Beyond Golden Hills Chapter 2, a Pokémon + Hetalia - Axis Powers Crossover fanfic

Chapter 2

Upon arrival back in the good ole United States, the trio walked in comfortable silence to their vehicles. Matthew had the shortest walk, for he had gotten lucky with parking before going to Spain. The youngest brother left with a smile and a wave before headed north towards Toronto, Canada. Connor was the next to locate his vehicle and Alfred climbed into the passenger seat (it wasn't that he couldn't drive, it was that carpooling was good for the economy and the environment! ...but it was mostly because he wasn't a good driver). It was almost 4 in the morning by the time Connor dropped off Alfred in Washington D.C., and nearly 5:30am by the time he reached Richmond, Virginia.

The ex-nation half stumbled into his house and set his suitcase down by the front door, then wandering into the kitchen. The blond nearly tripped over his pet cat and the sleeping creature gave a mew of distress as his tail was stepped on. Connor muttered an apology and the grey tabby just hissed crossly then went to groom out his fluffy tail. "I wouldn't have stepped on your tail if you didn't sleep in stupid places…like the middle of the kitchen floor…" The cat hissed again but got up and bounded down the hallway into the bedroom. "Cats," Connor rolled his eyes before getting a quick bowl of cereal.

That evening, Alfred called the older brother and babbled on and on for hours about pointless stuff as he usually did. Connor had learned over the decades it was best to put the phone on speaker and continue to putter around the house and take care of chores. Currently Alfred was ranting and venting about his government, and that was one topic the former Confederate actually enjoyed listening to Alfred speak about. "The government is totally getting corrupted!" Alfred wailed through the phone.

"I told you so," Connor smirked.

Alfred whined again, "I know you told me so! Don't even start with that whole Confederacy deal because I know every detail of it!" Connor would have burst out laughing if he didn't have a mouthful of sandwich. "So when did you and our group plan to go online with the beta testing?"

"We're going online sometime around eight, how about you and Matthew?" Connor responded.

"Nine o clock ish," the sunny blond replied.

"Well I have to go now, Al, maybe we'll bump into each other in the game. Bye," and without waiting for a reply, he hung up. Alfred was the kind of person who could go on for hours at a time, even if you said 'bye' multiple times in ten seconds. After cleaning up dinner and making sure his cat had food in his bowl, Connor got up and into the living room. Following the instructions (printed in multiple different languages), the game was soon up and running. And after checking several times to see if everything was the way it was supposed to, Connor checked the time and slipped the glasses for the game on. It took a little bit but soon enough there was nothing but blue-ish green surrounding him in every direction he looked.

A small dial popped up in front of him, prompting for a language. It was just…floating there like a ghost. Connor reached out to tap the box for English and upon pressing 'OK', the popup exploded into little water vapor like pixels. Three more dials popped up, prompting for name, date of birth, and gender, just as Kiku had stated. The Confederate entered the correct, appropriate information, surprised that Kiku hadn't gone with the typical dropdown and select a year.

The boxes each exploded in the same way as the first had and when there were no more boxes remaining, something unseen began to scan him, making that annoying scanning beeping noise. When it had finished it went back to wherever it came from and a new text box popped up in front of him, 'Thank you for the time. We have gone through a list of Pokémon and decided your best match.' The space around him faded into black and suddenly there was a bright flash and he found himself standing in a small town. His clothes really hadn't changed, aside from the backpack now slung over his shoulder. There was a blur in the pixilation next to him and suddenly Pablo and Gilbert were by his side.

"Hey! Same time for the record," Gilbert laughed. The older nation was albino, with snowy white hair, pale skin, and bright red eyes. Gilbert was Prussia's representative and was in a similar case to Connor. Both ex-nations could only exist in today's time as long as somebody believed in them.

The dark brown haired male on Connor's other side let out a soft chuckle of his own, "So now that we're here, why don't we figure out what Pokémon we got?"

Right… Now that the Mexican mentioned it, Connor was curious as to what partner Pokémon he had received. He shifted his arm to stretch and it brushed a Poke ball on his belt loop. What did you do again? Press the center button? Virtual reality is quite different from playing the actual games… Despite that, the trio threw the capture devices into the air and three bright white silhouettes appeared in front of them. Gilbert, not paying attention, ended up getting bonked on the head with his Pokémon's Poke ball.

A white mongoose-like creature with red markings here and there and eyes as red as Gilbert's stood in front of the albino; the thing was quite fluffy too. "Cool a Zangoose!" Gilbert laughed and the Pokémon just cocked its head. Gilbert reached to his back pocket where a Pokedex was now placed. After punching a few buttons on the gadget, Gilbert held it up to the Pokémon. 'Zangoose, the Cat Ferret Pokémon. Zangoose usually hunt in groups and have a bitter rivalry with Seviper passed on from generation to generation This Pokémon has extremely sharp claws and these claws are its greatest weapons.' "Awesome!" Gilbert let his signature laugh echo through the air, "An awesome Pokémon to match the awesome me!"

