Chapter 20

Later that day, things between Cap and me were better. Sure, there were still silently awkward moments but apart from that, it was totally okay. Or as okay as things could be, anyways.

A few hours after, Oreburgh was free from Survival members. It was all thanks to some of the veterans, gym trainers, and, obviously, the police. The people that were seriously injured were moved to the hospital, while the others(like Cap) stayed on the Pokemon Center. The damage done to Oreburgh wasn't as much as the one done in the other cities. Like in Canalave, where the gym and some of the houses were destroyed, or in Jubilife, where a total of 49 people were killed. Compared to the other cities, Oreburgh was probably the least damaged one. And at the moment I wasn't complaining. I would've given my parents a call if I have had a phone, but since I didn't have one, well, I didn't (The Center had a phone but I wasn't going to waste my money on a stupid call).

Anyways, a couple of days later, Cap got better. And I think it was for the worse…At least for me.

"Please!" Cap begged for the who-knows-what time, while I shook my head 'no' at him. He sighed. "But I just want to go out…"

"You're injured. You can't," I told him bluntly while not really paying attention at him. If you paid too much attention, he would convince you. He already did it once with a nurse, and almost succeeded.

"It's just an injury in my shoulder! It should be fine! And besides, the only thing that made me pass out was the blood loss! I am perfectly sure that I should be fine to go," he told me, probably feeling very proud by the way he puffed out his chest. I was only half listening to him. He already told this to me, like five different times. He only changed his words so it wouldn't sound like he was repeating himself. And even if what he did made sense, it was better to be safe than sorry, right? "Come on!" he finally snapped at me, noticing that I wasn't paying attention to him anymore.

"I said no," I told him calmly, petting Hope on my lap from my place on a nearby chair. Then Cap went on complaining on how I was being a bad friend, a Mother Kangaskhan, and a bad friend once again. I decided to ignore him (I was getting good at it anyways), paying attention to my pokemon instead. Apart from Hope, Ambition was also out and about. Actually, he was just sleeping in a corner of the room, doing nothing out of the ordinary. He was probably bored as hell and mad at Cap, because thanks to Cap's injury we didn't have time to train. But I wasn't in a hurry to train my pokemon, I had plenty of time—my whole life actually. If they wanted to train so badly, they'd have to wait until Cap heals up. Then, maybe I'll have a chance to evolve Ambition and Noble.

"Pleaaaaaaaaaaase!" Cap whined loudly, waking Ambition up. The larvitar gave my black-haired friend a death glare, obviously annoyed by Cap's constant whining. I winced. If this kept going, Cap will get injured. Again. And not by a mere person, but by a very angry, annoyed larvitar. "Then you can train your pokemon! That's what you want, right?"

"I'm in no hurry to train," I told him with a shrug. The only thing I wanted was for Cap to heal, so we could continue traveling. That was what I really wanted.

"Come on!"

"I said: no."

That kept repeating itself for a few hours, even though I ignored him most of the time. He finally gave up when Ambition stood up with a growl.

The other day, though, Capricorn seemed even more determined to get out of his room. He went as far as making jumping jacks (avoiding his injured shoulder, of course) to prove that he was okay. I was mildly convinced by him, so I asked the nurse to check up on him to see if he could travel again. She said he was fine to go, as long as he didn't move his shoulder too much("Wouldn't want to reopen that wound," the nurse had said).

Which brings us to here and now, at Oreburgh's mine/cave thingy.

"Why don't we catch you that onix?" I asked my friend, pointing at a wild onix that was looking at us warily. I had Hope and Ambition out, Hope for training(she was catching up very fast) and Ambition to evolve him. Cap shook his head at my question, making me frown. "Why not?"

"Because. I don't think I want an onix anymore, anyways." I sighed at his answer. I motioned for Hope to knock the onix out of the way, to which she complied happily. Inside the cave, Hope managed to improve a lot. She managed to learn Mud-slap and Sand tomb, but she still preferred Bite and Dig. Ambition, on the other hand, didn't improve as much, if at all. He was mostly avoiding the geodudes and machop , going for the onix and very few steelix that were in the deeper areas. After training for a single day, Cap and I decided to move on to Hearthome City.

"Are you sure you're good to travel?" I asked Cap as I packed my bag at the Center. We were in my room, I packing while Cap sat on my bed without a care. While I packed, I tried to find the stone that was supposed to evolve Noble into a gallade. I know I put it somewhere in my bag…

"I'm good. My pokemon are fine, though Black still hates you." I shrugged. I could live with that. Besides, it was better to have a pokemon hate you than to have your friend die. I took out three pokeballs, two which were Great balls and a Dusk ball, still searching for my Dawn Stone… "Y'know, I want to catch a ghost." Something blue caught my attention while I was rummaging in my bag, making me smile. Finally, I found my Dawn Stone.

"Found it," I said, taking said item and putting in the bed, right besides where Cap was sitting.

"Did you listen to what I just told you?"

"No, Capricorn, I didn't. Sorry." I lied, not feeling sorry in the least. I watched him turn red at his full name, making me smirk. Oh, how I love to tease him.

"D-Don't call me that! It's embarrassing!" I just shrugged him off, putting my belongings into my bag once again. I took out Noble's Heal ball and grabbed the Dawn Stone from the bed, holding one in each hand. Okay, now, how do I do this… "Are you listening to me, Ari?!" I glanced at him with narrowed eyes. His constant whining was starting to get on my nerves.

