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Lykas had gone to sit nearby while Terashi battled Whitney, watching closely to see how he worked. He knew Terashi's general style was to be careful and fight fair but where was the fun in that? Recklessness and dirty tricks were the best kinds of techniques to pull out in battles like this. Especially against Whitney. That cow in particular was a monster according to some sources.

When it was over, it was definitely over. "So.....That Torchic?" He asked as he stood up and walked over. "I could swear it was talking like Chaos. I wonder where you could've found something like that in Johto, of all places?" He quipped, refusing to flat out say was he was thinking.

"Probably one of Warbringer's kids," Chaos explained to Lykas with a shrug, apparently okay with the fact that Warbringer gave me one of her babies. "She's been making a hell of a lot of them lately, more than I'd ever need. Or want."

"Thank you," I said to Whitney, somewhat surprised she seemed as cheerful as she did. Apparently Keiko was right.

Afterward, we all met up outside the gym. "Sorry you lost," Keiko said sadly.

"It's alright," I told her. "I wasn't expecting to win that. Besides, you were right. She's feeling a lot better, now."

"That's nice to hear!" Keiko smiled.

With that, I handed the Silk Scarf to her. "Here, this is for you."

"Huh?" Keiko said, looking shocked. "But Whitney gave this to you."

"For helping her feel better, which was your idea," I retorted with a smirk. "Besides, Audrey can make better use of it than any of my Pokemon can."

"I guess..." Keiko shrugged, putting the scarf in her purse with the plan to give it to Audrey later. "Thanks!" she added with a wide smile.

"I gotta give it to you," Chaos smirked. "For having Pokemon that weak, you gave her a hell of a fight up until that Torchic started mouthing off."

"Yeah, sorry about that," I shrugged. "Warbringer-"

"Yeah, I already figured that," Chaos said plainly. "Don't really care. But out of curiosity, she give you a reason?"

"She said that she wanted Angeal to have the life that she wasn't able to." I started to explain.

"Oh yeah, that 'gym challenge' spiel. She's been on about that for years. Honestly, if I could turn back time, I'd kick my younger self's a** and give her back to whoever I stole her from. But I can't do that. Maybe this is for the best, then."

"I suppose," I replied, rather surprised that Chaos could express positive emotions for anyone. He came across as a 'Pokemon are tools of war' type of person.

"So, what part of this crazy town are you two gonna paint red next?" Chaos asked with a big smirk.

"That's... a good question," I shrugged. Keiko and I hadn't really planned things out beyond this point. Granted, Keiko was doing most of the planning, but...

I shrugged at that. No matter what anyone else thought about it, stealing was wrong. To be honest, I wouldn't even have had that Torchic if Warbringer didn't beg me to take it. But there was no point in voicing that as Chaos (and by extension, Lykas) knew the story.

The idea of a dumbed down gambling game didn't tickle my fancy, either. "Those kind of games don't really interest me," I told Lykas.

"I've got an idea," Keiko smiled. "I heard that Goldenrod City has an underground area where esoteric shops are held. The kind of stuff that the Department Store refuses to keep around. It might be interesting to see what's down there!"

Chaos interrupted before I could agree. "Might want to get your Pokemon healed," he smirked. "A lot of trainers hand out down there and battle each other. You'd probably end up getting challenged."

"I would have suggested heading there beforehand, anyway," I told Chaos. "But yeah, we can go."

Keiko smiled brightly as we headed to the Pokemon Center. I couldn't tell if she was excited for the chance to shop, or the chance to battle.

"Then it's settled," I said with a small smirk.

"Abby and I will meet you at the entrance," Chaos shrugged.

"Don't keep us waiting all day, losers," Abby giggled jokingly.

"That child..." I sighed once Keiko and I were out of earshot.

"Tell me about it," Keiko added with a ragged sigh.

It wasn't too long before we'd returned and entered the building together, ignoring the ravings of the middle-aged man that warned us not to go down there (as if we didn't know what was down there), and stepped into the underground proper.

"Wow," Keiko mused aloud. "This place looks a bit skeevier than I imagined."

"There are more trainers than merchants down here," Chaos explained. "Aren't a lot of people coming down here for dates, either."

"Thanks for the weather report, Captain Obvious," An underground trainer said with a smirk as he walked up to the group with three friends, a male and two females. "You ready to throw down, or am I gonna hafta steal you girlfriend?"

Chaos immediately threw off his blood-red Jacket of Holding, revealing whatever muscles that weren't covered by his black tank top. "That's my daughter, ~/~hole," he growled.

