The Twelve Pokemon of Christmas

On the fourth day...

It was around ten in the morning when Brock and Joy arrived at the Cerulean Gym. The journey from the Advanced Pokemon Tech school didn't take all that long seeing as it was situated between Viridian and Cerulean City. Misty greeted them in the foyer with a big smile.

"Brock!" she exclaimed happily and gave her old friend a tight.

"Hi Misty..." Brock managed to gasp out, massaging his ribs when she released him. "That's some grip you've got."

She stuck her tongue out at him and moved to greet Nurse Joy. "Hi!" she began, "It's so great to finally meet you. Brock's told me so much about you."

Joy smiled at her. "Oh but Misty, we've already met. Don't you remember me?"

"Err... Um.. Uh..." she stuttered looking to Brock for help. He was occupied with thoroughly inspecting the wall next to him with great interest.

"I believe we met in Viridian City a long time ago." said Joy with a helpful tone.

"Oh yes of course..." said Misty nervously. Joy continued, "And my first cousin actually runs the pokemon centre here."

"Yes, yes, it all makes sense now! Come, let me show you to your rooms!" said Misty, hastily turning and motioning towards the stairs.

"Oh didn't Brock tell you?" said Joy. "I'll be staying with my cousin while we're here to catch up. Our other cousin from Ecruteak City is here as well so it's a bit like a mini reunion. I just stopped by with Brock to say hi and thank you for the tickets."

"Oh it was no problem," said Misty, "Have a nice time!" she added as Joy turned to leave.

"Thanks again Misty!" she waved back. "Bye honey!" she added to Brock.

"See you later!" he called back. They watched her leave for a few moments before Misty turned back and walked up the stairs with Brock trailing behind her.

"So how's the studying been going for you Doc Brock?" asked Misty as they made their way to the many guest rooms. Brock laughed. "Oh it's been great! I can finally graduate next year and get to work."

"Wow that's great!" Misty exclaimed. "Where will you be going next?"

"Well immediately after I graduate, I'm heading back to Pewter City to visit my family and my pokemon and then I'm going to be helping Professor Oak out with all the pokemon at the ranch."

"That sounds good... But what about Joy?" Misty asked curiously.

"They're actually setting up a pokemon centre in Pallet next year so she's going to be transferring there because they need an experienced Nurse to get the place up and running." he explained.

"Well Brock," Misty smiled up at him, "I'm really glad everything is working out for you."

"Thanks Misty. Don't worry, things will work out okay for you too." he grinned. "I'm pretty sure you have nothing to worry about with your Christmas Romeo."

Misty was about to respond when a door suddenly flew open and Tracey jumped out excitedly.

"Hey Brock! I thought I heard your voice!" he practically screamed. 'This feels like deja vu...' thought Misty, shaking her head at Tracey's enthusiasm to see Brock again.

"Hi Tracey! Yeah I'm going to be staying for a while." Brock replied.

'Hmm...' thought Misty as an idea occurred to her. "Hey Brock, you can room with Tracey, there's two beds in there and you guys can bond seeing as you're gonna be colleagues soon."

"Sure I don't mind, we have a lot to catch up on too," said Brock with a wink in Tracey's direction. Tracey however, was looking puzzled, "Colleagues?" he said in confusion, looking at Brock. "Yeah, I'll just leave you boys to it then." she said and left Brock and Tracey to catch up. The two had gotten to be good friends seeing as they had similar personalities. In the meantime, she was going to the pool area to do some training with her new friends.

When she got there however, it appeared that she wouldn't be getting any training done today. She was met with quite the scene. One of the Lapras was giving Lily a ride around the pool while she squealed with joy, Violet was teaching the two Milotic to do some sort of dance it seemed and Daisy, it appeared, was introducing Luverin and Caserin to Piplup, who was regarding the two Luvdisc curiously. She was about to turn and leave her sisters to their devices when the voices of Jessie, James, Meowth and Delibird singing reached her ears. Apparently her sister's heard it too as they halted their activities and rushed over. Tracey and Brock had also decided to make their way down at the same time and so they all waited for the next delivery.

