Chapter 4

Author's Note: This is word emphasis

-this is telepathic conversation-

Cerulean City:

Misty had separated from them in Cerulean City, leaving Red, and Citrine to spend the night in the Pokémon Center. Once again the pair share a bed, Citrine curled up with her best human friend. She would have invited them to her home, but she could tell that Citrine needed a good night's sleep. Red had told her that the only way Citrine would get that would be in his arms. Misty wasn't sure she wanted to know what had caused the blonde's nightmares, so instead she had said she would meet them at the Pokémon Center the next day. That was when they parted ways, and Citrine had gotten cleaned up, and into some pajamas, needing help from Haunter. Red does put their clothes in the wash, and dries them before heading to bed himself, dressed in his own pajamas. Pokémon Centers also had free laundromat services too.

Once he has their clothes stowed away again Red slips into bed beside Citrine. He was getting rather good at joining her without her waking up. He's not really surprised when she snuggles into him, already getting used to having her in his protective grasp at night. He never noticed the pokémon with a blue swanlike body with a yellow underside. This pokémon has pink eyes, a dark pink, round tuft on its head, and a pointed beak like snout. There are yellow, crescent-shaped ornaments on the sides of its head. This pokémon has glowing, pink ring-like wings on its sides, and back with paw like protrusions resting on its chest. The wings of this pokémon release shining particles, and undulate beautifully around the quarter moon. This pokémon is said to have the ability to dispell nightmares, and holding one of its feathers brings happy dreams. This Pokémon is Cresselia, the Lunar Pokémon, and she is saddened that the poor reincarnated Lunar Child's childhood was bad enough that her darker counterpart, Darkrai doesn't even need to visit her for the poor girl to suffer from nightmares.

Like Mew, Cresselia knew that Citrine would only be safe with Red, though getting the poor child a psychic type to help her with her powers would become necessary, and poor Red, he needed a Riolu, immediately. Sadly Riolu, and Lucario are not native to the Kanto region, though perhaps Red could be nudged to enter a tournament where receiving a Riolu egg would be a prize? Cresselia would talk it over with Mew. Cresselia does leave a feather behind, already made into a necklace for the poor child. Using her natural psychic powers the new necklace is placed around Citrine's neck, only Citrine, or Red would be able to remove it as well.

Red was the first one up, and he blinks when he sees the new necklace around Citrine's neck. He could feel the happy vibe to it though, and his eyes widen, -Cresselia?-

He can feel a nudge in his mind, and he knows he's right. Cresselia had gifted Citrine with one of her feathers to help her with her nightmares. -Get her a psychic type to help her as well, young Red. Haunter can keep her powers in check, but she needs someone to practice with as well. Drowzee would be your best bet.-

Red sends understanding back, Drowzee could be found on Route 11, just outside of Lavender Town, and they didn't just teleport away either. He slips out of bed to get dressed, and then has Haunter wake Citrine up, he would need to get her to the Cerulean City Hospital to get her checked out, and see how she was recovering. Once he's helped Citrine get dressed for the day Red leads them to the cafeteria, and makes her Komala Coffee, far be it for him to keep her from her caffeine intake. Misty finds them there, and Red asks if they could get Citrine's ribs checked out first. Misty has no problem with this, getting backhanded by a Machamp was no laughing matter. Haunter was in her mistress' shadow while Misdreavus had been recalled into his PokéBall..

After the Pallet Town duo eat their breakfast, and Citrine has her Komala Coffee, apparently Viridian City had called ahead to warn the other cities about Citrine, or at least the hospitals. The doctor that sees her feels her ribs, and Citrine hisses several swears under her breath at the pain. Red, out in the waiting room with Misty, winces as her pain crashes over him. Why did his best human friend have to be a psychic? Misty looks at him curiously, and Red sighs wearily, " She's like Sabrina, only less trained. " he says softly, " 'Trine's talents lay in empathy, telepathy, telekinesis, and umbrakinesis. "

Misty's eyes narrow thoughtfully, that would explain why she stayed so close to Red in more populated areas. Her Haunter was giving her slow access so she could master her powers little by little, it was smart, and Red was her anchor. Pallet Town was sparsely populated so shielding wouldn't have been as big of a concern, now it was, and it had to be taxing on the poor girl. Until she mastered her powers she would need to keep Red close by. No wonder Red stayed close to her. That was when Citrine made her way out, and she snuggles into Red immediately. The examination had shattered her shields for the moment, she needed her best human friend. Misty leads them to her home, and Citrine blinks before face palming, " You're the Cerulean City Gym Leader, aren't you? "

Red blinks, and then blinks again, " Damn, was not expecting that. Let's work out a strategy to deal with Team Rocket, though can we maybe go somewhere in your home without nearly as many people, Misty? "

Misty nods at the request, it would make sense that Red would want them to go somewhere that would be easier on Citrine. The poor blonde was leaning heavily into him, her empathy, and telepathy must be overwhelming her at the moment. Once in an isolated part of the home, telling the maids what they wanted served Misty watches as Citrine just nestles into Red's side, her breathing evening out. Misty could tell that Citrine was still awake, which meant she was centering herself, and anchoring herself more deeply in Red for the moment. Exposure therapy was sure to work the best for her, but she was going right into cities, so yes, she would need to anchor herself much more strongly, before they ventured out into Cerulean City again.

