Pokémon: Journey of the Next Generation

by NEBSparky86

10 years have passed since Ash and May have settled down into their positions as members of the Atlantica Islands Elite Four. Now the time has come to pass the mantle on to the new guard of Pokémon trainers. Follow Cynthia Ketchum along with other new trainers as they find new friends and perils. Slight Advanceshipping... sequel to May and Ash's Unova Journey.

13. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and story elements of the Pokémon franchise. Game Freak, Nintendo and the Pokémon Company all have ownership of it. I'm just borrowing them for this story to entertain readers for fun.

Author's note: It'll be about another 2 or 3 chapters before I start bringing things together. I promise.

12: Alola, Blossoming Love

Cynthia Summers's POV

After the return trip from Samiya and then home, Isabella, Shelby, my fiancé Benjy, and Lana arrived back in Alola… with my little brother Keith. I was against letting my brother come to Alola, but Mom and Daddy said that he needed to graduate from the Royal Pokémon Academy. He needed to capture more Pokémon then just Shadow and compete in a Pokémon League competition in order to graduate from the Academy. The only Pokémon he ever had was Little Brother Shadow, born from Big Sister Amethyst, and he evolved Shadow into an Umbreon. But once Shadow evolved into an Umbreon, Keith just stopped pursuing trying to catch Pokémon, even after hearing the requirements of the Royal Pokémon Academy. Keith's excuse was because he was more focused on trying to catch up to me with swimming competitions. It took some convincing from my parents and Aunt Relena to facility staff to not kick my brother out of the Academy. But to be honest, I think he was wanting to get kicked out of the Academy.

"Hey there," Benjy said to me as he got me out of my stupor and thought process as he wrapped his arms around my waist. "You okay my Ocean Beauty?"

"Of course I am," I answered Benjy with a smile before letting out a sigh.

"Your parents mean well," Benjy said to me before he planted a kiss on my head. "Besides, Keith was surprised to see your shiny Primarina and Lana's Primarina. Maybe seeing your's and Lana's Primarinas was the push he needed to get out of the house and maybe graduate the Academy."

"If he's not trying to fail out," I retorted as I rolled my eyes.

"Lana won't let him flunk out of the Academy," Benjy reassured me. "Speaking of which, you said that you were gonna speak to our landlady about wither or not there were any available apartments for Lana and your brother."

"Though Mom did give Keith quite the tongue lashing before we left Tsunami Island," I said as I had a shiver run down my spine.

"Forget about that," Benjy said to me as he massaged my shoulders gently. "We've got work to do with your brother. You remember what his preference is with Pokémon he likes, right?"

"Yeah, he likes quadruped Pokémon mostly," I answered Benjy. "But he's not getting a quadruped Pokémon from me right off the bat."

"Not even a Litten, Cynthia?" Isabella asked me as she and her shiny Torracat approached us.

"Not even a Litten," I answered my friend as I shook my head. "If he wants a quadruped Pokémon, then he and Shadow are gonna have to earn one from us."

'Come on Big Sister Cynthia,' protested Shadow as he and my baby brother didn't like that they were gonna have to earn their first quadruped Pokémon from us. 'You've got plenty of fellow quadruped Pokémon. Can't you just breed one of them for us and let us go from there?'

"Not happening Little Brother," I answered Shadow as I remained firm in my decision. "If you two want your first quadruped Pokémon companion to be given to you, you're gonna have to earn it.

I looked to my brother, Keith, and added, "And don't you even dare go and beg your girlfriend, Lana, for help either. I asked her to not go find a quadruped Pokémon for you. She can accompany you, but not help give you any freebies. Do you understand Keith?"

My little brother sighed as he rolled his eyes, shook his head and then replied, "Yes Cynthia, I understand."

Keith still felt a bit nervous, especially when he found out that he was going to be living with Lana in an apartment. My brother was a head taller than I am and had Daddy's raven black hair slightly past his neck and Mom's sapphire blue eyes. As for what he wore, like me and Lisa, he always wore swimwear under whatever clothes he wore. What he wore over his shiny Umbreon swim trunks was a pair of loose fitting shiny Eevee light silver colored cargo pants, a sleeveless shiny Eevee shirt, shiny Eevee shoes that had the roller blade attachments on the bottom of them and eyeglasses that had lenses that were specially tinted shiny Umbreon blue and my bro also had Shadow's Dream Ball set on a necklace around his neck. I knew that if he wanted to find his own set of shiny Eevees here in Alola, he was gonna have to earn the right to go to Route 4 on Akala Island by catching Pokémon here on Melemele Island, enter the Island Challenge and go through the Pokémon League competition here that was getting started. Once all of my instructions to Keith were given to him, I went to speak to our landlady and asked if there were any available apartments that my brother and Lana could move into and live together. The landlady was surprised to hear that my brother and Lana wanted to live together with each other, especially after she met Keith. I think she even jokingly asked how big our allowances were if we were able to pay the rent for the apartments. I answered her that Keith and I were professional swimmers and made a lot of money through sponsors and winning competitions.

oooooooooooooo

"Thanks for helping me out, Sis," Keith said to me as he hugged me.

"The only thanks I require is that you go on a date with Lana," I replied to my little brother as I hugged him. "Not tonight though… if you don't wanna of course."

"Considering that our apartment is next your's," began Keith, "I think I will take Lana out on a date. Need to get out of my Shellder Shell a bit. And I'm sure that Lana and I will be hearing you and Benjamin watching romantic movies with sex in them if we stay in our apartment all night."

'Wow Keith, that's pretty bold of you to say,' my shiny female Primarina, I decided to name Ariel, said to my baby brother.

'AHHHHH! GET THAT FAIRY AWAY FROM ME! EEEEK!' Shadow screamed in horror as he was being chased by Lana's Primarina coming down the hall.

'Come on Shadow, I don't bite and I'm not a bully,' Lana's Primarina said to Shadow as she followed him down the hall. 'I promise I'm not. You'll grow to like me, I swear you will.'

"Looks like someone else is clamming up in his Shellder Shell, big time," I said to Keith as I chuckled.

"You know that Shadow and other Dark-type Pokémon are weak against Fairy-types like Shiva and Ariel," Keith countered back as Shadow and Lana's Primarina came back for more Meowth and Rattata chase action.

Keith looked at me as an evil smirk formed on my face on what Keith's first challenge was going to be. Keith was not looking too happy as he knew that I was going to make him was going to be something that the two weren't going to be comfortable doing. I always picked on Keith, but I meant well as I was trying to make a man out of him and Shadow. But the task I had for Keith was something that Shadow wasn't going to like at all. But if Keith and Shadow wanted their first quadruped Pokémon from me or my friends, I was going to make them earn it. I looked to Isabella and her Torracat as I was going to reward him with a shiny Litten indeed… or perhaps have Apollo breed with a female Lycanroc or my shiny Ditto; but I needed Keith and Shadow to think that they were going to get something else.

oooooooooooooo

Keith Ketchum's POV

oooooooooooooo

'Do we really have to catch all the of basic Fairy-type Pokémon that are found here on this island?' Shadow whined to me the next day after my big sister gave me an assignment that would take a week or so. 'All of the basic Fairies and at least one shiny Fairy-type? I hate Fairy Pokémon…well, I can't stand Fairy-types. I'll put it that way.'

"What were you expecting as an assignment?" I asked Shadow in retort. "Catch all of the basic Psychic-type Pokémon on the island and one shiny Psychic-type?"

'Well… yeah that would've been a better assignment instead of trying to catch Fairies,' Shadow answered me truthfully.

