Your welcome Zee-Zee! Just a little news flash. I think I almost got my friend into trouble with this story. He was reading this in English class and was having trouble not to laugh. Most of the students thought he was crazy or had something wrong with his head because they were watching something on Edgar Allan Poe.

Here's a bit more for you all! Time for the adults to bond a bit.


***

Meanwhile, the adults were chatting as they watched the kids at play.


"Looks like Sammy's already made friends with them." Zena chuckled. "Just look at those four go!"

"Thanks for bringing me along sis." Mark said happily. "It's nice to see Sammy making friends already."

"No problem Mark." Zena smiled.

"Hey guys!" Skip said coming out of the house. "What I miss?"

"Oh, Sai just confessed he's gonna take a break from potty training to Zee-Zee, the two had a little debate ending in Zee-Zee accepting Sai's choice for now. Sammy came up to them probably feeling some connection to Sai and now the four are fast friends and racing through the trees." Zoe said quickly. "In short, the usual cubbish chaos that happens around here."

"Figures." Skip laughed. "Nice to see you again by the way Zena and Zed. You must be Mark. I'm Skip."

"Nice to meet you." Mark said as they shook hands.

"Hey Zoe?" Zena asked. "Would that happen to be a badmitton net over there?"

"Sure is." Zoe answered. "Wanna try me?"

Zena felt the excitability that exists in almost all squirrel rising at Zoe's challenge. "You're on!"

"Mind if I join in?" Ninetales asked getting up.

"If you can find someone else to play sure, we could do doubles." Zoe said.

"Actually I thought I could take you both on at once." Ninetales said.

Zoe looked at Zena and said, "Oh she is asking for it." Zena nodded in agreement and the trio took off for the net. Ninetales of course held the racket in one of her tails and waited on one side while Zoe served. As the birdie came over the net, Ninetales simply sat down and stretched out the tail holding the raquet. A tiny flick sent it right back over, but it was smacked right back by Zena. Skip, Zed and Mark just watched from the sidelines and laughed. By the looks of it, the game was going to last for awhile. Skip looked around for a bit and noticed Kana and Arcanine had vanished. Another quick look saw Kana's tail vanishing inside while Arcanine had gone to watch the cubs more closely. The four had apparently started a sort of tree-top tag and were having a blast. Despite the fact they had an egde with their wings, Sai and Nate neglected to use them as they climbed through them to chase after the squirrels and each other.

Absol came out then carrying a box on his head, nestled against his horn. "Anyone interested in a game of chess?" he asked. "By the looks of it I bet we finish a game before those three score one point."

"Sure! I love chess." Zed answered.


"I'm always willing to give it a shot but I was more into sports really in high school." Mark answered.

"You brought out the right set right Absol?" Skip asked.

"Of course!" Absol answered. "I though more than two would want to play so I grabbed the four player."

"Four player chess?" Mark asked.

"I've heard of that one." Zed said. "They have extra rows before the main board to hold the player's starting spaces and when it's a free for all, capturing a player's king means you get their pieces."

"Yep." Skip answered. "Otherwise it's exactly the same game. You just have to be a bit more strategic here since you have three opponents. You have to be careful who you trust and find ways to use your opponents positions to your advantage. Sometimes to attack you have to place your own piece in threat of another player and you have to wonder are they attacking the same person and help you out or are they going to attack you as well."

"Sounds complicated." Mark said.

"A little." Absol agreed as he pulled the board out. There was a slight widening of eyes when the board was revealed to be made of solid marble! "But generally the players will usually go for the player in the lead. Either the one who's captured the most pieces or the one with the most left. There are other factors to consider of course depending on the strategy of the individual but that's usually how it goes."

