Keep Up With Skitty
A calm, pinkish-lavender twilight settled over the sky and the brightest stars began to twinkle in, belying the grumpy atmosphere of the trainers below it. The trees around them were already darkened by the low light and the heavy blanket of gloom was exactly what everyone wanted to give a tangible expression of what Mari, Hilary and the bladers all felt on the inside. The previous day had ended up being a mess, so much so that the spell of wonderful weather throughout the day had actually annoyed everyone. Derryn had walked away from them after delivering Mari a defeat as psychologically crushing as it was physically (on her Pokémon). She and her Pokémon needed the rest of the day and night to recuperate and she hadn't spoken a word all day, except terse grunts and one-worded replies. She didn't even take the lead of the party as usual, letting Ray get the hang of navigating with the new PokéNav as they travelled down Route 116.
The route split off into two paths cut by a thick patch of forest. Oddly, both went in the same direction the only difference being that one had a packed earth road cutting a smooth path through it and the other was tall, wild grass through and through. They chose the second path on the logic that the first had evidence of heavy traffic and therefore they would be less likely to find Porygon Z there. However, path number 2 turned out to also be crawling with Wurmple and Nincada and where those two were abounds there were flocks of Taillow and gazes of Zigzagoons. They also frequently spotted what appeared to be rabbit ears peaking up over the tops of the grasses but they always spooked and fled before anyone from the group could even reach them.
Their day had started early so by evening everyone was sleepy as well as exhausted (and harrowed from so many encounters with giant bugs, in Kai's case). In order to beat the rare Pokémon enthusiasts – as many had already heard of the Porygon Z in the area – they had left the Pokémon Centre before the sun came up and had only just left Rustboro City by the crack of dawn. And in all that time there had been no sight of Porygon Z.
"I don't know about everyone else," Max mumbled, rubbing his eyes, "but I'm ready to call it a day."
The rest of the group murmured their agreement.
"Is there a good place to camp nearby?" Ray wondered.
"How about there?" Daichi said, pointing to the location. The ledge was off in the distance and even from as far as they were it was clear that they wouldn't be able to climb it. But on top was a tuft of coloured leaves that were already becoming familiar to them as the hallmark of this world's domestic berries.
"Why there?" Tyson grumbled. "There's no way we'll be able to get up. I mean, I tried to climb up one of those cliffs before and it took me hours."
"That's actually a great idea," Hilary piped up from somewhere near the back. Tyson turned to her, demanding to know what she meant by that and she replied: "Well, haven't you noticed that most of the times we saw Porygon Z out in the wild it was near those trainer gardens? We might not have been very successful on foot but maybe if we hang out near its favourite type of spot we'll have another chance encounter with it while we camp."
"That… is a surprisingly good idea," Tyson relented, glaring at Daichi for giving him a cheeky, catlike grin now that he'd been proven right.
The base of the cliff was mostly bare ground and short grass – a rather comfortable place to camp. If not for the need to eat most of the group might have already fallen asleep by the time Combusken had lit the camp fire. The last of the light disappeared while they had their meal and the trainer garden appeared as little more than a clump of hazy shadows with orange light from the fire thrown upon them.
"Hey…" Tyson muttered, trying to stay alert enough to keep an eye on the garden, searching for any movement. "Tomorrow, think we should try climbing this ledge?"
Mari looked up from the food she wasn't taking much interest in and scanned the face of the ledge from the left to the right. "Sure we can go around it."
"Oh, look who's decided to start talking to us again."
Mari shot Tyson a disgruntled look. "Been thinking, okay. But… doubt trainers would put effort into a garden that was too difficult to get to."
"It could be looked after by Pokémon," Daichi suggested, "like that first one we saw."
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't trainers have had to put it there first?" Tyson countered. Daichi bit back with something immature and of course the two of them began to bicker childishly.
Hilary grumbled. "How can those two have so much energy to fight right now?"
