Notes: The idea of the attempted kidnapping's outcome was suggested by Azalea542.

Chapter Ten

The days passed in an idyllic manner, filled with happiness and mischief and trying to figure out how to raise the babies with just the first and not an overabundance of the second. The babies continued to be very curious and adventurous, but also very loving and interested in singing. They entertained audiences at the diner every night, along with many of the adult Eevees.

At last, shortly before the Pokemon Contest, there was a point where taking a day trip to Goldenrod City was possible. Emilio and Marisol arrived with one of the family jets, as promised, and everyone boarded for the flight. The Eevees sang and talked on the way, with Evie so excited it was hard to sit still.

She and the other adult Eevees were still working on their English lessons. Evie encouraged all of them to keep trying, while she led the way with her enthusiasm and innocence. Radley didn't often hear them practice, as they tended to do it while everyone was occupied, but every now and then he stumbled on them practicing a syllable and was pleased and impressed.

"What do you think it'll be like?" Scotch said. He was almost as excited for the trip as Evie, but worry flickered in his eyes. "Maybe we won't be able to get in to see her. It's just a café, so there's no reservations, but it's probably packed all the time!"

"Maybe we can get in if we have proof that Evie is related to her," Kalin said.

"I hope so," Radley said. "I tried to call the café to talk to Eadie, but I just got an answering machine. I left a message and told about Evie and read some of their family tree, including how they're connected." He sighed. "But it's possible she'll think we're scam artists pretending we have a relation." He felt bad to say it, but he thought Evie should be aware of the possible problem.

Evie frowned. "Vee. . . ."

"Yeah, we've never actually been able to get hold of her when we've tried," Scotch said, frowning too. "I just figured she was insanely busy. . . ."

"Or maybe somehow it all really is a publicity stunt and they can't risk people finding out Eadie doesn't really talk," Kalin said.

Evie shook her head. "Eevee-Eevee-Eevee!"

Radley petted her. "I think Eadie really talks," he said. "We've been seeing our Eevees learning, so it's definitely possible."

Evie nuzzled his hand and started to purr.

"I think we'd better be prepared to have trouble getting in to see her, though," Radley said. "But we'll try hard."

"Ee-vee!" Evie agreed with a firm nod.

They soon landed in Goldenrod City and used GPS to find Eadie's café. As Radley had figured, it was busy. But when they walked in, Eadie was up at the counter, chatting with customers.

Evie stared at her with starry eyes. Then she ran forward, calling out excited "Vees."

Eadie started and looked up. "Excuse me, gentlemen," she said. "My niece is here."

She got down from the counter and walked over to Evie on two legs. "Hello, kiddo," she greeted.

"Eevee-Eevee-Eevee!" Evie squealed. "Hiiii! I'm so happy to meet you! I watch all your videos on YouTube and I'm learning how to talk human too!"

Eadie smiled. "Good. I'm glad. It'll be an amazing experience for you and your person to share."

"Hi," Radley greeted. "I'm Evie's person. I'm glad we were able to make it here. We haven't been able to reach you by phone, so I wasn't sure we'd be able to get in." Although he spoke completely calm and at ease, he was definitely reeling from this encounter and being able to see Eadie up close.

"I'm sorry about that," Eadie said. "We've been really busy arranging for production of a video documentary. I got your message today and we looked up Evie's family tree and called my sister to make sure everything was on the up and up."

"'We'?" Radley repeated.

"My person and I," Eadie said.

Kalin was looking around the diner in definite curiosity, as were Emilio and the Bunch and the Eevees. But everyone's attention swiftly returned to Eadie. She was certainly the most fascinating part of this.

"This is so nice here!" Emilio said. He set Ramona down so she could go say Hello too.

"Thanks. We love it," Eadie smiled. "And hello," she added to Ramona.

"Hi! Mommy Evie talks about you a lot!" Ramona said.

"Oh? She's your mother?" Eadie asked, intrigued.

"I have lots of mommies and daddies who helped me hatch!" Ramona said proudly.

"Evie really is related to Ramona, but I think they're cousins?" Kiryu said.

Evie nodded with enthusiasm. "And this is my sister-in-law and my nieces and nephews, so they're all related to you too!" she exclaimed, tail bouncing as she hurried over to the carrier Scotch was holding.

Penny peeked out with a smile. "Hello."

All the babies chorused greetings too.

