He sat in silence as the two continued to pet him. If there was one thing he wasn't good with, it was children.

"He's so soft!" The girl rubbed her face onto Harper's.

"Do these actually work?" The boy pinched one of Harper's feelers and raised it upwards before letting it drop.

The most experience Harper had with kids was during his time as a Key Grip. He was occasionally required to work with child actors who would appear on set but his interactions with them were as minimal as they could be. All he did was to make sure that they were properly lit at the right camera angle. Beyond that, he never had much of a reason to interact with them, nor did he ever want to do more than what was required.

Audrey and Ripley had departed from Pokéstar Studios, something that Harper still couldn't believe occurred. His time with them felt so short, yet so much had happened during that time. Despite that, he knew that their departure was for a good reason. They had left to assist the peculiarly named Mr. Thea Tres with the expansion of Pokémon Contest in the Unova region. It was an opportunity that perfectly fit the Coordinator's dream since her departure from Sinnoh.

Although Harper already missed their company, he couldn't help but feel happy for them. They were finally going to be competing again soon. The Coordinator and her partner pokémon left for greater ambitions. He knew for a fact that they were going to make it big someda—

"What are these for?" The boy poked the rounded bump on the back of Harper's forepaw. He shifted his arm away from the boy's grasp.

"Are you enjoying the attention?" Brycen ever so slightly smirked.

Harper shot a dirty glare at the actor. If anyone could properly entertain these kids, it was Beartic, and he was still away at Icirrus City. His arrival back to Pokéstar was scheduled to be at some time tomorrow, but Harper wished Beartic were here right now.

Bianca placed her hands on the kids' shoulders and pulled them away from Harper. "I think you should give the riolu some space," She then looked over to him. "I'm so sorry about them, I told them to be on their best behavior and everything."

Seeing Bianca here was strange, since she was one of the least likely that Harper expected to see in Pokéstar. Maybe N was just as unlikely to show up, or any Elite Four members, or the Champion, or Ghetsis. Thinking again, everyone Harper knew from the games would feel extremely out of place in a movie studio.

As far as he knew, Bianca only showed up once to give the main character their starter. Was he breaking the course of events with her arrival here? Harper would never know. He never even got past the beginning of the game.

Harper noticed that Bianca was waiting for Brycen to answer. Knowing that the former Gym Leader wasn't going to spoil the surprise, he began to write on his whiteboard, showing off his literacy.

*It's alright, I've gotten used to it.*

"Woah!" The boy looked shocked at Harper's writing. "He can write? Awesome!"

"What else can you write?" The girl asked.

Harper felt a burst of emotions from the two children, both of whom were experiencing similar moods of childlike amazement. They most likely didn't read what he wrote, as they were surprised that he could write at all. However, that wasn't what piqued Harper's interest. It was what Bianca felt the moment he turned his whiteboard over.

|[Assurance]|

Before Harper could think about it any deeper, he heard footsteps approaching from behind the conference room's doors. A second later, they were flung wide open by the eccentric Mr. Stu Deeoh.

"I apologize for being late," Mr. Stu Deeoh made his way to the leather chair at the end of the pokéball-shaped table and sat down, diverting his attention to Bianca. "I understood from Professor Juniper's call zat you were to arrive here today, but I never expected to see you so soon, Ms. Neri!"

"J-Just Bianca is fine, Mr. Stu Deeoh."

"And you can just call me Stu!" He joyously replied before pulling a manilla folder from the inside of his suit. "Now, let's get down to business. Before you start your pitch, I do want to ask again as Brycen and his riolu don't know zee details, but could you explain zee reason for zee children's presence?"

"Well, Mr.— erm… Stu," Bianca hesitated. "They're the two new apprentice lab trainers under the Unovan Research Team. We hope that, with the acceptance of our pitch, they will be given the opportunity to learn about pokémon here in Pokéstar Studios. You two introduce yourselves," She told the kids.

"I'm Caleb, and I wanna be a Pokémon Trainer!" He announced, pointing his thumb at his chest. "And this is my twin sister, Claire!"

