FSE

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Ronan's POV

After everyone had their fun in the Basement (myself included, but Ike excluded) we got directions to Vermillion City from the middle of nowhere town we had found ourselves. We were being extra careful about the horde of aggressive 'chus, giving their territory a wide berth. Everyone was out of their balls and having fun during the walk to our destination. Most everyone was playing some kind of variation of tag, chasing each other around. Ike, however, wasn't interested in that. He simply trotted along right beside me. I couldn't help but smile down at him as I watched him. Occasionally, he would look up and return the smile.

"How ya doing, Ike?" I asked cheerfully as I reached down and gave him a few pettings behind the ears. He'd seemed to grow quite fond of my attention and all the pets and scratches I gave him, and I was more than happy to give them to him.

"I'm good," he replied in his ever-soft and light voice. "How are you?" He looked up at me with a kind smile. His eyes shone with innocence and curiosity. I could tell that he genuinely wanted to know how I was doing and wasn't just asking out of the mannerisms he'd noticed in others.

"I'm doing great," I said cheerfully. "I'm psyched for challenging another gym. I feel like I'm on a roll with how great we've been doing so far." Ike nodded and stayed quiet for a short while. I could see the question hanging in his mind. He always was wondering about something, but more often than not, he wouldn't ask for some reason. Most of the time I'd let him be, but with everyone else busy with their game of tag, I figured I might as well coax the query from him. "So, what's on your mind, bud?"

He remained quiet for about a minute. I was starting to think that he hadn't heard me, but he finally responded, "Why do you want to challenge these gym leaders?"

I couldn't help but smile, he always seemed to make me smile with his questions. "Alright, so you know how so many pokemon enjoy battling and testing their skills?" Ike nodded. "Well, there are a lot of humans like me who enjoy helping pokemon realize their true potential. We help them find opponents to train against and we give them advice during battles and help form strategies. We call ourselves pokemon trainers. With me so far?"

Ike nodded again giving me the go ahead to continue. "Now, there are lots of trainers out there who enjoy doing this, and we tend to be pretty competitive. So a long time ago, it became popular enough for there to become standardized rules and competitions. The competitions grew so popular that just about every trainer wanted to enter. So, when national championships started becoming a thing, they decided that they should form a system to make sure that the trainers who aren't ready for the harsh competition would be denied entry for their pokemon's safety. They decided on placing these gyms all over the country and required trainers to defeat a certain number of gym leaders in order to gain entry. They assign very talented trainers to these gyms who test aspiring trainers. If the trainer beats them, they are required to give them a badge to prove that they were deemed talented enough to pass."

Ike stayed quiet for a bit, seeming to be processing all the information I gave him. I gave him the time he needed, simply walking along; he always seemed to take his time in absorbing the information. It was another one of his quirks that I couldn't help but enjoy, despite causing our conversations to be a tad on the slow side. "So, you want to prove you tactical knowledge about pokemon battles by entering and winning this competition?"

Well, he certainly seemed to grasp the concept quite well. "Well, that's the basic idea, and yeah, most trainers want to prove themselves like that. That's not why I do it, though."

Ike tilted his head a bit as he looked up at me, asking in a curious tone, "If not for that, then why?"

I smiled down and picked him up, holding him so that I was supporting his hind legs with my right arm and had my left hand on his back to keep him steady. His front paws were on my chest and we were face-to-face. "I do it because I've always wanted to be able to have pokemon friends and spend a lot of time with them. Especially cute pokemon like you." I gave him an affectionate kiss on the nose. I could swear that his cheeks blushed slightly under that chestnut-brown fur of his. I couldn't tell for certain, and if he had been blushing, it was much too little for me to be absolutely certain; not that I'd call him out on it or anything. I didn't want to embarrass him any more than I already had; if I had, that is.

I continued my answer, "I just know that many pokemon enjoy the competition, especially pokemon like Masu. And since the gyms are scattered all over the country, it's a great reason to travel around and be with my pokemon."

"I see," was the pup's simple response. I was about to set him back down, but just before I could move, he gave me a gentle lick on my nose, as if imitating my previous kiss. "I think that's a much better reason to travel."

I grinned and petted his back. "I think so, too." I nuzzled him lovingly which Ike reciprocated. He was being so cute and affectionate today.

