[IC] A Trainers Ambition [SporkoBug and Calle]

[SporkoBug]

Mitch frowned at the mention of Raikou stealing Missy. He gave a small nod, "Of course." He started with a frown.
Soul gave a gentle smile, "We could find Ho-Oh or Lugia. Or even track down those Mightyena and give them a good beating." He said as he moved to stand up properly. Soul looked to Penalopy with a small smile, "I'm sure they still are around. They wander a lot."

Gavin furrowed his brow. "We just have to stay close and keep them safe." He started, looking from his feet to Andy, before looking to Frosiien, "And of course, the Summon Trials." He watched Frosiiens' eyes narrow slightly.
"Of course." She started, moving to cross her arms quietly, "Arceus said for Niccia to find all of the Summons, since they're embed with the magic to over throw Darkrai."
Gavin nodded before he furrowed his brow, "We may have to speak to Arceus himself about it again. I don't think Niccia really remembers everything about it."

Niccia's eyes widened at the dresses in the window. She looked to the one that Mindy pointed out.
"Oh wow!" She started before she followed Mindy inside, looking around as well. She looked to the dress in the window before she immediately went to the counter to ask about it. "Hi, sorry but do you know if you have the yellow and blue dress in any different colours?" She asked with a tilt of her head.

[Loksfjoer]

"But Celebi first~" Penalopy chimed. "I couldn't play air-tag with Mew, I want to play with Celebi now~"
She thought about the times she and Niccia had played together. They had so much fun. "When will she take her normal form again?" Penalopy asked. "You think she'll come back after her human dies? Humans don't live that long, a hundred years tops."

Lytse didn't want to think about the end of life, but a hundred years sounded like a long time. He wasn't even sure how long the average Pokémon lived. At least he knew they could easily live for 30 years, weren't Andy's pokémon with him for that long already? Ghost types obviously would live longer, weren't they already dead? All the thoughts made his little head hurt and he lay down, closing his eyes.

Andy listened as the two Legendary Pokémon talked to each other about the situation. "Then you should talk to the big boss when you can," he said to them. "I intend to stay close to Michael for the foreseeable future." He looked at Varina. "What is your thought about the Ultra-Beasts? Did you hear Darkrai mention them when you were there?"

The woman behind the counter nodded. "We do, actually," she said. "We have it in blue, green, pink and orange. They are over there." She pointed to a rack close to Mindy, who was looking at the dresses two racks away.

[SporkoBug]

Soul frowned at Penalopy's words, he looked to Lytse quietly and wiggled his way towards the Cyndaquil quietly.
"We'd rather not think about that Pen." He said as he looked up to her with a serious look on his maw, "If she chooses to become back to Mew when given the chance than so be it. If not, Arceus can create another Mew for her to continue to live like this. Please don't press the matter any further." His hackles spiked slightly, he wasn't trying to sound confrontational or dismissive, he just didn't want Lytse to feel sad or think about the idea of Michael dying.

Varina looked to Andy as he spoke. She moved her eyes to the ground as she thought.
Frosiien nodded at Andy's words, "I will be sure to get Arceus' attention at Starfall." She stated, Gavin almost rolled his eyes.
"If he shows up this time." He said with a frown, Frosiien shot him a look.
"He will be there this time, We've made sure through contact with his Guardian." She said, Gavin giving a small nod.
"If the Bouffant can get that man to wake up and sit at that table I will be A-stonished.." He said sarcastically before he turned his attention to Varina, who nudged at his leg. He moved to lift her up to his shoulder before she poked her head into his ear, his eyes suddenly turning a purply-green.

"I have only heard passing comments." Varina's voice came from Gavin, clear enough for Andy to understand and hear, "He never let me into secret plans, but I do remember seeing him with a figure of a prism, and he talked about 'beast balls' a couple of times. Maybe they're summons?" She pulled herself out of Gavins' ear and hopped back down. Gavins' face was pale and he looked like he was going to be sick.