Skip pulled out the four sets in their boxes and handed one to both Mark and Zed. Absol took one for himself and they were interested to find that their sets were actually pokemon figures. Absol had gotten his favorite set. Giratina served as the King with various ghost and drak pokemon serving as the rest of the pieces. Absol liked it merely because the Rooks were Absol. The set looked like it was actually made of platinum! Zed got a diamond looking set that had Dialga as the King while Skip got a pearl set with Palkia as the King. Mark was the lucky one to get an opal set with the Origin Pokemon Arceus as a King. The family had set the rule that Arceus always went first and it passes clockwise after that. The game started soon after and the three furs just talked about pretty much anything in general as they got to know each other. Absol stayed silent the whole time as he was too focused on the game to really pay any attention to conversation. Skip talked about sports for a bit with Zed and as he got to know Mark, he found the two had a lot in common and soon were fast friends. The main thing was that although they were young parents, they would always place their kids first no matter the situation.

And here's a bit more. I think I may have too many characters as it's hard to give focus to everyone. We're nearing the end and we're not getting a lot of dialogue from Mark or Sammy. Oh well. There's always a chance in other stories.



Kana came back out a few minutes later with the other pokemon in tow. Those pokemon in need of diapers (Anthony, Daisy, and increasingly as of late, Lucario) were in swim diapers. The group went over to the pool and Anthony dove right in. After swimming underwater for a bit he cam back up floating on his back with only his head, his four paws, and the end of his tail floating cutely on the surface of the water.

"Come on in guys! The water's great!" He said happily. Hiroki dove in after him with Hinata close behind. Daisy actually pounced into the pool on top of Lucario and soon was chasing him around the pool. Lucario still seemed embarrassed by Daisy's affections for him but he didn't appear to be afraid of her anymore. Kana stood watching them for a bit before turning around. She was just about to walk over to a lounge chair when Nate and the other cubs ambushed her.

"Auntie Kana?" Nate asked cutely. "Can we show Zee-Zee and Sammy the egg please?"

"I'd like to see it again too." Hinata said getting back out of the pool. Everyone else followed as they all wanted to see the egg.

"Oh all right." Kana said smiling. She couldn't resist so many cute cubs at once for such an innocent request. She pulled the egg out of her pouch to resounding oohs and ahhs. Hinata stepped up timidly and tapped Kana.

"Could I maybe... hold it please Auntie?" Hinata asked gently.

"Well..." Kana said contemplatively. She strated thinking about the request and about how she raised Hinata. She probably could handle an egg after she took care of so many with her so she said, "As long as you're careful sweetie."

Hinata gingerly took the egg and sat down with it. Lucario, Anthony, Sai and Nate got close behind her and as they all touched, something happened.

"EVERYONE!" Kana called out. "WE'VE GOT SOMEONE COMING!"

Everyone else dropped what they were doing and while the taller ones stayed back, the shorter ones (and Lucario) looked on in awe as the egg began shining brightly. Zee-Zee stared in utter fascination and Sammy was entranced almost. There was a sudden flash of light that momentarily blinded everyone in the general area and when the spots cleared, Hinata was left holding onto a pokemon as big as she was. It was no wonder it was as big as she was as it was almost completely identicle to her except for the fact that the Riolu in her arms was blue. It slowly yawned and opened it's eyes. Those closetest to it smiled down at it and it looked at each of them in turn before it looked at Hinata. Hinata and the Riolu suddenly stiffened as Hinata's blue eyes and the newborn Riolu's oddly pink eyes met. Nate looked back and forth between them and giggled quietly. The two were completly smitten by each other.

"Welcome to the world little guy." Lucario said. The Riolu looked away for just a bit and smiled at Lucario as if it understood him completely. Kana slowly picked up both Hinata and the new Riolu and smiled down at them both. Everyone gathered closer and to their surprise, the Riolu seemed to like the attention rather than getting scared at all of the faces suddenly crowding around him. Nate clambered onto Skip's shoulder so the Riolu could still see him and the other cubs did the same to various adults. The Riolu was busy switching his glance to everyone and Kana started to feel like he was going to give himself whiplash so she cleared her throat.

"Even though this little guy may not be scared, we may be overstimulating him a little bit so I'm gonna take him inside." Kana said when everyone quieted.

