It's been over a year into this fic… Holy crap.

I will begin by saying that I am not dead and that I profusely apologize for not posting for eight months. I had no reasons other than being lazy, overworked, and playing video games that could be an excuse for leaving you guys hanging. For that, I am sorry.

On another note, my girlfriend saw me reading on my iPhone the other day and she asked me what I was doing. I was just like 'reading'. So one thing led to another and I was kinda nervous that she'd think I was weird for reading fanfiction… She actually encouraged me to start a fic… Little does she know that I already did ;)

So here's Chapter 10! The next leg of Kurtis' journey starts here!

R&R ~ Kurty Pops

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"Speech" – Human Speech

"Speech" – Pokemon Speech

"Thoughts" – Telepathy

'Thoughts' – Inner Thoughts

"X-Tranceiver" – Wireless Communication

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Pokemon. All characters, Pokemon, etc. that are not thought up by me are being used purely for entertainment purposes. In other words: I'm broke, this is for fun, please don't sue me, carry on.

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Chapter 10 – Three Little Birds

We hastily approached the entrance to Petalburg Forest, the canopy of trees shadowing the ground below. Thalia was fast asleep in my arms for the time being; she had been getting along nicely with Milo and Altair surprisingly fast. All of that laughing must have her wiped. We had decided to take a break before we ventured further into the brush.

It was sad, however, that her trip with us would be short-lived. After inquiring as to where she came from, she said that her flock was in the Petalburg forest. She also said at the center that her parents were probably worried sick. I wonder how they'll react to a human. Hopefully they won't skewer me.

What really surprised me was Steve's party of Pokemon. Just before we left the Pokemon Center, we stopped to feed all of our Pokemon. He had a party of five and it was EXTREMELY well-rounded for lack of a better word. As of now, I've only seen Cyndi and his Grumpig.

His first member is what caught my eyes first. It was a majestic Pidgeot. Steve had explained that he took a vacation/business trip to Kanto and stayed in Pallet Town for a few days with Professor Oak. He took a bit of his free time off and went around exploring the forests surrounding the town when a young Pidgey crossed his path. Of course, he said that was about four years ago. Of course it'd be fully-evolved by now. Milo and Altair immediately hobbled over to it to say hello.

Next was another quadruped. However this one was a much more common sight here in Hoenn. His Manectric stood proud and ready, poised like a dignitary. It was instantly wary of me, giving me a glare that clearly said, 'Don't try anything, or you'll regret it.'

His final member was actually very special to him. Steve had taken a trip to Sinnoh before he donned the infamous blue apron of a PokeMart clerk, so he stayed there for quite a long period of time, I think. But when he returned, he had an egg with him. He never told me where he got it, though. That egg eventually hatched and, through his intense values of love and friendship, now I was in the humble presence of a Lucario. But I was really caught off guard with what came next.

"Hello, Master Steven. How have you been?", the Lucario said.

'Now that's odd. I didn't see its mouth move.' I thought.

"I'm doing fine, Rio. How many times have I told you that being called 'master' doesn't really sound right? I'd really prefer if you just called me Steve." Steve said.

"Okay. Now I think I'm going psycho. How do you understand your Lucario? On top of that, why don't I see his mouth moving?"

The Lucario, Rio, spoke up first. "All Lucario have a natural inclination towards aura, or the natural life force that exists in every organism on the planet. Through the use of aura, we have a much more keen senses pertaining to our surroundings. We can also communicate with others via aura. So what you're hearing is your aura responding to mine."

"Huh. How 'bout that." I said. I then turned to Thalia. "So Thalia, where did you say that your flock was?"

"They're in the northern part of the forest that's closest to the big city. But you should be careful. They don't really take kindly to strangers or outsiders, especially you when they realize that you have a missing flock member." She responded.

"Thanks for the memo."

Steve spoke up, "As much as I'd love to stand around all day staring at the entrance, shouldn't we be entering the forest?"

The rest of the group sweatdropped.

