This is a super long chapter, and I was bored and out of juice when I was writing it, so it's a little weird. :P


Rosebud

We head towards a city, on a large route where we almost bump into a trainer. On the way, I find a pond and take a look at myself. The thorns on my head are pretty huge, after all and I don't think I look as amazing as I did before… I sigh, "I don't think I look as good as a Roselia."

Flare laughs, "Oh, Rosebud, I think you're the same. I don't care about how you look; I only care about… Holy Arceus, that smells like heaven!"

I sniff the air, "What? I don't smell anything…"

"It's so… sweet!" Flare sighs, his head tilting to the right.

Flare promptly falls asleep, right in the middle of the road. I start freaking out, trying to lift Flare somehow, but it turns out that roses aren't exactly the best thing to use when trying to pick somebody up… I finally manage to roll Flare into a ditch on the side of the road, and while I sit there, waiting for him to wake up, I examine my roses some more. The one on my right hand side is purple for some reason, and the other is black. I sit down, trying to figure out why I'm different. I sit down against Flare and poke him a few times. I even poke him with the thorns on my head, but nothing happens. Finally, I decide to whack him on the head with my roses. It's fun, and it also works. Flare jumps up, screaming bloody murder, and I just stand there like, "Ha!"

"Rosebud!" He yells indignantly, "What was that for?"
"You were sleeping, dummy, and we've been losing a lot of sunlight," I answer.

"So why did you wake me up?"

"You never told me what that 'heavenly smell' is, Flare. I really want to know… because I can't smell it," I sigh.

"Hmm…" Flare thinks, "I can't really explain it, but I think I can track down where it's coming from…"

Flare sniffs the air for a while and takes a few steps in my direction, "It's really strong, Rosebud, especially from where you're standing. Huh. I wonder why you can't smell it."

From a far distance, I hear Pokémon and a voice yelling something very loud. I put a rose in Flare's face, silencing him, and with the other rose, point his head in the direction of the yelling, "Flare," I ask, "Can you hear them?"

Flare nods, shaking my roses off of his face, "But they're too far away for me to be able to tell what."

"Let's go check it out," I say.

Flare gasps, "I just realized…"

"What?"

Flare starts to wail, "You're alpha!"
"Flare, that is nothing to be upset about. Someday, hopefully, we'll both be at level 100 and our lives will be complete, and no one will be alpha!"

Flare sighs and I start sneaking towards the sounds of the Pokémon and (probably) trainers. I watch in awe as a bird-like Pokémon with red-orange feathers on the outside of it's wings and gray feathers on the bottom flies around the sky. It has a hooked beak and large talons. Suddenly, my attention is drawn to the trainer on the ground, who yells, "Okay, Talonflame, use Brave Bird on that rock!"

Talonflame? Is that a nickname, or is that the Pokémon species? I recall seeing one of these Pokémon on the truck ride here, and I think I heard the driver saying the word Talonflame, so… that must be the Pokémon species name! Judging from the name alone, I can tell that it's a flying-fire type. I do not want to get mixed up with that… I gulp, crawling back down the hill. Flare appears next to me, "That Pokémon… is really high leveled. I think that's a level 64 Pokémon right there!"

"Seriously?" I breathe, staring at the Talonflame.

"Seriously. That is one awesome Pokémon, Rosebud. Let's not get too close," Flare says.

I nod, and turn my attention solely to the trainer. I can tell that the trainer is a girl, because of the honey-colored hair curled into perfect ringlets and the hot pink dress, but I can't really tell too much about her personality from her back. She screams at the Talonflame, "Talonflame! What the heck was that? That was the worst Brave Bird I've ever seen! How are we supposed to defeat anyone with the weakness?"

Talonflame caws, "Shut up, Serena, I'm a better fighter than you, right? I've never even seen you even try to fight!"

Serena takes out Talonflame's Pokéball and stuffs the Pokémon inside, then she yells at it, "You, Talonflame, shouldn't talk back to me, okay? I'm your trainer, and therefore much better than you!"

