One chilly December evening, a trainer who had just begun on his quest to the poke’mon league travels up the side of a mountain. Slowly, he makes his way through the broken path and shaky bridges. Shivering slightly from the cold, he keeps his water poke’mon, Squirtle, in his jacket, close to his body to keep him warm and safe from the snow and frost laced wind .He takes a break on a small bench near the top of the path. Digging through his bag, he discovers his supplies are down to a half eaten energy bar and two bottles of frozen water.
"Awww man... I thought I had more than this left… well, bon appetite." he says quietly as he breaks an already halved energy bar and chews on it. He puts the rest away for later and makes his way to the old foot bridge that leads to the Poke'center on the other side of the icy canyon. That is where he plans to take a nice, hot relaxing shower after pigging out on the home cooked food awaiting at the buffet.
As he makes his way to the other side of the rickety bridge, a strong wind begins to rock the bridge back and forth sending icy debris at him. The trainer doesn't have enough time to react and grab a hold of anything to keep his balance, causing him to slip. As he almost falls off the bridge he catches one of the planks of wood that dangles beneath, his hand barely staying on as his hold slowly begins weakening.
After only a few moments, his hold gives way. Suddenly, someone in a thick coat catches his arm and slowly begins to pull him back up to safety. The person helps him across the icy bridge and to the Poke’mon Center. Once inside, they lead him to the fireplace. "T..T..Thank.y..y.ou s..sir " Kiba says, shivering from the cold as he moves close to the fire place gathering all the warmth he could.
The mystery person begins to unzip the jackets that are snuggly wrapped around their small body. Kiba looks back at the "man" as the final jacket is taken off revealing a female Arcanine, about 5'6" with a medium bust that is noticeable due to the V of her nurse's uniform. A slender frame ended with her tail that hung out from a special hole cut in the back of her skirt.
She shakes off the snow that had stuck to her fur and looks over at the now blushing Kiba. "Are you okay, sir?" she asks as she checks him for cuts, bruises, or frost bite. Kiba blushes slightly as she begins to check him and says that he is fine. Not believing him, she hands him a room key and sends him on his way to a cozy little room with a poke'ball warmer.
He sighs and shuffled over to the poke'ball warmer, placing his Squirtle in and smiling. "Goodnight Squirt, stay nice and warm..." he says, slowly beginning to undress. He gets down to his poke’mon boxers and slips into the bed. A clap of his hands shuts the lights off and he slowly begins to drift into slumber.
Fwump! creeeeeek! Sounds awoke Kiba from his peaceful sleep about his mother's home cooking and his girlfriend Rachel. He sleepily gets out of bed and sees the light coming from the windows beginning to disappear under the heavy avalanche that has slid down onto the poke'center. Nurse Joy begins banging on doors and shouting for the patrons and poke’mon to evacuate. "Please, everyone! Please wake up! We must leave now! We are all in great danger!" Nurse Joy pleads as she knocks on the doors. All the critically injured poke’mon were rushed outside on hospital beds.
Kiba dresses quickly as he hears Nurse Joy running down the halls and banging on the doors to wake the other trainers. He grabs his Squirtle from the poke'ball warmer™ and makes his way down the hallway as the flood lights come on and the exit signs flicker. Just as he is about to exit the building, he realizes that he forgot his badge case. He hands his poke’balls to Nurse Joy and darts back into the dimly lit halls. "I’ll be right back. I forgot something!" he yells, disappearing into the now darkening halls.
He ran as fast as he could, trying to find his room in the darkness. His heart rate quickens every time the roof overhead makes groaning and creaking sounds. But, unknown to him, he did not forget the badge case. He had stuffed it so far into his bag that it was covered by his spare clothing. Meanwhile, Nurse Joy was outside pacing nervously while waiting for him to come back with whatever he had forgotten. Her fear finally got the best of her, causing her to send her companion in after him.
"Flare, go retrieve that boy! Whatever he lost is not worth his life!" she says, worry heavy in her voice. Flare got on all fours and nodded at Nurse Joy. "Yes, ma'am. I'll be right out!" She smiled at Joy and darted in to find the trainer. "Hello? Sir, are you here?!" her voice echoes through the empty hallways. She sniffs the air, trying to find his scent. All she can smell is revives and full heals and something like fresh flowers mixed with sweat...."Gotcha!” she says to herself, darting down the hall to his location.
