Chapter 2 Bandaged Wounds

Austin couldn't believe anything of what was going on. In the last 10 minutes, he found his best friend was a ghost, he was sucked into another world, and that his best friend had ghost power. "I must be dreaming." He said as Kitty handed him the small sphere. "I don't know how this isn't a nightmare, but it must be a dream."

"Shut yer yap," she said to him, "because this is no dream. Does this feel like a dream." She touched his face lightly with her hand. It was warm to the touch, nothing like what Austin expected a dead person's touch to feel like.

"I never thought I'd see you again, Kitty, how can I convince myself that this is no dream?"

"If it is a dream, then just enjoy it." She smiled.

"I really missed you."

"I figured that." She pushed the button in the center of the ball and it grew larger. She couldn't even reach her 14-year-old fingers all the way around the sphere. "Guess what my Pokémon is?"

"There's almost 500 Pokémon to guess from. How could I?"

"I'll give you a hint." She smiled. "It's my favorite Pokémon."

"You went all the way to Johto to get a Charmander?"

"His name is Rocah." Katie replied. She threw the ball in the air and it opened to reveal a Charmander. Austin flinched. "Hi Rocah!" Katie smiled, kneeling nest to the large lizard and patting his head. "This is my friend Austin." She waved her hand at him. "you know, the one that isn't a ghost."

"You told him?" Austin said, shocked.

"Of course I did. If we're going to be partners, we're going to have to know everything about one another."

"Okay, so what is my Pokémon?"

"It's your favorite, too."

"You found one?"

"They aren't very rare, you know." She smiled.

Austin pushed the button on the Pokeball and it expanded. He threw it in the air, feeling a rush of excitement. It opened, exposing a Buizel. The Buizel looked around lazily. "What's her name?"

"Her name is Hal." Katie said. She walked over to the Buizel, kneeled down, and pet her head.

Austin kneeled next to her and looked at Hal. "Hi Hal, I'm Austin, you're new trainer." Hal turned her head away from him in an insulting manner. "Hey, what was that for?" Hal just waved him away. "Nice choice, Kitty."

"Hey, she likes me." She stuck her tongue out playfully at him.

"Come here." He reached at her.

"No." She twisted out of the way. "Ha, you're too slow." She taunted. Austin made a leap for her, but she dodged him. "You're gonna hafta be faster than that." She teased him, laughing.

"I'll get you!" He laughed with her. he made a few more grabs until he finally got her arm. "I told you I'd get you!"

"Not for long." She smiled. Austin felt her arm disappear. When he looked down at her arm, he saw that his hand was going right through it. He gawked at it until she pulled it out of his reach. "I doubt you ever catch me again." She laughed. She sat on the ground, tired from being chased and still a little woozy from taking Austin to the world they were in now.

"What else can you do?" Austin asked her, sitting down nest to her. Rocah walked over to Katie and jumped on her lap.

"I can... turn invisible, but that's hard to do. And my clothes still show up." She thought a moment. "I can do this." She took his arm and ran her fingers on it. A shiver went up his spine. He yanked his hand back. "That's mostly it. I can do a couple other things, but they're creepy and some of them take a lot of energy." She held her stomach, remembering earlier.

"Like what?" Austin asked curiously.

"watch." She lifted Rocah off of her lap and went over to a tree. She tapped it. Austin watched it with a horrified expression as each leaf turned brown and fell off. The branches dried up, and the trunk sagged.

"That's horrible."

"I know." She walked back to him. "The older a ghost is, the more powerful." She took off her pack. "We should set up camp; we've got plenty off firewood here. Everything you need is in these packs."

"Why am I wearing it anyway?" Austin asked.

"I don't know." She answered. "I guess you just have it when you come here."

"Okay..." After rummaging through his bag, Austin found that he had six more pokéballs left. He gave one to Kitty in exchange for Hal's Pokeball. He also found a map of Sinnoh, a couple cans of Pokémon food, a large bottle of water, some packs of dried food, a piece of flint and striker, changes of clothes, some money, a pocket knife, and a very compact sleeping bag.

"What's to set up? Our sleeping bags?"

"Do you want to get firewood or should I?" Katie ignored him.

"I will." Austin went over to the dead tree that Katie had made. "You sure did a good job, Kitty."

"I try." She said in a fake proud voice. "Just gather a bunch of branches."

After Austin had gathered enough firewood they put it on a flat patch of dirt for later lighting.

"I should learn to cook." Katie said, sitting down and looking up at the darkening sky.

"Yeah, you should." He mimicked her. "Which reminds me." He dug out a can of Pokémon food. He opened it and went over to Hal who was lying beneath a tree. She heard him coming, looking up at him as he arrived. "Want some food, Hal?"

She sniffed the food he held out to her and turned her head away. "Bui."

"Not hungry?"

She shook her head.

"so you are hungry?" Austin asked. Sometimes yes or no questions could get confusing.

She nodded, rolling her eyes.

"Do we have any berries?" Austin asked Katie.

"I don't have any." She was feeding Rocah. Unlike Hal, he was eating.

"I'll be right back." Austin said, walking into the trees at the side of the route.

"Where are you going?" Katie asked.

"To go find some berries." He replied. After ruffling around in the woods for a few moments, he finally returned with his hands full of a selection of berries. He went to Hal. She sniffed the berries, picking out a couple and quickly eating them out of his hand. After she stopped eating, Austin went to his bag and quickly went out and gathered all the berries he could find. Austin wondered how he could fit all those berries into one small pocket, but he decided not to let it bother him.

By the time he got back to Katie, it was getting dark and Rocah had lit the fire. Katie was staring into the fire with so much concentration that he thought that a stampede of cattle wouldn't deter her.

"Hey Kitty Cat." He smiled, taking off his pack and putting it on his sleeping bag.

"why do you call me that?" Katie asked, glaring at him.

"Because when we were in kindergarten I made you eat cat food. I've been calling you Kitty Cat ever since."

"Somehow my name went from Kaitlin to Katie to Kitty."

"I should start calling you Kitten." Austin teased.

"If you do I will rip your heart out." Katie threatened.

"You're not that mean. If you were I'd call you Tiger."

"You're lucky I can't think of anything to call you." Katie jeered.

"Sometimes I'm just lucky like that." He smiled. They stared at the fire as time went by.

"We should probably get some sleep." She yawned. "it's a long walk to Sandgem Town."

"I agree." Austin was feeling tired himself. After changing into their night clothes, they said their goodnights and went to sleep. Austin could tell when Rocah went to sleep because his tail flame died down to an ember. Rocah, unlike Hal, was sleeping near his trainer.

As he looked at the sleeping form of Katie, he looked away quickly. He hated to admit it, but he thought she looked amazing. A car crash could change anyone's perspective. Up until then, he really never thought about how nice she was starting to look. He blushed even deeper when he noted that her body was growing, too. He wouldn't be surprised if she had started wearing a bra a couple years ago.

Those thoughts started to intimidate him. He couldn't fall for his best friend... or could he?Chapter End Notes:Chapter two is finished. *applause* I love to write this bit down here. it's the only place separate of the story where an author gets to address the public directly.
anyway, My D.S. is still missing so I apologize for any major mistakes.
Reviews are welcome, flames are not