A Pawsome Johto Journey (Ch. 23)

Chapter 23

Nate woke up early the next morning. The others were still fast asleep so he carefully got out of the nest. He looked back at the sleeping group and noticed it was one short of full. Sai was missing. Nate did a quik scan of the cavern with his Aura Sight but still couldn't find Sai. He noticed that Hiroki and Anthony were missing from the cavern as well.

"I wonder where they went." He muttered to himself. He directed his sights straight upward and used his Aura Sight once again. That was when he found all three of them. Sai was sitting on the roof while Anthony and Hiroki were on the ground out of his sights. Nate gated up to join Sai and made the kit jump as he appeared.

"You scared me." Sai gasped.

"Not an easy feat." Nate said. "What cha' doing up here?"

"Just watching the sun rise." Sai answered. Nate looked and saw that it was just the start of dawn. Nate smiled and sat down next to Sai, placing an arm around his shoulder as he did so. When the sun broke free of the horizon, Nate stood up and poked his head over the edge of the house and down at Hiroki and Anthony. At first, Nate thought they were wrestling. Then he realized that Hiroki was acting just like Selina had the first time she met Nathaniel at the house. Nate noticed two things odd about it first. One was that Anthony didn't seem to mind at all (although he was having the same reaction if his diaper was any indicator). And two was that Hiroki was not wearing the diaper he had put on her last night.

"Anthony stolethe ke from you as soon as you were asleep." Sai giggled. "I was surprised he likes how Hiroki is treating him when he normally seems so shy."

"That is really odd for him." Nate muttered, feeling a little peeved that Hiroki's punishment hadn't been carried out all the way. "He's told me once before he didn't think he'd ever find a mate amoung pokemon."


"He must have changed his mind." Sai shrugged. "I guess this makes us inlaws, doesn't it?"

Nate burst out lauging at that. He laughed even more when he saw Hiroki and Anthony leap to their feet in alarm below them. Nate swooped down an landed lightly next to Anthony. Sai tried the same thing but fell a little heavier and there was an audible squish when he landed. Nate shot Hiroki a look, daring her to say anything, but she just glared back at him, angry he had interrupted her time with Anthony. Sai merely blushed with embarrassment. Anthony was trying his best to surpress a fit of the giggles.

"Need a change Sai?" Nate asked unecessarily.

"Yeah." Sai admitted with a bigger blush. "You really did surprise me up there."

"I can see Hrioki doesn't need achange but you sure look like you could use one Anthony." Nate said with a cross look in Hiroki's direction.

"Nathaniel, be nice to Hiroki." Anthony barked. "She learned her lesson before I let her out of it."

"Say what?" Nate said shocked as Hiroki blushed and Sai burst into his own laughter.

"He surprised me is all." Hiroki said defensively, glaring at Sai.

"How'd he manage that?" Sai gasped as he tried to catch his breath.

"I..." Anthony blushed. "I.. kind of.. madethefirstmove." He finished quickly.

"What'd he do for that first move?" Nate asked Hiroki teasingly while Sai continued to giggle helplessly on the ground.

"None of your buisness." Hiroki snapped before turning and crossing her arms. This made Sai laugh even more and Anthony had to stick his tail in his mouth to keep from laughing himself. Hiroki realized what she was doing and stopped immediately.

"Well Anthony, I'm not surprised at your choice but I am surprised you chose at all." Nate said.

"Huh?" Anthony asked blankly cocking his head to one side.

"I could have sworn you said once before that you couldn't see yourself finding anyone else." Nate answered.

"There was someone else?" Hiroki asked somewhat irritated.

"She's been dead for many years." Anthony said, turning to face Hiroki. "It was another lifetime."

Now it was Hiroki's turn to have a blank look. Nate and Anthony took time to explain their history to Sai and Hiroki. When they were done, Hiroki was appeased and hugged the diapered pokemon. Nate hefted Sai onto his shoulders with another squish and smiled at the two pokemon. As he opened a gate, Nate said, "I'll give you two enough time for us to be ready to leave." and then stepped through. They arrived back down in the cavern and found that Selina had already helped everyone get ready and everyone was back to their usual ages.

