Chapter 5: Fast and Furious

"Alright Skitty, use DoubleSlap!"

Lyla tossed three tennis balls into the air and Skitty used DoubleSlap to juggle them. The two were off on their own in Petalburg Forest, brainstorming ideas for Pokémon Contests. The others were resting in a camp they had set up not too far from there.

"Now give 'em one final slap!"

Skitty nodded and smacked each ball back to Lyla, one-by-one. Lyla smiled and caught the first two no problem, but when Skitty hit the third ball, her tail flashed and the ball flew all the way over Lyla's head.

"Skitty?" Lyla asked. Skitty looked at her tail and noticed it glowing now. They both gasped and ran back to tell the others. By the time they got there, however. The glowing had subsided.

"You two look flustered," Aiden said with a smile. "What seems to be the problem?"

"Skitty was using DoubleSlap and then her tail started to glow!" Lyla exclaimed. "…Where's Eziray?"

"She said that, since you were off to train, she should head off and train too. Who knows where she is now…"

"So it's just you and me now?"

"And Skitty. Oh and about her tail, she's probably developing Iron Tail. Does she use her tail a lot?"

Flashbacks raced through Lyla's mind of Skitty helping her with various chores around the house and always using her tail to carry brooms, buckets, dustpans and so on. She also remembered how she used to play catch with Skitty and Skitty would always hit the ball back with her tail. Then she suddenly realized that Skitty used her tail for just about everything.

"Uh…yeah, she uses it a lot. Actually, I'd say she uses it religiously," Lyla said after a few moments of thinking.

"Well, she has a really strong tail then. Just keep working it out and she'll probably be able to use the move Iron Tail in no time!"

"What do you mean by working it out?"

"I'll show you."

Aiden picked up a stone from the ground and tied it to Skitty's tail with some discarded fishing line. Then he instructed her to lift her tail up and down as if she were lifting weights. Skitty nodded and obeyed, a bit irritated with the thing dangling from her tail.

"Don't stop for at least ten minutes Skitty," Aiden said, taking a seat on a large, flat rock. Then he patted the empty space next to him. "Mademoiselle?"

Lyla blushed a little and sat down next to him.

"If we're going to be traveling together, I think we should get to know each other a little, don't you agree?"

"Sure," she replied, shyly.

"So tell me about Skitty. How'd you meet her?"

Lyla closed her eyes and thought for a moment, trying to remember the night they had met.

"Lyla?" a woman asked. She was standing in front of the window of a flower shop, gazing into the rainy night sky.

"Hm?" Lyla asked. She was sitting at a table, arranging flowers in a vase. She was six years old at the time and wearing a bright yellow apron that was much too big for her.

"Could you please go make that delivery before this rain gets any worse?"

"But…"

"I really need your help, baby. I have to close up shop. Get your coat. The order is on the front table next to the door; you remember where to take it, correct?"

"Yes mother," Lyla said bitterly, taking her coat from a hook on the wall and throwing it on over her apron. She was very lazy back then and her mother always had to nag until she was blue in the face in order to get Lyla to do anything. She never yelled, however, because she knew that Lyla was still just a child and it was very typical behavior.

"I'll be back," Lyla said, taking the bouquet and walking out into the rain.

"You know, you wouldn't have to go out into the rain if you had only done it earlier like I had asked! Lyla, why can't you just do what I tell you when I tell you? It would make both of our lives so much easier. And it's not like I'm interrupting you or anything because all you ever do is sit around all day. You never go out and play with your friends. Do you even have any friends? Are you even listening to me?"

"Ya, ya."

"Lyla…Please be careful!" her mother called as the door slammed shut behind her daughter.

Lyla took her sweet time with the delivery, practically dragging the roses across the ground. Whenever she saw a puddle, she would get excited and jump into it, but that got pretty boring after a while so she stopped and just continued walking. Her destination was all the way across town. The delivery was for an old woman who was very kind and gave Lyla a pretty generous tip. As Lyla headed back to the store, she counted her money with a rather large grin on her face until she accidentally tripped and landed face-first in a puddle of mud because she wasn't looking.

