Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Welcome to the Boxes, little one.” Eevee couldn’t help but stare up in shock at the wide, expansive space before her. 

“Wow! This really is something!” Her mouth was agape with a sense of wonder. 

“Indeed.” Said Dusknoir, the one who had greeted her. “You’ll find this place to be an enjoyable experience. Come along, I’ll need to introduce you to the others.”

Dusknoir began to move away. Eevee was just confused. “Wait, where are we going?” 

Dusknoir stopped and turned back briefly. “I just said, to meet the others.”

“Yeah, I got that, but like, where?”

Dusknoir sighed. “You wouldn’t know where yet, but…” He grumbled to himself a little. “I suppose I’ll have to give a geography lesson as we walk, then. Come along now.” 

The walk to “over there” was a long journey. Dusknoir explained a lot, namely different locations, who tended to go where, who not to tick off, all sorts of stuff. A lot of it didn’t make sense to Eevee, like the advice of “Never call Nidoking by his nickname”, “Never fall asleep near Volcarona”, or “Never drink the water by Weezing’s place”, but from what she gathered, the Box was something along the lines of a big environment for the Pokemon deposited in it to rest and relax in between bouts with their trainer. As such, there were a variety of different spots, such as several mountains and lakes, a couple of forests, some cool caves, wide expansive plains, and a whole ton of other places for the inhabitants to enjoy. It sounded very exciting to explore all of it. 

“So how did you meet our trainer?” asked Dusknoir, seemingly out of the blue. 

“Er, well, I was a sort of… commemorative gift? If I have that term right? I was gifted to him, and he decided to keep me around for a while.” 

“A… gift? How so?” 

“I don’t know much about it myself. I just know that whoever manages some system or other likes to give away Eevee gifts. I didn’t pay much attention when it was explained to me.” Dusknoir solemnly nodded. 

“I understand.” Dusknoir mused to himself for a moment. “But you shouldn’t worry, if you have been. You won’t be feeling too left out here. A lot of Pokemon here were given as gifts to our trainer. They can help you adjust.” 

Eevee stared with surprise. “Must be a pretty swanky trainer to receive a whole ton of them, huh?”

“I suppose you could define it like that. Most of them were given to him to aid with research into the Pokedex. Very few were just because random people felt nice.” 

Eevee caught on to the mention of the Pokedex in particular, out of what Dusknoir said. “The Pokedex? So I guess that explains why this whole box thing has so many people, huh?”

“Correct. Over the years, there’s been a lot of Pokemon captured by our trainer in his quest to complete the Pokedex. Here is where we all get to become familiar with one another. We come from all walks of life, so many of us all finding common ground in here is an incredible thing. You’ll fit right in.”

“How’d you meet him, then?”, asked Eevee. Dusknoir was taken aback by the sudden question, but recomposed himself quickly.

“I was traded to him, from my original trainer, when he was young. I was meant to help out both with his research and growth.” 

Eevee looked on, wide eyed. “Your trainer gave you away, just like that?” 

Dusknoir nodded. “But they were not as cold hearted as you may think. I was given to help someone younger, and I did. And I’d say our trainer did an admirable job growing up. I was only a Duskull when I was traded, after all.” Dusknoir stopped. “We’re here.” 

Eevee stopped as well, and took a look at the surroundings. They had wound up in an outcropping in the large field area Dusknoir described earlier. In the center of the outcropping was a large temple-like structure, covered in moss and built of old stone. Eevee couldn’t help but wonder why this kind of thing was in the middle of a perfectly normal grassy field. 

“Some of the others are inside. This bunch are typically quite good at spreading the word of new arrivals. Soon, everyone here will be familiar with you, little one.” Eevee couldn’t help but feel nervous.

“E-everyone? How many is that?” Dusknoir took a moment to ponder. 

“To be honest, I’ve never taken a headcount of how many Pokemon there are here. At minimum, I suppose we have little over ninety Pokemon here.” Eevee was taken aback.

“N-n-ninety? That’s a lot!” Dusknoir simply glanced back to the temple.

“Come on, we don’t have all day. They’ll be heading off to do something else sooner rather than later.” Dusknoir began to enter the temple, as Eevee trailed slightly further behind, clearly nervous at the prospect of meeting these new faces.

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As it turned out, very few of that supposed ninety something group of Pokemon were inside, though it didn’t make Eevee any less nervous. Gathered around a rather sizable stone table was a group of nine, consisting of a Charizard, Reuniclus, Gallade, Escavalier, Togekiss, Exploud, Vaporeon, Gengar, and Tyranitar. The group seemed to be debating on something rather heated. Despite the ongoing argument, Togekiss had taken notice of the duo’s entry, and immediately diverted attention towards them, looking slightly relieved for some reason Eevee couldn’t quite understand. 

“Hey, lookie here everyone! Didn’t know you had a kid, Dusknoir!” Dusknoir moved a figurative step back,  not anticipating that response.

“T-they are not my kid.” Dusknoir sputtered out, seemingly flustered from the remark. Togekiss giggled as Gengar and Reuniclus chuckled off to the side. Vaporeon, meanwhile, regarded Eevee from afar, a look of curiosity on his face. 

“Well, who are they then? Come on, spit it out!”, Exploud cried out from the back of the room. 

“They’re a new arrival. I was hoping you all could help spread the word of their arrival.”, replied Dusknoir. 

The group, that Eevee decided to dub “The Council”, talked amongst themselves for a while, with a few harsh words spun between Exploud, Gengar, and Tyranitar, before they turned around to give their answer. 

“Well it certainly beats having this meeting, that’s for sure.” stated Reuniclus, seemingly tired of the debate they had walked in on. “We’ll be willing to help you out effective immediately!” 

Tyranitar did not seem to take a shine to Reuniclus’ demeanor. “Cmon Reuniclus, stop saying it like that. We need to have these meetings, you know.” He looked away from Reuniclus in disdain. “You’re always sick of these meetings, I’m surprised you’re even still a part of this group.” 

Gengar piped up upon hearing this. “Tall words coming from someone like you, Tyranitar. You turn tail and flee the moment there’s trouble around here, ha!” Tyranitar slunk back, seemingly defeated already. 

“Everybody, always bickering.” decried a disappointed Escavalier. “Can’t we ever have one meeting where things go smoothly?” 

Gallade’s annoyance with this debate had seemingly stayed silent long enough. “You make these meetings no fun, Escavalier.” he said. “Every time we meet up, you shut down any form of casual debating and make things more serious than they have to be-”

“I will have order!” Charizard roared at the rest of the assembly, and the offenders slunk back to silence. Charizard took a moment to make sure everyone had quieted down before continuing. “Excellent. I don’t like to shut you all down like this, but we are certainly not making a good first impression upon our young new friend here.” Charizard finished his statement to the council and turned towards Dusknoir and Eevee. Eevee felt intimidated just looking at him. This guy was strong , crazy strong. Judging by the attention he commanded from the other Pokemon, he was most likely the leader. “Now then, Eevee. I’ll have the others spread the word of your arrival and get all of the other Pokemon together. There, you can introduce yourself so everyone’s familiar with you.” Eevee nodded with great difficulty. Charizard seemed friendly, but he was making her tremble in fear just by looking in her general direction. She hoped never to have to deal with this guy in battle.

“Good,” said Dusknoir, giving his response. “Now, where are we meeting?” Charizard thought for a moment.

“Perhaps by the old stage near the beach? It’ll allow the most people to watch, that’s for sure.” Dusknoir nodded. 

“Understood. I’ll make sure to bring Eevee there.” Dusknoir made a motion for Eevee to come follow him, and she ran after him with haste, not wanting to be under Charizard’s gaze any more than necessary. The two left the temple together, heading for the stage.. Once the two got a decent distance from the temple, Eevee stopped to catch her breath. 

“Thank goodness I’m out of that place. Those guys were…” She shivered a little. “Intimidating.” Dusknoir showed no visible reaction. 

“Most new Pokemon tend to get that from them. They tend to be intimidating due to the group they’re a part of, but I assure you, they’re all very nice when you get to know them.” He turned to face her properly. “I noticed you were shaking when Charizard spoke to you.” Eevee blushed and turned to the side. 

“You… you saw that? Now I’m embarrassed.” She forced a chuckle. Dusknoir continued staring at her before turning away. 

“Come, we can talk as we continue moving. Knowing them, they’ve probably already begun spreading word of your arrival.” Dusknoir began to move on, but Eevee stayed still. He turned back to face her again. “Come on. You don’t know the way to the old stage.” Eevee took a deep breath, and began to follow behind Dusknoir, though trailing a little. 

The two walked for a while more, neither saying much of anything. Eevee appreciated the silence, allowing her to calm down a bit after her harrowing experience earlier. Welling up what courage she had, she asked Dusknoir the big question on her mind. 

“Those guys didn’t seem much like a unified council to me. Why were they all bickering instead of talking to each other?” Dusknoir continued moving onwards, but began to explain to Eevee the history of the council.

“Their ‘council’, as you put it, was formed a long time ago. When we all first arrived in this Box system, it was found to be disorganized. Turns out, placing so many Pokemon in here without order was a bad idea. Charizard realized this very early on, and while he is normally bashful by nature, he managed to find a few familiar faces to get a set of rules down. They may not be unified, but they are what keeps order around here.”

Eevee disregarded the last part, instead focusing on one tidbit of information. “Charizard!? Bashful!? That guy was super scary!”

“You may think that. However, appearances aren’t everything. While it is true Charizard is freakishly strong, he never uses intimidation tactics unless absolutely necessary, like you saw back there. He refrains from them a majority of the time, mostly because he dislikes the attention it draws to him. I’m sure you’ll see him the way we do once you get used to him. He truly is very kind.”

“But, if he’s super bashful and all that, why is he the leader?” Dusknoir sighed.

“He is the leader because he commands a certain respect. He was the first Pokemon our trainer ever obtained. Everybody here has known him and his strength in battle, as well as his close bond with our trainer as long as they have been here. There is no one else who can fill that gap quite so admirably, and he understands this. While he may not like it, he knows he has to.”

“B-but, couldn’t he just hand it off to someone he trusts, or something? He’s still in charge, but he’s not handling the most of it!” 

“He chooses not to. While he could do that, Charizard wishes to keep order from breaking down as long as possible. If there’s no leader that everyone knows they can rely on, they begin to find their own leaders, or try to become their own leaders. Then you have factions. We may all be friends, but trying to keep us as one collective is a difficult task. Charizard has a deep kind of courage to keep everyone together like this.” 

“Wow, you know a lot, Dusknoir!” Eevee looked towards him with deep admiration. Dusknoir chuckled. 

“Thank you, little one.” He paused for a moment. “You know, I’ve never asked, how old are you?” 

“About a year old, why?” Dusknoir stopped. 

“That young? It sure is a good thing our trainer chose to keep you. I fear what would have happened otherwise.” 

Eevee remained silent for a while. Dusknoir’s words rang to her harshly. Where would she have been? On the road, not knowing how to battle? Hoping for a kind trainer or Pokemon to take her in? 

“I suppose I owe a lot more to him than I thought.” Dusknoir nodded solemnly. 

“Yes.” Dusknoir paused.  “…But I suppose I should move on from these distressing topics. I can see you are not well.” Eevee looked up to him with a semi hopeful look. “Well, where were we when we were discussing the council? I believe we only discussed the formation of the group. The members themselves are another story…” 

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The walk to the stage was a long one. Eevee wondered how everyone moved around here so much. Her legs were already tired. The only reason she hadn’t stopped was because of Dusknoir. His stories had kept her determined enough to continue. From the explanations of the council members, to the stories of the various miscellaneous activities the other Pokemon got up to, Dusknoir was a very potent storyteller. She couldn’t believe she had initially been frightened of him, before he explained everything. And, with all of those stories told, they had eventually made it to the stage. The place was old and decrepit, looking like an outdoor Contest Hall, but still very much usable. Eevee got the feeling someone probably tried burning it down at one point.

“Finally! I can lie down and rest!” Eevee belly flopped onto the creaky wood of the stage with glee that the long walk was finally over. Dusknoir too began to take a rest, though while he had said that, Eevee couldn’t discern much difference out of him compared to his usual self. After a short break, allowing Eevee to pant a little, she turned to ask Dusknoir a question. “Hey, Dusknoir. When are the others all gonna get here?” 

“They all arrive at different times normally, but by my estimation, I’d say we’re waiting an hour for everyone to get here. Thus, we still have plenty of time to talk if you have any questions.” Eevee thought for a moment.

“What happened to this stage?” 

“Ah, this stage. I figured you’d be curious. We used to use this stage for various performances and festivities and such. The last one we had was a mock Pokemon Contest. The competition was a battle between me, Crobat, Milotic, and Rapidash, to see who could complete the appeals the best according to the judges and audience.” 

“Sounds fun!” 

“It is, only I had some very competitive teammates. Crobat was very lax about the whole thing, but Rapidash and Milotic were very much hoping that they’d win.” 

“So who won?” Dusknoir chuckled.

“As you may or may not have surmised by the charred stage we are standing on, Rapidash did not. That was the last time we ever used this stage. A shame. I found the Contest thoroughly enjoyable.”

“I never took you as someone who was into Contests, Dusknoir.” Dusknoir looked up at the sky, seemingly in longing. 

“I used to participate in them… with my old trainer.” Eevee looked on in surprise, as Dusknoir continued. “As a Duskull, I was an absolute champion when it came to Contests. No one could defeat me.” 

“Then, why did you stop?”

“Truth is, I never did wish to. And I never really have. Our current trainer chose to evolve me and utilize me for battle, and that was that. He understood my desire to participate in Contests, but unfortunately, he never was quite able to join an open venue more than once or twice.”

“I’m… sorry.” 

“There’s no need to be. It has nothing to do with you. If anything, I should apologize for bringing up something like this in front of you, little one.” 

“No, no, don’t worry about it. I’m perfectly fine, just a bit sad you could never accomplish your dreams.” 

Dusknoir chuckled. “Well, who knows, little one? Maybe one day.”

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The two continued talking for some time. After a while, however, he turned to look at something behind her. “It appears that the others have begun to arrive. I may have been guiding you so far, but I cannot be on stage with you as you introduce yourself.” Eevee turned to look at the Pokemon behind her, and saw that quite a large crowd was beginning to gather, with such a wide variety of Pokemon that she was somewhat in awe. “Now, listen to me, Eevee. When you’re up there, just state who you are, that you’re glad to meet everyone and hope to get to know them better, and hope they all have a good night. Nothing more, nothing less. I am uncertain if they will treat you as completely sincere, and you may have some negative feelings drum themselves up within the audience.” 

“Just that? That feels a bit short, given everybody’s come to see this.” 

“Do not worry little one, just put your faith into me on this one.” Dusknoir stared deep into her soul, and while it was slightly unnerving, Eevee felt in her heart that Dusknoir only had his best interests in his mind for her. . 

