I finally woke up and I wasn't sure why I felt so excited like this day was going to be any different from me previous ones. As I got up I smiled to myself when I figured it wasn't true for I had promised to Candy that I was going to see about this ferry ticket to the Orange Islands that had appeared in my room the other day and of course it didn't bother the fact that some little weird things had been going on because if I ever learned anything about being with Ash it was if it gets weird you got an adventure. Getting out of bed I noticed that Candy wasn't in my room and that worried me but not as much as hearing my Steelix perform a signature "Metal Sound", there is no way this is a coincidence. I quickly got dressed in a T-shirt and some jeans with some jet bl vb8 vbhack shoes as I ran out the front door not sure what I was about to witness and at that moment I had the biggest smile spread across my face then when I saw nurse joy for the first time and that's not a smile I thought I was going to experience again. Candy was fighting Steelix but not exactly throwing blows she was just dodging and many of my geodude placed themselves around the duo as if they where spectators for the sparring match they seemed to have going on. I sat by and watched for a few more minutes before making my presence known by cheering Candy on when she had swift-fully dodged a iron tail with a back flip, Candy turned to me immediately and went into an all fours sprint as she tackled me and I was a little surprised by the action but none the less I nuzzled her forehead to show my affection and how proud I was which earned me a squeal. Steelix slowly made his way behind me to get my attention and I gave it to him gladly and he didn't look to pleased so I had to assume something was up,
"Lix Steel.." he groaned and pointed toward the forest then I felt that once again sense of being watched come over me again.
"so you feel it to? I knew something was up" when I motioned toward the forest a bright red light had shined between us and the forest indicating a pokemon was summoned which lead me further into confusion.
It was a Vaporeon and it looked very nonchalant about what was happening so I braced myself and got on middle of steelix's tail with Candy in my arms, the Geo's began to circle around Steelix getting ready also. A figure in a trench coat appeared from the forest with the seven other familiar Eevee evolution's and one that stood out to me a rather pinkish looking Eevee that didn't look familiar.
"Why are you hiding out here, The strong Leader of the Pewter City gym has looked himself in his home for months without a single battle?" It was true I hadn't been the gym leader sense my brother about four years younger than me had taken over so all I had been doing was training him and cooking most of the time but before I could retort it spoke again.
"I've seen how you train, protect, discipline and perform for awhile now and It seems you have more potential than your friend ever had.
What was his name? I believe he had a Pikachu ..." Trailing off I froze in place as how this random person could know of ash and how I trained my pokemon only the girls he had traveled with along the way and Ash himself knew that I hadn't been leader of the gym because they insisted we stay communicated.
"Maybe the mighty Gym leader I once knew is gone, or perhaps you just need a wake up call" the figure pointed toward us and on cue all the Eeveelutions fired basic attacks at us in a powerful volley but I had this covered from the start.
"Stone Wall!" I shouted as the Geo's and Steelix simultaneously casted protect and iron defense leaving us unharmed from the attack, as I jumped down from Steelix I attempted to confront the figure but then started to notice key features of them. It was a female she had a dark cloak and some tights with well fitted boots.
"There he is, the tactical genius of the Pewter gym, you just needed a little push." she praised me with a smile on her face and at that point Jolteon and Vaporeon rushed me but a moment before they even opened their mouths I heard a faint noise behind me and knew what was coming next.
As I jumped out of the way Steelix had charged, firing a Dragons breath toward them all as it flew it a cone shape my Geo's had all started to Rollout into the attack now covered in Dragon Fire, most of them hit their targets but the others had dodged to the side of the women mastering them.
"You're wasting away out here." She said just loud enough for me to hear but she continued "Someone who chains together attacks and able to teach pokemon things like this just sits in a room all day and night? That is not acceptable" she ended the sentence almost yelling at the top of her lungs as if some sort of strange passion was driving her to say those words. Her pokemon shakily but eventually got up from our attack and made their way to the forest
"If you leave your home ill come and find you, but until then.." she finished walking toward the forest but I was to shocked and to busy trying to process what she had said to retort. I looked down to see Candy glaring at the forest with intent of anger for when she was shaking in my arms she wasn't trembling with fear because she was thrashing with anger at our attacker.
My family had ran toward my yelling and screaming to see if I was ok but I let them know I was ok then just asked for some alone time even though my mother protested against it but after some encouraging words and a warm smile let her know I would handle this. For a while I was pacing across the gym floor because I was actually debating on whether I should take up that women's offer and go to the islands to where I assumed she would be, Steelix and Candy just sat and watched me pace back and forth. They seemed to be talking among-st each other and it looked like steelix knew what I was thinking because he had been with me for the longest and knew what my pacing meant, for it meant I was going through with the idea but not sure how to go about it so I just stopped and started to improvise.
"You two are coming with me and im leaving everyone else at home in case something would happen" I nodded at steelix and he returned the gesture but Candy seemed confused but he seemed to get the idea that she should be clued in to what was going on. I went into the house and grabbed my gear but before I could just leave my parents were at the front door with slight smiles on their faces "We knew this would happen eventually but we weren't sure when" my mother sighed and turned to me dad
"when you would leave and most likely wouldn't be coming back.." he handed me his stash of empty pokeballs and some new work gloves. As for my mom handed me a backpack with one strap that went over my torso and down to my waist.
"Go on before the kids find out" he put a hand on my shoulder and my mom hugged me from behind but I decided to pull them both in one big hug because what if they were right? What if I didn't come back?
Walking out of the house toward the two pokemon I would be taking with me Steelix stood proud and Candy had a look of pride on her face knowing she was coming along to even though she was just a child. There was a river we could take to get to Vermillion city the easier way but I would keep close to the shore in case Steelix needed a rest and I began to feel my ego boost a little more as I thought about Steelix for I had trained him from being an Onix even thought my younger brother Forrest had indeed evolved him but that meant near to nothing at what I taught him over the years for he had been conditioned to withstand water and was completely immune to ice but he much weaker to fire then he normally would be but I felt it was an even trade. Steelix went ahead and lowered himself into the lake with a smile on his face and I smiled along with him as I did say he loved the cold now and got so bothered with hot weather he would dig underground and stay there for most days for that river was ice cold most likely, Candy looked at me and climbed onto my head with her legs over my shoulders as her head was on top of mine but I felt comfortable with it so I let her stay. Getting on top of Steelix I turned to see my Forrest running toward us and I decided to see what it was,
"You almost left and didn't say anything.." he obviously was about to cry but I didn't say anything as he walked up to Steelix and put a hand on him with a frown
"You trained him and raised him all I did was have some gym battles with him and evolved him..you did all the cool stuff like teach his ice beam and dragon breath and that one move you can't do around any buildings" he and I smiled at that last part
"But now you have the others to take off and I might not be around to officially say that I made them as strong as you are" I said with a matter-of-fact tone that got him to smile widely then I continued.
"Take good care of them alright?" He nodded furiously and when I held out my arm for a hug he nearly tackled me off Steelix and Candy grabbed onto my hair to stay seated on my shoulders.
Without a word he ran off and left me with a light brown sash and I quickly wrapped it around my head and told Steelix to make his way down the river and as I left I began to think about the women again because she sounded like someone I knew, black hair a a voice that was once quiet but forced to yell at me hours ago I suppose id find out sooner or later.