Pokéumans: re-lived part 1 "From parallel worlds" Chapter 9 "A new normal"“So, how did it go young pokéuman?” “…” The shiny toxtricity in front of me smiled warmly and cocked his eyebrow in curiosity. “Is there anything you need to talk about? I’m supposed to help you in these visits you know.” “Why didn’t my ability help me? I was destroyed back there, with everyone to watch… I-I didn’t even want this, any of this.” I pleaded. “How are you so sure it didn’t? Sure, just because you may have an advantage it doesn’t mean that you’ll automatically be good at something.” Kalled said. “But everyone’s supposed to be good at this… we’re pokemon, that’s all everyone seems to talk about a-and I don’t know but I thought maybe it was supposed to come naturally to me b-but-” Kalleq cut me off before I could continue rambling. “Ah, that’s not necessarily true, some pokemon are stronger than others in battle, sure, but that doesn’t mean every pokemon is meant for battle, some pokemon heal, some provide services and every pokemon has their own set of skills that make them useful, every single one.” Kalleq argued. “And what about toxtricity? Aren’t we supposed to be punks? Y’know, aggressive, tough, cruel fighters? I’m nothing like that and I don’t want to be like that!!!” I shouted, Kalleq’s smile seem to drop for a moment as he went lost in thought for a moment, he stayed quietly before speaking. “Well… I suppose you could say that about us.” He then took a deep breath. “But personally, between you and me, I never cared for it, I never cared for battle, for toughness or for any superficial aspects, I went through my own path, I may be a toxtricity, but I could be any other pokemon just as much! It doesn’t define me, and I don’t think it should you, I think… I think I understand what you’re going through young one, and frankly, if there are people out there like us who don’t put all of our value on our toughness or our ability to battle, then they’ll be the ones that will forget about the tournament the easiest.” I held my head down for a moment before looking up “Do… do you think there are others like that?” Kalleq chuckled. “There’s already two of us; there will always be more.” I couldn’t help but chuckle as well. “Yeah… I suppose you’re right.” “Till we meet again.” And with that, I woke up I woke up quietly, not a sound coming from the room allowing me to peacefully stretch and rub my eyes to be greeted by the artificial light of- WAIT! “What the- Where’s everyone?! What time is it? Did I miss breakfast or…” It didn’t take a lot for me to realise what had gone on, walking over to Demian’s alarm, the one that usually blasted at ultra-high volumes and woke everyone up, it was fully switched off, I also noticed everything else that could be shut off was shut off and every curtain and door and anything that could bring out light in the area was tampered with to ensure it did so as little as possible. “SHIT, SHIT, SHIT, I BETTER NOT HAVE MISSED BREAKFAST!!” I screamed as I ran down the halls, my worst fears only being confirmed as I didn’t bump into anyone while running at tiring speeds, telling me everyone had already left their dorms and were possibly even already at school, I walked down all the way to the cafeteria, to find it predictably empty... it was then my turn to run all the way back to the academy area, even if I knew I’d already miss my first class, but before I made it back to the stairs I bumped into a familiar figure. “Rodri?” I exclaimed, I stopped in my tracks almost like a car pressing the brakes at the last moment, causing me to fall face first into the chesnaught’s fluffy body, luckily it seemed like he had already noticed me, and I didn’t take him by surprise. “Hey Lex! I’m so glad to see you, wait, shouldn’t you be in class?” he asked, raising his eyebrow in a tinge of worry that he seemed to try (in vain) to mask his enthusiasm. “I-I know I’m happy to see you too but t-that’s the thing my arseholes roommates made me sleep in so I could miss my class…” At that point I couldn’t go on, I was too exhausted, and I had to put my hands on my knees and take a long minute to catch my breath. “Do you… have the time?” Rodri shrugged for a moment; he raised an arm to look at a small band he had on one of his spikes. “8:32, they definitely won’t be able to let you in class at this hour I’m afraid, you’ll have to wait until it’s 9.” He seemed to let out a guilty smile, showing off his large lower fangs in full glory… which I didn’t recall being right for a chesnaught but I didn’t want to give it much thought, I also noticed he displayed a new article of clothing, a golf cap. I sighed, Rodri decided to continue, seemingly realising I noticed his new attire he commented on it with a blush. “Oh, this was a gift by a… friend of mine, ahem, but regardless!” He said as he then shifted the topic to something that, unfortunately only made me feel worse. “While you’re waiting we can catch up on how you’ve been doing! I saw you in the tournament yesterday though I never got to found out how you did after it, I hope you enjoyed it at the very least!” I looked at him with the most dead inside expression I could muster. “I never want to enter a tournament ever again.” He stared at me with genuine shock, something which made me raise my eyebrow in confusion “W-w-what? Why?! What happened there!” “URGH!! I never even wanted to get in there in the first place!! I didn’t want to draw attention to myself, not after being lumped with all the delinquents and borderline criminals of the base!!! I know that stupid Demian signed me up to humiliate me and his stupid fucking plan worked and guess what!! It would’ve been ONE thing if I lost a battle, it’s another to make it to the second round without any motivation only to get absolutely decimated by a FAR more experienced fighter for EVERYBODY to see!! And all people will think is that I, a newbie who already has a bad reputation, has trouble with people and looks like someone who’d hold you at gunpoint on the street seemingly got cocky and arrogant and entered a serious competition without any training!!! T-t-they all p-probably think I deserve that h-humiliation, but I didn’t want any of this… a-anything.” I was at the verge of tears, but I forced myself to stop after I realised, I had been salivating and I didn’t want to risk releasing any potential acid or toxins, I took a deep breath and shifted to a neutral expression, wiping my tears as well, actions that felt all too familiar for me to do. “I… see.” Rodri spoke quietly, he didn’t seem to be in the mood to continue the conversation from that point. “I know full well you don’t trust him, a-and I’m pretty sure you don’t seem to like him at this point but, at the very least let the headmaster know about this, he’ll probably ignore it but that’s all I need, just… I need to stop thinking about this and head back to school.” I stated simply, the white-furred pokemon only nodded and left. I eventually made it back to class, luckily about time for the next one to begin, but it wasn’t any more pleasant than the rest of the day had been, the classmates weren’t even subtle with their murmurs and bickering, no doubt about the tournament, happening all over the classroom, several looked at me in disdain, others in preoccupation, but there was one exception, the Litleo that seemed to be my neighbour appeared disinterested at first, but as classes went on, I could notice him looking at me almost with an expression of pity? It… made me a bit curious as to what they felt, he didn’t seem like a bad person, but then again, he also hung out a lot with Raúl who I wasn’t looking forward to encountering in electric battle class. I could barely focus on any of the classes, despite waking up later it only made me feel even more exhausted and depressed, except however in social formation, where an interesting topic happened to be discussed: “We’ll be discussing the nature of Pokéumans, because yes, we are a lot more driven by instinct and our biology than humans, but it’s a completely normal part of us, a lot of us tend to feel wrong as humans because of how our behaviour is influenced by our physiology, but once our transformation happens most of us find ourselves comfortable with what we’re naturally wired for, you see a lot of fairy and psychic type pokemon at the medical staff, and that’s without even mentioning the amount of blisseys and audinos and comfeis that all flock to that job, but it’s in their nature, even when they were a human to gravitate towards helping and nurturing others, ground type pokemon are often a lot more comfortable in the sand, grass types enjoy the sun a lot more than other pokemon or humans, even individual species have their own patterns and behaviours that they naturally enjoy, cubones tend to be emotional and melancholic, and it’s something that comes naturally to them, alakazams tend to be intelligent and well spoken, so much so they’ve come across as arrogant to others in the past, but recent studies have shown that it is simply due to their brains being wired differently, and it’s normal for them, and it’s normal for you to, and what’s more, every single one of these abilities is helpful to our society.” The teacher explained. I scoffed, but I couldn’t help but wonder both through the same question that kept ringing in my mind then, What’s the use of “the punk pokemon”? All I’ve seen here is people be afraid or disgusted at me, and my own “kind” seems to do more harm than good. I swatted the thought away, surely this can’t be it, I’m not just naturally supposed to be rude and imprudent towards everyone and anything, I’m not gonna let myself be bound to what society has to say, especially Demian, we’re still human in the end and that’s what matters most! Only… was that really true? I had to catch my own thoughts right then and there, what if it is just natural for us? We’re another species, wouldn’t seeing this entirely through a human perspective be what pokextinction is doing? But then again maybe we shouldn’t let ourselves be controlled by our own instincts, we shouldn’t be told what to do, because that’s what they want. I had to put all of that on hold for the moment as I couldn’t reach a proper conclusion to that train of thought yet. Classes passed and I was surprised to see that even battle class was uneventful, for one Raúl decide to keep his distance which I found myself appreciating but also being intrigued by. By the time lunch rolled around I felt a sudden pang of hunger, I skipped breakfast sure but it still felt a lot stronger than it should, I considered briefly heading back to my dorm but I decided I should try to avoid confrontation especially when I’m this much on an empty stomach, I made it to the cafeteria with my supplies, fairly earlier than others, sat down in a table after being served a tray of breaded chicken, my favourite, it definitely lightened my mood and made me more approachable, I was about to finish when I was approached yet again by a familiar group of three. “Hey Lex.” Spoke the tatsugiri who seemed to lead the group, she was sporting a beanie with a cat themed design and a cute face, very different from her somber expression. “We wanted to apologise from what went on at the tournament, well, mainly Raúl.” The eelektrike rolled his eyes somewhat but did look rather upset at himself. “Look… I didn’t mean to shame you for your loss man, I just got curious about why you decided to participate in the first place and-“ “Raúl” Said Litleo. “Fine… fine, I’ll try not to pressure you further if that’s what you need, I’d like to apologize to Gael too but he mostly keeps to himself.” I couldn’t help but shrug. “I’ll let him know, I’m just tired at this point because I got signed up against my will but clearly no one’s going to realise that! But what do I care my reputation here was over from the moment I arrived.” I mused as I played with the little crumbs left over in my plate. “W-well in fairness you did have an unfair matchup and performed well on your first match, you did some unique things like using the English moves.” Whispered Litleo, looking away from the group, I couldn’t help but feel at ease, he was clearly the shier one of the group and I very much related, though it was definitely easier for him to appear as such compared to me and my grumpy old face. “I did also hear a lot of noise coming from your dorm the other day, they almost sounded like attacks?” Inquired Itzel “NO! W-well…” I didn’t really want them to get involved in something I’d inevitably want to learn how to deal with myself “It’s nothing you should be concerned with, I can deal.” “Well if you say so, but if you ever need somewhere to crash, we’re right in front of you.” I raised a brow, why were they all suddenly being so nice? They reminded me almost of how Gael acted when we first met, and like then I had no clue why that would even be the case, people see me as a bully now just by being alongside Demian and his associates, why did they behave differently? It was only Litleo who appeared to be amicable to me in class. “Well… I might actually, there’s some stuff going on today s-so mind if I-I… um, w-well, just for a few hours I think.” With that, the tatsugiri nodded and the group headed off to their own table and eventually the lunch period ended, when I made it back to my dorm, I looked over to the door in front of it, with a lot of nervousness, I knocked and I was allowed in, the atmosphere was tense for a bit and I was quiet, I stayed quiet even as everyone else slowly started to relax and ease off, chatting, playing stuff on the tv and generally hanging out while I simply stood in the corner, I couldn’t let myself relax, I had too much weigh in my mind, and eventually, after a slow hour, I left the dorm quietly and unnoticed. As I got out, I suddenly heard Gael’s familiar, albeit muffled, voice suddenly shout in what seemed to be pain, not having a moment to react, I practically banged the door’s touch activation open and I found Gael sitting alone on a bed, crying and holding his face in pain. “GAEL?! ARE YOU OK??!! WHAT’S WRONG?! ARE YOU HURT!!??!” I exclaimed, rushing to his aid as soon as I stepped foot inside. “L-Lex?!” Gael looked at me surprised, clearly he hadn’t noticed my arrival, and I saw it, a massive red bloody scar was present in his right eye, not only that, but similar scars were also present on his pincers, almost like sharp claws grotesquely piercing out of his body, his pincer tail was splatterd in blood as well, he also sported some shiny metal clips, one in his ear, two in his left wing. “What happened to you!! Did Demian hurt you?! Do you need to go to a hospital!!” I was practically grabbing him by the arm almost rushing him out of the dorm before he stopped me, clearly still agitated from whatever had been going on.