" Now we can get on with the main event!" the blond declared.

"Uh," Austin noised.

"What's going on?" Yellow asked.

"We threw this party so our little brother could evolve his Eevee!" the redhead declared.

"Yeah, but he ran away the night before the party started," the blue-haired one said.

"And it was too late to cancel the party," the blond added.

"But now you've brought Eevee back, so everything's back on track!"

"So what'll it be, Mikey?" the redhead said, turning on the kid. "Which Eeveeloution will you pick? Go with Flareon—it's the best."

"Jolteon's the best!" the blond protested.

"No, Vaporeon is," the blue-haired one said, before apparently remembering there was an existing conversation going on and turning back to them. "As thanks for bringing Eevee back, stick around for the party! If you've got any Pokémon that evolve via stones, now's a good time to do it!"

" You've got a Pikachu, I see—that'll be a Thunder Stone. Vaporeon is the best choice, just so you know."

"No, Flareon is!" the redhead argued.

"Jolteon's the best!" the blond protested.

"Mikey, right?" Yellow asked. When the boy nodded: "I say we run now while they're distracted."

They did so, and Yellow didn't stop until he hit the buffet table.

Austin meanwhile had a grin plastered across his face as he looked at his bank account through his Pokedex.

Those brothers paid him well.

With this, he had now secured a year's worth of top-of-line pokemon food for each one of these Pokémon.

"So are they always like this?" Austin asked Mickey, taking a plate and filling it up.

"Unfortunately," Mikey sighed, petting his Eevee. "The plan was to keep Eevee away until after the party, so I wouldn't have to evolve him."

"Are you guys ready to evolve him, though?" Austin asked, pausing with tongs filled with hot dogs. "I mean, it's not like with a Charmander or a Doduo or a Magikarp—you have to choose to evolve it. And then Eevee has, like, eight? Seven known evolutions we were just talking about this—Jolteon and Vaporeon and Flareon, then they discovered Glaceon and Leafeon in Sinnoh and Espeon and Umbreon in Johto -how do you even pick one? And what if that's not all of them? There could be ten more for all we know."

"So you see my problem," Mikey said.

"That's wrong." A voice called out to Austin, Yellow, and Mickey.

Austin looked up to see a girl around the age of 16 or 17 that had silvery-blue eyes and long silvery-blue hair that reached past her waist with two long bangs that frame her face.

She wore a black dress that hugs her curves and black flats.

" What do you mean ?" Yellow curiously asked the mysterious woman who Austin had a feeling he knew from somewhere.

" Little boy, you said there are seven eevelutions discovered. You might have to change the number to eight since a new evolution of Eevee was discovered in Kalos known as Sylveon." The mysterious woman said.

" Oh, we didn't know. My name is Yellow, this is my friend Ash and Mickey." Yellow introduced everyone.

" You can call me, Karen." The girl said with a wink causing Mickey to blush meanwhile Austin felt as if the ground beneath his feet was gone.

He had recognized that name.

Karen, one of the Johto Elite four in the games who never showed up in the anime, in the games she was portrayed as someone who loved pokemon but in the pokemon manga she was a cruel and sadistic trainer under the Masked Man.

Now the real question was, which one of those iterations was she?

' If she was a subordinate of the Masked Man.'

Austin couldn't help but gulp at the thought since the Masked Man was such a powerful trainer in the Pokemon manga that he could wield the legendary Pokémon; Ho-oh, Lugia, and even Celebi.

If he was just as powerful as his manga counterpart then Austin didn't know if anyone can even face that monster.

Seeing as Green was similar to her counterpart from the Pokemon manga then the Masked Man would surely exist in this world.

Austin gulped at the terrifying thought that his path may cross with the Masked Man's.

Austin's aura pulsed causing Lucario to appear beside him in a flash.

{ Something wrong. }

{ Keep an eye on her }

"I hadn't given any thought to evolving Vee yet—do you want to evolve?" he asked Vee.

The Eevee froze in the middle of eating a pastry with Pikachu, caught in a fierce internal debate that eventually broke the poor 'mon down in tears.

"Hey! Hey! It's all right! I didn't ask for you to decide now!" Yellow yelped, dropping everything to hug Vee.

"That's pretty much what happened with me and Eevee," Mikey said. "We talked about it a lot, but I can't see evolving him."

"So what's wrong with being an Eevee trainer?" Karen asked, petting Vee. Vee started to calm down, and Pikachu and Pichu took the opportunity to snack on some of the food Yellow had dropped.

"I haven't the foggiest—it's not like Eevee's not pretty strong in his own right," Mikey said, putting Eevee down so he could help Pikachu clean up the mess. "I mean, evolving's supposed to make a Pokémon stronger, right? But I like Eevee the way he is, and Eevee likes himself the way he is, so it'd be kind of pointless."

"So why don't you tell them that?" Karen asked with a smile.

"Ha—you try telling them anything. You saw how they are."

"Yeah," Yellow said, leaning back and accidentally putting her hand in a pastry.

"Pika chu," Pikachu and Chu-Chu noised, pointing.

"Sorry," Yellow said, moving her hand and shaking it a little to get the filling off. "Oh hey, wait a minute—Pikachu evolves into Raichu using a Thunder Stone. You didn't want to evolve, did you?"