Red, in other dimensions would need a lesson in humility, but this Red, he has Citrine to protect from her own family. No way in hell was he going to allow himself to get too cocky. Saur, Poli, Dor, Zu, and Pika would all be trained hardcore. Citrine was counting on him to keep her safe, to not be stupid, or macho. He needed to stay level headed for her, " Is there anywhere to train our Pokémon hardcore, Misty? "

The orangette looks at him, she sees the determination in his eyes, and the slight tightening of his grip on Citrine. She realizes then that his truest reason for getting stronger as a battler, a trainer, was to protect Citrine. Sure, she could see that he truly loved battling, but Citrine came first. It had to have something to do with her childhood, not many people had a Gastly as a starter pokémon after all. Citrine had held her own with Koga, another Gym Leader, easily. Her new friends were stronger than she realized at first. She leads them to her private training field, and let's them have a training battle together, " Use Zu, okay, I need to bond better with Misdreavus still. You can use anybody else when I bust out Haunter. Sound good, Red? "

" No problem, 'Trine. I need to bond more with Zu as well, probably should bond more with Dor too. " Red admits, though he does set the rest of his team to training as well.

Misty is stunned by the sheer amount of skill they have, apparently Red was that good. He just hadn't been tested truly yet. Citrine on the other hand had held her own with Koga, a fellow gym leader whom was apparently working with Team Rocket. This is something Misty knows she needs to tell Brock about. She does have Starmie train hardcore with them since Starmie was one of her lower leveled pokémon, and she still had a lot of work to do with Gyarados after what Team Rocket did to him. She also spars with Red since Citrine was still recovering from being backhanded by a Machamp. Citrine was working hard with her Misdreavus and Haunter, individually, and by having them work on their combination attacks as well.

The orangette could see the amount of time and attention Red and Citrine gave their pokémon. It was obvious to her that Red had, had Poli the longest, and that the others were all recent captures. Hell she'd been there when Red had caught Zu, his Zubat. Dor was apparently a pokémon he caught as a demonstration for the younger children in Pallet Town, Saur he got from Professor Oak along with a PokéDex that the man had created to aid in his research. Citrine also had one of these devices, and Pika had been caught in Viridian City after making a nuisance of himself. They do both officially challenge her for the Cascade Badge, as Citrine had put it, they did need money after all. After three days Misty sees them off, they had learned all they could from each other.

At the same time a man is working on an invention of his, and the auto timer goes off while he's working on it, turning him into a Rattata, which would cause him no end of problems in the interim, until he happens into Red and Citrine's path. Citrine can only shake her head as Red goes on a catching spree for pokémon, failing to take into consideration the fact that he couldn't carry an infinite number on his person. The blonde's eyes widen when she practically trips over an Eevee, they were exceedingly rare to find in the wild in Kanto, hell, even in Johto it was rare to find Eevee in the wild. Citrine kneels down to make herself look smaller, yes, it hurt like a bitch to do so, but Eevee looked extremely skittish. The Evolution Pokémon bumps up against her outstretched hand, and once it was ascertained that she was no threat rubbed their head against her hand. Red had stopped when he realized Citrine wasn't behind him, and now he was watching as Citrine made friends with Eevee.

She looks at Eevee, " How would you like to travel with me, Eevee. I won't force you to evolve, though I will be training you during daylight hours, as I know about a different form you could take when evolved through friendship, should you want to. If not I could try to find you an Everstone. "

Eevee yips happily and nods their head. Citrine grabs a Friend Ball, and taps it to Eevee's head. Once the capture was complete she calls Eevee out again, and pulls out her PokéDex. She's surprised to find out she has a female Eevee as the Eevee line was predominantly male. Red shakes his head, but then he remembers what Citrine had said, " What form needs friendship during daylight does Eevee have? "

" Espeon. Eevee evolves to Espeon with high levels of friendship during the daylight hours, and Umbreon the same only during nighttime hours. " Citrine answers him, " I grew up in Johto, remember? "

" I almost did forget about that. Now, what am I going to do with all these pokémon I caught? " Red muses out loud.

It was right about then one of the balls containing a Bellsprout fell off of his Ball Belt, and then when he goes to retrieve it they both spot a rather unusual Rattata that freaks Red out by speaking, " Relax, he's a human whom had one of his inventions backfire on him, Red. " Citrine says, rolling her eyes.

" Oh, you're a psychic. Yes, one of my inventions malfunctioned, and as I was fixing it, it malfunctioned even more with me inside, the result being my merging with the Rattata I had in the other part of the invention, as the auto time went off with me in it. If it had been a Mankey at least I would have opposable thumbs. "

Right at that moment a Fearow comes along and snatches the poor man turned Rattata up. Haunter doesn't even need to be told, she just goes to retrieve the human turned Rattata. One Confusion attack later the poor sod has been saved, and is back on the ground, Red catching the Fearow after having Pika zap it. They gather the man up, and reverse the process. After the man introduces himself as Bill, he explains just what the machine is supposed to do, it's to be used to transport things like say pokémon. Bill agrees to transport Red's excess pokémon to Professor Oak's lab to lighten his load, though he does freak a little over seeing the Fearow that almost made him a meal. The PokéBalls were see through after all. Her Eevee is twining around her feet as she leans up against a desk. Haunter was back in her shadow for the moment. Red notes the time and hands her, her pain meds, and Oran Berry juice to take them with. Citrine was so beyond ready to have her ribs be healed already!

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon or Pokémon Adventures.