Ch 6: Meetup times 2

Hey guys, this is my first time making a fanfic so sorry if my grammar isn't that good. Feel free to correct me or point out any grammar errors.

This story is in the Percent Verse created by Jackboy0815.

I recommend reading their story: 30 Percent It is one of my personal favorites and is the original story in the Percentverse.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon or any characters from Pokémon. None of the people in this story are real people.

"Speech"

"Poke speech"

Setting: Dayton Ohio

Words: 3533

Note: I was too lazy to indent the pokespeach this time and there's not any pokemon to human conversations so I'm not gonna bother lol

It has been about a day now. I'm currently passing through the neighborhoods on my way to meet up with Shade and Daniel at the clearing again.

As I'm strolling through the neighborhoods, I see a mother and a daughter coming outside of their house. The mother notices me and quickly says. "Hey, Lily. We are going back inside. Mommy forgot something." While giving me a side-eye

They close the door behind them, and I keep walking down the street, passing the house. 'Huh, that was weird. She's probably just paranoid.''

It's not that long until I get back to the street that leads into the forest. As I walk down it, I notice that Crystal is outside sunbathing again. As I'm about to walk by he I call out "Hey Crystal" so I don't spook her like I did last time.

She opens her eyes and looks up, her face forming into a smile. "Oh, hi Josh." She says.

"How are you doing?" I ask her, stopping in front of her.

"Oh, I'm doing good. I've just been mostly sunbathing this afternoon. Oh, by the way, I didn't ask this last time but where are you even heading? There's not really anything in that direction except for the forest." Crystal says.

"Well, there's a clearing out in the forest that me and my friends like to hang out in. You are welcome to come with us if you want to." I say inviting her.

She thinks for a second before saying "Sure, I've just gotta go tell my parents before we go. I don't want them to think I'm dead."

"Oh, yeah. Of course." I respond.

I wait outside for a few minutes as Crystal goes inside her house. After she comes back outside we make our way into the woods and toward the clearing.

We walk through the woods, making small talk along the way, until we arrive at the edge of the clearing.

I look down into the clearing from the tall side of the clearing but I don't see Shade or Daniel, so I assume that we are the first ones here.

"I guess we are the first ones here." I say

"Huh, this is a big clearing. I didn't expect it to be this big." She says while looking down into the clearing.

"Yea, it really is. We used to come here a lot when we were younger." I say.

"When you were younger? Did you stop coming here at some point?" Crystal ask.

"Yea, when I was around 14 some dude got murdered in these woods. It was a whole thing and our parents freaked out and forbid us from going into these woods."

"Oh, well I guess that's one way you can ruin something for someone," she jokes.

I give a laugh before opening my mouth and saying, "I guess so."

Crystal smiles before turning to look into the clearing again before starting to walk down the hill. As I follow her down, she ask. "How did you find this place anyways? Were you just wandering around the woods until you stumbled into this place?"

I smile and hold back a laugh before responding "Well, I guess it was something like that. Originally, we were just screwing around in the woods before we eventually stumbled into the clearing."

"Oh, so you did stumble into this place," Crystal responds.

"Yea, I'm glad we did cause this is one of my favorite places to be," I say.

"I can see why" Crystal responds. "It's so green and secluded. Not to mention how sunny it is."

"Yea it is," I say as we stop at about the center of the clearing.

"If you don't mind me asking how does sunbathing feel for you." I ask," I know that leafeon are part plant and I'm kinda curious."

"I don't mind" Crystal responds. "Hmmm, it's kinda hard to describe but overall, it just feels relaxing. Just letting the sun soak feels nice. How about you? I'm pretty sure Espeons need the sun for energy or something."

"Well… I haven't really sunbathed much. Honest I haven't really thought about it much at all."

"You should try it. It couldn't hurt could it"

"Eh maybe later" After I finish my sentence, I hear Shade yell "Hey Josh" from my left.

Both me and Crystal turn towards his direction and I see him walking towards us. He has a smile on his face, but it droops slightly when he sees Crystal. I just brush it off as him being nervous around people he doesn't know well.

"Hi, Shade!" I yell back.

