The sun shined over the towering buildings of Motostoke. The scent of city and gears wafted freely through the air as the citizens went about doing their daily routines. Trainers and Pokemon happily played or worked. One of these Trainers, in the upper section of Motostoke, sat peacefully on a bench in a small park; watching hers and other people Pokemon playing around. Her name was Emma.

"Be careful Valentine," she called out to her Pokemon. The little Eevee stopped, his greyish-white fur being gently blown by the wind, looked over to his Trainer and smiled. "Ve ve! he wagged his puffy tail. Then he trotted over to her and jumped into her lap. Emma petted her Pokemon's ears and then her head. Valentine chuckled and rubbed his head against Emma's chin.

"No way! A shiny!"

Emma and Valentine looked over to where they heard the voice. It was a little boy; out with his mother. The young boy's eyes beamed with glee and he looked at Valentine. "Hello there," Emma greeted them.

The boy looked at his mother. His mother, knowing what her son wanted, said: "Only if she's okay with it." The boy looked back at Emma. And she knew what he wanted by the look on his face.

"Of course, you can pet him," she smiled.

The little boy ran over and began petting Valentine. "Ehee vee!" Valentine enjoyed the petting and attention. "Shines are so rare," the boy said to Emma without taking his eyes off of Valentine, "Where'd you get it?"

"Oh? Well, actually, I didn't," Emma explained, "A boy I knew as a child got him for me."

"Oh really?" the mother chuckled as she came over and sat down, "Well he must have searched very hard!"

Emma let out a laugh, "Not exactly! He found Valentine here rather easily. But, at the time, Valentine was really shy. So getting him to come out of the little cave was the hardest part. And," she laughed again, "apparently, he stayed by that cave, hoping Valentine would warm up to him, for so long, it was dark by the time his dad found him! He got in so much trouble!"

Emma and the mother laughed at the funny story. "I guess that boy really liked you then to do that," the mother assumed.

"Yeah...yeah," the happy moment fell away from Emma. Valentine, sensing his Trainer's sadness, left the boy's petting and comforted her. "As you...can probably guess, the day he gave me this Eevee was on Valentine's Day."

"I...I know you love Eevees...so...uh...I thought, maybe, with this one, you could...uh...be my Valentine?"

"...Of course!" a child Emma smiled, "I gotta be mean to say no after this little cutie!" "Vee vee!" the shiny Eevee chuckled.

Seeing the sad face, the mother coughed, "I-I'm sorry. Did I bring up bad memories?"

"Huh?" Emma snapped back into reality, "Oh! No! No! It's not your fault! I tend to get a little sad every Valentine's Day."

"Nothing..bad happened to him, right?" the mother asked.

"Well, a few years later, he went hiking with his uncle near the Isle of Armor area," Emma explained, "I don't know exactly what happened, but, he got turned around and ended up lost. He was always bad with directions. They searched for him, but, never found him."

"Oh dear..." the mother felt terrible for bringing this tragic story up, "Uh...". She wasn't exactly sure what to say next. "I'm sorry," she said without much thought.

"Thank you," Emma smiled, "Valentine is also a big help whenever I feel really sad. And talking about it does help too."

"Mommy, can I have an Eevee?" the boy asked his mother, completely oblivious to the conversation just now.

"Maybe when your just a little older okay?" his mother told him; to which the boy pouted.

Emma chuckled. "Eh?" she noticed the large clock fixed atop a somewhat far away building, "Aw man! Is that time!" She jumped up and bowed to the mother, "I'm sorry I gotta go! I'm supposed to meet my friend at this time!"

"Okay, be careful now," the mother waved Emma and Valentine goodbye. Her son copied quickly after with a big wave.

Racing quickly away with Valentine in her arms Emma traversed through the town and to her destination of the Wild Area Trans Station.

o0o

"I'm here!" Emma ran into the station nearly out of breath, "I'm here!"

