Meowth lay on the couch in the apartment the former Rockets had been given, his tail flicking back and forth with worry. "You're sure this won't hurt?"

"It'll only hurt if I do it wrong, and I promise to take my time about it," Vincent replied, his regular spoon in his hand. "If at any point it feels more than just odd, actually painful, let me know, and I'll stop whatever it is I'm doing that's causing you pain."

The feline gulped but nodded, ready to see this through. It wasn't exactly every day he had a Psychic poking around in his head, looking for skills he'd learned. Then again, back on Earth, it wasn't exactly uncommon either...just more likely to happen between two Psychic-types is all. "Alright, but if I wake up not remembering Jessie or James, I'm blaming you."

"Noted," Vincent said in a wry tone and closed his eyes, focusing on the brain in front of him. With a slight push, he was in, and looking for Meowth's language centers. Hmm...Visual cortex isn't an issue, English and Equestrian seem to be the same written tongue...Angular gyrus could be necessary if the others fall through...The Wernick's, not needed, Pokemon can understand Equestrian just fine...Broca and Motor Cortex, jackpot! That's the difference I was looking for! Oh my, this will be very helpful indeed! Let's just copy those skills for use in my 'chip' design...

Two minutes later, Vincent opened his eyes again and smiled at Meowth before lowering his spoon. "Done. And might I say, thank you for agreeing to be my test...subject..."

The Kadabra trailed off before laughing, long and low, at the irony of what had just happened. The feline of the pair pushed himself upright before quirking an eyebrow at the Psychic. "Care to fill me in on what's so funny?"

Vincent eventually got his laughter under control and nodded. "It's just...this is my first time being the one running the experiment instead of the one on the receiving end of such experimentation. The irony is palpable."

Meowth awkwardly grinned at Vincent. "So...got what you need?"

Vincent hummed before replying. "Technically I got what I need from you. I still need to work on refining it so that I can apply a 'chip' to Pokemon or ponies to have them understand one another, and I need to make sure they're secure as well. Don't need a rogue Psychic hijacking the mind of someone I 'chipped' because I made it easy for him to walk in."

The feline awkwardly rubbed the back of his head with one paw. "So...we're good?"

The Kadabra blinked a few times before nodding. "Yes, yes we are. I'll just go work on this...and other things. Knock if you need me."

Lucy wandered the streets once more, looking for a place where she could be gainfully employed, when the sounds of conflict reached her ears.

After a moment to process the sounds, she realized they weren't the sounds of conflict, but the sounds of training, like she had undergone with Maylene and her Lucario partner. The thought brought happy memories for a moment, before she realized that these sounds could be useful in finally getting her a job. Assuming of course these particular ponies were amicable.

Following the sounds wasn't exactly easy, the Lucario had to double back a few times and check that she was going the right way. Downtown Las Pegasus was a maze to navigate if you weren't on the main streets, and unlike a certain Arcanine, she didn't have a finely-tuned nose, nor a scent to track in the first place. This did not dissuade her, however.

After ten minutes of searching, slowly narrowing down the area, Lucy found herself looking at an unremarkable building with a simple name emblazoned on it. "The school of Hard Knocks." At first she was skeptical she'd found the right place, but noise from within quickly assured her that she had. Namely, the sound of a pony screaming in pain, and another pony screaming at them.

"You call that a block? A colt could get past that! Take a minute and try again."

Nodding to herself, Lucy pushed the front doors to the building open, and was instantly greeted with silence. She was facing twenty-two ponies. Twenty of them assembled in two even rows facing each other, or rather, they had been a moment ago, and two in various states of examining the others. Mostly Earth ponies and Pegasi, though there were two unicorns in the ranks. Lucy quickly picked out the pony that had been screaming a moment ago to notice that while he was still in pain, he had shut his mouth and was looking at her as well. One of the examiners stepped closer to her, an eyebrow quirked.

"So one of the Pokemon walks through our doors. The question is, why?"

Before she could even open her mouth, one of the students scoffed and spoke up. "Master, why do you bother asking? You know you won't get an intelligent response."

Lucy glared at the offending pony and decided to one-up him. "The word you're looking for is intelligible, you ignoramus."

