Chapter 1: Echos of the Past
The soft rocking of the boat was one of those natural lullabies that could compel even the most troubled of minds into a deep slumber. That was my mind as of late. My twin sister and I were on the way back to the Sinnoh region from our research expedition to the Unova region. We were sent away by our guardian after the tragedy that claimed the lives and bodies of our parents. Nova had endured the loss the most out of the two of us. I had always been more of the loner and preferring to do things my way. The loss influenced me but not as much as my dear sister. For months upon months she had cried herself to sleep, she would never let me know though. She had a way of hiding her pain that always infuriated me, but I said nothing of it due to a fear that I may lose her too.
In my dream I had seen my partial, incomplete memories of that night. A certain type of darkness seemed to strangle me, even in my sleep. I have tried to forget the events of that night but to no avail since it had happened three years ago. Now at 19 years old, I still could not seem to get away from the reality that the parents I loved and adored, even after the obvious preference of my sister, still affected me. The nightmare started racking my brain again, although this time it seemed much more vivid and clearer than it ever had before. The last glance I remembered was red glinting eyes shrouded with malice.
The voice that bared the eyes shouted, "DO NOT RETURN HERE!"
At that instant I felt like I had gotten electrocuted. My nerves were shot and my body tingled all over. I hastily glanced towards where Nova was sleeping only to find that she was in the same position as me. Her sky blue eyes were wide with terror, sweat rolling down her face and through her brown thin hair. Our eyes connected and we knew that we had dreamt the same thing.
"Lexa…. What was that?" My sister addressed me.
"I-I have no idea, but it isn't good," I said my voice fumbling as I fought to catch my breath that seemed to be lodged in my chest.
"We-" Nova was cut off by a mighty clap of thunder and a flash of lightning.
Both of our heads snapped towards the only window in our boat cabin. We were on the the second floor from the main deck which was abeam to the starboard. With a shared look, we both flung our blankets to the bases of our beds. I quickly found my way to my fuzzy blue slippers. Nova found her fuzzy maroon slippers. We went to our cabin door. I struggled to lift the door since it was made out of solid steel. We crept down the hallway about 20 feet to the deck. We stood under the shelter of the overhang and stared out into the night terrorized by the ferocity of the storm, just as our dreams had been.
"I wish we hadn't found what we found in Unova…." Nova mumbled.
I sighed and murmured an agreement, "Well we now have a huge lead that could reveal what truly happened."
"We already know what happened, we both saw those pokemon kidnapping our parents," Nova plainly stated though you could see the pain glistening in her stormy blue eyes.
"However now we know of a way to get them back." I huffed. I always got frustrated whenever she said the obvious. I was not known for my patience.
"Or it could turn into another dead end. We have been chasing leads for the past three years, sis." Nova pointed out.
"Hmmm. You give up too easily. What's life without a few twists and turns?" I glanced back towards her with my eyebrow raised in my questioning look.
"I guess we will see this time. Why did this lead have to bring us back to the place where this all started?" Nova sighed. I could tell her stress issues were starting to creep back in.
"This is how it is meant to be. Let us just hope this is the last leg of the trip." I said, "I love you, sis. I do not want to lose you as well."
"Love you too, Lexa." Nova said as she brought in one of her famous back-breaking hugs.
As soon as we withdrew from the hug, we both let out a yawn. We looked at each other and grinned. We walked back to our room, climbed into our separate beds, and fell asleep.
The sun's warm rays were the first thing to wake me up. Today was the day we were to finally dock in Sinnoh. The ship's captain said for the trainers on the ship to have a mini pokemon tournament using water type pokemon. Of course it was a tag battle for the sake of time. We were about an hour away from home. The only two other trainers on the boat were a couple who were on the way back from the Unova region.
I looked over to Nova. She was still asleep, gently snoring. She would never lose the chance to battle. I flipped the covers off of me and slipped on my black leggings and a flowy green and white polka dot shirt. Nova heard me moving.
"Good morning sis," she said as she sat up, rubbing her eyes.
I turned to her and said, "Hey sleepyhead, you should hurry the battle starts in 10 minutes I said tapping on my watch.
"Shee-et," Nova sighed as she hastily put clothes on, "You ready to show them some twin power?"
"Oh yeah!" I exclaimed.
"I'm going to use Milotic, who are you going to use?" Nova asked.
"I'm going to of course use Wartortle. Remember the contest combinations we have been working on? Lets implement those. Then there is no way we can lose." I said getting all giddy about the idea of winning.
"You really want to become top coordinator here don't you? Well I fully support it, now let's go get this rocking."
"Totally!"
We were in the special arena on the boat. This arena was made specifically for water type pokemon. The water splashed as the velocity from the ship alternated between a patch of waves we were hitting. The arena was just a standard set but the water was sparkling blue, an obviously well kept pool. The captain did exclaim his love for pokemon battles right from the start. Across on the other platform stood Brad and River, the couple from Unova. Brad was about your typical in love guy. River was about as sweet as they come. She was ditzy but sweet. I felt bad for what we were about the unleash on them. The captain was the referee.
