Greninja could feel water rushing across his back. He opened his eyes but found his vision limited by something covering his eyes, allowing only a sliver of sight from the bottom of whatever it was. He tried to move his arms to remove the blindfold, only to find his hands were bound tightly together.

He tried thrashing about to free himself, but his movement only created more trouble for him. The flow of water around him slowed and he felt something or someone grip him tightly. Beneath his blindfold, he saw a flash of white dart out from beneath him and shortly after felt a large presence directly in front of him. Something like music came from the presence in front of.

Greninja felt his skin crawl when a similar reply came behind him, and perhaps a bit to his right. A third chord of the eerily familiar song reverberated above his head. The knowledge that he had multiple captors caused a lump of dread to well up in his throat.

His three captors sang at one another for a few more seconds before becoming dreadfully silent. Greninja felt a tension boiling in the water and flinched when he felt a rush of water move at him. He had closed his eyes when he felt the water rush at him, and only opened them again when he felt it move away.

The first thing he noticed was a green plant-like object fluttering down towards the darker water beneath him. As he watched, what he assumed was seaweed float down, he saw a pair of large white winglike arms wrapped around his torso. He tried to get a better look at who was holding him and craned his head back. The only thing he could see was a pair of brilliant blue eyes, highlighted by a dark beak like shadow blocking out the moon.

As Greninja was admiring his captor's appearance he heard a fierce and powerful voice ripple through the water. "Look at me Frog."

Greninja arched his head down and looked ahead just as a large Pokémon drifted into view. It seemed to have purposefully positioned itself so Greninja could only see its luminous blue eyes and bird-like silhouette in the water.

"Those who enter the cradle seldom leave its grasp. And if it were up to me you wouldn't either. However some of us-", The Pokémon glanced to Greninja's right, presumably where their third companion was watching, "-have decided to spare your insignificant life."

"You needn't be so dour all the time," the Pokémon holding Greninja growled. She, Greninja thought she sounded like a she, seemed to smile down at him. "Don't mind Victor much, he's not too keen on visitors."

Greninja was about to respond when Victor beat him to it. "Enough Dreas, you're not getting another pet. Especially not after what happened to the last one."

Again Greninja wanted to comment, mostly on being called a pet, but was beaten to the punch once more. "That wasn't my fault, I thought she could survive that depth," the Pokémon called Dreas whined. "And regardless I couldn't take him if I wanted to. Not with the big guy watching us."

Greninja was suddenly very grateful for the third Pokémon's presence, he didn't revel in the possibility of becoming Dreas's pet. His gratitude didn't last long as the third Pokémon roared at his companions in their song-speak. It seemed to be telling them to hurry up because the two Pokémon promptly said goodbyes, of sorts, to Greninja.

"Bye, little blue one. Take care of yourself," Dreas said nuzzling Greninja with the top of her head. As she pulled away he caught a glimpse of the third Pokémon. It seemed much larger than the other two by almost a meter in every direction, and the moonlight illuminated its blue-white color scheme far better than the other two.

Just as Greninja was about to identify his captors, he heard Victor snort in distain and looked at him just as a pink light enveloped his eyes. The light seemed to drag Greninja into it and he felt his eyelids growing heavy as Victor stared him down. Just as his eyes shut, he heard Victor muttered his farewell.

"Do not return. We won't be so forgiving next time."

Those words shocked Greninja awake, leaving him drenched in sweat and gasping for breath. As his breathing began to return to a semi-normal state he became keenly aware that he was inhaling air and not water. Confused Greninja looked around for his captors, only to discover he was no longer in the ocean but had wound up in someone's home.

A wooden nightstand and dresser stood to his right at one end of the room, while a table with five chairs took up the other end, occupying a space near a moderate sized circular window. Greninja stood up from a large hard mattress and walked towards the window, hoping a view outside would help him gather his bearings. As he made his way to the window he stumbled over a collection of wooden toys and came crashing to the floor.

