A/N: Haha! Thank you to everyone who read and or reviewed! It really makes me happy to see that my fic is off to such a good start. This was originally one chapter, but I decided to split it up so that it is a bit easier to read. Besides, I think I kept you guys waiting long enough already anyway. The next part will be up eventually; enjoy!

Note, the pokemon in this story still speak "pokemon talk" and are not understood by humans, I just translated all of the speech for ease of writing.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon, just the OC's in this story, who happen to be pokemon.

-000-

We continued down the path of Route 6 at a leisurely pace. Currently, we were resting in the shade of a tree, taking a midday rest. Well, me and Arachne anyway. Slushy was currently floating upside-down in the nearby stream. No, we hadn't murdered him if that was what you were thinking. He was just taking a long, long drink… albeit while bobbing up and down on the waves with his head completely under. Apparently, in order to survive in the warmer climate of spring, he needed to consume huge amounts of water in order to maintain his form. He finally surfaced with a deep gasp.

"Ahhhh… refreshing!" He said in a chipper tone. "I love taking long drinks like that! It is always so entertaining to see the world topsy-turvey through the water… although I always come close to passing-out because I forget I have to breathe…" This guy is just unbelievable… I'm starting to wonder how he had survived at all until this point.

"Come on in, the water is great!" He exclaimed, splashing around a bit.

"No thank you." I'd rather finish my short nap.

"No really, I insist!" He floated over and grabbed me from behind, and flung me into the river. I came back up sputtering and coughing up water.

"What the heck was that for!" I yelled.

"Fun, fun!" He said in reply, now holding a bewildered Arachne in his nubs. "Cannonbaaaaaaall!" He does realize that Arachne is an electric pokemon right?

As he made impact with the water, there was a brilliant flash of yellow static, and then the surface of the water was still. Shortly afterward, Arachne climbed out of the water, her fur now all damp and clingy, and proceeded to violently hiss at the spot where the little Vanillite had touched-down. He floated up not too long after, unconscious and with swirls for eyes.

-000-

We finally made it to the closest human settlement, now a bit soggy and bedraggled. I glared silently at Slushy… I had better not start rusting because of him. Apparently, this place was called Driftveil City. It was a nice place, really rather scenic with the ocean surrounding the area, but unfortunately we were attracting lots of stares. I guess it wasn't every day when a trio of miscellaneous pokemon wandered through town. Arachne and Slushy both seemed a bit nervous, and were sticking closer to me than usual.

"I don't like the look these people are giving us…" Slushy mumbled, for once not hyperactive. Indeed, some of the trainers in the crowd were reaching for their pokeballs. Usually, I wouldn't have minded being captured… but I had set-out on this journey to prove to everyone that I could get stronger by myself and through me alone. I didn't want to lose sight of that goal this early in my journey! Besides… not that I would ever admit it out loud… I kinda felt a little protective of my party. Yes, even Slushy. But only a little.

"Hey Slushy, got any ideas to get them to back off?" A couple of the trainers were starting to get uncomfortably close.

"Oh, oh! I've got one!" Slushy shouted, surprising everyone nearby. He zoomed off through the crowd. What was he up to? He quickly came back with a black marker, a stick and a sheet of discarded paper. He scribbled something onto the piece of paper, stuck the stick through the top, and waved it around like a miniature banner.

Scrawled onto the piece of paper were the extremely poorly written words: "Pleez Do nut Ketch". If I had hands, I would have facepalmed at that moment. With both of my faces.

Well, at least the little banner served its purpose. People were starting to avoid us a bit now… but maybe it was less the flag and more the fact that Slushy was again riding on Arachne's back, while singing at the top of his little lungs the Unovan National Anthem while swinging the banner like a madman. Man this was embarrassing… If I could blush, I would be cherry red right now.

"Huff, huff…" It looked like Slushy was getting a bit winded.

"Man, this job isn't easy!" Slushy said. "Here Arachne, you hold this for a bit." She bit him with Bug Bite again.

