Hope you guys had a merry Christmas. Sorry for not uploading in a while, but we had finals, and family, and things you don't care about and you would much rather have bad a chapter... anyway. Here's a chapter I whipped up in a few minutes.
The bus ride was fairly uneventful. Red packed up everyone's things (sort of as a thanks to all Lucas had done) and sat in the middle with the other groups of the Hoenn and Johto trainers and then Oak and Blue. Pearl flipped her phone up and began to read past emails. Lucas had begun to entertain himself drawing circles on his legs, despite an obvious sunburn.
Leaf held her chin in her hand and stared out the window in boredom. This was supposed to be a long bus ride, way up into the mountains. They were at a seaport.
Blue pulled out his Pokédex. "Uh, from here to the mountain range, it'll be bout five hours. Grandpa says we'll stop twice, so... eat and drink sparingly."
A collective groan erupted from the group. Red sighed and opened his bag, retrieving a travel pillow. His rain parka formed a blanket. He put his bag on the ground in front of the seat, laid down horizontal, put his Pokédex upright on it, and used the 4G to search for a worthwhile movie. This was going to take a while.
He finally settled on a movie about a young trainer who wanted to be the very best, like no one ever was. He noticed the seats each had curtains for privacy. Thanking the good Lord in heaven, he closed it, and all light ceased except for the Pokédex.
Leaf noticed the seclusion from Red. Noting it, she too took the fetal position in the carseat and shut both the curtains on the windows and the aisle. She put earbuds in her ears, turned on her Pokédex, and tried to sleep with her music.
Red found the pouch with the snacks he bought beforehand. He put the Mountain Dew bottle upright behind his head, as well as the bag of Nacho Doritos. He had lots of snacks. He was a teenage guy, after all.
The seventeen-year-old noticed that his girlfriend was sleeping. Her hair shimmered as the morning sun peeked up over the mountains, far off in the distance.
The bus lurched. They had begun to move. A thud was heard from the front of the elongated van, and a quick peek revealed Ethan to have fallen on the ground. Perfect. As much as it was hilarious, Leaf didn't dwell on it. She returned to her music.
The time in the bus gave her time to think. This was the last destination of the trip, the mountain range, and then they'd fly home. This trip had been only a few days, and she already felt as if she was spending too much time here. They hadnt really don't anything. Was this what the old professor wanted? Was this all there was? If that was true, then this entire trip held no meaning. At all.
-time skip; a few hours-
The bus screeched to a sudden halt. A thud could be heard from the middle of the bus, as Red's sleeping form had been thrown from his perch on the bus bench to the ground. Sprawling, he stood up quickly, losing his footing a little bit. He hated the way everyone was smiling and staring at him. Even Ethan was laughing, despite his similar problem earlier.
"I'm fine," he answered provocatively, as if someone asked. When silence commenced, he shoved a few things that had been scattered in his situation and refused speech to anyone.
Leaf, who was sitting in the stall next to him, forced back a snicker. This kid sure was a klutz. What did she get herself into a few years ago?
The students filed off of the bus. The towering structure that was Mount Battle stood in front of them. Red's eyes gleamed. This was amazing, this was fantastic, this was...
"Not what we're here for." Oak shot out. Red's expression fell obviously, much to the humor of his peers.
"We're here for the plane ride home... and the museum." He smirked sheepishly, the grim frown on Blue's face evident.
The group walked in to the museum located on the side of the entrance to Mount Battle.
"Can't be much bigger than Mount Silver," Red thought aloud. Almost on cue, he turned to see a diagram on the wall, depicting the heights of different mountains in the world. Mount silver topped the list, with no surprise, but a close second was Mount Battle, just a few hundred meters behind, and then Mount Moon in the dreadful third place. Still better than a bunch of Hoenn mountains, and surprisingly a lot of the Sinnoh mountains. Keeping at a bottom was the Kanto-Johto Victory Road, with just over 600 meters in height. Most of the "Victory Road" was underground anyway.
"Hey, Red!" He heard. Leaf, Pearl, Lucas and Blue were looking down at a case. In it was a strange looking machine.
"It says here," Blue read from the label, "this here is a former device from Team Snagem. Must be like a stealer or somethin'. That's what it's for, anyway. Still, apparently this kid named Michael traveled with it around the region and beat Team Snagem. Or whatever the bad guys were- it says there were two, but it doesn't specify the other one."
"Cool." Lucas murmured. Pearl nodded. After a few seconds in silence, Red left the group, and Leaf went off elsewhere.
She came across a photograph on a wall. It showed a boy with spiky red hair standing next to two labworkers, both she assumed the parents.
She read. "The Williams family: Wes, Lily, and Michael. All three were very important to the freedom of our region from groups like Snagem."
"I still don't like my hair. Even now."
Surprised, she turned around to see a young man with unruly red hair, a black undershirt, yellow vest, and jeans.
"Hey, I'm Michael." He raised his hand.
Leaf reluctantly shook it. "Leaf Green."
Michael looked around. "This your group?" He asked, mentioning the others.
