Story Notes:
I've put much, much time into making this story as captivating as possible, I hope you'll take the time to read it.This is going to be quite a long story, with many events happening, I love getting your reviews, so don't be a stranger!Thanks for reading!
Chapter Four: A New Life Together
The sun slowly rose out of the eastern horizon, as it always does, filling the two sleeping traveler's cave with a shade of golden light.
"Five more minutes..." The crimson Pokemon said in her dazed, gentle voice as the Sun eased her awake. The Pokemon let out a groan of annoyance as the sunshine grew brighter.
She rolled over, still with her head resting upon the unconscious traveler, and drifted back into sleep. The rhythmic breathing of her 'pillow' gently moved her head up and down as the travelers chest inhaled and exhaled.
"Guess you're not dead after all..." She whispered, eyes still shut, feeling the traveler's rhythmic exhales on her face.
Although the warm Sun had risen, snow still fell outside the cave at a large rate. A good amount of snow had been blown into the cave overnight by the strong winds outside. It still looked pretty rough out there.
The fire that the Pokemon had lit in the center of the cave had long burned itself to ashes. The overall temperature inside the cave started to drop to a chilling degree.
No longer able to sleep anymore, due to both the uncomfortable nature of the cave's floor and the continuous dropping temperature, the fire Pokemon sat herself upright.
She let out an audible yawn and slowly stretched her arms in the air, waking her body up. She blinked a few times, letting her eyes adjust to the morning twilight. The Pokemon immediately felt the cold air blowing against her body from the weather outside, and shivered. More and more snow was pushing it's way inside the cave.
The Pokemon examined the small pile of ashes that remained of her fire from last night. Sifting though them, she unfortunately found that she had nothing left to burn.
She'd never freeze to death in anything short of a colossal blizzard, of course. She was a fire type Pokemon, and had a high external and internal body temperature, which kept her warm. If she got intolerably cold, she could always breathe a small bit of fire onto her own body to warm up.
The concern for temperature was not for her own sake, but rather the traveler who lay aside her. He wore nothing but some torn up robe, a thin T-Shirt, and some run-down jeans. Not exactly winter clothes.
Another shiver ran though her body as a strong cold breeze flooded the cave and brushed some snow up against her. She hated the snow. The Pokemon exhales a small warm flame on her hands and warmed her body. Man, did she hate everything about the winter months.
She brushed the snow away with a few swipes of her hands, and got most of it off her body and that of the travelers, who was either sleeping, or still unconscious. The fire Pokemon sat on her knees as she examined the strange person before her.
Letting her curiosity get ahold of her, she started checking out some of the mans features. He had a chiseled face that seemed starved, and gaunt from the constant wear of traveling so much. Carefully, she started to remove his thin robe to try get a better look at the bandages on his arms. She sat him up, and slid the thin piece of clothing off of him, leaving him in his small white T-Shirt.
She lay him gently back down again and took a closer look at his arms. He had bandages wrapped around his forearms, wrists, biceps, and hands, only lacking them at his elbows and shoulders. Raising one of his arms off the ground, she looked at his hands. The medical tape was completely ripped off at his knuckles.
"You're a pretty weird guy, you know." She told the man, who was still unresponsive.
Continuing on her curious rant, she gave his bandaged biceps a pinch with her fingers.
"Ooh." She exclaimed quietly as she felt their firmness, "Not bad, stranger.".
She peeled up his tiny shirt to get a look at where the bloodstain had come from. She cringed when she saw the cross-shaped stitches in the center of his chest. The cold weather had clotted the blood-flow, and stopped the bleeding, which was good, he wouldn't bleed to death in a snowstorm like this.
She couldn't help but notice his chiseled abdominal muscles. She giggled to herself.
"Not bad at all."
The Pokemon then pulled his shirt back down over his stomach. She placed a hand on his chest, feeling it moving up and down as he inhaled, then exhaled, seems he still wasn't dead. Good. At least she wasn't sharing a cave with a dead guy.
The Pokemon then continued squeezing other various muscles on his body, now enjoying the fact he was in excellent shape. She almost didn't notice his closed eyes begin to shutter.
The traveler on the ground let out an involuntary sigh as he started to recover from his state of unawareness.
Happy to hear the man's first signs of life, she turned her attention to his face, happily waiting for him to awake.
Nothing happened.
Her eagerness dissipated as she looked upon his face once more. She reached a down and gently brushed the man's hair out of his face, shaking him slightly.
He was still unresponsive.
"Hey!" She said sternly, shaking him a little rougher, and now leaning closer to his head.
"Wake up!" The Pokemon commanded.
Still nothing, but a tiny movement of his eyelids.
Seeing this small twitch, the female Pokemon leaned her face in closer and closer to him, looking for any other signs of life.
"Hellooooo?"
Still with no response, she leaned in closer still. Her face was now a mere inches away from the travelers, their noses practically touching. She felt his warm breath on her face, her golden eyes staring into his closed lids.
The Pokemon grinned as she heard him let out another sigh, beginning to stir once more, as he struggled to awake.
The man's eyelids slowly crept open, squinting as his vision faded from black to color. He saw nothing but images that were spotty and blurry. He remained still as he waited for his eyesight to return, just a small sliver of his emerald eyes peeking though his eyelids.
The Pokemon smiled as she saw him started to wake, forgetting how close she was to his now alert face.
The traveler blinked a few times, and opened his eyes further. No thoughts of the night prior crossed his mind, he only focused on what was happening now. He struggled to focus his vision on the red blur he saw in front of him.
As his vision fully returned, the man started into the Pokemon's face directly on top of his own. He blinked once before any thoughts registered.
Suddenly his brain alerted him of what was happening, and he acted on instinct. His eyebrows raised and his pupils widened as his body reacted in shock to the scare of being woken up to another starting at him the moment he returned to consciousness.
She just smiled ear to ear at him as she stared to see him recover.
The man didn't have such a peaceful reaction.
Flashing back to the man holding him against the wall in the alley way, and remembering the anger he felt, as soon as his brain came to terms he knew what to do.
The man let out a rough, deep yell, both in anger and surprise.
The fire Pokemon's eyes widened as she moved her face back in surprise.
He placed his right hand on the ground, pushing off of it and instantly sitting himself up, his other hand wrapped around the Pokemon's neck. Before she even realized what was happening, he sprang up off of the ground, and rolled to his side, gripping, and roughly squeezing the Pokemon's neck.
The man had shifted positions with the Pokemon who was previously kneeling beside him. He was now on top of her, as she was forced onto the ground, flat on her back. The man's free hand was drawn back and balled into a fist as he was prepared to strike.
The Pokemon beneath him, barely able to breathe, was now helpless. She couldn't even take in oxygen, not to mention exhaling any sort of flame to free herself.
The man's teeth were bared and his eye's narrowed at the sight below him.
He let out another low, raspy, sort of growl.
The Pokemon closed her eyes and turned her head away in fear as she struggled to respire. She desperately gripped one of her hands on his, trying to remove it from her neck. The other on his chest, trying to push him off, but to no avail.
He legs kicked and wrapped around the man.
She let out a muffled cry in fear as she slowly was suffocated.
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Ariston awoke instantly out of his box-spring bed at the Orebrugh City Trainers Lodge as soon as the sun shone though the window.
He was too excited to sleep the night prior, and couldn't wait to get up today. That was quite rare for Ariston.
He smiled to himself as he sat up out of bed and recalled his evening yesterday after he entered the city.
He remembered he originally just wanted to train on some weaker wild Pokemon to try and prepare his two Pokemon for the Gym Leader. His evening was much more eventful than he expected.
As he walked around the outskirts of town, looking for Pokemon, the -first- one he had came across almost gave him a heart attack.
The little guy had ran across Ariston's path from his left, and scampered into a pile of tall grass on his right.
He caught a glimpse of the guy, and realized what it was.
"No way!" He said aloud to himself, the Pokemon at his feet now looking at him anxiously, "A Turtwig? Here?".
The little guy poked his head out of the grass, to examine the trainer and his Pokemon, then swiftly withdrew it.
Turtwigs were incredibly rare to find in the wild. Seemed this was Ariston's lucky day.
Of course, the three top students at the Pokemon Academy were given their choice of a Chimchar, Turtwig, or Pinlup each year, but Ariston wasn't exactly 'straight-A' material. He wasn't the dumbest kid in the class (in fact, that title may have belonged Conti), but he really didn't want to spend every waking hour on school. He was usually a B student, with the occasional A. That didn't make a bit of difference now though, grades didn't matter to the wild Pokemon in the grass before him.
He was psyched to even -see- a Turtwig in the wild.
Buizel immediately dove into the grass to investigate. Buizel was in the grass for a few mere second before she was promptly knocked back out by the defense little Turtwig, not wanting any intruders.
Buizel, not being one to give up, dove right back in.
Ariston wasn't able to see what was happening, but he saw the grass rustle violently as the two Pokemon wrestled inside. A few seconds passed with various noises coming from the Pokemon inside.
Buizel was hit out again.
Now, Buizel started to get irritated. She shook her head a bit as she returned to her feet, and dove into the grass a third time.
After more rustling of the tall grass, Ariston stood waiting for his Buizel to get knocked out yet again.
They scampered through the grass for a few minutes before the Turtwig came rolling out, along with Buizel wrapped around it.
Shinx just stood patiently and watched his friend Buizel battle with the Pokemon.
Now out in the open, the Turtwig was more than ready and willing to fight.
Buizel automatically let out a full power water blast, in hopes of ending the fight quickly like she had with so many Geodudes. The water jet struck the Turtwig directly in the face, causing him to stagger backwards, if only from it's surprise.
Buizel ended the stream of water and stood up curiously on her hind legs to see if the Turtwig still wanted to fight after such a direct hit. The Turtwig stood there unfazed as water dripped off it's face, looking now more aggravated.
She tilted her head in disarray.