She finds Kiba trying to open the door to the place he was sleeping not even twelve minutes ago. But his efforts are useless. "Need any help there, stranger?" she asks with a giggle. "Please step back. I don't want you to be hurt by any debris." she says as she backs up and runs at the door. She head butts it, making it crash open. Kiba ran inside to search for his belongings. "Where is it!?" he asks himself, sighing in frustration as he begins to tear the room apart. Flare's flame became the only light as the entire center had gone dark in the middle of his search. "Gah! It's not here!" he yells as the window starts cracking. A worried look comes to Flare’s face as she looked at the room crumbling around them .
"Come on, we have to go NOW!" she yelled as she tossed him out of the room just as the window shattered, letting the cold snow flood in. The ceiling of the poke'center began to bulge down more and more as they made their way to the exit. Before they passed the doors, the roof began to collapse behind them. The entire building collapsed as they ran outside… Flare went down on all fours, panting a bit to catch her breath.
"Y...You IDIOT!" she yelled, smacking him across the face. "What was worth your life to go back in and get?!" she scolded. He looked down feeling saddened because he had "lost" the badges that he worked so hard to get. He faced the canine, not saying a word to evoke her wrath even further. He nodded at everything that she said, his heart still heavy with the loss of his badges.
Kiba begins to slowly think on where he could have left his badge case, but Nurse Joy interrupted his thinking. Clearing her small throat, she asked "Excuse me, can I have every ones attention?" she looks over the crowd as some keep talking to one another. She blew a whistle gaining their full attention "T..Thank you..." she timidly clears her throat again and speaks. "Until the winter season is over, this poke'center is deemed uninhabitable and you will all be relocated with your injured poke’mon as soon as possible!"
Nurse Joy turns to Kiba and glares at him. "You, young man! You could have been killed along with Flare! What do you have to say for yourself!?" he sniffled a bit, feeling even worse. Holding his head down a bit, he took the scolding. He looks up at her slightly, still sniffling. "I..i'm sorry M...Miss Joy...I just wanted... to grab my badges..."he said solemnly, turning away. Something warm and fuzzy lightly hugged him from behind, making him blush.
Flare tightened the hug, sending small waves of heat slowly through his body, making Kiba blush more. She smiled at him and nuzzled his cheek like a loving mother "They are just badges and can easily be replaced, but someone like you is one in a million. Please do not think you are any less." she said in a soft, soothing voice that calms Kiba. "Now, feel better?" she asked, keeping her voice the same soothing tone as he nodded slowly and got up. He grabbed his bag, ready to leave, but Nurse Joy stopped him for a minute. "Excuse me, sir; can I request a favor from you?"
Kiba looked up at her questioningly and wonders why she would trust him after what he did. "Uhhh...sure?" Nurse Joy smiles at him and hands him Flare's poke'ball. "I need you to take Flare to the Olivine poke'center so she can start working a.s.a.p. They are short on help, so I figured...After what happened at the center..." She pointed back at it just as a letter fell from the sign and broke on the ground. "She would be of more use there than here..." Kiba sighed and looked at Flare, who gave him a nice, warm smile. He looked back to Nurse Joy. "Do I have a choice?" he asked, sighing. He didn’t want another poke’mon to worry about.
He let out a groan as he took the poke'ball from Nurse Joy's hand and looked at it. "So all I have to do... is transport her... to Olivine and then I’ll be on my way again, right?” he asked, twirling the poke'ball on his finger and catching it in his palm before it fell to the ground. Nurse Joy nodded and motioned for Flare to come over. “Yes, that is all you have to do...but until then she is YOUR responsibility, so if anything happens to her you’re gonna have to pay for it. Got that young man?" he nodded at her and sighed.
"Yeah, yeah... quick question though… does she go in her poke’ball or is she allowed to walk around as she pleases?" Nurse Joy looked over at Flare and she smiled slightly and turned back to Kiba . “Well she’s free to walk around because she really doesn’t like her poke'ball. We only keep it so no one can catch her and treat her like other poke'mon but she is actually free to come and go as she pleases. We don’t really know why she chooses to stay…" Kiba smiled slightly at Flare and extended a hand so he could shake her han...erm paw. " Welcome to my team then… even though its only for a short while."
