EVERYONE: My True Purpose - A Pokemon Scarlet Story

[DynoStretch]

(rated E10+ for mild fantasy violence and some minor implications of death)

Hi folks! Just thought I'd upload a Scarlet story I did a while back to get your guys' input.

This story is based off Pokemon Scarlet, and takes place after the events of the game. As such, there's going to be MASSIVE SPOILERS, so just giving you fair warning.

Without further adeu, enjoy!

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Chapter 1 - Discovery

"Meowscarada, give it a Night Slash attack!"

A young lady stood in the middle of the city of Mesagoza among a small crowd who were cheering for her and her Pokémon-battling opponent.

The girl had black and green hair, with tan-colored skin and hazel eyes. She wore a uniform of the prestiged Naranja Academy in the region of Paldea. She was known as Nemona, one of the top champion trainers of the region. She pointed out her finger to command her Pokémon, a green magician cat Pokémon called Meowscarada. Despite it having some injuries, it took on a elegant poise for the crowd and let out a cry.

"Mreeeooowwsaaa!"

Meowscarada ran across the street with black energy enhanced claws to try and take out it's opponent, a large flaming crocodile Pokémon with a small bird-like fire spirit on it's snout which was called a Skeledirge. The speedy cat's attack impacted on the slow crocodile and slashed across it, but the large creature managed to hold it's ground.

"Tamale, now's your chance! Use Fire Fang!"

"Skeleeeediiiir!"

It's trainer seized the moment and commanded their Skeledirge nicknamed 'Tamale', who ignited it's teeth with flames and bit down on Meowscarada's body, burning it badly, before throwing it away to the other side of the arena.

Skeledirge's trainer was a young lady with light colored skin, blue hair done into a ponytail, and with bright emerald green eyes that bore a look of determination in them. She wore a pink Gatsby cap and a uniform similar to her opponent, as well as black leggings and red shoes.

Her name was Gizelle, and was known as one of the newest champions of the Paldea region enrolled in Naranja Academy. Despite only enrolling just recently, she had already made great waves as both a talented trainer and a sort-of secret hero to the people of the region.

"Woah, bueno move!" Nemona said to Gizelle, despite a setback, she was smiling from ear-to-ear. "Think it's time to end this the best way we know how!"

Nemona pulled up an sphere known as a 'Tera Orb', and threw it out at her Meowscarada. The cat Pokémon was engulfed in a strange aura, before bursting out it in a sparkling blue crystal-like form, along with a crown on it's head shaped like a water burst. This was known as the Terastal phenomenon, which could enhanse the power of a Pokémon.

"Go for it Nemona, me and Tamale are ready!" Gizelle nodded. She too pulled out a Tera Orb and chucked it out at her Skeledirge, causing it to become Terastallized as well, but with a green hue to it as well as a crown shaped like flowers.

"SKKKEEELEEE!" roared out Tamale, stomping it's foot down with a fiery burst.

"Down to the wire again, huh? Never a dull moment with these two!" spoke a voice from the crowd watching the battle, "Right Mabosstiff?"

"Gwar-ruuf!"

It was a slightly older guy in hiking clothes and with a large backpack. He had sandy-colored hair with a lock hanging down over his left eye. He was known as Arven, a skilled Pokémon trainer but an even more talented sandwich chef. He was siting beside his dark-typed dog Pokémon known as Mabosstiff, a comrade he's had since he was a young boy.

"Meowscarada, use your Flower Trick!" commanded Nemona.

"Tamale, give it your Torch Song attack!" shouted Gazelle.

Meowscarada did a twirl before generating a bouquet of flowers in it's hand and tossing it out at Tamale, while the small fire bird on Skeledirge's nose leaped off and was propelled forward by the intense roar created by the crocodile Pokémon. The two attacks barely missed each other and both impacted directly into the two, sending them both flying back with massive explosions.

As the dust cleared, Arven and the crowd looked in awe as they saw Tamale still standing strong while Meowscarada was laying on the ground in a daze, making Gizelle the winner of the battle. Nemona had no words, she just recalled her cat Pokémon and stood still with her head hanging down. Some people in the crowd thought she had taken her loss rather hard...

"That... was..." Nemona muttered softly, before suddenly bursting out with happiness, "...incredible!"

As Gizelle pet Tamale on the head and recalled it back into it's ball, Nemona ran right up to the blue-haired girl, looking right into her emerald eyes with bright enthusiasm.

"Seriously Gizelle, you just keep getting better and better!" Nemona said, "I always knew there was something great about you when we first met!"

"Ah heh... thanks Nemona." Gizelle was always overwhelmed by Nemona's energy, but it was impossible for her to dislike it, as the older girl was always such an earnest person.

"I'm still surprised you two choose grass and water as your Tera types." Arven said walking up to the two, "Tamale and Meowscarada don't even know Tera Blast, wouldn't it make more sense to make Tamale a fire or ghost Tera type or somethin'?"

"Not when your opponent can easily exploit that disadvantage." Gizelle smirked and adjusted her cap, "Remember that sometimes a good defensive type can be just as important as an offensive type!"

"Huh... I guess so." shrugged Arven. He looked down at Mabosstiff thinking about it's typing.

"That's Gizelle for you, she's the one who inspired me to make Meowscarada a water Tera type!" Nemona said. She turned and gripped at Gizelle's hands tightly, "Having those last two attacks impact at the same time, it really felt like we're in sync together!"

"Hey, are you guys done yet?" spoke a new mellow voice.

The three turned to see a slightly shorter girl with blue and red hair and wearing glasses, as well as a cute Eevee backpack. This was Penny, another friend of theirs. She was a computer expert and the former leader of an anti-bully gang known as Team Star.

"Hi Penny, what's up?" Gizelle asked as Nemona was hugging her affectionately.

"Well when Nemona's done making out with you, the director called. He has something urgent to talk about regarding you-know-what." Penny spoke dryly.

Gizelle, Nemona and Arven all looked to each other in confusion, but followed after Penny.

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"Director, I brought everyone here." Penny spoke as she, Gizelle, Nemona and Arven all walked into the office of Naranja Academy's director office. There at a desk sat a much older man with white hair and thin-rimmed glasses known as Director Clavell.

"Ah, thank you all for arriving on time." Clavell said.

"Hey Clive, what's up?" Gizelle spoke with a cheeky grin.

"I thought we agreed that I not go by that name... anymore." Clavell coughed a bit awkwardly and adjusted his glasses, "Anyway, there's a situation that I feel you four should be aware of. It's in regards to that incident you were involved in a few months back at the Great Crater."

"That place again? What about it?" asked Nemona.

"I've received a strange signal coming from there, a very similar one to when I was contacted by..." Clavell looked to Arven somewhat sympathy, "...what I thought was your mother."

"W-What...?!" Arven spoke.

The Great Crater was a location in the center of the region also known as 'Area Zero', and was forbidden for most trainers to venture into due to all the powerful Pokémon there. It was also the source of the Terastal phenomenon, which was created by a brilliant professor who had been living down there for years.

That person was a woman named Professor Sada, the mother of Arven. She had been working on her life's dream of creating a paradise for her family involving a time machine that would pull Pokémon from the distant past and assimilating them into the modern world. However, Sada's goal in creating a paradise had become an obbession that ironically made her neglect her family; her husband left her and her son had felt abdonded by her for years and years.

"What's this about? Is the 'A.I.' the professor made back or something?" Gizelle asked.

In pursuit of her goal, Professor Sada had even crafted an android that replicated her memories and thoughts. After the professor was tragically killed by an experiment with a certain Pokémon from the past, the A.I. had taken over, having decided that the project was doomed to failure and needed to be shut down before disaster could fall onto the world. In the end, the A.I. had disappeared into the past in order to prevent the time machine from causing anymore trouble than it had.

"I don't quite think so..." Clavell spoke scratching his chin, "But whatever it is, it seems urgent. I hate to ask this because of the potential danger, but you four have more experience down in Area Zero than anyone else. I'd like you to investigate the signal and find out what else is down there."

He looked to Arven in particular.

"I know this is a particularity troubling task for you Mr. Arven, so I won't try to force you to-"

"No, no it's okay." Arven said shaking his head, "I'm not going to let my friends do this alone. I'll help too!"

"That's the way to talk!" Nemona said, grabbing Gizelle by the arm, "Come on, I wanna battle all those strong Pokémon down there!"

"Hey, I can walk!" Gizelle exclaimed being dragged off.

Arven and Penny both glanced to each other, before letting out a sigh and following after.

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"Been a while since we've been here, hasn't it?" Nemona spoke as she walked down the road of Area Zero with her friends.

The crater was a downward spiral that led towards an underground cavern. The area had eerily beautiful sparkle to it, with lush green plants thriving and waterfalls pouring down. There was also numerous varieties of Pokémon roaming around the area.

