Welcome to Gaia! ::

"I suddenly find myself very tired," Esio said. "Inventing stories to cover my absence tends to make me sleepy, so I bid you all a good night. Come, Charmander. Sandshrew."

With that, Esio walked off toward his room.

Odd shrugged as Esio walked off. "Eh...Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Most of the time, Fiction is more interesting, though." He commented, as he hopped over the couch and sat down on it now that it was unoccupied again.

"Why do you say that?" Odd asked, curious about this now.

Where ever Blizzard's eggs might be, they would begin to shake violently, both at the same time, tiny cracks forming in them as they did.

I was in the training room the next morning with my full team, continuing to work on helping Beldum and Magby catch up to everyone else in strength. Despite that, Samurai and Simon were starting to worry me. Both of them have been in my team for a long time now, along with Sunny, and while she's evolved twice, neither of them have seen fit to do so. Although I can't say for sure if it's because they don't want to or not, I still couldn't help but worry about them.

"Your pokemon look like they're having fun..." Keiko said contemplatively as she entered the training room, her eyes glued to the training pokemon.

"They probably are," I told her, "but it's just business as usual for them. We try to do this once a day. Right now, I'm trying to get Beldum and Magby trained up, so I can rely on them like I do the others."

"I was wondering if you could help me with mine," she asked. "Since I'm not much of a trainer right now. But, why don't you introduce me to your friends first?"

While I had a few pointers in mind that were aching to be spoken, I did as she asked. "I haven't named Beldum and Magby yet. Beldum's the blue, floating one and Magby's the smal red one. That's Samurai right there. He's an Oshawott, and the first Pokemon friend I ever made. He was a graduation present from my... our parents."

"Graduation?" Keiko asked.

"Ah, yeah. When I turned ten, Mother and Father didn't like the idea of me going out on an adventure with Pokemon. They were afraid of the danger involved. I was adamant about it though, so we came to a compromise," I explained. "The compromise was that I get educated about Pokemon before I went. Well, the education process took longer than the three of us expected, because my teachers at the Pokemon Trainer's School in Kanto thought I would benefit from enrolling in Pokemon Tech."

"Whoa!" Keiko gasped, her surprise visible in her features. "You went there!?"

"Heard of it?" I asked, poorly suppressing a smile. "Yeah. Between Trainer's School and the Academy, I spent nine years in school. When I came back, our parents decided that if I was old enough to graduate, then I was old enough to go on my journey. So they got me Samurai."

"He's really cute," Keiko said.

"Shaa!" Oshawott cheered predictably.

"Don't praise him too much, or he'll never leave you alone," I joked. "I'm kind of worried for him, though. His first battle consisted of catching Sunny, and while she's evolved twice, he has yet to evolve once."

"I like him the way he is," Keiko said, eliciting another cheer from Samurai.

"I don't have a problem with the way he is, I just thought he would have evolved by now. He may not want to, but given the way he's been acting since he met that female Dewott, I don't think that's what it is."

"Aw, do you have a girlfriend, little one?" Keiko teased, causing Samurai's cheeks to burn a shade of red that could be seen through the white fur on his face. "So, which one's Sunny?"

"Vaan," Sunny cooed, drawing Keiko's attention to her.

"That's her, the first Pokemon I ever caught. She's a Levanny, but I knew her since she was a Sewaddle. She used to be small enough to climb on my shoulder. In fact, that's often how she got around."

"Levaa," Sunny cooed, happily remembering those days.

"She's beautiful," Keiko said. "I bet she was adorable back then."

"You bet," I told her. "You should have seen her performance in Lavender Town. She's a wizard with her String Shot."

"You'll have to tell me that story sometime," she smiled. "Who else do you have?"

"The little one at your feet is Simon. He's the first Pokemon to join my party since I joined Snagem. He was quite helpful in that mission, especially since we didn't know each other that well at the time."

"Aw, he's a cutie, too!" Keiko smiled, kneeling to pet him.

"Be careful with those claws," I warned her when I saw what she was reaching for. "He makes a hobby out of keeping them sharp."

"O-oh. Thanks for the head's up." she smiled nervously, choosing to pat him on the head instead, which Simon seemed to enjoy.

"The big red one is Darien, a Darmanitan. I snagged him from a Pyre cultist. The one beside him is Shady, a Scrafty. I snagged him from a PETW activist. It's funny, I figured they'd be at each other's throats since their former owners are from rival factions, but they've been fast friends ever since I caught them."

"Wow! They look really strong!" Keiko said, looking at the two. Darien and Shady smiled, showing their approval of Keiko's praise.

"The last one is Celes, a Sneasel," I told Keiko. "I caught her in Snowpoint City in Sinnoh, back when the town was under attack. Don't worry, we took care of it." I added with a smirk.