"I'm sorry. What do you want?" I saw him sigh miserably, obviously unhappy with my constant ignoring. I kind of felt sorry for him, but he was seriously starting to get on my nerves. Sure, it was nice to see him good and alive, but I think that lately he has been high on painkillers (which he had to take every day to keep the pain at bay) or something, because he was becoming more annoying than usual.

"Whatever…" he muttered with his blue eyes downcasted. I ignored this and asked,

"Hey, Cap, do you know how to evolve a pokemon with a stone?" To my surprise, Cap nodded. He was about to take the stone from me, but I stopped him. "Wait, later. I mean, not here. We can break something." And I don't have enough money to pay for any damage done to the room.

"Okay, then how about outside?" I nodded at his suggestion. With that, we exited the room, heading to the lobby to leave the keys and going outside to continue my plans on evolving Noble.

Once outside, we made sure to check that we had everything we needed to head towards Hearthome City. We had potions, pokeballs, and full heals.

I sighed in content as we walked up towards Route 207 and Mt. Coronet. Finally, we were leaving Oreburgh behind. We were moving on.

"Well, let's have Noble evolved then!" Cap said smiling cheerfully, apparently as happy as I was from leaving Oreburgh City behind. It was obvious he didn't like the city very much. And now that I think about it, this is where I last saw Rick almost a month ago. I smiled at Cap.

"Of course." I took out Noble from his Heal ball. He looked around, before settling his red eyes on me.

"Where are we going Mistress?"

"We're going to the next city. But right now, we're going to evolve you," I told him, noticing his eyes light up at the word 'evolve'. How cute. "Cap is going to use that Stone to make you evolve," I continued, pointing at Cap who had the Dawn Stone in his hands. I glanced back at Noble, looking at him directly in the eye. "Are you sure you want to become a gallade? You know there is no turning back, right?" Noble nodded.

"I'm sure."

"Okay then," I said, taking a step back and letting Cap do his deal. Cap nodded at me, nearing Noble, the movement making the stone in his hand shine. Cap touched the Dawn Stone to Noble's head, making both Noble and the Stone shine. Then, the stone disappeared in a bunch of small lights that united with Noble. Cap stepped back to my side with a smile on his face, as if pokemon evolution never bored him.

I focused back on Noble, who was still radiating light. His silhouette seemed to stretch, growing bigger and bigger until he was almost as tall as Cap. His limbs grew longer, sharper, and more humanoid than ever.

The light faded, leaving me staring at a humanoid psychic and fighting-type pokemon. The pokemon was of color white and green, with a hint of light blue and red. It had a green helmet-like thing on his head with a pale blue horn that ran from the very back of its head to the forehead, where the helmet ended. It also had sharp, blade arms that seemed deadly to the touch, strong legs to run and kick and a red appendage on its chest. Apart from that, it was pretty much obvious that it was taller than me. But only by an inch or two…Or five or six…

I don't know why, but I get the feeling that it will all be like this in the future…

Me being small and my team being big.

It was kind of obvious that Epic was going to be bigger than me, but by all means, he was a gyarados. Ambition, too, will be bigger and taller than me, since he would evolve into a tyranitar. Hope, I wasn't sure. But I think I heard Cap say that she will evolve into a dragon-type, so she would probably grow bigger than me. Dread was a dragon-type, so she was probably going to be bigger than me(she was almost as tall as me as she was, and she hasn't evolved into her last evolution). And Noble, well, I kind of hoped he would be too big…

My hopes let me down once again.

Anyways! I felt happy for Noble. He looked like a nice, manly and well-behaved pokemon. I smiled at him as he tested the blades in his arms.

"Nice looking, Noble," I told him. He just bowed to me with a small smile. Then, he headed to my side, staring down at me intently for a few seconds. Then he smiled, he seemed proud of himself for some reason.

"Mistress, I'm bigger than you now." Even his voice changed, it sounded more…buttler-ly somehow. Wait…I glowered at him. Did he just call me small? He seemed to hear my angry thought, because he shrank down under my glare.

"I do not care that you're bigger than me, Noble. I can still kick your butt, okay?" He nodded at me hastily, making me smile sweetly. "Good." Cap laughed and Noble glared at him with sharp red eyes.

"Wow, Ari, your team is growing big. If they each start getting this big you're going to look like a caterpie in a dance of legendaries." I joined Noble in his glaring against Cap. Though, I was thinking whereas I should kick Cap or not, since he was injured and all…maybe I shouldn't… "I hadn't noticed until now, but now that I mention it…You are pretty small, even for a girl!" I felt my eye twitch until I decided that, yes, Cap deserves a little pain. My leg shot forwards, catching his square on the shin, making him curse and massage at his now sore spot. I just glared at him, enjoying the small moment of justice before turning towards Noble.

"If you dare comment on my height again, that'll also happen to you," I warned him. If he dodged me, well, I'll just have to send Epic-or even Dread- on him.

"Y-Yes, Mistress…"

I huffed and turned, muttering 'So what if I'm small, that doenst stop me from being Epic…' under my breath and stomping in the direction to Mt. Coronet. Noble followed right after me. Cap stayed a few seconds to alleviate the pain in his leg, but then he followed after us chating about Noble and how now he could fight with fighting-type moves and all.

An hour later, we arrived at the entrance of Mt. Coronet.

We were finally ready to head towards Hearthome City.