Yaaay! This chapter only took thirty days! I'm improving! And I foresee being more interested in what I'm writing from now on, not to mention being better prepared before starting each chapter.
This summer, rather than binge on amateur writing on the internet, I raided the young adult section of the public library for reading material, along with conquering The Lord of the Rings, and I hope it shows in a writing improvement. Incidentally, I would highly recommend the books The False Princess by Eilis O'Neal, Heroes of the Valley by Jonathan Stroud, and The Lighthouse Land by Adrian McKinty, just in case anyone needs some summer reading.
Anyway, onto something more relevant. I looked through all my planning for the other regions recently, and noticed that I either gave really stupid names or no names at all to several characters. Specifically, I'm looking for names for the rival in Johto, the rival in Kanto, the main character (male, female, or both) in Johto, an alternate name for Wally, and the female protagonist in Unova. If anyone could provide me with ideas for names, I'd be very, very grateful.
PeterPokéfreak thanks the Nameless God, the Heroes, and the Sun and Moon Gods, for the ability to publish and improve this chapter.
The next morning dawned over the Coronet Range with no sign of rabid fans having found Daniel's lodgings. Daniel viewed this with appreciation, along with the light drizzle. While he held little hope that the citizens of Sinnoh's very wet west coast would be kept in by such conditions, it would affect visibility and hopefully get them out of the city unnoticed.
Moments later, Geodude pounced on its Owner, who shot up with a yelp. "What was that for?" Markus asked the rock, who blinked innocently and pointed out at the brightening sky. "Yes, it's morning," agreed Markus, irate, "but did you really have to jump right there?"
"I may have inadvertently taught her the weak points of human anatomy while removing her from your chest last night," Daniel mused, pulling on a shirt on the other side of the room.
"Yeah, thanks for that. Wait, Geodude's a girl?" Markus attempted to rake a hand through his frankly ridiculous blond bedhead, but he only succeeded in catching several of the knots in his fingers. After painful removal of his digits from his scalp, Markus looked at Alexa's bed. "Lexa. Up. Now," the boy commanded the pile of blankets, pillows, and Pokémon on the corner bed.
A low grunt came out of the pile. "Attack," Alexa told her piled Pokémon, not yet articulate enough for more complex commands. From their vantage points swaddled among the blankets, the Pokémon leaped into action. Iceberg blew a large, shimmering bubble, which Shinx filled with static and Starly sent barrelling towards Markus.
A while later, Markus exited the washroom, towelling himself dry and trying to control the sparks leaping joyously through his hair. "Some things are better left sleeping," he observed.
"Snorlax Girl shows no signs of moving," Daniel updated Markus. A disembodied growl escaped from the mound. "In that case, I'll just go ahead and call your mother up without your input," Daniel said reasonably, as if Alexa was conscious enough for true sentences.
Grumbling, Alexa extricated herself from her heap of warmth and stumbled into the washroom.
"And I thought Candice was bad in the morning," said Daniel drily. With this sentiment, he pulled out his comscreen from his bag to wake up his family.
As the call went through, Daniel moved in front of the window. He knew exactly who would have to answer, especially at this time of day, and he knew exactly what their reaction would be to the light outside.
The screen lit up with a face. "Good morning, brother, how are- keeeeeh!" Candice, her sleepy face appearing from all the way in Snowpoint City, screeched at the light. In Snowpoint, it was not yet dawn, conveniently enough.
"Guess where I am," Daniel said as Candice calmed down.
The girl pouted, her blue eyes crinkling. "You're somewhere warm, and wet, and growing. That's all I have to know, and you don't have to rub it in my face." She sat down, laid her comscreen on a table, and started braiding her frizzy black hair.
"I'm in Jubilife City," Candice moaned, "I was accosted by fans last night," Candice growled, "and I'm with some new trainers." Candice made a sound of sympathy.
"Bet you wished you'd stayed in Snowpoint now, huh, Brother?" Candice attempted to jeer. "You never did like crowds. I suppose they threw themselves at your feet and pleaded with you to sign their chests?"
Candice, notoriously, was a great follower of trends. With a smirk, she pulled up an image that had been posted on the e-network of Daniel surrounded by fans in the middle of the street. Behind the image document, there appeared to be an entire file of embarrassing pictures.
Daniel looked at the picture for a moment. "Honestly? You couldn't find anything from a better angle?" he pointed out. "And you wish you were in my place. I can tell. Trust me, it's not as fun as your friends make it seem. Where's Mother?"