Connor rolled his eyes and Pablo just gave a snort at the overuse of the word 'awesome'. A little black fox with a fluffy mane and tail trotted over to Pablo, giving him a curious sniff. Pablo knelt down so the Pokémon could hop onto his lap, "So you're my partner, huh?" He laughed, "I guess a Zorua is fitting for me!" He pulled out his own Pokedex, 'Zorua, the Tricky Fox Pokémon. Zorua are mischievous Pokémon and find joy in tricking others. Zorua is a very playful Pokémon and uses illusions to disguise itself.' "So Zorua is a girl," Pablo noted, examining the information on his Pokedex screen. The foxlike Dark-type hopped off her trainer's lap and bounded over to a blue and black puppy-like critter that stood on his hind legs.

Connor sat down on the grass beside Pablo. "I'm actually quite surprised I got a Riolu," the blond commented. Zorua gave the other Pokémon a sniff before standing on her back legs and poking Riolu's nose with a paw. The taller Pokémon stepped back and Zorua landed on all fours again, starting to trot back up to Riolu. Riolu, being bashful, ran away and leaped into Connor's arms, burying himself in his trainer's chest, facing away from Zorua. "Big baby; she's just a girl," Connor chastised softly and pet his partner Pokémon's head. Riolu looked up at him with nervous eyes. "She's just a girl, she ain't nothin' to worry about, okay?"

Riolu gave a tiny nod but continued to snuggle up to his trainer. Pablo let out a grunt of surprise as Zorua head-butted into his chest, "Oof! Well she's already pretty strong for a level 5…"

"Well I see you're finally all here!" An annoyingly familiar voice rang out. The trio looked up and spotted Alfred sitting on a high tree branch, Matthew and Arthur sitting on the bench below it. A brown and tan meerkat looking being with rat-like fangs was coiled up on Arthur's lap – a Patrat. Matthew was holding a brown and tan bear looking Pokémon, Teddiursa. Alfred leaped from the tree and landed easily on his feet (though it wasn't very graceful) and a Riolu leaped from the tree landing at his side. Alfred and his two traveling partners walked over to Gilbert's group. "You got a Riolu too? Oh well that doesn't matter! I'm still going to be the best trainer!" Alfred declared.

Gilbert spat, "In your dreams! You may be the world superpower, Mister United States, but this is a whole new playing field!"

Alfred just stuck his tongue out and his Riolu hopped over cheerfully to Connor's. Connor's Riolu whined a bit and turned away shyly. "Dude your partner is such a timid thing. You'll never get very far as a trainer."

"Who said I was a trainer? I haven't even checked my card yet…" Connor muttered and pulled his backpack off to search for his trainer card. He found out and scanned the blue card quietly.

"So," Matthew prompted almost inaudibly, "What's your trainer class?"

"Breeder," Connor answered and Alfred bit his lip to keep back a fit of giggles. Arthur cast him a glare and Alfred shut up almost immediately.

"That's okay, Matthew is too. Be glad you're not a coordinator," Arthur told the dirty blond ex-nation. "I don't think I could do very well as a trainer," he admitted. After a few more moments, Gilbert and Pablo figured out they were trainers. Just as Alfred was about to declare a Pokémon battle, the bushes rustled and the low leveled Pokémon went to hide behind their trainers.

A towering silver haired man with a scarf stepped out of the bushes. "Ivan," Alfred glowered as his Russian enemy strode over to them confidently.

"Privet, comrades," he greeted with a warm smile, ignoring Alfred's icy acknowledgement. A blue and white Pokémon slithered out after Ivan, coiling up before springing up onto Ivan's arm then slithering up his arm to rest it's head on his massive shoulder. "Your partner Pokémon are well chosen for the most part, I presume? I could not help but hear you all talking about your classes. Alfred should be aware I am Pokémon trainer, da?" His smile was just plain creepy now…

Alfred suppressed a shiver before stepping up boldly to the Russian, "I don't care what you are. Riolu and I are going to kick your fat butt, no matter what the challenge! Your slimy little serpent is going down too!"

The Dratini coiled around Ivan's arm sprang forward and nearly bit Alfred's nose. The American let out a little squeak of terror and stumbled back. Ivan laughed in dark amusement at this and the Dratini curled back around him, "He is a Dragon-type, Alfred. Do not make him mad."

