I didn’t spend any more time at Prism Tower, leaving Clemont in the care of Evelyne and Adria. It felt like my brain was fried. And I didn’t leave empty handed from this whole ordeal. Clemont gave me the Elite Voltage Badge, despite my refusal. He refused my refusal, and argued that he might not even open the gym up for Elite Battles for the rest of the season.

  So now I had all eight badges in hand- er… in bag. I kinda had just shoved them in there without really thinking about it, aside from the one Banette was wearing. And two of which I felt like I didn’t earn. I guess the argument could be made that I earned the Voltage one since I did help Clemont, but it still wasn’t a proper battle. I didn’t even fight anyone.

  It was well past midnight when I finally entered the training room, only to find most Pokemon still awake. “What are you all still doing up?” I asked as I let out all the Pokemon I had been carrying.

  “We were waiting for you,” Dee said as she practically rushed over, beginning to check me over.

  “I’m fine,” I said, laughing softly. “Just dealing with some old Team Flare nonsense.”

  She had a bit of a frown on her face, continuing to make sure I was okay, eventually satisfied that I was uninjured. The rest of the Pokemon had already started to pile up in the mess of pillows. Some of them were asleep, but most of them were awake.

  I flopped into the pillows with a sigh, rubbing at my face. Immediately several Pokemon climbed up on top of me, getting comfortable. On my left it was Cara on my shoulder, Rio laying mostly on top of her and partially on me, and Diancie holding the hand I had outstretched. Scoly was pressed against my right side with Primarina laying across her, with her head on my stomach. Absol, Bungle, Disaster, and Immodest were crowded on and around my legs. Dee was still acting as a pillow, with Eevee tucking herself into my neck. Mikyu, Banette, and Essy were all curled together on my chest. Goodra and Keo were still undecided on where to lay in the pile and had sort of squished themselves near my right shoulder, Goodra’s head resting on my bicep while Keo was closer to my neck like she used to do.

  I was absolutely drowning.

  How I didn’t suffocate in my sleep, or simply get crushed, was a miracle. They were like some kind of living weighted blanket.

  The only one missing was Liar, who was curled up nearby. I had found out pretty quickly that she didn’t like being touched. Occasionally being pet was fine, but prolonged contact was not something she liked.

  The large feline worried me a bit sometimes, as she was quite standoffish. She liked being alone, and sometimes I would wonder if being part of New Hope would be better for her. Then she would do something like headbutt my leg lightly when I wasn’t fast enough with her food and I would brush those thoughts aside.

  Absol was still something I needed to address. While she had been joining in a bit on training, she was mostly just adjusting to the Gravity. I would really have to figure out quite a number of things with her. At least she had really warmed up to the other three dogs. Are Absol’s dogs? They’re kinda feline in appearance. Maybe it’s like foxes, and how they’re their own thing that just seems like a canine or feline.

  Either way, focusing on Absol and her training would have to wait until after moving everyone to New Hope, when I had time.

  Which was what I was doing now that it was the next day. I was sitting in front of Hate, trying to figure out how to do this. A lot of the Pokemon really did not like their pokeballs, and I had been carrying them all in my bag and promised that none of them would ever go back into them if they didn’t want to.

  “We’re moving everyone,” I said and I saw the way her hackles raised slightly. They had been here for so long that it probably started to feel like their home.

  She pondered it for a moment. “Do we have to?”

  I nodded. “Unfortunately. New Hope is able to take you all now. All I can promise is that no one will ever have to move again if they don’t want to. Your new forever home.”

  Slowly she started to nod. “Okay. I will inform everyone and gather them up… Many will not wish to go in their pokeballs.”

  A rather mischievous smile pulled at the corner of my mouth. “Oh there’s no need to worry about that. They won’t have to go back in their balls."

  She had a bit of a confused look on her face before she nodded again. “Okay. I will gather everyone.” She stood up, stretching a bit before wandering towards a group led by Malevolence, clearly to explain everything.

  I pulled out my phone. For a brief moment I considered just texting her, but I kind of wanted to see her expression. “Gooooooood morning, Adria,” I said with a rather big smile on my face.

  “Oh Arceus, what have you done now?” she grumbled, apparently in the middle of eating breakfast.

  “Nothing.” I paused. “Yet.”

  She groaned and I heard a thunk as her head hit the table.

  I chuckled. “I’m just moving everyone from the gym to New Hope.”

  There was a moment of silence before she raised her head. “Oh. Okay. That’s not so bad… but why do I have the feeling that isn’t everything?”

  “Well, they don’t want to go in their pokeballs,” I explained with a shrug.

  She stared at me for a moment and I could practically see the gears clicking into place inside her head. “So you are going to march thirty Pokemon through town and to the reserve?” The disbelief in her tone was honestly pretty funny.

  “Forty five, actually. My Pokemon will be there as well,” I said with a smile. “Just giving you a heads up.” I was planning to leave the gym today as well. As comfortable as it was to have a place like this to come back to, it wasn’t mine. I was a guest here, and honestly I felt like I had overstayed my welcome.

  There was another thunk as her head hit the table again. “Okay, gimme at least two hours please… so I can set up some sort of police escort so the populace doesn’t freak out…”

  “That’s fine,” I said with a nod. “I still have to pack and get everyone situated.”

  She paused. “Have you told Valerie yet?”

  I shook my head slightly. “Not yet. I needed to tell you first since you’re the one who’s going to take the longest to get ready.”

  She scoffed. “Okay, fair. I’ll get things together, and please don’t start until we’re ready.”

  “No promises,” I replied before hanging up. The rapid string of expletive and threat filled texts I got after caused me to laugh.

  I sent a text to Valerie, unsure if she would be up or be in the middle of a battle right now, ‘Hey, it’s moving day. Going to be taking everyone to New Hope and properly moving in.’

  Next was a message to Wicke. Lusamine was busy in the Galar, searching the Crown Tundra and had shunted her work onto the poor woman. Apparently I had been right though, and they had detected past wormhole activity. Which was a good thing since I would have felt bad if I sent her on a wild goose chase.

