"People often say that the smaller you are the weaker, they have never seen an angry Rattata biting off your finger, or have been burnt to nought but ashes by a sneezing Cyndaquil"

Darius Whintler (September 5th, 2278)

Chapter Eight.

Eterna adventures

It was then that Josh started laughing hysterically again while Danny just grinned at me.

"Shrimp, I don't believe it but that Buneary just caught himself and I mean what pokèmon would ever doom itself to travel with you ?"

"I guess he just did"

"Congratulations Jacob" came the soft comment from Danny who looked at the Buneary with awe while at the same time petting Piper.

"Hey Josh" I said my voice sounding rather evil "Did you know that this particular Buneary had no problems offering one of its own to me for food ? it might just kill you in your sleep for me to eat" Josh gulped before realising something "But I have Paul and he'll stop your Buneary" I sighed "Josh Josh Josh, Paul would probably help Goliath in preparing you for my dinner" Josh gulped again and paled before grabbing Lola and hugging her tight.

We started walking once more and I even tried to call my mom again but according to those nice little signs scattered around the forest there was no reception so I gave up.

Goliath was happily skipping behind Bob and occasionally dashed forward to protect me from a Wurmple or a random Cas/Silcoon, I'm so happy that I actually have a pokèmon that does something for me that does not include;

-Poisoning me

-Using my shoes as a toilet

-Downright ignoring me

-Turning out to be a female while I wanted a male *Cough* Bob *Cough*

It was a moment later that I saw Nate again.

"Where have you been ?"

He stared at me.

I stared back.

My eyes began to water.

I gave up.

Nate walked away once more.

"Why does your Nidoran ignore you ?" Danny asked.

"He hates me" I sighed, not even caring anymore.

"But he is your starter isn't he ?"

"Yeah, so ?"

"You are supposed to bond the most with your starter"

"Oh" I shrugged before turning my attention to Goliath with a big grin.

"Goliath, will you please use your flaming ear thingy again ?" he happily obliged and soon he was once more punching random bugs with his flaming ears and kept shooting me triumphant glances, I love this pokèmon.

Even though we now had two fire-using pokèmon we still weren't safe but according to the map the bug-catcher gave us we could make it out of here in less than four hours that is if we skipped dinner, which we did. We quickened our pace and I returned Bob because face it, she is slow.

As the forest once more grew dark we had to take out our flashlights and Piper had to constantly keep her flames high for more light and we returned our other pokèmon minus Goliath and Nate because Nate was still out there somewhere and Goliath listened well enough for me to trust him .. partially that is. There were two times that I screamed and ran away when a Wurmple dropped on my head and I froze when I was suddenly face to face with another Dustox (or the same, who knows)

After two more hours of walking our dim beams of light saw a old mansion with a path leading towards it, one look at my face told Danny and Josh enough, we weren't going in there I mean think about all the bugs hiding in that old mansion .. no .. just no.

And then we saw it, the trees were becoming less and less and so did the bushes and the bugs as well !

And then, five whole minutes later, we were out of the forest.

Away from the bugs, safe from death by being made into a human cocoon, away from evil pokèmon and weird trainers.

"YES !" I actually jumped while pumping my fist in the air.

Josh raised an eyebrow while Danny just stared without saying anything.

I grinned sheepishly, not my fault that I'm happy.

We immediately made camp after walking a safe distance away from the bugs .. they can crawl to you from the forest so I took no risk.

We ate the last can of bread and one of our last bottles of water but we would be fine because tomorrow morning we would set out again and reach Eterna City in less than two hours.

As I laid out my sleeping bag I returned Goliath and looked around and saw Nate walking up to me and I returned him as well. We all said our "Goodnights" before promptly falling asleep.

I slept without dreams and once I woke up I noticed that I was the first one up again and that the sun has just touched the horizon causing it to still be pretty dark, the dew drops were still on the grass and for maybe the first time since I started my journey I enjoyed it. The scenery was pretty, better than seeing other apartment buildings from your window or some random route while walking no, this was amazing in its very own way for it was silent, no annoying bugs .. just grass and some bushes and a lake with a, suddenly a orange-ish shadow leaped from the place were Eterna Forest stood and darted across the grass towards the bridge and then disappeared.

Weird.

I then returned to the pretty scenery I saw and sighed, no matter how pretty or breathtaking it is nothing can beat a real bed and toilet, ever.

