Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.

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Spotlight
Chapter Five: And Search We Will

I ended up falling asleep on that ledge. It was just so peaceful and the climate was just so cool that somehow my worries had all melted away and I had ended up dozing. Said doze turned into an outright venture into dreamland - in which I tried to get Zeke to go campaigning for a new teammate, complete with political slogan and cheesiness - and it only ended when something unusual and crawling tickled my nose.

I tried to swat whatever it was away, thinking nothing of it, until my hand came into contact with something very large.

My eyes flashed open and I saw that I was face-to-face with a Wurmple.

Startled, I shot up, knocking the little worm to the ground beside me, "Gah!"

Zeke was immediately at the alert before calming down when he saw it was a little worm Pokemon. I almost heard him chuckle - yeah, he probably thought his trainer was a wimp. Lovely.

The worm scampered off into the shade of a tree. A golden-looking tree. I blinked, gaining comprehension.

"That's it!" My sudden outburst seemed to startle Zeke, and he looked at me as if contemplating the many ways he could kill me in my sleep next time. I had slept for a long time, surprisingly, without interruption. The morning light was just now starting to appear, casting a faint glow over everything, even the strange golden tree that I had just a few bits of information about. Said information was now barrelling me over the head as if I'd been blind to it.

"Dour," Zeke deadpanned, not seeing the big deal.

I shot up, almost falling over again because of not moving in so long, and grabbed my bag. I reached into the backpack and rummaged about, looking for one of the small jars that I always carried with me. After a while, I finally found it.

"Here!" I exclaimed, turning over to Zeke, who was now standing at my heels. He looked hard-pressed to bite me, but I was surprised - and grateful - that he didn't. I drew out the item I had been looking for and showed it to him. The small jar gleamed in the oncoming dawn, the liquid inside it was thick and was just a little bit lighter in color than the golden tree. "Honey!"

Zeke did clamp down on my ankle that time. I yelped at the unexpected pain, but then corrected myself, "No! This," I wagged the jar in his face, "is honey. I wasn't calling you that!"

Zeke huffed slightly, looking at me as if slightly sorry - but only slightly. Anything less would be a great misdeed for him. I grinned down at him, "You know what this does?"

He barked, and I heard the tone underlying it.

"Ah, well, see? The golden tree there is special." I told him, smiling, "You rub honey on it, and then Pokemon will come running! Towards us, that is."

He blinked at me, as if so uninterested that it hurt him.

"Alright, well, we can try it out," I said, still excited by this idea no matter how much my Houndour didn't seem to care. I walked over to the tree, struggling to open the lid of the jar as I did so, and when I finally got it open a few drops of honey splattered on my clothes. The tree was larger than I thought it was, now that I was up close to it. The giant tree was larger than any other one in the meadow, almost like a beacon. Like it was screaming, "Hey! There's a crapload of Pokemon here!"

"Okay, then," I said, reaching into the jar and smearing my fingers with honey. I spread it out on the trunk of the tree. I heard Zeke approach, his soft footfalls barely audible on the grass behind me.

But then he barked, and I realized the sound was too far away to be coming from the figure behind me.

I turned around, startled, and was pulled to the ground by a searching, clawed, blue hand.

Yeah, I screamed.

"Cr-oss," the Pokemon said, looking down at me with large, yellow eyes as it stuck my hand into its mouth.

A Heracross was treating me as if I was dinner.

I realized, albeit belatedly, that it was only interested in the honey and that I was flailing and screaming for no reason. It actually took the jar from my hand and dumped the rest of those contents into its mouth before going back to my hand and licking the rest of the honey residue off of my fingers. Zeke had decided to dart forward at this point, obviously having enjoyed watching me get my just-desserts (for what, I wasn't sure, and I gleefully ignored the pun on my current situation). His eyes were alight with amusement.

"Zeke!" I said, looking at him as if hoping that his doglike protective instincts would kick in sometime soon.

They didn't.

Probably because the Heracross wasn't really attacking me. He was just enjoying a meal, and the Houndour seemed to know that. He snickered lightly until something landed with a thud on the other side of me, not bothering the Heracross in the slightest, but clearly ruffling Zeke's hackles. I couldn't see what it was, but my Pokemon's reaction was enough.

