???

  The purple-haired receptionist stood ramrod straight in her boss's office. Flinching when he began to talk, “So. I assume the mission was a success?”

  “N-Negative. Unfortunately, I failed to capture the Larvitar…”

  The Persian on the man's lap rose languidly, hopping off gracefully and without a sound, before sauntering up to her with a threatening growl. Her knees began to tremble as her boss swirled the wine in his cup, “...I see. Unfortunate.”

  “I-Indeed, it is…” She nodded, arms behind her back as Persian circled behind her, a rumbling growl still far too audible.

  “Wrong.” Her boss stated, before taking a relaxed sip of his drink, “‘It’ isn’t unfortunate. ‘You’ will be unfortunate if you fail again. Persian?”

  His Persian growled in agreement as it stepped behind her. She let out a squeal of surprise when the large feline set its front paws down on her back, “Hyeek!”

  “We cannot allow ourselves to be revealed yet.” Her boss commented, “Your failure has pointed far too many eyes in our direction.”

  Another growl of agreement and Persians claws protracted, stabbing in her back like needles, “Boss!”

  Putting down his drink, her boss looked her straight in her eyes, “You said this girl was planning on challenging the Gym, correct?”

  Raising her arm in a panicked salute, she agreed, “Boss! Yes, Boss!”

  Persians claws retracted, and it sauntered back over to its owner, finding the same place on her boss's lap, “Good. I will be dealing with her after she appears for the Gym Challenge, then.”

  The woman barely kept herself from collapsing into a heap in panic as he boss swiveled away from her in his chair, caressing his Persian all the while he sipped from his drink, “Ahh, it seems if you want something done, you have to do it yourself.”

  After another pause to caress his Persian, her superior waved a hand to his side, “You are dismissed. You make another mistake, you will be transferred.”

  “Boss! Yes, Boss!” She scurried out of the man's office at a lightning pace, well aware of what a transfer inferred.

  …

  “That fuckin’ clown, sendin’ his fucking Persian at me…” She silently fumed to herself as she hurried down the corridors of the Gym, returning to her place at the receptionist desk.

  “Khh-!” Releasing a hiss of pain as her back hit her chair's backrest, she instead slumped over onto the receptionist desk, “Fuuuck~”

  “Tch!” She really wasn’t feeling like a member of Team Rocket right now, more like a lap dog for her power-tripping boss. Vowing to herself silently, she rose back up in her seat, “I swear…One day, that fuckwads’ gonna get it…”

  A twelve-year-old boy entering the Gym forced her out of her cursing with a cough, “Ugh…Welcome.”

  Larry

  It was somehow relaxing for Larry to hear Valerie retell a story that wasn’t her harrowing encounter at Mt. Silver, it felt like she’d finally overcome that traumatic experience to have it replaced by something else. The issue was more with the fact that the story had been replaced with another traumatic story of almost losing both of her Pokemon in a failed kidnapping attempt.

  Professor Oak, for his part, received her explanation with open ears, listening earnestly to Valerie's retelling. She left the unimportant parts unsaid, giving the Professor an abridged version of what had happened to her to the best of her knowledge. Her Natu received visions that they were going to be attacked, and instructed her Larvitar to flee into a back alley, which turned out to be a bad choice.

  The upcoming part was which piqued most of Larry’s interest, ‘How was he going to react to the fact that the Team Rocket member works at the Gym? Giovanni was never suspected of being connected to Team Rocket in any way before the big reveals in the games. The fact that a Team Rocket member was allowed to work in his gym would cast a lot of doubt on his innocence.’

  “Both Larry and Sybil can confirm this, but the person who attacked them was the receptionist of the Viridian City Gym, the same girl who took our Gym Challenge registration when we signed up,” Valerie explained to nods from both of her Pokemon.

  The Professor rubbed at his chin in thought as he hummed along after Valerie finished with her story, “I see now why you decided to come to me with your story, without any evidence to back up your claims, it does sound like quite the outrageous thing to accuse someone of.”

  “I know. Again, I’m sorry, but I just didn’t know how much the police would do if I told them…” Valerie bowed.

