Chapter 18 – New Ability To Use

Route 5

"Morning, Zack." A familiar voice woke me up from my dreamless sleep that morning, Aqua's cheerful voice and giggle as she sat next to me with a cute smile, handing me several berries to eat for breakfast. Something about seeing that smile and hearing that cute giggle… the tone and the way it felt familiar to me somehow, as though I had heard something like it before. But I didn't pry too much on it since my stomach was literally begging me to accept the berries and dig right in from the moment I woke up.

"Thank you." I grabbed the berries and sat up eating them. The sweet juices burst into my mouth when I bit down into it, a taste which instantly woke me up completely. The juices from the Oran berry dripped down my cheek as I ate one after the other quickly. We were already out of Oran berries, and apples since last night, almost half of our food left. I knew we had to ration out our supplies better, it was a thing we had to take better control of, but we had hoped along the way we would stumble upon a berry bush or something to help provide us with some food for the journey.

Yesterday after leaving Nimbasa city, a short walk out but staying as far as we could should anyone decided to come look for a white Dewott and his shiny Oshawott companion who stole some fruits and berries at the marketplace, we found a small an hour into the route we saw by chance when looking for a palce to stay for the night. It was a small cave hidden behind a bush, an entrance covered by branches hanging from a tree overhead with large leaves. The inside was surprisingly clean in a way, hardly any dirt, rocks, and it was quite comfortable and warm. The perfect home for any wild Pokemon I guess; a little bit out of the way of the main path and hard to find as long as a small gust of wind doesn't reveal the cave too often then you should be fine. Not much was known about the surrounding area about food and water. So calling this place the perfect home for a wild Pokemon was to be determined since we didn't know the area, but we would soon, but only for a short while until we get our strength back and ready to continue on.

"Did you sleep well last night?"

I gulped down the last Oran berry along with its sweet juices bursting in my mouth and nodded. "It was nice. It's a shame we'll have to get going soon, because this place sure is nice. I found this place to be a lot comfier than the alley in Nimbasa and our room in Purrloin's gang."

"You think so too? I don't know why but something about this cave was better than it was. We had nothing to use as something to rest on except for the dried leaves, but it felt as though we were resting on a mattress just like the one from our room. The cave was warm inside, despite how cold it was last night while gathering the leaves we would need to rest on. And the outside is very peaceful looking. It's a shame to give up on something so peaceful and yet warm and relaxing at the same time, huh?"

"It sure is." I sighed, touching the roof of the small cave just in reach by my reached out paw touching the roof by the tips of my fingers, a smooth and warm feel, hardly rough at the touch. After a closer look, I saw some kind of claw-like marks on the ceiling. Thin markings here and there, not too deep, but just a few. How long these markings had been here I couldn't say, so this cave was at one point used as a home by another Pokemon or perhaps still do use this palce as a home and we just managed to arrive here while they were gone. I just hoped that if Pokemon do still live here they wouldn't mind us being in here, better to leave sooner rather than later if Pokemon did still live in here. I can only imagine what would've happened if the occupants of this cave returned to find us inside their home, despite how we just wanted to stay somewhere for the night. "So how about you, did you sleep well?"

"Slept, but very bizarre dreams to go with it one after the other, nothing that was a vision. Just your usual bizarre dreams jumping to and from scene to colorful scene." She said with short chuckle. "But thanks to this place being comfy as it was, it was a good night." And she ate another berry before brushing herself off, sighing after opening up the bag.

"I wish I could've learnt more about them." She said after a quick glance down at the remaining berries we had left. "Audino was going to teach me how to mix berries to make a stronger effect after I had got the Potions down. I hope they're okay…"

"I'm sure they're fine." I comforted her, placing my arm around her shoulders. "They weren't seen by any of the gang members when they helped us escape. They're staying low, and are already continuing living on in that hideout as normal."

"Do you think, m-maybe after all of this is over, after you regained your memories and return to Nuvema Town, do you think your trainer will help us save Audino, Metagross, and all of the others trapped there in Purrloin's hideout?"

