Professor Oak watched with a warm smile the scene unfolding. All three Pokemon were happy and commented how much darker The boy/man’s complexion was now that his body was cleansed of all the residual minerals deposited into his bloodstream.

Although Oak was not a whisperer by birth, like others his age, he had eventually grown into it. Obviously not as clear a whisperer could distinguish the meaning but enough to know the general conversation. It was a nice Dichotomy to see a rough cut looking man, so tender and passionate with his Pokemon.

His conscience gnawed at him though, recalling his hour long debate with the ornery and downright obstinate Champion. The champion was grumpy at the best of times but it seemed to get worse year by year. First Pryce lost his starter when he was a veteran, now his second Pokemon, half a year ago, had decided to leave.

Broke its Pokeball and left without a trace.

It made any sort of dealings with the man downright impossible. Regardless Oak wasn’t looking forward to the impending conversation with Carlos, it grated him, in all the wrong ways.

The young nurse Joy came in and gave Oak a short bow and checked the blood cleansing device. In a lull of the three Mon’s chattering away, She removed some of the various tubing stuck in his arm and took a deep breath.

“I’m sorry. For jumping to conclusions so quickly when you came in here.” She said quietly.

”Thank you for that, I’m sorry for responding so violently, I was a lot more tired and mentally exhausted than I realized but it was no excuse.” Carlos responded, he smiled at her, still somewhat drowsy. “So the professor and my Mon’s told me I was out of it for 2 days?”

The nurse nodded and smiled, Oak noted how much more relaxed she was now that the air had been cleared seemingly very eager to please, she scratched Dianne behind the ears, the Sensitive girl had warmed up to the nurse over the last few days. So had the other two. A few pounds had been gained.

“Yes we needed to cleanse your blood so our Chanseys could guide your TE through the process of transforming your bone structure. The Gollum you met and who took care of your head injury had transformed your entire skull into TE rock.”

Carlos deadpanned. “That sounds like something that crazy bastard would do. What sort of complications does that saddle me with? I must admit I never even noticed anything wrong.” He asked. She laughed a bit too easily at his words and shrugged.

“We have no clue, you should have been dead with 10 times the lethal amount of minerals and metal oxides ruining your bloodstream. Your body should have gone into shock, heart failure, the works.” she flirtatiously bend forward, further than necessary, to take his temperature. Carlos didn’t miss that her blouse was one button down giving him the full view. “Seems you are just that awesome.” She said in a low tone while smiling. after making sure everything was fine, she left to do her rounds.

Carlos wasn’t sure what to think. Oak smirked. “Women are odd at the best of times.” Oak said chuckling, “and The Joy clan can be quite upfront and don’t beat around the bush.”

“I’m just overwhelmed at the complete one eighty she made.”

”She interacted with your Pokemon. Their health says a lot about the trainer. Their behavior and mental state considering the trauma’s they are dealing with, moreso.” Oak said. “We all talked with them,” he added.

Carlos turned to Oak and observed Oak for a bit. “So what do you make of me?”

”Rough around the edges, bit of a foul mouth but soft on the inside. You took good care of them,” he motioned to his 3 pokemon who jumped off the bed and started tussling amongst the three. “In the wild they wouldn’t have made it, that much is clear. You didn’t have to help them but you did.”

Carlos was quiet for a bit. “Not sure if I was purely altruistic Doc. Their absurd potential definitely helped.” He plucked Gawain out of the air as Gawain leapt across the bed and ruffled him. Gawain was a bit withdrawn, as usual but seeing him rough housing with the other two, filled Carlos with warmth. “Take this fella for example, tough as nails and a keen combat sense, but looking at him, you could never guess. All three, have immense potential for that matter.”

Oak smiled ruefully. “Not many would agree with you, double types that can’t evolve into pure types like yours, have a bit of a bad rep. Even the Typhlosion line, famous for it’s tenacity, is considered one of the weaker starters amongst the ace trainers. Needing a lot more training to reach their potential. That fire stone, around his neck he needs it to regulate his temperature no?”

Gawain flinched at the harsh words. Carlos smiled at Gawain. “Most people in my experience are fools. Did you read the part in my journal when I stumbled onto Gawain’s parents?”

Oak shook his head. “No I don’t make a habit of prying into People’s personal thoughts.”

Carlos smiled. “Well you are in for a treat.” He looked at Gawain. “You ok if I retell the last moments of your family?” Gawain nodded.

”I feel closer to my parents when you talk about them uncle. Like they aren’t really gone. Also Uncle makes them sound so, awesome.”

And so Carlos regaled the epic last stand of Gawain’s parents and his brothers and sisters. Carlos became more animated, his eyes shone as he described the tenacity and fearlessness of Gawain’s late family. How they didn’t give up till the end. The old Nurse halfway through the story stopped by and stood in the doorway listening in.

Oak listened to the story and could tell it had left a deep impression on the boy. He felt remorse, he gave the old nurse an inquiring look and she nodded a bit morosely. They both had a good idea to which late trainers, those two Typhlosions had belonged to. Especially considering their prowess. The nurse quietly continued her rounds.

Catalla City, down south close to the coastline of Johto, had a minor Fire gym for rookie trainers to receive a badge for participation in the rookie league. All the Gyms required to sent many of their trainers during the war. The Typhlosion, was native to that region and the hallmark of the Gym.

The gym leader Feline and her husband Erving had perished in the war, both their aces released into the hollow mountain range, they never had any children so it was still unclear how the gym would survive. The reorganization of the combined league. And the rebuilding of the Gym’s was taking a lot longer than many hoped.

The simple fact was that Feline and Erving left very large shoes to fill. Shoes the locals were hesitant to try and fit, even a decade and a half later.

The Gym had always been a side note for Feline. The breeding Ranch owned and run by her Husband Erving, breeding, nurturing and taking care of the new fire Pokemon had both been their true passion. Although considered a minor gym, both Feline and Erving had been absolute powerhouses as far as fire specialists.

He never knew them personally but heard many great things about them. Pacifist to the last second.

”Hey professor Oak?” Carlos snapped him out of his thoughts. “Im getting old, I get lost in thoughts so easily these days.” Oak thought to himself.

“Is it normal for Pokemon to develop new moves on their own? All I know about Pokemon, is from Reid’s journal and I assume any mention of unique moves was contained in the corrupted files,” Carlos asked, oblivious to Oak’s inner turmoil.

Oak didn’t respond for a while, and instead put the banged up Pokedex of Reid/Carlos down and grabbed his own from his pocket. He scanned Carlos and his 3 pokemon for a few minutes and nodded to himself.

”It’s normal for Pokemon to develop new moves that are unique to them and trainer. It’s why Pokemon are so willing to follow a human around, the lure of power ever present with trainers for Pokemon. Non-unique moves are already part of their DNA structure, something they awaken naturally in the wild.” He began his explanation. “Most Pokemon that are well trained, will usually gain up to 3 signature moves that are unique to them. Most of the Champions of each region and their respective starter or first Pokemon, have 4 or 5 signature moves.

Cynthia and Steven stone the undisputed champions of Sinnoh and Hoen respectively, have been undefeated for a long time. In part due to their monstrous starter Pokemon. Both have a whopping 7 signature moves unique to them. Both will remain to be the champion for the next decade of their Region. Talent like them is rare. Many trainers never develop signature moves. Take our current indigo Champion Pryce, Ice type trainer and specialist, never developed signature moves for his Pokemon.”

These signature moves usually, manifest after some years of training, definitely not after 3 or 4 months. I suggest you don’t use those moves in public duels or gym duels until you have a year under your belt and then only 1 of them.”

Carlos nodded. deep in thought. There was a lot of subtleties he needed to be aware of.

”Hey you three, why don’t you go out into the field and get some of that pent up energy out? Each three of you think of a game that all three of you try, ok?” Carlos said to his Mon’s.

His 3 mon’s nodded and jumped through the open window and sat together in the field so each could cook up a game to play.

”Can I ask you what the story will be?” Carlos looked at Oak.

”Can I assume you are talking about the cover story for you?” Oak asked, Carlos nodded. “Smart kid,” Oak thought.

Oak tapped on his Pokedex and a few minutes later Lieutenant Surge walked in, his signature smirk on his face. “Sup kid, recovered from your beauty nap?”

He pulled a chair, plopped down and rested his boots on the end of the bed. Taking a relaxed pose. Surge began to explain.

”Me, the Professor and the current champion, mister prickpryce, have come up with a brilliant story, totally foolproof.” His smirk grew.

”You will work for the Kanto based league for the next two years and a nine months. This is non negotiable btw.”

Surge paused, gauging Carlos response.

”Yea I’m ok with that” Carlos said with a heavy sigh, “I guess it’s necessary to craft a believable cover story?”

Oak nodded, “I wish the circumstances were different. It is a big commitment on your part. I hope you don’t take this the wrong way. The reason is, that there are people hiding in the shadows that would be tempted to do something… disreputable if they knew your true identity. Quite a few star children have similar cover stories and were relocated to different regions to protect them and their families after the war.”

Carlos nodded, he didn’t feel offended. War, suffering and loss did strange things to people.

