Lemon warning.

Female Blaziken x Shemale Gardevoir (Some reluctance).

Also, before going into the story, I actually wanted to mention this in the last chapter but since I rushed trying to get this out on time I forgot to include this little bit:

The imagery for Ashley as the rare breed combusken I described in the previous chapter is actually based off of what I saw on e621, a fur site for those who don't know. If you look up galaxyoron and browse through his amazing art you'll come across a combusken in a naughty scenario that you can all check out for yourselves, as well as a large number of other pokemon based artwork if that tickles any of your fancy. Just to help give you a better image for combusken Ashley in my head as I was writing her in that form.

...

Little did the inhabitants know of Oldale town that there was a small colony of Ralts, Kirlia, and a Gardevoir leader. The colony did well to hide from the view of the humans, keeping mostly to themselves and out of trouble, with the exception of searching for food and other necessary items, and rarely did the scavengers ever get captured by a trainer.

In this colony, there was thirteen ralts, seven kirlia, and one gardevoir. Twenty-one psychic pokemon total. This number can often change over time, with either the ralts getting caught, or the kirlia finally evolving after such a long period of time and venturing on their own, both coming and going, but they never exceeded the number of twenty-one in the colony. There was some order to the colony: The gardevoir was the head of the group, of course, her job being to watch out for the little ones, guarding them, and teaching them how to use their power, and from time to time if needed to take care of any powerful and/or large pokemon that was out of the kirlias power. The kirlias would often use their powers in practice with either trying to move objects with their mind or simply meditating. The gardevoir had left the kirlia in charge of teaching the ralts how to use their powers. Ralts generally don't have much power to use to begin and at most growl, but even then it generally wasn't intimidating. For this group, however, seven of the ralts after months of practice, were able to use their psychic abilities fairly easy, actually able to keep objects off the ground for more than a minute. Five of the ralts were able to get the objects given to work with off of the ground, though the time they were able to was nothing but moments, but with time they should be able to catch up with the rest of the group.

And then there was a ralts who was just having a hard time keeping up with the rest.

In the middle of a grassy patch in the middle of the woods not too far away from a cave these pokemon called home, the ralts in question was trying as hard as he could to lift the small acorn off the ground. He had his little nubbed arms outstretched and legs bent pouring all of his focus into the acorn, his face actually getting flushed and sweat dripping down the brim of his green hair. The pink horn on his head was even producing sweat, and he didn't even know it could do that.

"You should rest!" The kirlia next to him said, her voice deep with concern. At first she just watched him silently with a small smile on her face, her hopes up for the little guy, but after a while it just looked like he was taking a very severe poop. She was concerned it would even go that route if he kept it up... "If you keep at it that hard, you're going to hurt yourself!"

"I... Can... Do... It...!" He pronounced each word with struggle, coming out through grit teeth. He somehow focused even harder and his vision getting white around the edges. The acorn was actually nudging a little, tilting left and right in the grass. Ralts would have smiled had he been not so focused. All he had to do was push a little more...

"Stop!" The kirlia said in panicked whisper, nudging his shoulder hard. "Please, stop!"

The nudge was enough to make him lose focus and the acorn stopped moving. The ralts let out a loud gasp and slumped over feeling the exhaustion take over. His brain felt like it had flushed, blood rushing at a normal pace again, his legs wobbly, his body suddenly too heavy for him to lift. The kirlia had to hold him to support him and keep him from falling. After catching his breath, he spoke.

"Why did you stop me?" He said in a whine. "I almost had it..." The ralts then felt something wet touch his upper lip and he instinctively licked it, tasting metal. He curiously touched his upper lip with his left hand and it came back red. "Oh..."

"If you keep going at it like that, you're going to have a seizure before you can even get that darned thing off of the ground." The kirlia said, wiping the blood off of his nose with her hand then wiping it in the grass to try and clean off herself. "Why are you trying to rush this so hard?"

The answer to that came quickly. When the ralts was quiet toward her question, it was then she was able to hear some snickering. The kirlia turned her eyes to see all of the other ralts doing their training and the kirlias' instructing them. The closer ralts of the bunch had been keeping some of their attention to the failing ralts and it was enough to get a chuckle out of those who weren't concentrating as hard.

The closer kirlia didn't know what they were laughing at, but they weren't amused and told the ralts under them to pay closer attention to their practice, lifting big rocks almost as big as a human's "Ball of baskets" with their mind.

The kirlia frowned at the snickering. The ralts looked down at the ground.

"Hey!" That kirlia called to the others. "We're taking a small break by the lake side. We'll be back soon."

The other kirlia nodded without looking at her, concentrating on their tasks.

The kirlia had to support the ralts a bit on their walk toward the treeline. They went through the trees, walking for a few minutes until there was a downward slant that led to a running stream of water, the sun reflecting off of the surface and shining light into nearby trees. The kirlia had gently helped the ralts down into the grass and went to the water. She balled up the edge of her skirt and dipped it in the water until it was soaked. She stood up and went back to the ralts. There was still blood crusted on the inside of his nostrils and she tentatively dabbed at his face, surprising him and making him flinch back.

"Wh-what are...?" He sputtered.

"I'm just cleaning your face." She assured him. "Please. I'll be quick."

The ralts wanted to argue, but the concern evident on the kirlia's face made him close his mouth and look downward. He nodded.

She gently grabbed his head and rose his face to hers then proceeded to dab at the now dry blood away, digging into the nose to try and get it all. The ralts sat there as the kirlia wiped his face. When the kirlia stopped a breeze blew, cooling his face with the water. He eyed her skirt and saw the tiny red splotches.

"I stained it..." He grumbled.

She shook her head quickly. "Don't worry about it! No matter how dirty any of our clothes get we get pristine white within the hour." The ralts simply grunted. The kirlia waited for him to say something, but it only lead to a longer silence. She decided she'd have to press. "Are the other ralts getting to you?"

The ralts kept on being quiet. The silence carried on for so long that the kirlia thought he was just going to remain silent but he surprised her.

"I hate being so weak." The ralts relented. He grabbed his knees and kept his head down. He sniffled. "I hate it."

"These things take time." The kirlia said soothingly. "The others have to practice long and hard to get where they are. Even the other kirlias and I didn't get to do what we can now on a whim. Even Leader Gard was a first former at one point."

"B-but it's been m-months." He sniffled again. "I had to go f-from a big rock to a smaller rock, th-then I had to go to an a-acorn." He shook his head. "I-I'm never gonna evolve."

The kirlia looked at him for a moment before having a small smile appear on her face. "What do you plan to do in the future?"

"Does it matter?" The ralts said glumly.

"Humor me."

The ralts grunted. He didn't know why it mattered to her considering he didn't see anything happening for him to evolve, but he relented and took a breathe. "After I... IF I evolve... " He wanted to say more, but he didn't have anything to speak of. He frowned. "I don't know."

"It's because you don't see a life outside of here." The kirlia said. "You want to prove yourself to a bunch of ralts who more than half of will leave and wonder off on their own, and I'm sure most of them won't really have a plan ahead for them. Just the sense of wonder with no general direction."

"What are you trying to say?"

She shrugged, still giving him that small, warm smile. "Why should it matter what they think of you when most of them won't be around for the majority of your life?"

The ralts had nothing to say to that. Hearing it aloud, she knew she was right, but it doesn't mean that it still didn't hurt right then. One day they'll leave, but if the ralts can't get strong enough to go out on his own, then it will just be the same thing again and again in this colony...

The kirlia saw the confliction in the ralts face. She cleared her throat. "I want to head to the Kanto region if I can become a gardevoir."

The ralts paused and turned his head up to the kirlia. "You mean that place the humans talked about?"

On a few occasions, the head gardevoir will take her colony on little explorations at night to the little town of Oldale to show them the humans habitat and even show them the few that would be wandering around at night. There was an inn in the town and the one in the town the humans called "Petalburg", though the one in Oldale wasn't as big. Generally humans would aim for the one in Petalburg, but those who can't for one reason or another would end up in Oldale. These inns were popular in a sense given that they were closer to the pokemon lab and a perfect place for trainers who come to visit the professors there or trainers who start out on their own for the first time. One time when the colony was sticking close to the treeline observing the humans, the current kirlia in conversation had caught her eyes on a jinx. It was the first time she had ever seen one of their kind, and it really caught her interest, so much so that she had ventured away from the quietly moving colony to get a closer look, much to the protests of the ralts under her care who ended up staying with the group so he didn't get lost.

The kirlia had closed the distance, hiding behind planted bushes to avoid being seen and using shadows in her favor to remain hidden. The kirlia had gotten close enough to see the jinx and saw that the jinx wasn't alone. The jinx was with her trainer on the back patio of the inn who was talking with another man, who the kirlia assumed was also a trainer, who were both sitting at a table with drinks in hand and the jinx standing patiently next to her trainer with a cup of water of her own. The kirlia over heard the humans and they were in the middle of a conversation about the jinx's trainer time in Kanto region and his time in Saffron City. The trainer went into detail about his few days there and his following battle with the powerful psychic trainer who took residence at the gym there and who "mopped the floor with him" using her powerful psychic pokemon. The kirlia listened intently. The trainer had also mentioned that psychic pokemon in the Kanto region are sometimes drawn to the gym leaders psychic energy and the leader actually has a refuge in her gym for wild psychic pokemon whom she helps turn formidable psychic pokemon.

The kirlia ended up having to sneak away quickly so the group didn't leave without her and she was able to sneak back without anyone being the wiser with the exception of her ralts who was worried, but the kirlias' mind was filled with wonder.

The kirlia relayed this memory to the ralts that sat with her by the lake side.

"How will you be able to even get to Kanto?" The ralts asked in wonder.

"I don't know." The kirlia answered honestly. "I just hope I can figure it out. And how to read a human map, hopefully."

"But you'd have to be under the control of a human." The ralts asked in worry. "Doesn't that bother you?"

"... Kind of." The kirlia admitted. "But that doesn't mean that this gym leader will be a bad person. I'm grateful for Gard's help and stuff, but... Trainers go everywhere, see all kinds of different pokemon, travel to other regions. There's only so much we can learn by just staying here."

"I don't think I'd ever want to go with a trainer." The ralts said quickly. "I don't think I can trust anyone at random like that. Especially if they're mean."

"I doubt they all are. I just hope that if I do get a trainer that they'll be nice."

The ralts shrank down again. "If Lady Gard or any of the others heard this, they'd probably be mad."

The kirlia gave him a wink and pressed a finger to her lips. "Then we'll just have to keep this to ourselves, won't we?"

The ralts nodded in agreement, not sure what he was supposed to get from any of this. He couldn't exactly see the reason for setting any goals like the kirlia, there didn't seem to be any point. The only goal he technically had was just to be on his own when he was able to (Hopefully) get powerful enough to stand on his own.

He'd just have to try harder, and it put a damper on his mood since that was all he was doing since the start with no results. He began to wonder if there was a point to it anymore. He didn't say any of this aloud, though.

The kirlia felt that they had been sitting around long enough and helped the ralts up to join the others again. When they got back to the clearing the ralts were going their own ways to the forest and the kirlia were heading toward the cave, save one who walked toward the river and was surprised to see the other kirlia and ralts already coming back from the treeline. This kirlia had pink eyes.

"Well, you guys took long enough." The pink eyed kirlia said.

"What's going on?" The other kirlia asked.

"Lady Gard said it's time for her to teach us more while the little ones go for a food run." The pink eyed kirlia looked down to the ralts that was standing behind the other kirlia. "The others are getting a headstart. You may want to run along now."

"Y-yes ma'am." The ralts quickly scuttled toward the treeline in the direction of Oldale with the other ralts.

"Be safe!" The kirlia called after him to which he waved to her to show her he heard.

The ralts had walked a little ways until he went to a specific bush in the forest he had marked. A small bush had a big rock next to it that was almost perfectly round and had a large slit on it, looking like a snake's eye staring back at him. He bent down and reached into the bush, digging through until he felt his hand grab onto something familiar: A plastic bag from one of the marts in town. He hung it over his shoulder like a messenger bag and began to look about the bushes for berries. The other ralts may have their own psychic power over them, but he at least had this to make gathering food easier.

