FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"I'm curious, what was it that made you so sure that you loved me?" It was now morning, as indicated by the light surging through the portholes. We had been awake for a while, just reclining in each other's embrace. I stared up at the ceiling, wondering. 'Random question..'

"What makes anyone love anyone, Lapin? When I met you, you were happy as could be. I wanted some of that happiness, which I suppose is why I asked you to come along with me. When you evolved, though, you became more than an ever-flowing fountain of fun, but a pleasure to all senses. My heart lit up when I heard you speak, even though I couldn't understand you. I craved the touch of your fur, and relished the sight of it. Though, I didn't really get to experience scent and taste until last night.." A perverted smile spread across my features.

"What about that other thing you've got? That you were talking to Celeste about. Aura, was it? Am I a pleasure to that sense?" Somewhat (though not completely) thankful that Lapin hadn't noticed the look on my face, I took in what she said.

"Huh.. I almost forgot about that. I wonder if I could do it again." I tried my hardest to remember what Celeste had told me to do in order to start that whole thing up. 'She said to think about how Lapin's voice felt to me. I hope this is easier the second time around..' Just as I had the other day, I called every memory of Lapin into my head.

It was crazy, though; it was as if my memories had been changed. She was speaking my language as plainly as I, even though I know she hadn't been at the time. I realized that this translation of her speech that I was now able to perform functioned on a subconscious level, and I had no control over it. I soon returned to the matter at hand, once again trying to get a feel for Lapin's voice.

And there it was. That free-floating mass of energy had returned. But this time, I was feeling odd staring at it. I felt like I could hear it, though it wasn't making any noise. I felt as though I could smell it, though it was odorless. It was almost as if I weren't merely sensing Lapin, but experiencing her. I reached out, and I could see my arm in my mind as sharply as if my eyes were open, and in a way, they felt more open than ever they had been before.

When my hand connected with the mass, I didn't feel anything touching my fingertips. I had expected the feel of fur, as I was sure that my hand was against Lapin's side back in reality, but there was nothing tangible. My hand still halted involuntarily as it met the mass, but it still seemed as though there was nothing there. I pressed my palm against it lightly, but still, nothing.

I then moved my hand slowly, stopping when resistance towards my movement was obvious, and was surprised to find that the mass moved along with my hand, becoming spread as butter over bread. I was sculpting this mass as though it were clay, and after a little while it took the shape of Lapin's left leg and hip. I continued my actions with the rest of her until there was no shapeless form before me, but an almost perfect replica of Lapin.

The only differences were that, for one, I couldn't feel her, and instead of her cream-brown color combination she shone a color that seemed to be without color. It was a white.. that was far too white.. to be white... If you're having trouble understanding, try thinking how much trouble I'm having explaining it..

"Um.. Chris?" I opened my yes to find Lapin in the same exact position her aura had been in. At first I though her voice contained a hint of concern, but I soon realized that it was discomfort. While my right hand was resting innocently enough on her ear, my left was planted firmly on her breast. I was quick to remove it, but just when I was about to apologize she continued. "I assume you enjoyed that? You had a smile on your face the whole time."

I was going to answer when a knock on the door sounded. With no small amount of displeasure I left Lapin and got out from under the coverlet. I walked to the door, opened it, and found exactly whom I had expected to; Celeste. I also had an idea of what she wanted to say, as after all, we hadn't even woken she or Nexus up yesterday. In fact, I had been a bit curious as to what they had done with themselves in our absence..

"Chris, what happened yesterday? You didn't open up whenever I knocked." There were too many uncertainties for me to tell her everything that had occurred, so I kept it general.

"Lapin and I were exploring the ship." Not a lie. Not quite the truth. Just an answer, and judging by the way Celeste raised one side of her "mask" as a human would an eyebrow, not an overly satisfactory one. She then appeared to be in a state of thought, after which she took a few short sniffs of the air exiting my room. A sly, poorly-hidden smile accompanied her next statement.

"Well, whenever the two of you are ready, I hope you wouldn't mind exploring the ship again, with myself and Nexus this time? I can speak for the both of us when I say that we were immensely bored yesterday." From the time she had begun smiling, a blush had shown upon my face, and grown hotter as the seconds went by. I knew there was no hiding it, so I didn't try.

"Alright, how's five minutes sound? Go getting Nexus up if he's still asleep, K?" Without waiting for an answer, or feeling that one was required, I shut the door and walked back to the bed. Lapin had apparently fallen asleep once again, and I awoke her once more.

