Sorry, guys. I didn't have much time to get this out, because college is harder than I thought. :p And I had a hellish roommate. It wasn't fun. But there will definitely not be another update in at least a month. I left my Gameboy with my boyfriend after winter break. He doesn't have one, anymore, so he's having fun with Yellow version, and I have nothing to play Crystal on. :/ Ah well. Here's part 10.

Chapter Ten:

Ilex Forest wasn't as dark as the games made it seem.

Ok, I'm totally lying. The trees were cleared in narrow, winding paths; with branches that blocked out the sun from above.

Spooky.

Damien was walking just in front of me, his fire brightening up the path in front of us, yet casting shadows in the depths of the trees.

Alex had his Totodile out in front of him too, but more as a readied weapon than the flashlight I was using my Pokémon for.

I was surprised that he didn't have an entire Pokémon shield in front of him. He always had the strongest Pokémon in his team when he played the game.

We came across a little boy staring out into the darkness with a flashlight in his grip.

"Oh please help me!" He cried out when he saw us. "I wanted to get more charcoal for Dad, but the Farfetch'd doesn't listen to me, and ran off…. You gotta help me get it back!"

We ran past the boy, when we finally realized something. It's a big fucking forest. How the hell were we gonna find this damn bird!?

"D. Don't you have a Pidgey? Have it find it." Alex suggested.

Duh. I'm an idiot.

I called out Stryker and she looked at Alex.

"Wait, ain't he the ass-hat who wants to beat you?" She asked.

"Stryker, this is my little brother, Alex. Now be nice. He isn't an ass. Most of the time."

My brother gave me the death glare.

"So, what do you want me to do?" Stryker asked, now completely changing the topic away from something that could very possibly end with a rock or something being thrown at her.

"There's a Farfetch'd somewhere in here. We need help finding it, but we have no idea where it would be. Can you help us find it?"

She flew up in the air and quickly zipped out of sight. Which meant me and Alex were standing there waiting for the Pidgey to fly back to us.

"So, guess what I discovered!" Alex gleefully smiled.

"What is it?"

He opened his bag and pulled out his- er- my bike.

"It fits!"

I laughed at his childlike wonder. Of course, that now meant that we were gonna grab as much as we could to see how much we could stuff in the bags.

"So, that is 42 Potions, 18 Super Potions, 6 Antidotes, 4 Paralyze Heals, 31 Pokeballs, a Bike, and one of the Cut-able trees." Alex announced.

"Damn. Plus room to spare." I laughed.

It was yet another challenge to fit a person in there.

"If I'm stuck outside, I am definitely doing this." Alex laughed again, crawling out of the bag.

"It wasn't that heavy either. I could have carried you across Johto. No." I rolled my eyes when his face lit up at that notion.

A poof ball of feathers lept onto my shoulder, and I screamed.

"Calm your tits, it's just me." Stryker sighed, though she looked like she was struggling not to start laughing.

"Fuck you. Now where's the other damnable bird?" I growled.

"As I said: calm your tits. I'll take you to him. Don't fret, but he'll be hell to nab."

As we went down the path, Alex and I were switching our 42 Potions and stuff back to their original owners. I tried to swipe my bike back, but no luck.

"Mine!" I whined.

"No, mine!" He growled back. "Get your own!"

"That is mine!"

"Stop it, you damn kids!" Stryker hit us against the back of our heads with her wings. "You'll scare him off!"

Damien didn't like her hitting us, so he sent a fire ball at the Pidgey.

Which sent Jasmine ready to Stun Spore their asses.

During all of this, the little Unknown floating by my head just watched.

"Your Pokémon behave differently than most Pokémon do. They are protective of you before themselves, and would turn on one another if one threatened you." D stated.

"We are a family. These are my best friends. We are loyal to one another. Utterly and completely. However, they are also like my pets. If one of them turns on me, the others will attack that one to protect me. All Pokémon act like this towards their masters." I smiled.

"Not all Pokémon." D said.

"You need to get out of the realm of wild Pokémon, and really look at the Trainers. We are the ones you should base your assumptions on."

"Stop talking to your Pokémon, it's freaking me out!" Alex finally snapped.

We all looked at one another, before bursting out laughing.

"We should try and actually look for this damn bird." I said, after we calmed down.

"But how will we get it? We can't kill it, nor can we catch it." Alex said.

"There is one way. But we're gonna look like idiots doing it."

We ran around, trying to chase the Farfetch'd back to its master, just like in the game.

It wasn't working.

The damn bird would play with us for a little while, get bored, and fly up into a tree.

After the 6th time of having to start over, we basically said fuck it.

Ok, we literally said fuck it.

"Fuck this! Jas. Use Stun Spore on this asshole."

A spray of yellow sparkles floated down on the Farfetch'd.

"Stryker, knock it out of the tree. Alex, get ready to catch."

The bird fell fast, and Alex did a dive for it. In a spectacular catch, he held up the Pokémon. I so wasn't going to un-Paralyze it until it was back by its owner.

The little boy stared at me in relief, but also had a look of embarrassment, and a little fear on his face. His dad was standing right next to him.

I sprayed down the Pokémon with a Paralyze Heal, and handed it off.

"Thanks, you two. My son is going to be in a hell of a lot of trouble for this. And because you helped me out so much, I'm going to give you this."

Cut.

I thanked the man and looked over my Pokémon. None of them could learn the move.

"Shit…" I growled.

Thanks to Repels, I hadn't seen a single Pokémon. But I needed a new one, if only to be an HM slave.

God, I couldn't wait for Hoenn. Linoone. Best HM slave ever!

For the first time in Johto, I pulled out my Pokedex.

"Dexter. Are there any Pokémon in here that learn Cut?"

My Pokedex and Alex responded at the same time.

"Beedrill."

Lucky for me, the forest was crawling with Weedle.

Unlucky for me, they were all decently low leveled, and I would have to grind one up. And that was gonna take a hell of a lot of time I didn't want to go through.

But I had to.

"Dammit…" I growled.

A little Weedle then slowly scooted its way to me, then Stringshot my leg, attaching itself to me.

"Uh…. Hi?" I stared at it.

"Hi. You're my new friend. Name me."

The forward little Weedle stared up at me with his big eyes, waiting for me to claim him as my own. Jasmine was not impressed. She stretched out her wings and fluttered out to my shoulder.

"Come on, D'sak, you don't want this other bug. I'm the best. Not this lame thing." She sighed. "We're too good a team for it."

"We need him, though. We can't go any farther without him." I stared down at my leg. "Alrighty, what should I call you?"

"No name. Name me." The little bug said.

"Aww. He doesn't have a name. Poor little guy. Everyone should have a name!"

"Then name it and let's get on with it." Alex grumped, still jealous of me being able to talk to Pokémon.

"Hmm… I think you'll be Phineas. What do you think?" I kneeled down by him.

The little thing smiled and nodded his head.

"Yay! I has name!" He cried out.

As the other Pokémon introduced themselves to the newest member, Alex looked around the forest.

"So, how are we supposed to level this guy up? The Pokémon here will take forever."

"It's all we got." I answered. "We have to grind. It'd be a good idea to get everyone leveled up, too. The Gym Leaders are only gonna get harder from here on out."

The forest loomed on ahead of us.

This was going to take a while. Dammit.