Greetings, dear readers. And welcome back to 'All I Want For Christmas is a Pokémon'. ...Just to get to the story, first of all, *insert one of my apologies for my lateness here*. Last time saw both of our Pokémonless Chickbusters having some Pokéworries, from AJ looking ahead to her next training session with Pikachu to Alex trying to make contact with Squirtle. Sounds like they both have their hands full, so let's see how the day goes for them. Read on to find out and I hope you all enjoy, my loves. =)

Well, this seemed weird. The receptionist and her Eevee knew this Squirtle? And what did she mean by it made its way back inside again? Her curiosity getting the better of her, Alex cleared her throat a bit before asking "Um, excuse me …Julie? I'm feeling a bit confused here. What did you mean when you said all of that about Squirtle? And you called it Shelly. Do you know this Pokémon?"

A light laugh escaping her, Julie said "You could say that. I could tell you, but it's a bit of a long story."

"Long story, eh? Seems like I've been hearing a lot of those lately," Alex said with a laugh. "Well, I'm not really busy with anything right now, so I can hear it out,"

Laughing a bit herself, Julie was about to say something before she happened to notice the crowd behind the younger woman. "Um, I'm guessing maybe your friends back there would maybe want to hear the story too?"

Suddenly remembering the group behind her, Alex said "Oh yeah sure. They've just been watching me try to talk to Squirtle here, so I'm sure maybe they'd be cool with some more storytime." Turning around to the older three and their Pokémon, the youngest Chickbuster shouted "Hey, you guys! I'm about to hear a story about Squirtle here! Y'all wanna come listen?"

Sharing a look with the others, Jeff shouted back "Sure. We're not busy with anything right now, so we've got some time to spare."

Watching as this new group of humans and their Pokémon that were with them, Squirtle-or Shelly, as Julie called it-automatically jumped back. 'I remember these humans. And these other Pokémon…. Hey! There's that Smeargle that tricked me!' the turtle Pokémon thought. "Squuuuuiiir," it lowly growled.

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa there, Shelly, these others don't mean you any harm," Julie said in a bid to calm it down with her Eevee doing something similar. Looking first to Alex and the others coming towards them, the receptionist asked "I'm guessing you all had something to do with Shelly acting like this?"

"Well, uhh," Alex began before a nervous laugh escaped her. "Would you believe that I tried to catch Shelly with a Berry trap? It wasn't until my friend Layla and her Marill came along to help out with my plan a bit better that I was able to …sorta catch it."

"'Berry trap'?" the receptionist asked, feeling a bit confused and curious about what the younger woman could mean by that.

"It was just a big ol' pile of Berries, actually," Jeff piped up as he raised his hand. "My Smeargle here, Splat, kept eyeing Lexi's Berry pile and wanted one. So, she let him get one, and that's when the three of us just barely dodged out of the way of an Ice Beam from your Squirtle buddy here."

Well, this wasn't good, not at all. Turning her attention to the turtle, Julie immediately began to scold it. "Now, Shelly. What have I told you in the past? Haven't I told you not to attack the guests? That wasn't very nice, you could've hurt these three."

"Vee Vee Eevee," the receptionist's Pokémon agreed, a stern note coloring her voice as she shook her head.

"Sq-Squirt Squirtle Squirt!" the turtle Pokémon spoke up in defense of itself as it gestured between itself and the group ahead of him. "Squirtle. Squirt Squirtle."

"Shelly," Julie said with a sigh as she saw this happen with the turtle. Rubbing its shell, the receptionist then said in a soft voice "I know you're still not used to seeing so many strange people and their Pokémon coming here, but that shouldn't give you a free pass to do stuff like that. After all, …Zander wouldn't be happy if he knew you were behaving this way, would he?"

That name. It was one that it thought it forgot some time ago, and yet …just hearing his name after so long…. The turtle Pokémon was at a loss for words, as the next thing anyone gathered there knew, Squirtle became overtaken by sobs that shook through its body and caused tears to run down its face, almost like two small waterfalls.

Oh no. Not good. Definitely not a good thing happening right now at all. Looking behind herself to the others, Alex didn't know what to say or do here. That poor Squirtle was crying, and it all seemed to be because of something the receptionist said. So, nervously swallowing a bit, Alex asked "Julie, what's wrong? Is everything okay with Shelly? Why's it crying so much after what you said to it?"

