We woke up early the next morning to get some breakfast before leaving the city. The girls and I joined Ashley in the lobby, where Nurse Joy came over to check on Lady. Lady smiled and gave a happy yip to the nurse to show that she was feeling fine. Satisfied Joy gave her a pat on the head and left us to our breakfast.

After we had finished eating we set out on the path to the port city. Lady was limping much less today and I let her walk beside us for most of the trip. Whiskers ended up in her ball shortly after we left, she didn’t like to walk any more than necessary. Luca was walking next to Lady obviously worried about her injuries. Lady was getting a little annoyed at how much Luca and I were babying her, but I wasn’t about to let her try and prove herself to me and end up getting hurt again. I could see she knew how I felt and was trying not to do anything that might cause me to worry.

We reached the port late that night, so we immediately headed to the pokemon center for some rest. In the morning we headed over to the docks to catch our boat. It was a gigantic luxury cruise liner for both trainers and normal passengers, although there were actually very few trainers on the boat for its size. This meant that the few of us had the facilities, which totaled to about half the ship, all to ourselves.

Ashley and I made our way to our room. I had already requested that we be in the same room, but I never expected what we found. We entered our room to find an enormous suite! Both Ashley and I pretty much went slack jawed when we saw this, but Lady and Whiskers trotted in and claimed a bed. Luca wasn’t surprised but then again she didn’t exactly understand these things. We had certainly gotten our money’s worth for this cruise.

Trainers usually didn’t have a lot of money, but if you played your cards right you always had cash to spare. Many of the tournaments gave a cash prize and it was often the same for unsanctioned contests. With me being a formidable trainer and Ashley an excellent contest participant we often had more spare cash than even our parents.

The ship blew its horn and cast off; it would take us nearly 4 days to reach our destination so we made ourselves comfortable. After a while Luca and I thought we’d explore the ship, Lady had curled up and fallen asleep on the bed so we left her to rest. Ashley took Whiskers and went exploring as well.

By the end of our self tour Luca was amazed at all the facilities packed on this ship, various styles of battle fields, a contest hall, a pool/water pokemon field. Needless to say I was just as amazed at how many luxuries were here. Satisfied with our tour Luca and I returned to the room to see if Lady wanted anything to eat. We saw she was still sleeping so we decided to bring some lunch back for her.

Luca and I entered the dinning hall and found two enormous buffets, one for humans and another for pokemon. Luca was really enjoying herself, and since she was nearly human I helped her sneak some food from my buffet, but she really enjoyed the deserts section. I had to practically drag her from the room to get her to follow me, let alone I couldn’t trust her to carry Lady’s food. She offered and would give me a cute smile when I laughed and refused. We got back to the room just as Lady started to wake up, and she jumped down from the bed to be with us. We gave her the lunch we brought, which she enjoyed just as much as Luca had the buffet.

We hadn’t run into Ashley on our tour, but figured they were just on different parts of the ship. With Lady now rested I figured she would enjoy some exercise, so I locked up the room and we headed for the grass battle field on the top level of the ship. I wanted to get Luca in some battles for her exercise and for some practice for her new attacks. I told her as long as her opponent wasn’t to strong she could practice her moves at her discretion. After all she knew what she wanted, and needed, to work on better than me at this point…

In fact I had begun to feel rather useless in her recent battles. With her being just as smart as me what place was it of mine to be telling her what to do. I was still able to make some strategies for my girls but they really didn’t need me to execute them.

I was sitting with Lady in the trainer’s square watching Luca take on some opponents. If a weaker pokemon challenged her she would take it real easy and fake a loss for the little guys. No matter what happened her heart would always be in the right place. Though when a stronger opponent did come around she used the chance to get some experience, and always came out as the victor. She was probably one of the strongest pokemon on the ship seeing as there were only a few challengers that might have stood a chance at beating her. The other trainers were utterly amazed that I wasn’t giving her any orders, and saw that Luca was very unique and very capable in battle, although she did seem to use battling as an outlet which I wasn’t sure was a good thing. She had been through a lot in just the past three weeks, and I really hoped she was ok. I had decided to head home after we watched Ashley in her upcoming ribbon competition; I figured we could all use a break after the past month.

After a particularly interesting match with a Sceptile Luca came over to see how me and Lady were doing. I was sitting next to Lady petting and rubbing her in her favorite places while keeping an eye on Luca just to make sure if she needed me I was paying attention. Of course she didn’t need me though, and when Luca was standing in front of me I suddenly realized it was getting dark out. I hadn’t noticed since the lights on the field had been keeping things illuminated. I got up to stand with Luca and Lady joined us. We thought now was a good time to get some dinner and made our way back to the dinning room. This time I could barely stop Luca from running to the buffet, and not wanting to be left out Lady followed. Also I had a hard time convincing my girls that “All you can eat” doesn’t mean you can actually eat it all…

As before Lady and Luca enjoyed the deserts most of all, and I eventually was able to drag them both out of the dinning room. On a more serious note, for all I tease them they were very well behaved and many of the other guests had noticed and quietly complimented my girls to themselves.

By the time we got back to the room Ashley and Whiskers were already getting ready for bed. I gave the girls their baths and treated Lady, before we joined my sister in getting some rest.
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For some reason I woke up early the next day, well before anyone else in our group. I wasn’t sure why but that useless feeling from yesterday was still with me. I decided to take a walk around the boat just to relax a bit. I left a note for my girls so they didn’t worry about me and told them that they could tag along with Ashley if they wanted to and if she didn’t mind. With that taken care of I quietly left the room and headed for the bow of the boat.

The view was spectacular especially with the sun rising over the water in the east. I felt a little better but nothing could completely get rid of this feeling I had. I couldn’t help but wonder if the girls would be happier with out a trainer… but I couldn’t possibly let them go, they were my closest, and only, friends. I stood there leaning on the rails with the sea breeze in my face for hours, when a familiar voice and a black paw on my shoulder snapped me back from my depressing thoughts. It was Luca; she had seen me while walking with Ashley on an upper deck and come to see if I was alright.

She asked what was wrong, but I wasn’t sure I could tell her, she would most likely blame herself if I said anything at all. I eventually broke down once I noticed that she was beginning to blame herself for this anyway. I started explaining how I had been feeling, and she began to apologize. I stopped her before she could even get a single word out and said “It’s not your fault! It’s mine. I just don’t feel like I can give you and Lady orders any more. After what happened to you at the tournament, then to Lady at the contest… you both got hurt because of me! I honestly don’t know if I can keep doing this knowing that my instructions almost got you both killed!” By this time I had turned away from her and was nearly in tears reliving the incidents. Luca put a paw on my back to try and get me to feel better but my heart only felt like it was tearing more. I turned to leave when she said “Please don’t leave.” My heart was wrenched, how could she not hate me after what I had done. I stopped and turned to look at her with my now tear filled eyes. She looked really sad and I couldn’t help but think that she was still blaming herself for this even though I had explained that it really wasn’t her fault. If there was one thing I didn’t want to do it was make her feel worse so I returned to leaning on the rails with her. We just stood their silently for a while before I gathered myself enough to ask her how she felt about everything that had been happening. I thought maybe hearing her problems for a change would easy mine.

