Chapter #8: Chikory 2-Go.

It is now 10:29am. since the moment Stan and Yumi paired up to go travel together in a two-some party; they are now at the southwest of Azalea Town, at the Town

Chapter #9: A Golden Opportunity.

We are now at the time of 2:45pm. of our protagonists’ first day paired together, and they find themselves inside the gorgeous plains full of flowers and trees before the exit of the Ilex Forest with a beautiful possible glance at the sunshine, Yumi is now kind of astonished because of the “Prophetical” event that she had just seen with her very eyes and her female purple butterfly-like partner “Botafuri”, who is just fluttering around in normality.

The confused girl is just stepping before a wooden sign that says in dark paint “Exit - Route 34” pointing to a road at the left through a rocky passage straight ahead, which eventually ended in the gradually polluted terrain before getting into the Golden Rod City, a token of human pride in the form of an immense, modern city at the central-western sector of the Johto map. Her “Partner” Stanley is worried about her and after recalling his red ladybird-like creature “Rediba” into its Pokéball, he put it away in his pack and headed to the kind of traumatized girl with a worried up “Yumi, are you okay?”.

The kind question from the boy snapped the girl out of fear and nervousness, so she turned to Stan behind her and replied “Stanley, I’m certain that you wont believe me about this” taking the pink/purple crystal with a vaguely flower bud-like shape out of her pocket and showing it to the boy.

The crystal sparkled at the sun rays striking it and Stan just got a confused sign in his face and asked “Ok, what in the world is that thing?” pointing at it in his friend’s hand.

“I’m not sure” she said with a similar confused expression looking at it “But the thing is about how did this appeared” Yumi said remembering this green, fairy-like creature bursting into a spiralling time/space fracture in which there was a bipedal, vaguely fox-like yellow creature with a nostalgic expression in its face a the sight of her when it threw this item from the other side of the gap before this closed in another burst of light green, every single detail of this memory was displayed in her mind while she was recalling her butterfly-like creature behind her in her Pokéball, directing the red retrieving beam over her shoulder without even looking.

The guy just said “I wonder if-” when he touched it with his hand but he was interrupted by a sudden flash of pink light from this strange object that instantly produced an holographic bubble of similar colour enveloping the surroundings which had a picture showing the exact moment in the past in which this item was thrown to the present by a strange creature in the other side of a somewhat time/space fracture gap, made by a smaller, greener levitating creature.

When this vision just faded away, it caused a logical astonishment from the two of them; the guy, on his side, was thinking “Let’s do it again!” but quickly gathered consciousness into thinking back “What in the name of Luggage was that!?”; on the other hand, the girl reacted as thinking “A vision from the past! But… how?” while looking at this weird-powered thing in her hand.

Then the girl replied to this “Stan, that was exactly what happened minutes ago!”

“Oh! That explains everything” he said with a surprised face.

“I don’t know how the hell this did that” she said while clutching this crystal in her hand “But I’m definitely keeping it!” the girl said all excited up before housing the crystal safe in her pack.

All of a sudden, there was a pack of wild bear-like, unfriendly, big, brown creatures with a somewhat ring-like shape in their chest known as “Ringuma” out of the vegetation at the distance that were trying to stalk the twosome while using their intimidating “Leer” technique, they were drawn close probably because of the light this item produced, and when these bear-like things began running at the group the twosome was just death-shocked and adrenaline-screamed before a hell runaway out of the forest, all the way up to the city in the north through this gradually polluted road.

5---4---3---2---1---Action!

Their feet moved as fast as they could towards a safe environment through this sandy plains with the glare of the 3:21 sunshine in their shoulders, reaching the Pokémon Centre, which was intelligently built almost welcoming those from the Ilex Forest at the south of the city with a big red “P” on the dome-like structure in white colour.

As the glass door slid open, the revealed gasping couple of teenagers just entered the air conditioned environment of the warm painted room with a red-haired smiling woman wearing a white cap with a red cross on it behind a clean counter in yellow colour, this woman had a strange, pink creature at her side with a similar glad smile and a curly haircut called “Happiness” the evolved form of a common sight “Lucky” amongst Joi nurses in the country.

The tense couple quickly returned to their natural behaviour as they greeted the woman and asked her to take care of their Pokémon handling their Pokéballs to her, the woman said “Of course, no problem” taking their red-and-white, capsule-like catching tools into a big, serious-looking grey and black machine at her side with 6 Pokéball-sized ports in a side, the woman started typing on the keyboard in front of a well-sized screen with various graphics in it as the Pokéballs began being showered by sparks in a normal Healing Procedure.

While leaving the healing matter to the Nurse Joi, they just sat at a red table in the same room, which had all these trainers walking in and out, back and forth with all kinds of Pokémon partners with them, in this moment, Stan asked Yumi to wait Joi’s sign to pick the Pokémon as he walked through this room to a line of green-coloured videophones with the intention of calling Professor Utsugi, at the Research Field.

The guy picked one of them and started typing the Research Field’s number from the phone agenda that was right there, chained at the side of every single videophone; there was a simple animation of a ringing phone against a black background displayed on the screen as Stan waited someone to pick the call and after seconds, Utsugi’s plain excited expression with his blonde, short hair was flashed up from the screen with a “Hello” at the mere sight of Stan.

“Buenas, Utsugi! How are yo?” The boy greeted his friend.

“Oh, I guess I couldn’t be better, Stan.” Utsugi said with an ancient-looking book in his hand, he then asked “How about you?” to the apparently tired boy.

“Good!” Stanley claimed before saying “Ok, let’s do this already…” while searching the Pokéball that contained the stray Chikorita he just caught at the Ilex Forest some hours ago.

He eventually got to pick this red-and-white ball from his pack and quickly placed it at the MS -or Matter Sender, which is at the side of every videophone in the form of two transparent cylinders separated by a somewhat serious-looking yellow electrode above a Pokéball-shaped empty gap- he typed the MS address of the Research Field and hit the square green button labelled with the word “Send” in it as the yellow electrode started sparking a red electric-looking beam down to the Pokéball, and in mere seconds the Pokéball disappeared from sight with a soft electric shock sound.

There was a simple animation of a rolling Pokéball sprite at the bottom right corner of the screen as the Pokéball was being sent to the Research Field, in a matter of seconds, Utsugi received the Pokéball inside the MS at his side and thanked the boy for the delivery.

“Thank you boy! I owe it to you; By the way, remember to deliver the Great Ball to Barbara Akame at the hospital, eh?” The middle-aged scientist said with his glad face.

“It’s okay Whisker, don’t worry, I didn’t forget it, but I’m now leaving; I must have lunch, y’ know” Stan said before closing the call with a rumbling tummy.

“Why, it’s… 3:42pm. and you haven’t had lunch already?” Utsugi asked surprised.

The boy said pointing at his screened friend and told him “Don’t tell my mom!” when he closed the call all hurried to go to eat.

As he got closer to his friend, the boy found Yumi having a well-sized fried rice plate, which smelled very tasty with all those fried seedsprouts, salt, chicken -for not telling cooked Poppo- and soy sauce.

“Wow girl, that’s too much food” the boy said all hungry

“Can yo please share with me?” Stan replied quickly with a begging puppy-like face.

A sweatdrop appeared in Yumi’s head as she answered “Ok man, you dun have to put that face”

Stan’s pup face was replaced by a happy smile when he exclaimed “YAY!” as Yumi gave the boy the remaining plastic fork she had and he moved his chair near the tasty plate, so the two of them began eating in the same plate without even fighting for any seedsprout or caring what people thought about a twosome, of contrary genders, eating in the same dish. They even chatted with eachother like two old friends about stars, fancy Role Playing games and the 50% discount of new clothing merchandise at the Department Store thing.

