Chapter 3

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In the morning everyone woke to the smell of breakfast lingering in the air. Eggs and bacon and warm bread drew them from their beds and down to the kitchen. There Brock stood over his stove, apron on and spatula in hand.

"Morning. Let me ask you something Serenity," Brock started, eyes connecting with hers. "Do you have to try to look beautiful, or do you just wake that way?" Tristan moved between them, visibly irritated and looked for a reason to change the subject. Serenity, who had been uncomfortable with the come-ons blushed, smiled, and turned to Kaiba.

"How is your Spearow?" He looked her over, then sat at the table.

"Fine." Serenity didn't push him farther, but she did what she had set out to do. The subject was changed. She turned back to Brock.

"So... do we have to keep the pokemon in their balls?"

"No, pokemon are pretty widely accepted everywhere so long as they're not being destructive, but trainers usually keep them inside anyways, it's just easier that way." He said, placing plates full of warm wonderful food on the table.

"So... would you mind terribly if I let mine out?" He shook his head and she smiled, turning to her own pokemon. She let out the little Charmander and when it appeared it looked as if it had been asleep inside the small chamber. It stretched and looked up at her excitedly.

"Looks like you've got a little girl there. She's cute." He petted it's head and it looked happy. Serenity lifted the lizard and put it on her lap petting and cuddled it. The breakfast continued with Brock serving his younger siblings and bringing out his special pokemon food. When the time finally came for them to break the news that they had recently only ever heard of pokemon, a whole new discussion started. It was very similar to the one with Professor Oak, and Brock was more than happy to help everyone... especially Serenity.

"So that's where you got your Charmanders." Brock said, looking between Serenity and Kaiba.

"No, we found them." She said, and Brock looked at her curiously.

"They're not native to here..." Brock speculated out loud. "Where did you find them?"

"They were living in a den, along a small creek to the south east of where you found us." Kaiba informed him.

"Would you mind showing me? There's something shady about this." Kaiba looked him over, not wanting to leave if it meant he'd miss his little brother. Brock seemed to read his mind and turned to one of his brothers. "Forrest, Keep an eye out for any travelers going this way. See if they know Serenity, Tristan or Seto." Kaiba didn't like his first name being used so informally, but it was the custom here, so he couldn't really argue. The boy nodded and the group moved out. "You can probably get some training done out there too. I'll be there with Onix, so it's not as dangerous."

Serenity moved along side her Charmander, Tristan, his Pinsir, and Kaiba brought out his own two pokemon. Brock looked them over and smiled.

"In a sanctioned trainer battle, you'll only be able to use one pokemon at a time. Most trainers use these rules. Because we're out in the forest, where anything can happen it's alright to use more, but just remember, any gym battle, league, or tournament, and it's one on one only." He informed them. It was good to know. Kaiba would need to know all the rules if he planned on learning, training, and becoming more powerful as fast as he could.

With Brock and Onix, the forest was less of a threat than before. They worked their way through a group of what Brock called Ratatata and Raticate. The later being the large rat that chased the group from the forest the first time they had been there. Kaiba took great pleasure in taking down a few of the bee creatures, known as Beedrill that had been the first to threaten them. It seemed his Charmander was just as eager to fight as he was to train, and the inherent fire abilities worked great against the bugs.

Both Charmanders worked well together to thwart any bees that came by to threaten them. At the end of every altercation, Serenity knelt and petted her Charmander that she had begun calling 'Ember' and Kaiba gave an approving nod to his Charmander. Tristan got his chance to train soon enough when a big Pinsir, like his challenged the group. Tristan's Pinsir moved in, trying to wrestle the thing down and testing it's strength. Soon, though the other Pinsir proved too much, and his was thrown to the ground, unable to rise again.

Ember stepped up, circling around the bug and shaking burning embers off of her and onto ut. The Pinsir swung at the Charmander, wincing at the glowing specks of flame coming off of it, then panicked, retreating into the forest. Ember ran excitedly back to Serenity and jumped into her arms. She cooed the little lizard, smiling and hugging it and it snuggled against her.

