Days passed and the duo had seen many placed it had to offer but on this one day, the room in the pokecenter was empty but for one occupant and his beloved pokemon. Nick woke up around ten o'clock that afternoon at Piaki’s hand work. He always requested her to wake him up if he tried to sleep past ten. The boy yawned, as he did he noticed Piaki pointing to something urgently. It was a note from Kairi.

Dear Nick,

I’m off ta store. Ma got me a shiny new pokegear! I haveta go pick it up! Take care. Also, Ma sent Ember. She musta missed ya real bad so take care of her Nick!

I got my pokegear! It’s a very cute model too. I called Kurt to make sure it worked, it did and he told me my pokeballs were ready so I’m going to Azalea for the day, I probably wont be back until later so have fun today!

• Love Kairi.

Well, that sucked… To explore this city alone would be boring and Kairi would miss out on things… He could go ahead and go to the gym. Yeah. That would probably be the best to do for now. Nick yawned once more, stretching to the ceiling and climbed out of bed to prepare for another day.

The gym was only a fifteen minute walk away from the pokecenter, he took one step in before stepping back slightly. The gym had a very girly flare to it, sweet scented flowers and potted plants decorated the gym, the floor was covered in light pink and cream colored tiles, a series of stairs and platforms covered the floor to make a giant maze trainers had to traverse through and waiting in the maze were many pretty girls ready to fight.

He wasn’t really expecting this. He sucked at puzzles.

About two hours later, Nick managed to bat away the lasses and beauties in the gym, this only managed to leave him annoyed. He never understood why trainers need doubles, even triples, of the same pokemon. What was even the point of that? With a sigh he shook his head and approached the gym leader. She was a young lady in her mid teens with pink hair with golden hairclips and matching pink eyes. She was dressed in light white sports jacket with gold buttons and trimmed red. She was dressed in jean shorts, blue and black striped knee high socks, red and white sneakers and had a red sweatband on her right wrist.

“Well, what can I do for you cutie?” She winked. Nick shuttered and glanced aside. She was hitting on him. Ew. Gross. Getting hit on by strangers was weird.

“My name is Nick Sakati of New Bark Town! I’ve come to challenge you!” Whitney’s pink eyes sparkled as she let out a dreamy sigh.

“You’re Kairi’s friend! How cute! You’re way more adorable than I thought you would be!”

“W-what… how do you know Kairi?”

“I met her at the radio tower today! She was so confused about the building was adorable! She was trying to win a radio card, she was pretty good at the quiz too. She ended up telling me about a cute friend of her’s named Nick and how he’s going to enter the Pokemon League!”

“Oh, that’s nice of her…?”

“And you know what else is cute?”

“…No?”

“My pokemon of course! But just because we’re cute doesn’t mean we wont beat you up! Go Clefairy!” Nick was finally relieved that the battle beginning, that whole conversation was getting kinda unnerving for a while. He quickly released Ember, the blue flamed horse pokemon clomped her hooves, excited to see Nick. She affectionately nuzzled her face against his. He smiled, petting her flaming mane. Whitney gasped. “Wow! What a pretty pokemon and it even has blue flames! But no where as good as mine! Now, double slap Clefairy!”

“Ember is special like that. She’s one of rare coloring of pokemon, a shiny pokemon! Now, use flame wheel!” The horse’s body was enveloped in blue flames and she charged to meet Clefairy. The force of the horse slammed into the fairy pokemon, making it go off kilter but it came right back to at least land two slaps on the horse. Of course Ember would have none of that and stomped on the fairy’s head, making it smash face first into the floor.

“How dare you do that to my Clefairy!” Whitney growled “Clefairy use Metronome !” with its face still on the ground, Clefairy lifted its arms and waved its stubby fingers back and forth. The attack was chosen and Clefairy lifted it’s face and opened it’s mouth to… unleash a torrent of leaves. Ember, being a fire pokemon, was hardly harmed. The horse glared, Nick’s face was on the floor and Whitney was horrified.

“Stomp on it….” Nick called to break the silence. Ember complied, stepping on Clefairy again, knocking it out. With a huff, Ember returned to Nick’s side where she was once more pet with affection.