As Luca began I could feel my heart breaking again. Things were going way to fast for her as well, and Lady getting hurt hadn’t helped things. When she finished she turned to me and asked “How about you?”

I began by saying “It started when you evolved. From there everything just seemed to get out of control. It was like you became an adult over night. Ever since then I just haven’t felt worthy enough to give you an order, both in battle and anywhere else.”

“Its ok, I know how battles work and I don’t mind. Really…” she interrupted, but I did the same. “No it’s not that. I know how battles work too but with you and Lady it’s different. You two know exactly what you’re doing, who am I to trump that and get you in a bad situation!”

I stopped talking and just stared out at the sea as Luca began again. “It’s not your fault those things happened, it’s a hazard that Lady and I take every time we go out on that field for you…”

It was then that I realized exactly what had been bothering me this whole time and I interrupted Luca again “That’s the problem! You and Lady went out there for me and got hurt because of ME!” Luca already knew how hard I was taking this and continued what she was saying “…Lady and I know the risks of those battles… If we didn’t want to do them we’d let you know. And the reason we need you there with us is because you can see things that we wouldn’t notice until it’s too late! And know this, me and especially Lady would never leave you or let you leave us!”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, after all I had put them through they still held me in that high of a regard. Hearing what she said I turned to lock gazes with Luca, and couldn’t help myself any more. I wrapped her in an embrace and lost it. She was surprised at first, because in all the time we had spent together she had never seen me loose my composure like this. She understood though, and returned the embrace while closing her eyes and nuzzling my chest. After a while I was able to whisper “Thank you” as I held her close not wanting to let go. She heard me even though her ears were laid back due to my embrace, she smiled when she heard me and knew she had managed to cheer me up at least a little. Some how she always knew what to say to me and hearing her say what she had, made me feel much better. When I released her we went over and sat on a nearby bench.

As I wiped my eyes I remembered that I hadn’t asked her about what she did to Ashley’s egg. I brought it up which made Luca feel better, if I was talking to her about things like that she knew I was feeling better. She said “I don’t really know what happened. I blacked out for a split second but could see every detail about the egg in a bright blue light.”

This confirmed what I had thought. She had somehow managed to use wave guidance, but could she really not know how and what she had done? I asked her if I had told her about a man named Sir Aaron. She replied no, and urged me to continue. I told her the legend that I had heard of Sir Aaron and his Lucario, it was rumored that they could use an ability called wave guidance to see the life force of all things. I stopped and Luca tried to get me to continue, but that was all I knew. Both Sir Aaron and his Lucario had mysteriously vanished a long time ago and no one knew the true extent of their abilities.

I wanted to help Luca figure this new ability out, but wasn’t quite sure how to do it. I turned to her and asked if she wanted to try and figure this out. “Yes. Do you know how?” she replied.

“No.” I said “But we can try.” With that I told her to close her eyes and concentrate, which looked like what she had done before. She did so, but said she couldn’t see anything. I thought about it some more and asked her to try concentrating on “feeling” me. She lowered her head and concentrated. Sure enough her head pieces began vibrating like before, she turned her head towards where I was sitting next to her and suddenly threw herself off the bench with a scared gasp and opened her eyes wide.

A bit worried I hurried over next to her and asked what happened. “It was like seeing a ghost you were shrouded in blue and white and so was the rest of the ship deck!” she said while still breathing heavily. I couldn’t believe she had managed to do it on her second try. I didn’t want to scare her so I asked if she wanted to try again, but she was to excited now and told me “Of course!”

I helped her up and stood behind her this time with my hands on her shoulders, while I told her what I wanted her to try. She listened to my request then nodded and began concentrating again. She gasped again, but this time kept her focus. I reminded her of what I wanted her to try and gave her a little instruction since I had found that it worked. “Ok, try focusing on Ashley, try to find our room and look in on them, ok?” I said, and she replied “ok.”

As she went through her trance she tried to explain what she was seeing to me. “I can see the ship deck, but only a small part of it before it fades into black.” I asked her to try making her way to our room and she tightened her focus a little before saying “It’s moving, the area I see is moving!”

“Good” I whispered to her and tried to relax her a little as she had tensed up quite a bit. She gave a happy little laugh before she told me she was at the room, but she snapped back to reality when she looked inside. She turned around quickly to face me which got a concerned “What’s wrong?” from me. She smiled and said “We have to go, come on!” She grabbed my hand with her paw and wrenched me forward forcing me to keep up with her pace. When we reached the room Luca knocked and asked if we could come in. Now I was lost, why were we knocking at our room? Ashley recognized Luca’s voice and said “Get in here quick!” Luca was still smiling at me and we entered. I closed the door behind us and finally saw why Luca had made me run so fast. Ashley’s egg was glowing and about to hatch!

Whiskers was sitting next to Ashley watching curiously while Ashley held the egg in her hands. Luca and I quickly joined Lady on our bed and watched as well. The egg continued to glow brighter and brighter until we had to squint and shield our eyes, but before long the light began to fade revealing a baby Latias lying on her back in Ashley’s arms. It was fairly odd seeing a Latias that small, she couldn’t have been more than 2 foot long from head to tail which was half their normal size. Whiskers carefully leaned in and licked the little Latias on her check. Latias got a distressed look on her face then slowly opened her eyes, letting them adjust to the light, to see Ashley. Latias reacted the exact same way that Luca had when she first saw me. Latias looked up at Ashley and smiled at her “mommy,” however that was where the similarities ended...

To our astonishment Latias rolled over in Ashley’s arms and began hovering! She was a bit unsteady at first but soon had flying mastered. When Latias noticed that there were people on the second bed she hid behind Ashley until Luca convinced her that we weren’t going to hurt her, then she began playing with Luca and Lady happily.

Luca was having a lot of fun. Maybe now she could have a playmate again. Since she had evolved her and Lady hadn’t gotten the chance to play much, hopefully this would help her relax a bit.

Before long Latias was teasing all of us while darting around the room. Like I said Luca especially was enjoying herself and while she had Latias distracted I pulled a red package out and handed it to Ashley. She unwrapped it and gasped at the pokeball she was holding, it matched Latias’s colors and markings perfectly just as I had intended. Ashley hugged me and thanked me for the gift.

This action attracted the curious Latias’s attention. She wanted to know what was going on. I let Ashley explain to Latias what a pokeball was and why we used them. As she explained I whispered to Luca “Does she understand?” Luca nodded and pointed for me to watch. Latias reached out with one claw, pushed the activator button, and disappeared in a flash of red. The ball only fell silent and Ashley immediately let her back out of the ball. Latias reappeared and shook her head, then looked at Ashley and smiled before giggling and continuing to play with Luca. Occasionally Latias would come within reach of Lady’s tails. Lady was waiting for just the right moment and kept her tails spread out over most of the bed. When Latias stopped directly over the strange objects to observe them Lady brought all nine tails up and grabbed Latias!