Finally they reached the small creek and the den in which the Charmanders were found.

"They don't belong here." Brock said, looking into the small cave. "They're mountainous pokemon. They don't breed or live in the forest. They'll burn it down if they stay here." He said, trying to get a better look inside.

"What do you think you're doing?" They all jumped, turning to the new voice behind them. A man, dressed in black with a big letter R in red on his shirt stood before them.

"We're looking for some wild Charmanders spotted in the area." Brock said, not quite trusting the man, but answering anyways.

"There aren't any wild Charmanders in the area." The man tried, but the group glared and him and his eyes wandered to the two Charmanders accompanying the trainers. "Say... where did you get those two?"

"They were wild in the area. We caught them." Kaiba said plainly. The man moved his hand to his belt and he smirked.

"Don't you know, stealing is wrong. Those were for the boss." He threw three of his own pokeballs, calling forth the pokemon residing inside. One large mound of sludge, a giant bat, and a Raticate appeared, ready to fight.

"You're the one who brought them here, I should have known!" Brock shouted. "Onix, Get them!" The large snake did just that, it lunged forward, missing the bat and rat, but slamming straight into the mound of mud. The Pokemon splattered everywhere, but after a few moments, regrouped and looked fine.

"Heh, you're going to have to do better than that. Golbat, Confusion!" The bat was happy to oblige and let out a high pitched tone that made everyone close their eyes and cover their ears.

"What is this?" Tristan shouted, trying to steady himself. "Gr, Pinsir, shut that thing up!" The bug lunged forward, slightly missing it's mark, but knocking into the thing's wing.

"Onix, bring the bat down!" Brock shouted and the snake tackled the dazed bat out of the air.

"No! Muk, get the Onix!" The mud like pokemon moved slowly over the snake, covering it in slime and pinning it down. The snake thrashed, smacking the rat into a tree, but couldn't move any farther.

"Ember, knock out the rat!" Serenity cried, afraid it would attack her next now that it was next to her. Ember raked it's claws across the rat, making it cry out, then let out a fiery blast, knocking it unconscious.

"Onix, No!" Brock cried, unable to free his pokemon from the Muk's pin. A sick sizzling sound buzzed as the creatures acidic body began to melt away at the large rocks and Onix let out a cry of pain.

"Brock, you said your pokemon is resistant to fire right?" Kaiba called. Brock could only nod as he tried desperately to get the stinking mud monster off of his friend. "Get off of it!" Kaiba called, and Brock jumped back. Kaiba turned to his Charmander and nodded. "Light it up." The Charmander sucked in a deep breath, then let out a mighty blast of fire. Onix winced as the flames scorched it's body, but soon it's rocky self began to glow a bright red and the creature holding it down began to boil and squirm.

"No! How is this possible?" The man cried as his Muk fell off of the snake, unable to stand the heat anymore. The man started to run, calling back his pokemon as he weaved through the trees.

"Onix..." Brock hugged the giant snake, stroking it and trying to get it to respond. He recalled it back into it's ball and looked to the others. "I'm afraid we're going to have to leave. Our pokemon are tired and mine's completely out. We need to rest up before we take on anything else." Everyone nodded noting their respective pokemon's state. They followed him to the west and came to a small town. "This is Viridian City. You probably passed through it when you came up the first time." Brock said, moving towards a large building on the southern end of town.

"Actually, we were chased right past it. We haven't been here." Kaiba informed him. Brock looked through them all and moved into the building, waving them on with him.

"This is a pokecenter. They rest and heal your pokemon to full health." He said, turning to the nurse behind the counter.

"Hello, can I help you?" Brock paused and the group watched him wondering why he hadn't said anything.

"Did... Did it hurt?" He finally managed, confusing the entire group and the nurse as well.

"What?"

"When you fell from heaven, because you must be an angel." He said, taking her hand. She giggled and pulled back, smiling warmly at him while Kaiba rolled his eyes and Tristan stood dumbstruck.

"We need to rest our pokemon." Kaiba said, moving between the nurse and Brock.