As he began to pick himself up he heard muffled chatter beneath the floorboards followed by the sound of climbing footsteps. Back on his feet, Greninja doubled his advance towards the window, hoping that he might be able to slip out before the homeowner found him.

He made it to the large circle of glass and pressed his hand against it ready to make his escape, when he froze. The gloves Ash and Serena had given him were no longer on his hands. Whirling around he spotted them on a chest that had been concealed from him at the foot of the bed. Relief enveloped him as he saw both the familiar fabric as well as the paper containing the image of him and Braixen.

His relief was shortly replaced with panic at the rattling of a key in the door. He glanced at his belongings for a second before averting his gaze towards the window and his escape. With a slight struggle, Greninja managed to pry open the window just as the lock clicked.

Out of time Greninja abandoned his only possessions linking him to his old life and leapt out the window, a choice he immediately regretted. Evidently, he had found his way into the top room of a four-story building and was now plummeting towards the hard cobblestone street below. Instinctively he curled his body slightly and hit the ground rolling, reducing the impact of the fall to non-critical measures.

Slightly dazed he stood up and blinked fiercely as his eyes adjusted to the noon suns light. When his pupils were properly dilated he looked around to find himself surrounded by a crowd of Pokémon staring at him oddly. A few asked if he was alright but the majority merely whispered to peers in close proximity to them, undoubtedly questioning one another about their knowledge of him.

Behind the crowd of Pokémon Greninja saw three streets lined with buildings of varying hues and heights. Many of these buildings had large decorative signs swinging above their entrances or plastered to their windows, while others had a duller and more formal look to them. The furthest he could see down each street was only around five building widths, or approximately one hundred and fifteen feet down any one street. He didn't have much to go on in terms of directions and still hadn't the foggiest idea where he was but knew that one of those streets must lead him back to his friends.

The crowd began to close in on Greninja when he heard someone shouting from the room he'd just jumped from. "Gramps get Roy, he jumped out the window!"

Greninja didn't know who this Roy was, but for some reason, the crowd of Pokémon looked at him differently after the voice called for him. They had acquired a form of distain and caution to their facial features that one might see on someone facing a wanted criminal. Greninja thought it best not to stick around any longer and made a break for the rightmost street, choosing it over the others for the lack of Pokémon crowding it.

He had to somewhat fight his way through the crowd to get to the street, as some took it upon themselves to try and hold him down until Roy arrived. But after Greninja easily overpowered the first five Pokémon the rest decided not get involved and stepped out of his way. Greninja exited the crowd just as the first Pokémon called out for Roy, alerting him where Greninja had gone.

Knowing a chase was eminent, Greninja began running, building as much ground as he could between himself and this Roy character. Racing down the street he began to regret his decision to take the least crowded route. The lack of Pokémon would make it easy for Roy to spot him and he had a foreboding sense that there was a reason no one was on this street.

As he rounded a corner both his fears were realized. Down the street he was turning off of he saw a blur of blue chasing after him, unhindered by pedestrians Roy was able to keep pace with Greninja.

Along the street, he saw a collage of graffiti on nearly every building. Most of it was illegible as the graffiti seemed to be layered upon one another, but Greninja was able to make out three names: Backstreet Bidoofs, Uptown Umbreons, and The Horns of Houndoom. The names clearly belonged to three organizations and judging from the manner in which they were displayed, Greninja assumed they belonged to street gangs, whose territory he'd wandered into.

His suspicion was confirmed when he passed by an alley with five Pokémon wearing black armbands with yellow zeros on them. The Pokémon barely saw him run by before they began chasing after him, shouting for him to stop. He didn't. These Pokémon were likely part of the Uptown Umbreons and he wanted nothing to do with them.

Instead, he created two copies of himself with Double Team and began running in an S like pattern with them, switching places every time his path overlapped with his copies. This caused him to lose some of his speed but also confuse his pursuers who couldn't tell the difference between him and his copies. He kept up this manner of running until he reached a four-way intersection.

