Meeting Meyer : Confrontation Of Pasts

"Umm, let me introduce you…" Clemont started.

"I want you to meet our daddy!" Bonnie cried out before nervously looking over at her brother.

"I'm Meyer; I run an electronics shop in the city along with Ampharos here," Meyer said while pointing at himself and patting Ampharos on the back.

"You and Ampharos, cool!" Ash replied, with Pikachu chiming in as well.

"And these guys here are our brand new, super-nice, good friends!" Bonnie suddenly exclaimed, standing in front of us and gesturing behind herself.

Hearing what his daughter had to say, Meyer seemed shocked, performing an exaggerated pose to emphasise that point.

"Huh?!? Your friends???"

He looked down at the ground, bringing up his hands in a position that made it seem as though he were struggling with something...

He seemed seemingly upset about the whole friend's situation; even Bonnie and Clemont were surprised; we were all taken aback by his actions.

"I'm so… I'm so… Overcome with happiness, I can't tell you! Thank you so much!" Meyer suddenly exclaimed, clenching his fists with tears streaming down his face.

He suddenly lunged forward, wrapping his arms around his children and pulling them in for a bear hug.

"My name's Ash, and this is my partner, Pikachu!" Ash introduced himself.

"Pikachu~!"

Meyer released Bonnie and Clemont, looking up and approaching him.

"Oh! Pikachu, nice looking electric cheeks!" Meyer said while rubbing his finger below Pikachu's chin, causing the little rodent to smile with its eyes closed.

"Hmm, and who is this young lady?" He asked, turning to Serena.

"I'm Serena." She replied with a smile.

"Ho? So Clemont's finally found himself a beautiful girlfriend! Gotta keep an eye on you, huh, huh?" Meyer said before turning towards Clemont, smirking and nudging him with his elbow.

Serena just smiled, giggling slightly at the Father's antics.

"Uhh, Dad, it's not like that," Clemont said awkwardly.

Suddenly, Meyer turned to me, and his eyes became sharp.

Feeling the aura subtly radiating from him, I could tell he was a man experienced in combat.

In fact, with my prior knowledge, I knew Meyer to be a masked vigilante that went around with his Mega-Blaziken, helping the people of Lumiose City. And thanks to my 'Family's business', I also knew he used to work security for a crime family over a decade ago before turning over a new leaf once he started a family of his own. He'd even visited my house during a few truce meetings between the family heads.

From his experience, he could most likely tell that something about me was off, so I was unsure whether he recognised me or not. After all, no matter how much I tried to hide it, I still held myself as someone who had trained their entire life in combat. Old habits couldn't be masked perfectly.

Evidently, Meyer had noticed that.

"And you are?" He asked. His tone of voice sounded nothing like when he spoke with Ash and Serena. Obviously, the others noticed this, with Clemont and Bonnie frowning at their dad.

"Dad, this is Kai; he's a fri-" Clemont began but was suddenly cut off by Meyer.

"He can introduce himself."

Clemont went wide-eyed at the way his father was acting. He'd never seen him like this before. Bonnie was even starting to tear up slightly, while Serena and Ash were frowning.

At his intimidation, I decided to come clean about my identity. I had two reasons for this.

1) If I lied about my name, the others would notice. After all, I'd already mentioned my last name and the day job my Family was famous for.

2) If he knew about my identity, he'd most likely back off. Or at least I hoped so….

"Hello, Sir. My name is Mochizuki Kai. I'm a trainer who's recently arrived in the Kalos region. I'd met Clemont and Bonnie about a week or so ago. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." I said, my gaze never once leaving his stern eyes.

"Is that right? So? What is a member of the Mochizuki Clan doing here in Kalos? It's not often that members of their family are allowed to roam around freely."

Hearing his words, my eyes naturally became sharp. In fact, they were much sharper than the gaze Meyer was directing towards me, something he naturally picked up on, causing him to gulp involuntarily.

Obviously, Meyer had recognised the name, most likely even recognising me personally, despite not having seen me in close to thirteen years. However, he didn't back off like I was expecting him to. Luckily, he was ambiguous enough with his words that it wouldn't be too suspicious to my friends. After all, my friends knew my family ran the Pokétch Company. Hopefully, they'd believe that most of the members were restricted in their freedom because of my family's fame.

