Chapter Text

“OK, remember everything you’ve trained in these latest weeks! Relax, focus, use Cut! You can do this, you’ve got exceptional cutting skills!”, Goh enthusiastically instructed to his Mantis Pokémon who nodded and showed off his sharp scythes.

“I’ve got this!”, Scyther answered assertively.

“Confident, aren’t you?”, commented Raboot with neutrality while leaning against a wall with a lifted foot and both arms hidden under his fur layer.

“My middle name is “Cutting-Edge Precision”…”

“Oooooh…”, hummed Toxtricity in amazement. “That’s so cool, dude!”

“He just made it up.”, the Rabbit Pokémon noted to my big baby brother. This type of attitude didn’t surprise me anymore.

“You can’t tell apart from a joke, can’t you?”

“I’m hungry…”, commented Yamper out of the blue.

“Yamper, we already had a snack earlier!”, reminded Pikachu.

“Right, don’t do like last time where you almost jumped to a Takoyaki cart and gave a good scare to Chloe, she didn’t like that.”, I added.

“I know…”, whimpered the Puppy Pokémon, displeased for this awkward subject being brought up again. As much I love Takoyaki, I would never do such thing. I’ve seen Hope angry before and I guarantee you don’t want to see her embodying a Sharpedo.

A local man with a funny way to dress up had climbed the stage, holding a large microphone and a few papers. He glanced to the mass of people at his front and spoke out loud on the sound device:

“Good afternoon, Ecruteak Cityyyyyy!!! Welcome to the Clear Cut Challenge contest!!!! Oh yes! I can see on everyone’s faces that you love skilled Pokémon! You want to see them, right?! Perfect! I’m asking to all the contestants to go up on stage!”

“Time to go up there and show what you’ve got!”, said Goh to his participant pocket monster while flexing his arm. “Good luck!! You can win this!”

“Oh! It’s about to start!!!”, exclaimed Ash in great enthusiasm as Scyther flew up from the wooden stairs leading to the stage. “GO, SCYTHEEEER!!!”

“Goh spent a lot of time training him, let’s hope for a good result.”, said Chloe to everyone in the group.

“I never expected that in my first visit to Johto I would be watching a Pokémon cutting skill contest! Thank you so much for the invitation, everyone!”, happily thanked Hope.

“Don’t mention it, Hope! We’re all good friends!”, assured Ash with a wide-open smile.

“Yeah! We’re actually happy that you managed to come with us!”, added the blue-eyed lad.

“I also had nothing to do today so I took the opportunity to join you all.”, the pig-tailed girl admitted. “It would be really nice for dad if Scyther wins this.”

“What’s the prize?”, asked Hope.

Goh pointed to a few large sacks in a corner of the stage and explained: “A three-month supply of Pokémon ration.”

“Wow! Free food! That can feed Raboot and Scyther for many months beyond that!”

“It isn’t just for them! It’s for all mine and Ash’s Pokémon!”

“You’ve got more?”, my Trainer exclaimed in surprise, unaware of this. “Do you have four of them like Ash? Or a full team of six?”

“No! I have a few dozen!”, he replied in smug.

“D-Dozens?!”

“That’s right!”, confirmed Ash with a chuckle. “Goh’s determined to catch every different Pokémon species! He’s making progress.”

Hope looked with her jaw dropped to Chloe, who nodded with some constraint. He’s serious about the “catch them all”.

Goh showed her evidence by opening the Pokédex data registered in his Rotom Phone and swiped down with his finger. Seeing all that data impressed Hope even more and Chloe lightly remarked: “See why my dad will be happy? All the Pokémon of the park need to be fed.”

“Whoa… So, the Pokémon are in a park? Where, exactly?”

“Cerise Park! It’s right behind the main building!”, explained Ash. “You should pay a visit one of these days! Goh’s got so many Pokémon there and we sometimes spend a whole morning playing with them!”

Hope’s eyes were as shiny as… well, a Shiny Pokémon after it comes out from a Poké Ball? It has been a good while last time I saw her so enthusiastic and I could understand why. She loves Pokémon and the last time she could interact regularly with wild ones was when we both lived in Alola. Although she never caught other Pokémon except for me, she enjoyed to befriend with them. We had a good time.

“Well, well, well, we have sixteen contestants that come a bit from everywhere! This is going to be goooooooooooood, ladies and gentlemeeeen!! The rules are very simple! Our helpful Spinarak are going to hang up a log a few meters above our skilled contestants. Each log has got a white line drawn that shows where the cut must be performed. The log will be dropped one after another every time a crewmember gives a signal to the Spinarak out of the sight of the participants. A total of five logs will be dropped per round. The points will be calculated depending on how precise is each cut. The top eight results will be qualified for the second round. The third one is the final, where only the best four are going to compete for the tasty and nutritive grand prize! Oh yeeees!!!”

Many humans around us loudly cheered up the participating Pokémon with all their might. A few were either clapping or whistling. Scyther joined the other fifteen rivals, some more confident about their ability than others, I could tell by just looking to their eyes. Most were from either Kanto or Johto regions, but there were one or two cases that traveled from much afar. A single contestant had called up my attention: a large and deep-red Scizor that was on the fifth standing spot of the queue. He was notably in wonderful shape. The way he moved his pincers were quick and the scales were really reflecting the sunlight. He observed everyone around in contempt, talk about being really confident in winning this! Goh’s Scyther didn’t go unnoticed to the physical condition of this pincer-wielding Pokémon, immediately alerted that he was a potential rival who wasn’t willing to lose to something that, to the Steel-type’s point of view, was a mere stroll in the park. Once their eyes have met, both frowned. I’m glad none knew the move Mean Look nor Glare because the way they stared to each other gave me chills!

“Enjoy these first five cuts, rookie.”, provoked the overly secure Scizor. “They’ll be the only ones you’ll make. I’ve participated in this contest fourteen times in a row and I never lost!”

Scyther crossed his arms, closed his eyes and chuckled with the statement, catching Scizor off guard because this wasn’t the reaction he was expecting to have. Then he confidently responded, opening a single eye:

“Impressive. However… everything eventually comes to an end.”

Hah! That statement was as hot as an expelled Flamethrower from Fire-types like me!! The displeased Scizor was about to fly closer to him but the host prevented that to happen by continuing to talk to the crowd:

“All these wonderful sixteen Pokémon are about to showcase their talent to break the logs in half! Remember! The top eight results will pass to the second round!... Bring up the logs with your strong webs, Spinarak!”

“Here they come!!”, yelled an effusive Ash. 

“You can do it, Scyther!!”, shouted Goh.

“Bring that ration to Vermilion!!”, added Chloe.

“Focus on the white line!!”, advised Pikachu out loud. Raboot just nodded in agreement.

“Show everyone here that non-evolved Pokémon can be winners too!!”, I shouted.

“Slash those looogs!!! Slash’em!!”, cheered Toxtricity while moving his arms way up.

Hope stood silent, eagerly watching what was happening at the front of those very dark green flags with white Poké Ball patterns, covering the pagodas of the horizon. A small trio of musicians started to play a short traditional music, very typical from this region, as the logs with the drawn white lines elevated on the air. For such a small Pokémon like Spinarak, the sturdiness of their web strings is very impressive! I have no idea how heavy are each of those tree trunks but probably enough to wound someone very badly if they fall over their heads!

“Contestants! Get ready for the fiiiiiiiiirst cut!!”

All the sixteen Pokémon prepared themselves to use the move Cut, waiting for the logs to fall. We could only listen to the sound of the soft breeze blowing from the right. The crewmember hidden on the same level of the Spinarak made a hand signal and the bugs let the trunks fall at the same time. The Pokémon under did their cuts and the crowd cheered, applauding the participants. The musicians played a Taiko drum tune with complementary percussion notes to mark the end of the first cut. Scyther cut a little too early, as he wasn’t expecting the log to be dropped so quickly. Better early than late, because the judges were penalizing the Pokémon that reacted too late! Scizor just smiled, he did a nearly perfect cut: it was probably a human thumb of distance to the white line! Goh’s Pokémon sweated a little, but he frowned and lifted his arms once again to get ready for the second log. This one stood suspended even less time!! Scyther felt very clumsy but accidentally made a perfect cut!! People clapped! It matched the cut of his rival, that this time was also right on the white line! The Pokémon hmphed realizing Scyther’s cut, with a clear face of “He was lucky”. The other three cuts followed and the judges were doing math on the board. Scyther was qualified for the second round by a scratch! He was the seventh best Pokémon! Tough luck for that Pawniard and Ambipom, the trip didn’t end up rewarding! During the very short break, Goh bent himself over the wooden fence and gave more advice to the Bug-type like a coach giving instructions in a heated wrestling ring match.

“You were nervous because they were the first cuts, it’s perfectly normal! But the exercise isn’t very different from what we’ve practiced! Remember the three words I’ve told you! Ignore the people and the other Pokémon! I believe in you!”

“Yeah, you did great in the trainings!”, added a pumped Ash who clenched his hands. “Just wait! Your results will get better with each cut you’ll make!”

“Right!”, Scyther said in nodding as he returned to his spot with the other seven contestants. But provocations weren’t over. Scizor decided to pester again the unevolved Mantis Pokémon:

“Only amateurs need advice from their Trainers! Get lost!”

“I didn’t ask for your opinion, metal-coated head!”, Scyther replied severely. Scizor didn’t like the adjective and he approached very closely to the Pokémon’s face with his pincer.

“If this was a Pokémon Battle I would show you that this metal-coated head is much better than a rookie Scyther like you. Watch out for your tone!”

“Could you both be quiet? You’re noisy!!”, complained the Sneasel that was nearby. She was also a skilled contestant.

“I don’t need advice from unevolved species. Once your Trainer takes this contest seriously, they’ll make you evolve.”

“Razor Claws aren’t as easy to find like Metal Coats are as far as I know. My Trainer likes me the way I am, I don’t care about your opinion.”

“You have a lot to learn.” disregarded Scizor. “Evolution is for the strongest! Humans like powerful Pokémon like me. And like this bracelet shows I’m among the noble group of those who can Mega Evolve! Pokémon that don’t want to evolve are weak. Their Trainers must be idiots.”

Us Pokémon were listening to that polemic statement. Pikachu, Yamper and I were upset, but my irritation levels were equal to Pikachu. That Scizor didn’t inspire me the moment I saw him going to the stage and after listening to this declaration I was certain that his spirit and his brain are as small as a pea. Toxtricity frowned upon listening to Scizor’s point of view. Raboot had turned to the offender, silently glaring at him. Knowing both my big brother and the Rabbit Pokémon, they would intervene in case things would escalate quickly.

“What’s his problem if we don’t want to evolve?!”, groaned Pikachu with sparks appearing on his cheeks.

“That’s not nice!!”, barked Yamper.

I disliked Scizor’s disapproval of my life options but what really offended me was involving humans in this pointless talk. I felt it was an attack to both Hope and Ash. I lost my calmness and expelled a good Flamethrower to the direction of Scizor, who yelped as he avoided the hit.

“F-FIRE!!! WHO DID THIS?!?!?”

“THIS UNEVOLVED GIRL RIGHT HERE!”, I shouted with my mouth releasing some smoke.

“LITTEN?!?!”, everybody in the group shouted in choir, startled with my attitude.

“LITTEN, WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?!?!”, scolded Hope with her upset and blushing face, extremely embarrassed for the fact people around were looking to us with diverse expressions.

“Little-big sister, chill out!!!”, awkwardly requested Toxtricity. But I kept talking to the Scizor that showed a brief cowardice the moment he saw my fire.

“LISTEN, YOU POKÉBEAN-HEAD! I don’t care about Mega Evolution and all those fancy rocks you like to show off like if you were walking on a Kalosian passarele! Leave that to Pokémon performers who truly know how to perform! I don’t admit you’re saying that all humans that have unevolved Pokémon are idiots! My Trainer’s a caring, friendly, amazing human and very courageous! She always respected my decision to not want to evolve, it’s my choice! The Everstone she gave me and I hide in my neck fur is the evidence!”

Scyther and Sneasel were surprised, listening to my counter-statement. Scizor glared to me, astonished with my dare to interfere in the talk, I couldn’t care less about that. I was sure it was also because he felt embarrassed that he showed fear of fire from a Litten and was trying to mask it. I continued: “Unevolved Pokémon can be as strong as evolved Pokémon! Anything goes to win a battle! When you don’t have strength, you’ve got the technique and your brain to combine and use! That’s what Hope and Ash do to me and Pikachu!”

Scizor was about to tell me something but his Trainer was hidden somewhere in the crowd and I could hear his grave and angry voice yelling, asking who was the responsible for attacking his Pokémon. A security guy appeared nearby, looking for the user of that Flamethrower. Hope picked me up from the floor seconds earlier in a rush, hiding me inside her wheelchair’s backpack. She was extremely tense until the man had left, sighing after.

“That was close… Litten, I don’t want Scyther to be disqualified!”, sighed Goh in a mix of relief and yet slightly bothered after me.

“Litten, if I see a single singe from yours during this contest you’ll go inside your Poké Ball...”, my Trainer harshly whispered to my ears, showing the device to me.

“Thanks for defending our honour, Litten!”, acknowledged Yamper.

“I was tempted to shock that Scizor but I didn’t think you would really attack him.”, commented Pikachu, sort of satisfied to see that I managed to intimidate the rude Pokémon.

“Litten was reckless, it’s true. But that Scizor deserved it.”, partially defended Raboot, who blushed and avoided visual contact after he saw I was smiling to him. “I-I just want to ensure there’s food for everyone in the end.”. Yeah, right…

“Sis, do you want to go to the Poké Ball that badly?”, my brother naively asked me.

“No, Toxtricity… I don’t…”, I replied. I never enjoyed being inside a Poké Ball.

Ash observed the Scizor returning to his position, but not removing his inquisitive angular eyes from Scyther who tried to abstain from that penetrating stare. The cap-wearing boy frowned and commented to his human group.

“That Scizor over there seems to be bothering Scyther. Maybe he’s taunting him? I don’t think Litten would attack for no reason.”

“That’s a good point, Ash.”, admitted Chloe in surprise for Ash’s note. “Now that you mention it… Both seemed to be exchanging noises earlier.”

Goh hummed, placing a hand over his upper lip.

“Rivalry, perhaps?... Or better!... He acknowledges Scyther’s ability and is afraid to lose!”

“You know Goh, that’s not a bad theory!... It actually makes sense, gathering all pieces together!”, Hope exclaimed with her lifted eyebrows. She looked to me and started to understand why I had that attitude earlier. “Litten, as much as you wanted to help Scyther you must not bring any of us into unnecessary trouble! Please be cautious.”

“Yes, I get it…”, I meowed to her.

The second round went much better to Scyther. Now that he had a better knowledge of how the contest worked out, he could focus better to make more correct cuts. One after other, it was sublime, gracious and precise. Three perfect cuts! Two were really close to the white lines! A score worth to be in the round’s podium, providing the Mantis Pokémon a comfortable position to enter in the final round!! Now it was down to four Pokémon, the best ones of the contest: Goh’s Scyther, the Sneasel of before, a collected Pinsir and the arrogant Scizor. Now anyone in that horizontal queue could win a free banquet for three-months, they were all good. The Bug and Steel-type Pokémon was getting nervous. Scyther’s score earlier was the second best, right behind him by a single perfect cut of difference. Scizor leaned his head forward and told him:

“You’re in time to give up! There’s no way you can make five perfect cuts like I’ll do next!”

“Scared?...” jocosely remarked Sneasel with a smirk.

“Stay out of this, Sneasel! I wasn’t talking to you!”

“You can’t always win, Scizor. Today you’ll feel the bitter taste of defeat.”, spoke Pinsir for the first time. That statement made it clear it wasn’t the first time he participated in this contest.

The host interrupted their talk by calling out the audience’s attention once again. Everyone was hyped to see who would win! “Who would know about this? This year’s competition is quite tough! Scizor is here for the fifteenth time, Pinsir for the third! Then we have these amazing exhibitions of the newcomers Sneasel and Scyther! Both talented cutters! Who will win this time? We’ll find out next! Bring the first log, Spinarak! The final round starts NOW!!!”

Four Spinarak lifted the heavy trunks. The contestants prepared themselves. Scyther decided to close his eyes and I got worried. How in the world would that fellow insect of ours would see where to make the cut?!?! I looked to everyone and they didn’t seem worried, except maybe for my brother, Hope and Chloe. Goh revealed to be super confident before the final set of five logs had started. Some nervousness surfaced slowly on the lad, contrasting with Ash getting even more energic each new cut was performed. The wait for the final trunk was really tense. Scyther did what I thought it was unthinkable with his eyes closed: four perfect cuts! He was tied with the Scizor!! This last slash would decide who wouldn’t worry about food for the next times. And the signal-making crewmember was having lots of fun bringing suspense… At this rate I would fall asleep and not see the result! Toxtricity was tempted to play something in his chest protrusion but I showed my paw to make him understand this wasn’t the best time. Finally, the signal was made! The last cuts were done by the quartet of participants!... And Scyther won! WITH HIS EYES CLOSED!!! Scizor got in second place because of a difference smaller than a human thumb!!

“SCYTHER WON, YEAAAH!!”, shouted Ash in joy for the victory of his boyfriend’s Pokémon.

“ALRIGHT!! THE TRAINING HAS PAID OF!!”, happily zested Goh, racing to Scyther to hug him. His Pokémon got startled, he wasn’t expecting such an effusive reaction and that even made him blush a little!

My brother couldn’t hold the temptation anymore and he played a celebrative tune on his chest. “YOU DID IT, DUDE!!! THAT WAS SUPER!!”, he shouted.

“FANTASTIC CUTS, SCYTHER!!! YOU DESERVED TO WIN!”, Pikachu cheered while clapping.

Raboot sketched a smile. “Good show.”, he said it in a normal tone, yet hinting satisfaction for his friend’s performance.

“THAT WAS GREAT, SCYTHER!!!”, positively yelled Yamper with his non stopping wiggling tail and hopping around in circles.

“YOUR NAME’S TRULY SCYTHER CUTTING-EDGE PRECISION! YEEEES!!”, I partied along with my Pokémon friends. Scyther was smiling with all compliments he could listen from our group. Chloe was truly impressed, clapping and commenting to Hope who was on her right side:

“I’m not going to lie. Goh did an exceptional work training that Scyther.”

