THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS

Goldenheart388 · Post by **Goldenheart388** » 2026-Jul-20 18:47

THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
BOND TIMELINE

ARC 2

CHAPTER 7

01/08/20– Jubilife City

In the square of Jubilife City, people were just walking around, living their lives. Or they were going to the Global Terminal; or they were going to Jubilife TV’s station; or they were going to the condos or the Pokétch factory; or the Trainers’ School. The point was, the citizens of Sinnoh’s largest city were busy. Incredibly so.

They were so busy, in fact, that none of them noticed a blue circle forming in the middle of the square and releasing a blue beam of light into the sky. The beam died down, and in a flash Kimberly Bond, Ian, Evelyn, and their Pokemon found themselves in the center of Jubilife City in the middle of Sinnoh. As Evelyn returned Axon, Kim, Sinatra, and Dio looked around the city in awe— though, Dio, notably, with less awe than the rest, which Kim took note of. Perhaps he used to live with his old Trainer in Jubilife, and thus had seen it before?

Ian, meanwhile, just grinned.

“Well,” he said, “here we are.”

Kim nodded.

“Yes,” she said. “Here we are indeed.”

<…Holy moly, this place is HUGE!> cried Sinatra. 

“Well, we can look at it later,” said Kim. “For now, we have a Turtwig to find and catch.”

<Ya sure we can find one here?> Sinatra asked, looking around the city. <I’m pretty sure Turtwig are really hard to find…>

“They are; they’re starters,” said Kim.

<Still, this is Sinnoh!> cried Dio. <If anything, we should be able to find a Turtwig here! That’s the whole reason we came here, after all!>

<Where should we go?> asked Piku-chan, who was still perched on Ian’s shoulder.

“…Hm,” said Ian, scratching his head in thought. “Well, if Turtwig is a starter Pokémon here, then maybe we can go to this region’s lab and ask the professor to give you one.”

Kim blanched. Professor Rowan, from what she knew, was a very strict and serious, and was more or less akin to Julius. If Julius had intimidated Kim despite his Ability not even being Intimidate, then surely she would be intimidated by Rowan— and there would be no way that he would be willing to give her a Turtwig.

“Ask Rowan?!” Kim blurted out. “Are you serious?!”

“Why not?” Ian asked. “The worst he could do is say no.”

<Besides,> said Dio, <you do want that Turtwig, don’t you?>

Kim considered their words for a few moments. It was true; the worst Rowan could do was say no to her, and she most definitely did want that Turtwig. And given that it was a starter, this was probably her best shot at getting it other than teleporting all the way to Feluv.

Eventually, after a bit, she nodded.

“Very well, then,” she said. “In that case…” She looked around for a bit at the wide and vast city that was splurged out before her. “Which way to Sandgem?”

Evelyn, in response to that question, reached into her robe and pulled out a Town Map, which she opened.

“Well, according to my map,” she said, “Sandgem Town is south of here. The two towns are connected by Route 202.”

Kim smiled and turned south, as Evelyn had stated.

“Well, then, what are we waiting for?” she said. “Let’s get a move on, shall we?”

Wordlessly, everyone agreed and set off towards Sandgem Town. Dio and Sinatra turned to face each other as they did.

<This is so exciting!> Dio cried. 

<If he’s even willing to give us one, that is,> said Sinatra.

<Doesn’t mean there’s not a possibility that he will, at least!> said Dio. <You never know; we could get one! And then we’d have ourselves a new band member!>

Sinatra shrugged. <Eh, I guess that’s true.>

With that said, they headed south to Route 202, en route to Sandgem Town.

——————————————————————

Sandgem Town

After a bit, they finally arrived.

Sandgem Town was, for all intents and purposes, incredibly small, with merely a Pokemon Center, PokeMart, and lab to its name. That certainly didn’t stop Kim from looking around the town in satisfaction once she entered, delighted at the thought that she was one step closer to getting a Turtwig.

“Well, here we are,” she said.

Ian and Evelyn made it to Kim’s side and looked around.

“Yep,” Ian agreed.

“Now to speak with Professor Rowan and ask him about that Turtwig,” said Evelyn.

“Indeed,” Kim said, nodding.

She suddenly noticed the lab in front of her and pointed at it.

“There’s the lab,” she said. “Let’s go in.”

She took out her notebook and put it under her arm before entering the lab, with her mons, Ian, Evelyn, and their mons following her from behind.

———————————————————————

Inside the Sandgem Town Lab

When Kim and the group entered the lab, the first thing they saw was a white-haired man in his 60s or so, dressed in a blue and white lab coat, looking for some place to put his papers down. He was humming a tune to himself, one that Kim did not recognize. It was clear to Kim that this man was Professor Rowan, and it became even more clear when he heard their footsteps and turned to look at the group. Kim had seen enough pictures of Rowan before to the point where she would recognize his face anywhere.

“Hm?” Rowan asked, with a sort of gruff curiosity. “Visitors?”

“You must be Professor Rowan,” Kim said, approaching him and holding out a hand. “Kimberly Bond, lingual consultant. These are my Pokemon.”

She gestured to Sinatra and Dio.

<Hey there,> said Sinatra, raising a paw.

Dio just waved, looking away a bit nervously.

“I’m Ian,” Ian said. “And this is my buddy, Piku-chan.”

<It’s nice to meet you,> said Piku-chan.

“And I am Evelyn Promeneau,” said Evelyn. “This is Hatty.”

She pointed to the “hat” that was on her head, which lifted up to reveal Hatty’s body underneath of it.

<Hello there~!> said Hatty.

“Well. It is nice to meet you all,” said Rowan. “I am Professor Rowan, a Pokemon Professor who studies Pokemon evolution.”

“I’m aware of that,” Kim said, stepping forward into the room. “As for why I’m here, I’ve come here to look for a Turtwig… if you have one, that is.”

Rowan looked back for a few moments, then turned back to face Kim, looking slightly embarrassed.

“Well, I suppose I do,” he said. “But… I can’t give him to you at the moment.”

Kim raised an eyebrow.

“…why not?” she asked. “You must understand that I didn’t teleport here for nothing.”

“Well,” Rowan began. “The Pokemon, Turtwig, Piplup, and Chimchar were napping, and… er… are you aware of those dreams where you’re eating a certain food, and when you wake up, your pillow is gone?”

“Yes…?” Kim asked, wondering where this was getting at.

“Well… Turtwig had one of those dreams,” said Rowan. “And he bit down on Chimchar’s tail and it burned his mouth.”

Kim, upon hearing the words “burned his mouth,” winced a bit and stood stock still afterwards, remembering her own burning and suddenly hoping that the Turtwig was alright.

<Ouch,> said Sinatra, slightly disturbed.

<Shame you don’t have a Water-type Pokemon, Kim,> said Dio.

“As I was saying,” Rowan went on, “the Turtwig and Chimchar have now gotten into an argument about who should apologize to who. Turtwig says Chimchar should apologize for burning his mouth, and Chimchar says that Turtwig should apologize for biting his tail.”

“What about the Piplup?” asked Ian.

That question was answered mere moments later, when two things happened at once.

The first thing that happened was a loud crash sound came from the other room, and the second thing was that a frantic Piplup came into view, running by…

…and very clearly on fire.

Kim, incredibly disturbed now and feeling terrible for the poor Piplup, pointed directly at the penguin Pokémon with a horrified look on her face.

“H-he’s on fire!” she screamed. “HE’S ON FIRE…!”

Upon hearing Kim’s scream, Ian, Evelyn, Sinatra, Dio, Piku-chan, and Hatty all turned towards where Kim was pointing. Sure enough, there was the Piplup, on fire. Ian and Evelyn’s eyes widened in shock for a moment, before they— and their respective mons— turned to face each other in determination.

“Well, that settles it,” said Ian. “Kim, Evelyn; you go stop the fighting! I’ll go put out the Piplup!”

Evelyn nodded. “On it!”

She made way for the other room. “Come on, Kim!”

But Kim didn’t follow Evelyn. At least, not immediately. She instead turned to face the two mons that were out of their balls and looked them over, knowing for a fact that neither one of them would be a good enough mon to stop a fight. Sinatra would just snap at them, and if anything would probably only escalate tensions between the two of them. Dio was… less prone to anger, but something told her that he would either just get scared of the fight or his excitable nature would just further escalate tensions.

That left only one mon left.

And something told Kim that he would be just the mon for the job.

<Kim!> Sinatra cried. <Go! What the heck are you doing?!>

Kim reached into her bag and pulled out two PokeBalls.

“Sorry about this, you two,” she said, “but you’re not who I’m going to use here.”

She pressed the buttons on the balls, and in an instant, Sinatra and Dio went back inside, slightly confused. Soon afterwards, she put them back, then pulled out the third ball.

Paul’s PokeBall.

And threw it, following Evelyn and running forward into the other room.

“Red alert, Paul!” she cried out.

In a flash of blue light, Paul emerged from his PokeBall and looked around the lab with curiosity.

<Oh, is this a lab?> he asked. <Never been in one o’ these, before, y’know; it’s pretty neat, if I’m being honest, and—>

He stopped, suddenly noticing Kim absolutely booking it to the other room, and flew up to her with mild concern.

<Kim?> he asked. <What’s goin’ on? What’s the hurry for?>

“No time to explain, Paul,” said Kim. “You’ll see when we get there.”

<Well, I’m sure it can’t be that ba—> Paul began— and then he made it to the other room, and he and Kim stopped dead as they saw what was going on.

Not only was the Piplup still very clearly on fire— and frantically screaming about it, which did not make Kim feel any better about the poor penguin’s safety— but the Turtwig and Chimchar were absolutely duking it out. The Chimchar was hitting the Turtwig with a Flame Wheel, and the Turtwig was hitting the Chimchar with Razor Leaf. Paul looked on, seemingly unsure what to think, as the two mons continued to battle each other.

 the Chimchar snapped, in a Castelian accent not unlike Sinatra’s, though a fair bit higher-pitched.

He hit him with another Flame Wheel— or, rather, tried to, anyways, but the Turtwig dodged.

<Well, I won’t hold back until you apologize for burning my mouth!> the Turtwig cried, hitting the Chimchar with another Razor Leaf. The Turtwig had a much higher voice than any of Kim’s mons, sounding a lot like a kid, and causing Kim to giggle a bit in spite of herself.

Of course, said giggle fit was promptly cut short by the Piplup running and screaming in agony.

<HELP! I’M ON FIRE!> he cried. <I’M ON FIRE…!!!>

Kim nodded in determination, turning towards Evelyn.

“You handle the Chimchar,” said Kim. “I’ll handle the—“

She had barely gotten the word “Turtwig” out of her mouth before Paul suddenly flew forward, wearing a look of what looked like determination that Kim hadn’t seen in a while. He turned to face Kim and Evelyn.

<Don’t worry,> he said. 

Kim and Evelyn stood there, jaws agape.

“B-both of them?!” Kim spat.

“B-but you’re weak to Fire!” Evelyn pointed out. “What’ll happen if that Chimchar burns you with his Flame Wheel?”

<Ah, trust me,> said Paul. <It’s fine. I know what I’m doing, and fire doesn’t scare me in the least.>

He flew off towards the Turtwig. Kim and Evelyn looked at each other for a few moments, before the former shrugged.

“Let’s see what he does,” she said.

Wasting no time, Paul flew up to the Turtwig and tapped him on the shell with his wing.

<Excuse me?> he asked. <Can I talk to ya for a second?>

The Turtwig looked around for a bit, then turned to face Paul, in slight confusion.

<…What do you want?> he asked.

<Sorry to bother you,> said Paul, a bit embarrassed. <My name’s Paul; I’m a Butterfree; my Trainer Kim’s looking for— y’know, she came here to get a Turtwig, and so we would have picked ya, and now we’re hearing that you’re in a bit of a commotion regarding you and this Chimchar?>

<Heck yeah I am!> the Turtwig snapped. <This Chimchar burned my mouth when I was taking a nap!>

<Burned yer mouth?!> the Chimchar snapped back. <Of course I did! You bit my tail!>

<Alright, alright, we don’t need to fight about this, anymore, y’know?> said Paul patiently, chuckling a bit. <I’m sure that eventually the two of you are going to understand what happened if we talk about this.>

He turned to face the Turtwig.

<You were asleep?> he asked.

<Yeah,> said the Turtwig, a bit confused.

<Well, then, I’m sure it was all an accident, wasn’t it?> Paul asked. <If you were asleep, you were probably dreaming about something.>

<Oh, I definitely was!> said the Turtwig, his mouth starting to water.

<Really now?> asked Paul. <What about?>

<Marshmallows…> the Turtwig muttered, dreamily. <So delicious…>

<…I guess I’ll admit they are pretty good,> the Chimchar said. <But ya still bit my tail!>

<‘Course he did,> said Paul. <He was asleep, y’know, so he had his eyes closed and couldn’t see what he was doing… probably got so invested in the dream that he thought that your tail was a marshmallow, and he accidentally bit it. Pretty common occurrence, y’know; I happen to do that sort of thing all the time…>

The Turtwig’s eyes widened a bit. <You do?>

Paul nodded.

The Turtwig paused for a few moments, and Paul could see the anger he had before visibly fade away and get replaced with a look of regret. He stared back at the Chimchar with a look of sadness; said Chimchar was also starting to come to an understanding as well.

<…I didn’t even know you were sleepin’ so close ta me,> the Chimchar said eventually. 

<Yeah,> said the Turtwig sadly. 

<You do yoyo tricks?!> asked Paul. <Do you have one with you right now?>

<W-well… I do,> said the Turtwig, shuffling his foot a bit shyly. <But… I don’t really want to show them to you right now… not in the middle of all this…>

<Ah, of course,> said Paul. <Certainly do wanna learn them at some point, though.>

<Enough about the yoyo tricks and what-not!> the Chimchar broke in. <That still doesn’t explain how I ended up burning the Turtwig’s mouth!>

<Ah, it’s simple, really,> said Paul. <You were asleep too, weren’t you?>

<…yeah, course I was,> said the Chimchar, in a deadpan. <You didn’t hear me?>

<No, I heard,> said Paul. <And… er… doesn’t your tail go out when you’re asleep?>

The Chimchar paused, hitting a realization.

<…you know what, it does!> he said. <Yeah, it goes out when I’m asleep so it doesn’t catch anything on fire.>

<But… you set my mouth on fire,> said the Turtwig. <So then I must have…>

A horrified realization came to his face.

<Oh, no…!> he said, dismayed. <Oh, not only did I bite your tail, I woke you up…!> His foot shuffling got a bit faster. <I’m so sorry, Chimchar… I didn’t even know you were asleep… I must have gotten too invested in my dream about marshmallows…>

<Ah, no, no, no! It’s fine!> Paul said quickly, flying up to him. <It wasn’t your fault at all for what happened; y’know; it was no one’s really; you just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. You weren’t aware, and you weren’t aware; no one’s aware when they happen to be asleep, y’know.> He flew back. <This was all just a big misunderstanding, wasn’t it?>

The Turtwig smiled up at the Chimchar shyly.

<Y-yeah,> he eventually said. 

With the tensions between the two mons cleared, Kim and Evelyn breathed a sigh of relief. As the Chimchar walked over to put his hand on the Turtwig’s shell, Kim looked up and saw that the Piplup, thankfully, was no longer on fire. Oshawittle was out of his PokeBall, by Ian’s side, clearly having put the fire out. Kim became even more relieved. Ian shot Evelyn a thumbs-up, and she smiled at him and returned it.

From there, the two’s attention turned back to the two mons.

<…look, I’m sorry too,> the Chimchar said. <About da whole… mouth-burning thing—>

<It’s fine,> the Turtwig said. <Paul was right, it was just an accident after all.>

<So… are we friends again?> asked the Chimchar, raising an eyebrow.

<We sure are!> the Turtwig responded, gently glomping the Chimchar on the forehead.

<Alrighty, then!> the Chimchar responded, all his energy returning to him. <That’s great! ‘Cuz I am just itchin’ ta get one of these Trainers and start battlin’ with ‘em!>

The Turtwig pulled away, and the two of them started laughing together. Paul sighed with relief and satisfaction.

<Ah, now that’s what I like ta see,> he said. <Pokemon gettin’ along with each other; the world needs more o’ that, y’know?>

<Hey, guys! Look!> the Piplup chirped happily, walking up next to the two mons. <I’m not on fire anymore!>

The Turtwig and Chimchar turned to face their fellow starter and grinned.

 said the Turtwig. Then, a bit more nervously, he asked, <But… are you okay? I wouldn’t want you to get really badly hurt…>

<Oh, don’t worry, I’m fine!> said the Piplup cheerfully. <And I see that you two have calmed down, so that’s good!>

<We sure have,> said the Turtwig happily.

Kim, Paul, Evelyn, and Ian— who had joined the other three by now, having returned Oshawittle— all looked over at the three starters having fun with each other and smiling. A smile slowly came to Kim’s face, and she turned to her starter mon in satisfaction.

“Thank you, Paul,” she said. “I knew I could count on you.”

Paul flicked a wing. <Ah, it was nothin’ much, really, y’know? Just doin’ what I can to try and help.>

“Well, it certainly helped them,” said Kim. “And now that that’s over…”

She reached into her bag and pulled out the other two PokeBalls before throwing them.

“Red alert, you two!” she cried.

In two flashes of light, Sinatra and Dio appeared, and glanced around with slight confusion. They noticed the three starters getting along with each other and blinked.

<Is it over already?> asked Sinatra.

Kim nodded. “Paul did exactly what I thought he would do. I’m so proud of him.”

Sinatra and Dio looked at each other as Kim hugged Paul.

<…that was fast,> Sinatra remarked.

<Really fast!> Dio agreed.

The Turtwig, overhearing them, turned to face the two mons.

<Oh… hi there,> he said. <Who are you guys?>

<You the Turtwig the old guy was talkin’ about?> Sinatra asked. <Nice to meet you. Name’s Sinatra.>

<And I’m Dio~!> said Dio happily, wagging his tongue.

<Hi, you two,> said the Turtwig. <It’s nice to meet you.>

<He knows yo-yo tricks; y’know that?> Paul added. <Not sure how that’s possible, but I sure do want to learn some one day!>

The Turtwig looked away, shuffling his foot again. <I… was taught by a group of Floragato.>

<That’s nice,> said Sinatra. <But can we get ta all that stuff later?!> He looked up at Kim with impatience. <You gotta do what ya came here for!>

“I most certainly do,” said Kim, nodding. “And now that everything is sorted out, I can most definitely do so.” She turned to face Rowan. “Professor?”

Rowan nodded, and turned to the three starters. “Yes, I would say it’s time, now that everything’s settled.” He clapped twice. “Alright, everyone! Line up!”

On cue, the three starter Pokemon of Sinnoh stood in a line, with Turtwig on the left and Piplup on the right. Sinatra and Dio stepped back towards Kim, and Rowan turned to face the Trainers.

“I shall give you three a choice between these three Pokemon,” said Rowan. “You may choose Turtwig, the Grass-type, Chimchar, the Fire-type, or Piplup, the Water-type.”

Kim smirked. As much as she had felt bad for the poor Piplup earlier, she knew what she’d come here for.

“This won’t even be hard, will it?” she said, with a cursory glance at all her friends and mons. Sinatra smirked, giving her the closest thing to a thumbs-up he could.

With no other words needed, Kim walked over to the Turtwig and picked him up. The Turtwig’s eyes lit up in an instant.

<You’re picking me?!> he asked.

Kim nodded. Happily, the Turtwig began to nuzzle his new Trainer.

<Oh, thank you so much!> he said. <Thank you a thousand times over!>

“You’re welcome,” said Kim, petting the Turtwig on the head. “And I already have a name for you, too.”

<You do?> asked the Turtwig.

<Well, c’mon then, spill it!> Sinatra urged her. <What is it?>

Kim smiled. The name she had in mind was an obscure choice for sure, but she couldn’t pass the opportunity up.

“Kaylan,” she said.

Paul, Sinatra, and Dio all blinked in confusion, giving Kim blank stares— as Kim had thought they would.

<Um… who?> Dio asked.

<Probably a musician,> Paul said.

<Well, if it is, I’ve never heard of ‘em,> said Sinatra.

“After Howard Kaylan,” Kim explained, pulling out her dex to scan the info of her new friend— and the other two. “The lead singer of the Turtles.”

At once all three got the joke, and facepalmed.

<Ohhhh…> they said.

Kim smirked.

“Terrible pun, I know,” she said. “But I had to.”

The newly-named Kaylan giggled and chomped Kim’s head. Meanwhile, Ian and Evelyn were looking over at the two remaining starters, deep in thought. After a bit, Ian turned to face Evelyn.

“So, Evelyn?” he asked. “What starter do you choose?”

Evelyn looked between the two starters for a bit, thinking about it long and hard. Eventually, though, she seemed to come to a decision, and nodded.

“I choose Chimchar,” she said.

The Chimchar blanched in shock.

<Y-Ya pickin’ me?!> he cried.

Evelyn nodded. The Chimchar looked up at Hatty, who was still on Evelyn’s head, and shook his head.

<But hang on a sec, aren’t you a Psychic Trainer or something like that?> asked the Chimchar. <Why would ya pick a Fire-type like me?!>

Evelyn smiled.

“You’re certainly right,” she said. “I am a Psychic Trainer. In fact, I’m training to be a Psychic-type Gym Leader right now.”

Kim looked at her, more than a bit impressed. She hadn’t been informed that Evelyn was training to be a Psychic-type Gym Leader, much less a Gym Leader at all.

“But…” said Evelyn. “I realized something. I have a male Kirlia named Kako, and later on, I’ll be exposing him to a Dawn Stone. Then he’ll become a Fighting-type, just like you.”

She pet the Chimchar on the head.

“Besides,” she said. “A little type diversity never hurt anyone, right?”

The Chimchar chuckled and gave his new Trainer a cocky grin.

<Ya know, you do have a point there,> he said.

Evelyn smiled.

“Thanks for understanding, Hanuman,” she said.

Kim chuckled to herself. “Apparently, Goku must have been too obvious. Even so, a Hindu monkey god certainly seems fitting.”

<So… I guess that leaves you with Piplup, then,> said Kaylan.

<Lemme guess,> muttered Sinatra to himself. <He’s gonna name it ‘Bonaparte’.>

Evelyn couldn’t help herself from chuckling at that. She turned to Ian in curiosity.

“Well, Ian?” she asked. “What are you going to name him?”

Ian paused for a few moments, staring down at the adorable penguin Pokemon, then eventually got an idea and snapped his fingers.

“Got it!” he cried. “Ritchie!”

Paul, Sinatra, Dio, and Kaylan all looked at Ian with confused expressions.

<…Ritchie?!> they asked in unison.

“…Ritchie?” Kim repeated. “Ritchie as in Blackmore?”

“Exactly!” Ian responded.

<…Who the heck is that?> Sinatra asked.

<Oh! Ritchie Blackmore!> Dio piped up. <I’ve heard of him!>

The newly-christened Ritchie gaped at Dio in shock.

<You have?!> Ritchie gasped.

<Yep!> Dio replied, grinning. <Guitarist of Deep Purple and— more importantly for me— original guitarist of Rainbow!>

<Why’s that important?> Hanuman asked.

<Because the singer of Rainbow was DIO, BABAAAAAAY—!> Dio cried out, raising his claws to the sky and performing air guitar. Sinatra just stared at him with a disapproving look, then shook his head repeatedly.

<Of course it was,> he said.

“Also a member of Blackmore’s Night,” said Ian. “That’s my favorite band.”

<Huh,> said Dio, lowering his claws and losing his overly excited expression almost immediately. <Never heard of ‘em.>

<Even so,> said Sinatra, <why’d you name a penguin Pokemon after this Ritchie Blackmore guy?>

Ian shrugged. “I just felt like it fit him.”

He pet Ritchie on the head, and Ritchie jumped up and down happily. Paul, who was still watching the whole thing, shrugged.

<Well, I can’t argue with that, y’know,> he said. <Sometimes it just… fits, really, and that’s all it takes.>

Kim nodded. “Indeed.”

With all that said and done, Kim pointed her Pokédex at everyone’s new friends. Data for the three new mons appeared on the screen within seconds, and Kim read them thusly:

#0387 Turtwig: Categorized as the Tiny Leaf Pokemon; technical scientific name Terrada firma shared with Grotle and Torterra. Often referred to in scientific papers as T. f. juvenis to distinguish it from other members of its line. The leaf on its head, which is actually two leaves, wilts whenever this Pokemon is thirsty. It tends to nourish itself through photosynthesis, and as such does not need to eat much food, if any at all. It becomes a lot more energetic when exposed to enough sunlight. Despite it not needing food, it does drink a lot of water; said water hardens the shell on its back, which is made of soil. As this Pokemon is a starter, it is very rare to find in the wild. It is generally seen under the care of Trainers. However, it can be caught at the Terrarium in Unova’s Blueberry Academy, and like all Pokemon, can be caught in Feluv. This Pokemon also hates the cold, and much prefers to reside in warm places.

#0390 Chimchar: Categorized as the Chimp Pokemon; technical scientific name Pan occidentalis shared with Monferno and Infernape. Often referred to in scientific papers as P. o. juvenis to distinguish it from other members of its line. The flame on this Pokémon’s tail is produced by burning gases in its stomach. Unlike other Fire-type Pokemon such as Charmander (D. i. juvenis), a Chimchar’s fire will not go out in the rain; they do, however, go out when Chimchar fall asleep. If a Chimchar is ill, the fire on its tail burns weakly. In the past, notably in Ancient Hisui, the flame on its rear caused people to mistake it for a ghost or apparition; it was therefore dubbed “Lantern-Tail” by ongoers. This Pokemon lives in tall mountainous areas, and is very agile. However, it is very rare, like other starters, and is mainly seen in the care of Trainers. It can be caught at the Terrarium in Unova’s Blueberry Academy, and like all Pokemon, can be caught in Feluv. In Feluv, it and Mankey are rivals.

#0393 Piplup: Categorized as the Penguin Pokemon; technical scientific name Sphenicus napoleonus shared with Prinplup and Empoleon. Often referred to in scientific papers as S. n. juvenis in papers to distinguish it from other members of its line. Piplup have a very strong sense of self-pride, to the point that it has a hard time bonding with its caretakers. It similarly has a hard time accepting food from humans. It puffs out its chest after it falls down, which, due to this Pokémon’s poor walking abilities, is very common. That being said, however, it is a skilled swimmer, and can dive for over ten minutes to hunt food. It is the only member of its line capable of flight, albeit at short distances. It tends to live near the seashore and in colder climates. However, it is most often seen in the care of humans due to being a starter Pokemon. It can be caught at the Terrarium in Unova’s Blueberry Academy, and like all Pokemon, can be caught in Feluv.

“…well,” said Kim, looking up from her Pokédex. “Ritchie doesn’t seem like that to me at all.”

“Nope,” said Ian, who was looking up from his Pokédex. “My dex says that Ritchie here has a Jolly Nature.”

“And Hanuman’s Adamant,” said Evelyn, looking up from hers. “What about Kaylan’s Nature, Kim?”

Kim, now curious to know as well, scanned Kaylan with her dex. Seconds later, the following information appeared on the screen:

Name: Kaylan
Species: Turtwig
Gender: Male
Nature: Gentle
Characteristic: Likes to eat
Ability: Overgrow
Moveset: Razor Leaf, Absorb, Protect, Sunny Day

“…Gentle,” she said, looking up.