"On her way down the hall. Good morning, Mother!" Candice called in the opposite direction. "Daniel's screening."
A disaffected "Oh," was the only response. Celine scooted by in the upper corner of the image and disappeared, presumably to consume something caffeinated.
"So, explain something to me," Candice pressed her brother. "Why, exactly, are you being permitted to travel in-" Daniel mashed the mute button and called up a keyboard. For a moment, the young Leader's mouth kept moving, then she saw the mute symbol in the corner of the screen and glared.
"Not in front of them," Daniel typed. Candice read the message; then stuck out her muted tongue at the screen.
"Fine," she sent back. "But we'll talk later."
"Mother. Now."
"Fiiiiiine." With exactly that many I's, too. With an eloquent eye roll, Candice placed the comscreen in her mother's hands as she arrived at the table.
Celine, her frosted gray hair already curled to perfection, came into view, a steaming mug of tea in front of her. As soon as Daniel hit the mute button again, she spoke, "How is Veronica?"
Celine, the matriarch of the leaders of Snowpoint, made a point of keeping in touch with current political situation between the Gym Leaders. Currently, Daniel was her informant. "Veronica is a little harried," admitted Daniel. "She's facing some trouble at the moment, which I've warned you about before. She's handling it surprisingly well." Daniel had been utterly unsurprised at Veronica's admittance that she had had no counterplan ready for the crime wave, but he was surprised at her prompt action against it.
"Poor girl," Celine sighed. "She has no relations with any experience in this. It's strange how Jubilife handles the succession of Leaders, isn't it?" Celine's father, grandmother, great-grandmother, great-great-grandfather, and so forth as far back as anyone could remember had always held the title of Snowpoint Gym Leader. While technically not hereditary according to official rules, it may as well have been.
Markus sat on his bed and listened as Daniel and Celine debated back and forth about the merits of the different systems of leader selection.
"They have no support system," Celine complained mildly. "Usually there's a falling out with their Declined predecessor, leaving them alone with no one for assistance."
Daniel resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. "It proves their ability, even if they go into Decline after a while. With the huge population in Jubilife, they more or less need a young, strong Leader who gets replaced every so often."
Celine frowned, her brow crinkling ever so slightly. "Hmph," she said to herself after a moment. "Very well, you have a point. I don't claim to know or understand all the customs so far south, but proof of prowess isn't so necessary for us." The woman provided Daniel with a meaningful look over the top of her mug as she took a sip of tea.
Daniel's face, which had been smirking slightly at the admission of his superior argument, instantly collapsed into an impassive wall. "Yes, Mother, I know," he said flatly.
Now Celine looked smug, while Markus studiously appeared to not be eavesdropping across the room. "Very well," Celine said, a creature with her victim totally under control. "I'm glad you understand that. You are dismissed, but I suppose your sister has something to say to you." Celine looked up and across the table at what was presumably Candice's imploring face, sliding the comscreen to her.
"Candice, now? Really?" Daniel had been in the 'discussion' that was about to follow a few times before, and knew what was coming.
Candice continued to look at the comscreen with a pitiful pout. "Please come back home soon," she started, sounding incredibly contrite. "You're not the only one who wants to travel."
"You could always leave Mother in control of the Gym," Daniel suggested half-heartedly.
"No." Celine, as most people knew, had taken her turn as Gym Leader and would allow nothing to put her back in that position now. She was well and truly retired, and barked at any who questioned it.
Candice said nothing, only continued to give Daniel the Sad Snubbull Stare until Daniel broke the silence.
"Where's Luke?"
Candice switched to her Gyarados Pout. "You know him," she said, with a huff. "He never gets up before dawn; you should have called later."
"Then you would have been up at the Gym," Daniel pointed out, calm.
With her one unnamed and very, very unimpressed face, Candice poked the End Call button, just as Alexa came out of the bathroom.
"Great! I don't have to be the only one pretending not to listen!" Markus cheered. Now that the call was done, he had no qualms at all with pointing out his eavesdropping. Daniel showed no signs that he cared.
Alexa ignored her friend. Now fully awake, she wanted to get going as soon as possible rather than sitting around. "What was that about calling my mom?" she asked Daniel, plopping down on her bed alongside yawning Pokémon and leaving Markus to scramble over to join her.
"I'm supposed to keep her up to date on where we are and what you're doing," Daniel explained. "I'd rather not do it myself, since Solidad can be rather overbearing when it comes to you." And even more so when it came to Ben, Alexa added mentally. Alexa was the 'adult' now, and forceful, but Ben was the fragile littler sibling.
