Chapter Fourteen
Lost in the City of Light

Can't you just pretend to be nice?
Oh, can you at least just pretend to be nice?
If you could just pretend to be nice,
Then everything in my life would be alright.

Pretend to Be Nice
Josie and the Pussycats

12th of Sharmishira>
Sam's Point of View>

Whistling, I walked along. The rain that had kept us in the same place for five days had moved on earlier today. In that time, the seven humans of the camp had had to amuse themselves. Each of us had tackled the boredom in a different way.
Brendan had started to devise strategies for me, Kat, Nick and Hope to beat the Romanc City Gym.
Nick had spent his time by learning how to do handstands and somersaults in his tent, and then outside, under a rain shield courtesy of Ashlee. I had been teaching him, but so far, he could only do a handstand for thirty seconds tops.
I had spent my time teaching Nick, stretching and teaching Hera to talk. So far, she could say some basic sentences, but they usually conveyed whatever she meant.
Ashlee had practiced with her psychic powers. She had resolved to keep herself in the air for more than an hour. She succeeded, but managed to spend half of that time also trying to sitting upright.
Katrina had gone off to her tent, actually wondering about the Meaning of Life. After she tired of that subject, and having convinced herself she knew the meaning, she had decided to teach her Pokemon to do Karate, Judo, Tae Kwon Do and Bushido. She succeeded at that in different ways. Electrum the Coperagon now had a killer punch, but anytime she tried kicking something, she fell over. Dirden the Frezint had long feet, and scrawny arms. He could do flying kicks as well, and Drogan the Dratini, well, he just wriggled around a lot.
Jason had begun to draw up maps, outlining the forest we had been camping near. It turned out that he had six of the region's badges, and was only in this part of the region because he had heard rumours that Mee, the 'pre-evolution' of Mew had been sighted there. I honestly didn't believe that Mew had a pre-evolution, but Jason did.
Hope had banded together with Brendan to come up with the strategies with the Gym. After they had finished, she had gone to Nick and me to learn some of the Gymnastic abilities I could do.

But finally, we were back on track. We had left Jason behind, and Hope was travelling with us to Romanc only. She planned to be in and out of the city in two days, before leaving for Rorroh Town and its gym, located only half-a-day's walk from Romanc.
In the mean-time, I knew that my group would probably stay in Romanc for a while, maybe even a week. If it did come to that, I intended to go to Rorroh City by myself, and staying there overnight. The route between the two cities also had a small walk to a Shrine of Gaios, the legendary Earth Pokemon. Seeing as I was Pokenese, and believed that Mew, Celebi and Jirachi had created the Earth, I intended to look at the shrine, seeing as Gaios was meant to be one of the vessels of Mew.

Going over the crest of a hill, I suddenly looked down at a small city, one that seemed to have stepped straight out of a Fairy Tale. A river wound its way through the city, cutting it in two. Small woods were scattered over the city, and from where I was standing, the sun shone directly on the city in the light of the dying sun. I gave a small, weary smile. A break from the wild was exactly what I needed.

Looking over my shoulder at Ashlee, I called to her, "This had better not be an illusion you've put on me Ashlee!" I warned her. I wasn't in the mood for any illusions currently. Ashlee had been trying them for the past few days as well.

"What do you mean, illusion?" Hope asked, looking seemingly interested. "Do you mean, making you see things, or hypnosis, what?"

Turning around so that I was walking backwards, I cast a troubled look at Ashlee, wondering how much I should tell Hope. Even after five days together, I still didn't trust her at all that much.

"Illusions, it's a form of, uh, mind control." I said, hesitantly. "It involves making the mind of another person believe that there is something in a place, when it isn't. Only powerful natural-born psychics can do it. For example, if you put on a TWT, you wouldn't be able to do it, because your mind isn't trained the right way to focus your powers. I might be able to do it, if I wore two TWT's, but Ashlee can do it with only one. Or haven't you noticed the Golem's flying over the campfire for the pat few days?" I quickly looked at Ashlee. She had a very innocent face on, one that didn't betray any emotion. When Hope and the others shook their heads, I threw Ashlee a glare.

