Chapter 2:

"My feet hurt, can we take a break," Jenny asked for the third time in ten minutes. They'd been moving all afternoon and it was getting dark.

The truth was, Billy was afraid of stopping, he knew that the second he sat down and relaxed, he'd start thinking hard about his mom and he didn't want to do that. Unfortunately his feet were getting tired too and he sighed, "Yeah sure, let's take a break."

They sat down on the grass between two trees and Billy was glad that the only thing that tried to attack them was a Caterpie that only got one tiny tackle on his Totodile.

They'd been sitting there for about a minute when Jenny started crying, again. Billy wanted to sob as well, but he was now the responsible one, "Shh, it's going to be alright Jenny."

"We're in the middle of nowhere, with a few granola bars and a half drank canteen of water. Our parents are dead, and there are dangerous monsters all around us!" she got progressively louder as she spoke. "How are we going to be alright?!"

Billy sat there in silence for a few seconds and then whispered, "At least we still have each other." He grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her in to his chest. "And I promise, I will protect you," he added as they pulled apart from the hug.

She smiled and nodded, staring into the older boy's eyes. He turned away fast ending the moment and stood up, "Enough rest, we have to keep moving if we want to reach Oldale by morning."

"You mean we're going to keep walking all night?" she gasped already feeling the burn as she stood back up on her feet. "What if we get attacked?"

"Don't worry," he pulled out his pokeball and released his Totodile. "Totodile, walk with us and call out if anything is coming ok?" The small blue creature nodded its head and said its name a few times. Then the group of three started treading through the woods, avoiding any grass that might be hiding smaller pokemon in it, and sneaking past trees with hanging Metapods and Kakunas.

After a few more hours of walking, with the occasional break, they finally saw some light on the other side of the trees. "Look," Jenny let go of her friend's hand and pointed at the clearing. "Come on," she started running forwards.

What if the rumors about the Nimbus are true? "Wait," he shouted at his neighbor who spun to face him. He was going to tell her that they should just sneak around the city which he suspected was Petalburg, and keep on track for Oldale. Before he could say a word though his mouth dropped and he froze in his tracks.

Jenny was looking back at her older friend whose jaw had dropped and tilted her head to the side. He whispered very quietly while cupping his mouth, "Jenny, don't turn around. Move really slow and walk towards me," the girl felt terrified, the expression on the boy's face told it all and even the small blue creature at his feet was taking a few steps back.

Against everything she was feeling, the urge to turn around was too great and she ignored the warnings of her friend. There was a presence directly behind her and it buzzed loud making her stop her hesitation and spin around fast. Wrong move.

"Run!" Billy shouted at Jenny as he ran towards her with his Totodile. She shrieked as the yellow and black bug that was almost as big as she was dove down and swiped with its right drill. "Totodile use leer," Billy commanded and the small blue creature with spikes down its back shot little yellow beams out of his eyes. They connected with the bug's and it stopped attacking Jenny who fell to the ground having been grazed by the attack.

Now the bug targeted them and flew over fast to its attackers. "Use scratch," Billy ordered and his pet jumped up to swipe at the bug but it was faster and swiftly moved out of the way. The boy looked over at the girl who was lying on the floor, unmoving, "Jenny get up." As he turned back he saw Totodile unable to dodge as the Beedrill swooped down and slammed into his spiky pokemon.

"Toto, dile," the creature pulled itself back up to its feet and Billy pulled the pokedex out of his bag and pointed it at his friend. The screen showed things that Billy didn't even know existed and were extremely helpful. Next to his pokemon's name was an almost half empty bar of green with the letters HP next to it. Next to Totodile's name was a number, written out level 6. He pointed the device up at the bug and saw a new reading, it had full green health and said level 11 next to its name.

"Use leer again," Billy shouted as the bug swooped back down. His pokemon glowed yellow eyes and connected with the Beedrill's. The bug type faltered in its next attack and missed the tackle, slamming into the ground instead. "Now use scratch," his Totodile swung out and clawed the yellow bug. He grinned in accomplishment and looked down at the device he had pointed at the monster. Oh no, he miscalculated, even with the leers, the bug was still too strong and only went down a little over a quarter of its health. "Move!" he shouted but Totodile was too slow and the bug swiped it with its right horn.