"I was starting to think you weren't coming," June, Emma's good friend, closed the book she was reading, and stood up, "Did you get distracted by another cute Pokemon again?"

"No!" Emma defended, "...maybe...if Valentine counts."

"Vee vee," Valentine smirked.

"You're supposed to back me up!" Emma whined.

June laughed, "You two are perfect for each other. Now come, let's get on the train before it leaves us."

The two girls boarded the train. It was partly full. They sat down with Emma and Valentine at the window seat. Not long after the train began to move towards Hammerlocke. The commute would take only three to four hours. During the commute, Emma took out a brush and brushed Valentine. The shiny Eevee purred as the brush ran through his fur. It felt so good to get brushed!

"Man, I wish I had a shiny!" June whined.

"Oh yeah? Of what Pokemon?" Emma asked.

"Mmmmm, maybe Falinks?" June thought aloud, "Or..oh! Maybe-waa!" The train screeched to a halt. The bag in June's lap fell to the floor.

"What the? Why'd we stop?" another commuter asked he stepped out of his seat.

"Please return to your seats," a Conductor assured people out of the aisle, "Let me go to the Engineer." Making his way through the carts the young Conductor was only one cart away from the front when suddenly from above him he heard, "Duran, duran". He looked up and three Durants were on the top of the train, using their large mandibles to tear parts of metal. "Waaa! No! What are you doing?!" he shouted to them, "Stop! You can't take that!" he began to climb the small ladders to the side. But quickly ducked his head when one of the Durants nearly knocked him off the tracks with and Iron Head.

Back in the cart where Emma and June were; the commuters started to grow restless. But then one screamed when she saw a Durant crawling across the windows.

"Ehhh?! Why is there a Durant?!" Emma panicked and bumped into June, nearly knocking her to the floor, "Uh, sorry!"

The Durant outside the window clamped its mandibles into the metal just above the window. And then wedged its mandibles and head into the train.

the commuters backed up. "Raboot! Flamethrower!" one of the commuters commanded.

"What?! No! You'll catch the whole train on fire!" another commuter stopped them. The Durant swung its mandibles side to side; slowly getting more inward.

"You and me gotta protect Emma, okay?"

"Vee.." Valentine, remembering the promise he made, squeezed himself from Emma. He faced the invading Pokemon; his body glowed white as he then charged it. It was a Quick Attack. Not very effective against the Steel/Bug Type, but it was enough to push back the Durant somewhat.

"Ah! Good job Valentine!" Emma praised her Pokemon, "Try again!"

Valentine reared up and rammed the Durant again. "Durr!" Durant felt it that time! "Durrr..." the Iron Ant Pokemon banged its mandibles together. An ear-piercing sound filled the cart.

"Metal Sound!" someone said as they covered their ears.

Emma covered Valentine's ears, ignoring the safety of her own.

And then suddenly, when the Metal Sound ended, the Durant finally slipped in; landing on the top of a seat. Its red eyes glared angrily at Valentine. "Duurrran!" its grey head turned shiny; it was Iron Head! Valentine quickly freed himself from Emma's grasped and spun in a circle; small yellow stars appeared from his body and flew at Durant. But the Pokemon easily knocked back the Swift. It closed in on Valentine. Valentine responded with another Quick Attack but was thrown back.

"Valentine!" Emma crawled over to her Pokemon, "Are you okay?". Valentine struggled to stand up; the Iron Head was very strong. Suddenly, the Durant charged again. But Emma threw herself over her Pokemon.

"Duraan!"

Emma looked up and saw the Raboot from before using Counter, sending the Durant flying. "Thank you Raboot!" Emma cried while tightly holding Valentine.

"Ra!" Raboot placed himself between Emma, Valentine and the Durant.

"Durrr..." the Durant glared down Raboot. But before either Pokemon could move, Durant's antennas twitched and it glanced towards the front of the train. And then just as suddenly, it spun around and exited through the hole it mad.

