SoT: Zeke's tale Chapter 1

Story by Everett Acer on SoFurry

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#1 of Stories of a Trainer: Zeke's Tale


[WARNING] You read this LONG time! [/FAILED WARNING]

Well here's attempt #2. I'll delete the old series soon and I'll hope to replace it rewritten chapters such as this. Hope everyone enjoys it, it's one HECK of a change that's for sure!

Big thanks to FrieD195 and Orion for the beta reading and help to make this as perfect as possible.

And of course my buddy Matimura for helping with ideas and suggestions. ^^

Chapter 1: When two souls meet.


Part 0.


"Gooood evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the first annual Open League Pokemon Tournament here in the bright and lovely region of Kanto!" An announcer said as a spotlight shined down upon him while various other lights spun around the stage and through the eagerly awaiting crowd that had gathered.

The announcer raised an arm into the air with a finger pointing straight up towards the ceiling as it were pointing up at the heavens themselves. "And just as bright as this region are all of the contestants we've gathered for you today to compete for the all money prize here of one-hundred thousand poke!" He yelled, his voice echoing across the stadium through the microphone.

"Tonight, thirty will compete, but one will remain, these trainers are among some of the top ranking of their home regions and are guaranteed to put on a dazzling show for you all tonight, who will be left standing? Leeets find out!" The man continued with a loud roar of the crowd.

The man pointed towards his right to the far end of the stadium, the spotlights following the movement of his arm and towards a figure walking out from backstage. "Without further ado, I introduce to you our first contestant of the night! Hailing from the township of Cherrygrove in the nearby region of Johto, this trainer has beaten the eight gyms of both Johto and Kanto, and is a regular contestant in the freestyle battle circuit! With an astounding win record in past tournaments and a near flawless battle record, ladies and gentlemen, I introduce to you all, Kraig!"

The stage lights centered on the man as he walked out and onto the flat, large dirt covered arena with the standard white chalk outlinings of the battleground in place over a large area. The crowd cheered loudly in greeting for the man, who was dressed in a brown leather duster with a matching cowboy hat on his head, his clothes underneath appearing to be white spare for his dark green jeans.

The man paused at his end of the field, taking a moment to look around at the crowd of people that had gathered from across the region to see this event. "Whoo boy...big crowd...," He muttered to himself as began to realize just how many people had gathered here, easily upwards of ten thousand people seated around the stadium. "Frankly it's makin' me a lil crowd shy..." He followed as he pulled down the tip of his hat.

With a sudden swing of his overcoat he revealed a belt along his waste with six Pokeballs lining it, his hand immediately darting down from the tip of his hat and to his side. With a quick pick of one of the Pokeballs lining his belt, he immediately activated the ball and swung it out, holding it high in the air in front of the crowd within the firm grasp of his hand.. "G'day all! I'll be right sure to win this tournament right quick, but I reckon I'll put on a good show for ya'll before I win!" He proclaimed with a confident grin on his face, having full trust in his Pokemon to with this tournament.

The crowd let out another cheer for the man as the stands repeatedly flashed with the lights of an innumerable amount of cameras as eager fans took pictures of him. Within a couple moments, the stage lights centered back to the announcer, leaving the stadium completely dark save for the still flashing cameras around the stadium.

"Our second contestant of the night is from over seas to the south of our lovely region, here to you tonight from the heart lands of the beautiful region of Hoenn, is a trainer that hails to us from the resort township of Lavaridge, he is ranked number fifty seven within his region with only two Pokemon at his side. He is the son of the uncontested number one ranked trainer of Hoenn for ten years straight, Cino Tenra. Please give a very warm welcome to our second contestant, Zeke!" The man yelled with a raise of his arm towards the far left of the stadium.

The stage lights all darted to the left side of the stadium, centering on a darkly dressed trainer with short blond hair, wearing a heavy black and blue jacket with a Pokeball insignia on the back of it with a pair of matching cargo pants and a heavy dark blue gym bag slung over the back of his right shoulder.

The trainer walked out into the left side of the battlefield, slipping the bag off his shoulder with a dull thud on the ground. The trainer remained silent as the fans cheered, not at all seeming the least bit uncomfortable as he casually stretched out his right arm.

"With introductions now out of the way, let us take us to our judge of the night to explain the rules of this tournament!" The announcer shouted as the lights focused on himself and the judge of the fight, dressed in a white and black suit with a red and white flag in each hand.

"The rules tonight are simple! The matches tonight will consist of one on one elimination rounds with a three minute time limit, the winner will be decided if his or hers opponents Pokemon faints or in the case of a time up, the winner shall be decided if his or hers Pokemon sustains the least damage during the round!" The man shouted as he raised both his arms up towards the two trainers.

With a quick glance at them both he drew a deep breath and resumed his explanation of the rules. "As the case with a standard elimination round, both trainers will be restricted to using one and only one Pokemon in the fight, both trainers will send out a Pokemon of their choice from their team on my command, with neither trainer knowing which Pokemon their opponent has selected for the round."

"Understood?" The man followed.

"Yes." The two trainers simply said with a firm nod from each.

The announcer snapped his finger and pointed up into the air once more. "Are you all ready?" He asked, the eager crowd letting out a frenzied cheer in response to his words. "Trainers ready?" He followed as he began walking out to the side of the area, the spotlights focusing on the two trainers and the judge.

Kraig took stance to throw his Pokeball on command as Zeke drew his own from one of his jacket pockets, readying himself as well.

"BEGIN!" The judge said as he swiftly swung both flags down, starting what would be the first of many battles tonight. Both Kraig and Zeke threw their Pokeballs out and onto the battlefield, both balls snapping open with a flash after bouncing once from the ground.

To the right side of the field, a large, blue walrus like Pokemon known as Walrein appeared from the burst of light of the small red and white ball.

On the left side of the field, a large, blue dragon like Pokemon with bright crimson wings stood, its long tail swaying from right to left as it awaited its trainers orders.

"Perfect." Kraig said, grinning with a tip of his hat. "Impressive Pokemon ya have there mate, but unfortunately yer going up against the wrong man tonight."

Zeke grinned and shook his head. "I wouldn't be where I am today if something like that mattered, right?" He replied.

"Couldn't have said it better myself! But ain't changin' the fact yer gonna loose tonight!" Kraig shouted in return. "Blizzard!" Kraig ordered, the Walrein taking in a large breath of air, making its already obscenely large body puff out even further before exhaling a burst of frigged wind, ice forming on its tusks and the ground as snow and ice spread forth towards the Salamence.

"We'll see!" Zeke let out as he pointed towards the Walrein. "Fire blast!" He ordered, the Salamence opening its maw as scarlet flames whipped around it, baring its fangs as what only could be described as an inferno shot from its mouth, spreading into an ark as it raced towards the Walrein.


Part 1.


"You did good out there tonight, old bud." Zeke said as he stroked his Salamence's neck brushing off some dust from his scaly blue armor like hide.

The Salamence turned towards its trainer and gave a soft, rumbling growl, leaning against the hand stroking his neck.

Zeke smiled in response, almost as if understanding what it was thinking. "You'll get plenty of rest don't worry, even though you didn't really even get hit today, show off." He teased, patting the Salamence's neck softly before picking up his bag.

With a small hissing growl the dragon type nudged its head against its trainers arm, giving him a proud yet confident smirk.

"Yeah, yeah, put those two years I spent studying medical treatment down the drain you big handbag." The trainer said as he patted the dragons head, making in chuckle softly in a rather unqiue reptilian manner in response, the dragon boasting not hardly even a scratch from the various battles that had occurred over the course of the night.

The dragon raised its head suddenly though once it caught a glimpse of a familiar figure approaching them both. Zeke turned his head once he noticed something had caught the Salamence's attention, noticing the older man with the brown duster and had was approaching them both.

"I gotta hand it to ya guys, ya really put a show on tonight, competition in Hoenn must be tight if ya ain't even in the top fifty." The man, Kraig, complimented.

Zeke laughed a little as he patted the Salamence's head. "Well we've been through a lot together so it's only natural I guess we're where we currently are now." The trainer replied.

"It shows! Well I better be off, trainin' and all that, next time we meet I ain't loosin again!" Kraig said, brimming a bright smile despite having lost. "Till then mate!" He said as he waved Zeke off and turned around, heading towards the next from the backstage area of the arena.

"Later!" Zeke waved, sighing a bit to himself with another small laugh. "Well I guess we have another rival...sheesh...at this rate I'll really have to look into getting myself that third Pokemon..." He commented to himself, having had only two Pokemon for years now. Zeke turned his Salamence with half a smile upon his face. "Though not sure if there is that many Pokemon out there that would handle, let alone put up being with you big lugs." He jokingly commented, getting a soft smirk from the Salamence in reply.

"Something to look forward too I guess." He said as he drew out his Pokeball and held it by the large dragon. "I'll see you for dinner bud." He said as the clicked the button on the front, causing a red beam of light to last out and completely envelop the large dragon within mere moments before it was returned inside the small hand sized sphere. Zeke sat up and returned the ball to his pocket, noticing the large trophy he had earned from the match as well as a large burlap sack of money.


Part 2.


"I hate having to carry so much stuff..." Zeke mumbled as he quietly walked out of the arena hosting the tournament, along with him he had his traveling backpack, his gym bag, the trophy and a bag of his prize winnings.

It was an annual battle tournament that started across the region at this time of year; they would usually give different rewards from money, to trips and valuables. Zeke was currently in Viridian City in the Kanto region. He was in Kanto sightseeing when he caught wind of the battle tournament starting here and figured his Pokemon could use a good work out so he decided to enter.

It was very late at night now, at least ten. He enjoyed the walk to the Pokemon Center regardless however; the moon was shining quite nicely tonight, lighting up everything that wasn't already lit by the streetlights and the lights from the buildings.

A soft, cool breeze blew across the area. It was a beautiful night indeed. Zeke felt a little bit sorry that he wasn't out camping tonight so he could enjoy this nice weather. Several minutes later, he made his way into the Pokémon Center, which was extremely busy that night due to all of the trainers staying there tonight.

Zeke carefully made his way up to the front desk through the crowd of trainers, trying not to bump into anyone by mistake. "Busy night Nurse Joy?" Zeke commented as he walked up to the front desk where the Nurse Joy that was running the local Pokemon Center was frantically working trying to sort out all of the appointments that had been made that evening.

"Yes, yes it is, do you need anything?" She asked while pausing from her work for a second, however she wasn't able to stay focused for long, as one of the Chansey's assisting that night handed her a few Pokeballs that contained some Pokemon that had just finished healing, she checked them briefly and then picked out the trainer that owned them, returning them to him. Right after that however yet another trainer came up to the desk with his injured Pokemon in need of healing.

Zeke stood there patiently and waited several seconds for her to finish what she was doing, not wanting to bother her from her work. A couple minutes passed and she still didn't seem hardly any closer to being finished then she was when Zeke got in here. "So, um...could I get a room for the night?" Zeke questioned. The Nurse Joy looked over at Zeke, a little short of breath.

"Oh yes of course...just hold on a second." She said, walking up to a metal box on the wall containing the keys to the rooms, unlocking it and opening it up, looking for a room that was still free. After hurriedly browsing through the box she found a pair of keys.

She grabbed them and then quickly handed them over to Zeke. "Up the stairs and down at the end of the hall on the right, have a good night." She said before rushing off to give another trainer his Pokemon. Zeke picked his belongings back up and began weaving his way through the crowd of trainers to the stairs. After nearly tripping several times he made it to the stairs, carefully scaling them as he made his way to the top.

He finally made it to the top of the stairs and walked his way down the thankfully empty hallway to his room for the night. Once he reached the door cracked it open and flipped on the lights, lighting the pitch black room up.

It was an average room for a Pokemon Center; a single bed on a metal frame, and a small table next to it with a lamp on top of it. Across from the bed was a small dresser with a TV on top of it, next to that was a small circular table with two chairs. There was also the door to the bathroom, which was between the side of the table and the TV, the bathroom was a pretty good one, with a bathtub and shower like a normal household bathroom would have, the tub being there mainly to bathe Pokemon however.

Best of all was the window looking out the side of the Pokémon Center, at least in Zeke's opinion, because tonight it gave him a rather nice view of the moon. Zeke wasted no time putting his bags down before he collapsed on the bed, having traveled for several days straight before coming here. "Ahhh...bed...how I've missed thee..." Zeke muttered out before he stuffed his face into the pillow. He laid still for a couple moments just relaxing, not really making an effort to go to sleep.

Eventually he was feeling like he was about to fall to sleep, managing to lift his face off of the pillow and sit up, scooting himself over to the edge of the bed before standing up, talking towards his gym bag he always traveled with to carry extra things. He unzipped the bag and brought out two metal bowls, setting them on the top of the table for the moment.

He then brought out two bags of food, which he tore open and poured one bag each into the bowls, the food being the general sort used for Pokemon. After emptying the contents of both bags and throwing them both away he picked the two bowls up and sat them down upon the floor near the table, several feet apart from each other.

Zeke then stood up and reached into his shirt pocket, taking out two Pokeballs, and clicking them both in the palm of his hand, the two balls suddenly expanding to the size of two baseballs as Zeke tossed them both out and onto the floor.

