I Just Want To Travel The World By: BANIX Chapter 28 35-36

"Vance?"

Flannery called out curiously the moment she spotted her boyfriend whipping up dinner in her kitchen. She wasn't expecting such a sight the moment she reached home after work.

"Sit down and take a rest. Dinner will be ready soon."

"You sure you don't need help? I still want my kitchen intact after dinner, you know?"

Vance gave her a flat look as he finished cooking the admittedly delicious looking meal.

"I know I can be clumsy, but I do help my Mum around in the kitchen. My cooking skills is even better than Vel and she is not bad at it either."

Flannery whistled in surprise. They have only started dating for a short while, but she only just found out that her boyfriend can actually cook. Extremely well too, from the looks of it.

Definitely a keeper. Now she no longer needs to survive on instant noodles anymore whenever she is hungry.

She helps Vance set the table and to also serve food to their pokemons, who are mostly out at the backyard of her house where they are released to stretch their legs. Vance had also cooked up a large portion for both their pokemons. Domesticated pokemons have no complaints towards the factory manufactured pokemon food that most of their kind are served with, but they will enjoy it if their humans are capable of whipping up a delicious, piping hot meal for them as well. Knowing how to cook homemade pokemon food is a must-know skill for a Vera given their family business, Flannery should have guessed that the same skill would apply to Vance's ability to cook human food. There are jobs such as pokemon cooks, although they are usually a luxury that the rich can afford for their pokemon. The services of a pokemon cook do not come cheap due to the sheer number of different types of pokemons there are in this world and each of them have their own different needs. It is not easy to become a certified pokemon cook because of that, there is just so much to learn to become a proper pokemon cook. There are ways to prepare a generic meal that can be consumed by any pokemon, but the taste will definitely be lacking as compared to a meal specifically made for the pokemon in question.

Flannery have no idea how her boyfriend did it, but he managed to cook something specific for each and every of their pokemons as best as he can. Her fire types are given a big portion to share among themselves. According to Vance, this is the Vera recipe that is catered to fire types in general. His own pokemons have their own specific meals since they all have different typings.

Makes her wonder how long he took to complete everything.

"Not bad, right?" Vance asked with a hint of pride in his tone. "Admit it, my cooking skills are top notch. Even Mum had asked whether I will be considering getting a license to be a certified pokemon cook."

"How many times did you nearly die in the kitchen to get to this level of skill?"

Vance remained silent, but the howling of Macky's laughter told her everything she needs to know.

"I guess that means a lot."

The two of them enjoy a comfortable meal at the backyard of her house with their pokemons with the setting sun as the background. Flannery felt like this is blissful paradise. Heh, now she can claim that she has a good eye for guys.

"I can come around more often to cook for you if you like. I know you are always busy since you are a gym leader. You need to eat something that is not instant noodles."

"Vance, I know you have a lot more time now since you are retiring from ACE, but-"

"And I should use the extra time and spend it with the people that I care about." Vance breathed out a sigh as he paused in his meal. "It took me a big argument with Vel and then a huge scolding from Dad to realise that I have been neglecting them."

Flannery blinked her eyes in puzzlement. What happened?

"I know Wallace told you about the prophecy crap and what Vel did to prevent the possibility of a world war as much as possible. She wants to be a part of the international force, or whatever fancy title the group will be called as in the future. It is dangerous being a part of that kind of organisation, the nature of their duties cannot be easy. I tried to talk Vel out of it but she suddenly snapped. It was like whatever quiet discontentment she has with me since day one suddenly exploded in one big mess. It was then that I realised that I had missed out on a lot. I missed out on her growing years. I joined ACE almost immediately after my conference ended. I was too busy going on missions after missions that I didn't realised that my little sister had actually grown up. I didn't realise this fact because I hardly have time to spend with her and my family due to the nature of my work."

Flannery slowly put down her cutlery and reached out a hand towards Vance, gently putting it over his hand as a show of support.

"Quitting ACE couldn't have been easy for you, I know how much you love your job. It wasn't easy for me either when I quit the LSDF to be a gym leader, but thankfully I ended up loving the job of a gym leader more than I did as an officer of the LSDF. I never told you about my parents, did I?"

Vance gave a shake of his head.

"They were Rangers, the best of the best, from what I heard from my grandfather. Because of that, I rarely saw them since they are so good at what they do and they are needed by the Rangers at almost everytime, everywhere. I hated them when I was a kid, because they never have time for me." Flannery spoke in a regretful tone as her eyes misted up a little. "Then suddenly, when I was eight, they got themselves killed on a mission gone wrong. When they died, I didn't even know what their favourite food was, or their favourite colour, or their preferences and habits in general. Grandfather was the one who raised me up, my parents were just that busy."

Flannery looked back up at her boyfriend as she dabbed away the tears threatening to form at the edges of her eyes.

"So that is why I think that you made the correct choice. I know the initial phase is hard, especially when you are trying to adjust to the lack of battles and the adrenaline that comes with it, but trust me, it will be worth it. If you really want to continue battling, then consider finding a part-time job that can allow you to do that. My gym no longer has any available slots, but I can ask around if there are any gyms that needs a gym trainer."

"Thanks." Vance said quietly as he gently went to grasp Flannery's hand on the tabletop to show her his support as well. "I think I really need to hear what you just said."

"You and Vel made up with each other, right?"

"We did. By the way, have you heard of the Battle Frontier?"

