Ramay City John's POV
"Sophie?!" I shouted. "Sophie, where are you?!" I saw a guy walking around, looking around himself every so often. "Hey!" I called out. He turned and then ran ran when he saw me. I cursed under my breath and then started to chase after him. "Wait!" I called. I ran into someone and fell down. After getting up, I rubbed my head and looked down.
"Ow. I'm sorry," the girl appoligized. "John!" she exclaimed.
"Alex?!" I gasped. Alex stood up and brushed her clothes. "What are you doing here?" I asked.
She shrugged. "I just kind of wandered here. Why were you chasing that guy anyways?" she wondered.
"Well, I won the contest and turned to tell Sophie, but she wasn't there. Then I walked around asking people if they had seen her, and everyone said no. Then I saw that guy and when I called out to him, he turned and ran!" I explained. Alex grabbed my arms.
"Stay away from that guy, John!" she hissed in my ear. "He's a member of Team Veil!" My insides froze and I swallowed.
"I have to be going now, but I want you to know something," Alex said, releasing my arms. "Kendall escaped from Team Veil and is no longer here in Katoia. She's moved to Johto, but no one knows why." Alex paused. "We know that she's there, but she's always moving around, so we can't pinpoint her location. We've been trying to come up with theories as to why she would leave, and the only one we can come up with is that she's trying to escape from Team Veil. That's all the information I have, and I'm sorry that it's not very much. I gotta go now. Bye!" After that, she ran off, leaving me to find Sophie on my own.
3 to 4 hours later
I continued to walk around inside of the contest hall looking for Sophie, but to no avail. I'd already snapped at 5 workers that had asked me leave, since it had closed. Someone tapped my shoulder and I turned to snap at them. I opened my mouth but quickly closed it when I saw who was standing there. "Sophie!" I exclaimed, hugging her.
She pulled out of my grip, and pushed me away. "Are you quite raedy to leave yet?" she asked impatiently.
"Where were you?!" I snapped.
"Getting popcorn. Then when I came back to the stage, you were gone. I've been looking for you for hours. Now, come on. We have to get to Amry City." She tapped her foot impatiently. I smiled. "Oh, come on. It can't take that long."
"Oh, yes it can," Sophie disagreed. "We have to Surf over a lake and down a long and narrow river."
"Exactly. It can't take too long," I replied.
Sophie cocked an eyebrow. "Wanna bet?"
Later
"I can't believe we've been Surfing for 3 hours," I said as Sophie and I continued to Surf through the lake and down the river. A Goldeen attacked and I sent out Mega. "Magical leaf, " I commanded. The Goldeen fainted and Sophie and I continued. "Is it any further?" I asked. "No," Sophie answered. I sighed and looked ahead. About an hour later, we reached land. "It took long enough," I grumbled.
Sophie looked at me and shook her head. "What?" I demanded. "You make it seem like we were out there for 6 hours," she said. "And?" I pressed. "We were only Surfing for about 3 hours and 30 minutes," she giggled.
"Well I'm sorry that I don't keep track of time like a certain someone does," I replied. Sophie crossed her arms and walked on ahead. I caught up eith her and kept her pace easy. "Hey, I ran into Alex while I was looking for you," I informed her. "And?" she asked. "She said that Kendall went to Johto and they don't know why," I answered. I expected her to say more, but her mouth formed a straight line. "Hey, is something wrong?" I wondered. "No," Sophie responded quickly. "Are you-"
"I'm fine!" she snapped. She saw the hurt look on my face and frowned. "I'm sorry. Johto's a touchy subject for me," she appoligized. I was about to ask questions, but decided it was best not to.
We were about half-way through Route 308 when Sophie stopped. "What?" I questioned. As soon as I said that, I heard a girl's voice say, "Bind!" Then something appeared out of the forest-and wrapped it's long tail around my neck!