“One left…” Whitney muttered returning her Clefairy and released her own Miltank in it’s place. “But I ain’t losing!” Nick paled slightly. Miltanks for always a force to be reckoned with. Kairi taught him that well, especially when he made his first visit to her farm and from watching her fight Black. Rollout had to be the deadliest attack this pokemon could do, it could easily take down half of his team too.

Well, maybe Baster could do something. He was a very strong fellow and he could take a rollout or two. Probably. Nodding to himself Nick recalled Ember and released his Croconaw. The big jaw pokemon let out a roar before crouching into a defensive stance.

“Knock him around with a rollout Miltank!”

“Grab her!” Whitney blinked. No one ever attempted that before. That was just crazy! Well, it’s not like it would work anyway… Except that was not the case, Blaster grabbed the Miltank and supaplex her onto her back. On Nick’s instructions Blaster bit down on the Miltank’s back. The cow let out a howling moo of pain and scrambled away to the side of it’s trainer. Whitney gave her pokemon a look of pity before scowling at Nick.

“You’re so rude!” she barked. “I’m gonna make you pay! Stomp on that jerk Miltank! Stomp on it!” the Miltank shook it’s head, obviously not wanting to deal with that evil Croconaw. Whitney let out a stressed yell and flailed her limbs, Nick used this opportunity to bast the trainer and pokemon with a water gun. No one could tell if Miltank was actually down or just pretending to avoid confrontation with the big jaw pokemon, regardless, the referee declared Nick the winner. Whitney was instantly in tears, a rather startling development for Nick.

“You meanie!” she sobbed. Nick awkwardly took a step back and into a lass, who sighed as she scratched her head.

“Gee, you made her cry again.”

“That’s… um…”

“Weird, I know, just give her a couple of minutes and she’ll be fine. ”

—

Hours passed and Black was still on his perch on top of the department store. With a bored expression he flipped a switchblade open and close. Soon this even bored him so he took another look through the binoculars after coughing up money. He swept the streets to take notice of a familiar person. Nick leaving the gym with his shiny plain badge in hand. More specifically, Nick without Kairi. Perfect. With a sickening grin Black made his way to the elevator.

He was going to make him regret putting down his offer.

—

Kairi tiredly stumbled into the room late that night. She glanced to her pokegear to see the exact time, 10 : 29 PM in big white text. Predictably, Nick was already asleep, curled up in a tight ball underneath the bed sheets with Piaki curled up on the unoccupied pillow next to his head. The Pikachu looked up at her tiredly. Kairi pet the Pikachu on it’s head, in return she nuzzled her face into her hand, she pat her friend on his head before changing into her pajamas.

It was odd, Kairi thought as she laid in her bed, the air seemed so thick and tense…

Well, it was probably nothing. If it really was, Nick would tell her in the morning…

…

..

.

..

…

At the hands of usual habits Kairi was the first to rise once more, when she returned to the room she found Nick awake. He looked rather tired and even more ragged than usual. Kairi smiled.

“Mornin’ partner.” a heavy silence followed. “Did you have fun yesterday?”

“Oh… yeah. Fun, fun you know.”

“That’s great!” Kairi smiled. “ I’m sorry that I left you alone all day but today I can make up for that. Are you ready to go explore the city again?”

“Yeah… just give me a minute… I need to shower.” Kairi nodded, excusing herself and waited down stairs. About twenty minutes later Nick came down the stairs, he didn’t look better, but at least a little refreshed. Kairi figured he must have had a bad dream after she fell asleep. She took her friend by the hand with a smile.

“C'mon Nick. I heard there’s a bike store in the city. Maybe we can buy some?”

“That sounds like a great idea,” after getting directions from the nurse joy the duo made their way around buildings and narrow alleyways to a small building behind the department store. The building was not in the finest of conditions, windows smudged and dirty, a few blue shingles were missing from the roof.

“You would think a bike shop would be more obvious… and in better condition…” the two stepped into the building, the inside of the store was… okay. A few tool boxes strewn about, bikes lining the walls and racks.

“Um, hello?” Kairi called. Not even seconds later there was a sound of someone’s head hitting the counter top and a groan. The owner of the voice soon appeared from under the counter, rubbing his head.