<Well, he sure didn’t seem Gentle to me,> said Sinatra.

<Yeah!> Dio agreed. <He was going absolutely nuts on Hanuman!>

“Trust me,” said Kim, smiling. “Usually, it’s always the gentlest ones who snap the hardest.”

She reached into her purse and pulled out an empty PokeBall.

“Well, Professor,” she said, returning her new Mon friend, “thank you for the new Pokemon, but I believe we must be going. My next stop is Alola, and if there’s one thing I want to do there first… it’s find out more about my new Pokemon.”

Rowan nodded. “Very well. I shall see to it that I don’t hinder your journey.”

Kim nodded, then returned her other three mons to their balls and started off. Ian smiled and waved at Rowan, following Kim out the door with Evelyn in tow. By Ian and Evelyn’s side, still, were Ritchie and Hanuman.

“Thank you, Professor,” said Ian. “Much appreciated.”

<Til we meet again, Professor!> Ritchie said cheerfully, waving a flipper at him.

<See ya ‘round!> added Hanuman.

And with that, they were out the door.

—————————————————————

mountingLabor(ML) joined the chat.

ML: Um… hell[]? Is any[]ne else here?

butterfreeCrossing (BC), wanderingMustelid (WM), and holyGlider (HG) joined the chat.

HG: YEAH! DON’T WORRY, THE REST OF US ARE HERE!
BC: #{welcome 0 to 0 kim’s 0 team 0 i 0 think 0 you’ll 0 have 0 a 0 pretty 0 good 0 time 0 here 0 really}
WM: Huh. Your|quirk’s|not|bad.
ML: Um… thanks…
BC: #{but 0 just 0 so 0 ya 0 know 0 if 0 you 0 ever 0 run 0 into 0 some 0 trainer 0 named 0 kendall 0 i 0 wouldn’t 0 really 0 use 0 it 0 much 0 they 0 don’t 0 really 0 tend 0 to 0 like 0 tqs 0 very 0 much 0 y’know 0 they 0 say— 0 they 0 say 0 it’s 0 silly 0 and 0 all 0 that}

WM: Oh|don’t|remind|me. Sylveon|and|Julius|are|killjoys! That’s|what|they|are! They’re|so|serious|all|the|time…|for|what|reason?! They’re|Pokemon! Plus,|what? Do|they|think|we|can’t|be|serious?!

wanderingMustelid (WM) turned off the automatic typing quirk settings.

WM: Think again, Sylveon. Think again, Julius. One day you guys are gonna get typing quirks; I just know it. And then you’ll realize just how fun they are, and how much they do not, in fact, impede readability. And then I am going to find both of you, and I am going to take both of you DOWN.
ML: …

wanderingMustelid (WM) turned on the automatic typing quirk settings.

ML: …maybe y[]u c[]uld hear them []ut…
WM: HA! Nonsense! The|only|one|of|us|that|has|a|typing|quirk|that’s|really|crazy|is|Paul!
HG: YEAH! I DON’T THINKK YOU HAVE TO WORRY THAT MUCH!
ML: []h. []kay then… I guess that’s g[][]d.
HG: SO! WHAT DO YOU LIKKE TO DO, KKAYLAN?
ML: []h! Well… like I said bef[]re, I like y[]-y[] tricks, but I als[] like g[]ing t[] the beach, and playing drums, and marshmall[]ws, []f c[]urse, and…
HG: WHOA!!! YOU KKAN PLAY DRUMS?!?!
ML: Um… yeah.
WM: Why|the|heck|didn’t|ya|tell|us|that|when|ya|joined?!
ML: …did I need t[]?
WM: Ya|could’ve|at|least|mentioned|it! We’re|doin’|a|thing!
ML: A thing? W-what thing?
HG: A BATTLE OF THE BANDS!!!!
ML: A Battle []f the Bands?!
HG: YEP! I’M GONNA SING, BUT I WANNA PLAY GUITAR!
WM: And|I’m|gonna|sing,|but|I|want|to|play|the|trumpet.
BC: #{and 0 i’m 0 just 0 gonna 0 sing}
ML: []h, c[][]l! I can sh[]w []ff my drum skills! …if I can even get on stage, that is…
BC: #{oh 0 you’ll 0 be 0 fine}

lingualConsultant (LC) joined the chat.

BC: #{…}
WM: …
HG: …
ML: …

LC: …I found something. I don’t know what it is, but I found something.
LC: Things, actually.

———————————————————————————————

Sandgem Town— Outside of Rowan’s Lab

The “things” that Kim had found, as it turned out, she had found next to a bush, directly outside of Rowan’s lab, after exiting the building. She knew what two of them were as soon as she saw them. One of the items, separate from the other two, was a Razor Fang— an item she knew for a fact that she’d have to give to Dio some night in order to get him to evolve into a Gliscor. She had put that into her purse, intending to use it as a surprise for Dio one night.

The other two things, however, were clumped together in a separate group. The first one of these things was an Iron Ball, an item that Kim knew for a fact she had seen before, which halved the holder’s Speed stat and made them grounded. From what she could tell, it was not a very beneficial item, but at the very least she knew what it was.

The same could not at all be said, however, for the other item in the same group as the Iron Ball.

It was a clear circular container, with a small loop at the top. The container looked as though it was meant for a medallion of some kind, but after Kim picked it up and looked at it more closely, she began to realize something.

“It’s thicker than it appears,” she said to Ian and Evelyn, showing them the item. “I don’t know who could have possibly left this here, but we should probably return this to them.”

“…Hm…” said Ian, taking the item from Kim and thoroughly inspecting it. Evelyn joined him by his side, and Piku-chan, who was still on his shoulder, looked it over and sniffed it with curiosity.

“It… looks as though it’s some kind of container,” said Evelyn. “Perhaps it belongs to the Professor?”

<Good idea, Evelyn,> Hatty piped up from atop Evelyn’s head. <And given that there were two items near it… maybe it was a container for those items?>

“You could be getting somewhere, Hatty,” said Evelyn.

Ian, meanwhile, was still staring at the item in deep thought.

“Hm…” he said to himself. “This… looks familiar…”

Evelyn and Kim looked at Ian in surprise.

“You’ve seen this before?” asked Kim.

“What is it?” Evelyn asked.

Eventually, after a bit, Ian gave it back to Kim.

“…I’m not entirely sure about this,” he said. “But if it’s what I think it is—”

<What’d you find, Kim?!>

Ian was suddenly interrupted as four blue flashes came from Kim’s purse; within seconds, Paul, Sinatra, Dio, and Kaylan had all emerged from their PokeBalls and were glancing up at their Trainer with looks of excitement, confusion, and wonder. Kim looked down at them and smiled.

“Nothing much, really,” said Kim, showing them the Iron Ball and the clear container. “I just found this Iron Ball and clear plastic container next to the lab. I’m not sure what they’re for.”

Confused, Kim’s Pokemon all crowded around the container and Iron Ball, none of them wondering what was going on or what this thing was.

<An Iron Ball?> Dio asked, scratching his head as best he could.

<That, and… whatever this thing is,> said Sinatra, picking up the plastic circular container and opening and closing it. <What the heck even goes in this thing?>

<I’m… not really sure what goes in there, y’know,> said Paul, flying up towards the Iron Ball. <But this— oof!>

He tried to pick up the Iron Ball with his feet, only to be very suddenly and sharply dragged down onto the floor. Kim’s other three mons all looked at him with concern, and Kaylan walked up to him, most concerned of them all.

<Are… you okay, Paul?> he asked.

Paul shook himself off, then flew up, dropping the Iron Ball in the process.

<I’m fine, Kaylan,> he said. <Thanks for askin’, but… that Iron Ball… it really is pretty heavy, y’know,> he said. <Even so; I like it. I might wanna keep it; polish it off or something like that…>

Sinatra blinked and looked at Paul in surprise.

<You… wanna keep it?> he asked.

<Sure,> said Paul. <Why not?>

<Well, if you’re going to keep it, it’s gotta be put away in something,> said Sinatra.

<Yeah, I can agree with tha—> Paul began— and then he stopped, an idea coming to him. Eagerly, he flew over to the clear container and opened it up.

<Oh!> he said. <Maybe I could put it in here?>

<Awww yeah!> Dio cried. <That’s a great idea, Paul!>

<I’m… not so sure if you should put it in there,> Kaylan pointed out, shuffling his foot nervously. <Like Evelyn said, it could belong to the Professor or someone. I mean… it does look like a Petri dish.>

“Actually…” Ian suddenly cut in.

The four mons all looked up at Ian, in confusion.

<Huh?> Kaylan asked. <What’s the matter, Ian?>

<Yeah, was this about what you were going to say before?> Piku-chan asked.

<If it is,> said Ritchie excitedly, 

“Oh, it sure is,” said Ian. “If I’m right about what I think it is…” He turned to face Kim. “Kim?”

“Yes, Ian?” Kim asked.

“Can you tell Kaylan to put the Iron Ball inside the plastic container?” Ian asked.

Kim blinked. Put the Iron Ball inside the plastic container? It seemed to her like a slightly odd request. Sure, the container did look thicker than it appeared, but it still looked just thin enough to hold a medallion. Besides, the Iron Ball was round, and would a round object even fit in a container like that?

Still, Kim had an idea that Ian knew what he was talking about, so she eventually nodded.

“Well, Kaylan,” she said, “you heard him.”

Kaylan nodded. <On it!>

He went over to the container, grabbed the lid in his mouth and took it off; it came off easily. Then he put down the lid, went over to the Iron Ball, grabbed that in his mouth— which was no problem for him— and put the Iron Ball in the container. Finally, he grabbed the lid in his mouth again, and put it over top of the ball. Remarkably, it fit inside the container rather snugly.

<It fits!> Kaylan cheered.

<Huh,> Sinatra remarked. <It really is thicker than it appears.>

“Still, it’s not doing much of anything,” said Kim. “I do think that it’s really nothing more than a contain—”

But before she could say anything else, she— and all of her mons, and all of her friends, and their mons— found themselves interrupted by something none of them had expected.

The container, as it turned out, was not just a mere container; within mere seconds the Iron Ball in the middle of it began to glow in rainbow lighting, as if it were Mega Evolving. Dio, Paul, and Kaylan all stepped back, blinded by what was happening; Sinatra just stared at it with his jaw agape.

<W-Whoa…!> Dio cried.

<W-what?!> snapped Sinatra. <W-what the heck is this?! What’s happening to it?!>

<Whoa…!> cried Kaylan, transfixed. <What is that thing?!>

Kim and Evelyn also stood there, glancing in shock at the glowing Iron Ball in the seemingly magic container.

“I… I’ve never seen anything like this before…” Kim muttered.

“Ian…?” Evelyn asked. “What is this…?”

Ian, meanwhile, was grinning, and stood there delighted, and more than a bit triumphant.

“Ha-HAAAA!” he laughed. “I KNEW it! I KNEW I had seen this before!”

“You know what this is?!” Kim asked. “What is it?”

Ian grinned. “You’ll see…”

As everyone watched, transfixed with wonder, the glowing Iron Ball began to spin inside of the container, moving faster and faster. As it spun, the glowing rainbow light inside the container began to grow outwards, expanding out steadily until it had filled the entire container with its glowing light. The group all stared at the glowing light, transfixed, until eventually, it snapped off. Inside of the container was no longer an Iron Ball. Confused, Kim and Evelyn looked at each other, then ran over to the item, leaning over it along with the four mons surrounding it to catch a glimpse of what was inside. Ian ran over happily to join them, and when he looked down and saw what was inside of the container, he and Piku-chan both cheered.

“Yes!” Ian cried.

<Alright!> Piku-chan exclaimed happily.

Inside of the medallion-shaped container was, as it turned out, a medallion. For the most part, the medallion was a bright white, but in the middle of it was a multicolored peace symbol giving off energy. At the top of the medallion was a gray arc that had the word TOLERANCE on it in gray lettering; at the bottom was an upwards-facing arc that read the same, but in Kalosian: TOLÉRANCE.

Kim blinked in shock, leaned down, opened the container, and took the medallion out of it. She looked it over in wonder and felt the back; it was made of solid steel. Kim knelt down, and her mons all crowded around it, equally as transfixed.

<Whoa…!> Dio cried. <That’s so cool!>

<Did it just transform into that thing?!> Sinatra asked. <W-where’d the Iron Ball go?>

 said Paul, <but I really like it. It looks cool, y’know?>

<It sure does…> Kaylan muttered.

Ian came up next to Kim as she stood up, grinning, and patted her on the back.

“Alright, Kim!” he cried happily. “You got a Virtue! That’s sure to help you a lot!”

<Yeah, congratulations!> said Piku-chan.

Kim turned to Ian in confusion.

“…A Virtue?” Kim asked.

“Yeah, a Virtue,” said Ian, grinning. “I got some of my own myself. They’re the regional gimmick of Feluv, and they’re really powerful!”

He reached into his backpack. After a bit of rummaging, he pulled out two similar medals. The first medal was blue in color, with a blue and red shield in the middle of it. The shield was flanked by two blue wings. At the top of the shield was a maroon arch with gray text reading LOYALTY; at the bottom was a maroon arch with gray text reading FIDÉLITÉ.

The second medal Ian was holding was gray, with a metallic sword on it. The sword had an orange haft. Above the sword was an orange arch with the word BRAVERY on it in gray text; at the bottom was another orange arch reading VALLIANCE in orange text.

“This one is the Loyalty virtue,” said Ian, showing Kim the one on the left.

<That one’s mine!> Piku-chan added happily from Kim’s shoulder.

“And the other one’s the Bravery virtue,” said Ian. “That one belongs to Oshawittle.”

“Do they do anything?” Kim asked.

“Oh, do they!” Ian cried, grinning. “Like I said, they’re incredibly powerful—”

<Oh, hey!> Paul suddenly broke in. <Here it is!>

Kim stopped and turned to him. The Iron Ball, as it turned out, had reappeared; it was now right next to Paul, having reappeared outside of the container and medal. Kim smiled.

“Oh, you found it?” Kim said.

<Well, I didn’t really find it, y’know; that’s not the right word; it was more like it just appeared in front of me again, something like that,> Paul replied. <But yes!>

“Hm,” said Kim. “Nice.” She turned back towards Ian. “Anyhow, you were saying?”

“Like I said,” said Ian. “These virtues are incredibly powerful. So powerful, they’re banned from every League but Feluv.”

<EVERY LEAGUE BUT FELUV?!> Dio cried, alarmed. <How powerful are these things?!>

<Not just that,> Sinatra added. <How the heck do these things work?!>

<Easy,> said Piku-chan. <You put the medal in the container and get your mon to touch it while holding its held item. Once that happens…> He laughed with immense triumph. <A TON of other stuff happens!>

“What stuff?” asked Kim.

“Well… I don’t know if it’d be worth it to explain it to you,” said Ian. “If you really wanna see how powerful these Virtues are… I think you need to see them for yourself in action!”

<Ya mean a battle?!> asked Sinatra with excitement.

“More than that,” said Ian. “A battle royale!”

Kim blinked.

“A Battle Royale?” she asked.

“You said you wanted to go to Alola, didn’t you?” Ian said, turning to her. “Well, it’d be a perfect opportunity for us to get to know our new friends!”

<Oh, I love Alola!> said Kaylan happily. <I’ve always wanted to go there… and the idea of a Battle Royale sure sounds fun…>

<Pretty convenient,> Sinatra admitted. <Plus, I’ve been itchin’ to battle Kaylan ta see what he can do! …and what I can do, of course.>

<Heh!> Hanuman laughed from Evelyn’s side. <You too?>

<You know it!> said Sinatra with pride.

“Hm,” said Evelyn after a few moments of consideration. “It would be nice to have a Battle Royale. I’ve never been in one before.”

“Neither have I,” Kim agreed.

She picked up the Iron Ball from the floor and put it away in her purse, but continued to stare for a few moments at the TOLERANCE medal she was carrying. If this “virtue” medal was meant to be for one of her Pokemon, she had a pretty good feeling it was meant for Paul. He was, after all, the most tolerant member of the group of Kim’s mons, and— more importantly— the most active promoter of tolerance. It had been him who had stopped the fight between the two mons, after all.

Even then, though… she still had questions.

She pulled out her EvoPhone and took a picture of the TOLERANCE medal, then pulled out her OB-1 and began to text Kendall.

———————————————————————

lingualConsultant (LC) began hassling unovanOtaku (UO).

lingualConsultant (LC) joined the conversation.

LC: Hello, Rever. I must ask something of you.

unovanOtaku (UO) joined the conversation.

UO: …now what.
LC: Have you ever seen one of these before, Rever?

[tolerancevirtue.img]

UO: …no??? Never??? Why would I?
LC: It’s apparently known as a “Virtue”, it’s the regional gimmick of Feluv, and apparently they are so insanely powerful that they are banned in all leagues except for the Feluv League.
UO: …the where League?
LC: …you’ve never been to Feluv?
UO: I’ve never even heard of it.

desecratedDesert (DD) joined the conversation.

DD: Feluv? HA! It Feluv’ the face o’ the Earth!

wanderingMustelid (WM) joined the conversation.

WM: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Oh—|oh|you’re|good! You’re|so|much|funnier|than|that|Sylveon! I|like|you!

liberalEsuna (LE) joined the chat.

LE: You’re just mad that I’m smarter and stronger than you.
WM: You’re|stronger|than|me|now! You|won’t|be|once|I|evolve|into|a|Furret|and|beat|you|to|a|crisp!
LE: You wish you had the moveset of an HM Slave, or the stats of a single-stage evolution line.
WM: …!

wanderingMustelid (WM) turned off the automatic typing quirk settings.

WM: WHAT THE HECK DID YOU JUST COMPARE ME TO YOU INSUFFERABLE LITTLE—
LC: You turned the settings off?!
WM: ‘Course I did! I’m fumin’!
LE: Little? My base Special Attack and Defense combined are higher than your final stage’s HP, Attack and Defense, again, combined. Have fun fighting in the bottom tiers without a niche~
WM: GRRRRRRR
WM: You didn’t even notice I turned the dang settings off for ya! I’m fumin’ so hard right now ya got what ya wanted! I hope you’re happy! I ain’t keepin’ it this way!
LE: Yes you are. Try to aspire to the level of an HM Slave and keep things accessible to us, okay, love?~
WM: …oh Arceus I hate you
LE: <3

liberalEsuna (LE) left the conversation.

wanderingMustelid (WM) turned on the automatic typing quirk settings.

WM: …did|she|just|send|me|a|heart?

wanderingMustelid (WM) left the conversation.

LC: …
UO: …you need to discipline your mons more. Sylveon’s right and you know it.
LC: …urf.

mountingLabors (ML) joined the conversation

ML: Um… hi… I’m Kaylan… Paul said that there weren’t any typing quirks… permitted here…
DD: Oh thank Arceus, finally! A normal one!
ML: I am g— I will try my best t— and… Kim please help me this is much harder than I th[]— []h. []h n[]…
DD: …neeeever mind.

milquetoastBulwark (MB) joined the conversation.

MB: Well. You tried.
ML: Um… uh… []h. []h y[]u’re the big scary St[]utland… I’m s[]rry… please d[]n’t hurt me… um… uh… I’ll just g[] n[]w…

mountingLabor (ML) left the conversation.

UO: He doesn’t even have Intimidate, why is he so scared of him?!
LC: I think he’s just a bit shy. Anyways… now that all that’s done… I’m surprised you’ve never been to Feluv before, or even heard of it. It’s directly connected to Unova via a massive bridge.
UO: Must never have noticed it before.
LC: Please go to Feluv one day. The IPPA is there; it’s a massive language association for Pokemon.
UO: Hm.
LC: Anyways, I should probably leave fairly soon. It’s a shame you don’t know about the Virtues, I— hang on, who’s “DD”?
DD: That’s me!
LC: I know that, but who are you?
DD: Helmsman.
LC: Helmsman?

LC: …wait a moment, are you Shunner?
DD: Curtis Shunner’s my human form, yeah.
LC: Huh. Well. Nice to meet you in Mon form, I suppose. Anyways, as I was saying, I should probably leave soon; I still need to read Dio more of the Prax Obscura and show him how to use Dark Pulse. I haven’t even gotten past the “how to manifest Obscura” section yet…

holyGlider (HG) joined the conversation.

HG: OH YEAH! WE NEED TO DO THAT, DON’T WE?
LC: We certainly do. Farewell, Rever.

lingualConsultant (LC) left the chat.

holyGlider (HG) left the chat.

—————————————————————————————————

Kim put her OB-1 away and looked up at Ian and Evelyn, mildly annoyed. By now everyone except for Paul had returned to their PokeBalls.

“So apparently Rever has never even been to Feluv before,” she said. “Which means he has no idea what the Virtues are and I have no new information about them.” She sighed.

“Really?” asked Ian. “Huh. Evelyn’s never visited Feluv either; maybe they could go there together.”

“Maybe?” asked Kim. She shrugged. “I don’t know. Also Sinatra and Rever’s Sylveon began fighting about typing quirks again.”

<They did?> Paul asked. <That’s a shame. I kind of hope the two of them come to an agreement on that; y’know? I don’t want them fighting about it all the time.>

“Somehow, I doubt they will,” said Kim. “For now, before we head off to Alola, I’ve got some training to do.”

She pulled out Paul’s PokeBall and returned him, then reached into her purse and pulled out Dio’s.

“Alright then,” said Kim. “Let’s get to this! Red alert, Dio!”

She threw the ball forward. In a flash of blue light, Dio emerged and looked at his Trainer with excitement.

<Are we going to do more training now, Kim?> Dio asked, stars in his eyes.

Kim nodded, smiled, and pulled out the Prax Obscura. “We certainly are.”

<Aw yeah!> Dio cried happily, raising his claws into the air. <Let’s do this! Where were we, Kim?>

Kim knelt down and flipped through the Prax Obscura to the page that she had started on, and with that, the rest of the teaching began in earnest.

—————————————————————

Colton Kendall Rever, as it turned out, was in fact an incredibly good teacher.

DIO THE GLIGAR
Moveset: Fury Cutter, Slash, Quick Attack, Dark Pulse

2 and a half hours of practice and reading later, Kimberly Bond was looking down at the screen of her dex with pride at the new move that Dio had learned, all while said mon was eagerly shooting off Dark Pulses and crying out victory screeches that, oddly enough, sounded like <WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!>

Ian and Evelyn were next to Kim, similarly watching with pride.

“Whoa…” said Ian. “He’s gotten good…”

<Look at him go!> cried Piku-chan. <Nice work, Dio!>

Kim smiled and put her dex away before taking out her notebook— and Dio’s PokeBall.

“Yes,” she said. “Nice work, indeed. And now that that’s done…”

She returned Dio, who was still celebrating, back to his PokeBall. As Dio was still midway through shooting a Dark Pulse out when this happened, said Dark Pulse fell to the ground and promptly exploded. Now fully intent on heading to Alola, Kim reached into her bag to try to take out Sinatra and Kaylan’s PokeBalls…

only for both of them to suddenly appear in a burst of blue light, both of them looking rather excited. It was as though they knew already that Dio had learned Dark Pulse, and that they would soon successfully teleport to Alola.

And sure enough.

<We heard sounds from outside!> cried Kaylan. <What happened?>

<Did he do it?> Sinatra asked.

“By ‘it’, do you mean ‘learn Dark Pulse’?” Kim asked. “Yes.”

<Sweet!> cried Sinatra.

<Now we can go to Alola and do that ‘Battle Royale’ thing that Ian talked about!> said Kaylan happily, eagerly rearing up onto his back legs.

Kim smiled. “We most certainly can.” Turning to Evelyn, she added, “Evelyn? I’m going to need Axon again, please.”

Evelyn nodded. “On it!”

She took a PokeBall off her belt and threw it.

“Come on out, Axon!” she called. “We need you again!”

Within seconds of the ball falling onto the floor, it opened, and Axon emerged in a flash of light. He turned to look at Evelyn, then Kim, and smiled.

<…I assume you wish for me to teleport you and your friends to Alola?> Axon asked.

“Indeed,” Kim said. “Dio has learned Dark Pulse, and, as you can see, I have caught my Turtwig. The next order of business now is to head to Alola for a Battle Royale.”

 said Axon. <As you wish, then. I shall teleport you to the source.>

The group of humans and mons all got together in a group, and as if on cue, Axon’s eyes promptly glowed blue. The blue circle from before promptly appeared around the group of mons. Sinatra looked down at it, grinning.

<Ohhh yes!> he said. <Here goes nothin’!>

Kaylan, on the other hand, looked a lot more nervous about the sudden appearance of the blue circle, and shuffled his foot again.

<Um… I’m… not so sure about this…> he muttered.

<Ah, it’s fine,> said Sinatra, nudging him. <You get used to it. Now let’s get out of here! I wanna battle!>

And as if the Teleport move had heard him, Sinatra— and everyone else— were suddenly enveloped in a blue portal of light that went straight to the sky.

With a massive burst of light and a BWEEE!, they were gone.

Goldenheart388 · Post by **Goldenheart388** » 2026-Jul-27 01:29

THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
BOND TIMELINE

ARC 2

CHAPTER 8
PART 1

01/08/20– Akala Island
Royal Avenue

In contrast to the bustling nature of Jubilife City, absolutely no one was on Royal Avenue. Inside, of course, was a different story, but outside of the Battle Royal Dome there was nobody.

Well… almost nobody.

The only person who was standing outside the Battle Royal Dome at the moment before Kim, Ian, Evelyn, and their mons appeared was a girl, approximately 5’04” in height, with raven-black hair and deep blue eyes. She was wearing a pink-and-gold dress and tutu and had by her side a Bisharp, who as ever looked incredibly stoic.

While the girl in question was originally from Kalos, she had come to Alola in search of some new and fun experience, and this “Battle Royal” thing certainly seemed like fun. Of course, a Battle Royal needed four people, and she was only one; where on Earth was she going to get three other people to participate with her?

She was the only one around here, after all.

Which meant that when Kim, Ian, Evelyn and their mons suddenly appeared in a massive blue blast in the middle of a remote Royal Avenue— right next to the girl and her Bisharp, said girl reacted almost immediately to it.

“GAH!” the girl cried, flinching back, startled a bit.

Kim, not noticing the girl and her Bisharp at first, looked up at the Battle Royal Dome with delight. Sinatra, who was still near her, looked equally as excited, as did Kaylan.

“Well,” said Kim, “looks like we made it.” She turned to Axon, smiling. “Thank you, Axon.”

Axon nodded at Kim before returning himself.

“Yep,” said Ian. “We certainly did! And I can’t wait for a Battle Royal!”

<Me either!> cried Sinatra.

“Well, you’ll have to hold on for a bit, Sinatra,” said Kim. “I’m not going to be using you just yet.”

<WHAT?!> Sinatra snapped. <Why the heck’d I come here then?! Who are you going to be using?!>

“Paul,” said Kim.

Sinatra paused. Almost at once, the anger he had before faded.

<…oh,> he said. <Is this because you wanna try out that Virtue thing?>

“Yes,” said Kim.

<…yeah, that’s fair enough then,> said Sinatra.

“Still, though,” said Evelyn, pausing in thought with her hand on her chin. “Battle Royals need four people, and there are only three of us.”

“True,” said Kim. “I did hear that. The question is… who should that fourth person be?”

Kim began to think about it for a few moments. Obviously the first person she could think of was Kendall, but if her last messages with him were any indication, Kendall would be absolutely caught off guard by the power that these “Virtues” apparently contained. That, and from what Kim could tell, Kendall was incredibly experienced as a Trainer. Even with the Virtues in play, he’d probably still utterly crush Kim.