"So, you guys haven't noticed me acting weird for the past few days?" I asked, genuinely curious. When they shook their heads, I rolled my eyes. "Thanks guys, you've been with me for almost a month, and you didn't say to yourselves, 'Oh, he's strange, but he's usually strange for a reason'?"

Ashlee had begun to chuckle, earning herself another glare from me. "Ok, seeing as no-one seems to care for my mental health, I leave you all, heartless children of Grumpigs you are." Turning on my heel, I took a step forward and teleported, before suddenly realising that I had no idea where the Pokemon Centre was. This should be interesting. I thought to myself wryly, as the path into the city dissolved and was replaced with an orderly street. In the process of teleporting, I managed to scare a Meowth, making it run up a nearby tree and start hissing at me. I looked at it, trying to force my eyes to focus on it. When the Meowth split into two separate Pokemon, I knew I had to sit down. Normally I didn't get disoriented when I teleport, but then again, I don't usually try to teleport in a place I've never been to before. When my eyes and mind settled down enough for me to be able to see one Meowth, I looked up its tree and made a face at it, before looking around for more significant landmarks. When none sprang to mind, I marched along the street in search of a signpost, also earning myself many strange looks from the people I went past. The first corner I came to yielded no help; when I looked along it, I saw a street that looked much the same as the one I was walking along anyway. Groaning in frustration, I looked around again. My eyes eventually fell on a small child, only about 8 years old. Putting pride aside, I walked over the road to him, jumping up the small gutter.

"Excuse me."

The child looked at me, all innocent. He had blond hair, and blue eyes. Rosy cheeks completed the picture of a child who would, or could, do no wrong.
Not that I trusted that look. My younger sister had the selfsame look, and I didn't normally trust her at all.

"Yes? Are you new to the city?" The boy asked. Raising an eyebrow in a wary look, I watched the boy carefully.

"Yeah, I am. Do you know where the Pokemon Centre is? I need to go there, and I don't have any idea of where I am." I explained, not revealing anything else that didn't need to be revealed.

A glint appeared in the boy's eye. "You're a Pokemon Trainer?"

Mutely, I nodded my head.

The boy ran backwards, until there was a considerable distance between us. "In that case, let's battle. I'm the best Trainer in this town, nobody can beat me!" The boy declared, grabbing a Pokeball from his pocket, where I hadn't seen it. "And if you win, I'll show you to the Pokemon Centre." Suddenly the boy grinned maliciously. "But if I win, I get all the money on your Trainer Card. This is a 100 Money Battle, if you win, you also get all of the money in my bank account." The boy rolled his eyes at the last statement, as if he doubted anyone could get any of the money from his account.

I merely nodded. It seemed the fastest way to the Pokemon Centre. But if I lost, I knew I'd have to rely on the others for their help. But if I won, it'd just help me all the more.
The boy made the first move, throwing out a Net Ball. From the ball erupted a Dustox, the Poisonous Moth Pokemon that originated in Hoenn. I eyed the Pokemon carefully. If I didn't keep an eye out, Artemis or Zeus could be paralysed, put to sleep or even poisoned.

My left hand strayed to my belt, stopping momentarily over Artemis's Pokeball, before continuing on to Zeus's Pokeball. I might as well fight flying with flying.
Delicately pulling Zeus's Pokeball from its stubborn hold on my belt, I enlarge the Ultra Ball, before throwing it; the wasp-like coloured orb releasing a red beam that was a characteristic of most Pokeballs. Zeus appeared, taking much longer to come out than most Pokemon did. The rain's never-ceasing tirade had taken its effect on Zeus; he was now roughly the size of a bus.