That sweet moment was interrupted, though. A sudden, large blast exploded the ground from underneath us, sending both of us flying. I gripped him tight in my arms, angling myself so that I landed on my back with Ike held to my chest to keep him safe.

Things became hazy after that. I remembered seeing a guy and a girl walk over to, followed by a tyranitar. They're lips were moving, but I could only hear ringing. They grabbed Ike by the neck, trying to take him, but I wouldn't let go. At least, not until the guy kicked my head. Things got even fuzzier after that. The last thing I remembered before blacking out was the two of them looking as if they were examining Ike, before shoving him into the cage and walking away with him.

The next thing I knew, I was being shook awake by Nengan and Yari. "...nan! You go... up!" That was definitely Nengan talking, but he sounded far away. At least I knew that the translator was still functioning, even if my ears weren't. I groaned as I sat up, opening my eyes. I felt like I got hit by a truck, but I ignored the pain. At least until an overexcited charmeleon gave me a tight hug, forcing a loud groan of pain to escape my lips. He quickly let go. "...ank Arceus, you're alright."

"More or less," I grumbled, probably a bit too loud. Everyone was still here, except for Ike, of course. Damn crooks made sure of that. "Which way'd they go?"

Leon immediately started running off, calling back, "This way! I chased 'em for a while. Would've had 'em, too, if they didn't get in one of that... what's it called? Car!"

"Damnit," I muttered as I chased after Leon, the others following as well. "Can't catch a car on foot." I wasn't going to let that stop me, though. I promised to keep him safe, and I didn't plan on breaking my word so easily. "Show me where the car was, we'll follow the tracks." Leon guided me to the spot where he'd lost the criminals. As expected, there were fresh tire tracks. It was going to be a long walk, and we had no time to lose.

We didn't talk at all while we followed the tracks. We needed the oxygen for our muscles more than speech. We had no clue as to how far away they'd driven, so we needed to save our breath. I had expected it to take hours to catch up with them, which was right in a way. I just hadn't expected how many hours. We trekked the rest of the day and throughout the night trying to catch up, only stopping for snacks and drinks to keep our energy up. The pokemon were lucky being able to rest in their balls. Leon didn't though, he preferred doing an all-night run over going inside the pokeball again.

By the time morning came, I was exhausted and running on fumes. My throat was dry and scratchy and my legs screamed for rest. It wasn't until morning when my legs finally gave out. I was panting heavily and immediately reached for yet another bottle of water, gulping it down greedily while I rested.

Leon sat down next to me, seeming tired as well, not nearly as tired as I was, though. "You okay?" he asked. "I haven't seen a human run that long since the time I chased down the idiot trainer who thought he could catch me."

I would've laughed had I had the breath for it. Poor kid must've been scared to death with an angry Leon chasing him down. I could imagine the scene in my head, and it looked funny; unless you're the kid trainer of course. He probably hasn't gone near a quilava since. I couldn't help but smile despite the stress of the situation. "I'll... be fine," I gasped. "Just gotta... find Ike."

Leon nodded. "Don't worry, we'll find him," he assured me. He sounded as if it were an absolute certainty. I couldn't tell if he was just trying to keep me calm, or if he had the same thought I did; that we wouldn't stop looking until we found him.

"There's a town up ahead," Leon continued. "I'll go ahead and scout while you rest up, okay? I know how much you humans need your rest."

I smiled at him and rubbed his head a bit in appreciation. "Thanks, Leon," I said.

Leon nodded a bit. "Of course," he replied. "No way am I gonna let that cute, little pup remain a captive of those assholes." With that, he sprints off down the road while I stayed on the ground. Resting. Damn, was I tired. Wasn't used to doing all-nighters. Especially ones that consisted of nothing to endless running down a dark countryside road.

The next thing I knew, I'm being nudged awake by Leon. I startled a bit as the events of yesterday suddenly smash through my mind. Leon spoke, bringing me back to the present, "I found out where they are holed up. Some weird building that I couldn't get into."

I yawned and stood up. My legs still ached from all the running I did yesterday. I was still tired, but now that Leon actually knew where Ike was being held, there was not way I was just gonna wait. My team and I were gonna bust into the place and take Ike back. Although... if they had a lot of powerful pokemon like that tyranitar, it would be a hell of a challenge.

"Great job, Leon," I praised. "Lead the way." Leon started heading back towards the town with me behind him. "So, what did you see?" I wanted all the information now so that I could start planning on how I'd go about it.

