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People were returning to the city. Zack found himself on the high street, empty shops and deserted streets covered with litter were steadily being filled by a trickle of bodies. He spied each one as he passed; some seemed shaken up, others bored, others talking excitedly about what had happened at the dojo. Not everyone had decided to watch the final rounds of the tournament, it seemed.

Zack closed his eyes as he walked. He wasn't concerned about anybody recognizing him; even if they did it'd be unlikely that he'd be bothered. Not when the side effects of your punches can destroy the surrounding area. But when he heard the astonished shout, he couldn't help but become alert.

"No way! Is that one wild?!"
"Nah man, look how calm it is."
"What's it called?"
"A Hitmon...chan...? I think it is."

Hitmonlee turned back to the onlookers, his eyes narrowed with annoyance. Last time he checked he wasn't wearing a goddamn tutu. Then the foot slammed down and the gathering crowd meant nothing to him. The boy's father stood down the street, fists balled at his sides as he glared deeply.

"What the ********," he snarled, "do you think you're doing?"

Zack took a step forward and Hitmonlee took one back. But in doing so, the pokémon lowered into a stance. The trainer grit his teeth, swaying off to the side with a 'tch' and Hitmonlee attacked.

The fight type's leg shot out, even faster than before; he'd mastered the technique to a level where you could miss it if you blinked. The diamond-hard foot would strike its target and return repeatedly; Zack's own survival instinct allowed him to move out of the way in time.

Behind him, the escalator leading up into a food court exploded into twisted metal and power cables - bambambam! - Hitmonlee's kick struck, following just behind its moving target.

[This is all you have?!] Hitmonlee roared, his voice a mixture of anger and frustration. He continued to strike, now smashing shop windows and nearly hitting ducking clerks. Zack continued to anticipate where the attacks would be launched mere moments before they came, avoiding them with the same stern express fixed on his face.

[You expect me to bow to this weakness! I will never-]

Zack vanished with his next step and Hitmonlee's eyes opened wide, for a split second later, the trainer was upon the fight type, face to face. Zack brought his hand up, palm facing Hitmonlee; blue light seemed to emit from the man's skin, swirling into what looked like bright blue flames. And then they exploded, creating a huge ball of aura fire that blasted Hitmonlee back as it expanded and vanished just as quickly.

The pokémon crashed into a metal bench, the steel warping around him. He barely retained consciousness as Zack appeared in front of him, hands pocketed. This man loomed above him like a god.

"Don't think you're the only one with power," he told the downed pokémon, who peered up at him with hazy, squinted eyes, "Or that your power is anything remarkable, because it's not." Zack drew a smirk across his lips, "Not yet anyway."


***

"Barrier again!" Wayne shouted and Solosis complied, generating a barrier in mid air. It was a rectangle of shimmering light that seemed solid at first glance, but if you looked close you could see psychic particles swimming about in a rough formation; like a bright light shining on a dusty room.

Wayne performed a running jump from the top of the forest hillside, crashing into the barrier and launching back off, landing on another before jumping again to reach the ground.

"Woo! Alright!" he punched the air as the barriers faded with a zhoom! and Solosis rolled up to him eagerly. "Sweet," said a calmer Wayne, "If it can take my weight and momentum, it should work for you guys."
"Solos!"

"Hey Wayne," Elizabeth called over from the log she'd been watching from, dangling a yogurt spoon between her sideways-pointing fingertips as she leaned forward, the yogurt pot itself cradled neatly on her lap, "Are you going to keep training or do you want something to eat?" She indicated her back that lay against a tree stump, "I have more if you want any."

"No thanks," Wayne replied, "I think I'll carry on training. Ever since you guys got here, I've felt like doing stuff again."
"That's good," Elizabeth smiled, slipping the spoon back between her lips. She withdrew it a moment later, umming over her tasty lunch, "Oh. Hey Zack."

"Hey, what's up?" Zack greeted them with a grin as he emerged from between trees and masses of plants. Hitmonlee's defeated form was slung over his shoulder and avoiding eye contact, "Guess who I found getting his a** kicked by me in the city?"
"Hitmonlee!" Wayne called, dashing over, "Is he okay?!"
"I wouldn't worry too much," Zack said, putting the pokémon on the forest floor, "I think his ego got hurt the most. Which is fine. Maybe then he'll stop walking freely around the city and making himself a target for thieves. Friggin' a**."

