//------------------------------//
// Into the Forest 
// Story: Pokemon, A Whole 'New' Frontier 
// by CroixAura 
//------------------------------//

Once again they found themselves walking through the forest; the eerie silence had persisted even now. If either of them was put off by the forest’s appearance they certainly didn’t show it as Nao was forever hard to read and Jayce never seemed to falter when Nao was around. As it was, Jayce was singing a bit too loudly and Nao was trying her best to ignore him… though that was as easy as keeping honey from a Teddiursa. It just didn’t happen.

In fact Jayce found himself bouncing a bit as he walked. “I’m on the road to-“

“Jayce please stop.” There was only so much of this particular song she could handle at this moment as the irony behind it wasn’t lost on her. “You are aware we were almost to Viridian when that Jenny found us right?” Sometimes it was left to her to point out the obvious since it was occasionally needed.

Smirking Jayce stopped the bouncing and took hold of Nao’s arm. “I know but it amuses me so though I suppose we could walk like this for a while.” He knew Nao didn’t particularly like walking since he’d always carried her but seeing as they were the same size carrying her wasn’t going to happen unless he was going to do so bridal style. Oddly enough he could imagine Nao trying to smite him for that and she could so very easily. Then something occurred to him and really it should have a bit earlier. “Or you can teach me how to use my abilities correctly.”

Being clung to had a bit of an adverse effect as she felt a bit more subdued than normal. “I’m going to miss being carried.” A slight red tinged her cheeks as she remembered the feel of his arms around her, that would be the feeling she missed most. Now he was a Meowstic though and that opened a lot more possibilities for the future. “Eh what?” Quickly Nao would shake her head as she tried to make the blush go away. “You do realize even though we’re both Meowstic our skill sets are different right?”

“That’s something I looked into a while back, I know you have a preference to attack and that shows with how we battle. Male Meowstics play a more supporting role in battles.” As they had seen against a trainer a few years back who battled Nao with his own male Meowstic. That battle had been fun but had turned a bit less so as he learned the other Meowstic had been trying to hit on Nao through the entire battle. “Still the process should be about the same right? At least I’d like to walk around and not worry I’m going to blow a house away or something.” Reaching up he would tug at his ears which seemed to have become a bit of a habit now that he had them.

Nao had to shake her head, while using abilities might seem the same to a non Pokémon fundamentally it was quite different. “I look to do damage and knock out our opponents as quickly as possible while you would look to protect and support me.” Her eyes would look to Jayce as he tugged at his ears, her paw reached up to tap his paws. “Stop doing that until you can control it.” There was a reason during their first year or so of travel she hadn’t allowed him to play with her ears.

Pulling his paws away he’d let out a small sigh. “I can’t help it…” Normally his hat was on his head and even though he was hardly the same as before Jayce still missed the feeling of it on his head. “Once I figure this out I know we’ll be stronger.” The term perfect team might have been something to say but as it was he already felt they were the perfect team and while he may not have skills to back it up he would eventually.

Nao slowed her pace just enough so that she could examine Jayce. Back in the other world Jayce had spent a lot of time trying to support her and in doing so learned all of the moves she was capable of and the moves that male Meowstics had. Never once did he mention anything about trying to get another Meowstic on the team and Nao knew he never would as he had wanted her all to himself and vise versa. “Why don’t you open your ears and try focusing on the move you did before..and not helping hand.” Even before Jayce had used that particular move she had the suspicion that it’d come easy to him.

Eyes brightening Jayce would try to open his ears though it appeared to be harder than before. Turns out when he actually had to think about doing a move rather than letting it come naturally he’d not quite figured out the trick. “The muscles in my ears should…” It seemed he’d gone into his own world as he tried to talk the process out to himself. Slowly his ears would start to twitch before opening. “Protect!” Once again as it had before a nearly transparent barrier popped into existence around him. Not being in battle this time allowed Jayce to actually look at the barrier he was holding up. This one, at least to him, felt a fair amount stronger than the one he made when he was an Espurr.

Having had to jump away a little bit, she too examined the barrier. “Seems solid enough…try holding it for a few.” Holding the ability might be a bit too much for him right now but Nao had wanted to see him try. Raising a paw up she would take this time to test the barrier herself. “Scratch.” Three little glowing claws seemed to come from her paw as she struck the barrier.

With his ears shaking a bit the struggle Jayce had with keeping the ability going was clearly evident. “Wait what?” Asking as he turned to look at Nao as she hit the barrier. As soon as her attack connected, there was an immediate pressure but he pushed it back to the best of his ability and the barrier didn’t give. “Don’t do that mean ol Nao.”

