Port Current, City #4

[Shadow Slayer]

Charles landed on the ground in Port Current, and I jumped off him, frantically looking for the miner's guild. I wanted to get back to Drogaur, I didn't want to leave him alone in Niner's Stake!

I sprinted across town, looking for its location. After awhile of walking, Charles finally flew above me, and picked me up. We flew around town, till I spotted it from the air!

Charles landed on the ground in front of the guild and we ran inside.

Once inside, I walked up to the table and asked the man sitting there, "Hello, can I join your guild?"

[Mawile]

The man adjusted his mining helmet, and brushed some dust off his goggles hurridly; it appeared he had been sleeping on the job, and you'd woken him up. "What? You want to join? Okay, sure, you're in."

[Shadow Slayer]

"Alright, cool!" I said, and handed him the $500 it costed to join, as he handed me a pokeball that contained a level 10 male Bonsly. I waved off to him, and then ran outside.

"Back to Niner's Stake!" I said to Charles, who flew me there...

[Shadow Slayer]

(Thanks, I'll give 4.5 to Drogaur, 5 to Sumeena and .5 to my Dragonite)

Freeform: Leon's Family!

The sun shined down on Niner’s Stake around 3 PM, as my grandfather and I stood in town, deciding what to do next. After some intense thinking, I had decided that I’d summon Team Glacier to the town, and then explore the ancient city of Nugem. The city brought up by the huge sandstorm in the Corona Desert, and the real reason I went hunting for Drogaur…

I held my phone in my hand, and prepared to dial a number when all of sudden my phone buzzed! It played its usual song, and looking at the caller ID I saw it was Leon. I kind of stood there for a minute, bobbing my head to the sound of usual Verizon styled ringtone…

I snapped out of it suddenly though. I was a little embarrassed, but then said, “What a funny coincidence, I was going to call Leon…”

I pressed the send button on my phone, which worked as an answer button. I realized that the phone though was locked, so I grumbled and then struggled with the touch screen, pressing down on the “slide up to unlock” button, and…sliding it up. I then clicked answer, and the conversation began!

“Hello? Leon?” I asked.

“Well now, Billy! Good to hear you again. I heard you got the Port Current and Cinder Oasis ribbons! I’m sorry I wasn’t around. Madeline needed me to come to her show.” Leon said, in a happy but apologetic tone.

I smiled and said, “Hey, no worries. But thanks. What’s up?”

“Well, do you have any plans right now?” He asked me.

“Hmm, well, I was going to actually call Team Glacier to come here to Niner’s Stake, so we could all explore the Nugem ruins with Drogaur. But I’m guessing you have something else planned?” I said.

“Actually yes.” He said.

“Can it wait till after Nugem?” I asked.

“Well, no, the plan I have is going on today. Besides, the other members of Glacier are busy. Hakira’s on vacation, Cole’s gone missing, Nick’s busy training, Joan is in the gym…your brother is probably free. “ Leon said.

“Yeah, you’re right…” I gave up pretty easy there, completely ignoring the fact my brother was around. =P

“Well how about it? Do you want to come to a special event here in Port Current? My family is all gathering for a big family reunion. You see, Madeline and I have no children…but we’ve told them about you, who we consider a child of our own. Part of our family.” He said. I blushed a bit, that was quite an honor. I too considered Leon a close friend, close enough to be family. Madeline, too.

“Well, I’d be honored to come Leon. When is it?” I asked.

“Tonight at 8PM, in Port Current.” He said.

“Hmm…well alright.” I said, but then remembered. I turned around, looking at my grandfather, who chuckled. I had already forgotten about him! Not good.

“Um, actually, my grandfather is here too. He and I are going to be traveling around a bit too. Can he come along too?” I asked.

“Oh, Frank? Sure he can!” Leon said. I looked confused. How’d he know about my grandfather?

I proceeded to ask him the question, when gramps stepped in and said, “Tell Leon I said hi, Bill!”

“Um…Gramps says hi. How do you know him?” I asked. The look on my face definitely showed my confusion, but Leon wasn’t in front of me, so he couldn’t physically tell I was confused.

“Well, when Madeline was modeling in a fashion show in Kanto, we ran into him. He challenged me to a battle, and completely mopped the floor with me. Afterwards we had lunch together, and he told me his name was Frank. I simply looked closely at him, and managed to put two and two together from his looks that you two were related!” Leon said.

Gramps stepped in and said, “And now the two of us talk regularly. He keeps me up to date with your accomplishments. That’s how I knew you were a coordinator, had all those badges, and were the leader of Team Glacier already.” He simply smiled.

My jaw dropped and I said, “So you knew about my grandfather and didn’t tell me? And you told him everything I was doing? Why?”

“Well I’ve taken you into my care, and need to let your guardians know of your progress…” Leon said.

“YOU’VE BEEN TALKING TO MY PARENTS TOO?” I said. I could pick up on what he was saying.

“Not so loud…yes, I have. You rarely call your mother anyway, and she gets worried sick all the time. Your father says hello, by the way.” Leon said.

“Now Bill, what have I told you…” Gramps said.

But I quickly turned around and said loudly, “You have no right to talk!”

He chuckled and then said, “Yes yes you’re right…”

“Oh Bill, don’t disrespect your elders.” Leon chuckled. I glared, but knew he couldn’t see it.

“Well, you and Frank are more than welcome to join us tonight. Will you?” He asked.

I pouted and said, “Yeah, we’ll join you. Thanks for the invite.”

“You know, you pout just like your mother.” Gramps said, smiling. I glared at him, and he just laughed.

“Ok then, see you at eight! And hey, maybe you’ll find someone interesting here, you know?” Leon said, and chuckled a bit. He then hung up. I sighed, putting my phone back in my pocket. I looked at my grandfather, who couldn’t be happier.

“Leon sure is a nice fellow, right?” Gramps said.

“A little too nice…that’s like an invasion of privacy!” I said back.

“Oh come on now. Its good to let your family know about your accomplishments.” Gramps said. “And speaking of accomplishments, can I see your phone?”

I wasn’t sure how the two were related, but I handed him the phone…

And his eyes had a mischievous glint in them. He opened up the phone, and began to look in my contact list! I gasped and said, “Hey! What are you doing?”

“Let’s see the numbers you’ve obtained in this phone! Let’s see…oh, Lisa! She’s a pretty one alright. She had a thing for you, ya know, I could tell! Way back when you were so little!” He chuckled.

“Gramps, please don’t do this…” I said.

“Oh, Christine? Who’s she? I haven’t heard of her before? Is she pretty? Should I call her?” He asked.

“NO NO! Don’t call her!” Man.

“What about Melanie? Is she pretty?” He asked. I face palmed myself, and hoped that he’d stop soon.

“Hmm…there are a lot of numbers in here too. I can’t believe my grandson is so popular!” There were like four or five numbers in there. Making a big deal out of nothing…

“Huh.” He said, looking at this one number. I glanced over at my phone, and saw the number highlighted was Snowl.

“Who’s Snowl?” He asked me.

“A friend of mine, why?” I said.

“Well…is this like her nickname or something?” He asked.

“No…it’s actually her real name.” I said. He blinked at me, and looked back at it.

“Well that’s strange. What kind of name is Snowl? That’s not a real girl’s name! A real girl’s name is like Bridgette! Or Katherine! Or Stephanie! Yeah, those are all good names.” He said. He seemed pleased with the names he came up with too, and had drifted off into dream land. Oh grandpa…

It did puzzle me. Snowl really wasn’t a name I had ever heard before. Did her parents really name her a combination of snow owl? Well, Vincent was a little nutty…=P

“You sure know how to pick em, Bill.” He said to me. I facepalmed once more, and then proceeded to glare at good ol' Gramps. But he did his usual happy grin in response. Oh Grandpa…I thought to myself that I’d be saying those two words a lot more now that he’s returned.

As my grandfather pondered about more names, I swiped the phone out of his hand and placed it back in my pocket. “I’m never going to do that again.”

“Aww, it was all in good fun Bill.” He chuckled.

“Well now that we’ve gotten the little fun out of the way, should we go to Port Current?” I asked.

“Not dressed like that we aren’t.” He said to me. “We’re going to get dressed up for this. It's a formal event.”

“Aww, Gramps…But I go like this pretty much everywhere.” I said.

“Don’t ‘aww gramps’ me, we’re doing this. Now come on. Into the Pokémon center.” He said.