"Wayne! There are some potions in my bag," Elizabeth shouted and Wayne nodded thanks. He watched over his pokémon carefully. If his father had returned Hitmonlee to him in this state then the pokémon had probably endured 'obedience training'. Poor thing.
Still, at least it meant, "We'll start training soon, okay? You and me. And Solosis. We'll get stronger together."

"Is that a Snorlax?" muttered Zack so that Robby couldn't hear him.
"Zack!" Elizabeth hissed, "You know that Snorlax aren't that big!"
"It talked..."
"Of course it talked - it's a human!"
"Helena doesn't talk..."

"Hey," Wayne stepped up leaving his parents to bicker, "You were at the Dreamyard, weren't you? I remember seeing your-"

Enormous girth. It blocked out what little sunlight they had left.

"ffface..."

He paused awkwardly and turned around, "Hey mom! Can he have some food? He helped me against Plasma one time."

"Kay~"
"Christ, that kid is big."
"Shush!"

So Wayne grabbed Elizabeth's handbag and went through it. Surely enough, dozens of item balls were contained in a pouch, which he retrieved. All the while keeping a glancing watch on Robby to make sure he didn't devour Hitmonlee or Solosis. Then he brought the bag over.

"My mom usually brings enough food to feed her Snorlax, so there's gotta be enough in here for... for you," he said, trying not to sound judgemental. But then again, Robby was really massive. He probably had his own functioning gravitational pull. Where did he get clothes from? Damn, that question would bug Wayne for a while.

Until he asked it, "Where the heck do you get clothes from?" he said as he handed over the bag of item balled foodstuffs. You could see what was what through the translucent lids.

((Hey, if we don't feed him then Robby feeds himself. And entire ecosystems are destroyed, populations obliterated. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT?!))

"I just wear pretty much the same ones every day," Wayne admitted, "Gotta travel light, y'know."

Wait, did this guy even understand the concept of something being light? What was the world like for him?

"Were you born... err... with that... appetite? Or did you develop it?" Wayne asked as he watched food vanish before his eyes about as fast as it materialised, "Cause I gotta say: Wow. Okay. You eat like you were made for it. Like it's your destiny to consume."

"Umm... no, sorry," Wayne turned back and Elizabeth gave him a frantic shaking of her head, "That's all we had..."

Where did he put it all? What happens when...?

"Okay, last question: What happens when you go to the bathroom? Do you? Cause I mean, I would not want to be that toilet, yanno what I'm sayin'?"

[In the past (N)]

"So what you do is for your pokemon, then..."

N said this out loud, but was mostly talking to himself. He had observed many candidates now. Some had gone against what he had already established as generalizations of pokemon trainers, while others lived up to those expectations. And then there were a few who were entirely different. The equation was quickly gaining more variables.

Did he have to run more tests? Was their simply not enough observation being done? What did he have to do to make sense of it all?

"Thanks for the pen," he awkwardly told Avan while handing him he writing utensil and walking away. He wasn't very good with goodbyes, or greetings or that matter. Now, he just needed to get some things straight in his head before he moved onto the next part of observation:

Integration.

[In the present (N)]

And so N was venturing through the Pinwheel Forest, and saw Wayne, Elizabeth and Robby in the distance. More than anything, he wanted to go and throw Robby into the pits of the forest to be eaten by wild, ravenous pokemon. While the thought of the irony was sweet, he also knew that he did not have the resources to lift Robby off the ground.

Instead, he hid in the distance behind some bushes, listening in on the conversation from afar. He needed to know all of Robby's eating habits. How something like that could happen. Once he knew enough, or if his frustration simmered down, he'd make himself known and attempt to "make friends" with these humans.

However that was possible. He wasn't sure how to go about that. So he turned down to his side at a curled up, red sphere of a pokemon.

"Darumi," he harshly whispered, "do you know any of these people?"

"I... wasn't planning on it... n-I mean I'm training that one! No eating!" Wayne said, standing in front of the downed Hitmonlee who for a second appeared panicked, "Sorry."

And the fight type slumped down with relief.