Chapter Eight
The initial trek from traveling to Pewter City to the entrance of Mt. Moon had taken about three days. During those three days, that same Pikachu had come out every now and then, dropping various berries at the group's feet and then running off. Its behaviours had the group puzzled for a moment – Dixie especially. She had thought that the small electrical rodent had run off to be free.
Standing at the entrance to Mt. Moon, Dixie, Jaxx and Jakkaru had taken to resting up before actually entering the cave. As they got the last of their items packed and put away, Dixie trotted up closer to the entrance and looked inside, seeing nothing but the beginnings of the cave and the dark inside. A few high pitched screeches could be heard every now and then. The noise themselves had piqued Jakkaru's interest, and the brunette had jogged up to be standing next to Dixie, a grin upon her face as she listened to the Pokémon making the eerie noises within.
"Do you hear that, huh?" Jakkaru asked, quite obviously enthused by the sounds. She hopped up and down happily, unable to contain her excitement with being able to go in and see the Pokémon that lived within Mt. Moon.
"Yeah... I do... what are they?" Dixie questioned in return, putting her hand into her pocket and pulling out the familiar PokéDex. Opening it, the younger of the two females glanced back to Jaxx and then looked back to Jakkaru, waiting for her response.
"Oh man, you don't know?" Jakkaru seemed a little surprised by Dixie, though quickly shrugged it off and grinned. "Inside there, there's tons of Zubat. That's what you can hear now. They're using echolocation to navigate through the cave."
"Ooh..." Dixie started, giving a slight smile. "That's the thing that causes a supersonic burst and has the sound waves bounce off walls and back to them to create a 'sound-made' image, right?"
"Uh... yeah... that's right..." Jakkaru replied, a little shocked by what Dixie had said. "Where'd you learn that from, anyways?"
"About echolocation?"
"Yeah..."
Dixie laughed a little and then rubbed at the back of her neck. "Well... I know it's a little surprising, but back when I was living in Saffron with my parents. I would read a lot.... I just remember it from several of the books that I've read over time."
"Are we going in, or are we going to stand here talking about echolocation?" Jaxx piped up, slinging his worn backpack over his shoulder and making his way to the two girls of the group. A slightly smug look was etched upon his face as he looked to both Jakkaru and Dixie and then he stepped further towards the cave.
"H-hey wait..." Dixie said, taking a small step forwards and having the familiar sense of uncertainty rise within her. "Y-you don't think that there's any..." she trailed off and cast her gaze down, looking to her shoes.
"'There's any' what, Dixie?" both Jakkaru and Jaxx asked as they turned their attentions towards her.
"W-well... if there's any..." Dixie stuttered, her voice starting to grow small. She fidgeted for a moment and then looked up to both of her friends in a slightly ashamed fashion, the word escaping her lips in almost a squeak, "g-ghosts...?"
"Ghosts? In here?" Jakkaru tried to hold back from having that slight laugh make it from her mouth.
Nodding vigorously, Dixie refused to make a verbal comment.
"There's no ghosts in Mt. Moon..." Jaxx said, giving a slight shrug. "It's only really a home to Pokémon such as Zubat, Paras, Clefairy, Geodude and a couple other things of the like...."
"Really?" the ebony-haired girl didn't sound too certain, though one could tell that she had relaxed a bit from her previous state. She walked forwards a little more and then paused beside both of her peers. Turning, she looked back and down along the trail in which they had come from, scanning the area with her green eyes.
"Looking for something out there...?" Jaxx asked, noticing that Dixie had been looking back for nearly two minutes now.
"I..." Dixie began, turning to face Jaxx. "I was wondering about that Pikachu."
"Don't worry about it, Dixie..." the dark-haired male replied. "If it's going to go out and be free or whatever, they it'll do so. If it's going to be following us like it has been, then.. it's trying to get something across to us in some fashion. Anyways... point is... don't worry about it so much – I'm sure that it'll be fine."
Nodding to that, Dixie was still a little skeptical about it, though she decided to go with it and then quickly hurried to where it was that Jakkaru and Jaxx stood. Looking to the both of them for a moment, she waited for a moment and merely followed after Jaxx after he had decided that he was going to be the one to lead though the cave. As he walked forwards, both female trainers kept close to him, Dixie especially.
"What is the matter with you, Dix?" Jaxx asked after some time, noticing that Dixie had grabbed a hold of his backpack after some time and was staying extremely close. She had even jumped at a few sounds and things that had flitted past.
"N-nothing! What would make you think that anything was up, h-huh?" Dixie asked, giving a rather nervous laugh as she had said those few words to him.
