Hello new readers! I have a chappy! FINALLY!!! It took me dreaming that my story dropped and everyone hated me for it to make me write! ^^;; DariShields and GeneChildMewtwo, I thank you two for helping me get my mind into my story once more!

This chappy isn't good... It's mostly filler. >.< And it took me a while to get into writing it... *sigh* I'M SO SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG!!!

~*~Chapter 20~*~

Marty’s head throbbed like crazy. He tried to open his eyes, but it just made him feel worse, and the world around him was black anyway. He could not feel his body nor the ground, if he was even on the ground. He had no idea what position he was in, or if he was truly alive. So, he let himself slip back into slumber.

In his dreams he was being held by a woman, a woman with soft loving eyes and deep black hair that draped about the two of them and helped keep them warm. In his dream she cooed a gentle song, and it filled him with peace and comfort. He smiled at her, and though he was an infant, he knew exactly who she was. She was his mother.

The woman looked beautiful, but the light in her eyes he knew should be there was absent. He studied her a long time, and read her very heart through her eyes. It was as though her very soul had been ripped apart, the way she looked at him, and the remains were crumbling within her. Had he done such a thing?

Yet Marty’s mother continued to sing, and as he placed his tiny hand on her arm, a tear fell down her face onto it. She gently wiped it away, then pressed him close to her.
“No matter what happens, I will always love you my child…” she whispered.

Then, his beloved mother faded away.

“NO!” Marty screamed as he jerked back into consciousness. He mind protested with this sudden action, but he pushed the pain away to look about himself. He was on the ground against a tree with some sort of muck speared all over his throbbing head. The nasty stuff was also spread on other random injuries any other place on him, and looked to be made of mashed plants.

He looked around some more and found his things beside him, and his Bulbasaur was sleeping on his knee. For a moment Marty considered shoving him off, but he hurt to bad to do that. Instead, he looked around even more.

They were still in the forest, but in a different section. They were very deep inside; it looked like night still, though it smelled like mid-afternoon…

Wait. It SMELLED like mid-afternoon? Since when did he smell time?!

Marty tried to move and get more comfortable, but a shot of pain made him grow still. He gave a little gasp at the incredible agony that coursed through him and shut his eyes for a moment. Just how much pain could a person feel?!

As the horrible feeling eased slightly the injured boy opened his eyes again and this time noticed Acciaio sleeping not too far away. He had covered his own arm in the mucky plant mixture and put it in a sling made of leaves. Every once in a while he would wince in his own pain, a fact that made Marty feel slightly better. The dumb Pokemon deserved it for stealing his Torchic.

Suddenly, the entire battle flooded back into Marty’s memory, and anger filled him to its limits. He had tried to kill Acciaio, but had lost the battle. . . drat! He was at the mercy of this Pokemon! And to make matters worse, the stupid Mewtwo probably knew it!

Marty tried to move again, and couldn’t help but cry out as the pain jabbed into his brain and back. He jerked back into his former position, but the sudden action worsened the situation, and he began to panic. Big mistake.

Marty nearly got up to run as he went blind again from his injury, but instead fell and knocked his cracked skull against the tree. The pain that followed was unbearable.

The pale boy fell to the ground writhing in agony as the pain increased from all the movement. All those around him woke up in a flash.

“Marty, Marty! Are you okay?!” cried his Bulbasaur in alarm. Marty did not seem to hear him as he finally lay still, crying softly. Then, quite suddenly, a spasm attack overtook the creature’s trainer, and Acciaio was up in a flash, holding the sobbing boy down.
“Let me go!” Marty shouted through his tears as soon as he gained control of himself. “I’m dying as it is! I don’t need to get eaten!”

{Foolish human, it is me, your traveling partner} The Mewtwo said calmly as he pinned Marty to the ground as well as he could with one arm.
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?!” screeched the injured child, kicking and shouting his pain to the world. “Mewtwos are monsters! Leave me alone!”

“Master Marty, please calm down! You’ll hurt yourself even more if you keep doing that!” said Marty’s Bulbasaur urgently.
“Shut up, you ugly brute!” growled Marty as he finally shoved Acciaio away and gripped his head in pain. “I can’t get much more injured than this!” Both Mewtwo and starters stared as Marty curled into a little ball and rocked back and forth crying, completely unaware that he had just understood his Pokemon.

“What is happening to my master…?” whispered the Bulbasaur fearfully. Acciaio looked down at the boy’s Pokemon silently, showing no true worry over his partner.
{He has a cracked skull. His brain may be injured, but it looks more like I knocked out hidden skills than made him lose them} The Mewtwo yawned, not caring at all what he had done. The Bulbasaur felt his blood boil.

The little frog-like Pokemon glared at Acciaio until it nearly became an attack with its intensity. The cyborg studied him quietly, but showed no signs of being intimidated. After a while, one of them spoke.
{Do you have something you wish to say to me, Bulbasaur?} He asked absently, seemingly bored with the whole matter of Marty. The Bulbasaur fumed with rage.

“Something to say to you? Something to say to you?! You nearly killed my master!! MY master!!!! The one being I am to protect and become one with! You then blow it off and act like nothing happened! Have you no conscience?! I’ve heard of you, how you hate humans, but killing one and not caring?! What kind of monster are you???” The Bulbasaur spat. Acciaio shrugged.
{I lost my conscious long ago, along with half my upper body. I could never feel guilty killing a human.} Then he walked off.

