Many, many, many apologies to my readers for the lateness of this chapter. For a while I was a little depressed, because a person who will remain nameless decided to flame me because he couldn't understand the difference between a flame and constructive criticism. And of course we just had some major weather problems as well. [cough] Hurricane Frances [cough]

Oh, but I did catch a shiny Roselia. I was just wandering through Route 117 on my Ruby to go get an item and it just appeared out of nowhere! I love it when things like that happen. And for the first time is five playthroughs I finally caught a Feebas! Well, make that seven Feebas, since I wasn't leaving that spot until I had several of both genders.

And since FF doesn't support certain symbols anymore, [ ] now represents thoughts.

One quick disclaimer, Jua Aisaki, Sumi Aisaki, the Ero region, and all its Pokemon belong to and are used with permission from BluebanglesYRP. She's currently redoing her fic, Foolish Games: The Sprites, but it's still really good, go read it!

Again, apologies, and without further adieu, A Chosen Path, chapter 6!

……………………………………………………

Kat's eyes fluttered slowly open. A groan escaped her lips as she sat up, her hand going to her throbbing temples. She looked around slowly, taking in her surrounding. The room she was in was white, white walls, white floor, white sheets on the bed she was lying in, everything a blinding shade of soft, clean white.

"Hospital room," she murmured, almost immediately after wishing she had kept her mouth shut, for the throbbing in her skull had increased painfully when the vibration of her vocal cords had reverberated in her head. She rubbed her temples gently, hoping to take the edge off some of her discomfort, while her eyes continued to rove around the room.

Soon they lighted on a stack of clothes on a table, the clothes she had been wearing. Sitting on top of the stack was a lone Pokeball, and next to it her Pokedex.

[Why do I have a Pokeball with me? I left the others with Vincent. What happened?]

She sped through her recent memories, trying to find out what had happened. She felt her eyes widen when she remembered, feeling rather stupid for forgetting.

"Duh, Dante, pull yourself together Kat."

Kat swung her feet over the side of the bed, the poor guy was probably scared out of his mind right now, the least she could do was try and comfort him.

Easing out of the bed she gripped the rail to prevent herself from failing, cracking her head on that brick wall must have seriously messed with her sense of balance, for she was having a very difficult time trying to stand straight. Finally managing to set herself straight she shuffled over to the table, each step feeling like a hundred. When she reached it she stood still for a moment and closed her eyes, for the room had started to spin sickeningly around her.

When her head had finally stilled she cracked open an eye and glanced at the table. Reaching forward she snatched up the ball and, after a moment of hesitation, her Pokedex too, realizing she hadn't opened the thing since she'd gotten it. She might have known a thing or two about the basic treatment of Pokemon, the names of them and their evolutions, type differences, and simple stuff like that, but her understanding was greatly lacking when it came to knowledge about Pokemon. It wasn't really surprising, now that she thought about it, considering her mother hadn't let a single item even barely connected with Pokemon in the house, she had had to sneak in the nursing books.

Grasping both she turned and made her way back to the bed. Sliding back into it she turned and adjusted her pillows so she could sit up against the wall. After settling back against the pillows she sighed in relief and brought the Pokeball in front of her. Pressing the small button once to make it return to its regular size she pressed it a second time. A bright flash of light signaled Dante's appearance.

"Mander?" He looked around the room with an obvious look of confusion lining his scaly face.

"Hi Dante."

Though Kat wasn't expecting the best reaction from him, she certainly wasn't expecting what he ended up doing. With a freaked out scream of char Dante leaped at least a foot in the air, scrambled to the side of the bed, getting tangled in the sheets as he did so, and fell to the floor in an unceremonious heap.

"Dante!"

Kat scrambled to get off the bed and undo the sheets that twisted around him. But before she could even step toward him the orange lizard had already gotten free and backed himself into the opposite wall, far away from her as he could go.

"Dante, don't be afraid." She took a step toward him.

"Charmander char!" Dante cried out, backing further away from her.

