Rich stood at the phone in the Pokemon Center. A picture of his Grandmother appeared. "Rich, my favourite grandbaby!" She smiled at him.

"Your ONLY Grandbaby." He sighed.

"Well, that still makes you my favourite." She smiled. "Sadly, your granny was never trained as a psychic so unless you wanna cough up that soul for me to ask, best tell me why ye called."

"I'm... In a bit of a jam. A pal of mine wants me to take a trip with him."

"Sounds like a great time to me." She replied. "What does this have to do with me?"

"Well, you see... This isn't exactly a... Short trip." He scratched the back of his head.

"Ah, gap-year?" She asked.

"Pretty much." He replied. "A friend of mine-"

"Sean? You hold him in such high regard. What trouble are you getting into now?" She asked.

"He's got a Pokedex and he wants to-"

"Go off on the same damn idealistic crusade as your father?" She butted in again. "If that Sean has drilled it into your head that you need to go find Lugia, i'm sending a Sableye to hex him!" She growled. Rich shuddered at the mere thought of a Sableye. But then waved his hand to indicate she should stop.

"Please not the Sableye..." He groaned. "It's not that. We're looking for just REGULAR pokemon. The absolutely real, not potentially tall-tales pokemon. He's got a Pokedex and he wants me to help him fill it." He watched the toothy grin creek across his grandmothers face as she began to let out a long, hearty belly-laugh.

"Wait, wait, wait..." She managed to wheeze out. "You're doing the ol' "I wanna be the very best like no-one ever was!" Routine?" She then continued to laugh. Rich looked around as he saw several people looking at him. "Ok, ok, ok..." she finally finished. "Go on and get it out of your system. Just one question, you still got that Abra with you?" She asked.

"Yeah, he's a great partner-"

"Still a lazy coward?" She asked him.

"He is a conscientious objector and i respect his boundaries." Rich sighed.

"Look, bairn, i am willing to let you go out on your own, but i ain't letting you go out there without someone to watch your back." She took a pokeball and placed it on the machine before pressing some buttons. At that point a pokeball appeared in front of him. "He's a bit young, but he's a scrapper. Also, it'll give you a chance to practice that Spirit Medium skills i taught you." He picked up the Pokeball and looked at it.

"Is it Sableye? Because if it is i'm releasing it."

"If ye wanna catch them all, you're gonna have to get over that Dark type fear you've got!" She sighed.

"They're... Freaky... They've got no Psychic presence, it's like they're not there..."

"It's not Sableye." She laughed. "Although it's tempting to make ya, i thought your granny should actually give you something you'd appreciate." He pressed the button and through the Pokeball to the floor with Yamask popping out. "He's also pretty easy for channeling with that mask of his." Yamask wrapped its arms around Rich's head.

"Thanks Grammy..." He smiled at her. He then pressed a button to recall him to the Pokeball. "Well, i promised to meet Niko and Sean down by the beach. Sun's good out there and me and the boys wanna catch some rays." He smiled, before waving goodbye to his Grandmother and hanging up.

****

As the group looked at the Magicarp slailing around on the end of the rod, desperately trying to smite its enemies with the fearsome "Splash" attack, Shin would hear "I think it wants to go back to the water. Damn when that one evolves it's going to kill you and everyone you love" From over his shoulder. As he turned around he would see Rich wearing a large straw hat, a pair of budgie-smugglers, a back-pack and Flip-Flops, Abra stood next to him holding an ice-cream cone that his long, thin tongue slowly lapped at. "Great seeing ya guys!" He threw his hands wide seeing who wanted a hug. Abra throwing his non-ice-cream holding arm wide inviting the same, but still lapping at the frozen treat with the thin tongue.