Chapter 15

"Your home is beautiful Zea," May said, once Zea and Robert had joined the group in the living room.

"And you're saying that after only seeing the living room?" Zea teasingly asked, raising an eyebrow in May's direction. May sweatdropped and laughed nervously. Everyone chuckled and giggled.

"I'm only kidding May." Zea smiled in her direction.

Zea walked over to a voice box on a nearby wall, pressed a button and spoke into it.

"Mom I'm home," she said. Since the house was so big, there was no telling where anyone was unless you knew where they were exactly.

About a second or so after Zea spoke into the voice box, a loud crash was heard followed by a shout of disappointment.

"What was that?" Gemma asked on behalf of everyone.

"Sorry mom," Zea said into the voice box again.

"My mom was probably working on something in the lab and I must've startled her." Zea explained. "She probably lost track of time and didn't realize I would be home by now."

"You guys want anything to drink?" she asked the group. They all nodded.

"Divia!" Zea shouted. About a minute after she called out, a green and white human like pokémon stood behind her. The group gasped in surprise when the pokémon appeared.

"Gar deviour. (Yes my young mistress.)" Divia replied. Zea jumped slightly and turned to face the psychic pokémon.

"Divia, these are my new friends," Zea said to the pokémon, introducing her to her friends and vise versa. "They'd like some drinks, would you mind attending to them while I go up to my room?" she asked the pokémon, who nodded in reply.

Zea turned to her friends. "Just ask Divia what you would like and she'll get it for you. Make yourselves at home. I'll be right back," she said as she walked down a hall going further into the house. About a minute after, she returned.

"Oh, May could you come with me please?" Zea asked.

"Um, sure," May replied. Eevee hopped onto her shoulder as she got up. When May reached Zea, Eve and Eevee hoped off their trainers' shoulder and ran up ahead down the hall, and up a flight of stairs and down another hall, with Eve leading the way of course.

The two teens walked in silence towards Zea's room, May's eyes wondered around the hall observing each door and pokémon artworks on the wall of either sides of the hall. She looked forward again and was about to ask Zea something when she noticed the Eevee sitting in front of a door waiting patiently. Zea stopped at that door and opened it up and walked in, as did the Eevee and they immediately jumped onto one of the beds in the room, as Zea placed her backpack on the other. May stood in the doorway, scanning the room from where she stood.

"Nothing's going to attack you May," Zea laughed from in the room, snapping May from her thoughts. She had spaced out again. Shaking her head to focus again, she walked in.

"This is your room?" May asked in awe, as she observed the room. It was quite big. Artworks of Eevee and its evolutions hang on the walls. She assumed they were of Eve and the rest of the team. In one corner of the room was a work table with a laptop in the middle and many art materials placed neatly in the corner of the table which rested on the wall. In the opposite corner was a walk-in closet, which could might as well be another room. Back in the main part of the room, were two beds; one on either sides of the room, a queen size and a double. May was slightly confused as to why. Zea picked up on her confusion and answered her wordless question.

"One's for my pokémon. I let them sleep out of their pokéball so I got the double bed put in here for them." Zea explained as she went over and sat on the queen sized bed. May walked over and sat on the bed as well. Eve and Eevee were jumping on the other bed like it was some kind of trampoline. The girls giggled at the two.

"I haven't seen Eevee this happy in a long time," May said in almost a whisper.

"What do you mean?" Zea asked. She had heard May even if it was said softly. May looked down at her feet, her eyebrows creased and her eyes showed a lot of pain. Silence fell between the two for a long moment.

"May…" Zea said, resting a hand on the girl's shoulder, causing her to slowly look up to her. "Now would be a good time to tell me what's bothering you. I could help,"

May sighed heavily and was about to reply when Divia appeared in front of the two, startling them.

"Thanks Divia," Ash thanked the pokémon when she gave him his drink. Everyone else had already received theirs.

"Divia?" Lucifer asked the human like psychic pokémon, who looked in his direction when her name was called. "Could we get something for our pokémon?"

Divia closed her eyes in thought. She opened them again and said a quick 'Deviour' and disappeared, causing everyone in the room to gasp in surprise.

"Well that was just rude," Vanessa said with a scowl.