Latias was terrified at first, seeing these things suddenly come alive to catch her, but she was soon laughing hysterically as Lady began tickling the little pokemon. Latias was defenseless and laughing so hard she could barely stay afloat. Then as quickly as it had started Lady let her tails fall limp on the bed. When Latias calmed down enough to realize she flew over and poked one. Lady responded by twitching a different tail, which got a laugh from Latias and another poke on a different tail. Lady continued this until all her tails had twitched then she brought all her tails up as if to catch Latias again. Latias squealed and quickly flew behind Luca laughing hysterically again, thinking she had escaped the monster. Lady and Luca were also laughing at this point. It looked like Ashley had a very personable addition to her contest team.

There was a pokemon center on board the boat, and Ashley and I both agreed that we should take Latias there to make sure she was in good health. Along the way we got a lot of strange looks, most likely because a full grow Lucario and a baby Latias were happily walking/hovering next to us. After we made sure Latias was in perfect health we went about the rest of the day like any other, but before we fell asleep that night Luca got me alone to ask if I was really alright. I was still touched that after all that had happened she still worried about me like this. I wrapped her in another hug, gave her a kiss, and said “Yes thanks to you.” then we nestled into bed with Lady.

The next day things were closer to normal. Latias was far too young to start battling but she did enjoy watching as Luca got some practice in. Thanks to the conversation I had with Luca the day before I was able to take a more active role in her battling again. We found some of the tougher opponents and made a few challenges of our own. Like usual we won most of our matches, but there were two matches we lost. One was against a black Charizard and the second was against a Flygon. The trainers were considerate enough not to hurt Luca and she knew when she was beat.

I really didn’t mind loosing when my opponent was nice enough not to push things to far and these two trainers respected their pokemon and their opponents far too much to let things get out of hand. I asked them their names when I congratulated them after the match. The first was Razor and the second was Silka. Meeting like we did, I simply thought they were random trainers, but I would eventually find out this wasn’t the case.

Luca was exhausted form the day of battling and playing with Latias, and so were Lady and Latias. So we all got comfortable, Luca snuggled up close to me with Lady at the foot of our bed, and Latias curled up close to Ashley and Whiskers.

The next day we were scheduled to disembark, so we began packing our things until the captain came over the intercom and asked all pokemon trainers to report to the contest stage. Ashley and I exchanged looks, something was defiantly off, but we had no idea what. We thought it best if Latias stayed in her ball for this, and I knelt down and asked Lady to do the same. Latias willingly let Ashley withdraw her, after a quick game of pokeball tag that is, but Lady wasn’t quite as willing. She knew that I was just worrying about her and agreed none the less. We finished packing our bags quickly and headed for the contest hall with Luca and Whiskers beside us as somewhat of an armed guard.

The hall was packed to capacity with trainers and the occasional pokemon that didn’t like to be in its ball, or the trainer that preferred not to use the ball. There weren’t any particularly rare pokemon visible, in fact Luca was the rarest in sight and was getting many glances as the other trainers looked around. I could tell Luca was uneasy, and at first I thought it was because of the looks she was getting, but she told me that wasn’t it when I asked.

“It’s just that, something’s not right.” She said as she looked around the room once more. Luca’s intuition about these things was almost always right, and I turned to Ashley and told her we should leave. We made our way to an exit but a shipmate was guarding it. We told him we still had packing to do but he still wouldn’t let us leave.

That sealed it, something was defiantly wrong. As we returned to our seats I told Luca to be ready for anything, while Ashley did the same with Whiskers. Just as the crowd was ready to force their way past the guards a figure walked onto the stage, he explained that they had reason to believe that contraband pokemon had been smuggled onto the ship and that we were to hand over our pokemon for an inspection.

This wasn’t right; no one had that kind of authority! A few other trainers and I stood up to protest this outrage. The outburst got many of the trainers to stop considering the ridiculous request but there were still a good many that were handing their balls over to the supposed shipmates for inspection. The man on the stage kept trying to convince us that this was routine and that we would get our pokemon back. However they weren’t even keeping track of who the balls belonged to, there was no way this was legitimate. It was about time someone put a stop to this. Luca and I exchanged glances and we jumped the wall to land on the stage floor. I told Luca to charge an aura sphere and aim at the speaking crewman. She hesitated slightly, but knew she could trust me so obeyed. The room fell silent as the trainers and shipmates stopped what they were doing and turned their attention to Luca.

“What’s going on here!” I asked the central shipmate. He remained silent, obviously intimidated by Luca’s cold stare and charged attack. He exchanged quick glances with the other shipmates in the crowd before saying “Aww screw it, I hope your happy kid you just got yourself in a load of trouble!” He ripped off his disguise revealing a black uniform, and a red armband with a black D on it. I instantly cursed my luck, they were organized, this wasn’t just a random robbing. The others took their disguises off as well and released their pokemon, which turned out to be a powerful arsenal of psychic pokemon. The revealed thieves told their pokemon to use psychic to gather the remaining pokeballs, then the remaining pokeballs from all the trainers began floating through the air into sacks the thieves were holding.

I felt Lady’s ball leave my belt and thought to my self “Damn them! They’ll pay for this!” then said “Luca FIRE!” She had seen what happened and was just as mad as me. She fired the weak pulse at the man which flung him across the stage knocking him into the wall and unconscious. Ashley and a few other trainers that had their pokemon already out joined the fight and took stands against the thieves. No doubt Latias was in one of those bags and I wasn’t about to let these fools escape. I turned to look at one of the 5 still conscious thieves as he turned to escape, and came face to face with Luca and a shining green dragon pulse. Luca again fired the weak pulse knocking the man unconscious, but this time she grabbed the bag full of pokeballs and used extreme speed to reappear at my side.

This was it, we were the beach head and it was up to us to get this under control. I whispered to Luca “Get the rest of the bags!” She nodded with a serious look and flicked her wrists charging a powerful dark pulse and a weak dragon pulse before using extreme speed again. Before I knew it an Alakazam flew from the stands and landed on the stage unconscious, with his trainer unconscious on the stairs in front of Luca. She brought another bag to me and to my surprise a third bag landed next to me at the same time. I looked up and saw Ashley, she winked at me then turned her attention to the last thief that Luca wasn’t tracking.

The thieves’ pokemon had their hands full with angry trainers and the few free pokemon; they were defeated pretty easily since they were horribly out numbered. Luca brought the final two bags to me and the trainers brought fourth the six thieves who were now tied up tight. A few other trainers joined me on the stage. Among them were Ashley, Silka, and Razor, along with 7 others I wasn’t familiar with. We consulted together on how to proceed. We agreed that we had to get the balls back to their trainers, but weren’t sure how to do it, there were after all a lot of trainers and nearly six times as many balls. We had to act fast before the trainers simply rushed the stage, which would be disastrous. I hurried and found Lady’s ball and released her. Ashley found Latias’s ball and hid it away.