They eventually got to finish their lunch at the casual same time that the Healing Procedure ended successfully with a completed shower of sparks for their Pokéballs. As this big machine finished the healing, Nurse Joi picked these ten Pokéballs -Stanley’s five, and Yumi’s five- and opened them with mastery, these 10 red-and-white capsule-like balls bursted open in a bluish white light revealing ten different sending beams in a similar colour that landed onto the floor right next to the counter, which ended in the ten different our protagonists’ Pokémon –Stanley’s Evolution Pokémon, the little, brown-furred “Eievui”; the Racoon-like, brown creature “Jigusaguma”; his sly, 3-meter purple Snake Pokémon “Arbo”; the apathetic, blue-skinned Wool Pokémon “Mariipu”; and the kind, red Ladybird-like, Five Star creature “Rediba”, and for sure, Yumi’s greyish brown, bipedal Rabbit-like creature with pink puffs on both ears and a puffy down in identical colour called “Mimirol”; her purple butterfly-like creature “Botafuri”; a cream-coloured Scratchcat Pokémon with his characteristic Coin-like amulet on his forehead “Nyasu”; the female yellow-and-brown fox-like asleep-looking Psi Pokémon “Kesey”; and a female, dark blue weasel-like Pokémon with a short red feather for left ear and prominent claws in both forepaws, the Sharp Claw Pokémon “Nyura”- separated in two 5-member parties formation, then they looked at eachother before producing a confident smile to the other group of new friends.

These 10 Pokémon grabbed their respective Pokéballs from the counter and headed through the room with scattered people around the place to their owners, who were just paying a bill of 30 Pokéyens to the waitress, dressed with a blue T-shirt and white skirt, and kept their conversation in the table to find their little friends coming all restored and with their Pokéballs with them, so the teens just took the red-and-white balls from their little pals and sent them into them with their quote “Come here!” as the red retrieving beams were shot out from the Pokéballs’ open button and all the 10 creatures disappeared after a bright of red colour.

After sending their pals back to their respective capsules, the teens got out of the dome-shape structured Pokémon Centre and headed northeast into the city with the intention of visiting the Department Store for some clothing, as they were walking carelessly through these streets full of people and cars everywhere, they got crossed a block where the almost 34-story building built in a spectacular soft twisting structure full of transparent windows could been seen from.

“Travesty! THAT is the Department Store?” Stanley groaned at the sight of the most tall (and weird) building he had ever seen at the distance.

“Yep, it is” Yumi claimed “That’s where my best friend works” she added.

“So we’re gonna pay a visit to your friend…” he answered “Umm… what’s the name?” he added.

“Her name is Jennifer” she answered with a nostalgic smile in her face “And I met her when I was at high school, she was my Biology teacher” Yumi answered as she was remembering every laugh, every ice cream, and every mock at the Maths teacher… all those good high school days of hers.

Stan got a confused sign in his face as he asked “Why, how old is your friend?”

She gathered her memories and said “…Ok, I graduated 2 months ago… I’m 15… yes, she’s 17 by now”.

“Oh so she’s young, and you graduated from high school as well, nice” Stan claimed with his glad face to the fact that his friend graduated like him.

“You mean you graduated also?” she asked surprised.

“Of course, that’s this generation of trainers about, isn’t it?” he answered.

Yumi got to think not all trainers of this generation are like them, but she said “I guess so…” with a careless expression in her face when they finally got into this big building by the sliding glass door.

The environment looked good, quite normal, with all these people coming and going through the place with the walls painted in whitish grey all across the circular shape of the entire floor, which was one of the three Cafés the building had. Various dark electric stairs guiding up and down, there were like 4 other basement floors below where they were, as the other 28 floors were upstairs.

As Stan was shifting his head around taking looks of this place, he got to exclaim “Travesty!” “What’s your friend’s employ here?”

“Nothing interesting, she’s just the manager of this place” she said with a smirk in her face, leaving Stan jaw-opened from this.

With the boy smartified about the fact that Yumi’s friend’s one of the most richest people in the country, they headed to the lift at the right of the room, this was a crystal-transparent cabinet of an approximate maximum of 12 people at the same time with all those cables visible at first.

There were other 5 people in there, two little girls, one boy apparently 2 years older height wise and their probable young parents, all dressed up like the wealthiest family in the country or something. As Yumi pushed 23rd button of the line of options on the left side of the cabinet, they could see all those people walking, having ice creams, or anything outside through the transparent walls; and as the height was of a 23rd floor according to the counter of red numbers on the metallic door, it slid open leftwards, revealing a warm-painted room of air conditioned ambience, with wooden floor and countless of different clothing pieces hanging from the walls as samples and all the other number of people inside it, cashing gorgeous dresses out, looking for jeans or anything.

The 7 were out of the lift and after the other 5 strangers disappeared into the store, Stan asked Yumi “But, weren’t we supposed to go to her office or something?”.

“Well, she spends all day in here, though” Yumi answered with her gaze at Stan, before turning to the store, which had some signs hanging from the ceiling which said “50% SALE” in white colour against the green-colour plastic, and finding this brunette wearing a dark pink long-sleeved shirt and light blue jeans, brown moccasins and a blue-coloured, spherical Pokémon with round, mouse-like ears, no arms, rudimentary legs, white cheeks and a black, zigzagging tail which ended with a blob of similar blue colour, the Polka Dot Pokémon, Ruriri on her head.

Yumi said “There she is!” right after she spotted her best friend amongst all the other people walking about, they got to cross this store thought this well-thought place and Yumi sneaked behind her friend, surprising her with a soft poking in her shoulder. She turned and her angry face was quickly replaced by a surprised smile.

“Oh gorgeous! You’re here!” Jennifer said with her kind, girly voice as her Ruriri on her head reacted with a similar-mood smile.

“Buenas! How’re ya doing, girl?” Yumi said back to her old friend as she embraced her.

While embraced, the happy Jennifer got to see Stanley, who was just stepping in front of them, over Yumi’s head and said “Oh, hello boy” as she got off her friend’s arms and beckoned the guy to shake her hand as she said “Jennifer, nice to meet yo”.

He shook her hand while saying “Stanley, good to see ya”.

“Wanna go shopping, guys?” she asked the group with her excited face and her hands in her face.

Jennifer turned around to Yumi and nodded before both girls were about to draw the boy into the shop with them by grabbing his hands, Stan just said “No thanks, I’ve gotta go to the hospital” when the girls led him go.

“Ok boy, see you at the Café later, got it?” Yumi asked her leaving friend.

“Gotcha” Stan said back as they were now on their own, the girl with her best friend and the boy with nobody as he was heading rightwards to the lift.

It’s 5:45pm. and Stanley is now on this transparent cabinet waiting for it to arrive at the 1st floor, to go hit the road towards outside and head to the Golden Hospital, at the northwest from the Department Store; he picked his way thought the streets, full of people, crosspaths, cars, and everything.

After crossing a few blocks later, it was becoming 6:05pm. as he got near the Hospital, a conventionally white-painted, big building standing firmly against the colour-shading sunshine from the west with its almost 12 floors full of caring, responsible people, wounded ones, and experts in the art of curing the troubled ones, from cracked bones to health-wiping addictions.