Marty’s Bulbasaur stood there a moment, staring at Acciaio in disbelief. The trainer really didn’t care… How could he think that way? Marty was a wreck… his head was battered so bad he might die any second, and would definitely die if he didn’t see a doctor! And Acciaio didn’t care…

His heart heavy, the Pokemon trudged over to his Pokeball and sucked himself back in. There was nothing more he could do.

Marty had finally fallen unconscious again.

~*~*~

Magi sniffed the small blocks of food that had been placed before her. They were ugly multicolored things, with chunks of berry sticking that. The things looked completely revolting.

The large orange-gold Magikarp looked up at her obese trainer plaintively, hoping that he wouldn’t make her eat the things. The man, however, took her expression wrong, and gently nudged her closer to the food.
“There ya go!” he laughed. “Eat up, an’ tell me which one you like!”
“Karp?” Questioned Magi miserably, trying to look as sad as she could so he would have mercy on her.
“Courtney, they’re PokeBlocks! They’ll make ya beautiful! I make them special where they have no texture to them at all, so that ya can eat an infinite amount! We’ll win hands down!”

The female Magikarp studied the food again. She felt compelled to ask what they tasted like, but she knew the man could not answer her. So, sucking in her breath nervously, she grabbed a pink, gold, and green swirled block from the top of the pile and swallowed. Just as the man said, she could hardly feel it slide down her throat, but it filled her mouth with a delightfully sweet taste that she had never felt before. For a moment she just flopped wildly in delight.

Keshaa grinned down at her from their master’s shoulder. He was stronger already, and you could tell just by looking at him. The scars about his body no longer made him look pathetic but ferocious, and she felt that if she had not known him before now, she would never have the nerve to meet him. He was that dangerous and scary.

“It’s that good, huh?” laughed the Seadra, his eyes glittering with delight at his friend’s happiness.
“She likes it then?” Smiled the man to his Pokemon.
“Yeah, she’s literally jumping for joy!” They both laughed at that.

“Hey Joe, I thought PokeBlocks were one color,” said Keshaa after they were done. The man laughed again and scratched Keshaa behind his single ear.
“It’s a fisher’s secret formula! There aren’t just berries in those things…”
“What else is there?”
“If I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret!”

The two continued to laugh as Magi wolfed down the special food. Every scale on her body shone with more health and color each bite. Soon she would be beautiful.

~*~*~

Keahi looked ready to cry.

The little Torchic stood there, the ring of yellow fur and feathers around her neck bristling with her horror at what Acciaio and Marty had done. The Mewtwo had just finished telling her about it.

“Mahtey wanted me, Mastah Acciaio? Enough to kill you? How hahible…” The tiny wingless bird gently rubbed her beak against her trainer’s injured arm, making him wince. The bit of that evil blade that had chipped itself on his chest plate was still in his, making his injuries worse and worse. It hurt as much as being badly poisoned.

Keahi jerked back when she hurt him, and watched with a miserable face as Acciaio got some more medicine he had made and wiped it over the black wound on his shoulder. The Mewtwo then began to gather things and put them into the backpack he had retrieved from their previous camp. He put in the medicine, blankets, and other things that were both his and Marty’s.

After that he recalled his Pokemon and put both Keahi and the Bulbasaur’s Pokeballs into the backpack as well. He wrapped his torn red jacket around his shoulders and put one strap of the backpack around his mechanical shoulder. He left what he didn’t need, including Marty’s clothes, and took whatever he could carry in his condition. He planned on leaving his “partner” behind to die.

The cyborg collected his things, took a bite of some food he found, and turned to walk away and leave the human world forever. He wasn’t sure what stopped him from following through with this.

Whatever it was, it made him turn around and study Marty one last time before he left, promising that he would. He took in the pathetic form silently, his real eye void of emotion as usual.

Marty had fresh blood running down his face, and tears pouring down his cheeks. Occasionally he made little spasms, and his face was losing color again. Acciaio snorted and turned away again, but did not walk. Instead he just looked at the ground, fighting with himself over what he should do. He could not carry Marty, and was in no mood to waste any more effort in helping a human…

Suddenly Marty cried out, and reached his arm out for some invisible form in his dreams.
“Leave her alone you monster!” he screamed, and then he paused as though waiting for a reaction. Obviously he did not get what he wanted, however, for his eyes jerked wide open and for the second time that day he screamed “NO!!!” This was not what made Acciaio’s decision. It was what followed.

“You monster… I will kill you… I will hunt you down and kill you!! YOU SHALL PAY FOR TAKING MY MOTHER’S LIFE!!!”

For a moment Marty, in his anger, was surrounded by a great Psychic Barrier that swirled an odd blue and green, then he dropped into deep unconsciousness again from the effort. His face was contorted with pain, but Acciaio doubted the pain was from his head injury. taking my mother’s life… A monster had taken the boy’s mother? … Just as one had taken his own…

Acciaio walked back to Marty and took out his medicine. Gently, he wiped the stuff over the boy’s head, then took off and ripped his only jacket to wrap like a bandage. After that, the Mewtwo sat down, released the two Pokemon, and coldly told them to make a fire and gather food. He would stay with “the human.” The Bulbasaur nearly refused to obey until Acciaio threatened to attack and kill him.

When they were both out of sight, Acciaio pressed close to Marty and shared the last of his Recovers to save his new companion.