Eadie also smiled. "I had no idea I'd get to meet so many new family members," she said. "Come and sit down, all of you. Have some lunch!"

Soon everyone was settled at several booths and the menus were spread open among them. Scotch eyed everything hungrily. "Oh man, how do I choose just one thing?!" he exclaimed. "I want it all!"

Radley laughed. "Order whatever you feel like you can eat," he said.

The babies were all sitting up to the table Scotch was at, examining the pictures displayed for every dish. By now they were big enough that they could eat solid food too, and they were all eager to try some. Penny looked proud that they were all behaving themselves.

Eadie chatted with everyone and seemed to feel right at home with all the company and all the questions. Evie definitely had many, about her and her person and learning to talk human.

Radley sneaked a glance at Kalin after a while. He still looked like he wasn't sure what to make of any of this, but at the same time he was trying to accept that it was real. Radley chuckled in fond amusement.

"I'll make sure we stay in touch from this point on," Eadie said as they ate.

"I never want to be out of touch again!" Evie declared.

After the meal, the babies wanted to entertain. They happily sang Staying Alive as well as Lucky Ladybug. Eadie and the other patrons listened and watched with great interest.

"They're really good," Eadie said to Penny. "You must be so proud."

"I am," Penny said. "I had no idea they could pick up songs so easily."

"It's a rare talent," Eadie said. "Not even people can generally do it."

The babies exclaimed and wriggled happily.

"We love to sing!" Holly said.

"Scotch lets us sing every night!" Heidi said. "It's so fun!"

"And I'm sure all the people are very impressed," Eadie said.

"They love us!" Ivy beamed.

"I like singing too!" Ramona chimed in. "I hope I can learn people talk like Mommy Evie is trying to!"

"You can," Eadie assured her. "Any of you who want to can learn it."

Emilio stared with wide eyes. "Is Ramona talking about learning English?" he hopefully asked.

"She is," Eadie confirmed.

"That would be so amazing!" Emilio exclaimed.

Radley smiled. "It sure would," he agreed.

Kalin looked overwhelmed and was still trying to process that they were actually talking "people talk" with an Eevee. ". . . How long did it take you to learn?" he asked.

"Months," Eadie said. "At least to really get it down fluently. It didn't take too long to say just a few words here and there. And I learned how to walk on two legs too, to keep the food sanitary."

"You do it so well!" Evie said happily.

"Thank you," Eadie smiled. "I look forward to hearing you talk English someday."

Evie beamed. "Is your person here? I'd love to meet them!"

"He's upstairs in his office," Eadie said. "He was talking business on the phone, but I can see if he's done now." She got up.

They waited while she went upstairs to look. In a few minutes she came back down with a kind-looking man around Radley's age.

"Hello," he greeted. "I'm Kendall."

"Hey!" Scotch grinned. "We've been having a great time here!"

"Yes!" Evie warbled. "We want to come more often!"

"Eadie would love that," Kendall said, looking at her.

Everyone started.

"Did you understand what Evie said?" Radley said in amazement.

"I did," Kendall said. "I helped Eadie learn English and she taught me Eevee language."

Evie exclaimed for joy and jumped up and down. "I want to do that too! I want to teach Radley!"

"That's wonderful," Radley said to Kendall, smiling at Evie's excitement. "You guys have a really special bond."

"I can tell you and your Eevee do too," Kendall said. "She says she wants to teach you Eevee language."

Radley smiled fondly at his sweet Eevee. "I'd love to learn."

Evie ran back to him and jumped on his lap, nuzzling him and purring. He petted her and held her close.

". . . I would too," Kalin said after taking a moment to absorb these new stunning revelations.

Evan chirped.

"I'm sure you both will," Eadie said. "Evie's definitely got the drive to learn English, and then she'll happily teach you both about our language." She looked to the other Eevees. "And what about the rest of you?"

"Evie's teaching us too!" Ruby said. "I already like typing, but I'm trying to learn to speak English also."

Evan nodded. "Evie's going at it a lot faster, though. I think she'll get the hang of it first."

Lily just looked up shyly in awe. "I want to tell Radley how much I love him," she said softly.

The babies all wagged their tails. "Can we join the lessons too?" Heidi asked. "We could learn how to sing in English!"

"Yeah!" Evie squealed.

Penny smiled. "I think I would like to learn how to use a computer, for talking to Ramon."

"I'll teach you!" Ruby said.

