the sun? he wasn't one. he is nothing but a shell of his former self, unable to compare to the dark side of Zev Harcourt's unending night.

if anything, he is more comparable to dusk-- a setting sun that has lost its brilliance and is bound for retirement after it did it's job.

"i... i'm not the hero you guys think i am," he murmurs.

he has met a lot of people who had high praises for the person who shared his name. slowly, he has been coming into terms with his situation, but there will never be the right combination of words to convey what truly was in his head.

"i'm not him. i'm not the top champion. i'm not the avatar of ho-oh. i'm just a guy in this world!"

his voice subconsciously rises with each world. he abhors status, and the responsibility that comes with power is something he will always deny should he have a choice. ho-oh's touch is what constitutes the kyle people perceive.

"i'm sorry. i didn't want to disappoint." he breathes, heavy with weariness.

his electivire eases up, feeling the distress coming from his trainer. the adrenaline has died down as it empathizes with both parties.

he would have kept moving had he not connected the relationship between the titan and the man before him. acting rashly would put him in a position that further implicates himself and his pokemon to danger.

kyle decides to play this interaction out.

the electivire is ordered to stop, skidding by its feet just before they manage to move away from where the drunkard can see him. keeping the golem in his peripheral, he opens his mouth.

"y-yeah?"

there is no shred of confidence that the champion that howard once knew had, but he kept all the awkwardness. his nerves were obvious to those perceptive enough, teased by the situation of danger and forced social interaction, but luckily, inebriation was on his side.

"are you going to claim i know you too?"

it was a common trend.

"it is, yeah," kyle would find himself agreeing at eddie's statement, smiling at the thought.

legs start darting across the ashen wetlands. sneakers scrape through the ground as a hand comes into level with them, grabbing blades of grass that would turn into a literal definition of it.

"and why is it that this dumbass can't get that simple fact in his head?"

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like needles, grass forged by fire were thrown as weapons towards eddie's direction.

and like clockwork, the sword moves in the trajectory kyle assume he would.

its large body swerves to the direction of kyle's attempt of an attack, finding the flourish and speed reminiscent of virizion's moves. blocking the feeble excuse of an offensive with its sturdy body while simultaneously posturing to defend against its pupil's attack, dissuading eddie's attempt to help in the process.

"why can't he just make both of our lives easier by hearing me out? i listen to him!"

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drops of rain start to fall overhead. between the tossing motion and the posturing of the colt, a momentary drizzle made by shooting water upwards was made without anyone noticing.

terrakion starts to doubt itself more as the voice hammers in the same authority of cobalion-- paving the way for his mentee to shine while showing off calm, collected conviction behind awkward words.

he grits its teeth. brandishing its sword against one final clash. under its previous partner's glare, it relinquishes its role on the defensive, mind clouded by the environment's effect. eddie's support continues to be disregarded under the pretense that he is a friend to be protected.

"this is the border. lose now and you'll lose forever." the tone shifts with kyle solely addressing terrakion. "take your sword up. you'll finish this the way you intended the ending to be."

keldeo knows. he has learned from the best, and terrakion becomes the audience to his pupil's showmanship. the phenomenal power to destroy a castle in its effort to protect pokemon, as told by legends, is to be showcased by the ever so growing secret sword that comes crashing down against terrakion's own sacred sword.

the sound of snapping fingers resonates with the swish of keldeo's sword. kyle points to the clash of swords.

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though he never actually had any feat that showcased it, kyle always found a way to make things work. unconventional ways to solve a problem had always been there, taking advantage of background details that had not been noticed due to more prevalent stars shining brighter on the spotlight.

there is no background this time. left to wallow with his own subpar skills in the isolation of the darkness, kyle faces the inevitability of what everyone expects from being too deep into rocket territory.

"w-wake!"

another pokemon is released alongside his other paradox pokemon, though it does nothing to change the outcome. ancient power and flamethrower do not get the chance to be launched at their best as both are overcome with a flurry of petals.

those on his side were unable to defend against the entirety of the fairy's attack. kyle serves as the collateral from standing too close to his dragons, flung to the ground as fatigue and injuries pile up.

the day was uneventful. he shouldn't have went, he concludes. the defeatist goes to bed, as with every other day when he doesn't feel like doing anything anymore.

entei appears from the shadows, flashing a gaze at zev as it retrieves what had been the emergent. answers may have been given to zev's own thoughts, though it comes with contradictions.

ever the guardian beyond titles, the obligation remained after the termination of the contract. though it leaves it until the last minute, entei will be leaving with its ward.

the gyarados immediately sweeps its aqua tail across the ground, scraping through soil and dirt as it expels a wave from the wake of its move.

a second chance is enough to shake him off from his daze. it only takes an instance for kyle to return to his wit and pragmatism, assessing the situation for the best course for a getaway.

it's enough to push its trainer far enough from the rock slide, where escaping by foot would have been for naught. a sacrifice is immediately met with a quick flash of the pokeball's recall function, not wanting to leave his pokemon unable to returned from underneath the rubble.

there is no 'winning'. the titan is meant to overpower, and overpower it did. a roundabout way of salvaging the situation from hopelessness was needed to be done for a chance to meet his objective.

philanthropy, he tells himself.

