VulpixTrainer: Now this is Chapter 27, and sorry about the slight dry spell. Life decided to show me that it can jump you like a Persian onto a Rattata. Now that that is done, on to the disclaimer.
Shadow Moon: VT owns nothing of Pokemon, and it belongs to Nintendo and Game Freaks, Inc. He, however, does own the plot and personalities.
Last Minute Training"Now, Ethan, it is around nine o'clock and I still think you need to train both Eve and Kyle," Matt said as he leaned back against the booth chair, having just finished eating breakfast, looking a little smug at having been able to sneak a good amount of Hot Sauce into Ethan's food.
"But Eve is at level ten. Why can't I battle Flint?" Ethan whined, as he had also finished his breakfast. He was looking forward to battling in his first official Gym match. "You're going to battle him. Why can't I?"
"Because his Pokemon are mid-teens in levels. Eve would be wiped out along with Kyle. I am really beginning to wish one of us had caught a water type."
"I could evolve Eve into a Vaporeon," Ethan said in a serious tone.
"NO!" Matt yelled a little too loudly, earning himself a few looks from the others eating their late breakfast or having an early lunch. "What I mean is," Matt began again, lowering his voice back to a whisper, "you can't because Eve is still too young to evolve. Let her do so when she decides." Matt, upon seeing that Sir Thief was about to live up to his name at the table next to them, pulled out a Pokeball and drew Sir Thief back into it. He then sighed before turning to Becky, "So, who gets the supplies and who watches Ethan for training?"
"I think I will get the supplies and you watch Ethan train." She then laughed jokingly, "Besides, I think some one needs to work on their Fire Spin move." She stopped laughing as a lady dressed in black walked by. Matt and Firestorm, along with Matt and Becky, shivered a little, looking at the lady funny.
"Becky, I have a bad feeling about that girl. I think we should move now," Matt said in an even lower whisper.
"I'm with you, Matt. Let's get away from Miss Creepy." Becky then slid out from the booth seat she was sitting on, going out through the spot that Matt had just vacated, and, with Ethan following, along with Kyle, who was still refusing to enter his Pokeball, they left the Center for the streets of Pewter.
"Okay, Matt, I will meet both of you back in front of the Center at three o' clock." She then turned her back to the two and headed over to the Mart, walking with purpose and determination in her steps.
"So, Matt, where are we going?" Ethan asked as he followed Matt towards the edge of town.
"I was thinking about training in the forest, away from all the paths. That way, we can have some privacy while we train." Matt then looked over his shoulder towards the bushes in front of a two-story home.
"Something wrong?" Ethan asked as he, too, looked at the bushes, but he could see nothing.
"No nothing is wrong, my little brother," Matt said with a chuckle, but he thought, I could have sworn those bushes moved. Got to be alert. Fiery Tail is still at large and will probably stop at nothing to have what he wants.
By this time the forest was coming into view. Smiling, Matt slowly led the small group off the path, acting like all he was doing was going into the meadow for lunch, but he still kept going until the road was behind him. He then turned to face to forest. Here the trees grow closer together than at the main thoroughfare for trainers. It looked overgrown and a lot wilder. Grinning, he stepped forward and pressed onward into the tangle of both live and dead branches. Being a Fire-type, he could tell which was which so that he could watch his fire attacks while out in nature. Ethan followed a little more slowly because he was both not as strong as Matt and also scared of this area. Thank goodness that it is daytime. I would hate to be here at night, thought Ethan.
When they had completely entered the forest they traveled on for a ways, ducking branches and carefully getting unstuck from the outreaching twigs of ancient trees that seemed to be trying to hinder their progress. They then came to a natural clearing, about big enough to have once held a house, garden, and maybe a medium-sized shed. Matt then stopped to sniff the air and then changed into a Ninetales. Ethan, taking the cue, follows suit, and became an Eevee. Soon there were only a Ninetales and an Eevee where Matt and Ethan had stood moments before. There, however, was something strange about the meadow. As soon as they were only Pokemon, the place seemed to lose its scary nature.
"Well, now that is done…Wow, I can see a whole lot better, and the sounds…I think a Beedrill is coming this way from the north…Yeah, I have a great sense of direction as well; this is so cool Matthew…" Ethan was going a thousand miles an hour, commenting on all the things he could hear and smell and think before Matt interrupted abruptly.
"Ethan, we are here to train, not comment on the sights of the woods. You're acting like you've never been in a forest before," Matt said in a sage tone of voice, one of experience and knowledge. Ethan heard both but just stopped to gape at Matt.
