A/N

Wow, people really seemed to like the double chapter idea I used. Guess we are going with that from now on for 10 chapter specials.

First of all, Mike, please tell me your secrets. I want to know what reddit post recommended my story. I am JJ Jameson and I am demanding pictures damnit. Second of all, I am legitimately surprised how much everyone is enjoying my fic. Thanks for sticking with it.

Back to your regularly scheduled program with 5k. This time with more grammatical correctness around dialogue. Let me know if it's good or not. I looked up the correct way to do it but it also looks a tad strange. Probably just bad habits but if people don't like it I'll change it back.

Enjoy it if you want.

Having made my daring escape from gang activity I don't want to be involved in, I leisurely stroll through the woods in clear sight of the road. It probably looks weird to the occasional person I pass that's walking from Kanto to Johto, but it just makes it so much easier to pick berries that we come across.

Despite him not being there to guard me, Alonso is in pretty high spirits about the whole traveling. Which seems a little strange, considering I know he was looking forward to finally being able to beat up on the random Trainers that'll take us up on bets. Although… maybe we shot that in the foot out of the starting gate.

I took it as good fortune, and continued the next few days traveling with light training. And yes, I do mean light training by average standards. It chafes me to leave it at that, but I'm already two and a half months late to the start of the season. Sure, a lot of people were stuck on Falkner and his Pidgeotto. But that wasn't an excuse to fall behind them even more. The longer I leave it, the worse it'll be.

Which is why I find it critical that I get at least one other addition to the team as fast as I can to start training them. Ideally I'd find both Sneasel and Larvitar on this one expedition, but I don't have my hopes up for that.

Thankfully, it seems that people in this universe are much more reasonable than the games. I was worried about eventually coming to a beach area and with no way forward without Surf like in the games, but it seems like they do want people to actually be able to travel between Johto and Kanto without much of a problem.

Inlaid into the cliff face over the ocean, the trail I was following continued on instead of stopping dead like in the games. In all honesty, for most people the trail is probably never used. Travel by water is much more popular, since cars are pretty expensive and wouldn't even fit well onto the route. What route was this again, Route 27? Whatever.

Since I had spent the time and effort to collect almost every berry in sight when traveling until my bag was filled to the brim with berries, I think I'll have enough to actually feed me and Alonso throughout the entire trip. I don't want a repeat of Union Cave, in more ways than one. While I know I could survive a while without food, I wouldn't be making much progress on the long journey through Route 27.

This route may take more than a week to travel, given the distance between Johto and Kanto. I want to be completely ready this time unlike before where I just went for it. Thankfully, I only had to keep stuff like my potions in there. I put the spare Pokeballs onto my belt, separately from mine and Alonso's. That meant I had a ludicrous amount of berries stashed in that bag. I also stuffed the pocket not holding my Pokedex full of the things.

It was honestly amazing how jam packed these things are with nutrients. Considering my sharp teeth in Zorua form, I was obviously intended to be some level of omnivore. But these berries were providing me with everything I am needing. Maybe this is bad for me in the long term, but it beats having to clean, dry, smoke, and salt meats to make them fit for traveling. And I have no idea how to actually make pemmican so that's out.

It's the berry life for me it seems. At least I'm eating healthier than Ash's Pikachu. I haven't met the guy, but I swear to Arceus something is wrong with that mouse. Ketchup is not supposed to be drunk by the bottle as a food source. Thankfully, neither Alonso or I have any sort of weird food addiction. And hopefully it stays that way forever.

We finally reach the sea as we follow the path towards the cliff. In the distance I could vaguely make out a Wailord surfacing before quickly returning underwater. That was honestly pretty neat, if I'm honest. Also a bit terrifying just how large that was if I could see it at that distance. I shudder just thinking of how much feeding one of those would cost. They could probably out-eat a Snorlax if they tried. Then again, 900lbs. of food a day is a lot.

Alonso seemed more preoccupied by glaring at some Wingull that were resting nearby, not liking it when other Flying Types get close to me for some reason. Then again, he doesn't like it when anything gets near me. Hopefully he relaxes around the new teammates when we get them.

"Hey, Alonso. Have you ever visited Kanto before? I don't know how much Murkrow migrate over the years," I ask conversationally, readjusting my bag so it would stop digging into my shoulder for a moment. These berries were actually surprisingly heavy, if I'm honest.

"Can't say I have. We generally don't go too far into the mountain ranges. It gets harder to scavenge for enough food for the entire flock if we do," he replies, and I nod. Since most migratory habits are based around climate and geography, it makes sense he never bothered to cross into Kanto.