And so, I was forced into the Pokémon center, where I pulled out a blue button down shirt, a tie, a pair of black dress pants and some nice looking shoes. I took the usual belt I wore and flipped it around. One side was brown (for causal appearances), and the other side was black (for formal appearances). It was a handy belt. I also had the brown overcoat and brown hat from when I was trying to be all incognito before. Gramps thought it was perfect.

So, after a quick shower, a shave of my awesome red beard, and a change of clothes, I was ready. We had an agreement; I’d dress up like this, but I had to leave my hair alone. It’d set in place after the shower.

I stood there in front of the mirror in the nice clothes, making sure I looked all right. As I looked, I honestly thought I looked like a waiter who played football. My grandfather though said I looked awesome. “You honestly have gotten a lot more muscular on this journey than the last time I’ve seen you. You’ve matured a great deal as well. I’m very impressed. You’re growing up, Bill.”

I sighed and stood there as he prepared my tie for me. I placed the tie around my neck, fixed it up, and made sure it looked nice on me. It was a nice looking tie, which had many musical scales on them. I picked it out in the Zephyr City mall when I found out the tie I took with me was too short, since I had grown. Being a guitar player, I was fond of all things music (kind of), and this stood out to me when shopping. Looks like having these nice clothes came in handy for once…

My grandfather changed his collared shirt (since it was drenched in tears from before) to a white collared shirt. He placed on his black tie, and had a pair of brown pants on. He then put on his black overcoat, and his black hat, as I placed on my brown overcoat, and brown hat.

We stepped out of the Pokémon center, and Gramps said, “Now, to the train!”

I pulled out my phone, and saw the time was about 5 PM. Yes. It honestly took us two hours to be ready, because my grandfather is such a goof. And because I had no other excuse to have the time fly. =P

I sighed, and then said, “Well we could just use fly.”

“I’d rather not get my clothes ruined from the wind. We’ll take the train. My treat.” He said to me. Well, as long as I didn’t have to pay…

Hold it. A voice said. I turned around, and saw Drogaur floating there. He didn’t look happy.

“Oh? What’s up Drogaur?” I said, cluelessly. I suddenly realized, due to him screaming it in my thoughts that he couldn’t travel with Gramps and myself to Port Current!

“Oh right.” I said. I looked embarrassed, but I seemed pretty forgetful today. I couldn’t even recognize my own grandfather, but he was heavily cloaked…anyway.

“So what should we do?” I asked him.

Well, the idea of me waiting in Niner’s Stake for you to come back does not appease me. I desire to return and wait at Penumbraville for you.

“Alright, but we’ll need to travel there to leave you there for the time being.” I said.

There is no need, silly human. For I have a move that can warp me there instantly. He said to me.

“You mean, Shadow Force?” I asked.

Yes. It works in a similar way to fly, except I warp through the shadow world to my destination. So when you return, I can warp to your side. I will know where you are too, because the whole time while I am resting in Penumbraville, I will be reading your thoughts and watching what you do through your eyes. He said.

“That’s kind of creepy, man.” I said, chuckling. Gramps agreed. Drogaur looked the other way. He didn’t seem to appreciate the joke. He then said, See you.

In the blink of an eye, a shadowy glow surrounded the legendary Pokémon. A gas suddenly then surrounded his form, and he warped from his position! It took Drogaur away from where we were. He suddenly said to me in my mind, It worked, human. I’m in Penumbraville. So go get moving.

I agreed, and we walked over to the train station. The sun was slowly going down as time passed, and we were headed on over to the station. I was actually kind of excited to see Leon and his family. They were all such nice sounding people, and were all pretty wealthy. Leon had told me that they were CEOs of companies and many other important positions in businesses. I was hoping that one of his relatives would be someone who was interested in psychology. I was hoping that when my journey was finally finished, I could divulge into the subject. It was something I had been interested in for a long while back at school in Camber Town.

As I thought about this, I noticed someone was walking this way. He looked to be about 5’9’’, and had a beard that looked like it was freshly shaved. He had brown hair that was covered by a dark green hat, and was wearing a long sleeve shirt that had in white letters, “OLD NAVY”. Below it was a picture of an eagle, also in white. He was wearing a pair of jeans that looked a little big for him, but they were loose so he could show off…well, I won’t go into that. But that was the style now. He looked in pretty good shape, from traveling as well. He was my age, and his brown eyes glared at me as I looked at him.

I didn’t know why but I thought that this wasn’t the last time I’d see him. We passed one another, not saying a word.

After that encounter, I walked on over to the train station with my grandfather. The sign on the top said, “ZEP Train Station.” There wasn’t much of a line here, so we walked on in, and headed up to the counter.

“Hello, I’d like two tickets to Port Current please.” My grandfather said. The woman at the counter nodded, and processed the order, then handing us the tickets for my grandfather’s money.

He placed the two paper tickets in his shirt pocket, and then said, “Well Bill, lets head on over to our train.” I nodded, and we walked on through the train station. It didn’t take long for us to find our train. There were people walking back and forth through the station, preparing to board, but there was an extreme lack of people at the moment. It made it a lot easier for us. After a little while, my grandfather managed to point it out.

“We’ve got to make sure we get a seat somewhere up in the front, so we can get out quickly.” Gramps said. I nodded, looking at the train. It had a lightning bolt on it, and the ZEP letters carved into it as well.

The doors that we decided to enter were far up ahead of us, and it took a minute or two to get there. The doors opened up, and we entered. The train on the inside seemed to be painted white, and the seats were arranged differently. In the front of the car, on the left and right side, there were a pair of four seats, facing one another, and then moving backwards down the train car there were selections of seats that weren’t facing one another, but in sets of three. We found a pair of seats across from one another in the front, and took a seat. I stretched, and then sat there, waiting for the train to move. It wouldn’t take long for us to reach Port Current.

I looked behind me and saw at the very front of the car there was a section where people could stand up and hold onto a metal pole if they didn’t want to sit down, or their stop was coming up. To the left and right of the area were doors that opened up, depending on what side the exit would be on. Just a little further ahead was the door that lead to the next car.

I looked at my grandfather, who had another newspaper in his hands. He was filling out the crossword puzzle in the paper, like usual. I smiled. It’d been awhile since I’d seen him do that. He enjoyed crossword puzzles.

“It keeps your brain thinking, and is a lot of fun to do!” He’d say.

It was only a couple of minutes later that the train started moving, and the conductor started talking over the loudspeaker.

“Hello and good evening everyone, I’m conductor Thomas and today I’ll be taking you from Niner’s Stake to Spindle Town. We’ll be making stops at all of the major cities along the way. Our first stop will be in Port Current. I hope you all enjoy riding with the ZEP today.”

I grumbled at the sound of the ZEP, because I knew they were just a bunch of dirty crooks.

The train whistled to the sky, signaling all in Niner’s Stake that it was headed on out. The train slowly began to move, and then picked up speed relatively fast. We zoomed on through Niner’s Stake, entering the pathways that lead us through Echo Cave. I sat there in my seat, yawning because I was a little tired after everything that happened today. I held a pokeball in my hand, and curiously examined it in my boredom.

I then looked to my bag, and looked through it a bit. After looking through it for awhile, I came across a little book, which had in big letters above it saying, “JOURNAL!”

I remembered this. Before I left, my little sister had taken this notebook in our house and glued some letters from a magazine on it. That day she handed it to me with the biggest grin, and I couldn’t help but say thanks to her.

I opened the book, and saw a couple of journal entries from when I had begun my journey. I smiled, reflecting back on the beginning of my journey.

March 16th, 2006, Day 1

I just got my first Pokémon from Professor Magnolia! I’m ready to get out there and challenge Sharma. I’ll be the champion before long! Charmander and I are going to dominate this forest! I’ll show that Johnny who’s boss.

March 17th 2006, Day 2

We’ve been in this forest for a whole day now…but we’re getting strong! I got a bunch of new Pokémon. I haven’t found any other people that left on their journeys around the same as me though…I’m kind of sad, being alone out here. But I’ve got the Charmander I’ve always wanted! And we’re going to be great.

March 18th 2006, Day 3

Wahhhhh! I’m tired of this forest! I can’t get out of here! Oh no…what do I do? Charmander and my other Pokémon are tired…well, I found an old house. Maybe I can I find someone or something to do in there. Wish me luck…

It was after that day I kind of gave up on writing. Maybe I should start up again? Who knows, it could be fun.

I placed the book back in my bag, and then checked my phone again. The time now was 6 PM. And we had gotten on the train a couple of minutes ago. We were going to be pretty early to the party. And I mean, really really early. We’d have less than two hours to kill!

