Was the Iron Plate really hanging around Matt's neck? If it was, then what the hell was some random medical student doing with it?

"Oh, oh! So your necklace helps… connect you with God. Which is Arceus. That's, umm, pretty cool?" said John next to me, though it sounded more like he was asking a question than giving a compliment.

Matt seemed puzzled at John's response, sinking deeper into the white leather couch with a frown. "You… don't know what Areceism is, do you?"

I decided to follow John by saying. "I, uh… what's...?" Good job, Angela. You're sounding about articulate as usual.

"Can't say I do," John admitted as I shook my head. Was that like, a commonly known thing around here? Because it certainly wasn't in Platinum.

"Incredible," Matt said with a chuckle. "And here I'd thought they still taught you kids about major world religions in school. I guess I'm older than I thought."

I glowered at him because it sounded like he was talking down to us for not knowing about his precious whatever-the-hell. "Well, would you get on with explaining it if it's so important to you?"

"Yeah, yeah," he said dismissively, waving a hand at me. "Arceism is the biggest religion in Sinnoh. We believe that Arceus is the creator of the universe, and the guardian of it too, basically."

John still looked perplexed following Matt's explanation, which I'm sure was purposeful acting at that point. You know, because Matt probably wouldn't believe us if we told him we'd met Arceus a few days ago and had a pleasant chat with him. So, we continued to play our part.

"I'm surprised that I hadn't heard of the religion 'til now, if it's so big and all," John said, eyes still wide in false disbelief. I must say, the boy certainly had brushed up on his acting between Twinleaf and here. I was little proud of him myself.

Matt reached to touch the possible Plate, my eyes watching closely as his fingers grazed it "That's the thing. Arceism may be the biggest religion in Sinnoh, but it's still not exactly popular, nor is any other religion. Not anymore, anyway. Arceism was respected many generations ago, but so few people nowadays are interested in who we are and how we got here. Especially in a big city like this, where everything is science this and technology that."

"But aren't you a med student? That's like, all science and technology." John asked, and I nodded along because he sounded an awful lot like a hypocrite.

"I have no problem with science and technology, really," Matt insisted, waving his hands in front of him. "I just don't think chemicals and numbers can explain everything in the universe. Yes, science is very important for a promising future, but shouldn't we also look to the past? To things like religion? To each their own though, I guess." He finished with a shrug of his shoulders. At least the guy didn't seem too judgemental.

"As much as I'm enjoying your opinions on the importance of religion," That was kind of a lie. I really just wanted him to cut to the part that had to do with Arceus and the plates. "Could you tell us what your necklace has to do with Arceism? I'm kind of curious."

As in, I needed him to tell me if the thing could make Arceus turn steel-type. If so, we'd have to figure out how to steal this thing off of him and get the hell out of here. Not that John was up for stealing anything from anyone, I'd discovered not too long ago. Well, hopefully the impending doom of our universe would help him reconsider this time around.

"Oh, right. About that." He stroked the iron piece fondly. "Like I said, it's cut from an iron relic. I actually dug it up myself from the underground of this region, then had a guy at the Oreburgh Museum check it out to see if it was anything special. He said it was nothing he hadn't seen before. Just an old iron fragment with some illegible ancient language scribbled on it. I'd been hoping it was a shard from an elemental plate, but nope. I should've known the chance of something like that would be pretty damn low."

From the corner of my eye, I saw John shaking his head, resting back against the lounge chaise. So much for stealing one of the plates off this guy. But hey, he probably still knew more about them than the average guy, belonging to his weird Arceus worship cult and all.

Now, it was time to follow John's cue and play dumb. "A plate? What do you mean, you hoped it was a plate?"

"They're an important source of strength to Arceus and all Pokemon. Without getting into too many details you might find boring, I'll say that Arceus made the plates when he created the universe. One plate was made per type of Pokemon, and they allow him to change types and give other Pokemon of that type their elemental powers too. Arceus kept them all by his side as he created all Pokemon, assigning every species an element or two. Then, he scattered the plates across the entirety of Sinnoh before falling into a deep rest."

I narrowed my eyes at him, because damn he just talked for a while. "You sure that's the short version? That was quite the speech."