She looked around the camp for some measure of agreement but Ray was fiddling with his PokéNav, pointedly ignoring them, and Max was about to fall asleep using his bag as a pillow. At the edge of the camp, almost outside the furthest reach of the campfire, Kai sat silently playing a rock-tossing game with Togepi that his Seedot was also getting very invested in. Being outside a Pokéball, Togepi had been roused early in the morning (not on purpose but with everyone moving around so much it was hard not to) and compensated by napping a lot through the day. Now she was awake and full of energy. Hilary wondered how Kai was able to keep up.
Tiredness itched behind Kai's eyes but he could stay up. He'd done more strenuous things in the name of training; he would just consider this to be no different but Togepi's energy right now was irritating. If she was this keyed up now how was he going to get her to sleep? As he thought about that he watched curiously as she picked up one of their little rocks but instead of throwing into the dirt circle or back at him, she took it to the edge of the grass and chucked it out there. The grass rustled violently as something that had been lurking silently there was startled. Its tail poked out of the cover and twitched curiously. Kai blinked and gawked at it. That pink tuft with the yellow whiskers looked very familiar.
Kai abruptly jumped into a crouch, catching Ray's attention. "Kai? Is something wrong?"
He didn't respond, just kept his eyes on the tail. It had gone stiff when he moved suddenly but after a few painfully long seconds it began to sway again. His muscles tightened in preparation to jump for it but in the next moment he was distracted by Ray reaching out beside him with the PokéNav.
"It's a cool app on the PokéNav," he whispered, tilting the screen so that he could read it. His Treecko climbed onto his shoulder, watching the screen in fascination. "If you see a Pokémon that's mostly hidden the app can scan it and, based on your location, tell you what it's most likely to be. If you have a Pokédex too you can synch them to send data between each other and identify other unique aspects about whatever Pokémon you're seeing."
Kai's eyebrows rose fractionally. For a country boy, Ray sure got the hang of that PokéNav quickly. It had only been a week and he was already comfortably synching data between his devices. Although Kai had to concede, he had been playing with the device almost non-stop since they'd received it.
"According to the app, this is a 'Skitty'." Ray took his Pokédex out of his pocket and opened it up, transferring the data over. A familiar screen popped up, making Kai stiffen.
"Ray! Put that-"
"Skitty, the kitten Pokémon. In the wild, it lives in holes in the trees of forests. Known for its fascination with moving objects, it will often chase things, even its own tail. Though it is hard to gain its trust, this cute behaviour, as well as its cute appearance, make it a very popular pet."
Skitty's tail straightened and fluffed up at the sudden voice from the machine, then vanished into grass cover. The grass rustled as it tried to get away.
"Poochyena!" Kai called, jumping to his feet and running after it. Poochyena got up, ears pricked forwards. She bounded into the grass right behind her trainer, figuring that they were following that interesting rustling noise.
Ray cringed guiltily, snapping the Pokédex shut and following suit. "Sorry! I guess I need to figure out how to adjust the vol-"
"Shut up!" Kai snapped over his shoulder briefly.
"Guys! Where are you going?" Hilary called after them. "Whatever it is, can't you just leave it?"
Kai ignored her. Ray turned back with an apologetic look on his face. "We'll be back," he called over his arm. "I'm just making sure Kai doesn't get into trouble."
He ran back down the path they'd followed, keeping up with Kai. The darkness enveloped both of them with the fire getting further and further away but to Ray it was no different to when the lights went down in his village. The swish of the grass brushing against Kai's trousers and his own feet thudding on the ground kept him oriented. Then suddenly Kai skidded across the ground and Poochyena barked. Ray stopped and looked, his eyes already starting to get used to the darkness. He could see Kai's form crouched just in front of a tree that he'd slid over to and Poochyena had her front paws on the trunk, growling in disgruntlement. Above them, the branches shook, leaving Ray to assume that Skitty had found a refuge.
"What was that about?" Ray asked, trying to see if he could look into the branches. In the low light he could see the bright colours of poorly disguised pink and yellow fur in amongst the twigs and leaves but nothing distinct.