The bug was angry and swiped again using its fury attack to hit Totodile two more times. His pokemon dropped to the floor and wasn't moving, "Totodile!" Billy shouted but he heard beeping and looked down at the device in his hands. The bar under his friend's name had one small dash of red left and he saw Totodile twitch and start getting back up.

The Beedrill was looking furious and turned towards Billy. He backed up a little, this was the first time he'd ever been in a battle in the wild, he'd only played around will Totodile for fun or to battle a friend in school. Now he was wishing he'd trained his friend a little more and the bug was flying fast at him. He clenched his eyes shut and whispered, "I'm sorry I couldn't protect her."

He waited for the inevitable attack but before the bug struck he heard a shout, "Ursaring, faint attack." His eyes opened and the bug in front of him was frozen as a fist appeared out of nowhere, a huge, furry fist. The punch slammed into the Beedrill and threw it into a nearby tree where it fell to the ground knocked out.

Totodile finally got back over to his master and stood in front of him protectively. Whoever this new attacker was, wouldn't be getting past him. Billy looked down and smiled before hearing a ding sound on the pokedex. He looked down and saw the blue bar on the bottom marked, 'exp,' moving up and stopped past halfway across the screen. Now the level next to Totodile's name read 7 and the health had increased.

"That was a close one kid," Billy shot his eyes up and pocketed the device quickly before the man could notice it. What he saw surprised him and he almost lost his balance and fell to the floor. Sitting with his legs tossed over the monster's shoulders, the man tapped twice on the bear's head and it reached up lowering his master to the ground. "What are you doing out hear in the middle of the night?" The man looked over and saw the little girl lying face down in the dirt and Billy almost slapped himself for forgetting. He sprinted over and kneeled down next to Jenny, shaking her trying to wake her.

"Is she okay? I didn't see much of the battle, all I heard was a shriek and came running." Billy looked back up at the man and actually looked this time. The man was shorter than his father, only about five foot five, and had glasses that he pushed up the bridge of his nose with his right pointer finger.

"I don't know, is there a hospital around here?" Billy asked and immediately realized it was the wrong question.

"Wait, where are you from kid? I assumed you were one of the neighborhood kids," the man seemed to tense up and a second ago he was planning on recalling his Ursaring but now he thought it might be a good idea to keep him out for a little longer.

Billy tried to think fast of a lie that could get him out of this one when he remembered what town he was in. "I'm from Wyrville," the man in front of him tensed up more. The nearby town was neutral but everyone knew they were more leaning towards the enemy. Ceasing all thoughts from the man's mind Billy continued, "The Solars just burned it down. They killed our parents."

The man dropped his guard seeing the cold angry eyes of the twelve year old kid in front of him. "I'm sorry," he nodded over at the girl and his giant bear started moving towards her. It was brown with a big white circle in the middle of its stomach and Billy watched carefully as it walked over to him and his friend. "There is a hospital here, I'm going to have Ursaring take your friend to it. You have to come with me though."

"I'm not leaving her," he said firmly and Totodile growled at the man in front of them.

The man thought about arguing but then shook his head, I'll just bring him to them. "Alright," Billy became nervous at how easily the man gave up, "at least tell me your names."

"What's yours?" the kid asked defensively.

"I'm Tim. Your turn," he looked expectantly at the boy.

He hesitated for another second and then finally let his guard down, Tim seems like a good guy, "My name's William, she's Jenny." He nodded towards the girl and saw the bear reaching down with his giant left claw. "Hey!" the beast grabbed the girl and lifted her up as Billy tried to pull her back down. Instead, the pokemon used its other paw to grasp the boy and held both children against his warm chest as he walked back over to his master. "What are you doing? I can walk," Billy complained as they made their way through the tree line and onto a dirt path that ran alongside some houses.

"I know you can," the man accentuated as they kept walking but suddenly Billy was feeling really comfortable in the bear's arms. "But you've had a long day, just let Ursaring handle things from here." The boy felt like arguing but his eyes were feeling heavy and he yawned, closing his eyes and passing out in the pokemon's arms.

Poor kids, Tim looked towards some of the doorways around him where people were stepping out and looking onto the road where the two were walking past. His pet was a couple feet taller than he was, almost double his height. Some of the people stepping out of the houses had bandages wrapping their arms or legs, some were using crutches to push their doors open. Damn Solars, third town this month. I need to tell Steven as soon as possible.