Enter Stage Right [Edwin/Invite]

Edwin was returning home to Cyngi City after a good day and night's rest in Nair. He had chosen his home base well, as it was within a day's travel of the rest of the region. Indeed, he had encounters on the way, but now he had two pokemon there to help him out. His trusted friend and partner Arkady, and his new pokemon - the fun and playful Bellamy.

He let both of them accompany him outside of their pokeballs. Even if the walk may tire them, still, it was something that was healthy for them. And they had enough of a presence to make wild pokemon think twice before they gave the jump on them.

Arkady spent most of the trip talking to Bellamy in pokespeak, finding him clever and funny, and was glad that he was able to convince him to join Edwin's team. Bellamy meanwhile found Arkady a little bit lame, but, he appreciated making what was essentially his very first friend. The Sneasel hadn't made many in his life so far, hatching alone in the mountains, coming down to the city to scavenge and be roughed up by roving gangs of fighting pokemon. It was... kinda nice.

Eventually, they made their way to Cyngi city. And the first port of call? Of course - the pokecenter.

Edwin withdrew them into their pokeballs so the nurse could heal them up right away from the pains of their travels. That was done smoothly, and once they were healed up, Edwin looked at them to see what they wanted to do.

("Whatever's fine with you, Edwin!") Arkady squeaked happily.

("Frankly I could do with a massage, nya~") Bellamy mused. ("Preferably by a cutie") he added, but only Arkady understood, and tilted his head in confusion.

"Well, we'll find somewhere hopefully" Edwin said. "Maybe scout out a place to eat tonight?". His pokemon liked that idea. And so Edwin led them out of the pokecenter out into the city. It wasn't long before they did find a place - a cosy looking sushi train, but unfortunately, it was closed for the moment, only to open in a few minutes.

"Huh, this place looks affordable" he said. "Well, guys, how bout we wait for it to open?"

It was there that they sat for the moment, obvious to passers-by.

Arkady's attention was diverted to another trainer with three pokemon. He identified them as a grass, flying and bug type, but of course couldn't tell them by their species. Bellamy caught his eye and looked too, but noted that none of them seemed to be his type (read: egg group). Still though, wouldn't hurt to make friends, right?

Arkady was delighted by the other trainer saying he was cute. This made Bellamy kinda jealous.

("And what about me, eh, nya~?") he asked in pokespeak, immediately posing on the table in one of his "paint me like one of your Kalos 'mons" poses. This made Edwin blink awkwardly. Maybe it would be best to just ignore him at this stage? Yeah...

"Ah, hey there" he said to the other guy, noting that he seemed to be his age. "Yeah, Arkady's pretty cute. I've had him for 6 years".

("And I don't look a year over 2!") Arkady chirped in pokespeak, then put a claw to his chin. ("Wait, do pokemon age?")

Had Edwin been able to understand him, he would have said that yes, pokemon do age - the telltale signs are degradation of their fur and slower movements, but as he couldn't, he could only speak to the other trainer.

"Wow, you look like you've caught some pretty interesting pokemon too" he said, quickly noting the entries in his pokedex for Bulbasaur, Rufflet and Heracross. Thinking that he might benefit a little from getting an acquaintance, Edwin smiled at the other trainer again.

"My name's Edwin, I'm a researcher-trainer" he said. "Although... still kinda new to the training part" he looked down at Bellamy who was still clearly demanding attention.

Bellamy was pleased to receive attention as well. Man, at this rate, maybe one day he might even end up in the faraway Pokestar Studios all the way over in Unova? Of course, the Sneasel didn't know what that would involve, but, he had long heard of the pokemon that starred in their own movies and earned quite a lot of accolades. All he'd have to do is maybe draw attention to himself whenever possible? Ah, if only he could learn "Follow Me".

Arkady quickly noted that the Rufflet seemed to be miffed about being called a handful, but the Bulbasaur seemed to have a sassy answer at hand. He thus deduced that the Bulbasaur was Everett's original partner, given his loyalty to imply that the fault was not on his trainer, something that he would do quickly.

Then, the Bulbasaur slinked off to investigate something. Arkady gasped, then glanced at Edwin, then Bellamy. Well, even if he left his trainer's side, he at least had that flamboyant Sneasel for defense. Hopefully that would be okay.

Arkady followed Caesar into the alley. ("What's the matter? Is there something in here?") the Noibat asked, flapping his wings to hover in place. ("Oh, yeah, I'm Arkady by the way") he introduced himself.

Meanwhile, Edwin exchanged Everett's handshake with a smile. Bellamy gave a wave as well. He blinked and noted Arkady had gone somewhere. Welp, guess he'd better stay with the human if that was the case.

As it happened, someone appeared at the door of the restaurant, flipping the sign from "closed" to "open". "Ah, here we go, open at last" Edwin remarked, standing up. He hadn't yet noticed that Arkady wasn't there, the thought of food was at the forefront of his mind.

("Ah, sorry about that, I just prefer to fly than walk") Arkady explained, chuckling. His curiosity was piqued by Caesar's explanation. ("Oh? What did you see?")

Arkady then saw something that looked like a Pikachu appear before them. Oh? That was interesting. He hadn't seen a Pikachu like this before... he landed next to Caesar when he remembered Edwin saying that electric types could target flying types better.

Caesar then said that Arkady might want to go back to his trainer. Arkady looked worried. ("But... what about you? Will you be okay?"). A pokemon as friendly as Arkady wasn't going to leave a new acquaintance in peril that easily.