"Owww," she said, sitting up and wiping the mud from her eyes.

"MYAAAA!"

"Huh?"

A Skitty suddenly rushed past her, soaking wet and covered in wounds. Before she could react, a semicircle of growling Poochyena was suddenly closing in around her.

"N-nice doggies," she said, standing up slowly as the group of Poochyena slowly circled around her. Suddenly, one of them snarled and lunged forward. She screamed but before it could get to her, the Skitty came back and knocked it away from Lyla with Tackle. The group retaliated by charging forward to gang up on the Skitty but she was able to keep them away from her by smacking them around with her tail. They proved to be too much for her, however, and one of them was eventually successful in sinking its fangs into her neck. She cried out and Lyla, without thinking, rushed forward and kicked the Poochyena in the side so it released and fled, whimpering.

"GO AWAY, ALL OF YOU!" she shouted, snatching up the Skitty before the Poochyena could attack it again. The rest of the Poochyena growled dominantly as they backed away and followed after their friend to see if he was okay.

"Meehh…" Skitty cried, weakly.

"You saved me…so I'm gonna save you too, hold on!"

Lyla sprinted to the Pokémon Center and plopped the dripping wet Skitty down onto the counter and Nurse Joy seemed shocked.

"I found her, you have to help her!" Lyla pleaded.

"Alright, alright, I'm sure she will be fine, sweetie. You definitely came to the right place…is something else wrong?"

"Can I use your phone? I need to tell my mom where I am…"

"Sure thing!"

As Nurse Joy tended to the Skitty, Lyla called her mother and explained everything that had happened. Her mother sighed and said that she was just glad Lyla was okay and that she'd be over soon to take her home. Lyla refused to go home when her mother got there, however. Instead, she sat in a chair beside Skitty all night long. She drifted off at one point and fell asleep, resting her head on Skitty's bed. She awoke the next morning to the nuzzling of a soft, pink Pokémon who was purring passionately.

"Are you okay?" Lyla asked sleepily.

"Mya!"

"That's good. Thank you for saving me last night…"

The Skitty said 'you're welcome' by brushing up against Lyla and putting her paws up against Lyla's chest so she could reach up and snuggle against Lyla's face.

"She must be thankful for what you did for her," Nurse Joy said. Lyla picked the Pokémon up and hugged her and thanked her over and over again as it meowed happily and continued to purr. And from that moment on, the two were inseparable.

While Lyla explained this story to Aiden, Skitty had finished her exercise and curled up in Lyla's lap to hear the story as well. Then Lyla asked how Aiden met his first Pokémon.

"Ah, it was nothing special like your story. I was ten years old, it was time to start my journey, and my dad gave me an Eevee. The Eevee and I became very close and one day, she evolved. Eevee's a very special Pokémon. Do you know anything about them?"

"No, Eevee isn't native to Hoenn so I know very little about them."

"Well, when Eevee evolves, it can evolve into one of seven evolutions. Vaporeon, Flareon, and Jolteon all require a stone, but if you don't use a stone and the Pokémon truly loves you, it will evolve into Umbreon or Espeon, depending on the time of day. There's two other evolutions that were discovered in Sinnoh, so I don't know much about those…"

"I see," Lyla said.

"Yup…so what's with the cowboy hat?"

"That's like me asking 'what's up with the guitar?' I like it, isn't it obvious?" Lyla asked, giggling.

"I didn't mean it like it's a bad thing, I was just curious," he said, running his right index finger along the rim of her hat. When he reached the front and center, he pushed down lightly so the hat went down over her eyes.

"Stop it!" she said, laughing and pushing it back up.

"Aw, but it looked cute!" he said, pushing it down again.

"But I can't see!"

"It's okay, I won't let you run into anything," he said, taking her by the hand and standing up.

"Where are we going?" she asked, still laughing a little, as he led her through the forest.

