FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

_ Chapter 1 _

Leaving Home

It had been about a year and a half since Clara had become my partner at the academy, and now we were finally graduated from it. Clara and I carefully packed the framed diplomas they had given us at the graduation ceremony into the cardboard box we were filling, and packed newspaper in between them to protect them from breaking during the coming trip. Once they were secure, we filled the box with the rest of the plates and bowls still left in our cupboard, similarly wrapping them in newspaper. Once full, I taped the box shut and wrote "FRAGILE" on the top of the box before hefting it up and carrying it down the stairs of my apartment building. On the way down I passed the two Machoke used by the guy from the shipping agency as they carried our couch down for us. I passed Flare as I went outside, who was lying next to the shipping agency's truck looking rather annoyed. He wanted to help move, but he unfortunately couldn't help much because of his size and lack of hands. I smiled at him and told him it was okay as I walked up the ramp into the back of the truck and set my box down on top of the growing pile of other boxes.

I could barely believe it myself but we were finally licensed officers, though we didn't have any experience yet and there weren't any internships available at the police station in our town. We had searched the nearby cities as well, but the other graduates had been faster than us in applying to them, so we were forced to look even further away. After a month of searching it seemed there wasn't an open job for us in all of Kanto. Thankfully, it was my uncle who saved us. Once he caught wind of our graduation, he sent me an email letting me know that the police station in town near his farm had been looking for an intern for a long time now, but couldn't get any because of how remote it was from any of the academies. I asked him to forward an application to them for me and he agreed. They responded within a day, requesting I work for them as soon as possible. I called my uncle and told him the good news, and he was kind enough to offer me a room to stay on his farm while I got situated and found a place of my own in town. That was about a week ago, and since then we had been busy making travel arrangements to move to Jhoto and packing in our spare time.

"Figures you'd be hiding in the truck lost in thought" Sarah spoke up from behind me as she added another box to the pile.

"Sorry," I said, blushing. "Just got caught up think about how far we've come."

"Yeah, it has been a while since we started here at the academy." Sarah said, leaning back against the side of the truck. "You know, I'm gonna be heading back to my hometown in Jhoto after this, so you could come visit if you get bored."

I smiled. "Thanks, we'll be sure to drop by after we get situated."

Just then Clara walked in hauling her own box. "Come on you two, we'll never finish if we're just sitting around talking." She said, smiling.

Sarah and I both apologized and headed back up to my apartment just as the Machokes emerged with my couch and carried it into the truck. By this point we were almost done and in just a a few more trips for each of us we had all the boxes moved and in the truck. I headed back up and directed the Machoke as the carried our mattress down the stairs as Clara and Sarah both started carrying the pieces of the frame we had disassembled the night before. After getting the mattress secured inside the truck I headed back up and helped carry the last few pieces of the bed frame down. Once the fame was packed away we closed up the back of the truck, relieved to finally have everything moved out. We took a break after that and I chatted with Sarah for a while before finally heading in and returning my apartment key to my landlord, as well as the copy I had for Clara's lanyard. As I walked back outside I was surprised to see Mrs. Feld standing there waiting for me.

"Hey Mark!" She said, notably more cheerful than her usual self.

"Oh, hello ma'am." I responded.

"You can cut it with the ma'am stuff now," She said, "I'm not your counselor anymore. Call me Sue or Susan."

"Susan Feld?" I asked, surprised it was only now I was learning her first name.

"Yeah." She said, "Just don't get cocky thinking we're equals now or something."

"Don't worry," I said, chuckling a little. "I'll always consider you a mentor."

"Good." She said, seeming satisfied.

"How are Charger and Nora doing?" I asked.

"They're fine." She said matter-of-factly.

"Good to hear." I said, "So did you just stop by to see me off?"

"Pretty much," She said, "Also wanted to let you know you can call any time if you need training advice."

"Oh, thank you." I said, smiling. "I'll be sure to let you know if we have any trouble."

We chatted for a while longer after that, but soon the man from the shipping agency called back his Machokes and said it was time to get going if we were going to make it to Saffron City by sun down. I said my goodbyes to Sarah and Sue before calling Flare back to his pokeball, much to his disdain. Clara and I then climbed into our side of the truck as the driver climbed into his seat. I let Clara have the window seat since it would be her first ride in anything other than the city bus, and she watched the driver intently as he started the truck up and shifted it into drive. I gave Sarah one last wave as we pulled away from the curb and started the long drive ahead of us.

Clara stared out her window as our town rolled by and soon we were on the road. Once out of the town the scenery was replaced by rolling fields interspersed between dense forests. The road was a bit bumpy as it wasn't built for a truck of this size, but we managed a decent speed going down it. Every now and then we would pass someone walking along the road and they would give us a friendly wave more often than not. At least half of them looked to be in the process of taking on the Kanto league by the pokeballs clipped to their belts or backpacks. About twenty minutes out of town, Clara asked me what my uncle's farm was like.

"Well, last time I was there I was so little I can barely remember it," I started, "but from what I do remember it's mostly fields where he takes care of and breeds pokemon at the request of trainers. He has a pretty big house in the middle of it too, and a barn as well."

"Oh, what kind of pokemon does he raise?" She asked, sounding interested.

"All kinds," I said, "Trainers will commission him to breed a specific pokemon for them and he raises the best one he can for them. Flare came from my uncle's farm, you know."

"He did?" Clara asked, sounding surprised.

"Yeah, my uncle heard about me entering the academy and bred a special Growlithe for me." I said, smiling.

Clara was quiet for a minute before something seemed to come to her. "How does your uncle breed pokemon?" she asked, seeming genuinely curious.

I paused, not sure how to answer her question. "Well, usually he just puts a compatible male and female pokemon in their own stable for the night and they'll do it on their own, but sometimes they need a little encouragement." I said.

"Encouragement?" She asked.

"Sometimes it's just an issue of giving them time to get comfortable around each other but in dire cases where he can't afford to waste more money on another breeding pair he'll use a special spray on them." I explained.

"So what's in the spray that makes them want to mate?" She asked.

"It's a special mix of pheromones that will induce estrus and encourage the male to perform as well." I explained, feeling a bit uncomfortable.

"Isn't that kind of unfair if they don't want to mate with each other?" Clara asked, sounding a bit worried.

"Yeah, sort of, but they don't seem to mind after the spray takes effect." I said, "It's kind of a gray area, but you have a point."

Clara went quiet, seeming to be deep in thought. I let her be for now, watching the road ahead. We soon came to a bridge crossing a large lake, and had to slow down due to a lot of people crossing it on foot. Clara and I watched the water as we made slow progress, occasionally catching glimpses of water pokemon swimming near the surface or jumping out of the water either to show off or catch bugs out of the air. About half way across the bridge we came to a dead stop as a pair of trainers ahead of us challenged each other to a battle. The crowd moved back to give them space as everyone watched. Seeing it was going to take a while, our driver parked the truck and told us we could get out and stretch our legs while they battled. We thanked him and hopped out of the truck.

"Master, I can't see the battle!" Clara said, standing on her tippy toes trying to see over the crowd.

I smirked and ducked down, quickly going under her legs before standing up so she was sitting on my shoulders. "Here you go." I said.

She let out a small squeak of surprise as I lifted her, but giggled and put her hands on my head for balance once she figured out what I was doing. "Thank you, I can see them now." She said.

"Who's winning?" I asked.

"The one on our side of the bridge sent out a Ghastly like Sarah has," She said, putting one hand up to block the sun from her eyes. "The other one sent out what looks like a big fox with a lot of tails."

"What color is the fox?" I asked.

"Red," She said. "It looks like the fox is doing a good job of predicting where Ghastly will appear and hitting it with fire."

"That's probably a Vulpix then." I said, "Ghastly has a bit of an advantage over it, but if it keeps predicting Ghastly's moves well it can win."

Suddenly there was a loud yelp from the battle followed by a whoosh sound.

"What happened?" I asked.

"The Vulpix won!" Clara exclaimed. "It used a psychic attack like one of mine, I had no idea a fire pokemon could do that!"

I smiled. "That's a special Vuplix he has, you need to have some special breeding for it to learn a move like Extrasensory." I said.

"So that's what that move is called." Clara said, sounding impressed.

With that, the crowd started to clear up and foot traffic began to flow again. We hopped back in the truck and soon we were moving again, and after another ten minutes or so we were across the bridge and back up to speed. More fields rolled by and I spotted a farm on the horizon. All I could make out on the property were a couple of either Ponyta or Rapidash, but I couldn't tell from how far away they were.

After a long drive, we pulled into Vermillion City around three in the afternoon. The driver pulled off the road to refill the gas tank as Clara and I stretched our legs. The moment we stepped out of the cabin, the familiar salty breeze off the ocean hit my nose and I knew we were back on the coast. We headed inside the little convenience store at the gas station and used the bathroom, as we'd been stuck in a truck all day. All they had was a family bathroom with one toilet, so I went first and while Clara was taking care of her own business I bought three bottles of juice for Clara, the driver, and myself. Clara emerged from the bathroom, looking relieved as I was checking out and we headed back to the truck. I handed the driver his bottle and he thanked me, though he looked at the bottle a little suspiciously.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

"Sorry," The driver said, chuckling. "Just never been much of a fan of grape." He said.

Clara offered to trade her orange drink with him and he accepted gladly. After that all three of us hopped back in the truck and drove the rest of the way through Vermillion. It was only another hour before we were in Saffron City and pulled up in front of the train station. The driver got out and talked to a security guard at the entrance, then the guard nodded and pointed to the side. Our driver got back in and moved the van to the side of the building, past a little security gate which let us by before pulling up near the tracks next to a motionless train currently parked there.

"Alright guys, your train to Goldenrod City leaves at eleven, so don't be late. You should head into town and find a room for the night. Don't worry about your things, Me and my Machokes will get everything on the train for you tonight, and someone from our Jhoto offices will be there to pick you up and help you unload once you get there."

I thanked him and Clara and I walked back to town to find the hotel we had made our reservations in. Along the way, I let Flare out of his pokeball to let him stretch his legs. It was about a half hour before we found our hotel, and after a few moments talking with the lady at the front desk, we had our key and headed to our room.

It was a simple set up inside, one queen sized bed with a tiny bathroom at the back and a table with a couple chairs at the front. Clara went in first, intrigued by the small room. As she explored the place Flare let out a long yawn before bumping his nose to his pokeball on my belt, returning himself so he could sleep for the night, presumably. I chuckled and set his ball down on the table before closing the door behind me.

"They even have a television!" Clara said excitedly, and began hunting down the remote. She found it within moments and quickly turned the TV on. I smiled at her and laid down on the bed, trying to stretch my back which had cramped up in the long ride here. Clara sat down next to me and turned on the news as she petted my chest. We watched today's stories together for a while before the weather popped up and Clara got bored. She flipped through the channels, trying to find something else interesting. She stopped on the nature channel, which was showing a special on fire type pokemon. On the screen was a pair of Vulpix. I couldn't help but chuckle as she watched the screen intently. The program was going over the hunting methods of wild Vulpix as the two on screen presumably were doing so. I already knew pretty much everything the special had to say about this particular pokemon, so I relaxed as Clara watched it.

I started to nod off until I felt Clara's hand drifting down my torso, slowly but surely she would rub me lower and lower. I smiled, knowing what she was doing, but didn't move. She kept moving her hand lower until it was resting firmly on my crotch and kneaded it gently. I let out a sigh of pleasure and Clara giggled as she felt my malehood responding beneath her hand. She kept rubbing me, encouraging my growth as my pants bulged further out. I opened my eyes to see if she was ready, but she quickly put her free hand over them as she rubbed me faster.

"No peeking." She teased as I felt her tugging at my zipper. I sighed and relaxed, letting her do her work as I kept my eyes shut. She reached into my pants and in a few moments cool air on my shaft told me she had pulled it free and was likely eying her prize right now. I felt her fingers wrap around it and start slowly stroking it up and down, teasing me to throbbing hardness. Just as I was about to beg her to give me more, I felt her weight shift on the bed and a sudden warmth as she laid down on top of me. At first I thought she was planning to ride me, but I suddenly felt the familiar warm wetness of her tongue running up and down my shaft before she took it deep into her mouth. I moaned and couldn't keep from opening my eyes this time, and I was granted a wonderful view of her round ass directly in front of my face. I smirked and decided to give her some of her own treatment. I reached out my tongue and gently pressed it against her pucker. She paused, surprised by the sudden sensation, but quickly returned to working my manhood with her mouth. I started rimming her as I reached under her with my hand and found her hard shaft. I started stroking her in rhythm with my licking and soon felt her leaking pre all over my stomach. Smirking, I decided to take it further. I grabbed ahold of her legs and pulled her closer to my face, causing her mouth to come off my dick. Not giving her a chance to react, I quickly took her hard member in my hand and guided it to my mouth. Clara let out a loud moan and a shudder as it slid in and I started sucking her gently.

"M-Master I-" She started, but was cut short as her own moan broke her focus. I ran my tongue around the tip of her member as I reached up and slowly pressed two fingers inside her already loosened and slick asshole, quickly finding her prostate and massaging it. She moaned even louder and I felt her buck her hips into my mouth a little. Before I could get carried away though she reached forward and started quickly stroking my saliva-slick cock, making sure she wasn't the only one receiving pleasure. I redoubled my efforts, sucking on her shaft harder and fingering her faster as I felt her quickly working me to my peak. I tried to outlast her, but I started cumming a few seconds before she did. I splattered my seed all over her chest and face and with a moan she began filling my throat with hers. I swallowed every last drop before finally pulling off of her. She smiled and turned around before laying back on top of me, this time face to face.

"That was a nice surprise Master." She said, blushing.

"You liked it?" I asked, "It didn't make you uncomfortable that I was giving that part so much attention?" I had learned to address her gender and identity issues as gently as possible in our year and a half together.

She smiled "It did at first, but because it's you I didn't feel bad." She explained, and then kissed me. I kissed her back, and after a while we both resumed watching TV. The special was now talking about where in Kanto Vulpix were normally found, and briefly explained they were also found naturally in the Hoenn region as well. After the program ended Clara turned the television off, yawning.

"We should probably wash you off before we head to bed." I said.

Clara blushed, remembering there was still cum smeared across her face. "Yeah, you're right." She admitted. We headed to the tiny bathroom, and though the shower was small it was still bigger than the one we had been sharing at my apartment. We took turns washing each other until we were both clean, then I slipped my boxers back on before we crawled into bed together. I made sure to set the alarm on the night stand to nine AM before snuggling close to Clara and going to sleep.

The next morning we got up with the alarm to find Flare had let himself out in the night and was laying on the floor at the foot of the bed, oblivious to the beeping that had woken us up. I chuckled at him and Clara started trying to wake him up as I got dressed, putting on the same clothes I had worn the day before because all my other clothes were on the train now. By the time I was dressed Clara had managed to at least get Flare up on his feet, though I still doubted he was fully conscious.

"Come on Flare, you can sleep on the train." I consoled him. He let out a long yawn before shaking his head to clear it. We returned our room key to the desk, though a different person was there this morning, and headed out to the train station. The walk back was shorter because we knew how to get there now. Fifteen minutes later I was at the ticket desk, confirming my reservation. The cashier smiled and thanked me for my business as she handed me my ticket, and then we headed inside the station. Clara couldn't help but stare at all the people standing around with their pokemon, waiting for the train.

"There's so many of them outside their pokeballs." She said.

"Yeah," I said, "Jhoto is more lenient with letting pokemon out in public than Kanto, so a lot of things are designed with pokemon in mind. This train's a prime example of that, there's going to be a lot of room on board so even Flare can fit comfortably without having to be put in his ball."

"That's awesome!" Clara said, grinning widly as she tried to count all the pokemon standing around her. I smiled with her and did almost the same thing, though I was testing myself to see how many of the pokemon I could name. I recognized a Psyduck and it's evolved form Golduck standing next to each other, and spotted another Vulpix. Further scanning the crowd, I spotted almost every stage of the three starter pokemon for the Kanto region, as well as the ones for the Jhoto region. I was stunned to even see someone with a Dragonite waiting for the train. I went on naming every pokemon I could as we waited for boarding to start for our train as Clara kept counting and Flare napped next to us. At ten they finally called out our train number and we followed the crowd in after shaking Flare from his sleep again. We handed the conductor our ticket as we boarded and he wished us a safe journey before letting us on. The inside of the train looked like a subway car, but with comfortable seats and a lot of space in the middle for pokemon to stand. We walked up the car a ways until we found a pair of unoccupied seats and sat down. Flare curled up in front of us and went back to sleep. It was another half hour from then until the train left the station, and I kept up my game of trying to name all the pokemon I saw. Mareep, Butterfree, Vennonat, Machop, all so many different pokemon all out in the open. Clara looked out the huge window at all the pokemon still waiting in the station, still in awe of the mixed crowd. Finally, a voice came through the PA system announcing we would be leaving shortly, and a few minutes after that the doors closed and the train began to move. We advanced slowly out of the station but quickly sped up once we were clear of the city. Trees and ponds rocketed past the window as the high speed train proved itself worthy of that title. Clara tried to watch out the window, but soon got motion sick and buried her face in my chest so she couldn't see anymore. I held her and rubbed her back, assuring her it wouldn't be too long.

About a half hour into the trip Flare woke up with a yawn and set to work getting to know his neighbors. He and a nearby Ninetales exchanged the traditional canine greeting as they sniffed under each others' tails before he moved on to sniff the Mareep next to us. The yellow sheep gave him a warning static shock and he left it alone after that. Soon enough he got bored of sniffing the other pokemon and curled up at my feet again, staring out the window. He didn't seem to be affected by motion sickness like Clara, who was still clinging to my chest and sharing a bit of her queasiness with me psychically. Eventually I spotted an approaching mountain, which I knew marked the border between Jhoto and Kanto, and hid the infamous Victory Road somewhere within its tunnels. We unfortunately didn't get to see any of the last challenge for trainers of the Kanto and Jhoto Leagues, as we shot into a tunnel built for the train at the base of the foothills.

The train went dark except for the internal lighting and Clara was able to sit up finally, no longer sickened by the blurred scenery; though her relief didn't last long as within ten minutes we had reached the other side of the mountain and emerged into Jhoto, forcing her to retreat against my chest once again. The other half of the train ride was noticeably shorter than the first, as within twenty minutes I could see the famous skyscrapers of Goldenrod City on the horizon. Five minutes after that we felt the train slow down and finally we pulled into the station. After a few minutes of waiting for the crowd the thin after the doors opened, we headed off the train ourselves; though I had to help Clara as she was still sick.

I scanned the huge crowd of pokemon and people at the station and I soon spotted a large cardboard sign being held up by a man which had "Mark, Clara, Flare" written on it. We waded our way through the crowd towards him, and as we got closer I saw he was wearing the same uniform as our driver had been yesterday. I waved as I approached to get his attention and introduced myself and my partners to him. He greeted us and told us the truck was gassed up and ready and they had already started unloading my things from the cargo car of the train. He led us out of the station and around to the back by the tracks. We offered to help him load up the truck, but he refused, saying that his Machokes were almost done with the work. As if to prove this, the Machokes then emerged from the second to last car on the tracks carrying a few pieces of our furniture and carefully packed them into the back of the waiting truck before closing the back. Our new driver thanked his pokemon for their help before calling them back to their pokeballs.

I called Flare to his pokeball and we headed out immediately. It took ten minutes to get out of the city, but once we did we were heading north on slightly better roads than the ones we had traveled in Kanto. Similarly, we saw many trainers walking along the sides of the road as we went. About a half hour into the trip, the driver handed me a sheet of paper from his pocket.

"I'm not so good with remembering directions," he said, "so if you don't mind helping could you read those off for me?" He asked.

I agreed and became his navigator, keeping him up to date on what turns he would be taking next. It was only a two hour drive this time, and before we knew it we were pulling up a long gravel road to a familiar faded blue house.

"This should be the place." The driver said, sounding doubtful.

"Don't worry, this is it." I said as Clara opened the door and we both hopped down.

The first thing in noticed was the unique smell of the surrounding fields; it was a huge contrast to the usual salty sea breeze back at the academy. I walked up to the door and knocked firmly.

"Just a minute!" a familiar voice hollered from the back of the house. I could help but smile as nostalgia overtook me. Moments later, the door opened and there stood my uncle, looking a little odd in the green apron he was wearing. "Ah, Mark!" he exclaimed, grabbing my shoulders, "What has it been, twelve years since I last saw you? At least sixteen since you last came here."

I smiled "Good to see you too, Ted." I said happily.

Uncle Ted turned and saw my partner Clara standing next to me Smiling a bit shyly at him. "Good to see you again Clara." He said, smiling at her.

"Good to see you too, Uncle Ted" Clara said amiably, calling him by the name I often used in my own mind.

Ted suddenly looked confused as he looked back at the truck, then to our right and left. "Now where's Flare hiding?" He asked.

As if on cue, Flare popped out of his pokeball and launched himself at my uncle, knocking him over as he barked his greeting.

Ted laughed as he went down and scratched Flare behind the ears until he let off of him. "Still lively as I remember." He said, grinning. "Though I never noticed how big you were for an Arcanine."

"Wait, Flare's big by Arcanine standards?" I asked.

"Yeah, why?" Ted asked, looking intrigued.

"My counselor had an Arcanine too, but that one made even Flare look small." I said.

Ted grinned "I'd love to see that pokemon, but as things are I don't have the time to go to Kanto on a whim. Still, that's one impressive specimen of an Arcanine if what you say is true."

Just then the driver walked up to us. "Where would you like us to unload the truck?" he asked my uncle.

"Oh, there's a barn around back," Ted said, "I'll go open the doors and you can just put everything there for now until we get something worked out for Mark in town."

The driver nodded and went back to his truck while we followed Ted around the house to the barn, which was the same faded blue as the house. Ted opened the doors and we were greeted with a musty smell which I found to be familiar, though from the way Clara immediately clutched at her nose, she wasn't a fan of it. Flare got one whiff and immediately turned heel and ran to the house, where he waited for us just as the truck backed up to the barn doors and the driver got out.

"Sorry about the smell," Ted said, "I had to use a pheromone spray on a reluctant pair the other day; the stuff has some major hang time to it."

"That's why I recognized the smell!" I said, finally pinning the source down.

"Clara you okay there?" Ted asked, looking at her concerned, "You may want to wait this one out over by Flare, I'm not sure if the blend I used will affect you but it still stinks."

"I-I'm fine." Clara insisted, "I want to help unload the truck."

"Okay." Ted said, then turned to our driver. "If you're planning on using Machokes or Machamps to empty the truck, I'd recommend you don't." he said sternly.

The driver shrugged and nodded, understanding. He then opened the back of the truck and we began unloading. Clara took care of the heavy stuff like the couch and mattress, as she could lift them easily telekinetically, but she insisted on carrying things herself whenever she could, though she seemed easily distracted while inside the barn. The pile inside the barn slowly grew as we emptied the truck, and after a half hour of work we finally finished. The driver said his goodbyes and closed up the truck before heading out as Ted dragged out a tarp and covered our things so the smell wouldn't stick to them.

After that my uncle invited us into the house to show us our room. Inside the house was warm, in contrast to the crisp spring air outside. We entered in the back and went through the kitchen, then the dining room and living room before reaching the stairs. Upstairs were only three rooms, Ted's bedroom, a large bathroom, and the guest bedroom across the hall from Ted's room which was where we'd be sleeping. Ted explained we were welcome here as long as we wanted to stay, just as long as that wasn't forever.

"Would you like to follow me around as I finish up my work for today or would you prefer to get situated here by yourselves?" Ted asked.

"Well-" I started but was interrupted by Clara.

"Would it really be okay if we stayed here?" She asked.

"Sure, no harm in getting adjusted to your surroundings." Ted said cheerfully

"Alright, thank you!" Clara said, smiling back.

"That okay with you?" Ted asked me.

"Yeah it's fine," I said, "I'll stay here with Clara and follow you some other day. Though could you do me a favor and bring Flare along? It's been a while since he really got to stretch his legs.

Flare gave a happy bark at this suggestion.

"Sure, why not." Ted said, "Come on Flare, let's get to work!" and with that he headed down the stairs with Flare close on his heels, leaving Clara and I in the guest room alone.

Once I was sure he was out of earshot, I turned to Clara. "Is everything okay?" I asked her, but I didn't so much as finish my sentence before she had embraced me and was kissing me deeply. I blushed and took a moment to kiss her back, carefully closing the door behind me with my foot in case Ted came back for something.

"It was the pheromones..." Clara said, blushing deeply, I could already feel her shaft swelling as she pressed herself against me. "I did my best to hide it but I can't hold myself back anymore, Master."

I held her tighter, "Okay, I understand Clara, but we can't do it here. If we make a mess then Ted may end up finding out."

"Then where?" Clara pleaded, all but grinding against me at this point.

"Anywhere he won't find the mess." I said, still holding her. Clara paused for a moment before closing her eyes. I was surrounded by white light, and squinted my eyes against it. When the light cleared, we were both standing in the empty barn near where we had unloaded the truck. Clara knelt down in front of me and had my fly open in a few seconds. Not even waiting for me to get hard she started sucking on my member, doing her best to get me ready.

"If we do it in one of the stalls here he won't be able to tell the mess from the rest." Clara explained as she bobbed up and down my quickly growing shaft.

"But what if he walks in here on us?" I asked, before moaning as she skillfully ran her tongue all over the head of my cock.

"We'll have to be quick then," She said, standing up. She took my hand and led me into a nearby stall before spreading the back of her dress and leaning forward, presenting her asshole to me.

"Alright." I said, giving in as she had me too horny now to really stop. I tried to make the entry as gentle as I could, but we were both too turned on for that to be possible. I was inside her in seconds and a moment later I was thrusting in and out of her tight ass quickly as she stifled her moans. I felt her ass suddenly clenching around my shaft as Clara's whole body tensed up. Over her shoulder I saw a few spurts of her cum fly and land in the dust in front of her as she panted.

"You came already?" I asked Clara.

"Don't stop Master, I need more!" She begged. I needed no further incentive and resumed fucking her quickly, causing her to have a second orgasm mere minutes later, adding to the already stained dirt beneath us. I kept going, grabbing her wrists and pulling her back against me as I thrust deeper into her ass. Clara was beyond moaning now, she just did her best to remain standing as she panted and whimpered occasionally. She came a third time, this time spurting even farther than the other two, and I picked up the pace, plowing into her asshole as fast as I could. I felt myself getting close right as Clara came a fourth time, clenching down hard on my member and locking me inside her as the last of her seed dribbled down her shaft to the dirt below. She must have sensed I was close because as soon as she finished she pulled off of me and knelt down. She took my shaft in both hands and began jerking me off as fast as she could into her open mouth. I couldn't resist and unloaded, spurting hard into her eager mouth as she did her best to catch every drop. When I stopped she carefully licked the last of my seed from the end of my shaft before wiping her face with her hand to get the few shots that missed, and then licked those up as well.

"Thank you Master." She said groggily as she swallowed the last of my cum.

"You okay Clara? I kind of went rough on you." I said, worried I may have hurt her.

"No it was wonderful; I'm just really tired now..." She said, slowly tipping forward. I caught her before she hit the dust and couldn't help but smile as she started snoring in my arms. I carefully picked her up, feeling her shift so she could wrap her arms around me, and carried her outside the barn. I spotted Flare running back and forth a few acres away at the edge of the property. Taking advantage of the distance, I jogged inside, hoping he wouldn't spot me and carried Clara back upstairs. Once in the guest room, I laid her down on the bed, but as I tried to stand up the grunted and wouldn't let go of me. I managed to pry free of her grip without waking her, but the frown on her face once I did was enough to convince me I could use a nap as well. I crawled up on the bed next to her and took her in my arms, relieved to see a peaceful smile return to her face. I smiled as well and closed my eyes as well. It took a while, but I dozed off eventually, comforted from holding my Clara close to me.

I woke up later that afternoon and watched Clara sleep for a while before gently waking her as well.

"How long was I out?" She asked groggily.

"If I had to guess about four hours, though I passed out too so I'm not sure." I said.

Clara smiled and leaned in to kiss me before sitting up and crawling off the bed. I smiled and got out of bed as well.

"Maybe we should go check up on Flare?" She asked.

"Yeah, wouldn't hurt to go see how he's doing." I said.

We headed downstairs and outside. After a moment of scanning the horizon, we spotted the massive dog running back and forth off to the east and started walking in his direction. It took about five minutes, but we caught up with Ted and Flare as Ted was tending a pair of Umbreons.

"Hey Mark," Ted greeted us. "Just about finished here." He said as he brushed the fur of one of the black foxes. The fox let out a happy murr at the treatment, enjoying the attention.

Flare butted up against me playfully and I scratched behind his ears before offering to help Ted groom the other fox. He thanked me and handed me a spare brush as I set to work tending the pokemon's fur. My Umbreon was less appreciative of the brushing, but was at least tolerant of it. After a few minutes we were done and Ted led us back to the house where he started making dinner. Clara asked if she could help since she wanted to learn more about cooking and Ted happily let her. Flare and I waited in the living room as they cooked. I watched TV as the big dog lay panting next to me, having worn himself out from running around so much. After about an hour, Clara called us into the dining room to eat and I was surprised to see Ted had made hamburgers and homemade fries for him and myself, as well as prepared what looked to be a salad for Clara and a bowl for Flare which was filled with some kind of meat blend. I thanked Uncle Ted and Clara happily for the meal and we dug in. the food was delicious, and Clara and Flare seemed to really enjoy their own meals as well.

After dinner we all relaxed in the living room as I filled Ted in on my time at the Academy. He listened intently, and asked about what kind of training they had us do in PE, and what kind of diet the school recommended. I answered his questions and he nodded, saying that those worked but there's better ways. After a while Ted said we should probably all head to bed since he had to be up early to work and I had to get to the police station in town tomorrow as well. We headed up the stairs and I half expected ted to ask about how all three of us would sleep in a room with one bed, but he either forgot to ask or figured we knew what we were doing as all he said after that was good night. Flare curled up on the floor at the foot of the guest bed as Clara and I crawled under the covers, once again cuddling close to each other as we closed our eyes, looking forward to the big day ahead of us tomorrow.

Chapter 2

First Day on the Job

Ted woke us up early and fed us a light breakfast right before the taxi he apparently called earlier pulled up the driveway. I thanked him for the meal and the ride as I called Flare back into his pokeball. Clara and I then hopped in the back of the cab and we were on our way to town. Clara spent her time staring out the window at the fields rolling by as I asked the cab driver what the town was like. He said it wasn't exactly a small town, though it wasn't a city either. He also explained that they didn't see many traveling trainers often because the town was off the beaten path for the eight main gyms in Jhoto, though every once and a while they had one show up on their way to a more obscure gym or that got utterly lost passing through the nearby forest. It wasn't long before I ran out of questions and resigned myself to staring out the window with Clara. It was about ten minutes into the ride that we finally pulled into town, passing by a small pokemon center and pokemart as we drove up the one main road in town. There were plenty of side roads leading off our street, and those all seemed to lead to housing developments.

"Our town's a suburb of Goldenrod," The cab driver explained, "most everyone who lives here works in the city, though we're still pretty far out for a suburb."

I nodded, understanding as we continued through town. It was only five minutes until we pulled up in front of the police station. We got out and thanked our driver for the ride. I called Flare out of his pokeball before all three of us headed in.

The front doors opened on a simple lobby: grey carpet and a few semi-comfortable chairs set up next to a rack filled with mostly up to date issues of popular magazines. Directly ahead was a simple wooden desk where a middle-aged woman sat, looking over today's newspaper. She looked up and smiled at me as I approached. She looked at the two pokemon to either side of me, "You must be the new intern we're getting." She remarked.

"Yeah," I said, "I'm Mark, this is my Gardevoir partner Clara, and my Arcanine partner is Flare." I gestured to each pokemon in turn.

"Nice to finally meet you Mark," She said, "Though no one thought you would show up this early. I'm Carol, would you mind taking a seat while I call the chief?"

"Sure, no problem." I said, and walked back to the magazine rack before sitting down with Clara; Flare sat patiently in front of us.

I noticed Clara looking around the room, seeming confused.

"What's wrong?" I asked her quietly.

"It looks nothing like the academy did." She said.

"Yeah," I said. "it's different but I'm sure we'll get used to it before long."

She nodded and didn't say anything more. I heard the Secretary talking quietly into a phone and guessed she was talking with the chief now. I waited patiently for her to finish the call, and once she hung up the phone she waved us over.

"The Chief Ramsey will be out here in just a moment" She said as we reached the desk.

"Thank you." I said, just as a door to our left opened and a uniformed man walked in. I put him to be in his late forties as he looked Clara, Flare, and I up and down, as if appraising us.

"You must be our new intern," The man said, holding his hand out. I obligingly reached out and shook his hand. "I'm Samuel Ramsey, the chief officer here."

"I'm Mark," I said as he shook my hand firmly in return, "This is Clara, and this is Flare." I said, nodding to each of my partners.

Ramsey gave a nod to my partners as he let my hand go. "I had to see it to believe it, but you really do have an odd choice in partners." He remarked, "Though I suppose you know how to handle them considering the glowing recommendation we got from your former counselor."

"You talked to Mrs. Feld?" I asked, then added, "Wait, she gave me a recommendation?"

Ramsey chuckled. "Yeah, well might as well follow me; I'll give you a tour of our office." He said, turning back to the door he had come through. We followed him into the inner workings of the police station; it was a tight fit for Flare, but he was conscious of his size and didn't knock anything over. Behind the lobby was what appeared to be an open room separated by about four cubicles, each decorated differently by small photos or figurines. Three of the desks were occupied and a few officers looked up and waved at us before returning to their work. Ramsey explained there were only three other officers for the town, and that only two would be patrolling the town at any given time. The town was pretty deserted during the day when most of the citizens were in Goldenrod working, so they didn't need much manpower. He then led us to a windowed door at the back of the room, which led to a small office. He welcomed us to his office as we stepped inside; though Flare could barely fit in the small room. The chief couldn't help but chuckle watching the massive dog squeeze in through the door.

"I'm sorry, but we don't really have much work for you to do at the moment," the chief said, taking a seat behind his desk. "We don't have any active patrols you could tag along with right now, sorry to set you to just busy work but we do have a lot of paperwork backed up that needs filing."

I chuckled "No need to for sorry, I know how scrub work goes," I said, "Just point me to the stack and I'll get to work."

Ramsey grinned, "I like that attitude, Mark." He said, "You'll fit right in here."

After that he called in the secretary, who led us to the filing room and explained how the chief wanted things to be ordered. The room had one wall covered in filing cabinets and on the other side was a long table half-covered in two foot tall stacks of paper. I sized up the task before us as Carol gave her condolences for getting the mess dumped on us. I assured her we were up to the task before setting to work. Flare huffed, realizing he wouldn't be able to help again and curled up on the floor out of the way. I would start by taking a large chunk of a stack and organize it on the clear side of the table before filing them once I had them in order. Clara watched how I did it for the first two loads before taking a pile for herself and setting to work on floor organizing it. It was mind numbing work, but it was bearable since we were doing it together, at least it was for me. Clara seemed to never lose focus and seemed to actually enjoy the work. I couldn't help but smile with her as we worked. After what felt like a half hour of work I looked at my watch and was shocked to see it had only been ten minutes. I looked over at Flare and had to smile when I saw he had fallen asleep and was snoring lightly as he napped. Sighing, I resigned myself to the work again, this time vowing not to make it worse by watching the clock. What felt like an eternity passed and we had finally cleared the first of countless stacks of paper from the table just as Carol walked in.

"I'm surprised you two haven't nodded off from boredom by now" She remarked, and I chuckled. "Come with me, I'll give you something to do to take a break from the monotony." Clara got up off the floor and followed Carol and me, leaving Flare behind to his nap.

She led us out and past the cubicles out to the lobby, stopping in front of the magazine rack. "We were supposed to get a bunch of new magazines in today, but the postman is late by a couple hours now."

"So you want us to head to the post office?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's a bit of a hike but it's better than filing." She said, almost apologetically.

"Is Chief Ramsey okay with this?" I asked.

"Yeah, he's pretty lax as long as you're doing some sort of work." She explained, "If it does turn out to be an issue I'll take the blame for you. Besides, it wouldn't hurt to get to know the town a bit since you're gonna be here a while."

"Yeah, you have a point." I said, grateful for the break, "So where's the post office?"

"It's actually on the same street as us," She said, "Just it's about ten blocks north from here."

I thanked her for the break and Clara and I headed out. Clara seemed a little unhappy to leave the filing job unfinished, but was still interested in seeing the town on foot. We walked along the street, looking at each building as we passed. There was a supermarket that seemed empty at this time of day, a couple bars which were equally empty, a couple restaurants, a small motel, and an elementary school before we started passing houses. Clara asked about each place she was unfamiliar with as we passed them.

"So a bar is a place where people buy drinks?" Clara asked for confirmation as we walked.

"Partly, it's a place where adults go to drink alcohol and hang out." I explained, "I'm not quite old enough to drink yet so I don't know for sure." I felt the now familiar moment of dizziness as Cara picked out what alcohol meant out of my mind.

"Why would anyone drink something like that?" She asked, sounding amazed.

"Well, I guess because it's fun." I said, "It's kind of hard to explain."

"hmm... and a school is an academy for younger people?" Clara asked as we passed the red brick building right after I felt her pick the name and meaning of it out of my head.

"Yeah, only it's not training them for anything specific, just general things." I said, watching the kids run around the small playground as it was apparently recess for them. I couldn't help but smile at the feeling of nostalgia it invoked to see them: I could still remember my time back in primary school well enough to pick out what games were being played out of the seemingly random running of the children. About a third of them were wrapped up in a massive game of tag, while another small group were pretending to be pokemon trainers and exploring the playground, doing their best to have fun without interrupting the game of tag. There was also a small group of older kids playing a pokemon card game under the main platform of the jungle gym, and I knew from memory that they were there so the wind wouldn't take their hard earned cards away. At the edge of the playground, their teacher watched them with her partner pokemon, which appeared to be a larger round bird pokemon with red eyes; after a moment I recognized it as a Hoot-hoot. The teacher noticed me watching the kids as we walked by and waved. I smiled and waved back, but didn't stop to chat.

After about five minutes of walking past people's front yards and getting further and further from what appeared to be the business district, I began to worry we had missed the post office. My worries proved wrong though, when we came upon a white building sticking out like a sore thumb in the residential area. The familiar Pidgeot logo on the sign out front designated this to be the postal office, and Clara and I headed in.

"Hello?" I said to the oddly empty lobby. We walked cautiously to the desk, and saw there was no one behind it. I could see into the back of the room where there were a few bins full of letters. I looked to Clara, "Doesn't seem to be anyone here." I remarked.

Clara shook her head, looking confused. "No, there's someone here." She said. Before I could ask what she meant, she walked around the counter and into the back room.

"Wait, we can't go back there!" I called, jogging after her.

"But someone's here Master, just listen!" She pleaded, turning to face me.

Then I heard it: muffled grunts from the somewhere further back in the postal office. "All right, let's go." I said, taking the lead as I advanced into the back room. Clara followed me in, and walked quickly past the stacked up mail bins and into a small hallway in the back of the room, the noise growing louder as we went. There were three doors in the back, two of which were bathrooms. I tried my luck on the third door, which opened on a small office. A quick inspection proved the room to be empty, and behind me I heard Clara gasp out loud. I whipped around to see her holding open one of the bathroom doors. I leapt over to her and saw what had shocked her, and my jaw dropped.

Inside the bathroom a young man was sitting down against the wall as two pokemon were kneeling down in front of them. One looked like some kind of bipedal purple fox and the other appeared to be more human like sans a few exaggerated red features on its forehead and hips, as well as a pair of thick red lips, which were wrapped firmly around the tip of the man's member. Even in this moment my breeder mind took over and identified the pokemon as a Medicham and a Mienshao. While the Medicham worked the man's member, the Mienshao was hard as work licking his balls. There was barely enough room between the two pokemon to see what was going on, but from the pleasured grunts all three of them were giving, they seemed to be enjoying themselves and were so far unaware of our presence. Clara and I watched in stunned silence as the Medicham and Mienshao switched roles, the fox taking up the duty of bobbing her mouth up and down his shaft as Medicham tended to his testes. The man grunted sharply as he approached his climax and both pokemon backed off and started quickly jerking him off together as they caught his load with their faces and open mouths. I then noticed they both had their hands buried in their crotches and were quickly rubbing their pussies as the received their facials. Almost in unison they both seized up in orgasm right as the man finished frosting them, and they collapsed on top of him, panting. They lay together panting for a moment before the man noticed we were watching and froze up, and less than a second later the Medicham had picked itself up and launched itself directly at me without even looking at us.

"No! You won't take Simon away from us!" a voice shouted in my head as the Medicham's flying kick hit me square in the chest and sent me crashing back into the office behind us.