"A big building made of brick," Leon answered no slowing down or turning to face me while he talked. "Two doors, but neither of them would open for me. Some sort of... thing kept them locked without needing an actual lock. There was a place for car to go in and out, too, but that was just as locked up as the other ones. There weren't any windows, either, so I couldn't look inside."

"Wait, then how do you know Ike's in there?" I started getting worried that he had just assumed that Ike was there because he'd followed the car tracks or something. If that were true, then Ike might not even be in there.

"I could see his aura," he replied simply. "No way I could forget such a unique aura signature." I breathed a sigh of relief. I had forgotten that he could look through aura.

It took me a moment to recognize what he had said after that he could see his aura. "What do you mean by 'unique?'" I asked. I couldn't tell by his tone whether it was a good or bad thing. It sounded as if he seemed to view it as neutral or at least a curiosity.

"Never seen something like it before," Leon admitted. "No idea what it means, though. And I couldn't explain it if I wanted to. It's just unique."

Well, that didn't give me any answers. I had a feeling that it had something to do with whatever the gang did to him. Whatever it was, they definitely wanted him back. I couldn't help but wonder how they forgot him in that warehouse if they were going to this much trouble to get him back. Perhaps I would find out when I take him back. And I would take him back; I was certain of that.

Leon led me to a large building with a large neon sign reading "The Lucky Larvitar" with a cute-looking larvitar sign underneath made to look as if it were waving. The sounds of slot machines could clearly be heard even from outside.

"You're sure he's in there?" I asked. It seemed like too easy a guess for an criminal's base, although, that might've been the point. Hide in such an obvious place people wouldn't think to look there.

Leon nodded. "Yeah, below ground. What kind of building is this anyways? It's so bright and noisy."

"It's a casino," I replied. "People go in to gamble their money on the games in there."

"Sounds risky," Leon commented.

"Very," I confirmed. "The odds are in the casino's favor, so you're more likely to end up losing money than actually earning any sort of profit." I went inside and started looking for for an elevator or stairs that lead downwards. The place was big, so it was taking me awhile. I had just caught sight of what looked like stairs when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to see who it is and was met by a large, muscle-bound security guy in a dark suit.

"You lost, kid?" He asked gruffly. I quickly looked him over. He didn't seem to know who I was by his expression. That was a good thing. Perhaps with a bit of guile, I'd be able to talk my way away from him.

"Just a bit," I half-lied, "know where the bathroom is?"

Rather than answer my question, he looks down at leon and says, "Pokemon aren't allowed out of their balls around here."

"Oh, fuck you, human," Leon spits, despite knowing that the security guard can't understand him. "I'd like to see you trapped in one of those balls!"

"He doesn't like being in his ball," I explained. I gave Leon a look to tell him to quiet down, which he returns with an annoyed roll of the eyes. "He's not hurting anyone."

"You can't convince him to stay in his ball?" the guard asked with a mean smirk. "Isn't that supposed to be rule one of a pokemon trainer?"

I narrowed my eyes and spoke in a calm yet biting tone, "No. Rule one is to make sure that my pokemon are healthy and happy, so if allowing him to remain outside his ball makes him happy, that's what I'm gonna do. Now, why don't you go keep an eye out for chip stealers rather than harassing me about my training methods?" If looks could kill, I'd be dead. Apparently the big, burly guard wasn't used to being confronted about his attitude before. He was about to let out a retort, but I interrupted him. "I just came in to hit the head head anyways. After that, I'll leave on my own. Promise."

For a moment, I thought he saw through my lie and would throw me out, but he gave an annoyed grunt. "You've got two minutes. If I see you again with your pokemon out after that, I'll be forcibly escorting you out of here. Got it?"

"Yeah, got it," I said as I headed off towards the bathroom and went inside, Leon close behind. I quietly say to Leon, "Tell me when he's gone, 'kay?"

After a few moments, Leon replied, "All clear." We both headed out and dashed down the stairs before the guard could stop us. It was much quieter in the lower level. The sounds of the noisy casino were deafened by the thick ceiling, much to my gratitude. The loud, reeling slots were starting to give me a headache. The stairs led into what appeared to be a storage area. Lots of boxes of booze and bar foods were strewn about.

I began looking around for a way forwards, and hopefully towards Ike, but it seemed like this was it. No doors, no hallways, no nothing. "You sure he's down here?" I asked Leon.

