Disclaimer: I own neither Pokémon nor its characters

Chapter 21: a rare Pokémon

I woke up to Leaf shaking me "come on Alex, you can't sleep forever!" she said

"I'm up, I'm up!" I said, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

"Come on, the others are already having breakfast" Leaf said

I got up and went over to eat breakfast. I greeted the others with a sleepy good morning.

"Ok, I think we should split up this time" Red said

"But…I thought we were having fun together" Aqua complained

"he wants to split up to catch Snorlax" Leaf said "me, Red, and Zain will go to cycling lain, and you and Aqua will go down the other path"

"Ok" I said "see you in Fuschia city!" we then went towards separate parts of the city.

We used our bicycle, and we ended up on route 12. I immediately saw the Snorlax "there it is" I said

"Come on, let's use the Poke flute on it" she said. She took it out of my bag and played it loudly.

"SNORLAX!"

That didn't sound good. "Go Wartortle!" I said, quickly throwing a poke ball.

"Wartortle!"

The Snorlax immediately jumped at us, and Wartortle was knocked back. Then the Snorlax looked at me. There was no anger, nothing to show it was upset. In fact, it seemed to want me to catch it. I threw a poke ball at it. It shook once, and then clicked.

"Whoa, that was super easy!" Aqua said

"Yea, almost too easy" I said. I couldn't shake a feeling that something wasn't right, but I ignored it.

"Gengar!"

I yelped in surprise and fell into the water as my Gengar had managed to send itself out. Aqua helped me back up "what the heck?" I said in confusion

"Looks like Gengar doesn't like being stuck in a poke ball" Aqua said, amusement in her voice

"Oh, fine, you can stay out" I said

"Gengar!" it replied happily. I rolled my eyes and we continued walking.

Pikachu, who had followed us, talked with Gengar. I didn't really follow the conversation, but I didn't need to either. Around noon, we got to a field just outside Fuschia city, and decided to stop for lunch. We let out our Pokémon, and after they ate, they started running around.

"It's very peaceful here, don't you agree?" Aqua asked, lying on the ground.

"Well, if you count the noises of Pokémon peaceful" I said, watching my Pidgeot chase Aqua's Butterfree around.

"Who said I was talking about this moment?" Aqua said "we haven't seen a single car, not one phone, just people and Pokémon with houses."

"Your point?" I asked

"My point is, this reminds me of where we met…except, it's not quite as dark" Aqua said

"Yea, kind of does" I said, thinking back to the cave I found her in.

"Snorlax!"

"Pidgeot!"

The sound of two Pokémon fighting snapped me out of my thoughts "what in the world?" Aqua asked.

Looking over, I saw Snorlax swiping at Pidgeot, who was occasionally pecking at Snorlax "why are they fighting?" I asked

"Snorlax stole Pidgeots berries" Pikachu said "and Pidgeot is trying to make sure he doesn't again"

I sighed "Snorlax, Pidgeot, stop it!" I said.

They went silent, then Pidgeot flew away, leaving Snorlax to go to sleep. "Well, that was easy" Aqua said

"I suppose it was" I replied. I watched as Pidgeot went back to chasing Butterfree. "You don't think Pidgeot will hurt Butterfree, do you?"

"I don't think so, they were caught around the same time" Aqua replied "if it were a Pidgey and a Caterpie, I would be worried"

I saw several Pokémon lounging around, communicating as if they were human. One case was my Wartortle and Aqua's Charmeleon. It almost seemed as if Wartortle was trying to get him to go swimming. I ignored it, knowing Charmeleon wouldn't go in.

Watching them, they seemed like creatures from our world interacting. The difference was, these guys didn't try to kill each other. It seemed that the poke ball not only made the Pokémon bond with the trainer, but it made the Pokémon bond with each other. Sure, there enemies in battle, and your always battling when your wild, but when they aren't focused on survival, maybe they could be friends. That's probably why Pokémon stay with trainers. The trainer cares for them, allowing them to focus more on playing with the other Pokémon around them. Charmeleon and Wartortle had fought a lot before they evolved, but now they seemed to almost be best friends, not to mention both worked really hard.

Then I noticed there were two Eevees…and two Pidgeots. "Aqua, did you catch more Pokémon by any chance?" I asked

She sat up and looked at the Pokémon "how the heck did I get a second Eevee?" she asked

I got up, and brought out a poke ball, and Aqua did the same "hey guys, come over here!" I called. All of them came over except the extra Eevee and Pidgeot. "I'll get the Eevee, you get the Pidgeot, deal?" I asked.

"Deal" she replied. But they didn't attack…they transformed instead.

"Ditto!"

"Ditto!"

"Whoa! Dittos!" I said

"Is that good?" Aqua asked

"Yes, very" I said. We both threw our poke ball, and both Dittos immediately got caught. "That's weird" I said

"What, that we're loved by so many Pokémon?" Aqua asked, smiling

"Exactly…something isn't right" I said

"Come on Alex, who couldn't love you?" she said

I shook my head "your right, it's probably nothing" I said. The thing is, I couldn't shake the feeling.

"Maybe some sleep will help" Aqua said. It was getting dark, so she was probably right.

We went into the city, and headed straight for the Pokémon center. "Welcome to the Pokémon center." Nurse Joy said "are you Alex and Aqua?"

"That's us" I said

"Ok, your rooms are just down the hall." She said

We went to our rooms, and I immediately got into bed. I drifted to sleep pretty quickly.

Whew, I finally got this chapter done. Sorry I didn't upload it sooner, I've been really busy lately. Remember: I love criticism, reviews encourage me, and I'm open to input. Bye for now!