Elsewhere in the forest, Eziray was off training on her own as Aiden had said. Well, actually, they were having lunch now. Eziray had brought along a sandwich and a canister of PokéFood and they were sitting and enjoying the quiet forest as they ate.

"Alright guys, I'd say about five more minutes and then we get back to work, huh?" Eziray said as she finished the last bite of her sandwich.

"Hey, uhm, Eziray?"

"Yes, Gracie?"

"I think those Treecko are hungry too!"

Gracie pointed up into the trees and there was a large group of Treecko sitting in them with their legs dangling over the branches. They appeared to be glaring at Eziray as well as her Pokémon.

"Treee!" one of them shouted angrily.

"He said 'Trespassers are not welcome!' Tee hee, that's silly! We're not bothering anything!" Gracie said with a giggle. The Treecko did not enjoy being laughed at so he broke a rather large twig off the tree and hurled it at the insolent little Ralts.

"Hey, that was mean!" Gracie shouted angrily and used Confusion to lift up and fling a huge log at the rude Pokémon.

"I didn't know you could do that!" Eziray exclaimed.

"You didn't ask! I can do this too!" Gracie said, giggling wildly as she disappeared and reappeared behind the Treecko who had gotten knocked off the tree branch by the log. It was now lying on the ground, wondering what had hit him.

"Ah, so you can Teleport!" Eziray observed. Gracie nodded and held out her hand.

"I'm sorry Treecko! I don't want to fight! Do you wanna be friends instead?"

The Treecko smacked her hand away and called out to his friends. They all nodded and retreated from the area, hopping from tree to tree. The Treecko on the ground glared at Gracie once more before leaping back into the trees and speeding after his friends.

"That was weird," Eziray said, scratching her head.

"He said they'll be back, and he meant it…I could see it in his eyes," Gracie said softly.

"I take it that Treecko are very territorial…"

"I wouldn't worry about it! They appear to be all talk! I don't think they're that strong!"

"Maybe, maybe not. You can't really judge a book by its cover, Gracie…Oh well, no use dwelling on it. Let's just get back to training. Hm…Gracie, Charo, I think you two should spar. Baby, I want you to go work on your Dragon Rage!"

Baby nodded and pointed her head up into the sky and closed her eyes for a moment to focus before spitting a big puff of smoke into the air, which sent her into a coughing fit. Then she looked back at her trainer with tears in her eyes.

"It's okay!" Eziray said, reassuring the little Dratini, "Just keep trying!"

While Baby worked on Dragon Rage, Gracie and Charo positioned themselves and Eziray directed their sparring match: Charo was ordered to use Flame Thrower and then Gracie was told to use Confusion to shoot it back. So as the blast of fire came, she held up her arms and stopped it. Both her eyes and the fire began to glow blue and she threw her arms back so the fire was sent straight back to Charo who took a quick step to his left to dodge it. Next, he ran forward to use Metal Claw, but she teleported out of the way and reappeared behind him to use Confusion which sent him flying into a tree. Next, he came at her with Fire Fang, but she Teleported once again, reappeared behind him, and sent him flying with Confusion once again.

"You're going to have to do better than that, Charo!" Gracie exclaimed. "Eziray? Could he and I perhaps spar without your assistance? It just seems a little silly to me. It's like you're battling against yourself! It's not getting anywhere…"

"Good idea!"

So Eziray went over to give Baby some encouragement while keeping a close eye on the battle, in order to get a better idea of what Gracie and Charo could really do. Charo shook himself and came at Gracie with Metal Claw once again so she sighed, teleported once more, reappeared behind him and blasted him into a rock. He made several more attempts with Fire Fang but each failed the same way. Finally, he caught on and came at her with Metal Claw. As she teleported, he dug one foot into the ground so he slid around in a complete circle in the dirt and when she reappeared behind him, he was facing her and slashed her in the face with Metal Claw.

"You're too predictable, Gracie! Try switching it up! Your opponent shouldn't be able to detect you when you use that move. Now! Charo, use Metal Claw again!"