"I can help with that too," Isla added.

"I want to learn English," Kiryu declared. "And walking on two legs too. Humans fascinate me."

Eadie looked to him. "It won't be easy," she said. "But if you want to walk like this, you can definitely learn."

Scotch looked to Kiryu with a start. "You want to do that?!" he exclaimed. "So cool!"

Kiryu looked pleased.

Radley smiled at all of them. "We probably can't visit in person a lot," he said to Eadie. "But maybe we can video chat?"

"Sure," Eadie said. "I can try to set aside a time for it at least a couple of times a week."

Evie exclaimed in happiness again.

By the time everyone left and went back to the private jet to head for Satisfaction Town, they were all in high spirits.

"That was amazing!" Scotch gushed. "I knew it would be cool, and it was even cooler than I thought it would be!"

Radley chuckled, but smiled in agreement. "It was definitely amazing," he agreed. "Eadie is really interesting."

Evie warbled in joy. "I'm so glad I'm related to her! She's doing so many fun things! I want to tell Mommy and Daddy all about our visit!"

"I'm sure they'd love to hear about it," Evan said.

"We want to tell our daddy too!" Heidi said. "And we're going to learn a new song!"

"What one this time?" Isla asked.

"We don't know! The first song we hear!" Holly suggested.

Penny looked slightly worried at that. "Let me know what it is before you start learning it," she said.

"We won't hear anything bad, Mommy!" Ivy said.

Peter nodded. "They only listen to nice songs."

Lily thought back to the time the Bunch had encouraged Radley to sing Mack the Knife. "Usually," she said.

On the way home, the jet landed in New Domino City so they could visit Ramon and Kelly. As always, the Eevee family was thrilled to reunite and they snuggled and romped and snuggled some more.

Kelly watched them happily. "Mr. Kaiba said he's thinking of opening a tech center in Satisfaction Town," she said. "If he does, I'd be willing to work there and commute from the City so Ramon can be with his family every day while I'm at work."

All the Eevees exclaimed for utter joy. Radley was happy too, but puzzled. "Why is he thinking of that, especially?" he wondered. "I thought a place like this would be too small for him."

"I think it has to do with you having that dyne contract with him?" Kelly said. "It's still very much in the planning stages. I'm sure he'll contact you to work out the details, since you're pretty much the Kaiba of that town."

Radley nodded thoughtfully. "I think I'll call him myself when we get home and find out more," he said. "If he doesn't call me first. He's surely planning on it. It would only be common courtesy and good business sense, since like you say, I'm already the Kaiba for Satisfaction Town."

Kalin wasn't as sure what to think, but he refrained from talking about it until they were back in the jet and heading for Satisfaction Town.

"Why wouldn't Kaiba have called you first of anything?" he wondered, speaking low. Scotch was enthusiastically playing more songs for the babies to learn, and they were gobbling it up. Eevee versions of Purple People Eater and Witch Doctor were soon ringing off the walls.

"I don't know," Radley said. "But I don't think he'd try to do anything shady with me, after the times we've worked together trying to save the world."

"Can you be so sure?" Kalin grunted. "Everyone says how ruthless he is. I've heard that all through the years, long before I ever met him."

"People say a lot of things," Radley said. "Sometimes you do have to do some things in business that seem ruthless. There's a lot more to him than that. I'm willing to give him the benefit of a doubt until I talk to him and see if I can find out what he really is thinking."

"If he has some plan, he might not tell you," Kalin said.

"I'm going to hope he will," Radley said.

Evie warbled in agreement. "I'm sure it's all wonderful!" she gushed. "How could it not be when it could make it that Ramon could be here every day?!"

"It sounds too amazing to be real," Penny said softly. "But that's how everything has felt since we came here. I want to believe Kaiba's interest will be a good thing too."

"It will be!" Evie exclaimed with full confidence and innocence.

Back at Satisfaction Town's airstrip, Radley smiled at both Emilio and Marisol. "This was a really fun day," he said. "I'm glad we finally got to do it."

Emilio beamed. "Let's do more day trips like this! Ramona would like it too." He cuddled Ramona, who chirped happily.

"I will certainly plan on it," Radley smiled. "Now, do you guys have to go right now or can you stay for dinner?"

"We can stay that long," Marisol smiled back, while all the Eevees cheered.