Again, the sliding door, revealed the boy from the inside, Stan got to watch the entire white room, with grey ceiling, and the reception counter, placed in the right corner of the room in a soft wooden colour and a guy sitting at the other side of it. Stan stood in front of this counter and asked the guy where to go to visit “Barbara Akame”, with the intention of delivering something to her; the guy replied that she was on the 3rd floor at the 29th room.

Stan thanked the guy and headed to the lift, near the bottom left corner of the room, there was almost no other person in the reception room, so there wasn’t any hoopla to take the lift up to the 3rd floor, which was a cloud-white corridor full of doors. Anyhow, Stan knew visit hours finished at the time of 6:45pm. and it was 15 minutes to that hour, so the boy quickly browsed his way to the 29th room, which entrance was a plain wooden door with a golden, rectangular little sign with “Akame, Barbara” labelled on it in black paint.

The cave-silent room was white, again, with greyish-green soft colour-painted walls, a beautiful view to the city’s edge with the sea through the window at the end of this room, and this comfortable, white bed, with a blonde woman of an apparent 23 years of life sleeping on it, with the cream-coloured sheet up to her shoulders and a right arm out from it, revealing the connection between her and this wheeled whey carrier at her side.

Stan was feeling nervous to disturb her sleeping when he was browsing his orange, Nuckrar-like pack and picked the Great Ball Utsugi wanted him to give her assistant, who was very delicate because of an accident with an angry Heracross and a continuous stab from an Ariados, so she was not good. He placed this blue-coloured ball with two short, red vertical stripes running on it on the small night table at the side of the bed when this capsule just fell on the floor causing it to burst in reddish white light, which released a sending beam of similar colour onto the floor, revealing a knelt yellow, bipedal creature with vague fox traits in its small body and blue neck, what caused the boy to exclaim “What the-” when he saw this creature producing from the delivery he had to do.

This weird Pokémon was holding a somewhat cylindrical crystal in bluish-transparent colour, which was sparkling in its hand. Then, this creature offered Stan its possession with submission without abandoning its stance; so the boy carefully took this gorgeous crystal as he produced his red Pokédex out of his vest pocket and pointed this small creature.

Beep! “Riolu, the Ripple Pokémon, Riolu resembles a small, black and blue skinned humanoid fighter with floppy ears; it is similar to its evolution Lucario but its wrist blades are more rounded and it lacks Lucario's yellow chest fur. It appears to be based on a bipedal canid such as a jackal or a coyote.”

“…Riolu?...Lucario?” he thought while he was remembering this picture he saw at the exit of the Ilex Forest, when he zoomed into this yellow creature who threw Yumi’s crystal. Stan realized that both Pokémon, the one from the vision at the forest and the one knelt in front of him were matching.

Stupemortified about the fact that he is probably encountering a De-Javu character and that both Pokémon were from different colour from their regular forms, Stan just turned his Pokédex off as he retrieved his red, handheld computer in his vest again at the same time he was recalling Riolu into its Great Ball. He put the capsule on the small table the Great Ball had fell from again and closed the door carefully.

It was almost 7:34pm. When he got near the Department Store’s big entrance, then, he crossed the street to have a look inside the Café and look for his friend, but, to his surprise, Yumi was sat there at one of the tables of this big room with all these people scattered around it. But the boy could see her, through the people, that Yumi was like sad, with her hands covering her face as she were crying or something and Jennifer sat at her side, with her hand on Yumi’s shoulder as though she were trying to calm her down.

Stanley got a slightly worried sign in his face as he was crossing the place and as he arrived the table he went right to the point with “Hey what’s going on?” to the pair of girls.

Jennifer turned to Stan and said “Oh hey Stan, this is not good” with her sad eyes.

“What’s wrong with her?” the boy asked all worried up.

Yumi quickly quitted her whispering sobbing and answered the boy through her hands “My grandpa… he got an inner haemorrhage!”

Stan’s slightly worried face was replaced by a wide-open eyes worried expression before he said “But how? WHY?” to his weeping friend.

“Oh! I quit this! I’m going home!!” Yumi cried before starting a hell runaway out of the building.

Stan tried to reach her when Jennifer’s voice stopped him “Hold it Stanley!” before the very first step; which caused him to turn to her before she continued “Her brother called her to tell their grandfather, who suffers from delicate heart, got not a CVA, but an inner haemorrhage” then she continued “She didn’t want me to go with her, she’s taking a bus to Cento Cherry now; and believe me, don’t try to stop her”

“Oh my! That’s terrible” he groaned at the situation.

“And by the way; she bought you this” she said while she was picking a normal-sized brown bag of paper as though it were wrapping something.

The boy was speechless to the fact that her very new friend even bought him something while he hasn’t done a thing for her, but anyways he accepted the gift from Jennifer’s hand, he put it into his pack, and both of them got out of the building, Stan gave Jennifer another handshake, this time with a very grateful intention, before heading to the P.C. at the southwest of the Store.

It was now 8:09pm. when he, after many long streetcrosses, he made it at the Pokémon Centre, the sliding door revealed this familiar ambience almost deserted, save Nurse Joi, Happiness and some other 4 people in the place. Nurse Joi greeted the boy as he was getting near the counter where she was; the boy greeted back to the woman and asked for a room to spend the night.

“To do that, I’ll need your Trainer Licence, Stan”

“Oh! hehe… of course” the boy replied as he took his wallet out of his jean pockets and filed out his ID card to Joi.

“Ok, let’s do this” she whispered as she started a typing in the keyboard she had at her side, and after a few typing, she slid the card into an incorporate E-Reader the keyboard had as a white “Ok” was displayed on the well-sized screen.

She handed back the ID to the boy as Happiness was searching a cardkey from the slot at the back, according to this blue cardkey, Stan’s room was the 8th one. “Good night” Joi smiled as her Pokémon expressed a similar kindness.

“Well, thanks girls” “Good night” the boy said before heading into the lodging area to spend the night there and resume his life from 7:20am. of the next morning.

He walked though the corridor to a door that said “8th Room”, he inserted the cardkey and opened the door to reveal this plain room with two white, simple bunks, a window at the bottom and a simple bathroom at the right side of the room.

But the boy didn’t have any time to spend, so he got to set his double-screened handheld computer “Pokégear” and plunged into the bed, falling asleep almost 2 minutes of deadly worry for his friend.

There, glancing at the streetlights that could filter from the window behind him striking at the cream-coloured ceiling in a calming rhomboid of lights accompanied with remains of everynight city noises, was our protagonist’s worried person, lying on bed for the waited trip to dreamlands. Not even thinking in his pack, shoes and socks packed in one corner of this plain 4-walled room, Stanley was clutched in a soft embrace of white sheets, directing his mind to his current source of worry, Yumi, who is now being remembered by Stan from the moment they met to the most warm token of care from her; the present, and probably reviewing everything what ended happening in this nothing but crazy day.

Stanley, clutched in the sheets could bear it no more and gave in to sleep; Stan was sleeping calmly until this other source of worry, the Crystals, popped up in his head, which caused a predictably insane dream. In this, he could see in first-person this light blue, cylindrical, transparent crystal in his hand, the crystal shined in response to a soft light produced by his hand and all of a sudden he heard at a distance a somewhat rock wall crumbling away because of this; revealing it all was pitch-black inside the fracture, but this wall crumbled as though the shine of Stanley’s sparkling stone in his hand was the cause or something.

<center>Chapter #10: Calio gets Bugged.</center>

If you follow, Stan’s dreams are really weird, and this is so weird that briefly after this wall finished crumbling, there was this piercing, frightening image of a dead Eievui lying on a white sheet! This image struck Stan’s eyes with a really soft, eerie sound of whispering moans.