"Glad you showed up." Chad said. "I was just about to leave. I gotta get back and get ready for Evergrande City."


"Good luck buddy." Nate said shaking the dragon's hand before he vanished from sight. "Could you get some breakfast ready while I take care of a certain kit Selina?"

"If I can get some help." Selina answered. Angel and Brandon immediately volunteered and the trio flew off. Nate set Sai down on the ground and got to work. As he as wiping Sai clean, he noticed Sai frowning a bit.

"What's up buddy?" Nate asked, genuinely concerned.

"I'm just missing being the baby sitter instead of the baby." Sai said.

"But you like being babied at least." Nate said smiling.

"What makes you say that?" Sai asked.

"You and Anthony are a bit alike." Nate said. "Neither of you will easily admit that you like being babied. Your Aura reveals how much you like this whether you want it too or not."

"Really?" Sai asked.

"Yep." Nate answered as he finished cleaning Sai up. "But if you miss being a caretaker, you can help care for Anthony today."

"YAY!" Sai squealed as he sat up and hugged Nate around the neck. "Ummm... could I wear something other than diapers today?"

"You sure?" Nate asked slightly teasingly.

"Well, I'm gonna be older today anyway right?" Sai asked. "May as well dress older."


"But I planned on keeping you like this." Nate laughed.

"WHAT?" Sai yelped.

"Relax buddy." Nate laughed even harder. "I was kidding. Now seriously, diapers, trainers or undies?"

"Well...." Sai began. "I don't know. I was thinking my underwear but what if I need the absorbancy now?"

"I don't think you'll need it after one day but if you're nervous about it, we'll stick you in trainers for now." Nate said seriously. "You know, that's another thing you and Anthony have in common. You both seem to be regressing a bit."

"Well hanging out with you guys can do that to ya." Sai said blushing as Nate slipped a pair of trainers on the kit. "How's Anthony been regressing exactly?"

"He's completely accepted being in diapers now for one thing." Nate answered. "He's been suckling from Arcanine for awhile now and has even started to allow bottle feeding. Plus he's been letting me carry him in a sling too. He likes this a lot more than he's letting on."

"Yeah I guess." Sai said, smiling at the thought of doing all of that today. "Let's go get some breakfast so we can meet up with Skip."

Nathaniel nodded and gated upstairs with Sai to join the others at the table.

***

After a large breakfast of scrambled eggs (which everyone loved to Selina pretty much turning the dish into a scrambled omlett), the group gathered their other pokemon and proceeded outside.

"ANTHONY! HIROKI!" Nate yelled. "TIME TO GET GOING!"


"We're right around the corner." Anthony sai as he stepped around the house side-by-side with Hiroki. "No need to shout like that."

Nate just smirked and scooped Anthony up before he could protest and had him in the sling he'd made that was currently hanging around Sai's neck. Hiroki took her usual position on Sai's shoulder and smiled down at the somewhat nervous Anthony. Nate couldn't tell which of the three was enjoying that more and smiled as he tried to keep from laughing. Nate opened a gate back to Mahogany Town and stepped through when everyone else had. He was shocked when he heard a cacophany of noise coming from the normally quite place. The townspeople were in an uproar about something. Whatever it was, Nate guessed it was coming from the Lake of Rage due to the sounds of enraged roaring coming in from the North.

"I wonder if Ethan has anything to do with this." Selina muttered as she came to the same conclusion.


