"Hey hey, stop it!" Barry chides, patting the Ponyta on the snout. "Scarves are not for eating, General!"

The Ponyta pouts, turning to rest its head in the crook of Prinplup's crest instead.

Meanwhile, Psyduck was cradling a rubber ducky, and Luce was panicking. Apparently she'd stolen that from the Pokemon Center baths and they weren't supposed to take that out, that's not free, but Psyduck was stubborn about holding it.

"Blair help me, Doozy's in love with it," Luce pleads, "we need to give it back before we get in trouble."

"Eh, I'm sure they lose those things all the time, no worries stealing one," Barry assures. He climbs onto Ponyta's back.

"It's not okay!"

"C'mon, we're heading into Mount Coronet now," Barry says. "You'll want Doozy to be in a good mood or we'll get lost. She's the only one that knows how to use Flash right now."

Luce makes a dying groan. He gives the city a dry apology into the distance. 

Monferno was way too excited, already at the entrance, pestering a nearby explorer who was being coaxed to read out the sign and the description outside the cave.

Barry settles on Ponyta's back, carrying their bags. Luce holds the egg incubator in his arms, and they carefully make their way forward.

It was quite fascinating to see a Pokemon use Flash. She just gleamed, like an LED light in the shape of a Psyduck, and she toddled on forward like the world's cutest nightlight.

Luce is never letting her unlearn that.

-

"Oh, you two again."

Barry and Luce stop in horrified unison when Cyrus passes them in the cave.

The cave wasn't entirely empty at this time of the day– there were travellers making their ways through, diggers and veterans getting through to the deeper end, but only a handful right now– so Cyrus spotted them almost as soon as they were in sight.

The madman was going through the cave without a flash Pokemon, so his presence took them by surprise.

And this time, Barry spots the Galactic logo at his breast, and he directs Ponyta to immediately stand before them as a shield, jumping off the horse to stand in alarm.

"No need to be so hostile," Cyrus says, entirely indifferent. "I don't wish to waste any energy on you children. Jupiter has also extended her gripes to me."

"Jup– that Kadabra lady," Barry hisses, "you're part of them too, aren't you?"

Luce nervously signs out, "probably the biggest boss," and Cyrus spots it.

"I'm surprised you know," he says.

Luce flinches. He understood sign language– that's unexpected and unfortunate– there's no secret coding with this guy around.

"W- Well we're not going to deal with your business anymore," Barry says, trying to stand a little upfront and straight. "So leave us alone."

"Blair, shh!"

Cyrus sighs, holding up his hands in a form of indicating he wasn't here to fight.

"If I might remind you, it was you who first interrupted our business," he warns. Barry tenses. "So consider this your warning– whether the gym leaders are protecting you or otherwise, your next offense will receive proper retaliation."

Luce and Barry can only nod at that.

"We understand... sir," Barry says.

Cyrus sighs. He'd already expressed that he wasn't willing to extend any effort here– and Luce was honestly relieved by it. Mars and Jupiter went easy on them, but if Cyrus were to fight them now, being massacred would be the least of their worries.

"You children are so unwilling to continue a battle you yourselves began," he deems. "It is this weakness and incompetence in the human spirit that has corrupted the world today... how deplorable. And to think we're here in the origin, where it all began as something pristine, something without strife..."

Shaking his head, he goes on to leave. He doesn't look back– he simply walks on forward, leaving through the entrance.

Luce and Barry don't move for a long moment.

"What a creep," Barry mutters, spiteful.

But he had a point, Luce understood. If the main character of this world never interfered, Luce and Barry would never have been involved in the matters of the adults. They would try their best to avoid taking up battles they didn't want to face alone, but it was in their nature to go for it anyways.

(This conflicting nature in humans was such a flaw in their design, wasn't it?)

(Or maybe it was the perk of humanity, that everyone cared and loved, even if they were weak. It all depended on the perspective.)

"Let's go, Luce," Barry says, clambering back onto Ponyta. "The sooner we get out of here, the sooner we can forget about it."

Luce nods.

-

Route 208 opened into a slightly mountainous area. Plenty of greenery, a lake– wooden bridges, and thick forests canopied the distance. Hearthome was visible from here, the dome of the Contest hall and the high buildings crowning its landmarks.

With the egg and its incubator in Luce's bag, they step out into the hills.

"Hearthome!" Barry cheers, Monferno echoing right after. "Brings back memories! We haven't been here since Mama Johanna's retirement contest five years ago."

Mom's retirement contest, huh... Lucas remembered it. She went on a break to raise her child, but after Lucas went mute, she retired to become a full-time housewife. He had a feeling Johanna retired normally in the games, but here, it was because of Lucas.

