Chapter IX

As the sun began to rise Cotter was still firmly asleep in his hotel bed. The sun peering through the window blinds made him quickly toss a blanket over his face to shield the light. With the light gone Cotter could now return to uninterrupted sleep. Three very loud knocks were pounded against the white, hotel room door. The loud sound broke Cotter's sleep but he just put a pillow over his head and continued to lay in bed. The knocks were head again, louder this time, but Cotter still didn't budge. Purugly and Buizel were both disturbed by the noise but they weren't making any movements to go to the door. Cotter's ignoring paid off because the knocking had stopped. Then suddenly there was another loud sound as the door came flying off it's hinges. Reimi and her trusty Hitmonlee stood in the empty doorway. Hitmonlee was in a fighting stance proving that he had kicked down the door. Cotter was now very much awake and was stuck staring at Reimi with his jaw dropped.

"When it's time to go, we go" she informed him in a serious tone. "Ignoring won't do any good because I'll find ways to get you to go. Now pack up your stuff while I go pay Nurse Joy for the damages." Reimi walked away with Hitmonlee in tow, no more words to be said.

"What have I gotten myself into, she's crazy" Cotter mumbled to himself as he got out of bed. He quickly pulled on blue jeans and tossed a purple jacket over his body. Cotter placed his three pokeballs on his belt and hurried out of the room. Murkrow was perched on his shoulder while Purugly and Buizel walked behind him through the tight hallway of the second floor of the Pokecenter. Diglett was the only one in his ball because Cotter knew he'd try to cause trouble. Cotter dragged his tired body down the long white hallway of the hotel. He gripped onto the rail and slowly lowered his body down the stairs. Now on the first floor and main room of the Pokecenter there Reimi was impatiently waiting.

"For a second there mate I thought you went to sleep again" she commented. "Now let us get out of here, Oreburgh won't be there forever." Cotter was still on the other side of the room as Reimi began to walk out of the building.

"Hold up. We have five days to get to Oreburgh. It's like a two day trip" Cotter spoke up, already fed up with how rushed Reimi was. Reimi quickly turned around, snicked and scratched her upper lip.

"What a silly kid you are" she laughed. "This isn't just a regular travel to Oreburgh. We are trainers traveling to another leg of a massive tournament. Just walking to Oreburgh would be fine if you want to lose your next match. But a smart trainer would be heavily training while they travel and thus taking longer than two days. We need to get out now while the sun is up so we can start training, well mostly you're the one who needs the training" she lectured ending with a flip of her red hair.

"Um couldn't we just get to Oreburgh quickly and then train there?" Cotter asked not really buying Reimi's story. A drop of sweat slowly rolled down Reimi's face.

"Well I guess one could do that" she laughed awkwardly while scratching the top of her head. "But I enjoy travel training."

"Eh fine we'll try things your way for now" Cotter said as he reached where Reimi was. Reimi smiled prettily as the two walked out of the Pokecenter and towards an adventure.

Cotter and Reimi had been walking along Route 203 for a few hours now and Reimi had been training the entire time. Her Scyther and Hitmonlee were dueling along as their trainer walked. Cotter was still in awe that not only could the two pokemon duel while walking along with their trainer, but the fact they were able to keep it up for so long. Cotter's pokemon just boringly walked alongside of him.

"Do I need to lecture you again about training dude?" Reimi questioned Cotter as they continued to move forward.

"I know I know, I'm just thinking of what to do for training. My pokemon can't tussle like yours" he honestly responded.

"Don't think, just act!" she snapped. "See that pokemon over there?" Reimi pointed to a an odd shaped yellow pokemon with green leaves and Cotter nodded. "Well attack it." Cotter jumped up and threw his hands up in surprise.

"What? Are you crazy?" Cotter wondered in a loud voice. "You can't just go attack wild pokemon for the hell of it." Murkrow nodded along to what Cotter said while Reimi showed no emotion at his statement.

"It's weird, even though we're about the same age the difference in experience is immense. Anyway you're not really going to hurt it. Just have a scuffle with it, leave and then in an hour it'll heal up and forget about the whole thing" she explained to him but he still wasn't sure about it. "Just do it" she pressured and lightly shoved him towards the pokemon. Cotter closed his eyes and took in a deep breath before pointing towards the grass pokemon known as Weepinbell.

"Alright Murkrow let's do this" Cotter uncertainly said to his pokemon.

"Make it snappy, I'm not going to stop my walking just for you" Reimi added. Sure enough even though Cotter had stopped Reimi and her pokemon had continued.

"Alright then, Weepinbell prepare for battle. Murkrow go with Aerial Ace!" Even though Cotter called it's name Weepinbell just sat there soaking in the sun. Murkrow collided into it with her Aerial Ace and Weepinbell was broken from it's sun induced trance. As Murkrow flew away to get ready for another attack, two green vines came from deep within Weepinbell's mouth and wrapped around Murkrow. Using the vines, Weepinbell smashed Murkrow into the ground and the vines were still trapping Murkrow. The green vines were wrapped so tightly around the black birds body that only it's head and talons could be seen. "Murkrow break out with Tailwind!" Cotter instructed but nothing happened. Murkrow couldn't move it's wings so it couldn't use any of it's moves. Weepinbell then preceded to slam Murkrow into a tree. Weepinbell started swinging Murkrow the opposite way, towards more trees. Suddenly without command Buizel dashed forward and Ice Punched the vines, breaking them and freeing Murkrow. But Murkrow continued to carry the momentum from Weepinbell's swinging and the injured bird was tossed a good ten feet. The collision with the ground knocked the bird out. Cotter knew Buizel could handle it and ran forward to check on Murkrow with Purugly following. Weepinbell released a barrage of green seeds but Buizel jumped up to avoid them and Weepinbell didn't aim up. Then up from the air Buizel released a stream of Water Gun that made direct contact with Weepinbell's head. Then still from the air Buizel stuck it's Ice Punch out and dove towards Weepinbell. Buizel was falling at such a fast speed that Weepinbell couldn't react and was struck right in the dome by Buizel's icey fist. The powerful attack succeeded in knocking out the grass type. Buizel looked over towards Cotter who was heading back with Murkrow inside her ball to get some rest. Cotter stopped right next to Buizel and looked down at the knocked out pokemon. Cotter couldn't help but get a wretched feeling in his gut. Buizel looked up at his trainer and shook his head, already knowing what Cotter was going to do. "Leaving an pokemon unconscious like this is not right" commented Cotter as he dropped an empty pokeball on the Weepinbell, effectively catching it. Cotter swiped up Weepinbell's pokemon and ran after Reimi who was now a small dot in the distance. Purugly was running right behind her trainer while Buizel waited a bit before running after it's trainer.

"You're too kind" Reimi told Cotter after he finally caught up to her. Cotter had to pause for a moment to catch his breath but then quickly moved up towards Reimi again not to be left behind a second time. Her Scyther and Hitmonlee were still furiously going at it, both very good at blocking.

"Yeah well we're partners now so get used to it."