Chapter 49: "Aren't you forgetting something?"

Nemona was sitting alone in the middle of the battlefield atop the Pokémon league building. She looked up at the cloudless morning sky and took in a deep breath through her nose.

She felt a little bored- waiting wasn't too fun for her. So she decided she'd pull out her phone. She hadn't talked to Kai in a while- so maybe she could do that!

Smiling to herself, Nemona pulled out her phone and dialed Kai's phone number. After a bit of waiting, Kai picked up.

"Nemona!" Kai cried.

"Hey, Kai!" Nemona cried.

"It's been a while, how're you doi-"

"Kai! We're in the middle of a fight, why are you calling?!" Arven shouted at the very top of his lungs.

"Wh- No we're not! Stop messing around!" Kai cried. The sound of Aeon and Arven's laughter roared from the speakers. Nemona's grin widened, she wished she was there with them. "Ignore him-" Kai said, "we're walking together right now. We're not fighting anyone. We're actually going to a gym!"

"Really?" Nemona jumped up to her feet. "That's so exciting, I-"

The sound of a door opening caused Nemona to turn around and see her next challenger, who stared at Nemona with a look of surprise.

"Sorry- uh- I got a challenger!"

"Challenger? Ohh- You're going around challenging people even while we're calling? You're such a battle-holic…"

"No- I didn't tell you yet! I'm the champion!"

"I don't know how to tell you this, Nemona, but you've always been a champion ranked-"

"No, Champion-champion!"

"Oh!" Kai cried. "Really?! When?!"

"Yesterday!" Nemona looked at her challenger, who looked a little impatient. "Sorry Kai- I gotta go! Bye! ll be texting you about every fight I have! I miss you!"

"Okay! I uh-... I miss you, too!"

"Bye!"

Nemona turned off the phone. She grinned at her challenger.

"Sorry about that." She said. She cracked her knuckles. "Let's get started..!"

Kai turned off the phone and turned to the two brothers, who were standing away from him. Arven was looking at his phone, and Aeon was looking at it with him.

Arven checked his phone. "...We should be close to another one real soon…"

"Whatcha' guys talking about?" Kai asked, approaching the two boys.

"We're talking about the three Titan Pokémon we have left to fight." Aeon said. "Although, Kai, you need another gym badge."

Kai put his hands on his hips. "Is this another, 'Don't challenge a Titan Pokémon before getting a gym badge' thing? You already know I could just ignore you, right?

"You don't have a choice. Do me a favor and bring out your Pokémon."

"Which one?"

"Any."

Kai furrowed his brow and pulled his Pokeball out and tossed out Pawmo. Pawmo roared in excitement.

"Just a second.." Aeon pressed a hidden button on his temple, and his eyes began to shine blue.

"What're you-"

"Robot things. Just checking his power level.. Finished." Aeon pressed his temple again and sighed. "I'm going to avoid using numbers and tell you right away that your Pawmo is almost powerful enough to ignore your commands."

"What?!"

"Your gym badges truly do mean a lot, Kai. If you don't have enough, your Pokémon will not listen to you. They may be loyal now, but not for long if they grow too powerful." Aeon said. "If that Pawmo evolves, there is no doubt in my mind it will not listen to you. Same goes with your Quaxwell and Tinkatuff."

"So what you're saying is that I should beeline it to the next gym and beat it before-"

"What I'm saying," Aeon interrupted, "is that your Pokémon's power level is so high that they could stop listening to you during the fight. You need to catch a brand-new Pokémon."

"...Oh." Kai said. "Well- I bet Tinkatuff could listen to me, she was defiant toward me before," Kai went into his pocket…

Then gasped.

"Wait." Kai said. "Wait-" Kai started poking around his pockets, and started to panic. Pawmo turned to his trainer. "WAIT- Tinkatuff's Pokeball! It's missing!"

"It's missing!?" Arven cried.

Pawmo gasped.

"Where did you put it?!" Aeon cried.

"I don't know- I-.." Kai gasped loudly. "Wait- it's- it's with Atticus!"

"What do you mean, it's with Atticus!? Did you trade her away?!"

"No! I didn't! He took my Tinkatuff so I couldn't use her-.. Oh jeez.. I bet he completely forgot about that… We've got to get her bac-"

Kai felt his backpack wiggle. With raised eyebrows, Kai pulled his backpack off his back, and opened it. The egg that Mela gave him long ago was beginning to crack. Kai gasped loudly as he pulled the egg out of the backpack. Slowly, the egg began to shake more, and more- then…the head of the baby popped out from it. It was a Charcadet.

And the moment it breathed in the first breath it had in its life, it started to cry.