He felt bad about it, very much so. She lived for the contests.

"Man, this brings back memories! I remember how your house would smell like Poffins all the time," Barry says, puffing up his chest in pride. "I remember getting my name up on a certificate for being the star student of the Poffin House!"

"Only because you were bad at everything else," Luce reminds him, "I'm the one that aced the junior division Contests in Dance and Appeal."

"Glameow did, not you. You were a complete klutz in the actual doing, all you had was a sense of rhythm to tell Glameow when to do what."

"You're so rude."

"Hello there pot," Barry retorts immediately. "I wonder if I still have the strategy for the appearance portion written out in my notes– hey, for old time's sake, wanna join a contest?"

"Huh, why?" not that Luce was particularly against it, but he didn't quite see the point. But then again, there wasn't really a charm in coming all the way to Hearthome only to never even approach its main attraction.

"Just for fun," Barry says, "it's definitely easier than a gym battle for you, right?"

And he was right.

Luce turns to Monferno and Prinplup, who were looking over curiously at what they were talking about. They were using too many difficult words and signing too quickly, so neither of them understood much of what was being talked about.

"They don't know what a contest is," Luce says.

"Just gotta show them, then!" Barry grins.

-

Barry claps in a quiet rhythm, keeping pointedly silent as the battle went on. He whistles, and the two Pokemon lunge at once.

Luce continues the tempo with his Soothe bell, and Monferno lunges forward, swinging through the grass to take out a Roselia with its flaming tail. Monferno immediately retreats in two beats, and Starly swings down on the Oddish, finishing it with a Wing Attack.

"Alright!" their hands connect in a high five.

Barry holds out his hands to receive Starly– only to yelp in surprise when the avian's body gleams, growing as it descends– and it lands as a larger form, light giving away to a bigger set of wings, a majestic crown, and a more defined beak.

The Staravia huffs, chest puffed out in pride.

"WOOooah! Sergeant evolved! Sergeant evolved!" Barry yells, trying his hardest not to accidentally fall off a similarly excited Ponyta, "Luce! Look!"

Luce is looking. His jaw is dropped, hands full with an incubator and a bell so he couldn't sign, but Monferno was cheering loud enough for all of them, leaping onto Staravia's back to the utter discontentment of the bird.

"Now that's something you don't see every day!"

Luce and Barry turn to see who had spoken– a teen some fair amount older than the two of them, with green hair– and Luce felt his entire universe flip right over and get swung across the cosmos like a frisbee.

"I've genuinely never seen trainers purposefully fighting non-verbal before, much less in a double battle," this guy was Elite Four Bug-Type Specialist, Aaron, and he was just walking up to them now, grinning amiably. "You guys have some incredible synergy!"

Barry chuckles bashfully, "you think?" he says, taking Luce by the arm. "We've been practicing a lot, so I guess."

(Why is– how– when the– there's no way–)

(...didn't Luce just meet Steven yesterday? And today he finds Aaron? This seems too ridiculous to just be a coincidence at this point. Speaking of which, this sequence of events felt familiar somehow...)

"Luce, you can close your mouth now," Barry says, waving his hand before Luce. "Dude, what are you so surprised about? Luce?"

Luce has to do a double take for a second– Barry doesn't know that this is–

Monferno jumps onto Luce's back, raising a hand toward Aaron as an invitation to a high five. Aaron cheers as he does it, and Monferno cheers back.

"I'm Aaron," he says.

"I'm Barry, and this is Luce," he introduces himself, poking Luce in the forehead to hopefully get him back online. Prinplup toddles by with a flask of honey tea, and Luce, unable to even comprehend this, opens it for a drink.

"Barry and Luce... oh, I know you!" Aaron says, grinning, "you're the ones Gardede wanted us to keep an eye out for!"

Barry balks. "You mean Miss Gardenia?"

(...what did he just call her?)

"Yep," Aaron says, "I'm from the Pokemon Association! Not a gym leader– well, that doesn't matter," he dismisses. "I was in Trainer School with Gardenia! Me, Candice... Roark and... ah, enough about that. How our communication works is we first inform people in our age group, and then we inform our own areas. Since we're all spread pretty wide around the region, y'see?"

With communications as underdeveloped as in Sinnoh, Luce supposes that makes some sense. Calling every member of the association at once seems very unproductive, so since they're all over the place, spreading through word of mouth was easier once you got it to a broad enough range of people.

Barry sighs. "We're never going to escape the Dexholder privilege curse, are we?"

Aaron laughs, "you talk like it's a bad thing."

"Leave us alone!" he wails.

"Sure, sure," Aaron says, fumbling around for something in his pockets, eventually holding up a Poke Ball. "So! I've heard a ton about you guys. Wanna battle?"

