Blackthorn City

Em had just arranged a meeting on the very edge of town with the current Pokemon champion, Swablu sitting on the currently 6' tall chubby lady's head as a hat as she patted her new Pokemon gently. She was literally so excited she was having problems suppressing it, still slowly growing in height- slow for her standards, but still visible if one observed her for more than a few seconds. Getting a bit impatient as she looked at her Pokegear again and decided to try messing around with the radio function.

"Man, I've never missed the sun more than I do now!"

"Squir squir!" came Lucky's agreeing statement as he sat on his best friend's backpack while he walked. It was a beautiful day outside. There wasn't a cloud in sight and the sun knew it, filling Blackthorn City with nice, beautiful rays. The air was a tad bit nippy, but nowhere near the bite it carried two days prior while he was walking the Ice Path. The air that had nearly killed him. But with every life endangering event the current Champion of the Kanto and Johto region endured, he seemed to make a new friend. Shantra saved his life and he'd never forget that. And now he had a new ally he could call upon if things were taking a turn for the worse.

Yep, Winter Sakkio didn't live a standard life. A Champion never did. But he enjoyed every part of the adventure...even the ones that left him collapsing from the cold.

Unfortunately, that feeling wasn't mutual with Lucky, who kept grabbing his arm from behind and checking for any permanent damage. Winter had to laugh as the Squirtle inspected his fingers for the zillionth time, "I'm fine! I promise! No hypothermia. No frostbite. Everything is all good."

Lucky didn't put his arm down without a harrumph, "Squirr..."

"I know. Going through Ice Path without a jacket wasn't a good idea. But I couldn't think of any other way to do resistance training. Mount Silver's supposed to be worse. I wanted to get a good feel of what I was jumping into when I told Titania I'd take care of it."

The look Lucky gave him said everything. Oh, you got a good feel alright...

"It all worked out in the end," Winter gave him a warm care-free smile back, "And now we've met and befriended a Suicune. I still need to find a way to pay her back, though." He stopped when he saw a girl walking towards him, heading towards the Ice Path, tampering with her PokeDex. She was a very large girl, around six foot with a large and burly body, her eyes matching a soft complexion. Her curly brown hair fell around her and bounced as she walked. On her head rested a Swablu, a fairly content bird that seemed to naturally enjoy her gaze upon the world.

Winter passed a small wave, forgetting for the moment that he was a Champion. "Hey. How's it going?" he said, a light tone in his voice and much warmth in his words.

"Winter, right?" Smiling faintly at him, the dimples in her cheeks naturally emphasing the action. Admittedly though she was over 20, she did look like she could be an older teen. Snorting a bit as Swablu began flapping his wings gently from the top of her head. "You wann go talk too? That's fine with me Swabs."

"Swablu!" Came the happy responce, jumping down on her shoulder for a quick snug before making his way down to the ground- intentionally perching on a rather clean bit of rock that was mostly level.

Em couldn't help snorting very faintly at him- but in all honesty she was thinkful her Pokemon friend was willing to exxagerate things until she could more properly read his intent. It was almost like he was becoming some charming little actor- like Robin Williams, or Adam Sandler in his early days. Then refocusing her attention on Winter. "I uh... I'm pretty new to all this, what with not even being from this world... Let alone region. If you have some advice for newbies?" Fidgeting a bit as her growth visibly sped up, slipping into a meditative breathing exercise in order to stop it. She hoped Winter didn't find that too weird, but at this point she didn't much care what other people said either.

Winter froze for a second. I've only been to Blackthorn City once, he thought. How does she know my name?

Then the realization kicked in as he remembered his position once more and then smile returned, "Uh-huh! You got it!"

"Squir squir!" Lucky bounded off his back and action rolled to greet the perching Swablu, extending a paw for him to shake.

Winter laughed as he did so, "Don't mind Lucky. He's very friendly."

The Squirtle started his own conversation with the Swablu, while Winter continued his with the girl in front of him, "Huh, not from this world? There was a time where that would've been crazy news to hear. Nowadays, such things to hear is second nature."

"But, that isn't what you asked of me. I'd say the best advice I can give is to do your own thing and find your own way. I know the prize of Champion is a big and legendary one, but if such a prize doesn't make you happy to get, then don't try to go for it. That's not to discourage you from giving it a shot. I'm just saying you should do what makes you and your new Swablu happy. Enjoy the journeys you two have while you're here or wherever you go. If you're having fun on the way, then anything is worth it."

"That's why I chose Swabs is he was the friendliest of them... Got right to trying to preen my mess of hair." Unable to help laughing once again as she thought about that, somehow comforted by the memory... Enough so that she shrank down to about 5'6". "And he seems to exaggerate his actions to help cross the language boundary." Turning to watch him and Lucky a moment now, noting how subdued the Swablu's behavior was when compared to how he conversed with her.

She thought a moment before turning back to reply to Winter's advice. "Aight... Since he seems fairly showy, I'll probably see if there's contests besides contests of toughness and combat prowess... I mean that's what I want, but there's gotta be some compromise, right?"

She found herself extending a hand awkwardly as she realized she hadn't introduced herself yet, though she didn't seem that nervous about it after the initial moment of realization. "Em Sparks. Nice to meet you. I've always lived as something of a nomad anyway, the challenge will be not to charge into the fights myself." Remembering the previous time she'd come to this world when she was about nine years old, and how she'd beaten that angry Machoke into a pulp all too easily.