  Oak waved her off again, his grandfatherly nature once again returning. “Don’t worry yourself, it’s admirable that you thought to bring this story to me. Though I must agree with your mother about your overactive imagination, personally, I doubt anyone other than the receptionist herself to be involved in the event.”

  Both Larry and Valerie frowned. “How can you be sure?”

  “I would love to tell you, but it touches upon topics that are classified.” The Professor smiled back apologetically, “The most I can say is, you aren’t the only one who knows about Team Rocket. They’re not completely new to the government.”

  “That’s good to know…” Valerie petted both of the Pokemon fondly, “I do still hope someone catches those criminals quickly. I’ve only been with these two for a short while, but I can’t imagine life without them now. It was so scary when I couldn’t find them after class…”

  The two leaned into the affection, rubbing back against Valerie’s hand as Oak laughed on the other side of the call, “Haha! Pokemon do have that effect on humans! It's truly an amazing relationship between species!”

  She looked up from her Pokemon back at the Professor, “So? What will you do, Professor? Will you notify the police about the receptionist?”

  “I won’t report her to the police,” Oak said to her shock before continuing, “But by the end, that woman will be sitting in a jail cell. What I have planned will be far more effective than any police action. Let me make some calls, and I will write back to you. ”

  ‘Better than any police action?’ Larry questioned, ‘What is he planning to do?’

  “Alright…” Their trainer said uncertainly, “I’ll trust you, Professor Oak.”

  “Your Gym Challenge will take place,” Oak promised, “When did you say it was supposed to be taking place?”

  “Umm, in around one and a half weeks…The exact day this year's circuit is supposed to start. I’m supposedly the first challenger of the year.”

  “Oh, lucky you!” Oak congratulated, “I assume your challenge is in the morning then?”

  “Correct.” She nodded.

  “I’ll be taking that into consideration then.”

  Furrowing her brow, Valerie couldn’t help her curiosity, “What are you planning, Professor Oak?”

  The Professor merely smiled, “You will be forced to see for yourself, Miss Riston.”

  ‘Now what could Professor Oak be scheming?’ Larry was just as curious as Valerie.

  …

  The weekend was upon them, so all three of them were finally spared from their daily school life. Larry couldn’t help but feel like he was finally getting a grip on the language. It wasn’t so much that he could speak an entirely new one, but that he finally found himself actually associating the letters with the ones from his old worlds. Now, Larry wasn’t perfect, a quick glance was still not enough for him to be able to read something, but with the aid of a set of squinty eyes and by turning his head to the side, presumably to roll the knowledge around his empty head, Larry could make out most things if given enough time. Their days at trainer school would be over with the final tests Cal had prepared for them on Monday.

  ‘My learning’s nothing compared to Sybil’s though…’ Larry couldn’t even fathom what the Psychic bird had managed to glean from her lessons, it all sounded like the type of things a zodiac sign-obsessed woman would tell you. Just today, during their lessons, she’d once again muttered to herself, ‘Finally, her energies are aligned? I mean, good for her, but I don’t really get it.’

  He’d become accustomed to the concept of Type-Energy and all the magical energy-controlling that came with it, but it seemed that Psychic-Types went to another level with the understanding of their own energies. Sybil seemingly thought about her energies much more in-depth than Larry ever has, it showed Larry that not every Pokemon’s Type-Energy control works the same.

  Larry could at least somewhat connect with the idea. From what he still remembered, his previous life's mother was also obsessed with this type of stuff, though he’d never spared her more than a noncommittal “Mmhm…” before disappearing back into his room. Thinking about his old life always bummed him out, so he quickly let the memory pass, ‘I shouldn’t be thinking about her, new life, new me after all…’

  Another training day meant that Larry was once again back to training Dragon Dance, ‘I almost had it yesterday, I’m bound to get it today, right?’

  A cursory glance over at Valerie revealed that the girl was watching them like a hawk, staying true to her promise of keeping an eye on her Pokemon. Larry didn’t think anyone would be quite stupid enough to try and steal a Pokemon in the training courts of a Pokemon Center, considering the area was literally swarming with other trainers and their Pokemon, but he wasn’t going to be ungrateful for Valerie's worries either.

