Episode 7: Twist Mountain and Absol

After about a month of being on a journey in Unova, Hana, Drake and Kitty finally made it to Twist Mountain. It was winter at full blast now. As Drake set up camp at the foot of the mountain, Hana the Shiny Umbreon went for a walk. She needed to think. She wanted to be a human again, to retake a relationship with her trainer Drake.

Kitty followed Hana. The baby Skitty did not really care very much about being human or Pokemon. She tended to favor her Pokemon form because it was what she was use to. That, plus she did not feel the human heat of love and desires. Hana had felt it all. She wasn't sure she fully enjoyed the idea of human emotions, but she did know she enjoyed the feeling of being the center of Drake's world, the gentle (and the sometimes rough) kisses, the cuddling at night... It was wonderful.

Hana heard Kitty before Kitty got very close. "What do you want, kid?" she asked. Before their human experiences, she would have been angry with Kitty for following her, but Hana did not mind anymore. She was actually starting to depend upon Kitty with secret things, such as their human life, and being a female role model for the kid.

"Hana, I know you're a very strong Pokemon. Could you train me?" Kitty asked nervously. She did not like the cold very much. As much as winter was fun, when the snow almost covered your whole body, it was not that fun anymore. Kitty wanted to be warm, and moving around. In the wild jungles of the Dreamyard, she always had to be on the run, even in the dead of winter because of the shadow people who liked to play tricks on her.

"Train you? Kid, you can't be serious." Hana hissed.

"I'm like so very very serious." Kitty said. She shivered and whimpered at Hana.

Hana turned towards Drake. He was writing poetry now, with a tent set up, and fire going with some fairly dry firewood. It wasn't easy to get wood now, but somehow Drake was lucky.

"Okay. I'm warning you. I don't go easy on anyone. And I won't go easy on you."

"Nyah~ Okay Hana!" Kitty said excitedly. Suddenly, she forgot about being cold and saw.... "TAIL!!!!" she began to chase her own tail, and then became dizzy and fell into the snow. Hana sighed, and gently used her mouth to pull her up by the extra plushy fur on her neck. She put her on a rock. Kitty woke up and smiled at Hana.

So, for the rest of the afternoon the two sister Pokemon trained hard. The snow provided some difficulty to the already intense training Hana was providing for the Skitty. By the end of the session, without any breaks, Kitty was exhausted. She hobbled over back to the rock she started on and laid down, panting, and enjoying the fact that the rock was cool against her warm body.

"Good work today, kid. We'll pick this up again tomorrow." Hana said. Kitty might have been easily distracted, but at least for now her Double Slap attack was much stronger than before, and she was able to dodge attacks such as Shadow Ball better.

That night, they ate and slept peacefully, as the winter wind raged around them. From the top of the mountain, a wolf-like figure stared down at them. As a curious Cryogonal floated around the tent, the wolf figure roared and jumped down. The Cryogonal floated away, scared. The snowflake-like Pokemon knew the stories about that kind of Pokemon... the Disaster Pokemon...

In the morning, Kitty woke up first, being an early bird. "Good morning everyone!" she said excitedly. But as she stuck her head out the opening of the tent, she quickly pulled herself back inside. "It's snowing like a blizzard!" she said, shaking off the snow crystals from her face.

Drake and Hana slowly woke up, their noses about a few centimeters apart. They blushed a bit then pulled away. "Since we're trapped in the tent for a while, why not try to find a way to pass time?" Drake offered.

"Oh Hana! I had a dream last night! It told me how we can be humans again." Kitty said.

Drake and Hana turned and surrounded the tiny baby Skitty. "WELL?!" they both said, excitedly. "SPILL IT!"

Kitty sweated nervously. "A beautiful Pokemon appeared and told me that all me and Hana have to do is close our eyes, and count like this. 1.... 2..... 3.... TRANSFORM!!"

But because Kitty did it the way the mysterious Pokemon said to, she began to transform. Unlike Hana, Kitty quickly transformed into her human self.  With a POP! sound, and a puff of pink smoke, the 9 year old human Kitty was standing there. She gasped and looked at her hands and smiled. Her green sweater and red skirt was still on her that she wore back in Striation City. Her heart covered stockings and Mary Jane shoes were still on her. A long, colorful, candy necklace was around her neck. "Oh... That was.... different! I like it!" Kitty said excitedly. She smiled at the two dumbstruck lovers with a sly, feline smile. "Try it Hana! Try it!" she was almost bouncing within the small confine of a tent.

Hana closed her golden eyes and focused. "1.... 2..... 3...... TRANSFORM!!"

Perhaps it was because Hana was older and wiser. But unlike Kitty, she did not just right away puff into her human self. She slowly melted out of her true self, and the fur on her body receded into pale flesh, her mane into long, purple, silky locks of hair. Her golden eyes turned to olive green. She grew taller by the second, her long pointy ears turned into round, cup-like human ears. Her paws turned into long, slender hands and fingers, and small feet and toes. The smell on her fur turned from wild clover to heathers and roses. Her fleshy skin radiated like a moonbeam.

