A/N:
Raion: Hello! It's been a while since we've talked, since Skitty and I have been playing a lot, so we've been too busy to come on here! So, Psychic decided to let us have the entire chapter! Skitty's getting the end notes, so you'll see her then.
Skitty: Or now! Raion, remember what Psychic gave us when she told us to take the chapter?
Raion: Oh yeah, the responses to the reviews! Hold on, I'll read them out now!
Shinymudkip25: Yeah, don't worry about that. I've settled them into their characters, and I don't think they're identical, just kind of similar.
Raion: Psychic said that this is all your Christmas presents, or whatever holiday you celebrate if you don't celebrate Christmas! She also said to say 'Happy holidays' and that there'll be a new chapter on her birthday too! Enjoy!
The next day, I decided to do an experiment.
"Huh?" Mom asked as I told the Pokemon pretty much what was written above. (A/N: PsychicEevee: Yep, I made the fourth wall crack. I'd better go repair it before Skitty notices!)
"I'm going to travel for a day as a Pokemon," I explained. "If we can travel undeterred, I can do this all the time, since I can travel faster as a Pokemon than as a human, and that way we can all move faster."
"That makes sense." Dad muttered, nodding.
I transformed into my other form and we set off.
About an hour later, we were stopped by a powerful attack: large balls of mud hitting Dad, then Pikachu. Cloudy and I stopped in our tracks and rushed to them. Before anyone could say anything, though, there was a loud rustling in the bushes, and everyone turned to look.
A boy stepped out, and my first reaction was, Ash?! However, once I shook that thought away, I noticed the differences between the boy and Ash. For one, his hair was dark blue, not black, and his eyes were dark green instead of brown. He was wearing a lot of dark clothes, reminding me of Ash's rival Paul. A Quagsire stepped out after him, which I guessed was what had shot the two Mud Shots.
"Neat! These are all awesome looking Pokemon, especially that Eevee!" he shouted, before throwing two Pokeballs. "Go, Zack and Frank!"
A Manectric and Quilava appeared with an intimidating bark each.
"Zack, use Thundershock on that Vaporeon! Alex, use Mud Shot again on the Pikachu and Flareon! Frank, use Swift on the Eevee!" he shouted quickly. The Quagsire shot two more balls of mud at my father and Pikachu, the Manectric shot a bolt of electricity at Cloudy, and the Quilava shot a lot of star-shaped energy at me, all of them hitting before we could react and blasting us back. The boy pulled out a Pokeball.
"Now I've got you, Eevee! Go-" I used my telepathy to speak before he threw it.
"Don't, please!" I shouted with telepathy, struggling to stand. His Pokemon sure are powerful!
"Wha-that's weird. I could've sworn I heard a girl telling me not to catch the Eevee," he muttered, dropping the Pokeball.
I did something that was probably very rash then: I transformed in front of the boy. When I finished, I shakily stood up and saw that the boy and all his Pokemon were standing there slack-jawed.
"How-but-you...?" the boy was obviously having problems forming words.
"Hi, I'm Tay. I'm the owner of the voice you heard, as well as being that Eevee you were about to catch." I smiled.
"I-I'm sorry," he stammered. "I-didn't know..."
"It's alright," I assured him while thinking, the longer I'm with him, the more this guy's reminding me of Ash!
He interrupted my train of thought by saying, "I'm Michael, by the way, but you can call me Mike." He changed the subject.
"Are your Pokemon nicknamed?" Mike asked.
"Yeah, except for Pikachu," I responded.
"Why?" he wanted to know.
"Pikachu was my... late adopted brother's first Pokemon. He didn't nickname his Pokemon, so in his memory I haven't nicknamed Pikachu," I answered quietly.
"How long ago did your brother... pass?" Mike questioned softly.
"Almost a month and a half now. He was thirteen," I mumbled. "Can we change the subject now please?"
"So... what sort of competitions do you enter in?" Mike asked.
"I was just a breeder before, but now I enter in Gym battles. You?" I offered.
"I'm a Pokemon Coordinator," Mike replied.
"Oh, I've traveled with a couple of friends that are Coordinators." I smiled. "I've watched lots of Pokemon Contests, even though I've never participated in one myself."
We continued to chat for an hour, at which time I asked Mike where he was going.
"I'm heading to the Azalea Town Contest." he answered.
"What a coincidence!" I smiled. "I'm heading there too, for the Gym."
"We should travel together for a while," I suggested.
"That sounds like a plan," he nodded. With that, we started towards Azalea again.
When noon rolled around, Mike and I stopped at a large clearing to make lunch.
"Are you a good cook?" Mike asked as his stomach grumbled.
"No, not really. When I traveled before I had no real need to learn since I traveled with friends that were great chefs." I explained.
"Ah." was Mike's reply.
"I'm trying to learn. I bought a cookbook at the last town." I said.
"That's good," he smiled.
"Anyway, let's get cooking." I ruffled through my larger, darker blue purse until I pulled out the cookbook and a portable stove.
After lunch, we sent out all of our Pokemon to do some training. I saw we had five Pokemon each: my five, and along with the three I'd seen before, Mike had a Nidorina and a large, horned, green, white, and brown Pokemon I'd never seen before.