But the only problem was that Kim couldn’t think of anyone el—

<Um… guys?> Kaylan suddenly asked, pointing a foot out towards the girl and her Bisharp that were near the group. <What… what about them?>

Confused, Kim, Sinatra, Ian, Evelyn, Piku-chan, and Hatty all turned in the direction Kaylan was pointing. It was there that they saw the young girl and her Bisharp, and each of them blinked in confusion.

<…huh,> said Sinatra. <She’s new.>

“A girl?” Kim asked. “And a Bisharp? Wonder what they’re doing here… but maybe they could work.”

She turned to her newly-caught Turtwig, smiling. “Thank you, Kaylan.”

<Oh… it was nothing,> Kaylan responded, shuffling his foot a bit but returning Kim’s smile all the same.

Kim walked up to the girl and her Bisharp, all the while gesturing for Ian and Evelyn to follow her. They did, and as they did so Kim returned both Sinatra and Kaylan to their PokeBalls.

“Excuse me?” Kim asked the girl.

The raven-haired girl turned, a bit startled and confused as to who was behind her. When she eventually saw that it was Kim and her friends, she breathed a bit of a sigh of relief.

“…Are you the people who teleported in here?” the girl asked.

Kim nodded. “We most certainly are. Though… we apologize if we frightened you at all.”

“Oh no!” the girl cried, shaking her head profusely with widened eyes. “No, you didn’t frighten me at all! I wasn’t expecting it, definitely, but I’ve calmed down a bit.”

The girl stepped forward and curtsied.

“It’s nice to meet you,” she said. “My name is Emilie. The Bisharp here is named Levy.”

<Greetings,> the Bisharp said, in a somewhat stoic yet still gentle-sounding female voice.

Kim nodded. “Kimberly Bond, lingual consultant. These are my friends Ian and Evelyn, and their mons, Piku-chan and Hatty.”

“Hi there!” Ian said happily, waving at the newcomer.

“It’s wonderful to meet you,” Evelyn said.

“I wanted to ask you something,” said Kim. “Are you, by any chance, here for a Battle Royale?”

“Oh, yes!” said Emilie. “You too?”

“Indeed we are,” said Kim. “And we saw you at just the right time. We’re going to have a Battle Royale, in part because I want to see in action how these things work.”

She reached into her pocket and pulled out the TOLERANCE medal. Confused, Emilie leaned up to it, and when she saw the medal she drew back in surprise.

“Whoa!” she cried. “Is that thing made of metal?”

“Indeed it is,” said Kim. “It’s also Feluv’s gimmick; have you happened to be there by any chance?”

<She has,> Levy broke in. <But the details of her visit are classified.>

“Ah,” said Kim, nodding. “Understandable.”

“Well, now that that’s settled,” asked Ian, “do you want to be our opponent in the Battle Royal?”

The ballet girl’s eyes went wide, and she grinned from ear to ear. “Oh, absolutely! I was waiting for three other Trainers myself!”

Kim nodded. “Very well, then.” She turned to the other two members of the group. “Let’s go. The Battle Royal awaits.”

And with that said, the group, now with an extra member (for now), left to head into the Battle Royal Dome. All the while, Kim was still staring down at the TOLERANCE medal, wondering what, if anything, it could possibly do. Was it really so powerful to the point that it was banned in almost every League?

Well, Kim would soon find out the answer to that question.

As for their new ballet-loving tag along companion, she unfortunately had no idea as to just how terribly the fight she and her team were going to be in was going to go.

————————————————————-

Battle Royale Dome

The group promptly entered the Battle Royale Dome and got themselves signed up; each one was going to use three Pokemon. Kim was going to use Paul, Sinatra, and Kaylan; Ian was going to use Piku-chan, Oshawittle, and Raru; Evelyn was going to use Hatty, Axon, and a third mon named Simon that Kim had never heard of; and Emilie was going to use Levy and two other mons named Growltiger and Leif that Kim had never heard of.

Once the signup portion was done the four of them entered from each of the four corners of the Battle Royal dome. Each of the Trainers had a PokeBall in hand or a Pokemon with them; the fact that Ian and Evelyn weren’t carrying any PokeBalls told Kim that they were going to be using Piku-chan and Hatty first. Kim, meanwhile, had Paul’s PokeBall in her hand, along with the TOLERANCE medal and the Iron Ball.

As Kim got closer to Ian, she saw that he was, in fact, holding something. Two things, in fact. The first was a metronome, although for some reason it was blue, and the second thing was the LOYALTY medal Ian had showed Kim earlier. Kim had a feeling Ian was going to use it, and that he was going to use it very soon.

As it turned out, Kim’s prediction was entirely correct.

Once all four battlers had gotten into their corners, the rules were outlined to them: four battlers, three mons each; the battle ended when it was down to one Trainer. From there, the announcer cried out “BEGIN!” and the crowd around them went wild.

Ian turned to Piku-chan on his shoulder. “You ready, bud?”

<As I’ll ever be!> said Piku-chan, jumping down from his perch on Ian’s shoulder.

“Hatty, let’s do this!” Evelyn cried.

<Right!> Hatty exclaimed, jumping down from Evelyn’s head.

Kim nodded, then pulled out Paul’s PokeBall. “Let’s do this! Red alert, Paul!”

She threw the ball, and in a flash of blue light, Paul appeared. He looked around at the dome audience, more than a bit bemused.

<Oh, this is that Battle Royale thing?> he asked. <Looks pretty fun, but the audience is a bit loud; also who’s that over there? She’s pretty, y’know; I’ve never seen her before…>

Before Kim had a chance to answer Paul’s question, however, Emilie raised her PokeBall.

“Alright, let’s do this!” she cried. “Growltiger! En pointe!”

She pirouetted, then threw the ball. There was a flash of light… and soon an Incineroar was standing there, belt blazing, eyes staring directly at Paul through simultaneously shaggy and glossy fur. Paul, for his part, didn’t look the least bit intimidated, but Kim certainly did. She slowly raised her arms and stepped back, her eyes widening.

“Er… alright…” she said. “That’s a… nice kitty…”

“He’s fine, don’t worry,” said Emilie. “He’s not going to hurt you. He just really likes to battle.”

“Well, don’t worry,” said Ian, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the clear virtue holder. “Hopefully, by the time I’m done with this, Kim won’t need to be afraid of Growltiger anymore.”

Emilie blanched.

Ian turned to look at Kim, holding up the clear holder and the LOYALTY medal.

“Alright, Kim!” he called. “Wanna see how this works?”

Kim nodded.

“Great!” Ian responded.

He opened up the clear container, holding the lid and virtue medal in one hand and the rest of the container in the other.

“Alright, Piku-chan!” he cried out. “Let your devotion and loyalty to your friends emerge on brilliant bird wings!”

He slammed the lid into the container, dropping the virtue into it; then used his free hand to throw the Metronome forward. Piku-chan jumped into the air and caught the Metronome, before Ian used his other free hand to throw the closed holder discus-style. Piku-chan saw it, slammed it down with his tail, and as a red and blue glow began to emerge from the medal, Ian cried out one word:

“EXALT!”

Kim, Evelyn, Paul, Hatty, Emilie, and Growltiger watched in awe as the blue and red glow slowly grew to the point that they found themselves blinded and had to shield their eyes. Kim squinted as the light dimmed and saw Piku-chan standing there, a determined look on his face. The LOYALTY medal that had been below him steadily floated up into the air— and then spun around Piku-chan, slowly growing faster and faster until it left behind a navy blue tornado of sorts around him. The navy blue light coalesced above Piku-chan into an orb, which exploded, bathing Piku-chan in navy blue light. For just a second as the orb of light exploded, Kim thought she had seen something— and not just anything, either, but the same symbol that was on the medal. She squinted more, and sure enough, there it was— a navy blue and red shield adorned with wings. The symbol flickered for a bit, then exploded into a burst of red light that hit Piku-chan; he was now colored navy blue and red. Then that light exploded—

—and all of a sudden Kim was fully blinded again, having to shield her eyes from the light that emerged from Piku-chan and kept crawling outwards, the navy blue light forming the primaries and secondaries of bird wings, and the red light settling on top and forming the coverts— but of course Kim couldn’t see that; her hand was shielding her eyes, and Evelyn and Hatty were looking on, transfixed, and Emilie and Growltiger looked like they had just soiled themselves, and then—

It stopped.

The light faded, Kim lowered her hand, and what she saw almost made her believe she was in a dream.

Except no, she wasn’t; this was real.

Piku-chan had gotten more than a few upgrades. His eyes were now navy blue and red, there was a navy blue halo above his head, and most notably of all, there were two massive translucent blue and red bird wings on his back. A navy blue aura surrounded him, and the LOYALTY medal now was around his neck. The Metronome that Piku-chan was carrying in his paw was now glowing.

Kim stood there, mouth agape.

“…oh,” she said.

Ian nodded, and grinned. “Looks cool, right? Piku-chan’s a Flying-type now! He got a Speed boost, and the Metronome he’s carrying got a lot more powerful!”

“…huh,” Kim muttered. “Flying type…?”

She took a cursory glance over at Growltiger, who was now grinning profusely, and then back down at the medal that she was holding.

Piku-chan’s gonna beat Paul at this rate, she thought to herself. I just know it. Not to mention Growltiger. I don’t know what this thing does, but if I use it…

“Kim?” Ian asked, breaking Kim out of her reverie long enough for her to look at him. “You wanna try it, too?”

Kim took one more glance at the medal in her hands, then nodded. “Let’s do it.”

She reached into her purse, grabbed the metal container, and opened it up with a finger on her right hand, with the other four fingers holding on to the rest of it. With her other hand she reached in and grabbed the Iron Ball, which she threw to Paul; the Butterfree flew up and caught it in his feet, only to be forcibly grounded. Kim, however, didn’t mind.

“Alright, Paul!” she cried, putting the medal on top of the lid and then slamming the container shut by forcing her fingers together. “Let’s do this thing! EXALT!”

She threw the container forward; Paul flew over to it and touched it with its antenna. At once, it started to glow in rainbow light, lifting up from the ground and spinning faster and faster until a tornado of rainbow light surrounded Paul. The light coalesced into a rainbow ball, which exploded and turned Paul rainbow colors; the multicolored peace symbol that was on the medal appeared for a brief second before exploding into white light that also hit Paul.

And then the white and rainbow light that was on Paul snapped off.

The others were blinded, including Kim, but this time she was able to look up a bit and saw that the light hadn’t snapped off at all; as a matter of fact it was actually shooting out in both directions. It slowly curved, creating rainbow-colored butterfly wings that were in the shape of the ones Paul already had; in a flash of light the wings solidified. The white particles of light split off, creating the shape of a peace sign; in a flash of light the white peace sign shape solidified onto the wings. Another flash, and a rainbow-colored halo appeared above Paul’s head. Another flash, and Paul’s eyes turned rainbow-colored. Another, final, flash, and the TOLERANCE medal appeared around Paul’s neck. The medal began gathering all the color, and eventually, it exploded.

Kim was blinded once again, but she knew what she was going to see once she looked up. Sure enough, as the light faded, there was Paul, with a set of new rainbow wings with white peace signs on them, rainbow eyes, and a rainbow halo. The Iron Ball was now glowing in rainbow colors and was evidently much lighter now, as evidenced by the fact that Paul was now flying in the air while still holding it. Evelyn, Hatty, Emilie and Growltiger all looked on in awe.

<Whoa…!> Hatty exclaimed.

“Paul looks amazing!” Evelyn said happily. “And Piku-chan does too!”

“Thanks!” Ian said.

“Thank you,” said Kim.

“Even so,” said Evelyn, her face changing to that of determination, “we have a Battle Royale to fight! Hatty! Hit Piku-chan with a Brutal Swing attack!”

<Right!> said Hatty.

Her focus on the now Flying-type Pikachu, her ponytails began to glow with black Dark-type energy as she spun around, heading for Piku-chan. Eventually, she hit him with her still glowing braids, causing Piku-chan to be thrown back. However, despite the hit, he managed to land on all fours, only looking a bit worse for the wear.

<Piku-chan sure is strong,> said Paul.

“Most definitely,” said Kim.

“We’ve gotta find a way to take down those two exalted mons…” Emilie muttered to herself. “Luckily I have Growltiger! Use Fire Fang on Paul!”

The Incineroar laughed. <You don’t have to ask ME twice! Let’s DO this!>

At once, his fangs began to glow with flames and an intense orange light, and he charged directly at Paul. Kim’s eyes widened— those rainbow butterfly wings would surely make it hard to dodge…

“Paul!” she cried. “Look out!”

But it was no use. Growltiger’s fangs crunched down on Paul’s body…

…and nothing happened.

Paul didn’t even flinch.

The Iron Ball’s rainbow light shone even brighter for a few moments, then faded. Confused, Growltiger let go, only for him, his Trainer, and Kim to see that there wasn’t even a mark left on him.

“Sacre bleu!” Emilie cried. “That… that didn’t do anything?! I thought that was supereffective!”

“…he’s immune,” Kim suddenly realized. “Did… did that Iron Ball make him immune to Fire-type moves?!”

“I… think it made him immune to all his weaknesses, actually,” said Ian.

Kim’s breath caught in her throat as she began to truly process just how powerful these Virtues and Virtue Items were. Paul now had no weaknesses. On the surface, this sounded absolutely incredible— but even so, Kim knew Paul still had a chance to be defeated. Plus, she had no idea what type Paul was— or, at least, not yet.

“Great work, Paul!” Ian cheered. “Now, let’s see what Piku-chan can do here! Use Thunderbolt on Growltiger!”

<Coming right up!> Piku-chan exclaimed.

He jumped up into the air and struck Growltiger with a powerful burst of lightning. While the move certainly struck Growltiger hard, he ultimately shook it off after a bit.

<That stung…> he said. <But still! I can take whatever you throw at me! Especially since I’m in battle!>

<Bit of a bold claim, isn’t it?> asked Piku-chan.

Ian had to hold back a chuckle.

Paul, meanwhile, was looking over at Growltiger, wondering what to do next.

<Huh,> said Paul to himself. <Well, that’s pretty cool; I’m immune to all my weaknesses now. Wonder what would happen if I used a move, though.>

He thought for a few moments about what move to use, then let loose multiple yellow rings at Growltiger. At once, the rainbow-colored wings turned gray, but still maintained their peace sign and butterfly shape. The Supersonic move hit Growltiger, and the Incineroar stirred for a bit before his eyes became spirals and he started stumbling around.

<Oh no, my Blaze activated!> he muttered to himself. <I’m Firefrorefiddle, the fiend of the fell! You can’t stop me…>

Emilie looked on, horrified.

“Growltiger!” she cried out. “Non! Nonononononon! You’ve confused him…!”

Kim grinned. “Perfect.”

“And he’s a Normal-type now, too!” Ian pointed out, holding his Pokedex. “That Tolerance Virtue acts like a built-in Protean!”

“Protean?” Kim asked. “You mean he changes his type—”

“Based on the move he last used, yes,” said Ian.

“Hm,” said Kim. “Intriguing.”

<Great move, Paul!> said Hatty. <Now… let’s see what this Dark type thinks of a little… magic!>

At once, Hatty’s body was surrounded by a rainbow light, which expanded outwards and hit Growltiger directly. This move was a lot more powerful than Piku-chan’s Thunderbolt had been, succeeding in knocking Growltiger back against the wall and kicking up some dust. It also hit Piku-chan and Paul a bit, albeit for less damage. Emilie turned in the direction of where Growltiger had gone, horrified.

“Growltiger!” she gasped. “Are you okay?”

The dust slowly faded, and while Growltiger was now looking a lot worse for the wear, he was not knocked out. His eyes were still spirals, but he got up all the same.

<Don’t worry… I’m fine…> he said, continuing to stumble around.

“That’s… good, Growltiger,” said Emilie, “but you need to snap out of it! Hit Paul with a Cross Chop!”

Growltiger, seeming to hear her, turned towards Paul.

<Cross Chop?> he asked. <Okay…>

He crossed his arms in an “X” shape in front of himself, and they glowed orange. Despite his confusion, he ran over to Paul, in an attempt to hit him…

…and just like before, Paul didn’t even flinch. Nothing happened. The glow faded from Growltiger’s arms and he blinked.

<H-huh…?> he asked himself.

Kim and Ian looked over at Paul in awe.

“The immunity…” Ian muttered.

“It seems to change depending on what type Paul changes to,” said Kim. “Since Paul’s a Normal-type now, he’s immune to Normal’s only weakness: Fighting.”

“Yep, exactly what I was gonna say,” said Ian. “Anyhow… that Dazzling Gleam seems to have taken him down a bit. So whaddaya say we hit him even harder with another Thunderbolt!”

<Right!> cried Piku-chan.

Once again, the Pikachu jumped into the air and let loose another powerful Thunderbolt on Growltiger. However, this one seemed to be even more powerful than the last one; it hit Growltiger so hard that when the electricity faded, Growltiger knelt down onto the floor with sparks coming from his body. The spirals were gone from his eyes now, but even then, it was clear that Growltiger was insanely close to going down.

And Kim, seeing the opportunity, smirked.

“We’ve got him in our sights now,” she said. “Air Slash! Get him!”

Paul nodded, and he flew forward, his (regular) wing glowing blue, and hit Growltiger with it.

That did it.

Growltiger was promptly sent flying backwards, into the wall, where an even larger cloud of dust was kicked up. The audience roared, and when the cloud of dust faded they went even wilder, for Growltiger was now lying on his side with swirly eyes.

He had not made so much as a move.

Emilie ran over to her fainted mon, distraught.

“Growltiger!” she cried. “Oh no!”

Kim smiled over at Paul. “That’s one down on her side. Great move there.”

<Thanks,> said Paul. <Kind of wished it could have been Sleep Powder, though; I almost feel bad for her…>

His gray butterfly wings suddenly went light blue.

<Oh!> he said. <And I’m a Flying type now, y’know! That’s pretty neat, really, isn’t it?>

Kim nodded.

Emilie took out a PokeBall and returned her fainted Incineroar.

“You did well, Growltiger,” she said. “You deserve a good rest.”

She put the PokeBall away. As she did so, Kim turned to face Evelyn and Hatty.

“Alright, then,” she said. “It’s your turn.”

Evelyn nodded. “Right.”

She paused to think for a few moments.

“I should probably try to hit Piku-chan a bit… his Thunderbolts have been getting more and more powerful lately…”

After a while, she snapped her fingers.

“Got it!” she said. “Hatty, use Magical Leaf!”

Hatty looked at her Trainer, a bit skeptically.

<Magical Leaf?> she asked. <On a Flying-type? …okay…>

Her braids began to glow in rainbow colors and she spun around, whipping up a flurry of leaves that hit Piku-chan and knocked him around a bit. When they faded, he looked a bit worse for wear, but given that he was now a Flying-type it of course wasn’t too much.

He got up on his feet rather quickly, but even so Hatty looked a bit surprised.

<…Huh,> she said. <That… did more than I thought it would.>

It makes some sense, Kim thought to herself. He is still a Pikachu.

Emilie, meanwhile, had taken out another PokeBall.

“Leaves, huh?” she asked. “Well, I got one for you! Leif, en pointe!”

She threw the ball, and in a flash of blue light, a happy Bulbasaur appeared.

<Wow~!> he cried out. <This is a Battle Royale dome? It looks amazing! I can’t wait to battle you!>

“Sorry, Leif,” said Ian, sounding genuinely apologetic. “But… I don’t know if you’ll have time to do that.”

<Huh?> asked Leif.

“Piku-chan, use Volt Tackle!” cried Ian.

<Sorry about this, Leif!> Piku-chan apologized, before running forward and gaining more and more speed. He steadily became surrounded by a burst of electrical energy, and eventually hit Leif, throwing the poor Bulbasaur backwards for tremendous damage.

When the massive cloud of dust finally settled, Leif was on the floor and had swirls in his eyes.

Kim, Evelyn, Paul, Hatty, and Emilie all looked blankly at the fainted Leif.

“…aaaand now I see why these are banned from most Leagues,” said Kim. “Well, then. My apologies, Em; you are down to one.”

“Leif…!” the poor girl in the tutu cried, running up to her Bulbasaur friend. “Oh, you poor thing! You deserve a long rest…”

She took out Leif’s PokeBall and returned him. Meanwhile, Kim and Evelyn were looking at each other, and both of them were thinking the same thing.

“We need to take down Piku-chan,” said Kim. “Before he gets either of us.”

“Most definitely,” said Evelyn.

“Fortunately,” said Kim, smirking, “I know something that can help.”

“You do?” asked Evelyn.

Kim nodded. “Paul? Hit Piku-chan with a Pollen Puff, if you’d please.”

Paul nodded. He flew over to Piku-chan, and manifested a yellow orb surrounded by a golden glow, which he hurled at Piku-chan.

The move hit, and it hit HARD.

Piku-chan was thrown back against the wall, and a cloud of dust was kicked up. Kim smirked.

“That shouldn’t be enough to faint him,” she said as Paul’s baby blue wings turned light green, “but it should definitely get him closer.”

Sure enough, as the dust faded, that was exactly what happened. Piku-chan was wobbling on his feet, but eventually managed to straighten himself out. That said, however, he looked much worse than he had before.

“Piku-chan!” Ian cried, running over to him. “Can you still fight?”

Piku-chan nodded. he said. <But that was a powerful hit.>

“Alright, then, looks like it’s our turn!” said Evelyn. “Hatty, use Dazzling Gleam on Paul!”

<Right!> said Hatty.

Once again, her braids began to glow in rainbow light that expanded outwards. Unlike last time, though, it hit Paul— and for a good amount of damage, too. It also hit Piku-chan for slightly less. When the dust ultimately settled, Paul had to shake himself off a bit.

“My goodness, what a hit,” said Kim. “You okay, Paul?”

<Yep, I’m fine,> said Paul. <I’ll be alright, eventually, y’know? But, y’know, something tells me that she won’t; Piku-chan sure is powerful with that Loyalty virtue and that Metronome…>

Kim nodded. “I definitely feel a bit sorry for her.”

They turned back to Emilie, who had pulled out her final PokeBall. Now with determination in her eyes, she stood up and held out the last PokeBall— and Kim already had a feeling as to who it was.

“Alright, then,” said Emilie. “This is my last one. And let’s just say if you don’t get her… she’ll be coming for you.”

She threw the ball forward and, sure enough:

“Levy, en pointe!”

In a flash of blue light, Emilie’s Bisharp emerged from her PokeBall, staring down Piku-chan and raising an arm as if to threaten him. Piku-chan, however, didn’t say anything.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Ian broke in.

<Hm?> said Levy.

“You think this Metronome will be reset now that I’ve used a move besides Thunderbolt,” said Ian. “And then, once you do survive, you’ll hit me with Guillotine. Isn’t that right?”

Levy’s eyes widened in shock and she stepped back a bit.

<H-how?!> she asked. <How did you know?!>

“I’m so glad you asked,” said Ian. “You see…”

And then, all of a sudden, his eyes glowed pink, and he uttered two words that, upon hearing them, shook not only Levy, but Kimberly Bond, to her core.

“I’m Psychic.”

Kim blanched.

Psychic?!

Not only was Kendall on the Auric Spectrum, but Ian was too?! How had she gone this far without realizing it? Sure, Evelyn made sense, but Ian?!

There was no way. There was no way she was the only one in her group of friends who couldn’t do anything at all.

…no! No! There she was, being envious of her friends again! She couldn’t do that! That couldn’t possibly be—

“Piku-chan, use Thunderbolt!”

…right, she was still in the middle of a Battle Royale.

She looked up, broken out of her thoughts— just in time to see Levy get zapped with a Thunderbolt attack that was somehow even more powerful than the one that had come before. It instantly threw the Bisharp backwards and kicked up both sparks and dust. Levy’s Trainer looked on, utterly horrified, as the dust faded… and there was Levy, on the floor, with swirls in her eyes.

Somehow, Kim had known this was going to happen.

“Levy…” Emilie muttered. “Oh… Levy… oh dear…”

She ran over to her fainted Bisharp, devastated. Kim, Ian, Evelyn, and their mons all turned to her with looks of sadness, dismay, and in Ian’s case, more than a bit of regret. He turned to face Piku-chan, who returned his look.

“…I think the Metronome might be too powerful for you, buddy,” he said.

 Piku-chan agreed with a sigh.

“She didn’t even get to make a move…” Kim muttered.

As Emilie sadly returned her Bisharp to her PokeBall, Paul flew over to her with great regret and concern.

<I’m… sorry about that,> he said, as Emilie stood up. <I didn’t realize— I didn’t know the Metronome was gonna become that powerful with a Loyalty virtue… I probably would’ve been a fairer fight than him, really, y’know? Growltiger could have used a Dark move or something like that…>

“It’s fine,” said Emilie. “I didn’t know how powerful it was going to be, either. I’ve… never even really seen those things before.”

“Neither have I,” said Evelyn. “Maybe you could get one for yourself?”

The girl in the tutu thought for a few moments, then brightened.

“Yeah… yeah!” she said eventually. “Maybe I could! But… how do you get them, exactly?”

“You go to one of the Gym Leaders in Feluv,” said Ian. “Either that, or your mon has to do something that shows that they’ve earned it.”

Your mon has to do something that shows that they’ve earned it.

That, in Kim’s mind, all but confirmed that the Tolerance virtue was meant for Paul. It had come so soon after Paul had calmed tensions in the lab; it had probably appeared outside the lab as soon as the fight was done and Kim didn’t even know it.

“Hm,” Emilie muttered to herself. “Alright, then. I’m… out now, so I guess I should probably go and see what I can do.”

She headed out towards the door.

“I have a feeling we’ll meet again some day,” she said. “And when we do… I’ll be stronger than ever! I might just defeat you yet!”

Kim smirked. “We’ll see.”

“Au revoir, mes amis!” Emilie chirped, and then left the arena.

“Bye!” Ian cried, waving at her. “It was fun battling with you!… a bit!”

Evelyn chuckled.

<That was nice,> said Paul, flying back over to Kim’s side. <But even so, we should probably continue the battle; it’s been going on for a while now, really, y’know what I mean?>

“For sure,” said Ian.

He turned to face Hatty, with a grin.

“And I know just what I’ll do, now that I’m up next!” he cried. “Piku-chan, use Thunderbolt on Hatty!”

<Right!> cried Piku-chan. <Sorry, Hatty…>

He jumped up into the air, and proceeded to let loose a powerful Thunderbolt directly at Hatty, that was likely even more powerful than the ones before it. Hatty was struck and cried out, and for a few moments after the electricity faded it seemed as though she would collapse on the floor just like Levy before her.

Ian, however, failed to see the smirk growing on Evelyn’s face as Hatty, who was utterly and completely battered otherwise, slowly rose with clenched teeth… and reached inside her pigtails and pulled something out.

That something was a red and orange strip of ribbon that Kim and Ian recognized instantly.

“A Focus Sash!” Ian cried. “Nice going!”

Kim blinked.

“Wait, a Focus Sash?!” she blurted out. “When did you have a Focus Sash?!”

“It was hidden away in her pigtails,” said Evelyn, grinning. “You must have missed it.”

Kim nodded, smirking as she turned to face Ian with resolve.

“Well, there’ll be even more good news for you, Evelyn,” she said. “I think that this little guy’ll be going down this next turn.”

“Huh?!” Ian cried.

