We're leaving for Johto!
The morning sunshine beats down on the house that Plush, Kibou, and Emma live in. This is their last day in Sinnoh and no matter what anyone says, they're dead set on leaving. It's quite a shame too, this morning is a perfectly clear one with no clouds in sight for miles. If the PCU wasn't after them, they just might've been able to enjoy their last hours in the region, but sadly, this is not an option. With the sunlight beating down on the trees and through the blinds of Emma's bedroom window, it lands on her eyes and wakes her from her slumber.
If there's one thing that she doesn't particularly like that much, it's being woken up by blinding sunlight. When she cleaned the house after the PCU wrecked it, she forgot to fix her blinds to block the light out and she's paying the price for it now. She slowly opens her eyes but can't keep them open because the bright light makes her instinctively close them and she puts her right hand up to block it out. She opens her eyes again and looks away to avoid being blinded and sighs to herself. "Guess I forgot to close the blinds last night…"
She hops out of bed and stretches herself out before taking a look at the time on the alarm clock next to her bed on the nightstand. "...9 AM huh? Guess we're gonna have a fun time trying to get out of Sinnoh. We were supposed to wake up before the sun rises, so much for that." she yawns for a few seconds and then wipes the sand from her eyes. She's almost fully awake, something that's rare for most humans upon waking up, regardless, she walks out of her room and quickly takes a peak in Plush's room. She opens the door just a crack to peek inside and she sees him in his bed, sound asleep right now and as much as she doesn't want to disturb her cute, adorable ball of fluff, she has no choice.
She pushes the door open all the way slowly to prevent it from making any noise, lest she scare him awake, then she slowly walks up to his bed and gets down on her knees. With her right hand, she gently nudges him and this stirs him from his sleep. He opens his eyes very slowly, blinking a few times. "Hhnngg… mmhg…. M-mommy…? Is that you…?" his voice cracks a bit and sounds funny since he just woke up.
"Yes, it's me. Don't worry, but today's the day… we're gonna be leaving Sinnoh and escape to Johto."
He lifts his head up a little to look at her. "R-really? It's already time?"
"Yeah, we gotta get ready to go soon. We don't wanna stick around here much longer, otherwise the PCU might attack again. You'll have to get out of bed, and then we can gather our things and hop in the car to leave."
He blinks a few times and then remembers that they planned on leaving the next day, which is now today. He immediately hops out of his bed and stretches himself out, extending both his front and back paws out as far as he can get them, yawning in the process. After a few seconds, he stands on his paws and blinks rapidly a few times to wipe away the feeling of sleep. "That's right… we don't wanna get attacked by those PCU guys again, the last time that happened we almost got caught and I'm NOT gonna deal with that again." his voice sounds annoyed by the fact the PCU was brought up.
Emma stands up. "Well, we gotta wake Kibou up now and then we can get ready to leave."
"Ok, but where is he?"
She scratches her chin. "I'm not sure… but I don't think he would sleep outside considering what happened the last few days. If I were to guess, I'd say either the basement or the living room."
He tilts his head. "Basement? I didn't even know we had one of those…" This gives him an idea. "W-why don't we just hide down there until this all blows over?"
She shakes her head. "We can't… we'd need food and water. How do we get those things if the PCU is looking for us and we're staying down there? Not only that, what if they find us?"
His idea was shot down before it even had a chance. "You're right… I guess we really do have to leave…" His tone is sad. It feels like it was just yesterday when he arrived at the place he would've been calling his "home" and now he has to leave it. He never really got a chance to settle down with Emma and get used to everything in his new home. Not like that matters now, they're gonna be staying in Johto once they leave.
The two walk out of the room and head down the hall towards the staircase. Since Plush still isn't too confident on trying to walk down the stairs by himself, he stops at the top step and with his head, nudges Emma's right leg. She bends down, picks him up, and holds him in her arms and then heads down the stairs carefully. When they reach the bottom, he jumps out of her arms and runs into the living room, hoping to find Kibou and wake him up.
On the couch that's about 8 feet from the TV, Kibou sleeps. When he fell asleep last night, he curled himself up into a ball but now, he's on his back with his feet and arms spread out. His tail is also dangling over the side of the cushion. His peaceful sleep has to sadly end as without him, Plush and Emma can't leave. Plush jumps up onto the couch and looks down at him. He notices that Kibou's mouth is slightly open and seems to widen and tighten with each breath he takes.
"Sorry… but if I have to be woken up, you do too."
He walks over him and sits on his stomach, which instantly wakes him up, but this way of waking him up wasn't the best, and in response, Kibou starts punching and kicking while yelling. "Get off meee! That's not fair, I was sleepingg!"
He manages to knock him off but thankfully, he doesn't get hurt and lands softly on the floor next to the couch. He simply stands up and shakes his fur a little to get rid of any dust that got on him. "You could've hurt me, you're lucky I fell off of you before you hit me."
Kibou sits up, crosses his arms, and puffs his cheeks out a little. "But I was sleeping! You could've woken me up without doing that!"
Plush shrugs with his shoulders. "It got the job done, I woke you up like mommy said we'd have to."