"Tay, this is Clarisse, and this is Hazel," Mike pointed first at the Nidorina, then at the other Pokemon.
"What kind of Pokemon is Hazel?" I asked, curious.
"She's a Gogoat, a Pokemon from the Kalos region," he explained.
"Ah, that explains why I don't know about it," I smiled. "I've never been there."
"Where have you been?" Mike's eyes were gleaming.
"I've been to the Kanto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova regions, and this is my second time in the Johto region," I listed off, counting them on my fingers. "Oh yeah, and I've been in the Orange Archipelago."
"Orange what?" Mike blinked.
"A lot of islands near the Kanto region, but it has its own League." I summarized.
"Oh," Mike looked sort of interested. "Are there Contests there too?"
"I don't know," I shrugged. "Anyway, we were about to train, right?"
"Yeah! I wanted to try something with Clarisse," Mike ran off, gesturing for his Nidorina to follow him.
"Let's get some rocks for some tail training!" I ran off, quickly finding a good rock. I used a considerably watered-down Aura Sphere to break it into chunks, then carried them back to camp and tied them onto Mom and Dad tails.
"Now then, let's work on some training!" I called out before heading over to work with my Pokemon.
A few hours into training, something familiar happened.
Mom and Dad were doing their weight training with the rather heavy rock pieces when, almost simultaneously both of their tails glowed white for about a second before returning to normal.
"Was that..." Mike whispered, having seen it.
"It was Iron Tail," I confirmed. "Now we only need to do a bit more weight training, then we can move on to forming and sustaining the Iron Tail."
"That's great, but I think I'm ready for a break!" Mom panted.
"Alright, let's all get a snack," I agreed, bending down to untie the strings. When I was finished, my parents slumped down, more than a little tired.
I, along with Pikachu, went into the woods, gathered a LARGE amount of apples and other assorted berries, and returned to camp. When we got back I quickly sliced the fruits, made a fruit salad, and served some to everyone. It was really delicious, and when we were finished with cleaning up, we got back to training. This time, I set everyone up, then went to watch Mike's training.
He was working with Hazel now. He had her front and center, and he called, "Hazel, let's start with Razor Leaf, followed by Vine Whip!" Hazel shot off an array of leaves spiraling outward from the scarf-like bush area around her neck, then shot two vines from the same section and whipped them down.
"Next up, use Razor Leaf again, but this time, use Bulldoze as well!" Mike shouted. Again, Hazel shot leaves from her scarf, but she also charged through the huge storm, generating dust that mixed with the leaves.
"Finish with Aerial Ace!" Hazel's body became outlined in white streaks, accentuating the darkness of her body. After a few seconds I clapped, making Mike realize I was there.
"You were watching?" he asked, walking up to me with Hazel trotting by his side.
"Yeah, I think that's a winner!" I smiled.
"I'm planning on using Hazel for the Appeals Round." he explained.
"That's a good idea. Who're you using for the Battle Round?" I inquired.
"Frank," Mike answered after a moment of thought.
"That's your Quilava, right?" I asked, since I hadn't memorized all of Mike's nicknames yet.
"Yeah. Frank needs some battling to get used to his body, since he only recently evolved from a Cyndaquil." he answered.
"Let's get back to work. We're close to Azalea Town, so we should prepare as much as possible." I turned back to my Pokemon after I saw Mike nodding and turning to his.
(Mike's POV)
That night, I was woken up by a cry of fear. I checked my Poketch quickly, it was almost midnight. I wriggled out of my sleeping bag and looked around for the source of it. I heard it again from my left and looked there to see Tay, curled up tight in the layer of blankets she had gone to sleep in. I was puzzled over why she didn't just sleep in a sleeping bag, but that wasn't the time to be thinking about that, so I looked around there. As my vision got clearer due to getting used to the darkness, I realized that all of Tay's Pokemon were crowding around her. I quickly jogged over and crouched beside them.
Tay seemed to be having a nightmare. She kept muttering, "Ash... no... don't go..." Her face was screwed up in fear. Suddenly, her eyes shot wide open, knocking me down as she sat up, her face pale, trembling. As I sat up again, her face cleared and she sighed.
"Va por poreon?" her Vaporeon, Cloudy I believed, asked with a concerned look on its face.
"Yeah, it was the usual one," Tay answered.
"'Usual'?" I inquired.
"Ever since my brother passed, I've been having nightmares." Tay explained quietly.
"Ash was his name... right?" I based my guess on what she had murmured.
"Yeah, how did you... I was muttering in my sleep, wasn't I?" the last part of it was directed at her Pokemon.
"Flare flareon," Flame murmured.
"Yeah, his name was Ash Ketchum. His dream was to be a Pokemon Master, so in honor of that, I'm going after that same goal." she explained.
"That's a good way of honoring him," I nodded.
"Yeah, it's how I remember him, just like how I don't nickname Pikachu." Tay nodded. "Now let's get some sleep."
I nodded and returned to my sleeping bag.
A/N:
Skitty: Hi! Nothing Psychic wanted me to say today except to remember to review and happy holidays!