"Buizel," Ariston told his confused Pokemon, "water attacks won't do much harm to it, try something else."
Looking back at her master as he spoke, Buizel didn't notice the charging Turtwig closing the distance between them.
The Turtwig's head connected into Buizel's midsection, causing her to let out a yelp of pain as she was knocked back, and onto the ground.
Shinx let out a cry of concern as he saw his friend struggle to recover from the hard hit. Shinx knew he had to stay back though, double teaming a Pokemon wouldn't be fair. Ariston had made it very clear to them that unless there were multiple Pokemon attacking them, they had to be fair and only go one on one.
As much as Shinx wanted to help, he refrained.
The Turtwig stood confidently in Buizel's previous position, awaiting her to stand up.
Soon enough, Buizel was back up, standing on all four paws, she cautiously prepared to attack again.
"Use Swift, Buizel." Ariston commanded, trying to coach his Pokemon.
Taking her master's advice, she opened her mouth, then quickly launching a flurry of tiny, jagged, bits of hard material.
Swift was a unique attack to some specific water Pokemon. Tiny pieces of material are gathered and condensed when the Pokemon takes in and stores water. The material is usually some sort of tiny pond pebble, or bark. They're gathered together and prepared to launch in battle as an alternative to water. The attack is similar to a shotgun blast, and is pretty tough to avoid.
The Turtwig took a step backwards and closed it's eyes as it braced for the shards to hit him. The ferocity and duration of the attack buffered the Turtwig for a multitude of seconds before ceasing.
"Nice, Buizel, now get in there!" Ariston continued commanding his Pokemon.
Shortly after Buizel expelled her projectiles, she began running the Turtwig, intending to knock him down, and hopefully, weaken him enough to be captured.
She scampered and sprinted as fast as he long body and tiny legs could take her.
Before Buizel could get close enough to the Turtwig, he had already recovered. Opening his eyes once again, Turtwig stopped Buizel dead in her tracks with a large amount of hard, tiny seeds shot from the small plant atop his head.
Buizel was knocked back and spun around by this attack. Many had made direct hits before Buizel made it out of the way.
Shinx crouched down, stood up, then crouched down again, hiding behind his mater's foot, and anxiously watching the fight.
The launching of seeds died down, as Buizel struggled to remain standing.
"Hang in there, just a little more." Ariston said more to himself than his Buizel.
Now tired from it's own attack, Turtwig started to breathe heavily. Seeing this as an opportunity, Buizel made another run at Turtwig. Her body ached. The Bullet Seed attack felt like getting tiny rocks thrown at you. Regardless, she didn't intend on stopping now. If there's one thing she had learned in the wild, it's that if you give up, you die. She knew her master wouldn't allow her to die in battle, but her instincts still told her to keep fighting.
The Trutwig tried to hit Buizel with another flurry of Bullet Seeds, but before he could, Buizel was right in front of his face.
Not wasting any time, Buizel made contact, headbutting the Turtwig directaly between the eyes.
A large contact sound filled the air around them. The noise reminded Ariston of slamming a heavy textbook down on an empty desk.
Now dizzy with recoil due to both the fact that she had struck hit quite hard, and that Turtwigs skull was much harder than hers, she took a few staggered steps backwards, eyes closed with the pain in her head. Both Pokemon letting out annoyed groans of pain.
Even though Turtwigs pain was alot less than Buizel's at this point, it distracted him enough and caused him to cringe on contact.
Seeing this, Ariston drew one of his empty pokeballs and in a flash, threw it at the distracted Turtwig.
It captured him in the red light, and quickly took him inside.
The pokeball shook on the ground for a moment, as Ariston held his breath.
Buizel opened on eye as she still endured the annoying pain in her head, regretting that stupid move she made.
After a lifetime, the low monotone confirmation chime sounded, and the Turtwig was caught.
"Yes! Great job, Buizel." He said confidently to his small, slightly injured Pokemon. "Maybe next time you shouldn't headbutt something with a skull twice the size of yours." he joked.
Buizel shook her head a few times, trying to get rid of her now pounding headache, and ran back to her master.
Ariston picked up his new Pokemon off the ground and examined the pokeball. He decided it'd be better to let the Turtwig settle down before letting him out again. He placed the pokeball on his belt and continued walking. He couldn't believe his luck so far, and wanted to see if there were any other Pokemon around.
Shinx and Buizel walked with Ariston as they continued down the dirt path on the on outskirts of Oreburgh. Soon enough, they found a pretty tough looking Machop lazily walking around, who was just coming out for the beginning night. Ariston let Shinx have this fight.
Ariston always let Shinx battle the Machop he found. They were tough, but he knew his Shinx was tougher. They were a challenge for him though, which he liked.
The Machop noticed the Shinx eyeing him, and turned his attention to the little flash Pokemon. Not wasting any time, the Machop ran at Shinx with a balled up fist, ready to strike him.
Shinx looked pitifully at the Machop as he took a large, easily avoided swing at Shinx. He ducked his head as the Pokemon's arm passed over him.
Shinx then built up his charge in a matter of seconds, much faster and more precise than he had than in his battle with Crogunk.
Shinx, surrounded in a dull yellow electric field, sprang up and made contact with the Machop's stomach. As soon as their bodies touched, Shinx discharged. The dull yellow light grew much brighter as it surrounded the Machop yelling in pain.
The discharge lasted for a few seconds, then died down.
The Machop had no desire to fight any longer, and ran back to wherever he had came from. He then saw a light different than that of his charge growing around Shinx. Ariston smiled as he saw his Pokemon look back at him with a grin on his face, as the light grew.
Ariston knew exactly what was happening. Buizel was mesmerized by the event.
The light around Shinx continued to grow as he began to change shape. The silhouette of his body, now surrounded in light, grew larger and more muscular. Compared to his previous Shinx's size, the silhouette of this new Pokemon was much larger, the approximate size of a great dane. His former Shinx let out a deeper, more toned and ferocious, "Nhaa!" as his body finished growing.
The light dimmed down, and reviled that his former Shinx had grown much larger, with more amounts of dark blue fur covering his face, and much, much more muscle mass on his body and legs. The Pokemon crackled energy around his body effortlessly.
Ariston proudly examined his new Luxio.
Buizel, now realizing her friend had evolved, quickly ran to him and looked over his improved form. Luxio playfully gave out a louder, "Nhaa!" slightly scaring Buizel with the deepened tone.
Seemed the battle with the Macho gave him the tiny bit of experience needed to evolve.
Now with the tables turned, Luxio began chasing Buizel around the grassy fields, having some fun before the sun set. That was the first time Ariston had even seen an evolution. It was an amazing event, the white light enveloping his Pokemon, then in an instant, he was something totally different. His little Shinx had changed and grown so much stronger in just those few seconds. How evolution worked was still something relatively unknown about Pokemon. Ariston didn't understand the least bit about evolution, but the one thing he was sure of was the fact that his new Luxio would be the same Pokemon as the Shinx he'd come to know.
Ariston let the two play around the grassy fields. The ran circles around his feet as they chased each other. He eventually settled the Pokemon down, and made a quick trip to the Pokemon Center to heal his team. It was late. Ariston and his Pokemon headed to the Oreburgh Trainers Lodge for the night.
Ariston finished his recollection of the night by looking over at his three pokeballs at his bedside. He then stood up, got dressed, gathered his things, and headed outside.
He couldn't wait to take on the Gym Leader now.
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The struggling Pokemon let out a weak cough as the traveler let go of her neck.
He had realized what he was doing, and quickly released her, he saw that she was harmless, and that this creature had no intention of endangering him. He lowered his fist.
The Pokemon who lay under this man continued to cough as her lungs filled with air again. She rubbed her hands around her own neck, inspecting for any damaged caused by the man's powerful grip.
"Jeeze, what are you, crazy?! I saved you from the snow and this is what I get?" She said coughing, quite irritated, and in her unique Pokemon language, not expecting this human to understand her, "Maybe I should've left 'ya."
"S-sorry." He replied hesitantly to her in the same Pokemon language.
Now forgetting the fact that she had just almost died, she was must more interested by the fact that he could understand her, not to mention -speak- to her.
"Woah," The Pokemon said, stopping for a second to re-look over the man, making -sure- he was a man, and not just an odd looking Pokemon, "you can...understand me?".
"Yeah." He replied, "Y-You're a, Blaziken, right?" he continued, instinctively knowing what Pokemon she was, and how to speak the Pokemon language. He looked her body over now, not having a chance to before with strangling her and all. All this, while still on top of her.
Now realizing the position they were in, Blaziken brightly blushed. She unwrapped her legs from the man's back, who was standing on his knees, sat up, and slid out from under him. If someone had walked in on them in that position, it would have looked very, very suggestive.
"Yeah, I'm a Blaziken." She said, as her blushing was still very evident, now sitting cross legged on the floor, "What about you, you're not like any Pokemon I've ever seen."
The man leaned back and sat on his legs from his kneeling position, and replied in an unsure tone,
"I, I don't think I am one...".
Blaziken rubbed her head in confusion.
"Are you sick? Your face looks colored strangely." The man said after a few seconds of silence, meeting her gaze.
Realizing she was still blushing, Blaziken let out a nervous laugh as his words caused her face to grow even brighter.
"Oh uh, haha, I'm uh, I'm fine." She spat out.
There was an awkward silence.
"Okay...So, uh, you're probably not a Pokemon, you look like a man, yet somehow...can speak my language." She explained to him changing the subject, still feeling awkward from being in that 'position' with him. "It's a pretty well known, and uh, obvious fact that humans aren't able to speak the Pokemon language...so, uh, whathehell?".
She didn't really care about the answer though, honestly she was more preoccupied thinking about the kind of position they were in before...His well muscled body on top of hers, her legs wrapped around his body....As much as she hated to admit it, she was unquestionably, undoubtedly, -turned on- by him, and couldn't help but think of them...doing something more erotic in that position. She knew it'd be wrong to be attracted to a human, but...well this guy was obviously something else, so it was okay...right?