"It's trying to get away," Kai said, getting up and starting to look around the tree for a branch or foothold. Ray tilted his head in confusion. Was Kai actually going to go after it even after it climbed a tree?
"I can see that. What I meant was: why are you so determined to catch it that you'd just run away like that? Did you look it up in the Pokédex before? Is it something powerful?" Now Ray was actually curious about that. He looked down at his own Pokédex and considered looking it up again but then Kai answered:
"It's that cat that started all of this; the weird one I was chasing before Porygon Z showed up and kidnapped us."
"Really? How do you know? You only got a good look at its tail so as far as you know it looks the same as any other Skitty in the wild."
"We'll see when I catch it," Kai assured him, jumping up to catch the lowest hanging branch. He heaved himself up. "The one I chased had a snaggletooth."
The Skitty hissed and backed up deeper into the leaves as Kai carefully climbed towards it. He'd almost gotten over all of the forks of the major branches when Skitty took a step too far. It slipped through the too thin twigs and tumbled to the ground but managed to land on its short little legs, right next to Ray. He gawped in alarm.
"Poochyena, Tackle!" Kai ordered. Poochyena didn't even need his command, she'd already launched into the attack using the tree as a launching board. She was a fraction too slow. Skitty was already out of her way and she got a face full of fluffy tail instead. "Ray!"
"What did you want me to do?" Ray snapped. Kai jumped down from the tree and followed Poochyena, relying on the rustling of wavering grass since her grey fur was so hard to see in the dark. Ray growled and turned to Treecko. "Well, he's not giving up so we might as well help. See if you can get ahead of that Skitty while I catch up with Kai."
Treecko nodded and jumped off his trainer's shoulders to the trees where he had an advantage in the branches. Ray continued to follow Kai worriedly as Skitty's trail led them off the road. The quiet swish of the grass became the crunch and crackle of leaves and twigs on the forest floor. While it wasn't as dark as Petalburg Woods, the branches did cast long, deep shadows, making a light mosaic that muddled the surroundings so much that Ray nearly bumped into Kai when he suddenly stopped.
Treecko had jumped down from a branch in front of Skitty. It had tried to double back only to be confronted by Poochyena. It hissed and fluffed its fur.
"Tackle!" Kai ordered.
"Pound, Treecko!"
Both Pokémon lunged for Skitty but then there were suddenly several Skitties. Treecko and Poochyena had no time to abort and phased through an illusion, barrelling into each other. The images disappeared and Skitty took off again.
"Don't let it get away! Howl!" Kai ordered. Poochyena shook herself to her senses. She sprang forward, not even caring that she stepped on Treecko in the process. The chilling sound of her own howl vibrated through her bones, giving her energy to pick up speed. Skitty's fluffy tail was getting closer and closer. "Use Bite!"
Poochyena leaped forward, fangs bared. She got a solid grip on Skitty's back leg and it yowled in pain. Poochyena was practically grinning as she looked up smugly to get a glimpse of Skitty expression but it was merely glaring at her. Then the glare turned into smug look in return as it meowed seductively and brushed its tail over her face feather light. Hearts bloomed and popped as everything became rose-tinted. Her jaw slackened. In her eyes Skitty was suddenly the most beautiful Pokémon she had ever seen. Skitty pulled its leg out of Poochyena's mouth and knocked her back with a full-bodied tackle. Then it turned around, wagging its tail in Poochyena's face before leaving Poochyena stunned on the ground.
"What did it just do?!" Ray exclaimed in shock. "Treecko, catch up to it with Quick Attack! I've gotta find out what that is…"
Treecko lowered himself in preparation before the dash, catching up to Skitty quickly and tackling it down. They tumbled together but came apart easily and Skitty kept on running.
"Poochyena, what are you doing?" Kai shouted as the trainers caught up to her sitting on the ground with a longing look in her eyes. "Catch up to it!"
Poochyena just sighed.
"Wow, that really immobilised her," Ray said in awe. Kai clicked his tongue in irritation. He'd left all of his other Pokémon back at camp. "Don't worry, I'll chase down Skitty."