Stopping, Jaxx turned to look down at Dixie and then replied with, "well... the fact that you've been yelping at nearly every noise that we've heard in here and almost squeezing the life out of me when a Zubat rushed past.... I think you're afraid of the dark...."
"I-I am not," Dixie replied, trying to sound more confident than she actually was. Letting go of Jaxx, she trotted ahead a couple of feet and turned to look at both he and Jakkaru. She brushed her hair out of her face and gave a wry smile to try and show that the cave really wasn't bothering her all that much. Shrugging off the skeptical looks she received from both Jaxx and Jakkaru, Dixie dug in her messenger bag and pulled out that familiar, fire emblem marked PokéBall capsule and released Zalaras, his tail immediately brightening up the place a little more.
Swallowing her uneasiness, Dixie grinned down to golden Charmander and gave him his instructions, "all right, Zal! Do you think you can lead us for a bit until we reach the exit of this cave?"
Nodding up to her with a small smile upon his face, Zalaras happily wagged his tail (more happy that he was out of his PokéBall more than anything else) and then started off, his tail illuminating more of the caves walls. As he trekked forwards, the trio followed after him, looking around at what they could. Dixie had tried humming softly to get her mind off of certain things as they continued through Mt. Moon.
A Zubat flitted past Dixie's face with a small screech. Hearing that, the black-haired girl jumped back with a small scream.
Alarmed, Zalaras turned back and ran over to where his trainer was, looking around for what it was that had caused his trainer to react in such a fashion. The Charmander clutched his little hands onto Dixie's pant leg and looked up to her with an expression showing concern as the two other humans made their way over to where they stood.
"You sure you just aren't afraid of the dark?" Jaxx asked, flatly looking to the younger girl. He had taken to folding his arms over his chest and stepping out in front of her.
"It's not the dark that I'm afraid of... and I'm not afraid of these Zubat, either!" Dixie quickly added, hearing another one of the bat-type Pokémon screech and soar past overhead.
"I didn't think that you actually were..." Jakkaru interjected, shifting her incubating egg in her arms. "After all, I doubt that you would have been able to defeat Forrest were you afraid of them – and just considering that you had your Butterfree up against the final evolved form of Zubat..." she trailed off, shifting her attention over to Jaxx, hoping that he would at least get the point she was trying to get across before the two started bickering again.
Shrugging it off, Jaxx gave a small sigh and then looked away. He wondered about how long it would be taking to be reaching the exit of this cave.
"So then... what is it?" Jaxx asked, turning his gaze back to Dixie as he asked the question.
"Well... uh..." the black-haired girl started, starting to fidget slightly and then bending over to scoop Zalaras up into her arms. Cradling the golden Charmander, Dixie glanced from Jakkaru to Jaxx and tried to form the words of what she wanted to say in her mind. There was just so few things that she wanted to say about this particular subject that was at hand, but she knew that if she didn't tell them that it would be pried out of her in some fashion; one way or another.
Swallowing, Dixie continued, "it's just... I'm not all that comfortable in places I don't really know all that well that's... creepy like this. I mean... to me, this is kind of like a place that screams, 'hey, look at me! I'm a home for ghosts!'"
After Dixie has said that, the group had stayed silent for a moment. The younger of the three began to feel a little uneasy by that. Shifting on her feet a tad, Dixie took a step forwards while giving a nervous laugh and saying, "well, we shouldn't be wasting anymore time getting to Cerulean City, right? I-I've still got another badge to be winning after all!"
Giving a slight shake of the head, Jaxx stuffed his hands into his pockets and followed after her, Jakkaru quickly trailing after. She had taken to looking more around the cave with an expression of fascination and a certain longing. As the group continued, the brunette seemed to have a hard time not adjusting her bag to pull out PokéBall capsules.
"Hey guys, can we stop and look around just for a little bit?" Jakkaru asked, a small grin starting to find its way onto her face. She seemed almost as giddy as a frolicking Ponyta foal that was let out to play in the field.
"Eh? But why?" Dixie questioned, turning on her heel and looking over to the brown-haired girl. Once she had looked to her, though, it was pretty evident that the reason behind Jakkaru wanting to stay in the cave to look around was to add onto her Pokémon collection. Dixie could see how antsy her peer was becoming while she waited for either the younger of the two or Jaxx himself would answer.
"There's just so many different Pokémon that I never got to capture last time I was here," Jakkaru replied, answering Dixie's question. Jakkaru shifted her bag once more and then looked from the younger girl to the black-haired boy. Her grin faded just a little bit and then she added, "and think of it this way – if we get to stay around a little more, we can perhaps get some training done for Dixie's next gym battle and you both may catch some new Pokémon of your own!"
