-Chapter 14: One Big Family-

-Vulcan's POV-

Zzzzzz….

*bump*

Hm…? What…?

*bump bump*

"Ugh… Not now, Connor…"

"Huh…? Vulcan, I'm still in bed…"

I cracked open an eye just to be blinded by a flash of light right in front of me. After I blinked the spots out, I opened both of my eyes and a big pair of yellow and blue eyes stared back at me. After looking around, the pokemon turned back to me, "Hi...iii~"

I jumped out of the bed, "WHOA!"

The little pokemon started toddling around the room, and Connor opened his eyes, then sat up, "What the-?"

The little pokemon giggled, and Connor chuckled, "Ha! He's cute!" He looked at it, "What kind of pokemon are you?"

The little blue pokemon tilted its head, "Poke?"

"I think it's too young to understand what you say."

Tilting its head again, the little pokemon looked at me, "You say?"

Connor looked at it, still in shock, "Um… What should we do? Do you know anything about this pokemon?"

I shook my head, "I don't… But Chatot probably would. He's like the know-it-all of the guild."

Connor nodded, "Let's go ask, then!"

He stood up, and the little pokemon toddled over to me and hid behind my back, holding on to the base of my tail. I couldn't reach it myself, and Connor looked sort of hurt, "Did I scare him?"

I shook my head, "I don't know…" I looked at it, and it stared back at me, and it clicked in my head. Aw, crap…

Manaphy let go of my tail after my flame flared up, and it held my hand, which was a comforting gesture, I guess, "I don't think you scared it. I just think that it's only comfortable around me."

He tilted his head, "Why's that?"

"When pokemon are hatched in the wild, they grow up by themselves, or find somebody that they imprint on. Somebody to take care of them until they're old enough to go off by themselves… A… A parent, of sorts."

The blue pokemon climbed up my back and sat on my shoulders, and Connor looked at the both of us, "So… he thinks…"

"That's right. He thinks I'm his momma."

"..." Connor stared at the both of us, and I stared back. Let it sink in…

Sure enough, he smiled as he tried to suppress his laughter, "Hmf… Pff…"

I sighed as I started walking, the baby pokemon still on my shoulders, "Let it all out now. I need you to be serious when we talk to Chatot. And I'm going to get it a lot worse when I tell the recruits."

Connor laughed so hard that he was crying, all the way to the guild. By the time we got there, he had calmed down. We told Chatot what had happened, and he examined the baby, which was peeking out from behind my back.

"Hmm… Well, to be honest, this is the first time I've actually seen a pokemon of this sort. But from what you've told me, this pokemon appears to be a Manaphy. The youngster is an exceedingly rare pokemon. So much so that there are only a few in the whole world. It's said to hatch at the bottom of a cold sea, then travels over thousands of miles."

I was intrigued, "So, this little guy's a rare pokemon, huh?"

Manaphy smiled and sang, "Rare~ Rare~!"

Chatot nodded, "I should emphasize that a Manaphy is very rarely sighted. As a result, very little is actually known about the pokemon."

I nodded, "Okay…"

"So what are you two planning to do with this youngster?"

"Well, we were going to take him back to the Surrounded Sea while he was still an egg, but he hatched. And now we-"

"Weh… Weh… Waaaaaah!" Manaphy started bawling. I looked at it after kneeling down, "What's wrong? Are you hungry?"

"I would imagine so." Chatot said.

"What do we feed him?"

Chatot tilted his head, "I'm not sure… But since it is a water-type pokemon… How about blue gummies?"

I nodded, "Sure! Connor's got a heap of them in storage!"

Connor nodded, "Let's go!"

We grabbed two blue gummies from storage, and Connor looked at me, "Why two?"

"So that way when he gets hungry again, we'll have one with us."

When we made it back to the guild, Manaphy was still crying, and I knelt down to it, "Here, little guy…" I held out the gummi, and Manaphy stopped crying.

"You'll like this… It's a blue gummi…"

"...Goomi?" He took it in his hands and nibbled on the end. He perked up and scarfed the rest of it down, then started skipping around, "Goomi! Goomi!"

He jumped forward and hugged my stomach. "Goomi~ Goomi~" I stiffened up, but hugged him back.

Connor said, "Vulcan, could we just look after him for a little bit? Until he is big enough to go out on his own?"

I thought about it for a bit. Even if we take him back, he'll just follow us home… And I guess there's no harm in it.

"Alright. We'll do it."

Manaphy mimicked, "Doodit~!"

Chatot shook his head slightly, "I'm not sure this is a good idea…"

We both looked at him, and he continued, "This pokemon is one that would normally grow up in the sea. This environment is obviously different in a number of ways… Add to that, we know next to nothing about Manaphy… Who knows what could happen?"

Connor looked down, "But… It's not safe to just leave him to fend on his own. The dungeon we got the egg from was crazy dangerous! We'll just look after him for a little bit, until he is big enough to fend for himself, okay?"

Chatot didn't look convinced, "Hmm…"

I added, "We'll take good care of him, I promise!"

"...Fine. If you insist."

I nodded, "You can count on us! No worries!"

After walking Manaphy back to the bluff, I set up another small bed of hay, "Alright, Manaphy… For now, this is your home…"

He looked at me, "Home?"

"That's right. Home. We'll look after you, little guy…"

Manaphy grinned, "Home~! Home~!"

Connor looked at me, "Um… So… What are we supposed to do now?"

"Goomi! Goomi!"

We both looked at Manaphy, who was searching through my wonder bag that I left in the corner. He pulled out the second Blue Gummi that we grabbed from storage and ate it. I smiled, "I guess it's already found out where we keep our stash."