"Oooh!" squealed Jessie as she saw the group. "Our audience is growing! My melodic singing voice and astounding dance moves must be attracting more people!" She clasped her hands to her chest as she no doubt began to envision herself on some great stage in her head.

"Yes... Whatever you say dear," said James while Meowth and Delibird just rolled their eyes.

"Wow!" said Brock. "You really weren't kidding about Team Rocket being reformed!" he said to Misty. That snapped Jessie out of her daydream. "Do you have a problem with that?" she asked menacingly, her hands visibly forming fists as she took a step closer to him. Brock took a brave step back and held up his hands. "No no no of course not! I, er, am looking forward to seeing your performance!"

Jessie smirked but before she could say anything else Meowth stepped in. "Enough already, we gots a job ta do!"

James pulled Jessie back in line before she could lash out again and shot them an apologetic look before motioning to Meowth and Delibird to begin.

"On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me..."

Misty thanked Delibird and let the four pokeballs go. This time she aimed the beams straight at the pool.

"Four Vaporous Vaporeon!" they sang.

The group turned to the pool but there was nothing to see. "Huh?" came the puzzled voices of her sisters. "Don't worry," she reassured her sisters, "They're there all right. Vaporeon have the ability to 'melt' into water. It's a wild adaptation." No sooner had she said that did four blue heads appear on the surface of the pool. "Vaporeon!" they cried happily, clearly enjoying the water. One of them got out, stretched it's smooth body and walked towards Misty to introduce itself. She bent down and stroked it's head and the others got out to join it.

"You seem to know a lot about Vaporeon Misty," said Tracey over her sisters excited chatter. "Yeah of course I do. They've always been my favourite Eeveelution and I've always wanted and Eevee to train." she replied.

"Oh I remember!" added Brock. "I remember you mentioning that when we used to travel but whenever we would come across a stray Eevee, it would turn out to be lost and belonging to someone else like with that kid Mikey and the Battling Eevee Brothers."

Misty rolled her eyes but smiled at the memory. "This is awesome! They look really young and I think they're newly evolved." she said. "I just can't believe it."

"Well," said Brock. "It's pretty clear that this guy really likes you Misty."

"Yeah!" added Tracey. "He's already sent you ten pokemon!"

She looked up at the Delivery Squad who were getting ready to leave again. "You sure you guys can't give me any hints at all?" she pleaded, giving all four of them a desperate look.

"Sorry kid," said Jessie with the tiniest hint of sympathy. "No can do. We have a code to uphold. No James!" she added quickly as she noticed his trembling lip just about bursting to say something. And with that she grabbed his arm and left with Meowth and Delibird waving goodbye.

"Hmm..." began Tracey suddenly as the Vaporeon shot back into the pool to explore their new home. "This is quite a variety of pokemon," the Watcher noted. "Each of the four breeds are from a different region. The only thing they have in common would be that they are Water pokemon."

"Hey, you're right!" said Brock, fully agreeing with him. "Piplup I believe are from the Sinnoh area, Lapras from the Orange Islands. Milotic from Hoenn and now Vaporeon from here in Kanto."

'They're right,' thought Misty. 'Looks like this guy really knows his stuff.' They stood in silence for a while just observing the pokemon playing while Daisy, Violet and Lily ran off to the office.

'I think I should tell Tracey my suspicions and get his input... He might have more evidence for me,' was what was running through Brocks head.

'Hmm... ' thought Tracey, 'I have a strange feeling I might know this guy...'

Meanwhile Misty was trying her hardest to fight off the urge to grin like an idiot and jump up and down like her sisters. It was getting harder for her to fight her genetic predispositions for situations like this and restrained herself until she was in the privacy of her own room to do so.

'I still can't believe this is happening!' she mentally squealed. 'Ho-oh knows why anyone would even like me let alone go to such lengths for me... I just can't wait for tomorrow!'

And so the three of them stood, each too enraptured with their own thoughts, to do anything else for time being...

AN: Well we're a third of the way there! How's it looking so far? Anyone want to guess what the next pokemon is going to be? Oh and a shout out to whoever can tell me another situation where Misty found a lost Eevee! Hmm... My traffic page seems to be frozen because it doesn't correspond to my e-mail... Lets hope it gets fixed soon. Ah well, till tomorrow then!

~DQ