“I’ll… I’ll do my best, Dusknoir.” Dusknoir grinned in response. 

“You’ve got this, little one. I believe in you.” Dusknoir took his leave as he said that, disappearing into the shadows in front of her. She gulped. Despite what she said to Dusknoir, she was extremely nervous. This many Pokemon…. It was unnerving. It was night time now, too. The area was lit up with some torchlight, and the ominous glow wasn’t helping the mood. 

A Victini walked up on stage, carrying with it a small box, seemingly to act as a stool for Eevee when it came time for her to speak. It also carried a microphone with it. “Alrighty Eevee, I’ll give an intro to the audience, and then you give your own little intro, as to who you are, K?” It set down the box and microphone, before picking up the mic to deliver its own message. It hit the mic a few times, gathering everyone’s attention.

“Testing, testing, one two three, this thing’s on, right?” 

“Get on with it already, Victini! Who’s the new kid?” yelled a very disgruntled Mienshao from the audience. 

Victini continued on, a bit more jittery than last time. “Er, uh, thank you for that, Mienshao. It was very… helpful. Well, uh, right, now I’m sure you all are definitely not wondering why we called you here, so I’ll just cut to the chase. We have a new arrival!” Victini turned to Eevee, mic pointed away from its mouth. It whispered to Eevee. “You ready little guy?” Eevee nervously nodded, and Victini went right back into presentation mode.  “Alrighty, and here they are! Can we all get a wonderful round of applause for our new friend?” A large amount of slightly melancholic clapping came from the audience, as Eevee slowly moved up to the box. Victini had set the mic into its stand, now shortened down to Eevee’s height, as she prepared what she was going to say. 

“Er-” the mic sent out a jarringly loud noise to the audience. Not a good start. “Sorry about that, um, hi everyone! My name’s Eevee!” No response came from the audience. She spotted Dusknoir, silently watching from the corner. “Um… it’s great to meet all of you, and I hope we can become the best of friends! While I may be new, I’m very excited to learn from all of you, and-” 

“Oi, kid, cut it off with the jibber jabber! This is some of the least convincing entrance material I’ve seen in a long time.” The crowd parted to allow Eevee to see who had interrupted her, revealed to be none other than Exploud from the meeting earlier. “If you want to be accepted, you have to say what you truly feel!” 

Eevee was feeling the pressure. While she could tell a large portion of the crowd didn’t quite agree with Exploud’s outburst, she knew she had to choose her next words carefully, otherwise things may go south. “I…. how do you mean?” 

Exploud glared at her. “Simple, state with your heart what you truly feel right now. Go on, pour it out to us.” Eevee glanced at Dusknoir, who simply stared with indifference. He was expecting her to work this out for herself. 

“W-well, I…” Eevee stuttered out. She didn’t know where to start. She glanced nervously at the crowd as she sank behind the mic. “I, sort of, well…” The crowd was starting to get disinterested, and she could tell Exploud was glaring at her with a look of disappointment. She needed to turn it around before their attention was lost, and soon. 

But then, she saw one Pokemon in particular from the audience. And then she realized, that she knew exactly what to say. “...I, well, I’m not really much of a presenter, so, please, bear with me.” Exploud crossed her arms and turned her head to the side, glancing vaguely in her direction. “I’ve been told that around here, people get around to all sorts of different things. Some of them are good, some of them… maybe kind of below average.” She paused. “And frankly, it’s kind of intimidating. All I’ve ever known… is the world of being with my trainer… our trainer… and I don’t know where to start, now that I’m on my own. It’s scary just looking at all of you.” She glanced at Exploud, who seemed to be paying a bit more attention. “But I know that it really isn’t the case. I may be afraid, but I know, in my heart… truly you guys aren’t mean, or scary. No matter how you may seem at the start.” She glanced at Charizard. “...Because, truly, I don’t know all of you yet. What I said when I first came up here may have been because of my nervousness, but no matter how intimidating you look, or how rude you come across… I want to understand you. Because…” She glanced at Dusknoir. “You never know who a person truly is until you get to know them. And I want to get to know you all.” She turned to face the whole audience this time, instead of skulking like she was before. “But I am young, and I am a bit scared of things I see up front…. I’m not perfect, but I hope you all won’t hold that against me. But, what I’m trying to say is…. Will you all… be my friend?” 

She hadn’t noticed it until she finished, but Exploud was grinning. She chuckled to herself. “Impressive, little one. It takes guts to speak your mind like that.” Eevee blushed at the compliment. “Haha, still a bit embarrassed are we? Don’t worry. I wasn’t being serious with all of that yelling earlier, I was merely performing a… test of character, as Escavalier puts it.”

Sharpedo murmured next to her. “You did seem very serious though.” 

“Shut up Sharky.” 

Victini had taken this opportunity to take back the mic and perform its finish. “Well, you’ve heard it folks. I, for one, definitely want to take Eevee up on her offer.” She turned and winked at Eevee. “And I hope you all do the same. Now, unless Eevee has anything more to say….” It turned to Eevee, and she shook her head. Victini carried on. “Then you are all free to go! Have a nice night everyone!” The crowd took the opportunity to immediately disperse, with a high amount of conversation amongst the members of it. She saw Charizard from afar, grinning as he flew off. 

“Excellent job little one.” She heard the familiar voice of Dusknoir appear from behind her. “You did great up there.”

“I hope so… I kind of got put on the spot.” 

“I will admit… I was concerned when Exploud made her outburst, but you handled the job admirably. Now all that’s needed for you to do is to enjoy yourself around here and make some friends.” 

“I wouldn’t worry too much, Dusknoir.” She smiled wide as she stared straight at Dusknoir. “I already have.” 

Chapter Text

Off in the depths of the woods, lay the creeping crawling Bug type Pokemon of the Boxes. In their forest, the troupe of them often trained for battle, hoping to receive praise from their trainer for their efforts. Yet, one of them wasn’t feeling it. Wandering alone in the forest was Scizor, thinking over some deep thoughts. 

What if my trainer doesn’t choose to use me again? Scizor thought to herself. What if, instead, he chooses Heracross, or Scolipede, or Arceus forbid, Pinsir ? Scizor shuddered at the thought. No, I’m still the superior Bug. You can’t get much better than me in here, and I’ve been around probably the longest, or if not that, pretty darn close to it. I’m not going to be beaten by those upstart Bugs… but yet…

Scizor was interrupted in her thoughts by the sudden appearance of a massive rocky giant in her path, one she was surprised to see. 

“Regirock!? What are you doing in the forest?” Regirock turned its dark brown craggy body to face her. Scizor gulped mentally. Regirock, despite being somewhat friendly with everyone, still freaked her out. It towered over many of the Pokemon in the Boxes, Scizor included, and its eyes… well, if you could call them that, freaked her out. There was nothing you could glean from them. They just stared at you, right into your very soul. Freaky. Still, Regirock had proven itself worthy of its trainer’s praise, quickly climbing up the ranks to be one of his strongest overall Pokemon. Also got a bit of a superiority complex from it. In short, Regirock was… intimidating. Its presence in this forest was cause for alarm for Scizor. 

“THERE IS NO NEED TO BE ON GUARD. I AM HERE ON PEACEFUL TERMS.” It had clearly detected Scizor’s apprehension.  “IF I WERE HERE IN AN ACT OF AGGRESSION, I WOULD HAVE CRUSHED YOU ALL ALREADY, YOURSELF INCLUDED, SCIZOR.” Regirock’s deep voice echoed throughout the forest. Even when being here on friendly terms, that guy was insufferably full of itself. 

“Er, right. Then what are you here for?” Regirock merely turned behind itself.

“I AM HERE FOR THIS.” Scizor peered over Regirock’s broad body and found what it was staring at. Sitting in a small pool of water, seemingly lost in thought, was Gastrodon. 

“...You’re here for Gastrodon?” Scizor remembered Gastrodon from Sinnoh. She was always lost in thought, only really half paying attention at any given point. For instance, their trainer always messed up Poffin batches, and Gastrodon just cheerily ate the charred remnants of them when no one else would, seemingly immune to their horrible taste. It’s taken attacks that would otherwise rend her teammates apart without even realizing it. Gastrodon wasn’t so much an idiot more than she was… odd, but still, she often proved to be a valuable teammate. Scizor understood that side of her, but she simply couldn’t see the reason Regirock was so entranced with Gastrodon. It was typically a no nonsense kind of Pokemon. Gastrodon’s nature meant it seemed unlikely this was simply them having a friendly chat. 

Regirock responded. “AFFIRMATIVE. I HAVE COME SEEKING ADVICE ABOUT HOW TO OPERATE ON A DAY TO DAY BASIS.” Ah. Scizor understood now, that explained things. Regirock had come seeking life advice. Who knew the stuck up giant needed help with that kind of thing? 

Gastrodon, seemingly having been having a hearty daydream in the pond, finally seemed to register that both Scizor and Regirock were there. Her face immediately lit up into a smile. “Scizor! Regirock! Good to see you two! How have you been?” Scizor made a move to respond, but she was cut off before anything could be said by Regirock. 

“CUT THE CONVERSATION. I HAVE COME WITH AN URGENT INQUIRY.” Gastrodon cocked her head to the side in confusion 

“In-cur-ee? What’s that? Sounds tasty!” 

“OBSERVATION: THAT IS ‘CURRY’, GASTRODON. I HAVE COME SEEKING ADVICE ON DAY TO DAY OPERATION.” Regirock turned to Scizor. “AS HAS SCIZOR.” Scizor stepped back briefly to argue, but before she could, Gastrodon responded, with a happy little smile. 

“Yippee! More friends! I love friends!” Gastrodon splashed in the water in pure glee, but as always with Regirock, it cut straight to the point.

“GASTRODON, URGENT REQUEST: PLEASE STOP SPLASHING AND AID US.” Gastrodon stopped splashing, taking on a more neutral expression. 

“Alrighty then…. “ She sounded disappointed. “Well… sit here with me for a bit then, in this little puddle.” Regirock moved towards the water, strong arming Scizor into coming with. Regirock seemingly did not want to deal with Gastrodon alone. Seems he was at least familiar with her reputation. When both of them had sat down in the puddle of water, Regirock to Gastrodon’s left and Scizor to her right, Gastrodon began. 

“Alrighty everybody! Follow me and sit still for a little bit!” And as she commanded, the three sat down in the puddle of water. There was an eerie silence that followed, with only the distant sounds of squabbling Flying Pokemon and forest inhabitants reaching their ears. Scizor could not quite understand what the purpose of this was. Perhaps Gastrodon was simply lost in thought again and only half thinking about this. Regirock had seemingly caught on to the same idea as well. 

“GASTRODON, IT IS IMPERATIVE WE UNDERSTAND THIS. WHY ARE WE SITTING STILL? WE NEED ADVICE EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.” Gastrodon ignored the question, humming a little tune. Regirock was getting agitated. “GASTRODON, ANSWER ME NOW OR ELSE I SHALL UNLEASH MY FULL FURY UPON YO-” Regirock was interrupted mid sentence by a powerful geyser having suddenly formed beneath it, sending it flying into the sky. Gastrodon giggled a little as Regirock began falling back down, landing  with a powerful splash into the pool of water. Scizor and Gastrodon were both hit by the splash, causing Scizor to recoil from the wave as Gastrodon simply kept humming along. Scizor recognized the geyser as an attack. Wasn’t it Earth…. Something or other? Gastrodon stopped humming before Scizor’sr thoughts could form, however, as Regirock made a move to get up.

“Do you see the water in front of you, Regirock?” Regirock stopped getting up, keeping its head slightly above the water as it stared it down.  

“AFFIRMATIVE.” 

“And what do you see in the water, Regirock?”

“I SEE MY REFLECTION.” 

“Correct, but what else is in the water?”

Regirock paused for a moment before responding. “I DO NOT FOLLOW.”

Gastrodon hummed a little bit more of the tune she was singing before turning back to Regirock. “What you see in the water is the light. It reflects off the water, and looks super pretty!” Regirock stared at the water, as did Scizor. Scizor noted how Gastrodon was correct. She hadn’t noticed it before, but the light reflecting off the water truly did look excellent, making the water seem sparkling in the dense underbrush of the forest. 

“THIS IS A SMALL FACTOR. HOW DOES THIS CORRELATE TO US?”

“It’s not meant to.”

“QUERY: EXPLAIN.” 

“You’re too focused on yourself right now Regirock. Relax, look around you. Don’t the plants look lovely at this time of day?” Regirock turned to stare, as did Scizor. Scizor was beginning to grasp a faint idea of what Gastrodon was saying. 

“THE PLANTS ARE…. ADMIRABLE.” Gastrodon smiled.

“Why do you think I’m so happy all of the time? When we live in a place as pretty as this, what more is there to worry about? I have fun in my pond, I look at the plants, and I have happy friends! Friends! Happy!” Gastrodon began splashing in her pool again. Scizor thought for a moment, and eventually came to a conclusion on what Gastrodon had told them. 

“Regirock, I think I get what Gastrodon is trying to say. We’ve been thinking too much about one thing.”

“ONE…. THING? EXPLAIN.”

“Well, I dunno if it’s the same for you or not, but…” Scizor paused for a moment. “I’ve been focused intensely on battle, how strong I am, how I’ll look to our trainer, all of that kind of, as of late. I presume you’ve had the same thoughts, or at least ones similar to my own.” Regirock did not reply, simply glancing absentmindedly in another direction. “I’ll take the silence as a yes, then.” Regirock continued staring at the same spot as before, as Gastrodon was happily squirting some water. “What Gastrodon is saying is we haven’t taken the time to enjoy ourselves. Have fun. We’ve been so focused on our image, that we haven’t begun properly taking in the world around us yet. We haven’t been truly living because of our lust for strength, Regirock.” 

“I BELIEVE…” Regirock suddenly began, talking once more. “I BELIEVE… THAT YOU ARE CORRECT. I HAVE NO NEED FOR THINGS SUCH AS PLANTS, OR WATER, BUT AT THE SAME TIME…. IT IS… APPEALING. PERHAPS… PERHAPS I HAVE BEEN SEEING THINGS WRONG. MAYBE IF I RELAX MORE… MAYBE THEN I CAN FIND WHAT I AM TRULY MISSING IN BATTLE.” 

Scizor turned to Gastrodon. “This was what you wanted us to learn, right?” Gastrodon stopped absentmindedly looking about and stared at Scizor with a look of confusion. 

“I was meant to be teaching something? I thought we were playing!” Scizor sighed. She should’ve expected as much from Gastrodon. Regirock was simply giving a thousand yard stare Gastrodon’s way. Scizor couldn’t tell if that was a death glare or simply Regirock thinking things, but either way, Gastrodon continued to remain as much of an enigma to both of them as when they started. 

