As always the story is going great and then at the end of the chapter you just punch me in the gut with the sad end of the world business. I love it keep on writing.

Great to see you back. It was a good chapter though a little short, it took a bit of rereading to remember where we were in this story. I hope you get to the point where you can update again soon because it's a good read.

So will Cornova be reporting this story on his account then? Or will he just post new chapters there? Either way I wanted to thank you for all the work you have done in entertaining me and many others with your story. Hopefully when you have time and/if you return to writing things, I get that chance to be entertained by your words again.

We'll miss ya. Good luck.

Wait, wait, what? You have gender dysphoria? (I've been watching Mako Radio on YouTube, and he has it too).

Please no. I love cornovas work but he tends to have a lot of people die, and I am really liking every in this story, especially kantas team, I may or may not have borowed the names of his team, including claire

What kind of pokemon were Claire and Fiera?

A rather interesting development. I never thought that pokemon had names aside from their species. I like Craig though, it's fitting. My poor attempt at comedy aside, good chapter, good battle, bad person, good ending to it. Jack probably won't be bothering anyone anymore, and I expect that he will die not too long from now. Without a knife or team to protect him, the pokemon attracted by the scent of his blood will have an easy time of it. "You reap what you sow," and he sowed the seeds of pain and chaos. The harvest has finally come in.

It's a great chapter, but it repeated at the end. Can't wait for the next!

It's great to read this again, however before I review I want to point out the chapter is posted twice one after the other.
I really liked the idea of a savage trainer. Locke was very well thought out. I allso liked how his drapion decided to just up and leave. It really shows a more intelligent side of pokemon not specifically involved in the main cast. I hope the next update doesn't take as long but even if it does I look forward to it.

You accidentally pasted this chapter twice, it looks twice as long as it actually is.

I actually thought you would get Kanta to castrate Locke as well, for having raped and killed all those innocent girls (I mean, since there are no girls around, clearly he killed and disposed of them after raping them). It can still be retconned in if Zahrah is telepathically asked to crush his balls without the rest of the group knowing...

Probably would be best for the group to come across the bodies of the people Locke has killed in the next chapter, to put everything into perspective.

Keep up the good work!

I think this story is coming along really well. I hope you can update sometime soon. I don't think you should worry too much about the relationship between Kanta and Zahrah, and I think the more you worry about it, the less productive you will be in the writing of this story. I'm not saying that it's wrong to find it disturbing, just that if you only focus on that aspect, the less you will be happy with your writing. I feel that you should do more to develop the other characters and their pokemon, and realize that you are probably doing your best to do just that. I am interested in seeing where Darkrai's involvement is going to lead. I have also seen your drawing of Kanta, and as a comfortably straight male, I must say, me likey. Also, I will happily volunteer to be a beta reader for you if you don't yet have one.

I've really enjoyed this story, and look forward to the next chapter.

As a rule, I avoid most romance writing, but the plot and setting in this story are interesting enough for me to keep reading. I'm really curious as to how they will deal with Cadfael other than just dropping him off at a volcano, and about what is going on with Brandon and his Regi's. If I recall, they were the only ones shown to actually leave their trainer after the incident, maybe there is more to their motives than just going home? I do wish Kanta's team would be a bit more present in the story, it's understandable that Fiera gets so jealous if you compare their "screen times."

Anyways, I look forward to reading more of your story. Thanks for writing!

Written by Noaj-T, posted upon request by Cornova: Thanks for your criticisms. I will try to work on these points, but I will give my reasons where I am able to. Even if this anonymous reviewer didn't want me to respond, I feel that I should at least try to give an explanation for these points.

As for a Beta, I have so far only had friends read and try to help, and have considered trying to find a beta, but I would have no idea where to begin with that kind of thing. If anyone has any tips on finding one, including where to start looking, or would like to volunteer, please send me a message. I would love to hear from you.

Lucy, I must admit, has been a huge struggle for me. I have tried my hardest to balance some sort of antagonistic character with one that could get along with Anabel, Greta, her Pokemon, and anyone who just isn't Kanta, but it has been difficult. This has been most difficult due to the lack of information for her in the canon, with her only appearances having been when she had a crush on one character in the anime, namely Brock, and as a vicious fighter in the games. Regrettably, the only times that I have been able to show her as being happy and harmonious, has been when she was just hanging out with Greta in this chapter, and through little snippets in which I was only able to say that she was conversing with Anabel during travel time. I will work to improve in this area, but as far as her hating Kanta, that won't be changing. In Emerald, upon defeating her, she is quite sore, and seems to regard the player with quite a bit of disdain. Her disliking of Kanta is also fueled by her having a general distaste for his battling style, which I will go into soon. In this, I ask for patience.

The way that she has acted in her anger toward him is actually based on the way that I have acted with a person that I once knew and loathed. No matter how much whatever this guys said, his name was Killian Hiltz by the way, I refused to listen. I would ignore him as best I could, and even do the exact opposite of what he said in an attempt to either make him angry enough to start a fight, or angry enough to leave.

Oh, believe me, I have it pointed out to me all the time that Kanta is the only guy by Cornova. He used to joke that I could make the story 100 times better by simply having Kanta exclaim that he was, and I quote: "...on a Milotic with bitches!" I suppose that it would have made for a good laugh now that I think about it. Anyway, of course I don't count the male Pokemon in his party, Anabel's or Greta's. They are, as you said, one note characters at best. I have not been able to develop them very well at all, the only ones that have even had enough lines to be clearly defined in any way that I've been able to showcase would probably be Anabel's Alakazam, but even then, he is little more than a butler, which is pretty 2D. I wish that I could do more with them, but I honestly just have not been able to think of anything, and I know that I have only myself to blame.