"This will be a tag team battle. Each side is allowed two water types. This match will be over when the pokemon on one side are unable to continue. Brad and River will have the first begin!" he exclaimed and waved a blue flag downwards.
From this moment it was on. I felt my brain focus from this being just a silly match to a fully calculated match. I could sense Nova felt the same. I let my hand slide quickly into my messenger bag and drew out my pokeball. This pokeball contained my oldest friend and first pokemon. I knew I could trust my friend to help me whin this battle.
"Let's do this." she muttered to me, "Lets go Milotic!"
"Take a stand, Wartortle!" I called out.
I pressed the button on the ball and flung it spiraling towards the middle of the field. My Wartortle was a very elegant pokemon. As soon as it came from the pokeball. She did a corkscrew, plummeting powerfully into the water to show off its power. Nova's Milotic dived into the water and came up. The opposing team got ready to send out their pokemon. River called out a Marill and Brad had an Oshawott. Their pokemon landed on the platforms on the surface of the water.
"Marill use swift on Wartortle!" River said her brown eyes blazing with determination.
"Oshawott use water gun on Milotic!" Brad exclaimed, giving a cocky smile.
Little did they know Nova and I were not that easy to beat. Especially with my ideas for contest moves.
"Wartortle, jump on Milotic's tail!" I exclaimed. Wartortle didn't miss a beat. She had amazing reaction time also the bond between us was very strong.
Milotic's tail shot out of the water behind it with Wartortle on top since she was still underneath from her dive.
"Aqua Tail!" Nova commanded.
Milotic's red and blue dragon scaled tail began to glow a vibrant blue color. A ribbon of powerful water rushed to the surface with wartortle on top. The swift and water gun were nullified by the aqua tail. Milotic began to use the aqua tail in a star shape, five beams of water splashing out and kept rotating in a circle. The beams were circling overhead across the battlefield. Time to take advantage of that range, I thought.
"Wartortle use rapid spin to skip across!" I shouted. Wartortle drew in it's arms, tail and head then started skipping across the horizontal water turrents, "Do it!"
With that extra momentum that Wartortle build up from riding Milotic's Aqua Tail, the Rapid Spin was that much more powerful as Wartortle plummeted straight towards Marill.
"Marill dodge it!" River cried. Wartortle was moving way too fast and collided with Marill on the platform. Marill got knocked to the ground and then struggled to get up. Wartortle landed on the platform just behind Marill.
Meanwhile Milotic slammed the Aqua Tail into Oshawott. Oshawott got up immediately.
"Oshawott use Razor Shell on Milotic!" Brad said.
"Marill use Bubble beam on Wartortle!" River commanded.
Oshawott ran down the platform and jumped ready to deliver a powerful razor shell. Nova I could tell was ready to intercept.
"Milotic use water pulse!" Nova said.
Milotic hastily drew a powerful water pulse and unleashed it while Oshawott was still in the air. Oshawott collided with it and fell towards the pool.
"Wartortle use Ice Punch!" I shouted.
Wartortle drew it's right arm back and stored up a freezing ice punch. Then ran towards Marill, smashing through the bubble beam and punched square in the stomach.
Marill fainted and Oshawott resurfaced.
"Milotic use Twister to wrap it up!" Nova exclaimed. Milotic's eyes started glowing purple as it cried out in its harmonic voice. The air around Milotic whipped across the water and lifted him up. Milotic shot straight up and began spinning. Oshawott was lifted out of the water and into the twister. Oshawott came flying out onto the platform and collapsed in a heap. As Milotic curled back into the water gracefully.
"Both Marill and Oshawott are unable to battle. The victory goes to Nova and Lexa!" the captain said.
"Yes!" I exclaimed. Wartortle jumped out of the pool and onto the platform before me. I gave her head a small scratch, just the way she liked it, "You were great Wartortle. Now return."
I held up her pokeball and she returned to it. Nova also did the same with Milotic.
"That was a great battle you two," the captain said. River and Brad walked up to us as well.
"That aqua tail combo was really something!" River exclaimed. Brad just mumbled.
"Are you guys here to go for the Pokemon League?" the captain asked.
Nova and I shared a look.
"We are actually here to assist the professor with research." Nova calmly stated.
"Oh well you guys should or contests with those combinations." the captain said.
The ship's horn bellowed, signaling the ship was about to land in the marina.
"Oh well I better go supervise. Thank you again for an amazing battle and I hope you enjoy your Sinnoh stay!" the captain said as he walked towards the flight deck.
RIver and Brad walked back towards their cabin since they were continuing on to the Kanto region.
"You ready for this?" Nova asked. We haven't been back since it happened.
"I have to be. Too late to turn back now." I replied, "Let's see if we can save our parents after all."
Our eyes met. Hers crystal blue and mine forest green. We knew what we were getting into. It was dangerous but we needed to help our parents.
"Land ho! Welcome to Sandgem Town!" the captain spoke on the intercom.
We nodded at each other. "Let's go."
We took hesitant steps off the boat and onto the soft sand of Sandgem Town.