They were dropped off several minutes out of Goldenrod. Ellie jumped down to the ground with the help of Proton, who caught her, and released Luna back into the open air. The pokemon yawned lazily and walked alongside Ellie as they made their way to Goldenrod. Ellie had to admit she was not looking forward to being in the city. It was way to big and uncomfortable.
"Lizzie, if you have a chance to snatch a pokeball off of a walking trainer, go ahead and do it," Proton said to break the silence of the walk. Ellie looked at him.
"Why would I do anything else?" Ellie asked innocently. She already thought that was a given. After all it was easy to accidentally brush up against someone and steal a pokeball. As long as you walked like nothing was wrong and slipped the pokeball out of plain sight then you were bound not to get caught. They were taught that in the first week of training. Suddenly, a frown fell on her face. She could not believe she was accepting stealing pokemon.
The duo walked in silence, the only sound was the crunching of leaves and the occasional sound of Luna meowing at passing pokemon. When they finally reached Goldenrod Ellie allowed Proton to go ahead and lead her to where they were going. She had also returned Luna to her pokeball and placed her pokeballs on her bag which she was now holding onto in front of her. She knew thieves ran rampant in Goldenrod and other big cities and she didn't feel like losing one of her pokemon.
However, this didn't mean she wouldn't be doing the stealing. In fact, she had already stolen several pokeballs from trainers who didn't think to put them out of sight. They eventually reached a rather tall building that Ellie quickly deduced was a hotel. Proton walked in causally to the front desk and asked to see the owner. The employee in the lobby looked at the pair cautiously before getting on the phone and pressing buttons. Ellie was utterly confused but she decided to go with it as the employee began to speak in hush tones to the supposed owner.
Eventually a older looking man in a business suit came down the stairs. He studied over Proton and a smile appeared on his face.
"Ah, my good friend. Who might this with you be?" the man asked.
"Her name is Rose and she is training under me," Proton replied.
"Rooms?" the man asked once again.
"Oh yes, two of them," Proton replied with a wave of his hand.
"You! Boy! Do what I say and give these two free rooms," the man said. The employee let out a squeak before typing on his computer. When he stopped, he got out from behind the desk and handed them room key cards and retreated.
"Dear friend, you must want to come up to my office and talk," the man said. Proton just nodded and Ellie followed the pair of them without talking. They got on the elevator and went all the up to the top floor. Eventually they entered the man's office. It had an amazing view of the skyline in Goldenrod and Ellie found herself staring at the window while Proton and the man talked.
"Rose!" Proton called. Ellie quickly snapped to her senses and looked over at the pair.
"The pokeballs," Proton added, patiently. Ellie nodded and dug through her bag to get the pokeballs she had stolen. She managed to tell hers apart from the stolen ones by the little stickers she had placed on her own. She walked over to Proton and handed him the stolen pokeballs who in turn handed them to the man who owned the hotel. The man placed them in his desk and handed over a bag of money to Proton without even looking at what pokemon were in the pokeballs.
Proton pocketed the money in his suitcase and nodded over to Ellie.
"We will be staying here tonight," he said.
"Yes, sir," she replied automatically. If Proton was bothered by her use of 'sir' he didn't say so but instead lead Ellie all the way back to her room.
"Be up early tomorrow. Meet me in the lobby," he said before turning on his heels and leaving. Ellie locked the door and let out all of her pokemon excluding Azura. It got a little cramped with Nila out but they managed to all find room to lounge around.
Suddenly the thought of Azura crossed her mind. She couldn't exactly use the dragon anymore if it completely disregarded her. It would only be a matter of time before the dragon attacked her instead of the opponent. She sighed and rubbed Azura's pokeball. It always ended like this. A dragon would like her when it was young but it would soon grow to hate her as it got older. A smile returned as she suddenly got an idea. After all, Proton didn't need her until tomorrow. He never said she couldn't explore Goldenrod a little while. It wasn't even close to dark yet so muggers weren't as big as a threat.
She quickly returned her pokemon back to their pokeballs and placed all five in her bag. She quickly got directions to the Pokecenter and left with a paper in hand. Apparently they had been opening up new Pokecenters since the last time she was in Goldenrod. She quickly found her way to a Pokecenter without a problem. She handed all of her pokemon expect Azura to the nurse and left her name and trainer ID.
