Dusk's eyes slowly blinked open. The sun was scarcely in sight; it couldn't even be 06:00 yet. He turned to one side to see the fire gone, but Wizard still sleeping comfortably. He was worried that the mouse had been out cold for an incredibly long time now, but he told himself that he'd give his friend a few more hours. The other side proved to be more active.
Sitting on the sand with her head turned away, Dawn was quiet, but quite conscious. Dusk noticed that the reason her head was shifted away from him was likely Latias, who was a decent distance away. She had stayed in her human form and was using her convenient arms to hold a seashell up to her ear. The boy heard a pained, tired, but overall genuine giggle come from the young lady next to him.
"So what was worse?" Dusk started sleepily, nipping at Dawn's attention for a moment. "Sleeping on the sand, or on one of the beds at the Pokémon Center?"
Though she gave him an unnoticed smile, she changed her gaze so it was set back on Latias. "Tough call..."
Umbreon pushed himself into a sitting position. He wasn't commonly so alarmed this early in the morning, causing his voice to have an unlikely mix of seriousness and grogginess. "You sound exhausted."
Dawn carefully remained outside eye contact. She lifted her shoulders for a shrug, but they fell back down almost immediately. "It's just the arm that Silver got to. It didn't want me to get as much sleep as I personally wanted to. But, I'll be fine."
"I don't-"
"Umbreon, I still got a few hours of sleep," she stated, turning once more to look at him. Her voice was kept soft, dismissing the possibility that she had gotten mad about the subject. "That's a few hours more than I've had a number of times in my life. Trust me, I've learned to deal with it."
He had no defense. Recalling all of the stories about her that he knew, he couldn't find himself countering that specific point. Instead, he decided to bring up a new topic entirely. "I don't think I ever got around to telling you something last night."
"What is it?" she inquired, not intending to allow him to beat around the bush.
"I assumed last night that we would just head back to Sinnoh when we got Wizard back." The beginning of the tale was already intriguing to Dawn. He knew that her focus was completely on him as he continued. "When we were trying to catch up to Silver, though, Key mentioned that...Dawn, we're not far from Hoenn."
Damia's lack of sufficient rest was already keeping her on the non-talkative side of things, but the last six words seemed to silence her completely. She brought her legs up from resting on the sand and buried her eyes in her knees.
Dusk was aware when somebody wasn't completely sold on a suggestion he had given them; thus, he pitched it harder. "Honestly, we won't need to go any deeper than a single town. Any Pokémon Center we find should be able to help your arm, and I don't know about you, but I'm reminded pretty often that we never got around to dinner last night."
The woman stumbled to her feet. That particular action didn't mean much for Dusk, but when she continued denying him from looking into her eyes, he could predict the words that followed. "I'm...sorry, Umbreon. I know I've only had her for a couple days, but I already miss Ionu like burning. It's already on my conscience that I abandoned the Pokémon that my best friend trusted to me, and going to Hoenn might just...make it worse."
"Of all people, you're worried about May being mad at you?" Dusk hastily shot back.
Whether it was supposed to be a defensive outburst or not, Dawn laughed at the comment. "All right, you got me there. Still...I-I don't know. Could you give me a little while to think about it?"
Umbreon figured it was about time he rose to his feet as well. His posture remained strong, despite being awake for only minutes now. "Can't say I'm going far."
Dawn chuckled to herself before beginning a walk towards Latias. The slow rate of her steps proved that, no matter how hard she wanted to deny it, her disturbed slumber had taken its toll on her awareness. While she was staggering away, Dusk leaned over to get a hold of Wizard. "...We need something that's going to wake you up," he decided after a moment of staring into the mouse's closed eyes.
-OAM-
Latias gasped as two arms unexpectedly wrapped around her. Her first instinct was to remove the tangling ligaments, but as she was about to physically strike them, she noticed whose they were.
"Good morning, Latias!" Dawn exclaimed with a touch of enthusiasm, oblivious to the near-pounding. "Did you get enough sleep?"
