We reached a small town within about a day. It was the same town I'd stopped at after getting Charmander. That brought back some serious memories.
I looked at Latias and Latios. They were in their human forms.
"Okay," I said "you need to remember this. If anyone asks, your names are Brendan and May. Got it?"
They both nodded.
"Then let's go." We walked into the town and I led them to the pokemon center. They both seemed stunned by the atmosphere once we were inside.
"How do they get those tiny fires to stay lit?" Latios asked me, pointing up at the lights.
"Brendan, those are light bulbs" I told him.
"Cool!" he said happily.
Latias walked over to a computer and touched a button on the keyboard. The screen flashed to life and she jumped back.
"What is that thing?" She screamed, attracting some weird looks from nearby trainers.
"You're so funny May!" I pretended to laugh as I led her away. I whispered in her ear "It's called a computer, it's completely harmless."
"Neat!" she responded excitedly.
I told them to stay put and then walked over to Nurse Joy's desk and rented a room.
When we got there, they both ran to the beds and began bouncing on them happily.
I closed the door behind me and sat down on an empty bed. I took of my hat and ran my hand through my hair. Then I smelled something.
"What is that horrible smell?" I asked. They both shrugged.
"I think it's you two" I pointed at them "When was the last time either of you had a shower?"
"What's a shower?" they asked.
"That explains a lot" I said. I led them both to the bathroom and gestured toward the shower.
"This is a shower. You turn this knob on the wall and it makes water come out of the pipe at the top." I gestured to the knob and pipe on the wall.
"So it's like rinsing yourself off in the rain?" Latios asked.
"Yes, exactly! And since you guessed it, you're going first." I led Latias out of the room and shut the door behind me.
I listened to the door and and heard water running. "Good, I didn't have to show him." I was relieved about that.
"Hey Clayton!" he yelled from behind the door.
"What is it?"
"Where's the sand and rocks?"
"What are you talking about?"
"How do you get clean without sand and rocks to scrub the dirt off?"
"Humans use soap."
"What the heck is soap?"
"It's that bar of fats and oils sitting on the edge of the tub."
"That sounds awesome!" There was a brief pause, and then, "Blegh! This tastes nothing like what you just said!"
"You don't eat it! You use it to get clean!"
"Fine."
After that, he quit talking and I sat down on one of the beds and let Mew, Charizard, Torterra, Kanga, and Khan out to play.
Latias started playing some kind of hide-and-seek with Khan and Mew.
After a few minutes, Latios came out of the bathroom wearing another set of clothes that looked just like his old ones.
"Your turn!" he said and he pushed Latias into the bathroom and shut the door behind her.
She took almost twice as long as he did. When she came back out, her hair was tied back in her bandanna like before.
"Can we turn into ourselves now?" She asked.
"Just a second." I walked over to the door and locked it. "Ok, go ahead."
There was a flash of gold light as they turned back into pokemon.
"Happy now?" I asked.
They both nodded as they settled down in the corner of the room and fell asleep.
"Phew, I thought they'd never calm down" I said to myself.
I fell asleep very quickly that night.
The next morning, we got an early start to exploring the town.
Latias wanted to check out the clothing store to see how her human form would look with some new outfits.
"Remind me again," I said "how do you not know what a shower is, and yet still know what a clothing store is?"
"We've turned invisible and flown through towns before" Latias said.
I put my hand over her mouth. "Remember MAY" I whispered angrily "Humans can't turn invisible or fly!"
She nodded and I removed my hand.
"You can go in and look around, but don't try to buy anything! I don't have much money with me."
"Okey dokey!" she laughed as she walked into the store.
I looked at Latios as we waited outside the store. "So how old are you two?"
Latios's brow furrowed as he thought. "I'm not actually sure, but I know we've been around for at least the last ten years. I can't really remember anything past that."
"That must be when you guys hatched" I said, careful not to let anyone nearby overhear us.
"I guess so."
"Wanna go check on your sister?"
"We don't have anything better to do."
We walked into the store and started looking for Latias. It didn't take long, she was at the changing rooms trying on a bright pink outfit covered in glitter.
"What do you guys think?" she asked, curtsying like a ballerina.
"I think that's a contest dress that costs more than what I make in a year" I said, jokingly.
"How many of those have you tried on?" Latios asked.
"Just a few. I'm almost ready to go." She disappeared into the changing room. When she reappeared, she was in her normal clothes again.
After we left the clothing store, I insisted that we hit the road again. I was hoping we could hurry up and get back to Lumiose city.
We left the town and started down the road that led to the city.
It didn't take long for them to say, "Clayton, we're tired of walking, can we transform and fly now?"
"We'll attract too much attention. Besides, it was you two who wanted to see the countryside. I wanted to fly!"
"We still like seeing the road close up, but our legs are tired."
I snapped my fingers as a thought occurred to me. "I have an idea!" I said happily. I pulled out Torterra's poke-ball and threw it.
Torterra materialized in front of me. There was a faint sparkle after he formed, it was the sign that he was shiny.
"Terra?" he asked.
I patted him on the head. "Hey buddy, I need your help. They're tired and need help, sooooo, I was wondering if we could ride on you for a while?"
Torterra nodded and gladly let us climb up onto his shell. As soon as we were on board, he started trotting down the path with heavy footsteps.
Latias leaned against the rocks jutting from Torterra's shell.
Latios climbed the tree and started examining it's bright cyan leaves.
I decided to just rest and lay against the tree's yellow trunk. I pulled out my visor and turned it on.
"What are you doing?" Latias asked.
"I'm trying to contact the other Kalos Defenders."
"Is it working?"
I pressed the button to make the call. No one picked up. "No, it isn't."
"Is that normal?"
"Now that you mention it, no, it's not normal. Meh, the thing's call function must be broken. I'll have Braden look at it when we get there."
Little did I know, my visor was working fine. It was the other end of the line that was having a problem. A problem that I would be discovering in the coming days.
End of Chapter 21. Was it short? Yes. Was it funny? Yes. Am I gonna try to write one more chapter before I take my Christmas Break? You know it! I know I said I would only write one more chapter before Christmas, but, screw what I said! I'm gonna try to make one more chapter. But I'm not making any promises about when it will come out.