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That must be why you actually do shit for this region and people like Silph come from assburg or something,'' he thought in response to Kyle's admission of heritage. ''Shit. I dunno. Becoming one of the Elite Four is something I'd day.'' Again he shrugged. ''Can't say I'd ever want the job though.'' When you were young responsibility was a curse.
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At the confession of the man shirking his duties Andy chuckled. It seemed some things carried over into adulthood. Skating along just behind and beside his 'date' he wondered just what day to day entanglements a member of the Elite Four had. Surely there wasn't as much desk jockeying and paperwork as a councilor or the commissioner.
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Then again, the League made no sense, so perhaps so.
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''That sounds right.'' It was assumed this commentary was on the League since Andy had bought it up. ''I don't got to imagine too much though. Met some of the leadership, and it don't exactly inspire hope. Silph seems like he's got his head up his ass and Goode? I dunno. Seems too... passive? Maybe it's supposed to be diplomatic. What are the rest of them like?''

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''It's a long story, mate.'' Intitally he didn't want to kill the mood the evening by getting absorbed into a bitch fest that could last anywhere to the next five minutes to the rest of the night. As always, the boy was still tempted. Doug did make a good point about the use of high profile trainers to drum up interest in whatever event was being marketed.
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''Yeah, you got a point. He's probably just some mouth piece.'' The agreement came with a shrug. ''Probably all he's good for,'' he mumbled. It seemed like the older boy was genuinely interested in hearing his gripes about the man though, as he encouraged him again. It seemed only fair, since he had made Doug spill his guts earlier.
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''A lot of trainers came into Mauville through a forest on the outskirts. I was going to just sit my ass in there and snipe at all the naganadels hovering around. You know, try not to fucking die.'' The strategy didn't seem any less poor now that he thought back on it. ''Only the megalopolans had these kartana things hidden in the trees.''
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Air escaped his nostrils as he scoffed.
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''Don't ask me how a shitload of white and orange pokemon managed to hide, but whatever.'' Again, he shrugged, although a little more forcefully this time. ''So I have to fight off getting swarmed by those fuckers and then when I finally get a breather, I notice the whole place is starting to catch fire.'' His hands were thrown around for some vague illustration.
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''I look around and notice this big ass camerupt just puking fire all into the woods. I know I wasn't the only bastard in there either. So, Rav carries me over to it so I can figure out what the fuck is going on and it's Balder Schwartz. I ask him why he's got the IQ of a biscuit and he gets handsy with me.'' Of course he had left out any representation of his foe's point of view.
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As one does.
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''Then after the battle is all said and done, that class A shitpot Fernando Silph calls me to Slateport to bitch at me for being at Mauville and I made one joke and he has me detained.'' At this point both the intensity and octave of his voice have risen significantly. ''I was the one to go fight those two megalopolan cunts Pillipermosa and Coliretard.'' His arms crossed over his chest in a 'humph!'
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''I didn't see his ass defending this nation, fucking armchair warrior.''

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On the flight there he considered prodding Doug about a flygon really being a type of bug. No flaw was spotted with the older trainer's logic, he just wanted to see how riled up he could get him. There would be other times for that however. Right now there were megalopolans that needed to meet their end, and Andy was eager to bring it to them.
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As the sergeant dropped onto a dune, he too landed to disembark, though his own two pokemon stayed by his side. He pushed the goggles up away from his eyes to get a better lookout from their perch. Doug observed that all was close to readiness, and his own excitement and anxiety was building all the while. This felt like it was going to be much more fun than Mauville.
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Provided no one died.
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''Are we going straight in when everyone's ready?'' Although there were more important things to consider. ''Just how many prisoners do you need?'' It would feel like sacrilege to let them all walk. After all, one of the few solid details from HNN was that these megelopolans were leftovers from Mauville.
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The degree of mercy shouldn't have been too high.

