"In a the year 2170 a work-by-night hacker has just cracked one of Blue Light City's biggest Pokémon trafficking cases. However, when his clandestine activities are revealed to the world, he's forced to go on the run, or risk falling into the clutch...
So, I started training again. Just a little. Marshall finally convinced me. *Sigh* I really shouldn't be doing this. I don't have that time but... this isn't like before. This is now. I'm older. More... mature.
Anyways, Marshal talked me up about how he could tell Kofi could evolve soon and how with his help I'd excel faster than most people and... I... I admit it's a little exciting, but if I'm being honest, I'm really just doing this so he'll get off my ass about what I'm doing for work.
If I'm training all the time, then maybe he doesn't ask about work so much, and then maybe I eventually get a real job that eliminates all those questions, and then... Okay, I'm thinking too hard. This is just a phase. I'll figure this out. Talk soon.
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The trip back to the top was a blur. Trev had been further from home than he thought. He rode in the back of a transport after catching two lifts and a train. Kofi sat on his shoulder but didn't make a peep. The Sandshrew from Ground Zero was curled up on his lap, just as silent. It was obvious that he was grieving his late trainer. Trev stroked his back, trying to comfort the thick-hided Pokémon, but doubted that he was doing much good.
He was still trying to digest all that had happened that night. He'd gone looking for answers and had instead found his life threatened. Multiple times. He learned nothing from Iono. He wanted to hate her for all of it but couldn't bring himself to. She only did what any hungry journalist would for a good story. Plus, she'd saved his life from Rocket. Whoever had told her was the true ire of his contention.
Then there was the body. Trevor had never seen a dead body in his life... much less come face to face with the person who'd done the killing. The ordeal had shaken him to silence. He still trembled as his mind played the image of the boy, the man, and his killer cat Pokémon on a loop.
Upon disembarking from the transport to the small deck that led to his door, he noticed the slightest hint of the sun's rise. On the level he lived hardly any natural sunlight pierced through the darkness. He stood there for a moment, relishing the moment and the fact he'd managed to make it back home alive.
He glanced down below, past the crosshatch of flying Pokémon, vehicles, and overlapping walkways, down to the depths of the darkness, to levels that would never see the sun. Where he had been just hours before. Where he'd nearly lost his life. If it wasn't for the Sandshrew standing next to him, there was a good chance he'd not believe it happened.
Trev crouched next to the little fellow. "Hey," he said.
The Sandshrew peered up at him, eyes laden with grief.
"Look, man... I know what you just went through down there was rough. I'm probably gonna be nothing like your old trainer, and I'm not like a Poke-therapist or anything like that... but I'ma do whatever I can to take care of you from here on out. I mean... if you're cool with that."
