Episode 50: A break
The group woke up the following morning (or, well, early afternoon, rather) still exhausted from the battle at Sky Pillar. While Niko, Brittany, and Jake were getting dressed and packing up, JJ was on his pokénav, using a new "News" app that was available for download only days prior. Scrolling through, he was able to see some articles about the events the night before.
"Hey guys, check this out: 'Team Aqua and Magma caught at Sky Pillar, awaiting trial.' Looks like they're done."
"Well, not technically," Niko commented, "But basically, yeah. There's no way they get out of that easily. I can imagine Steven and Zinnia will be witnesses to that."
"What happened to Zinnia last night?" Jake asked, "We didn't see her leave."
"Steven told her to take care of whatever she needed to with Rayquaza, that's all. Hopefully she got back home, wherever that is," Niko replied, sitting back down on his bed. During the night he had a dream about the battle at Sky Pillar. In it, he was Rayquaza, and he was battling Deoxys. He could see the pokémon more closely, and felt thankful for the help of the other pokémon, as well as Zinnia's direction. To him, it felt real. Almost too real.
"Niko?" Brittany asked, waving her hand in front of her friend's face. "You alright?"
"Oh? Yeah! Just zoned out, still tired I guess," Niko said as he got back up and threw his backpack over his shoulder. "Let's head out then, right?"
"Well, how're we getting to Slateport City?" Brittany asked. "We have a little under a week to get there."
"No idea, but Steven seemed interested in helping us again, didn't he?" Niko asked with a raised eyebrow. Brittany shrugged and they all packed up and left their room. As they entered the main lobby of Pacifidlog Town, they saw Steven sitting on one of the couches reading a magazine. Seeing the group approach him, he placed the magazine back down and stood up.
"I've always been fascinated by pokéblock recipes. Never got much into the culinary aspect of it, but I do recognize the use of that kind of skill. Anyways, how are all of you doing this morning? Or, should I say afternoon?"
"Still tired," Niko said, shrugging. "Is there anything we can help you with…?"
"Well, more like the opposite, actually. I've got a ride for you to get to Slateport City. But, there's a catch this time."
"What's the catch?" Brittany asked. To this Steven simply smiled.
"I can't give you the ride myself. I have to deal with the fallout of last night, and so I'll be busy in Sootopolis, Ever Grande, and Rustboro for the next couple of days at least. But I did ride one of my boats here from Slateport for you to take back to the city. When you return the boat to the harbor, look for a man named Jax. Otherwise, unless you have any other questions, I have to get going."
"So, lemme get this straight," JJ said with a bemused expression, "You're loaning us one of your boats—that none of us can operate—to ride through water currents to Slateport City, all in one piece?"
"If you could handle last night, you can operate a boat," Steven said bluntly, albeit with a smile nonetheless.
"Got it. Thanks again, Steven, we owe you one," Niko said, shaking the ex-champion's hand.
"My pleasure. I just hope you and Brittany will do your very best in your respective fields. While I won't be at the Grand Festival, I will be at Ever Grande in a couple weeks. You can be sure of that."
Steven then said his farewells and exited the Pokémon Center, leaving Niko the keys to the boat and a small note with basic instructions, as he correctly assumed none of them knew how to use the boat. After a quick lunch, the four exited the center for the small harbor in the western part of Pacifidlog Town. When they got there, they noticed Zinnia sitting on what looked like their boat with Aster standing on the railing, looking out to the ocean beyond.
"Zinnia…?" Niko asked as he approached Steven's boat. The Draconid, upon hearing her name, turned slowly towards the group and smiled warmly, which looked like a first from their perspective.
"Oh, hey you all. Got a minute?"
"Err, yeah, actually," Niko said, "We're just on our way to Slateport."
"Grand Festival? Good luck," Zinnia said as she jumped off of the boat and landed on the wooden raft below, Aster quickly following suit.
"Err, thanks, Zinnia," Brittany said. "Anyways, what do you want to talk to us about?"
"I just wanted to say thank you. I've seen you around for the past several months, meddling in things you probably shouldn't have been meddling in, but it seemed to have paid off in the end. I guess maybe I'm also sorry for not taking you all seriously?"
"It's fine. We get it," Niko said, placing his hand on her shoulder, which caused her to flinch momentarily, but Niko hardly noticed. "You don't need to apologize to us, Zinnia. We just wanted to help. All of us."
