Note: All characters are the property of Nintendo. Other material is the copy written to their owners. Anyway… on with the story!
It's a beautiful day in the countryside. We find our heroes on the road again heading towards the nearest town to catch the next train bound for the Johto region…
"Hey Ash, slow down!" Brock shouted.
"Yeah," said May.
"Wait for us!" Max called as he and the others tried to catch up.
Ash stopped and turned around to face his friends.
"Sorry guys, I'm kinda eager to get there." He said to them.
"So are we but let's pace ourselves," May suggested.
"I agree, Beach Rose Town is only half an hour from here, how about we slow down for once?" Brock agreed.
"Ok," Ash sighed.
The four of them continued on their way at a slower pace, but after a while things didn't seem to be getting any better.
"Half an hour feels like it's longer than it really is." Said Ash.
"Now that you mention it, Beach Rose Town does seem further away." Max agreed.
"Chill, you guys." Said May.
"Yeah, we're almost there." Brock announced.
"How can you tell?" Ash asked.
"Look," Brock answered, pointing at the sky.
Just then, they were all alerted by a loud squawk.
"A wingull!" Ash exclaimed.
"Pika!" said Pikachu.
"If a wingull is all the way out here…" May stopped short.
"Then we're not too far off." Max finished.
"Yes! Beach Rose Town, here I come!" Said Ash, before he took off running with Pikachu not far behind.
"Pikachu!"
Brock, May and Max all groaned with sweat dripping down the sides of their faces.
"So much for pacing ourselves." Said May.
"I'll say," Brock added.
"Oy…" Max groaned.
Later…
"We're here! Huh?" said Ash.
Looking over his shoulder, he spotted his friends who looked exhausted.
"Why are you guys panting so hard?" he asked.
"We had to…catch…up… with you." May explained, trying to catch her breath.
"You didn't have to, I could've waited." Ash offered.
May's jaw dropped.
"Waited?! Why you little…"
Before she could do anything, Brock grabbed a hold of her left arm.
"Let's check the train schedule, shall we?" he suggested.
"Good idea, Brock." Said May, before the two of them headed towards the train station.
"Gosh, Max I don't know how you manage to put up with your sister like that." Ash said once they were out of earshot range.
"Well, I've been around her my whole life; so you get used to it." He said as he cleaned off his glasses.
"I've learned to get out of dodge." Said Ash.
"Yeah, there's that." Max pointed out.
"Are you two coming or what?" May called.
"We'll be right there." Ash replied.
"Sheesh!"
"Tell me about it." Said Max.
Sometime later they reached the train station. Next to the ticket booth was a bulletin board listing a schedule of arrivals and departures.
"So, when's the next train?" Ash asked.
"Well, according to this schedule, train 405 doesn't leave for Florando for another hour and a half." Brock answered.
"Great," May said with a sigh.
"What do we do till then?" Max asked.
"We can start by taking a break for lunch." Brock suggested.
"That's fine with me." Said Ash.
"Pika," Pikachu agreed.
Moments later…
While sitting at benches just outside the station, Ash and his friends were in the middle of having lunch when a familiar red head walked up to them.
"Well, isn't this a small world?" she asked.
All of them looked up and saw who it was.
"Remember me?" she asked.
"Misty!" Ash and Brock said simultaneously, nearly dropping their B.L.T. sandwiches.
"It's been a while." Ash pointed out.
"What are you doing here?" Brock asked.
"I came here for a contest; one of the handlers came down with the flu so I got the job of working with a Buizel." Misty explained.
"Awesome!" said Ash.
"So, who won?"
"Some trainer from Bloomingvale and her wingull." Misty answered.
Ash nearly choked on his sandwich.
"No comment whatsoever."
"So, where are you off to now?" May asked.
Misty sat down with the rest of the group before she replied.
"Bonitaville but the train was sold out, so I have to take the one going to Florando."
"Really? That's the train we're taking, how funny is that?" said Brock.
"Very," Misty answered.
"You wanna come with us?" Max asked.
"Max…" said May.
"Excuse my brother," she apologized.
"It's fine, I'd like to hang around if you don't have any other plans." Misty admitted.
Ash wiped the sourdough bread crumbs off his cheeks before he spoke.
"Nah, Florando's just a pit stop. We're really on our way to Bonitaville."
"For the film festival?" Misty asked.
"Yeah, Brock and I entered this year." Ash replied.
"It was just a short film with Pikachu, nothing special." Said Brock, who grinned sheepishly.
"Yeah right." Ash said to him.
"Well, I'd love to see it." Misty admitted.
"Great." Said Ash.
"It'll be nice to have another girl around. For once I can talk to somebody other than these three." May confessed.
"No offense, guys."
"None taken." The trio replied at the same time.
"Anyway, since we're got some time before the train gets here, you wanna have a look around town?" Misty asked.
"Sure," Ash answered.
"Sounds good to me." Said Max.
"I'm up for it," May said, adding her two cents.
Just then Brock remembered something.
"Oh! I almost forgot to buy our tickets! I'll be right back."
