Cream POV

I facepalmed after being told everything, but I really should've expected something like this. Stel clapped her hands and bowed.

"I must apologize, but Clover and I must get going. I don't expect you to lag behind Marshadow." She said, beginning to walk away with Clover. Marshadow nodded and replied.

"I will try not to." Stel looked satisfied with the answer and kept walking. I turned to Marshadow with a questioning gaze.

"So, would you like to tell me more of your friend's request?" I asked, causing him to scratch his head.

"Maybe in a bit." He replied. I hummed in response.

"Now that you two are done talking, shouldn't we get breakfast or something?" Serket asked, picking a cyan berry with orange spots. He took a bite and spit it out.

"Disgusting..."

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Frost POV (the previous day, about an hour and a half after Marshadow and Cream left)

I sat back in my chair after reading Marshadow's note. Doll sat beside me with her head down.

"I tried to convince her not to go, but..." She muttered with a low voice.

"I kinda figured this would happen eventually, just not so soon." I said, folding up the paper and putting it on the arm rest.

"You figured Marshadow would take Cream to-"

"Nope, just the part about how Cream felt. I've known her my whole life after all." I cut her off and briefly explained, earning a slow nod.

"So... what do we do now?" She asked, looking a little lost.

"You can do what you want. Rush is still in the hospital, Gem is... I dunno where he is... and I've gotta stay here for a while." I replied, making her sigh.

"Yeah, guess I'll check on Rush." She stood up and walked off.

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Jolt POV

"We've gotta become a lot stronger so that nothing severe happens to us again!" Taki shouted as we all stood in front of Eterna Forest, sweating like crazy thanks to the weather. I put my hand above my eyes, protecting them from the sun.

"I need goggles or something..." I muttered to myself. Taki turned around and pointed into the forest.

"There're reports of strong Pokémon in here, so we'll take care of them and make these woods safer to travel through, but most importantly..!" She whipped around and jabbed her thumb into her own chest.

"We'll get tons stronger! So let's find and crush them!" She shouted, looking excited, probably because she can finally evolve.

"Why can't we wait for a nice warm day?" Lila asked, her leaves drooping.

"It'll increase our endurance as well." She replied, actually making sense...

"Then let's go, I don't want to stay in this heat any longer then I have to." Psych said, to which Taki nodded and lead us into the forest.

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We stopped at a cave with a few bug Pokémon wandering around, but none of them went near the entrance.

"All right, I've heard that a strong Crawdaunt is in this cave, so be careful Psych." Taki warned with Psych rolling his eyes. We walked in until coming to a fork in the road with a convenient hole above to shine some light down.

"What do we do now?" Lila questioned, quickly getting shushed by Taki.

"Do you hear that?" She asked, causing us all to stop and listen. It was far, but I was able to make out a crunch and a screech.

"Sounds like a fight." I said, after which Taki and Psych rushed down the right hallway. Lila and I ran after them, eventually stopping at a dead end, where we heard a final crunch and started smelling blood. I stopped behind the other two and peeked at what they were looking at. The Crawdaunt brought its claws away from a Crobat that it just crushed to death and turned to look at an egg sitting in the far corner. Taki ran and hit it with Double Kick, having it stagger backwards as Psych brought the egg over to us with Psychic. I stepped up to Taki's side, who looked to the Crobat's body and sighed.

"Let's do this quickly." She said, to which I nodded.

"Be carful of its claws, they are enough to tear you in half or easily crush your bones." Psych warned from behind us. The Crawdaunt recovered from the attack and threw a Sludge Bomb, making me and Taki dodge and run around the Pokémon. Taki hit it with a Mega Kick, getting its attention.

"Get it while its back is turned." She said as she dodged a slash from the Crawdaunt. I used Thunder Wave, paralyzingly it, before trying to hit it with Thunder Punch. Unfortunately, the Crawdaunt broke through the paralysis and grabbed me before I could react, slowly squeezing me.

"Gah! Get this guy... off of me!" I shouted, Taki firing a continuous Flamethrower, Psych shooting Psybeams, and Lila attempting to use Mega Drain. It barely flinched and kept its hold on me, as if daring me to try that again. I tried Nuzzle, but it just squeezed harder. Feeling as if I was about to pop, I bit my tongue and built up electricity in my body.

"Get out of here!" I yelled to the others as I was starting to get light headed. Taki looked me in the eye before nodding and dragging the other two and the egg out. The Crawdaunt glanced back at them, then to me, growling as if to say I was an idiot.

"Nah, I knew that..." I choked out before I could no longer hold the charge and lightning burst out from my body, my vision going white.

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"Hey, wake up!" I opened my eyes to see Taki, Psych, and Lila standing over me. Taki looked really mad at me.

"Are you serious?!" She shouted in my face. I held my hands up.

"Look, I was panicked and didn't know what to do." I tried defending myself, but she just scoffed.

"Not that! You haven't even realized it yet!" I gave her a confused look, then Lila stepped in and nudged her aside.

"Why don't you... look yourself over?" She suggested, finding the right way to phrase it. I shrugged and looked down at myself.

.

.

.

"Huh?!" I freaked out and blinked a few times. It didn't happen already did it? Then would I be-

"Your build up of such electrical charge forced you to evolve, that's what I believe at least." Psych said what I was thinking.

"This is awesome! Now I can do so much more!" I yelled with a smile on my face before realizing where Taki was. She sat in front of the egg near the entrance to the cave. I walked up to her with Lila and Psych behind me.

"So Uh... how's the egg?" I asked. Taki opened her mouth, but she couldn't speak before the egg cracked. We all jumped a bit and stayed quiet as it hatched. The top of the shell was pushed aside to reveal a blue furred head without eyes. Its ears twitched and it turned to Taki.

"Zu?" The newborn Zubat tilted its head as it made a questioning noise.

"Me?" Taki pointed to herself, seemingly just as confused as the Zubat... until it smiled and leapt towards her, making her catch it.

"Zu!" It yelled as it nuzzled her. Lila and I smiled as Psych chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Taki asked him.

"It looks like it 'sees' you as its mother." He then broke out into full laughter. Taki froze and slowly glanced at the Zubat in her arms.

"You've gotta be kidding me."