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"I've never seen that Pokémon before," Annie commented as she watched the Riolu introduce herself to her Audino.

"Me neither," said Brett, carefully watching the Fighting-type as she sat down cross-legged in front of a bowl of Pokémon food and sampled a piece. "What the heck is it?"

"Jesus Brett, think before you talk," Jack sighed, shaking his head. "It's a Riolu, obviously."

"Rio-what-now?" asked Brett, a mouthful of food, which resulted in him being cuffed in the back of the head by an annoyed Annie.

"Riolu," said a quiet voice from behind Annie. "The Emanation Pokémon and the pre-evolved form of Lucario, it has the peculiar power of being able to see emotions such as joy, and anger, in waves. It uses these waves, or Aura, to communicate with others."

Juliet, Jack, Brett and Annie all turned to stare at the tiny girl that had finally come out of hiding. "Yeah, that's… pretty much it exactly," Juliet said, instinctively reaching for her PokéDex. Everything that Claire had just said was word for word on the screen. "How did she know all that?" the blonde trainer asked, looking to Lottie. Charlotte had yet to really show her ability to read Aura, but Juliet's mother had always told her that it would come later.

"She reads a lot," Jack said with a shrug. "And she has a photographic memory."

"That's incredible," said Juliet.

"No, it's annoying," Brett grumbled, taking an angry bite of his sandwich.

"Brett just doesn't like being proven wrong by a seven year-old," Jack laughed, and then promptly yelled in pain as presumably Brett had kicked him from under the table.

To say that Miharu's sleep had been troubled was an understatement, as the girl woke numerous times during the night, drenched in a cold sweat and quite literally shaking with fright. It was about four in the morning when she woke last, biting back her screams of terror as she did not want to disturb anyone. It was also about this time when she realized that a small, fuzzy Pokemon had invited itself into her room, and not long after had jumped up onto her bed. Miharu could only just make out the creature's features in the pale moonlight; long, roundish ears, a long, fluffy tail, soft, white (or light grey, perhaps?) fur. It showed no hesitation or fear as it crept right up to her, pausing for only a second before it made itself at home in her arms, giving a small cry of "cheeno" as it did so. Miharu felt calmer almost instantly and she allowed herself to lie back against the pillow, suddenly feeling very sleepy as she snuggled against the soft, fluffy Pokemon.

The next time the girl opened her eyes, it was light outside, and she looked around for her fuzzy, grey savior as she sat up and stretched. She had slept more than she had the night before and she felt quite rested. Her head no longer ached, and after inspecting her wound in the mirror, she was almost pleased to see that it wasn't as large or bad as she initially believed it to be, though it would leave quite a scar. She was also able to cover it with a much smaller bandage now as well, and she could now hear the sounds of life within the Juniper residence. Miharu dressed and quickly combed the tangles out of her hair, deciding to opt out of wearing her beret for now as she was indoors and wanted to be polite.

Miharu strained her ears to listen for voices as she slowly crept downstairs, the delicious smells of breakfast foods already assailing her senses. She could hear Professor Juniper's voice quite clearly, but there were a few others she didn't recognize, which made her apprehensive to go any further, despite how fiercely her stomach was now rumbling. She hadn't eaten a whole lot over the past few days, which was fairly understandable, but even her pangs of hunger were having difficulty winning out over the crippling anxiety she felt at the thought of being faced with new people. The girl sat herself down on the first landing between floors, hugging her knees to her chest. She hated feeling this way, as she'd never had to struggle with such levels of fear and worry before. She was quiet and reserved and often avoided confrontation if she could help it, yes, but she wasn't usually so dreadfully shy or timid. The girl put her head down on her knees, hating herself for feeling so weak and useless.

The moment that his opponent called for a Brick Break Norman know it would be over if that attack made contact. His pokemon was in no shape to take a hit, the poor thing was already hurt pretty badly and they had yet to land a single substantial hit on the Kangaskhan. "Lucky dodge it the best you can!" Norman called out, even though he was worried his pokemon might get knocked out his voice came out cool and commanding, it always gave his pokemon confidence to know their trainer was confident in themselves and their calls. The normal type gym leader watched and hoped that the land snake pokemon wasn't confused enough to not listen to him.

The result was somewhat of a hit or miss for Norman. On the plus side Lucky launched himself into the air, tiny wings beating furiously. On the down side though as soon as the Kangaskhan fell asleep Lucky seemed to get into it's tiny confused mind that falling was cool, and dive bombed face first into the ground. In the end Norman figured he came out on top of this little exchange. It also looked like that last smack seemed to knock the Dunsparce out of it's confusion as sanity returned to it's eyes. "Well, good work Dun-erm-Lucky." Norman called out, he wasn't quite used to this whole nickname thing. "How about we try for a Roost now that the Kangaskhan is having a nice little nap." Norman called out.

On the sidelines Dante was caught between wincing and laughing. Every trainer hated dealing with confusion, or sleep, or really any status effect. It was funny though to watch the Dunsparce hit itself in the face multiple times though. In the end though Dante ended up chuckling in amusement as the gym leader called for a move Keegan had used not even a half an hour ago himself. The irony was delicious.