The ralts gathered berries on the ground and picking them from bushes as he considered the kirlia's words and her wishes. The ralts kind of understood what the kirlia meant about wanting to see places other than the cave they lived in secluded from the humans, but interacting with humans themselves is what the ralts couldn't get at all. There were plenty of other pokemon out there who were able to evolve and become stronger because they spend their lives fighting and having evolve in order to ensure survival the ralts had to admit the ratio of pokemon in the wild who could make it to their final form on their own was a rather small number equal to their followers of first and second formers.

The ralts did also have to admit that the humans have had been able to make certain pokemon reach to new heights thanks to the technology they have been making, as they have always, such as this "Exchanging system" they have made.

Or was it "Trading"?

Either/or, there are certain methods they have used to help pokemon achieve better power, though it be unnatural, but the ralts was sure that there could have been other ways for them to be able to reach those heights. Pokemon in the wild have been able to reach certain heights of power thanks the stones they are able to come across.

That was also one of the reasons why the ralts wanted to get more tuned to his own psychic powers. If he were to get stronger, or maybe even evolve into a kirlia, he could possibly be able to go out on his own and search for his own dawn stone. On their many trips to watch those who live in Oldale, the trainers had once talked about the dawn stone being native to the sinnoh region and how they have evolution stones imported to hoenn in certain towns, and after talking about something called a dawn stone they had overheard how it can make a select number of pokemon evolve after its discovery. The ralts was mainly interested in the fact that it can turn a kirlia into a gallade, something of a rumor among the ralts, kirlia, and gardevoir of the area.

The other ralts and would often laugh at his struggle, as proven from earlier, and after a while it really got to the ralts to the point where he wasn't sure if he could take it anymore. The gardevoir can be pretty powerful and a force to be reckoned with, there was no doubt that, but the gallade are strong in their own right with physical and mental ability. If the ralts could fight like they do, be the gallade he knew he should be, he could finally be a respected psychic AND fighting-type pokemon.

No longer would he have to put up with grunt duty like picking berries. No more would he have to worry about humans. Never would he have others laugh at him for being the weakest of the bunch.

Maybe then he wouldn't feel as uncomfortable as he did almost all the time.

But for any of the to become true, he would need to have physical ability. The ralts sighed to himself, dragging a bag of at least two dozen berries, making sure the bag is a little off the ground to make sure it didn't rip. The ralts and their evolutions outside of gallade were not renowned for anything physical, and the ralts wasn't even that good at lifting the rocks off the ground.

Why should it matter what they think of you when most of them won't be around for the majority of your life? The kirlia had asked.

"Because their words stick around..." The ralts muttered to himself.

The ralts looked at his bag and saw that it was half-full, a big enough haul to bring back to the others. The others that would show some appreciation for the food as they always do, but say behind his back what they really felt.

The ralts sighed to himself again and kept moving back toward the cave to bring back the food when there was a glare on his eyes that made him stop to shield his vision. He looked up and stared at a low hanging branch, but what has on their was pretty to look at for him.

It was another berry which wouldn't be interesting by itself, but the ralts took it in. It looked like it was on its last legs hanging on the branch it grew from and it was bigger than any of the berries he had on him, and far more plumper and a perfect spherical fruit. It was so smooth that it had actually cause a glare in the sunlight, and it looked like it wouldn't even fit in a human hand. Unfortunately he was a little over a foot tall and the branch was even higher than an average human could reach. The sound of the other ralts laughter echoed through his head, and he decided then that he would get this fruit and bring it back to the cave, to at least show that if he was just going to be a berry picker that he could at least bring back some gold.

Psychic powers were obviously out of the question so the ralts looked around him to find a big stick. There weren't any that could have possibly reached less than a foot above his head except for the stick that was at least three feet long, but there was no way he'd be able to get that off the ground with his very short frame, so maybe trying to poke the berry out of the tree was the wrong way to go about it.

The ralts glanced around for anything else that could help him when his eyes caught a rock a little big bigger than a baseball with roughed up edges. The idea formed quickly to throw the rock at the berry to get it out of the tree. After leaving the bag to the side to do this, with some struggle, the ralts was able to lift the rock at least a little over his shoulder with both hands. It was heavier to him than he thought it would be.

The ralts chucked the rock with all his might.

It rolled off his arm and onto the ground.

With a short frustrated grunt, he grabbed the rock again and prepared to throw it again the same way as before. This time he was able to get it a few inches higher than before but the rock landed on the ground in the same spot as before. The ralts let out another grunt with anger behind it and grabbed the rock again. He thought that if he ran and threw it this time that maybe he could get at least some more distance with it than before.

The ralts slipped in the grass as he took his first step and fell backwards. A moment after the rock landed on his face.

The ralts yelled in pain and he held his face. Tears were already welling in his eyes and he felt something leak from his nostrils again. Blood. The ralts could already imagine the laughter of the others at his predicament he had put himself in. His face still hurt but that thought just made it worse. He sat up and held his legs against himself and began to openly cry. Since no one was around there was no one to judge him.

He was partially right.

"I got you!" A voice yelled from behind the ralts.

Before the ralts could even react he felt something collide with the back of his head, but it didn't hurt that much. There was a moment when the ralts was covered in some red energy and then the next moment he felt himself get sucked into something, and there was only one thing that could have done that: A pokeball.

The ralts had a hard time processing where it was. He couldn't see anything, nor could he really move. Not from being restrained, really, but it was as if there was a lack of physical anything for the ralts to really do anything in there. The ralts was suddenly panicked and had "Looked" around for an exit. Oddly enough out of the black there was a giant red circle that blinked in and out of existence.

Without pause, as soon as the ralts saw it he began to bash himself against it with whatever being he could muster. The red circle blinked harder every time he smashed into it, doing everything he could to break it, but he felt pain shot through him and had stopped mid blow. The pain had to have come from getting hit in the face earlier, he thought. Unfortunately for him, that pause was enough to make the light quickly become dim. When he was able to regain his senses it was already too late. He prepared to charge against the red circle, but it had dimmed out of existence with a foreboding DING!. The ralts was shocked and had felt himself turn cold.

He was just captured by a trainer.

He had heard a snort from outside of the ball, followed by a voice that surprisingly didn't sound muffled as it did distant. There was a slight echo to the voice. "I can't believe it was that easy."

The ralts felt like he was in a grip and it was quickly followed by a light. A moment later the ralts was back outside in the forest again, coming out of the red energy once more. The ralts blinked rapidly and rubbed his eyes. Not too far from him was the bag that held the barries he was gathering.

"Over here!" A voice said from behind him, almost demanding.

The ralts froze for a second before turning around slowly to see the one who had captured him.

Standing there was a human that was close to the age of an adult male. The hair on the sides of his head were shaved off with the red hair on top of his head was a little longer than usual, combed over to the left, covering his left eye. He wore a brown leather vest with the arms cut off over a sleeveless green shirt, wearing jeans and white shoes that had somehow remained unstained by the dirt. He looked down on the ralts with an unfriendly gaze from his right eye and a cocky smirk.

The ralts began to tremble.

"Aw," He said this without enthusiasm. "Don't be scared now." He bent his knees and leaned forward to the ralts who was on the verge of tears. "As long as you do what I tell you, we'll get along just fine."

...

Esper was in the pokemon center over night. After finally being released in the early hours of the morning, she was given her pokeball to bring with her to Lucas after showing her pass to be without the presence of her trainer. Lucas felt bad that his pokemon were restricted to having to be constantly in his presence to do anything so he had placed a request to the Pokemon Association for Venture Passes for his pokemon to allow them free reign as long as they are still within a certain vicinity of Lucas, but it allowed them some room to breathe. It had taken a lot of effort to obtain these for Lucus than he had wanted to admit to them, and had caused him to work ragged at oddball jobs longer than he should have, and to sign an obscene amount of paperwork, but Esper and Ashley now had the passes at all times and let them roam as they please mostly without trouble, though the later still clung closely to Lucas.

Esper came into the hotels front doors that opened on their own when they scanned someone coming, and hotel security only gave her a glance before looking at the pass and go about their business. Even the trainers found it odd that she was wondering freely before they saw the laminated card around her neck and went back about their business, but some of them still lingered with the feeling of confusion and discordant oozing from them in her direction. She felt this many times when she was on her own, but they couldn't say anything to her because of the pass which she was grateful for, not wanting to come into contact with anyone that she didn't know, but sometimes it still stung that the humans thought it better to be restrained. She knew that a good number of the other trainers would look down on the thought of pokemon not being contained, mostly out of fear for that pokemon suddenly becoming rampant, which has happened once or twice in the past with others allowed Venture Passes, so it wasn't entirely their fault for judging her or her trainers decision (Which a handful have confronted Lucas about this decision, but he ultimately ignored them the best he could).

But still. It hurt a bit for her for them to think so negatively of her.

It still amazed her how the pokemon center, when they're not stocked up like they were, are able to heal injuries almost as if they weren't they to begin. Despite her looking fairly frail as she did pokemon as a whole were very durable, even her, so the blow from the onyx probably would have killed any other human but Esper was able to take the severe blow.

It was one of the most painful experiences she had ever been, but she was alive and healed.

After being slammed into the ground and everything going white she wouldn't stay conscious for long, but there were a few moments she remembered. She remembered hearing the entire crowd cheering for the onyx's win mixed with concern for her well being, then all of the sudden her upper half was off of the ground, and though her hearing was viciously ringing from the pain that was wringing through her, she heard the muffled voice of Lucus.

"Esper, can you hear me!?" Lucas shouted, sounding he was yelling from another room even though his face was less than a foot from hers. "Esper, come on, talk to me!" Esper actually wanted to reply and say anything, but the most she could muster was a pitiful squeak. Esper then heard Lucas scream for help before he held her tight, apologizing over and over again. The referee said a few things to Lucas before she finally went to black.

She was now on the same floor as their room. She was rather annoyed about the sudden and horrible injury she had received, and the pain was excruciating, but she couldn't blame it on Lucas, whom she assumed was blaming himself for the turn of events. Lucas had given her a choice from the beginning. She actually could have told him no, and he would have maybe used Skar if he had had to (Esper would have helped to keep Skar from attacking Lucas), but Esper had said yes for some reason, but it was ultimately her decision. She really appreciated the freedom Lucas gave her. Lucas thought it was only natural, but thought it odd that Ashley and Esper would think it unnatural. He thought of them more of his friends than pokemon.

Esper's previous trainer proved that Lucas was different from others.

When she was in the woods gathering berries one day as a ralts, a trainer had thrown a pokeball at her as she tried to get a random large berry out of tree before it backfired and had caught her in her confusion. She was very afraid of the sudden situation and despite his rather questionable demeanor he had told her that as long as she did what she was told that things would go along without a problem and she didn't really have a choice but to take his word for it.

The trainer she would know as Gareth had made her miss her home with the other ralts. The first few days were relatively calm until they had made it to Rustboro. They spent the first day there checking out the Rustboro Gym to try and see what they could for their advantage, and then on the second day Gareth took his pokemon (Esper, mightyena, hitmonchan, and a spearow) on route 116. The other pokemon went about their training regime given from Garith, but Esper's lack of power at the time became quickly apparent, as well as Gareth's quick temper. At Esper's constant failure at being able to use her psychic powers Gareth express his displeasure with vulgar language and threats as an attempt to try and goad her to unleash her powers, but if anything it had made it more difficult to even nudge the rock he had set up with his constant bickering, once in awhile lightly smacking the back of her head to try and get some sort of result, on and off on checking on her progress. When lunch time had come around that day Esper had at least thought that she could at least find solace on that horrible first day, and though she did get food from Gareth (Begrudgingly) her share was a little less than the appropriate amount to eat. In her confusion she simply looked at him and he let out an annoyed grunt before answering.

"I told you from the get-go that things would go smoothly if you did what I said." He then pointed to her small amount of food. "That is all you're getting today. If I can see better results tomorrow, then you'll get more food."