Leon's eyes went blue as he looked around. He quickly bounded behind a stack of boxes, calling out, "Yeah, over here. Past here." I followed him, assuming that he'd found a door or something, but he was just standing in front of blank wall.

I sighed. "Well, the only way past this will alert anyone nearby to our presence," I muttered. "Maybe there's another set of stairs that we missed."

Leon shook his head. "No, there's a way through here," he insisted. He pushed on the wall to no avail, grumbling annoyedly. "I can see the residual aura of people going through here."

"Well, unless they're having ghost type pokemon phase them through, I don't know how they'd get," I cut myself off when I spotted a very slim slit in the wall. It was nearly imperceptible. I certainly wouldn't have seen it had Leon not drawn my attention to this particular portion of the all. "Well, what have we here?" I traced my fingers over the slit. It looked about the size of a credit card, so I presumed it was some sort of ID scanner. "A hidden door? We'll need to steal one of their ID badges to get through, though."

"ID badge?" Leon asked.

"Yeah," I replied, "they're small cards that identify who you are. In this case, they'd fit in this to open the door." This was going to be much harder than I had thought. Without an ID badge, I wouldn't be able to get through. If I went back upstairs to try to lift one off someone, which I'd never even attempted to do before, that guard would likely catch me and throw me out before I got the chance. And then there's the very likely scenario where the badge I get won't have the kind of clearance for the scanner, which could possibly trigger an alarm.

"You mean like this?" Leon asked. I looked down to see him holding up an employee ID badge. I took it and looked it over. It had a picture of the guy who stole Ike. My memory of him may have been fuzzy, but it was definitely him. Hard to mistake him with that long silver hair of his. Apparently his name was Ichika Suzuki.

"Where'd you get this?" I asked while I scrutinized it closely.

"Just found it on the ground," Leon replied. I looked back at him. It made little sense that the card would be so carelessly dropped on the ground. I doubted that he would've just left it there like that. The thought of a trap came to mind, but how could they have known that I'd have been able to locate them like this? "Will it help?"

"Yeah," I replied. "This will probably help. Is there anyone on the other side?" His aura sight was definitely useful for situations like this. I'd much prefer sneaking through here without getting caught. At least for now, while they have my Ike held captive. After I get out, I planned on calling in the cops to bust the place up. Ike came first, though.

"It's clear for a while. There are people down here, but none should be able to see us right now," he answered. "Unless it's just one big room. I can't see walls like that. The residual aura suggests it's not, though." I nodded and slid the badge into the slot. I made a mental note to ask Leon about this "residual aura" stuff later; it had piqued my curiosity. A quiet ding signified the acceptance of the credentials and the imperceptible door slid open. It sort of reminded me of the kind of secret entrance from the Basement. On the other side of the wall was a very clean, very white hallway that went to my right and left. "I'll lead the way," Leon said, bounding off on all fours.

I quickly followed him, trying to be as silent as possible. The place was definitely state-of-the-art. The rooms that I could see into had machines and tools that were definitely brand new and, from what I could tell with my knowledge of industrial technology, not available for public use. I couldn't exactly tell what they did, but I had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn't anything good. I did catch sight of a pokeball transfer unit and recovery chambers, so whatever they were doing involved pokemon, and they had the means to transfer them out to another location without much difficulty. 'Except for Ike,' I thought gratefully. 'Since I still have his ball, they have no means of transporting him to another location.'

"Hide!" I was a bit surprised to hear Leon's voice in my head, but his sense of urgency bid me to quickly slip inside the nearest door. Luckily, it seemed to be a closet of sorts. I caught glimpse of some kind of supplies before I closed the door and the light with it. I could hear footsteps on the other side of the door, a woman's based on the clicking of heels. They stopped right in front of the door. Fearing that she was about to come in for something, I quietly felt at the door handle and found a lock which I quickly engaged.

The jiggling of the handle confirmed my fear. My eyes hadn't adjusted much to the darkness yet, so I couldn't very well see where everything was, but I could see enough to hide behind a shelving unit. For a few moments, I thought that she had left, but then I heard a key sliding into the lock. My heart sped up. I backed up further to a better hiding spot, hoping that she'd just need something from right inside and not spot me.