"Positive." He rolled his eyes at me, and I barely resisted sticking my tongue out at him.

"Ignore her. I'd make an excuse that she's just tired or something, but she's always like this," John said, jabbing a finger into my arm. Umm, ouch. "I think it's a neat legend. Has anyone ever found any of the plates? Or does anyone know where they are?"

Right… I probably should've been focusing more on finding out where they were and less on poking fun at Matt. Whoops.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were trying to find them," Matt said with a grin, eyes glinting.

"I, uh… Of course not!" My brain promptly shut down, because no, there was no way we could let people find out what we were doing. If they did, John and I would find ourselves in a much worse hospital than we were in earlier. One that probably involved padded walls and straight jackets, I thought with a shiver.

"Kidding, kidding." Matt laughed, and I felt a few knots in my shoulders loosening already. Had his comment really gotten me that worried? "Honestly, no one's been dumb enough to try and collect godly relics lately, as far as I know. That, and like I said, people have mostly lost interest in that sort of thing."

Great. So we were back to square one- no leads whatsoever.

"There's only a few little details from various legends about where the plates are- all of them point to them still being scattered across Sinnoh. And of course, each is supposed to be protected by a guardian- probably a Pokemon, or maybe even a human- because no one wants the plates to fall into the wrong hands."

John and I exchanged a pained look, because are you fucking kidding me? We had to find all these things and defeat or escape whatever thing was protecting them?

"And apparently, they're mostly located in places that make sense for the type. You know, like the Stone Plate in a cave or the Splash Plate at the beach."

Okay, now we were getting somewhere. Sort of.

"But that's all there is to know about where the plates could be. And trust me, I did a lot of internet surfing just to find out that much." Matt swiveled from a sitting position to a laying one, his giraffe legs dangling over the arm of the couch. "That's all the info I've got for you kids. I'm taking a nap, it's been a rough day. You wouldn't believe it, this one patient even accused me of being a serial killer."

"Excuse you, you're the creep who invited us here without even knowing-"

Matt cut me off, ignoring that I'd even been speaking at all. What an asshole. "Guest room's the first one on the right down that hallway. And there's probably some cold pizza in the fridge. Eat it, don't eat it, I could care less. Go occupy yourselves with something that won't land you in the hospital again."

Rolling my eyes for the umpteenth time, I dragged my ass off the chair and over to the fridge, because damn did refusing to eat that nasty hospital food leave me starving for something, anything palatable.

And if I was just a little thankful for Matt's random generosity in the form of a roof over my head and cold pizza, well, no one had to know.

When I woke up the next day, my eyes were assaulted by lights that were most definitely not the first lights of dawn.

"John…" I growled, thinking back to last night when I told him to wake me up early.

My eyes landed first on the wall clock across from my bed, and it read 11:36 AM. Then, I found a piece of paper on the bedside table next to me, undoubtedly a note written by John- I could tell by the loopy handwriting that was undoubtedly neater than mine would ever be.

Angela,

I know you wanted to get up early and train on the route with me, but you looked pale as hell when I woke up. So, I made the executive decision to let you sleep in. Not that you should be training Cress in the first place when she was literally born yesterday. I should be back around noon, so I'll see you soon.

-Your Favorite Pokemon Master

With an eye roll, I jumped out of bed, grabbed Cress's Pokeball, and stumbled into the kitchen. Maybe there'd be something to eat other than cold Pizza.

What I didn't expect to find in Matt's kitchen was a maroon crocodile sitting on a stool at the kitchen bar as Matt nonchalantly cooked at the stove. He even seemed to be talking to said crocodile, as it nodded along to his words.

"Umm, what the…" I stuttered, backpedaling a step. I'd never seen a crocodile in real life, and meeting one in person hadn't exactly been one of my life goals.

Matt turned from whatever he was cooking with a smirk, "Wow, I'm glad to see that the zombie has finally risen from the dead! I take it you haven't met my good friend Krookodile till now, huh?"

"You haven't exactly introduced us," I huffed, crossing my arms and looking in any direction other than the scaley beast.

"Well, don't be shy!" Matt said, turning back to flip whatever was in his pan, "Sit on down, food will be ready soon. I was already searing some Finneon for Krookodile."