While Luca, Lady and I calmed the crowd the others on stage found their pokeballs and released any potentially helpful pokemon. Psychics mostly as they would be able to levitate the balls back to their owners. Before long we had a system, it was slow but effective. We would release a pokemon from its ball and if it could get to its trainer on its own we handed it the ball and let it find its trainer. If the pokemon was little and needed some help Luca or one of the other pokemon would oblige. If the pokemon was big however we had no choice but to identify the trainer then withdraw the pokemon and get the ball to the trainer. Before long over half of the pokeballs were redistributed perfectly, and with Lady opening the balls as fast as she could with her tails this was going rather fast. Meanwhile Ashley, Razor, Silka, and a fourth trainer named Feather, had begun to discus what we would do after the balls were back to their trainers.

I went over to join them and entered the conversation as Razor said “Well the whole ship must have been taken over for this to happen, after all the captain gave the order for us to come here.” We agreed and continued to analyze the situation. If they had taken over the ship there were many more than just 6 of these goons, and the 5 of us stood little chance against the entire armada. Luckily the idiot invaders had blacked out the security cameras in the contest hall, so what ever we did do, no one would know. We continued to brainstorm and came up with two plausible courses of action. One we set the trainers free to help us retake the boat by force, or two we dress up in the goon’s uniforms and trick them into leaving thinking their mission was a success. The one major problem with our second plan was that we had returned the pokeballs which left the bags empty. If we were to pull this off we’d have to find a large stash of empty pokeballs.

As we were discussing things one of the crooks started to come too. We took places around him and asked “Who are you and what the hell do you think your trying to pull?!” He only laughed and said “We’re team Darkrai! And if you know what’s good for you you’ll untie us and cooperate fully!” I elbowed Luca lightly on the arm and she gave the crook a cold stare then raised another blue aura sphere to level with the guys face. He looked past the sphere into Luca’s eyes and realized… she wasn’t bluffing! He swallowed hard and said “OK! OK! What do you want?!” After that he spilled his guts and told us everything he knew, but he was only a lowly grunt so he had no real important information. He did manage to blurt out a rumor he had heard, which explained why they were here in the first place. They had caught wind that there were rare pokemon on the ship, no doubt Luca and Latias were included in that rumor, and wanted to steal them. He continued on to tell us that there were 15 others on the ship plus 2 admins, and they all had a full six pokemon and were much stronger. This made up our minds on a course of action. We couldn’t set the trainers free they would end up getting hurt and/or their pokemon stolen.

The five of us exchanged looks and agreed before knocking the guy out cold again. We took the Darkrai uniforms and stuffed the crooks in a nearby closet, making sure they wouldn’t bother us until we let them out for the authorities. Once we had changed into our own disguises we addressed the other trainers telling them to stay here otherwise the thugs would be back with stronger pokemon. The trainers grudgingly agreed to stay, but really wanted to take their frustrations out on the thieves. With that we withdrew our remaining pokemon and set out to free the rest of the ship. We had found a storage of pokeballs in a nearby pokemart so we filled the bags with empty balls and exited the arena. One of the guards on the outside wanted to know what the commotion was and to see our haul. We told him “Some of the trainers resisted but we put them down!” and opened one of the bags to show him. He grinned and said “Good work. Take them to the escape boat,” and pointed to a ladder in the side of the cruise liner. We left the balls below deck on the speed boat and returned to the cruise liner to finally put our plan into action.

We scattered, taking posts in key areas of the ship and before long one of the admins claiming to be a foreign goods inspector thanked us for our cooperation and said that the balls would be returned after a quick inspection. Apparently this was the cue to leave as the Darkrai members began hastily making their way back to the boat. They sped off with out a clue as to what had really happened while we ditched our costumes and set about freeing the real crew of the ship and told them we had to get the boat out of here! If Darkrai found out they had been duped before we reached port it could be disastrous. After I freed my share of the shipmates I released Lady and Luca. Luca stretched after being released and said “Man, I forgot how cramped those things are.” I had also forgotten she hand been in her ball since I had first been given her. After making sure my girls were alright we asked a crewman if we could see the captain. Thankful that we had just rescued them he gladly showed us to the helm room.

When we got their Razor and the captain were already radioing the coast guard. When they finished the captain offered us free trips to an island specifically for trainers. I thanked him and accepted as Razor had and told him, “Thank you Sir, but there are still three more of us…” The captain interrupted and said he already knew and the offer was extended to them as well. With that cleared up I turned to Luca and asked her if she would find Silka, Ashley, and Feather and bring them here. She smiled sweetly at me then vanished from sight which got surprised reactions from the captain and crew mates. Razor only smirked as he had seen her trick in our previous battle and during the heist foiling. Before long all five of us were standing before the captain and he extended the offer once more. Razor and I had already accepted so we remained silent. Silka happily accepted, but Ashley and Feather both replied they had a contest match in the upcoming week.

Ashley and Feather looked at each other with confused looks and were soon best of friends talking about their previous contest matches and their upcoming and inevitable encounter. The captain handed us all passes saying “Just incase you change your mind, I want you to have these.” We thanked him and left to get ready to disembark.
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As we exited the ship I told Ashley I would have to miss her last contest. She smiled and said “Its ok, I understand. I’m glad your feeling better… all of you.” And turned to leave before realizing she had forgotten about Latias. She released Latias to have a last bit of fun with Luca and Lady before we left. The little pokemon seemed disappointed when she had to leave, but I knew she’d be in good hands. With our goodbyes out of the way my girls and I set out looking for this ship that was to take us to the island.

We got to the dock and I couldn’t believe my eyes. This thing was straight out of a science fiction film! It was an enormous hydrofoil ship that could probably reach speeds of close to 160 miles per hour. We boarded and noticed that there was no outside deck. There was a small maintenance path but no place for us to hang out. We went inside and found Razor and Silka already taking it easy. They had released all of their pokemon to get some exercise. The ship was very nice; the main interior was sleek, elegant and had many comforts just like the luxury liner. On the far end of the room where Razor and Silka’s pokemon were was a green house type area. Razor’s pokemon were lounging in the sun coming from the wrap around windshield, they included the black Charizard I had fought, a Salamance, a Gengar (who was sitting in the shade of a tree), a Heracross and an Aerodactyl. I was amazed, he had quite the powerful collection of pokemon and pretty rare to boot.

Silka’s pokemon included Flygon who I had also fought, a Pidgeot, an Absol, a bright blue Glaceon, and in the small pool of the habitat, a Dragonair and a Lumineon. Lady happily went over to join the pokemon, where they welcomed her over. They spared some confused looks over to Luca who preferred to stay by me, but didn’t pay it much mind. I did notice that the male pokemon seemed particularly interested in Luca, I couldn’t quite figure out why though. Luca was being her usual shy self since she wasn’t familiar with most of the pokemon she was getting attention from. She stuck close to my side as I went over to join Razor and Silka. As we sat down the captain came over the intercom and told us to brace ourselves for the initial casting off and acceleration.

We were pleasantly surprised at how fast this ship actually went! With a jolt we were off and the ship rose out of the water and gained speed. In a short time we had reached cruising speed and continued our conversations.