He smiled at the crossroad ahead of him and quickened his and his copies pace until they were running nearly four houses ahead of the five Pokémon. Upon reaching the intersection his copies split off from him, banking to the streets left and right of him while he continued straightforward. His pursuers had no way of knowing this though and were forced to choose between the three targets. The distance Greninja had put between himself and them forced their hands further, for every second they remained indecisive their mark was getting further away.

Greninja glanced back at the gang Pokémon and practically laughed at their lack of indecision. They couldn't decide which way to go and were stuck arguing with one another over which Greninja had been the real one. Greninja had a feeling that they could have kept arguing with one another until the sun went down but they were interrupted by one of their members being kicked into a nearby lamppost. The other four Pokémon barely had time to register that their companion was on the pole before his assailant set his sights on them.

Greninja stopped running and ducked down an ally, poking his head around the corner to watch as the gang members were ferociously dispatched by a whirlwind of blue and black. Their foe easily tossed one member onto the same lamppost as his friend, before rolling forward to deliver sixteen successive punches to the next two Pokémon. The fifth and final Pokémon had just enough time to see his friends crumple to the ground before having his head get aquatinted with the assailant's foot.

As the last gang member fell to the cobblestone the Pokémon responsible stood up and looked down the three streets. Greninja pressed himself against the alley wall as the Pokémon looked down his street. After a second passed Greninja peaked around the corner and got his first real look at Roy.

He stood at just over five feet, with most of his hight taken up by his long powerful blue frog-like legs. His arms were almost as long as his legs, and had the same hue of blue, but were much thinner. His hands and feet each had webbing between their appendages as did the three fin-like parts protruding from his head.

Greninja couldn't see much more of Roy, for he had decided to chase down one of Greninja's copies, but he'd seen all he needed to identify him. Roy was the same species as Greninja.

Greninja uttered a curse at this revelation. Since they were of the same species they likely shared similar strengths which would make it difficult for either one to gain an upper hand. And Roy had already demonstrated an impressive prowess in battle, taking down the five Pokémon in mere seconds, which only added to the difficulty Greninja could face if Roy managed to catch him.

As Greninja thought of this he heard a small voice squeak into being behind him. "Sir, are you lost?" Upon hearing the voice Greninja pivoted hard on his right heel, swinging his left leg around to kick the unknown Pokémon. Right before impact Greninja abruptly ended his attack, sparring the frightened young Pokémon from a devastating blow.

As Greninja lowered his leg he noted that the Pokémon was of a brownish color, with a lighter brown mask on a portion of its face. A pair of large buck teeth stuck out over the Pokémon's mouth and it seemed favor standing on all four of its short legs.

The Pokémon stared at Greninja for a few seconds, barely registering the danger it had been in, before repeating its question. Greninja blinked at the Pokémon, confused by its lack of fear after what he'd nearly done, and stated that he didn't know where he was. The Pokémon smiled and told him to follow it. Having his only other option being to wander around aimlessly until he was either caught or found his friends, Greninja followed the Pokémon.

As they walked Greninja began asking the Pokémon various questions, the first being what its name was. The Pokémon said it was Troy. Greninja introduced himself as Greninja to which Troy rolled his eyes and replied, "Yeah and I'm Bidoof."

Greninja decided against any further discussion of their names, and instead asked where they were.

"Midtown, the trinity's territory," Troy stated as if that cleared everything up.

Greninja shook his head and altered his question to what continent they were on. Troy glanced at him peculiarly as if pondering whether or not Greninja was being serious. When he was convinced that Greninja wasn't pulling his leg, Troy gave him the first good news of the day.

"You're in Arkos," he stated unceremoniously.

"Arkos?" Greninja asked, surprised to find he'd wound up in the very place he'd been heading for.

"Yup, Arkos," Troy repeated. "The City-Country where all are welcome. Be you rich, poor, refugee, or renegade, the gates of Arkos welcome all." The way Troy phrased his description of Arkos set Greninja on edge. Troy had an obvious disliking of the country's immigration policies and made point of that by listing renegades as the last group of individuals Arkos admitted.