"Jade, no!" The man shouted, as I hit the floor; I wheezed as I realized the wind had been knocked out of me.

I heard a growl from Clara and a muffled grunt from directly above me. I looked in front of me, still stunned, and saw the Medicham hovering in the air above me, furiously throwing punches in my direction but being held back far enough she couldn't reach. I saw the man scrambling to his feet behind her and the Mienshao hiding behind him and covering her face. Jade growled in frustration as she kept swinging at me in vain, and I saw tears in her eyes right as the man scooped her up in his arms, holding her tight.

"Jade, I know this is bad but hurting him won't make it any better." Simon said, trying to calm her.

I started to pick myself up of the ground as I slowly regained my breath.

"But he saw everything!" Jade pleaded, struggling weakly in the man's grip.

"Hold on, calm down." I wheezed as I regained my breath. "You don't need to worry, I'm just the intern for the police."

Jade resumed her struggle, almost breaking free of Simon's grip, "I knew you'd ruin it!" she all but screamed at me.

"No, I'm not gonna turn you in!" I pleaded, but Jade kept struggling.

Clara stepped between me and the man. "I'm sorry." She said, to both the man and Jade before firing off a special psychic pulse. Jade went instantly limp in his arms, snoring loudly as Clara's hypnosis hit hard from this short of a range. I was impressed she didn't knock the man out as well.

Simon seemed to panic for a moment, but calmed down as he realized she was just asleep. He sighed and slumped down to the floor, gently holding Jade in his lap as his Mienshao moved closer to him, but was careful to keep directly out of my sight. "I'm sorry about that, she's very protective of me and Ruby here..." Simon said sullenly. The Mienshao perked its ears up at the mention of its name.

Clara knelt down next to the man as I pulled myself to my knees. "Don't worry, I understand her reaction." She consoled.

He nodded silently and looked up at me. "I suppose you're going to arrest me?" He asked.

I shook my head.

He blinked and stared at me, "You're not?"

I nodded, "That looked consensual for all parties involved to me." I said, matter-of-factly.

"But the law says pokemon-"He started, but Clara interrupted.

"Don't worry about that." She said, "Mark and I understand your situation here." She said, trying to calm him.

"How?" He asked, looking back and forth at us. Then after a moment, it dawned on him, "Wait, you don't mean..."

I blushed as Clara smiled and nodded. Simon stared at us in stunned silence for a long time before realizing he was still naked from the waist down. "Would you mind if I took a moment to put my pants back on?" he asked, embarrassed.

Clara giggled and I told him to go ahead. He carefully handed Jade off to me as he stepped back into the bathroom, Ruby following close behind him, still nervous about us seeing her. I held the Medicham in my lap in the meantime, and I guessed her to be about four feet tall. Simon soon emerged, having taken care of business in the bathroom, and I could see he washed Ruby's face clean of his seed. He knelt down in front of Jade and I with a wet paper towel and began cleaning her face as well.

"Simon..." she mumbled, slowly waking up. She opened her eyes to see Simon smiling at her, and after a moment she whipped around in my lap and leapt back towards Simon, taking a defensive pose as she glared at me.

"Jade, they're not going to take you or Ruby away from me, you can relax." Simon said, putting a hand on her small shoulder. She glared at me for a moment longer before putting her arms down and turning. She walked behind Simon and looked Ruby over before sitting down next to her master.

"You're still perverts for peeping on us like that." Jade remarked grumpily.

"Sorry, we didn't mean to," I explained, "We were sent here to pick up some magazines and could only hear grunts coming from the back, we thought you were in trouble."

"We were getting kind of loud," Simon admitted, blushing. "Probably wasn't the best idea to do it at the office, Jade."

Jade huffed, "Don't blame me, you were rock hard the moment I suggested it."

I couldn't help but chuckle.

"What's so funny?" Jade demanded, looking at me angrily.

"I'm sorry, you two just make an adorable couple." I said.

Jade stared at me stunned, "Y-you'd really consider us a couple?" she asked.

"Of course!" Clara said smiling, "Mark and I are too." I smiled as well and nodded, confirming what she said.

The Medicham blushed deeply before muttering, "T-thank you."

The conversation seemed to die off there, until Simon spoke up. "You deserve proper introductions, I'm Simon, these are my mates Jade and Ruby."

"Pleased to meet you." Jade said in a militant tone as Ruby poked her head out and gave a mix between a woof and a yip as a greeting.

"I'm Mark and this is my partner Clara." I said, "It's a pleasure to meet you all too." Clara smiled and nodded, reflecting my sentiment.

We chatted for a while after that in our impromptu campfire circle on the floor, until I checked my watch and realized I had been gone almost an hour already. I apologized and said I had to get going, but Simon held me up. He led me to the back room and dug though a few bins before handing me a brown paper package tied up with twine.

"They're the magazines for your department." He explained, "Would you mind stopping by here after you're finished with work? It's one hell of a coincidence for the two of us to meet and I would like to chat more with you at the very least."

"No problem!" I said cheerfully, "I'd be glad to."

After that we headed out the door with a wave. We walked back to the station at a brisk pace, noticing that a different group of kids were now out for recess that the ones we passed earlier; though the same teacher was still watching over them and waved again at us as we passed. Once back at the station, we apologized to Carol for taking so long. She smiled and assured us it was fine before setting to work organizing the new magazines on the rack. I shrugged and decided to go back to filing, relived to see Flare still snoring away on the floor; and that's how we spent the rest of the day. My brain was all but fried by the time Chief Ramsey walked into the office and thanked us for our day's work, and then told us we could head home now. We thanked him and stretched before waking Flare up. He shook his head groggily as he stood up, and after letting Flare get a post-nap stretch in we headed out the door. The sun began to set on the way to the post office, and Flare was confused at first when we were going seemingly the wrong way. Clara explained the situation to him in an instant in the way only she could, and after a wince from the sudden flow of information into his head, Flare gave a nod and followed us. We were held up at the school by a wave of children leaving on the way. We waited patiently for the tide to ebb, and once the crowd was thin enough and continued on our way. We arrived just as Simon was locking the door up, with Ruby and Jade standing close behind him.

"Hey there!" Simon greeted us cheerfully as we approached, then looked over at Flare. "You have another partner?" He asked.

"Yeah, his name's Flare." I said.

He looked the massive dog over. "Are you... With him too?" He asked timidly.

I blushed, "Y-yeah." I stammered out, "He was actually my first."

Simon stared dubiously at the canine.

"Is that a problem with you?" I asked, getting a bit defensive.

"N-no, not at all!" Simon stammered, "different strokes for different folks, I was just wondering how he let you do it."

I blushed and chuckled, "He's actually the one who usually does it." I said, putting finger quotes around "does".

Simon's jaw dropped. "Okay, that only raised more questions of how." He said exasperated.

"Let's just say it took a lot of practice and it's still a tight fit." I said, still chuckling.

Simon nodded and suddenly blushed, looking up and down the street. "Say, would you guys mind coming back to my house to continue this conversation?" he asked, "Someone could hear us out here."

"Yeah, probably a good idea." I admitted. Simon led us further away from the police station into the residential area. It was a short walk before we came to a stop in front of a small yellow house and Simon walked up to the door, pulling a key chain from his pocket. He unlocked the door and welcomed all three of us inside. Jade didn't seem happy to have us inside her home, but didn't make an issue out of it.

Simon offered us soda as he showed us the living room. We gratefully declined the drinks for the time being. Flare had issues fitting in the small room and it was surprisingly Jade who stepped in to help. She hefted the coffee table occupying the middle of the room over her shoulder with no noticeable effort and leaned it up against the wall, giving Flare ample room to lay down on the floor. After we were situated and comfortable, Simon got directly to the question that was at the front of his mind.

"So how did you end up being your pokemon's mates?" He asked, seeming a bit embarrassed at his own curiosity.

I thought for a moment on where to start, then began to tell our story up to this point, starting with how Flare and I first broke the species barrier, and then going on to how we met up with Clara and how I ended up with two partner pokemon as an officer. Simon occasionally interrupted with questions as he listened. Jade sat next to flare and quietly meditated as she listened to us while Ruby sat in Simon's lap, murring happily as he pet her. I talked late into the night, and eventually Simon offered for us to crash at his house that night, and after a quick call to my uncle to tell him where I was, we agreed. It was around ten at night when I finally finished telling our story, and I was honestly surprised how long it had taken to tell it.

Finally I turned to Simon, "So how did you, Jade, and Ruby all end up together?" I asked.

Ruby perked up at her name and Jade cracked one eye open to prove she was still meditating and not asleep. "Well..." Simon began, and we listened intently as he told his own story...

Chapter 3

Simon's Story

Simon woke up slowly. He'd never been much of a morning person, and today was no exception. He groggily pulled himself out of his sleeping bag and began packing his small campsite in Pinwheel Forest up. By the time he had everything stowed back in his backpack he had managed to fully wake up. Simon was a relatively new trainer in the Unova region, and so far had fared pretty well. He had earned a couple badges so far, despite him and his starter pokemon, Snivy, not getting along. Speaking of his partner, he seemed to be absent from the campsite.

"Snivy?" Simon called out, getting worried. He scoured the clearing before dropping his backpack and tearing through that, looking for his partner's pokeball. Clothes, food, and training supplies flew as he pulled everything out, praying that the pokeball had just fallen deeper in. He reached the bottom of the bag with nothing to show for it but a massive mess. He let out a deep sigh and sat back, only to feel something dig sharply into his thigh. He winced and got up, looking to see what had hurt him.

A small fragment of metal, red on one side glimmered up at him from the dirt. Simon cautiously picked it up, noticing that it was curved. He looked around in the dirt and found more fragments, some with white on them as well.

"Great..." Simon mumbled to himself as he began picking up the shattered fragments of what was formerly his only pokemon's pokeball.

"How am I supposed to continue the league now?" he asked seemingly no one as he tossed the useless scrap metal into his backpack and began slowly packing everything back into it. Once he finished the task he slumped down and began thinking on what he should do. He took a mental inventory of his supplies and remembered he had a couple empty pokeballs, but without his Snivy to weaken any wild pokemon he figured it would be almost impossible to catch them. Sighing, he pulled the two capture devices from his bag and clipped them to his belt.

"Alright, I'm going to at least try." He said to himself, "When I run out of pokeballs, I'm just heading home." His self-affirmation complete, he set out deeper into the forest in search of a new partner.

He walked for what felt like hours, occasionally catching glimpses of a wild pokemon like a Vennipede or a Cottonee, but they all scattered before he could get a chance to throw a pokeball. He tried not to let each missed opportunity get to him, but it seemed increasingly hopeless the longer he went. He kept going deeper into the forest, noticing that the light seemed to be getting dimmer as the foliage became denser. He also noticed that the occasional wild pokemon he spotted seemed to be getting bigger, and occasionally were the evolved forms of what he had been seeing to this point, but they still all fled at the sight of him before he could even try to catch them. He walked like this all day with no luck, and it was late in the afternoon when he collapsed against a tree, slumping down after deciding he needed a break. He sat against the tree trunk surveying the thick forest around him and realized he no longer knew where he was.

"Well that's just wonderful." He commented to himself as he pulled his backpack off and opened it up, pulling out a small bag of trail mix. He quietly munched on his snack before he decided he could use a nap. He leaned back against the tree, staring at the light filtering down through the canopy for a while before closing his eyes. He tried his best to relax as he waited for sleep to take him, and after a few minutes drifted off.

He awoke with a start several hours later to near pitch-black darkness. He fumbled around for his backpack, and once he found it felt through the inside to find the lantern he kept there. After a moment he pulled if free and hit the switch, wincing as the bright light hurt his eyes initially. He blinked as his eyes soon adjusted, taking quick inventory of what he could make out of his surroundings. After a moment of getting oriented he took a guess as to which way he had come from and started walking in that direction; he made slow progress in the thick foliage. After about an hour of walking he realized the woods were only getting thicker.

"Great..." He mumbled to himself as he stopped, trying to regain his bearings. He picked a new direction and started walking that way. Another half hour passed and the woods were still only getting thicker. Just as he was about to stop again, his foot caught on something hard and he tripped.

"Crap!" he shouted as he fell face first into a bush. His face lit up with stinging pain as thorns clawed marks into his skin, but instead of hitting the cold dirt like he expected after that, his head connected with something warm and soft. He grunted and readjusted his lantern to see what he hit, and was startled to see two angry eyes staring at him from directly in front of him. Before he could even react something hard connected with his chest and lifted him off the ground. He grunted from the blow and felt weightless for a brief moment before something else hard crashed into his shoulder and sent him flying back. He crashed into a tree behind him with a cry of pain as his lantern rolled away. He barely had a moment to see the silhouette flying at him out of the bush he had fallen in. He winced and put his arms in front of him to try to block whatever blow was coming, just as the figure crashed into him. There was a loud meaty crack as Simon screamed, pain searing throughout his arm. He keeled forward as the figure leapt back, clutching his arm which now felt like it had an extra joint in the middle of it. He gritted his teeth and tried his best to hold back a cry of pain as his arm wiggled it's new joint.

From directly in front of him there was suddenly an angry shout, though Simon couldn't understand what was being said. He looked up to see a short figure dimly lit by the askew lantern. It seemed vaguely human in shape, though wider in the hips. Simon could see the pokemon holding its fist up in front of him as it angrily shouted at him in its own language.

"I-I don't understand" Simon managed to say between grunts of pain. This seemed to anger the pokemon, as it suddenly twisted and whipped it's foot into the side of Simon's head. Simon felt intense pain searing across his face for a split second before darkness overtook him. He vaguely registered slumping over into the cold dirt, and after that only blackness.

...

Jade stood over the unconscious human who had crashed into her meditation. She stared at him for a moment before deciding to look through his mind to find out what he had been doing before invading her territory. The man grunted and twitched as she reached in and assimilated the knowledge she needed.

"You're a fool." Jade thought, looking down on the man, but froze up when she heard rustling behind her. She whipped around, but relaxed when she saw it was only her den-mate Ruby coming to check up on her. She waved and the Mienshao advanced, though she jumped back when she caught sight of the human lying unconscious in front of Jade.

"Relax, I took care of him." Jade said, giving the man a soft kick in the ribs to prove her point.

The Mienshao cautiously approached the human, and carefully rolled him on his back. She checked him over briefly before noticing his left arm was broken and bending in an awkward way. Ruby whipped around, hissing angrily at Jade.

"I know I broke his arm but he deserved it!" Jade said defensively, backing up a few steps.

Ruby hissed and snarled in response.

"No way!" Jade shouted, "He's a human, and he invaded our turf; I'm not going to help him!"

Ruby gave a low growl in response to this.

"No," Jade said adamantly, "I'm going to leave him right where he is and we're going to find a new den further in."

Ruby yipped angrily and snarled some more.

"You wouldn't." Jade said. "We can't afford to keep him around, he'll take too long to heal and you know what's coming for us in the next week!"

Ruby huffed and carefully picked the human up, easily hefting his weight and balancing him on her shoulder as she walked away from Jade.

"Ruby don't!" Jade pleaded. "We can't take care of him and protect ourselves at the same time!"

Ruby just growled as she continued carrying the human away. Jade gave a frustrated growl of her own before punching the dirt, leaving a small crater before she followed after Ruby. The Mienshao carefully carried the human back to her shared den, which was a fairly long journey from where they were. Jade followed her, but kept her distance from the man. By the time they reached their home Ruby was winded from holding the man up for so long and gently laid him out on the soft bed of dry leaves in their little sheltered burrow, which would only be just big enough for him to sit up in if he were awake. She pulled the strange bag off of his back and set it in the back of the den. She started to tend to his wounds as best she could as Jade sat outside the opening to their burrow, keeping a watch on the woods outside. Ruby carefully licked the numerous cuts on his face clean, scowling at the taste of his blood but persevering to finish the job. She noticed the side of his face starting to swell purple from the vicious jump kick he had received from Jade. Ruby huffed and hurried out of the den past Jade, who just watched her rush by.

While Ruby began digging around the underbrush looking for something, Jade retreated into the den and looked the unconscious human over, marveling briefly that all he got away with was a bruised face from her last attack. She looked down at his forearm, still bent at the break. She sighed and did her best to set the bones back straight, knowing Ruby would try and make it worse with her less dexterous paws if she didn't do it herself first. The man grunted and moaned in his sleep as she forced his forearm back into its former shape as best she could. She then took a few sticks and a piece of cloth, which was a very valuable thing to have this deep in the forest and more than once she had to fight to keep possession of it, and made a stint on his arm the way she had been taught to long ago.

Just then Ruby returned with an armload of smooth stones. She murred and licked Jade's cheek happily, seeing Jade was actually helping now. Jade said nothing and took one of the stones from Ruby, setting it on the man's now swelling arm; using the naturally cold object as a sort of ice pack. Ruby set the stones down and held one of her own to the side of his face, trying to slow the swelling there. They tended him like this for the next few hours in silence, keeping a rotation of stones as they inevitably warmed up and had to switch to a new one to let them cool down. Eventually Ruby was satisfied and confident that he wasn't going to swell up and further.

"Don't get attached to him." Jade warned as Ruby curled up for the night next to the human. "I warned you what humans do, as far as I'm concerned he got exactly what he deserved."

Ruby gave an annoyed yip and closed her eyes.

Jade sighed and sat down, crossing her legs and pressing her palms together. She didn't need nearly as much sleep as Ruby did, so she usually spent her nights meditating; though tonight she wasn't going to return to her usual meditation spot. She didn't think she would be able focus with a human so nearby, but she was at least going to try. She breathed deeply as she slowly shut off most of her senses and tried hone her mind, and for the most part succeeded, though she kept just alert enough to keep an eye on the den throughout the night.

...

Simon woke up slowly, and the first thing he noticed was he felt hot. He tried to open his eyes and found that only his left one would respond: the right remained firmly screwed shut. He tried to reach up with his hand to feel it but a searing pain in his arm stopped him. Too groggy to worry about that yet, he reached up with his other arm, which worked just fine, and found half of his face to be very swollen, and after a moment he winced as he realized it was also very tender. He looked over at his painful arm and saw something tied to it, and after a moment of thought realized it was a form of splint.

"What happened?" Simon groggily asked, mainly to himself as he tried to sit up.

"If you know what's good for you you'll lay back down, human." A female voice spoke up in his mind.

Simon blinked and looked around confused until he saw a red and grey pokemon sitting a few feet to his left in whatever little dug out area he was in. After a moment the night before rushed back to him and he recognized her as the thing that had attacked him.

"You did this to me!" Simon said angrily, and tried to pull himself up until a sharp pain in his torso sent him falling back into whatever soft bed he was in.

"I did, and you deserved it." The pokemon said in his mind.

"Why? what did I do?" Simon demanded between grunts of pain, his wounds were starting to wake up now and he actively ached everywhere.

"You're a human trainer for one." The pokemon snapped, "I saw your pokeballs. And for another you were the one that attacked first!"

"I tripped!" Simon grunted.

"I don't believe you!" The pokemon shouted as it stood up and threatened him with her fist.

An angry snarl announced the entrance of a second pokemon in the den, and the one that had attacked him last night lowered its fist and turned away. The second pokemon looked somewhat like a weasel, though purple with long flowing whiskers. The weasel approached him, holding his water canteen in her paws. Simon blinked as she raised it up to his lips, and he drank obligingly as she poured it into his mouth. A strong bitter taste told him there was something else inside there besides water, but the pokemon next to him wasn't giving him any choice: it was drink or drown. Simon did his best to swallow the foul liquid, and just managed. He suppressed a gag as the canteen was removed from his lips.

"You better be grateful to Ruby," The first pokemon warned him, "If not for her you would still be lying in the dirt where I left you."

Simon blinked and turned to the purple pokemon. "Thank you, R-Ruby." He said weakly.

Ruby froze up under his gaze, and after a quick moment bolted out of the den, leaving the canteen behind.

"Is she okay?" Simon asked, looking to the red and grey pokemon sitting a few feet from him.

"She's fine, just..." The pokemon started, "Shy I guess."

Simon thought quietly for a moment, and realizing that the powerful aches in his face in arm were dulling slowly. "So she's named Ruby, what should I call you?" Simon asked.

"Call me the one that will rearrange your face if you make Ruby regret saving you at any point," The pokemon threatened, "If that's too long for you, just use Jade."

"Noted." Simon remarked, and went silent. He stared up at the roof of whatever hole he was in as he tried to ignore the constant throb of his wounds, but after a while the aches faded and he felt drowsy. He blinked slowly, reflecting that there was probably some sort of medicine in the canteen and it was helping him. His thoughts didn't reach much further than that before he passed out from the drug.

...

Jade looked the man over and huffed. She was tempted to just abandon the den right now and let any pokemon who wandered by do what it will to him, but she knew she would never hear the end of it from Ruby if she did. She dutifully kept a vigil over the den until Ruby returned with a fresh load of cool stones for the man. Jade left Ruby to tend to her pet while she went out to stretch her legs. The Mienshao didn't seem to mind.

Jade headed to the nearby spring, thinking she may need to cool off quite literally. After a few minutes of walking, she came across the large stone outcroppings that surrounded the spring. She climbed over the boulders and wasted no time adjusting to the temperature of the water; she just jumped into the deep pool of clear water. What would have been a jarring temperature shift for anyone else, Jade barely registered as she sank to the sandy bottom of the spring. She sat cross-legged at the bottom of the pool, not trying to meditate for she knew she couldn't hold her breath that long, but just trying to calm her mind as the water cooled her body. After a few minutes she felt something bumping up against her belly and opened one eye to see a brave Basculin had swum over and was investigating the new feature to its home. Jade shifted slightly to let the fish know she was alive, and it quickly swam away. She resumed her pseudo-meditation and after about ten minutes was forced to retreat as her lungs were on fire begging for air. She calmly swam back to the surface and took in a big lungful of air as she hauled herself out of the water onto the rocky ring surrounding the pool.

She lay on the shore catching her breath for a while before heading back to check on Ruby. When she returned to the den she found her roommate curled up next to the human dozing lightly. Jade growled to herself, reversing any progress she had made in calming her mind as she sat back down in her spot in the den. Ruby looked up at her sleepily and gave a low welcome yip. Jade ignored her and just pretended to meditate. Ruby stared at Jade for a while before nuzzling closer to the human and falling asleep again.

...

Simon woke up again, feeling even warmer than before, though he thought it had to be more than from the swelling. A slight shift in position proved this as he felt the new warmth move against him. He tentatively felt around with his good arm until he found his bedmate. Judging from the soft fur, he guessed it had to be Ruby. He cautiously ran his hand across the pokemon's fur, eliciting a sleepy murr from her. He couldn't help but smile at this and kept petting Ruby, getting more murrs out of her.

"Just stop!" Jade yelled angrily, causing Simon to wince.

Simon looked over at her "I-I'm sorry." He stammered.

"Don't apologize!" She snapped, "She doesn't even know your name, you have no right to touch her!"

Simon went quiet, withdrawing his hand from Ruby, who let out a dissatisfied grunt. "My name's Simon, if it means anything to you." He said quietly after a while.

Jade said nothing, seeming to ignore him.

"How do you have a name if you're a wild pokemon?" Simon asked.

"Because I'm not a wild pokemon, idiot." Jade said then looked down, "Well, at least I wasn't..."

"I'm sorry." Simon said, seeing she was hurt by something.

"No, I'm glad." Jade said, more to herself than Simon.

Simon went quiet, deciding it was better not to push the issue. After a long while Ruby woke up with a yawn and a stretch, and froze up when she realized Simon was awake is well.

"He's called Simon." Jade remarked matter-of-factly

Ruby nodded and licked Simon's hand once before rushing out of the den like before. Jade just shook her head and resumed her watch over the entrance to the den. Simon sighed and tried his best to relax.

...

The days went by agonizingly slow for Simon and Jade. Simon could barely stand the pain and itching of the healing process and Jade was doing her best not to give him more breaks to whine about. Ruby seemed to enjoy her time though: when she wasn't out foraging or preparing medicine for Simon, she was usually curled up next to him, at least after the first few days she was; it took her a while to wear down her timidity around him. Jade eventually grew tolerant of this and by about the fifth day in the den, she allowed Simon to pet her, which Ruby was all too happy to have. It took a few days for the swelling in his face to go down, but he didn't really keep track of that. After the first few days, time seemed kind of meaningless to him and he just focused on healing. Jade however kept a painfully accurate count of how long he occupied their den; down to the hour.

It was almost to the end of the week before he could sit up without feeling like his ribs were going to cave in on him; though it still hurt like hell. Ruby made sure to clean his cuts every morning, which gradually went from a painful sensation to a ticklish one as they healed shut.

By the time his cuts had healed over Simon had begun to notice a change in the pair of pokemon taking care of him. They were becoming restless: Ruby would often shift position many times throughout the night, often waking Simon up in the process. Simon could have sworn he caught Jade actually sleeping on more than one occasion, but when confronted she would blush and deny it. Blushing was another thing; He had never seen Jade do it before but now she seemed to be doing it several times a day.

One morning, after Simon had propped himself up against the wall with a grunt so he could sit they got a sort of visitor to the den. Ruby was out foraging for supplies at the time, so it was just him and Jade, who was keeping her usual watch over the den. Simon caught a glimpse of a brown pokemon out in the woods past the den entrance. After a moment he recognized it as a Timburr, a fighting type pokemon common to these woods. The pokemon was sniffing the air as it wandered an increasingly straight path to the entrance of the den. Simon was surprised to that Jade didn't notice the pokemon until it was literally right in front of the den. It sniffed cautiously at the dirt as Jade stood up and walked out to meet it.

"What do you want?" Jade demanded. Simon saw that she was easily double the other pokemon's height.

The pokemon kept sniffing as it walked closer to her. Suddenly Jade balled up her fist and decked the smaller Timburr across the face, knocking him over.

"Get out of here pipsqueak, you're not getting what you're looking for." She growled. The pokemon scrambled back to its feet and turned tail, fleeing quickly back the way it had come.

"What was that about?" Simon asked as she returned to the den, blushing heavily.

"You really are oblivious." Was all Jade said as she sat back down and resumed trying to meditate.

"Maybe, but it would help if you filled me in on what's going on." Simon said. "it's not just you either, Ruby's been acting funny too."

"If you're observant enough to pick up on that, you should be able to figure out the rest on your own." Jade said, turning away from Simon.

Simon sighed, deciding he wouldn't get any information out of her, and resumed watching the forest outside as he tried to ignore the constant ache in his left arm, which was still swollen about as thick as his leg.

The day passed slowly and sometime in the afternoon Ruby returned to the den and curled up next to Simon for a light nap. She didn't get any sleep though as it turned out another pokemon had followed her back. A strange blue monkey that Simon couldn't identify was standing outside the den sniffing the air intently. Ruby peaked up over Simon's lap to see what it was, and quickly ducked down out of sight shaking. Simon reached down to pet her, which seemed to calm her somewhat.

"Go away!" Jade roared, getting up again. The new pokemon fled before she even got to the entrance, and she returned to her seat with a frustrated sigh.

Simon was tempted to try asking her what was up again, but decided against it and focused on petting Ruby until night came. He slept fitfully, and Ruby's near-constant shifting around didn't help that any. The next day he noticed a faint, but sour and musky smell about the den. It didn't bother him much, just made him feel a little light headed, not that he was awake for enough of the day to let it get to him. He spent most of the morning and afternoon napping to catch up on the sleep he had lost the night before. Late in the afternoon another Timburr, or maybe it was the same one, visited the den. This one was more stubborn when Jade told it to leave, and actually tried to fight back until Jade proved to be far stronger and faster than him. Simon figured she had the situation under control and went back to sleep shortly after the commotion. When he woke up he was surprised to see Jade staring at him with unfocussed eyes.

"Jade, you okay?" He asked, worried.

She shook her head, blushing deeply as she snapped back to reality. "What's it to you?" She asked.

"Well, despite you seeming to hate me you've done more than your fair share to help take care of me." Simon said matter-of-factly.

Jade blushed more and looked away. "So?" She asked.

"So I'm grateful," Simon said, "Sorry if that makes me worry about you."

She blushed even more. "Y-you're worried about me?" She stuttered.

"Of course I am." Simon said.

Jade went quiet for a while. "I'm not even your pokemon..." She said quietly after a while.

"So?" Simon asked.

"Why would you care about me?" She asked, in an accusatory tone.

"You've taken good care of me," Simon said, "And if that's not enough I can tell you take good care of Ruby too, and I like her enough to be grateful to you for that."

Jade was quiet for a long time again. "Jade was the name my trainer gave to me..." She said finally.

Simon remained quiet, sensing she needed to get this off her chest.

After a moment she continued, "He was nice until we were in battle... Then he only focused on winning, which is fine I guess, I was more than happy to fight for him: to make him happy." She sighed, "Then we got beat bad at one gym, and he got mad. He said we needed to train harder and his mean and demanding side normally only there in battles was a constant issue."

Simon nodded silently, and kept listening.

"I just wanted to make him happy. He just wanted to win. I was little more than a tool for him. He started doing things like not feeding me if I didn't train hard enough for him. He did other things too, but I don't want to think about those again..." She remained quiet for a long time.

"So you ran away." Simon said calmly.

"Yeah..." She said. "I smashed my pokeball and bolted in the night... It was actually pretty funny how easy it was to break."

"Do you regret it?" Simon asked.

"No," She said, though she didn't sound sure.

"What your former trainer did was wrong, he didn't deserve to have a pokemon like you for a partner." Simon remarked.

Jade sighed, "I hate him so much, but I still miss those early days when he was nice. When he gave me a name I felt so special because he had given it to me. That's why I haven't given it up, those feelings mean too much to me now despite what he turned into. They're why I gave Ruby her name too, so she could feel special like I did..."

Simon nodded, understanding. "How did you and Ruby meet?" he asked, "She doesn't look like a pokemon native to this forest."

"She's not." Jade said, "I found her while I was wandering around after running away. Or rather she found me. She saved me from a group of other pokemon that were pissed at me for stumbling onto their turf. She may not look or act like it, but she's really far stronger than I am. She's just too nice to use it unless in a dire situation. After that we traveled together until we made a home for ourselves here. This is the forest I was born in, though no one I knew back then is still around here."

Simon nodded. "You know, I'm giving up on being a trainer." He said.

Jade looked up at him, stunned. "What? Why?" She demanded.

Simon sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "After hearing your story, I figure I shouldn't be." He said, "The reason I was wandering this deep in the woods was to find a new partner pokemon; since my first one did the same thing you did."

"It ran away?" Jade asked, shocked.

"Yeah," Simon sighed, "Smashed his pokeball like you too. Hearing your side of the story I guess he's better off for it, I guess I was too harsh on him. In retrospect I feel like an idiot for making him fight at all, or even keeping him in a pokeball."

"No..." Jade mumbled angrily, "You're not that kind of person."

"How do you know?" Simon asked.

"I've been next to you for over a week, Simon." She said. "I've gotten to know you. I'm a mind reader, or did you not realize that?"

Simon blinked and sighed. "Well I guess you may be right, but I still feel like an idiot after hearing how things are from the other side of the pokeball."

Jade sighed and walked over to Simon, putting her hand on his shoulder. "No, did you miss the part where I enjoyed it?"

"What do you mean?" Simon asked.

"We're not slaves once we're in those little cages," She said, "For me, I was ecstatic to have someone who would always be there to take care of me and be a friend, and fighting for him was a small price to pay when he could take me to a pokemon center and have me fully recover in a couple minutes."

"So why would he run away then?" Simon asked, looking up at Jade.

"My guess is he's just a bad pokemon." Jade said resolutely, "He didn't deserve a trainer like you."

Simon couldn't help but smile at her turning his words back on him, and she smiled with him.

"Thanks, Jade." He said.

"No need to thank me," She said, "It's what friends do."

Simon smiled even wider hearing that, though Jade's Smile faltered.

"Listen," She started, "I'm sorry for hurting you this bad..."

"Oh, don't worry about it." Simon said, trying to sound cheerful.

"No..." Jade said, "It's not okay, I've been mad at humans for a long time just because one hurt me. It's not okay for me to shove that on you when you had nothing to do for it, and it's unforgivable to attack you for it..." She said.

Simon could see tears welling up in her eyes as she looked down at the floor and without thinking, reached out and took her in his good arm, holding her to his chest. She seemed surprised at first, but gave in a moment later, sobbing silently into Simon's sore chest as he assured her it was okay and he understood. They sat like that for a long time until Jade eventually pulled herself together.

"I'm sorry about that, I try to have better control over myself but this damn heat..." Jade trailed off.

"It's okay." Simon assured her, though he didn't think it was particularly warm in the den.

Jade nodded and scooted a few inches from Simon, trying to resume her meditation, and having much better success than before on it. Simon watched her silently, marveling at how she could sit as still as a rock for so long. After about an hour Ruby returned to the den from foraging and stopped in her tacks when she saw that Jade was sitting so close to Simon now. She gave a quiet yip of approval before dropping off her current haul of food in the corner and curling up next to Simon, resting her head on his lap as he pet her. That's how they sat until the sun set, then almost begrudgingly Simon shifted back down onto his back so he could sleep for the night, and surprisingly he passed out quite easily.

...

Ruby watched Simon carefully until she was sure he was soundly asleep. Then, she carefully crept away from him. The burning itch between her thighs had become too much to ignore, and she felt it was time Jade and her helped each other out. She crept up to her den mate, who was still meditating quietly, and after double checking to make sure Simon was still asleep, she gently nosed Jade's chest.

Jade opened one eye. "What is it?" She asked.

Ruby gave a low whine and nosed at Jade's crotch and took a big whiff of her now heavy musk, causing her to blush. Jade shot a glance over to Simon before looking back to Ruby. "All right, but just be quiet, I don't want to try to explain if he catches us."

Ruby nodded eagerly and quickly paced back and forth as Jade shifted to her knees, and once her partner was in position, She got down on all fours and presented Jade with her ass and dripping snatch. Jade licked her lips and leaned forward, taking a moment to savor Ruby's scent before dipping her tongue into her pussy. She started quickly lapping up Ruby's juices as she felt her own starting to flow. Ruby squirmed under the treatment, occasionally letting the a squeak or murr of pleasure out when Jade hit a particularly sensitive spot. Deciding to hurry things up, Jade slipped two of her fingers into Ruby's slit as she focused her tongue on her clit. Ruby's hips bucked in response, and she started grinding her ass back against Jade's face as she fingered her and licked her clit quickly. Ruby didn't last much longer and soon seized up, letting out a squeak as she clenched down around Jade's fingers in orgasm.

Jade smiled and pulled her fingers out of the satisfied Mienshao as it slumped forward in front of her. She sat back down, intending to return to meditating to get her own raised libido back under control, but hadn't so much as closed her eyes before she was knocked over by a tackle from her partner. She grunted as Ruby pinned her and forced her legs apart.

"Ruby, wait!" Jade pleaded, but a low murr from Ruby showed she had no intentions of stopping. Before Jade could even put up a resistance she felt Ruby's long tongue bury itself in her own wet slit. She let out a moan as any though of stopping her partner melted away, and spread her legs wider for Ruby. Ruby murred quietly as she wiggled her tongue inside Jade's pussy, savoring both the taste and scent of her sex. Jade could only moan as she gave in to the pleasure, and that was probably why she didn't notice the man stirring in his sleep nearby.

....

Simon slowly woke up, partly from the ache in his arm, and partly from the weird noise he was hearing. He turned his head and opened his eyes, and it took him a while to make sense of what he was seeing. At first it looked like Jade was meditating with Ruby laying down next to her, but there was something off about the way they were moving. After a moment the noise and the sights synced up and he realized with a start that Jade was moaning as Ruby pleasured her.

"Jade?" He asked tentatively, not sure if this was a dream or reality.

Jade froze up and tried to push Ruby's head away from her crotch, but she remained stubbornly glued to her, continuing to lick and elicit moans from Jade. "S-simon don't look." She stammered out, "I didn't want you to see this."

"I'm sorry!" Simon stuttered and quickly turned his head the other way, but the thought and image stuck in his mind. He stared at the wall, but could still hear Ruby slurping away at Jades nethers as Jade tried and failed to stifle her moans. With a blush, Simon realized that a certain part of him was getting aroused by this. He shook his head and tried to deny the thought, but as if to spite him he felt his member beginning to swell in his pants. All he could do was blush more and hope they didn't notice him; he was still too hurt to roll over on his side and hide it. The musky smell from earlier was back and now permeated the den, and to his horror he felt himself only getting more aroused from it. He laid listening to Jade's moans as he felt himself grow painfully erect.

Suddenly the noise stopped, and Simon was tempted to peek over to see what was going on, but stubbornly kept looking away until he felt a familiar warmth pressing up against his inner thigh. He looked up and saw Ruby hovering over the tent he was pitching and eying it intently while she licked her chops.

"R-ruby wait-" He pleaded, but she ignored him and fumbled with his pants until she had them open, revealing Simon's throbbing malehood. Simon blushed deeply as she leaned down and nuzzled his testicles, sniffing them deeply with a happy murr. Simon bit his lip as he leaked pre, growing even more aroused, but to his surprise Ruby walked away. A moment later she returned, carrying Jade; her arms firmly wrapped around Jades middle as Jade weakly struggled.

"Ruby you can't just..." Jade mumbled, struggling to keep her focus as she panted. Before she could say anything else, Ruby had plopped her down on top of Simon, grinding her wet pussy against the base of Simon's cock. Simon and Jade both let out a soft moan feeling their sexes rub together. Ruby murred happily as she lifted Jade slightly and took Simon's shaft in the other. Neither resisted her now as she positioned the tip at Jades entrance and slowly lowered her down onto it. Both Jade and Simon moaned loudly as he slid deep inside her. Simon panted, amazed at her incredible tightness, but before he could even get a moment to adjust to her, she was already rising up and starting to ride him. She didn't waste much time gaining speed and soon they were both moaning as she quickly slid his shaft in and out of her. Jade being already warmed up from Ruby's tongue, and Simon being a week pent up from healing, neither of them took long to finish and after just a few minutes they were both cumming. Jade's already tight snatch clamped down even harder on Simon's cock as he erupted into her, filling her womb with his pent up seed.

Jade collapsed on Simon's chest panting, his shaft slipping out of her still hard. Simon took her in her good arm as she recovered, and jumped as he felt something warm press against the base of his member. He looked up to see Ruby dutifully licking it clean of both their cum, and couldn't suppress a moan as she eventually got to the tip of it. By the time she had finished cleaning him, he was throbbing and ready to go again, which Ruby didn't let go to waste. She crawled over him and positioned her still wet slit over his member before sinking down and impaling herself on it with a happy murr. Jade gently stroked Simon's chest, trying to add to his pleasure despite her winded state. Simon could only moan as Ruby set to work riding him quickly, trying his best to thrust back up into her but his pained ribs kept him pretty much nailed to the floor. Ruby was soon panting and whimpering, and Simon approached his second peak. With a grunt he released his second load, filling her with his seed and causing her to cum around his rod moments later.

Ruby collapsed with a satisfied murr, and Jade caught her before she could collide into Simon's bruised ribs. She pulled Ruby on top of her and snuggled both of them closer to Simon's side as he panted and wrapped his good arm around both of them. Too tired for pillow talk, they all fell asleep fairly quickly together.

...

Simon awoke to grunts and cries of pain. He snapped awake and sat bolt upright despite the stabbing pain in his chest. The den was empty except for him. "Jade? Ruby?" He called out, but got no response. He crawled shakily to the entrance of the den, squinting against the bright light. Once his eyes adjusted he saw Jade pinned up against a tree by a Timburr, she was having a hard time fighting back and blushing intently. He looked around and saw Ruby a few feet away whimpering and already being mounted by another Timburr.

"Get off her!" Simon shouted as he hobbled forward. He tried to imitate Jade his best and decked the pokemon across the face, though it seemed not to feel it. It instead shouted back at him and punched him in the stomach, knocking him back and setting his chest alight with pain again from the impact.

"N-no!" Simon heard Jade pleading weakly as the Timburr began mating her.

Simon gritted his teeth, he had to do something, but in his crippled state he couldn't overpower them, and Ruby and Jade were too far gone to their estrus to help themselves. An idea suddenly came to him and he scrambled back into the den to his backpack. He unpacked it quickly, tossing his clothes, repels, and potions aside as he frantically searched for his pokeballs. He reached the bottom without finding them and began to panic. "Please tell me I didn't lose them!" He pleaded to himself, then slapped his forehead as he remembered clipping them to his belt. He scrambled back out of the den towards Jade, carefully unclipping one of the pokeballs from his belt.

"Jade I'm sorry," He said, winding up his throw, "It's the only way I can help!"