"All he asked for was something for the pokémon to eat." Robert said in agreement with Vanessa.

"Eevee vee vee," Vee said to Lucifer.

"Hmm? Oh that's why," Lucifer said in understanding.

"Huh? That's why, what Lucifer?" Ash asked.

"Vee said Divia went to ask Zea's permission," Lucifer informed them. "I guess since she didn't tell her about the pokémon she went to find out."

"Pika pika," Pikachu nodded to Ash in confirmation.

Ash smiled and nodded as he drank his drink and gently rubbed the egg which was resting on his laps with his other hand.

Not long after, the group heard the voice of someone talking, coming from the hallway and looked to its direction. The voice got louder little by little as a sign that someone was coming their way, but the voice was unfamiliar to them. When the person reached the living room, they stopped at the sight of the teens, a Lucario stopping along side said person.

"Divia! I've told you not to do that," Zea exclaimed, she and May having a hand to their chest as they evened out their breathing.

Divia apologized and gave both of them a drink which she had brought for them. They took the drinks thanking the pokémon. Divia also asked Zea what she wanted to ask as it was mainly the reason for her surprise appearance. Zea told her it was ok as well as what to give the pokémon. Divia nodded and soon disappeared.

Once she was gone, May continued from where she left off, or was about to start. Zea felt sorry for her throughout her explanation and told May her story about how she had become, what most have said, 'unbeatable'. May gasped through most of Zea's story and made her realized that Zea had been through what she has, if not worse. She felt even sorrier for Zea than herself.

The two Eevee were still playing with each other, running around the room and jumping on the beds. They were having so much fun that they paid no heed to their trainers. Especially Eve, who wanted to know what was going on with her new friend and trainer, failed to realize that was her chance to find out.

The trainers watched their pokémon play as they were closing up their conversation.

"So you see May, that's why I try to help trainers like you; so they don't have to go through what my pokémon and I have been through." Zea sadly explained. "It's a past I wish to forget but can't, because every school I go to or have been to, have had at least one person who was going through something close to what I've been through." She finished.

"I see," May replied sadly, "So is that why your mood changed all of a sudden when Paul attempted to have that Honchkrow grab Eve from your shoulder?" she asked.

Zea nodded. She closed her eyes and gave a heavy sigh, then opened them again. "I was… scared." She admitted. "And when I'm scared for the wellbeing of my pokémon, I put on a serious expression to hide the fear as well as warning others to not to mess around with me. I am very overprotective of Eve and so are the rest of my pokémon. Called us paranoid, but we refuse to have her out of our sight. She can take care of herself, I know, but the fear of what happened to her to happen again has never left me."

"If that's the case then that means you never send her out to battle, even if she really is strong," May guessed.

"Well… yes and no," Zea replied, earning a confused look from May. "Yes meaning I do send her out to battle; no meaning I never send her to battle alone."

"Double battles." May stated and Zea nodded. There was silence between the two trainers for about two minutes until May broke the silence.

"I really need your help Zea." May admitted. "I don't want what happened to Eve, to happen to Eevee."

Zea smiled. A real genuine smile. Like everything they had told each other was completely forgotten. May couldn't help but give a small laugh.

"Glad to hear it May!" Zea happily exclaimed, getting up from the bed and standing on the spot next to it. May was surprised at how her mood changed so quickly, but figured she'd get use to it eventually. "Now, let's have some fun!" grabbing May's hand to get her to stand as the two made their way out of the room, the Eevee following close behind.

"Oh. I didn't know we were having guests." The person who had come out of the hallway said.

"You all must be Zea's new friends," they said when they saw Gary. "I'm Zea's mom." She introduced herself. Everyone greeted her back and also introduced themselves. When they were done, Zea's mother made her way to the kitchen, the Lucario following close behind. Divia had returned while introductions were being made and brought a big bowl of pokémon food for the pokémon, which they happily devoured, and sat together in the middle of the living to chat with each other.

"That's strange," Lucifer thought out loud.

"What's strange?" Richie asked as everyone looked to him curiously.

"Lucario usually put up a fighting stance when they see someone they don't know in their territory. But that Lucario didn't budge or show any signs of being ready for a fight," Lucifer explained, as he pondered on this.