Needless to say, Esper didn't eat so well the following month. The stress of Garith constantly on her for not achieving her power added to the fact that she couldn't get the proper mindset that she had been taught to do, and the added gradual malnourishment didn't help. She got quite thin quickly, and Gareth noticed. With obvious reluctance, he had to give her a bit more food in order to keep her a little more healthy.

The other pokemon of Gareth's party also wanted nothing to do with her. The mightyena would growl at her anytime she would come near him, or make eyes contact (The later of which the mightyena would use Scary Face and scare her senseless), the spearow would try and steal her food when she wasn't looking despite having his own normal share and would sometimes peck at her for no reason than boredom. The hitmonchan, however, wasn't as bad with her as the others were, and was actually polite. Not all the time would the hitmonchan do this, but he would sometimes give her a bit of his own food, and would sometimes distract Gareth somehow during training to give Esper a little bit more of a reprieve each day, but communication with the pokemon boxer was slim to none. Though Esper did appreciate the small sacrifices the hitmonchan made.

Though this was hell for her, she didn't really have any other choice but to go along with it, even with Gareth's' growing impatience. Things had really gotten different at her short time with Gareth and his party at Dewford Town. Garith's idea on how to make Esper's powers finally come out wasn't as painful as the onyx blow, but it still hurt worse. She cringed at the memory.

Esper had snapped out of her memories when she finally made it to their room door and used her Venture Pass (Which counted as a room key with its barcode until their next payment for the hotel room) to slide into the room lock when she heard strange noises on the other side of the door. Her eyes widened and she pressed her head against the door to hear what was happening, pressing even harder to try and drown out the noise of the ice machine. After focusing hard she was able to drone out the ice maker enough to make out the sounds she was hearing.

She heard the sound of someone moaning aloud, though the words were still blurred, but the voice did sound familiar, and considering the voice was obviously male, it had to be Lucus. He sounded drained... He sounded like he was...

Distressed?

Lucus this time spoke up louder and Esper was able to make out the next sentence.

"Stop!" He half yelled, exhaustion taking away any strength of his words. "I can't! Please!"

Espers eyes shot even wider than before. Lucas was in trouble! Why wasn't Ashley there to protect him!?

Esper opened the door immediately, floating quickly down the tiny hall toward the beds, the door automatically closing behind her from the mechanical hinges, and she went to aid Lucas from whatever, whoever was harming him.

Upon viewing the bed, two answers were answered immediately, with one still lingering on her mind.

What was happening to Lucas was answered. Ashley's whereabouts was discovered. But what they were doing took a moment for Esper to process.

She saw that Ashley had crawled on top of Lucas and was bumping pelvis' with him vigorously, then she processed that they were as naked as the day they were born, and noticed that in the process of slamming into each other that something of Lucas' was going inside of Ashley. Then the combination finally made sense in her head and she froze, a weak squeak escaping her gaped mouth.

They still didn't notice that Esper was in the same room as them, despite being at the foot of their bed.

"Stop!" Lucas begged Ashley, who thrusted gusto. "I can't do this again! I need a break!"

"Come on!" Ashley groaned, holding onto Lucas' shoulders tighter. "Just hold on a bit longer! I NEED this!"

"YOU SAID THAT THE LA-AH!-ST EIGHT TIMES!" Lucas nearly shouted. "I'M PRETTY SURE I'M SHOOTING BLOOD AT THIS POINT!"

Ashley growled hungrily and laid her chest against his, pinning him as she picked up speed.

"WHY-AH!-DOES THAT TURN YOU O-!"

Lucas' sentence was interrupted by his fast approaching climax as well as Ashley's. Ashley had finally reached her breaking point (Again) and had clamped around his dick while she squirted over him, and Lucas had went blank with the orgasm coursing through him and into her (Which after the eleventh time was somewhat painful). His load shot into her (Again) and his semen trailed down his cock from inside of her and past his legs in the small puddle of their juices that accumulated overnight.

While Ashley was on cloud 9 after another round of blissful relief of her heat Lucus was finally starting to fall into darkness. Constant non-stop intercourse, mixed with dehydration, and a dash of weak pelvis made for an exhaustion cocktail.

Me go sleep now. His body said to him, and he didn't have a choice anymore (Though he was relieved in the back of his mind. The darkness consumed him and he welcomed it.

After finally coming down, Ashley licked her lips and set herself up for another round, but after Lucas immediately became flaccid, and her goading it by rubbing against it didn't work, she looked down and saw that Lucas was snoring deeply with long needed rest. She groaned in disappointment and sat up completely and grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him.

"Lucas, wake up!" She whined, her shaking doing nothing but changing the sound of his snore. "I still haven't had enough! I need more!"

With the Lucas and Ashley finally quieting down, Ashley had finally recognized that someone was behind her, making a constant petrified squeak. She turned around and saw Esper at the foot of the bed, eyes wide with shock, blushing furiously, mouth wide open with said squeak still escaping, large green, three-fingered hands clutched against her chest.

Had this been a more romantic moment between Lucas and Ashley, Ashley would have probably would have stuttered as she tried to explain what was happening as rationally as possible to the gardevoir who probably wouldn't be able to handle what she was seeing (While Ashley failed to say anything proper or unscattered), but this was an Ashley, a blaziken, who had spent almost 4 years holding back any kind of sexual want during her heat cycle, and whose only sexual companion was her hand through 48 cycles, and after having the real thing after so long has triggered a long want inside of her, and it wanted to make up for a lot of lost time. So Ashley, not in her right mind, did see one of her longest friends who identified as a girl and had been treated as such, but the main thing her mind made her see and realize was that there was a make gardevoir in her presence that sported a penis that she could use since the other one flopped on her.

Ashley turned around and crawled seductively on the bed toward Esper. "Well, hello there, Esper." She said in a sultry voice.

Esper looked into Ashley's eyes. It was pretty apparent what Ashley wanted from her.

Esper cling tighter to herself while her squeak rose higher in pitch.

Ashley made it to the end of the bed, her face inches from Esper's terrified one. Ashley placed a hand on Esper's upper arm, rubbing her arm up and down slowly (Ignoring that her muscles were like petrified stone), and had taken an almost begging like posture before the psychic.

"Do you think you could help me with something!?" Ashley asked, her small tail wagging so hard that her butt shook a bit with it.

"*Audible squeak*!" Esper.

"We've been friends for a long time, right? And we've done so much for each, help each other with everything, share almost everything we have with each other right!?"

"*Audible squeak*!"

"Esper, I'm not okay right now." Ashley confided. "I feel so hot. My loins are on fire, and I have an itch that I can't scratch by myself. Esper I'm begging you..." Ashley swallowed and gave her a hopeful, pitiful look. "Give me your cock?"

"*AUDIBLE SQUEAK*!"

Esper had finally gained her bearings and did a 180 and attempted to bee-line into the hotel door, breaking through with her psychic powers if she had to. She didn't even get a one foot before she was tackled to the ground and put into a body lock by Ashley who turned at the last second so Esper didn't actually hit the floor, Ashley landing on her back.

Esper had then panicked and had let out an ear piercing continual squeak as she writhed in the arms of her lust drunken friend, lashing side to side in an attempt to loosen Ashley's grip and squirm out, but to no avail given that Ashley was physically the strongest of the three of them without question. Esper could have used her psychic abilities to have forced her way out, and despite the panic she was in, she didn't want to hurt Ashley with her powers out of fear of hurting her.

"Esper, please!" Ashley begged in a fast tone. "I need this! You have no idea what I'm going through right now, and I know that what I'm asking you isn't right, especially with what I'm doing right now! I know this is wrong, but I'm suffering in this state!"

"I can't do something like THAT!" Esper yelled, still panicking. "I-I'm a g-..." Esper trailed off and froze for a second, her face turning red, not able to finish that sentence, a weight in the back of her mind holding back. She simply went back to struggling on the verge of tears, a drop actually falling down one of her eyes. "Ashley, LET. ME. GO!"

"Esper...!" Ashley choked. Esper had heard a desperation in her friend's voice, something she almost never heard in Ashley's tone ever, and it caused her to flinch and momentarily freeze, and it was then she had finally noticed that Ashley was trembling around Esper. Ashley at some point on her grip had placed her head on Esper's shoulder that had felt damp a few tears escaped Ashley's own eyes. Ashley inhaled before continuing after feeling Esper become still. "Esper... I-I know that there's so much going on with you you're not telling us. I know that it obviously has to d-do with how you are now."

Esper had become totally silent. Ashley gulped but kept going. "Maybe you'll talk with me about it some day. Maybe, hopefully, you'll be able to talk to Lucas about it. I'm not blind as to how you guys act toward each other now."

Esper had flinched upon hearing this, but again, she remained silent, this time because she didn't know what to say.

Ashley gulped. "That talk you have to do with Lucas will be with Lucas when it's time, but Esper, and I can kind of talk for Lucus here, we don't care with how you look at yourself. You're still Esper. My friend. One of my two best friends. One of my two only friends. I'm not always the best with words, but I can tell you that we're by your side anytime, Esper. Every time."

She felt Esper hiccup. Ashley loosened her grip since Esper stopped struggling. "And I know that what I'm asking you might make you feel weird, and I know I'm coming off as a dick addicted bitch-."

"No..." Esper said with another hiccup. Ashley winced realizing that Esper in her calmer state had to have felt what Ashley was really feeling deep down. "You burn so much. It burns so much that it hurts. There's so much behind it that came out with... " She swallowed. "With Lucas."

Ashley nodded against Esper's shoulder. "He held on for so long, but I'm still burning. Can you please fuck-." Ashley stopped herself and swallowed hard. "Can you please have sex with me? Take off as much of my edge as you can?"

Are you really going to have sex with another girl? A voice said harshly in her head. That's disgusting!

Is it really, though? Another voice asked, voice just as harsh as the last. Because it's not as if she's really a she to begin with, right? Esper is just a gardevoir who fakes it. Is it really wrong?

A parade of voices soon followed, each one conflicting and making her more confused about herself as an individual, never truly giving her an answer, and always reassuring for her, often giving her so many sleepless nights. These voices come by often, but this time, though the questions were always repeating the same song and dance, they were louder at times, this being one of them. They shot each other back and forth between her mind, but one thought, her own voice had shot out between them and though they weren't shut out completely, they had become more blissfully quiet.

Ashley needs me right now more than ever. Esper thought to herself. She gulped.

"... A-alright." Esper finally said after a long pause. "I-I-I'll do it."

Ashley let out a large sigh of relief and relaxed against the reluctant and awkward Esper. "Thank you!"

Ashley had gotten up quickly and had placed herself on the opposite bed of the still unconscious Lucas, naked and snoring.

Esper wish she could say that she had to struggle and force her penis to get hard, but as a pokemon herself the more basic urges struggle to push forth as the scent of Ashley's heat was affecting her greatly. It embarassed her that ever since Ashley had latched onto her that her cock hardened to full salute. Staring at Ashley's wet and gaping pussy made her ivory white penis involuntarily throb in excitement, wanting to relieve a pressure that had begun to fill up through her legs.

Esper approached slowly behind Ashley and had gently placed her hands on Ashley's to line herself up. Ashley had wagged her tail fiercely when Esper grabbed her hips, which made her shake her ass side to side. Esper had told her quietly to stop moving and Ashley had forced herself to stop with the exception of her tail still tilting with restraint. The voices in Espers head had once again spoke in contradiction in the situation, but the memory of Ashley's pained voice had helped Esper drown them out. With a gulp and a deep inhale Esper had aimed herself at Ashley's entrance and stuck her head into her cavern.

Esper had let out a squeak, but this one is of a pleasant surprise rather than terror. Esper's head felt like it had stuck itself in the world's slimiest heater that had squeezed her gently. Esper forced herself to go deeper and all the way into Ashley, her cock submerged into the gooey cavern.

Ashley shuddered with excitement and her tail began to wag with her waist with Esper still inside of her. The wagging around Esper's dick was sudden and fast, rubbing Esper's dick and quickly building up pressure.

"Ashley, s-stop!" Esper whispered, grabbing onto Ashley's hips hard for dear life in an attempt to slow Ashley down, but to no avail, and Ashley was too excited to stop. Esper tried to hold on to her orgasm, but the vice grip and pressure were too much. "Ashley, p-please! I'm a-a-already g-g-g-gon-gon-!"