Zinnia turned away for a moment, almost looking ashamed. But her expression quickly shifted back to one of satisfaction. "Well, you four really made a difference last night. Even if it didn't seem like it, you three," she pointed to Brittany, JJ, and Jake, "held off those grunts while Niko, Steven, and I dealt with the leaders. That made a huge difference, because I couldn't deal with all of them while battling Courtney and eventually Matt. And, Niko," she turned to look back up at Niko, her black eyes staring into his blue ones. "You definitely made a difference. You didn't have to go after the leaders of those teams, but you did, and I appreciated it, even if I didn't show it."
She then stood on her toes, lightly touched her lips to Niko's cheek, and then quickly turned back around.
"C'mon Aster, let's get going,"
"Whis! Whismur!" Aster shouted gleefully as the two disappeared moments later on a salamence.
Niko stood there, frozen for a moment, and trying not to blush in front of his friends. Before he realized it, they were all on the boat waiting for him. Frantically, he jumped onto the boat and pulled out the keys and instructions, and moments later they revved up the boat's engine and were off…
…if they didn't nearly crash into a rock a minute into their journey.
"JJ!" Niko shouted, throwing his backpack down to leap into the passenger seat of the boat and yank the wheel from JJ's hands. "You nearly freakin' crashed this thing!" With a sigh, he pushed JJ out of the driver's seat and sat down. "I'll operate this for a bit. You can later."
With a small huff, the curly blonde trainer went to go put his stuff down as well, leaving Niko to get them on their way to Slateport City and, they would later see, some rather rough currents.
For most of the journey, Niko was in the driver's seat, calmly guiding them through the water while JJ, Brittany, and Jake were paying attention to the pokémon. Or most of them, as some—like aggron—couldn't be let out of their pokéballs due to their size and weight. They killed the time by grooming their pokémon, playing card games, and eating occasionally. All the while, Niko sat in the driver's seat, spending most of his time thinking.
That dream last night…why was I Rayquaza in it? Should I have asked Zinnia about it? No…then everyone else would have known about it, and maybe she wouldn't have had an answer for it. Or maybe I'm just overthinking things. Yeah, that's probably it. I've had dreams before of battles and stuff. This is no different.
Also…why did Zinnia kiss me? Does she have feelings for me? Just because I helped her out one time? Well, two times, but who's counting? No, I'm overthinking it again. Bah, whatever. It's not like it would work out with someone like Zinnia, even if it could. Niko kept himself occupied by his own thoughts for much of that day, occasionally thinking about the upcoming Ever Grande Conference and Melinda. He wondered how awkward it would be seeing her again, especially after his vague, confusing confession to her. He also had to think about the conference itself. Were his pokémon ready? He planned on using his Hoenn team only this time, since he started completely fresh when he travelled to the region almost eight months ago. He figured that, if he could beat trainers like Juan, Tate and Liza, or Norman, he shouldn't have a problem with a lot of the trainers there. However, a lot of them also beat these gym leaders, including Melinda, whom Niko has never won a battle against. If I have to battle Melinda…will I be able to beat her? Will my emotions get in the way? No…they can't. Not this time.
Meanwhile, Brittany and Jake were playing a short card game while JJ was brushing growlithe, umbreon, combusken, pichu, and spheal. He had the most difficulty with pichu, as it would occasionally release electric sparks, which JJ didn't seem to appreciate, as he had a metal brush.
"Sorry about that, JJ," Brittany said apologetically on behalf of her tiny mouse pokémon. "Pichu does that on accident sometimes."
"Yeah, I noticed," JJ said bluntly as he continued to brush the electric type. "Ow!" He said, tossing the brush aside to nurse his fingers. "Pichu, you have to learn to control your electricity!"
"Otherwise it won't evolve, apparently," Brittany said, "Pichu naturally can't control their electricity, but a pikachu can. A pichu controlling its electricity is usually a sign of evolution."
"Oh," JJ said, looking down at the tiny mouse pokémon sitting in his lap. "I had no idea. That makes sense, I guess," He said, picking up the brush and continuing.
"Hey, JJ!" Niko shouted from the driver's seat. "Can you check the map and see how far we've got to go?"
