Chapter 14:

'That is the coolest damn boat I've ever seen,' flew straight out of Drew's mouth.

'And its that reason precisely why I'm never letting any of you at the wheel of it,' Nixie snapped rolling her eyes before she leapt off the pier into the boat.

It was large for a speed boat with a second floor which consisted of an bottom floor with a row of seats on the front around the railing. There was a ladder that lead to an upper, raised platform where all the controls were, with a special seat clearly just for Nixie. The outside of the boat was painted white with lines of black around the edge, and there was a shiny metal railing going along the top. Under the platform there was an extra room, with a small, basic cooking area, hammocks, and a fridge, with a phone in the corner and a small writing desk.

'Hop in and stop gaping you lot,' Nixie laughed who was half way up the ladder to the top platform.

'Do we really have to go on the boat?' Dawn whispered.

'Hun, you'll get over the sea sick thing the longer you spend on the boat,' Nixie called, 'By the way, avoid dairy products, also if you get vomit on my boat I'm going to throw you over board.'

Everyone else clambered on the boat, but Dawn stayed rooted to the peer until Piplup somehow said something to convince her to come on the boat, 'Piplup, piplup! Pip! Pip!'

Dawn shakily stepped onto the boat, and instantly looked green, and honestly went three shades worse when Nixie called out, 'Don't worry hun, I'll be going so fast you won't be able to feel the bumps!'

'Nixie!' Dawn shrieked.

'I kid Dawn, I kid.'

...

'So I presume the three of you are here for the cup right?' Nixie asked as they sat around the campfire on the tiny island they were using for a lunch break.

Dawn, May and Drew all looked at each other in confusion, 'Excuse me?'

'Your coordinators, you really wouldn't have much of a reason to come here unless you were competing for the cup,' Nixie said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

'What are you talking about Nixie?' Drew asked.

'Dude, you freakin' won the Johto Grand Festival, how could you not be competing for the cup?'

'What cup!?' Drew snapped getting frustrated with Nixie quickly.

'Oh! You guys don't know about it? The Hydra Cup?'

'Never heard of it,' Dawn said.

'Oh, I thought you guys would've known, anyone who gets into the top sixteen in any of the festivals got an invitation to compete, of course its open to everyone.'

'Sorry, I still have no idea what you're talking about,' May said looking extremely confused.

'Well it's no big secret that Hydra Carinthia is a very talented coordinator, and in order to bring more people to the Eclipse Islands, and also an excuse to see another contest, she set up the Hydra Cup to bring coordinators here. It's quite a bit like the Wallace Cup, seeing as we don't have our own circuit here, they have a ribbon to give away that can be used as qualifying ribbon in any of the contest circuits world wide,' Nixie explained, 'I thought you guys would have heard something about it.'

'A ribbon that can be used to enter any festival,' Drew clarified.

'Yeah, she had to do a lot of negotiating with the Presidents of the Contest Circuits, but she finally got permission.'

'When is it and where do I sign up?!' Dawn said enthusiastically.

'It's still a little while away, about a month, if you guys want to compete you're going to have to get to her island in time for the festival. But that should be too much of a problem; we can leave plenty of time to get the three of you there.'

'But what about my gym battles-'Ash began but Misty swatted him over the head.

'The three of them have something to do here other than just following you, honestly Ash; you can still have your gym battles.'

'Besides Ash, all the gyms fill be closed for the Festival, the Carinthia Family are hosting the event, all of them will be there, it won't take any time out from your gym challenges, besides you can use it as an excuse to have a break and train a little. By the way, what Pokémon are you planning on using against Aura?'

'Well I was hoping you'd have some advice, I do have an idea on what I should do, but I was hoping you'd have some inside info like you did on Tien. Do you know Aura that well?' he asked.

'Wow, did Ash actually just say something smart?' Misty quipped.

He glared at her but Nixie just laughed, 'I'm flattered really, but truth be told, no one really knows Aura that well, she's a very private, quiet person. Even her own family rarely hear her speak and the only time she actually smiles is when she's flying. But I do know a bit about her Pokémon. And it's going to be tough.'

'Why?'

'Well… You know how flying types are never pure or even primarily flying types?'

'Yeah, everyone does,' Ash said not understanding where this was going.

'Well… Are you aware of the only one that is? A Tornadus?'

'She has a Tornadus!?' Ash exploded.

'Yep,' Nixie said off handedly, nodding assuredly at him.

'How on Earth am I supposed to take her on when she has a legendary Pokémon?' he asked, instantly worried.

'You do what you always do when you're up against a legendary Pokémon,' Brock said matter-of-factly, 'You use Charizard.'