"You're not going to let me introduce myself?" Claire sighed before facing everyone else. "I'm Claire, Caleb's my twin brother and I want to be a traveling nurse."

By the looks of it, the two of them looked to be past the age of ten and looked as far from being twins as can be. Caleb was a slightly tanned boy with brown, untidy hair. His clothes were just like what the youngsters from the games wore, with their T-shirts and comfy-looking shorts. Claire, on the other hand, was rather pale. She wore a small sunhat despite being indoors, making it look as if she didn't like being in the sun. Their contrasting appearances and behaviors made it look like they were friends but Harper didn't know how sibling relations worked.

"Thank you, Caleb and Claire. Now, Professor Juniper 'as said zat she wanted to pitch an idea for Pokéstar but she wanted you to explain it in its entirety in 'er stead," Mr. Stu Deeoh angled his hand towards Bianca. "You have zee spotlight."

"O-oh! Umm…" she nervously fumbled through her bag before taking out what looked like a thin and square-shaped book. Clearing her throat, Bianca began to speak. "As the representative of the Unovan Research Team, I'm here to present our idea for a TV show that will educate younger audiences on the basics of pokémon and their capabilities."

"Do we have to listen to this again?" Caleb complained, interrupting her pitch. "We already heard this on our ride here."

"I think that it's best for the children to not sit here all day," Brycen spoke up, noticing Bianca's face, flushed red in embarrassment. He looked over at Harper. "Can you lead them outside?"

Waking up from his thoughts, he looked at Brycen with confusion. Was he asking him to leave because he looked like a child? Harper knew that by appearance, he wasn't the most adult-looking member of Pokéstar, but didn't he have a say in the matter?

*But I want to hear Bianca's pitch.*

"I can explain it again to you after this meeting if you'd like… well, assuming that it gets accepted..." Bianca suggested as she shook the book in her hand. "Either way, I'll let you borrow this when I'm done."

As she turned her attention towards Harper, he couldn't help but notice the book she was clutching in her hands was a picture book. He couldn't read the title or see the cover, as her hand was blocking the way.

"I highly recommend that you spend time with those two," Brycen whispered as he looked over at the impatient-looking twins. "I have a strong feeling that Mr. Stu Deeoh is going to accept her pitch no matter what due to Professor Juniper's status."

Under the pressure of his Trainer, Harper reluctantly agreed. If he was going to be a true actor, then he was going to jump over the hurdle that was dealing with children right now. He walked over to the double door and opened it as he waved his paw, telling Caleb and Claire to follow him.

"Don't cause any trouble, ok?" Bianca told the two.

Caleb defiantly ignored Bianca's instructions and dashed out of the room, eager to escape its dull atmosphere. Claire quickly followed, clutching her hat to keep it from flying away as she hurried to catch up with Caleb. Meanwhile, Harper closed the door and caught snippets of Bianca's conversation with Brycen as he left the room.

"They'll be fine with Riolu, right?"

"Harper is more than capable, the kids might learn a thing or two from him while you present your pitch."

"Is that his name?"

"It is indeed, but enough about him. You shouldn't keep Mr. Stu Deeoh waiting."

----------------------------------------

Unsure of where to take the kids in Pokéstar Studios, Harper ended up going to the familiar Castelia City set. The place had become a sense of self for him, it was where he trained as a pokémon for the first time, where he told the truth to Nate, and it was the location of the final scene for "Full Metal Cop." The cityscape also helped Harper feel grounded, as the fake metropolis was a nice break away from green screens and props.

"It's just like Castelia!" Caleb craned his head towards the sky, looking at the fake buildings.

"But you never went there before," Claire commented.

"Sure didn't!"

"Then why did you say that?"

"Can I not?" Caleb turned to Harper. "Hey, why'd you take us here?" His eyes locked onto Harper's whiteboard.

*It's a quiet spot that I know.*

"Wow! You really are answering them by yourself!"

