Author's note: Sorry that this chapter's late!

Enjoy!

Chapter 42: An unlikely friend

-12 hours before Kai approached the Team Star Base-

Attempt #2

"THAT'S… What I'm talking about..!" Kai cried, wielding his hammer that Tinkatuff had transformed into. Then, he began shouting a battle roar right back at the Titan who was about to fight him.

The Bombirdier moved so fast that Kai couldn't see it anymore- he merely blinked, and within an instant, the Bombirdier's oncoming kick landed into Kai's stomach. He didn't feel any pain- but he could feel the immense push of the bird's attack that was so intense that he let go of his sledgehammer. His eyes widened as he was sent flying into tree after tree, which broke apart when Kai's body flew through them like an arrow.

Everything went dark the moment his body slammed into a boulder.

Then…

Kai woke up in the hospital again. He turned his head to see Nurse Joy, who sighed.

"Welp- time to try again," Kai said.

Attempt #10

Kai stood face to face with Bombirdier who was in front of its cave. The Titan had the same shining yellow glow it had before. Instead of welding Tinkatuff's hammer, Kai wielded his starter's weapon, Quaxwell's weapon: A rapier. Bombirdier moved so fast that Kai couldn't see it- again. But this time, Kai was able to drop and roll away from the oncoming Titan who flew past him with a kick.

He was improving. Slowly but surely, he was improving. Before, he wasn't able to blink before Bombirdier hit him in the stomach at full power. He was learning when dealing with fast-moving enemies, he couldn't just rely on his eyes. He had to sense them- feel out where they were going to attack from before counterattacking.

Kai decided then and there, that he was going to close his eyes to dodge extremely fast attacks- so he needed to practice.

Kai heard the sound of Bombirdier's Air cutter projectiles coming his way. With quick and elegent swings, Kai moved as though his blade were an extension of his body, and deflected the oncoming salvo of Air cutters without even looking. After slashing down the last one, Kai opened his eyes. They were glowing Blue due to the Flow technique activating.

Kai grinned.

Just then- An Aerial Ace attack from the blindingly fast Bombirdier landed on Kai's back.

"Wha-..! When… did you..!" Kai grunted as his body fell to the ground. Everything went dark.

Attempt #20

Wielding his Pawmo's weapon, Kai stood again face to face with Bombirdier. The evening sky was above them, the sun's red rays shone across the entire land. It darted toward Kai with incredible speed.

Kai was able to see its movements. Instead of only dodging like he normally did, Kai sidestepped and grabbed the Bombirdier by the ankle.

Kai eyes began to glow blue, indicating his Flow's activation.

Swinging the Titan around like a whip, Kai whirled its massive body round and round before finally swinging it down to the ground with a massive thud. The crash was so intense that Bombirdier's body bounced like it was on a trampoline.

Within a blink of an eye. Kai appeared above the Bombirdier with his fist clenched.

"THUNDER PUNCH!" He cried, sending his entire body down and throwing a punch at Bombirdier. The moment the boy's punch hit the dirt instead of Bombirdier was when he realized that the Titan had gotten out of the way.

Kai wasn't too surprised when he saw the Titan Bombirdier's shadow looming over him. He stood still as the Bombirdier swung its massive wing for an Aerial ace attack.

Aerial Ace was a move that could not be dodged. It was a good thing Kai wasn't planning to do that. Just before the attack connected, Kai spun around, and deflected the Bombirdier's attack with a swing of his arm. Static Electricity electrified the Bombirdier's wing before Kai leapt up into its face and punched it. As the titan crashed onto a bed of Trees, Kai grinned.

"How's that!?" He cried.

Bombirdier's yellow aura exploded as he darted for Kai once again. Kai closed his eyes.

As the Titan threw itself at him using Acrobatics, Kai dodged like…well, an acrobatic. He ducked under every swing of its wings and bobbed his head back and forth to dodge every kick thrown his way. Dodging was slowly becoming something that he was truly getting used to. He remembered the praise that he got when he dodged Mela's attacks at full power. He remembered the way he dodged many other attacks- how in his mind, that as long as they weren't faster than Nemona's, he could definitely dodge it. Maybe he could make dodging his main thing. Maybe he could even tire out the Bombirdier and then beat it..?

Bombirdier suddenly jumped up into the sky and flapped its wings mightily, sending a gust of wind toward Kai.