I heard the key slide out. And then the handle began to turn again. I was expecting light to fly into the room again, but she stopped. A man's voice spoke from the other side of the wall. "Dr. Robins," he said, "I've been looking for you." Apparently the woman was a doctor of some sort. "You're needed in the testing chambers. One of the pokemon reacted oddly to the drugs."

"How oddly?" The doctor's voice replied.

"Very," the man replied. "You're gonna want to see this for yourself."

"Very well then." Footsteps began walking away from the closet.

I waited for a minute to make sure they weren't coming back before I let out a long breath, which I didn't even realize I was holding. "That was close," I whispered, mainly to myself.

"Let's just go get Ike before something bad happens to him," Leon spoke to me through his telepathy. My curious mind immediately wondered how he had acquired such an ability. I knew that there were a handful of other pokemon who knew it. Most were psychic types like the abra line, some ghost types, and the one that stuck out, lucario. I gathered that it was another one of the things he inherited from his lucario father. "And this is exactly why I don't trust humans."

I wasn't sure whether or not he could hear my thoughts while he was using telepathy, but I thought it worth a shot. I wanted to stay as quiet as possible after that close close call. "This is the worst humans have to offer," I admitted through telepathy, "but there are many more kinds of humans who not only detest, but oppose this sort of thing."

Leon didn't seem convinced, but he started leading me out and towards Ike again. "And half of the people who openly detest or oppose something are the ones who are doing it in secret." I couldn't refute that. I'd seen enough on the news to know that his words were true, although, perhaps not that high a percentage. I'd heard about plenty of cops who broke the law, politicians who publicly denounce things that they themselves do, and many scandals of religious men who declare non-traditional sexualties sins despite they themselves fitting into those so-called "sinful depravities." Clearly my thoughts were still open to him, because he continued, "Exactly. Most of you humans are hypocritical and self-righteous. That's why I don't trust your kind."

"Well, you don't have to worry about that with me," I assured. "I'm neither hypocritical nor self-righteous." He didn't respond for a while. After awhile, I started to think that he was beginning to reconsider staying with me, but I didn't want to ask. Instead, I simply followed him, letting him be.

"Did you really mean what you said back there?" he asked. I was about to ask him to clarify, but he answered before I could ask. "With the guard. That the most important rule for trainers is to keep their pokemon healthy and happy?"

I nodded, and tried to communicate in my most genuine tone despite my newness to telepathy, "Yes, to a true trainer, there's nothing more important than the well-being the pokemon they are caring for. It's not just about fighting. It's about doing what's best for your pokemon. It just so happens that a lot of pokemon enjoy asserting their dominance over bouts of competitive fighting."

There was a pause. "Point taken. That still doesn't give you the right to trap us in those balls, though."

"Which is why I give everyone the choice of whether or not they want to be out or not," I replied. "The only exceptions are when you're injured. And possibly a few other things that I can't quite think of right now. I'll always talk to you about it first, though. I know how you feel about them."

Leon continues to guide me towards Ike, but his eyes are glued on me, shining as they always do when he's looking through aura. I could guess that he was using his ability to try to tell whether or not I was being genuine. He seemed satisfied with his assessment. He lead me down another hallway and stops in front of a door. "He's in here," he said.

Out of nowhere a loud alarm started blaring. "Damnit," I muttered, "how'd they know?"

"No time to guess," Leon said. He stood on his hind and held his front paws out. A swirling mass of aura formed in front of him before he shot it at the door, sending it flying off its hinges. We rushed inside and saw it was some sort of examination room. Ike was in a cage on a counter.

"Ike!" I yelled out in joy.

The Eevee's ears perked up at my voice. "Ronan!" he exclaimed excitedly. That was the loudest I'd ever heard him speak before.

"No time for reunions," Leon remarked, "we've got incoming. A lot of 'em."

"Got it," I said. I pulled out Ike's ball and recalled him. "Let's go." Leon and I ran back the way we came, no longer trying to hide our presence since they already knew we were there. Sadly, our speed was not enough. We were cut off by a guy wearing clothing emblazoned with a fancy "E." My assumption was that whoever these people were, they're group's name started with that.

"You're gonna regret breaking in here," the man said. "I'm sure as hell not, though." He took out an odd-looking pokeball. It's base color was black but had red crisscrossing lines, almost like a net ball. "Taking you out and recovering Irekaru is gonna earn me a big bonus from the boss guys. Setakar, show them your strength!" He threw the pokeball and released a female meowstic. The coloration was an odd mix of purple and black, which was clearly neither her normal nor her shiny pattern. Either they dyed her fur, or something else changed him; I had a feeling that it was the latter.

