Chapter 7 A

A Bewildering Meeting

Gaia had been courted by many different ladies since he left Jagex. They all enjoyed his shy attitude, and all found him very cute. It had given him a spark of confidence. They had been talking about how strong he was, and he even played the hammer game for them, hitting the bell 15 times. He had gotten each of them a plushie pokemon doll.

"Well ladies, I've had a great day, but it's getting late so…I think I'm gonna head back to my master now. I'll see ya later!"

The group of ladies all groaned and sighed seductively. "Bye handsome~~!"

On his way back to the square, he glanced to his right, seeing a gallant forest. He stopped and admired its beauty when he finally said to himself, "Oh what the hell. No harm in taking a stroll."

He slowly started to pass the array of trees until he had come across something he never expected. Ahead of him lied a light blue lake so tender, it was obvious that it had never been touched by human hands.

He floated over and sat down, admiring its beauty. He even picked up a flower and sniffed it. "Ah..what a nice day…"

Something that he was unaware of however, was the slight fog over taking the lake. He found this peculiar, but was not afraid. He was a ghost pokemon after. He was used to creepy stuff.

But what he was not expecting, was the silhouette of a slender creature hiding behind a tree on the other side of the lake. He stood up and called out, "Who's there?" not in an angry tone, but a curious one.

It placed a white sleeve around the tree and peeked out, "H-h-hell-lo?" Gaia was amazed. It was a Frosslass! She was apparently afraid of the bulky figure trespassing on her turf. "Ca-ca-can I h-help you…?"

Gaia suddenly felt like a great big jerk. He put his head down and called out "I'm sorry if I'm trespassing. I'll leave if you w-want."

"N-N-No! It's o-ok." She finally emerged from behind the tree. Gaia was unable to form words. She was so full of color, magical, so young and pretty. "You can s-s-stay if you want to…It's n-no problem…" Gaia was still speechless as he gawked at her. She saw him as he stared. She started to blush, "Is something wr-wrong?"

He finally came to and apologized, "Oh, please forgive me. I just never expected to find such a young lass around here…" She blushed slightly further. They stood across from each other until he finally gained enough courage to ask her, "May I…umm…… May I have the honor of having a walk with you?"

She was an apple, she was blushing so hard. She replied in a very meek voice, "It, w-w-w-would be my honor!"

They were strolling along around the lake, the fog following her everywhere they went. They had talked about many things, but what Gaia found interesting, was that she never stopped blushing.

"Do you have a cold…?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Well…your face is either very flushed, or you can't stop blushing." He started to laugh. When she heard him, she wandered over to the lake to look at the reflection. He was right! She turned and started rubbing her face. He began laughing when something had come into his mind.

"Where is your master…?" She had completely froze. She then started to shiver as she turned around, her eyes full of fright. "…You don't have a master do you…?" Gaia perturbed.

She quickly stammered, "Please don't tell anyone! I don't want to be captured…I-I-I like it here…It's so calm…no one bothers me…" She started to stare at the lake.

Gaia gained confidence and floated up to her. Her had tenderly grasped her silk-white hands and held them toward him. "Now why would I ever do that…I promise, I will not tell anyone."

Her face quickly filled with happiness as she embraced him, arms quickly wrapping around his mass, "Oh thank you thank you thank you!" She started to cry into his chest lightly. When she looked up, he had gotten a good look at her face. Her skin was as white as snow, her eyes a shade of emerald green, and her tears were like little pearls as they fell off her face as ice. For once in his life, he had actually found someone he was attracted to. Little did he know, she was thinking about him as well.

She looked up to the ghost who was towering over her, easily a foot taller then her. But this did not scare her at all. She concentrated on his eye that stared ever so caringly into hers. All of her life, she had been tormented by trainer after jerk after trainer who always wanted to control her life. But now here was a male who wanted to make sure she was safe from harm. She felt that he wanted to make sure that she felt comfortable. She gathered some courage and confessed to him as she laid her head upon his chest, making him blush slightly, "You wanted to know why I was blushing…? It's because when I saw you," she gulped, thinking what she was about to say might make him angry or not wanting to have anything to do with her, "It's because I think I might l-l-l-l-l,"

"Like me…?" Gaia said, he eyes closed as the two were swaying together. She looked up into his caring eye and nodded slowly. "I think I might like you too actually…" Her eyes filled with tears again as she hugged him. He took her hands, which at first confused her, but then she understood as they started to waltz across the lake.

