Erin

  —

  We somehow managed to make it to dinner that night without meeting any reporters, and we even made it through the dinner itself without seeing any. We didn't go back to The Rocky Feast, of course. That was a bit too much money for us, not to mention Emily and Anya. Instead we went to a mid-range noodle place. I went vegetarian this time, simply because they only sold farmed meat, and after talking to Ian about his visit to a Pidgey farm, I was even more disinclined to eat any farmed meat if I could hunt it myself, instead.

  I would also do my best to never visit one, because I had the horrible feeling that 'dumb' Pokemon weren't nearly as dumb as people liked to tell themselves… They just couldn't hear them. I didn't feel bad when I hunted, when I heard that herd of Ponyta scream in terror… It was natural, and over quickly, I didn't drag their deaths out… I would feel terrible if I could hear their dejected knowledge that they were destined to be food, trapped behind barbed wire fences… Well, Ponyta would melt the fences and break out, but the point stood for Pidgey…

  Still, it had been a nice dinner, and we got to know Emily and her sister a little more. Emily was basically chaperoning Anya around for her first Circuit, not just for protection from wild Pokemon, but from her own Pokemon. Anya had started with an Azurill that had already Evolved into a Marill, one of their mothers Azumarill's Eggs. The chances of anything happening were very low, of course. Anya's Marill was under contract, but unlike that horrible Togetic, the contract was loose and had an 'exit clause'. She was kind, and more or less trusted, but Emily worried about Anya, so she would be close if need be.

  Of course, when we left the restaurant there were two reporters standing outside, cameras raised, and they both made beelines for Alex. Well, they started to… Most of the people who had tried to talk to me about my experiences in Galar, or in Pewter or Saffron, were easy enough to get rid of with a glare, but these two? Apparently they thought Lance was joking about suing them or something. That, or they thought the payout from a news organization would be worth it… I still let them get some words out, just so they fully shot themselves in their feet.

  "The Champion called you his child, what is-"

  "Are you the Champion's-"

  That was enough for me, and Dexter was recording their faces, so I stepped in front of Alex and slammed them with my aura. To my surprise only one of them locked up, so I reached up and put a hand on the other's shoulder. I didn't squeeze, or anything that could be construed as assault… on camera. I didn't even close my hand, specifically for that purpose.

  I did batter her as hard as I could with my aura, and this time it worked. She must have been a serious trainer at some point…

  I let a huge, savage grin come over my face as I leaned into the two camera's views.

  "Good job, idiots. Dexter here has recorded your faces, so you can expect a call from Lance's lawyer at some point. Want a sound bite? Here's one for you: 'Don't ambush underage children, you fucking creeps.' Now, we're done here. If you try this again? I will make you wish for death, while remaining completely within the bounds of the law. Have a good night, dumbasses. I hope Lance's lawyer destroys you, and any organization you happen to be affiliated with."

  I jerked my head and the others began to move off, Emily and Anya looking slightly disturbed, Leaf exasperated, and Alex just… done with the whole thing already… It was just starting, too…

  I leaned in, pushed the camera's views away, turned them off, and after a quick request through aura, one that he thankfully understood the need for, Dexter poked me back. They didn't have any devices on them that were active. Like a microphone…

  I leaned in between the two frozen, trembling people, my voice barely above a whisper.

  "Oh, and after you wish for death? I'll let my mother decide what to do with you. Far from any help, or recording devices." I patted their shoulders, deliberately ignoring the harsh smell of ammonia wafting from one, and pulled my aura back in. "Stay the fuck away, and have a great night."

  I left them behind as I jogged to catch up to the group. Mom wouldn't actually eat them, of course, but I just said I would leave it up to her, and she had a known kill-count… Can't say that hadn't felt great, honestly… Which I should probably feel worried about…

  Nah, screw them.

  —

  —

  "Hey Erin, I have an idea." I looked at Alex questioningly as we sat in the Pokemon Centers lobby for once. Our Pokemon were almost healed, and we were waiting for the last of the harsh injuries to be tended… Mainly Honor's tail, Seraphina's ribs, Hope's leg, and Hecate's arm. We were studiously not looking at the six or so trainers giving us looks. I was kind of used to it myself, but Alex wasn't…

  Alex smiled at me.

  "Well, remember when we didn't buy clothes in the best city to buy them? Because we'd probably only wear them for a few weeks?" I frowned, but I didn't get mad. She was right, either way.