Jade saw what he was about to do and to his surprise a wave of relief washed across her face as he let it fly. The ball connected with her squarely and popped open, causing her to vanish in a flash of light. The Timburr cried out suddenly, it's member now standing painfully erect in the cold air instead of being buried in Jade's warm slit. Simon didn't even wait for the first ball to hit the ground before throwing his last pokeball at Ruby, who similarly disappeared leaving a surprised and dissatisfied Timburr humping air.

Simon sighed with relief, but it was short lived as both Timburr now turned on him, angry and unsatisfied. He tried to retreat into the den, but couldn't outpace the infuriated pokemon and was promptly launched face first into the den by a powerful kick from one of them. He cried out in pain as he landed on top of his empty backpack. Simon vaguely registered stereo dings signaling successful captures. Both pokemon advanced into the den after him as he scrambled back against the wall, throwing whatever his hands happened across at them to slow them, but the clothes and occasional potion only served to anger them further on impact. Simon felt around frantically until his hand clamped down on the familiar shape of a spray bottle, and he was about to throw it before something told him to see what it was. He looked and read the familiar word "REPEL" on the label. He didn't have time to think as the pokemon were upon him. Simon mashed the trigger and aimed blindly at one of them as it raised it's fist. Instead of fresh pain, Simon was greeted with a scream. He looked and saw he had filled the pokemon's eyes with the bitter spray, and it was now doubled over on the floor. Its friend wasn't deterred by the powerful fumes now filling the den and moved to attack Simon. Ready to defend himself this time, Simon aimed carefully and gave the other one a direct spray to the face as well, sending him reeling back in pain. He shoved past the disabled pokemon and out of the den, quickly snatching up both of his pokeballs and snapped them back on his belt before hobbling off into the woods hoping the Timburr wouldn't recover and pursue too quickly.

The next few hours were a blur that Simon barely remembered, all he can say definitely is he reached the edge of the forest around dusk and had to walk around its perimeter until he found familiar territory. It was around midnight when he stumbled into the pokemon center of Nacrene City and collapsed there. Thankfully there was a nurse licensed for humans on the premises and she made sure he got to a hospital after taking care of his pokemon, who were pretty beat up and disoriented.

Simon woke up in a hospital bed a few days later, his arm properly casted up and his two new pokemon and mates waiting faithfully at his bedside for him. Once they saw he was awake, both pounced on him, hugging him tightly. He did his best to hug them back. Once everyone had calmed down he rung the nurse and had her fill him in on how he got here and what all was wrong with him. It turned out his arm wasn't the only broken bone he had; he had at least two cracked ribs. Jade looked at the floor at this news, but Simon put his hand on her shoulder and assured her it was in the past now. She nodded and did her best to cheer up then.

Simon spent a couple more days in the hospital as the doctors made sure he was fit enough to be moving about, and after that he planned on heading home. He asked Jade and Ruby if they wanted to come with him, and both agreed eagerly to his surprise. It took him a couple weeks getting back to his hometown, but he couldn't help but notice all the strange looks he was getting from people along the way for letting his pokemon walk with him out of their pokeballs. He tried not to let it bother him, but when he got home and his own parents made an issue out of it he decided something needed to change; he refused to keep them in their pokeballs. After a few weeks of looking for an answer on the internet, he found one; and he decided to take it however crazy it may be.

The very next day he pulled his life savings from the jar he kept under his bed and set out for Pinwheel Forest again. Two weeks later, he arrived with his partners and crossed through to Skyarrow Bridge. The massive bridge took an hour to cross, but the view was amazing. Once they had safely crossed into Castelia City he headed to the pier and asked around on what he could do about getting a boat to Jhoto. It turned out there was one boat leaving later that day, but the ticket would cost him almost every cent he had. Simon paid up gladly and boarded. It was a three day journey, and thankfully meals had been included on the ticket.

They arrived in Olivine City with a mixed sense of dread and hope. They were finally where they wanted to be, but they didn't have a cent to their name. The next few months were rough: Simon did his best to hitchhike from town to town, doing odd jobs to pay for food and lodging while searching for stable work. It all seemed hopeless until one day he stumbled upon a suburb of Goldenrod in need of a mailman, and made that place his home.

Chapter 4

Road Trip

"You've come a long way together." Mark said, half in awe after hearing Simon, Jade, and Ruby's story. Simon had told most of it; however Jade would chime in to fill in the parts where Simon had been unconscious.

Simon nodded, "Yeah, I'd do it all again with twice the broken bones though." He said, half joking.

Flare let out a long yawn, and Jade looked over at him. "You three should probably go to bed soon, I can sense how tired you all are." She said frankly.

"You've been reading our minds?" Clara asked, sounding concerned.

"Yes." Jade said, looking to Clara "I take it you have a problem with that."

"Well..." Clara started.

"Listen," Jade interrupted, "You may have an issue with poking around people's heads without permission, but I don't." She explained.

"Isn't that a bit rude?" Clara asked defensively.

"Maybe," Jade responded, "but I don't really care, it's proved too useful to give up."

Clara went quiet and Jade seemed to return to her meditation. After a while, Simon broke the awkward silence, "I'll go get you guys some pillows and blankets. Do you mind sleeping on the couch? I'm afraid I don't have a guest room set up."

"That's fine, thanks for having us over." I said, trying to sound cheerful.

"Will you and Clara be okay cramming on the couch together?" Simon asked.

Clara nodded. "We sleep pretty close as it is." She said.

Simon smiled and fetched us our bedding for the night. We took a moment to get situated before Simon and Jade bid us goodnight, and headed further into the house with Ruby close behind. Clara and I snuggled close to each other and Flare laid down next to the couch, providing ample warmth from the heat he radiated.

We were woken up early by Ruby the next morning and after a brief chat with Simon in which we exchanged cell numbers. Flare, Clara and I headed out for the police station. Carol greeted us as we walked in and explained the chief wasn't in yet. Seeing no other work to do in the meantime, Clara and I set to work on the massive pile of papers to be filed once again. It was about an hour before Ramsey arrived at the office, and he was pretty surprised to see us already there and working. He apologized for not having proper work for us today again, so we spent the rest of the day filing. Flare was not amused to be sitting in the corner yet again with nothing to do; I made sure to give him a pet or two every time I took a shipment to the filing cabinets so he wouldn't get too bored. Evening came and we were dismissed, and to my surprise Simon, Jade, and Ruby were waiting outside for us.

"Hey Simon, what's up?" I asked, curious why he was here.

"Nothing much," He said, "got off of work early and was wondering if you wanted to do something this weekend?"

I blinked, surprised by the offer. "Sure, what did you have in mind?" I asked.

"Was hoping you'd have an idea," Simon said, chuckling. "I've never been good at organizing these kind of things."

"What he means is he walked down here spur of the moment without picking something out first." Jade explained, causing Simon to blush.

Clara and I couldn't help but giggle. After we calmed down I took a moment to think, and an idea hit me. "Say, would you have a problem going on a road trip?" I asked.

"Uh, not really but where would we go?" Simon asked.

I grinned, "I have a friend from the academy that lives not too far from here, her name's Sarah." I explained.

Simon looked nervous, "Another officer?" He asked.

"Yeah," I said, "but she's pretty awesome. She's the friend that helped Clara get ready to join the academy."

"Oh," Simon said, looking relieved, "Sure, I'd be glad to tag along to meet her then. How far away is she?"

"Well, she said her hometown was Catallia City, which was near Cherrygrove if I'm remembering our conversations right." I said.

"That's right, just outside of Cherrygrove." Clara confirmed.

"All the way to Cherrygrove in a weekend?" Simon asked, looking doubtful, "We'd have to leave Friday night, and it'd be Saturday afternoon by the time we got there, it's half way across the continent."

I grinned, "It'd be worth it," I said, "Besides, doesn't sound like you've got a better plan." I said, poking fun at him.

"Well, you got me there." Simon said, chuckling a little. "What the hell, why not." He said, now smiling.

Clara beamed, "You won't regret it!" She exclaimed.

"I'll call her when I get back to my uncle's place and let her know we're coming." I said, smiling.

After that we chatted a bit longer before saying our goodbyes, and I called a taxi as Simon headed home. After a short ride, we paid the driver, thanked her, and headed inside. Ted was apparently still out working, as the house was deserted, and Clara and I used the time to sneak a quick shower. Once we had toweled off and I got dressed again, I grabbed my cell phone and dialed Sarah's number.

"Sure, I'd be glad to have you and this friend over!" Sarah exclaimed after I had explained the situation to her, "I'm actually surprised you'd want to come visit so soon after moving, have you found a place yet?"

"No, I'm still staying with my uncle." I said, "You living back with your family or have your own place now?" I asked

"I actually have my own apartment now." She said, sounding proud.

"That's awesome!" I said

"How's your internship been so far?" She asked.

"It's been okay, the station's tiny and there isn't much to do outside of filing, but the chief seems nice enough." I explained.

"Yeah it's about the same here," She said, chuckling, "Though everyone here has a Spinarak like me, it's a little jarring coming fresh out of the academy."

"I'll bet." I said, nodding despite knowing she couldn't see me.

We chatted a little longer before Ted walked in and I had to hang up. I filled Ted in on what had happened, censoring the story so as not to raise suspicion. He congratulated me on making some new friends so quickly. After that, Clara and Ted made dinner together and we went to bed early.

The rest of the week went by slowly, but was more interesting overall. Chief Ramsey slowly put together a daily schedule for us as he found more ways to fit us into the office's routine. Every morning and afternoon he had Flare and I head out to the school for crossing guard duty, since the school had been in need of one for a while. The children were afraid of the massive canine the first few days we were there, but by the third day Flare's friendly behavior eventually won them over and he got all the petting he could ever want. I got to know the recess supervisor we had seen the other day too while we waited. She explained the reason she had a Hoot-hoot was because of its extremely keen eyesight; it really made keeping track of thirty-some students at once easier. Another thing we were in charge of was taking out the trash every evening, which was also scrub work but was a welcome break from filing.

Clara was put in charge of sorting and delivering everyone's mail inside the office, and every day at noon we would run the out-going mail from the office down to Simon, who was always happy to see us. We learned Ruby and Jade were in charge of sorting the mail in the back, and Simon would make the rounds to deliver everyone's mail in the little government car they gave him.

We also would often run personal errands for the other officers; which usually entailed getting lunch from one of the restaurants in town. Other than that, we were usually filing the massive pile of papers; though it was bearable now with the frequent breaks we were given.

Friday finally came and Simon met us at the door of the station at the end of the day; his little government-issued car was revving quietly on the curb. I had packed some clothes for the trip in a backpack beforehand; which was now slung over my shoulder.

"Day's finally here, you ready to go?" Simon asked. Jade was standing behind him and Ruby waved to us from the car happily. She had been shy around us for a while, but the more she got used to us the friendlier she became, and now she seemed to look forward to seeing us every day.

"Yep," I said as I called Flare back to his pokeball. "Been looking forward to this all week."

With that, we piled into the car and we hit the road. Simon drove, since he was the only one with a license, and Jade rode shotgun. I sat in the back seat with Clara and Ruby on either side of me. We didn't get far down the road before Ruby insisted on getting pets from me; which was met with chuckles from Clara and Simon, and indifference from Jade. Ruby murred happily as I stroked her fur and stared out the window and after a while she fell asleep, still murring. The sun began to set as fields and forests rolled by, and soon Clara had fallen asleep against my shoulder as well. I managed to keep awake until about three in the morning before I started nodding off.

"Need some help?" Jade spoke up, snapping me back to attention.

"No, I'm fine. Thanks though." I mumbled. Clara nuzzled closer to me at the sound of my voice.

"You sound like you could use it." Simon said, sounding fully awake by some miracle.

I sat up straight, "Have you been juicing on caffeine or something?" I asked Simon,

Simon chuckled, "No, you know that psychic type pokemon will share their pain with people they're close with," he started, "That link goes both ways."

"What do you mean?" I asked, not sure what he meant.

"They can take pain away for themselves as well, or at least that's what the basic idea is." He said.

"So Jade's been taking your sleepiness?" I asked, not sure if I understood.

"Yeah, she doesn't need much sleep anyway," Simon explained, "Usually she only sleeps about an hour every night, so she's fine taking on the extra fatigue."

I blinked, surprised this was the first I was hearing of this kind of ability.

"You'd be a bit tricky to work with," Jade said, "But I've poked around Clara's mind enough to have a good idea of how to share minds with you."

I raised my eyebrow and looked sleepily at the Medicham. "You've been reading Clara's mind?" I asked.

"I don't go anywhere private!" She asserted, getting defensive, "She's dreaming about you right now but I'm not watching." She said, trying to prove her point.

I looked down at Clara, who was snoring lightly with a small smile on her face. I sighed, "Might as well give it a shot." I said with a sigh.

"Close your eyes." Jade said.

"Isn't that counterproductive?" I asked.

"Just do it. It helps calm your mind down so I can access it easier." She responded, sounding a bit annoyed.

I shrugged and did as she told, and after a moment I felt a slight tinge between my eyes before my tiredness seemed to melt away. I opened my eyes, surprised at my sudden alertness. I looked over to Jade who let out a long yawn.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yes." She said plainly, sounding the same as before, "I won't be able to constantly drain your fatigue like I can with Simon, but let me know when you're starting to pass out and I'll take what I can."

I nodded, "Thank you, Jade."

"Don't mention it." She said.

The rest of the ride was pretty boring, as it was hard to see anything outside the car at night. By the time the sun started rising, Jade had to help me out twice more, and now was yawing regularly. The sun climbed higher in the sky, and Ruby woke up with it, murring happily as she licked my cheek in greeting. Simon told her good morning as she stretched in her seat and she yipped her own greeting to him. It wasn't long before Clara woke up as well, and mumbled out her own sleepy good mornings to everyone.

It was about ten in the morning when we finally reached Cherrygrove, and Simon pulled over to ask for directions to Catallia City. Another hour down the road, and we reached it; though it wasn't exactly big enough to be called a city. It seemed about as big as the town I was working in, though it was more centralized rather than laid down along one road. Simon found a public parking lot and pulled in.

"Everybody out!" He said cheerfully, cutting the engine. We piled out of the car and stretched our legs. I couldn't help but stare at Jade and Ruby, as their preferred method of stretching seemed to be some form of tai chi, which they performed in unison.

"She learned it from me." Jade remarked, not looking up, "She's a fighter like me but she hasn't done any formal training outside of what I've taught her."

I nodded, and pulled out my cell phone; quickly dialing Sarah's number.

"How far away are you?" Sarah asked cheerfully from the other end as she picked up.

"We're actually in town right now." I said.

"Really? Where are you?" She asked.

I looked down the street from our lot, looking for any sort of street sign. "We just pulled into the parking lot on Eden Street." I said, "How far is that from you?"

"That's right next to my station!" She exclaimed.

"Cool, but doesn't really answer the question." I said.

"Don't worry, I'll be there in five minutes." She said.

"Alright, We'll be here." I said and hung up. I watched Jade and Ruby continue their stretching exercise while we waited, surprised they were still going.

"They do this every morning," Simon explained, seeing I was staring, "they'll be at it until your friend gets here."

I nodded, and looked over to Clara. "How'd you sleep?" I asked.

"Pretty good actually," She said smiling, "I'm excited to see Sarah again."

"Me too." I said. I remembered Flare was still in his pokeball and quickly called him out, but I had to laugh when I saw he was still sleeping after the flash receded. I walked over to the massive dog and gave him a gentle push, but he was snoring heavily and gave no response.

"I can get him up." Jade remarked mid-stretch.

"Might be better to let him wake up on his own." I said, pretty sure I knew how she planned to wake him.

It was a little while longer before a familiar face came jogging around the corner towards us. "Hey Mark!" Sarah yelled, her Spinarak clinging to her shoulder.

I waved back at her, and Flare snapped awake at the sound of her voice. Before I knew it, Flare had rushed past me and was sprinting towards Sarah. I was about to call out to stop him, but before I could even react Sarah's Spinarak had flung itself at Flare and landed on his face, making a series of clicking noises and stopping him in his tracks. Sarah laughed and tackled the massive dog herself, showering him in hugs and pets as he made his happy dog noises. Clara and I jogged over to meet her as she got back up, her Spinarak mounting her shoulder once again as Flare sat panting happily.

"It's good to see you!" Clara said happily.

"You too," Sarah said, "How do you like your station?"

"It was weird at first but I like it a lot." Clara said, smiling.

Simon caught up with us with Jade and Ruby close behind; though Ruby made sure to keep Simon between her and Sarah.

"Sarah, this is Simon. He's the friend who works at the post office I told you about."

Sarah smiled, "Good to meet you Simon, I'm Sarah." She said cheerily, "Mind if I ask how you and Mark met?"

"Sure," Simon said, "Though would you mind if we did it over lunch? I haven't eaten since noon yesterday, I'll buy." He said chuckling.

"That's a good idea actually, I know just the place," She said, then turned to me, "You remember the restaurant we used to go to back at the academy? There's one just like it here!"

"That's awesome!" I said, grinning.

Sarah led us to the restaurant and we chatted along the way. Once inside the place, we were ushered by the waitress to a large booth at the back. We spent the first few minutes picking out our meals, and the waitress took inventory of our pokemon so the cook would have a good idea what to make them. We chatted while we ate after the food arrived, and I noticed that Jade was struggling to stay awake; and sure enough she seemed to pass out halfway through the meal. We let her sleep for now and continued talking until the conversation eventually came back to Sarah's original question for Simon.

"Well," Simon started, "Mark had to run some mail up to my office and we started chatting, next thing we knew he was running an hour late." He said half joking. I was impressed at how easily he convincing he made the lie sound.

"No..." Jade spoke up groggily.

Sarah turned to her confused, "Wait, she's a psychic type?" She asked.

"Mark walked in on us in the bathroom." Jade mumbled, looking up. She was struggling just to keep her eyes open.

I looked over at Simon and saw he was frozen.

"You were in the bathroom with Simon?" Sarah asked, confused.

"Yes." Jade mumbled.

"Were you washing up?" Sarah asked, her discomfort visibly growing.

"No, we were together..." Jade said, yawning.

"Together how?" Sarah asked flatly after a long pause.

"Mating." Jade mumbled.

A chill fell upon the table, and Sarah's glare slowly shifted over to Simon. Her Spinarak was making a low chittering noise in response to her mood. "Is this true?" She demanded.

"I-It's not what it sounds like!" Simon stuttered.

"Bullshit!" Sarah growled, "I'm not an idiot!"

"What's your problem?" Jade asked, looking sleepily up at Sarah.

"My problem is the rapist across the table from me." Sarah snapped.

Jade looked over at me, looking panicked, "I thought you said she was your friend?"

"Y-yeah, but she never knew about that!" I stammered out.

Sarah Glared at me before looking around the table, spotting Clara blushing and covering her face. "No..." Sarah mouthed.

"I'm sorry..." Clara whimpered.

Her gaze shifted back to me. "I can't believe you." Sarah growled, "You graduated the academy, why would you betray your pokemon's trust like that after spending so much time learning to prevent it!?"

"It's not what you think!" I stammered out.

"Then what is it?" Sarah demanded, "because right now I'm looking at two sex offenders and their victims, and I'm having a hard time not arresting you on the spot."

Jade stood up on her seat, glaring at Sarah. "I am not a victim!" She gowled.

Sarah looked at the pokemon, taken aback.

"Everything I've done is because I wanted to," Jade continued, "If you take my Simon away from me I will make you regret it." She threatened. I noticed Ruby was cowering behind Simon.

"But the Pokeball makes you do what he says," Sarah said, "How can you say you were willing when he can control you!"

"Because I've run away before." Jade said flatly.

Sarah growled, "I can't believe this..." she said, "Clara, how could you let him do that to you?" She asked, turning to the Gardevoir.

Clara looked down at the table, seeming to brace herself. "I was the one that wanted it..." She said quietly.

Sarah blinked and stared at her, "B-but the pokeball-" She stammered.

"It was before I had a pokeball." Clara said, looking up at Sarah with tears in her eyes.

Sarah stared at her in disbelief, and her Spinarak slowly calmed down. After a long pause she mumbled to herself, "I can't believe this..."

Simon spoke up, "We never meant for anyone to find out."

"Well no shit," Sarah snapped.

"I'm sorry." Simon said quietly.

"You shut up." Sarah said, "You too Mark, neither of you say anything. I need to think..."

We sat and stared at her for a long time, too afraid to move. I could feel Clara's fear and Flare was crouched low with his ears down. Ruby still hid behind Mark, whimpering softly. Sarah's Spinarak would switch which shoulder it sat on frequently as we stared across at the half eaten meals covering the table.

"Alright, here's what I'm going to do..." Sarah said after a long time, "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear anything."

"Thank you." Simon said, relieved.

"You say nothing." Sarah growled, "If not for Mark and Clara being here, I'd have thrown your ass in jail so hard they'd need a crowbar to get you out of the cell."

Simon went quiet and looked down.

"You're lucky to have Mark here. I trust his judgment, he may be a slacker but he's still a damn good officer." She said.

The table was quiet for a while after that. Eventually I broke the silence, "So what now?" I asked quietly.

Sarah looked at me quietly for a while before sighing. "Go home, Mark." She said, "Take your friend with you too."

"But-" I started.

"Now! get out of my sight before I change my mind." Sarah growled, her Spinarak resumed its angry chittering.

I sat frozen for a moment before Sarah shouted for us to leave again. We shuffled out of the booth and out the door, unintentionally leaving Sarah with the bill as we retreated. We all but ran back to the car in silence, feeling shame slowly set in along the way. We piled back into the car without saying a word and left. We got as far as Cherrygrove before Simon pulled over. I didn't understand why at first, but as he killed the engine I hear it: quiet sobs coming from the passenger seat. Simon leaned over and wrapped his arms around Jade, holding her tightly.

"I'm so sorry..." Jade whimpered as Simon rubber her back slowly.

"It's all right, Jade." Simon assured her.

Clara and I sat quietly as they held each other. It was a long time before Jade calmed down, and we started driving again. Jade eventually passed out, leaning against Simon as he drove, and as the sun set we pulled into Violet City.

"We should probably get a room for the night here." Simon said.

"Yeah." I agreed quietly.

After a couple minutes we had found a motel and paid for the night. Simon carried Jade inside as Clara and I carried our bags out of the car. Ruby stayed close at my heels as we finished unpacking. Inside, our room was a simple two bed affair, but otherwise very similar to the one we had stayed in in Saffron. We set the bags down by the door as Simon laid Jade down on one of the beds and sat down on the other one.

"Look, I'm sorry about what happened..." Simon said quietly.

"Don't worry about it." I reassured him, "If she was going to do anything about it she would have." I said.

"Still, it's our fault you lost a friend today." Simon said.

"No," I said resolutely, "that's not for sure yet."

"But-" Simon started.

"We don't blame you for anything that happened today." Clara interrupted as she walked over to Jade. She checked the Medicham over before lifting her up telekinetically and pulling the sheets back, then gently tucked her into bed. We turned on the TV and watched quietly as Clara tended to Jade. Ruby sat in Simon's lap, taking comfort in the pets he was giving her. The night wore on and Clara eventually passed out on the bed next to Jade while Simon, Ruby, and I were still wide awake.

Suddenly, Ruby looked up at me from Simon's lap.

"What's up?" I asked the Mienshao.

She gave a short yip and looked up to Simon, seeming to communicate with him silently.

Simon suddenly blushed, "Are you sure?" He asked her.

She gave a happy nod.

"What does she want?" I asked, curious.

"Well, I don't exactly know how to put it." Simon said, blushing more.

"Just say it?" I suggested.

"You." He said.

"She wants me?" I said, confused. I looked down to the pokemon in Simon's lap, seeing her licking her chops. "Oh." I said, now blushing myself.

"Would you be okay with that?" Simon asked.

"I guess," I stammered, still taken aback by the suddenness of this, and before I could say anything else Ruby happily jumped in to my lap.

Simon chuckled as he stood up, "I think I'm gonna go take a shower then." He said.

Ruby let out a low growl and a yip, stopping Simon in his tracks. He turned to her and saw her tail raised, presenting him with her round ass. "Wait, you want me too?" Simon asked, unable to keep from staring at his mate's hindquarters. A happy yip and a wiggle of her rump was all the answer he needed. "Alright, I'll give it a try." He stuttered, blushing even more despite the slight bulge in the crotch of his pants.

I scooted back on the bed to give Simon some room, and Ruby skillfully unzipped my fly and freed my now growing member. I was impressed how quickly she could do this despite having paws for hands, but my surprise evaporated with a quiet moan as she took my member in her mouth and ran her tongue all around it.

Ruby let out a happy murr as I quickly grew to full mast in her mouth. She jumped a little as I saw Simon reach down between her legs and start rubbing her slit gently. Letting out a happy murr, she set to work bobbing up and down my member as Simon got her ready. I sighed in pleasure as she gently kneaded my sack with her warm paws. I had a moment to ponder just how skilled she was before Simon was getting into position behind her. He unzipped his fly, revealing his own stiff member before pressing it against her pussy gently, rubbing it up and down to tease her. I could feel her shudder at the sensation, but she kept working my shaft diligently. With a gentle push forward, Simon was inside her, and her murr became louder as she redoubled her efforts pleasuring me. Simon began thrusting into her slowly at first, then gradually picked up speed as they got into a rhythm together; she would take me into her maw every time Simon thrust forward, using his momentum to make her job easier. I grit my teeth, feeling my climax coming soon, but Ruby seemed to sense this and immediately pulled off of me. She reached up with her delicate paws and gently stroked my member, keeping me on the edge but never quite pushing me over as Simon continued thrusting into her.

"Ruby I'm getting close!" Simon grunted as I dripped pre all over his pokemon's face. Ruby murred even more and started slamming her hips back into his thrusts until Simon let out a moan and began filling her pussy with his seed. Ruby tensed up, seeming to cum as well; while I sat still rock hard in her grip. Simon's moan subsided and he pulled out of her with a wet noise, and before I could act Ruby had climbed into my lap, lining her cum filled pussy up with my shaft before sitting down on it. I moaned as I suddenly slid into the wet warmth, feeling her clench tightly around my member as she came again from the penetration. It was too much and I began cumming almost instantly, adding my own seed to the mess inside her. Ruby let out a low murr at being filled so well and collapsed between us, panting. Our fatigue caught up with us then and we laid down with her, almost in unison.

"Mark?" Simon said from across the bed, "What do we do now?"

I looked over at him. "Same as we did before," I said, "I don't think Sarah will make trouble for us, though it's gonna take a long time to patch things up with her, if it's even possible."

"I'm really sorry it went down like it did." Simon said.

"Don't blame yourself for it," I said, "I'm actually kind of glad she knows now in some weird way."

"Why's that?" Simon asked, looking at me, confused.

"We both know our relationships with these pokemon aren't wrong," I said, "And from the way she reacted, she just might agree with us given some time."

"You really think she will?" Simon asked.

"She's smart and open minded, so I'm almost certain I could convince her with enough work." I said, "Not saying I could get her to do it herself, just have her understand it." I added, chuckling. Simon chuckled with me and thanked me before passing out holding his mate close to his chest as our combined seed still oozed out of her. I couldn't help but smile at the happy couple and soon fell asleep myself, feeling up to the new challenge in store for me.

Chapter 5

First Assignment

I was surprised to find that the routine my partners and I had made at the station was easy to slip back into after Sarah discovered our secret. Every once in a while I started to doubt the faith I had in Sarah and worried about chief Ramsey calling me into his office to talk about a phone call from a neighboring station; but the feeling never lasted long before either I or more often Clara after sensing my stress reminded me that Sarah would have arrested us herself if she were going to turn us in. Days turned into weeks without incident and eventually I stopped worrying.

Two weeks after returning home from the catastrophic visit, the Chief started having me ride shotgun with one of the patrolling officers in the afternoons; though it was about as eventful as office work due to the town being nearly abandoned in the day and the generally quiet atmosphere of the suburbs.

Simon fared worse than I did when it came to getting back to normal life, but after a few weeks of reassurance he began to relax and worry less; though I couldn't say the same for Jade. The usually spunky Medicham had been gloomy and quiet ever since returning. Ruby stuck close to Jade's side throughout the following weeks, seeming to try to cheer her up but it didn't seem to be helping. I thought about trying to help, but it seemed best to let the two closest to her handle it. In the meantime, I tried to focus on work.

Clara coped better than any of us when it came to recovering, by the end of the first week she was back to her cheery self. I was grateful to her for that, she always seemed to be there when I needed her, and was always more than happy to help.

Every evening, before I called the taxi company for a ride back to my uncle's house, I tried calling Sarah's cell phone. The first week and a half all I got were a few rings before the call was rejected, and after that the phone didn't even ring and went straight to voice-mail. I figured she had worked out when I would try to call her and made sure to turn her phone off before then. Eventually I conceded defeat on that front and gave up calling altogether. After that, I tried to get back in touch via email, but it went about the same. No reply, week after week.

One month after our return, something broke the monotony. We got to work on a Friday morning to find a pair of people in red and brown uniforms consisting of a vest and a belt full of tools that seemed survival oriented, but one device on the belt seemed out of place on the rest. The man and woman were talking with Chief Ramsey in the lobby, and stopped mid conversation when we entered.

"Mark, glad you're here." Ramsey said, turning to face us.

"Hey chief, what's going on?" I asked.

The woman in strange uniform spoke up, "So you're Mark." She said, "It's good you're here, I'm Beth, and this is Steven." She said, her male counterpart tipping his hat as he was introduced, "We're pokemon rangers."

I took a moment to process the information. "Nice to meet you," I said, "what brings you to the police?" I asked, a tad confused.

This time it was Steven who spoke up. "Our station is a few miles north of here, and we came across a problem that we can't take care of on our own." He said bluntly, "Naturally, we came to the nearest other authority center to request assistance."

Ramsey interrupted here, "They had reports of a group of trainers going missing in the woods west of their station, they were supposed to arrive at the pokemon center in the next town two days ago and they haven't yet. Rangers specialize in temporarily recruiting pokemon to assist them that are found in the area they're currently working in, so as not to disturb nature, but they've hit a dead end in their own search."

Beth took over from there, "The forest has a bunch of bug pokemon we can capture, but if we ask them to lead us to trainers in the area, they just bring us to the main path through the woods to whatever group's currently on their way through. We've tried recruiting some rodent and a few canine pokemon to hunt them by scent, but after a few days and few good samples for them to track, our attempts came up cold."

"Alright," I said, "So you came here to ask for help tracking them down with our Growlithe, but wouldn't that just have the same problem as the other canines you tried?"

"Not exactly," Steven said, "We were hoping to borrow some of your officers to help in a sweep of the forest and their Growlithe would have helped pick up on the scent of people away from the main path."

Beth picked up again, "The current problem is the lack of officers here, it's a small town station and thus only has enough to handle a small town."

"That's where you come in, Mark." Ramsey said.

I raised my eyebrow, not quite understanding.

"See, we can't really afford to dispatch our other officers to help, but we do have one officer we can send out without much downside, you." Ramsey said.

"You're dispatching me sir?" I asked, somewhat excited and the idea.

Chief Ramsey nodded.

I felt a brief surge of giddiness before logic caught up with me. "Wait, how can we do a sweep of an entire forest with just two rangers and me?" I asked.

Ramsey smiled, "That's where your unique talents come in."

"The main path splits the woods pretty much in two," Beth spoke up, "Me and Steven can cover the larger half of the split on our own. We know the area and we know the pokemon; though it will still take us a while to do that. We don't think we can cover both halves and still expect to find the trainers in good condition though, and when we found out your station's lack of officers we thought we were screwed until Ramsey mentioned that you had a psychic pokemon."

Clara broke her silence and addressed the rangers, "Oh, you want me to cover the other half of the woods by sensing their thoughts right?" she asked eagerly.

Steven and Beth both shook their heads, seeming a bit dizzy and confused before turning to spot the Gardevoir standing behind me and nodding.

"That's the idea." Steven said.

"Alright, I'm all for it." I said, smiling.

"Alright Mark, I hereby relieve you from active duty and place you on paid leave until the missing trainers are located." Chief Ramsey announced in an official tone.

After a few minutes of discussing the minute details, Beth and Steven gave me a ride to my uncle's house. They told me to pack light, but have enough to sustain myself and my partners for a few days. They were explaining the situation to Ted when I went up the stairs to pack clothes, and by the time I returned to pack food, they were engrossed in swapping tips on taking care of pokemon, each of them seemed equally knowledgeable on the subject too. A few minutes later I was set and waved goodbye to my uncle as we headed off back towards town. On the way, something occurred to me and I asked if they could stop by the post office before leaving, and they agreed, although confused at my request. We pulled up and I hopped out while Clara stayed in the car and waited.

"Hey Mark, you're here early." Simon said cheerfully from across the counter as I came in.

"Yeah, something came up and I wanted to tell you where I'd be for the next few days so you weren't left wondering." I said, and proceeded to explain the situation. Simon perked up at the mention of them wanting the help of a psychic pokemon and looked back at Jade, who was sorting mail quietly in the back.

"Mark," he said seriously, "Can you do me a favor and take Jade with you?" he asked.

I blinked, shocked by the offer. "You sure that'd be okay?" I asked.

"She's been blaming herself ever since the road trip and is convinced you hate her now." Simon said quietly. "she needs a break from the monotony more than anything and this seems like the perfect solution to both problems."

I nodded, understanding, and smiled. "Alright, I'd be happy to have her help."

Simon beamed and called Jade over before explaining to her what he wanted. She seemed shocked at first, but shyly agreed to come with me. Simon handed over her pokeball in case anything went wrong, and together, Jade and I walked back out to the car; Jade staring intently at the ground the whole way to avoid eye contact with me. Clara smiled and hugged Jade tightly after she got in the car, causing Jade to blush. Beth and Steven both gave an understanding nod when they recognized the extra help and we set off for the ranger station.

The drive was long, but not nearly as long as the road trip had been, and Jade seemed noticeably less gloomy with Clara next to her and chatting the whole way. After we arrived at the station I let Flare out of his pokeball, then Beth and Steven spent about half an hour getting us familiar with a map of the forest and surrounding area as well as the local species of pokemon we might encounter and may how to incapacitate them with as little harm possible if conflict should arise. I tried as best I could to retain the massive amount of info, and I was relieved to see at least Clara was being her usual genius self and eagerly absorbing everything she was told. Jade and Flare sat together at the back of the room, both waiting patiently. After the orientation was over they gave us a GPS unit in case we got lost, a fold up map of the woods, and a radio to keep in touch with them in case we found the lost trainers or something went wrong.

By now it was noon and we all had a light lunch together before heading out into the woods. We all stayed on the main path until the light of the entrance to the forest had faded, after which we went our separate ways into the trees. Flare couldn't seem to stop sniffing the air after that due to all the new smells. I was glad to see Jade perk up once we were off the path; when I asked her about it she said it felt like coming home for her. Clara was having a bit of trouble keeping her footing on the rougher terrain, so we had to slow down so she wouldn't trip up, Flare seemed thankful for this as well as it gave him more time to sniff everything we passed.

The hike was uneventful save the occasional bird pokemon singing overhead or one of the resident Beedrill buzzing by to investigate before flying back the way it had come. Hours passed with nothing to report from either psychic types other than the surrounding wild pokemon, and around dusk we reached the outer edge of the woods and turned back. The plan was to do a wide zig-zag back and forth from the southern edge of the woods to the main path in the middle to cover as much area as we could. We estimated we were halfway back to the main path on our current leg of the search when it got dark enough for Jade to recommend we set up camp. Both of us exhausted, Clara and I happily agreed. Flare wandered off into the woods to explore and as I laid out our bedrolls. I offered Jade mine since I had packed for only Clara and myself. Jade smiled and declined, saying she preferred to sleep on the ground. I shrugged and told her it was hers anytime she wanted, and to my surprise she thanked me. It was hard to believe that this was the same person that had kicked the wind out of me the first time we met.

After getting settled I checked in with Beth and Steven, who were setting up their own camps for the night as well. Beth reminded me to clear the undergrowth down the bare dirt if I planned to make a fire, and I thanked her for the advice. I used my shoe, now being barefoot and sitting on a clean bedroll, to clear out the dead leaves and plants on the ground before piling up some sticks for a small fire on the bare patch. I was digging in my bag for a lighter when a flash of light followed by a WHOOSH and a loud THUD made me nearly jump out of my skin. I whipped around to see the sticks now quickly catching fire from the edge of the pile as jade shook her now smoking hand away from the flames.

"Been too long since I've used that one," She said, "Accidentally burnt myself."

It took me a moment to realize she must have used a fire punch to start it. I took her hand with surprisingly little resistance from her and examined it. The burn was minor, but still would be better patched up than left to heal on its own. I rummaged through my bag and pulled out the first aid kit before tending to her wound, winning a blush and a mumbled "thank you" from Jade. I smiled and told her not to mention it as she sat down in her usual meditation pose.

I distributed the majority of a box of crackers between the three of us at the fire and left out a bowl of dog food for Flare for when he returned. After that I settled in and stared at the fire for a while until Jade spoke up.

"Mark?" She asked quietly. "Do you think those trainers are all right?"

I thought for a moment before answering. "Well, they'll definitely have their pokemon to help them, and the trainers I've met have been fairly resourceful as far as I've seen."

Jade nodded slowly and closed her eyes, seeming to go to sleep. Knowing her though, I figured she was just meditating. Clara meanwhile had lain down on her own bedroll and was slowly drifting off to sleep. I could tell she wasn't used to sleeping on her own, partly from the small telepathic link we shared, but mostly from knowing her as well as I do. Fortunately, she was tired enough from the day's hiking that she had little trouble falling asleep for the night. I stayed up waiting for Flare to return.

An hour passed, and then another, and another still without Flare returning. Worried, I pulled out my cell phone to check the time; it was coming up on midnight.

"Jade, can you sense Flare anywhere nearby?" I asked, trying to stay calm.

Jade opened her eyes for a moment looking at me, then closed them again, focusing. I watched her nervously. Suddenly her eyes flew open, worry on her face. "Mark, I can't feel him." She said, "I'm so sorry, I should have been keeping track of him."

"No," I said adamantly, "Don't blame yourself because it's not your fault." I looked over at Clara who was still passed out and breathing deeply. After weighing my options I sighed deeply.

"What are you going to do?" Jade asked nervously.

"We're going to go look for him." I said, "We can't exactly bring Clara with, she's exhausted and wouldn't be able to keep up in the dark."

"You're going to leave her behind?" Jade asked.

"I don't like it, but I don't like Flare going missing even less." I said, pulling a small battery powered lantern from my backpack. Jade stood up and watched as I set the lantern down near Clara and began to scratch out a message in the illuminated dirt: "Flare's missing, gone to look for him. Stay here, we'll be back. Jade and Mark" After that, I returned to my bag and pulled out a small LED flashlight I brought with in case the lantern died.

"You sure that will be enough light?" Jade asked.

"It'll have to do." I said flatly as I pulled the GPS from the bag. After fiddling with the device for a few minutes I managed to set the campsite's coordinates as a way-point so we could find our way back, though the lack of a lit screen made it difficult make out the display. Finally, I pulled out our radio and tried to contact Beth or Steven; neither replied.

"They must be asleep." Jade said.

I nodded silently as I stood up. "Well," I said, "let's get going." Jade nodded and with that we set off.

We walked in a widening spiral with the camp as the center, with Jade keeping a mental lookout for Flare. The light from the flashlight didn't go far, so most of the time I had to point it towards the ground in front of me to avoid tripping on the undergrowth or exposed tree roots. Jade stuck close to my heels and didn't seem to have a problem keeping her footing. The light from the campfire grew smaller and dimmer the further out we went and before long we lost sight of it entirely. We did our best to approximate the spiral we had been going in, but having lost sight of the center we were well and truly lost before long. We pushed on though, determined not to give up and hoped to stumble across Flare eventually; after all we had the GPS and could find our way back to camp any time. Fatigue was starting to get to me after about an hour of hiking this way, and before I could make mention of it I felt Jade take the burden off of me and fill me with fresh energy as she had on the road trip. I thanked her and we continued on ward. Another hour of hiking yielded nothing except a gradual dimming of my flashlight, and a half-hour after that the light was too dim to even illuminate the ground at my feet. I growled in frustration and chucked the useless thing off into the woods before pulling out my cell phone and opening it up. The light from its screen was only slightly better than the flashlight had been, but it was enough to see my feet so I pushed stubbornly on.

Jade was quiet the entire time, focusing on trying to sense the massive canine. Unfortunately, it was only a matter of minutes before my Phone started chirping to signal its low battery. I was winding up to pitch my phone as well before a hand on my side stopped me. I looked down to see Jade, shaking her head.

"That's enough Mark." She said

I paused a moment before begrudgingly closing the phone and cramming it back in my pocket, now surrounded completely in darkness. I felt Jade's hand guiding me a few steps toward what revealed itself to be a tree trunk after feeling it for a bit.