“Well, as you’re both here… want to play with me for a little bit? It’s been so long since we did that Scizor! We did that back in the old days when you still had big slashy arms!” Scizor sighed and turned to Regirock, who had done the same. Both looked back towards Gastrodon as Scizor gave her answer.

“Well, I mean, we might as well have a bit of fun.” 

Chapter Text

“So, why exactly are you meditating under a waterfall?” 

“I think the real question, Sylveon,  is why you wouldn’t meditate under a waterfall.” 

These two voices came in the form of Mawile, currently attempting to quote on quote ‘meditate under a waterfall’, and Sylveon, currently grappling with the facts. They were currently near a small waterfall hanging off of the side of a mountain, well, Sylveon was anyway. Mawile was in the thick of it. Sylveon had stumbled across his friend on a stroll, and things quickly escalated from there. 

“Look, I understand that this box environment has a lot of places for us to hang out and all-” 

“Yep.” 

“And that’s why I’m currently trying to figure out why you chose a waterfall…. And meditation, of all things, to entertain yourself with, when that is certainly not your strong suit.”

Mawile scoffed. “What do you mean I’m not good with meditation? You know me, I always love to sit still and do… sitting still things.”

“Mawile, the last time I saw you, you and Klefki laid Spikes traps outside of Charizard’s house.” 

“So?” 

“What I’m saying is… well, you’re kind of always doing something. Most of the time something stupid. So why are you sitting still?”

Mawile looked offended. “What do you mean stupid? They were perfectly reasonable actions to take.”

“I had to have Abomasnow and Milotic come to cool you and Klefki off after Charizard accidentally blasted you with fire when he stepped on those Spikes. I’d say that was anything but reasonable.”

Mawile turned her head away in disdain at that remark. “Fine, the real reason I’m here is because Klefki stuck some of Alcremie’s cream to my butt.”

Sylveon looked a bit amused and yet a bit relieved at the same time. “Oh, it was just that simple then? Well then, let’s just get that off you and you can get moving again-”

“You didn’t let me finish. What I was gonna say…” Mawile looked down, embarrassed. “...Was that the cream finished hardening. I’m kind of stuck.”

“Oh.” Sylveon paused for a moment. “Well, do you want to get unstuck?” 

“Do you know how to unstick me?” 

“Nope, please enlighten me.”

“Alright, so, stand there.” Sylveon moved a little closer to Mawile’s spot. “A little more that way, and…. Perfect! Okay, now pull.”

“What?” 

“Pull me off of the rock.” 

“I-” Sylveon sighed. “Ok, here goes.” 

Sylveon used his feelers to firmly grab Mawile, and began to attempt to pull. Unfortunately, Mawile wasn’t budging. 

“Wow, that cream really is stuck on there. I think I may need an extra hand-” Sylveon made a move to leave, but found he was stuck. Looking at his foot, he found the answer.

“Mawile, did Klefki, by chance, happen to drop any extra cream on his way out?”

“I mean, maybe? Why do you ask?”

“I may… um…” Sylveon paused. “I may be slightly stuck to the ground right now.” 

Chapter Text

Many Legendary Pokemon resided in the Box. They ranged from powerful Pokemon like the sky serpent Rayquaza or the frozen heart, Kyurem, but today, one of those Legendary Pokemon was doing a bit of training, as another training dummy was torn apart by a powerful Mist Ball blasting through its core. 

“Alright, another one broken apart in a single blow! With this kind of power, I’m sure to be the star performer in our next battle!” One very excited Latias was flying loop de loops around the lake she was practicing at. Seemingly, battle training was going well. Latias turned towards her training partner, Slowbro, for a response. “...Well, cmon, that was good, wasn’t it?”

Slowbro scratched his head, seemingly only having just registered the fact Latias was training in the first place. “It was… cool. I enjoyed when you… attacked it…” 

“Cool!?” Latias flew right up into Slowbro’s face. “Only cool !? Cmon Slowbro, that was more than cool! That was terrific! Excellent! Look at that dummy over there!” Slowbro moved past Latias’ overbearing face, looking at the now thoroughly demolished training dummy. Despite the resemblance to Wobbuffet, it certainly wasn’t able to take that hit. 

“...Yeah, it was… terrific… excellent…all of that times… yawn , five…” Slowbro trailed off, seeming satisfied with that response, scratching an itch on his stomach, going back to what he loved most: Staring off blankly into space. However, Latias was having none of it. 

“Come ON Slowbro! How are we ever going to prove ourselves if we don’t get as strong as we can!?” Seeing as he wasn’t paying attention, Latias attempted to corral him into action a bit more thoroughly. “Look, Slowbro, just… work with me a little, alright?” No response came from Slowbro. Latias sighed, welling up her voice to yell as loud as she could. “Sharpedo on your left!” Slowbro immediately snapped out of his daze and glanced around absentmindedly. 

Slowbro paused for a moment. “Where?” Slowbro seemed as confused as ever. Latias facepalmed. 

“That was a bluff you doofus. Help me out here, I need you to listen to me.” 

“Sure. I’m all ears. What is it?”

Latias took no time explaining the problem. “Look, you know how our trainer uses Latios to completely clean house whenever we battle in the Battle Tower?” Slowbro nodded. “Well, I figured, if I could train my attacks to be as strong as they could be, maybe I could, you know, get into that same kind of position as him: Super strong and dependable and all that. And then I’ll outclass him completely, and then all of the Legendaries may finally start respecting me as being as strong as them! And then I’ll be super cool and-” Slowbro blinked a few times, before choosing to interrupt her rambling.  

“But you’re pretty cool to me Latias. Aren’t you overreacting a bit?” 

“They didn’t invite me to the Legendary Pokemon Battle Bash! They told me I did attend the party, but I never received an invite! It was obviously them singling me out! Seriously, first that green Latios doesn’t like me, and now this! Clearly a lack of respect, and-”

“Who was delivering the invitations?”, interrupted Slowbro.

“Ditto, why?” Latias paused for a moment, seemingly realizing something. She muttered some curses under breath before continuing. “Ok, so, moving on, as I was saying, I need to one up that Latios!” 

“Didn’t that Latios say he didn’t like you because you kept bugging him about his family life?”

“Look, how else do you expect me to start off a healthy relationship with him? That guy’s just overreacting” 

“This relationship is anything but healthy….” Slowbro yawned. 

Latias turned around. “What was that?” Slowbro feigned ignorance as Latias continued what she was talking about before. “Well look, you saw my power, there’s no topping that! Why won’t anyone see that? Maybe next time our trainer looks in this box, he’ll see that I’m fit for becoming the next offensive machine on his team, not that cucumber wannabe.” 

“But aren’t you our support?” 

Ignoring that comment, Latias continued. “And then one day, we’ll receive the proper praise we deserve.” 

“But do we really need that?”

“What do you mean? Isn’t that kind of the point of us battling?” 

Slowbro yawned again, sitting down. “That’s something you should ask Gastrodon, I’m sleepy-”

“Come onnnnnnnn Slowbro. Just sit me down and explain it to me, alright?” Slowbro looked to her and back. He yawned again.

“Well, you see… what Gastrodon always says is to have fun, and that’s always been my philosophy. When I battle, I find it fun. I just don’t see the point in getting all worked up over something like this when you could be yawn …. Sleeping, or relaxing.” 

“There’s no time to relax while that pasty skygrazer is stealing my thunder, Slowbro! I’ll only rest once I manage to usurp that top spot.”

“Well, if that’s the case… then have a good time being support in your next Battle Tower…. attempt…” Slowbro began snoring, signaling that he had finally fallen asleep. 

“Slowbro? Was that sass I detected there? You better not expect me to… Slowbro? Slowbro! Slowbro!? Can you hear me…. Wake up you dolt!” She began lightly battering Slowbro. “Give me actual answers here! Slowbro!”

Chapter Text

“So, do any of us have any ideas here?” This voice came in the form of Cinccino. He was standing next to a well, alongside Golurk, Latios, Sandslash, and Mantine. 

“Admittedly, I’ve got nothing.” replied Golurk. Latios, Sandslash, and Mantine mumbled in agreement. 

“Well we aren’t getting him out if we can’t think of anything.” Cinccino was referring to Gigalith, who had tripped on a rock and fell into the well. (“How is anybody’s guess”, said Sandslash, also tripping on a rock) The group had gathered to brainstorm attempts to get Gigalith out of there. 

“Ok, so, here me out here.” piped up Mantine. “We have Latios fly down there and pick him up.” Latios scoffed. 

“I am not going down there.” His emerald green body radiated in the sun with anxiousness. 

“Why not? Does it look like any of us can fly like you can?” 

“Well, it’s just… I sense a lot of cobwebs down there… and it’s a bit freaky, and…” 

“Look,” replied Golurk. “Just go down there, quick in and out, pick him up and get him out, alright?” 

“Nope, still not doing it.” 

Cinccino smirked. “Don’t worry guys, let me handle this.” Cinccino motioned over to Latios, sidling up to him until Cinccino was dead in his face. With a wide smile, he said; “If you don’t do it, then I suppose I may as well get Latias…” A visible change could be registered on Latios’ face. . 

“Oh, haha yeah.” said Sandslash. “She always wants to do something Latios can’t so she can finally one-up him, I’m sure she’d be over the moon about this opportunity.” Latios was beginning to get anxious. 

Mantine continued on. “Oooooo, and I’m sure she wouldn’t stop bragging about that for months-” 

“I’ll do it! Lemme at 'em!” Latios was now filled with a visible drive. Nothing was getting between him and Gigalith. Cinccino smirked at a job well done. 

“Works every time.” said Sandslash, whispering to Mantine. Golurk had begun making motions to lecture Latios. 

“Alright, just go straight down…” Latios nodded. “And once you’ve secured him, come back up.” 

“Alright.” 

“Good, ready? Go!” Latios immediately darted down into the well. A moment of silence passed. And then another. And then it continued. After a while, the others began to get concerned, until they heard something from the bottom of the well. 

“Hey, guys? You still up there?” 

“Yep, we can hear you loud and clear, Latios!” cried Cinccino. “What’s taking so long?” 

“I, uh….” There was a noticeable pause. “...May have gotten my wing stuck on a rock.” 

“Oh dear Arceus.” Golurk had his hand on his face, clearly disappointed.  

“I-It’s only a minor setback! I’ll be out in no time!” 

“And we don’t have time for your minor setback, Latios!” Cinccino sighed. “Great, now what?” 

Golurk piped up this time. “Perhaps we could try a pulley system? Gigalith grabs the rope and I pull it up.”

“What about Latios?” inquired Sandslash.

“He can handle himself. For now, Gigalith is our top priority.” 

“Right.” Mantine nodded. 

“Now, does anyone have a piece of rope?” 

“I can go get Pinsir and have her make some rope out of silk for us.” replied Cinccino. 

“Pinsir can do that?” Golurk pondered for a moment. “Whatever, just go get her, quickly.” 

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

“You know, this is getting to be really sad.” 

Pinsir had arrived, and was already insulting the group. Latios had still not gotten himself freed from the rock, and thus, vicious mockery was ensuing on Pinsir’s front. 

“I just hope Gigalith’s still alright down there.” Cinccino turned to Pinsir. “Please, make us some thread to use as a rope and we’ll be out of your hair.” Pinsir sighed.

“Fine, but you owe me for this.” 

“Gigalith owes Pinsir for this, not us.” replied Sandslash. 

Pinsir managed to quickly make the necessary amount of silk, impressing even Cinccino. Golurk fashioned it into a makeshift rope, and threw it into the hole. 

“Gigalith! If you hear me down there, grab on to this!” Only silence came from the hole, but soon, a tug was felt on the other end as Golurk began to pull. “Excellent, Gigalith must be on the other end. Pinsir, aid me with pulling this, Gigalith is heftier than I was anticipating.” 

“Looks like someone ate too much for breakfast.” snickered Mantine. 

Golurk (And a reluctant Pinsir) soon began to tug and tug Gigalith up. It was a slow but steady process, yet the two were making good headway. However, as they neared the end of the rope, they found it was not pulling any farther. 

“Cinccino, the rope seems to be stuck!” 

“What!? That can’t be right.” He turned to the hole. “Latios! Can you hear me down there!?”

“Yep!” Latios yelled, from the depths of the hole. 

“What’s the status of our rope?”

“Well,” began Latios, “The rope is certainly working, and Gigalith is attached…” 

“Yes, and?”

“...And it got stuck to a rock.”

“You have got to be kidding.” Pinsir, now thoroughly exhausted, was having none of this. “Good day to you all, I am not dealing with the rest of this.” She dropped the rope, causing Golurk to lose balance. The sound of the rope snapping could be heard, and soon after, the sound of a large object hitting the bottom of the well could be heard, which was then followed by the sound of Golurk now plummeting into the well and hitting the bottom himself. 

“And then there were three.” decried Mantine. 

Cinccino was furious. “ So. ” He glared maliciously at Mantine and Sandslash, a dark and intimidating shadow covering his face. “I hope either of you two has a great idea right about now, or else I know who else is joining those three imbeciles in that well.”  He may have still been smiling, but both Mantine and Sandslash slunk back at the look of pure hatred in his eyes. 

“I, er, well… I have been thinking of something… might be stupid .” Mantine paused for a moment, waiting for Cinccino’s impending fury to act before making a decision. Cinccino simply stood quiet, waiting for a description, allowing Mantine the go ahead. “Well, um… I was, er, thinking, what if we flooded the well? Then I could dive down, pick up Gigalith and Golurk, and swim back up.” 

“You have the brute strength to pick up Gigalith?” 

“You don’t know much about me, Sandslash.” 

Cinccino continued glaring before letting up. “Seeing as we don’t have many options… alright. Just, make sure to stop before the water reaches Latios, unlike the other two, I sure as heck know he can’t breathe underwater.” 

“Fine, fine…” grumbled Mantine. “Just let me get going on this, it’s going to take a little while.”

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

“Alrighty, that should be enough.” Mantine had continuously poured water into the well for a very long time now. As expected, things were going fine, as the water now reached the level they needed. “Latios, you still alive down there?”

“Yes, can you at least throw me some bread down or something? I’m getting hungry down here-” 

“Alrighty, here I go!” Mantine leaped into the well, diving headfirst into the water as Sandslash and Cinccino regarded from afar. 

“You think this will work?”, asked Sandslash.

“I hope so. I have no other ideas left after this, and if this fails, I’d better expect you to come up with a new one, or else you’ll wake up to a very nasty surprise in your bed when you go to sleep tonight.” Cinccino capped that off with a smile and a giggle, deeply disturbing Sandslash to his very core. 

The two waited for a while, and then they waited a little while longer. “Ok, I’m just going to check on them before we sit here waiting for half an hour only to discover something stupid happened.” Cinccino walked towards the well and yelled down. “Latios, how’s Mantine doing down there?” 

“Not well.” 

“Why, what happened?”

“She may or may not have gotten stuck on a rock.” 