He quickly stood up and went inside the station to find the ticket booth.
Misty and everyone else lowered their heads, obviously embarrassed.
"Hasn't changed a bit." She sighed.
"Nope," said Ash.
"Pika," Pikachu groaned.
Sometime later…
As the five of them walked around the town, they took this opportunity to talk.
"So Ash, you plan heading back to Kanto after the film festival?" Misty asked.
"I haven't made up my mind yet to be honest. Speaking of Kanto, you hear from Tracy lately?" Ash replied.
"Yeah, we talked on Skype two days go." Said Misty.
"No way!" Ash exclaimed.
"How is he?" Brock asked.
"Fine, his job as Professor Oak's assistant seems to be going well. Apart from Gary's pigeot escaping." Misty explained.
Ash and Brock nearly fell over.
"Again?!" they said at the same time.
"What do you mean, again?" May asked, raising an eyebrow.
"It's a long story… Gary has a pigeot that's…" Ash trailed off.
"High strong, it got out one time because the aviary wasn't locked." Brock finished.
"Yikes." May and Max said in unison.
"We spent five hours trying to find him." Ash explained.
"Geez," said May.
"That must've been rough," Max added.
"Yeah, especially considering pigeots don't stay in one tree for long." Said Brock.
He and Ash groaned at the thought of what happened that day.
"Never… again." Ash muttered.
"I heard that," Brock agreed.
"Hey, check it out!" said May.
"Looks like there's a farmers' market going on today." Misty said as she read the sign in front of her.
"Sweet!" Max exclaimed.
"What do you say we look around?" Ash suggested.
"Yeah," May agreed.
"Let's…" said Misty.
"Wait up" Brock shouted before he went to catch up with the rest of the group.
"Wow, this is great," Misty said as she looked around.
"Sure is," Max agreed.
The farmers' market had several booths with various produce, flowers, baked goods and several homemade products.
"Hold up, anybody know what time it is?" Ash asked.
Brock looked at his watch for a moment.
"We got an hour, how about we split up and meet back here?"
The four of them were all standing near booth with several flowers and other plants for sale.
"That ok with you guys?" Ash asked, looking towards his three other friends.
"Fine by me." Said Misty.
"Me too," May replied.
"Same here," said Max.
"'Kay," was Ash's reply.
"See you in an hour." Said Brock.
And with that, they went separate ways.
"Pretty cool, huh Pikachu?" said Ash as he looked around at the various booths.
Just then, he noticed the yellow mouse was nowhere to be seen.
"Pikachu?"
Just then he heard a familiar voice.
"Pika!"
"There you are," Ash said when he found Pikachu had gone to one of the booths not too far away.
"Whoa! Nice…"
"Thank you." Said a female voice.
Sitting in the booth was a woman who looked to be in her early 20s and resembled a Blackfoot Native American.
"You make these yourself?" Ash asked, regarding the various leather bags, jackets and other things that were in the booth.
"Sure do." the woman replied.
"The cover on that journal there is real bouffalant hide."
"How much?" Ash continued.
"For that? Ten yen… you see that bag over there?" the woman answered.
Ash looked in the direction she was pointing and saw a medium sized leather bag hanging on a hook on the left hand side of the wall.
"Yeah." said Ash replied.
"Now that's twelve yen, you get that and I'll throw in one of these journals for free." She offered.
"Really?" Ash asked.
"Yes," was the reply he got back.
"I'll take it," said Ash to her.
"All right, Mato can you fetch that bag for me?"
Sitting next to her was a Herdier. His ears perked up at hearing his name.
Mato barked and went off to fetch the bag.
"Thanks, Cha'risa." Said Ash.
"Anytime." She replied.
After he left, Ash decided to check in on everyone else.
"C'mon Pikachu, let's go find the others."
"Pikachu," the yellow mouse replied and followed his trainer.
"So, like I was saying there was this pidgey and anyway…" Brock's story was interrupted when Ash came running up to him and the others.
"Hey guys."
"Hey," Brock greeted him.
"You made it back." Said Misty.
"For once." May added.
"Very funny, May." Said Ash.
"How'd it go?" Max asked.
"Great, I got…" Ash was cut off.
"We better head over to the station." Said Brock.
"Right," Ash agreed.
"Let's go." Said Misty.
Fifteen minutes later...
"I gotta say, that farmers market was awesome." Max admitted.
The group had boarded the train a few minutes ago and now had time to talk about how things went.
"What'd you guys get anyway?" Ash asked.
"I got garlic olive oil, gonna really enjoy using it. How about you?" Brock answered.
"Homemade lotion," said Misty.
"No way! I got that too, mine's called sea breeze." May explained.
"Which one did you get?"
"Brown sugar and vanilla." Misty answered.
"Oh great, it contains salt from the dead sea." Said May.
"Wow… anyway, I got these postcards. They're hand drawn." Said Max.
He held out a small box that contained a dozen postcards with black and white sketches of, squirtle, emolga and pidgey on the front.
"It's been a while since we wrote to our folks." May explained.