Caleb was still unable to comprehend Harper's intellect, causing him to wonder. How did people see pokémon in terms of intelligence? As far as he knew, every pokémon he talked with was completely coherent, especially since pokémon communication sounded different. It took a while for him to realize but up to now, he could faintly hear the pokémon he was talking with say their name in different variations. That aspect of conversing was overshadowed to sound like English and yet it sounded more clear to him.

The Pokémon world most likely defined intelligence by how close it was to the level of people, since everyone treated him differently the moment he was able to write. Every pokémon he met was sapient and could hold a meaningful conversation, so why was this disconnect with people still there? Could pokémon be taught to read and write? There was no way that the only pokémon that could learn to be literate were those with a ridiculously high IQ.

~You'd think they'd do some research on this or something instead of assuming that nearly every pokémon can't learn right off the ba—~

"Hey!" Caleb woke Harper up from his thoughts. He whipped out a pokéball from his pocket. "I wanna battle you! I wanna see how smart you actually are!"

"Didn't you hear what Miss Neri said not to do?" Claire pointed out.

"I know what she said! She said not to cause trouble and I'm asking him nicely for a battle. Isn't that what Trainers do?" He looked at Harper again. "If you can write, you can fight!"

By the tone of his voice, it sounded like Caleb wasn't going to take no for an answer. As much as Harper didn't like battles that were outside a scripted scenario, this was something different. There wasn't anything major at stake, like when he fought those Neo Plasma grunts way back when all he had to do here was destroy this kid's inflated ego.

Nothing too big, right?

Harper accepted Caleb's request by throwing his whiteboard off to the side and placing his fists up. Caleb was sounding a bit too overconfident in his skills with asking for Harper to square up. He was willing to oblige, but since this wasn't a real battle, Harper decided to take it easy.

"See, Claire?" Caleb grinned, raising his arms parallel to the ground and pointing his pokéball forward at Harper. "We're not causing trouble if we both agree to a battle."

"I give up, I'm not the one that's gonna be in trouble anyways. I'm just gonna watch with Eve," Claire shrugged before walking over to the sidewalk curb and sitting down. She took out her pokémon and let her out. An eevee sprung out of the pokéball and landed on the ground, noticing Harper from afar. The fox-cat pokémon wouldn't break her gaze off of him, and he didn't know if it was because there was something on his fur. He swore that he could feel some sense of… fondness?

"You ready, Riolu? It's my pokémon against you! Go, Zorro!" Caleb threw his pokéball in the air. A click and a bright flash of red later, a poochyena formed in front of him. The moment Harper's eyes locked onto Zorro, something felt off. He was familiar with what a poochyena looked like, but didn't poochyenas have red eyes, not blue?

"What the?" The poochyena turned his head in every direction. "Woah! Are we in the city now?"

"We're in Pokéstar Studios, a movie set in the backlot, to be specific," Harper explained.

A light bulb flashed in Zorro's head after hearing Harper's response. "Oh, right! Caleb said we'd be able to be better partners here! Are you helping us right now?"

Harper channeled Fighting TE into his paws, punching them together. "In a way."

"Wait, where's your Trainer?" Zorro looked behind Harper. "Who's gonna tell you what to do?"

"He's busy with Bianca at the moment, so I'll be fighting solo in the meantime."

"But don't you need to know what moves to use?"

"I always fight knowing what I need to do, so don't worry about me."

"Don't get hurt!" Claire's eevee, Eve, shouted from the sidelines.

"Thanks!" Zorro shouted back.

"Not you! I was talking to Riolu! Beat Zorro up!" Eve beamed.

Harper was confused why she was rooting for her friend's opponent, but he assumed that they had some rivalry going on. It seemed like he wasn't the only one wanting Caleb to be taught a lesson.

"Hey, stop wasting time!" Caleb badgered, eager to fight. "Let's start!"

"No hard feelings, Zorro," Harper assumed a right-handed stance, facing towards Zorro as he slid his left foot back. "It's just that your Trainer is practically begging to be humbled."

"Humbled? What does that mea—"

Following Caleb's demand to start the battle, Harper took the opportunity to attack first. Since Fighting type moves were super effective on Dark types, he held back his Force Palm. The impact of the move was still strong enough to move Zorro back a couple feet, his paws skidding on the concrete.