Stan was so darn scared from this image on the pitch black passage the crumbled wall revealed, that he just woke up shockingly from bed to turn to his right and realize that it was 7:25am in his Pokégear on the little nighttable at the side of the bed… 7:25am, 5 minutes before the alarm clock flashed on.

The newly awakened boy with kind of a shocked expression in his face just wrapped his eyes clean and realized that it was just another nonsense dream of his. He got up from the corner-placed bed to turn the alarm off and headed into the identical-painted bathroom in the same room he rented and took a quick shower of about 20 min. and after brushing his teeth, and everything he got out of the bathroom with towel around his waist to stand before his clothes, the dirty grey vest, his white T-shirt, the pair of grey jeans, his white bandana and his bluish black belt, all scattered on the bed.

*Sigh* “Again this outfit” Stan thought all bored at the glance at his unfortunate clothing while rubbing his dark brown hair.

It was then when this witty boy snapped his fingers remembering the paper bag in which the soft-to-touch present from Yumi was, so he gathered his stuff from the bag on bed, it was there, amongst the Oracle of Legends, the incubated Togepi Egg encapsulated in its glass-transparent little machine, and some travelling stuff (aka. Rope, compass, lantern, etc.) It was this rolled up paper bag with its well size and distinguishable clothe smell.

The guy frantically scratched away the wrapping plastic paper from the bag to reveal a complete set of fantasticated clothing, which includes a greyish brown sweater vest with yellow-and-black rhomboids from the shoulders to the belly, a long-sleeved white shirt, a pair of black waterproof trousers, a white fingerless glove and a forearm-long black spike.

“!” The boy inhaled at the impression of the wonderific clothes his friend just bought him, for sure, Stan got to suspect how on earth did Yumi know about his tastes on clothing with such accuracy.

Anyways, Stanley got to wear this present as he was at the same time finding that even the size of these clothes is accurate also, he really started to wonder who was behind this while he was rolling up his old outfit inside the same paper bag and storing everything in the Nuckrar-like pack… But anyhow, it was 7:58am and our protagonist is losing time to go to the Bug-Catching Contest, which starts at 8:30am exactly.

“Bug-Catching Contest!?” Stan exclaimed aimlessly shifting his eyes as he finished tying up his bandana and packing up his bag on his back.

Stanley, that’s this chapter about, so hurry up please!

To this disembodied reflection, Stan got rid of his disconcerted expression he had… 7 seconds ago, and got out of the room. He walked across this corridor to the main wing of this PC, which is this well-sized room of air conditioned ambience and painted with gentle yellow colour on the walls at the background.

“Hey, Joi” Stan greeted the red-haired woman typing in this keyboard as some graphics on the screen before her started moving.

“Oh, hello Stanley, how was your night?” Joi greeted back to the boy who was just coming near the counter.

Stanley finished squishing his eyes clean, and gradually realized that there was another woman in the room, she was a young woman with red swirling hair in looped ties on the sides of the ears, wearing a plain white shirt with a pinkish red stripe running horizontally through it and matching trousers with brown, tap shoes or what appeared to be tap shoes.

This woman was standing there, talking to Joi like two old friends, and then Joi produced two red-and-white balls and one in pink colour with a kind of heart-shape in the middle of it in crimson shade from the Healing Machine system and handled them to this smiling girl of apparently 22 years of life, who just started to say good-bye to the nurse and walking away out of the sliding front door frantically, as though she had an appointment somewhere.

“So umm Joi, who was that girl?”

Joi just said in response “She’s Akane” and added “The Goldenrod Gym leader”.

“Oh really? Then, I’ve got a challenge!” he said all excited, forgetting about his hunger and his appointment at the Bug Catching Contest at the Central Park while he was just running away to try reaching Akane.

The boy was about to cross the sliding door when Joi’s voice stopped him “HEY!”, stunning the boy up as he gazed back over his shoulder.

“Where do you think you are going?” Joi replied.

Stan had his “Oops” expression in his face as he began walking back to the counter where Joi was as he was asking “What?”.

“You’re not out of here until you give me the cardkey back and have a Breakfast, boy, you need to eat something”

Stan smiled embarrassed and rubbed his nape as he handled the blue cardkey to Joi from his pocket “Well sorry, take the key and…” the boy stopped here while he was thinking what should he have for breakfast and quickly responded “I would like a sandwich” pointing at the “Sandwich” in blue font against the white of the sing that had the “Menu” of the PC over the counter.

Joi gave Stan a quick-done sandwich of ham and cheese, enveloped in napkins, the boy paid it for 5 Pokéyens and started walking out the PC’s dome-shaped structure through the sliding glass door.

As time was still running, it was 8:13am when the boy started hitting the road through the grey, noisy streets of a car-infested city. Stan got his mind on the Bug Catching Contest and how well the taste of the cheese of his sandwich was while he was exactly heading to the peculiarly- shaped park with its kilometres of circular extension.

<center>5---4---3---2---1---Action!</center>

Stan eventually made it at the Central Park – an ironic name for it, since its expanded terrain of natural-like, well-cared environment of an oversized Pokéball shape is not in the very core of this Goldenrod City, but at the northmost top of it – and leaving the southern entrance behind him, he found this fresh ambience of this well-done cobblestone road, with all those benches scattered at its edge and green, short grass a the sides.

Now, with the sandwich in his tummy and after a deep breath of this place, Stanley continued walking through this road rightwards, which had this wooden sign pointing the same direction with the message “Welcome to the weekly Bug-Catching Contest” in a well-done font style.

As he was now approaching the centre of this Pokéball-shaped park, which is occupied with a huge circumference-shaped lake, he could see this ending improvised opening ceremony on an improvised stage before the entire crowd of kids of all ages, cheering and starting running away from there in unison as the speaker said “Let the games BEGIN!”.

In that moment, Stan just sighed sadly as he knew he had arrived late for the competition, and of course he also lost the opportunity to get something for Yumi, didn’t he?

As the kids finished scattering away from the opening ceremony stage and disappearing into the woods, there was this kid running from behind Stan and yelling “WAAAIIT!” as he stopped at the side of the surprised Stan.

Stanley then could notice that this gasping-on-knees boy, apparently 2 years younger than him, was wearing a yelling yellow T-shirt and his greyish green small backpack, with a reddish belt tied on his light-green shorts and brownish-yellow sandals on his feet and a flavourful bug-catcher hat on his reddish-haired head.

The boy instantly got on his feet again and asked Stan “The competition’s already started, right?”.

“Yeah, what a pity” Stan replied after sighing again.

In that moment, this boy started shifting his head in search of something, when this weird-dressed kid got his glance at the 8:49am clear sky, he was so fortunate to see with wide-opened eyes this weird-coloured Botafuri – a Botafuri with red-coloured limbs on this dark blue skin and green eyes - soaring about over them before sinking into the wildly-leafed trees around.

“I knew that Shiny Botafuri was around here!” the boy exclaimed with a hopeful smile and started running towards the bug creature.

Stan, had practically no idea of what was this boy trying to do, but because of this, he just followed him through a quite forest-like environment full of bushes and trees everywhere until they stopped in a sunny clear, plain and grassy all the way with apparently no people other than them, and an exception of this big tree standing in the middle of it.

This shiny Botafuri was just there, enjoying the freshness of the short grass and ignoring the boys that were just sneaking behind the bushes at its distance.