'I told you that I don't bite and you'll grow to like me,' Lana's Primarina said after letting herself out of her Pokéball. 'I promise.'

'AHH! GET THAT FAIRY AWAY FROM ME!' Shadow cried in horror as he tackled me to the ground in terror of Lana's female Water/Fairy-type Pokémon.

'Wow, never thought I'd see an Umbreon be such a big weenie when it comes to Fairy-type Pokémon,' a Yungoos said in a mocking tone before walking away as he snickered at Shadow.

"This is gonna be a long assignment," I said as I let out a sigh after Shadow got laughed at for being afraid of Lana's Primarina.

"Don't worry Keith," Lana said to me reassuringly as she hugged me and then caught me off guard as she boldly kissed me in front of Shadow and her Primarina.

'Ah… love is certainly is in the air today,' Lana's Primarina said happily with a smile on her face. 'I can feel it.'

'W-Whatever you say,' Shadow said nervously as Primarina had managed scoop him up and was hugging him happily.

oooooooooooooo

'Please tell me we're finished catching Fairies,' Shadow pleaded with me after we caught a Blue Flower Flabébé. 'You know that I can't stand Fairy Pokémon.'

"We know that Shadow," I replied as I huffed in annoyance. "But unfortunately we still have to find a shiny Fairy-type. And that's gonna take us a bit longer since Cynthia took our Shiny Charm."

'It'll take us forever to find a shiny Pokémon without your Shiny Charm,' protested Shadow. 'We should just pack it in and quit while we have the chance.'

"Cynthia will send us home if we quit now," I countered back to Shadow. "And after Mom and Dad telling me that going to Alola was my only shot of ever graduating from the Royal Pokémon Academy, I don't wanna let them down."

"I would think disappointing your parents would be bad, Shadow," Lana chimed in as she looked at my shiny male Moonlight Pokémon. "Besides, you wouldn't wanna let Keith down either, would you?"

'Oh… oh alright,' relented Shadow as he let out an exasperated sigh of defeat. 'I'll man up and help out.'

Lana then kissed Shadow on his forehead and then said, "Thank you Shadow. You're a real cutie."

'Ehe, who am I to say no to a pretty girl who's Keith's girlfriend?' Shadow asked with a smile as he was embarrassing me in front of Lana, who giggled in amusement.

"Shut up Shadow!" I shouted to my pal as my face went as red as an Occa Berry before having a smirk on my face. "Hey Primarina, Shadow wants to play with you."

Lana's Primarina then let herself out of her Pokéball and then exclaimed happily, 'Hooray! I was waiting for Shadow to wanna play with me.'

'AHH! GET AWAY FROM ME FAIRY!' Shadow screamed in terror as he tried to run away from Lana's Primarina, only for her to use Aqua Jet to catch up to him and start hugging, cuddling and nuzzling him.

"Reminds of that time of Cynthia's Golduck got mistaken for a shiny Buneary by an Abomasnow back when I went with Cynthia to Sinnoh with her boyfriend and best friend," I said as I recalled a funny memory.

oooooooooooooo

Flashback

oooooooooooooo

Climbing the tallest mountain of the Sinnoh region was not the easiest trek for young 10 year old Cynthia Ketchum as the Alpha Pokémon had commanded her to climb Mount Coronet as he had a task for her. Cynthia was lucky that she was in the Sinnoh region for a swimming circuit competition and was escorted by her now boyfriend and his oldest sister and a Buneary that was serving as guide. But the male Rabbit Pokémon had proved to be not the best guide to the Hall of Origin at the Spear Pillar ruins as the group had gotten lost in the snowy areas outside of the mountain. Cynthia's Golduck was wearing a pink pajama outfit as he was cold from the blustery, biting cold wind and snow of Mount Coronet.

'I really hate the biting cold of this mountain,' moaned the shiny male Duck Pokémon as he shivered from the cold. 'Why couldn't Lord Arceus have summoned us to somewhere warmer?'

'If you're thinking about jumping into the hole next to you, I would advise against it,' the shiny male Rabbit Pokémon cautioned Cynthia's shiny Golduck.

'Forget you and your directions,' Cynthia's Golduck snapped at the Buneary guide. 'I'm outta here!'

'But… but there are wild Abomasnows and there's one that has an infatuation with Pokémon that are pink,' the Buneary tried to explain Cynthia's Golduck.

Cynthia's shiny Golduck just ignored the guide and hopped into the hole, going in the direction they came from. Traveling about five minutes from the group, the shiny male Duck Pokémon then hit something that blocked his way down the mountain. Golduck then popped his head out of the tunnel and then asked, 'Alright, what's the holding up the works? What's holding up the… the…

Cynthia's shiny Golduck looked up and then saw a male Frosted Tree Pokémon and then screamed, 'AHH!'

'Just what I always wanted,' the Abomasnow said as he picked up Cynthia's shiny male Duck Pokémon. 'My own little pink Buneary. I will call him George.'

'I'm not a Buneary,' Cynthia's shiny Golduck said as he tried to remain calm.

'I will hug him and pet him and squeeze him,' the Abomasnow said happily as he was hugging and squeezing the shiny male Duck Pokémon.

'You're hurting me,' Golduck said as his patience was running down quickly, 'please let me go.'

'And I will pat him and pet him,' the Abomasnow continued happily and joyfully.

With his patience exhausted, Cynthia's shiny male Golduck then shouted at the top of his lungs, 'I AIN'T NO BUNEARY!'

oooooooooooooo

End flashback

oooooooooooooo

'You're not helping me at all, Keith,' Shadow said to me as he was trying to wiggle out of Primarina's grip.

'Hooray! Hooray!' Lana's Primarina exclaimed happily as she was still cuddling with Shadow.

oooooooooooooo

Cynthia Summers POV

oooooooooooooo

'You really think it was necessary to strip your brother of his Shiny Charm?' Ariel, my shiny female Primarina, asked me after we had surfaced from training for the swimming circuit.

"He needs to learn to not be reliant on the Shiny Charm," I explained to Ariel. "Aunt Relena taught us to not always be reliant on the various items just to get what we want. Sometimes we have to rely on luck to get a shiny Pokémon.

I continued, "I had to do it, Lisa had to do it, the other students at the Royal Pokémon Academy have to do it too."

'Oh I see,' replied Ariel before she saw the shiny male Primarina she had bred baby shiny Popplios with. 'My love is here! Yay! And… I am in heat again. He must've read read my Fairy Aura.'

"Wow," I said in amazement before Ariel let me go and swam off to go to her mate. "Guess it's time for me to turn and go back to Benjy."

I then swam back to the beach where my sexy fiancé was there waiting for me and motioned for me to join him on the cabana bed for… the most pleasurable kind of affection that any woman could ask for. As for Ariel, she went to the shiny male Primarina that she got pregnant by and they made sweet passionate love to each other while I was doing the same with Benjy. That night was a good night. Couple that with Ariel's mate returning and things were looking pretty good as Keith's first Pokémon that he was going to get as a reward would be something that Shadow was not going like and something that goes against Keith's preference of wanting to train quadruped Pokémon.

'I really hope that Lana is helping him out,' I thought as I cuddled with Benjy. 'Lana has his Shiny Charm and I told her to give it to him once he caught a shiny Fairy Pokémon on his own.'

oooooooooooooo

Keith Ketchum's POV

oooooooooooooo

'Ugh, we finally caught a shiny Fairy Pokémon,' Shadow said to me as we caught a shiny Cutiefly after five days of being away from our apartment. 'Can we go back to Big Sister Cynthia now?'

