As the World Turns Back Around

[Glover]

No Witnesses, Pt1
or, "The Lunchbox and the Sundress"
Chapter 14

Flip back to Chapter 13?
---

"Are you alright, mistress?"

Cayna startled from doing her laundry. "Wha? Oh, didn't hear you come in. I get used to hearing you speak in class and all"

"Sorry, er" "Sorry, Cay.” The Gardevoir spoke in a soft, melodious voice. “Human speech doesn’t come as naturally to me as telepathy does, I'm afraid. Are you okay? You seem to be folding jeans rather more forcefully, and you don’t seem to glide about as you have in the past."

Cayna looked up at her Gardevoir. "I'm fine Guinevere, really."

"Your lonely, my mistress. I don't have to be psychic to know that. But are you okay?"

Cayna turned and sat down on the bed, moving the clothes basket so Guin could sit next to her.

"I suppose I'm not. After we got married, I told myself Glover would be in and out, he was much more the trainer than I was, after all. But he didn't. He stayed at home, did everything he could by remote. I got used to having him around. The Hoenn crisis four years ago was his only major outing, and that was at my urging. So when he had to leave, it was rather sudden and not too long after Janie left. It was good seeing her first gym battle, but that was Violet City, so far away from home, and I don't think we'll even be that close to together again for a long, long time." She sniffed a bit and wiped a tear with a tissue from the bedside. "I don't know how he holds up so well."

"I have a feeling, that there's a reason he looked to see if Janie had gotten to Violet City yet.”

"You mean like he was being more active about missing her?"

"Yes, I do. That and he can immerse himself in work."

"But that only leads to wild goose chases to pass the time. I've seen that before in my trainer friends. I just hope there's actually something to this so he isn't burning himself up."

"Maybe. But regardless, there's a new world out there, so even if he is chasing ghosts, hopefully he's enjoying himself." The Gardevoir thought for a moment. "That's not quite what I meant."

"I know what you mean, I think. From a trainer's perspective, twelve years is a long time. New gym leaders, new challenges, new styles of battling. You and Gotѐgrim and I were never really ones for the competitive. We travelled to travel."

"That's the right way to say it, I think." Guinevere held her throat. "Sorry, I need to rest my vocal cords. We were never a species designed for long conversations."

"No problem, you're doing so well though." Cayna sighed, then posed a question. “How do you do it though? You’ve been here, you were practically an aunt to Janie.”

Guin thought for a moment. ”I don’t know. Probably has something to do with being what I am, Pokémon in the wild are used to their young going off unexpectedly, I guess. I’ve always thougt of myself as more a nursemaid and babysitter than family.”
“You know you mean more to us than that, Guin. You and Gotѐgrim both. You’re more than the two Ralts I found in Floaroma under attack from a Starapter, you’re family. And Glover’s accepted you as such too.”
“We know, it’s just a little off from the usual arrangement we’re taught by our elders, is all. And I’ll confess I’ve put a few thought searches out to check on her.” The Gardevoir coughed a bit. "I'll be right back after I get some water. Do you want anything, Mistress?"

"No no, I'll be down in a minute."

"Very well. My brother and I were going to drag you out to the pier for something to eat, get you out of the house and radiant for the Field Trip tomorrow."

"You two are too good to me. Guin?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

---
The following day, in the late morning lunch time, two shady figures were hunched behind a log. Before them were several large white buildings with glass front lobbies- The Research Labs.

"What'cha lookin’ at Abbott?" one of the two figures stirred.

"Sigilyph. Or trying to. Blasted things are too high up; they're up there with the Sand Hill Altaria."

"Why? What's a Sigilyph doing here anyway?"

"Guarding, what else? Didn't you read the report?"

"Well, maybe. Are they guarding the Lab? Do you think they can see us?"

"Probably, although they are Psychic types, so maybe they can only feel our minds."

"They know what we're thinking? Oh Arceus, we're busted already!"

"Just, just shut up! I told you to think pleasant thoughts. Besides, they haven't attacked us yet."

"But maybe they aren't aggressive, they won’t respond unless there for sure is an attack, they're just waiting for us to screw up."

Abbott held his head and sighed. "Yes, we're going to be defeated by a bunch of psychic guard parrots. You nincompoop, get a hold of yourself!"

"Sorry Abbott." The latter turned and caught the conveniently held out pair of binoculars to his temple.

"Now see, there you are on the ground. Get up. Pick up your hat and come on!"

“But I don’t have a hat.”

“Oh, so you don’t. Then quit dawdling and come on!”

"Yes Abbott." The two men got up from the logs. They pulled two lab coats around their white leather bodysuits and the folded up, collapsed helmets on their backs and proceeded to the buildings.

"And remember Costello: No Witnesses. "

---
"Teachhur! Teachur! Can we play with the Pokémon now? Please?"
"Yeah Ms. Cayna, please?"
"I wanna play with the Pokemans. Pwease Cayna!"

Field trip day. Something every kid looked forward to. The school wasn't far from the labs, and made several such trips like these as their scientific knowledge increased. This would be the kids' first, a simple introduction to a wide variety of species outside of the Pokémon egg they raised in the classroom, or what they might have at home, although most Orre region families didn't have Pokémon, it was easier to avoid trouble that way.

Ms. Cayna looked around the Lab's break room turned cafeteria. "If everyone's done eating, and when Miss Jovi gets back."

"I'll go ahead and collect the lunchboxes then."

"Thanks Guinevere. Timmy, you have peanut butter all over your face." A tubby kid turned away from his teacher's helpful napkin to let his tongue roam freely.

"You missed a spot." Too slow, and she got him. "Much better. Everyone be sure to line up and wash your hands, I'm sure the Pokémon don't want your lunch on their fur."

"Of course they do! I'd want it on my fur if I had fur!"

"Eww, that's gross Bob!"

The Ranch hand Extraordinaire bounded into the break room with all the enthusiasm of the class as Guinevere picked up the crate of lunchboxes to take out to the bus.

"So everyone's done eating then?” Jovi asked them enthusiastically. “Who wants to see some Pokémon?!"

"We do! We do!" The kids cried in unison.

"Not until everyone washes their hands first."

"Aww." The kids chorused and began rushing through the sink, but Cayna wasn't a new teacher, and a line went past her and was immediately turned and reformed back into the hand-washing line. She felt like that Dr. Seuss character herding the Sneeches out of one line and into the next.

“Hey, thanks for sending ‘Grim out to help me set up. I know he likes being around the kids, but with Adon sick, a Gallade is a marvelous extra set of hands to get the Pens ready for the kids.”

“No problem, Jovi.” Cay turned and looked at the latest kid seeking the seal of approval. “Good job, Ava. Looks like you’re the line lead for the girls.”

“Yay!” She bounded to the left side of the door.

---
"'Ey, Abbott. Do you see that?"

"A Gardevoir wearing a salmon colored Sun Dress taking Lunchboxes out? Yes I do."

"Why do you suppose it's taking a crate of lunchboxes out?"

"Who cares?"

"Well, is it a witness?"

"Not if you keep your big mouth shut. C'mere and help me get this door open. What the boss told us to grab should be just on the other side of this big safe of a door."

---
"Ms Jovi, what's that Pokémon?"

Jovi was glad she wasn't a teacher; herding Meowth was easier than getting fourteen juvenile pairs of hands washed. She secretly said an apology to no one for being a bad kid, though she’d never admit anything on record, and after a short struggle, they'd washed up and had two lines. She'd taken them out and started down the main passage, just as she'd done for several classes in previous years.

"Oh, that's one of our Beldum. They protect us inside. Here, watch carefully, this one's going to take his friend's place."

Just as she said, the Beldum bobbed as it floated down the hallway from the back of the facility, counting marks on the wall to find its post. Then it stopped, turned, and faced an occupying Beldum in a small alcove in the wall, hidden well as a decorative column.

'Bel.'

The on duty Beldum's eye flickered open. It studied its counterpart for a moment.

'Dum.' It stated, and then the two stared at each other for a while, their eyes flickering in sequence.

"What are they doing now, Ms Jovi?"

"Speaking with their mind. That one that came down the hall is probably being told about you and why you're here."

'Dum. Bel.'

‘Beldum’

The Beldum coming off duty at that point turned the round foot on its bottom a partial turn, turning the pedestal it sat on. There was a click, the pedestal let go, and the Beldum straightened his foot and floated up and out of his little corner. Then he and his second shift replacement turned a half circle while facing each other with the efficiency of an Honor Guard. The new Beldum backed into the compartment, turned his foot, sat down and clicked himself into place.

'Beldum'

Satisfied his replacement was secure, the other one chirped quickly and floated down the hallway to the back.

"Where's he going?"

"Back to the Beldum room."

"Can we go see the Beldum?"

"Yeah, please? Please?"

"I don't know that the Beldum would be very playful. They tend to be more interested in video games than interaction." Ms. Jovi told the kids.

"We like video games!"

"Well, yes, but the Beldum cheat."

"Besides kids, Ms. Jovi has picked out a lot of Pokémon who are excited to see you."

"Yes there are. So come on!"

Quickly forgetting about Beldum, Jovi challenged the kids to a race to the front desk, which they immediately took her up on, much to Cayna's stricter organization.

Jovi faked panting, coming up behind them. "Good job you guys.” She was actually in much better shape, than she let on, what with wrestling the Fighting types and in general working with the trainer Pokémon that come back to the lab for keeping, but kids were like Wookies; you let them win, or your day turns miserable. “Now let's go..." She turned and saw two researchers trying to get into the Purifying Room at the front of the Lab across the Hall from the Receptionist's Desk.

"May I help you?"

"Sorry to bother you. We're fine, really."

"Yeah, Crane told us to get a folder he left in here is all."