“Paul!” she cried out. “Use Electro Web!”

Of course she had taught Paul her favorite Pokémon’s main move.

Paul nodded, and let loose a massive ball of electricity. A web shot out of it, opening up and grabbing Piku-chan. Piku-chan was promptly shocked by the web for massive supereffective damage as Paul’s Virtue wings turned bright yellow, the peace sign becoming hard to see over top of it.

“Piku-chan!” cried Ian. “No!”

The dust cloud eventually faded, and sure enough, when it did, Piku-chan was on the floor, swirly-eyed. The medal fell off of him and landed on the floor, and in a flash of blue and red light the bird-like angel wings and halo dissolved and Piku-chan was back to being a normal Pikachu. Evelyn smiled.

“You got him!” she cheered. “Nice going, Kim!”

Kim smiled.

“Good job, Paul,” she said, petting her Butterfree’s head below the Virtue halo.

<Ah, it was nothing,> he said.

Ian knelt down beside Piku-chan, took out his PokeBall, and returned him.

“Great job, Piku-chan,” he said. “You deserve a long rest.”

He grabbed the Loyalty virtue and put it back in the holder, before putting it and the Metronome into his backpack.

Evelyn smirked.

“And now,” she said, pointing at Kim, “it’s time for me to take you down! Hatty! Finish Paul off with Dazzling Gleam!”

Hatty nodded. Her pigtails glowed rainbow again, and the rainbow light proceeded to spread out and hit Paul directly. In a flash, Paul was sent backwards, and the crowd roared as the smoke cleared to reveal that Paul was now on the floor and unable to get up. The yellow butterfly wings with the peace sign and the rainbow halo dissolved into nothing as the Tolerance virtue fell off of him.

Looking down at her fainted partner, Kim sadly smiled.

“Well,” she said. “I suppose it was bound to happen eventually.”

She returned Paul, picked the Tolerance virtue up, and put it away in its holder.

“That was amazing, Paul,” she said, looking down at his PokeBall. “Well done.”

She put the ball, the Iron Ball, and the virtue holder away in her purse, and would have sent out another mon… had the mon in question not suddenly decided to do it for her. In a flash of blue light, Sinatra suddenly appeared, glaring over at Hatty. Kim blanched.

“S-Sinatra?!” she cried.

<Take this, you Butterfree-fainting hat!> Sinatra snapped, and immediately rushed forward with no hesitation, his body becoming outlined with a light blue aura as he did. He charged directly at Hatty with incredible speed, and the Quick Attack move knocked Hatty back into the wall.

When the dust had settled, Hatty was on the floor with swirls in her eyes. Sinatra smirked.

<Serves ya right for takin’ out Paul like that!> he cried, laughing.

“I probably should have expected that…” Evelyn muttered to herself, knocking her head lightly and sticking out her tongue.

Sinatra stared at her blankly.

Evelyn took no notice and knelt down to Harry’s level.

“Oh, Hatty,” she said, “you fought so well. You deserve a rest.”

She returned Hatty to her PokeBall and put it away, then stood back up again, taking out another.

“Alright, then,” she said. “Looks like this mon’s up next! Hanuman! Work your magic!”

She threw the ball, and in a flash of light her new Chimchar appeared, jumping around with excitement.

<Alriiiiight~!> he cried. <First official battle; let’s do this thing!>

Sinatra grinned. <Nice ta see you again!>

<Same ta you!> Hanuman replied, giving Sinatra a thumbs-up.

“Well, in that case,” said Ian, taking out another PokeBall, “I know exactly who I’m sending out next! Ritchie, I choose you!”

He threw his ball, and in a flash of blue light, Ritchie materialized out of it.

<Wow!> he cried. <My first battle?! This sure is exciting!>

“And that,” said Kim, pulling out her final PokeBall, “leaves me with only one option. Red alert, Kaylan!”

She threw Kaylan’s ball, and once the Turtwig emerged from it he looked left and right at everyone surrounding him in awe— and slight nervousness.

<Oh,> he said. <So this is how the Battle Royal Dome looks… it’s pretty big… there’s so many people here…>

He shook himself off.

<I’ll do my best, though!> he said.

“Alright, then!” Kim replied, smiling. “Kaylan, use Razor Leaf on Ritchie!”

<Okay, then…> Kaylan said, with slight trepidation.

Turning to face Ritchie, he swung his head, and multiple leaves shot out of the leaf on his head in a flash. Before they could hit the Penguin Pokemon, though, Ian intervened.

“Counter it with Bubble Beam, Ritchie!” he cried.

<You’re not getting me with that!> Ritchie cried, before taking a deep breath and letting loose numerous bubbles. The bubbles met Kaylan’s Razor Leaf attack directly in the center.

“Alright, Hanuman!” cried Evelyn. “Let’s show Sinatra what you can do! Hit him with a Flame Wheel!”

<Awwwwright!> Hanuman cried, rolling up into a ball that was quickly surrounded with flames. He rolled himself towards Sinatra, and the Scout Pokémon soon found himself being hit by the attack, winding up on the floor. At the same time, Ritchie’s Bubble Beam ended up overpowering Kaylan’s Razor Leaf, and he was sent backwards. Unlike Sinatra, though, he managed to stay on his feet, and shook off the attack quickly. When he saw Sinatra on the floor, though, he ran up to him with concern.

“Sinatra!” Kim called.

<A-are you okay?!> Kaylan cried. 

Sinatra, groaning, slowly managed to push himself back up. He smirked at his battle partner, who breathed a sigh of relief.

<Don’t worry,> he said. <I’m fine.>

Kim smiled. “Alright, then. Let’s take out that monkey, shall we?”

<Oh, you read my mind!> Sinatra said with pride. <Hey, Hanuman! How’s about you take THIS on for size?!>

Once again, he was outlined in a blue aura, and hit Hanuman with a Quick Attack. On impact, it threw Hanuman backwards, but he was able to get back up just as quickly.

“You alright, Hanuman?” Evelyn asked.

Hanuman grinned and flashed her a thumbs-up. <Never better!>

“Good,” said Evelyn. “In that case, then, use Flamethrower on Kaylan!”

Hanuman, on cue, released a stream of flames from his mouth in Kaylan’s direction. Kaylan saw the flames that were headed towards him and flinched back in fear a bit.

“Ritchie!” Ian cried. “Use Bubble Beam on Hanuman!”

Ritchie nodded, took a deep breath, and released more bubbles at the Chimp Pokémon, who was still shooting out his Flamethrower.

Kim made a few disapproving clicking noises with her tongue and smirked, already knowing what she was going to do next.

“How predictable,” she said. “Kaylan, use Protect!”

Regaining some amount of confidence, Kaylan stomped a foot on the floor, bringing up a green Protect barrier in front of him.

“And Sinatra, use Fury Swipes on Ritchie!” Kim cried.

<Don’t hafta tell me twice!> said Sinatra. <Take THIS!>

He leaped up into the air, claws extending from his paws, and scratched at Ritchie repeatedly.

Within seconds of each other, Hanuman was hit by Ritchie’s supereffective Bubble Beam before being thrown backwards into the wall of the stadium. Ritchie, meanwhile, winced as Sinatra’s claws scraped at and dug into him.

<W-Whoa…!> cried Hanuman as he got thrown back.

Ritchie cried out in pain, and eventually fell to the floor, bruised. He slowly got back up, but Sinatra was still delighted with himself.

<Heck yeah!> he said, laughing with triumph. 

Kaylan, on the other hand, reacted very differently. He instantly dropped the Protect barrier, which had successfully batted away the flames from Hanuman’s attack, and ran over to where Hanuman had landed into the wall with a very concerned look on his face.

<O-oh my gosh, is he okay?!> he cried with alarm. <Are you okay, Hanuman?!>

What they saw next, however, was something they didn’t expect to see.

As the dust settled, it was interrupted by a flame— the tail flame on Hanuman’s tail, which was now glowing brighter, bigger, and more intensely than it ever had before. Hanuman slowly and steadily rose to his feet, and the pupils in his eyes began to contract as he turned to face the group.

Kim, Ian, and Evelyn blanched.

<Oh… NOW ya done it…> Hanuman practically snarled at them. <NOW ya got me MAD…>

Kaylan stepped back fearfully.

<W-what is this…?> he muttered. <W-what did I do? I- I was just checking to see if you were okay…>

“It’s Blaze,” Kim realized. “Hanuman’s Ability.”

Sinatra, meanwhile, was returning Hanuman’s intense glare back at him with a lot more energy.

<Hey!> he snapped. <Don’t you dare attack Kaylan with those flames o’ yours! I’m warning ya! Ya get anywhere near him and it’s gonna be—>

He was very rudely interrupted during his tirade, however, with a massive Blaze-induced Flamethrower to the face. Sinatra’s eyes went wide with shock. Before the flames could hit him, though, Ritchie jumped in front of Sinatra, parrying the Blaze attack with a Bubble Beam.

Relieved, Sinatra grinned.

<Nice!> he said. <Thanks for that, kid!>

<You’re welcome!> cried Ritchie.

<We gotta do something about that Blaze, though,> said Sinatra.

<Yeah… Ritchie agreed, staring up at the massive burst of fire with fear in his eyes. <We sure do…>

As Ritchie continued to fend off Hanuman’s Blaze attack, Ian and Evelyn watched with horror, their faces white.

“Taihenda…” Ian muttered to himself.

“You can certainly say that again,” said Evelyn. “No one told me that Blaze would cause Hanuman to lose control like that!”

“Well, we gotta help him regain control!” Ian cried urgently, looking up at the bursts of flame erupting from Hanuman’s mouth. “And fast!”

Kim, urgently, looked over at Kaylan.

“Kaylan,” she said, “Hanuman needs some help. Do you think you can help him out?”

 said Kaylan, shuffling his foot nervously, <if I wasn’t so weak to fire.>

<What about Paul?> Sinatra asked. <He’s probably healed by now.>

“Same problem,” said Kim.

<Dio?!> Sinatra asked, getting desperate.

“I doubt he wants to get scarred again,” said Kim.

<Dang it!> Sinatra muttered. <Guess it’s up ta me, then…>

He paced around the arena floor, grumbling.

<What the heck am I supposed ta do about all this,> he muttered, frustrated. 

He growled.

<Gah, what am I gonna do?!> he snapped. <Can’t ya just, I don’t know, give him a distraction or somethin’, Kim?! I—>

He stopped.

He suddenly heard the roar of the crowd in front of him, cheering as Hanuman sent off even more fireballs that Ritchie parried. That was right. There was an audience here. An audience of tens of thousands of people here, witness to a Sentret with a singing voice so powerful it had attracted hundreds of mons.

Surely, if it could attract… it could also distract.

Sinatra smiled and nodded, his course set. Yes, he had an audience. An audience of tens of thousands of people… and one little monkey. And he was going to execute his passion for singing, all in the name of getting said little monkey to stop shooting off fireballs for Arceus’ sake!

<Kim?> he asked, firmly. <Play “My Way.”>

Kim flinched backwards, caught off guard by the request.

“‘My Way’?!” she repeated.

Sinatra nodded. <As loud as you can. To the whole stadium.>

Kim took out her phone and looked back and forth from it to Sinatra in shock. This was his plan?! Really?! Sure, his singing voice had attracted all those mons before, but would it work here?

“…Sinatra,” asked Kim, “are you sure you know what you’re—”

<Trust me,> said Sinatra, his eyes staring at her unflinchingly. 

Kim blinked, then stared over at the long aux cord that was plugged in to the arena’s speakers. She looked at Sinatra one last time, then nodded. He had an Adamant Nature. Something told her there wasn’t gonna be anything stopping him from executing this.

“…okay,” she said, taking a breath.

She went over to the aux cord, plugged in her phone, went to the music app, found “My Way”, and hit PLAY.

The music began to echo throughout the stadium, and Sinatra proceeded to pull out his cane and hat; the same ones he had worn in the “New York, New York” performance on Route 35 in Johto. The stadium workers, clearly wanting in on this, shined a spotlight down onto Sinatra. The audience went dead silent.

And as hundreds looked on, and as Ritchie and Hanuman continued to battle, Sinatra began to sing.

<And now, the end is near
<And so I face the final curtain
<My friend, I’ll say it clear
<I’ll state my case of which I’m certain>

It seemed to be working; as soon as Sinatra started singing, Hanuman stopped shooting off Flamethrowers. Kaylan shuffled his foot nervously, and Hanuman, still angry, turned to face him instead.

All the while, Sinatra continued:

<I’ve lived a life that’s full
<I’ve traveled each and every highway
<And more, much more than this


Hanuman launched off a Flamethrower in Kaylan’s direction.

<Regrets>

Kaylan let up another Protect barrier, ricocheting the move into the wall as Sinatra kept going.

<I’ve had a few
<But then again, too few to mention


The Protect barrier came down, and Hanuman launched off another Fire move at Ritchie.

<Each careful step>

Which he parried with a Bubble Beam as Sinatra continued.

<Along the byway
<And more, much more than this


The Bubble Beam hit, and Hanuman was thrown back against the wall as Sinatra reached the first chorus. The audience, transfixed by the Sentret’s voice, began to scream in delight.

<I’m sure you knew
<When I bit off more than I could chew
<But through it all>

The dust settled, and Hanuman, now on his last legs, got up slowly and turned to face Sinatra. He took a breath and was about to attack again, when all of a sudden, the Sentret’s powerful voice broke through:

<When there was doubt


Kaylan looked on in awe, mouth agape.

<Wow…> he muttered. <He sounds amazing…>

Kim, meanwhile, looked over at Hanuman nervously, and found that, to her shock and amazement, Sinatra’s plan actually seemed to be working. Hanuman had stopped attacking, and his eyes were slowly growing wider, as if he were transfixed by Sinatra’s voice. Barely able to believe it, Kim grinned.

“It’s working…” she muttered.



The second verse began, and Sinatra began gesturing to the audience to join in.

<I’ve loved, I’ve laughed and cried>

“Sinatra, it’s working!” Kim cried. “Keep going!”

Sinatra nodded, and continued:

<I’ve had my fill; my share of losing>

Hanuman stood, transfixed, his pupils slowly getting larger and his flame steadily decreasing as his rage began to slow down. He was, indeed, distracted.

And calmed.

And then, slowly, at Sinatra’s urging, the entire audience, one by one, joined in.

“<And now, as tears subside
“”

Kim smirked. “It’s a good thing they can play Name That Tune.”

“<And may I say, not in a shy way…>”

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

For a few moments, Kim thought her OB-1 was going off; but no, the sound had come from farther away. Much farther away. Frantically, Kim ran over to her EvoPhone on the aux cord, and sure enough, while it was still playing “My Way”, there it was, on her screen, the message that she had not seen for over 3 years now:

EVOLUTION DETECTED

EVOLVE VIA EVOPHONE?

YES NO

Shocked, she looked up as the singing of the audience began to turn to cheers. Sure enough, Sinatra was starting to flash in a blue light. Not wanting to disturb the performance, Kim hit “no”, and the screen on her EvoPhone now just read EVOLUTION DETECTED. She ran forward, wanting so desperately to see the first evolution she’d seen in years, and stopped at a stunned Kaylan, Ian, Ritchie, and Evelyn. Immediately, she sent out Paul and Dio. Both of them looked confused at first, but upon seeing what was happening, their faces turned to shock.

Sinatra, meanwhile, was smirking.

He’d felt this coming for a long time.

What better time was there than now?

<Oh no, oh no, not me


And at that line the blue flash became a blue glow, a powerful bright blue glow that shone throughout the stadium. The audience’s singing dissolved into massive cheers and applause, and the camera man of the stadium focused on Sinatra as his body slowly began to change.

This footage would promptly be sent all over social media and would be seen by tens of thousands of people. That night, it would be presented by one Leonard Braker on GBC-2.

But for now, it was merely a spectacle that Kim and all her mons were present for.

<What has he got?>

Sinatra’s body elongated in the light, thinning out and becoming more streamlined and snake-like. His wing like arms began to retract into his body as though he was a bird folding them up, leaving behind only the paws, which broke off at the end as the last of the membranes got sucked into Sinatra’s continually thinning body.

<If not himself, then he has not>

His bunny-like ears steadily began to point at the top, widening out just a bit towards the bottom and blending in with the rest of his head. As the upper part of his body continued to extend, Sinatra’s feet began to steadily drop to around the middle of his soon-to-be new body.

<To say the things he truly feels>

His tail widened at the bottom, continuing to do so until it was exactly as wide as the rest of Sinatra’s body. From here, Sinatra was able to rest his feet on the floor, as his tail continued to extend and widen.

<And not the words of one who kneels>

The end of Sinatra’s tail, formerly rounded, began to suddenly ruffle and break apart, the fur starting to grow even longer and separate out into almost broom-like strands. By this point, it was almost impossible to tell where Sinatra’s body ended and his tail began.

Evelyn, stunned, put a hand to her mouth.

“Holy Hecate…” she muttered. “He’s…!”

<The record shows


Three whiskers emerged on each side of Sinatra’s face, and he winked to the camera.

<And did it…>

He jumped up into the air, grabbed his cane in his now much more versatile paws, and then, as the light snapped off of him and revealed his fully-formed Furret state to the world:

<MYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY WAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY~!>

The audience roared.

Hanuman was flung backwards into the floor by Sinatra’s sudden jump; when he got back up again, he was dazed and confused, but notably not fueled by any Blaze rage anymore.

Sinatra’s strategy had worked.

Kim, Ian, Evelyn, Ritchie, Kaylan, Paul, and Dio all gazed at the newly-evolved Sinatra in shock. It was Kim, however, who reacted first; she squealed with happiness and practically jumped up into the air.

“YES!” she cried. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! HahahahahaHAAA!”

With immense delight, she ran over to her EvoPhone; sure enough, when she got there, she saw that it did indeed read CONGRATULATIONS! YOUR SENTRET EVOLVED INTO FURRET!. As Kim ran back to the scene of Sinatra’s evolution, she watched as Sinatra landed on the floor again, then twirled his cane and planted it down in front of himself.

<Yes, it was my way…>

He bowed.

Goldenheart388 · Post by **Goldenheart388** » 2026-Jul-27 02:01

THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
BOND TIMELINE

ARC 2

CHAPTER 8
PART 2

Kim ran over, pulled her EvoPhone out of the amplifier, and hit “stop” before the next song could play. She proceeded to grab on to Sinatra as tightly as she could, hugging his fur— holy smokes, it was soft now!— and squeal repeatedly.

“Sinatra~!” she cried. “Sinatra, you did it! You evolved! That was amazing!”

Sinatra, a bit annoyed, tried to push Kim off of him.

<Alright, Kim, that’s enough; ya don’t hafta—>

He paused as what Kim said registered to him.

<Wait… I did?>

He took a cursory glance over his body, then laughed in triumph as he waved his tail in the air.

<Ha-haaa!> he cried. 

He turned back towards Kim— and then noticed Paul and Dio were out of their balls.

<Heeeey…> he said, <what are you two doing here?>

<Kim let us out so we could see your evolution,> said Paul.

<That… was… AWESOME!> cried Dio. <Oh, man, I wanna evolve like that one day!>

“Maybe you will, one day,” said Kim, electing to not tell Dio about the Razor Fang she had in her purse.

“Congratulations, Sinatra!” Ian cried, running over to him.

“That was amazing!” Evelyn added.

<And it worked!> Ritchie chirped happily. <Hanuman’s calmed down!>

“He has?” Kim asked, turning towards Hanuman.

Sure enough, Hanuman was on the floor, holding his head and blinking.

<Urgh…> he muttered. <What… what happened? What’d I miss?>

Kim smiled, relieved. “I think… we should give him a bit more time to come to.”

“That’s great!” cried Evelyn. “Now we can get back to the Battle Royal!”

“We most certainly can,” said Kim, turning to face her newly-evolved Pokemon. “What do you say, Sinatra? Wanna continue?”

Sinatra sighed.

<Actually,> he said, <that performance and evolution tired me out. So consider me as fainted from here on out.>

Kim blinked. She’d had thought for sure Sinatra would want a chance to show off his new battling skills.

“Wait,” she said. “Are you sure?”

<Sure I’m sure,> said Sinatra. <There’s only one thing I like more than battlin’, and that’s music! ‘Sides, I did what I had to… and there’s someone who I just can’t wait to tell the news to.>

Kim chuckled a bit. She already had a feeling as to who that someone was.

“Oh, alright,” she said, returning Sinatra back to his ball, followed by Paul and Dio. “Looks like it’s just Kaylan and I now, then.” She turned back to the other two Trainers. “Wanna keep going?”

“Oh, of course!” Evelyn replied.

“You know I do!” Ian said.

Kim nodded. “Very well, then.”

And with that said, the three of them headed into the ring, eager to continue their Battle Royale.

——————————————————————————————————

wanderingMustelid (WM) began hassling liberalEsuna (LE).

WM: HAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA! I|DID|IT! I|EVOLVED! SUCK|IT,|MISCREANT! HAHAHAHAHA—!
LE: And which of your base stats now exceeds 100? Oh yeah.
[FurretStats.jpg]
LE: None of them.

WM: Oh,|come|on! You’re|not|even|gonna|congratulate|me?!
LE: If you're trying to lord your evolution over me, but you can't even match me with a Mega-Evolution you don't have, you don't deserve congratulations as much as you do a reality check.
LE: And the reality is that you're still not strong enough. Never will be.

WM: Oh,|come|on. I’ve|heard|plenty|of|stories|of|mons|fighting|against|mons|stronger|than|them. And|winning.
WM: ‘Sides,|I’ve|heard|of|a|little|thing|called|EV|training|before. You|don’t|think|I|can|do|that?!
WM: Give|me|your|moveset,|kid.

wanderingMustelid (WM) turned off the automatic typing quirk settings.

WM: I wanna know what tricks you’ve got.
LE: You don’t think we haven’t already, ourselves? We've done research on you, and Kendall’s had years to get us as powerful as can be. All I need to do to shut down anything you could ever do to me is Reflect. You can't prevent that since you don't have Taunt, and are you really going to use Brick Break on a Fairy-type?
WM: Reflect, huh…? PFFFT. That’s nothing. What’s your Speed?
LE: Slower, but that’s how I get you. That just means I get to react to your moves after you perform them. I'm not forced to go second, you're locked into going first.
WM: “That’s how I get you”? HAHAHAHAHAHA—

wanderingMustelid (WM) turned on the automatic typing quirk settings.

WM: Oh…|oh,|Sylveon…|I|get|to|do|the|same|thing.
LE: I'd tell you to kick bricks if your Attack wasn't so low they'd hurt you worse than you damage them.
WM: HEY! Attack’s|not|even—
WM: …Alright|then. You’re|so|sure|you|can|defeat|me? Prove|it.
WM: March|31st.
WM: 10:00|AM.
WM: We|battle. You|and|me.
WM: You|win,|and|ya|see|this? This|thing|right|here? It’ll|be|gone. For|everyone. And|if|I|win… you|have|to|get|one.
WM: You|up|for|it?
LE: If you win, I'll never see you again. Loud and clear.
WM: I|did|not|say|tha—|ah|never|mind!

liberalEsuna (LE) left the conversation.

lingualConsultant (LC) joined the conversation.

WM: Oh,|hey,|Kim! How|was|it?
LC: It’s over. Evelyn won.
WM: She|did,|huh? Lemme|guess,|it|was|that|dang|Alakazam.
LC: Axon beat Kaylan, yep.

LC: …you scheduled a battle with Rever’s Sylveon?! In exchange for everyone’s typing quirks?!
WM: Yyyyep.
LC: …Huh.
LC: Well, then. I suppose I’ll have to get you trained up, then.
LC: In the meantime… there’s something I have to show you. We were leaving the Battle Royal Arena, and… these Heavy-Duty Boots just… appeared. Out of nowhere. I tripped over them. Don’t worry; I’m okay; but I think—
WM: Virtue|item?! Heck|yeah!

wanderingMustelid (WM) left the chat.

LC: …that they’re a virtue item, yes.

———————————————————————————————

Just Outside of the Battle Royale Arena

The Heavy-Duty Boots had, in fact, appeared immediately after Sinatra had finished “My Way,” but Kim was far too caught up in the fact that Sinatra had evolved at all— and then in the battle— to even bother noticing. She, Ian, and Evelyn had been about to leave the arena when Kim noticed the pair of boots just… there, for seemingly no reason at all. She had picked them up, texted Sinatra, and presently she, Ian, and Evelyn were looking at the boots curiously. Kim had already taken out the Virtue holder. In a matter of seconds, Sinatra emerged from his ball, and was practically shaking with anticipation upon seeing it.

<Alright, what is it?!> he asked excitedly. <What virtue do I get, huh?! C’mon, tell me!>

“Hang on a minute, Sinatra,” said Kim, holding up her hand briefly before putting it back on the lid of the container. “I don’t even know if these boots are going to fit in the Virtue holder. Nor do we know if this is for you specifically.”

“Still,” said Ian, picking up the Heavy Duty-Boots, “it’s worth a try, right?”

Kim nodded. “It certainly is.”

She opened up the holder and gestured for Ian to put the Heavy-Duty Boots inside. He did. Sure enough, when Kim put the lid on, they didn’t fit— but even then, it didn’t matter. They still began to glow, this time in a red light, and began to spin around. They flattened, and eventually the container closed up as the red light filled the container. In a burst, it snapped off, revealing the new virtue, which Kim took out and looked over. Sinatra, all the while, was grinning with anticipation.

The new medal had a light pinkish-red background with an apple in the middle of it; said apple was being lit on fire, making the typing it corresponded to incredibly obvious. At the top and bottom were hot pink arches, one facing downwards and one facing upwards, that both said PASSION in gray text.

Kim looked at it for a few moments, then immediately handed it to Sinatra. “Oh yeah, this one is certainly yours.”

Eagerly, Sinatra took the medal and looked it over. When he saw what was on it, he grinned.

<Passion, baby! Heck yeah!> he cheered. <You know I have that in spades, baby-! And I get to be a Fire type, too?!> He laughed uproariously. <Ohhh, Sylveon’s not gonna see this coming!>

He slammed down the virtue with sheer delight. Seconds later, the Heavy Duty Boots reappeared on the floor in front of him in a flash. Eagerly, he grabbed them.

<And these bad boys are mine now!> he cried. 

Kim smirked.

“Actually,” she said, “with the strategy I’ve got planned, you’re not gonna want to use them at all.”

Sinatra paused and looked at his Trainer quizzically.

<Wait, what?> he asked. <What do you have planned, then?>

Kim smirked. “You’ll see.”

She proceeded to return Sinatra— and the Heavy-Duty Boots— to his PokeBall, before putting the Passion virtue away in her bag, directly next to the Tolerance virtue. Then, turning back to face Ian and Evelyn— who now had brought out Piku-chan and Hatty again, respectively— she clapped once.

“Alright, then,” she said. “And now for the other reason I came here.”

“Oh?” asked Ian, giving Kim a quizzical look. “What’s that?”

“Finding a Popplio, of course,” said Kim, grinning. “Now let’s go and do this.”

————————————————————————

Unfortunately for Kim, she did not, in fact, find a Popplio.

Kukui was far too busy with League work, and while Kim and the group checked just about every beach in Alola in search of one, there was nothing that they could find. Eventually, after about 45 minutes or so of searching, the group had decided to take a break. Kim was looking through her Pokédex now, checking out some of the entries that she had missed. Namely, those were the entries for Alakazam, Incineroar, Bulbasaur, Bisharp, and of course, Furret.