  Larry's mind was elsewhere as he trained, the entire situation around Team Rocket still left a sour taste in Larry's mouth and had been on his mind the entire time he’d been training. He knew he’d come head-to-head with Team Rocket sooner or later if he moved closer to human society, he was a rare Pokemon after all, but he’d never expected his peace to leave this quickly. ‘Back in Mt. Silver, right after hatching, I said to myself that I wouldn’t kill or hurt unnecessarily after I first came here, considering I didn’t need to, but…’

  ‘If I really want to protect myself and Valerie, I need to be at least ready to do so in the worst case, right?’ Back when he’d first woken up as a Larvitar, he’d worried about a food source before realizing that he was lucky enough to simply be able to get by by eating rock and soil. Larry wasn’t Vegan, but he also didn’t want to snap another sapient Pokemon’s neck simply because he had a craving. He’d been exceedingly lucky in that regard up until now.

  Team Rocket changed that outcome somewhat, though. ‘They’re criminals out to hurt me and the people I care about. I have the means to defend myself against humans and Pokemon if I need to, but do I have what it takes to actually go through with it in the heat of the moment?’ Larry himself wasn’t sure.

  ‘I didn’t attack the receptionist yesterday, because I didn’t know what the repercussions would be, and if I could do it safely, injuring her and killing her isn’t much of a difference. Would a Pokemon that attacked a human be put in a PokePound before getting a lethal injection for being too wild? Did Pokemon have rights here?’ There were too many variables for Larry to know if he was even allowed to defend himself.

  ‘I’m fairly certain that if I killed a Team Rocket member after they kidnapped me, I’d be fine. Self-defense and all that, but what about in a standoff? Do Team Rocket fight fair like in the games, snapping their fingers in irritation before letting their enemies pass, or do they fight dirty?’ His fight back in Mt. Silver had shown that trainers weren’t just fancy sprites who released their Pokemon to spar against each other, but vital targets who wild Pokemon explicitly attacked, they called the shots during a fight after all. If you want to kill an army, attack the commanders.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  ‘I’ll be forced to ask some of this to Valerie once I can actually write proper sentences.’ A tense second of silence hung in Larry's mind as he spun around the court, but he managed to come to a conclusion, ‘If…If it actually came to a fight like that with Team Rocket, I guess I would rather make Sybil and me be the killers rather than Valerie…’

  Larry once again felt the Dragon-TE begin to squirm with his movement, dancing around inside his body before it began to expand and grow. He felt his core involuntarily release more Dragon-TE as he entered another twirl, the energies accumulated inside his body until he started to feel exceedingly hot.

  Just then, he felt himself twirl through a cloud of something. Concentration and the sheer release of energy tugged at his mind as he finally heard crackles of the Dragon-TE cloud around him manifest, ‘This is it, isn’t it?’

  The roiling cloud of energies inside him disappeared into his muscles, hardening and enhancing them. He flexed with newfound power as he finally stopped his dance. The cloud of Dragon-TE around him disappeared with a final crackle of energy, leaving Larry standing there with his Dragon-TE empowered muscles.

  He rolled his arms, feeling muscles flex in his shoulder that he’s never felt before. He rolled his soles around in the dirt, feeling as if they were slightly more dexterous. Finally, he did a short hop only to find himself hopping up far higher than before. ‘Whoa, this is wild!’

  “Woohoo! You finally got it!” Before he could actually start and test Dragon Dance, Valerie stormed the field, pulling at Larry's arms into a small spin as she laughed, “Hahaha! You’re learning moves so quickly, Larry! That’s three new moves in less than a week!”

  Larry danced with her, spinning around the court in elation with Valerie as he was caught in the excitement, “Hell yeah! I’m a genius baby!”

  Eventually, Valerie let him go and stopped her spinning, wobbling on her feet, “Whoa…I few too many spins for me there…”

  Snorting at his trainer's antics, Larry watched as she steadied herself, ‘Pfft, you can really see she’s a teenager in these moments, otherwise she’s so serious while training.’

