Chapter Four - A Human Companion

"You went a bit far, I think, Katanzira," heard Epsilon, though he had no vision to connect the voice with. Then he remembered that name; Katanzira was the title of that black snake that had caused his defeat. Then he remembered the voice; it was the voice that had called back the blue dragon and sent forth the Rayquaza in its place. The voice of that girl on the ground.

The snake hissed in a pleading way. "Yeah. Nice argument," said the girl sarcastically, "He gave you a headache so you knocked him out." The snake made a huffy sound.

And Epsilon lapsed back out of consciousness.

"Did you have to hurt him so badly?" she asked of the serpent. It gave a sighing hiss. "No? Then why did you?" It was silent. "Well?" It gave a short reply of hisses and growls. "Because you take things too far?" the girl asked, "Yeah. I think that explanation fits." It growled under its breath. "Oh, don't give me that. It's your fault."

The girl looked down at Epsilon with a pitying look on her face. She felt quite sorry for him; he had taken a full blast from Katanzira. He should have been killed, but she reasoned that he was not a normal one. She knew what he was; who he was. "Poor Mewtwo . . . ," she said, tossing a blanket over him. "Well, I think he'll be alright, no thanks to you," she said, casting a glare at the Rayquaza next to her, who attempted to look innocent. "We should leave him alone now. Come on, you black krait." With that, the two departed from the room, the girl locking the door as a precaution even though for anything more than human it was just a mere annoyance to break down a door. It made her feel better.

A few hours later, Epsilon slowly started to regain consciousness. He started recalling the events of the past few hours as those who are in an unfamiliar situation usually do. He remembered the Salamence, the Rayquaza, and the girl. He remembered getting knocked out. He remembered the girl conversing with the Rayquaza. . . . Conversing with the Rayquaza? . . . No . . . she can understand it. How? Communication between man and mon has never been so easily practiced. Does she understand the others? It doesn't matter now. I must get up.

Epsilon opened his eyes to stare into a pair of rather striking red eyes on a sky blue lizard-like face. "Gyah!" he cried, flinching back and nearly falling off the stretcher-like cot he had been on. "Get away from me!" He heard an odd sound from the being, a bit like a reptiles' rendition of a guinea pig squeak.

"Are you a Pokémon or not?" demanded Epsilon, "I can't tell if you don't sound like one." "Sceptile," it said, before starting a string of squeaks and hisses. "Stop, stop, stop!" said Epsilon, "I can't understand you . . . . Why don't you speak like a normal Sceptile?" The Sceptile paused, considering its reply. It started to say something, stopped, and considered again. It was trying to remember how to speak as a "normal" Sceptile.

"Sceptile scep," it began, trying to communicate in a way Epsilon could understand, "Tile, epscep." "Your name is ZisatuLylo," stated Epsilon, moderately sure of himself, even though the Sceptile's diction was slightly off; it had actually said "name, Zisatulylo." Nevertheless it nodded enthusiastically at Epsilon's version, even making a reassuring clicking noise.

"Anything else you can tell me?" Epsilon queried. "Sceptilescep ilep, Tilescep," it started, "Ile scep sceptile. Scep scepep." "Your . . . ishka? Your ishka's name is Kazyra?" The Sceptile stopped to attempt a translation of the word. "Scep . . . scepis," it began, "ep tile." "Like master, but companion? Yes, I've encountered this sort of relationship before . . . ," murmured Epsilon, remembering a young black-haired boy and a Pikachu from long ago. "And we are in a tree?" "Scep."

"A tree? Why?" "Scep. Tilescep scep ile ti scepep. Scepis." "This tree is Kazyra's and your home. Alright. Where is Kazyra now?" inquired Epsilon. "Sceptis!" it cried, hopping out of the mini hospital ward of the "tree house" as Epsilon took the Sceptile's directions and followed.

The oddly-coloured blue Sceptile skittered down a hallway to a door which it flung open to reveal the air a few hundred feet above the ground. It leapt out, dropped straight down onto a platform, and zipped inside another door.

Epsilon made the leap as well, noticing upon landing a rather convenient staircase before following the Sceptile inside. The large lizard was bouncing impatiently waiting for him to catch up and sped off on sight of him. "This thing is too fast for its own good," muttered Epsilon.

He caught up with it just in time to see it take a leap of faith all the way down to the ground; quite a feat for such a large creature. It looked up at him, bouncing again, and Epsilon floated down to where it was. It gave him a "show off" look before bolting out of the clearing that the tree house stood in. Epsilon followed it into the forest.

It bounced from tree to tree, its feet hardly, if ever, touching solid ground. Epsilon kept up with it as this method of movement slowed it somewhat. Finally, the tree line broke onto a cliff above a wide river. Epsilon emerged from the forest to catch the sight of the top of the Sceptile's head as the lizard fell off the cliff. Epsilon thought he heard something shout, "Bonsai!" then a splash far below. He sighed and flew down to water level around the cliff's base, but saw nothing. "Scep!" "Eh?" he asked, looking for the sound. He spotted the blue bush-lizard on a bridge next to a very startled fisherman. "Oh."

After Epsilon had gotten to the bridge, the Sceptile zoomed off again. Epsilon followed its path, clearly marked by stunned or hyperventilating townspeople that had narrowly escaped death by Sceptile collision. "This thing is too fast for its own good," he said as he flew after it.

Amazingly, the Sceptile stopped and was sitting in front of a patch of tall grass covered in soot and ashes from a nearby volcano. "Okay . . . ," said Epsilon, looking around, "Where is Kazyra?" "Scep," it stated plainly, jerking its head toward the grass. Epsilon heard a rustling noise within and a girl's voice saying, "ZisatuLylo? That you?"