"I happen to be the youngest among my siblings. As such, I'm not really involved in the 'family business'. That affords me more freedom to travel and enjoy my life, as I have been and plan to continue doing during my stay in Kalos." I said with a slight smile on my face. However, the sharpness in my eyes never left.

"I see." He said before he finally continued, sticking out his hand and saying,

"It's a pleasure to meet you, young man."

Returning his gesture, I grasped his hand and smiled. However, as soon as we made contact, Meyer began squeezing hard while keeping a smile on his face.

Not one to back down from a challenge, I subtly channelled my enhancement aura into my hand, squeezing back with five times the force he was squeezing me with. It was only for a split second before I released the enhancement and squeezed with just my base strength. However, that split second was enough for me to feel the bones in his hand creak and shudder under the pressure.

However, we both kept the same smiles on our faces the entire time.

Releasing my hand, he laughed, saying,

"Haha, well, you two sure have made quite the nice group of friends!"

Hearing his words and tone, the others released sighs of relief before smiling back.

Meyer then turned back to look at his kids, worry flashing across his eyes briefly before it vanished as quickly as it came.

"Now, you listen to me, son. You should come to the house once in a while." He said in a stern tone.

"Huh? But Dad, you see-" Clemont started but was cut off again.

"What, is there some reason you haven't come around?"

"Huh?! Uhh… I…"

"Well, Daddy, we've got things to do! So, bye for now!" Bonnie suddenly exclaimed, grabbing Clemont's arm and dragging him in our direction.

"Wait, Clemont," Meyer said in a stern voice.

"I've told you this before. It's true you need to be tough on Challengers, but that alone isn't going to help them become better Trainers. You need to be a Gym Leader the Lumiose Gym can be proud of!"

"Ah!" Clemont and Bonnie cried out.

"Lumiose Gym?" Ash suddenly asked, looking toward Serena and I.

"Gym Leader?" Serena asked, seemingly just as confused.

They both turned to look at me, but I'd simply closed my eyes, pretending I didn't notice their questioning gazes.

"AH!" Bonnie and Clemont exclaimed again, waving their arms out in front of them.

"Well, I should head off. See you soon!" Meyer said, getting back on his Moped with Ampharos.

"Yes! Alright, Sir!" They both said, performing military salutes and sounding really flustered.

"Ash, Serena… Kai. Please take care of my kids for me. And don't forget, come visit my shop later!" He said, driving off with a wave.

Turning around slowly, Bonnie and Clemont had awkward expressions on their faces. Clemont even looked to me for support, but I just looked away, once again pretending I didn't notice.

Ash and Serena suddenly leaned forward and got in their faces.

"Alright, what's this all about?!?" Ash suddenly asked.

"Ah! Well… You see… It's like this…." Clemont started.

"Haaa… Well, we might as well just tell them the truth.." Bonnie said with a sigh.

"Haaa.. alright. The truth is that I really am the Gym Leader of the Lumiose Gym…."

"Why didn't you just tell us?" Ash asked.

"The thing is, I really was planning on telling you eventually…. I'm sorry… It's a long story."

"Wait a minute… Kai… Did you know that Clemont was the Lumiose City Gym Leader?" Serena asked.

Hearing her question, Ash turned to look at me as well. I turned my head away and whistled, pretending I didn't hear the question.

"You did, didn't you!" Ash and Serena called me out.

"Geck… Haaaa…. Of course, I knew. You know how meticulous I am with researching everything before Gym Battles! I just never said anything 'cus Clemont wanted to keep it a secret!" I said, deciding to throw Clemont under the bus.

Seeing Clemont look at me in betrayal, I placed my palms together above my head and bowed, saying,

"Sorry, man, Cat's already out of the bag. Might as well come clean!"

"Haaa… you're right…."

"So, what's this long story?" Ash asked.

"Well, you see, I was so busy as a Gym Leader I never had any spare time to invent things like I wanted to. So I decided to build a Robot to play the role of Gym Leader, to free up more of my time."

At this point, Clemont sighed, sounding quite regretful.

"I'd programmed it with different rules, such as wanting Challengers to have around four Gym Badges, and also programmed it with the different character traits I wanted it to have, such as being kind but tough when necessary… However, I wanted to test it out when I finally got done with it and activated it. So I challenged it to a Gym Battle."