  GRROWL! Larry heard his cry out in hunger once again, ‘Oh wow, these powerful moves really take a lot out of me…’

  His grumbling stomach was forgotten as Sybil hopped over to the two of them, “Congratulations on learning another new move.”

  “Thanks, Sybil.” Larry thanked his teammate.

  Valerie cut their conversation short, “Alright, after training, we’ll have a celebration! We’ve made so much progress in our training, I think you guys deserve it!”

  “Oh, nice!” Larry hollered back before another person made themselves known from the sidelines.

  “U-Uhm, uh, Hey! Valerie!” Matt stood on the side of the court, a weak wave on his hand parroted by Patrat on his shoulder with much more enthusiasm.

  “Mmmm…M-Matthias!” Valerie raised a hand in greeting, finally managing to get the boy's name right, “Hey, what’s up?”

  “I was just, uh, uhm, y’know…Walking around the Center, and saw you training here.” He fidgeted with his arms on the side of his white hoodie, “W-What are you up to?”

  Their trainer was more than happy to brag about her Pokemon’s achievements, “Oh, Larry here just learned Dragon Dance! You wouldn’t believe it, but he’s managed to learn three new moves in just this week!”

  “Oh, uh, congrats?” Matt looked to Larry unsurely, but his expression brightened when Larry nodded back happily, “M-My interview on you also went up…I-It’s already got around 500k views.”

  “Oh, congrats. So what are…” And so the two chatted as Larry and Sybil continued their training.

  …

  Their preparation for the Gym Challenge continued, morning to afternoon school lessons, an evening of training out in the courts behind the Pokemon Center, followed by nightly writing drills for Larry back home. Larry had never had this much to do in the day beforehand. His journey down Mt. Silver, while long-winded, didn’t actually consist of much work beyond walking.

  In comparison, Larry was now intently listening during his lessons with Cal, panting in exhaustion during his training sessions, and then drilling the letter from the day into his brain again during his nightly exercises. He couldn’t remember a time in his last life when he ever worked this hard.

  Matthias has shown himself to be a regular visitor, coming to chat with Valerie during her training sessions. With Valerie only returning home in the late evening and her rocky familial relationship, she hadn’t had much contact with her family, so Larry thought it was nice for her to actually be making friends.

  With the amount of new moves Larry had learned, he sorely needed the practice, and now was the time to get all his new moves down perfectly, before they were meant to be used in the Gym Challenge, so Valerie had decided for them to start sparring against each other again.

  She turned towards Matt, “What about Patrat? Does he also want to spar?”

  Matt's eyes shot open before he stammered out his response, “O-Oh, uhm, uhh…N-No, I, uh, I don’t think so. Patrat’s not, uhh… really a fighter, you know?”

  Patrat listened in before pulling at Matt's hair in irritation, “Who says I’m not a fighter, huh?! You?!”

  “Ack! P-Patrat! I know you just sit around all day! You’re not going to be able to fight well!” He defended himself.

  That only irritated Patrat even more, “So I’m a little rusty! So what?!”

  Valerie wasn’t going to let this simply slip by, “Hmm, then what about a handicap? Larry versus Patrat, but Larry’s only allowed to use the moves he’s learning. Stomping Tantrum, Crunch, Rock Polish, and Dragon Dance.”

  Matt’s Pokemon was already walking towards the training court, with only Matt’s weak discouragement to follow after him. As he walked past Larry, he goaded him on, “Let’s go, Larry! I’ll show you just a percentage of my power!”

  “Alright, show me what you’ve got!” Larry was game for any fight, already excited to see what a Normal-Type would do against him to clinch out a victory.

  GRRRRROOOOOWL… ‘That’s been happening a lot recently, hasn’t it?’ Larry thought to himself, his stomach growling as he took his place across from Patrat on the court.

  …

  Taking the place of the referee, Valerie raised both hands in anticipation, “3-2-1…GO!” Her hands fell, and the fight began.