“No!! No!! NO!!! No it’s just… It’s not blood it’s not anything painful it’s just… I think I might be developing hybrid traits, at the worst time possible…” The gliscor? Explained, as he was slowly start to find some composure. “Hybrid traits? Aren’t we already hybrids?” I asked, but before he could reply memories flashed in my mind, for a long while one could wonder how we could tell each other apart from others of the same species of pokemon and while people generally have different minor traits something that was common was for other pokemon to have certain aspects that set them out, that made them look like other pokemon, before I could continue my train of thought then, Gael shook his head and sniffled. “No, some pokemon well, it’s actually fairly common that, uh, we have traces of dna of separate species and combined that with our unstable combination of those genes and our human side, some of us develop mutations and develop traits of other pokemon we tend to favour… my second favourite pokemon is zangoose and well…” Gael started breaking down again. “I…I just sniff why now??? Why me??? Now I even look more predatory!!! I saw how you looked at me, I was covered in BLOOD, it may be a pattern but who’s gonna realise that?! It. Looks. Like. BLOOD!!!!” Gael continued to sob and I stood speechless, I found myself surprised yet also relating myself to him, I wanted to say something, but the part of me that was afraid of confrontation, of putting myself out there in fear of messing up was trying to suppress that urge like it always managed to do, and yet, there was something different this time that overpowered that urge, something that made me speak. “Gael… I’m sorry, I probably should’ve stood by your side today, you’ve been doing a lot for me all these days and I’ve been brushing it aside like it was nothing, I-I especially didn’t mean to ruin your cover with Demian, I let myself get carried away by my frustrations and well… I’m really sorry, and if it helps you… I don’t think you feel predatory, even with your new features, a-and I mean it!!! Whenever I see you smile I was at first surprised with how sharp your tooth were b-but it was honestly so sincere that it felt comforting, t-to me anyway, I never had that even as a human…” I looked away for a moment, feeling a little sheepish and, ashamed, to me it felt like I was doing more harm than good. “I-I want to be friends with you too y’know because… you’ve been so patient with me a-and I appreciate it like you have no idea and I r-really wish I was better at showing it!” To my surprise however, I saw Gael’s expression grow less weary, there almost seem to be a glinter of something in his eyes, admiration? Maybe? I didn’t allow myself to consider such possibility. “Y-you like my smile?” He asked shyly, I couldn’t help but chuckle “Y-yeah, honest! I actually think it’s a little ease-putting.” “W-wow… I never heard that from… anyone, I mean well, even I was trying to befriend you I’d never guessed you’d find me to be, well, assuring? I guess? I’m honestly not even sure I fully understand what you mean but I expected everyone would just see me as a hungry beast.” The gliscor sighed for a moment. “Especially now that I have claws shooting out of pincers, arceus, I look like an edgy internet OC, not helped by these stupid piercings Demian forced me to get… they both still feel painful, I had heard that developing hybrid traits is like a second transformation but experiencing it… it’s something else, it hurts, just like it hurts when I was first taken, when I was all alone.” “We’ve all been there, I’ve been there, you’re not alone, a-at least I’ll try to make sure of it, like you have for me, plus… I-I kinda like how the piercings look on you, n-not that you should keep them if they hurt or feel uncomfortable but you look cool, in an admirable way, not edgy or scary I think.” The gliscor grinned, in the same assuring way I described before he spoke with one single phrase. “sniff Thank you.” Gael sniffled once again, but quickly wiped away his tears (being careful not to accidentally hurt himself with his new claws) He then tackled me in a sudden glide-hug, which caused me to fall back into my bed, after we got up, we laughed and laughed, it was then I realised me and gael had truly something special, and that I should rightfully treasure it I just didn’t realise how special. “If I’m being honest, I’ve actually thought about getting a piercing myself, but my family wouldn’t even let me, not even an earring.” I commented “Really? Why’s that?” Gael asked, I rolled my eyes. “They thought it would look gay or some shit, it’s also why they don’t like getting me anything pink coloured even though it’s my favourite colour, it’s so stupid though like who cares if I’m gay!!” “Well… are you gay?” Inquired Gael curiously. “Nah, I just like pink man, and I’m just not really feeling like finding a girlfriend.” I commented “I see…” Gael added in a strange tone. “Well, neither am I.” A while after, someone knocked at our door, and slid a letter under it, we walked over and noticed it was from Rodri! “Huh… I think that might be for me.” I spoke “Did you get in trouble?” Gael ask with a much calmer than before twinge of worry “No, no, I think he might just want to see me, er…” I opened the card and excused myself to another part of the room to read it privately. To Lex I’m deeply sorry about what happened in the tournament, I offer my deepest condolences, and I hope it hasn’t brought you down, that said, I haven’t been able to keep your comment about having a dream messenger off my head, I feel like you might need some advice for training, I’m not saying you should enter a tournament again if you don’t want to be a battler, but it’s something to keep in mind, I’ll have to explain in more detail in person though, so please meet me at the cafeteria at 4pm, it should be vacant around that time so we should have enough privacy, with that out of the way, best of luck -Rodri “So… what does he want?” Asked Gael, I found myself thinking for a moment, should I tell him about my dream messenger? Even though I wanted to be better for Gael this time that sense of “inspiration” that kept me from taking the coward’s way out didn’t come, and I simply didn’t want to have to deal with a potential confrontation from telling a non prt member about this information. “He wants to meet up in the cafeteria at 4pm tomorrow, it’s just some… things we need to talk about.” “If you say so.” Gael spoke, we both decided to let the topic go and we focused on other things, we were talking about how we were doing at school when I ended up bringing up the topic of that day’s social formation topic “They were talking about the natures of pokemon and how they supposedly influence our behaviour, how cubones cry and alakazam seem arrogant and all that stuff, I’m oversimplifying but y’know.” I explained “I know what you mean, I also had a similar class, I scoffed at first in fairness but honestly? As time goes on, I’ve realised there’s unfortunately some truth to it, I can still get pretty aggressive and fierce at times, and I can’t deny how much I enjoy soaring through the air or burrowing myself in sand.” “Right… so what does that mean for me?” I asked, he looked at me in a slightly apologetic look. “Look man, I think it’s best if you just didn’t think about it, there will be stuff you can’t help but I’ve learned it’s best if you don’t just get carried away completely by what “feels right.” I merely nodded, we spent the rest of the day talking, up until Demian and Dylan returned, where the atmosphere immediately became thick, Demian almost tried to start a fight but with both Gael and I standing to challenge him Dylan ended up pulling him away, that didn’t me we were peaceful though as for what we couldn’t achieve physically we made up for it verbally, we practically argued with each other over the most minute things throughout the day, up until we were all too tired and dealing with massive headaches and we bitterly decided to call it a night. It took me a while to even feel a little restless, especially after being high on adrenaline and stress due to the arguments we had with our roommates, I found myself going back to Gael’s hybrid traits as a distraction, and then I slowly found myself going back to noticing several traits like these in other pokemon, Itzel I noticed seemed to have tiny little horns and blue and green spots all over, I wasn’t certain but they reminded me of a gastrodon? Raúl was a bit different, mainly sporting a greenish tint and slightly more translucent appearance to his skin, if I had to guess like of the reuniclus line but I wasn’t too sure, Litleo didn’t seem to sport any of this but, then again he was a base form pokemon, Rodri meanwhile had upside down fangs, and when I combined it with his general build, which wasn’t quite the one of a chesnaught, I realised he might have some emboar in him? I think I even noticed a red feather on his back, which was odd, eventually though, my eyes started feeling heavy and I drifted off. I was back in the cold northern-looking shore of the dream dimension, I was sitting holding my knees in my arms, waiting until I noticed him. “Young pokéuman?” Came from Kalleq’s voice, I turned over to look at the shiny toxtricity, I noticed however a new aspect about him, he was displaying a colourful necklace, lashes of several colours are hanging from his neck holding a large claw/tooth like figure. “I’m glad you appreciate this fine piece of jewlery, it was very important to the culture of my people when I lived among the living pokemon in your world.” “I… see, Kalleq.” Kalleq smiled. “I can sense you’re lamenting Lex, do not worry, I’m sure my culture still survives in the world in a certain way, the reason I’m showing you this is because I was able to feel your experiences in the woken world, it seems you’ve had a lot to think about?” I nodded. “Y-yeah um, you’re my ancestor, right? Do you happen to know anything about uh, that whole nature thing? What does that mean for us, f-for toxtricities?” “Don’t you remember what we talked about yesterday? It’s up to you to be your own self, and to be completely honest with you, you and I are very different people, you come from a culture much more developed in a way, millions of years past my time, there’s still a lot about you I’m still barely close to understanding, I have to rely on the connection I share with you to fully process it, but not only that, you’re way more than a pokemon, you’re a pokeuman, there’s a part of you that’s still human and still kicking as much as the part of you that is a toxtricity, and I even sense other parts too.” “Other parts? You mean I could potentially develop hybrid traits as well?” I asked. “Only time will tell, but what I’m getting at is that is that you aren’t just a pokemon, and you have greater potential that I or anyone from my time has, I can sense that you aren’t interested in battle but I still suggest you train your abilities, it will definitely help you in the future.” “But aren’t you supposed to help me with that?? I haven’t even gotten close at all to unlocking my ability?” I complained “And how are you so sure of that young pokeuman? I think you’ll find your ability will come more naturally to you than you think, it’s more like a great sense of determination that allows one to reach your goals easier.” The toxtricity put his hand on my shoulder. “But we’ll get there, I promise.” And with that, the space started glowing brightly white Once I got done with my default routine, which now included almost constantly getting into argument with Demian and Dylan whenever all 4 of us were in the room together, Eventually though time came for me too meet up with Rodri in the cafeteria, I grabbed the letter in case I needed anything from it and I walked on nervously not sure what to expect, encountering the green-shelled giant waving excitedly at me from a table. “Hey Lex!!! Glad you could make it.” I took a seat in front of the table. “What did you need me for?” I asked. “Well, first of all I’d like to say that I’m truly sorry about what happened in the tournament, still, looking over the footage of your matches I honestly feel like you’ve still shown a decent enough of initiative in your matches! Are you sure you really don’t want to become battler?” I groaned. “Ok, what’s this about? I really wasn’t that good in that