"Charmeleon, finish it off with a Flamethrower!"

Charmeleon opened its mouth and let out a hot stream of fire, blasting the opposing Gloom away. It didn't even try to get up.

"Don't think you beat me yet" Danny's opponent said.

"I wasn't hoping for it" the young trainer reacted.

"Go Nidorina!" The opposing trainer had recalled Gloom and was ready for round two.

"In that case, I'll go with Kadabra." Danny returned Charmeleon to its Pokéball.

Janine, Richard and Lester were watching on the sideline, with Lester eagerly taking notes. Janine looked over his shoulders and had to giggle.

He had written things like 'Always goes for the super-effective move' and 'uses speed to his advantage'. Things that every starting trainer should know.

"You know you don't have to write anything down right? You have 4 badges, I doubt Danny can learn you anything." Janine reacted to the writings.

Lester looked up. "I'm not writing down advice, I'm writing down Danny's battle style. While it doesn't seem like it at the moment, if I face him I can learn from my notes."

Janine scratched the back of her head, not such a simple kid after all.

Meanwhile, Kadabra seemed to have everything under control easily.

"How about Psychic?" Danny laughed, as it was basically the only move Kadabra knew. They never had the urge to teach him other moves as Psychic was ridiculously powerful.

Kadabra nodded and made Nidorina go up and down, leaving a small crater in the ground. Needless to say, the Poison Pin Pokémon was unconscious.

"Man, you are one tough opponent."

Danny walked forward and shook hands. "You too Marcus."

From the other side of the road they heard clapping. It was man with a Drowzee.

"Well done!" He said loudly, urging Danny to come closer.

"Thanks!"

The man seemed in his late 30s, he was wearing a very lazy red collar shirt with blue jeans. His semi-blonde hair was laying loosely on his head and his face was shaven. The Drowzee seemed to follow his every move, like it knew it before the guy did.

Meanwhile, Lester let out his Nidorino to compare it to Marcus' Nidorina, who had come to her senses again.

"I like how comfortable you are with your Kadabra" the guy said. "You can see the bond between the two of you."

Kadabra had walked next to Danny, curious about what the stranger had the say, who was now walking towards the two.

"My name is Peter by the way." He reached out for Danny's hand, who shook it and introduced himself and, while he was at his, his friends.

"If you'd like I could teach you a few things." Peter took a Pokéball from his belt and released an Alakazam into the open. "As you can see I have some experience with Psychic types."

"I can see that. I'm training Kadabra so he can evolve too."

"Well that takes a lot of hard work and a good bond, but it seems like you two are on the right way."

Meanwhile, the others had made their way towards the two.

"Wow, an Alakazam. I have never seen one in real life before." Lester walked towards the Psychic type and examined it. The Psychic type decided to play a little trick with the curious trainer.

"How about you show me something I have never seen before: decent food."

Lester stepped back in shock, while Peter had to laugh, but neither Danny nor Richard and Janine heard anything.

"What was it saying?" Danny asked.

Peter waved it away with a laugh. "He was just trashing my cooking skills, nothing new."

Lester looked at Peter. "So you heard it too?"

"Of course I did. You see, when you have a certain connection with your Pokémon, new abilities open up. They call it sync, you might have heard about it."

Danny nodded, having just learned about it from Lorelei.

"Well, I'm practically synced with Alakazam, this allows me to hear everything he says through telepathy. Sadly it's mostly complaining about my food."

"I can't help that you just can't cook." Alakazam shared with the group. They all had to laugh. "Any of you that can?"

Richard nodded. "I can."

"Great, let's try it out. If you are better than Peter I will voluntarily switch teams."

"As you can hear, Alakazam is a real joker" Peter said, to which Alakazam heavily shook his head, denying Peter's accusation.

"All jokes aside, I would love some food" Janine said.

Richard nodded and started unpacking. "We can eat some here. Care to join us Peter?"

The older trainer nodded. "Sure, while you two prepare, would you like some free tips?" He said to Danny, who nodded. Meanwhile, all Pokémon, they were in the open so they were all out of their Pokéballs, sat down and relaxed.