Surge cleared his throat and continued his explanation.

“So a bit o’ background. There used to be a small village relatively deep into the mountains northwest of Pewter City, that part of the mountain range, got hit hard during the war. It’s called rock village and it got burned to the ground and the people there left for dead.

That early into the war everything was in chaos and we had no available trainers to get there. As fate would have it, a pretty dame from Unovia married a lucky guy in Kanto some years before the war and lived there. Their Names were Ivonne Gatsby and Steven Sicada. We already registered you with the league as Carlos Sicada, orphaned son of that couple.

I myself am of Unovian Descent as you can tell but was born and raised to the beautiful lands of Kanto. As you might have noticed, We Unovians are on the taller side, predominantly pale skinned and blond.”

Although Carlos had no frame of reference whatsoever, he didn’t bother correcting Surge on some technicalities, although he could see Oak holding himself back. Surge kept talking without Pause.

“So it’s simple, you are an orphan of that couple, like many young adolescents these days and have lived on your lonesome deep in the mountains away from Rock village with your Pokemon.

That unovian babe is distantly related to me, so no one is gonna bat an eye when you work for me sitting out the current league season. That pretty much sums it up, right Samuel?”

Surge looked at Professor Oak, who nodded.

”Now due to all the complications concerning your background, Pryce made us promise we keep,” Oak searched for the right words. “You within the Kanto region for now.”

”Just say it like it is Samuel,” Surge interrupted. “Our Illustrious Champion wants us to keep Carlos on a leash. I don’t like it, you won’t like it but that’s how it’s going to be.”

The distrust Carlos felt from someone he hadn’t even met yet, cast a dark shadow covering his thoughts.

”Basically the Kanto gym league has officially enlisted you as an official league liaison, for a 2 years, and 9 month service.”

”You want to keep tabs on me and see if I’m problematic?”

“You must understand Carlos, The level of trust we once had as a people and nations is gone. Restoring that trust will take time.” Oak responded and continued. “Including people’s trust in the legacy of the star children.”

“Surge will take over of the Vermilion City Gym. Its a minor Gym at the moment but Surge is tasked with elevating it to a major Gym.”

”How many Gyms does Kanto have?” Carlos asked.

Surge responded, ”one for each type. At the moment, six major gyms, The loss of so many major gym leaders across the world, is why all regions have had their borders closed for the trainer circuit exchange program and thus for Civilians.”

“So who is responsible for the 8th gym?” Carlos asked.

”Koga, the guy you nearly killed with that killer kick of yours.” Surge grinned.

”So I’m gonna help you with setting up your Gym then?” Carlos asked.

“Yup but there’s more. See Pryce, the current champion, figured the entire rookie gym circuit in Kanto needs a proper test run. They don’t want to say it out loud, but many of the gyms have fallen from their once mighty pedestal. The gyms always were varied in quality but in the last decade that has gotten a lot worse. In case you haven’t caught on yet, we don’t call it the Kanto nation or kingdom or whatever, but regions. Each region is a collection of city states that are allied together, with their respective gyms at the center. In order to get back to a reasonable level of strength as regions, we need to make sure none of the gyms lag behind. That’s where the league comes in.”

A lightbulb went up in Carlos’s head. “It’s a league of gyms. As in governmental.” He thought out loud.

“Yes and no.” Oak responded. “Government is done by elected officials. Government only does legislative work, it doesn’t have any authority. The Gyms and the civilians do.” Oak corrected. “Government is tasked with legislation, if a gym leader decides that legislation is bad for his city, they will veto it.”

“So how do you respond to threats that aren’t within the bounds of cities or threaten the whole region?” Carlos asked.

”The rangers and the Jennies are usually available on a first response basis, both are neutral groups separated from the leagues. Each City is tasked with providing the rangers and the Jennies with a certain number of veteran trainers.

If the rangers or Jennies can’t handle the situation they can call on, or veto the help of local ace trainers tied to a gym. If the threat is really regional wide, the champion, the elite four and their personal ace trainers acting as aides. Will assist.”

quite a few small towns in the various regions have opted for neutrality. Pledging their allegiance to the rangers.”

”elites and rangers must be busy.” Carlos responded.

Surge shrugged. “Depends if legendaries are ornery, or the local dragon gang from the hollow mountain range decide to hunt for an easy snack. For the most part they are tasked to keep rookie trainers safe on their first journey.”

That reminded Carlos of something. ”Hey totally off subject. Did that raticate breeder Reid mentioned, really have 6 raticates that could gigantimax?” Carlos asked.

Both Oak and Surge groaned and rubbed their temples. “Please don’t talk about the kanto shame so openly yea? That absolute dumbass passed away a little before the war but not before he had the brilliant idea, that each region, needed to be blessed with a healthy ratatta presence. To this day, Ratatta are primarily caught as a food source across the globe, for carnivorous Pokemon to keep the Ratatta numbers in check, it’s the only Pokemon for which you don’t need a subsistence hunting license, anywhere. The Kanto league, still received petty letters and complaints about that subject, whe have a government branch dedicated with response because of it.” Surge moaned. “Wana know what name we gave it?” He didn’t wait for Carlos response.“The Ratticate Relief department. Or T.R.R.D for short.”

Carlos had to laugh at that. “I don’t know,” he smirked, “sounds like that man provided an easy solution for all the Pokémon trainers that don’t have the means to get TE fruits. Or are those more common in the civilized parts of this world?”

Oak was about to refute, but pondered. “That’s actually not a bad point, they are easy to catch too. One second boys, i’m shooting the T.R.R.D office that idea, maybe then the Alola league will stop complaining.”

”Ow come on Doc! No one likes eating that stuff, the ratatta infestation is the sole reason why we export Tauros meat and sell it close to at cost to the most affected regions, kid, Ratatta, are a huge nuisance! They have more then once ruined harvests!”

Oak waved Surge off finishing his email. Surge gave Carlos a dirty look. Carlos simply shrugged.

”Sorry for that side tangent but can I ask what it is you expect of me? In regards to this issue you have with your Gym’s?”

Oak chimed in. “when people come of age they go on a one year journey and are encouraged to participate in the rookie circuit and eventually participate in the rookie tournament.”

”Send a bunch of hormone driven 18 year olds into the wild, to catch nuclear level threats with a tiny ball. What could possibly go wrong?” Carlos thought to himself but he didn’t voice his thoughts.

”Usually after people participated in the Rookie tournament, they can opt to stay on the trainer track if they had enough wins and register as a veteran, those that don’t make it, usually return home or find a place to live and find an apprenticeship for a job with a big corp or someone who offers it.”

Surge continued. ”Your Pokemon are of exceptional strength, once you get a full team I would place bets on you reaching third place in the rookie tournament. You will enter the rookie league with a year of training under your belt on the same level as a bonafide veteran trainer.

However that’s where you will be different. Normally a rookie trainer goes out with a single pokemon, catches Pokemon, challenges 8 gyms and participates in the tournament. We are asking you to challenge all 18 gyms as a rookie.”

“You want me to test 18 gym’s in a single year? Carlos asked surprised.

Surge nodded. “Yea basically, while you work for me, you get days off so you can assemble your team. The carry limit for rookie trainers is six. Veterans nine. Ace trainers 12. Gym Leaders and the champion 15. Keep in mind most trainers, champion elite or veteran usually carries up to 12.”

What the league really needs is an experienced trainer with a fresh perspective who hasn’t run the rookie circuit and can give us criticism on what needs to be changed.”

“Once the 9 months are up and you have 6 personal Pokemon. The league will provide you with a Pidgeot for travel. So you can fly to each gym. If you had to walk it would take too long.”

Just so you know, veteran trainers when they run the veteran circuit, need to do all 18 gyms and receive the respective veteran badge before they can participate in the veteran tournament which is the only way a trainer can become an Ace trainer the top 8 on the veteran tournament becomes Ace initiates and may opt to challenge the real teams of each major gym in the region to become a region Ace trainer.

“Whats the purpose of each circuit?” Carlos asked.

The rookie circuit should give trainers a feel for type advantages. The veteran circuit should provide a field for testing team strategies. It also includes double battles.

and ace trainers only answer to those they are attached to, be it an elite, gym leader or champion.

”huh, this whole system is sort off reminiscent of the draft, back on earth.” Carlos said. “What’s the draft?” Surge asked.”

Carlos briefly summarized it and Surge nodded. “Yea that’s pretty much how it works for us.” Surge answered and continued:

“We registered you as the second Pokemon Whisperer of Kanto. We are going to keep tabs on you. So is everyone else for that matter but this way we can keep your true identity hidden in plain sight. So I hope you can keep that story straight.”

”wunderkind ala MOI is so awesome the backward region of Kanto had no other choice but to offer me a job. Nepotism at its finest.” Carlos said sarcastically.

”You got that Unovian classy mouth already however im still gonna kick your gonads for that kid.” Surge smirked. “Ow before I forget, here.” Surge handed Carlos a bag, Carlos opened and whistled. A dozen Pokeballs.”what do I need so many for?”

“You need 3 teams trained at specific levels at my gym. I won’t bother with the rookie stuff, that will be you.”

Carlos sighed but had a smirk on his face.

