Chapter 10: What the Future Holds.

To make it to Nacrene city Aoi had to travel along route 3 which was notorious for its high rate of wild pokemon attacks. Even Eve told him to watch out for the darker grass. This is where most of the attacks happen and the pokemon that live in these patches are stronger, more vicious and not afraid to ambush their prey or any that dare step into their territory.

Even though he was curious to see how the pokemon in the dark grass behaved he didn't want to risk any of his team especially after losing Kuro. Aoi had seen pokemon die before and he knew full well that it's a part of being a trainer, but he never realized how hard it could be.

"Hey Aoi don't you think that we should add another member to our team, and we won't be able to get any stronger if we avoid every trainer and any wild pokemon." Badgered Hono who was walking alongside him.

"…." Aoi stopped on bridge and looked out toward the lake and let out a big sigh.

"Whats wrong Aoi? Don't you want to be a strong trainer and beat the league?"

"I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to tell you why I'm on this journey since you were asleep the other day at Prof. Fennel's house huh. You see hono I'm not out to beat the league like most trainers. The only reason I'm here is so I can find my friend Aya and ask her some questions."

"Why did you challenge the Striation Gym then? Asked Hono who was very confused.

"Well there was a free meal in it if I won and I didn't have that much money at the moment because I had spent my money on supplies and paying for my pokemon center fees."

"Oh so you're not going to challenge any other gyms?" Hono said disheartenedly

"I don't plan on it. They will only get in the way and I don't need to prove to anyone how good I am at battling."

"….ok Aoi you know best." Whimpered Hono who had a look of disappointment on his face.

"What's wrong Hono? I've never seen you like this before."

"Well I used to have a previous owner. She was a little girl named May and her dream was to become the next champion. I remember we used to spend all day and night practicing for the day that she would be able to start her journey, but her parents didn't want her to be a trainer and got rid of anything that had to do with being a trainer…including me" Aoi got down to Hono's level and gave him a warm embrace

"I'm sorry to hear that Hono I promise you that I won't get rid of you! And that if I ever do decide to challenge the league you'll be in charge of the team." Hono started to cry and Aoi held him tighter

"Sniff..sniff..th-thank you Aoi! I won't let you down."

"You know what I think your right Hono. We should add some members to our team. I'm sure Kuro would be disappointed in me if gave up this early. Kuro I'm not sure if you can hear this or not but I want you to know that I won't stop no matter what happens, I will stop Aya and all of team plasma if I have to. They won't know what hit them right Hono." Hono jumped up on Aoi's shoulder and let out a war cry. Suddenly the rest of Aoi's pokemon popped out of their pokeballs and jumped up onto the railing of the bridge. All of them let out a cry, each louder than the last.

"Come on Aoi you need to do it to! Said Blue as he was tugging on his sleeve.

"…AHHHHHHHHHHH! AYA I'M GOING TO BRING YOU BACK HOME WITH ME!"

"Hehe I haven't heard someone scream like in years." Chuckled an older woman behind Aoi. He turned completely red when he realized someone had seen him doing that. He was as bad as his mother he thought. The lady was wearing a long skirt, a button up t-shirt, with a cardigan over it, stockings with dancing penguins on them and over all of that a long tattered cape.

"I'm terribly sorry for the outburst ma'am I'm sorry if I disturbed you in any way." he said while bowing trying to be respectful.

"Hahahaha you're pretty funny boy. What's your name?" she asked eagerly

"Umm my name is Aoi Andrews it's a pleasure to meet you miss"

"I thought you reminded me of her I didn't think Maddie's son would take after her that much though. Oh I'm sorry I haven't introduced myself. My name is Estelle."

"Wait you know my mother?! Aoi said with a shocked expression.

"Hehehe yes your mother and I go way way back. I remember she used to shout out towards the heavens just like that when she got really fired up. Although I don't think she ever said anything quite like what you said just now" she said coyly. Aoi realized what she must be thinking and became very red and put his head down.

"I..It..Itt..It's not what you think I.I..I didn't mean anything like that" he stammered.

"Hahaha don't worry I'm sure you have your reasons. I promise I won't tell your mom."