"Oh, that? Yeah. You want to go visit it together when it is finally open? I heard that it will be completed soon although Scott is still having trouble finding another Frontier Brain. He had asked Spenser -you know that he is the previous gym leader of Mossdeep, right?- but he had said that he will only accept the offer if Scott really has no other suitable candidate to fill the last slot with. He had said that he is too old and he wants to enjoy his retirement if possible." Flannery then took out her pokenav as she uses it to check the calendar. "Well, I think I am able to take a few days off from work around the time the Battle Frontier is supposed to open. We can go enjoy a good battle together, there are double battle segments where trainers can compete together as a duo against other duos. It will be fun."

"Actually." Vance started out slowly as if he is afraid of her subsequent reaction to whatever he will be saying. "I am thinking of asking Scott if he thinks I am a suitable candidate to be a Frontier Brain. I know I am strong enough to be one, so I hope that this is enough for me to be accepted."

"What?"

"I had discussed it with Dad. Despite the glamour behind it, the job of a Frontier Brain is basically a nine-to-five job and it isn't as hectic as what I usually do in ACE. I will still have time to spend with whoever I want to spend with, be it you or my family and I will still have enough time to help out on the farm. Furthermore, I can continue to enjoy exciting battles. I don't see a problem with this arrangement yet. The only problem is probably the distance, but my gallade's Teleport is good enough to Teleport me to almost anywhere in Hoenn in a single jump, so travelling wouldn't be an issue."

"In that case, go for it. You are a natural in battles, Vance. It is a waste if you stop battling the moment you drop out of ACE. I think being a Frontier Brain will be good for you. You can also learn from the other Generalists there."

"Vel said that the one who had beat her in her conference will be a Frontier Brain too." Vance commented as he adopted a thinking pose with his fingers stroking his chin. "Maybe I should give him a beatdown when I see him. Vel was a little upset with how she lost even if she got over it fast enough. I mean, come on, Attract? Really? That was dirty."

"Vance."

"What? It will be just a normal trainer battle."

"Still, no."

"Just one battle?" Vance asked meekly as he slowly raised a single finger. "Please?"

"No."

"Welcome back, Steven. How did your mission go?"

"Everything's fine. How about you?"

"I just received a lapras from Dad about five minutes ago." I replied as I waved the pokeball that contains the last member of my team at Steven. "I am about to go out right now to release her and meet her for the first time. Do you want to come? If you are not too tired from your mission, that is."

Steven paused for a moment before he nods his head.

"I think I would like to come. Lapras are rare and it is not everyday that I get to see one. Just let me get changed first."

I sat on a chair in his living room as I idly took out my handkerchief to polish the surface of the pokeball that houses the newest member of my team while waiting for Steven. A lapras. I still couldn't believe Dad got me a lapras in such a short amount of time.

I still cannot believe how influential our family really is.

"Alright, I'm done. Let's go."

Both Steven and I walked out of his house and made our way towards Mossdeep's beach at a leisurely pace.

I really cannot wait to meet the newest member of my team.

I let out my entire team the moment we found a secluded spot on the beach that is also big enough to hold all of us.

"We will be meeting the newest member of our team. I don't know how she will react to us but I heard her species can be a little timid, so don't scare her with your rowdiness. Kratos, don't try to hide behind Ness, I am looking at you. Toothless, Snap, don't laugh. You two can be even worse than him."

My words got my team exploding into bouts of laughter. Even Steven chuckled with his skarmory by his side, who is already cawing out in laughter. Steven's entire team had met mine and they know how rowdy my team can be.

I walked towards the sea and released lapras out of her pokeball.

Lapras appeared in a songful cry on the beach. She took a curious look at her surroundings before spotting me.

"Hi there, my name's Velda although everyone calls me Vel. I don't know if anyone had told you before this, but I am your new trainer. It's nice to meet you."

Lapras returned my words with another tune as she lowered her head to get a better look at me. I reached out to stroke the bottom of her jaw and the side of her face. Dad had told me that most of their species enjoyed being stroked in that manner.

"Do you want a nickname? Everyone on my team has one. If you don't want one, that is fine as well. I know some pokemons don't like having nicknames."

Lapras gave a curious tilt of her head and sang out a reply.

'She said that she will appreciate it if she has a unique name to call her own, Mistress.'

'Thanks, Rena.'

"In that case, how about-"

"VEL! There you are!"

Don, Mossdeep's self-proclaimed pokeblock enthusiast ran up to me and Steven with his medicham following behind. What is he so excited for?

"Did you remember that you asked me if any of those rare pokeblocks arrived? They just did! Hurry! They might be sold out if we wait any longer!"

Those pokeblocks are said to be very tasty and according to Don, every pokemon who had ate it had enjoyed the taste. Although I really have to say, couldn't the pokeblocks come at a better timing?

Lapras gently nudged me with her head and gestured to me to get going.

"I will be back soon, I promise. Guys, take care of her, ok? We won't be long."

I quickly followed Don with Steven following us. He is also interested in those legendary pokeblocks and is curious to see if they really live up to its name. My smaller pokemons followed me while the bigger ones opted to stay and relax on the beach together with lapras.

Luckily, lapras seems to be pretty chill and doesn't seem to be a battle-hungry type. She should be fine with the rest of my team. Bigblue and Ness are there, they can help to keep some sense of order. Lily and Hulk are there too. Everything should be fine.

I will also need to see if I can find pokeblocks suited for lapras. It is also a common tactic for trainers to use the favourite food of the species of pokemon they had just caught or obtain to make it easier for the pokemon to open up to them. Lapras seems friendly enough even if we only met minutes ago, but I think she will love it if she can eat some really nice treats.

Steven is the heir to the Devon Corporation and I am the heiress to the Vera Farm, maybe we should just buy them all? It will be as easy as snapping our fingers.

