Chapter 25

"You ready to go, Amos?" Sky Blue's voice asked behind Amos.

He jumped and leapt off the bench he was sitting on. Sky and his Empoleon, Pip, were standing next to the Castelia fountain, who were easy to spot even in the busy street.

"Yes!" said Amos, and he picked up his bag.

Amos had not gotten back to the hotel until midnight, and did not sleep all night. He had spent a bit of time on Route 4, thinking about what White had told him and thinking up insults about Team Plasma.

As White had told him, Amos had given Sky Blue the letter that White had entrusted him with when he got back. Apparently Sky understood the letter, because he had told him that they were going to go to Nimbassa City a bit early.

It was now in the late morning, and Amos had been waiting for Sky at the fountain. Leia and Hugh had went to the gym with Mira. His cousins were curious about where he had went, but he had told them that he went looking for pokemon.

"How long does it take to get to Nimbassa City?" Amos asked Sky as they started to walk up the street that lead to the Route 4 gate.

"Five minutes on Rapidash." said Sky with a slight smile. "It will take most of the afternoon if we walk. We would have flew, but Chatter isn't meant to be flown and my Areodactyl is only able to fly one person at a time."

"Why does White want me to go to Nimbassa City anyway?" he asked.

Sky shrugged. "I never try and understand how that girl's mind works. In English, that means I don't have a clue."

His Empoleon gave a small clicking noise.

"That reminds me, " Sky Blue suddenly said, pulling something out of his coat pocket. "I need to give you this." and he handed Amos what looked like a small hearing aid.

"What-"

"It's a little invention of mine that lets the user understand the pokemon language." explained Sky Blue before Amos could finish his sentence. "Me and my lovely assistant, also known as White, made those when we were kids."

Amos stared at the hearing aid in his hand. "Does it, er, work?" Amos asked uncertainty.

Sky Blue pretended to look very offended.

"Course it works! White wouldn't have me give you one if it didn't work! Just don't tell anyone that I gave you one of those. People would die to have that little beauty. Mira has one, but she would have a fit if she found out I gave one of my inventions to someone else."

He shrugged and put it above his right ear. As he put it on, the volume in the city seemed ten times louder. Amos yelped as he heard Pip say in a low voice, "Nice to officially introduce myself."

Sky Blue was grinning and said proudly, "Amazing little beauty, isn't it?"

"How can White stand this?!" Amos hissed as his ears began to ring.

Sky shrugged. "One of the world's greatest mysteries. I asked her the same thing when I made these. She asked me what I was talking about. I have been wondering if the volume is louder on the hearing aids then it actually is."

They were walking though the gate that led to Route 4 now. Voices of passing pokemon and their trainers flooded Amos's brain. He considered taking the hearing aid off, but Pip started to speak.

"Did White tell you about Zoroark?" the Empoleon asked Amos.

He shook his head, but said, "Well, she didn't really say much about him, but I think I figured it out."

"I never liked Zoroark." Pip told him, frowning slightly. "He just annoyed me. Except Purr was something else. She loves to scratch and bite things."

"I think you met Purr just last night." said Sky, giving Amos another small smile.

Amos tilted his head. "When?" he asked, trying to remember.

"That cat pokemon that N had." Sky Blue explained. Amos's heart raced as he remembered the large leopard like creature.

"That was Purr?!" he stammered, who was remembering the small Purrloin he saw White battle with.

Sky smiled. "Purr evolved the day before yesterday. She's a Liepard now. She has been giving N problems from what I have heard." Sky told him.

"What has she been doing?" Amos asked.

But Pip answered him instead of Sky. "Biting and scratching N's arms, from what Archy told me. She has also been ignoring his commands, and starts messing around during battles. White had even had problems with Purr, so that's probably why she gave N Purr. I've heard that he has tried to give Purr back, but White won't take her."

"Doesn't she like Purr?" he asked, thinking of Tiny.

"White likes Purr. They get along very well, actually. They got along better then White did with Tiny." replied Sky.

"I still don't get why White had to release Tiny." said Amos as they reached the desert route.

Route 4 looked the same as it did last night. The only difference was that it was very sunny and hot, and also that there was lots of trainers and their pokemon battling in the sand. Amos thought he even saw Rapi's hoof prints in the sand.

Sky sighed next to him. "It is a bit hard to understand. You see, White loved her grandfather because he was the only living person who loved her for who she was. When her grandfather died, he left her three things; his house in Pallet Town, Kanto, a Soothe Bell, and his partner pokemon, Tiny the Eevee. Since her grandfather wanted her to watch over his Eevee, White let Tiny join her team to show her respect and love for her grandfather. She stayed in Kanto for two years, and Tiny evolved into Espeon, which can only evolve into that certain Eeveelotion by a high friendship during the day. But when White decided to come back to Unova, Tiny got angry because she wanted to stay in her home region. Since then, she has been violent and sassy toward White and other pokemon. So when Tiny attacked Severusa, White got worried that Tiny would start trying to kill other pokemon, and decided that it was time to let the Espeon go free."

Amos didn't respond. It was making a bit more sense now that he knew more about the situation. Then one of the questions that had been nagging him for ages burst out of him.

"How did White's grandpa die? White said he was murdered."

To Amos's surprise, Sky Blue frowned and started to look depressed.

"Yes. It was a nasty death. He was poisoned, you see. He was poisoned by a evil organization called Team Rocket. Gregory Copperfield apparently knew something that Team Rocket didn't want to get out."

"Copperfield? Is that how she came up with the name Copperstone?" Amos asked. Sky nodded.

"She created the name when she was in the hospital after the forest fire. The name Whitney means White Island, so that's how she got the name White. She cut off the last part of her grandfather's last name, and replaced it with stone. I actually have a real name too."