  My message to Wicke was a simple, ‘How soon can we expect assistance from the Aether Foundation, as we are moving to fully open New Hope soon.’

  Almost immediately I got a reply, ‘Most of the assets are already in Kalos, and the rest should arrive tomorrow.’ I don’t know what surprised me more, how fast she responded or the response itself.

  ‘Excellent. Have them all head to New Hope tomorrow, and we will begin explaining the on-boarding process.’ I sent back, and got an affirmation after a few seconds.

  That woman was really good at her job.

  The door behind me was suddenly flung open, revealing a slightly disheveled Valerie. “You’re leaving?” she said, staring at me.

  I blinked at her. “Yes? I had been putting off the move, but now that I have all eight badges there’s not really a reason for me to continue to grate on your hospitality."

  Her fake wings sagged. “You know I didn’t see it like that…”

  “Yeah, I know,” I said with a bit of a smile. “But still. I feel like I’ve stayed too long. And I want to do a lot more serious training, which I can’t do here because I would break the building.”

  She let out a sort of laugh that sounded like a mixture of a snort and scoff. “What little training you’ve done has already done quite a lot of damage.”

  “Sorry.”

  She waved her wing in a dismissive manner. “It’s fine. They’re supposed to be broken. The room just can’t handle so many Pokemon training at once.”

  I laughed softly, nodding. “It does get out of hand the more Pokemon you add, that’s for sure.”

  There was a moment of silence as she shifted, folding her arms underneath her costume. “You’re not gonna like… disappear, right?”

  I smiled as I shook my head. “Nah. I’m gonna go out into the woods, find someplace to trash, and train till the League. I’ll be sure to stay within service range, and come and visit and stuff whenever I come back to town, but if I want any chance against Diantha I need to focus.”

  She nodded slowly. “Right. I think you’ll actually be able to do it.”

  “Glad you have faith in me,” I said with a smile, looking at the wolf pack as they were starting to get organized.

  There was a comfortable silence that fell between us as we watched. “Can you like… not totally mop the floor with Malva when you fight her?”

  I snorted. “I’m not promising that. If I kick her ass, that’ll be on her.”

  She sighed. “Yeah…”

  We started to discuss how her battles had gone lately. Apparently it was starting to get to the point in the season that she saw a spike in challengers. There had been a few Elite Battles so far since my battle with her, and some of them actually beat her. When I asked if it was more or less than usual she had just shrugged. She hadn’t noticed and never really kept track.

  Eventually the door opened again, Dee standing there with my bag and the incubator. “Okay, we’re all packed,” she said as she held the bag out to me. She had been quite adamant about taking care of the incubator while we traveled, and I wasn’t about to argue with her.

  “Thank you, Dee,” I said as I took it back, slinging it over my shoulder.

  “I still can’t believe you’re leaving,” Valerie said with a sigh. “Kinda just got used to you being around.”

  “Careful with that kind of talk, or Malva might get jealous,” I teased as I nudged her wing.

  Her face immediately went red and she began slapping me with those costume wings. “Never mind! I’ve decided I don’t care if you're leaving. That way I don’t have to be teased all the time!”

  I just laughed at her.

  It wasn’t too much longer when Adria messaged me and told me that everything was ready. I warned her to remind the other officers that these Pokemon were really paranoid about them, and to not overreact at any signs of aggression. Then I looked over at Hate. “Alright. Time to head out.”

  She nodded and turned around. “Moving out!” she announced.

  All of us made our way to the lobby, where my Pokemon were waiting. There were a few people milling about, watching curious as an absolute horde of Pokemon filled the room.

  Several Pokemon were on Scoly, including Cara in her fancy coat.

  I met Adria at the door. “That is a lot of Pokemon,” she muttered as she looked over the group. Some of which were clearly hiding behind others.

  “It is,” I said with a sigh as I looked back at them all and gestured for them to follow. Dee held open the door as Pokemon practically flooded out into the street. The members of Team Speedshell exited first, in an odd way of almost securing the area before the mess of everyone else piled out.

  There were only three Jennys, Adria included, which I was thankful for. There were a lot in the wolf pack that really didn’t like police, so too many of them might have caused a problem. The other two Jennys were also occupied explaining to a nearby crowd what was going on.

  I wondered what they were saying, but didn’t give it too much thought as we started to head towards New Hope. It was going to be a long walk.

  Thankfully with the Jennys there, we didn’t have any problems. It was mostly just curious people wondering what was going on and a few Trainers who had to be talked down from starting a fight. I don’t know how a Trainer could be that dumb. Who sees more than forty Pokemon and thinks ‘Yeah, let’s fight that’?

  Either way, it went smoothly. Once we were out of the city, the members of the wolf pack really started to relax, some of them were even sort of getting excited. A few of the younger ones were running around, chattering happily. This was the first time for many of them that they had been allowed to be outside.

  A lot of them were really interested in the trees, and I realized that most of these were fire types. All I could do was hope they didn’t burn down the forest.

  Honestly I was just glad that nothing happened on the way. If this were the anime, Team Rocket would have shown up with some sort of weird machine or something and tried to capture all the Pokemon. Which would have gone really poorly for them, but it all would have worked out somehow and then it would have been a whole mess.

  I wonder if Jessie and James actually exist? How would their hijinks actually look in real life? Maybe I should look into Team Rocket a bit eventually… But that would draw attention from Giovanni, if I hadn’t already caught that man's eye. I think of all the villains, he would be one that I could probably have a civilized conversation with, depending on which version of him it was.

  Before I realized it we were at the reserve, and the wolf pack had stopped to stare at it. “Is this… our new home?” one asked, and I was fairly certain that was Guff.

  “That and literally everything beyond,” I said with a wave of my hand. They all looked at me and I smiled. “The reserve stretches all the way to those mountains. So if you or anyone else doesn’t want to stick around, they can just go wherever they want.”

