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"So glad that's over," Absinthe sighed as she left the Pokemon Trainer's school in Viridian City for the last time, her graduaton certificate in her hands. Despite her saying that, she was experiencing some nervousness. Now that school was over for her, what was she to do now? Eve was fine with her going on a Pokemon Journey on her own, but Chaos didn't like it, saying the 'world was too dangerous for one girl on her own' and all that crap. If it were Eve saying that, Abby would just tell her to stuff it, but her father was a different story - she trusted him, and if he said not to do something, she knew better to go against his wishes. Not because she was afraid of what he'd do when he found out, but because he was right more often than not. She respected Eve as her stepmother sometimes, though she wasn't always happy with her. But Chaos she trusted.

It took her some time to find the old fart leaning next to the city's Pokemon Center with the Houndoom he took with him everywhere - Deathbringer. Once she had caught up to them, the two headed north, around Viridan Forest and through Diglett Cave to Vermilion City - with Deathbringer taking out any Diglett and Dugtrio getting in their way. They went to Saffron City from there and rode the Magnet Train back home to Goldenrod. Abby let out a sigh of relief when her feet touched the asphalt of Goldenrod. She would never have to take that obscenely long commute ever again.

As the two walked back to their home, the roar of a Charizard echoed in the streets, bringing a smirk to Chaos's face. While Ragebearer was laid back and easy going as a Charmeleon, he was a beast of unending fury as a Charizard and had to be released from the Day Care Center before he seriously hurt all the Pokemon there. In the end, it was Warbringer herself that knocked Ragebearer out so he could be moved to the wild. There was no guarantee that the Charizard they were hearing was Ragebearer, but Chaos smirked anyway.

Chaos stopped a few blocks from their home, and glanced at a fast food joint nearby. "You hungry, kid?" he asked. Abby only nodded, causing Chaos to take a detour. After a few uneventful minutes later, the two were enjoying a meal on a table outside, Chaos eating his fill while Abby tried to keep up, distracted as she was about what was going to happen from now on.

Chaos had finished his meal before Abby did, unsurprisingly. He tried being patient, but was about to urge her to hurry up when something else caught his attention. Wordlessly, he stood up and headed inside.

"Since when the ~/~ are you a vegetarian?" Chaos asked, a wide grin plastered to his face despite the anger in his voice. He didn't say anything else at the time, however, electing instead to wrap his adoptive son in a tight, welcoming hug. "Or are you just messing with her? I gotta admit, that's one of the things I like about this place. None of the ~/~ that work here talk back," he explained, his wide grin taking a mischevious curl to it. "Do ya?" he asked the cashier, roughly patting her shoulder.

"No, sir," the cashier replied flatly, hiding a seething hatred for the older man behind a monotone blanket of meekness. She, along with the others that worked here, were used to Chaos's crap by now.

"How the ~/~ does that work?" Chaos asked when Lykas mentioned that he wasn't exactly alive anymore. But just as soon as the question was posed, Chaos decided that it didn't matter. "Yeah, Abby's here pickin' at her food like she's sick or some~/~," Chaos shrugged, looking a bit displeased at his daughter. "C'mon, I'll show ya."

Chaos led Lykas back to the table he and Abby were sitting at. Abby had finished eating that point, but looked like she was about to spew it back out when she saw Lykas. "What the crap is that!?" she asked as through in a panic.

"You remember your brother," Chaos said simply, sitting back down. After a moment of staring at Lykas, Abby relaxed. "...oh, yeah. Hey, Lykas." she sighed, resting her head on her hand.

"Hey, I surprised myself. It's not every day a tentacled freak on a Cthulu level just waltzes right into your life," Abby quipped, sticking her tongue out at Lykas. To show him that she didn't mean to insult him by calling him freak, she stood up and hugged him gently. "And yeah, you're hardly ever around, big brother."

Apparently, Abby had done some maturing since Lykas had last seen her, though she still had the spirit of a rebellious little brat - hard not to with someone like Chaos for a parent.

"So what's got you stalling?" Chaos asked Abby, ready to cut the crap.

Abby frowned and sat back down. "I just... I guess I'm nervous. Like, I'm happy as hell that I don't have to go back to that craphole in Viridian, but what am I supposed to do, now? What's gonna become of me?"

Chaos sighed at this. "Guess I can't gripe at ya. There ain't no easy answer to that. I can't have you running around the region by yourself with all the ~/~ out there, and yer grades weren't good enough to get you in Pokemon Tech. And I know you ~/~ sure don't wanna stick around with me and Eve for the rest of your life. I'd recommend Snagem, but I ain't talked to Bossman in forever, and I'm kinda out of the loop as to what's going on with them. Just comes with the retirement package, I guess," Chaos explained, shrugging at that last bit.

"The hell is Snagem, anyway?" Abby asked. 'You used to always refuse to answer that question when I was younger.'

"Didn't want you getting too curious at the time," Chaos admitted. "They're mostly just mercenaries. I'm not sure if they had a goal back when Bossfox had the reigns, but I know Bossman-"

"Yeah, I don't know who those people are, Dad," Abby insisted. "Like, do they have names or did they make you call you that lame crap?"

Chaos gave Abby a bit of a look of distain for intterupting him, but wasn't angry at her for the question she asked. "Sub. That's the name of the current leader. Or V. Or some~/~. Bossfox... ~/~ if I can remember what his name was. Didn't really care back then."

