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Sam let Devlin down. "Okay Dev, ready for your first battle? Use Peck!" Sam wanted to save Devlin's special move as her ace in the hole. The girl let her Aipom down.

"Aiden, use the ship to your advantage! Swing out of the way!" Aiden nodded, and wrapped his tail around a bar. He swung with increasing momentum, as Devlin lept forward, and missed. He hit the bar with his beak, and fell back. He hovered, and watched the Aipom swing around in circles, his prehensile tail allowing full movement. As he swung faster, Devlin backed away, unsure of what to do. "Good, Aiden, now let go!" Aiden let go at the peak of his swing and flew to the top of the ferry. He was aiming to land on the roof of the cabin. Sam was tracking it, when her pokedex beeped. She hastily quieted it, and read the information.

"Huh, Devlin learned Pursuit...Devlin use Pursuit!" Sam wasn't expecting much, but it was good practice. Devlin locked in on the Aipom, and chased it to where it was going to land. He slammed into the Aipom, but it recovered quickly, hopping out of the way. Devlin tumbled past. Aiden landed on his feet.

"Aiden, DoubleSlap!"

"DoubleSlap? Devlin, Drill Peck! Block the slaps!" Aiden swung around with his tail, to slap Devlin's face with the hand on the end of his tail. Devlin's beak glowed, and spun crazily, pecking the hand that attempted to slap Devlin 4 times. The last time Aiden came around, Devlin pecked it away and drilled his beak into Aiden's face. Aiden rubbed at his injured face.

"Aiden, Scratch!" The Aipom swiped at Devlin, and connected with Devlin's body, sending him sprawling.

"Devlin, hover out of the way! The Aipom can't fly, that's your advantage" Devlin beat his wings, a bit scared of falling out of the sky and losing the boat, but he was a bird, he got used to it little by little. Sam could see the girl rethinking her strategy. Sam knew the approach she would have taken, and hoped the girl wouldn't think of it.

"Aiden, use your tail to wrap around the mast!" Aiden did so, winding himself around several times, his tail stretching, the hand on the end holding firm. "Good, now, unwind, catch that line of flags, and slingshot to the Murkrow." Sam stared incredulously. There was no way a strategy like that would work! The Aipom let go, his momentum swinging him around several times before hitting the flag line. He rebounded off the taut line and launched like a rocket towards Devlin.

"Ack! Devlin, get ou-" The Aipom smashed into Devlin, and they both fell towards the deck. Devlin was losing ground. "Devlin, Drill Peck him into the deck!" Devlin fought to control his fall, and tumbled until he was in position. His beak glowed once more, and he spun his entire body into the Aipom's soft belly. Their fall was accelerated, until they exploded into the deck. A soft boom! reverberated around the deck. People's heads turned and Sam felt a thousand eyes on her. She heard over the PA system.

"Please do not destroy the ferry, or you will have to compensate the damages!" Sam glanced to the captain's cabin, and saw his glowering eyes. She ignored them however. She watched the settling mist and dust. Both the Aipom and Devlin were still standing, though both looked a whole lot worse for wear.
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Eztli trudged slowly to where the woman had indicated. She had said that her only relatives where her grandparents and her brother. She hoped it was Mixcoatl, that her father hadn't had another son. She kept Xipil in her pokeball, fearing she might cause trouble in the city, with her devilish ways. She did however let Zolin out, knowing him to be calmer, more reserved. She could also relate to him a great deal more. As she approached the family house, she felt a strange combination of apprehension and indifference. She knew she was part of the family, they couldn't really reject her, but at the same time she had a childish fear of rejection by her family. She held up her fist to knock, but paused. She had seen this exact scene in so many movies, but had never seen herself actually playing it out. She had always thought it was merely dramatic effect.

"Cuuu...bone?" Zolin looked up questioningly at Eztli, not understanding her hesitation. Eztli hardened her resolve. She picked Zolin up in one swift motion, and knocked softly at the door. There was silence. She waited a few moments, nearly turned away to leave, call off this journey, and continue with her pokemon, when the door opened. It was Mixcoatl. Eztli stared for a few moments. Mixcoatl stared back, as if he was looking at an apparition.

"Mix? Mi hermano!" Eztli hugged him fiercely, but she didn't cry as she had in the graveyards. "I don't understand, where have you been? I'm so confused, you never wrote, you never called...there was nothing. Who is Citlali? Why is Papa in a psychiatric ward? Why did you abandon me?" She was nearly hysterical, yet her voice never rose, and no tears fell. She stepped back, composing herself. Mix still stared, he hadn't moved or responded.