  There was a beat of silence before several Pokemon sprinted towards the building. The doors were open, a Joy having seen the crowd and curiously coming to check. Immediately I felt bad because I forgot to warn them.

  I laughed as Pokemon piled into the building. “Sorry, Rebecca. I decided to move the wolf pack in, and start the intake processing.”

  She stared at me for a moment before sighing. “I’ll let everyone know. What’s going on with the Aether Foundation?”

  “They’re arriving tomorrow,” I said with a smile, watching the Pokemon explore the room. A lot of them were just staring through the massive window into the distance. “Okay!” I called out to get their attention. “You’re all going to get a checkup, and then decide on what you want to do. I’ve explained it before, but for those who forgot. You can stay in the reserve forever, explore off into the distance, help other Pokemon adjust, or do whatever. You can put yourself into a pet category, that means you won’t ever have to battle again. And those that do want to battle, you can opt into that.”

  They were all quietly listening to me, all of their attention on me. It would have been a bit unnerving if I hadn’t gotten used to it.

  “Of course, I encourage everyone to help out with what is going to be a lot of Pokemon. They are going to be in the same situation all of you were. Scared. Lost. Abandoned. Hurt. But we have them now. We’re here to help them. Once you get a checkup, you’ll be let loose to choose what you want to do.” I turned to Rebecca. “Do you have any of the bands?”

  She startled a bit, having apparently been lost in thought, and nodded before pulling out two colored bands. “Here.”

  I took them with a smile. “Thank you.” I raised them up so that they could all see them. “Blue means you want to be a pet. Red means you want to battle. Not having a band means you’re a permanent resident. But you can change your mind at any time, and get a band or change bands, or remove your band. Any questions?”

  “What happens to our pokeballs?” one asked and there was a general murmur of worry.

  “They will be logged to you, stored, and locked away where no one will be able to get them, unless you find someone you want to go with,” I explained, kind of glad that someone actually asked that. “If you want to leave the reserve, you will be free to leave and your pokeball will be broken. But that will leave you open to being captured. The pokeballs are only being kept to protect you from being captured by random people.”

  There was another general murmur, but no one else seemed to want to say anything.

  “Any other questions?” I prompted, but no one came forward. I nodded. “Okay, please line up for your checkup, pick if you want a band or not, and then you’re free to explore and get comfortable.”

  There was a rapid shuffling as they all did as told, lining up. Rebecca sighed beside me, putting her hands on her hips. “It’s just me here right now, so this is going to be slow until other people show up,” she said with a bit of a frown.

  “It’s fine. We’re not in a hurry. After all, we have ten thousand more to get through,” I mused.

  She just groaned before walking away, taking the first Pokemon into the back.

  I moved over to the window and sat down, looking out at the massive area. This was going to be full of so many Pokemon. I was going to absolutely destroy the ecosystem in this area by introducing thousands of foreign Pokemon. They were going to have children and create families. The entire Kalos Pokedex was probably going to change because of me.

  “Hate?” I said softly to the canine that was sitting in front of me. My own Pokemon were busy talking with the wolf pack. They had gotten to know a lot of them, and most of them were friends. “Try not to bully the locals too much, okay? There are Pokemon already living out there.”

  She glanced back at me before nodding. “We will try to integrate, rather than consume. Although I do not see any Pokemon nearby.”

  I wondered how many the construction of this place had displaced. “They’re out there. Be welcoming. They can live as they were, or join the reserve. We offer food, protection, medical care, and all that good stuff. I’m leaving you mostly in charge of everything.”

  She straightened up, giving a firm nod. “I will do my best.”

  The first Pokemon to appear out in the field was Aloof, one of the Poochyena. She seemed pretty nervous, sniffing at the grass. It was probably a very rare moment of being able to touch and examine real grass out in the open.

  She was quickly joined by Gabby the Houndour, who was much more excited and managed to get Aloof to play. The two of them began chasing each other around, soon joined by Crass, and then Guff, and then Dally, and then more and more until all of the younger ones had gone. Seems they had decided to let all the first stages go first.

  The two Sneasel were next, and I noticed they had no bands, before they took off into the forest. I doubted whether I would ever see them again. Not that I would ever blame them.

  Eventually Hate got up, giving me a nod before lining up. She wanted to be last, unlike Malevolence, which was the first evolved Pokemon to exit. I could tell even at this distance she wanted to reign in the young ones, but decided to let them have their fun.

  As the majority of Pokemon shifted outside, so did my family. There was that niggling want to take them all, but I was already struggling with the amount I had. Eighteen with a nineteenth on the way. But there was still that want for more. To have a larger family to surround myself with.

  Seeing the different colored bands on several of the Pokemon made me smile. Fear and Loathing both had red bands and were clearly already arguing. Fear would refuse to have a trainer without Loathing, and I knew that Loathing felt the same. Whether he wanted it or not, those two were a package deal.

  “That’s a lot of dogs,” a voice suddenly spoke behind me, startling a bit. I looked back to find Malva.

  “Surprised to see you here,” I said, gesturing to a seat as I looked around for Valerie.

  “She’s not here. I wanted to see this place in action,” she explained as she flopped into the seat.

  I paused for a moment and then smirked slightly. “You want one, don’t you?”

  Her mouth opened, clearly about to argue, before closing. She sighed, taking off her sunglasses as she stared out at them. “I do.”

  “Well, we’ve plenty of Houndour,” I said with a bit of a chuckle.

  “What if I wanted a Houndoom?” she asked, looking at me.

  I shrugged. “There’s only three that want to battle. Hazard, Fear, and Loathing. And those last two have a serious love-hate thing going, and you won’t be able to separate them.”

  “What about Hazard?” she asked as she looked out, as if trying to spot them.

  I shook my head. “I don’t think Hazard is quite ready for a Trainer. Especially not one of your intensity. You would have to be extremely gentle with her, and she has an aversion to training.”

  There was a bit of a frown on her face. “I expected that. These are all abused Pokemon, after all. I know that they’re going to take a lot of care.”

