"that's a start," he subtly jokes about. "you have plenty of friends. go hang out and socialize. maybe you can find things in common with them and see if there's something that will interest you while you recover."

he just needs a few things to take his mind off of responsibility for a while. raikou was a solution, but it wouldn't always be an option. besides, kyle would rather have josh cultivate his relationships.

to get into danger from pushing himself too hard wouldn't just be a bother to his own well-being, but also those that care for him. kyle would rather have josh realize that himself, as opposed to what was suggested by the tone of the gym leader when he asked the question.

"i would say no," he answers josh. kyle raises two fingers up as he reclines back to his chair. "but there's two things."

"one: a single vote from a problematic member wouldn't be enough to settle a discussion."

kyle hopes that clears up the air from josh singling out a person. he always had been prone to tunneling, and even if matias did make the difference, it was better to correct misconceptions than form false truths from a coincidence.

"two: have you asked yourself if there could be any other reason besides a vendetta?"

the noise is immediately met with resistance.

kyle covers his ears as greyson summons a noivern to beat it at its own game. kyle respects it more than he probably should, but when his ears couldn't handle the combined noise, he drops his own help.

he tries to recall its typing, but the splitting headache forces him to default to a jigglypuff's normal typing for his choice instead. a honedge pops out of his ball, who shadow sneaks its way to the paradox pokemon.

its sash wraps around the scream tail, closing its mouth while forcing it to listen to the boomburst.

kyle wasn't the best teacher out there, but neither was navy if he's going to instruct him with what can basically be translated to 'trust your pokemon.'

"that would be easy if this was my cyclizar!" he complains as he gets up. "and it doesn't feel fair if i get an innocent lizzy caught up in my shenanigans."

he lets the pokemon get back on its feet and scramble away. in the meant time, he takes out a pokemon.

"well, good morning to you then."

his ninetales appears on the field, snow warning heralding his entry. with the same coldness that directly contrasts the heat they experienced earlier, it manifests aurora veils that compound itself one after the other in preparation of the dialga's next attack.

"and now that i'm awake, i realize that you're choosing picking exactly the opposite of surviving."

they could be snowboarding away, but navy wanted otherwise.

"don't worry about that," he'd playfully dismiss with a wave of his hand. "we all wanted that win anyways."

to think that she works in a museum rather than as a ranger, like most of the volunteers during that trip, piques kyle interest more than it should.

"but a curator, huh? what got you interested in helping out that day?" he asks her. "usually, people leave the job to rangers and officers."

hoenn has an unusually high amount of people who put themselves in danger unnecessarily. usually, it's from a high regard of social responsibility. sometimes, it's morbid curiosity. those that claim otherwise are usually in denial.

his eyes wander to the exhibit she was previously setting up as he waits for a response.

he responds with a smile.

"busy is an overstatement. i do know how to pace myself," he subtly takes a jab at josh's workaholic nature as a joke.

for a busybody like the gym leader, kyle can only assume that his confinement in bed hurts more than the injury he procured. he listens to his words as he looks around for a chair, unfolding a steel one and seating himself near a wall.

"well, don't worry about me too much," he reassures josh. "i didn't have to do much since people like yourself pull more weight than what's expected from you."

at the end of the day, kyle was still human. despite being an avatar, he still has his limitations, and what gets him out unscathed more often than not is the recognition of said limits.

still, he figured that maybe he was pulling himself back too soon, an unlikely behavior from a champion.

"and you already got to ride raikou multiple times! are you sure you don't want to do anything else for your birthday?"

"call me kyle," he introduces himself, followed with a show of a badge as a police officer.

terrakion shouts and rushes back to action, leaving kyle behind to explain everything to noel.

"tl;dr, poachers are mad that we're trying to shut down their operations." he turns his head from him to the area where they came from. "it's a little back and forth since it's just me, but i'll manage."

he was about to follow his pokemon, but he stops to explain the situation first.

"rare pokemon have been getting targeted en masse, as well as trainers who stumble on their territory among other stuff. they've been getting aggressive lately since those weird pokemon have become easier to obtain, and so it got easier to track their movements since then."

things like paradox pokemon and ultra beasts were dangerous when used against new trainers. kyle smiles as he raises a brow to appeal to the other trainer.

"the sooner we clear this, the less trouble you're going to get if you plan on staying near petalburg," he adds as a cherry on top.

"n-no..." he answers with doubt. "hoopa was supposed to be trapped with kyurem in a different dimension. i wasn't sure if that ability of his transcends it."

then again, their first encounter with it was indeed in their nightmares. despite being familiar with the concept, kyle wasn't an expert to know the differentiation between other universes and dreams.