Kai couldn't just dodge that.

"Thunder shock!" Kai opened his eyes, which shined bluer than ever, and shot his arms out- firing a blast of lightning at Bombirdier that cut through and destroyed the gust of wind.

Bombirdier swung its wings again, and suddenly summoned a Sandstorm. The ground type attack completely nullified Kai's Thunder shock. Kai crossed his arms in front of him to defend himself against the oncoming sands.

"I can't see..!" Kai cried, being unable to see through the sand was making him panic, and as a result, his eyes stopped shining blue.

Kai felt an Aerial ace cut him from behind.

"Not... again..!" Kai groaned before everything went black.

Night had fallen.

Team Star's Poison Crew Boss, Atticus, was sitting on the ground with his legs crossed as though in a meditative state.

His outfit was reminiscent of a ninja's. His cloth clothing had slime-like appearance, with purple and green patterns. His entire face, save for his left eye, was completely covered in his robe.

He sat alone in a somewhat isolated area, away from the crowd of team star members who were all socializing. Some members leaned against the vending machines around the area while talking. Others were sharing a laugh while having cups of water.

Atticus took in a deep breath through his nose, then through his mouth. From behind Atticus, a team member approached him. The moment the grunt touched his leader's shoulder, Atticus's body tensed as he opened one eye to his visitor.

"What's the matter?" He asked, calming himself down with a breath. "Has a scoundrel come to challenge us?"

"Uh…. I don't think so. But uh, I don't know if I'm seeing things or not, but…" The grunt pointed up at the sky, and Atticus looked there. From the starry sky, he saw something- a shadow that was slowly becoming bigger with each passing second- kind of like a meteor that was fast approaching. Atticus stood up.

"What's-..!?" Atticus cried.

"I don't know- is it an attack!? Should we warn everyone?"

Atticus thought fast. His eyes widened once he started hearing what sounded like a scream. He knew the voices of all of his team grunt members- and it wasn't coming from any of them. It was a scream that was slowly getting louder as the unidentified object falling from the sky was getting closer.

Once Atticus squinted his eyes, he saw that it wasn't a meteorite or anything of the sort.

It was a Titan Bombirdier falling straight from the sky. Atticus's eyes widened.

"No..!" The team star grunt cried.

Everyone around the area saw the gigantic shadow of the falling Titan looming over them. Screams started to fill the area.

"A-Atticus- we have to do something!"

Just when Atticus was about to move- suddenly, a shadowy figure darted in front of the falling Pokemon- and appeared to catch it with only one arm. The entire crowd of Team Star members gasped all at once as they saw a boy holding the unconscious Titan Pokémon by its stomach while floating in the air. The Trainer was standing on top of a shard of earth that seemed to be magnetically attracted to the pink Hammer he was wielding, which sparked with steel-type, white colored electricity.

"Sorry if you got scared, guys!" The boy said. "I was dueling this Pokémon- and well- hold on."

Slowly, the boy holding the sledgehammer turned and tossed the massive Bombirdier onto the ground. It's battered and bruised body fell in front of the base with a thud strong enough to bounce everyone who was standing on the ground.

Atticus turned to his grunt, and both of them shared a nod as they ran to the main entrance to see what was going on. After opening the doors of the main entrance, Atticus saw the boy leap off of the shard of earth and let go of his pink hammer. His Pink hammer which turned into an orb that flew onto the ground beside him and took the form and shape of Tinkatuff. Kai wordlessly returned the Pink Pokemon into his ball, and looked over his fallen opponent.

"Took me 50 tries for me to beat you." The boy said, talking to the Titan Pokémon as he pulled out another Pokeball. He threw the Pokeball- and then it opened, capturing the Bombirdier inside of it.

The ball wiggled once.

Twice.

Three times.

Then- it made a sound indicating that it was captured. The boy walked up and picked up the ball and stared at it.

He smiled.

"Who are you!?" The grunt cried.

The boy turned around, looking at the crowd of Team Star members.

"You know you're trespassing, right!?" Another team grunt cried out. Atticus almost wanted to stop him, but couldn't, because the grunt was simply doing his job.

The boy turned to face the grunt, and then looked at the base, then back at his Pokeball.

"Is your boss around? I wanna challenge them to a fight later."

"There's no way that we're gonna let you talk to the boss without getting through all of us, first! We don't know if you're worth the Boss's time..!"