Then, he heard a voice that chilled him to the bone. ("Ehh...?") he whimpered, shivering. Then the thing said that it wanted to perform for them. ("Ah... okay... I guess?") he asked, supposing that the other pokemon might be wanting to be friendly.

The sushi restaurant meanwhile held a bounty of delicious morsels for trainer and pokemon alike. Bellamy happily prepared a plate with lots of fish and egg rolls. Edwin meanwhile by now had noticed something was askew.

"...hey Bellamy, have you seen Arkady?" he asked his Sneasel. Bellamy shrugged and happily ate a tuna (whatever that was) and egg roll, almost whole. Edwin then looked at the entrance, wondering if Arkady had even entered the restaurant.

Edwin rushed out after Everett, Bellamy at his side, still scoffing down sushi rolls. "I'm sorry, we'll be right back and pay, I promise" he said to the cashier, even dropping them a few notes of pokedollars as a deposit. Then, he gasped as he saw what had happened.

"Oh no! Arkady!" Edwin yelped, rushing over to the fainted Noibat. He cradled him in his arms, he was still alive thankfully, and trembling, a thousand-eye stare in his little yellow eyes.

("Yeesh, what happened to you?") Bellamy asked, concerned for his teammate. He then saw the Mimikyu. ("Oh, right, that thing") he remarked to himself. He deduced that it used "Flash" or whatever the move was on them. He had one use it on him once, but he didn't find it anything special.

("It was... horrible") Arkady remarked. Even though he had fainted, he wasn't entirely unconscious. ("I've never seen anything so... depraved and twisted!")

("Heh, kid, boy are you new to the world, nya~") Bellamy teased. Arkady blankly looked at him, recovering somewhat.

("Dude, I'm like, six years old") he said. While he was normally friendly, a few days travelling with Bellamy had made him develop a somewhat boisterous relationship with the Sneasel when he figured out that he was somewhat streetwise and found that he responded better when he spoke like that.

Edwin meanwhile watched Everett and Mimikyu while holding Arkady. The Noibat averted his gaze, but Edwin was wondering what was going on.

"So... is this a wild pokemon or a lost one?" he wondered out loud, still unaware that it was the one responsible for Arkady and Caesar's trauma.

Whew, that seemed to be that then. This Mimikyu was a wild one, given by how it ended up in one of Everett's pokeballs. And it seemed Edwin's new acquaintance had gained his third pokemon.

"Huh, that's really impressive" Edwin said, genuinely surprised to see a pokemon consent to being captured without a fight. Although understandable. It tied in with his own experience of catching Bellamy after he had made some kind of deal with Arkady. He didn't know it in its entirety, but, apparently Arkady challenged him to something and won. The full story was that Arkady had challenged Bellamy to make him faint in one hit, and he had failed to do so. Probably that was what made the Sneasel get captured so easily. Edwin wasn't all on top of these pokemon communications. It would be fascinating to figure it out one day though.

Everett then asked if Arkady was okay. "Ah, yeah, he seems to be..." he looked at the Noibat. "Wanna stop by the pokemon center before dinner, mate?" he asked him gently. It wasn't far. And with this, Arkady nodded. And so Edwin looked up at Everett. "We should probably head to the pokecenter first, we don't want Arkady and Caesar to miss out on dinner" he said.

("Aw, do I have to go too?") Bellamy asked poutily, then realized that Edwin couldn't understand him. ("Well, uh, I ain't fainted, so, uh, I might go back and meet with Bolin") he then sneaked away back to the restaurant.

Bellamy returned to the table and was happy to converse with the Heracross. Even if he was a fighting type, Bellamy liked to be social with all other types if they were being nice to him. After all, a Noibat being nice to him had ended up improving his life rather a lot.

("Eggs are my favorite") Bellamy answered with a grin. ("Other than that, fish and poultry are my favorite, nya~")

He wasn't impartial to the sushi though. There was something about the savory taste of the seaweed and the filling feeling of the rice that really hit the spot.

When Edwin and the recovered Arkady returned, Bellamy gave a quick wave before continuing his meal. His comrades resumed their meal, Edwin using chopsticks as custom dictated, while Arkady picked up the pieces with his wing-paws and nibbled away with delight, the wonderful taste quickly removing the trauma he had faced with that Mimikyu. At least it was now a tamed pokemon, so he hoped, so it wouldn't do that again unless it was a battle when he would be prepared.

Edwin looked at Everett when spoken to. "Yeah, I'm a researcher. My parents wanted me to stay in school rather than become a trainer when I turned 13, so I learned all I could" he explained. "Over the years I've come to be focusing on Flying types, mainly because I had Arkady here and just, well, best focus on what you have, right?" he grinned a little sheepishly (or Mareepishly as the term would go). "And now that I've decided to start being a trainer in full, well, can't really forget my academics, so, I aim to write a few papers on my experiences if I can".

He hesitated, then spoke further "I've... always wanted to experience flight" Edwin admitted, somewhat candidly. "It just... seems like a whole new world if you're flying. But I was so caught up with my studies that I never really trained Arkady that much, and I know that if he evolves to Noivern then maybe he'd be willing to, well... make it happen?" he finished, scratching the back of his head. "Isn't that right?" he asked his partner.

("Yes! I've always wanted to fly with you!") Arkady squeaked. What better gift could he provide to his best friend? And now that Edwin had started to become a trainer, he felt that they were well along the path to that goal. Edwin grinned at his enthusiasm and scratched behind his neck affectionately. He then realized he had probably said a lot and now it was Everett's turn.

"How about you? What kind of trainer are you?" he asked, curiously.