Thanks for the reviews! Here's the next chapter! I don't own Pokemon except my own characters and ideas! Enjoy!
Chapter 15: Slateport Break
Angelina layed on the newly-waxed deck that she had just got finished polishing. Chocolate was sprawled out right beside her, panting a little bit. The good news was that they smelled lemony fresh. The bad news was that they were all tuckered out. Jeremy and Drew sat against the wall as he tossed a pair of towels into the silver bucket while Christina watched from a far and colored in a book.
"If I would've known we were going to be on cleaning detail, I would've stayed on the island." Angelina complained.
"Yes, but someone had to say 'ooh, let's help'!" Jeremy eyed Drew, who gave a sigh.
"For once, I'm not even going to argue with you." Drew said.
"Ahoy, there, kids; Slateport Harbor is just over the horizon!" Mr. Briney shouted from the wheel's private deck.
Angelina found the strength to get to her feet and walked over to the front rail.
At first, a sandy beach slowly came into view, followed by a rainbow of umbrellas and chairs. The buildings of the big city rose up higher the closer they got to it. The breeze from Mr. Briney's boat made Angelina's hair sway wildly in her face and she had to push it out of the way to see.
"Hey, what're you lookin' at?" Jeremy and Drew popped up on Angelina's left side. Chocolate skipped up to her trainer's shoulder.
Slateport City pulled in closer to view and they gave a wide smile—they had finally made it! Angelina couldn't believe how far her Pokemon journey had taken her.
"Won't be long now till we're in the harbor, kids." Mr. Briney told them.
"I can't wait to get on the beach." Drew leaned on the railing, going into thought, "Surfing, tanning, ice cream—"
"But most of all, food!" Jeremy and Angelina interrupted.
Drew frowned and folded his arms; Christina giggled.
Well, it seems that our heroes have finally made it to the beach city of Slateport. What surprises await our heroes today? Find out!
I came from Pallet Town
With a brand new world to see
I don't know what's ahead
But it won't get the best of me
There's so much to learn
And battles to be won
I've advanced so far
But still there's always more to come
Take a step and I'm on my way
Gonna start all over again
I wanna be a hero (hero)
Pokemon Advance
(I'm on my way)
I wanna be a hero (hero)
Give me just one chance
And the future will decide
If there's a hero buried deep inside
I wanna be a hero
Pokemon!
The S.S. Peeko pulled into the loud harbor of Slateport City just moments after seeing the city. The mechanical ramp extended from the side and met flatly on the docks.
Angelina slung her backpack over her shoulder; she was eager to get off and keep moving.
"Well, this is as far as I go." Mr. Briney jumped down to the kid's deck level.
"What do you mean?" Christina asked.
"I mean, I'll see you off here. I have a shack back at home to take care of."
"Gee, that's too bad, but I guess we'll meet up again, right?" Angelina held out her hand.
Mr. Briney shook it and gave a smile. "I'll cheer you on once you get to the Hoenn League." He said and Angelina nodded. Peeko fluttered from her trainer's shoulder; with a happy chirp, she nipped Angelina, Jeremy, Christina, and Drew affectionately with her beak.
As they walked down the ramp to the docks, they waved goodbye.
Mr. Briney didn't waste any time; in a matter minutes, his boat was already drifting away from the harbor. "Good luck and be careful!" His voice trailed off.
The four kids watched Mr. Briney and the S.S. Peeko slowly fade into the distance.
"Thanks a lot, Mr. Briney." Angelina said lightly, watching the sea for a little while. If it weren't for Mr. Briney, they wouldn't have been as far as they were now.
"O—KAY!" Drew thrust his arms around Angelina's and Jeremy's shoulders and they sweated anime style while Christina smiled. "We've said our goodbyes; let's hit the beach now! AND there's a Pokemon Contest Hall nearby, so I'm participating!"
"Uh…. yeah," Angelina said.
Jeremy pulled out of Drew's grip and clicked on her Poke-Gear. "According to this map, there's a Pokemon Center right by the beach. We could stay there for a couple of days on vacation." he said.
"You guys waste way too much time talking; let's just go already!" Drew grasped the older teens by their arms and started pulling them through the crowd; Christina followed behind them.
"….but I wanted to keep moving on, not take a vacation." Angelina said lowly.
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Christina was the first to set foot toward the sparkling blue beach. The group had checked out a room in the Pokemon Center and was ready to enjoy their vacation from Pokemon training.