"He's right. I was thinking the same thing," Robert agreed.

"That's because Lucy doesn't like to fight, or start it anyway," they all heard a familiar voice reply. They all turned to the hallway and saw May and Zea approaching. They stopped and stood behind the long couch which was occupied by Lucifer, Ash, Gemma and Vanessa. The double couch was occupied by Gary and Robert, and Richie occupied the single couch. Everyone looked at her questionably.

"You were talking about the Lucario that is with my mom right?" Zea asked knowingly. Lucifer nodded.

"But how'd you know that was the Lucario I was referring to? Because I'm guessing there isn't just one Lucario in this house," he asked.

Zea smiled and giggled. "Once I heard 'Lucario' and 'no signs of being ready to fight' I knew who you were referring to. And you're right; we don't have just one Lucario in this house."

"She's in a happy mood again," Lucifer thought happily. Though he was surprised to see how quickly her moods were changing.

May went over to have a seat between Gary and Robert, since the two were sitting at the ends of the couch and the long one was fully occupied. Eve and Eevee joined the pokémon on the floor. Zea went over to the kitchen and greeted her mother and Lucy, and Zea and her mother got into a quick conversation. When they were done, they both left the kitchen and entered the living room. Zea went over to her friends and her mother went back down the hallway, after she and May were introduce to each other, to continue her work. Lucy followed close behind.

Zea went into the living room and stood in front of the wide screen TV attached to the wall and turned to face her friends. She explained to them what she needed help with and they happily agreed.

3:15pm, Pallet Hospital, room 218

"Hey Heri! How ya feeling bud?" Jake asked his friend, who was lying on a hospital bed.

"Hey! Spud! I'm doing great. Nothing too serious. Just need to lay off the boarding for a while," Heri happily replied to his friend. "I'm gonna be let out later this evening."

"Awesome! Dude, you missed an awesome day of school today!" Jake exclaimed

"Dude… when is school ever awesome," Heri replied in a bored tone.

"This is why!" Jake exclaimed again, pushing the pictures in front of Heri's face.

Heri took the pictures from his friend and looked at them. His eyes widened in surprise.

"Is that… who I think it is?"

Jake nodded with a big smile on his face.

"Dude! I... I-I-I- I don't believe it! At our school!"

"Believe it bud." Jake told his friend

"Riolu buddy; you gotta see this!" Heri said, looking down at his pokémon who was on the floor talking to Staraptor.

Riolu obeyed and jumped onto the bed and sat next to his trainer. Heri showed his pokémon the pictures and his eyes widen as well in surprise. He began jumping up and down on the bed while clapping his paws together. The two boys chuckled at the pokémon's actions.

"Riolu's a big fan." Heri told Jake.

"So I see," Jake replied.

The two friends continued talking and Jake decided to stay and keep his friend company until he was ready to leave the hospital.

(3:30 pm. Max, Laura, Kento and Andrea)

"Hey Max," Laura called to her friend as the group walked down the road to their homes.

"Hmm?" Max responded looking to her.

"I realized that you and your sister didn't say a word to each other. Why?" she asked out of curiosity.

"Yea Max. Not even a 'hello'. You were both silent like you didn't even know each other," Kento added in agreement.

Their pokémon walked ahead of them. Poochyena, Electrike and Magma walked along side each other while Pichu rode on Magma's back.

"We did greet each other," Max replied with a weak smile.

"Uh, no you didn't." Andrea stated the obvious.

"I think they might have done the silent greeting," Kento proposed. Max nodded in confirmation.

Andrea was about to ask something when the four young teen bumped into their pokémon. Well, more into Magma since he was the biggest of the four pokémon, who had stopped in their tracks and where staring straight ahead. Since the teens were focused on their conversation with each other, they were unaware of what was going on in front of their path. They asked their pokémon what was wrong, but they just continued to stare straight ahead and soon, Magma and Poochyena began to growl threateningly. Electrike crouched back slightly as she whimpered in fright and Pichu positioned herself to stand on Magma's head presuming a fighting pose as sparks flew from her cheek sacks.

