Diclaimer: Gobble, gobble, gobble! (Translation: I don't own Pokemon.)

Hey guys! I finally manage another update! :D

And on the most important day for me to stuff myself with turkey and guilt-free.

I'm so sorry it took so long and I'm grateful you managed to find the patience to wait. And great news! Next update will come up regardless of the order of my other stories. Think of it as a double update or bonus. :D

I would like to thank SinCityAssassin for agreeing to be my beta reader. I appreciate the help.

Also, important news in my Author Notes so please be sure to read them. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT!

Enjoy the chapter. And for those who celebrate it, have a good Thanksgiving! If not, be thankful that there is a Thanksgiving holiday or else I wouldn't be able to update. XP

Chapter 6:

Alex stared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. His brown hair continued to look messy, despite combing it several times, as the tips of his hair curled outward. He cocked his head to the side annoyed, wondering if there was anything to make his hair nicer. He wouldn't usually take care of his looks, but he felt that today would an important day… at least important enough to make sure he looked all right. He didn't want to give any more bad impressions toward Professor Juniper, especially on the start of his Pokémon journey.

After combing a few more times, Alex gave up with a sigh and finished dressing. He grabbed the thin, light and dark blue color jacket the Professor had given him and wore it over his short-sleeve black t-shirt. He already had on his grayish long cargo pants and his red trainer shoes. He put on the red cap that had a black Poke ball logo in the front; he adjusted the rim of the hat quite fashionably over his eyes.

Still, it's weird, Alex thought as he looked at himself in the mirror. He still couldn't get use to the fact that the person in front of the mirror was, well, himself. Alex didn't flinch anymore when he saw his reflection but he still has that uneasy feeling of trying to remember who the stranger in the mirror was.

Don't worry, Alex reminded to himself. He was going to get his memory back and this entire nightmare would be over. He should be able to come out with a genuine smile on his face next time, and he hoped his reflection would have one too.

Hurried door knocks from outside his room jolted Alex out of his thoughts, and by the time he went to the door they escalated into door slams. He opened it to reveal the agitated Pokémon professor.

"Alex," Professor Juniper said sharply. Alex flinched at the sight of her face; if looks could kill, she'd be committing a double homicide, on a single person. Great, now what did he do? "Did Bianca come by here?" Alex stared blankly at her, processing the sudden question and slowly shook his head.

"N-no, is something wrong?" Professor Juniper frowned, slightly frustrated. Alex saw that Cheren was standing behind the professor. Unlike her though, Cheren was quiet and visibly stoic with his hand on his chin; he seemed to be contemplating some options in this situation.

"Great, so she did leave the hospital," Juniper sighed, "Her father is on a rampage now; I don't know what's worse – him yelling obscenities in the hospital or him chasing after his daughter."

"Can someone tell me what's going on?" Alex finally asked, confused by the information.

"What's going on? What's going on?" Juniper repeated Alex's question back at him and laughed hollowly. "Your friend Bianca had decided to take a leaf out of your book and ran off with one of my starters." It took a while for Alex to process this. He must be missing something because he wasn't freaking out like the professor was expecting him to.

"Okaaaaay, is this a bad thing?"

"Of course it is!" Juniper said, sounding frantic now, "Bianca took off with one of my starter Pokémon! Good Grief! I try to make sure you don't run off with one again and now she ran off with one! She didn't even take get her Pokedex, so I can't even track her down!" Juniper clenched her hands while forcing down the urge to wring someone's neck. After taking a couple of deep breaths, she calmed down. It was amazing how fast she could change pace.

"Now what to do, Bianca's father still thinks she's in the hospital, but it won't take too long before he finds out she's gone. We need to find her at all costs, no matter what."

"Umm, surely we don't need to make this a manhunt… err I mean girl… hunt…" Alex mumbled.

"Professor, I think you should leave this situation to us," Cheren interjected quickly, finally speaking up. "If you think about it, Bianca obviously left to go on her Pokémon journey without her dad's consent. She might be a bit clumsy, but she is determined. I'm sure she's okay for now. And if Alex and I leave now, we might be able to catch up with her in Accumula Town and if not, we'll catch her in Striaton City."