Esper couldn't take it and gripped firmly while Esper's seed shot into Ashley. The numbing pleasure had sent shivers through her legs as she shot string after string of her load into Ashley's womb, the later surprised when she already felt herself fill up.

"... Already?" Ashley asked, disappointment evident in her tone.

"I've n-never done this-AH!-before!" Esper said in between still twitching so much that her own waist actually moved with the twitching, still slightly cumming into Ashley. "I-I-I said to stop!"

"S-sorry." Ashley said looking over her shoulder, one hand scratching the back of her head. "Again?"

"... Yeah." Esper said shyly, slowly pulling out of Ashley. "Let me rest a second."

Ashley sighed. "Yeah, okay."

The movement of exiting her friend had sent shivers through her dick of an echoing orgasm and as she finished pulling out her half-hard-on and a small stream had shot onto Ashley's butt. Semen followed out of Ashley's hole, leaking out her pussy and onto the bed. Esper blushed and placed her hands nervously between her breasts, a wince on her face, and again trying to shove down the judgemental voices. She gulped.

"I think I let out too much..." Esper fidgeted.

"Maybe not as much as you think." Ashley said easily enough. "I spent the night with Lucas, remember? We didn't exactly need a condom, being different species and all."

Hearing that Lucas and Ashley had made love had stung Esper, but it was a sting she was long used to and had to accept, especially since Lucas had Megan, and Ashley had confirmed the more "Intimate" nature of the two humans a long time ago in passing conversation. That is not what she was concentrated on, though. Jumping quickly into having sex with Ashley a realization had hit her. Not even 30 seconds after coming in she had seen that Lucas had orgasmed inside of Ashley, and many more times throughout the night that Esper didn't know the exact number of. Lucas' cum was still inside of Ashley and Esper had just added more on top of it, mixing them together. Esper glanced over at Lucas again and saw his sex-sticky dick out in open air.

We both did it inside there... Esper thought. It's almost like WE had sex...

"Huh." Ashley commented, appraisingly. "That was quick."

Esper looked down and her eyes widened and her blush deepened. While she was thinking of the implications of Lucas and sex, it had caused her to be aroused and within seconds she had hardened and her penis had smacked into Ashley's butt, on the small cum trail. Esper's jaw dropped, silently cursing herself to have that reaction.

"... Wait." Ashley realized. "Did you just harden up after I told you-?"

Ashley was interrupted when Esper had shoved herself into Ashley full force making Ashley's statement turn into a pleasant hum as she let Esper take over. Esper was already in a very awkward position, and getting aroused over something Lucus related would have been too much, so Esper made the choice to shove herself into Ashley again to keep her from speaking.

Esper didn't want Ashley to ask any questions, the later content on receiving penetration, so Esper just kept ramming into Ashley to keep her silent in her happy-go-fucky haze, moving her hips in rhythm in behind Ashley like the gears turning on a running trains' wheels. Esper herself had quickly felt her hips began to already protest on her, not used to really using any muscle, so she used her psychic abilities to keep herself moving inside of Ashley's warm, snug pussy. Ashley was just happy to have something in her at that moment, the torment of her heat not as bad while she was being fucked. Esper wasn't into the moment so she just kept her eyes closed and kept going into her friend.

Though a concern did raise for Esper after a few minutes. The second round was more of a job to keep Ashley quiet than anything and she could feel herself softening somewhat. She kept her eyes shut even tighter and increased her speed through her powers in hopes that her... Member would harden on its own for the physical attention, but it did nothing. The softening was happening slowly, but gradually.

Once again the concern for Ashley rose, not wanting to see her friend go through heat-pain again, but it was hard for her to get... Hard. Esper couldn't help but wonder how in the world Lucas was able to last as long as he did, let alone just go through a second round?

The answer came quick and simple: Lucas had an actual attraction to Ashley. Esper was never really blind to it, but it seemed that Ashley and Lucas pretended otherwise, for one reason or another (Though Esper had assumed that Megan probably had something to do about that regard.), but it would actually sometimes give an uncomfortable aura, especially when both parties pretended there was no meaning behind it. Esper had often seen them get into little accidents that had led seemed to cause them to escalate in emotions.

There was one time when Esper was still a kirlia and Ashley a combusken, Ashley had walked out of their tent (They all shared the same tent, the two pokemon not comfortable in pokeballs for so long) to use the bathroom in the woods while Esper still tried to sleep, but there was a flurry of apologies being thrown at one another hastily as Ashley had walked onto Lucas urinating on a tree that Ashley had stumbled upon, seeing his member dangling about. After Ashley had evolved into a blaziken and had been so for some time, Esper had awoken in their tent to see Lucus cuddling Ashley in his sleep with Ashley wide awake and wide-eyed as Lucas had been snuggling into her breast, Ashley blushing deeply and completely still. And once when they were in a motel while Esper was coming back from a snack machine, Lucas had walked in on Ashley in the shower, which had resulted in a surprised shriek from Lucas and a half-hearted jump from Ashley.

If none of that had said there was tension between them, then the all night sex was proof enough. Esper had the image of Ashley humping Lucas flash in her mind. That moment when Lucas had stopped everything and the only that moved was his twitching penis as he orgasmed in Ashley, his cum leaking down his shaft.

It looked like it felt good... Esper though. She felt herself harden once again at the thought of Lucas and sex and heard Ashley groan appraisingly and getting a deeper fucking again. Esper couldn't help herself at this point, but she opened her eyes and turned to look at Lucus. The sleeping human was in the same position as earlier, excluding the small amount of drool falling from the corner of his mouth as he snored. Esper had never actually seen Lucas' naked before then...

Esper was now completely hard and now she was actually feeling the sex she was having. The tingling sensation was arising again as she stared at Lucas, mostly fixed on his member, though still flaccid, Esper had certain thoughts in regards to it, certain thoughts about Lucas she had since had to swallow when she had turned to her final form. Ashley had been in heaven the entire time, her upper-half now flopped on the mattress as Esper held onto her waist, the only thing that had any distance from the bed. The mattress was squeaking rapidly and fiercely as Esper slammed into Ashley.

Esper was nearing the edge, the sweet, blissful release so close. She had laid herself on Ashley's back, wrapping her arms around her stomach, gripping tight as she continually dug in and out of Ashley, the latest juices flowing out in a small puddle on the bed. Esper had been staring at Lucas during this, but had taken note of just how strangely warm Ashley really was before she went over the edge and cried out as she finally peaked.

Esper held on tight as she came inside of Ashley, gushing deep in her womb. Ashley groaned loudly in appreciation as she felt herself fill up, almost bringing her to orgasm, but not quite. Ashley was happy all the same however, being filled up. Esper had let out cute little moans with each shot coming out of her and Ashley was just basking in it.

When Esper was done she felt her psychic fade away from lack of concentration and was using Ashley as a pillow as she regained herself, and Ashley laid down flat on her front and was on cloud nine, breathing deeply. Esper had been friends with Ashley a long time, and as Ashley was a fire-type pokemon it had only made sense that her body radiates heat more than average and had at times made their tent uncomfortably warm, but Esper was surprised just how warm Ashley was up-close. Esper didn't really pay attention to it at the beginning, but as she now had her arms wrapped around Ashley she was like a gigantic teddybear and was surprisingly soft. Ashley was definitely firm for the most part, especially around her abs, but the feathered-fur itself was smooth and silky to the touch. Esper couldn't help to grow to love to hold Ashley.

Ashley had begun to turn with Esper in tow, but the later had lifted herself to not get rolled over with Ashley and was on her knees on the bed as Ashley was now on her back. Esper couldn't help but admire the sight before her. Ashley was on her back with her knees bent and legs spread, her breasts jiggling with her rapid heart beat, abs flexing with every inhale, and her beautiful sapphire staring into Esper's crimson ones, which were wide with surprise at how she was feeling just then. Ashley had grabbed her pussy and opened it with her talons, Espers load leaking out Ashley and onto the bed.

"I-I need more..." Ashley said. "I still need to cum."

Esper was aware that her sexuality was a bit of a mess with her own personal confusion, and especially with Lucas, but for the first time she had actually recognized just how pretty Ashley was. And how it made Esper feel for the blaziken. There some feelings in there somewhere for Ashley, and for that moment, Esper didn't question anything. Her cock was still hard and she now draped herself across Ashley, tail wagging under control but still flicking juices under them. Esper had gently placed her hands just under Ashley's breasts and had positioned herself again for intercourse.

Esper entered Ashley again and went back into motion in missionary. Esper didn't look away from Ashley as she did it this time. Ashley's blue eyes looked up at Esper thankfully before closing and laid on the bed as Esper pistoned herself for the third time. Ashley made pleasant coos and grabbed onto Esper's green arms, holding on firmly as Esper began to speed up again, but Ashley wasn't there quite yet.

"P-please, ho-hold-AH!-on a bit longer!" Ashley begged. "I just need a bit more."

"What d-do you want m-me to do?" Esper asked. She laid herself on Ashley again, her face pressed against between Ashley's pillow of breasts as Esper's own pressed against Ashley's abs, Esper's nipples hard and pointy, scraping against Ashley through Esper's dress. "What do you n-need? Tell m-me."

"Harder!" Ashley wrapped her arms around Esper in a tight embrace, grunting as she could feel herself finally reaching her own climax. "Deeper!"

Esper began to actually slam into Ashley upon request, pulling out slower than before but ramming into Ashley with even more force with the help of the psychic's abilities. Esper could feel herself ready to shoot soon, and with Ashley now fiercely meeting Esper half-way but thrusting her pelvis into Epser's own was any indication for her, Ashley was almost there as well.

"Can I cum now?" Esper asked in a high tone. "Can I cum now?!"

"Yes!" Ashley confirmed. "Yes! Do it now! Q-quickly!"

After a few more slams, they finally had reached their peak at the same time. Esper didn't unleash a big pay load since the first two orgasms were "Draining", but she still let out some cumshots with velocity nonetheless. Ashley's vision went white as relief took her over again, her privates and spine tingling with her orgasm, squirting around Esper's dick and squeezing the life out of it, much to Esper's pleasure.

After their orgasm finally calmed down they just lay as they were before, Esper still inside of Ashley with a half-hard-on and their juices leaking, both breathing hard.

Esper, for the moment, felt loosened and relaxed, and actually happy. Until she opened her eyes and looked over to Lucas again, then doubt and confusion began to edge back. Esper was then beginning to realize that she had just had sex with a female blaziken next to a male human who had also had sex with the blaziken not too long ago. And at one point used the male as food for thought to reach one of her orgasms.

Esper was torn between two sides again, reprimanding her for having sex with a girl, but then also using a boy as fuel for herself while she pleasured herself when Esper herself has a male genitalia of her (His! A voice corrected harshly.) own. Esper felt a storm of depression and self-doubt begin to swirl in her (HIS!) (NO, HER!) head and felt like crying, but a certain blaziken wasn't done yet.

Esper's thought were immediately paused when she felt Ashley's talons dig into her arms. Esper flinched. It didn't really hurt, but it sure didn't feel nice.

"More..." Ashley muttered lowly, the heat once again wanting to take the wheel. She licked her beak and looked down at the now very concerned gardevoir. "I need more...!"

The voices came back momentarily, and all had only agreed on one thing for the first time ever.

Well, They said in unison. This bodes poorly.

...

The ralts was scared. Garith, after three months of having Ralts (Gareth had decided to call him), there was still almost no progress at all except for the occasional wobble Ralts was able to do, but that was nowhere near the level that Gareth had wanted out of him. Ralts had almost become skin and bones, ribs visible and cheeks sunken, and had not been able to keep up with the other pokemon even in walking pace.

Garith, however, had come up with, what he called his "Master Plan". The party of Gareth's pokemon had been surprised to hear that after three consecutive losses at the Rustboro Gym that they would just skip to Dewford Town and go after the fighting-type Gym Leader. Simply, the plan was this:

He would enter the Gym and register only one pokemon as his party: Ralts. If simple training wasn't enough to wake up his psychic abilities, then maybe going straight into a high-stakes pokemon match would be enough to put Ralts in a constant sense of urgency and stress while being attacked by other pokemon to cause the psychic powers to come up as a form of defense, and when that happens, the type advantage would lead to their victory.