"Y-Yeah, and it's just as terrifying as last time." Penny spoke, huddling close to Gizelle as she saw what appeared to be a magnet Pokémon called a Magneton, but was actually a prehistoric variation identified as Sandy Shocks, walking on two magnet-like legs as it's wire tail lashed around behind it.

"It's alright, we got Ravager to help us too!" Gizelle said, "Right buddy?"

"Graaah! Gwaaah!" nodded a large orange red dragonic creature in agreement.

This creature was known as Koraidon, an ancient form of a ride Pokémon known as Cyclizar. Koraidon had been brought to the present by Sada's time machine, and through some circumstances, had wound up befriending Gizelle and her friends. It was invaluable to Gizelle for getting around the region with it's abilities, and was the only way for the group to even arrive down here at Area Zero. Nowdays she gave the creature the nickname Ravager, for how its abilities allowed it to tear through the region.

"It's okay, we just gotta go down, check out this place the signal was coming from, and get out, right?" Arven asked, a little annoyed when Ravager started sniffing his backpack for food.

"Yeah, maybe if Gizelle isn't too focused on the Pokémon here..." Penny spoke, seeing Gizelle now looking left and right anxiously with wide eyes.

"I can't help it, I have to check everywhere to make sure I don't miss a shiny Pokémon!" Gizelle said, "It's been a while since I caught a new one, and I can just feel that there's one roaming around!" she spotted a Girafarig munching some grass, but saw it lacked any blue coloring.

"I don't know what's worse, Nemona's battling obsession or Gizelle's shiny-collecting obsession." Arven said sweatdropping.

"Oh, that must be the place!" Nemona said, pointing out a research station just ahead.

"About time, let's get going." Penny said.

The four of them entered the station and looked around, seeing large grass tubes and two large doors, along with a computer in the center. They had been there before as part of their mission to meet with the A.I. Professor, but weren't able to access the other rooms.

But just then the left door shifted, and started to open up, releasing some dust from years of negligence. The five of them stood still for a moment, before nodding to each other and walking in. Ravager stayed on his guard in case anything tried to attack the kids.

They soon arrived in another room with a single computer at a desk with a flashing screen, and a large glass tube like the others. Despite the computer's light, the room was very dark, and it was hard to see what was inside the tube.

"Is this the place?" Gizelle asked.

"Sure looks like it." Penny said, looking down at a PDA hacking device she had made to assist with their investigation. She plugged it in and sat down at the computer to see what information it had. She was relieved to see the password wasn't needed, and she immediately began reading the data.

"So what's this all about?" Nemona asked.

"Hold on, I'm checking." Penny grumbled in annoyance, "The data is heavily encrypted. Looks to be some kind of... programming overwrite? I'm going to upload all this into my PDA to make it easier to decipher."

As she started downloading the data though, suddenly some lights came on, and shined on the glass tube, giving the group a view of just what was in it, and they all gasped out in shock.

Floating in some kind of green clear liquid was what looked like an adult human woman draped in a white lab coat and wearing some kind of animal print top and shorts, along with similarly designed boots. Her skin was slightly tanned with visible muscular abs on her abdomen. She had wild sandy hair very similar to that of Arven.

"It... It can't be..." gasped Arven.

"Is that the professor?" Gizelle exclaimed, recognizing the look of Professor Sada,

"Graaawwrr?" Ravager growled out in surprise.

"No... hold on a sec." Penny spoke up, looking over the data on her PDA, "According to this, this thing is... another 'A.I.' android, a prototype of the one we found in the lab at the bottom of the crater."

"A prototype? You mean like a first version?" Nemona asked tilting her head.

"That's the layman's term for it, yes." Penny said adjusting her glasses.

"But what's it doing here? Was this what sent the signal to Clive?" Gizelle asked.

"Not sure..." Penny spoke studying what was on the screen, "This prototype seemed to be an imperfect version, having difficulties replicating the thoughts and memories of the professor, so she left it in here for some reason."

"..." Arven stared up silently at the android in the tube as Penny continued.

"...but the professor used what she learned from making this A.I. to perfect the one we encountered in the main lab." Penny said, "Guess it makes sense it took more than one try."

Penny moved the mouse and clicked a link showing an image of a 3D wire frame figure rotating around, and a completion bar at 100%. There was also a red flashing button that showed up that was labeled 'Release'.

"Release...?" Arven asked, feeling a strange uncertainty in the back of his mind.

"Well what are you waiting for? Let's release it!" Gizelle spoke up, reaching over Penny and grabbing the mouse, moving it over to the button and clicking it.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" snapped Penny, "This could be something dangerou-!"

But then a great amount of steam started to vent out from the glass tube device before them. They watched as the green liquid the A.I. was submerged in was drained out of the tank, and the glass tube slowly slid downwards, freeing the android and leaving it collapsing onto it's hands and knees.

"Uh oh, is this bad?" Nemona asked.

"... … ...disabling sleep mode..." spoke the A.I., it's eyes not even blinking.

They all remained motionless, Gizelle being the only one not unnerved by it as she had encountered something similar months ago with the Professor A.I.

"Scanning area..." the A.I. spoke, slowly looking up and staring out at the four kids and the Koraidon. There was a long silent pause, as no one knew what to do. Ravager remained cautious, ready to strike if the A.I. tried anything that might endanger it's friends.

Suddenly the A.I. leaped forward off the containment device and onto the table with the computer. The robotic woman-like figure stood on it's hands and knees as it started sniffing at the humans before it.

"Uh, what's it doing...?" Penny asked in embarrassment as it sniffed her hair.

The A.I. then turned to Arven and just stared at him. The lone boy of the group looked awkward at it's behavior.

"Um..."

Then the A.I.'s cheeks turned upwards into a big smile, as it quickly lunged out it's arms and gave the young lad a big hug.

"It's you! I've been waiting so long to finally meet you!" it exclaimed.

"HUH?" Nemona and Penny both exclaimed.

"Wha-what the heck?" Arven stammered as the A.I. was nuzzling it affectionately like a cat.

"Gizelle, are you seeing this?" Penny asked turning to her friend, only to see Gizelle had her Rotom phone aimed at the A.I. and Arven.

"Keep still, I wanna get more pictures!" Gizelle said snapping shots with a big grin.

"This is serious!" Penny exclaimed.

"Oooh!" the A.I. exclaimed as it jumped over to Ravager and looked intently at the dragon, "You... you're the non-hostile one, right?"

"Gawr?" Ravager tilted it's head curiously.

"I knew it!" the A.I. said slamming it's fist into her palm, before giving the dragon Pokémon an affectionate hug around the neck, "Look at how strong you've gotten! You're such a good boy!"

"Grawr!" Ravager's eyes sparkled at the attention it was getting and started nuzzling the A.I. back.

"W-Wait... just... what the heck are you?" Arven exclaimed.

"Me?" the A.I. asked, standing upright, sweeping some liquid off it's coat, and putting one fist to it's side with a proud smile, "I'm an A.I., created by the great Professor Sada!"

"Si, we gathered that." Nemona said, "So what are you doing here then?"

"Hmm..." the A.I. folded it's arms and pondered to itself, "What was I here for...?"

The group all stared at the A.I. for the longest time, until they saw smoke was starting coming out of it's ears, alarming them.

"Hey, are you okay?" exclaimed Penny, "You look like you're overheating!"

"Gaaah... I can't think of anything..." the A.I. groaned, hanging it's head to the side with something that resembled drool leaking out from it's mouth, "Thinking that hard was too much for me..."

"Is this thing for real?" Penny asked swetdropping.

"Well it's a little weird, but it doesn't seem dangerous..." Nemona commented, "What do you think we should do with it?"

"How about we put it back in the capsule...?" suggested Arven, "And make sure it's locked."

"Hey, don't talk like that!" Gizelle interjected. She turned to the A.I. and pondered to herself for a moment. Then sported a wide grin,

"I got it! How about we take her back with us to Director Clive?"

"T-Take her with us?" Arven exclaimed.

"Eh? Clive? Who's Clive?" the A.I. asked, looking left and right curiously, it leaned forward to Ravager and stared at it closely, "What about you, are you Clive?"

"Gwar?" Ravager spoke confused.

"Gizelle, this really isn't the time for jokes..." Penny said, she looking over to the smile Gizelle had and doubled over in shock, "What, you're serious?!"

"How about it Ms. A.I.? Wanna come with us?" Gizelle offered.

"Hey, wait a minute, can this thing even leave Area Zero?" Arven asked, "The other one couldn't!"

"Oh, that won't be a problem." the A.I. said, standing upright, "After you opened the capsule, I'm no longer connected to the any of the systems here, so I should be able to leave just fine." it sported a wide smile that showed off a fang, "I'd love to go with you kids!"