"Winter Sakkio," he shook Em's hand with a nod of the head, "And if you're looking for a beauty contest of sorts, then you're gonna have to travel a ways. I've heard of them in the Hoenn region, but they're most prominent in the Sinnoh region. What could be good is the Pokeathlon. If you make your way to Goldenrod City, you'll find the dome next to the National Park. Ober there, they test a Pokemon's speed, power, jump, skill, and stamina in a variety of events. It'd be up to you guys as to which ones you and Swabs, I'm presuming, wanted to compete in."

"Squir squir!" Winter glanced over to see Lucky flexing his muscles at the mention of the Pokeathlon. There was that spark of energy in his eye that told Winter exactly what he was thinking.

"You wanna partake, too?" Winter actually raised a brow at Lucky's claim, "I thought you weren't for competition like that. I thought you preferred the fighting."

Lucky gave Winter an indignant stare as he pounded his paw against his chest once more. Winter had to laugh.

"Well, I don't see why not, then," he glanced over to Em. Wasn't she taller before? "We can travel together if you want. I've only been to Goldenrod City once, but I'm pretty sure I know the way. It's be a bit embarrassing if a Champion didn't know how to navigate through his own region, huh?" He sheepishly rubbed the back of his head as Squirtle climbed onto his back again.

"That sounds like a good idea, yeah. And Swabs is fairly fast on account of his wings being... Different from the other Swablu that were present." Clearly not sure how to word what she was trying to say. Hopefully he got the point regardless, she thought, as she internally wished her vocabulary was better.

"Blu~!" Swabs replied, just happy to have had that mentioned as he fluttered his wings excitedly... Only to give the closest he could to a frown when he fell to one side in his excitement, and ended up with little spots of black on his cottony feathers.

Em rolling her eyes at him. "Such a perfectionist..." And yet despite her body language there, she was calming down even further, resulting in her shrinking slightly more down to her default height of 5'4". It was very rare someone got to see her at her default height, due to her emotional nature... And it wasn't long before she realized she was actually at it, and found herself wondering why Winter hadn't commented on her changes in height yet.

"Interesting," Winter noted as he took to viewing the falcon-like wings on the Swablu, a very uncharacteristic trait for such a being to have. He'd make to be a very fast Pokemon indeed.

As the two started walking west toward Route 44, a sudden realization kicked in for Winter. "Oh shoot! I should really let a few of these guys out of their PokeBalls. They couldn't come out during my journey through the Ice Path because it would've been too dangerous. They're probably getting restless."

As Winter was explaining, he had pulled two PokeBalls off his belt and proceeded to toss them. The first one to pop out immediately took to the skies, flapping his wings as if he would never get the opportunity to again. While the Aerodactyl circled around them, stetching his stiff muscles, the second one to pop out had immediately wrapped Winter in a bear hug.

"Woooooooah, easy buddy," Winter patted the Typhlosion to set him down, "I know, I know, it's been a little bit. But Ice Path becomes Flood Path if you're around it."

The Typhlosion snorted a response before walking around his surroundings in search of berries. The Aerodactly already began to hover lower and lower as the girl began to take in his interest.

"Em, these are two more of my friends. The purple rock-dragon above us is Rio. And the one foraging for food over there is Mane." Rio flapped his wings as he landed, eyeing up the girl. "He doesn't bite," Winter reassured, "But he's a bit hard to get to know."

Mane had already returned with some Oran berries in his mouth, "That one, though. Give him food and he'll love ya forever." Winter watched as Mane began sniffing around Em, in search for something more to eat. It was then that the differences in height were starting to take full notice.

"Hey, weren't you taller before?" he pointed out as they walked, "It sounds crazy, but I think you legitimately were a foot taller when we first ran into each other than now."

"Yeah, good idea..." Finding herself looking over the other's Pokemon now as Swabs went to perch on her shoulder, bumping his dirty wing into her face as if he wanted her to help clean it. "Alrighty then." Doing her best to pick out the bits of black... Whatever they were. She just did her best not to think about it.

"Seems me and Mane have something in common then." Wondering if he'd like a bit of venison jerky she'd made as she got a small piece out to offer it to the Typhlosion. "I was wondering when you'd notice that! My height depends upon my emotions. That's actually why I first started living as a nomad, 'cuz I mean... If I lose control I can easily hurt or kill people. It wasn't until later on I learned enough control to visit civilization." Smiling faintly as she could feel Swabs snuggling against her again. She guessed he was imagining how rough that must have been.

"There's the positive to this er... Sizeshifting. Too. But I saw a lot of things I would rather not have as a lil anklebiter." Shaking her head as she seemed to be remembering some of the worse memories, expressive eyes dimming a bit- losing that usual hopeful shine. It was only when Swabs said something to her that she snapped out of it. "Oh... The jerky? Yeah, I did make it myself. I don't care as much for all that commercialized food. I mean I'll still eat most of it if need be, but... I'm used to hunting and gathering for myself." Smiling faintly when the cottony bird seemed to approve of that.

Mane took the piece of jerky without a second though, cramming it into his mouth as he went looking around for more food for the party. Rio took to the skies once more, scouting ahead like he always did. Meanwhile, Winter was paying attention to Em.

"Oh, I see," Winter rubbed his chin in thought as they walked, "Do you have any idea how it happens? Like, how your height is linked to your emotions?"

Nicolette Porter has arrived, coming from Ice Path.

Nicolette Porter has left the area, heading west into Ice Path.

Nicolette Porter has arrived, coming from Ice Path.

Nicolette Porter has left the area, heading west into Ice Path.

Leanne (Leavanny) materializes from the void.

In a cacophony of obliteration, everything to the east vanishes.

Leanne (Leavanny) vanishes into nothingness, but you get the feeling they are heading somewhere else.