Author's Note:
I'm getting really busy, and it's probably not going to get better anytime soon, so the chapters are probably going to be shortish. I'll still try to update every week, but I think Sunday will be my normal day now, but the chapters won't be as long as the first ones were. I hope you're all okay with that!
This chapter takes place from the point of view of a Pokémonas such Pokélanguage has been conveniently translated into English for you and will be written using normal "". Mental talk will still be in italics.
Chapter 8: Respect is Lame
The sun's early morning rays filtered in through the window, caressing the green stems of Barrett's arms and energizing him. He stretched out towards the sun and opened his eyes. Marie was still asleep, no doubt tired from the spell that Mari had cast, but Ri and Clef were awake.
"Good morning!" Barrett said, hopping off the window and walking over to Clef.
"Morning Barrett!" Clef replied. "Have any plans for today?"
"I was going to talk to some of the other Pokémon, want to come?"
"Yeah!" Clef exclaimed, hopping down from the bed and joining Barrett.
"Have fun," Ri said absentmindedly as she read her book.
"We will!" Clef assured. Barrett opened the door (though that was somewhat difficult with flowers for hands - luckily he had a lot of practice) and Clef bolted through. He pulled the door shut and looked around the hallway. The light under Glaceon and Lampent's door was on, but that was probably Cassie working, so Barrett decided not to bother them.
"I wonder who's awake?" Clef wondered as the Clefairy wandered about the hallway.
"What are you doing?" The voice came from above and Barrett looked up. A Banette was hanging half through the wall looking at them curiously.
"You're Faith's partner," Barrett assumed.
"That I am," Banette replied.
"You're more talkative than her," Clef said.
"Astute," Banette commented dryly.
"Thank you!" Clef exclaimed.
Barrett wondered if Ri got her annoying cheerful personality from Clef or if it was the other way around.
"So, what are you doing?" Banette asked again.
"Exploring!" Clef announced. "Right?"
Barrett shrugged. "Basically," he agreed.
"That sounds fun. I'm in," Banette said as he fully phased through the wall and came to float just above them.
"Yay! More company!" Clef exclaimed. "Let's go explore!"
Barrett felt a sudden stab of sympathy for Marie. Maybe he'd be more sympathetic next time she complained about Ri.
By unspoken agreement, the three Pokémon went downstairs. Yuki was floating lazily around Nami's head and noticed the three Pokémon. "Hello," she said quietly.
"Hi!" Clef greeted. "We're going exploring!"
"Have fun," Yuki said. "And don't wander too far."
"We won't," Barrett assured. All the interested things were at the school anyway. Though he wouldn't be surprised if Clef started following a Butterfree and ended up in another region.
It was still pretty early and there weren't very many Pokémon or people around. They ended up at the lake and found Sky the Lapras with Zair lying on her back. "Hello there," she greeted, her voice calming and maternal.
"Hello!" Clef said.
"Is he asleep?" Barrett wondered, looking at Sky's Pokésoul.
"Yes, he was stargazing and seems to have drifted off," Sky replied, her voice very affectionate.
Banette cackled and glided over to Zair. He hovered right above his face and gave Zair his widest grin.
"What are you doing?" Sky demanded, looking over her shoulder at the Banette. Unfortunately for Zair, Sky's exclamation woke him, and the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was Banette's wide grin.
"Ah!" He shouted, jerking the side. He lost his balance and flailed his arms trying to stay on Sky's back, but he failed and landed in the water with a loud splash.
"Zair!" Sky called. She stuck her head in the water looking for him and surfaced a moment later with Zair clinging to her head. She dragged him to the edge of the lake as he spluttered and coughed. He crawled up on the shore and glared at Banette.
"Stupid ghost," he complained. "I was having a really nice nap."
Banette cackled again, clearly unrepentant. "I was expecting you to be more reserved," Barrett commented. "Based on Faith."
"She just knows she's better than everyone else," Banette replied. "No reason to talk to the peasants."
"Marie is not a peasant!" Barrett retorted.
"Ri wouldn't mind being called a peasant," Clef commented.
"She wouldn't?" Barrett asked.
"Hmmm?" Clef had already been distracted by splashing in the water.
"Never mind," Barrett said. Zair was shaking his hair out and he stomped off towards the boys' dorm.
"Poor Zair," Sky sighed.
Barrett walked off, looking for more Pokémon to talk to. Clef was following, though her following was more running from distracting thing to other distracting thing. Banette watched Clef with an air of amusement. "She's easily distracted," Banette commented.
"Hey there!" Barrett turned to the voice to see Equinox and his Kirlia Celsius walking past. Celsius was the one who had spoken.
"Hi," Barrett replied. "Where are you guys going?"
"Food!" Celsius replied.
"We are going to the cafeteria," Annabeth, James's partner agreed. The Audino and her Pokésoul were walking beside Equinox.
"So the boy humans didn't stay up all night playing Mario again?" Barrett wondered.
Annabeth stopped to talk, but Celsius and the two humans continued on.
"Mario? James certainly didn't play any, I don't know about the others," Annabeth replied.
"The night before they played Mario Party all night," Barrett explained.
"They were all super tired!" Clef added.
Annabeth looked towards the cafeteria. "James is calling, I'll see you later," she said and hurried over to her Pokésoul.
"Where should we go now?" Clef asked.
Banette floated over to the boys' dorm and stuck his head through one of the walls.
"What are you doing?" Asked an older female voice. A Luxray was staring at them. Barrett recognized the Pokémon immediately as Zap, Pecha's partner, mostly because of all the tv shoes Marie had watched about her favorite heroes.
