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Journey to Another World 5

Ch. 20

"Dang their Donovin, you don't look so good. How much sleep did you get last night?" Rian asked as we all sat down in the café that next morning eating an early breakfast in hopes of passing through route 212 without getting rained on.

"Not much," I said as I rubbed my dark rimmed eyes for the fifth time that morning. "Those two bundles of joy kept on waking up every 15 minutes just so that Jenavee and Rena would rock them back to sleep." I lay my head back down on the table and let out a loud mouthed yawn. "When does the Poke-mart open around here anyways?"

Rian looked down at his Poke-etch and then back to me. "About another three or so hours, why?" He asked me in general curiosity.

"I just thought that I'd stop on off and try and see if they had a baby crib that I could buy. Probably one that rocks back and forth and is easy enough to carry along." I explained as I slowly look on up to him, but by the look in Rian's face told me that I wouldn't get that chance.

"That would probably be a good thing to get, except that...if we wait for the store to open then we'll miss our window to get through route 212 without getting rained on. Then we will have to wait until tomorrow again." He said with a bit of a pause, then began to look around the room. "Speaking of those two babies, where are they, as well as your Gardevoir and Lucario? They should be down here eating something." He said as he ate another spoon-full of his oatmeal.

"They said that they had something to do before we left this place." I slowly sat up and stretched my arms way over my head which let out a few pops from my back and let out a long drawn out yawn. "I have no idea what they're planning, but I should probably eat something myself, and stock up on some Pokemon chow from the vending machines while I'm waiting for my order." Rian gave me a nod as he ate another spoonful of oatmeal, so I got up to place my order for a large omelet over at the counter where there was a waitress waiting and while that cooked I went over and purchased several more cans of Pokemon chow for all of my Pokemon from the vending machines near the entrance to the café.

I was just setting all my purchases on the table when I heard someone let out a long/joyful squeal. I didn't much care for squealing, as that usually is one of the most annoying sounds a person/girl can make, but stopped when I heard the voice of Nurse Joy who'd probably just made the noise.

"I can't believe how absolutely precious those two look in those outfits that I made," I heard her squeal again and cringed at the sound. "You must absolutely let me take a picture of the four of you together."

"I think it would only be proper to let you do that, since you were the one who made these beautiful outfits for our little ones." Jenavee said happily.

"_ Though I still do not believe that you actually put on a baby, um...shower for us and our little ones this morning. You must have been up all night doing these outfits for them _." Rena said with just as much glee as Jenavee.

'If I remember my mothers baby shower for my little sister, I don't really know if I want to turn around and look to see what that nurse has done to my kids.' I thought as I scrunched up my face and stopped in my tracks as a shiver ran up and down my back at the memory of some of the things that other people thought would look cute on my baby sister.

'Donovin.' Jenavee said my name psychically which made me turn to see she was looking over her shoulder at me, which hid her child from view. 'Could you come over here and stand with us. I would like to make this a family photo.'

Now don't get me wrong, family photo's were nice and all, but something about getting my photo taken never really sat right with me. It must have been the flash of the camera as it usually stung my eyes with it's bright flash. Though I was reluctant about it, I thought that this time would be different, as this was a special occasion and I actually found myself wanting to have a family photo with the two Pokemon/women that I loved and the my little kids. "Alright then. I think that's a good idea." I said as I walked over to my girls and placed an arm over each of their shoulders and pulled them into my sides as I gave them a happy smile each and a kiss to their cheeks while nobody was looking.

"Alright everybody. Say...Poffiin!" The nurse said as she raised what looked like some kind of red digital camera up after she'd fiddled with a few dials on the back to indicate that we all should be looking towards it.

"Poffin." We all said with a smile and was quickly followed by a small flash from the thing. Almost instantly after the flash I could hear the sound of whimpering and knew that the little ones had been frightened by the flash and were about to cry from fear or being blinded by the bright light. I guess Jenavee must have picked up on my thought as she quickly brought her little one up to face and started making some kind of baby noises which got her baby to instantly forget about being scared, which was quickly followed by Rena doing the same to hers.

