After breakfast, it didn't take too long for the Trainer to get ready.
He had cleaned up he and his Pokémon's messes and went and jumped in the shower.
Once he was done in the bathroom, he quickly got dressed before checking to see if everyone else was ready. Luckily, they were.
The Trainer grabbed his bag, threw his black baseball cap on and he and his Pokémon headed off.
They were on their way to meet some of the Trainer's friends at the mall just a few miles down the road from where he and his Pokémon lived in Slateport City.
"So, Blaziken, I hear Luna is going to have her Delphox with her." The Trainer said jokingly. For awhile now, it's been pretty obvious that the Trainer's Blaziken had some kind of Pokécrush on his friend's Delphox. The Trainer didn't question it though.
Blaziken blushed slightly before looking away.
"Blaziken..." Blaziken said. The Trainer let out a little chuckle.
"Champ, champ." Machamp said before breaking out into laughter. Blaziken narrowed his eyes at him.
"Blaziken!" Blaziken exclaimed, Machamp just kept laughing.
The Trainer chuckled again before looking over his shoulder and spotting Sandslash and Roserade falling behind.
"Hey, you two need to keep it up!" The Trainer called. The two Pokémon looked at him before speeding up their walking to catch back up to the group.
The Trainer's apartment building wasn't too far out of the city. They took their usual route to get there. It was just a straight walk on a dirt path that led straight into the city.
Once the group arrived to the city, they set off towards the mall. It was only about a five minute walk from where they came in at.
Once they got to the mall, it didn't take them too long to spot out the Trainer's group of friends.
"Brennan, over here!" Luna's high pitched voice called out as she frantically waved towards the Trainer, he chuckled. Guess it didn't take them too long to spot him either.
Along with Luna was her boyfriend, and one of Brennan's best friends, Lane, and one of Lane's friends, who Brennan had only met once before, Frankie.
As Brennan approached the group, Luna ran up to him and hugged him.
"It's been awhile!" Luna exclaimed, Brennan chuckled as he hugged her back.
"It sure has." He replied.
"Hey, Blaziken. Machamp. Sandslash. Roserade. Mightyena." Luna greeted each Pokémon. They all replied back with either a wave, or their own version of 'hey'.
"Did your hair get more blue from the last time I saw you?" Brennan asked when he noticed her dark blue hair.
"I had to re-dye it. So I decided to go with a different blue this time. What do ya think?" Luna asked, Brennan nodded.
"It's... different." He replied.
"Hmm, well I'm sure Mightyena likes it. Isn't that right, Mightyena?" Luna said in a cutesy baby voice as she kneeled down and rubbed him. Mightyena nodded as he closed his eyes and took in the delightful rubbing feeling.
Brennan rolled his eyes, chuckled, and shook his head.
"Hey! What's the hold up?!" A voice called from the distance.
Brennan looked over and saw Lane, Frankie, Luna's Delphox, a Greninja, and a Sceptile waiting for them.
Luna finally broke away from rubbing Mightyena, to his disappointment of course, and the group walked over to... the other group.
"Hey man, long time no see." Lane said as he extended his hand, Brennan shook it.
"You can say that again." He said "What's up, Frankie." he said as he looked over at the slightly taller, black haired male.
"Nothing much dude." Frankie replied.
"You guys ready to go in?!" Luna asked in an excited tone "I'm going to buy Delphox a new hat because of her victory over that Gallade the other day!" She continued.
Blaziken was trying to avoid eye contact with Delphox. It didn't work to well though. He looked over at her and saw her giving him a half-lidded smile. He blushed and looked away.
"Yeah, lets go." Brennan said.
The group was getting ready to start walking again, when Frankie stopped them.
"Wait. You can't go in there with all of your Pokémon out." Frankie said to Brennan. Brennan was both confused and annoyed by the comment.
"What? Why?" He asked.
"New mall rule. Trainers' are only allowed to have one Pokémon out at a time while in the mall." Frankie replied.
"When did they add that rule? I've come in here with all of them out before." Brennan said.
"Just recently actually. It's because of Trainers' going in with more than one Pokémon out and not being able to watch them all at once. It's to prevent any kind of accident or damage being done to the property by Pokémon who aren't being watched." Frankie explained, Brennan shook his head.
"I guess that makes sense. But it's still a dumb rule." He said before turning back to face his Pokémon "I'm sorry guys, but we have to follow the rules." he continued, his Pokémon nodded in understandment.
Brennan pulled one of the Poké balls off of his belt and aimed it at Machamp.
"I'll let you guys back out as soon as we leave, alright?" Brennan said before returning Machamp to his Poké ball. Mightyena, Roserade, and Sandslash soon followed suit, leaving Blaziken freed. Brennan could tell Blaziken was happy about being the one chosen to be left out. "Hey, don't you be all happy. I didn't choose favorites. I only left you out so you could enjoy your time with Delphox." He said with a somewhat devious smile.
