I swear, I wrote seven pages last chapter. Anyway, Chapter 21 go! Oh yeah, the phones are like the ones in the show.

I don't own Pokémon.

Once fully healed at the Pokémon Center, we all waited until Quentin came back. In about ten minutes he came bursting in looking around. Mel put her book down and waved over at him.

"Why did you leave me at the gym?!"

"Well, I had to get Stan here as soon as possible! What if he was poisoned? Besides, I can't go on to then next town without you."

"That is true…"

"Anyway, come with me. It's about time I call Professor Rowan with news on my journey."

The three of us, Mel, Quentin and I, walked over to the telephones and quickly dialed Professor Rowan's number. After about three rings, one of the professor's assistants answered.

"Professor Rowan's lab… Oh Mel! I'll get the professor, please hold."

"Thank you."

Soon, the professor himself came on.

"Ah Mel, good to see you."

"It's good to see you too Professor Rowan. How is Beah doing?

"He's doing just fine. Right now he's resting from today's training session."

"Okay, that's great to hear. Oh! Did you see my Pokédex record?"

"Why yes, I'm looking at it right now. Actually, I was going to ask you a question about it."

"Huh? What would that be?"

"Well, I see that you have both Beautifly and Dustox registered."

"Yeah! Here's my Beautifly now. Come out Fluttershy!"

Mel threw the Pokéball to release the Butterfly Pokémon. Fluttershy then proceeded to fly around until she finally landed on Mel's head.

"My friend Quentin has the Dustox. Would you like to see it sir?"

"Please, if you may."

Quentin then reached for his Pokéball and released his Dustox. He directly landed on his arm.

"Hmmm…"

"I-is there a problem sir?" Mel said with slight hesitation

"No, it's not that. I was actually wondering if I could borrow your Pokémon for a while…"

"Borrow our Pokémon sir?" Quentin added looking a bit concerned

"Well, as you know, I research Pokémon evolution. I have always wanted to study the evolution of Wurmple but I have never been able to get proper results. In other words, I want to study your Beautifly and Dustox."

"Well, it's fine with me. What about you Quinny?"

"Well, if it's Professor Rowan, it should be alright."

"Please send them over as soon as you can."

"Alright professor. Will do."

Mel hung up the phone and then took a long look at Fluttershy. She reached up and pulled her down of off her head.

"Fluttershy, I need to send you over to Professor Rowan's lab. Would that be alright with you?"

Fluttershy looked a bit confused so Mel decided to explain everything. At the same time, Quentin and his team were having a mini farewell party for Dustox. After Mel finished explaining, she pulled out Stan, Sparkle and Rarity to say their goodbyes to Fluttershy.

"Bye Fluttershy we'll see you soon, okay?" Stan said while holding his wing out

Fluttershy accepted his wing and shook it with her tiny arms.

"When you're there say 'hi' to Beah for us, okay?"

"No problem Sparkle."

Rarity didn't say much to Fluttershy but she did hold her arms out for a hug.

"I'll see you all later then!"

Before Fluttershy flew over to Mel, she came to say bye to me.

"I'll see you later then Pen."

"Have fun while you're there Fluttershy. I know I did."

"Thank you."

With that final sentence, Fluttershy went back into her Pokéball and Mel put her in the transporter. Next to go was Quentin's Dustox. Afterward, Mel and Quentin put everyone back in their balls except for Graveler and me. We then decided to move on to the next town.

"Hmm… So apparently with this badge I can use Cut outside of battles. It looks like I can cut down small trees."

"Who are you going to teach it too?"

"Well, it's a Normal move so I think I'll teach it to Rarity. I'll just have her forget Defense Curl. Hold on…"

Mel then left with Rarity and came back about five minutes later. Mel looked a bit scuffed up though.

"What happened?!"

"Well, Rarity tried using Cut but it somehow ended up hitting me. We need to find some trees to test this on."

"How about those trees over there?"