  This world had the same months from my old world, and it was honestly one of those things I just didn't want to know about. Was this just a game world? If so, why wasn't everything in Kanto in Japanese? If it was somehow based off of an English version of the games, why did everyone in the world speak the same language? Why was I able to understand everyone, read everything? I mean, was it just my 'operating system' being patched in real time? Was-

  Nope, I did not want to know the deepest inner workings of this world and how it worked… Look what happened the last time I thought I knew everything, that I somehow thought I had insight into how reality itself worked… I was just rolling with it, and that was it. Ignorance was bliss in this case…

  Still, the Circuit had started on the first of May, and it was now August twenty-fifth, so yeah… Summer was starting to come to an end, and it would quickly turn into Fall… September we should be fine, but October was for sure going to be cold… The average temperature had finally fallen slightly, and according to mom, would drop down to where Leaf and Alex would need new clothes in a month or so. I could get away with my jacket and some thicker tights, honestly, but…

  I sighed, but not heavily…

  "Thats a good idea, Alex. We could all use some warmer clothes for Fall, and we all need some winter clothes." I enjoyed how for once it was Leaf who looked mildly panicked at the thought of clothes shopping. Her voice was slightly weak as she spoke up.

  "I mean, I've always been good at dealing with the cold…" Alex and I both laughed at the defeat in her voice.

  "Leaf, no, you are getting warmer clothes. I'm not having you get sick because you've finally realized how bad you are at picking out clothes and refuse to take a chance. Honestly? Let Alex pick some out for you… maybe me, too. I'm not much better when it comes to fashion, honestly…" I really wasn't, but new clothes would be nice, I guess…

  "Miss Blackthorn and friends?" We looked up to see a Nurse Joy smiling at us from behind the counter, a carrying tray full of Luxury Balls in front of her.

  Time to pick up the family…

  —

  —

  "Sera, you can't still be mad at me! You had two broken ribs! If you kept going you might have punctured a lung, I know the Nurses told you all of this already!" Seraphina huffed at me, small wisps of flame emerging from her mouth, and I frowned.

  "What kind of trainer, what kind of family would I be if I let you fight in that condition? What would that say about how I view you? That's not about trusting in you, that's not caring! If it was a real fight, not a Gym Battle, then sure! Survival kind of takes priority, so I'd let you fight in that condition if there was no other choice! This wasn't that! This was us having fun!" Her glare decreased in intensity, but she was still glaring a little bit…

  I threw my hands up, shaking my head.

  "Fine! Be that way! You still did great, all of you did. Stop being immature…" Her glare didn't stop, but she snorted in amusement.

  'Erin. Child!'

  "That's not fair and you know it, Sera! Yes, I'm a kid, but you're acting like a literal baby right now! One who wasn't allowed to touch the searing hot pan again! Well, I guess for a fire type… The icy… something? Wasn't allowed to… run on a broken leg? You know what I mean, though!" Her glare stopped, but she still didn't look very happy with me… Too bad.

  I turned my gaze on the rest of my team, and smiled widely.

  "Like I told her, you all did great! You were almost all at a disadvantage, and we still won against eighth badge Pokemon! We will need to work on some deeper strategies, though, they weren't bringing out everything they had. Aurorus could have used Hail from the start, Carbink only got recalled because of its strict contract, and that Tyranitar didn't immediately push out a massive Sandstorm, either… They were still strong Pokemon! Great job!"

  Hecate just nodded happily from her spot on top of Cerberus' back, Seraphina still acting offended even as her tail wagged a little. Artemis looked very smug, actually. Cerberus was happy, too, but not very. He had taken out two Pokemon, sure, but he had been taken down with two Moves after that first Ice Beam. Two doubly super-effective Moves, sure, ones that knocked him right out with force, and he understood that. He was still irritated by it.

  Kallen, though?

  Kallen was ecstatic as he floated there, all twelve feet of Alpha Dragalge. He smiled at me, then frowned. He bent down to headbutt me and I hugged his huge head.

  "Yes, I know you're disappointed. No more hanging out for you, but isn't it nice to finally Evolve? I know you've been ready for a while!" He nodded, lifting me off my feet for an instant, before he pulled back and smirked at Artemis. She growled at him, but lightly.

  "Be nice, Kallen. Artemis just had a bit of a… bad matchup, honestly. If she hadn't been an Alpha, she would have Evolved. She practices against mom, can you look me in my eyes and tell me that a non-Alpha Tyrantrum, one that much weaker than mom, should have been enough of a mountain to climb?" Kallen squelched out a laugh and shook his head. Everyone laughed, because no, it hadn't been, obviously…

  I glanced over our room to find Alex happily hugging Honor as Unity… argued with his wyrms. It looked like they weren't seriously arguing with Unity, just… bickering for the hell of it. Unity was going to have a few learning curves to maneuver with his new posse… Leaf was, of course, hugging Morgrem, and the little demon had stopped fighting it these days. I think he actually enjoyed them a little, to be honest. He was returning it with one arm…

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  I reached out and hugged Cerberus' heads, enjoying how he pulled me in closer and wrapped his necks around me.