Jaxx gave a slight sigh at that. He wasn't exactly keen on staying in the cave too much longer himself. It was a hassle having to guess what time it was and only traveling by the light of a Charmander's tail flame. Shifting his gaze from Jakkaru back to Dixie for a moment, he asked, "what do you think, Dixie?"
"I think I'm going to have to say that my answer is going to stay the same as what I said before," Dixie responded, holding Zalaras a little closer to her as she looked down to her feet. Glancing back up for but a moment, she continued, "I mean... I really want to get all the badges and stuff so that I can enter the Indigo League..." trailing off at that, the young girl ponder for a moment.
"But... I guess some training in between to keep us up to speed wouldn't be such a bad thing either, I just...." She paused for a moment and then looked around to the area that surrounded all of them. "I just don't want to do it in here."
"Please Dixie?" Jakkaru begged, giving the younger girl her best pout.
"Nn..." Dixie took in a breath and gave a slightly irritable sigh. With that, she looked further down the cave in the direction that they were supposed to be going and then frowned slightly. Dixie thought about this in her mind – after all, Jakkaru had brought up a fairly decent point about training... and getting a new Pokémon for the team would be nice, too.
Looking down to Zalaras and then stuffing a hand into her pocket to dig out her PokéGear, Dixie checked the time and then turned her attention back up to her two traveling companions. They both gave her rather piqued expressions, awaiting what it was that she would say.
Setting the golden lizard back onto the ground, Dixie placed her hands on her hips and then said to both Jakkaru and Jaxx, "the time on my PokéGear says that it's almost in the afternoon. I'm kind of hoping that we'll be able to get out of here before evening rolls around.... So... I guess if we have quick training sessions and stuff...."
As soon as Dixie trailed off, Jakkaru leaped forwards at her, linking arms with her and grinning in the process. The brunette seemed a lot more enthusiastic about the highly vague answer that was given than the other two trainers that were there. As Jakkaru hopped up and down with excitement, Dixie refused to partake in her overjoyed enthusiasm.
Skipping off after a bit, Jakkaru's humming could be heard as Dixie gave a slightly irritated sigh and then looked over to Jaxx. Her gaze met his for a moment and she kind of gave him that look that just asked, 'why does she have to be like this?'
The dark-haired male gave a shrug of his shoulders and then started to follow after Jakkaru. A small sigh escaped his lips as well and he looked back to Dixie, his hair starting to curtain over his eyes as he simply said to her, "c'mon... if we get lucky, Jakkaru will get distracted all the way to the exit of this place."
Dixie gave a hollow laugh at that and then followed after Jaxx, Zalaras at her heels. Both girl and Pokémon walked alongside Jaxx, simply ignoring Jakkaru's enthusiastic humming and comments on certain Pokémon that lived in the area. The air between them was quiet save for the occasional dripping of water or the wing beats of a Zubat that fluttered past, only to be repelled by the light that came from the golden lizard's tail.
"Hey..." Jaxx finally said after a while, looking over to Dixie for a mere moment, continuing forwards.
Dixie turned her attention towards him and then tilted her head questioningly.
Jaxx took a moment to form the question in his mind before he finally asked, "... why is it that you want to take the Gym Challenge and enter the League? Just out of curiosity... because honestly? You don't really seem all that much like you should even be the battling trainer-type person if you ask me."
Stopping in her tracks, Dixie looked down and a sheepish smile appeared upon her lips. She drew her hands together and then looked back to Jaxx, who had also stopped and was looking to her. Dixie bit at her lower lip for a moment before turning her gaze down to the golden Charmander at her side and knelt down beside him, placing a hand affectionately on top of his head.
"I... want to be as good as my older sister, honestly..." Dixie replied, stroking Zalaras' head as she spoke. "She was always out there to protect Layla and I. I always looked up to her... depended on her... but then I started to get tired of it, I wanted to do some things for my own. Fend for myself for once – just do something and be able to say, 'hey, look at what I was able to do!'."
Silence rose through the air again and Zalaras had looked from Dixie to Jaxx several times, wondering why the two of them had grown so silent. Raising his little hands, Zalaras placed them against Dixie's knee and looked up at her, noting her concentrated expression on her face and then looked back at Jaxx, still rather confused by what was going on.
The sound of feet hurriedly hitting the ground growing louder was heard by the three that were there and they all had turned their attentions to it. Jakkaru was rushing back, a wide smile on her face and only leaving both Jaxx and Dixie that she was real lucky to have been running like that without damaging the egg that was within the incubator that she had been carting around the past two weeks.
"Guys, guys! Come look at this, this is so awesome! Come on, come on!" Jakkaru said, obviously excited by whatever it was that she had come across. Her excitement showed greatly with the fact that she was nearly shaking because of it.