"Ez? Eztli...what are you doing here?" His voice was not unkind, but of all the welcomes he could have given...Eztli stood a little straighter.

"Mix, I came to find you, to find out what had become of my only family. I also visited Mama's grave. That's where I found this little guy." She indicated Zolin. He looked mechanically at the Cubone. He sighed, and opened the door further.

"Eztli come inside, we'll talk." He showed her through the Spanish-style house, and stopped before a well-worn wooden table. Eztli guessed ebony by the dark color, but woodworking was not her forte. Two elderly people sat at one end, a couple Eztli assumed were her grandparents. They stood at the exact same moment, their hands entwined.

"Mixcoatl...Quien es? We told you, having lady friends was forbidden, after the fiasco last time..." her grandmother said. She narrowed her eyes further but then they widened. "Mixcoatl....Is this...." Eztli decided to take an initiative. She stepped forward, her hands held up in the universal gesture of 'I'm unarmed, and of peace'

"Mis abuelos...." Her grandmother's eyes widened further, her eyebrows nearly disappearing beneath her silvery bangs.

"Eztli...My dear....I thought you would never return." Tears leaked out of her eyes, a look of joy on her face. Her grandfather, however, couldn't have been more different.

"And good riddance, after the trouble she has caused this family." Eztli's face remained neutrual.

"Oh, stop that!" Her grandmother playfully smacked his arm. "Our granddaughter has come to visit us, and we shall welcome her!"

Eraku laid there face down in the ground for a little while. One reason was he was fairly sure he had skinned himself from his face to his knees and second he definitely heard the tell tale sounds of the new friend he had just made. From what he could hear she was definitely upset about something. Something about her cadet whoever that was. and some guy named mike. Rolling over he felt the pokeball on his belt jostle and suddenly he heard the cry of his scyther right above him. Vlad was standing almost on top of the boy. Vlad looked down and shook his head after seeing his trainer laying on the ground. "This boy is something else. Thats for sure."
After what seemed an eternity he got up and brushed himself off. The damage wasn't as bad as he had thought a few cuts here and there but fine otherwise. The bird trainer had left and taken with him the Golbat he could only assume was dead. He looked over and saw that his friend was just about in tears and he saw another guy standing right next to her. Eraku scratched the back of his head not knowing exactly what to say "What's the problem? Did we miss the boat?"
Hurricane noticing the distressed girl hopped off his trainer and over to the girl and nudged his head against her given a calming coo hoping the girl might calm down a bit.

Claire waltzed out of the pokemon center. She had a quick visit in order to get Kokoro fully ready for their next training session. She figured the two could go off into the woods and practice hitting flying targets once more. If she was lucky, Claire could even find a frisbee or similar object that Kokoro could hit when there weren't any flying pokemon to battle. Claire looked out beyond the pokemon center and then noticed the tower that loomed over the city.

"Oh yeah, they've got their own towers here kinda like Ecruteak." It was similar in design to the Tin and Burned Towers. That would be the place to go. There would be plenty of woods and areas where Claire could find some wild pokemon to train against. So she released her pal. The cyndaquil stretched a bit and then proceeded to climb up to her normal place on Claire's right shoulder. So what are we up to now?

"Not much. Just more training." Claire responded. "We're off to the tower." Kokoro nodded and the two moved in silence (not that anyone else normally heard Kokoro anyhow). After a few minutes they managed to get to the outskirts of the tower complex. The entry gate was tall and beared the sign "Sprout Tower" arching across the opening. But Claire avoided the entrance and moved along the wall toward the lush pine woods. It was bright outside but the woods were shady and calm. Hardly any sounds could be heard and it seemed that if one were to break the relative silence that they would be breaking something sacred. But Claire put these thoughts out of her head and proceeded to rummage through the woods.

After a few minutes she found a desirable substitute for the aforementioned frisbee. "Great! There are plenty of pinecones here that we can use as targets. They're small and should be hard to hit in these conditions. So I'll throw them and you try to shoot them with your Ember attack... but don't go overboard since we wouldn't want to start any forest fires." Claire instructed. Kokoro took her stance and Claire launched off the first cone.

A resounding miss! But not by much. So, another toss. And this time a hit! And thus proceeded the training. In due course Kokoro managed to hit slightly more than half of the cones. It was a good start but showed that she would need to work much more to be ready for their first gym match.