"I thought so. Well the first thing is that Alakazam, but Kadabra is well, are extremely fast. Not only physically, also mentally. You can use this as an advantage. You can basically order 4 moves in a row and they can execute them all minutes apart. Watch."

Peter looked at Alakazam, who nodded to be ready.

"Now use Teleport, directly after Psychic on the tree, Psybeam on that small rock on the other side of the road and Psychic again on the big rock behind me, than come back."

Alakazam disappeared, appeared right before one of the trees near the forest's edge and used Psychic, causing some branches to fall. After which it vanished again and appeared seconds later in front of the small rock, crossed his spoons and released a red beam that destroyed the small rock. After disappearing and re-appearing again the giant rock was ripped from the ground and directly dropped again.

Danny had to pick up his jaw, because what he had just seen was quite impressive.

"Wow, that's some high class battling." Was the first thing he could get out.

"Thanks." He heard Alakazam through telepathy.

Not only Danny, but Kadabra also seemed extremely interested. Almost like he wanted to try for himself.

Meanwhile, Richard had set up his cooking gear and opened up a few cans of food. While he put them in his small frying pan, he looked at Eevee. She didn't seem to be all too happy with the lack of city.

"Are you okay Eevee?"

Richard's voice drew the attention of his other Pokémon. Sandshrew and Squirtle were already near, but Voltorb came rolling towards them while Machoke, who hadn't sat down yet, walked towards his trainer.

Eevee didn't react, but shyly looked around her.

"There's nothing to worry about here. Where with five people and countless more Pokémon, you're totally save."

Squirtle stroke her fur, which had become a little less clean since they left. Richard tried to keep it as clean as possible but there hadn't been many options for him to do that lately.

Richard lifted the shiny Pokémon up and cuddled with her a bit.

"Everything is going to be fine, you are safe and we will all look out for you. Right guys?"

His team nodded.

"Well I have to say that smells great." Alakazam said, Danny and Peter also made their way towards the little picknick that the others had thrown together.

Weepinbell was quite impressed by Alakazam's strength. Since it's way of battling was so different than Weepinbell's, the Grass type wasn't even jealous.

Kadabra was looking up to Alakazam even more. He knew he wasn't a weak Pokémon, far from it, but he never believed less in the fact that he was strong than today. There was no doubt in his mind that Alakazam would make short work of him if they would ever clash.

"This food tastes delicious." Alakazam shared. "Would you care to capture me?"

Everyone shared a laugh, while agreeing with Alakazam: Richard had outdone himself.

"It's nothing." Richard waved away the compliments, but Alakazam was having none of it.

"This is far better than Peter could ever hope to make. The taste is exquisite. It looks delicious, it smells the part. I would give up battling if this would be my meal every single day."

"If you continue like this I will never cook for you again." Peter reacted, to which Alakazam seemed to be thankful.

All jokes aside, Danny had noticed Kadabra worrying. After dinner, he took the Psy Pokémon for a walk.

"Are you okay?"

Kadabra nodded, but you don't become a good trainer if you don't learn to read between the lines.

"It's that Alakazam isn't it? I know it's strong, but it's evolved and probably been trained for years. You can't expect yourself to be that strong, but we'll get there."

Danny laid his hands on Kadabra's shoulder.

"In a few years from now, some Kadabra somewhere will be looking at us with jealousy."

Kadabra had to smile.

"If you want we can start training that way too." Danny suggested, which made Kadabra nod enthusiastically.

In the meantime, Richard was doing the dishes, sadly all by himself so Peter decided to lend him a hand.

"I have to say, I don't usually see trainers with shiny Pokémon. Let alone a shiny Eevee, that's about as rare as they get."

Richard started to laugh. "Well to be fair I didn't find her, my Squirtle did."

Peter looked at the small group. "It seems like she isn't too happy being out here."

"I know. She's prefers more urban environments, that's why I'll be happy to be in Fuchsia."

"Well if you really want to give her a good view of the city life, you should go to Saffron City, it's in between Cerulean, Vermillion and Celadon."

Richard stopped with the dishes. "Wait, we travelled from Cerulean to Vermillion, but there was no city there. Although, now you talk about it, Danny and I did see a vague resemblance of a skyline when we were travelling towards Vermillion."