Both of the balls bounced off the floor and snapped open, unleashing a sudden in a flash of light as they did. One Pokeball revealed the Salamence from the tournament earlier, and the other revealed another Pokemon, Flygon, another large Pokemon that stood even taller than Zeke. It was colored by two shades of green, with two large clear red covers around its eyes which not only looked but worked like goggles, it was also a dragon type like the Salamence, but unlike the Salamence, which was both a dragon and flying type, the Flygon was a dragon and ground type.

Zeke preferred dragon types above most other type of Pokemon; his family had a very long history of being trainers and breeders for dragon type Pokemon. He also preferred them because they were usually very durable and powerful, with very few weaknesses and a good range of attacks that they were usually all usually able to learn. Aside from that, dragon types just looked very imposing just plain cool, which really helped him grow to love them as a child.

His father, Cino was also a trainer preferring dragon types for example; he had beaten over half of the Pokemon leagues in his career as a trainer. Zeke wasn't anywhere close to being as good as him, although he didn't have that many Pokemon yet either. He just stuck with his Salamence and Flygon for his past 6 years as a trainer, which was an unusually low amount for a trainer of his skill.

However, Zeke also believed it was quality, not quantity that made the trainer, so he never really bothered capturing any Pokemon except the Flygon he had. He did know he needed to catch some more Pokemon though, his father had four after all.

Before Zeke could turn around and head back to the bed to sit however, both the Salamence and Flygon were done with their meals, sitting up fully and looking at him, the Flygon holding out its bowl with his front arms like if he was asking for more. "You could at least taste the food guys." Zeke said, getting a shake from both their heads in response.

"And no seconds for you especially, you're enough trouble as it is you." Zeke said as he returned the Flygon into his ball, the empty bowl dropping down from where it was being held down on the floor. He clicked the ball and returned it to his shirt pocket, turning his attention to the Salamence.

It walked up to him and nudged its head up against his arm, asking Zeke to pet him. Zeke smiled slightly and petted the top of his head for a few moments before returning him to his ball. "Later buddy." He said as the Salamence was taken it by the red beam of light, leaving Zeke alone in the room.

He clicked the button on the front of the ball, making to go back to the size of a golf ball before returning it to the th shirt pocket on his jacket. He walked over to the door and flipped the switch to the lights, turning them off, then headed over to the window and opened the blinds, letting the soft light of the moon in.

Zeke took a couple steps back and laid back upon the bed with a flop, quickly getting comfortable, not even bothering to get the covers up over himself. "Ahhh..." Zeke sighed out as he got himself comfortable. After a few moments he settled down and turned his head towards the window.

'Another day alone...' Zeke thought as he gazed up towards the moon. He sighed and turned his head away, now feeling rather lonely. He closed his eyes and went to sleep, trying to keep his mind off of what was behind him now.


Part 3.


The next morning Zeke woke up to a very bright light shining in his face. "Urgh...damn it that's right...I didn't close the curtains..." Zeke growled to himself as he shielded his eyes from the morning sun, dozing off last night with the blinds open.

After a few minutes of laying there with his arm over his head he finally figured he should get up, lying around wasn't going to get anything done. He slowly got up out of the bed and stretched out with a loud yawn.

He walked over to his gym bag, getting out the two bowls again and pouring out some more food. He released the Salamence and Flygon back into the room from the two Pokeballs. "Breakfast time you two, got some traveling to do today and I need you guys ready." Zeke announced as he set their bowls out down from table.

They both nodded and started to dig into their food. While they ate, Zeke walked over to his gym bag and got some clean clothes out, then made his way to the bathroom to take a quick shower before they left.

A quick shower later he came out of the bathroom, wearing another heavy jacket, this one being crimson with white accents, much like his previous jacket. Along with that, he wore his usual black cargo pants, he was never really the one to make any fashion statements but he didn't really care either.

The first thing he noticed when he walked out of the bathroom was his Salamence and Flygon arguing, with the Salamence being his usual calm self while the Flygon was yelling things at him, only to get what seemed to be a snide comment in return, further agitating the Flygon.

"Alright, alright break it up guys." Zeke muttered with a sigh, bringing out a Pokeball and returning the Flygon into it, just leaving the Salamence out. "You can hang out here a little bit longer I suppose." Zeke said as he returned the Pokeball to his jacket.

The Salamence smiled, rather satisfied with itself and laid down with a small huff. The Salamence was Zeke's first Pokemon, and he was friends with it long before he became a trainer, back when it was just a Bagon. They first met when he hatched from a Pokemon egg that one of Zeke's fathers Salamence had, Zeke was only 4 years old then.

They occasionally got to see each other after that, usually to play or spend time together. They got along very well when they were younger. In fact, they were almost siblings, least that's how both they honestly felt, Zeke wasn't really close with any of his own siblings and the Salamence didn't know his own siblings at all, as far as he was concerned, Zeke was his only real kin.

Now however the two have drifted apart, not at all very close to each other like they used to be. This was primarily because of some troubles Zeke's had in the past that caused him to change; he wasn't very open anymore, he was quiet and kept to himself, the complete opposite of how he was when he was a child.

Zeke didn't have that many friends really, his only human ones being the few he had back in his hometown from when he was a child. Zeke never exactly found himself a girl either, although for the past year or so he's developed a habit of flirting with any girl he found attractive, but he quickly dropped all of the ones that opened up with him right away, because of whatever reasons he personally had, never finding the right one.

It was a shame too; Zeke had very few bad qualities about him. He was a very kind person despite the fact he was as quiet as he was. In fact, the reason he learned how to give medical treatments to Pokemon was so that he could protect Salamence, and later Flygon, from ever getting hurt from their fights.

Although Zeke also helped any Pokemon he came across that was injured or sick, one could say that Zeke enjoyed being around Pokemon more than people. Mainly due to the fact that Zeke opened up more around Pokemon usually, or at least he seemed to, always putting on an honest smile on his face.

With humans it was different, although Zeke was close to a few humans, that being his family and friends, he never opened up to them in the same way. It was probably because his closest childhood friend leaving.

Since that day Zeke was different, granted his younger years were quite troubled as it was, but despite everything else, that was the only thing that managed to change him. He felt sorry for him, but he couldn't exactly do anything to help Zeke either, as Zeke couldn't understand him.

The Salamence sighed to itself quite deeply and curled his head around his body along with his tail. Oh well, the only thing he could do now was hope that something drastic would change in Zeke's life so he could finally put everything behind himself and move forward.

Meanwhile Zeke was watching the TV in the room; going over the Pokemon news station for news on any events happening around here that maybe of interest, and almost all of it wasn't anything that concerned Zeke. "...we should also mention the series of Pokemon contests of this year will be starting in Pewter City next week..." One of the reporters said while talking about Pokemon related events happening in Kanto.

'Ah, lovely,' Zeke thought after he heard that, he liked contests, merely to watch them, he wouldn't ever dare enter one. He couldn't see his Salamence or Flygon do anything exactly "graceful" even if it were to save his life, he only taught them to battle.

The one thing he did enjoy about contests was all the pretty girls that seemed to like entering. Zeke was a slight womanizer, but he just did that to test how easy they are, the easy ones were undesirable for him, and most of the hard ones were too cold. Nevertheless, despite that it was a good form of personal amusement for him that was almost too good to pass up.

"...also the region wide Pokemon battle tournaments will be continuing next month, this time in Cerulean City, with a big mystery prize being rewarded to the winner..." Zeke heard as his attention snapped back to the TV.

"Hmm...mystery prize huh?" Zeke said to himself for no particular reason, pretty much thinking out loud to himself. "Salamence what do you think? Worth a go?" Zeke asked, turning his head towards the Salamence lying down across the room. It raised its head, giving him a low growl and a nod in reply.

Zeke smiled to himself slightly and returned the nod. "Alright, I guess that concludes our travel plans for the next month, thanks buddy." Zeke said as he turned off the TV. The Salamence got up, this usually meant Zeke was about ready to leave.

"Alright I'll see you tonight maybe." Zeke said as he pulled a Pokeball from his jacket, returning the Salamence back into its ball. Zeke quickly gathered up his belongings and set off out the door.

He was going to have to make a few stops before he left town however, the first of which being getting rid of his trophy he won by shipping it home. Second was transferring the money he won last night into his trainer savings account.


Part 4.


Later that day at around noon Zeke was finally off on the road, after lightening the load of objects he had to carry back down to his normal backpack and gym bag. He also made a stop at the local Pokemart to buy some things, mainly food for his Salamence and Flygon since they did tend to go through it a lot.

He also stopped by a local diner and got some breakfast, which was a refreshing break from his own cooking, which, needless to say was rather bland since he was used to it and the fact he couldn't carry anything fancy with him aside maybe some canned or boxed foods.

As he walked down the route out of town he noticed just how nice the weather was today, just like last night it was clear, which a few wisps of clouds in the sky and an occasional breeze which softly shook the leaves in the trees along the path.

One of the things he noticed was a lot of bug type Pokemon around here too, mainly consisting of Caterpies, Metapods, Weedles and Kakunas. He also saw various other Pokemon from different parts of the region traveling through here, as well as strays, where Pokemon from other regions that have been left here by their trainers for whatever reason, which sometimes gave them a chance to migrate to other regions.

Despite with the abundance of wild Pokemon around, they were all peaceful. Which was a good thing for two reasons, it saved him time and he didn't have to get in any meaningless battles with any wild Pokemon. He honestly hated having to deal with the occasional overly aggressive wild Pokemon that figured it would attack him.

The main reason he disliked it however was the fact he sometimes had to treat those wild Pokemon for burns or other injuries afterwords, which costed him money due to the use of his own medical supplies used on a wild Pokemon.

After about an hour into Zeke's trek towards Pewter City, he found the forest getting a little quieter, with not many Pokemon about here. He found it a little odd that the closer it was to the city the more Pokemon there were, it was usually the opposite of that; something was definitely off here.

However he didn't really bother himself by thinking of the reason why this was the case, it wasn't any of his business, probably some pack of Pokemon or something scaring off all of the usually local Pokemon away or something.

'Oh yeah...speaking about Pokemon...' He thought to himself, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his Pokedex then flipped it open. He activated it and scrolled through the list of Dragon types native to the Kanto region, figuring it might give him something to look out for while he was here.

"Hmm... Dragonite maybe...? Nahh...Kingdra perhaps...? No..." Zeke lowly muttered, thinking to himself out loud again. However, his track of thought wasn't maintained for long, as a yelp echoed through the forest, snapping Zeke's attention towards the direction it came from.

'That...didn't sound good at all...' Zeke thought as he looked into the forest. He heard another loud yelp, this one clearly being that of pain. Zeke immediately started running off into the forest with that, extremely concerned now over what had to have been occurring now.

He quickly made his way through the dense undergrowth of the forest, managing to keep a strong pace about him as he did. Surprisingly he wasn't jumped by any wild Pokemon as he ran through the brush, not even seeing any, the only thing about him being the trees and low laying plants and leaves that littered the whole forest.

Zeke heard another loud yelp; this one being a little bit louder and painful sounding than the others, Zeke knew he didn't have much time left if he didn't get there soon. Finally, he made his way to the end of the forest to a large field, where a battle or at least one at first glance seemed to be taking place.

Zeke saw a trainer standing in the middle of the field, wearing a brown jacket and blue jeans, with a snowcap and a somewhat sadistic grin upon his face. Zeke then looked over towards the battle that was taking place; he saw a black, demon like dog, a Houndoom standing firmly. It didn't seem to be hurt, so it wasn't obviously wasn't the one making those yelps.

Zeke then saw an orange and cream-colored otter-like Pokemon slowly getting up from the patch of grass it was down in. It was a Buizel, a female one too from the looks of it, Zeke easily able to tell from the single oval shaped cream colored spot on its back.

It stumbled forward and tried to run away but only ended up stumbling over to the ground, seemingly injured quite seriously from how it moved. Zeke looked around for a trainer that might have owned it, there wasn't one, it must have been a stray, but why was it that hurt? If the trainer was trying to catch it then he should have easily been able to do so in the state it was currently in.

His question however would shortly be answered asthe Buizel scrambled up again to it's feet again, followed by a laugh from the trainer in response. "Oh still trying to run away you useless waste of a Pokeball?! Houndoom, show that useless little bitch what happens to a Pokemon that doesn't make itself useful to its trainer!" He ordered, smirking to himself as he spoke.

The Houndoom then opened its jaws and shot a Flamethrower at the Buizel, hitting it in the back, launching it forward a short distance before it hit the ground, rolling a small distance. Zeke couldn't believe this; that Buizel belonged to that trainer? Who the hell would ever treat their own Pokemon like this!?

The Buizel managed to push itself back up to its feet, still desperately trying to get away, however it could barely even manage to walk at this point. The Houndoom quickly ran over towards the Buizel, knocking it over to the ground with a lunge to the back, pinning it to the ground roughly as he picked up one of her front paws in his maw, brutally yanking it to the side and biting into it, immediately drawing blood from the bite.

"Damn it I'm not watching him torture that poor thing!" Zeke said to himself as he drew a Pokeball from his jacket. The Houndoom then stopped and rolled the Buizel over onto her back, pinning its paw back down on its chest. The Buizel wasn't even struggling now, she just wanted the Houndoom to hurry up and end it.