It was after about 30 minutes that Josh and Danny woke up and we ate our breakfast .. not, Danny did and he even offered to share but his food wasn't that much and looked even worse than our canned stuff when we had it so we politely refused.

I let my pokèmon out as well to feed, Nate walked off for some meat, Bob went to nibble on some bark and Goliath hopped away and returned with some battered-looking Bidoof following him with berries in their mouth, the Bidoof dropped their berries before quickly running away .. I like this pokèmon.

Josh fed Lola the last of her pokè-food and relucantly let Paul out as well for his own breakfast while Piper was contently eating the grass.

We washed our face in the lake and actually changed our clothes behind some conveniently placed bushes and then we set out again and walked on the wooden walkway across the lake.

There were lots of fishermen standing on it, loads of them, hordes of them .. if it wasn't for the fact that they were fishing we would have been scared because fishermen are known for their love for big water pokèmon like a Gyarados and it's common sense that a hungry Gyarados can and will eat you for lunch and a rampaging Gyarados can easily destroy Jubilife within two hours.

So we were not going to challenge any fishermen at all .. ever.

Danny looked sad and it wasn't because of the fishermen, he shuffled and sighed a lot before looking at the sky and sighing again. Josh and I shared a look and then he asked "Danny .. what's wrong ?"

"I .. I .. no wait .. I-I'm afraid you'll .. you .. you'll leave .. m..m..me"

"Why would we ?" I asked him.

"B.. because .. I .. I got you ... g..guys tr-trough E..Eterna F-f-forest"

"You're still allowed to travel with us right Jacob ?" Josh said with a smile.

"Eh .. sure I mean Josh and I only meant to travel together because my mom made us do it but we're still together so yeah .. you can stay"

"rr. Really ?" he looked like a starving Poochyena standing face to face with a plate with heavenly food .. complete with sparkling eyes.

"Yeah" Josh and I said in unison.

"Piper did you hear that ? we can stay !" Danny cheered while his Ponyta just gave a sarcastic whinny before continuing to look at the water surrounding the walkway with an annoyed look. Some random fisherman actually wiped away a tear before saying to his partner "Youngsters these days .. so touching ~" while his partner just looked at us and grunted something like "chasing 'way the fish .. stupid brats"

After Danny was finished celebrating the fact that he could travel with Sinnohs most pathetic excuses for a trainer ever we walked further and then the much awaited thing came into view, the Eterna City sign.

We made it.

We were alive.

I was alive.

I cheered and jumped in the air for the second time in a day and hugged the sign while Josh and Danny just stared at the city while mumbling "Civilisation" and "Food ... food"

A girl and a shorter boy both with blond hair looked at us strangely before saying something to each other as the girl walked away and waved before releasing a Luxray from one of the balls hanging from her belt and petted the pokèmon for a moment before walking away from view.

The boy caught us looking at him and just raised a hand with a grin before releasing a Staraptor and jumping on his back, the Staraptor jumped in the sky and flew away.

As we entered the city we saw more trainers, most of them around mine and Josh his age and some older trainers with pokèmon walking alongside them, I even saw a Salamance walking with a tall boy with greasy grey hair.

I then realised that this was Eterna City, the city with the Eterna Gym inside it .. the grass-gym with Gardenia the Grass-Specialist as the leader .. the Gym I wanted to challenge.

But first we had more urgent business, going to the pokècenter to get ourselves a room and also healing our pokèmon and we had to get food .. a lot of food.

The Nurse Joy took my pokèmon after I registered Goliath as my pokèmon and he did stay male unlike Bob who turned out to be female, we then got a room (free of course !) and left for the market.

Eterna City was unlike any other city I have ever seen (Which in reality aren't that much .. just Jubilife and Floaroma) it was quite big with a big statue of .. well something and some tall buildings but it was mostly a low-built city.

The roads were mostly crowded by trainers and street vendors and the occasional inhabitant from the city itself but even they looked relaxed and easy going .. a huge difference from the chaotic Jubilife were everyone minded their own business.

I saw people greet eachother in the middle of the road and instead of yelling the people just waved or smiled and went on with their way.

When we walked past a house near the Bicycle-Shop an old man suddenly charged through the door "young trainers .. enter enter !" and he shoved us inside his house were a few other teens were also sitting, they nodded at us before nodding towards the old guy and placing a finger to their lips.

