Saga of Sinnoh
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. It would be exceptionally cool if I did…but alas…
A/N: Okay… I know this is waaaaaaay out in left field (and I don't even like baseball) but I have to go where the muses take me. Though even I'll admit this was a strange fandom to write in. Fun though! Please R&R.
Chapter 1: Welcome to Sunnyhell
Bright sunlight glared down over the shimmering solar panels of Sunyshore City as a woman, clothed in an emerald tank and khaki shorts, her hair hastily pulled up in a clip to escape the blistering heat, quickly jogged. Behind the woman trotted a ponyta, throwing its dainty head up in the air every few strides to illustrate its pleasure with the intensely hot afternoon. The ponyta's flaming mane was waving merrily and its fiery tail swished back and forth with each beat of its strong legs.
After circumventing the entire length of solar panels twice, the woman came to an abrupt stop, panting, and rested her hands on her knees. The ponyta skipped around the woman a few times, sniffed her, gave a snort and continued eagerly hopping around.
"Stop…showing…off…Saga…" the woman panted from her doubled over position.
"PONYTA!" Saga neighed happily in response, obviously used to her trainer's post workout exhaustion.
A portly sailor sporting a shaggy black beard peppered in with a few gray hairs he liked to deny existed walked toward the pair and leaned heavily against the railing a few feet from the woman. He shielded his wrinkled face from the sun and said, "You about done, Miss Masters? My ship needs to be setting off within the hour…"
The woman straightened up and sighed, "Yea, of course. Sorry…"
The sailor dropped his arm to regard her more closely. "Didn't mean to rush you…Say, did you ever find that Gym Leader you were looking for? Falkner?"
"It's Volkner, and no," the woman said softly with a small frown. "Falkner is a Gym Leader in Johto."
"That's not far from where we picked you up in Vermillion Harbor."
"Not terribly… but I've never actually been to Johto to tell you the truth."
"What brought you all the way to Sinnoh then? And why are you looking for this guy, Volkner? Kind of a weird name, if you ask me…"
The woman absently scratched Saga's head as she considered the question. Saga, for her part, relished the attention and blissfully rubbed her forehead against the woman, eager for more.
"Well, it's somewhat complicated…I don't want to hold up our departure…"
"S'alright. The crew are fitting her up as we speak. By the time you're done, I'm sure she'll be ready to sail."
"…I've been a tutor for the past several years and one day, one of my students brings an odd parcel. He called it an 'Electrilizer' and said that he'd gotten it from a trainer who'd sailed in from this region. I had to confiscate it from the boy because he wouldn't stop messing with it during our lesson and was distracting the other students. I inquired all around, but no one knew what it was or did. Finally, the name as my only clue, I went to Vermillion where Lieutenant Surge's Gym is, hoping he would know." The woman shook her head in dismay, "That turned out to be a huge waste of time. Not only did he not know, but he was a complete pig about it."
"So this Volkner guy must be another Electric Gym Leader then?"
"Right, and I figured that he'd know. Only, we've been here for two days and I haven't seen him at all. All the locals I talk to just sort of laugh when I mention that I'd like to talk to him…"
"It's an awful lot of trouble you're going through just to find out what this child's gizmo is…"
She gave a rueful half-smile. "I'm not being completely honest with you…"
The sailor laughed, his silver hairs catching the sun and making it look like his beard was partially on fire. "Don't tell me! –You're not really a tutor?"
"Oh, that parts true enough. I just left out the part about how completely annoyed with my job I was getting. I wanted a break, far away. Just sort of used the mystery of the device as my excuse."
"Fair enough," he chuckled. He pushed off from the rail and they began to walk back toward the dock together, Saga sprinting off ahead of them in a flash of sparks and heat. "Our next port is Sandgem Town, where I hear a famous Pokemon Professor lives. You can have a bit more adventure there before we make our way back to Kanto, and you'll enjoy their beach. It's perfect fer your runnings."
Touched by the old sailor's thoughtfulness, the woman smiled and replied, "Thank you, I've really enjo-
"PONY!" A shrill whinny of distress came from ahead of them near the base of the ramp that led to the upraised solar-paneled streets of Sunyshore. The woman ran toward the noise as fast as she could while the sailor, an old limp in his leg, awkwardly jogged far behind.
A very agitated Luxray was growling at Saga, whose petite black muzzle appeared singed, sparks of electricity dancing in the air before her. Her enormous liquid brown eyes were rolling in fear and her diamond hooves sparkled as she reared them in defense. The Luxray, with its leonine eyes fastened on the small ponyta let out an ominous roar, its sinewy muscles contracting in preparation to pounce as its star tipped tail twitched back and forth restlessly.
"BACK OFF!" The woman screamed, coming in between the two and raising her hands toward the Luxray in a warding gesture.
"Lux!" A masculine voice admonished, and soon a man could be seen calmly walking up from behind the glaring Luxray. His medium-length shaggy yellow hair was artfully styled around a thin face and electric blue eyes. He was tall, around six feet, but his frame was lean and muscular, as evidenced by the tailored jacket he wore, also in blue. He looked like a rock-star or a famous actor, somebody too unbelievable to be real. The look was completed with the bored scowl stretched across his mouth as he stepped up to the woman, a haughty look of dismissal in his cold eyes from just a glance at Saga.
"Maybe your ponyta should back off?" he suggested, coming to rest a protective hand on his Luxray.
"Saga wouldn't hurt a Butterfree!" The woman exclaimed as though it were a fact. She went on, her hands on her hips, "You need to keep a better eye on your pokemon if they're going to attack without provocation."