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Observing the brief battle in the bushes and the battered kadabra being hauled out by the lycanroc gave him flashbacks to their encounter in Slateport. He saw the pokemon's propensity for violence hadn't dampened much. Perhaps it was just the nature of more physically capable pokemon. His ghosts were more about abstract attacks.
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''Aye. One of the few psychics that aren't creepy as hell.'' His personal opinions were repeated as fact, like any good human being. Few fell into the category of 'cool' when it came to psychic types. His claydoll still made him uneasy, but the utility was too good. On the flip side, he saw his slowbro as no threat at all, and even sort of hated it.
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But again, the utility was too good.
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''Doug?'' A quiet moment of consideration came as Andy determined just how much to share about him and the bug catcher. ''I met him getting ice cream. His dewpider ate his. You can't trust some weird alien looking shit like a dewpider. After that we uh, hung out a couple of times. We had dinner, like a big camp soup. He said he's looking after you.''
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Not the exact words he used, but at the moment he wasn't sure how to frame it.
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A noise then caught his attention. Stepping off the path with some attempted stealth, he peered through the brush to an interesting scene. An oricorio was performing a dance for an audience. The color of the feathers told Andy that it was the sensu variation, a ghost type. Part of him wondered if was the same one he had chased off on one of his previous trips to Mt. Pyre.
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''Hideo,'' he whispered. ''Wish you could see this shit. An oricorio is dancing for some pumpkaboos.'' Every once an a while one of the pumpkin pokemon would do a little twirl to participate. ''Epitaph.'' It was time to make a plan, but the gangar was already pushing past him. ''What are you doing,'' he hissed under his breath.
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The pale ganger waltzed right into the little pokemon party, all participants freezing at the sight of the newcomer. When Epitaph got close enough he started to bust out with some moves himself. He flailed his arms. He shook his buttnub. His head spikes rose and fell. The other ghost types watched in either horror or amusement. Andy buried his face in his hand.
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''I take it back. Probably best you can't see this fucking clown.'' Picking out a pumpkaboo, Epitaph's eyes once again became a light show, and the little pumpkin seemed to freeze. The others, knowing exactly what had just happened either froze in surprise or bristled in preparation for an attack. Andy had to admit, he wanted to see if his gangar could take them all.

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''Wow. Why would you shit on my excellent Galarian genes by suggesting such a thing?'' Of course he didn't even try to sound upset. The bad jokes were a good away to shake off the rather risky situation they were all in. A lava filled hell hole. The land legend groudon himself. Andy is more interested in the glowing artifact the prince recovered however.
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''What is that?'' Given that Remiel seemed to enjoy his nerdy exposition, he was sure he would hear all about it. So enthralled with the hot rock that he hardly noticed Dross' own discovery. Though it wasn't as if he would even really know what it was. The prince was more concerned with the lava flow that was slowly encroaching on them.
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Andy couldn't blame him.
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''Best you stick close,'' he told his glistening gengar, who had thus far been cowed into silence by the exotic environment. The ghost shimmered into a dark smoke that flowed into the boy's shadow. The cooling sensation of the ghost type's presence was welcome in the lava filled chamber. His marowak disappeared back into her ball, and a flygon appeared in her place.
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''Draco, follow up with a dragon rush.''

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''Being a slowpoke's where its woes started,'' he sneered, peeking around the oblivious pokemon. Mopping at his face with his sleeve, the boy continued. ''Do you even read the dex on these things? They don't feel pain, and for damn sure have no concept of respect.'' Remembering back to the pokedex entry at its mention, something popped into his head.
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The shellder was the powerhouse of this cell.
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''That's why people eat them so much. Almost all they're bloody good for.'' Aiming the pokemon's head back towards the shrine, he crouched down to focus on the slowbro's passenger. Reaching down the length of the tail, he rapped on its shell and its eyes flicked open not long after. ''Yo.'' He gave a small wave. ''Mate, I need you to make this thing not stupid.''
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The shellder blinked, seemingly uncaring, until Epitaph poofed into mist and slithered across the ground to reform behind Andy, pulling his own mouth wide, rolling his eyes into the back of his head and shaking his tongue around widely. All of this combined with the genger's off appearance surprised the crustacean causing it bite down.
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This time the slowbro sprouted water right at the fire.

