A/N: So remember when I said I was gonna try and keep up with this? Yeah. Basically, if I may offer an explanation, Blizzard released a game called Overwatch. That game continues to take up my time by great amounts, especially with the Uprising event which has some sick PvE. Not to mention I've been playing the shit out of Dark Souls 3 for The Ringed City which was a great DLC. Anyway, basically I meant to get this out like back in February but the amount of essays I've had to write this term has been criminal coupled with a weird sort of essay writing anxiety I had which stopped me from doing those papers in a timely fashion or at my best effort. However my creative writing class, along with re-reading some of my writing has given me some drive to keep up with this. So hopefully I can keep this story updated throughout the summer, maybe not weekly but certainly with some form of consistency. Not to mention I've seen some anime, read some manga, and played more games so expect more references. Sorry to everyone, really, life found a way to kill my drive to write for a long time but I think things are turning around. I want to finish this story since I at least want some closure. So here's to a more productive summer.

"Where the hell are we going again?" I scratched my head as I stared at the PokeNav. I decide to take a break for a couple weeks and suddenly I don't remember what the fuck I'm doing. The map looked almost foreign to me since I'd gotten used to the surroundings myself and Thalia had decided to stay in for those couple weeks.

"Fuckin, you don't remember!?" Thalia looked at me. Her blue hair was a mess as she rose from her pillow. It framed her open-mouthed glare at me as if they were tangled branches or some shit. "You wanna be the Pokemon master or some shit and you can't fuckin remember where to go, fucking end my life." Thalia fell back onto her pillow after her great speech, exhausted.

"By the way it's like noon." I said casually, causing Thalia to jerk right up. She wanted to be out a about 4 or so hours ago but I said fuck that and slept in by like a couple hours. She forgot to set an alarm. Call it karma or whatever, it felt satisfying.

"Fuck off." Thalia growled as she got up and stretched, x-tra large t-shirt hanging loosely off her body while black panties adorned her bottom. "I'll get dressed."

"Keep in mind we should also get some food and buy some more supplies." I said as I read the map.

"FUCK!" I heard her scream. More time lost. I chuckled.

"Also I don't want to be a pokemon master, just the champion. That means I'm the best in Hoenn but there's other regions." I finally figured it out. Lavaridge Town was our next destination, however, other trainers who had gone on this trip recommended that you pass the town for the time being and head around to Fallarbor town which gives you time to really train for the Lavaridge fire gym. Apparently, according to what I could find, the gym leader was a real hardass fire trainer who held nothing back. Someone compared him to a boss from an extremely difficult fantasy game. Shit. I pulled Totodile's ball from my waist and looked at it. He was my big ticket item for this gym, I needed him to pull through. We'd done a lot of one on one training, just the two of us. He was getting better acquainted with my slowly adapting training style. Mark's technique was working wonders, it just took its time. Still, I was putting so much into Totodile because I still didn't have a good read on him. He worked fine with me but something was bothering him. It seemed that when he made mistakes they compounded the more they happened and a single mistake was a slippery slope. It led to a lack of confidence very quickly and he got demoralized regardless of any comfort I could offer him and it was greatly reducing my own self-confidence. If I couldn't keep a Totodile happy, what else could I do? But that was its own slippery slope.

"All right!" Thalia walked out of the tent dressed in her usual Magma attire minus the sweater. Some places, we had found, were not too keen on members of Team Magma. It was just easier to go around without her wearing her uniform. Though we did take advantage of any sympathisers but I found this pseudo war fucking ridiculous. It was a gang war. "Let's get going." Thalia was surprisingly enthusiastic. She was probably going a bit stir crazy sitting around for a couple weeks but I think we needed some time where we weren't moving. Especially because that battle with Wattson was just too close for my tastes, I needed some improvement.

"Sure thing, closest town is about a few hours that way." I pointed north. "We just have to find the path that will take us to that town which will help set us up for the coming trip."

"We're going to Lavaridge, right?" she asked, marching forward. I followed along, going over my PokeNav again.

"No. We're going up past Lavaridge and over to Fallarbor Town. According to what I've read the gym leader for Lavaridge is a tough guy so people say to go up to Fallarbor and maybe even visit Meteor Falls since you can catch some tough Pokemon there. Coming back is some good training and then we have to conquer Mt. Chimney to get to Lavaridge which is another pain in my ass." I looked over the path on my Pokenav. It'd take us a while to make it to Fallarbor, we weren't too far outside of Mauville. Not to mention the trip back. That was minimum a couple weeks, minus any extended stays based on condition of my Pokemon. Thankfully Pokemon Centres offered free stay for trainers. And Fallarbor was sparsely populated so that means, hopefully, no one would be there and Thalia and I could get some rest on a bed. I know she's been missing it for the past week.

"Fuck what people say, take that guy on right away and you'll be just fine." Thalia seemed to not want to bother but I needed it.