The trainer laughed again. "Finish it! Burn that sorry mistake for being the trash she is!" He ordered coldly, his Houndoom having no second thoughts about the order as it opened its jaw, taking aim at the Buizel's head as flames started whipping around it's maw. The Buizel merely turned her head away, closing her eyes as she trembled, awaiting the finishing blow, her only hope being that it would be painless.

The Houndoom then sharply lowered its head down to deliver the final blow, but it was as soon as it did it was hit broadside by a beam of energy which sent it flying across the clearing, broadsiding a tree which caused the beam to explode, toppling several other trees down around the area of the explosion along with a strong tremble of the ground.

"Bu...ii?" The Buizel almost squeaked out as she opened her eyes, only to find the blue sky above her and not the Houndoom. She only felt a very sudden impact over it followed by a loud yelp, followed by a loud bang not very far from here and the trembling of the earth below her.

The trainer quickly looked over from where the beam originated from, seeing two figures run out of the forest, a human followed a larger figure behind it.

Zeke wasted no time in rushing over towards the downed Buizel as his Salamence followed him, keeping itself between Zeke and the trainer on the other side of the clearing, keeping a close eye on the trainer.

"Just who the hell do you think you are attacking my fucking Pokemon like that you asswipe?!" The trainer shouted at Zeke as he rushed to the Buizel's aid.

Zeke brushed off his question and ran up beside the Buizel, immediately met by a growl as soon as the Buizel saw him, bearing her teeth as she tried to warn him away, rightful untrusting of humans, thinking Zeke might have been just another human that would hurt her.

"Don't you fucking ignore me when I'm talking too you, you bastard!" The trainer shouted. Zeke growled to himself as he clenched his fists, hardly ever getting upset or pissed off, this being one of those care cases.

"Who the hell am I you ask...who am I? Who the hell do you think YOU are?! No trainer has the right to ever treat a Pokemon like that! They're living things with emotions and feelings, yet you dare treat them like trash?!" Zeke shouted, turning his attention to the trainer.

The trainer grinned in response. "A fucking pissed off trainer is who I am, I caught that good for nothing Buizel by mistake when I was trying to catch a much more powerful one, I've tried using it to battle several times but it loses even against weak trainers, the fucking bitch is useless. She even tried to run away from me, so all I'm doing is helping her escape me like she oh so desperately wants. But you had to fucking show up and attack my Houndoom for practically no fucking reason." The trainer said in his own defense.

"If you're fucking so unhappy with her then you could just fucking release her like a normal person you sick bastard!" Zeke shouted in response.

"Not like something that weak and worthless is gonna last long in the wild anyways, I'm doing her a favor honestly." The trainer replied, not finding anything he was doing wrong.

Zeke growled to himself, hardly able to believe how heartless this guy was, it was sickening. "Fine...if she's so worthless then mind handing over her Pokeball over to me then?" Zeke asked, taking a deep calming breath, trying to keep his anger in check despite the situation.

"Hahaha! Like hell! This things worth more than that little runts life, and once she's finished I can use it to get myself a BETTER Pokemon, it'd be better spent on even a fucking Magikarp than that little runt there." He said, tossing the Pokeball that belonged to the Buizel in the palm of his hand as he spoke.

Zeke sighed then looked back over towards the Buizel, who still had its eyes glued on Zeke, not growling now but just merely watching him. Zeke turned his head back towards the trainer. "Fine, I'll make you a deal then, fight me, winner gets the Buizel and my Salamence." Zeke stated, the Salamence looked over at Zeke a little surprised but didn't at all mind, he knew he wasn't going to lose.

The trainer blinked in disbelief; that was about the best deal he's ever gotten. "Alright you're on idiot." The trainer said, throwing a Pokeball out towards the ground. It snapped open as it hit the ground, releasing a flash of light, which revealed a large Aggron, which was even larger than most of its own kind, standing at a good seven and a half feet.

Both Zeke and Salamence smiled, they could tell that despite its appearance it wasn't very strong, it lacked experience, it wasn't very fast and it couldn't resist long range attacks as well as it could physical ones; this was going to be easy.

"Alright let's finish off this idiot and get us a new Salamence quick! Use Double-Edge!" The trainer ordered, the Aggron charged forward at the Salamence recklessly, without any thought as to what might happen.

Zeke grinned a little bit; the trainer obviously didn't know much about tactics either. "Salamence use Fly!" Zeke shouted, the Salamence responding by stretching out its two large red wings, giving a strong flap with them, kicking up a large gust around himself before he launched up it the air. The Aggron ended up missing it as the Salamence took off, skidding several feet to a halt, nearly loosing its footing as it did.

The Salamence quickly rose up as it flied higher and higher in the air, managed to make it up a good distance, at least a couple hundred feet within the air before it suddenly paused, its momentum carrying it a small distance before it turned around, suddenly diving straight back down with its wings flat against its sides.

"Hyper beam! Hurry!" The trainer shouted, the Aggron responding with a loud roar as it threw its armored head back, its maw wide open with a ball of energy charging within it. It shot a beam of energy up towards the Salamence, making it have to veer away to avoid the attack*

The Salamence dropped out of the air, landing on the ground roughly on all fours. "Fire Blast!" Zeke shouted, the Salamence responding by opening its maw as flames thickly seeped from it, breathing out a wide five pronged blast of fire towards the Aggron. The attack again connected, enveloping the Aggron completely in flames, which toppled it over into the ground with a loud thud.

"Get up!" The trainer shouted out, the Aggron slowly returned to its feet, although it was obviously hurting from the last attack now. "Hyper beam!" The trainer shouted, the Aggron opened its mouth and shot another beam of energy at the Salamence, this time hitting it, causing a ground shaking explosion.

A cloud of dust hung over where the Salamence was for a few seconds, hiding the result of the attack. "Show him what an actual Hyper Beam is." Zeke knowingly said. After he did crackling sound of electricity was heard from the cloud of dust, before it was blown away by the yellow beam of energy flying out of it, revealing the Salamence again, who only had a minor mark on its chest from where the last attack hit.

The Hyper Beam caught the Aggron by surprise, hitting it square in the chest; much like its own did to the Salamence. Another explosion occurred, this one being bigger than the last one, with the Aggron going out from the other side of the dust cloud, skidding across the ground on its back.

The trainer quickly ran around to get a view of the downed Aggron. "Get up damn it!" The trainer shouted, but the Aggron couldn't hear it's orders, it was out cold. "Damn it! Get up!" The trainer ordered, with those words falling on deaf ears.

"You owe me a certain Buizel's Pokeball." Zeke said with a rather annoyed expression. The trainer glared over at Zeke, growling to himself in frustration over loosing to such a trainer. The tossed the Pokeball belonging to the Buizel aside and returned the Aggron back to its Pokeball.

"Fine, I guess you deserve my trash after all, I'm fuckin' outta here." The trainer briskly said as he walked over towards where the Houndoom was, still out from the single Hyper Beam the Salamence fired earlier. Zeke didn't really bother to go over and get the Pokeball. That was unimportant to him; the only thing that was important to him now was that wounded Buizel.

He quickly took a step over closer towards the Buizel, but was met with another growl, the Buizel looked at Zeke with her eyes full of confusion and hate, she obviously didn't want Zeke anywhere near her, she rightfully didn't, Zeke understood this. But whether she liked it or not, she needed to have those wounds on her treated soon, as she had a small pool of blood beside her. She was covered in an assortment of wounds, ranging from bite marks, to scratches, to minor burns.

Zeke stepped closer to her, only to have her growl raise as he got closer, until he finally got next to her. "Please, trust me; you don't have to go through that anymore." Zeke softly said, trying to comfort the Buizel, it didn't work; the Buizel just looked up at him, now bearing its teeth to warn him not to get any closer.

Meanwhile the Salamence managed to collect the Pokeball the trainer left in its mouth before walking over towards Zeke, keeping a close eye on the Buizel, he didn't really like the fact it was growling at Zeke like that when he was only trying to help her.

Zeke knelt down towards the Buizel and reached his arm out towards the Buizel's wounded paw, the Buizel's eyes completely focused on the arm drawing ever closer to her.

She jolted forward with what energy she had and bit down on Zeke's arm, piercing his skin, immediately drawing blood from the bite wound, it being pretty deep with the force put into it. Zeke gritted his teeth down and tried to reframe from crying out in pain, 'Crap that hurts!' Zeke thought to himself, enduring the pain as best he could. The Salamence rushed over to help Zeke, but Zeke raised his other arm up in the air, motioning for him to stop.

"I-it's fine, its fine Salamence, I don't need you to stop her or anything...just please stand aside..." Zeke laboredly said, trying to hide the pain he was in. It didn't fool the Salamence however; he knew the pain Zeke must have been feeling now, obvious by his sudden sweating and heavy breathing.

Zeke's blood was now running down the sides of the Buizel's mouth, quickly running down to its chin, where the blood dripped down towards the ground. Zeke finally managed to gather himself together; he then moved his other arm towards the Buizel's paw.

She saw Zeke's other arm getting closer to her; this human wasn't going to give up obviously. She then opened her mouth wide open, and then took another bite into the very same spot she was biting down on before; this one went quite a bit deeper into Zeke's arm, all the way to the bone. Zeke loudly screamed in pain that time, the bleeding getting heavier with the deepening of the wound.

The Salamence immediately opened its mouth and readied an attack at the Buizel, it had enough of this. "No!" Zeke ordered, breathing roughly now. "Don't...please...just turn your head away if it bothers you, I don't care what happens, I just need to help her..." Zeke said. The Salamence didn't quite get why Zeke was being this persistent; he's never seen Zeke quite this determined to help a Pokemon like this, despite his obvious care for them.

Zeke reached back out towards the Buizel with his other arm, the Buizel was dumbfounded with how determined this human was, she bit him twice and yet he still wouldn't give up. Zeke finally got his hand next to the Buizel's face and softly petted the side of her cream colored cheek while smiling softly down at her.

"Please...let me help you, I don't want to see you suffer like this needlessly, I know you hate humans and sadly enough, I happen to be one, but please give me a chance to help you." Zeke pleaded, the Buizel blinked several times, registering his words, he sounded nice, sincere, but it was weird.

This human wasn't...bad...he didn't fight back or anything, if she bit her old trainer like this he would have killed her, and this human, yet she bit this human twice, and he only smiled and insisted on helping her. The more she thought about it, the less sense it made.

But even if he seemed nice that didn't mean she could exactly trust him...could she? No...humans were bad...but she just knew that one...so...maybe this one was...different? But how exactly could she trust him? As she was fighting with herself over whether to trust him or not, she noticed all of the blood he was losing.

She knew that was usually pretty bad...oddly she felt very concerned now...she shouldn't...but she did. She looked into the humans face, trying to figure out if she could really trust him. Zeke looked her in the eyes, now feeling kind of light headed as he continued to lose blood, he knew he probably wasn't going to be awake much longer unless he treated those wounds on himself, but he had to get her to trust him, even if that meant the cost of his own well being.

"Please, trust me, if you don't get treated soon, this would be for nothing." Zeke again pleaded, trying to get the Buizel to trust him enough to let him work on her.

As Zeke pulled his arm away, she noticed it the spot where she bit him and down was covered almost completely crimson with blood. She glanced over at her own wounded paw, immediately feeling horrible about biting him, she knew exactly how that must have been feeling for him.

He was only trying to help her, yet she bit him like that, human or not, he was still trying to help her. She teared up slowly from the thought of being that ignorant, feeling like an absolute idiot now, worst of all; she could tell that the bite she dealt to him was serious, he was loosing quite a bit of blood, the taste of his blood still thick in her maw.

She started crying, letting out those held back tears, crying in both physical and emotional pain, not at all resisting Zeke now, she didn't have a choice but too trust him now, her only hope being that he would be okay, at the very least owing him for his kindness.

Zeke could tell she came around. "Thank you." Zeke softly thanked as he pulled both his hands away from her, hurriedly setting down his gym bag and opening it with his good hand, getting some things to help stop the bleeding and pain for the Buizel.

He didn't even bother to patch himself up, he knew he was going to pass out soon, so he was going to completely focus on getting as much work as he could done on the Buizel. He pulled out a couple jars and opened them up, running several of his fingers through it, gathering a thick, paste like substance on them, then rubbed it against the Buizel's bite wound on its arm.

The Buizel yelped in pain as the thick substance was rubbed against her bite wound, the feeling of having it rubbed into those bleeding teeth marks not at all pleasant; almost fainting right there. That was, thankfully, he only major wound, the rest consisted of burns and scrapes.

He pulled out some bandages and quickly began wrapping up her paw tightly to completely stop the bleeding, soon finding the Buizel to be completely limp before he was finished. She passed out, which in fact made his work easier as well as comforted him, now able to have the piece of mind that she wasn't suffering and in pain right now.

After he was done wrapping up her arm, he pulled out some sprays and ointments to help tend to the burns and smaller scrapes, wanting to get as much done now as he could get done on her.

As he was working on her he could feel his own grip on the world growing faint. 'Just a little longer...' He thought as he feverishly treated her wounds. After he dusted her burns over with a quick mist of burn heals and patched up her smaller cuts and scrapes he was done, only taking a few short minutes to finish.