"That sounds great!" Nemona cheered out along with Ravager, "Alright, then let's go!"

"Gwaar!"

"So what about you, are you Clive?" the A.I. asked Penny.

"No!" Penny shouted in frustration.

"There's that uncertain feeling again..." Arven muttered.

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Chapter 2 - Wild Thing

"This is... Of every possibility I had of what was down there, I wasn't expecting this of all things."

Director Clavell spoke in shock as he and the kids were all watching what appeared to be his old professor friend roaming around his office, observing everything there was. The A.I. opened a can and peeked inside of it, before closing it back up and going off somewhere else.

"We couldn't just leave her at the lab, so we brought her back here by flying taxi." Gizelle explained.

Clavell scratched his chin, "To think Professor Sada built a second A.I., yet unlike the one from three months ago, this one is capable of leaving Area Zero?"

"I'm still in the dark about it myself." Penny spoke, looking over her PDA, "Trying to decrypt all this data I copied from the terminal system is going to take some time..."

"Still, to know my old friend was able to create fully functional androids with actual artificial intelligence." spoke Clavell, "It's astonishing to think of..."

They watched as the A.I. was squatting down rooting through Clavell's trash can. It pulled out a used coffee filter and sniffed at it for a moment, before giving it a small lick. The A.I. suddenly spit the coffee dust out in disgust before dropping filter back into the can.

"You sure about the 'intelligence' part Director?" Penny asked sweatdropping.

The A.I. then looked to Clavell's TV. She poked at it curiously for a few moments before accidentally pushing the power button and showing a loud sports game on it. The A.I. practically jumped ten feet into the air out of surprise and starting yelling frantically at the screen in shock, pounding at the ground with its fists as it hopped around.

"Ooo! Graaah! Ooh oooh!"

"What?" exclaimed the director.

The A.I. started jumping all around the room in a fit, leaping onto Clavell's desk and scattering some papers, and from there it leaped onto the top of a chair. It then jumped up to the ceiling lamp and clung to it, making loud screeching noises as she swiped her free hand around randomly in the direction of the TV as if to fend it off.

"What's gotten into it?!" Arven exclaimed.

"Calm down, it's just the TV!" Nemona exclaimed as she and Gizelle were trying to subdue it.

"A... T-V...?" the A.I. stared at the screen as Penny ran over and turned it off. The robot dropped down to the ground and stood still for a moment, before it sported a large goofy smile and rubbed the back of its head, "Oops. Ah heh heh, sorry about that Director!"

"It's uh... okay." Clavell said, glancing at the paperwork that had been scattered everywhere.

"It doesn't know what a TV is, but didn't it send the distress call...?" Penny asked in confusion, looking back down at her PDA.

"So what do you think we should we do with her, Director?" Gizelle asked.

"It's hard to say for certain." Clavell said, "If we contact the authorities about it, it might fall into the wrong hands, or be completely shutdown and dismantled."

"So what if it's shutdown? It's just a machine." Arven shrugged.

"Hey, that's not fair to her!" Gizelle snapped at Arven, she turned to the director, "Hey Clive, what if we watched after her for a while? Maybe if she got an understanding of how things work around here she'll be able to fit in."

"It does seem to recognize and trust you all." Clavell observed, "Perhaps it could learn to function properly under your guidance." he folded his arms and frowned a little, "But we shouldn't allow the public to know what it is."

"Yes Director Clavell." the kids nodded.

"We should also probably disguise it's identity somewhat. Professor Sada has been out of the public eye long enough that I doubt anyone would recognize her appearance, but I feel it's dangerous and... frankly speaking, disrespectful to simply just give it the same name as my old friend..."

"So we just need a new name for her?" Gizelle pondered, "Like what?"

"She needs a cool name, like Daggerwoman!" Nemona said with a big grin.

"How about Leopard?" Gizelle suggested eagerly.

"I like Palathena, the Galarian goddess of wisdom myself." spoke Clavell with a slight smirk.

"...Yamato..." Penny whispered under her breath, recalling the name of a character from a certain pirate anime she liked.

"Those are terrible names!" Arven exclaimed in a grumpy tone.

"Well you got a better idea, Mr. Name Rater?" Nemona asked.

Arven stood silently with his arms folded, thinking deeply to himself. He recalled a time when he was young and walked in on his mother and father having a conversation together, and something his mother said in particular...

Soon he finally spoke up, "I... kinda like the name Karai."

"Karai? That sounds cool!" Gizelle asked, looking over at the A.I., "What do you think?"

"Karai? Karai..." the A.I. spoke, folding its arms and titling its head left and right in thought, "Karai..."

"Is it okay?" Clavell asked.

"Registering... registering... I like that... In fact I like that a lot!" the android's eyes lit up brightly as it ran over and hugged the surly young guy tightly, "Thanks for my new name Arvy!"

"Ugh, get off of me!" Arven complained in embarrassment.

"Well then, in that case I shall leave Karai in your care for the time being." Clavell said adjusting his glasses, "But I'll ask that you try not to allow it to draw too much attention."

"No problem Clive!" Gizelle said.

"Please stop calling me that."

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"Groff! Graaawrl! Snarf snarf!"

The patrons of a sandwich restaurant in the shopping district of Mesagoza were all staring in silence as they were watching Gizelle and her friends sitting at a five-person table.

While Gizelle and Nemona were enjoying their own sandwiches, Arven and Penny were both sitting in embarrassment as Karai, the newly named A.I. android, was squatting on top of the bench, biting ravenously at one of two grilled hamburger sandwiches Gizelle had bought for her. Bits of meat and bread were flying around the table as she chomped at it.

"Crunch munch! Chomp chomp! Gobble gulp! Crunch munch!" Karai swallowed down the last remains of the first sandwich and let out satisfied breath, "Aaah, this is delicious! You kids really know how to eat!"

"Glad you like it Karai!" Gizelle said happily.

"I'm still surprised you're even eating that." Penny pointed out in bewilderment, "I don't much about androids, but can they even eat organic food?"

"It's a function the professor was testing with me," Karai explained as she began eating the second sandwich, "The protein in meat helps recharge my fuel cells!"

"What a strange method..." Penny said, "What about the other nutrients the sandwich had, like the sugars and fats? Where do they go?"

"Umm..." Karai paused for a moment with the sandwich sticking out of her mouth, she broke off half of it, swallowed what was in her mouth and shrugged, "Beats me."

"You don't even know how your own body functions?" Penny asked.

"Hey, do you know all about how your body functions entirely?" Karai interjected.

"…okay, point taken." Penny admitted.

Arven stared at Karai blankly, before rolling his eyes and going back to his own sandwich. He felt a strange taste to it though, and he opened the bread and saw something that disgusted him.

"Oh great, they put pickles on it again. I told them not to!" he grumbled.

"Why don't you just pick them off?" Nemona suggested with her cheeks half-full of her own meal.

"Ew no, don't do that." Penny shook her head, "The pickle juice is probably already soaked into the bread and meat by now. It's going to taste like pickle no matter what he does."

"I don't really like having to ask them to remake it either." groaned Arven, "I always feel really awkward about asking..."

"...?" Karai turned to Arven and looked at the dejected look on his face curiously. She took the half of her second sandwich and held it out to the boy, "Here, do you want this Arvy?"

"..." Arven stared at Karai and the sandwich half, before he turned his head away with an uneasy look, "N-No, I'm fine. I'll just eat around it or somethi-"

But then, Ravager popped out of it's Pokeball, looking down intently at Arven's sandwich, before quickly snarfing it up in one bite. The Pokémon's tail wagged happily as it swallowed it down.

"Hey! That was mine!" Arven protested, only to get an affectionate lick by Ravager.

"Well I guess that resolves it." Gizelle said sweatdropping, "Sorry about that Arvy."

"Don't you start calling me that too!" Arven protested.

"Hey there Ravager! You're looking pretty energetic!" Karai smiled brightly at the sight of the Koraidon, she took it by the face and examined it carefully, and turned to it's trainer,

"Hey Gizelle, if you don't mind there's something I want to do after lunch!"

"Huh?"

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"Ravager, start things off with Breaking Swipe!"

"Grwwwaar!"

The dragonic Pokémon ran across the battle field and swung it's tail out at it's opponent, but they quickly jumped out of the way of the attack.

"Woah, look at her go!" Nemona said astonished.

It was later that day as Karai stood on one end of an arena mat at an isolated beach area just behind Nemona's home. It was the same place where nearly a year ago Gizelle and Nemona had their first Pokémon battle together.

This time though Gizelle was having her Ravager battling against a very unexpected opponent, Karai herself.

"Come on, don't hold back!" Karai said bringing up a fist with a big grin, "Give me all you got!"

"Alright, use your Dragon Claw!" Gizelle commanded as Ravager charged forward, igniting his claws with blue flames and swiping at Karai who nimbly flipped to the side to avoid it.