"ah trainers trainers" the old man began "When I was young I dug all over Sinnoh and made an underground system with pathways under all cities and .." I looked at Danny and Josh before looking back at the man.

"- and then I dug some more and found all kinds of jewels and then ..."

I leaned towards Danny "The man is crazy" I whispered and he nodded, his eyes wide.

"- And with only my shovel I dug towards the center of the earth below .. I met countless Diglett and Dugtrio and even made a secret base ..."

Josh rolled his eyes before ticking his forehead, the universal sign for crazy.

"- and then I met this Hiker who traded me ..." the man wouldn't shut up, we silently stood up and moved towards the door.

"No no no ! don't leave before you have this" the man handed me a shovel and a helmet before handing Josh and Danny the same "Now dig to the center of the earth and don't forget-" "believe me we won't" I cut in before pushing Josh and Danny through the door, one of the teens followed.

"I'm very sorry but my grandpa is quite .. old .. and rather senile so don't believe everything he says"

"We won't" Josh said before the three of us walked away, once more on our way to find the market.

After walking around for a while we found the market and used the last of our money on food and other supplies like toilet paper and a toothbrush.

Danny bought some potions as well and then we went to retrieve our pokèmon.

It was training time.

One hour later we were busy training.

Yes very busy.

For our training meant sitting on the walkway with a rope tied to a stick with some canned bread on the end of the rope.

Yes, we are idiots but the water pokèmon here are weak .. and water pokèmon are practically useless on land so that's easy.

I decided to train Nate, why ? because him not listening while battling a Magikarp isn't that shameful, him ignoring me during a gym battle ? that's just plain degrading.

And that's how we sat for fifteen minutes when my rope moved, I had something on my hook !

I quickly gave a jerk on the handmade rod and a nice fat Magikarp fell on the walkway while useless laying on the walkway.

I looked at Nate "Nate Tackle it !"

Nate looked at me before running towards the Magikarp and grabbed its tail and then threw it in the air before tackling it in mid-air causing the Magikarp to faint.

It wasn't even fair, but who cares because I won.

Ha take that stupid fish .. but I do hope that he won't remember what we did when he evolves into a Gyarados ...

Then Nate gave a triumphant cry before his whole body suddenly started glowing in a silver light and he started to deform and two minutes later a Nidorino stood in front of me.

Nate his forehead-horn has grown longer and so did his other spikes and ears, he grew bigger and also obtained another toe-claw so he now had three instead of two.

Does this mean that he has learned new moves ?
I guess I'll have to use the free computer the pokècenter has to offer to look them up and make a list.

But this also means that he's bigger .. stronger .. and can poison me more easily.

Double crap.

Disclaimer; Of course I own pokèmon I mean duh everyone knows that I own it *Laughs maniacally* no sadly enough I don't.
New chapter, Yay, it's longer than the previous one and was made to give JJ&D some rest .. if you can call this rest.
Clearing things up:
1. Why didn't Jacob challenge Roark first ? you'll find out.
2. Why did Nate evolve, he almost never battled ? he did battle a lot, every time he eats he has to kill something which means a lot of battling .. and when Nate leaves for a while he certainly isn't staring at some clouds.
3. Why does Danny stay ? He has more use than just helping Jacob with bugs .. so basically Jacob is using him.
4. How come Goliath acutally likes Jacob while his other pokèmon don't particulary like him ? Jacob is an idiot, his pokèmon are just weird and Goliath has his reasons.
Reviewers:
Neelyn8r:
Nah Goliath isn't a cannibal he's just weird, why I named the previous chapter IBSOI ? because I ran out of inspiration and decided on it + I think it sounds funny because here in the Netherlands we have all these 'on ice' shows with 'stars' that are just some random wannabe-person. Did I update quick enough ? *Gives you the promised book* Enjoy !
Omega The Omniscient:
Yes Goliath is male, and you guessed the reason ! IBSOI ROCKS ! WHOOOOO ! I'll have to write a story about it one day .. in the future that is.
You reviewed on 1;14 ? I would be killed by my mom if she found me using my computer at that time .. but I really appreciate the fact that you did it anyway so I'll reward you with: The SPECIAL IBSOI preview from the 2nd season !
Enjoy it ;) oh and you also get your book to kill time with Mr. Aberworh his wise words.
Reviewers will get another food reward this time it is: The ORIGINAL container with canned bread !
Next chapter will be around wednesday, if I'm quick it might be tomorrow and Ed will return !