Peter scratched his chin. "All I can think of it that Sabrina, the local gym leader, shielded it off. Making it invisible for anyone on the outside that comes too close. Might have something to do with the Rocket threat."

"Well that would restore my faith in my sanity." Richard laughed.

"Hey Peter. How about we have a little battle" Danny asked, walking out of the forest, followed by Kadabra.

"Uhh, sure." Peter reacted. "I'm sorry Richard, it seems like I'm needed elsewhere."

"No problem, I don't mind doing some dishes. Besides, Janine and Lester are going to do them for the rest of the week." He said just loud enough for the two to hear him.

"You know what, it's a nice day to help." Lester jumped up and took the towel from Peter. Janine just shook her head and kept playing with Venonat and Peter's Drowzee, who enjoyed the attention.

"Alakazam, time to battle."

Alakazam teleported himself towards his trainer, ready to battle it out.

"Kadabra, are you ready?"

The Psychic type nodded. He was extremely nervous but ready to try.

"You ready Danny?" Peter asked from the other side of the improved battlefield, when Danny nodded Peter gave the okay signal through his mind to Alakazam, who teleported away.

"Kadabra, you teleport away the moment you see it" Danny whispered.

Kadabra nodded and focused, when he saw a glimpse of the opponent from the corner of his eye he teleported away.

Now Kadabra could decide where to show, while Danny was focusing on Alakazam. Meanwhile, Charmeleon got interested in watching and sat down on a big rock nearby. He was quickly joined by the others of his team.

All of a sudden, Kadabra appeared before Alakazam and decided to use Psychic. His eyes grew wider when he realized he couldn't move Alakazam one muscle. Meanwhile the fully evolved opponent pushed its spoons together and created a dark, purple ball.

"Kadabra, get away from that!" Danny shouted and Kadabra quickly teleported away.

"You should really consider another move" Peter advised.

"Kadabra never learned another move" Danny responded, quickly realizing that he couldn't win the battle if Psychic didn't work.

Peter had come to the same conclusion since Alakazam teleported himself next to his trainer, while Kadabra returned back.

Peter walked towards the young trainer. "How come your Kadabra hasn't learned any other Psychic move? I believe Psybeam is easier to learn, they usually pick up on it quite quickly."

Danny started thinking. "We never needed to learn anything cause Kadabra had control over Psychic back when he was an Abra."

Peter didn't seem to believe it. "That is practically impossible. Psychic is tricky to use for a Kadabra, let alone an Abra. How did you do it?"

Danny thought back about that day, in Viridian City.

"A guy sold me a TM, Kadabra had to listen to it and after that it could use Psychic."

"Oh no. Danny, I'm afraid you have been scammed. TM's are the biggest fraud in the entire world, they don't each you anything but you do pay big money for it."

"But Kadabra could use Psychic right away, I swear." Danny went into defense.

Peter had a hard time believing that was true, but on the other hand, why would Danny lie?

"The only thing I can think of is that your Kadabra is extremely skilled. But you should still consider learning other moves. Shadow Ball for example, took Alakazam and me two days in the Pokémon Tower in Lavender to get it."

Danny nodded. "What do you think Kadabra?" But the Psychic type had left.

"Kadabra?"

Peter looked around, but the Psi Pokémon had disappeared. Danny started running towards the forest. "Kadabra, where are you?"

Peter followed the Danny and he was followed by his Alakazam and Danny's team. Richard, Janine and Lester had also noticed the commotion and, after Lester had asked what was wrong, decided to take their teams and look around too. Common sense would say he couldn't have gotten far but with Teleport in mind, Kadabra could be anywhere.

Danny knew why Kadabra had gone: Losing a battle in such a way only to find out you shouldn't even be able to use your only move, that was quite bit to handle.

"Will you go that way?" Danny asked Peter, while he continued forward. All of his Pokémon spread out too.

Meanwhile, Richard and his team had decided to backtrack a bit. It was about fifteen minutes in when he noticed that Eevee was looking down. He picked the Normal type up to see what's wrong, but he quickly saw what was wrong. It was the environment. Eevee's paws were dirty and her fur had tangles.