Wincing, he said to me: "Here, Farran, I think you should take this one"

"How am I supposed to hold it? I don't even have hands!" I didn't want to be the flag bearer for that ridiculous thing anyway.

"Hmmmm…" Slushy was in deep thought. I didn't even know he had the meager brainpower to achieve that. Hah. I guess he was slightly less stupid than he looked.

"I know!" He said, before jamming the stick of the flag right in between my two gears. "That should do it!"

I couldn't rotate anymore! Without rotation… I would…..lose…..power…..

Everything went black.

When I eventually came to, I found out that Arachne had single-handedly removed the stick, recharged me, and then shocked Slushy once again, into oblivion. I had to remember to thank her sometime for that.

We continued to explore the human settlement a bit. It was really quite big; we could see many points of interest. Although we still attracted stares, I was actually beginning to enjoy myself a little. There was a lighthouse in the distance, a marketplace not too far away, and one of those "Gyms" that I had heard so much about from trainers' pokemon while I was in Chargestone cave… There certainly was a lot to look at. I decided to check-up on my party members. Arachne was following behind closely, and Slushy was… Wait a minute…

Slushy had disappeared all of a sudden. Where had he gone? He was there a second ago…

"Hey guys, look what I found!" I heard a voice in the distance. As I turned around, I saw Slushy dragging what looked like a crate full of jars.

"What is all of that?"

"It's MooMoo Milk! My favorite drink!" Slushy explained.

"MooMoo Milk? Never heard of the stuff."

"It's good!" Slushy said as he downed an entire jar full of the white liquid in one gulp. I took a look at the crate. It could hold about 12 jars… Wait… half of the jars were already empty! I looked at Slushy incredulously. Did he really drink half of the entire crate by himself? Where did he put it all?

Slushy was currently halfway through the 7th jar. He didn't look so well… His eyes were unfocussed and he was wobbling in the air a bit.

"Thisshh shtufff izzz reaaaalllly goooood... " he sang.

Uh oh, he really seemed out of it. "Hey Slushy… You okay?

All of a sudden, he froze-up in midair. He slowly turned to face me. He glared at me in a slightly cock-eyed way and said in a surprisingly demonic voice:

"drink it"

"I'd… I'd rather not…" I was actually a bit terrified at the look he was giving me.

"drink it!"

"No!"

"I SAID DRINK IT NOW!" In a drunken frenzy, screaming like a banshee the entire way, he floated up to me and smashed the opening of the half-empty jar onto my rightside face.

"Grauarhargh!" I admit, the liquid really was quite tasty, but I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I wasn't half drowning in the stuff! Slushy then "staggered" away chanting "One of us! One of us! One of us!"

That's it; he had officially gone off the deep end. I went over to try to talk some sense into him.

"Slushy, snap out of it!

"Never! The power I feel, it is exhilarating! AHAHAHHAHHAHAAAHAHA!" Now he was laughing maniacally like a moron.

All of a sudden, he was covered in electrical silk from top to bottom. "MFMfmffMFMF!" He was being shocked into submission... yet again. How many times was this now?

I looked at Arachne, who was giving me a sort of smug look, giving off that strange laugh-like hiss again. Slushy then passed out, falling to the ground with a thud. He appeared to be sound asleep. Well, at least that bit of craziness was over…

"Thief, THIEF!" I then saw an EXTREMELY pissed looking human lady coming towards us. "You stole all that milk from my shop!" I looked at the snoozing Slushy incredulously. He actually stole that stuff? Great, in addition to being a complete doofus, he was a kleptomaniac.

"You shall all pay!" the human exclaimed. She took out from behind her back… Oh Arceus, was that a SLEDGEHAMMER of all things? This lady had some anger issues!

"Run!" I shouted to Arachne, who was dragging Slushy by the silk tangled around him. We ran away as fast as we could, screaming (and hissing) our heads off… with Slushy blissfully unaware of the trouble he had caused.

A/N: And that is the first half of the Driftveil chapters. Check in next time for the continuation, and thanks for sticking with the story! I'll try to have the next chapter done soon.