Charo nodded and came at her again. This time she teleported and reappeared to his right, but he knew she would do something like that so he spun around in the dirt while using Flamethrower so he would be able to hit her no matter which direction she came from. She landed on her back in the dirt and stood slowly.

"Better, but he's already caught on. You have to completely throw him off guard!"

Charo came at her with Fire Fang and she teleported away but this time did not reappear anywhere that was in view. Charo looked around carefully until he heard her voice.

"I'm up here!"

He looked up and Gracie was giggling, standing in a tree. Then she used Confusion to move rocks around him so that he was sealed inside.

"Checkmate!" she exclaimed, hopping down from the tree.

Then he gave her a look as if to say 'I don't think so!' and used Metal Claw to break free of the makeshift prison then whirled around and whipped her with his tail. As he readied another Flamethrower, Gracie cried out that he won. Then he put his hands on his hips and stuck his nose up into the air victoriously.

"But I will win next time," Gracie said, sitting up and giggling. Charo rolled his eyes and walked over to help her up. Then he turned to Eziray with an arrogant expression on his face.

"Char, mander-mander!" he said mockingly.

Eziray glared back at him.

"Just because you won without my help doesn't mean you don't need me anymore. Stop being such a know-it-all!"

The two partners both laughed, knowing that Charo was only joking and he ran over to jump into her arms. Baby hadn't improved too much during that time, although she wasn't blowing out puffs of smoke anymore. She could now spit out small blue and red embers but they were too tiny to do any damage. Eziray decided that that was enough training for now and that she should conserve her Pokémon's strength in case the forest was harder to get through than they expected. So they decided to head back to the camp where they were a little shocked to find that Skitty was by herself, as Aiden and Lyla were nowhere to be found.

"Now where could those two be?" Eziray asked herself as she sighed and took a seat on a rock. Baby slithered over to Skitty and the two began conversing away and giggling about something.

"Those two are very good friends," Gracie observed.

"What are they saying?" Eziray asked.

"I'm not going to eaves-drop for you!"

"Alright, alright, fine! Hey, Skitty! Where's your trainer?"

Skitty looked off into the direction of where Lyla and Aiden had wandered off together and then she meowed.

"She says that Lyla and Aiden walked off together, laughing and flirting and stuff," Gracie informed.

"Those two," Eziray said with a sigh.

"Myaaa," Skitty meowed awkwardly as her ears began to twitch. She looked up and two Treecko hopped onto the tree branch above her.

"Treee-ko!" one of the Treecko shouted.

"Gracie?" Eziray asked after a few moments, waiting for a translation.

"Oh, that's the Treecko from before! He says no one gets away with throwing logs at him so he brought his big brother to teach us a lesson!"

"Why are you so bubbly about it, Gracie? That's not a good thing…"

"I'm not too concerned. They don't look that tough!"

"Tree…" the Treecko's brother mumbled quietly. He closed his eyes and suddenly vanished. Before anyone could react, a green blur suddenly whizzed by and knocked Gracie onto her back.

"He's fast!" Eziray exclaimed.

"Boy, I'll say!" Gracie whined, sitting up. The Treecko's older brother was standing beside her and readying his tail to use Pound.

"Careful, Gracie! Use Teleport!"

Gracie disappeared just in time and reappeared behind him, eyes glowing blue.

"Good! Now use Confusion!"

The Treecko became outlined in blue and was flung back into a tree. Gracie began to celebrate and praise herself for a job well done, but she then suddenly became outlined in red and fell to the ground, which revealed that the younger brother was standing behind her, holding up his arms. A red beam was emitting from each of his palms and as Gracie lost strength, he appeared to be gaining strength.

"That must be Absorb!" Eziray exclaimed as the older brother stood up and walked over to Gracie to join his brother in using Absorb as well.

"Char!" Charo shouted angrily.

"You're right, that's not fair! Use Flamethrower!"