The fact that she spoke their tongue seemed to send an electric shock through the assembled class, and they quickly set around to muttering. The examiner that had stepped forward raised one of his wings, seemingly calling for silence, which quickly fell throughout the room. "So, you can speak our tongue. Don't suppose you're one of those fancy Psychic types, then?"

Lucy shook her head at that. "No, but I know one. It's thanks to him we're having this conversation, though he's working on a more permanent solution to the communication problem. My typing, if you actually care, is dual. Steel," and here she flashed a smile at the pony before her, "And Fighting."

The other examiner came forward and nodded at what the Lucario had said. "Ah. So that's a bit of the riddle then, but you've still left it unanswered. Why did you come?"

Lucy looked around the room at the students before looking back at the two teachers in front of her. "Would I be correct in assuming that you've had an influx of students over the past few weeks? Ones wanting to know how to fight just in case they have to defend themselves against Pokemon?"

Nearly every student there winced, and the pegasus teacher slowly nodded. "You assume correctly. Why?"

"Well," Lucy said, cracking her neck and rotating her joints, causing no small amount of noise to echo around the area, "I happen to be capable of taking more than one hit in a fight. I think it might be helpful to have a Pokemon around if you're going to teach a Pokemon-defense course. Y'know, help them see how to use these lessons effectively. Heck, if they or you can take me down, I'll be surprised."

"Is that a challenge I hear, little miss?" the Earth Pony teacher asked with a chuckle. More than a few of the students gulped at the tone in his voice, but Lucy merely smiled.

"Why? What do I get if it was and I win?"

The pair in front of her looked at one another and nodded, some unbidden signal to the pegasus of the pair to back up. "If you win," the Earth pony said, "and take me down before I take you down, then we'll let you stay on as a teacher in addition to us, so that our self-defense courses are more all-encompassing."

"Fail," the pegasus said, "and we toss you out for a year to hone your skills before you can come back through those doors."

Lucy thought it over for a moment before smirking and nodding at their terms. "Agreed. I'm Lucy."

"Hard Hooved," the Earth pony said.

"Quick Knocks," the pegasus added.

"And now," Hard said, motioning with one hoof to the students, who seemed to get the idea and moved out of the way rapidly, revealing the ring in the floor.

"The two of you shall enter the circle. First one to pin the other for five seconds or push the other out of the ring wins," Quick stated the terms. Lucy stood at one of the lines drawn on the floor, and Hard stood at the other. They briefly bowed to one another before the Lucario thought of a better stipulation to add to the match.

"I shall not use any of my more...damaging or elemental moves against you. It would be unfair. The most I shall do is augment my own abilities, and only if I feel the situation calls for it."

The Earth pony bowed his head again. "Most kind of you to fight me on even ground. Many Pokemon would not."

"Yeah, well," Lucy said as she got into her fighting stance, "I'm not most Pokemon."

Silence hung in the air for a moment longer, and then the two fighters closed the gap between them. One fighting for a job, the other fighting to prove that his way of teaching was more than good enough.

Vincent sat in his and Lucy's room, working on his latest technique. Pings...they were easier to think of as search engines, and once Bit had helped him with the correct visuals and understanding of all the elements of a good one (and given him a headache in the progress), he'd finally proclaimed that finished to his satisfaction.

No, what he needed now was an attack. And he already had an idea as to what a good one would be. After all, he'd done something similar once before. Who was to say that his defenses couldn't also be attacks, that a shield couldn't also be a sword, or used to bash someone's face in?

Though, with this attack, he was hoping for more damage than that.

Attacks, techniques, could be made. This was a lesser-known fact of the Pokemon world. Flamethrower was a juiced-up Ember at its core. Bubblebeam had come from a Water-type putting way too much power into Bubble, and a curious Kadabra had probably stumbled into Psychic when it was fiddling with Confusion or Psybeam.

This attack, though, wouldn't be making its way into the common Pokemon's mind. So Vincent hoped. It was only going to be comprised of his pain and torment, after all.

An Alakazam can remember everything that happened to it since it hatched as an Abra, Vincent mused, holding his Twisted Spoon and idly playing with it. And trauma forges the sharpest swords. Let's see if I can't use both of those. Hmm...yes...how should I begin...

