Disclaimer: That disclaimer over there makes this one here seem a bit superfluous, really. (Yes, that was a Pirates reference) You guys know what I own by now. Unless you're the type that doesn't catch on easily. In which case, I really only own Evey, Jack, and their Pokemon's nicknames.
Chapter 14
Southbound to Veilstone
Past the foggy part of the route - which we managed to get past in under four hours this time - and past the little cafe cabin, there was a branch route that led east.
"So this path leads to Veilstone City, huh?" I wondered out loud. "Sydney, can you see if you can find the quickest route?"
"Finally, I get to do something! I've been sitting for too long!" She made a show of stretching her wings and practicing flapping her wings. "You gotta let me do stuff more!"
"No need to be snippy about it," I grumbled.
Adrian looked up from the Berry he was quietly nibbling on. "Mama, I go too?"
"No, sweetie, it's dangerous," I said.
"Aw, come on!" Sydney protested. "He's really little. I could carry him. I'd be really careful, promise!"
"Well..." I said reluctantly.
Adrian looked up at me with the most adorable begging expression. "Mama, please?"
"... Okay, fine, you can go." Past the cheers from the two, I added, "But if Adrian has even one scratch on him, you're gonna be in big trouble, Sydney."
She just rolled her eyes as I placed the little red Riolu on her back. Adjusting his position slightly, she walked down my arm so I could give her a boost. I tossed her up in the air, and after a few seconds of laboured flapping, she began to fly smoothly over the unknown path.
Jack chuckled, smirking at me. "A little overprotective, are we?"
I rolled my own eyes. "He's only a baby. I don't want him to get hurt."
"I can see that," he replied.
A few minutes later, Sydney and Adrian came back into sight. The two were soaked, but laughing.
I extended my arm, but in true Sydney style, the bird ignored my arm and landed on my head. She passed Adrian down to me in her beak.
"It's raining," she reported unnecessarily. "There's a few cliffs and stuff on the first part of the path, and then a couple of ledges and a straight walk through a bit of forest."
"Thanks," I told her. "Let's see if I can't remember that one charm... Not Impedimenta... Not Reducto... What is it again?"
"What are you talking about?" Jack asked over my muttering.
"No... Oh! That's it!" I pulled out my wand and pointed it at my jacket. "Impervius!"
Jack waited a second, probably expecting some kind of noise. When nothing happened, he frowned. "What did that do?"
"It made my jacket waterproof, so I won't get wet. I should probably do it to the rest of me too... Or at least my face." I pointed my wand at myself and cast Impervius again. I pointed it at Jack's face. "Want me to do it to you too?"
He shrugged. "Might as well."
I cast it on his face, then on his jacket. Ruby wanted me to waterproof her too, but Jack intervened, saying, "What if it doesn't wear off? It would give you an unfair advantage in battles."
"Okay, then I'm jumping into your jacket." Jack stumbled back half a step as she jumped onto his chest and burrowed underneath his coat. Chuckling, he zipped it up over her.
We started running down the path. After about a minute or two, when large cliffs and bridges were coming into view, the sky turned into a heavy gray cloud blanket and poured water over us. My spell worked, apparently, since the rain didn't land on our faces, instead bouncing off of an invisible barrier about half a centimeter away.
Stairs had been cut into the cliffs in front of us. Jack accelerated and blasted past me up the stairs, laughing at me while I trotted up carefully. I scowled at him when I reached the top.
"When you fall, I'm gonna laugh so hard," I told him. "You will fall if you run around up here."
"I never fall," he bragged. "I have great balance."
Then, he took off running across the soaked wooden bridge to the next cliff, and fell on his butt halfway over. I burst out laughing as he turned and halfheartedly glared at me.
"I meant to do that," he muttered, picking himself up.
I crossed carefully over to him, although I was still laughing. "Sure ya did, klutz."
He scowled again, shoved my arm, and crossed the rest of the bridge. I stumbled from his push and righted myself quickly, hugging Adrian tighter to my chest.
"Jerk!" I called, running after him, but the effect was kind of ruined when I laughed.
We ran through the pouring rain up and down cliffs, over rather rickety wooden bridges, and through puddles that came up to our ankles. We only stopped when a passing hiker challenged us.
"Inuise, you're up!" I called, sending out the black dragon.
"Ace!" Jack called simply, tossing her Poke ball into the air.