"That room's sealed." She told him point blank.

“You ninny! I told you to ask for a key."

"I can open it, here. She reached for the keypad when a little voice whispered in her ear. Normally, Jovi wasn't one to listen to anyone's voice, let alone a subconscious one, but she chose this one time to do so.

"Hold on, let me see your badges please. Mom would kill me if anything happened.”

"Oh, yes. Here." The taller, fitter of the two reached out with a piece of plastic. Just as Jovi grasped it, his hand shot out, he grabbed her wrist and spun her into his knee, doubling the ranch hand over.

"Abbott, you said "No Witnesses!"

"That's what I'm doing you dumbklopf. Now after those children!"

Cayna began herding the kids back down the hall. Abbot released a Breloom, who on command Spored Jovi so she wouldn't get back up. Then he opened two more Pokéballs, revealing two Houndoom.

"Brymstone," Abbott commanded. “Stop the Gardevoir outside, the one in the sun dress with the lunchboxes."

The addressed Houndoom looked at his trainer with its head cocked. "No, I don't know why it's carrying lunchboxes; just don't let it in here. Hellfire, get that Beldum to open some doors for us!"

But the Beldum weren't stupid, and already they’d begun a security drill. The lobby Beldum twisted in its stand and a shatterproof barrier closed around its compartment, blocking flames from the Houndoom. With a few more twists, some tapping of its claws and a few psychokinetic pulses, the Beldum closed off the corridor from the main lobby, blocking Abbott from Costello and the kids. It slammed the emergency shutters on the main door closed, trapping the Houndoom known as Brymstone outside, and it put an eight inch steel plate down on both sides of the Purifying Chamber vault door. If it had arms and a tongue, it probably would have also said "Nyah Nyah" behind its little blast shield, at least until the Breloom raced over and began Mach Punching the shield trying to break it.

---
Along the Hallway were a number of Beldum, all telepathically aware of what was going on. They closed down the hallway, and sounded the break-in alert to the offices and side labs, playing musical blast walls separating the children and Cayna from Costello, who was only marginally interested in causing them mischief but had his orders.

"What's happening Teacher?" One of the kids panted.

"I, I don't know."

"Are we in trouble?"

"No, Ava, we're fine. There's just some bad people out there. We're okay now though."

Which was the cue for a muffled crash, something roared loudly, and then something began pounding intensely at the blast wall Cayna was leaning against. She jumped nearly out of her skin. One of the Beldum started calling frantically, and the humans rushed into a side corridor. No sooner though did the Beldum seal them into the next segment though did a Rhyperior burst through.

"I told you to deal with them."

"But they're just kids Abbott."

"They're witnesses."

"You said there weren't going to be any witnesses."

"No, I said there weren't to be any."

"That's what I said."

"Then why aren't you dealing with the witnesses?!" a short fused Abbott roared.

"Because there aren't supposed to be any witnesses! You told me that. Now there are witnesses. I wish you'd make up your mind!"

"I know what I said! I said "No witnesses!”

“And now there are witnesses”

“Of course there are witnesses! There are always witnesses!”

“You said NO WITNESSES!”

“I did.”

“And there are witnesses.”

“Naturally.”

“THEN WHY DID YOU SAY THERE’D BE NO WITNESSES?”

“I did not say there’d be none. Just, go back and try to get into the Purifying system somehow. The boss wants that data. I'LL get rid of the witnesses." Costello gulped with clarity, and did as he was told, ignoring the great black beast that had blasted its way through three walls now.

---
The Beldum had routed Cayna and the kids down into a series of cubicles, which lead outside to a patio for taking breaks in. The kids were tired, worn out, and didn't want to go outside. Not that they wanted to be inside with whatever terrible monster that could smash through walls was after them either. In fact, most of them wanted to go to their mommies and daddies. Cayna said a prayer that she could get them there. Then she bit her lip, opened the door, and the kids shuffled out. 8

Then a Houndoom howled. Cay looked down, and at the corner of the building was the Houndoom that went after Guinevere.

"Look out Mistress!" Cayna turned, and a Gallade in a work shirt and pants burst through their midst. "Get into the forest!" He called. His fist lit up, and with blinding speed he disappeared, slamming his hands into the Houndoom and launching it back, but a crashing sound alerted Cayna that the monster was in the room behind them. The Beldum blast wall was against the exterior wall. She hoped whatever creature was in there was tired, and that the double wall would withstand it for a while, but the door they came through was also a weak point, and if the creature hit it just right...

Cay had no plans to stick around for that.

"More running? A red headed glasses wearing boy looked at his teacher.

"More running."

---
"Man, I thought he'd never shut up. Seriously, that boy went on like someone dumped Lake Verity on him. I was half tempted to battle right there just to shut him up."

"Me too Dad, I liked your "let's go watch the sunset and see a movie in hopes he’s hoarse by tonight” idea better though. Not that watching my old man cream him wouldn't be fun."

"You’d probably have to listen to him go on about me then, and you would never be rid of him."

Janie looked off sheepishly. "I know that look, what did you do?"

"Well..."

"Janie..."

"Alright. Cassie was goofing off. She'd never seen a roof like those and wanted to watch the water run down it. None of us had a chance to stop her, and she didn't expect it to divert over the door like that, so she says..."

"Janie, if he finds out it was your Castform..."

"He'll be after my throat for a long time. I always wanted a rival. Though I'm sure Jovi still has some of that itching powder she spiked the classroom seats with..."

"No Janie, she doesn't. I threw it out, gave it to my Muk with some old tractor oil."

"You're no fun."

"I know. And don't try asking for the sneezing powders either, and her account is disabled from owning any Shuckle."

"I'm pretty sure that's abusing League power, Dad."

"That, or I'm pre-empting a national security threat."

Janie and I laughed a bit, until my P*DA went off.

"Hello?"

"GLOVER!"

"Something wrong dear?"

"YES! I'm running from my life!"

"I thought you had a field trip today?"

"I do! And now we're running from YOUR Lab!"

Janie was looking at me inquisitively, so I did what any father would do and turned away so she wasn't able to hear about this kind of trouble.

"What happened?"

"Two goons broke in, were trying to get into the Purifying Chamber! We're out in the forest somewhere-- I always get turned around in this God forsaken reserve -- trying to avoid their Pokémon."

"Alright, listen. Find a wind chime, there should be one at each trail crossing. Take a stick and whack out the old NBC tone."

"What?"

"The NBC tone. You know, Dum-bim-bum. It's the best I can do for you until I get back to the Orre region, just trust me."

"Alright. You hurry mister, this is your fault!"

She hung up on me. Note to all males, never argue with an over-protective pissed off crazy lady.

"Gotta go Dad?"

"I'm sorry, but yes. Guess Breakfast is off then. Your mother is probably going to kill me, so I'm glad the last thing I saw was my daughter win her first gym battle."

"Thanks, Dad. I love you."

"Love you too. Good night." And at that, Ditto was released from his ball. He jet-packed me up high enough into the air, then transformed around me into an F18. My Rotom Moto slipped into a Ditto-based radio and began broadcasting an Emergency League tone to air-space controllers. Though we were unfiled, it would cover ourselves with the FAA for now. I called the Goldenrod dock and left a messege to go ahead and ship my crate. Once away from town, Gizmo opened the afterburners and we raced for the Orre region.
---
Deep in the reserve, a Blaziken was running through the forest, crying loudly out to anyone and everyone. It stopped and bellowed up into a tree, drawing the attention of a Surperior whose sleeping eyes blinked twice before it snapped back to consciousness. The snake slithered down and out a ways to a pond, slapping at the water until an Empoleon came up. The Surperior passed on the same note the Blaziken told it. It swam madly down to another part of the lake, drawing the attention of a Blastoise and a Feraligatr, as well as an Elektross.

High above, a Charizard was circling as an Aerodactyl climbed high into the air. It called out to one specific Sigilyph, who rounded up a portion of the guard. Then the flyers, soon joined by a Pidgeot and a Braviary swooped towards The Chime.

The Blaziken had more allies now, a Scizor, a wide smattering of Fighting types from the Hitmons to a Throh and a Sawk, a Donphan, a Sceptile, and a Golem joined them. An Electivire came up another path shortly followed by a Pikachu, an Emolga, and a Zebstrika.

All of them, heading loyally to The Chime.

---
"Now I've got you! Finish them Rhyperior!"

The Ground type balled itself up and began its rolling charge. Cay looked at the stick in her hand and the wind chime and cursed quietly at my existence, until a green blur bolted across the ground. It flicked its long tail, and the Rhyperior soared over the party of humans and crashed to the ground.

"Vin?" Cay asked, surprised. The Surperior nodded quickly and then dove to circle the group protectively.

The Rhyperior was crawling up onto its hands and feet to attack again, when a water missile of an Aqua Jet shattered its way through the trees and into the Rhyperior. A primordial shriek drew everyone's attention when a leathery creature dove at Abbott and Costello, all fangs and claws.

Abbott cracked open another Pokéball, a big Drapion caught the Aerodactyl's plummet and flung it, but the assembled flight of Sigilyph behind began blasting the great monster with Air Cutters, flanked by a powerful flamethrower attack. Abbott's only useable Houndoom opened its mouth and let out a massive flame, but it struck into a several ton ball of granite that bowled through the trees, turned, and just kept on rolling.

"Are these your Pokémon, Ms Cay? They look scary."

"No." She said, shedding tears of joy. "They're Glover's. You remember him; he had you sing Happy Birthday to me."

Very quickly, Abbott dove off to the side between two thick trees, avoiding the peril, but found himself outnumbered by angry Pokémon. In the confusion, he turned to leave, and found something cold, round, and steel like pressed against the back of his head.

