A story set in the awesome world of  Ryusuta's including characters from her comic! =)

Tess and Tray are a pair of students who are assigned to follow some of their heroes by their teacher, but when two students follow some of the Pokemorphs Tess becomes disgruntled when her hero doesn't live up to her expectations. The Eevee goes after some bad Pokemon, but things don't go her way...

I hope you all enjoy the story, and I would love to hear what you all think! ^^

P.S. Go look at  ryusuta's comics here on FA, they're fantastic! =D

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Mr. Leonard put down his book and smiled at his class as they all beamed up at him. “I’m guessing that all of you enjoyed that story,” he said, chuckling as there was a wild wave of nodding from all of his aspiring students. “Well as you know that was a story of my hero, Davis a great Garchomp hero. Now I know that many of you are proud of your parents as they’re great Pokémon, but for this weekend’s assignment I want all of you to pick a Pokémon besides your parents who you admire. It doesn’t have to be your same species of Pokémon either, as you know I’m a Mr. Mime, and I admired a Garchomp.”

His class exploded into titters of excitement as each of the Pokémon started to reel off their favorite Pokémon heroes, and just as always they all split into their own little groups. Mr. Leonard glanced over to look at two of his brighter students coordinating as they always did, an Eevee by the name of Tess and a Riolu by the name of Tray. The pair were highly intelligent, and often outdid even himself in knowledge. Tess had a bit of a prankster personality though as she had many times put whoopee cushions on his chair, but that was often outweighed by her brilliant test scores. They were tittering with one another as they conferred to each other their heroes. “Well who do my little geniuses plan to follow this weekend?”

The pair grinned at him like twins, albeit completely different species, but twins nonetheless. “I’m going to be following Alexander the Lucario! He’s so quiet and sharp, I bet he’s got a bunch of awesome stories!” Tess explained, her little body shaking in excitement as she imagined his awesome aura powers in action.

“I want to follow Todd the Espeon, I recently saw him helping a Teddiursa out of a tree with his psychic powers. I think that’s really cool!” Tray explained, his face was lit up with anticipation.

The Mr. Mime had to laugh as he realized that the pair had chosen the opposite species of one another as their interest, but he couldn’t shoot down their excitement as they launched off into a small rant about the great points of the Pokémon that they had chosen. “Well I’m sure that you two will have a great presentation Monday, I hope you two have a lot of fun.” Mr. Leonard chuckled to himself as he walked away, the pair not quite grasping the irony of the situation but quickly shrugged it off as they made their plan to go talk to the older Pokémon.

***

Alexander smirked to himself quietly as his body glowed blue with his aura, and Todd was in the process of trying to read his mind. “I… will… break… it…” he grunted with effort, the pair had made a friendly wager that if Todd could read Alexander’s thoughts by the end of the week that he would buy the Espeon Ice Cream, but if Todd couldn’t do it by then he would owe the Lucario a meal. “Are… you… thinking about… cookies?” Todd asked, looking hopeful that he had read Alexander’s mind, but with a shake of his head Alexander gestured to a passing Hoppip looking hopefully at a cart of cookies.

“You’d better hurry, Todd. You’ve only got two more days, and the idea of that meal is becoming more and more delicious as the days go on.” Alexander wasn’t usually for one bets like this, but Todd had been so set on trying that he conceded and Todd had set up the prizes. He had made Alexander’s prize for losing far less pricy than his own, and Alexander could see that the Espeon had grown since evolving.

“I know…” Todd grunted, he was struggling with the Lucario but he was having fun trying to beat his friend’s aura shield. The pair had been so engrossed in their little battle that they didn’t notice the two young Pokémon approaching until Tray cleared his throat, throwing off both from the task at hand. “H… hi!” Todd said, surprised that someone had interrupted their little battle of will.

“Hi,” the pair of Pokémon said, they were both practically dancing in excitement as they met their two heroes.

Alexander quickly recognized the young Eevee as one who’d he’d saved from a rather nasty Raticate, and after sending it packing he’d given her a berry to make her feel better. “Hello kids, what can we do for you?” he asked, smiling kindly as they both giggled in excitement.

“Sorry to bother you two, but we’re here on an important school assignment,” Tray announced solemnly, but with the way his eyes glittered it was obvious that he was anxious with glee as he was with his hero.

“Oh?” Todd asked, smiling at the Riolu as he noticed the Pokémon looking at him with admiration. “What’s the school project?” he asked, tilting his head curiously.