"Yes Shadow," I answered as I was getting really tired from all of the searching for a shiny Fairy-type.

"I knew you could do it," Lana said to me as she hugged me and then gave me a peck kiss on my right cheek. "Oh, I have something for you. Your sister told me not to give it to you until you found a shiny Fairy-type Pokémon on your own."

Lana revealed the item and I recognized it as my Shiny Charm that Aunt Relena gave to me after I got accepted into the Royal Pokémon Academy. I was really confused as to how Lana had gotten my Shiny Charm in her possession. The only other person who could've gotten ahold of it was Cynthia as she knew where I had stashed my Shiny Charm after I got accepted into the Academy. Oddly enough once I had gotten my Shiny Charm back, a shiny Growlithe had appeared. Once Shadow and I saw the shiny Puppy Pokémon, we readied ourselves and I inadvertently ignored the Dream Ball that materialized and accidentally knocked it into Lana's hands.

'A Growlithe, Keith,' Shadow said to me with an eager grin on his face. 'Let's get it.'

"Yeah!" I exclaimed as Shadow took a battle stance against the shiny Puppy Pokémon. "Shadow, use Pursuit before it can get away."

'You got it,' acknowledged Shadow as he then charged at the shiny Growlithe and striking it. 'Gotcha! How do you like that?'

The shiny Puppy Pokémon then got back off the ground as she then replied with a red outline racing up her body, 'I dunno you tell me… you idiots.'

"Oh no," I moaned as I forgot about Growlithe's Dream World ability, Justified.

'We're in trouble,' added Shadow as he too forgot about Growlithe's Dream World ability as his eyes and mine widened in shock.

'You can say that again,' the shiny female Growlithe replied as she was cloaked in fire and then charged at Shadow with her Flame Wheel attack which was stronger now. 'Now feel the burn!'

Shadow was struck hard by the powered up Flame Wheel and hurt him really hard. My shiny male Moonlight Pokémon was lifted off of his feet as he got struck in the chest and landed on his back. Our stupidity really cost us and I had shiver run down my spine at the thought of Cynthia and Lisa laughing at me for the mistake we made. As for Shadow, that Flame Wheel had caused him to get burned as he got back up. But despite the burn, Shadow was willing to get back up and took a stance. Seeing this impressed our shiny female Fire-type opponent as she decided to stay and finish the fight.

"Shadow, use your Hidden Power," I ordered Shadow as he had a Water-type Hidden Power.

'Nice try you two,' the shiny female Growlithe said as she dodged Shadow's Hidden Power with relative ease and then used Flame Charge against Shadow, raising her own Speed stat in the process. 'Now take my Flame Charge in your face!'

'Gah! The fire hurts!' exclaimed Shadow as he was indeed struck in the face by the shiny female Growlithe's Flame Charge and was being sapped of energy by the burn she inflicted.

"Shadow, use Dig," I said to Shadow as I needed to get back in fight.

Shadow complied after dodging another Flame Wheel from our opponent. The Growlithe wasn't a stupid opponent herself. She sniffed around in order to anticipate where Shadow would come up from. Once she had Shadow's general area, the young Puppy Pokémon then readied herself as Shadow came up from the ground. The shiny female Growlithe had dodged the first attack. Yes, you heard right, I said the first attack. Shadow then came out from the ground and struck the Fire-type Puppy Pokémon, catching her off guard. Once I saw that Shadow had inflicted enough damage, I turned and saw that Lana was holding the Dream Ball that had materialized for the Growlithe.

"Toss me that Dream Ball," I requested to Lana.

"Dream Ball?" Lana inquired as she had held on to the pink and lavender Pokéball before tossing it to me.

"Go Dream Ball," I said as I tossed the mysterious Pokéball from Unova at the dazed shiny female Growlithe.

The pink and lavender Pokéball struck the shiny female Growlithe before she could come to her senses and try to dodge the Pokéball. The shiny Puppy Pokémon tried to break out of the Dream Ball, but I knew that the Dream Ball was like a Master Ball for Pokémon that come from the Dream World. She tried to resist as it took up 12 shakes and four clicks until she gave up and acknowledged me and Shadow as her new partners. Shadow and I were very excited that we got our first quadruped Pokémon in Alola and our first Pokémon that we caught for ourselves. Despite the excitement, Shadow was still burned and I didn't have any healing items. I felt really embarrassed that I didn't have the necessary items. Fortunately for us, Lana and her Primarina were able to help us out. Primarina used her Sparkling Aria to help heal Shadow of his burns from the battle… right before she decided to hug and cuddle with him.

"So how were you able to damage that Growlithe?" Lana asked me as she was confused as to how Shadow managed to land that hit with his Dig attack, even though Growlithe managed to dodge the attack.

"When Shadow uses his Dig, he also uses Double Team as well," I explained to Lana. "We're always expecting a Pokémon that's gonna try to anticipate where Shadow is coming from, so he adds in the Double Team to increase his chance of getting a hit.

"Wow, that's really smart," Lana replied in amazement.

'Smart and so cute!' Lana's Primarina exclaimed happily as she was showering Shadow with affection as she hugged and cuddled with him, much to his displeasure.

'Why me?' moaned Shadow.

oooooooooooooo

"Excellent work, Little Bro," Cynthia said to me with a smile on her beaming face as it took a couple days to get back to the apartment building. "Looks like you and Shadow did an excellent job out there. And you finally caught your own first Pokémon.

"You won't be getting kicked out of the Academy just yet," Sis continued as her Primarina, Ariel, could be heard making sounds in her bedroom where she and a shiny male Primarina were located.

"Not a good idea, man," Benjamin said to me as I was curious as to why Ariel was making those weird noises. "Ariel's in there with her mate."

"Bro, you should respect their privacy," Cynthia said to me in a cautious tone. "Ariel's been in heat for the past week."

oooooooooooooo

"So… we're in complete agreement then?" I asked Lana as we were lying in our comfortable bed after being traumatized by watching Ariel and her shiny Primarina mate having sex with each other.

"Yup," answered Lana as we held each other. "No premarital sex at all. For any reason. We'll wait until we're married to have sex with each other."

"Sounds good to me," I replied before I kissed Lana on her forehead before turning on my Nintendo Switch console, hooked up to the TV and started playing Doom.

"Do you always wear those sunglasses of your's?" Lana asked me as she finally noticed that I wore glasses.

"Yes, but they're eyeglasses that can become sunglasses," I answered Lana as I was on my Nintendo Switch console playing Doom. "Oh no, no, no, you are not getting me tonight, Hellspawn. Where's that BFG when you need it?"

"What's a… BFG?" Lana asked me in a confused manner before shutting her eyes for a brief moment. "And why do you have to play this game? It's so… bloody and gory."

"Well, I'm just trying to drown out the noise from my sister and Benjamin's movies," I answered as we could faintly hear the sounds of my sister and her fiancé's movies over my game of Doom.

"What are you doing to that… toy?" Lana asked me as she watched me find a collectible item on the screen, examine it, adjust its arm and then fist bump it like it was a buddy of mine.

"I just grabbed a collectible item," I explained to Lana. "And apparently I grabbed a Doom Marine collectible to unlock something at a later time."

"Do you think that you could stop playing?" Lana asked me as she was terrified of the monsters that I was going through killing on the game. "This game scares me."

"Almost done," I replied as I made quick work of evil monsters on the game I was playing. "Okay, I'll quit for night. And 'BFG' stands for Big Frikin' Gun*."

"Now why I don't believe that?" Lana asked as I had given her a censored answer for what BFG stood for.

