Nothing as It seems
Chapter 7
The tail was a pink color as it to move towards continued both Ralts and I. It grew until I reached about the height of my knee. The tail, once it was out of the grass, was attached to the body of a Skitty. The pink feline walked over to me casually, as if it had done this every day of its life. Then, without looking up to see my face, the feline began rubbing its body against my leg. Confused out of my mind, I looked at Ralts to see her expression; Confusion.
"Skitty?" The pink cat called, finally looking up at me and purring.
"Well, hello there." I said, beginning to get over my shock, "Would you like to come along with me little one?"
The Skitty looked up at me for a second longer and then called its name, "Alrighty then." I stated, digging into the bag at my hip and pulling out a pokeball that I had bought earlier in the day. I dropped the ball down on Skitty's head and when the button hit her forehead, she was sucked inside, after a minute of waiting; the ball stopped moving around and just laid there in the grass, waiting for me to pick it up. On the outside, it didn't seem I was pleased with what had just transpired. Inside was a different story all together; I was positively giddy and over joyed that I had caught my second pokemon from the Hoenn region.
I turned to Ralts and got out her pokeball, "Now it's your turn to return. And don't try to get out of it." Ralts folded her arms across her small body and reluctantly let me put her back into the ball. A quick yawn escaped me telling me that my body needs sleep. With that in mind, I started back towards the pokecenter to get some rest. Almost forty-five minutes later, I was walking in the sliding doors that led into the building. At this late of an hour, there was only one person in the lobby, and that was Nurse Joy; behind the desk typing at her Computer. At the sound of the sliding doors opening, she looked up and saw me walking into the Lobby.
"You're either coming in very late or you woke up before I did. I'm guessing the former." Nurse Joy accused.
"The former." I admitted, walking forward to the desk so that I stood in front of her, "What time is it?"
"Around four in the morning at the moment; I'm guessing that you're hungry?"
My mouth didn't answer her, instead my stomach seemingly developed a mind of its own and began rumbling its protests of not being fed. Blood rushed to my face as I rubbed the back of my neck while grinning.
Nurse Joy, I could tell, suppressed a laugh and pointed at a doorway to my left, "The Cafeteria is through that door, its breakfast foods at the moment. I hope you don't mind."
"Its food, I don't care." I told her, "Nurse Joy, I was wondering if you could heal and watch my pokemon while I'm here."
"Of course." She smiled and taking my pokemon that I had been holding in my hands for a bit.
Thanking her, I made my way over to the doors that she had pointed at not that long ago, and opening them, I walked in. There was maybe, thirty round tables littered around the room with about five chairs at each table, most likely during normal hours, it would be packed full of trainers and Coordinators and other such people, but at the moment it was like a ghost town. A cart for a Salad bar stood empty next to a hole in the far right wall. That was where the kitchen was located, and that is where I began walking towards. To me it seemed that there was no one in the Kitchen, though I could hear pots and pans clattering around.
"Hello?" I asked tentatively, I didn't want my head bitten off by angry cook at the moment.
"Yes?" I about jumped out of my skin when a lady with black hair pulled back into a bun under a hair net and wearing an apron over a yellow, button up shirt popped up out of, seemingly, nowhere.
"Oh, um…could I get some breakfast?" I asked, this woman could kill me if provoked!
"Yeah, sure, what do you want? We have cereal, pancakes, eggs – Scrambled and Dippy, omelets, and more." She stated clacking the gum she was chewing on.
"C-cereal please." Man was she intimidating!
"Cheerios, Toasted flakes, Honey Comb, Kix, Apple Jacks, Frosted Flakes, Toasted Rice, Pick your poison."
"Toasted Rice..."
The lady cook glared at me, then pulled a box of cereal from underneath the window and proceeded to slam it down on the table, making me flinch. She grabbed milk, a bowl and spoon and put them on the counter in the same fashion. Again I flinched as she did this. She continued to glare at me as she fixed my food in front of me. When she was done, she pushed it at me, and I quickly grabbed it and walked back to a vacant table at the other side of the Cafeteria. On my way over there, A newspaper stand caught my attention, and walking over, I grabbed the Kanto Regions Paper. Sitting down, I began eating while I laid out the paper in front of the bowl of cereal.
"TEAM ROCKET IS FALLING BACK!"
A smile came to my face as I read the headline, maybe Lance was wrong, maybe Team Rocket would just disband and leave me alone. I continued to read the article and how it described the Teams unsuccessful attempt at stealing another powerful pokemon, this time, from an Elite four member. How dumb can these people get? There is a reason that they are in the Elite four! You don't mess with them, Laughing a bit, I turned my attention back to my cereal before it got soggy and began eating it. My eyes were kept trained on the paper, trying to get any other information that I could to see if Lance was right or not.
"Excuse me, but can I sit here?" for the second time today, I about shot out of my skin as I turned my eyes up to see a man, maybe in his early Twenties at the latest with Silver hair and matching eyes look at me. He wore a black suit with purple zig-zags going vertical down the suit jacket. Underneath he wore a white button up dress shirt and a red scarf thing tucked into the white shirt near the base of his neck.