"Well, I never experienced this feeling; this is, after all, my second time doing this," Ethan said, trying to defend his actions.
"I know that, it's just that I don't want to attract that Beedrill's attention." Matt, too, had heard the beating of the Beedrill's wings, but now it was going in the other direction. I guess it caught wind of Fire Pokemon here in this meadow. Matt then nodded, noticing that a Ninetales had once before, in the past hundred years, made it forever night in this meadow. I must say that this is one impressive spell; it would take any normal Ninetales at least two hundred years just to master controlling the weather, Matt's Ninetales side complimented as Matt move more into the middle. He then notice that Eve had dropped her Ever Stone. "Eve, where is your stone?"
"I don't want it. I have decided what form I want. I always enjoyed playing at night and have taken a certain liking to it, and I have decided to evolve into an Umbreon," Eve stated in a tone that said that she had made up here mind.
"Eve, please listen to me. Ethan is just ten years old, meaning that he is too young to train an Umbreon. In fact, mom and dad just last week officially declared you ready to train with Ethan…uh, never mind." Matt had stated to last part as Eve had started to growl at Matt while lowering herself into a pouncing position and began to glow.
"I have always been happy with Ethan. So what if I have been training for only two days? I just needed a few more bits of experience, and then boom! Under the moon I drop my stone and evolve," she said right before the glow intensified and engulfed Eve in its white light. Her body grew bigger as her ears began to grow taller and thinner, her tail became more streamlined and lost a lot of its excess fur and, as the glow lessened, her fur turned into a black that could blend into the shadows. Gold rings of fur had formed around each leg and near the tip of her ears as well as one towards the tip of her tail. She then opened her eyes, which were now had red with black irises, and she smiled a nice Umbreon grin before turning to her trainer.
"How do I look?" she asked, her voice having lost its younger tone of all fun and games and become a more solemn and deeper thinking voice.
"Wow, you look awesome! You're bigger than me, yet I feel safe with you around me," Ethan said, just staring up at his precious Eve, tears of joy shimmering in his big black eyes.
"Okay, now that this unexpected evolution has occurred, let's begin our training. First off…" Matt then trailed on with training plans and other things to help them become stronger before the showdown between Flint and the Threesome.
(Outside the Pewter City PokeMart)
Becky had just finished shopping for supplies, leaning a little heavy towards the Pokemon side. I just hope I didn't draw too much attention. After all, I did go light on the human side of supplies, but we are part Pokemon so we should be able to survive on Pokemon items now. She then stopped as two people stepped in front of her. The male wore red pants and a white shirt with a comb and hair spray in his hands. The female had only a clipboard and a pen as well as movie star glasses.
The twosome then smiled before the male began, "I say there, young lady, how would you would like a free hair style at our local hair salon?"
"Yes, we can make you even more pretty then before." They both had a slight Swedish accent, but Becky could sense a slight southern accent mixed in as well.
"Forget it, I won't give you my Pokemon, you two. What, couldn't you find Matt?" Becky asked in a smug tone of voice, knowing that they could never find Matt.
"How did you see right through our disguise?" Violet said in her full southern accent as she pulled off her costume, as well as Garth.
"In that case, prepare for your doom," Garth said as he took up a heroic pose on the left side of the street.
"We'll let you roam," Violet said, taking up the same pose on the right side of the street. They began to draw a small group of onlookers confused by the show.
"When we have all your Pokemon," Garth continued, lowering his hand and pointing at Becky.
"And leave you nothing at all." Violet also lowered her hand from pointing to the upper right to also point at where Becky should be, but all they saw was her walking away.
"Not so fast, we haven't finished our motto," Violet said, shaking her fist in rage.
"The only place you will be saying you motto is to a brick jail wall. You both are under arrest for disturbing the peace and also threatening to steal a trainer's Pokemon." A stern female voice sounded from the crowd. Garth and Violet both turned to see an Officer Jenny along with a Growlithe. They then took off running, leaving a trail of dust before anyone could act, yelling, "Team Rocket is running away for now."
(Pokemon Center, 3:00pm)
"Where are you two?" Becky whispered, looking at her wristwatch, which showed a Pikachu standing in the middle with the Pokemon's tail acting as the hour hand, pointed at three, and the minute hand pointed at the twelve. "Matt, you sure have picked a bad day to be unpredictable." She then looked up for a fourth time, this time seeing Matt walking with Ethan next to him. It was Ethan she stared at in shook. His hair had begun to take on a darker shade of red, only noticeable to a Pokemon's keen senses, as well as what followed behind Ethan. It was an Umbreon, around level sixteen by the looks of things.