"Zorro! Use Snarl!" Caleb blurted out, shocked by Harper's uncalled first move.

Regaining his footing, Zorro bared his teeth and growled from the bottom of his throat, firing a surge of Dark TE towards Harper. The trajectory of the poochyena's attack was predictable and much slower than Ripley's scripted attacks. Harper sidestepped away from the approaching move and dodged it with ease. The move was as slow as Harper expected, its ineffectiveness unnerved Caleb and he broke into a sweat.

"Tch! Fall back!"

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Zorro jumped back and was now much closer to Caleb. Not willing to give him any time to think, Harper rushed in with a Quick Attack, punching Zorro by the side. The poochyena yelped in pain from the sudden approach. Caleb began to grumble to himself, as the beginning of the battle wasn't going as planned. It looked as if he was waiting for Harper to give some sort of clue as to what move he was going to use. Caleb's eyes nervously focused on every little movement he was making. Unable to wait any longer, he scoffed and shouted to his pokémon.

"I have to win this! U-Use Howl!"

Zorro tilted his head and let out a deep cry into the sky. As the howl echoed off into the distance, the poochyena smiled, ready to face his opponent more seriously than before. Harper responded by sticking an arm straight out, palm-side up, urging Zorro and Caleb to hurry and make a move.

"You'll regret doing that!" Caleb scowled, pointing a finger at Harper. "Zorro! Bite him!"

Zorro rushed towards Harper with his jaw wide open and covered in Dark TE, a dingy color covering his teeth. Not wanting to be on the receiving end of the attack, Harper swiftly dodged to the side. As the poochyena briefly slid on the asphalt, Harper ran in and used Low Sweep, kicking Zorro's forelegs before stepping back a few feet away.

"Get back up! Hurry!"

Harper stepped back and let the poochyena stand back up. Seeing him be patient must be annoying to Caleb, as his frustration was only growing. The apprentice Trainer mumbled to himself, struggling to decide on what move to call out next. Zorro looked behind his back in anticipation of his next command.

There were no waiting games in a real pokémon battle, something Harper knew full well from personal experience. Wanting to test Caleb's alertness. Harper began to charge a Focus Punch, his final move. Zorro nervously looked at him, at Caleb and back at him again, unsure of what to do in the heat of the moment. The poochyena's anxiety only grew as Harper continued to charge his attack.

"Z-Zorro! Use Bite again!"

Right when Zorro charged Dark TE into his mouth for a second time, Harper dashed in with his paw clenched. Before the poochyena could sink his teeth into his flesh, Harper charged a quick Focus Punch and swung his arm, deliberately missing the Dark type's head. The impact against the air created a small gust of wind blowing in the punch's direction.

"I think we should end it here, Zorro," Harper shook off the remaining Fighting TE off his fist.

"Yeah, I think I do as well…" the poochyena stuttered, his legs giving out.

Harper looked over at Caleb, the word "defeat" was written all over his face. He saw Claire walk up to him with a teasing grin.

"Are you ok?" Eve asked in a muffled voice. She walked up to the two with an oran berry in her mouth, most likely from Claire's bag.

"I think I am," Zorro replied, rubbing his paw. "That battle was harder than I thought."

"Not you, I was asking Riolu," She scoffed as she turned to Harper, dropping the oran in front of him. She pushed the berry with her nose and looked up at him with glittery eyes. "He didn't hurt you too much, did he?"

"N-No, I'm fine, thanks," He picked up the berry and ripped it in half, passing one half to Zorro. Eve huffed at the sight of him sharing and sat down next to Harper, swishing her tail side to side. She was sitting a bit too close to comfort for Harper, but he couldn't just push her away. He didn't want to leave a bad impression on the two pokémon and their Trainers, even though he did just battle one of them.

"Anyways," Harper tried to scooch sideways, only for Eve to nudge herself closer. "Are you ok, Zorro? I may have gone a bit overboard in the beginning."