  "You, my big buddy, are going to need to learn some more Move variety… It wouldn't have protected you from those Moonblasts, but it made me realize how little variety you have. That is my fault, though, I'm the trainer… Maybe in Celadon we can find some good TM's?" He lightly rumbled at me, a happy sound, and I pulled back.

  "Hecate, you knew that you were a bit of a sacrifice play, so don't feel bad! You still did really well against that Aurorus. I've never seen an Ancient Power used like that… Honestly, Artemis should practice with hers a bit more, imagine her running around with a spinning barrier of jagged rocks!" I really enjoyed how my team laughed in vicious delight at the mental image.

  Well, that was a good day! The reporters kinda sucked for Alex, but I got to flex on them… Not a nice thing to do, but neither was ambushing a thirteen year old girl outside of a restaurant, so screw it!

  —

  —

  The next morning we woke up to a rainy, miserable day. This had apparently been a bit of a dry summer, but this was a coastal region. It wasn't a full-force typhoon, but it still made me smile. I had always enjoyed hurricanes growing up. Of course, my grandma didn't appreciate me going outside in them, and I never did it during the bad ones, but I was a fast seven year old and she was old… There was just something about standing in the middle of the road and feeling the pressure rolling in, the driving rains that seemed to slap at you.

  I frowned after a moment, though, because we were kind of trying to move today… Our new Ride Basket had a 'roof', technically, but it was more like a lid, considering where the handle was. I wouldn't want to deal with that alone, much less with four other people. Six was the absolute limit a Ride Basket could hold, too, and I refused to huddle in one as mom bounced us around, I required the ability to absorb shocks with my knees…

  Leaf groaned from next to me, too.

  "Why couldn't it have rained yesterday? Not on a day we were going to travel!" I nodded my head, then had a thought…

  I looked over at Dignity and caught her eye.

  "Dignity, I don't suppose you can control the weather?" She gave me a look like I was insane… which, fair enough, but it was worse than normal. I raised my hands in surrender.

  "Sorry, sorry. Some entries said that Dragonair could control the weather, supposedly, so I figured I would ask…" She shook her head before curling back around Alex. Alex, who was somehow still sleeping, even as thunder boomed in the distance.

  Well, it's not like we hadn't taken a few days just to do nothing before… What was one more?

  —

  —

  Emily and Anya joined us in our room after breakfast, mainly because there wasn't much to do in Pewter in the first place, not to mention the torrential rain outside. I don't think I would ever warm up to new people easily, it just wasn't in my nature, but I had gotten mostly used to them. Considering Leaf and her friendliness, I didn't have much choice…

  Luckily we weren't just stuck watching TV all day. Anya owned something that looked way too much like a Switch, along with plenty of controllers in her backpack, and after hooking it up to our TV, started up a game that also looked far too much like a certain fighting game…

  Actually, didn't Switch's canonically exist in the games? It really made me wonder about how the whole 'timeline' thing worked, honestly. I knew from Looker that the events of most games had already happened, other than Galar and Paldea, so it wasn't exactly one region a year. The technology seemed to be around Scarlet and Violet levels, or I guess the Let's Go games? I'd been sooo disappointed with those, honestly…

  I may have laughed a little too hard when I saw the character selection, and almost every character I remembered was there… There was no Pokemon Trainer, though. That would have been awkward, kicking Leaf's butt with her own character… awkward, and funny. They had Roy, however, and he was just as stupid in this weird version…

  After a few hours of me 'being unfair' Anya finally turned it off, and I didn't bother to hide my huge shit-eating grin. I wasn't that good, honestly, they were all just bad…

  Then Alex decided to once again irritate me.

  "Hey Eriiin?" I narrowed my eyes at her, but she just grinned. Damnit, Alex…

  "I have to assume you have a few more songs done by now?" I sighed as Emily and Anya both looked intrigued.

  "You sing?" I deliberately ignored Emily as I glared at Alex.

  "Why do you two do this to me?" Alex just smiled at me. Sweetly.

  "Because they're all interesting if nothing else, and I know you've been working with Dexter and Hecate every night? Are you telling me that curiosity is a bad thing, Erin?" I shook my head in defeat, flopping backwards onto Cerberus.

  "I may have one that's done, sure…"

  Anya looked highly intrigued.