The teens looked up, down the path their pokémon were looking and gasped. There, a few feet ahead, stood four older teens and their pokémon. The one in front of the group had a serious look on his face and the other three behind him had sinister grins on their face, their pokémon also having the same expressions as their respective trainers. The older teens began to advance towards the younger group as they backed away with each step the older ones took towards them. Electrike had scurried up into her trainers arms while the other pokémon backed away as well, still keeping their threatening demeanor.

The boy, who was in the front and was most likely the leader, of the group of older teens, seemed to be getting annoyed as his face began to scrunch up a little. He and his group stopped walking, causing the younger ones to stop as well. He snapped his fingers and two of the teens behind him rushed over to younger ones, before they had a chance to react, and stood behind them, stopping them from escaping. The escape route they had was either to jump the fence of the house they stood in front of, or the road; and neither were good options. They respected others property and definitely valued their life, so the road was a no-no.

The leader of the group of older teens walked up to the younger ones, his face serious. He had green hair and green eyes, and wore mostly purple. His pokémon, a Rosarade, stood proudly beside him.

"Hello pipsqueak." He said once he was directly in front of the group. He grabbed Max by the front of his shirt and lifted him to his level. Poochyena was about to attack to help his trainer, but was held back by Rosarade who had pointed his right rose hand at him with a threatening purplish glow. Poochyena knew immediately that it was a poison attack and stepped back but kept his ground as he continue to glare and growl. Their friends tried to help but were also held back by the other older teens and their pokémon.

"I haven't seen my 'pet' for the entire day. You wouldn't happen to know where she is now, would you?" he asked in a calm tone which had a threatening venom in it.

"N-n-no," Max stuttered nervously.

(Misty's place, 3:40 pm)

"Misty, are you sure you want to use that stuff on your Gyarados? You don't even know if it'll work," Zoey told her friend.

The three friends were in the back yard where there was a huge pool, big enough to hold numerous water pokémon. It was built for that particular reason though, since Misty's family were water pokémon trainers. After she received her Gyarados back from Nurse Joy and got home, she had released it into the pool so it could finish recover.

Misty looked at the bottle of aqua colored liquid in her hand and looked to her Gyarados swimming happily in the pool. She was having a lot of doubt about what the concoction could do to her pokémon; whether it would make it better, or worse.

"I think you should give it a try Misty," Dawn told her friend.

"What?" Misty asked.

"You said it yourself. Although you may despise her, you don't think she would do anything to harm another person's pokémon." Dawn replied, recalling what her friend had said after her battle.

Misty did a 'hmm' in thought and walked closer up to the pool and called her Gyarados, while her friends and their pokémon watched. When her pokémon came over to her, it looked like it was still a little weak and in pain. She gave him the vial which seemed to be delicious since he looked happy when he drank it. Misty, Dawn and Zoey then watched and waited to see what would happen.

After about a minute or so of waiting, Gyarados flinched and gave soft roar. The three friends and their pokémon gasped.

"It's causing him more pain. I told you not to give it to him!" Zoey exclaimed while looking to Misty.

"No wait! Look!" Dawn exclaimed. The other two looked back at the pokémon to see it smiling at them. It gave a happy roar and dove into the water. It came up and dove in again every couple of seconds and finally swam back up to its trainer.

"Gyarados! How do you feel?" Misty asked her pokémon, as she placed a hand on its head with a smile on her face. Gyarados roared and nodded happily. It went back and continued swimming happily in the pool.

"So it really did make your pokémon feel better. I guess the newbie's not so bad after all," Zoey stated.

"She never was. She's just the enemy when it comes to being around the popular guys. Especially having the loner hang around my Ash." Misty said, while watching her pokémon swim around. She then turned to face her friends. "I know May has feelings for Ash, so she's bound to get to him through the newbie. And I can't let that happen." She said with a determined tone.

"Um Misty, that's… not entirely on the newbie." Dawn spoke up, "Turns out May's gonna be spending a lot of time with Ash."

"And why's that." Misty narrowed her eyes at her friend.

"Remember in breeding class Mr. Bornew said that Ms. Summers class would be getting their eggs this week, and that the students will be put in pairs to take care of them?" Dawn asked, and Misty nodded. "Turns out, May got paired with Ash to take care of one,"

"What!" Misty screamed, causing Dawn and her pokémon to flinch. Misty began to pace left and right while repeating 'this can't be happening' over and over again in a frantic manner.