"Wandering," Barrett replied.
Zap didn't actually seem all that interested and gave a bit of a shrug and yawned. "Okay then," she said.
"Hey Zap!" Pecha called out. Zap turned towards the headmistress and began walking.
"Behave yourselves," the Luxray commanded as she left.
"It's almost like she doesn't trust us," Clef said in surprise.
"She shouldn't," Banette said, mischief in his tone.
"Why not?" Clef wondered looking up at the Banette. Her only answer was a large grin, which disturbed Barrett somewhat, but seemed to have no impact on Clef. A boy came stomping out of the boys' dorm and glared at them. It was Silas.
"You!" He yelled pointing at the Banette. "Stop sticking your head through the wall! It's creepy and weird."
"Well that was mean," Banette said.
"I don't understand you but that didn't sound apologetic!" Silas accused. Danerabeth appeared next to him and waved at the Pokémon.
"Please stay out of our room," she said politely. "Silas and Leo don't appreciate you barging in."
"But what's the fun of respecting privacy?" Banette wondered.
"That's a good point," Barrett agreed.
"It is?" Clef wondered.
"It's not supposed to be fun, it's respectful," Danerabeth said.
Banette stuck his tongue out. "Respect is lame," he said.
"You're a bad Pokémon," Silas said. "Bad Banette!"
"You probably don't want to say that to a ghost type," Danerabeth murmured.
"She's right," Banette agreed. "I can make his life very miserable. What does he like the most?" The ghost wondered.
"I'm not helping you torment him!" Danerabeth exclaimed.
"That's too bad," Banette sighed.
"Let's go talk to someone else," Barrett suggested, edging away from the confrontation.
"Who?" Clef asked.
Barrett shrugged and opened the door to the boys' dorm. "Let's just see who's around," he replied.
No one was standing in the hallway so Barrett headed for he steps. There were some angry shouts coming from Leo's room, something to do with Banette probably. Barrett ignored this and walked up to the second floor. It was louder here and Barrett followed the sounds to the common room.
Lance was sitting on a couch next to Jean Luc and Alyssa floated over his head.
"Hello there!" Barrett greeted. Alyssa gave a squeak of surprise and hid behind Jean Luc. She peeked from around his head.
"Is she shy?" Clef wondered, not bothering to keep her voice down.
Jean Luc's attention was drawn by his partner and he looked at the new arrivals. Lance turned as well. "Hi there," he said. "What are you two doing here?"
"Talking to people," Barrett replied, even though Lance wouldn't be able to understand. Virizion wasn't around to translate either, the large Pokémon didn't really fit inside very well.
"Um, well, hi," Alyssa said.
"Hi!" Clef replied.
"Hello," Banette said, having phased through the wall and snuck up on Alyssa. She and Jean Luc both jolted in surprise and he was only saved from falling off the couch by Lance's quick grip on his arm.
"Thanks," Jean Luc said.
Lance nodded and glared at the Banette. "That wasn't nice," he said.
"All the humans are going to hate you at this rate," Clef mused. Barrett gave her a sideways glance, but the Clefairy still had that childish look on her face.
"I don't care about any of them," Bannette said with a shrug. "Faith's the only one that matters."
"Osha!" The Pokémon all turned towards the voice to see Leo's Oshawott standing in the doorway.
"Did he really just say 'osha'? Barrett asked.
"That's what I heard," Clef replied. "Do I not understand other Pokémon anymore?"
"You understand me so that's obviously not it," Barrett pointed out.
"Oh! You're right!" Barrett sighed and turned his attention to the Oshawott.
"So, why are you saying your name?" Barrett asked.
"I just didn't want the humans to feel left out," Oshawott replied. "Isn't that great of me?"
"Uh, sure," Barrett replied.
"Hey up there, nice trick," Oshawott said.
"You liked it?" Banette asked.
"Yeah! If I could move through walls I'd do that kind of thing too!"
"Really, it seemed mean," Clef mused. "Should I start being mean too?" She looked to Barrett who gave her an incredulous look.
"Uh, no," he replied.
"Alright," Clef said easily and began wandering the room.
"She's weird," Banette noted.
"So are you," Barrett countered, though he agreed with Banette's assertion.
"All of us are totally normal compared to the humans," Oshawott remarked.
"Hey! Don't say that about Jean Luc!" Alyssa protested, though it was rather quiet and less than forceful.
Lance was looking between all the Pokémon, a perplexed look on his face. "Alright," he finally said. "I feel left out so I'm going."
"I'm going with you!" Jean Luc blurted, following Lance out.
"Bye," Alyssa murmured as she followed her Pokésoul out.
"Aw," Oshawott complained. "Who do we bother now?"
"There are a lot of other Pokémon," Banette replied as he phased through one of the walls.
"I'd like to be able to do that," Clef mused.
"Me too," Barrett agreed.
"I'm going to try!" The Clefairy announced.
"Wait - what?" Barrett said but Clef had already jumped at a wall. Unsurprisingly, she bounced off.
"Ow," Clef complained.
Barrett decided he needed to be somewhere else. Maybe somewhere Clef wouldn't follow him.
Ugh, what time is it? Marie wondered, her mental voice tired and unhappy.
Barrett looked around, but he didn't see a clock. No idea, he replied.
Where are you anyway? Marie asked.
Barrett sent her an image of his surroundings and said, The boys' dorm.
Huh. Well have fun.
I will! The connection went dormant and Barrett continued on his way.
Author's Note:
Sorry I didn't get to all the Pokémon, I'll probably do another one later on about the rest of them.