“I know it’s going to be a very long climb,” she remarked as she reached for the goggles and snapped them on snugly.

“That, and I also wanted to dwell on what we did here that very first time, long ago. Like… don’t you remember how it ended? It was really… sobering, to say the least,” she added quietly as she approached him and gave him a peck on the cheek.

“No, really…” she continued as she then turned to face the route they were going to tackle. No bikes today, nothing to make this easy. This was going to be hard work from the both of them, and it was incredibly profound.

“Also… sorry if I got here ahead of you,” she added quietly as she waited for him to catch up with her. They weren’t taking the road today, no. Not in the slightest, because that would be too much of a frame advantage now…

Looking up, she saw that the Braviary was joined by an Aerodactyl who was also attacking the remains of the car mercilessly. Even from this considerable height, the car alarm was still going off, and it was driving her nuts to no end!

What the hell is wrong with that car, does the alarm exist in some kind of really tiny hitbox space or something?! She thought as she stuck another finger in her ear before shaking her head slightly. Whistling sharply, the Braviary then banked in mid-air before chasing the remains of the car.

“Silence that tin can for me, will you?!” she said a few moments later, and off went the Braviary once more. Screeching in disgust, another Hone Claws was applied on some wayward wreckage from the car (one of the fallen doors) before this time, the Braviary went straight for the car’s already-open hood and began attacking the machinery within with a Crush Claw attack.

Yep, the noise was getting to her and she was really pissed off!

Okay, so the Moonblast had totaled the door, but then she realized something was amiss—the car alarm was still going off! If Momiji was a Hatterene instead of a Gardevoir, then holy shit she would be really angry now! She thought with a look of glee at the dual-type, before sighing and holding out her hand for a fist-bump gesture.

Hilariously, the Gardevoir returned with a tap of her own ‘fist’, so to speak.

“You did well, you know. But now, it’s time to bring out the angry guns,” she remarked, and with that she recalled the human-shape Pokémon, before sending out her other most trusted fighter—Sora, the Braviary.

The Flying-type let out a squawk at the sight of the car, before Izumi nodded his way. “I know you’ve been wanting to vent out some stress… so here you go. Honestly? Just go ahead and go crazy. I know you want to let loose,” she continued, and with a reassuring squawk, off went the Braviary.

Starting off with a Hone Claws, the Braviary sharpened itself on a stray piece of wreckage before coming in close and suddenly picking up the wreck of a car in a daring Sky Drop attack!

Anything to silence that annoying car alarm!

The Braviary flew high, high, higher into the sky… before letting the thing it was holding in its claws suddenly drop from a rather considerable height.

“Game, set… and match!” she muttered to herself as the Braviary followed the wreckage of the car down, crying out a victorious screech.

It was time to turn up the heat, and so she would. As the car she had smashed with her Psychic attack earlier rolled off to one side, she watched as it was practically assaulted by a huge-ass dinosaur, sinking its claws into the windows before rolling out an equally large rock into the front.

Save some for me! she thought as she then nodded at her Gardevoir once more. “Let’s boost those stats of yours while we wait for an opening. Calm Mind, now!”

Blocking out all the sound, the Gardevoir then concentrated, letting a sense of calm wash over her as she felt her stats increase somewhat. “Do it once more, Calm Mind and get ready!” Izumi urged on, sticking a finger into her ear.

That car alarm was really freakin’ annoying.

As the Gardevoir calmed its mind down a second time, the car alarm reached fever pitch. While the Gardevoir was no Hatterene, she knew that Momiji was getting real pissy right now, and wanted to end that noise that was blaring all around them.

“Moonblast! Go!” she continued, watching as the Gardevoir released a powerful blast of lunar energy, slamming into the opposite side of the car. She heard windows shattering, but the car alarm was still going off!

What could they do to silence it, permanently?!

While she knew that safety in numbers was a good idea, sometimes it was better to search alone.

Specifically, since she was looking for a Riolu and wanted to make sure she found one as soon as possible. Izumi knew that in order to find this particularly finicky Pokémon, she had to come in with a Lucky Strike or something equal to that magnitude.

The problem here was that deep down inside she knew that somewhere, she was going to have a problem looking for one since they tended to be on the rarer side of things, so it was best to start bright and early.

Having left a note for Josh reading only this: “be back before lunch,” she then made her way out past Lavaridge and began casing out the routes where she knew Fighting-types made their practice grounds.

Was she going to get lucky? Or was she going to be literally eating space dust?

How had she gotten herself involved in this…?!

Looking around, she was glad she chose to wear a blue bandana to obscure the lower half of her face. While she didn’t have yet any powerful Pokémon, she was pretty sure she could rely on Sora to get her out of this. Or Momiji. It really depended on the situation.

Looking skyward, she saw that there was something coming down—and knew she had to time this right. With a flick of her wrist, out came the shiny Gardevoir, ready to tussle with… okay, wait a second where the hell were the wild Pokémon?!

“Momiji! Up there! Crush it with your Psychic!” she began, pointing as she began to prepare to barrel roll out of the way. The Gardevoir looked up, before her eyes flared to life and a large rainbow-colored chunk of energy manifested, before being chucked straight at the incoming projectile.

Instead of exploding like an orb, the Psychic then unwound itself before attempting to pulverize as much of the hood of the car as it could reach. With precision control, the Gardevoir’s eyes flared up again, before another loud, crunching noise ripped through the skies as it was chucked back again with another Psychic blast.