Niccia's eyes widened before she happily bowed her head to the woman. "Thank you so much!" She said before she ran over to where she pointed, looking at the dresses as she pulled out one of the pink ones.
She moved her tail against the pink to see if it was close to her shade or not. Before she pulled ti to her body to have a better look, she ummed and ahhed over it for a second before she moved to look at the other dresses, holding the yellow and pink one in her hand.

[Loksfjoer]

"Another Mew?" Penalopy gasped. "No, no, no! That wouldn't be Niccia! I don't want that!" She turned invisible and floated away, towards the forest.
James jumped up when he saw her disappear from view. "Miss Penalopy, wait!" he said as he quickly went in the direction he thought she had left in.

Andy listened to the two legendaries; it sounded like Arceus wasn't part much of his creation. Watching Varina poke her head into Gavin had to be one of the weirdest things he had ever seen. The nauseous look afterwards wasn't a surprise.
"Thanks Varina," he said and he put a hand on Gavin's shoulder. "Do you want to get a drink? They have a water dispenser in the Pokémon Center and if that is not sufficient, I know places where they sell something stronger too."

Mindy looked at the dress Niccia was holding when she moved her tail across the fabric. "You have to try it on," she encouraged Niccia. "I think you would look so pretty in it." She pulled out a dress with yellow and purple flowers "What do you think of this?"

[SporkoBug]

Soul just watched Penalopy leave, he settled his head down with a sway of his tail. Mitch and Fez both stayed quiet before Soul moved to stand, walking over to Michael and Lytse before moving to sit over Michael's feet almost defensively.

Frosiien gave a small laugh at Gavins' expression before she moved to cover her mouth.
"My apologies for Laughing Gavin." She started, trying to stop her giggling. "But thank you for the information Varina." She said to the Spiritomb with a bigger smile.
Gavin looked to Andy and shook his head slightly. He swallowed the sick feeling before he laughed slightly, "I'm fine." He said with a bit of a hurk. "Yerp. Fine. I'm okay."

Niccia gently pulled it off the rack before she looked to Mindy as she showed the dress.
"ooh!" She started with a bigger grin, "That looks amazing! You should definitely try it on. I'm gonna try mine on!" She moved towards the changing rooms to quickly change.
She was enjoying this, it kept her mind off everything.

[Loksfjoer]

After leaving his Pokémon in the care for nurse Joy Michael had returned just in time to see Gavin being nauseous and the Meloetta turning invisible and leave. When he joined Lytse and saw he wasn't happy about something, he knew something had happened. That feeling increased when Soul seemed defensive. "What," began.
"Nothing," Bear interjected. "Just a female being overdramatic."
"It takes one to know one," Benny teased.
"I'm not a female!"
"No, but you like being dramatic sometimes."
Bear grumbled something and Benny giggled.

"You're robbing me of the opportunity of feeding you another whiskey," Andy complained and he turned to Frosiien. "As a researcher, I think it is vital research to get Gavin drunk and see what happens, but so far he is an unwilling test-subject. It's so hard to be a Pokémon researcher sometimes."

Mindy followed Niccia to the changing rooms and took the one next to her. She undressed and put the dress on. After checking herself in the mirror, she left the booth to see if Niccia was ready too. She both wanted to see her and get an opinion on how she thought the dress looked on her.
"Does it fit?" she asked Niccia through the closed curtain.

[SporkoBug]

"Penalopy is just being emotional." Soul said with a glance up to Michael, "She will... be fine. She did this when Niccia was turned human." He looked to Lytse as he craned his head to gently press his snout to the smaller Pokemon. "Everything will be fine little one. I promise."

Gavin moved to give a raised eyebrow towards Andy's complaint, moving to speak before he moved to cover his mouth. He moved to the nearest bin and stuck his head in just before he started to vomit.
Varina looked to Gavin as he ran to the bin before she suddenly frowned, she shrunk into her keystone slightly. "I didn't mean to make him sick." She started weakly, "I just wanted to talk properly to Andy..."
Frosiien looked to Varina and moved to pick her up gently, before looking Andy with a small smile and a laugh. "Of course he is." She said with a small laugh, moving to gently pet Varina's keystone as she hid inside. "I can stay here if you wish to take him elsewhere? I will look after the little ones for you."