Dinner consisted of the meal itself, plus a short concert from the Eevees. Most of the adult Eevees sang a new number. Then the baby Eevees performed for Lily while she stood on stage and watched them in amazement. Everyone happily clapped. No one seemed to find it strange that Lily didn't sing, instead enjoying her sweetness as she performed in her own way. By the time Marisol and Emilio and Ramona did have to go home, it had been a long and lovely day for everyone, thoroughly fulfilling.

"This is just so epic!" Scotch exclaimed to Biff and Robert as they also went home. "The Eevees are doing so well, and now there's a chance for Ramon to come around every day! Things couldn't get any better!"

"It's pretty something, alright," Biff said, watching as Scotch made sure the security alarm was set. "You wonder how it can really keep working out for us."

"Because the Eevees are so sweet and innocent and totally deserve it!" Scotch said enthusiastically.

Everyone went to sleep that night joyous and happy. When the alarm suddenly went off in the middle of the night, startling everyone awake, they rushed to see the source, confused and worried for the Eevees. But to their relief and amazement, all the Eevees were safe and several Swift stars were stuck in the wall around the pried-open window. A silhouetted figured was frantically running away and leaping onboard a vehicle of their own, their clothes visibly torn even from such a distance.

"Oh wow!" Scotch exclaimed. "Everyone fought off that creep, didn't you guys?!" He hugged all the Eevees and they snuggled him, chirping in confirmation.

Robert chuckled. "I would say that would-be thief got more than he bargained for. He wasn't expecting the Eevees to be more than just cute and cuddly and worth a fortune."

"I wonder who that guy was," Biff frowned.

"We should still try to catch him and find out!" Scotch said. He ran outside and leaped on his motorcycle.

Biff facepalmed. "It's a good thing Scotch can't be arrested for running around in his pajamas in this town." Then, resigned, he followed.

Catching the guy did indeed prove fruitless with his headstart. Scotch and Biff certainly could have caught up during a normal ground chase, but before long he lifted off into the air. Scotch cut the engine, staring up into the sky in disbelief. "What the . . . ?! His vehicle can fly?!"

Biff stopped too. "That sounds like Lawton. Remember his modified lawn mower?"

"How could I forget?!" Scotch grabbed his phone. "I'm going to report this to Sector Security in the City. Maybe they can chase him down with their copters or something."

Lawton, or whoever it was, did not end up caught. But everyone had a good laugh about the apparent failed Eevee-napping when they met at the diner the next day.

"I would have loved to have seen his expression when all the adorable animals he was trying to steal suddenly attacked him with pretty stars," Radley giggled.

The Eevees warbled with pride.

"Was it Lawton?!" Evie asked with wide eyes.

"I don't know; we've never seen him," Isla said. "But this person was very big and broad like they've said Lawton is."

"He was mean!" Heidi said emphatically. "He pushed up the window and tried to take us!"

"But we showed him!" Peter added.

"You most certainly did," Penny said with a smile.

"I am totally going to make up a new parody song about this!" Scotch declared.

Radley smirked. "I wouldn't expect anything else."

"Oh, did you get to talk to Kaiba, Radley?" Scotch asked while petting Eevees.

"Yeah, I did," Radley said. "He said the tech center is just in the planning stages. He wants to look into collaborating with Duel Runner manufacturers to make them even more high-tech."

"He already does the holographic stuff for them!" Scotch said. "What else is he planning?!"

"He didn't tell me that," Radley said. "But he said it wouldn't interfere with any of the things we're trying to do for the town. He just wanted to have it here to be closer to the dyne."

"Do you believe him?" Kalin grunted.

"Right now I do," Radley said. "But I told him we'd wanna be involved in helping him pick the best building and that kinda thing. He said he's planning to come out with Kelly next week scouting for buildings and lots."

"Epic!" Scotch's eyes lit up. "Maybe she'll bring Ramon!"

"She's probably planning to," Radley smiled. "We can call her and find out."

As he reached for his phone, he suddenly heard a sweet little girl's voice. "Radley?"

He looked around, but no kids were there—just Evie looking up at him. Immediately he bent and picked her up. "Was that you, pretty girl?!" he asked.

Evie beamed. "Radley . . . I love you."

Moved and overcome, Radley held her close. "I love you too, Evie," he said softly. "Always."

Evie put her paws around his neck. She had done it! She had said a whole sentence in English! And she would keep on learning people talk until she could have entire conversations with Radley and the others.

Life was amazing.