'OW! Ness, stop it!'

'Stop looking at lapras in that manner. Vel said not to scare her and you are leering at her like she is some sort of tasty berry. I know that look. Push down your itch for battles and learn some discipline.'

'Toothless and Snap are also itching to fight her and I don't see you hitting them on the head either!'

BONK BONK

'There. Now it's fair. So stop complaining.'

'Damn it, Ness! What did we do?'

'Yeah, what did we do? All we are doing is to look after her!'

'I am not born yesterday, I know that look. You guys just want to start battling her straightaway, don't even deny it.' Ness said as if that is the most obvious thing in the world.

'We are not-'

BONK

'Ok, ok! Stop hitting us already!'

Lily gurgled happily as she whispered to Bigblue.

'Finally, someone who is strong enough to put them in their place.'

'Vel made the right choice getting Ness into our team. She made our life so much easier and quieter.' Bigblue admitted as he and Lily enjoy the sea breeze. Lapras is on the edge of the beach where the boundary of the lapping sea waves and the sands are, watching them curiously. Only the battle-hungry trio, Ness, Hulk, and the both of them are at the beach together with lapras. The rest of them had followed Vel to get their hands on the legendary tasty pokeblocks.

Lily and Bigblue gulped down their saliva at the thought of eating the pokeblocks. They really hope Vel can get her hands on those legendary treats and pray that they are really as tasty as people claim them to be.

'I have no idea how you two endured the three idiots for as long as you guys did.' Hulk said in his gruff voice as he sat down beside the two of them. 'Makes me wonder if there is a compulsory criterion to be stupid if you want to be strong.'

'Maybe it really is. They are all a little suicidal in how they usually train themselves. Maybe you need a lack of sense of self-preservation to get stronger.' Lily joked as she swayed about at her spot. 'Did Bigblue tell you how Snap purposely flew through his Blizzard attack? All because he thinks it will help him endure the cold better if he did it repeatedly? Vel was mad at him for that.'

'-And HOW will you know if you never ask?' Kratos's loud voice boomed out over the quiet clearing they are at as he argued with Ness. 'Maybe she likes battling too!'

'Vel told us to look after her, not to battle her. Didn't she also say that her species doesn't like battles and can be very timid? Look at how chill she is. Does she look like a fighter to you?'

'Never know till you try.' Snap backed Kratos up as he casually walked towards lapras, who is still watching them in curiosity.

'Snap, get back here. I don't want to go about cleaning up your mess.'

'We will be fine, just introducing myself, be friendly, show her around the team, the usual.' Snap waved Ness off as he finally stood in front of the new member of their team.

'Hey, want to spar? Just a friendly one, nothing too big or intense. It's how we greet each other in our team every time we see each other.'

'It is the only way you three idiots greet each other! Don't feed her lies!' Ness cried out as she pointed an accusing claw at Snap.

'A battle?' Lapras asked excitedly and her eyes visibly lit up at the mention of it. Bigblue swears that if she has legs instead of flippers she will be jumping on the spot right now. 'My pack trained me before I was sent here. I don't know how strong I am, but I am willing to try! Let's battle! Let's all say hi to each other!'

'What?' Hulk huffed out in disbelief. 'Another idiot? Come on. The three of them is enough to drive me to the brink of insanity, we don't need another idiot on the team.'

'I think she is just ignorant and a little naïve.' Lily commented. 'It looks as if she had never saw anything beyond what her pack saw. It is like she is seeing everything around her for the first time. She had probably never battled for real before. Are we stopping them?'

'If it is Snap, then it should be fine. He is not as stupid as the other two.' Hulk commented as he crossed his arms. 'He knows how to tone down his attacks. Lapras may have the type advantage, but she should be relatively untrained from what she just said. Snap can beat her with no problems. We just have to keep an eye on Snap and make sure that he does not go overboard.'

'Good point.' Lily gurgled out in agreement.

Ness accepted the inevitable outcome with an annoyed look on her face.

'Go too far, and you answer to Vel, Snap. I am not taking responsibility for this.'

'We will be fine. Can you be the referee? I don't know why humans always wants to be the referee for any of the matches. Can't pokemons be referees as well?'

'Just get it started.' Toothless grunted out.

Ness looked apprehensive but decided to just go along with the flow. She is enough to stop Snap if need be even if she isn't as strong as he is. She can still keep things under control.

'Ok, but don't go overboard. Three.' Ness started counting down as she stood a short distance away and Kratos raised rocks so that their surroundings now look like those of an arena used in official battles. 'Two, one. Start!'

'YAY! BATTLE!'

Much to everyone's shock, the lapras somehow jumped into the air and landed right in front of Snap in the blink of an eye. A mighty slap of her flipper sent the unprepared Snap flying through the rock walls and embedded into the side of a nearby rock cliff.

Did Snap just get himself KO'ed in a single hit?!

'SO FUN! IS THIS HOW BATTLE WORKS? LET'S ALL BATTLE! LET'S ALL SAY HI TO EACH OTHER!'

To everyone's horror, a massive wave of water from the sea was called upon by lapras with Surf.

It is a freaking tsunami.

'HOLY FLYING DIGLETTS! THIS GIRL IS THAT STRONG?' Hulk exclaimed as he quickly climbed up the cliff to escape the waters with Lily taking a ride by latching onto him with her tentacles. Bigblue raised himself up with a Stone Edge to avoid the mayhem.

'FINALLY! A WORTHY OPPONENT!' Kratos cried out excitedly as he went in to disperse the wave of water with a massive Dark Pulse. 'FIGHT ME!'