"Well, I haven't either. Luckily we aren't going very far inside of it. Through both Route 27 and 26, then into Mt. Silver," I state, nodding my head. I hear some noise on the road behind me, so I cut the conversation a bit short and turn around.

Sprinting a mad dash down the road, some girl was chasing after a Furret and yelling for it to come back. She wasn't wearing clothes fit for traveling, so what the hell was she doing this far onto Route 27? I doubt she has been chasing that one Furret the entirety of the distance. That would, admittedly, be impressive though. Her dress and heels were seriously impeding her progress on catching up to that Furret.

"I'll ignore that," I say neutrally, turning away from the chase and continuing to walk. Alonso side eyes me questioningly, hopping on my shoulder slightly to face me better.

"What?" I ask, slightly indignantly. "It's not any of my problem. If you want to help her go ahead, you're allowed to do what you want," I continue onwards, shrugging lightly.

"I expected you would make some intricate plan on how helping her would benefit you somehow, Don," Alonso explains, getting me to stop. I realize that he's right and that even though it annoys me, I really should take advantage of this.

"Alright, that's true I can probably make something work with this. Go ahead and box in that Furret, I'll be right behind you," I ordered with some resignation in my voice, turning around again. I really don't want to make helping random strangers with their problems a habit, but I'm at the stage where any ally is a great boon.

Alonso nods, taking off from my shoulder and flapping towards the Benny Hill scene unfolding in front of me. I mean, come on woman. Why are you running in a dress and heels? Are you crazy? Just… take off your heels or something. That Furret isn't moving that fast.

Alonso quickly swoops in on the Furret, to both it and the Lady's surprise. Squeaking in shock, the Furret tries to bounce to the side and away from Alonso. Alonso gives it his signature glare, and surprisingly the Furret froze, no longer trying to escape as it fearfully turned to Alonso and hunched down to lower its profile. The hell is that about?

The lady quickly catches up to the Furret, picking it up instantly while huffing and puffing. I quickly arrived as well, having followed behind Alonso at a fast walk. I give the woman a small wave, leaning my head to the side slightly as Alonso returns to his shoulder position opposite of my bag.

"So… any idea why that Furret froze in it's escape attempt?" I murmur to Alonso while the woman composes herself slightly. I get a very helpful shrug in response, and return my attention to the woman.

"Oh, thank you so much! I don't know what I would have done without you and your Murkrow!" She praises, giving me a relieved and grateful smile. I plaster a smile on my face as well, nodding.

"Oh, it was no problem. I noticed what was going on and figured I could help a bit," I say, lying through my teeth. I cough a bit before continuing, "What were you even doing out here? You don't exactly seem ready for traveling."

"Oh, I actually live nearby in a small port city. What are you doing all the way out here? Trainers rarely come here so far into the Season," she replies, looking at me quizzically. That was good information, apparently I look like a total weirdo being out here at this point.

"Ah, well I'm going to go and capture a Pokemon, hopefully two, at Mt. Silver. Sadly, that means I have to walk Route 27, and 26, to get there," I say, slightly despondent. I wasn't even faking that part, I really wish I didn't have to spend the time and effort just to get some Pokemon. This really is one downside of being a Specialist Trainer, but it's also part of the fun. I'm not going to catch everything I see to try to build a team, I have to go and hunt down the ones I specifically want.

She looked understanding at first, but at the end her look changed to obviously thinking I'm unscrewed in the head. "Why would you do that?" she inquired, "there are plenty of boats to take you to Kanto."

"Because… I didn't think of hiring a boat?" I respond, knowing I sound like a dumbass. "I've just gotten used to walking everywhere if I'm honest," I explain, rubbing the back of my head. She shakes her head, reaching out and grabbing the wrist of the arm not supporting Alonso. I let out a squawk of indignation as she drags me along behind her. I thought this only happened in anime?!

I shoot a glance at Alonso, but the inconsistent bastard just seems interested in laughing at my predicament than helping me. You can't glare everything to death for looking at me then let me be manhandled like this, you damn bird.

I wasn't fighting against it too hard, granted, but her grip felt like iron and all of my protests fell on deaf ears. Eventually I get my feet under me enough to dig in my heels so I grind us to a halt. She looks behind her in confusion as I snatch my arm away from her deadly grip.