"C'mon, Lapin. The four of us are going to walk around for a while, that is of course if you're up for it?" Though obviously groggy, she hopped out of the bed and stepped to my side. We proceeded out of the door, her arm wrapped around mine, to find Celeste and a slightly tired-looking Nexus. "So did you have anywhere in particular in mind, Celeste?"

"Cafeteria!"

_ _ _ _ _

After getting a bite to eat, we had walked around for a while. Eventually, we wound up once more on the main deck, littered as always with trainers battling other trainers. The two in our group who had been left out of yesterday's activities felt themselves up for a battle or two. Normally, I'm against pokemon battling, but if my companions want to fight I won't refuse them. Luckily, an eager trainer wasn't hard to find here, and the one we approached was a nice-looking, plainly-dressed girl.

"Hello there! I don't suppose you would be looking for a fight?", she called.

"Of course. Would a double be all right? These two want to get some exercise." I pointed towards Celeste and Nexus. The girl nodded.

"That's fine. Let's begin, then." I nodded this time. "Oh, by the way, the name's Anne. Anne Fletcher." I was grateful how polite my opponent-to-be was. Many trainers just want to get it over with, not caring for the common courtesy of an introduction.

"Chris Stidolph. A pleasure." We shook hands, and despite her otherwise unassuming appearance, Anne was quite strong. We walked over to our designated trainer areas. She took two of the four pokeballs on her belt off, pressed the expansion/retraction button on the front, and threw them into the air. Out of the vanilla flash of red light from her brand of ball appeared a Shuppet; a small, floating, horned purple ghost-type pokemon, and a powerful looking Leafeon; a kind of cat/plant hybrid grass-type pokemon.

As the pokeballs closed once again and flew back towards Anne, she caught both gracefully and placed them back in their respective slots on her belt. I motioned for Celeste and Nexus to step forward, and they obeyed readily. We wasted no time getting started, Anne issuing the first command.

"Copse, Razor Leaf!" The leaves protruding from her Leafeon's body spun wildly for a moment before flying off towards both of my pokemon. New leaves quickly took the old ones' places and repeated the action a few times. Nexus dodged easily enough, but Celeste sustained a few minor cuts in her attempts. The leaves weren't my biggest worry, though.

"Use Foresight on the Shuppet, Celeste!" Though I couldn't see from my position at Celeste's back, I knew what happened when she used this move. Her eyes would seem to sharpen and focus more than usual, and it made it so that she could hit ghost-types with normal and fighting-type attacks, which they are usually immune to. This may not be a problem for other pokemon, but a Riolu such as Celeste can't learn any types of moves besides these two through natural means.

Anne didn't wait long to resume her assault, however. "Tackle the Luxio, Copse!" Copse ran at Nexus, its intent clear. This was trouble, as the Leafeon looked stronger than Nexus. However, I quickly put our weeks of training to good use.

"Celeste, Nexus, you know what to do. Let's try out the one we practiced last Tuesday." Anne was puzzled, but made no attempt to call off the attack. Celeste ran as quickly as she could until she was blocking the Leafeon's path. She faced the rapidly approaching pokemon and stood in an odd pose, one arm behind her and in front of Nexus. Her entire body gained an almost unnoticeable glow.

The Leafeon hit Celeste, as it really didn't have a choice, and at the exact moment it collided with her, Nexus bit down on the arm that Celeste was presenting to him. He removed his fangs as fast as he could, though, as he knew what would happen next. Celeste's arms became a flurry directed at Copse, still at point blank range. He took every punch she gave, and when she settled down, he was lying unconscious on the ground.

"Um.. Copse, return!", Anne commanded, far more surprised than angry. She threw his ball in Copse's general direction and the familiar red light once more swallowed him up. She was quick to regain her composure, as well as her battling mindset. "Shadorei, Curse them both!"

I and all my pokemon laughed openly, confusing Anne, but once again, she didn't take the hint that she should call her attack off. 'Her loss..' I thought. The move Curse can be quite annoying, as the user sacrifices half of its maximum energy in order to put a curse on the opponent. This curse removes one fourth of the opponent's maximum energy each time it attacks the caster. If your ghost excels at dodging, then your opponent will be unable to continue fighting rather quickly.

Now, I was laughing because I had been sure this was either the first, or at least close to the first time Anne had tried this move, and hadn't known this much about it. When cast twice in succession, the user has no energy at all left over. Sure enough, Shadorei used Curse on both Celeste and Nexus, right before falling to the ground, utterly exhausted. The look on Anne's face was priceless.

She called back Shadorei and went over to the pokemon center. I followed, a part of me wanting to fix up Celeste's minor wounds, but another part knowing that Anne would want answers. After I got my pokemon back from Nurse Joy, I sat on a nearby bench. Lapin hopped up onto my lap, and Celeste and Nexus sat beside us. When she received Copse and Shadorei's pokeballs, Anne approached us.