Toothless roared in response as well as he used a Solar Beam at lapras, who simply summoned a massive Thunder out of nowhere and destroyed the Solar Beam. The skies are sunny and clear right now, how did she just summon a Thunder from the skies in that manner?!

'YAY! THIS IS SO MUCH MORE FUN THAN THE BATTLES I HAVE WITH MY PACK! MORE! MORE! HELLO EVERYONE!'

'You guys stop this right now!' Ness shouted out as she dashed in to try and stop the chaos from escalating even further than it is right now. 'Stop! STOP!'

'YOU WANT TO BATTLE TOO? YAY! ICE BEAM!'

The three spectators can only watch in shock and disbelief as Ness got herself froze into a cube of ice almost instantly. Ness may be new to the team, but she is by no means weak.

'Guys, we need to do something if we don't want to get a week's worth of lecture from Vel.' Bigblue whispered carefully with his mouth wide open in disbelief at the scene playing out in front of them. The three of them all exchanged worried looks before coming to a unanimous decision.

With their mind made up, the only thing the three spectators can do is to jump into the fray to prevent the three-way battle between Kratos, Toothless, and lapras from spiralling out of control.

'Oi! Rock brain, cut it out!' Hulk entered with a Low Sweep and knocked Kratos off his feet. 'Do you want to get punished by Vel?'

'Hey, get out of the way! I finally found another worthy opponent that isn't Toothless or Snap!'

Kratos divided the area with a huge wall of rock in between him and Hulk. Hulk broke through it with a few punches and tried to wrestle Kratos into submission as the two of them went tumbling onto the sandy beach.

Meanwhile, Bigblue is trying to get Toothless to stop firing his attacks at lapras from the air as Lily went to try and talk sense into lapras, only for lapras to mistake Lily as another contender.

This is a complete mess.

'WOOHOO! I NEVER FELT SO HAPPY BEFORE! THIS IS SO FUN! ALRIGHT, TIME FOR THE SUPER POWERFUL WEATHER CHANGING BLIZZARD!'

'Hulk, get off me! We need to get out of the way of the-'

Toothless, Bigblue, and Lily all paused in their actions as they watched Kratos and Hulk got themselves froze into ice statues together with the entire area that they are at.

'Guys, I don't think we should be trying to stop each other. We need to stop her.' Lily said warily as she shifted herself closer to Bigblue and Toothless for protection from this madness. 'No one told us that she is strong enough to take out even Kratos.'

'I don't think even Vel knew that lapras is that strong.'

Just at that moment, lapras turned her attention to them.

'YOU GUYS ALSO WANT TO BATTLE? YAY! LET'S ALL BATTLE!'

Crap.

'Mistress, fire-brain and Lily had both just sent an urgent message for us to return back now. Things have gotten out of control.'

What did my team do this time?

"Steven, Don! I am heading back first! Something happened on the beach!"

Steven quickly helped and took the bag of pokeblocks from me as I jumped onto Flamel's back. He immediately galloped off in the direction of the beach as the rest of my team followed behind. Just what happened? They have only ONE job and that is to look after lapras! How hard can it be?!

I have a feeling the battle-hungry trio is at fault here. I shouldn't have left them with lapras, who knows what trouble they are going to stir up this time?

We quickly arrived onto the scene and what is laid out in front of us got our tongues tied. Even Fuzzy is quiet.

Snap had gotten himself embedded into the rocky cliff of the beach and then froze in a huge block of ice, like someone is trying to prevent him from getting out of the rock cliff. Hulk is grabbing a struggling Kratos from behind and they too, are frozen in ice together with an entire section of the beach. Bigblue looks like he was attempting to escape into the sea but again, frozen in ice like the rest of the team. Ness is now a gigantic ice cube. Toothless is hovering high above in the sky, he is so high up that he is a mere speck in the sky now. I wouldn't have spotted him if it wasn't for the bright flame at the end of his tail.

And is that Lily riding on his back? I think I see tentacles waving from Toothless's back.

Lapras made her way up to me excitedly. She is bouncing, that is the only way I can describe what she is doing right now. She looks like an excited puppy who had just did something worthy to be called an achievement and wants someone to praise her.

'Rena? Can you translate what just happened?'

Rena's left eye is twitching uncomfortably in visible annoyance and the twitching got worse as she conversed more with the excited lapras.

'She is asking if she did a great job in greeting the team. Snap had told her that a spar is how we greet each other and then… it turned into THIS.'

Lapras nudged me with her head in an excited manner, waiting for my praise. I sighed as I patted her head. How am I going to explain to her that this is not how our team greet each other? Lapras let out a satisfied cry at my touch and peered at the rest of my team.

Uh oh.

"No more battles, lapras." I disrupted her thinking before she sprouts anymore funny ideas in that head of hers. "You need to learn how to chill. I don't know what nonsense Snap told you but having a battle every single time we see each other is not how we greet each other in our team."

Lapras gave me a shocked look and whined. She looks visibly distressed at the thought of not being able to battle.

Damn it, Snap. What have you done?!

On the other hand…

"You know what? I am just going to name you Chill, I have a feeling that you are going to need that reminder, a lot. Might as well put it in your name."

Chill gave an excited whistle as she starts to shift excitedly at her spot once more the moment I named her. She even released an Icy Wind into the air like fireworks the moment she got herself a name.

"Chill." I called her name tiredly in resignation as I placed a hand on my forehead to soothe the incoming headache. Someone save me from this madness. I am also going to need to ask Dad on where exactly he had gotten Chill from.

"Chill. Chill?" The repeated calling of Chill's name finally got her attention and she looked at me with a cute tilt of her head.

"You need to chill."