"Oh, okay. Thanks…" In this weird situation, I couldn't even find it in myself to be my usual sarcastic self. I was without John, who typically served as my social crutch, in a stranger's kitchen, about to eat a Pokemon for lunch with another Pokemon. What the hell was I supposed to do?

I could see Matt's smirk change into an actual smile. "I'm surprised that you're actually willing to eat Finneon. I offered to cook some for John earlier this morning, but he turned as white as a Litwick, then rushed out the door."

"Oh?" I didn't remember John being a vegetarian, but then again, I could see why John would refuse eating a Pokemon versus, say, a chicken. I guess he'd feel weird eating a Pokemon now that he was training them. In my eyes though, I was starving, and I really didn't think a few Wepear berries could compare to a meal of freshly cooked fish.

Speaking of Pokemon, I decided to finally take a seat on a stool next to the Krookodile. It turned its long crocodile face towards me, holding out a scaly hand. Or was it a claw? I wasn't quite sure, and I didn't really care. I was much more concerned that this thing's claws could tear me apart in a second- claw, paw, or whatever else it was.

"Go ahead, shake give him a good shake. I swear he's friendly! You know, it's not like he's gonna bite," Matt said with a smirk, moving to turn up a knob on the stove.

I hesitantly reached out and gave him a limp shake, shivering internally at the texture of cool scales on my skin. Luckily, Krookodile found my handshake to be adequate. He gave me a nod before turning back in the direction of his owner. You know what? Maybe reptile Pokemon just weren't for me.

"So… where'd you get the Krookodile?" I asked, hoping some casual chit chat would calm me down.

Matt flipped the fish with a spatula before saying, "A desert in Unova."

"Oh, the Desert Resort?" I said absentmindedly. I'd never trained a Pokemon from the Krookodile line, but I knew they were pretty strong. I also knew Sandiles would never leave me the hell alone in the desert resort, attacking me probably every five steps.

Matt turned his head towards me, one eyebrow raised in disbelief. "You know the desert resort? Have you ever been?"

Fuck, I'd slipped up again. There's no way a Sinnohan would know some obscure place in Unova. "Me and John are actually from Unova. Never been the Desert Resort before, though. Nope."

"No wonder you're both wearing shorts," Matt laughed, obviously much more relaxed and friendly when I wasn't accusing him of murder. "I take it you're both on vacation?"

This was the part where I had to lie well. Come on Angela, you're a badass bitch! You can do this! "We're actually… well, we're not exactly vacation. I don't really know what we're doing yet. Training Pokemon and trying to find ourselves, I guess."

"That's why I went to Unova," Matt said, smiling softly. "You and John should try the gym challenge. That definitely helped me out a lot."

Yes, he bought it! I wanted to fist pump, but that really wouldn't fit here. "I'll think about it." Did I mention that there was really nothing to think about? We really didn't have time to do the gym challenge, and I was kind of okay with that, given my current affinity with battling.

Aside from Matt humming a tune unfamiliar to me, we sat in companionable silence until he finished up lunch. "You should let out your Pokemon if you have any. There's plenty of fish and Lum berries here."

"Oh, sure. Thanks." I still wasn't used to having a travel companion that I had to care for, so I was thankful for Matt's reminder. Taking the minimized Poke Ball out of my pants pocket, I silently prayed that Cres would behave as I released her.

She appeared on the floor next to my chair, automatically waving her little arms and smiling. It warmed my heart to see such a happy Pokemon. "Hey there, Cres," I said picking her up off of the floor and plopping her on the stool next to me. "That guy over there is making us lunch. I hope you like fish."

I took the excited crackling in my mind as approval from Cress, so I gave her a smile and a nod before going back to watching Matt cook.

After Matt finished untying his apron, he set a plate of fish and a few chopped green berries in front of me, Krookodile, and Cres.

"Dig in!" Matt said, taking a seat himself next to his Krookodile.

Carefully, I took a small bite of the fish. It tasted like, well, fish… some pretty good fish, in fact. And from the looks of how fast Cres was eating, she must've liked it too.

Halfway through our meal, I was startled out of my food trance by the apartment front door swinging open, and with a groan, I heard a muffled thump and a groan. When I turned to see what caused the noise, I found an exhausted John slumped face down on the living room couch, an equally tired looking Ziggy draped across his back.