The Sceptile almost started bouncing again, impatiently, "Sceptis scep." "Um . . . Zis? Is that you?" The Sceptile looked confused for a moment then appeared to remember something. Then it started the hissing and squeaking again. "Oh, alright. It is you. Why were you speaking that old language?" the girl asked with a laugh. It hissed a bit, somehow weaving in some intonations. "Wait. Who's with you?" she asked, "He's up already?"

"Yes, 'he' is up," said Epsilon curtly as the girl caught sight of him. "Oh, hello!" she said walking up to him a looking him over, "You're a lot taller up close like this." Epsilon looked down at her. "I imagine," he said blandly.

"So, anyways, I'm Kazyra--" she began. "I know," interrupted Epsilon, "That hyperactive bouncing lizard told me." "Alright, then." Kazyra paused. "This one here's Zisat--" "ZisatuLylo," interrupted Epsilon again, "It told me." "She told you." "Alright, she, then," said Epsilon, "I'm Epsi--" "Epsilon," Kazyra interrupted, grinning, "The Internet told me."

Epsilon stared blandly at her. Kazyra just grinned, hands behind her back.

"You remind me of Mew," said the cat finally. "Is Mew annoying too?" "You can only imagine." Kazyra snickered.

"Heh. Anyways, it's good to see you up so soon. It confirms how strong you're supposed to be. Nice to meet you," she finished, offering her hand for a shake. Epsilon looked down at her hand perplexedly, before sticking his paw out to imitate her. Kazyra started laughing.

"Err . . . ," fumbled Epsilon, lowering his arm awkwardly. "Sorry, that was my fault," began Kazyra, still chuckling, "I should've known better than to assume you knew what that meant."

Something clicked in Epsilon's brain.

"Where on the Internet did you find my name?" "You mean you don't know how many sites there are on your . . . history?" "Yes, yes, but my name to the humans was Mewtwo and Noushi . . . . I didn't think any knew of my name." Kazyra floundered for a moment. "Erm, I , eh . . . ," she muttered. "So . . . you didn't really find it on the Internet, then, did you?" asked Epsilon slowly. "Er . . . well, you see . . . ," she fumbled, wringing her wrist anxiously, "I can . . . kinda . . . read peoples' minds."

"Imagine that. So can I," said Epsilon, grinning. Kazyra became the first to laugh at one of Epsilon's jokes.

"I need to ask you of a--" "Favour?" she asked. "Read my mind, did you?" Epsilon asked, smirking. "No, actually. Mew told me that after we got you to my place. You need a 'human companion' so you can go meet this Leon guy, yes?" "Yes, that's it," he said, "Think you're up to it?" "Yeah, sure," she began, "So long as you are." "Meaning what?" "That you're ready to be a trained Pokémon."

Epsilon looked at her blankly for a moment. "What?" he asked finally. "You have no idea what I mean, do you? A wild Pokémon, such as yourself," she chuckled. "Not really, no," he said, "Guess you'll have to 'train me,' eh?" Kazyra smirked, but Epsilon had a feeling that getting someone to laugh at his jokes was a one-time thing, such as a girl dragging her boyfriend to a chick-flick and expecting to stay with him is a one-time thing.

"Well, first and foremost, there's the whole Pokéball thing," Kazyra started. "Must I?" Epsilon whined, "Not all Pokémon accept the Pokéball deal." "I don't know any that don't," stated Kazyra. "Well, I do." "Well, okay, but no speaking human; that's a bit too far for most people to fathom." "I know one of those too." "Quiet, you," she said, poking his purple belly, laughing. "Alright, no English," conceded Epsilon, "What should I do about language, then?" "If you must, hiss or growl or something. Everyone around here knows that none of my Pokémon speak as normal ones do." "I noticed that," started Epsilon, "Why is that?" "I can't understand that normal speak; the more primal tongue I can translate." "Why not just read their minds?" "Would you want to know what they're thinking? And besides, it doesn't work that way." Epsilon did not ask any further of her mind-reading ability.

"When is it that you wanted to go find Leon?" asked Kazyra. "As soon as humanly possibly," replied Epsilon, giving a "wink, wink, nudge, nudge" sound to the word "humanly." "Cute," stated Kazyra, smirking, "Alright, I'll go gather my Pokémon and we can go. We'll probably be able to make a quick trip of it; Katanzira knows Fly."

Epsilon, Kazyra, and ZisatuLylo arrived back at Kazyra's "secret base," as many trainers called them, within a short while. Kazyra called all the Pokémon that she would take with her back to their respective Pokéballs, but for Katanzira, as it would be the one to take her and Epsilon to the gates of Saffron. Afterwards, Kazyra gathered up a few items, Revives, Full Restores, and the like, and stuffed them into her bag, before slinging it her shoulder. She and Epsilon both went down to the base of the tree, where the giant black snake-dragon waited.

Kazyra climbed up onto the shoulders of the great snake. Epsilon, however, was busy staring it down. "Are you coming or what?" Kazyra asked. "I don't like this one much . . . ," said Epsilon. Katanzira hissed at him, glowering. Kazyra sighed. "I guess we'll be getting to Saffron as soon a Epsilonly possible then, eh?" she said. Epsilon looked at her blankly, then looked back at the snake suspiciously. He then decided he didn't have all day and climbed up onto it behind Kazyra. "There," she began, "Was that so hard?" "Yes," said Epsilon, fully aware that the snake was grinning at him maliciously. "Katanzira, cut it out," said Kazyra, not looking back. The snake flashed the same sort of "You're no fun" look at her as Mew often did to Epsilon. "Alright, let's go to Saffron City, Katanzira!" shouted Kazyra. At these words, the dragon Pokémon began weaving its way into the sky, much as an oriental dragon would.

Within the hour, the three arrived outside the eastern gate of the city.