"Guess who decided today was the day to evolve?" Matt said in his humorous voice.
"Gee, I could never guess…is it Eve?" Becky asked, playing along until they could talk more quietly.
"You got only half right," Matt said as he looked back at Ethan before shaking his head and then muttered under his breath, "I guess being an Eevee made him so happy he, too, evolved. What are we going to do? The more we try and not look out of place the more we are out of place." Matt then shook his head sadly before going inside the two sliding glass doors, followed by a perplexed Becky, two nervous Vulpix, a still-hyper ten-year-old, a more respectful Charmander, and finally a calm and collected Umbreon. The doors then closed behind this very strange, in Ninetales terms, pack.
Matthew Brown Vixen walked into the Center, that being his real legal name. He had until this year used the name Matthew Vixen Brown because of some mix-up at the school system, and only last year had it finally been cleared up.
"So, Matt, who are you going to use against Flint?" Ethan said as he recalled Eve into her Pokeball and handed it over to Nurse Joy. Kyle just jumped onto a chair nearby and then onto the counter. "Kyle! Don't jump on the furniture…You are my most troublesome Pokemon, you know that?" Ethan scolded as Kyle just ignored him and followed Nurse Joy. Five minutes later she returned with one Pokeball and Kyle following behind her.
"Your Pokemon are fighting fit now, Ethan," She then turned to Matt and Becky and smiled as always. "I will now take your Pokemon for healing." Becky then handed over her three Pokeballs, the fourth one that she had on her belt was a ploy to try and confuse Matt during the mock battle at school.
Another five minutes later she returned and handed over Becky's Pokemon. "Your Pokemon are fighting fit, Becky. Matt, I will now take your Pokemon to heal, as long as you don't give me any empty Pokeballs." Matt handed over his team and just stared at her in bewilderment.
"How did you know I did that? I mean, I told no one," Matt stammered as she turned to go.
"That is because we held our Family Reunion during Christmas week." Then Nurse Joy was gone, heading into the back to heal the Pokemon in her charge as of that moment.
"So who is going to battle Flint first?" Ethan asked, still confused as to the order of challenges.
"Well, you will have to wait till tomorrow. You see, Brock is back visiting his family and the Gym is closed today," Nurse Joy said as she returned with the last batch of Pokemon. "Here you go, Matt, your Pokemon are fighting fit."
"Thank you, Nurse Joy." Matt turned to face Becky and Ethan. "I think we should do a little bit more training since we have the time." He then turned to face Nurse Joy again and asked, "What time is the Center closing tonight?"
"Curfew is at nine o' clock tonight. However, there will be a night nurse here to watch over the Pokemon in case a problem arises," Nurse Joy replied in her cheerful voice
"Thank you, so let's go get some more training." Matt said as he left along with Becky, Ethan, along with Matt, Firestorm, and Kyle.
The lady dressed in the black trench coat, black pants and black sunglasses watched them go, smiling she just watched and biding her time.
(Half hour later 4:00, Night Meadow)
"This is some impressive meadow. I must say that my Ninetales side is very impressed with this. It is very hard to have something like this stay this way," Becky commented as soon as she had taken her Ninetales form.
"Yes, this is how Ethan and Even evolved right in the middle of the day." Matt said as he looked at the two, who were standing proudly and at home in the dark meadow. The only way to really tell where they were was when their rings glowed a dull yellow.
"Okay, I think Matt should work on his Flamethrower, Stripes on his Swift, and Matt and Firestorm on your Faint Attack moves. Kyle, you work on your Ember, you are still level twelve, so you have a ways to go." Becky said.
Kyle then nodded respecting the Ninetales only because she was at a higher level then he, he then turns to Ethan and said in a growl "What do you say to a battle between you and I?"
"Sounds like a good idea to me," Ethan growled back, already in his fighting stance. Since Kyle only knew Ember and Ethan didn't know any dark moves save for one, Pursuit, the battle was fairly even.
"Matt, I agree. However, I think we should also work on our battles" Firestorm replied. They both looked at each other nod and begin battling as well. So soon four Pokemon were battling, watching, of course where their attacks went so as not to interfere with each other.
"Matt, I think we should have a real battle. What do you say?" Flare asked in his normal eager tone of voice. "After all, it will be a challenge since we both have the Flash Fire ability."
"You're on, Flare, let's move to the bottom right area of the field to do so," Matt said as he walked to the area he picked out. Two minutes after that everyone was doing their own training, paired off with someone except for one group of three.
VulpixTrainer: Okay, now that they have gotten some final last-minute training done. It is now onto Flint next chapter
Kyle: You all know what to do so good day or night.