This is pretty much a filler chapter, and it will probably be pretty short, but it gives us a rundown on how things will work during the Festival. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon or any of its characters, including Lyra or Khoury, but all OCs belong to their rightful owners.
Chapter 24
Lyra could almost hear her muscles sigh in relief as she placed her body into the steaming warm water. She pulled some of the bubbles up to her chest just in case some uninvited visitors happened to walk in and started scrubbing her leg with the yellow shower scrubber. At the foot of the tub, a small light blue orb floated at the top from in between the bubbles. Finally, Marill surfaced from below, shaking the water and soap bubbles from its face. "I'm so excited to begin the Johto Festival, aren't you, Marill?" the brunette asked her Pokémon.
"Rill, Marill," the Aqua Mouse Pokémon replied, shaking her head. Lyra laughed.
"That's just because I can't let you out of your Poké Ball when we're flying around," she giggled. Marill scoffed and looked away. "Don't worry; the whole point of the festival is to promote the Johto region, so I think when people see that you can catch such an adorable Pokémon as yourself, they'll go running here to catch one." Marill had no choice but to smile at this.
"Mair, rill..." it muttered back with a smug and satisfied look on its face. Lyra giggled once again and started scrubbing her arms.
"I thought so." She paused for a moment, but the smile never faded from her face. "I get so excited when I think of all the different places we're going to see!" She admired the cute little bathroom her Pokémon Center rented room came with. Most rooms in Pokémon Centers were the same, except for some of the decorations. Since they were in Blackthorn City, there were, of course, framed pictures of various Dragon-type Pokémon. Normally, her thoughts would have been on Clair's Dragon Pokémon and her amazing defend-attack strategy. However, her thoughts were on which of the various cities or towns all around the world the Johto Festival would visit first.
o 0 o
Khoury and Tohmas lay in the bunk beds that were in the Pokémon Center's rented room. Their room was next to Lyra's. Tohmas thought girls should have their own room, separate from the boys. Khoury had the bottom bunk because his glasses were on the nightstand next to his bed. His hands were behind his head, and he was staring up at the bottom of the top bunk, though his mind was seeing something else. "Dad... are you awake...?" he asked quietly, not wanting to wake up his father if he was sleeping.
"Yeah, of course I am. What's up?" Tohmas replied, not as quiet, but still barely audible to Khoury.
"Can't sleep?" he questioned, a small smile on his face.
"I could ask you the same question," was the response, receiving a chuckle from Khoury. "I can't believe it... In a couple days, all of our hard work will pay off."
"And Mom's dream will finally be brought to life," the smaller male added.
"Yeah..." his father muttered above. "You know, son, she'd be really proud of you; do you know that?" This made Khoury raise his eyebrows in surprise.
"Really? You think so?"
"Of course! And you know that I'm proud of you, too, right?" Khoury paused for a minute, and Tohmas knew that he was smiling to himself.
"Yeah, I guess..." he said. There was a long pause afterwards, but Tohmas broke the silence by chuckling to himself.
"I've been noticed that you and Lyra have been getting along well lately," he teased, and immediately, Khoury started to blush.
"W-what are you talking about?" he retorted, receiving a chuckle from his father as a response.
o 0 o
" 'So of course, don't forget and we can't wait to see you all in Johto and soon!' "
"Okay, that's a wrap! Great job, Lyra!" Khoury said, pressing the 'stop' button on his camera. The brunette sighed and slumped slightly as she stepped down from the wooden box they were using as a stool. Behind her was a green screen which was pinned up against the wall. They were in an extra room that Nurse Joy called her 'Multi-Purpose room', which was pretty much a medium sized room with a couple of benches and tables, extra computers and a bunch of old or outdated equipment. Tohmas was at one of his computers, doing only he knew what. Marill, Mareep, Chikorita and Totodile were playing with each other by the benches, running around and giggling amongst themselves. Khoury gave the camera to his father, and Lyra watched as Marill stuck out its tail and tripped Totodile as it ran by, chasing after Chikorita. Totodile fell flat on its face, but jumped right back up and started arguing with Marill. She giggled to herself and helped Khoury pull down the green screen.
"Well, I've pretty much got the video put together, now I just need to add Lyra to it and it should be finished!" Tohmas told them, turning around and standing up from his chair. He reached into the air and cracked his back a couple times. Finally, he sighed, took a sip from his mug of coffee provided to him by Nurse Joy, kindly, and looked at the two younger Trainers. "Lyra, let's sit down at this bench and talk about the schedule of the Johto Festival." She nodded, and the group sat down. Before they did, however, Lyra noticed that Tohmas brought over a large brown sack which one of the men from the Johto Festival had brought over to him earlier that day.
"What's in the bag?" Khoury asked wonderingly as well. Tohmas smiled widely.
"A surprise. But that'll come later. For now, I'd like to explain to Lyra what we'll do during the Festival," the older male replied, turning towards Lyra, who sat across from him. The Festival will only last for just a couple days, from when we set up, to when we shut down, so we move onto the next city as soon as possible." He paused for a moment and looked upon a sheet of paper on a clipboard in front of him. "Now, when we set up all the stalls, we'll sit for a couple hours and wait for guests to arrive and look throughout the stands."
"What's going to be on the stands?" Lyra asked.
"Various items that you can only get in Johto, such as Apricorns, a MooMoo Milk stand, and RageCandyBars," Khoury answered for his father. "The stall that we're going to run has Apricorns, Apricorn Cases, Berry Planters, RageCandyBars, and Apriblenders."