Christina was decked out in a yellow two piece swimsuit and her brown hair was up in pigtails. Drew wore his blue swim trunks while Jeremy wore green swim trucks; both had rented matching surfboards to use. Angelina, on the other hand, didn't change at all.
While Christina, Drew, and Jeremy ran towards the edge of the shore, Angelina just walked.
"Hey, Angelina! Are you sure you don't wanna' swim with us?" Drew called back to her.
"Not right now, thanks." Angelina smiled. She could always go to the beach and preferred to do it at night to witness any nocturnal water Pokemon. She took her sweet time to catch up with her friends. "Can you do me a favor?" she asked them.
"Huh?" Drew and Jeremy turned to her.
Chocolate clambered up from the sand onto Angelina's shoulder. "Just because I don't want to spend the day at the beach doesn't mean my Pokemon won't. Can you watch them for me?" she asked.
"No sweat—It'll be fun." Drew smiled at her.
"Hey, why don't we let out all our Pokemon? They deserve a break too." Jeremy suggested.
Angelina nodded and took four Pokeballs from her belt, "Precious, Basil, Spritz; time to come out and have some fun!" she tossed them into the air and they burst open in a flash of light.
"Azuu!" "Bay-ee!" "Nyaa!!" Angelina's Pokemon (Azumarill, Bayleef, and Skitty) smiled at her. They all crowded around their trainer happily.
"Roselia, go!" Drew tossed out a Pokeball.
"Roseliii!" Roselia chirped.
"Totodile, Charmander, Smoochum; release!" Christina released her own Pokemon.
"Totodile!" "Smooch!" Totodile and Smoochum dashed off towards the water while Charmander hid behind Christina; being a fire Pokemon, it didn't like water that much.
"Treecko, Swampert, Gastly; go!" Jeremy threw two Pokeballs to the sand and they flashed open.
"Swamp!"
"Treecko-ko!"
"Ga-ga-ga-ga!" Suddenly, Gastly floated over to Jeremy and enshrouded its body over its trainer's head. Since it was happy, the toxins in its body were harmless.
"Gastly, you puffball, get off me!" Jeremy pulled his ghost Pokemon from his face and held it under his arm like a beach ball.
"Don't worry, Angel; I'll watch your Pokemon for you." Drew assured her.
Angelina flashed a thumbs-up, then turned to her Pokemon, "Have lots of fun and don't get into trouble." she said and her Pokemon nodded.
With that, Angelina ran off with Chocolate still with her. She walked down the sidewalk of Slateport City, trying not to run into anybody. The cool thing about Slateport, in Angelina's opinion, was their elegant display of ships and boats (however, she was still upset from waxing the S.S. Peeko). From toothpick ships in bottles to actual mariners with stores built inside, the entire city made Angelina feel at sea again.
"Hope I don't get sick or anything." Angelina mumbled.
On one of the lampposts, a paper poster suddenly caught her attention. "…. The Oceanic Museum! So, how 'bout it, Chocolate?"
"Chuu," Chocolate yawned and Angelina laughed a bit.
"All right, let's just head back to the beach." Angelina said.
(S)12345(S)
Meanwhile; Christina, Jeremy, and Drew were having the time of their lives.
Drew was tanning on a lounge chair while Christina and Totodile shared a surfboard while cruising deftly along a small wave.
"Hey, I think I'm getting the hang of this, Totodile." Christina used her arms to balance herself.
"Totto-to-to!" Totodile hopped on the surfboard and it jumped a little.
Christina caught it by the bottom and corrected it before she wiped out.
Azumarill, Smoochum, and Skity were helping Charmander and Treecko build a giant sandcastle. Bayleef and Roselia took it easy with a nap while Swampert swam out to sea.
"Oh, yeah!" Jeremy walked away from an ice cream booth with a triple-scooped strawberry ice cream. "Where have you been all my life?"
"Gastly!" From out of nowhere, Jeremy's overly-passionate Gastly appeared and demolished off one of his scoops in one gulp. "Ga-a-a-a!" It licked its lips.
"You pig! Come back here!" Jeremy chased his Gastly all the way back to the shore.