"Well, …Lexi," Julie began by saying after she remembered what the woman in front of her was called. "That's …actually part of the long story I was going to tell you all. You see, Shelly's Trainer, he …he's no longer with us."

"'No longer with us'? You mean to say that Shelly's Trainer just abandoned it here?" Alex asked, starting to feel a mixture of sadness and slight anger. It wasn't every day you'd hear about Trainers abandoning their Poképartners, so hearing this now served to make her temper rise a bit.

"Oh no no no no, Lexi, Zander wasn't that type of Trainer at all! In fact, he loved Shelly with all his heart," Julie said in defense of Shelly's mystery former Trainer. Taking a breath before letting it out as she began bracing herself for the story to come, the receptionist then said "No, Lexi, you see, …Zander died a little over a year ago."

…

'So, Chikorita didn't mean to hurt me with that attack. It was just to help me with my speed,' Pikachu thought about it. Getting faster did sound like a good thing. And if that was something that could better help him when it came to battles….

Seeing the look of thought on the other Pokémon's face was pretty funny, if Chikorita could say. Taking a chance, the Grass-type asked "Chi. Chiko Chik Chi? (So. You feel up for doing some speed training?)"

A slight smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth, the Electric mouse nodded and said "Pika. Pika Pik Pi! (Sure. Let's do it!)"

"Chiko! Ko Chik Chiko Chi (Great! Now, let's go see what the humans are talking about)," Chikorita gestured with one of his vines.

Nodding, Pikachu followed the Grass-type over to where their Trainers were talking about something.

"And you say Chikorita's Bullet Seed can be something helpful when it comes to speed training?" AJ asked.

"It can be, yeah. …At least, that's been the case with some of the Pokémon I've helped train before. I remember there was one Trainer who's Rapidash I was working with. Seemed like it had no trouble dodging Chikorita's attack as it had its run, and it clocked in at some pretty fast lap times too."

"Really?" the Latina asked. Seeing the attendant give a nod made AJ start to think a bit. 'This could be something that could be a big help with training Pikachu. After all, there's no telling what kind of Pokémon Steph'll have us battle. So, any kind of training we can get can be a big help.'

Seeing the look of thought on the shorter woman's face, Kelsey then asked "So, AJ, how about it? You want to see how fast Pikachu can go?"

Having thought through the possible pros and cons of what could come from a training session like this one, AJ had just come to an answer when she heard-

"Pika!" "Chiko!"

Turning to look in the direction of the voices, Kelsey looked down to see her Poképartner and AJ's had shown up. "There you two are. Me and AJ were just having a talk."

"Yeah, that's right," AJ agreed with a nod. Getting down on her knees in front of Pikachu, AJ said "Hey, Pikachu? You ready to start doing some training? I was talking with Kelsey about a way she and Chikorita can help you go faster. But only if you'll be okay with it."

This was starting to sound like what he was talking with Chikorita about not too long ago. The speed training. That would mean he'd have to dodge attacks from Chikorita as he ran. …But, it would be okay, as it'd be something that could maybe help him get faster. His mind made up about this, the Electric mouse looked up to the human named AJ and nodded as he said "Ka Pik Pi!"

Smiling at the determination she could hear in Pikachu's voice, AJ turned to look to Kelsey and Chikorita. "Sure, Kelsey. Let's do some more training."

"Awesome! Now, just follow me outside, you two. Day 2 of your training will start now!" Kelsey said with a smile.

It's looking like good stuff and sad stuff is unfolding here. AJ and Pikachu are eagerly looking forward to another day of training, while on Alex's end, ...oh dear. It would appear that her and the others are gonna be in for one pretty sad story that Julie has, one that seems to have made Squirtle get sad (poor blue baby). So, as we look ahead, looks like we're gonna be in for seeing more training and also one heavy story. And we shall see all of that unfold...next time! Until next time, don't forget to RR please. =)

(*quickly retreats into my bunker I hastily built in another fic of mine* Now, before anyone tries to get on my case here, yes I mentioned a character that died in this that will be talked about a bit more. But, I've seen character deaths happen in other Pokémon media, so hopefully, no one has a problem with me including such a heavy topic in this. And if anyone does, I deeply and sincerely apologize. *makes finger hearts as a sign of apology*)