Kat stopped moving, she lowered her head in defeat. "You're terrified of me, aren't you?" She turned and went back to the bed. She felt tears start to sting her eyes as she sat down, "I'm sorry Dante, I was just trying to help." Tears started to roll unchecked down her cheeks, she spun around in the bed, her back facing Dante, she felt just terrible right now, all she had wanted to do was help, but now it appeared she had just made it worse. She drew her knees up to her chest and sunk her face into them, she hadn't felt this awful in a long time.

Dante, seeing how upset she suddenly was, inched closer to the bed, watching her back heave slightly as she sobbed into her knees.

Reaching the bed he stretched out his clawed fingers and gripped the railing. With a slight amount of effort he climbed up into the bed, ever cautious in case the girl suddenly turned on him.

Don't cry

Kat's head snapped up, "who's there?"

Silence was her only answer.

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

She blinked and shook her head, [I must be imaging things, that wall must have jarred my brain harder than I though.]

She suddenly felt a clawed hand gently touch her back, she turned to look at its source, her eyes wide and staring, tear marks all down her face. Standing on the bed behind her was Dante, his scaly face lined with worry.

"Dante?" She extended a shaking hand toward him, carefully, so not to scare him.

He eyed her hand a moment, before bending his head forward and sniffing her hand. Slowly, carefully, he rubbed his head against it. Kat smiled when he did this, slowly starting to run her other hand up and down the scales that lined his back.

"I am sorry I captured you like that, I really would have preferred you to have stayed wild, or at least caught you in a fair fight, but I didn't want you to be hurt." She drew him into her lap and hugged him. He rested his head on her neck, next to her throat, emanating a low rumble that almost sounded like purring. "Can you ever forgive me?"

"Charmander."

A few more tears ran down her cheeks, "thank you."

At that moment a knock sounded at the door, Dante went rigid where he was sitting, apparently Kat he could deal with, but other humans were a different story.

"Yes?"

The door opened to reveal a nurse, she quickly walked over to the bed. "Thank goodness you're awake dear, we were starting to get worried." She pointed to Dante, "would you mind moving that little fellow while I give you a quick checkup?"

"Okay," she looked down to her lap, "hey Dante, would you mind moving just for a minute, you can come right back just as soon as she's done."

Dante looked saddened for a moment, before standing and hopping off the bed.

"Good, now then, look at me."

……

"Pidgoee!"

"You get back here Quill!" Vincent skidded slightly on the tile floor as he rounded a corner in hot pursuit of the small bird. Both he and Isis had become rather, bored, you could say, with Kat's unusually long absence. In fact Isis had already become so unruly that he had had to put her back in her Pokeball. Quill hadn't been far behind her, until he decided to take off that is.

"Quill! You are going to be in so much trouble when I catch y-arggh!" Vincent's luck ran out as he slipped on the tile and plowed straight into another trainer. After muttering a hasty apology he decided that it was time to get serious. Keeping a lookout for any sign of his smug, feathered face Vincent slipped a ball off his belt.

"Alright Quill, now where are you."

After a few moments of waiting Quill suddenly rocketed around the corner. Quick as a flash Vincent tossed the ball. The bright flash that came a split second later signaled the arrival of his Pokemon.

"Alright Meganium, tie him up with Vine Whip!" Vincent yelled, pointed at the back of a quickly retreating Quill.

His starter complied without hesitation, sending a pair of thick, rope like vine steaming toward the bird. Quill let out a startled out cry as the vines surrounded him.

"Good job! Now grab him!"

The vines started to close in on him. Quill shrieked in defiance and kept flying. Quick as a flash he dodged around the vines and rounded on Meganium.

"Pidgoee!" he cried out, lashing at Meganium with his claws and wings.

"Ganium!" she cried as one of Quill's wings connected with her forehead, leaving a small blemish. In retaliation she flung a vine toward him, but Quill simply dodged it and continued with his assault.

[Dang, the sucker's fast.] "Change of plans Meganium, hit him with Sleep Powder!"

"Meganium!" she called in understanding, before growling as yet another one of Quill's wings connected. The petals around her neck shook slightly as the bluish white power lifted from them. Startled, Quill flapped backward, trying to get away from the dust, but to no avail. The powder quickly engulfed him, immediately sending him into a deep slumber. Vincent whipped out Kat's ball, "return!" A beam of red light arched toward him, collided with him, and sucked him back into the Pokeball.