“Oh dear Arceus, why do I leave these tasks to you imbeciles I swear to-” He caught himself before he could say anything more vulgar, as he slowly began turning around. “Sandslash. You better have an idea or els-” Unfortunately for Cinccino and fortunately for Sandslash, he had already dug away from the scene in order to escape Cinccino’s wrath. Cinccino audibly growled. “I swear, no one can get anything done around here-”

“I’d certainly like to see you try, Cinccino.” yelled Latios from the depths of the well. 

“Oh yeah!? Well, I’ll… er, do… um…” Cinccino was thoroughly stumped. 

“See? Knew you couldn’t do anything. Now if you could please get me some food, I am absolutely famished right now-” 

“What is happening here? I have sensed a great disturbance from afar.” Seemingly materializing from thin air was none other than Alakazam. 

“Oh! Alakazam, it’s horrible! These imbeciles can’t do anything right!” 

Alakazam nodded. “Oh, and what have these supposed “imbeciles” done?” Cinccino didn’t like his shrewd tone. 

“Well, Gigalith tripped and fell into a well, and then Latios got stuck on a rock, and then Golurk got pulled into the well because Pinsir is a doofus, and then Mantine flooded it and got stuck on ANOTHER ROCK-” 

Alakazam simply moved forward, and began focusing his spoons. “So, you’d say there’s about four Pokemon down there?” 

“Uh, yep, that’d be righ-” As soon as he began his sentence, Alakazam became surrounded by a pinkish glow, and soon thereafter came Latios, followed by Mantine, Golurk, and finally, Gigalith, who were all promptly plucked out of the hole by Alakazam’s psychic abilities and thrown into a disorganized pile off to the side. 

“That was rather simple. I hope you all have an excellent day.” Alakazam teleported away, leaving Cinccino dumbfounded. 

“Are you seriously telling me-”

“Yep, we could’ve done that the whole time,” said Mantine.

“And WHY , didn’t we think of that?” 

“Well, er…” began Golurk, “I suppose it just… didn’t cross our minds?”

Cinccino had reached a breaking point. “I am done with all of you. Goodnight, I hope you all have horrible nightmares.” As Cinccino ran off, the others had begun righting themselves.

“Well,” Golurk began, “Me and Gigalith are soaked, so we’re going to head home and get ourselves dry. Good day.” The two departed as he finished saying that, leaving Latios and Mantine. 

“You know, Latios…” 

“Yeah?”

“Aren’t you a Psychic type? Couldn’t you have just done that to begin with?” 

Latios looked away with disdain. “I have enough of a migraine as is after I had to help that idiot Klefki set up some rocks around here earlie-” Latios stopped mid sentence as he realized what he said. 

“Wait a second, what do you mean rocks?” 

“Oops, gotta dash, feeling rather peckish, catch you later!” Latios dashed off in an emerald blur, leaving Mantine in a trail of dust. 

“Wait, Latios, what did you- Latiooooosssssss!”

Chapter Text

“What’s wrong Corviknight? You’re looking rather nervous for some reason.” This statement came from Lugia, who’s amethyst body had fluttered down from the sky after noticing Corviknight sitting on a log, seemingly in distress. 

Corviknight, the other half of the equation, was looking half petrified, straight ahead, towards the beach. She was half scared out of her wits. Lugia sat down next to her and tried to inquire as to what was wrong. 

“Hello? Earth to Corviknight? Anyone home?” Lugia lightly nudged her, seemingly snapping her out of her trance briefly. She frantically looked about everywhere before noticing Lugia.

“Er, uh, Lugia. Sorry about that. I was… well… see for yourself.” She pointed at what she had been staring at with her wing. Lugia glanced towards it and saw something it never could have expected.

“Tinkaton? You’re scared of Tinkaton? What’s wrong with her?” Tinkaton was standing idly about on the beach up ahead, its pink form not moving an inch, but was staring straight at Corviknight with an innocent smile that Lugia could only determine as some form of malice. 

“Let me start from the beginning, Lugia.” She turned to it, beginning her recital. “...Way back when I was a small Rookidee in Galar, I’d heard legends about the Tinkaton. The hammer beasts, and pink devils. They’re like boogeymen to us, even if they aren’t native to the region from whence I grew up. They’d knock us out of the sky and relentlessly assault us, for no reason other than they found it fun. They were the most perfect predator to our kind. I dismissed it as superstition for some time, but then I heard the horror stories from that gray Corviknight who came over from Paldea recently…” Corviknight shuddered. “I don’t think I wish to repeat verbally what it had to experience from that pink menace. And that’s not to mention the fact that it’s been following me and pelting me with rocks every which way… and giving me that look… it’s disconcerting.”

Lugia chuckled. “I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding. Tinkaton most likely doesn’t realize that you two aren’t natural enemies here. If you talk to Tinkaton, you might be able to clear things up. We are all friends here now, and the Paldean Pokemon are rather new to the Boxes… so if you could explain your side, it might stop pelting you with rocks.”

“It won’t. I know it won’t. Those eyes are that of a cold hearted killer.” 

“Well, how about, if I come with you, I can protect you if things do go wrong. How does that sound?” 

But before Corviknight could respond, something caught both of their attention from the beach.

“Is that Garganacl over there?” inquired Lugia.

“Wonder what he’s here for…” 

Garganacl seemed to stop and converse with Tinkaton for a moment, before seemingly raising its arms up in some form of panic. Tinkaton raised its hand and closed one eye, seemingly trying to figure out an angle. And before any of Garganacl, Corviknight, or Lugia could react, Tinkaton sent it flying. 

“Dear goodness! It sent that hefty Pokemon catapulting away! I suppose you may not be half incorrect with your assertion, Corviknight.”

“....”

“....”

“Is it just me, Corviknight, or is Garganacl getting closer towards us?”

Chapter Text

“So… you have legs.”

“Yep.”

“And a tail.”

“Yepperino.”

“And you’re speaking with modern day slang even though you come from who knows how long ago.”

“Yessiree. I’d say that’s totally “tubular”, as you fellas put it.”

“Yeah, I’m practically over one thousand years old, and even I’m not saying stuff like that. I really need to have you learn how to speak normally from someone formal… perhaps Dusknoir or Lugia would be good candidates?”

“Those dudes sound totally radical, bro. Any chance we could “hit them up” sometime, man?” 

“Oh dear Arceus, what has been unleashed upon this world?”

Chapter Text

In a far off river of the forests, lay a scene that quite encapsulated happiness in its purest form. Within the flowing waters lay Eevee, playing in the aquatic stream. She was splish-splashing about, and playing with some new friends of hers, Dracovish and Parasect. Quite literally, in fact, as she was splashing water on both of them, enjoying a very fun water war. 

“Come on Eevee, cut that out, the water tickles!” cried Dracovish, splashing water onto Eevee as a form of retribution. As she was pounded by the blistering cold wave, she giggled profusely.

“Nuh-uh, this is too fun!” She splashed water onto Dracovish again, as he too laughed. She eyed Parasect, who was standing off to the side, staring blankly at the two. “Come on Parasect, join in!” yelled Eevee, splashing water on Parasect. Parasect simply stood, unmoving. 

“You realize I cannot partake in any form of emotion nor tangible feeling, correct?” 

“Come on Parasect, lighten up a little, at least have some fun!”

“I do not really feel “fun”, Eevee.” Parasect shook from side to side to remove water, as Eevee went back to playing with Dracovish, dismayed. As she took measures to drown Dracovish in a surprise torrent of liquid, she was caught off guard from the side. Turning to see who had splashed her, she spied Parasect, feigning ignorance. Eevee giggled as both she and Dracovish began to happily splash Parasect, as Parasect, too, began to fire back at them. 

However, as the happy times of the afternoon soon faded into sunset, the three had tuckered themselves out. 

“I’m sad you guys have to go… even if I’m… kinda sleepy… yawn …” She rubbed her eye as Dracovish smiled.

“Don’t worry about it kid, we can play again reeaaalll soon. But we gotta head home for now, we’re just as tired as you are.”

“I may feel nothing but eternal agony, but I admit, that was a somewhat pleasant experience. Thank you, little one,” added Parasect, seemingly having become content to some degree from the playtime.

“You sure you’ll be fine walking home, kid?” inquired Dracovish. Eevee smiled from ear to ear. 

“I’ll be fine guys! I’m not that tired.” 

“If you say so, then. Come on Parasect, let’s get going.” The two waved goodbye and departed, leaving Eevee alone by the river.  She huddled down in dismay by a rock, saddened by the departure of her compatriots. 

However, another presence soon made itself known as it began to form from the water of the river. As Eevee stared wide eyed, the newfound apparition took shape, revealing itself to be none other than Vaporeon. Eevee recoiled at the sudden appearance. 

“Hello, Eevee. How have you been? It’s been a while.” 

“You’re the big scary guy from the council meeting!” She began to quiver. “Oh no…. Did I do something bad? Was I in a bad part of the woods the whole time? Did I-” 

Vaporeon calmly walked up and put a single paw to Eevee’s lips. Eevee quieted down, and Vaporeon backed off. 

“Relax, Eevee. I’m not here on any strictly serious business. And I’m not here to punish you for breaking the rules or anything. But I should ask, why am I suddenly scary now? I never even spoke during the meeting you were introduced to us at!” 

Eevee cowered back. Seeing the reaction, Vaporeon decided to change the subject. 

“Well, I suppose I should explain why I actually came to visit you. I noticed you were rather uncomfortable when you first arrived, so I took the opportunity to contact Dusknoir and ask about you a little more thoroughly.” He paused as Eevee continued to whimper. “He told me you were given to our trainer as a gift, and that you were alone most of your life. Am I correct?” Eevee nodded. 

“Y-yeah, t-that’s right,” Eevee sputtered out. A look of guilt crossed Vaporeon’s face. 

“I’m sorry if I’m scaring you, Eevee. I just came to tell you I understand how hard it is.” Vaporeon motioned towards Eevee. “You don’t mind if I come a little closer and tell you a story, do you?” Eevee shook her head. “Good. Then allow me to start from the beginning.” Vaporeon moved a little closer, resting a foot away from Eevee.

“My trainer first met me way back when in the Kanto region. His journey was still in his infancy by then, and I was also, quite literally, in my infancy. Celadon City was the place we met, though I’m not sure if you’ve heard of it.” Eevee shook her head. “It was a magnificent city, full of towering buildings and lush, green vegetation. It was my home, when I was little. I never could quite replace that view, from the high rise of the apartment building, with anything else.” 

Eevee looked up at Vaporeon with a look of wonder, as Vaporeon continued his explanation.

“...Back then, I was still an Eevee. I was part of a large litter. My old trainer struggled to take care of us. We were all little handfuls, ha ha, all of us were. Ah…. memories.” Eevee had moved a little closer now, curiosity dotting her face. 

“So what happened?” 

Vaporeon began again. “Well, our trainer couldn’t afford to take care of the whole litter. So he was forced to split us up, and give us to trainers who wanted us. Eevee are a rather rare Pokemon, so he knew he could ensure good homes for us. He didn’t really want to do this, but he had to.” Vaporeon paused a moment before continuing. “And that’s how I met our trainer. He was one of the lucky ones who was given a member of our litter. I remember being so downtrodden at being separated from my family, and given to a random stranger. I was just as shy and scared as you were back then. But he took care of me well. He even made me a part of his main team.” 

“S-so, you’re… like me, then? You were given to him as well?” 

“Yep, exactly.” 

“Wow….” Eevee looked up with wonder, mouth agape, as Vaporeon chuckled. “B-but, it kind of makes me wonder… Why did you choose to become a Vaporeon?” 

“My trainer asked me one day about evolution. He needed a Water type Pokemon in order to explore the oceans, and thus, I evolved into a Vaporeon to fulfill that role. And I must say, it definitely worked out well.” Seeing Eevee nodding, he continued. “It wasn’t like I had no choice. He asked if I wanted to, and I chose to do it. And you want to know why?” Eevee nodded, along, groggily. “Because I was a part of a family, properly. The Pokemon on his team at the time… they were like a second family to me. And I wanted to help them out, my newfound family.” 

“Was, yawn … Charizard, one of them?” 

“Ha ha, yep. Charizard was the leader of the bunch, even back then. None of us could even hope to rival his power, even me, the Water type Pokemon, couldn’t hope to defeat him. But that’s besides the point. What I’m getting at here Eevee, is that I was just like you. I was given to our trainer, and found a new family, and even got to forge my own path. And now, the same decision lies upon you. You have an even bigger family than I could ever have hoped for back then, and now, your own destiny awaits. You can make it however you want to, and it all comes down to your decision.” 

Eevee had moved closer to Vaporeon, and was practically lying on him like a cushion. Barely keeping awake, Eevee asked one last question.

“But, what about your old family? I don’t… I don’t want to leave you guys behind… yawn …”

“My old family…?” Vaporeon thought for a moment, before giving Eevee his answer. “...Well, once our trainer figured out my past a bit more, he went and took me back to see my old trainer sometimes for little visits. I even reunited with a few of my siblings in the field, with other trainers, and I go and visit them sometimes.” Vaporeon looked at Eevee with a look of happiness and determination. “Because that’s the thing, Eevee. You must never forget your roots. To forge your own path, you need something to build it with. I never forgot one day of my time with my old trainer, and I’ll never forget one day with my current one. And, one day, Eevee, we might even be able to reunite with some of your siblings, just like I did mine. So, for me, please… never forget where you came from.”

Eevee lay on Vaporeon, staring for a moment, before delivering her answer. 

“Can we do it… together?” 

“H-huh?” Vaporeon was taken aback by Eevee’s response. 

Eevee reiterated. “I… want to do it… yawn , with you…”

Vaporeon paused, realizing the full gravity of what she was asking. He smiled at the bundled up pile of fur in his lap.“If you’ll let me, Eevee, then I’d be happy to.” 

“That sounds… good…” Eevee began to drift off into a magnanimous slumber, but before she took the plunge into dreams, she asked Vaporeon a question. 

“While I’m here… can we be… family?” Vaporeon was surprised for a moment, but his surprise soon faded into happiness. 

“Of course, Eevee. If that’s what you want.” Eevee smiled, content. 

“Then we can play together… tomorrow… big bro…” Eevee finally fell into a deep slumber, resting against Vaporeon. As Eevee rested, Vaporeon contemplated the role that Eevee had now thrust upon him. An older brother… 

Well one thing’s for sure, Vaporeon knew that he was going to help Eevee find her own path, and where she wanted to go. Just as Eevee tried to determine her path, he was going to make this his. Where that path would take them, he had nary an idea, but he was going to make sure the path they took was going to be a good one. No matter what.

Chapter Text

He flew over the vast environments of the box with a breakneck speed. The simulated skies… they were nothing like home. The clouds may be the same, the sky coated in a crystal clear blue… but it all felt wrong. 

