The walk back to the beach was pretty uneventful. Ellie continued to babysit the pokemon that refused to go into the ocean and Chloe was out playing with Nila and Sapphire. Much to her displeasure she saw Chloe being harassed by two guys. She walked over, sighing but put a smile on her face. She walked over and put her arm around Chloe's shoulder and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. Or at least, that's what the two men saw. She didn't actually kiss Chloe.
"Sorry boys, she's with me," Ellie said. Chloe turned looking at her funny but the look was soon interrupted by one of the men grabbing Ellie's hand.
"That's okay, you can come with us too," the man said. Ellie flashed a dangerous looking glare.
"Don't touch me, I've had enough with men thinking they can lay their hands on me," Ellie said, growling as she kicked the man in the stomach. She let out a short whistle and all of her pokemon came close...most of them staying out of the water. Chloe's pokemon followed as well.
"Hey everyone, how about we teach these two creeps what happens when they mess with a very pissed off girl," Ellie said, flashing a smirk.
"Tch, trainers are all the same," the silent man said. The other man was still holding his stomach in pain and disbelief.
"Let's get out of here," he added turning away. The two men walked away with the image of Ellie waving her hand goodbye with a smile on her face.
"Sorry about that Chloe," Ellie said.
"Oh no, I should thank you. They wouldn't leave me alone and I couldn't bare to have any pokemon attack a human..." Chloe said. Ellie let go of her but looked at her.
"You can't be afraid to do that. Most people wouldn't think twice about it. Keep that up and you'll get yourself in trouble," Ellie said. She turned to Nila.
"If any men come up to her again, just growl and stop them using water gun or something. Don't overdo it but just make it known not to mess with her. Tch, I wanted to stay out of the ocean, at least it's only ankle deep but still..." Ellie said, waving and walking back to her earlier position with the pokemon.
She didn't expect Chloe to follow with Sapphire and Nila.
"You are so cool. I wish I had courage like you," she said. Ellie nearly laughed.
"Me courageous? I would have never thought so. You wouldn't have either if you met me before," she said.
"Before what?" Chloe asked. Ellie put on a small smile.
"Before I had to go through and see things that should never have happened and had no power to stop it. Chloe, it's best if you just forget about me after this trip. I'm not cool at all. I'm weak and pathetic," Ellie said, laying back down in the sand.
"That's not true at all!" Chloe yelled, drawing stares from the other people on the beach. Ellie tried to ignore the whispering, after all they had all seen her little display before and just now. Ellie's hand was all of a sudden picked up by Nila's blue on and Nila pointed out the row of scars. Ellie just looked up at her pokemon, the scars in question were from when Nila and she first met and she was bit by the tiny blue pokemon.
"People and pokemon care for you and your an idiot if you don't see that! I don't care what happened in the past, I want to be your friend!" Chloe yelled before stalking off, her pokemon following her. Ellie got up to follow her but Nila held her back.
"What's that for?" Ellie asked, looking up at Nila. Nila just shook her head.
"Sometimes I wish I knew what you were saying..." Ellie said, crossing her arms and pouting. She couldn't believe she had got Chloe all worked up like that.
She couldn't believe Chloe wanted to be her friend, they hadn't met that long ago and on top of that, she knew about Ellie being in Team Rocket. Most people would have ran away by then, even if they were told it was to spy on Team Rocket. She realized with horror that she was crying and she quickly hid her face. Why was she crying? She didn't even cry after nearly being killed. She vaguely felt Nila put a hand on her back but it seemed so far away, almost like she was detached from her own body.
"Ellie?" a voice called, bringing her back into reality. She looked up to see that she was surrounded by her pokemon, even Luna woke up to try to get her attention.
"I thought it was, what's wrong?" the voice asked. Ellie followed the sound to see the face of Lyra. She quickly wiped her tears away with a nearby towel.
"Nothing," she answered.
"Hey, Lyra what's the hold up?" a male voice called.
"Oh Gold, it's girl stuff. Go talk to Silver or something," Lyra said. Ellie hid her face again.
"I don't want to talk to that jerk!" the boy called Gold. Ellie quickly remembered the names from the battle in Goldenrod.
"Like I want to talk to a weakling like you," another voice called.
"Get out of here you two!" Lyra yelled. Ellie peaked to see that the two boys walked away grumbling. She noticed the flaming red hair of one of them, and remembered her battle with him of what seemed forever ago after leaving Violet City.
"Come on, it's obviously nothing," Lyra said.
"It really isn't anything, why do you want to talk to me anyway. If anything I would expect you to call the police," Ellie said, her voice muffled. Lyra sat down in the sand next to Ellie.
"I saw the news and deducted that you weren't there by choice. I mean, the Champion wouldn't make a Team Rocket member his girlfriend, now would he? Not that I believe those crazy talk show hosts," Lyra said.