Blaziken went wide eyed. He quickly tried to pull his Poké ball off of Brennan's belt, only to have his hand smacked away.
"Nope." Brennan said as he started walking with the group again.
"Blaziken..." Blaziken mumbled as he crossed his arms. He looked up and saw Delphox looking back at him. She winked causing him to quickly look away again.
As the group was walking towards the entrance of the mall, out of the corner of his eye, Brennan noticed something moving in the bushes towards the edge of the forest on the side of the building. He squinted to get a better look at what it was.
He was somewhat surprised when he saw a fully evolved Gardevoir looking around at all the people walking around. Brennan stared at her.
Gardevoir continued looking around until she saw Brennan had spotted her.
Brennan gave a questioning look and started to sway off track from the mall over to her. That's when the Gardevoir took off back into the forest.
Brennan stood there staring at the now vacant spot the Gardevoir had taken up just moments ago.
"What the hell." Brennan muttered.
"Hey, are you alright?" Luna asked when the group had finally noticed he was not following them anymore. Brennan turned around and saw everyone staring at him.
"Yeah, I-uh... just saw a Gardevoir over there. It was weird." Brennan replied.
"What's so weird about that? She's more than likely a wild Pokémon, and probably lives out in those woods." Frankie said, Brennan nodded.
"Yeah, I know. It was just weird." He said.
The others just kinda shrugged it off as the group once again started walking towards the mall. And low in behold, they actually made it inside this time.
"Okay, first stop, the clothing boutique!" Luna exclaimed.
"Delphox!" Delphox said excitedly, herself.
The guys just followed the girls as they headed to the boutique.
They kept silence most of the walk, until it was just too unnerving. Especially in a crowded mall of Trainers' and their Pokémon making conversation.
"So... Frankie, I see you finally got Frogadier to evolve into a Greninja." Brennan said, Frankie looked over at him and nodded.
"Yep, took awhile, but it happened. Had to do a lot of training and battling to do it. But I'm proud of him." Frankie said before looking over at his Greninja.
"You're Greninja is cool and all, but what about my Sceptile? He's obviously better." Lane said with a somewhat cocky attitude.
"Yeah, dude, your Sceptile's cool. But... my Greninja is better." Frankie replied.
"No, no. Sceptile is better." Lane said.
"You can think that all you want." Frankie said.
Brennan and Blaziken looked at each other, both starting to feel a little uncomfortable because of the bickering.
"It's the truth. My Sceptile is better than your Greninja." Lane said.
"My Greninja beat your Sceptile the day he evolved into Greninja." Frankie said. Lane went wide eyed before jumping out in front of Frankie.
"I told you he was feeling under the weather that day!" Lane yelled, his head getting big and face getting red.
"You challenged us." Frankie said with a chuckle as he walked around him. Lane growled under his breath.
As Lane and Frankie argued, Brennan and Blaziken looked around to see if there were any stores they wanted to run into.
As they walked along, Brennan couldn't help but think about that Gardevoir. He didn't know why. It's not like he had never seen wild Gardevoir before. But for some reason, this one felt... different.
Blaziken looked over at his trainer and saw that he looked like he had something on his mind.
"Blaziken?" Blaziken asked. Brennan looked at him.
"Oh, yeah. I'm fine." Brennan replied, Blaziken was unsure. He had been around Brennan long enough to know when he wasn't fine.
"Blaziken. Blaziken. Blazi...ken?" Blaziken asked.
"Buddy, I'm fine. Trust me." Brennan replied, trying to reassure his worried Pokémon.
"Oh, yeah?! Lets go right now! I'll show ya who's Pokémon is better!" Lane exclaimed, getting both Brennan and Blaziken's attention.
"Fine! I've defeated you once, I can do it again!" Frankie exclaimed. The two trainers were in each others faces, steam coming out of their ears and fire in their eyes as they glared at each other.
"Alright, alright. Calm down you two. You're going to get us thrown out." Brennan said as he went and got in the middle of the two trainers.
"He started it." Both Lane and Frankie said in unison as they crossed their arms and looked away from each other.
"Maybe you two should be in Poké balls instead of your other Pokémon." Brennan said as he looked between the two trainers'.
"Is everything okay?" A voice asked as it approached the group.
Brennan looked over and saw Luna and Delphox approaching them, two bags in hand.
"Yeah, uh... these two just got into a small disagreement." Brennan replied.
"About what?" Luna asked.
"It's not important." Brennan replied.
"Hmm..." Luna hummed as she looked from Brennan over to Lane and Frankie, who still had annoyed looks on their faces, their arms crossed, and their backs turned to each other. "Are you sure it's not important?" She asked, looking at Brennan once again. He nodded.