"Would you rather hear the honest answer or the toned down, censored answer?" I asked Lana as my answer to her.

oooooooooooooo

"Wait what now?!" I asked in shock as my sister gave me a Dream Ball with a newborn Popplio in it.

"You heard me, Little Bro," Cynthia replied cool and calm like Mom. "Your reward for completing your homework assignment is this baby Popplio that you will train up and evolve into a Primarina."

I moaned as I was hoping that I was going to get perhaps a Rockruff like the pre-evolved form of her shiny Lycanroc, Apollo or even the pre-evolved form of Lavender or Shiva. Popplio wasn't a quadruped Pokémon like I prefer to train. But then again, Cynthia was acting like she was an instructor from the Academy even though she wasn't a certified teacher. As for Shadow, he had shivers running up his spine as he was not liking the fact that I had to train up a Popplio as my next assignment. Lana's Primarina and Ariel were enough for him to deal with, but a third Primarina was too much. Yet I knew that if Shadow and I threw in the towel and quit, Cynthia would send us home and I'd get kicked out of the Academy which would make Mom and Dad upset. I was reluctant enough to accept the Dream Ball from Sis, but she swiped from me my Exp. Share as I was losing another item for this new homework assignment.

"Oh, one last snag to throw at you," Cynthia added with a smirk on her face.

'No more capturing Fairies, please don't make us capture more Fairy Pokémon,' Shadow pleaded with our big sister.

"You cannot capture any Rockruffs until you've evolved your Popplio into Primarina," Cynthia replied as she hooted like a Noctowl in laughter.

"WHAT?!" Shadow and I asked in complete shock and disbelief.

'Ouch,' said Rika as the female Constraint Pokémon and her sister, Isabella Greyson had been walking by and heard the conversation. 'And we all know your preference of training quadruped Pokémon.'

"I think Keith can do it," Isabella said with a smile. "There'll be a nice surprise in it from me and Rika if you complete your homework assignment within three days."

"Th-Three days?!" I asked as I was now feeling miserable. "But… but training a Pokémon up to a Stage 2 evolved form takes a lot longer than 3 days."

"True, but there are some trainers who are dedicated enough to do it in three days," Isabella countered back calmly and confidently. "So there's just one thing you gotta ask yourself."

"No, I don't feel lucky," I said to Isabella as assumed that she was gonna ask me if I felt lucky.

"I wasn't going to ask that," Isabella replied to me. "How dedicated are you to training Pokémon like that shiny Growlithe you caught a few days ago?"

oooooooooooooo

"Oh man, I really hate getting all of these snags thrown in my face," I whined as Lana was following me. "Cynthia didn't have to strip me of all my Rare Candies along with my Exp. Share."

"Cynthia does seem to be enjoying putting you through all of this," Lana said to me.

"I think she sometimes thinks that she can get away with bossing me around when Mom and Dad aren't around," I said to Lana after I sighed.

"So how are you going to train your Popplio, now that you don't have your Exp. Share with you?" Lana asked me as she was worried.

"I'm gonna use something that Aunt Relena refers to as the 'Bait and Switch' training method," I answered Lana. "You put your weakest Pokémon up front as bait and then when a stronger Pokémon pops out, you recall the weaker Pokémon and bring out something stronger."

"That sounds really risky," replied Lana.

"It doesn't always work," I added to Lana as I remembered Aunt Relena's lesson on the Bait and Switch method. "Pokémon that have the Arena Trap and Shadow Tag abilities have a tendency to defeat that method."

"Don't think that I'm familiar with those abilities," Lana said to me as we were walking towards Route 3 as Cynthia wanted me to start at the most difficult part of Melemele Island and then work my way back towards Route 1.

"Shadow Tag prevents various Pokémon from escaping unless they're Ghost-type Pokémon or holding an item called a Shed Shell," I explained to my girlfriend. "Arena Trap does the same thing for Pokémon that be landlubbers. Flying-type Pokémon and Pokémon with the Levitate ability aren't affected by it."

Lana found my pirate accent to be funny as she and even her Primarina found it to be quite funny. The one thing that I had forgotten to mention was that Pokémon who were very smart also tended to pick up on trainers using the Bait and Switch training method and would often send weaker underlings or the prey they captured for eating. I wasn't sure how smart the Pokémon of Alola were going to be depending on how often I used the Bait and Switch method. I was at least thankful that Cynthia didn't take my TM Case as I decided to give my new Popplio some moves that would help her out in battle. The first TM that I used was the Echoed Voice move since her ability was Liquid Voice and not Torrent like Lana's Primarina. The other TMs that I used were Aqua Tail, Iron Tail, Ice Beam, Water Pulse and Icy Wind. As for learning Hyper Voice, I planned on having her it learn once she evolved into Primarina. I gave her a Lucky Egg to help speed up the training process.

oooooooooooooo

"Seems like you're doing quite well so far," Lana said to me after we returned to our apartment after training up Poppilo and getting her close to evolving into Brionne.

'Little Brother,' Big Brother Victini said as he knocked on our door three times and repeated the process two more times.

"Yes Victini?" I asked my Psychic/Fire-type big brother after sighing and rolling my eyes.

'You have a package here from the Prototype Corps.,' answered Victini. 'I think it's stuff pertaining to your paintball hobby.'

"Yes!" I exclaimed happily as I opened the door and let Victini in with the crate that had my paintball guns. "Thank you Lady Sheba. I owe her a favor big time."

"What's in the crate?" Lana asked me as I began prying open the crate with a laugh of glee.

"My paintball guns," I answered Lana happily. "I started playing Paintball three years ago. I'm on a paintball team too."

"Doesn't playing that… hurt?" Lana asked me as she watched me heft my specially made paintball gun that was a replica of the DMR rifle from the Halo games.

"Play it enough times, and starts to not bother you much," I answered Lana. "I mean yeah, you get some welts on you when you get tagged but the welts go away over time.

"And she even provided plastic training bullets too," I continued as I looked in the crate to see what else I had received from Sheba. "I can reuse them too."

"Do they hurt like the paintballs?" Lana asked me as she seemed worried.

"Nah," I answered dismissively. "I got armor that absorbs the impact. If you get hit, they sting a bit like a Weedle's Poison Sting."

'You going out to get yourself reacquainted with your paintball guns?' Shadow asked me as he knew what I wanted to do.

"Of course," I answered with a big grin. "Need something to do so I'm not always on my Switch."

"Well… we could always go swimming," offered Lana.

"It's gonna take a while," I replied calmly. "I gotta disassemble these paintball guns. I think this region doesn't allow anyone to have firearms that are assembled. Regardless if they have live ammunition or not."

oooooooooooooo

"I really hope that Shadow won't mind sharing the bedroom with Primarina," Lana said to me after four hours of swimming at the beach.

'AHH! GET THIS FAIRY OUT OF MY BED!' I heard Shadow cry in terror.

"Suck it up, Shadow!" I exclaimed to my shiny male Moonlight Pokémon brother.

"I took a look at what you said about Alola having laws against firearms," began Lana as she had been on our computer as I was taking a shower to wash off all of sand and salt after we had come back from the beach. "Seems like you were right. Our region doesn't allow its citizens to have firearms that are fully assembled. You can buy them in parts, but you can only use them fully assembled at designated firing ranges.

"Though I don't think you'll be able to get into a firing range without supervision from a parent or guardian," finished Lana.

"I don't have a legal guardian here since sis isn't married and an adult by law in the Atlantica Islands yet," I said as I laid on my back.