In a technical standpoint, this boy was already worth his time. He brought down the Titan Bombirdier.

"I'm not playing by those rules of yours, because I'm not trying to bring down Team Star. I like you guys. You helped me become who I am now." The boy said.

"Do my ears deceive me..?! Those words you spoke… they could only come from the mouth of Kai- the one Mela spoke of!" Atticus spoke suddenly and stepped forward, much to the grunts' surprise.

"You must be their leader," Kai said.

"Yes, Tis' I," Atticus said. "And you have come to challenge me?"

"Non-traditionally, yeah. Just a friendly fight. And lemme say one more thing. I'm not just gonna challenge you. I'm gonna beat you."

"Thy words are arrogant, and meaningless- but thy actions impress me. However, my respect shall not be a factor- I must decline a friendly battle."

"What!? Why!?"

"There is no doubt that you are a warrior. However- to honor a warrior with strength such as yours, I must fight with every bit of my soul. Such a battle must have stakes."

Kai was about to argue- but then remembered…that as long as he didn't defeat every single team Star member, then Team Star would remain. Kai sighed and nodded.

"Fine." He said. "I'll be back."

"And I shall be waiting."

Kai turned and walked away.

After healing his Pokémon at the Pokecenter, Kai walked out of the Pokecenter's front doors. His armor was disengaged. He pulled out the ball he captured Titan Bombirdier in and threw it. Out of the ball came the mighty titan- but…its size had reverted back to normal.

Kai looked at the flying Bombirdier, who glared furiously at the boy.

"Go on. You're free." Kai said. "I only caught you so I could heal you. You always dropped me off at a Pokécenter every time you beat me. So, this is my thanks." Bombirdier's eyes widened in shock.

Bombirdier gave another surprised look at Kai, and Kai nodded, as though to affirm that it was truly free. Then, Bombirdier turned and flew away, leaving the boy to sigh in relief.

"That Bombirdier always did that," Nurse Joy's voice came from beside Kai. He turned around and saw the nurse walking up to him. "Every time it found a beat up trainer or some person's Pokémon, it'd always pick it up and drop it here…"

"I think that deep down that thing has a bit of a heart." Kai said.

"Why'd you let it go?"

"I couldn't use the thing even if I wanted to. Not till I got at least, I dunno, 4 badges...? Besides, it just felt right."

"Kai, look!"

Kai spun to see the same Bombirdier had come back. It had its beak in its apron, and it appeared to be holding something on the cloth. It let go of the cloth and revealed that it had a piece of the herbs that made it big in the first place.

Kai gasped- running up to the herbs and grabbing them.

"Wait- are these for me!?"

"Huh…" Kai said, holding the herbs. "Guess I've got good news for Arven after I meet with him and Aeon again.."

He crouched and put the herbs inside his backpack, right next to the Egg Mela gave him. As he was eying the egg, for a moment, he thought he saw the egg bounce.

Maybe it was his imagination. After shrugging, Kai zipped up his backpack and put it back on. He looked at the Bombirdier.

"Thanks-" he said.

Bombirdier flew up over to Kai's head and stood on it- its apron drooped over Kai's head.

"WHA- WHAT'RE YOU DOING! GET OFF MY HEAD!" Kai cried. Every time the boy reached for the Bombirdier's legs, it flew up to dodge.

"Well- looks like Bombirdier isn't going to just go," Nurse Joy said. "It seems that it's your Pokémon now."

Kai groaned to himself as Bombirdier landed back on his head. Its apron draped over his eyes again.

"Well, I can't use it...It's too powerful for me- it'll ignore everything I say until I get more badges!"

"Then, I guess you don't have a choice in the matter." Nurse joy replied. "If it wants to stay, then there's nothing you ca-"

Bombirdier flew away from Kai and flew high into the sky until it was soon out of sight.

"...or...if it wants to go, then there's nothing you can do."

"Do you know if that thing's a boy or a girl..?" Kai asked.

"It's a boy."

Suddenly, an empty briefcase fell from the sky and bonked Kai directly in the head and knocked him to the ground. The sound of a Bombirdier's laughter could be heard in the distance.

"OW…!" Kai cried as he stood back up. "STUPID BIRD! I'M GONNA KICK YOUR BUTT IF I SEE YOU AGAIN! YOU HEAR ME!?"

Nurse Joy chuckled.