"Whoa, calm, down, oldie," the ringleader said, clearly freaking out at the display. "We don't have Human battles down here."

"Pretty sure those don't exist in this world," I spoke up, holding up Rala's ball. "At any rate, I'll take you on."

The ringleader, of course, went right back to laughter. "You always take your mom Pokemon battling with you, nerd?"

This set the whole group to laughing, though they grew quiet when Audrey was let out of her ball.

"LET'S SEE YOU PUT YOUR TRAINER'S LICENSE WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS, PUNK!" Keiko roared.

"AUDINO!" Audrey yelled as well, both of them staring daggers at the ringleader, who was starting to look uncomfortable.

"Keiko, Kaya," I said, hopefully getting the attention of both of them. "Calm down. They're just trying to get a rise out of us. And for the most part, they're succeeding. The only reason they backed off of Chaos is because he's a musclebound psychopath."

"You know it!" Chaos smirked pridefully, his jacket already back on his torso.

"Ya know, for a nerd, you've got a pretty decent sense about people," the ringleader smirked. "Anyway, this is our turf. Name's Xerser. My crew's names are Sayara, Hitaro, and Hitomi. But since I'm the one teaching them how to fight, I get first pick on which one of you to fight. And I don't fight girls."

"Coward," Keiko spat, though from the tone of her voice .

Xerser laughed at this. "I don't know about you guys, but I kinda want to slay the kraken," he said, pointing at Kaya before releasing a Chansey with a chunk of Eviolite in its pouch instead of an egg from its ball.

"I'mma take on the nerd," Sayara decided aloud. "I think he's kinda cute."

"Not interested," I shrugged.

"What are you, gay!?" Sayara yelled.

"No, he HAS a girlfriend ALREADY!" Keiko roared in response.

"Oh, you want to go, ~/~!?" Sayara asked loudly, releasing a Coba Berry-wearing Chespin from its ball.

"YOU KNOW IT, ~/~!!" Keiko shrieked, letting Natalia out of her ball.

I sighed at Keiko's display before looking toward Hitaro. "Hey,"

"What?" Hitaro asked, looking just as annoyed at the yelling as I was.

"Fight me," I said simply.

"Cool," Hitaro shrugged, releasing a Life Orb holding Croagunk from its ball. I smirked at this as Rala teleported out of her ball, appearing before the Croagunk.

"Yo, Ter," Chaos called, which caught me very much off guard. He almost always ever called me fairy boy.

"Yeah?" I replied, turning to look at him.

"You mind letting Abby borrow one of your teammates?" he asked, a super serious face masking the fact that he was asking nicely, which threw me for a loop.

"Eh? I actually get to fight!?" Abby asked, looking up at Chaos with sublime excitement.

"That's up to him," Chaos said calmly despite staring daggers at me. Granted, the daggers were dulled by the fact that he was actually giving me a choice, but still.

"Hold up," I said to Hitaro, giving the opponent a passing glance before facing Chaos and pulling a Pokeball from my belt. "I think I know just the Pokemon,"

As the ball opened, Angeal was released from it. "Yo, Boss. Whose face are we destroying today!?" the Torchic asked, apparently eager to prove itself.

"I'm letting Absinthe borrow you for one fight," I explained. "Obey her orders as if they were mine."

Angeal... didn't take it well. "Y-y-yo, Boss, how you gonna do me like that!?"

"Hey, you're War's kid, right?" Abby asked, drawing the Torchic's attention.

"Yeah... what about it?" Angeal asked.

"Join forces with me and we'll kick ALL the butts!" Abby retorted with a malicious smirk on her face that looked more at home on Chaos's face.

"Yeah, now you're speaking my language!" Angeal said. He would have smirked himself if he didn't have a beak.

"Yo, pinkie!" Abby shouted at Hitomi. "Lemme fight you!"

Hitomi shrugged in response, even though a bit of excitement of actually getting to battle showed on her face. She released a Blitzle from its ball with a Life Orb strapped to its neck.

The Chansey got knocked back from the punch, landing on its butt as its Eviolite went flying. The Chansey started chasing it frantically until her trainer intervened. "Yo, Chansey, cool it. You don't need it."

The Chansey looked disappointed, but agreed, turning to face its enemy. "Give it a taste of the venom in your heart," Xerser said with a smirk. The Chansey then vomited some vile purple sludge at Seismitoad, the type of stuff that would poison Palaeo badly if it touched.