“That was soooo coooooool!!!”, wowed my Trainer with her glowing reddish eyes, moving her arms very fast on the air. “Scyther did these with such class!!! I loved to watch it!!”

Chloe smiled seeing her friend in such a good mood. We saw that the host was delivering a certificate of participation to Goh that proved his Pokémon had won the grand prize, and Scyther had the right to wear a fancy first place ribbon! Ultramarine blue fits him well in that chest! Both Trainer and Pokémon waved to the applauding audience in joy, thrilled by the whole show. What happened next was pretty cool to witness: Sneasel walked close to the Bug-type to touch her flexed arm on Scyther’s, as a sign of respect. “Good show!”, complemented the dark Pokémon with the short red-pink feather. Pinsir followed up next who did the same thing and complimented:

“I’ve never seen such a skilled Scyther like you before. You’re awesome, and you too, Sneasel! Congratulations for the third place!”

“I’ll be here next year and win the prize!”

“That is, if I don’t do better than you!”

That was some good sportsmanship right there! This was even pointed up by the observant host of the contest. The provider of the food was now asking Goh where should the Pokémon ration sacks be shipped for the next three months and the boy had removed a paper from his pocket, unwrapped it and showed to the man who silently read its content for the followed seconds. A yelp cut the silence, and the stuttering adult interjected:

“So-so many requested food!!! For this many Pokémon?!?!?!”

“That’s right! The contest terms stated there was no limit for the quantity that the winner could request.”, pridefully noted Goh who had his phone already on hand just in case the mister wanted to have his memory refreshed by seeing the online document that contained that information. The adult sighed loudly, whimpering the words “We’re going to be broke…!!!”, haha! But he knew that the boy was right so he had no choice other than registering that free order.

“All is taken care of.”, Goh told to all of us as he met us down stairs with his Scyther. “We can return to Kanto now, don’t you agree?”

“Oh yes, I can’t wait to tell dad that he won’t need to worry for ordering Pokémon ration for a while! Even for Ren it will be easier.”, observed Chloe.

“All Pokémon in the Park will be happy to know you’ve won all that food to share with them! Isn’t that great?!”, excitedly asked the cap-wearing youngster to the Mantis Pokémon.

“They’re better to respect me from now on!”, he noted while delightfully showing up his scythes shining with the sunlight.

In that moment, I saw a shadow approaching to his back at a great speed. And the silhouette was too familiar, to my discontent. Seriously, what was that Pokémon’s problem?! Scizor was about to attack Scyther with a Cut move but to his bad luck I was quick to act. I jumped off Hope’s legs and spitted a powerful Flamethrower towards that offensive pincer. The red insect got hit with my move and he retreated a few meters, angered after my attack.

“THERE ARE MEDICINES FOR HEARTBURNS, YOU KNOW?! LEARN TO ACCEPT DEFEAT, YOU STUBBORN CLOTHES IRON!!!”, I furiously yelled after him.

“Litten?!”, screamed a startled Chloe.

“Hey, it’s that Scizor of before!!”, observed Hope who immediately frowned because she saw what happened earlier. “Goh, he tried to attack your Scyther on his back!! His pincer was glowing!!”

“What?!”, the sweatshirt boy unhappily interjected while turning around to see the sore loser with the wounded pincer.

“You’ve lost, Scizor! Attacking Scyther won’t change a thing!!”, shouted Ash with grand austerity on his voice, also disliking what he was witnessing.

A grumpy male voice was heard coming from behind the offending Pokémon: “So, it was that Litten who did the fire earlier in the contest! “Who is responsible for you?! I want to know!!”

“She’s my Pokémon! She only tried to protect Scyther from your Pokémon’s attack!”, firmly pointed out Hope.

“You need to have guts to tell me about things my Pokémon would never do to anyone!! Let’s battle!”

“What?! Can’t you see she’s in a wheelchair?!?!”, questioned Chloe with great agitation, upset after the indifference of Scizor’s Trainer.

“That doesn’t prevent her Pokémon to battle me!! COME ON AND DO IT!!”

“Mister, I refuse to battle for something as pointless as this! I already explained why Litten used that Flamethrower!!”

“Then you’re a coward!! Just like your Litten who was going to burn my Scizor who was doing nothing!”

My blood was boiling with that comment. I arched my back, hissing loudly.

“Yo, leave my Trainer alone! She doesn’t want to fight!!”, reinforced Toxtricity to Scizor in a loud tone.

“Oh, please! Look at you! You’re weird looking, I can bet you don’t know how to fight!!”

“Don’t make me mad!!”, my brother warned in frown. But I hated to admit the truth: Toxtricity had only a single battle on his life and it was back when he evolved to save me and everyone else in that filthy warehouse. Battling under the constant supervision and commands of a Trainer is completely different, I speak by my own experience. The Electric and Poison-type is strong, but he could get easily disoriented if he was challenged by a humanly trained opponent like Scizor who clearly battles regularly and is immune to Poison-type moves. And Hope didn’t figure out Toxtricity’s true potential yet for reasons I’m sadly aware about.

Ash didn’t like the man’s taunt. He stepped ahead of everyone and defiantly shouted to the rude adult:

“She’s on her right to not want to battle. How can you call coward to someone who’s trying hard every day to achieve the dream to walk again, even if she doesn’t know what will be her future?!”

“Ash!...”, Hope exclaimed, surprised by her friends’ words.

“You stay out of this, kid! I want to battle, not listening to life lessons from a child!!”

“Then battle me if you want one so badly!!”

“Ash, are you sure you want to do this?!”, anxiously asked Goh.

“He won’t leave you guys alone if he doesn’t get what he wants, so I’m doing it!”

“And I’m in!!”, expressed Pikachu his will out loud, with his sparks coming out once again from his cheeks.

“Pikachu! I could have done this myself, you know?!”

“Your Trainer doesn’t want to fight, Litten! And for once I want to help you out, you’ve done it a lot before. Now it’s my turn!”

I didn’t know what to respond to that. So, I just stood back, close to Hope’s left wheel, and decided to watch the electric duo about to start a battle. The man gave a nasty chuckle, entertained with Ash’s courage to take the challenge, as he took out a Net Ball out of his pocket. He pointed to Scyther while saying:

“Very well. But that Scyther is going to join you in a Double Battle.”

Goh and Scyther exchanged looks. The Mantis Pokémon refused the idea to retreat and see Pikachu covering his exoskeleton. Aware of this, and looking to his boyfriend’s eyes full of determination to solve this problem as a tag team, Goh’s insecurities disappeared in a finger-snap, making the lightning-cheeks lad let out a quick smile. The boy is surely talented to lift the blue-eyed youngster’s spirit quicker than Toxtricity falling asleep the moment he sees a soap opera’s episode preview on television! In a blended feeling of confidence and seriousness, he expressed out loud while approaching Ash:

“Scyther accepts the challenge, and he won’t lose! It isn’t just to prove his worth! This is also for Hope’s honour!! She’s a brave girl that inspires all of us to face our daily challenges! Don’t mess up with our friend!”

“You heard him!”, Scyther reinforced while standing next to Pikachu.

“Goh!...”, my Trainer exclaimed for the second time, for the same reason as earlier. She grabbed the wheelchair’s handles tightly, under a state of stupefaction realizing now that, alongside with Goh, for the very first time ever she was going to see the Champion of Alola battling right in front of her eyes, and not through video footage behind a television screen. Despite of having built a friendship with Ash, the red-haired girl is still a big fan of his exhibition many months ago in the Pokémon League Championship organized in her birthregion.

“Ninjask! Come on out!!”, shouted Scizor’s Trainer, revealing that yellow and black Bug-type from that Net Ball. Goh took no time to pick up his Rotom Phone and scan both opponents before the start of the battle, with the device describing some information:

“Ninjask! The Ninja Pokémon and the evolved form of Nincada! Bug and Flying-type! Ninjask moves around at such a high speed that it cannot be seen, even while its crying can be clearly heard. For that reason, this Pokémon was long believed to be invisible.

…

Scizor! The Pincer Pokémon and the evolved form of Scyther! Bug and Steel-type! Scizor has a body with the hardness of steel. It’s not easily fazed by ordinary sorts of attacks. This Pokémon flaps its wings to regulate its body temperature.”

“Hahaha! Checking data won’t help you a thing, kid!”, cackled the tall adult man. “This is going to be as easy as knocking out two Magikarp! SCIZOR!! MEGA EVOLVE!!”

Everyone watching opened their eyes widely, myself included, upon listening to the command of the guy who pressed his Key Stone installed on his belt buckle. I had never seen a Mega Evolution live! Scizor’s body disappeared in a huge echoing multicolored sphere that created a small sandstorm around him. And from a moment to another he returned, with his form completely altered and briefly illuminated with the phenomenon’s symbol.

“YOU’LL BE SHREDDED TO SMITHEREENS!!”, the Mega Evolved Scizor yelled in an intimidation attempt.

“It’s no good!...”, Raboot commented next to us with sweat dropping from his forehead.

“PIKACHU! SCYTHER! DON’T LOSE THIS!!”, shouted Yamper angered by the Mega Evolution advantage of the transformed red insect.

“What a power!... What’s that?!”, the pigtailed girl nervously asked while grabbing Yamper tightly on her arms.

“Mega Evolution! I’ve seen it on some Kalos and Hoenn battles that broadcasted on TV! It’s similar to Z-Rings, except instead of powering up a matching move of a Pokémon it transforms its body to a stronger form!...”, Hope tensely explained.

“I knew it couldn’t be good!... Will Ash and Goh be ok?! That Scizor seems to be much more difficult to take down now!!”

Hope hummed in hesitation for what to answer to her friend and I could perfectly understand why. I also watched those battles on that flat screen of our home’s living room and Mega Evolved Pokémon are extremely tough to defeat. Neither Pikachu or Scyther had fire-type moves to take control of that mutated clothes iron, so how would they solve this out?! Odds weren’t really on their favour. Even Raboot was looking to both with that expression that clearly showed that he wanted to be there to give a good kick on a rock to incinerate it and burn that red metal head. Suddenly, Toxtricity decided to cut the silence on our side by frowning and energetically play a known battle song with his chest protrusion. That was fitting, we all thought!

“Victory will taste better with a background music like that one!”, the adult commented. “NINJASK! USE AGILITY! SCIZOR! USE SWORDS DANCE!”

The two Pokémon performed the ordered moves. Ninjask was already flying quick when he was sent out but that move made him nearly invisible. In Mega Scizor’s side, some magical lights materialized in the same shape of multiple swords danced around until vanishing and making an ascending one surround the Pokémon. I was aware that meant his physical strength was bulked up.

“This is not good news, Ash!”, commented Goh in apprehension.

“Not good, but it’s a problem that we’ll solve like any other! PIKACHU! USE QUICK ATTACK ON SCIZOR!”

“GOT IT!!”, Pikachu obeyed racing as fast as he could to tackle Mega Scizor’s abdomen. CLAAAASH! It echoed!! The Pokémon cackled seeing Pikachu’s reaction upon landing that he barely felt a thing! Goh immediately decided to target the speedy Ninjask by ordering to his Scyther:

“SCYTHER! USE AIR SLASH ON NINJASK!”

“COME RIGHT HERE!”, Scyther yelled to his opponent while doing the move after a good jump. But that Pokémon was too quick to be hit, Air Slash easily missed with the uneven flight pattern of Ninjask now even harder to predict where he would place himself! “Why yoooou!!!!...”

Ash suggested Goh to exchange targets to see if his Pikachu could give damage to the Ninja Pokémon and if Scyther had more luck with his evolved rival. Mega Scizor’s head shone, almost turning into a mirror. His Trainer commanded an Iron Head to hit Scyther’s abdomen. The green Mantis Pokémon flew a few meters away to avoid the dangerous damage. That was close!! Goh ordered next a Swords Dance to his Pokémon increase his attack power, deciding to approach more the opponent’s physical strength. Pikachu got requested to use a Thunderbolt but even its wide range wasn’t enough to land on Ninjask. The Pokémon responded with a Double Team. That annoying insect increased evasiveness was getting in my nerves. If speed wasn’t already a problem, this only made it worse!!

Pikachu and Scyther were trapped inside a game similar to the Meowth and the Rattata, being constantly chased down by Ninjask and Scizor, desperately trying to avoid to be hit. The boys were angered, trying to come up with a fast solution. Pressure only increased the moment that Ninjask’s Trainer ordered him to use Dig. Scyther managed to escape the soil impact but Pikachu didn’t. He shouted with the taken damage, making Ash call out for his name, alarmed.

“That Ninjask knows a Ground-type move!”, Goh commented loudly, exalted. “The Pokémon are too fast to counter!! How can we make them slow down?!?! If only Scyther’s Air Slash could land in Ninjask!!!...”

“I’m trying to think!!! I agree that we need to give more attention to Ninj- Wait!! Wait!! I have an idea!!!”

“Did you hear, Scyther?! Ash has a plan!!”, shouted Pikachu with a tone of optimism to his battling partner.

“I did! Looks like we’ll change the results to our favour!!”, affirmed an attentive Scyther, still avoiding the offensive moves of both Ninjask and Mega Scizor. Goh’s eyes illuminated instantly in excitement upon listening to his boyfriend’s plan whispered on his ear. The two were now confident and started to follow the plan:

“Scyther! Use Swords Dance, one more time!”

“Again? That’s the second time!”, the Mantis Pokémon wondered but yet performing the move on a standing spot.

“How foolish! Even if you maximize Scyther’s attack power you can’t face any of my Pokémon!! Ninjask, use Aerial Ace! Scizor, use Cut! Both on Scyther!!!”

“Aeeeeerial Aaaaaace!!”

“This is for the humiliation back there!!!”

The two opponents approached in a terrifying speed ready to take Scyther down to the ground. He didn’t move away from his spot, having full trust in the boys’ plan. A few seconds before the impact, Ash shouted an order:

“Pikachu!! Use Electroweb on them SIDEWAYS!!”

“ELECTOWEB, COMING OUT!!!”

“What?!”, both opponents and Trainer shouted in surprise, unaware that Pikachu had this sort of move. The Electroweb trapped both Pokémon inside the net in middle air and gave some electrifying damage! Way to go!!!

“NOW USE IRON TAIL UPWARDS!!!”

“KEEP USING SWORDS DANCE!!”

“UP, YOU GO!!! IROOOOON TAIL!”, shouted Pikachu while slamming his metallic tail onto Ninjask and Scizor’s way, projecting them up above the ground! Scyther kept performing Swords Dance during the wait. I counted, and he did it five times!!! His scythes were glowing orange!!! And once the group was falling towards the soil, still trapped in the Electroweb, Goh shouted out of his lungs:

“JUMP AND AIM WITH AN AIR SLASH!!!”

“HAAAA!”

Scyther did such a powerful hit with his two scythes that the slashing sound echoed around the plaza, it even lifted dust from the ground!! The electric trap disappeared and Ninjask fell on the floor, fainted from such a super-effective move!!! But it wasn’t over yet! Mega Scizor was still standing, although with considerable damage and notably slower, with some yellow sparks surrounding his trembling body.

“Hey, is that Paralysis?!”, questioned Yamper.

“It is!!!”, I confirmed. “That helps to slow Pokémon down and sometimes they can’t even move!! Lucky boys!!! WELL DONE!!!”

“GO, DUDES, GO!!!”, Toxtricity cheered while still playing his music.

“Impressive.”, admitted Raboot, now calmer after seeing the big turn-around of the battle. Mega Scizor’s Trainer was really upset as he retreated his fainted Pokémon.

“SCIZOR! DON’T LET YOUR GUARD DOWN! THAT’S JUST A SMALL PARALYSIS!! USE IRON HEAD ON SCYTHER!”

“A-A Paralyze Heal spray would come handy right n-…”, he mumbled, disagreeing with his Trainer’s overoptimistic point of view. He was unable to do the Iron Head because his body was covered by an electric current. The boys surprisingly enough kept their cool, even after Ninjask’s defeat. They took no time to take advantage of Mega Scizor’s status condition to finish him off.

“It’s our chance! Scyther! Use Slash with all your strength!!!”

“Pikachu! Use Thunderbolt!!”

“HAVE THIS SLASH!!”

“THUNDEEEEERBOOOOOOLT!!”

Mega Scizor shouted, having no margin to respond to all damage he was taking. The Pokémon stood up still for brief seconds before he fainted on the ground, changing back to his original form. The battle was over! And it was FAAAN-TASTIC!!! WOOO!!

“NOOOO!! I LOST TO TWO KIDS?!?! TO NON-FULLY EVOLVED POKÉMON?!?!?!”, shouted the angered adult Trainer with his knees on the floor, punching it hard.

“They did it!!!”, exclaimed Chloe, amazed with what she had witnessed. Toxtricity gave a burst of laughter, thrilled by the boyfriends’ victory as he played a different tune, equally fitting. Hope had her jaw-dropped and her glittering eyes blinked non-stop. She was lost for words for the battle she had just watched a few meters away of her. The Alolan girl was having trouble to express her feelings, stuttering in between sentences: “They… they used Scyther as a BAIT!!! And Pikachu’s Electroweb could trap Scizor and Ninjask as a way to counter the Pokémon’s high speed!!!!!... The time they were suspended on the air gave enough time to power up Scyther to the maximum and be in more equality to match Mega Scizor’s strength and resistance to the less effective moves!!... It was!!!... Brilliant!!...”.

Finally, my Trainer saw that Ash is as spectacular in live as he was on TV when he was doing the Alolan Championship with his Pikachu, Torracat and another amazing Pokémon! She was completely enchanted! Moving my attentions again to the battling group, Scyther gave a cold look to the fallen Pincer Pokémon. I could hear him telling Scizor before leaving: “Arrogance is for the weak. Choosing whenever one wants to evolve or not, that’s up to each creature.”

Well said, Scyther! Pikachu didn’t even bother to talk to his opponent. He gave a high-five with his tail to his partner’s flat side of the scythe, celebrating the victory. A quick observation to Ash and Goh made me realize that for a brief instant they were really tempted to hug each other instinctively, but since they were in a public area they decided to give a strong high-five just like their Pokémon after a good jump on the air, laughing out loud. This was a great battle, no doubt about it!