"What is it that you found, Jakkaru?" Dixie asked, wrapping her arms around Zalaras before standing back up and cradling him in her arms. The golden lizard wasn't too fond of the action, and squirmed a little in her grasp before just settling and going along with it after realizing that Dixie wasn't going to be putting him back down.
"Oh man, you're just going to have to come and see this for yourself. It's really awesome – we have to get there quick before they finish up! This is the first time that I've actually seen something like this, and just... just... well, you gotta see it!" Jakkaru replied, blatantly showing that she was way too excited to be even forming a complete thought trying to tell the two younger trainers that were there about what it was that she had seen. Before Jakkaru had heard anything else that either Dixie or Jaxx had opened their mouth to be saying, she had bounded off back in the direction in which she came, giggling somewhat.
"Any idea as to what she may have found?" Jaxx asked, adjusting his backpack before folding his arms over his chest. He glanced back at Dixie, awaiting her response before taking a step forwards to begin following after Jakkaru.
"It must be something that's Pokémon related – after all, I've never seen her act so excited over anything else..." Dixie replied, giving a slight shrug of her shoulders. Seeing Jaxx step forwards, Dixie made motions to follow after him, waving her hand a bit to signal Zalaras that they were getting ready to move.
As they started to make their way down along the way that Jakkaru went, the brunette had turned around and came back, waving a hand at Dixie. Jaxx had merely arced a brow at the Pokémon fanatic's actions and paused as Jakkaru came to a halt back in front of the youngest of the trio.
"Dixie, Dixie... return Zalaras to his PokéBall. Quick! The light will scare them off!" Jakkaru said, the grin having failed to disappear from her lips. Though her smile still stuck, Zalaras wasn't so amused. He had shot her a look from where he was standing and protested slightly by furrowing his brow and grabbing onto Dixie's pant leg. It seemed that if there was one thing that the golden fire-lizard disliked, it was going into his ball capsule.
Leaning down, Dixie looked down at the alternately coloured Charmander and offered him what she hoped to be a comforting smile. She rose a hand and patted him on the head for a moment and then said to him, "sorry buddy... I know you don't really like going into the PokéBall, but I would really like to see what it is that Jakkaru found."
"Char char charmander!" was Zalaras' defiant response as he gave a small frown and then looked down to his feet.
"I wish you could stay out, too, Zal..." Dixie replied, pulling his PokéBall out of her messenger bag and then returning him to the capsule. Dixie put the ball back into her messenger bag and then looked up to Jaxx and Jakkaru. The brunette had grinned a bit and then started back off in the opposite direction, a small bounce to her step as she tried to swiftly make her way out to wherever it was that she was leading the other two without losing them.
"What is it that you found, anyways, Jakkaru...? Can you at least tell us that?" Dixie asked, frowning a bit as they continued to walk after the brunette.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you!" Jakkaru grinned, continuing to walk forwards and shifting the incubating egg in her arms. There was still that bounce to her step as she continued and after a few more paces to wherever Jakkaru was leading the other two, a chanting could be heard and a faint light could be seen from where it was the trio was.
"What's that noise?" Jaxx asked, looking over to Jakkaru.
"You'll see," Jakkaru replied, a singsong quality to her tone. She continued to be her bubbly self as soon as the three of them had neared the light and noise enough to be making out what it was. Upon seeing what it was that was making the noise, Dixie had gasped in amazement and Jaxx's brow rose in slight surprise. What the two of them had been led to seeing was a cluster of Clefairy and Clefable performing some kind of jumping, synchronized dance around a large grey stone that had small divots and cracks running through it.
"Wow..." Dixie breathed, looking out the the small fairy-esque Pokémon that were chanting and hopping around the large stone. She had to blink a couple of times and then turn her attention over to both Jaxx and Jakkaru. Dixie had opened her mouth to answer a question, though the words failed to escape her lips as she tried to form them.
"Hey look..." Jaxx said, breaking Dixie's focus on the Clefairy and Clefable for a moment. The dark-haired male had pointed up at something, and both Dixie and Jakkaru had turned their heads to look at whatever it was that Jaxx was bringing their attention to. Where he was pointing, there was a brighter gleam of light that showed through other the faint lights that peeked through the cracks of the roof of the cave to offer only enough light to be illuminating the room with the small Pokémon.
"I think it may be the exit..." Jaxx continued, lowering his arm and then looking to both Jakkaru and Dixie.
"What's the rush?" Jakkaru asked, her voice low so that she didn't scare off the Pokémon. "Look... we'll just wait till they're finished with whatever it is they're doing and then be on our merry way. Let's just see what they're doing. Aren't you the least bit interested on what's going on?"
