Hi! It's me again with chapter three! Ok, this chapter is dedicated to Relle; Yesterday was her birthday! Happy Birthday, buddy! This one's for you! So, without further ado, Chapter Three: Collisions in Olivine!

"ARGH! What were we thinking?" Taffy screeched as Cleo tossed clothes and personal items into a duffle bag.

"Shush! Do you want to wake up my dad?" Cleo hissed at her friend as she held up a black t-shirt.

"What is that?" Taffy gasped. Cleo rolled her eyes.

"A t-shirt?"

"You wear that?"

"No, I sleep in it…come to think of it, yes, I do wear it," Cleo replied. Taffy's mouth hung open. "Close your mouth, it's unattractive." Taffy shut her mouth with a snap.

"Can I pick your clothes?"

"No! Are you crazy? You'll make me look like a neon supermodel!"

"But you do look like one!"

"No I don't!"

"Do too!

"Do not!"

"Do to!"

"Do NOT!" Cleo yelled, then clamped a hand over her mouth, but continued to look murderously at the Oh-so-innocent Taffy. Said girl, realizing the conversation was going nowhere, narrowed her eyes and put her hand on her chin.

"Hm. I'll tell you what, if I can beat you in a competition, can I pick out your outfits, do your hair, and pick your accessories?"

"What kind of competition?"

"Hnn…Oh! Arm-wrestling!"

"And what's in it for me?" Cleo gazed at Taffy through half-lidded eyes, already mentally scoffing at the idea of the tiny pink-haired girl throwing down with the best of the arm-wrestlers, AKA: Cleo.

"If you win, I'll never bug you about your clothes again!" Cleo put her hand over her heart exaggeratedly.

"Who are you and what have you done with Taffy?"

"Hardy har har." Taffy scowled at her best friend who was just zipping up her duffle bag. "So, you game?"

"Sure. I'll beat you and we can be on our merry way to your house!" Cleo said cheerfully, pulling up a creaky old chair to place their elbows on. Taffy removed her fingerless mesh gloves and put her elbow on the chair. Cleo did the same. "Three, two, one, go!" In one swift movement, Taffy picked up her elbow, licked her hand, and slammed Cleo's hand down on the chair.

"Oh my gosh that was gross! Why would you do that?"

"Because you're a germaphobe and I wanted to win," Taffy said with a quirky grin. Cleo just glared at her and turned her bag over, dumping her clothes out. She knew better than to argue with Taffy when she was right.

"For a girl who played an angel in last year's Christmas pageant, you really need a pair of curly demon horns!"

"Come on Cleopatra, to my house!" Taffy said and ran out of the room. Cleo sighed, slung her empty duffle over her shoulder, and followed.

~At Taffy's~

"This is going to be such fun!" Taffy cried, skipping around her purple room, slinging various articles of clothing on the bed and Cleo. She delicately plucked a lime halter-top with a gold chain belt off her head and stuffed it into her bag.

"Hey! Why are ya putting that away?"

"Don't you want me to bring it?"

"No, I want you to wear it." Taffy said, chipper as a skitty. Cleo sweat-dropped.

"Of course. Can we please stop with the clothes and actually pack something useful?"

Taffy stopped skipping, "Such as…?"

"Medicine! Food! Blankets! Spare Pokéballs! Money! These things don't just fall from the sky!" Cleo roared.

"Ooooh! On it!" Ten minutes later Taffy had accumulated quite an impressive collection of…well, everything except money. "How's this?"

Cleo stared with enormous eyes before turning and attacking Taffy in a hug, "Perfect! Now we can start!"

"Wait, you were serious? We are really running away?" Cleo's only response was to grab the bags and Taffy's ear and drag her out the door.

~Just outside the neighborhood~

"Can we eat now?"

"NO! Would you STOP TALKING ABOUT FOOD? We've been walking for TEN FREAKING MINUTES!" Cleo bellowed. Taffy pouted.

"Well, can we let Sparkle out?"

"Who the heck is Sparkle?"

"My dragonair! When she moves her scales sparkle." Cleo rolled her eyes; she seemed to be doing a lot of that recently.

"Sure. Whatever."

"Yay! Come on Sparkle!" Taffy squealed as she tossed the purple pokéball into the air. With a flash, the pink dragonair appeared. Taffy hugged the enormous Pokémon around the neck while the sweet Pokémon nuzzled her hair.

"Did that critter get bigger?" Cleo asked in a weak voice, her head tilted up to look at the dragonair. Taffy shook her head in surprise.

"Hey Cleo, where are we going?"

"Olivine City."

"Why?"

"It's going to take us to Hoenn."

"Why Hoenn?"

"Because."

"Because why?"

"Because I said so."

"Ok." An awkward silence followed Taffy's attempt at conversation.

~30 Minutes Later~

"Can we eat now?"

"Can I kill you now?"

"Point taken." The two girls continued walking along the simple black path with the huge pink dragon following merrily. Cleo clearly wasn't in the mood to talk, so Taffy was bored out of her mind. She swung her backpack around and pulled out light blue cloth, a gold chain, silver ribbon, and needle and thread. Cleo watched her out of the corner of her eye, quietly amazed that the cotton-candy haired girl could sew while walking. Taffy hummed to herself as she stitched the cloth into an off-the-shoulder top with a gold chain belt and silver ribbon sweetheart neckline. Cleo couldn't take it any more.

"What are you doing?"

"Making a shirt."

"Why?"

"Because I can."

"Ok, ok, I get it. You don't like it when I don't chatter like a mankey. Can you stop it? It's grating on my nerves!"

"Ok! Ooh! What's that?" Taffy "oohed" as a little blue Pokémon with a big fin on the top of its head came scuttling by.

"Who cares? We are nearly there anyway."