The Pokéball shakes in defiance and then goes quiet. Serena stomps away, with Flare and I staring at her back, "That…" Flare says, "is why we're never getting a trainer like that, Rosebud."

I nod when suddenly, a large shadow appears, covering both me and Flare. I read looking up, but I do, and when I do, I see a person wearing a nurse's cap. Her pink hair is tied in a loop and she is wearing a white apron over a short pink dress with puffy sleeves. She bends down trying to pet Flare's head, "Are you two Pokémon lost?" she asks.

We don't say anything; I just stare at her while Flare tries to bite the hand. The nurse lady yelps, "Oh! You two must be wild!"

I stare at her some more before Flare, still growling, tries to attack her. I don't want the lady to get hurt, because I think she could be a good person, so I stick my rose in Flare's face, stopping him mid-leap. Flare falls into a heap, suddenly calm, "Sorry," he mumbles.

"Oh!" The nurse cries. "You can speak! Are you hungry?"

I am about to say no, but my stomach growls before I can say anything. I blush, face turning red. The nurse laughs, "All right, why don't you two come along?"

Flare, who is also pretty hungry, plods along right after the human, who continues to talk, "Oh, where are my manners? My name is Nurse Joy of East Ecto City, and I… why are you looking at me so funny?"

"East Ecto City? What region are we in?" Flare demands.

"I'm sorry, I can't understand what you are saying, Flareon. But I can tell you what region we are in," Nurse Joy says cheerily.

"Thank you," Flare says.

"We are in the beautiful Ecto region, filled with ghosts, both human and Pokémon. However, since there has been a recent swell of trainers searching for ghost types, most of these Pokémon ghosts have been caught, leaving only the humans. Scary, is it not?" She asks, still very cheery.

Flare and I glance at each other. Was this lady possessed by one of these ghosts? I shiver, still following her. We enter a city, which is filled with trainers, all laughing and showing off their Pokémon, and many of them stare at me, or to be more precise, my roses. A little shy of their stares, I try to hide my roses under my arms and Flare helps out by glaring daggers at everybody staring at me, "Thanks, Flare," I murmur.

"It's nothing, Ro," he answers, staring down an especially hardy trainer.

I smile and we enter a building with an orange roof. I stare at some of the posters inside. One advertises for a ghost house in a region called Kalos, another advertises for the Pokémon Tower in the Kanto region, and another advertises for… Hello Skitty creampuffs (um… Poképuffs for humans?). Nurse Joy plops down a bowl of Pokémon food in front of both Flare and I as we seat ourselves on a bench in the far right corner of the building. Nurse Joy says, "This is a Pokémon Center," and then she disappears into a crowd of trainers.

The Pokémon food actually isn't bad, and I gobble up the whole thing. Flare does the same, and Nurse Joy says, "Alright, now here's a Poképuff, donated by a trainer from the Kalos region!"

Nurse Joy sets a Supreme Poképuff in front of us and leaves, "Only one?" Flare asks.

"Only one," I sigh.

"Ladies first, Rosebud. You can have the first bite."

"No, Flare. You can have the first bite."

We argue about this for a while, and finally I say, "Flare, thank you. I will have the first bite."

He changes his mind, "No, actually, I'll have the first bite."

I laugh, "Be my guest, Flare."

I wouldn't have let him have the first bite if he was going to eat the whole thing… Of course, I whacked him on the head and made him apologize, but I was still deprived of my first Poképuff.

Nurse Joy seems to appear out of nowhere, and says, "I'm sorry, you two, for making you choose so late in the day, but I think you two need trainers."
Flare looks like he's going to throw up the Poképuff.

"Trainer?" I sputter, "but.. but… NO WAY!"

Apparently it looks like I am delighted to choose a trainer, because Nurse Joy smiles and says, "Now that's the spirit! There are only three people who will take Flareon, but about… 628 trainers who will take you, Roselia."

