(A/N): Heey! Here's chapter 10, and Amy, Ash and co. are finally on the road again! Or, will be anyway, if Amy will ever stop scaring them. You'll have to read on to figure out what I mean. Thanks to Suzurin and kilala223 for reviewing.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon. It would be awesome if I did, but I don't. I don't own the characters either, with the exception of Anna, Cain, Damian, and Amy. There might be other minor characters that I create as well. Oh! The plot is mine too. If there is semblance to someone else's plot, it was completely unintentional.

Chapter 10: On the Road Again

"Why did you forfeit?"

"...............Hmm...?"

"Why did you forfeit?" I forced my eyes open to be staring up at a very annoyed Ash. I sat up.

"I didn't forfeit," I sighed.

"Yeah, you did. Your fifth round opponent moved straight to round six. And then she beat Richie." Huh? Who the heck was that? Oh, right. That friend of his that beat him in round five. I yawned.

"How long was I asleep if I missed the round six battles, too?" I muttered.

"Don't change the subject!" Ash whined. "Why did you forfeit?" What was he, a broken record? I grinned and decided to take him on a guilt trip.

"Well, one would think you would be happy about me pulling out of the league. You lost your match and all, so of course the league should have ended right there. Now, the league would have been hard to end, but at least I brought it one step closer, right?" Ash stared at me, his mouth slightly open. He lowered his eyes.

"Well, you didn't have to forfeit..." I faked frustration.

"Well, I wish you would have told me that sooner!" He hung his head.

"Sorry..." he said, so low it was barely audible. I scowled at him a moment longer, and then cracked up. He looked back up at me in shock. I finally managed to stop laughing and explain.

"Aw, man, you shoulda seen the look on your face!" I cleared my throat and continued. "First of all, I didn't forfeit, I just withdrew from the league. It was what I had to do. And second, it had nothing to do with you losing your match, I had my own reasons." I stood up and strode towards the door, when I realized I was missing something. "Alice!" I called, remembering the Pikachu. "Oi! Alice!" The door suddenly flew open, hitting me in the head. Misty entered the room.

"Oh, sorry Amy," she said, wincing.

"If it makes you feel better," I began, rubbing my forehead. "My vision just cleared up again." She looked at me with confusion for a moment, but it soon switched to concern, most likely when she recalled my argument with Ash earlier. Erm... how long ago was that? I still had no idea how much time had passed.

"Hey, are you going to stand there forever, Misty, or are we actually going in?" I peered out the door to see Brock standing there.

"Oops. Sorry, Brock," Misty called over her shoulder and stepped inside, quickly followed by Brock. He shut the door behind him, and greeted Ash and I. I returned the greeting and once again called for Alice.

"Alice! Where on earth are you?" Behind me, Ash seemed to notice his own Pikachu was missing and began to call for him as well. He seemed to be in a better mood than after he lost the battle. "You seem like you're feeling better," I commented. Ash paused mid-call, not quite understanding what I had said.

"He and Richie had a little talk after Richie lost his sixth round battle," Misty explained. Ash nodded and finished the call he had cut off earlier. The two Pikachu finally raced into the room, colliding with my legs and knocking me over. They both began squeaking wildly at me in apology. I shook my head with a laugh and scooped the two up.

"Where in the world were you?" I inquired. They both shrugged. I sighed and handed Pikachu to Ash and placed Alice on my own shoulder. "I guess I'll have to weasel it out of her on the road. Anyway, maybe I'll see you guys again sometime. Nice meeting you," I said, giving a half salute to the three, and then turned to leave again. I could feel their eyes on me.

"You're... leaving?" Brock questioned. "Where are you leaving to?"

"And why?" Misty added. I stopped in the doorway again and looked back at their confused faces. I didn't know exactly how to answer them. If I told them the truth, it could possibly put them in danger.

"Nowhere in particular," I finally answered after several seconds of hesitation.

"Aren't you going to stay for the closing ceremonies?" Ash asked. "They're not that far off."

"Ash, don't you think that if I would be able to stay long enough for the closing ceremonies, I would have stayed in the league?" He thought for a moment, and then decided he really wanted to annoy me.

"I guess you're just scared of losing." I kicked him in the shin. He jumped backward a little, but he was smiling. He knew we were both just joking around.

"I told you before, Ash. I'm leaving because it's what I have to do!" None of them were letting me go that easy, though.

"Well, what is it you have to do?" Misty pried. This caught me. I knew that they were probably going to ask, but how exactly was I going to explain this? I hadn't gotten that far in my planning ahead. I had gotten to trying to leave and probably being stopped, but no further. I shrugged.

"Doesn't really matter," I muttered. But the thing is, it did matter. To me, anyway. And to Cain, and my parents, and to this 'trench coat trio'. I tried to leave again, but the others followed me. I began to speed up my pace, but there was no escaping them. I broke into a run, and all three continued to chase after me. I was getting annoyed now, and stopped dead in my tracks. We hadn't run off the plateau yet. Exasperated, I turned to them.

"Do any of you have a powerful flying-type that you could ride on?" Misty and Brock shook their heads, while Ash grinned and removed a Pokéball from his belt. Before he could release the Pokémon inside, however, Misty and Brock quickly grabbed a hold of his arms.