"Getting the postcards was her idea." Max added.
"So, Ash what'd you get?" Misty asked.
"It's a messenger bag, made from real bouffalant hide." Ash answered, holding up the dark brown leather bag for the others to see.
"Nice." Said Brock.
"Got a free journal too, this'll be great for writing about our trip." Ash continued.
"Anyway… did you hear Tracy got a vaporeon?" Misty asked.
"He did?" Brock replied.
"Get out!" Ash exclaimed.
"Yeah, her trainer said she was kind of a handful so Tracy took her in." Misty explained.
"Aw, that's nice maybe she and Diamond can hang out sometime." May suggested.
Misty frowned.
"Diamond?"
"She's my glaceon." May answered.
"Oh," was all Misty could say.
Hours later…
Ash looked out the window and yawned.
"How much further?" he asked.
"About another half hour, we'll stay in Florando for the night then tomorrow our stop will be Bonitaville." Brock explained.
"Phew! Good." Ash, Misty, May and Max sighed.
"Pika," Pikachu said, sounding relieved.
It was 6:30 pm by the time the train had reached Florando. The sun had gone down and the temperature had dropped.
"Hey, we're here." Said Ash.
"Huh?" Misty answered in a puzzled tone.
"Wha…?" Max sputtered in a drowsy tone as he and the others woke up.
"Well, how 'bout that?" May said as she looked out the window and saw a sign that said Welcome to Florando.
"C'mon." Brock told them before getting up.
After grabbing their backpacks, they proceeded to get off the train.
"The Garden Inn isn't far, we can check in once we get there." Said Brock.
"Sounds good to me." Ash confessed, like everyone else he was exhausted from traveling.
"Me too," May agreed.
"Pikachu," Pikachu sighed.
A short time later, they reached the Garden Inn. It was a small lodge type hotel mostly where those needing a place to stay for a night or two could check in. It was often a place some people went to when the Pokémon center was closed or was full to capacity.
"I have to admit, they gave us nice rooms." Said Ash.
He, Brock, Max and Pikachu were sharing a room while, Misty and May had a room next door to theirs.
"I agree, check out that view." Misty said pointing outside.
Ash the others looked out towards the balcony and could see not only a view of the pool outside but also downtown Florando.
"I'm gonna go pick up our pizza, you guys wanna tag along?" Brock asked.
"Sure," Ash answered.
"Ok," Max replied.
"We'll be back." Brock said before closing the door behind him, Ash and Max.
"Well, it's just us girls." May pointed out.
Misty sighed.
"Yep."
She and May smiled at each other.
"Sweet!" they said in unison and high fived.
A short time later, Brock and the others came back with the pizza. Although the group enjoyed his cooking and camping outside, having dinner indoors was a nice change of pace.
"You know, I was just thinking… it's gonna be spring in a couple of months… you have any ideas about what you might wanna do?" Brock asked.
Ash swallowed some of the pepperoni on his slice before he spoke.
"Actually, I'm kind of looking forward to the warmer weather."
"Me too, I love being outside plus if any of us plan on practicing for a contest, being outdoors is the best place." May pointed out.
"That's true," Max agreed.
"Point taken, May." Said Misty.
"Pika," Pikachu agreed.
Just then, May thought of something.
"Wait, the cherry trees bloom in March, right?"
"That's right. I hear one of the best places to view them in Johto is in Bloomingvale" Said Brock.
"Cool!" May exclaimed.
"Maybe we should add that to our list of stops," Ash suggested.
"Fine with me, how about you?" Brock asked.
"Count me in," said Misty.
"Same here," Max replied.
"Pika, pika." Said Pikachu.
After spending the next couple of hours talking, laughing and watching TV around 10pm the group of friends decided to call it a day.
"Night girls," said Brock before closing the door behind him, Ash, Pikachu and Max.
"Good night," Misty and May replied in unison.
"Ouch! I'm ok." Brock said in a meek voice.
His hand had got caught in the doorway.
Misty shook her head and May pinched the bridge of her nose. It was a pretty awkward scenario.
"Hasn't changed a bit."
"Uh… Nope."
Yep… it was going to be a long night…
MORE TO COME…
And that's chapter one… sorry if it seemed sort of dull but chapter 2 will be more interesting. Just to clear up some things, Started writing a story back in 2004 but never finished it decided to do a rewrite but kept different character names and material, that'll be featured in later chapters. Decided to use the currency yen since Johto is based on the Kansai region. Also Japanese cherry trees or Sakura bloom in March in some regions of Japan. The name Cha'risa means elk and Mato means bear, both are Native American names. Train 405 is a reference to the 405 freeway in Southern California. Garden Inn is based on Hilton Garden Inn. The farmers' market in Beach Rose Town is based on The Pike, a large farmers market in Seattle, Washington. Misty's small world line is from the animated series, Duck Dodgers. The title of this story is based on the title of episode 1 from season 3 of the 2010 Pound Puppies animated series. Anyway, chapter 2 will more than likely be up in a week or two.
Reviews are appreciated.