~~~ Chapter 47 - Preferences ~~~

"You need to get up, Dawn."

It was pitch black, except for the motel's shitty blinking clock. The television was off, and the room was freezing. She peeked through the curtains. Save a few road lights and the almost-full, yet waning moon, the sky was dark. She'd slept twice as long as she should have. The three members of her slimmer team were in the room with her. They'd spent little time outside the room, but alakazam had returned with both of them in tow.

Dawn opened the dresser holding the pokeballs and immediately they started beeping, releasing their contents. There was a slight struggle as the bugs took stock of their surroundings and spotted Pip and the togekiss relaxing on the floor. Dawn stumbled into the bathroom, her stomach churning as the bugs chirped and screeched before quieting down.

Washing up, she looked in the mirror—was that her face? The face had the dark blue hair she did. Her eyes were light blue. Same clothes. She looked down at her hands. Wiggled her fingers. She needed to pack up and leave. Tossing on her jacket, a shower was needed. Normally it was at least some effort to pretend to be able to operate like every other girl. At this point though?

It was difficult to bring up the energy to care. Despite that somehow, the face in the mirror was smiling back. The toothbrush was in one hand, the other holding a brush. That sleep had been well over eight hours but still there was a constant edge, a buzzing in the ears, that pressure in the forehead.

On days like this, body movements had become slightly automatic. Her eyes glanced down, skimming over the checklist below her. Once done brushing her teeth, the nutri-bar that had been left on the counter and swapped for the brush now in her free hand found its way into her belly. The pokemon had stopped screeching, at least. That was a good sign?

"We could cover all of Sinnoh in skyscrapers in a matter of months."

The man had once stood, glancing at her before going into the building that had been erected over a few days, complete with ventilation, water, and power. Had he been gloating? The grunts who followed him around seemed to think so? That air of smug superiority caused her to walk off with Pip, a sneer barely-hidden on her face.

Skipping the shower, as she followed the checklist. She was still smiling. She wasn't quite sure why. But she had a date to keep. Dawn found her way into the main room. Her hands moved over her stuff, packing, as she watched the bugs huddling. The pokeballs were still in the drawer she'd left open.

She closed each pokeball, then pressed the button for each one. It only took a few seconds before the balls beeped red.

Ugggh. A part her groaned.

The bugs had, in a span of twenty minutes, made a mess of the room. She would rub her temple, but her hands were already tossing the pokeballs into her bag.

Another part of Dawn was back in Eterna city, struggling to find a houndoom in the Grand Underground. An individual who she'd searn earlier bearing the Galactic Group's corporate badge was following her around. Whether a creep or one of Mars' thugs, she didn't know at the time. She'd only had her first badge by that point.

Years later, she'd received a note from Looker. Not enough evidence to make an arrest of the group's leader, but enough of his group's prior crimes to seize some equipment. She was tired of bringing in grunts, but still, she had salivated over an opportunity to knock the man down a peg. Cyrus had held his confidence all through their battle. And, at the end, she was ready to strike the man down—if it weren't for the cameras and listening devices no doubt covering the walls, as well as interpol combing the building, she would have had Pip take the man out, right then, right there.

Dawn's head swung across the room. Pip had—wisely—taken a perch on the room's windowsill, soaking up the air conditioner's frigid winds. Dawn picked up her own pokebelt from the ground. She fastened it to her waist. She then picked up her jacket, zipping it up. She didn't know if it would rain, she didn't care.

Cyrus had invited her into his office. Hoping she could get something. Anything that could incriminate him, Dawn had accepted. That was one year prior, and at that point, she was already tired of the war. She'd oft wondered what toll it had taken on Looker. Just thinking about him, she could smell the man's brand of cigar smoke. Being a pokemon? Just worried about getting stronger? Having your meals taken care of? It was a gamble, for sure. But narrowing the types and kinds of concerns she had to caring for the pokemon around her?

Being a pokemon seemed like a pretty good deal all told. Though she was currently revulsed at the thought of eating meat, this part of Dawn could see herself as a lurantis instead of a leavanny.

She was looking down at her phone, bag packed, Pip held all four bugs in his arms. She'd recalled her togekiss. She'd sent Looker a message, and he'd responded. She would meet them, back in pinwheel. Looker would take the bugs. Dawn's hand tapped Pip and alakazam. Together, the seven of them teleported out of the room.