"Phew," he walked over to Meganium, "good job Meganium," Vincent said, stroking his partner's neck.

"What on earth is going on over here?"

Vincent inwardly groaned, "it's nothing Nurse Joy, this Pidgey just decided to start acting a little bratty, that's all."

Nurse Joy put her hands on her hips, "Well try and control your Pokemon better next time, this is a hospital."

"Yes ma'am."

"Excuse me."

Both of them looked over to the speaker.

"Officer Jenny, what are you doing here?"

Reaching into the folder she held she brought out a picture. "This girl was attacked earlier today by another trainer, I was wondering if maybe you knew her name, since her Pokedex wasn't programmed yet."

Nurse Joy took the picture and scrutinized it closely. "Yes, I know her, came in last night, afraid I didn't catch her name though."

Vincent leaned over Nurse Joy's shoulder to get a look at the picture.

"Wha- That's Kat!"

Both adults looked up sharply at him. "You know this girl young man?"

"Yeah, her name's Katherine, I was watching her Pokemon while she took a walk to calm her nerves."

"But she had a Pokemon with her."

"What? Well she must have caught one then, I have her other two with me," he held out the two balls for confirmation.

"Well, can you come with me then?"

"Uh, I guess, why exactly do you need me to come with you?"

"Well we need someone to sign her out of the hospital and bring her back here, since you're the only one who knows her it'll have to be you."

"Oh, okay…" Vincent paused a moment, "wait a minute, hospital? What happened to her?"

"I'll explain on the way, just follow me."

……

Kat absentmindedly rubbed her arm where the nurse had taken her blood. She had always hated needles, but this one seemed to be sorer then most shots she had gotten.

A sudden snore jolted her thoughts away from her arm, she glanced down at the source of the noise. Dante was currently asleep, curled up next to her side while his tail hung over the side of the bed. She leaned back into her pillows and sighed.

"So bored."

Glancing to her side table her eyes lighted on her Pokedex. Carefully, so she wouldn't disturb Dante, she reached over and grabbed it. Settling back into her pillows, Pokedex in hand, she flipped it open and turned the power on, reading the words that popped onto the screen.

BOOTING…

PLEASE INPUT PERSONAL DATA

After a few minutes furious tapping Kat finished. "There, all done," she said as she pressed the enter key. The screen went completely black. "Oh you have got to be kidding…" Memories of her computer class suddenly popped up, specifically the day where she had single-handedly managed to fry one of the computers. She still didn't know how she did it, even her teacher had been flustered on how she had managed to fry the thing just by logging on.

She groaned in disbelief, "don't tell me I have to do that all over again, stupid piece of-" the screen flickered back to life.

"Greetings Katherine, I am Dexdra, your personal guide to the world of Pokemon," a strangely feminine voice sprung forth.

Kat blinked, "uh, never mind."

She spent the next few minutes looking up various pieces of data on both her group and various other Pokemon, and when she finally became bored with that she pointed the device at Dante, watching the words that popped up halfheartedly.

SCANNING……

CHARMANDER, MALE

LEVEL: 7

NATURE: TIMID

EXPERIENCE TO NEXT LEVEL: 137

[Wow, not bad, kinda surprising this little thing can tell me that much.]

At that moment a knock sounded at the door. Kat sat up in surprise, glancing down at the still sleeping lizard before answering.

"Yes?"

The door creaked open a tiny bit and a voice floated through. "Now you two calm down, we don't know how she's feeling right now- hey!"

The next instant the door was forcefully pushed open and a pair of figures blasted through it. Dante awoke with a start and after a half sleepy half startled char he twisted around to face this new threat, only to find himself twisting right off the bed and onto the floor. There was a loud crack and a muffled hiss of pain.

"Dante!"

Kat swung herself out of the bed and kneeled on the floor next to him. A large bump was forming on his head, and there was no doubt in Kat's mind that is was going to turn into quite a nasty bruise. The fire lizard reached up with his claws and gently felt the bump, tears started to well in his eyes.

"It's okay Dante, soon as I get out of here I'll bring you straight to the Pokecenter, okay?" She brought out his ball, "maybe you should just stay in here for a little while, it'll help keep the swelling down."