"I'm not sure how our region would react to Cynthia and Benjamin being engaged at their age," replied Lana. "But I think they might…

"Keith?" Lana asked me as I had fallen asleep before letting out a sigh of frustration. "This whole relationship thing is gonna take getting used to, I guess."

Lana then fell asleep after wrapping her arms around my waist. As for Shadow, once he fell asleep Lana's Primarina got back in bed with him wrapped her arms around him and fell asleep peacefully. Guess I half expected Shadow to wake up and cry out in terror after seeing Primarina's arms around him. But Shadow is like me, once we fall asleep, we're out cold and nothing short of Lord Arceus himself is gonna wake us up… except maybe food.

oooooooooooooo

Cynthia Summer's POV

oooooooooooooo

"I don't think I've ever seen anyone eat so much food like he does," Lana said to me and Benjy after she and Keith had breakfast. "The scrambled eggs and berries were flying when Shadow was eating too."

"Who else do you know who can inhale food like a high suction vacuum?" Benjy asked Lana as he pointed over to me while I was wolfing down a couple packages of Pop Tarts, cereal and four slices of French toast.

"Huh? You say something, Benjy?" I asked Benjy as I looked at Lana and my fiancé talking to each other.

"No Babe, go back to eating," Benjy answered me as he went back to talking to Lana.

I shrugged my shoulders and then went back to eating my breakfast. It didn't take long for me to start choking on my food. All Benjy and Lana could was sigh and shake their heads in disbelief as I reached for a bottle of water to wash down my food. Not five minutes later, did I finish eating my breakfast and cleaned up my dishes. I had asked Lana to come to me as I wanted to check up on my baby brother, Keith.

"Where's Keith?" I asked Lana. "Is he training his Popplio or is he playing with his paintball guns?"

"Keith disassembled his paintball guns and put them away," Lana answered me. "I'd wager he's training Popplio right now. He has her holding a Lucky Egg to speed things up with her training."

I sighed as I said, "I was hoping that he'd train her without using a Lucky Egg."

"You took away his Exp. Share, but not his Lucky Egg," countered Lana. "He and Popplio seem to be going through SOS battles and even Horde battles too now that she's strong enough to battle on her own."

"That's good to hear," I replied after taking another sip of my bottled water. "That means he should be close to evolving her into a Brionne."

"Actually, he and Popplio have been holding off evolution for a while," Lana explained to me. "They said that they wanna get as close as they can to level 34 before she evolves into Brionne."

"Interesting strategy," I replied as I had raised a brow. "I think I did that back at the Academy. Back when the instructors were really pouring on the pressure and trying to tighten the screws on me."

"That must've been hard," Lana. Said sadly before her cellphone vibrated with a Doom ringtone. "Oooo… Keith. Why did he put a ringtone from Doom on my phone?! He knows that game scares me!"

"The Doom ringtone you got for him when he texts you is for when you find those little toys," I said as I recognized the Doom ringtone that played for when my little bro texted Lana. "That's not too scary. Now if he had something that's alternative rock and it sounds demonic for when calls you, then you might have a problem. And I'll kick his ass for you.

"But if you don't wanna be scared of Doom," I continued, "I'd suggest you face that fear and play it while he's not around. Even Master Lucario taught us that we need to face our fears regardless of what they might be. Once you've beaten your fear of Doom, you'll be able to play ANY survival horror game that my little bro plays."

'Maybe you should play it,' Lana's Primarina offered to Lana. 'If I'm not mistaken, you humans have a saying. I think it goes, 'The first step is always the hardest'.'

'Primarina is right about that,' Ariel said to Lana as she had been playing on mine and Benjy's Nintendo Switch console herself. 'Ha ha Gannondorf! How do you like being beaten by a little human girl who uses a bell as a weapon?! HA HA! I AM UNSTOPPABLE!'

'Wow, you don't play as the Hero of Legend?' Ariel's mate asked her as he was watching her play Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition.

"Go Ariel," I said to my shiny female Soloist Pokémon as she was laying waste to foes before her. "Hey wait a minute, are you playing on Hard Mode or Easy Mode?"

'Busted,' Ariel's mate said to her.

oooooooooooooo

Keith Ketchum's POV

oooooooooooooo

"You know that you don't have to play Doom just to beat your fear of it," I said Lana as she clung to me and was hyperventilating. "I can just play it when you're not around and put it up."

'Well… Lana was insistent on beating her fear of the demon killing game,' Lana's Primarina said to me. 'It is very bloody and gory.'

'Keith, take your girlfriend to the beach and go swim,' Shadow said to me. 'You've already gotten Suiren close to where you want her to be. So take a break from training and spend the day with Lana.'

Lana looked at me with her beautiful blue eyes. It bothered me on why I'm hardly able to ever say 'no' to a pretty girl, but at that moment Lana needed me and Shadow was right. I smiled to Lana as I said, "Hey, let's go to the store and get some food, a picnic basket, a beach blanket and head over to the beach for a day just for the two of us. What do you say to that?" Lana clung to me and nodded her head as her answer. I looked to Shadow and he gave a nod after I took the cartridge of Doom out of my Switch console. Shadow used his Psychic attack to retrieve the game cartridge from my hand and put it away. As for Lana and I, we left the apartment and then heard Shadow cry out in terror as Lana's Primarina decided to catch him, wrap her arms around him and start cuddling him affectionately.

'AHHH! GET THIS FAIRY TO LET GO OF ME!' Shadow cried out in terror as Lana began to relax and let out a sigh of relief.

"You feel better, Lana?" I asked my girlfriend as she let go of me and decided to hold my hand.

"Yes," Lana answered softly before my cellphone went off with the Senbonzakura violin solo ringtone on my phone. "Now who's calling you?"

"Oh no," I moaned as I knew whose ringtone it was when they called me. "Please don't let it be Aunt Jessica again. Please don't let it be Aunt Jessica."

I answered the call and dreaded who was calling me as the caller said, "Hello there… my favorite nephew."

"Yes Aunt Jessica?" I asked after I let out an exasperated sigh.

"Now is that how you greet your favorite aunt after she helped you get your eyeglass frames and lenses in the colors of your shiny Umbreon, Shadow?" Aunt Jessica asked me in an innocent tone.

"You're right, I'm sorry Aunt Jessica," I replied as she had to remind me of the favor she was able to help accommodate my request even though Mom and Dad weren't too happy when I asked the eye doctor if they could specially order frames and shiny Umbreon blue color tinted lenses. "Is there something you want from me?"

"Not necessarily you," answered Aunt Jessica cheerfully. "I heard that my favorite nephew is dating a really pretty young mermaid from Alola."

"Huh boy," I said under my breath as Lana and I were walking to the grocery store. "You're not gonna embarrass me, are you?"

"You're family, my favorite baby nephew," Aunt Jessica replied cheerfully. "But moving on to why I'm calling, I wanna meet with Lana. I have something new for her. Some new swimwear and something special I think she'd like."

"Who's that calling you?" Lana asked me as I never did give her an answer.

"It's Aunt Jessica," I answered her after reluctantly sighing. "You didn't happen to meet my aunt before, have you?"

Lana giggled as she happily explained, "I met her when I came to the Atlantica Islands for the first time with your sister, Cynthia. Your aunt really took a liking to me, Mallow and Lillie. Though I think she terrified Lillie and Snowy."

"[sigh] I was afraid of that," I replied as I had a blank stare on my face. "At any rate, Aunt Jessica says she's got some new swimwear for you and something special that she made for you."

"Really?" Lana asked in amazement. "Let's go meet with her. Please Keith, can we?"

oooooooooooooo

"I've gotta say that I really like the new swimwear she made for me," Lana said to me happily with a cheerful smile on her face. "Though… she did throw her shiny Tyranitar out for trying to suggest two piece swimwear for me… again."