"Oh jeez- Oh, man! Oh jeez! What do I do!?" Kai cried, holding onto the newly born baby Pokémon. "Why is it crying!?"

"Don't you know what to do with a baby Pokemon!?" Arven shouted.

"No!" Kai cried. "They didn't teach this stuff at school!"

Arven sighed. "C'mon. Give it here!"

Kai hurriedly came to Arven and handed over the baby Pokemon. Arven started cradling the newborn. "There there- it's okay, little one." Arven said.

Aeon turned to Kai.

"Kai," Aeon said. "That's the Pokémon that you have to use with the next Gym."

"You're right…" Kai said, nodding. "He's a fire type… and isn't the gym leader a grass type?"

"Yes. But-" Aeon stopped talking and pointed down at Kai's leg. Kai looked down and saw Pawmo pulling on his pants.

"Oh- right! Tinkatuff..!" Kai cried. "Darn it. I can't be two places at once. I wanna run and get Tinkatuff- but at the same time I have to watch over Charcadet, have it see that I'm his caretaker and trainer- cause if Arven takes care of it, it'll see him as his trainer, and not me!"

"Correct," Aeon said. He crossed his arms. "I've got a question. Can you call Bombirdier?"

"Y-Yes? I think so, yeah. I just gotta yell, and it'll just… uh… I dunno, drop something on me?"

"If you can taunt it to come after you," Aeon said, "You can then convince it to try to take Pawmo to Atticus's base. It should have an idea of where it is, since it's close to his roosting spot."

Kai gasped. "You're a genius!"

"S'what I do," Aeon said, shrugging and closing his eyes. "Although it's best for you to make some distance. I think your Bombirdier is still afraid of me."

"Right! Thanks, handsome!" Kai kissed Aeon on the cheek and turned to Pawmo. "Let's go!" He cried. He started running ahead.

Aeon sighed and shook his head. "The things I put up with for that boy…" He said.

"Aeon- help me out, real quick!" Arven said.

"Right, I'm on my way," Aeon said.

"Oh man!" Kai cried out,putting his hands in front of his mouth. "I sure hope nothing falls on my head right now! It would be really, really inconvinen-"

An empty open backpack fell slowly on Kai's head. The backpack's open mouth fell right onto Kai's head as though it tried to swallow him whole. Kai quickly pulled the backpack off of his head and threw it across the grass field as he heard the sound of Bombirdier cawing like it was laughing.

"Bombidier! Come here!" Kai cried. He and his Pawmo turned their heads around back and forth, trying to look for the flying/dark type, who was nowhere in sight. "Just c'mere for a second! I promise it'll be fast, come on!"

Bombirdier suddenly swooped in from behind Kai and went onto his head. "Gah!" Kai cried. "Get- Get off me!" He cried. Bombirdier lifted his talons before Kai could grab him again, and started laughing all over again. "Bombirdier- this is serious! I need you to do something for me! Please?!" The boy cried.

Bombirdier flew over in front of Kai and landed, looking up at Kai.

"So- uh- I need you to take…" Kai looked at Pawmo. "Pawmo and… Oh- Quaxwell!" Kai pulled out his other pokeball, and tossed it out. Quaxwell came out of the ball and bellowed a roar. "Can you take Pawmo and Quaxwell over to Atticus's base?" Kai asked. "Y'know, the one where I caught you after kicking your-"

Bombirdier started to glare.

"Wh-Where I caught you after having a long…hard fought battle with you… one that you won effortlessly again and again because of how strong you are!"

Bombirdier's glare looked less angry.

"Okay- uh… if you do this for me… I'll.. uh- I'll give you an I.O.U. Okay?!" Kai put his hands together. "Please?!"

Bombardier sighed. He put his cloth that he held on its beak on the floor and motioned with his head at Kai's other Pokémon.

"Thank you so much!" Kai cried. He looked at Pawmo and Quaxwell. "You guys can do it. I believe in you! Bombirdier- Just come back here when you're back with Tinkatuff, okay?!"

Kai ran off.

Pawmo stood there with his ally, Quaxwell, watching their trainer run off. Quaxwell sighed.

"Our trainer is a doofus," Quaxwell said.

"Yeaaah-... Yeah, he is." Pawmo said.

"We should be going, though," Quaxwell said. "Tinkatuff isn't going to save herself."

"If she wasn't in that Pokeball she could," Pawmo said,

"Of that, I have no doubt."

"Ugh- you two are taking so long." Bombirdier said. "Are you letting me fly you there or what? The less time I spend doing this errand, the more time I'll have dropping things on that human."

Pawmo and Quaxwell exchanged a look, then shrugged before approaching Bombirdier. Bombirdier let them on the cloth it normally holds onto, and took flight.