Hello my darling readers! Due to a busy week, I'll post both chapters today and hopefully catch up to be ahead of you all. If not, then I might have to go on a hiatus to catch up. Sorry for the inconvenience in advance, but I hope that you all both enjoy these chapters for now!

I found myself face down on the ground again and had the terrible taste of ash in my mouth. That last attack sent poochyena and I back. My dark-type had been the last one on my team that was still conscious. What I initially thought was gonna be an easy battle turned into a nightmare. "Okay tyrantrum, come back!" I heard the female grunt say before the sound of footsteps came towards me. Poochyena's grunting noises also came close and the noise of its paws were near my ears as it stood as best she could to defend me. The grunt looked down at my Pokémon for a moment in wonderment.

"Oh, so that's how it is..." She muttered when I finally picked up my head to look up at her. Surprisingly, there was no mocking smile on her face like my bitter fantasy played it out to be. It looked more...light-hearted. That expression lasted mere seconds before twisting into a playful grin. "I was just gonna finish you off and take your stuff, but my break's just about over. But don't think I'm gonna go easy on ya next time!" The grunt said before I received a boot to the face.

-Third Person P.O.V-

After the grunt was finished with May Maple, a soft cry was heard from behind her despite the loud barking sounds coming from the poochyena. "There you are! Are you done having fun yet! We got stuff to do!" She said playfully as a small whismur popped out of the tall grass walked towards her. The Pokémon made another sound in response that its business was done. The grunt laughed and gave her a pat on the head. "Man Aster, I spoil you too much!"

-End of Third Person P.O.V-

Several hours passed before I woke up again and found my poochyena attempting to pull me to help by my shoe. Even though I failed in battle, she was willing to stay and try to drag my body to safety. I found some comfort in knowing that my recent failures didn't completely impact the relationship of the team in a negative way.

Now that I was awake, I gave poochyena a grateful pat on the head and sent her back into her pokeball. It was only fair that I hoofed it to the next town by myself after my partners went through so much. Fortunately, soreness and an aching head were the only injuries I sustained, so walking wasn't an issue.

About an hour and forty-five minutes of steady paced walking revealed a change in the weather of the area. Though the air still smelled of ash, the quantity of the grey flakes started to fall down less and less until I found the sky to be a delightful blue with not a speck of ash in the sky.

Another hour of walking rewarded me with the beginnings of a small civilization that created Fallarbor Town. The hard packed dirt crunching under my feet was a reddish-brown color with noticeable craters punched into them. The homes there were an earthy hue with olive green rooftops; the exceptions being the Contest Spectacular building, Pokémon center and mart. Going on further, I noticed a house that was three times bigger than the others. It had a large telescope sticking out of the roof. I wondered if I would be able to get a peek through its lens someday.

My first destination was obviously the Pokémon center. No time had been wasted to dash up to the counter and nearly put those pokeballs on the conveyor belt myself. When they were all healed up, I apologized to each one of my battle partners and vowed to train them harder. It grated my nerves to be beaten by a thug who belonged to an organization with very shady purposes. No doubt that something might be going on around here; though nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary for the moment.

While contemplating on that thought, I decided to spend that evening at an in with all the shit that's been happening. When that decision became a reality, the bathtub was the first to come to mind. Getting cuts. Bruises and bumps on the head were certainly very good reasons aside the hundred pounds of ash caking you. For the first time in a while, I felt really spent; not like two nights go where I jumped out my tree house, but really worn out mentally and physically. My head felt like it was about to burst. Did dad ever feel like this? He always looked to be in control of things, even when he was tired.

After the much needed bath, crawled underneath the blankets of my futon*. My head laid on the soft pillow until my weary thoughts were chased away by sleep.

...

I woke up to a greyish-blue dawn that stole through the circle-shaped window. Despite the dreary-looking morning, my body felt amazingly refreshed. It was almost like I didn't take any beatings or something. Time to face the day!

Getting ready didn't take long and breakfast was filling as well as delicious. I was determined to get stronger so the whole day was dedicated to training my entire team by a grassy ash-free place by the town. There was also a large cave close by in a mountain range called Meteor Falls, but I decided not to go there just yet for the sake of focusing on training. The last thing I wanted to do was get lost in a cave.