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(AN: This is the point where I was completely stumped on how to continue the story. Please forgive me for the wait.)

We walked for about an hour or two. The sun rarely hit the floor of the forest, but we knew it was about lunchtime due to everybody's stomachs.

After we got everything situated along the road, I heard a loud clang that made me jump a bit. I turned around to see that Steve had unveiled a large kettle from his backpack and had 'ceremoniously' placed it on the forest floor. It was all forgiven when our bellies were full, however, as Steve's cooking had put us in a trance.

Once we lounged around the campsite and finished a tad bit of training with Milo and Altair, who had learned Steel Wing and Mud-Slap respectively, I decided to hit the skies for a bit. As I was doing so, something unexpected happened.

I was flying pretty high up so nobody could identify me. At first it didn't seem like much, but I noticed a black dot in the distance. Soon, however, it took a tight turn and started to zoom straight towards me.

On instinct, I decided that I needed to avoid it at all costs. The ocean was pretty open, so I decided to take a steep dive towards the rocks to gain speed.

I soon realized that the effort was fruitless, as the blotch started to get closer by the second. But as it got closer, I recognized it.

A freaking Swellow was hot on my tail and there was no way I could out-speed it.

This calls for evasive maneuvers.

I leveled my descent at water level, which also caused the temperature to drop a bit because of the water. I could feel the droplets of salt water stinging my eyes as I weaved around the spires in the water. Even though I did this, I could see the Swellow hot on my tail.

Never has the white underbelly of a bird been as tantalizingly furious.

I decided to race back to the cliffs of the forest in the case that the giant bird catches me, in which case I would be screwed if it was over water. As I reached solid ground, I glimpsed over my shoulder to see if the Swellow was there.

Wrong choice.

What easily felt like a full 150 pounds of force slammed me to the ground faster than I could say 'I got hit like a sack of potatoes'. Before I could struggle to my feet however, two massive talons gripped my wrists, pushed my back to the forest floor, and my head was unceremoniously shoved to the ground. I clenched my eyes shut because of the sudden pain, but when I opened them, I was met with a piercing glare from sharp, angry eyes.

The voice was firm, but filled with unbridled anger. "Where. Is. She."

Judging by the heavy masculine undertone, I went with the hypothesis that this was a male.

Judging by how fast the bastard caught up with me and how quickly he put me in a compromising position, I'd say he's an alpha bird. (If they call them that)

And judging by what he had said, I'd say that I just found Thalia's father.

Is this considered a lucky or unlucky situation?

'Okay. Let's play the clueless card first.'

"Um… Who?" The way said it, however, indicated that I definitely knew something.

"Don't play with me, human. You have her scent all over your body! Now tell me, where is Thalia?!"

I sighed. "Okay. Before you hurt me, she's back at camp. We brought her here because she was too injured to fly and.." I was cut off.

"WHAT?! WHERE IS SHE?!"

For some reason, I snapped. I made an epic lurch forward and pinned his wings and talons to the ground with my hands and knees.

"Will you calm the fuck down?!"

A stumped glare was all the bird could muster. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't flay you where you stand. Now."

"Because I saved your daughter."

That was all that was needed for the Swellow's attention to be caught. His eyes widened in shock. "Come again?"

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Steve hated keeping secrets, but he was damn good at keeping them.

But he was under direct orders to give accurate details and reports of his current mission by noon today, and it was now five minutes till then.

With a quick whistle, his Manectric, who was relaxing underneath a tree, perked its ears up and looked at Steve. The electric lion stood regally, awaiting its orders.

"Hey, bud. I'll be back in five. Watch camp for a bit."

With a bark, Manectric bounded over to a patch of grass and plopped down on his side, keeping alert on the campsite.

Steve walked about a minute into the forest, then took out his X-Tranceiver and dialed a number. He waited a bit before he heard the other end of the line answer.

"Thomas Hawes."

"Ticky-Ticky-Tom-Tom! What's up?"

"*sigh*Hello Steve. What do you need? I swear to Arceus if you broke anything I'm going to strangle you."