"Dour! Dour!"

Okay, now that was unusually frantic sounding for my little Houndour.

I craned my head to where the sound came from, only to see two large green feet, ending with white claws, standing angled with my head. Oh, those feet looked unfortunately familiar.

"Scyther! Scy!"

Oh.

Oh, no.

Zeke was barking, a staccato of desperate sounds, and I felt the Scyther's foot come down on my other hand, which was lying uselessly in the grass beside me. I winced, but thankfully I didn't hear anything break.

"Hera?"

"Ther! Scy!"

At this point, I could only hope that they weren't debating on who got the scrawny human for lunch.

The Heracross offered the now empty jar of honey to the Scyther, and I heard a strange sound as the glass was slapped from the clawed hand of the nicer Pokemon. The Scyther hissed at the Heracross, and I saw the jar land a few feet away. In two cleanly sliced pieces.

I repeat - oh, no.

At this point, Zeke jumped into action. Literally. He leaped off of the ground in a surprisingly high arc, and landed on - I supposed - the Scyther. The Scyther let out a strange sounding wail and I heard the familiar sound of Zeke's teeth sinking through the hard outer skeleton of the bug-type.

"Zeke? Zeke!" I struggled to get up from where I was currently pinned by the Heracross. He finished off the honey from my fingers and went to help the fight. I rose from my defeated position and looked to see my Houndour clamped down, hanging onto a very old, scarred Scyther.

Oh, this was bad.

Zeke was growling and snarling like a Pokemon possessed. I idly thought of a horror movie I had watched when I was little - something about an Arcanine that had developed rabies and went on a killing spree.

Obviously Zeke wasn't strong enough to take on this old and weathered Scyther, but he was trying. I had to give him that.

Thinking that he had mangled the Scyther enough, Zeke jumped down and gracefully landed beside me, growling all the while. The Heracross looked at the Scyther concernedly, and I realized that they were friends.

"Cross! Hera-cross!" the Heracross said indignantly, turning on us. Apparently, he had all but forgotten the fact that I had just been his unwilling honey provider. And the Heracross looked...well, cross.

I gulped, "Zeke..."

"Houndour!" Zeke shouted, shooting flames out of his mouth and at the two bug-type Pokemon. I stood there, stunned, as the Ember attack took shape and beat crazedly against everything.

Though the flames certainly bothered them, it didn't cause them to faint. If anything, it caused them to become even more irate. I didn't notice this, only looked at Zeke and cried, "When did you learn Ember!"

Zeke looked smugly at me and grinned, "Hou."

I almost wanted to cry with frustration and happiness.

Of course, that was when the Scyther decided to charge us.

Zeke charged back, while I wanted to charge in the completely opposite direction.

"O-Okay, Tackle it!"

Zeke rammed his body against the weathered old Scyther, who didn't even look phased.

Well, crap.

"Ember!"

The Ember once again ripped from Zeke's throat, charring the space around him and making it so the bug-type Pokemon hated us, I was sure. I wasn't too fond of them at the moment, either. But I did feel a certain sense of pride that Zeke had learned a new attack, though that was quickly squashed by how much he could use that to injure me now.

The whole thing was practically a double battle, now that the Heracross had crossed on over to the dark side. Both bug-types were advancing on us, and it was all I could do not to call Zeke back and make a run for it. But he kept them off pretty nicely with his Ember, and I cheered him along. He looked tired after a while, though, tongue lolling out between his attacks. I looked concernedly at my partner, thinking that I could take him and run now - since the bugs were far from being squashed like I so wanted them to be.

And, naturally, that was when everything went to hell.

Combee.

Lots and lots of Combee poured out of the golden tree, their usually happy faces looking ready to kill.

And where there's Combee, there's Vespiquen.

As soon as the regal bee-like Pokemon emerged from the very top of the smoldering tree, I bent down, grasped my arms around Zeke's middle - narrowly avoiding the Scyther's outstretched "arms" as I did so - and high-tailed it out of there.

