An equal cadence fell beneath the mint and raspberry slip on sneakers as a blonde girl trotted down the path leading to the Goldenrod City Gym. A small, tan creature followed in her footsteps. "EEEE" It called, finally bumping into her ankles as the girl stopped at a glass sliding door.
"Eevee… Are you okay?" The girl asked, turning around and smiling at the creature. She picked up the small Eevee and put it on her shoulder. "Can you stay up there for now? You know how crazy the Gym can be during the day. Lots of people arrive to challenge Whitney, and I don't want you getting hurt." The creature let out a little squeak and nodded in agreement.
The girl's name was Estella, and she was a proud normal type trainer. She had heard of an awesome opportunity in the next region, Hoenn, where there were places holding Pokemon Contests instead of Pokémon Battles. Next week, there was to be a contest in Mossdeep City and today was the day that she set out on her journey. Of course, her friend Willard would be going too. Estella was eighteen years old, and pretty versed in the Pokémon world. She had the eight gym badges of this region, but most of her team had been retired to make room for the new Pokémon that were in the Hoenn region. Estella had blonde hair, and was about 5'4" tall. She had a light frame, and had been working with her friend Willard keeping records at the Pokémon Gym. Willard's cousin, Whitney, was the gym leader.
Estella opened the door, only to hear a loud whop. "YES! Victory for meee!" A shrill voice came from the bottom of the gym, followed by "Victory, Whitney of Goldenrod City!" over the loud speaker. Estella held open the door as the loser walked through with his defeated Pokémon. "Great battle, Whitney!" Estella called.
"EEE! Stellaaaaa" Whitney called, waving from the bottom of the gym. "Return, Clefable." She said, calling her Pokémon into its pokeball. "Are you here to get Will? He's been in the office doing paperwork all morning. I saw Cleffa bringing him water earlier this morning. It was kind of cute." Whitney said. "OH. And don't forget to tell me goodbye! I'll miss you two while you're off at Hoenn. Don't forget to send me back some cuuuuuuuuuuute pokemon!"
"Will do, Whitney!" Estella said, smiling and walking up to the offices. Estella opened the door and smiled. Willard had actually fallen asleep on his paperwork, dark green hair shuffled out of place and navy jacket slung over the back of his chair. Estella smiled a bit. Even his Cleffa was sleeping on his bag in the corner.
Estella walked up to him, touching him on the shoulder. Willard was her best friend, so she was used to him falling asleep at his job. Thankfully, the gym had cameras and recorded every battle. "Will." She said, shaking his shoulder.
Willard jumped, snorted a bit and bolted straight up. "I'm up, I'm up!" He said, turning and facing Estella. Her ice-colored eyes met his honey-colored ones and he blushed. "Oh… oh… Estella." He quickly patted down his hair. "You're… ready aren't you?" Estella nodded. "Let me grab a quick shower and I'll be ready to go." He said. "Can you take Cleffa out of here? She probably needs some wakeup exercise."
"Sure thing." Estealla said, picking up the pink fluff and walking outside of the office. Eevee followed at her heels and they walked back down to the bottom where Whitney was sitting.
"He fell asleep again." Estella said, sighing.
Whitney rolled her eyes. "Of course." She said. "Willard has been working the books here extra hard. Good thing his brother is going to take over whenever he leaves today. I bet that CLeffa tried to wake him up with water, but failed, and just fell asleep on the floor."
"Yeah… wouldn't have been the first time he's spent the night here." Estella said.
"He talks in his sleep." Whitney said, smirking. "He has some seeeeccrreeetttssss."
"Like what?"
"Like how he li—-"
A door opened, and Will walked out of the office. He was all ready to go on the journey. The girls fell silent. "Estella, I have our Magnet Train Tickets. It's a long journey, but we'll be in the west Kanto region by bedtime, then tomorrow we take a ferry to Mossdeep City."
The girls blushed a bit, and Whitney giggled. "Alright. I'll see you two later then." She said, flipping her hair a bit. "Please remember to send me some cute pokemon! I'll be waiting!" She tapped her Pokegear and smiled.