Our session overall had been fantastic and two of my Pokémon even evolved! Casecoon was the first in doing so as its lavender, silken barrier suddenly split open. I was rather curious and peeked inside. As my eyes peered into the shell, a large purple moth with pine green wings crawled out of it. That certainly wasn't any beautifly; she looked a little scary. However, she was still the same spunky bug that I had grown attached to. I knelt down to stretch my arm out so she could perch herself on it, but the newly formed dustox merely looked at me with her compound eyes, gave out an excited cry and started to eat the cocoon she had been previously stored in. That was very dam gross. The second one to evolve was wingull. She turned from a small gull to a large blue and white pelican that was nearly bigger than me. We both looked at each other for a moment before the Pokémon flew right above me and nestled herself on my head. She was heavy, by not too bothersome on my body. Hopefully, this knack she had wasn't going to be a bad habit.

I was so pleased with the day's results that I extended the training session to three more days. It was tough and exhausting, but my team and I were proud of our progress. My relationship with skitty was getting better again as she finally stopped glaring at me with anger, but I had yet to receive any tender affection from her. A long way to go I guess.

Speaking of skitty, Lisia finally arrived in Fallarbor the next day for the Contest Spectacular. The teen gladly welcomed (or rather pulled) me into the dressing room to change over. Upon seeing the scar on my arm and bruises I sustained, Lisia began to make more of a scene than usual and scold me for being so careless with myself. "You may be a trainer, but can still be a cautious one! Lucky for your adorable self, we can cover that all up!". Oh joy, more makeup. Instead of fighting it though, I forced myself to stay in place as she applied the cosmetics. The experience was still torturous, but it would go faster if I just endured it.

When the process was complete, Lisia left me alone with my cat Pokémon to practice some last minute warm-ups. It went well as long as the red ball of thread was there to be waved around. I was still annoyed by how much it had an effect on her.

After we practiced a bit, it was time to make our appearance onstage. This time around, the two of us faced the crowd with cutesy faces. While I wasn't so afraid like before, my pride was still taking a beating.. One of the few reasons for keeping up this whole thong (other than the possibility of Lisia hunting me down) was defeating that middle-aged man and his slakoth. For now though, we would have to settle with second place.

The teen idol congratulated me on our success with a happy squeal that followed with a big hug. Even Ali chirped with excitement while talking with skitty. While it was supposed to be a merry celebration, I couldn't help but be disinterested. Already an hour passed after the contest was over and still no sign of Brendan. I tries texting him with the pokenav, but there was no response. Was he blowing me off? As far as I know, he hadn't complained to me about anything I did or said. Whatever it was, I hoped to confront him about it later.

Now outside the Contest Spectacular building, the four of us said our good-byes and split up into our respective pairs to retire for the night. Almost winning the contest was an excuse I made to spend another night in the inn. Instead of quickly falling asleep like last time, I stayed up while my thoughts inevitably drifted to the one person who (since in the early beginnings of my journey) made my entire being go into turmoil.

No matter what I did, there wouldn't be much of a gap in time where I could stop thinking about him. In his presence, ( where I made it a mission to do so if it could be helped) an angry/ annoyed expression would form on my face that was inspired to rebuke his attempts to capture and play with me as he wished. When I was alone, my mouth quivered as I couldn't get rid of the short images in my brain that pictured his princely features. What made the hopeless addiction inescapable was the craving he forced upon me with his intoxicating lips. I didn't want it before...but now...deep down...ugh! I just wanted some decent sleep! No matter how much I wished for it though, slumber that night was uncomfortable and torturous.

...

It was just before dawn when I woke up and prepared to train before going back to see if the cable car was fixed. I didn't want to linger in this town longer than necessary. Chirpie walked beside me outside of the inn as the stars above us began to fade away in the face of an oncoming dawn. Early mornings always had a fresh feeling that beckoned me to sit down and revel in its soothing beauty.

When we finally made our way to the tall grass, I stopped for a moment to get a glimpse of the mountainous area where Meteor Falls was supposed to be. I normally did that for the past three times I was here to enjoy the nice scenery, but today made it feel like something was off. I couldn't put my finger on it and I had the sudden urge to explore that area. The firebird was about to go into the grass when I stopped him. "Change of plans today! We're going up the mountain!" I declared while pointing my finger upwards towards the range. Chirpie looked where I was gesturing to and went to me with both of his hands raised in a demand that I was very familiar with. I made that same gesture to my father many years ago. I eyed him with a look that meant I knew what he was trying to pull, but there was ultimately no way to resist those adorable squawks and pleading face.