Latias's heart rate increased. As she heard Dawn's voice, all she could think about was that meaningless kiss. Forcing the thought away, she shakily nodded her head.
Having been buried in the dragon's back, Dawn finally peeked over her shoulder. "What have you been doing over-oh!"
Using nothing but her index finger, Latias had made a drawing in the sand that actually resembled ancient hieroglyphics. Instead of creating sentences, however, there were just two pictures: a Latias, and a Latios. Considering she was working with sand, the detail she had managed to create was incredible.
"That's so cute..." Dawn noted, still attached tightly to her mute friend. Having a lively, if not one-sided conversation was proving to assist with her tiredness. "Is that your Prince Charming?"
Latias paused, then quickly shook her head.
"Oh, um...Is that a Latios you know, then?"
Instead of side to side, her head craned up and down. She got down on her knees, breaking Dawn's hold on her, and continued the drawing.
It wasn't hard to tell she was rushing so she could get the story to her friend quickly. Close to the Latios, she drew four stick figure humans. Afterwards, she drew a circle around Latios, then attached it to one of the stick figure's arms, almost like an odd quote bubble.
Dawn eventually came to the realization of what it was supposed to be. Her tone fittingly quieted. "Oh...Did Latios...get taken away from you?"
Latias solemnly nodded her head. No certain emotion was very strong on her face.
Having once been broken, Dawn touched the ground with a knee and reinitiated the grip around Latias' mid-section. "I'm so sorry, Latias...I know what it's like to have someone you love get taken away from you right in front of your eyes. It really hurts, but you're doing an awesome job of recovering from it. Time will heal all wounds, eventually. Hey, uhm..." Dawn pulled out of the one-sided hug and set a hand on her friend's shoulder, urging her to face her. "Latias, I'm sorry if I'm talking about something that upsets you, but...If you feel that there's hope, I'll devote everything I can into helping you get Latios back, oka-"
Dawn couldn't even finish her sentence before getting hugged even tighter than she had been hugging; having non-numb and uninjured arms allowed Latias to do that. She nuzzled into Dawn's chest.
She closed her eyes and rubbed the legendary Pokémon in-disguise on her back. "Do you want to talk about it more right now?"
Latias broke away and nodded her head. She squatted down to her masterpiece and began drawing even more, though they were just small details like the sun and mountains.
"How long has it been since you've seen Latios?"
Latias lifted an open hand up. She began counting her fingers, one by one. When she counted five, she showed her hand to Dawn.
"Five? Five years?"
She nodded.
Even when she was wide awake, Dawn never thought it would be so easy to receive answers from somebody not allowed to say a word. Her inner curiosity only went on to continue destroying the remnants of exhaustion. "How old are you?"
Once more, she had to count out five; it wasn't enough, however, so she moved to another hand. This seemed to cause her confusion, as it took her longer to answer. Thinking the circumstances were overpoweringly cute, Dawn couldn't help a reserved smile. Finally, she showed Dawn two hands, one wide open, the other one with the index finger raised.
"...Six?" Dawn blinked. "You're...only six years old?"
Latias joyfully nodded, then returned to her painting. She sat down in the sand to get a little closer to the artwork.
Despite her eyes watching the Pokémon interact with the grain, her focus was elsewhere. "She's so young..." was all she could think. Once she realized she was dwelling on the thought for too long, she shook her head. "A-anyway, where were you five years ago? When Latios was taken away?"
She shifted her position and silently pointed in the last direction Dawn really wanted her to.
"North..." She sighed. "...Hoenn."
Latias recognized the name and immediately nodded her head.
Dawn took a seat next to her, though she made sure not to destroy any of the sand drawing. "Umbreon wants to go to Hoenn, too..."
Like a tripwire being activated, Latias jerked her head to Dawn. Her expression showed little emotion, though there was little but ecstasy inside.
Dawn formed a defeated grin. "Guess you want to go back too, huh?"
An eccentric nod.