tournament!! I had like, what, one good performance against a furret? Even I know that’s not impressive! if this is about the prt, I already told you I don’t want to be involved, look-“ “I get that! I get that!” Rodri interrupted. “I don’t want to suggest you do any of those things, you’ve made it clear to me before, but still, most pokeumans would not even come close to putting as well of a fight as you did this new into the base, I just need you to know that you can be a battler if you ever so chose to, you’ve got potential, heck, you’ve even got a dimensional messenger!! Surely that’s got to mean something for you! Lex… look, we’re all pokemon here, most of us tend to have an aspect of our lives we gravitate towards naturally, and I need you to understand something about me; even before I became a quilladin, I always wanted to be someone strong that could help protect others, but I never found the opportunity, because I struggled fitting in and I was alone, but then, when I became a quilladin, this need, this desire to help others who need to be protected, it became impossible to contain, it was then when I discovered who I really was, I found myself much more active, much more social, and I enjoyed it! It wasn’t like when I was a human at all, and then I evolved, I evolved and I realised more than anything I wanted to help the prt rescue other pokeumans so that they could be able to find their place in the world just like I did right in this base! Because despite all our problems, I still think there’s something special about being a pokeuman, and I know you have it in you as well, toxtricity or not.” We stood quietly for a moment. “Speaking of, anything new from that dream messenger of yours?” I thought for a moment. “Well… he did say I could use training more.” “Then I don’t see why it’s a bad idea after all!” Rodri excitedly spoke. “Look, this was nice and all but… maybe it’s just too early to tell? I-I really don’t want to have to think about any of this nature stuff I just… I just want to be myself.” “I never doubted that for one moment Lex, just think about it ok? It was hard enough getting some free time to talk to you about this, but I’ll try to make this a regular appearance, mainly because I am obliged to keep in touch in regards to your dream messenger.” The chesnaught explained before he stood up and left, not before smiling brightly. “I wish you good luck Lex, see ya!” “Wait, what about the headmaster?!” The chesnaught stopped in their tracks. “Huh?” “Y-you said you’d try to tell Nacho about getting signed up to the tournament unwillingly, h-how did that go?” “Oh I knew I had forgotten something! Look Lex, I’m gonna have to be direct with you here it… didn’t really go well he er, said it “was a claim that was hard to prove.” And that “it was a trivial matter.” I looked down in disappointment. “Right, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.” “And see… between you and me… I don’t respect Nacho at all, he’s full of prejudgements that cloud his ability to run the base competently, arceus knows how he got selected as headmaster, but the important thing is that he won’t be kind to people like you, and I won’t lie, I’ve come to not trust him to keep a pokeuman like you safe so… take care, Lex.” And with that warning out of the way, Rodri finally left the cafeteria I took on that information quietly for a moment, this had been possibly the most open Rodri had ever been with me, and I knew understood his thought process more, still, something about everyone’s suggestions to keep training rubbed him the wrong way… didn’t Kalleq suggest he had used his ability in the tournament? Maybe he didn’t realise it? He hoped it would keep developing naturally, otherwise… he’d really hate to be proven wrong after so much defiance. From then on, life at the base would become pretty routinary, I would head to school in the week, luckily after the next two tournaments it seemed like most of my reputation vanished, including that of the new kid, and most people simply chose to keep to themselves as I once again became the quiet kid, only with a record, my situation with my roommates… didn’t improve, our arguments would only get more heated to the point we’d occasionally get kicked out of our dorms, Gael and I tried to find things to do but it became difficult so we’d often just wait by, I tried to stick alongside him as much as possible and he’d do the same, but I do have to admit that I on occasion took my neighbour’s offer to crash at their dorm, Raúl mostly stopped bothering me in electric class, but we’d occasionally partner up quietly, I even got to know Litleo somewhat, occasionally partnering up with assignments, he was very shy, but we surprisingly got along, I think of the three I understood him the most, I didn’t get to know Itzel as well, but I’d regular meet up with them during lunch, where they would chat and I would unwittingly eavesdrop on them learning some of their personal details, Raúl came from ecatepec (no surprises there), Itzel’s parents both came from mainland china, but she was born and lived her whole life in Mexico, she’s also really into anime it seems, and Litleo meanwhile mainly kept to himself, he did fully decide to change his name to Litleo, he didn’t seem too sold on it but he mentioned he was very uncomfortable with his original name, so well decided to respect it, in general he didn’t seem to be much comfortable with his past life as a human as he was expected to be the man of the house in his family. With Rodri, I would continue “bumping” into him (very quickly though we’d both realise he was doing this on purpose and dropped the act.) and he’d continue to inquire as to what I was doing, it was a bit annoying but, I can’t say that I didn’t miss his presence, he was the person who rescued me into the base and there was something so genuinely honest and caring about his smile, he stopped pressuring me about tournaments which was appreciated and when I brought up arguing with my roommates, he became concerned immediately and later I’d find out he had tried to get me to transfer out of my dorm and had an argument with the headmaster, but I decided against it, I didn’t want to abandon Gael after all, which he eventually, albeit a little reluctantly agreed to, he’d also continue to hand me those weird flavoured but delicious water bottles from time to time. I’d continue meeting up with Kalleq, at first he was a little disappointed I didn’t seem to manifest my powers again, but he’d continue showing me around the dream dimension, he started showing me various different landscapes from what he claimed was the pokemon world, preserved in the dream dimension, some reminded me a lot of real world locations, I got to see the northern lights at some point and it was magical. Days would pass and I would grow accustomed to how life worked at the base, I got to see how festivities and special events worked around the base as the months passed, Halloween wasn’t very eventful, it isn’t exactly much of a big tradition here especially now that the whole point of dressing up as something you aren’t loses some weight when you aren’t a boring human, however day of the dead was different, the whole base the days prior was decked to the brim with paper decorations, cempasúchil covered the edges of the floors and walls, there was a vendor that walked through the halls giving out “pan de Muerto” for several days (which was delicious) and most importantly of all there was one giant altar in the main hall of the base, people came all over to pay their respects to all the various people they lost, it wasn’t just dead pokeumans though, a space on the altar was reserved to those pokéumans taken and brainwashed by pokextinction whom we couldn’t save in time, I couldn’t help but remember Alan, Lázaro and Yulian, the pokemon that accompanied me when I transformed, I realised the day was for them too, only their spirits weren’t able to accompany us as opposed to those that had died, so if anyone ever were to argue that lack of free will is preferable to death, I’d slap them in the face. Still, it was a bittersweet celebration, despite the negative context I couldn’t help myself but be taken in by the music and the gorgeous atmosphere, Aldo Ledesma, the announcer from the tournament also performed a gorgeous ballad in the middle of a kiosk located at the centre of the big plaza, all while the ceiling lit up in a way I couldn’t figure out simulating a beautiful, clear, starry night, I sat on the floor alongside Gael and we both took in our experiences as a Pokéuman, at the end of it all day of the dead was a big party and just because we were in the middle of a war, constantly experiencing casualties and loss, didn’t mean that we didn’t get to be happy, to be alive, plus the food that day was amazing, Gael even commented that I was starting to put on pounds. “Dude, I’m not making fun of you, but pokemon tend to have stronger metabolisms than humans, putting on pounds is significantly harder unless your species is already of a larger weight.” “A-ah shut up.” I called out in embarrassing. “I mean you don’t look… bad, just it’s a bit admirable in a curious way.” The next holiday I would get to discover as a pokéuman would be the Mexican revolution, only I would come to find out that the celebration had a different meaning to the pokéuman base: Gael and I had been discussing what to do with our holiday, Demian and Dylan seemed to have plans that probably involved going to the common floor to harass people and so we stood there figuring out how to make use of our miraculous time entirely for ourselves, that was then when an announcement rang throughout the base. “Attention pokéumans, for those who wish to attend the official celebrations for revolution and foundation day, the events will start soon at the auditorium, please enter at 2:30pm” “What’s that all about? Why is revolution day treated as a big deal like it was independence day?” I turned to Gael, who had become much more comfortable in his hybrid-like appearance and even chose to keep the piercings (though he got ones that looked less like tags). “Well because in a way this is our independence day, pokéumans came to be around the same time as the mexican revolution started since both were in 1910, but this base formed shortly after the revolution and is actually one of the oldest bases in the world! There’s a whole legend about one specific figure, you recall that hawlucha that was in the headmaster’s door?” I nodded, Gael grinned excitedly, clearly talking about something that properly interested him for once. “Well, he’s sort of seen as the main founder of the base, he’s known as “El noble de milpa alta.” (The noble of milpa alta) it was said that he was one of the many pokéumans to transform during the first wave, although some historians debate that and claim he came from some of the later ways, but regardless, his human name has been lost to time, but he chose to go by his species and by a wrestler-like alias, it is believed that he was the first person to round up other pokeumans and directly fought back against the growing pokextinction organization in Mexico, in fact.” Gael suddenly hopped from his bed, gliding briefly across the floor before grabbing a book hidden that was hastily left under the bed, on the cover was an artistic rendition of presumably the same hawlucha we are talking about, only he didn’t look like a normal hawlucha, he was slightly bigger and bulkier, had more feathers, but most of all wore an impressive, shimmering, black and gold mask that covered even his shoulders and chest, it was a majestic sight and I was awestruck. Gael looked over my shoulder with a big grin. “I know, right? Well, as I was saying, according to this and several other writings we have of the events that lead to the foundation of our base, it is said that he eventually headed to Japan and worked closely with the pokeuman organization headquarters, which definitely means he had to have gotten in contact with mew, although we don’t know much about his personal life, we owe everything here to him.” “Woah…” I exclaimed, amazed and with a large smile of my own. “that’s so cool!!! Hawlucha is actually my third favourite pokemon.” “Yeah, hawlucha is a great pokemon, I’d say I would’ve love to be one but I’m happy as a gliscor.” “You’d rather burrow yourself in sand than be a big cool luchador?” I stated jokingly “Hey I’m not the one drinking stagnated water!” Gael rebutted, I was confused, however. “What?! Ew!!! I’ve never done that?!!!” “Oh really? Then what were in all those water bottles you keep drinking?” “That was… that… oh… oh arceus no…” “Wait you didn’t know?!!” “I…” I was startled, speechless, unable to speak, wait those are the same thing. “…They do taste pretty good.” Gael just laughed. “Well, it’s normal and even healthy for you according to the pokedex.” “Really?” I asked slightly incredulously, he merely nodded. The next major holiday I got to experience was Christmas, which was a bit more mixed, not because of the experience itself, it just wasn’t a holiday that was that important to me and Gael, before the day actually came the base did something interesting by having it snow through most of December using the help of the base’s ice types, this was amazing for those of us who were new as we never really got to experience snow in our lives at all! It was… alright, I mean it never got too difficult to deal with anyway, there was also a giant tree covered with pokemon themed decorations and several gifts, in the last day of the school year we had a gift exchange, both for our regular