“Will anyone else help out with that?” Surge’s devilish smile told him no. “Told you I was gonna hit you in the Gonads. I was gonna hire more but now that you have shown me your spunk,” Surge smiled wide, “Now I will leave it in your expert hands kid.” Carlos sighed. “Just so you know i know I look 18 years old but im actually 35 years old. Have….Had a wife, kids and all.”

”Older than me mentally huh?” Surge mused. “Sensei Carlos that will be your nickname.” Carlos groaned at that.

”What do you mean had a wife? Did she die?” Oak asked.

”No, the only thing I have to go on is a random dream I had. We got divorced.”

”That common?” Surge asked. “You don’t seem surprised or broken about it.”

Carlos nodded. “I don’t remember exactly but the feeling I get is, yes.”

“Sounds rough.” Surge’s said, smile gone. Here it happens sometimes but it’s quite rare, something like 7% of marriages don’t work out? Some of us sleep around but when we meet the one, well couples tend to bond strongly. there ain’t even laws or protocols for splitting a couple up.”

”Why do you think that is?” Carlos asked.

“Something to do with TE. Every living thing has some of it. When you converse, spend time with one another the TE of each person interacts. Prolonged time like this molds the mind of both parties involved. This counts double for Pokemon and their trainer.” Oak responded, “it’s the field of science I specialize in.

”Yea I noticed, my mon’s connect fast and im sure you have a lot to add to that but I gotta make sure I understand my role, sorry Professor.” Oak smiled congenially and held his hands up and motioned for him to go on. Carlos turned to Surge. “So how will that work with any Pokemon I catch for the gym?”

“Take another look at those balls. 3 are normal, those are a gift and they are yours.

The other nine are slightly different. You see the VGDB engraved? that stands for Vermilion Gym Digit Ball. Unlike other pokeballs, these pokeballs put the Pokemon in complete digital stasis. It numbs their emotions until they are released.

This prevents them from bonding to the gym trainers who use them. Usually we cycle through Gym Pokemon every 3-5 years. The Pokémon we catch like this are told what to expect but most end up agreeing. They usually get a massive amount of combat experience that they can put to good use in the wild. Or if they so choose, can be gifted to promising youth.

Once we get to vermillion city I will expect you to catch about 9 of the local electric Pokemon . 3 teams, 1 for 1 to 3 badges, 1 for 4 to six badges and 1 for 7 to 8 badges. You will be tasked to train them up yourself.

Your weakest team should consist of 3 mons that primarily use 2 basic electric and 1 normal type, moves. The second team can have up to 4 and you may develop a basic team tactic. The last one may consist of second evolution types. And you go nuts with tactics.

Now I was joking that you would run the gauntlet on your own. But I will expect your weakest team to be ready within the month, the second within 2 months and the third in 3. That should line up with the projections that Giovanni came up with for this year’s circuit.”

Surge stopped talking and grabbed a canteen buckled on his belt and took a few long gulps. “Isn’t used to talking for such length.” Carlos noted. He took a while to think things over, gazing out the window, he smiled as he saw Dianne win a game of poker tag.

“Ya lost your mind kid?” Surge asked when Carlos hadn’t responded for a few minutes. Carlos smiled darkly. “I don’t believe you need any opinion of this serf, now do you? I’m simply thinking things over and how to do my duty to the best of my abilities.”

Oak almost flinched at the sharpness of Carlos’s words but kept his face stern. “I guess that was deserved, no matter how well intended, we aren’t giving you a real choice.”

Carlos waved him off, “Truth be told Professor, I’m not dumb enough to not recognize that there was no choice to begin with. I could say that my dark TE makes me more snappy but I just felt like saying it.”

Carlos stepped out of bed and gave both Surge and Oak a small bow in respect and straightened himself out. “I want to thank you for providing me with the opportunity to prove myself.” He thought darkly to himself. “Even though I shouldn’t have.*

”You sure you a starchild kid? How do you know about that particular custom?” Surge asked.

Carlos almost responded with the fact that Kanto was based on Japanese culture but he held himself back. “The eastern countries on earth and people of similar complexion as Kantonians, had a similar custom, I merely mimicked it. That’s not considered cultural appropriation is it? He asked.

Oak laughed. “Try appreciation.”

Surge nodded, “You might even teach me a thing or two.” He got up. “Well that’s all for me, once you are released from the Joy’s care they will give me a ring and il pick you up.” With that he left.

”Quite a bit to unpack to be honest.” Carlos said with a blank face. He wasn’t sure what to think. He had sort of expected some relaxation. Not workaholic job security.

“Are you sure you are alright?” Oak asked. Carlos shrugged, “I will be. Better than getting crucified and burned at the stake.”

Carlos for the first time, saw what a shocked Oak looked like. Oak pinched his nose. “Im sure I will regret asking but what is crucifixion?”

Carlos explained how it worked. He smirked at the aghast look on Oak’s face “Come now professor. You telling me with pokemon capable of wiping a person’s mind, you didn’t have an absolutely fucked up society at some point?”

Oak begrudgingly nodded, “sure but every single one of those societies collapsed in on themselves without fail. Now I don’t want to feign innocence considering the recent war but that’s still quite the perverse way to torture someone.”

Carlos nodded at that. “Sure but it was a long time ago. However I mainly mentioned it because of the way you talked about these underground organizations.”

Oak took a deep breath. “What im about to tell you should not be repeated, but the little the rangers and the jennies managed to uncover,” he paused for a moment. “Well let’s just say our society hasn’t seen such atrocities committed on our soil for a long time. Not since the dark times.”

Carlos Turned to face Oak. “What do you mean the dark times?”

Oak however waved him off. “The less you know the better. It was a time when Pokemon were unaware of the synergies between human and Pokemon. Let’s just say humans didn’t have it well. Many turned to dark cults for salvation.”

Carlos shook his head. “Quite different from what I remember the Pokemon world to be about.”

”The star children I knew, had that same response. Many expected a fairy tail, most tried to create that fairy tail.” Oak said.

“Did you know many?”

”A few, some of them are safe, last time l heard. But most are exhausted of life and under constant psychological supervision. As talented as they were, they didn’t have the same…. Resilience as us regular mundanes had.”

“Ow please don’t tell me there was a class distinction because of it?,” Oak simply smiled and shook his head. “Ow no, don’t worry, Just a rue-full old man, expressing his frustrations my boy.”

Carlos didn’t push further but felt relief settle in. He wasn’t sure why but for some reason the notion of elitism, really disturbed him, as if something about that in his old life was a constant drag.

The old nurse came in, half pretending she never heard a thing, with a warm smile for both. “That’s quite enough of politics and bleary history. I for one think we came a long way. Well Carlos you are a medical marvel, I will release you soon just gotta finish some paperwork. Il ask you to do a few check ups with the vermilion hospital.” She removed the last of the tubings in his arms. She had a knowing smile on her face that Carlos couldn’t place. “Hey professor? Shouldn’t you head back to the missus?” She playfully teased.

Oak coughed awkwardly.

Carlos smiled. “Ah, I should have known those fan theories of professor Oak and Ash Ketchum’s mom were real.” Carlos had a conspiratorial smile together with the old nurse, who covered her mouth while holding down her laughter.

”Of all the pieces of information you have, that one just had to be correct?” Oak asked with an annoyed voice.

”Even a broken clock strikes right twice each day Professor.” Carlos said while chuckling. Making The old Nurse laugh.

“Huh what a fascinating idiom.” Oak said obviously trying in vain to change the subject.

the nurse cleared her throat. “Well that’s enough teasing for today. I do mean that professor, you made that woman wait long enough.” She gave him a somewhat stern but compassionate look. “Good luck to you Carlos Sicada. I hope the league treats you well.”

She gave a short bow and made to leave. “Thanks for taking care of me Nurse Joy.” Carlos said.” she smiled looking back over her shoulder. “Don’t mention it. The paper I wrote on you will secure my early retirement, tata now~.”

“Well. Before I forget here.” Oak handed him a shiny new pokedex. Similar to what he remembered from the anime. But more technical. It was compact but had a lot of bells and whistles. Oak explained over the next 10 minutes. The technological marvel was astounding.

The thing was basically a tricorder like the one from star trek it could read telemetry of Pokemon moves and their general health, a massive database, a smart phone and from what he could tell, a super computer considering what it was all capable of.

”I took the liberty to download your personal journal and notes you wrote on Reid’s old pokedex, onto the new one. Something told me you would appreciate the old interface so left that as well. Including my number, Koga, Surge, and the young nurse’s personal number.” Carlos raised his eyebrow at the last one. Oak shrugged, “she said something about wanting to properly make it up to you.”

Carlos was dumbfounded. “Professor I’m just asking… according to the standards of this world…. Am I good looking?”

Oak stared at him dumbfounded, began chuckling, full out bursting into laughter, tears running down his face. He got up, kept laughing and left.

Carlos felt pretty awkward at that. “I was just asking.” He mumbled. The young nurse knocked, almost a second later, came in and handed him some keys.

“Here this is for your room tonight. The old bat officially released you. It’s on the second floor, 3rd room to the right. She smiled at him in a way that told Carlos she was coming on to him but he was hesitant to acknowledge that. He simply didn’t trust people could change their opinion on someone so quickly.