"No," Zorro chewed the last bit of his berry. "I can still feel bruises all over my body."

Shit, did he go too far? He tried to hold back but was it still not enou—

"Just kidding," Zorro snickered. "That battle was awesome! You think Caleb thinks so as well?"

"Nope, but Claire does." Eve looked over at the twins, Claire was talking to Caleb. It sounded more like she was verbally chewing him out, Harper could hear words of how he should take better care of Zorro and such. The apprentice Trainer looked angry, but his defeat wasn't helping with refuting against her.

"I guess it is," Harper chuckled at Zorro's joke. "How many times have you battled?"

"Multiple times, but most of them were against Eve."

"And I won every time," She proudly huffed.

"You know I got you that one time when I hit you with my Scary Face," Zorro twisted his face into an evil grin, imitating the move.

"Exactly, it was one time, Zorro. What about every other battle we had?" Eve smirked.

Zorro didn't reply, only scowling at the eevee in response.

"Hey, don't be so mean to him," Harper jumped into the conversation. "He did his best."

"Hmph! I can't believe you're defending this doofus," Eve pouted as she turned her head away.

Harper turned to Zorro. "Does she treat you like this all the time?"

"It's fine, it's her way of showing how much she likes me."

"That's a big, fat lie!"

Eve pounced on Zorro and the two began to playfully fight each other, rolling around on the concrete, ignoring the amount of dust and debris accruing in their fur. Harper stood on the sideline, unsure if he should break them apart or let them be. He knew that children fighting each other was always bad, but by the looks of it, the two of them weren't using any moves or fighting with the intent to injure.

Thankfully, he didn't have to wait long as he saw Caleb and Claire making their way over. The two each picked up their respective partner pokémon, breaking them apart from each other.

"Zorro just fought Riolu and now he's begging for a fight with Eve!" Claire tenderly petted the top of the eevee's head. "I'd let her, but your battle a moment ago was just sad!"

Caleb picked up Zorro and glared at Claire. "As if you could do better!"

"I could because I wouldn't underestimate Riolu as much as you did!"

Harper picked up his whiteboard that he had thrown aside a few minutes ago and raised it up between the two, wanting to end their feud.

*Do you two always talk together like this?*

"Yeah, but she's always starting it!" Caleb pointed at Claire.

"No, he does!" She pointed back before the two locked eyes, eyebrows furrowed.

Tired of hearing them bicker since their arrival to the Castelia set, Harper slammed his foot to the ground. The impact broke the asphalt, causing a cracking noise to echo through the Castelia City set, cutting Caleb and Claire off mid-argument. The two kids looked at Harper with alarm, their pokémon with identical reactions. He immediately regretted doing that but since it worked, he took the opportunity from the silence.

*You two need to stop fighting and calm down, I want to talk about something,* Harper pointed downward, telling them to sit down. He then looked over at Zorro and Eve. "The both of you, I want to talk to you as well."

The four slowly sat down, still taken aback by Harper's shift in tone. When they were all situated in front of Harper, he addressed Caleb and Claire first.

*First thing I want to ask, do you think Bianca's pitch is going to be accepted?*

"Yeah," Claire answered first. "She was practicing it over and over again."

*If you think the pitch will work, then you should know that you have to work together. The film industry demands proper partnership with other actors.*

The sentence caused Caleb and Claire to point at each other while staring at Harper in disbelief.

"I have to work with him?"

"I have to work with her?"

Harper nodded. *You're going to be together much more often from now on, so make up now. Don't disappoint Bianca.*

Claire and Caleb looked at each other in hesitation, unsure of who should talk first. A moment later, the first to speak up was Claire.

"I… uh, I'm sorry for making fun of you earlier," She spoke softly.

"And I'm sorry that I blamed you like that," Caleb responded in the same tone.

|[Regret]|

|[Apologetic]|

Their apologies were genuine. Harper was concerned that they'd just say "sorry" and call it a day but he was glad that it worked out. Was there a better method he could've used to get them to stop fighting? Probably, but he wasn't going to know anytime soon. He just hoped that he didn't have to break the ground like that ever again.