“At last!” the boy exclaimed, “This is my opportunity to finally catch that pesky Botafuri!” he continued with a quite anxious voice.

As this boy continued blabbing about, Stan was just thinking of how would it be if he got that Shiny Botafuri for his friend Yumi, it was like a good idea, since this bug creature had no spots on its pinkish wings, which indicated it was male – the perfect company for Yumi’s female Botafuri, isn’t it? – So the interested Stanley started scheming how it would be best to get that rarely-seen creature.

As this other guy just stopped blabbermouthing he just got on his feet and finished with a plain excited, nervous quote “I, Calio, the best Tsukushi’s apprentice” while taking out a plain greenish yellow baton from his pack and stretching it into a well-sized net, he continued “Am gonna get that frigging Shiny Botafuri, for the sake of the FAMILYY!” as he started dashing towards this inoffensive-looking little bug.

But before he could even get near of this, he was just stopped by Stan, who just grabbed Calio’s backpack with one hand.

“Whoa, what do you think you’re doing, boy?” Stan asked the rushing 13-year old boy.

“LEGGO! This is very important to me!” the boy replied frantically as he tried to escape from Stanley’s grab.

“Hold it dude” he said to the boy, trying to calm him down “Think! What if that bug knocks you with its Confusion? Or what if its tries how do you survive to its Poison Powder, huh?” Stan told the boy to try discouraging him from regretting those possible consequences.

Calio just stopped struggling and realized Stan was right, every single bug-catcher knows to whom they are fighting when it comes to bug-types, so he just returned into the bushes silently and turned to Stan, giving his back to the Botafuri and asked “Then, what do you suggest?… umm”

“Stanley, the name is Stanley Natzuke” he added.

“Well, what do you suggest, Stanley?” the boy asked reluctantly.

“First things first, just tell me what did you want to do?”

The interested Calio began explaining his plan to Stan quite carefully, which is actually not bad, but hilariously, what Calio was telling Stan was exactly what other trainers were trying to do and Stan had all the way in his eyes to the plains in front of him and behind Calio, where all the boy said, it was actually happening.

“Well, to start, I would just let my Strike (Scyther) in battle and try Slashing the Botafuri from behind, though, if it notices and evades it quickly, it would counter with its Psy Beam and knock Strike from behind. But if I come with my Kunugidama (Pineco) and try smacking it away with Rapid Spin? No, it would protect itself with Confusion and throw the spinning Pokémon back to me… Well, probably if I send my Supie (Beedrill) in and start Furry-Attacking it, the Botafuri could evade every strike and beat its wings, knocking my Pokémon away with a powerful Gust attack! But now then, if I had a Heracross (Heracross) and let it use its Aerial Ace to beat that bug for once of all it would be nice, unless it survives the hit and strikes back with its own Aerial Ace! Then I would be owned…”

Stan had a nothing but plumb astounded expression with his wide-open mouth and eyes to the fact that Calio was innocently narrating everything that the Trainers’ Pokémon and the Botafuri were doing behind him.

Intrigued, Calio said to finish “Apparently no matter what I try, tha--” but he was interrupted by Stan, who just made the Calio to turn to the plains behind him by pointing there and see that the Botafuri was stepping there, gasping its lack of remaining energy because of the battles it finished.

Calio sneaked a peek and saw all these trainers and their Pokémon thrown randomly around the place and figured they were all trying to get that Shiny Botafuri, and when he handled his net up to try catching it and charged again after it.

Stan quickly took out a Pokéball from his bag and started running after Calio to try snagging his opportunity to catch this rarely-seen specimen, which was forcefully running away from there.

Calio and Stan ran a few meters after this stressed Shiny Pokémon, and after evading some sweeps from Calio’s net, it jumped into the bushes from the edge of the plain with the rest of the forest.

“GO Pokéball!” Both trainers shouted in unison as they threw their red-and-white Pokéball at the same target at the same time.

Both Pokéballs soared through the air and hit the Pokémon behind the bushes; a red bright could be seen from behind the small patch of leaves, as they got their glances over the bush. They saw just one of the two red-and-white balls moving and after that one beeped in a successful catch conventional beep, they got to grad this ball.

“This Pokéball is obviously mine!” Calio exclaimed when struggling for 'his' Pokeball with Stan, who was stronger than him, so he had no problem on snapping the Pokéball away from the 13-year old boy and quickly after it, Stan started running away with both Pokéballs in his hands.

“Oh no, you wont!” Calio shouted as he threw another Pokéball to the air, the ball popped open and released a white stream of light that landed before the running Stan, who was stopped cold by this light fading into a Strike, a green, well-sized Mantis Pokémon with its two big scythes for hands.

“Give me that Pokéball or Strike with cut you down…” Calio grunted.

At this situation, Stan just jumped away from there and said “I have a better idea than getting arrested” as he reached his bag and produced a Pokéball and a little grey scarf.

Then, he proposed Calio to have a battle with him to determine who will get to keep that Botafuri, so they advanced some feet until the big tree standing in the middle of the plains where they were and all the other trainers had ranaway from.

“This will be a one-on-one battle with no time limit, is it okay by you?” Stan said all excited.

“Yeah, why not? After all, this battle wont last that much…” Calio answered confidently.

Stan put the Pokéball with the bug inside it on the folded scarf onto a root of this tree and the Battle Began.

<center>- - - - -
“Okay, I’ll go with Strike!” he shouted pointing forward as his Strike occupied his battle position before his trainer.

“Then, let’s do this! Jigusaguma!” Stan replied throwing a Pokéball to the air, the ball bursted open, sending a flashing white stream of light which landed on the fresh lawn and faded into the brown-furred Racoon Pokémon, Jigusaguma.

Both Pokémon kept their gazes at eachother until Stan just said “Hey Calio, why don’t you start the battle, huh?” with even more confidence than earlier.

Calio was like “Okay, if you wish…” as he commanded “C’mon Strike, use your Double Team!”

“Sand-Attack!”

The green mantis Pokémon flashed in white as its silhouette began splitting from one to three bug Pokémon the surrounded the little racoon. Jigusaguma turned to let its back to one of the Strikes and scratched a good Sand-Attack with his hind legs, hitting one of the copies.

The copy flashed away, startling both Jigusaguma and Stan when suddenly Calio shouted “Quick Attack!”. Both remaining mantis Pokémon were propelled at a crazy speed, hitting the racoon-like creature from behind and send it flying.

“Hahaha! This battle’s finished! Strike, Slash it down, NOW” Calio shouted and the mantis Pokémon figures prepared their blades and jumped to cut their enemy.

“No! Quick Jigusaguma, Dig!” Stan shouted in response. In 2 seconds Jigusaguma quickly dunked into the ground head-first to avoid the hit, the two of the bug Pokémon stuck both of their scythes and struggled to let go of the earth. In that moment, Jigusaguma, the lucky dug a hole behind the real Strike and took off it into the ground, gnawing on its hind leg, making the copy to flash away.

It was now kind of an underground battle, but the only thing that could be heard was just slashes, pinchers and bashes.

Calio held his hat in stress as Stan had his fingers cross once the battle was silenced. After a few intense seconds, Jigusaguma was thrown out of the hole and crashed on the lawn with its tummy and had a terrible scar on its back. After that, Strike’s head was produced out of the hole with a frantic expression as his owner started jumping of joy.

“YAY! The Botafuri is Mine!” Calio smiled loudly while returning his Pokémon into its Pokéball.

