Chapter 9: Philip the Escavalier

The next day, Philip slept in and woke up very late; much later than he expected. He rolled over on his bed and got off, stretching his sore back. He decided to finally call John and tell him of his arrival and that he was going to be a bit late for work today. He went downstairs to use the house phone and dialed John's house number.

*Ring Ring*

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's Philip."

"Oh, hi! You're back already!?"

"Yup. I called to let you know that I'll be a bit late for work, okay? I mean, if you don't mind opening up."

"Of course not! I'm actually on my way over right now. I can't wait to hear about your training. You must look ripped by now! *laugh*"

"Ha, sure. Alright I'll see you in a bit."

"Okay, then. Bye!"

*Click*

Philip sat down and slumped on the couch and put his face on his hands. He felt like crap. After the incident with his grandfather and oversleeping, he felt drained and wanted to stay in his room all day. But he knew he couldn't escape it and had to deal with it. He took a deep breath as he got up to eat some pancakes. Surely that'll cheer him up.

…

"Oh, hey! You're finally back!" John said as he greeted his Karrablast friend seeing him enter the jewelry store. Karrablast half-smiled at him, and then noticed that Amelia was there as well. For him it seemed like she looked even more beautiful than before. He missed that warm feeling he got every time he saw her.

"Welcome back!" Amelia said happily. She truly missed him; it wasn't the same without his presence. "I brought donuts to celebrate. You want one?"

Philip smiled a bit more. "Sure, thanks," he said as he approached her and picked his donut. They got some Moomoo Milk and sat down on a corner of the store where a table was waiting for them. John and Amelia were eager to know of Philip's training and such, but unlike them, Philip was a bit too down in the dumps to tell the story right.

"So how did it go?" John asked eagerly.

"I see that it was super effective," Amelia giggled as she referred to Philip's muscles.

Philip slightly blushed. "Heh, yeah, I guess," he said.

John then felt that something wasn't right. "Hey, are you feeling okay?" he asked. Philip tried so hard to ignore the big knot in his throat so he can speak as if nothing was wrong. "Oh, you know, I'm just a bit tired," he said as his voice cracked a bit. I hope they didn't notice…

"Are you sure?" Amelia asked, her amber eyes showing growing concern. Philip felt like he was going to break down again as he looked from one friend to another. Finally making up his mind, he decided to talk about it. Just a bit.

"Well," he spoke, his voice a bit more quivery this time. He looked down at the table, avoiding eye contact. "…something happened."

John and Amelia were now worried about him. They have never seen him like this, but stayed quiet to listen to their friend.

Philip felt his tears ready to burst out, but held them back as much as he could. He didn't want to talk about it anymore, but he couldn't just leave his friends like this, curious to know what happened. He swallowed hard as he continued.

"He… my grandpa…" He took a deep breath. "… he died." There was dead silence after he finished what he had to say. Philip then put his head down on the table, ready to cry again.

Meanwhile, John and Amelia looked at each other, feeling terrible for their friend's loss. Then they saw Philip shaking as he was sobbing quietly. It was heartbreaking, really.

Philip was trying so hard not to wail and to stay put. He didn't know if he's ever going to stop crying. Moments later he felt a hand on his shoulder, but didn't look up. "I'm sorry," he heard John say. Then he felt Amelia sort of hugging him. But he didn't look up; he didn't want to. Yet there was a voice in the back of his head that told him to not be shy, to show these true emotions to these true friends.

Finally, Philip slowly began to lift his head up while he wiped the tears from his eyes, but kept his vision on the table. His friends felt terrible. They've planned on spending the day with taking the day off and going out on the town and hang out. Unfortunately, their plans have unexpectedly changed.

John was first to speak after a while. "Hey," he told them, "Let's take the day off and go somewhere. That'll be good for all of us."

"That sounds good," Amelia agreed. "How about we go to… my dad's restaurant? There's good food there."