"Really?!" he said his eyes beaming

"If you can beat me in a battle" she said flicking his forehead knocking him back to his senses.

"That's it. Well alright I'm pretty sure we can take you right Blue!"

"Yeah you're going down miss, you don't stand a chance. Me and Aoi are unstoppable!" Blue said jumping down from the railing and pumping out his chest.

"Is that so Blue? You've got moxie and I like that, but you're sorely mistaken if you think you can win that easily"

"Wait a second. You can understand what Blue was saying?!"

"You shouldn't be so surprised Aoi, you didn't think you and your mom were the only ones who could right.

"Well no..but I've only heard that a handful of people are able understand them so it's still a little shocking. I'm sure I'll meet more on my journey and now that I know there are others like me I'm not scarred of having this ability anymore. I want to share it with the world. I know this might sound childish but I've always loved fairy tales, I'd bug my mom to read me some every night. I wanted to be like one of the heroes in the books, someone who fought for what is right and protected people who couldn't protect themselves. So after I finish what I set out to do here I'm gonna apply to be a ranger.

"That's very ambitious for a child, but unfortunately the real world isn't like that of a fairy tale. She said with a look of regret on her face.

"Well that's why we're here right. If we work together we can change the world."

"Very interesting Aoi, but how much are you willing to fight for that. Come on show me your resolve now. Go Yuuki!" Estelle jumped back and threw a pokeball towards him. A Glalie popped out of the ball charging directly at Blue.

"Blue use your schalchop to send em flying back." Before he could even react Yuuki was already in his face and ready to pounce.

"Now use bite!" Yuuki opened it huge jaws and chomped down on Blue a few times before he was able to break free.

"Blue are you alright?"

"Don't let up Yuuki! Before Blue could get up Yuuki had already swooped in and knocked him against the railing of the bridge. Aoi was completely shocked at how fast and powerful Estelle and Yuuki were.

'Im going to lose this match right now and if I lose then there is a chance that Blue will die…' Aoi thought to himself.

"Well since you're not going to attack then I guess we will just go again." Blue was swept up in a barrage of tackles and bites while Aoi just stood there watching helplessly. He wanted to tell him to dodge or attack but he kept thinking about losing him and what Aya had said to him. 'Im not strong enough..' Estelle ran across the bridge and raised her hand to strike Aoi.

SLAP!A thunderous echo shot out as she slapped Aoi's right cheek.

"Quit your whining! Can't you see your partner is doing everything he can just to try and win, but here you are just moping around, I bet you're thinking that if you lose then Blue will die and that Yuuki is to strong, and your stuck in the past reliving the same thing over and over again. If you give up before you even try and fight back then there is no way you will ever succeed in anything let alone finding your friend"

Aoi's immediately came back to his senses, and took a deep breathe so he could calm his mind and focus again. "I'm sorry Estelle, Yuuki and Blue for being so weak and letting my fear get the better of me. Now you two better get ready because this match is just getting started." Aoi slapped both of his cheeks and shook his body to get rid of all his jitters.

"Took you long enough" scoffed Blue as he picked himself off the ground.

"Sorry about that partner do you think you could buy me ten seconds."

"Only ten seconds pfft done!" Blue seemed like a new pokemon now and he able to dodge of each of Yuuki's attacks but even so he wouldn't be able to keep it up forever because Yuuki was getting faster with each attack.

'At this rate we will lose, I know that evolved pokemon are stronger but normally Glaies aren't this fast. There has to be some sort of trick to why they're so fast. Wait a second of course it's so obvious and if they really are doing this then we've got this in the bag.'

"Alright Blue I want you to close your eyes." Without even hesitating Blue closed his eyes and took a deep breathe.

"Interesting but if you think that shutting off one Blue's senses to improve his reaction speed will make him fast enough to dodge then you're sorely mistaken. Yuuki let's end this farce." Yuuki seemed to shoot off like a rocket towards Blue.