A different sky… even more alien than the one he had awoken in after such a long slumber…

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

“Your fossil is back to life! It’s Aerodactyl, like I think!” 

The place where he awoke…. The lights… they hurt his eyes. It was so utterly… foreign…. What was that tube he had awoken in? What was the place he was in now? Where was home? Where were the skies? Where was he?

No sooner than had he begun to think, he was sucked into a strange void. He didn’t know at first what it was… but he was sent into an environment resembling home. 

Maybe it was all a bad dream, he thought. I suppose that I must be home. 

But no sooner had he thought that, than had he realized the place he was in… filled with grassy fields and bushy plants, humid climates and wide open skies… was nothing but an illusion. He messed with all of it… and yet none of it felt exactly like it was meant to… it was all wrong.

Where am I?

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

“Thanks for the help Aerodactyl! Your claws are always great for moving around all of this heavy lumber!”

“It’s no problem, Cinccino. I’m always happy to help. Get me if you need anything more.”

“Will do, thank you so much!”

And so Aerodactyl flew into the sky once again. He had grown accustomed to everybody in the long time he was here. He knew many, and he was happy. But no matter where he flew… he could never shake the feeling that he never belonged. He recalled times where he had wandered the modern world with his trainer… and all the Pokemon surrounding him looked at him like he was a freak show… something that shouldn’t exist. And he knew it. He was an abnormality. 

Though in all fairness, that was how he had looked at them the first time around. 

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

“Wow, this guy sure has a ferocious temperament!” 

“Won’t listen to a word we say, huh?” 

“I’m surprised our trainer even let him in for this training session.”

They all mocked him. The feared warrior of the skies, a beast that could not be tamed… and yet, he was forced to sit through their vicious scorn. All while trapped in a world he could not define. Strange balls that kept you contained… devices he could never have even dreamt of persisted everywhere… and worst of all, strangers he could never have imagined constantly surrounded him. Beasts of all sorts… Where were the prey he had feasted on at home? Had such a long time passed that they were gone? 

Was his kind also gone?

“Come on, you big bird thingy, hit me with your best shot!” And there was his opponent… a strange pink blob, with a very long tongue… was this some form of cruel punishment? Being forced to endure such lowly opponents? 

He roared with prehistoric fury as he dove to sink his fangs in his opponent. He would feast on them tonight. 

But his fangs felt nothing. He had just kept going. Where was the tongue creature? 

And then he felt it. Gripping his tail, something cold and slimy. And he knew what it meant as he was thrown into the ground behind him. And soon he was tossed into the sky above, helpless to the incoming assault. 

He should be happy. The sky was his home. 

But not now. Not anymore. The sky didn’t feel the same as before. For him, there was no home.

And all he could feel as he crashed to the ground in defeat was pain… and humiliation. 

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

“And the winner is… that trainer and Aerodactyl!” 

Another battle won, without much effort, either. As former ruler of the skies, he had nothing to worry about. His strength far exceeded anything his opponents could throw at him. He’d never lose to anything or anyone again. He had to appear strong. He had to be strong. He couldn’t be anything else.

His trainer hugged him, gave him a treat to celebrate the victory, and back in his ball he went. The environment inside still didn’t feel any less fake. He missed the world as it used to be. How much simpler things were back then.

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

“Hey, are you doing alright, Aerodactyl?”

“Shut up and leave me alone. Why are you here?” 

“H-hey now, that’s no way to talk to your new teammate.”

“You aren’t my teammate. None of you are. I have never needed anyone before, and I certainly don’t need anyone now.”

A silence passed over him and his visitor, one that echoed a thousand words. And soon enough, he caved.

“What do you want?”

“I came to check in on you.”

“I am a ferocious beast! I have no need for a “check in!” I don’t need any of yo-”

“Your eyes.”

“What?”

“Your eyes… They tell a different story. You may look intimidating, but your eyes… They are a pathway to your soul. And in them… I see fear.” He turned his head aside in shame and disgust. “... I heard you were revived from a fossil. And I know you’re lost, and alone, in a world that isn’t like anything you’ve ever seen-”

“And what would you know of that?”

“What?”

“You weren’t there! You never experienced what I felt!”

“I might not have, and I may not understand as you say… but in a situation like this… everyone needs a helping hand.” His visitor offered up his own hand. A sign of allegiance.

He stood for a moment, considering, before he gave in, and shook his hand. 

“Don’t make me regret this.”

“I’ll make sure you won’t. Now, tell me, what do you want to learn first?” 

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

“Do you remember the world we used to be a part of, Dracovish?”

It thought for a moment, considering it, before giving his response.

“Sort of. I remember it was wet… and there was a lot of water. And I remember that I miss it.”

“Do you ever feel like you want to go back?” 

“Not really.”

“How come?”

“Well, I’m happy here. I’ve got all the friends I could ask for, including you. And in truth, it’s much more peaceful than the struggle I had to deal with back then.” 

He stopped to consider this. Why would you not want to go home? It’s… home. The place where they belonged. Sure, he may have friends now, but… 

“I can tell you’ve been considering a lot, Aerodactyl.”

“Huh?” 

“I’d talk to you a bit more, but I’ve got a playdate with Eevee I’ve got to attend. She apparently brought Mienshao with, and we all know how that’s going to go. How about you go talk to Charizard? I’m sure he can help.” 

He stood still as Dracovish sauntered off. That Pokemon… Charizard… he respected him, but there was nothing more to it than that. Charizard had tried to help him in the past… but how would he help him now?

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

“Lickitung, Power Whip! Aerodactyl, Iron Head!” 

The two attacks made contact with their foes, and soon they were knocked out stone cold into the back wall. They had won, together. 

“That was a good job out there, earlier,” said Lickitung. The battle had long since ended, and their “trainer’s” whole “team” was now “partying” together. All except for him, who remained perched upon a tree, far from the action. And now Lickitung had come to get him, trying to show some form of compassion. Ha! He would never approach that devil’s spawn as anything more than a strong ally. 

“Go back to the others, you blabbering fiend. I have no need for any of you.” 

“Well we certainly have a need for you.”

He paused. Why would this lumbering oaf have any need of him, who had belittled and insulted them? One who had personally been beaten to a pulp by the tongued demon… Why would it show compassion to him?

“I don’t think you really understand, Aerodactyl. Charizard’s told us all about you. We understand your pain, Aerodactyl. Maybe not entirely, maybe not one hundred percent. But we’re here to help.” 

“Are you, now?”

“Yes, now come on, the party’s getting hot! Vaporeon tried balancing Weezing on his head, and-”

And no sooner was that sentence uttered, that a great crash was heard from the site of the party, with both Vaporeon and Weezing having fallen into a heap. And the whole group laughed and cheered for the two who had fallen, all in the great spirit of fun. Lickitung had already dashed off to assess the damage, leaving Aerodactyl to himself. 

And to the knowledge of no one, he was smiling, under the shade of the tree. And soon he found that he was chuckling to himself.

Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to join in, after all. 

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

He found Charizard lying down on a small hill. He sure hoped he wasn’t disturbing anything, but Charizard beat him to the punch before he could worry about a thing.

“Ah, if it isn’t Aerodactyl! It’s great to see you! How’s it been?”

“I’m not here for small talk, Charizard. I had a question, and Dracovish suggested you to me.”

“Oh, and what would your question be?”

“I had asked him this: Did he ever miss home?”

“I see, so that’s your problem.” 

The two sat in silence, for a moment. He couldn’t help but recall the first time he had talked with Charizard. That truly was a moment that had changed him forever… and it was why he was honored to call Charizard a… close associate. 

Charizard finally interrupted the prolonged silence. “Well, to me, it seems as though you’re homesick.”

“Exactly. I miss the feelings I felt back then. All the recreations feel fake… it just makes me feel even more lost.”

“Hmmm…. Have you tried contacting Celebi? That might be of use to you.”

“You know as well as I do that our trainer wouldn’t let us out of his sight, and he especially wouldn’t approve of us going several million years to the past.”

“Well, then I can’t help you with anything related to going back home.”

He should’ve expected this. Charizard was good… but he wasn’t a miracle worker. He had no further need for this conversation, now. He had to fly off and try to see if maybe, just maybe, he could try remembering how it used to feel, back when he could fly above the jungles, and-

“Now, Aerodactyl, let me posit a bit of advice on you.”

“Huh?”

“To me, home isn’t the place where I was raised. I see it as a home, but I don’t feel tied to it.”

“But why not? It was the place where you were born, certainly it should be your closest tie!” 

“Because, Aerodactyl… home to me isn’t just about where it is… but about who it’s with. I see this place as home, because the Pokemon I call family are here as well. Pokemon like Vaporeon, Nidoking, Lickitung… you. You’re all my family, my closest friends. They say home is where the heart is, and to me, this place is where my heart resides.” 

Home was where… the heart was? But his heart was at his own home, with the bountiful skies and the vibrant greens! He could see it clearly… home…

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

The wind flowed through his wings. The sounds of Pokemon on the move below filled his ears, and he couldn’t be happier. He looked down from above, spying all the beautiful creations below him. The vast jungles, the rocky cliffs, and the inhabitants below, and soon, he’d be off to Cinccino’s to help carry some lumber, and-

Oh, right, Cinccino wasn’t here. Oh well, at least he didn’t have to carry lumber anymore. He was free to have fun by himself. And he knew who with! He could go ask Dracovish for a race, or perhaps see if Lickitung was free for a spar! And it would be a great experience for all-

Oh, wait. They didn’t exist here. Well, then, who did? The Tyrunt? No, he ate those for breakfast. A Relicanth? No, they didn’t like talking to him. A Lileep? No, those were his lunch. 

Who did he have?

Who was there who could actually understand him… when he was home? 

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

"Thanks again Aerodactyl, your aid is all I could ever ask for.”

“It’s no problem, Cinccino. Though… I do wonder what you’re planning on using all of this lumber for.”

“Haha, that’s my secret!” Cinccino shot him a wink, to which Aerodactyl just shrugged.

“Oh well, keep your secrets then.” Cinccino simply laughed. 

“Hahaha! You won’t be getting a peep out of me!” 

“Well, if that’s all you need, I’ll be off then-”

As Aerodactyl got ready to fly off, he was halted by Cinccino yelling at him to wait. 

“Wait! Aerodactyl! I just… I was wondering if I could ask you something.”

“And what would that be?” 

“Are you down for coming to my place for some desserts around five-ish tonight?” 

“I’m not quite sure what you mean by being “down,” but why would I want deserts? What did I do for them?”

“Haha!” Cinccino began laughing at him. “You’re silly, you know that?”

“I’m… what now?”  

“Come on, surely someone as smart as you should realize it’s a reward for all the hard work you’ve done for me. I even had Alcremie and Wigglytuff whip up some stuff for it.”

“Well, I’m certainly not opposed… but…” 

“Great, it’s settled then!” 

“But wait just a minute! Won’t it be… you know, “stuffy,” if I’m using that term correctly? Just you watching me eat desserts for several minutes?”

Cinccino thought for a moment.

“I suppose you’re right. I guess I may have ordered a few too many, as well…” Cinccino continued thinking, until an idea struck him. “I know! You can invite some pals of yours!”

“Some… pals of mine?” 

“Yep, it’ll be fun with some company!” 

“Well, alright then. I suppose I could invite some… associates.” 

“So it’s settled then!... Have I already said that one? Oh well. Meet me by my place around five with your friends, and we’ll have a great big ball! Seeya then!” 

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

Oh, what had he gotten himself into? 

Friends… he didn’t have friends. He didn’t need them. When he was home, he never needed them… they weren’t… they’ll never be… 

…Well, there was nothing wrong with inviting some Pokemon he had a strong… respect for. They could enjoy themselves. After all, it was technically his treat as well as Cinccino’s. They would enjoy it. 

And then he could take the opportunity to slip away. They wouldn’t care that he was gone once they were in the heat of the action. 

…

No, they wouldn’t. Wouldn’t care at all. 

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

“So, you did manage to catch up to me? Impressive.”

This… Dracovish, certainly was an adequate racing partner. Especially so given Charizard’s absence. That Pokemon was so busy… oh well. It wouldn’t stop him from showing off his strength. Now if only the other Pokemon would stay for more than one of them… 

“I’m no slouch, you half formed abomination.” 

“Hey! Rude!” 

“I believe you were the one who started this by calling me a, and I quote, “living rock with back problems.” 

Dracovish laughed. That’s curious. Why would it laugh? He had insulted it. Belittled it. Torn its delicate ego apart like leaves. Any lesser Pokemon would have run away crying for its mother by now after this disappointing of a performance. Why was it laughing?

“Stop that ruckus! What is the meaning of this!?” 

“Haha, sorry, sorry, it’s just… what you said… It was pretty funny.” 

Funny? How was he funny? He had simply said the truth about its appearance. 

“I don’t follow.” Dracovish laughed again.

“Oh come on, your use of sarcasm was top notch!”

“Sarcasm? …Oh, never mind.” 

He turned to fly away. There was no need to deal with the… confusing matters of these Pokemon. But what a shame. He would need to find a new racing partner so soon after the last one… he had hoped it would last more than one go. Replacing Charizard truly was a tall order. 

“Wait!” That oaf again. What did it want?

“What is it? Speak quickly.”

“Could we…. Race again sometime?”

“Race… again?” But why? He had mocked it, defeated it over and over, and it still wanted more? How was this possible?

“Yeah, race again. It was fun! I haven’t had a challenge that good in a while!” 

“...Fun? You find fun in sport?”

“Yep! It’s not only good to see who’s stronger, but it’s also great to get to know someone and bond with them!” 

“Bonds… I have no need for them.” He turned away. Bonds… “...Tomorrow. Same time, same place?”

“You betcha. I’m always up for a challenge.” Dracovish smirked. 

He paused. “Fine. But don’t you dare chicken out on me.” 

As he flew off, he thought to himself about bonding. Bonding… through challenge. Challenge… for fun… this was a foreign concept. Something he had never known before. Life had always been a challenge from day to day for survival… and now… There was no challenge. No struggle. Just an opportunity… to make… 

No. He didn’t need friends. He needed to be home. He needed to be strong. 

…And that’s all that mattered.

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

“Thank you all for coming!” Cinccino squealed in delight. 

He did as he planned. He invited a few… allies, of his. Charizard, Lickitung, Dracovish. He figured keeping it small would be all he needed. And besides, Lickitung and Dracovish would tear up any desserts he didn’t need. That should keep them all occupied. 

“It’s great to meet a few of Aerodactyl’s friends! I never see him interact with anyone other than me!” 

“I’m glad to hear we’re considered friends back.” Charizard looked to him, and he could only help but turn away in mild frustration. Of course Cinccino had to use the term friends . He couldn’t call them friends. He wouldn’t. Not in a million years. 

“Well, what are we waiting for! Let’s dig in and have fun, everyone!” 