I was about to look down and try and comfort the little ones as well but was interrupted by the nurse. "I should have this photo printed out in a little bit. Would you mind waiting in here until it's finished?" She asked as she slowly turned and looked over her shoulder at us.

'She scares my kids and she...,' I was cut off in my thought as I felt a hand touch my shoulder which I looked down and saw that it was Jenavee's hand as it was a green three fingered hand.

'It is alright Donovin. It was only a photograph after all. Not like it was something dangerous.' She sent mentally to me which got me to relax. 'Though it is nice to know that you are very protective of them. Why not sit down and see what she has done for us. These outfits that she got our kids are, as she said are, 'Absolutely precious.'

Not wanting to make a fuss, I nodded, took a deep sigh to let out my anger, and finally a deep calming breath to settle the last of my nerves. "Your right Jenavee. Lets get a gander at those little ones and see what your so giddy about." I only turned a little to look at her over my shoulder as she was already turning towards the table. Just before she'd turned the rest of the way around I could distinctly see a happy smile on her face and followed her over to our table.

Rena was already sitting at the table at the further end of my side of the double seated booth and happily fussing about the outfit that her 'shiny baby Riolu' was wearing, either to tug at a seam to make sure it fit just right or adjust a ruffle so that it would sit just right on the outfit. To say the least I guess I shouldn't be surprised on what it was wearing as Nurse Joy had made it herself. The outfit resembled that of a Red Cross nurses outfit from a long time ago, though a lot smaller, and fit the little one quite well. It was amazing to think that that outfit fit her so well. Almost as if it was specially made for the little Riolu and fit it just right. 'I guess that nurse has a good eye for measurements.'

That's when I thought about Jenavee and how she too had said that her little one had gotten a new outfit as well and turned to her. The Ralts that she was carrying in her arms looked like it was still asleep and had on a very interesting outfit. As most Ralts have what appear to be pajamas on, that trail behind their feet like little footy pajamas, this little one had on a waist coat that seemed to have been dipped in some kind of green ink with light blue buttons, and had some kind of silly gold like chain that ran from one side pocket to the other.

'I guess it's not so bad. At least she didn't make a silly bunny outfit like my aunt did for my little sister for her first baby shower.' I thought as both Jenavee and Rena started to play with their kids and such. A little while later, the nurse came back in with a small envelope and claimed the their were several copies of the photo that she'd taken within and that she'd love to have us come back at some point so that she could make some more outfits for them when they'd be older.

After we'd all eaten something, I slung my pack over my shoulders and nodded to everyone. It didn't take us long before we reached the wall of water exiting Pastoria city and I turned to Rian. "So when is this rain supposed to let up?" I asked as I looked towards the sky and couldn't see a break anywhere in the clouds.

"In a few more minutes. About this time every day, there is a strong gust of wind that blows down from the mountain and creates a small window that lets the sun shine through for an hour or three. That will be the time to get going and try and traverse this marsh." He said as he looked down at his own Poke-etch and started counting down to some time that only he knew of. As if almost right on his count of zero a strong gust of wind came down from the mountain and did just as he'd said. The clouds parted almost as if pushed out of the way by some invisible hands and allowed the area to be blanketed in rich/warming sunlight. Taking advantage of the break in the weather, we all headed out into the marsh.

It wasn't long until I began to regret this whole idea as my boots started to get caked in the mud of the area. Each step seemed to add another few pounds to my shoes and no matter how many times I would scrape off a few layers of the mud, it would just end up right back on my feet a few steps later. I would grumble and groan at the effort it would take as sometimes I would even get caught in a deeper puddle of the muck that seemed to have some kind of suction on my boots and have to wiggle around to get unstuck. "Oh, come on now. I've gotta have at least five layers of muck on my boots now. Isn't there some way to keep this stuff off?" I complained for the fifth time as I looked back at everybody else.