"Yeah, you're not old enough by Aunt Jessica's standards for her to begin even thinking about two piece swimwear," I explained to Lana. "You've gotta be 16 before she'll even consider the idea."

"Why 16?" Lana asked me as looked at me while holding my left hand as I had our picnic basket in my right hand.

"She feels that a young woman's beauty starts to fully come out at 16," I answered Lana. "Plus the kingdom's seen a huge spike in teenage pregnancies at that age too, over the years."

"Oh," replied Lana as she shivered at the thought of getting pregnant at 16. "I see."

"Let's not… let's not think about that," I suggested to Lana. "We've got food, drinks, dessert, a beach blanket and no Pokémon to bother us for the day. Whaddya say to that Lana?"

"Sounds good to me," answered Lana as we continued to walk to the beach.

oooooooooooooo

"I really like this new swimsuit your aunt made," Lana said to me as she was modeling the Kyogre inspired swimsuit that Aunt Jessica made for her after she told my aunt that she wanted to capture a Kyogre. "I think it looks good on me."

"I think it looks good on you too," I said weakly as I had a nose bleed as she changed her swimwear right in front of me. "But you didn't have to change in front of me. I'm just lucky that Mom wasn't here to see this."

"I don't exactly have much," Lana replied to me before she let out a sigh. "Though your aunt seems to think that I should try to…"

"Oh no, no, no, no, no," I replied as I quickly got back up to my feet. "You're beautiful just the way you are. You don't need change anything."

"Really Keith?" Lana asked me in surprise. "You think I'm beautiful just the way I am?"

"You bet," I answered as I kissed Lana's left hand gently and tenderly, much like Big Brother Victini when he charms girls into giving him affection. "I think you're perfect just the way you are."

"Hee, hee, you're just like Victini," replied Lana as she giggled in amusement. "You're quite the charmer and a gentleman.

"Ready to dig in?" Lana asked as we both sat down on the Water Pokémon print beach blanket that I bought.

"Oh yeah, I'm starving," I answered as I reached in the picnic basket to pull out some of the food that I bought.

I had purchased lunch meats, bread, a few big bags of chips, some desserts and some bottles of water as it had been suggested to me not to buy soda, especially when the day was going to be hot and it certainly was hot. Both Lana and I enjoyed our beach time lunch as some people took notice of both of us eating and Lana playfully feeding me some Doritos Cool Ranch chips, my favorite type of chips. Though Lana was caught off guard when I playfully smashed a small snack cake in her face. Lana didn't take too kindly to my little prank as I bolted from our picnic site with her hot on my heels after wiping off the smashed snack cake off her face. To be honest, I didn't think she could keep up with me as she was in hot pursuit of me. Normally, had I done what I did to Lana to Shadow, he would've just used his Psychic attack to stop me in my tracks and plant my face in the ground. But I was definitely thankful that Lana couldn't use Psychic. After ten minutes of chasing me, Lana finally caught me as she leapt at me and tackled me to the ground.

"Aww, come on Lana it was just a joke," I protested to my girlfriend as she was definitely mad at me for my prank.

"That's still no excuse for what you did," Lana replied to me angrily. "That was really mean of you."

Lana then slapped me as a few onlookers watched me and Lana having an argument. I gotta say, Lana was very upset as she yelled at me for my prank. Being in a relationship was definitely new for me and certainly for Lana as we didn't know how to proceed after our first argument. I begged Lana to forgive me. What didn't help was that Isabella AND Cynthia happened to be at the beach. Both of them snickered at me and Lana as both of us then blushed and became embarrassed as they had been watching us argue about my little prank. Our faces were as red as a Chople Berry and I then covered my face as I felt like I had been humiliated by my sister and our family friend. I ran off to try and go hide as I was once again clamming up in my Shellder Shell. Lana found me quickly 20 minutes later as she found me crunched up in a ball trying to hide from everyone.

"Keith?" Lana called to me as she was worried about me, yet got no response. "Keith, I'm sorry for my response to you.

Lana got no reply from as I was still in my Shellder shell and she called to me, "Keith, please talk to me. Don't shut me out. I'm sorry for my reaction to you."

I looked at Lana and then hid my face again as I still didn't wanna talk to anyone. Lana did everything she could to coax me out of my Shellder Shell and even went back to my sister, Cynthia, for help in getting ideas on how to coax me out of my Shellder shell. As for me, I remained in my Shellder shell until Lana came back and she sighed. Once I saw that Lana had come back, I let out a sigh as I thought that she still hated me for smashing that snack cake in her face. Before I could go back into my Shellder shell, Lana said to me, "Keith, if we're going to be dating each other, you've gotta stop clamming up in your Shellder shell. What if some other guy thinks I'm pretty and decides that he wants to take me away from you? Are you going to clam up again?

"I love you Keith," continued Lana as she hugged me, "you know I do."

"I… I love you too," I nervously replied to Lana as I started coming back out of my Shellder shell.

"Now then," began Lana with a gentle smile, "whaddya say we go swimming like we planned? I'm sure this secluded area isn't exactly an ideal place to be spending the day with me, right?"

I took Lana's hand as she helped me up… only for her to return the favor and smash a snack cake in my face. That caught me by surprise like it did when I did the same to her. As much as I wanted to be upset with Lana, I knew that for me, I got my just dessert when she smashed that snack cake in my face. Once I wiped off and ate the smashed snack cake from my face, Lana and I went swimming as we enjoyed the day to ourselves peacefully and she showed me many of Alola's Water-type Pokémon that inhabited Melemele Island. They were certainly plenty of native Water-types and some that even I recognized from the other regions.

oooooooooooooo

"So, what did think of the underwater safari, Keith?" Lana asked me a few hours later as we waded ashore from spending most of the afternoon underwater and being introduced to a few tribes of Water-type Pokémon.

"I loved it," I answered Lana with a grin on my face. "We should it again tomorrow."

"Why not the rest of this week?" inquired Lana as she looked at me.

"You know I've gotta get Suiren evolved into a Primarina and I got two more days to do that," I answered Lana.

"I can help with that," said Lana with a gentle smile and then winked at me. "You trust me?"

"Uh… Lana?" I asked my girlfriend in a startled confusion.

"Just leave everything to me," Lana answered me in a reassuring tone. "All Suiren needs to do is just follow whatever plan that you two had initially come up with."

"Oh… gotcha," I replied after getting over my initial confusion.

oooooooooooooo

Lana and I returned to our beach blanket and found that our area was quite a mess as I forgot to make sure that the picnic basket was shut tight. I faintly remembered that there was a sign that informed beach goers to make sure that coolers, picnic baskets and other portable containers that housed food were shut tight as some Pokémon were known for getting in and stealing food for themselves. And then a stubby little brown paw with a slight hint of light blue stuck out of the picnic basket as the box of snack cakes was thrown out of it.

"What the Houndour?" I asked in confusion as Lana and I cautiously approached our picnic area.

"Hello?" Lana asked as she wondered what might be in our picnic basket.

Few minutes later, the face of a canine Pokémon popped out of our picnic basket. I recognized the face as that of a shiny Rockruff, like my sister's recently caught canine Pokémon. As much as I wanted to catch it, I knew that Cynthia was somehow watching me and keeping me from capturing it. The shiny Rockruff definitely looked quite friendly as it looked at me and tilted his head.

'Hello there humans,' the shiny male Rock-type Puppy Pokémon greeted Lana and I happily. 'Thanks for the delicious grub you left for me. I hadn't eaten in days.'