"I'm not afraid of your creepy baby snake thing," Alfred scoffed.

Matthew walked over with his Teddiursa clinging to his head, "I thought Dratini were supposed to be timid and shy…" He reached out to try and let the Dratini catch his scent but the Dragon-type went to try and bite his hand off instead. "And I didn't think they ate meat…"

"Dratini are rare Pokémon," Ivan patted the Canadian's head, "Not much is known about them. They could eat seaweed at the bottom of lakes or they could eat other lake dwelling Pokémon."

"Ivan, I found out what you wanted to know," a heavily accented voice called out. Wang Yao, the personification of China, dropped out of the trees with an Eevee on his shoulder. The tiny furry Pokémon seemed quite content despite practically falling out of a tree.

Alfred huffed but pulled out his Pokedex, "Might as well scan these in…" The others followed suit.

'Riolu, the Emanation Pokémon. Riolu can sense other living being's auras and emotions after much training. Riolu are usually very energetic and playful Pokémon.'

'Dratini, the Dragon Pokémon. Dratini are such rare, elusive Pokémon that they have earned the nickname of the Mirage Pokémon.'

'Eevee, the Evolution Pokémon. Eevee's genetic makeup is so unstable that the slightest changes in its environment can affect evolution.'

"So what did you send Yao out for?" Matthew asked.

"That is our business, Matvey," Ivan replied, "Now all you will do us big favor and stay out of our way." With that, the Russian turned and walked down the path that lead out of town, the much shorter Chinese man trailing after him.

"Hmph," Alfred scowled, "Those two are too shady for their own good… They're up to something… Riolu, return," he recalled his partner and clipped the Poke ball back onto his belt and gave his usual sunny grin.

"You bounce back faster than anyone else I know," Pablo muttered.

"You know it!" Alfred smirked. Something passed between the two as they glared at each other; Alfred looking smug and Pablo looking slightly annoyed.

Pablo let out the faintest of hisses before grabbing Connor's hand, "We're going to train."

"Err…we are?" Connor blinked as he was dragged away. Zorua and Riolu trotted after their trainers, leaving Gilbert with Alfred and his crew.

"The awesome me does not appreciate being left behind," the Prussian pouted.

Matthew chuckled softly, "If you're going to travel with them you should get used to it. One is smitten and dropping hints everywhere but the other is trying his hardest to ignore all the passes."

"But after a while it goes from subtle hints to outright flirting and, ah, one could call it PDA." Arthur pondered for a moment, choosing his words carefully.

Gilbert stared bug eyed, "I mean, the awesome me helped Connor train before the American Revolutionary War and the American Civil War, but he's bent? Connor is gay?"

"He's actually bi-asexual," Alfred put in. When he received a funny look he explained further, "He can be attracted to both genders but he only experiences aesthetic, mental, psychological, and any other sort of attraction except sexual."

"It's possible to have a relationship without sexual intimacy?" Gilbert asked stupidly.

"Yes!" the other three males yelled at him. Gilbert held his hands up in surrender then recalled his Zangoose.

"I guess I should go travel with Antonio and Francis, then," Gilbert sighed.

Matthew nodded, "It might be better for them in case they decide to do anything past flirting. Also better for you because Antonio and Francis will be able to keep up with your egotistical demands."

"I guess so," Gilbert shrugged, "The awesome me does need somebody to admire all this Prussian sexiness. Well I'm off!" With a grin and a sloppy salute he charged off, startling all the birds nearby.

"Are you worried about Connor?" Alfred turned to his younger brother after Gilbert had gone.

"I have no reason to be worried. He's an adult, Al." The Canadian replied in his usual soft tone. The American frowned, dissatisfied with the answer. Matthew gave a small sigh, "Is it because your southern neighbor Pablo and his people keep pressing United States borders?"

"That's exactly why! I don't appreciate the drug dealers and the constant push to take Texas… It's even touchier now that Texas wants to secede again. I'm upset and fretting over Connor's wellbeing around that Mexican." Alfred spat on the ground crossly, "I have this feeling in my gut Pablo is only using Connor."

"Oh, Alfred, you need to have more faith in your brother than that. Who knows, United States relations with Mexico may improve from this," Arthur shrugged.

Matthew just sighed, "We aren't going to get very far just standing here. Let's go." The other two nodded and their journey into the Pokémon World began anew.

AN:/ asdfjkl; sorry for almost a month+ wait Dx

But what do you guys think so far? Which group are you most interested in following in their adventures? Any totally random questions for me? Make them heard! Reviews inspire and encourage me to go on! And before anybody asks, here is a full list of nations I intend to put in this story in some way or another. Press Ctrl + F to quick search!

Until next chapter I bid you adieu!
Love, Alex