"Awww." Nate said dissapointedly. "But we barely just met the little guy. Can't he stay out here with his brother Nate?"

"I'm sure even he would rather go inside then get hurt out here." Lana said calmly. "He's twisting his neck so much he's gonna end up with whiplash. Sorry Nate."


Nate looked sadly at the Riolu and suddenly stiffened. It was smirking at him and it winked! The Riolu suddenly snapped his neck to both sides letting out two loud pops that made Kana jump. Then it did something that made everyone's jaw drop.

"Actually I would rather stay out here." the Riolu said, very articulately for someone who was only a few minutes old.

"He can... talk." Daisy gasped from Lucario's shoulder. Lucario suddely realized she was there but stiffened only slightly this time for some reason.

"Course I can talk." the Riolu said. "You can can't you?"

"Aunite?" Hinata asked. "How is this possible exactly? Pokemon don't usually talk straight from the egg until they're a few days old at the very least!"

"Really?" Riolu asked. "I didn't know that. course I've been in an egg for who knows how long so how could I have known."

"I think that may be the reason." Kana said. "I've even lost track of how long you've been an egg. I've heard of some pokemon hatching much later than normal and coming out as oddly mature pokemon. You're just the first I've seen this happen with."

"Well as long as nothing's wrong with me..." the Riolu said before hopping out of Kana's arms. "I wanna go for a swim!" With that he dove into the pool. Hinata giggled and dove right in after him and soon the two were splashing around. The rest of the pokemon looked at each other and shook their heads before all of them (except Ninetales and Absol) dove in right after them. Ninetales went inside and got the cubs into swim wear and they joined in right after. Ninetales returned to the net right after that and soon the three were at it again talking about the recent event as they did. Skip went to the freezer and pulled out an ice cream cake he kept on hand for emergencies before he went back to the game of chess with the others.

"This certainly has turned into quite the day hasn't it?" Skip said. "And it's just now getting to be noon!"

"I'm really glad you invited us now." Zed said. "We all got to see something amazing because of it."


"I'm sure Sammy and Zee-Zee aren't going to forget this anytime soon." Mark said happily.

"Did anyone besides Nate see that look between Hinata and the little guy?" Absol asked. "We'd better watch out one day. Now we have three pokemon couples besides me and Ninetales in the house."

"Oh relax Absol." Skip laughed. "I'm sure having this many couples in the house won't be so bad. None of us go overboard showing that type of affection. It'd embarrass the younger ones too much."

Everyone laughed a bit at that when Zed suddenly brightend up and moved one more piece. "Checkmate Absol." Absol smirked and backed form the table to show he was out. Skip and Mark went next and Skip was checkmated in Zed's next turn. Mark smirked right after that and moved his own piece.

"I believe that's checkmate Zed." Mark laughed. All three of the other players looked and saw that indeed, Mark had somehow pinned Zed's King using some of his own pieces. They could see it wasn't actually a checkmate but through forced moves, it would inevitably end up as a checkmate anyway. Zed laughed and shook his brother-in-law's hand.

"I didn't see that coming in the slightest." he said. "Good job on that one Mark."

"I didn't see it until he did it either." Skip said. "No offense but I thought he was the underdog in this one but here he comes and beats you when you had an almost three to one advantage!"

"Most impressive." Absol said.

"Thanks guys!" Mark said. "Do you by any chance have some swim wear I can borrow? I'd like to join my son in there."

"No prob. I've got something for both of you." Skip said. He looked just in time to see Zena spike the birdie just fast enough to get past Ninetales, who had been effortlessly sending the birdie back the whole time before now. "Is that the first point of the game?"

"And last." Zoe laughed breathlessly.

Skip looked at the others and they all laughed. They had indeed finished a game before a point was scored. All of them went inside then and soon they all came back out and joined the others in the pool. Everyone was splashing around and generally having a good time as friends.

Yay, lots of cool stuff in here! I love the way Mark wins at chess! ^.^