Unbroken Disguise

Lucas couldn’t help but ponder how fortunate his timing had been as he looked over the “fashion case” in his hands.

He had been letting himself move at whatever pace felt right since he started his journey. Barry always seemed to live life as fast as he could, one thing to the next as quickly as possible, but that… just wasn’t appealing to Lucas.

Why rush when there was so much to explore? Sunny fields of tall grass, dark, damp caves, alleyways between buildings, the insides of people’s homes…

Well, some people had a bit of a problem with that last one since he had a bad habit of just inviting himself in, but what was he meant to do! So many people were willing to give him items or offer trades if he just ignored a few social norms! Really, it was them who people should be upset at. If they would just go outside and offer those things to him, he wouldn’t feel the urge to barge into every unlocked door hoping to find treasures.

Like that fisherman! He hadn’t expected to get a free old rod and lessons on how to reel in a Pokemon caught on the hook, but that just went to show how far you could get if you approached everyone you could!

Still though, to think that he had done all of that and somehow showed up at the perfect moment to save Professor Rowan from a mugging…

Although, the professor was a big deal, right? And he had all those Pokemon at his lab? Now that he thought about it, shouldn’t the old guy have a pretty impressive team of his own? He’d only gotten Turtwig from him a short while ago, and Lucas was pretty certain that both his starter and Bidoof were getting pretty close to evolving.

He should have a cool fossil Pokemon as well, like Roark’s Cranidos, but the people at the museum had told him the fossil he had found was just a cool looking rock… jerks… Barry was never going to let him live that one down…

Anyway, the point was that Professor Rowan making a new trainer fight his battles for him was strange. Unless it was some sort of test? Maybe he would put a good word in to the next Gym Leader after seeing how well he had done against those weirdos. Roark’s Gym had been a breeze, so he was hoping the one in Eterna would be a bit more challenging. Though maybe that had more to do with the type advantage he’d had against those Rock types…

…nah, it was totally skill! If he could get Bidoof of all Pokemon to listen to his commands, then clearly he was a Champion in the making! He’d yet to lose a match. Not against Barry, not against Gym Leader Roark, and not against those “Team Galactic” grunts!

And what a weird name that was! Who did they think they were? Wearing weird outfits, pretending they were in some sort of exclusive club, and then trying and failing to steal Pokemon just made them seem like they shared an ability with Bidoof.

Actually, they might be a bit more Simple than even Bidoof. His second Pokemon at least seemed to be getting smarter with time. Not by much, but he’d been getting less blank stares recently.

He probably didn’t need to worry about this “Team Galactic” anymore though, not if they were so weak that Turtwig by himself had been enough to beat them. The professor’s assistant’s Piplup hadn’t done anything but take a Fake Out to the face, so Lucas wasn’t going to give her any credit, even if it was technically a Multi Battle.

At least the Jubilife TV guy who happened to watch it all play out had been impressed enough to praise him. Though he wasn’t exactly sure of what he was meant to do with this fashion case thing he’d been gifted. Who cares about making Pokemon look pretty? Did he look like a coordinator? Shoving it into the important items pouch of his backpack, if only because he didn’t know where else to put it, he turned his gaze to the route before him. His Town Map suggested that Floaroma was pretty empty, but since he didn’t own a bike, this was the only way to Eterna.

Oh well. A longer path just meant more opportunities to see his team evolve!

Dawn realized that she tried to keep calm and collected, or at least make everyone think she was calm and collected, but hearing the name “Deedee” made all of that go out of the window in an instant. Only one person had ever called her that.

“It’s good to see ya, kid!”

A lime green undershirt beneath a striped off white and pale green t-shirt. Khaki pants, shoes that matched his shirts, and a Poketch on his wrist. The face under that mop of rusty brown hair was all too familiar to her.

“Kenny!”

She wasn’t sure if she had shouted his name out of surprise or dread. Hopefully he thought it was excitement… if she was too rude to him, it would surely get back to her mom, but she had… issues with Kenny.

The first of which being the fact that he called her a kid, despite the fact that they were the same age. Him having a few months on her didn’t mean he got to call her a kid!

“I’m loving that hairdo!”

It was then that she realized Pachirisu’s Discharge had ruined her hair again, and Kenny reminded her of yet another issue she had with him. But she had to play along.

“Haha,” she hoped her laugh didn’t sound too fake, “we all have bad hair days!” She would definitely need to brush it properly later, but her fingers would have to work for now as she desperately tried to get it looking halfway decent.

So wrapped up in fixing her appearance, she didn’t even notice Pikachu walking up beside her.