He keeps walking towards our direction until he reaches us in the middle of the clearing where he asks. "Oh, uuh… who is this?"

I open my mouth to respond to Shade, but Crystal gets there first. "I'm Crystal." She says while holding out a paw for a paw-shake.

Shade holds out his paw ( a little awkwardly ) and shades her paw. "Uh, Shade," he says.

"Nice to meet you," Crystal says while smiling l.

"Nice to meet you too." Shade says back. He also smiles back but I can tell it isn't real.

Crystal doesn't seem to pick up on this and asks, "So are y—?" but she gets cut off by Daniel who is making his way into the clearing "Hey you guys!"

I turn my head towards Daniel to see him and two timbers heading in our direction. I also see that one of the timbers has a soccer ball with them.

"I brought the Anderson twins with me! Hope that's fine with y'all!" He yells.

The Anderson twins (10 years old) live next door to Daniel. Daniel often babysits them and they both look up to him. They would hang out with us on occasion either while he was babysitting them or just cause.

Right now, I'm assuming that this time it's just cause. "Yea, that's fine!" I yell back. "I brought someone with me too!"

"Oh, who is it!" He yells.

"I'll tell you when you get over here!" I yell back.

"Alright then!" he yells back.

Daniel and the Anderson twins start making their way towards the middle of the clearing. About a quarter of the way there both of the Anderson kids start running towards us. Daniel sees this and starts running to catch up with them.

The Anderson kids have always been an energetic duo. Whenever they hang out with us, we tend to do more active things.

The Anderson kids don't start slowing down until they're right in front of us and barely stop themselves from running into us. We barely get a chance to say anything before one of them is already talking. "Oo new person! Hi, I'm Clyde!"

"And I'm Alex!" Says the other.

"Oh, well I'm Crystal!"

Alex turns his head toward me before saying. "You're Josh right!? Daniel said that you got turned into a purple cat, dog thingy!"

"Yep, this is me," I respond to them.

Daniel finally reaches us and slows down (a lot sooner than the Anderson kids) and is opening his mouth to say something but gets interrupted by Clyde. "Why are you so slow?"

Daniel stops what he is about to say and just gives a small laugh. "Well, I've never run on four legs before. I'm still adjusting to this new body."

"Oh, ok!"

"Anyways," Daniel says while turning his head toward Crystal. "I'm Daniel and if they haven't told you already this is Clyde and this is Alex." He says while motioning toward each.

Daniel rolls his eyes before saying "And these are the Anderson kids Clyde and Alex" he says pointing to each as he says their names. He then turns to Crystal and asks, "So what's your name?"

"I-" Crystal tries to say but gets interrupted by Clyde. "Her name is Crystal!"

Crystal looks a little surprised at the interruption and Daniel lets out a sigh before saying. "What have I told you about interrupting people."

Clyde lowers his head before saying "Sorry, I just got excited."

"It's fine," Crystal says. "Just try not to interrupt people in the future."

"Uh If you don't mind me asking how do you know Josh." Shade says. "I don't think I've seen you bef- or, well, uh, o-of course I haven't seen you before since you're a pokemon now but.. I don't recognize your voice." Shade says looking a little embarrassed at his stuttering.

"Well, Josh kinda just ran into me the other day. Then he ran into me again today and invited me along." Crystal says.

"Well, it's good that you brought someone with you," Daniel says. "With both Amondo and Theo gone, it has been a little lonelier."

"Oh, what happened to them?" Crystal asks.

"They moved down south." I say." Apparently, there are less pokemon down there, therefore "making it safer." I will admit I am annoyed that that's how some people see pokemon but also in some aspects, they aren't wrong. "At the beginning when mons didn't know how to control their powers then we were the most dangerous, plus everyone was panicking which added on to how chaotic things were already, but I hope that when pokemon are able to control those powers things will start to calm down and maybe Theo and Amondo will move back."

"Oh, well I guess that makes sense," Crystal says.

"I do miss them though." Shade says looking a little downcast." I mean I do talk to them over the internet, but I wish that we could hang out in person."

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the mood is descending so after about two seconds of silence I decided that we should change the subject.