JJ nodded, pulling out his pokénav. Luckily, they had a GPS feature installed on it prior to obtaining it, which allowed them to more accurately guess how far they were from their destination. "Couple hours, probably. Need to switch?" Niko nodded, and JJ got up from his brushing to take over. Niko briefly explained to him how to move the boat and such, and then walked over to sit with Brittany, Jake, and his own pokémon.
Grovyle and numel were napping, while manectric was watching pichu attempt to control its electricity, presumably upon hearing how critical it was to evolving. Swellow sat on the railing watching the pokémon in the sea and sky. Aggron was in its pokéball, and snorunt sat next to Niko watching Brittany and Jake play cards. For a while, Niko watched the two play their game before turning to snorunt.
"So, snorunt," Niko said, getting the snow hat pokemon's attention. "The next couple weeks we really need to train hard. We've got all the badges we need to compete in the Ever Grande Conference, where we'll be up against really strong pokémon. So I'm going to need you to give it your all, got it?"
"Sno sno!" Snorunt cried out, looking determined.
"Good, because we've got some time before Brittany's Grand Festival to do some training. I want to work with you on that protect move and ice beam, since I remember you using it before and I think it'd be a good move for you to know. Understand?" Once again, snorunt nodded, looking happy that Niko was giving it some attention. Niko continued to watch the card game for a bit before going over to the passenger seat and talking with JJ.
"Hey, Niko, what's uh up?" JJ asked, looking over briefly at his friend.
"Nothing, just a lot on my mind," Niko responded, looking ahead at the ocean beyond.
"Yeah? Like what?"
"Just the Ever Grande Conference. I think I'm going to stick with the six pokémon that I caught here. I just wonder if it'll be enough."
"Enough to win it all?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I think that you can go far. To be honest, I don't know if you can win it. I might be wrong, y'know, but from the perspective of someone who's watched two leagues now—Kanto and Johto—the thing that beat you and Fay in the quarterfinals was a super strong opponent. Fay had that tyranitar, and you had Elliot, who you've never beaten."
"What if that ends up being Melinda?"
"What if it does?" JJ asked, sounding confused. "You can beat her. You haven't, but you also hadn't beaten Fay before you beat him in Johto. There's a first time for everything, right?"
"I suppose so."
"Look, your team is strong. I think if you just keep training, you'll do fine. Plus, that aggron looks damn powerful. What was that move it used when it evolved?"
"No idea dude," Niko said, shrugging. "I looked in the pokédex. There isn't a move registered in it that's anything like what aggron used."
"Why not call it 'steel head' then? Or 'iron head'?"
"Makes sense, it started to glow gray like it does when it uses iron tail. Iron head sound fine," Niko said, leaning back in his seat. "How're you feeling?"
"What do you mean?"
"Like, how is everything with you? Do you feel like you're getting any closer to being a better breeder?"
"Well, maybe, actually," JJ said, "the contests do help some. It allows me to grow with my pokémon. And they seemed to enjoy them. Marill certainly did. And, like, they learn new moves and new ways of using their moves."
"That's good to hear. Have you talked to Maizie at all?"
Hearing this, JJ sighed. "No, not much. I kind of want to go back to Kanto after your Ever Grande Conference, just to uh see what's been going on. We haven't heard anything from Fay, either."
"Yeah, I wonder how he's been. Probably gets to see a lot of cool dragon pokémon."
"Well, so have we. I mean, that Rayquaza, dude. Fay would be through the roof if he got to see that."
"I bet he'd love Zinnia, too," Niko said, laughing and thinking of the Draconid for a moment.
"Oh, by the way, Niko. What was up with that kiss from Zinnia?"
"That? No clue. I don't feel like I really deserved it. I mean, it's not like I saved her or anything. And it wasn't even just me. She should have kissed you, Jake, and even Brittany, if she's into that."
"Well, she kissed you. You clearly meant something to her," JJ commented. "But, it's not like you'd get to see that thing with her any further. We're still on the move."
Niko nodded, since JJ verbally expressed all of his thoughts. "Yeah. Women are confusing sometimes."
"I hear ya," JJ said. "Oh, look, guess we're getting close!" Niko squinted his eyes and, lo and behold, JJ was right. They could see civilization off in the distance.
"Looks like it. Well, JJ, good job on driving the boat, or whatever you call it," He said as he got back up and walked around the deck to pack things up. Nearly ten minutes later they had reached Slateport's harbor, and preparation for Brittany's Grand Festival would begin.