"Geodude! Onix! Crush these Pokémon!" Geodude came out of the Poke ball with fists clenched, and Onix landed on the ground with a roar.
"Inuise! Show that Onix a Dragon Rage!"
"Ace! Turn that Geodude into gravel with a Fury Swipes attack!"
"Geodude, Rock Blast, Onix, Iron Tail!" Our opponent ordered.
Geodude hurled a barrage of rocks in Ace's direction, but she dodged them and closed on the rock Pokémon. Inuise built up a fireball, but had to let it go in a random direction to dodge Onix's tail. The fire soared over Onix's head, but Inuise managed to dodge the rock snake's attack.
Ace's claws were taking tiny chunks off of Geodude, but they were mostly ineffective. Drawing its arms in close, Geodude pushed Ace away from it and followed up with a tackle. Ace was sent flying back.
Inuise had built up another fireball and sent it flying towards Onix's head. It connected with its eye, and the snake roared in pain, thrashing its tail around wildly.
"Now follow it up!" I called. "Use Twister!"
She sent a whirlwind flying. The wind picked up three rocks and a branch off of the ground and sent them spinning at Onix's eye. It thrashed uncontrollably in pain, narrowly missing hitting Ace but knocking Geodude into the ground. Onix shook for a few more seconds before it fell over unconscious.
"Good job, Onix!" The trainer called, returning Onix to its Poke ball. "It's Seviper's turn now!"
Out of the next Poke ball cam a black and purple snake with a foot-long blade on its tail and yellow-rimmed eyes. I supposed that this was the Pokémon that had a feud with Zangoose, but oddly enough, when the snake caught sight of Ace, its eyes bugged out. After it had recovered, it did the oddest thing: it ran its blade over its head. I had a feeling that if Seviper was a human, it would be smoothing its hair back.
"Hey baby, what's shaking?" The snake Pokémon asked Ace in a smooth, suave male's voice. "Has anyone ever told you that you are one gorgeous Pokémon?"
I was barely able to stop myself from laughing.
"What is the snake saying?" Jack asked me in a hushed whisper.
"He's... flirting with her," I gasped, giggling silently. "How does that even work?"
Ace narrowed her eyes at Seviper. "Are you hitting on me?"
"I'm trying to be nice. You really are a stunner. I'd hit that any -" He was cut off by one of Ace's paws hitting him in the face, like a slap.
"No one hits on me without getting hit back," she seethed. Ace marched over to Jack, scowling.
"Inuise, hit Geodude with a Dragon Rage!" I ordered, trying to sound like I didn't know what had just happened.
Jack shook his head, grinning, then gave me a look like I would have to tell him exactly what had happened later. "Ace, Slash."
"Seviper, Poison Fang! Geodude - look out!" Cried the other trainer as Inuise sent a fireball towards the rock Pokémon. Geodude moved too slowly, thanks to its wounds from Onix, and was knocked out by the fireball.
Seviper, meanwhile, was trying to explain itself to Ace while he dodged her claws. "I meant it as a compliment, babe!"
"You're still a slimy snake!" She growled, delivering a powerful slash to Seviper's face that knocked him back.
"Finish him with Fury Swipes, Ace," Jack called, grinning. Whether it was from amusement or from just about winning the battle, I wasn't sure.
Ace was on Seviper in an instant, attacking his scaly body with her sharp claws. Seviper tried to knock her away with his tail, but she was too intent on knocking him out that she didn't even flinch. Seviper was down and out a few seconds later.
Inuise went over to Ace and kind of high-fived her, slapping Ace's paw with the end of her tail.
"That Seviper had no respect."
"Still annoying, though," Ace grumbled.
"You kids have some tough Pokémon," our opponent grinned. "And you Dratini is a very interesting colour - huh?" He was still looking at her. I glanced over, then did a double-take as I realized that she was glowing.
"What's going on? Inuise?" I asked nervously.
Jack chuckled at my reaction. "Relax, she's just evolving."
The glow surrounding Inuise's body became longer and more slender. About thirty seconds after she had started to glow, the light faded, leaving a long, skinny dragon on the ground.
The colouring of the dragon was the same as Inuise's - black back and a pink belly. It was a lucky thing, too, because I might have otherwise thought that someone else's dragon had replaced mine.