  "So you do sing! Can we hear it?" I sighed again, but rolled into a sitting position.

  "Screw it… You're not getting the most recent one, though. It's done, but…" I trailed off at the look on their faces, but…

  "It's kind of… personal, and I'm not quite ready to… put it out there, I guess." Leaf and Alex got it, at least. Well, they were smart enough to figure out that it had to do with my past, and I wasn't quite to that point… I mean, Citizen Soldier was a great band, and Face to Face was a good song, but I didn't want to sing it where other people could hear it until I actually had made peace with who I used to be…

  So probably never, realistically. I'd come a long way from how I used to be, but I wasn't quite at the… forgive myself stage, I guess? I don't know how to describe it, even to myself… I would never be able to forgive myself for my actions. I knew that I should, honestly. It was a literal lifetime ago, but while I wouldn't beat myself up about it anymore, I'd never be able to forget, either… There were certain things I couldn't say, though, even if song lyrics don't count as lying, especially from that song…

  Like 'I'm not ashamed of who I was'...

  "I have two options, but I'll only sing one… A fun song, or a deep song?" I ignored Leaf and Alex, because I knew what their choice would be…

  Emily looked intrigued, but Anya looked happy.

  "Fun song, please! What kind of song is it?" I shook my head as Leaf and Alex, of course, chimed in with 'fun'...

  "Sorry Emily, looks like your vote doesn't matter." She shrugged.

  "I mean, you could sing both?" I shook my head again, resigned.

  "I honestly don't feel like singing right now, but Leaf and Alex will insist if I don't, because they're both brats…" I smirked at their glares, then glanced at Dexter.

  "I guess I'm doing this… Someone want to pull out the subwoofer?" Hope bounced over to my pack and I focused on the humans in the room.

  "So, as these two know, I'm not a huge fan of my voice for most of the songs they've heard me sing, it's too high pitched… There's a certain… kind of technique, though, where people would speed up songs, and voices came out higher-pitched. It was kind of basic for the most part, but a lot of… people were good at redoing them, and this is one of them, so my voice will actually work well enough…" I ignored Emily and Anya's confused looks as I concentrated.

  I really wasn't a huge fan of singing, honestly. I was always self-conscious about it, even for the songs that I apparently sung well in my previous life. Here, though? Most of the music I enjoyed didn't sound all that great sung by a squeaky teenager, which is what I was… Still, even if I had fully adjusted to this world, I just didn't find most of this world's music to be… good. Well, it wasn't bad, I guess? Just not for me, even the rock…

  I cleared my throat as Hope gave me a… 'thumbs' up. I mean, she had digits, so I guess it was a thumbs up? She had thumbs… right? I peered at her hands and she smirked at me before dropping in.

  "Question?" I laughed a little.

  "I was just wondering if you have thumbs, or just… like, three fingers? I never looked closely at Stabby's hands, either, now that I think about it…" She laughed and… gave me what was for sure a middle finger as Stabby giggled and spoke.

  "Difference? Functions." 'Digits serve purpose.'

  "Whats the difference, since they work? Huh… That's not a bad question, Stabby… I mean, thumbs are just opposable fingers…"

  Emily and Anya were looking at me like I was insane, though… crap, I kind of forgot that…

  "You can commune, too?!" I grimaced, but nodded my head.

  "Not well, or really, like most people can, but it's not clear. It's getting clearer, but I'm not as good at interpreting them as Leaf is, and I can't respond to them in my head, it just doesn't hurt me." I ignored their stunned looks as Leaf spoke up.

  "I honestly don't know if I would call it in my head, though? It's more like soul to soul, I think? Professor Oak's looking into it, but I'm not going to sit there and be an experiment for days… You know how bad he gets!" I nodded my head. Vigorously.

  I liked Professor Oak, a lot, actually, but he was insatiable when it came to acquiring knowledge. He had wanted 'a little bit of my time' to test out some aura things, and that had turned into 'so many things to test' rather quickly… In fact, the only reason I made it out of there after only two hours was Charizard having pity on me and literally stealing me away from him… Of course, she had then dive-bombed me into the pond, but that had been funny as hell, not to mention fun, so I didn't hold it against her…

  "Professor Oak?!" I sighed as Emily's eyes got wide.

  "He's a family friend, I guess?" Honestly, when he wasn't trying to drag tests or information out of us, he acted a lot more like a distant grandpa… Which I was pretty happy about, actually. He was nice, and his sense of humor lined up with mine to a large degree… Like how he had teased Alex before letting Unity go with her.