Pikachu didn't even hesitate—an automatic shake of his head but he looked at Austin to tell yellow that he can't evolve due to the light orb but his silent trainer was deep in his thoughts.

" Pika." Pikachu looked a little worried as he saw the sweat-drenched Austin who was anxiously trying to make some kind of plan.

He had to make sure, Karen doesn't develop any interest in them and subsequently tell the masked man about them.

"It's not that easy with those three," Mikey said. "I've tried telling them for over a month now, and they were too busy organizing the party to listen to me."

"Well, parties are fun, so…."

"And then before that—from the day I got Eevee, it was a huge argument over which 'eon was the best! You'd think there wasn't anything else to talk about!"

" Hmm," Yellow noised, going back to petting Vee. "Hey, what if we showed them?"

"Huh?"

"You said Eevee is strong in his own right—I've got four badges right now. What if we challenged your brothers using Eevee and Chu-Chu and Pikachu, to round it out, since it's three on three," Yellow said, looking at Austin who seemingly froze at the idea.

Mikey considered this. "That…might work…but what if we lose? They might make me evolve Eevee then!"

Yellow shrugged. "Then we do our best to make sure we don't lose, how's that?"

Mikey nodded, looking like he was trying to keep from throwing up.

" You want to join." Austin carefully asked Karen who smiled.

" I would love to."

" Then I should sit this one out."

Austin said causing everyone to shrug as Karen took out Pokeball while Yellow nodded back, scooped Chu-Chu up, stood, and helped Mikey up.

"Come on," Karen said, brushing her long hair to the side and making her way through the crowd, grabbing Mikey's wrist to make sure he followed.

"There you are!" the redhead greeted when they spotted the two. "So what'd you decide? Flareon?"

"Get real—I told you Vaporeon's the best!" the blue-headed brother said.

"Jolteon's the best!" the blond insisted.

"Boys, we were wondering if you'd agree to a battle," Karen said.

The three of them stopped dead, staring at them.

"Do what?" the redhead asked finally.

"You, us, battle," Yellow said, indicating Karen, herself, and Mikey. "Mikey has Eevee, I have a Pichu that evolves using a Thunder Stone with Karen to round out the trio. We have the evolved 'eons battle the unevolved ones, and whoever wins is in the right."

"Meaning?" the blue-haired one asked.

"Meaning if you win, Mikey makes his decision on which 'eon to go with," Karen said. "Although I think you're being limited, focusing on just the three."

"Uh," Mikey noised, looking like the bottom had dropped out of his stomach.

"But if we win, then you have to accept that Mikey and Eevee don't want to evolve, and stop pestering them about it."

"I don't know," the blue-haired one said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"But if this settles it—all right, you're on," the blond said, leaning forward. "And Mikey—when my Jolteon wins, you'll know for certain that Jolteon is the way to go!"

"Get real—Vaporeon's the best."

"Flareon's the best!" the redhead exclaimed.

"What about Glaceon or Sylveon?" Yellow asked, earning disparaging looks from the three brothers. "What?"

"All right, we accept," the blue-haired one said, glancing at the other two before nodding. "Hey everyone!" he called, addressing the party at large. "We're having a Pokémon battle!"

"I can't do this," Mikey muttered, hugging his Eevee and looking ill.

"You can't back out now," Yellow insisted. "Besides, you said Eevee is strong— Chu-Chu strong too. We'll win this easy."

" Just believe in your pokemon and you will win."

Mikey didn't look convinced, but followed yellow and Karen over to the battlefield just the same.

"We'll do this as a triple battle, just like in Unova!" the blond called, dramatically clenching his fist.

"A triple battle? What's that?" Yellow asked—she had heard of a three-on-three battle, which is what she thought this was going to be, but—

"A triple battle is when you battle three Pokémon against three Pokémon at once," the blue-haired one said. "It's pretty challenging, so if you can't hack it…."

"No, we'll be fine," Yellow said, twisting her straw hat back which didn't change much.

"Go on! Chu-Chu!"

Pichu ran out onto the battlefield, the latter with cheeks sparking. After a long moment of hesitation, Mikey set his Eevee down and nudged it, prompting it to run out and stand on Pikachu's other side.

" Show them the beauty of the dark," Karen said as she threw a PokeBall into the sky releasing an avian Pokémon with black feathers. Its crooked, yellow beak and the three, feathery tufts on its head resemble a witch's nose and hat respectively. It has semi-circular, red eyes with white sclerae and pupils and a spiky collar of feathers around its neck. The shaggy feathers on its tail resemble the end of a broom, and there is a thin, red band at the base of the tail. Its yellow feet have four toes, three facing forward and one backward.

" Murkrow !"

"All right! Go, Jolteon!" the blond yelled, gesturing dramatically.

"Flareon!" the redhead yelled.

"Vaporeon!" the blue-haired one rounded out, imitating his brothers' dramatic posing.

"Onto the battlefield!" they all yelled at once—and all at once, the three 'eons named leaped out and landed on the battlefield, poised to charge just as soon as the order was given.

" Why didn't you participate in the battle ?" Lucario asked the quiet Austin.

" That woman, what kind of Aura do you feel from her ?" Austin asked in a deathly serious voice that sent shivers down Lucario for a second as he saw the crimson glow in Austin's eyes.