"Oh my…" Richard petted the shiny Pokémon on her head. "I'm so sorry, I didn't realize you don't like to be out here."

Eevee nodded.

"Well I can't change that. We travel from city to city and that does mean we have to go to the occasional forest. But I promise, I will try to make it as civilized as I can for you."

His other team members had gathered around, concerned about Eevee.

"So how about a little bath?" Richard asked. Eevee nodded enthusiastic.

"Squirtle, could you make a small pool of water? And Sandshrew, I could use your claws to get out the tangles in her fur, but be careful."

Both Pokémon nodded and got to work. Within minutes, Eevee felt much better. She was clean again and her fur was shining.

"Now listen, I'll try to keep this up, but I can't make promises. But I can promise that you'll get a good bath every time we enter a city." Richard promised. That didn't sound bad to the other Pokémon either, so he ended up promising them all a bath.

Suddenly, Danny saw a glimpse of Kadabra's tail. He speeded up and saw his friend backwards.

"Kadabra.."

The Psi Pokémon didn't react.

Danny walked forward to face Kadabra and saw complete focus in his eyes. Focus on a rock before him. It didn't move.

"Kadabra, come sit with me." Danny sat down, Kadabra, while hesitant, eventually followed.

"Listen. Who cares that the TM was a fraud? You have used Psychic against Brock's Geodude, against that NTR Admin's Arbok and you even knocked out Richard's Machoke back in Celadon. You have full control over that move."

Kadabra wasn't convinced, he looked at the stone again, like he was saying 'Than why can't I move that stone?'

"The last thing you should do is doubt yourself, it won't get you anywhere. If you need help I'm always here for you and so are the others, but believe me, you can use Psychic. You just need to get confident again."

Meanwhile, Peter had found them, but decided to wait the conversation out, but Danny spotted him first.

"Isn't that right Peter?" He looked at the adult for some backup, which Peter provided.

"That's true. Being able to fully control Psychic as an Abra is a sign of extraordinary strength, not triggered by a TM. It just made you believe you could use it so you could. You know what that makes you? One extremely smart Kadabra."

Despite the praises, Kadabra still felt weak. He stood up again and focused all of his power onto the stone, but nothing happened.

"Come on, let's get back to camp. We'll work on your Psychic some more." Danny suggested.

Back at the camp, the others had just returned empty handed. Charmeleon was the first to run forward and see if Kadabra was alright.

"Everything is fine you guys." Danny assured.

Peter and Danny worked the entire afternoon to make Kadabra get more self-conscious again, but at the end of noon nothing had changed. Even worse, Peter couldn't stay longer.

"I'm sorry I can't stay and help, also because this is partly my fault, but I have to be back at the training center tomorrow."

Danny waved his excuses away. "That's no problem. It's been awesome that you stayed the entire afternoon helping."

As Peter said his goodbyes to the other ones, Kadabra sprinted forward.

"What's wrong?" Danny asked.

Alakazam, who had no interest in going back to its Pokéball, decided to read Kadabra's mind, but he wasn't happy that he had to share the news.

"It seems like Kadabra would like to go with Peter."

Everyone was shocked, Danny most of all.

"What.?" He said with a broken voice.

"Not forever, just to train." Alakazam quickly added. "He is still very insecure and doesn't think he will be able to learn Psychic anytime soon. He also doesn't want to be dead weight on the team."

Danny walked towards Kadabra and sat down on his knees.

"You will never be dead weight on this team."

Alakazam stepped forward, now acting as a translator for Kadabra.

"Kadabra knows you will never send him away, but this is something he feels he needs to do. If he can't figure out how to use Psychic again, he will never feel useful and he hates to feel helpless. He knows you are willing to help him the best you can, but, with all respect to you, Kadabra thinks Peter is better suited to deal with this kind of problem."

Danny couldn't believe his eyes. Sure, he wanted the best for every single one of his Pokémon, but that didn't mean he wanted them to go with someone they all just met.

"If it helps anything, I think that, in the right scenery, Kadabra could be using Psychic in no-time." Peter said.