"This is ridiculous!" I screamed, the buzzing reaching an all-time high as I darted towards the exit, the parting of the trees that would take me back to Floaroma Town and away from these crazy, crazy bug Pokemon. "Seriously!"

Zeke barked at me and then clamped his teeth down on my arm as if to get me to shut up. His mouth was scorching from all the Ember attacks he'd used, and so I was pretty certain I was going to have a nasty burn there. But that, of course, was the least of my worries.

I ran and ran until I thought my legs would give out from the sheer exhaustion of it all. My bag thudded heavily against my back as I ran. At least I still had it.

Angry buzzing, and the sounds of the Scyther and Heracross were the only things I could hear, other than my Houndour's barks and irritated complaints. I kept running, though, thinking of nothing except getting out of there.

Finally - finally - I saw it. The exit. I flung myself through the edge of the trees and into the softly flowered ground of Floaroma Town. Panting, scared, and hoping that the bugs wouldn't venture outside of their territory to enact their revenge on me, I stared at the space in the trees from which I hade flung myself.

They didn't come after me, thankfully enough.

I sat up, still panting, sweaty from exhertion. Zeke was still in my arms. Having dislodged his teeth from my arm, he looked up at me with a slight sense of amusement.

"It's not funny!" I screeched.

"Dour, dour, dour," he replied in an approximation of a dark chuckle.

I heaved a great sigh, and marched over to the Pokemon Center, reveling in how dumb I was. Seriously. The second day of my journey and I hadn't even gotten out of my hometown.

Zeke was still chuckling as I brought him to Nurse Joy. She smiled at me a bit pityingly and took the snickering Houndour from my grasp. I walked over to the set of chairs and slumped down in one, groaning in a put-out manner.

I found myself closing my eyes just as Nurse Joy emerged from behind the counter, Zeke in her arms.

"He's gotten a good deal stronger," she chirped brightly. "You must have been training."

"You can say that." Of course, I wasn't sure if being nearly mauled by a pack of wild bug Pokemon constituted training.

"I've healed him," she said, still smiling, "but he has a nasty Combee sting on his shoulder here." She pointed to a bandaged area on his left shoulder. "You'll need to keep it wrapped for at least a week, change the bandages once a day, and put this ointment on it."

I blinked as she handed me a tube of some kind of cream and a massive roll of bandages.

"You couldn't heal it with the machine?" I asked, curious.

Nurse Joy gave me a kind look and shook her head, "Some wounds take more time to heal than others. More intense wounds take longer to heal. Naturally, broken bones and some cases of Combee stings take a bit of help moving the healing process along."

"Ah," I replied, not sure what else to say.

Nurse Joy placed the Houndour on the ground beside me, and he looked up at me, grinning. I figured he was proud at having been called "stronger" by the nurse.

"Have you ran into some trouble?" Nurse Joy asked, "Normally trainers leave their hometown on their journey."

I scrunched up my nose, "Er, well, we've encountered some...setbacks."

"Indeed."

The voice that had interrupted our conversation was Lauren, staring at me from the bottom of the stairs that led up to the trainer's quarters, dressed in her pajamas. I had forgotten how early it still was. What a great way to start the day - a coup with a flock of bug Pokemon and then meeting your least favorite person all in the course of about an hour.

"Find any Drifloon?" I asked sarcastically.

"No," she bit back.

"Drifloon only appear on Fridays." Nurse Joy chimed. I gave Lauren a pointed look, and she growled at me.

Shaking my head and not wanting to spend any more time in Floaroma Town, I smiled at Nurse Joy and thanked her, walking toward the exit and ignoring Lauren's calls of, "Hey, trained your wimpy Houndour enough? Where's your other Pokemon?"

"Shut up," I sing-songed, closing the door behind me after I had calmed Zeke's growls of insult.

I inhaled, smelling the sweet scent of Floaroma as it wafted around me. Hopefully this would be the last time I'd be here for a while. Not that I hated the town itself, but because I needed to leave more than anything.

