Nothing as it Seems

Chapter 9

Inside the gym, rocks were almost growing from the ground as I walked through the doors. I could spot multiple trainers waiting behind the rocks to battle unsuspecting rookie trainers. Thank goodness I wasn't a rookie. I saw an alternative path and took that one, which was empty of trainers. I continued walking down it and saw that it led right to the gym leader, Roxanne. She was dressed in a gray colored dress with red leggings and a pair of dark colored shoes. Her dark hair was pulled up into two ponytails with pink colored ribbons. As I walked towards her, she finally spotted me and smiled.

"Hello there, you're a challenger, correct?" The leader asked

"Yep, I wanted to get here before the gym closed." I explained to her.

"That's fine. Richard we have a challenger!" Roxanne shouted.

A man came out of the side door wearing the standard white and black stripped shirt of a ref and a pair of black dress type pants. In his hands were two flags, a red and a green. This, as I take it, was Richard.

"Alright, this will be a two-on-two battle with Roxanne unable to switch out any of her pokemon, while the Challenger may." Richard explained, "GO!"

"Come on out Ralts!"

"Geodude!"

I calmly walked out of the gym; a new badge on my person. The lamps lining the streets were turned on as the sun was beginning to disappear on the horizon.

"Hey Ashley!"

Turning around, I saw a familiar girl with a bandanna running towards me. May finally slowed down when she reached me.

"So, has the 'nice' returned?" She joked.

I forced my face to become stone cold, "'Nice'? I've never heard of such a vulgar word before." My 'stone cold' face cracked into a smile as I laughed. Our feet decided to lead us to the pokecenter without consulting us, though we didn't care.

"What've you been doing today while I slept away most of the day?" I asked her, shoving my hands into my pockets.

"Well, I was training Torchic and Taillow and decided to explore around the city a bit. I was going to challenge Roxanne about half an hour ago, but someone was already facing her. So I'm going to face her tomorrow."

"Ah, that person would have been me." I admitted sheepishly.

"What! How'd you do? Did you win or lose?" She blabbered.

"Whoa, calm down and breathe. I did alright-"

"Don't tell me you lost!"

I shot her a look out of the corner of my eye, secretly telling her to wait a moment, "Don't jump to conclusions just yet. I did win-!"

"Congrats!" May shouted, giving me a quick hug, I stiffened at the contact, "Oh, sorry, I forgot." She apologized while smiling.

"Fine, it's fine. Do you know what time it is" I asked her, changing the subject.

"It's…almost seven. Why?" She told me.

"Can't a human be curious?"

May deadpanned, "No, it is forbidden."

"Whatever, I'm going to heal my pokemon then go and train Ralts and Skitty."

"Skitty?" May asked.

"…I told you I caught a new pokemon didn't I?"

May looked puzzled as she began to think back. Then it clicked.

"Right! You told me when you were going to bed. Sorry about that by the way."

"Whatever, now I'm going to leave after this. Think you can manage your journey on your own?" I asked, hoping she would be able to actually make it around Hoenn without me.

"Of course!" May puffed out her chest; then I poked her side. She deflated after jumping a bit, then she slapped my shoulder. We reached the pokecenter a little bit after that and we walked in, we both handed out pokemon over to Nurse Joy. "Well, I'll be seeing you around Hoenn then May don't cause too much trouble out there." I teased.

"I should be telling you the same thing." May shot back.

"True, so true," I agreed, smiling wide. She then disappeared up the stairs to get to her room while I headed to the Cafeteria and the scary cook, after I told Nurse Joy that I would pick up my pokemon after I had something to eat. Walking inside the big room, it defiantly had a lot more people inside the room, eating or just talking with other trainers. I walked over to the hole where I had met my foe earlier this morning, and I saw it was a different cook, thank goodness. For Dinner I got a BIG Slice of Lasagna, it's my favorite. On the side I had potato wedges and a glass of Lemonade. I then walked over to one of the far open tables in the room and sat down after taking a newspaper and unsnapping my bag so I could lay it on the floor.

