A/N:
Fjord Cannon: What confusion? Did I screw something up, or are you just saying that?
Chapter Thirty-Six: Awakening Gifts
Kani slowly continued to meditate. It looked like it was working, when she stopped her progress to check how well it had worked.
She believed psychic attack was now hers… but she'd find out later. There were so many moves…
Chris woke up to Anekiro whacking him with his tail. (Wake up.)
"Huh… what I do?"
(Mathrara didn't come back, and Kani's still out of it. Can you find that stupid fox?)
Chris sighed, and forced himself to wake up enough to find him. "I'll find him. But I thought you were having as much trouble with him as Kani does."
(He's still a friend.)
Chris shrugged, and shut his eyes.
About half a minute later, Chris found Mathrara. He was cowering upstairs, unsure of what to do. Chris arched an eyebrow at Anekiro, then jerked his head upward. Anekiro caught the hint, and floated over to go find him. He heard the sound of a body falling flat onto a bed as soon as he left.
Though he'd keep him away from Kani. Both them knew that her patience was frayed at best with his advances.
"Why do I keep on getting into these situations…"
Anekiro shook his head, and slithered into the room, stirring up some more dust into the air. "Causing trouble?"
Mathrara looked up in panic. "How'd you…"
Anekiro smiled slightly, saying, "Chris."
Mathrara sighed. "I can't win with her, can I?"
Anekiro restrained the urge to nod, and instead said, "Don't even bother to. Just leave her alone. She's not interested in you, she wants someone else."
Mathrara shook his head slowly. "Who?"
He said mournfully, "I say, I suffer a painful death. She's that protective of her secret. I just managed to guess… and the moment I figured it out, she told me that if I said a word, I'd be dead."
Mathrara tilted his head, and then shook it again. "Well, at least there are a few more females now…"
"Give it up. You're a horrible flirt… maybe you'll become more popular when you evolve."
Mathrara sighed. "Ninetails? When would Chris get his hands on a fire… oh. He has one, doesn't he?"
Anekiro snorted - he'd picked that up from Chris. "Yea. He does – how'd you forget? When Kani perfects her awakening trick, or whatever it is, maybe you could get your moves, and evolve. You'd be tougher, that way at least."
Mathrara gave the Vulpix equivalent of a shrug, and curled up. "Let me sleep. I've been panicking all night."
"You must have been. Because you're not making a wiseass comment."
Mathrara snapped, "Shut up."
Kani opened her eyes, and glared at the shadow that was slowly approaching her. "Come any closer, and I will blast you with a Psychic assault, Haunter. You might be a ghost, but you are also a poison type."
The shadow remained silent, and continued to approach her. She shook her head, and used her newly acquired Psychic attack to blast the Haunter. It appeared into visibility, completely unconscious. She smirked, and teleported / 'walked it back to the tower.
She then went back to meditating. In meditation, usually you were less sensitive. But she had asked Chris to help sense for ghosts, and she kept a mental eye out for them. It slowed down her speed… but ghosts could be detected by psychics. Faintly, and with difficulty, but they could be detected.
The next morning, Chris woke up, this time on his own. He looked over to the formerly immobile Kani. She was curled up, apparently asleep. Chris gently touched her mind, and then nodded to himself.
It looked like it worked. But they'd have to stay for a day, so she could recover. First tries always cost a lot more than the next time.
Chris nodded to himself, and went down to the kitchen, looking to see what facilities remained in this place.
The villagers glared at the building. "They disappeared here. The center."
"Burn it!"
"Why should we? They can't get out unless those damned mediums help them. Leave them to rot, the mediums wouldn't help them for all the gold in the world. Fuck them, and damn the mediums to hell."
The mayor smiled to himself, then said calmly "leave the building alone. They can rot in there as long as they like. After all, the place is haunted worse than the tower, the ghosts can have their souls."
Sanja walked into the dining area, smelling something. She peered into the kitchen, and caught Chris reading a cookbook with one eye, and then turning to what looked like breakfast.
He looked up, and nodded to her. "There isn't much food, but there's some preserved stuff that they left behind. Enough for about a week's worth, so we'll stay here for awhile. Kani's out cold, but it worked. I want to give her a chance to power up everyone."
Sanja nodded again. "When'll it be ready?"
Chris turned to a frying pan, then shrugged. (I'll yell.)
Sanja turned away. "Stupid prophesy."
(Hey, you said it, not me. Destiny isn't, Kani taught me that… and she's never been wrong… yet.)
Sanja chuckled, and went to the entertainment room of the Pokemon Center, muttering curse words under her breath.
She did not like the concept of love, romance, or any of that Tauros shit.