"I can walk for myself, there's no need to drag me the entire way," I explain, crossing my arms in front of me like an X. She just gives me a nod before continuing to jog like she wasn't just dragging me along and making me fear for my life. This was a nice wake up call that this is still a world slightly based off of anime physics. Hopefully that sneezing gag doesn't exist here too.

I can see Alonso shuddering while holding in his laughs, so I quickly manifest an illusionary rock in my hand and toss it at him. He tries to dodge, only to fall off of my shoulder and still get clipped by it. I gave him a smirk as he tries to right himself before turning back to the lady and following her. That should teach him.

LINE BREAK

Well, she wasn't kidding when she said it was small. It consisted of about a dozen commercial buildings and about twice as many houses. It had about 4 ships inside of the docks, each of them looking to be commercial transport.

"Hey, what's your name? You never introduced yourself," I question, following the lady down the small path that appeared. Was this connected to the main Route? Did I ignore this or something?

"Oh! My name is Jenna. My family runs the transportation business here!" she explains cheerfully, turning back to me with a smile.

"What was with the Furret, by the way?" I ask her, looking at the now calm Pokemon sitting in her arms.

"Oh, she's my Mother's and she asked me to look after her. Furret here decided to run off after I set him down for a moment to grab her some food," she explains sheepishly. Honestly, that explains a lot about the whole thing.

"Why not just return Furret to her Pokeball?" I continue, moving up to walk next to her rather than follow her now. Furret shrinks back at seeing Alonso, but doesn't try to run again. Probably smart, but I really am curious as to what the hell happened there.

"Well, I wasn't actually given Furret's Pokeball... " she says, shrinking down lightly in disappointment. "My Mother never lets that Pokeball from her side, even if someone is looking after Furret. I've given up on convincing her," Jenna says in a resigned tone.

Ah, an obstinate parent. The absolute classic reason for unnecessary complications. If Jenna had just gotten the Pokeball, she could have just returned Furret to it with no problems. Then again, if that happened I'd be walking Route 27 at this moment rather than preparing to spend some dough to get to ride on a boat the whole way. So I should be grateful for this even being the case.

We walked in mostly companionable silence to the town, only stopping when her apparent elderly neighbor wanted to stop and play 20 questions on Jenna's day and what she was doing with a strange boy from out of town. Jenna explained the situation with me only having to smile and nod, so that was at least averted.

She walked up to one of the larger buildings on the waterfront, just near to the docks, and opened the door. Following her inside, I blink my eyes to adjust them to the sudden light change. After being outside for multiple days, being inside felt strange to my eyes. The building obviously housed a boat repair or construction area, and was filled with a lot of strong looking men carrying heavy equipment around while a couple of people were yelling orders.

Jenna walks right up to possibly the burliest man around, who was standing on some ladder and looking over the entire process with critical eyes. I was following right behind her, slightly nervous. Please don't tell me I'm about to get mistaken for a possible suitor and twisted like a pretzel by this man.

"Dad! I brought someone that helped me get Furret back. Turns out he needs a ride to Kanto to Route 26, are there any boats heading that way?" Jenna asks, immediately getting the gruff man's attention. He turns around, stroking his beard and making a low 'hmm' noise. His eyes lock onto me, and gets an appraising look. He twists back around, and begins to steadily clamber down the ladder he was standing atop of.

Upon reaching the bottom, he slowly walks past Jenna and towards me. Reaching one hand forward, he leaves his hand in the tell-tale form of asking for a handshake. Slightly nervous about my hand being crushed, I reach forward and give his hand a good squeeze. His massive hand envelops mine, but thankfully he doesn't crush my hand like I thought he might.

"HA! That's a firm handshake lad. Thought I might act like a Kingler and snap your hand, eh?" he states with a loud guffaw, chuckling merrily. A smile crawls onto my face at this, and I give a small chuckle of my own.

"If I'm honest? Yes. I definitely thought my hand was about to be crushed," I say honestly, only making him laugh harder. It wasn't that funny, but trickster I am so I could appreciate the bait and switch on his part. Letting him have his moment, I wait a moment before coughing pointedly.

"Ah, let me give you my thanks for helping retrieve Furret for Jenna here. The missus would have thrown a fit if she found out," the man says with a slight wince, pulling Jenna in for a hug. He was apparently a very expressive man born with a stern resting face. Jenna seemingly was prepared for the outcome, because she moved Furret to her shoulder the moment the dad moved towards her.

"It was no problem. It helped me out too, anyways, since I was preparing to walk the entirety of Route 27 before she reminded me boat travel was a thing," I state, waving off his gratitude.