"I'm sorry Misty, but there's nothing we can do about it." Dawn told her.

Misty knew that she couldn't do anything about it since it was a school assignment. She just needed to find a way to prevent Ash from falling for May. But unbeknownst to her, he had fallen a long time ago.

(Zea's place, 5:00 p.m.)

"Uuugh. I'm exhausted!" Ash groaned as he sat slouched on the couch.

"I've never done so much work in my life," Gemma added as she sat on the floor, her back resting on the couch.

Everyone and their pokémon groaned in agreement. Zea stood behind the long couch with her arms folded and a grin on her face, as she looked to her exhausted friends who were scattered about the living room. Eve sat on the head of the couch next to her trainer as she too watched the teens and their pokémon in the living room.

"And you do this everyday Zea?" Lucifer asked.

Zea shrugged and replied. "Yup, pretty much." Everyone groaned again and Zea and Eve giggled at them.

"Well, I'm going to go check up on the eggs. Ash, Gary, want me to bring yours back for you?" she informed and asked them.

"Nah, we'll take them when we get back." Gary replied from where he lay. Ash just groaned in agreement. Zea nodded and left the room, Eve following close behind.

15 minutes later, she returned and saw that everyone was conversing with each other.

"I see you've all revived." Zea said as she approached them.

"Yea. We just needed a rest to restore our energy." Robert replied.

"I figured that much." Zea beamed. "So… you guys ready to show me around?" she asked.

"Yea we are!" Gemma exclaimed as she and the other two girls jumped to their feet. Zea sweatdropped as did the boys. She had a feeling she knew why the three girls were so excited.

The four made it to the door, with Gemma pulling Zea against her will. May was the first to the door, and when she opened it, she, Vanessa and Gemma screamed and fell to the floor. This had caused Gemma to let go of Zea.

The boys and the pokémon ran up to the girls worriedly to find out what had happened; some more worried than others.

"What happened?" Ash asked the moment they were at the girls' side. Their faces were pale, almost white. May nervously raised her hand and pointed to the space at the top of the doorway. The boys looked up and jumped back slightly in surprise.

Two pokémon were looking over at the group, upside down from above the doorway on the outside. A big grin plastered on both their faces. Zea put a hand to her face and groaned in annoyance. Eve narrowed her eyes as she looked to the pokémon, also annoyed at them.

They were two of Zea's mom's pokémon. Adonus and Slyde, an Ariados and a Sableye; and the pranksters of her mom's pokémon. She scolded the two and had them apologize to her friends for scaring them. The two apologized but snickered when they went away. Once that was done, the group finally left Zea's house to show her around Pallet.

(Max and friends, 3:45 pm)

"You expect me to believe that pipsqueak." The teen said. "My boys-"

"Eh hem," one cleared their thought to get his attention.

"-and girl, told me they saw you leave with her after school. So if you don't want me to break our deal, you'll tell me where she is!" the green haired teen demanded threateningly.

Max whimpered. "Ok, ok. She's with the new girl, at her place." He hurriedly replied.

"And where might that be?" he asked lowering and loosening his grip a little in the young teen.

"T-the house between Ash and Gary's house,"

The green haired teen finally lowered Max back on the ground. He patted Max's shirt to flatten it a bit to make like nothing happened.

"See. Now that wasn't so hard now was it?" the teen asked, as he ruffled Max's hair as he walked pass him, going in the directions the young teen had just come from. The rest of the older teen's group left the rest of the young teens alone and followed him.

"Roserade rade (You got lucky this time,)" Roserade snickered at Poochyena before following after his trainer. Poochyena simply growled in response as he watched the pokémon and his trainer walk away.

When they were out of sight, Laura, Kento, Andrea and their pokémon ran over to Max and Poochyena to see if they were ok.

"Max, are you alright?" Laura asked.

"Yea. I'm fine Laura." Max replied, a bit shaken.

"Why do you let Drew pick on you like that? You should stand up for yourself Max." Kento said, Andrea nodding in agreement.

"I did that once and it left Poochyena out of action for at least a month." Max replied sadly.

"But you've gotten stronger, why don't you try again?" Andrea suggested.