"gordin!" he shouts, and a smeargle fumbles from the first floor to the basement. "hyperspace hole, quick!"

as the smeargle attempts to open a portal from a newly closed one, kyle turns to his silvally on the ground, who paws any jumpluff that falls on the floor back in the air.

"you concentrate on trying to establish a portal back with the place that just closed up," he orders the smeargle. "i guess we have to deal with these before all these spores mess up with our stuff down here."

an arduous task for the smeargle who just entered the room, but it's willing to try anyways with what it can work with. kyle's head assumes that any dimensional inconsistency should ease the process, but never was it as easy as video game theories suggest.

in the mean time, kyle has his silvally actually stand up and swat the jumpluffs down. one by one, kyle takes a pokeball out to capture each of them to be released outside.

fans were nothing new, but they were uncommon, especially to the likes of the revolving cast of the elite four. a cop couldn't possibly compete against the fame of established pop idols, kanto war veterans and other people who excelled in fields outside the circuit.

"boys, i'm sorry that your friend has a bad taste in people to idolize."

kyle prints out their ticket for over speeding, rips it out of the machine, and then takes the pen from his front pocket out.

"there really are better ones out there, but i really need to stay loyal to the few fans i have."

he turns the piece of paper to its back and then signs his signature on the citation ticket itself. it wasn't showy, nor was it loud. it's pretty average in itself, especially with the lousy 'kyle lopez' written in print right beside it.

"i would give you a complimentary key chain, but this isn't the right function for that." and it wasn't like he has souvenirs from sponsored league events around at all times.

he would have followed MATIAS SILPH to make sure he doesn't turn hostile, or other people otherwise. it's the certain name that kept buzzing in the room that took his attention.

alexander. alex. good to see you again, alex. nice to meet you, alex.

he turns to the direction and sees ALEXANDER STONE surrounded by a crowd. the ever so social butterfly that he is, kyle isn't surprised that he's in his element. he isn't even surprised that he came back to life after all the weird things that happened to hoenn, much less the fact that the portal to the border opened up and delivered him to them in a bag.

one by one, people who greeted the former champion disperse, leaving him with illeana reyes and Elise Calcifet .

"you didn't tell me you were back!" kyle greets ALEXANDER STONE with a smile on his face, approaching the group with a hand balled to a fist and a feigned excitement.

a light jab was thrown at ALEXANDER STONE 's shoulder.

"oh, nice to meet you guys too," he greets the people standing beside him. "i wasn't thinking of staying for long."

another light jab was thrown at ALEXANDER STONE 's shoulder.

"but i haven't seen alex in a while-"

another light jab was thrown at ALEXANDER STONE 's shoulder.

"and i wasn't informed that my predecessor-"

another light jab was thrown at ALEXANDER STONE 's shoulder.

"was back-"

another light jab was thrown at ALEXANDER STONE 's shoulder.

"without informing a friend."

another light jab was thrown at ALEXANDER STONE 's shoulder.

"can i have my poochyena back?"

it grows ever so hot as the unbearable warmth races after them. they have felt it before, when both of them had to save a certain cruise ship from an onslaught of dragon-types.

and once again, dragon-types rule the scenario, with cyclizar as their ride, and dialga as their savior.

they appear elsewhere, and the dialga's role shifts from savior to assailant.

"i'm not very awake for this, navy," he whines. "can we just die and restart over for an easier scenario?"

despite being the avatar of a pokemon renown for reincarnation and revivals, kyle has never once experienced it outside of his initial coronation as ho-oh's chosen. he supposed he now can with the rks simulations.

"let's go, cyclizar."

he reels the pokemon he was riding to the side, who barely dodges the charge of the temporal pokemon. it tries to drift with shift gear, but the impact of the dialga sent shoc kwaves that toppled the pokemon over.

kyle supposed that's enough to wake him up.

the explosion is the first thing that tickles his stimulus.

"what the fuck was that?"

he looks at his back and sees a volcano. it takes him a second to register the uneven movement below him when his legs aren't even moving. he looks down and sees a cyclizar.

"why are we being pushed straight into action? i wasn't ready!" he complains.

with too much information overload, and the situation being a simulation, thus not actually having them in danger, kyle doesn't mind being indecisive and be an ornament to the sheriff.

a fork on the road presents them with two choices.

"sheriff, which way?" he asks. "you're more awake than i am. i can't think right now."