Stan sighted in sadness as he did the same thing with his defeated Jigusaguma.
- - - - -</center>

“I knew I should had used Meiripu (Mareep)” Stan thought to himself while he took the Pokéball from the scarf and handed it to the happy Calio.

“Thanks, pal” Calio said satisfied “It was a nice battle, wasn’t it?” he asked smiling.

Stan felt at least glad for his new friend’s success, he though it was not so easy to beat him, so Stanley produced a smiled and replied “Of course it was”.

In that moment, Stan received a call in his double-screened Pokégear in his pocket; he reached it out of his trousers and opened it. It was Calvin, remember? The guy whose Jigusaguma was stolen by Stan.

“Hey Calvin, how are you, my friend?” Stan smiled as his friend’s face flashed on the upper screen.

“Hey, I’m fine, nice to see you again boy” Calvin answered.

“I wanna introduce you to my new friend, Calio!” Stan said as he turned his computer to the surprised Calio.

“Hey there” Calvin greeted before Stan turned his device back to face him.

“Look, I will call you later, ‘K?

“Roger that, take care of yourself and Jigusaguma”

“Yah, Don’t worry. Bye” Stan Byed his friend and closed the call to ask Calio for his Gear number, 115323778, and closed his double-screened computer away in his pocket again.

Calio typed Stanley’s number in his and put it away in his cubic pack.

“It was a pleasure to meet you” Calio continued “But, I’ve gotta go now, there are still more BUGS TO GET!!” he ended with an excited smile and shook Stanley’s hand.

“Nice to have met you, I also have to go, mah 3rd Gym Badge awaits me” he said and started walking away, looking back and saluting his new, weird, bug-loving friend.

“I wish you luck” Stan said “And get a Heracross!” he ended.

Calio shouted back to his friend now at the distance “No thank you, I don’t like Heracross”.

“WHAAT!?”

<center>~End of Chapter 10~</center>

“Remember we’ve got to go to the graveyard tonight, sis” said the 21-year old guy.

Yumi was brushing her dark hair in front of the wooden-framed mirror hung on the blue-painted wall of the bathroom as she replied “Yes, I know, Jason”.

She took a quick glance at her brother, he was a young, tall guy wearing a white T-shirt with a small green polka-dot pattern around it and greyish jeans with untied black sportshoes in his feet, and he was walking leftwards to the kitchen.

“Want you have Breakfast, Yumi? After all you arrived here quite stressed…” said Jason to his younger sister, who was turning off the light of the bathroom.

“Okay, go ahead” Yumi answered as she stood out of the room and started patting her new black, long skirt with a purple, zigzagging stripe running through it, and taking one last glance at her dark blue T- Shirt with the tender, pinkish cat-like face on it with red cute eyes and her plain reddish shoes.

Yumi finished tying up her ponytail and fitting her purple beret on her head as she said “I’m visiting Emiliano later” and started walking towards the kitchen.

“Oh right, today we start the Gathering Up” Jason remembered as he was sweeping the butter on the toasts and peeking at the fried eggs.

“But don’t forget the funeral at 6:30pm, huh?” he reminded his younger sister while he was spinning the spoon inside the cup of warm coffee as Yumi was producing a frown in her face.

She glanced at her Grandfather’s former room to the closed door, behind which was this body lying on the bed, covered with black sheets up to the shoulders as she was fitting in her black-and-white striped fingerless glove in her left hand and tying up the forearm-long Spike she bought and though “Just for you, Oppha” to her dead grandfather, who was nicked as “Oppha” by her.

Jason saw his sister’s sad, watering eyes and quickly said “Well, here you have” as he put the chair in position for his sister to have a seat.

“Bon apetit” Jason smiled to his hungry Yumi as she was sitting.

Glancing at the plain white plate with delicious-looking fried eggs with warm toasts at the sides and the smoking cup of coffee, she sighed and said “Today’s gonna be a long day…”

As she grabbed the small plastic glass and serving some Oran Juice in it she said “I wonder how Stanley is”

Jason peeked at her sister with a smirking face while she was eating one toast in her hand and said “Oh, my little Yumi has a boyfriend?”

“What are you talking about?!” She replied reluctantly as she finished munching and continued “He’s not mah boyfriend!” with flashing red cheeks.

Jason took a sarcastic expression and said “No, of course he isn’t, right, Yumi?”

Yumi looked away drinking her coffee with pinkish red cheeks.

<center>Chapter #11: Future Releases

~ ~ ~ ~ ~</center>

Meanwhile, we find our male protagonist, Stanley and his little Togepi Egg embraced safely in his arms against his chest, walking away from the Central Park in Goldenrod City, he is now heading south east through the grey, populated streets. He kept his walking normally, watching all kinds of people with their Pokémon partners walking by their side.

He got the egg on his right arm and took a look again at his Pokégear he produced out of his pocket; it was 12:03pm and he was feeling hungry. A few minutes of walking, he eventually made his way to the Dome-shaped Gym, with a white colour and a “GYM” in pink off neon letters.

As he got closer, he found Akane, with her distinguishable pink hair and plain clothes. She was taking off a padlock from the door.

“Yo, Akane” Said Stan.

She turned to Stan and exclaimed “Oh” then continued with “Good afternoon”

“Good afternoon” he greeted back.

“You are Stanley, right?”

“Yes I am, but how do you know my name?” he asked.

Akane took a quick glance at Stan’s egg the boy was carrying and exclaimed “Oh, my goodness, is that a Togepi Egg you have there?” she asked with a smile.

“Oh, yes it is. It’s a gift from my sister” he answered as he was hugging gently the egg.

“That’s so sweet, I love that Pokémon” Akane uttered.

“By the Way, Nurse Joi told me you were coming soon.” she continued “…and told me you wanted to battle me”

Then Stan started to feel a little nervous, since he knew his battle will be right away and said “Why, yes”.

Akane pushed the door open, revealing a stadium-like arena, enlightened by the mere sunlight that filtered its way through the transparent glass section meant for the battlefield.

“You have a nice arena here, don’t you?” Stanley asked at the side of this well-done field.

“Why, it’s not the big deal; now let’s begin” Akane answered.

Both trainers walked their way on their respective sides of the battle field and battle could begin.

<center>~ ~ ~ ~ ~</center>

Meanwhile, back in Cento Cherry Town. We find Yumi, who is now walking out her light green-painted, two-story house and heading northwest through this quiet, fresh and sunny paths. The trees, the grass and almost no cars in sight made she feel nostalgic in the way she missed a bit her old town. Looking around all the houses and feeling the warm air of the town produced a smile on the girl’s face.

She was making her way to Emiliano’s house, Emiliano is the kind and paranoiac Yumi’s folk and who was named as the “Gatherer” by the P.M.F. – or Pokémon Meeting Federation – the 'Gatherer' is the person in charge of 'The Gathering', which is the process of getting things ready for an upcoming celebration, in this case the future 'Trade Fest' – A well-known and waited festivity in which trainers can freely trade their Pokémon and have fun – held in Cento Cherry.

Yumi walked with the sun over her head through the simple sidewalks until she got Emiliano’s house – a way simpler, bright yellow-painted little house placed in a corner - in her eyes. She meant to cross the sidewalk but when she made the first step out, she felt a powerful, sudden earthshake that made her to falter; she quickly got under a bank near her all scurried up and sheltering her head in fear.

As the tremor calmed down, she slowly shifted her glance and noticed a cloud of dust pouring from Emiliano’s house’s backyard; and suddenly, a huge grey, bipedal rhino-like creature with massive body and rocky appearance broke through the front door and part of the wall in a brute rampage away from there. Yumi noticed she was in this big thing’s track and covered her frame smaller as she was hearing its crashing steps fading away.