"Wouldn't surprise me." Nate said shaking his head. Nate stretched his wings and with one sweep downwards, was airborne and northbound. His friends weren't far behind him. When the lake came into view, Nate could hardly see it at first. There were too many Gyarados writhing around the lake. The water may as well have been gone the way they were thrashing about. Nate looked away from the battling Gyarados for a bit and towards the shore where there were less Gyarados battling something else. Nate saw four figures, two tall and two small, taking on at least a dozen Gyarados. When the group landed, Nate was half surprised to see they were Skip, Zoe, Shannon, and Ethan. Nate recognized the Linoone and Skitty the kids were using, but he'd never seen until now Skip's Floatzel and Zoe's Pachirisu. He watched as the Pachirisu surfed on Floatzel's back and leaped onto one Gyarados. The Gyarados clearly didn't notice the tiny pokemon as it ran across its serpentine body. It was too preoccupied as Floatzel dashed along above the water, slamming into several Gyarados with a powerful Aqua Jet. It didn't fail to notice the Discharge the Pachirisu launched to take down not only the Gyarados it stood upon but also seven others nearby. Floatzel escaped the damage with a skillfully executed Detect, and then caught Pachirisu on its back before it fell to the waves after the Gyarados it stood upon teleported away. Nate turned his attention to Ethan and Shannon and noted they were doing just fine. Skitty kept two of the Gyarados busy with a harsh Blizzard while Linoone ran fast enough across the water to actually stay on top of it. It was almost moving too fast to even use the Thunderbolts Ethan cried out for him to use accurately. It still zapped one Gyarados and sent it packing but the other Gyarados slammed Linoone with a forceful Aqua Tail straight into Ethan. Linoone couldn't get back up after the hit and Ethan was stuck beneath Linoone. The Gyarados began bearing down on the helpless cub with a Hyper Beam charging up. Before Nate, or even the swift Sai could react, Skip was in front of Gyarados. Skip shot one paw upwards in an uppercut motion and missed Gyarados by several yards. Nate wondered what it was Skip was doing just as a geyser of water shot skyward and clipped the Gyarados on the chin. The Hyper Beam shot off harmlessly and the Gyarados fell over on its back before teleporting away. Nate stared in shock as he saw an emotion run across Skip's face he'd never seen before, anger. Skip lifted both paws up simultaneously and then shot them back downwards. As if at his command (and Nate felt sure it was) the water rose with Skip's paws and then shot forward in a collosal tsunami that ended up beaching every Gyarados in the lake. There was so little water left in the lake that Nate saw how few Magikarp there were left. Nate guessed they either were all knocked out in the battle or the more likely was that the reason there were so many Gyarados was because most of the Magikarp evolved at one time. Nate continued to watch Skip and noticed his face becoming much calmer. The sky grew dark as clouds gathered overhead and rain fell in torrents. There were even jets of water shooting from the sky to refill the drained lake. Just as the lake finished filling, the clouds dissapated and briefly left behind a rainbow.

"That was impressive Skip." Nate sai walking up behind him.


"Nathaniel?" Skip asked questioningly as he turned around quickly.

"Oops." Nate said, looking down at himself. "We forgot to set me back in age, didn't we?"

"Sorry about that." Selina said sheepishly.

"Selina?" Skip said increduosly. "How'd you two get so big?"

"This is our bodies matching our mental age Skip." Nate explained. "Selina has the ability to age or regress anyone she chooses."

"I don't know about anyone." Selina said modestly. "I haven't tried pokemon yet. Maybe later though."

"Interesting." Skip said. "I guess this means I can't say you're my little brother anymore then huh?"

"You'l aways be my big bro Skip." Nate laughed. "Unless I'm this age and you try being a cub again."

"Maybe later." Skip chuckled.

"How come you never told me you had psionics?" Nate asked.

"Never felt the need to use them until now." Skip answered. "I've only got one anyway. Absolute control over water. I can make water do pretty much anything I want it to."

"Nice!" Nate said, thinking immediately of all the things he could picture water being able to do. "Draco told us you guys'd be up here. We were hoping to catch up with you and see if you'd like to join us for the rest of our journey in Johto."

"Well....." Skip said thoughtfully.