We could finally get out of Ecruteak’s main plaza and leave the human sore loser behind with his cloth iron-headed Pokémon as well, they had made us waste enough time already. Thankfully, there were a lot of buses that could bring us to Goldenrod City to take the Magnet Train towards Saffron so we could still arrive in time, even if it was just by less than five minutes before departure! Hope’s disabled status allowed all of us to have priority in the ticket purchase and embarking, that also helped save time. The atmosphere was very pleasant. Goh was very proud of his Scyther winning the grand prize of the Clear Cut Challenge contest, bragging about how his training methods were efficient and how were rewarding to everyone. Chloe was complimenting the achievement but she quickly regretted because Goh couldn’t quiet about it. His smug levels were as high as the height of an Alolan Exeggutor to a point that the pigtailed girl asked Ash to do something to stop. But the effect was the total opposite: Ash reinforced the compliments on the charcoal-haired boy even further and now nobody could absolutely make him hush, whoops!! I was wheezing the moment the girl was talking alone: “If the train had bathrooms I would go there right now and lock myself for the rest of the trip…”!! Hahaha!

Things have calmed down a little about thirty minutes later. The boys were napping with their temples touching each other. Their Pokémon were sleeping on their spots as well, alongside Yamper and my brother who was drooling with his head resting on the window. The girls were awake and Chloe was intrigued by her friend’s quietness during the whole return trip to the Kanto region.

“Is there something on the matter, Hope?” she asked her, snapping her out from the downcast look. “You’ve been silent all the way since we left Ecruteak.”

“Oh!...... I… I’m fine.”

“You know I don’t believe in you, right? Something’s up.” Chloe retorted with a smile, waiting for my Trainer’s honesty. “Please tell me.”

Hope was quiet for an instant. Chloe could read her mind, somehow. The red-haired girl decided to open up and admit with an unusual low and slow-paced voice:

“…Watching Ash and Goh battling that strange man in Ecruteak City made me remember how much I miss participating in combats. They were incredible back there…”

The lass that was wearing at this day a pair of yellow overalls and a grey shirt with horizontal stripes leaned a little closer to my gloomy Trainer and asked by mere curiosity:

“I’m sorry to ask you this but… couldn’t you still battle even in a wheelchair? Afterall it’s the Pokémon that battles, not really the Trainer.”

“I don’t agree with your point of view, Chloe. Battling is much more than a Pokémon taking down their adversary. Trainers are also an important part of it. When you’re standing up behind your partner and instruct them what to do, you feel like you’re one with them. One doesn’t work without the other one, do you understand me? I don’t think I could command efficiently to either Litten or Toxtricity standing still on a wheelchair. So many things happen during a combat that it’s impossible to stay quiet!”

Chloe didn’t change her neutral facial expression and remained attentive to her friend’s explanation. Hope sighed while looking to the window with the background in constant locomotion, feeling nostalgic.

“Afterall, life is all about movement, isn’t it? Ne’e… Ola ka ne’e… as it’s said in Alola… Everything moves. To move, you need to give a step after other with your feet. Walking on your own feels really nice. You become free. Freedom is in your reach as you can go wherever you want to… For many months I felt it was stolen from me… I feel like a Trumbeak with wounded wings… Or a Pidgeotto, for Kantonian natives like you. I value so much more those adventures in my birthregion since the day I left the hospital and sat on this wheelchair for the first time…”

“…Hope?”, Chloe asked seconds after the last sentence. My Trainer looked to her in wonder and her friend winked with optimism: “Those days will return. You’re the most determined girl I know, a true fighter! And you remember me a lot the sleepyheads in front of us. You’re as stubborn as Ash and you both love battles. You explained me things back in Johto that I didn’t know about! And you’re as smug as Goh every time one talks about Alola. To add to that, both of you are also technology enthusiasts and are interested about Pokémon biology. They’re determined to reach their dreams. And you as well! You’ll win this battle!”

Chloe managed to make Hope chuckle out of amusement with her friend’s sincere adjectives to describe her personality. But I agree with the girl! Hope’s very similar with the boyfriends! Maybe that explains why I quickly got along with them a few hours after our first casual meeting in the centre of Vermilion City. Together, they embody my Trainer in her absence!

“I’m not giving up in my goal to walk again!”, the red-eyed girl expressed firmly while clenching a fist on the air. “I’m a girl from Alola! And Alolan people are people of fiber!! Forces of Nature!!! We overcome any obstacles on our way!”

“That’s the spirit! That’s the Hope I know!”

“And by the way, Chloe. You’re too serious. Since you’re at it with pointing out personality traits that can be both good and bad.”

A short pause followed, with Hope’s ripped smile pleased to see Chloe’s lifted eyebrows for being countered that way. They ended laughing together. Chloe was especially happy to see that Hope was smiling again! But that laugh didn’t last long on the green-eyed girl’s face because a smirking expression shaped up on her shaggy haired friend once she had a quick look to the snoozing partners.

“Nooo!! You’re up to no good!”, harshly whispered Chloe in alert. Hope chuckled while removing the smartphone from her pocket, opening the camera app and photographing them. Then, she leaned forward and cautiously altered their position. “What are you doing?!”

“This is the perfect chance to take some photos without their knowledge!”, Hope explained as she took other one with Goh’s head locked on Ash’s neck. They didn’t notice Hope’s actions but it was really cute seeing that Goh subconsciously snuggled a little his head and gave a soft sigh of relaxation. Ash kept snoring but he smiled a little and dropped his head a little more to the side.

“Hope!!”

“Good call, Chloe. I need a variant with Ash.”, she noted while altering their pose again, now with Ash having his head resting on Goh’s shoulder and the sweatshirt lad wearing his boyfriend’s cap after my Trainer placed it.

“I-I said NOTHING!! What if they awake and start screaming all over the railcar?! Stop photographing without their consent!!”

“The railcar emptied on the last two stops, this isn’t a high movement hour. They won’t notice a thing and I won’t share this outside our circle. I can’t wait to show them the photos at the right time!”

“Promise you’ll save your phone after this photo.”

“I thought you would like to take some selfies.”

Chloe thought for a few seconds before she smiled. “That’s a better plan.”

The two friends posed together while angling the phone.

“By the way, how do you say “Smile” in Alolan?”

“We say “'Aka'aka”!“

“That’s cute!”, the pigtailed girl giggled.

Hope decided to take a surprise photo of her Kantonian friend’s chuckling face and a chaos of arm movements followed. Chloe was surprised by the sudden photo and wanted to do the same to Hope as a friendly revenge. My Trainer was having more dexterity to hide the device out of the reach of Chloe’s hands desperately trying to reach it so that last for a while before they took the regular selfies together. Incredibly enough, the boys didn’t wake up with their giggles nor noticed anything. Not even the other snoozing Pokémon that were out of the Poké Balls: Yamper and Pikachu!

Chapter Text

We arrived to Vermilion City in the beginning of the afternoon. Everyone was aware that Hope had a physiotherapy session two hours later and, as such, her parents have invited the group to have lunch at our home. Hope’s father cooks so well! Once in a while he enjoys cooking Alolan recipes since it brings him childhood memories of what his what his family made for him when he was around the same age as his daughter. Ash stole the words of my mouth: it felt like we were eating in a local restaurant of the islands! Chloe was tasting this type of cooking for the third time already; she already knew what to expect. As for Goh, he was surprised by what he described to be an explosion of flavours and textures that would bring him to a distant tropical land. It was so good that the boy asked to repeat the plate, to both Chloe and Ash’s surprise! Pikachu, Raboot and Yamper were loving today’s Pokémon food. I assured them that they would like it a lot! Hope’s parents took the opportunity to ask the children how was their morning in the Johto region and to thank the three guests for all their kindness and attention given to the red-haired girl because it has been making a great difference to lift her spirit. Hope blushed a little with that observation, although she kept a low profile about her feelings. It didn’t go unnoticed by Chloe, who already knew her friend more than the boys and covered her back by winking and reinforcing her personal opinion that sorrow was an unknown word for Alolan people because they’re “never” sad. Ash wholeheartedly agreed with his friend, speaking by his own experience from his previous stay in the region and all the people he had met. Goh smiled upon listening to their comments, satisfied to know that they were all helping to make Hope feel better, and told her parents that she was a great friend and they were happy to invite her to go with them to Ecruteak City since she had never visited this neighbour region before and that it was an opportunity to observe the ancient architecture that’s so characteristic and is similar to the previous location we lived in Alola.

“The accident happened few days after we finished to move here and it was very complicated for her.”, told the Kantonian mother. “We’re really glad that Hope managed find good friends. Why don’t you go upstairs to her bedroom?”

“But mom! Don’t you need help with the dishes?”

“We’ll handle this. Go have fun!”, her mother sweetly assured her.

“Well, alright! Guys, I’ll show you my bedroom!”

“Is it upstairs?”, asked Ash, a little concerned due to her lack of mobility.

“It is but the handrail wall is equipped with an adapted lift for wheelchairs. I’ll reach there fast! Look!”

Hope placed her wheelchair in the machine and it slowly brought her to the first floor, wowing Ash for how practical it was. “Man, science is so amazing!”, he spit it out, with Goh releasing a chuckle.

We were all inside Hope’s bedroom about a minute later. The division was a novelty to the boys and their Pokémon. Modest sized, it has a minimalist decoration, predominantly white, reflective of the modern urban lifestyle. “Welcome to my bedroom, Ash and Goh!”, my Trainer happily told them. The boys observed the stuffing. Her computer and homework desk’s wall has a magnet board containing many of the girl’s predilect photographs mixed up with handwritten notes and positive Alolan proverbs, easily identifiable with the red-inked hibiscus stamp. Goh leaned closer to a specific one and pointed out with great curiosity:

“Hey, is that a Mantine?!”

“It is! That was a photo that someone took me in one of the tournaments that were being organized in Ula’ula Beach.”

“You did Mantine Surfing in Alola?!”, Ash excitedly asked her once he analyzed the same photo his partner was asking about. Hope enthusiastically asked him:

“Did you try, Ash?!”

“I did with my Pokémon School classmates and my friend Misty at a point! It was to travel to an inhabited island of the region.”

“I see! The wave I was catching up with Mantine was really big, but it was there I managed to pull out a Starmie 720 for the first time. I won the silver medal! You can see it in the exhibitor side to you.”

The wall that’s opposed to the window has got two exhibitors with transparent doors that showcase few collections and other important items, one of them being the proof that Hope was the Vice-Champion of that Mantine Surfing tournament. “When I had some free time, I loved to go the beach to catch some waves. Surfing was a relaxing activity for me.”, she explained.

“You must have been a great surfer to get such a high ranking!”, Goh remarked. “I also see three bronze medals!”

“Those were the first ones where I managed to get on the podium, after so many trainings. I was really happy! Although I never won the first place in any of the tournaments, the silver medal felt like a true achievement for me. I treasure it!”

She was great at Mantine Surfing, I remember it perfectly! I was always watching it with my paws over the hot sand, just to avoid those scary deep waters. Hope wasn’t scared of the ocean; I admire her for the courage this girl has always possessed. A more prolonged observation had caught the blue-coated lad’s interest once sighting a few objects that were greatly familiar to him, besides the autograph he signed for her in their first meeting. He exclaimed out loud:

“Wow!!... Hope?!?!... That’s a Z-Ring!! And Z-Crystals!!! You have so many of them!!!”

The black top-dressed girl smiled to her friend and nodded. “I’ve got all the different elemental types of Z-Crystals! And a special one… an Incinium Z. In case one day Litten is willing to evolve and we return to the region. I don’t pressure her, though! If she never evolves, the Z-Crystal serves as a souvenir of my adventures in Alola.”, she cheerfully explained, winking her eye on me. I smiled back.

“That means that you did the Island Challenge!”

“Exactly! I did it a few weeks after I have turned ten. Do you see that coloured charm there? That’s the Island Challenge amulet I was given back when I started my journey as a Pokémon Trainer with Litten! I have over there all the stamps I’ve collected.”

“Hope knows all the poses for those crystals.”, informed Chloe.

“Poses?”

“Hehe, Chloe didn’t know either what I meant at first, Goh. Watch me! This one here, is for the Firium Z!”, demonstrated the girl by moving her arms upwards and ultimately stretching her right arm, supported by the bent left limb. “It allowed Litten to use Inferno Overdrive!”

“Yeees! That’s the pose!!”, confirmed an excited Ash. “Show us the Electrium Z one!”

Hope did it, which consisted in crossing her arms in a way that resembles a lightning bolt. She gave a wide grin and both said in choir:

“Gigavolt Havoc!!”

“Hope knows it, Pikachu!!!”

“She got it on point!”, Pikachu happily affirmed to his Trainer.

“Let me see if I understood it well: each Z-Crystal powers up a Pokémon move of the same type if the Trainer wears it on a Z-Ring and performs the pose?”

“That’s correct, Goh! Just don’t forget the most important thing: your heart needs to become one with the Pokémon!”

“Which makes me wonder, Hope. How did you get your Z-Ring?”, Ash asked.

“Oh… That was some time after I had met Litten. That storm changed my life.”

“A storm? Hope, you didn’t tell me about that story!”, stated Chloe in surprise.

“Well, since you’re all here and we still have time I can talk about that. Toxtricity also never heard it.”, said a smiling Hope. “Sit down!”

The purple Pokémon and I decided to sit down on our floor cushions. The one of my brother was so big that he could share it with Pikachu, Raboot and Yamper. The boys sat down on Hope’s mattress, next to each other. Chloe used Hope’s office chair. With all places chosen, the shaggy haired girl started to tell her backstory:

“As you all know, I’m from Alola. My mother met my father there in a business trip. Since they got married, they found a home at Ula’ula Island in Malie City. I lived there since I was born. Today when we went to Ecruteak I managed to see in first hand where the inspiration for Malie’s houses came from! Both are similar, it was cool to see the source of inspiration! Now, where was I?... Oh right. When I wasn’t at school, I spent most of my time in my hobbies: surfing and swimming on the beach, reading story books, comics and encyclopedias about Pokémon in Malie’s Library, and doing some skateboard laps nearby Hokulani Observatory. Sometimes there were astronomy sessions for kids and I liked to go there for the night to watch the stars! And I also used to travel to Akala to have my Judo classes or to watch The Masked Royal’s wrestling combats, I loved them!”

“You had a busy agenda.”, smiled Chloe to her friend.

“Alola has got an Observatory? It must be amazing to watch the night skies there!!”, asked Goh in delight.

“Oh yes, Mount Hokulani is tall enough to see them well, there’s almost no light pollution!”

“I remember going there before too…”, observed Ash, hinting some melancholy, making the others curious.

“You didn’t like?...”, asked a wondering Goh.

“I did but… I just remembered the Pokémon we have all met in that stargazing night. They were called Minor…”

“Minor?”, questioned the sweatshirt boy who had quickly searched for information on his Rotom Phone, requesting out loud to describe the Pokémon:

“Minior! The Meter Pokémon! It eats dust in the atmosphere. The composition of the dust determines the color of its core. If its core stays exposed, it will soon die off. It's possible that it may survive if it's put into a Poké Ball quickly enough.”

There was a sudden quietness in the bedroom. Goh’s facial expression was easily decodable. He regretted to ask his device to read the index description to Ash’s ears. Both Hope and I were understood everything. Hope gently commented my exact thoughts as she awkwardly scratched her temple, expressing pity:

“I get it… You saw a Minior’s core. They’re known in Alola for having one of the shortest life spans among all known Pokémon in the world…”

“Wow…That’s sad…”, noted Chloe a little awkward by the situation. She tried to enlighten the atmosphere: “At least it had a happy life?”

“Well, it was good friends with Poipole… I like to believe it was a good experience for him.”, told Ash compassionately.

I saw Goh placing a hand over his shoulder. “Sorry…”, I heard his very low whisper.

“No need to. You didn’t know anyway.”, assured Ash when replying back in a low tone as well. Hope decided to continue her story to move on from the subject.

“I both enjoyed to practice sports and to learn more about Pokémon. We never had one at home. Not that my parents dislike them, but they were always too busy to take care of one. And I was too small to have Pokémon on my own care as well… They were planning to give me one in my tenth anniversary to be a company pet, but they were so undecided in what species I would like the most that they ended not doing it and offered me this earring instead!”, she explained while showing the silvered sphere on her left ear.

“It’s pretty!”

“Thanks, Chloe!”, my Trainer smiled.

“That was a shame…” Ash lamented concerning the dropped idea of receiving a Pokémon. “They never asked you what Pokémon did you like the most?”

“I think they didn’t want her to figure out about their surprise.”, Goh rightfully pointed out.

“That’s it. I also like so many Pokémon that it would be too difficult to choose just one even if they asked me beforehand! But I still appreciated the earring gift.”

“Then how did you meet Litten?”, the cap-wearing boy asked.

“That… It wasn’t in the way I expected to be.”, she confessed with some severity in her voice. Everyone exchanged intrigued looks inside the bedroom, Toxtricity included. I nodded back to the Pokémon, a little disturbed to remember how it was. Hope was going to relive me those harsh memories, revealing them to the group:

“There was a day that was quite atypical in our region. A huge tornado was crossing the ocean and would approach our coast. We were all advised to stay at home before sunset. I wasn’t aware of the news because I spent almost the entire day doing some skateboarding in Blush Mountain. Suddenly, winds were really violent and it rained like crazy. I had never seen anything like it before… It was too dangerous for me to return in my own. The heavy rain created a big flood that trapped me where I was, so I hid myself inside a cave. I wasn’t alone… Some Pokémon were using the same tunnel as a shelter. A few Geodude, Elekid, Charjabug and Torkoal. There was even a Mudbray. They were all scared of the strong rainstorm, and of me as well. I handed over some fruits I had brought in my backpack and they quickly trusted me, understanding they had no need to worry about my presence. I took the opportunity to phone my parents to ask for help, sending them my geolocation thanks to an app of my device… However… a noise coming from the outside alarmed us… I heard a crying Pokémon, in a tone of true plight. It was scary… And when I looked, I was horrified. I saw this Litten, near us, being dragged by a violent water current.”