"Heh I was hoping you would do that okay Blue use water gun directly on the ground at full blast" Blue shot a torrent of water and rocketed himself upwards into the sky. Yuuki blasted through the stream of water and slowed itself down to keep from running into Aoi. "Now use Water Crash!" Blue started spinning towards the ground shooting water from his mouth to propel himself even faster. He slammed into Yuuki's back knocking him into the railing.

"I've got to say at first I was pretty scared by how fast Yuuki was and that it only seemed to get faster with each attack, but taking into account where we are fighting and the fact Glaies have tough backs it was pretty obvious what you two were doing. By having Yuuki bounce off the railings of the bridge you were able to accelerate after each attack, but even with its thick ice covering its body and it's relatively high defenses each time you bounced Yuuki would take a little damage. Which is why you wanted to end this fight quickly because you knew if it dragged on for too long then you would be able to use that strategy."

"Hahahah I've got to hand it to you Aoi your much smarter than I thought most trainers wouldn't have been able to figure out that and even if they did the match would've been over by that point, but do you really think that we have only one strategy."

"No but this was only the first step to my counter attack. Now knock Yuuki into the air and then bring down the hammer" Blue flipped Yuuki into the air and used water gun to push him further into the sky. He then jumped off the top of the railing to get above him and did a front flip and slammed him with his tail. Yuuki was shot down towards the bridge crashing into the lake. As he landed Blue did heroic pose like Riolu man.

"Well then I guess it's time for me to take off the kiddy gloves and show you what we're really made of. Yuuki let's show them what a real bond looks like." A stream of rainbow lights started to shine from the lake and the ring on Estelle's hand started to give off the same light.

"Alright time to shine Yuuki M-"

"Now now honey I think that you should be more mindful of your surroundings and stop being so reckless." A man with spiky light blue hair was holding Estelle by her hand covering up her ring.

"Ah! sweetie you shouldn't scare me like that. I wasn't going to do anything that reckless I was just battling Maddie's son and seeing if he could live up to their family name hehe" she said coyly as she nuzzled up towards him.

"Estelle you can't act your way out of this one! We were supposed to meet up with May-Delle and Clint an hour ago but here you are battling some trainer and you almost used something you're not supposed show anyone" he said chastising her

"I'm sorry sweetie I was just having so much fun I kinda forgot it has been a while since I've battled someone as exciting as him." She was inches away from his face looking at him with baby doll-eyes.

"Ahem umm miss Estelle.." Aoi was waving his arms trying to get the two lovebirds attention.

"Ohh haha right your still here. I'm sorry you had to see that. Let me introduce you to my lovely husband-"

"Your Steven Stone right?! I've read all of your papers on stones and there a few things I would like to ask you if you don't mind." Aoi's eyes were sparkling as he ran up to Steven.

"Hey how come you recognized him but not me!" she said grabbing Aoi by his hood yanking him away from Steven.

"Haha its okay sweetie you only met him one time before when he was still a toddler right. Plus I've been in countless magazine, tv specials, and I was the champion of the hoenn region for quite a while."

"Yeah I guess" she said crossing her arms pouting

"I'm really sorry Aoi but I don't want to keep your mother waiting any longer so we'll have to take our leave. Next time we meet I'll answer any questions you have." He picked up Estelle princess style and jumped up and landed onto a skarmory that appeared out of nowhere. "Oh right before I go Aoi you should really try catching a flying type pokemon. They are incredibly useful allies. Good luck on your journey and try not to get yourself into any more trouble."

"Next time we battle I won't hold anything back and I won't lose!" screamed Estelle as the two of them flew away.

"Hey Aoi?"

"Yeah Blue"

"Do you think I could fly like that someday?"

"Haha well I have a good feeling that our next partner will be able to help you with that" Aoi and Blue bumped knuckles and started running towards the next city.

"Hey Estelle do you think he will be alright?"

"Yeah he's got his father's battling aura and his mother's wild battle style."

"That's not what I meant."

"I know I know…"

"I don't know what he's gotten himself into but whoever was watching had a very evil aura around them.

"Yeah it reminded me of when we faced off against team magma and aqua, but don't worry dear I can tell Aoi already started to make some unbreakable bonds with his pokemon, and I'm sure he won't be alone when he faces whoever that was.

-Chapter 10 End-