class and our battle class, I was unfortunate enough to get Raúl for the battle class exchange so I had to ask Itzel and Litleo what I should get for the slightly translucent eel, it turned out to not be as complicated as I originally thought as I really just needed to find him some trading cards for a game I didn’t recognize, as for what I asked for the exchange, I just asked for replacement school supplies as I was never good at keeping them for more than a few months without losing them. During December, I had tried to sneak away from my other roommates, who seemed to be particularly insistent that very day, to watch the junior Eurovision song contest of 2022 live, since I didn’t have the privacy to do it at my dorm I tried to head to one of the computers at the library, borrowing some headphones so I wouldn’t distract anyone who was actually there to study, especially since I knew I would be there for a few hours, I had gotten into the event earlier in the year and had been following most of the season, but then a little something called turning into a pokéuman and ending up living in a hidden underground civilization with crappy roommates ended up kinda taking my attention away from the event, but I was still determined to finally watch it live, I had followed most of the songs already with my money being on Portugal and the UK though I was saddened by the fact I was likely unable to vote given our circumstances as- “Lex? What are you doing here?” Came from the voice of the only one of my roommates who didn’t make my life hell, Gael, who startled me and, had it not been for the fact I was in a library I would’ve let out a scream. “U-uh I was just watching stuff, there was this one thing I was planning on watching today a-and I needed to get away from Demian for a few hours.” “Really? What are you watching?” He asked in curiosity as he turned to look at my monitor, which was currently in the middle of Portugal’s performance. “Cool, is that a kid?” “O-oh yeah it’s the junior version of the Eurovision thing I talk to you about, it’s p-pretty cool they’ve got unique songs even if definitely for kids though I guess I am technically on the age range for it still but u-uh well it’s very niche and all-“ “Can I watch?” Gael asked, taking me by surprise. “O-o-oh, w-well sure I-I don’t know if it’s y-your thing b-b-b-but sure” Since I was wearing string headphones I merely gave the one in my other ear (don’t ask how it works for my horns I barely know myself, at the very least I can’t produce ear wax anymore) for him to put on his ear.” “So what country is next?” “Serbia, actually, they’re one of my favourites, it’s a slower song but I do like the melody and her voice i-it’s very sweet, unfortunately she got sick so this is a rehearsal but I hope it’s still going to sound good. I didn’t notice it myself as the song began, mainly because I was likewise captivated, but Gael had been taken in by the performance immediately, when I looked over at him he has sparks in his eyes like it was magic, from the beginning with the slow music-box style tune, to the first instrumental break with the strings speeding up the pace of the song and featuring a ballet dancer, then through the second instrumental with the trombone, and then through the end of the song, we both connected to the singer’s sweet vocals for the three minutes she got to sing, we didn’t know a lick of Serbian, but we were pretty sure we understood the message of the song after that, Armenia and Ukraine came later, and though we had an appreciation for the Ukrainian message of hope and strength during a war, something we could relate to very as pokéumans, none of the songs, even in the recap resonated with us as much as the melancholic Serbian ballet did. By the end of the year Gael and I were looking forward to the next editions of the adult and junior contest, together. The day before Christmas, or “Nochebuena” As it’s known over here had a lot of events prepared, a tv speech, some festivities and events, but the only truly important part for me was the main dinner, a HUGE, delicious meal where every pokéuman that was currently at the base, because of course, nurses and those stationed outside the base were unable to join in, were all in the cafeteria, from civilians to the PRT, I sat in a corner with Gael and the more reluctant Demian and Dylan, but I was able to spot and wave towards our neighbours and Rodri, separately, mouthing merry Christmas at them, a gesture they shared back and I was able to understand now that I got used to all the bodily quirks of pokéumans after all this time, the cooks were cooking frantically constantly adding new dishes, complements and desserts to the table, almost all of it was too delicious for anyone to leave unfinished, pretty much no food ended up wasted that day, my favourite of them all? Definitely the flan. New year’s had probably been the most surreal holiday of the bunch, with 2023 on the loom, there wasn’t much to for most of the day however they did announce that curfew would be extended all the way till 2am to celebrate the passing of the year, some people went to the main hall to celebrate, but most of us stayed in our dorms and watched the countdown on tv, which included me, Gael, and weirdly enough Demian and Dylan, and that’s what made it surreal, all four of us were hanging out in the couch, telling jokes and laughing along like we actually got along with each other, though I think it was mainly due to the fact that the dark types were absolutely HAMMERED with alcohol they definitely didn’t have legal access to, but there really wasn’t much we could do about it. I yawned as I sat alongside Gael, since his species was more nocturnal he was nowhere near as tired as I was so by the time the countdown ended I was leaning on his shoulder pretty much about to faint like I had lost another tournament, my final thoughts of 2022 were that, things may have changed a lot, and though at first I thought I would’ve just had to deal with high school and a post pandemic world and not a secret war between creatures of myth I was suddenly a part of, I was glad I at the very least had someone like the gliscor to live this wild adventure alongside with. I woke up the next year with little energy, though I wasn’t as bad as the pair of hungover dark types, Gael had been resting though clearly more due to his nocturnal tendencies than anything, I walked over to the bathroom to freshen up and check myself on the mirror, Gael was right, I was definitely putting up pounds yet something about it felt natural, as I splashed some water on my face I was greeted by a new sight on my amphibian chin. A small tuft of fur, half black and half white, seemingly grew overnight.play_arrowPokéumans: re-lived part 1 "From parallel worlds" Chapter 8 "The inevitable tournament episode"“Lex, you are a dream manifester.” An awkward silence followed the revelation, with neither of us being sure how to continue. “So… what does that mean?” I asked. Kalleq continued. “Right, of course to you this means nothing without an explanation, alas it is a complex subject, it’ll definitely take multiple dreams to explain fully.” “Oh…” I exclaimed, disappointed. “Is there a problem, Lex?” Kalleq asked. I let out a defeated groan. “It’s just… I’m just so tired of never understanding anything about myself, this is what? The billionth time I’ve been told I have some condition thing that no one bothers to properly explain to me what it even is!!!” “Patience young pokéuman, I see that your frustrations are valid though, I promise that I will do my best for this to go differently from all those previous experiences, and, while I won’t get to go into all the details right now, we can still start.” ahem . “So, you remember what I had told you about the dream dimension?” I nodded, intrigued yet cautious. “Well, as I had told you, all pokémon draw their power from it, moves, abilities, everything that you could think of, which, in the most literal of terms means everyone is a dream manifester in some form or another, of course this isn’t what we’re referring to when people use the term “dream manifester”, tell me, young pokéuman, remember the wishing stars from generation 9?” “The weird meteorite things that gave you dynamaxing energy?” I replied. “Yeah, but what does that have to do with the dream dimension?” The shiny tox continued, “Of course, it’s hard to draw the connection with what the games provided, however do you ever wondered why they’re called wishing stars? Well, it was said in my time that the powerful surge of dynamax energy was so great it could grant your heart’s desire, which wasn’t too far removed from the truth, you see, while to the average pokeuman dynamax only cause a boost in their physical powers and abilities, hence the growth in size, when the energy was first discovered it was essentially a surge of wild and rampant energy, energy that seemed to be specifically linked to willpower and desire from a “leakage” of the dream dimension, and so the pokémon who needed to contain and harness it, got the legendaries, you can assume which specifically, to give certain pokemon the ability to harness the “desiral” energy from the dream dimension that was linked with what would go on to become dynamax energy.” This ability to harness dynamax came with side effects though, suddenly these special pokemon found their natural abilities would grow stronger according to the specific needs of themselves or others, like a genie, but only limited to what they were able to already do, for example if a pokemon needed a specific type of water, like say ocean water, a water type pokemon with this power could produce it, this gave them the reputation of wish granters, though as time went on and your ability became more clear and defined it became less impressive, downgrading from wish granting to dream manifesting, which is close enough.” I was about to ask several questions, but once again I could feel myself starting to wake up at the worst time possible “I will continue to explain these next few days young pokéuman, I promise to you I’ll make sure that you understand the situation you find yourself in eventually… just remain patient, and as a favour, try not to tell anyone.” “You better…” I said, before nodding. And then everything got bright… I woke up yet again to loud music I was hardly fond of blasting across the room, as the first weekend of my life as a pokéuman, I would’ve liked to have had the time to reflect on all of the insane changes that my life has gone through on such a short span, only two weeks ago I was an average, unskilled and unimportant kid and now I’m a creature from the biggest media franchise in the world. Unfortunately, due to both the rigid schedule of my “new home”, and my purposefully upsetting choice of roommates, I did not have the time to properly dwell on these thoughts as I was almost practically forced into keeping up with the routine by a crazed obstagoon who seemed to almost enjoy making me suffer in the slightest way possible, but it at the very least seemed like the lessons from the previous days have stuck as he left me alone slightly more than usual, not without some threatening glares of course. The four of us misfits walked towards the cafeteria, Demian and Dylan in front, occasionally intentionally shoving or tormenting passing pokéumans, while Gael and I were at the back trying not to draw attention to ourselves and communicating through sticky notes, with Gael occasionally scaring off passing humans to keep up with the other two. I couldn’t help but notice that he always pushed me aside and extended his wings in front of me whenever he did though, so I asked in a sticky note: “- Hey so like are u trying to draw attention away from me or smth?” “- A little bit.” “- You’re doing a lot for me, y?” “Cuz it’s clear you’ve gone thru a lot.” I guess I should give back the favour at some point, he’s being too nice to me. I thought to myself. “- Well, I appreciate it a lot, but u rlly are doing too much for me lol.” “- Eh, its whatever really, just glad I’m no longer just stuck with these idiots, I think demian had something planned for today so you wanna go hang out in the common area or like watch smth in the dorm?” “- sure, whichever u want tbh.” With that we finished talking and enjoyed our breakfast, we once again sat in a corner with a bunch of other dark and poison type mons who interacted a lot with dylan and demian, gael and I mostly just stayed stoic and didn’t draw attention to ourselves, I had gotten fried eggs over tortillas with ketchup and a side of refried beans, gael meanwhile got scrambled eggs with hot sauce and veggies. …these were still chicken eggs right? After coming back to our dorms and an uneventful period of us not doing much with a lot of tension in the air due to the new awkward dynamic of the four of us, eventually Demian and Dylan would go on to leave us alone inside the dorm, we chatted for a bit and we considered watching something on tv but we found ourselves with a lot of social energy, possibly from the past few days of just talking and talking about our interests so passionately, so eventually not being one to abandon plans I decided to ask him to show me the common floor, which he gladly accepted to do. “I’d like to be that person who shows you around the whole base, or at least what’s allowed, but I don’t really tend to go many places myself, I mainly just go to the arcade to get videogames and occasionally other stores for treats.” Gael explained as he glided across the halls, we had at first walked leisurely but eventually our excitement