"But it's cute and I want it! Come on Sparkle, let's catch it! Use Dragon Rage!" Cleo gaped as Sparkle reared up and a smoky beam of blue and gold burst from her mouth, crashing into the little Pokémon and sending it crashing into a tree. It popped back up, clearly very annoyed and lunged at Taffy, clawing at her. "EEEEH! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!" Cleo rolled around on the grass, laughing her head off.

"HAHAHAHAH! THAT'S WHAT YOU…HAHAHAHA!" she couldn't even finish her sentence she was laughing so hard, but eventually she sat up, wiping away a tear as the vicious little blue thing finished its attack on Taffy's now completely messed up hair. She stood up and went to go help extricate the blue demon fish creature from Taffy's hair. She tugged on it a few times and finally yanked it from her hair, earning a "Yow!" from the bedraggled Taffy. She set it on the ground and gave it a nudge with her foot, sending it scampering away. Taffy glared at it's retreating form.

"I don't want it anymore," she said finally in a quiet voice.

"Oh, really? Why ever not?" Taffy nudged her and set to work fixing her hair. Cleo fished in a bag for a hairbrush and set to work helping Taffy with her hair.

"Ow, Ow, Ow, Ow, Ow!"

"Sorry."

~Olivine City~

"Wow…that's expensive…" Cleo mumbled as she gazed at the price of tickets to Hoenn.

1 Ticket to Hoenn…20,000 pokédollars

2 Tickets to Hoenn…30,000 pokédollars

3 Tickets to Hoenn…40,000 pokédollars

"We don't have that kind of money!" Taffy screeched, earning a dirty look from the sailors surrounding them. After being rudely told to get out, the two girls moseyed back out of the building, highly depressed and very ticked off.

"Infernape! Mach Punch!" A childish voice jarred to two girls back into the real world. They quickly found the source of the voice in an alley: A chubby little boy with an Infernape standing over the same little blue Pokémon that had attacked Taffy earlier.

A boy about their own age with long shaggy black hair and crimson gold-flecked eyes gathered the blue Pokémon into his arms, disappointment clear in his unusual eyes. "It's okay Mudkip. You did your best."

The chubby boy bounced over, smugness written all over his face. "Hah! Beat ya! Fork over the dough, Wimp!" he said to the raven haired boy.

The boy's head snapped up, aggressiveness written all over his face. His red-gold eyes flashing. Then the fire died, and he fished out his wallet, handing over what must have been at least 10,000 pokédollars. Cleo's eyes lit up and you could hear the *Cha-ching*.

"Oi! Kid! You with the Infernape! Hey, I'm talking to ya!" she suddenly yelled, scaring Taffy and the fat kid. Fat Kid spun around.

"Yeah? Waddaya…whoah…" his mouth hung open and with good reason. Two girls were advancing on him, long hair flowing in the convenient wind, and they were talking to him. He straightened and brushed back his hair. "And what can I do for you?" he slurred and threw his arm around Taffy. She brushed his arm off. The other boy rolled his eyes and stood up, his Mudkip in his arms.

"Yeah. While you attempt to flirt, I'm off."

Fat Boy spun on him. "Don't think I'm done with you Lucas! And get that weakling out of my sight!"

Lucas stiffened and set the injured Mudkip down. "Don't talk about Mudkip like that, Thomas. Ever." He hissed and stumbled back as the boy sent a punch at his head.

"Don't talk to me like that! You will never, ever be anything but a loser, and don't you forget it!" Thomas said and advanced on Lucas. Cleo and Taffy had backed up a few paces, but now Cleo was bored. She stepped forward, dropped to the ground and swept Thomas' legs out from under him, sending the bully tumbling backward. He squirmed around, trying to get up to no avail; he was too corpulent. She got back up, brushed herself off, knelt and picked up the plump wallet he dropped.

"You know, it's not nice to bully others. Maybe I'll just take this, as a reminder to always be kind to others of course!" she said sweetly, thoroughly enjoying watching the boy's face get redder and redder as he flailed around, trying in vain to get up and attempt to beat the pulp out of the smug girl. It wouldn't have done anything except land him in a hospital, but he could tell all his friends that he nearly beat up a girl!

Uhm, Cleo. That's stealing…" Taffy offered meekly.

"Yeah, I know! Your point?"

"Uhm, it's against the law?"

"Are you gonna tell on me?"

"No! But, he might." She said, pointing a finger to the petrified Lucas.

Cleo glared at him. "Are you gonna tell on me?"

He shook his head frantically. "No! No! Actually, I think I should be thanking you. He's been crushing me in battle everyday for almost a year."

"Dang! How much money do you have?"

Lucas flushed. "Um…quite a bit I think?"

Cleo sidled up to him, before putting a hand on her hip. "Seeming as I rescued you from certain pulping, don't you think I deserve a reward? How about you don't say a word, I take this here wallet, and you owe me a favor?" Lucas nodded so much Cleo thought his neck was going to break.

"Ok! Um, bye." He mumbled, then grabbed his Mudkip and bolted. Taffy walked up to Cleo and the two left the dirty alley and the stranded boy.

Taffy piped up, "Wasn't that the same Pokémon that attacked me earlier?"

Cleo face palmed. "I give up. Come on Taffy, boat's about to leave, and this here," Cleo waved the wallet around, "is our key to a new realm, Hoenn!" Taffy grinned and the two girls walked toward the boat. Little did they know a dark figure was watching them very closely.

A grin played upon his lips. "Oh, so they're going to Hoenn are they? Maybe I'll join them."

And done! Hope you liked this chapter! Can anyone guess who the mystery figure is? Virtual cookies to everyone who knows…even though it is pretty obvious… Once again, Happy birthday Relle! Tune in next time! Ciao, Twi!