Ellie looked up.
"Good because it isn't true. I hate the guy," she said, managing a smile.
"So what's wrong anyway?" Lyra asked once more.
"I really don't know. I thought I was pushing my pokemon so hard so I decided to take a vacation here since I was escorting a girl here for the contest but I made her really mad. But that really wouldn't be enough to make me cry would it?" Ellie admitted. Lyra looked at her.
"I don't know, maybe you are just really stressed," Lyra said. Ellie noticed her pokemon were sitting around here but not saying a word. Nila's hand was still on her shoulder and Luna had rested her head on Ellie's lap. She noticed that Hazel was comforting a crying Sienna and she couldn't help but smiled at how much Hazel had grown up.
"It seems I have a habit of hurting people close to me. Now go have fun with your boyfriends," Ellie said, flashing a grin.
"Y-you're wrong! We are just training to prepare for the league! We aren't like that!" Lyra said, turning bright red.
"Somehow, I have a feeling you like one of them," Ellie said, standing up and gathering her stuff. She wrapped a towel around her and kept it in place with a ponytail holder.
"Stop it!" Lyra whined. Ellie just waved goodbye as she picked up Sienna and wiped the tiny pokemon's tears away. She kissed Sienna's smooth forehead and gave her best smile.
"It's okay, I was just feeling down for a moment," she said. She looked at her other pokemon.
"Okay, let's go find Chloe before she gets herself hurt," Ellie said.
"Hey that's that one chick!" a voice said, somewhere behind her. Ellie turned around and glared, her hand on her hip only to see the guys from before with a couple more.
"Dude, don't you know who that is?" one of the new guys said.
"No, why?" the original two said at the same time.
"Do you want to die? That's the Champion's girlfriend!"
"Yeah but she was totally on a date with a girl!"
Ellie sighed.
"Okay, are you idiots done? I need to go find said girl," she said. Nila let out a growl for good measure and Luna hissed.
"No, we want a battle. You humiliated us in front of the whole crowd at the beach," one of them said.
"Sorry, I'm on vacation. Some other time," Ellie said, waving and walk away.
"Get back here you bitch!" a man said, as he grabbed her shoulder. Ellie turned and glared.
"I said I hate when people grab me. Luna and Nila why don't you fire off an Ice Beam to teach these jerks a lesson," she said, knocking the man's arm away. Nila and Luna both complied, starting up an Ice Beam, aiming right by their feet.
"Now, if you don't want to be frozen forever here, I suggest you go away and leave me alone," she added, as she turned back away.
The four men looked at the ice over street.
"Ah, wait. I can't just leave the ice everywhere. Sienna, why don't you fire off a few Embers to melt it away. But be careful, I know how you can't aim very well. It would be a waste to hit one of these disgusting excuses for humans," Ellie said, turning back away. Sienna complied, jumping out of Ellie's arms firing Embers off. The men finally left with singed clothes and the ice did melt. Ellie picked up Sienna.
"Good job everyone. Now let's go find Chloe," she said.
They checked around the cafe they went to earlier and then to even the lighthouse before heading back to the pokecenter. She was relieved when she saw Chloe in the lobby sitting down.
"Hey, silly. You need the key to get in the room," Ellie said. Chloe looked up and Ellie noticed her eyes were rather red. Ellie sighed.
"I'm not to good with this kind of stuff but I'm sorry," Ellie said, looking away. Chloe just nodded and stood up.
"Well, we need to eat dinner so let's go up and change and go get some," Chloe said.
"I know, we should have totally made Lance paid for us some food," Ellie said, laughing.
"Why don't you call him Champion like everyone else?" Chloe asked.
"Oh, well I knew him before he even started getting gym badges so I've always called him Lance. Besides, his ego is stroked enough so he can get over me calling him by his name," Ellie explained as they walked up the stairs to the rooms. They quickly changed out of their bikinis and Ellie helped blow dry Chloe's hair.
"For now on it'll be a good idea to keep a pokemon near you at all times. Those creeps from the beach had reinforcements. I took care of them but it can't hurt," Ellie said. Chloe just nodded as Ellie brushed through Chloe's hair.
Ellie on the other hand only had to change considering the only thing she got wet was her feet.
"All right let's go. There's got to be some place to eat with our pokemon," she said. Chloe just looked at her.
"Why are you keeping all of yours out, isn't it a nuisance?" Chloe asked.
"Oh, well it's out vacation and I feel safer with them out. Besides it must be lonely for them to be cramped up in their pokeballs right?" Ellie replied as she grabbed her bag. The group walked out the door of their room and made their way downstairs to leave and go eat.
Author's note:
Actually I have nothing to say about this chapter.