Hope’s friends gasped, including the Pokémon. They all looked to me, where I nodded once again, with my dropped ears and whiskers. Hope continued:

“She was drowning and struggling to keep her head on the surface. I was really scared that something worse would happen to her if nothing was done, nobody was nearby to help. So, I ran outside the cave and dived to the muddy water. The current’s strength almost dragged me to the sharp rocks floating around. Litten hadn’t my luck and disappeared inside the river after hitting her jaw in one. I heard the cave Pokémon’s cries because of us. I took the chance of the water flow to reach Litten faster and dived in. I found her floating unconscious. And when I returned to the surface I used all my arm strength to grab myself on a dry tree branch and tried to climb that rough stonewall. Wind, mud, rain, all hitting on me at every direction. The thunders noises still echo in my head, it was deafening. The Pokémon of the cave were cheering on me to not give up and they even used moves like String Shot and made a living chain to try to pull me up. I was definitely not willing to let Litten drop from my left arm, now that she had opened her eyes and was too weak to move herself. I kept screaming out of my lungs to find some hidden strength to keep climbing up because I was feeling all my energy running out. Suddenly, a huge gust of wind broke both of us and the Pokémon chain apart and I couldn’t hold Geodude’s hand anymore. We started to fall, I thought it was over and my effort to save Litten’s life was worthless. But something happened that had never gone through my mind it would. I heard an echoing bell sound a second earlier. I was being grabbed and flying over the river. I returned to the tunnel in an eye-blink… with all Pokémon returning inside, looking to us in shock. And when I looked… It was Tapu Bulu. The Guardian Deity of our island.”

Ash was the one that gasped the most, surprised by the declaiming of the Legendary Pokémon’s name. I could see that Goh was reading data about the Pokémon that were described by Hope earlier to be on par of their traits. The latter was what made him almost jump out of the mattress. Even Chloe had dragged the desk’s chair to look to her friend’s Rotom Phone Dex information, also perplexed by what she was learning from my red-haired Trainer.

“I couldn’t believe with my own eyes what I was seeing right on my front. He made the cave’s soil become grass and summoned some berry trees. I took a Sitrus Berry out of one of them and showed to Litten. She was hesitating to eat. She was so weak that when she opened her mouth, I couldn’t hear a sound. I started to cry, thinking I acted too late. And I don’t know what happened afterwards because I passed out of weakness. I woke up in Malie City surrounded by firemen, relieved to see I was fine. I felt tired and with wounded hands because of the rock climbing. I had them entirely wrapped in compresses, like mummy hands! My parents hugged me tightly, worried sick about me. A little angry too… But that was the least of my worries. I asked immediately about Litten’s welfare. They told me she was taken to the Pokémon Center by Nurse Joy, who had told them she had a really reserved prognostic. I begged the firemen and my parents to see her; I didn’t want to stay in that stretcher with the flashing blue siren over us. I had to explain, almost breaking in tears, what happened to both of us earlier. And once I entered in the Pokémon Center’s intensive care unit I was told to wait because she was under an emergency surgery. I couldn’t stop crying. It wasn’t easy but I managed to convince my parents to let me stay all night in the building. They preferred me to pass the night at home but Nurse Joy appeared and asked us if Litten was ours. She was surprised to learn she wasn’t and the lady could assure my parents it was ok for me to stay for the night in a special bedroom that had a shower where I could wash myself from all that river mud. And that’s what I did. At a point I got up in the late evening to see if there was any news about Litten. I ended falling asleep at the door of the intensive care unit room.”

Hope lifted her downcast look, gradually smiling back. “Then I received the good news in the next morning: Litten’s life was out of danger and that she was very lucky that I had appeared to save her. Nurse Joy let me in to see Litten and talk to her. I was told the only bad news is that her jaw got a bit deformed so one of her fangs became prominent and this couldn’t be fixed. This meant that if the Pokémon tried to make a biting move it could be less effective or not work at all.”

Everyone nodded, now understanding why I often have a tooth showing up outside my bottom lip.

“Litten wasn’t fully healed yet and she, for some reason, started to show me the moves she knew: Scratch, Lick, Bite and Fire Fang. The last two were difficult for her to use, only confirming what Nurse Joy had warned me about. Litten was really frustrated with that, repeating the moves over and over. She ultimately cried, I felt really sorry about her… So, I had an idea. I told both to the lady, her Comfey and Litten I would be back. I went to look for a shop that had Technical Machines for sale. I spent all my savings to purchase one of them: it could teach Flamethrower. I told Litten that once she would be discharged from the Pokémon Center I would let teach her to use this powerful special move to overcome the jaw issue. Days later, she was outside and I managed to teach her Flamethrower. I was super happy for her! And so was her for being able to defend herself better in the wilderness from that moment on! It was time to let her go whenever she wanted too. We had been meeting daily in Malie Garden, but in the end, she kept following me. I realized what was her true wish once I passed by a Poké Ball shop and heard her meowing a lot while scratching the glass showcasing one. I got extremely moved to learn that this Litten chose me to be her Trainer…!! I bought the Poké Ball and caught her, letting her come out after. The reaction was really cute because it seemed she would rather stay outside the ball and avoid being inside. I could understand that feeling! Shortly after, Tapu Bulu showed up again! He had been watching us since that stormy day… Our deity handed me over a Z-Ring along with a Firium Z…… And he vanished in the horizon.”

“…Amaaaaaziiiing!! Hope, Tapu Bulu recognized your potential as a Trainer by giving you those! The same thing happened to me but it was with Tapu Koko!”

“Your story is incredible; I had no idea you and Litten had gone through so much!!”

“I agree with Goh, I’m really impressed, Hope! Do you realize you could have drowned in that flood, weren’t you scared?!”

Hope scratched her nape while blushing, letting out a chuckle with Chloe’s remark. “I just did what it felt right to do…”

Chloe sighed, looking through the corner of her eyes towards the thick-eyebrows youngster. “You’re really like Ash. You could wake up in a hospital and you wouldn’t care because you saved a Pokémon.”

“H-Hey! Don’t call me out!”, both kids shouted in choir, embarrassed by what their pigtailed friend has said.

“Now that you say it, Ash and Hope could become a chaotic rescuing team if they worked together!”

Goh stated, laugh out loud with Chloe nodding with a wide smirk in her expression.

“Whoa, sis… I didn’t know you have met Hope that way…!”

“Everything she said is true”, I confirmed to Toxtricity. “It was because of that storm I’m scared of water… Hope saved my life. She never gave up on me despite of not knowing each other. And passing the water trial was one of the toughest things for me... I didn’t feel capable to go back to my solitude after everything this girl did for me.”

“Hope’s truly awesome!”, the Punk Pokémon happily exclaimed. Pikachu, Raboot and Yamper nodded in agreement.

“Did you catch more Pokémon besides Litten?”, asked the blue-eyed boy, going back to our backstory.

“No, I didn’t. Toxtricity is my second Pokémon ever!”

Ash shouted in astonishment, almost making his boyfriend drop his Rotom Phone to the floor and Chloe fall off from desk chair.

“No way!! You cleared the Island Challenge only with your Litten?!”

“That’s right!”, she pridefully affirmed while flexing her arms in smug. “My Litten’s a special girl! Isn’t that right?!”

“Oh yes, you bet!!” I meowed to her, mimicking her pose. I did tell this back in the warehouse where the Sinnoh thief had us all captive but only the Pokémon understood.

The lightning-cheeks lad got up with the hugest white-teethed smile ever. He clenched his hands with a crazy strength, giggling non-stop. “Hope!! I can’t wait you manage to walk again! You must be an excellent battling opponent to have managed to defeat Trainers with a single Pokémon!!!”

Ash’s excitement was contagious. Hope got immediately fired up as well. She closed her fist and firmly warned Ash:

“When that happens, I won’t fool around! You’re better to practice because I won’t lose!”

“But wasn’t that difficult for both of you?”, questioned Goh as he placed a finger under his chin, reflecting about the situation. “From what I’ve seen, Gym Leaders have more than a Pokémon to battle with.”

“Trial Captains and Island Kahunas, you mean? In Alola we have these in place of Gym Leaders. The principle is similar. They were aware of me using a single Pokémon in the battles, so they also fought with a single one. Some combats were tough but we’ve managed to pull out a solution every time! There were only two battles where things were a little different, though… One of them was Nanu’s, my Island’s Kahuna.”

“Nanu, you say?”, noted Ash in a higher note, making it obvious for almost everyone in the bedroom that it was a name he was familiar with. Hope hummed affirmatively.

“He was actually skeptical about our success in the Island Challenge. He said I was too young to take part of this and it wasn’t realistic to always win with a single Pokémon for a beginner like me. So he used three Pokémon against Litten, because he really wanted to test us.”

“B-But that’s not fair!!”, said an afflicted Goh.

“Well, we lost in our first battle. Mostly because of his Krookodile. It was unnerving and I felt wanting to break something. Instead, I concluded I needed a break from battling. I went back to do some skateboarding around the island with Litten, I had to think on a plan in that time period. I wanted to show Litten’s worth by her own merit, and I refused the idea of capturing another Pokémon. Especially considering that she was ready for evolution in Akala Island but she didn’t want to become a Torracat by her own choice. I bought her an Everstone collar once I realized she had the will to stay as she is. And in one morning, I explored an abandoned town in the north of the Ula’ula that was perfect to practice some combos with my skate. But contrary to what I was thinking about, it wasn’t really abandoned. A group of weirdly dressed teenagers with scarves tied around their faces started to pester us.”

“Oh!! Weren’t they called Team Skull?!”

“Y-Yes! That was their name!!”

“You also met them!...”

“Wow, tell me someone that Ash didn’t meet in Alola…”, commented Chloe while smiling awkwardly.

“They didn’t harm you, didn’t they?...”

“No, no, relax, Ash! They just went to talk to me because not only they saw me training with my skateboard as they heard me singing during a pause I was doing while playing my ukulele. They complimented me, saying I would be a great ally and tried to convince me to join Team Skull. But they looked shady, so I refused. The problem is that they got really offended and wanted to battle me right there, but a tall woman appeared and prevented them to do it; they were calling her “Big sister” and stuff. I thought she wanted to have a Pokémon battle but instead, she challenged me for a Rap battle!”

“…And did you accept?!”, questioned Goh in amazement.

“Yeah! And she was a tough singer, let me tell you about it! It was like she had an infinity of words to declaim at the moment, no matter what I was backfiring! But I didn’t give up and I sung such a long sentence that she stuttered, and I won! And her followers were shocked about it, especially when she gave me a Buginium Z and told to scramble out of there before she would change her mind. And I left, without counting in winning a Z-Crystal in this day!”

“Well, I guess she let you leave because you were too smart to join their team!”, pointed out Goh amused by imagining the whole scene.

“I guess so. But Goh, I had no idea that I was actually being observed by Nanu when it happened. I learnt about this after my rematch and managing to win, much time later after plenty of training. He told me that this battle I had with him was one of the best experiences he had ever had as an Island Kahuna, we got so flattered!! And he side noted that I was a great singer too… He was so impressed that he not only gave us a Darkinium Z but also the Incinium Z that Ash saw earlier. Just in case Litten wanted to evolve one day, he said. She would give a powerful Incineroar, he told us, maybe more than the one of The Masked Royal!”

Ash couldn’t hush, making noises out of enthusiasm because of everything Hope was telling about our battling achievements. I admit that it was making me feel really proud, especially when Raboot was casually telling to all Pokémon around that he wasn’t surprised at all. Even the stern Rabbit Pokémon acknowledges my battling skills! Goh was looking to Hope’s ukulele that was standing towards a corner. He asked normally:

“Is that the ukulele you talked about earlier?”

Chloe took the opportunity to remark something after nodding in affirmation:

“Nanu’s statement is true, Hope sings very well! You guys should listen to her!”

“Oh! Chloe, I’m not that brilliant!... And I’m still a beginner, you know? I got into music a few days after I started my Island Challenge after watching to an Alolan concert on the beach. Something switched on me, I can’t really explain myself! Since then, I bought an ukulele and started to write my own themes and make covers…”

The pigtailed girl smiled because of the flattering expression of my Trainer. The boys were now more curious than ever.

“Could you sing for us?”, Ash asked with a ripped smile stamped on his face.

“We won’t judge you, Hope!”, assured Goh. “I’m wondering too, you know?”

Their eyes really showed interest in acknowledging Hope’s vocal capabilities. Realizing that, she humbly requests Goh to reach her musical instrument and pass it to her hands. She thanked upon the handover. The girl closed the eyes, gave a deep breathing, and begun to play in the ukulele with everyone listening carefully to her ability. With a soothing and docile voice she sung the following lyrics:

“E nānā, ma ...! Pehea ʻoe e hana nei i kēia lā, kaʻu pua pua?

ʻAʻole hiki iaʻu ke hauʻoli hou aʻe… e kuhi he aha? Ua hui wau me kekahi hoaaloha hou!

Leʻaleʻa ʻo ia i ke nānā ʻana i ke kai kai i loko o ka aniani, a me ka ʻai ʻana i ka ʻai i ka ʻono like ʻole.

Hōʻeu mākou e ʻike i ko wai ka wikiwiki, akā ua pau mau i ka kiʻi. Pehea haʻahaʻa, ʻaʻole ia?

ʻO wai ka mea e manaʻo e liʻiliʻi nā mea o ka honua no ka mea ua loaʻa iaʻu ka manaʻo ua hālāwai wau me ia ma mua? Pono ke ʻano o nā kahu mālama i kekahi o kā lākou mau pāʻani!”

Ash and Goh had their mouths open and her eyes mirroring rendition. They were impressed! Chloe applauded with great satisfaction. “Way to go!”, she said.

“W-Wow!! You sing really well! What was it about?”

“Thanks, Goh!...”, she gave a shy giggle as she scratched her temple. “Nothing special. Just me telling to an hibiscus about having met a new friend. I wrote this song.”

“Thanks for singing for us!”, the boy thanked and looked to his partner in wonder. He wasn’t saying anything and was almost in a petrified state, probably still absorbing that talent of Hope. Goh gave an elbow poke to the static Ash with a hint of displeasure on his voice “Ash?... Ash?!”.

“Ah!! S-Sorry! I agree with Goh!! Haha! Thanks for the concert!”, he apologized immediately while cackling awkwardly with a hand behind his head.

“What were you thinking?! It’s rude to not say anything!”

“It wasn’t in purpose, Goh! I’m sorry!!”, Ash said as he put his hands together and lifting them up over his head.

The sweatshirt lad turned his head, crossing his arms, in humph. This had actually made Hope let out a small laugh because she finds Ash and Goh’s interactions always entertaining to watch.  Chloe just let out a sigh while resting her head on her red-haired friend’s desk, because the arguing boyfriends was a routine she was used to witness!

There was still some free time left. Hope decided to break the ice by showing Goh some things she thought it would interest the common city kid: her electronic gadgets, her computer, and few photos had taken to Alolan Pokémon back when we still lived in the region. He kept asking her questions about each species she had photographed. Ash was also sharing a few of his knowledge as well. Goh was delighted to see how well Hope knew those Pokémon that to his eyes were all exotic species!

At a point of the day, it was organized a videogame match in her hybrid game console. Hope was cruel enough to challenge everyone for a rhythm game, haha!! Even my Pokémon friends loved to see this because it was more than clear that Ash had a poor talent for dancing. Goh and Chloe caught faster how the game was supposed to be played and their scores weren’t bad for beginners, although Professor Cerise’s daughter did better than her blue-eyed friend. Attentions quickly turned to Hope when she picked up the motion controllers and started to play. Even Ash had faced the screen once the music medley had seamlessly transitioned to the second track. Everyone lifted their eyebrows out of shock because there wasn’t a single command out of place, the game was never giving that jingle, that Toxtricity hates, that tells the player that they had the wrong timing to move or press the button. My brother was grooving so much with the gameplay of Hope that he started to play the song medley along on his chest protrusion. And once she was done, the scoreboard wasn’t lying. Hope was the absolute winner and she had a perfect score! No errors, no missed commands, not even OKs!! Fantastic!! The kids, Pikachu and Yamper vocalized a genuine feeling of wonder in the bedroom. Hope grinned while sticking out her tongue in the corner of the mouth and said:

“I guess I won!”

“You guess?! Hope, if we ever play this game again, please don’t join us! We stand no chance against you!!”, Chloe begged in a mix of play and bitterness.

“I can make better than Goh!”, defied Ash as he got up from the floor.

“Ha!! You wished! Better you continue to focus in battles, Ash!”, teased Goh mischievously.

Ash was the one turning his face away in annoyance this time, pouting with his lips. He was too cute to be taken seriously, and Goh was enjoying this way too much. The competitive atmosphere ended once Hope’s mother entered in the bedroom. She looked to all of us and informed:

“Sorry if I’m interrupting something but, Hope! Sweetie! It’s time for the physiotherapy session.”

“Already? Time surely flies when we’re having fun!”

“We’re going with you, Hope!”, Chloe positively reacted. “I want to give you strength!”

“Yeah, me too!”, the cap-wearing lad added. Goh nodded as well and firmly said “You’ll show that you’ve improved!”.

Hope showed a smile of confidence and nodded, humming a sound of agreement. “I will!”, the girl assured.

Hope’s parents drove us to the therapy clinic. Thankfully the car was big enough to fit everyone, mostly because of the wheelchair having brought that need a few months ago to exchange the vehicle for a larger one. Hope was unusually enthusiastic about this session. Normally, it’s the opposite: Hope dislikes to come here. Her optimism would quickly get replaced to insecurity, frustration and pessimism. It was so tough for me to watch this over and over that at a point I stopped to go to those sessions. I feared my presence was pressuring her too much. And at this day, the same scenario happened. It didn’t show up right on the start because she really tried hard to disguise her true emotions to the group. They observed her struggle to walk over that path with the metal handrail. And two steps after trying to do it without support she fell. And it happened again, and again, and again. The assistant was helping her to get up in pity, lamenting “You’re walking less than in our last session…”. Hope was so anguished listening to this that when she tried to do that path again and fell afterwards, she punched hard the rigid floor side, shouting loudly and shaking. I looked to Toxtricity upon the start of his comment, watching his Trainer with sadness:

“… Little big sister… Is this why you never wanted me to come and watch?...”

“… You got it, brother.”, I affirmed with a sigh. “And I was expecting some progress, I don’t understand this…”

“Poor her…”, observed the ears dropping Pikachu. Yamper and Raboot nodded, agreeing with their friend and both looking pitifully to the struggling girl. Their Trainers had reciprocal feelings.

“She’s not improving?...”, cautiously asked Ash.

“That sad frowning while taking notes doesn’t mean good news… Are you ok, Chloe?”, noted Goh.