AN: A short chapter, but I think you guys will appreciate the slice of life moment that I had been cooking up in my head. I only have three hours to write this out, so there will probably be a fair share of mistakes in it since I don't really have the time to check. Regardless, this chapter is here for me to properly introduce Chill and to help you guys better understand the personality of the new pokemons in Vel's team a little better, it has no real significance to the plot other than trying to get you guys to laugh.

As usual, I hope you enjoy the chapter.

Character and pokemon list:

Velda Vera, Age: 13, Female, Pokemon Trainer, Runner-up in the 528th Ever Grande Conference

Pokemon on hand:

1) Rapidash (Flamel), male

2) Swampert (Bigblue), male

3) Banette (Dolly), female

4) Flygon (Snap), male

5) Absol (Kelsa), female

6) Charizard (Toothless), male

7) Cradily (Lily), female

8) Espeon (Rena), female

9) Pachirisu (Fuzzy), male

10) Tyranitar (Kratos), male

11) Cleffa (Joy), female

12) Nidoqueen (Ness), female

13) Pangoro (Hulk), male

14) Porygon-Z (Jarvis), genderless

15) Scizor (Archer), male

16) Lapras (Chill), female

"Chill, focus. The sharpedos are not here to play with you or to say hello. Stay away from them."

I reminded Chill once again to stay on her course from where I am riding on her back. She is giving me a ride on the sea around Mossdeep's perimeter. The bigger members of my team that were frozen are now at the pokemon center where the nurses are in the process of thawing them out of the ice. Seeing that I have nothing better to do, I decided to go surfing with Chill and Steven tagged along with us. Toothless is flying overhead high up in the sky, still a little wary of Chill and giving her a very wide berth. Fuzzy is sitting on Chill's head, grabbing onto her horn as he squeaked loudly into the sky in a dramatic fashion. Rena is unwilling to translate for me what Fuzzy is saying since according to her, what Fuzzy is saying right now is utter nonsense and completely incomprehensible.

Rena yawned lazily from where she is beside me with Joy snuggling next to her. Steven is also with us sitting right behind me as his skarmory flew alongside Toothless. His armaldo is swimming beside Chill, happy to take a swim.

Talking about Chill.

I raised my xtrancivever up and spoke to it.

"Jarvis, call Dad."

The screen of my xtranceiver blinked in response as it automatically began to dial Dad's number. Jarvis prefers to live in my xtransceiver in his data form instead of his pokeball. He enjoys serving me, his trainer. I suspect this is something which I think is a mentality that the scientists who invented his species had programmed into them since the extent which he tries to make himself useful to me is a little too much for it to be natural. He goes out of his way to make my life as convenient and easy as possible as long as it is within his power to do so. I don't want to treat him as some sort of slave, but whenever I broached this topic with him, Jarvis gets extremely distressed since he thinks that I might abandon him.

In the end, I decided to let him be. If him serving me truly makes him happy, then I will just let him do whatever he wants in this regard. It is not like I will abuse or mistreat him, I just want him to know that he does not need to have such high level of servitude towards me. He is my friend, not my slave.

I don't think Jarvis have fully comprehended that concept yet despite having a highly sophisticated A.I. brain, but I think I got him thinking.

Jarvis is the second pokemon on my team that is capable of conversing with me. So long as he is able to enter an electronic device with a screen, he can type words and display it for me to see what he is trying to tell me and I will respond by simply speaking back to him. Jarvis can hear me when he is inside the cyberspace even if I don't know how he managed it.

Have I mentioned that Jarvis enjoys playing the little games I downloaded onto my xtransceiver?

Jarvis's favourite is Tetris. I had downloaded that particular game a long time ago during my gym circuit when I was at Slateport and waiting for Vance to meet me. He was an hour late. I passed some of the time by downloading that game and played with it for a while, and then completely forgot about the existence of the game on my xtransceiver thereafter. Jarvis found the game when he was exploring the contents of my xtransceiver in his spare time and experimented with it.

His highscore in the game is now the highest score across the globe. In fact, the top ten highest score for Tetris were completed by a player with the username 'Jarvis'. There was even a small section on the newspaper two days ago where the reporters reporting the recent mysterious appearance of a Tetris player sweeping across the Tetris's leaderboard and got many players worldwide thinking if it is even possible to achieve such a high score in the game.

Well, it is possible. Just that it is not humanely possible since it was an A.I. that achieved it.

My xtransceiver rang for a short while before Dad picked up the call.

"Vel?"

"Dad." I greeted as I think of how I should ask him my burning question. Go straight to the point? Sounds good.

"How and where did you get my lapras? I need to know the details. I named her Chill, by the way."

Chill shot beams of ice excitedly into the air the moment she heard her name, scaring away all the wingulls in the vicinity.

"The Sevii Islands. Four Island, to be specific. Chill was taken from a pack of lapras under Lorelei's care. Her lapras, who is also her starter, is the leader of the pack."

Suddenly everything makes a lot more sense. If Chill was taken from such a pack, it explains why she is so good at combat.

It is a well-known fact that Lorelei had quit being an Elite Four member to better help in the conservation efforts to protect the lapras species in her hometown, Four Island. Lapras are an endangered species and needs special care and protection from humans to prevent them from going extinct. However, in Chill's case, she was probably too well-protected since she looks at everything as if she had never seen them before. She had probably never ventured beyond Four Island until she was given to me.

"Vel? Is everything alright? Is Chill giving you problems?" Dad asked when he took my silence as something to be worried about.

