Ch. 8. A New Perspective

A/n: Pray for me, I found bugs in my rice. And I thought an air tight container would against bugs in dry rice. Oh well

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During lunch, I suddenly remembered the fact that I had the egg. Inkay and I were sharing an extra large pizza. His half had Cheri and Chesto berries, baked Tauros chunks, three types of cheeses, and a sprinkle of herbs. My half had chunks of Gogoat cheese, basil, chopped Pinap berries, and slices of Lechonk bacon. Needless to say, we very much enjoyed the pizza.

Halfway through lunch was when I remembered about the egg. I was gonna either have to come up with an excuse right now or wait until I could freely walk around so I could say I found it in the wild. I decided to just wait it out. I overheard Nookie talking to a stranger about what a pain waiting for an egg to hatch was if you didn't have an incubator or if you didn't travel much. Apparently it could take months, even years, for an egg to hatch. Traveling often reduced the time to a month at most, while incubators could bring it down to two weeks. Infinity Energy was somehow involved in the process.

Once we finished lunch, I decided to grab some games from Nurse Joy, much to her annoyance. She told me I needed to stay in bed to let my leg properly heal. The more I moved, the longer it would take. I told her I was getting bored and wanted to borrow some games. Once she caved, she brought me to the Center Lounge, where they had a pool table, some arcade games, a mini library, and several tables that had board games. There was also a TV with a few movie options.

After looking through the options, I decided to get a Kanto themed deck of playing cards, Unown, which was this world's version of Scrabble, a chess set, and two movies. The movies were The Phantump of the Opera and One Flew Over The Hoothoot's Nest. I had Inkay hold the movies and chess set to make sure I didn't drop anything.

Once back to the room, I immediately opened the deck of cards. Cards two through ten were the Kanto starters, which were also known as Kanto's Royal Starters. The Jack and Queen cards were the Legendary birds, while the King and Ace cards were Mewtwo and Mew, respectively. They were some pretty nice looking cards, and with them I taught Inkay how to play Blackjack and Poker.

I eventually ordered snacks and began to use them for betting between the two of us. After getting tired of losing his snacks, Inkay began to pout and sulk in the corner. I chuckled and gave him all of the snacks he originally chose before the bets began. He looked confused, as if he was expecting to not eat any of it.

"It's time to watch a movie, and we're gonna need snacks for that. Now, which one do you wanna watch?" I asked him, happy with the way he tried to hide his appreciative face. Once we moved to the couch, I once again asked Inkay to choose a movie. He pointed a tentacle at One Flew Over The Hoothoot's Nest, so I put in the disc to the connected media player and we began to watch.

It was a rather dark comedy about a Ranger finding himself lost in the woods for years, joining a mental health facility when he returns to society. The facility turns out to be a rather abusive and controlling place, making use of Hoothoot and Noctowl to keep track of schedules. It struck a deep chord within me; I wasn't sure how, but I just knew I was meant to help in situations like that. I was meant to help those that are struggling to understand themselves and their world, as well as those that have lost control of themselves or their lives.

Inkay seemed to notice it too, or at least he noticed something was up to me. He gave me a confused stare for a minute, just floating by my side. The moment passed with us just staring at each other before Inkay chirped out.

"Ink? Ik, Kay," he said.

"You know," I said slowly, "I don't actually understand most of what you say. I've been lucky to be able to guess your words with contextual help." His expression said more than his words could: He thought I was stupid for that.

"Hey, it's not my fault I can't understand you! I have no functional experience with Pokémon. Besides, we have another movie to watch."

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[Calem POV, Kalos League HQ]

[One day earlier]

Serena flung the door to my office open, making it smack into the wall and splinter. I sighed, tired of chastising her for her particularly staunch belief that everything I owned was made of Swablu fluff. I stood up and held an arm out firmly, stopping her head from colliding into me.

"Hmph! You're no fun at work," she pouted. "At least let me hug you!"

"Your hugs are akin to letting a Machamp prove its strength by squeezing a Watmel berry," I grumbled, pushing her head back which caused her to fall into a chair. "What did you find out?"

"Scaredy Meowth. Afraid of your own girlfriend," she said, slumping into her seat. "The two Team Flare agents are some of the ones that escaped when we made the arrests after Lysandre's defeat, so there's that. Zygarde informed me that there was something about the local environment that was different, but it couldn't quite tell what."

Serena shifted around in her seat, sitting in a way that would allow me to pe-. "Stop trying to distract me, you know it's not going to work. What else did you find?"