"You forget that Drew's one of the most popular guys in school and one of the best battlers. No way could I beat him. And my sister's suffering from trying to defend me against him. I told you guys about the deal we made with him."

"Yea, yea. 'Unless you or your sister get the nerve and strength to beat him, she has to be his girlfriend and do whatever he wants and he'll leave you alone. She has to spend all her daily free time with him or else'." Andrea quoted, remembering what Max had told them. "But Max-"

"Although Poochyena has gotten stronger, we haven't been able to do any proper training because May's not around. She's the one I always trained with, when she get home, she's too tired and weak to do any with me." Max said interrupting her.

"Don't your parents know about this?" Kento asked.

"Oh, they know about Drew. Actually they've already met him. But after the way he behaved around them, they'd never believe us if we told them what he does to us." Max stated.

"Hmm, Max, I think I know a way that you and May could get out of this," Andrea said, as the four of them huddled up in a small circle and she began explaining.

(Drew and his gang)

"So, she's still with the newbie huh. Well, today's her only day, because after the way I saw her battle today, it's only a matter of time until she regains enough confidence to re-challenge me. And I can't have that now, can I?" Drew said, the others agreeing with him.

(Main group, somewhere in Pallet 7:15 pm)

"Wow. For a little town, Pallet sure is amazing. What I like best though is what I heard throughout the entire tour," Zea said. The others looked to her confused. Zea closed her eyes and breathed softly. "Peace, quiet, tranquility."

"Yea it is pretty quiet and peaceful here," Ash confirmed her theory.

"Now that we've shown you the whole town Zea, the girls and I would like to show you our most favorite place," Vanessa exclaimed happily.

"Um…" Zea smiled nervously and sweatdropped. "Why don't we do it tomorrow?"

Of course her protest fell on deaf ears as she was pulled and pushed against her will by the three girls. Although the boys knew where the girls were heading, they followed anyway.

(5 mins later)

"Please don't tell me," Zea grumbled under her breathe.

"THE MALL!" May, Gemma and Vanessa screamed out together from the front of the mall.

"Knew it," Zea mumbled. The boys stood a good distance from the girls, hoping that in there shopping phase that they'd forget about them.

"Why did we follow them anyway? We knew they were coming here." Ash said.

"Well, we all agreed to show Zea around town, our eggs are over at Zea's place, and they're our partners in assignment so we need to figure out whose gonna be taking care of the eggs first." Lucifer pointed out.

"Point taken," Gary stated.

Zea was once again dragged into the mall against her will, Eve doing her best not to fall off from the sudden yanks.

"Zea doesn't seem to be enjoying this," Lucifer realized.

"Huh. And I thought all girls liked shopping," Richie said. "Looks like you got a unique one on your hands Lucifer," he whispered to Lucifer, caused the teen to blush, but he quickly shook it off before the others noticed.

After about an hour… or two of window shopping; yes the girls went window shopping since they didn't really plan on going to the mall, they began to make their way back to Zea's place. It was going up to about 9:00pm and the sun was almost done setting. The boys were gentlemen and offered to take care of the eggs first at which the girls were very grateful and appreciative. Ash and Gary brought their eggs home since they were living on either side of Zea's house and offered to drop their partner home.

Ash and Pikachu went to drop May and Eevee off at their place and made sure they got home safely. Gary and Umbreon did the same for Gemma and Flareon. Richie and Vanessa, being cousins, walked home together along with their pokémon. Lucifer and Robert went along with them since they were heading in the same direction. However, along the way Vee kept glaring at Star. Star noticed this and smiled at him in returned. This caused Vee to let out an almost inaudible throaty growl. Almost inaudible, because his trainer was the only one who heard it.

UPDATED: 16/09/10

Ok. I think this one is the longest chapter so far. I deeply apologize for taking so long to update. Like I said last time, I've been doing a lot of artwork. I also recently moved from my homeland and I don't exactly have much alone time. Again, I'm sorry for taking so long.

I believe I have shown everyone who is appearing in the story in this chapter, even if it was just for a little while. I will do my best to continue my stories, because I really want to get them done myself. Um… yea I think that's it.

Please review. If there are any errors whatsoever, I apologized because I tend to type fast and have a lot of typos. So yea. Until next time.