I nodded. "We can't leave them behind. After all they did for us, leaving them wouldn't feel right. Purrloin's way of controlling things… how she treats others it isn't a way for anyone to be treated. That hideout isn't a way for anyone to live." It was a risky thing to do, going back there to save them. I wasn't sure at that time who my trainer was or if I had one, who my friends were or if they would help us. But knowing my friends before the assault on Team Doom, I know they would without a doubt help us to help the others. But after the assault on Team Doom, after ending up washed up on the beach all covered in scars and half blind I did not know what had happened to my friends and Latias, if they were alive or not.

"And I'll be there to help." She said after grabbing her scalchop and held it up. "After I have mastered my own moves I want to be there to help them from Purrloin and her bodyguards."

I chuckled. "Hopefully by then we'll be ready." Holding up my own scalchops with her. We were still in training and our moves were a bit off in a way, but we were getting to that point we'll be ready for a battle. Who knows what sort of dangers wild Pokemon like us were to face out in the open.

Route 5

Route five wasn't exactly a long route to walk through from Nimbasa city to Driftveil, it was just an hour long walk and yesterday we had already walked halfway through the route before finding the cave to sleep for the night. Something I had expected would take us longer to reach more than a few hours yet it would take us far less, a relief to walk such a short distance instead of a really long one worrying about running out of supplies especially how fast we were going through them at this rate. The map book didn't say whether or not this route had a river or source of water for Pokemon to drink, only that it had a few berries very close to the main road and the route was very close to the ocean further way closer to Driftveil City. So I guess this place would be a good home for a Pokemon to live if there was a good source of water, maybe there was a source somewhere hidden not too far away from this route. I guess we would just have to find another place to get ourselves some supplies, and hopefully without attracting any unwanted attention.

"Hey Aqua? Have you had any visions recently? Anything that might help?" I asked, gaining curiosity on her unique ability. That ability she had was something we would most definitely need to help us get through the region in order for us to get to Nuvema Town safely. and also I was a little worried about yesterday back in Nimbasa city after stealing all of that food from the marketplace and being seen doing so, that someone may be after us, or if Purrloin's gang if they were still in pursuit of us had heard about us and were coming after us.

Aqua glanced back at me over her shoulder as she walked a little ahead of me, skipping on a fallen dead tree; she shook her head and smiled. "Only by staying off the main path away from the humans while we walk through the forest. My vision showed me we would be fine if we go this way." She breathed in the fresh air as she hopped down off the dead tree. "But I'm glad my vision brought us here, isn't this place so amazing?" I nodded and looked around the area and taking in the sights I had just noticed after several minutes of walking through there; the entire place was mostly green, the large leaves hanging from the many moss covered trees almost completely covering the blue sky, and the vegetation beneath our feet, a somewhat wide and open space, and quiet despite being so close to the main road made this place feel peaceful in a way. "I had only seen places like this in the books we kept in our room and the map book we brought along with us. I guess nothing beats the real thing, huh?"

This place we walked through… it was too quiet and void of any of Pokemon in trees, on the ground nearby, or noises from the humans walking through the road between the two cities near to the other. Wasn't the silence usually a bad thing? A sign that danger was nearby? And yet Aqua still playfully hopped along ahead of me as we walked like everything was still alright. She said so herself that she had no visions alerting her to any danger that would come to us, so maybe we were alright for now.