"Awwwww don't be like that chief! I'm just calling in for my report. Although I did lose my hat a couple days ago…"

"Dammit Steve, get on with it."

"Alright. Alright. Geeze. Don't get your panties in a twist."

"STEVE RAWSON!"

"He's doing well. I'm traveling with him until he reaches Rustboro. Which reminds me, remember our friendly eye in the sky from Petalburg?"

"Steve, if you actually have good news that I actually need, you're getting a pay raise."

"Serio.."

"NO." Was the quick retort by Hawes.

"Damn."

"Continue, please."

"Anyway, our masked helper that helped out at the Nature Preserve is none other than Kurtis Jett himself. I've seen the wings myself."

"….."

"Boss?"

"….."

'Crap. Silence on the other line is not good.' "BOSS!"

"Oh. Sorry. Did you just say that the one that you're watching is the one we've been looking for the past 24 hours?"

"Yup." 'I wonder what that was about?'

"You've definitely earned yourself a pay raise, kid. Also, I'm giving your PokeMart job your two -weeks' notice. I need you on this from now on. I'm going to be in Rustboro tomorrow. Meet me in the lobby in Devon Corp at 14:00 tomorrow. Understand?"

"Understood, sir."

"Good. Oh, and Rawson?"

"Yeah, boss?"

"You do really good work. You're the only thing that keeps me sane, even though you're insane in your own right. Keep it up, kid."

"You got it, sir." And with that, the communication was severed.

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At his makeshift desk in his hotel room in Petalburg, Thomas Hawes cut the connection with his associate, only to be met with feelings he hadn't felt in ages.

He took a quick glimpse of a picture that he always kept with him, but quickly put it away, forcing the bad memories to the confines of his mind.

'Kurtis… If only I could protect you now. But now that I know that you're involved, I can't prevent that…'

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When I walked back into the campsite, I was immediately glomped by Altair.

"HIYA, BOSS!"

I jolted back in surprise. "Altair, why did you do that?"

"Meh. No reason." He promptly flew off.

'I don't even want to know'

Steve wasn't in the campsite, so I assumed he was getting firewood or something. He left his Manectric at camp, probably to guard the fort.

"Hey Manectric." Its ears perked up and its eyes focused on me. "I'm heading out for a bit. Let Steve know, okay?" A nod was all I received for acknowledgement.

I calmly walked over to my bag to grab some ointment and stuff of that nature, considering that when papa bird grabbed my wrists, he grabbed them pretty roughly, cutting them a little bit.

Unfortunately, Thalia, who was sitting on a makeshift nest by using one of our pillows, took one whiff of me and glared harshly at me. "Okay. Where is my father, and how in the living hell did you survive his wrath?"

I sighed while opening the cap for some Vaseline. "Look, I'll explain on the way there, but we need to gather everybody and head to your flock."

Without another word, Thalia hobbled over to Milo and Altair, who were relaxing in a tree. Once she got their attention, my three little birds flocked over to me. With Milo and Altair on my shoulders, I picked up Thalia and headed off to wherever Thalia guided me.

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We walked for quite a bit, ending up deeper in the eastern part of the forest. I made this assumption based on the fact that we were seeing many more Bug type Pokemon than we would by the more travelled routes.

"Should I expect anything surprising from your flock?"

"Other than some hateful glares, not really. Most of the fledglings will probably look at you like a legendary Pokemon, though. Keep wary of a few of the older Swellow, though. They don't take kindly to strangers that much. Oh. Take a right here."

I could see movement beyond the brush that was blocking our way. From the looks of it, there was no way around it, so I took out my pocketknife to cut through it. After a hot minute, I breached the wall.

As I walked into the clearing, I could tell that the flock of Taillow and Swellow noticed me immediately. I started to hear things like "Miss Thalia has returned!" from the younger populous. The word had already begun to spread like wildfire; I saw many of the Taillow from the entrance flying off to tell, presumably, their family members and friends.