I flipped the newspaper over and all I saw was: "STEVEN STONE NAMED STRONGEST TRAINER OF THE YEAR!" Underneath that was a picture of the silver haired trainer that I had met in this Cafeteria. There wasn't much to the article, but I found out that he was up there in the ranks. I folded the paper under my arm and then threw away my trash. The cook from earlier was still glaring at me and it was beginning to creep me out. I didn't do anything to her! I almost ran out of the cafeteria and to the front desk where Nurse Joy still was.

"Nurse Joy, may I have my pokemon back?"

"Oh yes, here you go and I hope to see you again." Taking my pokeballs that she handed me, I walked out the doors and then stopped once I was walking north. 'Did she just wish me harm?' Confused, I decided I would ignore that and continued walking north to the area I had been training in earlier.

"Come on out -"

A shout of surprise came from down the path I had just vacated. I turned my head to look down the path and managed to see two figures running my way; one of them was clearly gaining the upper hand and stretching the distance between them. In no time at all, they were at a minimum of seven yards away from me. One was a member of Team Aqua and the other was the man that had been in Petalburg forest not too long ago.

"Move out of the way, Bitch!" The grunt shouted, shoving me to the ground once he passed by. I landed hard on my backside.

"Stop! Wait!" The man, Harvey, shouted, and stopped to try and catch his breath. Harvey looked at me and recognition filled his eyes. "Ashley! Could you please help me? That man stole the Devon Goods that I was carrying a while back."

"You don't have to ask, I'll get them back for you." I then got back up and took off after the grunt, "Dang Bastard" I swore, referring to the Grunt. While I was running, I released Skitty and allowed her to run with me. Along the way, I passed by multiple trainers who were heading back towards the city for a good night's rest. I ignored them and continued running eastward in hope of catching the grunt before I would lose him for good. Soon enough a building, a house in reality, came into my vision with the suns final rays at my back. To the right side of the house was a mountain with a gaping mouth as the entrance to a cave that looked to be man-made. By the mouth of the cave was an elderly man in a black suit and a gray shirt underneath. He was balding and the creases on his face were more defined as it seemed he was worried about something.

"Sir? Are you alright?" I asked him, coming to a stop from my full blown sprint here.

"Oh Lass, My Peeko was just pokenapped from me!" He was wringing his hands to further the impression that he was worried.

"Peeko?" I questioned, uncertain if he was referring to a pokemon or…something else.

"My Wingull! A member of Team Aqua came by and just snatched my poor Peeko off!" He explained.

"Alright, I'll…go get your…Peeko for you then." Before he could say another thing, I had sidestepped him and ran into the cave which was slowly losing its light from the sun. Skitty walked in front of me, to assume her protector duties I assumed. Curses bounced off the walls as we walked up an incline and then turned a sharp right down a long pathway. The Curses got louder as we continued. I raised an eyebrow at Skitty, who had stopped in front of me to look at me and cock her head to the side. Up ahead, I could see something moving in the dim light, and walking forward, I saw it was the Team Aqua grunt. I grinned and quietly made my way towards him, being careful to not make a sound.

Soon I was right behind him and, putting a hand on my hip I spoke, "You know, cursing the world isn't going to make it get any better for you." I most likely wore a smug expression; I could feel my sarcastic side coming out now.

The Aqua grunt jumped nearly a foot in the air before turning around to look at me. Under his left arm was the stolen Devon goods and in his hand on the left side was a Wingull, trying to claw his hand to shreds to escape his tight grasp.

"How the hell did you get in here, ya bitch?" He shouted, causing it to echo around the walls.

"Walked in; how else?"

"Shut it Bitch, you're going to wish you never came in here." He growled grabbing a pokeball from his belt with his right hand.

"Somehow, I don't think so." Sometimes I used sarcasm a little to much…

"Go Poochyena!"

…like now.