Barry blinks at that. Luce immediately lunges for Barry, tossing the flask away (Monferno and Prinplup scramble to catch it) and grabbing him by the shoulder.

"No! Absolutely not!" he signs. "No way!"

"Awh!" Aaron purses his lips, "c'mon! I'll try to fight closer to your skill level. Don't worry if you lose, it's just a friendly battle, right?"

And Luce halts.

(That dialogue...)

"Hmm..." Barry considers it, arms crossed, brows furrowed. "I mean, I don't mind, I'm always up for a battle but..."

Luce is still flabbergasted. Barry sighs.

"Y'know, my pal here seems a little off right now, so I think we've gotta drop by the Pokemon Center first. Sorry, Mister Aaron."

"Understandable," Aaron deems, slightly disappointed. "Do you kids got any bug types?"

"Huh? Oh, uh," Barry straightens, "no, we don't."

"Awh, why? Bug types are cool, too! They're absolutely great. You need one or ten in your life. Absolutely," Aaron gushes, grabbing Barry by the shoulder in a sort of desperation, "you'd definitely need one on your team in the future! You gotta!"

"Sir if you don't back away right now I'm going to pull the panic alarm!" Barry shrieks, immediately. Beside him, Staravia is holding the aforementioned panic alarm in his beak.

Right then, a Scizor escapes from one of the Poke Balls on Aaron's waist, claws coming right down on Aaron's wrist before pulling him away into a constricting hug.

"Wha– Scizor– wait no!" he yelps, whirling up to his Pokemon accusingly. "Hey!"

The Scizor had the gall to angrily frown at his owner. When the Pokemon turns over toward Luce and Barry, he almost looks apologetic.

Barry sighs. "Your Pokemon's got better self-control than you."

"A Sciz– A Scizor!" Luce frantically signs, and Barry nods.

"He looks really strong," Barry says.

"You think!?"

Aaron, chuckles, scratching his cheek bashfully, still clawed between Scizor's arms. "Ah, sorry, I uh," he says, "I tend to go overboard when it comes to Bug types. My bad."

Meanwhile, Luce, finally over the shock value of his new revelation, is happily getting the Pokedex data for the genuine coolest bug type on any roster ever. Barry retrieves his Pokedex as well, but his eyes are completely stuck on the Scizor, fascinated.

Scizor finally barks sharply at Aaron, and, very chastised, Aaron composes himself, standing straight and clearing his throat.

"Alright, alright. I'll leave you young'uns alone now," he says. "I need to go look for a Larvitar, anyways."

Barry barely remembers to tear his eyes away from the Scizor to ask, "a Larvitar? I thought you liked Bug types?"

"Huh? Ah, yeah, I do," Aaron says, "but this is for something else. I've heard there's been a swarm of them recently in this area, but I think I might be too late. If I don't get it, Lucian's gonna give me an earful for dilly dallying again..." he sulks. "I mean, it's not my fault there were so many cool bug types on the way..."

Barry decides he's not going to comment on that. "Good luck with that I guess?"

"I'll try my best," he chuckles, raising a thumbs up. "You two as well, break a leg out there!" then, looking downward at Barry's foot in a cast, "not literally, though."

Barry grimaces. Luce suppresses a laugh. Scizor looks ready to bash his owner's head in.

"Anyways, I'll skedaddle," Aaron says, turning toward Mount Coronet. "I hope I'll be able to face you two in a real battle one day! Do your best to make it to the league, alright? I'll be waiting at the top."

"I'll look forward to it, sir!" Barry says, and Luce nods, signing out a polite goodbye.

And he actually does go. 

Aaron smiles warmly at his Scizor, and they synchronously race into the forest, scaling the high wall in steps and an occasional handhold, but in unison. They hopped across high verges, and for a long moment, Aaron seemed to soar through the air as if he were gliding on wings.

He handled himself with all the experience of a person of the hills, and he was out of sight in seconds.

"...hold on, did he just say he'll be waiting for us at the top?" Barry asks, finally registering the words. "Is he that impressive of a guy or something?"

"Yes," Luce says, "that guy's one of the Elite Four, didn't you notice?"

"...HE'S A WHAT?!"

"We met Miss Cynthia and you're surprised about this?"

"What about Miss Cynthia?"

"...she's the Champion?"

"SHE'S THE WHO?!"

And while Barry proceeds to have an identity crisis, Luce sighs, sifting through his Pokedex for the Pokemon data.

Aaron showed up here, Steven showed up in Oreburgh... and now that he thought about it, the Bike Shop owner gave them evolutionary stones.

Something wasn't lining up, at least to Cece's knowledge. Something was terribly out of place here. This is the game's universe, but it definitely isn't Pokemon Diamond, Pearl– or even Platinum. There was something much more to it than just creative liberty.

