"i don't really need extras," kyle looks back at the memory and holds onto it. "guess i'll keep it for now."

the number of memories he has far exceeds the number of types that exist. the extras don't matter as much until one of those that he owns breaks, which wasn't something he expects to happen anytime soon.

"that works, i guess." a move for a move wasn't a bad trade, he supposed.

a smile returns in his expression.

"i have my sources," he answers. "there's a market for all these collectibles if you know where to find them."

he leaves it up to interpretation, although he figures fernando can fill in the blanks anyhow. hoenn's black market was pretty tame compared to other regions', so he can come in and out as he pleased as long as no one recognized him.

"if you're worried about where i'm spending my e4 money, then i can tell you i'm putting them to good use. something, something, i strengthen my pokemon for the greater good of hoenn."

the unknown username startles kyle.

"what? no. why?"

it's more of the fact that fernando is aware of the username formatting of some online service catered to young people that astonishes him. while aware that fern is more knowledgeable on the technological side of things, to find him mingling with anyone else that isn't in thee 'old people' business surprises him.

"but yeah, something like that. i should be using my resources if i have them, right?"

good karma, a better reputation, as well as a very early sign up date that is uncommon for trolls, scammers and bots, kyle has an online presence that's actually neither suspicious nor a trap.

"either way, there's your answer, i guess."

kyle wanted to say that people don't really have an opinion of him outside of his position. maybe if he talks about himself in the internet and hypes himself up despite not having any other presence, people will have some sort of opinion on him.

at least the topic's dead.

"yeah, i do. it's by the basement in case, you know..."

kyle shrugs to end his sentence. new dogs always go for the wires first for some reason. he wonders if that fact is known by fernando. he'd probably google it if it was important to his super secret project though.

he guides kyle through his living room to the door that led downstairs. the silvally comes rushing with them, going straight to its bed as soon as kyle opens the door. it lies down on it, watching the champion and the councilman descend from the stairs.

the room was homey, if not a bit messy. it has an office feel to it on one end, with a desk full of work-related papers and a pc and cabinets on the walls. the other end was full of classic gaming consoles and a couch, with shelves full of games and books. that end was surprisingly neater.

he leads the way and immediately goes through the password-encrypted pc, logging in on a guest user for fernando. "you get this user so you won't see my wallpaper," he explains as he steps away.

"yeah. it's anime nudes, sure," he answers with a straight, nonchalant tone.

it's not exactly nudes, but it's pretty anime. kyle doesn't want fern to know what he's into when steam wallpaper engine is showing everything his personal hobby includes. then again, he supposed it's not that embarrassing when he's pretty sure fernando wouldn't get pop culture references.

"mister ferny silph, let's remain professional. please do what needs to be done instead of asking about my private information. i want my personal life to be left as mysterious as yours."

the one and only fernando silph, the original one and definitely without a wiki page of his own, is the one person no one knows about despite his popularity. kyle aims to have his obscurity despite the name, though circumstances show that a random child that stayed in the warzone and then cried about trauma has more popularity than him anyways.

"anyways, are those for my smeargle?" he asks expectantly.

"wouldn't have been the main character if you didn't push me to be the face of rocket's downfall two year ago and gave me the elite four spot," he quips back in return.

he leads fernando back upstairs to their backyard, where passersby can't be stealing this randomly with their own smeargles. he can give them steam eruption if they ask for a special move, but not this.

kyle lets out a smeargle that he always keeps around in his person. it's currently in a similar position as his solgaleo in terms of versatility and usefulness, so he almost always doesn't want it away from him.

"i'll give you this move..." he takes out his phone and opens up his pokedex app. a custom move was registered as it wasn't just any other move a normal pokemon would've had. he shows it to fernando.

"anything of similar rarity or potency?"

specific moves catch his attention. he copy-pastes the entire list in a text messages and slowly whittles down the list to four moves he's particularly interested in. it then goes to fernando's inbox as a reply to his last text message.



"these... i like these ones," he tells fernando. "these are like those over-the-top rehashes of pokemon move names that mateo uses. these are bound to be special."

recognition of unregistered moves were quick, having been familiarized with pokemon moves that range from gimmicky to meta for his battle simulator games.

"i think it's fine if we let them copy off of each other here."

the best place to experiment with battles is a wide open space that no one will get mad about when it gets destroyed; his backyard fits the description.