  Patrat’s enemy's eye gleamed as he stared Larry down from across the court, ‘A move? I didn’t feel anything, so it must’ve been something boosting…If he won’t attack, I won’t either!’

  Larry took the opportunity and hardened his skin with Rock-TE in a Rock Polish, scratching away at it like he’d practiced. Patrat, seeing the action, sped across the court before tackling Larry in his stomach. It connected well, but Larry’s typing was simply too good for the move to do much about it.

  “What?!” Patrat's shock was evident as it quickly retreated away from Larry.

  Larry finished his Rock Polish and, with his weight reduced, sped close into Patrat's fleeing form, intent on taking down the Pokemon. Once he’d closed the distance, Larry jumped. He led the Ground-TE into his feet and landed harshly on the training courts' well-tended dirt, upheaving it in large splinters, which exploded outwards.

  Patrat dodged the first volley, but he didn’t intend to stop. With each stomp, more volleys of sharp, craggly bits of earth splintered from underneath Larry. Patrat dodged well, but it couldn’t dodge everything, getting hit by various stray bits of dirt in its attempts.

  When the Ground-TE finally ran out, Larry waited for the clouds of dust that were kicked up to settle down, but before he could. The chipmunk Pokemon launched itself through the dust straight at Larry with a Bite, connecting with his arm.

  “Argh!” Larry cried out in pain as the chipmunk's gigantic buck teeth chomped down on his arm. His moveset severely limited, Larry didn’t have many options to get the Pokemon off of his arm, ‘I’ll have to use Crunch!’

  He gathered the energy into his jaw, as a new set of teeth grew out in front of him. Patrat was still stuck to his arm, and he hinged open his new jaw before chomping down on the spot Patrat was.

  CHOMP!

  But his Crunch caught nothing but air, as Patrat dodged in the last second, retreating away a safe distance. “What was that?! You wanna skewer me or what?!” It raged angrily as Larry's Crunch dematerialized.

  “S-Sorr-” Larry stumbled, “Whoa-” He wavered along, his vision darkening on the edges as he wobbled on his feet.

  ‘What is-’ Larry could barely think straight as his thoughts flickered with his steps involuntarily, ‘-going on?’

  Patrat was about to use the opportunity for a counterattack, but Valerie commanded a stop to the fight early, “STOP!”

  She hopped into the court, running up to Larry in distress, “Larry, what's wrong?”

  “No…idea…” He slurred out, still feeling far more wobbly than he should.

  “W-What’s going on?” Matt also appeared next to Larry, concern evident on his face.

  Supporting himself on his trainer's arm, Larry thought back to what just happened, ‘I used some moves and now I suddenly feel faint and weak? What?’

  GGGGRRRRROOOOOOOWWL!

  His stomach made itself known, his tone and volume more akin to an engine than ever before.

  Everyone shared glances towards him, and Valerie said what was on everyone's mind, “Larry, have you been eating enough?”

  ‘I’m…hungry? No way, I’ve been eating three or more portions every meal, both breakfast and dinner!’ It didn’t make sense to Larry that he couldn’t be eating enough. Sure, back in Mt. Silver, he’d eaten more than his own body weight in soil and stone every day, but that didn’t matter!

  Or did it?

  Looking down at himself, he didn’t think he looked particularly hungry. In the back of his mind, the answer was obvious. Larry knew about Larvitars' PokeDex entries after all, ‘Have I been slowly starving myself because I’ve been trying to adhere to human eating norms?’

  “So you’ve really not been eating well then…” Valeire concluded correctly, “I thought something was off with your eating habits, but I didn’t think it weird enough to call out.” She picked his ball from her belt and held it out for Larry to enter, “Come here, I’ll run you to the edges of the City and you can go ahead and eat dirt to your hearts' content!”

  “I-I’ll come with!” Matthias followed up, “Y-You won’t, uh, know whose out there!”

  Larry and Sybil dematerialized back into the comfort of their Pokeballs, the hunger entirely forgotten as the support of the Pokeball took shape. He watched through his Pokeball as both Valerie and Matthias sprinted along the streets of Viridian City, headed for the outskirts of the town.