It seemed so unfair to me as everybody else seemed to be having a much easier time going through all this stuff than me. Jenavee just levitated over the stuff as she would use her psychic abilities while still cradling her little Ralts in the crook of her arm, Rena would use her fighting abilities to jump from one dry area to the next while her little one was ride piggy-back and let out a squeal of glee every time that she'd jump to a new area, and Rian just seemed to step just...right to avoid the whole mess altogether. Everybody just couldn't help but laugh at my predicament, though I had to admit that it was mostly my own fault for not listening to Rian's advice earlier about how to spot a mucky area to one of a dry areas.

About two hours after we started going through this area we began to see the edge of this area, and in the back of my mind I couldn't stop thanking those on high that this area did come to an end. Though upon looking back I couldn't help but laugh a bit at some of the other trainers still stuck out in the muck. It was almost comical to a point when they'd challenged us to a battle, but were reluctant to step into the muck to come over and complete the challenge. It must have been in fear of getting themselves caught in the wet/deep parts that I seemed to be getting stuck in most of the time. 'Thank goodness for those natural barriers.' I would think as we would keep the deeper parts of the muck between us and those challengers which seemed like a natural barrier between us and them.

Though like all things, the good times were not to last. "I can not believe my good fortune. I must have that shiny Riolu of yours." Someone said that cause us all to stop and turn towards the trees as we stopped off to rest at a dry area.

Instinctively I reached back to my sword and grabbed the hilt while I pushed Rena and Jenavee who were clutching their babies tightly to her chest behind me to protect them. With little of a warning, I could flick the release to my sword and it would easily slip out of it's sheath and drop into my awaiting hand, and be brought to bare against the unknown foe who seemed too interested in my daughter. "Who goes there? Show yourself!" I said as I took on a fighters stance and started widening my eyes to view more of the area to make sure that nothing would surprise us.

A very elegantly looking man stepped out from behind a set of trees and tugged at his brown trench coat and tipped back his brown gentleman's hat towards us. The man looked to be in his late 50's to early 60's as much of his hair that I could see under the hat was gray and it matched his mustache color almost exactly. Under his brown trench coat he had on a green vest with a white button down undershirt, black tie, and gray slacks. All and all this man looked to be fairly wealthy and from his demeanor told me that he was a man who was well off and viewed himself above others. The side of my lip slowly started to curl up as thoughts of what was to come next out of his mouth started to make me see red.

"It is quite rare to see a Lucario. Even more-so to see that of a Shiny Riolu." He reached into his pocket and pulled out some kind of mechanical device, punched in a few numbers, then a small strip of paper pulled out to which he ripped it off the machine, and held it out to me. "I believe that this amount should suffice to purchase that Pokemon of yours." He said as he walked over and offered it to me.

Rian walked up to stand next to me, looked down at the paper, and whistled. "Wholly crud. That is a lot of Poke-dollars." He then did a few double takes between me and the piece of paper.

The other side of my face scrunched up in anger as I took the paper, lifted it up to eye level between us, then slowly tore the paper down the middle. This seemed to shock the man as his eyes went wide and a smirk slowly spread across his face as the torn pieces of paper floated to the ground. "Not enough I see. Then how is this amount?" He printed out another piece of paper and handed it out, only to be snatched out of his hand, torn into shreds, then have those shreds thrown into his chest as if those pieces of paper were something disgusting.

He lost his smirk fairly slowly then stepped back a few paces. "What is wrong with you? I am being more then generous with my price to purchase that Riolu from you." He then looked over at Rena who turned a bit more so that her side was facing the man and the baby a little further away from him. "Then tell me the price. What will it cost to purchase that Riolu from you? As you can probably tell, I'm fairly wealthy and can pay a quite considerable sum for it."

By that time, I'd lost my patience, snapped my sword's clip back into place as this sort of situation didn't require the use of a sword and walked up to the man while clenching my fists at my sides in anger. "People like you..." I paused as I did my best to contain my anger as I stood before the man. "People like you....make me...sick." I said as I grabbed him by either side of his coat, lifted him slightly off the ground, then threw him to the ground.

He slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position and looked at me with confusion/irritation/anger in his eyes. "What is in your head? It is just a Pokemon, not as if it were..."