Leon jumped out in front of me. "I got this," he said confidently. "I've never been much for pounding pussy, but I'll make an exception for you."

Setakar blinked in surprise at the doubly dirty trash talk before replying with a simple, "You disgust me." Leon didn't wait for an order before letting out a large burst of flamethrower at his opponent.

"Confusion," the trainer called out. The meowstic's eyes glowed blue, and a blue beam shoots out, going straight through the flames and landing a direct hit on Leon. Leon growls and shakes his head, trying to shake it off. I notice the same blue hue surround Leon. The confusion attack infected him.

"Leon," I said, "get back, his confusion is affecting you."

Leon shook his head before curling up and starting a flame wheel directly towards Setakar. Neither the pokemon nor her trainer seemed concerned. "Role play." Setakar's eyes glowed blue again; her fur seemed to tinge an orange-ish red. She held out a hand just as Leon reached her. She stopped him easily enough, and the flames surrounding him seemed to be sucked into her. For a moment I was confused, but then I remembered that Leon had the "flash fire" ability. Leon's chances of winning just decreased dramatically with no longer being able to use any of his fire attacks.

I was going to reach for Leon's ball. He may be angry, but in his confused state and not being able to use fire attacks, he wouldn't be able to win. I was stopped when I saw the meowstic suddenly use a suckpunch attack while Leon was still in his ball form. He went flying much farther than he should've; my guess was that she enhanced it with some kind of psychic attack as well. The thought didn't stay in my mind long; Leon was coming right at me. More like over me; that cat sure can pack a punch. I back-peddled just enough to catch Leon, causing me to stumble back a bit.

The trainer laughed and mocked, "And here I thought being able to break into our base meant you'd be at least a have decent challenge. You're just another shit trainer who doesn't know what he's gotten himself into. Why don't you just hand over Irekaru now and avoid any more embarrassment?"

I carefully set Leon down and grabbed Masu's ball. "If you think I'm just gonna hand him over to you so you can continue your fucked up experiments on him," I spat "then you're more of an idiot than I gave you credit for."

I was just about to throw out Masu, but another pokemon released itself from my belt instead. To my surprise, it was an espeon, not a pokemon that I knew I had. It took me only a moment for it to click in my mind. It was Ike! "I will not allow you to harm my friends any longer," he spoke. His tone was calm, but filled with venomous malice.

The grunt spoke as if he held authority, "Irekaru, use psychic on the quilava and his trainer!" Ike merely glared at him. The grunt growled, "Alright, fine. Setakar, charm him." Before the meowstic could do anything, the ruby on Ike's head glows brightly and a high pitch whine tickles my ears. It seems to be doing much more to his opponent, though. Setakar quickly tried to cover her ears, but it seemed to do little good. The feline pokemon shakes in pain as Ike keeps up, what I assume to be, a synchronoise attack.

Seeing an opening, I take it. I quickly pick up the dazed Leon at my feet and call out. "Ike, use psybeam to clear a path!" A purple jagged beam of psychic energy blast forth and knocked the meowstic and the trainer out of the way. "C'mon, let's go!" Ike and I sprinted past the duo. Without Leon as a guide, I had to recall the way to the exit. When I did manage to finally find the exit, there were two more trainers there. "Use psychic to move them out of the way and keep them from releasing their pokemon."

Ike nodded and did just that. A faint glow of purple surrounded them before throwing them across the hall, easily knocking them out. I didn't even slow down as the two of us bounded up the steps and towards the exit. I passed by that security guard who had been giving me grief before, purposefully ramming my shoulder into him as I passed by for being such an ass. He yelled out at me and started to chase after me, but I was already out of the casino and out of his jurisdiction.

I panted heavily to catch my breath. My heart was racing from the adrenaline. I looked down to make sure that Ike was still with me. He was, but the sight made me do a double-take. He was not longer an espeon, but he had devolved back to his eevee form. As if his sudden evolution wasn't enough, now this? What the hell did they do to him?