"How about fuck you and we're going my way." I retorted.

"You've yet to do that friendo." Thalia jeered before giving me an elbow. "Stop being so dramatic, take a couple weeks and I thought you'd lighten up. Just take it easy." I wanted to but Totodile was bothering me. Maybe it was bothering me more than it should have and I was simply letting it.

"You're right." I sighed in resignation. I'd never had anxiety but this must be kind of what it felt like. This feeling of fear that crops up and just ruins everything no matter how hard you try. "Let's get things going on the right foot this time." I did my best to feel what I was saying, and it worked a bit. Hopefully this issue with Totodile could be solved. Just then my PokeNav rang. I pulled it from my pocket and checked who was calling. The text read "Ethan" and mentioned that it was long distance but my friendship with Devon Corp helped with that. I answered and held the device to my ear. "Ethan?" I asked first and foremost. Before anything I just heard what sounded like Ethan's voice in the background shouting very loudly.

"Fucking end my life, holy fuck!"

"What the hell…?" I asked.

"Hi Brendan, sorry to disturb you." the voice was female.

"Krys? What's up? Also why is Ethan begging for an end?"

"We've been stuck in Goldenrod city for the past couple weeks because of Whitney. Ethan just can't get a grip on how to beat her." Krys sounded sympathetic to Ethan's cause. "I even gave it a go and her Miltank absolutely destroyed me."

"That fucking cow!" Ethan yelled in the background, which sounded muffled like he was shouting into a pillow. "Also fuck her Miltank too." I heard more clearly.

"Two weeks? Holy Arceus, is it that bad?" I had to ask while Thalia looked at me with interest.

"Brendan the woman has a reputation. To make it more clear there's specific rooms at the local Pokemon Centre for people too downtrodden to talk to therapists and other counselors." Mother of fuck.

"So it is that bad. I get it." Therapists? Arceus, this woman must be hardcore. "So why call me?"

"I was figuring you could help give Ethan a bit of a pep talk. He's been down since he last lost to her." Krys's voiced was really caring.

"Sure, I can try. When did he last lose to her?"

"About ten minutes ago." A loud scream emanated from the earpiece behind Krys.

"Oh boy…" I sighed deeply. This might take some decent wordplay. "Put him on."

"All right." Then I heard shuffling as Krys gave the phone to Ethan. There was a few seconds of nothing before I heard the depressed tone of Ethan's voice.

"Hey." was all he said.

"Hey man. Listen, you can do this. Whitney ain't shit." I tried the simple approach.

"That's the thing, she isn't shit. She's good."

"Well then listen. Think about that game you love. What's it called?" I was more of an FPS guy when it came to games, Ethan liked his action RPGs and this one in particular. The online people mentioned it when I was looking up information.

"Yeah, Darkest of Souls." Ethan mumbled. "What about it?"

"Well you said it was like smashing your head against a brick wall until one or the other breaks. Think about Whitney like that, one of the bosses." There, an appeal to video games.

"My fuckin head split open." Ethan complained. This was tough. Hmmmmm.

"Put Krys on." I said, formulating an idea. I heard shuffling and then Krys's voice.

"Yeah?"

"Krys this is gonna be weird, what does Ethan wanna do to you in bed that you're not ready for?" I asked, getting straight to the heart of the issue.

"What?" she asked, turning away and lowering her voice.

"What does Ethan want to try in bed that you're not ready for yet." I stated simply.

"Well he wants to do some BDSM stuff like tying me up but I'm not sure-"

"Offer it." I cut her off. "Offer it and then come back to me tomorrow if he loses."

"But- are you- Brendan is this going to work?" Krys asked desperately.

"Listen if he wins Ethan is more confident and you get to try something you might like. Now get going. Tell Ethan I said bye."

"All right." Krys then hung up. I closed my PokeNav as Thalia and I hit the main path that would take us up towards Fallarbor town.

"Sounded desperate." Thalia commented.

"He'll make it." I smiled "He's determined."

"Hopefully more determined than you." she remarked.

"Listen, I needed a break. Just kinda went longer than I originally wanted but I needed it I think." I reasoned. "After all one needs breaks when you're gonna become a Pokemon master."

"Pokemon Master my ass, there's other people in other regions who are likely better than you." Thalia sneered at me, though in a playful way. I raised an eyebrow at her, this was a shitty way to light a fire under me. Truth was, there probably would be a lot of people better than me in other regions. Red, after all, still remained the champion in the Indigo League albeit Lance was keeping the seat warm. That's not to mention places like Unova or Sinnoh, places I'd barely heard of since I never paid attention in history class. I probably should read up on them at some point before I reach the end. However that could wait as Thalia and I came across a small village that had a small PokeMart in it, which we were grateful for. The town was small, maybe the mart and about three to four houses. It looked like one of those towns you see in a 16-bit RPG from a while ago that could only have like four houses as a town because of memory reasons or some shit. That aside, we got our food and supplies and headed out once again, backpacks heavy with supplies. It's a good workout, walking around with that on your back. It's even better when you have to walk for several hours to get to the closest PokeStop. Apparently those exist and I had missed them as I travelled around Hoenn. Rather I knew they were rest stops but I never bothered to stop at them and they have a name. Crazy world.