Gareth wouldn't have listened even if he had P.T.S.D., so there really wasn't any argument Ralts could make, but he was terrified. Ralts even clung onto hope that this could actually go the way Garith would hope for and maybe he wouldn't be so hard on Ralts. Maybe things would now come up in a brighter light.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

Garith had walked into the darkened gym with Ralts in tow, ready to take on the world (Through his pokemon) and finally get his first Gym Badge. In the first battle, Ralts was able to hold his own by running away and able to dodge despite his lack of energy, but ultimately Ralts was not exactly built to take a hit. Every Time the makuhita would land a blow of Ralts, he would do his best to get up and try again with Gareth yelling at him to do so. Garith only told Ralts to get up when he was down and only ordered a dodge half the time, in which he didn't was usually when Ralts would get hit. After the eighth blow Ralts couldn't stay conscious anymore and was down for the count, the referee yelling that the victory was for home.

Ralts was healed at the pokemon center, and Gareth was deathly quiet toward him. He didn't yell, he didn't shout, he didn't even hit the Ralts this time, though the minimal food was still given in very short amounts.

It was raining the following day when they went to Dewford Cave. Ralts was in his pokeball in the blackness, floating around when the ball opened, being let out of the ball. When Ralts was able to get his bearings the first thing he noticed was the cold water drops landing on his head. Then he noticed the sandy little beach area next to a patch of woods and just a little ways down was a cave, the open mouth opening dark and creepy to Ralts on the heavily dark cloud day. Lightning struck somewhere off in the distance making Ralts jump in his skin.

Looking up at his trainer questionably he was met with Gareth's resting-pissed face. When Ralts saw that the pokeballs button was glowing white instead of red for a moment before fading he was then very concerned and knew what that meant. He wasn't able to really process this fully, hoping there was some mistake, but Gareth had made it clear what was to happen.

"This," He said blankly. "Is where we part ways." He turned to leave, giving a barely sincere wave over his shoulder. "Good luck and whatever."

Ralts felt his heart sink into his chest, standing there alone in the rain, Gareth's back facing him. Ralts started to immediately panic. He certainly didn't like Garith any, but he was quite literally the only life-line for the pokemon at the time. Ralts was now in a completely new area with a different habitat of pokemon, no idea of what is edible food on the island, and on top of that it was in a very intense storm. Ralts ran over to Garith, but when Gareth had heard the sand shift behind him he turned to give the pokemon an intense glare, stopping Ralts in his tracks.

"Oh, don't think you can come back after this!" He shouted at the pokemon, the little creature flinching. "You have made absolutely no relevant progression, no matter how many punishments I give you just keep fucking up, and on top of that..." Gareth gritted his teeth and clenched his fist, causing Ralts to take a step back out of fear. The next sentence came out in a surprisingly violent shriek. "YOU HUMILIATED ME BACK THERE! THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO WORK, BUT YOU HAD TO JUST SCREW IT UP, DIDN'T YOU!?"

Ralts shivered where he stood (Partially from the cold), and felt like an absolute disappointment. Ralts had tried to hold in his tears and had still slipped out a sob as he tried to keep himself composed. "I'm sorry... "

Ralts had no way to speak the human language, but the tone was enough to understand. Garith had simply turned his back again and walked back to Dewford Town through the heavy rain, leaving the pokemon behind at the cave mouth.

Ralts was devastated. He had never felt so scared and alone.

Lightning struck again, this one not too far away from Ralts, making him jump out of his skin and made his heart thud hard to the point it would have hurt if not for the sudden adrenaline rush. Another bolt came striking down from the sky and Ralts turned tail and ran full sprint inside of the cave to get away from the raging storm. After the third bolt and only just getting in the cave Ralts had decided to run deeper in the cave to get as far away from the storm as possible. Ralts didn't know how long he had wondered for in the cave in his panic, but he had finally stopped when the adrenaline wore off and all the tiring factors of the last few months had taken effect and he simply couldn't go on anymore. It was pitch black before he realized it and couldn't see anything at all. He wondered around until he found stable ground to sit on and he leaned against a rock for support.

Here he was now. Cold, hungry and nutritionally deprived, and alone. So far away from what he could call home from the other ralts, kirlia, and the lady Gard. Abandoned by the trainer that was supposed to take care of him and left to basically rot wherever that cave would have him.

Ralts began to cry. When the tears came out he then began to sob and hiccup there in the dark. He cried until he thought he would run out of tears, eventually falling sideways and just staying there, exhaustion finally taking over. He could have sworn he had heard someone far away say something.

"Hello?" It sounded like, but it sounded too far away at that point. Ralts just let his eyes close and let sleep come to him. He was out within seconds.

...

Ralts had awoken to something roughly poking him in the face. Ralts was very groggy, tired, and his throat was very dry. He still couldn't see anything, but he could clearly hear three different voices muttering to themselves quietly. To the average human, they would have heard them keep saying "sableye". After waking up all Ralts could do was moan weakly.

"Ah!" One said in surprise, its voice guttural and growly. "It is alive!"

"Surprising." Another commented. It was hard for Ralts to differentiate the voices from one another, all sounding the same to him. They must have been closely related.

"Does this mean we can't eat it?" Disappointment.

"Just means we have to kill it first. Better not to eat it alive. Too much noise when it screams, maybe."

Not that the Ralts could even muster one to begin with.

"Can't we just go looking for pretty stones to eat again? I prefer to eat the pretty stones."

"We can't find any pretty stones!" This one sounded annoyed, like it had repeated this too many times before. "We have to eat the little pokemon if we want to fill our belly's!"

"Not a lot of meat on this one's bones." This one grabbed Ralts' arm and squeezed, feeling how thin he really was. He moaned in protest, but couldn't do anything. "Might not fill our belly's much, this won't."

"Can't be picky, can't be picky! Smash it with a rock!"

"Messy, messy! You do it!"

While they debated on who would be the one to kill him, Ralts only laid there. He couldn't fight anymore. He nowhere near had the energy to do anything except lay there and wait for them to finally do something with him. He didn't sob but tears did fall from his eyes. He didn't want to die, but there really wasn't anything that could help him now.

There was a sudden blinding light that appeared from somewhere behind a rock, hurting Ralts eyes and making the sableye hiss in protest. They turned toward the source and had taking fighting stances, prepared to attack whoever it was.

A small clatter and in the middle of the light there were a handful of small gems in the center. The sableye only gawked for a moment before they jumped at the gems and grabbed what they could, fighting each other to get more. They continued to fight each other for more than ten seconds before clearing the floor of the gems and scattering into the darkness of the cave, out of sight of the light. Now it was just Ralts in the beam. His eyes stopped hurting from the light, but he was wondering why it hadn't moved on.

"Oh, shit..." A male voice breathed. It sounded younger than Garith, a teenager, definitely human. "That's not good."

"Do you think it's dead?" A female voice asked, very concerned. It was a combusken.

The light got closer until it was only a foot away from him, then the light was set to the side on the ground, still aiming at him. A hand went up to his nose, smelling of mud and dirt.

"It's still breathing." The male said, clearly relieved. He touched Ralts face, who groaned in protest as the human brushed his finger on his cheeks. "Looks like we found the source of the crying."

"Poor thing." The combusken said. Ralts was used to hearing Gareth say this sarcastically, but the sincere tone in the combusken's voice was surprising.

"Can you get the bottle out of my backpack, Ashley?"

The combusken, who the human called Ashley, paused for a second, there was a sound of a zipper, and then the untwisting of a cap. The human tilted the bottle to Ralts mouth to get a few drops on him, and when a drop of the water went through the crack of his mouth a moistened his tongue he found renewed strength and latched onto the bottle, guzzling the water. The human had placed his hand under Ralts to help him stay up as the pokemon downed the entire thing.

"I didn't think ralts were native to this area." Ashley said.

"They're not." The human said, taking the bottle away when it was empty. Ralts belched lightly and felt some life come back to him, throat no longer burning. "You can only find them near Oldale, around Route 102. Some trainer must have lost 'em here."

Ralts found this odd. It was like the human was actually talking to the combusken.

"That's really concerning. The trainer must be worried sick..." Ashley said with sympathetically. Her tone softened. "Are we going to take it with us, Lucus?"

"Well, it's not trying to bite or kill me. Like some other pokemon." He said that last bit pointedly, not toward Ashley, but toward his belt.

"Well," Ashley rebutted. "Didn't you think it was weird that the aron was only nice to you while you had food?

"Hey, I didn't expect him to get pissed off and eat half of my shoe!" The human (Lucas) said defensively. He gently picked up Ralts and unzipped his jacket placing Ralts inside then zipped Ralts up in it, hand still on him from outside to keep him balanced. Lucus kept a firm grip to make sure Ralts didn't fall out. "And on top of that, now I have to wear this grocery bag with duct tape on the way back to the inn! A little bit of sympathy would be nice."

"It's not my fault nine-out-of-ten pokemon want to kill you." Ashley shot back, her tone playful. They began to walk, Lucus shifting to make sure the ralts was not going to tumble out.

"Bite me, you little shit!" Lucas said with a laugh, no hint of malice in his tone at all.

Ralts felt warm inside the jacket. The human's body heat was nice and warm and the jacket helped kept it all in while Ralts was nice and snug in there. The grip on the human's hand was gentle. Ralts felt less weak after getting some water. The conversation between the pokemon and the human going back and forth, all calm and happy to be in each others company with no urgency or distress (Though they were walking fast to the entrance to get the Ralts some help as soon as possible), and was just friendly all-in-all.

Ralts couldn't help but just relax. He didn't know what they were going to do, but right then he didn't care. Right now he was the most comfortable he had ever been in his life, and since he was still physically drained, he began to doze off. He snuggled into the jacket and fell asleep, blissfully dreamless.

...

Ralts awoke again in the dark, but not the darkness of a cave. He still didn't feel so hot, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it was before. Ralts' eyes adjusted and saw that he was in a room, mostly casted in a black-grey light from the window, and when Ralts turned his head to the window he did see the clouds were so dark they were almost black, excluding the lightning that flashed across the sky. There was a few orange glows around the room and Ralts looked to see candles lit about the room, which upon inspection he saw it was a basic inn room, with a couch, a chair, coffee table, and he assumed there was a bedroom somewhere, usually with two beds. It seemed like an older building.

Ralts then noticed he was still inside of the humans jacket, but instead he was wrapped in it and placed on top of a pillow, which was actually the first time he had ever used a pillow before. He knew they were just a sack full of cotton and Gareth never let him use one, and before then he was used to just sleeping on cave floor or grass, so he never thought he was missing anything by it. As he was squished into warm fluffiness as he literally sunk into it, he imagined this was the same as being in a cloud, cause this was the closest to heaven he had ever been in his life. The room itself was cold, he could tell by the slight chill he could feel on his face since it was the only thing open to air, but the rest of him was nice and toasty.

"Ah!" A voice said from above him. He was startled a bit, but didn't jump. "You're awake! That's great!"

Ralts looked up to see the face of a combusken, peeking her head over the couch to look in on him. The combusken (Ashley, Ralts remembered) squinted a bit and did her best to upturn the corners of her beak to try and form a smile. It made Ralts heart fluttered. It took him a second to process that at one moment they were in the cave, and the next they were in some inn. They had really taken him back to their place.

"You took me with you..." The ralts said in surprise.

"Well, of course, silly!" Ashley said, walking around the couch to sit on the chair across from Ralts, the candle glowing between them on the coffee table. Ralts noticed that this combusken had looked a little different from those he saw follow other trainers back in Oldale, it was a little more... Human looking, with the more feminine shapes of a female, but it kind of added to her charm. It seemed to fit her well. "There wasn't any way we were going to leave you there like you were. Honestly, we were afraid you were dead, or going to be."

"You... And your trainer." Ralts remembered what the human had done, vaguely, and even then he couldn't help but feel just a little weary all the same.