Daniel handed over the comscreen and surveyed the city outside the window again. "When you're done talking, we're leaving as fast as we can, before anyone can swarm me."
While Daniel and Alexa talked, Markus very slowly reached over and placed his index finger over the nape of Alexa's neck. The resulting static shock finally stopped Markus's hair from waving in the air like a separate entity, and Alexa yelped at the electrical current.
"There. Now I have my reve-" Markus's gloat was interrupted as Alexa poked him on the side of his chest and ignored his screeching. She called home.
Solidad appeared after just a moment, sitting up in her bed alongside her E-Book, presumably reading by the soft cloudy light streaming in the nearby window. "You guys made good time to Jubilife," she pointed out in place of a greeting. "Is Daniel there?"
Daniel, who was packing up the small amount of clothing he'd taken out of his pack and making the beds, spoke from across the room, "I know about the pictures, Solidad. There's no need to taunt me with them."
Solidad smirked at the screen. "I'm seriously out of practice in the taunting and blackmail department anyway, so it doesn't really matter." Fisher the Slowbro, who slept on Solidad's bed with her, finally realized what was going on and slowly stuck his head into view, waving to Alexa.
"Yes, Mom, we're perfectly safe. Thanks for asking." Solidad was in a playful mood today, and wasn't exactly likely to concentrate on much at this time in the morning anyway. "Ben's not up yet, right?"
"If Ben were up, I wouldn't be in bed," Solidad countered. "He'll be very disappointed he missed you, though. He spent all of yesterday preparing note-taking devices for himself." For Benjamin, the surplus of Pokémon in Twinleaf Town wasn't enough to sate his curiosity, just feed it.
"I don't have much to show him yet, so tell him that," Alexa told her mother. "Just Iceberg, Gingivere, and the as yet unnamed Starly." Starly preened her feathers at the mention. Gingivere clawed at the Flying Pokémon in response, and each gave the other a haughty glare. "Nothing he hasn't seen before, and Markus has Gymno, Hyra, and Geodude." Hyra, who was very pleased with her name, hopped up on Markus's lap and cuddled a bit.
On the topic of Markus, Solidad had one question. "You two haven't been bothering each other too much so far, right?" she asked pointedly.
"Daniel almost killed Alexa with mechanical talk yesterday," Markus mentioned snidely. "But other than that, no more than usual." On the side Hyra quietly asked what 'usual' was for the two friends. The other Pokémon shrugged in various ways, as they had no more information than anyone else.
"That's nice." Solidad had as much of an understanding of computers and machines as her daughter. "Well, now that I know you two are fine, shouldn't you get going to another city? If I remember, the Leader of Jubilife City doesn't provide badges."
Daniel, having finished packing up, re-entered the conversation. "If Veronica did give out Badges, she would have more challengers than she could handle." Not to mention defeating the purpose of challenging journeys between cities, but that was obvious. "We're going to Oreburgh City."
Solidad blinked. "Did I hear that right?" she asked, with laughter in her voice. "Daniel is going to take the trip from Jubilife to Oreburgh?"
Daniel, still out of range of the camera on the screen, winced. "Better to get it over with now, I think," he told Solidad from across the room.
Solidad had an evil smirk on now. "Well, good luck," she told the three humans. "And hope for no earthquakes!" Before Daniel could do more than shoot the little screen a terrified look, Solidad ended the call.
Markus and Alexa were silent for a moment. "Earthquakes?" Markus asked slowly.
"Solidad knows what I fear," Daniel said tonelessly. "Now both of you pack up and we're hurrying out of here."
With much prodding from Daniel, and much assistance with repacking bags, they left the trainer house before most of the city had the chance to leave their apartments. Still facing some early risers who were quick to call up all their fellow fans, Daniel ground his teeth and ignored the copious 'subtle' ploys of flirtation around him.
Alexa staunchly ignored them as well, but Markus felt battered on all sides by the time they reached the Eastern exit of the city. "Are people like this everywhere you go?" he asked, breathless, as Daniel walked faster and faster away from the city.
Daniel, who was taking one step for Markus's three, responded with deadly calm. "Only in Jubilife. Thank all the gods that nobody notices me in the other cities." At least the one metropolis was entirely avoidable during normal travel.
"Aww, the Teenage Idol doesn't like people. Ever considered faking an early Decline?" Markus suggested. Alexa, rather than struggle to keep up the ridiculous pace, fell back to give Markus less pressure to finally finish with their dare and let out Starly to exercise her wings.