"Not Charizard!" Misty yelled. "Not Charizard." She calmed down a little and turned back to me. "None of us have a Pokémon like that."

"Good." I clicked a Great Ball off my belt and flicked it open. "Let's go, Terra." The minute I said her name, Ash paled and attempted to back away, but only ended up falling over. The Aerodactyl took shape in front of us, and I ran my hand across her head happily. Ash scrambled back a few feet. I blinked at him. "What's your problem?" He gave me a nervous smile.

"Ah, I had... an interesting experience with an Aerodactyl once," he explained. Perfect. Maybe now I could convince them to let me leave. But it was to no avail, however, because Ash's curiosity was more powerful than his fear. He didn't come any closer to her, but he was looking Terra over closely. "How did you catch her?" I grinned. I loved telling this story, just because no one usually believed me.

"Well, you see," I began. "Ever heard of a place called Grandpa Canyon?" I heard a quiet gasp behind me, and what little color had returned to Ash's face drained away again. I turned to my side so I could tell the story to Misty and Brock, too. Misty was still covering her mouth after her gasp, and Brock was shifting back and forth on his feet. I didn't understand why they were reacting like this, but I didn't really care. I continued my story.

"Several months ago, there was this huge fossil rush there, but it was quickly closed down after an unexpected cave-in. Nobody knows what really caused the collapse." I paused for a moment to breathe. I heard Ash mutter, 'Liars' under his breath, but I didn't take very much notice to it. "But I heard rumors. Rumors that extinct Pokémon had awoken and blasted the ground open in fury from the digging. Of course, being a trainer, I had to go see what really happened.

"I arrived there, and the place was completely deserted. Not a single soul in sight. Empty. But there was a hole. A hole filled with rocks. Curious, I went over to investigate. With the help of a couple of Pokémon, I managed to clear the rocks." I noticed that the farther I got into the tale, the more skittish Ash became. "Not a minute had passed after I cleared the hole when a huge winged Pokémon came soaring out of it, with several other Pokémon clinging to it. All of them were supposed to be extinct species of Pokémon. Omanyte, Omastar, Kabuto, Kabutops, and Aerodactyl.

"I quickly captured an Omanyte and Kabuto, they've evolved by now, of course, and the rest slipped off back into the hole. Now the only Pokémon remaining was the Aerodactyl. She... was a tough one to capture. She was already ticked off by whoever had been there before me, and having someone trying to capture her was just making her even more upset." I stopped, and began to laugh. I couldn't help it. Looking back on this event now, I just had to laugh. "I'm not going to go into too much detail, because it would probably bore the heck out of you guys, but I eventually whipped out a Great Ball and snagged her."

By this point, Ash had grown even more pale (if that was even possible) and had scooted away even farther so he had a good several yards between him and Terra. Misty still had her hand over her mouth, and was noticeably horrified. Brock had... left to hit on another girl. I pointed this out to Misty and she pulled him back with the group, apologizing to the woman. Brock shrugged when she pulled him back.

"She's too young for me, anyway. I just needed an excuse to get away from the story. It was getting creepy." At least he was honest, but I couldn't take it anymore.

"What the heck are all of you so bothered about?" No reply. I turned to Pikachu. "What's up with them?" He turned to Ash. I rolled my eyes. Ash glanced up at me and finally decided to answer.

"I'm not going to go into much detail either, but that's the same Aerodactyl that tried to eat me." Oh. That would explain all the horrified looks the three were giving me. Wow, this guy had been through a lot. I glanced over at Terra, and for the first time since I released her, I noticed that she was staring at Ash rather hungrily. I placed my hands on my hips and looked up at her.

"No way. As annoying as he can be, he's not your lunch." Terra sulked for a moment, but must have decided he was too small to be worthwhile anyway and turned her attention skyward. I turned back to Ash. "You don't need to worry. She doesn't bite. Well, actually, she does, but not when I'm around." He nodded and stood up, finally regaining his composure. Brock and Misty had begun to relax, too. I wondered briefly if I had maybe dragged them far enough off topic to get away, but that hope was short-lived.

"So, where are we going?" Ash asked, remembering the reason the trio had followed me out there. I had a feeling I wouldn't be getting away from them anytime soon. I sighed.

"I'll let you guys come with me, on one condition," I said, holding up my index finger to emphasize my point. Three human heads, a Pikachu head, and a Togepi head all cocked at me, silently asking what that condition was. Slightly embarrassed, I looked between them all and asked, "How's your cooking?"

So it was settled. The four of us were now officially traveling together. I still wasn't ready to let them in on why we were doing this. They would hopefully figure it out when we got there. I explained this when Misty once again asked why. We left the plateau on foot, after deciding against flying (Ash still wouldn't go anywhere near Terra and none of them had ever ridden a flying-type before). We were only about ten to twenty minutes away from the plateau when Ash asked that same question again.

"Where are we going?" I laughed. I could at least tell them that much, right?

"Hold on to your hat, kiddo. We're going to Lavender Town."

Ahh... ten chapters up... my first milestone! *bliss* I hope I didn't make the reason why Amy's letting Ash and co. travel with her too obscure. Ah, well. Anyway, reviews are always welcome!