She went ignored the other trainers and waited in line at the transfer machine. Eventually it became her turn and she placed Azura's pokeball into the holder. She used the computerized screen to selected her parents preferred Pokecenter and entered a message to the Nurse Joy about what to do with the Pokeball. It even had a handy option to hide the location of where it came from. It may have seemed unnecessary to some people but it was defiantly handy for her.
The pokeball was sucked into the machine and Azura was gone. Ellie felt a tinged of sadness but she told herself that she didn't even want the dragon to begin with. After all the main reason she took Azura along with her was for protection if her plan to get a pokemon from Professor Elm didn't work out. She had long since abandoned any ties she had with any dragon pokemon.
Suddenly an angry voice of a trainer came from behind her and she snapped out of her daze. Ellie quickly apologized and got out of the way. She went up to the desk and waited around for her pokemon till a very busy Nurse Joy finally handed them back to her. Ellie quickly placed them in her bag and walked over to another machine that had far less trainers waiting in line. She kept out her Trainer card and waited for her turn once again.
When she got up to the machine she entered her card. She was then told to enter her Trainer ID. She did so and looked at the screen. She was surprised that not only did her parents not take out any money (or worst shut down her account) that they had indeed added more money. This troubled her about why they would do such a thing but she withdrew a sizable amount. She had already constructed a lie to tell to Proton. Surprisingly she had gotten very good a lying without even thinking about it.
Suddenly one of the TVs flashed and a breaking news story came on. Apparently phase one had already worked. An outbreak of Gyarados was being reported on right now in Mahogany. Apparently even the Champion Lance himself was planning on flying out to the town to investigate what was going on. No one could figure how the Magikarp had all evolved at once like that. Of course, Ellie knew what had caused it. Not to say she understood the science behind their machine. Ellie lingered a bit and watched the news only to be surprised when a familiar face appeared on the screen.
"Tell the audience your name," the reporter said.
"Hi! I'm Lyra. I'm aiming to be the next Champion!" the all to familiar voice giggled. The reporter looked astonished.
"The same Lyra who defeated Team Rocket in Azalea?" the reporter question. Lyra nodded happily.
"Well, tell us why you are here, Lyra," the reporter asked.
"I was already here to challenge Mr. Pryce but he wasn't at his gym! So I came to the Lake of Rage when I heard the commotion!" Lyra explained happily.
"And what did you do when you got here?" the reporter once again questioned.
"I went to investigate and found a Gyarados to catch! It was even red! I've never seen a red Gyarados before!" Lyra said happily. She reached into her pocket and held out a shiny red scale.
"I found this after our battle," she added quickly. The reporter looked at her as if she was losing it. Even with the red scale everyone knew there wasn't anything such thing as a red Gyarados.
"Oh I'm sorry! I must go back to the pokecenter. My pokemon are tired and I want to start training my new pokemon!" Lyra said before running off screen.
Ellie just looked at the entire scene confused along with several other trainers. She took the opportunity to leave and hurry back to the hotel. Obviously something went wrong with the machine if it was pumping out red Gyarados's. Well, maybe that would make the Gyarados rare and therefore more expensive. She wondered if there were any more of red Gyarados's out there. She hurried up back to the hotel and entered her room. She once again let out all of her pokemon and explained to them what she had done. Surprisingly not even Nila seemed to care much. Luna even seemed incredibility happy.
Ellie just rolled her eyes and turned on the TV. They were now talking about how Lance had arrived on the scene and recruited the help of a trainer and ordered all media out of the town. It was showing scenes of news crews packing up and leaving. After all, the Champion's word was law. Ellie was surprised to see it growing dark outside already and she decided to lay down. She was glad that the employee had managed to mess up and gave her a room with two beds so that Nila could stay out and sleep outside of her pokeball. Luna joined Nila on the one bed with Ariana and Hazel on the other bed.
Ellie was just beginning to doze when a knock on the door got her out of bed in an instant. She quickly dug through her bag and grabbed a knife and carefully walked over without waking her pokemon. She opened the door while keeping the chain on the door.
"What!" she said in a almost deadly voice. She didn't appreciate night time visitors she wasn't expecting.
"I'm sorry Miss!" a squeaked came from the other side of the door.
"I was just told to give you this," the same voice said. Ellie glared daggers and summed up the slim figure in a maid uniform.
"Don't try anything funny," Ellie warned as she opened the door. The maid handed her an envelope before scurrying away. Ellie locked the door back. Ellie quickly read the message which just stated a time and tore it to pieces. She threw it in the trash bin and put the knife back in her bag before slipping back into bed with Ariana and Hazel. She drifted off to sleep, dead to the world.