Quentin pointed at the strange building Mel and I noticed yesterday.

"They look Cut-able… Let's try it then!"

We approached the row off trees. They were pretty small but we couldn't get past them.

"Okay Rarity, try using Cut on those trees."

Rarity didn't respond but she followed Mel's order. With a swift movement, the trees blocking the way all fell to the ground.

"Hmmm… Pen, want to go investigate?"

I instantly nodded while Quentin just looked in surprise.

"You're going in there?!"

"Don't worry! It might be a fun little adventure! Come on guys. Let's go in then!"

As we entered the building we were met with a familiar man. He was dressed in a tan trench coat with a serious look etched on his face.

"Mr. Looker? What are you doing in here?"

"A lead brought me here. I was told that I could find out more information on that Team Galactic. Hey, will you two be willing to help me out?"

"How so Mr. Looker?"

"Well, I was wondering if you could help me in my investigation. I need someone to go ahead and scope out the building while I investigate out here."

"You just don't want to battle anyone, right Mr. Looker?"

There was an awkward silence. Looker ended up averting his eyes and tried his best to change the subject.

"You two move along then…"

As Looker walked out of the building the rest of us just sighed.

"Might as well help out. Let's go Rarity, Pen."

Going through the building was like walking through a maze. There were many different stairways that led to idle rooms. There were large crates that blocked passages. After about an hour we came across a room with walls that looked as if they were painted with the night sky. We continued down the long corridor until we saw a large G symbol on the floor. We looked inside the last room to find a tall woman dressed in silver and black. She had a strange way of styling her hair but she looked like she was a superior rank to those we've defeated in the lower levels. As we approached her, she turned to us and gave a strange smirk.

"Eh? Did you want something? How silly of me to even ask. You want to free the Pokémon. Yeah, like that's gonna happen!"

"Oh it will!"

Just then, the woman let out her first Pokémon, a Zubat. Mel sent Sparkle out to against her.

"Oh no no no! This shall be a double battle!"

"Okay then! Even better! Quinny! Watch over Rarity, 'kay?"

"Got it!"

Mel then put me in as well while the opponent released a Skuntank.

"Okay Sparkle, use Spark! Pen, you use BubbleBeam! Let's take out this Zubat!"

At the same time we took aim at the Zubat. Giving it no time to doge, it fainted right then and there.

"How insolent. Take a bite of this, child! Skuntank! Use Night Slash on that Luxio!"

The Skuntank lashed forward and released a slash on Sparkle. It was a critical hit.

"Sparkle are you okay? Rarity! Switch out!"

Rarity obeyed and replaced Sparkle while I attacked the enemy with my BubbleBeam. Then the Skuntank came in with another Night Slash.

"Move it Rarity!" I called out pretty instinctively

I then immediately shoved Rarity out of the way of the attack and took it myself. Luckily I didn't get a Critical Hit but it still did some damage. As I got back on my feet Rarity showed a bit of concern but tried to hide it.

"Pen, use BubbleBeam! Rarity, you use Cut!"

Both of our attacks landed on the Skuntank before it could us. Luckilly the power was enough to knock it out.

"Losing to some child... Being careless cost me too much."

Mel didn't say anything to the woman. She just had us return to her side and gave us some Oran Berries to heal up.

"Well, aren't you tough...?"

"Should I take that as a compliment?"

"It's OK, though. Our official Pokémon-statue investigation is finished. Mars has collected energy from the Valley Windworks. We're pretty much finished here. I'll let you in on one little thing."

"And what would that be?"

"Our boss is researching the myths of ancient Pokémon. With the power of mythical Pokémon, he will become the ruler of Sinnoh... I suggest you keep out of Team Galactic's affairs from now on. This is your last warning!"

The woman then walked of and left us in the building alone.

"We should look for Mr. Looker now. Let's go then guys."

We left the building and headed to the Pokémon Center to get healed up.

"Why didn't you let me help out? You know I like to battle too."