"We'll rest here for the night." Jade said, gently guiding me down to a sitting position.

"I can't believe I lost him..." I growled to myself, resting my head in my hands, trying not to let the tears I could feel burning at my eyes fall. I felt Jades arms wrap around me and I let go. Jade held me for a long time as I sat there sobbing, gently rubbing my back and reassuring me that it would be okay.

"He's been with me almost every minute of my life for years..." I eventually mumbled out quietly. "He wouldn't wander off and get lost, he knows better..."

Jade nodded and continued holding me. "I'm certain he's okay, he's strong and knows how to take care of himself Mark."

"I know..." I said.

Jade held me for a while longer before repositioning herself next to me leaning against the tree. Exhausted both mentally and physically, I didn't last much longer before passing out slumped against Jade, and sometime later that night she followed suit and slumped against me.

Morning came and went; it wasn't until around noon that I awoke with a start. The previous night's events came rushing back to me and I jumped to my feet, letting a surprised Jade fall over on her side and waking her up as well. I helped Jade back up to her feet as she dusted herself off.

"You okay?" I asked tentatively.

"Yeah, just fine." She said.

"listen..." I started, "I want to thank you for helping me last night. I don't know what I would have done if you weren't there..."

"You don't have to thank me for anything." Jade said, looking down.

"No, I do." I said, "You're a really good friend and I'm extremely grateful that you're here with me right now."

Jade seemed to struggle to say something for a few moments before wordlessly hugging me, and I did my best to hug her back with our height difference.

"Come on, let's head back to camp." I said, "Clara's worrying about us right now."

"You can sense her this far out?" Jade asked.

I shook my head. "I know her well enough though."

Jade nodded understanding as I pulled out our GPS. Thankfully the campsite way-point was still saved on it and I was surprised to see we were a mile and a half away from it. With a sigh, I set out with Jade at my side for the long trek back.

Along the way we saw the same assortment of pokemon we had seen the day before, but there seemed to be a Beedrill buzzing past us every five minutes or so. They also spent more time than usual hovering around us, seeming to be studying us before flying off.

"We must be near their nest." Jade remarked as the most recent visitor flew off. Sure enough, the further we hiked the less frequent the Beedrill showed up. After what seemed like an eternity -probably due to the stress--we finally sighted the camp, but upon getting closer we saw something was very wrong.

Jade and I broke out running simultaneously, sprinting back to the campsite. One bedroll was torn to shreds and the other ripped in half. The contents of my backpack, including the shattered remnants of our radio, were scattered all over the area as well as the pieces of what I could only assume to be the remains of my bag. Clara was nowhere to be seen.

Jade closed her eyes for a moment before punching a nearby tree, leaving a large indent as she sent splinters flying. "I can't sense her anywhere near here." She all but growled.

"Damn it!" I shouted, slamming my foot down. Pain exploded in my foot as I brought it down, and I fell over clutching at it as a snapping sound could be heard. My shoulder and thigh faced the same pains as I hit the ground as well. Barely able to keep from screaming, I lifted my foot to see what had hurt me. Sticking out of the sole of my shoe was a semi-translucent purplish barb, broken at the base. I looked around and saw the other half of the thing embedded in the ground where I had stepped.

"Mark, what happened?" Jade asked worriedly.

"I'm fine." I growled, trying to get a grip on the barb that had pierced my shoe. My fingers failed to grasp it, and frustrated I pulled my foot up to my face and took ahold of it with my teeth. I yanked hard, pulling the barb free, and eliciting a fresh flare of pain from my foot. My tongue went numb upon contact with the broken end of the barb and I realized just what had stabbed me.

"Poison Sting." I growled to myself.

By now jade had spotted the barb sticking out of my shoulder and was surveying the campsite. "Mark those things are everywhere." She said nervously. I looked around and sure enough, now that I was looking for them I could see little purplish-clear barbs embedded in the ground all over the campsite, it was a miracle I hadn't impaled myself sooner.

I pulled myself to my feet, carefully avoiding stabbing myself again as I limped in retreat over to Jade. Numbness was starting to bloom in my thigh and shoulder as jade looked me over and carefully pulled the remaining two barbs out of me. I was a little thankful for the numbness as the pain of removal was dulled.

"What do they mean?" Jade asked, looking the blood stained duo of barbs over before tossing them aside.

"Beedrill did this." I said, "They're the only poison types in the whole forest."

"But why?" Jade asked.

"I don't know, but they didn't do it to defend their territory." I said. "They took Clara for something. They would have left her here if they were just defending their territory."

"What could they possibly want with her." Jade growled.

"We're going to find that out." I said resolutely. "We need to stick together though."

"No, you stay here. You're wounded." Jade said. "I'll go and find them."

I shook my head. "Think about it Jade," I said, "Flare wandered off alone, and disappeared. We left Clara alone, and she was taken, and the Beedrill never bothered us when we were together, they just looked us over, probably sizing us up individually and keeping tabs on us for when one of us was alone."

"I don't care, I can handle them." Jade growled.

"No you can't Jade." I said, "They took down Flare, a police trained powerful fire type. They took down Clara, who's just as strong as Flare in her own way. We need to stick together."

Jade was silent for a long time, shaking with barely contained rage, before finally submitting. "You're right." She growled.

"Then let's go." I said.

We hiked back in the direction we had come from, though much more slowly this time due to my injuries. There was a rather large bloodstain blooming in my shoe and my sock felt wet every time I stepped down. My pants and shirt also had sizable stains growing from where I had been punctured. The numbness from my thigh and shoulder hadn't dissipated at all and in fact seemed to be growing, but I hid this from Jade and forced myself to go on. Before long we ran into the first Beedrill of our journey, and I just barely kept Jade from smashing it right then and there.

"If we attack them now, we'll only alert the whole hive that we're a threat." I said, "We need to get closer."

Jade begrudgingly agreed and we waited for the giant wasp to fly off before continuing. I grew more accustomed to the pain in my foot (now thankfully feeling its own numbness set in) and the dulled pain in my thigh and was able to adapt to a more normal walking pattern, speeding up our progress. Another Beedrill buzzed up to us to investigate, this one seemed to focus on me for a few seconds before flying off again. After what I estimated to be the first mile the numbness in my thigh had spread to the point that I had difficulty walking right and had to slow down again. It wasn't long after that that I confirmed that I could no longer feel my foot, but I could still move it thankfully so we pressed on.

Beedrill became more common as we advanced, confirming we were indeed approaching the nest. They now came by in pairs of two or three and even a few times four. Each time I grew more and more nervous as every time they were only focusing on me, seeming to ignore Jade entirely. A while later I stumbled and fell. Jade helped me up and asked if I was okay. I blamed it on a root I didn't see, she didn't need to know I was losing muscle control in my foot by now. Not long after that we could hear a constant, low buzzing sound.

"That must be the nest." I said, adjusting our path towards the source of the noise as we hiked on. By now it was rare that we couldn't see a Beedrill somewhere near us, though now they didn't seem to be stopping for us but rather heading back and forth patrolling. They didn't seem interested in stopping us, but every time we got close to one, it would take a moment to twitch its antennae in my direction for a few seconds before returning to whatever it had been doing.

The buzzing grew louder and it wasn't long before I fell again. Jade tried to help me up, but it was no use, I had lost nearly all muscle control in my leg and had lost nearly all feeling on one entire side of my body.

"Mark, what's wrong with you?" Jade asked, almost panicking.

"I'm sorry," I said, weakly clawing my way to a sitting position. "Those barbs that got me were still active. I thought the poison would filter out before long, but it's a lot more potent than I thought it would be."

"Why didn't you tell me!?" Jade demanded.

"You would have taken off without me." I said quietly, looking down. "I needed to keep up with you so I wouldn't lose someone else to these damn bugs."

Jade balled up a fist and punched the ground, hard. "You idiot." She growled, but was surprised when I started laughing. "What's funny about this?" she said, looking angrier.

"You're finally acting like your normal self again." I said, smiling weakly.

Jade stared at me for a few seconds, stunned, before finally flopping down and breaking out laughing as well. After calming down a bit she asked, "What are we going to do now? Sit here and wait for the poison to wear off?"

"That's all we can do." I said, and Jade propped me up against her so we were leaning on each other back to back. We sat like that for nearly a half hour, watching the Beedrill buzz by on whatever errands they were running, still stopping to stare at me whenever they passed.

"They seem to like you." Jade remarked.

"They can probably smell their own poison, or something my body's putting out in response to it." I said plainly. "They're keeping tabs on its progression so they'll know when it's safe to attack us."

A thump announced Jade's fist hitting the ground. "Dammit they're so weak, if there weren't so many of them I would clear this whole damn forest out."

"They know that." I said, "Their strength is in numbers."

Another half hour passed and the numbness had only spread, now covering most of my body. I could still move my right half, but that didn't help when the attack finally came.

It started with a worker buzzing past me and stopping to 'sniff' as usual, but this time it didn't fly off, instead started making some sort of weird pulsing noise with the buzzing of its wings. Immediately every Beedrill in sight froze in midair.

"Jade, here they come!" I shouted just as the swarm descended. Jade leapt up and slung what looked like a blade of purple light with a swing of her arm at the nearest one, sending it crashing into the ground as I slumped back, unable to support my own weight. All I could see were dozens of the bug pokemon hovering back and forth above me and the occasional purple flash of Jade's energy attack or the orange flash of her fire punch. Jade managed to hold them off for a few minutes, but fatigue was setting in. I could hear her breath getting ragged as the dozens of bugs above me turned into hundreds. The buzz of their wings was deafening, so the only hint I got that Jade had been subdued was when the lights of her attacks ceased.

"Jade!" I shouted silently as the swarm descended. I felt myself being lifted from the ground by thousands of poking and prodding claws, and I was surprised that they were gentle enough not to break the skin. I couldn't see or hear anything around me for a long time except for the Beedrill carrying me, and on some level I was glad, hoping I would get to see my partners soon.

Suddenly, I felt gravity take over and fell about three feet onto some soft spongy material as the Wasps above me flew away. I heard a thud to my left and looked to see Jade had been deposited here as well. I breathed a sigh of relief and took a moment to look around as best I could. We were definitely inside the hive, and I was shocked at how massive the structure was, as well as how quiet it was after the bug pokemon had left. The walls, ceiling, and floor were made of some papery substance, which was soft but surprisingly durable. There was the occasional plug of some hard, yellow-white substance jutting out of the wall, but other than that we were in a simple round room with the only entrance being through the ceiling. It was then the smell hit me, something musky and slightly acidic that seemed familiar but I couldn't quite name it.

I tried to sit up, and was relieved to feel that the numbness was finally subsiding and I had regained control of my abdominal muscles. I did my best to crawl my way over to Jade, and found her totally unconscious.

"Jade, wake up." I pleaded, shaking her. All I got in response was a low moan. Upon closer inspection, I noticed the barbs covering a good portion of her body. It was a miracle she was still somewhat conscious with the dosage of poison she had received. I worried that she might have gotten too much, but realized that they wouldn't have captured her if they wanted to kill her. I let out another sigh of relief and set to work removing the barbs. I was forced to use my teeth again, having no better tools. The work was slow, but it was encouraging to see her regaining consciousness with each needle removed. She got better with each active one removed, and by the time I had cleared her upper body she was moving around a bit.

I had started getting control of my left arm again now, and set to work pulling the needles from her legs. The poison had to be less effective on pokemon for her to be recovering so quickly, and she seemed to fare better when it came to blood loss, only a small drop oozing from each puncture upon removal. Jade was mumbling something by the time I had cleared all but the one area I dared not put my face. Only two barbs remained: one high up on her inner thigh and one right above her pelvis.

"M-mark..." she mumbled, looking down at me weakly.

"Jade, I'm glad you're awake." I said.

"Mark, the air..." she groaned.

"Take it easy, I'll have you patched up in a minute." I said, staring down at the two remaining barbs. With a sigh I figured that I couldn't leave them in and Jade was probably too drugged up to remember the embarrassment. I leaned down, aiming for the one on her pelvis first, causing Jade to grunt and begin panting. I thought nothing of it as I swallowed and leaned in further to get the one from her thigh, only inches away from her oddly wet slit. I bit down on the needle and carefully pulled it free, letting it fall to the ground before a pair of hands pressed down on my head and pressed my face into jade's slit.

"Mark..." Jade all but moaned, holding my head to her crotch.

Unable to talk I tried to pull back, but despite her small frame Jade was far stronger than me. Smelling the musk of her slit and feeling the wetness oozing from it everything suddenly clicked into place. The musky scent in the air had to be some sort of pheromone mix. Jade whimpered and needily ground her crotch against my face and I remembered just how much a small dose had affected Clara. Seeing no way of overpowering her or speaking up, I set to work doing the only thing I could to calm Jade down. She let out a relieved sigh which quickly turned into a moan as I began working my tongue against her snatch. Her grip eased up a bit, letting me back up enough to focus on licking her clit. I ran my tongue around it in small circles, eliciting more moans from her as I realized she wasn't the only one being turned on; my pants felt tighter as I grew hard. Blushing, I sped up my licking, trying to hurry things along. Jade responded with a long moan and pressed me harder into her. Forced off of her clit, I plunged my tongue as deep as I could into her pussy and wiggled it around. I could feel her grinding against my face as she got closer and redoubled my efforts. Suddenly, Jade let out a loud moan as I felt her pussy clench down around my tongue and drench my face with her juices. She held me to her for a while longer before easing her grip and collapsing backwards. I sat up, panting and pitching a painful tent from the ordeal. Jade lay back panting in her afterglow and all I could do was smile.

I helped her to the nearest wall so she could sit and took in the rest of the room. My blood turned cold when I saw I wasn't the only person here. Three other people along with an eclectic array of pokemon shared our chamber, but after a moment I saw what they were doing. What I presumed to be the missing trainers looked drugged to say the least, and were all amid enthusiastic mating with what I could only guess to be their partner pokemon. I tried getting their attention, but they all seemed as if in a trance, or just drugged out of their minds. I could only guess as to how they came to this point, but it was probably a mix of their pokemon's desperation in this pheromone bath and the Beedrill's venom doing something to their minds. I breathed a bitter sigh of relief knowing that our secret wouldn't be remembered by these people, or at the very least we had an alibi.

Looking further into the chamber I saw two figures that caused me to drop all thought and do my best to sprint over to them. Clara and Flare were here as well. Clara was sitting against the far wall with her knees drawn up to her face, her erection plain for anyone to see. Flare was seemingly passed out next to her.

"Clara!" I shouted as I drew close. The Gardevoir looked up and immediately got up running to meet me. We embraced and she started sobbing against my chest. I held her tight, reassuring her that we were going to be okay. I could pick up some faint mumbling in my head from here but nothing coherent. She seemed utterly burned out. I started to go get Jade, but Clara refused to let me go. Begrudgingly, she let me bring her along as I went and picked the Medicham up before carrying her over next to Flare and sitting back down. I did my best to console her and after a while she calmed down.

I started thinking about what it all added up to; why the Beedrill would make a pheromone nest and capture people and pokemon alike for it. My focus was broken by the return of the buzzing as the wasps deposited their latest catch, which was a dazed black and red bug pokemon I guessed was either a Ladyba or its evolution Ledian. The pokemon fluttered around for a few seconds before slowly landing as something pink and shiny emerged from the bottom of its carapace.

"Insects don't have mating seasons, but they're clearly doing something to breed here..." I mumbled to myself. "Maybe they don't know the difference between a suitable mating partner and one that isn't? even so it's a stretch to bring humans in..."

My train of thought was again derailed by a stirring next to me. Jade had woken up and was staring bleary eyed at Clara. She smiled an embraced the Gardevoir before stopping with a surprised look on her face as Clara squirmed in her grip. Or rather grinded up against her, it could have been either in this haze. Clara's still erect shaft had caught Jade's eye, and judging by the pre drooling from it Clara had something similar on her mind as well. Tentatively, Jade reached down and began to stroke it as Clara squirmed and a fresh drop of pre emerged. Jade quickly changed position and before Clara could react she had her mouth around the Gardevoir's pole and was sucking it eagerly. Clara panted and pushed weakly at Jade's head for her to stop before submitting to the sensation and moaning freely. Not sure how to react, and painfully aware of my own hard on, I decided to give the two their space and backed off towards Flare, who was still snoring. I couldn't help but watch, and they didn't seem to mind being seen. Jade who seemed particularly skilled with her mouth had already taken Clara down to the base and was gently kneading her balls as Clara ground against her. The deepthroating didn't last long however; Jade unable to wait longer had pulled off of the pulsing shaft and turned around on all fours, presenting Clara with her sopping wet slit. Clara hesitated for a few seconds before blushing deeply and taking hold of Jade's waist. They moaned in unison as Clara slid inside Jade, and began thrusting against each other quickly.

Begrudgingly I undid my pants and started taking care of myself, unable to resist at the sight of them fucking. Before I could get into it though, I felt the Arcanine behind me stir. I looked back and saw Flare was now awake with the same bleary eyed look Jade had. Before I could act, He had spotted me and my erection and let out a deep, dominant growl. He advanced towards me, his sheath already swelling as his rod exposed itself, all but drooling pre. I swallowed hard as the dog advanced. He paused to sniff at my crotch and give my needy member a few licks before nosing me onto all fours and pawing at my pants until my ass was exposed. I swallowed hard and braced myself, but to my surprise he wasn't rough. I could only guess he wasn't totally gone to the pheromones because he started out easy, slowly spreading me wide as he pushed his rod into my asshole. the numbness hadn't completely subsided and the usual discomfort of accommodating his massive cock was replaced by only the pleasure it gave. I couldn't help but moan as he slid inside me, his copious pre providing more than enough lubrication. My own member started to drip before long and he picked up the pace, pressing my front half down as he claimed my ass. Powerless to stop him and too turned on to want to, I tried my best to match his thrusts. From my new vantage point I could see Jade and Clara had changed position. Jade was lying on her back as Clara thrust into her as fast as she could, both moaning uncontrollably. Flare began humping me even faster, bucking his hips furiously into mine as he spread me wide and hammered my prostate. It was too much for me and I almost immediately began cumming, letting out a fresh squirt of my seed with each of his thrusts, but he wasn't done with me. Flare continued filling me even after I had gone soft, but the pleasure didn't go away. I was still moaning just as much as Clara and Jade were. I felt my own climax coming close again just as a growl came from above. Flare thrust hard inside me one last time, his knot swelling and all but crushing my prostate and forcing me to cum on the spot, not really squirting so much as drooling cum with each pulse of his cock filling me. Heightened moans next to us signaled Jade and Clara reaching their climax as well and I looked up just in time to see Jade wrap her legs around her partner, locking her inside her as she came, and came hard. Jade visibly seized up in orgasm as Clara pumped her full of her seed, which oozed out around her shaft with each pulse before she collapsed on top of Jade panting hard. I could feel Flare's orgasm coming to an end as well as the gurgling in my belly that came from being pumped full of Arcanine cum was slowing down. All four of us lay there panting for a long while, only moving to pull out from inside our respective mates.

Clara finally spoke up, having regained some clarity, "Mark, they're looking for a new queen, that's why they've been capturing everyone. They need the old queen to have an heir before she passes on. Their hive mind thing is like a loudspeaker to me" she said, rubbing her temples.

I nodded, understanding. "But why are they catching people?" I asked.

"They know people usually have pokemon and were hoping there'd be a mate among them." She answered, crawling up close to me to cuddle. Jade joined us as well and all three of us lay against our massive fourth member's panting side catching our breath.

"So how do we get out?" I asked.

"Maybe Flare can get us out of here?" Jade piped up.

I shook my head. "We can't risk a forest fire." I said.

"I can get us out." Clara said, "But I don't know what to do after that."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I can teleport one or two of us away, but we'd still have to run away from the hive and I'm not sure we can overpower them."

"What about the trainers?" Jade asked

"We'd need to come back, which isn't that good an idea." I said.

We all went silent for a while.

"Well, I could call Jade and Flare back to their pokeballs, then call the trainer's pokemon back." I said, "could you handle teleporting four people and yourself Clara?"

Clara thought for a while "Normally I could, but I don't know about right now. I want to try though."

I nodded. "It's worth a shot. Worst case scenario we get brought back here. Jade, Flare, are you okay with this?"

Jade nodded and Flare gave a low woof of approval.

"All right." I said, pulling two pokeballs off my belt and calling first Jade, then Flare back before placing the balls back in their places. Clara waited by the wall as I approached the oblivious trainers and their pokemon. It was comically difficult catching the pokeball off of the first trainer's belt as he thrust into his Nidoqueen who was moaning I think, but with her voice it was impossible to be sure. I called the blue behemoth back to her pokeball, leaving the trainer humping air right as he climaxed, squirting his load across the ground. After a moment he looked around confused before dazedly pulling his pants up.

The second trainer was a bit easier, since she was pinned down by her Persian and mostly stationary. I called the feline back leaving his trainer dazed like the first trainer. The third was easy as well, since he was pinned by his Ninetails who had just knotted his ass. I felt a little bad for recalling it right after climax, but I called the white fox back anyway. His trainer slumped over, fresh fox cream slowly oozing out of him as he lay there panting and dribbling his own mess across his pants around his knees.

The first trainer finally stumbled over to me and mumbled out a question about where his pokemon was. I thought about giving his pokeball back, but figured it would be backwards progress at this point. I waited for each trainer's head to clear enough for them to be at least coherent and helped them find their stuff and clean up the mess off their clothes, which they seemed either unashamed or unaware was theirs. I snapped their 3 pokeballs to my belt for safe keeping before herding them over to Clara, who seem to be keeping her head clear fairly well.

"Do you have a plan once we're outside?" She asked.

"First priority is to get these three back to the ranger station safe." I said "After that, we're on our own."

Clara nodded "I'm going to wait for a lull in the hive before teleporting us out, everyone get close to me." She said, and the three trainers obediently moved closer. I held her hand, getting her to smile as she closed her eyes.

We waited in silence, not sure when or if it would happen, but less than five minutes after huddling up a white light that was familiar to me and Clara engulfed us all. Suddenly we were in the forest looking at a massive hive complex that wasn't really in the trees so much as absorbing them. Beedrill were flying everywhere, but not as thickly as being this close to the hive would suggest. Not waiting for anything I immediately called Flare out. The red canine emerged, shaking its head clear and breathing in the fresh air.

"You three!" I shouted, snapping the trainers to attention. "Get on Flare's back. Now!"

All three scrambled clumsily over to the canine, and after some grunts from the annoyed beast, they were as secure as they could be atop him.

"Flare, I want you to run as fast as you can from here, keep running until you find the path or the edge of the woods. If you find the path, head to the ranger station, if you get out of the woods, follow the edge until you find the ranger station!" I shouted.

Flare woofed and took off, the three trainers on his back swaying uneasily, but keeping on top of him. By now we had been spotted by the Beedrill and the pulsing buzz had already started. I called Jade out next, who breathed deeply of the clean air once free.

"What's the plan Mark?" She asked, taking a battle stance.

"We hold them off long enough for Flare to get away." I said.

"After that?" Clara asked.

"After that, you teleport us out of the mess and we run" I said.

The swam descended upon us, hundreds of Beedrill all aiming for us.

"Jade, use Psycho Cut!" I yelled, and Jade flung a blade of energy into the crowd. "Now Clara, grab it and mow them down!" I yelled a second later. The blade of energy began moving in a wide circle causing each bug it hit to drop like a rock unconscious. However many the blade was taking down, the swarm still was able to push through and get up close to us.

"Jade, keep them off of Clara with Fire Punch!" I yelled, taking a step behind my partner as Jade jumped in front of her. Jade quickly dispensed with each wasp that drew near, sending it flying with a powerful blow as Clare kept mowing the majority of the wave of insects. More and more leaked through the front line and rushed Clara, but Jade was too fast to let them through. Numbers were slowly winning out though, as Jade was soon taking hits from the Beedrill that made it through. I moved in front of Clara next to Jade and did as best I could to body block them from getting to her at the very least, and landing a blow or two of my own on whatever pokemon dared venture close to me. The assault went on, and I could feel my arms starting to go numb from catching too many poison stings with them, I could see a few sticking out of Jade as well and she was starting to slow down. Clara was safe though and that was the important part, as long as she was okay we could get out of this.

Suddenly the swarm froze and split like some biblical feat. There was now a wall of insects hovering to our right and left as a new pokemon buzzed forth from the middle, seemingly come from the hive. Clara let the blade of energy fling skyward before it dissipated as the queen of the hive advanced. There was no mistaking the species, she was definitely a Vespiquen with her humanoid appearance and crown. From the dull yellows on her carapace, it was also obvious she was getting on in years too.

Clara whimpered behind me. "She's mad, she wants to know why we're attacking her home." She said quietly.

"We were defending ourselves." I said loudly. "None of us here, nor the ones that already got away are suitable mates for you."

Clara winced, "She doesn't care Mark, what do we do?"

I hesitated for a moment, feeling the tension in the air. "All we want is to leave, if you let us walk out of here we will do it peaceably." I said in as confidant a tone as I could muster.

Clara by now had fallen to the ground. "She says she can't trust you."

"Look, if you want to follow us and observe us we won't disrupt you, but we WILL defend ourselves if your hive attacks us." I said, trying to sound threatening but not confrontational. To be honest I had no idea what I was doing.

There was a long period where all that could be heard was the drone of insect wings before the queen turned back and returned to her hive while the majority of the swarm dissipated. There were about six or seven that remained observing us though. I breathed a sigh of relief along with Clara and Jade.

We made our way back to the main path using the GPS with our escort of Beedrill which watched us closely, but showed no signs of aggression. On the way we did our best to patch our wounds and pull any active needles still numbing our bodies. When we reached the road I couldn't feel my arms anymore but didn't care, our escort had also halved with only three wasps observing us as we walked back to the ranger center. Upon our arrival the buzzed excitedly and took off back towards the hive.

Confused I looked towards Clara. "What was that all about?" I asked.

Clara smiled, "They recognized the ranger station as a good place." She said.

We headed inside and I was extremely relieved to see the three trainers from before were huddled in the lobby wrapped in blankets. All three looked up as we walked in and sighed in relief.

"We thought you were goners." one said.

I chuckled. "We don't go down that easy." I said as I walked between all three of them returning their pokeballs.

The last one blushed and looked down as I returned his Ninetails. "Y-you won't tell anyone what we did in there, right officer?" he asked nervously.

I nodded. "What you do in private is your own business." I said flatly and headed back to the orientation room. I remembered there being a water cooler in there and I was confident I could drink the whole jug right about now. To my surprise, Flare was napping inside, but woke up almost the instant I stepped in and pounced me. I went down and couldn't help but laugh as my partner showered me with licks. I did my best to return the affection by scratching his ears until he calmed down and let me stand back up. It turned out I could only drink about a fourth of the jug before my stomach refused any more, and between Clara and Jade we had drained half the water there.

My thirst sated, I searched around for a radio and finally found one in a supply closet. I turned it to the channel Beth and Steven told me to use and tried to radio them. "Beth, Steven, this is Mark. Are you there?"

There were a few seconds before the radio crackled and Steven's voice came through, "Yeah Mark this is Steven, you didn't radio in this morning, everything okay?" he said.

I chuckled to myself trying to think of how many puncture wounds I had right now. "Yeah, I'm well enough, I found the trainers, we're all back at the station."

This time it was Beth who radioed in, "Already? Why didn't you call us when you found them?"

"It's a long story, but my radio was smashed. I can fill you in on the rest when you get back to the station." I said.

"Are the trainers okay? How about their pokemon?" Steven asked.

"The trainers are fine, just rattled. Their pokemon are fine too as far as I can tell." I said

"Alright, thanks Mark, we'll be back in a couple hours." Steven replied and the radio went silent.

I returned to the lobby with a first aid kit and a pair of pliers and looked the three trainers over, patching them up with what first aid I remembered from the academy and pulling whatever poison barbs were still left in them. It took about ten minutes for each trainer, and I had to stop halfway through to go get another first aid kit. By the time I was done they looked like they were part mummy, but they were grateful for the help and even more grateful for the aspirin I found and distributed to them. After that I patched up Jade, Clara, and Flare as best I could, but all three seemed to have fared better than us humans.

Clara and Jade had fallen asleep leaning against each other in the corner and Flare had curled up next to them as well. I felt pretty tired myself, but someone had to be awake when Beth and Steven got back. The wait was agonizingly slow, but that was probably due to the adrenalin leaving my system from earlier. Despite my better judgment, I still couldn't keep from passing out in the chair I was sitting in.

I jumped awake when I felt something touch my knee, but relaxed when I saw it was just Beth and Steven back from the woods.

"You look like you've been through hell." Beth remarked. I looked down at my arms and realized I'd tended to everyone except myself. A steady throbbing ache had set in everywhere I'd been hit by a barb, but my foot hurt the worst of all.

"Yeah, you could say it's been a long day." I said, half chuckling, half groaning.

"Hold still for me." Steven said, kneeling down in front of me. I noticed he had a first aid kit with him and I obligingly held my arms out for him to patch the most recent wounds, which were still leaking blood. He cleaned the wounds better than I could of and had them patched in less than five minutes. "Now lost the shirt." He said, and I did my best to comply but found I couldn't move my arm high enough to pull it off myself. Beth helped me and I winced as the dried blood sealing my shirt to my skin cracked and ripped the scab off my wound, causing it to bleed anew. Steven sighed and stopped the bleeding before cleaning the wound, which hurt far worse than the first ones, but felt much better after he had a bandage over it. "Now you're gonna have to lose the pants." Steven said. Beth giggled and pretended to cover her eyes as she left the lobby. I sighed and stood up before yanking my blood crusted pants down, then pulling my blood soaked boxers up to expose the wound there which was looking alarmingly purple. Steven set to work cleaning it out, which hurt like hell but I sat patiently though it, figuring it would feel a whole lot better after he was through with it. Thankfully I was right, as once it was cleaned and covered all I could feel from it was the occasional dull throb. I pulled my pants back on and Steven was about to pack up before noticing one of my shoes was completely red now. "Oh jeez Mark..." He grumbled to himself. Getting the shoe off was near agony, but it had to come off. After seeing how much pain the shoe caused, Steven opted just to cut off the sock than pull it off, and with fresh tears burning at my eyes, I wasn't going to complain. Once exposed I saw why it had hurt so much. The barb had punched clear through my foot, leaving a hole big enough to see a pinprick of light through it. With a scowl, Steven stood up. "I'm not touching that one, we're gonna have to take you to the hospital." He said before handing me the bottle of aspirin.

"Wonderful." I sighed.

"Alright, I know what poison sting wounds look like, but what I want to know is what you did to piss off the Beedrill." Steven said.

I downed four aspirin and recounted the story as best I could with only as much detail as necessary. I mentioned the queen needing a mate and them knowing trainers had pokemon, but I left out the pheromone chamber.

When I was done, Steven let out a long sigh. "We're going to have to post signs every twenty feet until this blows over." He grumbled. "But that doesn't matter. Mark I want to thank you on behalf of the pokemon rangers for your tremendous assistance in the rescue of those pokemon trainers, if not for you who knows what would have happened. So on behalf of this ranger station I hereby authorize our funds to pay your medical bill, and if my boss tells me to shove that proposal where the sun don't shine, I'll fucking pay them myself."

I thanked Steven earnestly before he headed to the back to brief Beth on what had happened, and after a few minutes they both came back and helped me to the car. I called Flare back to his pokeball before Clara and Jade followed me into the back seat and we set course for Goldenrod. By the time we got to the city the sun had long since set. Once at the hospital and we had explained the situation to the staff, they wanted to keep me overnight to make sure the poison had cleared my system since I had received a rather high dose of it and they didn't know its effects. Steven did his best to convince them that Beedrill's venom is mostly harmless and the only issue is the wounds are prone to infection, but the nurses discounted the medical prowess of someone who was just a pokemon ranger. Steven sighed and agreed to let them do whatever they wanted after a half hour of arguing. I got to the room they gave me rather quickly; causing Jade to remark it was like having déjà vu. It took a while longer before a nurse came in to assess the wound, after which I was informed I would need minor surgery. A few hours later someone managed to find a surgeon with nothing to do and dragged him to my room, which he seemed unwilling to do until he caught a glimpse of my now mostly purple foot.

With a sigh, the surgeon agreed to help and the nurse went to fetch the proper instruments. First order of business was numbing my foot, which caused me to giggle involuntarily. The surgeon shrugged it off and set to work patching a few nicked veins back together before sterilizing the entire canal, something I was thankful I couldn't feel. After that he put two stitches in to hold each end of the hole shut.

Jade and Clara stayed by my side throughout the entire procedure, occasionally wincing when the surgeon did something that looked particularly painful. After being totally patched up, the nurse came back in and drew some of my blood for testing. The rest of the night was uneventful. Beth and Steven left, promising me a ride home tomorrow as soon as they discharged me and I thanked them again. When it came time for lights out I offered to put Jade back in her pokeball, which she declined, instead snuggling up next to me on the thankfully larger sized hospital bed. Clara climbed up and hugged my other side, nuzzling into my neck and I couldn't help but smile as I drifted off to sleep with two warm pokemon on either side of me.

Sometime in the middle of the night I was woken up by something, or someone, rubbing at my thighs. I initially wrote it off as a dream until the unusually small hand worked its way up to massage my package, which was barely hidden by the hospital gown they had given me. I opened my eyes to see the covers pulled back and Jade nestled between my legs, stroking my now growing shaft. I blushed and glanced over at the door, which was thankfully shut, then back at Jade. "Jade what are you doing?!" I whispered harshly.

A sly grin spread across her face as she continued stroking my cock. "Returning the favor, and a sort of apology for taking advantage of you back in the hive." She said, giving my shaft a gentle squeeze as her other hand slid down to knead my testes.

Now hard as a rock I squirmed a bit. "We're in a hospital, what if we get caught? What about the mess?" I whispered.

Jade winked and placed a kiss on the tip of my member, sending a shiver up my spine. "There won't be any mess, and as long as you keep it down we'll be fine" She said before taking the tip into her mouth. I shuddered and suppressed a groan as her warm mouth enveloped me. I felt her tongue glide around the tip teasingly and knew she wasn't new to this; I barely had another moment of coherent thought before she forced her head down, taking most of my member into her mouth before pulling back up and looking to see my reaction. Whatever look I had must have pleased her as she set to work quickly bobbing up and down, slicking my shaft with her saliva as her tongue worked the underside in a way that sent tingles up my spine. It wasn't long before I gave in completely to her mouth, doing all I could just to keep my moans from being too loud as she worked my cock expertly. Suddenly, she forced her head down hard and I felt myself hit the back of her throat before it opened up, letting me slide past. I let out fresh moans as she took me to the hilt. Suddenly a giggle to my left shook me out of my pleasure daze and I looked to see Clara smiling at me and Jade. Jade and Clara looked at each other seeming to communicate wordlessly before a surprised look popped up on Jade's face which was soon replaced by a mischievous one. Before I could ask about it though Clara distracted me with a deep kiss as Jade resumed her work. Suddenly I felt a digit rubbing against my asshole before pressing inside and hooking up against my prostate, sending me into new levels of pleasure. I moaned into Clara's mouth and she only kissed me deeper as Jade worked my ass and rod simultaneously. As I was getting close I couldn't keep from grinding my hips up into Jade's mouth, and she responded by taking my entire length before rubbing hard and fast against my prostate. I didn't last more than a few seconds like this before I started cumming directly into Jades throat as Clara finally broke our kiss and rubbed my chest. I could feel the subtle contractions of Jade's throat as she swallowed my load and carefully pulled up off of me, not letting a single drop of my seed spill before snuggling up next to me again and pulling the sheet back over me.

"See? No mess." She said winking and I couldn't help but chuckle.

We all passed out soon after that and were awoken by a nurse who was there to inform me that my discharge had been filed and I was free to go whenever I wanted. I took a few minutes to put my clothes back on, which the staff had been nice enough to wash for me, but still bore the same blood stains, if a tad lighter than before. I shrugged and together with Jade and Clara headed down to the Lobby where Steven was already waiting for me. Beth had stayed back at the station to file a report of the incident. We chatted a bit on the way back home and after arriving at my uncle's house, I thanked him deeply for the ride and taking care of things at the hospital. Steven just smiled and drove off, leaving me to head inside.

Right as I reached the front door it opened, revealing Ted in his work clothes about to set out for the day.

"Mark, you're back!" he said excitedly. "I have good news, you're friend showed up here for a visit!" he paused, taking in my appearance. "What the hell happened to you Mark, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Just roughed up." I said. Then confused, added, "You mean Simon?"

"No from the academy, that ace trainer kid with the Spinarak." He said.

"Sarah!?" I asked.

"Yeah that's her." Ted said.

I pushed past Ted not wanting to be rude but having to see it for my own eyes. Sure enough, she was parked at our breakfast table polishing off her eggs and bacon. We locked eyes.

"About time you showed up Mark."

Chapter 6

Friends, Old Renewed

I stared in disbelief at my friend sitting just a few feet away from me in my uncle's house, unable to speak.

Suddenly a look of concern donned on Sarah's face. "Mark are you okay? You're covered in blood!" She said, quickly standing up and walking over to me. She set to work looking me over to see where I was injured, and breathed a sigh of relief once she saw I was already bandaged. The fresh throbs of pain caused by her prodding managed to shake me out of my stunned state.

"Sarah what are you doing here?" I asked, "Not that I'm complaining but don't you have work?"

Sarah sighed. "I'm on medical leave, for mental health reasons." She said in an almost bitter tone. "At least that's the excuse I used but I think it fits."

"You okay Sarah?" I asked.

"When I got here you had already been dispatched to the ranger thing," she said, ignoring the question. "The receptionist was kind enough to give me your uncle's address and he recognized me when I showed up. Can you believe he let me stay here without a second thought?"

"Yeah, that's Ted for you." I said, deciding to let it slide until later.

"Anyway," Sarah continued, "I figured I could spend the week here and then on the weekend we could spend a few days catching up. After all, you have your own internship to worry about."

"Well," I said, "I just got out of the hospital. I'll have to check in with the Chief first but I'm pretty sure I'll be on my own medical leave at least until my foot heals up."

Sarah blinked and looked down at my shoes, gasping when she saw the blood drenched one.

"Wait, you were in the hospital?" Ted said from behind with a concerned look on his face.

"I just needed some stitches." I said, "I'm fine now, don't worry."

Ted nodded. "Well, I have to head out to the field, I'll be back later to check in on you two." Ted said, heading for the door.

Sarah and I waved goodbye as Ted left. My view unobstructed, I could now see Clara, still outside, fidgeting nervously while Jade seemed to be utterly frozen. I went out and kneeled in front of Jade, taking her hands in mine. "Don't worry, she's not going to hurt you or Simon or Ruby." I reassured her, and she nodded slowly in response, seeming to relax a little. I then took Clara's hand, seeming to calm her down a bit just from the physical contact as I led her inside; Jade reluctantly followed us in.

Sarah could only stare at Clara for a few moments before speaking. "Hey Clara, how've you been?" She asked in a somewhat nervous tone.

Clara smiled a little. "I've been well, working at the police station is fun and I get to see my friends every day." She said.

Sarah cracked a little smile, "I'm glad to hear that." She said. Her gaze shifted, now noticing Jade, and her smile faded quickly.

"Listen, I need to check in at the station and get Jade here home," I said, "Would you mind waiting here for a while?"

"Go ahead, I'll be fine." Sarah said, seeming relieved.

We shuffled outside as I phoned a taxi with my cell. After a few minutes it showed up and we headed to the post office. The first thing Jade did once inside was run to Simon and hug him.

"Jade you okay?" He asked, concerned.

"I'm fine, I just missed you." Jade said, seeming to have relaxed quite a bit since we got out of the house. I stayed and chatted with Simon for a bit, not telling him about Sarah just yet. After that we walked down to the station, which was rather difficult for me but I figured it was cheaper than a taxi.

I stopped at the school to have a chat with the recess supervisor while her Hoot-hoot kept tabs on the kids; she said she was worried about me when I didn't show up for crossing guard duty, and I reassured her I was fine now. We said our goodbyes and hiked the rest of the way to the station.

Once inside, Carol looked up from her desk and started giggling. "Did I miss something?" I asked, confused.

"Mark go home!" She said smiling, "The ranger station gave us their report, Ramsey says you're on medical leave until you quit limping." I sighed and chuckled a bit myself before saying goodbye to the receptionist and calling another taxi as we headed outside. I felt a lot more collected on the ride home than I had been when I first saw Sarah, and hoped she was feeling the same way.

Clara and I took a moment to nod to each other at the door before heading inside. Sarah was still at the table, though she had cleared it off and now had a game of solitaire laid out. She jumped a little when we walked in, and scooped up the cards before putting them back in their little box.

"I take it since you're back you've been put on leave as well?" She said.

"Yup." I said, "Until I get rid of this limp to use my chief's own words."