Not sure what to think, her eyes focused on the man shaking his head, showing he had no answer for her question.
"Alright...Thennn, do you have a name?" She asked, trying to get back on topic and suppress the growing excitement between her legs. She didn't want to reveal her attraction to this stranger, for all she knew he could be just some random psychopath.
Blaziken's words wrung hollow in the man's ears, his eyes looking around the cave.
A few seconds passed with no response.
Blaziken scrunched her face and made a sound of annoyance when she didn't receive an answer.
"You're just as chatty as you were when you were unconscious..." She mumbled to herself.
His eyes fixed upon the white band of plastic on the ground. The medical tag that he was holding when he fell. It was lying at the cave's entrance, a part of it covered in snow. The man, paying no attention to the now aggravated Blaziken eyeing him, stood himself up and made his way over to it.
He stood over his name tag, and bent down to pick it up, causing the stitches in his chest to ache once more. Ignoring the pain, he held it in front of his face.
"Oh that thing?" She said facetiously, "Yeah, that was next to you when you were face down eating snow on the road. I found it when I saved you. And carried it with here while I was saving you. Then set it on the ground in the cave after I saved you. Not to mention the fact that, I SAVED YOU." She said, trying to extract praise and thanks for her heroic act.
Ignoring her cries for attention, he read the words printed on it.
"SUBJECT 14" He said to himself.
"So that's what that thing says, eh?" The Blaziken said to him, not being able to read it herself. She started standing up, and walked over the small pile of ashes in the center of the cave to stand beside him. "Yeah, that's not much of a name you know."
"It's the only thing I own." The man said, lost in his thoughts remembering the dreams he has had, and what the medical tag meant.
Blaziken just raised an eyebrow at his weird behavior.
"I'm totally not calling you Subject 14 all the time, that's pretty dumb ya know."
The man just turned and stared at her inquisitively.
"See, in my species, we don't give out names at birth." She explained to him, placing a hand on his shoulder, motioning him to back wall of the cave away from the snowfall outside. "When a Blaziken finds a mate, and they are joined, they give each other names, it's like a bonding thing." She continued.
"Me, I don't have any specific name yet, I'm just Blaziken, so you can call me that. Now, we don't even know what Pokemon, or really, what species you are so..."
The man just continued his confused stare at her, they were now at the back of the cave away from the snowfall outside, the heat from Blaziken's toned, slender body radiating off her. He couldn't help notice how fit she looked, it seemed that this Blaziken was defiantly battle-hardened.
She even 'accidentally' rubbed her breasts on his chest as they were sitting down, she giggled to herself as she noticed his slight jumpiness to her touch. Maybe it was the painful stitches that caused him to jump, maybe he was a little attracted to her, she liked to think it was the latter.
Now sitting on the ground, with Blaziken at his left, he turned to her.
"What would you like to do then?"
A million thoughts raced though Blaziken's head, while she thought of all the things she -really- wanted to do with him, to him. She pictured them in that...position again. She pictured him without his torn clothes on, grabbing her hips and bringing them to his, awaiting his entrance into her...She quickly realized she was blushing again and dismissed her dirty thoughts, as she realized that's clearly not what he meant.
An evil smile crept over her face, as she spoke in a menacing voice:
"I guess I get to name you then."
The man's eyes widened.
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Ariston was excited over his new team, -two- of them would be super effective against any rock type Pokemon, and Luxio had just evolved, and probably able to take out anything he didn't have a strategic type-advantage over.
Ariston took his team to the building accross the street from the Trainers Lodge. It was just a little cafe, but they allowed Pokemon inside. It was a good place to get ready for the Gym battle.
Over breakfast, Ariston released the little Turtwig he had caught the night prior and welcomed him to the team. Pokemon are usually happy to be retrieved from the wild, unless they're torn from their families. Law doesn't state that Pokemon who are reluctant to be caught must be returned, but most trainers with a conscience would release a Pokemon if it truly didn't want to join their team.
Turtwig seemed happy enough, with Ariston, Buizel and Luxio already treating him like a member of the team. Turtwig was looking forward to fighting somewhere outside of the wild. As most Pokemon knew, you're able to grow stronger much faster when with a trainer. Turtwig saw this as an adventure.
Ariston sat at a flimsy iron table in the outside portion of the resturant. He liked the cold air in the morning, it woke both himself and his Pokemon up in the morning. He had gathered some loose chairs from the tables around him for his Pokemon to sit on while they waited for the waitress.
"Just something light, you guys," he told his Pokemon, "we don't want anything slowing you down today."
Ariston placed his backpack on the table, and unzipped it. He stared at the light grey egg inside, his eyes examining the living being he'd be carrying on his back for the past few days. He didn't know when, or if this thing was ever going to hatch, but honestly, it was part of the team and deserved to be around the other Pokemon.
As the waitress approached him, he ordered some light dishes for his Pokemon. Some cashews for Turtwig, and fruit for Buizel and Luxio. Ariston ordered nothing for himself, he was too excited to have an appetite.
As they waited for their food, Ariston decided to go over a quick strategy he'd been thinking up for the Gym leader with his Pokemon.
Ariston opened his mouth to speak, but before any words could escape his mouth, he stopped and diverted all his attention to his backpack.
The egg was shaking.
This wasn't like before, this time, it was almost rolling his backpack off the table. The Pokemon and Airston all stared at the odd thing in its shaking fury. Ariston guided the shaking egg away from the edges of the table, but other than that, left it undisturbed.
"Wow," he said aloud, "that thing's getting pretty restless in there.".
He watched the egg roll about for a few minutes, before it's shaking eventually died down. Seeing that the Pokemon inside had just been moving again, and not hatching, Ariston turned back to face his Pokemon.
He opened his mouth again to try and begin talking over his strategy to his Pokemon, and was cut short again.
He heard a small cracking sound.
"No way..." He thought in disbelief.
He looked over at the egg again...nothing was happening.
Ariston waited.
Then, a tiny blue paw, balled up in a fist, burst its way out of the egg.
Ariston's eyebrows jumped and his heart began to beat faster as he saw the event unfold. This egg was really -hatching- here, right before his first Gym battle. After two and a half years in his fathers possession, it had chosen to burst out of it's shell after only a few days with Ariston. The three Pokemon watched intently the egg before them, having seen nothing like it before.
Quickly following the paw, another hand was quick to burst out of the shell, much in the same manner the first one had.
Ariston watched speechlessly.
The tiny blue arms flailed about for a few seconds before the top of the egg began to crack. The Pokemon inside the shell struggled and pushed. The egg shook more violently as it started to crack in more places. It's dark grey color now riddled with fractures running throughout it's numerous blue spots.
With no more delay, the egg shattered. The tiny dark blue body of the Pokemon inside let out a confused yelp as it performed an accidental summersault on the table after cracking free from the egg. Lying on it's back, it's dark red eyes locked with the light blue of Ariston's.
Ariston's face lit up with happiness. The little Pokemon was free. He knew exactly what it was too, an incredibly gifted breed. A Riolu. A female Riolu.
Riolu looked curiously at Ariston's mesmerized face, blinking a few times lying on her back. A cute little smile then came across the Riolu's face to match Ariston's.
"Well hey there." He said, reaching his hand out to pet the tiny grinning Pokemon, "Welcome to the outside world."
Riolu rolled over onto her stomach as Ariston rubbed the top of her head. She then attempted to wobbly gain balance on her feet. While attempting to stand, she quickly fall back down on the iron table. Her body was still adjusting form being out of the egg.
Ariston watched in amusement as the Riolu shook her head in a determined fashion when he had offered his hand in help. She wanted to do this on her own.
Pushing off of her tiny blue hands, she brought her self up to her little black legs, on the toes of her tiny black paws.
She stood before him happy with her success, a healthy young, confident Riolu.
"Hi". He heard a young female voice say.
Suprised, Ariston looked behind him for the source of the female talking to him.
"No silly, over here.". He looked back down at the table. The Riolu still standing before him, nearly at eye level.
Ariston continued to look around the restaurant for a source of the voice.
The newly hatched Riolu face-palmed.
A tiny blue paw gently flicked Ariston's nose. He looked down to see his Riolu again staring into his eyes.
"Here." He heard the voice, the Riolu's mouth not moving, "A Riolu can communicate with their Masters, silly."
Ariston's mouth dropped as he saw the barely hatched Pokemon speak to him in a gentile woman's voice...
"Woa--I, you, Riolu, wow." He stammered.
He remembered hearing about the Riolu and Lucario in class, how they bonded with their master's Aura, and were able to speak with them, but never though he'd actually experience it.
"That's all your going to say?" The cheecky Riolu said again, raising an eyebrow.
"Wow," he forced out again, "that's, that's amazing.".
Riolu gave her new master a grin, then spun around to the three Pokemon eyeing her like she was some sort of Alien. Riolu sat on the edge of the table as she started to speak with the three other Pokemon in their language.
Ariston was still for the most part in shock, this was -amazing-. This little creature that he'd be carrying out of his backpack wasn't just a Pokemon. As great as it was having Luxio, Buizel and Turtwig around, it got pretty lonely at times not having anyone who he could actually understand. Riolu though, was something totally different.
Ariston, finally letting his thoughts process, began to feel some sort of filter develop in his head. Much like how he knew the difference between words he thought and words he spoke, he now felt like he could distinguish between words he thought and...well, something else.
The sensation was slight, but it felt quite foreign to Ariston. Not knowing what to make of it, he decided to experement. He concentrated a bit.
"R-Riolu?" He thought, though his mind's new filter.
"Mm?" She returned, turing her head away from conversing with his Pokemon.
"Wow!" He said audibly, "You can hear that?".
"Sure can." She said again with a smile, turning back to Ariston's Pokemon. She wanted to get to know them. Ariston didn't know it, but she was asking about him to his Pokemon. Riolu's were very picky about their masters.