(Is this universe a fusion of a romhack?)

(...it's just a coincidence. It's definitely just an insane coincidence.)

-

-

-

Luce expects the Buneary at the entrance, but he definitely doesn't expect two.

He definitely doesn't expect the other Buneary to be pink.

One seemed to be frantically chasing after the other– one appeared angered, and the other, fearful. It was a moment of forgetting to look in front that caused the Buneary to crash right into Luce's face.

Monferno doesn't let that happen, though– he reaches in and snatches the bunny right out of the air, snarling at it when it curls up, and squeaks in fear.

Luce reaches out to catch the angry pink one, but Psyduck had better ideas, eyes gleaming red and annoyed as she locks it right in a sphere of Confusion before Luce could get it.

"Buneary?" Barry registers, getting out his Pokedex. "Spitfire, let go of that one, it's scared," he says, and then, "but Doozy, keep holding yours. If you let go, that ear's going to sock Luce right in the jaw and that's not going to be fun. Ooh, it's a shiny– we got the shiny data, yay."

Luce hurriedly backs away with that warning, catching the scared Buneary when Spitfire hands it to him. He cradles it gently in his hands, but the Buneary was already too scared to try and lift its head again.

"I'm so sorry! That Buneary is mine– uhm, you two, I'm sorry..."

An older girl– the Buneary's partner, evidently– rushes toward them, slightly out of breath. Upon seeing her, the Buneary tearfully wails, rolling out of Luce's hands and hopping back to her side.

"I'm so sorry for the trouble!" she sighs, catching her breath, bowing. "My name is Keira. My Mimi's usually much more sociable... but well, that wild pink Buneary's been out for blood these days, I'm not so sure why either."

The Pink Buneary that was still trapped in the Confusion Sphere let out a sort of animalistic shriek that made everyone back away horrified.

Monferno approaches it, a glare set in its brows. Pink Buneary growls fiercely, and Monferno snarls louder, fangs and all. Surprisingly, the Pink Buneary's ear unfolds in a sharp whirl, and it whacks Monferno right up the chin.

Everyone gasps.

Psyduck sighs, no longer having the energy to keep up the Confusion hold. Monferno loses his balance, but he regains it immediately to hiss, sharp and poised for battle. Pink Buneary actually stands its ground, even if it was so tiny, and it actually pointed sharply at Monferno and growls out something in Pokemon tongue that made Monferno lunge.

"Hold on hold on stop stop stop!" Barry leaps in, grabbing Monferno by the arms and shoulders and grabbing it right back into his lap.

Luce also jumps in, grabbing the Pink Buneary out of the air, into his hands, and holding it tight as it struggles.

"Oh... I'm so sorry," Keira says. It seems the target of the Pink Buneary's anger has been transferred, somewhat.

Luce gives her a resigned smile. 

Barry was still wrestling Monferno, and Prinplup was there too, trying to mediate. It only resulted in Monferno yelling at Prinplup, too.

The Pink Buneary was biting on Luce's hands, trying to chew his way through to no avail. Luce rubs the side of its head with a free finger, and the Pink Buneary growls, lifting its head to look menacingly at Luce.

Luce chuckles softly, trying to smile in a way he hoped seemed more assuring than condescending. He looks the Pink Buneary in the eyes calmly, and it returns the gaze, staring firmly for a long moment, trying to read him.

Eventually, the Pink Buneary huffs, turning away.

"Woah," Keira says, impressed. "It's calmed down."

"Yeah, that's his magic power," Barry sighs, standing up after finally being able to force Monferno back into his Poke Ball. "I don't know, really. He's a weakling usually, so much that I think even wild Pokemon can instinctively tell. So they kind of just lose their will to fight around him."

Beside them, Psyduck and Staravia nod sagely.

"Ah... I'm sorry again," Keira says, "I'm actually a Contest Judge– and the next round's about to begin, so I'll have to excuse myself."

"Ooh, no wonder you're all dressed up," Barry says, slightly impressed. "Don't mind us! We'll take care of this little one."

Luce nods in agreement. Pink Buneary hmmphs in annoyance, still glaring at Keira.

"Be sure to drop by the contest hall so I can thank you properly!" Keira waves at them before hurrying off. 

The Buneary nods at them in gratitude, still clinging close to her.

"...so, about this one..." Barry turns to Pink Buneary, who immediately screeches at him. "Argh, my ears! That's it, we're boiling it! We're deep-frying it and sending it to my dad!"

Inside the Poke Ball, Monferno lets out a hiss of agreement.

First of all, Luce is going to make sure Barry and Monferno get nowhere near it.