"I didn't tell Umbreon this, but I really want to go to Hoenn too...I'd do anything to see two of my old friends. But when Umbreon called you yesterday, we had to leave in a hurry, as you know, and I was sorta forced to leave a really close friend behind..."
Latias pointed south. Sinnoh. A sad but understanding smile made her face a bittersweet thing to look at.
Dawn smiled back at her for a moment, then shook her head. "What can I say? I literally just promised you that I'd help you at least try to get Latios back, and I'm going to. I don't break promises to anyone, and especially not to you. Really, I can just call Ionu from there, and she'll understand." There was a smirk as Dawn's mind drifted off to the Torchic's personality. "She'll probably throw a temper tantrum, but she'll understand," she finished light-heartedly.
Latias jumped to her feet. She tugged at Dawn's cut arm, not knowing any better that it would cause pain.
It was felt, but no word was said about the hurt. "You want to leave right now? Are you sure? Are you rested enough?"
Latias nodded her head thrice, either to add extra effect, or to answer all three of her questions.
Dawn forced a smile. "...Well, all right. Let's go tell Umbreon-" She turned her head to look in the direction she had left him in. Nothing but the pile of burned sticks remained. "On second thought, we might need to find him first."
-OAM-
"Congratulations, Wizard. You officially broke my sleeping record."
The mouse's eyes slowly opened. Nothing short of utterly confused, and maybe just a little bit weak, he looked around his surroundings to see where he was. The only thing he saw was a dense jungle without any sign of his Co-Trainer.
"Truth be told, I don't feel like running through everything right now. Here's just a few key things you might need to know. It's about twelve hours from the last time you remember. We're on an island more than half way to Hoenn. Ionu is still back in Sinnoh. Finally, I'm pretty close to starving to death. Besides that, you should be able to wing most of it yourself."
"Pikachu."
"Here. We came across a few trees, so I picked some Berries for you. Don't know if they're poisonous to humans or not, and I don't intend to be the one to test it." Dusk raised Wizard up to his shoulder, then handed him some blue-colored Berries that were in the opposite hand. "You're lucky. I'm starving, so you better enjoy them."
"Pikachu..." Wizard happily began nibbling on one of them.
"...Bun?"
The mouse's sensitive ears twitched. Umbreon, however, continued unaffected by the almost soundless cry. "Can't believe we're so close to Hoenn...I suppose I can't blame Dawn for wanting to go back to Sinnoh, but a short detour wouldn't kill her. Wonder where Brendan and May are."
"Pika, Pikachu!" he cheerfully yelped, still contently nibbling on a Berry. "Ka Pikachu pi, ka."
"You know where they are?" he asked with a slight hint of doubt. "They seriously told an electric mouse where they live before they told us," was stated, though it was meant to be a question.
Wizard shrugged. He would have responded, but his mouth was occupied with the berry.
There was silence; there wasn't much more about the topic that needed talking about. As the Pikachu continued dining on his feast, Dusk realized that not talking only made his empty stomach more noticeable.
"Hey, Wizard, tell me if you think this is a bad fan fiction or not. There's this girl, right? And she has, like, seventeen-"
"BUN, BUNEARY!"
Out of the area just a little southwest from nowhere, a brown missile kicked Umbreon dead in the center of his spine. He was sent flying forward almost seven feet, by the time he finished rolling on the ground. Wizard obviously couldn't keep his balance under the circumstances, and had crashed into the ground right at the site of the impact. The Berry he was eating splattered on the dirty grass next to him. He instantly hopped up to his feet, balled his hands into fists, and prepared to scold something fierce for his meal being ruined. And nearly killing his Trainer, too. But the meal was what came to mind first. The target, however, threw him off guard, and no words escaped his mouth.
The creature was obviously doing everything she could to avoid looking into Wizard's eyes. She rubbed her foot on the ground. "...Buneary, bun..." she whispered shyly.
"...Pikachu?"
"Buuuneary, Buneary bun. Buneary...?"
Wizard put his hand behind his head and chuckled. "Pika, Pikachu."