"Well... y-yeah... but..." Jaxx replied, not exactly knowing how to respond to Jakkaru. Giving them a sheepish look, the dark-haired male had merely resorted to rubbing at the back of his neck and then looked out the small pixie-like Pokémon that continued their 'ritual'. Jakkaru had whipped out her camera and had been taking pictures of what was going on, being sure to have had her flash turned off so that she didn't come to startling the Pokémon that were around.
As the time rolled on by, it was observed that the Clefairy were soon to be evolving into Clefable, like the other pixie-like Pokémon that were also participating in the event that they had decided to be going on about. As they finished up, the Pokémon had made their way away from the area and out of sight. The whole sight had Jakkaru grinning the entire time and Dixie amazed by what had just gone on. Jaxx had kept to himself the whole time as the Clefairy and Clefable did whatever it was they were doing and was about to say something before a high-pitched screech emitted and the three of them immediately turned to be seeing a Zubat rushing straight for them.
The Zubat neared Dixie and the young girl had raised her arms to be defending herself against the Pokémon. Staying like that for a moment, the impact of the bat-like Pokémon never came, but instead the cave's insides lit up as a loud cry echoed out. Looking up, Dixie glanced from Jaxx and Jakkaru down to the Zubat that was now on the ground and twitching slightly. The sight in and of itself confused the colourfully clad girl and she rose her gaze a tad to be looking at the familiar Pikachu that she, Jaxx and Jakkaru had all helped out to be getting away from that man.
"It's you again..." Dixie said, crouching down and holding her hand out to the Pikachu. As she did, she looked up at Jakkaru for a moment with a small hint of uncertainty. After all, Dixie had wanted the Pikachu to go out and be free. Thinking of that for that brief moment, a frown had made its way onto Dixie's face and she glanced down from the Pikachu to the Zubat.
"What are you thinking?" Jaxx asked, noticing that Dixie had shifted her gaze.
Shrugging, Dixie looked up to him and then pulled out a PokéBall from her messenger bag and lightly tossed it at the Zubat. The creature became engulfed in red light and then became encased within the capsule. The red and white ball shook, its red light flashing as it did. Soon, it came to a stop and Dixie picked it back up while responding to Jaxx, "I can't just leave it here like that. Who's to saw something else will take advantage of its condition and weaken it worse than it already is?"
"After it had just tried to – Dixie..." Jaxx growled, furrowing his brow slightly out of annoyance.
"Let her do what she wants, Jaxx... jeeze..." Jakkaru scolded, glaring at him for a moment. "Dixie likes helping out other Pokémon, and you shouldn't tell her otherwise."
"Yeah... but if we keep stopping for every injured Pokémon we com across, we're never going to see the day that Dixie gets to challenge the Indigo League." Jaxx shook his dark hair from his face and then turned towards the light that emitted from the exit of the cave. Ignoring the other two, he made his way for it and merely waited a few paces away with his arms folded across his chest.
Watching after him, it was about a minute later before Jakkaru actually gave an amused scoff and then shook her head. She smiled slightly and then looked down to Dixie. "He acts like he doesn't care a lot of the time, huh? Though it seems he actually has some faith in you."
"What makes you say that?" Dixie asked, minimizing Zubat's PokéBall and then frowning up at the brunette. "Jaxx just wants to be getting back to Fuchsia as fast as he can – he doesn't care about us...." Sighing at that, Dixie looked down and then knelt back down to be more level with the Pikachu that was still there.
Laughing lightly, Jakkaru crouched down beside Dixie and then placed a hand on her shoulder. "Didn't you hear him? Even though he lacked tact, the words he said were, 'we're never going to see the day that Dixie gets to challenge the Indigo League'. I don't think he would have said something like that if he didn't think you were showing promise as a trainer."
Staying silent, Dixie just averted her attention from the Pikachu and then looked down to the ground. Seeing that, the electrical rodent neared the younger girl and then tilted his head in concern. He nudged her hand lightly with his nose and then looked back up to her to see if she would react to him.
"Heh... I guess you're right.... I should really just be thankful that I actually have friends that I can be traveling with..." Dixie replied, moving her hand and patting the Pikachu lightly on top of his head. The yellow Pokémon smiled in approval and leaned more into the girl's hand as she scrubbed his ears and head.
"Anyways... what about you, bud...?" Dixie asked, directing her question down at the Pikachu. "I don't suppose you've been looking out for us for no reason, huh?"
"Pi pikachu, pika pi pikachu!" the electrical rodent responded, waving his arms around somewhat and then motioning to Dixie's messenger bag. He had tugged a couple of times on the bag before receiving a questioning look from both Jakkaru and Dixie. He gave a slight sigh at the both of them and then pushed open the bag and then dug around in the pockets before he withdrew a PokéBall and held it up.
