I don't own Pokémon. I only own my OCs and storyline, as well as my art for my other stories.
"Speech,"
"Thoughts,"
"Telepathy,"
Altomare
It's morning in Altomare, and Pikachu is trying to wake up Ash. He tried shouting at Ash, shoving him, and tickling him, but none of that worked, so Pikachu did what he knows best.
"Chuuuuuuuu!" Pikachu said as he used thunderbolt, shocking Ash awake. This also woke Aurora up.
"Ash? Are you okay?" Aurora asked after getting up and noticing that Ash looked like he had a bit of soot on him.
"Yeah. I think Pikachu was trying to wake me up," Ash said, feeling dazed.
"Pikachu!?" Pikachu said, seemingly angry with Ash.
"Yeah yeah, I know. I got sidetracked and didn't pay much attention to you last night. Sorry," Ash said, still feeling a bit dazed from the thunderbolt. Pikachu then crossed his arms and turned away.
"Come on Pikachu, I said I'm sorry," Ash said as he stood up. After a few moments, Pikachu then turned around showing that he was hiding a smile and hopped up onto Ash's shoulder.
"So Ash, what happened to your other friends?" Aurora asked as she and Ash headed out of the room and down the hall.
"You mean Brock and Misty? They're probably back in Kanto right now," Ash said.
Before they went out the door, Ash remembered something.
"Almost forgot to return this key. Wait outside for me, okay?" Ash said to Aurora, receiving a nod from her.
When Aurora got outside, she noticed Alfred and Quartz come out of a restaurant.
"Good morning Quartz, and you too Alfred," Aurora said.
"Good morning Aurora, how'd you sleep last night?" Quartz asked.
"Pretty good. How about you guys?" Aurora said.
"I slept really well last night," Quartz said.
"Yeah, same here," Alfred said, nodding his head.
"Okay! I've decided I'll go back to Hoenn next!" Ash said as he walked out of the hotel unexpectedly, startling Alfred, Quartz, and Aurora.
"Don't startle me like that!" Aurora said to Ash.
"Sorry Aurora," Ash said, rubbing the back of his head.
"So Ash, you're going to Hoenn as well?" Alfred said.
"Yeah! Do you want to travel together?" Ash asked excitedly.
"Sure!" Both Quartz and Alfred said at the same time.
After getting their tickets, Ash and the gang got on the boat to Hoenn, with Ash being excited as always, until he remembered something.
"Oh crap! I don't have my Hoenn badges with me!" Ash said, realizing he has to do everything all over again.
"Well I guess you have some battles to look forward to then, Ash," Quartz said, followed by Alfred nodding.
"You're right! Look out Hoenn, here I come!" Ash said, now being excited again as the boat set sail.
Later that day on the boat, we see Ash having a battle with someone who was using an Omanyte.
"Alright Pikachu, use Iron Tail!" Ash said.
Pikachu then hit the Omanyte hard, almost knocking it out.
"Omanyte, use Ice Beam!" the opposing trainer said.
"Dodge it, then wrap it up with Quick Attack!" Ash said to Pikachu.
Omanyte then used Ice Beam, which Pikachu narrowly avoided, but before the opposing trainer could even tell Omanyte to use another attack, Pikachu knocked Omanyte onto it's side with Quick Attack, causing it to faint.
"That was a great battle," Ash said, shaking his opponent's hand.
Pikachu then started to run up to Ash when suddenly a claw grabbed him from behind.
"Alright, who did that?!" Ash asked angrily.
"Prepare for trouble," one voice said.
"And make it double," another said.
"You guys again? Can't I get a break for you, Team Rocket?" Ash said with a sigh.
"How dare you interrupt our motto!" Jessie said.
"Also we're not going to give you a break until we actually have your Pikachu," James said.
Before Meowth could get a word out, the hot air balloon blew up from a beam of light hitting it, which caused Pikachu to be let go of.
"Where did dat come from!?" Meowth said.