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''Huh!? Startled, the boy jumped slightly when someone spoke to him. Was that a Galarian accent? It wasn't important right at the moment, but in the back of his head he thought it was odd that he kept running into fellow countrymen left and right. A disparaging glance was cast at the blond's surskit. Despite much less complicated physiology, it was creepier than Doug's dewpider.
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''I'll have a poke at it then,'' he said, following the man's advice. Turning the slowbro's head to glare at it right in the eyes he stomped on its tail. ''Water pulse!'' The creature's lips instantly parted to blast the boy's face with a brief spurt of water. If looks could kill the slowbro, Billi, and the entire city of Mauville would be smoke-filled crater.
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''You are made of bitch,'' he growled at the slowbro. Epitaph pointed and laughed at his trainer, ''Gegegegegege!''

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It occurred to him that the last time Hideo's parents came up he mentioned that they didn't allow much. He understood to a degree. The boy was blind. But to never let him live would have him grow into a man who was both weak and blind. It was something he could never understand: parents encouraging their kids to be satisfied within hiding in their weaknesses.
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''The selfsame wooden bastards, aye,'' he confirmed the kid's suspicions. ''Doug helped patch me up. I'm too fab to be broken by some pissed off tree, mate.'' He really should have gone to the hospital, but to him that would have been an example of wallowing in weakness. So instead he had just griped to their mutual friend until assistance was rendered.
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Of course, he hadn't exactly done it on purpose.
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''Woah!'' Stopping, he motioned for the other boy to do the same. Hopefully the lycanroc would make sure the signal was properly relayed. On a distant branch sat a wide-eyed dreepy. While it was one of those pokemon Andy considered so ugly that it was cute, he knew full well the useful creature it could become.
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A real diamond in the rough.
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''Taph,'' he whispered to his gengar. Nothing was better to fight a ghost type than another ghost type. He didn't want to scare it off. ''Don't hurt the little bugger. Wee thing's just a baby.'' The gengar setting his sights on it, his red eyes flashed a dazzling array of colors for a brief moment to hypnotize the dragon. It hovered down towards them under his sway.
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''Annnnd, got it!'' Pressing a pokeball to it, it was inhaled. ''Might be small, but that's a big one off the list,'' he said with a grin back towards Hideo. A rustling of bushes caused him to swivel his head back around quickly. ''Kadabra...?'' The brief flux of psychic energy had drawn its attention.

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The cool sensation that filled the fair, tickled his skin, was the familiar presence of a ghost pokemon. Now this is what he had come for. Carefully maneuvering through a thick stand of trees, it wasn't long before he caught a glimpse of the shining mono eye of a duskull. Smirking, he found this specimen perfect for his collection, a quality befitting the ground of the safari zone.
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He motioned to Epitaph to get ready.

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In a rare instance in his life, he truly found himself with nothing to say to his date's retort. It seemed the older boy had little tolerance for such pessimism, which would either bode well or poor for any relationship. In other words, he had no idea. However as he had alluded to earlier, he did in fact admire the peace and quiet.
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''Well, yeah.'' Doug led him to one of the seats and sat right down. With a moment of hesitating movements, he finally timed flicking the tails of his coat far enough away from his butt to avoid sitting on them, and joined him. Rather than ground however, he sat on the log to avoid dirtying his britches. His aunt's butler would give him quite the sting if got disgusting on purpose.
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Even Mauville had required some explaining.
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''I... I don't know. Most of the time Christmas has been pretty... drab,'' he said with a slight shrug. At the mention of the festivities planned at Fortree, Andy recalled seeing fliers. ''Right. I think that's that idiot Schwartz's deal. You know that dick head almost got me completely killed? Didn't get in no trouble for it neither.'' Of course he realized he was being a negative nancy again.
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''Maybe he's just the brainchild and more competent people are getting it done, though.''

