Chapter 33: Round-up Aftermath

Author's Note: For all you readers who have favorite this story and have added this to your Story Alert, or even just like this story in general, please, PLEASE, review. A writer cannot simply better a story unless he/she receive reviews telling what needs to be done. For instance, if there is a certain character you feel needs to be worked upon to better their personality, I won't know about it unless I'm told. So I hope that you will take this into consideration and get to see plenty more reviews. I enjoy reading what people like about the chapters!

By the time reinforcements have arrived, I was already making my way back toward my group, that is, if I could remember which way I took while I was chasing the robber. Lucky I was near the alleyway I took to cut off said robber, otherwise I think I might have been detained for questioning, though how a human would be able to question a Pokèmon is beyond me, unless they used their Pokèmon to question me. Stay focused! Was I to go right or left? Great! Now I couldn't even- wait! It was definitely left. And then it was definitely another left after that. Perhaps I'm more focused when I'm distracted. If that's the case, I'm surprised I don't wind up lost half the time.

By the time I snapped out of my thoughts, I was already walking up to quite a big crowd. I stopped and took a moment to observe what was happening. Scattered about the area were people wearing blue clothes with weird blue hats upon their heads. I had to admit, they did look kind of funny on them. Made me wonder what I'd look like with one on. At the current moment, there were a group of blue clothed people over by the building the robbers came running out of with another group of them over by the four wheeled contraption Charcoal managed to spiral out of control.

My attention was caught as one of the masked robbers was being led to a large looking vehicle by one of the blue clothed humans and placed inside. I noticed a Raticate being placed in a similar vehicle with some sort of loop thing attached to a stick on him. Something about that made my fur stand on end. My ears perked up as I caught the sound of my trainer's voice, causing me to glance in his direction. Apparently he and Laura were being questioned by a female human with bluish green hair perhaps? I couldn't really tell. There was a red headed girl there with them. Something about her told me that they would be all right for the moment. So I looked around, searching for someone else.

My eyes soon came to rest upon said someone and with a grin, walked on over. "Yo Charcoal!" I said, catching his attention. "How are things?"

"Not too terribly bad," Charcoal said as I looked him over. On both his arms he looked like he got patched up. He held up what looked to be some kind of claw or something. I did notice that there was blood on it. "Got myself a victory souvenir!"

"What happened?" I asked. "Why are your arms bandaged? And who's this brown star guy?"

"Greetings, fellow Pokèmon," the brown star guy said. "My name is Staryu and I-" He was instantly cut off as I got up in what I supposed was his face. This red, circular thing in the middle was what I supposed was his face since he fell quiet and shied back a bit, almost like I was invading his personal space or something.

"How exactly can you see like this?" I asked. "Is it hard? How can you tell when you're standing upside down? Does your face spin upward no matter how you stand?"

"Zack!" Charcoal snapped at me. "Where are your manners? I'm so sorry about him. He gets overcurious sometimes."

"Uh, it's fine," the star guy said as I backed away from him.

"So Charcoal, how'd you fare with your battle?" I asked him, receiving a sigh.

"Not too terribly well," he responded. "In fact, if it weren't for Staryu, I'd probably be a mess among the ground by now."

"Thank you for saving him," I said with a nod of my head to the star guy.

"It was no problem," the star guy said. "Besides, I wouldn't be worthy to be a gym leader's Pokèmon if I weren't able to beat the simplest of Pokèmon like that Raticate." Had my ears heard correctly? Had this star guy just mentioned that he was a Pokèmon of the gym leader?

"Uh oh," I heard Charcoal say as my legs began shaking.

"D-Did you just say that you were the gym leader's Pokèmon?" I asked him, to which his reply was a yes, causing my entire body to shake with excitement.

"Is, is he okay?" the star guy asked Charcoal, my body refusing to stop shaking.

"He gets that way when he's overexcited," Charcoal explained to him. "I sometimes worry that he'll die of a heart attack."

"C-c-c-can th-that r-r-really h-h-happen?" I asked as I turned to look at him, to which I received a shrug, even though everything around me was blurry. Suddenly, I instantly calmed down as I felt something poking me directly in the head. Diverting my eyes to the right, I saw Ted standing there before me, a claw touching my forehead lightly. Seriously, where does this guy keep appearing from?

"Chillax, Zack bro," he said. "Control the rate of your heart and convert that excitement into a wide smile."

"Wouldn't that break his face?" Charcoal asked. "He might die of too much happiness."

"I suppose it's better than a heart attack," Ted said with a small chuckle as I turned to him.

"Ted, where in the world do you keep popping up from?"

"I beg your pardon?" Ted asked curiously.

"It's just that every time I turn around, you appear out of nowhere," I explained. "Almost like you materialize out of thin air. You're not an alien spy, are you?" That question caused Charcoal to slap a paw over his face. The star guy, I had noticed, remained quiet this entire time. What was going through his mind, I hadn't a clue.

Ted chuckled at my question before responding to it. "I assure you," he said. "I'm just plain old Ted. An alien spy would be acting more suspicious."

"Which leaves me to question if you're an alien spy yourself, Zack," Charcoal said with a mischievous grin.

