainer." I sighed.

"Ri is not carrying u-!"

"Then how come you chose to leave all judgement of the battle to him once you were assured that he could easily take on my Squirtle?" I dully queried. "That's a sign of trust between a trainer and pokémon, but that sort of thing shouldn't be feasible until you're of a higher level of skill. Once you took the reigns back, you two were quite impressive, but once Riolu fell, you couldn't keep that sense of traction up with Houndour and Charjabug."

I took a glance at Chase's Houndour who was happily barking and yipping with Epona, who happily indulged the hound pokémon with a chat. Charjabug just seemed to be gawking at Dartz, who was passionately buzzing about something while thrusting his stingers to the sky.

As for Thor, I had no fucking clue where he went. The moment I let him out of his pokéball, his antenna released a current, he laughed, then ran the fuck off in some random direction. He didn't even have the decency to tell anyone why.

Now Thor was one of my Elite pokémon so nothing sort of a Legendary that had an advantage over his typing was going to threaten. But I was more concerned that he'd start a fight with whatever strong pokémon that he encounters. I didn't need the headache, so I had Jiren keep track of him in the likelihood of something wrong happening.

"Houndour and Charjabug are well trained and seem to fit your level as a trainer."

"Stop that!"

"What?" I blinked.

"The way that you keep implying that I'm beneath the level that's necessary to command Ri. Knock it the fuck off." Chase gritted his teeth, and I would have confused his reaction as unbridled rage until I detected some fair traces of moisture in his eyes.

Huh…

I tiredly sighed and scratched my head. "Sorry, didn't mean it to sound like that."

Chase huffed and refused to look me in the eye. "I don't care how you wanted to say it. Just don't talk to me like that. Got it?"

"No, but I promise not to push any more of your buttons." That seemed to only piss him off more, but if he wanted to spit vile at me over it, he didn't show it. He only took more scoops of my stew to eat before slamming the bowl down to return to glaring at me.

"Look, I basically said everything I wanted to say to y-Stop!" My glare froze the kid in place once he sat up so fast that his chair fell. "I'm not done yet. I just wanted to offer you some training and advice on potential ways that you can maximize your Houndour and Charjabug's strengths. I don't have anything to do right now so I can apply some of my free time in teaching you some of what I know."

Even if he was a dick, Chase had a lot of potential. Despite Riolu being the catalyst for Chase's underwhelming command and focus of his other two pokémon, he was still able to earn the respect and obedience of the experienced pokémon.

Chase seemed to consider my offer even if he tried to hide it behind a scowl. He took one look at all of my pokémon, then his own, and finally looked back to me.

He looked me straight in the eye…

…then flipped me off.

"Go fuck yourself."

I shrugged. If that was his choice, then I could respect it. But I wonder how far his pride will take him if he keeps refusing help from those willing to give it. "You're free to go." I waved him off and took his empty bowl.

"About god damn time. Ri, Houndour, Charjabug! We're leaving this shithole!" His Riolu seemed to bark at him in admonishment, but it didn't seem to reach the boy as he was already trudging his way back to town. Exasperated, Riolu sighed, bowed to Auron, who in turn deeply bowed to the elder Riolu.

Running after his grumbling trainer, Riolu stopped for a moment to turn to me, and fall to one knee to bow before running off. I groaned to myself and narrowed my eyes at my Lucario, who shamelessly looked me in the eye with a stoic look that matched Kamina's. "Auron, please don't tell me that you're responsible for that…"

"Of course not, Lord Lucas." Auron telepathically spoke to me. "The old warrior has only acknowledged the "Mark" that your aura carries, milord." Ugh, don't bow to me too.

"Well, that's great. Good to know my ancestor's ridiculous connection with your species can even embarrass me in a different world." I facepalmed then did a double take as Chase's Houndour wreathed himself in flames and shot himself after his retreating trainer. Chase seemed to pause at this, but resumed his stride that became a full-out sprint. His pokémon quickly followed after him, trying to not overtake their running trainer.

I blinked then turned to Epona, who neighed with a mischievous look in her eye. I looked at her with a wry smile, "You know it's quite cheeky of you to teach the kid's pokémon Flame Charge before I had even brought up the offer to train him."

Epona huffed with no regrets and lazily laid her head on the belly of my starter, Asch, who was resting beside her. Alone with my pokémon, I spent the rest of my time calming Sylvie down from her anger as a result of the sheer disrespect that Chase showed me. His arrogance wasn't earned, but I can understand how he got it.

I just didn't have the full story and I doubt the kid will ever share it with me.

Thor did return by the way, and Jiren tell me that he did bring trouble with him. I just wasn't expecting the kind of "trouble" that he happily presented to me.