He looks over to Emma who is in the entrance of the living room. She has a bit of a smile on her face but is also slightly worried. "Well, I didn't say you couldn't wake him up like that, but at the same time, he has a point. You could've gotten hit by him and we wouldn't have wanted that, right?"
Plush looks down at the ground. "I-I was just trying to help…"
She picks her tone up a bit to be more cheerful. "Don't worry! Everything's fine and nobody got hurt!" she quickly becomes serious though, almost scary how fast she changes. "But we can't waste anymore time here, we gotta get ready to leave for Johto and prepare for whatever we'll face along the way there."
Kibou hops up off the couch and starts floating in the air. "Oh yeah! We're gonna go travel the world and have some fun!" he clearly has forgotten what the reason for leaving was all about.
"No, Kibou… we're not gonna be having fun traveling the world. We're leaving because we don't wanna get attacked by the PCU again, remember?"
He blinks a couple of times and remembers, his somewhat happy tone being replaced with a slightly disappointed one. "Aww… I was hoping we could have fun on our way there…"
Plush shakes his head, a bit surprised at how he could forget so easily. "Arceus told you that it would be much better to leave! You even said it yourself!"
He vaguely remembers this. "Oh yeah, I did say that."
Emma brings them back to the main topic. "It doesn't matter, I say we're leaving and we gotta get ready to go! The more time we waste here, the chance of being attacked gets higher and higher." she then turns around and heads up the stairs once more to get something.
Kibou yawns for a few seconds and then shakes his fur out a little. "Even if we don't have fun, I'll still get to see the world again just like how I used to."
This interests Plush. "What do you mean? You used to travel the world?"
He nods. "Yes, but not exactly… My parents like to travel and when it was possible, they would take me with them to places all around the world." he looks down at the heart locket. "Although, lately, I haven't gone anywhere and my parents…" he stops himself before he gets upset, the memories that were recently awakened are still somewhat fresh in his mind and he doesn't wanna start crying in front of him again.
"I see, but what about your parents again? You're a mythical Pokemon, I thought they didn't have those…" Kibou doesn't know how to answer his question and simply stays silent. Plush waits for him to answer and after about a minute of silence, he asks again. "Well? Are you gonna answer me?"
He continues to stay silent, luckily for him, Emma comes down from the second floor with two bags, one is a backpack meant for Plush to hide in, and the other is a duffel bag filled with what she thinks she'll need for the trip. "Alright! I'm all set, so if both of you are ready, we can simply get going and head on out."
Plush takes one last look at the living room. "Well, it was nice knowing this place, I guess I'll just have to learn to live in a new home…"
Emma waves off his slightly sad comment. "Oh c'mon! My grandparent's house is bigger than this place and I'm sure you'll adjust quickly. If this eventually stops, we'll come back here, okay?"
He nods but doesn't really want to leave. "..ok…"
Emma turns to Kibou. "What about you, Kibou? Are you ready?"
He nods. "Yeah yeah! I'm ready to travel!"
"Alright, I guess this is it! I know you both are probably upset that we have to leave… but if things weren't like this, I promise we wouldn't be doing this without a really good reason." She looks at Plush. "I know you're especially upset, but this is how things are and there's nothing we can do about it." She turns around to face the door, her tone breaking a bit. "I've had this house for a while… it's a shame I have to leave it… I really wish things weren't the way they are now, but like I said." she turns back and goes to the couch where she places the big duffel bag down. "We have to go, and I think I have a way of getting us through without raising any suspicion."
Plush seems to perk up a little hearing this. "You do?"
Emma nods. "Yep, if you hide in this backpack…" She presents it to him. "I can put you in the duffel bag since it's big enough and you'll be impossible to find unless they do an x-ray check or physically open the bags up."
His ears droop to the side of his head, he doesn't like the idea at all. "It's gonna be dark and hot in there… is there any other way?"
She thinks. "Well… I was thinking about this one, but I don't know if it's a good idea at all. If both of you are spotted, then it might be very difficult to get out alive especially if they control the boats."
He doesn't care. "Whatever, just tell me what the idea is."
"I was thinking that Kibou could carry you using his psychic powers and when I get on the boat, you two can simply fly over and hop in without worry of being seen if they have a bag check. The only problem with this is that Kibou will have to be very careful and not get seen at all while carrying you."
Plush doesn't like the idea that he'll be high in the sky, being carried by an invisible force that he can't see. "I-I don't know… I don't want to feel like I'll fall to my death while being carried…"
Kibou chimes in. "Then I'll carry you in my paws! I'm very strong, don't worry!"
He shakes his head. "No thanks, I'd rather not." he turns to Emma. "Even though it'll be hot and dark, lets try the first idea."
"Alright, but before we go, do you have to go to the bathroom or something? I don't want to put you in the bag and then have you peeing or pooping all over the backpack… it won't be fun to clean up."
He blushes a little, the thought is very embarrassing but luckily, he doesn't have to. "No, I'll be fine."