Standing on the side was Nemona and Penny, both watching the battle curiously. Arven himself was in Nemona's house using the bathroom.

"I can't believe she's actually doing this." Penny spoke astonished.

"Yeah, Karai can really fight!" Nemona said excitedly. She pondered looked to the android with a fascinated stare, "You know, I never thought about the idea of a human battling a Pokémon before... Wonder if I should try to…?"

"Hey, don't go getting any weird ideas, you battle-freak." Penny said, "Are you forgetting Karai is an android?"

Ravager tried to use another claw attack on the android, but Karai managed to leap over the attack and flip into the air before coming down on the Koraidon with a downward kick. She landed to the ground and gave the dragon Pokémon a swift punch to it's side.

"Now's your chance, use a Breaking Swipe!" Gizelle said, as Ravager swung out it's tail, bashing it into Karai and sending her tumbling backwards.

"You sure you're okay Karai?" Gizelle asked worriedly

"Yep, just keep it up Gizelle!" Karai said getting up and grinning.

Gizelle slowly smiled brighter and commanded, "Alright, Ravager use your Dragon Breath!"

Ravager breathed out blasts of dragonic flames, but Karai sprinted forward on all fours, quickly moving left and right to avoid each stream of flames, before lunging out and ramming into the Koraidon with a powerful headbutt, knocking it back.

Before Ravager could recover, Karai quickly grabbed the dragon rider Pokémon around the neck with both her arms. She wrestled with Ravager, before biting her teeth down it's neck, making it yelp out and knock her away with a Brutal Swing.

Ravager and Karai both stood staring each other down as Gizelle contemplated her next move, but then a new voice shouted out.

"What the heck is going on here?!"

Everyone looked up to see Arven running down the hill at top speed with a dist cloud following him. He came to a halt in front of Karai and gasped out.

"What are you doing? Have you two lost your marbles?!" Arven asked frantically to Gizelle and Karai.

"Don't sweat it!" Karai said grinning as she put Ravager in a headlock, "We're just having some fun!"

"Yeah, it's okay! Karai wanted to battle Ravager to test it's strength." Gizelle explained, "She's actually really strong!"

"I..." Arven stammered, he slapped his palm against his face, "...I don't believe this."

"It's nothing to concern yourself with Arvy!" Karai said as Koraidon was playing biting at her head.

Arven stared at her for a moment, before he turned his head away, "F-Fine, do whatever you want!"

"Poor guy." frowned Nemona, "This whole thing's become kind of a shock to him, huh?"

"I can understand, considering what he went through back at Area Zero..." Penny spoke.

Karai stared out at Arven, until Ravager started nudging her with its nose for more attention, making her laugh out and pet it,

"Still, I'm glad to see you're taking such good care of this Koraidon." Karai said, rubbing her hand against the Pokémon's head who nuzzled her affectionately, "Back when the professor introduced it to me, it was so meek and scared, and things only got worse when that other one showed up."

"Right... that one..." Nemona whispered, glancing over at Arven, who lowered his gaze.

"If you don't mind me asking, what became of that more territorial Koraidon anyway?" Karai asked.

"... ..." Gizelle stood silently for a moment, before she pulled down the rim of her cap over her eyes,

"Gizelle...?" Karai asked with concern.

"...the other A.I. didn't want me to hold it accountable for what happened to Professor Sada... but in the end, I couldn't forgive that thing for what it did..."

"...and so when it attacked us; me and Ravager ended up putting it down... for good."

There was a long awkward silence as Nemona, Penny and Arven all looked sadly to each other, recalling how furious Gizelle had been when she confronted the territorial Koraidon in the main lab and battled it. Ravager himself looked down with a somewhat solemn expression.

"...I see." Karai spoke with her eyes closed. She nodded and put her hand down on Gizelle's shoulder, sporting a faint smile,

"I suppose I should thank you for avenging my creator. It took some real courage to stand up to that vicious thing. It must not have been an easy choice to make."

"Th-Thanks." Gizelle said with a weak smile of her own, seeing the sincere look in Karai's eyes. She wondered if this was how the professor herself was truly like...

"Hm..." Arven glanced away with a bothered expression.

Karai went back to petting Ravager, "And after all it had gone through back then, its good to see this Koraidon has made some wonderful friends, and a trainer who can give it a sense of purpose in life as well."

"Speaking of which, you have any idea what the professor was trying to do with you Karai?" Penny asked, looking over her PDA device, "I've been trying to decode this information, but it's difficult to get anything from it."

"... ..." Karai paused for a moment, before she put her hand to her head with a troubled look on her face, "I... I'm not really sure. I know that I was an imperfect prototype, but that's about all I can recall from my darabank."

"I'm sure the professor put you in there for a reason." Gizelle said.

"You think so...?" Karai muttered, looking up at the clouds in the sky, "The A.I. Professor was an improvement on me in just about every way. It was smarter than me, had the same intelligence and thoughts as Professor Sada herself, and could make the time machine function. I was never given those abilities."

"Seems like... I didn't really have any sort of purpose to be reprogrammed..."

"...?" Arven turned his head to Karai curiously.

-------------

"Oh Gizelle, you've here to visit?"

"Hey Mom, hope you don't mind me bringing everyone over! We're going back to Nemona's house after this for a sleepover tonight!"

"Not at all, it's always so nice to see your friends!"

"A pleasure to see you again Maam!" Nemona bowed politely.

After the battling session, Gizelle brought her friends over to her house to visit her mom. The brown-haired woman smiled blissfully at how many great friends her daughter had made since enrolling in Naranja Academy.

"And it's good to see you too Arven," Gizelle's mother said politely, "How's your sandwich recipes coming along?"

"Pretty good I guess." Arven nodded, "I've been trying to put together this new combinations of ham and condiments that don't overpower the taste of the meat."

"Well looks like you've been putting some effort. How would you like to help me make dinner tonight?" Gizelle's mom asked with a warm smile.

"Uh, I-I guess I could..." Arven muttered, looking away from her.

"So Mom, I was going to introduce you a new friend we made..." Gizelle said, looking to see Karai wasn't there with them, "But she's... uh..."

"Huh? Where'd she go?" Nemona asked, looking around worried.

"Squeeeee! Squeeeee!"

"I'm here! I just had to bring a gift!" spoke Karai, the group all turned to see the android walk in through the front door holding a terrified round pig creature under her arm, it's stubby legs wiggling around frantically, "Hello Maam, nice to meet you! I caught this wild game for your dinner tonight!"

"Squeeeee!"

"That's a Lechonk you idiot!" exclaimed Penny, "Leave that poor thing alone!"

But the Lechonk wiggled out of Karai's grasp, and went charging around the house in a fit.

"Squeeeee! Squeee!"

"Oh my!" gasped Gizelle's mother.

"Hey get back here!" Karai snarled, chasing the Lechonk around the place, jumping around the room on all fours and poncing at the pig Pokémon, before finally tackling it to the ground, using both her arms to hold it as it struggled, "Ha ha, I got it!"

"Uh... good job." Penny sarcastically quipped as she saw all the furniture knocked around.

"Ah heh heh... well Mom, this is Karai." Gizelle laughed nervously.

-------------

After Karai was convinced to let the Lechonk go, she and the kids were sitting at the dining table while Gizelle's mother and Arven were busy preparing dinner for them. Penny was still working on her PDA to decode the data she copied from the lab terminal. Gizelle meanwhile was looking over some information on her phone, searching for the types of Pokémon that were spotted in the area.

"What are you looking for Gizelle?" Nemona asked peeking over her shoulder.

"Just seeing if there's any wild outbreaks in the area." Gizelle said, "It's been awhile since I've found a good shiny Pokémon. I was thinking of trying to find a cute pink Dragonair or a golden Rabsca!"

"You're way too obsessed with shinies." Penny commented, "How many do you have now, thirty?"

"Hey, I'm not that obsessed!" Gizelle said defensively, only to then say, "...it's more like forty seven."

"Those shiny variations are pretty elusive from what the professor told me. You're a pretty lucky girl, Gizelle!" Karai said with a smile.

Over at the kitchen counter, Arven was cutting some vegetables. He glanced over his shoulder to see Karai talking with the kids, distracted for a moment that he accidentally slipped and cut his finger.

"Yeoch!" he shouted.

"Oh no! Here, let me take care of that." Gizelle's mom said, taking a bit of alcohol and a bandage to the wound, "There you so sweetie!" she smiled sincerely.

"Uh... th-thanks..." Arven muttered, he looked down at his finger, and turned away, "…Gizelle's shiny collection is pretty impressive, but I think she's really lucky to have a mom like you..."

"Aw, you're so sweet." she smiled blissfully, "What about your mother? You've never told me about her."