Watching the boy's face, I saw him go slightly white. Zeus did appear intimidating, and unless you looked closely, he looked a lot like his own evolved form, Combulos. He was also big enough to have the bottom of his bottom touching the ground. Lightning sparks oozed out of the cloud mass, fell to the ground, and for some reason, didn't die out. Instead, they bounced along the ground and crawled their way up the cloudy mass of their owner.
The Dustox looked as alarmed as his trainer did, doing a half-turn of his wings and sending his owner a look that plainly said, 'You're joking, right?' When the boy shook his head, the Dustox turned around again. Flying up slightly, it began flapping its wings, sending small, green spores towards Zeus.

And Zeus, due to his newly gained size, wasn't able to move or make any evasive moves. Zeus fell asleep as soon as the powder hit him. Scowling, I held up his Pokeball and returned him, unhappy that my most powerful Pokemon had been taken out in one turn. Grabbing Artemis's Pokeball, I released the Mudkip, hoping that he was over his hyperactive mood that had started a few days ago.
He hadn't.

The instant he was released, Artemis began zipping about again. It had a good side to it; Dustox couldn't hit him because he was continually moving. But the bad side was that Artemis couldn't really hear me.

"Artemis, Water Gun!"

Ziiiiiiip!

"Artemis, Mud Slap!"

Zooooooom!

"ARTEMIS! FLOOD ROLL!"

Swiiiiiiish!

"Artemis, do something!"

Zwaaaap!

"Anything except that!"

When he ignored me again, my temper flared. I could feel my eyes begin to glow, and I developed a bluish tinge. "ARTEMIS!"

Needless to say, the Mudkip stopped dead. When he saw the look on my face, he jumped and twirled in the air, so that he was facing the Dustox.

"Water Gun." I said in a deadly voice; my patience for the week well and truly used up. A torrent of water expelled itself form Artemis's mouth, before I had even finished saying the attack. It was a direct hit, one that knocked the Dustox to the ground. When it gotten up again, I knew the battle was almost over. The Dustox's wings were too wet for it to fly, let alone throw off dust particles.

"Dusty, do something!" The boy's voice broke through my angry haze. Looking up at him, I could see that the boy had a pleading look on his face. Feeling suddenly ruthless, from annoyance I think, I pointed at the Dustox. "Take Down!"

Artemis charged towards the Dustox, intent on knocking it over again. The instant before Artemis was about to hit it, it transformed into red energy and disappeared into a Pokeball that the boy held. Artemis charged through, before skidding to a halt. I closed my eyes, and inhaled a breath, taking a few minutes to calm down. I heard a Pokeball being opened, and when I was calm, I opened my eyes to see a Holiopus. I blinked at it, before grinning. The Holiopus was a small, golden cat with sky-blue patches dotting its body. Its angel-like wings looked like an Angels, white and fluffy. A small head bobbed on the slightly larger body, and its paws flexed playfully.
It was, however, a Light type. And Light types were weak against Dark Types, and Normal Types.

"Artemis, Take Down!" I called out. The Holiopus had been sent out in front of Artemis, and now warned, turned around, before taking off into the air, its small wings carrying it high above Artemis's head as, for the second time today, he missed with his Take Down attack. Skidding to a stop again, he whirled around and glared up at the Holiopus.

"Get down! You know you'll be beaten, so why put it off?" Artemis demanded, before dashing to the side to avoid an attack from the Holiopus. What seemed like a beam of solidified light hit the cement and disappeared. Artemis responded with a Water Gun, one that only wet the Holiopus's front-right paw.
I bit my lip, my brain at Full Speed. The Holiopus's wings seemed too airy to be affected much by the water, unlike the Dustox. It also ignored the water dripping from its paw. Looking down at Artemis, I frowned again. There had to be some way to bring the fight back down to Artemis's level.
That was when it hit me. If water didn't work, I had to play a bit dirtier.

"Artemis, Mud Slap!"