"I don't know," the professor said slowly, unsure about his proposal.

"Besides," Cheren added, "She trusts us more."

Alex stared curiously at Cheren with his cool logic. Boy, the guy looked smart, and he definitely backs it up. His calmness and logical thinking gave him respect from adults like Professor Juniper.

How in the world did I make friends with a guy like that? Alex wondered as he rubbed his head in confusion. He remembered being described as a troublemaker while Cheren seemed like a model student.

"Well, Bianca was determined to leave, and like you said before, she is pretty stubborn, probably as much as he was," Juniper made a quick gesture towards Alex, who didn't seem to catch it.

"Are you sure she will listen to you? Are you willing to bring her back and let her face the consequences?"

"We will do our best, Professor Juniper," Cheren finished, his face showed his own determination, "Trust me at least, if not Alex."

"Hey!" Alex retorted, realizing the miniscule importance he had in the conversation. Professor Juniper took a deep breath and calmed down a bit. Her panic eyes seemed to be more relaxed now and were now in deep thought as she carefully analyzed the situation. "Okay, perhaps you're right." Professor Juniper said quickly took the sad looking present box out. Its ribbon was torn and dented at one side when Bianca knocked it to the ground.

"Here, you guys," Juniper said, handing the Poke balls Cheren. "Not very ceremonial like I planned but given the circumstances…"

Cheren opened both Poke balls at the same time and two flashes of light came out at the same time and landed on the floor.

"Oh! Oshawott and Snivy!" Alex exclaimed and grinned as when the light faded and revealed the Pokémon. The two looked at each other in confusion as they noticed their companion wasn't there.

"So I guess Bianca has the Tepig," Alex said thoughtfully as he remembered the sneezing red pig from the roster. Hopefully, they can all meet up again. He directed this sight toward Cheren, "So… How should we decide who will be our partner? Paper, scissor, rock?"

"Don't be ridiculous! We'll have to analyze these Pokémon to find out which one more compatible to whom." Cheren said, as if he was working on a lab experiment. "If we take the nature of the Pokémon and our personality into account, we can study their behavioral patterns and find out if…"

Cheren slowed his tract to a halt when he saw the water Pokémon walk over to Alex, puffing out its chest proudly, not interested in Cheren's words. "Oshawott!" The little Pokémon cried out.

"Well I guess I'll be taking Oshawott then!" Alex said grinning. "It seems to like me a lot,"

The little water Pokémon giggled and jumped with joy and Alex held out his hand and gave it a high five. "Besides," Alex added, "I think Snivy's taken a liking for you," he pointed at the grass snake Pokémon that moved toward Cheren without a single sound. Oshawott tried to engage with it in a conversation now that they have trainers, but the grass snake Pokémon proudly turned its head away. "Besides, I think the Pokémon know what's best, so I think we should trust their judgment as well."

Cheren just stared at Alex, not saying a word until he gave a small smirk, "You're still the same even if you don't know it, well…"

"Huh?"

"Excuse me," Juniper spoke up, grabbing their attention. "We're wasting precious time, here," she said as she gave two Pokedexes to Cheren. "One of them is for you Cheren. Give the other one to Bianca when you get the chance. You guys better hurry and get out of here. Cheren, you've already called your parents to let them know to drop off your stuff, correct? Meet us at the front. I need to speak to Alex alone for a bit."

"All right," Cheren said. He glanced at Alex without saying anything before he left the room, his new Snivy matching the pace of its new trainer without so much of a glance back. Alex watched the door shut and wondered Cheren had meant with what he had said earlier.

"Alex, I already have you discharged so you don't need to worry about paperwork."

"Oh, okay." Alex said, shrugging his shoulders. His new Oshawott looked curiously at him before turning its head to Professor Juniper as she continued.

"Here," Professor Juniper gave Alex a piece of paper that was folded several times; Alex opened it to see a name, address, and phone number scrawled in pen.

