The rewrite of Chapter 2 is here! I eventually finished this and it's a lot better than the original but new readers beware- there may be some continuity errors if I haven't finished rewriting all the chapters when you read this.

Chapter 2 – But I Know I Can't Live Without It

"Ha-ha!" a loud voice from high above their heads, called out.

"Prepare for trouble,"

"And make it double,

"To protect the world from devastation," Ash groaned, as a large Meowth below appeared among the tree tops,

"To unite all people wi-"

"Oh will you goons shut up?!" Nika hollered from below.

"We are not goons, we are Team Rocket and nobody interrupts us!"

"I know who you are; you're the idiots who destroyed the roof of the Champion Hall!"

"That was an accident; we were trying to steal Pikachu!"

"Oh so you admit to it then?"

"Oh shut up Miss Smarty Pants, I've had it, Dustox, I choose you," With a flash of red light, the green and purple moth pokémon appeared by her master's side, pointing a Nika, Jessie ordered Dustox to attack. "Go use Poison Sting on that snotty brat."

Nika sighed, "Bad mistake, Dragonite, I choose you," Nika lamely tossed the pokéball and the majestic orange dragon appeared, regarding Dustox with an arrogant sneer. "Use Dragonbreath!" Rolling his eyes, the Dragonite puffed out what he considered to be a feeble attempt at a Dragonbreath attack, but the green smoke still took out the Poison Sting. "Now go get Pikachu back!" Glancing sideways at his trainer, Dragonite sighed and flew up into the sky, seemingly prising the hand open with very little effort. Dragonite swooped down and shoved Pikachu in Ash's arms, before turning around and burning Team Rocket to a crisp with a Flamethrower all without a command; something Ash, Dawn and Brock found a little surprising.

Jessie growled ominously, but before she could attack, Ash commanded Pikachu to attack,

"Pikachu, use Thunderbolt."

"Pika-CHU!" the yellow pokémon cried, as it released a power bolt of electricity. Unsurprisingly, to the others, Team Rocket's balloon exploded, blasting them away into the sky. Brock breathed a sigh of relief as he and Ash turned around to the sound of Nika talking; in fact she was scolding her Dragonite, who had crossed his arms and was looking at her disdainfully.

"Dragonite how many times have I told you not to be so cocky?" she asked the arrogant pokémon exasperatedly. "Your mother may be the pokémon of an Elite Four member, but that doesn't mean you're God's gift and are totally indestructible. The opponent may not look the strongest, but one day you are going to seriously underestimate a foe and then who'll be in trouble? Not just you, but in an important match, it can affect the whole team; if you keep on with this I'll have to remove you from the team. And I'm sure you don't want that to happen either; because you are a strong pokémon, you just need to get this attitude sorted." Nika paused for breath and noticed Dragonite's expression had changed from one of disdain, to one of sulky boredom, whilst Ash, Brock and Dawn looked like they were ready to move on.

"Alright, lecture over, just remember what I said." She returned Dragonite and turned to face the others. "Teenagers," she muttered, rolling her eyes dramatically.

"Okay, let's go!" Ash shouted, pointing ahead of him.

Nika gave him a confused look, "Err Ash, that's the wrong direction.

"I knew that," Ash chuckled sheepishly.

**~**~**

That evening, the group sat around the glowing campfire, eating dinner; Brock's infamous Lazy Boy No-Chew Stew.

"So Nika, have you been around Kanto much?" Brock asked.

"A little, I'm only really familiar with the area around the Indigo Plateau."

"Oh, well you know Cerulean City, my friend Misty's the gym leader."

"Yeah, I know all the gyms and their specialties, Misty likes the Water-type, right?

"Uh-huh, I travelled with Misty throughout Kanto and Johto."

"Did you now," Nika mused. "Well you must have met Clair, the Blackthorn City then."

"Yeah, we helped her when the Dragon Fang got stolen."

"You're that Ash?" Nika asked surprised, earning her three baffled stares. She sighed, "I might as well explain then. Let me start from the beginning, in case you didn't already know, Jas has been friends with Lance of the Elite Four for ages and Lance's cousin is Clair. My sister's friendship with the pair then developed and now the whole Kirk family gets along well with us (well except for Lance's little sister, but that's another matter entirely). Anyway, Clair was telling me about a promising young trainer she encountered and her cousin, Ritchie, whose family was visiting Blackthorn at the time, also knew you from your time in the Indigo League."

"Ritchie's Lance's cousin?" Ash asked incredulously.