"I see that you brought your soccer ball," I say to Daniel even though he's not the one holding it.

"Oh, yea I thought that we could play some soccer like we used to when we were younger."

"Yay, soccer!" Clyde yells excitedly.

"Let's play some soccer!" the other says also excitingly.

Alex, the one who was holding the ball, drops it on the ground and kicks it nowhere in particular.

"I guess we are playing soccer now." Shade says.

"I guess so." I reply.

"Common hurry up," Clyde says as he starts to run toward the ball.

"Those two are definitely an energetic bunch," Crystal says.

"Tell me about it" Daniel responds as we start making our way over to the twins.

We end up splitting into two teams of three with me, Crystal, and Alex on one team and with Daniel, Shade and Clyde on the other.

We graded some sticks to use as goalposts and made goals at a reasonable distance from each other. For out-of-bounds be decided to play it by year.

We started at what was roughly the middle between the two goals and with Daniel's team starting with the ball.

We decided that the game would start the moment that Daniel kicked and or passed the ball. He brings his leg back and kicks said ball toward Clyde. Sadly for Daniel the ball doesn't make it all the way on the account of him not knowing how to kick well while being quadrupled.

We all scramble toward the ball but Clyde gets there first. He starts to kick it down the field but isn't that fast since he is relatively shorter now and can kick the ball as hard.

He is eventually stopped by his brother who constantly tries to get the ball from him. Eventually, Clyde is able to pass toward Shade whom I am trying to guard.

Shade tries to start dribbling the ball down the field, but I am also trying to stop him. Eventually, I get an opening and kick the ball away from him. It doesn't go far though, and I almost fall on my face but luckily, I manage to catch myself.

Daniel sees that no one has the ball and sprints past Crystal, who was gardening him and tries to get the ball. Unfortunately for him, he trips over himself and goes face-first into the grass. His back flares up a little as he does so but it quickly goes back down.

"Ooo, are you ok Daniel?" I say as I start trotting over to him.

"Yea I'm fine." Daniel says from the ground. He gets up back onto his feet before saying. "I got a little overconfident in my ability to run." He jokes, a small smile lifting onto his face.

"Well," I say, "Are you good enough to get back into the game or do you want to take a break."

"Well," Daniel says as a grin spreads across his face. "We never did officially pause, did we!" He says as he sprints past me towards the ball.

"Hey!" I yell toward him as I start running after him.

We played soccer for about 2 hours before we were sufficiently tired out. I don't know who won overall, we were just playing casually and weren't really keeping score.

We did have a few more falls but none were as bad as the first one. I gotta say kicking around a ball is really different when you are quadrupled. Both Alex and Clyde didn't really have any problems kicking around the ball since they can both still walk on two legs but the rest of us are quadrupled so we had some issues but by the end of the game we could kick the ball around relatively easily.

We ended up talking for a little bit as we drank from the water bottles that I had brought before we eventually decided it was time to head back home. (retcon)

As we start walking through the forest Crystal asks "So, how long have you guys known each other?"

"Hmm, well I've known Daniel since the 1st grade," I say "and I've known Shade ever since he moved here during 5th grade."

"I don't know how long I've known Daniel," Alex says.

"Yes it feels like I've known him forever," Clyde responds.

"That's probably because I've been babysitting y'all since you were three," Daniel says.

"Oh, well that makes sense," Alex says.

We walk for a couple more minutes until I realize that we passed where Shade and Daniel usually turn off.

"Hey, weren't you and Shade supposed to turn off back there?" I ask Daniel.

Both Shade and Daniel look at each other before they both turn to me "Well usually we would," Shade says "but there is a man that has been sitting outside his house that is… racist, pokephobic, idk but he's just been an ass every time we have passed him."

"Yea, I don't know why but he was especially aggressive today. When we passed by his lawn he decided to "protect his home" and chase us with a bat." Daniel says.

"He didn't even get close to hitting us, but it still surprised me that someone would try it." Shade says.

"Yea, after that we decided that we should just go around him rather than deal with him," Daniel says

"Wow I knew people were scared of pokemon but I didn't think anyone would be that scared," Crystal says

"Well, luckily that just sounds like one crazy old man," I respond.