"However, it suddenly asked whether or not I had 4 Gym Badges. When I said I didn't, it told me I couldn't Challenge the Gym. Realising something had gone wrong, I tried to shut it down with my Creator Commands, but they didn't work… So Bonnie and I ended up getting kicked out of my own Gym… so that's why…."

"So now you can't even get back into your own Gym?" Ash asked, sounding quite incredulous.

"I keep on trying, but Clembot won't let anybody without 4 Gym Badges through the entrance… and he's always out there on the Battlefield… Haaaa…"

"Hey, why don't we go back there together and see what we can do?" Ash said.

"Yeah, good idea!" Serena replied.

…

..

.

As we arrived at the Gym, we noticed a few Trainers outside looking pretty miffed.

"Man, what a rip-off!"

"You can say that again."

"This is crazy!"

Seeing this, Clemont suddenly rushed forward, asking,

"Is there something wrong?"

The Trainers turned back to look at him, replying,

"You bet there is; it's this Gym!"

"Did they say you need four Badges to Challenge?" Clemont asked, sounding really remorseful.

"Yeah, but that wasn't any problem because I already had four of them." One of the Trainers replied.

"My opponent was this crazed, powerful robot. After I lost, it zapped me, the floor opened up, and I was thrown out of there!"

"Oh no…"

"Whatever… I've had enough of this place." One of the Trainers said.

"I'm never coming to this Gym again." Said another as they all walked away.

"Being tough alone won't help Trainers get better…." Clemont said.

"Now I understand what Daddy was talking about…." Bonnie replied.

"What will you do?" Serena asked.

"Well, what else? We just have to stop that crazy robot!" Ash suddenly exclaimed.

"But how?" Clemont asked.

"We can't do a thing without the voice code!" Bonnie said in continuation.

"Well… try to relax and think carefully!" Serena said.

"But even if I remember the Password, I still have to defeat it in Battle!"

"You won't know unless you give it a try!" Ash exclaimed.

"No way! Clembot will have all of my Pokémon Partners to Battle me with! I can't win with my inexperienced Bunnelby!" Clemont cried out.

"Well, maybe you can't win, but you can give it your best shot!" Ash shouted in reply.

"Huh?"

"Look, I don't know much about robots, but… Since you made Clembot in the first place, maybe you'll come to understand each other in Battle."

"Pika, Pi~!"

"Battling Clembot to understand each other?" Clemont replied.

"Clemont, why'd you become a Gym Leader in the first place?" I suddenly asked.

Turning to look at me, he seemed in deep thought before finally saying,

"I'm not really sure how to explain…."

But Bonnie suddenly interjected, saying,

"I'll tell them! In Lumiose City, they call my brother 'The Boy Genius of Electric Types'!"

"I wanted to be an [Electric] Type Trainer like the world had never seen. So I became the Lumiose Gym Leader! By running an [Electric] Type Gym, Challengers would plan their strategies accordingly. I figured that if I could still win in spite of the stiff competition, perhaps it would make me grow a lot stronger as an [Electric] Type Trainer!" Clemont explained while looking up at Prism Tower.

"All the more reason why you need to get your Gym back!" Serena suddenly exclaimed.

"She's right! Taking back this Gym is gonna help you grow stronger! And we'll help!" Ash announced.

I was about to affirm with them, but I felt a pair of eyes glaring into the back of my head. Turning around, I saw two figures staring at me atop a building away from Prism Tower. One was a Pokémon; the other was a person dressed in attire matching said Pokémon.

Sighing, I turned around and came up with an excuse.

"I believe this trial could help each and every one of you."

Hearing my words, they turned around to look at me.

"In all honesty, Clemont, I could easily break into Prism Tower and shut down Clembot for you. It would take less time than an actual Pokémon Battle would take. However, Ash and Serena are right that this is a trial to help you get stronger. So with that being the case, I'm not going to go with you."

"Huh?!" They all exclaimed.

"Then what're you planning to do?" Ash asked.

"Well, I received a message about something to do with my personal circumstances," I said, sending a meaningful look towards Ash, which it seemed to click for him pretty quickly.

"I see. You're right. You're already powerful, so you helping us out would probably hinder any improvement we could make." Clemont said.

"That's right. So, I'll be here. Supporting you and wishing you luck!"

"Alright then! Let's go!" Ash said.

The group then ran towards Prism Tower just as the last light of day faded away.

Serena turned back to look at me, but I was already gone.

…

..

.