He picked her up in his arms and got up with some obvious difficulty, walking over to his Salamence's side and laying the Buizel down upon his back. "Here...hope you don't mind the extra weight..." Zeke apologized with a small laugh, his arm quite a bit with his own blood.

The Salamence gave a concerned whine as it nudged his shoulder, the small nudge being enough to catch Zeke off balance, making him fall over to the ground. Zeke slowly returned to his feet, trying not to pass out, the Salamence hurriedly helped him up, using his head and neck to help lift him up. "Sorry about that...I suppose I over did it just a little...didn't I?" Zeke weakly laughed as he got up.

The Salamence slowly shook his head and nudged Zeke towards his back, urging him to get on Zeke agreed that yes, it was probably a good time to get going, he managed to pull himself onto the Salamence's back with the last of his strength, pulling the Buizel on top of himself and holding her firmly within his grasp as he laid himself back. "Let's go..." He breathed, the world starting to fade a little more with each blink of his eyes.

The Salamence wasted no time in taking off from the ground as soon as Zeke got himself onto his back, trying his best to keep him or the Buizel from falling off as he flew above the tree tops, quickly finding the path to Viridian City again.

He dove down and flew low to the path so neither Zeke nor the Buizel would be hurt seriously by a fall, hurrying back towards Viridan city.

It didn't take but several minutes for the Salamence to make up the ground that Zeke had walked, quickly entered town and flying above the roads, finding its way to the Pokemon Center, knowing that Nurse Joy would sort out everything for him once he arrived.

He quickly found it and landed, walking through the automatic doors to the Pokemon Center, letting out a small raspy hiss as it entered, trying to get the Nurse Joy's attention. It worked; the Nurse Joy snapping her head towards the Salamence, finding it in no company of a trainer as it walked in. "Where is your..." She questioned before she noticed something on its back, unable to tell exactly what it was from behind the desk.

The Salamence gestured with its head for the Nurse Joy to come around and look at what it had on its back; she walked out from behind the counter and gasped at what she saw. She immediately rushed over and picked the Buizel from Zeke's grasp and handed it to one of the Chanseys so it could take the Buizel in to have it treated, noticing the Buizel had been mostly taken care of already, her main concern here was Zeke however, whom was obviously in bad shape from blood loss.

"This way!" Nurse Joy said as the rushed out of the Pokemon Center towards the local hospital. The Salamence followed her as quickly as it could with Zeke's body still drooped over on its back, still losing blood from his arm. 'Please hold on Zeke...' The Salamence thought as he followed Nurse Joy down the street.


Part 5.


"Wha-...Where am...?" Zeke said as he woke up, finding himself lying down in a bed, in an unfamiliar room now. Zeke got at up, feeling really weak now, he was then greeted by his Salamence who nudged him, wanting to know if he was okay.

Zeke looked over at the blue dragon and laughed slightly, realizing he was in a hospital room. "Oh don't worry you old ham, I'm fine." Zeke said as he petted its head. Zeke looked over at the table, spotting three Pokeball's resting on the top of it.

Zeke looked down at his arm left arm, it was wrapped in bandages. "Her..." Zeke muttered to himself, remember the Buizel he saved. He wondered if she was okay, she was probably at the Pokemon Center still, he didn't know how much time has passed since he arrived back here.

"Is the Buizel still at the Pokemon Center?" Zeke questioned, the Salamence nodding twice in response. Zeke knew he shouldn't be getting up and about in the condition he was in but he didn't care, he was a fast healer anyways, he had to know if that Buizel was okay. "Alright...I'll get changed into some clothes...just help get me to the Pokemon Center okay?" Zeke asked, the Salamence gave Zeke an unsure nod in response, it still couldn't understand why Zeke was so concerned over that Buizel.

Zeke slowly got up out of the bed and looked around for his gym bag; he was in a hospital gown now so he obviously couldn't really go out in that. He found his bag at the end of the bed, he walked over to it, only to almost nearly fall over several times, he really felt screwed up.

The Salamence went over and helped to guide Zeke around the room with his head, offering him some support to walk with. "Thanks...sorry I'm such a hand full lately." Zeke apologized, the Salamence smirked to himself and then stepped away from Zeke suddenly, giving him a nudge to his side, causing Zeke to fall over on the floor like a sack of potatoes.

The Salamence snickered to itself, letting Zeke know that he wasn't a "hand full" by any means. Zeke slowly picked himself up, looking over at the Salamence with a slight glare. "Very funny." Zeke sarcastically remarked, shaking his head as he got up, using the bed to guide himself to his gym bag.

A few minutes later Zeke got changed into his clothes, again these were like his other ones, but these were white mainly, with blue accents and trim. "Alright, let's go." Zeke said as he walked over towards the door, wobbling still. The Salamence quickly followed him and stuck its head under his right arm so he could use him for support.

"Thanks." Zeke said as they both made their way out of the hospital, Zeke made sure to pay the bill for his room and convinced the doctors he was alright to leave on his way out, them having no reason to hold him anymore as he was in stable condition now.

After several minutes of labored walking, Zeke and Salamence made it over to the Pokemon Center. As soon as they got to the door Zeke quickly rushed in ahead of his Salamence, who then rushed ahead to help keep Zeke from stumbling over.

Nurse Joy noticed Zeke running into the Pokemon Center when he wasn't even really supposed to be out of the hospital for a least a few more days. "What are you doing here young man? You're supposed to be in the hospital recovering!" Nurse Joy said, getting up from behind the front desk.

"Where's that Buizel? The one I came in with? Is she alright?" Zeke demanded, wanting to know if she was alright.

"She's fine, most of her wounds were taken care of before she got here, by you I take it, but she's been asleep since she came in here yesterday." Nurse Joy answered. Zeke let out a sigh of relief to the news that she was okay. "Now if you don't mind I would like to ask you some questions regarding to how she got hurt like that and how you got those bite wounds on your arm." Nurse Joy asked, folding her arms and looking at Zeke suspiciously.

Zeke knew he would get blamed for this, being the one that brought her in he was the only one who could claim responsibility for her being in that condition. "Well if you would, may we sit down for a few moments so I can explain everything that happened?" Zeke asked as his Salamence lifted its head back under his arm to help keep him steady.

"Right this way then." Nurse Joy said, walking towards a waiting bench off in the side of the room, taking a seat. Zeke followed her and took a seat beside her, taking a deep breath as he sat down. "Well...you see..." Zeke started off as he began to explain everything that happened yesterday to the Nurse Joy.

"I see...," Nurse Joy said, Zeke's story seemed fairly solid to her, she never really suspected him of this to start with, he had an extremely clean trainer record and he didn't have the Buizel on any of his files, nor were any of the wounds afflicted on it from a Salamence or a Flygon.

"Well I'm pretty sure I can rule you out as the one who did this, and you are obviously capable of taking care of her, and at least in my opinion, wouldn't harm her. I'll clear her Pokeball registration from the national data base and reenter in under yours, if this happens again then you will be held accountable." Nurse Joy said as she got up, taking the Pokéball that belonged to the Buizel to the front desk.

Zeke slowly got up and followed her. "So will you also try to find out who her old trainer is?" Zeke asked, wanting to at least know who her old trainer was.

"I'll take a look at that before I do anything else." Nurse Joy said as she put the ID number of the Pokeball into the database. A few minutes of searching and it came up as unfound. "Well it looks like this Pokeball hasn't ever been registered...I guess there's no need to clear it then, I'll immediately add it to your profile and you can have it back." Nurse Joy said as reentered the Pokeball ID, registering it into Zeke's name.

"Here you go." Nurse Joy said a she handed Zeke the Pokeball. "The Buizel is yours now; I hope you take very good care of her." Nurse Joy continued as Zeke took the ball from her hand. Zeke smiled lightly and nodded in agreement.

"Yeah...she needs all of the care she can get...poor girl..." Zeke muttered as he looked at the Pokeball in his hand. Zeke then turned his attention back up towards Nurse Joy. "Is she okay to go out of the recovery room? I'll get a room here and stay here and personally keep an eye on her while she recovers, I don't think she would be comfortable around anyone else." Zeke asked.

Nurse Joy was slightly unsure if she should let Zeke do that, but she knew Zeke was more than capable of caring for a Pokemon as well. "Alright, let me get you the keys to your room and I'll let you collect her from the recovery room." Nurse Joy answered.

"Thank you." Zeke said, thankful that she was being as trusting as she was of him. He followed her to the front desk, where she handed him the keys to his room, then he followed he to the back area of the Pokemon Center where Pokemon were treated.

After walking down a fairly long hallway Nurse Joy opened a door to one of the recovery rooms. Inside the room was a bunch of medical equipment used to help keep Pokemon in stable condition as they recovered. And there on a small bed was the Buizel Zeke met the other day, with its orange and cream fur still dirty and tattered, with dried blood on it here and there.

Zeke smiled and immediately walked over to her peaceful, sleeping body and looked at her, relieved to see her again with his own eyes. Nurse Joy unhooked the equipment that was monitoring her condition. "You're free to take her now." She said as she walked back over towards the door.

"Thank you." Zeke thanked as he carefully scooped up the Buizel in his arms, he walked over towards the door, walking on his own unassisted by the Salamence, which slightly shocked it; Zeke almost seemed a lot better now that he had the Buizel with him again.

He continued to curiously keep an eye on Zeke, wondering what this was all about. Then an idea hit him. Zeke must have really cared for that Buizel, in such a way that he was opening up, yes this is exactly what Zeke needed! Granted this wasn't exactly a plan the Salamence could help with, he had to hope the Buizel would get as close as it could to Zeke, hopefully close enough that he can stop looking back towards his past.

A minute or so later they got to the room Zeke was going to stay in while he and the Buizel recovered. Zeke carefully opened the door and tapped it open with his foot; he immediately walked over to the bed and carefully laid the Buizel down on it.

He laid his bags down next to the bed and then sat down on the bed, sighing to himself softly as he watched over her, with seemingly no other concern in the world right now. Zeke didn't know why himself, he just really cared for this Buizel in a way he hasn't really cared for a Pokemon before, probably because of all it must have went through with its old trainer. Zeke felt responsible to try to make that up to her by being as kind as he could be to her and to show her that all humans weren't bad, she was just unlucky before.

The only thing he wanted to do for her was make her happy, which was honestly the first time he's ever wanted to do such a thing for anyone in a really long time. But first he had to look after her, he had to make sure she was okay first, and that if she actually did trust him enough to maybe go with him.

Zeke sat there patiently for several hours, not really moving, just watching over the Buizel. Zeke's Salamence was utterly surprised by Zeke's dedication to stay there by that Buizel's side like he was when he didn't really even know it.

Although Zeke couldn't stay up much longer, he felt rather tired now. He stayed there for another half an hour and she was still asleep. Zeke figured that she probably wasn't going to wake up soon either, so he should get some rest himself at least.

Zeke turned his head over towards the Salamence that was patiently keeping its eye on him. "Do you mind keeping an eye on her for me? I need to get some rest, if she wakes up would you wake me?" Zeke asked, the Salamence nodded and walked over next to the bed, sitting down and looking down at the Buizel laying on it.

"I owe you one man." Zeke said as he got up and slowly walked over towards the other side of the room to the table, pulling out a chair and sitting down. He closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep, he would have slept in the bed but it was occupied the Buizel, and he didn't really want to share the bed with her.

As he tried to go to sleep he couldn't help but think about her, it was almost like she was haunting his head. He tried to ignore it the best he could though and fell to sleep after about an hour of thinking.


Part 6.


The next day Zeke woke up, first noticing a nagging pain in his arm and his back. He opened his eyes and looked at his arm, seeing the bandages still around it. Zeke looked over and saw his Salamence still sitting there keeping watch of the Buizel dutifully.

Zeke slowly got up out of the chair, standing up and then stretching out with a rather sound yawn, which was interrupted by a loud crack from his back with made him momentarily pause. "Ouch..." Zeke said. He felt that... from now on, he should probably avoid chairs from now on.

The Salamence turned its head over towards Zeke, noticing the bit of pain he was in from the look on his face. "So! Has sleeping beauty over there woken up yet?" Zeke asked as he laughed a little, he then tried to move but was stopped by another loud crack from his back. The Salamence grinned at the stupid look on Zeke's face now and shook its head.

"Ah well...I guess I should let you get some rest after a good meal." Zeke said as he tried to move yet again, this time with no more complaints from his back. He walked over to the gym bag and got out the bowls he used for Salamence's and Flygon's food and poured out a bag of Pokemon food.

He brought out another pokéball and tossed it on the floor, releasing the Flygon that was inside it. The Flygon looked over at Zeke, noticing the bandages around his arm. "Fly flygon?" It asked, wondering what happened.

"I was bitten by a girl, sadly not a human one." Zeke answered with a small grin, keeping his sense of humor of the subject. The Flygon raised a brow at Zeke then caught the scent of another pokémon in the room aside from himself and Salamence, this one was unfamiliar. He turned his head around and looked over at the bed.

It was a Buizel, a female one too judging from the smell, she must have been the one that did that to Zeke's arm. "Hey, what's the story with her?" The Flygon asked, looking over at the Salamence.