  I nodded slightly. “I guess it depends… on how willing you are to care for them. If you want easy, there’s Guff. He’s a Houndour, and probably the best in a physical and mental state.”

  She was quiet for a moment. “Guff…” she murmured. “And who would you recommend?”

  “That actually wants a Trainer like you?” I took a moment to survey all of the Pokemon running around and thought it over. It was a very important thing. “Probably Gabby. But…she comes with a bit of baggage in the form of a Poochyena named Glum. He doesn’t want to battle, and has severe anxiety.”

  “Can I have them both?” she asked after a moment.

  I nodded slightly. “As long as you can abide by Glum just wanting to be a pet.”

  She nodded slowly. “Yeah, I can do that.”

  “He has a bit of an issue of locking up and fainting if he’s overwhelmed, so be aware of that,” I explained.

  She frowned a bit. “Poor thing,” she said softly. “Which ones are they?”

  I pointed towards two Pokemon nearby. They hadn’t gone too far from the building. “See that one shaking like a leaf? That’s Glum. And the one next to him trying to get him to play is Gabby.”

  Suddenly she got to her feet. “Can I see them right now?”

  I watched the two of them for a moment before nodding and standing up. “Yeah. Come this way, there’s a door,” I said as I led her off to the side. The door was rather inconspicuous and tucked into a corner. It actually opened into a small room, which had another door that went outside.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  Malva followed behind me, putting on actual glasses rather than her red shades. The two of us stepping outside got a lot of attention, and quite a few looked over.

  We made our way over to the previously pointed out Pokemon. “Gabby? Glum?” I crouched down, Malva hanging back several paces to not crowd them. “How are you doing?”

  “Good,” Gabby said with a grin. “I uh… did want to ask you something. How likely is it that both of us would be taken together?” Her expression turned a bit sour as she spoke.

  I smiled softly. “Well, that’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about. You remember Malva?” I gestured back towards her.

  Both of them nodded slightly.

  “She wants you two to be her Pokemon. Both of you. Gabby for training and battling, and Glum to just be a pet,” I explained, still smiling at the two of them.

  They looked at each other for a moment and then at Malva, then back at each other before they began whispering.

  I just waited, watching the two without listening to their conversation. This was an important thing for the two of them to decide and I didn’t want to influence it one way or the other.

  Looking back at Malva she actually seemed a bit worried. Although the only real indication of that was the way she was sort of wringing her hands. Maybe she just wasn’t sure what to do with them.

  After a moment both the dogs turned back to me and nodded. “Okay.”

  I smiled as I nodded, reaching into my bag. After a moment of searching I pulled out their pokeballs. “Alright.” I stood up and turned to Malva, holding the two pokeballs. “Just know this is not something that is done lightly,” I looked down at the two pokeballs in my hand, their names sloppily scribbled onto the underside.

  Malva straightened and nodded. “I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t going to take this seriously. I want to do something, even if it’s barely anything.”

  “Don’t think of it that way,” I said with a bit of a smile. “Just defend New Hope, because I know there’s a lot that would love to see it fail. This is something that is going to need so much more work, and as long as you promise to support it, I’ll wave the adoption fees.”

  There was a beat of silence before she burst out laughing. “I can’t tell if you’re joking.”

  “I’m quite serious,” I said, though I couldn’t help but laugh a little. “We need money, and our only real income is going to be those adoption fees and donations.”

  She nodded, trying to get her giggling under control. “Right. Well, then I should do my best.”

  “You better,” I said as I gave her the pokeballs. “Or I definitely won’t do what Valerie asked, and crater you in the League.”

  Her eyes were on the pokeballs, a bit of a smile on her face. “I look forward to it, honestly. I can’t wait to see how you do in the League.”

  I nodded. “Well, I’ll leave you to get to know these two,” I said, seeing Rio standing nearby. She had been listening in and now had quite a contemplative look on her face.

  Malva nodded at me. “Right,” she turned to the two small canines as she walked closer to them. As if on cue, Glum passed out. There was a look of concern on her face as she looked back at me.

  “I told you he has anxiety problems,” I said with a bit of a snort escaping me from the look on her face. “He’ll be fine in a few seconds.” I waved a bit as I walked over to Rio. “What’s up?”

  “Was what Malva said true? She’ll be watching the matches?” she asked, sounding oddly serious.

  I nodded slowly, wondering why she sounded so concerned. “Yeah, probably. They’re televised and stuff. You remember how we watched it? She’ll be watching it like that.”

  Her brow furrowed and she bit her lip, rather hard from the looks of it. “Then… Then I don’t want to fight in the League.”

  That was definitely not what I had been expecting. I just stared at her for a moment. “What?”

  “If she’ll be watching, then she’ll know how I fight, right? Everyone will know. All those Elite Four, and Diantha.” She clenched her fist a few times, clearly putting quite a bit of thought into this. “That means they can prepare counters. Learn all my moves and techniques before we even have a chance of fighting.”

  “So you don’t want to show them what you’re capable of?” I mused aloud, rubbing at my chin.

  Rio’s eyes were still locked on Malva as she nodded and turned her attention to me. “I’m one of the stronger members of Team Speed Shell, so it would be extremely advantageous for me to not participate until we get to the Elite Four.”

  I nodded a bit, thinking it over. “You’ve put quite a bit of thought into this, even before now, huh?” She nodded firmly, and I nodded back. “Alright. If you think that’s what will be best, then we’ll go with that plan. You’ll be one hell of a surprise for them.”

  She grinned and nodded far more enthusiastically. “I don’t wanna fight all those weaklings anyways.”

  I scoffed. “Not all of them are going to be weak. You remember Andrew’s team? Or that Laura woman who won the League? They’re going to be there, and they’re strong.”

  This time she shook her head, still grinning. “They’ll all lose. I’ll just wait till we’re on that really big stage before I show off.”

  Reaching over I ruffled the top of her head, which just made her grin more at me. “Just don’t complain later that you didn’t get to fight before then, okay?”

