Pokemon: The Yellow Guardian

| Rio POV |

I mean, I'm sure Combusken is fine. What's the worst that could happen?

It's not like that birdbrain would start a cult in the apocalypse or something…Right?

…

Right?

Again, she should be fine.Roxanne'll probably take care of her if anything happens.

It is kinda weird no one's called us about her yet, though.Maybe she's just… lost in a forest somewhere.A very much on fire forest.

But hey — she's tough.She'll be fine.

…

I raise an eyebrow as Elm taps Fen's knee with a little reflex hammer.

My elbow jerks.

Everyone in the room takes notes at the same time. I hate that.

Birch squints at his clipboard. "So they're… cross-wired?"

"No, no," Rowan mutters. "He's just built wrong."

Fen glares at them, eyes drooping with boredom. He is sitting perfectly still on the exam table, out of pure spite. Probably.

Juniper hums. "Try it again."

Tap.My foot kicks. Fen doesn't move.

"Fascinating," Elm says.

I blink slowly. "You guys do realize he's literally made of shadows and bad vibes, right?"

Rowan scribbles something on a chart labeled: Possible Diagnosis – Haunted.

Birch, meanwhile, gently lifts Fen's tail.

It smacks him across the face.

He doesn't flinch.He just nods and writes Expected Behavior in the margins.

I glance at Fen. He glances back. We are both completely done with this.

"Great," I say, deadpan. "So are we being dissected next, or...?"

Rowan: "No dissection until post-mortem."

Birch: "Unless you're volunteering."

…

I pull Fen off the table before someone tries to measure my aura with a salad fork.

Outside, May raises an eyebrow as I step into the hallway. "How'd it go?"

"They ran some weird tests," I shrug. "But I was mostly just playing along. I mean—come on, I fought off the Monsterverse version of Zapdos and won. What exactly were they hoping to achieve by poking me with a taser?"

ZAP.

I grin without flinching. "That doesn't work on me anymore, Star. Maybe try something else?"

A beat.

"I feel like you learned your lesson," she says, not even pretending to look innocent. "No need for anything else…"

"Anyways, I'm off hunting quests. Bye!" I scoop up Star and leave a very stressed-out May sitting on the bench with Null and Mori.

We bolt to the far side of the lab, where Trishout and Grovyle are contained in separate boxes. My new ability to melt into shadows makes any security measures useless.

"Hey, you two—wanna go have some fun?"

Their eyes light up instantly.

Mine dim slightly as I feel the pure malice radiating off the shiny Kirlia in my arms.

"I didn't mean it like that!" I blurt.

ZAP.

"You clearly haven't learned your lesson..."

"WHAT DID I DO?!"

Star just tilts her head, eyes gleaming with unsettling affection.

She stares at me for a bit before the door s keeping Grovyle and Trishout in are suddenly ripped off their hinges.

"Uh... Thanks?"

"This doesn't mean that I approve."

"Approve of what?"

She doesn't answer me, she just floats out of my arms and heads out towards the exit, alarms blaring around us before cutting off just as fast, and I swear I heard May curse my name again.

Star glides ahead, unfazed by the alarms or the door she just wrecked.

"So where are we going?" I jump up slightly as I hear Grovyle speak right next to my ears, I forgot I can understand people without Star's help now.

"How about the beach? I have never been there!" Trishout yells excitedly, and I swear I felt the ground shake a bit, the Sound Typing really is made up of loud Pokémon.

I shrug, half-smiling. "Beach sounds good. Could use a break from all this lab chaos."

Fen stretches his claws and lets out a low growl of agreement.

Star glances back at me with that unsettling smile, her eyes still glowing faintly in the dim light.

As we step outside, the warm sun hits my fur, and the salty breeze from the nearby coast fills the air.

Grovyle takes the lead, weaving confidently through the streets, as if she's been here before—though she never says much.

I glance at Star again. Despite her eerie vibe, she's calm, almost serene, like this moment is a small victory.

For now, the only sound is the gentle crashing of waves in the distance.

Maybe peace is exactly what we need before the next storm hits.

We follow the coastline for a while, the midday sun warm on our backs. The main beach is already dotted with tourists and trainers, so we keep going, sticking close to the cliffs until we spot a narrow path half-hidden behind a crumbling sign and a cluster of jagged rocks.

Grovyle pauses and tilts her head, her leaf-blades twitching like antennae. "This way."

The path snakes downward, steep and a bit overgrown. I nearly trip once—okay, twice—but eventually we emerge onto a small cove, tucked out of view.

The beach here is quiet. Just sand, sea, and a very burnt Wingull screeching in the distance, how something that can be classified as ready to serve KFC is flying is beyond me, poor guy, did he meet a Charizard in the sky or something?

Trishout lets out a whoop and immediately cannonballs into the waves, steam rising as the water hisses off her overheated armor.

"I give it ten minutes before she starts a minor tsunami," I mutter.

Grovyle sits on a warm rock, soaking in the sun, silent as usual. But there's the faintest curve at the edge of her mouth. That might be a smile. Maybe.

Fen slinks off to curl up under the shade of a palm tree, melting into the shadows like he was never there.

Star floats beside me, arms folded, watching it all with that unreadable expression of hers. The sunlight catches the shimmer in her hair, and her eyes gleam gold and violet.

I plop down in the sand and let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding. For the first time in what feels like weeks… things are actually quiet.

No Xeno-mutants. No screaming professors. No tasers.

Just us.

…

I should probably be worried about that.

Eh, future problems for future me.

(To be continued)

Mandatory beach episode. More to come.

MC: Yeah, I just wish there wasn't so much sand. I don't like it. It's coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere inside my fur.

You could just glass it.

MC: Oh yeah... That is an option...