And it clicked, as the hammer cocked back.

"No no, don't move."

"How are you awake so soon?"

"Please, it's called playing dead. I've been gassed by worse than a Breloom."

"You wouldn't shoot me in front of the kids now..."

"I'd think about it. They can’t see the barrel, it’s a small caliber, so it’ll most likely bury itself in your head and make you suffer for quite some time."

And then, before Jovi could shove her shoulder angel out of the way of the trigger, a Gallade teleported in front of him. In one arm, it held a Gardevoir in a torn dress against it, sore but awake from being attacked by a Houndoom. It took its free hand though, and sucker punched Abbott in the gut, then more lightly did Costello, who hadn't actually harmed anyone but at this point, the Gallade was just extremely angry and Costello was guilty by association.

The Police constable was along shortly after. He rode up on one of the Ranch jeeps to arrest them on guidance of a Lab aide. The assembled Pokémon all dispersed with the same elegance as a gentleman's club meeting and went back to their retirement, slowly, and in clusters of creatures who meant to catch up and hadn’t crossed paths, leaving the Blaziken and the Electivire to lead Cayna back to her own house on back of the property. The school brought out another bus to our driveway, since Cay had driven, and took everyone home.

I arrived several hours later; Gizmo was dog tired and had hurried as best he could with some cartoonishly large jet engines.

"Is everyone alright?" She was on the porch.

"What do you think?" She snapped. "Where were you? You said you would make the world safe! That's not the world of Pokémon I wanted to introduce them too, Glover! You were supposed to make it safe! Now they were in the middle of it! My own Daughter is in the middle of this world! You were supposed to make it safe and it's not safe!" She stood up, fell into my arms, sobbing and pounding my chest, pounding out her anger.

I let her cry. Through the sobs, I made out that Guin had been hurt, that a few kids may have pulled muscles, and I knew they were terrified, probably petrified. After a while, we went back to the porch swing. There was nothing to say; nothing I could say. She was right. I fell for a red herring, and something happened here. So I did the only thing I could do:

I let her cry.

---
To the Reader: Two quicky notes, in hopes I can squash two comments. Yes, I know "Talking Pokemon" are cliche' and somewhat awkward outside of PMD stories. Yes, I do have a motive, no I could not find a logical place to put a motive or explanation for it into this chapter. From the looks of things, Guin & 'Grim won't be making a serious re-appearence until No Witnesses, Pt 2, which will not be for sometime, look for it to be about when Janie gets to Goldenrod City.

In that same vein, There is a motivation for Guinivere to be in a sundress. If you can make a guess as to why she's talking, then the sundres follows the same logic. I should be able to square that away in a much shorter time though, potentially between chapters 17-20. I'm not done with 16 yet, but that's my projected timeframe. In the meantime, I hoped you enjoyed the red-herring humor that si Lunchboxes and Sundresses.

Onwards!

[Blaziken10285]

Brilliant chapter. Abbot and Costello... Nice. It was also cool to see your more competitive team make an appearance.

[Glover]

Brilliant chapter. Abbot and Costello... Nice. It was also cool to see your more competitive team make an appearance.

Thought you'd like that. And don't worry, they'll make another appearence, hopefully with more than a short paragraph's worth of "Trash the Rhyperior, Tussle a Drapion, break for Tea".

Anyway...

Fallout
World Turns CH15

Flip back a chapter?

"No Michael." I told him over the phone the next morning. "This was my screw up, but you're not coming back in."

>'But Glover, the Orre region needs its protector.'

"That doesn't default to you. You gave up being a twelve year old kid to save it once, now you're staying out in Sinnoh until you find J's crew and can confirm she's not using Cipher tech, and you’ll enjoy yourself."

It was a ludicrous notion. But then, if he were smart enough to know that, then I'd feel more comfortable about his sanity and we wouldn't be in this mess. So until he tells me that much, until he stops jumping for everything Cipher, I was leaving him out there.

Then again, I fell for it too...

I hung up on him. The Police had roped off the hole that was plowed through our wall. I met Sherles and Crane there. Professor Lily was with Cayna and Jovi, and Guin and ‘Grim trying to console. School had been called off for the remainder of the week in light of the sudden and very close assault.

And I didn’t know what Cayna needed, so I was here. Twelve years we’d been together, been through thick and thin. I evacuated her family from Hoenn when Maxie and Archie brought those monsters back from the Dawn of Time, she’d been there with me when we rescued the people of the Under, though we’d not met until then either, but never had she been on the brunt of all that’s wrong with the world, and I didn’t know what she needed.


So I did what I knew to do, I worked. "How's that Beldum?" I asked Professor Crane.

"Badly scarred, they did a number to it, nearly tore its foot off when they got through the barrier, and twisted it's head all the way around, but it'll pull through in time. No more guard duty for him though, Jovi’ll nurse him along, maybe in time get him evolved with another if we think he could withstand a fusing, might be the best way for things to heal, with an infusion of another Beldum."

"What did they want, do we know?"

"Something in the Purifying Chamber. What, I don't know. They couldn't get in. Told Jovi that they were running an errand for me."

"Oh dear, I think I can guess."

"What remains of our Shadow Pokémon research? Why would they want that, Glover?"

"I don't know. Maybe Cipher is as wiped out as we thought, and wanted to fast track their recovery."

"Or," Sherles jumped into the conversation, a bit hesitant on his idea. "Someone else wants in on the Gene game."

I gulped hard. I didn't want to think about that one, one Cipher was enough, to be dealing with a copycat was scarier.

Crane changed the subject, studying the damage they’d caused to the lab. "I thought we had these walls proofed Glover."

"We did Professor Crane, as best we could. Incapable of being possessed by a Rotom without the Beldum, and even then a tricky thing to do. Un-hackable by a Porygon evolution, and resilient to nearly anything, but everything is going to fail at some point. What did they end up using Sherles, did you say?"

"A Rhyperior, Glover. And from the looks of it, they pounded the wall with Giga Impacts and shot Stone Edges at them, then used Rollout to get through."

"Rollout?"

"Probably from its days as a Rhyhorn."

"Ah. See? As far as I’m concerned, Crane, those blast barriers did exactly what we wanted them to do. Yeah, it would have been nice if we’d captured the crooks, but they slowed them down long enough that people could evacuate to safer locations. And Rhyperior are not natural evolutions, they’re genetic “superhero” evolutions that only occur in extreme locations. The Protectors are simply an artificial way to trigger the proc- Crane, you’re a genius!"

“I am?”

“That Rhyperior must have been evolved somehow. Protectors are rare and expensive objects not easily manufactured. If I can get through the league, I might be able to track that one down. And we can find our crooks!”

---
For once, Janie wasn't up before the sun. She'd been out late with her pops and slept in until 7:30 in the morning. She had breakfast at the Pokémon Center, was about ready to hit the road and get herself caught up.

“You’re not staying in town then?”

“Probably not Nurse Joy. I got what I came for, and there’s more to see. We’re topped off on supplies, I can’t think of anything else.”

“Oh. Well, alright. I’ll get your Egg packed away then for you. It looks healthy enough, but it’s up to it when it wants to hatch. I’d say you’ve got a while though, I’m afraid.”

Janie pouted for a brief second, then shrugged it off. “Very well, whenever he or she is ready to come out.”

“That’s the right attitude. I’ll be right back then.”

Chansey was the one to bring it back though, or more rightly, one of the Chansey. Janie took it appreciatively, and started out, pushing past Tommy who was still at his tirade, but demoted to pointing and mad fist waving as his voice gave out last night on him.

She made it out the door and down the street before Tally veered off to look into a pond. Janie huffed and blew on her bangs. “You silly pup, get over here! We’re off to Azelea, remember?

The Herdier though, despite deathly hating water, baths, and being wet, was fascinated by something under the surface though. Soon, a mid twenties robed man came across a wooden bridge and leaned over to the Herdier.

“Some people don’t understand the finer things in simplicity, do they?”

Tally looked up, smiled, and gave the man a combination look of “You’re right” and “Who are you?” Janie gave the man much the same look.

“Forgive my intrusion, I’m Seymour, an apprentice from Sprout Tower. Did I hear right, you’re just on your way through?”

“Why does everyone think that odd?”

“No reason, I just had you pegged for a new trainer is all, and usually new trainers go to Sprout Tower, or train obsessively in town.”

“They’re Bellsprout, right? I didn’t see any point in grind training on the little weeds, we’ve got plenty of wild forest between here and Uniontown”

“Well, yes. But surely you aren’t doubting the abilities of a Bellsprout, are you?”

“Well, no offense, but I’ve got a Herider with Fire Fang and we’re working on Ice Fang, a Beedrill and last I checked Bug trumps Grass, and a Castform with all kinds of weather related pain. Where’s the sport?”

“An intriguing lineup. I tell you what then, how about I ask for a battle?”

“To change my mind?”

“Perhaps, but I’m an apprentice, and my Sprout Audrey and I need to learn and diversify. Any of your Pokémon would be an intriguing experience, and your confidence is impressive.”

“Well, I do owe Tiny a battle. How are Beedrill a new experience for you though?” She set the egg container down on the ground beside her ad motioned over her shoulder for the Beedrill.

“We’re set up near a flying gym. Bug types aren’t real high on the training list.”

“Ah, well alright then. I warn you though, my Beedrill’s a real spitfire.”

Spitfire? She knows the word Spitfire? Why then in all things holy am I being called Tiny? Now Spitfire, THAT’s a name. I could go with that. ‘Spitfire, the Beedril’. But why must she insist on calling me Tiny?” The Beedrill fumed.

Seymour stepped aside and guided a dopey looking Bellsprout, far from its namesake, forward to battle. “We’ll allow you first move, Janie.”