"It's fine. It's just that Chill is unexpectedly strong. I left her alone on the beach for only about fifteen minutes and she took out almost half of my team in that short amount of time, and by that I mean she took out the stronger ones. She had beaten even Kratos by freezing him in ice. It may have been a sneak attack from her since I don't think she is that strong to beat Kratos in direct combat, but even Toothless is a little scared of her."

"Chill is that strong? I had asked Lorelei if she had any lapras on hand to be given away to an Elite level trainer but I didn't think she would part with such a strong one. Lorelei even seems eager to do so."

"You will know why she reacted that way if you see Chill in action." I replied in a deadpan as I turned on the camera on my xtransceiver so that Dad can see what is going on at my side. I turned the camera towards the sea where a large pack of sharpedos are swimming around us, probably trying to hunt us down but a little wary about us at the same time.

"Vel, are you sure about this?" Steven asked with caution from where he is sitting behind me. Even his armaldo had slowed down its pace and started to swim behind us, a little afraid of what Chill can really do.

They are actually feeling afraid for the sharpedos, not us. It's not that hard to understand, the beach we were at is still frozen and there are kids there now that took this chance to have a fun time there by playing at the frozen beach. At least some good came out from all the trouble.

"Dad needs to see this. Watch carefully, Dad. Chill, go say hello to the sharpedos."

Chill gave an excited cry as she immediately swam towards the pack of sharpedos at high speed. The sharpedos took this as a cue to charge at her as well, jaws snapping and ready to tear us into shreds.

Chill sucked in a breath before unleashing a massive Blizzard at the main bulk of the pack, freezing them into a massive iceberg. One of the sharpedos managed to get up close to her but she smacked it far and away with one of her flippers. I think that sharpedo just suffered a concussion with how hard Chill had smacked it.

"See that? Her strength is a little unnatural. Not only that, she thinks that the best way to say hello to any pokemon is through a battle. My trio will not be the ones giving me white hair, she will."

A huge blast of Freeze-Dry froze the remaining sharpedos around us as Chill happily went to talk to the frozen sharpedos through the ice, further emphasising my point. The entire beatdown did not take even a minute.

"I think I can now see why Lorelei was so enthusiastic in sending Chill over." Dad admitted. "Taking care of Chill must not have been easy, even with her lapras leading the pack. I heard from Lorelei that Chill is an offspring of her lapras, which is the main reason why I chose Chill specifically for you out of all the available lapras Lorelei presented me with."

"Chill definitely learnt more than just swimming from her parent." I sighed as I turned the camera back to point at my face so that Dad can see me.

"At least things will not be boring?" Dad said in an attempt to make me see things in a more optimistic light.

"Definitely. Don't laugh, Steven." I glared at the future Hoenn Champion, who didn't even bother to hide his laughter from me as he laughed at my predicament. "I will find a pokemon similar to Chill and I will give it to you. You just wait."

"Nah, that won't happen. Chill is one of a kind. Right, Chill?"

Chill summoned a Thunder down this time in excitement, almost frying Steven's armaldo in the process.

"Chill, chill."

Chill immediately schooled her face back into a serious expression, trying very hard to calm herself down. So far, she hasn't lasted half a minute before she gets back into her usual behaviour.

"Just you wait, Steven. I will give you a Steel type that is too damn good for you to refuse but with Chill's personality. Just you wait."

"I can help to find a pokemon like that." Dad chipped in.

"Can I refuse the offer?" Steven asked with caution. We are the Veras. Any pokemon that we want to find, we can probably find them if we put our heart into it. I turned around to face Steven once more before giving him my reply.

"No."

That's what he gets for laughing at my predicament.

'This is the nicest thing eveeeerrrrrrrr!' Fuzzy said with his mouth full as he turned towards Archer. 'Right, Reddy?'

Archer merely took another bite out of his pokeblock, completely ignoring Fuzzy.

'Dooolly~~ Reddy is ignoring me!'

'These are really good.' Kel commented as she took another nibble of the pokeblock, a little reluctant to eat it whole as she wants to slowly savour the taste of it. 'Vel really splurges on us this time, I heard that it cost her quite a bit to get these for us.'

'Object identified… Pokeblocks… Calculating estimates based on data downloaded… Estimated cost… 15,000 pokedollars….'

'Is that a lot of… what did humans call it again? Money?' Hulk asked Jarvis as he too, chose to savour the treats instead of wolfing down his food like what he usually does.

'Yes.' Jarvis gave his usual one-word reply when he does not need to do any form of analysis on his part.

'Come on Jarvis!' Fuzzy squeaked out as he cupped the sides of Jarvis's face with his paws and moved Jarvis's head up, down, left, and right. 'Learn to speak normally!'

'I can help too! I learnt new words!' Joy exclaimed as she raised a stubby arm into the air.

'At least Jarvis talks to us. Hey Archer, why so quiet?'

Archer just gave Bigblue a disinterested glance before returning to eating his food.

'The cool, quiet type, eh?' Lily commented as she takes her own sweet time to enjoy her food.

'Can I have a single bite? Please?' Kratos asked in an uncharacteristically polite manner.

'No. Vel had forbade you three from eating these snacks as your punishment. Your mistakes, not ours. Deal with it.' Ness said as she shot down Kratos's plea and munched on her own treats.

'Ness is right.' Rena said as she finished up her meal. 'You brutes need to learn not to fight every single pokemon you see.'

'BATTLE? ARE WE BATTLING? ARE WE BATTLING? LET'S-'

'No, Chill. We aren't. Calm down.' Flamel said to Chill as he tries to prevent her from summoning a tsunami from out of nowhere.

'They look so tasty…' Toothless whispered to himself as he drooled at the sight of the pokeblocks. Snap nodded his head in agreement.