He smiled brightly at her, putting her ball onto his belt and then opening his Poke'navi to determine the route they will take to Olivine. "Hmmm… maybe if we head to Mahogany first...then from there take a break in Ecruteak... but as long as we are there...might as well have a look around the burned tower…” he mumbled to himself for a while. After thinking for a few minutes, he walked over to grab his bag. "Okay...you ready Miss Flare?" she nods to him and says her goodbyes to her old coworkers and then walked over to Kiba. She smiled slightly at him as they began walking down the slush covered road that leads down the mountain.
Later that Evening after walking many miles, Kiba let out a yawn as he looked for a good spot underneath a tree to set up camp for the evening. Flare grabbed the back pack and pulled out her sleeping bag and frowned. "Umm Mr. Kiba sir... w… we have a problem..." She held up her sleeping bag that had been ripped clear through. "Would you happen to have a spare in your bag?" she asks, her ears bent slightly down showing her displeasure.
Kiba chuckled a bit, pulling out his sleeping bag and looking at her. "Well… I guess you could always share one with me... Don't worry, I won’t bite..." Kiba says, smirking at her. Flare’s cheeks flushed a deep, crimson red. "Oh, I'm only kidding Flare!" he said, tossing a pillow at her. "You need to learn how to joke around missy." he laughingly finished while starting a fire to prepare some food for them.
After the light dinner Kiba tossed her the intact sleeping bag and slowly crawled into the ripped one. "I thought you wanted to share one?" Flare asked with a slight blush. Kiba never gave her an answer and slowly drifted into a semi-peaceful slumber.
Halfway into the night Kiba felt something warm… and slightly fuzzy snuggle with him but paid it no mind thinking he was back home and it was his dog Fluffers. It happened to be Flare who had felt bad for taking the good sleeping bag.
She had watched him for a few hours, seeing him shiver from the cold and threw her timidity to the wind. She had cuddled up next to Kiba to try and keep him warm under the sleeping bag. All the while she kept enough of a distance from him so she had her personal space.
As Flare wraps one arm around the shivering trainer a slight blush begins to flush her cheeks feeling a bit shy about being so close to this male.. and he was a human at that! "Easy girl.. this dosn't mean anything.."She says to herself in a soft whisper before letting out a small yawn the days activity taking their toll like a ton of bricks,she was soon fast asleep her tail wrapped around Kibas legs and her arms around his upper torso. During the night a snapping noise coming from the woods wakes kiba up in a startel causing him to dart upward flares arms keeping him down,He looks down at the sleeping Canine and gives are a soft smile before reaching down and giving her head a soft pet. He slowly lays back down facing away from her being careful not to wake her up."I was only joing around Flare.." he says his hand lightly cupping ontop of her paw like hands his fingers interlacing her fingers smiling,Finding himself begining to wonder hows she waas born like this.
Was it with a human?.."Thats just sick!" he thinks to himself then he begins thinking maybe she was created from a test tube like a few others he had heard about in recent years. No matter how much he found himself thinking on it He couldn't help thinking that she wasn't brought into this world Naturaly.He kept thinking until the morning sun begins to peak over the trees nearly blinding kiba with the bright rays."Jesus!" Kiba says quicklycovering his eyes with the hand that was holding Flare he pauses for a moment as she stirred beside him slowly begining to awaken,letting out a small yawn with her maw opening wide letting kiba see her sharp fangs that are mixed in with human like teeth.
"H..hey Flare did you sleep well?" he asks giving her a fake smile as he looks down a bit wanting answers about flare like.. is she happy with how she is? Why is she like this?.. his thoughts are broken by a scream coming from Flare lets and Kiba bolts up ready to help her only to find her cowering in fear of a spinanarc. "T..Thats what your afriad of?" he asks trying to hold in some laughter as Flare is almost halfway up a tree attempting to get away from the Spider Pokemon that had crawled out of Kibas back pack.
Flare blushes abit and tosses a berry at him that was dangelign infront of her face."S.s..shut up you!" she says blushign even more."I am a gril after all!"Kiba quickly ducks attepmting to dodge the berry but his face ends up smashing into a large rock hurting his nose."Oh fu--!" he says quickly grabbing his nose which begins to bleed slightly before tilting his head back. Flare jumps down from the tree apologizing as she runs tword him quickly pulling a small medical kit from her back that is latched onto her belt. "I..I'm so sorry! I didn't mean...I.."she takes care of his nose just sitting there silently untill a few minutes later when she punches him in the shoulder.
