I'm sorry for the short delay, and shorter story! I need to start pacing this story 'cus I'm running out of ideas! Any ideas?


Chapter 9

Surprises

I watched Ronin closely, looking for any signs of movement.

"Come on, Ronin. It's been ten minutes."

Maybe he's dead. Luxray prodded his knee with his nose.

"He isn't dead, so shut it," I snapped at my pokémon, "I'm sorry."

"Who are you talking to?" His voice seemed numb.

"My luxray, he's saying you might be dead." I bent down to wrap an arm around luxray.

"You talk to pokémon?" He didn't show an expression, he just formed words.

"I hear their thoughts, and I answer them. In battle, I don't have to speak to them at all. I also feel their feelings." I was looking at him to find any sign that he was about to freak out. I wouldn't be able to handle it if he did.

"You talk to pokémon." This time it wasn't a question.

"Yes, I do believe we've covered that."

"You're the daughter of two different, very dangerous, criminals." He didn't look at me.

I flinched, "Yes. If you can't stand to be around, you can go back to the sanctuary. I don't need your help."

"You do too need my help," he finally looked at me, "you're not strong enough to take on them, even if they are your parents."

"I'm plenty strong." I could feel my words finally setting in on him, and how he relaxed. He wasn't scared of me because of my heritage.

"You stayed in school, I'm a trainer. Who do you think is stronger?"

"I have the brains, and I trained locally." I turned on my heel and walked across the room, plopping down on the chair by the window.

"Okay, think what you want but I'm sticking around whether you like it or not, Princess." His playful smirk worked its way onto his face. It was one of those smiles that made you want to melt. That alone made me hate the smile; I needed to be solid.

"Where in the world did you get princess from?" I looked at him from the corner of my eye.

"I don't know. Your dad tried to make your brother king, so why can't you be a princess?" He shrugged and lay back on the bed, folding his arms under his head.

"Because I'm not a princess, it's as simple as that." I turned my gaze out the window. I watched people pass by, and wished I wasn't on the ground floor. These were the cheapest rooms though.

"Okay. So, can you do anything else?"

"I… I can read human minds, though it nearly kills me with those blasted headaches. I can read the feelings too, but that gives me a headache also." I looked at him, waiting for a reaction.

"What am I thinking right now?" He turned his head to meet my gaze.

My jaw dropped open and I briefly considered punching him. "Did you not just hear me say it gives me headaches?"

"I was just playing, Zana. Don't worry." He waved a hand at me and I growled. I didn't find it funny.

"I'm going to go out and look around." I called in most of my pokémon, except for luxray. He was my protector, and he wasn't too big to walk around in this crowded city.

I slipped on my sunglasses before I walked out of the room without waiting for Ronin and kept walking out the hotel's doors. The sky was a happy blue, but the people here didn't even stop to look. They were too busy being busy. That was all I saw them doing: being busy. Most of them weren't actually doing anything useful. None of them stopped to look at the beauty around them. This city felt cold, even with a desert so close by.

"Newspapers, fifty cents!" A man called out from his stand. I screwed on a polite smile and approached him. I should check the newspapers for any signs of the two devils that had so generously given me my genes.

"I'll take one." I looked up at him, glad my sunglasses hid the eyes that could easily give me away as Ghetsis' daughter.

"Here ya go. That'll be fifty cents." The older man handed me the newspaper quickly and took the coins just as fast. Why was everyone in this city in a rush?

I sat down on a nearby bench and silently noted that Ronin sat next to me while I turned through the paper. There were things for how a small boy was found in the giant chasm, another story about how people believed they had spotted three legendary pokémon, and a story about a huge bank robbery. All of them piqued my interest but none of the stories mentioned any of the keywords I was looking for. I decided to follow the bank story, seeing as it was most likely to be connected to the people I hunted for.

It was easy to find the bank. People were swarming it to make sure their money was okay, but I pushed through the crowd to get inside. It wasn't much less crowded. I turned to see Ronin following behind me wordlessly. Maybe he just learned not to argue.

I slipped over the edge where there was breathing room. Maybe I could find something, spot something leading me to guess who had done this. It was a classic bad guy thing: robbing a bank to fund their livelihood and plots.

There was nothing obvious, so I began scrutinizing every little nook and cranny. There had to be something telling me if my birth parents or people associated with them had anything to do with this or not.

Do you smell that? Luxray scrunched up his nose.

"Do I look like I can?" I whispered, pretending to talk to Ronin.

"What?" I ignored Ronin, not bothering to explain.

It smells like sand. He shook his head. Of course sand wouldn't be appealing to him. He was an electric pokémon.

"Ah, right. Talking to the pokémon." Ronin nodded, but was watched us closely.

"The desert is close by, what do you think you'll smell?"

It wasn't this strong outside, Zana. It should be stronger outside. I nodded in understanding. It was kind of weird but I didn't know what it meant. I slipped back through the crowd, taking note of what kind of people they serviced. They were normal, middle class people. No one special.

For the second time within a week, I saw a mysterious person watching me from the corner of the building. This time, I wasn't so eager to approach them. I took Ronin's arm and turned around abruptly. He didn't need to meet that awful purple haired woman.