  …

  Heading south, Larry watched as the cityscape slowly shrank until the walls of historical buildings, which filled the city, were replaced by more modern, suburban housing built along a dirt path instead of the tarmac of the city center. They happened upon an area covered in trees with a pond in its middle, where Valerie finally released him, “Eat up, Larry!”

  Larry used Dig and Bite to their full potential, burrowing himself deep underground inside a forested area on the southern outskirts of the town. In comparison to the soil of Mt. Silver, which was rich in minerals and far drier, the forest's soil was loamy and wetter, probably due to the pond nearby. Larry didn’t even have to chew it much. The caverns consisted mostly of smaller rocks and pebbles, mixed with various smaller dust and sand particles, it was all very dry. The forests near Viridian were much muddier comparatively, consisting mostly of wet dirt, combined with various greenery.

  Where Mt. Silvers' mountainous rocky landscape gave him the taste of hard rock-candy he’d been fortunate enough to be able to chew through, much of the soil around Viridian had the same consistency as Sponge Cake and sometimes even as tender and soft as pudding when eating mud. It all made for a far more messy eating experience. Larry had only been eating for a few minutes, but he already looked like he’d just been rolling around in the mud, because, well, that's precisely what he had been doing.

  Shoveling mouthfuls of dirt into himself, Larry found himself not wanting to stop, ‘Damn it, I’ve really been starving myself without even noticing it!’ He’d already eaten deep grooves into the ground of the forested area they’d chosen, ‘I’ll definitely get my fill today! I’m gonna pig out!’

  A downside to consuming soil in the forest was the abundance of roots in the ground, which Larry couldn’t really eat. They were far chewier than the soft top soil, which added to the amount of grass, stray leaves, and other plant-life, making for a far more complicated fooding experience.

  So Larry decided to dig deeper, and the calls of Valerie were entirely forgotten as he completely immersed himself in the dirt for once. Instead of digging about, Larry dug down, underneath all the roots and plants, and then let the tunnel created by Dig collapse behind him.

  ‘Wow, the pressure of the earth above isn’t that immense, it’s more like I’m lying underneath one of those weighted blankets…The dirt's nice and cool as well.’ Finally, Larry understood what the normal Larvitar experience entailed, a lot of relaxing in relative safety under a blanket of dirt, doing nothing but stuffing themselves on mountains' worth of dirt.

  ‘It sounds quite nice actually…’ Flashes of his past life, spent mostly on his bed with various foods and drinks at the ready, shot down his statement, ‘...Or I guess it sounds a bit boring, I’d rather get back to training…’

  Larry started moving again, ‘Let’s eat until I literally can’t anymore and then finally get back to Valerie…I have a Gym to beat!’

  …

  Matthias

  “A-And, uh, y-you don’t think we’ll get into any, uhm, trouble if Larry eats the soil here? T-This is bound to be someone's, uhh, p-property, right?” Matt fretted towards Valerie, who was still watching the spot where Larry had submerged himself with furrowed brows.

  “If it is, I’m willing to apologize.” Her arms were crossed as she looked towards Larry, who plunged back underground for another taste of the harder, underground soil. “But right now, Larry needs to eat.”

  Matthias didn’t counter, but he saw that something was still on Valrie’s mind.

  She scoffed before whispering, seemingly to herself, “Why didn’t I say anything? I’ve been so focused on training and learning, I completely forgot about the needs of my Pokemon…”

  Patrat smacked the boy over the back of the head, “Ack! Ow! Hey, wha-” His Pokemon pointed at Valerie, and Matthias finally noticed the quivering lip of the girl in front of him, “U-Uhm, you ok, Valerie?”

  “You just go ahead and eat your fill, Larry!” She called out, ignoring his question, before turning and walking back, “I’ll be sitting back over here, alright?” She released Sybil, “You keep watch and alert us if anything happens, ok?” Sybil nodded back and watched as Larry burrowed deep underneath the earth.

  Matthias, meanwhile, followed after Valerie, who was walking away far more briskly than expected.