"What do you want me to do with it?" Dixie asked, taking the ping-pong sized capsule from the Pikachu's grasp and then maximizing it. She fiddled with it for a moment before she asked the Pokémon, "are you saying that you'd like to join me?"
"Chu pikachu!"
"I don't understand..." the dark-haired girl replied, frowning and giving a small sigh as she continued to look at the electrical Pokémon. "I mean... I had told you to go out and be free. To not worry about getting captured and going out to be living your own life. Don't you want to be doing that?"
"Pi... pi pikachu..." Pikachu's ears drooped slightly and he looked down. Motioning with his arms and going up on his toes, the Pikachu tired to act a little bigger than he was – taking in a breath to be puffing out his chest. Jakkaru had thoughtful look cross her face as the two girls looked at the rodent with piqued interest. It was obviously trying to be getting something across to them, though neither of them really knew what it was.
"Maybe... he wants to join your team in hopes that being with you will prevent him from falling back into the hands of that man..." Jakkaru said, observing the Pikachu's motions a little more closely. At that, the Pikachu had gone flatfooted and then perked his ears up with a smile of approval.
"Chu pikachu!" it confirmed, pointing back to the ball capsule in Dixie's hand.
"Oh..." Dixie mustered. "I get it now. If you get registered as one of my Pokémon, then you get to be protected against getting captured by someone else."
The Pikachu nodded again and then lightly pressed a paw against the small button on the ball. He looked up to Dixie for her approval and then back down to the ball.
"Well... I suppose first things first," Dixie smiled, patting the Pikachu on the head with her free hand once again. "If you join me... then that means I get to give you a name... because I don't want to call you by your species name – I don't think it'd be right for me to be doing that to a friend."
"Pika...?" the Pikachu let out, tilting his head and giving a questioning look at the last word that Dixie had said.
"You know... a friend," Dixie repeated, giggling lightly. She glanced over to Jakkaru and then gave a small explanation: "a friend is someone that you care for and can rely on. Someone that will be there for you when you need them and will normally to what it takes to help them when they need it most."
Coming to the understanding of the word, the Pikachu beamed placed both of his paws up on Dixie's hand.
"Hehe... so... a name..." the dark-haired girl continued, scratching the Pikachu's head once again and then closing her eyes in thought. "I suppose... how does 'Thunder' sound? Sound okay?"
Looking up at her, the Pikachu frowned and shook his head. The action caused Dixie to frown slightly once again and think on getting a name for him.
"If not that... then how about Sparks?"
"That sounds awfully like –" Jakkaru started before the Pikachu interjected happily and nodded. At that, the newly named Sparks pressed his paws back up against the PokéBall capsule and caused the device to open up and encase him within. After he had gone in, it was Jakkaru's turn to be giving a faint frown.
A small giggle escaped Dixie's lips and she stood up straight with Jakkaru at her side. She then turned her head to be looking up at the older girl. Slowly the smile faded from Dixie's face as she looked up to the older girl's expression. Blinking a couple of times, the colourfully dressed girl proceeded to be giving the brunette a questioning look due to the look she had upon her face.
"Something wrong?"
"Ah... forget it..." Jakkaru said, shrugging it off. "It's really a stupid thing to be bringing up, anyways. I was just going to comment on how 'Sparks' sounded a lot like 'Sparky' is all."
"Oh... well why did you want to bring it up?"
"Because of the Pikachu that's on my team. His name is Sparky." Jakkaru clapped a hand against Dixie's shoulder, adjusted the incubator in her arms and then smiled. "Anyways, we should probably get going before Jaxx starts to wonder what happened to us."
The smile returned onto Dixie's face followed by a small nod. "Right! Or maybe he'd just start along to Cerulean without us. Oh well, we'd be able to find him again if he did, I bet."
Giving a slight laugh, Jakkaru motioned towards the exit of Mt. Moon and the two girls made their way towards it. Dixie had Sparks' PokéBall in her hands and was looking down at it as she walked alongside the brunette. If there was anything that she was thinking about, it was how she was already able to make friends as quick as she had. Last time Dixie had seen her elder sister, the Wartortle that was with her didn't seem too keen on making friends with Dixie.
Stepping out into the sunlight, both Jakkaru and Dixie spotted Jaxx and waved at him. He had merely lazily returned the motion with an indifferent look upon his face and then turned back along the route that was leading from the cave towards Cerulean. Shoving his hands into his pockets, Jaxx kicked at a rock and continued to wait till both girls were actually there beside him before he started along the trail as well.