POV Leon

It was night now. Ronan had rented a room for the night. We were all quite surprised at Ike's weird new ability. He said he didn't understand how he did it and I'm inclined to believe him. Perhaps it was that ability that made his aura so unique. I mentally noted to keep an eye on his aura more closely in hopes of understanding it. The ability to evolve and devolve at will would certainly be an interesting thing to know how to do. His aura wasn't the one I was seeking at the moment, though. It had been long enough, and I wanted to find something out.

The others were asleep before I had snuck out. My eyes were locked on an aura that had been trailing us ever since Saffron City. I had never met the species before, so I couldn't tell what exactly he was. The only thing I could tell was that he was a water type. It didn't take too long for me to locate where he was hiding. A small lake out in the forest. I saw him sitting cross-legged on an outcropping rock. He was a greninja, and he did not seem altogether pleased to see me.

"Alright," I said, "what do you want?"

Rather than answer, the greninja jumped forwards and threw a bunch of water shurikens at me. I easily countered it with a volley of swift, shooting out my own stars to deflect his water ones. As he landed in front of me, he started up a double team move, creating about a dozen afterimages of himself all around me in a perfect circle. That sort of trick was easy to figure out for me. I activate my aura sight, allowing myself the ability to block out the illusory copies of him. I let out a strong burst of fire from my maw. It made a direct hit on the greninja knocking him back into the shallows of the lake.

"So," I asked, "are you gonna tell me what this is about?" The greninja didn't answer, though. He hopped back up and shot a hydropump attack at me. I swiftly evaded to the left to get out of the way. "Fine, if you wanna have it that way." I gathered my inner fire and my flame vents exploded with flames, shooting out and homing in on my silent opponent. I easily willed them to encase all but his head in the flames, hoping to trap him and get some answers out of him. What I didn't expect was when the grininja disappeared and left behind that annoying substitution doll. My manipulatable flames vanished as I started looking around for the hidden frog.

I suddenly felt a tight wet pressure around my middle, squeezing the air out of my lungs and lifting me up. I didn't need to look to know that the greninja had coiled that stretchy tongue of his around me in hopes of winning the battle. Big mistake. I engulfed myself in flames, burning his tongue and earning a yelping pained sound from the trees where he was hiding. I quickly created an aura sphere and sent it flying in that direction. The rustling of leaves and a loud thump was all I needed to hear to know that I made a direct hit.

I looked through aura again to catch sight of him. I bounded forwards and, just as he landed on his feet, I tackled him, ramming my head into his slim frame. My tackle easily knocked him onto his back, allowing me the opportunity to pin him and use my flames to bind his arms and legs to the ground. There was no way he was gonna get out of that. He glared up at me, still with a determined look in his eyes.

I lowered myself so that I as inches from his face. I growled out, "Alright, now that I've beaten your ass, you're going to answer my questions." There was no request, my voice made it entirely clear that he had no choice in the matter anymore. "What's your name?"

He was silent for a few moments. I was just about to demand the answer when he withdrew that oddly long tongue and volunteered it, "Xerxes."

It was a start. "Alright, Xerxes," I said, "tell me why you've been following me."

"Wouldn't you like to know," he retorted. I tightened the flames around his wrists and ankles. "Ah, damnit! You wanna know? Revenge!"

That struck me as odd. I knew for a fact that I'd never seen him before. His aura was foreign to me. "Alright, I'll bite," I replied, "what did I do to you?"

"Not to me," Xerxes hissed, "to my brother!" Well, that certainly narrowed it down. I'd met a few froakies and frogediers in my travels. Fought a few for sport. I couldn't think of any that I angered enough to have them send their big brother after me. "You don't even remember, do you? You raped him!"

That certainly caught me by surprise. I may not have been a saint, but the only pokemon I'd ever forced myself on were the ones who'd tried to do the exact same to me. Turnabout was fair play after all. None of them could've been his brother, though. Not unless he meant half-brother. And then it struck me.

I scrutinized his aura some more. Now that I knew who he was, I could definitely recognize the similarities between his and his brother's auras. "I remember your brother," I said as I backed off him. I didn't undo the bindings yet, though. "He was a real smart-mouth, claiming that water types were the absolute best and anything weak to them were nothing."

"So you decided to rape him to teach him a lesson!" Xerxes spat. I could seem him straining against the flames in futility.

"No," I replied calmly, "I challenged him to a battle. He was so stuck-up and I thought that I'd take him down a peg. He clearly thought that he was way outta my league because he offered to make it interesting, a little gamble."