"Come on, Cleffa." Willard said, scooping her into his messenger bag. "We have to make the train!" He grabbed Estella's wrist and pulled her out of the building. "Did you get everything?" He asked.
"Yeah. My dad gave me some bonus money, and I put the rest in my bank account. I can't believe that today is the day." Stella smiled. "I've always wanted to go out of this region. She smiled. It was hard to believe that Willard was a year older than her; she always imagined that they were the same age. Of course, he was also taller than her, which helped to remind her that he was the eldest. "You couldn't sleep last night, could you?"
"Nope!" Will beamed. "I was too excited. I want to see the ocean again, I miss it!" His bag emitted a snore, Cleffa had dosed off again. He chuckled. "So does Cleffa… I think."
The two laughed and even Eevee let out a small peep. They redeemed their train tickets and found their seats. After settling in, Eevee crawled around Stella's shoulders and tucked his head into her scarf to keep warm. His ears peeked out and they giggled.
"I remember when he hatched" Willard said. "You thought it would be a fire type like your sisters, but it was just a normal eevee."
Stella rolled her eyes. "Yeah. I remember being disappointed because I didn't get a cool pokemon. But now, I know that eevee can evolve into just about any type of pokemon and that I'm really happy with the normal type." She smiled. "I'm also afraid that he'll change if I ever evolve him."
"I can understand that. I remember when we found Cleffa in the mountains all alone. I'm glad that I got to take her in." Will smiled. "I still have Granbull, though!"
"Oh! I didn't know you were bringing Granbull! I brought Girafarig along. We've been training for the Mossdeep Pokemon contest." Estella smiled a bit, happy that she gets to go on this vacation with Will. They finished their journey across Jhoto together three years ago, and since then they haven't gotten far out of Goldenrod City.
The Magnet Train started to move, lurching foreword and speeding off across the Jhoto landscape as it rocketed towards Kanto. "Do you want to make a pit stop in Kanto for a day?" Willard asked
"I don't know. We're stopping in Vermillion City, right?" Estella smiled, Willard nodded. "We can visit for a while. We're going to be having a long trip to Mossdeep City, though."
"I think we should wait…." Will said, smiling. "Traveling makes us tired."
Estella nodded and smiled, looking out of the window and smiling at the beautiful Jhoto landscape.
By nightfall, they were let off the train in Vermillion city and walked to the pokemon center. Cleffa was being restless, and Willard let her scuttle along the ground for once. Eevee was keeping the small puff in check as they walked, but something was lurking in the shadows of the path. A figure followed them on their way to the pokemon center, but Estella and Willard didn't notice.
The duo entered the pokemon center and took a seat. Nurse Joy came by and brought them a couple of coffees, but then everything was disrupted.
"I know you." A tall boy with bright red hair said. He pointed at Estella, putting his finger in her face. She wiggled back a bit. "You're Estella Jet, the voice of Golden Pokemon Battle Tips!"
Estella backed into the bench and she heard eevee growl a bit. Her pokemon was pretty protective. "Umm.. Yes. I'm the co-host of that show."
"I KNEW IT. Do a story on me." The kid said. "My name is Blaze." He smiled widely. "And I'm the best trainer in all of Kanto!"
"Umm… I would… but I'm kind of on vacation right now.." Estella muttered. The kid hit the table, knocking over the coffees. Will moved to sop up the spilled coffee.
"Battle me now… Or are you chicken?" The kid said, smirking. He looked in his early teens.
Estella puffed up. "I'm not backing down yet. I'll beat you and make you pay for my spilled coffee!" She said, standing up. "Let's go outside, kid! I'm demanding a one on one battle." She said, narrowing her eyes.
"K! You're on!" The kid said, accepting the challenge and running towards the door.
"Umm." She turned back to Willard as Nurse Joy walked up. "I'm sorry…"
"No. Good job getting that annoying kid out of here." Willard said, rolling his eyes. "Go teach him a lesson. I've got this."
"Can do!" She said, and then smirked. "Eevee, let's go!" Estella turned and started running towards the door, ready to accept her challenge.
