Sup guys, so I know this took a little while, but it is finally here. I am going to try and cut down on the AN since I am not even sure if many people read them. So, onto the reviews!

Average Pichu: I have seen it spelled either way you may see me switch between advisor and adviser because to me both of them seem correct and I can't decide which one to use. I am having Devin act more childish because it is something really isn't explored. I figured that since the brain is also physically five, he would have the same tendencies as an actually five year old.

Monpoke: Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about Brand. I have something special planned for the next few chapters that will include him in it. The reason Devin isn't asked his opinion much is because of that hidden mechanism in everyone that says 'young kids can't contribute.' As false as this is, especially for Devin, everyone has already made assumption about him before listening to what he has to say. That too, will be addressed later on.

From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere.

Dr. Seuss

Chapter 11

Devin's POV

"Everyone, today we have two guests. They will be staying for a little while so please make them feel comfortable. This is Devin. He is the youngest of three and has been traveling with Master Mew and his companions. This is Hope. She is the daughter of Master Mew's advisor." Aurelia announced.

I cringe slightly at being called the youngest, but was more interested in the reactions Hope would be getting. Humans could be horrible when it came to someone that was different than them. I figured that it would be even worse for someone who wasn't even the same species.

The other Pichus reacted with a lot of whispers and stares. Hope fidgeted and stared at the ground. Seconds later, we were ushered towards the back of the group. I sat next to Hope so that she could have somebody she knew near her.

"Aren't you afraid?" a small voice squeaked at me. I looked around for the source and found a Pichu not much bigger than I was sitting a foot away.

"No. Why would I be? Her mother is my po… I mean my caretaker. She has never hurt me so why would I be afraid?" I replied. I silently chided myself for almost slipping up. The Pichu looked at me with a hint of confusion.

"But her kind eats us. How do you know that she won't eat you if she gets hungry?" she quickly shot back.

"Look. That pitiful excuse for a cat put her mom in charge of me. If Jeffric trusts her to handle my antics than I'm sure he trusts her not to eat me." I leveled. "Why don't you try to get to know her before you try judging her?"

The Pichu looked at her with a frightened stare, before summoning the courage to talk to her.

"H-hi, m-my name i-is Ell. I-it is n-nice to m-meet y-you, H-Hope." Ell stammered. The fright was carved into her face like etched glass.

"Nice to meet you too!" Hope beamed.

"I told you she was nice." I said.

The Pichu scooted a little closer to me, cautiously watching Hope. Hope watched in bemusement, unsure of what to do or say.

"For the love of all things living, Just talk to each other! You are both girls! There has to be something that you can talk about!" I said, quickly becoming irritated.

"You try being an outsider for once. Everyone is afraid that I am going to eat them. I would like to see everyone being afraid of you like that!" Hope spat.

"I wasn't raised with something that could eat me either." Ell mumbled softly.

"Children, is there a problem?" Aurelia asked, suspicion and worry covered by a feigned smile.

"No, Ma'am, everything is alright." Ell spoke up.

"Alright then. If there is a problem, be sure to come and get me." she said to us, though she was mostly talking to Ell.

Aurelia want back to the tree she was under and looked over the entire group of Pichu. There were maybe thirty of us and seven Pikachu. So far, I had no clue what we were supposed to do. I was about to ask a nearby Pikachu, but Aurelia answered my question before I could ask.

"Today class, we are going to go to the battlegrounds and talk with Adad and Anil. They will be showing you the importance of learning to fight or flee, as will they demonstrate several ways to escape a predator. I want you all to be on your best behavior and to listen to what they have to say. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Ma'am!" the class said loudly in response.

The seven Pikachu and Aurelia herded us to the scorched part of the colony. Two Pikachu sat just before the battlegrounds and got up as we approached.

"Aurelia! It is good to see you today. Is the class ready to see some action?" one of the brothers asked, though I wasn't sure which one was which.

"I think they are pretty excited Anil. You can begin as soon as you are ready." Aurelia replied.

