Chapter 24- I Am The Last Straw

Once Fearow had had enough of Vola's comforting, it squawked at her in what I assumed was forgiveness, paired as it was with a gentle head-pat, then flew off.

I put Vola in her handlebar basket as Dart landed on my bag on the back and rode back to my companions.

When I arrived, Izzy was grumbling about stampedes while tending to a tired Charmeleon, but there was a fond smile on his face as he looked over his newly- evolved Pokemon. Lila, meanwhile, was cradling two green forms. Bubbles sat on her knee hugging her elbow, while Buttons sat on her head, staring with rapt attention at the two tiny shapes.

"Looks like congratulations are in order all around," I said as I pulled up beside them. I dismounted and Vola hopped onto my shoulder. Dart launched herself over the torn-up battlefield, examining the Rattatas, Ekans, and Spearows recovering from Izzy and Charmeleon's attention. Lila looked up at me in surprise, then her face split into a huge grin.

She was about to say something when Izzy interrupted, "About time you stopped! We've been battling non-stop to keep from being trampled by all the Pokemon you sent our way. Charmeleon evolved because we've been too busy keeping Pokemon off Lila to fish, or even watch my sister. She caught two new Pokemon, and I couldn't be there for either of them because I was cleaning up your mess!"

I felt bad and started to apologize, but now I was interrupted as a voice said, "Enough!"

It took me a second to realize it was Lila; it wasn't loud, but at a normal speaking volume, it was louder than I'd heard her speak, and her voice was firm. Gone was any uncertainty, any hesitation or fear. Izzy looked surprised, too.

"Izzy, you haven't liked Katie since before we even talked to her. After she's helped me so much, you still never have a nice thing to say to, or even about, her. Now she's helped me catch two more Pokemon, and rather than celebrating with me, all you've done is complain, even before she came back. Why can't you just be happy for me?"

Izzy stood, stunned. I was certainly shocked, but it seemed as though this was the first time he'd heard her like this, too. Finally, he collected himself enough to turn away, embarrassed, and mumble something.

"What?"

"I said I wanted to help you. I wanted you to be happy because I was enough, so you didn't need some stranger helping you be a Pokemon trainer." He was fighting back tears as he said it.

For the first time, I saw how young Izzy really was. Since I'd known him, he'd been taking the lead, acting like someone in charge of themselves and their surroundings. But like this, whining because something went differently than he wanted it to, getting angry and lashing out at someone who was just trying to help; he really looked like the kid he still was. The mature veneer had been stripped away, leaving only the boy who loved his sister.

"It's okay," Lila said softly. "I appreciate everything you've done for me. I genuinely wouldn't have made it this far without you," she laid a hand on his shoulder, "and I love you too much to make you be my chaperone forever. What kind of big sister would I be to hold you back like that? To tie your dreams to mine?"

He sniffled a bit, not looking up, "But I wanted to."

"I thought you wanted to be the next Cerulean Gym Leader?" she prodded. "You had to know I wouldn't be staying there. Just like I won't hold you back from what you want, I can't let you dictate my choices, either. I really love Katie's training. I can help my Pokemon grow and be better without making them fight. I have fun with it. I'm not even sure what we're doing is being a Pokemon trainer, and I don't care."

She took his face in her hands and turned it to look at her, "Will you really tell me that I can't be happy doing things with anyone but you?"

Izzy was quiet. I felt like an intruder, watching him be unable to meet her eyes.

Finally, he said, "Fine. Go with your new friend. I'm happy for you." He didn't sound happy. "I'll go on to Cerulean, and you two can keep training, or not-training, or whatever." He turned to me. I didn't think Lila could see the daggers he stared at me as he said, "And thank you for helping my sister."

I didn't say anything as Izzy returned Charmeleon, hooked his fishing tackle back to his pack, and walked away towards Cerulean. Lila looked after him, her expression a war between hurt, concern, and resignation.

I didn't think following Izzy to the Gym was such a hot idea, and I didn't protest when Lila returned her Pokemon and started the other way, heading towards Mt. Moon. We reached the main cave entrance around lunchtime, and prepared our meal in silence. We were halfway through, some of the Pokemon already finished and playing together, when Lila spoke.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," she said.

"'t's mmkay," I replied automatically through a mouthful of sandwich.

She sighed, "It's not, though. I don't want my brother and my teacher, my friend, to hate each other."

I considered, swallowed, then said, "For what it's worth, I don't hate him. And while I can't say for sure, I don't think he hates me, either."

"It sure sounded like it," she said.

"I think he hates the situation," I replied. "I think he hates the circumstances. But he loves you. While he can be upset that he can't make you as happy as he'd like, I don't think you can love someone while hating their happiness."

"I guess," she said, watching her new Caterpie chasing her Oddish's swaying leaves. "Still, don't think too harshly of Izzy. I'm sorry it happened this way, but I think this has been building for a while. We couldn't spend our whole journey together; we just want different things. I think this was just the last straw." I saw that Oddish was bobbing in time to Buttons, whose arms were waving back and forth like-

Like a Metronome.

Uh-oh.

We set up camp that night in the caves. It had taken quite a while to dig everyone out of the Avalanche we'd suddenly found ourselves buried in. Spin had been invaluable, digging tunnels to find everyone and lead them out. Vola, of course, was only incidentally helpful. Her diving in and out of snowbanks bigger than she was with wild abandon landed her on top of Bubbles and then Dart. Both of them were able to, with a little digging after her paths collapsed back on them upon her exit, pull themselves free. Fortunately, I'd been holding the egg as I ate, and had been able to extricate it from the cold immediately. Once everyone was safe, I tasked Spin and a grudging Vola with working together to dig out our supplies. While I supervised that, Lila explained her expectations for Metronome to Buttons, namely that she wasn't allowed to use it around others. Buttons looked adorably embarrassed about the whole thing, so hopefully it wouldn't be an issue again.

Even though we couldn't tell night had fallen once we were deep enough into Mt. Moon, the increasing frequency of Zubat attacks, combined with our own increasing fatigue, led us to set up camp in a collapsed Onix tunnel for some cover. Without Izzy there, Lila asked for help pitching her tent. Rather than forgo training entirely, I asked the Pokemon to spend some time covering the entrance to our camp however they could.

By the time we both had places to sleep, the opening to the old tunnel was blocked by rocks held together by webbing and dropped a final rock in place to be attached and flew down to me. I gave her plumage some strokes as I said, "You all put that experience from the other day to good use! You even showed Caterpie how to help. It looks great!"

Dart cooed under the praise (and the scritches) as our other Pokemon finished up and came over. I was fully occupied with showing my Pokemon how proud I was of them as we crawled into our tent. That explained why I didn't notice anything amiss until the egg actually rocked into me. I looked down at it to see it wobbling and moving. It was hatching!

As it began to glow, light cracking sounds coming from it, we all gathered around. It broke open, and the small Growlithe inside looked around at us.

I picked him up and cuddled him to me. I'd long since decided on what I'd be naming the Pokemon in the egg. As Vola braced herself against me to coo over him and Dart flapped in delight, I nuzzled the little pup.

"Welcome to the world, Lucky."