In dex order, these entries ran thusly:

#0001 Bulbasaur: Categorized as the Seed Pokemon; technical scientific name Sphenodon bulbus shared with Ivysaur and Venusaur. Often referred to in scientific papers under the name S. b. juvenis so as to distinguish it from others in its line. This Pokemon tends to live in grasslands and forests in the Kanto and Feluv regions. It is seen napping in bright sunlight, and is able to go for days without eating thanks to its photosynthetic abilities. It is both a rare and well-behaved Pokemon, being generally loyal to its Trainer even after long-term abandonment. It has been seen demonstrating nurturing instincts towards younger and weaker Pokemon. When it is ready to evolve, its bulb will flash blue. If it does not wish to do so, however, it struggles to resist the transformation. In the Kanto region, Bulbasaur tend to gather for an evolution ceremony in a hidden garden, wherein they evolve into Ivysaur (S. b. germinus) while led by a Venusaur. Its vines are long and strong enough to allow for Bulbasaur to grab tree branches and Berries, making said vines almost prehensile. While it sleeps, it sits still and basks in sunny spots to gain nutrients. It is generally found under the ownership of a Trainer, but has been seen in the Terrarium at the Blueberry Academy, as well as in Feluv.

#0065 Alakazam: Categorized as the Psi Pokemon; scientific name Vulpes prudensa. This Pokemon is one of the most intelligent Pokemon of all time, with an IQ of over 5,000. It has an eidetic memory, able to remember everything from when it was an Abra (V. p. juvenis) to the time of its death; in the event of transmutation or revival, it is also able to remember everything after it died. It is able to use all forms of psychic abilities, but the overflow of its psychic powers can cause headaches to people. Due to its weak muscles, it uses its psychic powers to move its body and hold up its head, which is too heavy to be supported by its neck. Its head becomes larger with age due to its continually growing brain. This Pokemon is found in urban areas. It is capable of Mega Evolving with the Alakazite. Female Alakazam have significantly shorter mustaches than males, with some even choosing to cut them off. It and Kadabra (V. p. urigellerus), its prevo, have Kinesis as a signature move.

#0162 Furret: Categorized as the Long Body Pokemon; scientific name Mustela slendera. Despite this Pokémon’s short limbs, it is very quick and agile, allowing this Pokemon to escape even when in the arms of a human. It also allows this Pokemon to catch prey, such as Rattata (R. n. k. juvenis). It lives in the ground, buried under meadows and grasslands, and the burrows it makes are suited to its highly slim body. As such, most Pokémon have trouble entering them. Said burrows also become more maze-like the deeper they go, which makes it even harder for predators to find Furret’s nest. Mother Furret tend to curl themselves around their offspring in order to get them to sleep. Once said offspring have evolved, however, their mother will take them outside in order to help them be more independent. In the regions of Lental and Feluv, its natural predator is Mightyena (H. cowarda).

#0625 Bisharp: Categorized as the Sword Blade Pokemon; technical scientific name Similis acutis shared with Pawniard and Kingambit. Often referred to in scientific papers under the base name; Kingambit gets listed as Similis acutis rex. In the wild, this Pokemon serves as the leader of a pack of Pawniard, and fight with other Bisharp to become the alpha. The loser of said fights is cast out. Once this Pokémon’s head crest is chipped or damaged, it retires as leader. This Pokemon is notably merciless, using underhanded tactics to win battles and having no expression when finishing off prey. It keeps a close eye on its pack members to make sure none of the Pawniard members think of betraying it. Tribes of Bisharp are ruled by a Kingambit, which only the most outstanding members of a Bisharp tribe can evolve into. This Pokemon tends to live in forests. Its rivals include Fraxure (D. g. dentexertis), with whom it has violent conflicts with over stone sharpening, and Tinkatuff (F. m. falsarius), who attacks it for its metal.

#0727 Incineroar: Categorized as the Heel Pokemon; scientific name Panthera heela. This Pokémon’s flame belt is produced from within its body. As its fighting spirit rises, said flame belt bursts from its navel and waist, steadily climbing to reach a temperature of up to 3,600° F. It is a violent Pokemon, with rough, egotistical behaviors, including disregarding the safety of opponents and onlookers. It will even sometimes strike opposing Trainers with attacks. It ignores the orders of its own Trainer if it doesn’t feel like listening, but finds fighting weak, injured, or unworthy opponents boring. It loves getting attention from the crowd, with its spirit going up when the audience is excited or faltering if it is bored. Despite its mostly heel-like tendencies, it does have a hidden soft side to it. It enjoys being praised by children and small Pokemon, and is willing to help them out as well. As a matter of fact, it gets incredibly happy when praised by children, though it won’t show it. Incineroar found in Feluv tend to be a bit more mild-mannered than those from Alola, though they will still play up heel tendencies for an audience.

Finally finished reading through the entries, Kim put away her dex and sighed.

“Well,” she said to herself with disappointment, “it’s a shame we haven’t been able to find a Popplio yet.”

“Yeah, I know…” said Ian sadly. “But you never know! We’ve had a bit of a break; I have a feeling a Popplio is sure to appear!”

“Maybe,” said Kim, slumping. “But even then, Popplio is so rare, and besides, we’ve checked just about every beach in Alola and we still haven’t—”

She was interrupted by a sudden beeping noise. Frantically, she took out her EvoPhone, but nothing was on it, and upon a closer listen the sound appeared to be coming from farther away.

Specifically, she realized, it was coming from Ian’s pocket.

“Ian?” Kim asked, pointing at his pocket. “I… think your phone’s going off.”

Ian looked down at where Kim was pointing and found that, sure enough, his Xtransciever was going off. He smiled and nodded in Kim’s direction.

“Ah! So it is…” he said. “Thanks for that, Kim!” He pulled it out and looked at the screen. “Now let’s see what we’ve got here—”

He stopped as soon as he saw it, and his face fell. “Oh.”

“What?” asked Kim, running over to Ian’s Xtransceiver with alarm. “What is it?”

Evelyn followed her, also looking a bit alarmed at what Ian had seen. Ian turned to face them.

“I think another group got a golden ticket,” he said. “Take a look at this.”

A bit curious despite her immense amounts of alarm, Kim grabbed Ian’s Xtransciever and took a look at what was on the screen.

What she saw was a video that was clearly taken by a camera on a drone that was flying in the air. It flew up to reveal what Kim could only describe as a lair— but not just a lair, a volcano lair. A group of people walked in silently, picking up their instruments— guitar, drums, bass, etc.— as pulsing orange light flooded the rocky floor. Finally, it cut to the lead singer and guitarist, who spoke three words into the microphone:

“We’ve been chosen.”

The camera drone then panned to a golden ticket on a pedestal. It then returned to the group, who began blaring heavy metal music as a media montage began to play. Kim looked on, realizing that this was now the second band she had seen get chosen by Meloetta on the news. The Battle of the Bands would probably be coming soon; there was no way she could find herself a Popplio now.

Not when there was so little time.

Without a word, she threw out all four of her mons’ PokeBalls; Paul, Sinatra, Dio and Kaylan proceeded to look around in confusion after being released.

<What’s the matter?> Paul asked. <Why’d you send us out? We were resting in there, y’know…>

<Yeah,> Sinatra added, <what’s goin’ on?>

Kim knelt down and showed them the video. “Take a look at this.”

The mons all gathered around the Xtransciever. As they caught sight of the heavy metal band that was on the screen, Paul and Kaylan looked on in shock; Dio in awe and excitement; and Sinatra shocked offense. All the while, the media montage began to play as an announcer voiced over the footage of the band playing:

“Apocaklipz is not a well-known band in mainstream circles, but they’ve got a devoted online fanbase that pays good money for each heavy metal single they put out. It’s said that no one but the band members has ever been to their secret lair at Worldirge Pinnacle, the place where their music resonates with the pain of a dying planet…”

<What the…?!> snapped Sinatra. <Who the heck are THEY?! First that Hard Candy group and now these bozos?!>

“They appear to be some kind of heavy metal group,” said Kim, standing back up.

<Heavy metal?!> Dio cheered. <Awwwww yeah! Now that’s more my style, baby~!> He laughed with pure joy. <Even then, though, if those people even dare to come near us, I’m gonna hit them upside the head with my new move!>

<Um… please don’t do that,> muttered Kaylan, nervously shuffling his foot. <That sounds like a bad idea…>

Dio paused.

<…Yeah, you’re right,> he eventually said sadly, hanging his head.

“Regardless,” said Kim, handing the transceiver back to Ian, “there’s more competition coming our way. We need to go to Johto as soon as possible before all the spots get filled.”

<But don’t you want to find a Popplio still?> asked Kaylan.

“No time for that now,” said Kim, returning all her mons and turning to face Evelyn. “Evelyn, we’re going to need Axon one more time.”

“Of course,” Evelyn said, taking out a PokeBall. “Come on out, Axon! Work your magic!”

She threw the ball forward, and Axon emerged from it.

<Salutations again,> he said. 

Kim nodded. “Indeed. The spots for the Battle of the Bands are filling up, so I can’t really waste any more time.”

 said Axon. <Very well, then. I shall teleport you.>

“Thank you,” said Kim.

Axon nodded, and with that said, Kim, Ian, and Evelyn all gathered around him. Soon afterwards, Axon’s eyes began to glow blue, and the blue teleportation circle formed around them.

One burst of light and a BWEE! later—

——————————————————————

Just Outside of Ecruteak City, Johto

—and the group was back in Johto, albeit just outside of Ecruteak rather than just outside of Goldenrod. The group looked around for a few moments, before Kim eventually nodded as she recognized where they were.

“Ecruteak, huh?” she asked. “Makes sense that you would send us just outside of here; we still have no idea as to when the Battle of the Bands is going to occur.”

Axon nodded, then returned himself.

“Even then, though,” Ian muttered, “is there any other reason why Axon would have sent us here?”

“I can’t think of anything,” Evelyn admitted. “Yet for some reason, I have a feeling that going to Goldenrod wasn’t the only reason that Axon sent us here.”

“Well, then, what could it be?” Ian asked, as the three of them began to walk on the path leading to Route 37.

Before Evelyn could say anything, though, something caught Kim’s eye— a bright, golden light piercing the night sky above them. Kim squinted and shaded her eyes before approaching the source of the light.

“What…” she muttered to herself. “What is that?”

She headed off in the light’s direction. Ian and Evelyn glanced at each other for a few moments, then followed. After walking for a bit, however, Kim finally saw the source of the light in question, and upon seeing it, lowered the hand that she had been using to shade her eyes and stood there in utter amazement.

The light was a lantern.

A lantern that was attached to the front of a small, yet still somehow perfectly livable Johtonian-style house with a massive roof…

…and a flag in front of it showcasing a Primarina, an Octillery, and a Popplio.

Goldenheart388 · Post by **Goldenheart388** » 2026-Aug-05 01:06

THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
BOND TIMELINE

ARC 2

CHAPTER 9
PART 1

In a small little hut just outside of Ecruteak City, happily living together, were a Primarina and an Octillery.

The Primarina, whose name was Kai, lived alongside her Octillery husband, Kenji. The two of them only spoke Johtonian to each other, as while Kai could speak and understand Galarian, Kenji could not. Kai knew Johtonian, too, though— while she had lived in Alola for much of her life, she was born in Johto, and had moved back there after meeting and deciding to marry Kenji.

One day, Kai and Kenji were living happily together in Violet City in Johto when the two of them had an egg. Kenji wanted to name his future Popplio son something that befitted a champion— in any passion said son would gain in the future. Kai wanted to name her son… Pōlu, literally the Alolan word for “blue”.

They couldn’t decide for days, until a few days before the Egg hatched, when Kenji suddenly remembered a certain Viridian City Gym Leader that had gone by the stage name of Blue and was once Champion.

But “Blue” seemed uncreative, so they went instead with Blue Oak’s birth name: Gary.

As luck would have it, young Gary the Popplio grew up to be a model of traditional Johtonian values and the ideal kid for any parent to have. He was kind, loving, incredibly humble, and very big on group participation. He helped out his parents every single day, and they were proud to have him as their son.

But young Gary also had plans to be a singer, and every day would go to Goldenrod City with his parents to hear the radio playing music. On the radio one fateful day was a certain Feluvian power trio prog rock band known as RUSH, who was also fronted by a Gary… though for some odd reason they spelled his name G-E-D-D-Y, and the man called himself Geddy, and his best friends named Alex and Neil also called him Geddy, and Gary the Popplio, who had not even learned to write when he first discovered RUSH, had no clue as to why.

Regardless, he was absolutely hooked.

He ended up gaining an entire shrine to RUSH in his room and became a prog rock fan for life. His parents still much preferred more traditional music, but they were supportive and took their son to RUSH concerts and Dream Theater concerts and Coheed and Cambria concerts. It was about midway through this whole thing that he learned what birth names and stage names were, and that Geddy Lee was born as Gary, but legally changed it later on due to people mishearing it coming from his Polish-accented mother.

What serendipitous luck, then, that he was born to Johtonian parents! For the “Geddy” mishearing was still a thing in Kantonian, and he certainly liked RUSH, and how funny would it be if he started calling himself Geddy when alone to himself? He couldn’t change his name, of course; his parents would never allow that; but he could definitely use it for himself!

So he did.

And he liked it. A lot.

It certainly felt much more like him than the name of a Gym Leader ever could.

So he started calling himself Geddy, and no one else did.

His parents, his friends, and just about everyone else still called him “Gēri-kun”. And poor Geddy just went along with it, because that was what you were supposed to do in Johtonian culture. And he certainly couldn’t tell them “no”, because he couldn’t do that in Johtonian culture.

So instead, he just sat there.

While other mons called him by a name that he himself didn’t go by; while his teachers and parents pushed him to work as hard as he could; while he was berated and belittled by those around him (save for his parents) for liking bands such as RUSH and Coheed and Cambria— he just sat there and took all of it on the chin. As time went on, he became quite fond of self-deprecation, but that was fine. It was just something he and his family did. It was something every Johtonian did.

It couldn’t be helped.

It also couldn’t be helped that the family lived in Violet City at the time, and one day a group of Bellsprout at the nearby Sprout Tower all went rogue for what was, apparently, no reason. One by one they all evolved into Weepinbell; one by one they all found Leaf Stones; one by one they all evolved into Victreebel.

And then, one by one, they attacked the family’s hut in Violet City.

The family of Kai, Kenji, and Geddy were forced to flee their home, and travel to Ecruteak, where they eventually found a small abandoned house that they made their home. In that time, Geddy became big on sewing and crochet, but music was still his true passion. It was a good thing they left for Ecruteak, too, because if they had stayed in Violet any longer they would have seen something much worse than a pack of Victreebel: a massive Tyranitar claiming to be part of a Feluvian group of mons known as “Team Folklore”.

Now it was here that the family lived, still practicing their traditional cultural values. It had served them well for quite some time, and they saw no reason to stop. That said, though, while there were quite a lot of benefits to living in their small Ecruteak hut— the biggest one being that they were safe from danger— their remote location meant they didn’t tend to get many visitors often. It was a shame, too, since the family— especially Geddy— had wanted visitors now for a long time.

That, however, was all about to change.

January 8th, 2020 was a regular day for the family, as they were all sitting— well, as best they could, anyway— around a table in the tea room, drinking tea and talking about how the day was going. Out of the blue, however, they suddenly heard it:

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

At once, Kai the Primarina sat up.

<…are those… are those visitors?> she asked to herself, practically in disbelief.

She thought for a few moments about not answering, but then suddenly the noise came again:

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Followed by a mildly stoic sounding female voice on the other end:

“Hello? Is anybody here? I heard there was a Popplio here…”

Before the woman on the other end could go on, however, Kai tilted her head with excitement, and Kenji and Geddy turned to face each other with massive, beaming smiles. It had been so long since they’d last had a visitor, let alone someone who seemingly actually wanted to come in!

<誰でしょうか?> she asked. <信じられない、長年でした!>

Delighted, she turned to face her son.

<ゲーリー、ドアを開けあげてください,> she said. <贈り物を持ってきたといいのだが…>

Geddy, excited to see the new visitors, nodded. <はい!>

He eagerly ran forward, but before he could open the door, he happened to look through the peephole— and what he saw amazed him even further.

Not only was there one person at the door… there were three.

The one closest to the peephole was a tall woman with dark brown hair and hazel eyes, dressed in a lab coat and jeans. She was looking at the peephole with barely-contained excitement and also a bit of curiosity. On her left was a boy with strawberry-blonde hair, a striped shirt, and a Pikachu on his shoulder, while on her right was a girl with pink hair, brown eyes, a pink and blue kimono, and a pink and blue hat which looked strangely like a Hattrem. Geddy’s eyes widened in excitement and amazement as he took in the visitors. They were humans! And two of them had Pokemon! This was unlike anything he’d seen before!

<お母さん！お父さん!> he cried. <三名来た!>

<あらあら!> Kai said in celebration. She waved a flipper towards the door. <入らせて.>

Geddy nodded, then stood up on his tail and opened the door.

—————————————————————————————————————

01/08/20– Just Outside of Ecruteak City, Johto
The Strange Hut

Kim, Ian, and Evelyn didn’t know what they were expecting when Kim knocked on the front door of the strange hut they had found near Ecruteak. They had seen the Primarina, Octillery, and Popplio flag hanging from the hut, but they just assumed those were the favorite Pokemon of whoever happened to live here.

They certainly were not expecting to hear Kantonian coming from the other end, and they definitely were not expecting to see Kim open the door—

—only to be met by a Popplio, standing on their tail, with their flippers straight at their sides.

Kim blinked. Apparently, those three Pokemon lived here.

“That’s a Popplio!” Ian whispered to Kim with excitement. “Don’t you want to catch it?”

“I know,” said Kim, in that same whisper. “But if this Popplio lives here, I don’t necessarily want to take them away from whatever family they may have…”

She turned back towards the Popplio, chuckled, and cleared her throat.

“Er… um… hello?” she asked.

The Popplio bent forward, their flippers still at their sides.

<ようこそ!> they said, revealing a male, child-like voice..

Kim blinked and turned to face Ian and Evelyn in surprise.

“He knows Kantonian?!” she cried in shock, in a whisper.

“Sure seems that way,” said Ian. “I’ll go talk to him.”

<ゲーリーと申します,> said the Popplio, rising from his bow. <よろしくお願いいたします。皆様のお名前をうかがってもよろしいでしょうか?>

Kim blinked. “…I’m sorry?”

The Popplio’s eyes widened, and he bowed again.

<Oh!> he said. <Please forgive me; I didn’t realize you didn’t speak Kantonian.>

Kim breathed a sigh of relief, delighted to hear that the Popplio did, indeed, know Galarian Monese. She held up her hands as a peace offering.

“It… it’s fine,” said Kim. “If you’re more comfortable speaking Kantonian, you can do that. I can just get the translation from my friends over here; they can speak it fine…”

<It’s okay, really,> the Popplio said sheepishly.

“No, no, really, you can speak Kantonian,” said Kim. “It’s fine.”

The Popplio blinked.

<Um… okay,> he said. <But… if you don’t know it…>

“Really,” said Kim. “It’s fine. I can just get the translation from my friends over here.” She turned to face Ian. “What did he say before?”

“He wanted to know our names,” said Ian.

“Oh,” said Kim. “Y-you introduce us, then.”

Ian nodded. He stepped forward, smiling, then returned the bow.

“よろしく、げーりーさん,” said Ian. “イーアンです。あいつは相棒のピクちゃん.”

<こんにちは!> Piku-chan added cheerfully, waving at him.

“そして…” Ian began as he gestured to Evelyn— only for him to stop. His face went red, and he looked away a bit sheepishly.

“…彼女のエヴェリンです,” he finished.

Evelyn chuckled, then nodded and bowed. “よろしくお願いします.”

Kim, still not understanding much of anything and knowing that this Popplio was in fact able to speak fluent Galarian Monese, stepped forward and bowed, albiet somewhat more awkwardly than the other two had. From what she could tell already, this Popplio belonged to an incredibly traditional Johtonian family, and who would she be if she didn’t respect their traditions, even if she didn’t speak the language?

“And I,” she said, bowing deeply, “am Kimberly Bond. Lingual consultant.” She rose, smiling. “It’s very nice to meet you… er…”

She smiled sadly, a bit embarrassed.

“I’m terribly sorry,” said Kim. “I never got your name… what was it?”

But when she looked back up at the Popplio, she saw that he wasn’t saying anything. Instead, he seemed to be utterly transfixed by something on her lab coat; he was staring at it in awe and fascination. Kim blinked.

“Um… Popplio?” she asked, waving her hand in front of him. “Are you… are you alright?”

For a few moments the Popplio still did not respond. Then, still with metaphorical stars in his eyes, he slowly raised a flipper and pointed it at Kim’s lab coat.

<Is that…> he asked. <Is that what I think it is?>

Slowly, Kim looked down at where the Popplio was pointing, and when she saw what it was, everything clicked.

It was her 2112 pin.

“Oh, you mean this?” she asked, pointing to the pin that was on her lab coat. “Yes, this is a 2112 pin; are you a RUSH fan, too?”

The Popplio blushed.

<Well…> he said, somewhat sheepishly, <maybe a bit…>

“A bit?!” Kim almost laughed. “I think you might be being a bit too modest, based on how you were looking at my pin. Do you have a collection or anything?”

<Well, I do have a few things,> said the Popplio, <but it really isn’t much; you probably shouldn’t look at it, it really is quite a small collection…>

“That doesn’t matter,” said Kim. “I’m quite eager to see it. Even if it is a small collection.”

The Popplio’s eyes widened.

“R-really?” he asked.

Kim nodded. “Of course.” She turned to face her other two friends. “What do you guys think?”

“Sure thing!” Ian agreed. “We’d love to see it!”

Evelyn nodded. “It would be nice. Plus, we’ll also need a place to stay… if you’re willing to invite us into your home, that is.”

The Popplio beamed, blushing again.

<O-oh, of course!> he said. 

“Are your parents the Octillery and the Primarina on that flag?” asked Kim, pointing to it.

The Popplio nodded.

“We’d like to meet them, if you don’t mind.”

<…You would?> the Popplio asked in confusion.

“Of course,” said Kim.

The Popplio momentarily looked back towards the room. He called out something in Kantonian that Kim couldn’t hear, and then waited, seemingly for a response. After a pause, Kim heard a deep masculine voice— the Popplio’s father, presumably— reply to his son. From what Kim could discern, it was in the affirmative, as the Popplio nodded towards him and then turned back to Kim, Ian, and Evelyn with a beaming smile.

<They said yes!> the Popplio responded cheerfully.

“Alright!” Ian cried out.

“Thank you,” said Kim simply.

“Yes, thank you very much,” Evelyn agreed, bowing towards the Popplio again.

With that said, the Popplio opened the door, which swung inwards towards the room.

What Kim, Ian, and Evelyn were met with was a fairly nice hallway, with a traditional Kantonian rug on the floor. The hallway in question led to a Kantonian style tea-room, where sure enough, seated at said table were a Primarina and an Octillery. To the left of the entrance rug was a staircase which, presumably, led to another floor of the house, likely the floor on which the Popplio’s room was. Kim, Ian, Evelyn, Piku-chan, and Hatty (from her perch on Evelyn’s head) looked at the entryway in awe.

“Whoa…” Ian muttered.

“This looks amazing…” said Kim.

<I… wouldn’t say that,> said the Popplio. <It just looks like a traditional Kantonian house to me. I’m not really sure if it’s that amazing…>

The Popplio shut the door once all three of them had entered.

<Anyways, now that you’re in here,> the Popplio said, <please remember to take your shoes off and keep them off for the entirety of your visit here. It’s part of Johtonian culture.>

For a few moments, Kim faltered, remembering her horribly disfigured heels, but then remembered she had socks on. Besides, no one had noticed her heels before— aside from her family, of course— so why should she bother worrying about it now?

“Alright, then,” she said, sitting down and beginning to untie her laces, albeit still with a bit of nervousness. Ian and Evelyn did the same. As Kim stuck her fingers into the knot to untie it, a thought suddenly came to her.

Namely, that she had never gotten the Popplio’s name.

Sure, the Popplio had likely told her, but she didn’t understand it because it was in Japanese. Ian and Evelyn would likely know what it was, though…

“Ian?” Kim asked, turning to face him.

“Yeah?” asked Ian. He had already taken off one shoe; Kim found herself slightly jealous as to how he had done it so fast.

“What, exactly, is that Popplio’s name?” Kim asked.

“Gary,” said Ian casually.

Kim almost dropped the lace she had pulled loose, she was so amused and surprised by the coincidence.

A Popplio.

Named Gary.

Who was a massive RUSH fan.

Something told Kim that the Popplio knew about the coincidence, too, and as such went by another name in private.

Kim chuckled for a bit, then burst out into laughter, causing her to indeed drop the lace she was holding. Ian and Evelyn looked on in mild confusion.

“Huh?” Ian asked. “What’s so funny, Kim?”

“Yes, is something the matter?” Evelyn asked, just as confused. She had already taken off her shoes, but they were slip-ons, so it was only fair.

Kim didn’t say anything for a bit, just continued to laugh. The Popplio, who noticed Kim’s sudden outburst, gently put his flipper to Kim’s lips; the woman’s laughter ceased at once.

<I’m terribly sorry,> he said, <but do you think you can… maybe be a bit quieter? My parents are still in here, and… um… they might not appreciate it if you…>

…riiight, she was still in a Johtonian house.

“Oh… oh yes, of course,” said Kim, laughter slowly subsiding. “My apologies.”

She bowed as best she could while sitting down, and the Popplio— Gary, Ian had said, but Kim had no doubt in her mind now that his name was in fact Geddy— smiled, and pulled his flipper away. Kim, now taking one of her shoes off, turned to face Ian and Evelyn.

“Don’t worry about it,” said Kim, unlacing the other shoe and pulling it off. “It’s fine; I’ll explain it to you when we get upstairs. It’s a joke you probably wouldn’t immediately understand, since I’m willing to bet you’ve never heard of RUSH.”

Ian and Evelyn looked at each other in confusion. “RUSH?”

“Exactly,” said Kim.

She stood up, followed by Ian and Evelyn shortly thereafter.

“Alright, then,” she said. “If you would please be willing to introduce us to your parents; then you can take us up to your room.”

Gary nodded. <Of course. I’d be happy to introduce you.>

He led the three of them forward towards the tea table. At said table, the Primarina and the Octillery that Kim had seen before turned in the direction of their son’s… flippersteps, as it were, and upon seeing the guests got up from the table. The Primarina in particular started standing on her tail, much like her son had done when Kim had first opened the door.

<あらあら?> she asked. <お客様ですか？>

Gary nodded.

<イーアン、エヴェリン、キンバーリーです,> he said, gesturing to each one of them in turn.

Kim, Ian, and Evelyn bowed. The Primarina and Octillery bowed back at them in turn; it was, however, the latter who spoke first.

<よろしくお願いいたします,> he said. <ケンジと申します。妻の名前がカイ、そして息子のゲーリーにもうお会いになりました.>

Kim tilted her head upon hearing the Kantonian, confused. The Primarina noticed and turned towards her husband.

<今から翻訳をさせてください,> she said. <三名がカント語出来ないかもしれません…>

The Octillery nodded in response to whatever it was his wife had said. The Primarina, meanwhile, turned to face the group. To Kim’s immense relief, the next words said Primarina spoke were heard by Kim’s ears as Galarian:

<Do excuse my husband,> she said apologetically. <He only speaks Kantonian. He was introducing himself to you. My name is Kai; his is Kenji.> She lovingly pet Gary on the head. <And of course, you’ve already met our son Gary. He’s such a good boy!>

Gary blushed.