“What do you know? Deedee’s got herself a Pikachu!” Kenny placed his hands on his hips as he looked down at the Electric type. “Deedee’s all grown up.” When he looked back up at her, there was a smirk on his face.

That was one too many Deedees. Or, well, all of them were too much, but she couldn’t take it anymore! “Kenny, stop! My name isn’t Deedee, it’s Dawn! And this isn’t my Pikachu!”

“Pika-Pi!”

“My name is Ash!” she heard from behind her.

“And I’m Brock, nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you!” Kenny replied.

She waited for a third voice, but apparently N was too busy to introduce himself…

Turning back to point at her green haired companion, she continued. “That’s N, and we’ve all been travelling together for a long time.”

Had it been a long time? It had seemed like the right thing to say, but she wasn’t sure if it was accurate. It certainly felt like it, but the days sort of blended together out on the road like this…

“What? With them?” Kenny looked shocked at that.

“Is there a problem with that?” She dared him to say that there was, trying to keep the pout off of her face.

But before Kenny could respond, Brock had stepped in. “Any friend of Dawn’s is a friend of ours. Why don’t we head over to the cafe and get some drinks together?”

Stupid Brock, always butting in… she could fight her own battles!

But it wasn’t like she was making much progress with her training anyway, and the whole group quickly agreed without her, so she found herself going to the cafe regardless…

“So how do you two know each other?” Brock asked as they made their way to the cafe, N and Mimikyu trailing a bit behind them.

If there was no getting out of this she might as well do the explaining so Kenny didn’t say anything dumb… “Kenny left Twinleaf Town for his journey before I did. We grew up together.”

“That we did!” Kenny spoke up. “Though I wonder if you’ve been keeping tabs on me, little Miss Copycat.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” She tried not to glare at him.

“Well, I saw you using Piplup over at the Jubilife contest, and my partner is a Prinplup. It’s okay to admit that you’re following in my footsteps, I won’t judge you.” His stupid voice was so smug!

“I wouldn’t ever copy you!” Deep breaths. Calm down. Can’t let him win. “Piplup and I were made for each other.” She didn’t recognize the name Prinplup, but with how similar it was, and Kenny’s teasing, it was easy enough to assume that it was an evolved form of Piplup.

As they reached the cafe, there was a lull in the conversation as they made their orders and took a seat.

“So you were at the Jubilife contest?” Dawn tried to start things back up civilly.

“I wasn’t there in person, but I watched it on TV. Did you watch my performance?”

Ah… she knew she had forgotten about something…

Wait, no, since when was Kenny a coordinator? “I can’t really see you as a coordinator…”

Kenny gave a fake laugh, rubbing the back of his head. “That? Ah… well, unlike you, I’ve already made it to the finals!” He quickly moved into bragging. “It was at the contest right before Jubilife City and I thought I had it in the bag… but I guess you’ve seen just how powerful Zoey is for yourself. She knocked both of us out of the running…”

He had lost to Zoey in the finals? That must have been where she had won her ribbon…

“Zoey is pretty strong, isn’t she?” Ash chimed in.

“I was pretty impressed by her techniques.” Brock added.

Kenny turned to Ash. “Are you competing here?”

“No,” Dawn answered for him, “Ash is aiming for the Sinnoh League, Brock is a Pokemon Breeder, and N is…” she drew a blank. “What are you aiming for, N?” She couldn’t recall him ever saying.

The group turned to him, forcing him to break his silence. “I’m just trying to be the best friend to Pokemon that I can be.”

Huh. That was… an interesting goal, but it didn’t quite fit in with the rest of theirs… oh well, she could ask for details later.

Kenny didn’t seem to care about N’s response, though. His focus was still on Ash. “You were in the Jubilife contest, right?”

“Yeah,” Ash nodded, “I’ve had some fun with contests, but Gym battles are where it’s at!”

“Hmmm.” Kenny turned back to Dawn. “So did you guys meet in Jubilife then?”

“Nope! I actually started travelling with them at the beginning of my journey! Well, Ash, anyway. Brock and N got picked up along the way.”

Kenny’s smug grin returned. “I see. So you’ve probably got some good stories then, right Ash? I doubt they hold a candle to mine.”

“Stories? About what?” Ash looked lost.

“We’re all ears for a good story.” Brock leaned in.

Dawn had a sinking feeling that she knew where this was going. “Kenny, do you have to?”

He ignored her. “One time Dawn’s mom made her get a haircut that she couldn’t stand…”

This was not the kind of stress she needed right before a contest.

N held back a frown as the stadium roared.

He wasn’t sure what to make of this Kenny kid.