"Alright, alright! I'll carry you, but you're coming down the mountain on your own okay? I might not have the energy to get us both back down,"

...

Up the mountainous part of the region, the two of us hiked at a careful pace; or rather it was I who did all the hiking while Chirpie gave me moral support by shouting cheers of encouragement. Giving him a piggy back ride wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I knew that exhaustion would change my mind when it hit, so no change of plans to give him a lift back were made. Besides, the exercise would do him some good. And as he held onto my shoulders, he would occasionally turn his head to look down so he could how high up we were. Thankfully, neither of us were afraid of heights.

When we eventually reached the top, I sat down abruptly while trying to suck in air. A little hard to do when my lungs felt like they were on fire from working extra. Chirpie got off my back and nuzzled it's head against my arm as he squawked in appreciation. His energy was too much for me sometimes, but I could never ignore him.

"Hey stop! Let the professor go!"

My head shot up and looked ahead to see four far away figures. One of them who voiced the demand was laying on the ground and struggling to get up while the other three were moving away from it. That wasn't all; the person who had was currently laying on the ground was instantly recognizable.

"Brendan!"

I couldn't do a full run from most of my stamina being used on climbing this stupid range, so I had to settle with a light jog. Chirpie however, was faster and met up with the poor teen to help him up before I could reach them. Whe I finally met up with my former travel companion, I could see that he looked terribly roughed up. His clothes her dirtied and torn from a possibly violent confrontation. More notably on his face, he had a fresh black eye with a few scratches marking his features. When Brendan saw me, he tried to downplay the pain of his injuries by keeping his mouth in a tight line whenever he moved.

"May-Oh hell!"

"What happened?! You look awful!"

"I'll be fine! But right now I need you to help me with something!"

"Help you with what?! You look like your about to keel over!"

I tried to force him to go down the mountain with me for medical attention, but when he told me about a more serious situation, I reluctantly agreed upon postponing the plan for later. Apparently, Brendan got into town mid afternoon yesterday and met up with Fallarbor's own Professor Cozmo. The scientist told him about an interesting meteorite that he stumbled upon a few days earlier and planned on excavating it today. However, their plans were interrupted when they reached the top and were ambushed by two members of Team Magma. Brendan tried to act all tough like me and fend them off with his own physical strength. However, he ended up being a punching bag when it was found out that his manners stopped him from hitting a girl and the other was a man who was much bigger than him. After he was down, the two had taken the professor. While the admittance of his blunder must have sounded humiliating to say out loud, it was admiring to see that he was honest about it. Now he just needed to work on beating up bad guys.

Giving him no room for protest, I threatened to knock him out if he refused a piggy back ride from me. I pointed out that we would be wasting time with him struggling with his steps if I just supported him with my shoulders. He mumbled something about his man card being taken away, but gave in at the end. To ensure that I had the Stamina to accomplish the feet. Brendan gave me an energy bar to eat before I helped him on my back.

"Alright Brendan! Let's go kick some Magma ass!"

...

Twenty minutes of traveling with a hurt Brendan paid off as the journey rewarded us with seeing the entrance to the cave. At this point, the passenger on my back was starting to get heavier with each passing step, but I pressed on. Meanwhile, Chirpie went ahead to see if he could help intercept the foes first. He quickly went into the cave with quick feet. I didn't like that idea and forced myself to go faster.

"Chirpie wait up! It's not sa-Woah!"

I was about to call him back when my gaze was suddenly greeted by the sight of a spacious cavern with tan limestone. The large stalagmites pointed menacingly down upon its visitors while dripping water as if it threatened to break off and skewer us with its drop. The main features that stole the limelight were the large, rushing falls of clear water.

"May! There they are!"

Brendan's alarm focused me back and made my sight lock onto three people across a little wooden bridge. The more feeble of the three was kneeling down on the ground with a brush and small pick in his hand; he must have been forced to unearth that meteorite that my friend was talking about. The other two that stood menacingly over the weaker one wore a dark red color that clearly matched the uniforms for the brutish organization. I put Brendan down and ran across the bridge with vengeance.