“I guess I should get out of your hair.” He smiled awkwardly. “Thanks for taking care of my Pokemon btw, with all that was going on, I completely forgot to ask if they were ok?”

He asked calmly but couldn’t hold back some of the raw emotions bubbling out. The young nurse looked up at him, reached and held his arm, rather intimately he noted. “Your Pokemon are paragons of health. If you look at their age vs their strength, they are some of the strongest specimens, if you excuse the language, of their species I’ve had the pleasure of taking care off.”

”Is that because im the dumb one, training dual types?” Carlos remarked sarcastically.

“Sorry, just a bit of sourness from my conversation with Oak.” He apologized a second later.

”The young nurse giggled. “Oak’s team is quite famous you know? a mix of double, pure some triple,

you hear a lot of those elitists pricks rag on about the advantages of triple or god forbid their holy grail, the quad types. But Tell me.” She bend forward, her chest almost grazing his and for the first time Carlos saw a competitive spark in her eyes. But not before noticing that she was really trying to give him the view.

“Do you see yourself losing against that sort of trainer? With those three marvelous Pokemon you got?” He could feel her breath. He could feel his body responding strongly He had just survived 4 tense months of life of death and that tension threatened to come undone hard and fast. but he schooled himself.

Carlos looked at her eyes, feeling a warmth spread in his chest and felt the biggest shit eating grin spread on his face. “Not a chance in hell, id pummel them into the dirt before they knew what hit them.” She clapped him on the shoulder her hand lingering as she almost reluctantly broke the touch.

“That’s what it’s about, your trust in them”. She bend forward, this time her body grazed his and whispered into his ear. “If you want, I can come over later tonight and help you settle in your room?” She bit her lower lip.

Carlos felt like he got hit by a truck. “Yes I would like that.” She smiled and gave him a peck on the cheeks, stepped back and made to leave the room.

Carlos snapped out of it. “Why are you so nice, suddenly?”

He almost stammered, he couldn’t figure this nurse out. She turned around. Looked at him for half a minute weighing her words. “I’m sure the professor told you all about star children bonding quicker, than regulars from this world with Pokemon?” Carlos nodded,

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“The Joy clan’s know the truth. The only difference between star children and regulars from this world, is that star children never took Pokemon for granted or felt they truly owned them. just that alone allowed most of them to rise above the rest of us.

They taught us much. As a nurse I’ve seen the records during my training as a medical practitioner. The Joy clan, secretly uses these records to gauge trainers and discreetly make the Jennies aware of any problematic outliers. Not that it matters. Often Pokemon turn on their trainer if they push it too far.” Carlos nodded at that. “Makes sense.”

“Do you have any idea how sexy it is to see a trainer like you, take such good care of his Pokemon? She quite heavily punctuated her words with a sultry undertone.

She turned around and left a dazed Carlos. So dazed in fact it went completely over his head that Gawain had set off a massive chain explosion with his incendiary clouds, actually shaking the foundations of the building a bit. Carlos looked out of the window and saw the old nurse looking at him shaking her head and sending Carlos a reprimanding look, As Pokemon hopped through the window, Carlos realized he needed to have a talk with his Pokemon about human society.

“Alright you three going around causing havoc, that’s shame on me. However this cannot happen again understand? From now on you are only allowed to use utility moves for playing tag.

”AW but boss mon/uncle! That gives unfair advantage to Big sis!” Both Gawain and Kong called out. Dianne smirked.

”What are you talking about Kong? Last I checked your Lock on, is a utility move.” The result was a shocked Dianne, a gleeful Kong hopping about, and a pouting Gawain. Carlos looked at gawain. “Just because you have few utility moves less than her, simply means you will have to outsmart her.”

Gawain scoffed. “No way, big sis is way too smart.” Dianne preened at that.

None of that Gawain. The truth of the matter is that you are behind your two comrades, there is nothing wrong with that, but that means you have to work extra hard to catch up.”

Gawain sighed but gave in. “Yes Uncle, I knew that before you said it.”

”See that’s the sort of thinking that will help you outsmart her. Now you three are gonna help me check out our new room.”

All three nodded at that and Carlos got dressed in the clothing laid out for him. His old clothes must have been thrown out, which was fine it had been torn to shreds in the end.

He did kinda miss the savage look it gave him. It had a certain cool factor to it. The clothes he put on were some sort of league official outfit, it had the league logo and everything. He smiled. They had left him Reid’s old belt. He clicked the three Pokeball’s of his Pokemon back in place and the 3 new empty ones on the other side.

He walked out of the room down the hallway and after getting turned a couple of times. He found the main entrance. It was still early morning and she was sipping her coffee.

The young nurse sat at the reception smirking at him. “Finally found your way?” It took Carlos a few seconds until he saw she had observed him on the security cameras.

“Ha ha,” he droned. “having a laugh at your poor patient, nurse Joy? What will people think?” He teased. He had to admit he was warming up to her quickly.”

“auh!” She feigned hurt. “You wound me sir.” They both smiled and Carlos checked out his room, he was looking forward to tonight, he had to keep telling himself not to have a shit eating grin. He dropped his backpack on the bed, a small miracle that it had survived, and closed the door.

“We found a really nice spot to sleep outside Alpha, that room looks too soft for us.” Dianne gave Carlos a conspiratorial femme fatale smile. It was weird to see such a, human expression on her face.

”we did?” Gawain and Kong asked.

”Yes you better listen to your big sister Uncle needs a few more nights in a human bed before he’s recovered his real strength.”

Kong shrugged at that. “Boss-mon gets stronger with sleeping. He should teach me that.”

”You might want to ask a Ursaluna or snorlax that. They excell at that.” Carlos laughed.

he silently mouthed thank you to Dianne. He picked her up and she yelped. But didn’t protest much when he snuggled her in a doggy carry and stroked her fur, like the god father stroked his cat. She even did something halfway purring.

”I totally missed out on grooming my Girl’s fur.” She nodded eagerly at that.

With his Pokemon in tow and Dianne carried like a queen, he went back to the lobby and was surprised to see a quite a few trainers. The Center had opened.

He got a few odd looks from trainers sitting in the waiting area. Carlos smiled somewhat awkwardly at them saying “Hi”here and there. Receiving a few “Hi’s” back. Four months in the wild certainly didn’t fix his social awkwardness in packed public areas.

A group of 3 were asking at the reception the details of the nearby gym. Carlos Overheard their desires of challenging the dragon gym at less than four badges, get crushed, by the young nurse. Carlos having seen how the young nurse could be, thought she would mock those trainers but instead she was dead serious warning the trainers that the dragon gym could only be challenged at 7 badges and no less, constantly repeating how dangerous and unpredictable dragons could be. At some point they got the message. Carlos was surprised to see a look of contempt on the Nurses face but didn’t think on it. The 3 turned away from Nurse Joy and their eyes fell on Carlos and his three Pokemon.

Carlos arched an eyebrow as they whispered conspiratorially with each other and just as Carlos was wondering what they were up to, they approached and surrounded him crossing their arms. A few sighs of other trainers around him expressing their disdain but other than that, no one interfered.

“Hey big guy, We 3 challenge you to a 1 on 1, winner takes all what do you say?” The goth girl with a confident smirk said.

She looked at Kong with a look of derision, Carlos did not appreciate that. “Yea unless you a chicken.” The smallest of the three squeaked, a ginger guy, freckles still not hitting his growth spurt, in a totally ridiculous gangster outfit. The third guy, slightly taller then goth girl. with a severe emo case was quiet but had a nasty look in his eyes.

Carlos felt awkward, He noticed again, that people in the Pokemon world looked good. Gorgeous even. It definitely hadn’t helped when Oak walked out laughing when he asked if he was good looking. Good looking people always set him on edge.

”Or at least I think they do?” Carlos thought idly.

He didn’t feel that hesitation dealing with these three. Their scowls were incredibly unflattering to their faces.

”So three 1v1’s?” Carlos asked calmly.

The goth girl groaned. “Yes duh! God I told you guys he only looks scary, what a numbskull.” The ginger tried to shush her.

“hey don’t say that out loud!”

Carlos wondered if he should be the better man until he saw the looks on his Pokemon faces and he went: “nah fuck that, these three need an asskicking.”

”Only if you show me your Pokemon’s first, I’m not about to let my Mon’s fight a fully evolved Pokemon.

”pff we know the rules dumbass.” The goth girl sneered. Carlos rolled his eyes at that. They complied and pulled out their Pokemon. Out came a big blue ball with a tail that ended in a smaller ball, that Carlos didn’t remember the name of but remembered to be a water type.

A ball shaped green bird that had a weird presence that Carlos, since coming here, hadn’t experienced.

And a big green spider with a horn on its head. Carlos flinched, to the pleasure of the goth girl.

”aw look guys, big tough guy is scared of a little spider~”

Causing quite a few trainers around to snicker, emboldening the goth girl.

“Fucking hell, one more word from miss teen angst and I might just forget she’s a girl.” Carlos felt his thoughts going to a dark place. It seemed to have an effect on his facial expression because the three took a step back and a tense silence set in. All the idle chatter died.