Niccia got dressed slowly, making sure not to damage the dress of not put it on correctly.
She looked at herself in the mirror with a bit of widened eyes, before she darted out as Mindy called to her.
"Look!" She started happily, giving a small spin. "I think it fits! It looks amazing! It feels amazing!" She stopped and looked to Mindy and moved to pull her into a hug, "Oh you look gorgeous! You look brilliant!"

[Loksfjoer]

"Thanks,", Lytse said, "but I don't really believe it. Ever since we came to the mainland dangerous things happened and Darkrai took Michael twice. He'll do it again, and what happens to me when Michael is gone?"

Michael picked up his Cyndaquil and hugged him. He couldn't really comfort him; the only promises he could make were ones he wasn't sure he could keep. He could promise his Cyndaquil nothing would happen to him, but how could he keep such a promise? Soul had already told him things would be fine and that hadn't helped either. Maybe he would just hold him for now, the way Lytse cuddled into his arms made it clear he wanted to be held right now.

"No, that's okay," Andy said to Frosiien as he looked at Gavin. "Maybe another time. But since we're on the subject of drunk Pokémon, I can tell you I had the opportunity to examine a drunk Butterfree once. I had poured mead in a glass, good quality mead, it smelled like honey. Naturally, Benny was attracted to the scent and before I realised it he had downed the glass. First I was afraid he would get alcohol poisoning, because he has such a small body and he's not used to alcohol, but when he remained conscious and he flew around drunk... it was hilarious."

"You too!" Mindy said as she hugged back. "You have to buy that dress, if you need it I can even pay for you." She grinned when she let go fo Niccia again. "We won't show them to the boys and surprise them when StarFall begins." She touched the red ribbon in her hair. "I will need to get a yellow ribbon in a similar colour as on the dress though."

[SporkoBug]

Soul frowned to Lytse as he didn't seem to cheer up. He sat up properly to move and press his snout against the smaller pokemon. "If you get distanced from Michael. I will take care of you, no matter what." He said in a soft, but fully serious manner. "I am aware I am not Michael, but I will promise I will care for you as long as I need to."

Soul pulled away from Lytse for a second before he moved his muzzle into his neck fur. He rummaged around before he pulled out a small pink and blank ribbon. He moved to gently drape it over the Cyndaquils' neck before it suddenly flashed and disappeared.
"And now I am linked to you, as I am to Niccia."

Frosiien gave a small smile to Andy's words, nodding once. "That sounds absolutely interesting." She said with a laugh.
She watched Gavin as he pulled his head from the trash can to breathe in. "See, I'm fi-" He heaved again and dropped his head back into the can.
Frosiien laughed a bit more, moving to lean against Andy's shoulder as she chuckled silently. "I've never really been drunk, I've tried alcohol before but I don't think with my Ice typing, it doesn't really mix well." She said as she pulled away "That sounds incredibly interesting to see." She said with a tilt of her head as she looked towards Benny, "Does he remember?"

Niccia looked down at the dress as she smiled, "I think I have enough money." She said before she smiled a bit more, "Thank you though, I appreciate the offer~" She smiled before she nodded at the idea of surprising the boys. "Yes, that sounds perfect." A prank, a harmless prank that the boys would probably love.
She looked around the store to see if she could find any ribbons. "There may be a ribbon shop or something down here too." She said as she looked back to Mindy with a bigger smile. "You look gorgeous, Gavin will love it!"

[Loksfjoer]

Lytse looked at Soul. "Thank you," he whispered. He wanted to say more, but it was hard to capture everything he felt in words and he hoped it was enough. What Soul did was exceptional, amazing, and he couldn't believe a Guardian would do this, but he was glad and happy and grateful. "Thank you so much," he added, which still didn't feel like it covered it, but it would have to do.

Michael didn't say anything, but he had a grateful smile for Soul. "Now you don't have to fear being alone ever again," he said to his Cyndaquil. "Not that I would ever willingly abandon you."
"I know," Lytse whispered.