"Wait…" She suddenly stopped hopping up and down and held out her paw stopping me in my tracks. Her ears perked up darting to and from, towards the left of us were a lot of tall grass was. Still, the place was a little quiet and nothing but the small gust of wind blowing through the trees was all there is. I stood and listened for a minute or so before reaching my arm out to Aqua about to ask if everything was alright, then both me and Aqua heard it; rustling somewhere in the tall grass. Then a click, and then…

"Get 'em, boy!" By a girls voice and out came a Poochyena with its fangs out as it charged right at us with a Tackle hitting Aqua square right in her chest knocking her back. I grabbed my scalchop and ran to Aqua's side to help her up as a human girl probably in her mid teens emerged out of the tall grass to help her Pokemon battle us, most likely to try and catch us and add us to her team. Now there were obviously multiple reasons why we couldn't be captured by this trainer; the first being that we were already on an important journey so I could get back to Nuvema town to remember who I once was, and being captured would probably prevent that if she had no reason to go back to Nuvema town since all trainers in this region including me when I was once human starting off on getting my starter Pokemon and Pokedex, and how would we communicate with her then? The second reason if we were caught by her would be that she would most likely choose us to battle in gyms and different trainers across the region. Now a shiny female Oshawott wouldn't cause a lot of attention, but a white Dewott wearing an eye patch covered in scars head to toe probably would. And third finally as with the other two would attract the attention of not only trainers looking to get a look at the white Dewott, but it may attract the attention of Purrloin and her gang if they were still in pursuit of us. Not only would be risking our lives, but this girl and her Pokemon's lives as well. I didn't want that blood on my paws for the remainder of my life, so escape was the only way for us, or by winning this battle.

"Aqua, you alright?!" I quickly said to her as I helped her up with one paw while keeping my other paw with my scalchop gripped tight getting ready to attack.

"J-just dazed…" she coughed, slightly covering her chest were the attack had hit her. It was a little mark across her chest, nothing too serious I had hoped. Luckily we had a lot of Potions we could use after we get out of this. "W-what are we going to do?"

The girl with neck length black hair wore a bright blue cap backwards with the initials 'C.C.B.T.' short for 'Castelia City Baseball Team' on it, a cap I was familiar with back when I was still a Savior member in Castelia City almost seeing them everywhere I went out on patrol or just chilling with my Pokemon. A baseball team which took me almost four years during my time there to realize there was a baseball team there. I just thought that the city liked the sport since there was that one baseball game that was quite the rave the first of the four years there, something about a team winning, not sure which, and so almost half the population wore the same hats for a while. She wore a long-sleeved green shirt and blue shorts with a Pokeball belt around her hip with only one Pokeball, and worn red sneakers with what appeared to be small bite marks on them. The girl with the tanned skin grinned as she planted both of her hands on her hips and gave her Pokemon the first command as Poochyena stood in front of her, growling at us, eager for the command to be given to attack us.

"Okay Poochyena! Go for it! Let's start off with a Sand Attack!" Poochyena barked once as it nodded its head before twirling around and quickly wagging its tail at the ground sending a small gust of sand directly at us hitting us in both of our faces and mainly our eyes, with us each trying desperately to rub the sand out. "Poochyena, hit 'em with another Tackle, but make sure you don't go full power on this one. Let's see what kind of moves they have first."

The Poochyena used Tackle, charging first at me and then Aqua, an attack both of us easily dodged by simply stepping back or jumping out of the way. It was an attack which was both slow and weak looking that if hit, it would to a small amount of damage, the kind of attack one would use to see how the others would react, so we retaliated by using our own moves as soon as we both dodged the Pokemon's attack. Aqua used Ice Beam at it, and I used Scald, both attacks hit the Poochyena, but it neither froze or burnt the Pokemon. The Ice Beam sent if flying into a bush, while the Scald hurt it and also warming it up from the sudden cold. An attack we thought would be enough to scare the trainer away, but instead our moves only impressed the trainer, impressing her so much that she only wanted us a lot more as her Pokemon.

"Whoa! They got those kinds of moves? Alright then!" She smirked as she glanced down at her Poochyena smiling back at her. "You ready, boy?" The Poochyena barked as it nodded its head.

"Alright Poochyena, go for a Sucker Punch to the Dewott!" She ordered, and the Pokemon once again barked and ran at me, very fast for me to see it run at me before its entire left paw was surrounded by a dark aura as it shot its paw right into me.