“Their Pokemon names are Marrill, natu and spinarak uncle”. Gawain chimed in.

The goth girl looked at Gawain and spotted the fire stone around his neck,“wait a minute! are you telling me your Cyndaquil doesn’t even have blaze!? How useless can your Pokemon be?” Her scathing laughter bounced of the wall and hit Carlos’s ears like nails on a chalkboard.

The girl looked around and was taken aback why no one was laughing with her till her eyes landed back on Carlos face.

That was it. That was what broke the camels back. The girl paled when she saw the devilish smile on Carlos face.

Both Gawain and Kong stood next to Gawain. Their expressions schooled and cold.

Gawain had curled up meekly.

“Don’t curl up, stand proud, Gawain. They just insulted the kindness of Uncle magmortar” Carlos growled out. His anger directed at the 3 that didn’t know their place. Hearing this gave Gawain some courage to unfurl and he began breathing out smoke.

”He got that stone from of a magmortar?” Someone whispered. That tidbit set off some murmurs among the crowd.

”I will do you three a solid. My Mankey against your bird ball”. “Hey!” The ginger yelled.

”My Poochyena against your disgusting bug,” Carlos stared at the girl, her stupid smirk turning to a nasty scowl.

“Whatever you say tough guy.” She said defiantly but Carlos could tell she was shaking.

“And my poor, poor Cyndaquil” He pointed at the Marril with a dark smile. “against your blue beach ball.”

“you mean Marrill, how are you a league official?” The emo kid interjected with that typical, annoying know it all attitude.

“Whatever, still gonna kick it like a ball so that’s what it will be, same difference.” Carlos snarled. “outside you three and I will show you the importance of training your Pokemon and picking your fights. “As he stormed, out he caught the young Nurse looking worried, he couldn’t tell who she was worried for.

Carlos heard the three hurrying after him. whispering not so quietly behind his back. Moving towards the training field. “Yo I’m not so sure anymore, he just picked 3 fights, 2 with a double type disadvantage?”

”pff that makes him a dumbass, besides its not just type advantage we have strats.” The girl hissed.

The emo kid spoke softest, Carlos already pegged him for the smartest of the three and truth be told he wasn’t sure if he should have let his pride get to him like that but he had limits. Gawain’s fight worried him the most. The Marill had some nasty stats and was closest in level as far as fights were concerned.

he committed the pop up screens to memory. And then shoved them out of his field of vision.

Natu

Lvl11 Psychic 420 HP 80 Normal 420 Atk 14 A/U/S 2/3/5 Defense 12 A/U/S 2/3/5 Reflex 18 Flying 420 Speed 14 Empath Bold Female (Hidden)

Marill

Lvl11 Water 400 HP 120 Normal 400 Atk 32 A/U/S 4/3/3 Defense 14 A/U/S 4/3/3 Reflex 24 Fairy 400 Speed 12 Huge power. Reckless Male (Hidden)

Spinarak

Lvl12 Bug 880 HP 92 Normal 880 Atk 13.2 A/U/S 4/2/4 Defense 15.4 A/U/S 4/2/4 Reflex 19.8 Poison 880 Speed 19.8 Fangs Docile female (Hidden)

Type advantages aside, his 3 outclassed them in level and stats. It boggled Carlos mind. None of their Pokemon were seemed to be trained from what he could tell. Either these three were lazy or these were freshly caught Pokemon.

They got to the, wrecked but usable, training ground.

The old nurse and a bunch of gravelers were still shoveling some debris and all 3 gave Carlos a dark look.

“Can you referee Nurse? These three simply won’t leave without an ass kicking.” He asked the nurse as calmly as possible.

That got all them all riled up.

”You’re the one that will get his ass kicked asshole!” The Ginger yelled. “Yea you tell him Steve! The Girl smirked deviously. But it missed the bite she had at first.”

The old nurse sighed. “You all know the rules. Have all your Pokemon learned the Endure move?” She asked, the three nodded. The Nurse looked at Carlos. He nodded. “Kong doesn’t but he’s got his typing trait so he doesn’t even need it.” He thought to himself.

“Ok let’s start off with the most straightforward fight.” Carlos spoke . “Kong you are up! Just like we usually practice but you will fight green bird ball.”

“pfff what kind of name is that?” The goth girl mocked.

“keep your asinine shit to yourself,” Carlos yelled across the field, absolutely done with the teen angst. She sneered and stuck her tongue out.

He motioned Kong closer and whispered into Kong’s ear. “Look we can’t kill these fools for food ok? Big trouble if we do, so you can’t use bide, don’t even think about it. Even if that bird brain had endure. If you go full force with all moves you are going to punch straight through it.”

“You got it boss mon. I won’t kill weak bird. Just break bones.” Kong nodded. Kong hopped to it and got into his boxing stance, did some sharp and crisp punches and kicks Carlos taught him and took a deep breath and exhaled dancing on the ball of his feet.

Carlos noted the tall emo kid lose a bit more of his confidence. Emo kid was watching the movements of Kong quite closely. He held his Marill close and whispered into its ears and the Marrill got more serious the longer they whispered. The goth girl just kept hyping up Steve.

Carlos nodded “alright I’m ready.”

The ginger kid stepped forward.

“Alright skutly! To the skies and stack Calm mind!” a blue glowing sheen covered the ball shaped bird and it began to hover before shooting up out of Kong’s supposed reach.”

”and they mock my Naming sense,” Carlos thought.

“Go do your warm up Kong and keep Detect ready! Kong began fake punching his face. his defense, attack and speed all rose dramatically as he pushed his inner rage and used his curling fury. The girl leered, sneered and mocked the act, not realizing what was up.

The emo kid eyes widened. ”Steve watch out! That mankey is building his own rage and is doing something else as well. Type advantage or not, he’s gonna hit hard!”

”The ginger kid emboldened by his female companion, ordered his Natu, got his serious face on and nodding at emo kid. “Stay up and Spam psychic! Skutly!”

WHAM!

An invisible force tried to slam Kong into the ground.

With detect, Kong reacted practically instantly. to Carlos it was a thing of beauty. It almost look like a Micheal Jackson dance slide, as smooth it was.

Carlos’s own detect was up as well. Both him and Kong had observed a slight distortion in the air, originating from the bird that came down incredibly fast. Kong narrowly dodged the next one and got grazed again even with detect he couldn’t fully avoid it. His body got janked again by the shoulder but he kept to his feet and kept his guard tight.

Kong roared out.

”It tickles tricksy in my head boss mon!” He informed Carlos.

”Get used to it! ignore it! And focus on your inner fire!” Carlos yelled back.

”MANKEY!” Kong roared in agreement.

Even though Kong was vulnerable to the Psychic TE. His defense and reflex were stacked through the roof compared to the Natu.

Type energy had to get past a Pokemon’s natural defense, before it could wreak havoc on a Pokemon’s health. So Kong, after taking a slight graze from the move Psychic, took a whopping 5 damage per hit,

slightly less on the second because defiance kicked in when the move inflicted a hex to lower Mankey’s natural defense.

From the slight grazes. Carlos head math already told him that if Kong got hit full force it would only take the weak bird about 4 psychic blasts to knock Kong out.

”Big world.” Carlos thought.

The bird kept slamming full powered Psychic’s down.

“Naaaaa! oooow im tuuuuu!so fucked! he’s got defiant!!”

The bird yelled out. Frustrated at the writing on the wall, he was running out of steam way faster than Kong.

Steve misunderstood the frustration for determination. “Keep it up Skutly! He will slip up soon!”

”Naaaa Ow ffs! What did I ever see in this stupid trainer! tuuu!” The bird responded

Carlos savored the faces on his three opponents, The smirk on Steve’s face crumbled like a crouton when he realized, no Kong wasn’t going to slip up.

Kong took each psychic with nary a scratch, while he mockingly kept punching himself pretending his own punches hurt him more. “Missed opportunity to call him Muhammad Ali” Carlos thought jokingly.

The girl yelled. “Stop jerking off Steve! do your thing! make Skutly speed up!”

Steve gone frozen watching his Pokemon getting mocked by Kong recovered.

”Skutly this isn’t working! bombing run!”

“T-this b-better work. NAaa. Never has a god damn naa monkey embarrassed me tuu like this!”

Carlos didn’t wait for what a bombing run looked like and said coldly while locking eyes with a frightful Steve.

“Kick him into the dirt Kong.”

One moment Kong was getting janked by a half assed psychic, the next a crackling clap and dust blown away from his location, Kong gone.

The next split moment, a sickening crack of bones breaking, ringing through the air and an unconscious ball shaped bird slammed into the packed dirt. A moment later a Somewhat exerted Kong landing lightly on the ball of its feet. Hopping like a boxer waiting for the count.

“Natu is out! Chansey check up!” The old nurse yelled. The Chansey rushed in and immediately did emergency bone restructuring.

“It’s a good thing you took the time of day to teach that bird endure according to league rules, or your skutly would not have survived that kick.” Carlos said coldly.