I didn't give him the chance to finish what he was saying as I backhanded him across his face. The man was so shocked at being treated like this that he just kept his head to the side and raised his white gloved hand to his cheek and rubbed it. "They might be just Pokemon to you," I slowly took a quick look over my shoulder at both Rena and Jenavee holding their children. "But to me, they are...they're family. And nothing you can say or do will make me separate mother from child."

The whole area went silent for quite some time until the man finally got to his feet, patted himself down to remove some of the dirt from his backside, removed his glove, and slapped me across the face with it. "You insult me sir and mine honor shall be reclaimed. I challenge you to a Pokemon duel, a two on two duel between your two best against my two best." He said with a strait/angry face, obviously intent on his purpose of reclaiming his honor that I'd shamed.

"If it's a matter of reclaiming your honor sir. Then you shouldn't be looking at me who's shamed you, you should be looking in a mirror." I fully turned away from him, walked a few paces away, then turned fully back to look at him. "For how can one such as yourself claim to have honor when he treats Pokemon, who are just as smart as we are, as mere property."

It was at that moment that the man lost his gentleman like pose and scowled at me. "Mine honor shall be avenged sir." He pulled out two Pokeballs and threw them out. The first releasing a Beedrill and the other releasing a Vespiquen. "Queen, Worker, my honor has been soiled by that man in the strange clothing and I shall have it reclaimed." Both the bugs quickly nodded to him, took to the air with their gossamer like wings buzzing in the air, and hovered on either side of him ready for a command to attack. "Both of you use Poisen sting." Both bugs quickly shot towards us and shoved out their undersides as big stingers popped out. As they neared us we all quickly hit the dirt which allowed us barely enough of a chance to avoid their first charge, then quickly got back to our feet.

"Your really intending to go through with this?" I asked rhetorically as I could tell that Rena was slightly shaken at seeing a Beedrill and quickly cowered behind me. 'I know I can't use Rena or Jenavee in this fight, as they need to stay back and protect our kids, and I don't dare bring out Kit as I don't know what's going through her head right now. So that leaves both Samantha and Undine.' I pulled off my two choices and threw them out to battle. "Come on out Sam and Undine. It's time for a battle." By the time that both had emerged from their Pokeballs and materialized, both bugs had returned to their trainers side and looked none to impressed with my choice.

"What in the world is wrong with this ground? Why have you called me out to battle on such disgusting ground Donovin?" Undine complained when she looked around and saw that much of the ground was covered in mud and quickly dirtying her beautiful scales.

"I'm sorry Undine but I need you for a double battle as both Rena and Jenavee are unable to battle at the moment. Just please bare with it and I'll clean your scales once we get out of here." I said to her as I turned from looking at her to the other end where the man was looking at her with wide eyes and mouth agape.

"It is not possible. A Milotic that can actually speak. I must have it," He whipped out his money machine and stared typing again. "How much for it?"

This man was truly an idiot. Here he was, trying to buy another one of my Pokemon when I'd just told him that I'd not be selling any of my Pokemon to a person such as him. I was prepared to give him a long and hard lecture about honor when I heard both Jenavee and Rena's babies start to cry. Looking behind me I saw that both Rena and Jenavee were doing their best to hush their frightened little ones from obviously being scared of being attacked by the bugs, though that did little to stem the flow of anger that seemed to be building up inside of me. 'How dare he attack us with little concern to my two kids. I'll make him pay for that.' Turning back to the battle I scowled at the man.

"You worthless piece of filth! I'll make you pay for attacking my kids!" I yelled at him as I held out a hand towards him. "Undine use Twister towards them and Samantha use multiple Shadow Balls." Both of them nodded and executed the attack just like the last time. Undine started a twister with her tail that was pointed towards the two bugs and Samantha floated down to the right side of the twister to put her multiple Shadow Balls into the bottom of the vortex to be flung out just like that of a machine gun. The other side of the battle area erupted into a giant purple explosion as the Shadow Balls collided with anything and everything. It took a few more minutes for the smoke to clear but thanks to the area being thoroughly soaked by the rain, it was only a moment more.