However embarrassed she might be, Dawn hadn’t protested against having a chat with Kenny, so it looked like this was shaping up to be some sort of “childhood friends turned rivals” drama.

It was a common enough occurrence, but he’d never understood the mentality himself. Why pit yourselves against each other when you had a strong bond to start with? Though maybe his confusion was due to the fact that he’d had more interaction with Pokemon than potential human friends when he was younger… In any case, he was at least a bit relieved that these two had opted to compete against each other in contests, rather than just have their Pokemon throw themselves at each other in battles every time they met.

Though that hadn’t stopped them from having a few battles last night.

Kenny had insisted on fighting against Ash, and the boy had been quick to accept. Ash and Pikachu very clearly held back against him before eventually winning, but N had been loath to watch the match all the same. Even if his eyes had been opened to the necessity of allowing Pokemon to grow and become stronger, that didn’t mean he was suddenly going to like battles between trainers.

Kenny’s follow up match against Dawn had been… interesting. Most would assume that the boy’s Prinplup, being the evolved form of Dawn’s ace, would mean that he had won before the match even began. That had turned out to not be the case, though it was hard to tell how much of Dawn’s victory had been due to Prinplup’s exhaustion from the prior fight, and how much of it had been due to Piplup suddenly pulling out a new move in Whirlpool.

If the little Water type had had a big head before, now it was as if his ego was too big for his little body. “Well of course I would win, I’m clearly the superior Pokemon! I don’t see Prinplup pulling out a Whirlpool, do you? It’s only right that you should praise and adore me and….” on and on, Dawn's starter had sung his own virtues.

Luckily, Piplup was with Dawn right now and not in the stands with the rest of them, so they’d gotten a break from it.

“...so let’s get this show on the road!” he tuned back in to the announcer’s words as the contest began in earnest and a pair of curtains was pulled back.

“Cool! Dawn’s going first!” Ash called out as the blue haired girl made her way onto the stage. In an elegant pink dress and her blue hair curled, she looked much more refined than usual.

Her performance got off to a good start. Releasing Pachirisu in a giant ribbon formed of the Pokemon’s electricity made for a rather pleasant display, and he found himself thinking that her work had paid off. Seeing Pachirisu be able to show off her skills without having to risk personal injury brought a small smile to his face.

But as she stuck the landing, Pachirisu froze.

N didn’t think he’d seen the Electric type stay still for so long. Even in her sleep, she’d toss and turn and twitch, but now she was like a statue.

“Damn. Who’da thought that she’d be the type ta get stage fright?” Mimikyu murmured from his shoulder.

He watched as Dawn’s wide smile turned tense and fake. “Pachirisu, use Discharge!” Her hands clenched, and though he couldn’t see it from this distance, he imagined she was breaking out in a cold sweat.

There was no response from the Electric type.

“Pachirisu, use Discharge!” she tried again, louder this time, and Pachirisu suddenly jolted in place, as if she had been broken out of a spell.

Luckily, it seemed that her Pokemon had suppressed the fear, if only for a moment, as a storm of electricity erupted from Pachirisu, lighting up the stage.

“Now Sweet Kiss!” Dawn followed up, and the crowd watched as dozens of pink hearts obscured their view of the Pokemon and her trainer, dispersing only to reveal the two of them in a curtsy.

He didn’t think that performance boded well for their odds in this contest, but he supposed that he had been surprised the last time, so he couldn’t count her out of the running just yet.

As the duo made their way off of the stage, he turned to the ghost on his shoulder. “So you think that was stage fright?”

“Dunno what else it’d be. She jus’ locked up once she saw the crowd. Can’t say I blame ‘er though, this is a lotta people ta be performin’ in fron’ of…”

That was a fair assessment, though N had never suffered from stage fright himself. He’d yet to give his speeches out in public, but his practice sessions among his supporters had gone well enough.

The performances seemed to fly by after that. With Ash and Mimikyu calling out all of the unfamiliar Pokemon to him, they watched a Buizel, Magmar, Seel, Koffing, Kricketune, Magneton, and…

“Mimikyu… isn’t that…?”

“Yep,” was all the fairy said, and that was enough.

Jessie, or rather, “Jessilina”, was rather obvious to spot despite her…. interesting outfit choices. The twintails weren’t a bad look, even if it was quite different from her usual style, but the giant rimmed glasses, the overly puffy orange dress that stopped at an odd spot below her knees, and the thick leather boots weren’t exactly what he would call stylish. Or a good look at all, really. Maybe it was just a part of her disguise so that people wouldn't recognize her as a Rocket, but N found himself wishing that her look was more in line with when he’d first seen her…

Trying to distract himself from that line of thought, he looked over to Brock and Ash. They seemed none the wiser. Was his hypothesis about the Wobbuffet’s interference in their recognition correct then? Mimikyu had never been fooled, and he hadn’t been fooled while in physical contact with Mimikyu, so maybe the ghostly presence was dampening the effect enough for it to not take its hold on them.