“Sounds like a plan then. Tiny, let’s warm up with a Poison Jab.”

“Poison Jab? Let’s warm up with a better nickname perhaps, but we can do Poison Jab. Watch this Bellsprout wilt!”

He took one glowing pointed limb and drilled it towards the Bellsprout with blindging speed and precision.

And he missed. The Bellsprout’s body was very quickly just to the left of his needle. So he pulled his punch and thrust forward again with the other arm.

And he missed, again.

So he calmly pulled his punch back. The Bellsprout danced happily in place as its hapless foe meditated, waiting. Then, all at once, the Beedrill let out a fury of Poison Jabs, thrusting and pulling several dozen times, each time not hitting the plant that was six inches away from him.

Beedrill panted, flustered and tired. The Bellsprout continued to dance happily, then of its own accord remembered it was in a Pokémon battle and spat a bit of Acid on the Beedrill. It ran down his face, onto his shoulders. He took one still glowing needle and wiped it off, flinging the weak poison attack off and flicking it violently on the ground.

And then he snapped. More rightly, he held his pointy hand tips up to his head height, through his head back, and cackled as best a Beedrill could. Audrey looked at him as one might a crazy person, and when Tiny met his eyes, it was with murderous intent.

Again and again he thrust madly, this time also flapping and rubbing his wings together at an extremely rapid pace, starting a quiet vibration and creshendoing it to a full on Summer evening onslaught of buzzing. The Bellsprout reached up with its leafy hands and covered the sides of its head, trying to filter out the noise, but the Buzzing continued, ringing in it’s bell shaped head and wearing away at its leafy soul as the Beedrill jabbed over and over at its weak body. Helpless, trapped, and with a psychotic bug type in its face, the Bellsprout began to cry little acid tears, but it only seemed to fuel the Beedrill’s fury.

And then the Beedrill disappeared. Audrey waited until after the sudden light vanished before slowly peering over his leafy hands, the buzzing still loud in his head.

“I think we’ve had about enough of that, alright Tiny?”

“Hmm. It would seem there’s still much for us to learn about range attacks. Evasion isn’t everything I guess.”

“I disagree, if you can avoid being hit, so much the better. That’s what I learned with Dad, anyway. But sound moves can be hard to dodge like that.”

“Quite right. When Audrey and I get better, perhaps then we’ll learn to attack and prevent you from doing so. Even still, the Sages are much stronger than I. I think it would be worth your time to battle them.”

“Maybe, but I don’t think that’s a good idea. Some other time, maybe. Thanks for the match though, and sorry Tiny went overboard.”

“Not at all, I learned a good deal. Best of luck in your travels.”

---
The girls hadn’t actually gone anywhere, no one had the strength to do so. Lily hadn’t been in the building yesterday work had called her to Unova, though she was usually at the field trips. Instead, they all sat on the couch, flipping through channels.

“I still don’t really like my daughter carrying a firearm.” Lily finally sighed after several hours of barely interrupted silence.

“I don’t! I wish she’d pulled the damn trigger and splattered him across the back of his eyes!”

“Mi-lady,” Gotegrim interrupted bringing a bit of clarity to his trainer/partner/comrade. Cayna looked into the eyes of her Gallade, and thought for a moment.

“No, you’re right I suppose, I suppose I don’t. ”

Jovi however, didn’t say anything, being somewhat distrusting of herself. She didn’t quite know who she was at that point, her only recollection being pieced together and put forward to her in a third person. Her actions had been automatic, and instinctual. The pistol she carried had been for protection in the depths of the ranch, if and in case some of the Pokémon were to have gone rabid, or possessed by disease. Never in a million years did she think she’d find herself backed into a corner; that she would actually pull it and try to put it to use.

And it scared her.

On to Chapter 16

[Wartiger97]

Wow Janie needs to learn how to comunicate with her Pokemon better. Great chapter Glover I love how your story flows and that's a big factor when I looking to read a story. Keep up the good work I didn't see any errors.

[Glover]

Wow Janie needs to learn how to comunicate with her Pokemon better. Great chapter Glover I love how your story flows and that's a big factor when I looking to read a story. Keep up the good work I didn't see any errors.

Agreed, although there's a few things working against her. Numero uno "Tiny" has only been hers for a few weeks by this point. She's lived with Tally for five years if anyone else is reading this and has read Tempest, but I try to imply that Tally's been a family pet for a while. You won't see her doing the kind of telpathic links that Becca and Cole do with theirs, I'm just not into that, unless she ends up with a Pokemon that has rom in its bio for such things. Drsgons, for example in the lore are said to be highly intelligent, and there are always Psychic types, although even the I'm partially tempted to retcon a few of Sunbeam's thoughts from Tempest, namely that Glover was able to hear them. The more I think about it, the more I think that not all Psychics need to be, well, psychic. But we'll see how that plays out, shall we?

[Glover]

This Chapter Brought to You by the Letter M for Miserable

CH16

Flip back to Chapter 15?


"On the road again..." Janie sang to herself. She was south of Violet City now, it was lunch time, and a sign pointing towards the Ruins of Alph was beckoning her in. She kinda wanted to keep going, but briefly her mind wandered to the magnetic Unown we used to keep on the fridge, the ones she learned to spell with, "just like the ancients did". So so her Dad told her.

Maybe the Journey could wait a little while, so she pushed through the visitor's center, Tally and Castform following behind her.

The Ruins were empty. Not much to see, mind you, but Janie was expecting to find glory seekers hoping to catch an Unown sighting. Instead, nothing. She poked her head into the first chamber, and lit her flashlight. They'd put velvet ropes up with signs that said

"No touching!"

to protect the ancient walls. Text and hieroglyphs lined three of them, soaring high into the air on twelve foot walls. Much of the text was hard to read, some of the words strange. Though the Universal language Quertesian had evolved from the Unown ruins, not all of the words or tenses did or made the change through the years. On top of that, the story didn't seem to follow a regular pattern of around the room, instead it went in panels undefined, so she gave up reading and went back to looking.

The ceiling was painted in a strange purle haze with many silver specks, although the ancient paint was fading and chipping from moisture and earthquakes. In truth, it reminded her something of the pictures of a nebula, and she wondered how the ancients knew what those were.

Tally barked at something. Briefly, Janie thought she saw a shadow where Tally was hunched down, growling. In front of the Herdier was a blank spot on the wall, with only a single word carved into it.

ESCAPE

"Huh. Wonder what that means. Maybe someone was making a warning?"

Seeing what was there, which wasn’t much, Janie left and went South towards the Research Lab dome, went past it, then crossed a pond over a rope bridge where her first encounter with Alph humanity was made.

A Scientist was working at a stone sphere with an odd laser setup, and hadn't heard her coming, hence he jumped about twelve feet when she asked what he was doing.

"What I'm doing? What are you doing? The Ruins are closed, today. What do you want? We’re busy, shoo!"

"I'm just curious about the ruins is all."

"Well, when you come back, you can be all the curious you want. And you can learn about this thingy when we do."

"Oh. Alright." She told him. "How about I just watch you do, whatever it is."

"You have no respect for science Missy, do you? Why I happen to be the lead researcher on this recently unearthed Stone Pokéball."

"Stone Pokéball?"

"Yep. And I can't wait to find out what could possibly be inside, just as soon as we open it."

He adjusted thick framed glasses and picked up his fancy laser pointer.

"Are you sure that's wise?"

"Of course, you silly girl! It says O, then there's a P, and an N, with something before the N, probably an E."

"Well, yes, but don't I see a D? Then something, and an N, a round dent and then a cross, maybe a T? Surely it says "Do Not Open" on it."

"That's dumb. You'd be the worst scientist out there. Why would the Ancients leave us an old stone Pokéball they don't want us to open?"

"Pandora's Box?"

The scientist looked at her with disgust. "That's myth and you know it. Now go on, scoot. Get out of here. Skram!" And he pushed her all the way back to the rope bridge. Janie made a note to either be as far away from here or be ready to help evacuate to herself, then stopped off at the snack bar in the Visitor's Center.

---
"What's going to happen to me?"

No one had gotten much sleep. I'd taken the couch, but Cayna wouldn't sleep on the bed, so we ended up slumped against each other in the living room talking and holding each other. I suppose it wouldn't be right to say she'd never seen trouble before; after all, we met when we were evacuating the Under, and four years ago her brother-in-law disappeared, though we'd still managed to not tell her exactly what we think happened, that he was most likely disintegrated under the full wrath of a Rayquaza and its Hyper Beam, but trouble had never stared her in the face before. Not like this.

And just when she'd gotten to sleep, I had to go to the Lab and assist in guarding the giant hole in the wall, which is when Jovi had approached me with her question.

"Whatever do you mean?"

"I've heard them talk, Glover. My own Mother told me she didn't want me having a gun. Now Professor Crane looks at me like he's scared of me, and Sherles keeps asking questions. Am I in trouble? Did I really go too far?"

"Oh, Jovi. Heavens no. Why would anything happen to you?"

"I... I pulled a gun on him! I tried to kill him Glover! He was defenseless, his Pokémon occupied or fainted, and I almost killed him!" She fell into me and started to cry.

This wasn't Jovi at all. This wasn't the strong girl, the confident, headstrong girl that gave people pause, that had grown up as Janie's "Big Sister", that was always in some kind of mostly harmless mischief because she could. I found us a bench outside, leaving Dreadnaught to manning the outer wall to sit and console this new girl, this endless fountain of tears.

She sniffled for a moment against me.

"There there. Everything's fine, you'll be fine. What's really bothering you then?"

Teary eyes looked up. "I've known you well enough to know you're too independent to care."

"I... I just..."

"Take your time."