Danny said nothing, instead he simply fell on his knees and had to put his hands on the ground to prevent him from falling face down in the mud. He couldn't control his emotions and tears welled up his eyes.

Richard and Janine stood by and didn't know what to do or say, as everything would be the wrong thing. Lester stepped back, he didn't feel like getting involved would solve anything.

Kadabra sat down on his knees to and looked at Danny, who had just looked up again.

"I know this didn't go as planned." Kadabra said (with help from Alakazam). "But it can't be helped at the moment. I want nothing more than to continue journeying with all of you. Ever since you took me from that bully I have never felt more alive. The last few months were easily the best in my life and I want to continue that, but I can't do that if I'm not capable of using my strongest move. Or any attacking move for that matter. You have to let me do this."

Danny's tears hit the ground. "I know I do. But that doesn't mean I have to like it. Come here." He pulled Kadabra in for a hug, and now both where crying.

Eventually, they pulled out and stood up. Kadabra walked forward to say goodbye to the others.

Mixed with Pokémon Language from here

"Venonat, Weezing. Stay strong you too." He started with Janine's Pokémon.

"I will miss you!" Venonat said sadly and jumped in for a hug. Even the usually not-so-emotional Weezing joined in.

After them, Kadabra hugged with Janine.

"Take care of these two morons for me, will you?" He said with a feint smile. Janine started to laugh and nodded. "Will do."

"Machoke… I'm sorry I kicked your ass back in Celadon City."

Machoke grinned. "We'll go at it again when you return." They shook hands in mutual respect, but eventually went in to hug anyway.

Next up where Voltorb and Eevee. They had no words to say, they simply hugged.

"Does this mean I'm now the longest lasting Pokémon not counting the starters?" Sandshrew wondered out loud, mostly to make Kadabra smile, which worked. Of course, when they hugged Sandshrew teared up as well.

"Don't forget about us here." Was all Squirtle could get himself to say, meanwhile Kadabra simply nodded. He had stopped caring about showing his emotions and just let the tears run free.

Richard was next. "This is a whole lot easier now you just named me a moron." He said as he pulled the Psi Pokémon in for a hug.

The hardest part was still to come though: His own team.

Grimer was up first. The always happy Grimer that now had trouble smiling.

"Where's that big smile?" Kadabra challenged, wanting to see the happiness one for time before saying goodbye. Grimer obliged, but it wasn't his best smile.

"Now you keep up your training." Kadabra said to Krabby. "When we meet again, I expect nothing less than to see a Kingler beating up everything that stands in his path."

"I will try. You be careful out there without us." Krabby reacted.

Pidgey flew up to face Kadabra. "We will continue this adventure, but you will not be forgotten. Ever"

"Chill a bit, I will come back." Kadabra said as they shared a final moment.

Weepinbell was having quite a hard time. He was the all tough Pokémon, no emotions whatsoever. Now he was fighting a losing battle against his tears.

"I never thought I'd see a Weepinbell tear." Kadabra mocked.

"Well cherish it, because it will be the last time." Weepinbell still acted all though, but during their hug he let his tears run free.

"Charmeleon… We've been through so much already. I'm sure you'll be fine without me by your side."

As the two pals hugged, Charmeleon started whispering in Kadabra's ear. "You promise you'll come when we need you?" To which Kadabra could do nothing but nod.

Finally, he had arrived back at his trainer. Danny quickly pulled him in for another hug. There was nothing left to say. They simply hugged in silence, as that is sometimes the better alternative.

Finally, Kadabra broke the hug to step towards Peter. Dann unclipped Kadabra's Pokéball and gave it to Peter.

"I do expect that back."

Peter nodded. "Of course. Kadabra will always be your Pokémon."

As they shook hands, Danny realized he couldn't keep it up much longer. He wanted to fall down and cry, but that wasn't the memory he wanted to give Kadabra.

They waved until Kadabra had disappeared and even then, Danny kept staring into the distance. His team stayed with him. When night fell, they set up their tents on the same spot they had had lunch on and went to sleep early.

The last thing Danny saw before he drifted off was a happy Kadabra, managing to use Psychic again under Peter's guidance. That thought made him happy.

"So long my friend…" He silently whispered as he fell asleep.