Crossy: As promised ;) Xxx

Kai-Kai-chan: back from camp in time for a new chapter XD Xxx

PokePimp: Kynaston is a redhead :P Xx

Catlin P: Here's more! Xx

Edz999: Well, I wouldn't call BW and UW masterpieces but thank you for the compliment Also, I have another account under the name PiercedTimeBomb, so there are more stories on there Xx

Chapter Four

Caroline Cross - AKA Caz, adorable whore and about a dozen other insulting and inventive nicknames I had for her - had been my best friend since school. After a run-in with her asshole parents, she came to Unova to live with her aunt and we made friends instantly. It was a funny story really about the day she started at Nuvema Heights Trainers School in my class.

Mrs Grindstone, the teacher at the time, had this tiny Asian girl with long black curls in a red short Lolita dress standing in front of the class. She looked terrified and utterly miserable, clutching her silver and ruby pendent. Large blue eyes scanned the classroom frightfully.

"Kids," Mrs Grindstone said in the mechanical cheerful tone we had come to expect from a teacher on the edge of a mental breakdown, "we have a new student today. Welcome from Kanto, Caroline Cross."

"Slut!" Jeremy Nichols had insantly shouted from the back of the room, since most of her legs were exposed.

Colour flushed her cheeks as Mrs Grindstone directed her to sit at the desk at the very back in the corner beside the window, the desk beside mind and behind Kerry Michaels. Caz threw me a small, tentative smile as she sat down, shoving her black backpack under the desk and looking wistfully out of the window.

I pulled a page descreetly from my pad as Mrs Grindstone began her lecture on type advantages and disadvantages and scribbled: I hear Kanto is nice. I placed it quickly on her desk and pretended to take notes.

She saw the note, looking curiously surprised, and read it before scribbling a reply and handing it back. The scenery is but it's the people I can't stand. I'm Caroline, by the way, Caroline Cross.

Grinning, replied again. Riley McCabe. I know you're new here but you don't need to worry - I'll help you out. You seem like a nice girl and, well, lets just say there aren't many of those in this shit hole.

She had smiled at me with an adorable innocence that had soon faded as we spent more time together. A week after she started at the school, Kerry and her flunkies were picking on her before class, which I was late for, saying that she was a whore and a tramp with hand-me-down clothes and a ratty backpack. They had even broken her silver chain, which she always wore. Caz and I fought back using our awesome team work and they never bothered her again - I had always been the girl that nobody tried it with or they would get their asses kicked.

At sixteen, just before she turned seventeen, her aunt made her move back to Kanto's Vermillion City. I knew she had started her journey a few weeks before me but we hadn't been in touch very much due to her travelling.

And yet here she was, cocky and gorgeous in a small package backed up with boobs and an ass to be proud of.

"Hey, Riley," she smirked, sauntering over with her usual attitude and hugging me; I embraced her back tightly. "I missed you, girl!"

I grinned. "I missed you, too, Caz," I admitted. "How's my favourite bitch been?"

"I'm good, honey," she smiled, giving me a kiss on the cheek.

"Ohh, yummy," Kynaston grinned, walking over with the twins. His hand swung in an arc and landed with a meaty smacking sound on her ass.

She barely flinched. Instead, she looked at him with those big, alluring blue orbs, smiled and delivered a too-fast roundhouse kick to his midsection - which she had to jump a little to get it. Kynaston doubled over, wheezing, while I laughed hysterically, clutching a howling Nick to stay upright. Everyone was laughing at his failure at copping a feel of my petite best friend. She straightened her T-shirt, which practically rearranged her DD-cups.

"What?" she said, frowning. "I don't like it when people grab my ass."

I grinned at her. "Caz, you haven't changed a bit," I told her.

She smirked. "Come on, you. We need a girly catch up." We linked arms and I led her upstairs to my room. "So, what's with the new look? I'm pissed that you cut off all your gorgeous red hair."

I bit my lip. "Well, there's a story to that," I murmured.

"We have time so tell it," she said, gripping my hand. "You know you can tell me and make sure everything is not censored."

I chuckled. "I met a guy just after I started my journey. His name was N Harmonia."

Her eyes went wide. "You don't mean the N Harmonia?"

I raised a brow. "I wasn't aware he was famous."

"His father is Ghetsis Harmonia - one of the richest men in all the regions! Of course he's famous. Or he was before he died," she said, then grew sad. "Was he a good shag?"

"The very best," I said with a sigh at the memory. "Would you believe me if I told you I fell in love with him?"

She nodded. "I would. He was gorgeous."

"It wasn't just that. I fell for his strength and the loving side of him. There was just one problem. Nicolai Fane, that Pokemon Liberation activist? He was an astral walker and kept invading N's mind. He did the same to Solae once when he was evolving. My friend, Skye Davies, will confirm all of this when I see him tomorrow if you come with me."

