Tommy always tried to finish his chores quickly on Sundays because finishing early meant he could do nothing afterwards. He grabbed his fishing rod and headed out to the pond with Houndour and Yanma in tow. He hadn’t given Yanma a check up yet but he had all day to do so and he felt like he should procrastinate a little today after such a busy day yesterday. Sure there was a test tomorrow and he should probably study sometime later today, but summer was starting to wind down now that it was September and he couldn’t be bothered to spend his time inside studying on what was shaping up to be a beautiful day.

He settled in under his oak tree and tossed his line out into the water. Yanma fluttered about, buzzing back and forth, until he decided to land on the pond, barely disturbing its glassy surface. Houndour curled up beside Tommy as he pulled his fishing cap low over his eyes and laid back against the massive trunk of his favorite tree.

“You’re uncharacteristically calm this morning,” Tommy muttered, as he rubbed Houndour’s ears. He smiled as she let out little growls so he moved his hands down to her belly.

Yanma buzzed his way over and settled himself on the ground on Tommy’s other side. Tommy cracked an eye open and looked over the massive dragonfly. He hadn’t spent much time with Yanma yet so he was looking forward to spending the day bonding with him.

Tommy marveled at the beautiful color of the Pokémon’s carapace. It was a magnificent and crimson red that reflected the bright sunlight while the green on his face stood in stark contrast. His wings were so thin that they were translucent and Tommy couldn’t believe they were capable of lifting up the dragonfly’s massive bulk. He ran his hands along Yanma’s body, the chitin was hard to the touch and he eyed the massive stinger on Yanma’s tail, wondering if it was venomous. Many people were terrified of bug Pokémon but he wasn’t one of them. Yanma looked powerful, and Tommy was glad that Ashley and her mother had talked him into catching the Pokémon. He still felt guilty about using the Ultra Ball but when he looked at Yanma again all guilt flew from his mind.

“You look so cool Yanma!” Tommy smiled. The dragonfly closed its blue eyes and buzzed happily. On his other side Houndour growled and pressed harder into his hand since he had stopped rubbing her belly.

“I haven’t forgotten about you, Houndour,” He laughed. “You’re still my girl, you know that.”

He stood and stretched, Houndour looking up at him inquisitively.

“Let’s do some battle training!” He yelled. “Yanma, I want to see what you can do!”

Tommy pulled up the Pokédex entry for Yanma on his PokéNav. He scrolled through it down to the list of moves, and decided he wanted to spend his morning seeing what attacks his new Pokémon knew.

From the battle that he had with Yanma, Tommy knew that the dragonfly could use Foresight and Tackle. The next move on the list was Quick Attack and he was curious to see if his new friend knew how to use it or not.

“Alright Yanma, get ready!” Tommy said.

Yanma flapped its wings and spun a few laps around Tommy’s head before stopping in between his trainer and the pond. He hovered in the air unmoving and Tommy rubbed his hands together excitedly.

“Use Quick Attack!” He called. “Fly over to the other side of the pond.”

Yanma gleamed a brilliant white and darted forward, skimming the surface of the water so quickly that the pond was bisected into two bodies of water momentarily. Once he was on the other side the water collapsed on itself and launched a giant geyser up into the air. He circled the waterspout once before returning back to his trainer.

The next move on the list was Double Team but when Tommy called for Yanma to use it, the dragonfly just blinked his eyes at his trainer in confusion.

Tommy scrolled down the Pokédex entry, finding all of the possible egg moves that Yanma might know, but the Pokémon didn’t know any of them even though Houndour had known an egg move. He was sad that Yanma didn’t know any but he knew it would learn more powerful moves as it got older and stronger.

He opened the notes on his PokéNav and started a new entry for Yanma.

Yanma (Male)

Age: 6 months

Height: ???

Weight: ???

Power Level: 6

Ability: Speed Boost

Known Moves: Tackle, Foresight, Quick Attack

He didn’t know his new friend’s height and weight but he would go measure him this afternoon and fill in that information. He also wanted to update the information he had on Houndour.

Houndour (Female)

Age: 5 Months

Height: 0.5m

Weight: 10kg

Power Level: 8

Ability: ???

Known Moves: Leer, Ember, Howl, Thunder Fang, Smog

He updated Houndour’s move set with Smog since she had learned it yesterday in the battle with Yanma. He frowned when he realized that he didn’t know her ability yet though. Her Pokédex entry said there were two common abilities, Early Bird and Flash Fire. She loved to sleep in every morning so he figured he could let her take a hit from a fire move sometime to see if she took damage or not.