Archer had finished his food by now and moved to walk away.

'Where are you going?' Hulk asked as Archer started to leave.

'Back to guarding Vel.' Archer replied without even turning his head or slowing his pace, the sound of his metallic footsteps resonating across the area that they are currently at.

'She is with Steven right now, and Steven is plenty strong. Vel had only left us for like… how long is it again? Jarvis?' Hulk said as he too finished his meal together with the rest, much to the dismay of the battle-hungry trio. Vel had given their share to the rest of the team as punishment for the trouble they had caused on the beach earlier.

'Calculating time lapsed… five minutes and twenty-seven seconds.'

'Guarding her is my job.' Archer replied without missing a beat.

'You need to learn to relax, buddy.' Snap said as he draped his short arms around Archer's metal shoulder casually. 'Relax, have some fun, fight some battles, laugh a little, things like that.'

'And then get yourself scolded and punished by Vel to complete the routine.' Fuzzy added the important part that Snap had purposely omitted.

'We can all do without the last part.' Bigblue spoke out as he used his head fin to pinpoint Vel's location. 'There, Vel is over there and walking over to us right now.'

"Oh, were the pokeblocks nice?" Vel asked the team as she reappeared with Steven beside her.

'Very! Can I have some more?' Fuzzy asked as he floated in front of Vel and put on his cutest face.

'Vel, can I have some too?' Toothless begged shamelessly with his wings tucked and looked at his trainer with pitiful watery eyes.

'What in the name of Arceus are you doing, Toothless? Do you have no pride?' Kratos chided at the sight of his rival's behaviour.

'Getting some good food. What is pride when there is good food to be eaten? Food is very important, Kratos.'

"I guess they enjoyed it." Steven commented from beside her. "My team had loved it too."

Archer stood beside Vel on her other side like her silent bodyguard. He is always following Vel around as long as he is able to. Nobody is complaining, but it seems like he is doing it out of a sense of duty more than a heavy sense of attachment to Vel. He never revealed the reason when asked either. Archer is a very silent and reserved individual that rarely speaks.

"Glad that you guys enjoyed it." Vel said as she patted Fuzzy and ignored Toothless's pitiful looks. She is still mad at the trio for what they did the moment she found out with Rena's help about what had happened back at the beach.

"Your time with the LSDF is almost up, right?"

"Yup, thanks for letting me stay over at your place this entire time, Steven."

"No worries. What do you plan to do after this? I think you have about a week or two to relax before things starts to get hectic for you."

"Vance said that he got accepted by Scott to be a Frontier Brain. The Battle Frontier will be opening in a few days time, so our entire family will be there to watch the opening ceremony and try out some of the facilities as well. I myself want to test my skills at the Battle Factory, just to see the extent of my knowledge and how well I can adapt to different kinds of unfamiliar situations. The Battle Tower sounds fun too, my trio can go all out there if we choose to complete it at the highest difficulty. The other members of my team can try the other facilities and get more battle experience as well."

"Hmm… tell me more after you are done visiting the Battle Frontier. Maybe I will find a day and head down there myself. The facilities sound like fun."

"No one will want to fight you. It will be a guaranteed loss on their part."

"But… But I really want to try out the facilities too…."

I thought I saw rain clouds forming over the top of Steven's head. Did someone use a Rain Dance?

"You sure you are fine sleeping in that corner? You don't need anything else to make yourself more comfortable or sleep in your pokeball?"

It is a common question that Vel had asked him almost every night before she went to sleep ever since she became his trainer. Archer shook his head, he is fine sleeping the way he does by sitting down in the corner of the room and close his eyes. He had long since gotten used to it way before he had met Vel.

Also, he can better protect her this way.

"Alright, let me know if you change your mind, yeah?"

Archer nodded in acknowledgement as Vel went to lie on her bed, pulling the covers over herself and several members of the team who are small enough to fit on her bed as well. Archer finally decided to close his eyes to get some rest the moment he saw the slow and rhythmic rise and fall of Vel's chest that signalled to him that she had fallen asleep.

Out of all the trainers that he had the chance to work with, Vel had been the kindest.

He was caught by a trainer as a scyther. His first trainer was a Ranger. Unlike Vel, he was an average trainer. It was his dream to help maintain the delicate balance between humans and pokemons. A respectable dream, a dream that he once shared with his first trainer. His first trainer spent more time with the other members of the team than with him, but Archer was fine with it. He is not the type that required much attention from his trainer. The team that he was a part of weren't particularly skilled or strong, but they tried their best in fulfilling their duties.

Then one fine day, it happened.

A human was reported missing in some dense woods and the Rangers were tasked to find the missing human. His trainer found the missing human in the end, but they also found themselves fighting against a large horde of sevipers on their way back. His trainer and the team fought the huge nest of sevipers to buy time for the human to run to safety.

Archer was the only one from the team to survive. He had failed to protect his trainer and he will never forgive himself for it. He had sworn to protect his trainer and his dream. He failed. He had broken his oath.

His deceased trainer has no living relatives left, so the humans who were his trainer's superiors decided to pass him on to another trainer. Archer was sad at the passing of his first trainer, but he also knows that he needs to move on despite the guilt he felt. Life and death are part of a natural cycle that every living being has to go through.

His second trainer was a member of Hoenn's ACE.

His second trainer treated his pokemons more like soldiers than companions. Archer was indifferent to this. His second trainer is decently skilled for a trainer, but he didn't have the time to properly train Archer because he was always so busy. Archer likes the thrill of battle and he doesn't particularly like the blatant favouritism, but he swallowed it down because he is now a pokemon of his second trainer and he now have a duty to help him in any way he can.