"He doesn't make it well known, he says he doesn't want any unnecessary publicity because of it."

"Understandably so, he doesn't want it to interfere with his training," Brock stated. The group sat in a comfortable silence for a while, until Dawn yawned sleepily and insisted upon going to be, the others soon following suit.

**~**~**

Ash flopped down on the tree stump, rubbing his eyes groggily. He glanced around, Brock was over-seeing the preparation of breakfast, since Nika was trying to add about a pint of golden syrup to the porridge and Dawn was still in her tent, probably fixing her hair.

Nika handed him a bowl of porridge that, to Ash looked suspiciously golden in colour, but he still wolfed it down all the same. Nika sat beside him, her bowl of porridge perched precariously on her lap, while she squeezed a lot more of the thick sticky syrup into her porridge. Ash looked at her bowl in horror and she shrugged,

"I like syrup," she explained simply, then began to stir the syrup into her porridge. By the time she had finished, the substance in the bowl looked like it mostly consisted of syrup, not porridge; in fact, it looked like lumpy, milky syrup. By now, Ash had been repulsed enough for him to not want second helpings, while Nika happily ate her porridge.

Dawn then bounced out of her tent, Piplup marching proudly behind her, admiring his handiwork; not one hair was out of place.

"Hey guys, what's for breakfast?" she asked cheerily.

"You don't wanna know…" Ash mumbled queasily, shuddering slightly as Nika happily ate another mouthful of her sloppy syrupy mess. Dawn's upper lip curled in disgust,

"Nika, what is that slop you're eating?"

Nika looked up from her food; several curious specks of the food spattered on her face and in her eyebrows, and she smiled, holding the bowl up for Dawn to see.

"Syrup porridge," she answered. "Want some?"

Dawn blanched slightly at the prospect and held up her hands to keep the bowl at bay, "I think I'll pass on that one."

**~**~**

After a day's walking, the group managed to reach Floroama Town in time for dinner. Dawn was a little upset as Nika had remembered suddenly that she had a fully grown Salamence on loan that she could have retrieved from Professor Rowan in the Pokémon Centre they had passed an hour before her realisation.

Dawn's feet were tired and she had walked a whole day when she could have gone the same distance in two hours, flying, not to mention the fact that she was starving, tired and the humidity had ruined her hair.

After dinner, the group of four settled down for an early night in the Pokémon Centre, ready for an early start in the morning.

At seven o'clock the following morning, Dawn was awoken by Ash screaming. Drowsily, she lifted her head to see him being electrocuted by his living alarm clock, Pikachu. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, Dawn flopped back down on her pillow, only to be attacked moments later by a blast of water.

"Piplup!" she squealed, shooting bolt upright and thus smacking her head on the ceiling above her, something Nika found highly amusing.

"Stop being such a sadist," Brock chided, though he too, was smirking at Dawn's 'wake-up call'.

Half an hour later, they were fed, watered and ready to go.

"So here's the flight plan," Nika narrated, she pointed to two figurines on the Sinnoh map spread on the table, "We start here, in Floroama Town and at twelve hundred hours we plan to be in Jublife," she continued moving the figurines south on the map to the large city, "Any questions?"

"Yeah," Ash piped up, "Why do you have Luxray Kingfigurines? And why are we Nala?"

"Because I do and if you don't stop asking stupid questions I'm going to relegate you to being Pumbaa," she threatened.

"What's so wrong with Pumbaa; he's a good guy?" Brock asked curiously.

"He's a big ugly Swalot with wind problems," Nika retorted in a monotone.

"Can we go now?" Dawn moaned. "I wanna do some shopping in Jublife."

"Whatever," Nika replied flippantly, beginning to shove her map and figurines carelessly into her bag.

"Nika, who are we flying on?" Ash asked, bringing up an aspect of the plan that seemed to have been forgotten.

"You and Brock are on Clair's Salamence," Nika answered, tossing him the pokéball.

She threw her own into the air, releasing her Dragonite, who seemed to be a better mood than he had last time Dawn saw him.

"See you in Jublife!" Nika shouted as she helped Dawn clamber on.

"Sure, it'll be lunch time then!" Ash replied, earning him an eye roll from Brock.

Dragonite took off into the air, shortly followed by Salamence. For four hours, the two pokémon soared tirelessly through the clear summer skies, eventually reaching Jublife at around midday.

The first sound that came to Dawn's ears as they landed in the central park was the noisy growls of Ash's stomach.

"Eh-heh, must be lunchtime," Ash joked sheepishly.