got the better of us and I started having to run to catch up with him across the paths. pant pant “What areas are we not allowed to go to?” I asked, my curiosity spiking. “The poison gym already felt like an unauthorized zone already, what could be worse?” “No, it’s not forbidden because of that, it’s basically just large storage areas that keep all our materials we obtain and you have to work there to be able to enter there, basically anything that would already need security in the real world, this is like a city after all, sure it’s a little different but we still have to rely on making sure everything is running smoothly, we do get to save on producing energy and a lot of prime materials though so that’s a plus.” Gael continued as we turned in different directions. “Slow down a little!” I said half-jokingly, in truth it wasn’t horrible to be going in such a fast pace, just because I’m not active doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy going on a run, but obviously keeping up with a creature that can glide around in the wind isn’t terribly enjoyable. “A-and how does work uh… work here exactly? Is everyone assigned a role based on our species?” I then asked, Gael seemed to slow down somewhat to think about the answer, which helped me catch up. “Well… there’s no real currency here, just kind of a general level of trust, most shop owners here are given basic general records of all the pokeumans registered here, nothing too intrusive as far as I know though I can’t say I fully trust it given our headmaster.” Gael elaborated with a lamenting tone. “Yeah…” I shrugged. “He wasn’t exactly great when I met him.” “He’s not the only one…” Gael continued, “But, regardless, since there is no currency, jobs here are essentially volunteer work based on abilities, skill, and more than anything passion, or just interest, it all works surprisingly efficiently all things considered, you’ll also notice that a lot of the people working these kinds of jobs are either not much older than us and barely in their 20s, or the few people in the base who are fully over 30, doing things that they lost their chance to do as humans, this is usually as people in the middle tend to be in the prt but luckily for both of us it isn’t obligatory.” He smiled with his comforting toothy grin. “I’d like to continue playing videogames competitively, maybe take a job as a maths teacher too, who knows.” I couldn’t help but smile back, though much less noticeably, and nod in agreement. “Yeah, me too, even as a human I always knew I had teaching English as a safe job to always fall back on” “You seriously gotta help me with English, Lex.” We continued talking, eventually made it once again to the main hall, I won’t bore you with the details of explaining it again but it’ll be impossible to give it justice, since it was a Saturday there was this tianguis going on, which for those who aren’t Mexican is kinda like a bazar or a market that’s set out in the open usually on the weekend and they sell pretty much everything fairly cheaply, though I think in here they just had them showing off personal creations and giving them away purely through bargains and trades, the variety of pokemon all walking and going on their days like could also not be understated, from a swanna haggling a golisopod to a group of an ursaring a comfey and a magneton chatting while chowing down on some tacos and other street food, everyone was talking about different things “You should totally break up with him he’s not good for you-“ “You’re not participating in the tournament tomorrow?-” “This isn’t water you produced, right?-” “Nah, I’m too exhausted but I’m definitely gonna watch it-” “Can’t wait for them to reveal who’s participating in the tournament!!-” “I wish I was a fire type so I could make glass this good-.” it was magical in how mundane it all was. Eventually we made it to another section that had various little businesses and shops, like a mall in a way and we made it to the arcade, which also seemed to double as somewhat of a videogame library where people would pick up copies and return them once they were done with it, Gael talked to me about some of his favourite video games, even giving me a few recommendations especially after I mentioned I had a steam account that I only really used to play undertale, we checked a few of the actual arcades present, stayed there for a bit and then just kinda walked around to see what we could find, we went to a candy store, came across an accessory store, even though we don’t wear clothes it does seem like there’s a lot of pokemon who choose to still have something to set them apart, dyes, jewlery, hats, etc. were all decently commonplace in the pokemon we came across, at some point we both stopped chatting due to tiredness but we didn’t really notice as we were simply content being with each other, I did find out Gael’s species is nocturnal yet he prefers being active during the day, a weird oddity he has that he couldn’t explain well, but in his case it could’ve helped the tiredness. We passed near the showers and bathrooms, where I learned about the sand showers ground types used and lava showers, gael excused himself and told me he wanted to take a brief wash, and adviced to not follow given... yeah, I could probably get one shot by a grain of sand, so I waited outside with my own thoughts circling back to my dream messenger’s words. “I’m a dream manifester… apparently.” “Hey Lex! Didn’t think I would see you again so soon!” Came from a familiar, jovial voice that I immediately recognized and could feel myself relax with. “Oh, hey Rodri! Why are you in the common area?” I asked, getting reintroductions done with. “Oh, just trying to get a gift for someone, don’t worry about it too much buuuut since we’re both here we could talk, I really hope things haven’t been bothering you too much, you seem to be enjoying pokeuman life all things considered.” “Y-yeah, I manage.” I was very close to telling him about all the fun I was having with Gael despite it all and everything I had learned from Kalleq but decided against it, neither would’ve liked it… but it was starting to prove too much for me to keep to myself. surely Rodri is trustworthy enough for me to tell him something “W-w-well, there is one thing I forgot to mention from yesterday about the unusual stuff… thing…” I gulped nervously, not even being able to look in his direction before continuing, not allowing him to inquire further before I was finished. “I have a… dream messenger um… I’m not sure if you recognize what that is.” I answered, only to be met by a sudden chuckle. “Oh! That makes sense, I already kinda had a feeling.” Said Rodri. “W-huh?!” “Of course I know what dream messengers are!! They’re fairly common nowadays!! Heck, a pal back at the prt had one, y’ remember the talonflame that tried to rescue you? Yeah, Angel had a bit of a heart attack when he had to deal with that on top of turning into a bird!” Rodri laughed, I was perplexed, however. “W-wait, they’re common? How come I’ve not heard about them at all then!! Shouldn’t I be warned?!” “Well, we can’t really do anything to study or stop them, they sometimes show up, talk to one person and suddenly, boom! They end up getting involved in an important event, always to the benefit of pokeumans so they’ve definitely become trustworthy enough not to worry about them, they usually just give out basic guidance and warnings though it seems…” Rodri suddenly thought for a moment, shifting tone to a more curious one “Lex, from the moment I saw you in pke’s chambers I knew there was something special about you, and if you have a dream messenger then it only proves my theory further because you see, according to prt records back when dream messengers were a lot more unheard of, pokeumans meeting one was because they were usually the holder of a special power all the way from the time of the pokemon world.” I jumped internally, he’s this close to figuring it out. “Of course, it has been a long, LONG time since we’ve heard any records of a pokeuman with special powers, but… like I said, I KNOW there’s something different about you Lex, do you have a special power?” Rodri inquired. I wasn’t sure how to react, and I immediately felt like I told him too much, he seemed to take the facts I was a dream messenger well but… should I trust him about my dream manifester status as well? Kalleq wouldn’t want me to… and it’s not like Gael would think any differently if he himself knew. “No. I do not.” I answered, gritting my teeth in fear. “Will… will you tell the prt?” I asked, my arms were shaking at this point and though I wouldn’t notice it my mohawk was flaring up and letting out sparks everywhere, I was expecting the worst and for Rodri to tell me that he understood but had to tell the prt because of his responsibility even though he swore he didn’t want to and- “I’ll see what I can do.” Rodri answered in a serious and formal tone. “T-thanks.” I said. Rodri smiled softly, “Look, we’ll figure it out as it goes along… oh! Right, I almost forgot, nurse Angelina wanted you to have more of this.” He then said, before handing me another bottle that I immediately recognised as the drink they gave me while at the prt hospital, unfortunately, it came with a fully unlabeled plastic bottle, it looked almost like apple-flavoured cola (those who get it get it) I almost immediately chugged it down and finished it. “Well, I better get going, remember Lex, stay strong and I’ll try to help if you need it.” Rodri said, back to his normal approachable demeanour before walking to an accessory shop, around the same time Gael left the showers. “Was that Rodri?” He asked. “Yeah, but he didn’t do much.” I replied, hopefully trying to defuse any tension “Guh, he’s way too close to the headmaster for my liking.” Gael said as he shook of a little bit of the dust he still had left. I don’t think that sounds right for hi- My train of thought was interrumpted as I felt the warm particles of sand hitting me. “OW!! OW!! GOD- ARCEUS, WATCH IT!!!!” “Oh crap I’m sorry I’m sorry it’s just I’m not used to coming here with someone… let alone someone four times weak to ground.” I was furious, but I merely sighed in irritation. “Look it’s fine just… yeah really be careful next time, I’m gonna take a shower myself, I can do that right? Washing off dirtiness isn’t gonna make me feel sick because I need to be around garbage or whatever?” I asked, trying to not think about any of what had just transpired. Gael shrugged. “As far as I know, it’s just water and you’ll be fine, plus you’re part electric type, you’re not made out of grime or rubbish like a muk or a garbodor.” “Somehow that sounds like it should be offensive.” I commented before shrugging off myself and heading to the showers, and yep, they were perfectly normal showers, I headed into one and showered, yup, showers, for showering, showers. As I felt the water and soap wash over me, I couldn’t help but sing to myself as the songs I listen to that I often have stuck in my head somehow sounded a lot clearer than usual, more than the conversations happening in real life, again, almost like I was wearing headphones, that didn’t mean I didn’t catch some of the murmurs thrown around though. “You really think Miguel isn’t winning this tournament?” Came from an indescribable voice (all of them male because well, yeah.)“Look, I’m sorry but a year-long streak is too ridiculous for it to continue this long, I get that he’s becoming this base’s hero and he’s super badass and shit but he has to lose at some point, hell, we don’t even know who’s in the tournament yet!” Hmmm… they sure are mentioning this tournament a lot, first Rodri now... everyone? I thought to myself as I dried myself off, interestingly, it was here that I finally noticed that I can turn my mohawk off as I hit a bald spot while drying my head, guess that’s how I’m able to sleep without electrocuting anyone. I met back with Gael, who was sitting beside a piercings and tattoos store, we noticed each other and started to walk back to our dorms, eventually striking conversations again. “Where are demian and dylan anyway?” I asked, curious as to why we are allowed this much freedom. “I don’t really want to know but…” Gael continued. “Do you know why I wanted to show you around today? It’s a pre-tournament Saturday and so with the hype there are a lot of people preparing themselves to watch in on Sunday so they want to take care of as much as possible today, so a lot of businesses are active including Demian who I am not involved with, but I am aware of having some… shady deals.” The gliscor explained, I immediately caught what he meant. “Seriously? Even here? I guess I wouldn’t be made fun of for my surname if we didn’t.” I sighed and decided to switch topic. “Wait actually I’ve been hearing a lot about this tournament and what’s all that about? Is it like a sports thing or whatever and are there famous athletes that do pokemon battles?” “No actually.” Gael explained, “pretty much anyone can sign up but the reputation of the tough fights and the thrill of battle is what scares away total newbies from it, plus some people don’t make it even if they sign up, they’re actually about to announce the participants in like a few minutes or so.” “Right.” We cut our conversation short as we had arrived at our dorm and Demian had returned from whatever shit he was doing, Dylan wasn’t here though which was odd, neither of us bothered each other as shortly after we entered an announcement from headmaster Nacho himself suddenly blared. “Good afternoon pokéumans of the desert of the lions