"Whu-oh! I don't think I'm going to make it!" Christina teetered on her surfboard. Totodile jumped onto her back in panic and accidentally covered her eyes. "Totodile, stop! I can't see and we might—" Almost in an instant, the waves snatched Christina's surfboard from underneath her and she splashed into the surf. Totodile was the first to come up, followed by its trainer.
"Totodile, what happened?" Christina asked.
"To- To- To- To- To- To!" Totodile danced in the manner of a tiny kid saying, "Let's do it again!"
"At least you enjoyed the splash." Christina smiled.
Back on the shore, Drew was cracking up. He laughed so hard, that he had to hold his sides.
"Hmmm…. I have an idea." Christina grinned.
"Wha-whaaa!" Drew teetered and tottered on his surfboard. Christina had sent him out with his own surfboard on the dare that he could do better than she could. "I-I can't control it!" he complained as the wave took him and his surfboard up. He fell to his stomach and clung to the board shakily.
"Don't worry; it's easy, remember?" Christina called out.
Suddenly, the wave Drew was riding took up speed. "Wha-wha-wha-wha!" his body rattled with the surfboard. The wave took him closer and closer to shore just to toss him into the air.
"Oh-no, not me!" Christina wailed as Drew's shadow hovered over her. She tried to run, but the wave had accomplished its goal; Drew's back crashed into Christina's and the two fell into the sand.
"Bleh!" Christina spat.
"Maybe my surfing wasn't such a good idea after all…." Drew's eyes spun dizzily.
"No, but I have a brilliant idea now; get off my back, Drew!" Christina growled.
"I will as soon as the world stops spinning in circles." Drew answered her with an air of grogginess.
"Too bad Angel isn't enjoying this. She's probably reading some ancient scrolls or something." Jeremy said, approaching the two while holding Gastly.
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As Angelina broke out of an alleyway and out onto another street, a group of three children rushed past her, each laughing and carrying a Pokeball. Intrigued, Angelina followed their path southward, and found herself descending stone steps and back onto the sandy beach.
There were lounge chairs and umbrella's and towels of every color strewn about on the warm sand. People were tanning, others were enjoying similar beach-time activities. But she passed the volleyball players, the tanners, the kite flyers, and went straight to where a large group of children all had Pokemon out. They were comparing them, praising them, and even battling them. Though most of the trainers were children much younger than her and even a few older than her. Angelina walked around a little, not feeling quite fit into the crowd, and just waited for someone to approach her; it didn't take long until someone did.
"Hi," said a boy. He was around Drew's age, with sandy brown hair and blue eyes. He was clad only in turquoise colored bathing trucks, and was holding a Pokeball in his left hand, "You're not from around here, are you?"
"No," Angelina replied. "I'm from Pallet Town, in the Kanto Region."
The boy nodded, "I see. My name is Aaron," he said. "And you are….?"
"I'm Angelina. So I've heard there isn't a gym in this town, huh?" she asked, looking back towards the city.
"True, there isn't. The local trainers come down here everyday to train. It's not too bad of a battling spot. We get rods from the rental place, even boats sometimes, and go fishing off the shore. As you could probably guess, most of us are water trainers." Aaron explained. "I kind of wish I could go get out of here though, like my sister Brie."
"Oh, that's nice." Angelina smiled.
"Hey, would you like to battle with me?" Aaron asked. "I want to see how good you are."
"Well, all right," Angelina said, pulling out a Pokeball. "Let's go."
Seconds later, Angelina and Aaron were standing a good length apart, and the battle, before it had even started, drew a crowd. Most people were standing closer to Aaron, which was natural. It was a native versus an outsider, and they wanted Aaron to win.
"So, a two on two battle!" Aaron called to Angelina.
Angelina nodded in agreement.
"But Aaron, you only just caught your—" a little girl was saying, but was cut off.
"Let's go, Krabby!" Aaron yelled, hurling his first Pokeball out onto the sand. It erupted in light, and a small red-and-white crab came forth, snapping his pincirs wildly.
"Go Shadow!" Angelina yelled, throwing out her dark-type Disaster Pokemon Absol. "Attack with Bite!"
"Krabby, Bubble attack!" Aaron countered.
Shadow enclosed on Krabby, who fired out a mist of bubbles which connected with Absol's body, stopping him in his tracks.
"Shadow, come back with your Sand Tomb!" Angelina yelled.
"Ab-SOL!" Shadow executed his attack and conjured a burst of sand that enveloped Krabby, doing a good amount of damage to the water Pokemon.