~~~

Leaf, Lanky, and I were back at the townhouse. Lyra and her meganium weren't there. Lanky and I were there, but… what little furniture was there earlier, was gone. The couch? Gone. Coffee table? Gone. I could still smell the taste of the detective from the other day in the air. But the detective was nowhere to be seen. Lanky didn't shout, but I could only assume he was as puzzled as I was. Leaf followed Lanky around diligently, seeking after as much candy as I could. Lanky set the briefcase on the counter of the kitchen, then stared at it for a moment, before deciding better of it.

It was pretty dumb that we would likely be back on the road so soon. Despite being in a nightmare, I'd been missing out on a lot of context by not being able to understand some bits of human conversation. Together, we stepped out onto the townhome's front porch, leaving the now-extra-desolate townhome. As lanky had begun walking away, I clicked, drawing his attention.

Fuck it, I thought. I should, at the very least, have worked on the simple with him, at first—the binary choices. If I wasn't going to be able to poke-speak, even with a god-fucking-tier meganium, and I was going to stick with humans— fucking hell. I stopped Lanky in the driveway, yeah. And, and I pushed on him, until he sat down on the grass. God, I was so tired of not being able to talk to anyone. I was going to go out there and beat their ass for not listening to me. But first, I needed to know what the fuck they were saying!

~~~

Art looked back at Leah, standing, fidgeting on the heating up asphalt that was Lyra's driveway. She ran up to him, practically pushing him back onto a small strip of grass. Fidget just watched, drooling with curiosity at his nest-mate's strange behavior. Burgh didn't exactly know what had gotten into her, but the only plausible explanation was that it was a side-effect of the psychic connection that Leah and Dawn had just a few hours ago. He wasn't super excited about taking her to the pokecenter agai—"What are you doing?" he asked, as Leah was digging into the backpack.

"Oh shit!" he said—it was lunch time, and he hadn't fed Fidget at all, save for a few treats. He tilted the backpack away from Leah, eliciting an annoyed chirp from her, as he dove into the main pocket to pull out a packet of food for him. Fidget was still a little scary to feed, Art had nearly lost his fingers to the bug more than once. Instead, he dumped the fruits onto the ground, before turning back to Leah.

"What are you looking for?" he asked, as he unzipped the pocket she was trying to get into. Leah pushed aside the fidget spinner and the small rubiks' cube that he'd stashed. Instead, what she was fixated on, was the piece of chalk. She had some slight trouble, but managed to loop the very tip of the tarsi—the one that extended about two inches from her blade—partially around the piece of chalk. She then immediately took it, and started marking up the driveway with it.

"I know your species is known for being creative Leah," he said. What he didn't expect was for Leah to have a penchant for street art. He had been saving the piece of chalk, when he could stop at a store and pick up a small blackboard. She was smart enough to learn some more human words and maybe even read a few. Something that he didn't expect out of Fidget, who was, in contrast, just wrapping up scraping the dried fruits off the concrete. He appreciated the gusto with which she squiggled across the concrete.

She set the piece of chalk down, looking at him expectantly. He just chuckled. The psychic feedback from Dawn had hit her pretty hard. "Veanniee" she vocalized, as if it was to explain everything she just put down. Some pokemon could talk, but only the smartest of the smart even bothered to attempt to learn to write.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

~~~

He wasn't getting it! I looked down at the words I'd written! They were english! "Teach me words!" I'd tried to say. But he wasn't reacting! Lanky was just standing there, smiling! Look, you idiot! I have one goal right now. I just want to learn words! Put some unova kids shows on or something! I don't know!

But no. I stared up at his stupid, dumb smiling face. "Eeaaannnneee," I complained. You know what? Fuck this. Fuck this bullshit. Fuck this horseshit. What was the simplest thing I could teach him? Darkrai—was giving me a thumbs-up? He only had three fingers though! I only had one! It was like, it was like being five years old again, and trying to tell my parents a story, but they were obviously not paying attention, so I had to keep repeating it over and over again, and they would just think I was a little kid getting lost in my words.