She rolled her eyes with a heavy sarcasm. "Riley, you know I'd follow you to the ends of the earth. You're my best friend, for Arceus's sake."

A smile lit my face. "But anyway, Nicolai was the reason N and I weren't good together. I...Caz, I was pregnant when he shot me."

"What?" she screamed. "Are you kidding me?"

"I lost the baby," I told her softly, trying to stay strong and not to cry despite the lump rocketing up my throat with every word. "I lost N, too."

"Tell me everything," she said, "right from the start."

I took a deep breath and released Solae, Osian and Lorne from their Pokeballs.

"Riley, what's wrong?" Osian asked instantly, sitting beside me on the massive ten-sleeper bed. "Is this person bothering you?"

I shook my head. "Boys, come sit with me," I murmured.

Lorne settled against the headboard, dragging me into his lap so he could hold me the closest. Solae snuggled up to the two of us on the right and Osian laid his head in my lap. It was a regular routine for if we were watching a film or something so they knew where to sit and lay.

"Flint," Caz murmured, taking out a Pokeball. "I have a feeling I'm going to need a hug, too."

She released a beautiful Arcanine from the Pokeball. He stood about six-nine, a giant compared to my petite bombshell beauty friend. Cream-coloured hair cut into layers framed a highly masculine face with a smooth, sloping jaw and large, intelligent eyes the colour of kohl. Tanned skin set off a fuzzy cream body warmer and an orange long-sleeved T-shirt that had black streaks on the sleeves. His jeans were also orange with the same black stripes across them. On his forehead, in a style reminiscent of Reno from Final Fantasy, was a pair of goggles.

"This is Flint," Caz introduced him as she sat with him at the other end of the bed. "Flint, this is Riley, Lorne the Serperior, Osian the Vaporeon and, last but not least, Solae the Volcarona."

My boys greeted him with warm smiles as the five of us all settled down for my story. As I told it, Caz made her opinion clear on multiple occasions, right up until the end.

"And Darren was behind things all along," I murmured, stroking Osian's hair gently as he snoozed in my lap. "Nicolai shot me in the chest. I still have the scars. N gave Reshiram and Zekrom his life to save mine but it wasn't enough to save the baby, too. I shot Nicolai and Darren, begging them to save N's life, but it wasn't enough. Then all I remember is waking up in the hospital. Skye had been burned so badly that no amount of skin grafts will help him and he's blind in his right eye now, too. You'll meet him tomorrow and see for yourself."

"Arceus, Riley," she breathed. "I almost wouldn't believe it if it wasn't you telling me this."

Lorne snorted. "Riley told it perfectly," he said, kissing my hair. "When she was dying, all of us were in our Pokeballs, unable to help her because we were dying as well."

"It's true," Solae chimed in. "When Riley was dying, so were we."

Caz frowned deeply and looked up at Flint. "Do you think?"

He nodded and looked at me. "Riley, how deep would you say your bond with your Pokémon goes?" Flint asked, speaking for the first time.

I shrugged. "We're all very in tune with each other," I mused, fluffing Osian's hair a little. "I love all of my boys the same but Lorne, Solae and Osian are best for cuddles. Valerian isn't all that affectionate. Quinn was treated badly by another Trainer. Corbin…well, Corbin is pissing me off lately by trying to pressure me into getting a boyfriend for some weird reason. We're all really close."

"Sometimes, when a Trainer has a literal soul deep bond with their Pokémon," Caz said in a curious tone, "it's said that those Pokémon will, unless they get really sick, die with their Trainer. From what you've said, I reckon you and your boys have that connection."

I raised a brow. "It can't be that rare."

"Oh, it is. Flint and I have it but I don't with the rest of my Pokémon," she said firmly. "You have it with all of yours and that is rarer than a connection with just one like Flint and I."

"How do you know-"

"I had an operation last year," she said, sighing. "I almost died because a stupid doctor cut the wrong thing. Flint said that he felt that he was dying inside his Pokeball when I flat-lined but luckily I was resuscitated. None of my other Pokémon had that."

Now I got it, but I was genuinely too tired to properly think on it. "I'm tired," I yawned, stretching. "How about we get some sleep and drag Skye and Sora shopping tomorrow?"

She grinned. "Dragging guys shopping is just the best." She grabbed one of the two covers on the bed, which happened to be the smaller one because I always slept with at least one of my boys and tonight, I wanted the three cuddling me.

"G'night, Flint," Caz said with what I knew would be a dreamy smile on her face. "Night, Riley, Lorne, Osian and Solae."

"Good night," my boys chorused as I snuggled down. I repeated it to Caz and to them as I buried myself in Lorne's chest like a baby. Solae took up his position against my back and Osian opted for his Pokeball for the night.

I loved just laying between Lorne and Solae, feeling Solae's hotter warmth and Lorne's cooler temperature. That and they were likely to double team me in the morning.