"This is the person I was talking about earlier, she can help you with your memories," Professor Juniper explained, "She's a friend of mine. Although she said it might be a long shot, I would still like you to meet her. You can't miss her. She's not that hard to find. If you have trouble finding her, just call the number." Alex looked at the name on the piece of paper and nodded.

"She lives in Striaton City, so on the off chance you don't find Bianca in the next town, she will be there to help you stop her. Finding Bianca, however, is not the top priority, getting your memories back is. So whether or not Bianca is there when you get there, you are to meet my contact and call me if there's any news. I told Cheren to escort you there before he continues on with his journey. It's not safe to go alone, especially in your case." Professor Juniper put her hand on Alex's shoulder and looked kindly at the trainer. "Remember this. Even without your memories, you're still Alex; don't let it get to you if you can't remember."

"T-thanks," Alex stammered finally, he was at a loss for words. "For everything," Juniper smiled and removed her hand from Alex's shoulder. She then looked grim as though her mind was on something else now.

"I'll try to stall Bianca's dad for now," Professor Juniper grimaced for a second at the thought, "Meet up with Cheren at the front and try not to attract too much attention," Professor Juniper then walked out the room, but not without giving a quick "Good Luck" to Alex.

Taking a deep breath, Alex could feel his heart pumping with excitement. "Alright," he said, looking at his Oshawott, "Shall we get going?"

"Oshawott!" The little blue Pokémon jumped with joy.

"Come on!" Alex grinned, "We're going on our first Pokémon journey!"

Route 1…

It was almost evening when Cheren and Alex set out. The sun was starting to set, filling the sky with a reddish haze. "This is Route 1," Cheren said looking at the map he was holding. "The next town is just a straight road ahead. If we hurry, we can get to the next city before nightfall. I just hope Bianca is safe right now."

"Right," Alex panted from behind as he tried to catch up, He hasn't fully recovered from the hospital but he rather dragged his body across the ground before admitting that he was tired. His Oshawott was on his shoulder and was clearly enjoying the ride.

"Alex, are you okay?" Cheren said, looking back, light reflecting off his glasses. He, unlike Alex, had the idea of placing his starter back into its Poke ball while Alex felt like his Oshawott would enjoy a bit of scenery. Alex also thought it'd be nice to have a friend to sing along with, though Cheren looked like he wanted rip his ears out after the first five minutes.

"Maybe we should take a break…" Cheren said slowly.

"No need!" Alex said quickly, "I can take on an army!" Quickly, he jogged past Cheren as though to prove this. Alex managed to make it to the top of the small hill before he had to catch his breath again. Cheren strode to follow and caught up with him in seconds. "See!" Alex said, grinning painfully, "No problem! I can totally make it!" Cheren stared at him for a couple minutes and then…

"Hey, let's battle," Cheren said abruptly.

"Wait, what?" Alex said, looking up.

"Let's have a battle," Cheren repeated, taking out his Poke ball, "Maybe a Pokémon battle will help jog some of your memories back."

"Are you sure?" Alex asked, "You wanted to get to the next town in time right?" Oshawott cocked his head to the side, confused as well.

"No big deal," Cheren said, shrugging his shoulders, "I can beat you in less than one minute."

"Oh I get it, is that a challenge?" Alex said, grinning, Cheren simply smirked in reply. "Fine then, Oshawott! Let's show this guy what we can do!"

"Osha!" the little otter Pokémon exclaimed, ready to fight. It jumped down from Alex's shoulder and performed an energetic dance.

"We will definitely beat you!"

Cheren saw the sight before him and just laughed to himself.

"Wh-what? What's so funny?" Alex asked, wondering if he said something weird.

"Sorry, but for a moment there I thought you were about to do your favorite speech."

"Speech?" Alex said.

"Yeah," Cheren said. "Ever since kindergarten, you would always scream out what your dream was almost every day. Of course, it always drove everybody insane. Ahem," Cheren looked out at the sunset, adjusted his glasses and took a deep breath.