Ashley didn't notice the weariness. She just assumed he was still tired. "Yeah! We were checking out the Dewford Cave to see if he could find any golden nuggets to pawn, and we heard..." Ashley cleared her throat. "Crying. We went to check it out, and there you were. Just in time, too. Those sableye didn't seem too friendly."

Ralts recalled them dispersing after they had been thrown some gems. "You guys fed them."

Ashley nodded. "We didn't find much, but we did find some valuables. Mostly crystals and those gems."

"Your trainer must be pretty mad about losing those."

"Not at all!" Ashley assured. The happy-go-lucky nature of the pokemon was a little odd to him. He had never really seen a pokemon under a trainer so happy. "It was either that or beat them off, and he was afraid you'd get hurt in the process. We still had some left and a nugget, so it all worked out."

Ralts frowned. "Had...?"

"He went to go sell what he has. We had a hook-up with another trainer who wanted them, so he's getting that finished up right now. He should be back soon." Ashley tilted her head. "Are you thirsty?"

Ralts smacked his lips and nodded politely. Ashley went to the kitchen to get a glass of water and came back to the ralts, helping him settle into an upright position to drink easier. He drank half of the glass before he was done then Ashley took the glass from him and set in on the coffee table. "These human inns aren't as well lit as I remember." Ralts commented.

"Lightning hit a power grid." Ashley informed her. "There was some kind of complication with the backup generators, but when that gets fixed it should brighten up soon. And warmer. You're not too cold, are you?"

Ralts shook his head and said he was fine. Ashley then sat on the couch with Ralts and happily kicked her feet while she leaned back easily. Ashley introduced herself by her name and the ralts nodded with a small smile that quickly turned into a frown. It was quiet between them for a while, Ashley waiting for the ralts to say something, while Ralts himself seemed somewhat downcast and deep in thought. Ashley clicked the roof of her beak with her tongue and decided to ask what had been bugging her and Lucas.

"So," Ashley asked in a drawl. "Did you have a trainer with you?"

Ralts flinched at the question, causing her to raise an eyebrow. Ralts took a moment before answering with an absent and simple yes.

"Well, do you happen to know their name?" Ashley pressed, trying to sound hopeful. "When the power comes back on, Lucus can do a search for them, try and get back into to contact so you can-."

"I-uh..." Ralts interrupted with a polite cough. "I had a trainer. He had let me out in the woods today. I'm... " He trailed off, shaking his head.

Ashley frowned, regretting asking him. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to pry on a sensitive topic."

Ralts shook his head. "It's fine."

"You must've been out there for some time." Ashley said.

Ralts frowned at Ashley before looking down. "He had released me this morning."

"... During a storm?"

Ralts shrugged, his next words he tried to play off matter-of-factly. "It would have happened sooner or later anyway. I can't really use my psychic abilities. Why would a trainer want to keep me around if I can't do anythi-?"

Ralts was cut off by a cough that forced its way out of him, the jacket he used as a blanket sliding off of his shoulders. The chill of the room got him quickly and he shivered before putting the thing back on, but not before Ashley noticed something about the pokemon. Before he wrapped himself back up Ashley had noticed that the ralts was very thin, to the point that she could clearly see his ribs.

Ashley's mind was fitting some pieces together when the door to the room opened.

Lucas came inside the room, one hand with two bags in it, the other with his room key and an umbrella, the previous of which he put into his pocket as he closed the door behind him with his foot. Since the jacket was still being used for the ralts he had settled to put on a white long sleeved shirt that did an okay job of keeping him warm.

"I'm back." He said and walked over to the couch, setting the bags on the coffee table. "Sorry I took so long. You have no idea how hard it was to find a restaurant around here that used gas stoves." He plopped on the chair with a groan. Ashley cleared her throat to get Lucus' attention, and when he looked Ashley nodded to Ralts, sitting up and awake. Lucas gave a friendly smile and leaned forward. "Glad to see you're still among the living. How're you feeling?"

Ralts said nothing. He shied into himself and curled in a small ball inside the jacket. Lucas frowned, looking toward Ashley with concern.

"He's still not feeling so hot." Ashley confirmed for the ralts.

Lucas nodded. "I see." He looked over to Ralts again, his friendly smile returning. "I'm sorry to hear that. I would have taken you to the pokemon center, but with the power outage most of their machines aren't working and there's only so much they can do with their back-up generators, there isn't really much I can do. You can hang here until you feel better, though."

Ralts looked at Lucas questionably. He wondered why the human was even trying to talk to him, or why Ashley spoke to the human like he would understand her, but he seemed to take what she said with... Understanding. Ralts then remembered that they actually did hold a conversation with each other in the cave as they were exiting.

"You can understand us?" Ralts asked with slight amazement.

Lucas kept smiling as he tapped his earpiece. "Because of this thing. It translates what pokemon say into human."

"My trainer never had one of those."

Lucas' smile turned a little disappointed. "Not many keep them around... " He perked up. "Speaking of trainers, if you can remember the name of your..."

"I was released." Ralts cut in quietly. "I don't have a trainer anymore."

Lucas went quiet by the Ralts bluntness. It was obviously a sensitive subject for the pokemon, and with how the pokemon was in health currently, he thought that maybe just keeping things positive would be better for the pokemon's well being as it was right then.

"Well," Lucas tried to move on. "I imagine you're pretty hungry. I got some food for all of us, if you'd like some."

At the sound of the word food, Ralts stomach immediately reacted, causing him to blush and grip his stomach to keep quiet, out of habit. Lucas nodded and smiled as he reached into one of the bags, grabbing the three styrofoam containers and plastic forks that came with them.

"The only place open was some pancake house, so I basically got us breakfast for dinner."

"Well, you can't beat that!" Ashley grabbed hers from Lucas and opened it immediately and dug into its contents.

Ralts had been surprised when Lucas leaned over and handed the container of human food to him, and was even more surprised to see that Ashley was just used to something like this. Garith would get them poke-pellets to eat and spread them out individually depending of how much he felt they deserved. All the other food went to himself, of course. He looked up again and saw that Ashley was just enjoying herself, and to Lucas who was eating his food at a normal pace. The third meal must've really been for him. He was nervous to ask them how to use the utensil, so he just watched them eat for a minute, memorizing how to use the fork from how they were using it before opening his container.

Inside the container sectioned off the three foods, being a small stack of brown circles, eggs cooked in a scrambled mess, and a few strips of fried meat. This would be the first time he ever tried human food, and though he had sometimes seen trainers give of a bit of their own to their pokemon (Not a whole meal, but just a bit), the pokemon always seemed very happy to partake. Ralts had clumsily used his fork to cut into the butter-syrup covered hot cakes and get a chunk of his utensil. He shrugged, and stuck the fork in his mouth to see what all the fuss was about.

Ralts froze. He had been still for so long that it had caught Lucas and Ashley's attention that he had just sat there with a fork in his mouth, looking into space with wide eyes.

"Um..." Ashley pressed. "Are you okay?"

Ralts stayed still for a moment longer before he ate quite literally stabbed at his food with gusto and an almost primitive hunger, using that fork like an expert. Lucas and Ashley had never seen someone eat something so fast in their life.

SWEET! Ralts thought as he ate greedily. So sweet! So soft, and nice, and good, and-

It was then that Ralts realized that he was not breathing like he should have been. It was the first time he had ever experienced a clog. Ashley and Lucas got up to help, the previos quickly grabbed the water from the table and told him to drink it and it would help. After washing down a painfully large chunk of food, he took a deep, satisfying inhale.

"WHAT ARE THESE!?" Ralts asked with excitement, loud and sudden, causing Ashley to jump and Lucas to snicker at her expense. Ashley blinked.

"Pancakes...?

"Why are they so tasty!?" Ralts asked in bewilderment.

"... Because they just do?" Ashley didn't really know how to answer the question properly. With that Ralts quickly changed his attention back to the food, this time forcing himself to eat slower than he did before, but still quickly. At first Lucas found it amusing because he thought that the Ralts was eating so fast cause it was new for him, but now he realized he was eating because he was starving.

"Dude, when was the last time you had something to eat?" Lucas asked.

Ralts only answered in between bites, but they were honest answers cause he just wanted to answer then go back to eating.

"Yesterday." Om-nom. "But I never did get to where my last trainer-" Chew, swallow. "Wanted, so I never got a whole lot to eat." Om-nom. "He'd always get mad when I couldn't use my powers."

Ralts then tried a piece of bacon, and after a test bite and he had tasted the protein, he gobbled it down. He just seemed very content eating.

Lucas however was still stuck on what the Ralts had just said. "'The fuck...?" He muttered to himself. While Ralts was eating, Ashley had gotten Lucus attention and had nodded to the bedroom area to indicate she wanted to talk to him privately. Lucas nodded and followed her there, leaving Ralts to his meal.

Ralts had downed the eggs moments after and was licking the syrup on the styrofoam when he noticed they weren't in the room. He looked around and saw that they were in the bedroom, Lucus kneeling down to Ashley's level, talking in hush tones. Ashley had looked sad as she talked to him while he had kept his expression plane and calm. They talked back and forth and Ralts was immediately worried if he had done something wrong and scratched his face nervously... And his hand came back annoyingly sticky from the syrup.

Ashley and Lucas came back a short time later and Ashley sat on the couch, sitting next to Ralts while Lucas chose to kneel in front of him. Ralts had then become concerned that they would tell him that he had to go right there and then. Ralts then realized that he had let it slip that he wasn't able to use his abilities, and it seemed that humans didn't like pokemon who couldn't (It seemed like anyone who learned about this didn't really want anything to do with him, except the nice kirlia and sometimes the hitmonchan). Ralts thought that maybe if he asked nicely that they would wait until the rain dies down so he could at least-

"Um, hey." Lucas interrupted Ralts thoughts, the later flinching. Lucas pretended not to notice.

Ralts was waiting for the moment the words came out of the human's mouth, and do everything he can not to cry.

"Look, I can tell you've been through a lot, but..."

He just needed to except how what he said was going to be. Ralts took a deep breath.

"If you want, you can stay with us as long as you need to."

Ralts felt his heart stop for a moment and he stared at the human with wide eyed shock. He let out the breath he was holding weakly.

Lucas mistook this as the Ralts being appalled by the idea of being under a trainer again, which he completely understood. "It doesn't have to be forever, I promise! I can even take you wherever you want to go, granted it would take a while to get the funds."

"Lucas mostly does odd jobs," Ashley supplied. "But once in awhile, we can try our luck in trainer battles. I've won my fair share, helped Lucas with things. If you want to battle."

Ralts lips trembled. "B-but... " Ralts voice hitched a bit, trying to get his voice under control. "I-I-I can't even use my powers! I w-wouldn't be able to do a-anything..."

Lucas shared a quick glance with Ashley, then they both turned to Ralts with a shrug.

"We don't care." Lucas said easily. "You can just sit backseat until we can get things done. Either or, until then, if you want, you can be apart of our party. What do you say?"

Ralts obviously knew that Gareth was a bad person and not the average trainer, that much was certain, but at the same time Ralts knew that he was a rare species of pokemon in the Hoenn region, and he doubted any other trainer would miss the chance to get their hands on any ralts, let alone offer one a way back to what they would call home. Yet this human, Lucas, in front of him was smiling a sincere, warm smile as he gave the offer, not even wanting to utilize the psychic abilities humans found so powerful, or even caring if he had any.

"Why?" Ralts asked sincerely in confusion. None of it made any sense to him. "Why would you do that for me?"

Lucas shrugged again. "Why not? I don't mind helping. Maybe I just think it'd be nice to see a smile on that syrupy face."

"Also," Ashley supplied. "It'd be nice to hang around a pokemon that didn't want to harm my trainer."

Lucas looked down at his feet. On one foot was a sneaker, and the other was a mountain boot. After catching the Aron and trying to get along with it, it had eaten one of his boots and rendered it useless, as mentioned earlier. The sneaker was kept after a previous diglett had made a pothole in front of him while walking, making him trip and had stolen the shoe after Lucas had tripped and landed on his face. He didn't know why the random diglett had done it in the first place. It wasn't like it served it any purpose...