Andy laughed when Frosiien asked if Benny remembered. "He should, I often remind him." He cupped a hand next to his mouth. "Hey Benny, remember that time when you drank my mead and got wasted?"
"I remember a delicious drink and a massive headache," Benny replied. "Do you remember when Merlin and I had to fly you home after a night of drinking?"
Bear started laughing.
Andy grinned and turned to Frosiien. "I don't know what he said, but I'm sure he's right."

"Michael won't know what to say when he sees you in this dress," Mindy replied. "I'm going to change again and we'll go see if there is a place where they sell ribbons." She giggled softly. "I'm sure they know that if girls go shopping it may take a while."
She enjoyed spending time with Niccia, she was a nice girl and Michael and her made a cute pair.

[SporkoBug]

Soul smiled gently to Lytse as he thanked him. "It is a pleasure." He said with a bow of his head as he looked to Michael and returned the smile. "Anything for the partners of Niccia. She loves you both and I do too."
"You getting sappy now Soul?" Mitch asked as he waddled over, Soul turned to face the Delibird with a small smile.
"And you're saying that as if you haven't gotten fatherly towards chicks you've seen before?" The Absol spoke to the other Legendary guardian, who promptly turned and walked off with a grumble.

Frosiien listened to what Benny had to say and stifled a laugh as she watched Gavin pull himself out of the trashcan again. Gavin straightened himself out and walked back over to Andy and Frosiien and hesitated as he breathed in.
"I'm. Okay." He breathed, trying to convince himself more than anything else. "I promise."
"You owe Andy a drinking session." Frosiien said to Gavin, who blinked slightly before Frosiien grinned a bit more. "He's got research to do, and taking you out drinking is important."
"I don't think-" Gavin started before Frosiien hooked her arm around him to pull him closer to her.
"I don't care what you think Gavin. You. Owe. Andy." She whispered to him, Gavin only nodding slowly.

Niccia nodded with a bigger smile as Mindy went to go change back, and she followed suit. She folded up the dress as nicely as possible once she had it off. She started to hum happily as she dressed and hopped out of the changing room. She moved to look at a few of the other dresses they had in store while she waited for Mindy to hop back out.
She glanced up for a moment as she thought she had heard someone say her name, her ears twitched before she looked back down again. She didn't notice the figure outside watching her closely before moving off before Mindy could spot them.

[Loksfjoer]

Andy turned his attention to Varina. "What you did was remarkable." He examined the Spiritomb. "I wonder if everyone throws up like that if you possess them," he muttered, more to himself than to Varina. "And if that is something only you can do, or all Spiritombs, or all ghost types." He took a small notebook and wrote down the questions her possession of Gavin had caused. "I definitely need to study ghost types more closely," he decided.

Bear grabbed Michael by the arm and pulled him to Andy. "Translate boy," he said to Michael. "Gym battle. Now. I want to take on that Miltank."
Michael, who waited until his uncle was done writing in his notebook and looked at him, decided on a loose translation. "Bear wants you to challenge Whitney to a gym battle, he wants to fight her Miltank."
Bear nodded enthusiastically.

"Sure," Andy said. "We can do that." He turned to Gavin. "Will you celebrate the victory with me? I left all my friends at Rhando and you're the most adult guy I can hang out with." Then he turned to Varina. "And we work best when we have women cheering for us," he said to her. "Will you watch our heroic battle?"
Kim giggled. "He calls everything a heroic battle," she told Varina.
"But you will cheer for us, right?" Bear asked Kim.
"Of course I will."

Mindy changed back in her normal clothes and took the dress she'd buy with her. After leaving the changing room, she looked for Niccia. When she found her, she quickly went to her. "Ready," she said. "I'm going to pay for mine. Do you want to browse some more?"

[SporkoBug]

Varina moved out of her keystone quietly as Andy spoke to her, and spoke highly about her. Her eyes widened as she listened before she looked to Frosiien, who only smiled in reply.
"I will cheer for you." Frosiien said with a bigger smile, Varina looked over to Gavin, then to Andy, then to Frosiien before looking back to Andy and nodded once.
"I wanna see what you can do!" The Spiritomb said excitedly, "Maybe one day you can fight with me!"
Frosiien laughed at Varina's words, looking towards Andy with a tilt of her head. "It seems Varina wants to try a gym battle too."