I will make this much clearer in the next chapter, which will now of course seem like a cop-out, but Anabel does not have any feelings of romance toward Kanta. I suppose that there's no harm in just saying it here, so I might as well. Anabel only had that dream, as, again, she herself will come to realize in the next chapter, because of Zahrah's little teaching session. Anabel's dreams, as they are her mind's way of sorting through recent events, contained romantic images of Kanta. They were nothing more than the psychic version of the gluey residue left behind by stickers. They were thoughts that were left behind by Zahrah.

As for him being the only one with ideas, this is purely because they are all a bit out of their element. Greta, when she was able to fight against something on equal footing, or at least, the closest that she could get, dealt with the Steelix, which Kanta was taken aback by, like a pro. She used all of her Pokemon to the best of their abilities, and it was Kanta who followed her lead. Lucy and Anabel, while they have not yet had this chance, and believe me, they will, they are just as competent as Kanta, with only Anabel being noticeably less seasoned. But with Anabel's age, this is to be expected; she is only 14, going by Cornova's timestamps.

Kanta is a truly focused person. He trained for a long time to get where he is, and he had only gone to Hoenn within the last two years of his six year journey. He had a mother who cared for him, few friends, and a home that he loved. Kanta is most definitely not me. Kanta is somebody that I designed when my friend, who goes by Cornova, asked me to come up with the best trainer I could think of. I tried to come up with somebody who, like Cynthia, was an amazing combatant, but was otherwise very indecisive. I decided that if a character were a champion, they couldn't have done what Ash did. He would have had to stay for a long time, much longer than the average of a year that Ash stays in a region, and I went with four. No, Kanta is not me. I wish that I could ever see myself being that dedicated to any goal. Maybe he does fulfill a few fantasies for me. I often wonder what it would be like were I not transgendered, had my mother and I not been at such odds, had I been able to continue Judo, which I suppose could be equated to competitive Pokemon battling,

Onto the subject of Zahrah. If she seems flat, I can only hope that I am able to improve upon this. It is my failing as a writer, and again, I will admit these faults wherever I find them. I hope that in the chapter that I'm working on, which is rather slow, but is very introspective for the entire group, less so, sadly, for most of the Pokemon.

If you want to know why I keep bringing it up in the author's notes, I'll tell you. I hate it. I hate Pokemon/human pairings. It, on its own, squicks me out. If it weren't for the fact that I had wanted Kanta to have my team, there would be none of this, but I'm a Karen-fag through and through. The reason that it has been brought up AT ALL is because when I was looking through Bulbapedia and serebii, watching every episode with Gardevoir, Kirlia, or Ralts in it, and talking to Cornova while beginning development for this arc, we kept coming back to "Gardevoir love their trainers." I have hated writing a LOT of this, and, I'm not gonna lie, if it weren't for that aspect rearing its ugly head, I would have enjoyed it a lot more.

Believe me, I am not a pokephile. My younger brother is, and a few of my friends evidently are, but I have no attraction to any Pokemon, especially Gardevoir. Wait. That sounds weird. Maybe not especially Gardevoir, but I should explain. Gardevoir is actually my favorite Pokemon, and not for the reason that you're thinking. I like Gardevoir because of its design being based on a ballroom dancer, a wedding dress, and using my favorite shade of my favorite color in its design. I have always been clumsy, and admired people that could dance, I have always thought that wedding dresses were some of the most beautiful things that I had ever seen, and I generally just like green.

Of course the other characters wouldn't be joking around as much if this relationship thing had been between he and an Espeon, it wouldn't have happened, or, if only fo
1 minute ago

Of course the other characters wouldn't be joking around as much if this relationship thing had been between he and an Espeon, it wouldn't have happened, or, if only for the sake of argument, it had, it wouldn't have been as obvious that the "relationship" had been going on. I made it more of a joke because of what most people think when I say that Gardevoir is my favorite Pokemon. Namely: Pokephile confirmed. Beyond that, as pointed out, again by Cornova (I am very sorry that I'm using his opinions so much by the way, but he basically is the only one who helps me plan out this stuff), it is more easily acceptable. Gardevoir look like humans, at least to some extent, they have been shown to be intelligent, and they are known for loving their trainers. That doesn't change the fact that I think that it's deplorable, disgusting, and detestable. I keep bringing it in my author's notes up because I'm tired of reviews saying how adorable it is, how sweet it is, how they should totally end up together. I mean, seriously, does anybody who read this think that it's creepy besides this anonymous reviewer? It sure as hell seems like nobody does, at least, nobody vocal.

Also, yes, Kanta did raise Zahrah. From an egg. Let's say that you're a Caucasian individual who was taken in by an African-American family at the age of, let's say three since even at the Ralts stage, their line is capable of telepathy and complete sentences. That family might think of you as their own, but would you? Granted, this doesn't work as well as I would like, Gardevoir's evolutionary line being a wholly different species from humans and race being the closest thing that I can use, disgusting topic I know. From Zahrah's perspective, Kanta has been her trainer, not her father. He would have tried his best to be her father, but let me try this, Tarzan always knew that his "mother" was a surrogate at best. The trainer/Pokemon relationship is not only culturally ingrained, it is literally decreed by Arceus. There really is no reason for Zahrah to think of Kanta as anything more than her trainer, somebody who trained her, brought her up, sure, but no, he will never be her father. Her father was a bit of amorphous sludge that we call Muk. You know what, I need to thank this person again, this will need be the focus of Zahrah and Anabel's next talk, before they go off to do their own individual soul searching.

As for the age difference, now that is an easy one. Pokemon don't seem to go by the same year system for their growth. They go by stages, not years. As a Ralts, they have certain physical limits, these are seen as their stats. These number