He ran to catch up with Treecko (even if that was probably futile), leaving Kai behind with Poochyena. Skitty's bright fur was an easy target even in the dark but all of a sudden a big, dark hole with patchy purple light opened up in front of it and swallowed it, letting out a few sparks. Before it closed it spat out another Pokémon with a bright red and blue colouration. Ray's jaw dropped.
"No way…"
Porygon Z turned its head to and fro and even all the way around, investigating the environment. Ray ordered Treecko to attack immediately with Quick Attack before it got away. Treecko slammed into it bodily, knocking it out of the air temporarily. It pulled itself back together and huffed. Ray had Treecko use Leer in hopes of keeping it mesmerised while he fumbled to get his PokéNav but Porygon Z didn't stick around long. He groaned in disappointment as it teleported.
A loud bark and Porygon Z's grating, synthetic scream behind him made him turn around. Poochyena's jaws were clamped tightly around Porygon Z's body. Its wings, head and tail all flapped madly until she let go. Momentarily confused but not wanting to waste time by asking, Ray started up his tracking app.
"Treecko, keep it occupied until I can tag it. Keep up with Quick Attack. Treecko?"
His starter didn't immediately obey. Instead he crouched down low, looking like he was about to attack but just biding. His large eyes, dilated in the dark, kept a firm focus on Porygon Z and a dark aura began to surround him. Ray watched nervously. The moment a sliver of blue glow signalling Porygon Z's teleportation appeared Treecko struck. He disappeared and reappeared in a split second right in front of Porygon Z, transferring all of his dark energy into a punch. Ray blinked, unsure if Treecko had actually moved or somehow teleported himself to Porygon Z. Without hesitation, Kai brought out a Pokéball and attempted to throw it but Porygon Z still managed to teleport to evade capture, appearing again behind Ray.
"I think it's weakened enough that it can't travel far," Ray guessed, looking down at his app and priming it to tag.
"No," Kai said. He knew already that attacking Porygon Z didn't limit its ability to teleport. "It wanted something here."
"The trainer garden? Do you think it's just evading us until it has enough time to get what it wants? Either way, Treecko, let's not let it get away. Do that thing you just did."
Treecko got down for another attack while Ray held out his PokéNav. However, a red exclamation mark icon popped up and a mechanical voice politely told him: "Target is too far away. Try getting closer."
"Are you kidding me? Any closer and it would be more worth it to just catch the damn thing!"
Porygon Z narrowed its eyes at them. Then it turned around and started to open up a portal. Treecko's attack activated and he charged down Porygon Z before the portal was complete. Porygon Z wailed. It floated away from them as fast as it could now that it realised teleporting and portal-making would both be futile at this stage. Poochyena rushed past Treecko, power glowing on her paws as she landed Assurance on Porygon Z's back. It spun through the air but still had enough energy to fly.
Legs and lungs burned with the effort of the trainers to keep pace with their Pokémon yet as they ran an obstacle up ahead dismayed them. A tall ledge up ahead was higher than either of them could easily climb. Porygon Z floated higher and higher in its excitement to get to it. Ray clenched his jaw. They'd put in so much effort until now; there was no way he was going to let a cliff defeat them.
"Treecko!" he called out. His Pokémon turned to his voice, slightly losing ground against Poochyena. "Get in the trees!"
Treecko nodded and split off to climb to the branches. Ray focussed forwards at the oncoming ledge. Even Poochyena was slowing down, unable to see a way to surmount this. But Ray pressed on and when he came right up to the cliff face he jumped and began to scale it.
Porygon Z looked down to gloat at them. Its eyes bugged out in alarm at the sight of Ray still trailing it. Most of his attention was diverted to simply climbing the ledge – looking for footholds to leap from and calculating where he could run along the wall. Just like the training he and the White Tigers did, only this time he didn't have his beyblade. He had to make up the difference himself, PokéNav at the ready. Treecko leaped out of the branches, readying a dark aura for Pursuit. Porygon Z glared at Ray. Just as it tried to teleport Treecko slammed into its side, knocking it off-kilter. Ray found a sturdy root to jump off and thrust the PokéNav out, close enough that it was almost touching Porygon Z's beak.