They were in quite a large crowd, though. Was Wobbuffet exerting its control over everyone present? Was it specifically targeting people who would recognize Jessie as a member of Team Rocket? Either scenario painted the Pokemon as even more powerful than he had originally suspected, and that worried him.

Perhaps more worryingly, though, was the fact that the Rockets were here at all. Was this some sort of plot? Or did Jessie just happen to enjoy contests?

“Hey, Ash…” he drew the boy’s attention. “Does this performer look familiar to you?”

“Hmm?” Ash turned to him. “Well, yeah, she was in the Jubilife City contest, wasn’t she?”

“Ah, that must be it.”

So Ash was definitely under the spell. But now that he thought about it, Jessie had been at the Jubilife contest, hadn’t she? And she hadn’t done anything malicious there, either. Perhaps it would be safe to just keep an eye on her…

Her performance involving Seviper constricting around her was also an... Interesting choice, but the crowd seemed to enjoy it.

Kenny’s performance was next, and N was very surprised to see him release an Alakazam. From the way that he and Dawn had talked, N had been under the impression that Kenny hadn’t been a trainer for that much longer than her, and yet here he was with an Alakazam?

Light Screen, Shadow Ball, Teleport, Hidden Power… Not exactly the move pool he would have expected form such a powerful Psychic type, but perhaps this was just what they felt like showing off for a contest. He might need to be wary of the boy if the rest of his team was this powerful, and even if it wasn’t, Alakazam were favored by the League for a reason…

He found his interest in the contest waning as they moved into the battle portion. Dawn and Piplup managed to knock out Jessie’s Dustox, a Solrock defeated a Sneasal, Kenny’s Prinplup managed to defeat a Nidoking, which N thought was pretty impressive since it ended in a knockout, even if he hated that he was impressed. On and on, the bracket progressed until at the final round it was Dawn against Kenny.

Bubblebeam versus Bubblebeam, Peck versus Metal Claw, every attack between the two Water types was met head on and N found himself frowning once more. Ash and Brock had stricken up a conversation about the performance, but N tuned them out. Despite his dislike of battles, he realized that he was actually invested in this one.

“Looks like Dawn’s gonna ‘ave ‘er first ribbon.” He heard Mimikyu say as Piplup jumped into its own Whirlpool, swirling around in the water and making it difficult for Prinplup to land any attacks.

“What makes you say that?”

“Scoreboard.” A quick glance showed that she was just barely doing better than Kenny. “Plus the fact that it ain’ over yet. Piplup holdin’ up for this long against ‘is evolved form makes ‘im look more impressive.”

The timer hitting zero proved Mimikyu’s thinking to be correct. Dawn jumped up and down, spinning Piplup around in her arms as her face was shown on the screen as the winner.

N felt… strange… was he proud of her? Sure, they were travelling companions, but she was still a trainer, still someone who had just had her Pokemon compete in battle for the amusement of others, so why…

Perhaps all this time around other people was starting to change him, just a bit…

Dawn was elated. She’d done it! She’d won her very first ribbon! And to think it was only her second contest performance…

Of course, she’d had to call her mom about this. Tell the story of her win, even if she’d likely been watching on TV at home.

Her mom had a big smile on her face the whole time, obviously proud of her and it felt so good to have proven herself!

“...just remember though, you can’t be satisfied with just one ribbon. You need to keep working with your Pokemon until you go all the way to the top!” Her mom reminded her.

That was right. One win wasn’t good enough. She felt her smile strain. “Of course, mom. I will.”

She ended the call before her mom could see the tears welling up in her eyes, wiping them away before they could fall.

She’d known it would be like that. That even a win like this wouldn’t be enough. Her mom had won the Grand Festival back when she was an active coordinator, after all. It was only to be expected that she would do the same.

She gave herself a moment before going back to her group.

“Dawn, are you okay? Why are you crying?” Ash asked, concern obvious on all of their faces.

Maybe she should have waited a bit longer.

“No need to worry! These are tears of joy! I’m just so happy to have won!” She lied through her teeth. Or was it lying? She was happy to have won. Ecstatic, even. It had just… been pushed down by the pressure she felt, that was all.

It was okay. Everything was okay. She got her first ribbon, surely getting a few more would go just as well, right?

She’d taken a big step in the right direction. Now she just needed to keep walking.