"I see." Sarah said. "You're better off not walking around on it anyway."

"I'm fine, it doesn't hurt as much as it looks." I said, trying to dismiss it.

"What the hell did you even do to your foot?" Sarah asked.

"It's a long story." I said.

"We've got time." Sarah replied, "but first we need to get you off that foot and in fresh clothes."

I nodded and begrudgingly let Sarah help me up the stairs to the guest room and then into the bathroom before she left to give me some privacy. I managed to get my shoes, pants, and boxers off without too much trouble, but my shoulder was still too messed up to get my shirt off on my own. With a sigh, I pulled a clean pair of boxers on with a wince and peaked out into the hall.

Sarah was standing next to the door and looked over at me, catching a glimpse of my boxers before averting her gaze. "Mark you missed a layer." She said.

"I need a little help getting my shirt off." I said quietly.

"You really can't do it yourself?" Sarah said exasperated.

"Look, my shoulder's too messed up to do much of anything." I explained.

Sarah went quiet for a while before an idea hit her. "Hold on." She said as she jogged down the stairs. I looked after her, confused until she returned with Clara in tow. "Mark needs your help with his shirt." Sarah explained, blushing a little. Clara stared at her for a few moments, unsure if she was being serious before slowly stepping inside and closing the door behind her. Once concealed, Clara suppressed a giggle and smiled.

"She's made a lot of progress." Clara said to me, privately I hoped.

I smiled in return and nodded before holding my arms out so she could pull my shirt off. That part was easy, getting the new shirt on proved to be a more difficult task for her, but after a few moments she figured it out. I tried to put on my pants, but found pulling something up hurt my shoulder quite a bit. Clara giggled again and motioned for me to have a seat on the toilet before helping me get my pants on. I was perfectly capable of buttoning them once on, but was happy to let Clara do it for me. After that, I stood up barefoot and emerged into the hallway.

Sarah looked me up and down before fixating on my foot, still very purple. "You were walking on THAT?" Sarah said, barely keeping her voice down.

"It hurts but nothing's broken." I stammered out.

"Holy shit Mark, you've got a HOLE through your foot!" She shouted.

"But-" I started.

"No buts, Mark, you're going to bed and not getting up until you're all one color." She said resolutely. "Clara, pick him up for me will you?"

Clara paused and then with a giggle lifted me up telekinetically. I flailed fruitlessly in the air, only managing to make my shoulder hurt more for my effort before sighing and resigning. "Fine, take me where you will." I grumbled.

Clara giggled again and carried me into our bedroom before setting me down in the middle of it. "You know she's right Mark." Clara said.

"I know." I grumbled.

Meanwhile Sarah had taken ahold of my foot gently and was examining the wound. "What the hell did this?" She asked looking up at me. I answered as best I could by telling her everything that happened. I didn't leave any details out this time, being confidant she had done a lot of thought and now was not the time to start lying to her anyway.

She interrupted at several points in the story to help explain some things. When I got to the part about finding the camp destroyed, she mentioned that if I hadn't slammed my foot down I wouldn't have a hole through my foot, as Beedrill don't shoot their barbs fast enough to penetrate that far. When I got to the part inside the hive I made sure to explain things as clinically as possible, and thankfully Sarah didn't seem to get upset. She seemed uncomfortable and I swear I saw her blushing a few times here and there, but she didn't interrupt to yell at me at any point. She seemed genuinely impressed when I got to how I had Jade and Clara fend off the swarm to let Flare get away, and complimented Clara on her skills, causing the Gardevoir to blush. After finishing, I asked Sarah what she thought about all of it.

"Your uncle was right, you've been through hell." She said cracking a smile.

I was silent for a while before speaking up again. "I know its awkward for you, but I need to know where you stand on the whole thing between Me and Clara." I said quietly.

Sarah was now undeniably blushing now. "Look, I don't want to talk about that just yet." She said, looking down. "Right now I just want to make sure I still have a friend."

I nodded understandingly and made and attempt to hug her, which she didn't resist. "Look, there's no hard feelings okay?" I said.

Sarah nodded.

"I understand it's a lot to swallow and I don't hold that against you, right now I'm just happy you still consider me a friend." I said, causing Sarah to crack a smile; which made me smile. "So how's the past month been at your station?" I asked, changing the subject.

"It's been rough to be perfectly honest." She said, "I've been doing a lot of thinking, enough for my boss to start referring to me as a 'space case'. By the time I finally requested medical leave she didn't even hesitate to grant it."

I nodded, "Sorry."

"Don't apologize." She said flatly. "I spent a few weeks back home training my pokemon from back when I was in the league, hoping the nostalgia would clear my head, but..." she trailed off.

"But?" I asked.

She sighed. "It didn't work. My dad's always been a clever one though, and he suggested I confront whatever put me in this state." She said. "At first I was totally against it but the more I thought about it the more I knew he was right. So here I am, and I've got at least one thing off my chest knowing you and Clara don't hate me."

Clara giggled. "Sarah, you helped us so much and were always a good friend at the academy. We're always going to call you our friend." She said.

Sarah smiled and thanked her.

"By the way," I interjected, "Where's your Spinarak? Didn't you bring him with you?"

"Oh, he's here." Sarah said, looking a bit surprised. "I just have him in his pokeball right now." She gestured to her belt, which to my surprise had a full six clipped there.

"Brought the whole gang I see." I commented.

"Yeah, sorta." She said, "Just the ones I ran the league with an a couple others that I'm close to."

I nodded. Conversation shifted from there to the routines we had while interning, and it turned out Sarah was doing the same sort of grunt work I was, though she got more opportunities to have field experience riding with another officer due to the bigger city. The day wore on and conversation grew thin, but we didn't seem to mind just hanging out together. Eventually dusk came and we heard Ted return form his work. Sarah helped me downstairs and set me down on the couch before she helped Ted prepare dinner. Ted asked her what kind of pokemon she had with her so he could make them a meal as well, and Sarah promptly called them out. I recognized her Houndoom, Marry the Mareep, Esper the Espeon, Geld the Typhlosion, her Spinarak, and Frost the Glaceon. I followed suit and let Flare out of his ball as well, who set to work sniffing all the new pokemon, who thankfully didn't seem to mind the attention. Ted took a tally of all the types of pokemon and set to work mixing up a meal for each one. Dinner was good as usual, and Ted and Sarah chatted about their different training methods while the menagerie of pokemon ate scattered around the room that barely held all of them. After the meal, Sarah was about to call her pokemon back when Ted offered to set up some beds for them in the barn, thinking they might enjoy a night out in the fresh air away from town. After a moment of thought Sarah agreed he was right and Ted escorted all of them including Flare to their impromptu room for the night. It wasn't long after that we decided to call it a night ourselves; I offered Sarah the guest room, fully willing to sleep on the couch but she refused, demanding I sleep in a bed until my foot heals. Not wanting to argue, I agreed and she helped me upstairs with Clara close behind. I was able to get situated in bed on my own and Clara snuggled in next to me, which seemed to upset Sarah bit; though I wasn't sure upset was the right word for it. Sarah shook her head clear and headed downstairs to make up the couch for the night. It took a while to fall asleep with all my aches, but having Clara next to me helped. So ended the first day of Sarah's visit.

The next day was still a bit awkward, but it wasn't long before we had grown accustomed to being around each other again and were talking like we had back in the academy. On the third day having Sarah over, she asked if I wouldn't mind having a battle like back when we were training Clara, only with neither of us holding back now. I was surprised at the question, but after asking Clara and Flare what they thought we agreed. By now I was able to limp my way around rather efficiently with little fussing from Sarah. Ted agreed to referee the match and marked out an arena in the field with several orange cones he had stored in the barn. Sarah and I took up positions opposite each other while Ted stood between us off to the side with a makeshift flag that was a shirt tied to a stick. There was a brief stare down before Ted brought the flag up and down yelling "Begin!"

"Flare, you're up!" I shouted, sending the massive canine rushing from my side ahead into the arena.

At the same time, Sarah took a pokeball from her belt and threw it. "Come on out Geld!" She said as the massive Typhlosion emerged from the resulting flash of light. Sarah caught the pokeball on the rebound naturally.

A nervous laugh from Ted broke our focus. "Try not to use too many fire attacks." He said.

Sarah and I both nodded before locking eyes again from across the field. Sarah moved first, "Geld, hit him with Roll Out!" She shouted. The Typhlosion let out a bark before leaping forward and curling up, rolling straight for Flare.

"Flare, jump over him and hit him with Extreeme Speed from behind!" I yelled. Flare moved, but too late. Geld barreled into him mid-jump and sent him flipping through the air before he crashed down on his side. "Flare you alright?" I shouted as Geld ground to a halt and stood up again. A growl from Flare as he regained his feet told me he was still in the fight.

"Geld, finish this with Double-Edge" Sarah shouted, and the Typhlosion barreled forward on all fours at Flare.

"Overpower him with Close Combat!" I hollered. Flare rushed forward as well, both Pokemon colliding hard in the middle of the arena. There was a low growling as the dust cleared revealing them locked together, each trying to toss the other. Flare had his head low and was pushing into Geld's stomach while Geld had a grip on Flare's back, trying to lift him. "You can do it Flare!" I yelled, and seemingly in response Flare dug in low and lifted Geld up before flinging him over his back. "Now Flamethrower!" I shouted, and Flare leapt onto Geld as he landed, not giving him time to get up before blasting him point blank with a powerful jet of flame.

"Stop!" Ted shouted, and Flare leapt off of the Typhlosion. Ted jogged over and knelt by the downed pokemon. After examining him for a minute, he stood up. "Point goes to Mark, Geld's out of commission." Sarah sighed and thanked Geld for his effort before calling him back.

Flare trotted back to my side of the arena happily, though I could tell he was worn down. "Good job Flare." I said as Sarah pulled another pokeball from her belt.

"Alright Esper, you're up!" She shouted as the familiar purple fox leapt from the flash.

"Ready?" Ted asked, looking to both of us for confirmation before waving his flag and shouting, "Start!"

"Flare, hit her with Extreme Speed!" I shouted, and Flare leapt forward at blinding speed.

"Don't even let him get close, use Psychic!" Sarah shouted, and Esper crouched down. A yelp from Flare was all the warning I got before he seemed to reverse direction instantly and wound up rolling, unable to keep his feet under him.

"Flare you okay?" I asked as he tumbled to a halt.

Before I could say anything else, Ted called out, "Stop!"

Esper sat down and began grooming itself patiently as Ted jogged over to examine Flare, who seemed to be still conscious but was too dazed to stand up. "Point goes to Sarah." Ted declared, standing up. "Flare is unable to continue. Next round wins the match!"

"Good work Flare." I said before calling him back to his pokeball. I turned to my other partner. "You ready Clara?"

With a nod, Clara advanced onto the field as Ted took up his spot off to the side again. "Ready?" he asked, getting confirmation from both of us again before swinging the flag "Start!"

Without command, Esper jumped forward and fired a purple beam from the gem on it's head.

"Teleport out of the way!" I shouted. Clara just barely dodged the attack and reappeared flanking the purple fox. "Now Psybeam!" I shouted, and Clara let the familiar burst of rainbow energy fly at the fox. Again without instruction the Fox leapt to the side and let her own purple beam fly at Clara, giving her no time to dodge. Clara was knocked back several feet, but managed to just barely keep her feet under her. "Clara you alright?" I asked, wincing from the pain she shared with me.

"I'm fine." She said, staring the Espeon down. I looked over at Sarah, who had a grin plastered on her face, and I realized what she was doing.

"Clara, they're using thought commands!" I called out, then added in thought "Why don't we level the playing field?"

"Ready when you are." Clara responded, taking a battle stance.

"Alright, open up with safeguard so she can't stun you with that signal beam again, then Teleport behind her and hit her with Psybeam." I thought. Clara immediately began glowing silver before disappearing and popping up behind Esper, but right as she fired off her attack the fox had leapt high into the air.

"Quick, teleport back towards me!" I sent. Clara disappeared again right before Esper contorted in the air to face towards Sarah and blasted the ground where Clara had been.

"You and Clara have gotten much better." Sarah commented out loud from across the field, "But unfortunately for you, so have Esper and I." She added grinning. As if to prove this point, right as Esper landed she sprinted towards Clara at a blinding speed.

"Clara, try to grab her with Psychic when she gets close!" I thought panicked. I saw Clara's eye's flash blue and felt the pulse from her grab attempt, but an attempt was all it turned out to be. Almost faster than I could see Esper had sprung into the air spinning, and before I could figure out what it was doing I felt the familiar pulse of a Psychic attack as Clara suddenly flew up and back before arcing forward over Esper as she spun and slamming into the ground hard. I doubled over from only feeling a fraction of the hit myself.

"Stop!" Ted shouted from the sidelines as he rushed in to check on Clara. I already knew she was down for good in this battle; I could still feel a powerful ache from her.

"I'm fine Ted," Clara said, sounding strained even in thought, "I'm done for this battle though."

Ted nodded and stood up, pointing his flag towards Sarah's end of the field as he announced, "Point goes to Sarah, that wins her the match." He said officially, then added in a concerned tone, "Now please get these guys to a pokemon center."

I nodded and jogged out to help Clara up as Sarah ran forward as well. Esper was strangely the first one to get to Clara, breaking her usually aloof character as she licked Clara's face worriedly before sitting down and closing her eyes. Suddenly the Gem on her forehead flashed white, and to my surprise I felt most of Clara's pain lift from me. When I got to her she was staring surprised at Esper who was purring happily.

"She used a healing move on me." Clara remarked before adding, "T-thank you."

"That was Wish." Sarah said, drawing close. "She wasn't holding back after you two started using telepathy against us and was worried."

I blinked in surprise before turning to the purple fox. "Thank you Esper." I said.

"Don't mention it." An unfamiliar female voice spoke up in my head, and it took me a moment to realize it was Esper speaking to me.

Sarah started laughing. "What's so funny?" I asked, confused.

"You're face mark, it's priceless." She said giggling. I sighed and shook my head.

"She's right, you do look rather perplexed." Esper said matter-of-factly.

"Forgive me if I'm a little confused hearing you speak for the first time two years after I met you." I said scratching my head.

Esper's head bobbed up and down in a silent chuckle. "I only talk to people I like." She said cheerfully.

"So why didn't you talk to us back at the academy?" I asked, more confused now.

"I didn't like you then." She said plainly before strolling up to Sarah and rubbing up against her leg purring.

Sarah giggled again. "You know she's technically a fox but she acts more like a cat." she said, picking her partner up, eliciting more purrs from her.

I helped Clara to her feet. "I see that now." I said, chuckling a bit myself.

In a few minutes we were in Ted's car on the way to the pokemon center in town. Sarah drove while I sat shotgun with Esper in my lap, who seemed to tolerate me well enough as a chair.

"That last attack..." I spoke up about half way there, "What the hell was that?"

Sarah smiled. "You ever heard of an atlatl?" She asked.

"A what?" I asked, not recognizing the word.

"Basically it was a stick we used to throw spears before we invented the bow." She said. "The idea was to use the curve of the stick and the increased radius to the pivot point holding the end of the spear to whip the thing harder and faster than we could with our bare hands."

"So what does that have to do with it?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The concept's pretty much the same," She said, "You saw Esper's speed. Most people think that the only thing that can improve a psychic attack is by improving psychic power, but we used the momentum of her speed and the flip combined with the extra space between Clara and Esper which was basically our invisible stick to throw her much harder than Esper could standing still."

I sat stunned for a moment, running it through my head to see if I understood it all. After a few seconds I realized it was possible, but not only that as we had seen it put to actual use. "Holy hell Sarah." I said.

I could see she was blushing now. "It was only half my idea, me and Esper were watching TV and saw something on the atlatl and Esper wanted to know if we could do anything like that." She said, "After some tweaking and a hell of a lot of practice we had it down, as you saw."

"As I felt." I corrected her, chuckling. By now we were at the pokemon center and we parked on the street before heading inside to take care of our injured pokemon. Clara seemed fine but it was still recommended that I put her in her ball to be patched up anyway, which I did so without hesitation. While waiting I saw Esper sitting out in the lounge and wondered why she wasn't being healed as well. After a moment of thought I slapped my head, realizing it was because we didn't even scratch her in the battle. Before long the nurse returned our pokeballs and we headed back to the ranch. Once there, Sarah helped me back inside and to the couch where I lazed about the rest of the day with Clara sitting comfortably next to me. Sarah sat and chatted with me for a while before heading outside to train with her pokemon. Things got boring after that until Ted got back from working in the field with a confused look on his face.

"You seen your friend lately?" he asked.

"She should be outside training." I said, "Why, what's wrong?"

"So that's what she calls it." Ted mumbled to himself.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Well," Ted started, "She's lifting the barn."

I was quiet for a bit. "What?"

"She promised not to break it," Ted said, "And I didn't exactly know what to say about it so I just let her be."

"She's lifting the barn?" I asked, confused.

"Well, her Espeon is." Ted said as he walked into the kitchen. "You got a knack for finding people with amazing pokemon you know." He added as he set to work preparing dinner.

Having to see this for myself, I limped my way to the back door and sure enough, the barn was levitating several inches off the ground. Clumps of dirt clung to the base boards and insects scattered out from their now exposed dens while Sara stood inside with Esper next to her. They both had the same strained look on their face. It wasn't until I got closer that I heard the weak growl coming from the Espeon and saw the sweat all but pouring down Sarah's face.

"You really have gotten better." I remarked, startling Sarah. A moment after her focus broke Esper's Growl turned into a yelp as the barn dropped down around us with a thump and a creak. "Oh crap, I'm sorry!" I stammered out, kneeling down to check on the poor fox only to have her snarl and snap down on my finger hard enough for me to bleed freely.

Esper let go of my hand a moment after marring me. "There, now we're even." She said with a huff, trying to shake her head clear.

I winced as I wrapped my shirt around my finger to stem the bleeding. "Alright, fair enough." I sighed. I looked up at Sarah, who was still panting breathlessly. "I've seen sharing pain and fatigue, but this one's new to me." I remarked.

"Y-yeah..." Sarah said. "She improves a lot faster when I help her like this."

"How long have you been training like this?" Clara asked after checking to see if my finger was okay.

"W-well..." Sarah started, but trailed off.

"Hey you two!" Ted called out from the back door. "Dinner's hot and ready!"

Sarah jogged off before I could say anything else as Esper strutted past me after her, turning and giving me a confusing wink before breaking into a run to catch up with her trainer.

"What was that about?" I asked, turning to Clara.

Clara shook her head. "I don't know, but they're a lot closer now than they were back at the academy, that's for sure."

I nodded. "Say, you think we could do something like that?" I asked.

Clara blushed, "Yeah, but I think a barn may be too much for us to handle right now."

I chuckled. "Yeah, you're right. Let's go eat!"

Dinner was great as usual and for the first time since returning from the hospital I was allowed to go up the stairs unassisted. My foot had gotten better to the point that my toes were no longer purple, but instead a rather yellowish color. I could even see the hole beginning to heal over, and if the itching I felt deep inside my foot was any indication it was healing inside as well. Clara and I crawled into bed together as usual; though I noticed Sarah no longer seemed to have the same reservation watching us as she did when first arriving here. I shrugged it off and snuggled close to my partner after Sarah closed the door and headed downstairs. Sleep came slowly that night due to the constant throbbing in my finger, but once it did I slept well.

The next few days seemed to pass quickly. Clara and I joined Sarah in training one day and she gave us quite a few pointers on psychic pokemon strategies. She also made sure to mention frequently how much progress Clara had made since she last saw her, causing the poor Gardevoir to blush each time.

The weekend finally came, and with it a breeding expo in Goldenrod City. Naturally, Ted wasn't going to miss the event. I wanted to go as well, but didn't want to leave Sarah behind during her visit and my foot still was in no condition to make the trip. Sarah, Clara, Flare, and I saw Ted off Friday evening after he had finished work in the fields, promising to take care of his pokemon until he got back. After that, we headed inside and Clara began preparing dinner for everyone; she had learned a lot about cooking from Ted and did fairly well keeping track of what pokemon ate what. As we ate, Sarah seemed as if she wanted to say something, but never spoke up. She seemed pretty quiet the rest of the night as well, but I thought it best for her to go at her own pace rather than confront her on it. We went to bed late that night; I limped my way up the stairs with Clara while Sarah set up the couch for herself.

"I think Sarah wants to talk about you and me but doesn't know how to start." I said quietly as Clara and I reached our room.

Clara nodded. "You're right, I can feel she wants to talk."

"You think she's really okay with us being together romantically?" I asked, causing Clara to blush. "Did I say something wrong?" I asked, worried I had embarassed her somehow.

"No," Clara said, still blushing, "I just never heard you say it like that before."

I smiled and leaned in for a kiss, which she returned deeply. "You think we should bring it up for her?" I asked after a while.

"I think we should let her decide when to talk." Clara said.

"And if she doesn't get to it before ted returns?" I asked.

Clara giggled, "You know Sarah won't wait that long, she's usually to the point."

"Yeah you're right." I said, stretching, feeling a throb from my foot in response. "We'll just wait it out in the meantime and make sure she knows we still care about her."

Clara nodded and nuzzled into my neck as we drifted off for the night in each other's arms. Right as I was about to lose consciousness, I heard the door open. I looked up sleepily, expecting it to be Ted or Sarah checking on me, but after a moment remembered Ted was away in the city. Instead of seeing Sarah though, I was confused to see no one at the door as it slowly swung open. I sat up rubbing my eyes just as I felt four paws land squarely in my lap. I scooted back startled, and saw that the Espeon who had pounced me kept her footing seemingly without effort.

"E-Esper!" I stamered out, now fully awake.

"I want to thank you, human." Esper said, and I could swear she was smiling.

I stared at her confused for a bit before she started chuckling.

"You don't seem to know what I mean," Esper said. "So I'd like to show you."

"Show me what?" I asked, finally feeling my heart rate returning to normal.

This time I was sure she was smiling; I could see her teeth showing. "The prize you've given me." She said before leaping down onto the floor silently and strutting out of the room. I stared after her for a moment, confused, then turned to check on my partner. Clara was snoring silently against me.

"Clara, wake up." I said quietly, shaking her shoulder gently. Slowly she came to, and looked up at me.

"Mark? Is something wrong?" She asked.

"I don't think so, but..." I said, trailing off. I looked over to the doorway and saw Esper sitting in the hall patiently, her tail swishing back and forth slowly. "Esper said she wanted to show something."

Clara yawned and sat up before sliding out of bed. "Lets see what it is." She said, helping me out and onto the floor. We walked over to the door where Esper sat.

"I didn't tell you to wake your partner human." Esper said sternly, "But she helped in her own way so I guess she has just as much right to see."

"See what?" Clara asked.

Esper said nothing and simply stood up and walked down the hall, her tail still flicking back and forth. Clara looked at me confused. I shrugged and followed the purple fox, who thankfully walked slow enough for me to keep up with my gimped foot. Clara followed close behind as Esper led us downstairs and into the living room. I didn't see Sarah anywhere and looked over to the couch; which was set up for Sarah to sleep on but otherwise looked untouched. I noticed Flare passed out and snoring heavily against the wall and decided not to wake him. I was about to ask Esper what was going on, but noticed she hadn't stopped and was heading through the kitchen now. I hurried as best I could to catch up with her as she reached the back door; which swung open for her as she continued out into the night. I gave a confused look towards Clara before heading out after Esper. I could barely see anything except for a dim glow coming from the gem on Esper's forehead, which allowed me to keep track of her in the darkness; and a thin sliver of light coming from between the closed barn doors. The fresh dew on the grass felt ice cold to my good foot but felt wonderful on my wounded one. Before I could really relish the cool though, we reached the barn, and Esper stopped and turned to sit facing us.

"Here we are." Esper said.

"Why exactly are we here?" I asked, looking down at the fox.

Esper began licking her paws as she spoke to us. "Because of you, Sarah's had to rethink a lot of her life. Did she ever tell you why she quit the Jhoto league to become a police officer?" She asked.

"Yeah, she said she wanted to help people." Clara said, taking my hand.

Esper nodded. "Yes, that's what she told herself and there is some truth to it, but why, if she just wanted to help people, would she have bothered going into the league in the first place?"

"Well, maybe family pressure?" I suggested.

Esper shook her head. "Sarah didn't want to be a police officer to begin with. She chose that path to make up for what she thought was a bad side of herself."

"What exactly do you mean?" I asked.

"You sure are slow, human." Esper remarked, looking up at me with her head tilted.

I blushed and looked away. "I'm not slow, I just want you to say it all plainly rather than this roundabout way of explaining things."

Esper resumed lickign her paws. "Fair enough, human. Sarah felt ashamed of an attraction she felt towards one of her partners, something you can sympathize with I presume. She unfortunately lacked the open mind you had during whatever your first experience was and did everything she could to repress it. She thought she must be some kind of evil for desiring Geld as more than a battle partner, and tried to repress it and somehow make up for it. So she left her pokemon with her family and applied for the police academy in her hometown, which was able to provide her with her Spinarak but was unable to fit her into any of their classes."

I felt Clara tighten her grip on my hand, and I returned the squeeze.

"They offered her a spot in their transfer student program, and she was more than glad to go. the more distance between her and Geld the better. So she left everything behind to cover up her shame and eventually she forgot about it herself. She started to remember when that Medicham let slip she kept a human mate, and you remember how well she handled it."

By now I had noticed the faint scuffling sound emanating from inside the barn as well as the occasional grunt.

"Even she didn't know why she was so mad then, but the more she thought about you and your Clara the more she had to work to convince herself it was wrong." Esper's tail was swishing faster now. "It got bad enough that she had to take leave from work, and feeling alone after the experience she turned to her old companions for comfort. What she didn't know was that she hadn't been the only one to feel attractions like that. I was bitter after being left behind like that but I hadn't forgotten the good times we had. She made me happy like nothing else, my current form is proof enough of that. So seeing the situation as it was, I made my move, I couldn't leave such vulnerability untended to after all." By now she was purring deeply.

"So you and Sarah are mates now?" I asked, having suspected it but not quite believing it now that it was in front of me.

"Oh no," Esper chuckled, "We're a bit more than that. See, Sarah's not the straight laced honor student she makes herself out to be, underneath the surface she has much more interesting traits, even beyond her attractions to her partners."

"What are you saying?" Clara asked. I could feel her trembling now.

I saw a sly glint flash across Esper's eyes. "I mean in the daytime Sarah is the master, but during the night..." She trailed off. Before I could ask her to continue, the barn doors creaked open, flooding the lawn with light. It took a moment to adjust to the light, but once I had any questions were immediately erased from my mind. I can't say I wasn't expecting what was in the barn, but that certainly didn't mean I was prepared for it.

Naked, arms bound behind her, blindfolded, and with a ball-gag firmly in place muffling her moans, Sarah lay in the dirt on the barn floor. Above her was Geld, her Typhlosion, who was currently balls deep inside his trainer and from his enthusiastic humping and pleasure filled grunts and murrs, he was clearly enjoying taking her. Although restrained and silenced, It was clear Sarah was enjoying it too from the way she writhed up to meet his thrusts.

"Naturally, I made sure Geld wanted it too." Esper spoke up, sitting down next to Sarah. "Sarah's such an good pet, and she enjoys it so much too." She added purring. "She doesn't even know I'm here right now, let alone you two."

I was about to speak up but thought better of it. thankfully Clara stepped in with her more private telepathy. "It's not right to have us see her like this without her knowing!" She pleaded.

"So naive." Esper said. "Perhaps I wasn't clear enough when I said she was a lot more interesting beneath the surface. I believe a demonstration is in order." She said standing up. "Sarah dear, are you enjoying that Typhlosion cock?" Esper said endearingly, just as the ball-gag loosened and levitated away from Sarah's mouth.

"Y-yes Mistress." Sarah all but moaned blushing deeply. "I love it!"

"I'm feeling a bit neglected from the fun, be a good pet and tend to your Mistress' pussy." Esper cooed, backing up into Sarah's face presenting her dripping slit. Sarah said nothing and all but lunged forward, her tongue eagerly delving into the fox's depths and working it as best she could.

I looked to Clara and saw she was blushing deeply.

A deep purr brought my eyes back to the display Esper had arranged to see the Espeon seizing up. Her tail pointed straight up in the air and the fur on her back stood up as she came from Sarah's tongue. "Good girl." Esper said as she stepped away purring, leaving Sarah's mouth unobstructed and moaning. "I believe its time for a change of position, wouldn't you agree Geld?" She said, looking to the huge pokemon. Geld nodded with a murr and pulled out of Sarah, leaving her whimpering on the floor as he walked off and assumed a sitting position leaning up against the back of one of the stalls, his massive shaft pointed straight up as it twitched. Esper lifted Sarah up and levitated her through the air into the Typhlosion's lap before gently lining her up with his rod and dropping her onto it. Sarah let out a sharp moan as she was filled almost instantly and quickly set to work riding her partner's shaft. Geld murred happily and grabbed her thighs for leverage as he started grinding up into her.

"M-Mistress, I'm getting close." Sarah panted out between moans, her breasts bouncing freely as she writhed atop her pokemon.

"Not yet," Esper scolded. "You aren't allowed to cum until Geld does."

Sarah bit her lip and whimpered, doing her best to contain herself as Geld continued grinding up into her. All Clara and I could do was stare at this point, stunned far beyond words or action. Esper walked up to inspect the mating pair. "My my," She said, "Poor Geld looks like he hasn't cum in months with how swollen these are." She added while starting to lick the Typhlosions testes, encouraging him to cum.

"D-don't hold back Geld, give it all to me." Sarah whimpered. "I want you to let it all out in me!"

"My my what a slutty pet you are." Esper teased, causing Sarah to blush more. "It looks like Geld here likes that though, he's just about ready to burst."

Sarah started riding the Typhlosion as fast as she could, forcing his rod into her hard and deep as he tensed up.

"Did I mention we have guests my pet?" Esper said coyly.

"W-what?" Sarah stammered.

"There's some people here that you should thank dear." Esper said, pulling Sarah's blindfold off and levitating it away. Sarah locked eyes with me and turned beat red, though only for a moment before she locked up, legs trembling as she sank down deep on her partner's cock. She moaned weakly as a powerful orgasm rocked her and it was only a moment later that the massive rod inside her started twitching, pumping her full of his heavy load. Semen drooled out of her and down Geld's member as her womb was filled and the excess drizzled out of her.

Before I could say anything Esper spoke up. "Bad girl!" She scolded, "You came before Geld did!"

Sarah looked up. "I-I'm sorry Mistress!" She stammered, seeming to forget about me and Clara at least for the moment.

Esper sighed. "I'll have to deal with your punishment another night, there's not enough time tonight."

Sarah nodded silently.

"Well, don't you have something to say to our guests?" Esper said impatiently.

Sarah looked up at Clara and I sheepishly. "L-look..." She started. "I know I'm a massive fucking hypocrite for ending up like this after threatening to arrest you..."

Blushing, I spoke up. "I already said we're past that, I'm just surprised we're both like this."

Sarah nodded slowly, making an attempt to cover her chest, but not getting much success with her arms still tied behind her back. "What about you Clara?" She asked nervously.

Clara smiled. "Don't worry about it Sarah, I'm just glad you're being honest with yourself. It's the first step to being happy like this you know." She said.

Sarah nodded, but seemed unable to say anything else.

Esper looked up at her impatiently, "Well, what are you waiting for pet? Thank the kind couple."

Sarah jumped a little and nodded quickly. "T-thank you Mark and Clara for helping me to be with Geld."

"And?" Esper asked impatiently.

"A-and to be Esper's loyal pet." She added quietly.

"That's my good girl." Esper cooed as she licked Sarah's face, making her smile.

After a few moments of silence, Esper turned to face us. "You have my sincere thanks as well, Mark and Clara. Without you I wouldn't have known such happiness."

I nodded, blushing at the flattery.

"That aside, I'm afraid I'll have to ask you return to your room. I hope you enjoyed what you saw, but from here on we would like privacy." Esper said.

I nodded silently, and took Clara's hand as I led her back to the house. The barn doors closed behind us as we left, and once inside Clara burst out giggling.

"I'm sorry," She said, trying hard to stop herself. "I know it's not nice to laugh but I keep thinking of how she yelled at us and then to see her like that...." She trailed off, a fresh fit of giggles taking over.

I smiled sheepishly, "Yeah guess I can't really blame you for laughing." I said, then something caught my eye. Smirking, I stepped behind Clara and wrapped my arms around her, sliding my hand down to the prominent bulge in her dress. "I can blame you for this though." I whispered in her ear.

Clara blushed deeply and tensed up in my grip. "S-shouldn't I be punished for this Master?" She said coyly.

I grinned and slipped my hand under her dress taking ahold of her shaft before starting to stroke it gently. "Yes, you should." I teased, nibbling her ear gently. Clara moaned quietly, rocking her hips into my hand as I stroked her faster. I felt my own member swelling and pressed it into her as I jerked her off, letting her feel how hard I was getting. "I think I have a good punishment for you in mind." I said.

"Anything you want Master." Clara all but purred, continuing to thrust into my hand.

I smiled, "Down on your knees then." I said, and Clara did so obediently; I could see she was smiling as well.

"Would Master like me to pleasure him with my mouth?" She asked, licking her lips.

I smirked, "No, you're only to use your hands. If you're a good enough girl I'll let you use your mouth to make me cum." I ordered.

Clara nodded eagerly and quickly undid my fly, freeing my throbbing malehood within moments before setting to work rhythmically stroking it with both hands. I sighed with pleasure as she worked, and eventually I felt one of her hands slip free. I looked down to see her quickly stroking her own member as her other hand sped up to compensate. I groaned as her hand grew slick with pre and she sped up, seeming to rub all of my most sensitive spots with each stroke. Before long she had me panting as she quickly jerked both of us off. Her grip suddenly tightened on my shaft as she came across the floor, moaning quietly before returning her second hand to my shaft, adding her own cum as extra lubrication. I felt my peak arriving quickly with both her hands working my cock expertly, and Clara sensed this. "Please Master, may I taste it?" She begged.

I groaned and nodded, "That's a good girl, don't let a drop go to waste." I said. Clara's mouth immediately descended upon my shaft and began massaging it with her tongue. I came instantly, flooding her mouth as her lips locked tight around my base. I panted and pumped everything I had into her as she eagerly swallowed every spurt. She diligently licked my shaft clean of any seed left, be it hers or mine, before pulling off of me and standing up. I chuckled and embraced her, kissing her deeply.

After we had both come down from our afterglow, we quickly cleaned up the mess Clara had made; which was easy due to the kitchen's tile floor. My foot now numbed from both the dew from outside and a powerful orgasm thanks to Clara, I didn't even limp going up the stairs to our room before snuggling into bed with my mate and passing out for the night.

When I awoke the next morning, I could only lay there staring at the ceiling for a while as I ran everything that had happened last night through my head again. Eventually I looked over at Clara who was already awake and watching me with a smile. "That was all real wasn't it." I said to her, and she nodded before kissing me on the cheek and hopping out of bed. I followed close behind her and was greeted to the smell of bacon and eggs once in the hallway. Downstairs, we found the table already set and Sarah groggily dishing up a plate for herself.

"Did you sleep at all last night?" I asked as I sat down.

Sarah blushed, "Some, but Esper wouldn't let Geld out of me so..."

"It's okay, I understand." I said, dishing up a plate for myself.

"Listen, Mark..." Sarah said, "I really want to thank you for opening my eyes." She said quietly.

"No need to say it again, you already thanked us last night Sarah." I said, blushing.

"No, I need to say this now in the daytime." Sarah asserted. "I need to say it so you know its me thanking you and not Esper making me thank you."

I nodded understanding. "I'm with Clara, I'm just glad you're okay Sarah." I said.

Sarah nodded and slowly began eating her breakfast.

"Though I have to ask," I resumed, causing Sarah to look up. "How exactly did you end up in the relationship with Esper that you're currently in."

Sarah blushed deeply. "Normally I wouldn't talk about this kind of stuff, but lets say a lot has changed in the past month." She said. "I've always had a more kinky side that I try to hide, but one of my things is I get off by being dominated, and it turns out Esper gets off on dominating, so when she confessed her feelings to me and started making advances I was all but helpless to submit and we turned out to compliment each other perfectly. I can say for sure its made us a lot closer, I mean you saw us lift the barn. Anyway, the rope, blindfold, and gag were all things I bought on my own for Esper to use. I kept them a secret until they arrived and lets say Esper was more than pleased to see what her pet had bought her. Eventually I told her about my feelings for Geld, but I didn't expect anything to come of it. Last night was the first time he took me..." She trailed off, seeming lost in thought.

I couldn't keep from smiling and when Sarah finally came to and saw me she scowled. "Oh quit it." She growled. "Not like you're one to talk. Esper told me about what you do with Flare."

I blushed deeply. "alright fair point, we both liked getting stretched." I stammered out.

We stared at each other for a few moments before simultaneously breaking out laughing.

"Wow, Mark." Sarah said.

"How else was I supposed to put it?" I asked, still giggling.

"I don't know." She said, breaking into a fresh laughing fit.

After a while we got ahold of ourselves and finished eating. We cleared the table and Sarah was about to head out in the field to start work, but I made her stay behind to catch up on missed sleep. She was out cold within minutes of laying down and snoring lightly. Clara and I headed out into the fields with Flare close at our heels; though he was more there for the chance to stretch his legs than to help out. We set to work feeding and grooming Ted's stock, which varied from the Umbreon I had seen before to a Tauros and Miltank pair, to even a couple Muk; which I knew better than attempt to groom and just prepared an appropriate meal for. All of Ted's pokemon were remarkably tame, even the Tauros waited patiently as I brushed him instead of trying to defend his mate the moment We entered his pen as most Tauros would do.

The work wasn't hard, but the sheer amount of pokemon Ted was taking care of kept us busy well after dusk, and by the time we got back to the house we were relieved to see Sarah was up and in the process of making dinner.

"You two look like you ran a marathon." Sarah remarked as we trudged inside.

"Not exactly." Clara said, "But close enough."

"I take it you've worked up quite an appetite." Sarah said.

"Like you wouldn't believe." I sighed as I collapsed on the couch. Flare was still out in the fields running about, but had returned by the time Sarah had dinner ready and all but inhaled the meal she had made for him. Clara and I thanked her generously for cooking before setting to work filling our stomachs. Sarah had propped the back door open and set up her pokemon's food bowls outside so it wouldn't be so cramped while we ate and through the doorway I could see Geld and Esper sitting close to each other as they emptied their bowls.

"How's your foot doing?" Sarah asked after we finished eating and began clearing the table.

"Hurts a bit, but now it just mostly itches." I said, wiggling my toes to prove my point.

The rest of the evening passed quickly for us and Clara and I both hit the sack early, still tired from the day's work. Sunday went by in a similar fashion, though this time Sarah was awake to help us out in the fields and we finished the work early. Not having much else to do after that, we wound up sitting around the table and just chatting.

"I'm quitting the force." Sarah said abruptly and seemingly out of nowhere.

I blinked. "You sure you want to do that?" I asked. "You're and amazing officer you know."

Sarah nodded. "I know." She said quietly. "But thanks to you two I realized what I really want to do." Esper hopped up into Sarah's lap from the floor and Sarah began petting her. "I want to be with my partners, but if I stay with the force I'll only be able to visit them occasionally."

I nodded. "So what's your plan then?" I asked.

Sarah was quiet for a while. "I'm going back into the league." She said.

"You want to resume you're Jhoto challenge?" I asked. "How many badges do you have?"

"I have three of the Jhoto badges." Sarah said, "I'm not going back to the Jhoto league again though, at least not yet."

"Then where?" Clara asked.

"I want to start out as fresh as possible, I'm thinking either Unova or Hoenn." She said. "Probobly going with Hoenn because it's closer."

"I take it that means we won't be seeing each other for a while." I said quietly.

"No, probobly not." Sarah said, looking down. "But don't think that means we're done being friends. I'll do my best to check up on you and report my progress through the league, I promise."

I nodded and looked up at her smiling. "Then I wish you the best of luck Sarah, though I've seen how you battle so luck may not be a factor." I said. "Though there's one thing I want you to do before you head back home or set out for Hoenn." I added.

"What's that?" Sarah asked, looking a bit confused.

A half hour later we were standing in front of a small house in town, a house Clara and I recognized but Sarah did not. "I still don't quite get what you want me to do." Sarah said, looking around the small yard. I said nothing and merely rang the doorbell. After a few seconds, the door opened to reveal Simon standing there.

"Hey Mark!" He said cheerfully. "Glad to see you're-" he stopped mid sentence, spotting Sarah who had frozen up upon recognizing him.

"Simon, you remember Sarah don't you?" I said as amiably as I could.

"Y-yeah, I do." He stammered out.

"You should probably go get Jade and Ruby." I suggested.