He nodded and let himself to be sucked back into the red and white sphere. Kat set the ball on her side table and glared at the two figures fidgeting on the bed.

"What were you two thinking? Barging in here like that? What if the nurse had been about to take my blood and she stabbed me in the wrong place, hmm?"

Vincent rubbed the back of his neck in a gesture of embarrassment, "yeah, sorry about that."

Kat turned her eyes over to him, "oh, so you're here too?"

"Yeah," he pulled a chair closer to the bed so he could sit down. "Officer Jenny filled me in on some of the details regarding your little, accident. Care to tell me what really happened?"

Kat folded her arms across her chest, a very sour look lining her face. "I'd rather not talk about that foul person."

"Pidgey."

She glanced back to the bed, where the pair of them were staring at her with the worse case of puppy eyes she had ever seen, she instantly felt her anger seep down to nothing. "Oh all right, come 'ere you two," she said, spreading her arms wide.

As soon as she had uttered those few words both Isis and Quill took flying leaps off the bed. Isis managed to land on her head while Quill settled in her arms. She stroked Quill for a moment and cracked a smile, a smile that quickly turned into a look of confusion as a fine, bluish white powder came off on her fingertips.

"Quill, what on Earth is on your feath- achoo!" A violent sneeze burst forth, almost dislodging Isis from her head, tears starting to leak from her quickly turning red eyes. She sneezed again, "Vincent, you didn't- achoo! Have any- choo! Problems getting them- choo! Here, did you?"

Vincent looked a little nervous as her sneezes started to increase in frequency, "a little, why do you ask?"

"Did you- achoo! Use Meg- achoo! Meg- choo! Meganium's Sleep Powder?" She clapped her hands over her face to prevent the sneezes from making such a racket.

"Yes."

"I'm allergic to grass Pokemon pollen," was the muffled reply to his answer, a second later her hands were almost blown off her face by another sneeze.

"Well then let's get Quill cleaned off before you sneeze your nose right off your face."

Kat nodded her head in understanding and passed a very unhappy Pidgey over to Vincent to get a bath in the washroom sink.

Isis jumped down from her head to the sheets while Kat climbed back into the bed, listening intently to the bath as it unfolded.

"Now calm down, we need to get you nice and clean so Kat doesn't start sneezing ag- ow! Dang it Quill, that beak of yours is sharp- ow! Now stop that! That really hurts you kno- ow! Quill!"

Kat's giggling was muffled slightly by the numerous tissues she had grabbed to rid her nose of the pollen, but somehow Vincent still heard it.

"I can hear you giggling Kat, you know this isn't funny! You need to train your Pokemon bet- ow! Geez, that's it!"

She suddenly heard what sounded like a loud splash, as well as a very indignant screech. The next moment a dripping wet Quill soared out of the bathroom and landed with a splat in Kat's lap. Vincent soon followed, his shirt splashed with water and hands bearing the signs of the battle.

Kat grinned good-naturedly. "Sorry about that Vinnie, I guess Quill does need some behavior training."

Vincent rubbed one of his hands with a sour look on his face, "you got that right, and don't call me Vinnie."

"Whatever, what would you like to be called then?"

"Vincent, and before I forget, you're free to go."

"What?"

"Officer Jenny had to get me to sign you out of the hospital. Now that I've done that you're free to go, as long as I escort you out, of course."

"Well why didn't you say so earlier? I can't wait to get out of here." Swinging off the bed Kat collected her clothes and headed to the washroom. "Give me ten minutes and I'll be ready," she told him as she closed the door.

True to her word Kat walked out of the washroom ten minutes later clothed and groomed. "Well then, shall we be going?"

Vincent got up and held the door open. "Injured people first," he said, his voice dripping with mock sweetness.

"Ha-ha, very funny Vinnie," Kat replied, but collected her things and walked out the door.

"So," Vincent said, catching up with her as she walked down the hall, "where are we going now?"

"To the Pokecenter, I need to get Dante healed up and pick up the rest of my stuff.

……

"What?!" The voice over the vidphone exclaimed.

"I'm telling you it's her, the blood work doesn't lie."

"Well then what are you waiting for? Go get her and keep her from leaving until I can get my agents to come and grab her."