"Me and Ash will stay and cook, you ladies go off and do some window shopping or whatever," Brock told the group as he began to remove the pots and pans from his rucksack.

As the two girls wandered through the streets, stopping occasionally to nose in the windows, they chatted about family.

"Hey Dawn, you have any siblings?"

"Nah," the blue haired girl answered.

"Suppose you're lucky in a way," Nika mused, "Though I wouldn't go without Jasmine for the world, she can be annoying at times."

"How so?"

"Older siblings always are, I've had experience," Nika replied. "Great rivals though, are siblings, one day I shall have a great face off with Jasmine," she continued, with a dreamy air, "And then I shall retire, win or lose, and devote myself to my love of history."

"You like history?"

"Very much so, that's what I've been doing, studying the history of Sinnoh while I travel, makes travelling alone that little bit more bearable."

"But you have pokémon," Dawn pointed out.

"They aren't the same as humans, you're very lucky in that respect."

"I suppose I am," Dawn said, then lifted her hand to check her Pokétch. "We should probably be heading back for lunch."

Nika nodded and the two girls turned around and started to amble back towards the park where the boys were supposed to be cooking lunch.

However, when they arrived back, they found Ash hunched over the stew pot, his brow furrowed in concentration and Brock was nowhere in sight.

"Ash, where's Brock?" Dawn asked, a slightly dangerous edge to her voice.

"He went that way," he answered, gesturing over his shoulder absent-mindedly as he continued to stir the stew. "I took over when this started to burn."

"The lunch started to burn?" Dawn fumed.

"Calm down," Ash said, "He's coming this way now, see chasing that jogger."

"Why that little…" Dawn muttered.

"Hang on," Nika intervened, "I shall go retrieve the cook." She set off at a jog towards the love -struck Brock as he trailed aimlessly behind an uninterested jogger. As Nika reached him, she seized hold of his collar and promptly dragged him back to where Ash and Dawn were.

She let go of the protesting Brock as she reached Dawn and ran over to Ash to get some food.

"Sure just leave me here," he moaned.

"What happened to Croagunk?" Dawn asked the Breeder, scanning the area for the blue Poison-type.

"He got exhausted after fighting Brock off ten other women," Ash said nonchalantly.

"Goodness, we were only gone for just over half-an-hour," Nika exclaimed.

"That's Brock-o for ya," Dawn quipped.

**~**~**

After lunch, the two Dragon-types were released once more and the three hour flight to Sandgem Town began after yet another exaggerated briefing from Nika and her figurines. Instead of stopping off at the Pokémon Centre, Nika took them straight to Professor Rowan's lab.

Nika stepped up to the door and rapped in a complicated pattern on the wood with her knuckles.

"Adaaam!" a voice bellowed inside. "Nika's here."

"Why can't you get it Dominic?" another voice, Adam's hollered back.

"Coz one of the Eevees just crapped on me!"

Nika smiled warmly, "I love my cousins."

"Your cousins work for Professor Rowan?" Dawn asked. Nika nodded.

"Hi Nika," a breathless voice said as the door opened. "Sorry, I was upstairs."

"Don't worry," Nika said, shrugging it off. She turned to the trio behind her, "This is Ash, Brock and Dawn."

Adam inclined his head to the three, "I believe we've met before, albeit briefly." He pulled the door open wider, "Do come in."

"How was the honeymoon?" Nika asked as they stepped inside.

"Great, though not as eventful as the reception," Adam answered with a laugh.

"Yeah," Nika chuckled, "That food fight was the cat's pyjamas."

"How's your Piplup, Dawn?" Adam asked as he led them along the corridor.

"Oh he's really strong, we've won loads of contests," she gushed proudly.

"Yeah, you were great in the Wallace Cup."

"Thanks," Dawn answered, blushing bashfully.

"How are Mum's Pokémon doing?" Nika asked as they entered the main lab.

"The newest Dratinis hatched a few weeks ago and the Eevees hatched just yesterday," a young man answered from beside a small pen containing young Eevees.

"Dominic!" Nika greeted. "Meet Ash, Dawn and Brock," she introduced, waving the trio over.

"Hi!" he said.

"Now cute," Dawn cooed as she bent down to admire the baby Eevees.

Brock turned to Nika, "Do you breed these?"

"No, the Eevees are the various offspring of my mum's six prize pokémon and the Dratinis which are outback are the children of Dom's Dragonites."

"Would you like one?" Adam offered.

"Are you sure?" Dawn asked delightedly.