base, I shall now announce the accepted participants of our bi-weekly tournament of the 23rd of October 2022, first off is America Navarro the Vibrava. “Yo Gael ain’t her the hot chick who humiliated you in your ground type class?” Demian chuckled. “Shut up!” Calmly replied Gael, keeping up his facade though I could tell it had been a struggle this time. “Miguel Resendiz the Lucario,” continued the announcement. “Boooooo, who wants to see an overgrown dog beat up everyone for 20th time this year!!!” Shouted Demian as he took a swig of a coke bottle. That name rang a bell, I suddenly found myself reminded of the conversation, so this Lucario guy is a big deal? Typical… “Mateo Tenorio the Furret, Chucho Aparicio the Archen, Lex Mota the low-key Toxtricity.” “WHAT!!!” I jumped. “HUH??!?!?!” Gael shouted as he glided into the air in surprised Demian spat out his drink. “NO FUCKING WAY!!!!!! No no no I knew you were dumb but this dumb?!?!?! BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!” The obstagoon started laughing louder than a loudred like a maniac, drowning all the rest of the names announced. “Why did you sign up for the tournament?!!” Gael shouted at me. “I-I didn’t!!! I literally just found out about it today I swear!” I replied, adrenaline and confusion at max. “I-i-i…” Gael turned his head over to the hysteric obstagoon “Demian! Did you sign him into the tournament?!” “I wish I had!!” Laughed Demian. “Oh, Lex this is why you don’t cross me, you’re about to get what you deserve, ooh- imagine if they put you against that blue mutt it’s gonna be hilarious!” Gael and I looked at each other in worry, him briefly dropping the act, before we could add anything more we were suddenly interrupted by a knock to our door, all three of us rushed to open it with me surprisingly being able to squeeze to the front only to be greeted by the floating grin of- “Wassup Lex!! You’re entering the tournament too? Bro that’s pretty cocky for a newbie who sucks at charging your moves and can’t even- PHHMPH” a brown furred paw covered his mouth before he could continue. “Raúl!!” Screamed Itzel the tatsugiri as Litleo restrained Raúl who was desperately trying to break free. “Ugh, sorry Lex, we tried to stop him but-“ “HEY!!” Shouted Demian. “Get away from our fucking room, NOW!!!” the trio of pokemon ran back to their room but not before giving Demian a dirty look. Demian shut the door and turned his head with a murder-crazed grin towards me “You are going to be so dead tomorrow.” I looked at him in horror, I turned to Gael, not knowing what to do. “Well, I’m gonna go tell Dylan about this, Gael, you’re in charge of Lex for the moment.” The obstagoon said before leaving the dorm with a chuckle. “I-I can’t withdraw can i? not when the headmaster is involved…” “No, I don’t think you can, Nacho would never let you, if anything he’d probably take as much glee from it as Demian.” “Is he really that bad?” for some reason despite me not having any reason to disbelieve Gael I still found myself incredulous. “Maybe, I just really don’t like the guy, he hates any pokemon that looks dangerous and if he could he’d just let pokextinction deal with us, I remember I almost made it to the pokextinction base before I got rescued and I didn’t even get a full party…” “Yeah… things went hard for me as well, but I’d rather not talk about it.” I remembered how Alan never got rescued and well, he was turning into a dark type, he was also slightly older than everyone else in the facility. “It’s fine.” Said Gael somberly. “I’m starting to get sick of Demian, I know he’s the one who signed you up to this tournament to humiliate you and it’s just- GUH.” Gael hissed, literally, he hissed like a bug before catching himself. “Sorry, that was my pokemon side talking” “It’s fine, that’s probably normal for us now.” I said, letting Gael know I didn’t have a problem with that behaviour “I… don’t see why Demian would deny doing it though?” “Then Dylan probably did it for Demian, that stupid goblin, I don’t even know anything about him!!! He’s basically nothing more than Demian’s yes man I don’t even think he has a brain!! I’m just… I’m tired… I finally get along with someone normal and now he’s going to ruin your life, and probably mine right after because I just can’t take it anymore…” I approached my hand into his shoulder. “Do you wanna talk? I mean, I never planned on being viewed positively anyway so, who cares if some random toxtricity enters a tournament once and loses first round? And if things go better then great, it’s unlikely but we might as well y’know.” I spoke, smiling at him awkwardly. “You have a point.” Gael smiled back. “Again, sorry, it’s just been difficult, but if you’re gonna have no choice there I better try and help as much as I can.” “Right… so what exactly do you know about the tournament?” I asked. “Well, it has 4 rounds, round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final, no matter how far you go you’re pretty much gonna lose the moment you fight Miguel the Lucario.” Gael explained “Is he really that strong? I overheard people talk about him a lot with really big claims.” Gael rolled his eyes. “Partly, he has won basically every tournament since he arrived earlier in the year, he’s got pretty much everyone kissing his feet and is treated like he’ll be the upcoming legend from the base of this generation though I think partly it’s because lucarios tend to be held on high regard due to many rumours regarding them, people keep treating them like they’re super rare even though like an eight of the base is Lucario.” “Huh… you’re right.” I found myself back to the times I’ve been outside the base with other pokemon, because while I mainly focused on the diverse amounts of species, on the back of my mind I did notice a lot of lucarios, there were male lucarios, female lucarios, shiny lucarios, oddly coloured lucarios, lucarios galore! “Still, no chance if you get him, it might honestly help you gain some sympathy if you end up facing him, hmmm, there are 16 participants, it’s all knockout rounds, unfortunately I couldn’t quite get all of them in the announcement… we’ll have to see tomorrow though I do have to ask one thing Lex.” “Huh?” “What’s with that eelektrik guy, he said he was also competing in the tournament, do you know him?” Gael asked curiously, by this point we were both sitting on the couch with gael swinging his tail around as it hovered near the floor. “He tries to talk to me during electric battle class but I-I really don’t care, apparently he’s our front door neighbour or whatever.” “Hmmm, could give you an advantage if you faced him since you’d likely be more familiar with his moves, your best bet could be facing a grass type, your worst bet besides mr. legend over here and I can fully witness to this, is America, you DON’T want to face her.” Gael elaborated, snapping his claw to emphasize his point. “Is she gonna shake off a sand bath harder?” I quipped. “Hey, I said sorry!” Gael and I laughed, it was a little jarring how one moment ago we were all so frustrated but, while I usually struggle going from one mood to another, in this case I didn’t feel uncomfortable, it was nice that we were able to lift each other up and I liked his company. The rest of the day passed, we had lunch and a light dinner cuz of the tournament and I went to bed thinking about all I’d gone through today. **I have a special power… maybe it’ll help me with the tournament? Rodri said dream messengers provide guidance so maybe Kalleq can help me with this, maybe this is what was meant to happen... ** “What seems to be troubling you young pokéuman?” I was back at the dream dimension, once again in that ethereal seemingly endless field landscape with my dream messenger standing in front of me. “Just… a lot of things happened today, and I think I might need your help with them, I found out some… interesting things.” I replied. “You see… I think you already know that I live with a bunch of bullies, and I believe one of them has signed me up to a tournament against my will and since I can’t really withdraw I was wondering...” “About your special powers?” “Yeah, actually, I-I told someone in the prt about our conversations and he told me dream messengers are apparently very common… I-I didn’t tell him about my powers though!!” I stated once I noticed kalleq’s surprised and worried expression as I explained. “H-he promised me he wouldn’t tell anyone, I hope.” “It’s understandable, a shame but within reason, and he’s not wrong, dream messengers have become somewhat of a casualty these days, of course, your powers do make our situation more special than that…” The shiny toxtrcity seemed to think for a moment. “I think you did well in confiding this with me, I can sense that you’re not a battler but luckily for you dream manifestation can help you during it, after all it’s little more than an enhancement to your normal abilities as is.” “Right, right, but I don’t even know how to channel this ability, I struggle with my own moves as is!” “Well, I don’t think I can promise to train you to a fully experienced fighter in just one night, especially with how short these dreams are, but I can give you one very important tip.” Kalleq said, I tilted my head in curiosity. “At the end of the day, your ability is all about desire, it’s about willpower and a need to fulfil something in specific, I can advice you to focus headfirst on every attack you want to pull off and not into something more abstract like just winning, probably try to strategize and figure out what you need the most for each battle.” He added. “Right, that… that just sounds like general battle strategy though.” I mentioned incredulously. Kalleq looked apologetic. “Right, right, it’s the best we can do under the circumstances, however it should still help you with your moves regardless, but if you want help with your powers specifically, I’d say pay attention to your hands.” I tilted my head again but eventually decided to turn my face at the palm of my hands, I could barely make out a blur before suddenly I was flashed by a bright white light waking me up. The next day started a bit differently from our usual routine, instead of being woken up by loud trashy music I was gently woken up by…. Demian? “Wake up sleepyhead, people are looking for you.” He said with a grin, Gael standing beside him with an unreadable expression. The door knocked and so I stood up, groggily, tried to make myself presentable as quickly as possible (the shower yesterday helped though) and opened the door to find a monferno and a watchog in front, tasked with leading me to train for the tournament, only I was allowed to go so I bid farewell to Gael and the others so they wouldn’t suspect anything. The duo of pokemon led me through a couple of hallways and stairs before eventually letting me inside a secretive door on the opposite end of the stadium room. Inside I found myself in a small training gym with all 16 participants chatting alongside each other, including… “Yoooo it’s Lex!!! About time he got here!” Came in from the voice I now found irritating of Raúl the eelektrik, immediately after everyone else started talking and mumbling with each other. “Is that the newbie?” “Has he even had a battle before?” “How long has he been in here?” “I’m from the prt I don’t even recall what search party got him.” It was uncomfortable, as I walked the whole way through the entrance eventually making it to a bench, everyone had stopped dead in their tracks to glare at me, in indescribable ways, aside from one who glared at me in a seemingly much more amicable, yet for different reasons terrifying manner. “Wassup man, I had no idea you’d enter a tournament this early?” said Raúl “Shut up, I was signed up here against my will.” I groaned, not wanting to keep up a conversation in this tense ambience. “Dude, relax, it’s my first tournament too, they wouldn’t have let you in anyway if you didn’t have a shot after all.” I rolled my eyes. “I can’t imagine why they’d do that otherwise.” I replied sarcastically. I sat down for a moment, until a sudden burst of fire buzzed right past me, or rather, one singular burst, one that looked almost like a bird of some kind, a pokemon? The bird flew for a bit, even startling Raúl before suddenly cycling back and landing on a new figure, a red and white crocodile with a face that looked like a skull and sparks of fire dripping from his mouth like saliva, it reminded me a lot of day of the dead for some reason. “Greetings, participating pokéumans.” the newcomer said. “The name’s Aldo Ledesma the Skeledirge as most of you will know already and I will be the announcer for today’s tournament! I’m happy to say I can finally reveal the full tournament bracket so you can see which of you will be facing who!” with that the bird, who I still couldn’t tell if it was its own pokemon or not suddenly pulled over a whiteboard which showed the details of every single round, practically every pokéuman here jumped and started shoving each other to get a close view of who would face who. I waited until the commotion calmed down to see myself. “First round: Lex Mota the Toxtricity vs Mateo Tenorio the Furret” FIRST ROUND!? My humiliation in front of arceus knows how many people will be the opener of the tournament??? I stared at the board in shock “Hey do you think we’re gonna get to face each other?” I suddenly found myself being asked by the same eelektrik. “I’m confident I’ll get to reach the semifinals, I’ve been training for a long while to finally enter this tournament!” I couldn’t even answer him, I was in complete distress, how the hell