//------------------------------//
// Chapter 21 
// Story: New Faces, New Friends 
// by ZephyrStrife 
//------------------------------//

	Mick let out a few grunts as he bounced off of the floor of the clearing a few times, struggling to pick himself back up as he finally lost momentum. Nearby Allen, Richard and Derek were watching him while Gwen had gone off to find something to eat that wasn't a berry.

"Come on Mick, I know you're better than this, you shouldn't be getting thrown around this easily." Emma scolded as she got into a ready stance. "In the wild any pokemon would've knocked you out and torn you up as its next meal with your reaction time... I thought you were training to be a shinobi like your father?"

Mick grit his teeth as his eyes narrowed, he could feel it... his inner fire... He wanted to stoke it, to let it breathe and release just like he had seen Emma do so many times before. Nothing so far he had tried worked though, he was able to light up his back but that was the extent of his fire, the flames on his back weren't even that large to begin with. They had tried practicing, coaching, eating... oddly enough... but nothing worked, so this attempt was tough love. He winced a little as her head and rump flames ignited to a larger degree and she began spinning towards him like a flaming sawblade. She had already crossed the distance between the two before he finally registered the instinct to dodge her [Flame Wheel] attack, but he was too slow, the attack clipped his hind leg and he was thrown off balance just enough to let Emma stop right before he could recover, she dashed over to him and the next moment he had his senses he was flying through the air again as he had gotten hit by yet another [Quick Attack].

As much as he knew Emma didn't like treating him like this... he knew it would pay off... he would evolve soon, right? all this training would be worth it when he evolved and was able to hold his own against other trained pokemon. "I knew that you didn't train for too much combat when you were human... but this is pathetic! I know for a fact that you at least sparred with Eric every week." Emma taunted once more. "Maybe we should just have you stay as a Cyndaquil for the rest of your life, you won't be able to reach Quilava stage, let alone Typhlosion, if you keep letting yourself get smacked around like that."

That was the nick in his patience that did it, he felt his inner fire flare up once more as he got to his feet and he took a deep breath... and let it out, emitting a thick, black smoke that seemed to fill the entire clearing. All of the spectators were waving hands in front of their faces as they tried to stay clear of the smoke that was making it hard to breathe. Emma let out only a couple of coughs as she started controlling her breathing, waiting for the little mouse to attack her.

What she hadn't expected was Mick leaping out from behind her and headbutting her hard in the back, sending her flying forward to land on the ground. She started to get up when Mick tackled her again, fortunately her battle experience gave her a bit more resilience as she quickly grabbed the little fire mouse and began to grapple him, easily managing to pin him under her by the time the smoke began to clear.

Several Butterfree were using gust on the smoke to clear it. "Thanks guys, sorry about that..." Allen apologized as the smoke was finally cleared away, the closest Butterfree hovered nearby and shook its head.

"It's no problem, we're happy to help... besides, it wasn't a forest fire so no harm done." He chuckled as he used his little fist to bump against the Aggron's much thicker fist. "Welp, see ya!" he called before the group of Butterfree began flying away.

"Such good kids..." Allen mumbled as he watched them fly away. "I wonder how Lorna is doing..." He asked quietly to no one in particular as he thought back to his Grovyle. "I really want to see them again... they didn't deserve that treatment... maybe Arceus can help get the three of us back together..." He turned back to the pair of battlers as Mick was starting to get back to his feet. "You two alright?"

Emma nodded. "Yeah, a bit more training and Mick may be able to evolve..." She replied as the little Cyndaquil was dusting himself off. She walked up to him and gave the diminutive fire type a firm hug. "Congratulations Mick, you're now just above the equivalent of a starter pokemon for a greenhorn trainer!"

Mick turned a little to give her a flat look. "I can't tell if you're being sarcastic... or if that was genuine praise."

Allen gave a chuckle. "With women, you'll never know kid... you'll never know."

Derek and Richard were making their way back towards the pair as well, the Machoke smiling a bit broader as he began to speak. "at least you might be able to find a trainer here who wants an adorable little fire mouse pokemon." He leans down to pick up Mick. "Besides... you'll want to stay adorable for as long as you can, because your adorableness will keep you safe."

"It didn't stop the last two pokemon that wanted to try and eat me..." Mick grumbled.

"That's because wild pokemon know that it's the adorable ones that are an easy meal, when you're a predator you go after the adorable pokemon because it's easier to pick off the weaker bits of the population." Gwen explains as she slithers into the clearing.

"I'm gonna guess your hunt went well Gwen?" Allen chuckled.

"Yeah, there's a surprisingly large number of Rattatta in this forest... are you guys sure we're on the right track for Hoofington though?"

"Of course!" Richard says as he pulls out the map. "It's only going to be another three hours' walk from here to get to the town."

"I was just talking to a few of the Ekans around the area and none of them have even heard of the town of Hoofington..."

Richard gave her a flat look. "Would you have ever heard of Ecruteak city in Johto?"

"That doesn't count, I lived in the wild near Goldenrod AND I've actually heard of the city. I learned that within a few weeks of hatching!"

Mick actually blinked once as he looked between the two arguing pokemon. "Wait a second..." He starts, causing them to pause and look at him. "...if Arceus brought us to a new world... and pokemon could already understand each other completely while humans only understood it as the pokemon saying their name... why didn't he just make it so pokemon could speak the commonly understood language? It would solve so many language barriers and we wouldn't have to worry about any sort of translation item."

Emma looked at him with wide eyes. "...While that is completely unrelated to what the two of them were arguing about... that does actually make a lot of sense, I mean... how can we even understand each other if we're actually only saying our names in various combinations of the parts of our species name...?"

The clearing became quite silent as the gathered pokemon began to really think about the situation, Mick decided to continue the momentum away from the argument. "When you really think about it, even psychic pokemon when talking to their trainer through telepathy should still just have the same language barrier since humans only understood pokemon speech as the pokemon's name."

Richard starts to rub his head. "But by that logic none of us should be able to understand each other because with over seven hundred species of pokemon that only say their names to speak... ugh... please... let's stop thinking about this... it's giving me a headache..."

"Are you sure that you were a battler Mick?" Derek asked as he started to rub his head as well.

"I'm friends with a professor who's specialty is about pokemon breeding and evolution. Random things like that just seem to come to mind whenever they please." Mick replies with a matter-of-fact tone. "growing up I spent most of my life studying and training, so I should be able to pull random arguments like that."

"Next time though, just try to warn us before you go off on a tangent..." Allen requested as he shook his head a little. "Either way... everyone ready to go?"

The rest of the group nods as they start making their way along the dirt road that they had been following for the past couple of days. About five minutes later Mick spoke up.

"Wouldn't it be funny if Hoofington actually had a pokemon center set up this quickly?"

Richard actually chuckled a bit. "A month in? I'd be surprised if they didn't if all the Nurse Joys that came from earth became Blissey, Chancey or Audino when they were transported over."

"Yeah, I guess it wouldn't be surprising... looks like we'll just look for the building with the red roof when we get there."