“We were told by our teacher that we’re to follow our heroes for two days, and watch them in action!” Tess chipped in, grinning at Alexander as he and Todd both blinked in surprise.

“So you’re telling us that you picked us as your heroes?” Alexander asked, he was startled that anyone would come to him as their hero, but by all means he was touched by the glee that the two young Pokémon showed.

“Yeah!” they answered simultaneously, the two older Pokémon grinned at each other as they realized that even though they had once been humans they were admired as Pokémon.

“Alright, well why don’t you give us your names since you know ours?” Todd asked, feeling happier than ever as the pair nodded quickly.

“I’m Tray! I’m here to follow Todd,” the young Riolu said, looking at Todd with anticipation as he already had great expectations from the Espeon.

“I’m Tess, and I’ll be following Alexander. That is, if you’re alright with it,” she said, looking abashed as she looked up at the Lucario.

The pair looked at each other and laughed as they quickly picked up on the irony of the situation just as the pair’s teacher had, but the two students didn’t understand though they chuckled nervously. “Well I’d be glad to have you follow me, Tess,” Alexander said, smiling at the Eevee.

“Likewise, Tray,” Todd said, quickly forgetting about his bet with Alexander as he realized the awesome opportunity set before him.

“Yay!” the students cheered, their hopes were being fulfilled and they knew that before them lay a fantastic journey that they would remember for the rest of their lives. “Can we go now?!” Tess asked, literally bouncing with excitement as she stared up at Alexander.

Alexander glanced over at Todd, the pair thinking it over for a moment. “Well…” Alexander said, his face was thoughtful as he mulled over their options. “We don’t have anything to do quite this moment, but seeing as some of our other friends are on a trip right now to help out some Pokemon in need. Why don’t we go to the elder Pokemon center, and help cheer their day up?”

Todd and Tray both perked up at the idea, clearly happy with helping some Pokemon to feel better. “Sure!” they both shouted, quickly racing one another to the center.

Though the pair were clearly excited, Tess wasn’t quite as invigorated as her idea of grand adventure shook a bit. “Oh…” she murmured, slightly broken hearted that her idea of an adventure wasn’t fulfilled just yet.

“Don’t worry, Tess,” Alexander said, patting her on the back as he noticed her sad face. “I’m sure that before Monday, we’ll have some sort of adventure to perk up that bushy tail of yours.” Tess smiled and nodded, walking beside Alexander as they trotted towards the elder center.

***

Through the day, Todd and Tray both took turns playing games and talking with the elder Pokémon and listening with great anticipation for their stories. Alexander was glad that Todd had taken so quickly to the idea of helping the elders, but Tess wasn’t quite as thrilled at the prospect as she listened to her third senior and kept sighing and rolling her eyes as the Pokémon regaled her with epic adventures. “What’s wrong, Tess?” he asked, looking concerned as the Eevee didn’t seem as excited as he’d hoped for.

“Well it’s just… I don’t like listening to adventures, I want to be out there!” she said, gesturing out the window towards the woods. “I want to fight an evil Umbreon, or taking down a group of hypnotist Hoothoots.”

Alexander frowned and patted her on the back as Todd and Tray came bounding up, their eyes lit up with excitement. “Alexander, you have to hear that Rhydon’s story! He once beat an army of Onix with one fist!” Todd said, his tail twitching with excitement as Tray nodded in agreement.

“Alright, I’ll be over to listen to the story in a minute,” Alexander said, letting the pair go listen to another exciting adventure. “Tess, tomorrow I’m sure something will come up that will give you a taste of excitement. Until then can you hold on?” he asked, smiling at her forcing her to smile back.

“Okay… sorry, Alexander.” Tess watched as the Lucario walk back to the others who were listening to an excited Rhydon as he retold one of his many adventures. She couldn’t help but think that her first impressions of the Lucario were wrong, but she wouldn’t tell him that.

***

The four slept in a small cave that night, Alexander saying that their home was currently infested with some rather annoying Chatot. He was waiting for their friend Charlene to come back to burn them out before going back, so as the two elder Pokémon slept Tess nudged Tray awake. “Tray… Tray!”

“Hmm…?” he grumbled, the Riolu wasn’t very happy with being awoken from his nice slumber. “What is it, Tess?” he asked, being half asleep he kept bobbing his head as he tried to stay awake.

The Eevee quickly glanced at the elder Pokémon who were deep asleep, and bit her lip before looking back at her friend conspiringly. “It’s about Todd and Alexander, don’t they seem a bit… dull to you?”