"What do you think he wrote?" Zorro whispered to Eve.

"I dunno, but Caleb and Claire apologized to each other for some reason." she quietly replied.

"I just wanted to fix some issues they have with each other," Harper said to the two not-so-quiet pokémon. "The two of you are just like your Trainers."

"How much?" The two pokémon asked in unison.

"More than you think," Harper answered as he turned to the two Trainers. Feeling a bit remorseful for the one-sided battle against a child, he felt like he should try and emotionally lift him up.

*I have some things I want to tell you. Our battle showed me a lot about you as a Trainer.*

Caleb silently leaned in as if he were willing to know more. Glad about that being the case, Harper continued writing.

*Have you ever fought in a battle against pokémon without a Trainer?*

"Uh…"

Harper raised an eyebrow.

"No, I didn't…"

*Do you know why I brought this up?*

"I mean, kinda…" Caleb shrugged his shoulders. "I lost to you, a pokémon without their Trainer."

*You're too dependent on hearing what your opponent is commanding.*

It was blunt, but Harper didn't know how to frame it in a better light. How was he supposed to give criticism to a kid of all people? He hoped that whatever he was going to say from this point wasn't going to sound demoralizing, but Caleb and Zorro needed to know.

*You were hesitating whenever I attacked,* he elaborated before he continued to write. *You were throwing commands out without thinking.*

"I-I know, but how do I fix that?"

*Do you want to battle me again another time?*

"Can I?" Caleb sounded hopeful by the tone of his voice. Glad that his plan to make him happy worked, Harper smiled before he turned over to Zorro.

"I've told your Trainer that he's too dependent on hearing his opponent and that we'll do another battle in the future. What I've noticed is that you're too dependent on hearing your commands as well."

"I am?"

"What were you doing while you waited for Caleb to say a move?"

"I… um…"

"You stood still," Harper answered. "That's one of the worst things you can do in a battle."

"I'm sorry…" Zorro tilted his head down in shame.

"N-No, don't say that. I shouldn't have said it like that," Harper quickly replied, not expecting the poochyena to respond the way he did. "Our fight was great."

"Really?" His blue eyes gleamed with surprise.

"It was, I'm telling you all this so you know not to do it again, I'm not trying to sound mean… do I?

"Kinda, but I get it. Thanks, Riolu."

"Harper, my name's Harper."

"Harper…" Eve said in a dreamy voice, catching him off guard. He hadn't realized that she had somehow moved to be next to him again.

"As for you, Eve," He nudged himself to the side. "I told Caleb and Claire to be nice to each other since they're going to be together a lot more and I can't say the same for you and Zorro. Be nicer to him, ok? He'll do the same when you do."

"Fine, but only because you told me to," Eve walked back to Claire and sat on her lap.

How Harper had the energy to talk to four children, two humans and two pokémon, and get them to reconcile, he didn't know, but he was glad that it all worked out. Overall, the group looked more positive in spirit than before now that they weren't nagging at each other every other second.

"Brycen said that Harper would lead them here…"

Harper heard Bianca's voice further into the Castelia set, later appearing and looking around the fake street before spotting them sitting on the ground.

"There you guys are, I got great news! The pitch was accepte—" Bianca noticed the aftermath of the battle that had occurred. The crack on the asphalt stood out the most in the movie set. Her eyebrows furrowed as she sternly looked at Caleb and Claire. "Did you battle without any supervision? And after I said not to cause trouble?"

"It was me, Ms. Neri," Caleb raised his hand. "I wanted to battle Riolu really badly."

Bianca looked at Harper, who proceeded to nod.

*I'm also at fault, I was the one who accepted his request.*

"I'm disappointed that you battled here, but at least you told the truth, Caleb. Did you learn anything from your battle?"

"That I still have a lot to know before becoming a Trainer."

Slightly taken aback by Caleb's answer, Bianca looked over to Harper. "What happened while I was gone, Harper?"