"Of course. Just give me their pokeballs and I'll take good care of them." She said with a smile. They all handed over their pokemon and she brought them into a room in the back. It didn't take longer than twenty minutes before she came back out with them and handed the balls to their respective owners. They managed to drag Brock away from the medical center and finally get him back to his usual self.

"Kaiba, maybe Mokuba and the others stopped here. We should check around." Serenity said, wanting to find her brother as well. Kaiba nodded and scanned the area. "I'm going to ask around at the store. Maybe someone out here saw them?" She offered, moving towards a small store and leaving him and Tristan to ask around. When they all met back they came to the same conclusion. The group had in fact been there, and moved right through. Now that Kaiba was assured his little brother was safe, he felt more comfortable.

"So we go back to Pewter city?" He said into the group. Everyone nodded and Brock took the lead again. They went straight north, towards the fields and they could see farther up where the forest blocked them from the view of the town. Once in the fields, the grass was a lot taller than they had thought. It nearly came up to their waist, and Brock warned them of pokemon lurking inside. They didn't make it far before the first pokemon jumped them.

"Is... that a monkey?" Serenity asked, moving behind Tristan.

"No, it's a Mankey. Be careful, they have attitude problems. It's also a fighting style pokemon. They're good against my rock pokemon, but this one's still weak." Kaiba lifted a pokeball. He could train it if it was weak, and if it was good against Brock's pokemon, it would help secure his victory. Before he could instruct his Charmander to attack, though, Tristan's Pinsir dove forward, tackling the thing to the ground.

"Huh, guess he's not happy about losing earlier." Tristan said, watching his bug wrestle the monkey. They seemed pretty evenly matched, both becoming tired over time. Kaiba grumbled as he watched the monkey falling to Tristan's pokemon. Tristan threw the pokeball and watched it snap open and close around the Mankey. It struggled for what felt like an eternity, but eventually the red button faded and Tristan had his second pokemon.

"Be careful when training that one. If they don't initially like you, they're difficult to instruct." Brock reminded Tristan. He didn't seem to care. He now had two pokemon and was pleased with himself. Serenity glanced down at Ember. The little lizard smiled and cuddled up in her arms and she was happy. She didn't want to just catch pokemon to see how many she could get. She wanted to bond with the ones she had. A sudden rustle in the brush alerted them to another presence.

Kaiba and Brock took the lead, parting the brush and looking for the threat while Serenity and Tristan waited with their pokemon, ready to give backup if needed. Kaiba visibly relaxed, turning away while Serenity's curiosity got the best of her. A small bird, the same size as Kaiba's, but obviously different, sat scared and hurt. A twig stuck out of it's wing and the bird winced in pain as he tried to hop backwards from the group. Tristan readied another pokeball, but Serenity stopped him.

"Tristan! The poor thing. It's scarred to death. Don't you dare." She scolded, and he deflated and put the ball back. Kaiba didn't care, another bird would just add another weakness to his goal of defeating Brock. She knelt down to the small bird and it skittered away, unable to put too much distance between them, but still trying. She coaxed it closer until she could reach out and grab it. The bird squawked loudly in fright and pecked at her hand, but Serenity continued, holding it's hurt wing up and finally plucking the twig from where it stuck.

Brock leaned down, offering her a spray bottle that he explained was a remedy for pokemon's ailments. She sprayed it onto the bird and it cheeped and struggled against her, suddenly feeling stronger in her hand. It broke free and she watched it hop a few feet away, pause and preen it's now healed wing. Her Charmander smiled at it and waved before moving to her side and accepting a gentle pat in the head. The bird cocked it's head to the side as Serenity rose and waved goodbye. She fixed Tristan with a quick glare before moving with Brock and Kaiba into the forest.

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So, Official schedule. I will be updating every Wednesday and Sunday around noon until further notice. Hopefully I'll be less busy lately and be able to write faster and it'll be back up to once a day, but until then, don't forget to review. I'm always eager to hear what people have to say about my work. Good or bad... though I do prefer good. Also, if you find any errors I missed, or if something confuses you, leet me know and I'll be sure to try to fix/straighten them out for you. Cant wait to hear from you!

Read, Review, Enjoy~Love