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A smirk also spread across his face at Doug's poor attempt at sarcasm. He had to admit though, it wouldn't have bothered him at all if they had issued the sergeant with a smart looking uniform. 'Man in uniform' was definitely a button somewhere within his psychology. Though it impressed him more how willingly they would cover for him.
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A look crossed his face when Doug mentioned keeping his mouth shut, with a pointed wink. It almost triggered a tirade about how he could walk right into the nearest HNN station with camera footage of the war crimes he wished to commit against the megalopolans and they still would put out only the vaguest of articles. But his gift assuaged such an outburst.
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''Aw, cool! Thanks.'' Goggles were the second coolest eyewear after aviators, which would also have been fitting all things considered. ''If it was daytime we coulda attacked out of the sun. Moon's not as bright though.'' He liked the amount of planning his fellow trainer had put into all of this. It was surprisingly tactical for the 'bumpkin kid' persona Doug emitted.
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''Ah blimey! Is that a shiny?'' The appearance of the flygon elicited an exited response. Now his own was going to seem way less cool. ''When did you catch that? Thought you were all about the bug types?'' None the less, he drew two pokeballs. From one came the familiar Ravana. From the other spawn his own, much plainer flygon.
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''Close formation. Got it,'' he confirmed as he climbed atop the green dragon. ''You two follow Doug's lead, hear me?'' The yanmega was already hovering above the sand, ''yanmega.'' Ravana was dutiful as ever. ''Flaaa!'' The flygon fluttered its wings to create their trademark hum.

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After he stepped out onto the ice, he got a feel for the skates rather quickly. Back home, he had had his own pair. When he came to Hoenn, the climate pretty much guaranteed that he would never use them. Wearing rentals made him wish he hadn't left them, even just for hygienic reasons. Sliding up to the older trainer, he maintained his balance well enough even while still.
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''Nah mate.'' The answer seemed to end abruptly as a million rude things to say popped into his head to be tacked onto the end. This wasn't some random League goon however, so his head is where they stayed. ''Galarian. I didn't know you were from Johto though.'' He shrugged. ''Never been.'' Andy wasn't sure he wanted to travel that much.
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Hell, he wasn't sure he was really happy about traveling as much as he had.
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''What made you sign up for something like this, Mr. Lopez? League work boring you?'' Since it seemed highly unlikely a kid like him would ever climb the ranks, he was curious what the day to day of the League's upper echelon was really like. It was assumed Kyle had to play twenty questions with the lower orders often, so he was probably used to it.

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Now his back straightened as he pushed himself up from the banister a bit, his interest piqued. Benoit had come on his own? The mention of personal questions cause him to lift an eyebrow over his pained grimace. Just what kind of waves had be been making? Andy hadn't remembered seeing Thomas at Mauville personally, but the battle was of such a scale, plenty of folks were easily missable.
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As a cherry on top, it didn't sound like they were a fan of the Silph CEO. That was a big plus in the boy's book. Always seemed like people at least tolerated him, or were indifferent. It was if he paid them all to like him that much. Even Doug fell under that same spell sometimes, not that that was a deal breaker, just a pet peeve.
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''Shit's just bruises and a few cuts. Nothing got broken, thankfully.'' Throughout the course of his life, the Blackadder boy had actually never broken a bone. Perhaps a testament to his resilience. Perhaps a testament to just how inactive and timid he really was. ''We can go wherever you like, so long as we don't got to ride our happy asses across the country.''
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He was not in the mood for a long drive.
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''Just let me get my shoes.'' Pushing himself to standing height, he glanced at the ribombee. ''Reggie, make sure the house doesn't get fucked up while I'm gone. I know she won't ask, but just in case, tell auntie I had,'' he shrugged as he thought up a lie, ''some League shit to deal with.'' Which was true from a certain point of view.
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The little pokemon saluted dutifully. Andy disappeared into the estate's interior for a couple of moments before returning with a pair of well worn tennis shoes and a wrinkled t-shirt that better obscured his bandage. He didn't want to answer the same question for twenty people. That was just as bad as twenty questions.
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Of course blessed with his clandestine divine sight, Thomas would notice that that wasn't all the boy wore. Sheathed within his shadow like liquid smoke was the dark aura of his ghost companion. The trademark eyes and grin that floated around within it easily identifying it as a gengar. Andy rarely left home without him, but perhaps the man would feel some subterfuge was afoot.
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''Let's blow this popsicle stand,'' he said after descending the stairs. Reginald fluttered down to return the man's coat.

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