This snapped Tray awake, and from the look in his eyes he wasn’t amused by her words. “No, I think they’re really awesome actually. Todd’s a really cool guy just like I thought, and Alexander seems to be really nice too. Why would you say that, Tess?”

“I don’t know… I just thought that we would be on a big adventure, not just talking to old Pokémon. I could do that any day, but why do we have to waste our time doing it when we can have some big awesome story to tell the class?” It was obvious from the Eevee’s tone that she was frustrated, and though Tray felt guilty for enjoying the experience more than she was he couldn’t help but feel upset at her complete lack of respect for their elders.

“I think they’re showing us how to be good Pokémon, and if you can’t get that, Tess then you’re missing the whole point of following our heroes.” With that the Riolu turned away from his friend, quickly falling back into a pleasant dream.

Tess frowned and got to her feet, for a moment she thought about waking up the Riolu once more to give him a piece of her mind, but just frowned and turned away angrily stalking out of the cave. She stopped at the entrance quickly scribbling a note in the dirt before walking away towards the woods. “I’ll show them what a real hero looks like, and then when I have a great story I’ll write it up for the teacher…”

***

Tray awoke to Todd shaking him, and though he was annoyed at being shaken awake he could tell from the distressed look on the Espeon’s face that something was wrong. “W… what’s happening?”

“Tray, have you seen Tess?!” the Espeon asked, his face drawn with concern and with those words the Riolu hopped up and looked around nervously.

“No, why’re you asking?” he asked, from the looks on the two elder Pokémon’s faces something was amiss.

“Look at this,” Alexander said, pointing to some words written in the dirt by the cave entrance. Tray stood up and walked over to read it, and as he glanced it over he felt his heart falling to the pit of his stomach. According to the note that she had written, she was planning on fighting a big Pokémon in the forest to prove what a real hero was like.

“Oh no! We have to save her!” Tray whimpered, his eyes were wide with fear as he could only imagine bad things happening to his best friend.

Alexander and Todd both exchanged looks quickly putting on serious faces as they seemed to exchange unspoken words. “Alright Tray, you’re going to follow us to find Tess. Since you’ve known her longer than us, and since you should have some control of aura you should be able to follow her aura trail. Can you do that for us?” Alexander explained, his words were sterner than Tray was used to from the Lucario.

“Y… yeah,” Tray said, anxiety swallowing him as he thought about the difficulty with using aura, but the thought of Tess being injured far outweighed the anxiety.

“Charlene should be back soon, I’m going to see if I can intercept her and have her and Chelsey come and help us find Tess,” Todd explained, the Espeon then sprinted off towards the entrance of town.

“Come on, Tray! Let’s go find Tess before she gets injured!” Alexander said, the Riolu and Lucario sprinted out of the cave quickly activating their individual auras to find the Eevee.

***

Tess didn’t quite know what she was looking for, and it was quickly becoming obvious that she was getting lost in the large dark forest. The lights were becoming dimmer as the trees seemed to knit together into a giant barrier against the sun, and Tess was becoming frightened as she found herself bumping into shady Pokémon. “S… sorry…” she mumbled after bumping into an Umbreon, the eeveelution didn’t take kindly to being bumped into by the tiny Pokémon.

“What’s a little Eevee like you doing out in this big dark forest?” he asked, a sneer passing across his face as he started towards Tess.

The small fox shrunk as she was approached by the older and far scarier Pokémon, and though she was usually full of spunk her body and mind were betraying her as she was faced down by the intimidating gaze. “I… I… lost… I…” Tears were forming in Tess’ eyes as she realized that she was in a lot of trouble, and none of the older Pokémon knew where in the forest she had gone.

“A little Eevee in the forest is easy prey for a big Umbreon like me…” the Umbreon chuckled, his mouth slowly opened to reveal sharp teeth that scared Tess even more.

“P… please…” Tess whimpered, her legs gave way and she fell down leaving her prey to the quickly approaching Umbreon, and suddenly there was only one thing for her to do. “Help!” she screamed, the call of the frightened Pokémon alerting many dark denizens of the forest.

The Umbreon tutted, chuckling to himself as he noticed other Pokémon coming out of the dark to prey upon the frightened Eevee. “You shouldn’t have done that. You’ve just alerted my friends, and I’m sure that they would be glad to have a piece of an Eevee like…” The Umbreon didn’t finish his sentence as a large blue ball of energy smacked into him launching him into a tree.

“Get… away… from… Tess!” Alexander screamed, his eyes glowing blue with a fierce energy as he stepped into the clearing.