The Salamence walked over towards his bowl of food and sat himself back down. "Zeke saved her from a trainer she had that was about to kill her, she kind of hurt him while he was trying to help her but she eventually got the idea and let him help her." The Salamence explained.

"He let that damn thing bite him? If that were me I would have used that bitch for target practice." Flygon commented, turning its head back towards the Buizel.

"Zeke really cares about that Buizel oddly, at least more strongly than I've really seen him care for anything else in a very long time, I wouldn't question his reasons." The Salamence said, lowering its head down to grab a bite of food.

The Flygon however turned its head around towards the Salamence with a rather devious grin now. "Oh? How much does he exactly care for her?" The Flygon asked, waving its long tail around. The Salamence raised its head up from the food dish and looked at him.

"Probably not as much as I suspect you're hoping you pervert." He answered, lowering his head back down. The Flygon laughed to himself a little bit over that answer.

Meanwhile Zeke took a seat back down next to the Buizel that was still sleeping on the bed. The Flygon turned his head towards Zeke and watched him for awhile while picking at its breakfast.

After a while of waiting the Flygon finally made a comment. "Damn man, he's in love with that Buizel isn't he?" He remarked, turning his head towards the Salamence, who was sitting across from him.

"He isn't in love you dolt, he's just worried about her. He doesn't know her, nor can he understand her, so I highly doubt that." The Salamence replied, turning his head slightly towards the Flygon.

The Flygon then bolted up, holding one of its fists in the air. "You obviously don't know the power of true love!" He announced, catching Zeke's attention as well.

"Wow..." Salamence muttered, rather surprised by his last statement. "You really need to get a mate." The Salamence commented.

"No argument there..." The Flygon replied, lowering his head down. "I need to get laid!" He shouted, shaking his fist around in the air.

'I wonder what those two are going on about.' Zeke thought as he looked over at their conversation, not really getting anything they were saying. "You guys finished?" Zeke asked. Both Flygon's and Salamence's head's snapped over towards Zeke with a nod.

"Good, I guess I'll let you two rest until you're needed again." Zeke said as he brought both of their Pokéballs out. The Flygon looked over at Salamence with a grin.

"See? He's trying to get himself alone with her now! Something's definitely up!" The Flygon stated, turning its head over towards the Salamence.

Salamence shook his head. "You really need to stop saying those things." He replied. Zeke walked over and returned them both to their Pokéballs at the same time. Zeke then walked over to the table and pulled out a chair, he dragged in over next to the bed, turning it around and sitting on it, leaning himself forward on the back rest while he rested his head on his arms.

'Please wake up soon.' He thought as he looked at the Buizel. Several more hours passed, it was getting close to noon now, he was starting to get a little worried about her, she had been out an awfully long time. He got up and figured he should get Nurse Joy to come take a look at her. As he walked to the door he heard something behind him.

He turned around and saw her starting to stir, she was waking up. He walked back over to the bed and sat down next to her, a few moments later she finally opened her eyes. She blinked a few times; focusing in on everything, one of the first things she saw was that human that was nice to her.

The Buizel slowly got sat up, looking around, it was in a room in one of those human buildings, she turned her attention towards Zeke. "Bui." She softly cooed, greeting him. She looked around again, wondering where exactly she was. "Bui...bui bu bu?" She asked.

"I took you to the Pokemon Center in town, I guess you really needed the rest, you were out for two days." Zeke said, making the Buizel look at him rather surprised.

'Two days?' She thought as she looked up at Zeke. "Bui..." She muttered, rather kind of astonished she was asleep that long. The most she might have ever slept before was probably the whole day when she was a pup.

Zeke smiled softly at her then asked "Are you feeling okay? You're not hurting or anything are you?" concernedly, wanting to know if she was in any pain. She shook her head, no, she wasn't in any pain, she actually felt pretty fine aside from her fur, which felt a little untended too and bothersome. "So you're fine?" Zeke asked, wanting to confirm her answer.

"Bui." She answered, nodding her head slightly. She looked at Zeke's arm, the one that she bit was wrapped around with white cloths. 'That's right...I...' She thought, remembering that she bit him. "Bu bui bui bu?" She asked, pointing her paw out at Zeke's left arm.

Zeke looked down at his arm, noticing she must have remembered biting him there. "Oh, that? Don't worry its fine." Zeke answered. "It was more than worth it in the end, it helped to convince you about how serious I was after all." Zeke continued.

She guiltily turned her head away, she felt really bad over hurting him like that. Zeke smiled and reached his arm out, petting her back, which made her look at him. "Its fine really, I don't hold anything against you for that, as far as I'm concerned it never happened." Zeke added, trying to comfort her.

She smiled at him, this human really was nice, and he was trying to comfort her of all things now. It was also really nice to have someone be kind to her for a change, with the last things to actually really even be nice to her were some of her fellow Buizel's in the old tribe of them that she was raised in.

"So..." Zeke said, trying to pick the right words for the question he was about to ask. "Well it turns out I'm your trainer now." Zeke announced, the Buizel blinked at him a few times and smiled, she was really happy to have him as her trainer at least now...but she also didn't really like the idea of being stuck with one either after the last one as well.

"But I'll give you a choice, if you wish, you can cut all ties to me and leave if you want, I'm not going to force you to do anything." Zeke stated, sighing and turning his head away. The Buizel was very surprised by this; he was letting her have a choice? This was a very refreshing change indeed.

In one paw, she could freely leave this entire thing behind; she could find a river and try to find her way back home. In the other paw however, she could give this nice human a chance and allow him to be her trainer. As she first thought about it the offer to leave was more attractive but as she let herself think about it the more of a tempting idea it was for her to stay with the human as opposed to leaving.

She pondered over what she should do for a few minutes until she reached a decision. She got up and walked over next to Zeke, sitting herself down next to him then leaning against him. "Buuuuiiiii....bu ibu bu bui bui bui!" She cheerfully said, getting the message across to him that she wanted to stay with him.

"Are you sure? Are you really sure you can trust me after all you went through?" Zeke asked, trying to make sure that she was completely clear on her decision. She thought to herself for a few more moments but came to the same answer, this human was different, and if she gave him a chance she might be very happy with this human.

"Bui!" She cheerfully answered, giving him a warm smile, she was completely sure. Besides it seemed silly to hate every human just because of what one may have done to her now. Zeke smiled in response, he was happy that she decided to give him a chance; he was going to work for her complete trust and friendship now.

She took a moment to examine her new trainer now, getting a good look at him, he seemed pretty much normal for a human, except for one minor detail, his eyes were two different colors! His right eye was beautiful deep blue, but his left eye was silver, a very beautiful shade of silver too. She couldn't help but admire it, she was slightly jealous that she didn't have eyes like that, hers were only solid black.

Zeke noticed her looking into his face quite interestedly; she must have noticed his left eye. A few moments passed and she finally had her fill of admiring his eye, she then continued to look him up and down, getting in every detail that she could about him, she was very interested in him, humans were still a fairly new thing for her.

Zeke turned his head away and smiled slightly, well this was fairly new, he wasn't used to be examined like this. He took the chance to however try to think up something that he could do to help with her trusting him. Well there was one quick yet simple answer he came up with, food.

But he knew Pokemon food wouldn't do; he would have to treat her to something special. Well one of those was fairly easy to guess, fish. Berries might work too, but he didn't quite know what kind to get her, hopefully the market in town could give him some information on what berries a Buizel would like. "So are you hungry?" Zeke asked as he turned his head back down towards the Buizel.

She nodded; yes she did feel quite hungry. Zeke smiled at her, knowing this was a perfect chance for him to get a bit closer with her now. "Well how about if I go out and get you something special to eat? I'm sure you must be starving." Zeke cheerfully offered.

'Wow!' She thought as she looked at him rather dumbfounded by how nice he was towards her, he was now offering to get her food? How wonderful! She hardly even ever had any other Buizel's make such offers to her; this was very sweet of him! "Bui!" She cheerfully cooed with a nod, gladly accepting the humans offer.

"Alright, I guess I'll go out and get some things for you." Zeke said as he got up from the bed, getting his gym bag and walking towards the door. The Buizel followed him, rather wanting to go with him. Zeke turned around and looked at her. "I don't think you can go out there like that I'm afraid." Zeke commented as he paused.

"Bui? Bui?" The Buizel asked, looking up at him wondering why she couldn't go, not exactly seeing any reason why she shouldn't herself.

"Well for one...your fur is kind of messed up, you still have quite a bit of dirt and blood on it, mostly mine though thankfully, also I'm not sure how comfortable you would be around humans aside myself yet so I'd like you to stay here until I can earn more of your trust, okay?" Zeke pointed out.

The Buizel looked down at herself. 'Oh...' She thought as she looked herself over, her fur was still in a really bad way, she needed to get it cleaned soon. Aside from that she knew that Zeke was right, she might not be that comfortable around a lot of other humans, and she only felt comfortable with him at this point.

"I'll help clean you up later as well; it's probably uncomfortable for you having your fur like that." Zeke offered, which brought her attention back up to him with a small blush, he was offering to help groom her now? Were all humans really this nice? "I'll be back a little later then." Zeke said as he continued out the door.

As soon as he shut the door the Buizel almost wanted to run out and follow him, she didn't feel comfortable now that he was gone. She couldn't shake the feeling that he might leave her and all of this was a lie now, she really wanted this human to be different but she couldn't be sure yet...

...but if he held true to his words then that would mean he's even kinder to her then any of her old friends and family as well. She couldn't help but find that very odd...but in the end it didn't matter she supposed, the only thing that really mattered to her was him being as kind as he was suggesting he was.


Part 7.


Elsewhere Zeke was out on his way to the market, he was feeling better today so he could move around on his own without any assistance from his Salamence. He thought about his new found friend during his entire walk. 'Well I guess that solves my problem for a third Pokemon...' Zeke thought as he walked down a fairly quiet street.

'Although I've no idea how strong she is...probably not very strong, I'll have to do a check later, but I can't get her to fight for me this quickly either...' Zeke pondered, wondering how useful she would actually be to him aside from company. Oddly enough he felt quite cheerful around her, he didn't really know why but he just did.

It was probably the affect of how cute she was, he was stuck with his Salamence and Flygon for a long time, Zeke never really thought he would have a "cute" Pokemon such as a Buizel. But there was something else, she didn't really feel like a Pokemon to be around with, rather a human. It was kind of weird; he's never felt this way about anything else.

'Guess I'm finally going crazy.' Zeke thought to himself with a grin on his face. He returned his thoughts on how he would be able to tell how strong she was. Well he supposed he could check her muscle tone, if she was strong he could tell by just touching her various muscles such as her legs, arms and such.

Granted that would be kind of awkward. So he would have to think of something else. 'Oh wait...' Zeke thought, he did make that offer to clean her up later, he could give her a bath, which would solve that problem since he could likely check them without any questions from her.

Okay that was one problem down, the only other one he had was to find a berry that she liked. Unfortunately Zeke didn't have the faintest clue on Buizel's, he was an expert in only dragon types, not water types such as herself. About the only thing he knew about them aside the fact they were water types was how to tell males and females apart, males had two orange spots on their back, females had one.

Zeke soon found himself at the local market. Zeke first looked around for where they sold the fruits, vegetables and berries. A quick minute of searching and he found it, he walked to a large middle aged man tending a counter there. "Excuse me; do you know much about different berry types? If so, could you tell me a certain Pokémon's favorite type?"

The man behind the counter looked at Zeke and grinned, proudly crossing his arms. "Then look no further! You are speaking to the grea--" he said before he was cut off by Zeke.

"Oh wonderful, could you tell me what sort of berry a Buizel would like?" Zeke asked, not really wanting to listen to any corny introductions. The man looked at Zeke, a little bit offended by the fact he interrupted him but he shouldn't chase off a customer by being rude, he thought for a moment and then remembered the type of berries that Buizel's really liked; best part being, their expensive.

"Well then, you would be looking for the Wacan berry, they grow in the Sinnoh region, Buizel's and Floatzel's absolutely love them for their sweet and sour taste, and they also use them as a means to defend against electric types, with electricity helping to sweeten the berries." The man explained.

"Do you have any? If so how much are they?" Zeke asked, keeping straight to the point. The man grinned in response.

"Ahhh a buyer who knows what he wants, well they are pretty rare...quite difficult to get a hold of you see, especially cross region, if I were to give you an estimate on the price of the few I have..." The man said, finding a price he could sucker Zeke with.

Zeke at that point just walked away shaking his head, knowing that he was going to try to ask for some ungodly price for them. "Hey wait!" The man shouted. "You aren't going to buy anything?!" He asked.

Zeke turned his head around. "Nope, I could see where you were taking it by making them sound expensive, I'll take my business elsewhere and they'll give me a better price somewhere else I'd imagine." Zeke said, pulling the strings ever so slightly so that the man could give him a lower price for them.

"I-I'm sorry if I made them sound too expensive! I'll give you a good deal for them, I promise!" The man pleaded, trying to keep Zeke from walking away, he needed to sell them as not many people bought those types of berries.

Zeke grinned, his plan worked flawlessly. Several minutes later Zeke walked away with a bag in hand and a grin on his face, ah how refreshing it was to play with people's heads, even better he saved a little bit of money in the process.