But as I started walking towards the interior, I noticed some hateful glares from older-looking Swellow that were nesting up in a few of the massive oak trees. I could tell they were older as they had the beginnings of drooping eyelids and their feathers had begun to whiten in some areas.

Progressing towards a darker section of the forest, our eyes came upon a massive tree trunk. We followed it up to where a massive canopy of leaves and branches hovered over the flat surface surrounding the tree. There were openings between the bottom level of braches of the massive tree and the regular treetops of the trees surrounding it, which was more than enough room for small groups of Swellow to slip through.

"And welcome to a little place I like to call home!"

"There's nothing little about it." I said flatly.

Thalia just took it all in stride. "Come on. My father's waiting. See that gap in the trunk at the surface? That's where he is."

Sure enough, there it was. "Alrighty, then. Time to get this over with."

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We entered the echoing chamber that was seemingly cut out of the tree by the hands of Arceus himself. The walls were lined with small green gemstones that when struck with sunlight, like they were doing now, shone like the sun. They were being hit by small beams of light that were coming in from the holes that were sporadically placed amongst the alcove. I also noticed that there were two Swellow on a podium of sorts that jutted out from the back of the tree. I could only assume that it was for the flock leader. But what caught my interest was the argument the two were having.

"I'm telling you, he's nothing but trouble! You should have never let the human in the flock!"

"I don't care father. You have your opinion and I respect that, but let me remind you that I am this flock's leader now. You hold no say over me as a member of this flock anymore! Besides, he saved my daughter. I think he deserves some credit when it is due."

"I'm not talking to you as a member of the flock, Anax! I'm talking to you as a father! He's telling nothing but lies! He needs to be.. "

"FATHER!"

That one word silenced the now named Anax's father, who could only look at his son with shock and a little bit on repressed anger.

"Listen, father. As much as I love you dearly, this is my decision now. You have no right to criticize the way that I lead this flock. You had your time as leader and you had the means to justify all of the decisions that you made, but I'm not you. I run things my way and I believe that they are the right course of action." He took a quick glance towards the entrance and saw me, "Now, let us put this conversation on hold. I believe my daughter has just returned." He gave a sharp call the ceiling of the alcove.

"Human, you may want to place Thalia on the floor."

Thalia crooned her face up at me and nodded. As soon as I placed Thalia on the floor, I heard a shrill voice enter the hall.

"MY BABYYYYY!"

A blue blur zoomed through the entrance and scooped Thalia up within two seconds. Thalia's mother had arrived. She started nuzzling Thalia's head repeatedly, not letting an ounce of protest come from her daughter.

"Mother, stop it! You're embarrassing me!"

She stopped the cuddling. "Are you kidding me?! Do you know how worried-sick your father and I were?! You are going to let me love you and you're going to like it!" She turned to me and smiled. "I'm Tamiyo. You must be the one that saved my daughter."

"That I am ma'am."

"I cannot thank you enough for your help. If you need anything, even if my husband doesn't approve, let me know." She turned to Anax "I'll be at home if you need me, honey" She then placed Thalia on her back and took off.

Anax's father spoke up. "I suppose I'll take my leave, then." He hobbled over to me. "Tread carefully, human." He exited the alcove with a dignified strut.

Walking towards Anax, I let out a deep breath that I didn't even know that I held. "I take it that he doesn't like me?"

Anax flew down from the podium to meet me in the middle of the room. "Unfortunately, yes. Father is very prejudiced against humans, and for good reason. Before he was the flock leader here, he lost his mother to a group of humans. He's treated them like filth ever since. That philosophy spread throughout his generation. Thankfully, the generations following have seen reason."

"Well that's a relief." I held out my hand. "Kurtis Jett. It's a pleasure" I smiled.

Anax unfurled his right wing and placed the tip in my palm. "Anax. Son of Rafina and Quentox" (A.N.: idk I just needed to come up with something)

"Sorry we got off on the wrong foot… err… wing, I should say."

"That is of no consequence, Kurtis. Though I am curious, how did you acquire those wings of yours?"