  She nodded and then surprised me as she gave me a hug. “Thanks, papa,” she said softly.

  I wrapped my arms around her, gently petting her head. “Of course.” We stood there for quite a while as she was clearly enjoying the hug before she seemed to realize what she was doing and quickly pushed me away and ran off, laughing about something.

  Hopefully things went well enough without her during the League battles. I had planned on her taking part, but I could adjust my plans. After all, I had such a large pool to pull from.

  The next few hours passed rather quietly as I made sure that everyone was adjusting. Thankfully it was fairly calm, but they also hadn’t explored very far from the area around the building. When there started to be more Pokemon, there would be more of a push to extend outwards.

  Especially because I was probably not going to stay for the entire process. Just be here long enough to make sure everything went smoothly. After all, this needed to be a thing that could happen without me.

  I collected Scoly and Mikyu, explaining to them that we were going shopping. The bug was a bit annoyed at having to be dragged away from playing with her friends, but the little ghost was absolutely ecstatic. Because me bringing her along meant we were going to buy fabric and that thread that she needed.

  Originally I had planned to do this after my battle with Clemont, but… Yeah. That didn’t happen.

  On my way out, Rebecca caught my attention and waved me over to the main desk. She started speaking as I made my way towards her. “Tomorrow is all hands,” she said simply, a rather grave look on her face. “I’ve coordinated with the other Joys, Emma, Diantha, and Wicke.”

  “A lot of those Aether people are going to essentially hit the ground running,” I commented as I shifted to be able to see her screen. It had the basic protocol.

  Every Pokemon would be given a maximum of thirty minutes to calm down as the situation was explained. If they didn’t calm down in that time period, they would be returned and put into a special category that would give them more time to be worked with.

  The explanation process was fairly simple as well.

  First they would be told they were safe, not being put down, and would not be put into storage again as long as they remained calm.

  Then they would be given pokebeans, which the Aether Foundation had more than eagerly supplied. I didn’t get an exact number, but it was something like a hundred thousand beans. We were also getting those bean sprouts that I asked Professor Burnet about so long ago.

  Finally they would receive a checkup, and have the banding system explained to them before being given the choice of which they wanted, and of course told they could always change their mind later.

  There was also a bit about possible children. There would be encouragement to have any new Pokemon born in New Hope to get registered and banded, that way we could help them and keep track.

  As long as all that went well, they would be put outside where Hate and her group would do their best to integrate them or leave them to their own devices depending on their attitude.

  The problem was going to be the Pokemon who couldn’t be consoled within the thirty minutes. Of course the Joys and other assistants would be allowed to extend the time as they saw fit in special cases.

  I was really hoping there wouldn’t be too many of those, since we had over ten thousand Pokemon. Even with the ten Joys and fifty Aether members helping, we were still looking at about five thousand hours of work. And that was a rough estimate, only calculating the time with the Pokemon. That didn’t include paperwork, rest time, or any number of possible incidents.

  Tentatively we had estimated it would take two weeks of nearly constant work to get it done. One if we get really lucky. And that was just for intake. We had done our best to make the process simple and give a lot of autonomy to the ones performing each check in order to try and make things run as smoothly as possible.

  I knew the Joys would do well, since I knew all of the ones participating - even if I didn’t know their names - but it was the Aether Foundation people I was worried about. I had made it clear that I wanted only people who had a lot of empathy towards Pokemon and actually cared. Which had narrowed who she could actually send, and I would have gotten more if I had been less strict about that. But time wasn’t a problem, it was people.

  The more work I did on this, the more daunting a task it seemed. “No wonder no one’s ever managed this,” I mumbled.

  Rebecca nodded. “Forcibly adding this into the already established system was extremely difficult… But once it’s running, there’s going to be no way to stop it. The Association is going to pretty much be forced to keep it running, just to save face when it enters the public. Mostly just to keep people from asking what will happen to the Pokemon without it, and praying to Arceus they don’t ask about the previous system.”

  I nodded. “That’s the plan. We have enough strong backers, what we need now is the masses.” I couldn’t help a bit of a grin from forming on my face. “That’s how you topple a government,” I said quietly.

  Rebecca's head ever so slowly turned towards me, and I couldn’t tell if she looked impressed, baffled, or horrified.

  I took a step back, coughing slightly. “Oops. Said the quiet part out loud,” I muttered and shook my head. “I don’t want to rule the world or anything,” I tried to clarify, but it really felt like I was just digging myself a bigger hole. “I just think the way things are being run are shit, and the current regime should be dragged out into the street and beaten to death.”

  There was a moment of silence before she suddenly broke into laughter, clearly trying to decide if she should shake her head or nod in agreement. “You really are crazy, you know that?”

  “It’s all the head injuries,” I replied with a shrug. “Anyways. I’m going shopping, and will return later.”

  She nodded slightly as she returned to her computer. “If you could magic up some more help while you’re out, that would be appreciated.”

  “Not sure they carry that, but I’ll keep my eye out,” I said with a soft laugh, waving as I made my way out. Talking with the Joys was always nice. It definitely took some effort to get past their professional mask, but once that fell away they were so full of personality.

  Riding Scoly through the city, because I realized that no one actually said I couldn’t do that, was quite fun. Mikyu on one shoulder, with Eevee on the other. I was probably quite the sight.

  The first thing I did when I arrived at the Pokemart, was get a damn pasta machine. Honestly I could have probably trial and errored my way into making it by hand with the amount of time it’s taken me to actually get the dang thing. It’s just flour, eggs, salt, and water. The recipe that I had gotten from that old man was a bit more complicated, and required some other machines, like a food processor.

  All said and done, buying all the machines cost me thirty four thousand pokedollars.

  It would have been less expensive if I went for the less professional models, but with the amount of Pokemon I was dealing with, I needed the larger restaurant sizes. Nineteen of them, and myself made twenty. A lot of mouths to feed.

  Food was next on my list. Another month's worth of food supplies, and ingredients to make pokeblocks cost another twenty thousand. Quite a hit to my wallet, but it wasn’t like I was spending it on much else.