Drake looked at Kitty. Her skin seemed to be like a sunbeam.

The sun and the moon.

But what did that make him? A star? He didn't feel like he had any cosmic radiation coming from him. He smiled as Hana finished her last transformation - getting rid of her tail. Suddenly, the tent got a lot hotter and much more crowded. "Hey, the blizzard stopped!" Kitty said and she ran outside. With her longer, human legs, the snow wasn't so bad to walk through.

"Kid! Come back! You're hardly dressed for winter!" Hana called, running after her. At least Hana had on combat boots, and a black sweat jacket with black gloves. Kitty had almost nothing.

Kitty did not listen. Drake and Hana went outside the tent and saw that Kitty had gone towards the edge of their camp. "What's wrong Kitty?" Drake called. She was just staring into the distance, at the mountain, as if something was wrong.

"There's something up there." Kitty said. "And it's watching us. I'm going to have a staring contest with it." And she turned back at the mountain and gasped. "Its gone!"

Suddenly, there was a cry on the wind, like a moan.

"What was that?" Hana gasped.

And as if to answer her question, a huge white, wolf like creature with a black scythe on its head jumped down in front of them. "Absol... Ab...." it growled, its huge hackles raised, its claws digging deeply into the ice crystals on the ground.

Hana whispered the magic way of becoming a Pokemon, and transformed slowly into her Shiny Umbreon true self. Now that she was her true self again, she could go back to her old way of rough, deadly, huntress fighting style. Yet, at the same time, she didn't. There was something deep within the ether of the air, enough to change a once vicious Umbreon. Hana also raised her hackles, but it was not as deadly as it would have been.

The Absol then seemed to relax, and it had a faint red taint to its cheeks, as if it started to harbor a secret crush. But then, as if realizing its silliness, it became even angrier.

"Umbre!" Why are you about to attack us?

"Absol, ab sol, ab absol." I am not here to attack you, but to guide you to your right path, Foxy.

"Umbre?!" Foxy?!

"Absol." Follow me.

"It wants us to follow it out of the mountain." Hana said.

So Drake and Kitty quickly packed up their small camp as the blizzard winds got worse. "They say Absols are the Disaster Pokemon. Could it be making the blizzard worse?" Drake whispered to Hana.

Hana asked Absol, who answered that it warns people of disasters, not bring them. It also added that humans are such twisted creatures, almost as twisted as Twist Mountain itself. But Hana, offended, did not say it to Drake. She was about to tell Kitty not to pay notice, but Kitty was angry.

"Who you to say that ALL humans are twisted?! You're not a human, so don't judge!" Kitty hissed.

"Kid...." Hana whispered. Although she did not want Kitty to get hurt by the Absol, she was slightly amused and amazed at the kid's temper. And Absol's reaction. Absol, who was not expecting the young girl to understand him, stared dumbstruck.

"Absol...." Says you. I was left here on the mountain, long ago....

Absol then was silent and Kitty glared at him the whole time. 

Soon, they began to climb up through the twisty paths, most of which were carved up. In some places, there was construction equipment, and closed up tents. Once they were on top of the mountain, on the top level of a carved path, they could see moving colorful dots of people, shoveling snow. Absol then took them to a slope, which led right to the other side of the mountain.

"This is where we go." Kitty said, ready for her climb down the mountain. She shivered, but it seemed that the blizzard was now a gentle snow fall. The world around them was so white, you couldn't tell how the snow was coming down.

Absol watched as they walked past. Hana, the surprisingly beautiful Shiny Umbreon, looked at him and smiled her thanks, and walked past. Drake suddenly thought for a moment as he walked. He turned back. "Kitty turn into a Pokemon again."

Kitty pouted but whispered the way to transform, and the familiar POP! and pink smoke turned her into her true self, a baby Skitty. "Kitty use your sing attack!" Drake called. But Kitty blinked at him.

"I don't know Sing." she said confused. Drake groaned.

"What do you know?"

"Double Slap and Growl." Kitty said proudly, as if those were the most amazing attacks.

"Go use Double Slap on Absol!" Drake said.

"My pleasure! Nyah~" Kitty said, running quickly up to Absol, thanks to the training provided by Hana. Absol growled, knowing that there was no thanks to ever be properly given. He used Razor Wind attack, attempting to blow Kitty away. But Kitty dodged easily, and her Double Slap landed its mark. Drake then smiled in his dark way, and threw a Level Ball, which he brought a supply of from home. Absol went inside, and the orange ball rolled back and forth. Kitty and Hana watched (Kitty in unease and Hana in happiness for she wanted another Dark type to talk to) and the ball clicked closed. Absol was now part of the team.

Kitty finally decided that it was no point in holding a grudge. Then she'd be no better then Hana was about a month ago. So she smiled and and jumped around for joy in her first battle.  Drake picked up Absol's Level Ball and smiled and put it on his belt.

"Come on, lets go. There's a city called Opelucid City, where they're having a poetry convention. Lets go." Drake said.

So the now the family (with its new addition) continued onwards, as the snow continued to fall lightly around them.