Grumpy that my meal had been interrupted, I set down my fork and addressed John. "And what exactly was the point of your dramatic entrance?"

Rolling over so he was no longer face down, John moaned, "I've been training and battling since sunrise, that's why!" With a smirk, he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a few bills. "And it was totally worth it!"

"Shit, is that prize money?" I said, my mood snapping to delight.

"You bet it is! Ang, we're going clothes shopping!"

Ralts squealed in delight, probably not understanding what we were saying, but definitely enjoying the light mood in the room. I shoveled the rest of the Finneon on my plate into my mouth, and rushed to strap on my sandals, practically tripping over myself. Ralts trailed after me as I rushed between the guest room back to the kitchen.

"Wow, that's the fastest I've ever seen you move," John said, now in a sitting position, eyebrows raised almost off his face. "You ready?"

"Yep!" I jogged over to the couch, pulling at his arm. "Let's go, lazy ass! I want to switch out these sandals for some shiny new boots!"

John was shaking his head, but got up, and returned a half asleep Ziggy to his Poke Ball. "Okay, okay."

"Before you go, I have some food for John," Matt called over to us, holding up a brown paper bag in the kitchen.

John approached him hesitantly, probably afraid that Matt would try and feed him fish again. "Please tell me it's not a dead Finneon in a bag."

Matt laughed loudly, and I covered my mouth with a hand to smother my own. "No, but I should do that next time." John interrupted Matt with a glare. "Anyway, It's a Lum Berry and mixed nut salad. I even put some dressing in there."

"Wow, thank you," John said, tucking the paper bag into his drawstring bag.

"You're very welcome," Matt said, all nice and sincere in a way I seriously wasn't used to. "Be safe out there, and if you're hungry later, come back for dinner. Sunday's my day off, so I'll be cooking."

"We'll be back by the evening for sure then, see ya!" John called back. After I returned a still smiling Cres to her ball, John grabbed my forearm and wrenched me out of the door.

"How the hell did you find such fancy clothes in a thrift shop?!" I whisper-yelled at John as we made our way over to the cash register. He was wearing a full face grin as he showed me every extremely cheap yet fashionable item he picked out.

"Angela, you know I've always been a bargain hunter! Besides, how could I pass up this coat for only 1000 Poke?"

"It is a nice coat," The cashier admitted lazily, cracking the gum in her mouth, as the two of us dumped our pile of clothes on the cashwrap. Whatever, I was perfectly content with this lightly stained, mustard yellow, corduroy sweatshirt. Well, sort of. It'd do the job, at least.

After a few minutes of beeping as the cashier scanned each item, she looked up at the two of us and drawled, "That'll be 8,000 Poke."

"Uh, we only have 6,000." John mumbled, his eyes immediately darting to mine.

"I guess you gotta put some clothes back," I said, shaking my head. He just had to go for the fancy, probably more expensive thrift shop clothes.

"No way," He said, clutching a tan knit scarf. "This is only 99 Poke! "

Right as I was about to yell back that his cheap as hell scarf wasn't the problem, the cashier sighed and rolled her eyes, deciding now was a good time to interrupt our bickering. "If the clothes on your back are the only ones you own, which I'm gonna take a wild guess and say they are from the looks of you two, then you can donate them to the store and give me all your money, and we'll call it even."

"Sure, it's not like we need these clothes anyway." I shrugged, gathering the outfit I picked out in my arms again. "Where should we change?"

The cashier hooked her thumb towards the back of the store, "There's some dressing rooms back there. Just drop your old clothes here when you're done, I guess."

"Cool, thanks." John said with a nod, dropping all of our savings in the girl's hand. So much for actually having money for once.

After changing into our new clothes that decidedly smelled like venmothballs and old lady perfume, we dumped our old clothes on the cashwrap and made our way back into the cold Jubilife air.

"So," John began, walking back in the direction of what I think was Matt's apartment, "What should we do for the rest of the day?"

"How about we sit down and try and plan out where we go from here? We've just kind of been wandering Southwest Sinnoh since we got here." I said, motioning to a rickety bench on the side of the road. John regarded it with a grimace, but sat down anyway, and I followed suit.

