I didn't get far from the Pokemon Center, though, before I felt someone teleporting behind me. I couldn't help but smile when I saw who it was, though. "Couldn't resist, huh?" I asked a bit foolishly, showing her my goofy grin.
"I told you I wanted to be there when you took the Gyms on again," Keiko repied with a similar grin, though hers was more loving than goofy. "Though why are you here? The next badge you need is in Nacrene, right?"
"As much as Mom's been bugging me about starting up again, I figured I'd let her know beforehand," i explained. "Besides, there's a couple other things she should know by now, and I'm kind of glad you'll be there when I explain them."
"Thinking about that makes me a bit nervous, I'll admit," Keiko responded, though the flush in her cheeks was difficult to see through her fur. "Though it'll be easier in the long run if we get it over with."
Smiling, I took her hand, and we held hands until the condo building's elevator took us to her floor. Thankfully, Mom was there to greet us when the elevator's doors opened.
"Welcome home," Mom said calmly, despite being clearly surprised that I was back. I responded by walking up to her and hugging her, for which I got a hug back. "Who's your friend?" she asked almost immediately. "I imagined that you'd end up with Keiko with everything that's happened."
I sighed, motioning over to Keiko. 'This is Keiko," I said flatly, knowing that the explanation to follow wouldn't be an easy one to hear... for either of them.
Keiko gave a weak "Hi," and a wave, and Keiko's voice alone was thankfully enough for Mom to recognize her. "Oh, my. Wh... what happened?"
"Somebody kidnapped her a month or two ago and thought they'd use her to raise an army by turning her into a Lopunny hybrid, and... I'm sure I don't have to explain the rest. I was able to save her before THAT started, but I wasn't fast enough to prevent the... transformation." I explained, still angry at myself over it.
Mother walked up to Keiko and gave her a consoling hug while muttering "You poor dear..." over and over. Keiko allowed this to happen for a bit before she started reassuring Mom that she was okay. Not.. fine, per say, but... okay. Keiko went on to explain that she spent some time alone after that to get the drugs and hormones out of her system (thankfully leaving out her parting words to me at the time) while she got used to her new body. She then said that, while she hadn't fully adjusted to her new body yet, she was used to it enough to function.
"You imagined right, by the way," I said, figuring it'd be best to rip the bandaid right off instead of beating around the bush about it.
"Well, given that you ran off the second you saw your father's remarks about her birth certificate shortly after coming out of a coma was evidence enough of that," Mom retorted with a smile.
"I... remembered the mercenaries that knocked me out, and.. thought she might have been in danger," I told her, which elicited looks of pity from both of them, though Keiko's had a bit of shame as well.
"I... ran... when they knocked you out," she confessed. "I didn't want to, but... I thought if they were willing to do that to you, they could do far worse to me. I wasn't proud of myself, but..."
"I don't blame you," I sighed, which put her heart at ease.
"When I thought they were gone, I came back to get you and brought you here... meeting your dad in the process. I stayed here for a while after that, but when your dad came back with his 'test results' ... I didn't take it well. I wound up going back to work for my... adopted parents until we met in Goldenrod City."
And the rest was history, I wanted to say, but something was bothering me. "Did you ever tell your parents you were leaving again?"
Keiko covered her mouth, which told me everything. "We'll have to visit them at some point, then," I said with a smile, which set her heart at ease for the moment.
"So, what's the plan?" Mom asked, which brought me to why I came. I then proceeded to let my team out: Rala, Sauron, Angeal, Haku, Samurai, and Kefka. Or, in Mom's eyes, Gardevoir, Veunsaur, Blaziken, Komm-o, Dewott, and Klefki. I left Sparrow (Talonflame) out because I didn't need two Fire-types on my team "Oh, my. You've been collecting them from all over, huh?" she asked in surprise. Though the second she saw Samurai, she became very surprised. "Is the the Pokemon Professor Jupiter and I gave you?" she asked, recognizing Samurai even though Samurai was an Oshawott last time she saw him.
Samurai stood proudly, patting his fist to his chest. "Yeah, that's Samurai. Found him around this region, actually."
Saying that would prove to be a mistake. "Not west from here, hopefully. I heard that Kalos was invading around there," she said.
I sighed, worried that she knew about that, as well. "I heard they're only using Pokemon for that, and I've got a pretty strong team, myself," I lied. I didn't want to say that I wasn't there flat-out, because as bad as I was at hiding my emotions, Mom was very, very skilled at catching my lies. I couldn't tell her the truth, though, nor could I tell her why I was going out there. I didn't want to think about her telling Father that I was a vigilante. He'd never look at me the same again.
"Just be careful," Mom replied, seeming to drop the subject. If she saw through me, she didn't admit to it, at least not yet. "You've got a girlfriend to worry about, now," she added, point to Keiko with her thumb.
"I will," I said with a smile and a nod. "Anyway, the reason I'm showing you my team is so you know that I'm taking on the gyms again. I still have my Trio Badge, so my next target is the Nacrene Gym."
"Finally! Aaron can stop yelling at me to 'set you straight'!" she shouted jokingly, though it was clear that they talked about me fairly often. "Still, it's a shame you have this strong of a team, already."
I raised an eyebrow at her. "What do you mean?" I asked.
"The whole point of the Gym Challenge is to grow with your Pokemon. That's why people who start the circuit usually do so with their starters and a few new captures. I know you want diversity so you can handle whatever you come across, but isn't this a bit much?" she asked, motioning to my team.
This only got them to smirk confidently, except for Rala who only smiled calmly. "When I won my Trio Badge, it was with Samurai, Sunny, and Simon. Sunny was fully evolved, but Simon was still a Drillbur and Samurai was an Oshawott at the time, and we only barely won. If Samurai didn't evolve into his current form in the middle of the match, we would have lost. And even with a team like that, and more to come, I still lost everything to those mercenaries," I explained, going off-topic a bit.
I shook my head at myself and continued. "I know I'm pretty much just using that last bit as an excuse at this point, so just ignore it. But still, Gym Leaders' Pokemon are no joke. I wanted to make sure I could give everything I have, everything my Pokemon have, before I started taking this seriously again."
Mom smiled at that, which left me a bit more at ease. Then she turned to Samurai and said "Well, this one can still evolve, at least,"
Samurai didn't take this very well and held up the Everstone he was holding. "There's a female Dewott he likes that doesn't want to evolve," I explained. "Belongs to a friend of mine. That's why he's holding on to that."
Mom responded with a pat on Samurai's head, which made him feel better. We said our goodbyes and left, deciding to take a stroll in the busy city afterward. "When do you want to go visit your parents?" I asked, remembering that Keiko hadn't talked to hers since before we got together.
Keiko thought about it a bit before smiling. "Let's get you a badge or two so your parents know you're serious," she offered, eliciting a smile from me, as well.
One hassle from GRAY and one Claydolport later, we headed from Nacrene's Pokemon Center to the gym and knocked on the door.
SubonicXP
