Iolani was waiting by the door with her Dewpider on her shoulder, both of them looking at her phone, and oddly wasn’t vibrating with excitement.

  “Iolani?” I asked hesitantly, “Are you okay?”

  She looked at me and nodded, “Mhmm! Yep! Just fine! You ready to go now?”

  “Suuuuuure?”

  “Then let’s get to it!” She said with faked enthusiasm, “Can’t let all the Center rooms in Accumula get taken up cause of the concert!”

  With that she grabbed my hand and pulled us right out the door.

  “’Laniiiiiiiiiiii,” I cried out as she ran us through the streets, “What’s going on!”

  “Just let us get out of town and I’ll try to tell you,” she replied, “no promises though.”

  With that said, she slowed down to a walk. She also tried to let go of my hand, but I refused to let go which had her looking back at me with surprise.

  “You need support.” I said, my tone broking no argument. “What kind of partner would I be if I didn’t give it to you?”

  I found myself yanked into a hug, with a whispered ‘thank you’ as I returned it.

  “Hey no problem,” I whispered back, “even if you can’t tell me all of it, I’m here for you”

  She squeezed me a bit tighter before releasing me, “Let’s get moving, I wasn’t kidding about the Center thing. The older kids say that they’re waiting a few days for a reason.”

  ***

  After an hour or so of walking on Route 1, Iolani broke our silence.

  “I got a text from my family back in Alola.”

  I hesitated, that tone sounded… bad to say the least.

  “What was it about?”

  She sighed, “Nothing yet everything, empty platitudes, promises that arrive broken, stuff like that.” She kicked a pebble down the road. “Don’t really wanna talk about it more than that.”

  I nodded, “That’s fair, and for what it's worth if you even need me to I'll ask Ionia to give them headaches.”

  She gave me a suspicious look, “You do realize that’s illegal right?”

  I blushed so hard I thought I was about to fluoresce, “I- uhhhhh yes?”

  “Dork,” She said with a squeeze of my hand. “Although if you truly want to turn the screws on them, keep calling me ‘Lani’, it’ll make their eyes get as wide as dinner plates.”

  “Okay then Lani,” I said with mirth, “what do you want to talk about?”

  “That case strapped down to your backpack,” she answered, “but I doubt you know what’s inside it either.”

  “Nope, no idea.” I said with a shake of my head. “They made it fairly clear I shouldn’t open it, and they wouldn’t tell me what’s in it.”

  Lani chewed on that for a few moments, “I think it’s a poke ball cannon!”

  I made… some sort of face at her which had her doubling over with laughter as Dewpider squeaked in protest

  “W-why on earth would someone make a poke ball cannon?!” I demanded with a stamp of my foot.

  “Becau-“ Lani interrupted herself to cry laugh a bit more. “Because it’s got a poke ball symbol on it?”

  I reached over and lightly thumped her on the head, “And you call me a dork.”

  We started bickering about who was more dorky for the rest of the morning until we reached a small clearing that was perfect for a break. With a tired groan from the both of us, we shrugged off our backpacks and released our teams.

  The group of Pokemon all grouped up together and began chatting while waiting for the food I had prepped the night before; berry soup for them, and two ham and cheese sandwiches for Lani and I.

  Tirtouga was the exception to both rules, he seemed a bit content to stay over by me away from the bustle. More importantly I hadn’t prepared anything for him due to not knowing he’d be a part of my team.

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  “Here’s the soup for the Pokemon Lani.” I explained as I passed her a small box full of tupperware dishes. I then turned to Tirtouga, “Okay, you and I will actually make your lunch right now, which means you get to taste test berries for me.”

  He smacked his lips in excitement. Clearly liking the idea.

  As I took the berries out one by one, he eyed the chesto berry with disdain, but then had to stop himself from lunging when he saw me pull out a cheri berry.

  “I uh, guess you already know what you like, huh?” He looked away, a bit embarrassed about his reaction until I placed the whole berry in front of him as a consolation for not getting to try more berries.

  “Go ahead and eat it,” I prompted, “cheri berries are easy enough to get a hold of. As for your soup, this won’t take too long.” I then turned to Lani, “Can you go grab some firewood for me real quick? Not too much, just a little bit.”

  With a nod she took off for the edge of the clearing, grabbing a few small twigs and a branch. I dug through my backpack for the soup pot; After pulling it out, I looked over to see Lani building a fire for the soup.

  Rather than waste time with lighting it, I called out for Ionia to use a weak Mystical Fire, and soon enough Tirtouga’s lunch was cooking over the fire. A few chopped up cheri berries, water, and a tasty nutrient mixture the lab provided me with last night.

  Eventually the clearing was overtaken by a spicy aroma that had Tirtouga drooling, and had even attracted a small group of Lillipup who were herded away by their mother. With one final check, the soup was confirmed finished, and I dished a serving for Tirtouga, then put the rest into a larger container I had so the rest would be saved for future meals.