Greninja thought best to let that subject drop as well. But as they rounded a corner he decided to see if Troy had any information about any shady characters entering Arkos. "Tell me, have you seen, or heard, anything about any humans and Pokémon who wear dark cloaks with large S's on them?"

Troy looked at him puzzled, "I don't know what a human is, but I have heard some talk of a new gang forming in near the far side of the city that matches your description. Why. you looking to pick a fight with them?"

"I might stir up some trouble for them, yes."

Troy shrugged and turned into an enclosed courtyard. "Well as much as I'd love to see that happen, I highly doubt you'll get the chance."

Greninja stopped a few feet inside the courtyard and watched as Troy casually continued on as if Greninja were of little importance to him anymore. "Why's that, Troy?"

Troy fixed himself at the other end of the courtyard and slowly turned around to face Greninja, his beady black eyes shining devilishly as they fell upon him. "Why? Well because you're going to be a bit too busy for that."

Troy tapped his front foot three times on the ground. A second later roughly twenty Pokémon crawled out of the woodwork. They were of a variety of species but had one similar aspect to their appearance. They all had a light brown mask over their faces that mimicked Troy's natural mask.

Greninja sighed as the twenty-ish Pokémon formed a wide circle around him. "I'm going to assume you guys are part of the Backstreet Bidoofs," he commented.

Troy chuckled, "Well look who's finally catching on. Took you long enough, but what can I expect from a nameless foreigner."

Greninja lowered his gaze at Troy. "I told you my name is Greninja," he hissed.

Troy cackled with laughter that quickly spread through the twenty or so Pokémon surrounding Greninja. They seemed to treat his claim as nothing more than a bad joke and once the laughter died off Troy looked Greninja with something resembling boredom. "Listen here, 'Greninja', Greninja isn't a real name. It makes as much sense as me strolling around and calling myself Bidoof."

Troy then proceeded to move around the surrounding Pokémon and introduce himself as Bidoof. His antics were greeted with a hearty round of laughter that died off when he faced Greninja again. "There's hundreds, thousands, perhaps even millions of Bidoof in the world. So claiming that as my name is not only moronic but arrogant, and the same applies to every other Pokémon. You're not special."

Greninja cocked a half grin. Perhaps Troy was right about his name but he was exceptionally wrong about him being special, Greninja couldn't wait to prove him wrong.

"Alright, Troy, why don't we cut the antics and you just tell me why you brought out these punching bags."

The Pokémon around him stirred, anxious to cause him pain for the slight insult. Troy held them back for now and fixed his sights on Greninja. "You are rather full of yourself aren't you," Troy commented. "But since you were gullible enough to follow me here I'll take pity on you and let you know your fate beforehand."

Greninja yawned, "Get on with it already, I'm a busy Pokémon."

Troy's right eye twitched and a dark grin spread below his buck teeth. "You won't be so smart when we sell you off to the highest bidder."

Greninja felt his blood begin to boil. "You plan on selling me?!" He growled. A few of the Pokémon flinched at the tone of his voice, sensing the danger lurking in it.

Troy smirked. "Yes, a Pokémon like you will fetch us a high price in the right circles. I know a few high up officials who'd love to have a Pokémon of your... figure. Or perhaps you'll find employment as warmup fighter in fight clubs-"

"Boss we ain't suppose' ta talk about those," a large brown rat Pokémon whispered to Troy.

Troy squinted his eyes and sighed in disgust. "Revy," he said and a Pokémon to the right of the brown rat hit the Pokémon who'd interrupted over his head. "Thank you."

"Any time boss," the Revy said as she returned her focus on Greninja.

"Sorry about that, now where was I?" Troy asked.

"You were in the middle of admiring my body," Greninja said with no lack of regard for phrasing.

Troy snorted, "Don't flatter yourself. My comments are strictly business related."