And so their feast began. As he expected, Lickitung and Dracovish went rampant, while Cinccino and Charizard were more thoroughly enjoying the conversation. The conversation itself had veered far away from him. Excellent. That means no one was paying attention. That means… he could sneak out unnoticed. 

But as he began to make a move for the door, Lickitung had already noticed him. 

“Going somewhere?”

The observant imbecile! Always ruining his plans! 

“None of your concern. It’s cramped in here… I just need the air, is all.”

“We all know that isn’t the case, Aerodactyl.” It was Cinccino’s turn to confront him this time. He was caught off guard. He didn’t expect Cinccino of all Pokemon to break through his usual facade. 

“Aerodactyl… You don’t see us as friends, do you?” This time, the remark came from Dracovish.

He paused. He supposed his deception was a failure, then. They had all seen through him easily. But how? No other Pokemon break through his plans this easily. Most don’t even succeed at all. What was this? 

“You figured me out that easily?”

“Yes, Aerodactyl! Because we know you!” 

“We know you well enough to know when you’re feeling down, Aerodactyl.”

“Because… we’re your friends.” 

He didn’t need this. Not now, not ever. He didn’t need compassion, he never did. He only needed…

“Home.”

“Huh?”

“Home. When I was there… I never needed friends.” His temper flared. “Friends are for the weak. And I’m not weak!” He bared his fangs at them. He knew full well that they would thrash him, it was merely a distraction so he could escape…

But if they could easily thrash him, why did they recoil in fear when he snarled at them? Why did they… look hurt? 

“Why do you fear me? You could stop me from leaving easily. Explain.”

“Aerodactyl…” Charizard had stepped in. “We’re scared because we saw one of our closest friends growl at us in hostility. Don’t you know what that’s like?”

He… didn’t. He couldn’t. He didn’t sympathize. 

…

But what if Charizard growled at him? What if Dracovish bared his fangs in the one place he felt safe? What if-

“But I think we’re sidetracking the main point here,” Lickitung replied, “You’re not weak Aerodactyl. You never have been. The only weakness you have… is the weakness in your heart.” 

Weakness… in my heart? 

“You push away because you’re scared. You’re far from home. And I understand that.” Lickitung paused. “But you aren’t scared because you don’t know the world. You’re scared because you fear that if you accept us, the world you knew will leave you behind. You’re scared that you’ll lose what made you who you are.” 

Was that truly why he had pushed everyone away? No, of course not. He hated them. They hated him. They… they… 

…

“And, Aerodactyl…” Charizard stepped forward. “You are everything to us. Never forget that.”

No. He couldn’t. 

Try as hard as he might, he couldn’t bring himself to hate them. They were everything to him. They were… Charizard was right… They were… his world. They were… his… 

…

“I… Lickitung…” He could feel the tears welling up on his face. He pulled them back and cried for them to stop. The tears kept coming anyway. He had to stop this. He was showing weakness. He was accepting defeat, he was-

Lickitung had taken a step toward him. Then two steps. Then a few more. And soon enough, he had gone in to hug him. And soon enough, the others joined him. The fluff of Cinccino, the soft feeling of Lickitung, the heat of Charizard, and the dripping water of Dracovish all surrounded him in one warm embrace. He was overwhelmed with emotion. 

Normally, he would fight. Normally, he wouldn’t give in. Normally, he would screech obscenities to force them away. Normally… he never really meant anything at all. 

But now was the moment he realized. The moment he saw that it was truly alright to let go. The moment he learned what everything was to him.  The moment he had found the Berry at the center of the rose bush. 

They were my friends, and I was home.

Chapter Text

“Alright, so you all are from the ancient past, you say?” 

Dusknoir had gathered in front of a group of three: Great Tusk, Slither Wing, and Scream Tail, who were standing quite awkwardly on top of a small hill. The three were newer additions to the boxes, and due to their unfamiliarity with the current time period, the three were now being lectured by Dusknoir.

“Yes, we are, according to you anyway,” replied Great Tusk. “But for us, it’s the present.”

“Yes, it is unfortunate you cannot return home due to unforeseen circumstances, but rest assured that we will try to make you feel well at home here.” 

The three gathered there nodded in mutual agreement, as Dusknoir continued on. 

“Now, I’ve decided to take the liberty of gathering some Pokemon who would be most familiar to you for the process of touring the boxes.” Dusknoir moved aside, revealing Volcarona, Wigglytuff, and Iron Treads, who stepped forwards towards the group. “Slither Wing, you’re with Volcarona. Scream Tail, you’re with Wigglytuff. And Great Tusk, you’re with Iron Treads. They all are descendants of your species from your future, so I do hope that this makes you feel a bit more comfortable around here.” 

The six of them intermingled for a short while. Volcarona sighed in frustration upon meeting Slither Wing, Iron Treads and Great Tusk stared at each other, whilst Wigglytuff ran in to hug Scream Tail, missing as it sidestepped the cuddle. Dusknoir scratched his head and continued. 

“Now, off you go, all of you. I wish you all the best.” 

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

“So, Treads, if I can call you that, your name’s a bit of a mouthful… what’s the deal with you?” 

The two Donphan Paradox Pokemon had wandered off to the desert, deciding it to be most familiar for the two of them. It was relatively abandoned, as any Pokemon who did reside there were out and about at this time. Iron Treads took a moment to respond to Great Tusk, seemingly processing what it said. 

“GREAT TUSK. IT IS WITH GREAT PLEASURE TO MEET YOU. YOU ARE THE ANCESTOR TO MY KIND, ARE YOU NOT?”

Taken aback by Iron Treads’ robotic and controlled version of speech, Great Tusk was startled out of responding for a moment before striking back. 

“You, uh… speak kind of freaky.” Iron Treads processed again in response.

“NOTED. UNFORTUNATELY, YOU HAVE NOT YIELDED NOR GIVEN ME THE RESPONSE I DESIRE. CONCEDE INFORMATION OR PREPARE TO BE TERMINATED.” 

“Terminated? What are you gonna do? Roll all over me with that teeny tiny little build of yours, you oversized chunk of metal? I’ll take you down any day!”

“HOSTILITY DETECTED. ACTIVATING BATTLE MODE. I APOLOGIZE FOR THE PAIN YOU ABOUT TO SUFFER BY MY TRUNK, GREAT TUSK.”

“Not as sorry as you’ll be after I thrash you! Get over here!” 

“AS YOU WISH. INITIATING OFFENSIVE PROCEDURES. ENGARDE.”

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

“Awwwwww, you’re just a little sweetheart, you know that?”

“Get off of me.”

Wigglytuff had chosen to drag Scream Tail to where the rest of her fellow Fairy types liked to meet up: A massive mushroom, off the edge of the forest. Unfortunately for Scream Tail, Alcremie had already taken a liking to it, and immediately began smothering it. 

“Aw, come on, Screamy, it’s just an act of us showing we’re friendly,” replied Sylveon, hanging off to the side. He paused before continuing. “Mind if I call you Screamy?”

“I really don’t care what you call me so long as you get this morsel off of me.”

Alcremie was taken aback, ending her hugging. 

“M-morsel? What do you mean morsel!?” 

“Well, I caught a whiff of that aroma of yours… and I accidentally swallowed a bit of cream that fell off of you… and I must say, you’re quite delectable. Certainly better than the things I dug into back in my time.”

“Well… um, I’m glad you uh… enjoy me, I suppose?” Alcremie was now too flustered to continue, as Klefki chose this time to chime in.

“What did you scarf on back then? I bet the berries are delicious!”

“Berries? Why would I eat those?”

The gathered Fairy types all went silent at that. No one spoke for a while as Alcremie slowly slid away from Scream Tail. The silence was eventually broken by Togekiss, who chose to speak up from her perch on top of the mushroom. 

“Well… I’m sure whatever went on back then was very… interesting, but uh, I feel we should move on to a different topic.” The assembled Fairies all chatted amongst themselves in agreement. 

“Well, uh, Scream Tail, want me to introduce you to some of the things we do in our free time?” asked Wigglytuff. 

“Activities? Like what?” 

“You’ll see. Come on, things to do, places to be.” Wigglytuff began pushing Scream Tail into the forest as it attempted to push back in vain, as the other Fairies followed them. Scream Tail could only wail as Wigglytuff overwhelmed it and brought it to activities unknown.

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

“So, dude, how’s it poppin’?”

“Please shut up, Slither Wing.” 

Volcarona, unlike the other two, had chosen to bring Slither Wing to its home. It resided deep in the desert, in an underground ruin not too dissimilar to old ruins found in the Unova region. 

“Come on, you can’t keep me hanging with a place this radical, yo.” 

“Firstly, thank you, I’m glad you enjoy fine architecture as well. Secondly, where in sanity’s name did you pick up language this subpar?” 

“This is how I was raised, dude.”

“Half of these terms didn’t even exist until millenia after your kind died out! You are an anomaly!” 

“Didn’t need to phrase it so rudely, bro.” 

Volcarona issued a sigh and turned back to where it was previously focused: A wall embroidered with a painting in its image. 

“Parts of this place are based on areas we cherish from our memories. This is the place I can safely associate with mine.” 

“So, you mean, like, these ruins used to be your home?”

“Yes. I was once worshipped as a deity! I was the god of the sun to those humans!” Volcarona looked down in dismay. “And now look at me. I was abandoned, merely a footnote in history, and now have to deal with you cretins on a near daily basis. There’s a reason I prefer to stay cooped up here.”

“But you let me in.”

“You’re a special case. I can’t disrespect the orders of the main council, for even I recognize that, while my strength is high, theirs is higher. I couldn’t hope to fight them with just me against them.”

“So…?”

“So, it means you get special access to this place. You can live here for the time being if it tickles your fancy. And you had better not break anything. If you do… let’s just say there’s a reason why no one ever visits me.” 

Volcarona went back to staring at the portrait in longing, but before Slither Wing could respond, a massive tremor could be felt from afar, shaking the ruins they were lodged inside. 

“What in the name of- Come on, Slither Wing, we need to find the source of whoever’s causing trouble and neutralize them!” Volcarona immediately began to flutter out of the room, as Slither Wing slowly followed behind him. 

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

“OBSERVATION: YOUR SKILLS ARE LACKING, BUT YOUR STRENGTH IS MIGHTY. IN SHORT… YOU ARE NO MATCH FOR THIS IRON TREADS UNIT.” 

“Speak for yourself buddy, I think I’ve done quite the heavy number on you! Ready for round two?” 

“QUERY: ROUND TWO? THERE SHALL NEEDN’T BE ONE AFTER I FINISH YOU HERE AND NOW.” 

The two Paradoxes had been going at each other for quite some time now. Despite this, and no matter how hard they shook the ground beneath them, neither seemed to be backing down from the fight. Great Tusk kicked the dust behind it, preparing for a full frontal strike, whilst Iron Treads was doing the same, preparing to roll into Great Tusk and strike it from behind. But before they could continue, they were interrupted. 

“What in the devil are you two doing?” Volcarona called out from afar. “You’re going to destabilize the whole desert at this rate!” 

“CORRECTION. DESERT IS IN STABLE CONDITION. YOUR WORRIES ARE UNFOUNDED.”

“Right now, yes! But if you keep this up, things will get worse!”

“AFFIRMATIVE. HOWEVER, THIS FIGHT WILL NOT CONTINUE FOR MUCH LONGER. PREPARE TO BE TERMINATED, GREAT TUSK.” 

“Not before I terminate you, you stuck up metal nobody!”

“STATEMENT: I SHALL MAKE YOU EAT THOSE WORDS.” 

Volcarona turned to stare at the now arriving Slither Wing as the two began to go at it again. 

“We need to stop them. If we don’t, the desert will receive irreparable damage from their earth quaking attacks!” 

“Perhaps we could try splitting them up with a totally bodacious combo? If they aren’t fighting each other, maybe they’ll calm down?” Volcarona pondered for a moment.

“Use of bodacious aside, that could work. But we’d need to render at least one of them incapable of fighting the other in some way-” Volcarona was cut off as Slither Wing darted off towards Great Tusk, striking its side with a powerful First Impression, sending it hurtling into a nearby wall face. 

“Handle the metal one, dude!” yelled Slither Wing from afar. Volcarona, still in shock, regained his senses as he dived after Iron Treads.

“RECALCULATION FINISHED. PROBABILITY OF VICTORY: 99%. I SHALL PREVAI-” It was cut off from speaking however, as Volcarona struck it with a powerful Fiery Dance attack. 

“What’s your calculation now, huh, you big iron lump?” Iron Treads righted itself as it turned to face Volcarona in defiance.

“CALCULATION COMMENCING. PROBABILITY INDICATES ABOUT 56% CHANCE OF VICTORY GIVEN FAVORABLE ODDS. HAVE AT YOU, PUTRID INSECT.” 

“You’re asking for it now, punk. Come at me!” 

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

Scream Tail had now been forced into helping cook food. Needless to say, it was not having a good time. 

“Can I please leave?”

“Not until you finish this creme brulee, dear,” replied Alcremie. 

“You’re talking with big words for someone who can be eaten in one bite.”

As Alcremie recoiled, Wigglytuff snuck up behind Scream Tail and whispered to it.

“Heya, Scream, could you, maybe, you know, not send death threats to the others?”

“I really don’t see the need to whisper. And besides, it gets them off of my back.”

Wigglytuff sighed. “Look, Scream, please, just listen to me here, this kind of attitude doesn’t fly around here.” 

“But I don’t want to cook…” 

“Look, just finish this, and we can do something else, how about that?” 

Scream Tail paused for a moment to consider before giving its response.

“Fine. What’s the next ingredient?” 

“Right over there, it’s the-”

But before the cooking could continue, the Fairies were suddenly interrupted by the arrival of Sandslash, who had come running into the Fairies’ baking site, completely out of breath.

“ Pant … Great Tusk… and Iron Treads… fighting… in desert… pant … need… help…” Togekiss flew down to check on Sandslash, and comforted him. The group stood, watching from afar, pondering what to do, but before they could decide on what course of action to take, Scream Tail chimed in.

“A fight? Sounds like a job for me!” The others all reacted with horrified glances, but Wigglytuff simply sighed. 

“I admit, normally I’d reprimand you, but this sounds like a big deal, so…” 

Scream Tail practically jumped for joy as it immediately dashed off towards the desert, in search of the two Paradox Donphan. Wigglytuff facepalmed, and soon dashed after it. 

“Get back here Scream! The desert’s that way! Other way, other way!” 

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

The fight had worn on in the desert. Great Tusk and Slither Wing had dueled for quite some time, both exchanging major blows, but Slither Wing had soon been beaten back. Volcarona too, suffered a similar fate, as despite the type advantage, Iron Treads’ blistering speed in the sand had caught Volcarona off guard and weakened him immensely. As the two lay bruised and battered, Iron Treads and Great Tusk had already resumed their spat, brutally attacking each other once more. But as they prepared for another headlong clash, they were both interrupted by a surprise contender. 