Simon nodded, clearly afraid but trusting me all the same. After a few moments he returned with both pokemon. Ruby was hiding behind his leg as usual for her, but so was Jade to my surprise.

"Sarah, I think you know why we're here." I said calmly, and she nodded sheepishly.

"Simon, Jade, Ruby..." She began quietly. "I want to apologize for everything I've done to you. I know now that your relationship is actually a good thing, but even in my ignorance my reactions were inexcusable. I understand if you can't forgive me for all the stress and worry I caused you, but I want you to know I regret doing it now." She was silent after that, unable to look at anything more than the ground.

After a few minutes passed, Jade slowly stepped out from behind Simon and walked over to Sarah, who looked up just in time to receive a full handed slap from the Medicham. Sarah winced but, stayed put.

"You have no idea what I've been going through." Jade growled, then sighed. "But you're lucky Mark here trusts you, otherwise a slap would have been the least of your problems from me." Sarah looked the pokemon in the eyes and saw Jade smirking. Before Sarah could say anything though the Medicham had wrapped her arms around her and was hugging her. Sarah shyly returned the hug.

"We're even now." Jade said after stepping back.

"After just a slap?" Sarah asked, disbelievingly.

Jade smirked and I saw a blue glint in her eyes. "Lets just say I know a lot more about you now and approve of your change in attitude." she said.

Sarah blushed deeply and nodded sheepishly, then turned to Simon and Ruby. "You both are still entitled to you're own retribution, Jade wasn't the only one I hurt." She said shakily.

To her surprise Simon started laughing. "Sarah, you don't need to worry about it." he said. "My biggest concern was Jade and now that she's satisfied I have no qualms with you." He looked down to his Mienshao who had timidly stepped out from behind him. "I don't think Ruby here holds anything against you either." He added. To prove his point Ruby dashed forward quickly and gave Sarah a lick on the cheek before rushing back behind her mate's legs. "As far as I'm concerned we're back to square one again, and a friend of Mark's is a friend of ours." He said smiling.

"T-thank you." Sarah stammered, barely holding tears back. Once she had regained her composure, we went inside with Simon and resumed getting to know each other as if we were still back at the restaurant a month ago. Sarah seemed reserved at first, but gradually loosened up as she came to realize none of them hated her. Dusk came quickly and unfortunately we had to say our goodbyes and head back home. We returned to find Ted had returned from the Expo in Goldenrod. We spent a few hours asking him about everything there before Sarah and Clara made dinner, letting Ted relax for the evening. The food was great as usual, as was the company and before long we had to call it a night and went to bed. So ended the last day of Sarah's visit.

Monday came and with it, a taxi to take Sarah home. She made sure to thank us generously before hopping in back with Esper and waving goodbye. I returned to work a few days later, still with a slight limp but Chief Ramsey seemed okay with it. Life returned to normal quickly after that; the children were all very excited to have their favorite Arcanine back on crossing guard duty; the massive pile of papers that needed filing still seemed endless; and I was still doing grunt work around the office. It wasn't long after that that I found a house in town that was renting for relatively cheap and applied. A few days later I was approved, and after making my first payment we began moving in. Work went much faster than moving out of my apartment had gone, as we had Simon, Ted, Ruby, and Jade to help us out this time. After getting situated we had a little housewarming party which the whole force attended; all five of them at least. That night, finally having some real privacy for the first time since leaving the academy, we had our own little housewarming party. I rolled out the yoga mat in the spacious living room and made sure to close the blinds before we began. Flare had been really pent up and I let him use my ass as much as he wanted again while I tended to Clara. Again and again, Flare mounted and Filled me with his hot seed while I pleasured my other partner with my mouth. I lost track of how many times I came and was knotted. Clara could only moan as I massaged her member with my tongue and fingered her ass, and I lost count of her orgasms after about the fifth time she filled my mouth with her seed. Eventually we collapsed, exhausted, and slept together well past noon; after which we spent most of the afternoon cleaning the huge mess and the rest of which relaxing together in front of the TV.

A few weeks later I got a call from Sarah asking me to come see her off on her journey, which I accepted gladly. Chief Ramsey seemed doubtful of granting me leave again so soon after my last break, but eventually wore down once he saw how important it was to me. Sarah arrived in a taxi a few days later to pick us up. She was dressed in her familiar Ace Trainer garb and I complimented her on how well the look suited her. After chatting a bit, we piled in the car and made the trip to Olivine City together. It took us a while to find the ship she was scheduled to board, and when we did she had barely any time left before it departed. Rushing her on deck, all we could really manage in the way of farewells was waving to her from the dock as the ship pulled out to sea until we could no longer see her. A little sad to see her go, but smiling all the same, I took Clara's hand and led her and Flare back to the taxi and we returned home to once again settle back into regular life, or at least what passed as regular for us.

Chapter 7

Eyes in the Dark

I woke up with a long yawn hauled myself out of bed to get ready for work. Clara stayed in bed to catch a few more minutes of rest; lucky for her she could afford those extra moments since she didn't have to clothe herself before going outside. I prepared our breakfasts as Flare trotted out of the bedroom and into the kitchen to greet me with his customary lick on the cheek. I smiled and scratched him behind the ears. All in all it seemed like a regular morning until I looked out the window. I stared at it for a few moments, confused as to what I was looking at until I realized it was a pokemon. Out in the morning mist, right on our front lawn, sat a quadrupedal white pokemon with large pitch black claws. It's face was black as well, sticking out in the fog compared to the rest of its body. The oddest thing about it was the lopsided horn it had on one side of its forehead that jutted out a few inches before suddenly turning and curving back behind its head. It seemed to be staring directly at me, and we locked eyes for a few moments until I started to move towards the window. The pokemon darted off into the fog, disappearing quickly the moment I stepped to get a closer look at it.

"What was that?" Clara said from behind me.

"I don't know," I said, turning to see she had already made the bed and was standing right next to our table. "But it seemed to be watching us." I said.

Shaking it off, we slipped back into our usual routine and were soon walking to the police station. Something was off about the walk though; despite it being the middle of spring which was notorious for thick fog around here, it still should have burned off by the time we reached the station. The fog was just as thick as we headed inside. We took care of our morning duties before setting to work filing again, though today was a first in that it looked like we were finally on the last few stacks. Feeling energized from seeing a feasible end to the task, we worked quickly until it was time for Flare and I to head down to the school for crossing guard duty. The fog was still just as thick when we went out, but other than that nothing was out of the ordinary. The recess supervisor's Hoot-hoot didn't seem to have any issue keeping track of the kids in the mist, so I didn't worry about it. Once back, I resumed filing with Clara and by noon we had somehow finished the job. We sat back and marveled at the long table, now completely empty. We hadn't even known what color it was when we first got here, and now we were done.

"I thought that would take our entire internship." Clara said, smiling.

"Me too." I said, smiling back. "Though I'm worried what Chief Ramsey will find to replace it." I added chuckling, though I was cut short by a loud shriek from the lobby.

"That was Carol!" Clara said, starting for the door. I followed her out and rushed towards the entrance. Chief Ramsey was also jogging to check on the receptionist, as the other officers would be doing as well if not for being out on patrol. I swung the door open to see Carol crouched down behind her desk, but otherwise okay.

"Carol, what's-" I started, but stopped when I heard a low screech from the doorway. I looked over and the first thing I saw was the glass door covered in scratches, the second thing was the midnight black claws adding to them. After a moment I recognized the lopsided horn on its head and knew it was the same pokemon from this morning. As soon as I realized this it stopped mid-rake and locked eyes with me for a few seconds before running off into the thick fog again.

"What the hell was that?" Ramsey said from behind Clara and I.

"I don't know, I just looked up and all of a sudden it was sitting there staring in." Carol stammered out, peeking out from behind her desk. "Then it started pawing at the glass but when the door didn't open it started scratching at it."

I walked over to the door and examined the damage. "These are clean cuts." I mumbled to myself. "That thing's got claws that can cleave glass."

"Mark, it seemed to recognize you." Ramset said. "Any info you can give us?"

"Not much," I said, standing up. "It was in my front yard this morning, but it ran off when I saw it just like it did now."

Ramsey sighed. "I've been getting calls reporting some monster out in the fog patrolling the town all morning, I guess that was it, though it doesn't really fit some of their descriptions" he said. "Question is what is it."

"I know a lot of pokemon, but I have no clue what that one is." I said, shaking my head.

"Alright then, Mark I want you to run down to your uncle's house and see if he knows anything about it." Ramsey said. "Leave Flare here with us in case it comes back to the station, and take Clara with you in case it comes after you."

I nodded. "That okay with you Clara?" I asked.

"Yeah, lets get going." She said.

I called a taxi with my cell, but opted to wait inside for it to arrive. I half expected the thing to jump me the moment I was outside, but nothing happened and the trip to my uncle's ranch was uneventful, sans the radio on my belt crackling as the Chief informed the other officers to keep an eye out for a black and white pokemon roaming the town. Ted didn't answer when we knocked, so we figured he was already out in the fields and headed behind the house. Looking out at the wall of fog in front of us we figured it better to wait for him rather than get lost in the fog. We sat on the back step for a while until a figure emerged from the mist, holding a bucket in one hand and a brush in the other.

"Mark!" Ted exclaimed as he approached. "Something must be up for you to be visiting at this hour." He said.

"Yeah, we have a problem over in town." I said.

"What can I do to help?" He said.

Clara spoke up. "There's a pokemon that seems to be following us, and we don't know what it is. It's white with black claws and a black face; and it has this weird horn on the side of its head." She explained. "Mark didn't know what it was so we figured you might."

Ted went silent and scratched his chin as he thought, and after a few minutes he looked up. "Well, I can tell you I know what you're talking about, but not much past that." He said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"A while back I took a trip to Hoenn for a breeding expo and saw a few there. It's called Absol. I remember thinking it looked cool, but never got much of a chance to learn about it."

I nodded. "Thanks," I said. "That's more help than you think, at least we know what to call it now." I said.

We chatted for a few minutes before saying goodbye and calling another cab. On the ride back to the station I nearly jumped out of my seat when I looked out the window just in time to see our Absol sitting on the side of the road, watching us go by.

"How does it know where we are?" Clara asked.

"I don't know." I sighed.

Back at the station, I filled Ramsey and Carol in on what little we had learned. "Well, what now?" Carol asked.

Ramsey thought for a few minutes before sighing and shaking his head. "Best I can do is keep the patrols out looking for it." He said.

"Wait a minute, I might have something useful I could try." I said as an idea hit me. Carol and Ramsey looked up, waiting for me to explain. "Simon, the postman, used to be a trainer before he came here. He might still have his pokedex from back then which could tell us more about Absol."

Ramsey shrugged, "It's better than nothing," he said, "You go ahead and take Clara with you again."

We headed out the door and down the sidewalk towards the post office, though I could feel anxiety slowly creeping in being outside. Clara tried to comfort me by saying she was keeping an eye out for him telepathically, and would let me know when she sensed him; which helped, but only slightly. I could have sworn I saw the pitch black crescent of it's horn out in the fog a few times on the way there, but Absol never made a full appearance.

"Mark, you're late." Simon said cheerfully as we opened the door, then he saw my face. "Wait, what's wrong?" He said.

"We have something following us." I said flatly.

"What exactly?" Simon asked, motioning Ruby and Jade over from in back.

"A pokemon called Absol." I said. "It showed up in my yard this morning, and has been following us since then." I said, pulling out my cell phone to check the time. "I also think it might be responsible for this fog, it's already well past two; it should have burned off by now."

Simon nodded. "Sounds like trouble." He said. "How do you want me to help? Need Ruby or Jade for extra protection?"

I shook my head. "Best they stay with you since we don't know what it wants yet. I was actually hoping you still had your pokedex from back in Unova so we could look it up."

Simon whistled ran his hand through his hair. "Man Mark, I'm not even sure if we got to Jhoto with that thing, I haven't seen it in years."

"So you don't have it?" Clara asked.

"I might." Simon said, "But that's a very slim might."

"I'll take might over nothing." I said, and Simon nodded. Jade and Ruby followed him out from behind the counter as he went to turn the little sign on the door over so it read 'Closed' from outside.

"Come on, we'll head to my house. You look like you need to relax for a while anyway." Simon said. I nodded and the five of us headed out. It wasn't long before we were at his front door and after fiddling with the lock for a bit he let us in. Jade led me to the couch and sat me down before checking me over for injuries.

"I'm fine Jade, you don't need to worry." I said.

"I've seen how you hide pain." Jade said flatly as she worked. "Just let me do my thing." I sighed and resigned myself to her, and after a few minuted she nodded and plopped down next to me on the couch.

Simon walked in holding a steaming coffee mug and handed it to me. "Here, try this." He said.

I took the cup and sipped it, savoring the taste for a second before taking a big gulp of it. "What is this stuff?" I asked.

"Tea made from Persim berries." He said, "It's supposed to help you relax."

I took another gulp of the tasty drink. "I don't know about relaxing, but It tastes great." I said.

Simon nodded. "You wait here, I'll see what I can do about my pokedex." He said, heading upstairs. I tried my best to relax and sipped my tea, and after a while I felt like I was loosening up a bit. Clara and Jade chatted in the meantime, and after a few minutes Ruby hopped up in my lap asking for pets, which I was happy to give. Whatever calm I had managed was shattered by Simon yelling from upstairs.

"HOLY SHIT!" He shouted. Jade and I sprung into action simultaneously, sending Ruby flailing across the couch. We ran up the stairs to find Simon in his bedroom staring out the window. Outside was a little bit of roof from where the first floor went further than the second, and perched on that was our Absol, staring in the window at us.

"The hell do you want?" I shouted at the pokemon, causing it to look at me. It stared at me for a few seconds before jumping off into the fog like it had before. I growled and rubbed my temples in frustration.

"I just looked down to check the drawer and then it was there." Simon said quietly. "I think I need some of that tea myself now, and maybe a new pair of pants." He added, slowly backing out of the room. He crammed something in my hands and I looked down and saw a red PDA. "Found it Mark, hope it helps." He said shakily. We headed downstairs and Clara and I stayed long enough for another cup of tea to try and take the edge off the bad case of nerves I was developing.

"Simon, I want you to stay home with Ruby and Jade for the rest of the day." I said as we headed for the door. "At least until I figure out what it's up to." Simon nodded and wished us good luck. On the walk back we passed the school during recess, and a brief chat as well as seeing the children playing outside did help me calm down a bit. I warned the recess supervisor about what was going on and told her to keep an extra close eye on her kids. To my relief she opted to cut recess short and ushered the kids inside to spend the rest of their break in the gym. We managed to get back to the station without incident, but the lack of anything happening only served to drive my anxiety higher.

"Any luck Mark?" Carol asked as we walked inside. I saw she had two pokeballs on the desk ready to throw.

"We got his pokedex, but it's still following us." I said, checking behind us, half expecting to see it sitting on the sidewalk. Nothing was there and I breathed a sigh of relief. Flare was laying down next to Carol's desk's keeping a close eye on the door.

"I'll tell Chief Ramsey she said, picking up her phone." After a few short words she hung up again. "Only one of these is mine." She said, pointing to the pokeballs on her desk. "I have a Smeargle that's been with me since I was a kid. The other's my boyfriend's. He left his Stantler with me in case I needed some kind of protection. Never thought I might have to actually use him though."

I nodded as Chief Ramsey entered the lobby. "What's the news Mark?" He asked.

I held up the pokedex, "Hopefully this will tell us more about our.. uh... guest I suppose." I said.

"More like stalker." Carol muttered.

I shrugged and opened the pokedex, and to my surprise it started talking. "Gardevoir, The Embrace Pokemon." It chirped, causing Clara to flinch. "Psychic type. This pokemon has the ability to distort dimensions and has a spike in psychic power when protecting its trainer. Under such circumstances, Gardevoir has been recorded creating temporary black holes with it's power."

I blinked and stared at the screen, which was blinking with the text 'Form Identified'. "Well that was... informative." I said. I looked over to Clara who was trying to suppress a giggle. I shrugged and hit the navigation button and began scrolling through the list of pokemon he had seen. "Come on, please let it be here." I muttered as I scrolled further down. I passed the recent entry of Gardevoir thanks to Clara and kept going until I hit Snivy with no success. I sighed and closed the device. "No luck, I went all the way to Unova and didn't find it."

"Damn..." Carol muttered.

"Any word from the other officers?" I asked, looking up at Chief Ramsey.

He shook his head. "They haven't seen hide nor hair of the thing, they're convinced I have them on a snipe hunt."

I sighed. "Well, at least we know it seems to be following just us, and isn't overtly aggressive." I said, "So I don't think it's a top priority thing figuring out why its here."

Ramsey chuckled and nodded. "Now you get it Mark." He said smiling.

I sighed and chuckled a bit myself.

"Why don't you take a breather Mark, you're white as a sheet." Ramsey said.

I thanked him and proceeded to the filing room. Clara looked at me confused until I laid down on the oversized table there. "Not the best bed, but I could use the rest." I explained. Clara nodded and sat down against the wall next to me. I laid there for a while, trying to sleep with no success. Eventually I settled for just laying down and resting my legs, but something kept bugging me. I was forgetting something but I didn't know what. I had already gone to the two people nearby for help with no success, and it's not like Sarah was here to save the day, she was off in Hoenn.

"Sarah!" I exclaimed, causing Clara to jump.

"What?" Clara asked.

I yanked my phone out of my pocket and dialed her number. "Please pick up." I muttered to myself. to my surprise, she did.

"Hey Mark!" She said cheerfully, "You don't normally call me in the day, what's up?" She asked.

"Sarah do you have a Hoenn Pokedex?" I asked.

"Yeah, I left my Jhoto one at home. I wanted a fresh start, remember?" She said.

"Yeah, could you do me a huge favor and see if you can find a pokemon called Absol in there?" I asked.

"Hold on." She said and there was a thump as she presumably set the phone down. after about a minute she picked it up again. "Found it." She said.

"You have no idea how grateful I am." I said, sighing with relief.

"Don't mention it," Sarah said. "Alright, Absol, It says here it's the disaster pokemon..." She went silent.

"Sarah you still there?" I asked.

"Mark, please tell me you're just curious and haven't actually found one..." She said quietly.

I tensed up. "I didn't find it, it's been following me." I said, "What does it's dex entry say?" I asked.

Sarah was quiet for a long time before speaking up. "Absol, the Disaster Pokemon." She said. "Dark type. This pokemon lives up in the mountains and rarely ventures down from them. Every time one makes an appearance to a human, it has been followed by some form of natural disaster; thus it gained its entry due to its ability to either predict or deliver them."

"Shit..." I growled.

"Mark, I want you to play this one safe." Sarah said worriedly. "Don't try to be a hero, this isn't a bunch of Beedrill, this is a force of nature!"

"Sarah, I can't make that promise." I said. "Its my job to be the hero if it falls to me."

There was a frustrated sigh from the other end. "Alright, then promise me this. Don't be reckless, be careful in how you handle this pokemon, okay?"

"I can do that." I said. "Thank you Sarah."

"Don't thank me yet." She said, "Also remember it's a dark type so Clara can't touch it. watch your ass!"

"I will." I said.

"Good." Sarah said. "I expect a call from you tonight telling me you're okay."

"Will do, I need to get back to work." I said.

"Good luck." Sarah said, and hung up.

I looked over to Clara, who had a worried look on her face. "Don't worry, we can handle this." I reasured her, but mere moments after completing my sentence there was an earthshaking boom followed by the lights going out. Clara let out a small squeak and I felt my way through the dark until I had her hand. "It's okay Clara, we'll just feel our way to the lobby and then we'll be fine." I said.

"Mark wait." Clara said.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"She said Absol was a Dark type." Clara said quietly.

I nodded, though realized she couldn't see me nod. "I know, that's why we'll have Flare help us."

"No, that means I can't sense him." She said worriedly.

It took a few moments for that sentence to sink in. he could have been walking behind us the entire way to the post office and we wouldn't have known. He could even be in this room right now and we wouldn't know it. A sudden certainty hit me. "No, don't do this to me." I growled to no one. almost on cue, two red eyes lit up in the dark mere inches from my face. I flinched back, but the eyes moved closer.

"Human." An unfamiliar voice spoke up in my head. "There are three of them."

I blinked and stared at the eyes for a moment. "Three of what?" I asked.

"One of them is making the fog." The voice said, "the other two-" It began, but was cut off when the door flew open, letting in some faint light from the lobby and letting me see the silhouette of the lean pokemon crouched on the table with me.

"Mark, are you," Ramsey started, then jumped. "What the hell!?" He shouted.

The Absol leapt aside to the floor and rushed out past Ramsey into the lobby; all without making a noise. Ramsey made and instinctual grab for the pokemon as it passed but didn't even manage to touch it. Reality suddenly caught up with me and I realized I was panting and shaking heavily. Clara helped me to the door and out into the lobby, where she set me down next to Flare. I spent the next few minutes pulling myself back together next to Flare's comforting warmth as Ramsey investigated the source of the power outage. By the time I had gotten my pulse back to a normal level, Ramsey entered the lobby with a scowl on his face; though he didn't need to open the door as it was laying on the floor, its hinges cut clean out of the wall.

"Damn cable leading in to town is cut clean." He said. "telephone pole is pretty charred, I don't know from what, but I do know what cut that cable." He said, gesturing to the semicircles carved into the wall where the hinges had been. I nodded and sighed. "You seem the wrong kind of unhappy." Ramsey said, "Mind filling me in on why you aren't hunting that Absol down now?"

"I don't think it wants to hurt anyone." I said. "It didn't attack me, it just tried to tell me something with some kind of telepathy."

"What did it say?" Ramsey asked.

"Something about there being three of 'them' and one of them was making the fog." I said. "Considering Sarah said nothing about it making fog when she read its dex entry to me, I'm inclined to believe it at the moment." I said.

"Sarah?" Ramsey asked.

"Friend from the academy, she's in Hoenn right now challenging their league." I explained. "She's a genius." I added.

Ramsey nodded and sighed. "You know how much I would like not to believe you and put together a squad to hunt that thing down, but the fact that you're not in pieces when the thing could have licked you is enough to make me believe you." He said.

"What are we going to do then?" I asked.

"I'm still not comfortable doing this even though you're coming up on the end of your internship," He said, "But I'm assigning you the task of finding Absol, ascertaining who 'they' are, and then deal with 'them' at your own discretion." He said.

I stared at him blankly for a while. "You can't be serious." I said.

"Mark, do I look like the joking type to you?" He asked flatly. "You're dispatched on this mission until further notice. I would love to send one of my other officers to do the job, or rather two or all three of them, but you're the most combat equipped one of us and the thing has taken a liking to you. Mark, you're the only one who can do this job."

I looked down and thought for a while before meeting Ramsey's gaze and nodding. "Alright, I'll do what I can. first things first though; we need to get the light back on in the station." I said.

"I can handle that." Carol said, taking one of the pokeballs off her desk. "Come on out Smeargle!"

A flash revealed what appeared to be a bipedal dog with a beret, but the end of its tail was bushy and coated in some weird liquid. "Alright, how's that going to help?" I asked, not seeing how this pokemon could produce much light.

"Smeargle, use flash, we're gonna fix the lights in here." Carol said grinning. To my surprise, the liquid on the end of its tail began glowing brightly. one by one, the pokemon went to each of the lightbulbs and coated it with the liquid on its tail which still glowed after being smeared on them, while his tail never seemed to run out of the stuff. After a few minutes the place looked like the power was still on, at least in the lobby.

"Holy shit." was all I could say, dumbfounded by the feat.

Carol laughed and took a bow, which her Smeargle mimed in unison with her.

I looked over at the now well lit door and saw not only had it fallen over, but had cracked into several large pieces as well. "Carol, how did you not hear that?" I said, gesturing to the shattered glass.

"I did." She said, "It was already over before I could warn you guys though."

Confused, I looked over to the door to the offices and saw the bottom and top half had been separated by a clean cut and could open and close independently of each other. I motioned for Smeargle to follow me as I went into the offices and sure enough, the same cut had been made on the door to the filing room. "So that's how he got in..." I said to myself.

"He's a clever one." Ramsey mused, inspecting the damaged door.

"I think I know what to do then." I said.

"So you've got a plan?" Ramsey asked.

I nodded.

"Well don't waste your time telling it to me and go do it, Carol and I will hold down the fort here." Ramsey said.

"Thank you." I said, and led Clara and Flare out the door. To be honest, I had no clue what I was doing, I had only the vaguest outline of an idea. The first stop was the pokemart. I had never bought any sort of pokeball before and when I asked for the best kind they had, the clerk just gave me a weird look. "Look, just give me something that I can use to catch a stunned pokemon in the dark." I said, and the clerk reached under the counter and pulled out a dusty box.

"Ordered these from Sinnoh a while back," he said, "thought I'd make a mint off their rarity here. forgot how out of the way our town was though, so they're just collecting dust." He opened the box and there were two stacks of six black pokeballs. They were adorned with six large green spots, and a red button with a red band around the seams. "They're called Dusk Balls. Supposed to work really well in dark places, even better than Ultraballs." He said.

"I'll take them." I said.

The clerk chuckled. "You can have 'em."

"No charge?" I asked unbelieving.

"Look, if I make any money back on these I might be tempted to try something like that again." He said. "Consider it a 'free with purchase of' offer if you really need to pay."

"Well, now that you mention it, I'm going to need a Max Repel, if you have them in stock." I said.

The clerk pulled a little gold-tinted aresol can from under the counter and set it next to the box of Dusk Balls. He hit a few keys on the cash register before the tray slid open. "Alright, that'll be seven hundred, sir." He said. I winced at the price, but payed up anyway. I took a moment to marvel at how expensive life as a trainer could be before shaking it off and heading to my second destination with my new gains. We arrived at the pokemon center a few minutes later and after a short check up, healed my partners to make sure they could bring their A-game.

"Mark, you sure you can do this?" Clara asked on the walk home.

"Nope." I said, "In fact its not even legal for me to catch pokemon since I don't have a trainer's licence, only officer certification with an addendum for you."

"Then why are you doing it?" She asked.

"Because he may be clever but he's still acting like an idiot." I said. "We need his help but I'm not gonna let him run around and smash up our town in the process."

Clara nodded and went quiet the rest of the way home. Once inside, I made a light dinner for all of us, as it was getting dark already. It probably looked later than it was due to the fog, but we were hungry anyway. Once full, I got a fold-out chair and set it in the laundry room. I moved the washing machine and dryer as far back as I could, and moved the hamper and everything else to our bedroom. After that, I propped my front door open with a rock. I then moved all the furniture between there and the laundry room aside, making a clear, unobstructed path there. Finally, I called Clara back to her pokeball and sat down in the fold-up chair with the door to the laundry room open; with Flare sitting patiently behind the door. To my right was the box of Dusk Balls, with the tabs taped open and the cardboard divider in the middle taken out and tossed aside, giving easy access to all twelve. In my lap was the max repel; which I had been shaking all throughout set-up. I sat there in silence and watched the light slowly fade. After a few hours it was pitch black and dead silent. My ears were straining to pick up anything in the deafening silence and settled upon Flare's slow breathing. We sat there and waited. We waited until my ass went numb. We waited until my legs started to tingle. We waited until my back felt so stiff I doubted I would ever be able to stand again after this, but we kept waiting. Finally, he showed up.

To my surprise, I heard his claws click lightly on the linoleum of the kitchen floor; the sound was so minute it was no wonder that he could sneak up on us so easily, but not this time. I listened as he slowly walked over to us; he knew something was up but not quite what yet. I heard his claws click on the concrete floor of the laundry room as he advanced towards me. he stopped right in front of me, and his eyes lit up, level with mine. "Human." He said, addressing me flatly.

"Absol." I said, returning his monotone. As fast as I could I whipped the Max Repel up and took aim at his face, I was gifted with the purest look of confusion I had ever seen via those glowing eyes of his right before I filled them with the bitter substance. He let out a snarl and backed away, his eyes and nose now filled with pokemon repellant, but a thump from Flare told me the door was now shut and the Absol trapped.

"Human you tricked me!" He shouted in my head.

"You wrecked my station." I shouted back, then added, "Flare use Extremespeed!" There was a rush of air before a fresh snarl from the Absol told me it hit. I flung a dusk ball towards the snarling, and a flash told me I had hit him, but the ball shattered moments later, spraying me with shards of it.

"I came to you for help!" Absol yelled, and I could sense he was rushing towards me.

"Flare, hit him with Close Combat!" I ordered, but too late. I felt his claws sink into my side before being yanked away by the powerful tackle from Flare. Warmth spread down my side, but the pain had yet to hit me. I ignored the wound and chucked a fresh Dusk Ball, hitting him again, but once again it shattered.

"You bastard!" Absol snarled in my head and rushed for me again, I put my arms up blindly for defense.

"Flare, hit him with Close Combat again!" I said, just as his claws dug into my arm, followed by what felt like a sword slashing across them. I could hear the blood dripping on the concrete now. I had to end this fast. Flare defended me yet again with a powerful tackle, knocking the Absol away. "Hit him again!" I ordered, and a thump followed by an unfamiliar yelp told me I had him on the ropes now.

"I will end you!" The Absol shouted as he made one final charge towards me. I growled, getting fed up with his idiocy. This was the third time he had tried this attack and by now I knew what he was doing. I clenched my fist and waited for his footsteps to draw close before winding up and slamming my fist into him as hard as I could. I felt his claws land a few residual nicks on my arms, but his attack had largely been nullified. He fell to the floor sputtering from getting the wind knocked out of him. "How did you-" He began before I interrupted him.

"This is why you needed my help correct?" I said flatly.

"I don't need your help!" He snarled, still writhing on the floor.

"You just got punched out by a HUMAN you idiot." I shouted. He went quiet. "Either you're not strong enough or you're not smart enough to handle whatever you came here for, so you came to me; and I'm going to help you, but it's on my terms." I said, taking another Dusk Ball from the box. Absol growled weakly as I turned to face him, but was either unable to move or understood what I meant. I hoped for the latter, but knew it was the former. I tossed the ball unceremoniously at him and with a flash he was inside. I heard the ball scrape against the floor as it wiggled, and breathed a sigh of relief as it let out the ding of a successful capture. I was feeling lightheaded now, and could only guess it was due to blood loss. I leaned down with a grunt and fumbled around for Absol's ball for a bit before snagging it and snapping it to my belt. Flare could smell the blood and was whimpering at the door. I took my shirt off an ripped it into strips, doing my best to stem the flow of blood from my arms before I opened the door and called Flare over.

"They can patch me up at the pokemon center." I said, "But I'll probobly bleed out by the time getting there if I walk, same with calling for a cab." I stumbled and only managed to keep my feet thanks to grabbing the door frame. "You need to run me there as fast as you can Flare, I don't think I'll be conscious much longer." I slurred. I stumbled forward and felt Flare's plush fur and did my best to climb on top of him.

"The next thing I knew I was lying on a bed in the examination room of our pokemon center with some device hooked up to an IV in my arm. from the pressure I felt in my arm, and the red fluid in the tubes, I guessed I was in the process of receiving a blood transfusion. "Am I okay?" I asked groggily.

"You're gonna be fine, but you're gonna have some major scarring from this." Simon spoke up. I looked to my side, pretty sure I was hallucinating, but Simon was definitely there.

"How the hell did you get here?" I asked groggily.

Simon smiled. "We walked. Flare showed up at our door half drenched in blood and whining, Jade figured out it was your blood and Flare led us back here."

"Flare ran to you?" I asked.

"Jade said he wanted someone who could talk to be there when you woke up and he couldn't figure out how to get Clara out of her pokeball." Simon explained.

I nodded understanding. I looked down at my arms and saw each had three cuts going diagonally down them, presumably from his claws, and one cut going right across them in the middle. They were all haphazardly stitched up.

Simon saw me looking at them. "You have about a hundred and sixty two stitches in your arms alone, another twenty three on your ribs." He said. "Staff had to use up most of their suture kits to stop the bleeding."

I looked at the machine to my side again. "They aren't filling me with pokemon blood, are they?" I asked.

Simon chuckled, "No, Pokemon Centers have had to have human blood at the ready for a while now, ever since the likes of team rocket, plasma, magma, and what-have-you have been on the rise."

"Oh." I said.

"So I'm guessing that your buddy Absol was the one that cut you up." Simon said in a serious tone.

I nodded. "I instigated though, so I don't hold it against him."

"Just what the hell did you do to him?" Simon asked.

"He was following me because he needed my help, but he was also breaking nearly everything in his way. I had to stop him. I'm still going to help him, because whatever made him come here is still a problem, but I'm not gonna let him do it his way." I said.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Simon asked, confused.

I grunted as I slid my arm down to pull the new pokeball from my belt and held it up for Simon to see.

"Holy shit Mark." Simon said quietly.

"I figured I wouldn't be able to find him and catch him, so I set a trap knowing he would come to me." I explained, "I used your repel trick, it worked wonders, at least at first." I held up my arms, "You can see what happened after it wore off."

"So what are you going to do now?" Simon asked.

"Find out what he was trying to warn me of." I said flatly.

After about an hour of waiting the nurse came in and disconnected me from the machine pumping blood back into me. She told me to get to a hospital as soon as possible to properly clean and stitch the wound, and I promised I would as soon as I can. After that, I had her heal up my new Absol, which was a lot easier for him than it would be for me. She handed me the Dusk Ball back and I noticed it was stained down one side with my blood. I couldn't help but chuckle at this and headed into the lobby. I sat down with Simon and called Clara out, who all but panicked at the sight of my arms. after some reassuring, she calmed down and sat next to me as well. With everyone relaxed and sitting, I called our new friend out from his pokeball.

The Absol hunched down and looked about wildly before locking eyes with me. "You..." He growled.

"Yes me, now before you carve me up again," I held my arms up to let him see the damage he had done; he recoiled at the sight of them and hunched down. "I'd like to get some information on 'them'"

"R-right..." The Absol said quietly. "There's three of them." He said. "A blue one is making the fog, a yellow one controls lightning, and a red one that breathes fire." He said. "I don't know you're human names for them, but I know they don't mean well for your pack here. Some men in black clothes used a weird device on them and ever since they've been attacking everything they see. I've been sticking close to them as much as I can, trying to warn people ahead of time of their approach. When I came here I knew you could potentially stop them, but couldn't get you alone to warn you. I kept either running into other humans or one of the three. The yellow one cornered me on one of your leafless trees with the long black vines between them and nearly fried me with his lightning."

"So you didn't cut the power intentionally." I said.

Absol continued, "The only reason they haven't wrecked this place yet is because they don't know there's people in the houses and I've been trying to keep them distracted."

"Alright." I said. "Since I'm still under my own authority, I feel it would be wisest not to defer to Ramsey on this one." I said.

"T-then you'll help me?" Absol asked.

"No, you'll help me. This is my town we're protecting, and I'm not going to allow you to keep cutting things up on a whim." I said.

The Absol nodded solemnly. "Thank you, human" He said humbly.

"Call me Mark," I said, "If only to differentiate me from other humans."

"R-right." Absol said. "Thank you, Mark." Then, after a moment asked, "What are you going to call me to differentiate me from other Absol?"

"Well, there aren't many Absol around here to confuse you with, but if you want a name I can give you one." I said,

"I would like a name, please." Absol said in his humble tone.

I thought for a while before finally thinking up a name I felt fit him. "How about Ebon?" I asked.

Absol seemed to smile, "I shall be Ebon then." He said.

"Alright, now that that's settled, How about we get you to a hospital?" Simon spoke up.

I shook my head.

"Why the hell not? You know those cuts are only gonna get worse as they are." Simon said.

"I can't go until I take care of those three pokemon." I said, "If I leave now they'll have way too much time to smash the place without me to try to stop them."

Simon scowled. "I see what you mean, and I have to agree." he growled, "But I sure as hell don't have to like it. We're going to help you though, Mark."

I nodded, "Thank you Simon." With a grunt I stood up. "Meet us here tomorrow at eight AM sharp, we'll begin the hunt then." I said. Simon nodded and with that we headed out. It wasn't a long walk home, but my arms began to itch along the way and time seemed to drag on because of it. Clara kept giving Ebon dirty looks the whole way home and Ebon took them with as much dignity as he could manage. Once we got inside, Clara rearranged the furniture back the way it had been and took Flare into the bathroom to wash the blood off; leaving Ebon and I together in the living room.

"Mark..." He spoke up once we were alone. "I need to apologize for harming you..." He said.

I shook my head. "Don't worry about it, I started the fight, and I don't hold it against you." I said.

"No, I thought you were like those three, just trying to hurt me..." He said. "After you explained it to me I realized I was the one acting like them by destroying your stuff. You were acting justly, I was acting with anger."

I stared at him unbelieving for a few moments. "You're actually serious." I said.

"Why wouldn't I be?" He asked, looking up at me.

"I've just never met someone so quick to admit they're wrong." I said.

"I want to make it up to you somehow." Ebon said.

I shook my head. "You don't need to worry about it." I said.

"No, this is for my own honor." He said resolutely. "I'm going to stay and help you even after we take care of the three, if you'll have me assist that is."

I stared at him for a long time, thinking hard. "We'll see when the time comes." I said finally. "In the meantime just worry about taking care of the three pokemon."

Ebon looked down, crestfallen. "R-right." He said.

Just then I remembered promising to call Sarah tonight, and quickly dialed her.

"About fucking time Mark, it's past midnight here!" Sarah answered.

"Sorry, it's been kinda hectic since I called you." I said.

"Are you okay Mark?" She asked.

"I'm just fine." I said, chuckling nervously.

Sarah sighed, seeing through my lie. "How much blood did you lose?" She asked, half-sarcastically.

"Enough to pass out and need a transfusion." I said nervously.

"Damn it Mark." Sarah yelled, making me wince.

"I'm sorry!" I pleaded, "I didn't mean for things to go that badly, but the situation's under control now." I explained.

"What does under control mean?" Sarah demanded.

"Well, I caught him." I said.

There was silence from the other end for a few moments. "Come again?"

"I caught the Absol." I said

"Like in a net?" Sarah asked.

"You what I mean." I said with a sigh.

"How the hell did you do that?" She asked.

"Look, I'll explain everything when this is all over, but right now I just want you to know I'm alive and breathing with most of my blood inside me." I said.

"How long until it's 'all over'" Sarah asked.

"Hopefully by tomorrow night." I said, "And hopefully I won't need another blood transfusion when it's through." I added.

Sarah sighed. "Mark, I wish you all my luck finishing this, I just don't want to see you hurt."

"I'll make sure I'll be fine by the end of it Sarah, I promise you that." I said.

"Alright Mark. I'll talk to you later, I need to sleep." She said and hung up.

Clara and a clean Flare emerged from the bathroom in a cloud of steam and headed to the bedroom for the night. I followed after, and turned to face Ebon in the doorway. "You're free to sleep in here for the night if you want, it will certainly be warmer. Ebon nodded and trotted up to me, following me inside. I found I couldn't move the sheets without risk of popping my stitches, so resigned to sleeping on top of them instead. I felt like I was back at my uncle's house with a maimed foot with how slow sleep came, and then felt like I was back in the hospital when I felt something between my legs. I groggily looked up to see Ebon with his front paws on the bed, being careful not to catch his claws on it to my surprise.

"Mark, are you awake?" He asked.

I groaned and sat up. "Yeah, I am, what's up?"

"Something's been bugging me..." He said.

"Let it off your chest" I said.

"I really need to do something to make up to you, if not for your arms then for breaking your stuff then." He said.

"I already said don't worry about it." I said.

He shook his head, "and I already said I need to do it."

I sighed, "Alright, what do you figure you can do?" I asked.

The Absol looked down. "W-well I was trying to figure out something you would like." He said.

Feeling suspicious, I looked down at him. "And?"

"And I looked through your head at things you would like." He admitted.

I sighed. "Look, you don't have to do anything like that. I do that stuff with Flare and Clara because we both want to, not because I make them." I explained.

The Absol fidgeted and I swear I could see a blush through his fur. "I-I know that..." he said quietly.

I stared at him for a while. "So you want to do it?" I asked, uncertain.

He fidgeted even more, "Look, I haven't had a mate in a long time and I do like males, but that doesn't matter." He said, "I have to do this without enjoying it to make up for hurting you." He said resolutely.

"Seems easier said than done." I said, leaning over to see his pale pink shaft half exposed from his sheath. "Alright, I'll let you under one condition."

Ebon looked up hopefully. "What is it."

"Clara hasn't forgiven you for hurting me yet, once you make it up to her you can do what you want with me." I said.

Ebon looked down. "Oh..." he said sullenly.

Smirking, I nudged Clara awake. She sat up groggily and took a few seconds to take in the situation before sighing and glaring at Ebon. "So you want to play with my Mark do you?" She asked.

Ebon shrunk down. "Y-yes Ma'am." He said quietly.