Now that was taken care of Zeke had to get something else, a fish. Lucky for Zeke that wouldn't be as hard, as all he mainly had to do was find a good quality fish. Although finding a very good one outside of a sea port town was quite hard as they had to be shipped as well.

He looked around at a few vendors, nothing really jumped out at him. Finally after searching around he found something perfect. A very fresh and lovely looking fish, a good sized one too, at about one foot in length, Zeke perfectly imagine her having a field day with that.

The man running the shop there noticed Zeke looking at that fish. "Ah good taste you have my friend, that fish is fresh from the river, are you interested in buying it?" The man said while fiddling with a fishing rod.

Zeke turned his head up towards him and nodded. "Yes, yes that would be lovely, how much for it?" Zeke asked. The man thought for a moment about the price he should give Zeke.

"Well you seem like a nice enough young lad, how about 1250 Poke?" The man said, kind of catching Zeke off guard, that was pretty expensive, but he didn't really want to argue either, it was a very good fish, probably the best one here and this man didn't seem like he would be easy to throw as the berry vender.

"Well sure, she's worth it I guess." Zeke said with a laugh. The man looked at Zeke interestedly after that response.

"Oh? She you say? Getting this to cook for a sweet heart?" The man asked with a smile, rather impressed by Zeke getting such a good quality and expensive fish for someone besides himself.

Zeke looked at him rather embarrassedly at first, then immediately shook his head and waved his hands. "Oh no, no, nothing like that, I'm getting this for a Buizel I rescued the other day...I guess you can say I'm spoiling her a lot..." Zeke answered, a little embarrassed that yes, he was doing all of this for a Buizel.

"Oh! I'm sorry then, expensive tastes your little girl has then, I'm glad to see someone who doesn't mind spending this much on a Pokemon. I'll tell you what, since you're a really good person I'll cut the price off by 250 Poke, there's plenty more fish in that river waiting to be caught after all!" The man said with a loud laugh.

Zeke perked his head up at him. "Wow really? Thank you!" Zeke said with a big smile, it was great to see such a nice person running a shop here.

The man grabbed the fish from the display and wrapped it up in some paper. "Oh no, thank you, if there were more trainers like you out there it would certainly be good for business wouldn't it? Haha oh I'm kidding, but seriously it's nice to see someone do this for their Pokemon, I hope you two have a wonderful day, hopefully that fish will help make that happen." The man said as he handed him the fish.

Zeke paid him his money and set off. Well dinner was taken care of for his new Buizel friend now. All that was left was to get something to clean her up with. Zeke walked to the local PokeMart and looked around for some cleaning products for her.

Zeke looked over the shampoo products, unfortunately most of them were normal brands, he would have been okay with this if it were any other Pokemon but he felt she deserved something better than normal. "Looking for something specific?" An old lady asked Zeke.

Zeke turned around and looked at her. "Yeah something that I can spoil a Pokemon with I guess." Zeke answered, turning his attention back to the assortment of different shampoos.

"Oh win a gym battle? Getting ready for a contest?" The old lady asked. Zeke turned his head back around and looked at her.

"Oh no, I just met her, she's a Buizel I saved the other day and I'm trying to spoil her by treating her to the best of everything I guess...I just really want to make her feel special is all." Zeke again answered.

"My, my, it's so good to see such a nice young man in these times, about the only reason trainers usually spoil their Pokemon anymore is as a reward or to get them ready for a contest, I find it disheartening really." The old lady said, quite impressed by Zeke's reason for doing this.

"So she's a Buizel you say? Well I might have something that just might be the thing for her, as well as something else if you really want to spoil her." The old lady offered.

Zeke's interest was raised with that. "Oh? What would that be?" Zeke asked, wondering what she exactly meant.

"Well you see, I'm a Pokemon breeder, or I used to be in my younger years, oh those were the times. One of the Pokemon I had was like yours, a Buizel, so I know exactly what yours would like, and I can show you where to get just the things it likes too." The old lady answered.

"Okay I'm intrigued now, lead the way." Zeke said. The old lady walked out of the Pokémart followed by Zeke. She took him across town to a small store, it looked like a specialty store; Zeke must have missed it due to how far out of the way it was from the main part of town.

The both walked in and were greeted by the manager. "Ah, Loren! It's been so long, it's nice to see you here, who's this young man you have with you today?" The manager asked.

"Oh he's a trainer who knows how a Pokemon should be treated, I'm taking him here to show him just the things he needs." She answered. She walked around to one of the shelves and paused. "Ah here you go; there should be something you're looking for here." She said. Zeke walked around and took a look.

"Oh! This is perfect!" Zeke said as his eyes lit up, there was an assortment of specialty Pokemon shampoo's and care products. Zeke quickly sifted through the products, surprised as what they had here. "Wow I haven't seen some of this stuff since I was last in Lavaridge, and here I was thinking that was the only place you could really spoil a Pokemon." Zeke said out loud for no particular reason.

A few more seconds of searching Zeke found a shampoo product he was happy with and got it, it was an expensive shampoo used for water types with fur, it helped not only clean the fur properly but help keep it water repellent, Buizel's had a short but very dense coat of fur that helped to keep out any water, so that they would have maximum agility underwater as well as keeping them warm in all but the most freezing of water.

"There's something else I would like you to give to your little Buizel friend that I'm sure she would love if you plan on spoiling her like you say you are." The old lady said. She walked over and looked at a shelf, then picked out a bottle and handed it to Zeke.

Zeke looked the bottle over, it was oil, or rather body oil for Pokémon's fur, like the shampoo this one was specialized for water Pokémon's fur, with oil's that would soak into their fur, helping to keep the fur from getting wet from water by repelling it much like it already did, only to a greater affect.

"Oh they have this sort of stuff at those spas back home...hmm." Zeke said, thinking to himself about this, well he guessed if he rubbed some oil into her fur that would be a nice treat for her as well as giving Zeke a chance to further look into how strong she might be.

"Thank you very much for everything, I probably would have spent all day running around town if I haven't had ran into you." Zeke thanked the old lady. She laughed at Zeke's honesty.

"Oh no problem, it was my pleasure, now hurry up and get back to your little Buizel friend, I'm sure she misses her trainer." The old lady said, before walking out of the store.

Yes. Zeke knew she was probably worried about him by now. He quickly got everything paid for, as well as buying a new brush for her fur, or rather her tails as they were the only place on her with longer fur. As they walked out of the store he checked his wallet to see what untold damage was done to his living expenses today, he normally only used his money to pay for food and medical supplies.

As he looked he whistled to himself in surprise. "Wow, I never would have thought Pokemon women burn through your money like human ones do." Zeke commented to himself, noticing now much money he spent today, which was honestly more than he would spend in a whole month, maybe several.

But it wasn't the Buizel's fault that Zeke spent all of this money for her, it was his own. She never asked him to treat her like this; that was his own choice. But one he was very much happy with honestly, if any of this would make her happy then that was worth any amount of money to him.

He put his wallet away and headed off back to the Pokemon Center. "Well shouldn't keep her waiting I guess." Zeke said to himself as he started to run lightly down the sidewalk.

Meanwhile at the Pokemon Center there was a certain Buizel who was still eagerly waiting for its trainer to return. She was still in the room patiently waiting, although while she was worried that he might not return she was also very bored, rightfully so too; there was nothing to do!

She laid at the edge of the bed, with her back paws hanging off the side and her two long orange and cream tipped tails swinging from side to side. 'Hurry up...' She thought as she stared up at the ceiling, she hated waiting.

She heard some footsteps going next to the door; she bolted up and got off the bed, eagerly waiting for the door to open. But it was a false alarm, they walked past the door. She sighed and walked back over to the bed, hopping up and reassuming the position she was previously in.

A little bit later she heard some more footsteps, she wizened up not to immediately jump off the bed because that didn't automatically mean it was her new trainer. And they weren't, just another trainer walking off to his room for the day.

This happened several more times, now she was pretty much ignoring them, and just day dreaming about home. Finally it she heard the footsteps she was looking for, but she didn't exactly realize who's footsteps there were, as they all sounded the same to her.

But she did know who it was as soon as she heard the door handle turn. She immediately jumped off the bed and hit the ground with a start, running towards the now opening door. "Buuii!" She yelled as she jumped up in the air, flying towards Zeke.

Zeke saw the orange and cream ball of fur flying towards him, and he had no time to react either. He got hit in the belly by her dead on, knocking the breath out of him as he fell over outside of the door into the hall with the Buizel landing on top of him.

She quickly scrambled up and ran back into the room with both tails swaying. "Ibui zel bui!" She cheerfully chirped as she smiled at Zeke, who was getting off of the floor.

"Gee, I missed you too?" Zeke replied, a little bit surprised by her greeting. That was very new for Zeke, he wasn't used to being greeted like that, mainly because his Salamence and Flygon were very used to him and didn't really think that "much" of him.

He slowly walked into the room, with his new Buizel friend happily looking up at him smiling. He got to the bed and sat his gym bag down, unzipping it and putting his hand inside it. The Buizel couldn't see what he was doing on the floor so she tried to hop up on the bed, but Zeke stopped her.

"Oh no, I don't need you peaking; I've got a surprise for you." Zeke said as he went back to digging through the bag. The Buizel curiously blinked at him, wondering what he had for her, she hoped it was something nice, she was waiting for him an awful long time after all.

Zeke found a bag and reached inside it, pulling out something and holding it behind his back. The Buizel tried to look around him to see what it was but Zeke moved to keep her from seeing it, then he knelt down to about eye level with her. "Buiii bu bu?" She cooed softly, asking Zeke what he was holding.

Zeke cracked a smile. "So what do you think abooouuuuttt...," Zeke said, he then swung his arm around from behind his back, showing the Buizel a Wacan berry. "This?" Zeke asked. She looked at him a few times, blinking and taking it in her paws, she recognized it immediately, it had a yellow stem, with a green base to it where the leaves were where it bloomed from, and of course it had a fairly long, bright yellow berry at the end of it. It was a Wacan berry.

Her eyes started to water up with a smile growing on her face and a bright blush. She looked up into Zeke's eyes with a very happy smile and some tears forming at the edge of her eyes. "Buuuiiii!!" She yelled, tackling him over, hugging him and nuzzling his chest.

Zeke was completely taken off guard by that reaction. 'Holy crap she must really like them!' Zeke thought as she was nuzzling him affectionately. Although Zeke didn't quite know the extent of what he just did, if he were a Buizel she probably would have been kissing him now and not nuzzling.

Wacan berries were a very precious gift to receive if you were a Buizel or Floatzel, they were very rare to come by, and most trees were guarded pretty well and the berries from them rationed so that packs of Buizel or Floatzel could all enjoy them.

Getting one as a gift usually mean that the given Buizel or Floatzel was giving the other their share, which was usually one berry per harvest or that they managed to sneak one from the tree. So usually it was a gift reserved for a Buizel or Floatzel of high importance to them, usually a mate or someone that they wanted to impress to be a mate with them.

So basically Zeke just gave her the equivalent of what a very expensive ring or necklace would be for a human girl. She was very touched by this gift, she always dreamed of a nice male Buizel giving her one as a gift when she was a bit younger.

But now...her trainer...a human got her one! Well it wasn't quite what she was expecting to say the least, it kind of took whatever romantic thoughts she had of that moment and threw them out the window but she didn't care, she couldn't have been much happier right now anyways, this was the best gift she's ever gotten from probably the best friend she's ever had now!

Zeke carefully tried to lift himself back up, but she kept him pinned down, affectionately cooing and nuzzling him. This was definitely a first for Zeke, he's never had anything show him this much affection before in his entire life...did he do something bad without knowing it?

It was likely the case that this particular berry probably meant a lot to Buizel...damn he should have looked into it more, but it was too late now obviously. He finally lifted her up, breaking the barrage of nuzzles on his chest. "Bui?" She cooed as he lifted her up above him.

"Well I'd like to get finished showing you everything I got for you...that was just one of a few things." Zeke said, making her eyes light up again, he had more things for her? Wow! This human was...incredible! She couldn't have even dreamed of any Buizel's as kind as he was being too her, this was all too much.

Zeke sat her down next to him. He noticed she was still holding the berry. "Oh are you going to eat that?" Zeke asked, pointing at the berry she was still holding. She looked down into her paws and saw that yes, she was still holding the Wacan berry...she actually didn't really even want to eat it, she was kind of attached to it now because of what it meant...

"Bui...bu bui zel bu bui bui zel..." She said, looking down at the berry, she didn't want to eat something as precious as that to her. She obviously was going to eat it from the look on her face. Zeke got the hint of what she was saying though and knew she wanted to keep it.

Zeke got up and reached into his bag, looking for something he could use...aha! He kept a small sewing kit with him just in case his clothes ever got a hole in them. He picked up the berry out of her paws and made a crude necklace out of it, sewing the thread through the yellow stem a few times and wrapping the thread around the berry itself to keep it secure so it wouldn't fall off.

Wacan berries absorbed electricity so they were kept by Buizel's and Floatzel's sometimes just in case there was a risk of encountering an electric type, as it lowered the effectiveness of electric type attacks towards them, which were pretty devastating as they are water types themselves.