"I mean, if we're following the plot of Platinum, we'd be heading to Oreburgh next," John said, looking up as if he saw the answers to all our problems in the midafternoon sky.

"Hmm," I hummed, tapping at my chin. "I guess, but we're not here to do the gym challenge. We're here to get the plates and Cresselia, then leave."

John puffed out his cheeks, his eyebrows scrunching. "But what about doing the gym challenge? It's part of the whole Sinnoh experience!"

I rolled my eyes in response. "John," I began, with a sigh, "we don't have the luxury of time to get the Sinnoh experience. In fact, we don't have the luxury of literally anything right now. We just sold the clothes off our backs to a thrift store for ratty clothes from probably the the 90's."

John dropped his head to his lap dramatically. "Ugh, fine. But if we're passing through a town with a gym and have some time, can we at least try?"

"You can try. I'm not getting involved with any of that badge bullshit, I don't need a case of metal to prove my worth," I said, crossing my arms. "But anyway, back to our original topic. I think our best bet is to head to Canalave next."

John up picked his head up, and looking at me curiously. "Why Canalave? Oreburgh and Floaroma are gateways to the rest of Sinnoh. Why would you want to go to a port city that's barely connected to the rest of the region?"

"I actually thought about this a lot last night," I said, pulling my legs onto the bench and hugging my knees. "First of all, I don't think either of us are ready for the Eterna Forest, which is a sprawling goddamn maze, and just a little north of Floaroma."

John shivered and said, "True, no thank you. And there's also that cave right before Floaroma. I don't know if we could get through that either, after how long it took to get to Jubilife, and the way here was pretty straightforward."

"Exactly," I said with a nod. "And I think getting through the cave before Oreburgh will be similarly challenging."

"That's true, but how are we going to get across the water from here to Canalave? It's not like we have a Mantine to ride on," John said, giving me an inquisitive glance.

"Beats me," I said with a shrug. "Maybe it's short enough to swim."

"You've gotta be kidding me," John said, slumping back against the bench, only to jump a little when it gave a loud creak.

"I am," I said, "Half joking, at least. We'll figure it out when we finally leave. But anyway, the real reason I want to go to Canalave is because it's one of the most valuable locations in all of Sinnoh to us."

"And why's that?" John said, shifting his knees to face me.

"Well, first there's the library. Maybe we can find out more about this whole situation. About Cresselia, Darkrai, and Arceus. Next, in the games there's a ferry to Full Moon, New Moon, and Iron Island. Literally all three of those islands have potential for getting what we need."

"Why's Iron Island so important? I get the other two, but…" John said, scratching his head.

"Well, what Matt said before about the plates being related to their locations got me thinking. Iron Island is full of metal, right? Well, maybe the steel type plate is there." I said with a confident smile. I wasn't so sure it was the right answer, but it was definitely a start.

Folding his arms back behind his head, John admitted, "Well, that's actually got some promise. I'm feeling less worried already."

"Don't even, we still have so much…" I trailed off when I noticed something just a little out of place in front of me.

A fat, freaky clown dressed in a puffy yellow, outfit. Oh, and did I mention it was staring down with a big fucking grin?

"Uh, hi there…" John said, instinctively leaning back into unstable bench, probably trying to get the hell away. I was pretty much in the same boat.

"Why, hello there friend!" The clown practically shouted, still grinning widely.

"Yes, hi. Now, what is it exactly that you want, clownface?" I said, glaring right into the freak's beady eyes. I may not have been afraid of him, but that didn't mean that I liked him.

The clown's face shifted to dramatically hurt in a single second as he said, "That's no way to address your new friend!"

"She, umm, didn't mean it," John said, waving his hands in front of him. "Anyway, how can we help you Mr. Clown?"

Mr. Clown's face snapped right back to cheerful at John's words. "I don't want you to help me. Why, I want to help the two of you!"

"With what?" I said, my eyes narrowing.

"Thank you for asking, Miss!" My eye twitched, and Mr. Clown leaned in closer to me. "It just so happens that if you take this quiz that I have for you, you can both win two brand new Poketches!"