Daniel slowed just slightly to consider this, brushing past one of the ornamental bushes that surrounded the early section of the road. "My mother has only recently begun to Decline," he decided. "It would never be believable, especially considering how much ability I have to slow it."
"I guess the most effective strategy would be to just avoid Jubilife, if that's where the fans are worst," Markus agreed. "Hopefully I'll be able to cure you of hating fans eventually, though." With a conspicuous wink at the watching Alexa, Markus tackle-hugged Daniel, the unexpected momentum of the heavy packs carrying them right into a thicket.
When Alexa controlled her laughter and caught up with them, Markus was struggling to extricate himself with a minimum of injury. "Okay, I'll just move here and- Ow! Ow! Ow!" Markus stabbed himself a few times on the same thorny branch. "Well, now we know that that doesn't work," he told himself, very carefully not moving any more.
"Get off before I'm forced to Teleport through you," Daniel threatened grumpily from underneath. Despite the unexpected attack he seemed fairly calm. "You couldn't have looked before leaping? A simple eyeballing of your trajectory would have told you this was a bad idea."
Alexa snickered from back on the gray stone path. With sudden inspiration, she pulled out her multi-purpose touch pad from its place at the top of her pack and snapped a picture with its camera. "I was expecting you to top me, Mark," she said as Markus struggled to extricate himself, threatening loudly to break the pad if she'd actually taken a picture, "but I can't say I expected it to be this wish-fulfilling. You know, it's too bad those bags of yours are blocking the view." With another giggle, she took another picture. "I can't wait to look at these later," she cackled, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes.
Daniel gave a loud sigh from inside the bush. "That's it. I'm sending out Astral." There was a flash of pink light and the bush was suddenly considerably more crowded. Alexa snapped another photo, grinning widely.
"Tell your Gallade to get its blades out of my face!" Markus shrilled. He had the very intimidating view of a pair of very sharp green structures erupting from the Gallade's elbows, and he couldn't move for fear of self-impalement on two sides, not to mention that the pack restricted his range of motion even further.
Daniel, who had been knocked among the roots of the thick shrubbery, gave Astral a look. Astral returned it and promptly exercised his will on the surrounding space to move himself and his Trainer a few metres out of the predicament.
Both the Pokémon and human reappeared with a bang a few centimetres off the ground right in front of Alexa. With an 'oof' followed by the thud of the pack, Daniel fell to the rocky ground. "Well, that was interesting," he mentioned to the girl, brushing bits of dirt and bracken off his pants as he shifted his weight to stand up. "Are you all right in there, Markus?"
Markus pulled his face out of the dirt. "Why would you leave me in here like that!" he yelled, livid. With the support of Daniel's body gone, the boy had fallen very suddenly to the ground, and was even more trapped in the prodding branches. "I don't like thorns!"
Alexa, still grinning broadly, looked the bush over. "There aren't any thorns, Mark," she told him. "Just a lot of very tiny branches with pointed ends." Markus caught a flash of her delighted smile in his peripheral vision.
Markus was not amused. "I demand to be assisted out of here," he told Daniel. "Get your Gallade in here right-" Markus was cut off as he vanished in a flash of light and reappeared a foot above the path with a sound like a gunshot. "Oww," Markus reported a few seconds after being plastered to the cold, wet rock by the weight he carried.
The Abra that had apparently heard the commotion and Teleported Markus out of the bush floated exactly where it had appeared, staring down at the human quizzically.
Markus gave the odd-looking golden humanoid an unnerved look. "Er, is there something you want?" he asked, attempting to remove evidence of his time in the wet dirt as he stood up.
Abra glided up to Markus's arm height and, with little apparent telekinetic effort, pulled the boy's arms into a cradling position. Without a word in Michina or any other language, the Psychic Pokémon settled into Markus's arms and fell asleep.
Daniel looked over to Astral. "What do you think?" he asked the Pokémon, which was nearly as tall as Markus itself. Astral strode over to Markus and looked into Abra's closed eyes. He nodded to Daniel, who nodded as well and returned the Pokémon.
"I believe I can conclusively say that Abra has Bonded with you, Markus," Daniel told the bewildered boy, who looked uncomfortable with the Pokémon in his arms.
"But it's so small!" Markus protested, aghast. "It must have only just hatched. It's like a baby…" Markus looked into the sleeping Pokémon's face again. It looked supremely peaceful and content. "I'm not ready to take care of a baby," he said, very quietly.