"Hold it right there Magma thugs!" I shouted as I skidded to a stop with Chirpie following behind. His feathers were all ruffles up with anger. All three suddenly looked up from their previous attention to focus on me. One of them was indeed a girl; though not the one I fought on route 113 (thank arceus!). Her cohort was a large, chubby man in his late twenties with an ultra baby face. His cheeks were so puffy that I couldn't tell if his eyes were open. The man's dark hair had the style of side swept bangs that was visible from his unhooded appearance.

"Hm? Another child appears?! What is it with children trying to get in my way?!"

"Tabi-Tabi-san! That's the girl who stopped us in Slateport!"

The man glared at his subordinate for a brief moment from the obvious distaste of his nickname, but then put his gaze back on my form. There was a short silence of processing what he saw before breaking out a small laugh. Clearly he thought I wasn't a small threat; just like his nerdy boss.

"Really?! That's the girl who stopped a dozen members of Team Magma from completing a simple task?! She looks so dam harmless and adorable! How you all screwed that up is beyond me!"

As the man began to step forward with the young woman right behind him, Brendan was now at my side with a pokeball in hand. He also looked at me with mild surprise at the piece of news. "You kicked the ass of a dozen Team Magma thugs all by yourself?! Are you even human?!" He asked with bewilderment.

"Well...a few moms did call me a demon when I was seven,"

"Oh...right,"

When he got close enough to the both of us, the Team Magma member took out a pokeball from his belt with the girl following suit. Honestly, I got s little nervous out of remembrance of my failure from my last encounter with one of their grunts. However, I held my gorund with my battle face put on. Backing out now would only show cowardice.

"So it seems that we meet at last, little girl! I am the Great Leader Maxie's right hand man, the Great Admin Tabitha! We don't have time to fuck around here so I'll destroy you along with your stupid as quickly as I can! It's time that nosy children like you learn to stay out of an adult's business!"

He then enlarged the ball and threw it out to reveal a koffing; man I was getting sick of seeing those. The grunt unleashed a large, black and grey dog with intimidating red eyes. Hm, so that's what poochyena would evolve into. "Alright Kippie! I choose you!" Shouted Brendan as he threw his spherical device. It bounced twice before sending out a light blue creature with several black fins that stood on its hind legs. It also had thick orange whiskers on its cheeks. Brendan's mudkip had turned into a marshtomp. Chirpie jumped in front and gave a respectful nod to its battle partner and let out a war squawk.

The koffing was the first to act as it squeezed out thick smoke to lay out cover on the battleground. We both squinted our eyes in desperate need to see what was happening. Anxious moments passed as silence filled the air, but then suddenly broke from a bark of command that I wasn't able to hear clearly. The sound of mightyena's claws tapping against the ground were now in a swift pace while charging forward and seizing kippie by the leg with its powerful maw. The poor, little Pokémon cried out in pain and attempted to rid itself of the beast. Brendan nearly cried out with shock as his precious 'little girl'was being assaulted.

"Kippie baby! Hang on!"

"Chirpie, double kick that mutt!"

Out of the swirling smoke, my combusken's legs slammed against the dark-type's body like a car hitting a sack of potatoes. The mightyena traded a yelp of pain for keeping it's hold on kippie. The water-type stumbled back weakly, but stood upright for the sake of her pride and trainer. "Okay kippie! Use mud-slap on that mightyena!" He commanded with ferocity as he wished to pay back the pain in full. The mudskipper started to make these weird noises in its throat and spew out thick mud at the opposing Pokémon. The force of the attack threw the animal back and knocked it out of commission. Now that one was down, we all focused on the remaining foe. "Chirpie, use flame charge!"

"No, wait!"

It was too late to retract my command just seconds after Brendan voiced a frightened tone of opposition. My combusken suddenly bursted into a glowing flame and tackled the poison-type. What I didn't know and what my friend was so afraid of was that the gas the koffing had constantly emitted was very combustible. Inevitably, it exploded and sent everyone back. Hitting the floor with the backside of my head very much hurt, but I ignored the injury and sprang to my feet with clentched fists. The air started to clear a little and I caught a veiw of a smoky black koffing being glared down upon by a proud combusken; but that wasn't the end of it. Chirpie then started to glow and change shape. I could hardly believe my eyes as what used to be a small, adorable torchic, had eventually transitioned to a mighty blaziken.