"There... isn't really much to tell." Arven glanced over at Karai staring at a flower vase, and then eating the flowers off of it, "I don't... really like to talk about it."

"Oh, I see..." Gizelle's mother nodded sadly.

Soon dinner was finally ready for everyone. Gizelle's mother and Arven put down the plates and bowls of food and everyone went right to putting their choices together. Gizelle's mother served Karai a grilled pork chop, and her eyes lit up as she grabbed it and started eating it off the bone.

"This is delicious, thanks Ms. Gizelle's Mom!" Karai said happily.

"Hey, use your utensils!" Arven scolded her.

"You mean these...?" Karai stared down at the fork, spoon and knife that had been placed by her. She picked up the knife and stabbed it down into the pork chop, then took a spoon, looked it over and tried scooping the meat off the bone. Needless to say, she wasn't having much luck.

"Is Ms. Karai okay Gizelle?" her mom whispered.

"She... hasn't been around people for a long time." Gizelle whispered back.

As Karai went back to eating the pork chop by hand, she reached out to get a baked sweet potato. But then something jumped up and snatched the potato from her hand. She put down her pork chop and looked around in a fit.

"Who did that?" Karai said, "Who's the thief?"

"Muncha!"

Karai looked down to see a small squirrel-like Pokémon called Skwovet had been the culprit, he was a family pet of Gizelle and her mom. The little critter was happily eating the sweet potato, cramming his cheeks full of it.

"Why you little... give that back!" Karai shouted, lunging at Skwovet, who quickly jumped away, prompting the android to give chase.

"Hey settle down!" Arven shouted, but the wild woman chased the squirrel around the room.

"Raaaaahhh!" Karai shouted in rage, making the Skwovet go faster.

"Muncha muncha!"

"She certainly has a lot of energy." Gizelle's mom commented in amusement.

Skwovet quickly crawled under the sofa, but Karai followed him underneath, only to get stuck trying to come out from the other side. The Skwovet laughed at her and slapped at his butt to taunt her, only making the android angrier. She jumped out, knocking the sofa backwards and continued the chase.

The squirrel Pokémon ran under the dinner table, thinking he had been able to escape Karai, but then he sensed a menacing presence, and turned to see two red eyes gleaming at it from behind.

"MUNCHAAAAHHH!"

Suddenly the dinner table bounced around as Karai stood up having captured the Skwovet by his tail. This caused all the food to go sliding off the table.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" Penny exclaimed as she caught a bowl.

"Now I got you, you little rodent! Gimmie that!" Karai shouted.

The squirrel wiggled around trying to escape, but Karai grabbed the sweet potato from his grasp and gobbled up the rest of it. The squirrel angerly bit down on Karai's hand, making her yelp out. The Skwovet snickered, only to get shaken around by the tail as Karai started yelling at the Skwovet with grunts and shrieks.

As everyone else was trying to restore order, Arven sat there with a pork chop now on his head, scowling angerly as the sauce ran down his face. He had just about had enough.

"What's your problem?!" Arven snapped in frustration, "Why can't you just be normal?!"

Karai simply responded with an annoyed inaudible screech as she held the angry Skwovet by the tail.

"Hey calm down Arven! She's still trying to adapt to things!" Nemona said.

"Graaah! This is so stupid!" Arven exclaimed, before stomping off out of the house, "Pardon me, but I'm going back to Nemona's place!" he stopped at the door and bowed at the waist, "Thank you for the food, Maam!"

Everyone watched as he shut the door behind him.

"Oh dear..." Gizelle's mom sighed, "That poor young man. Tell me, does Ms. Karai remind him of his mother or something?"

Gizelle, Nemona and Penny almost faulted over at how close she was with that guess.

"It's... really complicated to explain." Nemona said.

"For now how about we just let Arven have some space." Penny suggested, "Can we help you clean things up here?"

Gizelle's mother looked around the room, seeing the couch overturned, the dinner table knocked over, and Karai having a tug-of-war Skowvet over the last piece of pork chop available.

"That... would help a lot. Thank you." she said sweatdropping.

-------------

Chapter 3 - Purpose

The sun began to rise one fine morning in Paldea as some Fetchlings were chirping in the trees. It was the next day after the kids had gone down to Area Zero and discovered the mysterious android now called Karai. After having dinner at Gizelle's house, they went to Nemona's place to spend the night at.

While Gizelle, Penny, Arven and Karai had all been given their own guest room to sleep in, Gizelle herself had ended up sleeping the whole night on Nemona's bed. She had spent the rest of the evening playing video games and chatting with Nemona, and ended up falling asleep on her bed there and then.

As for that morning, Nemona herself had wound up laying on her side, hugging Gizelle tightly in her sleep, and unintentionally pressing the new young champion's head against her chest. While Nemona had a blissful smile on her face, Gizelle looked a little too uncomfortable in her own sleep.

Penny was sleeping in her own room, having spent most of the night working on the information she extracted from Karai's terminal on her PDA. Ravager had followed her into the room and was sleeping at the foot of her bed.

Arven meanwhile had been sleeping alone in a bedroom of his own as well. As the sunlight peeked in through the curtains of his room, he stirred and his eyes slowly opened.

"Ugh... is it morning already?"

He groaned and pulled the covers over himself, before turning to the left so the sun wouldn't try and force himself awake. But as he did, he saw a certain figure on the bed as well, mere inches from his own face.

"Nyuk nyah nyum..."

It was Karai, who for some reason was sleeping beside him on top of his sheets. Her arms were curled up and her left leg was kicking out in her sleep.

Arven laid there for a moment with a long stare, a trickle of sweat running down his head, before he broke the early morning silence of the day with a loud,

"WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"

Gizelle stirred and woke up to the booming voice, unaware at the moment that she was being embraced by Nemona.

"Huh? What was that...?"

------------

After getting everyone else up, Gizelle quickly arrived in Arven's room along with Nemona, Penny and Ravager.

There they saw the young guy sitting at the end of his bed in complete shock and anger, while Karai was slowly getting up and yawning out, stretching out her body while standing on her hands and feet like a cat.

"What's going on here...?" Penny muttered, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, not even having time to put her glasses on after Gizelle dragged her out of bed.

"Oh, morning everyone!" Karai said with a cheery smile, "Ready to start the day?"

"Don't give me that! What the heck were you doing on my bed?!" Arven shouted.

"I tried sleeping in that big bed the maids gave me, but I got lonely." Karai said with a small pout.

"What are you, five years old?!" Arven exclaimed.

"Well, maybe a year or two more than that..." Karai pondered, she turned to Nemona and waved, "So what's for breakfast?"

"Graaah! That's it!" Arven said, getting out of bed and stomping out of the room.

"Poor guy. He's really been through a lot." Nemona frowned.

"..." Karai meanwhile sat on the bed thinking to herself.

------------

Arven left Nemona's house and went out the backyard patio in a grumpy fit, not even caring to change out of his sleepwear yet. He sat down on an outdoor bench that overlooked the ocean, seeing the arena where Gizelle had been battling Karai yesterday.

He was so frustrated about Karai's bizarre behavior, she acted nothing like his late mother, or the Professor A.I.

"Mom should have just dismantled that thing... why is it even here?"

He found himself thinking back when he encountered the Professor A.I, back in his late mother's lab, and the last words she said before leaving to the distant past. He grumbled to himself,

"I can't believe it. After all this time... why did it have to be...?"

"ddrrreeee..."

But then he heard a strange noise. Curious, he went over to the back fence and looked down from the edge of the cliff.

There he saw something peculiar, a lone blue-ish purple creature was laying on the ground down over near the beach arena.

"Huh?" Arven muttered.

"Hey Arven, are you-?"

Gizelle, Nemona and Penny all came out to check on Arven, only to see he was staring down at something. They all ran over to see what was wrong and saw the creature on the sand as well.

"What's that down there?" Nemona asked.

"Dunno, but it looks familiar..." Penny muttered.

The group all headed down to the beach to get a good look at the creature; it resembled the ghost Pokémon Misdreavus, but with more pronounced hair-like limbs sticking up from it. It was known as a Flutter Mane, a type of 'paradox' Pokémon, one of many that were brought into the modern world by the time machine Professor Sada invented as part of her paradise project.

"Miis... dreeee..." the Flutter Mane groaned out, and they saw it was covered in injuries.

"Huh? What's a paradox Pokémon doing all the way out here?" Nemona asked.

"Poor thing, looks like it got in a bad fight." Gizelle said sadly.

Forgetting about his own personal problems, Arven carefully lifted the Flutter Mane up,

"Come on, let's take it back to Nemona's place and get it healed up for now."

------------

"Miiiis.. dreeeee..."

"So you found it in this condition? The poor thing..." Karai spoke as the kids were looking over the Flutter Manem which was now laying on the couch. Arven was busy applying a Potion to the creature to help heal it's injuries.