"Bah, you Sandshrew. And here I thought my womanly charms were what brought you to me," Serena cried out. However, her entire demeanor changed in the next instant. She sat up, looking completely serious. Seeing her this serious, I knew something was up. I sat back down, ready to hear what she had to say. "I bumped into Marco. There's something up with him. Personality-wise, he's fine. No danger at all and rather naive. However, Mimi said his body adapted to her Psychic hold on him very quickly and boosted its protection against it slightly. It reminds me of how you became more in-tune with Fairy-type energy after connecting with Xerneas. He may not be actively or consciously involved in whatever has you hyped up, but he's definitely been affected.

"I recommend having someone keep an eye on him. Doesn't have to be an agent or Pokémon, more like someone to accompany him on his journey. He recently caught a Pokémon and I know for a fact he'll end up going around collecting Badges."

"Yeah, that's what I thought too," I answered, my mind racing with different scenarios and thoughts. Marco might be Psychic, which could be both great and terrible. It would be good because Psychics tend to have better control of themselves with the right training and guidance, something we could easily provide. However, if Marco is involved with whatever is going on, his Psychic powers could easily disrupt many things we try to do. "Most of the agents we haven't caught were small fries, though to think they got into contact with someone like Kasa is what worries me. I guess we should set up a bounty for her. From what you said her Pokémon don't seem to be too strong."

I paused, leaning back into my chair. Serena got up and walked over, gently hugging me from behind. "It'll be fine," she reassured me.

"Oh, of that I'm sure of," I said, closing my eyes and enjoying her embrace. "I just don't want to see what the collateral and aftermath is going to be like. We got lucky that Xerneas was awake and able to revive those in Geosenge, but we can't rely on something like that. And I'd rather not rely on Marco, or some other new Trainer, to solve these problems the way Diantha and Augustine relied on us."

"More like forced us," she retorted.

"Yeah, well, same difference. I'd rather not place all of my bets on Marco."

"And why do you think Marco will be important?" she asked, moving around to sit on my desk.

"Because that's what happens every time. Satoshi and Hiroshi become trainers and they both become Champion-level Trainers at eleven-years old just a few months later. All the while they take down Team Rocket's hold in Kanto. Same thing happened in Hoenn with May and Brendon becoming Champion-level Trainers while taking down Teams Magma and Aqua. Three years later, Johto and Sinnoh have the same things. Kris and Ethan become Champions while dealing with Team Rocket, Dawn and Lucas become Champions while taking down Team Galactic. Five years later, Unova's Rosa, Hilda, Hilbert, and Nate all become Champions while dealing with Team Plasma.

"There's our story two years after that. Two years after us, Elio, Selene, and Hau become Champions while dealing with the Aether Foundation. Earlier this year, we heard about what happened in Galar for Arceus' sake! Four years since the Aether Foundation and three teens had to help Leon take down their League Chairman, Rose. The longest we've gone between regional crises is the five years between Team Galactic and Team Plasma. And this… I just know something is going to happen," I ended my tirade by slumping into my chair. If there was one thing I was truly happy about, it was my investment in such a comfortable chair.

"I know you're stressed," Serena said, staring deep into my eyes, "but some things you can't really plan or be ready for. You know that."

"Yeah, I know, but still," I said, the frustration in my voice taking a bitter note. "It's because we've experienced being caught off guard and not being ready for things that I want to make sure we can at least do something quickly. None of us were experienced Trainers! Barely a few months into our journeys and we had to deal with all of it. The Champions didn't help and I don't want to be like that."

"I didn't say you shouldn't be involved, I just said there's no use tearing your hair out when you don't know what's going on. If you want to prepare, it would be better to make sure we're in top condition," Serena said, not backing down. "That includes Marco. Let's make sure he's ready for this. I'll call Nurse Joy to get a few things set up. I'm sure you can find some way to get him help, Mr. Champion."

*sigh* 'Arceus damnit, Serena. Why can't you stop being right for once?'

"Because you'd lock the whole region down and cause mass panic, you dunce," Serena said with a knowing smirk.

"Yeah, yeah, I love you too," I muttered, a smile breaking onto my face. "Well, I know Augustine has plenty of Trainers in his lab that could be a good fit for Marco. I'll ask him."

"There you go, now come home with me. I've been craving your tartiflette, and your cuddles."

"I bet that's not the only thing you've been missing," I bantered before Mimi teleported us home.

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It's a slow burn, much different from my last rendition. But I'm hoping to actually work on the story more than before, so I hope it's better overall. I'm thinking about adding some randomness to the story via wheel spinning for some decisions or encounters. What do yall think?