Steve had sunk to his knees, his spirit had left his body. “Well done Kong, you did well.” Carlos said matter of factly Neither him or Kong were particularly happy with the result. It was utterly anticlimactic.

Carlos himself was flabbergasted at the pathetic display. Even knowing he would win he had expected more. He walked up to the old nurse. “The Natu will be ok? His endure went off properly?” He inquired.

The old Nurse nodded. “Yea, just stay out of the way for a minute we are setting his skull back in place, it’s tricky, it’s a good thing Natu have a natural bounce to them or that might have been enough.

Psychic Pokemon have natural fast healing properties when it comes to their brain so they tend to recover quickly from these sort of injuries.” The Nurse explained while she assisted her Chansey using a healing move while scanning the Natu with a medical pokedex.

The ginger kid walked up trembling towards his Natu the fight was knocked out of the boy. The natu was still unconscious painfully heaving for air. “We are done, you can put him back in the pokeball” the nurse informed him. He returned the injured Pokemon quietly.

The nurse continued. “He needs a check up tomorrow, let him sleep in his ball till then and no fights for him whatsoever for the next three days you hear?” The nurse spoke to the boy and gently grabbed the boy by the shoulder to make him focus. He snapped out his daze looked at the nurse and nodded.

The goth girl, if it was even possible, had gone paler and completely silent.

”Just so you now goth girl, my Poochyena has a nasty temper, she won’t play nice like my Mankey does.”

Carlos wasn’t about to go easy on few punks now that they lost their steam.

“She doesn’t make the habit of holding back like my Mankey, my Kong.” Kong puffed his chest arrogantly at that.

To prove a point Dianne used shadow sneak to enter the arena. And let out her name hauntingly.

”H-he was holding back?” The ginger asked in shock. Carlos nodded. “If I had him use Bide, in combination with rage fist and go full force? Your Natu’s proficiency with endure wouldn’t have been enough. It would have been the end of your skutly.” this made the boy tear up.

”he can chain moves” The Emo kid said breathlessly. Carlos arched his eyebrow. “All Pokemon can chain moves kid, just train them.”

“It can use ghost moves?” The goth girl wasn’t even paying attention, her eyes were stuck on Dianne, gleefully making the girl know how she was planning on fighting her Spinarak by doing one of her practice routines.

Showing near perfect control of double team, swift and shadow sneak. She disappeared from sight subtly using quick attack. By using her own illusions as cover. She finished of her routine, with an assurance that she carved through the crushed soil creating a shiiing sound, like a blade cutting through the air. As the dust settled she was sitting relaxed on her haunches, licking her paws.

”Nah, no way am I letting spinky fight against that.” She shivered. Your Pokemon are absolute monsters mister.” She said while shaking.

Carlos had to hold himself down snickering hearing the assinine girl call her creepy ass spider, spinky as if it was a cat.

“Yea il forfeit too. No way am I’m gonna put my Marrill through that wringer.”

”You sure? Your Marill against my Cyndaquil is actually a pretty even match by my estimation.” Carlos said.

“Perhaps to eachother but I’m not evenly matched to you.” The Emo kid said. He pulled out 300 pokedollars.

I must ask, how do you get your Pokemon that strong?” The Emo kid asked as he handed over the Cash and Carlos took it.

Carlos hesitated for a moment but realized his cover story allowed him to be perfectly honest. “I train deep into the hollow mountain range, sometimes I go there to get my hands on TE meat, I just came back from a 4 month excursion. I caught these two before that.” Pointing at Kong and Dianne. “Gawain my Cyndaquil, I caught deep into the mountain range.”

The kids paled. Both the boys gave the girl a dirty look. They all bowed. “Thank you for the lesson!” And they bolted. “Sara you are no longer our leader!”

The emo kid whispering way too loud, thinking Carlos wouldn’t hear. “How was I supposed to know he was a prodigy ace trainer?” She whined. “What kind of ace trainer trains those types of Pokemon?” She continued.

“The terrifying ones Sara! Those kinds!” Steve whisper-yelled. “It’s Mankey didn’t even feel type effective moves! How does that even work?”

They kept bickering till they were out of earshot. The old nurse Approached, “You are lucky the league has you on an official duty roster or I would insist on you clearing this training arena up.

She planted her fists in her waist seeing the smile on Carlos face. “Did it feel good to bully a few sprouts?” She asked while giving him a bit of a judgmental look.

“Weeds you mean. Yea it did feel good to set them straight a little,” he corrected her assumption on why he was smiling.

“Although I feel sorry for the Natu, having such a lousy trainer.” He shook his head. “The girl reeked of daddy issues. The ginger kid felt like he wanted to prove way too hard he was the cool kid and then there was that massive case of emo with an actual brain.” Carlos concluded sarcastically.

”That girl lost her father, the ginger is an orphan and that massive case of emo kid had to take care of them both.”

Carlos scoffed. “None of that excused their bully behavior. All I did was show em that any time they pick a target to bully that target might just take em by surprise. Next time it won’t be a trainer who restricts his Pokemon with a single kick nurse,”

“I suppose you’re right,” she gave him a look. “That’s something a dad might say, not an 18 year old.” She casually remarked.

“I was a 35 year old dude before coming here. Well that’s the feeling I get from the few fragments of memory I still have.”

She looked him over. “Yes you don’t often see eighteen year old boys holding back like that, while acting he like could have killed someone’s Pokemon willy nilly.” She shook her head and tsked, her tone was playful but Carlos felt a sting behind her words.

”You can’t coddle those types of kids Nurse. Any Kindness enables their bullshit behavior.”

“And pray to Arceus how would you know?” She responded, dropping her playful tone.

”They pick on weak trainers, don’t bother training their Pokemon.” Carlos said. Feeling his blood beginning to boil. “They picked me out of a crowd of twenty trainers because they saw my Pokemon and thought I was easy pickings. That’s what Bullies do. And these Bullies have Living breathing Pokemon they can and will weaponize whenever they feel like.”

Carlos looked at her and stopped. He was confused for a second, she was smiling at him. His face fell into a stern expression. “You were testing me.”

“Sorry for that slight cruelty, but you casually put a Pokemon an inch from his life,”

“That birdball, was doing the same.”

”O please, like those three and their Pokemon will ever amount to anything, as if kindness or strictness will change something.” Carlos was surprised to hear such cynicism come from the kind nurse. “They are 2nd year rookie returners, they have been hustling new trainers for 2 years now. They fail so bad, not even the underground movements wants them.

”You cannot possibly tell me those mons have been with them for 2 years!” Carlos exclaimed.

“No maybe a year, but Pokemon need proper stimulation, training, fights and trust in their trainer. If they fail in 2 of those fields, the Pokemon will stagnate in their growth.” the old nurse Joy continued with some exhaustion in her voice.”

”Ah you already had that conversation with those three.” Carlos said.

”So many times!” She barked. “They get into so much trouble locally but they keep skirting the line, so by law, none of us can do anything. They are technically following the rules.” Frustration mounting in her voice.

”But it’s only a matter of time before they fall into the wrong crowd. The type of crowd that preys on them.” Carlos spoke darkly.

The old nurse Joy nodded. They were quiet for a second.

”What are you waiting for?” The nurse asked.

”what are you talking about?” He asked drawing a blank. The nurse smiled. “As a gym trainer, you are obligated to point out the flaws of their strategy, choices etc.”

“You’re serious?” Carlos asked. “Dead serious.” The nurse said smiling. “How else are they going to improve?”

Carlos didn’t really feel like arguing the point, he did remember each gym fight the gym leaders dispensing some wisdom.

“Yea, yea just show me on my map where those three might hang. You sneaky old hag, getting me all worked up like that. Hey don’t whack your patients!” He said loudly with a smirk, after she whacked him on the back of the head.

“Ow shush, that hurt my poor old hag bones more than yours, you rock for brains.”

”That’s high quality rock for brains to you miss Joy.” Carlos smirked. Nurse Joy gave him a look, she tried to hide the playful glint in her eyes but Carlos caught it.

The nurse put a few pins on the map app, of Carlos shiny new Pokédex. Carlos returned his Pokemon to their Pokeballs and started walking down the hill.

“Alright il see if I can spank some sense into them.” He called back over his shoulder. he smiled darkly but didn’t look back or wait for the Old Nurse response.

Young Nurse Joy POV.

Young Nurse Cory Joy, woke up 5 am sharp. She sighed. sometimes she hated having an internal alarm. She hated 7 day work weeks even more.

She got up from her bed. And grumpily got ready, these last two days had been emotionally draining. As she was about done with putting her hair into the classic Nurse Joy hairdo, her eyes fell on the picture she had of Lance at the beach, pain flared through her chest. It had been two days since last she saw him but that had definitely sealed the chapter of her chasing him.

Body language was basic 101 for Nurse Joys, and that night she read annoyance and mild disgust, carefully schooled away behind a stern expression. Disgust, at her!

It was enough to finally break the spell she had been under for the last two years. She grabbed the incredibly flattering picture of Lance and threw it in the garbage. “Such a waste of fucking time,” she grumbled, “asshole”. A tear fell down her face. She wiped it away and did her internal mantras.