The rabbit instantly jerked her entire body toward him. Any amount of bashfulness was instantly dispelled. "BUNEARY?"
He gulped. "...Pika."
Dusk, agony now circulating through-out his body, gradually recovered. Groaning, he turned his head upwards to see what had nailed him, but instantly fell silent upon seeing the seemingly-innocent criminal. He began paying attention to the conversation, though he could obviously only understand things from Wizard's point of view.
She began pounding her foot into the ground constantly. "Bun eary! Bun eary! Bun eary! Bun eary!"
Sparks began voluntarily discharging from Wizard's cheeks. "Pika, Pikachu pika pi! Chu, Pikachu chaa!
"A fool will mock Ionu in front of Wizard," Dusk mentally noted, providing the commentary for himself. He was still laying on the ground, just with his arms propping his head up. He was actually as comfortable as one could be laying on the dirt.
"Neary." She stuck her tongue out at Wizard. Disinterested now, she turned and walked away.
"Pika...Pikachu..."
Dusk chuckled to himself. He began getting to his feet. "Well, Wizard, I'd say that-"
"PIKA!" Minus that warning, Wizard completely blind-sided the Buneary. He lunged at her, pinning her to the ground.
Wizard was on top. All four of his paws were on the ground inches away from Buneary's own ligaments. She was stuck to the floor and had no way of escaping. Wilder sparks started blowing out as Wizard tilted his head upwards. He stared Buneary down his nose. Even his sub-conscious mind wondered if she saw the devil in his eyes, since she seemed to be quite appalled over this. The thought didn't stop him for long, though. "Pika. Pikachu pika, chu pi, Pikachu. Ka?"
She nervously nodded her head. "...Bun..."
Dusk bolted onto the scene. He immediately got Wizard off of Buneary and kept a firm grip on him. "Okay then! Isn't this educational for youth everywhere? Wizard...Guys, c'mon, can we call a truce?"
Buneary got to her feet and hopped down the unpaved trail farther. Shortly before Dusk released his breath of relief, she turned her head to the duo, once again stuck her tongue out, and spanked herself. "Buneary, bun!"
Wizard's teeth showed. He instantly broke out of his Trainer's hold and darted towards the instigator faster than he'd ever ran before.
Dusk sighed and slowly followed. As he stashed his hands into his pockets, his thoughts drifted to how badly he'd been tricked regarding the sereneness of the Pokémon world. If it wasn't extremist terrorist groups, it was, apparently, jealous rabbits.
His disinterested pace made him late for the party, even though he didn't care. He knew he couldn't do anything to stop these two from going at it anymore, so there wasn't a point in bothering.
Wizard had Buneary handcuffed once again. This time, the intimidation tactic didn't seem to work as well. Smirking shamelessly, she brought her feet up and kicked Wizard clean off of her. He went flying through the air, eventually landing painfully back on the grass. He quickly rolled over and got back on all fours.
So he did slightly underestimate her; that wasn't going to change much. Wizard charged at her with a Quick Attack, but purposely didn't connect it. Instead, he leapt over her head. By the time she turned around, Buneary found herself in a complete circle of Wizard clones. She didn't have a second to react, as all the Pikachu Skull Bashed into her at once. Of course, only the real Wizard's attack had any effect, so she was sent flying northwestward. The clones dispersed, and Wizard got down on all fours again.
"Neary, Buneary..." she granted. Though she hit a tree, hardly any damage was inflicted by it. Instead, she kicked off of it and used the momentum to reverse direction and fly towards Wizard, still in the air. Deciding to see how his own trick worked on him, the fur-covered foot that was threatening a dangerous kick was knowingly unreleased. She landed on the ground inches behind Wizard and immediately mule-kicked him into the same tree. While he was sliding down the rough bark, Buneary took the opportunity to leap an amazing distance into the air. However, it was a straight vertical rise; she was making no movements toward Wizard whatsoever.