When the Sucker Punch had hit me square right in the chest, to a water type it would inflict normal damage… I think? But anyway, to a Psychic, it would inflict a lot. I was half water and half Psychic type, so being hit by one type I was weak to felt like being hit by a truck sending a sharp pain surging throughout my entire body. A familiar pain which I felt during my time recovering at medical when I was still being treated by Purrloin's gang after washing up on the beach with my open wounds from head to toe. I clutched my chest and knelt down gasping for breath.

"Zack!" Aqua gasped, running up in front of me and trying to shield me from whatever the girls Poochyena would throw at us next. Aqua held up her own scalchop and readied herself for the next move. "I got this Zack… I'm going to protect you."

"Finish this Poochyena with a Yawn! We can do this!" She smirked, pointing at Aqua with her finger as Poochyena opened its maw wide and sent a large bubble-like sphere at Aqua hitting her popping immediately upon impact before she could react as she stumbled back a little, almost dropping the scalchop on the ground.

"Z…Zac…k… I… I'm… I'm not giving up…." And then Aqua felt asleep, tumbling back almost hitting the ground, but I stopped the fall by holding her with one arm, and the other with my own scalchop, still weak from the Sucker Punch, and still holding on to my last remaining strength that I could overcome this and find a way for us to get out of this. Then the girls smirked grew wide as she pulled out another Pokeball from her belt, a ball she would use to try and capture one of us. She threw the ball up, but with the last remaining strength I had left, I had used it all to hold Aqua tight and jumped to the side to dodge the Pokeball just at the last second as it bounced onto the ground and rolled into a bush.

"Ah, darn it! That Dewott's still kicking I see. Poochyena, get in close and use Yawn on the Dewott." She ordered the Poochyena at me. Any second now and it would use its Yawn and I'll be affected by it and fall asleep, and then the girl will have both me and Aqua caught by this trainer. With what little time I had left remaining, I lightly shook Aqua in my arms to try and wake her up, but to no avail, she was in deep sleep.

With Poochyena just a few steps away before using its move, I desperately cried feeling my vision fade a little. "Aqua! You got to wake up!" But she didn't.

"What the…?" I heard the girl gasp behind us, but I didn't look back. Either by weakness or assuming she was reacting to something else, my eyes were fixed on Aqua, hoping any second now she would wake and run away to save herself. "Poochyena, wait stop!" I heard the footsteps of Poochyena just behind me coming to a sudden stop. But the girl's voice calling out to me became muffled, and everything went black.

"Zack, are you alright?" I heard Aqua's voice in the darkness. It had taken me a little while for me to open them. So when I did open my eyes, instead of being inside a Pokeball or whatever it was Pokemon see inside their own Pokeball, I found ourselves resting beside a campfire in the same area where the battle had taken place with the girl. My head was resting on Aqua, using her paws to support my head. It didn't take me long to find the girl and her Poochyena sitting opposite the campfire preparing some food. I sat up and noticed my wounds were healed up already, and Aqua was alright, no injuries from the battle it seemed.

"I healed those wounds of you and your Oshawott friend." I looked up to see the trainer staring at me, the same look she had when she first saw us and tried to capture us, a look of excitement across her bright face. "I didn't capture you or the Oshawott, I only healed you up. That's all."

I looked at Aqua sitting beside me and she nodded her head. "Is this true?" I asked her, but was immediately cut off by the trainer as she almost jumped in her seat to what she had heard.

"I knew I wasn't hearing things, alright! You can definitely speak! I mean, I can understand you!" she exclaimed, a smile wide across her face as she leaned in closer to me. "I-I never knew Pokemon could speak! I only ever heard about it like in stories or some cartoons. But this… T-this is amazing."

I glanced back at Aqua again before turning my head back at the girl. "You can… understand me?"

The girl nodded her head, turning her head towards Aqua. "I can, but it's only you it seems I can understand. Unless she's shy that is."

"Um… I don't know how to speak human, I don't think." Aqua said. Something I could clearly understand as well as the girl's Poochyena sitting beside her, but to the girl she couldn't understand a single word said by Aqua. "Zack, if you were speaking the human language this entire time, how come no one noticed it before?" She asked me that, a question I too was unsure how to answer. And with that, questions on if my 'trainer' knew about this filled my head.