She sighed, she knew she only had herself to blame, everyone had warned her repeatedly, Lance was a mighty man and excellent trainer but a complete bonehead not showing any interest in romance.

The old nurse had tried to hammer that notion into her head. Constantly telling her to let go and party find another willing guy during this period of her life to let loose.

During her early years at the Joy academy she was warned repeatedly, that starting at the age of 21 her Libido and estrogen levels would rise exponentially and balancing out around the age of 26. Her peers had jokingly called it the breeding years.

Age 21 had hit her harder than a rockslide. She had done some tests in private and the data showed she was a bit of an outlier when it came to other Joys. She like other Joys wasn’t fully human she knew that. But her estrogen levels were shocking to say the least.

The insane food cravings no one had warned about weren’t that bad she just ate a lot and it filled out her curves faster than a cosmetic operation could. That should have been disturbing but it wasn’t, she thanked Arceus when that leveled out. She noted how any and all unique quirks she might have had, were wiped away and she became another Joy clone, or twin. Same difference.

No what really disturbed her was the onslaught of deviant and kinky desires running rampant through her mind getting darker and darker if she didn’t relieve herself. She felt herself slipping and it disgusted her, particularly the loss of self control and identity was concerning for her as a Joy. She once almost colored her hair brown, brown! Unheard off and totally unacceptable for a Joy.

A paragon of virtue and kindness or other such bullshit. Their psycho manipulative powers and secret training regimes on keeping their particular brand alive certainly was effective. They maintained it for a millennia now. Resulting in worming their way into a complete medical monopoly.

None of which helped her, with her predicament. So she had the brilliant idea to channel all her needs into a one sided crush on the local prodigy. Fantasize about him and the family they would have riding on a Salamanca into the sunset. What bullshit.

Two years later, she had nothing to show for her efforts, none of her needs met and a job that got more difficult to deal with by the day. Pushing it all down, discipline and training notwithstanding, got more difficult each day.

There were discreet service companies that offered specific services for young Nurse Joys with her needs but her trained medical eye had dissected their clinical approach by the third visit over the last year. It didn’t do it for her. Her heart needed some genuine reciprocating. One could say A little heart to heart.

It certainly didn’t help she had such a particular taste in men. She left her room and went up to the lobby, to clock herself in and entered the nurses breakroom.

”perhaps I shouldn’t sleep in the basement, might improve my mood.” She thought to herself.

“Morning dear, you are 1 minute and 32 seconds late. Coffee?”

She sighed. She looked at the old nurse sitting prim and proper for no one but herself, looking immaculate. Not a speck out of place.

“You mean I’m 3 hours 59 minutes and 28 seconds early and yes id love some coffee.” She couldn’t prevent letting some of her emotional exhaustion slip.

Her usual exchange of barbs with the old nurse didn’t really fire her up as it usually did. She understood why the old nurse did it, hell she was trained and capable of doing the psychological manipulation herself, she still hated it. Especially when someone did it to her.

”Oh something happened, do tell.” The old nurse droned sipped her coffee. Giving her an inquiring look.

The young nurse sighed. ”You warned me of Lance, you were right about him,” she felt her shoulders slump a bit. Another motion slipping past her guard today. “Im losing my grip” she thought while feeling distant to herself.

It took a practiced eye to know what was truly going on under the polite and caring emotional mask, all Nurse Joy’s were trained from birth to wear on their faces. But the old nurse saw a glimpse of rawness in her young protege, heard the exhaustion, both of which she had failed to recognize over the past few years.

Realization dawned on her, as her highly developed mental faculties pieced all the events from all angles, with the young nurse and Lance together over the last two years with seconds, based on this new information.

”Oh dear you are too good at the mask girl. You even fooled me. Was it that bad?” She reprimanded herself internally for not catching this sooner.

“It was.” The young nurse voice croaked.

The old nurse spoke softly feeling an overwhelming maternal affection come over her, she gently placing her hand on the young Nurse hand.“Oh foolish girl why didn’t you speak more honestly about this?”

“I believed sincerely, I would get through that foolish skull of his.” She said. Her face schooled but the mask was cracked. Now she might as well be full out crying in front of the old nurse.”oh dearie it’s ok let it out.”

And so the two nurses sat in silence, deep eddies and emotional currents raging under a perfectly calm surface.

The old nurse gently massaged the young Nurse hand till she calmed down.

”You certainly were persistent.” The old nurse smiled softly. “You ok? You sure you don’t need some time before you throw yourself at a young dashing man? you switched gears rather quickly these last two days, that’s partly why I assumed your crush on Lance wasn’t as serious.”

The young Nurse tried to feign ignorance, “I don’t know what you mean.”

”O far too late for that girl. That Persian has loudly proclaimed itself. Or are you telling me you failed to realize you take every excuse to check up on our new patient over the last two days? He certainly seems to be your type and you have been buttering up his Pokemon something fierce, sneaking them premium pokeblocks with their favorite flavors.”

Realization dawned on the young nurse. “I did do that.”

“Do you think it’s a mistake?” She asked. Feeling vulnerable and exposed asking.

The old nurse shrugged. “You were trained to move on, taught how to protect yourself emotionally from standing on the sidelines of humanity. See them get married happily ever after, while you might never get that. Not many Human men, can bond with either Jennies or Joys, even if their personalities match, Even if the jenny or Joy, bonded with the illusion, the idea of it.”

The young nurse had a painful smile. “I can’t help myself. I’ve got my eyes set on him now.”

“You didn’t really start off with the best of impressions, you know.”

She scoffed ”Im a Joy, I can fix that.”

”Even if you do remember, keep your heart safe.” She paused shortly and continued.

“Well you better get to it then, he just woke up.” The old nurse motioned with her coffee cup to one of the camera feeds.

The young nurse chugged her coffee, got up schooled herself into her professional expression and made to leave the breakroom.

“From now on dear, please talk to me. Im not just your mentor for the medical field but for the journey of your life, don’t bottle it up, you won’t last if you do.”

The young nurse paused in the doorway and looked back. “Thank you, teacher. I do feel better after sharing.”

”You better leave quickly, you calling me teacher, that’s a bad omen, shoo girl, shoo!” The old Nurse said smiling mischievously. The young Nurse returned the smile and snagged a random clipboard and hurried down the hallway. Now that she paced a few times past the room she felt anxious. She foolishly put all her emotional eggs in another basket. She knew it was stupid but the heart cries for its wants.

”Ok just start with the apology” she told herself and entered the room.

She was done after a few minutes, leaving Carlos behind with Oak in theroom,

As a Joy she was born with the ability to mold TE. The irony of this, was that ability, prevented their bonding ability with most men. They could observe that bonding between other humans but for the most part it didn’t happen for Joy’s.

Her heart was pounding.”What kind of freak fortune is this?” She thought to herself.

All it took was a bit of genuine flirting and the young Nurse Joy, saw the man’s TE respond. He was one of the rare few compatible. why? How? She really didn’t care, she found a gem in a haystack.

she felt warmth spreading through her chest. “Is it supposed to be this easy?”She thought to herself. All her interactions with humans had felt flat to an extent her interactions Lance too. The moment Carlos TE reacted it became vibrant.

She felt herself puff up. Seeing Carlos body language his body respond so honestly to her affectations, felt exhilarating.To finally get that reciprocation she so desperately desired even if it was so little. But now that she had a taste. She craved more.

It was like someone handed her some clay to mold. He had something so naive about him. It gave her such a surge of power.

She was warned that Compatible men had to be approached with caution, they were far more susceptible to psycho manipulation than regular people. She knew she had to report it to her mentor but she wasn’t too worried, he had Dark typing after all. “Im sure that balances things out” she told herself.

”Just butter him up, just play it out and see where it ends. Pretend like you didn’t notice and no harm done.” she told herself. She was all smiles visiting her other patients. She didn’t even need the mask. She made her way to the lobby to prepare for opening and get her paperwork done.

She watched the time. Only an hour had passed. “Ah there you are, done with the morning rounds?” The old nurse approached. Handing her a set of keys for one of the rooms available for rent for trainers. “What’s this for?” Young Nurse Joy asked.

”Ow nothing too important, just that Carlos was just released from our service, he was officially enrolled as a league official and will operate out of Surge’s gym for the next 9 months. He leaves tomorrow. The young nurse felt her heart sink. The old Nurse pressed the keys in her hands. “Make your move girl have a fun night and get him out of your system. If one night isn’t enough, well that’s a tomorrow problem.”

“Is this another part of your duties as a mentor?” The young nurse joked. But she steeled herself.

”It’s part of my duty to make sure you don’t botch your daily reports, now go”

The young nurse did. She got him to say yes to her advances as she expected and as she was about to leave the room all giddy. She got stumped by the question as to why she was nice.

How could she even answer that question? I love how innocent and moldable you are?

she was emotionally hurt but with a base primordial needs hardwired into her dna, that she couldn’t ignore. She was an emotional mess and couldn’t get any semblance of clarity in her mind, if she didn’t at least alleviate her base needs. If she didn’t, the toxic buildup would be too much, that meant the services.

Anything but the services.

So she spun some story, using her personal reasons as to why she liked him and presented that as her sole motivation. Not the real truth but good enough. They both know this was a one night fling.