As they finished, he told her, "It's getting late…I should get going…"

"Will you be back tomorrow?" She asked slightly worried.

He bent down and delivered a peck of a kiss upon her cheek as he answered, "Of course…"

As he started to disappear into the trees, he turned and asked her a final question, "What is your name?"

She giggled and replied, "Its Tear…"

Chapter 7 B

Reunions

Lillie and Violet were strolling down the path that followed among most of the lesser stands and shops outside of the town. Lillie was still feeling awkward from her revelation that she had discovered earlier. It was not that she felt honor in looking astonishing. She was now, in a play of words, less ignorant of her situation: As she was walking, she found an occasional male cast a glance at her. She only felt odd, not because this had been happening to her for quite some time, but because she now knew why they were.

"Hey look!" Violet's cry had snapped Lillie out of her daydream. She spotted Violet pointing in a particular direction and followed her finger. Oppositely adjacent to the town was a park. "Why don't we go check it out?"

Lillie, attempting to detour her mind from other things, affirmed to her friend with a nonchalant, "Sure."

As they entered the park, they found many activities brewing amongst its population. A section had been playing Frisbee with several Mightyena and Eevee's. Further ahead, next to a forest, were many lying down with their pokemon relaxing. With a twist of one's head to the left laid a small pond where a couple of water pokemon were apparently playing Marco Polo.

There was one advent that had caught both of the girl's attention though. Busting through a group of people, appeared an excited Arcanine bolting at a breakneck speed. When they both got a better look at it, they saw that a leash was attached to the creatures neck, while a poor man was holding on willfully. As Violet and Lillie started to walk toward this shenanigan, the beast had caught sight of them. It started to bolt at a breakneck speed toward them. Both girls started to enter a battle stance until they had, again, gotten a better view of the Arcanine. Under it's left eye was a long scar that had stained the eye orange, leaving the other one red.

"Coal!" Lillie howled excitedly seeing her past time friend. The arcanine attempted to tackle and hug her, but due to her amense strength, she easily had the dog in a bear hug as it leaped toward her, leaving him feet off the ground. She shook him in the hug as she asked him, "Oooh! And how have you been doing my K-9 friend?" Lillie had finally placed him down with a THUD.

Being the enthusiastic, and apparently not bright pokemon he was, he simply shook himself off and put on a big goofy grin while he panted heavily, "I'm doing great! Me and Lazard came here for some…umm…R&…umm…"

"R?" Violet stepped in amused as usual for her moronic friend. She threw in a side giggle.

"Yeah yeah yeah!" Coal had his tongue hanging for the duration of the conversation. As he smiled to his friend, he suddenly looked bewildered. He randomly looked under every one of his limbs: leg, arm, leg, leg, arm, leg, leg, arm, and finally stood up to reveal a human under him. He had a black blazer on which held tiny red feathers underneath the collar. He stood up lazily and drunkenly, obviously knocked out from being underneath the dog for so long. He had short black hair, and shades that were incidentally broken from being crushed by his pokemon.

As he came to slowly, he spoke in a drunken manner, "Oh hey…I know that ribbon and cheerleader anywhere…Hey Lillie, Violet!" He waved as he was swaying from the apparent loss of strength after trying to hold on to Coal for a long time. He inquired, "Where's James…?" Both the girls shrugged. "Ah…oh well…" After a few moments, he noticed that his glasses were broken. "Awh damnit! Not another pair!" But instead of flipping out over the expensive glasses, he simply reached into his pocket and pulled out another pair. "Awh yeah…Anyway. I can't remember anything. I know I was sitting with Coal here until some weird…blue…" At that moment, as if the fates had prescribed it, a blue ball went soaring through the air opposite the direction of the group.

"BALL!!!" and with that, Lazard and his Pokemon were trailing towards the ball, Lazard hanging onto the leash from the air. Both the girls giggled as they walked on.