"Yea, although… It is kinda scary how some people are willing to hurt or maim pokemon just to keep them away." Shade says kinda of downcast.

Daniel clears his throat and says. "We probably should stay off some of the grimmer topics. At least while the kids are around"

I look over to the kids and see that they are too busy bothering each other to be paying attention to the conversation.

"It's probably a good idea to stop talking about that either way," I say.

We keep walking and talking for a couple more minutes before Alex says "Look, look, it's the edge of the forest!"

"Oh, I didn't notice we were already here," Shade says.

"I don't think we've even been this way in a long while," Daniel responds. "It must have been that one sleepover way back in middle school.

"Yes, too bad we got banned from going to the clearing," I say.

Daniel nods and says "Yea, wait does Crystal know about what happened."

"Yea, I know. Josh told me before you guys showed up to the clearing." Crystal says as we get to her house. "Anyways this is my stop. It was nice meeting you guys."

"You too," Daniel says with every else saying something similar after him.

"Oh by the way," Daniel says. "Do we want to do this again around the same time tomorrow?"

"Sure."

"Yea"

"I wouldn't mind."

"Alright, I'll see if I can bring more people tomorrow so we can have bigger teams for soccer," Daniel says.

"That would be nice," I respond.

"Alright well I'm gonna head inside. See you tomorrow."

As we turn and make our way down the street Daniel asks, "Who do you guys think we should invite tomorrow?"

"Uh well that depends on who's still here." Shade says." I know a decent amount of people moved to try to get to "calmer" areas of the country."

"Yea, plus some people are just flat paranoid or scared still. I know it's only been a few days, but things have calmed down." Shade says.

We get to the end of the street and turn right as I respond "Yea, if we could only understand each other then maybe it wouldn't be as bad."

"Eh, I still feel like it would be pretty bad." Shade responds. "Just the amount of destruction and chaos on that first day gave all mons a bad reputation."

"I think some of it is just human nature," Daniel says, "Humans are afraid of things they don't understand and try to have more control over them."

"Well, I guess that would explain the containment zones in France." Shade says.

"I just hope something like that doesn't happen here," I say coming off a little depressing. "Hopefully the 1st amendment will protect against that."

"Yea, hopefully the Supreme Court would rule against something like that," Daniel says.

As we start walking through an intersection Shade stops and says, "Hey uh, I think we need to go this way." While pointing to the right. "Or me and Daniel need to head this way."

"Oh yea, I completely forgot that we needed to head that direction. See you later Josh." Daniel says.

"Bye," Shade says.

"Bye you two," I respond.

After we said our goodbyes, Daniel and Shade went down the street off to the right and I kept going toward my house.

I made it back towards my house till I get to the street that I live on. As I make my way down the street I start thinking back to when Crystal was talking about sunbathing. I remember her saying it was relaxing for her and I do remember seeing something about Espeon's getting energy from the sun. I think back again and realize that I've generally felt more relaxed when I'm outside during the day compared to when I'm inside.

I decide that sunbathing couldn't hurt and made my way to the middle of the lawn and lie down there. I shift around for a second or two before I get comfortable.

As I lay there I feel myself start to naturally relax as the sun rays hit my back. I can feel my back heat up as I'm laying here but it doesn't make me feel uncomfortable. If anything it makes me feel more relaxed. Kinda like how the heat from a hot tub makes you feel relaxed.

As I'm laying there in the middle of my law feeling o so relaxed I start losing track of time. Maybe 10,15, 30 minutes have passed before I hear Owen call out to me. "Hey uh, what are you doing?"

I lazily roll over and turn my head to face him. "Huh, what?"

Owen gives a small laugh "You know, you look adorable right now." He says teasing me.

"Ah!" I yelp as I quickly move to stand up, not wanting to feed my brother ammo to tease me with.

"You're lucky that it wasn't mom that came out here otherwise she'd probably be teasing you more about you looking cute than I am," Owen said.

I just roll my eyes.

"Anyways you should come inside dinner is ready," Owen says.

"Alright" I say before making my way towards the door.