"What?" I asked horrified. Had I really been living a lie all these years? Have I been an alien all along, living in the body of an Umbreon? All questions of doubt disappeared as everyone turned their attention to the Skitty who was walking back towards us, carrying something in her mouth

"Hi guys!" she said as she walked up to us, the item she was carrying dropping to the ground. My attention was now on the item she was carrying as I was sure as everyone else's attention was as well. Though I didn't know the name of said item, I recognized it due to the fact that my trainer and Laura wore them upon their feet, as does every single human. The reason as to why I was staring at it was due to the fact that it looked like it got ripped to shreds. There a number of small holes in it with scratch marks covering every inch of what she was carrying. One piece of string attached to it was longer than the other.

"Skitty," Charcoal said while I continued to stare at the object. "Where did you get the shoe?"

"What shoe?" she asked.

"The one that's currently lying in front of us looking like it went through a shredder," was Charcoal's reply.

Silence occurred among us as we all continued staring at the beaten up shoe until Skitty spoke up again. "I do not understand the question." I looked up at her, my mind at a total blank by this point. My attention was suddenly diverted by one of the blue clothed humans as they were leading another one of the robbers toward the large vehicle. What was coincidental about this human was the fact that his clothes looked just as torn up as this shoe was, not to mention the fact that he was missing one on one of his feet. His shirt was completely in shreds from the middle down and had dark stains upon his pants.

"What in the world happened to him?" asked the lady with bluish greenish hair as she came walking over.

"Not entirely sure," replied the guy in hold of him. "We found him like this in an alley way in a fettle position. Kept crying on about some mumbo jumbo I couldn't understand."

The robber looked rather dazed as I studied his facial expression, kind of like he was totally out of it. His expression completely changed as he swung his head around and took notice of us. His eyes completely narrowed as a look of sheer terror crossed his face. I don't know what compelled me to do so, but I had a feeling that he was staring at someone in particular. Turning my head to look at Skitty, she tilted her head to one side while smiling and said, "Hi!"

I looked back at the robber as he began screaming. "Take me away!" he cried. "Please! I'll do anything you want, anything at all! Just get me away from that psychotic Skitty!" At this point, I'm pretty sure everyone was staring silently at the breakdown this guy was having, even when he was placed inside the vehicle with his cronies.

"What?" Skitty asked as I looked back at her. "All I did was say hi."

"No comment," Charcoal said as our trainers and the red-headed girl came walking over.

"What the heck was that all about?" my trainer asked. "What did he say about Skitty being psychotic?"

"Oh noodle sauce," Laura said as she scooped Skitty up and squeezed her. "My Skitty's too adorable and innocent to hurt a fly. Right, Skit-Skit?" Skitty, of course, couldn't respond to that question, due to the fact that her face was turning blue.

"Can't breathe!" she wheezed before flopping her head over Laura's arms, a paw stuck out in the air, twitching.

"Yeah," the red-headed girl said. "Which explains why his shirt looked like it was clawed. And who says noodle sauce?"

"It's just a word I use when I don't believe something to be true," Laura said sheepishly. "That or when something bad is about to happen."

"Speaking of which, I should really get Charcoal checked out," my trainer said. "It looks like he may need stitching for both his arms."

"I hate needles," Charcoal growled.

"Considering the fact that those patches aren't really stopping the bleeding," Ted said. I looked back at Charcoal to see that the white patches on his arms were now stained red. I had to say, it was a lot worst than I had thought.

"But then what about the gym battle?" I asked. "I can't wait around forever for Charcoal's wounds to heal."

"You do have a point there," Ted said, crossing his paws and thinking deeply. "If Charcoal were to be stitched now and then battle, those stitches would come apart for sure."

"Well then I'll just have to battle before getting my stitches," Charcoal said, causing Ted, the star guy, and I to look at him.

"Are you all insane?" the star guy asked. "You're not seriously going to fight with the injuries you have, are you?"

"We didn't come all the way to this city for nothing," Charcoal replied. "Besides, the sooner I get our battle over and done with, the sooner I can focus on letting my wounds heal."

"Yeah but how are we going to convince our trainers about that?" I asked. Ironically, life has a funny way of taking practically everybody by surprise. For us, that surprise came in the same answer I had asked my question involving my trainer.

"But first things first, I have a gym battle to take care of," he said.

"What?" everybody around us said as all eyes were now upon him.

"Are you crazy?" Laura yelled. "Your Pokèmon is injured and all you care about is a gym battle? What kind of Pokèmon trainer are you?"

"If Charcoal were to get his arms stitched now before battling, they'd come undone," my trainer said. "And it wouldn't be fair to Zack to take two Pokèmon on by himself. Sorry, but my choice has been made."

"Fine!" Laura said, turning away from him. "See if I care. Just don't come crying to me when Charcoal's wounds get infected."

The small laughter coming from the red headed girl caught my attention as I glanced her way. "You definitely remind me of someone I know," she said, looking like she was lost in thought. "Very well. I shall meet your request for a gym battle."

"All right!" my trainer yelled happily, pumping a fist into the air. "Hear that you guys? We got ourselves a gym battle!"

"However," the gym leader said. "The minute your Charmander is no longer able to continue battle, he must be taken to the Center immediately. Understand?"

"Perfectly," my trainer said with a nod of his head.

"Sounds like you guys got lucky," Ted said.

"I know, right?" I said, smiling while my tail wagged furiously.

"I said it once and I'll say it again," the star guy said. "You guys are insane!"

"Well, you see," I said. "We're not your normal group of Pokèmon."

"Correction," Charcoal said. "You're not normal.

"Right," I said before realizing what he said. "Wait, what? You're the one battling with holes in your arms. And you call me crazy?"

"…Touchè."