She retired her hands from her head and saw Emiliano running out and shouting “Hold it! Dosaidon!”.

<center>5---4---3---2---1---Action!</center>

Emiliano was wearing his conventional T-shirt with black stripes running through the greyish orange and matching trousers; he wore his glasses and a white cap for the sun, and greenish running shoes.

Yumi quickly crawled away from beneath the bank and ran to Emiliano in anguish, reaching him chasing this 'Dosaidon'.

“In the name of ARUSEUS, what was that?!” Yumi uttered reaching Emiliano.

“Oh, Yumi!” He looked behind him “Don’t worry, I have this under control!”

“Under control?!” She replied furiously “That thing almost killed me a few seconds ago!”

“Please Yumi, don’t overexaggerate things!”

“What?! But I’m not!” Yumi replied with red cheeks again.

“Or at least make it sound more believable”

The Dosaidon stopped his running in a dead end, where there was obviously nothing but tranquillity because of his fearful, noisy rampage.

The pair managed to corner this big Pokémon, it looked quite angry… or sad… anyways, Yumi handed her Pokédex out of her pocket and projected the red lens into the figure of Dosaidon, so that the machine could react and start the explanation.

Beep! “Dosaidon, the Drill Pokémon. It appears to be a stylized, bipedal black Saidon (Rhydon) with red plates. Its second horn grew out from a Saidon having the main horn pointed forward. It also has developed an Ankylosaur tail. The female's upper horn is smaller.
In addition to its extra armoury, it has also developed holes in the palms of its hands. Dosaidon stuff rocks in them to fire at enemies, thus why it learns 'Rock Cannon'. On rare occasions, it fires **** (Geodude) that are mistaken for ordinary rocks.
Also, Dosaidon literally looks like a tank, being very large and heavy, along with being covered in armour and possessing two cannons for arms, not to mention that its Attack and Defence stats make it a deadly physical tank as well.”

Yumi kept a kind of amazed face at the information and the asked Emiliano at her side “Now then, what are you doing with such a Pokémon with you, huh?”

“You know I like tough Pokémon, Yumi” He replied “And when I heard of Dosaidon, I wanted one”

“I see, but what is happening here?” she asked “Why is your Dosaidon so upset?”

“Upset?” Emiliano answered “He is not upset, he is just happy because he’s helping me at home with the Gathering” the boy replied as he began walking towards his big friend.

“What?! How can a beast like that help you with such paperwork? Besides, if it is happy then, why would it even blow your front door away and run half the town like maniac?!” she uttered.

The boy turned to his angry friend and smiled calmly “Because he wants to”.

Yumi didn’t know exactly how to feel. She debated with herself of feeling pity for her friend, spooked at him or indifferent.

“You know what? I see there’s no problem here, so I’d better leave you with your beastly friend” Yumi ended and walked away home.

“He is either lying, or protecting me. But anyways, I’ve got to choose my fate now, since Oppha is dead, why should I keep training Pokémon?” she though.

<center>~ ~ ~ ~ ~</center>

Meanwhile, back into Goldenrod City gym, the battle is about to start.

“This will be an encounter of three 1-on-1 separate knock-out battles” Akane said whipping out a Pokéball from her belt “Only the challenger is able to switch” “Is that okay by you, Stan?” she asked.

“Yeah, no problem” Stan replied confidently while getting the Togepi Egg in his right arm and producing a Pokéball from his pocket.

“Here I GO!” both trainers shouted in unison while throwing the Pokéballs at the battle field.

The two red-and-white balls soared the air and opened up in midair, revealing two flashing streams of bluish white light that landed on the earth, the light faded eventually, revealing both trainers first choice for battle – Stan chose his beloved Meriipu (Mareep), while Akane rathered her Pippi (Clefairy) to start off.

Both Pokémon stood on earth, waiting for their trainers’ action.

“Oh Boy! A Pippi” Stan exclaimed while taking out the Pokédex from his pack. The boy directed the lens on the fairy creature’s figure and the Pokédex reacted.

Beep! “Pippi, the Fairy Pokémon. It is a small, bipedal creature. It has no neck, seeming to be somewhat stout compared to other Pokémon of its size, such as Pikachu. It has short pink fur, with a large brown patch on each of its two pointed ears. Between these ears is a large swirl of pink fur. It has two small eyes, no nose, and a small mouth with a tiny protruding fang. It also has a patch of darker pink fur under each eye.
Pippi are often admired for their cuteness and playfulness. It's considered by many to be "adorable", making it a popular pet. These are difficult to spot, due to the fact that they can only be found in certain areas, infrequently. However, they seem to be much more common on the night of a full moon.”

“Why don’t you open up this time, huh Stan?” Akane asked from the other side of the field.

“Sure.” Stan replied while housing the Pokédex in his pocket.

“C’mon Meriipu, use your Thunder Wave!”

The sheep-like creature’s fleece began sparking and blasted a sudden, quick little jolt that went directly on the little pink creature’s body, but as the electricity began running through its body, a pink aura grew on Pippi’s body.

Akane giggled at Stan “Looks like Pippi’s Magic Guard took the upper hand this time”

“Magic Guard!?” Stan asked astonished.

“Effect-based moves won’t work on Pippi” and then she ordered “Pippi, use the Mimic!”

Pippi began a slow twirling movement while starting to float a bit; then, a similar-looking jolt of electricity was shot from it and cracked on Meriipu with a sound of running voltage.

Stan was just amazed, he didn’t expect this. But he gathered his thoughts on the struggling sheep-like Pokémon; Stan didn’t want his friend to suffer from this, so he thought on its most effective move.

“Meriipu, now use Thundershock!”

“Light Screen!” Akane replied quickly.

The twirling pink creature landed on earth, its eyes began glowing softly green and put its hands before it, a transparent sheet was projected quickly and shielded it against the Thundershock successfully.

“Now, use Psychic!”

“Meriipu, try to avoid it and use Tackle!”

Pippi’s eyes began glowing in light blue, it started fluttering and suddenly, a thin-framed alpha wave was shot from the fairy’s head and jammed on the petrified Meriipu’s face.

Meriipu started tottering from the direct impact, but it quickly shook its head to regain it’s senses. The woollen fleece of it’s body started absorbing the electricity that was running on it, making the wool to pump a little.

“Oh, more electricity” Stan thought “Meriipu’s wool is quite heavy, but shocks on contact”

Stan had practically schemed a plan out of nothing in a moment and ordered “Okay, Meriipu, use your Cotton Spore!”

Meriipu began shaking it’s body, producing a giant cloud of whitish yellow cotton that flew straight over Pippi’s side of the battle field. The Cotton Spore hit perfectly on the target’s body, but also the fleece made it into Pippi’s eyes, and the static electricity the wool was sparking was causing troubles.

“Now use Screech with Tackle!”

“Pippi! Try moving!” Akane shouted in vain.

Meriipu started shouting a loud, high-pitched cry that made chaos on the little fairy-like creature. Meriipu charged as fast as it could towards the suffering opponent and crashed its head on the target’s face.

The slam knocked Pippi away but not out of this, Akane began to panic at her Pippi’s state, but she just tried it once more.

Akane produced a calmed face and said “Go, Swift!”

Pippi, could crack one of it’s venous eyes open at the command, so it opened it’s mouth and several star-shaped light rays were shot from there. The stars soared the air frantically and crashed on Meriipu’s body, knocking it out.