Chris laughed softly. Mostly, the food was ready. Sausage, pancakes (flapperjacks to some people, but he didn't have that sick of a mind), and some toast. Not exactly a massive meal, but he didn't want to stress the food that remained. The same went for the pokemon food, he HAD mixed in some berries, but otherwise it was basically the generic stuff that some pokemon hated (luckily, Sanja had told him that her pokemon didn't mind the food, and his pokemon could care less, so long as it tasted like berries).
He called softly, (it's ready now.)
After the small breakfast, Chris walked into the entertainment room of the Pokemon Center. Usually, only the big city centers had them… but apparently, this place had once been important enough to HAVE many trainers pass through. Probably the pokemon tower – before most pokemon trainers became regarded as annoyances, but rather… well… kids who were learning what they were going to become, trainers probably came by to pay respects to the dead.
Chris sighed, and sat down on an empty and dusty couch. He finally took a sleeping position, and concentrated.
He grimaced, and then fell asleep.
Sanja looked up from her book to Chris. He was sleeping again. How did he sleep all the time like that? Was he part cat, or something?
She shook her head. He probably was – once you linked your mind with a pokemon, you partially became one. Chris certainly had been demonstrating some of the characteristics that Espeon were famed for – catnapping, and acting very strange sometimes.
She was lucky – her Lunatone was rather calm, and didn't try to change her. Haunter couldn't link minds with her, and her Lapras was content with the way she was.
She brushed a strand of blue hair off his face, and then smiled. It changed the entire look of her face, making her look like a knockout.
She smiled again, and went back to her book.
Kani woke up, and yawned massively. Her stomach rumbled, making it clear it wanted food, or else.
She shook her head, and used her confusion attack to levitate the food she knew Chris would leave out for her.
No surprise that he did that though, he was linked to her, he knew how long it would take for her to wake up.
She smiled to herself, and began to eat. He'd even put in her favorite berries, and Leppa berries for energy. She didn't like those berries as much, but she'd eat them for the energy.
After she was done, she called softly (Anekiro… I'm up. You want the treatment?)
He responded back to her (yes, I do.) He couldn't telepathically send it back, so she had to 'listen' for what he mentally thought at her.
(It'll give you the migraine of the century, though.)
(How can you talk if you have a migraine? Psychic types depend on their minds to do this…)
(Chris would suffer the same, we're linked too tightly. He took all of my migraine, and then went to sleep. So basically, it's doing nothing, he'll be fine when he wakes up. I don't think he can do the same for you.)
(Mathrara's out hiding. You want to give him the same?)
Kani hissed, (Not going to happen.)
Anekiro slithered into the room, laughing softly. "If you did that, he might be willing to evolve. Chris has a few Fire Stones, right? Well, you know as well as I that when a pokemon evolves, it matures as well."
Kani smiled, and nodded. She knew – previously, her mental state had been like a 10 year old, except a bit more animalistic, rather than human. Small wonder, she WAS a pokemon after all.
Now, she probably thought more like a human did… and at a higher level. Not like that was a bad thing – humans were trainers because they could be very analytical, or inspired to aid their pokemon. These days that was rare, but Chris's battling with Crystal showed what happened with a good trainer.
She hadn't helped Anekiro at all – Chris had.
Chris woke up, and then paused for a moment. He nodded to himself, then looked over to Sanja. "Kani's trick worked. It'll take most of the day for her to work with Anekiro… but do your pokemon want the same?"
Sanja blinked, and then released her pokemon. Chris didn't listen in, but eventually she nodded to him. Chris grinned faintly, and said "I'm warning you, you get the nastiest headache from this trick of Kani's. It's not exactly pleasant, I suffered from it."
Sanja's Haunter (Gra) shook his head. (How did a human…)
Chris responded wryly, "I took Kani's headache into myself, that's how. So I'd know."
The Haunter's eyes widened, then he nodded carefully. (Oh. Well, just for you to know, some of my brethren have been here. I've been driving them away, or blinding them… except for one that slipped through. I think Kani nuked it.)
Chris laughed.
Sanja sighed, and returned her pokemon. "Chris, one day I'm going to get Kani to do that to me. I'm tired of not understanding what my pokemon are saying, unless Krited translates for me."
Chris shook his head, and grinned. "I doubt that. Good luck, it won't happen."
"Jerk."
Chris laughed, and took a meditation pose, looking comfortable, despite the fact she'd never seen him do that before. Sanja glared at him, and eventually went back to her book.
It'd be this way for awhile. From the rate that Chris had said Kani worked, they'd be here for more than a week.
A/N: Next chapter, Jake returns for Teskara.