“Okay let’s train some more,” Tommy said as he idled his PokéNav screen. “Houndour, I want you to practice your Ember. You can shoot a lot of them but they go all over the place. I want you to work on shooting them out in a stream, aiming towards one place.”

“Yanma you’re going to use Quick Attack and dodge all of the Embers,” the bug widened his eyes in surprise and buzzed in protest. “Don’t worry, I can heal you if you get hurt!”

Last night Tommy had opened the two gifts he had received from Ashley and Nessa. The gift from Nessa had been a Potion and the gift from Ashley had been a Pokéball. He ran his hands along his belt to feel three Pokéballs and an Ultra Ball clipped to it now. He had almost missed Yanma yesterday, he wouldn’t find himself unprepared again.

The three of them spent the next hour practicing Ember and Quick Attack. Houndour was getting a little more accurate, but her Embers still sprayed out in a pretty big sized cone; they would just have to keep practicing. After an hour Houndour and Yanma switched, Yanma going on the offensive with Quick Attack while Houndour practiced dodging.

Neither of his Pokémon took any damage the entire morning and Tommy was torn between being pleased with his Pokémon’s speed and defense and sad that neither one of them could land a single hit on the other.

Tori and Dad came outside around noon and brought Tommy some lunch. His sister and dad cheered his Pokémon on as they battled with one another.

Yanma and Houndour came over to sit with Tommy and his dad and sister, once the three of them began to eat. Tori pet Houndour and scratched her ears but Tommy noticed that she looked a bit scared of Yanma. Every time the bug tried to move closer to her she would scoot away.

Dad leaned over and whispered something in Tommy’s ear, causing him to grin wickedly.

“Tori, are you going to say hi to Yanma?” Tommy asked his sister. The dragonfly was looking a little sad after he had been ignored for the last 15 minutes.

“I-I think he’s too scary,” Tori shook her head quickly. “You know I don’t like bugs!”

Yanma’s wings and tail drooped and Tommy felt bad for the guy. He glanced over at Dad who smiled and gave him a thumbs up.

“How would you like to see something cool sis?” He asked. “Yanma can show you something cool, all you have to do is trust him.”

She looked over at the dragonfly who still looked sad and pitiful. “O-Okay, what is it?”

“Close your eyes,” he told his sister and he beckoned Yanma over to where he was sitting. He whispered into the dragonfly’s ears and grinned as Yanma buzzed happily in response. The Pokémon flew over behind where Tori was sitting with her eyes closed and then he wrapped his six legs around her torso.

She opened her eyes in horror and Tommy and dad fell over laughing as Yanma lifted her up into the air and started flying around in circles.

“Tori, you’re flying!” Dad laughed.

“I’m flying! I’m flying, this is amazing!” Tori squealed. Yanma began to fly in circles around the pond and Tori laughed and shrieked in delight.

“When it evolves it will be strong enough to carry you,” Dad said to him. He must have seen Tommy watching his sister with a mixture of happiness and jealousy. “Yanmega is huge and can easily carry an adult man.”

Tommy smiled to himself. Flying in the carriage last weekend had been an amazing experience, and flying on Corviknight had been… unique, to say the least. He couldn’t wait for the day that he got to fly with his own Pokémon though.

“Tori! Get down from there this instant!” Tommy turned quickly to see his mom running over. She had been bringing them lemonade but it was discarded when she saw Tori flying in the air above the pond. Yanma was startled by Mom’s yelling and he lost his grip on Tori, letting go of her and dropping her into the pond.

Tommy looked over at his father and they both burst out laughing, grabbing their stomachs and falling to the ground. Mom ran over to where dad was laughing on the ground and starting smacking him, yelling at him to go rescue his daughter.

“Mom! Mom! I was flying!” Tori ran up to where everyone was. She was soaking wet but had a massive grin plastered on her face. “Did you see me flying? That was the coolest thing ever! Take me up again Yanma!”

Yanma landed on the ground next to everyone and tilted its head sideways.

“Well you heard her Yanma,” Tommy smiled. “Take her back up.”

Tori shrieked in delight as the bug wrapped its legs around her again and lifted her back over the pond.

“Sebastian, I don’t like this…” Mom said. “She already got dropped once! What if she hadn’t been over the water!”

“Yanma only dropped her because you scared him,” Dad said. He came up behind mom and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Look how much fun she’s having. Do you want to go next? You’re light enough I bet.”

“Absolutely not!” Mom said in horror. She relaxed after a few minutes though when she saw how much fun Tori was having.

After lunch it started to get pretty hot so everyone headed back inside. Tommy stopped by the barn to measure Yanma and fill in the information into his notes. He was a meter in height and weighed almost 30kilograms, measurements that were under the Pokédex average, but Tommy knew his friend would still continue to grow since he was barely half a year old like Houndour.