he taps a pokeball on his waist instead of throwing them. electivire appears just beside him, and a simple motion instructs the pokemon to carry him as they run.

reminded of why he was here, he desperately tells himself to get a move on. "i'm activating your motor drive," he whispers to his pokemon.

producing a stun gun, he stabs the electivire with his tool. a small jolt of electricity, relative to what pokemon experience, should be enough to jump start the procedure.

the pokemon starts to circle around with the trainer on its arm. motor drive starts to become evident with its acceleration during its attempt to outmaneuver, accompanied with an earthquake in an attempt to slow down any advance.

a bodyguard.

kyle may not have needed one before, but the new arrangement opens up opportunities for noah to show off in ways he has not been able to. it's a cliche, but it was an overused trope for a reason.

when noah brings kyle's hand close, kyle feels the same warmth behind the words.

"how about i bring you to all of them?" he cheekily teases noah, smirking as he catches noah's eyes. "then i'll be forced to reward you appropriate to the service delivered."

despite being worded as a business transaction, both of them knew that it was all for fun and games.

he jumps to his chair, swiveling his seat to the front of his monitor on his desk. the screen shows a folder of email full of subjects titled with the wildest things possible.

another difference between his business and the reports sent to the rangers and the league officers was that the ones brought to him are informal and casual. despite of these, they were still treated the same given that there are offers attached.

"they're just little trips to these "scary" places. i'm basically just asked to debunk them, which i'm sure is easy if there's logical explanations behind them."

more often than not, they were works of the mind, brought to this world by people's paranoia of how hoenn experiences the signs of the world's end. on the other hand, there's a small chance that they actually are something new-- things that kyle find interesting.

unknowingly, his eyes remain on noah instead of moving to the monitor, where he can scroll through the list.

it feels selfish not to recognize the priorities of those who work at the background. he dips his head in shame, smiling to compromise with his need to laugh at himself, before he breaks off from their embrace.

his hands hold noah's, swinging them underneath as he takes his reflection into words.

"i guess i'm taking things for granted."

his smile turns melancholic.

"your role in the entire thing... i have to say that it's kind of hot." despite being unable to hold eye contact, he is equally unable to hide the sheepish smiles.

there's more to his sentiment, but there's little to say to describe them in words. he swallows, and then finally steels himself to look at him straight in the eye.

"i guess that explains why you're always here." he locks their fingers. "do you think i should ditch these requests then? spooky season has me high in demand these days."

explanations for the unknown are much scarier on hoenn where no one knows where the divide between reality and fiction start. the league has posted similar missions in the past, and his job list included those that fell in the cracks of what was considered an immediate problem.

despite the gravity of noah's words, kyle always has his touch on swerving the conversation to his comfort zone.

"some of them are hilarious. do you want to see them?"

"birthday?"

he takes out his phone and checks the date. he squints and sighs. how many years has it been that his birthday has gone forgotten? in his head, ever since he returned to hoenn from blackthorn, johto. in this reality, it was celebrated every year.

his eyes return to the reason of the celebration, and the first to remember every time.

"o-oh." there's a deadpan expression that shifts to a slight smile, and then a single chuckle. "of course you would remember."

he takes the album and stared at the cover. he could parse the content, but the gift is below the visitor on his priority list. kyle places it on a nearby table where the baton laid as he spreads his arms, the hands motioning noah to come at him.

"come on. give it to me."

kyle hadn't been the type to be comfortable with physical touch, but he feels no aversion with noah. he meets him at the middle for the embrace, squeezing tightly once they meet.

"give me around a week, then i'll be free for a month or something." he says it in jest, but it was always said that jokes are sometimes half meant.

a police cap and a collar constitutes the mabosstiff's halloween costume. it does both the celebration of the festivities and the indication of his role for the night.

walking down the streets of slateport, it patrols to monitor the neighborhood in search for offenders of the city's peace. they were tasked to keep things safe for the children enjoying the brief moment of quiet, and each pokemon recruited intends it to stay that way.

the mabosstiff finds itself on a shadier part of the street, walking with children that happen to wander way to close to the areas hidden from plain view.

intimidate does the trick. with only a few seconds to do the act before being caught, those that planned to be too into their tricks are unable to act it out in the presence of a pokemon that can easily spoil their delusions.

"oh!"

kyle fully opens the window and helps noah in, dragging him from the ledge of the window from his second story apartment with his belt. he makes room for him to drop on his floor.

"why would you even enter from there? that's crazy."

fortunately, the crazy is the part that brings him attention.

the extended baton is pointed at noah, touching his chest, until he notices the object with him, where the weapon traces the path towards it until it touches the album.

"it's late. is this an emergency or something?"

the baton is retracted, and then stashed away on a nearby table. he takes a glance at his wall clock. a few minutes past midnight, it says.

fear implants itself with the sight of the titan.

he finds little hope in defeating it from the get-go. pessimism leads him to hopelessness, especially since being faced with the unknown prevented him from making any logical decision.

survive. it's the least he can do.

"th-thunder wave."

the gyarados releases its electricity at the golem as per his trainer's command. despite putting on a brave front, pressure from facing a great threat is shared between trainer and pokemon.

the heart palpitates as kyle scrambles to find a route away from the encounter.