The mean comment was enough to provoke Nao into slashing at the barrier again and again until it did finally pop. To Jayce’s credit he was able to withstand four strikes before he had to give up the ability. “No other Pokémon would stop when asked and you called me mean.” While it might have been a bit mean to continue attacking he had asked for it. “You’ll need to keep practicing.” Though she’d been a bit surprised when it survived the first attack and again when it survived four more strikes.

“I know I know, practice makes perfect and perfect makes me adorable.” Saying as his paws went to his waist as he tried to strike a more heroic pose. Both he and Nao burst out laughing as he failed horribly to look remotely heroic.”Well that failed, let’s keep going anyway we’ve only been walking for half an hour.” Thus he began walking again though with a little bit more of a vigor to his pace.

Another half an hour passed by without much in terms of interruptions and still the forest remained quiet with the occasional snapping breaking or rustling of leaves. Despite the silence the forest was far from void of life as they saw the occasional bird or even Pokémon, all just happened to be quiet as they too tried to figure out what was happening.

Jayce couldn’t stop himself from feeling a little bad as he saw them lost in their confusion. “Hopefully everything will get a bit better with time. So far this forest hasn’t been too bad and with the ponies seeming somewhat accepting. I think things could go back to being a bit normal.” At least for the wild Pokémon who had never had the chance or the want to partner with a trainer. The trainers however, and this he knew for a fact, would have some serious problems adjusting and adapting if they ever chose to accept it. Some would never accept being a Pokémon as he had, which might cause some problems for the ponies here. At least it seemed there weren’t any Pokéballs or else he might have already had them. For that matter it seemed like nothing from their world except the Pokémon, trainers, and apparently Joys were brought to this world. “Either someone thought this through extremely well or not well enough.”

A rustling in the bush caught Jayces attention and he reacted by taking the stance he would have as a trainer, some things were just innately ingrained in him. Blinking he’d ease his pose as he pointed to the bush for Nao to inspect. “Something’s in there.”

Before Nao could get closer to the bush a Growlithe sprang from it and it appeared to be mad. “Stop right there criminal scum!” Oh no it couldn’t be… “I’m here to place you under arrest for attacking an officer and changing me into a Pokémon!” Somehow Officer Jenny had managed to follow them into this world and was angry enough to think they could do something like that. From behind her another Growlithe stepped out from the bush looking tired.

The audacity of this woman was enough to cause Jayce and Nao to stare. “Wait hold on.” Jayce waved his paws in front of him for a moment just to keep the fire headed Jenny from shouting anymore. “Let me get this straight, you get turned into a Growlithe and the first thing you do is track us down? Never mind how you managed to track us down but you actually think we did this?”

The Jenny actually stopped for a moment to look offended by them. “Yes! Who else could do it? After all you destroyed my motorcycle!”  Her Growlithe companion looked at Jayce and shook his head not buying what Jenny was trying to sell. “Even if I don’t know where I am I can still arrest you, thats my power as an officer of the law.”

Jayce burst out laughing at her explanation though clearly he hadn’t meant to. “I’m pretty sure your power of authority doesn’t extend to Equestria.” While it wasn’t in him to really fight an officer since his normal tactic was to flee from them this time it seemed that wasn’t really an option. “Also it’s your own fault that your bike was destroyed, I get it you’re from the Kanto region but really?” Sidestepping he would stand just behind Nao and poke her ears. “Do you know what sort of Pokémon we are?”

Both Growlithe looked between the two and both seemed to shake their head.

“That’s what I figured.” With a sigh he would walk back around Nao to stand in front of her. “We’re Meowstic. Psychic types.” His own ears flapped open as he’d finally managed to get them to without blasting anything. “Our ears are extremely sensitive and are the source of our abilities.” Flipping his ears shut he’d just stare at the two, particularly Jenny.

Jenny looked to Growlithe and frowned as Jayce was trying to explain something to her. "What’s that have to do with destroying my bike?” She wasn’t supid she was just a bit more hard headed than the average Jenny.

“Everything. Our power is barely contained as it is.” Taking a deep breath he would have to count down from ten to keep himself calm, it was very rare for him to get angry. “Who in their right mind drives at someone and stops like that? You didn’t drive towards us, you drove at us and scared-”

Nao cut into the conversation long enough to correct Jayce. “Startled not scared.”

“I stand corrected. You startled Nao and that was enough for her to lose control.” Actually it was more akin to a counter than a loss of control seeing as Nao hadn’t lost it for a very long time. “Point being you caused your own bike to be destroyed when you decided to come at us.”