Knowing Gramps, he’ll go on a tour of the city and drag me along with him…

As I thought that comment, all of a sudden the train came to a screeching halt. I glanced around, not sure what was going on. Curious, I looked out the window, and wondered what had happened. All I saw was darkness though…we were still in the pathway in Echo Cave!

I grumbled a bit. I knew this would cut away some of the extra time we had before the party Leon invited us to, but did we have to stop in the middle of the cave? I pouted once more, sitting back in my seat. My grandfather simply laughed, and continued his crossword puzzle.

“Don’t worry Bill, we’ll get out of here soon. It can’t take too long. Maybe they were having some trouble. Better to get it fixed than having everything blow up on us when we get to Port Current, right?” He said. It was true.

“I guess so. But why’d they come to such a screeching halt? They could have just slowed down a bit and stop peacefully…” I said back.

I looked to the other people in the cart, who were all confused as well. One little boy sitting with his mother looked out of the window, and exclaimed, “Wow mommy! Its super dark out there! Is it night time?”

I laughed a bit, and then stood up. I stretched and then said, “I’m going to go find out what happened.”

“Oh just leave it alone Bill. Nothing’s wrong…” But he was wrong.

Static suddenly started on the loudspeaker above us. After a little while, the static cleared out and we heard a loud thud. “Bah, AHHHH!” A voice suddenly said over the loudspeaker. Followed by an “Ugh…” and a bunch of more grunts of different people…

The microphone made some static noises for a bit, and then another voice came on. The guy couldn’t be much older than I was, probably like a year or so older. He spoke loudly, saying, “HEY EVERYONE! SORRY TO SAY BUT YOU’RE NOT MAKING IT OFF THIS TRAIN IN ONE PIECE! WE’RE THE NEW TEAM ROCKET, BECAUSE THOSE OLDER GUYS ARE A BUNCH OF WIMPS! WE’RE HI-JACKING THIS TRAIN TO START OUR CHAOS!”

“So much for everything being alright.” I said to Gramps. He nodded at me, a little embarrassed.

“You were right to be suspicious.” He said to me.

I fastened my belt, making sure my six pokeballs were safely locked on. Gramps nodded to me, doing the same, making sure his pokeballs were safely on his belt too.

“Looks like we get to be the heroes, eh Gramps?” I said.

“Let’s be careful though.” Gramps said, with a worried tone.

“NOW HERE’S WHAT I WANT YOU ALL TO DO!” The voice said again. “YOU ARE ALL GOING TO GET OUT ALL YOUR MOST VALUABLE TREASURES, YOUR CREDIT CARDS, MONEY ON HAND, AND YOUR RAREST POKEMON! ONE OF MY ASSOCIATES WILL COME WITH A BAG, AND YOU’LL PLACE EVERYTHING IN THERE. OBEY, OTHERWISE YOU WILL GET SHOT!” Uh oh. They had guns.

“We better act fast.” I said. Gramps nodded. The two of us turned to the people in the car, who looked up at us with worry. We both smiled, almost at the same time, and said, “Don’t let them touch our stuff, alright? We’ll get you all out of here safely.” The people nodded their heads, and two of the men in our car held pokeballs in their hands.

Gramps and I gave them reassuring looks, and I gave one little boy a thumbs up. He smiled back at me and gave me a thumbs up back. “You’ll do awesome, trainer!” He responded to me.

“You guys look strong. We’ll do our best back here too.” One of the men said.

“Hurry and get us out of here!” A woman said. I was surprised all of these people put their faith in us so quickly. I guess we really reassured them?

I smiled back to the people, and opened the car door. Gramps and I slid across the passage way from the outside to the next car, and we opened up the next door. I looked at the rocky cave walls that surrounded the train, and saw a Zubat fluttering above, not really noticing us. There was a Geodude that noticed us though, staring at us from on top of the train. He quickly hopped off, and escaped from our sight.

The two of us pulled the door open quickly, because who knows what was happening? The loudspeaker had shut off, and the lives of these people were in grave danger. Upon opening the door, we saw people placing their possessions in a black body bag that two men were holding. They chuckled at their mischievous and evil deeds, but then gasped as they saw us two walk through the door.

“HEY! What are you doing out of your seats? Do you want to die?” One of them said. He held a pokeball in his hand. So threatening.

“We may not have weapons like the boss, but we’ve got the toughest Pokémon around! You better give up!” The other one said. They dropped the bag, and tossed pokeballs forward. Out came an Arbok, level 48 and male, and a level 47 male Weezing as well.

“Now what are you gonna do?” They both chuckled and said at the same time.

“Don, Dragon Claw.” I said, tossing a pokeball forward.

“Slowking, Psychic.” Gramps said, tossing a pokeball forward.

The 6’4’’ lizard appeared from his pokeball, and his hand glowed a powerful red and blue color. He slashed his claw right at Arbok’s body, which caused the Pokémon to go flying! He hit the back of the car we were in, and was knocked out of consciousness.

The pink Pokémon with the crown like shellder on his head appeared from his pokeball, and his eyes glowed a blue color. The blue color surrounded Weezing’s body, and the Weezing was thrown right at the fainted Arbok! Arbok let out a yelp, and Weezing too fainted from the powerful attack.

The people clapped, and the two men standing there, who were just around my age (19-20 years old), dropped to their knees. With some rope handy, we managed to tie these troublemakers up.

Gramps and I handed the people back their assorted possessions, and the people cheered. I smirked and said, “Do we have any other trainers back here?”

Three people stood up, showing us pokeballs. I nodded and said, “Ok, you guys stand guard. I’m guessing that the boss is up in the front cart, but he may send grunts he has in other places from carts further back. Be on guard.”

“Taking command, eh Bill?” Gramps chuckled.

“I am a leader, after all.” I smirked back. The two of us then opened up the door to the next cart, heading through the little passage, and into the next area. The two of us could hear lots of yelling between what seemed to be a man and a woman, and two other people who sounded similar to the other two grunts we defeated. We opened the door, only to walk right into an explosion!

The smoke cleared, and both Gramps and I blinked. That was kind of unexpected. I began to cough uncontrollably, due to my asthma. My grandfather came to my side, hoping that I was all right. My asthma hadn’t really bothered me since I left on my journey, but it seemed to be bothering me now…

When the smoke cleared, we saw a bunch of people on the ground, knocked out of consciousness from the explosion. A voltorb sat in a person’s hands, chuckling from its use of selfdestruct. The owner blinked a couple of times, wondering how he survived that.

There were two other men in here too, both knocked out by the explosion. I chuckled, and took some more rope, quickly tying the two of them up. Gramps chuckled. This was easy this time.

One man stood up and said, “Are you going to try and stop these people?”

“Yup, that’s the plan.” I said. Gramps nodded as well.

“You should be careful! I heard gunshots. They’re dangerous people!” The man said. I nodded to him, and then suddenly had an idea. What if…

That’s not a bad idea, human. A voice in my head said. Drogaur! He was listening and watching what was going on once more. I was happy he thought my idea was good.

“Um, Grandpa, I’ll be right back. We’re running out of rope, and my bag has some more.” I said to him.

“Alright Bill, but don’t keep us waiting.” He said to me.

I nodded, and headed to the previous car. A couple of minutes later, I came back, with some more rope in my hand. I smirked and then said, “Now let’s take these guys on.” My grandfather nodded.

We opened the door, heading into the next car. We headed on over through the passage, and opened the next door. As we opened it up, we saw everything was a mess in here. There were four people holding guns that were guarding one man, and one other man who looked easily distinguishable compared to the other four who were dressed the same. He held a pistol in his hand, wearing a black outfit and a black hat. There was light blue hair on his head, most likely dyed since that wasn’t a natural hair color. He had a red R on his shirt. The others were wearing white outfits with red R’s on them.

He saw us come through, and said, “So you’re the cause of the explosion?”

“Nope. It was someone else.” I said to him.

“But you’re trying to stop us right? You’re the hero in this story. I’m the bad guy. Looks like we’ve finally come face to face.” He said, determined. He aimed the pistol right at my face, and said, “What are you going to do now?”

“I’m not afraid.” I said. My grandfather though, was. He stepped forward, wanting to stop this without too much violence.

“Please, let’s stop this foolishness. No one wants to give up their possessions, or get hurt. Besides, you’ll eventually get caught. You’re wasting your time.” Gramps said.

“Shut it, grandpa.” The boss said, and then aimed his gun at him. That’s when I got a little scared.

“You want to come fight me? I’ll win. This weapon right here can take the life of a human being in one shot, if I am at the right place. But you probably know that already. I mean, who doesn’t know about guns? They are very useful. I can take a life in an instant.” His finger was slowly about to pull the trigger. He didn’t seem to hesitate.