“Sorry about that, this is Miracle Cycle’s Goldenrod branch. Here at Miracle Cycle, the world is a cycling path!” the man rubbed the back of his neck. “So, have a look around. Holler if you…” he let out a sigh. “Actually… can I ask you two to do something for me…?”

“I guess so mister….”

“The truth is, I’m not getting a whole lot of sales. The location the company chose is pretty terrible, not many trainers know I’m out here and because of that it’s rare to get customers. So, I’ve been thinking, what if I get some trainers to advertise my bikes for me? You two look like a pair of kind, loyal and honest kids… so can I hope on you to do that?”

“How would we advertise the bike although?”

“I’ll let you two borrow some and you can ride them around, they have our store name on them too so people will know our names and look us up!”

“Gee, that sound swell! What do you think Nick?” he nodded.

“That sounds like a great idea, we’d be glad to help you sir.” The grateful man told them to pick any bike from any section. Kairi, being the simple girl she was, she chose a simple pale blue bike and Nick grabbed the nearest bike next to him, that happened to be a yellow sports bike. Kairi and the man exchanged numbers and the duo left the shop.

Not far off was Simon, he exited the casino, which was open to all ages as long as they had a form of valid ID, with an Abra on his shoulder. He smiled fondly at the PSI pokemon as it perched itself on his shoulder. In the distance, he heard a voice. That was Kairi. He could tell. He knew it and he couldn’t deal with this now…

Just walk, he thought to himself, just keep on walking.

Kairi had none of that. She threw herself on her friend, hanging off his arm.

“Oh partner! It’s so nice ta see ya again!” he kept his mouth shut. “Aw c'mon Simon! Don’t act like that! Ya know ya missed me! We should eat lunch together!” without waiting for a response, Kairi once more dragged Simon off with unnatural strength. Nick sighed, reluctantly following the two to the food court in the department store.

“So, how’s ya adventure been goin’ Simon?” the boy tapped his hands on the table with irritation. He looked away with a huff.

“Fine.”

“Nick has collected three badges so far! I’ve never seen him battle a gym leader but I know it’s real good fights between him and the gym leaders!” Simon looked interested for a moment, he smiled. A smile that warmed Kairi. Simon seemed to catch himself and scowled.

“Yeah! He’s really great at battling, and so far his team is looking good!” Simon glanced aside for a moment, to Nick. He squinted his eyes. Was Nick… limping? The brunette returned to the table with a tray of burgers, french fries and sodas for each of the three.

“Nick, did you manage to be a fool and hurt yourself while training or what?” Simon’s words were intended to be snide and rude but Kairi could hear that undertone of concern. Nick paused handing out the food. He quickly shook his head.

“No… I was just, walking around the city alone yesterday… I, uh, got into a small fight.”

“Nick Sakati in a fight?” Simon sighed. “Now that’s a sight I would like to see!”

“No… it was a lame fight… I got stabbed in the leg…” both Kairi and Simon stopped eating to look at Nick with an incredulous look.

“What?! Who attacked ya Nick?! I’ll punch them!” Kairi bellowed, grabbing the attention of everyone in the food court. Simon forced Kairi back into her seat.

“Did you at least report the jerk? I am doubtful you instigated a fight.”

“I didn’t instigate it, believe me… and it was Black, Kairi… he was probably mad that he lost another battle to you in Azalea.”

“That jerk!” Kairi shook her fist furiously. “He’s got beef with me! He betta bring a fight ta me if hes got problems!” Simon suddenly pulled himself to his feet.

“I’d say this second kidnapping was a delight, but it wasn’t, and I have things to attend to.” Simon took a couple of steps away before Kairi called out to him.

“Are ya sure ya wanna go with out ya pokemon?” Simon’s hands shot to his belt to find the whole belt was missing with his pokemon. He spun around, there Kairi was, seated in that booth seat with a stupid grin on her face.

“Give me those Kairi!”

“No sire!” she huffed, pressing the belt to her chest. “Today I’m takin’ Nicky to the Pokeathlon Dome! You’re his friend too so ya gonna support him too!” Simon groaned loudly, making an exaggerated expression of pain.

Why must she keep on doing this to him?!