Walking along the trail and soon having buildings of Cerulean coming into sight, Jakkaru paused. Jaxx and Dixie stopped after a few paces to look over to her and then noticed that she was looking down at the egg within the incubator she always carried around. The pale blue egg had cracked and Jakkaru set it on the ground and opened the incubator to take out the egg. Both the younger kids had immediately come over to see what was going on and watched as cracks continued to stretch upon the surface of the egg.
Soon the egg shattered open and caused for the three preteens to raise their arms to shield their faces. On the ground before them was a small blue Pokémon with beady black eyes and cottony-like wings. It trilled lightly and looked to the three of them with a quizzical look upon its face and then hopped over to where Jakkaru was, pecking at her shoes.
"What is it..?" Dixie asked, digging in her bag and pulling out her PokéDex. Flipping the device open, the Dex came to life and immediately started to scan the Pokémon that had emerged from the egg.
'Swablu, the Cotton Bird Pokémon. Swablu loves to make things clean. If it spots something dirty, it will wipe and polish it with its cottony wings. If its wings become dirty, this Pokémon finds a stream and showers itself.'
"A Swablu, huh?" Jakkaru asked, scooping up the young Pokémon up into her arms and smiling at him. "Well then, welcome to the team! My name is Jakkaru. Those two over there are my friends; Dixie and Jaxx."
Chirping up at the three preteens, the newly hatched Swablu had come to nestling himself comfortably in Jakkaru's arms and then looking to both Dixie and Jaxx with a sense of curiosity before merely shrugging them off and continuing to just stay in Jakkaru's hold. The brunette grinned down to him for a moment and then glanced over to her two friends before turning her attention back down to the Swablu and then saying, "you know... maybe giving you a name wouldn't be that bad, either. Heh... it's too bad I'm not like Dixie and can't come up with a name right on the dot like that."
Closing its eyes and fluffing itself up, the Swablu shrugged it off again and dozed off in his new trainer's arms. It seemed to have made himself immediately comfy in the three trainers' presence as they started back along the path to Cerulean City.
"So Dixie... have a plan against Misty? I'm sure you already know what her specialty is after you've seen what the Cascade Badge is." Jakkaru had looked in both Dixie and Jaxx's direction as she had asked her question. Her gaze was set mainly upon the younger girl and then got turned back down to the Swablu that was in her arms as she waited for a response.
Silence lingered in the air as the three of them started to enter the city. Dixie had pondered about the question as she fiddled with Sparks' PokéBall capsule in her hands. She had hardly noticed that she still was hanging onto it and fidgeting nervously until she had nearly bumped into the sign that welcomed people into Cerulean City.
"Nnn... I guess..." Dixie started, placing a hand against the sign and standing up straighter. "I guess I'll do some training again and see what Sparks knows so that he can battle against Misty's Pokémon. After all... with his electric attacks, he'll already have the type advantage against whatever water Pokémon that she'll have."
"Natural that Sparks would be your first choice..." Jakkaru remarked, going over and leaning against the sign as well.
"Wait... 'Sparks'?" Jaxx questioned, quirking a brow to the subject.
"Oh..." Dixie held up the now occupied PokéBall to show Jaxx. "He's the Pikachu that was looking out for us. He decided that he wanted to be part of our team, so I let him. After that, I named him Sparks."
"So you were able to get another Pokémon on your team from this 'befriending' tactic..." Jaxx scoffed, folding his arms over his chest. "Jeeze... going that way of getting Pokémon, I bet that Pikachu's going to be too soft going up against Misty. Though... I suppose I could come to being surprised. After all, you seemed to have done well against Forrest with Zalaras and your Butterfree."
"I..." Dixie started, minimizing Sparks' capsule and putting it in her messenger bag. "I'm not sure whether to be taking that as an insult or a compliment, honestly."
"Take it any way you want – not like it's going to be making much of a difference to me anyways." Jaxx adjusted the backpack he had slung across his back and then took a few steps forwards as if signaling to the other two that they had stopped long enough and had to be getting somewhere in the city as quick as they could. He turned his gaze away from them and then said, "we should be making it to the Pokémon Center quickly. Dixie... you wanted to help that Zubat, didn't you? And if it's something that may be part of your team, you should get it healed up so it's ready to get to training when we get down to it."
"Oh! Right!" Dixie said, shifting her messenger bag a bit to be more comfortably set upon her shoulder. She and Jakkaru went up to be walking back along Jaxx's side. They passed houses and storefronts as they continued along the city's walkways and then soon found themselves at the Pokémon Center. Making their way into the building, Dixie immediately took to going up to the front desk and talking with the Nurse Joy of Cerulean about taking care of the Pokémon that she had on hand.