"Speaking of! We have a boat heading out on the morrow. Early one too. Show up at the docks around… 4:30 and we'll get you sorted out. Any problems with that?" he asks, raising one bushy eyebrow at me. I shake my head in the negative, as I'll most likely still be awake at that time anyways. I start to reach into my pocket to pull out my Pokedex, only to be interrupted.

"And just what do you think you're doing with that, young man?" he asks sternly, crossing his arms. Jenna takes the opportunity to extricate herself from grabbing distance, rubbing her shoulder slightly.

"Uh, getting ready to pay for the trip?" I say rhetorically, raising one eyebrow back at him. He seems unimpressed when looking at my Pokedex.

"I don't remember ever saying that there was payment needed, young man. So go ahead and put that thing away and be here at 4:30 sharp," he orders before turning back to the floor and yelling at some poor duo that were moving too slowly for his taste.

Huh, that was surprisingly nice of him. I'm not sure what I'll do for the return trip, probably just pay for another boat to take me back since I'll be there a week or two, but it's nice that I only have to pay for one leg of the trip. Taking the gift for what it was, I thank the two of them before leaving the building.

"So, looks like we don't need all of these Alonso. Want to use them for training?" I ask, slightly excitedly as I lift up my satchel. I know for a fact that I have plenty of Leppa Berries in here, so I can get the good type of training too. Alonso looks stricken, so to snap him out of it an illusion stone is thrown and dodged this time.

LINE BREAK

At exactly 4:25 in the morning, I sit down outside of the building from yesterday. I give a sleepy yawn, tired from my intense training at about noon yesterday. I planned on taking a nap, but by the time my insomnia declared me fit for sleeping it was too late. I figured I would sleep through my alarm so I just stayed up.

This was reasonably hard for me to do, since whenever my body decides to let me sleep I really want to take the thing up on its offer. But what I like more than sleep, is saving money. Especially money spent on transportation where I can just sleep on the ride.

Alonso was definitely not happy, considering he is forcing himself to match sleep schedules with me. He takes the whole bodyguard thing seriously when I'm not being manhandled by a teenage girl it seems, to the point he's basically useless at odd hours. Shame I can't learn Hypnosis, or I'd learn that shit just to put this dumbass to sleep.

Wait, will Hypnosis even work on me? I obviously don't have the ability, but does the medical condition count? This bears testing in the future. Either I'm immune to sleep effects, or I have a non-medicinal way to fix this shit. Win-win as far as I'm concerned, but now I want to know.

Speaking of abilities, I just realized that I never checked Alonso's ability. Fishing my Pokedex out, I flip it open and point it at the half-asleep bird on my shoulder.

"Pokedex, what's Alonso's ability?" I ask it, scrunching my eyebrows. What abilities do Murkrow even get? I don't remember.

"This Murkrow, nicknamed Alonso, has the ability 'Prankster'. This ability improves the speed of status moves against non-Dark Type Pokemon," My Pokedex informs me, and I get a big grin on my face. I have no idea if it's a normal or hidden move, but damn do I love abusing Prankster. Provided I have a Pokemon that knows any status moves with it. Coincidentally, Alonso happens to know exactly 0 status moves. Wait...

"Pokedex, what moves does Alonso know?" I ask inquisitively, thinking I know what happened yesterday now.

"This Murkrow, nicknamed Alonso, knows the following moves: Peck, Astonish, Wing Attack, and Mean Look," the Pokedex says, and a massive grin breaks out on my face. This is a very strong move if used right. Back home, it never would have been used due to the fact it doesn't top moves like Volt Switch or U-Turn. But if used right, in this world, I can see some very nasty situations for my opponents. After all, Murkrow can learn Toxic from a TM.

New Goal: Find the fastest way to buy a Toxic TM and then purchase it even if it bankrupts me. I don't care if it's a bitch move or unfair, they should just not get poisoned in the first place. Also I now have a healthy fear of Poison Type specialists if they can just Toxic everything. That sounds nasty, I should find a way to counter that.

Also, this greatly explains why Alonso has always been down for my causing of mischief and wants to see me complete my goal. Beyond the whole duty thing he goes on about every time I ask.

The door opening behind me interrupts me from my thoughts and startles Alonso back into awareness. I slowly stand up with a stretch and turn around, waving to Jenna's Father who was standing in the door.

"Ah! I'm impressed, most kids your age couldn't wake up at this time to save their lives it seems. My boy certainly can't do it," he says with a big grin on his face. Mmm, neat. Jenna has a younger sibling apparently.