"Well... It's... I remember... No..." Jovi stopped and took a deep breath. "I don't remember actually doing anything. It's like I'm watching myself... I almost killed a man and I wasn't in control and..." She sniveled a bit before admitting "it scares the crap outta me." before she cried again into my dark blue duster.

onwards to Chapter 17!

[Wartiger97]

Great chapter I didn't see any errors. That scientist is an idiot why would a anchient Pokeball say "open"if it was a thing meant to be opened it would be blank meaning its just another regular Pokemon, but no he doesn't care as long as he gets famous from the discovery. Isn't his type the ones who die first in all the movies? Wow Jovi's kinda creeping me out with the " I almost killed a man and I didn't care, but I couldn't stop myself it was like I was just watching me do it I had no control" stuff, but I would have most likely done something similar except I would have asked my Scyther to maim him. First he tried to break into a building with dangerous technology from a past evil group that almost succeeded in taking over the world, then he threatend innocent children. The latter would be the icing on the you just officially pi$$ed me off cake.

[Glover]

Great chapter I didn't see any errors. That scientist is an idiot why would a anchient Pokeball say "open"if it was a thing meant to be opened it would be blank meaning its just another regular Pokemon, but no he doesn't care as long as he gets famous from the discovery. Isn't his type the ones who die first in all the movies?

You learn quickly... Yo've not heard the last of the Ruins of Alph...

Wow Jovi's kinda creeping me out with the " I almost killed a man and I didn't care, but I couldn't stop myself it was like I was just watching me do it I had no control" stuff, but I would have most likely done something similar except I would have asked my Scyther to maim him. First he tried to break into a building with dangerous technology from a past evil group that almost succeeded in taking over the world, then he threatend innocent children. The latter would be the icing on the you just officially pi$$ed me off cake.

Hopefully I'm not overdoing it too much. That, actually gives me an idea for how to cap this off.

    Spoiler:- Ideas...:

Show Spoiler

 
This is how my mind works: I watch the stories unfold and try my best to record them in words. Just as in the story, Jovi came out of NOWHERE with this little revolver in her hand. That chapter had originally been meant to be ended by the Honor Guard, all those Pokemon that were rounded up by the bell were to be the heroes, this would be one of their few chapters. I hadn't anything planned for Jovi's retribution until No Witnesses Pt2, and all of a sudden there she is holding the revolver used in emergency purposes and ranch functions.

The problem being, she's in the neighborhood of 16-18 yrs old. Legal to carry it for work purposes most likely, since kids her age are carrying much worse Pokemon, but how would a teenage girl feel about death?

So, two things your post says I need to wrap up: How much of this is her mind trying to protect her from the memories, trying to file it away as "That wasn't me." I'll have to think on that one, see where the story takes me.

The other one, what is the consequence of a firearm vs using a Pokemon. And consequence isn't the right word, no judge in Orre is going to try her for Self Defence, especially against someone with a Rhyperior and children for hostages. (Also, most Judges have probably been run out of the Orre region...)
 

[Wartiger97]

Ok that makes more sense because I thought you were going to make her possesed by something... Then again I guess it wouldn't bother me as much considering the circumstances then again I've been taught to do whatever I have to do to defend me, my family, and friends with nothing more and nothing less.

[Glover]

Current Events
WT Chapter 17

flip back to Chapter 16?

Janie was making good time getting south. Outside was a man climbing down from a rocky perch. He'd been exploring, and like her, had been chased unceremoniously out of The Ruins. He'd been impressed with Tally, and after confessing that he gave copies out to a lot of trainers in his time, offered Janie the Technical Machine 5 on Roar.

"We're working on the Fang moves right now." She told him, palming a small keychain sized electronic device . "Tally's smart enough, but I'd hate to dump too much on her right now."

"Very well, there's no hurry. The machine is reusable, so long as you take care of it, you can use it again later."

“Well in that case then, thanks! I’ll be sure to take good care of it!”

The two then parted ways. Janie found herself studying the little box. A postage stamp sized screen hosted a how-two manual, with play, pause, and skip buttons for the video. It reminded her of her old Pokewalker from when she was younger in size and basic shape, and she figured the electronics were about as cheap and sensitive to dropping, sunlight, and the occasional bad luck. Not possessing a case for it, she carefully wrapped it in a bandanna and placed it in the top of her bag.

Later that evening, she met a kid named Albert. He was on his way north from his hometown to battle Falkner. Tally made quick work out of his Ratatta, but the Zubat was able to avoid all of the Herdier's attacks, forcing her Beedrill to match the bat Pokémon.

And it wasn't too long after that, that Janie decided to set up camp.

By now, Janie had her team fairly well trained in the art of camping. Castform and Beedrill went looking for smaller sticks for kindling. Tally dug a nice pit hole, and Janie set up the tent. It was a fairly large, wire frame folding tent. One of those that was easy to set up, one just took it out of its sleeve, pulled the layers apart, then jumped back quickly to avoid being smacked in the head by a pop-up tent, as Janie had already done twice in Johto, and the whole thing snapped into place. A quick hammering job to spike it down, and one was all set. Folding the tent was a much more difficult manner, but the trade-off was having a near instant shelter in fast moving rain storms.

Afterwards, Janie went back out for larger sticks that couldn't be carried by her smaller Pokemon, and would then prepare dinner of some kind for the threesome.

This, would be where we rejoin the story then, when a girl just a year younger than Janie stumbled past her camp in a fret.

---
"Oh, oh dear, me." She fretted, and then spotted the glow of Janie's fire. "Hello in the tent?" she called, hopefully.

"Hello there!" Janie responded, getting up and stepping around the tent. May I help you?"

"Bless you, yes! May I join you?"

"Of course you may. Please, I was just warming up some soup. Please have some."

This new acquaintance, sporting a slightly tattered old Girl Scout uniform stepped around the back of the tent and sat down on a small rock clutching a small, blue rodent asleep in her arms. "You're a total lifesaver. I'm Liz."

"Janie." our heroine replied. She couldn't hlep but look down to make eye contact, between Janie being two years older, and a bit n the tall side, and Liz being equally smaller, it certainly made fo an interesting greeting. "What's got you worried?"

"Well, I seem to have lost my camp. I was out for a weekend trip, a "picnic" trip of sorts with Nidy.” Liz We were out by the cliff edges and lost track of time. We only just made it to the top of the cliffs and back to the route before Sunset, and we have terrible night vision."

"Lucky you found us then or you would have been out in the cold all night."

"Lucky me is right, but I hate to drag you out to find my camp at this hour, would you mind if I curled up by your fire?"

"Don't worry about that, I've got my sleeping bag it’s clear out, and I do have a Castform if we need to ward off any summer showers. I'll sleep outside tonight then. You can have the tent, be more comfortable than the ground and it’ll give you some privacy."

"I don't want to put you out though."

"Nonsense. I'd love the extra company. "

"Really?"

"Of course, it’s just my Pokémon and I on the road. I’d love to have someone to talk to whose first words aren’t ‘Battle me!’. Here, have something to eat."

Liz blew on her soup. "Thank you. This means a lot."

---
Justy arrived that evening to the lab. "Here we are, Glover. These are my prized pupils I was telling you about. The future stars of the Orre region."

The young trainers stood proudly in their ace trainer red and white dress shirts, andpants or skirts.

"A bit too formal, don't cha think?"

"You said you were looking for trainers who could battle and earn the respect of the colosseums and towns."

"Well, yes, but this is supposed to be for fun, not a boot camp."

One of them smirked a bit, Justy apparently hadn't heard of their little after hours parties. "Fun, huh?" he thought to himself.

"Very well." I decided. "We'll get you rooms then. Thanks for volunteering to help with the lab guard."

"Of course." One of the girls said, adjusting her green hair out of her eyes quickly.

Another of the guys asked "When do they expect to get it all fixed?"

"We've got a team with Conkeldur and Machoke working, they've got the structural wall repaired but we don't think we'll get the new plating until the day after tomorrow at best."

"Justy said a week, so I guess he's right then."

"Sadly, yes. It would look to be about that long.”I agreed. “I hate seeing this place practically defenseless."

"But it won't be now that you have us." One of the pupils asserted. Justy just smiled.

"I'll take first watch and head home tomorrow, give you guys the chance to settle in, okay?" The Phenac Gym Leader told them.

"Yes Teacher."

"Very well. Don't worry about anything, Glover. You're in safe hands now."

"I appreciate that, Justy, but believe you me, there's still a lot to worry about."

---
"Milord, Our forward agents have indeed been captured."

"I figured as much. Do they suspect Cipher behind this?"

"It would appear they are not sold on that notion, however there does seem to be enough suspicion that we could work with, on your command."

"Hmm. We shall have to think on our next move. If Ardos will not sell me the Pokémon I desire, then we shall have that data, some way or another."

---
Cinnabar Island. Once, a bustling seport, a restful stop for trainers and merchant vessels alike. Now, all that remains is a Pokemon Center servicing outlying islands, and a few camps. Some were archeologists, some looters, a few trying vainly to find their old homes, some looking to rebuild. The vast majority of them, were not cleared to be here. Much of Cinnabar has relocated to the Seafoam Islands, living delicately around Seafoam's status as protected wilderness.

Thus, no one was around to pay any attention to a large ship that docked to the island in the night. They gave no concern to its mighty crane arm, the swiveling bridge, or the three large pods that it set off. Automated corridors stretched between the carefully placed containers, and a shady looking excavation team moved about inside the instant buildings. They were there for a week; the ship had droppd them off on its way by and would come back for them when their work was done.

The work crews started on top of the old mansion and labs, digging with a careful haste. They were looking for one room, one item, one glass vial with a glowing, twisted strand.