After he finished yelling at us yet again, he dug two shiny, metallic watch things out of his pockets that actually looked exactly like a Platinum-style Poketch. Except instead of red or blue, one was a plain metallic silver, and the other was teal.

John and I shared a glance, both acknowledging that this was weird as hell, but then I realized that this was pretty much the exact way that you got a Poketch in the real game. Damn, could this freaky clown guy be making us a legitimate offer?

"What's the harm in a little quiz? Free Poketches, Ang!" John whispered to me, and I sighed, but couldn't disagree with him. If it was a part of the game, it probably was safe.

Louder this time, John said, "What's the harm in a little quiz? Sure, we'll play!"

"Fantastic!" The clown said, clapping his hands together. "If you get all three questions correct, then these Poketches are yours. First question! Do Pokemon grow in strength by defeating other Pokemon?"

John gave him a funny look, and said, "Umm, yes?"

"Yes, that's right!" I gave the clown a funny look as well, because that was a little too easy. Whatever, a free Poketch was a free Poketch.

"Next question. Can you have a Pokemon wear an item in battle to help it out?"

I decided to answer the too-easy question this time, "That one's also a yes."

"Terrific!" The clown yelled, throwing his hands into the air. Ugh, I just wanted to get this over with. "Final question. Like Pokemon, do moves have types?"

"Yes, they do." John said, looking oddly nervous. I guess he really wanted his fancy watch.

"That's completely correct!" The clown proceeded to do a little victory dance, and boy did I really just want to take our Poketches and get out of here. "Just one last thing before I give these to you. It's part of a questionnaire by the city of Jubilife, for Pokemon diversity purposes. What Pokemon do you two own?"

"I've got a newly hatched Ralts, and he has a Starly. Anyway, can we just have our Poketches?" I said, holding out my hand like an impatient asshole. Honestly, if I didn't get away from this guy soon, I was probably going to punch the grin off his stupid clown face.

"Of course, of course!" Clownface said, scribbling the Pokemon we had in a little notebook. "Okay, here are your prizes! Have a great day, kids!" For some reason, the clown then shoved both Poketches into John's hands and ran away as fast as he could.

"Umm… okay then," John said, scratching his head. "That was weird, but at least we have these now. Which do you want?"

Pointing at the purple Poketch, I said, "I'll take that one."

"Oh good, I wanted the other one anyway," John admitted, as we both wrapped our new watches around our wrists.

It seemed to already be turned on and fully functional, displaying the time as 3:14PM. "Wow, it looks like it's already been loaded with a bunch of apps. This is the luckiest we've been since getting to Sinnoh, huh?"

"You bet," John said, smiling down at his new watch as he fiddled with the display. "How about we head back to Matt's apartment so we can eat and rest? I know we should probably leave town tomorrow, so we should probably go to bed early."

Jumping up from the bench, I agreed. "Sure, I'm ready to head back."

John hopped up too, but grabbed my shoulder before I could start walking. "How about we let our Ziggy and Cres? We can all walk together and work up an appetite for dinner!"

I shrugged, still kind of nervous that Cres would do something crazy like on that fateful night she was born. But John was right, fresh air probably was good for her. "Yeah, I guess so." I pulled the Poke Ball out of my pocket, and let her out.

As usual she seemed very excited to be out and about, making an adorable little humming noise that crackled at the inside of my brain. Luckily, it wasn't giving me a headache at the moment. "Wanna walk with us back to Matt's apartment?" She nodded vigorously, and I immediately felt guilty about not wanting to let her out in the first place.

After John let out Ziggy and got him to stop pecking at his hands, we set off to Matt's apartment with Ziggy on John's shoulder and Cres trailing by my side. As we went, I fiddled with my Poketch, and John cooed at Ziggy. Walking together with our Pokemon, just enjoying the city noise and each felt refreshingly uneventful, and I seriously hoped our trip to Canalave would be this calm.

About ten minutes into our walk, I started getting the slightest of headaches, Cres's psychic noises sounded shrill and panicked in my head. Sighing, I looked down at Cres to see her almost tripping over her dress.

"Wait a sec, John," I said, kneeling down and patting Cres. "What is it? Do you not like being around so many people?" I figured it must be that, because this place was as crowded as New York City.