Were they going to play some weird game of ‘destruction tennis’ while they were at it?

She didn’t know.

She blinked—wait a second, since when did the ice cream reform into its previous shape? And why the hell was it glowing?

“I didn’t know you had a Meowstic with you,” she remarked as she joined them, Zachary very surprised to see that the ice cream cone he thought he had lost was back in perfect condition. “Here you go, it’s alright—your father has some quick moves, apparently,” she said with a wink in his direction before they too occupied the other side of the bench.

Now that she had her cone of mint chocolate ice cream back, she then began taking more nibbles out of it while looking sideways at Josh. “Look, anything that has water can surely catch a kid’s attention, right? I mean… look at the families that are going in and out of the place,” and with that she gestured with her free hand to point at the droves of families going into the Museum.

Surely it wasn’t because entrance was free now, right? She was absolutely certain there was an open space somewhere inside that had friendly Water-type Pokémon that the kids could ogle at.

“Nice save,” she praised Josh a few moments later, giving him a wink.

Mount Chimney.

This place was responsible for the start of her journey before, having run into a wild Numel of all things before she was saved by one of the people from Lavaridge while they were on their way back from exploring nearby. Honestly, what had she been thinking, foolishly wandering around without a Pokémon companion all those years ago?

Either way, things had changed and she was here to face her worst nightmares once more. Biting her lip, she was pacing at the foot of the ashy mountain, wondering where Josh was. She’d specifically asked him to come alone, and to come with goggles because they were going to be climbing through the extremely ashy place known as Mount Chimney.

Now, the question is, how long would it take them to scale this behemoth of a mountain? Sure, it wasn’t like Mount Pyre (which was much further away) but she was going to take it nonetheless.

MEULK | ✴

Once the Cyndaquil had been captured, she had a feeling that somewhere, another Fire-type would be so very pleased to get his older brother back. Of course, that would be coming soon—not right now, as she had to regain her battle strength.

Although at the moment, this was looking very lopsided. While she did have two handy sources that could teleport and take her wherever she wished, she still found herself lacking something that could coast over water… or go through a forest. But then again…

She was so distracted with her thoughts she didn’t notice that Josh had gone off to catch a… spider. Oh, joy, a Spinarak. Wait, since when was he interested in arachnids?! She blinked a few times before seeing that there was a Vulpix idling around, however before she could approach it, the Fire-type decided to quite literally ‘open fire’ (in a manner of speaking) with an Extrasensory attack!

“Whoa, feisty,” she remarked, before nodding at her Gardevoir’s direction. “Mind if you take care of that one? Don’t overdo it like earlier!” she added before watching as the Gardevoir let loose with a Moonblast explosion of power. “Momo, what did I just tell you about—“ she remarked, grumbling as she massaged her forehead before the Vulpix retaliated with a Disable of its own.

“Gee, look what you did, get yourself out of that trouble,” she added a few moments later with a sigh as she then waved her hand at the Gardevoir, who then lobbed a rainbow-colored chunk of energy at it—a Psychic attack! Teleporting out of the way (as it saw a Will-O-Wisp attack coming right at it) the Gardevoir then appeared a few moments later, blasting the Vulpix from behind with another Psychic explosion.

“Seriously?” she chuckled once more as the Vulpix soared through the air and landed close to her feet, where another vacant Pokéball landed atop the passed-out Fire-type’s head…

She could only cast one look at the ice cream that the kids were holding before Josh handed Zachary over to her, who was clearly enjoying a large helping of vanilla-flavored ice cream.

While there were no sprinkles or any other toppings on it, her eyebrows went up slightly as she was handed her own cone—mercifully, it was mint chocolate chip with the faintest hint of what she guessed were almond shavings? She really couldn’t tell.

“Josh. Love, how are we supposed to get into the museum if we’re eating these?” she inquired as she took a bite out of her own cone, chuckling softly before Zachary started wanting to be carried. “Zach, you’re getting heavier with each day, how can I even manage—“ she got out before the ice cream in his hand almost took a tumble.

“Whoa,” she exclaimed as she moved as quickly as she could manage to catch the ice cream—and now it was all over her hand. “Hey—hey, Zach, it’s not your fault it slipped… these things happen. I mean… would you want to try some of my ice cream?”

Ah, how to be a parent these days. It was hard, but well worth the effort. She was trying her hardest for the other not to burst out crying by quickly sacrificing her ice cream to her son.

“A very long way,” Izumi nodded in agreement, scooting even closer so they could share some body warmth.

“And to think this started what, more or less… I don’t know, half a decade ago. Has it really been that long, now? Sure hasn’t felt like it,” she added off-handedly a few moments later.

“Who knew we’d actually get tired of travelling around and just come settle down in this one place? It’s really unbelievable,” she continued softly, circling around him for a few more moments before noticing there was something a little… off about the ice, so far out here.

“Whoa—hey, whoa!” she yelped, slipping on some of the ice near the very edge of the crater-lake. “No… no wonder the ice feels wobbly out here, it’s not frozen!” she exclaimed a few moments later, hanging onto him for dear life. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I think we should really get back now,” she continued, not wanting to get into some sort of disaster all the way out here.

No wonder there wasn’t anyone else out here this far, whoops.

“Well, you know… after this date ends we’re back to being parents once more,” she went on with another chuckle. “You think they’re looking for us now?” she mused a few moments later as she led the way back to safety.

They did have some ground to cover before they got back to the edge of the rink proper where everyone else was headed.