At one point Lady came over and almost dragged Luca over to meet the other pokemon. Luca realized she was loosing the fight against Lady and shyly went over to meet the others. The three of us humans continued talking, and exchanging stories. Razor and Silka shared how they had found their “shiny” pokemon, and I shared how I had been given Luca. Silka asked why I only had two pokemon, and I tried to explain “I’ve never gotten to far away from home and just never found any pokemon like Luca and Lady.” She seemed to understand that I didn’t like to force a pokemon to come with me and we continued our conversations.

In only about an hour we reached the island. We felt the ship slowing down to enter an alcove so we made our way to the main window to check the place out. What we found confused us at first. This didn’t look like a training island; there weren’t any battle fields or very many buildings… in fact there was only one building on the coast of the alcove and it looked more like a research lab than a battle facility. The facility was surrounded by a dense forest and a mountain ridge that also curved around the outer edge of the island sheltering the interior. There was a beautiful coastline on the other side of the mountains but it wasn’t easily accessible. There was also a fairly large lake in the middle of the forest which most likely provided fresh water for the pokemon and the facility.

Razor, Silka, and I exchanged glances then they withdrew their pokemon. Lady and Luca came over to stand with us. The five of us thought about this for a while before coming to the same conclusion. This wasn’t a training island, and we were most likely tricked by Darkrai again. Our eyes widened as we realized… This was a trap! Suddenly 10 Darkrai members burst through the door, Lady turned and growled with her tails writhing while Luca spun around and took a fighting stance to defend me. The three of us trainers also turned for a fight but found that we were horribly out numbered, let alone Lady and Luca were the only pokemon out and Lady was hurt and shouldn’t battle. The ten Darkrai members each had a single pokemon of their own already out and with attacks charged and aimed at us. This was bad Luca couldn’t possibly take them all on and even if she could they would probably kill the rest of us before she finished. We had only one chance and I was more than reluctant to use it. I saw no other way so I quickly yelled for Lady and Luca to use protect! I could only hope this worked quick enough for me to withdraw Lady before she got hurt. My girls threw up an incredibly strong green shield together, just in time to block several attacks from the other pokemon. Razor and Silka were hardened enough trainers to know exactly what to do. They summoned every pokemon that could help, which only left Lumineon out. As quickly as they could do that I pulled Lady’s ball out and withdrew her before the shield faded. Luca was able to support the shield long enough for the other pokemon to take a stance to block the incoming attacks.

As the shield dropped Razor and Silka’s pokemon blocked the attacks, taking the full force of them with no problem what so ever. Now WE had control of the situation. With all of our opponents occupied Luca and I could focus on the human trainers. In sanctioned fights it was illegal to attack the trainer, but with thugs like this we knew the rules pretty much went out the window. I told Luca to take them out and she happily vanished from sight, reappearing behind the Darkrai grunts and giving each of them a swift knock to the neck. She knew that I would never want her to critically injure them and I thanked the lord that she had the self control to only tap them to make them fall unconscious. One by one the grunts fell while their pokemon faired the same. We easily managed to over power our attackers once Razor and Silka had their pokemon out, and we managed not to alert any more of the members on the boat.

The boat was about halfway through the alcove to the docks, we knew that we either stayed and got captured when they came for us or we made a run for it and hid on the island until we could find a way off.

We opted for not getting captured since if we did our pokemon would be taken from us. Razor and Silka withdrew their pokemon again and we snuck out of the main room to make our way towards the back of the boat. We agreed that we should split up and head for different parts of the island; if one of us was captured we could rescue him/her later. Once we all knew what we were doing I withdrew Luca and we jumped ship. Silka pulled out Lumineon under water and they swam quickly to the coast. Razor and I both swam as covertly as possible to opposite ends of the alcove. Razor came out in much the same place as Silka but diverged from her path once he reached land. I was the only one to head for the eastern beach.

By the time Darkrai realized we were gone it was far too late to track us effectively. We had already reached land and entered the dense forest. Still I knew it wouldn’t be long till they came after us and they would probably send search parties out in all directions to find us. I thought I’d head for the mountains, but it would take me at least till night fall to make it to the base rocks.

Once I was sufficiently hidden in the forest I stopped to rest for a short time. I sat and leaned against a tree, worn out by my long swim and holding my breath as long as possible while staying underwater to stay undetected. I weakly released Luca, while I tried to get my strength back. Luca looked around at first; she had materialized with her back to me which really worried her. When she found me she knelt and asked if I was ok in a very concerned voice. I said “I’m fine. Just tired.” and slowly got up. She helped me up and hugged me for some reason I couldn’t figure out. I told her my plan and we started making our way to the base of the mountains. I had thought of the possibility of someone following our trail so I tried to use open pokemon trails and occasionally had Luca make a fake trail which lead in circles. She was quite apprehensive about leaving me alone, not because she was worried about herself, but more because she was worried about me, I was very worn out and was somewhat struggling to continue running down these paths. I assured her that I would be fine, and she would make a trail then quickly catch back up to me. We finally made it to a rocky landscape about an hour after sunset. The entire island was shrouded in shadows from the mountains, but it was still a beautiful sight to look back at.

We continued to climb the rocks, making our way to a cave that I had spotted. When we reached the cave I was relieved to find it abandoned. This would be the perfect place to spend the night. We decided that it was best not to light a fire since it would give away our position. I let Lady out for a while to stretch and for me to rewrap her bandages, but insisted that she stay in her ball until I knew it was safe. She sure wasn’t happy about that and this was one of the very few times I actually insisted on something with her. Still she knew that I was just worried about her and didn’t want to upset me so she agreed. I really felt bad about making her stay in her ball while Luca got to spend all this time with me, but I didn’t see what choice I had. I had gotten her hurt and apparently wasn’t completely over it yet. Luca saw I was broken up about it, and told me it was fine she’d be healed in no time then I wouldn’t have to worry. I thanked her before we got comfortable to fall asleep. I wanted to make sure Luca knew I was alright so I snuggled in close to her for a change and gave her the first kiss on her forehead. She was surprised but smiled and nuzzled my chest lovingly before falling asleep in my arms.

Luca and I decided to stay at the cave for a few days to make sure no one had followed us. Luca had been acting strange ever since we entered the contest and the second day we were in the cave I found out why…

I woke up early that day, just before the sun had begun to rise, and Luca wasn’t next to me. I looked around a bit worried, but found her close by. She was lying a bit farther back in the cave with her back to me and moaning slightly in what sounded like an odd mix of pain and pleasure, with a bit of liquid on the cave floor. I made my way over and put a hand on her shoulder. She yipped in surprise and blushed, but wouldn’t turn to look at me. I asked her what was wrong and she gave me a shy look over her shoulder, before saying in an unsure voice “I… I think I’m having my first heat.”

So that was why the male pokemon on the boat liked her so much. Now I understood. I had had Lady talk to Luca about this, but I wasn’t sure when she would get her first, and wasn’t quite sure what to do next.

Luca was very embarrassed, but she remembered what Lady had told her. “Felix will be there for you no matter what, and if you want him to he can help.” Lady had also warned her that she was part of the Humanoid breeding group, and that might mean that I could get her pregnant. I also knew this which was another reason why I was unsure of the situation. Little did I know that the conversation between the two of them had continued far beyond that, and Luca had managed to tell Lady how she really felt about me. I didn’t know this, but Luca had been thinking about this for a long time now. Luca had also been thinking of having children as well. She knew there was only a slim chance that I would be compatible with her, but she found herself hoping it would happen, but wondered, and feared what my reaction might be if it did happen.