To say that I was shocked would've been an understatement. Both bugs were still hovering where they were initially, and both perfectly unharmed. "What the heck? How in the world did they avoid both Undine and Samantha's combined attack. Nothing could've...," That's when a brief flashback of seeing all the bees in the summer buzzing around the flowers at the lake back home. Bees were not like birds who flew in a mostly strait line, as they could move in almost any direction thanks to their strange wings, and these ones must have the same ability, which made them very hard to hit without larger attacks that covered more of an area.

The other person started to laugh. "Your going to have to do a lot better than that to try and hurt my Pokemon," He pointed towards us and smirked. "Now Queen use Fury Swipes and Worker use Fury Attack." Both bugs let out some kind of buzzing sound as their wings sped up and both shot forward at an alarming speed.

I was still in a bit of shock to see both bugs had avoided the attacks and didn't order a command to both Undine and Samantha, which left them alone to defend themselves against the attacks which they avoided quite easily. It wasn't until someone slapped me across my back that brought me back to the situation at hand. "Come on Donovin, get your head back in the battle." I turned and saw that it was Rian who'd slapped me across the back. "Your Pokemon are in trouble and they need your help. Give them a command." Turning back to the battle I noticed that both were in trouble and nodded.

"Undine use Ice Beam on them both to get them to back off and Samantha use Confuse Ray once they've done so." Undine didn't waist any time to use her Ice Beam towards the Vespiqueen that was attacking her which quickly zipped away to avoid the attack, and then focus it on the Beedrill who did likewise. Then without missing a beat, Samantha quickly threw back her head so that her hat wouldn't get in the way, and unleashed her Confuse Ray which make her eyes shine white for a moment. The Vespiqueen quickly covered her smaller eyes which allowed her to avoid the attack, but that did little to help the Beedrill as it had much larger eyes and had just slightly backed off from Samantha. When the flash had let up both bugs looked to be totally confused and I planned on taking full advantage of the situation, but stopped when I felt a drop of something hit me between the eyes.

Looking up for a moment I couldn't help but smile and turn that smile back to the other man. We must've spent so much time here that we hadn't realized that the wind that had cleared the area of the rain, had finally stopped blowing and the clouds moved back in. "Looks like mother nature has a grudge against you as well!" I yelled out as I pointed upwards. This caused the man to look up and gave me the chance to retaliate. "Samantha use Shadow Claw to..." I didn't get a chance to finish what I was going to say as it was lost in the sound of thunder, but Samantha quickly nodded and flew over to the Beedrill that was still reeling in front of her and delivered the attack to the bugs torso.

The attack had the wanted effect and it hit the Beedrill back to the Vespiqueen who'd just shook off the effects of the Confuse Ray. The Vespiqueen got a few good stings in for her trouble of trying to get, 'worker' off of her, but couldn't seem to get herself untangled from the Beedrill that seemed intent on hanging onto her. "Undine use Water Pulse on them both and follow it up with Ice Beam."

Both bugs were quickly hit by the Water Pulse which covered them both in a large amount of water, then with a quick Ice Beam, froze them both together. Once the freeze had worked it's magic, the weight of the ice and the water that was now starting to come down proved to much for their delicate wings, and both went crashing to the ground together. It was at the sound of them hitting the ground that made the other man finally turn to look and yell out in frustration at the current situation with his Pokemon. He took off his hat to throw it on the ground, and then proceeded to stomp on it as he yelled out his frustration at the stupidity of his Pokemon and how'd they handled the situation. Though through all that I couldn't stop but stare at his mustache as it bounced around on his face.

"What the heck is going on here? Your mustache..." I pointed at his mustache which was now slightly hanging onto the side of his face, as the glue that was apparently holding it in place had come loose from his jumping and was clinging onto the last part of his face. Now without his mustache as it had fallen off his face, he resembled just a regular old man, but that too quickly passed as the rain was now soaking him and washing out his evidently dyed brown hair.