"Well, it's the least I can do considering you're shipping me over for free," I say with a shrug, leaving out the fact that I didn't wake up this early but was actually up this late. He seems happy with my answer though, considering he turns towards the docks and motions me to follow him. I quickly catch up to him and walk beside him, keeping pace.

I was led down to the docks, and stared up at the massive boat that was sitting there in shock. This easily dwarfs the other boats, being more than twice the size.

"The hell? This wasn't here yesterday," I say, turning to the man questioningly as he nods his head.

"Observant! Yes, we got this baby yesterday at about noon. I'd say… half an hour after you left. We restocked it and loaded up new materials to sell off. It'll make a stop at a port on Route 26 where you can get off while it unloads some cargo," He says, scratching his beard as he waves down one of the dock workers.

"This lad will be joining you all until the stop on Route 26. He's a good lad, take care of him," he says with a guffaw, slapping me on the back and pushing me forward. I rub my back in annoyance, and look up at the worker. He has the "I don't get paid enough to care" look on his face as he points his thumb at the boarding spot.

"Just go ahead and get on Kid. Don't cause any problems and we'll be fine," is what he says before ignoring me completely to get back to hauling some stuff. Shrugging in acceptance, I turn back to wave at Jenna's Father. I never got his name, but I'll just ask when I get back here on my return trip so it'll be fine. He gives a megawatt grin and waves goodbye before leaving to return to his place.

I board the ship and just make my way onto the main deck. I can already feel my stomach disagreeing with the rocking of the ship, but it'll pass within half an hour or so. Settling in for a long sleep, I close my eyes and quickly fade to darkness as I basically pass out rather than fall asleep…

Only to be woken back up some time later by a cold splash of saltwater on my face. Sputtering and scrambling to my feet, I wipe off my face with my also soaked sleeves. A round of laughter surrounds me, and when I open my eyes it's to an irate looking man.

"Alright there laddie, what the hell are you doing sleeping on the job?" The man asks with a twitching eyebrow.

"Oh, I'm not a sailor. The… dockmaster? At the place we came from? Told me to get onto this boat because it's stopping on Route 26." I explain, trying to wrack the sleep fog from my brain as I shake it lightly.

"Oh, and next you'll tell me that the Champion himself gave you a Pokemon eh?" The man says with a laugh, but his eyes never lighten up. Oh great, now I'm annoyed. Didn't the man bother to tell the Captain who I was?

"Look, I may be a liar at times in a fight but I'm not going to bother lying about this. Helped out his family, he said he'd cover my ride on this boat. Has a kid named Jenna? And a son that I didn't meet?" I explain, scowling.

"I was told a boy with a Murkrow was hitching a ride. And I don't see no Murkrow with ya lad," he says, matching my scowl.

Wait, that's a good goddamn question. Where the hell did Alonso go? I don't see him around and he's not on his favorite spot in existence. Namely, my shoulder. I look up and squint at the rigging, making out a large number of Wingull resting on them but not my Murkrow.

"You know, that's a good point. Where the fuck is Alonso? Damn bird doesn't leave my side for a moment and now that he's my identification badge he goes and fucks off somewhere?" I accidentally gripe out loud, not realizing until afterwards when a round of laughter sprung up. Including, surprisingly, the Captain.

"Alright lad, if there's one thing I can recognize it's the way the wind is blowing. A close second is when a man honestly bitches about something. I'll accept your word for it, but you better go find that bird before we arrive, hmm?" the Captain says. I know it's less of a suggestion and more him giving me time, though. Groaning with annoyance, I set off to search this massive ship for where my bird went off to.

Alonso better not be sleeping in a container or something. If he is, I'll have choice words for him. What, is my shoulder good enough for him 99% of the time with a sole exception for when he should be on my shoulder? This is absolute bullshit I tell you.

A/N

Even though Grimm forgot about boats, I certainly didn't. Sorry about it taking an extra day, but I did say I would be busy over the weekend so I think I can say I gave fair warning.

Also, I may be getting a Beta Reader soon. So hopefully the insomnia-fueled mistakes will soon be eradicated by someone with a fresh head on their shoulders. Also hopefully the quality will increase when I get bitched out over leaving out important details. Here's to hoping at least. I'll announce if and when something is Beta Read in this bottom A/N.

Also, if anyone else wants to volunteer for being a Beta Reader, go ahead and comment or PM me. I'm certainly interested in having people correct my dumb mistakes.

Peace.

-Taldor