On her neck, right below her chin, there was a pink pearl the size of a golf ball. Her snout had become a little less prominent, becoming thinner and slightly longer. The wings on her head had also become longer, and the little nub on her forehead had changed into a short, sharp-looking horn.
"Holy... Wow. You look great, Inuise!" She came over to me and wrapped herself around my shoulders twice. There was still enough of her tail left over to be able to almost touch the ground, though.
Sydney hopped off my head and onto her back. "Cool! I know a Dragonair!"
"Maybe you'll be able to evolve soon too, Sydney," I said quietly.
"Maybe. But I like being a Wingull, though!"
The other trainer watched me with a smile on his face. A really wide one. "Congratulations, kid. Good luck, wherever you're going."
"Thanks. Good luck to you too." The man walked away, and Jack turned to me.
"So, what did that Seviper say to Ace that got her all riled up?"
"Oh, well, he said..." I started as we carried on walking toward Veilstone City.
By about eight at night, we had made it into the beginnings of the trees Sydney had mentioned. Jack and I argued about whether or not to make camp here or keep going to reach Veilstone today. In the end, we wound up sending Sydney to find out how far we still were.
"At your pace, maybe two or three hours," she said as she landed back on my head and as Adrian reached up to grab her tail feathers. "Ouch!"
I looked up in her direction. "Are you calling us slow?" I asked suspiciously.
"No, of course not. Why would I do that?" She answered mock innocently. "Not the tail, little guy," she added as Adrian tugged at her feathers again.
Jack sighed. "Looks like we're gonna sleep out here, then." I tossed my bag onto the ground, put Adrian down, and started rummaging through it to find the tents. I didn't notice Adrian run off towards a tree.
"Here they are," I grinned triumphantly as I pulled both tent packs out of my bag. Jack took his and began to put it up with the help of Ace.
"So, we're going to face Veilstone Gym tomorrow. Do you know what type that Gym is?" I asked as Alec helped me put up my own tent.
"Veilstone's Fighting type, I think."
"So we'll have to work on Wing Attack, Sydney," I remarked to the seagull Pokémon.
"Yeah, Evey? I think we have something else to worry about..." She was staring at a tree.
"What is it?" I dropped the tent pole I was holding to look at the tree. There wasn't anything particularly interesting about it, so I turned away to finish with my tent. Alec, however, had dashed to the base of the tree. "Alec, what's wrong?"
"Adrian climbed the tree and can't get down!" Alec barked urgently. I immediately dashed over.
"Mama! I'm scared!" Adrian cried from a high branch.
"I know, sweetie!" I was panicking. As bad as I was at flying, I wished I had a broom. "Sydney, can you grab him and bring him down?"
"I wouldn't be able to get out of there with him! The branches are too close together!" She seemed to be panicking, too. "Hang on, Adrian!"
Jack came over, realizing something was happening. "Ace, could you get Adrian out of there?"
Ace considered the tree, then nodded. "I could get the branches out of the way with my claws."
"But what if you hit Adrian?" I asked, terrified. Then, a crack sounded from the tree above us. I could feel the blood rush out of my cheeks as I weakly muttered, "Never mind. No time."
Ace sunk her claws into the tree trunk and began to pull herself up the tree. When she reached the height of the branch Adrian was on, she started slashing twigs out of the way.
Once enough of the twigs were gone, Ace grabbed Adrian from where he was clinging to a half-broken branch. "I've got you, little guy. Hold on."
Adrian clung to her fur as she brought them carefully back to the ground. When she released the tree, Adrian ran right over to me and I picked him up.
"Mama, I was so scared..."
"It's okay, sweetie. I got ya," I murmured as he clung to me. Just then another crack came from the tree and Jack tackled me.
"Get out of the way!" He yelled, bringing me and Adrian to the ground while the heavy tree branch fell to the ground, right where I had been standing a moment before.
I screamed. "Oh my god! That was close!" I focused on Jack, who was still lying on top of me. "You saved me.
"Yeah," he muttered.
"Thanks," I mumbled, blushing. His presence was starting to get a little awkward... Fortunately, he pushed himself off of me and offered me a hand up. I took it gratefully and pulled myself to my feet, making sure that Adrian wasn't hurt. He was shaken, but uninjured.
"Don't run off again, okay, Adrian?" I admonished. "Just play with Sydney until I get the tent set up."
