I sat on the Vermilion City beach with Spike, my nidorino, watching the ferry pull out of its berth and depart for Olivine City.

"We were supposed to be on that ferry." I exclaimed dramatically. "Oh well, no use crying over spilt milk and all that, right?" I added cheerfully.

I wasn't even pretending to be cheerful. I'd dreaded this week for the past two months, ever since I'd been told about the family reunion. It wasn't that I didn't like my family, on the contrary, I quite enjoyed their company, but I detested parties, crowds and cities, hence why I started pokemon training in the first place. The family reunion was in Olivine City, the biggest tourist trap in all of Johto, so I'd planned on taking the ferry from Vermilion City, then spend as much of the next week in the wilderness as I could. Instead, it seemed Arceus had smiled on me in the form of hiked ferry prices. I couldn't afford my ticket, I had tried, and failed, to contact my parents for them to pay online, and now I couldn't get to Olivine City.

"I guess we're just going to have to get on with the gyms instead." I told Spike, who grunted happily.

My phone started vibrating and I pulled it out to see a text from my mom.

"You had better be on that ferry." She'd typed.

So, she'd checked up on the ferry times, but not her voice mail? I'd made sure to leave a detailed and suitable panicked message, carefully timed to make it look like I'd found out about the new prices at the last minute.

I spent a few minutes typing out my reply, obviously trying my best to make it sound like I was the victim, and not a lucky winner. I even told her to check the ferry's website to see the new prices, and her voicemail. Perhaps it was a little redundant to type out such a thorough response, when everything was in the voicemail message anyway, but I wasn't planning on going anywhere.

"So, I guess the next gym would be the psychic one in Saffron City." I continued rambling after I hit send. "Then it's just the one on Cinnabar Island and then I've got no idea 'cause the one in Viridian City still isn't open."

I got another text. Mom sounded angry, so I sent a reply just saying "sorry". I wasn't sure what I was theoretically sorry for, but a good apology was always worth brownie points.

"So, do you wanna leave for Saffron this evening, or wait 'till the morning?"

He rolled over in the sand, exposing his belly to the warm sunlight.

"Morning it is." I laughed

I got another text from my mom.

"Right. Change of plans." I said after reading it. "We run to Saffron City, get the train to Goldenrod City, then see if we can get a water taxi or something to Olivine. If we get there in two days, mom says she'll buy me some TMs."

He whined in reply; he probably wanted to fight the gym, not go to some city.

"C'mon dude, there's a gym in Olivine."

I paused as that sank in.

"There's a gym in Olivine! This is great, actually. Indigo Plateau deals with the Johto gyms as well as the Kanto ones, so hopefully they'll accept a Johto badge as my eighth one. I mean, the gym in Viridian has been closed for years now, so they should accept a Johto badge if they aren't going to get a new gym leader, or open a new gym."

I flipped my phone back open to look up the pokemon type for the Olivine City gym. Steel type. Bugger.

"Use thunderbolt on the water!" I yelled suddenly, jumping to my feet, only to get an annoyed look in return.

"The Olivine gym is steel type and your thunderbolt won't work if they are part ground. We need a water pokemon."

He scrabbled to his feet, knocking me back over and kicking sand in my face in the process, and blasted a large thunderbolt into the sea. Paralyzed magikarp floated to the surface, then some goldeen and tentacool. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to train up and evolve a low level pokemon, then I saw something larger floating behind a tentacool.

"What does that look like to you?" I asked him, squinting at the half hidden orange shape.

My legs buckled as he reared up and rested his front legs on my shoulder to keep his balance. We both collapsed, getting more sand in my face and clothes, then he galloped straight into the water. Slowly, he paddled behind the tentacool, then towed back a twitching seaking.

I knew that I wouldn't get anything better than a seaking in such a short time so, as soon as they were within range, I threw an ultra ball at it. It was probably overkill, but I got it first try and I really didn't have enough time to drag it out. Heck, I wasn't even going to register it until I either got to Saffron with enough time to get the train, or arrived in Goldenrod. However, once my nidorino brought the ball back, I did let it back out in a little rock pool to give it a paralyze cure and a super potion.

"Right, here's what's gonna happen." I told it once it was healed and I had its attention. "We're all going to a big family reunion in Olivine City. There is a gym there, one that we need you to help beat."

I poked it in the snout for emphasis.

"Now, my immediate family knows my entire team, except you. So, in order to escape all the party stuff, I need you to, and this is very important, hate your pokeball. Got it?"

It glubbed at me happily.

"Just for the duration of the reunion, okay? After that, I'll always do my best to let you out your ball whenever possible, but I will not tolerate tantrums about going in your ball."

It nodded, which I supposed was a good sign. Hopefully being a brat wouldn't become a habit. Please don't let it become a habit.

"Great. Welcome to Team Antisocial!"