Zeke nipped at my ankles, as if to get me going. I bent down and scratched behind his ears. Again, he tensed when I first touched him, but he relaxed soon enough.

"Yeah, I think it's time for us to get going."

So, bright and early on that morning, we set out.

We started along down the path, battling wild Pokemon as we went. Thankfully, these were weaker than those trained. Most of them were either grass- or bug-type Pokemon, with the occassional Starly or Bidoof thrown in. I immediately had a flashback to my disastrous first trainer battle and thought of Terrance every time I saw one of the little beavers.

Surely, I could have caught a Pokemon in any one of those fights, but I just had training Zeke on my mind at that time. He grew a few levels, which made me feel a lot better, as well as upped Zeke's mood. We battled a few trainers on the way, and Zeke won a few battles, which was great - even though most still had either a Bidoof, Starly, or the rarer Shinx.

The day passed with a sense of quiet accomplisment. I finally felt like I was doing something, rather than just sitting around and waiting for Pokemon to find me - or attack me, as they were prone to doing. With each step, Jubilife City came closer. I was grateful I chose the path that didn't lead to Eterna Forest. More bugs, more grass, more problems, as far as I could tell, though we'd have to brave it through there eventually. From there, we'd just follow the signs. Maybe those wouldn't be so confusing that I couldn't follow them.

We were in what I had decided was our last battle of the day, against a wild Lotad, when Zeke turned his head toward me. "Dour," he barked meaningfully, nudging his head in the small Pokemon's direction.

"Tad..." the Lotad lazily chirped.

Blinking, I asked, "What is it?"

Zeke sighed, exasperated at my cluelessness, and again nudged his head curiously in the Lotad's direction before nudging in the general vicinity of the Pokeballs strapped to my belt.

"Oh," I said, looking at him, comprehension finally dawning. "You want me to catch him?"

Zeke shrugged, as if it didn't matter to him.

"Er - well," I didn't really want a Lotad. Sure, they were cute, but...it just didn't seem right for me. "I don't think so - "

Zeke tackled the Lotad, knocking the small thing out immediately, and again I blinked in confusion. Well, I didn't even have to order that one.

The defeated Pokemon stumbled back into the water's edge near us. I watched it go, not feeling an urge whatsoever to catch it.

Zeke bounded back up to me, looking extremely proud of himself. He looked tired, and I told myself that we needed to go camp. My stomach was rumbling, and he looked hungry as well. The trek to Jubilife wasn't a long one from Floaroma, but it had taken us the whole day to get at least halfway. I saw a clearing amongst a few trees and decided to camp there.

I thought to myself that it was okay that I didn't catch a Pokemon right off. Frankly, I wasn't really bothered with it. I had Zeke, and he was getting stronger by the day. Surely, I had to get another one as soon as I got closer to my upcoming gym battle, but at the moment I was so tired I couldn't even think of that. The only thing I could focus on was my rumbling stomach and Zeke's exhausted presence beside me.

However, I would soon regret that.

The clearing of trees was just within sight. I had already started to take off my pack and unhitch the sleeping bag from its tight roll atop it when I heard the sound.

"Ho! Hello, young trainer! Not tucking in so soon, are you?" The booming, enthusiastic voice seemed out of place when I was so, so tired. "Let us have a battle, shall we?"

I looked over at Zeke who, despite his tiredness, was stubbornly staring at the challenger. He looked ready to go, and I figured that I could at least try to get in one more battle before I slept. The sky was turning a pretty red with the setting sun, and I wanted so badly to sleep. "You up for it?"

I needn't have asked. Zeke lept forward and growled in response.

"Interesting choice!" he said. I just now took in his appearance, which should have been a red light of what type he was fond of. He was young, but still older than me - at least twenty - with hiking gear covering every inch of his person. A light patch of stubble covered his face, as if he hadn't shaved that morning, and his hair was a rough, unkempt dirty-blonde, tied back into a low ponytail. Despite this, however, my tired mind assumed he would be another one of those trainers with just a Bidoof or maybe even a Shinx.

I was thinking of how best to approach the situation when he called out his Pokemon.

A ground-type.

End Chapter Five.