"Krabby, Vice Grip!" Aaron ordered.
Krabby scuttled sideways across the sand, with surprisingly impressive speed, and to snap its claws onto Angelina's Pokemon.
"Shadow, Dig!" Angelina dictated.
Shadow dug through the sand with ease, just avoiding the Vice Grip attack, and bursting up below the crustacean, knocking it out.
"Come back, Krabby. Go Squirtle!" Aaron yelled as he switched Pokemon. He sent out a small blue turtle with a brown-and-yellow shell. "Bubblebeam!" the small turtle opened its mouth and fired out a blast of blue bubbles, which crushed down on Absol and eliminated him from battle.
"Ouch…." Angelina said, returning her Pokemon. She took out Feather's Pokeball. "Go!" she yelled. Her swallow-bird Pokemon erupted from the Pokeball and let out a shriek. "Attack with Air Slash!"
Feather tore through the air and raked his talons over Squirtle, whom wasn't too hurt because of his protective shell. "Wing Attack!"
"Withdraw!" Aaron commanded.
Squirtle closed itself in its shell, while Feather lashed out once with each wing; the attack was deflected.
"Now, use your Water Gun!"
The turtle popped out from its encasement again, and fired off a frigid blast of water, which Feather managed to dodge with an Agility. The swallow-bird Pokemon then attacked with Quick Attack, sending Squirtle sprawling forward.
"Feather, Peck!" Angelina said, pointing at the target. Feather began his swoop.
"Squirtle, Mud Slap!" Aaron retaliated.
The water Pokemon turned and wet the sand in front of him with some water, and then kicked amounts of wet sand up into Feather's eyes, stopping his progression.
"Wing Attack, again!"
Feather lashed out its wings, which this time struck the opposing Pokemon.
"Tackle attack!" Aaron commanded.
Squirtle charged across the sand, ready to leap and attack Feather.
"Feather, on my command! Fly up, turn around, and use Pursuit!" Angelina yelled up to her Pokemon. Squirtle then took air off the ground, flying at Feather. "Now!"
Angelina's Pokemon flapped, gaining altitude, and turned just as Squirtle started to fall. Flaring up in black flames, it then struck the water-turtle Pokemon dead on and knocked it out.
"Man…." Aaron said glumly, as he recalled his Squirtle. "I can't believe I lost…."
"Don't feel bad, you did great," Angelina said, recalling her Taillow as well. She walked over to Aaron and put out her hand, Aaron took it and shook. "So why aren't you out traveling around Hoenn like your sister?"
"Well…. Um, I um—" Aaron stuttered, but then was interrupted by a woman's voice calling his name from the distance. "I gotta go home now, bye." and with that, he ran.
Angelina shrugged and turned around, where the crowd was dispersing. As she walked along the shoreline, she was approached by an old man.
"Hello!" the old man said as he stepped in Angelina's path. He was old with a long white beard and a bit of white hair on his mostly bald and wrinkled head. He had two eyes the color of the sea, and a kind crooked smile. He was wearing a greenish vest which had many pockets on it, and a red box. He also had a black case in his other hand. "I saw you battling Aaron," he said, setting down his box and holding the case in both hands. "I want you to have this, as a memento from Slateport." He unzipped the black case and pulled out two brownish poles. He screwed them together to form a fishing rod. It had black grips on it. "You can get some good fishing off the shore."
"Thanks a lot," Angelina said as she took the fishing rod from the old angler. "I appreciate it, really. More than one water Pokemon could really help me out."
The man said 'you're welcome' and headed off again.
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"Hiya, guys!" "Pika—Pikachu!" Angelina and Chocolate waved to Jeremy, Drew, and Christina; who were sitting on the sand with all of their Pokemon. They smiled and waved back to her.
"Where were you all day, Angel?" Jeremy's voice echoed.
Angelina kicked up sand as she ran up the dunes to them.
"Bay—eee!" "Azumarill!" "Nyaaa!" Angelina's Pokemon dashed up to greet her.
"You missed a great time, Lina!"
"Yeah, we went surfing and everything!" Drew sweated anime style at Christina.
Angelina laughed, "Sounds like fun! Well, let's just say the same went for me, too."
§To Be Continued§
I decided to put in the 6th Pokemon season theme song 'I Wanna Be A Hero', but only for a few more chapters after this. I will have the next chapter up soon! Thanks for reading!