Hi all. Chapter six this is. Well, that's farther than I thought I'd get. Anyway, I don't own Pokemon, and in the state the games are in, I'm glad. This is going to be a little odd. And I'm trying to go as many chapters as I can without actually explaining anything about Isaac. Because it's more fun that way. {;} Isaac " Ten thousand? You've gotta be kidding! There's no way you're worth that much!" " That's my fee. Pay it or leave." I glared at the psychic girl, wondering exactly how the hell she could be this much of a pain in the… " Well? What's your answer?" " No. Absolutely not. Never in a million years would I pay ten thousand credits for a tracer service." (Authors note: credits, because I couldn't think of anything better.) She looked at me kind of oddly. " Credits? What are you talking about? I meant ten thousand salika." " Ten thousand salika…? That currency hasn't been used for five hundred years! If I were to give you that much, it would be enough to buy the whole bloody continent, with the value of antique coins these days. Are you joking with me, or trying to make me mad?" That seemed to startle her. "F..Five hundred years? It's been that long?" she shook her head in disbelief. " It couldn't have been that long…could it?" I guess I had to have a turn to be confused sometime in here… " Umm, is there something you haven't told me?" She looked up at me as if she had completely forgotten that I was there, and said, " Oh, no, nothing you need to be worried about. I just didn't realize the currency here was so different from where I'm from. Back home, we still use salika as a currency. It's a very small island off to the west of Johto. Ever heard of Celeria?" She asked it as a rhetorical question, but… " Actually, I have heard of Celeria. Usually referred to as the Lost Continent. Because no one has been able to find it for, say, four hundred years? And according to the legends, it's not an island." The expression on her face was that kind of cringe everyone gets when they lie to someone who knows more than they do and get caught. I know this, because of those fifty or so times when Officer Jenny…er, never mind. Not relevant here. And very embarrassing… Back to something that won't get me laughed off the fic. Instead of responding, she decided to avoid further entanglements by teleporting away. I guess she panicked. After I got over the momentary surprise, I decided to meditate. I stayed sitting down and closed my eyes, in concentration. Then I got up and walked out of the Radio Tower lobby, and went into a small café nearby. I sat down, ordered a cup of coffee, and waited. About the same time the coffee got there (their service was slow!), I saw a girl coming out of the ladies washroom. And it just happened to be the same girl who had just teleported out of the Radio Tower. I set enough money to pay for the coffee on the table, and walked over to talk to her. I got to her right as she was walking out the door, and when I tapped her on the shoulder, she spun around quick enough to cause a tornado. " What the hell?!? How did you find me so damn quick?" she asked, both bewildered and pissed off at the same time. " Trade secret." I replied, " But dun worry about it. I'm not going to hurt you or anything. I just want to find my friend, and I promise I won't try to pry any secrets out of you, ok?" She looked surprised, but relieved. " Ok, but can you please tell me what the current rate of exchange is between salika and, umm, what were they, credits?" I chuckled a little bit at that. " About 10,000 credits to one salika." She looked down at that. " Something wrong?" I asked. " No, just doing math in my head. Cause' I've got about 100,000 salika on me." I looked at her absolutely aghast. "Ok, there's no way I'm paying you. You don't need it and I do." She smiled sweetly at me, and said, " I suppose I can do a free job once in a while now that I have enough money to buy a continent ten times over." ************************************************************************ Cray I hate walking. I really, really, hate walking. You'd think that most trainers would be somewhat used to it, or be open to it; otherwise they'd do something else, right? Of course, I'm the one idiot who didn't think of that beforehand. Figures. On the other hand, sometimes it just depends on your companions… I had already told Ryli what had brought me to the Forest. By trainer's etiquette, she was now required to tell me her life's story or something. I dunno, I guess she was just bored. Any way, she started like this:" My story is a short one. Not even all that interesting really, but it's the story of my life, so I guess that should count for something. I grew up in the orphanage in Lavender Town. As soon as I was old enough, I went for my trainer's license. I passed the test, got it, and started training on the outskirts of town. My first Pokemon was a rattata, which absolutely hated me. It would run off every chance it got. One day, it finally ran into the Forest, out of desperation I suppose. I was kind of desperate as well, so I followed it in. All the times I had had to follow it had made me a pretty good tracker, but for some reason I couldn't find a trace of him. Eventually, I decided to come out, but of course, go into an unfamiliar forest that big, and you'll get lost. I walked around for a couple hours, hoping to find something to help me navigate, but there was nothing that I had seen before besides the one tree that I passed five times. And that just told me I wasn't getting anywhere. Eventually, as night was falling, I stumbled on that lake back there. That's where I found Angel. She was a Dratini then, and she was just sleeping there on