"My name is Alex Black! And I'm going to become the Pokémon Champion! I will definitely, definitely, definitely beat them all! The gym leaders, the Elite Four, and the Champion! So just you wait! Cause you're looking at the next Pokémon Champion of Unova! I promise!" Cheren roared the speech into the far distance with his hands shaped around his mouth like a megaphone to amplify his voice that echoed far and wide.

"Yeah see, that's the look I had when I first heard it." Cheren said, looking at Alex's and Oshawott's stunned expressions. "I thought it was just you being a nut, but you just kept doing it again and again, even after so many years… Because you said you made a promise to yourself and you weren't ever going to forget it."

"I see…" Alex said slowly and quietly. Cheren realized that he what he said was insensitive… Snap. It was like a slap across the face wasn't it, telling Alex about a promise he'd just broken.

"Look, Alex," Cheren said quickly, "I didn't mean…"

"Okay then!" Alex said suddenly, a bright look on his face, "I'll make sure that I'll do this then!"

"What?"

"Well, you said I promised myself, so I'll definitely succeed. I will become the next Pokémon Champion," Alex turned to the horizon. Remembering the words as though engraved into his heart now, Alex screamed,

"My name is ALEX BLACK! And I'm going to become the Pokémon Champion! I will definitely, definitely, DEFINITELY beat them all! The gym leaders, the Elite Four, and then the Champion! So just you wait! Cuz you're looking at the next Pokémon Champion of Unova! I PROMISE! And-!" Alex turned around to face Cheren and pointed at the stunned guy, "I'm going to prove to everybody by defeating you first!"

"Hahaha!" After a couple minutes of stunned silence, Cheren couldn't help but laugh at Alex's enthusiasm. Now this was the Alex he remembered. "Well," Cheren said grinning brightly, "Bring it on then! Snivy, you're up!" The little snake Pokémon jumped out of its Poke ball and turned to face Oshawott. Alex instinctively took out his Pokedex and checked through the contents at an amazing pace, as if he had done it before. Immediately, Alex got the information on his Oshawott's moves and Cheren's Snivy's moves.

Okay, Alex thought, Oshawott is a water type Pokémon, so it's at a disadvantage. I'll need to finish this battle quick if I want to windid I just think that just now? I don't think I read the stats that thoroughly.

"Don't dawdle!" Cheren said who had his Pokedex out but didn't look as though he was able to use it as quickly as Alex did (no surprise since Cheren just got his), "Snivy, use Vine Whip!" Pow! Oshawott got hit headfirst by Snivy's vines. Cheren was good. Even though this was his first battle with his own Pokémon, he knew attacks and weaknesses and seemed to be knowledgeable in different types of strategy.

"Hang in there, Oshawott! Tackle!" Alex commanded. Oshawott charged forward, ready to butt heads when Cheren called out another attack.

"Snivy, another Vine Whip!"

"Hit it with a Water Gun!" Snivy's vines were already extended from its last attack and weren't fast enough to move back in as Oshawott hit the snake Pokémon with a water attack, causing it to stumble back and miss its mark. "Vine Whip is a good attack for both close and wide range but they don't work if you can't get them to move fast enough."

"Good catch there," Cheren said, "But Snivy won't go down with a simple water attack and you know that. Snivy! Tackle it back!" Immediately, the snake Pokémon charged and slammed against the otter Pokémon, kocking it back a fair distance. "The opponent's far again, use Vine Whip!"

"Oshawott!" Alex cried out. However, just as Snivy's vine was about to land another hit, the little otter Pokémon pulled the shell from its stomach and held it out like a shield. The vines hit the shell with loud clinking sounds and were deflected. Oshawott grinned as it held out its shell proudly.

"What the-?" Cheren gaped. Even Snivy looked surprise at this tactic. Alex, on the other hand, was grinning at the stroke of inspiration his Pokémon had.

"This is good!" Alex said excited. With that shell, they could probably win this. "Oshawott, throw your shell at Snivy like a boomerang!" Oshawott took the shell and with one of its little arms and held it like it was winding up to throw a baseball.

"Get ready to deflect it Snivy!" Cheren warned.