I shake my head and hug Flare. Nurse Joy finally realizes that Flare and I have to stick together, and she says, "Aaah, so you two need to stick together. Alright, I'll go make the announcement."

Five minutes later, Nurse Joy comes back, "Well, apparently, a Flareon in there really makes people not want it… Whatever! You still have three people in line!"

I laugh while Flare's tail starts to puff up, "Wow, Flare, you took out 625 trainers! Amazing!"

Flare pushes me off of the bench and the first trainer arrives.

He has glasses and long black hair. When I say long, I mean waist long, and it doesn't even look good. It's greasy, as if he hasn't showered in a long time, and his smell states that, as well. His voice is gravelly and he says, "Heyo. M'name's Corpius and m'favorite Pokémon is Skitty. I have a team of them, but they all won't battle anymore and they won't move. They're weird."

Nurse Joy, who is sitting next to me, whispers, "If any one of you don't like any of these people, you can poke my arm, okay?"

Flare jumps to the other side of Nurse Joy so we can listen to the trainers better. Corpius continues, "I'm really smart and I got 10,000th place in the Ecto Cup out of 10,000 people… and if I had both of you, I think I'd be able to get to…"

Flare and I poke Nurse Joy immediately, who says, "I'm sorry, Corpius, but you must sit down now."

A girl flounces in, and she looks vaguely familiar. She says in a super high pitched voice, "Hi, my name is Serena de Bouffala Francois Nene Arglebarf Jondogz Moofoolila Silverfish. I got ninth place in Battle Besties with my Cherrim, Sylveon, Talonflame and Ponyta. Um… I still have those two empty slots in my Battle Besties team and I'd love it if you'd join it because you'd both make amazing additions to my collection. Oh, did I say collection? Cause I really meant… um… team!"

And then it hits me. That hot pink dress, the honey colored hair! That Serena de Bouffala Francois Nene Arglebarf Jondogz Moofoolila Silverfish girl is the same girl as the Serena we saw on the field today! I poke Nurse Joy repeatedly, and Nurse Joy calls out, "I'm sorry, Miss Serena, but you must sit down now."

Lastly, a girl with jet black hair steps out. She has violet eyes, but she hides one in a curtain of hair. She is wearing knee-high black socks, black high tops, a purple mini skirt, a black tee shirt with a dark angel printed in the middle, and a violet hoodie. She says in a voice just loud enough to be heard, "Hi… my name is Lunaria Knight and I am a Pokémon battler, in my current team I only have the Chikorita I got for my starter, now a Meganium, a Staravia named Star, a traumatized Eevee named Teri, my Ponyta named Flameback and… my Darkrai named Deathwing."

My mouth falls open, "Darkrai?" I squeak.

Lunaria smiles, "Um… I didn't catch him. He was sent to me by my sister, Juliana before she… disappeared in the Kanto region. Deathwing was passed down from my eldest sister, Robyn, from her friend, who apparently died on the journey… The Nurse Joy in Kanto sent me Teri, as well. I still have to go home to give Teri back to Mom…"

Flare pads up to Lunaria and rubs her leg affectionately, and Lunaria bends down to rub his head, "Oh, Flare…"

Flare steps back, surprised, "Oh, I'm sorry, Flareon. It's just… you look exactly like my sister's Flareon, who was named Flare," Lunaria sighs. "He was even about to get married to a Roserade… her name was Rosebud. Rosebud's trainer… Romeria, disappeared with Juliana the same day. They were traveling together. Juliana said so much about Romeria in her postcards. The last one she sent said that she was going to The Pokémon Tower."

I step forwards and Lunaria says, "I think I know your names… You're Flare," she says, gesturing at Flare, and you're… Rosebud… aren't you?"

We nod, and Nurse Joy bursts into applause, "Oh, Lunaria, you have won their hearts! I can tell!"


Yay! You survived! Um...I haven't gotten any comments besides the one from Venusaurite... please comment! :D