Luca continued to think about her conversation with Lady and eventually managed, in a very shy voice, to ask me how I felt about her. Stupidly I forgot the situation I was in and misinterpreted the question. I replied by saying “Luca you know I love you why would you ask that?” She hung her head at my response disappointed at how casually I had answered, and tears began to fall from her eyes. I saw this and a revelation hit me, now I understood what she meant. I hadn’t mentioned it before, but I had become really attached to Luca, especially after she evolved. Now that I was in this situation I could feel a familiar tightness in my heart, I realized now what it meant… I loved her! Now that I could see just how deeply she cared for me I realized I felt the same way, and I had this whole time!

No human girl had ever given me the time of day, and Luca had always been there for me since I first met her. I couldn’t stand the thought of not having her with me, and remembered the few times I had thought about her like that, all of which I pictured her with a loving expression holding me close to her while we walked, as if we would always be together…

After realizing this I knew I had to correct myself so I laid a hand on her shoulder and turned her around towards me. She was still upset, and didn’t resist my touch but didn’t return my affections either. I pulled her close to me and held her gently to my chest as I said “Oh Luca… So that’s what you meant.” I knew I had hurt her with my original comment, and to tell the truth I had no idea how to show her how I really felt. I just held her close while I rubbed her arm, while my mind raced. I began thinking if I was wrong to feel like this. It certainly wasn’t wrong to care for her, but human pokemon relations were almost unheard of in this world. My mind continued to wander until I convinced myself, it didn’t matter what anyone else thought of me. Hell even if my mother disowned me I would be happy as long as I had Luca, I loved her… dearly and I knew now in my heart that would never change.

Luca nuzzled my chest and her mind also began racing. “I should have know, he doesn’t think of me like that… How could I have done this… How did this happen…” As she tried to think of a way to undo this she realized something. I had never held her quite like this before, there were a few occasions that were close but this was different somehow though she didn’t know why. She sadly turned her head to look up into my face, but still kept her head to my chest. She still had tears in her eyes but they had stopped falling to the ground. I looked down and got lost in her bright red eyes. She started thinking again and this time remembered something my sister had told her.

Luca would have been approaching the start of her heat when we participated at the contest. She took the chance while Ashley was giving her a bath to ask Ashley a few questions about me. Ashley was a bit surprised at the questions and realized they were actually pretty personal. Still she answered Luca to the best of her ability. Luca remembered that Ashley had told her about how guys can misspeak sometimes and say something before realizing what they had been asked. Seeing that I was lost in her eyes again Luca decided to ask me again just to make sure she knew how I felt, but she was almost to afraid to because of the outcome she didn’t want to hear. She quietly asked me again if I just loved her as a friend. She said this in such a quiet voice that I had trouble hearing her, but from the look in her eyes I knew what she had asked. I still didn’t know how to answer. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t find the words to tell her how I truly felt about her, and my heart was screaming at me now not to hurt her again. I could see my pause was beginning to distress her, and just then I thought of the perfect way to show her.

In all the time we had spent together we had never once kissed on the lips. It was always a quick playful kiss or some such thing. Luca had seen a few people kiss passionately, but I don’t think she really understood what it meant. Even if that was the case, she would understand once she experienced it. I released her enough to maneuver, and bent down to press my lips to hers while I cradled her head with my right hand. Her eyes opened wide at the sudden gesture but quickly closed and began leaking tears again as I forced my tongue to explore her mouth. I had never done this with anyone before, but somehow I unconsciously knew what to do, and Luca joined me a short time after I started, swirling her tongue with mine. After a rather long while I stopped and pulled my lips from hers. When I broke the kiss Luca opened her eyes to look into mine. I gazed back at her and she realized what I really meant by the kiss. She was so happy she could barely contain herself, she smiled and forced her head into my chest again as she nuzzled me lovingly while telling me how she felt. “Oh, Felix! Thank you! I can’t tell you how long I’ve been thinking about this! I don’t know when it first happened but all I’ve been able to think about is spending the rest of my life with you! And not just how I knew we would when I was younger, this was so much more special! I just don’t know how to say it!”

I continued to hold her close as she frantically tried to explain. Eventually I managed to calm her down and we just sat there for a while. Tears were streaming from Luca’s eyes, she was just so happy to finally have been able to tell me how she felt and to know I felt the same. Through all of this both of us had forgotten about Luca’s current situation, but after a short while Luca began to feel that unfamiliar burning that had woken her up in the first place. It soon got to be unbearable again now that her attention had been drawn to it, and she had to wince and reach between her legs. I heard her almost squeak in what sounded like some kind of pain and felt her move so I released my embrace to ask her what was wrong. After what I had just shown her she felt much more comfortable talking to me about her heat. She tried to explain that it was a burning that she just couldn’t reach or get rid of no matter how hard she tried. I knew this was her first heat and that she was still very young, but I knew what she had wanted this whole time. Luca once again started thinking about what Lady had told her, and looked up at me with loving eyes to shyly ask if I would be her mate.

I hesitated a bit and asked “Are you sure about this? After all I am the one who raised you, and I don’t want to ruin the relationship we have.” She broke our gaze and thought about it one last time. She was still uneasy but she did know that she loved me and that I loved her just the same, and we both knew that would never change. She slowly looked back at me with her beautiful soft red eyes and smiled lovingly as she said “I’m sure.” She then got up and let her instincts take over. She turned around and got on all fours raising her tail to show me her swollen and dripping wet entrance. She wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, but Lady had told her I knew what I was doing and to just relax and enjoy.

I wasn’t about to let this be an instinctual event for her, she was far too special to me for that. However, I took the chance to give her a taste of what was to come… (no pun intended…) I made my way over to her and lightly ran a finger down her lips. She moaned at the sensitive new touch, obviously loving it. After one pass I stopped and tasted the small amount of fluids I had gathered. She looked back at me, already panting lightly, with a look that pleaded me to continue. I smiled at her and put my face close to her opening. She was confused at first and wondered why anyone would put their face in that area, but soon didn’t care what I was doing just as long as I continued.

I began trailing my tongue over her soft furry lips enjoying her now overpowering scent and the sweet taste of her fluids which were once again beginning to flow freely as I got her more and more aroused. I paused once more to begin removing my cloths, but before Luca could turn I returned to my treatment and after another two teasing passes of my tongue I forced it quickly into her sex. She moaned wildly, louder and more needy than before, and leaned back into me as I continued to swirl my tongue around her hot swollen sex lapping up any thing I could find within her soft walls. She was now putting more force on my face, trying to get me deeper and deeper into her, and I continued to lap up her juices. Before long she couldn’t take it any longer and howled loudly as she tensed up and shot her hot fluids all over my face. I tried as hard as I could to collect every drop, but with all her tension being released at once I was failing miserably and had several trails running down the sides of my face. Luca’s howl of pleasure faded and she began gasping for air trying to catch her breath after the intense experience.