The man's scowl deepened and he crossed his arms. "It's Lux's duty to patrol the city and make sure that wild pokemon don't damage the solar panels we just had refitted."
"Well, obviously, Saga is no wild pokemon!"
"Could have fooled me. The whites of her eyes were showing she was so scared. Doubt you've ever even battled her before."
"Want to find out?" The woman nearly growled, ready to battle herself if it meant defending her ponyta's valor.
The man actually smirked. "Naw," he glibly drawled. "Wouldn't be worth my time."
"You're kidding, right?" The woman asked. "Just who in the hell do you think you are!"
"Victor Volkner, Gym leader of Sunyshore and the most powerful trainer in Sinnoh," he replied offhand.
The woman laughed. "Yea, and I'm Lance, the Dragon Master."
The sailor finally came upon them and fell over, his face a bright krabby red as he heaved oxygen.
Neither paid him any mind however, as the woman continued to glare and the man continued to casually snub.
"Funny," the man said. "You don't seem to have a cape…and I think Lance would have a problem being seen with a fire pony, which is odd considering his otherwise horrid sense of taste."
"Oh, and I suppose you know Lance as well, you being so special."
His smirk quirked upward into the realm of a grin as he continued to calmly meet her tepid sarcasm. "Actually, yes. Nearly had him too except for that last Dragonite. Dragon's hide is a bit too leathery for electricity…"
"Oh…" realization seemed to come as the woman took in his appearance and his Luxray once more, noting the high vitality level of his pokemon and the steely confidence the man presented as he stood before her, arms still loosely crossed and head cocked slightly to the side, amused as her comprehension dawned.
"Oh!" She suddenly gasped, "I'm…uh…well, actually no. You're still a jerk. Just of the Gym Leader variety. Are all Electric Leaders like this?"
The mask of indifference slipped aside entirely as a genuine grin broke out across his attractive face. "I hear the guy in Hoenn is alright, but that could just be because he's too old to really do much."
She ignored him and shuffled around her backpack for a moment until she found what she was looking for and tossed it to him. Reflexively, he caught it just before it could wipe the grin off his face and looking perplexed, asked, "What's this?"
"A Poison Fang. What does it look like!"
He rolled his eyes. "To think, this conversation could have already been over if I'd just let Lux eat your ponyta and you."
She let out a frustrated sigh and took a few impatient steps closer to him until they were standing only a foot apart. He raised an eyebrow but didn't retreat.
She flipped the object over in his hands. "Well, what does it look like, Mr. Electric genius?"
He pulled his eyes away from her face to regard the parcel for a moment. And it only took a moment before he was calmly staring back into her face, Mona Lisa smirk on his insufferable lips. "An Electrilizer."
She covered her face with her hands to stifle her scream of annoyance. "I. know. that." She grounded out. "What does it do?"
"It's used to evolve Electibuzz," he answered simply, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
The woman deflated. "That's it?" She asked skeptically.
Volkner nodded.
She heaved a sigh and gave Saga one last pat before returning her to her pokeball in a haze of red energy and a reproachful wicker of discontent. To Volkner, she said flatly, "It's been…a treat," before she turned to go collect her sailor and return to their ship, 'The Flying Magicarp.' Over her shoulder, she called, "Keep up your revoltingly foul Electric Gym Leader ways, I think Lt. Surge and you are neck and neck!"
The woman and the sailor slowly made their way back to Sunyshore's small harbor where 'The Flying Magicarp' was ready to go, its crew on deck and its meager dozen passengers already in their staterooms. They were halfway down the wooden dock when a gratingly familiar voice shouted, "The Lieutenant has nothing on me!"
The woman closed her eyes and counted to three before she turned around. Unfortunately, Victor Volkner was still there when she opened them, a backpack slung recklessly over one shoulder.
"What are you doing?" She asked, clearly annoyed and not liking where this was going.
"You forgot your Electrilizer," he shrugged, amusement plastered over his face as they collectively boarded the gangplank.
"No, I mean what are you doing getting on this ship?" She inquired uneasily as growing horror filled her stomach while she watched him pay the sailor for his fare.
"I'm coming with you of course. 'You' being a complete stranger since I haven't your name yet."
"I didn't realize I was in the market for strays, particularly those that are inclined to feed me to their Luxray and insult my training."
"I was getting bored- which is never a good thing in Sunyshore, take my word- and you seemed to be moderately interesting, if a little off-putting."
"You seem to be entirely off-putting and not even a little interesting," she supplied as she hurriedly tried to duck around him and into her cabin.
He blocked her path with his body. "I'm seemingly interesting through longer exposures." He leaned in toward her, grinning devilishly and she leaned back in disgust. "And don't take it too personally, No-Name. I like to get out and tour the region every other year; reaffirms my suspicions that the rest of the trainers out there are as weak as I generally perceive them to be."
She crossed her arms defensively over her chest. "It's Talia Masters and I'm not going through the Sinnoh region!" He arched a brow at her childishness and she narrowed her eyes, took a deep breath and then said slowly, "And even if I were, it wouldn't be with some delusional, egomaniacal, aggrandizing jackass like you!"
He gave an indifferent shrug and replied lazily, "We'll see…" before leaving her, a flippant two-fingered wave his solute good night.
Her mouth opened and closed for a moment like the namesake of the ship they sailed before she stomped into her cabin and slammed the door shut, immediately feeling very bad about abusing the ship a moment later as she let Saga out of her pokeball to get some dinner.