"Hey! Get back here!" Raboot's Trainer shouted before chasing the Pokemon through the carts; his Pokemon following quickly behind him.

"What happened?" June asked aloud.

Valentine left Emma's grasp once more to begin following the Trainer, determined to chase away the Pokemon that threatened Emma's safety, but suddenly stopped. "Valentine?" Emma stood up. Valentine then began to glow blue. Emma and the other commuters watched in shock as Valentine started to evolve. As Emma watched the glare from the setting sun slightly blinded her. She shielded her eyes and quickly glanced outside; the sun was close to setting. It was almost night.

"Peee!" Valentine cried out as the transformation finished just as the day turned to night. He was now an Espeon! Valentine glanced back at Emma, "Espee!"

Emma, momentarily forgetting the danger, squealed in joy. She went to pick up Valentine but the green Pokemon quickly used Psychic to open the train doors and ran off to find the Durants."Valentine! Wait!" Emma ran after her Pokemon.

"Emma!" June chased her friend.

The two girls followed the shiny Espeon to the outside of the train and were shocked by what they saw. There were at least ten Durants, all seemingly facing off against someone they couldn't see from where they were. Emma walked closer, standing next to Raboot's Trainer. The Durants were fighting...an Umbreon! But its normally yellow rings were blue; it was a shiny too!

Emma glanced back to Umbreon's Trainer. His hair was long, his clothes were torn and dirty, and he looked as if he didn't get a proper amount of nutrition a human should get. "Shadow Ball!" he commanded.

The Umbreon jumped up high, dodging multiple Iron Heads. It summoned a dark orb from its mouth and sent it flying to the ground and at the Durants. The Iron Ant Pokemon was sent flying back. The Umbreon landed perfectly back onto the ground. It growled a warning at its opponents. "Duraan duraa!" one of the Durants shouted to its nestmates. They then turned and fleed; leaving behind the metal they had torn from the train.

Everyone cheered. The danger was gone! But Emma looked at the boy. He was familiar to her. The boy sighed in relief. "No one hurt?" he asked.

"We'll have to check but we thank you so much!" the Engineer shook the boy's hand.

"It was no problem," the boy blushed, "I wonder why they attacked though."

Emma walked up to the boy, "Jake?"

The boy looked at her, "That's my name, yes."

Emma's eyes began to water, "It is you! It's me! Emma!"

"E-Emma!" Jake then realized who stood in front of him. The two quickly embraced, tears flowing down their faces.

"Oh my...I can't...," Emma cried, "It's been years!" "Esp! Esp!" Valentine jumped joyously on the spot then ran over to them.

"Is that?" Jake happily embraced the Pokemon as well.

Pulling herself back Emma chuckled, "Yep, that's Valentine. He just evolved only a few minutes ago!"

o0o

A few hours later, in the dark of the night, a few Officer Jennys and multiple public service vans arrived on the scene. It turned out that the Durants not only attacked the train for its metal but also chewed away a good amount of the track as well. So the commuters would have to continue their commute with the public service vans. Jake, meanwhile, was transferred by Corviknight Taxi to the Jammerlocke hospital to be treated, checked out, and reunited with his parents. It was there that he explained how he got turned around in the Ilse of Armor wilderness. It was then he met Midnight, the shiny Umbreon, who slowly helped him traverse his way back from the Ilse through the Wild Area. Midnight, it turned out, wasn't the best at directions like Jake so, they did get even more lost a few times.

"Esp!" Valentine smiled at Midnight.

"Umb," Mightnight turned her head away.

"Esp?"

"Ahaha, sorry," Jake chuckled, "She's not very sociable."

"Man, for finding shines you've got luck," Emma joked, "If only you had the same luck with your directions."

"Eh..." Jake had nothing to say, she was totally right.

The two smiled and blushed. Jake's mother chuckled to herself. Despite years apart, those two seemed no different; as if nothing had ever happened.

Hello, Author here! Forgive me if this wasn't very good. I haven't written a story, let alone of this site, in years.