After being ditched without finding a chick, Jagex was sulking to himself as he walked along. "How come he gets all the girls…Meh." He kept walking until he saw an arcanine bolting from over a hill, and into a couple of stands. Not wanting to get caught in that situation, he ran over the hill and discovered the park. He put his stick above his eyes to block out some sun. He found many of the sights that the girls had, and stopped when he found a certain pink and blue blob in the distance. "The girls!"

He quickly ran, bushido style holding his stick behind him like a sword, and easily crossed the hundreds of meters in 25 seconds catching up to the girls. "Hey girls!"

"Well well well. If it ain't Feather Breath. What have you been doing?" Violet found herself saying trying to refrain from watching her panting friend.

"Well I tried to pick up some…You know what. Never mind. What have YOU guys been doing?" He wanted to steer clear of his defeat with the ladies when Gaia stole them. Violet found herself interested, but thought it better to not ask.

"Nothing really~ Just been strolling about." Lillie informed him. "Cmon. Let's go for a walk through the park!"

After they had been wandering through the park for quite a bit, they found a big hurdle of people surrounding something. As they made their way through the mass of pokemon and people, they found the sight of a battle where one valiant zangoose stood tall with several others on the ground. He was making a heroic pose, the wind traveling through his fur.

"What happened here?" Jagex was oddly interested in this warrior.

A female driftloom next to them spoke up, "This zangoose said he'd take on any challenge in order to impress people. He's so strong…" She blushed as she realized she confessed the honest opinion about the male.

"Pssht…a warrior doesn't take on random challenges. It's not reformed, right Violet?...Violet?" Jagex peered in her direction only to find her awe struck. She was gawking at this hunk of strength laid in her path.

"He's so dreamy…" Unfortunately, she discovered that she had spoke her thoughts. Jagex was absolutely disgusted, but quickly composed himself. As he turned his head toward the zangoose, he was surprised to find him on his knee taking Violet's hand and kissing it. No one knew what to make of the situation. Lillie was surprised, Jagex was dumbfounded, and Violet found herself in absolute bliss.

"I hear you think I'm…dreamy?" He had an Italian accent. His body was littered with tiny scars, while one of his claws was chipped. Violet was blushing a heavy shade of red. "Hello, my name is Ramone…and yours?" He fluttered his eyes in her direction while he had her eyes locked in his.

"V-v-violet." She turned her head slightly to hide the shade, but he quickly placed a claw under her chin and pulled her attention gently his way.

"How about…tomorrow you and I take a walk…?"

"I'd love to…" She had been returning the flattery. He quickly got up and walked away with a hand in the air to symbol a good-bye.

Again, Lillie was surprised, Violet was thinking dreamily of her date tomorrow, and Jagex was absolutely outraged. "What, in the freaking world, just f*#$ing happened!?!"

"She just got a date!" Lillie laughed while she spoke to Jagex. The group, well except for Jagex, started to laugh. Violet even placed a claw on her hip to show her superiority.

As they turned away from the event, Lillie had a surprise waiting for her. When they pulled the 180, Lillie's jaw dropped. At first she was surprised, but quickly pulled into a not wanted anger.

"Hello. Lillie" In front of them sat a very slender Luxray. "Flaunting with the crops again I see."

"Lola…How are you…" Lillie replied. Both the females looked at each other in a complete annoyance. Jagex and Violet made their distance. "As loathsome as ever I surmise."

"And you are just as repugnant I see. So~ Do you have a boyfriend?" The luxray walked up and circled the Typhlosion, casually lacing her tail around her without coming in contact.

Jagex, confused, turned to Violet inquiring, "Who the hell is she?"

"Ah. That's right, you weren't there the first time they met. She's used to be a shinx that Lillie beat as a Quilava in a ribbon contest. I think her name's Lola."

Lillie paid no never mind to this and stared straight ahead. "I don't see you with one~"

"Oh really…" She stuck her snout in the air and let out a rough but rhythmic whistle. From the bushes emerged an Electabuzz.

"Yeah babe? You call?" He was obviously brainless as it took him a second to find his girlfriend as she was right in front of him.

"Nothing dear, just checking to see if your alright." She glanced over to see if Lillie was watching and deliberately frenched the unsuspecting Electabuzz.