Philip remembered Amelia's dad, Richard, telling him to stop by anytime at his restaurant. He didn't think it was a bad idea, but he was in such a terrible mood that he didn't feel like going anywhere; this depression he had was weighing him down way too much. He looked at Amelia, his eyes still shining from his tears. "I dunno…" he said a bit unconvinced.

"Aw, c'mon!" John said. "You need some fresh air right now."

"And fresh food," Amelia added.

"You know it's not good for anyone to lock themselves up and ignore everything as depression eats you alive," John stated. "And we're here to help you avoid just that." Philip looked at him, understanding the reason in his sentence, but he simply didn't feel like going anywhere and groaned. "I know, but—''

"No buts!" John interrupted. "In fact, we're going right now! Lead the way, Am!" He grabbed Philip's arm and almost literally dragged him out, Amelia locking up the door as soon as she flipped the sign to "Closed". "You guys are gonna love the food," Amelia assured them with a smile. Then she hopped in front of the little pack as she led the way to "Chow Time".

…

"Here we are!" Amelia announced as they found themselves standing in front of a restaurant made out of red bricks and its name shown on a medium-sized banner. She signaled them to go in, and they both noticed how excited Amelia got, which made them wonder how good the food really is.

They stepped inside the small restaurant and met a savory aroma of deep-fried chicken; it smelled like Thanksgiving time. The walls were painted a deep shade of red with gold trimmings, with matching tablecloths. There were only two other Pokemon in the restaurant besides them – a young Cacnea boy with his Cacturne dad. As she brought two menus along, Amelia found a good spot for the three of them next to a window and sat them there. She handed them their menus and gave suggestions on what to order as they scanned all the possible entrees they had. They all sounded good: they had everything from BLTs to sirloin steak, and their newest entrée they had is chicken and waffles.

As soon as they made their choices – John picked for Philip because he said he wasn't all that hungry – Amelia got their orders and menus and went to the kitchen to make their food.

"Hey, dad. Hey, Bobby," Amelia said. "Hey, Amy," Bobby the Gollum said. "Hi, honey," Richard said. They were both busy stir-frying and stirring food at a very quick pace. Amelia told them that she invited John and Philip here and she's going to make their food. She was careful in not mentioning Grandpa Shelmet's unfortunate death to avoid Philip some more trouble.

"That's nice of you, Amelia," Richard said. "Tell them I said hi."

"From me, too," Bobby added as he added more oil to the stir-fry.

Amelia nodded and got busy as well. Because of her short stature, there were some stools set out on certain areas of the kitchen for her to reach. She has had a passion for culinary arts ever since Richard started bringing her to work when she was fairly young. She likes it a lot and learned everything from none other than her dad, but she doesn't want to go pro and decided to stay in the family business instead.

And because she learned from her dad, she learned quickly and is able to cook at the same pace as Richard and Bobby. Occasionally she would ask how to do certain things, but that was it. Other than that she knew the ropes around cooking.

Minutes later she had two cheese omelets ready to eat. She also made another one for herself, because she planned to have lunch with her best friends. She walked out of the kitchen and made her way to their table, where she saw John and Philip talking about something. She couldn't exactly make out what they were saying, but assumed it wasn't any of her business anyway.

John and Philip turned toward Amelia's direction and were surprised to see how good the omelets looked. It looked and smelled so good that their mouths began to water.

"Are your mouths watering or what?" Amelia said playfully as she set down the plates on the table. The two guys nodded as they kept staring at the golden goodness. Amelia laughed. "That's usually what everyone says. That's why it's called Cloud Nine Omelet."

After Amelia sat down, they dug in. John kept making faces of satisfaction every time he took a bite. Philip didn't realize how hungry he actually was after taking his first bite. Amelia smiled at them, knowing that they already know she's a good cook.

"Oh, shoot!" Amelia said in realization. "I forgot to bring the drinks. I'll be right back." She hopped out of her seat and made her way back in the kitchen. John and Philip kept eating, not getting enough of their amazing omelets.

"Duuude!" John said. "Best. Lunch. Ever!"

Philip quickly nodded in agreement as he stuffed more omelet bites in his already stuffed mouth.