the shore of the lake, curled up, looking really peaceful. She looked so cute that I actually just curled up right beside her and fell asleep. In the morning, I was woken up by a cold, wet nose in my face. I looked up, and there she was, curious as anything. I think she was wondering if I was hurt. I got up, and started talking to her, and eventually she communicated that she wanted to come with me. We've been training together ever since." I was astonished. Not at her story, but at the fact that she had told it all in one breath, no pauses. She hadn't even talked fast. As I was trying to force my jaw back into realignment, I got the feeling she was kinda wondering what I was gaping at… " Umm, sorry, just didn't realize that it was humanly possible for someone to go that long without breathing." Umm, not the brightest thing to say to a girl… " Are you saying that I'm longwinded?" she didn't sound angry, just curious. I didn't know if that's a good sign or a bad one. " No, I was just surprised. That's all I meant." She giggled at the way I said it. I guess my voice showed the fact that I was expecting certain doom… " Dun worry about it. For some reason, I can hold my breath for a really long time. It's probably because I swim a lot." My jaw dropped again. This time, it was less dangerous for my health, but still. "Wow, every other girl I know would've slapped me silly if I said something like that." She giggled again. " Well, it seems kind of unnatural; to most people. So I don't really mind. I would've been mad if you had laughed, but I can't blame you for being surprised. I was surprised when you decided to duel the Tyranitar at the lake, but I don't think you would've cared much if I had commented on that." Finally! I finally found a girl that doesn't take a degree in psychology to understand! (Author's note: dun shoot me, these are Cray's thoughts, not mine. He's not the brightest bulb in the box, at least not yet.) I decided not to remind her that she had commented on the duel, calling me an idiot… cause' she might've, well, done something rash. Like shoot me. So, we continued on our merry way, out of the Forest, hopefully to find the Ring of whatever-it's-called out in the great big … er, what the hell?!?! " Ohh, cute! It's an Eevee. Poor little thing, its scared!" Ryli squealed, immediately upon seeing the little piece of…er, never mind. I immediately stepped in. " Back you evil little furball! Back! I don't know how you found me, Kaiyen, but you'd better not come any closer! I have a sword and I…well, I have a sword!" the evil little beast looked up at me maliciously, tears coming out of its eyes, and….huh? As I looked at it in amazement, I realized it wasn't Kaiyen. It was a normal Eevee, and a pretty young one too, lost, tired, hungry, and scared out of its wits. Ryli was giving me a look like I had just shot a baby Growlithe. I stopped short, and looked down. " It's okay, little one, I'm sorry. I though you were someone else." I kneeled down and stroked the back of its head carefully. It looked up, not sure what was going on, but was relieved to see that I wasn't yelling at it anymore, so it wiggled closer. I just sat there petting it for a minute, then picked it up. The little guy was surprised a little bit, but he didn't really mind. I just kept on petting him till he fell asleep. Amazing how easy young Pokemon like that are to set at ease. " I can't believe you yelled at him like that." I looked over to see Ryli half grinning and half scowling at me. I just shrugged. " If you though that you had just come across a Pokemon that had put you in the hospital, what would you do?" She laughed. " Run and scream. What do you think? ************************************************************************ Isaac " Getting anything?" The psychic girl looked at me in annoyance. " No, considering we just started this thirty seconds ago." I just shrugged. "You'll see him soon, trust me. He'll show up like a beacon." She shook her head tiredly. " If you say so." I nodded. " He will. Anyway, while we're waiting, what's you name?" She looked annoyed, but said, " Nataliya. Nataliya Arica. And you?" " Isaac Jameson. Nice to meet you." Her only response was to stiffen like she had been slapped. " I take it you've found him?" She nodded, but looked like she was in shock about something. I just waited for her to say it. " I found him, but…there's two signatures. Three if you count the person he's with, and they've got an odd signal too, but it seems that there are two energy signals coming from one body. One is Fire, the other is…hard to tell. It seems like it's almost Flying, but like Dragon too… and Electric. And Water, and Ice. An even blend of all of them. It's got to be the most eerie thing I've ever sensed. The sense I get right now is of absolute calm, but it's an unnatural stillness. It seems like it could burst into a storm at any moment." I considered that, trying to think of any type that could possibly blend all those types…then it hit me. The glass that came from the waiter that had tripped. Right smack in the face, with cold water flying all over the place, and ice too. But I didn't really care. What I had just figured out gave me more chills than all the ice water in the world could. "He's not a hybrid. He's an elemental." ************************************************************************ well, what do y'all think? I'm not even sure if anyone's reading this, so you'd better tell me. If you find this series interesting, I'm sorry that it's late. The ISP was assassinated. I have not been able to update for a while, nor respond to reviews. And if you don't find this series interesting, why are you reading it? Riyn