Dusk was leaning on a tree, not too far off in the distance. With his arms folded, he was watching the scene in quite a bit of amusement. He couldn't blame Wizard for wanting to set the Buneary straight, but it was still humorously ironic how she was giving him quite a run for his money.
Buneary was finally coming back into view. It was seconds until she crashed when something rather unexpected happened. She landed in the same exact spot she had jumped from, but a series of rocks and clods of dirt rose out of the ground in a completely unnatural way, directly straight ahead from where she was standing. The massive attack didn't stop until it hit Wizard, who was sent flying into the air at an incredible rate of speed.
Dusk's mind followed the mouse up. His arms broke apart. He stared at the still-smirking Buneary in a state of absolute shock. Though he whipped his Pokédex out to confirm it, he was already mostly positive of the answer. "Was that...Earthquake?"
Just as predicted, the machine built for the sole purpose of accurate details about Pokémon failed to list Earthquake as a move that this particular Normal-type should know.
Wizard came tumbling back down, not quite as safely as Buneary had. He face planted into the ground, but still refused to give up. He pushed as hard as he could against Mother Nature's floor until he was back up on all of his paws. He shot Buneary with a weak glare. "Pika...Pikachu, pika Pika pi!"
She cocked her head to the side in confusion. "...Buneary?"
"Ka, Pika..."
Buneary lazily shook her head. "Buneary."
"PIKACHU!"
Without even giving himself a proper warning, an intense bolt of electricity broke out of Wizard's cheeks. The target was the unprepared bunny. Even though the attack was quick, it was unnaturally powerful. She fell to her knees, then bowed before Wizard completely.
The mouse frowned. That attack had actually been accidental; he didn't mean to hit her with that much voltage. He took two steps forward to make sure she was okay, but stopped when a red- and white-colored sphere went whirring past him. He jerked his head around to see his Trainer walking towards him.
When he reached the battlefield, Dusk picked up the successfully-used item and looked at it. "Wizard...That's quite a girlfriend you managed to find."
"Pika, pik-" He froze. "...PIKACHU! Pika pi Pikachu!"
"Hey, it's better to be a player than to be played. Let's get back to Dawn." Knowing she was too tired to do anything, Dusk set his new partner's Pokéball in its rightful place- right next to Moonite's. "I'm still hungry."
Wizard looked back down the trail. The poor blue Berry juice could still be seen splattered on the ground. He sighed. "...Pika."
-OAM-
Dawn and Latias had looked around the beach for only five minutes. When they finally decided that Umbreon must have wandered into the forest, they decided to just wait for him; going in after him might only make the situation worse, and that aside, Dawn would have to protect her sensitive arm from every tiny twig and insect.
Thinking about that very thing, Dawn sighed. "I really need to get my arm wrapped..." she explained to Latias while walking along the shoreline. "I don't want it to get infected or something. Besides, it hurts just getting a bit of wind into it..." She waved it around mindlessly for a moment. "That Silver jerk...I'd be doing just fine if it wasn't for him..." She tilted her head upwards and sniffled. "...Mama would kill me if she knew I kept an open sore vulnerable for so long like this."
Latias sunk her own head.
"Oh, Latias..." Dawn gave a thoughtful frown. "I really want you to stop blaming yourself for me getting injured. You doing that's starting to make me feel pretty bad! I'm so thankful for the way last night turned out. Latias, I could have died, but because of you, I didn't."
Latias jerked her head to Dawn and shook her head. Gently, she put her hands on Dawn's injured arm.
It made the girl's head turn toward it. Even when she translated the unspoken message, her gaze didn't waver away from it. "Y-yeah, I know I got injured there...But if I had to pick between the injury Silver gave me, and the one he almost gave me, I would go with this one!"
Latias closed her eyes and shook her head. Those forced, peppy words didn't mean much to her, but she had no way to speak counterpoints.
An unexpected interruption came in the form of a plot of fur suddenly rubbing itself against Dawn's leg. She was startled greatly at first, but all it took was a quick spin of her head and a look down to replace that with a beaming expression. "Wizard!"