Tray sprinted out from behind the Lucario and ran right towards his friend, tears flowed from his eyes as he pulled her into a tight hug. “Tess! You’re alright, we’re here to save you,” he cried, sobs wracked both of their bodies as they clutched for their dear friend.

Around the clearing though even though the Umbreon had been defeated the other dark Pokémon weren’t so easily intimidated, and even as Alexander stood over the pair launching Aura Sphere after Aura Sphere it was apparent that it wasn’t enough. “Dang it…” the Lucario hissed, exhaustion taking its toll on his body.

“Alexander…” Tess whispered, respect blossoming in her once more as she realized how hard he was fighting for their sake.

Just as the Pokémon were about to overtake them a rather intimidating fire attack flew out from outside of the crowd of dark Pokémon, and standing there was a very unhappy Charmeleon. “I’m going to give you to the count of three to step away from them, and if you don’t…” Charlene growled, out from behind her Chelsey and Todd stepped both prepped to attack. “We’re going to have to show you what happens to Pokémon who hurt our friends…”

***

Sitting back in the village, Tray and Tess were excitedly talking to each other about the epic battle that Alexander had put on before his friends had scared away the crowd. “Can you believe that Aura Sphere attack?!” Tess asked, her heart beating heavily in her chest.

“I know right?!” Tray said, his eyes wide open as he mimicked the older Pokémon’s move. “It was like… whoosh!” He emphasized the movement of the Aura Sphere launching.

From behind the pair, the older Pokemon stepped up with their arms crossed. “Tess…” Alexander said, his eyes warm yet stern as he stared at the Eevee.

“I’m sorry…” she said, dropping her head as she was faced down by the four Pokémon.

“You should be, you almost got hurt. Tray was terrified that you were injured,” Todd lectured, Chelsey slightly chuckling as she realized how much her friend had grown up.

“Yeah…” Tess said, she felt terrible for putting anyone in danger. “I was thinking that I could prove what a real hero was like but…” she glanced away with a guilty expression, “I realized that a real hero wouldn’t do something so reckless. A real hero knows when to save those, and not go looking for trouble.”
The four elder Pokémon nodded in agreement, and Charlene stepped forward bending down to look Tess in the eyes. “You are a very special Eevee, Tess. I’ve seen you and Tray around the village, and I have to say that you are both very intelligent. Even though you’ve made a mistake now you’ve learned from it, and though you’re likely going to make a few more mistakes I’m sure that when you graduate from school you will be a fine Pokémon.”

Tess grinned and hugged Charlene tightly, and as Tray looked on he could swear that he saw Todd wiping away a tear as if he were remembering something. The Espeon stepped forward and cleared his throat. “Tess, believe me I know what it’s like to lose sight of the importance of self-safety and the safety of others. Everyone forgets it sometimes, and it’s all a matter of keeping in mind that you’ll always have friends to back you up.”

“Now that the excitement’s all over, why don’t we go cheer up some elders with our own stories of excitement?” Alexander asked, winking in amusement as Tess’ face brightened up at the prospect this time.

“Yeah!” they all cheered.

***

“That’s why Alexander is my hero,” Tess said, smiling as the class clapped after her story was finished.

“That was a fine story, Tess. True you made a mistake by thinking you could go off on your own, but you learned a great lesson by doing so. I’m sure that you’ll become a great inspiration to many younger Pokemon yourself,” Mr. Richard said, beaming as he watched the Eevee take her seat.

The class continued on with a happy theme as they all explained their admired heroes, and the whole time Tess and Tray knew that with each other they could achieve everything in the world.

***

Charlene was confused as Todd came back home carrying a tall order of ice cream, Alexander looked slightly embarrassed as he followed behind. “What happened with you two?”

“Well… we had a bet that Todd couldn’t read my mind, and well… after the huge battle yesterday I was exhausted from using so much aura, and Todd was able to read my mind with no challenge so he kind of won…” Alexander admitted, chuckling to himself at his momentary weakness.

“I got every type of ice cream!” Todd announced happily, taking a long lick of the ice cream as he walked towards Chelsey to give her the good news.

Charlene stepped close and looked at Alexander with a knowing smile. “Alexander, I’ve seen you fight several Pokemon with that intensity and still have plenty of aura left. Did you let him win?”

“I would never,” Alexander said, but from the smile on his face at seeing Todd so happy Charlene knew better, but the pair wouldn’t spoil the Espeon’s happiness for all of the money in the world.


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