“So die, old man!” He said to my grandfather, in which I took action.

The man’s finger moved back on the trigger, in which I moved towards my grandfather, yelling, “Get down!” And pushed him out of the way. I moved right in front of the bullet, which pierced just above my heart. My grandfather fell onto the ground, in which he quickly got up. His eyes were filled with many different emotions, mostly of sadness and anger. I grabbed the spot that was hit, red suddenly flowing out of the spot. My eyes went from their normal color to white, and I collapsed on the ground.

My grandfather stood there, his eyes filled with tears. He placed his hands on my own, and then yelled out, “BILLY!” He placed his head on my body, tears flowing down his cheeks, when all of a sudden he gasped.

“Foolish boy.” The Rocket boss said, and then laughed loudly.

“I’d say you’re the foolish one, buddy!” A voice yelled.

The voice came from behind the rocket boss, by the door that leads up to the conductor’s car on the train. The door opened up quickly, and in ran…me! I sprinted forward, and jumped at the guy before he could turn around and shoot at me.

I held him with one arm around his neck and one arm holding his stomach, also holding the arm with the gun in it. I held him tight, as he thrashed about, trying to break free.

“BUT I JUST KILLED YOU! YOU’RE LAYING RIGHT THERE!” He yelled, while being choked.

I turned the man around to face the four other grunts with the weapons. They aimed at me, when the boss said, “NO YOU IDIOTS, YOU’LL HIT ME!”

They backed down, unsure of what to do. The man I was holding kept thrashing about, but I would not back down. I smirked, and then said, “Ditto…great job.”

The me on the ground suddenly stood up, shaking his hand free of the red on it. Some of it got on my grandfather’s hand, and upon smelling it, he exclaimed, “Its Ketchup!”

“Yup.” The other me said, and showed him the spot where he got shot. He smirked, and said, “You see, the boss (being me) here had an idea that one of you two would get shot if we tried to reason with him. So he figured, if I transformed into him and took the shot, you’d both be safe.”

“But wouldn’t you die? I mean, obviously not since you’re standing here, but…how’d you live?” My grandfather asked, totally all right with talking to a ditto.

“Well you see, I can expand my body and transform into anything if I look at it. So what I did was expand the spot that he shot me at, letting the bullet pass right through my body. With the Quick Powder, I was able to move fast enough to see it coming too! When the bullet hit, it hit the ketchup packets that the boss handed me, so it would look like blood.” Ditto said, then looking at the door. He picked up the bullet that landed on the ground, and showed it to him.

“It wasn’t hard at all, and it didn’t even hurt!” The ditto exclaimed. His body then shifted, and he became the familiar looking pink blob we all knew and loved. He saluted to my grandfather, and he just laughed. He also then held in his other hand the Quick Powder. It had spread itself across his body earlier, making the ditto’s body sparkle with an extra “whitish” color on him. It was a white looking powder that stayed all in one place. It shined a little in the train lights on the ceiling. He trusted his “fists” forward at high speeds, showing off the ability of the hold item.

“I need to get me one of these Ditto!” He chuckled.

“Now I suggest you give up.” I said.

“Hey, I bet if we charge this guy, he’ll let go of the boss!” One of the grunts said. The others agreed, dropping their weapons. They yelled out, “RAHHHH!” and began to charge, but that's when, from behind them, another roar appeared!

Don smashed through the door, roaring loudly. The four grunts turned around, all yelling out once more, this time in fear. Don sprinted forward, and lifted up his arms. He hit two of them on the head with his fists, knocking them out of consciousness. The other two dropped to the ground out of fear, unable to defend themselves without their weapons.

Don smacked them both on the head, knocking them out as well. The leader gasped from the size and power of the Charizard, dropping his own weapon.

I let go of the leader, then kicking him to the ground. He had given in.

“That’ll teach you.” I said.

---

[Shadow Slayer]

After about an hour and a half, we had managed to gather up all these grunts and their leader, tying them up and leaving them in one cart with a bunch of trainers who could keep an eye on them. Using the handy first aid kit that one mother carried along with her (since her son was a bit of a klutz), we bandaged up the conductor.

“I’ll get the train moving right away!” He said, and headed to his spot. I had Gramps watch after him to make sure he stayed all right.

In no time, the train started moving again. I grabbed my backpack, and put my coat and hat back on. Ditto was on the ground next to me, and I picked him up, saying, “You were amazing ditto!” I hugged the blob of pink goo, who laughed happily at me.

My grandfather walked through the car door, and said, “Bill, you scared the hell out of me. But I’m very proud of you! That was some quick thinking. Ditto was a great actor!” He chuckled.

Ditto nodded to him and chuckled back.

Grandpa picked up his bag and coat, placing everything back on and preparing to leave. The darkness that was in the windows suddenly turned to…not as dark, (as it was 7:30 at night), and we had managed to get out of that cave. In a couple of minutes, the train made it to the station, and we had gotten off of the train.

The people who were leaving cheered for us, calling us heroes and thanking us all for our great work. One girl who was on the train walked right by me, slipping me a piece of paper. She turned around and said, “Call me sometime, cutie.”

I blinked a little as she walked away, and my grandfather nudged me a bit saying, “Well looky there Bill…” He chuckled. I turned around and said, “Please, lets not get started.” I placed the paper away, and then chuckled on back to him.

We laughed together, and then walked out of the ZEP train station. Port Current welcomed us with all of its shining lights from the buildings and the street lamps. I could already see some Christmas decorations up as well. Come on people, Halloween didn’t even start yet!

Nonetheless, they were nice to look at. Some places had a Santa Claus shining in their windows; others had reindeer, snowflakes, and others all glowing in the windows of the homes and buildings around the town.

It reminded me somewhat of Christmas in Camber Town, with all the neighbors lighting up their yards to try and impress the other neighbors on how great their lights looked compared to others. They all made it look like a competition.

Gramps seemed to enjoy it too. We used to always have Christmas at his home in the past. He was probably thinking of how he’d pick us up at the airport, and drive us all back to his home, where grandma would be waiting for us, preparing the Christmas tree and the presents she and grandpa had bought for us.

I always loved Christmas Eve with Grandpa because I got to stay up late and play around with his Pokémon. Venusaur especially, because he always would lift me up with his vines, and make it seem like I was flying. I missed those days…we had some good memories.

Christmas Day was chaotic, but all of my mother’s family came flying in to enjoy Christmas dinner with Grandpa. Eventually, my father’s family asked to join up, and we had a huge family dinner with both sides of the family. It was truly a great time, spending Christmas in Kanto with Gramps.

I smiled at Gramps, and then pulled out my phone. I quickly unlocked the phone, and then said, “I should probably call Leon and let him know that we’re here.”

“No need!” A voice suddenly said. I jumped in place, and looked ahead. The familiar looking glacier admin stood in front of us, waving with a big grin on his face.

“Hello there! Train trouble?” The glacier admin asked.

“Yeah. A bunch of “Team Rocket” goons. But we stopped them.” Gramps and I smiled as I said that.

“Well then, something more to celebrate, right? You’re both all right, and you’re the heroes of the day. Let’s head on over to the meeting place. Frank, its good to see you again. You look well.” Leon said, shaking my grandfather’s hand.

“Likewise, Leon. It’s been a long while! Where is that lovely wife of yours?” Gramps asked with much interest. He was a ladies man, it seemed…

“Madeline is at the meeting place already. She’s socializing with those who came early. You guys are actually just on time, its 7:40 already. It’s going to take us a couple minutes to walk over.” Leon said.

“Were you waiting long?” I asked.

“No, I checked in to see when your train would come in, and when that time passed and you hadn’t arrived, I called to see what was wrong. They said that they were having train trouble. I then got a call later when the train had started moving again, and headed on over.” Leon said.

“Good thinking, Leon!” Gramps said.

The three of us then continued walking through the town, admiring the Christmas decorations (as well as some Halloween decorations as well, which made me a little satisfied that people weren’t completely Christmas crazy). Some were lit up jack-o-lanterns, all with creative, yet scary faces on them. I saw one little boy a bit startled at the jack-o-lantern his father was placing on one of their steps. One house had a ghost hanging down right in front of their front door, which had a creepy looking face on it. I saw a girl walk with her dog back to her house, and upon reaching the door, the dog began barking loudly at the ghost hanging above their door. He seemed very afraid of the decoration.

“Reminds you of Cody, doesn’t it Bill?” Gramps asked me. I chuckled. It did remind me of the golden retriever.