That succeeded in getting Jenny to take a step back and actually think about it. There had been a trainer a while back that she’d scared pretty badly too doing the same thing. “Alright I concede that point but the other charges still stand! Someone reported a strange boy engaging in poképhila by the lake!” That had been the original reason for her investigation in to Jayce and she’d be damned if she didn’t stand by it.

Actually there was no explaining that one away, while they hadn’t done anything that night they had in the past. It would be an insult to Nao if he denied it and that was one thing he refused to do. “You know what I accept that charge but seeing as we’re Pokémon now I don’t think it matters.” Still he spread his legs and arms as he prepared to fight if it came down to that.

“What you are now doesn’t change the fact you broke the law and I’m going to take you down. Flamethrower!” Dropping her mouth down Jenny let lose a stream of fire at Jayce. Her Growlithe partner however didn’t seem to jump in to help though, in fact he’d remained quite quiet during the conversation.

Jayce countered the move with one of his own. “Light Screen!” A translucent yellow screen materialized in front of Jayce just in time to intercept the flamethrower. When the attack hit the shield it seemed to slow a bit but it would still hit Jayce though with minimal damage. What did manage to happen was the fire singed his fur a bit and he did seem to feel some of the pain. “Gah!”

With the attack Nao moved to Jayce’s left looking really rather angry. Nobody attacked Jayce except for her. “Psychic!”  Officer Jenny was enveloped in a blue lining and lifted from the ground which caused her to panic a bit. “I don’t care who you are, Jayce is mine.” Her eyes quickly shifted to the other Growlithe just before Jenny was flung into him. She was aware that the Growlithe hadn’t done anything to this point but needed to make sure he would stay out of commission as well.

Growlithe managed to soften Jenny’s landing enough for her to pop back up. “I’ll get you!” With a growl she started running straight at Nao. “Take down!”

Not about to let Nao get hurt Jayce threw himself in front of the charging Jenny while shouting out his next move. “Reflect!” This time translucent blue barrier popped up in front of him. Just like last time with light screen the ability didn’t stop her completely, Jenny hit him hard enough that he went rolling but the adverse effect was she too was knocked back with it. “That…hurt..” Saying from the ground where he landed.

For the first time in a very long time Nao growled as she saw Jayce hit the ground and what was worse she couldn’t tell who she was more angry with. Right now it was between the crazy Jenny who hit him or the idiot Jayce for taking the hit that was meant for her. “I’m going to-“ Her progress towards the two was halted by a sudden and very familiar yell.

“Stop hurting my big brother!” A loud stomping sound was heard from their left just before a Skiddo crashed through the undergrowth and straight into Jenny, the sudden take down sent her rolling along the ground. The goat seemed to recoil a bit from the strike but stood his ground as he looked over the downed Jenny who didn’t appear to be moving so much.

Nao was left staring while Jayce’s eyes went as wide as saucers at the latest arrival. “Hazel?” His voice was barely a whisper with the pain he felt from the take down. With help from Nao he was able stand up to get a better look. There was no mistaking it, this was Hazel.

At the sound of Jayce’s voice, Hazel brightened up before running straight at Jayce and not stopping…oh he didn’t stop. With a rather loud crash, the two hit the ground with Hazel on top of Jayce, nuzzling him. “I missed you big brother sooo much and I heard you singing so I came running and and and.” It took the energetic Skiddo a few moments to finally notice that Jayce was not in fact a human and that he was sitting on top of his trainer. “Big brother? You’re like big sis now.”

Reaching up Jayce would pat him on the head with a warm smile just as he always had before. “Yes I am but we can talk in a minute.” With a little bit of a limp he would walk over to the Growlithe who’d been hurt in the crossfire.

“Sorry about that, Nao’s very protective of me and takes it a bit too far sometimes.” The huff from behind him was enough to say she wasn’t happy with that answer.”There’s a town nearby called Hollow Shades back the way we came. In town there’s a large house that belongs to a pony named Grace, a Nurse Joy is staying with her for a while. She’s uh…not adjusting very well either.”

“I understand.” The Growlithe’s voice was young sounding maybe close to Jayce’s age if it had been a human.

“Thank you I’ll try to get her to go that way. I’m sorry about earlier though she’s kind of focused on you since this change so she doesn’t have to think about it.” With help from Jayce Growlithe finally managed to get off the ground. “Stay safe out there, we don’t know what to expect from this place.”