Connor smiled, "Manaphy…?"

The little pokemon walked closer, "...?"

"Is it tasty? Er… Goomi tasty?"

Manaphy looked confused, "Tasty?"

"Yeah… Tasty?"

Manaphy giggled, "Tasty! Goomi tasty!"

I smiled as I sat down, "The little guy's going to grow up in no time at this rate!"

Manaphy's eyes became squinty and his energy died down. I raised an eyebrow, "Something wrong, Manaphy?"

He curled up on the hay bed I made, and closed his eyes after letting out a yawn. I chuckled, "I guess the little guy's tired. Let's let him nap for now. Connor, can you go tell the recruits that missions are off today, and I'll explain later?"

He nodded and strode up the stairs.

After a little while, he came back, and I asked, "How'd it go?"

"Pretty good. Magnus was a bit ticked, but Alice calmed him down with some sweet talking. She's gotten pretty good at it, too."

I nodded, "Cool. When Manaphy wakes up we'll show the team."

We lounged around for a bit, and once Manaphy woke up, he toddled over to me. I stood up and lifted him onto my back. We walked to Spinda's Cafe, and when we got to the entrance, I took a deep breath, bracing myself for impact.

I stepped down, and our team was chatting with each other at the table. When I walked down, Mirage fluttered over to me, "Vulcan! Why are missions off for today?"

Manaphy poked his head over my shoulders, "Vulcan...?"

Mirage gasped, "Oh my gosh! Vulcan, where did you find a baby pokemon?"

Rose snaked over to me, "It's so cute!"

Manaphy looked at all of them, and Connor said, "Noc, you know that gem you and I found in the surrounded sea?"

He nodded, and Connor continued, "Well, it was actually an egg. It's where this little guy came from."

His eyes widened, and I said, "We'll be looking after him until he's old enough to go out on his own."

Connor added, "So we'll be leaving things to you guys for a little while. You can train if you want, and if you want to look for missions to do, ask Jade. She's in charge while we're busy." Nobody argued, and I thought of a couple more things. "Magnus, no swearing around the kid."

He humphed, "Fine."

Then he turned to Roy, "And if you so much as scare Manaphy, I'll-"

Roy smiled, "I get the point. But I wouldn't be so heartless as to scare a child. Please, do you think I'm that big of a scoundrel? He's much too young to take a joke."

I pulled out the envelope for the special mission, "We're going to open this envelope and see what all the fancy sealing and stuff is about."

I melted the wax off by heating up my finger and opened the envelope. I read it, and it said, "Find the Icy flute that lies at the peak of Mt. Avalanche… Jade, this is your kind of mission. Your ability should provide you lots of stealth, right?"

She nodded, "Yes, sir. I learned hail with a TM yesterday evening after training."

I nodded, "There's no need for all this 'sir' stuff. I want you to scout out the dungeon tomorrow and put together a good team to go get this Icy Flute, whatever it is."
She nodded as she grabbed the letter, "Consider it done." She read the location and it marked itself on my map. Just afterwards, the letter burst into flames and disintegrated, startling everyone.

Jade looked at me, "That was not me."

"Must be a self-destructing letter. For confidentiality, or something."

Rose tilted her head, "But… Why do you two have to stay? Can't you leave Manaphy with one of us?"

I shook my head, "No can do… Manaphy won't like being left alone without me."

Atlas raised an eyebrow, "Why's that?"

"Because…" Here it comes… "Manaphy thinks I'm his mom."

"..."

"..."

"...Pffft!" Of course Roy broke the silence first.

The rest of the team, minus Jade, Connor, Mirage and Rose spent the next five minutes laughing at me.

After they all calmed down and I handed out all the missions, Connor and I headed back to Sharpedo Bluff to call it a night.

-Connor's POV-

When we woke up the next morning, Vulcan woke up with a yawn, "Good morning, Connor!"

Manaphy opened one eye from the noise, and Vulcan smiled, "Good morning, Manaphy!"

"Hi! Morning! Connor! Vulcan!"

My eyes widened, "He already knows our names? That's awesome!"

Manaphy threw his arms into the air, "Awesome!"

I turned to Vulcan, "So… What do we do? Eating and sleeping all the time isn't healthy enough.

He smiled, "How about a walk at the beach?"

Manaphy floated up, "Walk~!"

We set out towards the beach, and as we walked through Treasure Town, we saw Jade and Alice talking. We kept walking, and when we reached the beach, Manaphy floated over to the water, and his jaw dropped, and he began laughing and looking at the waves.

"Manaphy, this is the sea."

"Sea?"

I nodded, "That's right… The sea. That's where you came from."

He jumped up, "Sea! Sea!" He floated in a circle around Vulcan, "Vulcan!"

He floated around me, "Connor!" Then he floated in front of both of us, "Sea! Sea!"

I chuckled, "I'm glad we brought him down to the beach. He looks really happy."

He floated back over to the waves and sang, "Sea~ Sea~!"

We spent the whole day playing in the sand, watching the waves, and in the evening, watched the sunset with the bubbles that the Krabby blew. After it began getting dark, we headed back to Sharpedo Bluff, ate dinner, and called it a night.

Manaphy... I was never really sure what gender it was, so I went with male, because I've got so many females on the team already. Anywho, school's out, so I'm doing once every other day uploads. Just a heads up. As always, hope you enjoyed! Feel free to leave a quick review or PM if you did! Go ahead and ask me questions if you want, too! It helps keep me motivated and better my stories as I go along. Stay awesome guys, and I will see you all in the next update! Much Love!

-PL