  Although with the ten thousands more I spent on supplies for Mikyu got me questioning the prices of things in this world. I didn’t know why she needed most of what she got. Faux leather? Who wanted something leather? I hadn’t paid attention to what any of the Pokemon had asked for and had just left that discussion to Mikyu and them. But now I was curious.

  I was also curious as to what the heck some of these things I was buying were. Clearly some of the things were for working with leather, but there were also some other things that I couldn’t figure out their purpose. The little ghost did, and apparently wanted them, so I put them in the cart.

  The last thing I did was buy a spacial bag for Mikyu. It cost twenty thousand, but it was worth not having her things cluttering my bag and also preventing her from stealing it and running off somewhere. She had been completely inconsolable for a bit, overwhelmed by emotion. I was a bit worried, but she assured me that she was just so happy she couldn’t do anything else.

  The bag was nicer than mine, but had a lot less room. It was specifically designed for Pokemon, using some kind of technology based on Delibird, so it would be considered part of her and could go with her into her pokeball. Its size was a little annoying and I still had to put some of the supplies in my own bag, but the bigger one was almost double the little Pokemon’s size and would not be feasible for her to carry. It was also fifty thousand pokedollars. And I wasn’t about to take that big of a hit to my wallet.

  Mikyu was still quite a mess when we were leaving the Pokemart. I didn’t realize the little thing could be so emotional. It made me wonder who or what they were… If all ghosts were Pokemon, or people, it made me feel a bit off. Surely not all of them are, but both Mikyu and Banette gave me the feeling they were.

  But it wasn’t like I could really do anything about it.

  Riding Scoly back to New Hope, I did my best to prepare myself for what was going to happen.

  And damn I was not ready.

  There were several Joys hovering around the desk, all of them had serious looks. “Problems?” I asked, already dreading what sort of answer I would get.

  They all looked at me, some of them visibly relaxing when they saw me. “We received a demand from the Association,” one of the Joys said, frowning. I was pretty sure that it was Delphine. “They want a tour of the facility, and are saying that it’s not allowed to operate until they’ve performed their check.”

  I frowned. “That’s annoying, but I guess we have to invite them.”

  “That’s the problem. They’re saying they don’t have anyone available for at least three months,” another Joy said. I didn’t recognize this one.

  “It’s a standard delay tactic,” Emma chimed in, and I realized she was in the crowd. I hadn’t noticed she was there, probably because she was quite a bit shorter than the Joys. “They’re hoping that we collapse from lack of funding or whatever in that time.”

  I thought about it for a moment before shrugging. “Well, sucks to be them. We keep to our schedule.”

  “What if they send someone?”

  “We politely tell them to fuck off,” I said with a scoff, looking out the window. I could see Hate and several other Pokemon out there.

  “And if they don’t?” Emma asked, frowning.

  I looked at her for a moment. “Then we introduce them to our all-powerful psychic feline friend who has no problems with murder. I am not going to play their little game. We have over ten thousand Pokemon that need our help right now. If they want to start pushing, then I’m gonna to start swingin’.” I rubbed my face, as if I could scrub off the irritation I was feeling.

  When I looked up at everyone, they all seemed to be nodding in agreement. “They won’t do anything outright,” Emma said as she sat down at the computer, pushing a Joy out of the way in order to do so. “We will agree to the tour and just ignore the rest of this.”

  “Exactly,” I said with a nod. “So, let’s get this started.”

  With that agreed to, we all moved into the back. Of course, I was going to help until the Aether Foundation got here. After that I was going to be doing the more serious cases. Anything that needed more than thirty minutes.

  So it began.

  Those in the wolf pack that wanted to help joined the Joys. Hate specifically wanted to help me, so we teamed up. As I started to go through the list, I was really glad that everything was organized so well. Regions, types, and where they were acquired. We had all regions, aside from Alola. As for how they came to us, it was either confiscated, given up to a Pokecenter, or recovered. Recovered was a vague category, and I didn’t like it. Active pokeballs that were found, and for whatever reason, couldn’t be returned.

  As I started to go through the list, I found that a lot of them were easy. Just a quick explanation, and then letting them go outside. The majority that I helped were extremely depressed, having been given up, or knowing their Trainer was dead, but easy to deal with. A surprising amount of them were a bit clingy, wanting physical comfort and words of reassurance. Most of them took blue bands when it was explained. It seemed that a lot of the Pokemon were pets, and didn’t know how or didn’t want to battle.

  There were so many pets…

  But I would prefer those ones. Those from villain teams were in horrible shape, physically and emotionally. It was just like the wolf pack. Some were aggressive, others catatonic. But it was the ones who had complete emotional breakdowns that really got to me. I broke the time limit countless times with those ones. But I’d be dealing with those more later, so it was fine to do it now.

  Hate was actually a big help. Especially when it came to the occasional Team Flare Pokemon. But she was also really good at getting them to calm down. She had a certain authority to her presence that the villain team Pokemon seemed to be able to recognize.

  And as I had predicted, a lot of the ones that were given up were bug types. Easy to capture and easy to raise. But for them to really shine you had to put in work, just like with any other Pokemon. They grew in strength very quickly, but had quite a few roadblocks to being powerful. Without proper effort, they would plateau like any other, but the difference was they rose quickly. Added in that they evolve so fast, it was easy to see that a lot of people used bug types as a quick start.

  Scoly’s strength wasn’t an exception, it was the norm. She was what happened if you dedicated the proper resources and most people didn’t see it worth the effort when you could get the same results with what society saw as better Pokemon.

  So few took the effort to raise them to the heights they could reach. Aaron was the only bug type Elite Four. And Koga had some bugs on his team, though he was more focused on the poison aspect. As for Champions? Only Steven Stone and Alder had bug types on their team. I guess if I wanted to stretch the term, I could include Kieran, but I wasn’t sure if he counted as a Champion.

  It was annoying.