"Yeah," Dominic said, "We overestimated a little on the litter, so we had four more eggs."

"I like that one," Dawn decided, pointing at the Eevee in Dominic's arms.

"It yours," Dominic declared handing the pokémon over. It cried cheerily and snuggled into Dawn's arms.

Ash's stomach growled suddenly and the whole group turned to stare.

"That's the signal for food," he said with a nervous laugh.

"You can stay for dinner if you like," a voice called from the upper balcony that ran around the top of the lab.

"Hey Professor!" they greeted.

"Hello, I'll be down in a mo, I'm just dealing with this Feebas."

"How is he doing?" Nika asked.

"Great, I was just doing some research for evolution."

"Would you like to borrow Milotic then?" she offered.

Professor Rowan nodded and headed back into his upstairs lab.

After dinner, the group were given a whistle-top tour of the lab and its grounds by the Professor, Adam and Dominic. By the time they finished it was around eight o'clock in the evening so they bid their farewells with a promise to visit again before they left in two days and headed off on the short journey to Twinleaf Town.

The journey was slow and took longer than expected, so the group stopped off at half-past nine with plans to continue on to Twinleaf in the morning.

Nika and Dawn collected firewood while Ash and Brock set up camp in a clearing to the side of the dirt track. After washing and climbing into bed, Dawn didn't remember anything else as she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

**~**~**

"I'm hungry," Ash whined as they trudged along the path in the unusually muggy heat.

"Ash you ate third helpings of breakfast not half an hour ago."

"But it's lunchtime," he moaned.

"And it you were able to get up at a reasonable time you'd be able to eat them as separate meals."

"Hey!" he protested, "It was Nika who got up late."

"A girl needs her beauty sleep," she said nonchalantly.

"Then you have a lot of catching up to do!" Ash joked, earning him a vicious scowl.

After half-an-hour's more of walking they reached the peaceful sight of Twinleaf on a Sunday. Nika parted ways with Ash, Brock and Dawn and while they headed off to Dawn's home, Nika went to run an errand for her mother.

"I can't believe that by this time tomorrow I'll be on my way back to Pallet!" Ash mused excitedly as they started to wander down Dawn's road.

"You sure are excited about going home and competing in the League," Brock said with a smile.

"I sure can't wait to see Kanto," Dawn added. "And I'll finally get to meet Misty."

"Do you have her present Ash?" Brock asked, giving the younger trainer a knowing look.

"Of course, on adorable Finneon just for Mist!" he said contentedly patting the Net Ball on his belt.

The conversation ended there as a huge red and cream (with a touch of green) blur shot past them and then came to an abrupt halt thirty yards away. Dawn recognised the distant figure as a proud Rapidash and the person on its back as Nika.

"Thought I would take an easy way back," she told them as she dismounted and returned her Fire-type. She joined them at the steps to Dawn's house and together the four of them entered.

"Dawn!" Johanna greeted, stepping out of the lounge to envelope her daughter in a hug. "Good to have you back darling."

"No need to worry mom, I go away again tomorrow," Dawn answered cheerily.

"I know," Johanna said with a sigh, "And I hope you have fun in Kanto."

After greeting Ash and Brock and being introduced to Nika, Johanna left the four to their own devices as she retreated back into the lounge to watch the TV.

They took the opportunity to mooch around in the backyard; Ash started working on Pikachu's attacks, Brock polished his Sudowoodo, Dawn caught up on her tan and Nika sat in the shade after explaining how her pale skin meant she tended to fry to a crisp in the sun.

At around six, the air cooled and the group retreated indoors for dinner and an early night.

The following morning, Dawn's house became a scene of chaos as people dashed left, right and centre while they checked and re-checked their rucksacks and ate breakfast. They were running late for the ferry and after they'd all piled out the house, they had just fifteen minutes to get to the docks before boarding closed.

They said goodbye to Johanna at the house and sprinted through the streets of Twinleaf, skidding around corners and accidentally bumping into several rather disgruntled people.

Brock flashed a sailor the tickets as they sped up the gangplank finally collapsing in a crumpled heap on the deck.

"I can breathe again," Dawn cheered, wheezing.

A foghorn blasted above them as the gangplank came away and the ship started to slowly pull away from Twinleaf. The four rose and started to wave goodbye to the land of Sinnoh. Ash sighed contentedly; his Sinnoh journey may have been over for now, but he still had plenty to look forward to.

Suddenly, there was a joyous cry from Nika and Dawn,

"Watch out Kanto here we come!"