"Uh… no prob, buddy," I replied to the shiny Rockruff.

'Oh? A human who can understand me?' Rockruff asked in amazement. 'That's very rare. Not many humans here can speak with Pokémon fluently as if there isn't a barrier between us.'

"I'm not from Alola," I explained to the shiny Rockruff. "The region I'm from, we learn to communicate with Pokémon and treat them as equals."

'How fascinating, human,' replied Rockruff. 'Is there any chance that I might come with you to this region where humans and Pokémon live as equals?'

"There is," I answered Rockruff, "but just not right now. My sister gave me homework and she told me that I couldn't capture a Rockruff until I complete my homework assignment.

The shiny Rockruff looked upset until I said, "But there's nothing that says you can't follow me until my homework assignment is finished and I'm near completing it."

'Sounds good to me,' replied Rockruff as he lazily got out of the picnic basket and then stretched. 'You've got quite a mess here to clean up.'

"Yeah, thanks Captain Obvious," I sassed at the shiny male Puppy Pokémon as he then laid on our beach blanket while Lana and I proceeded to clean up the mess he made.

Lana and I were fortunate that a couple Pokémon were nearby and helped us to clean up the mess that Rockruff had made. The two Pokémon that helped us were a couple of Golducks that were visiting from Poni Island as they were looking to challenge the local deity, Tapu Koko. Thanks to the Golducks who helped Lana and I, we were able to get done and then started walking back to our apartment with Rockruff following right behind us. Once we had picked up our picnic basket and beach blanket, Lana and I used the beach shower to wash the sand off of us before we got back to our apartment. Rockruff didn't like that he had to get washed off too, but it had to be done. After getting mostly cleaned up, Lana and I headed back to our apartment and could hear my sister and Benjamin watching yet another movie with sex in it again.

"How many times does your sister and Benjamin have to watch movies with sex in them?" Lana asked me.

"I dunno," I answered Lana as I shrugged my shoulders.

Lana sighed and shook her head as she then said, "I really was hoping to not take you home with me."

"Eh? Lana?" I asked Lana in confusion.

"I don't think you're ready to meet my family just yet," Lana said as she looked to me. "I just got you back out of your Shellder shell and I don't want you clamming back up in it.

The moaning from Cynthia and Benjamin's movie got louder as Lana then said, "Guess we've got no choice. Primarina and Shadow can manage on their own without us tonight. I'll call my parents and tell them we're on our way."

"I'll get Suiren," I said as Lana pulled out her cellphone and called her parents and I went to go get my shiny female Popplio.

oooooooooooooo

"Now just remember Keith," Lana said to me as were about to enter the house of Lana's family, "my family can be a bit wild, but they mean well."

"You've seen my family and how wild things can be with them," I countered back with a smile on my face. "Especially all of mine, Lisa and Cynthia's big brothers and sisters."

Lana opened the door and we stepped into her family's home. We were given quite a civilized greeting and not something that Lana had half expected as we came in the door of her family's home in Konikoni City. Lana's mother was quite lovely woman and I could see where Lana got her beauty from.

"Hello there young man," Lana's mother said to me with a cheerful smile on her face. "It's nice to meet you. Lana says that you're quite a nice young man."

"Lana! Lana!" exclaimed two young girls as they came running towards me and Lana.

Before the two girls could reach us, Lana glared at them with sharp daggers in her eyes and had a dark aura behind her that told them to back away from me. Apparently, Lana figured that they were going to embarrass her in front of me. Both of Lana's twin sisters clung to each other in terror as they got the message to leave me alone and to not embarrass her. Lana introduced her family to me and they were surprised to hear my last name.

"You by chance aren't related to the Princess of Hoenn, are you?" Lana's mother asked me as she recognized my last name.

"She's my mom," I answered Lana's mother. "Why do you ask?"

"Wow, I never knew that May Ketchum had a son," Lana's mom, Sapphire Felicity, said to me. "I'm not sure if it's the glasses, but you've got your mother's eyes,"

"They look like sunglasses if you ask me," Harper, one of Lana's younger twin sisters, commented as she took notice of the shiny Umbreon blue tinted lenses of my glasses.

"My parents reluctantly let me have the lenses of my glasses tinted to the blue color from a shiny Umbreon," I explained to Lana's sister Harper.

"That had to cost a lot of money," Lana's father said to me. "But given that you're from a rich family and both of your parents are the top members of the Atlantica Islands Elite Four, it probably was pocket change to them."

"I wouldn't say that it was pocket change to Mom and Dad," I replied to Lana's dad. "They don't act like they're uptight rich snobs like a lot of other wealthy people do.

"My fashionista aunt was the one who helped get my glasses," I continued, "and she found out they weren't as expensive as my parents thought they might be. Though I think I gave my aunt another idea for fashion line that day."

"Well, at any rate, we'll get the guest room ready for you and you can sleep there for the night," Mrs. Felicity said to me with a gentle and caring smile.

"Um, if it's no trouble, Keith and I will share my bed together," Lana said to her mother and father. "We share a bed together at our apartment on Melemele Island."

Lana's dad and mom froze for a few minutes after hearing Lana say that she and I share the queen-sized bed back at our apartment. At first I facepalmed myself because Lana told her parents about us sharing a bed together. Then I felt a shiver of terror wash over me as I felt that Lana's dad was going to pull me aside and either tear me a new one or throw me into the sea and make me sleep with the Sharpedoes. Or worse… both of her parents would make me sleep with the Sharpedoes. Both of Lana's parents smiled to their daughter as Mrs. Felicity asked, "Lana, dear, can we borrow this nice young man?"

"If you're thinking that he would do anything improper to me," Lana answered her mom and dad, "there's no need for you to pull him aside and 'talk' with him. His mother pretty much gave him the talk and let him know what would happen if he even thought of doing something improper to me."

Her parents looked at me darkly first, then back to Lana and then back to me darkly again before smiling again. As for me, I was profusely sweating bullets in terror as I nodded my head in agreement… and terror with what Lana said to her parents. Even with her parents smiling at me again, I didn't feel any close having a sense of relief. As for Harper and Sarah, they were very clueless as to what we had been talking about and it was a relief that they didn't know. Once all of the dark stares were out of the systems of Lana's parents, Lana and I called it a night and went to sleep as we slept in her bed together.

The next morning came and both Lana and I were still out cold yet both of us could hear lovely singing. To be honest, I think the singing is what kept me and Lana in bed longer as both of us enjoyed the singing. The singing then got louder as it was then that Suiren came into Lana's bedroom and greeted us happily.

'GOOD MORNING TO YOU TWO LOVEBIRDS!' Suiren shouted at the top of her lungs happily and joyfully.

"It's too early Suiren," I replied to Suiren, very sleepily.

'Wakey, wakey, lovebirds,' Suiren said as she then jumped on the bed to wake me and Lana up.

Neither Lana nor I liked that Suiren was jumping on the bed as she worked hard to wake us up. After five minutes of bouncing on Lana's bed, Suiren managed to wake us up and I received quite the surprise as I saw that Suiren wasn't the shiny Popplio that I got from my sister and Ariel. Suiren was now a shiny Primarina, which confused me at first. I looked at Lana as she woke up confused at first. Lana looked at me and saw that I was confused before she saw that Suiren was now a shiny Primarina and looked back to me with a smile on her face.

"See, I told you to leave everything to me," Lana said before kissing me on my left cheek.

"But I'll get in trouble with Cynthia and Isabella," I protested to Lana.