Aiming carefully before going for it, Oshawott threw the shell. "Oshawott!" the little Pokémon cried out. It zoomed through the air like a fireball and managed to connect its attack. The shell definitely hit a target; unfortunately the target was Alex's face. Oshowott accidentally threw the shell backwards.

Wordlessly, Alex crashed onto the ground from the impact to his face; Cheren and Snivy simply stared at the scene of a small blue otter trying to resuscitate him.

A little while later…

"Well that was complete failure," Cheren sighed as he placed a bandage on Alex's cheek. Cheren had a first-aid kit out (which was being held by his Snivy) and was patching up Alex. "Seriously, we don't need to have another reason to send you to the hospital." Snivy sighed as well towards the foolishness of this person.

"Ow!" Alex whimpered, rubbing pain on his cheek. Oshawott was standing by its trainer and looked completely ashamed and guilty. "Oh it's not your fault," Alex said, noticing his Pokémon's depressed mood and softly pat it on the head. "I'm totally fine."

"Oshawott is still too young and inexperienced to learn that move," Cheren explained. "Even if it's good at throwing, its aim is terrible. You shouldn't let it do that again unless you want another smack to the face." This observation seemed to make the Pokémon even more depressed.

"Cheren!" Alex said, realizing that Cheren's comment hurt Oshawoot's feelings.

"Oh, sorry… umm… Oshawott. It's not your fault," Cheren said quickly though it was already too late. He placed the supplies back into the first aid kit and put it into his bag. "You know, the only reason I was carry this thing around in the first place was to make sure Bianca and you don't get into trouble."

Cheren looked at the horizon. The sun was definitely sinking down and stars could be seen in the slightly inky sky. "Great, that took more time than I wanted. I figured since we were using low level Pokémon, the battle wouldn't take so long. At this rate, we'll never get to the next city." Cheren continued onwards with Oshawatt and Alex lagging behind. Cheren was in deep thoughts again. Was there a way to get to the next city without having to camp for the night? If only they had a flying Pokémon… wait.

"Wait a minute, Alex, you still have War right?"

"Excuse me?"

"War," Cheren said, "You know, your Poke… oh that's right, you don't remember, hang on," He pointed to Alex's backpack. "May I?" Curious, Alex handed over the backpack for Cheren to open. There wasn't a lot of stuff to shuffle through, so it didn't take too long for Cheren to find what he was looking for – a Poke ball. Alex remembered seeing this lone Poke ball when he looking into his backpack but he just assumed it was empty. Cheren pressed its button and a large flash of light shot towards the ground.

It was a large eagle with a white feathery mane in shape of a war bonnet. Its back was red while its underside was navy blue. It had a sharp yellow beak and black talons that were sharp enough to tear tree bark.

"Is that a Braviary?" Alex gaped appeared. The Pokémon stared around, slightly confused. When it saw Alex, it immediately pressed its face against his, squawking with happiness.

"Whoa!" Alex said surprised and moved back involuntarily, "Is this Pokémon mine?" Braviary looked confusingly at Alex's behavior.

"We could've flown to the next city but instead we wasted time walking around." Cheren groaned, wondering why he hadn't thought of this earlier. He turned to the eagle Pokémon who looked hurt at its trainer's strange manners. Cheren quickly spoke to the large bird, "Say War, can you give us a lift?" He then quietly, trying not to show it directly to Alex, gestured toward the trainer while mimicking a hammer pound to the head and whirling motions with his finger. Needless to say the Braviary got the gesture and started flapping its wings in a panic. "Don't worry about it. Alex is going to see someone about this. Hopefully this will all be resolved later."

Alex was amazed at Cheren's calmness as it communicated with the large Pokémon without a hint of fear on his person.

"Come on," Cheren said, "War can get us to the next town without any problem. Oh by the way, War is your Pokémon's nickname so remember that." Both trainers returned their Pokémon and with that, Braivary grabbed Alex and Cheren with its claw. With its powerful wings, War flew into the air and soared through the skies.

"WOW!" Alex exclaimed as he looked at the trees and the dirt road below him, "We're flying!" He held out his arms as though he too had wings and could soar above the clouds. "This is just like magic!"

