It was the next morning, and Larry woke up first. He looked around happily, ‘Guess we’re finally in civilization for real…I wonder what’s on the agenda today?’

  He eyed Valerei, the girl hadn’t told him too much about herself, from what he knew, she was simply another girl that lived nearby who was caught up in the disaster, ‘It’s crazy to think what she has gone through in the last few days. If the same thing happened to me at her age, I think I would’ve simply broken down crying.’

  ‘I’m going to need to tell her about myself sooner or later…’ The thought came abruptly, but it didn’t surprise Larry as much as he thought, ‘I might have known her for just a few days, but she put herself in harm's way to save my mom, and she already looks to be planning to keep me for life. We’ve really put a whole lot of trust into each other, she deserves to know…’

  With his mind made up, Larry looked over to his teammate and Valerie’s second Pokemon, ‘Natu really came out of left field. I still don’t really know what to think about it. It said it saw the future, didn’t it? I wonder what it saw in that future?’

  Just then, the bird woke not with a stir, but by its eyes simply opening. Its gaze immediately found him, and it bowed as it stood up, whispering to not wake Valerie, “Good morning, Larry.”

  “...Morning…” He answered back quietly.

  A silence descended on the room, Natu held its stare on him, and Larry scratched his neck awkwardly before continuing their conversation in hushed tones, “So, how are you?”

  “I am doing quite well,” It answered, “Humans certainly have a lot of things...”

  Natu pressed its legs into the mattress gently, “This bedding is simply heavenly. My father could have never found materials this comfortable in the wild.”

  Nodding along, Larry answered with a smile, “You’re right. Back in Mt. Silver, I used to sleep on a bed of rocks, this is definitely an upgrade compared to that.”

  The two continued talking, and Larry found out quite a lot about his new teammate. Natu wasn’t just an It, but a She. Her voice wasn’t just youthful, as Larry had assumed when they crossed paths at Mt. Silver, but just feminine.

  Natu lived on the mountainside near Mt. Silver with her two siblings and father. Their days were spent training their Psychic Abilities and working to improve themselves to find a proper mate.

  “My plans for the future have been cut short, though,” Natu confessed as her eyes switched to the rising sun, breaking through their room’s window, “As a vision of the future revealed itself to me.”

  “A vision?” Larry asked back, unsure of the ramifications of such an event.

  “Indeed,” She confirmed, “Logically, I immediately acted on said vision and made the journey down to your future location.”

  “And, what exactly did you see?” He probed, now more intrigued than ever.

  Natu shied away bashfully, turning its entire body, “I cannot say.”

  Larry crawled over to the Flying-Type, poking at its side “Aww, why not? C’mon, you can tell me, right?”

  The bird showed its first bit of emotion as it answered in a severe tone, “...Knowledge of the future is not a thing to be handed out so carelessly. My father taught me this lesson.”

  Seeing that the little bird wouldn’t budge, Larry bargained, “Is it at least not something dangerous that would happen in the future? It would be nice to know beforehand if we’re going to be in danger.”

  Natus’ eyes squinted together, it seemed unsure of how much to divulge, before simply huffing once, “As I’ve said, I cannot say.”

  “Fine,” Larry finally acquiesced.

  BBRRR-BBRRR-BBRRR

  Both Pokemon jumped in surprise at the noise of Valerie's phone, which rang an alarm at exactly six A.M sharp.

  “Uuurgh…” Valerie tried to roll around in her bed only to let out another loud groan, “Ooooagh!” Slowly and very carefully, she rolled onto her side and slapped her hand onto her phone's screen, sluggishly picking the device up and disabling the alarm, before sighing in relief, “Ah…”

  “Good morning.” Larry walked up to his trainer on the bed and tapped her on her forehead to wake her up. Valerie simply groaned in return, “Ugh. Bad news, Larvitar. Everything hurts, I think I overdid it by hiking through Mt. Silver…”

  …

  The trio took it slow, and Valerie rose very carefully, taking all the time she could to slowly ease her way to the bathroom. Larry and Natu waited for the girl to get dressed, and Larry did his usual TE-Exercises. She opened the bathroom door, dressed in a simple blue shirt and a baggy set of jogging pants.

  “Alright, let’s get some breakfast.” She announced to Larry and Natu, to agreeing nods of the two. With her eyes on Natu, she asked, “Do you want to stay out, or do you want back in your Pokeball?”

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  Natu considered her options before answering by hopping up and jumping on the girl's shoulder, much to her surprise, “Whoa! Wha-”

  Nestling on her right shoulder, the bird gave off a sound, “Na-tu.” “I would like to be carried up here.”

  Valerie smiled, “I’ll allow it, you can sit on my shoulder.”

  Larry’s childish instincts showed themselves again as he felt some jealousy bubble up at the sight of his new teammate being so close with his trainer already, ‘Man, I wish I could also be a bit lighter…’

  His trainer noticed immediately and petted his head to console him, “Aww, don’t worry Larvitar. You’re still my starter, y’know? I can’t go anywhere without you.”

  Leaning into the affection, Larry felt his worries melt away as he hopped off the bed. Clapping her hands, Valerie started, “Alright, let’s get some grub!”

  …

  The cooks of the Pokecenter served Natu Pokechow as well. Bird-like Pokemon were served Pokechow, which looked more akin to seeds, while not being seeds at all. Both Natu and Larry devoured the Pokechow with enthusiasm, but Larry couldn’t help himself be interested in the Flying-Type's weird-looking food.