'Don't worry Keith,' Suiren replied to me in a reassuring tone. 'I just happened to find those Rare Candies lying on the coffee table downstairs.'

"Let's just hope Cynthia and Isabella buy it," I said as I let out a sigh.

"If not, I'll take the blame for it," Lana reassured me. "It was my idea, after all.

"So what you do say to spending the day at the beach over at Heahea Beach?" Lana asked me gently before kissing me on my lips. "Just you… and me… alone. No Pokémon to bother us and no Harper and Sarah to bother us either."

"Sounds good to me," I replied as I kissed Lana on her forehead as I could sense that Lana's dad was coming to see if we were awake.

Sure enough, I was right as Lana's dad came to see if we were awake and asked, "Hey Suiren, did you wake them up for breakfast?"

'Keith and Lana are awake,' Suiren answered Lana's dad. 'They'll be down for breakfast in a bit.'

"No kissy-kissy while you're in this house, you two," Lana's dad called to us from the hallway. "Suiren, make sure they don't get too romantic with each other."

'Yes sir,' replied Suiren as she saluted the empty hallway.

oooooooooooooo

A week later

"Nicely done Keith," Cynthia said to me as she gave a nod for getting Suiren fully evolved into a Primarina like Ariel. "Looks like you're making nice progress with your Academy work."

"So how many Rare Candies did you give her to evolve her into a Primarina?" Isabella asked me as she frowned at me.

If there was one thing Isabella that detested the most, it was Rare Candies that trainers could give to their Pokémon. I knew that she considered them to be a form of cheating when training Pokémon. But I had intended to give Suiren at least one Rare Candy once she had reached level 33 and then evolved into a Brionne. But with Lana's plan, things were made a bit easier and I could move on to the next assignment for the Royal Pokémon Academy.

'He didn't give me any Rare Candies,' Suiren said in mine and Lana's defense. 'They were on the coffee table at the house of Lana's family.'

Sis and Isabella looked at each other in confusion at first. I didn't know if they would buy Suiren's explanation or not, but it was technically true. If they didn't buy the explanation, then Cynthia was bound to send me home and I would be single again and have to face my parents. Sis and Isabella looked at me, then Suiren, then to Lana, back to me and finally they looked at each other as if they were silently conversing with each other. After ten minutes of silence, Sis looked at me then shrugged her shoulders as she said, "Okay, good enough for us."

"That excuse may not slide with us next time," Isabella said to me as glared at me, Lana and Suiren. "I would think that you of all people, Keith, know how I feel about those Rare Candies. I hate them and think that they were created to pretty much cheat and deprive trainers of the joy of raising a Pokémon… THE… RIGHT… WAY!"

'Wow, she's really strict,' Suiren replied in response to Isabella's viewpoint.

"Shh… quiet Suiren," I chided Suiren as I knew Isabella didn't like it when someone criticized her view on training Pokémon.

'There is no need for that, young Keith,' Rika said to me.

"Yeah, I'm used to the comments on my stance of training Pokémon," replied Isabella. "Still, I will applaud you for raising Suiren most of the way up to Level 31. Before she found and gobbled up those Rare Candies.

Isabella continued as she produced a Moon Ball, "As promised, this is my reward to you for evolving Suiren into a Primarina. In this Moon Ball is a shiny Houndour that was born with the Unnerve Dream World ability."

"Nice," I said happily as I knew that the Unnerve ability would do for me in the Alola region.

"Oh? You seem to be very happy as soon as I mentioned that this shiny Houndour has the Unnerve ability," Isabella said as I accepted the Moon Ball from Isabella. "Is there… something that I should know about the Unnerve ability?"

"Oh yeah," I answered Isabella as soon as I let out the shiny male Dark Pokémon from his Moon Ball. "You girls know about SOS battles, right?

Sis and Isabella nodded their heads as I continued, "The Unnerve ability makes opposing wild Pokémon call for help without the need of an Adrenaline Orb."

"Oh cool," replied Sis as she liked the idea of not having to use Adrenaline Orbs.

"Take care of him," Isabella instructed me. "Though you're getting a new Pokémon to put in your ranks, you will not be getting back your Rare Candies. And this is because you let Suiren find those Rare Candies and consume them."

"Your final assignment from Isabella and I is for you to go through the Island Challenge, just like we are," Cynthia said to me. "Go through the Island Challenge and compete in the Pokémon League here."

"You competing in the Pokémon League here?" I asked my sister as I shuddered at the thought of having to face my sister and/or Isabella as the two were powerful trainers themselves.

They were almost as powerful as the Elite Four of our home region. But they weren't able to conquer and defeat them. I didn't get a verbal answer from them, but Cynthia and Isabella shook their heads 'no.' It was weird as I thought that they had initially decided to compete in the Alola Pokémon League. I was confused as to why they were doing the Island Challenge if they weren't competing in the Alola Pokémon League. But I shrugged as I figured with them not competing, the assignment was going to be easier on me.

"One last thing, Little Bro," added Cynthia.

"What now, Sis?" I asked Cynthia I knew there had to be yet another snag thrown at me.

"You can't throw Suiren out of your party," Cynthia answered me with a smile. "She stays with your party of Pokémon. And I'll be keeping an eye on your Island Challenge too.

"Oh and Lana," Cynthia said as looked to my girlfriend, "since you left those Rare Candies for Suiren to gobble up, you'll be joining your boyfriend in his Island Challenge. You'll have to pass your title as Trial Captain on to someone else."

"Oh man," moaned Lana as my sister and Isabella gave an evil smirk to us.

"You'll be able to register as a pair here in Alola," Isabella said to me and Lana.

"If you can defeat Kahuna Hala, you two might get something special from us," added Cynthia.

oooooooooooooo

'You're out of your mind, Keith,' Shadow said to me after we returned back to our apartment after getting my final assignment and Lana passing the reins of the Waterium-Z trial back to her mother. 'That Fairy is not staying in our party. Forget it Keith. I already have one Fairy to deal with. I don't need another one to add to my problems.'

'Aww… I'm not bad, Shadow,' Lana's Primarina said as she snuck up behind Shadow and then scooped him up in her arms as she cuddled with him again.

'Aaaah… make this Fairy let go of me!' Shadow cried out in terror as he struggled to get free.

'Seriously?' my new shiny male Houndour asked as he saw a terrified Shadow struggling to get free from Primarina's cuddling. 'That Umbreon is our team leader? He's a big crybaby if you ask me.'

'He cries worse than a little human girl,' my shiny female Growlithe said as the two Fire-types shook their heads in disbelief.

'Not helping, you two!' Shadow cried in terror as he was still struggling to get free.

"It'll take some for him to adjust to working with Primarina and Suiren," Lana said to Growlithe and Houndour.

'Well, hopefully he'll stop being such a baby and actually lead us,' Houndour said to Lana and I. 'My mom and pop are proud battlers. I hope that being with the youngest offspring of two of the most powerful members of the Atlantica Islands Elite Four will help me to become strong.'

"Primarina, let Shadow go," Lana said to her female Soloist Pokémon.

'Aww… but we were just about to have some fun,' Primarina replied before she reluctantly let go of Shadow.

"Time to begin our Island Challenge then," I said to Lana as I held out my hand to her.

"Yeah, let's go then!" Lana exclaimed as she took my hand and the two of us set out to begin our journey together.

oooooooooooooo

Author's note: Another chapter for my sequel fic is in the books. Hope you guys liked being introduced to the youngest Ketchum sibling. Stay tuned for another chapter and again, I estimate it'll take two or three chapters until I begin bringing everything together. Please be patient with me and let me know what you think of the chapter.