Charo blasted the younger Treecko away with Flamethrower, which caused it to take a lot of damage. The older Treecko ran to his side and whispered something to him. The younger Treecko hesitated for a moment but nodded his head and fled, limping off into the forest somewhere. The older Treecko turned back to his foes and gave them a death glare.

"Sorry, but that just wasn't fair!" Eziray reasoned. The Treecko looked from Gracie to Charo to Baby to Skitty and then raised one hand to make a 'come here' motion as if to say 'bring it on…all of you!"

"He's quite confident…" Gracie trailed off.

"Maybe a little too confident…" Eziray added. "Oh well, he asked for it! Skitty, do you wanna help us out too?"

"Mya!" she exclaimed, scampering out in front of Eziray.

"Alright, Charo use Flamethrower! Skitty, use Assist!"

Both Pokémon obeyed. The Assist turned out to be Water Gun and the two moves traveled, side-by-side, toward the Treecko. He grinned and flipped back, dodging both with ease.

"Fast and agile," Eziray observed. "Skitty, use Assist again. Gracie, try to hold him still with Confusion!"

Skitty used Assist and her whole body began to glow; it was Bide. Gracie managed to hold Treecko still but he simply sneered at her and rapid-fire some explosive seeds from his mouth, pelting Gracie in the head.

"Ouch! That's Bullet Seed, and it sure does hurt," Gracie whined as she rubbed her head and released her hold on him.

"Sorry Gracie," Eziray said before turning to Skitty. "Bide is perfect! Charo, use Flamethrower on Skitty, but don't torch her!"

Charo nodded and blasted Skitty with Flamethrower, but not directly; he aimed it so that most of it went over her head and she absorbed the energy from the heat. After about thirty seconds, Skitty looked up and released the energy so everyone ducked as a blinding flash of light expanded over the area. When the light faded, Treecko was laying on the ground, wincing.

"Um, isn't this the part where you throw a Pokéball at it?" Gracie asked innocently.

"Huh?"

"Well, I was just thinking that his speed would be a great addition to our team, don't you agree?"

"I suppose! Alright, Pokéball, go!" Eziray exclaimed, throwing a Pokéball at the fallen Treecko. The Pokéball rocked a few times, but then suddenly broke open and the Treecko popped out, barely managing to stand.

"Treecko!" it shouted angrily, extending both arms. A red beam was released from each of his palms and one hit Skitty while the other hit Charo, so he was able to suck energy from both of them and recover much quicker.

"Stubborn, ain't he?" Eziray asked with a sigh.

"Chaar…" Charo managed.

"I think Charo has a plan! He wants Skitty to keep using Assist!" Gracie exclaimed.

Eziray nodded and ordered Skitty to use Assist. It was Water Gun again and Treecko had to cease his attack in order to dodge it. Charo said something and Gracie told Eziray that everyone else needed to hold tight while Skitty used Assist. Eziray seemed confused but she believed in Charo and ordered Skitty to keep it up. The next few attacks resulted in Bide, a few more Water Gun attacks, Tackle and then finally Ice Beam. Treecko was able to dodge all of them with ease, but when the Ice Beam came, Charo used Flamethrower to block Treecko's path. Charo had been studying Treecko's movement and knew just where to aim. Treecko became trapped in between the two moves but managed to avoid damage from both. Once they ceased, however, he realized that his foot had been frozen to the ground by the Ice Beam and he began to jerk his leg in an attempt to break free.

"Oh, I see! Well done Charo! I can take it from here! Baby, use Wrap!"

Treecko successfully broke his foot loose finally but Baby was already coiled around him, squeezing him with her body. He struggled to break free but she was stronger than him. Eziray grinned and ordered her to use Thunderwave. She closed her eyes and without releasing her grip, shocked him thoroughly and paralyzed him. Then she released her grip and slithered away.

"Alright, who should finish this off…Skitty? Would you like to do the honors?"

Skitty nodded and charged forward, hitting Treecko directly in the chest with Tackle. Treecko fell down and didn't get back up, so Eziray went ahead and threw another empty Pokéball at him. This time, he didn't break free.