"Alright kids, listen up! Most of you know me because you probably have a brother or sister that is training under me, but I will introduce myself anyways. I am Anil and the quiet statue over here is Adad!Today, we are going to show you some basic moves that you can use to escape a predator if one happens to grab you. To help with our demonstration, we have a special guest. He is the appointed protector of Master Mew. Elweard why don't you come on out?" Anil announced excitedly.

Elweard seemed to appear out of nowhere. One minute, there was no one there and the next there was a five foot tall, Lucario. Everyone including myself jumped about ten feet in the air. I wasn't scared, but it did startle me.

"It is my pleasure to teach you all today. I hope you all learn something that will one day save your life." Elweard said humbly. There were nervous whispers and mutterings between the Pichu. Even the Pikachu looked around worriedly. The only ones that didn't seem to be affected by Elweard's presence were Adad, Anil, Hope, and myself. After a few long seconds of silence, Adad decided to start their demonstration.

'This should be interesting.' I thought with a smirk.

Austin's POV

"Very good, Emily. We are going to make a warrior out of you in no time." our instructor, Clay, praised.

According to Baraq, Clay is considered one of the strongest Pikachu in the colony. He supposedly is able to withstand most ground type attacks without any harm and that he was able to take on three Onix by himself. Of course, I really don't believe that to all be true, but I couldn't say it to the guy's face.

"No, not like that Austin. You need to relax more. Try to copy what your sister is doing." Clay instructed.

It was burning me that Emily was able to get this stuff so easily; I was sitting here looking like I was an idiot! Not to mention the fact that Emily was not my sister. I was getting sick of that as well!

"Austin, just relax, and feel the electricity. That's all you have to do." Emily spouted with a lopsided grin. She was obviously enjoying my dilemma.

"I am as relaxed as I can be! If I get any more relaxed I am going to melt! You sitting there staring at me with that creepy grin, isn't helping either!" I shot back. Emily pouted for a second, but quickly went back to grinning. She closed her eyes, and quickly shot a bolt of electricity at me! I jumped back before it hit and stared at her in disbelief.

"What was that for!" I yelled angrily.

"Oh, I'm just trying to motivate you." Emily teased.

"You aren't motivating me! You are really just ticking me off!" I yelled.

"Enough, both of you. You are here to learn, not to fight. Austin, you may not be good at it right now, but I can promise you that you will get better. As for you Emily, there is no need to gloat. You are a fast learner and that is good, but you are not anywhere close to being a fighter. I know Pichu that hit better than you and elderly Magikarp that have more stamina. Be proud of what you have accomplished, but do not gloat." Clay lectured. I felt really embarrassed that I had yelled like that and was reprimanded for it. Emily had the same embarrassed expression I wore as she stared at her feet.

"I am sorry. It won't happen again." I muttered.

"You are right, it will not. Emily, I am going to continue training you. Austin, I am putting you into the beginning class. That way, you will have others around you that have the same experience as you. They are mostly newly evolved Pikachu so you should feel right at home."

"But I thought that you would be the…"

"My classes are for those who can use electricity right away. It is rather advanced. You would not be able to keep up. Not until you can control you electricity." Clay interrupted.

I felt that I had just been smacked with a sledgehammer. Clay had just bumped me down to the beginning class. How was I supposed to tell Devin that Emily beat me? That would just be humiliating.

"Emily, don't tell Devin." I begged.

"I know how he can be. I promise, that I won't." Emily replied with a smile.

"I will take him to the beginning class then we will continue our lesson." Clay said to Emily, beckoning for me to follow.

Devin's POV

"This is really boring." I whispered to Hope as the lessons went on.

Watching someone pretend to try an eat someone else loses its flair when they are doing something over and over again. Half the class was either falling asleep or were playing with the grass. I was with the half playing with the grass. I twirled a blade of grass with my paw, and sighed.

"Hope? Are you ok?" I asked after a few minutes of near silence. Still not getting a response, I looked over at the miniature dinosaur. Her eyes were wide open in a glazed over look. "Hope?"