"That's your name?" Caleb and Claire asked at the same time. Harper answered with a single nod, realizing that he never told them his name even though he told their pokémon.

*Just a battle and a short lesson.* Harper wrote for Bianca.

"Interesting…" She muttered to herself, just quietly enough that the kids couldn't hear, but Harper could. "Well, before I lost my train of thought, I was going to say that Mr. Stu Deeoh accepted our pitch!"

Harper still had no clue what the pitch was about. The only thing he knew was what Bianca said before Brycen sent him away was how it was some kind of educational show. Curious about the premise, he wrote his question on his whiteboard and showed it to Bianca.

"Remember that picture book I had earlier? The TV show is going to be loosely based on this," She took the storybook out of her bag and gave it to Harper. "Our hope is that we can teach children and pokémon the basics on battles and such with your—I mean, Pokéstar Studios' help."

The cover of the book featured two pokémon, a piplup and a chimchar, standing together and holding a treasure chest between them. The chest was brimming with gold coins and gems, glinting brightly under the sunlight. The title of the picture book read, "Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: In Search of Secrets." The first part of the title struck a memory in Harper's head. He hadn't played it but seeing a spinoff of the mainline games be in this universe in the form of a picture book of all things was absurd, but it was right in his hands. Intending to skim through it, he flipped to the first page.

"Ooh! Are you gonna read it for us?" Zorro quickly sat in front of Harper.

"I love this story!" Eve added as she sat beside Zorro, ears perked up.

Harper wasn't expecting to do the equivalent of a "story time" like what school teachers did… basically ever. But there were two young pokémon in front of him with gleaming eyes and tails wagging.

"It seems like they're waiting for you," Bianca laughed softly. "Could you entertain them?"

Sighing, Harper gave in to her request. He cleared his throat and began to read the picture book the best he could.

----------------------------------------

In a peaceful village in a world where only pokémon live, there was an adventurer's guild. Among the guild members were two best friends, Chimchar and Piplup. Chimchar was always full of energy and excitement, able to get through anything that came his way. Piplup was smart and brave, and his quick thinking helped on many occasions. Together, they loved exploring and having fun.

One day, the guild leader, Arcanine, gathered everyone in the guildhall. "Chimchar and Piplup, I have a special mission for you," She said. She handed them an old, crumpled piece of paper. "This map leads to a hidden treasure in the nearby Mystery Dungeon. It's your task to find it and bring it back to the guild."

"We must prepare for our adventure," said Piplup. They packed their bags with berries, a map, and their favorite items. Chimchar brought a perfect apple in case of hunger, while Piplup packed a luminous orb to light the way. Arcanine gave them some advice and wished them luck. They were ready to face any challenge that they were to face.

Chimchar and Piplup stood at the entrance of the dungeon, the gate stood tall and formidable. They felt a mix of excitement and nervousness for what was to come. "Let's stick together and be brave," said Piplup. Chimchar nodded, and they stepped inside, ready for the adventure ahead.

The dungeon was dark and full of twists and turns. Many mean pokémon stopped them in their path, but Piplup and Chimchar faced them off with ease. After a great amount of battles later, they entered a room and found a puzzle with strange symbols. Using their wits and teamwork, they solved it together and unlocked the path to the treasure.

When they reached the final room, a treasure chest awaited, set atop a stone base. They opened it eagerly and found it filled to the brim with gold and jewels that sparkled in the dim light. "This is amazing!" exclaimed Piplup. "Look at all this treasure!" Chimchar added with excitement. "Arcanine will be so proud!"

With the treasure chest in hand, Chimchar and Piplup returned to the guild. They shared their adventure with Arcanine and the other guild members, feeling proud and happy. Arcanine smiled and said, "You've shown great courage and teamwork! This treasure is a testament to your incredible journey." Their bond was strengthened by their journey into the Mystery Dungeon, and they knew that as long as they were together, anything was possible.

----------------------------------------

As he turned the last page and to the back cover of the book, Harper looked up to see not only Zorro and Eve somehow sitting closer than before, but their Trainers as well. Even Bianca was listening in as well with a notepad in her hand for some reason. He didn't know why they were listening since all they would have heard was pokéspeech. Finished with the book, he handed it over to Bianca, who put it back into her bag.

