Thank you for reviewing, WildTotodile. And too everyone if anyone that is reading this, if you're wondering about this curse and what it is, I'm keeping it a secret and it'll eventually explain more about the curse through flashbacks in the story. Flashbacks won't be coming frequently, but they will appear showing either about Charley's past or about Zap's past. In this estimate, there should be a flashback about a chapter or two away. Anyways, enough about this, onto the chapter:D
Chapter 9: Boat Challenge
Slowly, the boat was filled with people. Alex was one of the last trainers aboard the S.S. Tidal. The night started to come, it was already 7:25 PM. There were a couple of others just chatting on and waiting for them all to be called or just waiting till it wasn't as crowded. Alex was one of those trainers.
During most of the time at the Harbor, Alex chatted with many trainers that beat the Elite Four and were going to fight every other trainer they could find until they were sure they could beat all the trainers at the Battle Frontier, plus beat the hardest trainers in Hoenn at the same time. Alex just chatted with them all and got many tips on what moves the Elite Four would give and how to counter each attack, and chose what attacks to have for the Pokémon when he fights them. Finally, it was almost time for the S.S. Tidal to be on its way and leave Slateport.
"Well," said Alex, "thanks for all the help, guys." The other trainer he was talking to and the trainers he was talking to before nodded. "Take care of yourself, good luck when you do fight the Elite Four," said the trainer. Alex nodded, "I will," then he walked off and went to the boat's entrance.
The line was much shorter than it was before, and so Alex only had to wait for about five minutes till he entered the ship. He showed his ticket to the man that had his hand out and was signaling it. "Enter, next!" shouted the man.
Alex walked into the beautifully made entrance and looked around him. There were Pokémon domes everywhere around the entrance, each with their own form of Pokémon Types. On the corner was a Pokémon Center for healing after battles (duh).
Everywhere around Alex was so much, he couldn't wait to finally beat the Elite Four.
Before getting ahead of himself, he ran across the carpeted floor and into the room keys store. People were showing their tickets to get a room that their tickets showed. Alex got in line and waited patiently for his own keys. He couldn't wait for all the surprises he would experience on the S.S. Tidal.
It was already just a few minutes left until the boat would leave the Harbor, about six or seven left. Charley was waiting inside the suite his parents had gotten for Darry. There was a TV in the room with a remote, but Charley wasn't in the mood for watching anything. The room was quiet, Darry was wondering around the ship looking for anyone he recognized that was with him at the time he fought the Elite Four.
After so much silence, the boat started to move. Charley saw through the window a few people waving, probably the parents or relatives of trainers that were going to the Battle Frontier, and others just minding their own business. After a few minutes, the boat went pass the covering at the end and outside into the lowering sun, and into the sea.
The boat traveled for awhile and stayed with the pace it was going at, all the time with Charley being bored as hell in the suite.
Oh well, why not, thought Charley. He got up from his seat and went straight for the door. He opened it and made sure he had a copy of the keys with him, and then he walked off into the direction of the Pokémon battles. If anywhere, he would be found there.
"Alright, I'm goanna go look around the ship Charley," said Darry, "want to come?" Charley shook his head no. Darry shrugged. "Alright, if you want to find me I should just be in the Pokémon Center. I'll be back later."
Darry walked out of the door. "Okay, later," Charley replied. Darry continued out the door and closed it. He then walked off in the direction of the main hall entrance.
There were a lot of trainers there, especially in the Pokémon Center, probably because they were planning on battling when the ship would start to move. Darry moved to the center of the Pokémon Center and started to get in line for healing. He still hadn't really healed his Swellow yet.
The line moved slowly, but finally the intercom went on. "Ladies and gentlemen," the announcement started, "we are about to leave the Harbor, the Pokémon Battle Arena will open shortly, have fun with all your amazing battles." The intercom clicked off and most of the trainers cheered inside the Pokémon Center and walked out, waiting for a battle to face.
The line moved faster now that it wasn't overloaded with trainers all chatting, and in just a few minutes the nurse finally attended him. Darry put his Pokéball on the counter. "My Swellow got in a bit of a struggle getting here, he was hurt badly." Nurse Joy got the Pokéball and put it on the machine. "Bad things never seem to stop happening anymore, do they?" asked Nurse Joy shaking her head. Darry nodded. "You have no idea how bad it was in the past five months." He said.
Nurse Joy got the Pokéball when it was done and tossed it to Darry. "There you go, enjoy your time aboard the S.S. Tidal." Darry nodded. "I will. Hey, can I use the PC System for awhile?" Darry asked, pointing to the small computer on the corner. Nurse Joy shrugged. "There's nothing wrong with that, go ahead."
Darry walked to the computer and started it up. He went to his Pokémon Storage and started to get five Pokémon out: Linoone, Azumarill, Medicham, Dusclops, and Camerupt. Each of the Pokémon he had were going with each weakness, there was no chance that anyone had some other Pokémon to beat him because he was carrying the basic types instead of just one type or an overload of one type with little of another.
Darry felt the floor start to move a bit as the ship suddenly started to sail forward. Finally, thought Darry and walked off on the direction of the Pokémon Arena. Already, there were trainers ready to go right in and have a battle. On the entrance was a man sitting at a table with an intercom and talking into it.
"Alright," he started to say into the intercom, "this is how it'll work: I'll call out five of you lucky trainers to come right up here, and let you pick your challenge. Okay, lets start."
He called out some trainers by old fashion point and bring. Soon, there were five people there, three girls and two boys. They stood in front of the doors as the man started to say something else into the intercom. "Okay, we got our five trainers ready for battling, so, let's start with you miss." He pointed to the crowd, "so, who will it be?"
The girl looked around the crowd looking for someone worth a challenge or someone to lose a reputation. She raised her finger and pointed to a teenager around sixteen and he slowly walked up to her.
"So, we've got a challenge here!" shouted the man and opened the door to let them both in, "walk right in, everything's set up already." The two challengers walked in and through the glass door, the crowd could see them get ready to start in one of the battle rings.
The man did the same with the others to choose who they wanted. By the forth one, a girl was picked to choose who she wanted. It was shocking to Darry, because the person she picked was him.
"Alright young man, get over here," said the man. Darry walked through the crowd and went up to the girl. She was beautiful. "Alright, you know the drill, move on to your battle!"
Darry walked with the girl into the huge room with two battles already started, one right about to, and the one that left him and the girl to fight. "so," started the girl as they walked together, "what's your name?"
"Darry," said Darry, "what about you?" the girl continued to walk and they eventually went their separate ways to start the battle. "Jill," she finally replied across the field, "so what type of Pokémon are you into?" Darry snickered knowing the answer was something that most trainers ever liked. "All types," he said.
The referee started to wave the yellow flag showing that they were about to begin. "Well, good luck with the battle." Darry nodded, "thanks, you too."
"Ready!" yelled the Referee, "and…" he slowly raised the green flag, Darry got ready and tried to see what type of trainer he was fighting and know what to do first, he didn't know much about her Pokémon so he just had to make a good guess. "Battle!" yelled the Referee swinging the green flag.