I wasn't trying to draw pretty pictures, I was trying to draw because—because—I was tired of people not listening to me! Cyr— I caught the scent of cigar smoke—Lyra was coming back. Or the fake Looker had returned after taking a smoke, possibly to pick up his briefcase? I just had wanted to—I had just wanted to…

What the fuck was I doing?

~~~

Leah tossed the chalk at his face, hitting him square in the forehead, the piece of chalk breaking in two, scattering onto the ground, clanging onto the pavement of Lyra's front walkway.

"What was that for!?!" he exclaimed. Then paused. "What happened to you?"

"She's trying to talk," Lyra said, diverting his question. He turned around in surprise. Meg was covered in marks. Lenora had challenged her to a battle, after all.

"I got that much—" he said, before he shut up, realizing who he was mouthing off to. Lyra just smiled at him, her eyes relatively dead, smoldering ashes as she hopped off of her prize pokemon. Leah hadn't even reacted to the pokemon's approach, instead inspecting the bruises Meg had taken. As if the leavanny had already forgotten her goal.

"If you're gonna stick around for a bit longer," Lyra said, hopping off the bruised light-green pokemon, causing Leah to jump back, "come with me," she said, opening the front door. "I'm gonna spray Meg down, then I'm gonna clean up and pack. My schedule just cleared up."

Meg just walked past the teen and his two leavanny, her body language reflective of her own trainer's almost one-for-one. Art stared down at his leavanny's markings. It was pidgey-scratch, but it was linear pidgey-scratch. He frowned. Lyra was right. But it didn't make any sense—Leah hadn't demonstrated any knowledge of writing or language before that day. Leah had picked up a lot more from Dawn than he or Looker had expected.

"Are you coming, Burgh?" Lyra asked, sliding the back door open.

He picked up Fidget, then waved at Leah to follow. "Come on!" he said. Leah's stance was… stand-offish for a moment, then as he waved at her again, he decided to follow, kicking at the edges of her dress, as if she was pouting.

"Close the door." Lyra commanded, as Burgh stepped out onto the back porch, holding a running water hose.

"What happened?" he dared to ask.

"Back at the gym?" Lyra asked, spraying Meg down. "Lenora's too much of a hardass for my taste," Lyra said, her eyes distant as she massaged the meganium's spots with a small, orange sponge. "That's all. She's not even always wrong, you see. I just… don't get along with her style of binary morality. People like her act like it's all a hardcoded set of rules, but it's just a charisma test."

"Is that why you gave me the badge before I could be tested by Lenora? Because you didn't think I could jump through her training rounds?"

"Pretty much," Lyra affirmed, matter-of-factly, mud running down the sides of her pokemon. It was like being punched in the gut.

"You're a blank-slate, kid, and you wear it on your sleeve. Anyone who sees you can see your love and your dedication for your pokemon—but you've got no charisma. You're like a magikarp out of water." Lyra said.

"Thanks for the endorsement," Art said. "Any … advice? For finding some more charisma?"

"Got any members of the gods of the lake on speed dial? I heard they have a cave somewhere around Unova. At least, I think they've been spotted somewhere around this region." Lyra said, finishing rinsing Meg's left flank, as she turned 45 degrees, allowing Lyra to rinse the gym floor's clay from her rear legs.

"Ha. Ha." he said. That was a risk he wasn't going to take. "You're pretty morbid, you know that? Are all the various regional champions this mean?"

Lyra paused her scrubbing, giving him a look, before turning back to it. Leah and Fidget had gotten into a wrestling match. Art sat down on the porch-step, watching them play, sliding off his backpack onto the ground—pockets still open from when Leah was rustling through them. For a moment, he'd thought she was going to kick him out, but when she was silent, he decided to just watch his pokemon play.

"So," Lyra broke the silence. "Leah's dramatically more intelligent than her cohorts, isn't she? Have you done a DNA test on her and her nest-mates?"

"No, I haven't."

"I'm sorry? It's literally just a checkbox at the pokecenter, isn't it? Can't you just take her to a pokecenter and get it done? It's free in both Kanto and Johto?" Lyra asked, incredulous.

Art just shrugged. "Animal rights stuff or something."

"Unova's banned all DNA tests? That can't be true. I knew Opelucid fired a guy a couple months ago because they abused pokemon in their testing, but that's a far cry from doing a quick saliva swab or blood test."

"I'd have to pay a private group to do it, and the only money I've got is from the Castelia Gym's payroll as a basic trainer. Leah had some rocks embedded in her gut, that the pokecenter wasn't allowed to remove. At least, not until they'd pierced some of her internal organs the other day."

Lyra's eyes were on fire. "That's tauroshit," she exclaimed. Meg rotated again for her. Leah had gotten bored, having thrown Fidget to the ground for the tenth time in a row. She instead was trying to dig through the backpack again, when Fidget snuck up behind her, tackling her to the ground with a pounce. She threw him off, not in a harsh way, but in a stern way, knocking him back into Lyra's wooden fence. The 'yard' was only about ten feet deep, and it was less of a lawn and more of a strip of grass.

"Well, whatever," she said, as if that was the end of it all, turning back to Meg, washing the pokemon's right flank. "Your bug—"

"Her name's Leah," he interjected.

"—she's obviously smart enough to learn some language. Meg knows a lot of words, don't you?" Lyra said, scratching the top of her star pokemon's head.

"Yeah, I know that—I was working with the Junipers to set up a curriculum and get material so I could learn to start teaching her."

"But you taught her a few moves, as well as recall already?" Lyra had finished washing the dirt off, and was spraying the mud off the concrete, the water splashing him causing Burgh to push Leah, who was still struggling with the zipper locking her treats in a pocket, away. For a second, she looked like she was going to bite him, for getting in her way, before she relented. The multi-region champion of both Kanto and Johto turned off the hose after filling a bucket full of water.

"Yeah, like any other pokemon," he said.

"Those are commands. Have you tried preferences?"

"You mean, like, me telling her not to do something? Or when I don't want her to do something?"

"No! Gods no, she's your partner, not some robotic tool," Lyra said, "and she can already tell your preferences. Here's your first lesson. Now, do what I tell you, and let's see how Leah handles the basics."