was I going to figure out a way to not utterly let myself be destroyed out there??? I can only hope I get some kind of miraculous beginner’s plot armor “Everyone, attention please.” Said the skeledirge, “Now I’m aware that many of you have been training for a long time now and we can even see a lot of tournament regulars today!! kudos especially to Mr. Miguel “the legend” for his spectacular performance throughout the year, and so, as a treat I managed to convince the organizers to let your closest friends of the base accompany you while you continue to train for a few hours!” As he finished speaking the doors to the training facility opened and in it came several familiar faces, from our neighbours Itzel the tatsugiri and Litleo the… litleo, who came presumably for Raúl, but way more importantly than them, Gael, who had by this point become the closest person I have in the whole base. “Gael!!” I waved at him excitedly (as best as I could show it) and he waved at me back once he spotted me, he showed his now characteristic toothy grin that despite it being supposed to be terrifying was nothing but comforting for me, we ran over to each other, but I accidentally tripped and fell on top of him in an accidental hug. “Gah!! Sorry man.” I said as I stood up and helped him get up as well, he apologized and we laughed it off, being too caught up in each other to notice the reactions we had gotten throughout the room, but most people were too caught up in the reunion with their friends either way. “So… I saw the announcement of the tournament bracket.” Gael said, this time with a much more worried expression. “I know, I’m gonna be absolutely destroyed in there and it’ll be the first thing everyone is going to see!!” I exclaimed in fear “Ehhh your chances aren’t too dead, a Furret may know dig but without STAB you could be fine with some luck, and your typings are neutral to each other, on account of dealing with a normal type that is.” “STAB?” I asked. “Oh uh, the bonus amount of damage you get when you perform an attack that shares a type with you.” Gael explained. “You didn’t know that was thing?” “Uhhh… no not really.” I replied, rubbing the back of my neck in embarrassment. “I just thought pokemon with a certain type just made them have more access to moves and effects of that type is all, I’m a bit clueless with the game mechanics.” “Oh, it’s fine, if you want I can help you train now that I’m here, I mean I’m an average battler myself, but I am enough of an expert in the pokemon gameplay that it has helped me a good amount.” The gliscor beamed with pride, I nodded and so for the next hour or two we went ahead discussing strategy, deciding just to focus on the current battle against my first opponent so that we at least went down in a fair and enjoyable, if a bit forgettable fight, I won’t bore you with the details (totally not because the author like his self-insert is also terrible at understanding game mechanics) but we also trained a few moves here and there, mainly cuz everyone else was doing it too, he was definitely a lot better about the theorical aspect of pokemon battles with his competitive knowledge but faltered a little in the practical, still, while he couldn’t help me charge up my moves fasters he recommended me to try to charge multiple moves at the same time to be more unpredictable and even create combo attacks, which definitely seemed interesting as I knew for a fact you can’t do those in game. Eventually though, the referee, a honedge, came to let us know that the tournament will start in 30 hours and so it was time for all the visitors to exit and get ready to watch the matches by the sidelines, meanwhile all of us got done training and were taken to the entrance of the field of the stadium, we could hear the crowd loudly chanting “10, 9, 8, 7” all of us were walking together quietly following various pokeuman officials, even Raúl was quiet for a change, suddenly we entered the field as the crowd reached one and several pyrotechnics burst and the skeledirge from before popped out of a platform covered in smoke and fireworks that he produced himself, several confetti canons shot up and the crowd went wild, the bird accompanying him flew around the stage in various impressive maneuvers before coming back and taking the form of a microphone that the fire croc quickly grabbed and tapped on lightly. “Hello!!? Let me hear you desert of the lions base!!!!!” he screamed to an adoring wild crowd located all across the stands, but despite that many people the skeledirge managed to be the complete center of attention, not helped by the extremely eye-catching outfit he was wearing, a white tuxedo that was glimmering with reflective light it almost seemed like it was producing its own with gold accents all over, in his suit collar there were various embroidered gems, which looking closely were shaped in various form such as a beetle, a lightning bolt, a spiral, and various others that I would come to realise represent all the pokemon types, and his bow tie was made to resemble a gold medal. “Welcome to our bi-weekly tournament everyone!! my name is Aldo Ledesma, and I will be your announcer for today!!!” The crowd went wild, chanting ALDO ALDO ALDO to the point where the fire type himself had to pause and wait before he could continue. “Heh, yes, thank you everyone but that’s enough about me because today, y’see today is all about the 16 pokeumans who signed up and were selected to duke it out in a pokemon battle!! we’ve got a few familiar faces, but some newcomers too! Will any of them surprise us? Well, we’re close to finding out, but first? Let’s get to know them some more, please, everyone, GIVE A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR OUR PARTICIPAAAAAAAAANTS!!!!!!!!!!” the announcer shouted with an almost singing-operatic intonation to his words, but before I could dwell on it I could see the pokeuman workers direct us to walk to the stage and take a position around the main platform, many of them waved at the stage, Raúl himself was shouting “WOOOOO” and waving his tail around in excitement, others however were a lot more calm, the Lucario I assumed to be Miguel (the only Lucario in the whole group in fairness) had a confident yet neutral expression that wasn’t easy to read, not with many people, so instead I focused on the audience, I tried to maintain a neutral expression as well, which I probably already had due to my appearance, and I quickly spotted the duo of the tatsugiri and litleo in the front row seats on one direction, I looked around in other directions before eventually spotting Gael way more in the back who merely waved at me, I was about to wave back until I noticed Demian and Dylan grinning at me evilly, with Demian simulating a slit throat gesture with his paw, even if I had his intelligence I would still get the message. We stood in position for a while as the announcer talked for some more and even performed a song I had never heard of before. Hmm, this must be an opening ceremony of some kind I found myself thinking, I couldn’t help myself but be happy about the performance, I do love a good show, which is probably the music loving tox part of me speaking, still looking around the whole place was littered with cameras, cameramen (mons?) and several pokeumans trying to avoid the direction of the cameras, looking up to the stands I noticed a few VIP sections, which included a lot of seemingly important pokeumans like headmaster Nacho and- oh it’s Rodri! He seemed very excited about the show and even waved at me as well! I also noticed a booth that seemed to be a commentators booth, quickly realising that this was all being broadcasted on tv, I couldn’t help but smile against myself, this was the only time I ever had some kind of media attention at all, not even appearing as an extra on any news or anything like that, this was a total first for me, then I realised that if things went really badly, then everyone tuning in would see it as well… Despite that turmoil, I still had a fun time in the show, but once it finished and several psychic types were dashing across the stage moving all the props with telekinesis and helping all the pokeuman performers exit the stage while trying to not get caught by any of the cameras, it came time for the first match to begin and I was not at all prepared, all the participants bar me and the furret had presumably gone back to the training grounds as we positioned each other on opposite sides of the stage. “Ladies and gentlemon of our beloved base! It’s finally time for our tournament to begin!!!” Another long period of the crowd going wild happened. “Our first battle will be between Mateo Tenorio the Furret, returning after a full month’s absence and newcomer not just to tournaments, but to the base as far as I’ve been told, give it up for Lex Mota the low-key toxtricity’s debut everybody!!!!” The crowd’s mixed reaction all blended into a singular noise that I wasn’t sure how to react with, I waved and even bowed politely and shyly, hoping that gave me a tolerable reaction to the audience at least, the referee from before motioned for us to get closer. “You may only use moves in battle, no maiming allowed, you may withdraw from battle, but try to give the audience a show, now, I want both of you to shake hands and begin once I slash the centre of the ground, that’ll be my signal for you to start the battle.” Both of us nodded, shook hands and then once again moved to the opposite area of the battlefield, I was nervous like I’ve never been before, but I tried to maintain my composure, I think I intimidated my opponent a little, which isn’t really something I was proud about. “READY?!!!!” the announcer shouted, we stood still. “BEGIN.” The skeledirge continued as the honedge slashed the ground in a perfect line in the middle of the arena. “SLAM!!!!” Shout the Furret almost immediately as he dashed across the stage before slamming into me with his long, long body, catching me off guard and making me fall on the floor. “AND IMMEDIATELY MATEO USES HIS STRONGEST MOVE AGAINST THE NEWCOMER, HOW WILL HIS OPPONENT RESPOND?!!?!” shouted Aldo. The Furret stood still for a moment as I composed myself, reading my improvised battle stance I used in battle class, I backed up on reflex before my opponent spoke. “Well? What are you waiting for, I want to see what you’ve got newbie.” “R-right!” I jumped nervously, I started charging an acid, something I still wasn’t able to speed up, but I instead shifted to a spark, keeping him up close before firing up the acid, causing him to be pushed a few meters back. “AND WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT FOLKS!! LEX STARTS OUT BY ATTACKING WITH A SPARK AND ACID MOVE IN RAPID SUCCESSION!!! COMPLETELY TAKING HIS OPPONENT BY SURPRISE, NOT BAD FOR A NEWBIE!!!” The announcer said, I couldn’t help but grin against my better judgement. “W-well since we’re both starting with our strongest attacks!” I shouted, the audience cheered. “WATER PULSE!!!!” said my opponent as he shot a rippling burst of water, I jumped out of the way, taking a slight beating from not being prepared and falling to the floor, but quickly standing up I can’t let myself be humiliated by my inexperience… god, I wish I could remember how battle mechanics worked in the games… I felt an unusual surge of energy but only for a moment, the furret growled. “AGILITY!!” he shouted before dashing across the arena and landing another slam, I shot a few acid sprays, at first missing but eventually hitting the ferret pokemon. Suddenly a memory flashed in an instant on my mind Furrets aren’t particularly strong pokemon, their special stats are pretty weak so if you could land a few acid sprays you could reasonably take them down with a thundershock or two I remember the advice I had gotten from Gael when we were training, I shot another successful acid spray as the furret tried to stand up. “I’m not done just yet!! AGILITY!!! SLAM!!” The furret shouted as he once again started speeding up across the arena before slamming me a couple of times with his tail and body, I was starting to feel exhaustion come over me but I didn’t want to give just yet… I charged and shot a few more acid sprays, but I couldn’t get them to last this time, my opponent had simply become too fast… oh right, duh!! Scary face can lower speed, a furret’s main strength is their speed, don’t underestimate the status moves. Do you just know this? I replied at the time. “SCARY FACE!!!” I exclaimed as I stared at the running furret who stopped dead in their tracks almost as if paralyzed by fear, with that, despite how tired and bruised I was, I smirked. “UNBELIEAVABLE EVERYONE, LOOKS LIKE LEX IS CALLING HIS MOVES IN ENGLISH INSTEAD OF SPANISH?! WILL HIS STRATEGY PAY OFF?!?!?” The announcer shouted at his birdophone. I gave out another scary face and charged an acid spray, but as I was about to let it out I strummed the protrusions on my chest and shouted “ACIDSHOCK!!!!” spitting out the acid and charging a thundershock at the same time. “AAAAAND LOOKS LIKE THIS IS THE FIRST COMBO ATTACK OF THE TOURNAMENT LADIES AND GENTLEMENT, THE DEFENSE LOWERING BOOST OF THE ACID SPRAY COMBINED WITH THE POWERFUL ATTACK OF THE THUNDERSHOCK MAY JUST PUT AN END TO THIS BATTLE!!!!!!” Both attacks hit the furret, causing him to fall to the floor in defeat, the referee floated nearby as the crowd started counting down the seconds until he fainted, for a moment it looked like it wouldn’t happen, my opponent almost stood up, but then electric sparks appeared throughout his body, he was paralyzed. “10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3… 