"Just when we thought we had Pikachu too!" Jessie said.
"Well there's always next time, or the time after that, or the time after that, or," James said, counting each time he said the same thing with his fingers.
"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!" Jessie and Meowth said, while James was still saying the same thing as they flew into the distance.
"I'm glad you're safe Pikachu!" Ash said happily.
Before Ash could do anything else, a hydreigon swooped down from the sky and someone jumped off. It was a man dressed in what looked like a jester outfit with a chess board pattern on it. They were also wearing a mask with a similar pattern that had a red right lens, yellow left lens, and an orange smile on it that had holes in it.
The man then walked up to Ash, who was wondering what was going on.
"Are you that Pikachu's trainer?" the oddly dressed man asked.
"I am, but why are you asking that and who are you?" Ash asked in response.
"Oh yeah, that's right! I'm Arden, founder of the Pokemon Protection Agency. I was flying by on Hydreigon here when I noticed your Pikachu was in trouble, so I had Hydreigon use Flashcannon on that hot air balloon," the man named Arden said.
"Wow, thanks!" Ash said.
"No need to thank me, I'm just doing my job. Anyway, I need to get going, there's plenty of Pokemon out there that still need protection," Arden said before getting on Hydreigon and flying off.
Meanwhile, in the cabin they were staying in on the ship, Alfred and Quartz were telling Aurora what Hoenn is like. While the three of them where chatting, Quartz thought of something.
"Hey Alfred, I think we should tell Aurora about Gym battles and Gym badges, what do you think?" Quartz said, getting a confused look from Aurora.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Thanks for reminding me," Alfred said.
After who knows how long of an explanation, Alfred was about done.
"And that's how you compete in the pokemon league," Alfred said, not realizing that Aurora was having a hard time wrapping her head around the explanation.
After about a minute of silence, Quartz let out a sigh, realizing the situation.
"Way to go, Alfred, You did it again. Not only did you give an extraordinarily long explanation, but you also talked too long about the stats of the gym leaders' teams, and you made it overly complicated by talking about critical hits, type advantages, and Same Type Attack Bonuses," Quartz said, feeling a little annoying with Alfred.
"Sorry about that, I tend to get carried away with my explanations," Alfred said, rubbing the back of his head.
With another sigh, Quartz decided to explain it herself.
"In simpler terms, what Alfred was trying to say, was that you get gym badges from gym leaders by winning a battle with them, and you need 8 in total to compete in the pokemon league. If a trainer has a strong pokemon or legendary pokemon on their team, the gym leader is allowed to use their stronger teams," Quartz said.
"Well that makes more sense, but with all the explaining Alfred did, I got a headache from it," Aurora said.
Quartz then gave Alfred an aggravated look, causing him to flinch.
"I said I'm sorry, didn't I?!" Alfred said, trying to seem calm.
Quartz then let out a simple "Hmph" before turning away.
After having a big meal, Ash and Pikachu were on their way back to their cabin.
"Piikkaaaa," Pikachu said with a sigh of relief.
"I hear you, that food was awesome. It could give Brock's cooking a run for it's money," Ash said.
After getting back to the cabin, Ash opened the door and noticed everyone was quiet.
"Um... Did I miss something or..?" Ash said, feeling confused.
Alfred was about to open his mouth, but Quartz stopped him.
"Well, let's just say that Alfred explained stuff about the pokemon league and battles so much that Aurora got a headache," Quartz said.
"I got carried away, you know I can't help it," Alfred said to Quartz.
"But you never have tried to use a short explanation," Quartz said.
As the two of them keep going, the conversation turned into an argument. While this was happening, Aurora nervously went up to Ash.
"Um, Ash, I've been meaning to tell you something," Aurora said, having a worried look on her face.
"Sure, go ahead!" Ash said.
"Wellll, I ummmm... I..." Aurora said, almost to nervous to speak.
"Is something wrong? You can tell me," Ash said.
"I... love you, Ash," Aurora said as calmly as possible.