“Oh my, come here Meriipu, yo need some rest now.” Stan said when retrieving the Pokémon.

“You did it great, Pippi~” Akane smiled recalling it’s Pokémon in it’s Pokéball.

“Akane, next time you won’t get lucky…” Stan warned his friend while picking next Pokéball from his pocket.

“Don’t worry Stan, I hope you’ll do it better” she answered whipping a Pokéball out of her pocket.

“GO!” Both trainers shouted in unison as they threw their Red-and-white Pokéballs into the battlefield. Both Pokéballs landed on earth and popped open, revealing a stream of light that landed before them and faded away to reveal the next combatants – Stan’s Arbo (Ekans) and Akane’s Lucky (Chansey).

“Huh? An Egg Vs. a Snake?” Stan murmured “How epic! Isn’t it?” He smiled at the high Chance of being the victor.

“I heard you… And you’ll see this won’t be that easy” she replied reluctantly.

“Okay, let’s start this off, Arbo, use your Poison Sting!”

The purple rattlesnake opened it’s mouth and a stream of tiny pins was shot from it and flew straight towards Lucky.

“Lucky, go with Safeguard!”

Suddenly a light green aura grew evident surrounding the pink Egg-like Pokémon’s frame, thus the pins just bounced off it like nothing.

“Now use Sing!” Akane commanded.

The egg-like Pokémon took a calm, inspired pose and began singing a soothing song that put the snake to sleep deeply in a curled up position.

“Oh no, Arbo! Wake up, boy!” Stan tried to call his Pokémon in vain.

“Haha!” Akane uttered at the next order “C’mon, use your Dream Eater!”

Lucky’s eyes began glowing in light blue as tiny shadow bubbles were produced out of the snake’s head, the bubbles were about to begin flying towards the egg-like attacker; but suddenly, a soft grey aura flashed on Arbo’s frame for a second as the bubbles began popping.

“What?” Both trainers said staring to the snake.

“I know, that is Arbo’s Shed Skin ability” Stan replied.

Suddenly, Arbo’s head was produced slowly from it’s curled up body, staring directly on Lucky’s weak point… guess where…

“That’s right, when was the last time Arbo ate something?” Stan asked to himself as his snake began tasting Lucky’s Egg at distance with it’s shifty tongue.

“Oh my goodness! That snake wants to eat your egg, Lucky!” Akane uttered at her friend.

Lucky got a scared face and began stepping back in fear.

“Lucky, you just don’t give any ground and use your Thunder Wave!” Akane ordered quickly.

Lucky was feeling under pressure, though it concentred an amount of electricity that ran through it’s body and shot it at the snake, the jolts of voltage ran the air and jammed the snake’s muscles, paralyzing it’s body.

“Now try Double Slap!” Akane shouted at the opportunity.

Lucky was about to give the first step, but it was stopped cold in it’s track as the snake’s ability was resolving again.

“Oh yesss!” Stan cried out as he ordered his snake to go on the next move “C’mon Arbo, use your Leer!”

Arbo’s eyes began glowing in piercing red, creating chaos in the already scared Lucky.

“Lucky, don’t panic, use your Metronome!” Akane cried.

Lucky quickly got it’s finger straight up in the air and began wiggling them about, Lucky’s eyes closed in maximum concentration as the move was ending.

“Lucky can throw a Blizzard, or produce a terrible Earthquake with it, be careful, Arbo!” Stan warned his Pokémon with anticipation before the Metronome ended.

Suddenly, a small ball of dark fire was shot from Lucky’s mouth.

“It’s a Will-O-Wisp!” Akane replied.

“Arbo, try deflecting it with a Slam!” Stan commanded.

The purple rattlesnake got it’s tail straight and swung it fiercely against the incoming fire ball, but the Will-O-Wisp jammed on the reptile’s tail instead of bouncing off. The attack produced a terrible-looking burn in that part of the body and Arbo was feeling great pain with it.

“Oh no, it didn’t work!” Stan though.

“Ooh, that’s hurt” Akane sneered, and then she ordered “Lucky, use your Focus Punch before it recovers!”

“Time to finish this, Arbo BITE IT NOW!”

Lucky was about to at least assume the pose to prepare a Focus Punch, but suddenly, Arbo’s head lunged quickly and put it’s fanged jaws straight on Lucky’s egg! Arbo retired it’s head quickly and back with the rest of it’s body, which Shed Skinned again.

Everyone was petrified in astonishment while watching with wide-opened eyes at the rattlesnake. It separated it’s lower jaw from the upper one to have more space and swallow the Egg whole, as the egg was completely inside it’s body, the snake began producing cracking sounds from it’s neck and after a few seconds of tasting it, Arbo just spat an empty cracked-looking membrane of veins and shattered white shards, which meant Arbo enjoyed Lucky’s egg.

Lucky’s face was similar to it’s owner, scared to bones and about to either cry out loud of to faint from despair.

Akane just covered her saddest face away with her right hand and recalled Lucky in it’s Pokéball on her left hand, as the retrieving beam ended recalling the stressed Egg-like Pokémon, a tear could be seen running down Akane’s face.

“After all those Shed Skins, Arbo should have grown bigger... well, that makes sense. If not, how could Arbo reach Lucky’s egg from almost 3 yards away?” Stan thought.

Akane seemed pale and distressed; she just reached her pocket and threw the Plain Badge – a simple yellow-coloured square – in disgust and said between sobs “…I hope you’re happy now…” before running out of the building crying.

“No wait, Akane!” Stan cried before trying to reach her, but before Stan gave the first step, Arbo began shaking and suddenly, it’s body grew a bright light, it was evolving!

“OMG Yes!” Stan uttered at the sight of this.

The shape of the Arbo began altering into a thicker, longer body and a broad hood on the neck before the bigger head. A few seconds later, the light faded away, revealing the new Pokémon in it’s place.

“Sweet, I have an Arbok!” Stan smiled at the sight of his new, scarier, 21 feet-long friend while reaching the Red, compact Pokédex from his pocket.

Beep! “Arbok, the Cobra Pokémon. While Arbok seems to resemble a large, purple cobra, its behaviour is more similar to that of a boa constrictor, despite the fact that it is venomous. It will wrap itself around its foe and squeeze with strength that can flatten steel oil drums.
Similar to the cobra, it has big warning markings on its hood arranged in a face like pattern that varies from region to region, and this serves to frighten away timid foes at the mere sight of it. There are at least six distinctive variations of Arbok's hood pattern, each one apparently indigenous to a different region. If Arbok encounters an enemy, it will raise its head and make eerie sounds or glare to frighten it. If the enemy is too afraid to run, Arbok then binds and poisons it.
Unlike real cobras, Arbok cannot retract its hood.

“Awesome!” Stan laughed before lunging and hugging Arbok with his right arm while his left one still carried the Togepi Egg.

Then, he put the Pokédex back again in his pocket and while retrieving the giant reptile in it’s Pokéball , he was thinking “You made Akane forfeit the match unnecessarily. What am I going to do with you?” looking at Arbok’s Pokéball in his hand.

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That night, after a sad funeral ceremony, we found Yumi about to fall asleep in her bed, she is nothing but melancholic and confused about what should she do, Yumi’s motivation and reason for which she trained Pokémon was her Grandpa, who is now dead. What should motivate Yumi now? Why should Yumi continue her trip?

Yumi was just about to travel to the Dream World when there, it came this idea and she thought to herself “I KNOW!”