He is not going to let what happened to his first trainer befell on his second trainer.

Two moons after he was passed on to the second trainer, Archer's second trainer had stupidly disobeyed orders and overextended himself. Archer was beside him and fought ferociously to protect his second trainer from harm but it was for naught. A gyarados had batted him aside with an Aqua Tail and then proceeded to crunch his second trainer into two before swallowing him whole.

Somehow, Archer survived that bloodbath too. He was the only one from the team who survived the onslaught from the pack of gyarados.

That made the guilt he felt even worse. What kind of pokemon is he if he can't even protect his trainer from harm? What use is he? Why did he even train himself for?

What is his reason for living? To get stronger? For what purpose?

Archer was soon registered as a spare pokemon in the League's collection of pokemon on reserve. It is a group of pokemon that was collected to be passed on to trainers enlisted in the League's forces if they ever need a new member on their team. Archer was passed on from one trainer to the next and he had grown numb to this arrangement due to how often it happened. Maybe it is due to the hazardous nature of the job that being enlisted in the League's forces entails, but every trainer that he had the chance to work with had all somehow met a grisly end.

It was for this reason that he never bothered to socialise with any other team that he was a part of after that. Why bother? They will soon be dead anyway. Why form emotional attachments when they will soon be forcefully severed? It will just hurt him even more. Every single time when he thought he had found a permanent home his trainer will die on his watch no matter how hard he tried to protect them. So why bother? Why even bother to try at all?

In the end, he will be left alone to pick up the pieces, just like always.

It wasn't long before most of the trainers in the League's forces knew about the 'Cursed Scyther'. Close to no one wants to pick him as his companion after knowing his past. Archer didn't blame them. How could he? He had failed to protect each and every of his past trainers. They had died on his watch.

He is useless as a pokemon, both as a fighter and a companion.

Archer lost count on how many moons had passed until Steven picked him up. Archer wasn't sure if Steven is ignorant of his history or if he simply doesn't care, but he managed to help him evolve into a scizor in a short span of a week. Steven had said that he will be giving him away to another trainer and asked if he could help protect her on his behalf. Archer agreed as usual; it has become a normal routine for him by now. He gave the same oath to Steven that he had broken dozens of times, that he will try his best to protect his new trainer that he will be given to.

Will his evolution help him to protect his next trainer? Archer doesn't know, but he hopes it will be the case.

His new trainer is the smallest and youngest trainer he had ever worked with. She is someone who is full of love, someone that a pokemon like him will never deserve.

He doesn't want to be under the command of this trainer. He doesn't want his curse to work its magic and harm his new trainer. He doesn't want a human as wonderful as Velda to die.

Still, it is what it is. Velda is his trainer now and he will serve her until his dying breath. Or her dying breath, depending on who croaks first.

Velda even gave him a unique name to call his own. She is the first trainer to give him a name.

Archer, that is his new name. According to Vel, Archer shares the same name with a fictional character who was a hero, even if it the character is a hero with many flaws and had gotten himself lost along the way after experiencing many setbacks. Still, Vel had said that she had admired the hero's initial determination before he had gotten himself lost on his path.

However, Vel had also said that the main reason she named him as Archer is also because both him and the fictional hero are covered in red from top to bottom and that they also both shared the same 'cooler than thou' attitude.

For once, Archer can actually feel his mouth twitching in irritation. Is that how his new trainer name her pokemons? Really? Cooler than thou attitude? What was that? Is that a compliment or a jab at him?

At least he can take consolation at the fact that he didn't have a name as bad as Toothless. Did she even see how sharp Toothless's fangs are? Who even names a gigantic fire-breathing lizard capable of destroying mountains with such a harmless and cutesy name?

His new trainer, that's who.

Despite her questionable naming sense, Archer cannot deny that Vel cares a lot about him and the entire team. It is the most care and concern he had felt in a long time. He still does not want to socialise with the team, because he is afraid that his greatest fear will come true. He doesn't want to finally make friends only to have them be taken from him again.

To stop his greatest fear from turning into reality, there's only one thing he can do. He will see to its completion even at the cost of his life. Maybe he can finally redeem himself.

Vel had named him after a hero whose initial dream was to protect the whole of mankind. Protecting the whole of mankind is too big a task for a scizor like him, but he can try his best to protect just one human.

He will protect Velda, no matter what it takes. This time, he will no longer let his trainer die under his protection. Velda will be the last trainer that he will work under and she will live to a ripe old age if he has any say in this matter.

After all, Vel had named him after a hero. A hero never goes back on his oath. Velda had promised him to do her best to take care of him as her trainer, he will give her a silent promise in return.

Velda will live, that is his promise to her as her pokemon.

AN: I wanted to carry on writing from here and introduce the Battle Frontier, but after writing Archer's history, I think the mood of this chapter is a little too solemn (?) to introduce something as fancy as the Battle Frontier. I think I might stick to writing short chapters in the meantime since I really don't have much time on my hands. The story's progression is also a little slow these few chapters, but I think it is necessary for character development. I will see how it goes.

Not sure how you guys will feel in regard to Archer's past, but I think this kind of scenarios is actually very realistic and within the realms of possibility. I did mention a long time ago in IJWTTTW that the League had numerous pokemons on hand that they give to the trainers under the League's forces who needs them. I don't think it is a far stretch to imagine that some of them might have belonged to other trainers at some point, including deceased ones.

In any case, I hope you enjoy this chapter. I will try to bring the Battle Frontier arc as soon as possible. Not sure how long that will be, but it probably shouldn't be too long. I think.