Soul almost growled towards Bear as he pulled the human away, moving to put his head gently over Lytse's back protectively. He swayed his tail before he looked into the shadows with a bit of a low rumble in his throat.
"If those Mightyena think they could harm our family." Soul rumbled.
Li slowly moved to stand, fanning his wings out slightly before he lifted his head into the air and let out a breathe of steam before he looked around. The large Noivern swayed his tail before he looked towards the rest of the other Pokemon around him.

Niccia looked to Mindy and bounced in a circle for a moment.
"No let's go!" She went towards the counter with a bigger grin, "Hi again! I'd like to buy this!" She gently put the dress on the counter as she went to look for her money. While she was looking, she accidentally bumped a Pokeball, releasing Sparky again.
Sparky gave a bit of a yawn as she slowly started to wake up and she moved to settle on Mindy's feet.

[Loksfjoer]

"Fantastic," Andy said to Frosiien. "With a beautiful woman like you cheering for us we can't lose." He listened to Varina and then to Frosiien's translation of her words. "We'll let Bear have his fun first," hesaid to Varina. "Before we do any gym battles I want to see how you do against Benny."

"Less talk, more fighting," Bear said as he grabbed Andy's arm and started pulling him along. "This way, I know where the gym is."
"Oh, sure Bear, lead the way," Andy said, guessing Bear wanted to fight now rather than later. He looked back to his Pokémon. "Who is with us?" He saw Merlin snooze and Benny waving goodbye as he flew around Michael, so they wouldn't come along, but Kim quickly followed him.

Lytse finally started to feel at peace, even the mention of the Mightyena didn't make him afraid. Soul would protect him and Michael was with him. Things were fine, for now. He looked up when he heard Andy ask about who was with him, but he saw Michael didn't move, so it looked like they would stay here.

The woman behind the counter smiled as she scanned the item and told Niccia the price as it showed up on the display. A colleague of hers opened a second cash register and Mindy gave her dress, paying for it with a card. She noticed the drowsy Pokémon at her feet.
"Niccia," Mindy said as she received the bag and thanked the employee for it, "your Pokémon is here."

[SporkoBug]

Frosiien smiled at Andy's words, she kept hold of Varina before she turned and gave a whistle to Mitch, who turned and quickly ran over to her. She moved her free hand down to gently pet Mitch's head before she started to follow after Andy.
"For someone who can't actually understand Pokemon, you have a very good understanding of what they're saying." Frosiien said with a small chuckle. "You are a very interesting human~"

She mulled over her thoughts, she flicked through her options; as much as Mitch hated the idea, she felt herself falling in love with Andy.
"Miss Frosiien." Varina started as she looked up to the Legendary, the Articuno looking down with a tilt of her head. "I think you're making the right choice."
Frosiiens' face suddenly flooded a deep red, she looked away from the Spiritomb and towards where they were walking. Varina smiled gently and settled back into her keystone while they travelled.

Gavin stayed with Michael, moving to sit quietly on the grass by Soul and gave a gentle sigh. He looked towards Michael with a small smile, "The gym battle went well?" He asked with a bit of a tilted head.
Soul moved his eyes to watch Gavin, not wanting to lift his head from Lytse's body. He was comfortable there, and he felt like Lytse probably felt good too.

Niccia moved to quietly pay for the dress before she looked towards Mindy as she called her name. She was confused before she looked down towards Mindy's feet to see Sparky.
"Oh sweetheart!" She said with a small smile before she bowed a thank you towards the cashier as she moved to lift the Joltsodour up from Mindy's feet and moved to gently kiss her on the blue gem on her head.
Sparky sleepily mumbled something and pressed her paws against Niccia's face as she slowly opened her eyes. "Nooo, I'm up I promissse." She grumbled before Niccia draped her over her shoulders quietly.