I scooted next to her quietly and poked her. She didn't move. I poked her again, trying to make sure she was alive. I got my response through her lying down; on top of me! I squeaked as I tried desperately to get out from underneath her. Then I heard a very light snore! She fell asleep with here eyes open! How anyone can do that, I have no idea!

"Hope! Wake up!" I whispered, praying that she would wake up. Instead, all I got was more light snores.

"Ok class, thank Elweard, Adad, and Anil for showing you all of those techniques." I heard Aurelia say. There were several "thank you's" that resounded around me. "Alright, now everyone, we will be going over to the berry patches for meal time. Everyone be sure to stick with your buddy so you don't get lost."

'Crap, Hope please wake up!' I begged in my mind.

"Devin? Are you ok?" Ell asked as she walked up to me. Hope was still using me as a pillow, and there was no way I could make something up.

"What does it look like? Hope fell asleep and now I'm her pillow." I wheezed.

"Oh, well why don't you just shock her a little? That's what my parents do when the need me to wake up." Ell suggested.

"I don't know about that. It might hurt her… and me." I replied.

"Don't worry about that, silly. You should be fine as long as you are careful. Besides, you don't want Mrs. Aurelia to find out that you were goofing off in class. She would not be very happy."

"Alright, I get the point." I muttered.

I thought deeply about getting Hope off of me. I tried to make myself worked up, remembering that was how I shocked myself the first time. Soon, there was a light tingling spreading through my cheeks. It didn't take long for me to start feeling uncomfortable. Thankfully, the uncomfortable feeling released shooting small sparks through me and Hope. I didn't get hit to bad this time so, Hope got the brunt of the damage, which wasn't much. She shot up off me, faster than a farmer that heard a fox in the hen house.

"Devin, what was that for?" she asked irately.

"You nearly suffocated me." I said with a glare.

"Discuss this later. We need to catch with the class before they realize that we are missing." Ell said as she waved us on. I shot daggers at Hope as we scurried to catch up with the group.

"Children, please be careful while you play. If anyone gets hurt, I would have to sit with them for the rest of class. I am sure you wouldn't want that." Aurelia said as Ell, Hope, and I caught up with the rest of the group.

"Devin, do you want to come play with me and some of my friends? You can choose the game." Ell asked the instant Aurelia finished talking.

"I don't think so. I am not really the playing type." I responded carefully. I wasn't going to be here very long so I didn't see any reason to make any friends.

"Are you sure? If you are wanting Hope to play she uh, she can play too!" Ell pleaded desperately.

"Come on, Devin. It sounds like fun." Hope said with a gleam in her eye.

"Alright, fine, but only for a few minutes." I caved.

"Don't worry! you'll love my friends. They are great!" Ell yelled enthusiastically as she bounded toward a small group of Pichu.

"Gee, thanks Hope." I muttered.

"You need to relax. You are always tense. Just have some fun for a change."

"As if you know me like the back of your hand." I retorted.

"Just because I haven't been able to talk to you, doesn't mean that I couldn't tell that you were wound up."

"And here I thought that you were something that was to be seen, not heard. When did you get your PhD, Dr. Dino Chick?"

"What's a PhD?" Hope asked with a look of puzzlement.

"Forget it. Let's go." I replied rolling my eyes.

Austin's POV

A crowd of Pikachu were brawling on the ground a few feet in front of me and Clay. Two Raichu, stood off to the side. Watching the small group. They cradled their heads in their paws as if they were suffering from migraines.

'This is going to be a long day.' I thought as one of the Raichu approached us.

"Clay, please tell me that you came to help." the Raichu practically begged.

"My schedule is rather busy. I just came by to drop off a new student." Clay said dismissively.

"Please! Not another one! I can't even get them to behave!" moaned the Raichu as he pointed at the group of roughhousing Pikachu.

"I remember a time when you were the exact same way. In fact, you were worse than they are." Clay smirked.