"AH HA!" One scientist finally exclaimed. "The Berserk Gene at last is back in our hands!"

"Very good. I'll radio Madame Chief and alert her. The rest of you, evacuate out of here and mask what we were looking for."

---
Notes:     Spoiler:- Spoiler Notes:

Show Spoiler

 
I'm pulling a few random references out of this chapter, thought I'd catch you up. All three of the NPCs that Janie meets are straight out of the G/S/C and HG/SS games, albeit Liz is getting a much more expanded backstory in hopes of me making some sense out of trainer classes and age limitations. Liz will not be a permanent staple, she's an experiment to see if the travelling partner foil is neccesary for Janie or not. Do enjoy while she's around though.

Also, a lot of new writers struggle with the TM machine, such as I did here. I plan to go into it in more detai such as hwo to usel, either in A Break for Lunch (CH19) or after Please, Don't Feed the Bears, which is CHapter 20. For now though, if you're still confused, then try thinking of it like a Tomogatchi sized Teachy TV.

More importantly though, are the two references at the very end of the chapter. Yes, this is post-Cinnabar eruption, and if the Berserk Gene is ringing any bells, that's because the Berserk Gene was an early games power up item similiar to what the Soul Dew is for Latios and Latias, excapet for Mewtwo. I moved the items location, originally it was found in Cerulean Cave after you caught Mewtwo, vut a Gene made more sense to be in the rubble of the Genetics Lab, hence the relocation. But what could anyone possibly want with a discarded piece of science?
 

Turn the page?

[Wartiger97]

Good work Glover I love your story please keep up the good work. Oh lordy someone's messing with genetics again first ex-headteamrocketscientist Blaine (who created Mewtwo) now some "random" guy that I doubt is just curious and has no evil plot. I'll shut up now so I don't start spouting off things that may contain huge plot details. Sorry for no spoiler tags but my computer doesn't want to use them.

[Glover]

Detours
WT Chapter 18

Do you guys actually read these followback links?

"Alright, Glover. You have our bicycles out, what are you up to? Where are we going today?"

"It's a surprise, Cayna dear. The property behind our house was acquired by me for the lab, but I wanted all of us to be able to feel safe in it."

"So we're going back into that reserve then, Oh joy." Cayna was apparewntly less than amused at reliving the location, but I had already gotten the route home from my Blaziken, and had it mapped out in my head so that we would avoid it.

"Relax, it'll be fine." We mounted a pair of mountain bikes and rode through the side yard.

"I went kinda heavy with the Enigma vines back here, the heavy pepper in them keeps the reserve Pokémon from coming through the back hedge."

"I see." Cayna really wasn't feeling any more confident that we wouldn’t have strange creatures in our backyard at night though. I pushed through the thick hedges, the tough, prickly vines, then helped her bike through them. She gave a disapproving look at the private forest behind our house.

"Now, you're going to hate me, as I purposely laid the trails out this way, but there's an almost straight path between our house and the lab. It's straight out, over two crossings, then straight in, easy as pie. I crossed them up so that someone couldn't run right into our back porch."

"So, in other words, you purposefully want people to get lost in this place, right dear?"

"Only if they don't know the right clues.” I teased. “Come on, I'll show you." And with that, we rode straight through the property. I pointed out a few side trails as we went, noting their widths. “Those meant something.” I told her. “Medium width paths went back to feeders and sheds, depending on a color marked by a wind chime at the corner. A very small dot, but then, if you knew what to look for, it wasn't unnoticeable.”
Some distance in, there was a small squeaky horn honk coming up from behind us. Jovi was head of taking care of the Pokémon, but we had several other rancher breeders underneath her. Most of them were long-term interns learning under us, and they all employed little single seat electric jeeps, slightly larger than those toy Power Wheels things but smaller than a Gator or a four wheeler. They were just as wide as the smallest of our service paths, a little narrower than the medium paths, and narrow enough they could pass at speed on the "main drag". So Cayna and I got over to the side and he carefully slipped around us, his empty feed pails rattling around in the small bed behind him.

I glanced over, and Cay had a slight grin on her face. "Stop that," I teased, "You don't like it back here."

She rang her bike bell at me and took off down the trail a ways, until I dove down a side path and made her think she missed a turn.

I got slugged in the arm for that when she caught up, but it was worth it.

We toodled up the "blue line” a ways longer, so called by the blue dots that marked the intersections. She spotted the first Windchime to mark a turn in the road. From the intersection, the path width to the left matched the one we were on and the one straight ahead. I told her though that it narrowed a bit up farther, and she agreed, looking at the dot on the crossroad side of the windchime's top.

"Two up you said?"

"And straight in."

"Then I'll race you to the Lab, correct?"

I grinned."You're on."

We peeled out of there just as fast as we could peddle, she turned down the correct trail and could see the white building, but I had turned one trail earlier, It was a small one, rarely used and a bit overgrown, looked to me like one made by a Pokémon that hadn't been touched again, but it sufficed, however where I had built some upper body strength by working the currents with Gizmo gliding, Cayna spent much of her time on her feet, and was the better peddler, and despite me sneaking up the back way, she had just managed to get to the side of the main lab building ahead of me.

"You're grinning." I observed.

"I know. That was fun. And you're right, dear. I'm going to hit you again for making it so obviously complicated and subtley easy."

"Yeah, I told you you could feel safe back here. And if you get lost, there's a bell in the wooden weight on the chimes, if you ring that, you should get someone to help you, without summoning the calvary."

"A Pokémon, you mean."

"No, I mean the front desk of the Lab, there's a speaker in the top, silly."

"Glover, I hate you. Why didn't you tell me about all these little tricks when you were building them?"

"You were too busy hating this place when I built it."

---
"Ugh. They're still asleep"

"Oh, come off it already Buzzkill, you complain because she gets up before the Sunrise, now you're complaining because she's sleeping in?"

"It's seven am Pup, we Beedrill like regularity at least. And she didn't talk to us hardly at all last night..."

"Hey now, you're the one who went mad psycho on the Bellsprout and got shut up in the ball. Tally informed him. So she has a new friend. Humans like having other Humans around that they can talk to. She seemed to like being up all night talking about boys and movies and stuff."

"She can talk to us."

"And we can talk to her, but that doesn't mean she can hear us."

"Whatever, this is nonsense. And I'm going to put a stop to it.

"Beedrill, I wouldn't" Castform interrupted them.

"Yeah, stop Beedrill. Beedrill? Beedrill...

"YEA--OOWW!" a high pitch voice screamed.

"...Janie's not the one asleep in the tent." Tally finished her comment.

A scream awoke Janie, who on instinct and still in her nightgown grabbed hold of a zipper, threw open her sleeping bag, and dashed immediately to the tent, flung the zipper on the front of the tent open, and found Liz swatting furiously at a yellow and black object in the fetal position with her girl scout cap. The trainer put a couple of half-asleep thoughts together, and recalled the Beedrill.

Hat: 1, . Castform teased, Tiny: 0 Tally laughed in agreence.

"What in the world am I going to do with you? You’re getting more and more out of control by the day!” he spoke to the Pokéball, then turned to her guest. “Sorry about that." Janie apologized profusely. "Guess it's time to get up huh?"

Liz harrumphed, pulled an extra blanket Janie packed for winter to go over the sleeping bag, and rolled over violently. "I'll start breakfast then" Janie decided.

She grabbed her bag out of the tent on her way out.

Liz finally crawled out to the sound of pancakes sizzling over the fire, with little sausages cooling near it. Janie took one look at her camping partner, deduced that grizzled mop of hair and attached girl was most definitely not a morning person, and offered a glass of orange juice. It was clearly not what she was hoping for, but Janie wasn't one for coffee, and therefore didn’t have any, so it sufficed.

There was little conversation over breakfast, but the guest was slowly waking up. "I'll be right back, Liz, gonna change into something warmer than this gown."

"Alright... I’ll, uh, tear down the cookstove for you, yeah."

"Morning, sleepyhead." Janie teased.

"Shut up!"

---
..."Right, I know. Uh huh. I know, right? It's amazing! I couldn’t believe it either!..."

"Do what now?" Janie asked, coming out of the tent. Then she saw Liz turn, the bluetooth earpiece, and figured she was on the phone. which was fine, everyone gets a phone call every now and then, right? So Janie began moving bags out of the tent, grabbed her spike hammer, and pulled up the posts holding the tent down.

"...Wow! That's awesome! Next time you're over this way, you'll have to show me your Ledian then...." Still talking away, though Janie could have sworn to someone else, Liz came over to help fold the wire mesh tent.

---
"So you're in Olivine now huh? I remember battling your Chikorita not too long ago..."

---
"...That's too bad about the rain. Maybe you'll get clear skies behind it tomorrow and can do your photoshoot then?..."
---
"It must be tough training in one location for so long. You're so determined. Good luck against Clair today!"
---
Janie fumed. Steam blew out her ears and she curled her lip as she looked at her Herdier and Castform, and all three shared the same thought. Does she EVER shut up? How long does one have to talk on the blasted phone? Maybe it's glued to her ear or something. Janie was half tempted to let Tiny back out of his ball, see if that would get her to hang up.

Admittedly, there's not that much she could have done to get ready, everything had to go back into Janie's bag a certain way. It wasn't an OCD thing, it had to. That's how those hammerspace backpacks worked.

That was fine then, but Tally'd been tracing her wayward path back to the cliffs for four hours now, periodically sniffing the ground, taking a big whiff of Liz's scent to refresh her nose's memory, and she still hadn't hung up on him, her, them, whomever. Janie had never seen anyone orchestrate multiple Pokémon battles while on the phone. Her little Nidoran was pretty good at deducing her trainer's comments as to what's an attack and what's a conversation; Janie had to admit.