2… 1…” “AND HE’S DONE IT!!!!! THE WINNER IS LEX!!!!!!!!” The crowd went wild, but I could feel the battle take its toll on me, I was panting heavily by this point and having never done something so extreme in this body, I quickly fainted as well. “So… how did it go?” Asked the familiar voice of my dream messenger “Huh?” I asked as I adjusted to my surroundings. “Just kidding, I already know, you’re a natural at this Lex.” Kalleq replied before I could do anything, he then winked before everything got bright once again…. “Ughhh… what happened?” I woke up in another familiar environment, one I quickly realised to be the common floor’s infirmary, I was once again in a hospital bed only instead of a small room it was a large one with several beds. “Yo Lex!!” Came from the voice of a familiar eelektrik laying on another hospital bed, beside him were Itzel and litleo. “Hi… um, what are you guys doing here?” “All the first round matches already finished, didn’t you realise?” Said Itzel. “Both you and Raúl made it past the first round, and he’s right, you did surprisingly well for someone so new to the base!!” “Calling your moves in English was a pretty good strategy, I think it threw him off…” Added the Litleo in a whisper. I was a little surprised at hearing that. “A-ah, really? I-i’m just happy I didn’t get squished really.” I answered, before any of the others could reply though a figure dashed rapidly through the air between other patients and visitors, a familiar greyish blur gliding through the room. “Gael!!” I smiled. huff huff “Sorry I didn’t get here earlier, it took a while to get out of Demian’s watch, you should’ve seen him he was so mad that you held your own as well as you did!!!” “A-ah, it’s fine I just woke up after all, did I really miss the rest of the first round?” I asked. “Huh? You just woke up? I didn’t think you were that exhausted from Mateo’s attacks.” Gael questioned “I don’t think he was fainted for that long I think he just fell asleep.” Commented Raúl. “No one asked you.” Growled Gael “Hey!!” Exclaimed both Itzel and Litleo “Dude, no need to get so defensive.” Replied Raúl “He was just trying to be nice.” Added the tatsugiri. “Look, whatever, I would’ve liked to at least been able to know how the other rounds went so I knew who I’m facing next, I wasn’t really looking to win anyway… just not get humiliated.” I said, attempting to defuse the tension in the room, particularly Gael who I didn’t want to get into a fight just because of me. “You didn’t miss much.” Explained Raúl. “From what I can tell, apart from me making it out of a super intense and cool battle against some archen-“ “You beat him in three strikes it really wasn’t all that.” Bitterly added Litleo. “Shut up he was tougher than he looked!!” Raúl blushed. “Anyway, yeah, others who made it include the lucario and the vibrava, to no one’s surprise.” Everyone, included Gael rolled their eyes at that comment. “The final’s probably going to be between those two…” Whispered the Litleo. “At least it’ll be an entertaining final.” Argued Itzel. “No it won’t, we know Miguel will beat her to a pulp.” Added Raúl, Gael looked like he was about to argue but instead crossed his arms and looked away and rolled his eyes, however, his eyes suddenly jumped open as he came to a realisation. “Wait!! America made it?!!?” Gael exclaimed with a worried tone “The vibrava?” asked Itzel. “Yeah, she was in the match just after Lex actually, she wiped the floor with her opponent.” “Oh no…” Gael exclaimed in shock, at first I didn’t understand why, until it hit me. “Wait, don’t tell me she’s my next opponent!!” I exclaimed “Why what’s… oh… OH!” Exclaimed Itzel “Well, there goes your stay in the tournament kid, and that’s only if things go well.” Raúl commented snarkily. “I was actually looking forward to facing you for a bit, oh well.” “RAÚL!!” exclaimed the other three people in the room. “Again!! No one asked you!!” Exclaimed Gael. “Hey it’s fine, what’s important is that you have fun, you’ll probably only get stronger by your next tournament and-“ Itzel tried to argue but I cut her off to vent my frustrations “Ughhh!! I don’t even want to be here!! I was signed up against my will!! I didn’t even need to make it past the first round in the first place!!” I placed the front of my head on the bed’s pillow to scream directly at it. “Why does this ALWAYS happen!!” “Lex?” Asked Gael, I turned over to look at him, he seemed genuinely apologetic but… none of this was his fault, he’s the person who was trying the most out of everyone here. “Look I’m sorry about this all… I’ll try to figure out a way to get back at Demian I swear-“ “It’s fine.” I simply responded. “No it isn’t!! Look, I swear to you that once all of this is done, I won’t keep standing up for Demian, not after this.” Exclaimed Gael, I merely sighed in response. “Let’s just get this over with” “-AND BEGIN!!!” Me and my opponent stood still for a moment, both of us looking directly at each other’s eyes, The vibrava had a fierce and brutal glare, not a malicious one, but a determined look that made it possibly more dangerous, I tried not to show nervousness, but it was impossible as everything was stacked against me, even with my muddled hearing I could still make out the occasional person chanting my name in the crowd, if people wanted me to be an underdog of the tournament, I was sad to disappoint. **Please… I just wish I’m not humiliated. ** Nothing, I decided enough was enough and I charged my strongest attack “SPAAAAAAARK!!!!!!!!!!” “SANDSTORM!!!!” She shouted, letting out a massive cloud of rapidly spinning sand and dust, which covered the arena in a flash and sent me flying and dragging to the floor as I could feel every little particle of dirt hit me in the most painful manner possible, it was like when Gael shook himself after the sand shower, but a million times worse. “Gah!! Argh!!” “AND LEX CHARGES IN WITH A SPARK LADIES AND GENTLEMON!!! A VERY ROOKIE MISTAKE BUT NOT LIKE IT MATTERED ANYWAY AS AMERICA CHARGES IN WITH A POWERFUL SANDSTORM!!! ONE THAT’LL SURELY HURT WITH THE TOXTRICITY’S DOUBLE WEAKNESS TO GROUND!! COULD WE GET SOME CAMERAS IN THERE?!?! PEOPLE AREN’T TUNING IN TO JUST SEE SAND!!!! WHAT ARE WE? THE MONTERREY BASE?!?!!” The announcer shouted. I tried to stand up, but every time I did another large burst of sand would force me down. I could see the silhouette of the vibrava approach, but it was far too hidden beneath the sand for me to make it out properly. I tried charging an acid spray, but before I could react I heard a voice shout “EARTHQUAKE” before suddenly the ground started shaking violently, making me even more vulnerable to the sandstorm attack, I was already falling victim to exhaustion again, but then I was struck by a crack on the ground approaching me at a velocity too fast to avoid, and I blacked out before I could even register it. “He’s awake!!”“Are you ok?” When I woke up I was greeted by four familiar faces in front of me, Gael and the trio of pokemon I kept stumbling across seemed to be arguing before noticing me stirring awake and looking at me in a mix of concern and surprise. “Lex…” Gael spoke. “I lost didn’t I? I lost a second round again?” I laughed to myself, I laughed angrily, tears fell from my eyes slowly as I did so. Gael didn’t respond, his expression was similar to when he was around Demian, the others looked awkwardly amongst themselves, almost a little guilty. “Why did you charge an electric move towards a ground type?!” Questioned Raúl. “That’s like the one thing you should know not to do as an electric ty-“ “NO ONE ASKED YOU RAÚL, FOR THE LAST TIME, REMEMBER I’M A GROUND TYPE TOO AND I COULD END YOU RIGHT THIS VERY MOMENT!!!” Exclaimed Gael, I could see Itzel get in Raúl’s defense trying to de-escalate the situation and an argument forming between the others but I didn’t care, I jumped out of bed and immediately started heading towards my room. “LEX!!” I ignored Gael and the nurses’ call, even someone else who’s voice I couldn’t recognize between all the commotion called me, I realised later down the line this would only make me look like a sore loser but I at that point had given up, the damage was done, I walked down from hallway to hallway, I was about to reach the stairs when I noticed a gliding figure following me. “Wait up!!!” Screamed Gael as he approached me, I was upset, but I was too tired and he was way too fast when he was gliding for me to make the effort in avoiding him. “Look, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have made a scene there, I just didn’t like how uncaring they were and-“ “It’s fine, it’s whatever, who cares anymore, what’s done is done, that bastard Demian’s plan was a success let’s just…” I sighed and panted, still tired from the battles. “I want to forget about this.” “Right, it’s just…” Gael suddenly launched himself into a hug. “I’m sorry, I really wanted to help you, there must’ve been something we could’ve done to stop this from going so badly!” I couldn’t help but chuckle a little despite it all, the way he hugged me reminded me of Ash’s gliscor in the anime, who was always a favourite of mine, immediately I felt a little better, more comfortable, tears were practically falling out of his eyes and I felt bad, because if there’s one person who had no fault in this disaster, it was him. “It’s fine Gael, I mean it, we did what we could it was just not something we could really change the outcome of.” I smiled and hugged him back, I even let out a few tears myself, truthfully I couldn’t help but be hopeful that in the end all of this would just be forgotten, it’s not like I planned to join a tournament ever again, and I’m sure everyone else had better things to spend thinking about. Gael seemed to take it well, I stayed in the hug with him for a bit before he eventually let go, much more composed and we walked to our dorm closely together. “Hey um… what was that about this happening before?” he asked. “Oh… right, it’s just that I once was made to enter this nation-wide maths contest where I made it past the first round several times despite never wanting to go or do well, I didn’t even study for any of them yet I would always fail to make it past the second round, the tournament reminded me of that… it just feels bad to be told you have potential but to squander it.” I spoke. “I’m sorry to hear that, I think I actually remember those contests, not even I made it actually, I didn’t realise you were actually good at maths.” Gael commented. “I never said that I was bad at them, I just cannot stand maths.” I explained, we stayed in silence closely for the rest of the walk, when we opened the door to it, we were greeted by a manic looking obstagoon and his lackey beside him, sporting both grins who looked even more manic than usual. “Well, well, WELL, lookie what we got here, finally crawling back to where you came from, all humbled and beat up.” The cruel dark type stated cruelly with an expression I was TIRED of seeing at this point, he sat on the couch with a relaxed position, he sat as if daring us to approach him- no, expecting us to approach him, but I ignore him, it took me all my willpower to do so but I ignored him as I walked to my bunk bed. “Oh you little shit, you little arrogant shit, haven’t you realised already? EVERYONE in this base already knows how worthless you are, they already saw how easily you were beaten down to a pulp, do you seriously think you’ve got any shot at standing up to me? ME? DO YOU EVEN REALISE HOW POWERFUL I AM?!! I’ve got connections ALL over the base in places you’re probably too scared, and that goes for the both of you, to even head to because you guys are worthless members of your species, wimps basically, there is something wrong with all of you!” He ranted, standing up from his couch and approaching us instead, we ignored him. “SERIOUSLY?!!? You’ve got nothing to say to that?!?! You guys are fucking mistakes!” “OH, THAT’S FUCKING IT!!!” I shouted, unable to take it anymore “SPARK!!!” I charged up an attack and lunged myself at him, crashing into his bunk bed, luckily we didn’t damage anything seriously but as we both crashed and then proceeded to fall on the floor, with Demian hitting himself in the head, when we both stood up we were controlled by our own anger and adrenaline, and he lunged at me with a powerful fury swipes attack “HOW!! FUCKING!! DARE!! YOU!! YOU LITTLE SHIT ARE GOING TO GET WHAT’S COMING TO YOU, I’M GOING TO END YOUR LIFE RIGHT NOW YOU ABOMINATION OF-“ “DEMIAN STOP!!” suddenly it was Gael who launched himself at Demian, putting himself in front of me and pushing him away from me, this took Demian completely by surprised as you could see an expression of shock on both him and Dylan’s face, the latter of whom finally got himself involved in the fight and started dragging Demian away from us before he kept hurting himself with fury swipes. “You… I knew it, I could see you were taking a liking to him, after all this time you… you choose to betray me? Heh, but I always knew you were nothing, you’re just as bad as him, if not worse, don’t think I don’t know what you are.” “I don’t care Demian!! I’m DONE with you!! You’ve been nothing but an idiotic pest to everyone in this base and you’ve ruined my life, I’m not gonna let you get away with ruining Lex’s!!!” Gael responded. The day went a lot more quietly after that, no one spoke at all, and we all went to bed before we knew it, I didn’t even bother trying to find out how the rest of the tournament went, I think the Lucario ended up winning anyhow, I cried myself to sleep, not even caring about who listened.