"I'm afraid that's not possible," a third voice joined in on the conversation. "Apparently someone has already signed her out of the hospital, she left twenty minutes ago."

"Well keep an eye on her, if you two screw this up I'll have your jobs!"

"Yes sir!"

The vidphone clicked off, the screen growing dark and silent.

"You heard him! Go find her and keep an eye on her!"

……

A voice suddenly boomed over the loudspeaker, "Katherine Bowing, your Pokemon is ready."

Kat smiled in relief, "good, Dante's checkup is all done." She stood up and stretched, in the corner of her eye noting a boy with strawberry-blonde hair looking at her intently, but she didn't give it much thought. The same boy had in fact been told by Nurse Joy to turn his cell phone off, it was an odd rule to say the least in this day and age, but some Pokecenters had enacted it to preserve the quiet of the front lobby.

Upon receiving Dante's Pokeball from the Chansey nurse at the counter she pressed the small button on the front of the ball to let him out. With a bright flash the little orange fire lizard was standing on the ground in front of her.

"Charmander!" he cried, holding up his arms and wiggling his claws as if asking to be picked up.

Kat laughed at his behavior, but all the same stooped down to pick him up. The reptile now being cradled in her arms she kissed the top of his scaly, bump free head, "feeling better now?"

"Charmander char!"

"Excuse me."

Kat felt Dante shudder in her arms as the boy who had been watching her earlier addressed her. "You're Katherine, right? Katherine Bowing?"

"Yes," she replied, frowning slightly, who was this guy?

"From Blackthorn?"

Kat nodded again, her brow now furrowed slightly.

A large grin appeared on the boy's face, "I thought I recognized you. You're my sister's penpal, remember Sumi Aisaki, from Ero?"

Kat scanned through her memory, Ero… Sumi… A sudden image of a letter popped into her head, a letter that had come with a picture of a laughing nine year old girl hugging an Eevee. The letter itself telling about the wondrous region of Ero, full of Pokemon she'd never even heard of and spectacular places she could only imagine.

Kat suddenly laughed, "now I remember! So you're Sumi-chan's brother, Jua, right? What are you doing all the way out here in Jhoto?"

Jua's grin widened further, "I," he struck a dramatic pose, "finally passed the test."

"Sixth time's the lucky charm, eh?"

His grin was abruptly replaced with a look of startled disbelief. "Wait a minute, how'd you know that?"

"Sumi-chan told me that you were going to take the test every year until you passed."

"Oh, so what are you doing down here in Cherrygrove? Last time I heard my sis talkin' about you she said your mom wouldn't let you be a trainer."

"Well, you'd be right, my mom still wouldn't let me," a light smile adorned her face, "but Lady Claire had different thoughts."

"Awesome, you know Sumi's starting this year too? She got stuck in Ero though."

"Oh wow, really? Well next time you talk to her tell her congrats from me."

"Hey Kat!" Vincent's voice called over to her from the entrance, "you ready yet? We'll need to get going soon if we want to get some distance to Violet before nightfall."

"I'm coming Vincent, just give me a sec!" she called back.

"Friend of yours?" Jua asked.

"You could say that, Vincent lives in Ecruteak so he offered to show me the way to Violet on his way home."

Jua shifted his backpack, "I'd better get going myself, I'm in a bit of a race with Sumi to see who'll get the first badge."

"Well why don't you come with us? I'm sure Vincent wouldn't mind, and the more the merrier in my book!"

His face broke into a smile. "Really? You mean it? That'd be great, I know this place even worse than Ero, it'd be nice if I could get some local Jhotans to at least give me a little of the layout."

"Well that's settled then, come on, I'll introduce you."

Returning Dante to his ball Kat walked over to Vincent with Jua in tow.

"Who are you?" Vincent asked as Kat reached him, eyeing Jua with a searching look.

Jua stuck out his hand, "Jua Aisaki, from Ero."

"Jua's my penpal's brother," Kat jumped in, "he's heading to Violet too so I asked him if he wanted to come with us."

"Oh," Vincent said, grudgingly taking Jua's offered hand. "You sure we can trust this guy?" he asked Kat in an undertone.

