Chapter Text
“Flareon, again!”
Dawn and Cordelia stood in a clearing deep within the forest, following an unmarked path alongside Route 223, just outside of Victory Road.
“Ready?”
“Re!” Flareon purred, rubbing against her mistress as she was tapped lightly on the head.
“Alright,” Dawn cheered, “Flareon, spotlight!”
With a burst of speed, Flareon jumped from Dawn’s side.
“Flare Blitz.”
Flareon landed in the center aflame, her white coat glowing with her fire until it seemed flame and fur were one.
“Scary Face.”
Flareon made no moves, but the world darkened around her. Her face blackened, eyes glaring into the shadows of the trees. Dawn could already see the hushed silence the audience would have as the pokemon stood, unmoving. Flareon’s eyes shrunk to pinpricks and the shadow along the bridge of her nose spread, darkening the creases of her face and along her forehead.
The flames grew and her mouth opened in a silent snarl. Dawn watched the seconds tick by as the power of Scary face slowly grew.
“Alright, Fire Fang.”
Flareon’s mouth shut for just a moment before opening widely, showing the emtpy surroundings fiery teeth just aching to bite down.
Now was the hard part, Dawn knew, but it seemed integral to the performance the coordinator wished to show.
“Mom, are you sure?”
“Hush Cordelia, Flareon can do it. We just need to let her focus.”
Cordy was just a bit worried, as too many times the flame pokemon has burned itself using such a high combination of moves at once, but she trusted her mother knew better. Anyway, the practice scared most of the pokemon habitating here to flee, so perhaps she and Teddiursa could explore a bit.
“Good job Flareon, keep it up. Now. Add Will ‘o’ Wisp.”
The strain was beginning to show but Flareon refused to flinch, immediately reaching into her darker nature and bringing the spirits of hellfire alive. It was at this point where everything tended to implode, as the cold fires of Will ‘o’ Wisp reacted towards the heated flames of Flare Blitz.
This time, however, it seemed to hold, dancing around Flareon, making her eyes match that icy blue and the shadows of Scary Face deepen even further.
“Now to close, Hypervoice!”
“Flare!”
There was an explosion of flames, not the imploding power pertaining to a loss of control but an explosion of grace and beauty. Cold blue mixed with hot red and her fangs flared into an ampified vision of her own face, a solid sharp sound piercing the air before all became calm and Flareon smiled.
Dawn’s heart pounded and a laugh finally burst from her as her pokemon cheered.
“Yes. Yes!” Dawn giggled, kneeling to accept Flareon’s cuddles and kisses. “Just like that and we’ll win this, no worries.”
She sat back as the others gathered around, congratulating Flareon on a job well done in such a short period of time.
“So,” Dawn stood, dusting off her knees, “What do you think Cordy? Told you she’d make it.”
She looked around where her pokemon had scattered around the picnic site waiting for lunch.
“Has anyone seen Cordelia?” Dawn’s eyebrows furrowed, body stiff as she dispersed the plate of pokemon food. The coordinator had her pokemon on shifts throughout the day, walking in the wood and she as sure there were no pokemon within distance she had strictly set for her child, but it was worrisome for her to be missing lunch.
“Cordelia,” she called out brushing through Flareon’s coat and applying burn cream to the spots that touched a little bit too hot.
After several more minutes of no response, Dawn went from worried to pissed off.
“Cordelia Berlitz, you get your little bottom over here now or Arceus help me…”
All the pokemon looked up, worrying at Dawn’s sudden change in moods. The silent response only worsened it, and the group tensed, ready to remove the stress from their delicate mistress.
“Alright guys,” she addressed the group with a forced calm, “Pick a direction and stick to it. Keep an eye on the skies, one burst to check in, three burst to signal you’ve found her. Piplup, with me.”
Dawn moved straight ahead into the bushes, carrying only her pokedex and pokeballs. Everything else was replaceable, her daughters saftey was priority.
“No worries. No worries, right Piplup? She’s just too much like her father is all. Always looking for the next great adventure.”
“Plup…” Piplup wasn’t able to trick himself into believing everything was alright as easily as she could.
They searched for nearly thirty minutes, with the other pokemon checking in sporadically until finally, frazzled with worry and near to tears, she heard the child’s voice. Dawn nearly tripped in her hurry to enter the other clearing as Piplup shot three bursts of bubblebeam into the sky.
The other occupants tensed and Dawn felt justified at the fright in the child’s eyes but she forced herself to calm once more before approaching, only to stop at the sight of the other.
“Ash.”
***
Cordelia was always such a curious child with an independent streak a mile wide and as fascinating as it was to watch her mother train and practice routines she was bored.
“Hey, Teddi,” she whispered, moving to grab some berries and poffins from their packs. “Let’s go check out thr forest, kay?”
“Teddiursa.”
“Mom, we’re going to explore a bit, okay?”
Cordy didn’t wait for an answer, and hadn’t even thought to call for Piplup to walk with her.
Although her mother had freaked the first time, as most of their travels were in heavy human populated cities, three was a new agreement put to play. Whenever Dawn was busy training, and after some of the pokemon gave the all clear, she, Teddi and Piplup were allowed to explore a bit, searching and learning the terrain.
Cordy often roamed for hours, as though she was already on her own adventures, usually coming and going, picking berries for more poffins and shouting out attacks for Teddi towards non-existent pokemon.
She only shrugged when, an hour into her trip, she had finally noticed Piplup hadn’t come along. While talkative in nature, the penguin pokemon was quite serious in his protection of her and spent many hours of travel at attention, just waiting for an attack to come.
“Alrgitht Teddi, see that Cherubi over there?” Cordelia pointed towards an empty bush and let her imagination run wild. “Let’s capture it. Teddi, its show time.”
Teddiursa jumped into the fray, holding her typical pose, one claw places upon pouted lips.
“Sweet Kiss.”
“Ursa.”
A pink heart floated across the way, moving lazily towards the invisible enemy and it wasn’t until impact that they noticed the brown tipped yellow eared pokemon hidden in the bushes.
“Pikachu.”
“The ears bounced and the two flinched at the blissed fill voice denoted of those attracted by the charm of sweet kiss.
“Uh oh.”
The mouse pokemon jumped out with a burst of loose leaves, sniffing out the one charm.”
“Cha-a-ahh-a.”
The moment he spotted the duo, they ran. Between the thick trees and bushes, neither knew the direction they were headed, though once or twice they changed course after spotting either the pikachu or another’s moved near to them.
Soon enough, they were force to slow down, as even the energy of a young child can reach its limits after an already long walk through the woods. Luckily for the two, they had run into a clearing not unlike their own, tripping over another trainer as he set up for lunch.
“Whoa there,” he laughed, “where’s the fire?”
Cordelia and Teddiursa were shocked for a moment, which left just enough time to be caught once again by the heart-eyed pokemon.
“Pika!”
“Pikachu?” “Teddi!”
The two collided as they reached for their prospective pokemon, one in fear and the other in confusion. The trainer stayed silent once he gained a steady grip on his friend, hoping not to get shocked until the charm wore off while the young girl let loose a babbling explanation that steadily increased in speeds and pitch and punctuated several times by her own pokemon friend.
The words only worked to amuse him and the tense situation calmed just a bit, a sign that the charm was wearing off as well, until a shadow behind the two spoke, startling them with its sudden appearance.
“Ash”