Cress shook her helmet-head, and turned in the direction of the street. When I looked in the same direction, on the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street, I saw a freak in what looked like a silver space suit leaning against a light pole, staring us down. I casually turned back around, not wanting to give away that I saw him.

"John, I said in almost a whisper, leaning into him, "I think someone is watching us across the street, and they're dressed really weird."

John raised a curious brow, looking skeptical. "I doubt it, Ang. The guy's probably just people watching or something."

"Umm, okay… I guess he could be. Let's keep going. Just to be safe though, can we turn left at the next intersection? I think it'll be faster anyway." I said, because Cres was a scared baby
Pokemon, so who knew what she was really upset about. It could be anything, not necessarily some creepy guy staring at us. Either way, just to make her feel a little better, I kneeled down and scooped her into my arms before we continued on. That seemed to calm her down a little.

"Sure, why not," John said with a nod. Without another word, we turned down the next street.

The calm only lasted a few minutes, until a guy dressed in the same space suit as the other weirdo appeared a few yards in front of us, leaning against a building with a smirk. Unlike the last street, this one was completely barren of people, and looked to be in the seedier part of town. Boy, did I love making great decisions in unfamiliar cities.

"Do you see him? He's dressed the same as that other freak I saw before, and something tells me he's not a nice guy." I muttered, stopping completely, because there was definitely something off about this guy. Not to mention Cres was practically screaming in my mind now, and boy did it fucking hurt.

"Umm, Ang, why didn't you mention that he was dressed like that?" John said, looking absolutely terrified.

"Did you not hear me when I said he was dressed weird before?! Tell me you didn't even bother to look at the last weirdo," I whisper yelled, turning to John. "Now come on, let's cross the street and get away from here. I have a bad feeling about him."

"That won't be necessary," said a new voice. A voice attached to a body that was now directly in front of us, dressed in a shiny silver space suit, with big yellow "G" smack in the middle of his chest.

"No, it certainly won't," said another new, yet familiar voice, directly into my ear. "Remember me?"

Then, I felt the pressure of something cold and sharp against the front of my neck. Cres squeaked in my arms, squirming as she tried to get free. I shushed her, squeezing tight.

John spun around to face the voice behind us. I would've done the same if well, you know, there wasn't a fucking knife digging into my neck.

"You… you're the clown…" John said in awe, and now I knew exactly why the voice was so familiar, and why the fuck did we think taking a fancy watch from a stranger was a good idea?

The man's grip tightened and the blade scratched at my neck. I could feel a single drop dribbling down. "Don't move an inch," he whispered. "And don't you dare scream."

"I won't," I whispered, frozen in fear, my mind running a mile a minute.

The guy standing in front of me crossed arms and said, "Good. Now, hand over your Pokemon, and we won't hurt you."

Neither John nor me spoke, nor did we make a single move. We both had a mutual understanding that there was no way in hell that we were handing these guys over without a fight. But could we really fight back when I was in such a position? I didn't really know, but at the very least I wasn't handing over my only Pokemon after a single demand.

After a few seconds of silence, the knife dug deeper, and I bit down a scream as a small stream of warm liquid dripped down my neck. "No fucking way," I growled.

The man in front of me drew closer until I could hear him breathing, and I looked him straight in the eyes, contemplating if I wanted to spit in his face. A twisted smile crossed his features as he tilted my chin up with a finger. "You'll do as we say, or you'll face the consequences."

"No, you're going to be the one who faces the consequences." Said a third female voice, coming from behind us all. What was up with all these unfamiliar people appearing out of the woodwork?

The clown's grip on me loosened at those words, and I took that as my cue to tear out of his grip, his knife clattering to the ground. And good thing that I tore away when I did, because at that moment, all I could see was a stream of fire as it smacked into the man who'd just been holding me.

"HEY! You almost hit me, too!" I yelled directing my gaze from my captor to my savior.

"Whatever, you can thank me later," said the girl, who I could now identify as a young woman about my age. A young woman with slate gray hair, dressed in a red jacket and pink snow boots, standing next to an enthusiastic Chimchar.

Wait a second.

John stepped next to me, saying the exact words in my mind.

"Are you Dawn?"