When her breathing slowed and she came out of her blissful state she turned to help me clean my face. She licked me sweetly, cleaning the drops of her fluids that I couldn’t reach, and thoroughly enjoying her taste as well. She got a little to vigorous in her actions and knocked me over as she fell on top of me. Startled, she propped herself up with her arms and began to apologize. Before she got the words out I wrapped her in a loving embrace and locked her in a kiss. She seemed to like the taste of my saliva mixed with her juices as we swirled our tongues together once again. When we finally broke the embrace she flinched and put a paw to her entrance. I asked her what was wrong and she tried to explain. “I don’t understand. It... still hurts.”

I knew what she needed. She was after all still a pokemon, and did still have some animal instincts no matter how human she acted and appeared. Her body could tell that her “real” sexual needs still weren’t satisfied. I used the break in the action to strip the remainder of my cloths off. Luca had seen me naked before, but she noticed something different now, which caused her to blush and look away. I smiled and came close to her. She was still somewhat embarrassed to see me like this, but I was able to convince her otherwise. She soon had no apprehension and took the chance to study my body more accurately.

She already knew my general form, not necessarily a sculpted body, but still muscular none the less. The one part she had never really paid attention to was my cock. This was also the first time she had seen it erect. I was normally able to avoid the embarrassment of getting an erection in front of her but with what we had just done there was no stopping it now, nor did we want to. She hadn’t seen any other cocks as far as I knew. Sure the pokemon on the boat had been attracted to her and probably smelled her heat, but their sheaths did little more than tighten. As I got closer she began to breathe heavier, anticipating an amazing feeling. She began to let her instincts take over again, as she turned around and raised her tail for me to view her still hot and swollen lips once again, expecting me to penetrate her this time.

As I said before, I wasn’t about to let her be a slave to her instincts for this experience. I teasingly put my hands on her hips and acted as if I was going to enter her, but instead I moved my hands to her waist and pulled her into an embrace. She was really surprised at this, and as I carefully laid her on her back she locked her eyes with me. I gazed back at her, getting lost in her deep red eyes. I asked her once more if she was sure about this. She replied by pulling me close and locking me in another passionate kiss, forcing her tongue to mingle with mine. Satisfied with her answer I positioned myself at her hot entrance. She wanted to watch me take her but as soon as I began to she arched her back, threw her head back, and moaned wildly into the cave while holding me incredibly tight against her.

Luca was in a frenzy, she couldn’t believe how good this felt to her sensitive and swollen flesh. I continued to slowly force my way deeper into her hot depths, until something stopped me. Luca looked up into my eyes, already panting from the experience, with a look that asked “Why did you stop?” I told her this would hurt a little since it was her first time and I gave a short quick thrust, taking her virginity. She yelped and winced at the quick pain, but was soon moaning wildly again as I continued to slowly force my way into her tight cunt. When I had my entire length inside her I waited for a short time before pulling back out. During that time Luca kept trying to force me deeper, but it was no use I was hilted as far as both our sexes would let us.

I continued to rock in and out of her wet cunt, slowly at first and speeding up gradually. She was in complete ecstasy enjoying every inch that I moved within her. It wasn’t long before she had her second orgasm, splashing her hot fluids all over my crotch, while her quivering depths bit down hard on my cock. She hugged me tightly while she practically screamed at the pleasure she was experiencing, then she lay there for a moment panting wildly while enjoying the fading sensation. She looked up at me and was about to thank me, but at that time her depths released me enough for me to continue. When I did she immediately closed her eyes and began moaning loader still.

I speed up my thrusting, wanting to reach this next climax with her. After a short time I could tell she was getting close, her walls were tightening around me again and were pulsing in time to my thrusts while Luca gave counter thrusts trying to force me ever farther into her, still gasping with pleasure as she did so. I continued to speed up my thrusts, and with that last thrust I embraced her tightly while moaning loudly with her never wanting that moment to end.

Her depths locked me in and wouldn’t let me go again. This time her quivering sex was too much for me to withstand and I came hard, shooting my seed into her while her walls milked me dry, her fluids flowing out around my crotch and pooling on the stone floor. She embraced me tightly as well and howled with pleasure once again, enjoying the incredible sensation I had managed to give her.

We held our embrace as our mutual sensations faded, both of us just happy to be with one another. After a short time I slowly pulled out of her giving us both shivers and letting a small amount of our mixed fluids flow to the ground from Luca’s open folds. Luca tiredly looked over at me as I rolled off to her side and said “Thank you.” before she moved in close to me so we could fall asleep together for a midmorning nap, unaware of just how much I had given to Luca.
________________________________________


When we woke up it was already early afternoon. I put my cloths back on and helped Luca up. We figured we should probably get cleaned up in the small stream we had found nearby. Once we had I let Lady out to be with us. I knew she had a very keen nose and would most likely pick up on what Luca and I had done that morning, I just hoped that she wouldn’t make to big of a deal about it. She already knew how Luca felt and had suspected that I felt the same way. Lady also knew that no matter what happened between Luca and I, my relationship with her (Lady) would never change.

As I suspected Lady emerged from her ball, stretched and with a few whiffs of the air gave Luca a questioning look and a smirk. She playfully pranced over to the stream and took a drink but while she was doing so she started teasing Luca with her tails. Luca knew we had been found out and through her laughs and trying to fend off the tails she told Lady. Once Lady had gotten a confession from Luca she turned her attention to me. Luca and I both knew she wasn’t upset and if anything she was happy for us, but knowing her she just wanted to be included in the “family affairs.”

I knew she was playing so I played along and gave her my confession as well. Luca was blushing after Lady got a confession out of me. The reality of what we had done was starting to settle in her mind, and hearing me admit the morning’s actions got her thinking. However, the thing that surprised her most of all was how she felt about all of this. She wasn’t regretting anything, she wasn’t scared of what might happen, and every time she thought of me a feeling of happiness washed over her. She didn’t know why she felt this way, but she liked it and couldn’t wait to talk with Lady again.

Now that Lady had gotten to tease both me and Luca she was a bit happier and walked back to the cave with us. Luca walked close beside me and smiling the whole way. I knew how happy I had made her, and I was actually feeling the same way. My entire life I had never been able to find anyone like Luca. Lady and I both loved each other very much and shared many life experiences, but we both knew that was as far as it would go between us and it never bothered either of us.

As we walked the same feeling of happiness that Luca had found its way to me. Just the thought of having her with me made me happy and I put my arm around her to pull her closer still as we reached the cave. We stopped at the entrance and Lady sat in front of me and Luca. I released Luca and knelt down to give my dearest friend a hug. I wrapped Lady in an embrace and thanked her for being so understanding. She positioned her head as best she could to lock me in the hug and used her tails to show me that she really was happy for me and Luca. I was so glad that she wasn’t mad at me, and when she let me go she went over to Luca. Luca also wrapped her in a hug and was getting tears in her eyes again. Lady whispered something to Luca which got her to smile, squeeze Lady tighter, and whisper something back. I couldn’t hear them, but wasn’t sure I wanted to, considering it was probably a joke at my expense.

