People said that absolute power corrupted absolutely. Others said that money was the root of all evil. Another subset asserted that wealth changed people. His girlfriend apparently thought all three were true. One day their non-profit had been humming along, and the next he walked in on her packing things into shipping boxes. The conversation that followed was one of the most hurtful he ever remembered having. Even now—as he strolled through an apartment building he was thinking of buying--her barbs still dug into him.


The stuff the company got caught for after he ousted the old man was not his fault. It wasn’t like he could just derail millions in investments because something suddenly made her squeamish. He wasn’t the one who had changed. She’d just suddenly cared where all the money came from. Fortunately, the talk of the piggy’s name was a good distraction. “Pfffft.” The man shook off the hard look in his eyes in exchange for giggling. Some part of him would always be a 13-year-old boy. “I’d go with Emperor Oinkatus. Or, Pigpen.” Suddenly, the Comfey was grateful for her new moniker. It could have been so much worse.

Ozni watched as another Pokemon vanished into a ball. “Apparently it was a rare species and some hippies got up in arms about rebuilding. And nobody wanted to touch it with a 10-foot pole after that.” So, with the downfall of it, these Pokemon around them had gained a safe place to call their own. Seeing the strange habitat that had formed, the planned teardown was starting to seem like a bad idea.


When Nikky discussed his rationale, the man nodded. “I guess that makes sense.” Kind of like a museum versus an art collector. One actually interacted with what they collected and the other kept it behind walls and action-movie laser beams. “Have a pretty big yard for them, I take it?” His garden really looked out of place in this wartorn region, especially with the native Alolan vegetation everywhere.


“Glad to hear things are on the up-and-up. Hopefully, that driver got his fair share of community service.” The man approached the staircase down to the third floor. “We better hope we don’t find any Zubat.” He winked as he tugged the door open. Two Pokemon, frightened by the sudden light exploded into a flurry of movement. The Banette made a strange hissing noise before phasing through a wall.


The bird meanwhile charged up the stairs, bowling the CEO to the ground in a flurry of kicks. “Shit!” The man yelped as he lifted his hands above his head. One arm moved to protect the little Comfey as he huddled over it. “Chill out, Big Bird! Geeze!”


Fumbling at his belt, the man moved to press a ball to the mad lad’s side. An angry slash ran down one side of his cheek. Which was definitely better than it could have been. Those dang things could disembowel a Pyroar.

Attempting to catch the Doduo!

Neither of Ozzy's name choices were cute or cool. So he just shrugged. "Agree to disagree." The man did give him a reason why this part was never torn down. A rare species of Pokemon. Interesting. Well, he has gotten a fair few rare Pokemon around the place, so it made sense. "Big enough. Many of them help out around the store too. Sol is security, Slick the Bagon and Gojira the Larvitar help out with stocking shelves and putting up displays, as directed by Optimus the Metang. Lee the Lucario is becoming my main DJ helper. And so on." So far the neighbors hadn't bothered him or anything. And he made enough to live off of with just the interest from some investments that his family made on his behalf. The retail thing was more for his own mental benefit than anything. Though there were downsides, he often found himself in a better headspace with the good sides.

"Jail time actually. Wasn't his first offense, and this time actually hurt someone. Didn't seem too remorseful. Plus had other charges as well. So yeah, he got punished." Ozzy opened the door after making a poor joke about Zubat. What he got instead was a mad Banette that disappeared and a Doduo attacking him. The guy tried to catch it. "I don't have any bandages...might see urgent care. You got a couple scratches, and those aren't always good to leave alone." The blondes knee was starting to bother him too. "Let's see what else we can find quick. My knee is starting to bother me, and that's usually time to call it quits."


Ozni Adebayo

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Ozni Adebayo CAUGHT THE DODUO!

On went the Krookodile tears. Those Adebayo blues filled with faux moisture as the lanky man forced his bottom lip to quibble. “Et tu Nikky?” A melodramatic gasp tore from his throat. “ Your words wound me.” Which he did have by the way—no matter what Twitter said. But the faux stagger that followed ended pretty quickly. He’d just been teasing. His tendency towards flippancy made the moments where he took shit seriously really unnerving. Fortunately, this wasn’t one of them. “Whatever floats your Gogoat, dude.”


As long as the Pokemon had someplace to stretch, the number didn’t really matter to him. Even if the space compression thing was like his worst nightmare. He was too tall for tight spaces. Courtesy of his grandfather the scarecrow man. “What kind of store are we talking about?” The talk of his Pokemon assistants was met with a whistle. Keeping the names in his family straight was hard enough. This sounded like a nightmare. “Man, if I run into you again, you gotta tell me where those names come from.” Sure, some made sense—like Gojira. But what was Slick about a Bagon?


“Good the cops did their jobs for once." Ozni murmured at the talk of jail time. Some part of him wished he’d get to see his dad in orange, but being wealthier than Midas had perks. Foremost amongst these was a talent for escaping the not-so-long arm of the law. “Well, here’s hoping the guy actually learns something from all of that.” A lot of people got out of the clink angrier than a rabid Emolga. From what he’d seen, it had the opposite effect of whatever genius thought it up intended.


With the bird in his pocket, Oz pushed himself into a sitting position. His hand reached up to investigate the worse of the scratches, wincing. A bit of floral healing from the Comfey served to stem the bleeding. “This better not scar.” He muttered to himself as he stood. Wiping his blood off with a designer sleeve, he moved into the staircase. Above, an old lightbulb still swung. “Or this place will get the worst Yelp review.” A lot of his faux bravado was gone, replaced with a shaken surliness. “0/5. Totally haunted. Rabid birds. Tacky curtains. Would NOT recommend.”


Before long, he emerged back out on the ground floor. Only a scuttling Zigzagoon and a Mawile interrupted their progress. Just outside the building, an electric sportscar sat, its lights now glowing a bright blue. Oz jerked one hand toward it. "You good?"

Niky just smiled and patted the crying man on the top of the head. Ozzy asked about the store. "Record store. Vinyl, CDs, digital downloads, etc. Also some periferals, from players to headphones and stereo systems that often are compatible with TVs." The man's comment about his nicknames did make him smile. They didn't have the time to go over that this trip. But maybe if the guy visited. Though the blonde did doubt the drunk would learn his lesson. The Comfey helped out a little with healing the man's minor wounds at least a little bit. They also found a couple more Pokemon watching them curiously, but neither of them he was interested in catching. Laughing at the prospect of a Yelp review, he started down the stairs. Outside was a sportscar. Obviously Ozzy's. "Yeah, I'm good. My store is in Rustboro. If you're around, feel free to stop by it. Hopefully I'll see you later, Ozzy." With that, he started to walk off around the building to get to the main part of Mauville.


Ozni Adebayo