Ralts was still dumbfounded. They barely even knew him and yet they were ready to stick their neck out for him. He tried to say something more, but the words only came out as a stutter.

Lucas held up a hand politely to quiet the ralts. "Why don't you sleep on it? At least waiting until the storm passes will help give you time to think on it. We aren't leaving for a little while."

Ralts didn't trust himself to speak so he nodded eagerly. The memory of almost getting hit by lightning scared the crap out of him and he didn't want to head into that again.

Lucas clapped his hands once. "Great! That makes me feel better."

Ashley nodded in agreement. She then looked at Lucus with a raised brow. "By the way, were you able to find something to help our friend here get better?"

Lucus' eyes widened a bit in realization. "That's right! I almost forgot!" He reached over his shoulder for the second bag he had brought with him. " I wasn't sure what would be good nutrition for a ralts, so I got something that is mostly found on the home route."

Lucus revealed what was in the bag, and when Ralts looked over at it, it was like a geodude had slammed into his chest.

Barely able to fit in Lucus palm was an oran barry. It was unnaturally massive, and it was plump and smooth, and the berry reflected so much light from the candle it almost glowed on its own. Ralts couldn't even imagine the chances of coming across the same sized berry in such a short amount of time. All he could do was gawk at it.

"Dear Arceus in the sky!" Ashley almost yelled. "Where did you even get that thing?"

"The guy I sold the stuff to found this somewhere on the island." Lucas said as he pulled out a pocket knife and cut the berry into slices. "Threw it in as a thank you. Lucky us, huh?"

After making the berry into eight pieces, he offered one to Ralts and set the others on top of the closed styrofoam container for the pokemon to eat at his leasure. Ralts silently took the berry with trembling hands, in complete disbelief of what was actually happening at that moment. The odds of it was so astounding. He slowly and quietly brought the berry to his mouth and took and absent bite.

The berry was unbelievably juicy, and it was so sweet it was almost as good as the pancakes he had just eaten. He chewed slowly, and despite filling his tiny frame with the large amount of food from earlier, his stomach growled eagerly more for the berry to be in his system.

Lucas winced and looked apologetic. "I'm sorry, but..." He grabbed the end of his white long-sleeved with one hand and the cup of water in the other, dumping the end of his shirt in what's left of the glass to soak up.

Ashley snorted, taking of piece of berry for herself. "Really, Lucus?"

"Eat me." He told her, her smiling and rolling her eyes. He didn't take his eyes off of Ralts face. "Can I just clean your face real quick? I have a thing against sticky." Before Ralts could say yes or no, Lucus urged in a way that seemed way too familiar. "Please. I'll be quick."

Ralts didn't reject him, and when he leaned in and gently wiped off Ralts face, he remembered a certain concerned and friendly kirlia doing the same thing for him what felt like too long ago. Halfway through cleaning, Ralts couldn't take it anymore. He let out a sob and tears began to fall around Lucas shirt. After that he the damn broke and tears began to fall out again, openly crying in front of people that he (She) would soon call the most important people to him. Lucas and Ashley immediately jumped to ask if he was okay, which caused him to cry even more. The two didn't know what else to do so they comforted Ralts the best they could, Lucus placing a hand on top of Ralts head while Ashley reached around Ralts shoulders in an awkward embrace. Both of them were nice and warm to him, and their touches were gentle and caring.

Ralts hoped this moment would never end.

...

Esper prayed to whatever deity, pokemon or otherwise, that this would end already.

Esper didn't know how many times Ashley had already came, or even how many time Esper came herself, all she did know was that the light from the crack in the curtains from the window had just come out coming from an early blue when she had first arrived, but now the crack was at its brightest, having to be somewhere between noon and three in the afternoon. How long had Ashley been up for, Arceusdamnit!?

Esper lay on her side in a sprawl with Ashley sitting up against her, grabbing one leg and slung it over her shoulder while the other leg remained under her, Esper's dick inside of her in a sideways motion, Ashley humping against Esper with manic glee. Ashley clung to Esper's leg like she were afraid the scarlet eyed pokemon would fly away while Esper laid against the pillow too weak to even fight back anymore, just kind of accepting it at this point.

Ashley kept having Esper force-fuck her sideways. When Esper began to groan and her cock began to familiarly twitch in build-up, Ashley quivered in anticipation and sped up sliding Esper in and out of her. Esper felt the tingles of her penis vibrate through her as she was nearing another orgasm while Ashley clung tightly to Esper's leg as her walls shifted and quivered around the intruding shaft as she was nearing her own orgasm, her vision flashing white in excitement.

Esper moaned in repetition until it turned into a rhythmic squeak as she couldn't hold back anymore and as Ashley reached her climax and squeezed the gardevoir to milk her for everything she had. Esper unloaded into Ashley's womb with her eyes clenched shut and clutching the blanket as she shot while Ashley leaned backwards with her eyes rolled into her head as she squirted around Esper's cock, the relief coming out in waves like an ocean to ease the burning sensation.

Ashley let go of Esper with a deep inhale, letting the psychic lay down on the bed fully, submerging into the blanket with a relief of her own. Esper silently hoped that Ashley would be finally done, she could try and go to sleep, and then they could never speak of this again.

That fantasy was short lived when she felt taloned fingers grip her thighs and turned her to face the ceiling. She wondered when she was going to see Ashley crawl on top of her to ride her, but she instead felt something different. Something big, wet, and hot traveled down up, down, and all around Esper's member, goading the half-hard thing back to life, messaging it, circling around it.

"Ashley... Please..." Esper gasped as the tongue continued to taste her dick, Ashley still gripping her thighs to hold Esper steady and keep her from moving. "A-aren't you d-done yet!?"

Ashley's answer was to slide her tongue across and in between Esper's testicals, causing Esper to squeak at the new experience as Ashley messaged her balls while the tip of her penis tapped against Ashley's forehead. Esper gripped the sheets as Ashley worked her magic, Esper eventually grabbing onto Ashley's unmovable force of a skull, Ashley's antenne-things between Esper's main green fingers. Esper tried to move her away but she may as well try and physically move a boulder.

Esper gasped at Ashley's next movement. Ashley had travelled down with her tongue past Esper's balls to her asshole, her tongue pressing against the tight entrance. A pokemon that goes through healing via pokeball at the pokemon center goes through getting all their injuries, ailments, and waste removed, so Esper didn't have to clean up since she had already at the Center. Not that she had planned for this. Esper's cock thumped against Ashley's head as her body reacted to the touch to her anus. Ashley took initiative and had moved one hand from Esper's thigh to her penis and began to gently stroke her penis with her taloned hands, ducking her head under Esper to get into a better angle to lick her butthole.

Esper wanted to say she didn't like what was happening, but her penis was reacting immensely to the contact of Ashley's moist appendage pressing against her ass, and the stroking was driving her crazy as she was being pleasured from both ends. Ashley would lick circles around the sphincter, lick across back and forth down the crack over it, and would press against it without actually penetrating.

It was then when Ashley had penetrated that Esper had a reaction. Ashley had finally pressed against her asshole with enough force that she had penetrated through. Esper's eyes shot wide open as she felt her ass fill with something wet and hot and she couldn't take it anymore and had unloaded. Cum shot out of her into the air with distance, cumming on Ashley's hand and some of the streams of jizz landing on Ashley's sandy blonde hair, all the while Ashley kept stroking and goading for more to come out, her tongue never moving from where it was.

Esper had calmed down in moments, gasping as she had came harder this time then she had before. Ashley had let go of her and Esper's ass connected with the bed. Ashley had fingered some of the cum off of her hair and had began to lick it off of her talons with absent lust, wrapping it in her tongue. Ashley looked Esper in the eyes as she laid there, and the look in her eyes was something Esper had seen too much that day: More.

Esper had the voices bickering back and forth to each other on and off through the whole ordeal, barely silencing themselves when she tried to rationalize, but Esper's own voice had finally silenced them into shock as she had gripped her green hair in her large green hands and eyes widened manically.

I CAN'T TAKE IT! She screamed in her head.

It was Esper this time who took the lead and had snapped forward and grabbed Ashley by the wrists, surprising Ashley. Esper had slapped her arms around Ashley's back and had an almost frightening grip. Then Esper had rammed herself back into Ashley who had melted into the sex, at this point had become the embodiment of the instinct.

Esper hadn't let up and had just kept slamming herself upward inside of Ashley without remorse, just giving Ashley what she wanted and letting her get closer and closer to her own climax. Esper had gripped onto Ashley's buttocks to get a better grip as she rammed into Ashley's walls, rubbing inside rhythmically, face buried between Ashley's breasts as Ashley leaned her head back and drooled slightly as she looked up in heaven.

Esper then moved her hands to Ashley's hips to help her be able to separate her upper-half to look up at Ashley, still keeping pace and fucking the blaziken with gusto. Ashley's walls were tightening around Esper's cock like a heartbeat that had continually increased, a signal Esper picked up that Ashley was nearing climax.

"Look at me!" Esper growled at the fire-type. "LOOK AT ME, DAMN IT!"

Ashley had absently craned her neck down to face the psychic-type, looking down to Esper and staring into her crimson irises that Ashley had always found pretty. Though, a little thing that was different that had her mildly confused was the blue that was around the edges...

Ashley was nearing another climax, though, so it couldn't have been that important. Though what Ashley didn't realize was that she was suddenly getting very sleepy, very quickly.

Esper could feel her own orgasm approaching, but she was more concerned with keeping her Hypnosis active while at the same time keeping her hips moving and fucking Ashley to keep her from noticing the sleeping spell Esper was placing, afraid Ashley would react badly and keep the fuck-fest up until nightfall.

Ashley could feel her orgasm approaching, but hadn't held back due to drowsiness that took over that had turned into dozing off during sex. Esper kept it up until she reached the peak and had ejaculated into Ashley for the umpteenth time, Ashley's body reaching it's own climax in answer.

It was then followed by Ashley slowly leaning forward toward Esper as Ashley's eyes closed, Esper having to quickly dip to the side to avoid being crushed under Ashley. When Ashley collided with the pillow it was immediately followed by a deep snore, which Esper met with a deep sigh of relief. Esper had fallen backwards onto her butt, her dress falling forward to cover her privates, sitting cross legged on the as relief washed through her.

"And stay down..." Esper had said in small victory. "You monster..."

Esper heard a shifting creak from the opposite bed and her heart jumped into her throat as her head shot up to look at the noise.

Lucas was now sitting up and fully awake, looking toward the bed the two pokemon who had just repeatedly mated were scrambled on, looking uncomfortable with his face red. He had the blanket on the bed wrapped his waist to hide his dignity, scratching the back of his head in a nervous gesture. Esper had went pale, then blushed. They had both done the dirty deed in the same room, with the same person, within almost the same day. The awkward in the air was thick in the room between them.

After a few very uncomfortable moments of silence, Lucas didn't know what else to do but to politely clear his throat.

"Well," He said quietly. "I don't know about you, but I could use a glass of water."

...

The trio had went to a diner after the storm had cleared, which had taken three days. In those three days, Ralts had been staying with Lucas and Ashley and those days were a very well needed reprieve. The back-up generator had kicked in not too long after Ralts next cry session and the heater had finally turned on. After that they had decided to turn in and Ralts wondered if he would need to sleep inside the pokeball, but Lucas had asked if she would be okay sharing a bed with Ashley with which Ralts had absolutely no problems with. That night Lucas had changed into a white t-shirt and sweatpants and fell into the bed awaiting sleep to come to him. Ralts had crawled up onto the second bed (With help from Ashley) and had felt a mattress for the first time and had sunk into it. Sleep came to him almost immediately.

The days after that were pretty regular for Lucas and Ashley with Ralts along for the ride, just sitting around the inn room and getting food when it was time to eat, and though he did get the average pokemon food for them sometimes he would always make sure there was some human food so they at least had something good to taste with it, which Ralts was more than grateful for. He had eaten a hamburger, some pizza, and mostly cup ramen, but even that was like heaven for the Ralts mouth.