"Ah. Well that's…"

And as fate loves to humiliate me, my X-Tranceiver rang. "Dammit"

"What is that confounded noise?

"To put in simply, I can talk with anybody that's far away from me."

Steve was on the other line, so I decided to humor him as I answered. "Thank you for calling Good Burger, home of the Good Burger, can I take your order?"

"Hahaha very funny. Now where are you man? Manectric looks calm so I assume you didn't shit your pants while doing something stupid?"

"God, Steve. NO. Look I just found Thalia's flock and was returning her to her parents. What do ya need?"

"Oh. Sweet man! Well my contact with the distributing company just called me and said that I need to be in Rustboro tomorrow for the shipment. Said they needed to be on the road to Mauville by 2:30. So I figured you and your feathery little friends could bust your asses back to camp so we can bust our asses to Rustboro. Then we can get a nice little room in the Pokemon Center and talk some dirty little gossip on a giiiiiiiiiiiiiirllll that you may or may not have met within the past week or so."

*sigh* "I knew it was a bad idea to tell you about Winona."

"Oh come ON. You haven't had any romantic relationship since that one chick… what was her name… CLARY! Clary. She was all over you until you were completely creeped out. Thank Mew her family moved to Kalos. I don't think I've seen you that miserable over a girl before!"

"Well, yeah. Try explaining the numerous hickeys and the scent of a Bellossom to my mother every time I came home after a night out with her."

"So how is this Winona chick any different?"

"That's because I'm the one obsessing over her!"

"So you're OBSESSED now?! Oh this is rich! I wonder what…" *click* I hung up before I had to deal with any more of that nonsense.

I turned to Anax, who seemed amused with my banter with Steve. "Sorry about that, but it looks like I've gotta bounce."

"So I heard. Well, if you ever require assistance, always know that my flock will be at your beck and call if need be."

"Are your sure?"

"Of course! You did save our daughter, of which I am eternally grateful."

"But how will I contact you?"

"When the time comes, you will know. For now, I will send Thalia to you once a week so we can correspond to each other through her. Plus I'm sure she will be eager to see you."

"That sounds like a plan, Stan."

"My name is…"

I held up my hand. "I know. It's a joke. I know it's Anax."

"You humans and your puns…"

"Yeah, Ray never really understands them. He gets the picture after I explain everything to him."

"I'm sorry, Ray?"

"Oh, that's right. We got sidetracked with Steve's call. I was going to say that I have these wings because of Rayquaza. I'm his Emissary, if you will."

"Hmmm. Lord Rayquaza has not had a follower in over 200 years. I can see why he chose you. Calm, collected, quite amusing. I certainly approve"

I sheepishly scratched the back of my head. "Thanks, really."

"You best get going. You don't want to keep Steve waiting now, do you?"

"Sure thing. I'll see you again sometime." We shook hand and wing.

As I started to walk away, I stopped. "Keep Thalia safe. If possible, train her so she can defend herself. I don't want to see her in the shape she was in when I found her ever again."

"Even though that is my duty as her father, you have my word that she will be stronger the next time you meet."

I nodded. "Till next time."

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Even though it was shorter than last chapter, I decided to end it there.

If you haven't figured it out by now, most of my chapters are titled after some of the songs that I listen to that help me get a feel for a chapter. Here's what I've used:

Chapter 3: Forward Motion – Thousand Foot Krutch

Chapter 5: Up In the Air – 30 Second to Mars

Chapter 6: Seize the Day – Avenged Sevenfold

Chapter 7: Such Great Heights – The Postal Service

Chapters 8 & 9: Pandemonium – Arkasia

Chapter 10: Three Little Birds – Bob Marley

I figured that since there were three birds in Kurtis' party, I'd use that song. I know. So freaking clever on my part.

So go take a listen to what I've been listening to. I tend to change music genres from time to time on a complete whim, or I just tend to listen to anything that's catchy in my opinion.

So until next time,

~KurtyPops