"Analysing…" it buzzed. "Identification complete: Porygon Z. Initialising…"
At their awkward angle all three of them crashed into each other. Ray panicked in anticipation of a long fall but the ground turned out to be a lot closer than he thought. Porygon Z frantically squeezed itself out of the pile and opened up a portal. Both a little disoriented from the fall, Treecko and Ray looked up but this time their reflexes were too slow to catch it before it dashed into its portal and something else leaped out. It flew into Ray's face and pushed him onto his back again. Ray flailed in a panic and it hissed. It jumped off him and Ray sat up quickly, scooting away from it.
In front of them Skitty glared and its fur bristled. A snaggletooth poked out of its lips on the right side of its mouth. This time instead of running it charged at them. Treecko got between it and his trainer. He was too slow to avoid the Tackle but delivered a Pound to its face. Ray noticed the sluggish movement of his Pokémon and directed him to change tack:
"Use Mega Drain!"
Treecko's eyes illuminated the dark with green as he sapped a large amount of energy from Skitty. It cried out and tried to run away but it staggered. It gave Ray the time to search his clothes, specifically the pockets where he was keeping his Pokéballs. He didn't pay much mind to which one he picked when he threw it, encapsulating Skitty for an easy capture.
After the Pokéball went still the forest fell to silence. Ray could hear the blood rushing within his own ears. He fell back on the ground, heaving a huge sigh. Treecko followed suit. His exhausted body felt heavy, even on the ground. He almost didn't hear Kai calling to him and Poochyena's barking. With a tired groan, he crawled over to the edge of the ledge and looked down. Kai stared back up at him expectantly. All of a sudden it occurred to Ray the enormity of the achievement he'd just made for the group. He grinned and gave Kai a thumbs-up.
Kai nodded, and then looked up and down the cliff face. "How far away from camp are we?"
"I can find out," Ray replied, looking at the screen of his PokéNav. The tracking app was still open on the page listing the tracking targets and he grinned, chest swelling with pride. "I should probably get down there first."
"No," Kai said abruptly, holding a hand up to tell him 'stop'. His eyes were still focussed on the ground, where he was beginning to recognise a well-worn path between the trees and the ledge. "I say we both follow the ledge from here. Which direction?"
Ray looked at him confusedly but agreed nonetheless. Kai must have seen something or had an idea that he wasn't privy too yet. He took one last elated glance at the tracker app before putting it aside for the map.
Ray's path along the ledge had not been as kind as Kai's and he had to venture away from it. For some reason Kai wasn't bothered by this and Ray just hoped Kai didn't get as lost as he felt, walking among the trees in the dark with Treecko on his shoulder. As they moved, Ray looked at his most recent capture, snug in a pink ball he'd bought in Rustboro. According to the shop assistant the Heal Ball was supposed to heal Pokémon upon capture, which sounded like a novelty at best but it seemed like a nice gesture so he purchased it. More importantly, if the Skitty inside it really was the same one that Kai claimed he'd chased back at home then that would raise some important questions. Although what they were, Ray couldn't quite think of yet.
Treecko made a noise to alert him and pointed up ahead. Following his finger, Ray spotted a tight grove but there were some odd shadows behind it. Curiously, he approached the weird lighting. He had to bend over a little bit to get past some of the branches, unable to help thinking that he'd experienced this before. As he came closer to the light source he started to recognise the colours in the leaves and bark and his eyes widened in realisation.
"No way, did we really…?"
He quickened his pace to the other side of the grove and peered over the edge of a short cliff. The light had been coming from their campsite's low burning fire. All around it his teammates were asleep but appeared to be only half ready for bed. He chuckled. Most of them must have dozed of involuntarily while he and Kai were gone. Speaking of which, Ray couldn't find a trace of Kai's scarf. But then he heard a small cough and looked down. Kai was right beneath him, leaning against the ledge. He looked up.