"Yeah, I'm sure" He said. Luna still looked like she was unsure, so Brennan decided to try and change the subject. "So, looks like you two enjoyed yourselves." He said, a huge smile formed on Luna's face as she nodded.
"We did! There were so many cute things in there, I just wanted everything!" Luna exclaimed "Delphox picked out this really cute hat, too!" She continued, Delphox smiled and nodded.
"That's cool." Brennan said.
Luna went digging through the bag for something, eventually pulling out a hat.
"Here you go, Delphox." She said as she handed Delphox the hat. Delphox gladly took it before placing it on her head, right between her large ears.
It was an orange snapback cap with yellow stitching, a black bill, and a picture of a chibi Blaziken on the front.
Delphox gave Blaziken another half-lidded smile after she put the hat on. Blaziken blushed much more than Brennan had ever seen him blush before. Brennan laughed at his Pokémon's expression.
"Awe, Blaziken, looks like you have a fan." Brennan said teasingly. His Pokémon, although still blushing, gave him an annoyed look.
"B-Blaziken!" Blaziken said.
"Delphox." Delphox purred as she stepped over to Blaziken. She nuzzled her head against his chest. He was blushing so much, he looked more red than he usually is.
Brennan couldn't help but laugh as Luna giggled.
"Awe, isn't that the cutest?!" Luna exclaimed.
Luna quickly pulled her phone out and snapped a picture of the two.
"I had to get a picture of this. It's just too adorable not to." Luna said with a smile.
"You mind sending me that pic?" Brennan asked, Luna shook her head.
"Not at all." She replied with a smile.
"I have to make it up to the others for putting them back in their Poké balls. I'm sure this'll do the trick." Brennan said. Luna giggled before playfully shoving him.
"Stop teasing him." She said. Brennan chuckled. "Alright, Delphox, that's enough. You're going to make him blush to death." She continued as she looked back at the two Pokémon.
"Del-phox." Delphox crooned as she lifted her head off of Blaziken and looked up at him.
Delphox turned to walk back over to Luna, and when she did, Blaziken clutched his chest and fell to the floor. Both of his legs in the air.
Brennan walked over to him.
"You okay there, buddy?" Brennan asked.
"B-B-Blaziken..." Blaziken replied in an almost inaudible tone.
"So who's up for lunch?" Luna asked "I'm starving!" She continued.
"I could go for some lunch." Lane replied.
"Gre-ninja." Greninja said as he looked at Frankie. Frankie shrugged.
"Sure." He said.
"Brennan, Blaziken, what about you two?" Luna asked. Brennan looked at her as he pulled Blaziken back to his feet.
"Yeah, lunch sounds cool." He replied.
"Awesome!" Luna exclaimed. "We can go get some food from the food court, and then go eat outside by the fountain. That way we can let all our other Pokémon out and they can enjoy it with us." She continued.
"That's a good idea." Brennan said, Luna smiled.
After, the group headed to the food court and spent more money on food than they actually intended to, before heading back outside of the mall.
They headed over to where the large fountain was out front, and released all of the Pokémon.
After the food was passed out, everyone was enjoying it as they started plentiful conversations.
As Brennan sat there eating, he looked over towards the edge of the forest where the Gardevoir had appeared earlier. It hadn't come back.
As he finished the burger he had gotten, he grabbed the little box of berries he had bought and started to head over there.
"Brennan, where are you going?" Luna asked, Brennan turned and saw all eyes were on him at this point.
"Going over there a minute." He replied.
"You're going to see if you can find that Gardevoir, aren't you?" Lane asked, Brennan shrugged.
"Maybe." He replied.
"Okay, just don't take too long." Luna said, Brennan nodded.
"Blaziken?" Blaziken asked as he started to stand up. Brennan stopped him.
"No, it's okay. You stay here and eat. I won't be gone long." Brennan said. Blaziken didn't really like his trainer going off like this without him, but he eventually, and reluctantly nodded.
Brennan walked over to the bush he had seen the Gardevoir at earlier. To no surprise, there wasn't anything there anymore.
"Uh... Gardevoir?" Brennan called as he took a step past the bush and into the forest. "I don't know where you are, or if you can even hear me, but I brought you some berries." He continued as he held out the small box of berries to seemingly nothing. "I don't know if you eat berries, or even like them. But I thought you'd be hungry." He said as he continued to look around. "I'll just leave them here I guess. I hope you get them. You probably won't, though" he said, muttering the last part.
Brennan sat the box of berries down in the grass by the bush the Gardevoir had been at. After which he headed out of the forest and back over to his group.
Gardevoir had been a lot closer than Brennan had thought. She had been hiding behind a small set of trees just a few feet away from him.
She came out once she saw him walking away. She went over to the berries and observed them before bending down to pick them up.
"Thank you, stranger." Gardevoir thought to herself as she watched the trainer walk back to his waiting group.