An image flashed into Vincent's head, one of a cute little Growlithe pup...and its fate, and Vincent nodded. The dead, he said. I'll begin with the dead.

As the psychic began his work, an elderly Bellossom stood outside his door, having 'heard' all that he'd said and silently wondering whether or not it would be a good idea to go in at this particular point in time.

Bit hummed a happy tune as he and Jessie made their way from the scrap yard. The mare running it had been more than amicable to his scrounging and eclectic needs, and most of the parts he needed, he'd procured. The rest could be bought easily. "Finally, my rudimentary computer can start to be assembled."

Jessie had been moaning at the weight she'd been carrying, but at the Porygon-Z's words, perked up a touch. "Really? That's what this is about? Remaking some of Earth's technology?"

Bit ticked as he considered the question before bobbing his head in the affirmative once. "I have been...uncomfortable outside the mainframe, and I have acquired quite the wealth of knowledge. Having even a basic computer handy to dump excess or superfluous data into will be quite useful, and serve as the base for future endeavors."

"How...far do you intend to take this?" the Pyroar asked, a gleam in her eyes as she considered the possible future.

Bit turned his head to look at her, and if one were to look at both his eyes and the way he held his arms and tail, they would be able to tell that not only was he being slightly mischevious, but that he was enjoying it. "Jessie, with the Berries on the roof, the scrap and other parts easily gained, our abilities in the realm of welding metal, and all the time in the world available to me...there isn't much I couldn't build or replicate from Earth."

He turned back to face forward as he continued to lead the way back to the apartment, muttering slightly under his breath along the way.

"That is, once I understand magic and incorporate it into the designs..."

Lucy had stated she wouldn't be using any moves against the pony she was fighting. And she wasn't.

She was only using them on herself, a distinction deception that Bit or Vincent would be proud of her making. Quick Attack, Extreme Speed, even focusing her ability to manipulate the Aura back into herself so that she could dodge the stallion.

Frankly, she needn't have bothered to that extreme, one would have been enough. He telegraphed all his attacks so clearly that a Riolu would have been able to dodge them. And while she could feel her energy behind her moves winding down, she could see that he was taking it worse than she was in the way he started to take more time between his attacks. One more, and she would be able to pin him easily.

The stallion turned and bucked at where she had been a moment ago, and Lucy jumped onto his back, her weight pinning him to the ground. He struggled mightily for a moment, but upon realizing that she wasn't going anywhere, sighed and went limp.

"You beat me, and without throwing a punch either."

"Answer truly," Quick said, "Did you use any moves on him?"

Lucy smirked and shook her head before stepping off the pony. "No, but I also didn't break my word. No moves were used on you, Hard. But on myself..."

The pair of teachers blinked as they realized they'd been hoodwinked and laughed. "Well played!" Quick said. "I say we give her a chance for that alone!"

"Aye," Hard said as he picked himself up on shaky legs. "She's quite good at the art of combat. I say she joins us as a teacher here, let our students get some real experience in defending themselves!"

Lucy smirked and stuck her right paw out to the pair of ponies. "It would be my honor to join you as an instructor in this hall," she said seriously. Quick and Hard looked at one another and nodded, placing a hoof each atop her outstretched paw.

"And it would be our honor to have you," they intoned together, and the students gave them a wave of thunderous applause.

Vincent slowly opened his eyes and held his left hand up beneath them, feeling the gathered moisture there and sniffing slightly. "So...many friends gone. So many out in this world, alone, most likely. So many...I'd nearly forgotten how much it hurt to lose them."

The Psychic shook his head and wiped the tears away as he continued. "Which is why this will be perfect, once I finish it."

"Vincent?" a familiar voice croaked out. He stiffened and slowly turned his sudden glare to the door to see the Bellossom that dared call herself his mother standing there...

...and she seemed to have been crying lately too. He blinked at that before reforming his glare. "You have ten seconds to get o-"

"I'm sorry," she said, and that stunned Vincent for a moment, letting her continue. "I was wrong, and I'm sorry. Please, please believe me when I say that."