After a bit of walking, we had finally made it to the building where Leon was holding his family get together. The building was a skyscraper that stood pretty tall, but wasn’t nearly as huge as the other ones in town. In front of the door there were a bunch of butlers, welcoming people inside. They wore white collared and black pants, as well as a black tie. They had grey vests and wore black tuxedo coats. My grandfather pointed out that they wore white cufflinks as well, and one guy had white gloves on. All of these were usually the attire that butlers wore. They all looked very friendly, but one in particular seemed to be much older than the rest. He seemed to be keeping an eye on the younger butlers, prepared to scold them if they did their job wrong.

“This is going to be one fancy meet up, Leon! Do you think we’re underdressed?” Gramps asked.

Before Leon could talk, I said, “We’re dressed enough.” I didn’t like dressing up in clothes like these. I was more of a casual man myself.

Leon chuckled and said, “You two are fine. These butlers here are just very dedicated to their jobs, and wish to look their best. Madeline wanted the best here for all of our family.”

We approached the building, and the butlers gave us a bow, welcoming us to the event. One man approached us, and took our coats, hats and bags. After the whole “Rockets attacking the train”, I wasn’t sure if I should leave my stuff alone, but I got over it quickly.

Upon entering the hall we all looked up to see the many chandeliers shining their bright white color across the dining hall. I was incredibly surprised; this place was huge!

There were tables set up across the entire hall, each one seating about four or five people. There were some big tables though, seating 9 to 10 people per table. On each table was a white tablecloth, and set ups for every person who would be seated. There were sets of forks and knives wrapped up in a napkin in each place. There was a plate in each spot as well, although it was empty at the moment. In the center of the table was a vase filled with certain number of flowers. Most likely roses. Each table had a number, and a “reserved for such and such” family.

Leon walked us over to a smaller table, which was somewhere in the middle row, over to the left. It seated four people, and it said, “Reserved for the Hosts!”

“Billy, you and Frank will be seated here, along with us. I’m sad to say that Madeline and I will not be around here to socialize very much. We’ll be coming over here to check up on you, and maybe rest a bit. But we have so many guests coming, and we have to entertain them too. I need to go change too.” Leon said.

Madeline then walked over, looking a little stressed out. She sighed, and took a seat right next to my grandfather. Both my grandfather’s eyes and my own were glued to her. She was wearing a sparkling navy blue dress, as well as some heels that made her seem a whole lot taller. She was wearing a light shade of lipstick, as well as some eye shadow, and her hair was tied up in a bun. She sighed, and proceeded to place her head down on the table. The light shined down from her, as if she was a goddess who came straight out of the heavens…=P

Leon chuckled at the two of us, and left to go get changed.

Madeline looked incredible.

My grandfather jumped right on the chance to speak to her, starting off with, “Madeline! It’s so good to see you again. You look marvelous!” He added a refreshing smile to his words. Madeline looked up, and then smiled back at him.

“Frank! It’s been awhile, hasn’t it? You look pretty good yourself, have you been keeping well? Oh! Billy! Wow you look handsome! Its good to see you!” She said, suddenly standing up, and hugging me in my seat. She giggled and said, “I doubt I’ll be seeing you in this kind of attire very often right?”

My grandfather looked a little jealous, and I snickered at him. I looked to her and said, “Yeah, I’m not a big fan of these clothes…”

“Well get used to it! Because you’re getting older and moving up in the world!” She said. “And if you’re friends with us, you’ll be doing this more often!”

“So I’ll be visiting the dry cleaners more often now, yay.” I said to her. She stuck out her tongue at me, and then sat back down. “I’m sorry that I’m not so super energetic. My parents and Leon’s parents arrived around the same time. I’ve been entertaining them the whole time.” She seemed pretty energetic to me…

“Hey, its no problem.” My grandfather said. “Seeing your wonderful face is all I need.” He smiled. I snickered.

Madeline smiled back and said, “Aww, you’re sweet.”

After she said that, I began to hear some music begin playing. It was a bit jazzy, and I could hear an electric guitar, the whole drum kit, a grand piano, a saxophone, a trumpet, French horn, and there was even a lady who was warming up to sing. I wasn’t sure what they were playing, but the trumpet had begun to solo. The guitarist was playing certain chords, but I could barely make them out. A minor 7th, B flat major 7th…it was a long time since I picked up a guitar and played…well, besides that one time in Zephyr City for the contest.

My grandfather didn’t look too happy and said, “They should put on something good, like Spike Jones or something!”

“Gramps, Spike Jones makes that funny kind of music that we use to listen to. Not too appropriate.” I said back.

“Well they should have something better than this jazz.” He said to me.

“Jazz isn’t bad, Gramps. It’s entertaining. I like it.” I said back.

“Along with that metal crap and screaming music…” He said to me.

“It's the new generation, Gramps. We both like different things. But hey, at least it isn’t rap.” I said.

“I agree with you there. You can’t spell crap without rap.” He said to me. I chuckled.

Madeline eventually got up to go back over to the dinner table with her parents and Leon’s parents. I yawned, a little tired after today. I mean, a lot happened. Found my grandfather, almost killed him, got in the middle of a train hi-jacking, almost got killed…a lot of my adventures lately involve myself and dying. I’ve got to fix that.

“So much for excellent service from the butlers. When will someone come over and take my order?” My grandfather said.

“Shush. We’re going to wait patiently. We were invited and we’re paying nothing.” I said to him. He gave me a face.

A little time passed, and before we knew it, an incredible amount of people were pouring in from the door. They were dressed in formal attire as well. The men were dressed in collared shirts with all different ties, some in tuxedos as well. The women were dressed in all sorts of different colored and styled dresses as well, some wearing frilly things, others having scarves. Some of the women were dressed in a similar tuxedo style as the men, which didn’t really surprise me.

People were taking their seats and everyone was chatting up a storm! The room got very loud all of a sudden. I could barely hear myself think, and Gramps and I had to yell to say something to one another.

Finally, a waiter walked his way over to us. He held a little book in his hand, as well as a pen. He was dressed in the tuxedo style like we saw outside, but he looked a lot younger than the other people we had seen.

“Good evening you two, I’m Bradley and I will be your waiter tonight. Can I get you two something to drink?” He asked.

My grandfather didn’t look too happy, but then said, “Sure thing. I’ll have the house’s wine, and some water on the side.”

“I’ll just have some water.” I said.

Bradley nodded, and then wrote the order down. He then looked to us and said, “I’ll be out in a second with your drinks.” He turned away, and headed on over to the kitchen to get what we ordered.

My grandfather gave me a face again. “These young ones here really don’t know what they’re doing. He’s going to mess up our order more than once, you know.”

“So disrespectful…please Grandpa.” I said.

“What? I’m just telling the truth.” He said.

A little time passed, and the waiter came back. He had brought us our water, and the house wine to my grandfather. I thanked him for the drinks, and he nodded, leaving to another table. My grandfather tasted the wine, and gave me a face again.

“You were wrong, he did fine.” I said to him.

“Just you wait.” He said, and went back to sipping his wine. He seemed to enjoy it. The waiter did a good job.

Some more time passed and my grandfather and I were talking about stories that had happened on our journeys. He was telling me of his quest through Kanto for the first time in years, when he left us six years ago. He had met many young trainers and older trainers, and was able to challenge the new gym leaders of the region, obtaining Kanto’s 8 badges once more. He said it made him feel like he did when he was young and won these badges, which was a great thing. He could reflect on his old memories.

I told him of my four-year journey so far in the Sharma region, how there were many different people and Pokémon I came across. I spent time traveling from place to place, training the many Pokémon I had to all be as strong as they could be before I challenged a gym. I told him how I got into becoming a coordinator, and explained my first contest to him as best as I could remember. I told him about the first contest move that Charizard and I came up with, and the dominating of my opponents with the Arbok and the Misdrevius. The memories were just flooding back to me.

It was these talks that reflected on our pasts that I enjoyed talking about and listening to. He always had the best stories, and always seemed interested in things I had to say.

In the middle of one of our talks, suddenly I saw Leon stand up on a chair, holding an empty wine glass in his hand. He tapped on the glass, somehow getting everyone’s attention.

He held a microphone in his hand, and said, “I’d like to thank you all for coming here tonight. I’d like to encourage you all to socialize with one another, by getting up and moving around to see other people. But don’t cause too much chaos, all right? The bill for this place is already chaotic enough.” He chuckled, and most of the people in the hall tonight did as well.

“So friends and family, please enjoy yourselves, and dinner shall be available in about twenty minutes. The waiters are all memorizing the different orders and where each person is sitting, which is a great feat since there are so many people here tonight. I’m sorry to make you all wait. But otherwise, enjoy yourselves!” Leon then said. People clapped, and then went back to talking.