“You guys are the same age,” Tommy said, scratching Houndour behind her ears. “How about that? Brother and sister.”

Houndour barked happily and Yanma buzzed around his head. He updated Houndour’s info, she hadn’t grown much since only a week had passed. He spent the rest of the afternoon studying for his test tomorrow and went to bed early to get a good night’s sleep.

The end of the month came quickly and it was soon time for the next excursion. Tommy had been challenged to 2 more battles which he won using only Houndour and Ember. He had been successful in hiding Thunder Fang and he also hadn’t used Yanma in a battle which meant that his trainer information hadn’t been updated yet.

After netting his two wins plus the win from the beginning of the month his rank was right at 80. He was happy that he had been climbing steadily but was trying not to worry that many of his peers had already dropped out. There were a little over 200 students still enrolled which meant that a fourth of the class had already either dropped out or had been expelled from the program. Sooner or later he would have to start issuing challenges when he felt it was time to climb the rankings more quickly, but so far that hadn’t needed to happen yet.

“We’ll be mixing up our groups for this trip so prepare to be partnered with some new people,” Professor Larkspur told the class on the Tuesday afternoon before the excursion weekend. The showcase matches had just finished and Tommy was watching Nessa out of the corner of his eye. She looked bored, and he wondered if people would stop issuing challenges to her. He already lost count of the number of matches she had fought in after watching so many of her battles; she had won all of them easily without breaking a sweat.

He felt the PokéNav on his wrist vibrate and looked down to see a notification alert.

“You have just been sent your group numbers,'' Professor Larkspur told everyone. “Same as last time, head over to the park to meet up with your chaperone for the trip.”

Tommy checked his group number with those of his friends, he wasn’t paired with Ashley or Nessa this time but he did have the same number as Aubrey; group 8. She had recently cracked the top 20 on the class leaderboard and he was excited to be in the same group as her.

The class left the stadium and headed to the park and he and Aubrey bid everyone else farewell to find whoever their chaperone was. Professor Hemlock was holding up a sign with a big number 8 on it, so the two of them headed in her direction to go check in.

“Excellent, I have confirmed that everyone is here, so now that attendance has been taken care of, find one other person to partner up with for the weekend,” their professor told them.

Tommy and Aubrey paired up and once all of the other students had found a partner, Professor Hemlock handed out a list with things they should bring on their trip.

“At this point in the year there are actually quite a few more of you than we would normally have, so let me congratulate you on persevering,” she started. She wore the fakest smile that Tommy had ever seen. “Normally a third, or sometimes even half of our class would have already retired or been expelled by this point. Since that is not the case this year, the other professors and I have decided to begin to ramp up the difficulty of our expeditions a little earlier than we normally would.”

“Instead of departing Friday as we did last time, we will be leaving tomorrow morning for our trip,” Professor Hemlock continued. “Be sure you pack everything on that list as well as plenty of food and water for five days. My fellow colleagues and I were shocked at how few students were prepared for the first excursion last month. Battling is just one aspect of being a successful trainer and many of you seem to have forgotten that.”

“As always the rest of the afternoon and evening are yours to strategize and prepare for the trip tomorrow. Feel free to catch a bus over to the Mart this afternoon if you are missing any of the gear on the list. Just show your student ID and they will give you what you need. The school will be charged later.” she told them. “The bus will depart at 8 am, do not be late.”

“Do you have all of this stuff?” Tommy asked Aubrey. He ran his eyes down the list and one thing immediately stood out; they were going somewhere cold.

“No, I need a heavy parka and some of the thermal undergarments listed on here,” she said to him. “Do you think it will snow?”

“I hope not,” he shook his head. “It never snows here. I don’t think I would know how to handle anything that difficult.”

“Yeah,” Aubrey muttered while looking down at the list. “Well, let’s go catch a bus over to the Mart then. We can strategize on the way over there.”

The two of them spent the afternoon rounding up all of the necessary gear for their trip. Thermal underwear, proper shoes, gloves, headwear, and much more. Tommy silently thanked the school for buying everything because all of the gear was incredibly expensive. He couldn’t believe that all he had to do was flash his student ID and he and Aubrey were able to walk out of the department store with hundreds of dollars worth of stuff.

They headed back down to the first floor so they could shop for food for the trip. Tommy wouldn’t be unprepared again. They had to pay for their own food but he didn’t care, not after getting all of his free gear earlier.

“If it’s snowing it might be hard to cook. What do you think we should bring?” Aubrey mused aloud.