"Your name isn't Sky Blue?" Amos said, surprised.

Pip gave a chuckle and squirted water at a nearby Darumaka.

Sky Blue smiled. "My name is Skyler Azul. Sky is short for Skyler, and Azul means Blue in another language. I thought Sky Blue was a cooler name then Skyler Azul anyway."

"Does that mean Mira has a real name too?" he asked.

Sky nodded again and said, "Yes, her name is Miriam Dragonclaw. Except, I think she has another last name, but goes by Dragonclaw. Mira went by a false name to hide from her older brother."

"She has a older sibbling? Who?"

"I don't know. She doesn't talk about it much. Her brother was abusive, so she ran away from him. White is the only one who knows who he is. Mira doesn't trust me that much." said Sky.

"No one trusts you." Pip sneered to his trainer. Sky glared at the Empoleon.

"How did you meet White anyway? She didn't say anything about meeting you." Amos asked before Pip could say anything else.

"Oh, I don't know," Sky Blue started, smirking slightly. "I was living in those Hidden Grottos you can find on routes. I also was raised by pokemon, but couldn't understand them. I lived with a Mismagius, my Joltik, Chatter, and Junior at the time. My sister had already died. She died in the same forest fire that almost killed White."

Amos didn't respond to this in case Sky started getting depressed. But Sky Blue looked like he was enjoying this.

"It was night, and a girl, probably six or seven years old, collapsed in front of the grotto. She was a mess. Her clothes were torn, and the brown cloak she wore had lots of holes in it. She had a Pichu on her shoulder and pokeballs on her belt, so I guessed that she was one of those young pokemon trainers.

"We took her in, and she explained that she had escaped from a hospital in one of the large cities. She had apparently run away because the doctors were going to transfer her to a orphanage, but she wanted to try and find her grandfather. The doctors thought she was lying. They also told her that she might not be able to be a pokemon trainer because of all her problems."

"But White doesn't have any problems!" Amos interrupted. "So she can't breathe in smoke or sand, that can be avoided! Couldn't they do surgery or something?"

"Ah! Glad you caught on!" Sky said with a smile. "They could have done something like that, but the problem was that she was so young. She didn't have a very high chance of surviving. So all the doctors could do was tell her that she couldn't battle Ground, Rock, Fire, or Steel types, or she couldn't be a trainer!

"So she ran away from the hospital and went to find her grandfather. But it didn't go well. White had to steal for food, and battled trainers for money. She would have died from starvation if we didn't take her in.

"She also said she had the ability to understand pokemon. Well, I didn't believe it at first. I didn't believe her until she made Jo Jo the Joltik shock me, which surprised me because Jo Jo never shocked anyone unless told."

"You let her stay with you? You let someone you barely knew live with you?" Amos asked.

Sky shrugged. "Well, what else should I have done? Throw her out? That's not polite, is that honestly what you would've done? Man, aren't you rude!"

Amos didn't reply. He heard Pip give a giggle.

"Excuse me, mind if I ask your names?" a voice asked behind them.

The two boys and the Empoleon turned around to see who had spoken.

A very strange man was standing a few feet behind them. He looked like a strangely dressed scientist. He had yellow hair, and but it looked like he had blue hair attached to the yellow hair. The man reminded Amos a bit of White, just because of her green and brown hair.

"First, who are you?" Sky Blue asked, a bit rudely. The man blinked.

"My name is Colress." the man said.

"And is that blue stuff your hair?" sneered Sky.

"Yes, it is." Colress snapped.

Amos saw Sky bite his lip to stop him from laughing.

"Er, I'm Amos, and this is Sky Blue." He said awkwardly, trying not to smile as Sky started snorting with laughter.

"Well, then," Colress started, glaring at Sky, "Where are you two heading?"

"Nimbassa City." said Sky, getting over his fit of laughter.

"Then do you mind if I challenge one of you two to a battle?" Colress asked.

"I will." Amos offered, pulling out one of his pokeballs. Colress gave a small smile and took out two pokeballs.

"Klink!" Colress said quietly, and he tossed one of the pokeballs into the air. A gear like pokemon appeared from the red light, and grinned its gears.

"Liliana!" yelled Amos, and he to threw the pokeball into the air.

His Growlithe leapt out of the pokeball and barked at the Klink.

"ThunderShock!" Colress commanded his Klink.

The gear stored electricity and shot it at Liliana. She yowled with pain and trembled.

"Flame Wheel!" Amos ordered.

The Growlithe barked and shot a wheel of fire at the Klink's middle gear. Klink made some odd noises before fainting.

Colress returned Klink to its pokeball, and threw the second one into the air.

"Magnemite!" he said, and a small metal pokemon came out of the pokeball.

"Ember!" yelled Amos, before Colress to give another order.

Liliana gave another yowl and shot more fire at the Magnemite's eye. Like the Klink, it made strange noises before falling to the ground, unconscious.

"You battle well." Colress told Amos as he returned the Magnemite to its pokeball. "Thanks." said Amos, picking up Liliana. 

"Well, we got to go!" Sky Blue interrupted, and started to pull Amos away from Colress.

"Bye," Amos said as they walked away.

"I would be careful." Colress called after them. "Unova is getting more dangerous. Big changes are coming."

"Come on!" Sky Blue urged him.

"What's wrong?" asked Amos as they were farther away from Colress.

"I don't trust him." He snarled, letting go of Amos's arm.

"Because of his hair?" Amos asked with a smirk.

"No. Didn't you hear what he said?" snapped Sky. "Big changes are coming. That can't mean anything good."

"Creepy man, isn't he?" Pip said as he caught up to them.

"I can't wait to see White now." Sky sneered.

"Why?" Amos asked. "Because that Colress person gives me a good reason to pick on her about her hair color."