• Published 6th Sep 2014
  • 2,531 Views, 134 Comments

New Faces, New Friends - ZephyrStrife



Fire burning in the depths of a frozen wasteland, our heroes will need to overcome the challenges of a whole new world!

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Chapter 20

Mick and his friends waved goodbye to Sarah and Nathaniel as they continued their journey in the morning sun, the new day seemed to be much warmer than yesterday.

"I think we're getting close to Equestria..." Derek started as Richard pulled out their map.

"Yeah, we should only take about another day or so like this and we'll reach a settlement called... 'hoof-ing-ton'... Hoofington... Huh... strange name." Richard replied.

"It's their country, they can name their towns and cities whatever they want." Mick replied with a shrug. "Besides, it's not a bad name..."

"I never said it was bad, I just said it was strange." Richard replied with an indignant huff as he put the map away. Mick continued to let silence reign in on their traveling... for about twenty minutes, which was fortunately a new record for him.

"So Allen... What did you do before you were brought here?" Mick asked as he leaned on one of the Aggron's neck plates.

The hulking metal dinosaur simply shrugged. "I was a traveler... a trainer with dreams of battling the league and taking the champion title before I got my fourth badge and simply stopped caring about battling." He looked up at the sky as the group slowed down a bit, quite eager to hear about their friend's occupation. "For the most part I simply backpacked through the world, I can say that the only region I never visited was Kalos... I was actually back in Hoenn after a stint in Unova when Team Plasma had talked about why they wanted to liberate pokemon from their trainers and how we were suppressing their true power..."

Richard took a small step closer to Derek and held his arm, Derek returned the gesture by intertwining his fingers with the Gardevoir's small fingers.

Allen moved to a fallen log and eased himself onto it, with the others finding at least adequate seating nearby. "...In a way, the more I heard their speeches over the TV and in person... the more I thought about it... I guess, they just kinda got me thinking about how much we at least did limit pokemon when they were with us, sure battling made them stronger... but... it also hurt them." He let out a slight sigh. "after hearing their side of the story I couldn't bring myself to enjoy battling as much when I knew it was hurting my poke-... no... my friends, as much as it was making them stronger. So we did the one thing that I still enjoyed; Travel and Explore. There were plenty of caves and mountains that needed exploring or climbing, but something about how I was only traveling with only two female pokemon had one of the pokemon rangers after me for a while... He thought he was being sneaky through Unova... I'll admit though, I hadn't noticed him at all once I got back to Hoenn."

Derek gave him a puzzled look. "They were tracking you just because you had two female pokemon in your active party?"

Allen gave a sharp chuckle, "Yeah, I had a similar bit of confusion when I was put into custody..."

"Custody?" Mick questioned from his seat on Allen's shoulder.

"Yeah, the Rangers arrested me for Pokephilia... five years in prison and 'separation' from my 'victims'..." He replies using his claws as air quotes. "Bunch of Tauros-... crap..." He hesitated as he passed a glance to Mick. "...that was, the entire case was on shaky evidence and a single picture of the night my Grovyle kissed me. Biased judge took one look at the photo and locked me up, declared me a menace to society and sent all the pokemon I had painstakingly trained most of my life with to 'foster homes' and day care centers where they would hopefully find a less abusive home." Allen was looking at his claws, as he curled them into tight fists the tips of his claws began to dig at the metal-like hide. "...I was in the middle of my third year, working out in the weight room before everything faded out.. The last thing I heard before Arceus spoke was my spotter shouting something that I couldn't make out."

As much as everyone wanted to make some space for him, they couldn't help but move just a bit closer. "Well..." Richard started as he leaned forward. "...Obviously that judge was wrong, otherwise you would've stayed back there when Arceus brought a bunch of people and pokemon to this world..."

"Oh trust me, I know... I spent the entirety of two and a half years knowing that I got shafted because one of my pokemon had feelings for me. All I can hope is that Arceus can bring her back to me..."

Gwen gave him a small nuzzle. "Why did... what caused your Grovyle to kiss you?"

Allen shrugged a little. "I don't know, I got her when I was thirteen, then traveled for oh... five out of six regions... before coming back home. I was planning a visit to my parents, apparently it was somewhere while we were traveling in Unova that she actually developed feelings for me in that sense, but she was too nervous to talk to me about them... admittedly it was likely because I wouldn't understand what she was saying, that was the case too..."

Mick was sitting on Allen's shoulder, watching the Aggron with interest as he listened to the story. "So how did she finally get you to kiss her?"

"That was the thing, up until the point where she actually kissed me I thought she was doing the adorable pet thing that most pokemon do when they want their trainers to scratch a particularly hard to reach spot. When she did though, That ranger... Royce, attacked us from the surrounding shrubbery. I was too stunned to fight back, his four-pokemon team managed to easily subdue my two... from there it all seemed like a blur... but I can only hope that somehow Royce made it here... because if I find him... I'm going to punch him... hard." He let out a small sigh as he slumped a little in his seat. "He probably is here... He's one of those rangers who thought that he was truly doing the right thing... I could tell from the way he talked back when I first met him in Unova. Kid was happy to be bringing down criminals that hurt pokemon, simply because he enjoyed being the hero that pokemon and people in their darkest moments need."

"So... You'd really punch him for that?" Gwen asked.

"Absolutely, because of him and a prejudiced jury I lost two and a half years of my life behind bars and my true family was separated from me." Allen replied. "Besides, if he is here, then he's a pokemon, and he'll be able to take a punch... I just don't know how many I'll throw before I come back to my senses." He looks over to Richard. "I do have a favor to ask of you two though..."

Richard and Derek both leaned a little closer in interest.

"If I do black out and start punching him more than once... don't let me kill him... I might want to hurt him, but I don't want to kill him."

"Yeah... I... I don't think I'd be able to handle it if you killed him anyway." Richard replied as he gave a hollow chuckle. "I'm not sure any of us would."

Allen nodded. "Thank you..."

Author's Note:

No idea what to put here... Act as if I put in some deep, inspirational quote and then get back to me about how you feel, because I love my readers, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter's bit o' feelz!