"Was this your plan?" Ray asked. "To see if I could get to the trainer garden?"
He nodded. "Was it easy?"
"Was what easy?"
"Your trek."
"No," Ray grumbled. "It's pretty wild up here. There were a lot of paths blocked off by undergrowth and little prickle trees. How do people get up here to take care of this garden?"
"Then it's best that you come down," Kai said, ignoring the last part completely.
"Right, but I'm going to grab some of these berries first. I haven't seen some of them before."
Kai rolled his eyes but there wasn't anything he could do about it from the bottom of the ledge. Several minutes later, Ray slid down the ledge with an armful of berries, landing next to Kai. Carefully juggling the berries into one arm, he showed Kai the Heal Ball. "I caught that Skitty you were so interested in. Want to see?"
"Not now. Wait until morning, the group will want to know." He paused for a hesitating moment. Then he gently elbowed Ray in the arm. Ray glanced at his own arm and then gave Kai a questioning look. "Good job."
Ray's eyes widened upon hearing the rare words from Kai's lips, even though his face and tone remained neutral as he said them. Kai walked away without another word and arranged his sleeping gear. Ray smiled and exchanged glances with Treecko. No more words needed to be exchanged but Ray did pass him a yellow-streaked green berry. Just a little midnight treat before bed.
As usual, Tyson was the last to awake in the morning and the first thing to greet his nose was the smell of something sweet. He sat up and stretched with a yawn, wiggling his shoulders to get out the numb feeling he'd gotten from sleeping in two shirts. He shrugged off the red one that served as a jacket before looking to the camp. The air still had the lingering smell of fresh dew as well as whatever Ray was preparing next to the newly started fire. Hilary sat nearby making a large batch of rice balls. Everyone else was in various stages of packing up camp.
"Hey, great! You're finally up," Max said, plonking himself down beside Tyson and clapping him on the shoulder. "You'll never guess what happened last night?"
"Something happened while I was asleep?" Tyson yawned.
"Technically, it was while most of us were asleep. Ray managed to get up the ledge and into the trainer garden and he picked a whole heap of berries for breakfast."
"Here." Tyson looked up at Ray offering bowls to him and Max laden with a simple breakfast of cut-up fruit and whole berries. "Good morning, sleepyhead."
Tyson accepted the bowl and looked at its contents dubiously. He couldn't recognise some of the fruits in there. "Hey, what happened last night? How did you get up the ledge?"
"Kai and I were planning to tell everyone over breakfast," Ray replied, gesturing for them to follow. "Come over here."
The group sat by their dying campfire while Ray explained. Kai refrained from talking for the most part, except where Ray deliberately asked him to confirm or deny something. At the end of the tale Tyson slammed his camp bowl on the ground harder than necessary.
"Are you serious?! You managed to tag Posygon B?"
"Porygon Z, Tyson," Mari snapped. "How many times do people have to say it before you get it right?"
Tyson didn't seem to hear that as he leaned closer to Ray excitedly. "Where is it now?"
"Uh, let's see…" Ray opened his PokéNav and the tracker app. "According to this it's… really, really far away." His voice fell as he relayed that.
"How far away? Will it take long to get there?"
"It's on the other side of the country. There's no way we'd make it there in a day."
"Well, this is a start, isn't it?" Hilary added optimistically, looking over Ray's shoulder. "We know now that heading in a general east direction will get us closer. It's not like it's going to stay there forever, right?"
"Yeah, it might teleport closer to us along the way," Max agreed.
"At least it finally feels like we're getting somewhere," Tyson sighed.
"But that isn't all," Kai piped up. Tyson cast a puzzled look at him.
"Oh yeah," Hilary said. "Tyson hasn't seen Ray's Skitty yet. Show him. It's really cute."
"Skitty?" Tyson muttered.
Ray released Skitty into the middle of their gathering. Hilary gushed over it for the second time that morning while Tyson gawked at it.
"Is this is what you guys ran off to chase?" he asked. "Lame!"