Madeline walked on over to our table once more, as did Leon. The two met about halfway, and hugged one another, both seeming pretty stressed but happy. After some lovey dovey stuff between them, they walked hand in hand over to our table, and took a seat.

“Phew…this isn’t easy.” Leon said. He was now dressed in his own navy blue tuxedo, with a blue tie. He didn’t wear a vest, and his coat was hanging up in the coat closet. Madeline stared at him, obviously thinking he looked good in that outfit.

“I’ll say! Your parents definitely love being entertained…” Madeline said.

“They’re actually asking for you now Billy.” Leon said.

I gasped a bit. I was a little afraid. I didn’t know how to impress people really…

“Don’t be worried! We’ll help you.” Madeline said. Leon nodded. Gramps then chimed in and said, “Hey, I’ll be there with you too. I’ll give them a good laugh to break the ice!”

“Thanks you guys.” I said, standing up. The four of us pushed in our chairs, and motioned to Bradley that we’d be moving over to another table. He nodded to us, and headed along with us.

We headed to a very big table, seating 9 people already. The table looked like it’d seat one more. It didn’t look like there would be room for us at all! But somehow, we still fit. Four waiters came over, bringing more chairs, and pushed a table that was not in use over to the huge table where Leon’s parents sat at. The waiters quickly set up our spots at this table. They were very efficient.

I sat down at the edge of the table next to Gramps (on my right), who sat next to Madeline, and Leon was to the right of her as well. Across from me was a man who looked to be in his 60s, who was a little overweight. He was wearing a tuxedo as well, black, instead of navy blue like Leon’s. There was a skinnier looking woman sitting next to him, who looked to be in her late 50s, wearing a black dress.

Next to the woman was another man, who looked in pretty good shape. He was in his early 50s but was probably closer to 55. He wore a pair of glasses, and his head was balding pretty badly. I could see a combination of black and grey hair on his head, but the grey was overtaking the black. But he seemed to be growing a beard, which still had some black hair in it. Looking at him told me that he was Madeline’s father. He was wearing a black tuxedo as well. I felt a little out of place, not wearing one. Plus, I didn’t know these people. There was a woman sitting next to this man, who looked to be in good shape too. She looked to be the same age of the man, and instantly from her looks I could tell she was Madeline’s mother. I could see where she got her looks from now…She wore a frilly looking shirt, as well as a pair of black pants cut off below the knees. She wore a black jacket that was open, showing the shirt.

The four of them were talking to one another, and upon seeing myself and my grandfather sit down, they changed their attention to me.

“Billy, the first two that you see here are my parents.” Leon said. He pointed to the two across from me.

“I am Simon the third.” The man said. “Pleasure is all mine.”

“I am Beatrice.” The woman said. “It is nice to make your acquaintance.”

“And these two lovely people across from me are my parents, Billy!” Madeline said.

“I’m Stephen. Nice to meet you!” The man with the glasses said.

“I’m Donna, Billy. Madeline’s told me so much about you! You’re such a handsome boy.” The woman said. I felt like a little kid when people said that. She reminded me of my own mother.

“So Billy,” Simon said, “What is it that you do that has a young man like you work with Leon?”

I looked to Leon, who nodded, letting me know that the families knew about Team Glacier. I would freely be able to speak about the team.

“Well, it’s hard to believe, but I’m the leader of Team Glacier.” I said. The man gasped, but let me continue. “You see, our old leader was a year younger than me, and left us to pursue his own goals. Leon had left the team once he left, but when my brother took it back up and passed it over to me, Leon came back. I made him an admin once again, and honestly, he runs the team. I just give the commands.”

“Well that’s disappointing. You should have more pride in your position!” Beatrice said. She gave me a smile that reminded me of Leon’s smile. I smiled back to her.

“It's a tough job, let me say. I’ve tried many things to bring the team out of its slump. We’re not active enough as it is, but we’re getting there. I’m hoping to bring the team out for a little exploring of those new ruins in the desert.” I said.

“Oh, Nugem you mean?” Donna said. She looked interested.

“Yeah. I’m thinking of exploring it a little and seeing what we can dig up. It's a mystery all right. Appearing out of nowhere from a sandstorm like this. We can probably dig up a lot of history there.” I said. Hmm, this was easy. I could talk to these people without too much trouble, once I got started.

“Well you should send me your reports on the place when you’re finished! You see, I’m a researcher from the Johto region. I researched on the various Pokémon that live there, and got very interested in the Ruins of Alph. Maybe there’s some sort of connection between the two!” She exclaimed.

“That would be pretty amazing if there was. Sure, I’ll send what I find to you Donna!” I smiled. She seemed excited.

“Madeline dear, when he’s ready, can you send those to me?” Donna asked her daughter. Madeline nodded, and then gave me a thumbs up. Looks like I was doing good.

“So, do you have something to back yourself up on if your Pokémon journey fails?” Simon suddenly asked. I gulped.

“I don’t have a job waiting just in case right now, but I was thinking of heading off to a college and studying up on the psychology of human beings. Maybe of Pokémon as well. I took a bunch of tests before I left on my journey, and passed them with flying colors. They said that if I wanted to enter a university in the future I’d probably be able to. I haven’t studied too much on my journey, but there are times where I’ll go online and study on the recent happenings in the subject.” I said.

“Psychology eh…well maybe I can help you.” Stephen said.

“You can?” I asked.

“Yes, I myself am a Pokémon researcher under Professor Elm in the Johto region. I study the psychology of Pokémon. If you get interested, then take a trip over to Johto and we can study together!” Stephen said.

My face lit up and I said, “That sound great, thank you so much!”

From then on in, the talk went over pretty well. We talked about stories about my journey, like I had done with my grandfather earlier. Leon and Madeline told the story of how they met, and about Madeline’s contest days. My grandfather cracked jokes and literally had Beatrice and Donna under his charm. Even at 79 he was a ladies man.

Dinner came, freshly cooked by the chef. Although I wasn’t sure I wanted to even give it a try. Before us was a plate of fish that seemed to be of the finest cuisine, but I wasn’t sure what it was called. There were some other types of food on the plate too, like lettuce. I quickly munched on a piece of bread from one of the baskets on the table, trying to avoid the food. My grandfather took the basket out of my grasp though, and motioned for me to try my fish. I stared at it for awhile, not sure if I could eat it. My grandfather nudged me and said, “Aww come on, it won’t bite. Its been cooked.”

“I’m not sure Gramps…” I said back.

“You always have been a picky eater. Come on, give it a shot!” He said. It felt like those days back when I went to dinner with my grandfather. He and grandma always tried to get me to eat something I’d never eaten before. I was picky and stubborn though, and didn’t usually eat.

I decided to dig in, and took a taste of the fish that was on my plate. After chewing it for a while, I put down my fork and said, “Excuse me.”

I zoomed for the nearby bathroom, and could hear the seven of them chuckling. Fish and I never really got along when it came to eating.

I came back out, and took in a deep breath, happy that all of that was over. Phew. I brushed my collared shirt with my hands, and stretched a bit. Taking out my phone I saw that the time was about 9:35 at night. We had been talking for a while, but we were going to be here even longer.

As I headed on back to the table, I heard a crash. Everyone turned their attention towards it, and I ran on over to see what had happened. When I arrived, I saw Bradley on the ground, shattered plates on the ground and some food on the ground, as well as some on his tuxedo.

A very plump man in his 50s suddenly stood up, and said, “You’re a terrible waiter! I ORDERED MEDIUM WELL STEAK, NOT MEDIUM RARE! Looking at the steak and tasting I can honestly tell! You’re a failure! I want you fired!”

Bradley said, “I’m sorry sir I’m sorry. I must have written the order down wrong. I’ll go back and get you your medium well steak, please forgive me!”

“No! LEON, GET OVER HERE! FIRE THIS MAN!” The plump man said. Leon stood up, heading on over, but I stood in front of him. I walked on over to where Bradley was, and offered him my hand. I lifted him up, and saw that he was at least three inches taller than me. But he offered me a smile, and a look of an apology. I shook my head no to him. It sounded like a simple mistake.

I stood in front of the waiter, and looked at the plump man. The man looked back at me and said, “And what do you want kid?”

“You’re making a racket sir. The man here made a mistake, forgive him.” I said.

“Excuse me? Who do you think you’re talking to pipsqueak?” He said to me. Oh no he didn’t.

“Listen here chubby, I’m talking to you. I was trying to be nice, but looks like that’s not going to work.” I said.