Chaos shrugged. While he knew Snagem liked to play international police, he wasn't aware of how bad things had gotten with the war in Unova, as he tended to stay out of the affairs of gym leaders and other officials in Johto for very, very obvious reasons, not that he was very appreciative of law enforcement to begin with.

"Like what?" Abby asked, giving her brother a confused look. "I mean, it's probably none of my business, but I hope you don't blame me for being curious. I don't exactly have a lot going on for me over here," she explained.

"Huh. ~/~ finally got serious, huh? Don't think anything that bad happened when I was rolling with you lot." Chaos shrugged.

"Tch. Man, it's always gotta be something," Abby huffed, assuming Chaos wouldn't be okay with her joining with Snagem being this deep into trouble. "The hell am I gonna do now?"

"Whatever you want. I can't hold your hand forever," Chaos said with a serious tone. He understood that his responsibility as a parent was reaching its limit as Absinthe grew older. "Besides, it sounds like you guys need all the help you can get," he added, nodding to Lykas. Abby followed his gaze, figuring if anyone would object at this point, it'd be him.

"You volunterrin'?" Chaos asked with a smirk.

"So what kind of weaponry do you guys work with?" Abby asked, starting to get a bit excited by the prospect that she could leave Goldenrod and do her own thing, albeit while doing stuff for people for money.

"I don't they've changed from using Pokemon to conventional weaponry," Chaos said. "And if that is the case, i can help you with that."

This caught Abby's attention. "How?" she asked. Chaos didn't answer right away.

"Well, I definitely want to go, so if it's up to me, I guess that's that," Abby smiled.

"Guess it is," Chaos smirked.

"Wait, what will Eve say about all this?" Abby asked, looking a bit concerned. Usually, if it wasn't Chaos saying no, it was her.

"You let me handle Eve," Chaos insisted. "Come on, let's go get you a Pokemon to fight with. We'll be back shortly, Lykas."

Chaos took his daughter north, to Route 35 - specifically, to the Pokemon Day Care located there. Wating for him was the old man of the Day Care, one of the business's proprietors. "Huh. You're here early. About time you started growing a heart."

"Sorry, old-timer. I wouldn't normally mind gabbin', but I got business to take care of," Chaos explained, motioning to Abby.

"Wife's inside," the old man sighed, seeming a bit downtrodden. With a shrug, Chaos led Abby inside. The Old Woman of the Day Care was behind the register, and recognized Chaos immediately. "Oh! Sorry, no eggs yet. You're here a bit early, after all."

"It's fine. Just need to talk to Warbringer," Chaos said calmly.

"Oh, I can fetch the dear for you," the old lady offered, stepping away from her counter.

"Don't worry about it. I know where she keeps herself," Chaos retorted, brushing the old woman off and lead Abby into the Pokemon area. It only took a few minutes for Chaos to navigate the wooded area, and when he found his Blaziken, she was with her mate, a shiny male Lopunny named Raoul. Fortunately, they weren't doing anything a fourteen-year-old didn't need to see. "Oh, Master!" War spoke up in shock, not expecting to see Chaos. The two rarely met up.

"Hey, War," Chaos sighed, a wave of nostalgia hitting him as he gazed upon his illegitimately-claimed starter. "Need a favor from you. I don't suppose you've been withholding an egg or two from the Day Care folks, have ya?"

"Wait, so if it's a girl Blaziken, that means the babies will be Torchics, right?" Absinthe asked. Chaos responded by patting her head.

"Sorry I can't give you a variety to choose from. Deathgiver is so far up my a** that he hasn't bothered looking for a mate, and who knows what Ragebearer is doing. This is all I can do for ya."

"It's fine, Dad," Abby said with a bit of a blush. "It's better than nothing. If it's okay, that is," she added, looking at War at that last bit. The female Blaziken nodded, and ducked behind some trees for a bit, bringing back three baby Torchics.

"We can't do it all the time. The Day Care couple are brighter than they let on. But we've managed to sneak one every now and then. These are the only ones that haven't evolved yet," Warbringer explained, presenting the babies to Absinthe. Two of the babies decided that they were bored right away and started playing with each other - which wasn't much different than battling, really - while the third looked up at Abby.

"I know which one I like. But, it's not my choice," Chaos spoke up, enforcing the idea that Abby was to pick one.

After a moment, Abby picked up the one in front of her. "Her name is Angela. Er... well, it was. I guess you can name her whatever you like, now." War explained with a heavy heart.

"Nah, Angela's a pretty name. I like it," Abby smirked, The Torchic in her hand rubbing its cheek against her wrist.

"You'll need this," Chaos spoke up, offering her a Poke Ball. Absinthe took it, and nudged Angela with the ball. The Torchic got caught up in the ball, and offered no resistance. The ball pinged shortly, indicating a successful catch.

"Thank you," Angela said to Warbringer, holding Angela's ball tenderly.

"Come on, you're brother's waiting for ya," Chaos sighed, patting Abby's shoulder. Thanks, War. I'll try to visit a bit more often from now on. It's been good seeing you again."

Warbringer only nodded to her Trainer, with Raoul nestling his head against his mate's shoulder as a show of compassion. Letting go of children was never easy.

A few minutes later, Chaos and Abby met back up with Lykas. "She's ready whenever you are," Chaos said with a tinge of annoyance. "I've gotta go get bitched at by Eve. You two take care of yourselves." With that, Chaos turned and walked away, offering one last parting wave to brother and sister alike.