Suffice it to say nothing interesting happened on the way to the PokeStop. Unless you count the bug Pokemon buzzing around with the flying ones. The heat was moderate, had been for a while. Those weird weather happenings seemed to have calmed down for the time being. As we reached the PokeStop we found out that this particular one was just an older wooden stand that cooked some food with benches outside. The only indicator that it was a PokeStop was the sign that had the Pokeball logo. Sitting outside on the benches was a curious couple of people, a boy and a girl. They seemed overdressed for walking around during the summer, wearing jackets and long pants with decent sized boots. The girl had blonde hair that caught the sun and went down to just above her shoulders. Her jacket was red and was zipped up. Matter of fact all but her face was pretty covered, she even wore gloves. The guy beside her had auburn hair and wore a green jacket and was similarly really covered up. It was weirdly formal looking. The girl looked to be worried about something.

"Should we say something?" I asked Thalia as we approached. "I mean she looks like she could use some company."

"She's got that guy. Might be her boyfriend." Thalia said, sending me a sneer.

"I don't want to bang her, she just looks worried." I said, which was the truth. "Let's ask and see if we can help." We walked up to the two and immediately I saw the guy eye us harshly. His eyes were kinda droopy, like they weren't really open, but I saw. He must be her boyfriend if he's that protective.

"Hello." the guy greeted us with a moderate tone. Nothing out of the ordinary sounding.

"Uh hi." I started. "We just saw you were looking worried and wondered if you needed help with something." The girl turned to look at me and boy howdy she was pretty. Her hair framed her face perfectly and brought out the blue in her big eyes.

"Oh," she said meekly "we're fine, just lost from our party and hoping to meet up at a later point."

"You do realise it's warm out, right?" Thalia asked somewhat brashly. The guy eyed her more than me now.

"Oh, yes." the girl replied, looking at her conservative attire. "I'm just kind of cold naturally."

"Mind if we have a seat?" I asked as moderately as possible. This guy beside her looked like he was ready for a fight.

"Oh, sure." the girl turned and had her boyfriend slide down so that Thalia and I could have a seat. "I'm Farnese." she introduced herself. "This is Serpico." she gestured to her boyfriend.

"I'm Brendan" I pointed to myself before jerking a thumb to Thalia, "Thalia."

"Yo." Thalia greeted.

"So you're lost from your party?" I asked.

"Yes, the man who we're trying to find has gone off ahead and we lost his trail. Though a…" she paused "friend of ours is helping."

"Well maybe I can help find your man. What's he look like?" I asked. Hopefully I could help her.

"He's large. Impossibly so. He has one eye closed all the time and has a prosthetic left arm and wears a lot of black."

"Not gonna lie, dude sounds like the sort you'd avoid." Thalia remarked. Farnese sighed and laughed at the same time.

"He appears that way. But once you get to know him he's quite reliable. He only asks that you be able to fend for yourself."

"Sounds like a tough guy. Also one that's hard to lose." I joked. Farnese chuckled.

"You'd think but things happen."

"Like what?" I asked. Farnese was about to explain when we heard a loud

"Yooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" we all turned to look and out of the woods across the road came a short boy, about twelve by the looks of him, with spiky red hair and the look of a trouble maker. He had a grey t shirt with a beige vest on with big cargo shorts. He made his way over. "Hey Farny!" he called "I think I found where he went."

"Well, that's our cue." Farnese stood with Serpico. "It was nice meeting you, Brendan." she bid us farewell and thanked the boy, who was named Isidro from what I heard. They left into the woods and I let out a sigh.

"Weird tio." Thalia commented once they were out of earshot.

"Eh, I'm sure there's weirder." I said.

"Whatever, ready to go?" Thalia asked.

"Lemme get a drink." I stood and got a bottle of water before we headed out, towards the weird wrap around that would eventually lead to Lavaridge.

A/N: Well that wraps that up. Somewhat short but I think it's pretty decent ish. Decided not to do anything too heavy and jump in with another reference that, by any means, should be as far from Pokemon as possible. But hey I like references. I hope you all enjoyed this. It's kind of nice, albeit slow, getting back into writing again. One thing I will say is that I'm gonna try and work on this as well as another project that will be on the old page. If you like Dark Souls or Bloodborne, check it out once I post the first outing with it. Also when I finished Omega Ruby, Brendan's family canonically did move from Johto. Looks like my fan service headcanon is now real canon. Hell yes. Anyway, hope you all enjoyed.