"Clay, please. Help me. These… these Pikachu are just Pichu in older bodies! They don't listen, they don't pay attention, and they don't care! I signed up to teach, not to babysit!"

"Terrance, you signed up to teach, but you need to learn first. Do you know any of their names? What kind of personalities do they possess? What do they already know? What do they need to work on? Those are a few things that you must learn. You teach through learning." Clay lectured.

"Yes sir..." Terrance murmured.

"You have to forgive Terrance. Today is his and Luka's first day as teachers. They are still quite young and don't have the experience yet to understand how to handle a class."

"If they are new, why are they in control of their own class?" I asked nervously.

"We let them learn on the job. They are given guidelines and a few objectives they have to complete in order to become full fledged teachers. They must learn a way of teaching that the newly evolved Pikachu can learn from." Clay responded.

"I think I understand. They learn while we learn."

"Exactly. Now, I am going to leave you in Terrance and Luka's very capable paws. Who knows, maybe you will teach them a thing or two." Clay said as he headed back in the direction we had come from.

Emily's POV

Since Austin had left, I had been able to figure out several more ways to shoot my electricity. It was so easy that I couldn't believe I had trouble with it the first day! I practiced forming electrical balls and shooting lightning bolts for a good half an hour before Clay returned. I was excited to show him and hoped that he would teach me how to use them more effectively since my aim was still somewhat atrocious.

I worked on target practice for a little while, shooting at small rocks. I missed for most of the shots, but I was slowly improving.

"Emily?" a voiced called, startling me. I loosed as small lightning bolt that I had been charging out of surprise. It flew and nearly hit Clay!

"Clay! I am so sorry! That was a total accident!" I exclaimed.

"It's alright, I am used to being shot at." Clay chuckled. "Actually, I have been watching you for the past ten minutes or so. I am impressed. You are quite gifted."

Clay's praise caused me to blush. Though I don't think he noticed since I am covered in fur. "I was really just experimenting."

"I see. That doesn't change the fact that you were very good. Watching you gives me a good idea of what we need to work on as well."

"Clay, thanks for teaching me."

"It is my honor to teach a friend of Mew." Clay replied.

Devin's POV

Ell was hard to keep up with. We played several different games. Some were extremely human, like tag and hide-n-seek. Others were obviously Pokémon. One such game was called Sparky. There were two teams. Each had five Pichu. The object of the game was for one team to completely eliminate the other team by shocking the players on the other team. In a sense, it was like dodge ball without any boundaries. Since this was a strictly electrical game, Hope had to sit out and just watch. I would have just sat with her and watched, but Ell wouldn't have it.

"Please will you stop chasing me! There are plenty of others playing!" I yelled as I dodged yet another small jolt of electricity.

The Pichu that had been badgering me since the game started, turned out to be Ell's older brother. He didn't approve of me being around with his sister and decided that he had to protect her. The problem was that I didn't want anything to do with his sister. I was here because I was forced to be, not because I wanted to be. Of course, I wasn't able to convince him of that.

"Why should I? I don't like you." the Pichu replied.

"Pic, leave him alone. He hasn't done anything to you." Ell said from the side lines. She had been hit earlier in the game.

"Shut up, Sis. I don't like him and I don't want him around you." Pic said.

"Dude, I don't know what you are thinking, but I wouldn't hurt your sister. Heck, she was just trying to make me and Hope feel welcome." I said, trying to talk some sense into the mouse.

"I don't care. My sister is not going to be friends with a predator, or anyone who is friends with a predator." he replied fervently.

'There is no talking to this guy.' I thought as I finally decided to give up. 'If anything, I should try to put him in his place.'

I jumped up and dashed away from the other Pichu. He chased me just as I thought he would. He was quickly gaining on me. Seeing as how I was new to running on all fours, that didn't really surprise me. I then quickly stopped in my tracks and allowed him to overshoot me. I chuckled to myself for a second as I concentrated on building electricity. Once I felt that I had enough, I shot it toward him.