That was when Brock realised once again that he'd broken the non-speaking rule but as he recoiled expecting a thwack, Nixie looked at him exasperatedly and said, 'You seem to misunderstand what I meant by no talking, I don't particularly care what you're talking about as long as you stop hitting on me. And what is this about a Charizard?'

'It's been training in the Charasific Valley for the last couple of years but when I have a big tournament or a tough battle coming up I can still call on Charizard and it flies over to fight.'

'Remember the time that it beat Articuno?' Max grinned.

'You saw an Articuno?' Dawn asked in surprise.

'I haven't told that story yet?' Ash asked looking surprised.

'No!'

'I was at the Battle Frontier, the battle factory, and I was allowed to pick which Pokémon I wanted to battle, so I decided to pick his Articuno. I called in Charizard straight from the Charasific Valley for the battle. And well, we won, narrowly, but we won.'

'It was majorly intense!' May giggled.

'It was so awesome!' Max cheered.

Nixie grinned, 'Sounds like a plan, but be careful though, if you use all of your Pokémon up battling Tornadus, then you're going to have nothing left to battle her other Pokémon, because they've all got another type up their sleeve and you can't forget that.'

'Do you know any of her other Pokémon?' Ash asked hopefully.

'I do, but I'm sorry, I can't say anything, it wouldn't be right, no trainer should get more information than the other, I was just telling you some common knowledge. The only other thing I can say is that you need to be prepared to face anything. I can't say for sure which Pokémon she will use in battle; she has more than six so if you find out any of her others there is no guarantee she'll use them. There are only two you can be sure your facing, Tornadus, because she is trying to train it to the best of her standard, she hasn't had it for overly long, and her partner Pokémon, which I can't name.'

'Wait? Her partner Pokémon? The Altaria?' Max asked.

'How did you know about that?!' Nixie demanded seeming surprised.

Max held up a small training card, 'Once I found out we were coming here I did a little research into the Carinthia's, they have training cards and everything.'

'Wait, since when are there training cards?' Nixie asked snatching the card out of his hand looking slightly alarmed.

'I don't know, I'm trying to collect them all, there's a couple for each sibling, there's battling tips, analysis of their strategies and information on their partner Pokémon. I hope I can get a full set while I'm here, I bought a few packs of them while I was at this little souvenir shop on Tien's island.'

'Wait who do you have it of? Which of the Carinthia's?'

'Oh I have Tien and Aura, I also have Demetrius and Vidonia and Duska and Ivy, oh yeah and I got this one of Andreas the other day,' Max said proudly not seeming to notice the rather increased sharpness to Nixie's tone.

'Oh right, I didn't realise there were training cards, that's all,' she said seeming to relax.

'Can I have a look Max?' Ash asked, Max nodded happily and pulled a small deck of cards from his pocket.

The others crowded around to look at the cards, and almost instantly Brock had a small explosion, before shoving both fists in his mouth to shut himself up, 'Seeing something you like Brock?' Misty observed far from finding it funny.

He squeaked slightly before saying, 'Ah… Vidonia, she's a very good breeder, I was just admiring-'

'Yeah right,' all of them chorused.

'Vi will thrash you within an inch of your life if you piss her off, just warning you Brock,' Nixie said, 'She's the reason Andreas spars with his Pokémon, he wants to find some way to defend himself from her. She always attacks him.'

'She will?!' Brock squeaked.

'Vi is a real sweetheart most of the time, but she's got a short temper, and she's paranoid to the core, outside her family and a few select friends, the only other thing she trusts are Pokémon, nothing else,' Nixie observed.

Brock seemed to be looking between the card and Nixie, like he was hoping that she'd be wrong because of the girl's appearance, and rolling her eyes she said, 'Dude, relax. If you don't hit on her, then you're not going to have a problem. That goes for all of the Carinthia sisters, none of them are particularly good tempered, and the ones who won't get angry will get you back in ways that you'd never expect, and will probably scar you for life in the process. Besides, you're subjected to her brothers if you get one to go out with you, it never ends well.'

'The brothers are protective?'

'Mostly Demetrius and Lectron, but every now and then Andreas will scare the crap out of them, but if that's for his sisters sake or his own enjoyment it isn't entirely obvious yet,' Nixie smiled.

The group laughed and Nixie smiled, 'Come on, we better get back on the water if we want to get to the island by sun down.'

Hey guys, and thank you, thank you, thank you for your influx of reviews when i asked! It made me feel so much better. Look i know I haven't updated for a while, but it was because I was a little bit stuck, it was a rather lax chapter and I didn't know how to make it interesting because if I went straight onto the next gym battle it would move far to fast, don't worry guys, I'm planning to make it more interesting soon, I'm working on it really. And thank you, thank you, thank you again to all the amazing reviewers, you made my day with every single one, and I guarantee you, all of your ideas will be taken into account, thanks so much and pretty please review again.

~Selina