She couldn’t get enough of that naive wondrous look in his eyes. It was such a peculiar sight to see someone with Dark typing, have such honest body language that lined up with what they said. He had all the signs he could play the games of intrigue. It was written all over him that he recognized the intrigue. He simply didn’t bother with it. It was refreshing. She felt light in her chest and rushed out. Heart pounding.

“Careful now Cory, don’t go falling again like a hopeless teenage girl.” She reprimanded herself.

She took over for the old nurse who rushed outside, some stupid trainer set off an explosive move on the training grounds, and the old nurse had to go and fix it. She didn’t pay it any mind. Her eyes drifted almost instantly to the camera feed, taking mischievous pleasure from Carlos getting lost in the hallways. When he finally made it to the lobby they exchanged flirty banter, before he went upstairs to check out his room.

”huh, so that’s what it feels like when someone reciprocates, she thought happy to herself. “Flirting like this is fun!” She clapped herself on the cheeks. It was show time. Opening time. Trainers.

In came the flood and she was on a roll, getting through the masses of angst, social awkwardness and loud abrasive voices.

“Ugh not these three again,” 3 local troublemakers approached. She groaned. What followed was an aggravating back and forth of sneering pretense from that goth bitch and her two simping cronies and a facade on her end of pretending she cared. Both women knowing goth bitch was only clocking her for the exact time, so she had to put this conversation word for word in her daily report.

She hated every second of it. And she hated it even more that the goth girl knew exactly what she was doing. As they were done and turned around, the young nurse sneered a glare of contempt at the three. She caught Carlos looking and quickly schooled her expression. She scolded herself for that but before she could do something about it, she felt a chill run over her spine.

”Hey boys I think we have some official fresh Kanto meat. I wouldn’t mind having a taste of that. What do you think? Easy pickings easy 300 bucks?” Ravanna whispered to her 2 partners in crime

Young nurse Joy felt her mind go cold. “This bitch better not be serious.” She thought.

Ravanna and her companion talked their strategy, even though everyone present except Carlos already knew what that strategy was.”

The young nurse, as every other trainer observed the verbal abuse the 3 hooligans threw Carlos way.

“Huh, bug phobia, didn’t see that coming,” The young nurse thought to herself. “Well everyone has their flaws I guess.” She mused Bugs were soo ugly it made them adorable, how could you not love them? Their blind loyalty to trainers was legendary.”

A quiet tension fell over the lobby when Ravanna overstepped, by insulting Carlos’s Pokemon. Seeing that dark anger fill out his eyes his shadow seemingly larger, everyone felt that pressure, as if they were stalked by a predator. Some more experienced trainers involuntarily reached for their pokeballs. Seeing it for herself. The young nurse had to admit it was a frightening look to see Carlos pissed. She started to worry this was gonna get out of hand quickly.

The match started and everyone gathered to looking through the glass windows, some even pulled their Pokédex out to record.

”I don’t know what that guy is thinking.” A trainer remarked. Scanning both combatants with his dex.

“His mankey is 5 levels higher and has the defiant trait but that doesn’t matter against a natu.”

”Idk man, look at the crisp moves that Mankey has. You usually only see that with hitmonchan’s” another trainer remarked.

“I thought Mankey’s were always angry? This one looks kinda calm doesn’t he?”

”I guess he ain’t training it for the infernape evolution.” Another responded.

“Shut up it’s starting.”

The fight started. “Why is that Mankey punching itself?” Everyone laughed, it looked ridiculous. The typical rage was now plastered all over its face.

“Yup it’s over, that Natu fully stacked its calm mind. Stupid ass is gonna get a crushed Mankey in a sec.”

WHAM. Mankey still standing.

Nurse Joy let off a sigh of relief. This was actually more than she had anticipated. That Mankey would become a monster. That sort of smooth simple yet elegant movement was impressive.

”How did Natu miss?” Someone asked.

The young nurse smiled. None of them had seen. “His Mankey dodged. Don’t look away or blink or you will miss it” As she said that, she stole a glance at Ravanna. She loved that stunned face. Ravanna had caught it as well.

“There is always a bigger Sharpedo, bitch. Time you learned that.” She thought to herself. She knew she wasn’t supposed to enjoy schadenfreude but she didn’t care.

”Holy Arceus! Nurse Joy is right! He just did it again! How do you even dodge a Psychic!?” An excited young girl pointed out.

“Why is that Mankey still hitting himself? Wait a minute is this how it taunts?” Another asked.

”Idk it sure looks like it, but im not reading the proper telemetry one if the trainers responded, who was scanning the fight.

”He is using detect, has rage up and using a move that the pokedex keeps registering as defense curl or fury strikes.

”No fucking way, that Mankey can chain moves!?”

“fuck chaining moves, it already has a signature move!” Another exlaimed.

someone squeaked. “Language!”

Which got him a collective. “S.T.F.U”

“Keep watching boys~ or you will miss it”. The young nurse said playfully. She saw the Mankey hyper focus. Something was about to happed.

Everyone turned just in time to see Kong explode into action.

A collective “Holy shit.” Echoed through the room. She covered her mouth observing the explosive power the Mankey exhibited.

Everyone looked at the trainer who was reading telemetry of the fight. He had a blank face. First move, unknown, second move counter with modifications from the first move. Third move spinning axe kick also modified by the first.”

”Just so you fellows know, that trainer owning the Mankey?” He was recently discovered surviving in the hollow mountain range on his own. He is also registered as the second Kanto whisperer.”

Nurse Joy dispensed that bit of information, as she was told to do. This felt like a per Moment to give credit to that story.

”The overkill number just finished, the overkill was triple, accounting for type differences.” The trainer reading Telemetry dropped his pokedex and sat down. Shaking a bit smiling.

Nurse Joy zoned out the rest of the debates that flared. A crescendo of multiple people talking all at once through the room.

What had shocked her, observing the fight, wasn’t the power but the ludicrous self control the Mankey exhibited. Mankey were ornery at best, completely disrespectful and disobedient to their trainers at worst. Telling a Mankey to play defensive, was like telling a charmander to stick his tail in the sea.

Not many trainers kept a Mankey for long and she knew of not a single trainer on record, who had managed this sort of discipline with a Mankey in such a short timeframe. She had known Carlos Pokemon were disciplined and exceptional, seeing that in a battle was quite something else.

some other trainers that gauged Carlos earlier for a possible match chuckled nervously, joking they were glad they hadn’t challenged the scary trainer.

”what a terrifying man you are Carlos, what terrifying talent.” She thought. She was so looking forward to tonight. She always had a thing for trainers with potential, but this was really edging her on.

It’s what had attracted her to Lance but Lance’s heart belonged to the dragons.

She turned away from the scene, the old nurse was getting into an argument with Carlos after the group of bullies fled with their legs between their legs. She shook her head, complete losers as far as she was concerned.

After a minute or so, The old Nurse got back inside and started helping her man the reception.

She looked up.” Where did Carlos go?” She asked between trainers.

I reminded him of his duty dear. “The old nurse responded curtly. “Do I need to remind you of yours?”

“No” young Nurse shook her head and continued.

“Besides if I hadn’t, you wouldn’t finish your shift. I saw you ogling him as if you were a girl first discovering she had the capacity for love. That match certainly set the tone for the day I see.” She observed the trainers talking excitedly showing each other footage of the fight in slow motion.”

“To the first part, don’t know what you mean,” she smiled innocently, “and to the second, it sure has.”

After a few minutes she paused. “Wait what do you mean you reminded him of his duties?”

”He is officially a gym trainer dear, that means he is obligated to assist any trainers who lose an official match against him, with counsel and potentially some tips.”

”You can’t be serious, he’s a vermillion gym trainer, not a Blackthorne trainer, besides they use electric types in Vermillion. How does that even work?

The old nurse Joy wagged her finger while smiling knowingly.

”Technically he can be challenged anywhere and he must comply, also nowhere in the league rules does it state that a gym must be of a certain type.”

”What are you up to?” The young nurse asked. “Those three have the hopeless label for a reason. Why are you getting Carlos mixed up with them?”

”Ho Ho Ho, on a first name basis are we?”

The young Nurse had a wolfish predatory smile spread on her face that she hid behind her mask quickly. “Who am I to say no, when that someone is so willing?” Still hiding that hungry smile. “Besides I need it and I get the sense he needs it too.”

”He does seem rather tense doesn’t he? Definitely needs some relaxation.” The old nurse chuckled. The young nurse chuckled along. She did another mantra and focused on her day.

The day couldn’t pass soon enough for the young nurse. She felt lighter and it felt good to finally let go of her unrequited love. After her shift was done she got herself into some comfortable clothing and let herself into the room. She let her hair down loose. Curiously looked through what was in his backpack and set his creepy weapons to the side. Half an hour later, a somewhat tired and a thoroughly done with the world Carlos opened the door.

The nurse laying on the bed bit her lower lip. He made an impressive sight in the doorway. “Hey I hope you don’t mind that I let myself in. Can I get you anything?”

He smiled. “No I got what I need. He marched forward taking his top clothing off.

There it was it again, that honest unrestrained body language, she loved it.