"What's he like?" She asked all three, after exchanging greetings.
Luxio was the first to respond.
"Ariston? I've know him for a year, he's a great guy. I'm glad I have him as my master rather than some hardcore jerk of a trainer. Everywhere we go, I see wild Pokemon eyeing us enviously, they see how well Ariston treats his Pokemon."
"Ooh," She returned, impressed by Luxio's high opinion of Ariston.
"He's jumpy," Buizel offered, recalling his reaction when she'd sprayed him in the crotch numerous times, "but overall, I think he's a good guy. Easy to surprise too."
She took that into consideration, then looked at Turtwig.
"Huh? Oh, uh, I just joined everyone yesterday," He said, "but from how he handled Buizel when she battled me, I think he's probably a pretty smart trainer."
Riolu swung her feet back and fourth and waved her tail casually as she listened to the Pokemon talk to her about Ariston. After getting all the information about him, she turned around again to see Ariston waiting patiently for the four Pokemon to finish their conversation.
"Your Pokemon think quite highly of you, you know." Ariston heard in his head again, "I wasn't sure weather I had hatched at the right time or not, I see now I made a good choice.". She closed her eyes and gave him another happy grin.
"I'm glad to hear it, Riolu, I'm sure you'll love traveling with us." Ariston said to her though the filter in his mind, flattered by whatever his Pokemon had said about him to make Riolu so impressed.
Her red eyes studied him for a moment as she sat of the edge of the table in front of him.
"Noah, huh?"
"Wha?" Ariston said aloud, not knowing what to think.
"Your name. It's Noah, right?"
"W-Well yeah, but how did you..." He started.
"I can read Aura, it reveals more than you'd think about a person."
"Wow."
"Is that the only thing you're gonna say today?" She asked playfully.
"Haha, no, it's just," he said, "it's just, everything you can do...it's amazing."
She swung her feet off the edge of the table again, and continued to smile at him, "Well thanks, Noah."
"Heh, you can just call me Ariston, everyone does." He told her.
"Humm," she let out as she examined his aura, "a part of you likes being called Noah.".
Ariston said nothing, but let a look of surprise creep over his face again as he realized she was -right-. He'd never admitted to anyone that he kinda liked his goofy name.
"But, okay. Ariston the Trainer works too.". She said, almost picking up on his thoughts again.
"So uh, I don't know much about Aura, what exactly do you do?" He asked, figuring he sounded stupid.
"Welll," Riolu said, thinking, "it's hard to explain. It's basically the psychic expression what you're feeling. When you experience something, an emotion or sensation, your aura changes with you. Judging by what I'm feeling from you right now, I'd say I think I'm going to like having you as my master"
"Wo-- I mean, cool." he said, not wanting to revert to saying 'wow' every ten seconds again.
Riolu giggled.
"They only reason I've gotten so good at reading Aura is 'cause I've had nothing to do in that stupid egg for the last two years. You don't need to be able to see a person to sense their Aura."
Riolu's former egg lay in pieces both on the ground and on the table.
"Why didn't you hatch sooner then?" he asked.
"It didn't feel right where I was before...The people that were around my egg, their aura's felt...scary. I didn't want to hatch around those people I felt, I just couldn't bring myself to." she replied, "But things changed, I stopped feeling the bad Auras, that's when I realized there was some one new taking care of me. Turns out it was you."
"Could she be talking about...Dad?" A voice said in the back of Ariston's mind..."Bad Aura?".
"Well, what ever the reason, I'm glad you're here now.". He told Riolu, rubbing her ears. She gave out a cute little laugh as her Master's touch tickled her.
"I was just about to go over a strategy for the Gym fight with the other Pokemon here.".
Riolu flipped on her stomach, lying across the center of the table, propping her head up with her tiny paws. "Ooh, sounds cool. What's a Gym fight?".
"Well, uh, it's like a test, to see if you're a good enough trainer to take on an opponent who is considered better than you." He answered.
"Oh," she said, tilting her head, "sound fun.".
"Haha, it is if you win."
The waitress returned with the small amount of food for the three Pokemon. Riolu eyed it enviously, not having had any real food since she'd hatched.
"M-Master?" She asked, "Can I have some of...what ever that is?". She motioned to the cantaloupe being eaten by Buizel (who seemed reluctant to share). "It looks greaaaat."
"Of course."
Her face lit up giving him a large toothy grin. Granted, she only had a few small fangs, but it was still cute. Ariston placed another order for Riolu, and the waitress was quick to bring it out.
Sitting up, she sat cross legged on the table, and devoured the large slices of cantaloupe.
"This is ammmmaaaazzzinnngggg," she told her mater between joyful bites.
Ariston couldn't help but smile at her. She's been in the outside world less than half an hour, already she'd made friends with all his Pokemon, and bonded to his Aura. The Riolu were an amazing Pokemon.
"We'll sit here and get to know you a little better, Riolu," He told his new team member, "we have some time before the gym battle. You've already seemed to have matured so much."
"Well of course," she said, "I've just been picking up Auras in that egg for a long time now, I understand how most things that humans do work.".
"Silly..." she said playfully as she dove back into her plate of delicious cantaloupe.
Ariston had a precious new member to the team. Regardless of weather she could fight or not, she was obviously going to be a great friend. She had an unquestionably sweet attitude, and it was refreshing to Ariston. He couldn't wait to get to know her better.
Riolu smiled.
"Did she..." he thought..."Can she hear what I'm thinkink?".
Ariston started at Riolu again.
"Nahh.".
------------------------------------------------------------
"Hummm" Blaziken said as she thought, "what should we call you...".
"I, uh," the traveler started, "don't know if that's a good idea.". Nervous at having this playful Pokemon determining his name.
"Oh common, it'll be fun! I cant just call you SUBJECT 14 all the time, that doesn't even make any sense." She joked, "sounds like some sort of science experiment, hehe.".
The traveler felt a little saddened by the truth in her words, but decided it'd be better not to tell her much about what he knew about his origin.
"Alright." he said with a sigh, "What did you have in mind then?".
"Sexy." She immediately said to herself in her mind. Again, she pictured the man's bare muscular body on top of hers. "Urh, I so want to rape him...Ah! No! Bad Blaziken, get your mind out of the gutter!" She continued to think as she scolded herself in her mind, "Oh yeah, name, uh, think...common...something...".
"Uhh," she let audibly escape, "how about Snowy! Get it? 'Cause I found you in the snow, haha!".
Traveler cringed at the terrible attempt at a pun.
"I uh, don't think I like that name." He said in reply.
"Humm, me neither...How about...."
She rubbed her chin with her hand, looking into the distance thinking...
"We should call you Crazy. After all, you did try and strangle me."
"I uh, uhh"
"Nah I don't like that name either." Blaziken continued.
"Oh! I once saw a human named Frabrezio!"
"That's...a ridiculous name..." the traveler replied coldly, not liking where this was going.
"Fine fine. How about John? No...you don't look like a John... What about Martin? Nah, that's not you either...Oh! How about Jenny! Wait, that's a girls name...Humm, this is tough!" Blaziken rambled...
Blaziken had made the conversation entirely one sided, just announcing then immediately renouncing any human names she'd ever heard.
"Jeeze, I can't think of a human name that suits you."
The traveler sat next to her in an annoyed silence.
Blaziken eyed him up and down again.
"Ohh!" She exlaimed, "I know!"
She jumped up off of the ground and stood in front of the traveler in an excited stance.
"I'll name you after my Great Grandpa!" She said happily, "He was the most ferocious Blaziken ever! He was the toughest Blaziken in the word! He could defeat -anyone-! Even the toughest of water Pokemon!" she continued, obviously exaggerating the status of her Great Grandfather.
Excited from remembering stories her mother had told her of him, she started doing punches into the cool air of the cave, imitating her Great Grandfather.
"He'd take anyone on, he was awesome!" Blaziken explained, still hopping around the cave fighting invisible opponants.
The traveler gave her odd behavior a confused stare.
After she had finished taking numerous drawn out swings at air in the cave, she continued her explanation.
"I heard, he once defeated a HUGGEEE Garados, all by himself!" She told, breathing some flames, battling and invisible Garyados.
"Course, I never actually met the guy, but my Mother told me all about him..." She said happily, sitting back down next to the traveler, now finished with her stories.
"You kinda remind me of him, ya'know?" She looked into his emerald green eyes, and imagined her grandfather's face upon his. "Iota the Blaziken, that was his name.".
"Iota..." The traveler said to himself, thinking it over. It was certainly better than Jenny or Frabrezio.
"Alright, I like it." he admitted.
Blaziken's smile grew ear to ear. She wrapped her arms around the travelers cold body and gave him a tight hug.
"Aww I knew you would!" She said to the obviously uncomfortable man she was hugging.
"Iota, just like my Great Grandfather."
The newly named Iota wiggled out of her hug, and picked himself off the ground. He made his way over to where he was sleeping the night before, and picked up his robe. After putting the thin piece of fabric on him, he started for the cave's exit.
Saddened to see this gesture Blaziken's smile vanished. She worried she might have scared him away.
"Where are you going?" She asked.
"I'm going to see if I can find some food, the snowfall isn't too bad anymore."
"Oh..." Blaziken said in a depressed voice.
"Don't worry," He said without facing her, "I'll be back soon."
Her smile returned.
He set his bandaged foot onto the freezing freshly fallen snow outside the cave. A few snowflakes landing on his face.
"Oh and Blaziken?" He said, sounding somewhat nervous and turning to see her still sitting at the back wall of the cave.
"Mm?"
"Thank-you. For everything."
Blaziken could have sworn she saw a tiny, almost unnoticeable smile on Iota's face. The first sign of emotion she'd seen from him yet.
He turned his back to Blaziken, and began walking into the light snowy weather outside.