Amelia came back shortly with homemade orange juice for them. During their meal, Amelia noticed how happier Philip had gotten and she felt proud of herself, especially because Philip started feeling comfortable talking about his trip at Grandpa Shelmet's dojo.

"… and then he was about to whack me again, but I decide to block it with my bare hands. Worst decision ever, I tell ya," Philip told them as he remembered the pain too clearly. "It hurt like hell!"

"I can imagine," John said. "But I assume that you've gotten better over time, right?"

"Well, yeah," Philip said. "Grandpa Shelmet had me on my toes the whole week, but I guess it was worth it."

"Yes it was," Amelia agreed as she looked at his muscular biceps again. Philip blushed a bit and laughed lightly. "Yeah."

"So," John said, "What's gonna happen to the dojo?"

"My grandpa has always said that he doesn't want anyone to have it and wants to leave it there alone," Philip answered. Then he remembered an important detail. "Oh! That reminds me! My grandpa left me something that should help me out big time… well, supposedly."

"What is it?" Amelia asked as she leaned in a bit, John just as curious as her.

"Well," Philip continued, "he left me his shell. He said that it's powerful and special in a way that it can let me evolve and change back whenever I wanted."

"Whaaat," John said in surprise.

"No way! Really?" Amelia asked.

"Yeah," Philip said. "Can you guys imagine me as an Escavalier?"

They all looked up at the ceiling, trying to imagine, but for some reason it seemed impossible to do so. "You should try it out today," John said after a while. They all agreed and were about to leave fully satisfied from the restaurant, when Philip put some coins on their table.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Amelia said.

"What, I'm paying for my food," Philip justified.

"Oh no no no! It's on me!" she insisted.

Philip looked at her for a while, then picked up the coins and placed them on her hand. "Then take it as a tip from me," he said. "That was a really good omelet. You got skill." Amelia blushed at the complement and took the tip without hesitation. He just made her day even better.

…

Later, they all were at Philip's house looking at the old and fragile shell he inherited. They looked at it for a long while now, wondering how it was supposed to work as Grandpa Shelmet had said it would.

"Sooo…" John said, "Do you, like, climb inside it or something?"

"Maybe," Philip said. "But dont'cha think I'll be… cramped in there?"

"Well it doesn't look like there's another way…" Amelia said as she tilted her head to the side.

Philip sighed, still a bit confused. "I guess it doesn't hurt to try, right?"

"Maybe." John said. "This shell's magical, right? Something out of the ordinary could happen…"

Philip rolled his eyes as he approached the shell. He carefully opened it up and crawled inside, feeling tight in there. They waited for a while, but nothing happened. Philip was about to crawl out, when suddenly the expected unexpectedly happened. He shone a bright white light, his form shaping up into…

An Escavalier! It really happened! John and Amelia looked up at the now taller Philip in total awe. Philip inspected his new anatomy and was surprised as well that it actually worked.

"Whoa, guys!" Philip said in a deeper voice, "It really worked!"

"How do you feel?" John asked.

"I can't really feel my legs, and my arms feel a little different, but other than that, I feel stronger, and more agile! This is so cool!" He carefully floated over to the bathroom to check himself out better. He was really impressed that it worked like it should. He came back, his friends still surprised.

"Now try getting out of it," Amelia said.

"Oh yeah," Philip said, and remembered how he was told to do it. A few moments later, he was separated from the shell and reverted back to his original self. Philip was still amazed at how he had evolved into an Escavalier. "That has got to be the best thing ever," he said. His friends nodded in agreement.

"Now, what are you going to do?" Amelia asked a bit worried.

Philip thought it over. He truly felt ready to do what he set out to do, especially with his new shell at his advantage. What else is there to do? "I guess tomorrow will be the day," he said.

"What do you mean?" John asked.

"Tomorrow will be the day I set things right," Philip declared. John and Amelia looked at each other, still not convinced that their dear Karrablast friend shouldn't do this. Now it was too late for that; a date has been set for the bowtie-wearing Karrablast to strike back.