We spent the rest of our day thinking of what to do the next. We all agreed that it would be best to start looking for Silka and Razor. The patrols would most likely have been cut back after the few days we spent hiding and we could move about freely now. I felt much more comfortable with letting Lady stay out of her ball and that night we all got comfortable in the cave. Luca nestled in close to me with a contented smile and Lady curled up by our heads this time.

Lady playfully trailed one of her tails over mine and Luca’s faces as a sign that she was happy to be out with us again then she fell asleep. Luca smiled then looked over at me. I couldn’t resist her when she looked at me the way she did and I gave her another passionate kiss before we fell asleep in each others arms.

I awoke the next day feeling incredibly warm, when I fully gained consciousness I realized I was practically dripping in sweat, “But why?” I thought to myself. I looked to the cave entrance and realized why! There was a rather mad Flareon standing in the entrance bristling his fur, with a small pack of Eevee behind him. All of them seemed pretty weak but I still wasn’t going to piss off a pack of pokemon.

I slowly reached over to finish waking up Luca who was also stirring because of the heat. Lady wasn’t stirring at all to my surprise, but it made sense… she was a fire pokemon… the heat wouldn’t bother her much. When Flareon saw me lay my hand on Luca he fired a flamethrower between Luca and me. Luca had just started to open her eyes and when she saw me dodge the attack she snapped to consciousness and turned to fight whoever had attacked me. Luckily I managed to stop her by grabbing her wrist. We were both tense about the situation and my mind was racing to try and think of a way out, but it was about to get much worse.

A Jolteon and a Vaporeon casually entered the cave from their posts outside, satisfied that there was nothing coming from that direction they now focused their attention on Luca and me. Luca was ready to fight, but there was no way we could win this no matter how weak they were. A pack of pokemon and an elemental trio versus one pokemon guarantied a loss for the one. I quietly told Luca to calm down and try talking to them. If she could convince them we weren’t bad we could get out of this with out a scratch. I just hoped that Lady didn’t wake up and spook the trio. Luca started to talk and to my surprise they listened to her, it was just when I tried to talk or even just moved that they got angry. It seems they thought I was a Darkrai member holding Luca and Lady hostage or something…

I could understand Luca’s side of the conversation and from what I could gather Darkrai members had tormented this pack of Eevee by throwing evolution stones at them, and when these three evolved their plan to catch them back fired and they got… well… “burned” in more ways than one. This explained why there was a wild Jolteon, Flareon, and Vaporeon standing in front of us, and why they distrusted humans so much. The odd thing was that they still held captured pokemon in high regards which is why they were listening to Luca. The three of them were much more understanding at the end of the conversation and agreed to trust me.

During this whole incident I took a closer look at the pack of Eevee behind our aggressors. There were 12 in all but one was different, he had silver fur and seemed to be rather secluded. Once Luca had finished convincing the trio that I wasn’t with Darkrai and wasn’t going to hurt them they were much more willing to talk to us. So I took the chance to wake Lady, and as I suspected she notice the invaders and her tails sprang to life. I placed my hand on her neck to calm her. She quickly looked me in the eyes and I explained what happened and that everything was alright.

Ever since the trio had evolved they had acted as guardians and leaders of the pack, but when we asked about the silver Eevee they refused to even acknowledge him. In fact no matter who Luca asked the answer was the same, they would turn up their noses as if they were insulted that we wanted to know about him more than the others. Seeing this was getting us no where I asked Luca to talk to the little Eevee himself, but as she approached him he shied away and refused to even give eye contact with Luca let alone let her touch him. Meanwhile the other Eevee seemed disgusted that we would waste our time with him.

“This doesn’t make any sense…” Was my first thought, but the more I thought about it, the more I began to understand, this little Eevee was an outcast. The others probably only let him tag along to survive. “The poor thing!” I thought to myself, no wonder its fur was matted and he was so much thinner than the others. Lady sat with me in the cave and watched this whole thing. I could tell that she felt the same way as I did about the little Eevee and I quietly asked her what she thought about asking him to come with us. The look of concern she gave me told me she agreed, and probably wouldn’t forgive me if I simply ignored him.

Satisfied that we meant them no harm and would leave them alone the three guardians rallied everyone to leave after the short rest. As they began to leave I had Luca stop the silver Eevee, who was following at a short distance, to give him an offer. The little Eevee was still ashamed to talk to Luca and acted as if he wasn’t worth her time, but she continued to speak to him and gave him our offer. When he heard this he suddenly forgot about his apprehension and locked eyes with Luca with a stunned look on his face. He realized we were serious and a tear ran down his cheek as he leapt at Luca. She was a bit surprised but caught the little Eevee in her arms. He nuzzled her chest lovingly and snuggled in her arms as she brought him back over to me and Lady.

Some of the other Eevee had noticed this incident and scoffed, wondering why we would waist our time with him, but I didn’t care what they thought. This little guy was special and I wasn’t going to let him be ridiculed.

Eevee looked over to me for a split second, then diverted his gaze when he realized what he did. This poor little guy had probably been treated like dirt, and he most likely felt he wasn’t worthy of anyone’s attention let alone someone like Luca and me. Luca set the little Eevee down in front of her while I pulled out a spare pokeball I had. Eevee looked around a little and realized for the first time that Lady was sitting next to me. He wouldn’t look up at her but he knew what she was from looking at her paws. Lady instantly took a liking to the little guy and wanted to show him there was no need to be so skittish around us. She reached a tail out and put it under his chin to force him to look at her. He complied until he got a good look at Lady’s face. When he realized what he had done he shook his head to get free of Lady’s tail and closed his eyes tight while diverting his gaze. Lady smiled at him when he looked at her but got a bit frustrated when he diverted his gaze. She then lay down to get to his level and coiled all of her tails around him to try and make him more comfortable. When he felt the tails around him he opened his eyes and accidentally looked lady directly in the eyes. This time he yipped in surprise and shut his eyes again as he too lay down. Luca and I were watching this and couldn’t help but feel sorry for the little guy. Lady realized she wasn’t getting very far and let me have my chance.

I had found one of my spare pokeballs and when he opened his eyes at my touch I showed it to him. He backed away slightly, no doubt remembering when the Darkrai members had thrown them at him and his so called family. I set the ball down in front of him and asked Luca to explain. He still wouldn’t even look at me or Luca, but listened intently. After a short time Eevee understood this was different, and went up to the ball to push the activator with his paw. He disappeared in a red flash, but the ball again went quiet without even shaking once. I released Eevee from his new ball. He still had his eyes closed and wouldn’t face me, and I wasn’t about to let him keep doing this. I lightly put a finger under his chin and turned his head toward me, forcing him to look at me. When I did this he opened his eyes and just gazed at me, still apprehensive that he was being forced to do this. I made sure he saw that he wasn’t an outcast anymore, and that there was no need to be so skittish, but something so ingrained in someone would take time to remove. However he did realize that we weren’t like his old pack and we did care about him, which eased him enough to walk with us.