~~~

"Leah!" Lanky said to me, catching my attention. I held back from snapping at him, for getting in my way, twice now. At least a little bag of treats would have helped. In his right hand, he held a dried fruit. In his left hand was one of the rock-candies. He spoke a word, then poked his left thumb up, making the universal thumbs-up sign. He spoke another word, then poked up his right thumb. He had caught on to what I was trying to do!

Or, at least, I hoped that was what it was that we were doing. Leaf was staring at Lanky's hands. We were both drooling at the idea of getting candies. Lanky said the first word again, repeating the motion, raising his left thumb. Then, he poked up his right thumb after repeating the second word.

I reached out an arm, and was about to poke his right hand, when he pulled them back behind his back. He brought his hands back, holding them open in his palms—Leaf tried making a dive for it, but was pushed back by a single vine. Noting the dramatically stronger pokemon's nudge, he backed up without fuss. He repeated the words, with the same gestures, without the food in his hands.

As if he was saying "fruit" with his right hand, and "candy" with his left. But what was I supposed to do? Lanky then, gently, grabbed my right arm with his left, using his index finger to nudge my little tarsus up as he spoke the word for "candy". Then, he nudged my left arm with his right, pushing my left tarsus up as he spoke the single word "fruit".

Oh. Oh! I thought. I pulled my arms back, and raised up my right arm, poking my tarsus straight up. Lanky jumped up, shouting with a little twirl. It felt pretty good to be one step closer to my goal. It also felt pretty good to have a piece of candy in my mouth again. It almost made up for two losses and feeling like shit. Leaf had been watching me, and was doing the same exact motion I was, clicking in satisfaction when he got a piece of candy, too.

I put up my other arm and got a piece of dried fruit.