Lillie was appalled. But as the French continued, she began to chuckle, which eventually led her to cracking up. The Luxray broke the kiss instantly and perturbed, "What's so funny!?" This left the Electabuzz completely dumbfounded.

Lillie wiped a tear from her eye and began to walk away, "Oh nothing Lola, nothing at all. You sure know how to Pick'em!" With that, she quickly grabbed her friends and ran off laughing.

Chapter 7 C

The Battle

The sun was going down when he discovered the park. He had a big headache, what with all the new voices he was able to hear. "Take it easy James. It's ok. Don't lose your cool. I'm sure you can handle this perfectly without letting anyone know that you…can…understand pokemon…Gah." He told himself repeatedly. He started to walk again when he found his party. It appeared that Gaia had rejoined them. That's when it hit him. He was finally going to understand his pokemon for the first time.

"Hey guys!"

"James!" Everyone expelled as they quickly hugged their master. He found each of their voices perfect. Gaia's slow but powerful, Violet's excited, Jagex' full of confidence, and Lillie's. He was speechless when he heard her beautiful voice ring through his ears. But he tried to keep his composure, not revealing that anything was wrong.

As they walked back, he heard their conversations and actually had to keep himself from laughing. He found Jagex funny, Violet inspirational, Gaia adorable, and Lillie amazing. But as they walked, James saw many people casting an eye at him, talking about him. He overheard one person call him the 'popular trainer'. Finally, someone had guts to walk next to him nervously. "Excuse me, but aren't you J-James?"

James stopped completely and tipped his beret to the new friend, "Why yes, yes I am. May I ask for whom is inquiring?"

The boy was about 12. He looked like an average pokemon trainer. "I was wondering. Since your such a good trainer around these parts, can you…umm. (Gulp) Can I battle you to see if I'm any good?"

James felt flattered. He pressed his hat to his chest, bowed, and said, "It would be my honor my good sir."

"Really? Gee thanks! My name is Scott!" He shook James' hand. By now, there was a whole crowd surrounding them.

"You ready?" James tilted his head.

"You bet!" Scott ran back a few yards, pulled out a pokeball, and threw it into the air. From there, it sent the red laser and from it, emerged a definitely powerful Croconaw. "I choose you, Willy!"

"Wow! A Croconaw! I haven't seen one of those in a while…Let's see…" James turned to his pokemon and spoke in an enthusiastic mood, "Who's up for a battle guys!?"

His pokemon all cheered, but Lillie was the won who cheered the most, Violet the least.

"Okidoke." James then got into his battling stance which consisted of him bending his legs and crouching. "I choose you, Lillie!"

The pink typhlosion bursted onto the scene. She got a round of coo's and awes from the audience. She waved to them with a great big smile to show her appreciation.

"A typhlosion? They're weak to water aren't they? Yay!"

"Hello!" the croconaw waved politely.

"Hi! You ready?" He nodded in confirmation.

One of the citizens from the crowd began the count down.

"Three. Two. One. Begin!"

"Quick Willy, use whirlpool!" The croconaw was quick on the gun. By the time Lillie took notice, the whirlpool was already headed her way.

"Lillie! Brace yourself!" James spoke to his comrade.

"Right!" When James heard her answer him, he felt a great sense of dignity, able to speak to his pokemon in the midst of battle.

The whirlpool quickly consumed her for what seemed like minutes. As soon as Scott felt he won, it dissipated leaving a Lillie unhurt. She had used flame wheel in order to block the attack entirely. She smirked as she felt it was her turn.

James knew what came next. He raised his right arm, and threw it down calling out to his pokemon, "Lillie! Use extreme speed and mach punch!" Without warning, Willy felt an excruciating pain in his gut. As his eyes slowly moved down, he saw Lillie retracting her punch and releasing another. Within seconds, he was in the air under the mercy of her combo. With a final blow, she delivered a left hook, sending him flying.

Just as soon as she thought she had won, Willy landed on his hind legs at full attention, though badly hurt. "Ouch! That hurt!"

"Hehe. I'm amazed that you stood that!" Lillie tried to offer her statement as a bit of encouragement. She saw that it worked as her opponent flexed his muscles. She laughed.