Chespin smiled widely at Natalia, happy to see a new face. His trainer smiled also, but there was more malice in her look. "Chespin, sweetie, scatter your toys along the battlefield." Chespin shouted happily, spreading energy caltrops across Natalia's position.

"Oh, Natalia, be careful where you step!" Keiko called out worriedly.

"Hehee, you don't battle much, huh? Only Pokemon who switch in have to worry about those." Sayara said teasingly.

"DON'T YOU MOCK ME!" Keiko roared. "Natalia, use Peck!"

Natalia cooed before rushing toward Chespin, who quickly scarfed his Coba Berry before getting slammed.

"Master," Rala said telepathically. "I can't sense that Croagunk."

Me either. Feels like trying to sense Sub, I thought at Rala. "Use Disarming Voice," I added aloud.

"Jeez, don't you know?" Hitaro asked. "Poison-types are resistant to Fairy."

"Dark types are weak to it, though," I said with a smirk as Rala sang for Zora, who appeared where Croagunk was when it got hit.

"Friggen psychic specialists," Hitaro shrugged.

"Not a specialist," I smirked widely. "Just a good trainer."

"We'll see about that," Hitaro smiled cockily. "Dark Pulse, Zorua."

The beam of Dark-type energy rushed at Rala, though it didn't do much in the way of damage. "Crap, right. Fairy-type," he scoffed.

"A bird? Talking one, too," Hitomi noticed, contemplating her options. "Blitzle, use Thunder Wave," she said finally, the electric horse sending waves of electrical current that held Angeal to the spot without damaging him.

"Friggen cheater," Absinthe huffed. "You alright, Angeal?"

"F-fine, Boss," Angeal stuttered, clearly not holding up well against his Paralysis.

"Little kid," Hitomi huffed. "Status effects like Paraysis are totally allowed."

"Whatever," Abby growled. "Angeal, use Crush Claw!"

"I... I'll try!" Angeal roared, slowly gaining speed as it walked, then ran toward Blitzle. But he didn't know Crush Claw, so what he used instead... was Scratch. Needless to say, Hitomi wasn't impressed.

Chansey took the Drain Punch from Palaeo. Though the move was super-effective against it, it still had over half its strength left - even without Eviolite, Chansey was still a tank. Though that didn't prevent it from contracting poison from Palaeo's body.

"Looks like I was right," Xerser chuckled. "I thought you'd be a challenge. Chansey, play the field."

Chansey picked up a boulder from within the earth and threw it at Palaeo, the rock exploding at its feet into tiny chunks of rock ala Stealth Rock.

"You'd better not take it easy on me, kid!" Xerser demanded, smiling like a demon.



Damn, Sayara cursed mentally. "I'm going to have a hard time taking this down no matter what.

Why isn't she switching out? Keiko wondered mentally.

"Eh, you got this, sweetie! Take some of your precious life force back with Drain Punch."

Is she holding herself back just to mock me!? Keiko thought, as Chespin's ineffective attack landed on Natalia.

Just punish her for it by overpowering her, Rala told her for me.

"Right," Keiko nodded. "Use Confuse Ray, Natalia!"

The Natu pushed Chespin off of her before throwing it a tiny globe of twisted Ghost-type energy. The result had Chespin twirling from dizziness.



Damn, I'm at a severe disadvantage, here, Hitaro grumbled mentally.

"I wanna try something," Rala told me telepathically. After a wordless mental nod from me, she teleported beside Zorua and kissed it on the cheek while it was focusing on its master. Fairy-type energy swarmed the Zorua, knocking it back.

"Geez! The hell was that!?" Hitaro scoffed, taken aback by the damage Zorua endured.

"Draining Kiss, by the looks of it," I said, SNAG in my hand to confirm the fact.

"Crap. Zorua, Nasty Plot. I'm going to need you powered up if you're going to win this."

Though weakened, the Zorua complied, gathering Dark-type energy unto itself that improved its Special Attack stat greatly.



"Alright, now use Wild Charge," Hitomi ordered. The Blitzle, who now vastly outsped Angeal due to his paralysis, coated its body with Electric-type energy before rushing at Angeal with full force. Fortunately, Angeal didn't actually have the Flying subtype, so it wasn't super-effective. Nevertheless, he was feeling it.

"Jeez, that thing is strong," Angeal spat.

"Give it all you've got, Angeal!" Absinthe ordered. "Flamethrower!"

'S-sure thing, Boss!" Angeal shouted, spitting all the flames he could muster from his beak. But since he couldn't use Flamthrower, what came out was Ember instead. It didn't do much damage...