Dawn was about to bend down to get a hold of the creature, but her six-year-old friend beat her to it. She raced around, picked Wizard up into her arms, and gave him an affectionate, if not tight squeeze.
Both Wizard and his Co-Trainer shared equal surprise in the girl's interest in the rodent. After a few sniffs to confirm her scent, however, the Electric-type recognized it from somewhere. That was plenty good enough for him, and he dove in to return the hug with a perky, "Piika!"
Dawn reached her arm out to scrub the backside of Wizard's head. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted her human companion approaching, but still addressed the mouse first. "I hope you enjoyed your nap."
"Chuuu..." was the muttered reply.
"Never a dull day anymore," Dusk said matter-of-factly, taking a break from walking now that he was well within earshot.
Dawn looked up to him with a smirk. "You keep Wizard around, and you want a dull day? Have fun with that one."
Any sign of finding humor in the non-offensive sarcasm was quickly dropped and replaced by a pensive stare at the body of water. "So. Is it back to Sinnoh, then?"
In spite of a part of her knowing she shouldn't, Dawn showed reluctance with a sigh. The act drove caution into Latias, who was aware of what Dawn had promised. Nonetheless, she hesitantly answered, "N-nah. I've been thinking about it, and it does make sense to go to Hoenn for now. We could really use some supplies."
This time, Dusk and Latias shared a glance with each other. Neither one said a word.
"If we're going, we shouldn't wait too long, though. Are you ready, Latias?"
The dragon glanced at Dusk one more time before showing off her true form. With a youthful cry, the mythical dragon lowered herself close to the ground. Any who wanted to take their only ride off of this island was to board now.
Umbreon was quietly staring at Dawn's cut-up ligament. She'd noticed the intruding watch, but unsuccessfully tried to keep her mind off of it by hopping on top of Latias.
"That arm is going to drive you insane while we're flying."
"Tell me something I don't know..." she stated lowly, not proud of the fear that was in her voice. "If I hide it behind you, maybe it won't hurt as much."
Hardly being intelligent in a department like this, Dusk thought the plan sounded reasonable enough. He grabbed hold of the proverbial reigns by hopping atop the Eon Pokémon in front of Dawn. Naturally, Wizard bounded for the space between the two. He was aware of how fast their living transport could fly; he also knew that unless he was surrounded on nearly every side, his tiny arms weren't going to do anything to keep him attached while going at those high speeds. Once surrounded by both of his masters, he felt much more confident.
Almost like a train blaring its horn before departing, so did Latias screech before takeoff. Overflowing with motivation, she lifted herself up until they could look down and see the top of the trees. Accomplishing that swiftly, she likewise wasted no time firing off like a missile northbound. The extra weight of two humans and a Pikachu didn't have any effect on her mood; she commonly weaved side to side for no other reason than her own amusement.
The trip failed to be called "fun" by everyone onboard. Virtually looking right at her, Wizard could see Dawn's face as she tried hiding her injured arm inside of Dusk's vest.
The effort was doing almost nothing. Breaking the airborne speed limit caused unpreventable wind to somehow constantly find her arm. They were only a few seconds into the ride, and tears were almost the only thing that Wizard saw on Dawn's face. The pain of the barraging wind was too much, or so the Pokémon thought.
As he broke open his mouth in an attempt to scream, Dawn did nearly the opposite. Using her opposite hand, she lifted an index finger to her mouth, wordlessly silencing him. Seeing his Trainer in so much physical pain, but then being silenced to say a word about it, could only bring drops of water to Wizard's eyes as well.
Dawn's solution was to prevent him from seeing her at all. Her numb arm reached around and gave him a one-arm hug.
With his head pushed right up against her body, Wizard could no longer witness Dawn in pain. That didn't necessarily make things right, but as far as Dawn was concerned, it made things better for the moment. All she was left to be thankful for was that the hurricane-like wind prevented either Trainer from needing to hear their Pikachu's rare, but often serious crying.