Blaziken let out a sigh of happiness as she watched him walk away, the smile on her face refusing to vanish. She knew he'd come back, somehow, she knew she could trust him.Chapter End Notes:Alright, chapter four is done...Go to chapter five
"Five more minutes..." The crimson Pokemon said in her dazed, gentle voice as the Sun eased her awake. The Pokemon let out a groan of annoyance as the sunshine grew brighter.
She rolled over, still with her head resting upon the unconscious traveler, and drifted back into sleep. The rhythmic breathing of her 'pillow' gently moved her head up and down as the travelers chest inhaled and exhaled.
"Guess you're not dead after all..." She whispered, eyes still shut, feeling the traveler's rhythmic exhales on her face.
Although the warm Sun had risen, snow still fell outside the cave at a large rate. A good amount of snow had been blown into the cave overnight by the strong winds outside. It still looked pretty rough out there.
The fire that the Pokemon had lit in the center of the cave had long burned itself to ashes. The overall temperature inside the cave started to drop to a chilling degree.
No longer able to sleep anymore, due to both the uncomfortable nature of the cave's floor and the continuous dropping temperature, the fire Pokemon sat herself upright.
She let out an audible yawn and slowly stretched her arms in the air, waking her body up. She blinked a few times, letting her eyes adjust to the morning twilight. The Pokemon immediately felt the cold air blowing against her body from the weather outside, and shivered. More and more snow was pushing it's way inside the cave.
The Pokemon examined the small pile of ashes that remained of her fire from last night. Sifting though them, she unfortunately found that she had nothing left to burn.
She'd never freeze to death in anything short of a colossal blizzard, of course. She was a fire type Pokemon, and had a high external and internal body temperature, which kept her warm. If she got intolerably cold, she could always breathe a small bit of fire onto her own body to warm up.
The concern for temperature was not for her own sake, but rather the traveler who lay aside her. He wore nothing but some torn up robe, a thin T-Shirt, and some run-down jeans. Not exactly winter clothes.
Another shiver ran though her body as a strong cold breeze flooded the cave and brushed some snow up against her. She hated the snow. The Pokemon exhales a small warm flame on her hands and warmed her body. Man, did she hate everything about the winter months.
She brushed the snow away with a few swipes of her hands, and got most of it off her body and that of the travelers, who was either sleeping, or still unconscious. The fire Pokemon sat on her knees as she examined the strange person before her.
Letting her curiosity get ahold of her, she started checking out some of the mans features. He had a chiseled face that seemed starved, and gaunt from the constant wear of traveling so much. Carefully, she started to remove his thin robe to try get a better look at the bandages on his arms. She sat him up, and slid the thin piece of clothing off of him, leaving him in his small white T-Shirt.
She lay him gently back down again and took a closer look at his arms. He had bandages wrapped around his forearms, wrists, biceps, and hands, only lacking them at his elbows and shoulders. Raising one of his arms off the ground, she looked at his hands. The medical tape was completely ripped off at his knuckles.
"You're a pretty weird guy, you know." She told the man, who was still unresponsive.
Continuing on her curious rant, she gave his bandaged biceps a pinch with her fingers.
"Ooh." She exclaimed quietly as she felt their firmness, "Not bad, stranger.".
She peeled up his tiny shirt to get a look at where the bloodstain had come from. She cringed when she saw the cross-shaped stitches in the center of his chest. The cold weather had clotted the blood-flow, and stopped the bleeding, which was good, he wouldn't bleed to death in a snowstorm like this.
She couldn't help but notice his chiseled abdominal muscles. She giggled to herself.
"Not bad at all."
The Pokemon then pulled his shirt back down over his stomach. She placed a hand on his chest, feeling it moving up and down as he inhaled, then exhaled, seems he still wasn't dead. Good. At least she wasn't sharing a cave with a dead guy.
The Pokemon then continued squeezing other various muscles on his body, now enjoying the fact he was in excellent shape. She almost didn't notice his closed eyes begin to shutter.
The traveler on the ground let out an involuntary sigh as he started to recover from his state of unawareness.
Happy to hear the man's first signs of life, she turned her attention to his face, happily waiting for him to awake.
Nothing happened.
Her eagerness dissipated as she looked upon his face once more. She reached a down and gently brushed the man's hair out of his face, shaking him slightly.
He was still unresponsive.
"Hey!" She said sternly, shaking him a little rougher, and now leaning closer to his head.
"Wake up!" The Pokemon commanded.
Still nothing, but a tiny movement of his eyelids.
Seeing this small twitch, the female Pokemon leaned her face in closer and closer to him, looking for any other signs of life.
"Hellooooo?"
Still with no response, she leaned in closer still. Her face was now a mere inches away from the travelers, their noses practically touching. She felt his warm breath on her face, her golden eyes staring into his closed lids.
The Pokemon grinned as she heard him let out another sigh, beginning to stir once more, as he struggled to awake.
The man's eyelids slowly crept open, squinting as his vision faded from black to color. He saw nothing but images that were spotty and blurry. He remained still as he waited for his eyesight to return, just a small sliver of his emerald eyes peeking though his eyelids.
The Pokemon smiled as she saw him started to wake, forgetting how close she was to his now alert face.
The traveler blinked a few times, and opened his eyes further. No thoughts of the night prior crossed his mind, he only focused on what was happening now. He struggled to focus his vision on the red blur he saw in front of him.
As his vision fully returned, the man started into the Pokemon's face directly on top of his own. He blinked once before any thoughts registered.
Suddenly his brain alerted him of what was happening, and he acted on instinct. His eyebrows raised and his pupils widened as his body reacted in shock to the scare of being woken up to another starting at him the moment he returned to consciousness.
She just smiled ear to ear at him as she stared to see him recover.
The man didn't have such a peaceful reaction.
Flashing back to the man holding him against the wall in the alley way, and remembering the anger he felt, as soon as his brain came to terms he knew what to do.
The man let out a rough, deep yell, both in anger and surprise.
The fire Pokemon's eyes widened as she moved her face back in surprise.
He placed his right hand on the ground, pushing off of it and instantly sitting himself up, his other hand wrapped around the Pokemon's neck. Before she even realized what was happening, he sprang up off of the ground, and rolled to his side, gripping, and roughly squeezing the Pokemon's neck.
The man had shifted positions with the Pokemon who was previously kneeling beside him. He was now on top of her, as she was forced onto the ground, flat on her back. The man's free hand was drawn back and balled into a fist as he was prepared to strike.
The Pokemon beneath him, barely able to breathe, was now helpless. She couldn't even take in oxygen, not to mention exhaling any sort of flame to free herself.
The man's teeth were bared and his eye's narrowed at the sight below him.
He let out another low, raspy, sort of growl.
The Pokemon closed her eyes and turned her head away in fear as she struggled to respire. She desperately gripped one of her hands on his, trying to remove it from her neck. The other on his chest, trying to push him off, but to no avail.
He legs kicked and wrapped around the man.
She let out a muffled cry in fear as she slowly was suffocated.
------------------------------------------------------------
Ariston awoke instantly out of his box-spring bed at the Orebrugh City Trainers Lodge as soon as the sun shone though the window.
He was too excited to sleep the night prior, and couldn't wait to get up today. That was quite rare for Ariston.
He smiled to himself as he sat up out of bed and recalled his evening yesterday after he entered the city.
He remembered he originally just wanted to train on some weaker wild Pokemon to try and prepare his two Pokemon for the Gym Leader. His evening was much more eventful than he expected.
As he walked around the outskirts of town, looking for Pokemon, the -first- one he had came across almost gave him a heart attack.
The little guy had ran across Ariston's path from his left, and scampered into a pile of tall grass on his right.
He caught a glimpse of the guy, and realized what it was.
"No way!" He said aloud to himself, the Pokemon at his feet now looking at him anxiously, "A Turtwig? Here?".
The little guy poked his head out of the grass, to examine the trainer and his Pokemon, then swiftly withdrew it.
Turtwigs were incredibly rare to find in the wild. Seemed this was Ariston's lucky day.
Of course, the three top students at the Pokemon Academy were given their choice of a Chimchar, Turtwig, or Pinlup each year, but Ariston wasn't exactly 'straight-A' material. He wasn't the dumbest kid in the class (in fact, that title may have belonged Conti), but he really didn't want to spend every waking hour on school. He was usually a B student, with the occasional A. That didn't make a bit of difference now though, grades didn't matter to the wild Pokemon in the grass before him.
He was psyched to even -see- a Turtwig in the wild.
Buizel immediately dove into the grass to investigate. Buizel was in the grass for a few mere second before she was promptly knocked back out by the defense little Turtwig, not wanting any intruders.
Buizel, not being one to give up, dove right back in.
Ariston wasn't able to see what was happening, but he saw the grass rustle violently as the two Pokemon wrestled inside. A few seconds passed with various noises coming from the Pokemon inside.
Buizel was hit out again.
Now, Buizel started to get irritated. She shook her head a bit as she returned to her feet, and dove into the grass a third time.
After more rustling of the tall grass, Ariston stood waiting for his Buizel to get knocked out yet again.
They scampered through the grass for a few minutes before the Turtwig came rolling out, along with Buizel wrapped around it.
Shinx just stood patiently and watched his friend Buizel battle with the Pokemon.
Now out in the open, the Turtwig was more than ready and willing to fight.
Buizel automatically let out a full power water blast, in hopes of ending the fight quickly like she had with so many Geodudes. The water jet struck the Turtwig directly in the face, causing him to stagger backwards, if only from it's surprise.
Buizel ended the stream of water and stood up curiously on her hind legs to see if the Turtwig still wanted to fight after such a direct hit. The Turtwig stood there unfazed as water dripped off it's face, looking now more aggravated.
She tilted her head in disarray.
"Buizel," Ariston told his confused Pokemon, "water attacks won't do much harm to it, try something else."
Looking back at her master as he spoke, Buizel didn't notice the charging Turtwig closing the distance between them.