Clara stared at him for a long time before seeming to make up her mind. "Alright, but you'll have to be punished to make up for it." She said. The smirk she was wearing gave away her true intentions, though Ebon couldn't see that with his head low.

"How do you want to punish me?" He asked nervously.

"Just stay put and let me worry about that." She said, getting up from the bed. Ebon turned to look at her. "Eyes forward." She snapped and Ebon obeyed immediately. Clara was openly grinning now as she took the lube we kept on top of the dresser and kneeled down behind the Absol. Ebon was visibly shaking now, fearing what torture she might inflict on him, and I couldn't help but chuckle at his expression after Clara began rubbing a lube-covered finger around his tailhole.

"C-Clara, what are you-" He started.

"Zip it," Clara interrupted. "This is part of your punishment." She said, slowly starting to slide her finger inside him. Ebon couldn't help but squirm as she quickly found his prostate and began working it.

"T-This is punishment?" Ebon stammered, beginning to pant.

I chuckled and scooted closer to him, letting him seen the now prominent bulge in my boxers. "I don't think she'd mind if you started right now." I said. Ebon nodded slowly and gently nudged against my crotch until he had the slit in my boxers open. He took a moment to stare at my shaft before descending on it with surprising skill; though maybe not so surprising as he had mentioned preferring males. I sighed and did my best to relax as he worked my rod, bobbing up and down quickly as he licked all over the underside. A giggle from Clara and a sudden jerk from Ebon caused me to look up and to my surprise, Clara was pressing her own engorged cock against Ebon's asshole. With a grunt from Ebon, she slipped inside him.

"Now comes your proper punishment." Clara said, taking ahold of his flanks as she began to thrust in and out of him slowly. Ebon shuddered each time she pushed into him, but from his enthusiastic sucking I knew it wasn't from discomfort. Clara soon picked up pace, as did Ebon. I couldn't suppress a moan as he took my shaft to the back of his throat. Clara was openly moaning by now as she was giving his ass all she could. Clara seized up as she began cumming inside him, and with a contented sigh slowly pulled out of him. Ebon stood there shuddering and panting.

"Aww, looks like you haven't finished yet." Clara cooed at the Absol. She climbed up on the bed next to me on all fours and spread her dress, presenting her ass to him. "Why don't you finish here?" Ebon looked to me for confirmation and I nodded for him to go ahead. Cautiously, he climbed up on the bed and mounted Clara, being especially careful not to catch anything with his claws. I helped line his dripping member up with her pucker before he slowly pressed inside her. It didn't take him long to build up speed as he had already been close, Clara panted under him and let out a moan whenever he thrust especially deep into her, but before she could really get into it he was already cumming.

"T-thank you." Ebon said, pulling out of her ass.

"You're not done yet." Clara said.

Ebon looked confused until Clara gestured to my ignored member. Ebon nodded and set to work licking up one side while Clara covered the other. Having both their tongues on my cock at once felt amazing and I was grinding up against them in no time at all. Sensing I was getting close, Clara began licking the tip and Ebon followed suit. I couldn't hold it any longer and started cumming. Ebon flinched at first, but quickly resumed licking as I squirted my seed across his face. Clara only let a few fly before descending on my shaft and catching the rest in her mouth, eagerly swallowing it. I sat there panting for a while until I regained my senses and saw Ebon staring down.

"What's wrong." I asked, concerned.

"I wasn't supposed to enjoy it." He said, almost ashamedly.

I couldn't help but chuckle and reached out to pet his head. "There's always next time." I said with a wink, causing him to blush visibly again.

Clara giggled and gave Ebon a kiss on the cheek. "Now we're even, you can play with Mark as much as you want." She said before grabbing a tissue and cleaning off his face.

"T-Thank you." He said, smiling up at her. "T-though if you want to play I wouldn't mind that at all." He said.

Clara giggled again and patted his head. "We'll see." She said, winking at him.

We took a bit to get comfortable in our respective beds again, Ebon's being the floor which didn't seem to bother him, and fell asleep soon after. Or at least they did, my arms had began itching again and it took a long while for sleep to come.

The alarm went off at seven-thirty, causing Ebon to nearly jump out of his fur and me to groan as I hauled myself out of bed.

"You humans sure have a rude way of waking yourselves up." He remarked.

"I know, but it's effective." I said and began making breakfast for everyone. Ebon seemed to like the smell of Clara's food, so I prepared a bowl of it for him. I found Simon's Pokedex on my nightstand and crammed it in my pocket so I could return it later, then we set out to the Pokemon Center. The fog was still there and thicker than before. Once we arrived we saw Simon, Jade, and Ruby already there waiting for us.

"Alright, let's get this over with quickly so you can go to the hospital." Simon said as we aproached.

I nodded and looked to Ebon. "So where do we go from here?" I asked.

Ebon closed his eyes for a few moments before hunching down. "Nowhere, the Yellow one's already here and he sees me." Ebon said nervously.

"Where?" I asked, stepping back against the building as Clara and Flare went ahead of me taking their own battle poses.

An ear piercing roar from behind made me jump and turn around quickly, my blood turning cold. I looked up and atop the Pokemon center stood A yellow lion with an ornate black mask and what appeared to be a small storm cloud rolling off its back.

"Raikou, the Thunder Pokemon." A voice chirped up from my pocket. "Electric type. This legendary pokemon commands the speed of lightning and possesses a roar that rivals the powerful thunder it can produce."

I fumbled Simon's pokedex out of my pocket and looked down to see 'Cry Identified' blinking on the screen.

"Right there." Ebon said.

I mumbled to myself, slowly backing away. "You've got to be kidding me..."

Chapter 8

Fire and Ice

Lightning arced down from the yellow beast on the roof of the pokemon center and I just barely managed to dodge the blast.

"Ruby use Calm Mind!" Simon shouted from behind me. "Jade, cover her until she's ready." He ordered. I looked back and saw a blue aura gathering around the purple pokemon as Jade leapt in front of her.

A roar from the enraged Raikou snapped my attention back to the pokemon center as Ebon jumped between it and me. "Clara, try to hit him with Hypnosis!" I ordered, then turned to Flare. "If she misses try to pin him down with flamethrower." I added.

Clara took a moment to focus before releasing the psychic pulse towards the legendary pokemon, but it either sensed the invisible wave coming or understood what she was doing as it jumped off of the roof with blinding sped and slammed down right in front of Ebon. Flare gave it no time to react and hit it with a powerful jet of flame from his mouth. The yellow beast let out something between a snarl and a yelp before rushing out of the blaze towards Jade and Ruby.

"Oh no you don't!" Jade shouted as it closed in on her. She clenched her fist as it became shrouded in flame. Raikou may have been as fast as lighting but it had made the mistake of threatening Jade's mates. Jade swung a perfectly timed flaming uppercut, slamming her fist into the lion's jaw with a meaty crack and halting it's rush instantly. The pokemon teetered back on it's hind legs, dazed.

"Knock him back with Hi Jump Kick and give him a Psycho Cut to remember you by." Simon ordered , and Jade obliged. With speed almost matching Raikou's Jade launched forward and slammed into it, sending it flying back towards the pokemon center. The instant her feet touched the ground, she spun around and flung a blade of purple energy after it. Raikou hit the wall hard and was hit even harder by the energy blade chasing it. It slowly hauled itself to it's feet, growling loudly.

"I thought you said they were extremely dangerous." I said to Ebon, marveling as the thunder pokemon shook it's head clear.

"They are you fool, we've only made it mad so far!" Ebon growled, once again putting himself between Raikou and I.

"Well in that case, hit it with night slash before it gets it's bearings!" I said. Ebon leapt forward and slashed at the legendary pokemon with the horn on his head, but hit nothing but air as it seemed to disappear.

"Damn!" Ebon shouted, looking around panicked as soon as he landed.

The door to the pokemon center slid open and the nurse who had patched me up last night ran out. "What the hell's going on here!?" she demanded. I spun around to face her and spotted Raikou on top of the pokemon center again just in time to see him blast Clara from behind with a powerful thunderbolt. I doubled over as pain exploded in my back, shortly followed by numbness.

"I'm calling the police!" the nurse cried out panicked before rushing inside, the doors sliding shut behind her.

"Clara, are you all right!?" I shouted.

"I'm fine, he just made a big mistake." She growled, slowly pulling herself to her feet. I could see arcs of residual electricity still arcing all over her body and knew what she had planned.

Raikou slowly advanced on Clara, growling low the whole time.

"Think you're clever trying to paralyze me?" Clara asked the beast, causing it to stop in it's tracks. It glared at her for a few moments before snarling and leaping at her. "Well have it back!" Clara yelled as her eyes flashed blue, causing the legendary lion's eyes to flash blue in response. The pokemon yelped and crashed into Clara in a limp heap. I doubled over again, almost falling on my side from the pain.

"Flare, Close c-combat! Get it off Clara!" I stammered out. A loud thump and a skittering noise told me the attack had landed and I hauled myself back to my feet. Raikou lay sprawled out on the pavement, it's claws out and partially embedded in the concrete.

"I think we got him." Ebon said, walking up to my side. As if in response, Raikou began growling anew as it slowly pulled it's paws underneath itself.

"No way, he should be paralyzed...." I muttered, taking a step back. The pokemon locked eyes with me and I could see nothing but hate in its expression; not even a hint of intelligence, just pure rage filling the body of this legendary pokemon. Raikou rushed at me; not with it's lightning speed but still extremely fast. I put my arms up in defense as it closed in.

"No way you're touching him!" Ebon growled from my side right before vanishing. I got only a moment to wonder where he went before I saw him reappear in front of the charging pokemon and slam it to the ground with a powerful swipe of it's claw.

"Sucker Punch..." I marveled before shaking my head clear. "Don't let him get up, hit him with night slash!" I ordered, and Ebon leapt upon the lion, slashing it's horn across it's flank. Raikou yelped and writhed, tossing the Absol into the air. Before Ebon even hit the ground Raikou was back on its feet and running again, though this time not at me, but at Simon.

"Look out!" I shouted.

"Too late." Simon said calmly just as Ruby leapt in front of him, a fierce blue aura shimmering around her like fire.

Raikou stopped in it's tracks and snarled before unleashing a flurry of thunderbolts at the Meinshao. Almost all of them hit their mark, but none of them seemed to have any noticeable effect. Raikou growled in confusion and began to back away slowly from Simon and his pokemon, but bumped into Jade who had moved in to flank him.

"Just where do you think you're going?" Jade asked before decking the lion once again, knocking it down on it's side. Raikou flailed on the ground, trying to get it's claws under itself.

"Ruby, end this with Aura Sphere." Simon said. Ruby growled and put her paws together before slowly drawing them apart as a ball of blue energy grew between them. Raikou managed to get on it's feet again and after glimpsing the attack Ruby was building up, immediately ran, disappearing into the mist.

"That won't save you!" Simon shouted as Ruby flung the ball of blue energy. It flew forward a few yards before arcing sharply to the side in the direction Raikou had fled. There were a few seconds of agonizing silence as the attack became little more than a blue glow in the fog, then disappeared completely from view. "Aura Sphere never misses it's target." Simon said calmly. "Raikou can run as far and fast as it wants, that attack won't stop chasing him until it hits." A few seconds later there was a dull thump in the distance, and after a moment a massive rush or air from the direction of Raikou. "got him." Simon said, smiling.

I sighed."Okay, now what?" I asked him.

Simon grinned and pulled a black and yellow pokeball from his belt. "I still have a trainer's license, so I'm going to neutralize him the best way I can." He said, and started walking off into the fog with Jade and Ruby close behind; Ruby's aura now slowly fading. "You get Clara inside and healed up, We'll be back soon." He added. I nodded and stood up, looking over at Clara.

"This is gonna be a long day, isn't it?" She asked sullenly.

I pulled her pokeball from my belt. "Not if I can help it." I said resolutely before calling her back. With Clara inside her pokeball, the pain she was sharing with me ebbed somewhat and I was able to limp inside with no trouble; Flare and Ebon followed me inside. The door closed behind me just as the nurse slammed a radio back down into it's charger.

"The hell were you doing out there?" She asked angrily.

"Look I don't have much time to explain." I said. "I need you to heal my pokemon."

"No way!" She shouted. "You're gonna wait right here until the police show up, then we'll see how much time you have for explaining."

I shook my head in frustration before digging through my pockets. "Dammit... it's got to be here." I mumbled.

"What?" She asked, annoyed.

"My badge. I'm an officer." I said with a sigh, realizing I had left it at home on my dresser.

"Convenient." She said sarcastically.

I shook my head and hauled myself over to one of the chairs in the lobby before slumping down in it. "Alright, you wanted me to wait until the police got here, I guess I have no other option." I said.

She looked at me confused. "Wait what?" She asked.

I looked at her and tossed her Clara's pokeball, which she clumsily caught. "I'm going to wait here until the police show up, I really need you to heal my pokemon though, she's in pretty bad shape right now. Hold the pokeball as collateral if you want, I just need to be sure she's all right." I said.

The nurse glared at me for a long time before turning with a huff and heading behind the counter. "Can't believe I'm doing this." She mumbled as she popped Clara's pokeball into one of the slots on the healing machine and switched it on. The familiar humming and chiming of the device began. "every pokemon center has an emergency generator." She said flatly as she tweaked the settings on the device. I felt Clara's pain gradually ebb away, and after a couple minutes a ding announced she was healed. The nurse took the pokeball out and tossed it back at me.

I caught the ball and looked back at her confused. "Look, I don't need collateral, I just want to know what the hell's going on." She said. "I don't know if you're really an officer, but you seem to have some idea what's been going on in this town."

I nodded. "Guess I have time now." I said. "That was a Raikou outside, the legendary pokemon. An Absol came to town looking for me and said that there were three pokemon raging across the continent and our town was the next target. I can only guess the other two are Entei and Suicune." I thought for a minute. "Definitely Suicune at least, she's got to be here for all this fog to be around." I said.

The nurse stared at me for a long time. "You're not lying are you." She said quietly.

I shook my head. "I wish I was." I said. "My friend and I managed to take down Raikou, he should be catching it in a pokeball right about now."

"What about the other two?" She asked.

"Hopefully, we won't have as much trouble with them." I said.

"No, I mean how are you going to find them?" She asked.

I looked up at her. "Honestly, I have no idea." I admitted.

"You said your buddy was catching Raikou right now right?" She asked.

"Yeah?"

"They're sticking together, maybe you could use him to lure the others out?" She said.

I stared at her, dumbfounded. "You're a genius, Ma'am." I said, marveling.

"No I'm not, you're just short a few cups of blood." She said flatly.

I thought for a moment and begrudgingly admitted to myself she was probably right. The front doors opened and both of us looked up to see Chief Ramsey with a red-grey Growlithe at his side as well as Simon walking in. Ramsey looked over at me. "You mind telling me when you were planning on filling the rest of us in on rampaging legendary pokemon?" He asked angrily.

"Take it easy!" The nurse shouted at him, causing him to flinch. "The kid nearly died last night and is still short on blood as it is!" She growled.

Ramsey stared at her for a moment, then back at me. He let out a sigh when he finally noticed the stitches covering most of my forearms. "Mark you have a knack for finding trouble." he remarked, then he noticed Ebon, sitting sheepishly to my side. Ramsey took a moment to eye the pokemon up and down before shaking his head and dismissing it.

Simon stepped forward and tossed me the black and yellow pokeball he had shown me earlier. I caught it and noticed it was far heavier than it should have been. "You really caught it?" I asked him, stunned.

"I didn't really have a choice." Simon said. "That last attack was way stronger than I thought it'd be. the blast cleared out the fog for three blocks!"

Ramsey nodded. "I heard the boom and went out to investigate. Shortly after I was notified via radio about some fight at the pokemon center and figured it was you." He said. "Simon's pokemon hit the thing so hard it was barely breathing when I found it." he remarked.

The nurse let out a frustrated sigh before stomping over to me and snatching the pokeball out of my hand. "You people!" She growled as she set the ball in the healing machine.

"So what do we do now?" Simon asked.

"The kind nurse suggested we have Raikou lure out the other two." I said.

"Oh no you don't!" Ramsey interrupted. "We've got a full-scale evacuation to perform before you even think about taking on the other two of those things!"

I sighed. "You're right chief." I admitted, then turned to Simon. "Would you help us out?" I asked.

"Of course, though I'm not exactly sure what I can do to help." Simon said.

"Full scale evacuation normally means we call in back up and have them bus everyone to the nearest city. Seeing as power's cut to the town and Goldenrod city is out of walking distance, we don't really have that option." I said.

"So then where do we take everyone?" Simon asked.

"Right here." Ramsey answered. "Most of the town's away at work right now anyway, and the pokemon center's the sturdiest building we have in town."

Simon nodded, understanding.

"This one's going to take a while." The nurse interrupted. "For some reason it's taking a lot more power than usual to heal it."

"That's just fine, we'll get to work while you finish up here." Ramsey said. "Growlithe, I want you to stay here and guard the pokemon center while we're gone, okay?" He said to his partner. His Growlithe let out a ruff of approval and took up post at the front door. With that we headed out.

Ramsey's first idea was to drive through each street announcing the evacuation via his car's megaphone, but we didn't want to attract Entei's or Suicune's attention too early. Instead, we set out on foot, going door to door and explaining the situation to anyone who happened to be at home. Each person was doubtful at first, but after Ramsey flashed his badge they couldn't really ignore us. We had everyone we found follow us with our partners out and standing watch for the legendary pokeomon, and as the crowd grew it became easier and easier for people to accept the gravity of the situation.

When the group grew too large, I escorted them to the pokemon center with Ebon, Flare, and Clara guarding us while Simon and Ramsey continued on going door to door. Back at the pokemon center, Ramsey's Growlithe greeted us with a bark, and I saw it had been joined by three others of it's kind. Inside, I saw the reason why. Ramsey had apparently called the other three officers while I was on my way back and ordered them to handle things at the pokemon center. They took over the crowd for me as I brought them in the door and helped them all get situated within the lobby. I checked up on Raikou and the nurse, and was surprised to hear that she was still working on it.

"I don't understand why it would need so much time to heal, we'll run the generators dry before he's on his feet at this rate." The nurse sighed.

"How long does it normally take for pokemon his size?" I asked.

"Size isn't really the issue, but I've noticed what when we have the occasional veteran trainer roll through town, their pokemon tend to take a lot longer to heal than say the kids over at the elementary school." she said.

"How long is that compared to Raikou here?" I asked.

"Our pal Raikou is already at twice the usual time it takes to heal the stronger pokemon I see." She said. "I'm only going to keep going until he's able to walk on his own, after that I'm cutting it off. We only have so much fuel here and I can already see the lights dimming."

"We'll be able to get more fuel, hell I'll hike to the gas station and deliver it personally if you want." I said.

The nurse looked at me quizzically for a few seconds. "You really mean that?" She asked.

"If it means fixing the damage we did to Raikou, then I'll do whatever I can." I said.

She stared at me a while longer before sighing. "Fine, I'll patch him as far as the generator will take him then, you better keep good on that promise though" She said.

I thanked her then hurried out the door. I quickly caught up to Simon and Ramsey with my partners behind me, and was shocked to see they were nearly done. All that was left was the elementary school, which proved to be tricky to handle. convincing the principal of the situation was the easy part, herding dozens of excited kids several blocks to the pokemon center proved to be a migraine inducing chore. Even with the help of the recess attendant I often chatted with and her Hoot-hoot, their sheer numbers made them difficult to corral. When we finally arrived, the other officers were still busy getting everyone situated and keeping them calm. The nurse rushed up to me as I walked in the door and crammed the black and yellow pokeball into my hands.

"This better have been worth nearly draining our emergency power." She said sternly.

"I hope was." I said. Ramsey and I helped get the children situated and began briefing everyone on the situation, which was more trouble than it was worth. Turns out just showing a badge and having someone say you're something of a prodigy kid doesn't do much to convince people of your ability to handle the situation at hand. The announcement was made to the entire crowd, but afterwards people all but lined up to take issue with me personally. I did my best to remain professional as I answered all their condescending questions, but by about the fifth time someone demanded to know just what made me so special, I was ready to show them our combat prowess first hand. Right as my sixth argument with one of the residents began, a growling caught my attention. I turned to find the source, but my current accuser apparently hadn't heard it and claimed I had no right to dismiss him like that.

"Shut up for a second!" I growled at him, which only spurred him to do the opposite. A few seconds later the growl turned into a lot of barking, which caught the mans attention this time. Seeing my opening while he was distracted, I slipped away into the crowd and towards the door. Suddenly, there was a loud noise that sounded like a gong. The whole room went silent as we looked to see the source of the noise.

Past four snarling Growlithe and through the thick glass of the lobby doors stood what looked at first to be some type of blue deer, but after seeing it's legs were too short for that and the supposed antlers on top of its head were fused together in a diamond shape, I realized what it really was. The crowd in the lobby started murmuring and Ramsey and the other officers set to work trying to keep them calm. I muscled my way out of the crowd, where my partners were already waiting just as Suicune rammed the door again, producing another gong. It snarled at me through the glass and I saw it had the same rage-filled eyes Raikou had.

"Flare, I want you to get lined up with the front door." I said as calmly as I could. "She's gonna trip the sensor eventually and the doors are going to open. When they do, I want you to rush her with Extremespeed and knock her back as far away from the pokemon center as you can."

Flare nodded and padded into position as Simon muscled out of the crowd with Ruby on his shoulders and Jade behind him. we exchanged a silent nod and I looked over to the Nurse. "When we leave, as soon as the doors shut behind us, I need you to cut off the generator." I said.

"Are you sure, what if you need to retreat and heal?" She asked.

I shook my head. "those doors need to stay shut, we'll just have to fight carefully. These people come first, protecting them is our job." I said.

The nurse was silent for a minute before nodding and heading behind the desk. A fresh gong from Suicune brought our attention back to the door. She snarled and pawed at the glass wildly, seeming not to comprehend why she couldn't reach us.

"You ready?" I asked Simon.

He nodded. "I assume the plan is rush the door when she opens it and then wing it from there?" He asked.

"Pretty much." I said.

Suicune backed up, readying to ram the door again when a ding from above distracted her. While she was looking up the doors slid open and Flare took his cue. The massive canine rushed forward, catching the blue pokemon off guard and sent her rolling back a good thirty yards from the door. Simon and I took off sprinting after her, our partners close behind us. we heard the doors slide shut behind us and a low hum immediately after as the building powered down; there was no turning back now.

"Flare, hit her with Close Combat, don't let her get up!" I shouted, and Flare rushed ahead of me. Suicune writhed on the ground for a moment before whipping her head around and sending a thick jet of water from her mouth. The torrent knocked flare down and sent him rolling as he howled out in pain. Suicune inhaled, getting ready to hit him again. "Clara, deflect it with Psychic!" I shouted, clawing at my belt for Flare's pokeball. Clara ran towards Flare as Suicune let out another Hydro Pump. Clara grunted with effort as she tried to get a hold of the rush of water, and managed to alter it's course only slighty. The attack grazed Flare's side, eliciting fresh whimpers from him as I finally got a hold of his pokeball. "Flare, return!" I shouted as I called him back inside.

Simon and Jade had rushed in close in the meantime, while Ruby stayed back building up another Calm Mind. "Jade, hit her with High Jump Kick!" Simon shouted. The medicham sprung forward and whipped her foot into Suicune with a meaty thud, but Suicune seemed unaffected by the attack.

"What the-" Jade mumbled as Suicune growled down at her. Jade took a step back as the growl turned into a snarl. Suicune inhaled deeply and let out another Hydro Pump point blank into Jade's chest. Jade screamed audibly as she was knocked back and rolled by the torrent. Not pausing, Suicune wound up and let another one fly, though this time in Ruby's direction.

"Ruby!" Simon yelled, running futility to intercept the attack. Ruby snapped to attention, what aura she had mustered fading immediately, and leapt to her side, narrowly dodging the jet of water.

"Looks like boosting isn't going to work this time." I said, and Simon nodded. Suicune inhaled again, aiming for Jade.

"Clara, get her out of there!" I shouted. Clara brought her hands out and the medicham began to levitate and move back towards us.

"Don't take me out of this yet!" Jade growled as she flailed, flinging a blade of energy towards Suicune and missing. Suicune adjusted her aim, this time for Clara.

"Ebon, don't let her move, Sucker Punch!" I shouted. I heard Ebon's claws scrape against the cement behind me, and after a brief pause he appeared seemingly out of nowhere in front of the legendary pokemon and slammed her to the side as she unleashed her attack. Suicune stumbled but kept her footing. With a growl, she turned to the stunned Absol and headbutted him hard. Ebon stumbled back, but caught his feet and rushed back into her, locking horns as she tried to ram him again. The two struggled against each other, neither seeming to gain any ground on the other. Meanwhile, Clara had pulled Jade to her and out of danger, who was furious but could barely move on her own now as her chest bloomed deep purple and a few trickles of blood ran from it.

"Ruby, hit her with Aura Sphere!" Simon shouted and the Mienshao quickly built up her attack, putting far less power into it this time. I seized up as she let the ball of energy fly, fearing for Ebon if she missed, but true to Simon's word the ball veered into Suicune's flank within the last few yards. There was a thump, but other than a grunt from Suicune the attack did nothing. "Another!" Simon ordered, and Ruby obliged with the same result.

"What are you doing? it's not hurting her!" I hollered over.

Simon ignored me and kept on ordering his partner to attack. Sphere after Sphere buffeted Suicune with seemingly no effect, until I noticed what Ebon was doing. Each time an attack hit, he dug his claws in a little deeper, taking advantage of the momentary lapse in attention to gain more footing. Just as I realized this The Absol let out a snarl and heaved as hard as he could against his opponent. Suicune yelped in surprise as she was lifted off her front paws and thrown hard down on the pavement.

"Now! Hyper Beam!" Simon shouted. I stared at him in shock, not expecting her to have such a powerful move. Ruby opened her mouth, and with a small snarl of her own, light began building up inside it. Ebon leaped back to Clara and Jade as Suicune flailed on the ground. Ruby released the attack and a thick beam of yellow energy spewed forth from her mouth with a loud hum. the blast hit Suicune hard, producing a thud loud enough to feel in my chest. The blue beast howled in pain as the beam wore away at her, and as the beam narrowed and faded so too did her cries. Ruby fell forward, exhausted, and Simon was quick to catch her before she hit the cement. Suicune lay motionless on the ground, defeated.

"Holy shit." Was all I could say as I stared at the Mienshao with fresh wonder.

Ruby panted and weakly wagged her tail.

"Lets see her just walk that one off." Simon muttered as he carried Ruby over to check on Jade. Most of the Medicham's torso was consumed by a massive bruise now, and several streaks of shiny red ran from it's center.

"She just shrugged it off like I was a fly..." Jade said quietly.

"You did good Jade." Simon reassured her.

Clara and Ebon and walked over to the downed Suicune to examine her when Clara suddenly cried out, panicked, "Oh shit! Shit! Shit!"

I spun around and saw Suicune slowly pulling her paws under her as she snarled at the pair. "Clara, Teleport you and Ebon out of there, now!" I shouted. Clara closed her eyes and in a flash of white light both of them vanished. a split second later, a blast of snow and wind flew through the air where the had been standing, coating everythign it touched with a thick sheet of ice. Suicune growled and stood all the way up, turning to face me.

"Ruby, Aura Sphere!" Simon shouted, but it was too late. I dived to the side as Suicune unleashed another Blizzard straight at me. I hit the ground chest first as a sharp pain enveloped my leg. I craned my neck to look back and saw that from the knee down my leg was now entirely encased in ice. I looked up and saw Ruby's attack collide with Suicune, this time causing her to stumble.

"Simon, You have to keep her attention!" I shouted frantically as I crammed my hand into my pocket.

"Ruby, hit her again!" Simon shouted. Ruby growled as she charged up another attack and flung it, causing Suicune to yelp as it collided. I felt cold metal in my pocket and seized it, pulling it free. Thankfully I hadn't forgotten my pocket knife, and quickly flipped the small blade open before turning as best I could to start chipping away at the ice holding my leg.

"Mark look out!" Simon shouted in a panicked voice. I looked up and saw Suicune inhaling slowly, seeming to struggle with just that as Ruby's Aura Spheres barraged her. Whether through sheer will or because Ruby was still exhausted from Hyper Beam, it wasn't enough to stop her, and Suicune let fly a torrent of water straight for me. I only had a moment to put my arms up to cover my face before the blast hit me like a cement wall. I was pushed back and felt my knee straining before something popped inside it and pain exploded from the joint. As the torrent eased up, I lay panting and moaning on my side.

"That's it!" Simon shouted angrily. "Ruby get in there and finish this with Grass Knot!" He ordered, and with a snarl his pokemon rushed forward. Suicune turned to face her and began winding up for another attack. Ruby proved to be the faster of the two as the whips on the end of her paws became surrounded with green energy. She whipped her paws forward, causing streams of the green light to lash out and envelop the legendary pokemon, binding her tightly. Suicune howled and struggled against the attack, but every motion only pulled them tighter around her. Ruby snarled and stared down the blue pokemon before her as it's howls turned to whimpers and then to silence as it went limp before her. With a huff she released her attack and rushed over to me. Simon ran over as well and was first to survey the damage.

"Holy crap Mark." Was all he could say. Ruby caught up and after a moment slammed the Ice with her paw, shattering it neatly and freeing my leg, which swung limply as Simon picked me up from the ground. I looked down and saw nothing immediately wrong with my leg until I noticed it was swinging the wrong way in its joint.

"D...D-Dislocated." I managed to stammer out. the doors to the pokemon center slid open and the Nurse from before came running out with Chief Ramsey close behind.

"Dammit Mark!" The nurse shouted as she caught up.

"S-sorry." I said, trying my best to smile.

"Come on son." Ramsey said, taking me out of Simon's grip and barcing me against his shoulder to make up for my gimped leg. I limped back to the pokemon center using my boss as a crutch and inside found Clara and Ebon as well as a crowd of stunned faces.

"Mark!" Clara shouted, rushing over as soon as the doors opened.

I breathed a sigh of relief seeing she was okay as she checked me over.

"How bad is it?" She asked me.

"Just dislocated." I stammered.

"Just!?" The Nurse asked, exasperated.

"I've been hurt worse-" I began.

"I don't care how bad you've been hurt before!" She shouted. "Ramsey, get him into the examination room, I need to find some painkillers." She all but growled.

"You heard the lady." Ramsey said, and hauled me into the back room. I winced as he hefted me onto the examination table, feeling my knee bend the wrong way again. A few minutes later the nurse returned with a syringe in hand.

"Woah woah, I just need some pills or something!" I stammered.

"This isn't to make you feel better, it's so you don't pass out when we set it right again." She said as she set the needle down on the little metal tray suspended next to me. She then pulled a pair of scissors from her waistband and cut my pant-leg up past the knee before cutting horizontally and letting it fall to the side like a pair of flaps. I tensed up as she reached for the syringe, but after seeing my foot lying flat on its side while its twin pointed up was all the convincing I needed that I was better off with the injection.

"You're gonna feel a pinch." The nurse said, then after a moment added, "Maybe." I jumped as she pressed the needle into the side of my leg and bit my lip as I felt the dull sting of it moving deeper; that was nearly drowned out by the pain already there however. "You really hate shots don't you." The nurse mused as she pulled the needle out and jabbed me again, this time lower.

"With a passion." I muttered. She skewered me about six more times, spreading the numbing solution equally throughout the joint. Despite hating getting stabbed, I had to admit the relief the numbness gave was needed. After a few minutes and some test pokes with the syringe to see if i still had sensation, the nurse and Ramsey stood together at the end of the table, each taking ahold of my foot. They repositioned it straight up so it would go back in properly and unceremoniously shoved it hard. I braced myself with the edges of the table but still scooted back a few inches. They shoved again, pushing me back a few more inches and on the third shove produced a meaty pop as my knee popped back into place.

I breathed a sigh of relief bending my knee up and down to test it.

the Nurse winced seeing this, "Shit Mark, don't do that!"

I looked up at her. "I don't really have a choice though. Entei's still out there and once the numbness wears off I'll be useless." I said.

"You really think that's a good idea." The nurse said flatly.

With a sigh, Ramsey spoke up. "I hate it, but he's right. Him and his buddy are the only shot we have at taking down a legendary pokemon, unless you expect a pack of Growlithe to do the job, Ma'am."

The nurse let out a frustrated sigh. "You better get to a hospital ASAP when this is over!" She all but growled before leaving and slamming the door behind her.

I looked up and Ramsey. "Never thought you'd agree with me on that one." I mused.

"Don't let it go to your head Mark, I still want you on the back lines from now on." he said sternly.

I nodded. "Yes, sir." I said officially, causing Ramsey to chuckle a bit.

The door opened and Simon walked in. "Two down." He said, "The nurse is working on healing her right now, but she's not gonna have enough power."

I thought for a minute. "What about Raikou?" I asked.

"What about him?" Simon replied, confused.

"Couldn't we power the center with him?" I asked.

"That takes a lot of know-how Mark, and I'd think anyone with that is in Goldenrod right now getting paid for it." Simon said flatly.

Ramsey cleared his throat, causing both of us to look up. "I may have that 'know-how'" He said.

Ten minutes later we were in the basement of the center, barely able to see in the dim light. "Come on out, Raikou." Simon said, as he tossed the pokeball. A white flash briefly illuminated the dark room before receding. As our eyes readjusted to the dark we saw The yellow Lion sitting before us calmly, looking confused as he surveyed the room.

"So I've been captured." A deep male voice mused in my head. Raikou looked between Ramsey, Simon, and I, "Which one of you did it?" He asked pleasantly.

I hesitated to answer and Ramsey was too stunned by hearing the pokemon speak to him to respond. Being used to telepathy from pokemon, Simon was the one that answered. "Technically that would be me, but I don't intend to keep you as a partner." He said.

Raikou nodded. "Knowing that, and adding in that I can't seem to remember anything recent, I assume that something had happened to me that forced you to capture me." He said.

"That is correct." Ebon spoke up from behind me. The Raikou looked down curiously at the white and black pokemon as it stepped forward.

"Now you I remember." Raikou said thoughtfully. "I remember you from what you humans call 'Hoenn'" He said.

"Do you remember the humans in black?" Ebon asked.

Raikou's brow furrowed as he seemed to struggle with something. "Barely." He muttered. "I remember visiting the area with my companions, then those shadow people attacked us..." He trailed off. "After that, I was here." He looked up to me and Simon. "Are you those people?" Raikou asked.

I shook my head. "Couldn't be further from them." I said. "I'm a police officer and Simon here is a close friend of mine."

"Police..." Raikou mused. "Police...Police..." He mulled the word over, thoughtfully. "I know I've heard the word before..." Suddenly his eyes lit up. "Oh, you mean you're this area's guardian?" He asked.

I stared at him stunned for a moment. "Well, I guess you could call me that." I said, blushing a bit.

Raikou surprised me by taking a deep bow. "I am honored to make your acquaintance then, Guardian."

I blushed more. "J-just call me Mark, please." I stammered.

Raikou looked at me for a moment, confused, before nodding. "Very well then, Guardian Mark." He said respectfully. I fidgeted, not sure how to handle this kind of treatment. Raikou gave me a bit of relief by turning to Ebon. "The one from 'Hoenn'." He said. "You seem to know what happened. Why is my memory missing?" He asked.

"The people in black did something to you and the other two, I don't know what though." Ebon said. "After that, you went berserk."

"Berserk!?" Raikou asked, stunned."How many did I hurt?" He asked worriedly.

"Barely any." Ebon said. "My job has been to warn humans of coming danger, that's why I followed you three all the way to Jhoto."

Raikou studied the Absol for a few seconds before nodding. "You have my gratitude." He said, taking another deep bow.

Ebon returned to bow to my surprise. "I managed to steer the three of you away from populated areas for most of the way here, this town was where I failed though." Ebon said. "It was only thanks to Mark and Simon here with their partners that you were finally calmed."

Raikou nodded. "And what of my companions?" He asked.

I spoke up this time. "Suicune was covering the town in fog." I began. "After we fought you this morning, we moved everyone into this building for safety. Luckily we didn't have to look for her, as she found us."

Raikou nodded thoughtfully. "She's always been helpful with that fog, it helps us move around without being seen." He said. "She's the reason why we haven't been captured to this day." He said, then looked up at Simon. "Or at least she was. Since you're still here I assume you managed to subdue her?" He asked worriedly.

I nodded, and the yellow lion breathed a sigh of relief. "She was far tougher than you were, and she even managed to hit me pretty good." I said, gesturing to my knee, which was beginning to swell up and turn purple, though thankfully was still numb.

Raikou studied my knee for a moment before looking up at me. "You got stuck in her ice didn't you." He said.

I nodded. "She rolled me after that with her Hydro Pump." I said.

Raikou went quiet, seeming to think deeply for a while before speaking up again. "I wish to atone for my aggression, is there any way I could repay you two?" He asked humbly.

"Actually, we kind of already had something in mind." Simon said.

"Yes?" Raikou asked, standing up.

"This building runs on electricity, and the town's power was cut off in one of your scuffles with Ebon here." Simon explained. "We have our own power supply here, but we've just about run it out now after so long and after healing you from our battle."

Raikou looked down. "So you wish for me to power this building with my thunder?" He asked, then without waiting for a response added, "Very well, if it is what it takes to repay my debt I shall do it." He said.

"You don't need to repay us." I said. "Suicune's still beat up from our battle, and we don't have enough power left to heal her." I explained.

Raikou's eyes widened. "Then what are you waiting for?" he demanded. "Fit me with whatever device it is you need!"

Ramsey finally snapped back to reality. "W-well that's why I'm here." he stammered. "I used to do a bit of electrical work before becoming an officer, hopefully I'll be able to rig something up that will let you power our stuff.

Raikou nodded. "Then get to it Old Guardian." He said.

"Simon and I are going to look for Entei in the meantime." I said, turning to leave.

"Wait," Riakou said. I paused, looking back. "This is a long shot, but if there is a lake or river in this area, look for him there." He said. "It reminds him of Suicune."

I nodded, "Thank you, Raikou." I said, and hiked up the stairs, already feeling my knee starting to stiffen up from the swelling.

"Hold on Mark," Ramsey called up, just as I grabbed the doorknob. I sighed and turned to face him before seeing something black flying towards me. I clumsily caught the object and saw it was Chief Ramsey's radio he kept on his belt at all times. "Keep that with you in case Entei shows up here. I'm sure Raikou could help, but I want to have a way to get you back if things go bad." I nodded and turned, opening the door and emerging into the back hallway.

The hallway turned after a few feet, and past that a crowd of people had gathered where it met the lobby. They perked up at the sight of us, a good many of them fidgeting anxiously. With a sigh, I stopped at the end of the hall and spoke up as loudly as I could. "Everyone, Chief Ramsey is busy working to restore power to the pokemon center with the help of Raikou." I announced, "Furthermore, Suicune is too badly hurt to assist us in locating Entei. Raikou has been kind enough to tell us everything he could to locate the last of the three, but if any of you have spotted him today, now would be the time to speak up."

There were a few murmurs among the crowd before someone spoke up. "I saw that Suicune thing earlier and there was a red one with it." He said.

"Good, where were you then?" I asked.

"At home, I live near the park if that's any help." He said.

"It's more than we had before, thank you." I said, "Anyone else see it today?"

"I did," a woman spoke up. "I called the police and they said they were already working on it."

I nodded. "That was probably when we only knew about one of them." I said. "Where were you then?" I asked.

"I was at the shop getting some food for my Meowth back home." She said. "I hope he's okay..." she added quietly.

A man I recognized as the cashier who sold me the dusk balls spoke up. "I can't vouch for seeing it, but I was there when she spotted it." He said.

"Ma'am, was Entei alone when you saw him?" I asked.

She looked at me surprised. "Yes, I think so." She said.

"Alright, anyone else see him today or yesterday?" I asked. except for a few murmurs the group remained silent. "Alright, thank you for your cooperation today." I said in an official tone. "We're heading out now, we should have this finished and you all back in your homes by this evening, until then I ask that you all remain calm and stay here."

There were a few more murmurs and some nods from the people in the front of the crowd before it dispersed, leaving only the other officers standing in the hall.

"Take it easy out there Mark." one of them spoke up. I couldn't help but smile a little and nodded. Just then there was a high pitched hum as the lights grew suddenly bright again.

"Looks like Ramsey got Raikou rigged up right." Simon said. I nodded and breathed a sigh of relief; it looked like we might actually pull this off. We checked in with the nurse and Suicune before heading out.

"We've got more than enough power now, but it's looking like Suicune's going to need as much time as Raikou took." She said, keeping busy tweaking the machine's settings as it worked. I asked her if she could pause it long enough to heal Flare up, and after flipping a few switched she popped his pokeball into the machine next to Suicune's. it only took a minute and a half to patch Flare up. After getting Flare's pokeball back, we thanked her and headed out the door as the crowd silently stared after us.