"Idiot..." she says with a small giggle before leaning over to check his nose to see if the blood had queagulated yet. "It's not as bad as it could be.. but you are stil an idiot for tryign to dodge it.. the most that berry would have done was stain your shirt." Kiba rubs his shoulder looking at her weirdly."Oww.. you know that friggin hurts right? and I can't have my sweet duds stained can I?" he asks pretending to put the moves on her as she checks his nose making him wince abit as she puts some anti-biotics on it.
"You know young man.. you really need to drink your Moo moo milk it's good for you!" She says playfuly scoulding him just as she pushes some gauze up his nose,tilting his head back abit." Now.. I guess we have to wait a bit before we can start walking again or you will keep bleeding and attract Murcrow and you don't want those things following you.."She says with a shiver as what feels like ice travels up her spine slowly disapating. Kiba stands up slowly and holds his head slightly back to begin cleaning their campsite up unknowing of the set of eyes that is watching them from the nearby brush."Ready to go flare?" he says slowly setting his head to it's normal position and slinging his backpack on his back,while looking back at Arcanine behind him.
She quickly rushes to beside his side before gently pushing his side with her elbow."Do you even have a map of this area?"She asks looking around to make sure they didn't get lost on the trail as they come up to a fork in the path with two choices along with a broken sign post with two peices of wood laying in front of it with faded words.They deside to take the path to the right after flipping one of Kibas game coins from the casino in goldenrod city. "Right it is.."Says kiba as he martches onward into the uknown.
After a few hours of walking they come upon the same fork in the road making Kiba nearly cuss. "God fu...." he bites his tounge grumbeling to himself as a giggle escapes Flares lips. "Stopping your self from cussing for little old me?" she asks pretending to be flattered but Kiba sees the sarcasum through her words."Oh har der har Flare...Just remember who has your Poke'ball." She almost gives him a death glare at the sound of being cramped up in that hellish sphere again and walks past him ignoring him completely.
"W..What'd I do?" He asks quickly following her down the path to the left. Before flare has a chance to answer a poke'mon trainer steps from the bushes with a smirk. "Hello I am Marvin...and I would like to battle you for that lovely arcanine." He says still studying her almost hourglass figure. "I'm sorry....She isn't my Pok'e....She isn't for trade... she is a nurse at the poke'center in Olivine city." the other trainer scoffs as he brings out a Mr.Mime "Go Mr.Mime and use Light screen" Flare and Kiba look around as they are trapped in a barrier with thr trainer. "Now you have to fight my love.." Marvin says to flare poke'ball ready.
Flare looks back at Kiba and lets a sigh out. "I...I guess your my trainer.." she says untieing her hair and slowly taking her cloths off so she wouldn't have anything in the way. "W...What are you doing?!" kiba asks turning away and blushing beet red as she tosses her nurses outfit to the side showing her slinder fur covered body off to the warm glow of the sun. "Clothing gets in the way of battling..besides..I'm just a pokemon."She says in a sad tone of voice before she faces marvin who sends out a blastiose. "Go Blastiose!" he says with a smirk knowing he has this match in the bag with one hydro pump and win himself another beautiful prize. Flare thinks for a moment and smirks. "If we win..what do we get? A Poke'mon for a Poke'mon?"
The trainer thinks for a moment and pulls a rather abused Poke'ball off of his belt."Very well I have this Charizard I'm sick and tired of anyways...now... Blastiose Hydro pump!" He says barely giving her enough time to dodge the attack that snaps the tree that was behind her in half."You sneaky bastard!" She snarels out, she uses quick attack to dart between the blasts of water and jumps into the air bringing a heavy iron tail on to the thick shell of the Blastiose making it cry out in pain before stumbeling back, he gets back up quickly and tries to attack her with a body slam but misses her by a few feet knocking himself out. "I guess I win.." Flare says panting out trying to catch her breath.
"N..Now..f...for your end of the deal.." she say walking over to grab the beat up poke'ball from the other trainer who scoffs and tosses the ball at her."Fine here!...its a useless poke'mon anyway.." he says returning Mr.Mime and begining to walk down the path again mumbeling to himself. Flare holds to poke'ball in her hands and makes her way back to kiba. "Here.." she says handing him the abused ball and going to the bushes to get dressed.Leaving kiba to examin the new poke'mon. "U...uh..C..charizard...go?" he says tossing it out a few feet infront of him being blinded by the white light and blinking when he sees a Black and violet charizard before him just laying on the ground motionless.
As Kiba steps closer to the motionless dragon A single growl is heard....
End chapter one