Alexa had a wicked smile on her face. "Don't worry, Daddy, we'll help you," she told her friend, slapping him on the back of the pack. "You'll be a great father."
Markus shot his friend a dark look. "Well, if I'm Daddy, you have to be Mommy." Alexa hit him for that. Hard.
The rest of the day passed in a gray haze of drizzle as Daniel led the way along the ancient Michina road towards the Oreburgh Caves. With the mines and quarries so nearby, the road had been built long before the modern civilization had colonized Sinnoh, with stone paving sunk into the ground to solve the problem of effective transportation between seafaring Canalave and the mountains. With such easy access, it was no surprise that plenty of young Owners either searching for Pokémon or training frequented the area. The Pokémon, by and large, obliged to the influx of young humans with young Pokémon. Many larger species either stayed away or kept hidden, and several migratory species used the area as a breeding ground.
Markus, with Abra snoring gently in his arms, received several envious looks. Young Abra, being so powerful but so difficult to train, were always at a premium due to their rarity and the tendency of older Abra to avoid human contact altogether or be even more painstakingly tedious to train with. Both young Owners received several battle challenges, which they accepted happily. Alexa welcomed the opportunity to bond with her Pokémon, particularly Starly and Gingivere, while Iceberg provided announcer-style commentary from her shoulder in the most sarcastic tone possible. Markus mostly battled with Gymno, though Hyra and Geodude both participated as well, and Hyra even stopped a battle midway through once in order to provide Gymno with more advice on maximising his efficiency. Markus made sure to wake Abra up for each battle, and gently explain several tactics to the Pokémon throughout the day. Abra, who vehemently disliked the cold, wet weather, always huddled back into his Owner's arms after a few moments.
As the day continued and the Coronet Range loomed higher in the East, Daniel noticed Alexa and Markus's different techniques. He had monitored them for the entire day, and throughout each battle he noted that Alexa always forced her way through all opposition with brute force, while Markus lured his opponent in and then defended until he could attack them. Basic, instinctive tactics, and most of the novice Owners they met along the way shared them, but Daniel had to wince inwardly as the manoeuvres became more habitual with each battle. Even Abra noticed after a while how regular and simple his Owner's style was becoming, but he said nothing.
As the road eventually sloped up, it became less maintained and slowly more overgrown, with grassy patches sticking through the gray stones and the surrounding forest becoming wilder. As the clouds began to dim with the setting sun and the drizzle finally began to die away, it turned into a mountainside ramp, twisting back and forth up the side of the second of the mountains in the Coronet Range. The former mountain that Jubilife City had been constructed out of was the first. Rising high above the conifers they had walked among all day, the path eventually levelled off about five hundred metres up, and there was a wide clear space on a ledge partway up the mountain, with a beautiful view to Jubilife City and the sea.
"Here's where we stop for tonight," Daniel told Alexa and Markus. Both of them just nodded and threw down their packs, completely exhausted by the climb.
"Why not, huff, put the cave, huff, on the bottom? Huff," Alexa asked, completely out of breath from Daniel's incredible pace. She had never walked so far, so fast, in her life.
Markus made a strangled noise of agreement.
"Well, it's where the natural cave was," Daniel explained simply. "Now, see if you can set up your tent."
It wasn't until full dark that Alexa and Markus had caught their breath and labouriously put up the tent from Alexa's house. Daniel fed them and their Pokémon once they had. It was cold food, which Daniel had packed in Sandgem, but it tasted like a feast after the whole day of physical exertion.
"I guarantee you will have the best night's sleep in your memory tonight," Daniel told them, removing his own tent from his pack and assembling it in moments. "Travelling on your own power always tires you out."
Another moment later, Daniel had ducked into his tent and dragged his pack in after him. "By the way, be wary of mountain Pokémon," he said through the tent flap, in a deadly serious tone.
Markus and Alexa gave each other terrified looks and shot inside their tent like Ninjask on Carbos. Daniel chuckled a bit.
For a moment, the night air was filled with only the sounds of dry rustling from both tents and the noises of nocturnal Pokémon. Then Markus said, in a careful whisper, "What do I do with Abra?"
As blatant incentive for reviews, an interesting, constructively critical, and decently lengthy review that provides a decent and logical name for any of the characters listed above will have that name inserted as the character's name and will be cited both in the future fanfiction and on my profile.
Why yes, I am desperate for reviews. I enjoy knowing what people think of me, be it good or respectfully critical.