<Well… I certainly think I try to be…> he said modestly.

Kim smiled, stepping forward. To her immense relief, no one had yet noticed her heels.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Kai and Kenji,” she said. “As you have no doubt heard, I am Kimberly Bond, lingual consultant, and my friends here are Ian and Evelyn. I have heard that your son has a collection of RUSH memorabilia, which I would like to see, and I have also heard that you and your son are willing to invite us to stay the night?”

<Oh, yes,> said Kai, chuckling. <My son was always a fan of that band. He’s got… a few things upstairs, if you’d like to see them.>

“Of course,” said Kim, nodding.

“Sure thing!” Ian said cheerfully.

“Absolutely,” said Evelyn.

<Lovely!> said Kai. <And of course you’re welcome to stay the night; if you’ve got noplace else to go.>

“Oh, we certainly don’t have any place to sleep we can think of,” said Kim.

And I definitely can’t go back home to Striaton City again, she thought to herself.

<Well, then!> said Kai. <In that case, Gary can set up the guest beds upstairs in his room.> She smiled over at him lovingly. <Won’t you, Gary?>

<Of course, Mother!> Gary said cheerfully.

He ran over to the stairs that were next to the rug at the entrance, then turned back towards the group.

<The three of you should probably hold on down here,> he said. <I’m going to head up the stairs and set up the guest beds.>

“Alright, then!” said Kim, giving the Popplio a thumbs-up.

“You can tell us when they’re ready,” said Ian.

Gary nodded, then went up the stairs. <I’ll be back then!>

The three of them watched as Gary headed up the stairs. Once he was gone, Kim turned to face Kai and Kenji, before reaching into her purse and pulling out her Pokédex.

“Alright, then,” said Kim, opening her dex up. “While your son is busy setting up the guest beds, I’d like to scan you if that’s alright.”

<Scan us?> asked Kai, tilting her head in confusion. <What for?>

“So I can get your Dex Entries, of course,” said Kim.

<Oh!> said Kai. <Well, in that case, of course you can.> She gestured to her husband. <ケンジ、参ってくれませんか？>

Kenji nodded, and moved over beside his wife.

Kim nodded. “Alright, then. And now…”

She held up the dex, which scanned the two of them. In an instant, dex information for Octillery and Primarina appeared, which Kim proceeded to read through.

#0224 Octillery: Categorized as the Jet Pokemon; scientific name Octopus artillus. For a long time, people refused to believe this Pokemon was the evolution of Remoraid (O. a. juvenis), because of their distinct physical differences. Some scientists even classified Remoraid as an entirely different species before seeing one evolving for the first time. While this Pokemon is normally relaxed, it enjoys fuss from its Trainer, and is a lot more stubborn in the wild than it is in captivity. It has a great amount of intelligence and cunning, and tends to sneak into rocky holes or pots. If it is sleepy, it will even steal the nest of a fellow Octillery. When this Pokemon is threatened, it shoots ink from its mouth to cover itself before it escapes to safety. This ink has numerous other properties: it obscures vision; it contains substances that dull its predators’ sense of smell; and it has also been used in cooking. It will also use the ink on its prey, before it grips said prey tightly in its powerful suction cups. Sometimes, it will also use its rock-hard head to headbutt foes as opposed to using its ink. It is normally found in oceans and caves and is believed to be a relative of Omastar (A. velum).

#0730 Primarina: Categorized as the Soloist Pokémon; scientific name Otaria symphona. This Pokemon tends to use water balloons and its voice as its main strategy in battle. Because of the fact that its voice is so instrumental to its strategy, the care of its voice should be a very high priority for Trainers wanting to raise this Pokemon. The melodies this Pokemon uses have been passed down through generations. However, these melodies vary based on the specific Primarina. As this Pokémon dances, it releases water balloons which are controlled by its voice. The balloons glitter beautifully in the moonlight, but some of them are explosive and trigger when touched. It is a very theatrical Pokemon, who considers every battle a stage and who loves to sing. As of recently, more and more male Primarina have begun to default to having their hair down, and many have gained an interest in ‘80’s glam rock music. It is the only Pokemon who can learn the move Sparkling Aria.

“…Aaaand that’s that,” said Kim, putting away her dex. “Thank you very much for allowing me to do that; now all we have to do is wait down here until your son is finished setting up the guest beds.”

And then, before she could go on, she felt something touch her shoulder.

Confused, she turned around, only to find Gary the Popplio looking back at her, smiling.

<You’re free to go up into my room now if you want,> he said.

—————————————————————————————

Ecruteak City, Johto
The Small Hut
Upstairs, Geddy’s Bedroom

As it turned out, Gary (or Geddy, as Kim was now internally referring to him) was, in fact, being modest when he said that he only had a few pieces of RUSH memorabilia in his room.

For when Kim, Ian, and Evelyn were led into his room upstairs, they were met with a collection of such memorabilia so massive it dwarfed even Kim’s own collection she had at home.

The room itself was rather small, consisting merely of a bed— four beds, now— a rug, a few cabinets, and four walls in a small rectangular room, with a massive window out of which the night sky was clearly visible. On the walls, however, were dozens of RUSH posters— from promotional images, from numerous tours, or even just stock RUSH photos. Multiple images of Lee, Lifeson, and Peart performing were abound. A huge 2112 poster stood at the center of it all, surrounded on all sides by 2112 stickers.

And that, Kim saw, was not even the end of it.

Because the room also had Dream Theater and Coheed and Cambria merch everywhere; though it wasn’t as prominent as the RUSH merch. The rug, notably, featured the Octavarium Newton’s Cradle.

Kim, Ian, and Evelyn all looked on in shock.

“…Oh my goodness…” Kim muttered to herself.

“TWINCOOL! This is incredible!” Ian cried in amazement. “Where did you get all this stuff?!”

<I… got them all from numerous stores my parents took me to,> said Geddy, blushing profusely and averting his eyes from the faces of his shocked onlookers. 

“Are you kidding?” said Kim, laughing to herself a bit as she examined the room. “Not very much stuff?! This is the largest collection of RUSH memorabilia I’ve ever seen! It might be even bigger than mine!”

She continued to walk around the room, examining the merchandise that was there. Geddy just continued to stare down at the floor.

<I… are you sure?> he asked. <There’s probably a lot of people with a lot more RUSH stuff than I have… and for a room so small? I—>

He suddenly stopped, realizing what Kim had said to him just then.

<Wait a minute,> he said, using his flippers to push himself over to Kim in a vague imitation of running. <You have a RUSH collection, too?!>

“I certainly do,” said Kim, nodding and smiling. “I’ve been to numerous concerts before, too.” She looked around the room again. “Of course, my collection isn’t as big as yours.”

She turned, looked over, and suddenly noticed the cabinet that was there. Curious as to what was inside, she went over to it and opened it up, and what she saw inside amazed her just as much as the rest of the room.

Inside the cabinet, on the first shelf, was every single RUSH album, including the live albums and Feedback, their cover album (which Kim didn’t really count as a true RUSH album), as well as every Dream Theater album, every Coheed and Cambria album, and— oddly enough— the greatest hits album for Paper Lace. Kim didn’t know what that album was doing amongst a slew of albums from prog rock legends, but she decided not to question it.

On the second shelf was a mannequin neck, with a Mystic Water tied around it, as well as many books, including the novelizations of both Clockwork Angels and The Astonishing.

In both Galarian and Kantonian, of course.

Behind the bookshelf, tucked away in the midst of all the books, was something sparking and flashing, but Kim didn’t notice it at first. Instead, she just continued to stare in wonder and awe at the mass album collection. After a few moments, she turned and motioned to Ian and Evelyn, who were walking around the room in awe and glancing at all the memorabilia.

“Ian! Evelyn!” she called, beckoning to them. “Over here!”

Upon seeing Kim there, Ian and Evelyn ran over to where she was. When they saw the massive collection of albums and books that was there, their eyes widened in shock.

“Whoa…!” Ian cried.

“Holy Hecate!” said Evelyn. “That sure is a lot of albums!”

“Is that every single one?!” Ian cried.

“It certainly is,” said Kim, grinning. “I take it you’ve never heard a single song by the band before?”

Ian shook his head. “Nope.”

“I certainly haven’t,” said Evelyn.

“Well, given that his family is letting us stay over,” said Kim, smiling, “I think tonight might be a great time to introduce you. If he knows how to sing, even better.”

Ian and Evelyn looked about ready to say something, but before they could, they found themselves interrupted by another tap on the shoulder. They turned and saw it was Geddy, who was tilting his head in confusion and slowly making his way towards where Kim was.

<Excuse me,> he began. <What are you looking at, Kim? I’d like to see it.>

He then caught a glimpse of what they were looking at and blushed again, shying away.

<Oh…> he said. <You found my… collection, didn’t you?>

“Why are you so embarrassed by it?” Ian asked. “This is amazing!”

“I can’t believe you have every album,” said Kim. “Not even I have a RUSH album collection that big.”

<Oh?> asked Geddy, tilting his head. <How many albums do you have?>

Kim paused for a few moments to think about it.

“…18,” she said. “The only two I don’t have are Feedback and 2112, and that’s only if you count Feedback as an album. If you don’t, then I still have 18, but 2112 is the only one missing.”

Geddy gaped at her in astonishment. <You don’t have 2112?!>

“I wanted it,” said Kim, “but my mother wouldn’t let me buy it. She thought the Solar Federation star was a pentagram and barred my father from getting me it.”

<Oh,> said Geddy. <That’s…>

He looked away, seemingly not knowing what to say.

“Terrible, right?” said Kim. “You’d think that my father would have gotten me the album on Pinwheel or what have you, but my father doesn’t trust anything with Jake Bozes’ name attached. So I had to make do with 2112 pins and shirts that don’t have the star on them.”

 said Geddy.

He paused for a few moments, then looked up at Kim and asked:

<Do you… happen to have any favorite songs?>

“‘Distant Early Warning,’” Kim said without missing a beat. “Not just my favorite RUSH song, but my favorite song of all time.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard that one…” said Ian to himself.

“You have,” said Kim. “I was playing it just before I met you.” She paused. “Although, I assume you haven’t listened to the whole thing, so I should probably play it at some point.”

She turned back to Geddy. “What about you? You have any favorites, Geddy?”

Ian and Evelyn looked at each other, utterly confused.

“…Geddy?” they asked in unison.

Geddy himself, meanwhile, stopped before he could say anything and stared at Kim in shock. He started to say something again, then paused, then, finally managed to blurt out:

<A-are you psychic?! H-how’d you know I wanted to be called that?!>

“I’m not,” said Kim. “They are, though.”

She pointed at Ian and Evelyn, who waved. Geddy stared at them, awestruck.

<Whoa…> he said.

“But, yeah,” said Kim. “A half-Johtonian Popplio named Gary who is a massive RUSH fan?” She laughed to herself. “The writing was practically on the wall. I figured you probably noticed the coincidence yourself.”

Geddy blushed and looked away.

 he said, 

Ian and Evelyn, for their part, were looking very, very confused. Of course they were— they didn’t have a clue as to how Geddy Lee, lead singer and bassist of the greatest Feluvian band ever, got his stage name in the first place. Ian turned to Kim and scratched his head.

“I… don’t understand…” said Ian.

“Oh, you are most certainly in for a lesson tonight,” said Kim, grinning. “I’ll explain later.” She turned back towards Geddy. “Anyways… any favorite RUSH songs or…?”

<Oh! Um… yes,> said Geddy.

“Which one?” asked Kim.

<“The Pass”,> said Geddy simply.

Kim smiled to herself.

“Of course,” she said, going over to Geddy and petting him on the head. “Of course your favorite RUSH song is the anti-suicide track. You’re such a sweet mon.”

Geddy blushed again, and then burst into laughter and began to hug Kim. Kim, happily, hugged him back, and as she did, she found that there was only one thought on her mind.

This.

This is the Popplio I want to catch.

Their shared love of RUSH aside, Kim needed some way to repay Geddy for his hospitality towards them, and she figured that there was no better way for her to do so than catching him for herself. The fact that he was so sweet and modest didn’t hurt matters at all.

Of course, Kim had no idea whether or not Kai and Kenji would agree to it, but that was a problem for future Kim.

Tomorrow Kim, specifically.

“Um… Kim?” Kim suddenly heard Ian ask.

At this, Kim and Geddy promptly broke off their hug and turned to face Ian, confused. When Kim saw the thing that Ian was pointing to, she, too, became intrigued as well. He was pointing to the second shelf, in between the books, where there was a sparking, flashing thing that looked to be thin, round, and metallic. Kim thought it looked like a Virtue medal, but there was no way it could be that, could it? Virtue medals didn’t just spark and flash randomly for no reason. Besides, she had no reason to believe Virtue medals could be given to wild Pokemon.

“What… is that thing doing there?” Ian asked.

Kim got closer to it, missing Geddy’s look of concern from behind her as she did.

“I’m… not very sure,” she said. “But if it’s a battery pack or something, it needs to be out of there.”

She began to reach for the metal thing that was inside the bookcase, but before she could, Geddy suddenly piped up.

<Oh… um… I don’t know if you should…> he muttered. <That— that works with my Mystic Water; I don’t know why it keeps glitching and flashing, but I think it should stay clean for longer at least…>

That works with my Mystic Water.

Kim stopped midway through, startled by that statement.

No.

There was no way.

It couldn’t possibly be what Kim thought it was… could it?

Slowly and carefully, she reached in and grabbed the glitching, sparkling item. It was definitely round and made of pure metal, and she thought she felt some embossed text atop it. Somehow, though, despite its sparking, the item didn’t seem to be hurting her. Steadily, she pulled it out and laid it on the bookcase…

…and sure enough.

The item was, in fact, a Virtue medal, albeit a very simple one: the background was gray in color, and simply had a black circle in the center of it. At the top and bottom were two black arches; the top one read HUMILITY in gray text; the bottom one read HUMILITÉ in grey text.

And the center of it was, in fact, flashing and letting off sparks, rapidly. The whole thing, in fact, was shaking.

Kim, Ian, and Evelyn all crowded around in shock to look at it.

“Is that… is that a Virtue medal?!” Ian cried.

“I… think it is,” said Evelyn. “Though it certainly doesn’t look like any other Virtue medal I’ve seen.”

“I didn’t even think wild Pokemon could get Virtue medals,” said Kim, picking it up hesitantly. “Let alone that they could look like this.”

She knelt down in front of Geddy, holding out the medal.

“Geddy?” she asked. “Would you mind telling us how you got this medal?”

Geddy looked at the medal for a few moments, then glanced down at the floor deep in thought.

<…I don’t know exactly what caused me to earn it,> he eventually admitted. <I… I was just doing my work, y’know… doing things for other people, my parents, that sort of thing. One day the Mystic Water suddenly just… appeared, along with a clear thing. I thought the clear thing was a container, so I put it inside… only for this to appear.>

Kim nodded, glancing down at the medal. “I see.”

She contemplated it a bit more.

“Humility, huh?” she said at last. “Well, I can’t say you don’t have it. When did it start looking like this, though?”

<…it’s a bit difficult for me to remember that, too,> said Geddy, <But… I think it might have been after my teachers berated me for not working hard enough? I don’t know… I just felt so terrible. I knew they were right.>

He looked down sadly for a few moments in thought. Kim, Ian, and Evelyn all looked down at Geddy with sympathy. The poor Popplio must have noticed then looking at him like that, because seconds later he piped back up again.

<But… the fact that it looks like that can’t be helped, can it?> said Geddy sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head with a flipper in embarrassment.

Ian and Evelyn sweatdropped.

Kim, however, looked back and forth from the embarrassed Geddy and the strange-looking Virtue medal. She had already begun to develop a theory in her head. Geddy was certainly humble, yes— but it seemed to her as though years of living with a Johtonian family in Johtonian culture had caused his humility to turn into practical submission. To the point where he thought his teachers were right to berate him for supposedly not working hard enough...!

…that was enough of thinking about that, though. It was getting fairly late, and the three of them had every intention of staying the night.

Slowly, Kim put the shaking and glitching virtue into her purse, along with the Mystic Water that was clearly meant to be its corresponding item.

“I have a theory,” she said. “As to why your virtue looks like that. But I’ll see if I’m right later. For now, we promised you that we were going to stay overnight, didn’t we?”

At once, Geddy broke out of his embarrassment, the realization hitting him and excitement returning.

<Oh!> he said, running over to the four beds that were in the room. <Oh, yes, of course! That’s right! I humbly apologize; I had completely forgotten about that…>

“It’s fine,” said Kim, walking over to the bed that Geddy had set up for her and sitting down on it. She bounced up and down on the mattress experimentally, and felt the blanket. It was, thankfully, incredibly soft and comfortable. “This certainly feels nice.”

<I’m glad you like it,> said Geddy, smiling.

Ian and Evelyn promptly went over to their own beds, with Piku-chan jumping off of Ian’s shoulder. When they eventually got under the blankets, they were practically melting.

<Ahhhhh…> said Piku-chan, nuzzling up against Ian. <This feels so nice…>

“It sure does,” said Ian. “I’m already starting to feel sleepy…”

He yawned. Evelyn soon did afterwards, chuckling.

“Thank you so much for doing this for us, Geddy,” said Evelyn as she climbed into the bed. “You didn’t have to do any of this for us.”

<Oh, no, I did!> said Geddy, a bit frantically. <It’s… considered polite to show hospitality for any guests that enter.>

“Well, regardless,” said Evelyn, “we really do appreciate it.”

“Indeed we do,” said Kim, who was getting into the bed herself. “Thank you so much.”

Geddy, naturally, blushed.

<It was nothing, really,> he said.

He flopped over to his cabinet of RUSH albums and pulled one out; then crossed the room. It was at this point that Kim saw something that she had missed the first time somehow— a massive record player. The albums were vinyl. Being careful not to ruin the album, Geddy reached in and pulled the album out of its sleeve. As he did, Kim was able to lean forward and saw the album’s cover art— a black-and-white image of a ton of Scorbunny on a mountain, coming out of a magician’s hat.

Presto.

<Oh, and by the way,> said Geddy, as he put the disk on the record player, <you’ll probably want to think about a gift for my parents tomorrow. It’s also polite for guests to give gifts to their hosts.>

He lowered the needle onto the record.

From their separate beds, Ian and Evelyn looked at each other.

“A gift?” Ian asked.

“We haven’t even thought of a gift we’d want to give them yet…” muttered Evelyn. “What are we going to do?”

But Kim didn’t have that problem. She already knew the gift she was going to give to Kai and Kenji the next morning. After this absolutely hectic day filled with captures, battles, and evolutions galore, she knew just how to repay the mons in Ecruteak for the hospitality they had shown her and her friends.

She was going to get up the next day, she was going to go up to Kai and Kenji…

And she was going to give them a PokeBall.

For their son.

Geddy hit PLAY on the record player, the record began to spin, and seconds later, “Show Don’t Tell” began to play— rather quietly, as Geddy had lowered the volume down almost all the way.

And thus, the sleepover began.

—————————————————————————

The next hour or so afterwards was spent talking about RUSH and listening to the entirety of Presto as it played out. Kim, in particular, told Ian and Evelyn all about Geddy Lee, lead singer of RUSH, and how he had gotten the stage name in the first place. Ian and Evelyn certainly found it a funny coincidence after that that 1) a Popplio known as Gary by birth had become a major RUSH fan at all, and 2) more importantly, that he had been raised into a Johtonian family, wherein the name Gary could also just as easily be misheard as “Geddy” if said in a Kantonian accent as opposed to a Polish one.

After that lesson had wrapped up, they vowed that the Popplio would be solely referred to as Geddy in front of anyone but his parents.

They also spoke about Neil Peart, the greatest drummer of all time according to Kim, and how much Kim missed hearing new RUSH songs. She expressed hope that one day the three members would get back together again.

In doing so, she was unaware of the date on the calendar, and that by that point, hundreds of miles away in Feluv, Neil Peart was already dead.

The last of Presto played out after that, and Geddy switched from it to Fly By Night, then skipped straight to “Rivendell”.

3 minutes later, all three of the people in the room— and all three of the Pokémon; Hatty had not jumped off of Evelyn’s head a single time since they’d entered— were asleep.

Goldenheart388 · Post by **Goldenheart388** » 2026-Aug-05 01:26

THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
BOND TIMELINE

ARC 2

CHAPTER 9
PART 2

01/09/20– Ecruteak City
The Small Hut
The Next Morning

By the time Kim, Ian, and Evelyn woke up the next morning, the RUSH music had stopped entirely and they were feeling refreshed. The group was promptly woken up by Geddy, who invited them to a massive breakfast downstairs that Kai and Kenji had prepared for them.

They, of course, accepted. Kim was already holding on to the PokeBall she was going to give them just in case it ever got brought up.

The breakfast itself was delightful; somehow a group of Pokemon had gotten their metaphorical hands on a scrambled egg recipe and eggs themselves. Geddy later explained to them that they would routinely go to the Pokemon Center to get eggs from the Chansey and Blissey that were there.

<Unfortunately, though,> he had said to them, blushing a bit, <eggs are the only thing we know how to make…>

“Well, I don’t mind,” said Kim, after she had swallowed another bite of her scrambled eggs. “They’re delicious! …though given that they came from Chansey and Blissey, it makes sense.”

Once they had finished their meal and thanked Kai and Kenji for it, the latter started going around collecting everyone’s plates (having eight limbs helped with that immensely). He set them down in front of Kai, who washed them down with a Water Gun (being a Water-type helped with that immensely).

And from there, Geddy was off to school.

For a few moments Kim wondered what he even needed to go to school for, then decided not to worry about it. Besides, she figured, this was perfect. While Geddy was away, she could tell Kai and Kenji about her “gift”, and then surprise Geddy with it when he got home.

Once all the plates had been washed and Kenji had put them away, he turned towards Ian, Evelyn, and Kim.

<ここに、何かをいたしたいんですか？> he asked.

Ian and Evelyn looked at each other, somewhat guiltily.

“僕らがくれる贈り物について聞ければ、残念ながら何も決めません.” He bowed. “失礼します.”

Evelyn did the same, saying nothing.

Kim, meanwhile, despite not knowing a word of what the two were saying to each other, still had a feeling as to what this was about. She smirked, reaching into her purse.

“If this is about gifts,” she said, “I may have something to offer.”

Kai and Kenji turned to look at her.

<You do?> asked Kai.

Kim nodded. “I’d like to know your thoughts on this.”

She pulled out the PokeBall. Almost at once, Kai and Kenji reacted with shock.

<A PokeBall?!> asked Kai.

Kenji’s shock wore off fairly quickly, and he took the ball from Kim’s hand with a tentacle and looked it over.

<面白いですね…> he said.

“Well, it’s not really for you,” said Kim. “It’s for Gary.”

Kenji and Kai turned to look at each other.

<It’s for Gary?> Kai asked. <Well, I’m sure he would appreciate it, but what would he need a PokeBall for?>

“No, no, no, you don’t understand,” said Kim, shaking her head. “It’s for Gary.“

She pointed insistently at the ball.

Kai and Kenji looked at each other again, and then steadily understanding made its way into their faces as they slowly figured out what Kim was getting at. Kai turned to Kim, her jaw agape in shock.

<Are you saying,> she said, <t-that you want to catch our son?!>

Kim nodded.

“He’s been nothing but sweet and hospitable towards me and all my friends,” said Kim. “A simple gift wouldn’t really express my gratitude towards him, I think. So I wish to catch your son and have him join my team.”

Kai and Kenji glanced at one another in shock. For a few moments, the two of them whispered to each other in Kantonian. Then, finally, Kai spoke.

<That… is certainly very sweet of you,> she said. <But… he’s in school right now, so it might be a bit difficult for you to do that…>

Kenji blinked. Kai relayed the message back to him in Kantonian. He nodded in understanding, then turned back to Kim.

<その上、息子がまだ大人びられるはずですね,> asked Kenji.

Kim blinked.

<Don’t you think that Gary’s still got a lot of growing to do?> Kai translated.

“You mean, evolution-wise?” Kim asked. “Sure, but he’ll be able to evolve under my care as well. Maybe even faster.”

She looked down as a thought suddenly came to her.

“Although…” she said to herself, “he hasn’t met my mons yet, and the feeling of being captured may not be mutual…”

At that moment, an idea came into her mind, and she slowly put her PokeBall back into her purse. True, Geddy hadn’t met the rest of her mons yet. She had a feeling he’d get along pretty well with Paul and Kaylan, but she wasn’t so sure about Dio and Sinatra. Even so, though, she figured she might as well let Geddy decide if he wanted to join her team or not.

She thought about it some more and realized there was still one question she wanted to ask.

“Kai?” she asked.

<Yes?> Kai asked.

“…Where does your son go to school?” she asked.

<Oh, he doesn’t really go anywhere,> said Kai, rubbing the back of her head with her fin. <His lessons are just outside the house; that’s where his teacher is waiting.>

“So he’s homeschooled, essentially,” said Kim, breathing a sigh of relief.

<Yes.>

Good, Kim thought to herself. That probably means that if he ends up deciding to join my team, Kai and Kenji can just… go outside and tell the teacher that Geddy was caught by a Trainer.

“Alright, then,” said Kim, standing up from the table. “In that case, I’ll wait for him to get back first and have him decide. Besides…”

She reached into her purse and pulled out everyone else’s PokeBalls.

“I’ve got four friends that I should probably introduce him to first,” she said.

———————————————————————————

45 minutes later, Geddy returned from his (essential) homeschooling.

As soon as he opened the door, crying out <ただいま!> even though he was more or less already, in fact, at home, Kimberly Bond, who had been sitting at the table talking to Ian and Evelyn, was startled and quickly turned around. When she saw it was Geddy, she breathed a few sighs of relief.

“O-oh!” she said. “Oh, you’re home already? It’s only been 45 minutes; you startled me.”

“<おかえりなさい!>” Ian, Evelyn, Kai, and Kenji all cried out in unison.

Geddy blushed.

<Sorry for startling you, Kim,> he said, flopping over to her before standing up on his tail and bowing.

“That’s alright,” said Kim. “Seriously, though, only 45 minutes? You must be really good at what you do.”

<Well… I just try to do what I can,> said Geddy, getting back down onto the floor. <Besides, most of it’s just lecturing.>

“I see,” said Kim. “Anyways, I realized that there was something I forgot to show you yesterday, and I figure since we’re going to be leaving today I might as well show you what it is.”

Geddy tilted his head in confusion.

<Oh?> he asked. <What is it?>

In response, Kim reached into her purse and pulled out 4 PokeBalls. Geddy’s eyes widened at this, and he ran over to her in excitement.

<You have Pokemon?!> he asked. 

“That’s exactly what I was hoping you would ask,” Kim said, and threw the balls into the air. “Red alert, everyone!”

In four distinct flashes, Paul, Sinatra, Dio, and Kaylan appeared. Each one of them looked around the room they were in in confusion and awe.

<Whoa…> Dio said to himself. <What is this place?>

<I’ve never been in anyplace like here before…> Kaylan muttered shyly. 

“Oh, don’t worry,” said Kim, kneeling down and putting a hand on Kaylan’s shell. “The mons here are nothing but nice.”