"Wow." James thought to himself. He was amazed at how sincere Lillie was trying to be, encouraging her opponent not to lose hope and to try his best. Was she always like this?

"Willy! Use water gun!" Scott pointed his finger at their opponent to give coordinates for the attack. With an ample inhalation of air, the Croconaw released an over sized water gun attack.

"Lillie! Use fire spin!" James didn't worry about the water gun. Lillie has been able to withstand plenty of water moves for a while.

"Ok James!" She nodded to him. Without even breathing in much air, she had released a voluptuous flaming spiral. As the attacks met, the fire spin started to wrap around the water gun, dissolving it mid-air and continued on it's way to her target. As it hit, Willy was engulfed in the flames.

"Willy! Shake it off!" But to no use, as soon as the flames dissipated, there stood the Croconaw with x's in his eyes. After a few seconds, he fell to the ground.

"The match is over! James and Lillie are the winners!" The civilian held his hand towards James' side.

"Alright! We did it Lillie!" He ran and gave his typhlosion a big congratulatory hug. "You're the best!"

"Yay! I'm so happy!" She started to hug him back. As she held him in her arms, her memories of their past times ran through her head. This was only one of her many victories, but he still treated it like the best one yet. She thought back to one time when she lost against a Blastoise. She almost began to cry, her back towards him. She thought that she would lose his interest and honor in her. But as her tears trailed down her face, she felt his loving arms embrace her from behind saying, "Hey…it's ok. Stop crying, please? I'd rather lose than see you cry!" She turned, eyes swollen with tears, to see his goofy smile. She could never of felt more loved. Then it ran through her head.

She started to tear slightly, when James noticed, "What's wrong? Are you hurt?" He looked extremely worried.

She glanced up to her best friend. She put on a goofy smile through the tears and shook her head. What surprised him was her throwing her head into his chest and crying slightly. "You're the best…that's all." This threw James back. He didn't know what to say. He'd always wanted to hear his pokemon say that, but he never knew how to react. He remembered, though, that he couldn't let her know his secret. He took it easy and wrapped his arms around her slowly and rocked her back and forth, in front of the whole crowd. Some were confused, but most just aww'd.

James remembered that he defeated his opponent and decided to check up on them. He saw Scott high-fiving Willy for a job well done. "He's a pretty strong Croconaw! With some training, he'll be amazing." James high fived Scott himself.

"You did pretty good!" Lillie shook hands with Willy, which in turn made him blush.

"Gee thanks! I hope I can beat you someday." He pulled down his eyelid and stuck his tongue out playfully. This made Lillie laugh.

Everybody was on their way back to the pokemon center. This one had a sign inside stating "Hotel Suits!" James had met up with Lazard, Kris, and Tori and they talked about their days. Lazard had finally gotten Coal tired, Kris won a hotdog eating contest, and Tori had an entire cart of flowers and knick-knacks she had picked with the help of Sherry. As they came up to Mrs. Joy, they saw Scott and Willy heading toward a room themselves and waved. "How much for the suits Mrs. Joy?"

"It's slightly expensive…2000 A night." Everybody except for James gasped. All he did was take his card out of his pocket and swiped it twice.

"Okay guys. Lazard, Kris, and Tori can take one room, we'll take the other."

Later the group was on their way to their room. James mannerly held the door open for his pokemon and heard how each of their days went.

"Seriously! What does that zangoose have that I don't!?"

"He's so dreamy…I can't wait for my date tomorrow!"

"I hope she'll be there tomorrow…"

But as Lillie came, she faced James with a big smile. "Heh. You feeling better?" He rubbed that same spot that she loved.

With a murr, she agreed, "Mhmm…Thanks."

Everyone except for James was asleep. He could still hear Coal and Lazard snoring in the other room. But that stopped when they heard a loud smashing noise. He guessed the Kris and Echo whacked them on the head. But that wasn't keeping him up.

"Hmm…until I understand my own pokemon…" He looked up and watched his team sleep peacefully. "…I guess I'll hang with each of them tomorrow. Maybe I can understand them then!" With an affirmative smile, he fell asleep.