Kat gave him a reproachful look, "Vincent, I can't believe you just asked me that, he's fine, so let's just get going."

Vincent gave her a dirty look in response. "Fine," he said, and walked out the door.

"Yeesh, he sure isn't Mr. Sunshine," Jua said, before following him out the door.

For the second time in less than a week Kat questioned herself about what she had gotten herself into, but just sighed and walked out the door.

Not long after the three of them were standing on the trail that was Route 30.

"Jhoto League, here we come," Jua said, looking over at Kat and smiling.

"If you can make it there Ero-boy."

"What'd you say?!"

Kat darted in between the two boys before a fight could start and looped her arms around theirs. "What are we waiting for? Let's hit the road!"

……………………………………………………

Anyway, since I felt so bad for letting you guys go so long without an update, I'm going to give you a little preview of a scene later in the fic.

Kat was in a bad mood. She and Quill had arrived at the center at nearly two a.m., both of them soaked to the bone from the rain and Quill with half his feathers sticking the wrong way. Nurse Joy had been surprised to say the least when they had arrived, thank God the rain had washed the blood from her clothes though, at least she wasn't questioned about that.

She had given both Pokemon to Nurse Joy, Quill was to be taken care of by a Chansey, while the other went straight to the emergency room. She had wanted to stay up and wait for them, but another Chansey had practically pushed her into an empty room.

Now it was morning though, and she was still waiting for word on them both. Earlier, when she had inquired about their condition at the front desk, she had only been told to wait and been pointed in the direction of the breakfast room.

"Persian."

Kat looked down from her musings. Isis was gazing up at her, her empty bowl of Pokechow planted between her feet. She sighed and placed another helping in the bowl, which Isis readily began to wolf down.

Currently Isis was the only one of her group awake, the rest were still fast asleep in back in her room.

The - day in -ay out, when are - going -nge around he-?

Kat cringed, a headache coming forth in full force. Pinching the bridge of her nose she vainly tried to focus on something else, unfortunately what she ending up hearing wasn't much better than the headache.

"Oooh! Guess what my Uncle sent me all the way from Hoenn you guys! A Delcatty!"

There were numerous squeals of delight, Kat glanced up to see a number of girls sitting a few tables down. No doubt they were trainers, but the way they were dressed made it look as if they had just come back from prom. One girl, presumably the owner of the Delcatty, was practically glowing with smug pride. Kat shut her eyes as another wave of pain passed behind her brow, her breath hissed between her teeth as she tried to ignore the pain.

"So what's it like? Is it as elegant and regal as they say?"

"Of course! Delcatty is the best cat Pokemon there is, way better then Persian." Kat could practically feel her smug stare.

[She did not just say that…]

"Rachel, be careful what you say, you don't know what she'll do," another girl hurriedly whispered.

"Let her do what she wants, some mangy Persian will never hold a candle to my Delcatty!"

[Ignore it Kat, just ignore it, no reason to start something.] She picked up her cup of tea with a shaking hand and carefully took a sip from it.

"Rachel! Where are you going?!"

Kat could hear the click of her shoes hitting the floor as she strode over, no doubt the most expensive things daddy could buy.

"Hey you! Your Persian will never amount to anything close to my Delcatty! That thing's the mangiest, ugliest thing I've ever seen in my life. So what are you going to do about it, huh? Just try and take me!"

The teacup hit the table with a loud thunk.

[She just had to pick this morning.]

Kat stood up and turned to face the girl. Upon opening her eyes she discovered that she was a good five inches taller than the petite thing standing in front of her. For a moment she did nothing but stare, but then quick as a flash she grabbed her dress collar and pulled her face close.

"Listen here," Kat hissed, her voice barely a whisper, "normally I wouldn't give your type the time of day, but you caught me in a bad mood, so let me just say this, if you ever talk that way about my Pokemon again, I will personally introduce your face," she rose her other hand so the balled fist could be seen, "to my fist." The girl started to shake and shiver, maybe it was just her imagination, but Kat could have sworn she heard a low whimper escape her lips.

"Katherine Bowing to the front desk please."

Kat's head snapped around at the mention of her name. Giving the girl one last glare she released her. "C'mon Isis."

And that's your preview, hope you liked that little glimpse of things to come.