"I felt that two against one would be cheating."

"But those trainers that we battled before did it too…"

"Honestly, I just wanted Rarity to battle in a double battle with one of my other Pokémon. I thought that that would help her open up to us a bit more."

"I guess it worked then…"

Then suddenly, attention was drawn to Rarity. Ever since that last battle, all she would do is follow me around. I guess she just wanted to ask if I was alright but couldn't bring herself to do it.

She's really interesting. Oh well, she'll open up soon…

We then left the Center and decided to go north. It was there that we were met with a tall woman dressed in black. She had long blonde hair and gray eyes. She looked like she was looking for someone and then she stopped when she saw Mel.

"Oh hello there! I couldn't help but notice that device you have there."

"Oh, you mean this?"

Mel held out her Pokédex to the woman and a smile grew on her face.

"Oh yes the Pokédex. It brings back memories… Oh I'm sorry! What's your name?"

"Oh I'm Mel and this is my friend Quentin. Right now we're on a journey aiming for the Pokémon League."

"I'll be sure to remember that name! My name is Cynthia. I'm a Trainer just like you."

"Really! Wow that's great!"

"I've been studying Pokémon mythology lately, just out of curiosity. Here in Eterna City, there is a statue of an ancient Pokémon. Have you seen it already?"

"Why yes we have. We went to see it yesterday."

"Well, according to myth, it was an extremely powerful Pokémon. Who knows? You may encounter something like it while you're traveling with your Pokédex."

"Wow! Wouldn't that be cool Quinny?!"

As Mel and Quentin discussed powerful Pokémon, Cynthia just giggled and smiled at the sight of it. Then, as if remembering to turn off the fire, Cynthia began to rustle around in her bag until she pulled out a strange case.

"Mel, I've got something nice for you. I wanted you to have this Pokémon Egg. The thing is, I have almost no time to raise it and I don't want to keep it from reaching its full potential. Will you accept it?"

"B-but Ms. Cynthia! We just met! You want to entrust me with something that precious?!"

"Why not? You seem like a capable and loving trainer. So do you want it?"

"Sure! I promise to love and train it well."

"That's good! Tell me when it's hatched, alright?"

"I will!"

"So what kind of Pokémon do you think it is?"

"I don't know… Maybe it's a super rare one? What do you think Pen?"

Well at this point I wasn't really sure what to think. All I knew was that we would be getting a new friend pretty soon.

"Well, the only way to find out is to keep moving. Let's go on to the next town!"

"Umm Mel?"

"Yes Quinny?"

"We're going to need bikes for the next route."

"What?! But when I last went to the bike shop it was closed, right?"

"Well, it should be open now. Remember? The bike owner was inside the building that we infiltrated."

"Really?"

"Yeah so let's go see if we could get some cheap bikes then."

As we went to the shop Mel was surprised to see that the Open sign was up. We entered the shop to see a man working on fine tuning a bike. As we approached he popped his head up and looked at us with a grin.

"You're the guy that saved me, right?"

"Wait, what? When did this happen Quinny?"

"When you were battling that one woman. While you had her distracted, I took the time to release him."

"Ohhh… That makes sense now."

The shop owner stood up and walked over to Quentin and Mel.

"For saving me, I've got something for you two."

The man went to the back and returned to the room with two new bicycles. They were both a bright red, collapsible bicycles.

"You can take these bikes free of charge!"

"Seriously?! But Mr. Rickshaw, are you sure?!"

"Oh I'm quite sure. It's the least I could do. That and the next route is a cycling route so you two will need bikes."

"Well, thank you then."

As Mel thanked Rickshaw, Quentin was toying around with his bike trying to figure out how to make it collapse.

"Well, I guess we should be off then. Thank you for everything Mr. Rickshaw!"

"It was my pleasure."

We left the shop and Mel then began to mount her bike.

"Let's get to that next route guys!"

O.O

Eight pages this time.

O.O

What's wrong with me?