"No I… uh, Aqua is speaking normally. I don't think she can speak the human language." Ever since I met Aqua and the other Pokemon back in Purrloin's hideout, I have only heard the Pokemon speak in their tongue and understood it. I'm not sure why I didn't notice it sooner or why I only heard the Pokemon language instead of hearing the human language whenever other spoke to me to hearing it in crowds.

"So you're a Dewott who can talk? I mean speak the human language, right? But how is that possible? And why are you a white Dewott?" She asked, piling up more questions one after the other. "Were you trained by a person?"

"I'm not sure that myself. Aqua and I want to go to Nuvema Town so I can go to the laboratory. I believe by going there we'll find out who I was; why I was injured all over and why my left eye was cut up like this leaving me blind in one eye. And how I can speak the language of both species. I want to know."

" 'Who'? Wait, are you saying you lost your memory?" She asked. I nodded my head, and then I decided to great myself to her, seeing as I sensed no hostility. I figured we could talk for a while and relax instead of having an awkward talk. Maybe I could learn something useful for our travels.

"My name is Zack. This here is Aqua." I said to the girl, pointing with my paw towards myself and Aqua. "I woke up on a beach at the edge of Castelia City covered in all of these injuries you see. I awoke with no memory of who I was before I ended up washed up. Aqua found me and uh… well, we have been travelling together towards Nuvema Town to find out who I was and if anyone was looking for me, or why I ended up like this." I decided to leave what had happened with us with Purrloin and her gang not wanting to draw any unwanted attention. But a nagging feeling at that moment told me to do so. To ask others to say they haven't seen us should we be chased after by Purrloin and her gang.

"My name is Jessie. And this is Poochyena, my starter and best buddy." She greeted.

"It's nice to meet the both of you." Poochyena greeted, offering me and Aqua a bowl of fresh berries from her supplies to eat. It took us a while before any of us picked up one to eat the Oran and Pecha Berries, but when we did we ate half of the berries in the little bowl… or Aqua did since I wasn't hungry.

"Hey uh, I'm sorry about battling you and Aqua before. I just wanted to catch myself some new Pokemon so I could ya know, win some gym battles, and get myself some badges before facing the elite four. I didn't realize you two were on an important quest." She apologized to us. I wonder what would've happened if she did capture us. Would she still let us both go so we could continue to travel towards Nuvema Town to rediscover who I once was? Yeah, I believe she would have done so; she seemed like that kind of person.

"Hey, you didn't know. We're just happy this whole thing has been settled peacefully." I said. "But in a good way, it was good for us to get a feel on our moves. We just learnt them not too long ago."

"I guess I'll just have to keep on looking then for some other Pokemon I can catch." She laughed.

"Trying to become the next champion?" She shrugged her shoulders.

"Sort of… or actually I am seeing whether or not I can make it as a gym leader myself in this region or another. I feel I need to show them that I am ready, by challenging the elite four and facing the champion, I believe I can get there if I do it. But first before I even do that I need to find my team, finding the correct balance to make a team for a gym. I hope I can find what I am looking for in the end. I'd hate to do all of this for nothing."

"Isn't Poochyena a Dark type?" Aqua said which I translated back to Jessie. A similar thing Isaac did during our travels as well as Espeon did whenever we had come across a Pokemon wanting to speak with us. "How about you stick with Dark types, you seem to be pretty good at handling those types?"

"Hm, I guess I could do that." Jessie picked up Poochyena and set him onto her lap from which he curled up close to her as he was being stroked behind the ear by her. "Heh, maybe I will. Just gotta balance it out and keep my Pokemon in good shape and form."

"Well, that battle before was a good start. If we only we knew our moves better we'd have put up a better fight."

"You did great, I was surprised I could actually take on two Pokemon at once, and we have only just started on our travels." Poochyena said, all I translated for Jessie to be involved with the conversation. "You two almost had me."