  At least the place would be pretty, considering the amount of Vivillon I had seen on the list. I only got to one on that first day and they were just… confused. They had been given up, and just didn’t understand why. They got a red band.

  That first night I made pasta for the Joys and my family. It took a while to make for everyone, but it felt worth it. The Joys already looked tired, and I reminded them that they needed to take breaks. Not that I had taken any myself.

  The next day was much of the same, until the Aether Foundation employees showed up. I was honestly surprised to find Wicke was there as well, but it made sense when I thought about it. She was quite the caring person. It probably would have been weirder to not see her here.

  After going through the quick presentation of how things work, requirements, what is expected of them, and how they are to act, I let them get to work. I may have also not-so-subtly threatened them, but none of them seemed put off by it.

  Before I had a chance to leave the conference room, Wicke approached me. “You mentioned that any Pokemon that required more than thirty minutes would be a special case. I think I have a few who would be good to help that.”

  I gave her a bit of a smile. “That would be great, Wicke. Going by the volume and the fact we didn’t have any special cases yesterday, I’m hopeful that the total is low.”

  She nodded. “Hopefully.” She paused for a moment. “I will admit that I was worried about the amount as I was traveling here… It’s staggering.”

  “It’s a lot, but we can do it,” I said, trying to give her a reassuring smile. “We’ve done our best to prepare, and now it’s all about slowly getting through it.”

  “I agree that this isn’t about speed, as you said in your speech,” she said as she returned my smile. “You’re quite good at explaining things to a room full of people, but that just probably meant you were a really good teacher.”

  I chuckled softly. “I like to think I was good. Does make it a lot easier when the room is full of adults who aren’t squirming or doing their best to not pay attention.”

  She covered her mouth to stifle a giggle. “Well, it probably helps that you kept threatening them. Reminded me a bit of Lusamine and her little speeches about things.”

  My nose scrunched a bit. “Don’t know how I feel about that.”

  That got a soft laugh from her. “It’s fine. Lusamine is… a bit much, but she is reliable. She always does what she says she’s going to do, other people be damned.”

  “That is something we have in common.” I looked over at the door at the two Aether employees that were waiting for Wicke. “Alright… I think it’s time to get to work.”

  Three weeks.

  It took over three weeks for us to get through all eleven thousand Pokemon.

  A full twenty four days, working almost nonstop, with some only taking breaks when they were forced to. Which was mostly the Aether Foundation’s people. They had such strong work ethics that all they wanted to do was do the job to the best of their ability as fast as possible. And they had definitely proven to me that they could do it.

  I had been worried about them for the first few days, but they’d all shown they were capable. I really shouldn’t be too surprised, since this was technically their job. Wicke had pulled as many people from Aether’s on-boarding as she could, so all of them knew what they were doing. What they clearly hadn’t been expecting was the volume or severity.

  They were used to abandoned, or recovered Pokemon, but the others caused them to stumble. Especially the ones from villain teams. Almost all of the Aether people had broken the thirty minute rule. They would sit with the Pokemon no matter how long it took.

  That meant I had more time to go through the list rather than dealing with special cases. Even the Joys were ignoring the thirty minute rule. Special cases ended up being the Pokemon that just could not seem to adjust, even after a couple hours.

  But that was fine. I could sit with them all day, and understand what they were worried about and explain things to them. Almost all of the difficult ones were villain teams.

  Everything was going rather smooth for the first week, until a Champion team was found. Not just one member, but almost an actual full team. And it wasn’t a team that I knew.

  Honchkrow, Quagsire, Purugly, and a Crobat. It took a bit a few days to gather them all up, but I found out quite a lot. They were part of the Champion’s team, two Champion’s before Cynthia. All of them were on the older side, close to the end of their lives. One of their members had already passed, but they didn’t know what happened to the main of the team: an Empoleon.

  I had a good guess, if what happened to the Delphox was any indication.

  The Champion - someone named Carthis - died eight years ago, and his team had been seized by the Association. That definitely wasn’t a name that I recognized.

  When everything was explained, they seemed to almost all mutually decide that it was a nice place to retire and chose no band. The only exception was the Purugly, who took a pet band. They complained that they were born and raised inside, and would rather die than go live in the woods “Like some animal.”

  Of course I had no problem with that. It was their decision and they could do whatever they wanted. Although I was a bit excited, thinking about the fact that New Hope now had three permanent residents at the Champion level. Although their age would probably categorize them as Elites, there was the chance they could teach others.

  There wasn’t anything else very exciting. Aside from the number of Gyarados that I kept getting as special cases. The Aether members were pretty good at getting them to calm, but they were just so angry. I was starting to think that past me made a good decision in not trying to get one.

  I just kept feeding them pokebeans till they calmed down, which was oddly effective. The ones that were caught as Magikarp were a lot easier to deal with, and were mostly mad because they didn’t have their Trainer. They were big, aggressive, and angry, but they were still fond of the ones who caught them when they were just weak fish and raised them. The ones who were wild caught were almost impossible to calm down. They were the only ones that I had to beat into submission before they would calm down. Not something I liked doing, but necessary.

  What worried me was now there was a gang of over a hundred Gyarados somewhere in the lake North of the reserve. I don’t know if they grouped up together, or separated, but most of them wanted red bands. So I’m a bit scared of that. That lake and river area was just going to be called Gyarados Land as far as I was concerned.

  All in all, the weeks passed by in a blur.

  Before I knew it, I went to check the list to get the next Pokemon only to find it empty.

  I stared at it for a moment, brow furrowed.

  But before I had a chance to register what I was looking at, the door to the room I had been using was thrown open. I looked back to see a beaming Evelyne. Her outfit was disheveled, she had quite large bags under her eyes, but her face was split into an almost manic grin. “We did it!”

  I continued to stare at her for a moment before looking at the screen again. “So it would appear.”

  “That would mean-” she stopped as a new Pokemon appeared on the list. She sighed. “That means we only have to worry about new arrivals now…”

  The name quickly disappeared from the list, grabbed by someone else. “Yup.”