"Wow." They'd reached Sheer Cliff, the eastern edge of the route. The sea and the sky were both crystalline. Many Wingull circled the area, having ridden in centuries ago on sailor's craft as pioneers of their species. They competed with locally adapted Pidgetto in racing down the sheer edges with their wings pulled back, pulling up inches from the sea with talons outstretched to nail a Goldeen or Magikarp up too close to the surface.

"This is beautiful."

"... I couldn't believe the quality! I told the lady "Look, I can find a much more comfortable pair of heels than you're cast steel bricks at Goodwill, and if they don't sparkle as much I can glitter them. No girl in their right mind is going to wear something that feels like a rock to a ball! And she just scoffed at me and called me a fashionless pig! ..."

Janie grumbled and watched nature unfold. A Pidgetto had come up from a raid successfully with a large, thrashing Seaking. The exhausted bird threw Air Slash after Air Slash into its fins, unaware of someone else eying its lunch.

The Fearow were smart, though. Why drop down from great heights and then try to lug a large fish back up from the sea, only o have to kill the meal when someone else will do it? They didn't get wet, they didn't have to labor for their meal, it was essentially a free lunch. Not seeking, or strong enough for confrontation, the Pidgetto hobbled away at the screech and shadow of a plunging vulture. No sooner did the Fearow nestle down to eat though, than another one decided to try to be cocky. The second scavenger was smaller than the first, but he was more spritely, and cocky. And in Fearow culture, cockiness counts for a lot. Soon, the two birds were off squabbling, paying little attention to the Seaking dish, or the Pidgetto who had decided that little snatches of fish meat were better than making another attempt on an empty stomach. By the time the two Fearow had wizened up, the Pidgetto had claimed a little more than twenty-five percent of its own meal and flapped off cheekily.

"...That's where I ended up getting mine from! And they were much more suited to my dress than anything that other place had to offer...."

"We're stopping for lunch. Tally, do you think you can find that scent again after we eat?"

The Herdier responded with a confidant 'Ruff' and saluted with her right front paw; so Janie, Herdier, and Castform slipped down the ledges to the sea.

"... Did you hear about that model? She ripped the train off her dress right before she went out. Couldn't stand it, couldn't walk with it! She...Hold on." Liz took the earpiece off her ear.

"Janie? Hello? Where’d you go? Anyone?"

[Wartiger97]

Great chapter I saw a couple words like to that you left of the t though that's the only thing I saw. I love Glover's ranch/lab lots of cool gadgets. ( I almost said gizmos, but I didn't want you to think I meant your Rotom, or the little Gremlin) by the way my "secret" project is almost done just finishing up the first part once the first part is done I'll send you chapter one.

[Glover]

Easter Eggs

Author's Note:Consider this a gift, a spoiler of things to come. This is not the full chapter, by Serebii rules it's much too short. By looks of things, this will fall between chapter 25-30. Given the Holdiay thugh, I'd thought I'd pull it out early, and get it out of my headspace.

Also, a few of you may be figuring out what I'm slowly building too. Or not, most of the pieces are now there, it'll just take time to bake. I'd love to read your theories though. Happy Easter!

---
"Hello, welcome to the Goldenrod Daycare Gentlemen. What can I do for you?" A short, stocky, older lady looked up from behind the counter. Her bad eyesight meant that she missed a few important details, like the revolvers thw two men entered were carrying, or the floppy black hats and matching uniforms, until they were leaping across the counter and disarming her from her cane.

Very shortly, the woman was joined by her longtime husband in the back store room. They were gagged and tied up to sturdy metal shelves. One of their assailents was studying the Pokemon they were looking after.

"No, Capone, Madame Boss was abundantly clear: Eggs only this time, no matter how enticing they look."

"Too bad, there's a Ninetales over there marked "do not let out with Pokemon with Dry Skin or Solar Power".

"Well, okay. In that case, I don't think they'd miss one Pokeball. Just help me get the eggs."

Capone dashed back out to the truck and grabbed a rolling cart with two white jackets thrown on top of it and ran back inside. His partner in crime, quie literally, had picked several colorful eggs out. A bright blue one with a black bottom and a yellow star, a cream one with a single golden oblong shape on top, an orange one that almost looked scaled, a dark green one with a creme bottom and red spots, one in green and yellow, a pink one, and an egg marked in red and blue triangles.

Quickly, they loaded the carts and pulled over the lab coats, wheeling the egg-laden cart out to the truck. Under the guise of being contracted breeders, they moved with haste to the airport, transferred the cargo into a tilt-rotor airplane, and were not six inches off the pavement before Jenny yelled at air traffic control to shut down that plane.

By then though, the pilot had no plans of playing it by the books, he rocketed up into the air and was soon over open water. When he landed again, it was on the flat deck of Team Rocket's Operations vessel. Safely in International Waters and nigh untouchable by authorities there, the ship lay anchor in a small reef. Dr. Nanba waited on the deck for the aircraft's arrival, he and an assistant quickly ushered the payload below decks, through long, weaving hallways, and finally into a small but functional lab area.

"Hmm, too far along." he tagged the first one with a "Shinx" sign. "So's this Meowth egg,, and Ooh, do be sure they take good care of this one." Nanba told his pimpled assistant, barely seventeen.

"A Magikarp?" He asked.

"No no. It's not just a Magikarp, looka at the gene structure on this." Nanba stepped away form a high powered Xray scope. "It's a Rattlekarp. See it?"

"Yeah, i guess. What's the big deal about a Rattled Magikarp?"

"The Big Deal, is that they evolve into Moxie Gyrados, Watson. Gyrados that get stronger the more they destroy, and the stronger they are, the more destruction they can create. It's a vicious cycle, that when properly nutured, will make the Lake of Rage incident several years ago look like a kiddie pool. Here, take this Cyndaquil egg with you too, and the Chansey looks like it should hatch soon, the medbay will make good use of her. I've found the egg I need, right here." He picked up the white one with the red and blue markings. "Yes, it's still fresh, they must have laid it a day ago. Even still has a little of the slime from the birthing sac on it."

"What are you going to do with that one?" Nanba's assistant asked nervously as he took the cart back out of the lab. The ship's engines started and vibrated through the floor. Soon, his task of moving the precious cargo would become a much more difficult affair as the ship moved away from the cove and into deep water.

"Easy, I'm going to kill it."

[PhantomDragon]

Phew! Finally finished reading through all this >.<
I think you need to be more careful with proofreading before you post the chapters. As the others have pointed out, you seem a bit prone to spelling mistakes.
That aside, I love this story! Is this a sequel to other fics you've written? Just with the way that a lot of the Pokémon were introduced (I'm thinking the Rotom - sorry for forgetting the name - and Gizmo especially) it felt like we were expected to know who they were already.
I really like the way you're taking all the different regions and combining them into one big story as well. And writing a really good story. That must not be easy at all.

[Glover]

Phew! Finally finished reading through all this >.<
I think you need to be more careful with proofreading before you post the chapters. As the others have pointed out, you seem a bit prone to spelling mistakes.
That aside, I love this story! Is this a sequel to other fics you've written? Just with the way that a lot of the Pokémon were introduced (I'm thinking the Rotom - sorry for forgetting the name - and Gizmo especially) it felt like we were expected to know who they were already.
I really like the way you're taking all the different regions and combining them into one big story as well. And writing a really good story. That must not be easy at all.

Thanks for popping in!

Yeah, I'm afraid I am too reliant on others for such proofing. I really do try, I tend to write sections of 1 page or two here, copy them into MS Word, go through them, write some more, repeat, then go through the whole chapter when its done and again when I'm ready to copy everything back over, but by then I know the content so well that I'm not very good at nitpicking details. Even readign the chapter backwards, so that I'm not following tangets hasn't proven the most helpful to me.

There's only one other story,(well a few one shots that have mostly dissappeared under the rug) and while it is a prequel of sorts, there's a four year gap between then and now. What you're seeing in the beginning is most likely due to me already having known the characters. It's on my list of "Things I need to fix when I figure out how best to rewrite it." Blazi and others have suggested biographies, but I feel like those are more cop-outs than a good story, and only best in long stories for referential material.

Essentially, world writing is more or less me carryingmultiple stories at once. TYhat's always been my beef with things though, they tend to focus on one area, and are stuck there. Always a good tory, but there is a world around us. Have fun I will when I start weaving all these little threads together.

[Glover]

A Break for Lunch
WT: Chapter 19

Janie hadn't wanted to do this at all, but most especially, she was waiting for a moment alone. She opened the Pokéball containing Tiny. The runt-sized Beedrill looked around briefly to get his bearings on time and location. The Sun told him he'd been in there for a few hours, and that it was lunch time. The look on his trainer's face told him he was probably going to be back in it for most of the afternoon.

"What am I going to do with you? Every day, you get more rambunctious and out of control. I get it, you're born in the wild, and I'll take your playful activity, but you can't just go and poke total strangers without hesitation! Do I have to be that trainer? I like having you guys out and with me. Until I catch a larger team, I want to keep you out for as long as I can, but you're making it awfully hard for me to trust you. Don't make me be that trainer who shuts up their Pokémon for indefinite time, please. I need to be able to trust you, alright? Now stay close, and behave, I have to go get Miss Yacksalot."

One of the circling bird Pokémon shrieked, and Beedrill decided being very close to Janie was a good idea.

---
"This is about me talking to people on the phone, all day, isn't it?" Liz looked sheepishly at her feet.

"Yes, kinda. And no, I wasn't planning to leave you there all day, just a few minutes."

"I'm sorry." Liz said, looking down at her feet sheepishly. The cliffs along the Route to Union Cave were only about twenty feet, quite a height for a Pidgetto trying to haul up a kill, but for two human girls, the ledges going down to the water and a narrow, rocky beach were nothing more than a short hike. "I really shouldn’t have been so insensitive to people right in front of me, especially ones taking time out of their trips to help me."