"Thor, why the hell are you out kidnapping Elekids? I mean, come on, man!" I threw my arms up into the sky in aggravation.

"Vire! Electavire!" Thor cheerfully pointed at himself and the dazed Elekid, who seemed to be utterly lost with what was happening right now.

Asch voiced his disapproval of the Electric type's deeds while Fafnir was off to the side crooning and whining to himself. The banquet of flowers meant for his mate were now dead and clutched in his claws. Typhon of course took the opportunity to continue with laughing and deriding his fellow dragon-type and rival's misfortune.

"Typhon, stop picking on Faffy! He's having a hard enough day as it is!"

"Gaaaar…Gar!"

"If you don't knock it off, I'm telling Pudding that you're picking on him again!" The way that my Garchomp's jaws slammed shut told me of how he wanted no future conflict with his mate.

Turning back to Thor, I sighed, "Look, Thor, why did you bring him all of a sudden and…why is he walking towards, Kidd?" The Elekid ignored all of us and headed straight for my Gengar, who was too busy trying to draw all over a resting Epona's face.

Weird. "I guess we should probably stop him before he-?"

"Lish!"

"Holy shit!" I snapped into old habits and thrusted my aura infused fist to slam into the surprised face of the pokémon that emerged right in front of me. The Frillish was unprepared to be hit by me and was sent tumbling back before getting pinned down by Asch and held at pincer point by Kamina along with Auron threateningly holding a Bone Rush staff over the Water-Ghost type's head.

The sounds of chords snapping and tightening filled the field, I snapped my head around to spot Sylvie dangling her catch of the day with a wicked, taunting smile.

"Sylveon~!"

"Eev…eevee…!"

"An Eevee? Just what in the hell is going o-?" I tilted my head.

"No, Eevee! Don't worry, I'm comi- Is that a Dragonite!?" A fairly tall teen emerged onto the field, worriedly looking at the Eevee and my crying Dragonite.

"D-Denzel, wait up! I-I can't keep up!" And for some ludicrous reason that spelt how unluck I was, that Grace Pastel girl was here too. "D-Did you find the Electavire that snatched Honey away from me?"

Oh, and this was just great. Thor was responsible for kidnapping her pokémon.

I clapped my hands and sighed deeply. It was enough to garner the attention of everyone on the field. I turned to my pokémon and waved for them to release the pokémon. They did so reluctantly as the Frillish quickly slipped away from my trio of Elite pokémon to float and hide behind the Pastel girl while Sylvie roughly dropped the Eevee to the ground and pranced over to me with a smile.

The tall kid glared at her before rushing over to check on the Eevee, his pokémon apparently.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and glared at Thor, who shrugged in a "What are ya gonna do" manner before laughing, uproariously.

"So…" I awkwardly started looking at the only two humans on the field with me. "I would like to…apologize for my pokémon causing you guys any distress. So, I'll pay for any damages made, then I'll be on my way…"

"Wait a minute…you're him!" Aw, girl please don't recognize me. I'm glad that you're okay but I wanted to keep up the whole mystique of the whole "stranger who helped you" trope so I won't get roped into something that'll slow me down from exploring by myself.

"I am indeed a guy, yes." I nodded.

"Wh-What?" Good, she's confused. Now to make my daring escape.

"Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I'll be seeing you guys later so…" I slowly pulled out my pokéballs to return all of my pokémon.

"Hey, wait, yeah! He's the guy that's been popping up on the forums after the incident!" The tall boy snapped his fingers in recognition.

Ugh! I hate the Pokénet so much right now.

"Wait, sir! I-I just-!" The girl rushed over to me in a hurry. Her Frillish warily followed her, glaring red daggers at me. "I wanted to…" Aw, now she's crying! "T-Thank you so much for-for-!"

Ugh, I can't just leave now. I reached out to pat the girl's head and sighed, "L-Look, just…I'm glad that you're okay, kid." She seemed to tense from my touch before visibly tearing up even more and loudly sniffling. She had even escalated to hugging me, which I reflexively returned because I had to be such a decent human being.

Guess I'm now effectively stuck like this. Man, I just can't catch a break, huh?

Looking to possibly her friend for help, the tall boy awkwardly refused to look me in the eye before focusing his attention on admiring my sad Dragonite, who curled up in the fetal position.

Sighing, I looked to the sky before addressing the two teens with a small smile. "I may have finished eating, but would you two care for some stew? I have plenty left to spare."

They shyly agreed to my offer, and when we all sat down to enjoy ourselves, I questioned how the Grace girl knew that I was the one who helped during the Valleywork's dilemma. Her answer really made me angry.

Dammit, Cynthia, do you really want to keep me under watch so badly that you'd nudge these kids in my direction? I only hope to god that it was just Grace and this Denzel guy that knew of my involvement with that incident.