  He had also laughed his head off when he showed me a video. A video of me and Leaf both getting flicked, the first time Patricia had ever flicked me, in fact. Why had he taken that video? Because he had his camera on him at the time, it was funny to him… and he cared about Leaf. Seeing her acting like a bratty thirteen year old had been a relief for him after her depression, and for me too, even if it was her pranking me into her clothes…

  I clapped my hands together, stopping the further questions I could see brewing.

  "Okay, fun song, know which one I'm thinking of, Dexter?" He nodded at me, and I opened my mouth, holding up an imaginary microphone-

  "Wait!"

  I paused and looked at Leaf. The whites of her eyes flashed pink as she closed them, and I saw Hope and Stabby with their eyes closed… Hope was actually gone, now that I looked closer, gone back to… wherever fae came from. The upside down, hell, parallel world, lower dimension… Just like the fundamental workings of reality, I didn't really want to know, exactly…

  I got the feeling I already knew, though… Still cool little demons, though, most of them…

  Leaf's eyes popped open and she gave me a wide smile.

  "Mind one more for the audience?" I shook my head at her in confusion.

  "Who would even… Wait…" She nodded, still smiling widely.

  "Duncan said he'd like to visit, and to hear you sing, when Hope told him!" Oh shit, Duncan! That poor fae…

  "Who is Duncan?" I laughed at the bewildered look on Emily and Anya's faces, but it was Alex who answered.

  "Duncan is a… friend of ours, I guess? We only met him once, but apparently I'm his friend, now…" I grinned at her.

  "Well, he liked how bland and boring you looked, remember? Maybe he won't want to be friends anymore!" Alex just sighed, but I was pretty happy.

  I had only interacted with him for a little while, but I felt bad for the depressed little demon. Not even Leaf was completely, one hundred percent sure what a horrible name entailed for fae, but out of all of the names I had heard given to Pokemon, Duncan was the worst… Even worse than Snazzy!

  I guess Mittens would have been worse…

  "He said he'll be here in a minute, apparently Pokemon Centers are somehow… neutral ground, or something? He has to come in slowly, not just pop in." I frowned at that, and so did Leaf… I guess teleporting us was okay for that thing in Mt. Moon… Which made sense, I guess? It wasn't entering the Center, just us…

  I had some complicated feelings about the entire… situation up there, honestly. Complicated, yet so simple at the same time.

  I knew the Clefairy line in Mt. Moon couldn't exactly defy it, so it didn't feel like… betrayal, or anything. Look at Stabby! He was furious, too, but if he spoke out he would be… Well, not killed, or even subjected to the 'Erin treatment', but I didn't blame him, Hope, Duncan, or any Pokemon in there for not ousting that thing from its position, not that they would be capable of it…

  I would do it myself if I had to. I had sworn to myself I would never set foot back on that mountain, but if it was as part of a force that could actually kill it? Fuck it, I'd break that promise in a heartbeat. I could lie to myself…

  I was saved further dreary thoughts by the pop of Teleportation, and I smiled widely at the Clefable that stood there.

  "Duncan! Hey buddy!" He smiled at me, invading my mind as he did. I felt Stabby give him the equivalent of a friendly shoulder-check as he did, but he just giggled.

  "Hi! Song? Fun?" 'Greetings, friend! Music happening?'

  "Yeah, they convinced me to sing a new song- well, new to them…" He laughed a little before turning to Leaf briefly, but I was really looking forward to…

  Leaf laughed and looked at Alex as Duncan slumped a little before walking up to Alex, arms wide.

  "He says he's happy that you're happier, but 'Why couldn't you stay dressed just as blandly as my dumb name?'" Alex got so red, but she still stood up to give Duncan a hug! Wasn't expecting that, honestly, but after all this time? She knew Duncan wasn't about to eat her, or take her emotions or desires.

  "Well, thanks for being happy for me, I guess? Not sorry about the clothes though, they were horrible… Maybe see if Leaf can rename you?" Leaf and every fae were shaking their heads, though.

  "You can't rename a fae once their name has been… set, actually. I could 'name' him something else, and he could respond to it, but it wouldn't be his name, just a nickname, basically… I really wish I could, though!" Duncan nodded, a little sadly, then turned to Emily and Anya.

  Emily and Anya, who looked terrified.

  Leaf just laughed at them, though.

  "This is Duncan! He's a friend of ours, and he's not going to take, or even commune with you, he knows it hurts other people." Duncan nodded and waved at them with a smile, and they both let out shuddering breaths.

  Emily looked over at me and raised an eyebrow.

  "Is it always this crazy around you?" I burst into laughter even as I nodded. Yeah, it kinda was…