To my utter dismay, the bolt arced back zapped me. It stung but didn't hurt too bad. Pic, stared with a devilish grin and began to charge some electricity of his own. Just as he shot it, the same thing happened. It arced back to the source and shocked him.

"You two are both out. Get to your sides of the field!" one of the other Pichus called. I heard Pic grumble a little as he walked to the opposite side of the field. I followed suit, going to my team's side.

'At least he didn't beat me.' I thought smugly.

Emily's POV

"What's wrong with you two?" I asked, walking into the burrow.

"Oh, nothing. I just have a headache." Austin replied as he laid in his pile of grass. Devin didn't even bother to answer.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked motioning to Devin.

"I don't know, exactly. All I know was that one of the other Pichus was making fun of him and Hope." Austin replied.

"Who was it? Maybe we should tell Aurelia about this?" I suggested.

"I don't have a clue and Devin won't talk." Austin shrugged.

"I had a good day today, if that is any consolation."

"I am sure you did. After all, you got to go to the better class while I was stuck with a bunch of new Pikachu. Of course your day was good." Austin muttered.

His reaction surprised me and actually made a little bit angry, making me forget of the promise I made earlier. "You're just jealous because you couldn't even shoot your electricity."

Of course, Devin heard this and he instantly stopped pouting, eager to hear more. "Austin couldn't even use his electricity? How pathetic is that?"

"Shut up Devin!" Austin and I said in unison, causing him to shy away.

We glowered at each other for several long minutes. We were both tense and actually read to fight each other. The only reason we didn't was because Jeffric came through the entrance.

"Um, what are you two doing?" he asked, unsure whether or not to get involved.

"Nothing, I was just getting upset." He sighed, relaxing.

"I'm sorry. It just felt good to be better than you at something." I apologized.

"Do I get an apology for you two yelling at me?" Devin asked mockingly.

"We're sorry for yelling at you." Austin said. Devin's mouth dropped opened, obviously not expecting a serious apology.

"Now that everyone has kissed and made up, what was that all about?" Jeffric asked.

"Austin and I were taking an evaluation test for Clay, the Pikachu that would be teaching us. Austin was placed with the beginners while I was placed with the intermediates." I explained.

"I got mad since I wasn't as good or better than her."

"Ok, so what about Devin. I sense there is something he isn't telling everyone."

"All I could get out of him was that he had someone who was picking on him and Hope." I said.

"From what I can tell, Devin made a friend and her older brother doesn't approve of her hanging out with him and Hope." Jeffric answered.

"It really isn't any of your business! I can take care of my own problems! And, I don't appreciate you reading my mind. That is an invasion of privacy!" Devin yelled hotly.

"You probably shouldn't do that. You might find some disturbing things in there." Austin smirked.

"That was so funny, I forgot to laugh." Devin deadpanned before breaking out into a smile and laughing.

Teresa's POV

The sound of laughter was a welcoming noise from within the burrow. I felt for sure that it would break out into a full blown argument. One that I would not be able to stop. I smiled a little taking comfort in the fact that Devin and Austin were finally starting to get along; if only a little.

"Teresa, what's going on in there?" a certain Lucario asked as he slunk toward the burrow. He looked absolutely exhausted.

"Austin and Devin are getting along." I said quietly. Then it occurred to me, Elweard was supposed to be meditating the whole day. I shot him a suspicious glare. "And where have you been?"

"Whoa, hold on now. I was planning on meditating, but Baraq asked me to do some demonstrations with some of the teachers. After that, I ended up sparring several of the teachers so they could see how well their training holds up to mine." Elweard replied quickly.

"I'll let you off the hook this time, but next time you better let me know where you are. You know I am very protective of my kids." I threatened.

Elweard smiled. "Yes ma'am. You are just like an old mother Blaziken."

"You better believe it."

I hope y'all enjoyed the chapter. If you have anything to say, be sure to leave a review or PM me. If y'all are enjoying the story, be sure to smash that favorite/follow button. This is shieldliger001 signing off.