"Right. We'll also play the video we just shot about four times an hour so newer guests can see it," Tohmas added. "Then, there's the battling event, which is the main event of the Festival."
"A battling event?" Lyra repeated excitedly.
"Yup! During it, the person who's going to battle explains about the Johto Starters, and then shows their Starter off. They then proceed to battle a random person in the audience."
"Oh, wow! That sounds like fun!"
"Originally, we were going to have Khoury battle with his Totodile," Tohmas explained. "But, he doesn't like to battle all that much, so we were thinking that you could battle with your Chikorita." Lyra jumped up from her chair and put her hands on the table.
"Yes, I'd love to battle!" she called. The two males chuckled at her enthusiasm, and she sat down quickly.
"Now, originally, we weren't going to have a prize. However, I got a call from Professor Elm himself after you told him about the Festival, and he's very much into the idea of promoting the Johto region. So he sent us these." Tohmas turned his body to the brown bag and reached into it. He then delicately pulled out a round case. It had a golden dome for a top which seemed like it could be removed. At the very top, there was a small opening where the top part of a Poké Ball was sticking out. The bottom was flat as well. The glass in the middle was clear, and both Lyra and Khoury gasped at what they saw. It was a Pokémon egg, much like the one that Mr. Pokémon had given to Lyra and Ethan when she first began her Pokémon Journey. However, the markings on the egg was much different. This one was light green in color, and had small dark green circles all around the middle of it.
"Wow! A Pokémon Egg!" Khoury exclaimed.
"Yeah, and there's a bunch more in here, too," Tohmas replied.
"Do you know what's in them?" Lyra asked, examining the egg further. "This one looks like my Chikorita."
"Yeah, you're right," Tohmas agreed. "Professor Elm said each egg contains one of the Johto Starter Pokémon: Chikorita, Cyndaquil and Totodile."
"Wow! Whoever I choose to fight is going to be lucky," Lyra noted with a sneaky smile on her face. Tohmas nodded his head and put the Pokémon Egg back in the brown sack. As he did, his PokéGear, which was sitting on the computer table, started ringing. Quickly, he got up and walked to the phone so he wouldn't miss the call.
"Hello?" he answered, opening the small device. "Oh, hi Clara!... Yeah, I just finished editing the video a tiny while ago... Did you get the pictures of the Starters from Professor Elm?... Oh! David even edited the video? Excellent! Then we should head out now. We'll be able to unpack and start the Festival by tomorrow!... Okay, see you then! Bye." Tohmas closed the dark blue PokéGear and smiled at the two. "Everything's ready! We're ready to head out to the Blackthorn Blimp Airport!" Both Lyra and Khoury cheered at his remark, and rushed over to recall their Pokémon. The two helped the older man to pick up the equipment and everything that belonged to them, and then exited the room to get to the main lobby.
o 0 o
"So Dad, you never told us. Which city are we going to first?" Khoury asked. They had just checked out of the Pokémon Center, after thanking Nurse Joy excessively for letting them use the multi-purpose room and were now walking to get to the Blackthorn Blimp Airport. Tohmas seemed to be excited to get there, since he was walking in front of the two, who usually walked faster than he did. However, Lyra didn't blame him, and simply grinned at his eagerness. Tohmas turned his head and smiled at the two.
"Our first stop is Slateport City in the Hoenn Region!" he told them.
"Slateport City?" Lyra repeated. The name sounded familiar, but then again, she didn't really study up on the cities in the Pokémon world. There was just far too many of them.
"Slateport City is a really huge city that's by the ocean," Khoury informed her.
"The beach? Oh, now I'm really excited!" the brunette squealed. Her Marill also gave a happy cry in response to the beach as well. Soon enough, the group had arrived to the Airport. Because most Pokémon Trainers preferred to travel on foot to get to places, the airports were never usually busy. Only people such as businessmen or other visiting family members or friends would use the blimps to get to other regions. Lyra, of course, having never gone past Cherrygrove City, was amazed at the sight of seeing a blimp up close. Although it was mostly hidden by the airport itself, she could make out a little of it. And from what she saw, the blimp was huge.
They walked inside the air conditioned building, and Tohmas approached the woman working at the front desk to get their tickets. As the stewardess was typing on her computer and making the arrangements, Lyra reached into her backpack and pulled out a Poké Ball. "Sorry Marill, but I have to put you in your Poké Ball. You understand, right?" Marill sighed annoyingly, but nodded and let itself be sucked into the sphere.
"Here you go, sir! Enjoy your trip to the Hoenn region!" the stewardess told them, handing Tohmas three tickets and opening the doors beside her that lead into the blimp. Tohmas thanked the red-headed woman and the group walked inside.
Giddily, Lyra thought to herself as they boarded, By this time tomorrow, I'll be in the Hoenn region! I'm so excited!
Wow, I think this is one of the shortest chapters I've written in a long time. I just barely made it past the four page line. O-e It was pretty much a filler chapter anyways, to get from Point A to Point B - Anyways, yay! I'm so excited for the Johto Festival to begin! Hopefully it will be enjoyable. I'll at least attempt to wing it, lol. I don't really have much to say this time around, so I'll thank the reviewers now!
Thank you:
Nianque
DK111
JapanDreamer09
arkee
Eon Penumbra
Okay, that's it for this quick little update. Next chapter is when the fun begins! The Johto Festival! The first destination for Lyra, Khoury and Tohmas is Slateport City; "The port where people and Pokémon cross paths"! Will it be a memorable experience? Find out next chapter! Thanks so much, you guys, for reading/reviewing, and I'll see you next update!