"Yeah, sure." I said, folding the newspaper back up and stuffing it into my bag that I had put on the floor. In the meantime, the man sat down across from me and began to eat.
"So, do you live here in Rustboro, or just passing through?" he asked, looking up to get his answer.
"I traveled here with a friend, she's beginning her journey to either become a trainer or coordinator or both. My name is Ashley by the way." I stated.
"Okay, I'm Steven. So, are you a Trainer?" He continued to ask.
"If you want to call it that, then yes." I responded, eating the last of my breakfast.
"So, you'll be facing Roxanne then."
"Who?" I asked, confused.
"Roxanne, the gym leader here in Rustboro." He answered, looking at me.
"Oh no, I'm not that good. Besides, I'm not challenging the Pokemon League." I said, waving my hands in front of my face.
"Don't say that, You like you're strong with working with your pokemon. Just take on Roxanne, if you win you can continue. If you lose then you can stop, and say you tried. Just take a risk, you never know, you might have fun." He smiled.
"Fine, I'll give it a try. I know I'll lose though." I groaned
"Good, and don't be so pessimistic! You'll do fine, I've known you for a grand total of maybe ten minutes, and I have a feeling that you'll do great. I hope you don't mind me asking, but may I see your pokemon? Just out of pure curiosity."
"Curiosity killed the cat don't you know?"
"Yes, and I believe Satisfaction brought it back."
We laughed as if we were old friends just meeting once again after years of being apart. Getting up we gave our dished back to the cook, who smiled at Steven and then glared at me. She must just hate me for some strange reason. "If you want to see my pokemon, you've got to come with me while I get them from Nurse Joy I just got back from, basically, training all night. So, she has them." I said, successfully hiding a yawn.
"You just got back in? I'm sorry for asking you then, you don't have to show me." Steven began arguing while we went back to the main lobby where Nurse Joy sat, typing at her computer once again.
"No, it's no problem. I'm sure that they would be glad to be introduced to you." I walked then towards the front desk where I had been not too long ago. "Nurse Joy, Can I see my pokemon? Steven here wants to see them" I asked her, hoping she wouldn't become too upset that I was asking her so soon after I came in.
"You'll just be showing him, correct? Not going off and getting absolutely no rest I hope." She seemed to scrutinize me as I stood in her way of sight.
"I'm just going to show him and then come back in and get some rest. Don't worry." I told her, taking my four pokeballs that I had handed her earlier.
"Alright, I'm going to hold you to that." Nurse Joy warned before she went and began typing at her Computer once again.
I then turned around and followed Steven outside to a grassy patch, and I proceeded to let out Ralts and Skitty. As they appeared, they called out their names respectively. Ralts just seemed to stand there and look at Steven while Skitty came over and began rubbing against my legs affectionately.
"Well, I'll say this about them; they certainly look strong enough to up against Roxanne at the moment. How long have you had these two?" Steven questioned, kneeling down to pet Skitty's head.
"Well, I've had Ralts for about a year now, and Skitty, let's see….at the max I would say, and hour and a half."
Steven blanched, "Hour and a half! Bloody Groudon! Your Skitty must have been extremely friendly when you caught her. My pokemon certainly didn't act like that when I caught them. It took mine maybe a week or two before they even allowed me to pet them. You must have the special touch with pokemon." He laughed a little after that and stood back up while I grinned.
"I guess, come on back you two." I pulled back Skitty into her pokeball, but when I went to pull Ralts back into hers, she was gone!
"Ashley…"
I looked at Steven, and there perched on the top of his head was Ralts, looking like she was Queen of the world. I laughed my head off at the sight of her sitting up there with Steven's hair flattened against his head. I pulled her back into the ball after which Steven ruffled his hair to go back to its previous state.
"I'm sorry about that, she usually doesn't do things like that." I apologized, trying to keep my laughter down.
"It's alright," Steven laughed a little, "I'll let you go and get some sleep then, you must be ready to drop dead from sleep. I'll hopefully see you in the future, Goodbye."
"Bye!" I shouted as he was already walking away. I then walked back inside and with a smile to Nurse Joy, went up the stairs to find my room that I had gotten the key to earlier. I found my door on the third floor near the end of the hallway, and taking out the key, I opened the door and walked inside. It was a single bedroom with a Dresser in the corner for longtime residence to put their clothes in and next to the bed was a side table with a lamp on it. In the corner next the door was a wooden desk and on the opposite side of the room was a door that led to the Bathroom. The walls were blue in color and the carpet was a dark brown. The bed was next to the Balcony doors that were a standard for all Pokemon centers in each region. I let out Ralts and Skitty as I threw my bag onto the bed, after putting it on my waist after finished eating. Rummaging through it I picked out a pair of red shorts and a black baggy T-shirt that I changed into after I went into the bathroom and took my shower. I brushed my hair and put it up in a set of braids that would leave my hair wavy in the morning.
Walking out, I saw Ralts and Skitty laying on the bed and carpet respectively; sleeping. I smiled at the scene and put my dirty clothes in a separate part of my bag before crawling under the covers; after making sure I wouldn't kill Ralts in my sleep, and fell asleep.