"Ah, what a great battle! He sure put up a fight, but it's all over now!"

Eziray walked forward and picked up the Pokéball, then let him back out. He crossed his arms and looked her over, wondering if his new trainer was powerful enough for him. He shrugged and seemed pretty satisfied.

"Let's see…what should we name you?" Eziray asked out loud. He cocked his head as she thought and then she snapped her fingers. "I've got it!"

Before she could share her idea, they began to hear a rumbling in the distance and as it grew closer, they realized that it was the sound of a large group of Pokémon jumping through the trees. Eziray realized that the other Treecko must be back for revenge. Before they knew it, they were surrounded by Treecko, a much larger group than before, and they looked like they meant business. One stepped forward and began to shout something at Eziray.

"He says that we're very formidable opponents and he had a feeling that his brother might fail so he brought his whole family of reinforcements!"

"There's so many!" Eziray exclaimed.

"We can take em!" Gracie bellowed with much optimism.

About an hour later, Lyla and Aiden came stumbling back into camp to find it almost completely destroyed. The pots and pans were scattered everywhere, the tents were collapsed, the supplies was all strewn about, and the surrounding trees were all broken or charred or both. Eziray, Charo, Baby, Gracie, Skitty and a Treecko were sprawled out on the ground, obviously quite exhausted. Eziray noticed them and sat up.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" she demanded, also noticing that Aiden was wearing Lyla's hat for some strange reason.

"Um…" Lyla began but Eziray didn't even let her explain. She wasn't angry, just slightly annoyed but obviously excited to tell her story.

"First of all, why is he wearing your hat? Actually, never mind. I don't even want to know. Second, while you were gone, we were attacked by a large group of Treecko. I mean there were hundreds of these guys and it would have been really nice to have had a hand in taking them all out! But no, instead you were out gallivanting in the forest somewhere, doing who knows what!"

"Relax, we weren't doing anything bad! Aiden found some really pretty flowers that he wanted to show me!"

"Flowers…"

"Yes, flowers," Aiden said.

"You mean to tell me that you were out for hours, looking at flowers while I was dealing with an army of oversized grass geckos…"

"So did you catch one of those Treecko?" Lyla asked in an attempt to change the subject. Eziray looked down by her side and the Treecko looked back up at her. She smiled.

"I did, actually. You guys, I'd like you to meet Speedy!"

"Mya mya!" Skitty exclaimed, running to her trainer's side as Lyla made her way towards the new teammate.

"Aw did you help too, Skitty?" she asked. Skitty purred and rubbed all over her trainer's legs.

"Yup! I couldn't have caught him without her! She helped take out that army too! Huh, Speedy?"

"Speedy, huh? How fast are you?" Lyla asked, bending down next to him. He grinned and raced off; creating a small gust of wind that blew Lyla's hair back for a few moments. He returned in no time with a blue and gold flower that kind of resembled a lily and he stuck it in Lyla's hair, just above her ear.

"That's one of the flowers we were talking about," Aiden said as he took off Lyla's hat and put it back on her head.

"Sun's going down soon, are we staying here for the night or proceeding through the forest a little more?" Lyla asked.

"I think we should just stay. I'm too tired to go anywhere right now," Eziray suggested.

"Were there really that many?" Lyla questioned.

"Hundreds."

"Eziray, I don't think there's enough shelter and resources in this forest to house even a hundred. I'm sure there were about thirty or so and it just seemed like a lot," Aiden reasoned.

"Whatever you say!"

"Well is there anything you want us to do to make it up to you?" Aiden asked.

"Yeah! How about we clean this camp up while you relax? You look exhausted!" Lyla exclaimed. Eziray smiled and lied back down on the ground.

"Agreed."

Author Notes:

Aiden has a Torchic and Lyla has a Mudkip, so I had to give Eziray a Treecko! Plus I wanted to satisfy my beta's obsession with lizards and reptiles and what not. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the little bit of background I gave to Lyla and Skitty. Please be sure to leave a review if you enjoyed it!