"My brother's not a liar!" Xerxes interrupted me. He tried to shoot a water gun at me, but I quickly created a flame to keep his mouth shut.

"Frogedier at the time, went by the name of Scott?" I asked. He didn't need to speak for me to know I had the right guy. His expression gave it away. "As I was saying, he was overconfident in his ability and apparently wanted to humiliate me as a fire type, at least that was what I figured his reasoning was. He accepted my challenge with the addition that the winner got to fuck the loser. I won." Xerxes let out some angry yelling, probably another accusation. "He wasn't happy, but he had enough honor in his word to accept his fate. By the end he actually was really enjoying it. Guess he was too ashamed to accept it, though." Xerxes looked like he was fuming now. "My point is, I didn't rape your brother. Sorry that you wasted all that time just to get your tail handed to ya. I'm gonna remove the flames on your mouth now; I'd appreciate your not verbally assaulting me."

The flames binding his mouth disappeared and it was immediately followed by some very choice expletives denying my claims and calling me a liar and a rapist. He really had complete trust in his brother's lie. "Alright, if you won't believe my words, how about my memories." I created a telepathic link with him and shared my memory of that day, starting with my first hearing of Scott's annoying prattle.

I had just gotten to the point where Scott had said that he'd go through with the bet when Xerxes stopped me. "No more," he said. He had calmed down considerably. For awhile I thought that he might just ignore my memory and say that I made it up. But I guess that it was far too accurate in Scott's performance for him to refute it. "I guess I owe you an apology."

"Ah, no harm done," I replied casually. "I would like to know why you helped get the badge thing at the casino, though." He seemed surprise that I had figured it out. "Your aura was lingering on it."

"Oh," he replied. "You know, you aura users make things much harder for us sneaky types, you know that?" I chuckled a bit and waited. "I guess I was rooting for Ronan to rescue Ike." It didn't faze me at all that he knew their names. He'd been following us for a while, so it made sense that he would've picked up on those things. "Guess I kinda wanted to help."

I smirked. Despite his blind trust in his idiot brother, I couldn't help but like him. He was strong for sure. Nowhere near as strong as me, but still strong. He was kind-hearted with wanting to help out people who'd never met him. And he was sexy as fuck! His slim, toned figure was definitely a turn-on. If I weren't worn ragged from being up for about two days straight, I'd already have been trying to bang that ass of his.

"Well, I'm sure that Ronan would like to thank you," I said as I released his bonds. "He's asleep right now, but why don't you come with me back to the room we're staying in. I'm sure you've been up for as long as we have. You can get some rest in a warm room and then we can figure out where to go in the morning."

Xerxes raised an eyebrow at me. "You want me to come with you?" He seemed perplexed. Considering how he had just attacked me, I wasn't surprised, but I wasn't one to hold grudges like that. And I certainly had an ulterior motive in bringing him back other than just letting Ronan thank him.

"Yeah," I replied, "if you want, you can think of it as repaying me for the very unjustified assault."

He started to defend his actions, but stopped, looking a bit embarrassed. "Fine. I'll join you. On one condition."

"Oh?" I asked, my curiosity piqued. "And what might that be?"

He folded his arms and turned his head a bit, visibly blushing. His voice was quiet, just above audible. "Train me," he muttered.

I definitely didn't expect that. It seemed almost poetic in a sense. I could already tell that this would be fun. "What was that?" I asked coyly. "I couldn't quite catch that."

"Train me," Xerxes said a bit louder, his blush brightening. He was clearly embarrassed about having to ask for help like this. "I want to be stronger and if someone with a type disadvantage can so easily be their opponent, they know how to fight. So teach me."

There was no way I was gonna say no. Having such an attractive guy ask for me to teach them, for them to admit that I was so far superior that I was worthy of being someone they seek training from, well it pushed my buttons like crazy. He most likely didn't know what he was getting into, but he was gonna find out soon, and I knew that he'd end up loving it.

I smirked and replied, "To be clear, while you're under my tutelage, you'll have to do whatever I tell you to. No matter what it is, you'll have to do it. In return, I'll train you to the best of my abilities. Agreed?" I held out my forepaw.

He gripped it and shook. "Agreed."

My smirk widened. I could see in his aura that he felt just as bound to his word as his brother did, so he had no intentions of going back. I snapped my fingers and created a collar around his neck with my signature flame pattern. "Call me Master."