“Trail mix I guess,” he shrugged. “Granola bars. What are some other things you can think of?”

“Dried meat, dried fruit, crackers,” she counted off on her fingers.

“Yeah, good thinking,” Tommy nodded. “Let’s grab everything we can then and get back to school before the day is over. I’m going to have to call my mom to come pick me up so I don’t have to bike home with all of this.”

After buying food for the trip and food for their Pokémon they caught a bus back to school and then Tommy headed home. He spent the evening packing his backpack, his mom doing her routine run through over and over again.

“Don’t hatch while I’m gone okay?” Tommy said, he ran his hands along the egg. He really wanted to bring it with him but he wanted to give his full attention to this trip. He had never been on a five day trip like this and didn’t want to be distracted by anything.

Professor Hemlock was waiting by the buses the next morning, checking students in as they arrived. She was handing out rental Pokémon and Tommy’s thoughts flashed back to Solosis. He hoped that if someone else was using the Pokémon that they were taking good care of him. Once everyone arrived and checked in, their bus was off through the skies, headed east into the rising sun.

“We aren’t as close this year. You seem so distant,” Aubrey said while staring out of the window. She spoke softly and it took a minute for Tommy to realize that she was talking to him.

“I-I’m sorry,” He said lamely. “I didn’t realize you felt that way.”

“Not just me, Jon and Darius too,” she turned to face him. “The four of us used to do everything together, we were inseparable.”

“You guys are still my best friends,” He tried to reassure her.

“I know,” she sighed. “I don’t even know why I said anything, I’m just rambling. You’re kind, making friends with those two girls who didn’t have any. That’s what I like about you.”

“Oh,” Tommy blushed. He cleared his throat and looked over at her, opening his mouth to ask her to clarify.

“I don’t mean that way,” she laughed and punched him in the arm. “That’s what I like about you as a friend! Don’t be an idiot.”

He let out a big exhale and smiled, happy that she had stopped him from saying anything stupid.

“Besides, I like Darius,” she mumbled. She looked down at the floor and blushed.

Tommy grinned at her. “That’s great, Darius is the man! You two would be great together! Have you told him yet?”

“No, I don’t want to mess anything up. He’s too good for someone like me anyway,” she sighed. “We’re all friends and what we have is good. I guess that’s why I even said any of this in the first place.”

Tommy raised an eyebrow at her.

“Just don’t forget that me, Jon, and Darius are your friends too,” she smiled weakly at him. “Promise that we’ll always be friends no matter what happens to us or how far apart we get from one another, okay?”

“I haven’t forgotten that,” he reassured her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. “And I promise you. You and I will always be friends, even once we graduate and undertake our own journeys!”

“If it was anyone else that tried that move I would have murdered them,” she smiled and leaned into his side. “Just be glad we’re best friends.”

“I am,” Tommy smiled. He laid his head on hers, “Thanks for always setting me straight. Now you’re going to help me kick some ass this weekend, right?”

“Hell yeah!” She grinned viciously. “No one else stands a chance against the two of us!”

“I beg to differ,” a boy sounded from behind them.

Tommy turned around to see a blonde haired boy looking in his direction. His blue eyes were looking straight at Tommy and he wore a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

“Why the hell are you eavesdropping on our conversation,” Ashley snarled.

“I wasn’t,” the boy stated. “You’re just the loudest woman I’ve ever heard. Half the bus could probably hear what you were saying.”

“Hey man, watch how you speak to her,” Tommy said, frowning at the rude boy.

“I was minding my own business, but how could I ignore such a bold statement when I’m the number one student in the class?” The boy said.

“Max, I take it?” Aubrey said.

The boy said nothing else and returned his gaze to the surrounding countryside.

“Sorry about that,” the boy sitting next to Max said. He had dark skin and short brown hair, with kind brown eyes. “Max is a nice guy, when you get to know him. He’s just a bit standoffish at first.”

“Don’t speak for me, Spencer,” Max said, not bothering to avert his attention from the window.

Spencer laughed and scratched the back of his head. “The name’s Spencer. Nice to meet both of you.”

“I’m Tommy, and this is Aubrey,” Tommy smiled at Spencer. “It’s nice to meet you too. Good luck this weekend.”

“Yeah, you as well!” Spencer smiled. “Good luck!”

The bus traveled for a while longer before it started to make its descent. Tommy leaned over Aubrey to look out of the window and saw a town below them, getting closer as their bus continued its descent. When the bus landed, Tommy and Aubrey stepped out of the bus with the other students. Professor Hemlock exited the second bus with the other half of the class.

“Welcome to Mahogany Town,” she gestured to the little village behind her.