The Memory Experiment

Rajasi and Claire’s fight against coordinators Mina and Jonathan was quickly coming to a close. Kokoro’s Extrasensory was the proverbial straw-that-broke-the-Numel’s-back sending Mina’s Pansage into a nice quiet slumber. Speaking of slumber, Rajasi’s Marshtomp as also still fast asleep. Mina let out an exasperated sigh as she recalled her fallen comrade. “Looks like we’ve still got a ways to go when it comes to battling.”

“I’ll leave the rest to you.” Rajasi said tersely as he recalled his sleeping Pokemon. He was over this place and just wanted to get on with his mission. Getting the research data from the Memory Institute was taking far too long in his opinion. He had no idea why the upper brass allowed Moti to lead the mission. Sure the guy was a good enough trainer, but he let everyone take their sweet time in getting things done. Not to mention, weird stuff just seemed to happen around the guy. Like the strange singing Pokemon they had encountered before their battle.

”Looks like it’s just me and you Jon!” Claire said. “But soon it’ll just be me, Extrasensory one more time!” The messy-blonde haired girl ordered. Her Quilava snarled in agreement as she began to glow the familiar golden hue. In a matter of moments Pansear was also glowing and soon was sent flying into the air to land harshly on his rear end. Unable to get up, Jonathan conceded defeat.

“Man, you guys are just too much for us.” The dark-brown haired man said with a laugh. “Guess we’ll have to stick to contests if we ever want to see any results. Thanks for the rematch though, it was a good time.” The two smiled and with a wave they were on their way once again.

”Good job Kokoro.” Claire said as she returned the volcano pokemon back to it’s ball. Absentmindedly she felt for her neck once again only to realize that what she was feeling for was gone. She frowned, why did she keep doing that anyway? Was it something that she did before she got amnesia on a mission? Rajasi was probably right, they should hurry to this Memory Institute--she felt a bit of a headache coming on, although that could just be because Moti had stumbled out of the bushes, carrying a pink, black, and tan colored pokemon egg.

The next day was far quieter than the last. No warring pokemon barred his way, so he simply ate breakfast and fed his team before setting off down the road at a light jog. Some time needed to be made up and it would help him be prepared for any unforeseen circumstances such as more wild pokemon or trainers. He was hoping for trainers to battle with so they could train more effectively.

He'd soon get his wish for just outside of Viridian city was a couple. Two picnickers had just set up for a meal, but wanted to work up an appetite. Upon seeing the red head the male approached. "Hey, the names Jack. We were wondering if you wanted to have a double battle with us if you were a trainer and had the time."

Grinning Kressen nodded happily. "Of course. I've been looking for someone to battle with!" He drew out Gigas and Mateus and tossed their pokeballs down to show he was ready. The Butterfree and Charmander looked raring to go. "Excellent!" Said Jack who called Jill over. Jack sent out a Sandshrew while Jill sent out Meowth. This would be his first Double battle, so it was bound to be interesting.

"Sandshrew use poison sting." Shouted Jack. "Meowth use scratch!" Shouted Jill in perfect unison with her boy friend. The two liked to be aggressive and keep their opponent on their toes. Kressen was just as aggressive though and had the advantage of having pokemon with superior ranged attacks. "Gigas use ember on Meowth, Mateus confusion on that poison sting!"

Gigas fired his ember off at the cat pokemon causing it to dodge out of the way. However, Matues used confusion to take control of the poison sting and sent it flying into the Meowth bowling it over. It stood up shakily on its feet looking rather green. "Ah hah! Good job, we've got the advantage now guys!"

Certainly, Leon could continue to use Licks and Night Shades and whittle away the Machop's health very, very slowly, but that was a stupid and boring idea, so Leon opted for the move he had intelligently bought for his Pokémon instead.

"Giga Drain." Though it seemed a little silly to use a health-absorbing attack whilst his Pokémon was still at full strength, that attack also happened to be the strongest move Ghos had right now. Sucker Punch was a very nice addition to his movepool, but Machop was a pure fighting type, and therefore strong against Dark-type attacks. Leon was less than pleased with this fact, but he had known all of this when he'd decided to send his Gastly up against it. They would manage.


After a short phone call with her father, Bonnie headed back out of the Pokémon Center. He was sending her a new PokéNav ASAP. For now, though, she bought a cheap phone in case anyone (hopefully not her partner) needed to contact her.

Transferring everything over was simple enough, and soon the young woman was all set. As much as she loathed the idea, it seemed that her next course of action should be to head towards Clyde and finally rejoin her partner. The thought could have made her vomit.

Bonnie idled for a minute, and when she looked up, a younger girl with shorter brown hair was exiting the Pokémon Center. She looked familiar, and a second later Bonnie realized why; she'd seen the girl entering the gym the day before. She seemed in pretty good spirits, so there was a decent chance she'd won. As far as Bonnie knew, Surge was a very noteworthy gym leader, striking down many opponents--and brutally. That meant that the girl likely had some strong Pokémon on her team.

Perhaps it was time to do some work, after all (though she would have jumped at anything to stall meeting up with Clyde).