It took him several minutes to get the neck loop just the right size but he managed it. After he was satisfied with how secure it was he knelt back down to the Buizel again, wrapping the necklace around her neck and getting it straightened out. She looked down and saw the necklace Zeke had made for her, this was perfect! "Bui-zel!" She cheerfully thanked, hugging Zeke again and nuzzling the side of his face gratefully.

Again Zeke was on the receiving end of her seemingly endless affection for him, he couldn't get used to this sort of treatment, it was just so new to him. But he liked it too; it made him feel important, like he was an important thing to her, which was honestly a good feeling for him.

He let her continue to shower him with her affection for a few minutes but he pushed her back and got up, he went back over to his bag and got something out, unwrapping it. "Bui bu bu?" The Buizel cooed, wondering what it was Zeke had up there. Zeke looked down towards her with a devious grin on his face and he turned his head back.

"Think fast!" Zeke said as he tossed a fish up in the air above her, her eyes lit up as soon as she saw what it was and she backed up with her paws spread out, when it headed towards the floor she adjusted herself so she could catch it, as soon as it fell within reach she tried catching it in her paws but she couldn't quite get a grip on it, causing her to juggle it around until she finally bit it with her mouth.

Zeke laughed at the show she was putting on for him, with a bit more practice she could easily make the circus as a juggler. She let go of the fish and managed to get a good hold of it in her paws, it was a very tasty looking fish! Did he catch it for her? Well she couldn't really ask but she didn't care, she carefully ran over and hopped up in one of the chairs, sitting herself down and taking a bite out of it joyfully.

Well Zeke accomplished his mission for today flawlessly, he made her not just happy, but very happy. All of the money he spent shopping seemed insignificant now. Zeke sat himself down on the bed and lay back, stretching out and resting after this day of shopping.

As he lay there, the Buizel watched him out of interest as she was happily going away at the fish, almost half way done now after only a few minutes too. Several more minutes later she was completely done, bones and all. Zeke didn't notice because he was lying down with his eyes closed, expecting it to take her a little bit longer.

She started to clean herself, licking her paws and cleaning the fur around her mouth to get any of the fish she might had still had on her off, but her fur was still extremely dirty, more than she could clean by just merely grooming herself, she needed to swim. She hopped down off of the chair and stealthily made her way over in front of Zeke, tugging on one of his pant legs to get his attention. "Bu ibu bui-zel bui ibu bu zel bu?" She chirruped, asking Zeke if he had anything else to show her.

"Oh you're done? Ah good now we can get you cleaned up." Zeke said, sitting up and reaching over into his gym bag. She curiously looked up at him, wondering how he was going to go about cleaning her, she was new to being indoors and having a human take care of her like Zeke was, so she had no clue over various things such as this.

Zeke got a bottle out, it was the shampoo he got for her earlier, he twisted off the cap and held it in front of her nose. "Do like the smell of this?" Zeke asked. She first pulled her head away from it, not sure what it was but it seemed okay so she drew her head in closer and took a sniff. It smelled like Pecha berries, her favorite kind aside from the Wacan. "Bui!" She happily answered with a nod.

Zeke got up and walked off to another door, he opened it and closed it behind him. She looked over curiously at the door, wondering what he was doing in there. She then heard the sound of running water, there was water here? Excited by the possibility of being able to swim she quickly headed towards the door, reaching up and turning the door handle.

She opened the door and saw Zeke knelt down. "Ah I'm just getting your water ready, it should be done in a few minutes." Zeke said as he turned his head back towards her. However she was very excited now, there was water in here! She ran over to where Zeke was standing and peered over the edge of the bath tub.

She saw water running out of the wall, which was filling it up, with steam rising up from the water. She leaned herself forward and batted at the water with her paw, it was warm! She's never been around warm water before, she's heard of it from pokémon that were from areas with natural hot springs and such but she's never actually been in warm water herself, this was exciting!

Zeke saw how eager she was to get in. "Well I guess you don't have to wait, go ahead." Zeke said, she looked over at him and then back at the water with a big smile on her face. She quickly scrambled over the edge of the bath tub and into the water. Zeke made sure to quickly grab the necklace so she wouldn't get it soaked as she got in.

'Wow this is great!' She thought as she felt the warm water wrapping itself around most of her body. She relaxed herself and laid back, letting the water envelope her whole body spare for her face. A short, blissful minute later she heard the water turn off. She opened her eyes and perked her head up slightly, looking at Zeke.

"Do you want me to let you enjoy the water for awhile? I'll go rest and come back in a little bit to clean you up." Zeke asked, seeing how relaxed she was in the water like that.

"Buuuuiiii..." She sighed out, with hardly a care in the world, she wanted to savor this. Zeke smiled and took that as a yes and got up and left the bathroom. As she laid there in the water her mind went over that human...she could have never imagined being with a human like this a few days ago, she despised humans then due to all her old trainer had done.

Her old trainer was after another Buizel in the area she was in, her sister likely as she was the strongest Buizel she knew of at the time. He caught her and expected her to be really powerful, however when he found out she wasn't and she was the wrong one he then started to treat her terribly, calling her useless and using her as practice for his other pokémon before gym battles, never bothering to take her to a Pokemon Center which was why her Pokéball was never registered.

He told her that the only reason she existed now was of his own whim, that if he wanted he could take her from the world without a moment's hesitation if she tried anything that he disliked. She had to live with that for several months.

Over that time her hate for humans in general deepened and she wanted to get away from him...so a few days ago she managed to get out of her Pokéball in the middle of the night and did just that, escape. However his Houndoom managed to track her down after a good two day search.

And then...well that's when he tried to kill her, but her new trainer saved her. Now...well now everything that happened to her before seemed like a bad dream, like it hardly mattered now. This human...he was kind, a very rare kind. She couldn't help but admire him endlessly; he was everything she could have ever dreamed about and much more than that.

But the question rose in her mind...why was he so kind to her? She didn't really do anything for him, she hasn't been able too. He had no reason for this in the least. She could understand maybe if she won a few battles for him and everything but all of this was...just too much.

She took a deep breath and lowered herself completely under the water so that all of her fur could soak in the water. She continued to think about him as she was under the water. She sort of wished that he wasn't a human now...if he was a Buizel he definitely would have made a mate that would be the envy of any Pokemon. But unfortunately he was a human...that sort of thing wasn't allowed, it was such a shame really that he wasn't a Pokemon.

The thought of him being a mate for her never really crossed her mind, he was a human, that sort of thing wasn't right, or at least that's what she was told growing up, and she really believed that after her whole ordeal with her previous trainer.

A few minutes later she raised her head up out of the water, to see Zeke sitting there at the edge of the bath tub. "So, ready to get that fur of yours back to looking beautiful?" Zeke asked. Oddly those words kind of embarrassed her; he just technically called her beautiful just now.

"Bui..." She cooed, getting up and turning her head away with a light blush as the bath water ran off her fur. Zeke undid the cap to the shampoo he got her and poured some of it in his hands, putting it into her fur, starting at her head.

"Could you lay back down in the water and lean yourself up a little? I want to make sure I get all of the fur done on your head, oh and close your eyes and keep your mouth closed, this stuff doesn't taste as pleasant as it smells trust me." Zeke said, she listened to him without question and lay back down in the water, keeping her head just above the surface of the water.

She tightly closed her eyes and kept her mouth closed as Zeke lathered up the shampoo into her fur, making sure to get all of her fur clean around her face. "Alright hold your breath for a few seconds." Zeke asked. She did, she wouldn't have usually trusted a human with this but she knew he wouldn't try to drown her. Zeke dipped her head down into the water, cleaning her fur of the shampoo, revealing her perfectly bright and flawless orange and cream coat of fur.

Zeke raised her up after a few seconds of getting her cleaned off. "Well that's a big improvement already!" Zeke said, happy with himself for getting her adorable face cleaned at least, she opened her eyes and looked at him.

"Bui!" She thanked, happy that he was doing this for her. Zeke then filled his hand again with some more shampoo then started to work on her body. He started at her back, and then he slowly made his way around her to the front of her, to her chest.

She kind of felt embarrassed to have a human touching her like this...it kind of seemed a little awkward, but at the same time it felt kind of good as he lathered the shampoo into her fur there. Zeke didn't think anything of it thought, he just worked without paying any mind as to what she thought of it.

Zeke then moved to her arms and paws, now checking the muscle build on her, as this was usually one of the easier places to check. He lathered the shampoo into her arms, as he felt around he noticed her muscles were rather soft. That meant she had a low muscle build. 'Well looks like I'll have my work cut out for me.' Zeke thought as he continued his work on getting her cleaned.

After he got down with her arms and paws he worked his way down to the mid section of her body, he got another handful of shampoo and worked it in around her back again, then working his way back around to her belly. Zeke then discovered she had a slight weakness for belly rubs; she smiled as Zeke lathered the shampoo around her belly, which made her foot tap in the bottom of the water.

Zeke smiled as this then figured it was a good time to rinse her off. "Could you clean all of that off of yourself?" Zeke asked, pointing at the lathered up shampoo on her. She nodded and lowered herself into the water, submerging herself completely; then rolling herself around a few times to completely get the shampoo out of her fur.

She resurfaced a few seconds later, letting out a deep breath. All that Zeke had to do now was the lower parts, which at the time didn't really raise any problems for him as he didn't really think of her having the obvious parts for that end of her body.

"Could you float yourself in the water the best you can?" Zeke asked, without question the Buizel complied, resting her body on the surface of the water, trying to float herself to the surface as best she could. Zeke then turned her around which sort of caught her off guard, the worked the shampoo around the base of her tail.

Now she this kind of really felt awkward to her, he was going to start rubbing that stuff into her fur around there? Idea's of what might happen there started to fill her mind. She wanted to tell him to stop but she couldn't bring herself to either, he was only trying to clean her...

Zeke managed to clean the back of her thighs, rump and tail without any problems; he then turned her back over and rinsed the shampoo off of the back end of her. Well so far so good, that went over well. Now all that was left was the most risqué part of this whole cleaning.

He took another handful of shampoo and started at the top of her lap, lathering the shampoo into her fur carefully, slowly making his way southwards. The Buizel was slightly panicking now, oh god she hoped he didn't slip up and touch her there.

Zeke continued to her inner parts of her thighs and legs, getting that done fairly quickly then he made his way in-between her legs, right on the money. She blushed a little as Zeke continued to clean her there, this was...very new to her...the first time anyone has touched her in that area. And oddly she found it very...arousing...

Thankfully by some divine miracle Zeke managed not to touch her "there" either. Zeke quickly rinsed her off then drained the bath water. She quickly got out and shook herself dry, getting Zeke wet in a process. "Geez, could you wait until I got a towel?" Zeke asked as he reached for one of the towels that were on the shelf.

"Bu ibu." She cooed, apologizing for that. Zeke got a towel wrapped around her and fully dried her off, which wasn't too hard; her fur was very easy to get dry. A few minutes later they both walked out of the bathroom. The Buizel quickly hopped up on the bed and laid down, sighing in content over the day she's just had.

Zeke walked over next to her and reached around in his bag. He got another bottle and looked over at the Buizel, who was getting ready to go off to sleep. "Up for another treat before you call it a night?" Zeke asked.

She got up, a little surprised Zeke still wasn't done. Zeke pulled out a clear glass bottle from his bag with the oil he got for her fur earlier. Zeke then got out a dry towel and spread it across a part of the bed. "Alright could you lay here on your belly?" Zeke asked. She figured that she could trust him with anything he asked now after the bath.

She got up and walked over to the part of the bed with the towel on it then lay down in front of Zeke. He then proceeded to pour a bit of that oil along her back, which kind of caught her off guard to the sudden wet sensation on her back now.

She turned her head around to see what was going on, Zeke was pouring what looked like tree sap on her, but if he was doing that then...well that would have just been very, very mean, she knew exactly how sticky that stuff was after a dare one of her friends made her back when she was a pup.

After Zeke was finished he then rubbed it into her fur, which felt very pleasant to her, mainly of the motions he was making with his hands, he was giving her sort of a massage at the same time. He's seen this sort of thing several times back home, and he had the general idea of what to do, with his medical knowledge aiding him with this.

As he continued his treatment of her back he heard her cooing, completely taken in by the work his hands were doing to her back. He smiled to himself, pretty much finding this endlessly cute, he was so happy he found her now.

Not nearly as happy as she was though, if she didn't know any better she'd say she died and went to heaven now. As Zeke continued to massage the oil into her fur he noticed something while going around the cream colored oval on her back. Both of her furs felt different, the orange fur that covered the most part of her body was quite soft, but somewhat rough to the touch as well.

And the cream fur, which only covered slight parts of her body, being the front of her body, downwards from her nose to her mouth and from cheek to cheek, straight down the front part of her body all the way down to the top of her lap. There were a few spots of it elsewhere on her paws, above her eyes, the single oval on her back and the tips of her two tails. It felt a little bit softer without the roughness that her orange fur had.

He made his way down to her back paws, going back around the worrisome areas of her without paying much mind as to where he was, but this time she didn't really care. She just liked how good this felt. Then he moved on to her tails which required the most amount of work due to the fact they had more fur than any other part of her body.

After awhile Zeke was satisfied with the work he did on her back, her fur had a very nice glossy shine to it now. He then flipped her around and worked on her front area. As he poured the oil along the front of her body as she looked up at him rather innocently.