The Turtwig's head connected into Buizel's midsection, causing her to let out a yelp of pain as she was knocked back, and onto the ground.
Shinx let out a cry of concern as he saw his friend struggle to recover from the hard hit. Shinx knew he had to stay back though, double teaming a Pokemon wouldn't be fair. Ariston had made it very clear to them that unless there were multiple Pokemon attacking them, they had to be fair and only go one on one.
As much as Shinx wanted to help, he refrained.
The Turtwig stood confidently in Buizel's previous position, awaiting her to stand up.
Soon enough, Buizel was back up, standing on all four paws, she cautiously prepared to attack again.
"Use Swift, Buizel." Ariston commanded, trying to coach his Pokemon.
Taking her master's advice, she opened her mouth, then quickly launching a flurry of tiny, jagged, bits of hard material.
Swift was a unique attack to some specific water Pokemon. Tiny pieces of material are gathered and condensed when the Pokemon takes in and stores water. The material is usually some sort of tiny pond pebble, or bark. They're gathered together and prepared to launch in battle as an alternative to water. The attack is similar to a shotgun blast, and is pretty tough to avoid.
The Turtwig took a step backwards and closed it's eyes as it braced for the shards to hit him. The ferocity and duration of the attack buffered the Turtwig for a multitude of seconds before ceasing.
"Nice, Buizel, now get in there!" Ariston continued commanding his Pokemon.
Shortly after Buizel expelled her projectiles, she began running the Turtwig, intending to knock him down, and hopefully, weaken him enough to be captured.
She scampered and sprinted as fast as he long body and tiny legs could take her.
Before Buizel could get close enough to the Turtwig, he had already recovered. Opening his eyes once again, Turtwig stopped Buizel dead in her tracks with a large amount of hard, tiny seeds shot from the small plant atop his head.
Buizel was knocked back and spun around by this attack. Many had made direct hits before Buizel made it out of the way.
Shinx crouched down, stood up, then crouched down again, hiding behind his mater's foot, and anxiously watching the fight.
The launching of seeds died down, as Buizel struggled to remain standing.
"Hang in there, just a little more." Ariston said more to himself than his Buizel.
Now tired from it's own attack, Turtwig started to breathe heavily. Seeing this as an opportunity, Buizel made another run at Turtwig. Her body ached. The Bullet Seed attack felt like getting tiny rocks thrown at you. Regardless, she didn't intend on stopping now. If there's one thing she had learned in the wild, it's that if you give up, you die. She knew her master wouldn't allow her to die in battle, but her instincts still told her to keep fighting.
The Trutwig tried to hit Buizel with another flurry of Bullet Seeds, but before he could, Buizel was right in front of his face.
Not wasting any time, Buizel made contact, headbutting the Turtwig directaly between the eyes.
A large contact sound filled the air around them. The noise reminded Ariston of slamming a heavy textbook down on an empty desk.
Now dizzy with recoil due to both the fact that she had struck hit quite hard, and that Turtwigs skull was much harder than hers, she took a few staggered steps backwards, eyes closed with the pain in her head. Both Pokemon letting out annoyed groans of pain.
Even though Turtwigs pain was alot less than Buizel's at this point, it distracted him enough and caused him to cringe on contact.
Seeing this, Ariston drew one of his empty pokeballs and in a flash, threw it at the distracted Turtwig.
It captured him in the red light, and quickly took him inside.
The pokeball shook on the ground for a moment, as Ariston held his breath.
Buizel opened on eye as she still endured the annoying pain in her head, regretting that stupid move she made.
After a lifetime, the low monotone confirmation chime sounded, and the Turtwig was caught.
"Yes! Great job, Buizel." He said confidently to his small, slightly injured Pokemon. "Maybe next time you shouldn't headbutt something with a skull twice the size of yours." he joked.
Buizel shook her head a few times, trying to get rid of her now pounding headache, and ran back to her master.
Ariston picked up his new Pokemon off the ground and examined the pokeball. He decided it'd be better to let the Turtwig settle down before letting him out again. He placed the pokeball on his belt and continued walking. He couldn't believe his luck so far, and wanted to see if there were any other Pokemon around.
Shinx and Buizel walked with Ariston as they continued down the dirt path on the on outskirts of Oreburgh. Soon enough, they found a pretty tough looking Machop lazily walking around, who was just coming out for the beginning night. Ariston let Shinx have this fight.
Ariston always let Shinx battle the Machop he found. They were tough, but he knew his Shinx was tougher. They were a challenge for him though, which he liked.
The Machop noticed the Shinx eyeing him, and turned his attention to the little flash Pokemon. Not wasting any time, the Machop ran at Shinx with a balled up fist, ready to strike him.
Shinx looked pitifully at the Machop as he took a large, easily avoided swing at Shinx. He ducked his head as the Pokemon's arm passed over him.
Shinx then built up his charge in a matter of seconds, much faster and more precise than he had than in his battle with Crogunk.
Shinx, surrounded in a dull yellow electric field, sprang up and made contact with the Machop's stomach. As soon as their bodies touched, Shinx discharged. The dull yellow light grew much brighter as it surrounded the Machop yelling in pain.
The discharge lasted for a few seconds, then died down.
The Machop had no desire to fight any longer, and ran back to wherever he had came from. He then saw a light different than that of his charge growing around Shinx. Ariston smiled as he saw his Pokemon look back at him with a grin on his face, as the light grew.
Ariston knew exactly what was happening. Buizel was mesmerized by the event.
The light around Shinx continued to grow as he began to change shape. The silhouette of his body, now surrounded in light, grew larger and more muscular. Compared to his previous Shinx's size, the silhouette of this new Pokemon was much larger, the approximate size of a great dane. His former Shinx let out a deeper, more toned and ferocious, "Nhaa!" as his body finished growing.
The light dimmed down, and reviled that his former Shinx had grown much larger, with more amounts of dark blue fur covering his face, and much, much more muscle mass on his body and legs. The Pokemon crackled energy around his body effortlessly.
Ariston proudly examined his new Luxio.
Buizel, now realizing her friend had evolved, quickly ran to him and looked over his improved form. Luxio playfully gave out a louder, "Nhaa!" slightly scaring Buizel with the deepened tone.
Seemed the battle with the Macho gave him the tiny bit of experience needed to evolve.
Now with the tables turned, Luxio began chasing Buizel around the grassy fields, having some fun before the sun set. That was the first time Ariston had even seen an evolution. It was an amazing event, the white light enveloping his Pokemon, then in an instant, he was something totally different. His little Shinx had changed and grown so much stronger in just those few seconds. How evolution worked was still something relatively unknown about Pokemon. Ariston didn't understand the least bit about evolution, but the one thing he was sure of was the fact that his new Luxio would be the same Pokemon as the Shinx he'd come to know.
Ariston let the two play around the grassy fields. The ran circles around his feet as they chased each other. He eventually settled the Pokemon down, and made a quick trip to the Pokemon Center to heal his team. It was late. Ariston and his Pokemon headed to the Oreburgh Trainers Lodge for the night.
Ariston finished his recollection of the night by looking over at his three pokeballs at his bedside. He then stood up, got dressed, gathered his things, and headed outside.
He couldn't wait to take on the Gym Leader now.
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The struggling Pokemon let out a weak cough as the traveler let go of her neck.
He had realized what he was doing, and quickly released her, he saw that she was harmless, and that this creature had no intention of endangering him. He lowered his fist.
The Pokemon who lay under this man continued to cough as her lungs filled with air again. She rubbed her hands around her own neck, inspecting for any damaged caused by the man's powerful grip.
"Jeeze, what are you, crazy?! I saved you from the snow and this is what I get?" She said coughing, quite irritated, and in her unique Pokemon language, not expecting this human to understand her, "Maybe I should've left 'ya."
"S-sorry." He replied hesitantly to her in the same Pokemon language.
Now forgetting the fact that she had just almost died, she was must more interested by the fact that he could understand her, not to mention -speak- to her.
"Woah," The Pokemon said, stopping for a second to re-look over the man, making -sure- he was a man, and not just an odd looking Pokemon, "you can...understand me?".
"Yeah." He replied, "Y-You're a, Blaziken, right?" he continued, instinctively knowing what Pokemon she was, and how to speak the Pokemon language. He looked her body over now, not having a chance to before with strangling her and all. All this, while still on top of her.
Now realizing the position they were in, Blaziken brightly blushed. She unwrapped her legs from the man's back, who was standing on his knees, sat up, and slid out from under him. If someone had walked in on them in that position, it would have looked very, very suggestive.
"Yeah, I'm a Blaziken." She said, as her blushing was still very evident, now sitting cross legged on the floor, "What about you, you're not like any Pokemon I've ever seen."
The man leaned back and sat on his legs from his kneeling position, and replied in an unsure tone,
"I, I don't think I am one...".
Blaziken rubbed her head in confusion.
"Are you sick? Your face looks colored strangely." The man said after a few seconds of silence, meeting her gaze.
Realizing she was still blushing, Blaziken let out a nervous laugh as his words caused her face to grow even brighter.
"Oh uh, haha, I'm uh, I'm fine." She spat out.
There was an awkward silence.
"Okay...So, uh, you're probably not a Pokemon, you look like a man, yet somehow...can speak my language." She explained to him changing the subject, still feeling awkward from being in that 'position' with him. "It's a pretty well known, and uh, obvious fact that humans aren't able to speak the Pokemon language...so, uh, whathehell?".
She didn't really care about the answer though, honestly she was more preoccupied thinking about the kind of position they were in before...His well muscled body on top of hers, her legs wrapped around his body....As much as she hated to admit it, she was unquestionably, undoubtedly, -turned on- by him, and couldn't help but think of them...doing something more erotic in that position. She knew it'd be wrong to be attracted to a human, but...well this guy was obviously something else, so it was okay...right?