In the meantime, Jakkaru had glanced over to Jaxx and then went to sit down in one of the chairs next to him. Taking this opportunity, Jakkaru took a PokéBall and used it to encase the Swablu for the time being. Shifting her attention to Dixie for a moment to make sure that she was still preoccupied with talking to Nurse Joy, Jakkaru turned her attention up to Jaxx and then proceeded to ask him, "why do you talk a lot about battling when you don't really like to be doing it in the first place, huh?"
"It's none of anyone's business..." Jaxx replied, not looking over to Jakkaru as he went over to sit a few seats away from her. "I have my own reasons for knowing about what I do... and I would prefer to be keeping them to myself, if you don't mind."
Jakkaru rolled her eyes and then shook her head. "Seriously Jaxx? You really need to stop acting like you don't care. You slip up a lot of the times when you talk with us about certain things. What's so hard about admitting that you actually see us as friends, huh?"
"Nothing is 'hard about it', as you so put it..." Jaxx retorted, clenching a hand into a fist. "I just want to be seeing Dixie getting her badges quickly so that way we can be traveling quickly and I can finally hurry up and get to being with my brothers back home in Fuchsia. I'm not too keen on continuing to travel with you and the colourful sugar bomb all the way to the Indigo Plateau."
"You're a horrible liar," Jakkaru nearly spat before she had forced herself to exert a form self-control when she saw that Dixie was coming back with bottles of water for the three of them with a smile on her face. The brunette gave a wry smile in attempts to match Dixie's mood and so that she didn't suspect that there was anything up that had been discussed herself and Jaxx just a few seconds ago.
"So the Zubat's staying here for a couple of nights since it's being affected by paralysis from Sparks' Thunderbolt attack..." Dixie stated, taking the empty seat that was in between Jaxx and Jakkaru. Opening her bottle of water and taking a drink, Dixie continued afterward, "I was also thinking that after those two days... maybe I'll start training for going up against Misty. I want to know if Suono would like to be part of the team first, though. I mean... after all, if we go at things long enough, he'll eventually evolve into a Crobat like what Forrest has on his team!"
Both Jaxx and Jakkaru had turned their heads to look at her at the mention of the name of the Zubat. Jakkaru had given an amused scoff and Jaxx had shook his head in disbelief. After a moment, the two of them had shrugged it off and the elder girl had asked, "so you wouldn't mind having that Zubat being part of your team?"
"Not at all!" Dixie happily replied, tucking a few stray locks of hair behind her ear. "I mean... the more friends I can have on my team, then we'll work together and face the challenges that we have ahead of us – like going up against Cerulean City's Misty!"
"You're really looking forwards to that, aren't you?" Jaxx questioned, turning his head to be looking out the window and idly looking out to a girl playing with a Poliwag in a fountain.
"Well... yeah! Of course! I mean, after battling and winning against Misty, I'll get the Cascade Badge!" Dixie was nearly bouncing in her seat out of sheer excitement to be getting to the Cerulean Gym as soon as everything was ready. "And after getting the Cascade Badge, we'll be heading to the next city and winning the badge from them. With each new badge, we'll be a steps closer to be getting to the Indigo Plateau, and I'll be all that much closer to being able to challenge the League!"
"Nice to be seeing that you can still be so keen to looking forward to it even though you've only one badge in your possession at the moment..." Jaxx sighed, keeping his gaze aimed at the fountain. His response had caused Dixie to frown slightly and Jakkaru to be shooting him a look of disapproval.
"But hey..." Jaxx continued, not looking to the two of them. "The day you're able to get there... then everything will have paid off. You'll have accomplished a dream. Guess it's a good thing...."
The irritated look immediately faded from being upon Jakkaru's face as she had heard what had just come out of Jaxx's face. Her gaze continued to be set upon the dark-haired boy as he continued to keep his focus averted from both she and Dixie. A questioning look had made it upon her face as she stared at him. At that moment and time, everything about him seemed completely different than from how he was just a few minutes ago from when he was talking with her.
"Um... y-yeah... I guess so..." Dixie stuttered after that long moment of silence.
"You have a dream..." Jaxx said. "You have something you want to accomplish....You're lucky to have that much to have locked in your mind to be getting to." The look of indifference stayed on his face as his hair started to slowly allow gravity take its course of action and make it curtain over his eyes.
"Why... are you bringing this up...?" Dixie asked, putting the cap back on her water bottle and then looking down to the ground.
Getting up from the seat, Jaxx glanced to the two girls before starting to walk away. "You'll find out... maybe. Anyways... need some time to myself. I'll see you two later tonight, I suppose."