"She's cute, too. I'm impressed... and kind of jealous, too. You've made so many friends..."

"That's the way of it," I told her. "Some people here have more pokemon than I do. It's not exactly too late for you, ya know."

"I know..." she said with a smile. "Do you want to meet my friends? I don't have as many, but-"

"Sure," I said.

Keiko smiled and released three pokemon. The only one I could see, just then, was the Happiny.



"Terashi?"

When my mind jumped back into the present, I saw Keiko, worry evident in her features.

"Sorry about that," I said before clearing my throat. "I was just remembering something. So, who are your friends?"

Keiko picked up the Happiny and held it in her arms. "This one's name is Stasy."

"Short for Ecstasy?" I asked.

Keiko blushed a bit. "Y-yeah. How did you know?"

"Just a guess," I assured her. "Fitting, though, given Happiny's nature."

"That's what I was thinking," Keiko admitted. "I, uh... got her egg before I joined. It was a reward for my last courier job."

"You worked as a courier?" I asked.

"Yeah. The people who... well, raised me, um... were running a family courier service."

"I see," I said, getting a bad feeling. I decided it was probably best to move the conversation away from that. "Has Stasy been in any battles?"

"Oh, no!' Keiko half-shouted. "Stasy hatched after I found this place, but before I actually joined. She's WAY too young to actually fight."

"You'd be surprised," I shrugged. "Lykas and Odd's Narcissa was hatched not too long ago, and she's already shown an interest in learning how to battle."

"Is it really okay?" she asked.

"Any young or weak pokemon can be trained to be strong. You just have to be careful about it, which is why I'm taking my time on training Beldum and Magby. It would probably be best to let Stasy perform some exercises before she actually starts battling." I explained.

"Oh. That's really neat. Maybe if Stasy decides she wants to fight, then I will. But I don't want to force it on her." Keiko nodded. "Anyway, this one is Lady, my Ledian. I caught her during a Bug-Catching Contest after she evovled right in front of me."

This elicited an eyebrow raising from me. "Was she in a battle at the time?"

"Not at all! I think she evolved as a result of Luck answering my prayer."

I didn't respond to that at all. My sister's beliefs were a story for another day, as far as I was concerned. "So, who's the third one?"

"Oh, Rita? Don't you remember? I caught her while you were catching Beldum! Uh, snagging, rather." she explained.

"Oh, yeah," I said, the memory coming back to me. "That was the day you saved a lot of people's lives by having Lady use Protect on a building that the Galaxy Club's leader was trying to destroy with three Normal Gem-powered Explosions."

"Yeah," Keiko beamed, wrapping an arm around her Ledian. It was obvious that she was very proud of that.

For a moment, I was about to check her Gothita's data, but I remembered doing so before Keiko caught it, so I decided against it.

"Uh... Hey, would you mind if I checked on Al before we started?" Keiko asked.

I raised another eyebrow at her for this, but shrugged the oncoming question away. "That's fine."

"Thanks," she smiled, walking over to give me a quick hug before recalling her pokemon and heading toward the complex's exit.

Meanwhile, the question of how close she was to a man ten years older to her was bashing itself into the inside of my skull, demanding to be let out.

"Time to stop moping around!" Sub shouted as he slammed his fists on his desk. "I'm the leader of the greatest, and craziest, group of vigilantes the world has ever known! Whether they want to or not!" He declared, marching out of his office and began to scream out into the building. "Every available member! Into the main area, pronto!" He shouted.

Said Al would soon be found, standing in the main lobby, talking to Odd. "Are you sure about that? No offense but you don't seem like the kind of person to want to be a part of this kind of stuff...."

"None taken, Mister S." Al replied, scratching his head lightly. "But I'm positive about this. I've talked to my Pokemon about it and I've given it a lot of thought."

"Alright. Give me a few minutes and I'll be right back." Odd responded before he walked off.

"Keiko?" Al spoke as he saw the girl enter. He'd slept rather late today, having long ago learned that a late day was better for him that an early one. "What's going on?" He asked of the girl, curious what was happening.

It was only a minute or two later that Odd returned, handing Al few items. "Here's the stuff you'll need to get you started. It's a Snagem Network Access Gear, or SNAG for short, a Hoverboard for travel and a Snag Machine, which will allow you to steal a Pokemon from people who just plain don't deserve to have them. Or whatever. It's your call how often and for what reason you use it." Odd explained, indicating the individual devices.

Al nodded and thanked Odd, who then turned to Sub to see what was up.

"Damn straight!" Tsuki called out, following Sub about of his office. He sent out Luster, his newly REnamed Skarmory who followed after. She squawked as she walked behind her trainer, seeing the others there. About time they did something crazy!