Shaking his head, Artemis dashed over a small garden bed, one void of any flowers; the owner of the garden obviously intending to plant sometime soon. Making a mentally apology to the owner, I watched as Artemis sprayed a small patch with water, while the Holiopus frowned, obviously wondering why I was getting Artemis to use Mud Slap of all attacks.
The answer became obvious only a second later, when mud splattered onto the Holiopus's wings, clogging the wings and making the Holiopus struggle to stay airborne, before falling slowly to the ground. To add insult to injury, a second wave of mud hit the Holiopus, accompanied by an old layer of manure form the garden. The Holiopus screeched in disgust, before using Light Beam again, this time hit Artemis straight on the fin on his head. Looking pained, Artemis hunched down lower to the ground, trying to escape the source of his discomfort. But as the Holiopus went lower, so did its beam. The beam continued for a further ten seconds, before cutting off as the Holiopus landed and started coughing, obviously pained from using a beam attack for that long. Gritting his teeth, Artemis looked up at the Holiopus, before opening his mouth wide, intending to use a 'beam' of his own.

"Wait!" I called out. A small trickle of water dashed towards the Holiopus before it lost altitude and hit the ground. "Don't use water Artemis! You'll get rid of the mud on its wings!"

Realisation dawned on Artemis's face, and he nodded. Dashing towards the now alert Holiopus, he began to play a game of Cat and Mouse, dashing in to land small hits and getting out of the way before the Holiopus landed a hit of her own. Artemis's days of being hyperactive had had a positive effect; he had gotten faster.
Finally, getting tired of being hit, the Holiopus began spinning in place, a small wind picking up and started spinning around the Holiopus. Artemis, recognising another Razor Wind from his battle with Isaac's Absol a few weeks prior, jumped into the mud-puddle he had made earlier and hunkered down into it. The wind spinning around the Holiopus suddenly spread out, knocking me off my feet as the strong wind pelted me. I slid a short way, before creating a wall before me. At the edge of my mind, I could feel a slight nagging sensation, one of the first signs that I was using too much power in a short amount of time. The Holiopus's trainer, however, was expecting it, and had braced himself beforehand. Scowling at my stupidity, I jumped to my feet, and walked forward again slowly, collapsing the wall and drawing my power back into me, my beginning headache disappearing almost instantly.

Artemis on the other hand, was still in the same place, enduring the wind. When it stopped blowing, he moved almost instantly, using speed I didn't believe possible of the Mudkip's short, stubby legs. The Holiopus wasn't expecting it either, and managed to be hit by Artemis's finally successful Take Down. The attack, while very effective, still didn't knock the Holiopus out. Instead, she began flapping her still dirty wings, creating a wind that stopped Artemis dead in his tracks. Artemis tried to stand his ground, but only succeeded in sliding back slowly. I shut my eyes and rubbed my temples. There had to be a way to get around this attack!
Unfortunately, there wasn't. Artemis flew back, right past me, stopping a good twenty metres away. Narrowing his eyes, I saw Artemis looking suddenly dangerous, before he curled up into a ball and began rolling forward. A thin shield-like object began to surrounding him, getting larger and larger. When he rolled past me, I suddenly realised what he was doing.

The Holiopus, on the other hand, did not. Flood Roll wasn't a standard attack, or one put down as a real attack by the International League either. Suddenly, I realised. By the time the ball would hit the Holiopus, it would be too big to do any damage! Shutting my eyes, before opening one a slit, I waited for Artemis to realise it and stop rolling. He didn't stop rolling, however, and when the large water ball hit the Holiopus, instead of rolling over the top of her, the Holiopus instead went through the bubble-like wall of the water ball, and joined Artemis. Now Artemis was in his true territory, underwater. He swam, hitting the Holiopus with bone breaking Headbutts, Tail Whips and Slams. After a minute of being underwater, the Holiopus was spat out of the bubble by a well-aimed Tackle on Artemis's account, and laid on the sidewalk next to the bubble, well and truly knocked-out.
Silence filled the air, until it was broken by a loud 'Beep!' noise emitting from my Trainer Card. Bringing it out of my pocket, I saw my money change, and the small machine on the corner of the card suddenly fell off. I looked at the machine in confusion, until it lit up on the ground, and displayed the picture of a Mareep. Picking up the machine, I looked closely at the words under the Mareep.