“CHUBBY? I WANT THIS BOY OUT OF HERE TOO!” The man said.

“Now listen here! I’m a guest here too. But you’re disrespecting the staff that is working hard to make sure everyone is happy. You’re not the only one here you know. This man here is trying to take everyone’s orders and bring them out on time so they’re not hungry or displeased. He was working just about 10 tables! You should expect a problem!” I said.

“ITS HIS JOB, CHILD! If he can’t do it right he shouldn’t do it at all.” The man said.

“No one is perfect. You’re a good example of it.” I said to him. I was probably going too far.

The man lifted up his arm and threw it forward to slap me in the face. But I grabbed his arm halfway and said, “Listen here. I know how we can settle this. Lets have a Pokémon battle.”

I let go of the man, and Bradley stepped back. The man chuckled and said, “You still don’t know who you’re messing with. I’ll accept your challenge, runt!”

I smirked. I was going to destroy this guy.

The waiters all assembled upon Leon’s command, and people stood up, their tables being moved around the hall. A big open space appeared and the plump man and I stood on our respective sides of the space created from the moved tables. The two of us stared the other down, letting us both know that the other meant business.

“Let’s begin, child!” The plump man said, and a waiter stepped forward to be our referee. The plump man threw a pokeball forward, and it burst open, revealing a level 54 male Poliwrath. The water type Pokémon flexed its muscles and prepared to battle.

I pulled out a pokeball, and threw it forward saying, “Espeon, come on out!” And a level 60 female Espeon, named Emily, appeared.

“A Psychic type stands no chance against my Poliwrath!” The plump man said, “Use Hydro PUMP!”

“Emily, dodge it with quick attack!” I said.

Poliwrath took a deep breath in, and blasted forward a stream of intense water at the Espeon. But she smirked, and sprinted forward, avoiding the water. The water smashed through a bunch of tables, knocking over some freshly cooked food. I face palmed, not sure if the waiters would be angry or not. Bradley looked at me with a look that said it was all right.

Espeon crashed hard into Poliwrath’s body, knocking him back a little bit. “Now, Fake Tears!” I said. The Espeon lay on the ground, and began crying a little. The plump man laughed a little bit, but his Poliwrath began to cry as well, feeling sorry for the Espeon.

“Psychic!” I said.

Espeon then stopped crying, and lifted up the Poliwrath with her incredible psychic power. She spun the Poliwrath round and round and round in the air, which caused the tadpole Pokémon to become incredibly dizzy. She then smashed him down on the ground, and from the impact, he took critical damage! The Poliwrath fainted!

“WHAT?” The plump man said.

“That was pretty easy. Emily, you did great!” I said, and the Espeon turned around towards me, giving me a wink. Well, you should expect nothing less! A voice said. I realized that it was Emily, using Psychic.

“It’s not over till the fat lady sings, kid!” The plump man snickered.

I snickered back. “Better start whistling a tune then…”

His face turned beat red and he began stomping his foot on the ground, angrily. I noticed that the jazz band in the back was playing Pokémon themed music to our battle. I chuckled at that as well.

“COME OUT FERALIGATR!” The plump man yelled, sending out his level 58 male alligator. The fully evolved starter roared out loudly, and I pulled out a pokeball, recalling the eeveelution.

“Alright Rotom, you’re up next.” I said, tossing forward the pokeball, which burst open, revealing the level 70 electric/ghost type. The ghost chuckled loudly, and then zoomed around the battlefield with blinding speed, forming a box. He left a trail of blue lightning behind him, and then stopped instantly in front of me, preparing to battle the Feralgatr.

“HYDRO PUMP!” The plump man yelled. He seemed to like that move.

“Dodge it quick! Then, use Charge!” I yelled.

Using its incredible speed, Rotom zoomed away from the powerful jet of high pressurized water, causing Feraligatr’s attack to miss. The water this time smashed through a wall, leaving a huge hole in the wall of the building. Rotom chuckled and then glowed a yellow color, storing up an incredible power in its body. It glowed a bit of green too, signaling to me that its special defense had gone up a notch as well.

“I guess we’ll leave that on your tab?” I smirked.

“GRRRRRR, YOU’RE GONNA GET IT KID!” The fatty yelled back.

“Discharge!” I yelled.

Rotom’s body was supercharged with electricity due to charge, and it released all of its energy from its body out at Feraligatr. The electricity headed towards Feraligatr in all directions, then all combining together into one “stream”. The supercharged discharge zapped the Feraligatr, which caused Feraligatr to smash down on the ground due to the intense damage!

But the water type wasn’t going to give up yet. He pushed himself off of the ground with his arms, and he seemed to be glowing a powerful looking blue color. The color moves in strange waves, and it suddenly made me realize that Torrent, Feraligatr’s ability, was in effect.

“NOW HYDRO PUMP!” I wondered if his Pokémon got tired of using the move.

Feraligatr let out the stream of water in which I then said, “Quickly Rotom, dodge!”

But Rotom didn’t have time to dodge due to Feraligatr’s timing with the water type attack. A huge stream of high pressurized water sprayed out from Feraligatr’s mouth, and smashed Rotom hard against the wall! The wall was breaking, and more tables were being pushed out of the way due to the water crashing through them. But I simply smirked.

Feraligatr stopped his attack, and began breathing heavily, sure that he had defeated Rotom. But I then said, “Turn around.”

Feraligatr did so, and suddenly, Rotom floated up from underneath the ground! It cackled, and then extended its body, forming an astonishingly scary face! Feraligatr flinched in fear, unsure of how that happened, and took some damage.

“It's a ghost. Solids don’t keep him down. He simply phased through the wall and prepared to strike.” I said. The man growled and his face had turned beet red.

“Now, finish it, full power thunderbolt!” I yelled.

Rotom’s body surrounded itself with intense electricity, which it released from its body and zapped the water type Pokémon! Feraligatr could take no more, and collapsed on the ground, defeated.

“NOOOO!” He said, and it somewhat sounded like he was singing.

Everyone clapped for our battle, and Rotom cackled. I thanked him for his job well done, and recalled him to his pokeball. This was probably the most fun I had all night. Talking wasn’t really my thing.

The plump man growled at me, but seemed to know his place. He walked back over to his table, and sat down. But I wasn’t satisfied.

“Bradley, come over here.” I said. The waiter nodded, walking over to me. We walked over to the plump man, who went to eating his medium rare steak that he raved wasn’t medium well.

I poked him on the shoulder and he turned around. “Yeah?”

“I think you should apologize.” I told him.

His wife, who was furious with his actions, turned to him. “Do as the trainer says. You not only embarrassed me, but yourself, and our family. Do it.”

The plump man looked angry, and wanted to speak back, but the glare on her face told him that he’d better do it. He turned around to the waiter and said, “I’m sorry.”

Bradley smiled and said, “Its alright sir. I’ll get your order right, and go get that medium well steak right now.”

Bradley bowed and left, then heading for the kitchen. I smiled and the man turned around, pretty grumpy. I could tell his wife there wore the pants in this relationship. I chuckled.

I walked back over to the table where I was first seated, since Gramps had moved back over to there. I took in a deep breath, and Gramps said, “That was a nice battle! You showed that guy.”

“Thanks Gramps. I just thought that Bradley’s job wasn’t as easy as it seemed. That man had no right to yell at him.” I said.

“Our family just has the urge to be the hero it seems.” Gramps said and smiled. “I’m going to head on over to the bathroom real quick Bill.” He said, and got up, heading on over.

I waved as he left for the bathroom, and sat there, relaxed in my chair. The waiters had moved those tables back over to their original spots, after cleaning up the water and the food mess. The people were chatting about random things again, although I heard some people talking about how that battle was pretty amazing. I smiled.

I closed my eyes, and rested for a little while. I don’t know why, but I was just a lot more tired than before. It was just about 10 PM now, but I was used to staying up late, really all night from my travels. Maybe all that talking I did with Leon and Madeline’s parents was a lot more energy draining than I thought. I was more of the strong, silent type.

“Um, excuse me?” A voice said. It was a girl’s, and upon hearing it, I opened my eyes. I looked in front of me and suddenly saw a very beautiful girl standing right in front of me. She looked to be my age, about 5’5’’, but that’s only because he had heels on. Most likely she would be around 5’3’’ without them. She had her brown hair tied back in a ponytail, which I thought looked pretty good on her. She wore an orange dress, which sparkled similarly to Madeline’s dress. Her makeup wasn’t as noticeable as Madeline’s, but I could tell she was wearing some lipstick and some eye shadow. She looked at me curiously, her brown eyes studying me for some reason.