After the storm was dying down the downpour became average Lucus had done a quick odd job around the town and had left Ashley and Ralts to themselves. In the time he was gone Ralts had finally confided some of the things his trainer had been doing, his "Training", the rough treatment, and the "Master plan" to have Ralts finally achieve the psychic power within him, and how that failure finally resulted. After hearing this Ashley had brought the tiny ralts into an embrace and just held him there, with Ralts meeting the hug and having another cry. Ashley held him tight and stroked the back of his head gently with her talons.

When Lucas had come back he had a little money left over and had thought it would be nice to play some arcade games so they had went to the local pizzeria which had a few there. They were the classic games, such a yellow head eating white blocks before specters got him, a spaceship shooting asteroids, and one of a plumber going through odd landscapes to get a princess with each castle not actually having her until the last one, though this one was two player with the second player being the plumbers brother.

Ralts had never had that much fun in his life.

When they had went to bed again that night Lucas again had dropped into the bed to sleep, Ashley helping the Ralts onto their bed, but as they went to bed Ashley had reached to the pokemon and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder which made the ralts blush. Ashley simply gave him a smile.

"Things will get better for you." Ashley told him with sincerity. "I promise."

Ashley fell asleep and Ralts just lay there on his side looking at the ralts sleeping face, sometimes looking over her shoulder to see the sleeping human with a content sleeping expression. He still couldn't believe that a trainer like Lucas existed. He didn't just treat them with a mutual respect, but he actually treated them like he would another human. He treated Ashley like she was his best friend, and after seeing how they looked at each other, he did believe this to be so (Though Ashley seemed to have some underlying emotion somewhere in there that Ralts couldn't exactly describe, but it wasn't negative.), and he was treating Ralts the exact same way. Ralts couldn't recall a time he was this happy.

He fell asleep with a small smile on his face.

The days repeated somewhat like this then the storm had cleared, Lucas offering to go out to eat. Ashley was excited to finally get to leave the room again, and Ralts was just happy to ride along with them. He had taken a liking to just hearing them talk. He himself didn't really have much to say, but the combusken and the human definitely had things to talk about in spades, and they didn't seem to mind Ralts hearing their conversation, so he just smiled as he walked with them.

Then they had gotten to the diner spoken of earlier, early in the morning so there was almost no one there, went to the pokemon-and-trainer area of the diner, which was a sectioned off corner of the diner with the same booths as the rest of the restaurant, four of them, but they were signs indicating them to be for this purpose. Booths for regular humans were across from them. They had placed their orders (Lucas speaking for them, and Ashley picking for Ralts.) and they had waited for their order to come, Lucas and Ashley finding a topic to talk about with Ralts sitting next to Lucas closest to the wall of the diner, smiling with content, standing on the seat so his head reached over the table.

Their order arrived and they went quiet to eat. Lucas had gotten the same pancake set-up from a few days ago, Ashley had gotten grilled cheese sandwich with a side of celery sticks, and Ashley had suggested to Ralts to get the bacon cheese burger with a side of fries since he had liked the bacon so much then, and after taking a tentative bite of hamburger, bacon, cheese, and choice of vegetation he chowed down on the thing.

They ate quietly and were almost finished with their food when the bell to the front door jingled, but Ralts paid it no mind and went to what was left of his meal.

"Be right with ya in a moment, hun." The waitress called from the back.

"Tch!" The voice said in annoyance, Ralts freezing mid bite. "At least start me off with some coffee."

Ralts slowly turned his head to the door with a slight tremble to look at the source of the voice.

Standing there, in the same vest as the day they met, his hair still shaved on the sides with the red hair slung over one eye, was Garith, a bicycle helmet in his grasp with his face in its natural annoyed expression Ralts was too used to seeing. He had walked down the same aisle they were in, placing himself across the same booth as them in the regular section of the diner, bike helmet on the table, propping his head in one hand.

Ralts could only turn to stare past Lucas who was leaning forward to eat the last of his meal to look at his previous trainer.

The waitress had came down the aisle to set up a mug with coffee pot in hand.

"Cream and sugar?" She asked pouring into the cup.

"Just black."

"I'll be back with a menu soon."

"Whatever."

The annoyed waitress went back to her work in the back while Gareth had let the mug sit in front of him to cool down.

Ashley had finished her food and had leaned with a satisfied sigh and had looked to see if Ralts had finished his meal then saw that he was still with a petrified look on his face and looked in the same direction as him at the trainer that was sitting across from them. The way Ralts was looking at him gave Ashley a good guess of who it was and she glared in the direction of Garith. Ashley had reached under the table with her foot to nudge Lucas to get his attention, and he looked at her with a raised eyebrow and a nod which Ashley met with her own nod to the trainers direction. Lucas looked at the trainer then back at Ashley with a shrug. Ashley then jerked her head toward Ralts who was still in the petrified stare and that concerned him, then he connected that it was the trainer he was staring at. Lucas had assumed that Ralts struggles and sadness had been trainer related with the way he spoke when they found him, but this had confirmed it for him.

He didn't know the details of the relationship between Ralts and the mentioned trainer (But the way Ashley was glaring at the trainer showed that she knew and that he was a bad guy for her to have looked at him like that) so there wasn't much he could actually say to the trainer or much to go on to dislike him, so all he could think to do was the comfort the Ralts. He turned to the little pokemon and placed a hand on top of his head, the pink disk between his middle and ring finger. Ralts jumped in surprise and jerked his head up to Lucas. He was smiling down at the pokemon comfortingly.

"Don't worry about him." Lucas said quietly to Ralts. "He's not your problem anymore, right?"

Ralts thought about all of the times Garith had demeaned and hurt him throughout the months, all the training that resulted failure and punishment, the gym battle, and when he was released and given the cold shoulder.

Ralts had now been around Lucas and Ashley. He had now been treated with respect, they had been nothing but kind to him since his arrival, they stuck their neck out for him, and overall they acted like real friends. Ralts had never felt so warm inside and out.

Ralts had a bright smile come across his face and a giggle had escaped his lips in delight, and his heart fluttered, and the edges of his eyelids and taken a blue glow for a second.

Three things happened at once at that moment. The pepper shaker's lid flew off of itself and had spilled over on their table. The napkin holder in the booth behind them had all of its napkins shot out and spill all over the immediate tables around them and floor almost like it had exploded from the inside, napkins falling like snowflakes. Garith's coffee mug had jiggled for a moment before it flew toward him and spilled the scalding hot contents all over his crotch.

"OH, FUCK!" Gareth screamed as he jumped out of his and forcefully brush the hot contents out of his pants, but it was already too late. It had seeped into his clothes and the coffee was like lava. "OH SHIT, THAT'S HOT!"

The waitress had hurried over to Garith with a rag and was quickly trying to rag up the coffee in his pants all the while he was screaming in pain.

Ralts heart had sped up and his expression became slack in disbelief of what had just happened. Ashley looked confused. Lucas had seen the blue tint in Ralts eyes after the smile and had put together that it was indeed Ralts who had the psychic flash and must had accidently caused this event to unfold.

"Bail." Lucas muttered to them, scooping up Ralts in his arms, the pokemon not arguing since he was still surprised, and Ashley having to have to "Bail" before from other pokemon related accidents involving Lucas, she simply followed them out. Lucas placed money on their table before he beelined for the door with the pokemon in tow.

When they were outside Lucas had took them behind the building out of view of the front, them passing by the bike racks with only one bike on there. Ashley had lagged behind, looking at the bike and remembering that the trainer had a bike helmet. She put the two together and stayed behind for a moment.

When they were out of sight of the front, the back area near a treeline they could walk through as a shortcut to their room, Lucas stopped and put Ralts on the ground gently and went to one knee to try and stay level with the pokemon.

"Okay, I know that was an accident." Lucas had said to him. "But maybe in would be best if we avoid this restaurant for some time. I'm not sure if they saw there was a psychic-type in there, but I'd rather try to avoid getting in trouble, y'know?"

"I did that...?" Ralts breathed.

"That's right, you had trouble using your powers." Lucas remembered. He gave her a grin. "We can celebrate at the inn. We'll find you a piece of cake or something, right Ashley...?" Lucas turned around expecting to see Ashley behind and saw no one. He turned his head side-to-side. "'The fuck did she go...?"

"Can I...?" Ralts spoke up to get Lucus' attention. Lucas looked at him with a raised eyebrow, waiting patiently for him to finish. Ralts blushed and swallowed before trying to speak again. "C-can I stay with y-you guys?"

Now it was Lucas who looked surprised. "You actually want to come with us?"

Ralts nodded eagerly. "Y-yes! Th-that was the first time I was able to do anything psychic wise!"

Lucas nodded with understanding with a smile. "And you think you'll have better luck being able to use it while you're around us?" Ralts nodded eagerly again. Lucas let out a small laugh while scratching the back of his head. "Well, I don't know if we're exactly the role models for achieving greater power, and I'm nowhere near a psychic expert, but..." Lucas shrugged. "You're more then welcome to join us, but I can't promise it will be the best-"

Before Lucas could finish Ralts had jumped at Lucas, making Lucas squack in surprise as Ralts wrapped his tiny arms around Lucas' neck and dug his face into the human's shoulder.

"Thank you!" Ralts said, ecstatic. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"I have a small condition, though." Lucas said, gently pulling Ralts away to look him in his little red eyes. "But it's nothing big."

Ralts fidgeted nervously. "What's the condition..."

"Well, it's just... I don't go around calling other humans 'Human', you know? If I can, I'd like to give you a nickname. Just something call you besides Ralts. Would you be okay with that?"

Ralts blinked. He knew that humans had different names for each other, but he never actually stopped to consider that he would ever actually get one. He never thought he'd need one, considering psychic-types identified each other by their psychic frequencies, but humans gave pokemon nicknames to sometimes make it easier to themselves. It didn't bother Ralts any, so he smiled and nodded enthusiastically. "Okay! What will I be called?"

Lucas gave an embarrassed smile. "I actually have had one in mind for a bit. You know, if you stayed with us for while before we dropped you off, but since you want to come with us, I guess I'm lucky. I thought that 'Esper' would be a good fit."

Ralts tilted his head to the side. "What's an 'Esper'?"

"It just means someone with psychic abilities, and I thought it sounded cool. If you don't like it, you or I can think of something else."

Ralts shook his head with a bright smile. "No, I like it!"

Lucas put Esper down and held his hand for the pokemon. "Hello, Esper. I'm Lucas."

Esper smiled again and placed his tiny hand inside of Lucus' hand, and he shook them. Esper let out another delighted giggle. His eyes tinted blue again.

A random tree branch had snapped off and had fallen a few feet from them with a loud thud. They looked at the branch and back at each other. Lucas shrugged. "We'll work on it."

Ashley came back momentarily. Lucas stood up, picking up Esper and holding him against his chest to save the little pokemon from having to walk. Lucas informed Ashley of their new party member and she was more than happy to have him on board with them. She happily welcomed him and Esper blushed in response. They walked through the woods back to their room.

"By the way." Lucas asked. "Where did you go?"

"Oh," Ashley replied with a wave of her hand. "I just wanted to take a look at something."

Ashley hoped that Lucas would keep looking forward and not look back at the small smoke cloud coming from a certain bike on a certain rack.

...

Next chapter will come out when it does. Sorry for the delay, and I apologize for the next delay in advance.

Also, if I have any trans and/or non-binary readers out there reading this, I'd like to apologize if I have made any kind of offense to you with how I present Esper in this story with the confliction in her gender in this chapter and how I will probably go in depth in the next one. I'm not gonna lie and say that I am an expert on this stuff or say that I have full belief in it and make an ass out of myself, but I will say that when it come down to it as long as whoever I'm talking to gives me mutual respect I will respect them right back, regardless of race or gender, or lack thereof for the later. Esper is obviously placed as a fetish, but even in my smut I like to give characters to have their own story and worked with what I thought felt and sounded right in regards to Esper's emotional struggle with identity and contentment, but I would to say again I am not an expert in this regard, just a birds eye view of what I come across on the internet and RL. I'm just trying to make sure Esper is represented right as a character. And out of fear for going more in depth and stepping on someone's toes, I'll stop the rant right here.

Good morning, good evening, and goodnight.

-Turtyrus