Greninja held up his hand and had to fight back his laughter. "Hey you already told me you're into Pokémon trafficking, I can't help but assume you've got some other risqué business on the side."

Troy's light brown mask was suddenly slightly red in color as his blood seethed over Greninja's comment. "I think I've heard all I can tolerate of you," Troy said as he signaled for the circle of Pokémon to close in on Greninja.

The Pokémon moved uncoordinatedly, leaving large gaps in the spaces between their advancing lines. They also brought out an assortment of metal objects ranging from lead pipes and iron wrenches to small blades and oversized baseball bats. Greninja looked curiously at the assortment of weapons, wondering why the didn't make their own and crafted his twin white daggers.

The Pokémon hesitated at the sight of the slender blades appearing from thin air providing Greninja with a plethora of opportunities to take them down. He chuckled at all the options he had at the edge of his swords. Choosing one, he lunged forward and swung at the advancing line of Pokémon. His first blade struck three Pokémon in the first sweep and his second made contact with two more.

As Greninja brought his blades back to parry two attacks from his left, he was both pleased and disappointed with the results of his attack. All five Pokémon were laying on the ground in agony, cradling parts of their heads and torsos where Greninja had made contact. He'd made sure to strike with the flat edge of his blades so as to avoid fatalities, they might be bad Pokémon but he wasn't looking forward to taking any more life, and was disappointed with how easily they'd been injured. If he wanted to win without killing someone he'd have to hold back, way back.

Breaking the attacks from his left Greninja spun around to face three more attacks aimed at his back. The three Pokémon swung their weapons clumsily as if trying to strike an imaginary fly from the air. Greninja easily evaded the imprecise swings and struck at the gaps between their attacks, taking each Pokémon down with a quarter powered punch to their midsections.

Again Greninja found himself disappointed by the frailty of his opponents. His earlier remark about them being punching bags was woefully inaccurate, punching bags would have at least provided him with some resistance. But these Pokémon seemed unable to take more than a glancing blow from Greninja.

The twelve remaining Pokémon seemed incapable of attacking Greninja after watching him effortlessly defeat their eight allies. They seemed to be teetering on the edge of panic and only needed a gentle nudge to send them over the edge, a nudge Greninja was more than happy to provide. Smiling darkly at his foes Greninja formed two identical copies of himself at his side, complete with swords and smirks.

The prospect of facing two more of this seemingly unbeatable foe proved too much for the gang members who dropped their weapons and bolted, dragging their injured allies with them. As they made their escape Troy jumped onto the shoulder of one Pokémon and turned to give Greninja a parting remark.

"This isn't the last you'll hear of the Backstreet Bidoofs, we'll be back!"

Greninja paid little attention to Troy's promise, he didn't plan on sticking around long enough for Troy to make good on his word and it wasn't as if his members were even remotely strong. With the Backstreet Bidoofs fading into the distance Greninja made his way onto the street and returned to his aimless wandering.

A few hours into his wanderings he ran into a few more members of Troy's gang, but word of his bout must have traveled fast for they turned and ran at the sight of him. He also came across a few members of The Horns of Houndoom who provided him with the same courtesy as the Uptown Umbreons but met the same fate as the Backstreet Bidoofs.

Shortly after dealing with The Horns of Houndoom, Greninja found himself approaching the end of the gangs' territories, as evident by the massive crowd of Pokémon. The crowd seemed to be avoiding the entrance leading to the gang territories and inadvertently created a moving wall of bodies separating the two streets.

No one seemed to notice Greninjas approach to the wall of Pokémon until a child pointed him out in youthful curiosity. The child's parents were baffled to find Greninja calmly strolling out of gang territory as if he owned the place, and alerted Pokémon near them of his presence.

Word of Greninja spread like wildfire. More than half the crowd knew of Greninja's approach before he was even within ten feet of the Pokémon, but as did happen when information is shared by word of mouth his story was wildly distorted. The gossip started simply enough, stating that "an unknown Pokémon is walking out of gang territory and heading towards the market". But barely twenty Pokémon in, details of his movement began to change. The story became, "an unknown gang member's making his way towards the market".