The fog had cleared a bit by now; we could see more than a block ahead of us now at least. I called Flare out and the massive canine yawned and stretched before looking at me and noticing my leg. He whined with concern, and Clara spoke up. "I think you should sit this one out on top of Flare." She said seriously. I looked at her, then Flare, and seeing them both worried was all the convincing I needed.

"All right, I'll take it easy." I promised. Clara smiled and lifted me up with her Psychic before setting me down on top of Flare. We headed for the pokemart to start with, as it was the closest place to check. I held onto Flare's mane for support as we walked, which was something that used to annoy him back when we were in the academy; now he didn't even seem to notice it much less mind it.

"Mark, you seem a natural on top of Flare." Simon mused.

I looked over at him, a little surprised. "We've had a lot of practice back when we were still training." I said, feeling my partner's powerful muscles flex under my thighs as he walked. "He's faster than me by leagues, so if we ever needed to get anywhere in a hurry he would have me ride on him. With how often I slept in, that gave us plenty of practice." I said, smiling a little at the nostalgia. "Come to think of it, that problem stopped once I met Clara." I added, thoughtfully. Clara smiled up at me.

"How so?" Simon asked.

"Well, I told you how much of a slacker I was." I started, "Me and Flare just kind of coasted on our natural abilities because that was all we really needed to pass, but once Clara came into the picture I had a reason to try hard. I really wanted to make her my partner in the academy, and that was the motivation I needed to do my best."

Simon nodded, then Jade spoke up. "So she made you pussy whipped." She mused.

Clara snickered before bursting out into laughter. Simon chuckled and shook his head while Jade just smirked up at me. Even Ebon had to suppress a snicker. I blushed and tried to stammer out a response with no success.

"Think I hit the nail on the head." Jade said, satisfied. "Anyway, we're here." She said. Clara calmed herself down and looked ahead of us. The store was dark and looked abandoned; which made sense because it kind of was. I Sat up as tall as I could and looked around, seeing nothing immediately out of the ordinary in the thinning mist.

"Jade, Clara, sense anything nearby?" I asked, continuing to survey the street.

They both closed their eyes and after a few seconds Jade sighed and shook here head. Clara searched for a while longer before looking up at me. "Nothing outside of the usual pokemon" She said.

I sighed. "Alright, this spot's clear. We should head for the park next." I said. Simon and Jade nodded in unison and we continued on. The park was a few blocks away from the main street but still managed to be on the edge of town; hidden from view for usual traffic by all the houses, but convenient for anyone who lived in them. The fog was clearing up quickly, and soon we only saw intermittent patches of it; though the atmosphere never seemed to change despite increased visibility; the sky was still dark and cloudy. The temperature was dropping as dusk grew closer; not that you could tell with the cloud cover. We reached the park after ten minutes, and by then we were starting to see our breath in the chilled air.

I surveyed the area again. The park had about a dozen trees scattered about it in what could have been a soccer field without them. Off to the right were a few picnic tables and further on was a large jungle gym surrounded by mulch.

"Sense anything?" I asked, looking down to the two psychic pokemon with us. Jade closed here eyes for a few seconds before looking back up and shaking her head.

"I got nothing." She said.

"Clara?" I asked, looking towards my partner, who seemed confused as she searched the area.

"I can feel something, but I'm not exactly sure what it is." She said doubtfully.

"Which way?" I asked. Clara was focused for a moment longer before pointing off to our left. There looked to be nothing but field in that direction, and after that forest.

"In the woods?" Simon asked.

Clara shook her head. "Closer than that, I'm not sure it's Entei though." She said.

"We still should check it out." I said, scratching Flare's ears.

Clara nodded, and we started walking again. The tall grass filling the field proved to be more of an obstacle than expected, it was thick and tangled at the base, threatening to trip anyone who didn't walk deliberately. Simon and Clara both were slowed by the terrain, but Flare and I naturally moved ahead, unhampered due to Flare's sheer size. Jade and Ruby kept up with us easily, seemingly uninhibited by the thick growth.

"We lived in the forest for years." Jade said flatly, sensing my curiosity. "This kind of field is nothing new to us." She explained.

I nodded. "Good thing I'm not on foot, It'd be borderline impossible getting across this with my knee." I said, looking down. It had started to throb dully as the numbing medicine wore off, and by now had swelled to twice its original size and refused to bend when I tried to move. "Scratch that borderline part." I mumbled, shaking my head. I looked back to see Ebon sticking close to Clara and Simon, he didn't seem to be having any trouble moving through the grass with his sharp claws though.

Flare suddenly dropped out from under me, and I flailed for balance. I managed to catch his mane and held on tight as Flare skidded down the incline that had somehow escaped our notice. We came to a halt on a damp bed of sand and I readjusted myself on top of him.

"Mark?" Jade called from above. I above us at the edge of the drop off looking around confused. "Mark, Flare, where'd the hell you go?" She asked worriedly. She looked to her side where Ruby what whining quietly. "I don't know, they just dissipated." Jade explained to her.

"Jade!" I shouted up, catching her attention.

"Mark, what the hell, this isn't funny!" Jade shouted back angrily.

"Jade, we're down here, can't you see us?" I shouted back.

"Quit fooling around. Where are-" She said as she stepped forward onto nothing and fell into the ditch after us. She flailed in panic for a moment before twisting to get her feet under her and skidded down, stopping next to us. She looked around confused for a few seconds before spotting us.

"How did you not see us?" I asked.

"All right, this all wasn't here a moment ago!" Jade stammered out. There was a yipe and a scuffling noise from above. I looked up just in time to see Ruby sliding down after us on her belly, butt-first. She looked around baffled as well before locating us.

"So what the hell is this?" Jade asked, kneeling down next to her mate and helping her up.

I looked around for the first time since falling. We were maybe six or seven feet lower than the rest of the field in a rather large clearing. Steep sand cliffs surrounded the space on all sides. Occupying the entirety of the clearing sans about a ten foot wide space circling the perimeter was a huge pond. "It looks like we found our water." I said. "But why couldn't we see it before?" I asked.

Jade closed her eyes for a few moments, and I thought she was searching the area until she spoke up. "I've seen this kind of thing before." She said.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Well it's a pond." She said flatly. "I think a certain pokemon might be living here though."

I thought for a minute. "So we're looking for a psychic type powerful enough to make us think this was all empty plains?" I asked.

Jade nodded. "I don't know what it looks like though."

"I thought you said you saw it before?" I asked, confused.

"Yes and no," Jade sighed.

"Mark? Jade?" Simon called from above.

"Oh shit." I stammered, Simon and Clara were approaching the drop. "Flare, get us out of here!" I ordered. Flare barked and leapt up towards the edge of the cliff, but with a jolt I was thrown off of him. I hit the sand and skidded back down on my own, dazed and confused.

A pair of strong but small arms grabbed me by the shoulders and lifted me up to a sitting position. "It seems whatever lives here doesn't want us to leave right now." Jade said. I looked up and saw Simon, Clara, and Ebon above me, though they weren't falling over the cliff like we had. They just kept on walking above us, seemingly on nothing.

"All right, what the hell." I growled. I looked around and saw Flare off to my left, shaking his head clear.

Jade hefted me up. "First let's get you back on your steed, then lets figure out what's up." She said. I squirmed, unused to being lifted like this, but Jade didn't let go until she had set me back on Flare's back.

Once back in place, I surveyed the lake again. "Well, only one place it could really be hiding." I said. "I can't exactly swim and neither can Flare."

Without another word Ruby ran forward into the water. I looked after her surprised as she waded, then swam to the middle of the pond.

"She likes swimming." Jade explained shaking her head. Still confused, I watched the purple pokemon swim a few laps before turning back towards us.

"Looks like she didn't find anyth-" Jade began, then shouted, "Ruby Look out!"

Ruby looked at her confused for a moment before twisting around to face a veritable wall of fire rushing straight for her. I closed my eyes, feeling the intense heat even from here. Flare leapt to the side and I lost track of Ruby. The blaze continued straight towards us and slammed into the wall of sand behind where we had been standing, leaving a glowing sheet of molten glass behind.

"Ruby!" Jade shouted, looking out over the pond. There was a line of foam tracing the attack from the surface water that had boiled, but the Mienshao was nowhere to be seen.

"The hell was that." I muttered. There was a splash and a loud inhale as Ruby's head appeared above the surface of the water. Before I could feel relieved though, a deep growl from the other side of the water drew our attention.

Shaded by the distance, all we saw was a four-legged shadow with a pair of glowing red eyes centered in it.

"Entei." I mouthed right as it's mouth lit up and another column of Flame Launched towards us. Ruby ducked under the water again as Jade and Flare both leapt to the side to dodge the incoming attack.

"Cover Ruby and keep him busy." Jade growled before taking off running around the edge of the pond.

"Right." I said, then turned to the beast across the water. "Flare, hit him with Flame thrower!" I shouted, and felt Flare dip down before watching a line of fire rush out in front of me across the water. Entei casually sidestepped the incoming attack, having plenty of time to dodge the much slower blaze. Ruby popped up again, closer to shore just as a loud thump shook my attention. I first thought it was Flare's attack hitting the other wall until Simon's voice caught my attention.

"The Fu-" Simon shouted before landing in the pond with a loud splash, Clara splashed down close behind him, and Ebon fell in behind her.

Entei turned to face the new intruders before a blade of purple energy slammed into his side, catching his attention. "Eyes on me asshole!" Jade shouted at him as she continued to rush around the pong. Entei growled and obliged her with a fresh Fire Blast in her direction.

Simon's head burst free of the water gasping for air. "What the hell!?" He shouted angrily. Clara bobbed up behind him, looking confused.

"Clara, Teleport you three over here!" I shouted. Clara looked around confused before spotting me and nodding. A white flash enveloped her, Simon, and Ebon before a loud splash and a rush of water announced their arrival near me.

Flare growled and tried to back out of the puddle. "Sorry, I grabbed a lot of water on my way out." Clara said. Ruby had just reached the shore and jogged up to Simon panting.

Simon spotted Ruby and kneeled down beside her, checking her over before looking up at me. "Where's Jade?" He asked.

A fresh snarl from Entei answered his question. We both looked across the pond to see Jade bouncing back from the beast as it stumbled away from her. She landed and lunged forward again, hoping to catch it off guard. Entei caught its feet and sidestepped Jade's attack, letting her crash into the ground. She rolled, but quickly caught her feet under her just in time to see Entei charge her.

"Jade!" Simon shouted out, running towards the water as Jade was knocked flying over it. With expert timing, Entei let out another Fire Blast, engulfing the air-born Medicham. Simon shouted with panic, ignoring the incoming wall of fire as he rushed for his mate. Ruby growled and lunged after him, Tackling him hard and pulling them both underwater as the attack passed over them.

"That's it." I growled as Flare dodged the incoming blast with me on his back. Ebon jumped to dodge, but was grabbed by Clara as She teleported them both out of the way of the attack, landing about halfway around to Entei's side of the pond. I dug my fingers deep into his mane. "Extremespeed, Flare, get around to his side." I said. Flare launched forward nauseatingly and in an instant we had caught up to Clara. I rolled off the massive canine as he leapt forward again, landing right in front of Entei.

"Flare, hit him with Close Combat and keep hitting him, don't give him an inch!" I shouted. Flare howled and charged forward, catching Entei right as it turned to face him. Entei snarled and stumbled backwards but kept it's feet. Flare lunged forward again, meeting Entei's counter charge head.

"He can't do it alone." Ebon growled from behind me.

"Ebon, Swords Dance." I said quietly. There was a pause, and then the Absol took up position in front of me. He let out a low constant snarl as what looked like thin blue streaks of flame began to rise from his horn and claws.

Flare snarled as he was knocked back. He stumbled and kept his feet, but as he turned to charge again Entei slammed into his side, sending him rolling.

"Jade!" Simon called out from my left. I looked over and saw him paddling clumsily towards something white floating motionless in the middle of the pond. After a moment I realized the white thing was Jade. Ruby was close behind Simon as he reached Jade. I noticed what looked like heatwaves simmering above the trio, but was confused that it didn't obscure them, just the space above them. To my surprise I heard a chime as whatever it was warping the air above Simon rose and flew off into the sky.

"Mark, I'm ready!" Ebon snarled, snapping my attention back to the battle. Flare had regained his feet and was fighting mainly with his flamethrower now, trying desperately to keep distance between him and Entei.

"Clara, Teleport him in there. Ebon, hit him with Night slash the moment you land." I ordered. Clara nodded and a white light eveloped Ebon before he dissapeared. Flare was pushed back against the wall and panting heavily, too winded to make another Flamethrower just as Entei charged in for the killing blow. A blinding flash between him and his target sent the legendary pokemon skidding to a halt just as something jet black leaped from the white. Ebon slashed his horn as hard as he could into Entei's shoulder as dark energy crackled from it. Entei leaped back, howling as it inhaled for a Fire Blast.

"Don't let him, Sucker Punch!" I ordered. Ebon flashed forward in an instand, turning the space Entei had gained into nothing right before slamming his claws across the startled beast's face. Entei yelped and snarled, stumbling backwards as it shook it's head violently.

"Clara, finish this. Teleport in and put him to sleep." I said.

"Right." She said, nodding. A white light enveloped her before vanishing from my side. Entei was blinded again by bright flash, only this time instead of darkness jumping out of it, something green emerged. Entei reared up and charged the newcomer only to have Ebon flash in front of him.

"You just don't learn!" Ebon growled as he slashed his claws across the legendary pokemon's face again, producing fresh yelps of pain from him.

"Sweet dreams" Clara said flatly as she brought her hands to her temples and unleashed a special pulse. The attack hit it's mark and Entei rag-dolled on the spot, collapsing into a pile of fur and blood.

Simon emerged onto the shore in front of Ebon and Clara as I hobbled as best I could to catch up.

"Mark, please tell me you have some potions or something." Simon whimpered as I approached.

"N-No..." I stuttered as keeled over next to Jade, who SImon had carried back and laid down on the sand.

"I-I don't know if we can make it to the pokemon center in time." Simon said, his voice cracking. Jade was barely breathing and covered in brown to black burns. A few places had cracked open from being cooked and were bleeding freely as a rivulet of blood made its way from the corner of her mouth to the sand. Clara was kneeling down behind Simon next to ruby, clenching her fists as she bit her lip.

"Mark I-" Simon started but trailed off as the tears he had been holding back broke free and ran down his cheeks. Ruby quickly moved in front of him and did her best to hug him as he heaved and sobbed, but I could see her eyes were wet too.

"There's gotta be a way out of this." I mumbled. "Clara, can you still Teleport?" I asked looking up at her.

She growled and shook her head. "I burned through them all already." She growled.

"Think, Mark think!" I told myself, slamming the palm of my hands into my temples in an attempt to kick start my brain. A sputtering sound broke my focus as Jade started coughing weakly, spitting up bloody foam as she dug weakly at the sand with her hands.

"No..." Clara said quietly, clutching her head.

"Come on Mark." I growled, slamming my fist down on the sand. My mind flew through every object I was carrying and every ability my partner's had, but not a single one of them could help Jade right now. "Come on..." I said, my own voice cracking as tears began to sting my eyes.

"No." Clara said resolutely.

I looked up at her. Tears flowed freely down her face as she gritted her teeth. "Clara-" I began.

Clara growled as she stood up, and I suddenly felt myself lifted by an invisible force before flying towards the pond and splashing down; Ruby and Simon landing a few feet to my right. I sputtered as I got my bearings and looked back to shore to see Clara standing over Jade.

"I'm not losing a friend to this!" Clara shouted angrily as a green aura enveloped her.

"What is that?" Simon asked weakly.

I stared in disbelief as the green light surrounding Clara began to flow down and out before enveloping Jade. "H-Heal Pulse?" I asked, marveling as Clara poured her aura into Jade. "When did she learn that?" I stammered.

Clara's aura began to fade and as it dissipated she slumped to her knees next to Jade. I paddled as fast as I could towards shore, ignoring the pain starting to bloom in my knee. Ruby all but flew past me as she rushed to her mate. I sputtered as her wake disoriented me and saw Simon swimming past me as well before breaking into a run as soon as his feet touched the bottom.

"Jade!" Simon shouted as he ran to his partner. Ruby reached her first and sniffed her all over before wrapping her paws around her. A huge weight lifted from my chest as I saw Jade's arms weakly reach up and hug Ruby back just before Simon reached them and scooped them both up.

"They were sitting together like that in silence when I finally made it to shore, or so I thought. Once I was closer I hear wordless sobbing from Simon as he held his partners close to him.

"How did you know to do that?" I asked Clara, who was sitting off to the side, clutching her head.

She looked up at me confused for a moment, then shook her head. "I don't know. I just knew what to do all of a sudden, and I couldn't have anyone else absorbing it if I was gonna help Jade." She said quietly. I slumped down beside her and hugged her tightly. She hugged me back, burying her face in my chest as she started sobbing weakly. I don't know how long I held her like that, but by the time we had picked ourselves up and returned our injured pokemon to their pokeballs the moon was high in the sky.

Simon helped me out of the pit and did his best to be my crutch as we began the hike back to the pokemon center. Flare was safe on my belt, as was Entei. Ebon stared at the ground the whole way back, not saying anything. Clara walked on her own fine, but occasionally stumbled as exhaustion creeped up on her. Everyone inside the pokemon center was asleep when we finally arrived. Some were passed out on the many benches and chairs in the lobby, the others had each been given a bedroll and were sleeping wherever they had found space.

"Holy shit!" someone shouted from my left. I looked over and saw the nurse, still awake and at her post.

"Hey we're-" I started, but a mumbling from the crowd of sleeping people shook my attention. A few had woken up and upon seeing me woke their neighbors. In less than a minute Everyone was awake and asking me questions about our mission. I did my best to answer them, but I was drowned out by the crowd and barely anyone heard my answers. The nurse thankfully stepped in and managed to wrangle the crowd back to their beds, or lack thereof before taking Entei from me and handing me Suicune's pokeball.

"She's one hundred percent now, if Entei's like the others he won't be ready until morning though." She said. I looked down at the pokeball in my hand before handing it back to her.

"I know she's healed, but could you put her in with Entei for me?" I asked.

The nurse looked at me questioningly before nodding and popping the second pokeball in the slot next to Entei. "I dug our older model healing machine out of the basement so we can heal your own pokemon in tandem with these two." She said. "It's not any less powerful, just less efficient." She reassured me.

Simon handed her Jade's pokeball with a sigh of relief as I called Clara back to her own ball. The nurse took Flare and Clara and popped them in with Jade before starting the older machine up, which hummed loudly as it worked.

"Mark." A familiar voice said from behind me. I turned to see Chief Ramsey in a plain white T-shirt and denim jeans standing there with a keyring in hand. "You're coming with me." He said.

"Hospital, right?" I asked. Ramsey nodded. "Can we wait for my pokemon before leaving?" I asked. Ramsey shook his head.

"You've been untreated too long as it is." Ramsey said. "Your partners will be fine, Simon will look after them and as soon as I can I'll bring them to you personally." He reassured.

I sighed deeply and nodded my head before letting him lead me to the door and outside. He led me around to the back parking lot and stopped in front of a black truck. "My own truck." He said as he climbed in. I followed suit, wincing as my knee cried out from bending even slightly. The truck rumbled to life and we backed out of the lot before hitting the road towards Goldenrod. The drive seemed to last longer than I remembered, but that was probably because pain slows time. I gritted my teeth and waited patiently, telling myself I had to look after myself for Clara and Flare. The moon had begin its descent as we pulled into Goldenrod, and fifteen minutes later we drove into the emergency entrance lot for the hospital under the amber glow of streetlights. Ramsey made me wait in the car as he went in, and soon emerged with a pair of nurses pushing a wheelchair. With a grunt, they lifted me into the chair, only causing me to wince slightly as the set me down. I was wheeled inside and delivered to some sort of examination room where they took tally of my injuries. After taking everything down on a clipboard they called in a surgeon to assess my arms.

"Yup, he's gonna need surgery." He said after gently removing a few stitches to assess the depth of the gashes. these are down to the bone in some spots, it's a miracle you're still conscious." I had done a good job ignoring the constant pain in them ever since Ebon gave them to me, but a combination of exhaustion and the surgeon's fiddling with them broke my will and the deep aching sting set in.

Within the next hour I was carted to my room, which was up quite a few floors, but thankfully had a nice view. Looking down on all the streetlamps and headlights of goldenrod reminded me of summer evening's back at the academy. Illumise and Volbeat would show up by the hundreds each year for a week or two and put on a light show for their mating season in the park each evening. I remembered taking Clara there once and she was overwhelmed by the beauty of it. She made me take her back every night until they migrated home, but I was more than happy to make the trek for her.

A nurse came in with a pair of scissors and a thin gown for me and I sighed, knowing it was time to relinquish my clothes. I took my shirt off on my own, just barely managing through the pain, and was hoping to salvage it from her scissors until I noticed it had blood all over it now. I sighed and tossed it aside before letting the nurse remove what remained of my pants and helped me into my gown. I remembered a time when I would be embarrassed from being naked in a hospital, but right now I was too tired to care. She helped me back into my bed for the night and brought me up to speed on when all my tests and exams were scheduled, as well as when my surgery was to be performed: tomorrow morning around ten. I thanked her and laid my head back, hoping briefly that Clara and Flare were doing well before consciousness fled and I fell into deep sleep.

When I woke up, Clara was holding my hand and Simon was sitting next to her. I smiled weakly up at both of them and they greeted me. We chatted for a bit before things went quiet.

"How's the trio doing?" I asked, breaking the silence.

"They're still in town." Simon said. "Ramsey filed a report with the Goldenrod police before coming back, and they sent some guys up to help repair the damage. The three wanted to help but had no real way to do so. Anyway, they want to see you before they go."

"You already released them?" I asked.

"Yup." Simon said, digging three black and yellow pokeballs out of his pocket. he set them in my lap. "Keep them as souvenirs or good luck charms, whichever one you believe in more." He said. I nodded and thanked him. I sat and watched the sun rise out my window for a while as I held Clara's hand. Before long a nurse came in and told me it was time for my surgery. Simon and Clara wanted to observe, and only after I argued with the nurse that both were family to me and not just friends, did she allow them. A half hour later I was sitting in a reclined operating table with a curtain cutting off view from either of my arms. I felt a few sharp pangs as the surgeon began numbing the entirety of my forearm, which I was grateful for as the pain ebbed away. Simon, Sarah, and Jade were in front of me behind a thick pane of glass. The observation room seemed small from this side as all three were crammed together. Clara kept me informed on what they were doing, and even tweaked my mind so I could see for myself through her eyes a few times. Feeling my vision jump across the room and seeing myself was somehow nauseating though, so Clara kept those moments to a minimum. After an hour the Surgeon had finished reconnecting all the veins severed in my right arm and began work on my left. the rest of the operation was just as slow, but having Clara to talk to telepathically helped a lot. When we were finally finished, I took a good long look at my arms, which were dotted with maybe a dozen thick metal staples and what I could only guess to be some kind of glue holding the rest together.

The rest of the day was spent being rolled between x-ray rooms and an MRI machine, checking me over for any broken bones they had missed. After Getting the results on my knee they found out it still wasn't set right and was out of place in the joint. They thankfully numbed it up before correcting it, which produced and meaty pop as it slipped back into place. Simon winced at the sight, but I reassured him I couldn't feel it. Dusk came and Simon had to go home, but he promised to visit again tomorrow. Sleep came slowly, but with Clara nuzzled next to me in the narrow hospital bed, I didn't mind being awake longer.

The next day only had a few more x-rays to run on my arms before they were all done testing and all that was left was to heal. I asked if I could leave, but the nurse said they wanted to keep me here at least until the staples were removed. Simon stopped by with Jade and Ruby in the afternoon and brought me up to speed on the progress back in town.

"Power and phones are restored, they're still working on fixing the doors at the police station, but they're gonna have to repave most of the road in front of the pokemon center, Raikou's thunderbolts really did a number on the asphalt". He explained.

The rest of the day went by slowly. I asked Jade about the fight with Entei, but all she could remember was waking up on the beach with Ruby and Simon. She seemed upset to be missing her memory. I looked over to Simon, silently asking if he had told her what happened. Jade picked up on this easily and informed me that she was aware of how reckless she had been, she'd even watched the memory from a few people's perspectives. I did my best to assure her that it was all right, and to my surprise she actually seemed to cheer up.

The next few days were a blur of boredom, dull aches, and the itching that comes from the healing process. At the end of the week they finally let me go after pulling the staples out of my arms, which had healed quite a bit already. Simon drove me back home and the first thing I did was take a nap in my own bed. I was rudely awoken by frantic licking from Flare, who Simon had been taking care of for me along with Ebon since the hospital wouldn't allow such a big pokemon to stay there. I couldn't help but laugh as I hugged my partner tight and calmed him down. That evening Clara, Flare, Ebon, and I made the hike to the police station and met with the three legendary pokemon who were already waiting there for us.

"Guardian Mark." Raikou said, taking a deep bow, which the other two mirrored.

"We are indebted to you for stopping our rampage." A female voice spoke up, which was Suicune. "How can we ever repay you not just for that, but for having the kindness of heart to release us afterwards?"

I shook my head. "There's no need to thank me. I'm just doing what I'm supposed to; helping those in need." I said, smiling.

Suicune nodded and stepped back as Entei stepped forward. "Young Guardian, if we should ever cross paths again, consider us in your service until we part again." He said. I shook my head. "please, grant us at least this one dignity." I blushed and after thinking for a moment nodded.

"All right, you have a deal, Entei." I said. Ebon nudged at my thigh and looked up at me, distressed.

"Mark, I promised you I would be your partner..." He said. "But I'm worried I won't be able to adapt to your human life. I'm struggling just to keep from digging my claws into everything." He said looking down.

I looked down at him and pet his head. "You're free to move on, Ebon. If you ever change your mind or even just want to visit you'll always be welcome in my home." I said, smiling down at him.

"Say." Raikou spoke up, causing Ebon to look over. "Would you like to come with us as my mate?" Raikou asked formally.

Ebon blinked in surprise and tried to stammer out a response.

"Entei and Suicune here have each other, but I'm not so fortunate. And you're preferring of males anyway are you not?" He asked slyly.

Ebon squirmed and I swear I could see a blush through his fur. "H-How could you know that?" He stammered out.

Raikou smiled. "You really think you can hide something so simple from a Guardian like myself? You should know, being one yourself." He said.

Ebon looked to me,seemingly torn.

"Ebon, it's a good chance for you." I said. "They'll take care of you and even if it doesn't work out you can come back here." I said.

Ebon looked down at the ground, thinking hard for a while before looking up at Raikou. "I wish to join you." He said shakily. Raikou grinned and walked up to him before licking him affectionately on the cheek, causing him to wag his tail a little.

Ebon spent the night with me while the trio slept somewhere nearby. In the morning I fashioned a parting gift for my short term partner: A thin collar with his dusk ball set in it. though collar was a grand term for a few leather thongs I had found laying around attached to some heavy duty twine affixed to the pokeball. Ebon thanked me generously before heading off with the three legendaries around noon, heading northeast. Clara, Flare, and I reported to the station later that afternoon, which Ramsey only begrudgingly allowed since I had already missed so much work. He only let us work part-time for the next month before reinstating us full-time.

Things went back to normal for the rest of my internship. I was gradually given more responsibilities around the office and less busy work. Soon after I was instated on patrol duty and taught how to drive. Four months after the legendary trio incident, in one of my regular calls to Sarah, she told me she had cleared the league and was going to Evergrande City for the championships. I wanted to surprise her and requested a staggering month off of work, which Ramsey adamantly opposed until I told him it was for Sarah. Ramsey begrudgingly agreed, if only to help repay her for her help during the trio incident, but refused to grant me paid leave. This I accepted gladly, and immediately went home to book a boat ticket to get to Hoenn.

Getting there turned out to be harder than I thought. Slateport was an easy destination, but because of the Championship being so soon, boats to Evergrande were packed to the brim and barely any rooms were left. Begrudgingly, I dropped the cash for a suite aboard the next ship out, as all the regular rooms were gone. We packed our things and the next morning headed out early to Olivine. We made our boat on time and by noon were on our way out of the harbor. The trip took three days as we were working against currents the whole way, and thankfully since it was a Jhoto-built boat, there was plenty of room for large pokemon like Flare. Clara succumbed to motion sickness unfortunately, and spent the entire trip in the room. Flare and I killed time by exploring the ship and talking to the many trainers on deck, but I made sure to check in on Clara often. Eventually boredom got the best of the passengers and trainers did what trainers do. I would have joined in on the fun, but I only had one partner with me which would make battling unfair. Instead, I volunteered to referee most of the matches, a job which I fit in to quite nicely.

The trainers were forced to go easy on each other since there wasn't a dedicated pokemon nurse aboard the ship, but the battles were still interesting. People avoided super effective moves, which added an interesting new twist to the battles, and some pretty surprising strategies were beginning to emerge by the end of the trip. Unfortunately we docked before anything developed that was good enough to make it off the boat strategy-wise. Clara was relieved to be on solid ground, and we set to work getting a hotel room; which had the same problem as getting a boat ticket, only there were far less suites since they were given to those in the tournaments free of charge. I still managed to find a suite that hadn't been snagged yet and bought it out for the duration of the tournament, which all but bottomed out my savings, but right now I didn't care. My next goal was getting ahold of Sarah and finding her, so I pulled out my cell and dialed her.

"Hey Mark, what's up?" Sarah answered. "I'm kinda busy right now, would you mind calling back later?"

"Guess where I am." I said, trying to suppress my giddiness.

There was a moment of silence on the other end. "Holy shit Mark, you're here!?" Sarah asked disbelievingly.

"You think we'd miss your moment of glory?" I asked.

We chatted excitedly for a few minutes before realizing we could meet up and do it in person, which we did. We met up at the docks and I saw she had taken to traveling with her partners out. Esper the Espeon, Geld the Typhlosion, and Frost the Glaceon were all out and with her waiting for us. Esper was the first to spot us, hailing us over with a surprisingly high jump. We spent the next hour and a half in a cafe catching up on everything that had happened since she left, no longer limited by phone we had time to share all the details. I filled her in on Ebon and the legendary trio and showed her the scars on my arms. She filled me in on all her gym battles and how her strategies have evolved and grown. Esper seemed particularly pleased to be seeing us again, which was still alien to me. I kept thinking of her as the aloof fox-cat that had helped Clara train as a Kirlia only because Sarah told her to. Esper filled us in privately on their advancement during the night, which Sarah allowed, but still blushed deeply as it was told. Geld and Esper weren't her only regular mates now, Frost and even her Houndoom Shade had joined in, and on the nights when Esper indulged herself, she made sure each of them got a turn with Sarah, sometimes two or three would go at a time. Esper never let the others inside her though, Sarah was the only one allowed to touch her. Dusk approached and we had to part ways for the evening, Sarah told us which stadium she'd be training in tomorrow and to come watch, which we agreed to happily.

We headed back to the suite and Flare claimed the plush couch as his bed for the night while Clara and I headed into the bathroom. We had paid for the suite so we may as well enjoy it, and part of it was a jacuzzi tub in the large bathroom that was built for two. Clara undressed me as she turned the water on. The tub took a while to fill, but when we finally slipped in together the hot water felt amazing. Clara put in some complimentary bath salts that made my skin feel a little tingly while adding and faint citrus scent to the water. We both washed each other and afterwards just soaked, letting the hot water relax our muscles.

Clara nuzzled close to me and I felt her hand dipping into my lap. Knowing her I had a good idea what she wanted, and I could already feel my malehood stiffening in response before she even touched it.

"Someone's eager." Clara whispered in my ear before nibbling on it gently. I smiled and relaxed, letting her have her way with my body. She gently stroked my shaft, bringing it to full mast before sliding her hand lower. I gasped and sighed as I felt her shove two fingers past my sphincter and up against my prostate, milking it expertly. I was moaning within seconds as my shaft throbbed, leaking unseen pre into the bathwater. "How about tonight I be on top." Clara whispered. I looked up at her to see if she was sure, and despite blushing quite a bit, I knew she wanted it.

"I'm all yours love." I said, leaning in to kiss her. She positioned herself in front of me as we made out, and as we broke the kiss I could see she was already hard, her pink member poking out from between the slits in her dress. I slid my butt forward, giving her better access to my hole as she close what little distance there was between us. I felt her tip prod against me, feeling cool in the hot water before she repositioned herself and pushed against my asshole. Used to taking Flare, it was easy letting her inside me, which caused her to moan surprised as she slid in to her hilt. She definitely wasn't nearly as big as Flare, but she was just the right size to work my prostate. I looked up at her smiling and nodded. She smiled back and began to move back and forth, sliding herself in and out of me. I breathed deeply as she picked up pace and soon was struggling to suppress a moan each time the thrust in, hitting my spot just right. The water in the tub splashed back and forth as we lost ourselves in the act. Clara was soon thrusting into me with everything she had, and I openly moaned as she drilled my prostate in all the right ways. My own member throbbed against my belly, painfully hard as she had her way with me.

"Mark I can't hold out much longer." Clara grunted as she bit her lip.

"Cum for me Clara!" I panted out as my own member twitched involuntarily, spurting cloud after cloud of my own seed into the water. Clara kept pumping into me for a few seconds before locking her hips against mine after thrusting deep inside me. I felt her rod pulsing inside me as a small warmth bloomed there. Clara collapsed into my arms, and I held her close as we both came down from our afterglow.

Clara looked up at my smiling. "I love you Mark." She said.

I smiled back and kissed her. "I love you too Clara." I said. We sat there cuddling together until the water went cold and we were forced to move. We made sure to mop up the copious puddles which had splashed out of the tub in our lovemaking before heading to bed together.

The next few days were only training days, and Sarah was assigned to the seventh arena out of sixteen. She had been assigned her own coach, who had been a top ranking trainer in the Hoenn league before retiring. I remembered thinking Sarah's team was strong last time I saw them, but if that was strong then her current state was at a whole new level. Geld was melting steel dummies for practice now and Esper was crushing bronze ones like soda cans. I considered offering to help spar, but decided against it. The starting ceremonies for the tournament were held early on a Monday morning, and Sarah's bracket was assigned to the eleventh arena. Each bracket would work down to only ten trainers each before they all converged into the first arena for the final bracket. The matches were determined via random draw, all two hundred trainers in arena eleven were in a pool from which two names were drawn. The two would then battle one on one with their registered team of six pokemon; however the bout was decided after three knockouts. Sarah's name wasn't pulled the first day, but we got to watch dozens of powerful trainers duke it out with all sorts of interesting pokemon. I noticed that Sarah's atlatl strategy for Psychic pokemon had been copied by quite a few people. I asked her about it and she said she used it in a televised gym match once and it began spreading after that. I asked her if she would have preferred it a secret and she just shook her head.

"It was gonna get out anyway, besides I can't just hoard strategies. I need to keep making new ones." She explained.

Day two Sarah got pulled and was put up against another first year trainer for the region. Unfortunately for him, it was his first year as a trainer and his opponent was a genius. She swept the match with Esper only, taking down his Sceptile, Mightyena, and Armaldo with ease. By the end of the day, they had finished the first pool and had a new pool set up for the winners of their individual matches. Day three, Sarah got pulled early and was up against a veteran of the league. It was a close match since his pokemon displayed an uncanny knack for dodging nearly everything thrown at them. Sarah had to pull one of her aces to win the battle after Geld went down, and used her telepathy strategy with Esper to make sure they couldn't see what was coming. The match went to Sarah, and the second pool cleared up quickly. They started the third pool, but had to call it a night soon after. Day four saw both the third pool and the fourth pool completed, with Sarah winning relatively easy victories for both. The fifth day saw the last few pools cleared up and Sarah made the top ten, earning a spot in the final tournament. There was another tournament to be held at all the other arenas from the losing pool while the final matches were going on, but seeing as it was a popular event to attend, entry into tho lower tournament was optional.

There was three more days until the other arenas caught up with each final ten, and then once the final one hundred and sixty trainers had been determined, they were given five days to train to adapt to all the new strategies they had seen. Sarah used these days to their fullest. she sparred with her coach from dawn until dusk with Clara standing by to use her new Heal Pulse between bouts. Even in the span of the short time being here, I saw Sarah's pokemon grow significantly stronger. The were giving their all on improving for their master, and she was giving her all to direct them as best she could. The training period went by quickly and we crammed into arena one for the final tournament. Despite being built larger than the other fifteen arenas, it was still packed to the rafters as the tournament started. Sarah got pulled early again, and went up against another veteran in the first pool. To my surprise, he attempted to use the atlatl technique on her with a Xatu. That was all the mistake Sarah needed to win the match. She easily countered his atlatl throw by immediately chaining it into her own throw, adding even more power to the attack. the rest of the battle was easy as that was his ace in the hole to begin with. The rest of the day was filled with amazing matches between the most powerful trainers in the region. I even saw a trainer that had managed to capture a legendary Latios on his team.

The second day of the finals had Sarah pulled late, but she was up against a relative newbie who had gotten there through luck. Though his lucked seemed to serve him well as he still put up a good fight and even had Sarah on the ropes once or twice. Sarah pulled through with her telepathy strategy again, and advanced to the next pool.

Sarah got pulled first when they started the third pool and was up against another year-one prodigy like herself. It was a heated battle; he countered Esper with his Umbreon, and he had a Swampert to counter her Typhlosion, but Sarah pulled through with Frost of all her partners surprisingly. His Blizzard was strong enough to incapacitate his entire team after just a few hits.

Day three of the finals had Sarah pulled first again, and yet another close battle, but she pulled through with Esper again despite Geld and Frost going down. they called it a day early on to leave the final ten trainers for tomorrow. Sarah was ecstatic and could barely believe how far they had made it. She was far enough that she'd be getting prize money regardless of whether or not she won by this point, and when the next day came, she faced her opponent without holding back. Sadly, she didn't make the top five. The crowd all gasped when it happened, Esper leapt into an atlatl Psychic against his Alakazam only to be countered the same way she had beaten her own strategy. Once Esper went down, Flare and Frost fell easy victims to her own atlatl strategy. to my surprise, her opponent crossed the field upon victory and shook her hand. He thanked her for being his opponent and told her he looked forward to seeing where she went next year. Even though Sarah was out of the tournament, she was still smiling. we watched the final few matches which were all very close and the champion was determined. The winner was a regular named Steven who seemed to like steel types. Sarah explained to me that he's the elite four champion, so he naturally would come out on top in the regional finals. We spent another three days after the tournament just hanging out with Sarah before we had to board our ship back to Jhoto. I wished Sarah all my luck in her training as we parted ways.

The trip back was only two days since we had ocean currents working with us rather than against us, but Clara still was resigned to our room from motion sickness. The battling phase began earlier this time since everyone was hyped up from watching so many high level matches. I volunteered to referee again and did a good job at it. They seemed to want to go with tournament rules, so I made sure to call a match after three KOs. We slipped back into our routines easily after we pulled into olivine and went home.

The rest of my internship went by quickly, and I finally had the experience to be a full time officer. To my surprise, I had job offers come in from every point of the globe. It turned out my performance during the trio incident had made headlines in a lot of places and many departments had been keeping an eye on my progress. I had trouble picking which job to accept, I had offers from everywhere: Goldenrod, Saffron, Opelucid, Celadon. I couldn't even remember half the places I could go. Clara suggested I go where I think I'd be most needed, but even then I still couldn't decide. It wasn't until I got a wax-sealed envelope that was missing a return address that I made up my mind. Inside was an application for something called the World Police, which described itself to be a police agency dedicated to stopping crime all over the world.

"Well, that pretty much describes what we're looking for." Clara said, looking the letter over again.

I nodded. "Plus we'll get to travel and see all sorts of places." I said. Clara smiled. "It's decided then, World Police it is." I said grinning. I filled out the application carefully, not wanting to mess this opportunity up. I double and triple checked the application over again before sealing it in the provided envelope and delivering it to Simon.

"Gonna be moving out of town?" Simon asked as he filed the letter.

"I don't think so, the application said we'd be doing a lot of travel, but nothing about having to live somewhere else." I explained.

Simon nodded and smiled. "Would be a shame to lose ya Mark."

I smiled and thanked him as we left. Waiting for a response was painstaking, and one hell of a chore. We were getting at least a dozen letters a day now with offers, and many places were beginning to resend their offers to us. We had a knee-high stack by the door now and were wondering how high it would get before collapsing under its own weight. It wasn't until a couple weeks later that we got our response. another envelope arrived with no return address and a wax seal. I ripped the flap open immediately and pulled out the sheet of paper inside. Flare butted up against me playfully as Clara peeked over my shoulder and read with me.

Mark, Clara, and Flare,

On behalf of the World Police I would like to congratulate you....

It didn't matter where I went or what I did, as long as I had my partners with me.