With a pat on Growlithe’s head he would walk away to rejoin Nao and Hazel, the latter having kept his eyes on Jayce. “Let’s try to get out of here before Jenny wakes up then we can talk. Think you could carry Nao? I know she doesn’t care to walk that much.”

Nao was still fuming a bit about what had actually happened. “I’d rather walk to make sure you don’t do something stupid again. Really Jayce? Really?” Her eyes pierced through him as if she was staring at his soul and it sent shivers down him.

“I deserve that..” Saying as he started to walk away and back on the path they’d decided on earlier. Yes he had jumped in the way of the attack meant for, he would do it again if he had to. Behind him he could hear Nao and Hazel following behind him which was good since he’d been worried he’d pushed Nao a bit too far. “So how did you manage to find us Hazel?” Here Jayce had been worried that there would be miles and miles between them.

“Oh I know this um..” Clopping his hooves on the ground Hazel had to think about it. “I smelled big sis when I woke up but I didn’t know how far, then I heard you singing and clapping.” That had been earlier this morning which had sent him off running. “Then I started running then I heard you singing and I ran even faster.” That had explained everything in one swoop. “Then I saw the mean ol Growlithe attack you so I attacked her and saved my big brother. Is the hero of the hour.” Hazel actually stopped to make a heroic pose and it worked!

Drifting closer Nao would collide with Jayce’s side and stay there as they walked. “I don’t smell.”

The tone she used sent shivers down his spine; best not argue with her right? “I’ve always thought you smelled nice.” Leaning over he’d bury his nose in the fur around her neck and smile. “Now that I’m like you I love it so much more.” To be fair though everyone and everything smelled, now that he was a Meowstic he was noticing things like that a bit more now.

Stiffening a bit she would lightly boop at his nose. “Stop that.” Again though there would be a light tinting of red on her cheeks. “But now that Hazel is here that only leaves two more…” Not including the ones that may have been kept with the professor.

“That’s right Zippy and Splash are left, I’m not sure where to find either of them but they’ll probably show up at some point.” Zippy was still recovering from the fight which worried Jayce a fair amount. “Zippy should be a priority as for Splash just listen out since he likes to well splash.” That was always a good way of finding him when lost if it ever happened. “He’ll look for a lake or something, maybe a river if he’s lucky.”

Hazel shook his leafy mane and looked more energetic than before. “Then you can ride me and we can go fast! I like going fast its fun!” In the other world Jayce had only ridden him once or twice and those were in times of need, he’d felt that using Hazel as a bike would have been cruel. “And since you’re so small I won’t even notice you it’ll be great!” In his excitement he made a full circle around the two who were left looking at each other.

That had been an option Jayce had been considering. “I know you like to be ridden.” Now that he was really rather light it wasn’t out of the question. “We can at least explore a little bit more around here before running off in a random direction.” The direction wouldn’t be as random as he’d already planned a path on the map which he was now working on pulling out. “As I said earlier, before you got here Hazel, we’re going to be looping around the forest then heading this way towards Canterlot.” That was of course if he could get a bearing on direction.

“Oooo will I get to canter around a lot? Which way is it?” Hazel asked as he poked his nose a little too close to the map.

Pushing Hazel away wasn’t so easy as the goat was larger than he was. “West, Canterlot is to the west and sadly I don’t think you can.” By the looks of the map it was obvious this Canterlot was the capital of the region.

“Oh I’ll just have to show them what cantering is then I’m sure they’ll let me canter..” Again he would try the heroic pose while trying to canter at the same time, this ended with a quick trip to the ground.

Jayce couldn’t keep himself from chuckling as he moved to help Hazel up. “Don’t worry too much about it Hazel, we’re dealing with ponies so I’m certain they know how to canter.” Once Hazel was up he’d do a quick once over to make sure he was perfectly fine and not in need of bandages…as was his usual. “Though you can canter all you want while we’re out here.” That seemed to return a bit of Hazel’s energy.

From well off behind them they all stopped as they heard the shout of an angry sounding officer Jenny. “Who’s up for a run? I am!” Grabbing hold of Nao with new found strength and a bit of panic Jayce tossed her on top of Hazel before climbing up. “Hi ho Hazel!”

Rearing on his hind legs Hazel let out a victorious shout. “Woohoo!” Victorious to him any way, to Jayce and Nao it was a declaration of here we are. But before either of them could object to the loud shout, Hazel bolted into the woods, giving no care whether he was too loud. That and the fact he was running off the path Jayce had set with the direction, going deeper and deeper into the forest. “Wait! We’re going the wrong way!” Jayce tried to shout, but it went unheard as the over excited Skiddo kept on going.