<Oh, that’s a relief!> said Kaylan happily— and then he realized what Kim had said and his face turned to confusion. <Wait, mons?>

He looked around the room. Sure enough, there were in fact no people in this house at all— just a Primarina, an Octillery, and a Popplio, the last one of which looked the most excited to see them of all. He and Paul exchanged confused glances.

<What the heck is going on here?> Sinatra asked, having noticed it too. 

“Ecruteak,” said Kim.

<Ecruteak?!> Sinatra’s eyes nearly bugged out of his skull. <In Johto?!>

“Yes,” said Kim.

<What the heck are the Popplio and Primarina doing here, the— ohhh right, there’s an Octillery,> he suddenly remembered. <Might as well go and talk to him first.>

He went over to the Octillery that was there, but before he could say anything at all, said Octillery was on his tentacles, bending over towards the floor. Sinatra blanched, disturbed and confused, having zero clue as to why this Octillery was bowing at him.

<H-hey, the heck gives?!> he snapped. 

<初めまして、若いオオタチ,> said the Octillery.

Sinatra stared at him.

<私はケンジと申します,> the Octillery went on. <残念ながら、お分かりしませんのに、大声で話している。どうぞ静かにおなりください.>

Sinatra just continued to look at the Octillery blankly.

<…huh?> he asked.

Confused, he shook his head and looked over at the other three mons, only to see the Primarina and the Popplio go over to Paul, Dio, and Kaylan and bow at them for no reason. To his relief, he could understand the next words the Primarina said, but even then something about it unnerved him.

<Are you three Kim’s Pokemon?> she asked. <It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Kai, and this is my son Gary. The Octillery over there is my husband, Kenji. Please do not mind him; he only speaks Kantonian.>

Gary, the Popplio, bowed at them again.

<It’s nice to meet you,> he said.

Then, a bit more excitedly:



He looked around, suddenly confused by something.

<Excuse me,> he said, <but where’s the fourth mon?>

Kim pointed over at Sinatra. “He’s over there.”

<Thank you,> said Gary.

He flopped over to Sinatra as best he could, and upon approaching Sinatra bowed to him.

<Hello, Furret,> he said. <My name is Gary.>

Then in a whisper:

<Kim calls me Geddy, though.>

He flopped back down on the floor. <What’s your name?>

<…Sinatra,> Sinatra said, looking at him blankly.

<Oh!> said the Popplio. <Like Frank Sinatra! It’s nice to meet you.>

Okay, he was familiar with Frankie. That was good. Even then, though, something about how happy and polite this Popplio was— not to mention his whole family— unnerved him to no end.

<Well… it’s good to see that ya know who Frankie is,> said Sinatra, turning away.

Paul, meanwhile, who had already met the Popplio who was calling himself Geddy, was taking note of this interaction with mild concern. Here Sinatra was, being surrounded by mons and given attention, something he usually craved, and yet now he seemed to almost be shying away from it.

He flew over to Sinatra and Geddy, concerned.

<Sinatra?> he asked. <Is something the matter? I’d have expected you to be reveling in all this attention, y’know: everyone’s coming up to you and saying hi, and I figured— I’d have thought you would have loved that, y’know.>

<Well, yeah,> said Sinatra. <Normally. But this?! This isn’t right! It’s like— it’s like everyone here is in some kind of a cult or something, and that Octillery only speaks Kantonian, and I don’t know what the heck he’s saying!>

 said Paul. 

<Well, they’re almost too polite!> said Sinatra. <And it’s creeping me out!>

Geddy went over to Sinatra again and put a flipper around his body.

<I’m sorry that we’re creeping you out, Sinatra,> he said. <But Johtonian culture is… well… we kind of have to be polite.>

<You have to be?!> snapped Sinatra. <The heck kind of virtues do you have, huh?>

<Well… let’s see,> said Geddy to himself. <We tend to value the group more than anything else… whatever our family or school says tends to be the norm. Also empathy… also peacekeeping… that’s important too… Oh! And we also want to work as hard as we can, and keep everything as clean as possible.>

Sinatra’s eyes steadily widened as Geddy went on and on, and he began to look around at the family in front of him in horror.

<…Oh sweet Arceus, this is a cult,> he said.

 said Paul to himself.

<ARE YOU KIDDING?!> Sinatra snapped, making the whole family jump. <Y-you’re on board with this whole ‘we’ll just do what the group wants’ mentality?! Are you serious?!>

<P-please keep your voice down…> said Kai, rubbing the back of her head.

Sinatra facepalmed.

<Well… I mean… I do sometimes have my own desires,> Geddy admitted, blushing.

<Oh, really?> said Sinatra bitterly. <Like what?>

<…I’m a bit of a RUSH fan,> said Geddy, continuing to blush as he looked away modestly.

That got the attention of both Sinatra and Dio, who looked up at him in confusion and amazement, respectively.

<RUSH?> Sinatra asked. <The heck is that?>

Dio, though, was a lot happier. He ran over to Geddy happily, with metaphorical stars in his eyes.

<No WAY!> he cried out, startling Geddy a bit. <You know who RUSH are?!>

<Um… yes,> he said.

<That’s so cool!> Dio said happily. <I’m pretty big on Dio myself, but RUSH is a pretty good band too! They’re the masters of prog rock, babyyyy~!>

Geddy smiled. <They certainly are.>

<W-wait, hold on,> said Sinatra, raising his paws in the air. <RUSH are a band? You like music, too?>

<…um… yes,> said Geddy.

<Huh,> said Sinatra, smirking for the first time since he’d met Geddy. <Guess I should’ve known that, since ya know who Frankie is. I’m not big on rock music much— it is way too loud for me!— but it is pretty cool.>

He paused, then:

<Can you sing?>

<I… I can,> said Geddy. <But not very well.>

<Aww, come on, kid!> said Sinatra. <You’re probably selling yourself short! You evolve into a Primarina! How the heck is your singing not very good?!>

<Yeah!> Dio agreed happily. 

For a few moments, Geddy just stood there, unsure what to do or say. Kim’s mons waited expectantly, as did Kim herself; the thought of watching this mon singing his namesake’s songs was too intriguing for her not to partake in.

Finally, though, Geddy took a deep breath.

Soon afterwards, his voice echoed throughout the entire house and caused everyone there, including Ian and Evelyn, to take notice:



Geddy was too focused on singing to notice the absolutely amazed looks everyone was giving him. Kim, however, was especially amazed. Geddy hadn’t just been modest when he said he couldn’t sing very well— he was flat-out lying to himself. If not for his young age, he could easily lead a RUSH cover band and fool everybody.

Geddy went on:

<The evening plane rises up from the runway
<Over constellations of light


And it was then that he opened his eyes, and saw the shocked faces of everyone watching him. As sheer embarrassment took over him, he started blushing even harder, looked down on the floor, and trailed off:

<I’d… make everything…>

Everyone continued to stand there, with shocked looks on their faces. Geddy got up on his tail and bowed extremely low to the ground.

<I’m so sorry,> he said. <Please forgive me; I was probably really loud and out of key and—>

And then the whole room burst into a fervor.

Kim, Ian, and Evelyn got to their feet and gave Geddy a standing ovation, whooping and hollering all the while. All of Kim’s mons ran over to him, cheering; Kaylan in particular promptly glomped Geddy and sent him to the floor. The poor Popplio looked around, clearly caught off guard by all the praise.

<Um… p-please…> he muttered. <Please keep your voices down; I don’t need any of this…>

<Are you KIDDING?!> Dio suddenly cried, popping up behind him. <That was AMAZING! Your voice is amazing! You could totally lead a RUSH cover band! You’re incredible!>

<HAHAHAHAHAHA—!> Sinatra laughed, patting Geddy on the back. 

<That was absolutely amazing!> said Kaylan happily. <Why don’t you sing more often…?>

<Well, if I did that,> said Geddy, <it’d be a bit…>

He trailed off for a bit before finishing.

<…I- I can’t take that much pride in my singing voice,> he said. 

Not just rude, Kim suddenly thought to herself, Geddy’s words taking her back at once to the list of Kalosian Dust Speak words she’d been so proud of, only to throw away by the end of the night out of pure shame.

It’d be a sin.

She tuned out the rest of the conversation as the flashbacks from that night— and then the night before that— started to come to her, and she stared blankly ahead, trying desperately to not have a panic attack in a Johtonian house.

<Anything you do?!> Sinatra almost laughed. <Really?>

<Well, of course…> said Geddy nervously. <If I said I had a good singing voice and just sung all the time I’d just be bragging about myself.>

<Not if it’s true!> said Dio. <And it is!>

<…Really?> asked Geddy.

<Absolutely!> Dio agreed.

<Trust me,> said Sinatra. <Aside from myself and my namesake, you may be the best singer I’ve ever heard. And that’s insanely high praise, I’ll tell you what!>

<O-oh!> said Geddy, blushing. <Um… thanks for that, I guess…>

He shook his head a bit.

<E-enough about me, though,> he said. <What about you? Do any of you have any hobbies?>

<Of course we do; everyone does, really,> said Paul. <Sinatra, Dio and I have a love of music, though there’s not a lot of instruments we know how to play— since, y’know, we can’t play them, really, since we’re in Pokemon form— but Sinatra wants to play the trumpet and Dio wants to play the guitar, y’know. And Dio also has a bit of a thing for gymnastics; he did a flip for us when we first met him and I’m pretty sure he can balance on just about any branch there is, y’know, and Kaylan—>

He stopped suddenly as he noticed everyone else staring at him.

<…oh, am I ramblin’ on again?> he asked cheerfully. <Sorry about that; would you mind tellin’ him what you can do, Kaylan?>

<Sure thing!> said Kaylan. <So… I can play the drums, and do yo-yo tricks. Those are always really cool! But I also have a bit of an interest in science.>

He laughed and began to shuffle his foot nervously.

<Though… I suppose given how much time I spent in a lab,> he said, <it was inevitable…>

<That’s amazing!> Geddy cried happily. 

<We could teach you how to do some of those things if you’d like!> Dio cried.

<I… I don’t know if we’ll have enough time for that,> Geddy admitted. <Not unless I were to join your team, of course.>

And coincidentally, at that moment, Kim fully broke out of her flashback reverie. When she heard Geddy talk about joining the team, she grinned and grabbed onto the PokeBall she had been holding previously.

“You want to join the team, do you?” she asked.

Startled, Geddy looked up at Kim, not realizing at all what was going on.

<W-well…> he started. 

He looked away with embarrassment, then glanced up at Kai and Kenji, who were both looking down at him lovingly.

<My parents still want me to do so many things,> he admitted. <They really like me so much… and I really love them… and if I were to suddenly leave them to go onto your team… well…>

He blushed.

Kim, Ian, and Evelyn looked at each other, before Kim went over to Geddy and knelt down to his level. She was still holding on to the PokeBall.

“It doesn’t matter what you think you should do,” she said. “Or, more accurately, what your parents think you should do.”

“Yeah!” Ian added. “The only thing that matters here is what you think you want to do.”

“And you want to join my team,” said Kim.

She proceeded to hold up the PokeBall. As she had expected, Geddy’s eyes widened and he stared at it with wonder and longing.

“Don’t you?” she asked.

Geddy, now blushing even more profusely with embarrassment, began glancing back and forth between the ball and his parents.

<Well… I mean… of course I want to,> he admitted. <But as for if my parents are going to be okay with it… well…>

But Kim stood up before he could go on. She had already gotten the answer she had wanted to hear, and nothing else but that mattered. Confused, Geddy turned to face Kim as she began to walk up to Kai and Kenji.

<Kim?> he asked. <W-what are you doing?>

But Kim didn’t say anything. She just kept walking over to Kai and Kenji, and eventually stopped in front of them. Once she did, she held up the PokeBall in front of them.

“Kai, Kenji,” she said. “If you’re alright with it, I’d like to challenge your son to a battle.”

Kai blanched.

<勝負をお頼みになりますか?> she asked.

Kenji’s eyes narrowed.

<捕まえるために?> he asked.

Confused, Kim turned back towards Ian and Evelyn, jerking a thumb at Kai and Kenji.

“What are they saying…?” she asked.

“He’s asking if this is for Ge— er, Gary’s capture,” Ian said.

“It absolutely is,” said Kim. “Here’s the deal. I’m going to go out back with my Gligar, Dio, and we’re going to battle Gary, with his Virtue medal.”

She took the glitching, flashing HUMILITY medal out of her purse.

“I don’t know what’s happening to it, but that doesn’t matter,” she said. “Here’s the deal. If I win, I catch Gary and put him on my team. But if he wins, you get to keep him.”

Her emotionless face slowly gave way to a grin.

“What do you say?” she asked.

For a few seconds there was silence, as Kenji looked over at Kai and vice versa. Eventually, however, the two of them huddled together and began to talk amongst themselves, presumably in Kantonian. Geddy and all of Kim’s mons went up to her in confusion.

<What’s going on?> Geddy asked.

<Yeah, what are they talking about?> asked Dio.

“Oh, just a little capture battle that you and Geddy are going to be having,” said Kim, turning to both of them and grinning.

Dio’s face lit up.

<A battle?!> he cried. <Oh, YEAH!! This is going to be so awesome! I can’t wait to use my new move!>

“Hold on, Dio,” said Kim, laughing a bit. “We have to let them decide first.”

She turned back towards them. Kai and Kenji talked for a few moments, then eventually nodded, seeming to come to a decision. They turned back to Kim and got out of their huddle in the process.

“Well?” asked Kim. “What’s it gonna be?”

Kai took a deep breath, then let it out.

<Kim,> she said, <we accept.>

Kim grinned, and then looked down at Geddy and Dio. She promptly threw the glitching HUMILITY medal down to Geddy, who picked it up; Dio’s eyes widened.

<Whoa…! You have one of those?!> he cried out. <Why’s it all glitchy and flashy like that? Must be a REALLY special one!>

“I don’t know why it’s doing that, Dio,” said Kim. “But we have more important things to do than worry about that.”

She looked towards Ian and Evelyn.

“Let’s get going,” she said.

Goldenheart388 · Post by **Goldenheart388** » 2026-Aug-05 02:01

THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
BOND TIMELINE

ARC 2

CHAPTER 9
PART 3

Ecruteak City, Johto
Just Outside the Small Hut

About 2 minutes later, everyone was gathered outside the Ecruteak hut.

Kim, Ian, and Evelyn had all gotten their shoes back on, though Ian had somehow tied his shoes ridiculously fast; Kim could only assume he had used his psychic powers to tie the laces. Geddy, meanwhile, had gotten his Mystic Water and the glitching, flashing HUMILITY medal, which he had put into the lid of Kim’s Virtue Holder.

On the other end of the battlefield, opposite Geddy, stood Dio, who was clacking his claws with excitement.

<Oh, I am ready for this!> he cried happily. <Bring it on!>

In the background, behind him, were the rest of Kim’s mons, all of whom were eagerly cheering Dio on. Ian and Evelyn were there too, along with Piku-chan and Hatty.

<GO GET ‘EM, DIO!> Sinatra cried. <YOU GOT THIS!>

<You’re gonna do great!> Kaylan added.

Dio grinned, waving over at them with a claw. <Thanks, guys!>

On the other end, behind Geddy, were Kai and Kenji, both of whom were eagerly cheering on their son.

<頑張れぇ!> Kai said, with great enthusiasm.

Geddy smiled back at them. <ありがとうございます!>

With that said, Dio and Geddy turned to face each other, and each one of them took battle stances. Kim nodded.

“Alright, then!” she said. “Let’s get this battle started! Dio, you’re faster, so hit him with Fury Cutter!”

<Awww YEAH!> Dio cried, his pincers glowing green as he ran up to Geddy. <Let’s see how well you can take THIS!>

He jumped forward and hit Geddy with his pincers, sending the Popplio back a bit. However, this was only the first hit, so Geddy was able to get back up onto his flippers very quickly. He shook off the attack, then smiled.

<That was certainly not a bad hit at all,> he said. <Even so, however…>

He turned to grab the open Virtue Holder, then held the lid— which held the glowing, shaking medal— in one flipper and the rest of the container in the other. With the Mystic Water already around his neck, his face turned to that of slight determination, and he slammed his flippers together to close the container.

The HUMILITY medal began to glow gray, and he dropped the container onto the floor. It spun around on its side for a moment, then landed on the floor as though it had been a coin.

With Dio watching in awe, Geddy placed a flipper on top of the container and hollered:

<Exalt!>

The medal that had been on the floor previously floated upwards in the air, spinning around Geddy in a gray tornado until it eventually became a gray ball; it floated above Geddy for a bit, then exploded in a burst of light that colored Geddy gray. The black circle symbol appeared for a moment, then glitched, then exploded, covering Geddy in black light as well.

And then that light exploded, but differently from the previous two times Kim had seen it. When the light exploded this time, it burst into black sparks, but still caused blinding light that forced Kim to look away.

Regardless, when it faded, Geddy’s look was what Kim had expected. There were now gray angel wings on his back, a gray halo, and his eyes were now black with gray pupils. It honestly looked more than a bit creepy to Kim, as if Geddy were possessed, but even so, he was still smiling and happy. He was surrounded by a gray aura, and the Mystic Water around his neck was glowing. The HUMILITY medal was also around Geddy’s neck, and it was still flashing and shaking.

Dio’s eyes went wide with shock and horror, and he stepped backwards.

<…Oh,> he said, shaking his head. <Oh, that doesn’t look too good… it looks like he’s been possessed by something…>

He paused for a bit, thinking it over, before determination flashed onto his face and his claws began to glow green again.

<But that just means I gotta take him out quicker!> Dio cried.

“You’re going for Fury Cutter again?” said Kim. “Excellent. Use it.”

<LET’S DO THIS~!> Dio said excitedly, jumping into the air and striking Geddy with a harder-hitting Fury Cutter. This one knocked Geddy back a bit more substantially, to the point that a bit of dust kicked up.

This time around, Geddy took a bit longer to get up, but he still managed to do it and shook himself off.

<That… certainly affected me a lot more,> said Geddy. 

He took a deep breath…

…and screamed.

<OOOOOOOOOOOHHHH YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH—!>

The scream was so loud it distorted the air around Geddy and Dio, but didn’t do much else, which told Kim this was Growl and not a move like Hyper Voice. The lack of damage on Dio’s end only served to confirm this. In fact, rather than being damaged, Dio looked at Geddy with downright amazement— and Kim could easily see why, as that scream had certainly been impressive.

<WHOA—!> Dio cried. <You’re good!>

Geddy blushed.

<Thanks,> he said. <Sorry about the screaming…>

<Ah, it’s fine!> said Dio, laughing to himself.

And then his claws glowed green yet again, and he grinned.

<You’re still going down, though.>

And without even being commanded to this time, he jumped forward and hit Geddy with yet another Fury Cutter, this one the most powerful of all.

Geddy was promptly knocked onto the floor, leaving behind a massive dust cloud. When it eventually faded, Geddy was looking a lot worse for the wear and was struggling to push himself back up. Eventually, though, he managed to stand back up again.

<Gary!> Kai called. <Are you alright?>

Geddy groaned, but managed to nod.

 he said. <But that… was a lot. I’m afraid I might need to do a bit more than just… Growl at him.>

He turned to face Dio apologetically.

<I’m truly, truly sorry about this,> he said. <But please do remember that it’s just water.>

…Water?!

<Dio!> Kim cried, remembering way too late that Dio was part Ground. <Look out!>

<Huh?> Dio cried.

He was, however, too late.

Geddy opened his mouth and released a stream of water directly at Dio. The poor Gligar tried to dodge, but it was too late, and he got hit.

Hard.

Harder than Kim would have expected for a move like Water Gun, normally one of the weaker Water-type moves, even if it was STAB and super effective. Dio got thrown backwards into a tree, and sand and dust were scattered everywhere.

“Dio!” Kim cried. “Please tell me you’re alright…”

For a few moments, Kim figured it was over— but when the dust cleared, Dio was still there. He was struggling, and very badly bruised, but he was still able to battle.

Kim breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, good. That definitely took a lot out of you, though.”

<Yeah, that was crazy effective!> Dio cried. <How’d it get to be like—>

<…gah!>

Alarmed by Geddy’s sudden cry of pain, Dio looked over at his opponent, as did Kim, and both of them saw something that they couldn’t possibly have anticipated. Geddy, after having used Water Gun, was suddenly looking worse, and was further back. He was on the floor, crying out in pain as the medal kept glowing and he pushed himself up.

It was almost as if the Water Gun had hurt him.

But… that couldn’t be possible. Water Gun didn’t cause recoil damage!

…unless.

Kim and Dio glanced down at the medal that was around Geddy’s neck. Sure enough, it was flashing and glitching worse than ever before.

Now worried about him, Dio pointed at the Popplio’s Virtue medal.

<Is that… is that doing that to you?> he asked.

Geddy nodded.

<Y-yes…> he says. <This has a lot of great effects! …but whenever I use a move that isn’t a status move, it… it hurts. I get recoil for everything.>

Shocked, Kim put a hand to her mouth, then reached inside and took out her own mons’ Virtue Medals. They weren’t shaking, and they certainly hadn’t caused recoil when Kim had used the Tolerance Virtue on Paul!

“Oh, that’s horrible…” she said sympathetically.

<How can you get it to stop?> asked Dio, taken aback.

<Oh, don’t worry! It’s fine,> said Geddy.

He smiled at her, but his eyes were wide with hurt.

<It can’t be helped…> he said.

Dio and Kim looked at Geddy in horror, the former especially so. Dio’s eyes were widened, and he was almost in tears.

Because Dio had seen this before.

He’d been through this before.

He was still in this position, hiding all of his hurt through a facade of happiness, and even then, he was able to tell his Trainer about the scar, and his old Trainer, to an extent. Sure, he wasn’t gonna go any further on it right now— he certainly wasn’t gonna tell her what had happened to his mother, or about the five other Trainers he’d been through before meeting the one who would scar him, or anything like that yet. He was definitely planning on it someday, but only once the time was right.

But this?!

This was a friend of his, a future friend of his, hurting himself. Or, rather, getting hurt.

<I… I can’t believe you’re actually okay with this…> he muttered. <T-that thing’s hurting you!>

<Please continue with your next move,> said Geddy, almost as if it were scripted.

Dio backed away, frantically shaking his head.

<N-no! No way!> he said. <I-I’m not gonna just have you keep hurting yourself like that! You could potentially join our team!>

Frantically, he started digging into the dirt, kicking up sand at Geddy and knocking it into his eyes and his mouth.

<I— I’ll lower your accuracy!> he cried, desperately. <I’ll lower it all the way! That’s what I’ll do! So that that thing doesn’t end up ever hurting you again!>

The sand kept going, continuing to kick up, and Geddy coughed furiously.

<Why are you…> More coughing. <Let me just try something…>

He began to let loose another Water Gun again, but was interrupted by sand flying into his mouth. Dio just kept digging his claws in and kicking up sand particles.

<That’s not gonna work!> he cried. <Not when Sand Attack’s coming for you!>

He grinned, as more and more sand kept flying upwards into Geddy’s face. Desperately, Geddy tried to shoot yet another Water Gun, but it didn’t work.

Eventually, finally, Dio stopped using Sand Attack, but it ultimately still left behind a massive cloud that had Geddy coughing profusely. When it faded, he was staring up at Dio with confusion.

<W-why…> he asked. <Why did you do that…?>

<Because it was hurting you!> Dio cried. 

As Kim, Paul, Sinatra, Kaylan, Ian, and Evelyn all looked on in shock, Dio threw his claws backward, and they began to glow in a dark energy. Geddy looked on, horrified.

<W-what do you mean?> he asked.

<Isn’t it obvious?> asked Dio, grinning at Geddy with bitter determination as the dark energy in between his claws grew even darker. <I’m battling you because I want a new friend! Heck, you’re kind of already my friend right now with how cool you are! And I am ABSOLUTELY not letting my friends get hurt!>

The dark energy coalesced into a ball, and Dio smirked.

<TAKE THIS, GARY!> he almost laughed. <YOU’RE OURS NOW!>

And he hurled the Dark Pulse forward, and it hit Geddy square in the chest.

At once, Geddy was thrown into the ground, and when the dust from before faded, he was lying on his side with swirls in his eyes. The glitching medal fell off of him, the Mystic Water around his neck stopped glowing, and all of his extra flourishes disintegrated.

Kim grinned.

“Got ‘em!” she said, happily. “Nice going, Dio!”

Dio started chuckling.

Then laughing.

Then uproariously laughing, to the point where he could barely stand, and midway through he raised his claws to the sky with joy as his laughter eventually dissolved to:

<WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY—!>

Kai and Kenji looked down at their son, then up at Dio, then at their son again. Their faces slowly turned to that of sadness as they realized what this meant, now that Dio had won against their son… and yet, Gary could still see them again, couldn’t he? Kim had two friends; one of them probably had a mon with Teleport.

After a few moments, Kai’s sad face eventually faded. She took a deep breath, looked directly up at Kim, and smiled.

<Well,> she said, <that does it, I suppose.>

Kim smiled.

“Yes,” she said. “I believe it does.”

Kai nodded sadly.

<He’s yours, then,> she said. <Good luck.>

“Thanks,” Kim said, nodding.

She reached in and grabbed the PokeBall, but before she could throw it at the fainted Geddy, Kai held out a flipper to stop her.

<Oh!> she said. <And… one more thing.>

Kim stopped and looked up at Kai, confused. Kai smiled.

<Please… take very good care of Gary for us,> she said.

Kim glanced down at Dio with a loving expression and a smile.

“Dio prevented your son from hurting himself with his moves,” Kim said. “I think he’ll be fine. We’re going to take very good care of him; don’t you worry.”

She threw the ball back, then looked directly up at Kai and Kenji and said:

“Oh, and by the way: his name’s Geddy now.”

Kai and Kenji glanced at each other.

<げディ？> they both said in simultaneous confusion, as if neither one of them had expected it.

Kim nodded— and then threw the ball.

The ball hit the now permanently-christened Geddy on the head and sucked him in, then fell to the ground and shook once.

Twice.

Three times.

CLICK!

The center flashed blue, and Kim smiled and picked up the ball.

“And that,” Kim said, “will do it.”

<Alright!> Dio cried.

“Nice job, Kim!” Ian said, giving her a thumbs-up.

<HECK YEAH!> Sinatra cried. <Nice going, Dio! Ya sure got him!>

<Now we have a new friend!> Kaylan cried.

Kim smiled. “We certainly do, Kaylan.”

She took out her Pokédex and scanned the ball, and in an instant, the following information appeared on the screen in front of her:

Name: Geddy
Species: Popplio
Gender: Male
Nature: Modest
Characteristic: Alert to sounds
Ability: Liquid Voice
Moveset: Sing, Growl, Water Gun, Disarming Voice, Pound, Life Dew

<Huh!> Dio said, popping up beside Kim to look. <That’s the second Hidden Ability Mon you’ve got!>

“Indeed it is,” said Kim. “And he has an Egg Move too, which is something.”

<He does?!> asked Dio. <What is it?>

“Life Dew,” said Kim.

<LIFE DEW?!> Sinatra cried out from behind incredulously. <HE COULD’VE HEALED HIMSELF THIS WHOLE TIME AND DIDN’T?!?!>

 said Kaylan.

Kim chuckled, then looked back at the Pokédex screen. The info for Popplio had just appeared on it; Kim promptly read it through.