After a few more Pokémon passed on the information the tale warped again as speculations were made. The story changed again so it was "a new gang leader is heading to rob the market"! Word of this story spread faster through the crowd and even found its way back to some of the Pokémon who'd first spotted Greninja.

By the time Greninja reached the wall of Pokémon word had reached nearly all the Pokémon on the street and a general distain for him hung in the air. As Greninja tried to follow the movement of the wall and casually slip among the crowd, he was surprised to find the Pokémon around him move away, pressing themselves against neighbors just to keep a foot of distance between themselves and the supposed gang leader. If Greninja took a step towards them they'd part in front of him and if he took a step back they'd slowly fill the hole.

Realizing there'd be no blending in Greninja plunged into the crowd who parted before him. He slipped through easily and managed to catch glimpses of business transactions occurring all around him. Vendors lined the sides of the roads, occupied street corners, and roamed through the crowd their merchandise on their backs. He stopped near one booth where a cook had a chunky fragrant soup simmering in a large pot. His stomach rumbled at the aroma and he watched enviously as a couple ordered two bowls of the delicious smelling soup.

He saw them pay the vendor with some strange silver coins and then blissfully devour their meals. He stared at the vendor for a few minutes before glumly walking away, unable to pay for a decent meal. He passed by a few more food vendors who each caused his hunger to grow, except for the one who had mysterious meat on a stick as her wares.

By the time Greninja made it out of the food vendor section his stomach was practically having a conversation with him. He scornfully shushed his gut but the food processor seemed to care little for its host's opinion and continued to bark at him.

He was paying so much attention to his stomach, he barely noticed when the street widened and the crowd thinned out to a mere ten Pokémon every five meters. Further down the street he spotted what appeared to be a police station and began to make his way towards it when he heard a young voice cry out for help.

Glancing to his right Greninja spotted a smallish blue Pokémon with a fluffy white scarf, struggling with a purple humanoid Pokémon wearing a black mask with three yellow zeros on it. The purple Pokémon seemed to be trying to take a bag full of groceries from the smaller blue Pokémon. Acting on instinct Greninja crafted two Water Shurikens and flung them at the purple Pokémon.

The water attack arced towards the Pokémon and struck the purple Pokémon on the side of his head, resulting in an immediate K.O. Again Greninja found himself disappointed with how weak the Pokémon around here were, but he didn't care as much in this case. An easy win meant safety for the blue Pokémon and if that meant sacrificing a good fight Greninja was content with doing so.

As Greninja approached the blue Pokémon he began to notice some familiarities between himself and her. For starters, they both had frog-like faces, webbing on between their fingers and toes, and were built slimly. This Pokémon was a Frograder the second evolution stage of the Greninja line. Someday this Pokémon might bear a stronger resemblance to Greninja but today she was occupied with picking up her spilt groceries.

Greninja joined her on the ground as she picked up fruits, vegetables, and some canned produce that Greninja could only speculate the contents of. He helped her recover her goods and prompted introductions between them.

She introduced herself as Mary Lee Finch and thanked Greninja for helping her. Greninja accepted her thanks and told her his name to which she laughed.

"Greninja isn't a name," she giggled.

Greninja sighed and handed her a can of some red patsy stuff. "You know you're the second Pokémon to tell me that today."

She shrugged and took the can. "Well, it's not you know."

"It's the only one I've got," he mumbled.

Mary looked at him and cocked her head. "Why don't you make up one then? Anything would be better than calling yourself 'Greninja'."

"Do you have anything in mind?" Greninja asked as they rose from the ground.

Mary placed her chin on her right hand and stared thoughtfully at him for a minute. "How 'bout, Nick?"

"Nick?" Greninja repeated, unsure of the name.

"Yeah, Nick. Ya know because you got here in the nick of time," Mary said with a broad grin.