"We did really well for our first battle, huh buddy?" Jessie smiled, and Poochyena agreed with her and jumped up to hug her.

"Yeah! I feel as though we can take on the world."

We didn't sit there long, getting our wounds healed up with a few Potions, bottles which Aqua examined carefully checking for the expiration date and the quality of the bottles, and a few berries each and we were good to go. It would be a long journey for us, one which we couldn't end by staying there any longer, so it was our time to go.

"The suns almost about to set, and it's getting late. We should get going soon." I said before packing a few of our things together before Jessie stopped us.

"Wait! How about you guys come with me? I can take you both to Nuvema Town. I am going to Nimbasa City first, and then Castelia, I can take you both the rest of the way."

I had wanted to keep her out of it, but not telling her about who we were running from could endanger us from them, from Purrloin. If one day perhaps walking around in the streets of another city or walking through a route, she could talk about us, and if Purrloin's gang are out on patrol and they hear about a girl with a white Dewott wearing an eye patch with his shiny female Oshawott companion, they would alert the others and hunt us down, and we wouldn't be safe. I had to tell her about them. The Pokemon we were running from, and so I did.

"Me and Aqua were taken in by a gang in Castelia City. They gave us a place to stay in their hideout, gave us food, medical… but it wasn't exactly a nice place to live." I explained. "That place was cruel, a place run by a female Purrloin who wanted all whoever joined her gang to remain as a member of her gang for the rest of their lives, killing or torturing those who tried to escape." I turned my head to look at Aqua, and she looked at me. "But we escaped. Not too long after we did, I remembered some things about being in that town. So I believe by going there we might find someone who knows me, maybe even my origins. But we have to be careful on doing so; Purrloin has been known for hunting down Pokemon who have joined her gang if they have escaped. We're trying to stay low and out of sight as much as we can. Please Jessie, don't tell anyone about us."

Jessie stared at us for a brief moment, looking down at Poochyena looking up at her before nodding her head. "Alright, I won't say anything, the two of us won't. Our lips are sealed shut." She smiled. "But the way you two are heading it's a long way, it will take you weeks to get there. Are you sure you want to do this?" She asked. I wanted right then and there to say 'I changed my mind, we will go with you.' for how badly I wanted to go to Nuvema Town, but it was all too risky to do so. Sure it would take us a long time to get there by going around the region, but at least we would have a better chance on getting as far as we could from Purrloin and her gang.

"We'll manage, but thanks for offering. I know it'll take us a while to get where we need to go, but it's the only way for us to be safe from the Pokemon that might be after us."

"You two going to be okay travelling that distance?"

Me and Aqua looked at each other with a smile. "As long as we are together, we'll be fine." Aqua said. "We got this far by sticking together, I'm sure we'll manage the rest of the way."

All of us stood up after noticing the sun was about to set, it was time for us to get going. Gathering our supplies together and about to walk

"Hey," I called back to her as we stopped, and she looked back with her Poochyena. "Good luck on your journey, I hope you find what you are looking for."

Jessie and waved back at us with a warm smile "Thank you. Zack, Aqua; have a safe journey. I hope you both make it there in one piece."

Before we left, we stayed for a short while watching as Jessie packed away at her camp she set up. It wasn't much, just a few boxes of food and putting out the fire and she was good to go.

After the camp was put down, it was time for us to go our separate ways; Jessie with going to different gyms and earning badges to face the champion to someday becoming a gym leader or whatever she may find down her own path. And for me and Aqua, Driftveil City would be just right up the road, and then the rest of the Unova region we would walk the remaining way. It would be a long journey, one I wish I could say it would be a simple peaceful journey, without any danger or fear of Purrloin and her gang in pursuit of us, but soon we would realize not just Purrloin and her gang still be chasing us, but another enemy, a new enemy and yet an old one.

To be continued...

Trivia:

This chapter was originally another nightmare chapter with Zack dreaming of his past life and trying to remember so many things about his life before Aqua found him.