'Paid In Full.'

I blinked in confusion, until realisation struck my brain. I had finally earned my Mareep! Looking down at Artemis, I saw him sitting a fair distance from me, looking worried. I frowned; what was wrong?
A distraction from that line of thinking suddenly occured when the small machine in my hand exploded, leaving a small burn in the middle of my hand.

"Ow!" I cried, looking down at my hand. The small area in the centre of my palm had blistered immediately, the skin not used to things exploding when I held them. I clutched at my hand, covering the burn with one hand as the boy came up to me, his bottom lip extended out from his mouth; the traditional pose of sulking.

"Hurry up. I need to go home soon." The boy told me. "And my name is Keiran, just to let you know."

"Ok," I said, wincing as the skin of my unhurt palm accidentally touched my new blister. "I'm Sam, and that's Artemis." I pointed at the Mudkip, who had sat just beside Keiran's foot. Keiran looked down and smirked slightly at the Mudkip, before beckoning me to follow him.

The embarrassing thing was, the Pokemon Centre was only a block away.

Looking at the building, I scowled at it, before turning my attention back to Keiran. "Coming in?"

Keiran's eyes had glazed over as he looked at the Pokemon Centre. My question seemed to break through whatever smoke-screen he had put up, when he shook his head slightly and looked at me. "Sorry, what was that?"

Repeating the question, I looked at where he had been looking. A girl was there, only a few years older than me. Leaning over the polished wood counter of the Pokemon Centre, she appeared to be having an animated conversation with Nurse Joy.

"Oh, no thanks. My family has its own Healing Machine at home, so I can patch up my Pokemon there. Ok, I'd better get going. Bye!" Waving a hand, Keiran took off, going up the street we had just gone down. Half-way up it, he paused suddenly and looked back. "Hey, Sam!"

I pulled my attention from the girl to look at him. A slightly worried expression appeared on his face when he saw me looking, but he stayed where he was. "A little hint for you: I hope you don't treat your Pokemon like that all the time. The Gym Leader in this city doesn't like people being mean to Pokemon, and she enforces what she doesn't like." Turning on his heel, he took off again, rounding a corner and dashing out of sight.
Looking down at Artemis, I gave him a blank look. "What did he mean by that?" I asked him, and judging from the look on Artemis's face, he knew exactly what Keiran meant.

12:30 pm, 12th of Sharmishira>

As a result of my disorientation, being lost and my battle with Keiran, I was the last to the Pokemon Centre. When I had booked a room, and submitted my Pokemon for a check-up, I had discovered that Kat, Brendan and Ashlee had already left the Centre. Another discovery was that Ashlee had refused point-blank to sleep in the same room as males. But seeing as there were on 4 beds to a room, I didn't see why that was a problem. Instead, Ashlee had gotten a separate room, one that she shared with Kat, and to my displeasure, Hope.

Entering my room having just had the blister on my hand treated with an ointment supplied by Nurse Joy, I saw Nick lounging on a top bunk, reading a magazine. He looked over the top of it as I came in, before returning to the page.

"The girls were looking for you." He said shortly, his attention elsewhere. A dart of fear entered my heart. I looked up at him from under my fringe, slowly rising to my full height.

"Say that again?"

Nick looked up again, looking annoyed. "The girls are looking for you." His eyes retreated behind the magazine again, and I could almost see a sudden jolt go through his body as he realised what he had said. This time when he looked over the magazine, he was grinning like a Meowth who had just found a ball. "Oh, I have so gotta see this."

I scowled at him, wondering how deep that magazine would be able to go up his nose, when someone rapped on the door. I froze, and turned around slowly, only to be surrounded by a sea of blonde, purple, green and red hair. Seeing as I was a full head and shoulders above Kat, a head above Hope, and roughly the same size as Ashlee, I easily managed to fight their thorn-like pinch on my skin. Half-way to the door, my foot suddenly froze in mid-air, my control over it seemed completely lost. I glared at Ashlee, who grin back.