Janie wanted nothing more than to agree. She'd quite enjoyed the prospect of having someone her age to talk to, but her upbringing told her "No, play it down, be polite" It was a stupid upbringing, Janie would continually tell herself, although deep down, this was nothing more than the beginnings of teenage rebellion.

They reached the lapping waves and hopped across the large, jagged edges of old, fallen boulders that had broken free from mainland Johto to a large table rock. twelve feet wide of granite and it was flat enough for their needs, and also far enough out that it wasn't covered in "bird ballast" released by flying types to become lighter at takeoff.

"Let's see, No, that's not it." Janie had sat down ad taken her bag off. With one arm shoved all the way into the only moderately sized travel bag, she rummaged carefully around for a picnic blanket. "Hmm. That's the tent groundcloth; Ah ha! Underneath the cookstove. Alright." She grasped the folded cloth and tried to slide it out from the carefully packed pile of goods that was violating the basic laws of physics by being in that backpack. fishing it to the flat cloth back of the bag, she carefully slid it up and finally pulled her arm out with a red chekerboard sheet without disrupting the natural order fo things inside. Liz and Janie hopped off the table rock with their stuff long enough for Janie to fluff it out. Sea breezes caught the big sheet several times, so the two girls leaned over the side of the table rock and wrestled several stones out of the water. One of them was rather surprised at being found, sticking its moldy yellow limbs out of the rocky shell it called home and hopping back into the shallow water with a rude "Shuckle Shuck Uck!"

The travelers laughed at the little display. "So, I was thinking sandwiches. Any complaints?"

"None from me." Liz replied, so Janie unzipped the top of her bag's front pocket. It was foil lined, for keeping food cold. From this cavernous pouch, she produced a resalable container of lunch meat, a small bag of bread buns, Swiss style cheese, and a container of mayonnaise, as well as a plastic container of stuff for Beedrill and a container of meat scraps and an awful smelling kibble for Tally. Castform needed little to survive being a living raincloud, water mostly.

"Sorry, I don't have any mustard; I don't eat the stuff."

"Mayo's fine. Thanks again for your hospitality."

---
Across from the trainers sat their Pokémon. With each one so radically different in tastes, each one had a small food bowl. Liz's Nidoran shared Tally's since Liz didn't have anything with her, and once the dog had her fill, she decided to go check on Tiny, who was poking his and pushing flower petals around in a soup of honey and nectar extract. It was actually pretty good, though Janie didn't know the subtleties of each flower's taste and the meal was far from ideal, but for the large, bipedal omnivore she was she could still throw together a Beedrill-worthy lunch.

Ever astute, Tally put her house pet senses to use and deduced immediately what was bothering Tiny. "She's right, you know." the Herdier stated, looking off to the clouds and trying to be nonchalant about it.

"I KNOW THAT!" Beedrill retorted. "Don't you think I know that?" he stabbed a small blackberry floating in the sticky soup and fished it out, twirling some residual honey onto it. "I've screwed up, pup. Pushed my limits. For the second time in my life, I have proven to be a failure and a disgrace to my Hive; my Queen."

He studied his little treat for a moment, before getting over his guilt enough to pop it in his mouth.

"I wouldn't say it's that bad." Tally consoled.

"I would, that's a cardinal sin to us. Every member has a job to do, some duty. Weedle eat and grow, and when needed the hive calls upon their string shot for repairs. Kakuna spend their time maturing and acting as guard sentries, and Beedrill handle just about everything else."

"And when Janie caught you, you lost all that responsibility."

"I never liked Hive structure. I understood it, but I didn't like it. I was never one of the swarm, and that unnerved my hive mates. There was so much out there; so many things I wanted to see and explore. Now I've insulted her honor and made her look bad. I don't know what to do."

"So you pushed the envelope too far." Tally turned and scratched an itch with her hind leg. "Ah, much better. Sorry, but sometimes I hate being covered in fur in the Summer. So itchy." She adjusted her leg to scratch a little higher. "Ho-yeah." she cooed, finding “the spot”. "I've seen Janie much angrier than this. You need to apologize, and make amends, but you're worrying too much over nothing. tell her your sorry, make an effort to behave better, and you'll figure out where that line is. She's not against you exploring, just that you do so with respect."

Beedril looked down at his feet. "An apology, huh? Me? An apology."

"Sure, just go up to her, and tell her your sorry."

"That's gonna be mighty difficult, considering the language difference."

Tally chuckled a bit, emitting a quiet yip. "You're silly. Get her a gift then."

"I think I'm past bribery with her."

It was all Tally could do to suppress a deep belly laugh. "Not a bribe, a gift. I saw her once come home from school with a chocolate valentine’s rose someone had anonymously given to her. She never did figure out who it came from, and the chocolate was terrible, all dry and too sugary, like they didn't mix the batter or something, but the simple act of that given rose had her practically floating all week." Tally studied her paws. "Coincidently, even if they do tell you the Chocolate sucks, it's best not to eat a female's candy. Not that I know or anything..."

"Hmm. That gives me an idea then, thanks 'pup, this helped a lot."

With some renewed vigor, Beedrill placed the top on the Tupperware container of his meal, and left to explore some wildflowers growing on a ledge. These would not be for eating; he had something else in mind. Janie spotted her Herdier still working frantically at a thick, matted coat of fur, and with comb in hand; came to the rescue.
Lunch took a bit longer than Janie had wanted. Liz had asked to play with Nidy in the water, which had turned into a training session for Janie as well, with her and Tally working on the Fang moves some more while Castform played with some wind. Janie had periodically Beedrill flitting about, but he'd been avoiding them for most of the two hours they had been by the water, and surprised her when he approached holding a wildflower pinched between his forearm stingers.

He held it out in front of him, looking sheepish and with a slightly teary glint in his red faceted eyes. The flower was a brilliant reddish pink, with a crème inside and a healthy green stalk. The perfume was sweet and relaxing, having gathered up the sea breezes and mixed them with the welcoming aromas that drew in bug types to spread its seeds amongst the difficult cliff faces.

Janie took it graciously and wafted the smell again, sighing contentedly.

"Apology accepted." She told him, and stroked his delicate head, sweeping back his antennae. It tingled, and made him slightly uncomfortable, but he reminded himself this was her way of affection, and discomfort and all, he could get used to it.

"This is beautiful.” She picked up an old water bottle off the beach, and popped it back into a roughly original shape. Beedrill held his arms behind him and rocked in midair in a mixture of hopefulness and nerves. "And I appreciate the gesture. I do hope we can move on as a team, with you a little more reined in, but,"

"...It’s beautiful, and it smells so lovely. I can't believe he made it without hands, it's like he crocheted the stalks together with his points or something. I could get used to apologies from Pokémon like this though..."

Janie turned and watched Liz as she played with a flower necklace and amended the end of her last statement as she ran seawater through a mini filter and poured it into the water bottle. "But it would seem that you're already ahead of me. Thank you for being reasonable, Tiny. Now, let's say we get out of here, hmm?"

She placed the flower in her little plastic refuse vase and tucked it into a side pocket of her backpack with the last of her things. She tapped Liz on the shoulder, and pointed back up towards the road.

"...I need to go, Ethan. I'll call you back. Have fun in Unova! I know, g'bye."

---
The two girls pushed through the tall grass together, laughing their young heads off and passing three more hours. Janie was red in the face, trying to catch her breath. "Oh, that that Williams, he always makes the funniest movies."

Before Liz could respond, Tally barked excitedly. "My camp!" The picknicker exclaimed. She started to run forward, but Janie caught a shadow duck around back and she grabbed Liz's arm with one hand and held the other up to her lips, before pointing to a large, round, brown furry tail and two big legs sticking out of the tent. Before the two could duck down, a pair of smaller versions popped, curious about new smells in the area. The sunlight was just starting to drop now, and their yellow cresented foreheads were beginning to shine They put their hands instinctively up to their mouths, lapping off the sweet syrupy candy the little cubs lived off of and for; looking dead into the two girls eyes.

"Teddi?"

on to Chapter 20, Please, Don't Feed the Bears"

[Blaziken10285]

[I]"I think I'm past bribery with her."[

You need the rest of the italicizing code thingy.

Nice chapter. I really like how you captured Tally and Tiny's conversation and how Ethan was mentioned about being in Unova.

[PhantomDragon]

to a large table rock. Twelve feet wide of granite

Janie had sat down and taken her bag off.

Fishing it to the flat cloth back of the bag

disrupting the natural order of things inside.

I've bolded and underlined corrections that I found.
Cool chapter, and I liked that we got to see what Tiny's personality is actually like, as well as the side of him that goes "KILL ALL LIVING THINGS". The conversation between him and Tally was well structured in my opinion and the transition from Janie and Liza to them was nice and smooth as well.
But Teddiursa? Big trouble lies ahead, methinks.

[Glover]

I've bolded and underlined corrections that I found.
Cool chapter, and I liked that we got to see what Tiny's personality is actually like, as well as the side of him that goes "KILL ALL LIVING THINGS". The conversation between him and Tally was well structured in my opinion and the transition from Janie and Liza to them was nice and smooth as well.
But Teddiursa? Big trouble lies ahead, methinks.

Fixed. (As well as a few others) Thanks for calling those out.

Liz, technically, as in Picknicker Liz, the girl from the route in the games who's too busy staring at a rock to lock eyes with you and battle. but remember you said Liza because she's in the next chapter. Fruedian?

And oh yes, much bigger things loom than Teddiursa in a chapter entitled "Please, Don't Feed the Bears"