  So he stole himself a quick taste out of Natu’s bowl only to spit the kernel he’d stolen back out immediately, “Pfeh! Whew, that tastes weird.”

  His bird teammate followed his lead and also pecked a pellet out of his bowl, coughing awkwardly as she swallowed it whole. She gave him the most review, just a curt as his through pecks of its food, “A metallic, earthy taste. Unpalatable.”

  Luckily for Valerie's wallet, Larry was still quite full from last evening, and Natu wasn’t a big eater anyway, so she wasn’t eating out of house and home by the two.

  The three left the cafeteria with full bellies, completely satisfied. “Whew,” Valerie patted Natu on her shoulders, “Now, Natu, let’s go find out what you can do in battle, why don’t we?”

  …

  Outside, behind the Pokemon Center, Valerie found a corner where she looked through the information in her Phone regarding Natu, “Alright…Let’s try this…”

  She pulled the Safari Ball out of her Pocket and held it against her phone. The device spat out a dump of information about her Pokemon, “Oh, I see…You’re a girl Natu.”

  Natu nodded back, only for Valerie to find more info about it, “Huh, Ability: Magic Bounce?” Looking deeper into her phone, Valerie suddenly went quiet, “Wait, isn’t that a pretty crazy ability?”

  ‘Magic Bounce…If I remember correctly, it reflects status-changing moves back to the user?’ Larry reminisced, before accidentally speaking out loud, “That is actually a pretty crazy ability, isn’t it?”

  “Is it really that impressive?” Natu asked guilelessly.

  “Let’s test it out,” Valerie started, “Larvitar, try using Scary Face on Natu.”

  Larry turned to face the Flying-Type and pulled at the Normal-TE from his core, a terrifying face manifested in front of his normal one, attempting to intimidate Natu to lower its speed. Natu simply stood there and took the attack, but instead of being intimidated, its green coat shimmered for a second before the Normal Type-Energies which formed his face shot back into Larry's body, slowing him down with a slight wince.

  “Wow!” Valerie clapped at the display, “I’m surprised this actually works, your ability is pretty crazy, Natu.”

  Natu puffed up its chest proudly at the praise. Her trainer continued on looking through her phone, “Alright, lets check the rest of your moves.”

  Listing off the rest of the moves, Valerie and Larry found out what Natu could do. It knew Peck, Leer, Stored Power, Teleport, and Confuse Ray. A pretty basic moveset, all things considered, but Natu wasn’t some secret reincarnator in the body of a Pseudo-Legendary like him, so it was obvious that the bird would have a less impressive moveset than him.

  If Valerie was disappointed, she didn’t show it, instead she urged the Flying-Type to show off her moves.

  Firstly, Natus's small yellow beak gleamed with a bluish sheen before it lunged forwards with exceptional speed, stabbing its beak into the ground with impressive speed. A small divot was left in the training grounds' compacted dirt.

  Larry was sure if it hit anything even remotely fleshy, the thing would almost definitely be pierced, ‘I don’t really have anything that can stab like that. The best I could do is use Bite, but that also leaves a whole lot of me vulnerable.’

  Valerie also let out a whistle of admiration, “Alright, good work. Show us Leer now.”

  The Flying-Type aimed its eyes at Larry, and a shimmering gleam enhanced its signature stare, creeping Larry out significantly more than normal. He shuddered at the feeling, “Whew, still not good with Status Moves. Just feels weird…”

  “My apologies.” Natu bowed, but Larry waved it off.

  “Don’t worry, it's part of the test.” Larry also had Status Moves, but was just too much of a brute to make use of them consistently. Perhaps a bad habit of his younger days playing Pokemon? Whatever the case, he was old enough to know the viability of them.

  Their trainer also seemed satisfied, moving on to the next move, “Alright, can you show off Teleport?”

  Once again, Natu bowed to Valerie before closing its eyes. A few seconds later, it simply disappeared in a flash of pink energy. Both Larry and Valerie whipped their heads around cluelessly before returning their sight to the same patch of training ground, where Natu stood just a few feet over.

  “Is that the maximum range?” Valerie questioned.

  The Flying-Type nodded disappointedly, but Valerie reassured her, “Don’t worry, we’re going to be training on it. You’re going to be great at Teleportation.” Natu nodded back before they went on to the last move, “Great. Now, please send out a Confuse Ray at Larvitar.”

  Natu closed its eyes in focus, once they opened back up, its beak opened, and the familiar glowing orb languidly swirled toward Larry as his thoughts strayed, ‘Ah, I did see this before. That Mismagius back in Mt. Silver also used it, but I managed to doooo-” His thoughts strayed as the Orb swirled around him and he began to lose his balance almost immediately.

  “W-Woooooooooah…” He tumbled around openly as he fought against the confusion, “I-I-It's wooorse when I don’t fight it!”

  Valerie closed in and gave Larry a supporting hand so he didn’t fall over, “Wow, it's pretty strong, but it also takes some time to get started.”

  As he leaned into Valerie's supporting hand on his back, he could feel his body's balance shift randomly, from forward to the sides and every other possible direction. It wasn’t like the unbalance one feels if they spin around too much, as that one spins your balance around as your body sits still, this one randomly shifts your balance instead.

  It took around a solid thirty seconds for the confusion to finally subside, not a long time, but inside a battle, it could mean a lot.