“No. I’m not.”, she replied with a hand holding her cheek and an arm crossed, moving the head in worry. “Come on… I mean… Does Hope deserves this? She’s trying so hard… I’ve seen other sessions before and Hope was able to walk more steps on her own, she was even more motivated to continue the therapy! But today, I have no idea what’s happening… She got worse…”

The boys looked to her with great concern, not certain how to comment about this. If Chloe, who was the closest person to Hope, was saying these things it only meant it was really troubling. The green-eyed girl continued:

“Hope and I were talking during our return to Kanto while you were napping. She confessed to me that watching you two battling made her feel nostalgic about the time she did the Island Challenge. She truly misses Pokémon Battles and walking with her own feet. Hope didn’t want me to tell you this to not make you feel worried but… I think you guys should know about it. She really, really wants to get cured. In the day that she sung to me for the first time, she even told admitted that she asks every day to Tapu Bulu to listen to her prayers and make her able to walk again. And if she ever does, at the first opportunity to return to Alola, Hope wants to sing a song for him as a thanks…… I think when we aren’t around, Hope suffers a lot in her solitude. We should give her all the support we can.”

The boys nodded in agreement, and Goh underlined something that Hope’s mother had told them during lunch time:

“Hope’s mother did say she was glad she made good friends… She’s probably more motivated to continue her treatment since she started to visit us three in the Laboratory. We can only encourage her to not give up.”

“Hope can’t give up.”, the raven-haired Trainer harshly added with clenched fists. “She can’t. She’s a good friend, she loves Pokémon and she must have been an amazing Pokémon Trainer back in the islands! Those Z-Crystals at her house are proof of that!! And the story she told us about Litten!! The way she raised her Pokémon is other proof of how good she must be in battling! What happened to her after that isn’t fair!!”

“Ash…”, lamented Chloe, looking to Goh with reciprocal pity for a brief moment.

“Ash…”, delicately called Goh while placing a hand over his shoulder. “I know you would love to battle her but… we aren’t sure when this will happen… or if it will really happen…”

Ash didn’t reply to Goh’s comment. He shut his eyes tightly, not accepting a scenario where Hope would be forever dependent on a wheelchair to move around. We didn’t accept either, Ash, believe in us. Toxtricity never watched his Trainer walking and in his early days as a Toxel he was often innocently asking me why Hope “hadn’t” legs. Why she couldn’t crawl like him because he couldn’t use his legs either. It was difficult for me to explain such a complicated issue to a Baby Pokémon. And when he evolved, and started to ask me about Hope’s objects in the exhibition furniture, one of his main questions was “how it felt like battling”. I remember crying the first time he asked me this. And once I managed to explain with a trembling voice, he told me “I want to battle.”. But I had to tell him “Toxtricity. That can take a really, really long time, you know?”. He comprehended and faithfully replied me “I know. But I can wait. Even if it takes a thousand concerts of Hope’s favourite musical group to see it happen.”.

Chapter Text

Hope was truly discouraged when she finished the session. She wasn’t talking with the same energy as we’re used to. Toxtricity was pushing her wheelchair outside of the building, making car sounds to try to make her feel better but what he managed to get in return were very subtle smiles.

“You gave your best, Hope.”, Chloe compassionately tried to comfort. “You’ll do better next time!”

“I would like to believe in that…”, my Trainer replied depressingly. “I really regret not going faster that day with the bicycle…”

Alarmed by her traumatic flashback of the accident that stole her mobility, Ash immediately changed subject:

“What are you going to do now at home, Hope?”

“… Not much. Maybe writing a new song? Practicing with my ukulele?... Or maybe reading a book……. I’m not sure.”

Ash looked to the remaining group and noticed that his special one had gotten an idea. He leaned closer to Hope and cheerfully asked her:

“Hope? Do you remember what Ash has told you back in Ecruteak City? About me having lots of Pokémon in Cerise Park? Why don’t you come with us until your parents return from work? I’ll have to go there to let off Scyther and share the news to everyone about the contest! You could meet all the resident Pokémon!”

“That’s a great idea!! Come with us, Hope! It will be fun!!”

Hope looked in surprise to the boys, truly wanting her to accept the invitation. The girl looked to Chloe who smiled with some constraint and said to the hesitant Alolan friend:

“It’s almost like a safari in there, Hope. Every time I go it’s more and more Pokémon living in it… I think you would like.”

“Didn’t you also tell me earlier in your house that you don’t know much about the Kantonian Pokémon? I could show you the ones I caught in the region!”

The red-haired girl’s enthusiasm was coming back. She tilted her head and accepted:

“Alright. I’ll spend the remaining afternoon with you at Cerise Park!”

“Awesome!!!”, laughed Ash in joy. “Come on, Toxtricity! Move those legs because we’re gonna race until there! We’ve got to be fast!!”

“A-Ash?!”, shouted Chloe in startlement. “You aren’t talking serious, aren’t y-“

Before the overall pants girl could finish her sentence, the boy was already running with Pikachu. “I’M REACHING FIRST THAN LITTEN!”, I heard his Pokémon shouting afar, defying me.

“H-HEY!! I’M NOT LOSING THIS!”, I shouted. “TOXTRICITY, AFTER THEM!!!”, I told my brother before putting a good use to my leg muscles.

“OHO!!! GO KART RACE!!! VROOOOOOM!!!”, Toxtricity yelled in fun as he vigorously pushed Hope’s wheelchair forward, making our Trainer scream out of surprise at first and then laughing amused. “MY TOXTRICITY CAN RUN, ASH!!! BE FAST OR ELSE HE’LL SURPASS YOU!!”, she warned him in distance.

“Now… just look at them.”, commented Chloe to Goh, both behind me. “GOH?!?!”

“I’M NOT LOSING THIS!!!”, the blue-eyed boy shouted while chasing me. Raboot was next to him, not saying a thing.

“Chloe, aren’t you running?! I will, it’s fun!!”, Yamper tried to ask to his Trainer. Seemingly understanding his idea, sighed. “OK, OK, I will run but only this time!! WAIT UP YOU ALL!”

I was laughing on the way because Chloe wasn’t really fond of running. She panted so much upon arrival to the Laboratory that she glared to everyone once she managed to lift her head! Ash won the race without surprise. That boy’s energy is endless!

All of us entered in the Laboratory to greet the research staff and Chloe’s father himself. Goh took no time to pridefully take off Scyther from his Poké Ball and show along the certificate of participation and winning the first prize of the Clear Cut Challenge contest. Professor Cerise was wowed, really delighted for the achievement! Ren and Chrysa also congratulated the duo, with the blond-haired assistant affirming that the free food would be quite a help for managing the available funds for the Pokémon investigations and such. Goh’s smug was even deeper when compliments about his talent to deal with Pokémon and analyzing their potentials was undoubtfully a fact. Chloe cut immediately his excess of pride by informing her father that Hope would like to visit the park and observe the resident Pokémon in first hand knowing that she didn’t know much about the local Pokémon and from different regions. The adult researcher and his team appreciated Hope’s will and authorized her entrance. The girl thanked and phoned quickly to her parents to tell them that she was at the Laboratory’s park with her group of friends. I noticed she was avoiding their physiotherapy session question when Hope told them that details would be given at night. When the call ended, my Trainer explained to everyone that her parents would pick her up after being done with work. So, everything was settled.

[From this point on, it's still text in its 1.1v. Text is subject to change once the revision is over.]

Goh went to the dorm quickly to pick up Cerise Park’s key and we all went to the façade predominantly made of arabesque-ornamented glass. Both Toxtricity and I were excited because we never had entered here before! And once we did, we were marveled!! So many trees and bushes! Such an open-space! It does look like a safari, reminding of Chloe’s words earlier! Hope was looking to every corner possible, highly curious of what kind of Pokémon would appear at her front. The park hadn’t a ramp for wheelchairs so Toxtricity and Ash helped Hope to go safely to the lower grassy level. The remaining group followed them. Ash and Goh broke the silence by taking a deep breath and shouting:

“Hey!! We’re back!!! Good afternoon! We have guests!!!”

“RISE AND SHINE, EVERYONE!!!”, shouted the flying Scyther, poking on his ribbon. “CHECK WHO’S THE GREATEST CUTTER OF JOHTO REGION!!”

A heavy stepping sound echoed in the park, making Toxtricity, Hope and I a little nervous out of curiosity. To our shock, it was a huge Golurk!!

“Oooh… Scyther won a ribbon!!”, the titan Pokémon commented afar.

“So pretty!!!”, a Pinsir said it upon appearing from a bush. “I like that yellow colour!”, she added.

“Scyther returned?”, a Misdreavus said after getting out from the back of a nearby tree. “Did you win the contest?”

“Yes, I did! Free food for everyone for the next three months! All thanks to my amazing skills!”, smugly spoke the Mantis Pokémon.

The nearby Pokémon exclaimed in amazement, with more appearing behind them from all sides. We were impressed by the amount of Pokémon that kept showing up!

“Guys, please congratulate Scyther! The Laboratory just won three months of Pokémon ration for all of you!! Our training has paid off!” Goh cheerfully informed the observing Pokémon and begun to clap. They vocalized all sorts of compliments towards the ribbon-wearing insect in delight with the news. Hope was loving the scenario. Her sweet chuckles, her widely open mouth and eyes exposed the red-haired girl’s excitement. “So many Pokémon!!!” she interjected.

Hope moved her wheelchair closer to the resident Pokémon, and started to identify them:

“You have got a Butterfree! An Ekans! A Spearow! A Pinsir! And a Misdreavus! Wow! All Flabebé?! The white one is rare, Goh!! Where did you capture it?!”

“In our recent airplane trip to Kalos! Ash went to have a World Coronation Series battle, and I took the chance to capture some Pokémon like all of the five Flabebé you see!”, explained Goh to the Alolan friend. He then pointed to other directions. “I also caught other Pokémon in that region! Look! That Binacle nearby the lake! The Scatterbug that’s peeking over there as well! The Phantump in that corner and the roosting Fletchling!”

“I’ve seen Fletchling flocks in Alola before. I also saw Phantump a few times at night in the jungle, I was often told to never interact with one. But I had never seen for real the other species you’re showing me!”

“And that’s not all!”, Ash excitingly pointed to another Pokémon near them. “Goh has caught other species during our researches! That Golurk was caught when we explored some ruins in a desert of Unova!”

“Unova?! That’s really far!! Whoa!!... The Pokémon is one of the biggest I’ve ever seen! Is that Sandile from there too?”

“It is! I also caught the Darmanitan!”

“Impressive, I never saw a Darmanitan before either!”

Hope moved with her wheelchair to stand front to the Pokémon with the huge sharp teeth that was looking to her in curiosity. “Hope is our friend, Darmanitan! It’s all fine!”, Goh warned him. Hope softly stretched her arm with her extended palm and stood it that way for a few seconds while smiling.

“What is she doing, little big sister?”

“Seeing if the Pokémon is receptive to her touch.”, I explained to my brother. “She was doing this a lot in Alola when we were meeting wild Pokémon in the Island Challenge.”

“I see.”, replied Toxtricity with his mouth slightly opened.

“Are you ok, Raboot?”

“I am.”

“You aren’t.”, I insisted.

“He and Darmanitan don’t get along since his last moments as a Scorbunny.”, Pikachu awkwardly explained to me. “It’s a long story.”

“Alright…”

I looked again to my Trainer and I heard Darmanitan commenting the following:

“Goh says you’re his friend. You do seem friendly, girl! I’ll let you pet me!”

And the Blazing Pokémon gently approached his snout, letting her palm touch it. Her smile was even wider than before, laughing out of satisfaction.

“You’re an interesting Pokémon, Darmanitan! What’s your type? Fire?”

“You’re right! But what’s interesting is that he also becomes a Psychic-type when he’s low in energy! Darmanitan transforms to a form that resembles us a stone statue!”

“I see! Pokémon are really interesting!!”

“I knew you would like to come here, Hope.”, Chloe observed.  “You kept telling me how much you liked to talk with Pokémon back in the islands!”

“That’s true. It helped me to know them better, in fact! Without wanting to offend you, Goh, but I wasn’t really into capturing. I preferred to see Pokémon in the wild and talking to them that way. That’s why I never captured a Pokémon beyond Litten and Toxtricity, yet I don’t think both count as being “captured”…”

Goh scratched the back of his head with an awkward giggle. “I’m not offended! Everyone has got their own way to deal with Pokémon, right?”

“Goh prefers to capture all species he finds, and Ash prefers battling them. Different ways but they’re both crazy for these creatures.”, the pigtailed girl added with a hint of mockery in her voice. Hope let out a small laugh with that true statement. The boys gave a quick glare of annoyance to Chloe who smirked as a reaction.

Hope wasn’t done interacting with other Pokémon.

“I see you’ve got a Paras, Parasect… I didn’t see you also have a Caterpie and a Metapod! They’re almost blending with those leaves over there… Oh! What are those?”

“A Weedle and a Kakuna!”, Ash replied this time. “You need to be cautious with Weedle’s horn, it’s poisonous!”

“So, these bugs are from Kanto… Kakuna is similar to Metapod. This means it must have a final form… Do you have it, Goh?”

“I’ve captured a Beedrill! Let’s see where is it… Oh! It’s over the lake!”

“Whoa! I wouldn’t irritate one myself. Those needles on its arms tell everyone to respect it!”

“Trust me, you don’t want to irritate one…”, laughed Ash with constraint. “I had many issues with Beedrill before…”

“I also had the same problem when I caught mine…”, added Goh with the same mood. Hope laughed and told the boys:

“Ash probably knows this already but Alola isn’t the safest place either on the wild! We need to know well who cohabitates with us in the islands. There are Pokémon like Salandit that can be very dangerous!”

Hope was now approaching the lake to watch the Pokémon that had water as their habitat. One more time, the girl named each Pokémon she knew:

“A Mantyke, a Dewgong, a Tentacool, a Poliwag, a Goldeen…”

And we all had a big scare when something splashed out in an eye-blink towards the high ceiling of the park. It fell back to the water, splashing almost everybody. All nearby Pokémon that were weak to water such as Raboot and I have hidden behind Golurk’s massive body. The Unova Pokémon wasn’t fond of water either but he assured he was ok. Chloe gave a loud sigh while twisting her large pigtail to remove the water excess.

“… That’s Goh’s Magikarp. He nearly won a Splashing contest.”

Hope shook her head to remove most of the water on her face and shouted in shock:

“Is this a Magikarp?!?!? I-I-I thought they were as small as a backpack!!”

Ash laughed, wrapping an arm around his boyfriend’s shoulder while shaking his cap to also dry it from the wet splash. Goh got a little surprised, blushing a teeny bit from that contact.

“Not all the time! Both of us went to Sinnoh at a point to participate in a fishing contest and everyone was talking about a huge Pokémon that lived in a lake! Goh managed to catch it! This Magikarp was known there as “The Giant Pokémon”!

“Incredible…!!”, she exclaimed while observing the whiskered Pokémon. I leaned nearby Toxtricity and commented to him:

“… I think it’s with cases like that one there’s that popular saying of “There’s always a bigger fish in the sea.”.”

“Definitely, sis!...”

“Imagine how huge it would be if he evolved into a Gyarados!”, Hope noted. “But… How didn’t he win that Splashing contest?! His Splash is incredible!”

“Well, he wasn’t returning to the floor and he got disqualified… We got seriously worried.”, explained Goh a little bit disappointed, reminding the reason.

“A visitor in here?”, questioned an incoming Skwovet, sniffing the air. “Does she carry food?”

“Oh, what a cute Pokémon! Who’s that?”

“A Skwovet! I caught it in Galar!”

“Galar? That’s where Christophe, my closest cousin, lives! I would like to visit the region one day, and show Toxtricity where he actually came from.”

Toxtricity smiled listening to our Trainer’s wish. He was agreeing with the idea.

“Skwovet, I know you’re looking for food but it should come in enough quantity in a few days! Scyther won the contest we’ve been lately practicing for!”

“No more trouble with stealing other Pokémon’s food that way!”

Hope and Chloe look to the boys in wonder. The green-eyed girl asked:

“Your Pokémon was stealing the others?”

“We’ve later figured out it was part of his nature…”, Goh told the girls while scratching his temple out of awkwardness. “It took us a weekend to discover he was responsible for some food fights that were happening. If Ash didn’t fall asleep at that night we camped here we could have solved this much quicker…”, he regretted, giving an inquisitive look to his blushing boyfriend.

“Oh, guys!! Why you didn’t phone me?! I could have helped you out with the surveilling! I would have ensured that Ash wouldn’t fall asleep, even if that meant singing a whole night!”

“Uhm, I don’t think singing would have been good, Hope.”, Ash objected. “We had to be silent.”

“Too bad, Hope. I understand your intention, though!”, Chloe added in a positive mood. Hope sighed in disappointment.

Ash looked around and shouted: “I don’t see everyone yet! Come here! We have guests!!”

Hope lifted her head and an idea flashed. The Alolan girl smiled and asked Toxtricity with determination:

“Toxtricity! Do you remember the song we were listening to two nights ago? In the documentary we were watching on the internet? Please play the instrumental!”

“Oooh! Yes, yes! I will play!!”

And that’s what my brother did! Fingers placed on his chest protrusion, he started to play a known song. And Hope started to sing its lyrics:

“What kind of Pokémon are you?
How do you do the things you do?
Share with me your secrets deep inside
What kind of Pokémon are you?
Are you loyal through and through?
Do You’ve a heart that's true?
What kind of Pokémon are you?”

And the remaining Pokémon appeared in no time, lured by the melodic singing of our talented girl! She kept singing while snapping her fingers and clapping in rhythm with the song. Her friends were amazed with the scenario, even Goh took out his Rotom Phone from his pocket to record the happening. He managed to record a really cool moment where Goh’s Venomoth had placed his abdomen for brief moments in Hope’s knuckles during the song and the Dustox trio flying over her head, synchronized with the sounds! Once the music ended, the following minutes were spent meeting the other Pokémon that Goh had captured. Some more familiar to the girl than others. Toxtricity and I took the opportunity to interact with them, they have diverse personalities! But they’re overall friendly. There was a pair that had particularly caught Hope’s attention because they were constantly close to each other snuggling with their cheeks. Chloe took the initiative to explain her friend that these Pokémon named Nidoran had to be handled with caution as well because they’re Poison-types of Kanto. The pink one was male and the light purple counterpart was female. Hope didn’t miss the opportunity to point out that their proximity was just like Ash and Goh’s, always snuggling upon contact. The boys obviously changed colour when Hope finished this sentence of hers, hahaha! To their luck, Ash’s Pokémon decided to interrupt the cute scenario. Dragonite hugged his Trainer instantly.

“Not so strong, Dragonite!! Good to see you again!”