  Her expression slowly melted into a glare. “Is that all you have to say? Yup? This is an absolutely monumental achievement! Nothing on this scale has ever been attempted, let alone succeeded!”

  “I’m processing,” I replied, rubbing my face. I was absolutely exhausted, physically and mentally. What little sleep I had been getting had not been very good. No one had been sleeping well as far as I knew.

  “Ah… Right. Sorry. I just woke up from a nap and saw the list empty,” she admitted sheepishly, trying to fix her hair.

  I stretched, leaning backwards to hear and feel a rather satisfying crackling sound. “Okay. Well, let’s get everyone together then, and thank the Aether people for helping.”

  She nodded before turning and literally sprinting down the hall.

  I just stared after her for a moment before looking down at Hate, who had fallen asleep. Kneeling down, I gently ran my fingers through her mane. “Hey.”

  It took a moment of fussing with her fur before she actually opened an eye at me. She had been sleeping worse than me, since she was constantly searching out people to help with intake while I rested. Now that I was thinking about it, I wasn’t sure when the last time she slept was. She made a questioning noise at me, moving to get up.

  “We’re done.”

  She paused, blinking a few times before looking at me with her head tilted to the side.

  “We’re done,” I repeated, smiling at her before rubbing the top of her head. “You can-”

  I didn’t even finish before she just slumped, apparently having registered what I said and decided to go back to sleep. I laughed softly as I checked some things on the display before moving out of the room, stretching a bit again once in the hall.

  Quite a few others were also making their way out into the hall, looking just as bedraggled and worn out. A lot of them didn’t seem to really have registered what was going on. “Are we out of coffee again?” one Aether member asked. That had been an absolute cluster of a mess over a week ago. Most of the people I could see were only standing right now because they were approaching double digits in the amount of cups they’d drank.

  More importantly, it seemed like Evelyne had announced for a meeting without explaining. “We’re done,” I responded to them.

  The man just blinked at me.

  It honestly made me laugh a bit. “Yes. We are actually done.” I smoothed out my shirt to try and make myself a bit more presentable, but that was probably a pointless effort considering the smudges of dirt and soot and coffee. I hadn’t been wearing my coat for some time now, since I didn’t want it getting wrecked. While I wasn’t attacked, some Pokemon just had some natural protections. “So we need a closing briefing.”

  Again no one really seemed to register or believe what I said, instead just shuffling towards the meeting room. It looked like a small horde of zombies. Would anyone get that joke? There had been zombie things in the anime, right? Wait, the manga had literal Pokemon zombies at one point, so they probably would.

  Oh right. Everyone was going to the meeting room.

  Thankfully I wasn’t the last one in, since apparently a lot of people were so dead asleep that they wouldn’t be joining us. I looked at Wicke who was absolutely immaculate. I nearly tripped on my own feet when I saw her. Everyone around her was a mess, and she seemed completely unbothered. The only hint of anything I could make out was the slight bags under her eyes partially hidden by makeup.

  I stood at the front of the room and took a deep breath. “We’re done,” I said bluntly, getting everyone’s attention. Wicke’s head snapped towards me, looking rather surprised. Had Evelyne not told anyone what this was about? “We’ve completely cleared the backlog. Eleven thousand, seven hundred, and eighty something Pokemon. So many that we managed to help. We’re all tired, and there’s no way in hell I’m going to make a speech. I just want to thank the Joys, the Aether Foundation, and all the people who came, because you made this so much easier.”

  There was some light applause and quite a bit of murmuring. There was definitely a sense of relief through the room. Task completed successfully.

  “What’s the plan now?” someone asked. Probably one of the Aether people since the Joys already knew.

  “Now, the Joys take over the process completely. They will run New Hope with the help of Emma, who I’m sure many of you have met. She’s the administrator of New Hope,” I said, pointing her out. Thankfully she had been more than eager to accept the position.

  “And what will you do?” Wicke asked, clearly curious. And judging by how everyone else focused on me, so were a lot of others.

  My brow furrowed. “I’m going to crawl into a pile of blankets and pillows and pass out till I feel better. Then go into the woods and ignore society for as long as possible.” There were quite a few people who laughed lightly, as if I wasn’t serious. “Seriously. I’m not good at running things, which is why I’ve found people to do it in my stead. I pushed so hard to make New Hope because no one else was stepping up to do it. The Aether Foundation is good, but everyone knows what their real focus is. This world needed something like this, so I forced it to become reality. I had a lot of help from like minded people. I-” I stopped and shook my head. “No speeches. I’m going to bed.”

  There was a bit more laughter as I left the room, everyone seeming to be in much better moods. And I followed through with what I had said.

  Returning to my room - and wasn’t that a thought, I had an actual room - I found it mostly empty. Almost all the Pokemon were out doing something or other, and the only ones inside were Cara, Dee, Essy, and the pokegg.

  Dee gave me a questioning look, clearly on break since I knew she had been running herself ragged to help. For what felt like the hundredth time in the last hour I gave her a smile and said, “We’re done.”

  I didn’t see her reaction as I flopped into the pile of pillows beside Cara, and was asleep within moments. The last things I was really conscious of was Essy pressing into my side, and the satisfying feeling of accomplishment.

  End of Arc Two: New Hope

  Lucario - The group mom, battered and out of action

  Lucario - This dog wants to own things.

  Scolipede - Pokemon transport unit

  Primarina - Doing big seal things

  Audino - Trained Nurse Pokemon

  Diancie - Big sparkly that just wants to throw rocks at people

  Eevee - Living that sleepy hood life

  Goodra - Big slug

  Mimikyu - Very skilled seamstress

  Banette - Silent but powerful.

  Ninetales (Alolan) - Big fox

  Espurr - Little cat that likes pokebeans.

  Liepard - Big hungry cat

  Houndour - Just a little pup

  Houndoom - Bit of a space case

  Mightyena - Super serious

  Fennekin) - Not up to too much yet.

  Rotom - Hacker-mans

  Absol - Future problems