He now surpassed my height by two feet with a curved red beak and robin blue eyes. On his head, Chirpie had a beige feathery down with the rest of his body plumage being a scarlet and off-yellow color. He was more slender in shape with the exception of his legs being more muscular and having alot of feathers covering them as if he was wearing a hakama*. His wrists were now hard and grey with three distinct claws.

In that moment of awe, I heard Brendan stir beside me and knelt down to help him. Unfortunately, this is also when the admin also got up with an angry expression on his face. Clearly he didn't like losing to children; not that I was one. Tabitha looked around and locked onto the unconscious Professor Cozmo with the meteorite stuck in his hand. The Magma thug quickly swiped it, grabbed the now unconious girl and retracted their Pokémon.

"Nice try little brats, but it is I the Great Admin Tabitha who wins this time! Be warned that if you try to-"

"OH TABI-TAAAAABI!"

The new voice that sang out the admin's name was sorta gravelly and had a bit of an accent. Brendan (who was somewhat conscious) and I turned behind us while Tabitha looked ahead to see who was the new person of interest.

With a mischievous grin and shifty eyed, a well built man with two other people following behind him came towards our group. He looked so much more than suspicious. How could I possibly say that? Well, no normal human being would willingly walk around in a wetsuit with a gold anchor chain around his neck and wore blue bandanna on the top of his head. If he didn't spell out as weird, then I don't know what else would. His henchmen were just as ridiculous, for they were dressed up like they were prepping for a pirate adventure dinner show.

The three crossed the bridge to meet up with Brendan and I. It was only normal to feel uncomfortable as he observed both of our appearances and let out a roaring laughter. "Wow! I can hardly believe that an almighty Magma Admin just got his ass handed to him by a lil' scamp like her! Team Magma must be reeeeally slippin' these days! Just look how cute she is!" He taunted Tabitha while taking a pair of fingers to roughly squeeze my cheek.

"Piss off!" I exploded with my fist instinctively shooting out to hit the man in the stomach. When the punch landed however, the impact actually hurt me instead; his built torso merely reverberated the attack back to me. I quickly withdrew my fist and shook it to relieve the pain. He laughed even harder at my violent attempt before taking a deep breath to calm down a little; and that term 'calm' was used loosely.

"Sorry lil' scamp! But unlike those flabby Magma losers, I'm all pure muscle!"

"I can see that,"

"Ouch! And here I thought Maxie was the only one who acted so cold! I dunno why you're being so hostile with strangers, you'll never get a boyfriend that way!"

"Fuck you! I don't want a boyfriend! But you're the one with the suspiciously stupid outfit and messing with my face!"

"Hey! I dress awesome! This is prime Team Aqua wetsuit wear! You can't come to close to being amy more awesome than that!"

"Team Aqua? That sounds just as dumb as Team Magma,"

The man comically frowned for a brief moment, but then busted out laughing once again; making me further question his sanity. The henchmen however, didn't share his humor. Brendan in the meanwhile was still sitting down and running his temples when Kippie slowly waddled into his view. She coughed up a bit of smoke and showed him her leg wound while giving him a puppy dog look. In response, he automatically. Stretched his arms out to grab ahold of the mudskipper and caress her in his arms. It was only a few seconds after that action did he notice that something was wrong.

"Okay, ya got me there, but you gotta admit that I , the awesome Archie look ten times cooler than Maxie!"

"Uh, May?"

"You look like a decked out thug/ scuba diver! There's nothing cool about you!"

"May!"

Upon hearing my friend call out for me, turned to look at him with kippie in his arms. I was a little annoyed that he interrupted my heated conversation. "What is it?!" I asked with irritation laced in my tone.

"We just let the bad guys get away,"

HUH?!

My sights quickly shifted to where Tabitha and the grunt were previously standing; only now an empty space had taken their place. Chirpie! Where was Chirpie?! I kept turning wildly about myself now, until I found the now tall firebird pecking away at a teddyursa-shaped cookie.

"...Well fu-"

*Continued in chapter 18*

*Hakama: Loose pleated trousers

*Futon: Traditional Japanese bedding consisting of padded mattresses and quilts