"Shut up!" Ray retorted. "It was really fast and it took us ages to catch up to it! But since we're here, it might bear mentioning the reason that Kai was after it in the first place."
He looked at Kai, who was sitting with his arms and legs crossed and a brooding expression. Several seconds of silence passed before it became apparent that Ray wasn't letting Kai out of this one and he relented:
"I saw it back in our world."
"What?!" Tyson and Daichi spluttered.
"Are you sure it was the same one?" Max asked. "Like, what if it's actually a different one that has the same snaggletooth?"
Kai glared at him and he shrank back. "Okay! Okay, it's probably the same."
"Wait, that doesn't make any sense," Hilary argued. Ray nodded at her with a smile, having already figured what she said next: "If that's Kai's 'weird cat' then we met it before we got to this world. That was in the past. Are you trying to say that Porygon Z was able to time travel to the past in our world to drop off a Skitty and then bring it back to the present?"
"It's bringing us cats from the past and posters from the future?" Daichi exclaimed, rubbing his head in confusion. "What even is this thing?"
"I don't know but this changes everything," Ray said.
"Yeah, it makes it better!" Tyson grinned. "This means that we can get it to take us back to the moment we left."
"Or it could potentially take us to any random point in Earth's timeline and to any random place," Ray pointed out. "It's actually a lot more uncertain. At least with what we previously thought we could calculate how much time was passing between worlds and make reasonable adjustments for that but if Porygon Z can take us to anywhere in any time then how do we make sure it takes us to the right time and place? Can we train it for that?"
Max shrugged. "I'm actually with Tyson on this—this makes me feel a little more relieved. It means we're not actually losing copious amounts of time that we can't get back. We could probably return before my dad even starts to wonder where I am."
"I'm glad that at least you guys are hopeful."
"Don't be such a worrywart, Ray," Hilary said, patting him on the shoulder. "We have Professor Oak on our side and he can help us figure out what to do with Porygon Z after we've finally caught it."
"Yeah, you're right."
"Well, Porykon D isn't going to catch itself," Tyson declared, standing up abruptly and pumping his fist. Mari flopped over, not even bothering to correct him. "Let's hit the road."
"Not before your chores~" Hilary sing-songed.
"Chores?"
"You haven't packed up your side of the camp and you're on dishes this morning."
"How did I get landed with dishes duty?!"
"We fed your Pokémon for you while you were sleeping in, so you have to repay us by doing all of our breakfast dishes."
Tyson was about to retort but Hilary quickly changed the subject: "Oh, and when you're organising your bags don't forget your lunches. I made some for everyone." She held out one of the lunches she'd made – a handful of rice balls tied up in a handkerchief, one for each person. "And since Ray brought a lot of berries to the camp I decided to use some of them to flavour the rice. I even mixed and matched some."
"Great, so, uh… which flavours are which?" Max mumbled.
Hilary stared at him blankly and then glanced at her rice balls, already concealed under thick cloth. "Um… I forgot to keep track. It'll just be a surprise!"
Everyone else cringed. Nobody looked forward to that taste experiment.
A/N: So you see I am basically trash. I left this story on a 6 month hiatus and then I come back with a chapter about Ray and Kai chasing a stupid cat. I'm really sorry. Writer's block happened and my final semester of uni happened and the good part about this whole RL thing is that I'm going to graduate in a week! With any luck, this means that my major mojo for this story has returned because some serious shit is about to go down.
This chapter was super hard, though. There were times that I was only able to get through by forcing myself to write 3 sentences at a time. There's also about 1000 words that I scrapped because although it made transitioning from the previous chapter more seamless, it didn't cut to the next scene very well. But I have a tumblr (see my profile) where I'm going to upload the outtake anyway, in case you're interested in reading it.
Obligatory FYI/nerd disclaimer: this chapter is not an accurate representation of how Pursuit actually works in game - Pursuit does not work if an opponent uses Teleport, nor does it work on fleeing Pokemon. But for the sake of writing this, I'm going to say that in this version of the Pokemon world it does because otherwise there would be no natural reason for that attack to exist.