"What was this thing even doing all the way out here?" Penny asked, "I thought they were all in Area Zero."

"That's a really good question..." Karai said with her arms folded, staring down at the creature with a sharp gaze.

Suddenly, the Flutter Mane snapped awake and looked around frantically, it tried to fly away, but the group did all they could to keep it subdued.

"Mis dree! Misdreee!"

"Hey chill out! You need to rest!" Nemona said wrestling with it.

"...hold on, let me try something." Karai said walking up to the Flutter Mane and putting her hand down on it.

"Don't tell me you're going to wrestle it." Arven sarcastically quipped.

"Oog ook oogg oogg ook argg."

But instead Karai started making strange noises at the Flutter Mane. Despite it's panicked state, the noises seemed to be actually calming it down, and it slowly laid back down on the couch.

"Dreeeee..."

"Woah, nice work!" Gizelle said astonished.

"It seems traumatized by something. I'm going to try talking to it." Karai said, she knelt down and asked the Flutter Mane, "Oog ogg oook tar ogg?"

"Miiiiissss... dreeeee misss, dreee!" the Flutter Mane said, now realizing from Karai's words that these people meant no harm, "Dreeee misss dreee miss."

"Uh huh... uh huh..." nodded Karai.

"You can understand it? What's it saying?" Nemona asked.

"It says, ' Miiiiissss... dreeeee misss, dreee, Dreeee misss dreee miss.'." Karai said.

Everyone promptly faulted over.

"She means what does that translate to?" Penny exclaimed.

"Oh, it means this Flutter Mane and some of it's pack were chased out of their territory by some kind of monster..." Karai said, "And it's been attacking other Pokémon in the area as well. This one was forced to escape out of the crater."

"That's awful!" Gizelle gasped, "What kind of jerk would do that?"

"..." Karai stared down at the Flutter Mane, and her gaze went outside of Gizelle's window and up to the large crater that towered in the center of the region.

"I don't know, but I think we need to go check it out."

------------

After breakfast; Gizelle, Nemona, Penny, Arven, Karai and Ravager all headed out to the Great Crater by Flying Taxi. Karai was fascinated by the aerial view of the region, and the kids only had to stop her from opening the passenger door a few times.

Once they arrived at Area Zero, they started walking along the path, observing the Pokémon that roamed around the place. A Corviknight flew overhead as a small herd of Girafarig trotted by. Even some of the more outlandish Pokémon like a Slither Wing and Scream Tail went by without a cause for alarm.

Their journey soon took them to the lowest outdoor level of the area, where the Flutter Mane said it had been living at. It wasn't too far from one of the research stations they had gathered information from during their first time there. Across from it was a cave that went down to Professor Sada's main lab, but that wasn't their focus right then.

"Hey, you okay Arven?" Gizelle asked the young guy, "You took a pretty bad fall when you slipped and slid down that slope earlier."

"Eh." Arven shook his head, "Just got a few scrapes and cuts, I'll walk it off."

"Look at you, tough guy." Nemona grinned, she turned to Karai, "So what's this Pokémon that's scaring off the others?"

"Not sure. According to that Flutter Mane, it had been caught off guard and didn't even have a chance to fight back against it." Karai said pondering as she looked around the area.

"Whatever it is, it's scaring the paradox Pokémon out of Area Zero." Penny said looking over the data she copied from Karai's containment terminal, "This could cause a lot of trouble for the whole region if they start roaming outside of the crater."

"No problem, we can handle this!" Gizelle said with a go-getter grin.

Their journey soon took them to a clear area with very few Pokémon in it, and those that were there looked beaten up, terrified or a combination of both.

"This is terrible..." Karai spoke putting a hand down on a Brute Bonnet that had a wound on it's side, "This goes beyond sparring, territory control or even hunting. Whatever is causing this is a menace. It needs to be removed from Area Zero."

"But where could it be?" asked Nemona.

"Good question, it probably doesn't want to be out in the open so all these Pokémon don't try to ambush it. It probably has a secret hiding place." she squatted down and grabbed at the dirt, sniffing at it.

"What's she doing?" Arven asked.

"Either she's trying to get the scent of the territory threat..." Gizelle said, "...or maybe she just likes to sniff dirt."

"What kind of observation is that?" Penny asked.

"It's a little of both." Karai clarified.

"Oh brother." sighed Penny.

But as they were watching Karai try to get a scent form the dirt, a large figure was slowly approaching them from behind.

Arven who was staying towards the back of the group noticed a big shadow, and turned to see a giant rock salt creature called a Garganacl glaring down at them all.

"Gar-gaaaannnal!" it sounded, flexing it's limbs.

"Arven look out!" Nemona exclaimed, about to pull out a Pokéball when someone shot past her.

Arven gulped, he was about to send out a Pokémon of his own to battle it, but then Karai jumped through the air and delivered a powerful flying kick to the monster's head, sending it falling backwards to the ground, creating a huge impact that caused excess rock salt from it's body to scatter into the air.

"Garaaaan!"

When the salty dust cleared, the Garganacl was laying on the ground with it's eyes spiraling.

"Woah, she took it out with a single hit!" Nemona exclaimed with her jaw dropped.

"That was a close one!" Karai said as she turned to Arven, "Are you alright Ar-?"

But she saw the young guy was now covered in rock salt debris from the impact that scattered all over him. All the cut and scrapes he got earlier were hurting even worse than before,

"This is pain..." he groaned as his eye twitched.

"Ouch, literal salt on wounds." Gizelle said sweatdropping.

"Oopsie, you okay there Arvy?" Karai asked, trying to sweep the salt off him, but he flinched and knocked her hand away.

"I don't get it..." he muttered with his head lowered, not even caring about the pain from the salt anymore, "You're a really strong fighter… able to stand up to powerful Pokémon like that thing, and even able to hold your own against Ravager..."

Arven then glared up at Karai angerly.

"Where were you all those years ago?! If you had this kind of strength why didn't you use it to stop that savage Koraidon from killing my...!"

He stopped himself in mid-sentence, but everyone quickly figured out exactly what he meant to say.

Penny spoke up, "Hold on Arven, I'm sure there's an explanation for-"

"This stinks..." Arven muttered, "I was supposed to have put my past behind me... I was supposed to say goodbye to my mom forever and move on with my life..." he glared back up to Karai, "And yet here you are standing right in my face!"

"Arvy..." Karai spoke.

"Is this why she reprogrammed you? To be a replacement mom for me or something? Well I don't want that! I don't need some fake machine like you replacing her!"

"Woah, that's not cool Arven!" Nemona shouted to him angerly, taking out a Pokéball, "You wanna have a go?"

"Hey, come on guys! Chill!" Gizelle shouted, stepping in-between the two of them, "We got bigger things to worry about right now!"

"Forget it! I need to be alone for a while!" Arven shouted, running off.

"Hey, get back here! This place is dangerous!" Karai exclaimed.

But Arven ignored her and kept running, turning a corner to try and lose them.

------------

Some time later Arven's running eventually came to a stop, leaving him worn out. The rock salt on his injuries didn't help much in that regard.

He turned to see Gizelle, Karai and the others a pretty far distance away looking around for him. He needed to find a place to hide so he could be alone, if just for a while.

Arven then noticed a small divide between some nearby rocks. He wedged himself between them and found there was a tunnel that led into a giant cave.

"Man... I can't believe this... every time I see that android I..."

He sighed as he thought again about the Professor A.I.'s final words to him, about how his mother truly cared about him... He gazed downwards, thinking about what Karai said about what her purpose was for being redesigned.

In a way, Karai seemed just as lost as he had been a long time ago...

"Maybe I was too harsh on it..."

But then he took a look around at the area he had entered, surprised at how spacious it was, it even had a large waterfall at the opposite end of the cave.

"What the-" Arven spoke, He then looked down and saw some strange markings on the ground that were in some kind of pattern, he knelt down and ran his hand along the markings, "Wonder where these came from...?'

"RAAAAAWRR!"

Suddenly Arven heard a loud noise echo through the cave. He looked around cautiously, thinking it might have been Ravager having tracked him down.

But then he felt a swift wind blow past him as a shadowy figure flew overhead. He then heard a loud impact behind him, and a growling sound. A cold sweat ran down Arven's head as he clutched at one of his Pokéballs, and turned to see what it was.

It was a Roaring Moon, a large dragonic Pokémon with wide wings that resembled a prehistoric version of a Salamence. Unlike most of the ones they encountered though, this one had a green color to it and gave off a sparkle when it impacted. It's red eyes gleamed as it roared out loudly at him.

"W-Woah!" Arven exclaimed, "It looks strong... could that be the thing that's throwing off the eco-balance of the area like Karai mentioned?"