"Okay, first let me say that that was a fine battle." I slipped in a 'Thank you' before she continued. "But what the heck happened!?"

"What we did to Copse is a strategy the four of us thought up back home." She looked puzzled, and I thought I knew why. "You're wanting to know how I collaborated with my pokemon to make a tactic, yes?" She nodded. "Celeste can speak with her control of aura, she tells me." I couldn't understand Lapin back then, so I left that part out. "Anyway, you know what the move 'Counter' does, right?"

"Yeah, it takes a physical attack and returns it towards the enemy with extra power. That couldn't have been what you did, though; countering Copse's tackle wouldn't have beaten him in one hit.." She raised a hand to her head and scratched.

"I was getting to that. Right when Copse hit Celeste, Nexus used Bite. When Celeste countered the Tackle, it was with the power of both moves combined and increased. I would have been quite surprised had Copse gotten through that with his consciousness." Anne was obviously making a mental note to try and use this strategy in the future.

"Well, what happened to Shadorei? It didn't even look like you did anything." I had apparently been right in assuming she wasn't fully aware of the consequences of Curse. Amateur move on her part.

"We didn't; you basically had Shadorei defeat itself. When a pokemon uses the move Curse, it takes away half of their stamina when at its fullest. Using it twice is a death sentence, as it takes all of your pokemon's vitality away at once. My advice to you is to always research moves before trying them out in an actual battle." She nodded. "So.. any other questions?"

"Yeah, but not about the fight. You said your Riolu can talk?" She appeared even more confused than she had been when asking about my strategies. I'm not sure what she was expecting, but it wasn't I who answered her.

"That's right, I can. It's not all too odd, really. Many pokemon from the Riolu/Lucario family of pokemon can speak in a sort of universal language that sounds, to the listener, that is, like their own tongue. This works backwards as well, with every word a Riolu or Lucario hears sounding like our language to us. Though, generally pokemon have little trouble understanding other beings anyway." That explained a few things for me. I wondered why she hadn't gone into that much detail earlier. Anyway, Anne was speechless.

"Well, there you have it, I suppose", I offered. When she didn't respond, I decided to change the subject. "So.. for what reason are you going to Hoenn, Anne?" This bit of what she deemed to be sanity was enough to shake Anne from her reverie.

"I'm visiting my grandparents in Fortree. They're getting on in years and my grandma's been getting sick a lot recently.. I hope she's alright.." My next statement, though I tried to sound as though I wished to console her, was a bit too happy.

"I'm sorry about that, but did you say Fortree? That's where we're headed as well. I don't suppose you would want to be our guide there? None of us have ever been to Hoenn." She seemed quite pleased by this request.

"Sure! I could always use some company." Her sad attitude from before had all but disappeared. "So you've really never been to Hoenn? I think you'll like it; lot's of interesting pokemon there."

We continued speaking for a while, but it was getting late, and after the five of us got some dinner under our belts we headed off to bed. Anne, luckily enough, was only two halls down from our rooms, and we all bid each other a good night. I'm sure she found it strange how each of my pokemon had their own room, and even stranger that my Lopunny should share a room with me, but she didn't press the matter.

_ _ _ _ _

Lapin and I woke with a start at the loud blaring of the ship's foghorn. With much moaning and groaning, the two of us got out of bed, I got dressed, and we got out of the room just in time to hear the captain coming over the loudspeaker and announcing our arrival in Slateport City, Hoenn. I reentered the room and packed up whatever we had gotten out during the length of the cruise while Lapin got Celeste and Nexus out of their rooms.

"You guys ready?", came the voice of Anne, "We should get as early a start as possible; the trip to Fortree is a long one, and if we get a move on we might be able to reach it within three days, if we're lucky." That said, we got up to the main deck and climbed down the incredibly steep staircase that lead from the ship to the dock.

"So, which way do we go?" I asked. Anne pointed in a direction I correctly judged to be North. We began walking, and we were soon out of Slateport. We were on Route One Hundred-Ten, which wasn't quite as natural as I would have wanted. It featured a bike road raised up above the lower, overgrown, wooded area that we were going to walk through, seeing as how neither myself nor Anne had a bike.

As always, seeing three pokemon under the control of a traveling trainer kept the wild pokemon at bay. After a bit of walking, Anne had a question. "You know, having your pokemon out of their balls means much less of a chance that you you'll see some of the local untamed ones. Don't you want to catch a few?" I was a bit surprised at her, and had a few questions of my own.