[Loksfjoer]

"Sometimes, yes," Andy said. "We've been together for a long time; you learn to understand each other when you've been together long enough. And Bear is fairly easy to read. But take Benny, I know he teased me back when I teased him with the mead, but I really don't know what he said."
Bear had let go of Andy's arm, pleased that his trainer was following and exciting to take on that Miltank himself, and lead the way to the gym.

"It did," Michael said. "We won." He looked at the Pokémon; some were watchful, others preferred to snooze in the sun. Merlin had probably been up during the night and needed to catch up on the sleep. And the Dragonite just seemed to enjoy lying in the sun.
"They were really good," Benny said, as it looked like Michael wouldn't. "Niccia's Pokémon are really strong and even though Michael didn't have Anthony and Missy for a long time yet, they fought well together." He turned to Michael. "I'm sure Merlin will help you train Anthony if you ask him. He won't admit it, but I bet he'll love taking a young, inexperienced bird under his wing."

As both had gotten the bag with their dress in it, Mindy turned to the door so they could find the second item for her outfit. Surely there would be a place in the shopping street where she could find ribbons.
"Before Merlin put her to sleep the moment she emerged from her Pokéball so you could return her," Mindy said, looking at Sparky. "Why are you keeping her out now? Wasn't it dangerous?"

[SporkoBug]

Frosiien smiled at Andy's words, "Have you ever wondered what it would be like to understand Pokemon?" She asked with a tilt of her head, she had a few ideas, but she wanted to make sure Andy wouldn't mind the ability before she could consider doing anything.
Mitch stared at his Legendary as she asked, he had a feeling he knew exactly what she was planning to do and he didn't like the idea.

Gavin gave a small smile, "I'm glad." He looked to Benny as he spoke to, "I knew you guys could win. Training is important too, you've only had these two for a short amount of time. I barely won any battles with Fez when we first started travelling together, so I've definitely been through it too."
He smiled a bit more before he looked around slowly, he gave a sigh, things were calm for this moment. It was nice.

Niccia looked over towards Mindy as she asked about Sparky and her smile faded, she moved her hand to the small Pokemons head.
"It is a little bit dangerous." She started, "But it's also dangerous to keep her in a pokeball for too long." She continued with a small frown. "She panics when she's in her Pokeball for too long, it does... weird things to her when she's not out in the air." She looked to Sparky as she slowly blinked and settled her head against Niccia's shoulder.
"We think it's because of the way she was created but we're not completely sure either."

[Loksfjoer]

"Of course," Andy replied. "Many times. It would make understanding them so much easier." He made an amused sound. "I have to admit I'm envious of my nephew, who can understand perfectly what they say. He can understand Benny better than I can, and I've been with Benny longer than Michael has been alive. But I'm glad for him, his Cyndaquil was finally able to tell his life-story to Michael and how he ended up on Rhando. It made them a lot closer. It would be fantastic to chat with Benny," he paused and chuckled. "I'm not sure I'd like to understand Merlin. Now I can pretend he calls me awesome anytime he says something. That will be a long-running joke that will disappear, filling in what they say even though I know that's not what they're saying."

"Heh, you'll love to hear what Merlin has to say about you," Bear said.

"Of course I'm awesome, thanks for pointing that out."

Bear chuckled. "I would miss hearing that kind of nonsense, but we all wondered sometimes what it would be like if humans could understand us and it would be easier. Andy wouldn't have to guess and we wouldn't have to play charades. Although Benny is really good at that. If we all fail, he usually finds a way to get the message across."

---

Mabel opened her eyes and looked at Gavin. "Your intentions with Mindy better be honourable," she warned him. "She's young, especially compared with you."

Michael turned to the Dragonite; he hadn't expected her to speak up like that. But she probably had wanted to wait until Mindy was gone.

---

"I don't keep my Dragonite in a Pokéball either," Mindy said. "I caught her as a Dratini, but it turned out she's claustrophobic, so I let her swim freely. I spend a few months at the area I caught her and we trained a lot on the shore. She practised a lot in the water too, because she knew if she would get stronger she would get wings. When she evolved, that's when we continued our travel. That's also why it took us this long to get to Johto." She laughed a bit. "I've been away from Rhando for almost a year now. I hadn't seen Michael for that long, so it was a great surprise to run into him here."