He nervously took a step back, but the Roaring Moon took a mighty step towards him. Arven quickly grabbed a Pokéball and threw out a Pokémon to battle it.

"Go Mabosstiff!"

"Maaagroowws!" shouted out his Pokémon, who stomped a foot down and growled at the Roaring Moon to protect his trainer. Long ago, it was too weak to even see or speak, but thanks to Arven and Gizelle's efforts, it had been given new strength, and it wouldn't let it's master get hurt.

The Roaring Moon roared out itself, took to the air with it's wings, and swooped down at them as Arven shouted out a command to his loyal partner.

------------

"Arven! Arrrrveeeen!" called out Nemona back outside. "Ugh, where did he go off to?"

"Poor guy, guess it's hard to put the past behind you when it keeps coming back to haunt you..." Gizelle frowned.

"Hmm..." Penny meanwhile was focused on her PDA.

"What are you doing there Penny?" Nemona asked, "We have to find Arven!"

"Still trying to decrypt this data on Karai, thought it might give Arven some piece of mind on what she was made for..." Penny muttered.

"..." Karai meanwhile was walking along with her head hung down, dwelling on what Arven had told her before he ran off.

"Is this why Mom reprogrammed you? To be a replacement mom for me or something? Well I don't want that! I don't need some fake machine like you replacing her!"

"I wonder..." she whispered.

But then her eyes lit up, she looked around in an aggravated poise as she sniffed at the air.

"What's wrong Karai?" Nemona asked, "Did Arven fall down the well?!"

"I can sense it..." Karai muttered to herself, sniffing at the ground, before shouting, "I gotta hurry!"

And with that, she ran off from the group on all fours, leaving behind a dust cloud.

"Hey, get back here!" Nemona shouted, coughing and waving the dust away, "What was all that about?"

"Think she might have found Arven?" Gizelle guessed.

"Oh my go-.!" gasped Penny all of a sudden. The two girls turned to the glasses-wearing one, she was staring down at her PDA with a look of shock in her eyes.

"What happened? Did you lose at Voltorb Flip again?" Gizelle asked.

"No, I-I finally managed to decrypt the code from the terminal!" Penny said, "According to this, Karai's purpose was...!"

The other two were surprised to see small tears were starting to form in Penny's eyes as she covered her mouth,. Gizelle and Nemona both looked down at the code, but they only saw it as gibberish.

"What are you talking about Penny?" Nemona asked.

"The Professor AI was right, Arven's mom really did care about him..." Penny whispered.

"..." Gizelle took in Penny's words, she gazed down silently for a moment, before she brought her head up and narrowed her eyes. "Come on Ravager, let's go help Arven and Karai!"

"Grwaaar!" Ravager nodded as he lowered his head to allow Gizelle to get on his back, and the two ran off.

------------

Meanwhile back in the cave, Mabosstiff went flying back from an attack by the Roaring Moon, leaving the canine Pokémon gasping out.

"Hey buddy, are you okay?" Arven asked desperately, he looked up to see Roaring Moon slowly walking towards them, and let out another terrifying roar. Arven nervously brought his hand to another one of his Pokéballs, wondering if any of his team would even stood a chance against this creature.

But just as the Roaring Moon was about to use another attack, something came running past him and leaped high into the air, flipping in midair and delivering a powerful flying kick into the Roaring Moon's head, causing it to go sliding across the ground and crashing into a wall.

"What th-?"

Arven looked up to see the figure land down and glare at the dragon, it was Karai in a fighting stance.

"Arvy, are you okay?" Karai shouted.

"Karai?" Arven exclaimed, "Y-Yeah, but how'd you find us?"

"Just had a feeling you were in trouble." Karai said, glaring at the Roaring Moon with her fingers spread out like an animal with its claws out. The prehistoric dragon got up and glared at Karai with it's blood red eyes, "Stay back and let me handle this."

"But-" Arven spoke.

"You know, you were right before. I'm not your mother. Nor do I ever want to replace her in your heart. Maybe I don't really get why my creator reprogrammed me..."

Karai glanced back to Arven, and then to the Roaring Moon,

"...but I feel like right now... I need to do this for you."

The Roaring Moon spread it's wings and flew at Karai with a Lock Jaw attack, while the android ran forward and swung her fist out, dodging the dragon's bite and punching it in the head. It snapped it's jaws again at her, but she hopped away from it, before delivering a kick to it's throat.

"Karai..." Arven just stayed back with Mabosstiff, surprised by the android's words.

------------

"What's this about?" Nemona asked Penny back outside as they were running after their friends, "What does this computer stuff mean?"

"It wasn't Karai that set the Director that distress call," Penny said, "It was a delayed alarm set by Professor Sada herself in anticipation of the progress of her 'paradise project'!"

Some distance away, Gizelle was riding swiftly on the back of Ravager as the dragon Pokémon tried to pick up the scent of Arven.

Penny explained to Nemona, "She knew there would be a chance that the paradox Pokémon introduced into the eco-system would have some drastic effects on it, and so she took preemptive measures for the sake of one particular person..."

"You mean... Arven?" Nemona spoke.

Penny nodded, "Yeah, since the prototype A.I. wasn't fit to be her lab assistant, she put it in that glass capsule. The professor then used that capsule to reprogram it into a fighting android that could protect him from any dangers the paradox Pokémon presented..."

"That was what Karai was repurposed for!"

------------

Back in the cave, the Roaring Moon growled out and blasted Karai directly with a Dragon Breath attack, sending her flying back. She shook it off and growled out, before charging forward at the dragon.

The Roaring Moon charged it's energy and fired off a Dragon Pulse attack, but Karai took to running on all fours, nimbly dodging each blast that came at her, before she lunged up and gave it a headbutt in the chest.

The impact caused the dragon Pokémon to flinch just long enough for Karai to grab it around the neck and bite down on it. The Roaring Moon growled out in pain and thrashed about, but she managed to hold herself in place as she bit down on it.

Arven stood in awe at Karai fighting the Roaring Moon, she was fighting it much like how she was battling against Ravager the other day at the beach.

The Roaring Moon thrashed around in Karai's grasp. It opened its mouth and started firing Dragon Pulses out to try and force her off. But one stray blast shot up into the air and impacted into the cave ceiling just above Arven and Mabosstiff. This caused some rocks to start to come loose and crumble a bit.

Arven looked up to see rocks start to fall down. He quickly tried to get out of the way but had to slow down and help Mabosstiff, who was going slower due to it's age and it's injuries.

"Arvy!" Karai shouted, turning and seeing his situation. She decked the Roaring Moon to stun it and ran at the young man, managing to knock him and his canine partner out the way just in time as the rocks came down.

"What th-"

Arven regained his senses from Mabosstiff nudging him, only to see the rocks that had fallen right where he had been standing, and now Karai, whose leg was now covered and trapped in the boulders. Karai was trying to break free but the rocks were holding her in place.

Even worse, the Roaring Moon was starting to get up and recover it's strength. She glared at the dragonic creature and turned to Arven.

"Arvy, get you and your Pokémon out of here quick!" Karai shouted, "That thing's going to attack again!"

"What about you?" Arven asked.

"… …don't worry about me." Karai said with a calm, reassuring smile, "It's like you said before, I'm not a human, I'm just a machine. Doesn't matter what happens to me. But you are a human, you have a long life ahead of you, and you need to live it!"

"But-!" Arven spoke.

Karai shouted out with a serious expression on her face, "Now hurry and run!"

"..." Arven stared at Karai for a moment, before he narrowed his eyes, "Come on Mabosstiff, let's go!"

But rather than head for the exit like Karai told him, he and the canine Pokémon both ran right over to the rock pile and started working on moving the rocks covering her leg.

"Oof. These are pretty heavy... Mabosstiff, try your Crunch attack on them!" Arven commanded.

"Awwwooo!" Mabosstiff, having teeth so strong they could crush boulders, did as he was told and started biting down on the rocks to destroy them.

"Arvy, what are you doing?" Karai asked, "You gotta go!"

As they were moving the rocks, Roaring Moon got back up and stated lumbering towards the three of them, it growled menacingly, as it brought up it's head to fire another attack,

"It's about to shoot another Dragon Pulse!" Karai exclaimed, "Get out of here now!"

"No way, you think I'm just going to leave a person here like this?" Arven shouted, "Not on your life!"

"...!" Karai looked up at Arven in surprise at his words.

Just as the Raring Moon was about to fire off the energy attack though; they could hear the sound of another large creature stomping quickly towards them. It was Ravager with Gizelle on it's back!

The dragon ride Pokémon screeched to a halt and sent Gizelle flying off it's back. While in midair, Gizelle readied a Pokéball and threw it out,

"I choose you, Pekomi!"