The dragon hugged Goh next, who laughed awkwardly.

“Those arms are hurting me a bit! I’m happy to see you again!”

Chloe hided herself behind Golurk’s leg, just waving quickly.

“Consider yourself greeted, Dragonite!”

And the cuddle-lover Dragonite then turned to Hope, hugging her and saying:

“You’re here today, Hope! So niiice!!”

“D-Dragonite! You have got exceptional strength!”, she laughed. But we Pokémon weren’t safe either. Toxtricity, Raboot, Yamper, Pikachu and I were also victims of the colossal muscle force of this beige scaled dragon. “It’s so good to see you again!”, he told us during the hugs.

Gengar was around as well. His usual way to greet is vanishing and appearing in different spots doing all sorts of grimace and pokes. He was delighted to see us all again. “It has been since a while, Litten! Toxtricity!”, he said in particular to us two. Gengar tried to scare Hope but with no avail, to his repeated discontent. Hope informed him with a wink “Gengar, I did a ghost trial in Alola and I saw a Pokémon like you trying to lift a shopping cart in the dark! It was a fun time!”. You can keep trying, Gengar, but Hope’s not afraid of ghost types!

Riolu surprised me and my brother. He was much more cheerful than in previous meetings we had. It seems that this Emanation Pokémon is opening his heart to us, finally! I wished Raboot did the same thing. He even let himself being picked up by Hope, who asked him how he was today! We also heard Riolu telling to us Pokémon:

“Now that’s impressive. Litten? Toxtricity? I’ve never told you before but your Trainer’s soul burns like an intense flame! It boils of determination and faith!”

“That’s Hope alright!”, I happily remarked.

Upon Ash’s Pokémon finishing to great everyone around, Dragonite looked to my olive-green trousers Trainer and picked her up from the wheelchair. The children got alarmed with this attitude.

“Dragonite!! Put her down!!”, Chloe shouted.

“Wait! Don’t get upset after him!”, laughed Hope, extending her arms apart. “Check it out, everyone! I’m flying!!! Like a Toucannon!”

“You’re too much time in that wheelchair, Hope!”, the Dragon-type said. “Fly with me for a bit!”

Dragonite was taking the girl for a lap in the open area of the Cerise Park. She shouted out of joy. High ground, low ground, loops, the dragon did all sorts of flights for the girl to sense different experiences. The three kids looked to each other and smiled, satisfied that Hope’s happiness was back. She needed to think in better things after the bad session she had earlier at the clinic.

The remaining afternoon was peaceful. Hope learnt plenty of facts and trivia about the resident Pokémon, all explained in detail by the grey sweatshirt fellow. His information was occasionally complemented with his boyfriend’s, telling also some stories he had in his adventures where he met the same species in question. Bonding with the Pokémon was easy for the red-eyed girl, quite eased by her singing talent and the help she willed to give when the boys decided to feed them. We all played a few games in the park, my favourite moment was the Statues one. Gengar was very good at this one! But once Darmanitan was joining, it was over. We seriously couldn’t compete with that. The Pokémon was cleverly using his Zen Mode every time the active player was trying to spot a moving statue. Would you be surprised if I told you he won? Even Toxtricity whined:

“Aaaaaw, come oooooooon!!! Dude, that’s not fair! I want to become a cool statue too!”

“Get out of here! I can’t win because of you!”, Gengar complained.

“Pff, sore losers!”, Darmanitan replied, minimizing the drama. “It was fun while it lasted!”, he added while leaving the area.

 “There’s always a next time, Gengar!”, Pikachu told his ghost friend.

“Right… Put a blanket over the flaming eyebrows guy…”, he pouted while crossing his arms.

“At least I’m not alone…”, commented Raboot to himself, who was lying down on grass doing nothing.

“Raboot, you still didn’t forgive Darmanitan?...”

“I’m thinking about it. But not today.”

The electric Pokémon shrugged his shoulders to me. I did the same thing.

Suddenly, a noise was coming from a nearby land slope, catching Hope’s attention. It was Cubone’s sobbing. I could listen to him whimpering:

“My bone! It’s so high here!! I can’t pick it up!!”

Now that was a problem. Jumping off from such a high level could be dangerous for a small Cubone. Gengar was pondering to get the bone back once he realized what was going on, but Hope did something we weren’t expecting at all and got frozen on our places watching her. She frowned and declaimed the following words:

“The bone is the most important object for a Cubone…”

She used her arms strength to lift her body up from the wheelchair and carefully tried to move each foot to the grass. From this point on, she had nothing to hold her weight except for her own balance. Hope’s body was shaking. One step. Two steps. Three steps. And so on. Slowly, one each time. “I’m getting that bone back…!”

“What’s going on, Cubone?”, a familiar voice asked afar from us but nearby the Pokémon. It was Professor Cerise! He gasped out of shock when he saw Hope trying to walk on her own, without the help of anything! Even Cubone stopped to cry one he noticed what was happening!

“Hope!!”, exclaimed Pikachu in astonishment. “She’s walking!!”

“What?!”, Raboot asked, immediately getting up from the grassy terrain and opening widely his eyes as soon as he saw the black-top lass giving slow steps away from the wheelchair. “She is!!”

The kids were a little further, and us three had the exact same thought upon crossing our three pairs of eyes. We raced towards them and started to pull their legs, asking them to follow us.

“Pikachu, what’s wrong?!”

“Raboot?! What’s up with your pulling?! Don’t remove my trousers!!”

“Even Litten is pulling my shoes! Girl, what happened?!”

“Yeah! What happened?!”, asked Yamper.

“HOPE IS WALKING! YOU NEED TO SEE IT!!”, I shouted loudly. Pikachu and Raboot did the same thing.

“W-What?!?! CHLOE! FOLLOW THEM!!”, the Puppy Pokémon hurryingly barked to his Trainer, confusing the girl even more.

“WHAT DID YOU SAY, SIS?!?!”

“THE GIRL IS OUT OF HER WHEELCHAIR, TOXTRICITY!!! Help us!!!”

“Oooooh! Ash! Goh! Chloe!!! Move! Move!!”

Toxtricity gave us a good help by using his large arms to push everyone forward to force them to follow us. They weren’t understanding anything until they saw the empty wheelchair. The whole group made a loud gasp, dropping their jaw with a staggering expression. Hope was probably around some impressive eight meters away from the hospital object. Once she reached the bone, she held herself with one arm to a rock to bend over and catch the object from the floor. She then yelped out of surprise when stretching her arm up to Cubone to return the bone that Professor Cerise was blinking his eyes towards her, speechless.

“Hope!...”

“P-Professor!!! I didn’t know you were here!!”

“Y-You walked!! You walked all that way from the wheelchair to here by yourself?!”

The girl hummed in embarrassment, not having realized that at first. She looked to the chair and noticed the distance was much bigger than the one she trains at the clinic. Before she could respond, our group lost its marbles and celebrated with supreme enthusiasm!

“YOU’RE WALKING, HOPE!!!”, I joyfully meowed while jumping towards her lap, picking me up with her free arm.

“HOPE WALKED! HOPE WALKED!!! HAHA!!! THAT WAS SO COOL!!!”, shouted Toxtricity next who also started to run towards us and mimicked my behaviour, making us both fall. He gave her a warm hug, laughing a lot. We all did the same! We were so happy to see her walking such a great distance alone! And the compliments weren’t over.

“HOOOOOOPE! LOOK AT YOU!!! YOU WERE WALKING ON YOUR OWN FEET!!!”, celebrated Ash, jumping on his spot over and over with glittering eyes.

“YOU WALKED! YOU WALKED!!! YOU’RE RECOVERING, HOPE!!!”, effusively shouted Goh in excitement.

“HOPE!!! DO YOU REALIZE WHAT THIS MEANS?!?! THERE’S STILL HOPE FOR YOUR DREAM TO COME TRUE!!!”, Chloe added with a trembling voice. Even the pigtailed girl was becoming emotional!

Everyone helped Hope to return to the wheelchair. Some nearby Pokémon had seen what had happened and even them were happy about the event! Professor Cerise had appeared because Hope’s parents were waiting for her in the laboratory’s main hall and pick us three up. Chloe’s father took the opportunity to describe what he had witnessed minutes earlier and even Hope’s parents couldn’t believe in what he had told just them. The girl walked ten meters by herself. More than the triple of the practiced distance in the clinic, Hope’s mother guaranteed! How was this possible?! Her friends assured that truly happened and with less effort than what they had witnessed earlier in the day at the physiotherapy session. Once Hope explained the reason why she got up and tried to walk alone, Professor Cerise smiled. He had a plausible theory for why their daughter had more success minutes earlier when compared with the reported results of the therapy clinic:

“Motivation. Hope had a great motivation to help a Pokémon to get his object back. In the clinic, she’s just being forced to walk.”

Hope’s parents looked to each other and the Professor approached them even more.

“Since your daughter begun to visit our institute, we’ve realized how passionate she is about Pokémon. She also gets quite along with our special Research Fellows Ash and Goh. And my daughter as well, she talks a lot to us at home about Hope!” he observed while petting Chloe’s shoulder.  “Mister Akamai? Miss Synnove? If I’m allowed, I would like to suggest something that could benefit your daughter in short-term and middle-term.”

“What is it, Professor Cerise?”, Hope’s father asked.

“Please allow Hope to continue her physiotherapy treatment in my park.”

We gasped! “Dad?! You really mean it?!”, Chloe asked immediately. Her father nodded, never removing the smile on his face.

“It’s more than scientifically proven that some treatments are more efficient when practiced with the help of Pokémon. I believe that if Goh’s and Ash’s Pokémon collaborate, Hope’s recovery might happen more quickly than just frequenting that clinic. It’s worth trying, in my point of view.”

“Honey, what do you think?”

Hope’s mother smiled and didn’t hesitate to reply: “Definitely worth it! When can our daughter come?”

“Anytime she wants. It could be from tomorrow onwards!”

“Very well! Hope, do you mind returning here tomorrow? I know the treatment is normally twice per week but…”

“Why are you even asking me, dad?! Of course, I don’t mind!!”

Chloe, Ash and Goh grinned joyfully to the news.

“We’ll help you, Hope!”, Ash told her.

“I have no doubts that my Pokémon will help you, they grew a liking on you!”

“And I’ll do what I can to help my Alolan friend!”

“Guys! Thank you for being amazing!!”

“Then our daughter will return here tomorrow to continue the treatment.”

“Now you should rest for today, Hope! Say goodbye to everyone!”

“Sure, dad!”, Hope obeyed. She leaned forward to bow to everyone, just like her parents. “Thank you for the day! And see you tomorrow!”

“See you!”, the three kids said goodbye, waving happily. Professor Cerise did the same with his right hand. “We’ll meet again!”, he said.

“Good night, Litten! Good night, Toxtricity!”, Pikachu told us.

“Don’t get up late, guys.”, added a waving Raboot.

“We’ll see us again tomorrow!”, said Yamper with his wiggling tail.

“Good night, everyone! Better days will come from today on!”, I told them while waving my paw.

“Sleep well, you three!”, told my brother to them.

We exited the building and entered to the car. Looking to the human family, they had a whole different light on their state of spirit, no doubt about it! And I felt the same way. Even Toxtricity! Better days were really about to come, I believed in it! Hope had never walked this much since the car accident! We only had to encourage the girl to keep it up and ask for Tapu Bulu to give us a help and make the wheelchair just a bad memory from the past.

Chapter Text

A new routine was established. When Hope had free time, we were either going to the Cerise Park in the early morning or after lunch time. Chloe would join the group when she was free from school as well. The children were resolute in helping Hope to progress in her treatment, complementing the clinic ones. They started it easy for the red-haired girl, with short paths of three meters, just like the physiotherapy. To serve as an encouragement, we the smallest sized Pokémon challenged Hope to pick us up in the end of the walk. She picked me, Pikachu, Yamper, Riolu, Raboot… yes, he willed to help us! She was taking time to make every walk but at her own pace she managed to make the short tracks almost seamlessly. Curiously with more ease than in the clinic! And we persisted. In about one week, she could now walk that path almost effortlessly in the second physiotherapy session since she started this new schedule, the assistant was impressed! Hope’s doctor, optimistic about the progress of the girl, had now instructed her to make larger walks. Six meters this time. But Ash wanted to go much further. Instead of setting up a path in the park with the medically recommended length, he made one with ten meters!! Chloe and Goh almost argued with the lightning-marked cheeks youngster because they defended a progressive adaptation and not a sudden one. Ash retorted believing that a higher bar would bring quicker and better results once she would get used to. But to their surprise, and Ash’s encouragement of attitude, Hope approved her cap-wearing friend’s idea! She definitely wanted a bigger challenge. The Vermilion City friends couldn’t complain much now since the Alolan girl was agreeing with this! Typical from her!! Now both had their eyes on fire, pumped up with the more radical therapy!

This more advanced track setup by Ash had a few issues. When Hope was walking to the fourth meter, she was falling down. Chloe was tapping the foot, looking to Ash in disapproval. “You’re pressuring her, Ash!”, she said. But the Pallet Town Trainer didn’t care and he extended his hand to Hope with a determined look, never retiring a smile, and kept encouraging his Alolan friend: “That’s ok! Let’s try again! You’ll be able to walk as much as in the other day when you got back Cubone’s bone!”. The fallen girl smiled back with the same optimistic spirit, grabbing Ash’s hand to get up. Chloe and Goh soon had realized that Hope was as stubborn as the raven-haired boy. He was acting like a real coach, always cheering for her as he followed her steps. I even heard Goh commenting the following to Chloe:

“Ash is really serious about this… He also was very persistent with me when I was recovering from my burnt arm.”

“I still can’t believe that you risked yourself doing that, Goh. You really like that boy… Right? Lunala?... When is the wedding? You’ll invite me, yes?”, she ultimately asked him in a teasing tone.

“Stop, Chloe…”, he furiously blushed in annoyance while hiding his eyes under the sweatshirt’s collar. Way to go, Chloe! Haha!

Seeing how Hope was motivated and how the resident Pokémon in the park gradually started to appear regularly to assist the treatment sessions day after day, Goh and Chloe also were giving a hand with their own methods. Goh had a chronometer setup on his Rotom Phone to create a graph and see how Hope’s walking time was improving. He also was encouraging her during the walks: “Take your time and don’t rush! Yes! Steady! Beware with where you place your feet to not lose balance! Well done! Think on a musical metronome when you are giving a step!”. And at each moment that Hope was losing balance and falling in the track, especially when the red haired lass was beginning to say negative things like “It’s not working!...”, Chloe was bending her knees on the grass and harshly countering those feelings:

“What are you doing, Hope?! Do you want Tapu Bulu to listen to you and help or do you want him to ignore you and sleep again on his favourite land slope?! You can’t give up just now!!! Do you remember what you’ve told me in the train a while back?! You’re from Alola! You are people of fiber!! Forces of Nature!!! Show me your Alolan pride!!!”

This worked like a charm. Hope’s eyes were again on fire, almost contagious to her Kantonian friend who was getting more euphoric with her friend not willing to give up and continue to walk. “Go, go, go!!!”, Chloe clapped in encouragement, with assisting Pokémon doing the same. Pokémon capable to fly like Gengar, Misdreavus, Pidgey, Taillow and many others liked to either follow her or wait that she accomplished a meter mark to let her touch them like if she was making a high-five! This was being so entertaining for the observing Pokémon and even the biggest ones like Golurk, Darmanitan and Dragonite wanted to be the ones in the end of the track to interact with the girl like lifting her up or making a cool battle move for pure entertainment of our Trainer, as a way to congratulate her! Toxtricity was giving a hand on this by also occasionally playing random melodies on his chest protrusion so things were never boring!

A few clinic sessions later, Hope was now capable to walk not just ten, but fifteen meters!! She showed that out in those ten meters paths, astonishing the tablet-holding lady! Even the doctor once he read the reports! He was now saying that Hope could perhaps try to move around a division without a wheelchair, but for longer distances she would still need it. As for running, it was still early to try that out. Despite of this, we were all extremely optimistic because Professor Cerise’s suggestion had been creating a miracle around Hope. The day before, the girl was really tempted to run. She walked a twenty meters track, with a progressively quicker pace the more meters she stepped by, and Pokémon standing on those marks jumping joyfully. Flying ones were over her singing all sorts of things to encourage the girl. On the last five meters she was crazy enough to run. Obviously, she fell right when she stepped the twenty meters line. Everyone raced towards her to know if she was alright. The response? A pure laugh and Hope pulling her three friends to force them to fall on the grass. More laughter followed. The treatments were being a success, and all thanks to the tireless help of Chloe, Ash, Goh and all of their Pokémon. Toxtricity and I’s hearts were full of hope. In both types of meaning!

There was a peculiar morning. Someone was ringing the door early… Hope’s parents weren’t already at home, so the groggy Toxtricity had to be the one getting out of his cushion and peek on our Trainer’s window to see who was outside.

“…Is it the mailman, Toxtricity?”, I slowly asked him, still drowsy. I looked to the clock and I sighed loudly. “Who ever delivers mail at seven and twenty of the morning?!...”

“Ash!!!”

“…Toxtricity, please wake up. You don’t know what you just said right now… Ash is not a mailman. He’s a Trai-“

“Ash and Pikachu! They’re outside!”

“W-What?!”, I instantly lifted myself up from my own cushion and licked my paw to scrub my eyes quickly. I went to the desk to observe behind the glass. My brother was right! They were down there! The two of us awaked Hope, who almost threw us her pillow, not really wanting to get up. Then her phone started to ring and she grumbled.

“…Did dad forget about his wallet again?! It’s always the same thing…”

The sleepy girl stretched her arm and picked her phone, not even seeing the name.

“Dad, it’s happening too of-…?!?! Ash?!”, she interjected while quickly lifting her body from the mattress. “H-Hold on! I’ll ask Toxtricity to open the door!”

“I’m going there now.”, my brother said while leaving the bedroom. Hope cut the call and quickly started to exchange clothes. She was hanging herself on diverse objects to move around the house divisions. “HOLD ON A LITTLE, ASH! I’LL GO DOWN SOON!”, my Trainer shouted while brushing her hair to not look so messy. Minutes later she cautiously joined Ash, Pikachu and Toxtricity in the living room. Hope sat down on the sofa.

“There… Sorry, Ash. I was still sleeping, I didn’t have my breakfast yet…”

“Oh! Were you sleeping still?! I’m sorry! I’m used to sleep early and awake early…”

“Early bird, I see…”, Hope yawned. “Do you mind if I prepare my cereal bowl while you talk?”