She never let her gaze break from him. "Yeah. There's Ethan, Crystal, Sapphire, Brendan Ruby, he's a bit weird, Lucas, or Diamond, Pearl, or Platinum, she keeps changing her name, and then there's Blue and Red, my boyfriend." As she said their names, they all waved. Michael waved back.
"Well, it's nice to see some tourists. Normally we only get challengers here." He looked over to Red. "Your buddy over there's big into battling, isn't he?"
Leaf struggled to hide a gasp. "How do you know him?" She asked calmly.
"Oh." Michael looked back at her. "Everyone around here knows Red. He's kinda important in my life, anyway. I kinda look up to him, but I don't want to be that creepy famous fan guy. Soooo..."
Leaf nodded. She really had no clue what was wrong with this guy.
"Whelp," he stated, looking down at his watch. "I've got a battle appointment in about ten minutes. Good to see you guys here."
Off he went.
-time skip; one hour-
Red sat down on the window seat of the airliner. He was about to leave the tropical, dusty, heated place that was Orre. Not that he didn't enjoy it. The aquarium trip was fun, and so was the Orre National Museum. But to be brutally honest, he loved that he was going home.
As his group and the passengers filed in around him (including Leaf, separating him from the aisle), he took out his travel pillow and set it on his neck. He made sure no one was behind him, and reclined in his chair. The miniature TV on the back of the chair in front of him sprung to life with some documentary about Pidgey and its migration. He found it easy to sleep to.
Leaf watched her boyfriend. What a crazy time it had been. Already it was late November. They'd get home just before Thanksgiving, and then-
Christmas.
The name rang in her mind, the thought cheering her already. Was she the only one thinking about this? She loved Christmas. The Hallmark movies, the hot chocolate. Even the cold snowstorms that sometimes left the houses cold and in the dark.
She looked at her watch. 7:32. The sun was going down. She yawned, and like the guy beside her, dozed off.
-present-
Ash woke up suddenly. The sun wasn't out yet, but something was different already. He noticed May was already up. The girl had taken the remote and was currently searching the TV for anything on in the morning. It was harder than you'd think.
The clock at the head of the guide noted 5:47. A.m. It was early, and Ash decided to stand up. The pain once again shot through his leg, but it wasn't as sharp, and Ash knew he was overreacting when he thought he had shattered it.
Without gaining May's attention, the boy limped over to the fridge to get something to eat.
Cereal? No, he was too lazy. Juice? He wasn't really thirsty. He settled on a large sour apple. He limped back to the couch.
He tried to make it as if he was still asleep, but as he slid in to the covers-
"Ash? You're up too?"
He wanted to hide, but it couldn't really be that bad just being up. "Yeah," he answered, continuing to slide into the covers
It was silent for a few seconds. Ash still hadn't faced May.
May spoke up. "Does your leg still hurt?"
Ash could sense that she really just wanted to break the ice instead of ask about his leg, but he decided to answer anyway. "It's, uh, fine."
Down the stairs bounded a yellow fluffball. Pikachu had heard the voices of the two people, and happy to see Ash up, he sprung out from under Ash's bed to see both of them.
"Pi-ka!" The mouse cheered as he sprung into May's arms. He hadn't seen the girl in a while, and he was more than happy to cuddle in to her lap and take a nap, which seemed to be his favorite activity lately.
Ash sat up in the couch, the covers that were formerly on him now on the floor. He set his hands on his knees.
"So what's all happened since I was gone?" He asked casually.
May smirked. "Nothing that wouldn'tve been a problem." Her eyes drifted to Ash's pale leg. "Now your leg..."
"It's fine," Ash interjected. He hated it when people thought he was injured when he really wasn't. "I really am."
A familiar feminine scream rang throughout the room.
"Oh, Ash, you're okay!" Immediately, Ash was smothered by his mother, who in between tears began to list all of the things Ash should be punished for but wouldn't because he was finally back.
-time skip, a few hours-
After he was forced by his mother to take a couple showers and he changed, Ash began to play out his next move to save his dad. The whole government was corrupt and believed his father was evil, plus the fact his father just plain decided to drop his son off and leave into the dangerous world. What was he thinking?
Ash scratched his head. This was going to be more difficult than he had originally thought.
So now, as he stood on his porch, looking up at the ominous Mount Silver in the not-so-distant horizon, he was considering leaving the safety of his home.
"Ash?"
He turned to see May. She held a worried look on her face.
"Huh? What do you need?" he asked.
"No," she countered, "it's just... I hope to God you're not leaving yet."
He smiled. At least she understood he had to go. He stood, stumbling a bit on his leg. She moved her arms out, as if to catch him, but he pushed her away softly.
"I- I'm fine." He said.
She smirked. "Y'know Ash, sometimes I think I'm more of a man than you are."
He looked at her, tears of pain selling in his eye as he realized he stubbed his toe of his injured leg. "You wouldn't be wr- oh gosh- ong."
Pikachu stood confused by the glass sliding door.