"You know, I don't think you realize how cute you look. It's seriously pretty hard to keep my attention on what I'm doing when I look up into your cute face." Zeke complimented as he worked the oil into the cream fur that covered the front of her body. She blushed at that compliment, she wasn't used to others saying such sweet things about her...it was embarrassing.

Zeke noticed the blush on her face and figured it would be best if he kept his mouth shut from now on, true he wanted to make her happy but if he made her too happy then she might get the wrong idea into her head.

He started to work the oil into her front arms and paws, quickly taking care of them. He then moved to her chest, which he quickly got done as well.

But he took his time when he got down to her belly; she was partial to Zeke's treatment of her around that area, where if he found the right spot her leg would kick uncontrollably. Plus it felt good to her when he worked his way around there as well, she enjoyed it immensely.

Eventually though he had to continue with getting the oil into her fur, and then ventured downwards. He was back at the area which caused her quite a bit a worry the last time he was there.

She closed her eyes and went along with it this time, trying to not think of him doing this. Of course no matter what image she tried to put into her head she couldn't help but think of him. Zeke worked his hands around to her thighs, he was almost done, he just had them and the area in-between them and he was done.

Then he carefully ran his hand down into the bottom part of her lap, as he rubbed the oil into her fur there nothing eventful happened, although a blush started to take to the Buizel's face, as much as she didn't want to admit to it... that felt really good.

Until one of Zeke's fingers managed to find it's mark and slip in a crease that was developing in her fur. "Buuuii?!?!" She yelped, bolting up. Zeke immediately jolted back a few steps like he just touched a red hot piece of metal, both of them looked at each other, blinking and blushing furiously.

They both stared at each other, with the same exact thought in their head, what in the hell just happened? They both knew, they just couldn't believe that...well "that" just happened. Zeke knew perfectly well she was a girl but...he didn't really have the idea in his head that she "is" a girl, parts and all. And he just found out the hard way, so he felt this was his own fault.

She didn't really think of it as his fault really though, she was the one allowing him to touch her there with no warning as to where exactly he was. He couldn't exactly tell where he was due to how well hidden that part of her was really. Granted he should have known where he was on her but still she knew she should have said something...but she allowed him to go around there anyways.

A few moments of silence passed, with them just looking at each other, Zeke finally worked up his courage to say something. "Well...um...well that was...well...I'm sorry...I shouldn't...I mean...I should have been more...careful..." Zeke apologized, kind of at a loss for words now which was rare for him, along with being embarrassed like this; he hasn't felt any of these emotions in a very long time.

"Bu-i...bu-i...bui..." She sheepishly responded, telling Zeke it was fine. Zeke nervously laughed and awkwardly walked over to the bathroom to wash his hands clean.

"Well I guess that means we're done for tonight...sorry again..." Zeke said as he walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. As he shut the door behind himself he let out a sigh. 'Way to go Zeke...you just got to like second base the first time with something that isn't even of your own species' He thought with an embarrassed blush as he walked over to the sink. If there was a bright side to this, he was probably going to be much more mindful of the fact that Pokemon, no matter the shape or size, had "parts" too,

He turned on the water and slowly started to wash his hands clean of the oil...and of course whatever might have been on his one finger from that surprise both he and the Buizel just had. Zeke was cursing his luck really, that had to have happened with him and a Buizel...why not a human? Well it was his own fault really since he never really did hit it off with any girls he met, nor did he ever really have plans too.

Meanwhile the Buizel was thinking nearly the same thoughts. She couldn't believe that just happened...with a human no less...god today was so freaking confusing for her. First she meets him formally...then he gets her all sorts of nice stuff...then gave her dinner and a bath...then rubbed her body all over and made her feel relaxed up until he touched her private spot.

She felt a rainbow of emotions from this; she was ashamed, embarrassed, confused and mad at herself. She knew it was an honest mistake but...still it wasn't right...was it? No it wasn't, it wasn't at all.

A weak point of hers was that she easily got flustered when she was embarrassed, so she would quickly jump to conclusions or her mind would skip beats and flat out race ahead of herself.

'W-wait...' The Buizel realized, her eyes going just a bit wider. 'He touched me there...I don't think even...' She thought, trying to pick out a moment if she ever got "romantic" with any males in her tribe, let alone any other male Pokemon at all, her mind drawing an absolute blank, given she was really young still and basically just of age now.

'Shit!' She realized, a human just got further with her than any other Buizel or otherwise had up until this point! If anyone back at home found out she would have never heard the end of it! They probably would have thought of her as some weird, sick freak for letting a human touching her there, a human of all things!

Her train of thought suddenly got derailed at that moment as a question suddenly popped into her head. What was so wrong about it anyway? Sure, they were different, but so were other species of Pokemon, granted if anyone in her tribe found a mate outside of it, they would be forced to live with them save for visits and such.

It wasn't even that unusual for a Buizel to be mates with a Floatzel in her own tribe, in fact her mom was a Buizel when she first got together with her dad, whom was already evolved at that point.

And it wasn't like Zeke had been mistreating her, on the contrary he had been treating very nicely up to now, and he seemed to legitimately be concerned for her.

The Buizel blinked as she realized what she had just been thinking about. 'No! Wait what am I, he's a human!' The Buizel thought as she shook her head, unable to hardly believe herself for even so much as thinking about if it was right or wrong about a human being a mate or not. No matter how nice he treated her, no matter how many fish, gifts or even berries he got her, there was absolutely no excuse for her to even so much consider this!

Yet still she couldn't stop thinking about it. It was wrong and in no way right...but she couldn't actually see anything that legitimately wrong with it. Her parents did want her to find someone that would take care of her and keep her safe, Zeke so far filled both those roles. The more she thought the less wrong it seemed, and she had been raised to see humans as more or less bad things her life, which she thought was absolutely true especially with the trainer that caught her before she met Zeke.

But in this short time, Zeke almost completely changed her opinion, she never did see any humans besides that one mistreat their Pokemon, perhaps Zeke wasn't that different despite everything. Perhaps she was insane, but he legitimately seemed okay, more than okay, he didn't have a mean bone in his body. But if it was really so wrong, why did nothing seem wrong with it?

She didn't have much time to try to slap some sense into herself, Zeke walked out of the bathroom and looked over at her. She quickly snapped her head away in embarrassment, which sent the wrong idea over to Zeke, making him think she was mad at him. He didn't say anything and just sit himself down in one of the chairs, folding his arms and closing his eyes.

'Screwed out of a bed again...' Zeke thought to himself as he tried to go to sleep, although having an even harder time doing so tonight because of the thoughts still racing through his head. Well today was probably perfect except for the last part...luck always seemed to have a very horrible sense of humor towards Zeke.

As he tried to force himself asleep the Buizel looked over at him, her mind still in conflict with the mixed feelings she was starting to develop for this human...but she blocked out any thoughts of it out and laid herself back onto the bed, closing her eyes.

Hopefully she would be in a better state of mind tomorrow...or at least she could only hope.


Part 8.


The next morning the Buizel found herself to be the first one awake. She slowly stretched herself out on the bed, yawning soundly and letting her eyes adjust to the light of the room. She sat up, looking around, she saw her new trainer sitting over there in the chair still.

She saw her necklace he made her on the table over there; she had it taken off when she had that bath last night so she figured she should go get it. She hopped off the bed and slowly made her way over past Zeke and to the other side of the table, hopping up on a chair and grabbing her necklace, wrapping it back around her neck.

She then quickly got off, going past Zeke but pausing when she was right in front of him, noticing how he was sleeping. 'Wow that doesn't look comfortable...' She thought as she looked at him, she knew humans usually slept in beds so why didn't he sleep in it?

The answer then hit her after a minute or so of thinking. Oh...she was in the bed last night; he must have not wanted to share it with her. She managed to get last night's incidents out of her head today; she wasn't really the one to ponder over those sorts of things, quickly putting them behind her.

She hopped up on the bed again and lay down, quite bored. She turned her head to the side, looking at the gym bag that was next to her. She wondered what else was inside it. She didn't mean to be nosy but curiosity was something she had a very hard time with, which got get into a lot of trouble many times.

She got up, looking over at Zeke one last time, then the bag. She carefully opened it, looking inside. She found some bags in it, some clothes and other stuff that she couldn't make sense of. She looked inside the bags, and much to her surprise, one of them had Wacan berries in it! She looked over at Zeke, who was still asleep with a rosy blush on her face.

One Wacan berry was a good enough present but...several? She turned her head around and counted them with her paws, she couldn't keep count of them all with her front paws as she only had three pads to work with on each paw.

There was at least two more there so that was about...eight? She thought about it for a few moments, yes that was it. Buizel's weren't really good with math; she was no exception to this. She grabbed one and ate it; these weren't as special to her as the one around her neck, so she had no problem eating these.

After she got done happily munching on one she figured she should save the rest for later. She then turned her attention back the gym bag, she started to dig around inside it, looking for something of interest. A few minutes of going around she didn't really find anything else that quirked her interest, except a necklace, a very beautiful one that had what looked to be blue crystals on it that glowed in the dark.

She looked at it slightly mesmerized by it, she's never really seen anything this interesting...she wanted to try it on at least, she looked over and saw that Zeke was still asleep. She might get in trouble for doing this but she had too. She carefully slid the necklace over her head, wearing it on the yellow floatation ring around her neck.

She liked it, especially the soft glow of the crystals against her fur. Unfortunately Zeke was starting to wake up now; he slowly opened his eyes and didn't really make any movements that caught the Buizel's attention. As soon as his eyes were able to focus he turned his head slightly and looked over at her, she had something around her neck...

Zeke then knew what it was. "Going through my stuff now?" Zeke asked before he yawned. His words startled the Buizel, making her scramble to get the necklace off. When she finally did she saw Zeke was getting up.

Although Zeke wasn't moving, his back was punishing him for sleeping in a chair again. Several minutes passed and he finally was able to walk towards the Buizel, she had a really sorry look on her face and held the necklace out in her paws, she thought she was in trouble.

Zeke took the necklace out of her paws without a word. He got some clothes out of his bag and set them on the bed. Zeke looked back over at her and smiled faintly. "Sorry again." Zeke apologized, she didn't quite get what it was about until she remembered last night...oh damn it she didn't even think of that all morning. "Did you sleep well?" Zeke asked, getting her attention away from her thoughts with a seemingly misplaced question.

"Bui..." She cautiously said with a faint nod. Zeke then turned his attention away from her and took off his shirt, to get changed, which caught the Buizel's full attention. Zeke had a fairly good build on him, he wasn't really "built" but he wasn't unfit either.

After Zeke reached down to pull his pants off when he noticed a pair of black eyes that were watching him like a hawk. He looked at her, blinking a few times, her stare at him didn't subside. She was obviously extremely interested in him taking his clothes off...which made him feel very uncomfortable.

He stopped right there and took the rest of his clothes and walked off into the bathroom. She was very curious now...she didn't know what a human looked like without those clothes. She followed her instincts and followed him, when she tried to open the bathroom door the handle wouldn't budge, it was locked.

Zeke heard the door knob rattle, which worried him further, although he knew she was probably just curious about what he looked like under his clothes but...it was the fact that she was interested in finding out what he looked like that made him feel uncomfortable. Flygon and Salamence didn't really ever care at any point.

Then again they were both males as well...and she was a female...which help to add to how awkward this was. The Buizel looked at the door for a few seconds, half disappointed that she couldn't see Zeke without his clothes on; to her it didn't really seem that wrong, she didn't wear anything after all.

She turned back around and got up on the bed, sitting herself down, waiting for Zeke to come out. He shortly came back out with another version of his clothes, with a large blue jacket with black accents and black pants. "Feel up for traveling today?" Zeke asked as he put everything away into his gym bag.

"Bui!" The Buizel happily cheered, she was quite happy with the idea of getting out to walk for a bit. Zeke threw his backpack over his back then threw his gym bag over his shoulder. He walked off towards the door and opened it, the Buizel rushed out ahead of him and waiting for him with a big smile on her face and her tails swaying.

"I'll see you when it's dinner time." Zeke said as he took out her Pokeball, then attempted to return her but she dodged the red beam of light from the ball. He looked at her wondering why she did that. "You don't like Ppkeballs?" Zeke asked.

"Bui!" She replied, shaking her head back and forth. Zeke then deactivated the ball and put it in one of his pockets. Well this was a little bit worrisome, this meant she was going to spend a lot of time with him...but this also made him happy, he had a companion to travel with now as well.

"Well we'll be heading off to the next city; hopefully we won't have to make any more trips back here huh?" Zeke said cheerfully with a smile on his face.

She was happy to see him smile again, which let her know he wasn't mad or anything. "Bui...bu bui-zel bui ibui zel..." She replied, kind of lowing her tone a bit towards the end of that, saying that she hopes nothing bad happens again. "Buuiii...bui bui bu-i bui-zel bu-i bui bu ibui ibu bui!" She continued with her tone getting more cheerful, saying that she was sure everything was going to be fine today.

The words bounced off of Zeke, he couldn't understand her. "Well let's get going." Zeke said. The both walked out of the Pokemon Center and headed down the road that lead to the path going outside of town to Pewter City.

It didn't take long for them to find themselves back on the same route that lead them to each other, this day being exactly like that one, with only one difference, they had each other now.