“No, I don’t! Do you need help?”

“No, no! I can do this alone, thanks Ash!”, she assured him while picking up different objects. “As you can see, the therapy has allowed me lately to be able to pick up objects located at my height. I couldn’t do this a month ago!”

“That’s really nice, Hope! I’m happy for you! If you keep it up, you will be fully cured!”

“I agree with Ash!”, Pikachu added.

“I surely won’t give up at this point!”

Hope sat down on a chair and begun to eat. “Are you served?”, she asked.

“I’ve eaten already before leaving, thanks anyway!”

“Now, Ash… Why are you here so early? The training’s only this afternoon after I’m done with the physiotherapy at the clinic, no?”

Ash’s cheeks turned red and he gulped in dry, scratching his nape and detouring his look.

“Well… It has been since a while I wanted to ask you something. But we were so busy helping you out that only today I thought it was the best time to talk about it…”

Pikachu smirked. I made a facial expression to Pikachu in a way he could understand I had absolutely no idea what was the subject. “You’ll see…”, Pikachu told me and Toxtricity. Hope did the same face as me as she leaned closer to Ash to listen carefully what he had to say. After some stuttering and poking the index finger tips, he admitted it:

“…I got surprised in the other day when I heard you singing to us. You’re talented!... I actually came here to… ask if you could help me out in making a surprise to Goh.”

My mouth opened as much as a Black Hole Eclipse Z-Move! The same thing went for Toxtricity and Hope! Our Trainer hurried to finish her breakfast and once she was done, she smacked her palms on the table surface.

“Did I hear well, Ash?! You’re asking me for romantic advice?!?!”

Ash’s face was now totally red coloured, closing his eyes tightly. Pikachu gave out a giggle, appreciating the fact that his Trainer had finally told us his intention that was keeping as a secret for a while.

“Oooooooh!”, interjected loudly Hope in excitement. She quickly moved with her arms towards the sofa and started to inquiry him:

“I’ll help you in what I can! Tell me what do you plan to do!”

“…Hope, I was thinking in singing him something. But I do not really how!”

This is when us all except for Pikachu, changed our facial expressions to more worried ones. Hope didn’t want to be indelicate so she softly asked:

“Uhm… Singing?... Ash… Maybe I could advice you something that could work out wi-“

“I want to sing.”, he reinforced the idea a little more severely than before. We blinked our eyes quickly. Hope hummed in reflection.

“If you say so… we could try that. But… do you mind if you show me a sample of your singing? Just to know what’s the best suggestion I can give you.”

“Yeah! Give me a known song and I’ll sing it!”

“Well, fine… Do you have a music track in mind?”

Ash showed his Rotom Phone, ready to play a file.

“I know the lyrics of this song, I can sing it!”

“OK, as far it’s an instrumental version. Once it begins to play, start singing! I’ll be listening.”

And what a way to start the day. We didn’t see this coming and Pikachu was having lots of fun watching our shocked faces! Ash was masterfully singing the music we were listening to at that moment! Even Toxtricity clapped euphorically when he was done, he got completely crazy!! I whistled as a reaction. Hope didn’t know where to begin, she had to smack a bit of her cheeks to make sure she wasn’t still sleeping on her bed.

“A Hundred Sweet Malasadas!!... ASH!!!... Since when?!?! You… have vocal capabilities!!!”

“You think so?”, he shyly giggled with his white teeth. “People that heard me singing insist I’m good at this… so I thought I could sing for Goh? I wanted to make him a surprise because he worked so hard training his Scyther to win that contest in Johto, I was really proud of him!”

“I see!!!”, Hope enthusiastically responded while getting up quickly but almost losing balance, having to grab the edge of the sofa. “I’ll gladly help you out! I’ve actually just reminded the perfect song for you to sing to Goh! But I need to show it in my computer! Could you follow me to the bedroom?”

Ash accepted, curious to know what music it was. And I laughed out of enthusiasm once I heard the first accords. It was going to be so much fun listening Ash singing this to Goh!! Even my brother smirked mischievously. Ash felt a little shy.

“W-What’s that song?”

“From a very distant region from here, but it’s very popular on the other side of the globe when you want to impress someone you like! We could try this one, Ash!”

“A-Alright! But I don’t know the lyrics!”

Hope picked up a paper and wrote a few lines, showing them to Ash who lifted his eyebrows and had his cheeks reddish again. Hope commented:

“I think you can memorize in three days these lyrics I have just improvised! I can even suggest you dancing steps! I seriously want to help you with that.”

“Sure, whatever you say!”

And this was the secret deal. Just like Hope had predicted, Ash learnt the song lyrics in just three days, all separated by busy ones doing diverse things including helping Hope in the physiotherapy sessions at Cerise Park. Not even Chloe knew about this. The best times to train for the surprise were in the very early morning because Goh was always waking up a bit later and he sometimes had things to do for the staff at the laboratory. He never suspected anything because he was convinced that Ash and Pikachu were leaving for some morning jogging, ehe! Once Ash had mastered the song, Hope had a more radical idea to take the surprise even further. She suggested to meet him very early at the Cerise Park, whenever it was possible, lock the entrance and practice the dancing steps there with the additional factor that she would also train volunteering Pokémon to play the music as an orchestra!! My brother played an important role there to explain better the steps. It was a chaotic cacophony at first but a few days later and we were nearly set! However, we got nearly caught. Goh was knocking the park’s main door, alarmed by the fact he could hear a loud muffled noise inside. “ASH?!?!”, he angrily shouted. “ARE YOU TRAINING AGAIN WITH THE LOCKED DOOR?! LET ME IN!!”

“Uh oh!!”, yelped Ash to Hope.

“Oh no! He’s near!! Ash!!! I’m going to hide with Litten, Toxtricity and Pikachu behind those bushes! You’ll sing today to Goh!!”

Ash entered into a state of panic. Hope turned her wheelchair to the Pokémon orchestra and she informed the group: “Guys! Hide as well! We’re going to play at my signal!”

Everyone hided. Ash went to the main door to let his boyfriend come in and he locked it again. Goh was upset. “Why do you keep leaving without telling me anything?!”

“Ah! Sorry, Goh! You know that when I’m so focused in training, I forget about the time passage! Haha…”

The charcoal-haired boy, with the company of Raboot, wasn’t one hundred percent convinced with the explanation. He walked down stairs with Ash, who kept distancing himself back to the place he was practicing before the door knocks were heard. Goh kept venting:

“You’ve been acting strange lately. You’re hiding me something. I know it!”

Ash ended shrugging his shoulders. And gave a humble smile, admitting the truth:

“Well, I think I’m busted. It’s true. I’m hiding something. A surprise, just for you.”

Goh’s expression changed to a more tamed one, closing his eyes systematically out of startlement. “A surprise?...” the boy softly asked in wonder.

Ash hummed in affirmation, and gave few steps back. “There’s something I want to tell you…”

And Ash took a deep breath, closing his eyes and removing his cap out of courtesy while bowing to his lover. Hope knew this was the code sign, so she did hers to the Pokémon behind her: Hope took off her ukulele and firmly begun to play the initial accords. Ash heard the string notes and started to sing the lyrics that Hope had written especially for this occasion:

“To be a Pokémon Master is my lifetime dream…

… and to defeat Leon is my goal number two…

So many things have happened since I left Paaaaalleeeet Toooown…

… nothing made me ever prepared, to meet someone just like yooooooooooooooooooooou!!!”

“NOW.”, firmly whispered Hope with a smirk on her face. All orchestra Pokémon used what they had and they all vigorously begun to play the song behind Ash, who tried to his best replicating the dancing choreography that he tried to learn for the recent days. Toxtricity and I stood side to Hope, still hidden behind the bush, playing the song. I was doing stepdancing on a stone’s surface in rhythm with the music’s instrumental. Toxtricity played like a second guitar on his chest protrusion. Pikachu was leading the orchestra, holding a stick. Goh? Hahaha!! Poor lad, his skin changed colour!!! Raboot, understanding what was going on, decided to hide on the same bush that we were hiding at but he didn’t interrupt us. Looking again to Goh, I could see steam coming out from those cheeks! “ASH?!”, he yelped out of embarrassment seeing his boyfriend approaching him and continuing to sing:

“I LOVE YOU! GOOO-OOH!

I’LL GUIDE YOU!! GOOO-OOH!

To anywhere, that you desire!!

Come on!! So much to be seen!!!

In Kanto it said to live a trio of mythical birds!,

Ho-Oh glides over the old pagodas of Johto!...

… and Lugia dives in the depths of its seaaaa!!”

I LOVE YOU! GOOO-OOH!

I’LL GUIDE YOU!! GOOO-OOH!

Your eyes, clear as the blue sky!!

They take me to another planet!!!

Ground, Kyogre sleep in the west lands of Hoenn!

Time and space are said to have begun in Sinnoh!!

Dialga and Palkia’s powers do not work when I’m with yoooou...

I LOVE YOU! GOOO-OOH!

I’LL GUIDE YOU!! GOOO-OOH!

How can you be so charming?!

I never get tired out of you!!”

The metropolis of Unova holds the truth and the ideals!!

Life and destruction are concepts of the land of Kalos!!!

But our spirits embody Solgaleo and Lunalaaaaaaaaa!!!

I LOVE YOU! GOOO-OOH!

I’LL GUIDE YOU!! GOOO-OOH!

Thank you for being with me!

No one’s better than you!

My heart beats solely for you!

Let’s travel us two together!!

Eight regions, and maybe much more!

My dreams are much closer!

As far you are with me!!!”

Hope and Toxtricity finished with a strong string note, excited about Ash’s vocal performance. The dancing was full of clumsy errors, we acknowledged that during the song, but we continued to play as Ash wasn’t giving up despite of the strange postures he improvised in the end when he tried to dance with Goh! There was now a moment of suspense. Ash was looking above Goh, smiling tenderly while holding the back of his special one, who was astonished with what he had just witnessed. Something was telling me he had never heard Ash singing before, hahaha!! The hazel-coloured eyes boy removed his cap to cover his head from the sight of the orchestra Pokémon and gave a firm lip kiss on Goh’s lips, before lifting him up and wearing the cap again. Hope was doing an immense effort to not squeal right side to us. She was leaning forward on her wheelchair in awe. The Pokémon that had their sight blocked were making noises out of disappointment for not seeing the kiss, hahahaha! Too bad, boys and girls!

Goh was lovestruck. His head must have traveled somewhere. He wasn’t even seeing he was giving some steps backwards towards the lake. When he realized that it was too late. He slipped and fell in the lake. Hope had to cover her mouth because of the gasping she gave. Ash immediately went close to him on water to stretch over his hand to help him to get up.

“Goh?!?!? Are you ok?!?!?!”

The boy didn’t react right away. He just opened his eyes a few seconds later. He slowly showed his hand. Once Ash grabbed it, Goh did a mischievous grin and pulled Ash to the water, splashing the surroundings for the second time and ending as soaked as the blue-eyed boy. The sweatshirt lad kissed Ash on the lips!!! Hope even lifted herself out of enthusiasm from the wheelchair but Toxtricity had to force her to sit down before she would either fall or us three ending up busted! Once they’ve separated their lips, they gazed to each other’s eyes in a long silence. Goh, still lying down on the shallow level of the lake, sweetly proclaimed the following words to the observing talented singer:

“The dancing was so unnecessary… the same goes for the background music…… Ash…You’re so silly…”

You’re clever, Goh. You were clearly asking for a third kiss as soon as you finished that sentence and leaned your face forward with pouted lips. But you need to rethink your strategy other time! Your dense boyfriend didn’t see that and splashed your face straight away! PffffHHAA!! Ash was more interested now to revenge from getting all soaked with water!

“I wasn’t thinking in having bath so early today!”

“Me neither! You’re responsible for me getting all soaked!! Take this!!”

Now it was a splashing war between Goh and Ash, like two Magikarp playing in a river. During the playful chase on that lake, a low squealing sound came out from Hope’s mouth. Her eyes were full of stars and her arms were shaking in hype. “Love is beautiful, Tapu Bulu!!!”, she exclaimed alone. “Please keep your eyes on those two, protect their bond!!”. Toxtricity and I smiled. We made a signal of approval to the Pokémon orchestra who shared the same gesture. Just like us, they were pleased with the result. A concert well performed!

The Alolan girl had another physiotherapy session in the afternoon. We were waiting for Chloe’s arrival before starting. Goh eventually found out after shower that us three were hiding in the park. Ash got scolded but we begged to not do it because the idea of locking the door was ours! He forgave us, but only this time! The training went normally. Hope could walk twenty meters in a reasonable amount of time, almost without shaking! The children were also commenting this.

“Way to go, Hope!”, celebrated Chloe. “I’m sure you’ll pass in the next report at the clinic!”

“I can’t wait for the day that I say goodbye to the wheelchair! Bring the thirty meters goal!”

“Thirty? I would go for forty!”

“Ash, who’s having the treatment? You or Hope?”

“I’m just giving an idea, Chloe!”

“Your ideas are sometimes dangerous, Ash…”, noted Goh in constraint.

“You’re just saying that because you didn’t like my splashing on the lake…”, he teased in response.

“O-One thing hasn’t got to do with another!!”

“Relax, boys! I appreciate your concern! I have my next appointment tomorrow. We’ll see what happens!”

The laboratory assistant Chrysa appeared at the entrance of the park, looking for the children and waving her arm, holding a paper.

“Goh? There’s a delivery outside! It’s a large truck from Johto!”

“Ah! It must be the Pokémon ration! Let’s check it out!”

And he was right! The transporter had lots and lots of Pokémon ration sacks to load to the storage room located at the entrance of Cerise Park, right before the stairs. Pokémon capable to use the Psychic move had offered us some precious help to move things faster! Still, it took a while!

“Those bags were really heavy! I could take other shower tonight!”, commented Ash while cleaning his forehead.

“You must be tired from helping out the transporter!”, Chrysa observed. “There are fruit smoothies in the fridge today! Maybe you should eat something before returning to the park.”

“I’m in!”

“Me too, I need something fresh…”, noted Goh. “We should feed everyone in the park after, they have been helping Hope a lot today!”

“I want to be the one feeding Golurk this time!”, the red-haired girl informed in excitement.

“You really think big, don’t you?”

“We certainly don’t think small in Alola, Chloe!”

They laughed while helping the wheelchaired girl to exit the park. Us Pokémon in the group were also looking forward to the afternoon snack. Fresh Pecha Berries, yummy! To our surprise, Raboot was the one having the initiative to start the conversation:

“You have got a determined Trainer, Litten. Toxtricity. I wouldn’t be shocked if she’s already walking on her own in a month.”

“Yup, yup! I also think that Hope will recover quick!”, added an optimistic Yamper.

“You two should be proud to have her as your partner!”, Pikachu complimented.

“I did see some of the trainings at the park.”, Mimey observed. “Two weeks ago, she was only walking six meters! You’re doing great by helping her out.”

“And we’ll keep it up! Toxtricity really can’t wait to have his first race side to our Trainer, isn’t that right?”, I asked to my brother who frowned as he placed his half-eaten berry back to the cup. “Huh?... Brother? Are you ok?”

He made us hush by moving his arm. He was listening to a sound, something I could barely listen to. Yet I’m a good listener!! He suddenly got up saying hurryingly “I heard a big glass shatter. It comes from the park!!”.

The group got alarmed with Toxtricity getting up fast and sprinting towards the building. Hope knew what this meant.

“Something must have happened! Toxtricity is very sensitive to sounds!”

“Outside?”

“Yes! At Cerise Park! Please follow us!”, I meowed to them.

“We should follow him! Even the Pokémon seem to try to be telling us something.”

Goh, Chloe and Hope nodded in agreement. Soon we all understood what was happening. It looked like a scenario of a Pokéstar movie!! Dozens and dozens of Bug-type Pokémon entering from the broken ceiling, scattered away in a noisy buzz caused by their ferocious wing flaps, in search for something. There was a ruckus with the resident Pokémon that tried to defend the place. Ash’s Pokémon were all involved.  Some of Goh’s as well: Scyther, Beedrill, Golurk, Farfetch’d, Spearow, Tailow, Stantler, Misdreavus and Darmanitan. The others were either hiding or protecting others from harm.

“WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?!?!?”, yelled Chloe, feeling quite uneasy with the nearly apocalyptical scene.

“HEY! STAY OUT OF THAT DOOR!”, shouted Goh alerted by the presence of three Pokémon: two Ninjask and a Shedinja. The latter spooked me a little, that hole on its back was weird!! He used the move Cut on the door and enforced the entrance. The two Ninjask started to steal a ration sack.

“WHERE ARE YOU GOING WITH THAT BAG?! RABOOT! USE EMBER!”

“THAT’S NOT YOURS, INTRUDERS!”, Raboot yelled at them while performing the move. But those annoying insects avoided it easily. Ash frowned and took no time to counter.

“PIKACHU! USE ELECTROWEB!”

“YOU WON’T LEAVE!!”

OK, now we had true reasons to be worried. Not even the quick reflexes of Pikachu were helping us out because that move had missed as well! More Bug-types were appearing to steal the food that Scyther had rightfully earned for everyone at the park! I decided to look for him. Yamper was attacking the incoming insects but they were too many in number and the sacks kept exiting the storage. Goh and Raboot chased some of the stealing groups. Ash and Pikachu did the same thing. I soon found out my Mantis Pokémon friend in the center of the park. He was busy confronting a Scizor. And it wasn’t a random one. It was the very same jerk that battled him and Pikachu back in Ecruteak City. That’s right. His sore losing Trainer appeared from the ceiling, on the back of a descending Galvantula from its strong web string.

“You’ve found the sacks! Well done, all of you!”

“IT’S THE MAN OF SCIZOR!”, angrily shouted Ash.

“YOU AGAIN?!”, added Goh.

“Here’s the thing. I didn’t like our last meeting.”, he explained them while landing on the floor with his Galvantula. “I couldn’t stand losing to a beginner, especially a kid. And to an unevolved Pokémon.”

“Then you and your Scizor can pass by a pharmacy and buy some heartburn capsules! They work great after losing to a competition!”, I yelled to him and to Scizor in plain sarcasm. The adult man frowned, unhappy to see me.

“That annoying Litten again!!”

Chloe appeared with Yamper at her front, she exclaimed with perplexity.

“What are you doing in here?! How did you find us?!?!”