"Don't look down, don't look down," Cheren muttered with his eyes closed. He held his hands into tight fists and seemed to be tensed. Even though he suggested the idea, it was obviously that Cheren didn't like the idea of flying and the thought of plummeting back down the earth frightened the boy.

"So how in the world did I get War?" Alex asked, looking at the bird Pokémon. It was definitely way stronger than his Oshawott by a lot. Alex was guessing that he had trained this Pokemon ever since he was little…

"War was your dad's Pokémon." Alex's head spun around so quickly at Cheren that he could feel a crick in his neck.

"What? Wait, I have a dad?"

"What kind of question is that?" Cheren replied. Even with his eyes closed shut, skepticism was all over his face.

"Well, you know…" Alex suddenly remembered that he only saw his mom at the hospital. It never occurred to him why he didn't wonder why his dad wasn't there. "Well, how is he doing?" There was a troubling silence.

"It's not really a topic you talked about," Cheren said uneasily. "So I can't say much about it either."

"Really?" Alex felt tense now. Something he didn't talk about? Was it bad? Alex looked up at War but the bird Pokémon merely gazed ahead, like it didn't even want to be part of this conversation. Not even the Pokémon were willing to have anything to do with it.

"Yeah," Cheren continued, "if there was one thing you wouldn't talk about, it was your dad…"

"Oh…" Alex mumbled, realizing just how much he had to rely on his friends for personal information. It was rather unnerving. "S-so what kind of person am I?"

"What?" Cheren said, opening his eyes for the first time and looking at Alex.

"W-well Professor Juniper told me a bit," Alex said, quickly. "But I want your view of what kind of person I am. After all, you're my friend right?" Friend… such a strange word to say… especially to someone you don't recognize.

"What kind of guy you were like…" Cheren mused, pushing up the rim of his glasses. He stood there and thought hard.

"You… were an idiot," Alex gaped at the bluntness of Cheren's words, but let the guy continue on as if he was lecturing a child.

"You always have to stick your nose into other people's business; you have no idea what the word 'personal space' means; you're constantly prone to creating accidents; you have a tendency to break rules; you're loud; you're clueless when it comes to taking tests that sometimes I wondered if you should be tested…" As he heard all the negative attributes, Alex wondered if he stumbled upon the "Let's All Gang Up On Alex" space on life's game board. He rubbed the bandage on his cheek as he kept hearing each sentence starting with 'You, you, and you'.

"But," Cheren said finally, pausing for a bit before he continued, "You have a good heart," Alex perked up at the compliment. "You always stood up to what you believe was right." Cheren stopped before he mumbled one last thing, although Alex couldn't hear what he said.

"I'm sorry, what was that last part you said?"

"Nothing," Cheren said, turning away. "You're a good person Alex. Don't ever forget that."

"O-okay," Alex said, wondering what Cheren meant by that. Throughout the rest of the trip, the two were quiet, not speaking another word.

"Here we are," Cheren interrupted Alex's thoughts. He saw Cheren looking ahead in one of the rare instances he wasn't just squinting and avoiding looking below. Sure enough, Alex could see the bright lights as they shone through the dim lit sky. It wasn't a large town; Alex could see a lot of grassy fields and natural landscapes. Cheren looked onward as Alex gazed at the town lights, "Welcome to Accumula Town."

Author Notes

Okay, that's it from me. Next chapter will be very exciting (hopefully) and we're going to have our first OC appear. And a very special character as well that most of you know probably know. So excited!

Oh yes, and I do have an important poll that is related to this chapter. Please check my profile page and vote! It is a very close tie, so the more people, the better.

Let's thank my reviewers before I go.

Ketchum Kid

Trainer-Ken

ZXCVBNMEM

N the puppet

Starran

Jarkes

littlmidget123

Anon(noaccount)(Oh that's too bad. Anyways, thanks for the review.)

AshleyTro (Thanks for the info! Congrats on getting the game)

goldw1993

Light-Sakura

Whitoath

That's it from me.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next chapter.

-JapanDreamer