The Kadabra closed his eyes and breathed deeply for a moment, reigning in his latent anger. When he opened his eyes again, his glare was gone, replaced with a look of curiosity. "What brought this on, this little revelation?"

The plant shuffled closer to the bed, and Vincent reflexively used his powers to bring her up to the top with him. She walked over and made to hug him, but Vincent stopped Jeanne with a simple raised hand for the moment. She gulped at that, but explained anyways. "Well, partially your father. We'd known each other for years before, and when we asked each other about our days, whenever he said the results from his latest tests in improving a Pokemon's potential were promising and I asked if he thought it was good enough to go forward, he would say that 'outliers exist in any data set.' I simply...applied that to everything that Hastings had said regarding Pokephilia, and realized how wrong he must have been."

Jeanne wrung her hands as she said the next bit. "It...was wrong and foolish of me to accuse you of that. While I may not have believed too strongly either way regarding it, I can see that you and Lucy love each other deeply. Please, please forgive me."

"Why did you say it?" the Psychic questioned his mother.

"Because of those outliers!" she exclaimed. "While most of them were humans abusing or brainwashing their Pokemon - something I know you would never do, even as a human - there were cases, rare but there, of the reverse also happening! A good portion of Pokemon are significantly more powerful than humans, and that's before you take moves into account! I was afraid she could be abusing or brainwashing you, Vincent! You're young, still malleable, and I can't lose you again, I just found you!"

The silence that filled the apartment was nearly a tangible thing as the Bellossom finished her outburst. Vincent just stared at her, nonplussed, not knowing how to best attack that little rant of hers. Jeanne just gave a sad, small smile, before she said a few simple lines.

"But I'm not afraid of that anymore. You two truly love one another, and I would have to be mad to stand in the way of that. Please, forgive an old woman of her fears."

Vincent slowly raised his Twisted Spoon and looked Jeanne in the eye. "Not...yet. I have to look before I can trust you again. My time...there, removed my ability to trust easily, especially those that have hurt me before."

Vincent's words stung Jeanne, and to her credit, she only flinched a bit before she nodded at him. "Whatever you feel you need to do, dear."

The Psychic closed his eyes and pushed his mind towards that of his mother, reciting a small poem as he did to focus his efforts.

Within another's mind

One can always find

The truest expression of the soul.

If you know how to look

It's like reading a book

But doing so will always take its toll.

Now I peer into your heart

To see what sets you apart,

To gaze upon the whole and core of You.

It's said the gateway is the eyes,

In there, there can be no lies,

Whatever I find there, it must be True.

Silence descended, true and utter silence, as even the air chilled while Vincent was looking into the core of his mother, gazing deeply into what made her tick.

What he saw stunned him.

A woman so driven to find her son and bring her former husband to justice that she would do anything...but that was only the surface.

A young mother, desperate and lonely for the life she'd brought into this world that had gone missing...but that was only one layer down.

Protective. Loving. Big mama Ursaring in a little package...but once it was all brought together, he was shocked.

A woman who had found that one of her idols had to be, had to be, wrong, and was still dealing with that fallout, but it wouldn't stop her from her one goal:

Holding her son again.

Hastings had been wrong. She had been wrong, and she would do anything, anything, to make it up to him, so long as she was permitted to stay, to hold her son once more.

Withdrawing from the deepest recesses of her mind, Vincent opened his eyes and studied the Bellossom in front of him. "You can stay," he stated, and she nearly ran forward to hug him, but his left hand quickly stopped her. "On one condition."

"And what would- no," Jeanne said as she realized the most obvious condition.

The Kadabra merely nodded once. "Yes. You have to apologize to the others as well, admit you were wrong. Ask for their forgiveness, it's not mine to give."

The Bellossom sighed, but acquiesced with a head-bob. "I'll...try. But can I have a hug, please? Just in case?"

Vincent smirked and moved his hand out of the way, and Jeanne held her son once more. And for the moment, she was content.

Author's Notes:

I've heard quite often that there is no love like a child for its parents, or a parent for its child.

...What if you didn't know your parents, and your mother was just a hint on the over-protective side once she found you?

Thus, Jeanne and Vincent's relationship.