"Do you see why this picture book is going to help with making our show?" She questioned.

He now understood why Bianca brought along Caleb, Claire, and their pokémon to pitch the idea. Zorro and Eve were going to take the place of the two pokémon in the story, but how was this going to be filmed? The last movie that Harper did had people, so subtitles only showed up when pokémon were speaking. A show set in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon setting definitely wouldn't work if viewers had to read the text at the bottom of the screen the entire time… unless they did what he was thinking. Harper wrote down his suspicions and showed Bianca.

*Are Caleb and Claire going to be voice-acting?*

"They are! Professor Juniper and I believe that it's a unique way of how a Trainer and pokémon bond together by lending their voice! We wanted to make sure that the target audience was as wide as it could be with both young children and pokémon. People can watch a dubbed version and pokémon can watch the show as is, what do you think about that?"

The idea of catering to two audiences was interesting. "Full Metal Cop" accommodated pokémon to say their lines thanks to Harper's efforts with rehearsing their dialogue. Though the pokémon had fewer lines compared to the human cast, it made a huge difference. People praised the film for having pokémon involved in ways that weren't just primarily for battles. A live-action kids show was bound to be something.

Another question began to fester in his head. If Zorro and Eve were going to take the place of the chimchar and piplup from the book, then who was going to take the role of the Guildmaster? Harper asked Bianca through his whiteboard what the other roles were going to be.

"I haven't forgotten about that when I talked with Mr. Stu Deeoh," She stated. "He was the one that recommended Brycen's pokémon to have a role."

There wasn't a role that Harper would be able to take following the story. Since he was out of the picture, the only other pokémon of Brycen's that would be able to fill that spot was…

"It was a perfect match for Beartic to be able to take the spot," Bianca answered. "I had hoped to see him today but Brycen explained earlier that he'll be arriving back from Icirrus City tomorrow."

Harper remembered back during his tour with Beartic about how he was somewhat jealous that a fan recognized a riolu instead of him. He knew for a fact that the polar bear was going to be glad to hear the news when he came back.

"Don't worry, Harper. I asked Mr. Stu Deeoh if we could get an additional role for you and I came up with something pretty good!" Bianca pointed at him. "What do you think about being the Guildmaster's assistant?"

Harper never thought that he would get a role in this show, but Bianca's insistence got him one in the end. He was expecting to have some kind of gap between "Full Metal Cop" and whatever his next role was going to be. It had only been a couple of days since the completion of his last film and now he had another role in such a short period. He wasn't complaining, but he wished that the news was more proper than this. Willing to accept Bianca's offer, he nodded.

"That's great to hear!" She exclaimed before her eyes widened in remembrance of something. "Oh! I forgot to tell you! Brycen said to tell you that he's waiting in the conference room! I should've told you earlier, but I was just so excited about the pitch being accepted!"

*It's alright, I'll head over right now. What are you going to do in the meantime?*

"Mr. Stu Deeoh said that we're free to do anything while he got the business side of the deal worked with," Bianca looked over to the twins, "let's go look around the studio, we can talk with Harper again later."

Caleb and Claire took out their pokéballs and pointed them at Zorro and Eve, who waved goodbye as they were summoned back in. As the kids walked away with Bianca, they also waved back just like their pokémon.

"Bye, Mr. Harper!" Claire shouted.

"Thanks, Harper! I'm definitely going to win next time!" Caleb proclaimed.

Waving back to the group, another thought emerged in his head. That picture book he just read was based off of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, a game that had human-turned-pokémon with amnesia. That thought didn't occur earlier, since there was no mention of an amnesiac pokémon in the story. Weren't they a focal part of the Mystery Dungeon games? If this TV show was going to be based on this picture book, then he guessed that it wasn't going to be one after all.

Harper chuckled to himself at the thought of what could've been. If he ever got the role of a human-turned-pokémon, he'd nail it down to a tee, whether intentionally or not.