  Tirtouga ate his soup with gusto, while I tore into my sandwich. Lani and the rest of the Pokemon gathered up and washed the dishes while we ate, and once we were done. Tirtouga put out the crackling fire and rinsed out his own bowl with a weak Water Gun.

  I quickly washed the bowl the rest of the way, and then called out to the Pokemon playing in the stream nearby.

  “Okay everyone! We’re ready to go!”

  The quartet all came rushing back into the clearing, completely soaked except for Ionia. I raised my eyebrow at Oxide, “You do realize you’ll have to fly around as we walk and dry off before I let you sit on my head?”

  Oxide, if anything, was more excited now. Dewpider and Ionia jumped up onto our shoulders, and the rest of the Pokemon were all returned.

  I turned to Oxide, “Might as well make a game out of this. Try and work some speed into this without using Quick Attack, I want you to push yourself okay?”

  She gave me a very excited nod and climbed up the nearest tree and once the rest of us started walking she started jumping and gliding to different trees as fast as she could while weaving through the branches.

  “Ionia, are you okay to do some telekinesis practice?” I asked my shoulder bound partner.

  “Hatenn.”

  “Okay, I want to make this a strength building exercise so I want raw weight as opposed to control. Keep trying to lift heavier things for ten seconds straight.”

  The sounds of limbs breaking just off the beaten path told me she had started, I then turned to Lani who was looking at me with a smile.

  “Dork.”

  We didn’t get much proper discussion in for the rest of our trip.

  ***

  After a while I deemed Oxide dry enough, and Ionia tired enough to call an end to the workout. Oxide relaxed her gliding and began peacefully flying above us, and Ionia jumped up on my head to lay down for a nap. Only a few minutes after that, Accumula Town came into view. And I felt a happy tune bubble up in my chest.

  I went to pull out my ocarina, but when I saw a specific group of kids close to the entrance I hid behind Lani.

  “Uhhh Psyche?” she asked, “What’s wrong?”

  I shushed her, “We need to go around, or something. That’s my brother, and if he sees me we’re both in trouble.”

  She looked ahead and saw where I was looking, “They’re pretty invested in that battle, let’s sneak by before it’s over.”

  Nodding silently, I kept my companion between me and the group as we passed by, and got to hear my brother’s poor excuse for banter.

  “Yeah, even my dumbass little sister could kick your butt, and she’s an absolute weakling!” He scoffed, “She’s an absolute coward, can you believe she stole from us when we weren’t even home and ran away into the woods? Probably dead by now, considering the wild Pokemon.”

  I had to squeeze Lani’s hand to keep her from charging the guy as his opponent fired back; “Dude, you’re telling me that your sister is out in the wilderness alone and you aren’t out there searching for her?! What poor excuse of a brother are you?”

  “Sprigatito, use Leafage!”

  My steps stuttered for a moment as the Pokemon’s cry confirmed it, he had somehow gotten a hold of a starter from another region. You almost always had to achieve something great, or help out a Professor from the proper region to get another starter.

  He didn’t qualify for either.

  “Me? She had it all! A loving family, clothes on her back, and we even let her get that dumb gender surgery or whatever.” I froze, too worried that Lani would react badly to what had just been shouted out loud for everyone to hear.

  The sound of a Pokemon being returned rang out. “Yeah no, battling you isn’t worth it. Not if you’re going to trash your sister like that.”

  Meanwhile, I was shaking with a mix of fear, anger, and pain at what Jason had just done.

  Lani’s hand left mine, and I almost panicked right then until I felt her arm going around my shoulders as she walked me away from the battle before any of them noticed us.

  Eventually she found a bench a bit away from the main road, and sat us down in it.

  “I-I-I-“

  Lani shushed me with a crushing hug. “I don’t care about what I just heard, because you’re you and that’s all that matters. And for the record, being a girl absolutely suits you. If anything, I want to slug your so-called brother in the jaw for treating you like that.”

  That caused me to giggle a bit which helped.

  Eventually, after I had calmed down enough, Lani pulled us to our feet, and started walking us towards a nearby Pokemon Center. Only to stop when Ionia popped in right in front of us with a grin on her tiny little face.

  “I dropped a bucket of water on his head!”

  Psyche can have a bit of comfort, as a treat.

  Boilerplate time!

  As always, a big thank you to for help editing!

  Current Team:

  Ionia (Hatenna)

  Trained Abilities: Anticipation

  Moves: Teleport, Confusion, Play Nice, Life Dew, Disarming Voice, Mystical Fire

  Oxide (Emolga)

  Trained Abilities: TBD

  Moves: Nuzzle, Tail Whip, Double Team, Quick Attack, Thundershock

  Tirtouga

  Trained Abilities: TBD

  Moves: Water Gun, Withdraw, Aqua Jet, Smack Down, Ancient Power, Bite

  Do you want more words written by me?

  A Spark of Sylvan Flame A story about a trans farmgirl facing off against plant aliens, with items bought from an AI chip in her head!

  Thanks for reading! :D

  -DeliriousSprite