"How do you think of your pokemon, Anne?" Anne put her index finger on her chin and looked up at the sky, as if the clouds would save her the trouble of answering.

"I think of them as my friends. Why, how do you think of them?" I knew she'd answer like that. I hoped to enlighten her a bit before the day was done.

"Exactly. I think of my pokemon as friends as well, except for her, that is." I pointed to Lapin. "But I'll get back to that. What I'm saying is; if you've all these friends, why keep them where you can't see them? Why isolate them? Where's the fun in that for either of you? And about catching some of the wild ones here, I've never caught a pokemon that didn't have the courage and trust necessary to travel with me."

Anne thought about what I said for a few moments, and then reached down to the belt that held her pokeballs on it. She removed all four, pressed each button, and threw them all into the air. Out came Copse, Shadorei, and two Ralts, which were small, ghostly, child-like pokemon with a round, orange 'horn' protruding from both the front and back of their heads. The Ralts were mirror images of each other. "So what do you mean about not catching pokemon that don't trust you?", Anne asked.

"Well, Celeste simply needed help, and was sort of forced on me by Nurse Joy.." Celeste shot me a cold look. "Though that's not to say I didn't want her, or that she didn't want me. In Lapin, my Lopunny's case, she just walked right up to me when I was traveling with Celeste in Sinnoh and started hugging me." I took the moment to pull Lapin to me with one arm and nuzzle her head. "It was clear she wanted to come with me, so I gladly offered her the chance, and she took it. With Nexus, he wanted a fight, and when he lost--" At this point Nexus growled deeply, getting us all laughing. "Well, he told Celeste that felt he owed me something for my victory, but I think that was just an excuse for wanting to come along."

"I must admit that's all very noble of you. Not many trainers hold pokemon in such high regard.. myself included I suppose.." I asked her how she had met her own pokemon, and as I had, she told the story of each. "Copse was a present from my father, and my first pokemon, though I didn't call him 'Copse' at the time. Now that I think about it, it may have just been cruel, but I simply called him 'Eevee' until he evolved."

It appeared my lecture was getting through to her. "We had gotten lost in a forest someplace in Sinnoh," she continued, "when a Shuppet attacked us. I don't think I really deserved it, but Copse evolved into a Leafeon to help, as the Shuppet was too strong for him back then. He was able to weaken it sufficiently for it to be caught. That Shuppet was Shadorei, and she's warmed up to us quite a bit since then. And these two Ralts here are best friends." She pointed at the twin green haired 'children'.

"The boy is named Kenkizu and the girl Kokoro, and I found them both here in Hoenn, near Oldale town to the West. Kenkizu saw me when I caught Kokoro, and he ran up to me, crying his eyes out. I knew I'd made a mistake, but I didn't really want to give up a Ralts, so I offered to capture Kenkizu as well, and as it looked like he was ready to do anything not to be separated from Kokoro, he accepted. It was selfish of me, yes, but I've just never really thought about pokemon the way you do.."

"Well at least you took them out of their balls; that's a start. You're already better than most trainers", I said. Anne's past attitude towards pokemon hadn't been the most kind, but it certainly hadn't been the worst, and I could see she had changed.

"Thanks, but you said you were going to get back to something about your Lopunny? What was it?" When Anne said this, I blushed a bit.

"Well.. I don't know what you're opinion of me is so far, but seeing as how the two of us are going to be near each other for the next few days, I'm sure you would've found out on your own regardless.. Lapin and I are more than friends. Much more.." Anne gasped.

"Y--..Wh--..Don't tell me you're one of those pervs?.. God! People like you make me sick!" I could tell she was about to storm off, so I made to explain a bit more in depth.

"Before you get any angrier, I have another question for you. What, besides how they look, makes you think pokemon are any different from humans?" It was easy to see that Anne's respect for me, however small the amount may have been, had suddenly plummeted. I was lucky that she even listened to me, let alone answer my question.

"Well, except for that Riolu I can't understand them, for one thing!" She was frustrated, but her answer helped me to prove my point.

"That's just it; I can. Well, at least I can understand Lapin." Once more since having met me, Anne was shocked for a few moments. After this passed, however, she didn't believe me.

"Bullshit!", she said, "What the hell makes you think I would swallow that?" Again, she had played right into my hand.

"Because we could walk into any pokemon center and have them prove to you that I'm not one hundred percent human." After my statement, Anne hit the ground. At first, I was wondering what had happened, but I soon caught on. "Honestly, who faints in this day and age?"

_ _ _ _ _

To be continued.

_ _ _ _ _

As compensation for taking so long to get this one out, I'm starting on the next immediately.