"Ashlee, have I ever told you how much I completely, utterly and totally hate you?"

Giving a shrug, Ashlee put her arms around my neck and lifted up the necklace there. When all that appeared was an Ultraball attached to a magnet, she scowled, and lifted up the other band. Hanging from this one was the Lapis Lazuli necklace Katrina had made me buy in Arw City. Groaning in frustration, Ashlee glared at me. "Where's your TWT?"

I glared back at her, refusing to let go of the secret of its location, when I suddenly felt an odd presence in my mind, like a hand scrapping around in it. I frowned, wondering what it was, when I realised that Ashlee reading my mind. I tried to push against it, when it vanished. My vision was suddenly filled with a mop of red hair as Ashlee bent down and slipped my wristlet from my wrist. Turning it inside out, she extracted the TWT from its compartment, before slipping it in her own pocket.

"Not allowed to read minds." I shot at her. Beside me, and up on the bed, Nick and Katrina snickered.

"Finally, payback." Nick said, flipping a page in his magazine.

"I guess you'll think next time you try that then, won't you?" Katrina questioned me, a smug tone in her voice.

Sighing, I gave in. "What do you girls want with me?"

"Well, we decided that your hair is getting a little on the longish side." Ashlee declared, grabbing a strand of my ear-length hair and giving it a tug. I winced, and bit my tongue gently. I wouldn't get anywhere with Ashlee having two TWT's on her.

"Touch my hair, and you'll see just how powerful I can get without the TWT." I shot at Ashlee. She raised her eyebrow, before rolling her eyes.

"Sam, without your TWT, you're about as powerful as a psychic Magikarp." She sent the snide comment back at me.

"And what's Hope got to do with this?" I asked Katrina, not wanting to look at Ashlee anymore. Anger was starting to bubble up in my stomach, and I began wriggling around.

"She's here to help keep an eye on you." Katrina said, before pushing me out the door.

"Have fun!" Supplied Nick from his bed. Turning my around, I glared at him, before my view of him was blocked by the wall of the Pokemon Centre.

"Heads are going to roll." I muttered to myself, vowing to get revenge on all of my friends at some point.

12:50 pm, the Argyll Mall>

The first stop we had was in a clothes store. Hope and Ashlee almost dived into it, while Katrina and I waited out the front, rolling our eyes. A hand reaching up to my shoulder was all that kept me from running away, but it did it effectively. While she couldn't run over a long distance, Katrina was deadly when it came to sprinting.
The two girls emerged a little while later, laden with bags. As the only male handy, I was made to carry them, while the girls ran to the next shop, leaving me and Katrina to dawdle behind.

"I hope you realise that this pains me as much as it pains you." Katrina said, her voice quiet to avoid detection from Ashlee and Hope. "Normally I hate clothes shopping."

"You seemed fine in Arw." I said coolly, not happy at all. When I was unhappy, anyone with sense was happier elsewhere.

"Well, that was purely because I could torture you." Katrina explained, a grin on her face. "Not to mention, you did look horrible. Now you looked fairly decent. With the right haircut, you might even make it to the 'Cute' level, but not by much."

"Oh, thanks for that ego-boost." I informed Katrina tartly. "IF staying like this means that girls like Ashlee and you stay away, then I'm all for staying the same."

"I'll make allowance for your not being happy, so I'll forget everything I happen to hear today." Katrina said, giving me a sickly sweet smile. I narrowed my eyes at her, before stopping and looking around. "Where've the other two go-!" I was suddenly grabbed from behind. Unable to turn and look at my new abductor, I walked backwards, trying to keep my balance.
My 'new' abductor wasn't new at all. It was Ashlee, and she was dragging me right into the Spinerak's Lair.

The sign read 'The Persian Unisex Barber."

Next chapter: a Special. I'm not gonna say anything else.

Comments, compliements or constructive critisism is accepted! Particularly the last one. Hmm, say that ten times really fast. C ya!