#0728 Popplio: Categorized as the Sea Lion Pokemon; technical scientific name Otaria symphona shared with Brionne and Primarina. Often referred to in scientific papers under the name of O. s. juvenis to distinguish it from others in its line. Famous for its hardworking, diligent nature, it is able to control water bubbles that it shoots from its nose. On land, it uses these bubbles to perform acrobatic stunts. It practices with its bubbles daily, making increasingly larger bubbles. Despite these bubbles’ elasticity, the sheer force of them bursting causes a lot of damage to this Pokémon’s opponents. They have sometimes even been known to cause damage to humans, though not fatally. Popplio is a very strong swimmer, and is able to swim at 25 mph. It is most often owned by Trainers due to its nature as a starter, and as such is incredibly rare in the wild; along with the other members of its trio, it is among the rarest starters of all. Aside from Alola, the only other places it can be found are in the Blueberry Academy Terrarium and in Feluv, where it lives along the coast.

“Nice,” said Kim, nodding and putting away the Dex. She turned to look at Kai and Kenji, smiling.

“Well, then,” she said, as all her mons approached her along with Ian and Evelyn. “I suppose we should be off now.”

“Indeed,” said Evelyn. “Thank you so much for all you’ve done; it was wonderful to meet you.”

Kai nodded.

<Of course,> she said. <You’re welcome to come back and visit us at any time.>

“Thank you,” said Kim, “but it may be a while. We… have a lot to do.”

<Then I wish you luck on your journey,> said Kai.

Kim nodded, and began to head off on her way, until—

<ちょっと待ってください!>

There was a flash, and Geddy, now seeming to realize that he had a Trainer, ran over to his parents with urgency. All of Kim’s mons turned towards him, and Kai and Kenji looked down at him.

<育てるために一所懸命やってお疲れ様でした,> said Geddy. <これがさよならし、着用品をどうざお守リください.>

Kai smiled and cradled Geddy’s face in her flippers.

<もちろん… げディ,> she said.

Upon hearing his new name, Geddy instantly lit up, nuzzling his mother. Soon afterwards, he pulled away from her grasp and went over to Kim, who motioned for Ian and Evelyn to approach her. They did, and Kim returned Paul, Sinatra, and Kaylan to their balls.

Not Dio, though. Dio looked like he wanted to talk to Geddy still.

Geddy, his new Trainer, and his new friends all headed off. Geddy waved a flipper at his parents, and they waved back.

And then about a minute later, they were gone.

——————————————————————————-

Sure enough, about two minutes after the group had left Ecruteak, Geddy turned to look up at Dio with a look of amazement.

<So… you won?> he asked.

<Yep!> said Dio, grinning. <And now you’re one of us, just like I said you would be!>

Geddy looked at Dio, then up at Kim in amazement.

<Wow…> he muttered to himself.

<Heh, right?> Dio asked. <It’s pretty neat, being owned by a Trainer that actually cares about you!>

Then, under his breath, he added:

<…hopefully.>

<Um… excuse me, but… what did you say?> Geddy asked.

Dio shot up, more than a bit caught off guard by the fact that Geddy had heard that.

<O-oh! Nothing! Nothing…> he said sheepishly, fiddling with his claws. <It’s not much you have to worry about; it’s fine…>

He laughed nervously to himself, then trailed off.

<So!> he said eventually. <About that battle we had…>

<It was a bit… confusing,> said Geddy. 

<Huh,> said Dio, tilting his head. <What do you think happened to it?>

<…it’s odd,> Geddy admitted. <I’m not really sure… it just seemed to happen one day.>

He blushed.

<Y-you… really didn’t need to do what you did, though,> he said. <I’ve gotten used to it. It really can’t be helped.>

<Of course it can!> Dio exclaimed. <Like I said, that thing was hurting you, and it’s clearly been hurting you for a long time. You seriously looked possessed by it.>

Geddy looked down, his embarrassment only growing.

<And you were just taking it like that?!> Dio said. 

<…but… why?> asked Geddy. <Why would you do that for a stranger like me?>

<Well, it’s like I said,> said Dio, putting his claws on Geddy’s shoulders (or lack thereof). 

He shivered, then perked up a bit.

<POINT IS,> he said, 

He grinned.

<And let me just tell you,> he said. <So long as I’m here, you’re not gonna be in danger of anything! Mark my words! I wanna help mons out whenever I can, babaaay~!>

And then, far more seriously:

<And that includes you.>

Kim, who was listening in on the whole thing, smiled. Ian was practically in tears.

“That was so beautiful…” he said.

“It was indeed,” said Kim. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this side of Dio before.”

<Well, it was always there!> said Dio, grinning.

Kim smiled… and then noticed something that made her eyes widen.

Directly next to Dio, all of a sudden, a flash of pink light appeared out of nowhere. Dio and Geddy turned towards the flash, awed, while Kim, Ian, and Evelyn looked on just as shocked.

“Is that…?!” Kim asked.

<No way…!> Dio said, his face turning to a disbelieving grin as he tilted his head to get a better look.

Sure enough, the pink light soon faded, leaving behind…

…an apple core.

Dio and Kim blinked.

<…that’s it?!> Dio asked incredulously. <All that pink light and fanfare for an apple core?!>

Curious, Kim reached down and picked the item up, glancing at it for a long while. She didn’t notice Ian’s eyes light up when he saw it.

“It doesn’t appear to do anything much…” she muttered to herself, only to be interrupted by Ian suddenly grabbing her shoulder.

“Kim!” he cried. “That’s Leftovers!”

Kim blinked.

“Leftovers?” she asked.

“Yep!” said Ian, letting go of Kim’s shoulder. “They’re a healing item, but more importantly, they’re also a Virtue item!”

Upon hearing the words “Virtue Item,” Dio’s eyes lit up.

<Yes!> he cried out. <YES! Yes, yes, YES! Awwww, man, I’m so excited! What happens when you put it in the Holder, Ian?>

“You get this,” said Ian.

He reached into his purse, pulling out yet another Virtue Medal. This one had a light green background, with a design of a two-branched olive branch on it. The olives, however, were purple and were heart-shaped. At the top was a pink arch with gray text on it reading KINDNESS; at the bottom was a pink arch with gray text on it reading GENTILESSE.

Kim and Dio looked at the medal in awe.

<Whoa…!> cried Dio.

Ian nodded. “My Ralts, Raru, has this one. And he carries a Leftovers, too! Go on, Kim, put it in the holder!”

Kim looked down at the medal Ian was carrying, then grabbed her Virtue Holder (which she had taken back from Geddy) and opened it up. Dio, who was watching from below, seemed positively giddy about the whole thing.

<Put it in, put it in~!> he squeed. 

Kim smiled as she watched Dio from above. Yes, Dio most definitely deserved this. Was it a bit cruel to throw sand in Geddy’s face?

Maybe?

But even so, Dio had made it very clear that he wouldn’t let Geddy get hurt, and in that regard, it had been incredibly kind of him.

She lifted the lid and put the apple core into the holder.

The Leftovers spun around, glowing in a light green light that expanded until it filled the whole container. Sure enough, when it faded, there was the same exact Kindness Virtue that Ian had held out in front of Kim just moments ago. Dio practically jumped up to see it.

<Come on, show me!> he said.

Kim smiled, opened the container, and presented the medal to Dio, who ran over to it and grabbed it happily in his claws.

<Oh HECK YES!> he cried out.

<Congratulations!> said Geddy.

“Congratulations indeed,” said Kim. “You deserve that medal. I’m so proud of you.”

Dio stopped dead and just stared at Kim, not knowing how to take this new information. For as long as Dio had been alive, only one other person or Pokemon had ever told Dio they were proud of him, and that was his mother.

And his mother now… his mother now was…

Not knowing how to react, Dio felt tears come to his eyes. He smiled, and within seconds he went to his PokeBall, taking the Leftovers with him. Kim smiled, then put the Kindness virtue and the holder back in her purse.

<Where’d he go?> asked Geddy, looking up at Kim curiously and tilting his head. <He looked like he was sad just before he went to his ball…>

“Oh, it’s fine,” said Kim. “He probably just went to talk about it on Hasslemon.”

<Hasslemon?> Geddy asked. <What’s that?>

Kim facepalmed and pulled out Geddy’s PokeBall.

“Oh my goodness; I forgot to introduce you,” she said.

She returned Geddy, then pulled out her OB-1 to get him set up. “Hang on…”

———————————————————————————————

modestPinniped (MP) joined the conversation.

lingualConsultant (LC) joined the conversation.

LC: Well, here it is.
MP: (Whoa~! This is amazing!)<
LC: I’m glad you like it, Geddy.

holyGlider (HG) joined the conversation.

HG: I GOT THE KKINDNESS VIRTUE BABY—! LET’S GOOOOOOOO—!
MP: (P-please don’t brag about that… ^^;)<
HG: I KKAN DO WHATEVER, GED! I MORE THAN EARNED THIS!

butterfreeCrossing (BC), wanderingMustelid (WM), and mountingLabor (ML) joined the chat.

BC: #{oh 0 you 0 got 0 one 0 of 0 those 0 virtue 0 things 0 too}
WM: Huh! Neat! Looks|like|what|you|did|for|Dio|in|that|battle|really|paid|off,|huh?
HG: IT SURE DID!
MP: (I-it really wasn’t anything much…)<
WM: Oh,|I|think|he|helped|you|out|a|lot! Now|whether|or|not|you’ll|actually|take|that|advice|is|the|question…
ML: C[]ngratulati[]ns []n the Virtue, Di[]!
HG: THANKKS, GUYS!
LC: Yes, congratulations. Now, there’s someone I need to introduce you to, Geddy… if she’ll pick up.

lingualConsultant (LC) began hassling serialNumber (SN).

serialNumber (SN) joined the chat.

SN: Oh~? Whatever is the matter; why did you invite m— oh, hello, Kim! I see you’ve gotten yourself some new mons since last time.
LC: I do, but there’s one in particular I’d like to introduce you to. Geddy, this is Sunny.
MP: 初めまして、サニー。よろしくお願いいたします。ゲディーと申します。カイというアシレーネとケンジというオクタンの息子です.

absoluteZero (AZ) joined the chat.

AZ: かっこいい。いつききた？
LC: …?
LC: Oh. Oh you’re a new one.

SN: Oh, hello, Rei~!
LC: Rei?
SN: Yes, she’s Kendall’s Weavile.

MP: えっと…お聞きになりません…申し訳ございません、キムさんはサニーさんに連絡いたしましたので…
MP: 失礼します。

modestPinniped (MP) left the conversation.

SN: …well, that was fast!
LC: I… have absolutely no idea what you said to make Geddy leave like that, but he caved really quick.
WM: Almost|too|quick.
LC: …I did not know you knew Kantonian.
AZ: That’s the thing- I don’t! Xatu just told me what he said, and what to say.
LC: What did you say?
AZ: “Neat. When did we ask?”.
LC: …ouch.
ML: I… think that g[]t t[] him a bit…
AZ: Oh, it wasn’t just him who that message was directed at… >:3
LC: I don’t understand.
SN: We… er… we have a few concerns.
AZ: Yeah, like why is it that you’re so obsessed with Kendall? Huh?
LC: …I’ve texted Rever a total of three times. I don’t think that’s enough to be considered “obsessed”.
AZ: When did he say you could contact him?
LC: He didn’t say I couldn’t.
SN: That doesn’t mean you can~!
AZ: He's got his own things to do, and learning about yours isn't one of them.
LC: What “things”?
AZ: If I tell you you’re going to bother someone about it.
SN: Oh, he just got himself and his mons a golden ticket…!
LC: …he’s in the BOTB?!
AZ: Damn it, Sunny!
SN: And he’s rehearsing~!
LC: …actually, that reminds me that I should also probably rehearse for that. It’s probably coming soon…
LC: I don’t have a clue what’s up with Rever, and I don’t have a clue as to why you possibly think I’m obsessed with him after only three conversations. But none of that is important right now. I should probably be off. Farewell.

lingualConsultant (LC) left the conversation.

——————————————————————————————————————————

Scoffing a bit, Kim forcefully put her OB-1 away.

“Obsessed. Really,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I’ve only talked to him three times…”

“Huh?” asked Ian, glancing over at Kim with concern. “What’s wrong?”

“Rever’s Weavile spoke up,” said Kim with slight annoyance. “She thinks I’m obsessed with Rever… for some reason.”

“I mean… you do always text him and his mons on Hasslemon,” Ian admitted.

“I’ve only ever done it three times,” said Kim. “Always, yes, but I don’t think you can call me out for that after only doing it three times. I would talk to you and Evelyn more, but you don’t have Hasslemon as far as I know.”

“Well, that’s the funny thing,” said Ian, smiling and holding out his Xtransciever. “We do!”

Kim’s jaw dropped incredulously. “What?!”

“Yeah, check it out!” said Ian.

He gave her the Xtransceiver. Sure enough, as Kim scrolled down she saw a long list of names:

pollyannaKinesis (PK)
adventurousVoltage (AV)
unovanLord (UL)
lifeGiver (LG)
reluctantRarity (RR)
myNeighbor (MN)
nightChild (NC)
namelessFighter (NF)
nihonSnow (NS)
accumulanScarf (AS)
purpleBlackmore (PB)

CONTACTS:

espersCoven (EC)
braidedHeadpiece (BH)
pastGemini (PG)
futureGemini (FG)
wisdomDispenser (WD)
misunderstoodTapir (MT)
brooklynRager (BR)

And then four more after what Kim had to assume were the handles of Evelyn and her mons, which shocked Kim the most:

unovanOtaku (UO)
liberalEsuna (LE)
cunningConflagration (CC)
serialNumber (SN)

Kim stood there for a few more moments, absolutely slack-jawed. Not only did Ian know Kendall, Sylveon, Sunny, and… whoever cunningConflagration (CC) was, but he had spoken to them. On Hasslemon.

“Y-you weren’t kidding,” she eventually said. “You weren’t kidding when you said you knew Keenan; you’ve spoken to her?! And more importantly, Sylveon?! How can you possibly get along with Sylveon?!”

Ian shrugged. “I mean… we don’t talk very much.”

Kim blinked as she slowly continued to process the information she had just seen. Eventually, she looked off to the side, and clapped once unenthusiastically.

“…well,” she said. “Okay, then. I… did not know you had Hasslemon. That changes things.”

She sighed, then shook it off, remembering what she had left her convo with Rei for.

“But enough of that,” she said. “Rever… is going to be in the BOTB.”

Ian and Evelyn looked at Kim in shock and amazement.

“He IS?!” Ian cried. “TWINCOOL!”

“Oh, I can’t wait to see him!” said Evelyn.

“Me neither,” said Kim. “But that reminds me that we need to start rehearsing. Which means we’re going to need instruments… which means we’re gonna go back to Goldenrod.”

“Well, luckily we’re in Johto already,” said Ian.

“Indeed we are,” said Kim. “Come on, let’s go.”

She began to head off towards Goldenrod, and after a moment Ian and Evelyn joined her. The latter of the two came up to her side.

“Are you sure you don’t need me to send out Axon again?” Evelyn asked.

Kim shook her head. “Like Ian said, we’re already in Johto. We can just walk there.”

“Alright then,” said Evelyn. “Let’s go! To Goldenrod!”

“To Goldenrod!” the other two cried— and with that, they were off.

———————————————————————————

Sinnoh- Jubilife City

It had taken Dinah Bond a full day to get to Sinnoh, and in that time she was just itching with anticipation to find her daughter, grab that book from her, and make her burn even more.

And then make that idiot psychic boy and his witch girlfriend pay.

They dared to support her daughter as she made all the wrong decisions? Like, for example, getting that devil-tome from that Satanist Rever? For even contacting Rever at all? Couldn’t Kim understand that Rever was slowly corrupting her?

The fact that Kim was not an Obscuric was a true miracle. It meant she had not in fact been corrupted by that tome of death known as the Prax Obscura. But one day… she would be. She would be corrupted; she was already a sinner, so she was more vulnerable.

And she would go to the Distortion World when she died.

And she would deserve it.

And as Dinah Bond’s plane touched down in Sinnoh and she and her Indeedee looked around, she grinned. This was going to happen now.

Now if only she could just find her…

Dinah looked around, a bit annoyed. She had landed in Jubilife City, but Kim wasn’t there. That was alright, though. As far as she knew, Kim was somewhere in this region. She just had to find where.

“Indeedee!” she cried. “Where is my daughter?”

The Indeedee’s eyes glowed blue as she began a psychic search for Kim, one that Dinah hoped would result in a location reveal. Instead, after a few moments, the Indeedee turned to face her Trainer and shook her head.

<She’s not here, I’m afraid,> she said.

Dinah’s eyes widened in rage, which she barely managed to contain.

“…I see,” she said. “Very well, then. Would you mind telling me where she is.”

The Indeedee’s eyes almost flashed blue again. Before she could repeat her psychic search, however, there was another flash of blue light— coming from Dinah’s belt.

A Xatu— a female Xatu— emerged from her ball, looking over at her Trainer.

<You wish to know where your daughter is?>

Dinah smiled.

“Yes,” she said.

Then, after a moment, she added:

“And where she will be.”

 said the Xatu, and her eyes glowed blue as she pulled her Trainer in close to her.

Slowly, Dinah listened in as Xatu told her exactly what was happening to Kim right now. At first, Dinah was planning to fly them to Goldenrod then and there… but no, that would take too long. So she asked Xatu where Kim was going to be in… hmmm… 3 days.

And Xatu told her everything.

And Dinah listened.

And Dinah smiled, as she was suddenly presented with the perfect opportunity to take down both Kim and Rever right then and there.

END OF ARC 2

Goldenheart388 · Post by **Goldenheart388** » 2026-Aug-08 13:42

THE WAAPT CONTINUUMS
BOND TIMELINE

INTERLUDE 1

LEADUP TO ARC 3

01/09/20– Goldenrod City
Some Music Store

As Kim had said they would do, the group went straight to Goldenrod after Geddy had been captured, where conveniently they happened to find a music store there. Given that Kim needed instruments for her mons— and her friends— she figured it was the best place to go. Then after that, she figured they would stay in Goldenrod and rehearse like crazy until the BOTB happened.

So they all headed inside the music store, where Kim bought a guitar for Ian and a bass for Evelyn. She wasn’t going to get the instruments for her mons until Sinatra and Dio had gotten SSCs, and she and Geddy didn’t need instruments, since the only one they were going to use was their voices.

And presently, Kim, Ian, and Evelyn were all inside the music store, with the latter two fiddling around with their instruments a bit to see how they worked. Kim, meanwhile, was just sitting against the wall of the music store, with nothing to do. She wondered about potentially seeing if she could find a recording studio in Goldenrod to practice in while they stayed.

At that moment, all of her plans to stay in Goldenrod suddenly went belly-up.

Kim glanced upwards at the wall of the music store and suddenly noticed a poster that caught her attention. The words YOU’RE INVITED! were at the top in big bold letters. At first glance, as Kim stood up and got closer, she figured it was a BOTB advertisement— it was a fair assumption, given that this was a music store and that it would be happening in here— but she soon realized that wasn’t the case at all.

The poster was purple, and featured black and white photographs of a happy-looking man and woman. The man was dressed entirely in black with a black scarf; though the tip of it was gray; the woman had white hair that went down past the shoulder blades, and had on a white coat, gray pants, and black shoes. It was the text above, however, that really made Kim excited; it turned out that said text read:

YOU’RE INVITED!
Come to the wedding of Joseph “Umbramatic” Nox and Ammy Crescendo! All J-Team members are welcome to attend!
(along with anyone else who just, y’know, wants to)
Place: Postwick; in Galar
Date: January 12th, 2020

At once, Kim’s face broke into a massive grin, and she pulled down the poster. This was far too good to pass up; not only was she going to see a wedding and go to Galar, but even more importantly than that, the J-Team were going to be there.

And if the J-Team was there… then that meant Ever Memito was almost definitely going to be there.

The person who had saved her from that priest all those years ago. Finally, she would get the chance to meet them and thank them— and maybe even become friends with them.

Delighted, she ran over to Ian and Evelyn, holding the poster up in the air.

“Ian! Evelyn!” she cried. “Take a look at this! We need to do this!”

Ian and Evelyn stopped playing around with their new instruments and looked up at Kim with curiosity.

“Oh?” Ian asked. “What’s the matter?”

“Is something wrong?” asked Evelyn.

Kim eventually stopped in front of them and shook her head.

“No,” she said. “Nothing’s wrong. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Take a look at this.”

She showed them the poster. Ian took it from her and he and Evelyn read it over, and when they saw what was on it, their eyes lit up.

“A WEDDING?!” they both cried out in joyful unison.

“Not just a wedding,” said Kim, grinning. “A J-Team wedding. Umbra is getting married, and the entire J-Team is invited.”

“The entire J-Team?!” asked Ian. “That means…”

Kim nodded.

“I’ll finally get to meet them,” she said. “And more importantly than that… I’ll get to meet Ever Memito.”

“Ever Memito?” Evelyn asked. “Who’s that? And why do you want to meet them so much?”

Kim raised an eyebrow. “You don’t know?”

Evelyn shook her head. “I’ve never even heard of them.”

“Well, they are a member of the illustrious J-Team,” said Kim. “And about… 4 or so years ago…”

She paused for a bit, wondering if she should really tell them what happened to her heels and almost happened to her back, then shook her head.

No.

Not yet.

“About 4 or so years ago,” she went on, “something… terrible happened to me, and they saved my life. And so I wish to find them and thank them, and maybe become friends with them.”

“My word, that’s amazing!” Evelyn said. “What happened to you that they had to save your life?”

Kim looked away, more than a bit embarrassed.

“I… don’t want to talk about that right now,” she said. “Maybe someday I’ll tell you the story of what happened to me, but not today.”

“Ah,” said Evelyn, nodding. “Understandable.”

She paused.

“Even then, though,” she said, “it would be nice to go back to my home region and explore it a bit more. When I was a kid I only ever really got to explore near my hometown of Ballonlea.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever visited your home region before, Evelyn,” said Ian. “It would be nice to see it. Besides, this wedding would be a great opportunity for us and Kim to make some new friends!”

“It would be,” said Evelyn. “I’m certainly up for getting on a plane and heading off to Galar for this. What do you think, Kim?”

Kim looked down in thought.

“I would be all for it,” she said, “if I wasn’t deathly afraid of planes. Plus, we have a Battle of the Bands to rehearse for still, and it could happen any day now.”

“I could send Axon out to teleport you to Postwick,” Evelyn suggested. “We can rehearse here until the 12th happens and see if we can do some fun stuff.”

“Well, that solves the plane problem,” said Kim, “but if we do go to the wedding, we’ll need to come right back to Johto.”

Ian and Evelyn considered this for a few moments, then slowly nodded. Kim had a feeling they were just about to call the wedding trip off— and then all of a sudden an idea hit her out of the blue and her eyes went wide.

“Unless…” she said.

Ian and Evelyn looked at her in confusion.

“Unless we don’t do the BOTB in Goldenrod at all,” Kim went on. “We could just as easily do it in Galar, can’t we? The rest of the BOTB bands are probably going to do their rounds from wherever they are, so why not just do our rounds in Galar ourselves?”

Ian and Evelyn brightened upon hearing this, and nodded enthusiastically.

“Yeah!” said Ian. “That sounds like a great idea, Kim!”

“I’m all for it,” said Evelyn.

Kim nodded. “Then it’s settled. We’ll rehearse and practice here for two days straight, and then it’ll be off to Galar for us.”

“Alright!” Ian cried happily.

“I can’t wait to go back home…” Evelyn said with a slight wistfulness.

Kim nodded. “And I certainly can hardly wait to get to Galar. For now, though, you should probably get back to practicing your instruments; we’ve got two days before we need to go still.”

So they did.

And all the while Kim couldn’t help but wonder what on Earth Kendall was doing.

—————————————————————————-

Room 713– The Stormchaser

As it turned out, Kendall was in his room on board the Stormchaser when he got the invitation.

He had just finished a long rehearsal for the BOTB with most of his first six mons— Curtis on drums, Julius on bass, his Sylveon on keys, Amy on vocals for a song (though what song it was was being kept under wraps to any other participating bands), and that “Vince” kid Curtis had mentioned was doing the mixing.

(They had asked him if he had wanted to sing something for the BOTB, but he had declined.)

Now all that rehearsal was done, he’d returned his mons, and he was now just sitting at his desk, scrolling through a bunch of things on social media for no reason.

That was, until he heard a knock on the door, which caused him to look up. Of course, by this point; he would know that knock anywhere; it sounded a lot more… hollow than the others.

Because it was being done with a stick.

“Kendall~!” Delilah practically sang. “We’re back from our family excursion! And we saw something you might want to attend~!”

Kendall sighed— though it was more in relief over the fact that his boredom had finally been interrupted than anything else— and walked up to the door. He opened it, and sure enough, there stood Delilah, who was grinning almost crazily while standing there holding a piece of paper. She had evidently found it while out on her “family excursion” with her boyfriend Roy (Kendall’s Blaziken) and her son Koyasa (Kendall’s Braixen).

And judging from the paper, it seemed very important.

Kendall blinked.

“…hell’s this?” he asked, taking the paper from Delilah and looking it over.

“It’s a wedding invitation~!” Delilah said excitedly. “I figured you could go to it; it’s J-Team related after all, and I know how much you want to be a member of it. Plus it would be the perfect bonding activity for us and Koyasa!”

Then, under her breath and in a slight aside, she added:

“It’d certainly be better than having him get involved with scrapes for hours on end…”

For a few moments her face retained that expression of surface-level joy, with a slight but still very much present level of annoyance in it as well. Kendall blinked, caught a bit off-guard, before the underlying rage faded very quickly from Delilah’s face as she turned back to Kendall fully.

“So!” she asked. “Are you up for it~?”

Kendall glanced down at the paper in front of him. On it, it said:

YOU’RE INVITED!
Come to the wedding of Joseph “Umbramatic” Nox and Ammy Crescendo! All J-Team members are welcome to attend!
(along with anyone else who just, y’know, wants to)
Place: Postwick; in Galar
Date: January 12th, 2020

After a few brief moments of pondering, he handed the piece of paper back to Delilah.

“I dunno,” he said. “The band still has a lot of rehearsals to do, and you know I’m not the biggest fan of weddings. Even if it is the wedding of a J-Team member.”

Delilah tilted her head. “So, is that a ‘no’, then?”

“Probably?” Kendall responded. “You and Roy and Koyasa can go if you want to, but I might as well stay here and rehearse with the rest of the band.”

“Well, alright, then~!” said Delilah cheerfully. “I’ll go tell Roy and Koyasa, and we’ll see you after a few days in Galar!”

She began to head out the door, but before she did, she stopped suddenly.

“Although… you’ve never been to Galar, have you?” she asked.

Kendall blinked.

“…no,” he said eventually.

“That’s a shame,” said Delilah, smiling to herself while she faced away from Kendall at the other end of the door. “From what I’ve heard, there should be some new Legendaries there…!”

And at that Kendall’s attention was grabbed; he sat up and gazed at Delilah for a moment.

“Not to mention you could probably get away from Kim for a bit, too,” she said.

Kendall stood up and went over to her in annoyance. All the while Delilah was giggling to herself, knowing there was no turning back for Kendall now.

“I got you~” she sang, running out the door as her giggles turned to jubilant laughter.

“You could have started with that!” Kendall groaned in annoyance, chasing after his human Delphox in an attempt to grab the paper back from her. All the while, the door opened, and Delilah and Kendall ran outside of it; two other gingers were waiting for them on the opposite side.

“Royyy~! Koyasaaaaa~!” she cried with sheer joy. “We’ve got ourselves a plane to catch~!”

END OF INTERLUDE #1

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