Greninja chuckled. "I suppose I did. But I don't think that should determine my new name."

Mary sighed. "Well, I've got nothing. Maybe my big sis can think of one for you. I'm supposed to meet her by the old fountain in a few minutes, you should come with."

Greninja frowned thoughtfully. "I don't know. I'm trying to find my friends, plus now I've got to deal with this guy," Greninja said as he nudged the unconscious Pokémon with his foot.

Mary waved a dismissive hand at him. "Don't bother with him. Just leave him by the side of the street and the cops will have him booked before we take ten steps. They generally won't enter gang territory but if a member causes trouble outside of that area they take them down with a vengeance."

"Oh. Well, I still need to find my friends. We got separated in a storm and I somehow wound up here. They're probably worried about me by now."

"Then you should definitely come with me. My sister knows almost everything that goes on in the city. If anyone could find them I bet she could."

Greninja still was doubtful but when Mary brought up the fact that someone else might try and jump her if she went alone, Greninja finally yielded. He moved the unconscious would be mugger to the side of the street and followed Mary along a side street curving around the market. As they walked they tossed name ideas between one another, trying to find the perfect one to fit Greninja.

They were no closer to finding it when they came across the old fountain, a simple stone fountain with a faded marble Seel spitting water into a large grey basin below. There weren't many Pokémon around the fountain and most were elderly couples of species different from Mary, so picking out which one was her sister was a cakewalk.

Facing away from them on the stone basin with her nose in a book, sat a female Greninja. To most other species her gender would have been impossible to distinguish without her telling, but because they were both Greninjas, Greninja could tell the difference. He also noticed that she had a lovely shade of blue to her that was almost as deep as the ocean. Her arms and legs were finely toned and her eyes, while currently tasked with reading, were a captivating shade of rose.

As they drew closer, Mary called out to her. "Lydia! Over here!"

Lydia looked up from her book and began to smile at her sister only to notice the unfamiliar figure of Greninja standing next to her. Lydia swiftly stood up and moved to embrace her sister. Not once did she take her eyes of Greninja and she purposely embraced her sister in such a way that she could easily put herself between her sister and Greninja.

Greninja didn't take offense to her actions, he thought it only natural to be cautious of a stranger who was following a young Pokémon around. But was glad when Mary cleared up the tension in the air with an explanation as to why he was hanging around her. Lydia didn't seem too shocked by Mary's close call, which made Greninja wonder how many times something like that had happened before, but she still checked her out to make sure Mary was alright.

After examining Mary and finding nothing wrong Lydia turned to Greninja and formally introduced herself.

"My names Lydia Jay Finch. Thank you for helping my sister, she has a knack for finding trouble," Lydia said as she held out her hand.

Greninja took it and grinned. "Not a problem, after all, trouble's my middle name."

Mary grinned smugly at Greninja. "I thought you didn't have a name," she sassed.

"You don't have a name?" Lydia asked a spark of interest blossoming in her eyes.

"I do. But according to some Pokémon, Greninja isn't a real name."

"They're right you know."

"So I've been told," Greninja said with mild annoyance, he was growing somewhat tired of being told he was nameless. "Anyways, Mary said you might be able to come up with a name for me."

Lydia glanced up and down Greninja's body and smiled at him. "I might but you'll have to spend some more time around me for me to get a good feel for your name."

Greninja shook his head. "I'm in a bit of a rush to find my friends, I don't think I'll have much time to help you 'get a good feel for my name'."

Mary looked at him disappointedly. "In case you forgot, my sister knows about almost everything that happens around here. So she's your best bet at finding your friends."

"Then I guess you're stuck with me for awhile," Greninja said to Lydia, "if that's alright with you of course."

Lydia said it would be no bother. She found herself oddly curious about this nameless Pokémon and didn't mind taking time out of her day to learn about him.

As the three Pokémon stood by the fountain a distant ringing of bells echoed towards them. Lydia and Mary exchanged a look at the chime of the bells and glanced up at the sky, noticing for the first time just how late it was.