The adult man cackled. The answer was floating nearby.

“When you kids left in that day, I sent out my Shedinja to become invisible and point the action camera he had on its abdomen to the paper that Scyther’s Trainer had written earlier the shipping address. No one of the organization has seen us. And then it was just a matter of waiting. I decided to come at the day they were saying they would unload the prize. They never failed in previous years with the deadline.”

That Shedinja!! It was all explained now! The kids and their Pokémon were as upset as I. The weird guy was having fun watching our frustration.

“Now if you excuse me, I need to return to my region. All my Bug Pokémon are starving. And they aren’t really friendly when they can’t eat…”

“You aren’t leaving!!! Pikachu! Use Thunderbolt!”

“Shedinja! Take care of this!!”

The weird insect placed at his front and nothing happened!!! We were stunned!! How was it possible to not have a single scratch from Pikachu’s Thunderbolt?!?! Even Raboot’s eyes had opened!!

“What?!?!?! HOW?!”, Pikachu interjected in confusion.

“It’s useless to try! My Shedinja is invincible!!”, laughed the man, preparing to make a leave by ordering Galvantula to do other string shot towards the open hole above and slowly ascending. “Don’t you think it’s better to focus in the sacks? Because they might leave quickly!”

I hated to admit it but that idiot was right. And we looked around, desperately trying to take down some of the invaders that carried bags on pairs. Yamper barked in fury, mad to not manage to hit a single target. Chloe felt completely lost in the middle of everything, unfocused due to the echoing buzzing sounds. Ash and Pikachu were persisting in trying all the available moves towards both the thief Pokémon and the string shot of the crazy adult. The latter was really hard because of the shielding Shedinja and the quick flying Scizor, that always blocked the moves. Goh and Raboot focused in other sack-stealing Pokémon, also hard to hit due to their exceptional agility. Scyther tried to help the two boys but his speed was insufficient to counter the chaotic swarm. The situation was getting truly desperate. Not even the Cerise Park Pokémon were having any luck. It was like if everyone was being toyed around now! Toxtricity appeared in the meantime to alert us about Hope:

“GUYS! Hope‘s alone up there! She needs help!!”

Our attentions had turned to the storage. To our shock, Hope was standing up on her wheelchair and using her stretched and shaking body to block the doorframe. “YOU WON’T STEAL MORE OF THE POKÉMON RATION!!!”

“HOPE!!!”, I shouted to the girl, frightened that the insects could harm her.

“Why are you staring to that annoying girl?!?! Use Cut to enforce the entrance!!! IT’S AN ORDER!!”

“NOO! HOOPE!!”, my group shouted desperately. The swarm of Ninjask begun preparing the move Cut. We all hurried to reach her but it was too late. A striking echoed the whole park and Hope was projected to the lower level with the blast force. We froze on our place when we realized that those stupid insects had purposely targeted the girl’s wheelchair. It got completely destroyed. I could only recognize the wheels, separated from the axis. Smoke started to come out of my mouth, I was really REALLY MAD. Toxtricity’s illuminated areas flashed strongly, enraged by what he had seen.

“HOW DARE YOU?!?!”, shouted a furious Chloe to the Ninjask’s fleeing Trainer.

“I WON’T FORGIVE THIS!!! THAT’S LOW!!”, reinforced an upset Goh.

“NOW YOU’VE MADE ME REALLY ANGRY! PIKACHU! USE IRON TAIL IN THAT STRING SHOT AND DON’T STOP!!!”

“NINJASK! CREATE A WALL AROUND US!! SHEDINJA! SCIZOR! DON’T LET ANYTHING HIT THEM!”

Uuuurgh!!!!... It was painful to see Pikachu shouting all sorts of stuff along with Raboot, Scyther and Yamper and NOTHING breaking through that bug wall!! If this was keeping up, all food would end up stolen!!!

Toxtricity and I went to assist Hope, super worried that she had broken a bone or something. Thankfully she was fine… but not in spirit. She groaned loudly, clenching her fists with great fury.

“I can’t stay here just LOOKING to that madman stealing everything and toy around with my friends!!!”

“Hope?! Please, watch yourself!!”, I meowed to her.

“Watch out your step!!”, Toxtricity babbled next.

“He must be really poor of spirit to not accept defeat…”, she continued, making an effort to stand up in frown. “WE’LL TEACH THEM A LESSON!!”

My eyes glowed to what happened next. Hope removed the elastic bracelet from her right arm and tied her hair. She placed a foot back and stretched her arms, looking to the Galvantula and his Trainer.

“Litten! Toxtricity! I have a plan that will end this once and for all!! Do everything as I say and it will go well!!!”

Guardian Deities of Alola, are you listening to this?!?!?! Hope IS ASKING US TO BATTLE!!! THE DAY HAS ARRIVED!!! Even Toxtricity gasped and asked me: “LITTEN! ARE WE GOING TO BATTLE?!?!”

“YES, TOXTRICITY! SHE’S ASKING OUR HELP!!! IT’S YOUR FIRST POKÉMON BATTLE!!!”

Toxtricity cackled out of excitement, yet cautious because things were serious and he needed to focus. We positioned side to each other and at front of Hope. We looked back and nodded with our heads, waiting for orders. She took a deep breath and firmly declaimed the following words, while stretching an arm. Everyone looked upon listening to the first words that echoed the space:

“NA PALAPALA !! E HOIE IA! OLELO LAHIKE NOHE LOA NO KA HOAKAKA KINO!!”

“Hope?!?!”, the kids exclaimed, stunned by seeing Hope in such a serious posture. And their expression of shock kept this way through the incoming minutes, observing my Trainer who started to run towards the center of the park and giving us instructions.

“Toxtricity! Stand under the hole of the ceiling! Cross your arms and extend them with all your strength to release a powerful Thunder to the sky! Litten!! Inhale all the air you can and use a Flamethrower at the same time and to the same direction! Hold it as much as you can!!!”

“ALRIGHT!!! LET’S ROCK THIS PLACE!!! HERE COOOOOOOMES, THUUUUUUUUUUUUUNDEEEERRRR!!!!! HAHAHA!”

“CHECK THIS FIRE OF MINE, INSECTS!!!! HAAAAAA!!!”

It was the very first time we all have witnessed Toxtricity’s Thunder move, although we were informed by Goh’s Rotom Phone at other time that he knew it. Not really sure how he learnt this but I wouldn’t be surprised it was through mimicking a Pokémon movie star or something! It was crazily eye-blinding and strong, maybe even more than Pikachu’s Thunderbolt that already impresses anyone! My Flamethrower have also contributed to make Toxtricity’s move look even more awesome to the ocular globes of all spectators around. But let me tell you how DIFFICULT it was to keep up that fire for so long. The same thing went for my brother! “THAT’S IT! KEEP IT UP! KEEP THOSE MOVES STRONG UNTIL MY SAY!!!”

“What’s Hope’s idea?!?!”, Goh asked with a stuttering voice.

“LOOK, BOYS!!! THE NINJASK!!”, Chloe pointed up. The Ninjask swarm dropped their sacks all over the park. They moved their attentions to the giant column of light emitted by our moves! And they were all flying towards it. Even Galvantula was stopped in middle air appreciating it!! Understanding the plan, our ally Pokémon covered the eyes of our Bug-type residents to not look to it, that included Scyther. “Such a pretty light!!!...” he mumbled to Stantler. Not even Scizor was resisting! After some hesitation he was following his group, much to the aggressive disapproval of his Trainer, begging him to come down to his senses! Hope smirked and gesticulated her arms giving us newer instructions:

“WELL DONE! NOW TOXTRICITY! USE OVERDRIVE!!!!!! SHOW YOUR MUSIC!!!!”

“OH YEAH DUDES!!! ITS SHOW TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME!!!! THE ROCK N ROLL STYLE OF GALAR!!!”

His chest protrusion freed some electric sparks and a huge shock wave shot towards the gathered Ninjask, that screeched loudly with the violent voltage discharge of my brother. Too bad, you didn’t like his song?! You’ve got some dubious tastes!!! Even the Clothes Iron Head had fallen to the ground like the others!!

“LITTEN! END THIS WITH A FLAMETHROWER!!”

“AN ORDER OF ROASTED BUGS COMING UP!!”

And all that fallen group had tasted my fire. They had no strength left to battle. They simply flied away, leaving their Trainer behind!!! Goodbye, cowards!! Scizor was the only one that got up but he was visibly quite tired. His eyes looked to me in horror. His Shedinja retreated a little, clearly nervous about me. The man was shaking out of rage.

“How?!?!... How does your Litten manage to cast such a powerful move?!?!”

“Because in Alola we like to think big!!”, confidently replied Hope. “Litten! Are you ready for a last move?! Use Flamethrower in Shedinja!!”

And I obeyed. Shedinja was surprisingly struck by my fire for some reason!!! Hope probably knew that fire could work, she’s an informed girl after all! She learnt about few Pokémon species non-native from Alola thanks to some books she was reading in Malie City’s Library! The Pokémon was taken down. Scizor just retreated and looked for his Trainer’s Poké Ball, pressing the button and returning inside!! HAA!!! Where’s your courage, tough guy?!?! The man was boiling, asking his Shedinja to retreat and Galvantula to climb up fast. “I hate children!! I hate fire!! AND I HATE CATS!!!”, he vented until he reached the ceiling. When Dragonite flied up to look for the escapist, he had left already. He told us Pokémon upon landing he had used other hovering Bug-type to run away through the air. We didn’t catch him in the end but honestly, I don’t think he’ll ever return here. Toxtricity and I turned to Hope when she loudly said “YOU DID IT, GUYS!!”. I jumped to her arms and Toxtricity glomped her. We were all crying of joy. It was since a long, long time that we battled together!!! And Toxtricity had never experienced this before, he was thrilled! The kids were celebrating with great joy, Ash completely crazed up:

“HOPE! THAT WAS AMAZING! I LOVED YOUR PLAN OF USING YOUR POKÉMON’S MOVES AS A LIGHT BAR TO LURE ALL THE BUGS!!!”

“That was insane, girl!!! I thought it was only Ash having the crazy plans!!”, observed Chloe incredulous yet extremely happy to have witnessed for the first time Hope instructing us Pokémon to use moves!

“I admit, it was a brilliant idea to have them all in one place! Thank you so much, Hope!! You’ve prevented a theft!!”

“This was nothing, Goh!”, giggled my Trainer wiping her tears. “I had the obligation to help you after everything you’ve done for me in these latest weeks!”

“Hope! Have you noticed you’ve stood up effortlessly all this time?!”, pointed out Ash. “You were so involved in the battle you weren’t worried about not being able to walk!!”

“But Hope couldn’t get rid of her wheelchair yet!”, observed Goh in some worry. “She’ll need other one…”

“Actually, my doctor told me on my last consultation that I could already start to use crutches. But I insisted with the wheelchair. I guess I have no other option now!”, she minimized the drama with a docile laughter.

“We’ll have to sort that out… once the sacks return to the storage.”, said Chloe a little bothered with the situation. Everyone yelped. Dozens of sacks scattered around the park to be found and carried. Thanks, bug-dude… This is going to take forever to find them all and store everything back! This is what we all thought until medium to high stature Pokémon volunteered to the children in help them out with locating all the Pokémon Ration portions and transporting them to the destined place. Time was drastically reduced thanks to their collaboration! And this way, we could explain to the laboratory team the unusual episode that had happened here… I say it for the second time: it looked like a movie scene! But with a good disclosure. Of an unlikely hero saving the day!

Two weeks later, Hope, Toxtricity and I returned to Cerise Laboratory. Hope knocked the door, opened by its owner.

“Ah! Welcome, Hope! You had a doctor consultation earlier today, didn’t you?”

“I did! And I have news to tell everyone! Are Chloe, Ash and Goh around?”

“They are! I can call them to the main hall along with Ren and Chrysa! They’ll be interested to listen to updates!”

“Excellent! I prefer to tell this to everyone at the same time!”

Professor Cerise brought the entire group to the main hall of the building, greeting us and being greeted back. Hope sketched a wide smile on her lips and started to talk.

“First of all, I would like to thank everyone for everything you’ve done for me since the first day I’ve phoned here, back when I was looking for my Litten. But to Ash and Goh in particular, I would like to thank you, for the second time, for having taken care of my Pokémon when I was at the hospital having surgeries, when we still didn’t know each other.”

Everyone smiled and continued to listen to her.

“Today I want to share a very happy news. I just got out of my medical consultation and… My doctor says I don’t need to continue the treatments anymore. I’ve recovered my locomotion capacity in its entirety!! I came here running!!!”, she said the last sentence in emotion.

Chloe immediately reached the girl to give her a tight hug. “I’m so happy for you, Hope!!”, congratulated the pigtailed girl with a trembling voice.

The boys were also moved, with Goh cleaning one escaping tear. Ash sniffed loudly. They did the same thing as their white-dressed friend. They went towards Hope and gave her a warm hug.

“I told you would walk again, Hope! I never stopped to believe in it!!”, sobbed Ash.

“You can dream again, with your Pokémon!”, added Goh also sniffing in between words.

“Such a wonderful news, Hope!”, Chrysa commented in delight.

“Our institute has contributed to help a child to walk again, this is certainly good news to record in our wall!”, Ren happily added.

“Absolutely! One more proof to the world that humans and Pokémon can work together for a greater good!”, remarked Professor Cerise.

After the group hug has ended, Hope smiled in compassion. She had one last thing to tell to everyone. The recovered lass first scratched her nape and then decided to talk about it.

“Before I came here, I first told the news to my family members in Alola and Kanto through webcam. And then to my cousin that lives at Galar. At Turffield, to be precise. He was so thrilled for the news that he insisted I would visit him at Galar region. For he could watch me walking towards his open arms. And to also meet my hatched Pokémon!”

“Those are great news, Hope! You can travel again once you have an opportunity to do it!”, pointed out Ash in enthusiasm.

“Well…”, Hope blushed and toned down her voice. “I’m actually going to do that… starting tomorrow.”

A sudden humming of surprise was heard in choir by the children and Pokémon. Pikachu, Raboot and Yamper looked to me and Toxtricity. We nodded with our heads. The silence was a little awkward. Hope continued to explain:

“He bought the departure ticket instantly and I couldn’t refuse… The plane is really early in the morning… I thought about this subject and even discussed it with my family and Pokémon: I’ll take the opportunity to challenge the Gym Leaders of the region as a way to relive my experience as a Pokémon Trainer and allow Toxtricity to learn the art of battling. I did a quick planning through the internet and according to the itinerary calculation I might be away for at least one month.”

There was a bit of sadness on the children’s faces. I knew the news would be bittersweet. We also didn’t expect to leave Kanto so early! Now that Hope was cured! Pikachu gave the first step by hugging us two with his dropped ears.

“Take care of yourselves in there, alright? Come back fast!”

“We’ll be cool, Pikachu!”, assured Toxtricity.

Yamper licked my brother’s leg and my cheek. He whimpered:

“I’ll miss you!!”

“Aaw, Yamper… It isn’t like we’re moving permanently; you know? We’ll return and play!”

Raboot was the last one. He looked to Toxtricity and showed his palm. “Until our next meeting.”, he said.

“Sure!”, he replied while giving a quick “brofist”.

When the Rabbit Pokémon looked to me, he blushed and detoured the look.

“Just… watch out for what you do out there. Galar isn’t like Kanto.”

I smiled and extended my paw, inviting him for a “brofist” as well. “Thanks for your concern, Raboot. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Ash flexed his arm, optimistically saying the following to our Trainer:

“Hope! From what I’ve seen, I’m sure you will return to Kanto with all badges! And when you do it, let’s battle!”

“It’s promised! You can start training.”, winks Hope to the cap-wearing lad.

“Will you continue with your photographing hobby?”, asked Goh playfully. “Make sure you photograph different species for you can show me later and talk about the Pokémon that live in there! I’ll want to know everything!”

“My phone has got a high-capacity memory card! I’ll fill it up with lots of pictures!”, she giggled.

Finally, our attentions were on Chloe who tried to show a smile with some difficulty. She regretted:

“…So, you’ve decided to thank me for all the support I gave by deciding to go on holidays for a month? Leaving me alone in here?... Things are going to be boring without you, Hope.”

Hope walked towards Chloe and held her hands cheerfully.

“Chloe, I’ll keep you informed by phone during my journey! And once I return, you’ll show me around the places you know of Kanto! As for boredom…”

The red-haired girl looked to the boys for three seconds and then she looked back to her friend. Hope winked. “…with those two around, you’ll never be bored!”

Chloe smiled back and let her hands off. “I suppose so.”, she commented.

“There are plenty of different Pokémon to meet at Galar region!”, noted Chloe’s father. “I’m sure that once you return, you’ll have grown even more as a Pokémon Trainer! Do your best!”

“I will, Professor!”

Hope looked to the phone’s clock. It was time to return.

“I sadly can’t stay longer. I need to dine early and start packing my luggage.”

“We understand, Hope!”, told Goh to her. “You’re better to hurry up!”

And the group followed us downstairs to the main gate at the street. The sun was already setting, painting the road with a gold shade. It was time to say goodbye. Or better! A see you later! We knew that once we would return to Kanto, we would be all well received and have plenty of stories to tell! We waved reciprocally to each other. Chloe decided to shout the following words:

“Show those Galarian people that the Alolan natives are made of fiber! True Forces of Nature!!”

“Wise words, Chloe! I’ll let them know about it! Goodbye, everyone! See you in a month!!”

And we were nearly stopping to see the group on the ascending road. Hope was smirking while texting something on her phone. I heard the boys’ phones ringing all way up.

“I got a message, Goh!”

“You too? I wonder what is i-“

Three seconds later Ash and Goh screamed in startlement “WHAT ARE THESE PHOTOS?!?!?!”.

“WERE THESE TAKEN IN THE TRAIN?!”, questioned Ash in nervousness.

“WAS I SLEEPING LIKE THIS?! I DON’T REMEMBER ANYTHING!!”, added the anxious Goh.

Hope wheezed loudly and cracked herself up!! Me too!!! Haha! By the context of the situation, I knew what it was about!! Toxtricity wasn’t understanding why Ash and Goh begun to race down the road shouting for Hope’s name while carrying their Rotom Phones, and why she was running away from them completely lost into laughter. “I’ll explain you later, Toxtricity!”, I winked as we chased our fleeing Trainer. Whoever would look to the way she did it, no one would say that she was stuck in a wheelchair a month before!