"Okay, Mama. Can I have a Berry?" I pulled an Oran Berry out of Jack's pouch inside my bag and handed it to him. He sat down and started nibbling on it happily while Sydney watched and Alec and I finished putting up our tent. Afterwards, we had dinner and sat around the fire for a while, talking. I was telling a story about one of my little adventures inside the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts. I conveniently left out the part where I was actually avoiding a Carrow detention in there, since the way I told it was much more interesting.
"So I heard a howling in the distance, coming closer. I was pretty sure it was a werewolf. I was terrified, but I wasn't going to leave. I could hear its footsteps a good distance away. It was pacing, trying to decide whether to eat me in one bite or two, I bet." I grinned as Sydney gasped, leaning a little closer. Jack was just staring at me with a bored expression on his face, as though he didn't believe me.
"Then what happened?" Sydney asked eagerly.
"He decided how he wanted to eat me, apparently, because he started running in my direction. He came out from behind a tree beside me and was about to pounce on me when, from out of nowhere, he got hit by an arrow! A painful stick that is supposed to hurt people," I added at my Pokemon's confused looks. "Anyway, a second later, the werewolf got run over by a big, angry centaur! I watched them fight for a while. It was awesome! The centaur was beating up the werewolf so bad, he couldn't even manage to hit the centaur. As soon as they got far enough away, I ran back to the castle, though. I was terrified that I might wind up getting hit by one of them."
"Wow, Mama, you did some scary things!" Adrian said excitedly. "Can you tell another story, please?"
"Not tonight, sweetie. We're going to need our rest for tomorrow. We've got a big day ahead of us."
The Pokémon groaned good-naturedly, then my Pokémon headed into my tent, and Jack's into his, except for Sydney. She went into Jack's tent alongside Ruby. I rolled my eyes and glanced at Jack. He shrugged.
"As long as they don't talk all night. I might not understand them, but I can still hear 'em."
"Just tell Sydney to shut up," I chuckled. "Thanks for saving us earlier."
"No problem." He got up and came closer. "Just don't make it a habit."
"I'll try." I stood up a little awkwardly. He was really close to me, closer than he usually was. "Um..."
He took another step, so he was right in front of me, his face filling my field of vision. I leaned back a little, not totally comfortable with being this close, but he grabbed my shoulders and brought his face even closer. I closed my eyes instinctively. I could feel his breath across my face as he leaned his head in and -
My Pokegear suddenly rang. Jack started back with a sudden curse. "Dammit! Are you serious!"
"Apparently," I muttered, my voice a mixture of anger and relief. I answered my Pokegear, noting that it was Dana calling, and making a mental note to kill her later. "Hello?"
"Hi Evey!" She chirped out in that annoying way of hers. "How's it going? What's going on?"
"Nothing, really. You sound happy."
"Yeah, I am," she sighed dreamily. "I just had a date with Ash Ketchum."
I winced in sympathy for him. "How was it?"
"Oh, it was great! We went to this really popular sushi place in Jubilife City, then went to a dance and for a walk in the park after."
"Sounds great. Listen, Dana, I don't mean to be rude, but it's about ten at night and I kind of want to get to bed."
"Oh! Before you go, where are you? How's the journey going?"
"We're heading to Veilstone in the morning."
"Awesome! Tell Maylene I said hi! Goodnight!"
"Wait, who's... Maylene," I muttered as she hung up.
Jack scowled at the Pokegear in my hand. "Remind me to strangle her when we see her next."
"I couldn't agree more. Goodnight."
"Goodnight," he grunted, then disappeared into his tent. I shrugged and went into mine.
That night, my dreams were filled with Jack's face floating in front of me.
A/N: Hey, look, I'm back! AcaelusThorne, that was the evil time for Dana to call. And wasn't it? Muhahaha! Anyway, Team Evack (Evey and Jack, as said by AcaelusThorne - I'm stealing everything again lol ;) have made camp just outside of Veilstone, and are headed to face Maylene in the morning. And Jack tried to kiss Evey! Do tell how you guys feel about the possibility of this pairing. The "romantic" stuff would stay as more of a background still, since I don't write romance.
Blastburnman: Oh, okay, that clears it up a little more. Thanks. I'll consider it.
Guest (from chapter 4): Thank you! I'm glad you love it!
Guest #2: Here you are, one new chapter, served fresh. ;)
Guest #3: Thank you for the birthday wishes, and here you go!
Please review! Every one brings a smile to my face. So no ghost readers allowed! :)