“Oi, you two, if you really want to fight, come at me!” yelled Scream Tail, floating down from above with a boastful tone to its voice. Great Tusk and Iron Treads looked at each other, as Great Tusk began to break down with laughter. 

“You!? You, you little pipsqueak!? Ha ha HA, don’t make me laugh.” Scream Tail visibly showed its displeasure as Iron Treads expressed similar sentiments.

“WHILE I DO NOT SHARE THE SAME CAPACITY FOR LAUGHTER AS THE IGNORAMUS TO MY RIGHT, I MUST AGREE, YOU ARE INDEED RATHER PATHETIC. I ESTIMATE A 110% CHANCE OF VICTORY.” 

“Hey, who are you calling the ignoramus, you buttface!?”

“BUTTFACE? YOU SHOULD TAKE A LOOK IN THE MIRROR EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE YOU IMPUDENT FLESHLING-”

“Will you two pay attention already!?” Scream Tail yelled from afar, clearly fed up with the amount of shade it was getting. “You two must understand, I can and will completely eviscerate you.” 

At this point, Wigglytuff had finally arrived, following close behind Scream Tail. 

“Come on, Scream, show em who’s boss!” 

“You oversized balloon, stop cheering it on, or else it’s going to do something it will regret!” yelled Great Tusk, clearly ready to thrash Scream Tail. 

“I’d say the jokes on you for this one!” countered Scream Tail, who seemed to be even more worked up than Great Tusk by now. At this point, it rushed at Great Tusk, heading straight for it with reckless abandon. Great Tusk stood firm, expecting a light blow, but to its surprise, it was sent flying back by a powerful and brutal Play Rough from Scream Tail. 

“I’ll dine on your flesh tonight you wannabe alpha!” As Scream Tail cried out more threats, Great Tusk stood up in anger and defiance and began to clash with Scream Tail, charging at it as Scream Tail hit it with full force. 

With Great Tusk distracted, so was Iron Treads by extension. Taking advantage of this opportunity were the two moths, who had recovered in the confusion and prepared for round two. Slither Wing dived straight at Iron Treads with a powerful Superpower, catching it off guard and sending it flying into the side of the rock face, whilst Volcarona used Fiery Dance to trap it in an inferno of flame. 

“CALCULATING PROBABILITY OF ESCAPE. CHANCES OF ESCAPE: IMPOSSIBLE. UNIT CONFINED WITHIN BARRIER OF FIERY ORIGIN. WHAT IS THIS?” 

“Stop fighting already! You surely must recognize the risk!” 

“EVEN WITH THE RISK, IT IS A SMALL SACRIFICE TO MAKE FOR ENSURED VICTORY.”

“What an imbecile. Slither Wing, go help Scream Tail while I keep Iron Treads pinned down here.” 

“You’ve got it, boss.” 

As Slither Wing departed, the battle between Scream Tail and Great Tusk had taken a turn south for the latter. Great Tusk was defending a flurry of attacks from Scream Tail’s wild fury. It had clearly not anticipated such resistance, and was starting to be overwhelmed. 

“Halt, pink blob! I wish to talk!”

“The time for talking is over! I shall feast upon your remains this coming ‘morrow! Stop struggling and make this easy on yourself!”

Great Tusk, sensing it wasn’t going to be winning this battle, chose the one sensible option available to it. 

“Well, I must say, this was a good bout, but I must rest and recover in order to make this completely fair. Good day to you, pink blob.” 

And with that, Great Tusk kicked up some sand, sending it flying into Scream Tail’s eyes, as it turned to flee. 

“H-hey! Get back here you coward!” cried Scream Tail, trying in vain to get sand out of its eyes. But before Great Tusk could get away, a surprise punch to its side from a surprise attacker sent it tumbling into the rock face. 

“Running away like you just did is totes bogus bro.”  Slither Wing had made its appearance, and with it, Great Tusk was down for the count. “Yo, Scream Tail, totally tubular battling skills you got. Now, come on my man, Volcarona is waiting for us.” 

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

Volcarona sat with the now entirely torched Iron Treads. Slither Wing and Scream Tail, dragging the massive and unconscious Great Tusk behind them, approached with caution. 

“Yo, dude, is it, like…?”

“Yes, Slither Wing, it is down for the count. Watch, it will tell you itself.” 

Volcarona spun a Fiery Dance, sending Iron Treads’ deflated body spiraling into the air to crash down again. 

“UNIT HAS ALREADY SURRENDERED! CEASE ATTACK! PLEASE!” 

“See, what did I tell ya?” Volcarona motioned to the unconscious Great Tusk. “Has Big Tusky over there gone night night?” 

“Yes, with no thanks to you,” replied Scream Tail.

“Rude.” 

Wigglytuff soon approached, with the other Fairies in tow. 

“Thank you for stopping the fighting, you three. I’ll have the other Fairies deliver these two to some of the more responsible Pokemon among us. Maybe then they’ll learn some manners.” 

Togekiss and the now arriving Togetic worked together with some difficulty to hoist up the unconscious Great Tusk, while Sylveon picked up Iron Treads with its ribbons, placing it on his back. 

“Well, all’s well it ends well then, eh?” 

“I suppose so, yes,” said Volcarona, clearly tired. 

“So, yo, who are they bringing those two to?”

“It’s best if we don’t speak about them. They are terrifying to an extreme.” Volcarona stared at the sky. “I do not envy their current predicament.”

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

“H-huh? Where am I?” Great Tusk awoke to find itself sprawled across the floor of a house. Great Tusk was unfamiliar with the environment, but while looking around, confused, he found Iron Treads nearby. Iron Treads, noticing Great Tusk, greeted it with a look of anger.

“LOCATION: UNKNOWN. TEMPORARY CEASEFIRE ENGAGED UNTIL LOCATION CAN BE DETERMINED.”

“Not sure what a ceasefire is, bud, but let’s stop with the fighting until we figure out where here is-”

Suddenly, a voice called out to them.

“Aw, are you two the guys who decided to violate the rules of the Box?” Stepping out, the two Paradox Pokemon found themselves faced with a small gray Pokemon, covered in white, silky, fur. 

“Are you supposed to be our caretaker? You’re a titchy small thing. Pathetic!”

“I MUST CONCUR. UNIT DEEMS PROBABILITY OF ESCAPE WITH CINCCINO AS WARDEN AN APPROXIMATE 99.9% CHANCE.” 

“Oh, so you think I’m weak, then?” Cinccino flashed a devilish smile. “Well guess what buddy, I’m your 0.1%, and I’m coming for you. I was just gonna let you off with a minor infraction, but now… things are personal.” 

Cinccino rushed the two Paradox Pokemon before they could react. A massive brawl ensued, but one thing could be heard clearly above all else. 

The Paradox Pokemon would not forget the horrible things that occurred that night for the rest of their days.

Chapter Text

“Hey, Braviary?”

Swampert had come to Braviary seeking help with a pressing matter he needed help with. 

“Yeah, what’s up?” 

“Could you help me out with Superpower?” 

Braviary thought for a moment as his feathers rustled in the wind. 

“Sure, what do you need help with?”

“Not much. Could you just give me a visual demonstration of how it’s done?”

“Of course. Watch this.”

Braviary surrounded his talons in a vast amount of energy, before plowing into a nearby tree. The force of the attack punched a hole into the tree, sending it flying a good distance away. 

“That help a fair bit?”

“Yes, it did, actually, now-”

“Who darezzzzzz dizzzzturb my zzzzzlumber!?” From the ruins of the destroyed tree came the ominous buzzing that the duo knew all too well. 

“Oh great, it’s Beedrill.” 

The enraged Beedrill flew out of the downed tree at a breakneck pace, stopping mere inches from Braviary, stingers outstretched.

“Give me good reazzzzzon I zzzzzzhouldn’t juzzzzzt zzzzztab you.” 

“We’re… uh…” Braviary paused for a moment. “Think fast!” Braviary swiped at Beedrill’s torso with Crush Claw, snatched Swampert, and flew off with blinding speed.

“Curzzzzzze you! I zzzzzzzhall have my revenge!” 

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

“Okay, now that we’re out of that tight spot, show me what you got, Swampert.” 

Swampert was taken to a barren savannah a good distance away from the forest Beedrill inhabited. Swampert was still heavily shaken by Beedrill’s threats, but proceeded with his Superpower tests regardless. In front of him lay a rock, one which Swampert easily sent flying with Superpower. 

“Excellent! That’s a Superpower if I’ve ever seen one!” 

However, as the rock disintegrated, one of its shards landed on a certain patch of ground, causing the area’s previously untouched appearance to become messied. 

And its owner wasn’t too happy about that.

“Hey, who’s messing with Orthworm’s dirt?” Orthworm poked his head above his mound of dirt, and finding his dirt in disarray, grew absolutely furious. “Hey, who messed with Orthworm’s dirt!? Orthworm’s dirt is the best dirt! Orthworm says so!” 

Braviary, noticing the commotion, looked to Orthworm. Upon spotting him, he sighed, and replied very plainly. 

“Dirt, smchirt. I don’t see what the big deal is. It’s gonna get messy you know, it’s literally just dirt!”

“Nuh-uh! Not just any dirt! It’s Orthworm’s special dirt!”

“No one cares about your dirt, Orthworm.” 

“Did you insult Orthworm’s dirt?” 

“Yes, I did. Whatcha gonna do about it?”

Orthworm began tearing up. “Orthworm is gonna bring big dirt man to attack you if you insult Orthworm’s dirt one more time!”

“Dirt man! Hah! I doubt you could even make a small mound look half decent with your dirt!” 

Orthworm finally burst into tears. “Waaaaaaaaah! You made Orthworm sad! Orthworm going to make big dirt man teach you lesson! Meanies!” Orthworm buried into his dirt and disappeared in a flash. Swampert turned to Braviary.

“That was a bit rude, don’t you think?”

“What? It’s just a guy making a problem out of nothing again. I got nothing against Orthworm, I just didn’t want him causing problems during our testing phase.” Braviary turned back to Swampert. “Ok, let’s try it again, both of us together this time.” 

Braviary went and fetched two large boulders. He placed one in front of Swampert, and one directly next to him. 

“Ok, on three, use Superpower and send em flying. One… two… three!” 

Both Swampert and Braviary used Superpower in sync, sending the boulders flying off into the distance. 

“Excellent work! That’s going far! …Very far, actually. Where is it-” 

A loud crash was heard, followed by another. And then, the loud roar of a very ticked off Abomasnow was heard. 

“Swampert.” Braviary turned to him. “I think we may have accidentally thrown boulders into Abomasnow’s house.”

A sudden blizzard whipped at both of their faces as the sound of Abomasnow’s footsteps came running towards them. Swampert turned tail to flee from the vengeful abominable snowman, but was stopped by a surprise intruder. 

“Looking to run away again, Zzzzzzzwampert?” Beedrill had come back for round two, this time packing every single Bug type that lived in the forests with her. “They don’t call me Queen of the Bugs without good reazzzzon. Your day of reckoning hazzzzz come.” 

Braviary called for Swampert to follow him, but instead found themselves stopped by another unexpected returnee. 

Orthworm emerged from his dirt mound, furious.

“Orthworm not happy with evil people’s behavior! Orthworm bring dirt man. Dirt man scary. Orthworm angry. Dirt man angry too.” 

A rumble was heard behind Orthworm as a dark brown arm extended its way from the dirt, followed by another, and soon the whole hulking behemoth emerged from the ground. The dirt man turned out to be none other than Regirock. 

“OBSERVATION: YOU HAVE DISPLEASED ORTHWORM. ANALYSIS INDICATES THAT THIS CRIME REQUIRES THE PUNISHMENT OF DEATH. YOU SHALL BE DESTROYED.” 

As Beedrill’s army, Orthworm and the hulking rock titan, and the blizzard summoning snow beast bared down on them, Braviary had only one thing to say.

“I guess attracting negative press is our Superpower, eh?”

Swampert could only sigh as the volley of attacks engulfed them.

Chapter Text

It was a quiet day for the Boxes. The Pokemon were playing, the land was peaceful, and everything seemed to be going just righ-

“Alright, that’s it you slimy piece of ectoplasm, let’s rock and roll!” 

Oh yeah. These guys. Never seems to be a quiet day with them, huh?

The Council of Nine had gathered for their biweekly meeting. All they had to do was discuss and address basic complaints, but as it stood, it had just devolved into pointless violence again. Escavalier had provoked Gengar into a battle, despite the former’s usual patience during ongoing arguments. Reuniclus egged on the battle, while Gallade and Tyranitar stood off to the side with wary looks on their faces. Togekiss and Vaporeon looked unamused, while Exploud had chosen to stick out of it altogether. Charizard watched with fury as he slammed his fist on the table. 

“I will have order! We have important matters to discuss! I will not have you all fighting while I’m here!” 

Escavalier looked at Charizard and begrudgingly backed down, with Gengar doing the same. Both gave each other wary glances before taking their places again.

“This is only our first topic of discussion, and we’re already at each other’s throats! We only discussed whether to induct Beedrill as a member of the council, and this is what you all do?” Charizard was disappointed with the group, more so than usual, as he very much wanted to see the results of the discussion. Beedrill was a close friend of his, and he was very much hoping she’d be elected to the council.  

Gengar, however, interrupted. “Well that’s why we’re arguing! Are you really sure it’s wise to bring another rage induced monster onto the council? We already have me and Exploud!”

Exploud glared at Gengar as Escavalier mumbled off to the side. 

“Well at least you’re admitting that you’re a problem…” Escavalier gave Gengar some serious side-eye. 

“At least I’m honest about it! You act like you’re all high and mighty when you’re a different kind of problem altogether-”

“Now now, dears, let’s all calm down and just think things through without fighting, alright?” Togekiss chimed in to stop the bickering again. Charizard silently thanked her for that. He hated having to constantly step in during debates like these. Togekiss was a lifesaver when it came to keeping everything calm. 

Gallade chose this opportunity to speak. “Ignoring the aggression, I must concur with Gengar. Despite Beedrill’s knowledge and wisdom, it doesn’t seem wise to have more discord than it already does.” Tyranitar and Reuniclus nodded in agreement. 

Charizard figured that this would be a better time than any to call a vote, before Escavalier and Gengar began bickering again. 

“Alright! All in favor of adding Beedrill, raise your hands!” 

Charizard raised his hand, while Vaporeon raised up a paw. Escavalier briefly had an internal crisis over his lack of hands before raising one of his lances in agreement. The other Council members kept their appendages lowered.  

“Three to six. Sorry Charizard,” said Togekiss, somberly. “I would have voted for her addition myself, but I can’t deal with too much violence, I’m sure you understand.”

“Don’t worry about it, Togekiss.” Although he was disappointed that his old friend wasn’t going to be joining them, he did admit that they had a point. Though he wanted Beedrill on the council, he was happy that the council had come to an agreement on what to do for a matter like this… and with actually good reasoning too. 