As the walked and talked, she checked the shops in the street.

[SporkoBug]

Frosiien listened to Andy's words, and listened to his Pokemon. She hesitated for a moment before she looked over to Bear. "What do you reckon?" Frosiien asked in her Pokemon language, "I have a way of giving him the same gift, but I want to make sure I'm doing something right." She asked Bear. She looked to Andy with a bigger smile.

"I'm glad I found you." She said with a bigger smile. "And I'm even more glad I saved you on top of that hill. I never expected that I would fall in love with a human." She said as she felt Mitch's stare as he followed behind her.

---

Gavin's face went deep red, he nodded to Mabels' words.
"I promise you my intentions are Honourable." He said as he bowed his head slightly. "I would never think of harming her in any way, and if you feel like I am doing something wrong, please feel free to hit or hurt me."
"Please don't listen to him." Fez added as he slunk over to his trainer and sat beside him, "This man has no bad bone in his body, as much as he tries to seem touch."
"Fez!" Gavin growled towards his Cubone, who only grinned in response.

---

Niccia nodded at Mindy's words. "Taking a long time to get somewhere is fine." She said as she looked around. "As long as you get to your destination, I think it's always a plus~" She smiled towards Mindy before she moved to gently pet Sparky's head as she started to properly wake up.
"I'm up..." Sparky grumbled as she slowly settled her head back down and snoozed a bit more. Niccia chuckled before she looked back to the road. "I'm so glad we got to hang out." She said with a bigger smile, "I've never really hung out with another human before I met Michael, let alone another female that took me shopping!"

Eyes watched from the shadows as someone slipped back into the darkness before Niccia could spot them. They closed their eyes and breathed in slightly.

[Loksfjoer]

"Why are you asking me? Bear asked. "You should ask the smart ones. Merlin would instantly point out all the reasons it's a bad idea, but Benny would counter with listing all the positive things that would come from it. I have no idea what the best decision would be, I can't analyze as well as the others, but I do know this: it would be fun! And Lytse said it had made him and Michael even closer."

"I think Andy would like it," Kim chimed in. [i]"He said several times things like 'I wish I knew what you were saying' or 'if only I could understand you'. I mean, he understands how we feel about things, but he always has to guess the finer details. And I know for a fact we all have things we want to be able to tell him. Well... maybe not Merlin, but I would love to tell him why I was so afraid at first."

"What happened when the others abandoned me and he showed up," Bear added. "Benny would just use it to chat, he was just living a peaceful life in the forest when he met Andy."

"But Benny did once say it was a shame he could never tell Andy why he had decided to come with him." Kim replied, followed by a sigh. "But this is really why we would like it. We should probably think about his research too. He loves doing research and observe Pokémon. He can't use anything we tell him for his research without additional proof, because no-one will accept 'the Pokémon told me so' as a valid source."

"Then he just needs to observe instead of ask." Bear decided. "We can just tell him 'why don't you figure that out without us telling you, you lazy bum' when he asks us how something works."

Kim giggled to that.

As Bear and Kim answered Frosiien's question and talked amongst themselves about the implications of her gift, Andy turned to Frosiien when she mentioned falling in love with a human. He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer. "I am forever grateful you saved me from that blizzard. And... I had kinda given up on finding someone that would make me feel how you make me feel." He looked at her. "I know you're really a Pokémon and we only met today, but I don't care. You are remarkable in every way and I enjoyed every moment we spent together."

---

"Truthfully, I don't think it's a good thing legendary Pokémon mingle with humans," Mabel said. "But I won't stop you and Mindy getting closer if that's what she wants."

Michael looked a bit awkward when Mabel said that, but he decided it didn't matter. He loved Niccia and even his uncle, who had taught ethical conduct for Pokémon trainers, hadn't objected to it.

---

Mindy hooked her arm in Niccia's arm. "And we're in the perfect city to go shopping. Goldenrod city has many shops. We should go to Celedon too, the Department Store there is the biggest I had ever seen!"
She noticed a sewing shop. "I bet we'll find what I need there," she said as she pointed to it.