The Pokéball burst open to reveal a short pink girlish gremlin-like Pokémon with a giant steel hammer in it's hands. It was a Tinkaton, a fairy and steel typed Pokémon, and one of Gizelle's strongest fighters.

"Tika-tink!" it shouted out brandishing it's hammer.

"Pekomi, protect Arven and Karai now!" Gizelle shouted landing to the ground.

The Tinkaton stopped out in front of the boy and android, and brought up her hammer in a defense pose, just as the Roaring Moon's Dragon Pulse shot out and blasted her directly. When the smoke cleared though, Pekomi didn't even look like she had been damaged at all, shocking the Roaring Moon. Being a fairy type, Tinkaton was immune to dragon-type attacks.

"Gizelle?!" Arven exclaimed.

"Remember what I said before Arven?" Gizelle asked, stepping up to confront the Roaring Moon with a big grin on her face, "Sometimes a good defensive type can be just as important as an offensive type!" she thrust up her fist, "Now let me help you out while you help free Karai!"

"...alright, thanks!" Arven nodded as he went back to moving the boulders.

"Pekomi, use your Gigaton Hammer!" Gizelle shouted.

The fairy type squealed out with glee as she brought up her hammer and lunged forward, smashing the dragon to the ground. The Roaring Moon got up from the impact and hit her back with an Iron Head attack, but Pekomi was able to endure it.

"That's a powerful steel attack, probably the reason why the Flutter Manes were scared off." Gizelle observed, just as Nemona and Penny arrived and saw the situation.

"Woah, it was that thing throwing the eco-system in this area off?" Nemona asked.

"Looks like it, come on, we have to help Karai!" Penny said, calling out her Leafeon to cut through the rocks.

"Right!" Nemona said, calling out her Pawmot to punch the other rocks to pieces.

Karai laid on the ground in surprise at the girls having showed up so quickly to help. As Leafeon and Pawmot went at the rocks with their attacks to clear them away, she smiled lightly and spoke to Arven,

"You know, maybe I was wrong. Maybe you don't need me to protect you after all. It seems you have some pretty amazing friends who will help you every step of the way..."

"..." Arven moved one more rock and looked down at Karai, thinking deeply about her words, he knelt down and put a hand out, and for the first time sporting a genuine smile at her,

"Well... looks like I have I have one more now."

Karai was surprised by Arven's words yet again, before she smiled as well, gripping his arm so he could help pull her out from the rocks, allowing her to stand up.

Meanwhile, Pekomi merrily skipped forward and impacted her hammer into Roaring Moon with a Brutal Swing, sending it backwards. The dragon Pokémon roared out and lunged at Pekomi with a Fire Fang, but it was intercepted by Karai running forward and delivering a powerful kick which knocked it over.

Gizelle and Karai both looked to each other and nodded silently, Karai ran at the dragon while Gizelle commanded Pekomi to come at it with a Gigaton Hammer.

Karai ran forward and evaded a Dragon Claw it used, delivering another powerful strong kick to stun it, allowing Pekomi to charge forward and bash into the dragon with her hammer attack. This impact sent the Roaring Moon sliding back and crashing into the cave wall.

The ferocious dragon lingered there for a moment, before groaning out and crashing to the ground in a daze.

"They did it!" Nemona cheered.

But then the Roaring Moon got itself up and growled out. It spread it's wings, looking as if it was about to fly out of the cave.

"This thing's definitely the one throwing off the eco-system here, we need to deal with it now!" Karai said, "If we leave it be it'll just take over another territory!"

"I got this one!" Gizelle said, pulling out an Ultra Ball, aiming carefully, and throwing it at the Roaring Moon, "Go, Pokéball!"

Before the Raring Moon could begin to make it's escape, the ball impacted into it's back and sucked it inside. The ball fell to the ground with an impact as it shook around violently, trying to break free.

Everyone stood silently as the ball wiggled around, before it finally came to a stop.

"Gotcha!" Gizelle grinned proudly, picking up and holding out the Ultra Ball, "Roaring Moon was caught!"

"Tinka-tiiink!" Pekomi cheered out.

"You caught it!" Nemona cheered out, "Muy bueno Gizelle!"

"Nice work, with that Roaring Moon gone from Area Zero, the Flutter Mane and others should be able to come back to their home." Penny said, she looked over to the sole male of the group, "You okay Arven?"

"Y-Yeah, I guess so. Sorry everyone." sighed Arven, only for him to be hugged tightly by Karai.

"No problem, I'm just glad you're safe Arvy!" Karai said with tears running down her face. What kind of technology allowed an android to make artificial tears was beyond the group's understanding.

"Geez, would you let go of me already...?" Arven complained, but Karai didn't let go, and he just admitted defeat and patted her back.

"So what are you going to do with that crazy thing?" Nemona asked, looking down at the Ultra Ball that Gizelle was holding.

"What else? I'm going to raise it!" grinned Gizelle, as she opened the ball and released the Roaring Moon.

"Grrrooowr!" it roared out and spread it's wings, as it gave off a shiny sparkle.

"Woah, hold on! You just barely caught it!" Penny said, "What if it attacks us again?!"

But Gizelle didn't respond. She went right up to the Roaring Moon and placed her hand on it's snout, confusing it.

"It's okay..." Gizelle spoke to it with a soft smile, "You got pretty beat up in that fight, but you still got a lot of energy, don't you? I think we can work together to channel that strength and make you even stronger. How about it?"

The Roaring Moon stared down at Gizelle silently for a moment, before nodding to her.

"Impressive." Karai said with a smirk, "She really has a way with Pokémon."

"Not just Pokémon, but people as well." Nemona said with an earnest smile, "She brought all of us together after all, including you."

"Heh, guess so." Karai nodded.

"Aaaaah... my first paradox shiny..." Gizelle said with sparkling eyes, rubbing her head against the Roaring Moon affectionately, "It's colors are sooo pretty too! I'm going to call you Watermelon!"

The Roaring Moon, now known as Watermelon, blushed embarrassingly as it's trainer's affection.

"Though she gets way too much into her shinies." Penny muttered sweatdropping.

------------

"Are you guys sure about letting me have all this?" Karai asked.

"Go ahead and eat up!" Nemona said, "You deserve it for helping Arven!"

"Alright! Chow time!" Karai cheered as she started gobbling down the plate of hamburger sandwiches in front of her.

They were back in the sandwich restaurant they were at the previous day, having a celebration lunch for dealing with the Area Zero incident. Karai wildly bit into the sandwiches savoring the meat, and while some customers were staring at the wild woman, Arven was grinning at his new friend's enthusiasm, not even being embarrassed about it anymore.

"So from what I'm getting from this data, all the other nutrients Karai consumes get put into her battle energy systems..." Penny said, "This is fascinating stuff. Imagine if this technology could be used to progress society further."

"That sounds good and all, but I think for now we should keep Karai's identity secret." Gizelle said.

"Yeah, she's right where she needs to be for now." Arven nodded. He then sniffed at his sandwich and had a sickening sensation, "Ah man, don't tell me they-" he checked the inside of it, "Yep, they put pickles on it again!"

"This place is really bad at it, isn't it?" Nemona spoke with her mouth half-full, "How about we go somewhere else next time?"

But Karai suddenly stopped her eating and silently snatched Arven's sandwich from the table. The group watched in confusion as the android stomped over to the sales counter and stared down at the cashier.

"Uh, can I help you, Ma'am?" asked the cashier, a bit intimidated by the sight of the tall muscular woman.

Karai cleared her throat and spoke, "Excuse me, but..."

She then slammed her hand on the counter, staring at the man with angry, sunken-in eyes. The impact of her hand actually caused the counter to crack a bit. She spoke to him with a wide, demented smile that showed her fanged teeth.

"...he said... no... pickles!"

"I..." the cashier broke out into a cold sweat, "I... I'm sorry ma'am! We'll get it fixed for him!" he said as he took the sandwich and hastily called out to the cooks, "Hey, we need a replacement for this one fast, and no pickles on it!"

"Heh, think she was right Arven. She's not really like a mother after all." grinned Gizelle.

Arven sat in disbelief at Karai, who turned and waved at him with a much more pleasant fanged smile.

"If anything... I think she's more like a big sister!"

------------

And that ends the story! I hope you liked it!

This story was inspired by some of the protrayals of Professor Sada before we learned the whole truth about her, often depicted as a sort of wild cavewoman. I was always amsued by that art, so I thought I'd bring that out in Karai's character.

Maybe I'll do a follow up based on the DLC, depending on whatever happened in The Indigo Disk.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

I've read this before and really like it! But I only now realized what Sada must have been talking about for Arven to remember the name "Karai". Was she mentioning Koraidon and he didn't remember it clearly?

I'm a sucker for "save the AI" fics and while this isn't the one from the game, she's close enough. And I love how she's a sister to him.

I love how she's just Ayla Chronotrigger but an android it's great.