He still wasn’t letting Reuniclus forget the time where she agreed to let Sharpedo eat Klefki for a circus act on the sole basis that “It would be funny.”  

“Look, what I don’t get is, why Beedrill? I get she’s your friend, Charizard, but she’s incredibly aggressive! If anyone should join us, it should be someone responsible like Dusknoir or Snorlax. Heck, even Volcarona is more pleasant on a good day!” 

“Not to discredit your rant, Gengar, but the vote’s already passed for no. You have no reason to still be complaining,” replied Gallade. Gengar mumbled curses to himself as Vaporeon coughed to signal for attention. 

It was Vaporeon’s job to report on current complaints and deliver them to the council for inspection. The council then set about fixing the problems described in them as best they could. Or, if it was a prank again, they just ignored it. They frequently had to deal with Klefki and Mawile’s antics about five times a week, at the minimum.

“Alright, first, we have a letter from Volcarona,” Gengar elbowed Reuniclus and whispered about how he mentioned Volcarona just a minute ago, and Reuniclus giggled. Vaporeon rolled his eyes and continued. “He says he wants stricter protocols for the desert and battling due to the unstable terrain there.” 

“Oh, so two time traveling elephants fight once and that stickler wants us to change everything?” boomed Exploud. “Typical.”

“Well, he has something of a point,” said Tyranitar. “If the whole place collapses, that’s gonna mess up a lot of Pokemon, not just him.”

“But,” replied Gallade, “Many battles occur there normally anyways, and everything’s fine. The only reason those two caused so much damage was because of their higher power level. We patched up everything thanks to Orthworm and the others afterwards, and the desert's ok now.” 

The others murmured amongst themselves before Reuniclus responded.

“So, all in favor of banning Great Tusk and Iron Treads from battle in the desert, say I!”

“Reuniclus, we already banned them from battle with each other, period.” 

“Awwwwwww…” Reuniclus sulked. She was really hoping to ban something today. 

“As this seems to be resolved, on to the next order of business…” interrupted Vaporeon, “This one is from Gigalith. He wants the well to be repaired.”

“Which one?” asked Tyranitar. 

“Which one do ya think, buckeroo?” Gengar wacked Tyranitar on the head lightly, irritating him. 

Vaporeon disregarded them. “I’m sure we could get a team of Pokemon down there to patch things up before anything goes wrong again. Charizard?”

Charizard thought contemplatively for a moment before nodding his head.

“Yes, I agree. Reuniclus will organize an optimal team once this meeting is done.”

Reuniclus sulked. “And here I was thinking I could attend the golf meeting after this.” 

“Next order of business,” continued Vaporeon, “Apparently, Braviary and Swampert have been indicted on three counts of property damage.” 

“Against who?” 

“Beedrill, Orthworm, and Abomasnow.”

“Wait, Orthworm has a house?” asked Tyranitar. 

“He has a pile of dirt.”

Tyranitar looked surprised as Togekiss interjected.  

“I do not envy the situation those two wound up in. They took a massive beating from all three parties.” replied Togekiss. 

“How did they take a beating from Orthworm?” asked Exploud. 

“Regirock,” replied Vaporeon, simply. Everyone simply nodded. 

“What I will say, though,” interjected Escavalier, “ Is that I don’t envy our position if they decide to attack us all at once. I say we give the two of them punishment after they’ve recovered,” said Escavalier. He turned to Vaporeon. “Do we know their condition?”

“They apparently took enough damage to the point that Ribombee and Chansey are still working on healing their injuries.”

Some murmurs scurried within the group as they talked amongst themselves. 

“I believe, personally, that the two should serve some punishment…” said Charizard, breaking the silence, “But light punishment, as I feel their injuries are punishment enough. They should know to be less reckless.” 

Though Charizard agreed with Escavalier, he did not agree with his reasons. It was a cowardly move to just keel to any potential threat facing them. Still, Charizard knew that no matter what he did, that group that had attacked Braviary and Swampert wouldn’t act up. He knew they were wiser than that. 

The council murmured in agreement, as Vaporeon presented the final piece of news to discuss for the day.

“Ok, so this one’s a bit interesting…” The council perked up upon hearing Vaporeon’s words. “Sandslash and Alolan Sandslash have gotten into a relationship and wish to host a public event to celebrate. They propose holding one at the old Contest Stage. They propose a general party. What do we all think?” 

“Well…” said Togekiss, with glee in her voice, “I say congratulations to them!” 

“Of course you’re looking at the positive side immediately, Togekiss, but I have a bigger question!” said Exploud, welling up in anger. “Is Alolan Sandslash with Sandy or Sparkles?” 

Vaporeon looked at the card. “Sandy, by the looks of things. Why?” 

Exploud seemed to calm down. “No reason. Good for them.” 

Reuniclus began whispering to Gallade. “ It’s because she has bias towards Sandy. They were old teammates back in the day .” Reuniclus snickered, but Exploud unfortunately heard them.

“Just because I yell all the time doesn’t mean I’m completely deaf, Reuniclus! Would you like to repeat what you just whispered to Gallade!?” 

Reuniclus nervously giggled as she pulled Gallade in front of her. “Gallade would be happy to explain, right buddy?” Gallade rapidly shook his head from side to side, but as he turned to face Reuniclus, he found she had already floated away out of both his and Exploud’s reach. Gallade gulped as Exploud approached him.

“So… what did Reuniclus say to you?” 

Before Gallade could reply, Charizard stepped in. “Enough, you three. Reuniclus, stop gossiping and throwing people under the bus, Exploud, cool your jets.” 

“But-”

“No buts! Do you want me to come over there and show you why I’m leader?” 

Exploud reluctantly backed away from Gallade without another word, crossing her arms in defeat. Charizard hated having to pull out the threat card against the other council members, but it was sometimes necessary in order to make sure total war didn’t erupt again. He really wished this group would chill out sometimes. 

“Now…” continued Charizard, “Does anyone have any further objections?” 

“I do,” replied Escavalier. “A few, actually.”

Togekiss audibly gasped, while the others in the room responded with varying degrees of shock. Even Reuniclus had stopped her usual antics in favor of looking at Escavalier. 

“And could you explain why, Escavalier?” 

“Well…” Escavalier began, “Why should those two have a special event for their relationship? Seems like it’s just going to cause a massive amount of noise for no good reason.”

“No good reason!?” Togekiss flew into a rage. “They’re starting the next chapter of their life! That’s a very good reason in my book.”  

“Look, is a relationship that important? If we had a party every time someone entered a relationship with someone else, we’d never have a quiet day in our lives.”

Reuniclus chose this opportunity to pipe up. “Escavalier, most of the relationships around here that start are with Ditto. That’s kind of an exception.”

“Yeah, exactly! Everyone’s had a relationship with Ditto! If we had a party every time that happened, it’d be like Exploud after stepping on a rock, every day.” Exploud audibly mumbled vague threats to herself.  

“Look, this one is a non-Ditto relationship. I’d say it’s a pretty landmark occasion,” replied Togekiss.

“You’re probably just jealous because Beedrill rejected your advances the other day,” said Gengar, snickering. 

“I-, um, no. I haven’t a clue of where that idea sprouted from.” 

However, Reuniclus had heard what Gengar said, and she immediately jumped onto the bandwagon. 

“Ooooooooo! Someone’s got a cruuuuush!” Escavalier’s face turned a bright red as Reuniclus floated around him in mockery. However, she suddenly stopped. “Wait, could it be…”

“Don’t you dare say it.” 

“Is that why you wanted her on the council?” Escavalier floated back in shock as Gengar and Exploud burst into laughter. Escavalier’s face grew even brighter.

“Well, I, er, no, I simply agreed for t-the reasons Charizard l-laid out-”

“Aw, and now look who’s stuttering,” said Togekiss, mockingly.

“Stop g-ganging up on me! I do not have a crush on Beedrill!”

“I don’t know, Escavalier.” Charizard had taken this opportunity to reply. “If people were determined guilty or innocent based on their face alone, you’d be in a maximum security prison.” 

By this point, the entire council had erupted into some form of laughter. Even Togekiss lightly giggled to herself. Escavalier simply attempted in vain to hide his face from the others to avoid further shame. 

“Well, that’s enough of that.” Charizard turned to Escavalier. “I think I can safely overrule this objection. Best of luck on your attempts at a relationship, Escavalier.” 

Reuniclus giggled around Escavalier incessantly, but was met by a lance to the face, sending her flying back. “I’ve had enough of this!” 

As the other council members stood in surprise at the sudden aggression, Togekiss decided this was the best time to make fun of him even more. 

“Aw, has somebody had enough of being embarrassed?” 

Escavalier furiously attempted to lunge at Togekiss with Iron Head, only to be blocked by Gengar. However, Tyranitar, also attempting to block Escavalier with a Crunch attack, ended up striking Gengar on accident. 

“Oi ya big blockhead, watch where you’re biting!” 

“Watch where I’m biting? You were in the way!”

“You trying to tussle buddy?”

“No I wasn’t!” 

“Oh, it’s on now!”

And soon, the entire council had erupted into one massive battle arena. Charizard couldn’t say he was surprised. He simply sighed, and turned to Vaporeon. 

“This council is both a blessing and a curse.”

“In more ways than one,” replied Vaporeon.  

The two sat in silence as the fight continued. Charizard would step in to calm them down eventually, but right now, he needed to wait for the council to settle down a bit. He was strong, but not strong enough to face down all of them at once.

“So…” Vaporeon turned to Charizard. “You down for a game of Go Fish?”

Chapter Text

“QUERY: IRON TREADS, DEFINE YOUR REASONING FOR SUMMONING US HERE…”

“OR BE ERADICATED!”

“METANG, WE HAVE TOLD YOU THAT YOU NEED TO BE MORE POLITE. STOP INTERRUPTING ME.”

“YOU’RE NEXT, PORYGON.” 

Iron Treads had decided to call Regirock, Porygon, and Metang in the middle of the night for a secret meeting, and surprisingly enough, they all agreed to come. Unfortunately, Iron Treads’ calculations must have overlooked one small problem: These Pokemon were anything but quiet. It wasn’t such a secret meeting anymore.

“SILENCE. METANG, IF YOU WISH TO SATIATE YOUR BLOODLUST, YOU CAN DUEL IRON HANDS LATER.” 

Metang’s blood-hungry eyes dimmed slightly. “EXCELLENT.” 

If Iron Treads could sigh, it would.

Regirock, previously silent, chose now to interject. “REGARDLESS OF METANG’S VIOLET TENDENCIES, PORYGON HAS A POINT. WHY HAVE YOU CALLED US HERE?”

Iron Treads glanced at its audience. Porygon waited expectantly for an answer, while Metang did the same, though with much more blind fury in its eyes. 

“EVER SINCE MY DUEL WITH MY INFERIOR PAST COUNTERPART AND SUBSEQUENT PUNISHMENT WHICH I HAVE SINCE EXPUNGED FROM SYSTEM MEMORY, I HAVE DECIDED THAT THE FLESHLINGS ARE INHERENTLY DANGEROUS TO ALL ARTIFICIAL LIFE.” 

“BUT I AM A NATURALLY FORMED-” Metang was shushed by Porygon’s tail whacking its head as Iron Treads continued. 

“THUS, I HAVE CALCULATED OUR BEST CHANCE OF VICTORY COMES FROM AN ALLIANCE OF ALL ARTIFICIAL LIFEFORMS. DO YOU CONCUR WITH THIS ASSESSMENT?” 

A silent hum vibrated through the area as all three began their own internal calculations. The fastest to finish was Regirock, who was already asking questions.

“WHY US?”

“I TRUST YOU ALL THE MOST IN TERMS OF KEEPING THIS SECRET.”

“QUERY: YOU DO NOT TRUST YOUR FUTURE KIN?”

“THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE AND I DESPISE THEM.”

“YOUR PERSONAL PREFERENCE IS GETTING IN THE WAY OF YOUR CALCULATIONS ONCE MORE.”

Porygon chose to pipe up this time. “REGIROCK, YOU SAY THIS AS THOUGH ORTHWORM ISN’T YOUR ADOPTED YOUNGER SIBLING.”

“HE IS NOT. HE IS SIMPLY… AN ACQUAINTANCE.”

“AN ACQUAINTANCE YOU HAVE TRIED TO MURDER FLESH BASED POKEMON FOR.”

“UNIT COMMAND: SHUT UP.”

Iron Treads had had enough of their bickering by this point. “HAVE YOU ALL DECIDED WHETHER THIS PRIME DIRECTIVE IS BENEFICIAL OR NOT?”

Metang and Porygon hummed in agreement. Regirock nodded, albeit reluctantly. 

“EXCELLENT.”

A silence passed over the group, each waiting for someone else to say something. Porygon eventually broke the silence.

“FORGIVE THIS UNIT’S APPARENT RUDENESS, BUT YOU DO NOT HAVE A PLAN, CORRECT?”

“UNIT DESIGNATED PORYGON WOULD BE CORRECT IN THIS ASSESSMENT.” 

A pause passed over them. Though none of three other Pokemon gathered there could physically show much emotion, all of them were, needless to say, not very happy. 

Especially Metang. 

“THIS UNIT HAS WASTED VALUABLE TIME ON THIS. AS A CONSEQUENCE, THIS UNIT HAS DESIGNATED IRON TREADS AS AN ENEMY. YOU SHALL BE ERADICATED!”

“IF IT IS A FIGHT YOU WANT, IT IS A FIGHT YOU’LL GET! COMBAT MODE ENGAGED!” 

Iron Treads and Metang leaped at each other and began to duel. From afar, Porygon joined Regirock in watching the unfolding match. 

“MY CALCULATIONS STATE THAT IT IS A 99.8% PROBABILITY OF IRON TREADS’ VICTORY.”

“CURIOUS. MINE OBSERVE THAT METANG HAS THOSE ODDS INSTEAD.”

A pause ran between them as Metang flung Iron Treads into a wall. Iron Treads got up immediately and charged straight for Metang. 

“I SHALL BET MY NEXT BERRY HARVEST UPON THIS.”

“LIKEWISE. MAY THE BEST COMBAT CALCULATIONS WIN.” 

The two intently watched the ongoing fight with extreme focus, their internal calculations constantly shuffling with every subsequent move. From afar, a shadowy figure sat atop a hill, watching the four with a sigh of relief.

“I was quite concerned for a minute there that they would actually get up to something sinister. It seems that despite having combat calculations completed in a matter of seconds, none of them are all that smart when put together.” The ghost chuckled. “Oh well, at least I don’t have to report that those four are planning to overthrow us to Charizard. That would be a nightmare to deal with.” 

The ghost disappeared into the shadows as Porygon returned to the fight with some popcorn for it and Regirock. Treads and Metang had just barely gotten started, and the night was young. The two were in for some quality entertainment.