***

A few minutes later, Skip and Nate were flying over the mountains that formed the Ice Cave. Skip had made the condition that if they went with the group, he would get a little time to travel with Nate alone. So they decided to split up at theentrance of Ice Cave. Skip revealed something else he could do with his psionic. He could make wings for himself. Nate wasn't sure whether they were made of ice, water, steam, or some combination of the three. Nate was also impressed that Skipseemed to know what he was doing when it came to flight. They stopped for a moment on a clifftopand just sat and rested.

"You know Skip, I was wondering if we could have a battle?" Nate said.

"You might want to have Anthony for that." Skip laughed. "I don't think you'd last long against me otherwise."

"Oh really!" Nate laughed challengingly.

Before Skip could answer, a series of loud explosions erupted from below. Nate and Skip peeked over the edge and spied a battle between the native Ice pokemon against two, Typhlosion, a Quilava, three Cyndaquil, and a silver-furred and haired fox that had the biggest ears Nate had ever seen. The fox was clearly the fire pokemon's trainer as he gave a few orders every here and there as he swung a blade at a very menacing looking Weavile that always seemed just beyond his reach. Forutnately the Weavile couldn't get in to attack either as the block shaped sword kept it at bay. Nate was about to hop down there with Skip to help when the fire pokemonallused Eruption at the same time. The onlypokemon left standing beside the fire types was the Weavile. Nate watched as the fox suddenly got faster and as a boulder several feet thick was turned into rubble when he hit it with the blade. Eventually the fox managed to catch the Weavile with the flat of his blade and it teleported away before it even stopped flying.

"Well that was impressive." Nate said to Skip.

"THERE HE IS!" a voice shouted as a dozen various furrs came charging down the oppoistie side of the ravine the fox was standing in. The fox made to move as if to run but suddenly doubled over coughing up what Nate knew was blood. The Typhlosion made for the fox but were stopped by four Tyranitar the furrs sent out. Nate made one look at Skip and ran out blade drawn. Skip stayed upon the cliff for a moment and gathered water from the very air around his paws. When he was done, he had menacing looking serrated claws of ice around them and rushed in with Nate. The first four Tyranitar didn't see what hit them. A wide slash from Nate's blade and two simutaneous horizontal swipes from Skip's claws knocked the against th ravine wall, leaving them stunned. Eight more Tyranitar rushed in and two were stopped instantly as Nate fired a cone of frost at them. Skip somersaulted in and took out the ramianing six almost faster than Nate could blink. His claws were everywhere. One began to get back up but Skip just span around and knocked the Tyranitar in the side of the head with a water encassed tail.

"Geeze Skip!" Nate said in awe. "Why didn't you save some for me?"


"Sorry Nate." Skip laughed. "I've just hade years of practice at this. I was quite the brawler in my day."

"You say that as if you were an old man." Nate joked. "You're only as old as I am."

"I keep forgetting that." Skip laughed.

"HEY!" an angry wolf yelled as he stormed up to them. "What's the big idea helping a delinquent runaway?"

"Huh?" Nate asked blankly, looking to see that the fox had dissappeared completely.

"That fennec fox has been on the run from Social Services for years." the wolf said showing a police badge angrily. "You just spoiled our perfect opportunity to snag the little brat."

"Why would Social Services be after a trainer?" Nate asked.

"Kids are allowed to be trainers but they stillneed the permission of their guardian to do so." SKip explained. "If something's happened to his parents and he doesn't have his new guardian's permission, he'sconsidered a runaway. Sorry for this officer. All we saw was a bunch of thugs after a helpless kid. No offence."

"None taken." the wolf grunted. "We're the toughest group after runaways, truants and delinquents. I guess that's an honest mistake so we'll let you guys go."

"Thank you sir." Skip said nodding. "We'd better hurry to Blackthorn Nate. The other's are probably throug the cave already."

Nate nodded and took to the skies with Skip. It wasn't long before they reached Blackthorn and found the group waiting for them at the pokemon center.