"We'd best head home for the day. Come along, Mary," Lydia said as she took the bag of groceries from Mary. Mary took a position at Lydia's side and began walking with her only to stop when she noticed Greninja wasn't following them.

"Hey, are you coming or what?" Mary called to him.

Greninja grinned and strolled over to the two Pokémon. "I didn't know if I was invited," he said sheepishly.

"Well you could always go to your own place," Lydia said as though she knew he had nowhere else to go.

"But that would make it quite difficult for you to make me a name," Greninja said slyly, refusing to reveal that he was nameless and homeless.

Lydia shrugged and let the matter drop. "Well if you're going to crash at our place then you can carry the groceries," she said as she passed off the bag of food.

"And you'd better keep up, the city's very strict on its curfew enforcement," Mary added as she and Lydia began walking off again.

"Noted," Greninja thought as he repositioned the bag and followed the two Pokémon.

Mary was apparently not joking when she warned him to keep up. After a few minutes of walking the two Pokémon began steadily increasing their pace until they were nearly running down the streets. It took Greninja a surprising amount of effort to keep up with them and once they even had to come back for him after he took a wrong turn down an ally.

Eventually, they stopped running and came to a smooth jog ending outside a four-story building at a three-way intersection.

"Here we are," Lydia said slightly winded from the run, "home sweet home."

Greninja thought there was something familiar about the building but in the dim evening light, he couldn't quite place why it seemed so familiar. He shrugged off his suspicions, accounting them for his growing hunger and the rough day he'd had, and followed the girls into their home.

Mary was first inside and ran to find family to tell about Greninja's heroism and namelessness. Lydia followed after her and told Greninja to set the groceries on a counter in the kitchen, before chasing after Mary. Greninja glanced around the main floor until he came across a surprisingly modern kitchen.

He didn't pay too much attention to the kitchen, his task simply being a drop-off, not to admire the appliances. But he did manage to view a large double door fridge and a sleek dishwasher taking up some of the L-shaped kitchen's space.

As he exited the kitchen he heard Mary chatting away with a small group of Pokémon. Apparently, she'd found someone to talk to and had brought them to another room downstairs. Curious about the rest of Lydia and Mary's family Greninja set off to find them. As he searched for the right room, he passed a few pictures of a large group of smiling water type Pokémon. It was probably a family photo but Greninja only managed to glance at it before he heard Lydia's voice behind him.

"Hey. Mary's got the family riled up to meet you. You'd better come quick or they're likely to hunt you down."

Greninja nodded and followed her towards a back room closed off by a simple wooden door. Behind the wood, Greninja heard a loud murmuring as Lydia's family talked among themselves. Lydia flashed a grin at Greninja before thrusting the door open and stepping into the doorway. The room fell silent and all eyes trained on Lydia.

"Alright, here he is. Family, Greninja. Greninja, my family."

Lydia stepped inside, allowing Greninja to see most of her family for the first time. Thirteen Pokémon were gathered in the room, some sitting, some standing, and one lay lazily on a windowsill. They stared at him with avid interest and were about to introduce themselves when one of them abruptly stood up and walked deliberately towards Greninja.

The room was hushed other than the slight creak of the floorboards as the Pokémon advanced towards Greninja, stopping a mere foot directly in front of him. He stood near eye level with Greninja and looked at him with unreadable sea green eyes.

The two Pokémon simply stared at one another for a good minute before Lydia's brother held out a pair of dark gloves and a faded picture.

"You forgot these," Roy said.

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Yeah, yeah. I know I said I'd do a Rigorous Relationships chapter first but I got a lot of requests for the next chapter of this story. So here it is. I hope you guys can wait a bit for the next one because I will get the next Rigorous Relationship chapter out next.

Anyways thanks for reading. Feel free to comment and vote at your discretion and if you've got any questions leave them in the comments section and I'll get back to them ASAP. See you all next time 😁.