I jumped up upon seeing her, and was pretty embarrassed upon doing so. I scratched the back of my head, and sat back down again. I could feel myself turning red.

“Oh, I’m sorry, did I startle you?” She asked.

“Uh-Uh Yeah. I was just kind of…resting my eyes.” I said. My heart was thumping. She giggled a little. Could she tell that I was nervous?

“Well I was just wondering…would you mind if I joined you?” She asked me.

Just go for it, human. Drogaur’s voice said. Your mind is going crazy again. Its annoying.

I decided to go for it. “Sure thing.” I smiled at her, and she then sat down.

“Thanks!” She responded, and then she looked at me again. I felt myself blush a little, which caused her to smile. I felt my face turn even redder, as her smile continued.

“So…” I said, unsure of what to say.

“Well, I wanted to come over and talk to you. You were sitting alone and looked tired, but you also looked a little bored. During that battle of yours with my Uncle you looked pretty entertained though. It was nice to see.” She smiled again. I blushed.

“Oh, he’s your Uncle? I’m sorry for the rude things I said about him. He was just disrespecting his waiter who’s been working hard all night.” I said to her.

“Oh, no worries. He’s a total jerk.” She said, sticking her tongue at me. I laughed.

“I was getting a little bored myself, and that battle was pretty exciting. I don’t really go to these often. I’ve been talking to many of my cousins all night, and it’s exhausting…” She said.

“Yeah, I’ve been doing the same. Leon and Madeline’s parents sure can talk…” I said.

“Oh, right, you’re the guy who Leon and Madeline talk about all the time. How do you know them?” She asked.

“Well, I work with Leon in some special business, and we became friends along my journey. He introduced me to his wife, and the three of us, well, you could say we’re best buddies.” I stuck my tongue out at her, and she laughed.

“Leon and Madeline are great people. Madeline’s the one who got me this dress.” She said. She then gasped, “Oh, how rude of me! I haven’t even introduced myself. I’m Auburn. And I know who you are already, Billy.” She winked.

“Its nice to meet you Auburn.” I smiled.

“Nice to meet you too!” She smiled back.

And from then on, it kicked off. We talked about, like I had done a lot already tonight, my journey in Sharma for the past four years, things I’ve experienced, and things I hope to accomplish. I learned that she’s going to study here in Sharma at the Zephyr City University, all about secondary education. She’s hoping to teach English, but would teach all about Pokémon if that were a choice as well. She isn’t a trainer, but has a couple of Pokémon herself for protection. Her father wanted to make sure that she had some Pokémon, because it was a dangerous world out there…

Sometime passed, and I wondered where my grandfather had been. He went to the bathroom…an hour ago? Was I really talking for that long? Well, Auburn was a pretty girl, and was interesting to talk to…I didn’t really mind.

Auburn saw me gaze away for a second, and stood up. She said, “Looking for someone?”

“Yeah, my grandfather. He left for the bathroom an hour ago.” I said.

She laughed. “Oh, I saw him. He headed over for the table that Leon and Madeline are at. He’s a funny guy!” She said, and was talking about the moment she went to talk on the phone with one of her friends. He must have not wanted to bother me with her around…Oh grandpa…

I stood up as well and said, “He sure is…I was actually wondering if he was ready to leave.”

“Oh…” She said, looking very disappointed. I gasped and said, “Oh no no, its not that you, you’re really fun to talk to and everything. But well…I’m going to explore the ruins of Nugem tomorrow. Well, hopefully.”

“Oh, that’s cool! I’m actually hoping to take a look too. The school I’m going to has a class that will take us to important places in Sharma’s history for a history course I’m taking.” She said.

“Its really an interesting place. I looked through it once, but I got pretty lost. I’m going to have another look, because I know something special is there.” I said.

“Well good luck!” She said, winking at me.

I smiled back to her and then suddenly within my mind, Drogaur spoke again. Human… He was referring to my constant thoughts of keeping in touch with her.

“Uh…” I said, and she turned around to me.

“Yessss?” She said to me, probably knowing what I was going to ask.

“Can I maybe…have your number? You know, to keep in touch with you. I can tell you what happens with Nugem and my travels, and you can tell me about your journey through college to become an education major…” I said. I was blushing. Red as a beet.

She giggled again and said, “Sure thing. But just know, I’ve got a boyfriend already.” She winked at me, and I sighed. She could tell I had fallen for her.

“You’re pretty cute yourself though.” She said, and I blushed again, causing her to laugh.

We exchanged numbers, and she said, “There ya go! Let me know how your travels go and everything. It was a lot of fun talking to you.”

“Likewise. And good luck!” I said.

“Same to you!” She said, and gave me a warm smile.

We waved off to one another, and then I took in a deep breath. I fell for this girl so very quickly. I had to stop doing that with every girl I met.

It was almost instantly that Madeline and Gramps appeared behind me, grabbing my shoulders. They turned me around, and then sat me down.

“SO? HOW’D IT GO!” Madeline yelled. Luckily people were talking loud enough not to notice. I blushed and said, “I-It went good…”

“She’s a pretty one Bill. You really do know how to pick em’! Just like your grandpa.” Gramps said, chuckling.

“Well, she kind of has a boyfriend already…” I said. Madeline and Gramps’ faces looked at me with disappointment.

“Aww, sorry to hear that.” Gramps said.

“No reason to give up!” Madeline said. “Go for her! You got her number right? You better make sure you talk to her!”

“I-I will…” I said. Madeline gave me thumbs up, and then stood me up. She suddenly embraced me.

“Its been great having you here Billy.” She said. I blushed. “I really do see you like a son. We’re not just great friends, we’re also like family. And I cherish that.” She let go of me, and then gave me a warm smile. She then approached me once more and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I was red as a beet again. Where was Cole with that ice water when you needed him?

“Don’t think you’re alone in the world.” She said. “We’ll stand by your side, and protect you along the way. You don’t have to do everything yourself.” She smiled again.

Leon walked over to me as well, and held out his hand. I shook it, and then he hugged me as well. I felt weird at first, but then I felt pretty happy. These two were much older than me, but we were great friends anyway. I felt like they were family to me too. “You can count on us.” Leon said. I looked to him and smiled again.

“Things will work out, don’t worry.” Leon said. “You’ll pull through what you’re going through now, and we’ll all be here to help. You know I’m always there for you. No matter what happens.”

“Thanks you guys. And…I do think of you like my family.” I smiled at the two of them.

Leon smiled back and Madeline grabbed me from behind again, hugging me, Gramps and Leon with a tighter embrace. “AWW! That’s so sweet Billy! Oh we’re just one big happy family!”

Yeah…one big happy family.

---

A half an hour passed, and I managed to say goodbye to everyone I met tonight.

Gramps and I changed, and we put on our normal stuff once more. We made sure we were prepared, and left the skyscraper. Leon and Madeline waved us off, and we waved back, ready to continue the journey.

A couple minutes later, I received a text message saying, “I’ll come join you at Nugem with Madeline after this is over. Or tomorrow.” Leon sent it pretty quickly. I smiled. He’d be there for me.

“Well that was fun Bill, right?” Gramps said.

“Yeah…it was.” I said back. He walked up close to me, and nudged me.

“Because you met that Auburn girl, right?” He chuckled. I turned away and then said, “And don’t forget about Madeline, Gramps.” I snickered.

“Going for the older ones, eh?” Gramps said.

“She’s married already, silly.” I said.

“Auburn?” Gramps said.

“No Gramps…Auburn’s my age and is not married.” I said, face palming myself.

“I’m just joking with you Bill.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s just been a long day.” I said.

The two of us pulled out a pokeball each, and out from each one came out a Charizard and a Pidgeot. We each hopped on the Pokémon’s back, and each one of them flew up high, towards Niner’s Stake.

“We’re heading to Nugem soon, Gramps.” I said.

“Drogaur’s meeting us in Niner’s Stake?” He asked me.

On my way. Drogaur said.

“Yup Gramps, he’s on his way.” I said.

We headed on over to the next town, Niner’s Stake, and prepared for the next day, where we’d explore Nugem. There, many questions that the group who first explored the ruins would finally be answered.

(The End)

Actually, I believe I liked this one better than the previous one! You included some humor, showed a variety of chracter developnent and fleshed out your grandfather as well as Leon and Madeline more. A nice treat was seeing Auburn finally introduced. The only thing I found wrong was you lacking the ability to proofread... again. This time it wasn't grammatical errors, but also simple things - you know what I'm talking about, lol. Anyways, I'm going to give you twelve levels for this. Fair enough?