Not sure what to think, her eyes focused on the man shaking his head, showing he had no answer for her question.
"Alright...Thennn, do you have a name?" She asked, trying to get back on topic and suppress the growing excitement between her legs. She didn't want to reveal her attraction to this stranger, for all she knew he could be just some random psychopath.
Blaziken's words wrung hollow in the man's ears, his eyes looking around the cave.
A few seconds passed with no response.
Blaziken scrunched her face and made a sound of annoyance when she didn't receive an answer.
"You're just as chatty as you were when you were unconscious..." She mumbled to herself.
His eyes fixed upon the white band of plastic on the ground. The medical tag that he was holding when he fell. It was lying at the cave's entrance, a part of it covered in snow. The man, paying no attention to the now aggravated Blaziken eyeing him, stood himself up and made his way over to it.
He stood over his name tag, and bent down to pick it up, causing the stitches in his chest to ache once more. Ignoring the pain, he held it in front of his face.
"Oh that thing?" She said facetiously, "Yeah, that was next to you when you were face down eating snow on the road. I found it when I saved you. And carried it with here while I was saving you. Then set it on the ground in the cave after I saved you. Not to mention the fact that, I SAVED YOU." She said, trying to extract praise and thanks for her heroic act.
Ignoring her cries for attention, he read the words printed on it.
"SUBJECT 14" He said to himself.
"So that's what that thing says, eh?" The Blaziken said to him, not being able to read it herself. She started standing up, and walked over the small pile of ashes in the center of the cave to stand beside him. "Yeah, that's not much of a name you know."
"It's the only thing I own." The man said, lost in his thoughts remembering the dreams he has had, and what the medical tag meant.
Blaziken just raised an eyebrow at his weird behavior.
"I'm totally not calling you Subject 14 all the time, that's pretty dumb ya know."
The man just turned and stared at her inquisitively.
"See, in my species, we don't give out names at birth." She explained to him, placing a hand on his shoulder, motioning him to back wall of the cave away from the snowfall outside. "When a Blaziken finds a mate, and they are joined, they give each other names, it's like a bonding thing." She continued.
"Me, I don't have any specific name yet, I'm just Blaziken, so you can call me that. Now, we don't even know what Pokemon, or really, what species you are so..."
The man just continued his confused stare at her, they were now at the back of the cave away from the snowfall outside, the heat from Blaziken's toned, slender body radiating off her. He couldn't help notice how fit she looked, it seemed that this Blaziken was defiantly battle-hardened.
She even 'accidentally' rubbed her breasts on his chest as they were sitting down, she giggled to herself as she noticed his slight jumpiness to her touch. Maybe it was the painful stitches that caused him to jump, maybe he was a little attracted to her, she liked to think it was the latter.
Now sitting on the ground, with Blaziken at his left, he turned to her.
"What would you like to do then?"
A million thoughts raced though Blaziken's head, while she thought of all the things she -really- wanted to do with him, to him. She pictured them in that...position again. She pictured him without his torn clothes on, grabbing her hips and bringing them to his, awaiting his entrance into her...She quickly realized she was blushing again and dismissed her dirty thoughts, as she realized that's clearly not what he meant.
An evil smile crept over her face, as she spoke in a menacing voice:
"I guess I get to name you then."
The man's eyes widened.
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Ariston was excited over his new team, -two- of them would be super effective against any rock type Pokemon, and Luxio had just evolved, and probably able to take out anything he didn't have a strategic type-advantage over.
Ariston took his team to the building accross the street from the Trainers Lodge. It was just a little cafe, but they allowed Pokemon inside. It was a good place to get ready for the Gym battle.
Over breakfast, Ariston released the little Turtwig he had caught the night prior and welcomed him to the team. Pokemon are usually happy to be retrieved from the wild, unless they're torn from their families. Law doesn't state that Pokemon who are reluctant to be caught must be returned, but most trainers with a conscience would release a Pokemon if it truly didn't want to join their team.
Turtwig seemed happy enough, with Ariston, Buizel and Luxio already treating him like a member of the team. Turtwig was looking forward to fighting somewhere outside of the wild. As most Pokemon knew, you're able to grow stronger much faster when with a trainer. Turtwig saw this as an adventure.
Ariston sat at a flimsy iron table in the outside portion of the resturant. He liked the cold air in the morning, it woke both himself and his Pokemon up in the morning. He had gathered some loose chairs from the tables around him for his Pokemon to sit on while they waited for the waitress.
"Just something light, you guys," he told his Pokemon, "we don't want anything slowing you down today."
Ariston placed his backpack on the table, and unzipped it. He stared at the light grey egg inside, his eyes examining the living being he'd be carrying on his back for the past few days. He didn't know when, or if this thing was ever going to hatch, but honestly, it was part of the team and deserved to be around the other Pokemon.
As the waitress approached him, he ordered some light dishes for his Pokemon. Some cashews for Turtwig, and fruit for Buizel and Luxio. Ariston ordered nothing for himself, he was too excited to have an appetite.
As they waited for their food, Ariston decided to go over a quick strategy he'd been thinking up for the Gym leader with his Pokemon.
Ariston opened his mouth to speak, but before any words could escape his mouth, he stopped and diverted all his attention to his backpack.
The egg was shaking.
This wasn't like before, this time, it was almost rolling his backpack off the table. The Pokemon and Airston all stared at the odd thing in its shaking fury. Ariston guided the shaking egg away from the edges of the table, but other than that, left it undisturbed.
"Wow," he said aloud, "that thing's getting pretty restless in there.".
He watched the egg roll about for a few minutes, before it's shaking eventually died down. Seeing that the Pokemon inside had just been moving again, and not hatching, Ariston turned back to face his Pokemon.
He opened his mouth again to try and begin talking over his strategy to his Pokemon, and was cut short again.
He heard a small cracking sound.
"No way..." He thought in disbelief.
He looked over at the egg again...nothing was happening.
Ariston waited.
Then, a tiny blue paw, balled up in a fist, burst its way out of the egg.
Ariston's eyebrows jumped and his heart began to beat faster as he saw the event unfold. This egg was really -hatching- here, right before his first Gym battle. After two and a half years in his fathers possession, it had chosen to burst out of it's shell after only a few days with Ariston. The three Pokemon watched intently the egg before them, having seen nothing like it before.
Quickly following the paw, another hand was quick to burst out of the shell, much in the same manner the first one had.
Ariston watched speechlessly.
The tiny blue arms flailed about for a few seconds before the top of the egg began to crack. The Pokemon inside the shell struggled and pushed. The egg shook more violently as it started to crack in more places. It's dark grey color now riddled with fractures running throughout it's numerous blue spots.
With no more delay, the egg shattered. The tiny dark blue body of the Pokemon inside let out a confused yelp as it performed an accidental summersault on the table after cracking free from the egg. Lying on it's back, it's dark red eyes locked with the light blue of Ariston's.
Ariston's face lit up with happiness. The little Pokemon was free. He knew exactly what it was too, an incredibly gifted breed. A Riolu. A female Riolu.
Riolu looked curiously at Ariston's mesmerized face, blinking a few times lying on her back. A cute little smile then came across the Riolu's face to match Ariston's.
"Well hey there." He said, reaching his hand out to pet the tiny grinning Pokemon, "Welcome to the outside world."
Riolu rolled over onto her stomach as Ariston rubbed the top of her head. She then attempted to wobbly gain balance on her feet. While attempting to stand, she quickly fall back down on the iron table. Her body was still adjusting form being out of the egg.
Ariston watched in amusement as the Riolu shook her head in a determined fashion when he had offered his hand in help. She wanted to do this on her own.
Pushing off of her tiny blue hands, she brought her self up to her little black legs, on the toes of her tiny black paws.
She stood before him happy with her success, a healthy young, confident Riolu.
"Hi". He heard a young female voice say.
Suprised, Ariston looked behind him for the source of the female talking to him.
"No silly, over here.". He looked back down at the table. The Riolu still standing before him, nearly at eye level.
Ariston continued to look around the restaurant for a source of the voice.
The newly hatched Riolu face-palmed.
A tiny blue paw gently flicked Ariston's nose. He looked down to see his Riolu again staring into his eyes.
"Here." He heard the voice, the Riolu's mouth not moving, "A Riolu can communicate with their Masters, silly."
Ariston's mouth dropped as he saw the barely hatched Pokemon speak to him in a gentile woman's voice...
"Woa--I, you, Riolu, wow." He stammered.
He remembered hearing about the Riolu and Lucario in class, how they bonded with their master's Aura, and were able to speak with them, but never though he'd actually experience it.
"That's all your going to say?" The cheecky Riolu said again, raising an eyebrow.
"Wow," he forced out again, "that's, that's amazing.".
Riolu gave her new master a grin, then spun around to the three Pokemon eyeing her like she was some sort of Alien. Riolu sat on the edge of the table as she started to speak with the three other Pokemon in their language.
Ariston was still for the most part in shock, this was -amazing-. This little creature that he'd be carrying out of his backpack wasn't just a Pokemon. As great as it was having Luxio, Buizel and Turtwig around, it got pretty lonely at times not having anyone who he could actually understand. Riolu though, was something totally different.
Ariston, finally letting his thoughts process, began to feel some sort of filter develop in his head. Much like how he knew the difference between words he thought and words he spoke, he now felt like he could distinguish between words he thought and...well, something else.
The sensation was slight, but it felt quite foreign to Ariston. Not knowing what to make of it, he decided to experement. He concentrated a bit.
"R-Riolu?" He thought, though his mind's new filter.
"Mm?" She returned, turing her head away from conversing with his Pokemon.
"Wow!" He said audibly, "You can hear that?".
"Sure can." She said again with a smile, turning back to Ariston's Pokemon. She wanted to get to know them. Ariston didn't know it, but she was asking about him to his Pokemon. Riolu's were very picky about their masters.
"What's he like?" She asked all three, after exchanging greetings.
Luxio was the first to respond.
"Ariston? I've know him for a year, he's a great guy. I'm glad I have him as my master rather than some hardcore jerk of a trainer. Everywhere we go, I see wild Pokemon eyeing us enviously, they see how well Ariston treats his Pokemon."
"Ooh," She returned, impressed by Luxio's high opinion of Ariston.
"He's jumpy," Buizel offered, recalling his reaction when she'd sprayed him in the crotch numerous times, "but overall, I think he's a good guy. Easy to surprise too."
She took that into consideration, then looked at Turtwig.
"Huh? Oh, uh, I just joined everyone yesterday," He said, "but from how he handled Buizel when she battled me, I think he's probably a pretty smart trainer."
Riolu swung her feet back and fourth and waved her tail casually as she listened to the Pokemon talk to her about Ariston. After getting all the information about him, she turned around again to see Ariston waiting patiently for the four Pokemon to finish their conversation.
"Your Pokemon think quite highly of you, you know." Ariston heard in his head again, "I wasn't sure weather I had hatched at the right time or not, I see now I made a good choice.". She closed her eyes and gave him another happy grin.
"I'm glad to hear it, Riolu, I'm sure you'll love traveling with us." Ariston said to her though the filter in his mind, flattered by whatever his Pokemon had said about him to make Riolu so impressed.
Her red eyes studied him for a moment as she sat of the edge of the table in front of him.
"Noah, huh?"
"Wha?" Ariston said aloud, not knowing what to think.
"Your name. It's Noah, right?"
"W-Well yeah, but how did you..." He started.
"I can read Aura, it reveals more than you'd think about a person."
"Wow."
"Is that the only thing you're gonna say today?" She asked playfully.
"Haha, no, it's just," he said, "it's just, everything you can do...it's amazing."
She swung her feet off the edge of the table again, and continued to smile at him, "Well thanks, Noah."
"Heh, you can just call me Ariston, everyone does." He told her.
"Humm," she let out as she examined his aura, "a part of you likes being called Noah.".
Ariston said nothing, but let a look of surprise creep over his face again as he realized she was -right-. He'd never admitted to anyone that he kinda liked his goofy name.
"But, okay. Ariston the Trainer works too.". She said, almost picking up on his thoughts again.
"So uh, I don't know much about Aura, what exactly do you do?" He asked, figuring he sounded stupid.
"Welll," Riolu said, thinking, "it's hard to explain. It's basically the psychic expression what you're feeling. When you experience something, an emotion or sensation, your aura changes with you. Judging by what I'm feeling from you right now, I'd say I think I'm going to like having you as my master"
"Wo-- I mean, cool." he said, not wanting to revert to saying 'wow' every ten seconds again.
Riolu giggled.
"They only reason I've gotten so good at reading Aura is 'cause I've had nothing to do in that stupid egg for the last two years. You don't need to be able to see a person to sense their Aura."
Riolu's former egg lay in pieces both on the ground and on the table.
"Why didn't you hatch sooner then?" he asked.
"It didn't feel right where I was before...The people that were around my egg, their aura's felt...scary. I didn't want to hatch around those people I felt, I just couldn't bring myself to." she replied, "But things changed, I stopped feeling the bad Auras, that's when I realized there was some one new taking care of me. Turns out it was you."
"Could she be talking about...Dad?" A voice said in the back of Ariston's mind..."Bad Aura?".
"Well, what ever the reason, I'm glad you're here now.". He told Riolu, rubbing her ears. She gave out a cute little laugh as her Master's touch tickled her.
"I was just about to go over a strategy for the Gym fight with the other Pokemon here.".
Riolu flipped on her stomach, lying across the center of the table, propping her head up with her tiny paws. "Ooh, sounds cool. What's a Gym fight?".
"Well, uh, it's like a test, to see if you're a good enough trainer to take on an opponent who is considered better than you." He answered.
"Oh," she said, tilting her head, "sound fun.".
"Haha, it is if you win."
The waitress returned with the small amount of food for the three Pokemon. Riolu eyed it enviously, not having had any real food since she'd hatched.
"M-Master?" She asked, "Can I have some of...what ever that is?". She motioned to the cantaloupe being eaten by Buizel (who seemed reluctant to share). "It looks greaaaat."
"Of course."
Her face lit up giving him a large toothy grin. Granted, she only had a few small fangs, but it was still cute. Ariston placed another order for Riolu, and the waitress was quick to bring it out.
Sitting up, she sat cross legged on the table, and devoured the large slices of cantaloupe.
"This is ammmmaaaazzzinnngggg," she told her mater between joyful bites.
Ariston couldn't help but smile at her. She's been in the outside world less than half an hour, already she'd made friends with all his Pokemon, and bonded to his Aura. The Riolu were an amazing Pokemon.
"We'll sit here and get to know you a little better, Riolu," He told his new team member, "we have some time before the gym battle. You've already seemed to have matured so much."
"Well of course," she said, "I've just been picking up Auras in that egg for a long time now, I understand how most things that humans do work.".
"Silly..." she said playfully as she dove back into her plate of delicious cantaloupe.
Ariston had a precious new member to the team. Regardless of weather she could fight or not, she was obviously going to be a great friend. She had an unquestionably sweet attitude, and it was refreshing to Ariston. He couldn't wait to get to know her better.
Riolu smiled.
"Did she..." he thought..."Can she hear what I'm thinkink?".
Ariston started at Riolu again.
"Nahh.".
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"Hummm" Blaziken said as she thought, "what should we call you...".
"I, uh," the traveler started, "don't know if that's a good idea.". Nervous at having this playful Pokemon determining his name.
"Oh common, it'll be fun! I cant just call you SUBJECT 14 all the time, that doesn't even make any sense." She joked, "sounds like some sort of science experiment, hehe.".
The traveler felt a little saddened by the truth in her words, but decided it'd be better not to tell her much about what he knew about his origin.
"Alright." he said with a sigh, "What did you have in mind then?".
"Sexy." She immediately said to herself in her mind. Again, she pictured the man's bare muscular body on top of hers. "Urh, I so want to rape him...Ah! No! Bad Blaziken, get your mind out of the gutter!" She continued to think as she scolded herself in her mind, "Oh yeah, name, uh, think...common...something...".
"Uhh," she let audibly escape, "how about Snowy! Get it? 'Cause I found you in the snow, haha!".
Traveler cringed at the terrible attempt at a pun.
"I uh, don't think I like that name." He said in reply.
"Humm, me neither...How about...."
She rubbed her chin with her hand, looking into the distance thinking...
"We should call you Crazy. After all, you did try and strangle me."
"I uh, uhh"
"Nah I don't like that name either." Blaziken continued.
"Oh! I once saw a human named Frabrezio!"
"That's...a ridiculous name..." the traveler replied coldly, not liking where this was going.
"Fine fine. How about John? No...you don't look like a John... What about Martin? Nah, that's not you either...Oh! How about Jenny! Wait, that's a girls name...Humm, this is tough!" Blaziken rambled...
Blaziken had made the conversation entirely one sided, just announcing then immediately renouncing any human names she'd ever heard.
"Jeeze, I can't think of a human name that suits you."
The traveler sat next to her in an annoyed silence.
Blaziken eyed him up and down again.
"Ohh!" She exlaimed, "I know!"
She jumped up off of the ground and stood in front of the traveler in an excited stance.
"I'll name you after my Great Grandpa!" She said happily, "He was the most ferocious Blaziken ever! He was the toughest Blaziken in the word! He could defeat -anyone-! Even the toughest of water Pokemon!" she continued, obviously exaggerating the status of her Great Grandfather.
Excited from remembering stories her mother had told her of him, she started doing punches into the cool air of the cave, imitating her Great Grandfather.
"He'd take anyone on, he was awesome!" Blaziken explained, still hopping around the cave fighting invisible opponants.
The traveler gave her odd behavior a confused stare.
After she had finished taking numerous drawn out swings at air in the cave, she continued her explanation.
"I heard, he once defeated a HUGGEEE Garados, all by himself!" She told, breathing some flames, battling and invisible Garyados.
"Course, I never actually met the guy, but my Mother told me all about him..." She said happily, sitting back down next to the traveler, now finished with her stories.
"You kinda remind me of him, ya'know?" She looked into his emerald green eyes, and imagined her grandfather's face upon his. "Iota the Blaziken, that was his name.".
"Iota..." The traveler said to himself, thinking it over. It was certainly better than Jenny or Frabrezio.
"Alright, I like it." he admitted.
Blaziken's smile grew ear to ear. She wrapped her arms around the travelers cold body and gave him a tight hug.
"Aww I knew you would!" She said to the obviously uncomfortable man she was hugging.
"Iota, just like my Great Grandfather."
The newly named Iota wiggled out of her hug, and picked himself off the ground. He made his way over to where he was sleeping the night before, and picked up his robe. After putting the thin piece of fabric on him, he started for the cave's exit.
Saddened to see this gesture Blaziken's smile vanished. She worried she might have scared him away.
"Where are you going?" She asked.
"I'm going to see if I can find some food, the snowfall isn't too bad anymore."
"Oh..." Blaziken said in a depressed voice.
"Don't worry," He said without facing her, "I'll be back soon."
Her smile returned.
He set his bandaged foot onto the freezing freshly fallen snow outside the cave. A few snowflakes landing on his face.
"Oh and Blaziken?" He said, sounding somewhat nervous and turning to see her still sitting at the back wall of the cave.
"Mm?"
"Thank-you. For everything."
Blaziken could have sworn she saw a tiny, almost unnoticeable smile on Iota's face. The first sign of emotion she'd seen from him yet.
He turned his back to Blaziken, and began walking into the light snowy weather outside.
Blaziken let out a sigh of happiness as she watched him walk away, the smile on her face refusing to vanish. She knew he'd come back, somehow, she knew she could trust him.Chapter End Notes:Alright, chapter four is done...Go to chapter five