She shrugs. "Alright, but if that happens, you did it to yourself." she grabs the bags and puts the backpack on her back. "It's time… we'll go in my car and I'll drive to Canalave City, there's a port there that sends boats to and from Johto. I just hope they'll allow us to leave…" she stands up and walks over to where her keys are and grabs them.
Plush walks over to the front door and Kibou floats over to it. Emma unlocks it and opens it for them. They both let her go first just to make sure none of the PCU is out there secretly waiting for them and once the coast is clear, she motions for both of them to come outside. The air is clear and a gentle breeze blows by, making the shortly cut grass wave slightly. The sky is as blue as ever and there's not a single cloud in sight. The morning sun shines brightly from the east and with nothing to block it out, illuminates everything nearby in this area of Sinnoh. The warmth of the sun is felt by all three of them as they make their way to Emma's car. Despite being young, she has a very nice car, a 4 door sedan painted a nice looking orange. Some might think she would have something less, but this is all thanks to her parents.
Kibou likes it and comments on it. "Your car is really cool! Can it go super fast?"
She chuckles. "Ahaha… well, we can't go too fast, otherwise we might get in trouble."
Plush reminds her. "Don't break any laws mommy, we don't need to deal with Police while trying to escape the PCU…"
"I know, Plush, I'm not gonna break laws to get away faster…" she says as she takes the keys and puts it into the lock to open the door to the back seats. He jumps in and takes a seat on the left side while Kibou floats in and sits on the right side of him. She then reaches in and grabs the seat belt, pulling it over Plush and buckling him in. "Safety first!" she says and then closes the door.
Inside, Kibou is looking all over. He's never been in a car before in his entire life since his parents would always teleport or fly him all over the place. He's as curious as a child could be. "Whoaaa! This is soooo cool!"
Plush is confused. "Shouldn't you know what the inside of a car looks like? I though mythical Pokemon knew things most normal Pokemon wouldn't know."
His question is seemingly ignored as Kibou floats around the entire thing, looking at the shifter, the gauges, the steering wheel, everything. He's a bit enamored by it and forgets that he needs to sit down and buckle himself in otherwise he could get hurt if Emma has to come to a stop. Plush knows this and tries to get his attention. "Kibou, c'mon… you have to buckle yourself in otherwise you could get hurt."
He hears him this time. "Okay, but this car is really really cool! I can't wait until we get going!" he floats back to the seat, grabs the seat belt, pulls it over him, and buckles himself in and then adjusts himself in the seat to be more comfy.
Emma opens the door on the drivers side and takes a seat where the steering wheel is. She places the backpack and duffel bag on the seat next to her and places the keys in the ignition to start the car. She places the shifter into reverse and backs the car out of her driveway. Once out, she turns the wheel to straighten the car out and places the shifter into first gear, then begins to drive down the road. They have a long way to go from Fairview to Canalave City since Canalave is all the way on the western side of Sinnoh and Fairview is on the eastern side.
As they drive down the road, Plush asks Emma something. "Hey, I know we just left, but do you know how long it will take for us to get to where we have to go?"
Emma thinks for a few seconds. "Hmm... I'd say maybe an hour or two if traffic is bad."
Upon hearing this, Kibou whines a little. "An hour? Awwwww c'mon…. I don't wanna wait that long to leave!"
Plush turns to him and decides to give him a fitting answer. "You didn't have to come with us, you can just teleport there anyway, right?"
"Well…" he puts his paws behind his back. "Not really… It's a bit too far, I can only teleport to places in a region that I've been to, like the Hall of Origin for example."
He raises an eyebrow at this. "How does that work!? I thought teleportation would allow you to travel the entire world no matter where you are!"
"I can't! At least… not yet."
"Then what's preventing you from doing that? Your psychic powers aren't strong enough?"
"No…"
"Then why can't you teleport to Johto?"
"Because my teleportation only works when I'm in or near the region!"
Plush can't comprehend how that makes any sense, and instead of having this useless discussion, he decides to talk about something else. "Okay fine, whatever. How about the weather today? It's almost too nice considering what happened the last few days…"
Emma agrees. "Yeah, that's right. Today's weather is almost perfect, besides it being a little cold, otherwise we could've gone for a walk or went to the store or something."
"Y-yeah… almost eerie with the PCU running around causing trouble." says Plush with a slightly unnerved tone.
Kibou looks out of the window to his right and presses his head up against the glass. The trees, houses, street signs, and anything nearby whiz past quickly as Emma drives them to Canalave. He watches as every little thing in sight flies past him in a slight blur, reminding him of the times he'd fly over the ocean at high speed back at home, the waves blurring as he flew over the surface as fast as he possibly could. In his mind, he chuckles at this thought but it also reminds him of the fact that he still can't go home to this day. It slightly upsets him but it doesn't really bother him for long.
After driving through various cities and having long stretches of high speed driving on the highway, Plush, Emma, and Kibou arrive at Canalave City. Unlike the other cities in Sinnoh, Canalave was built on the very edge of the region, with drawbridges connecting the eastern and western halves together over a rather large but calm stream of ocean water flowing in-between. Emma drives over one of these bridges and on the other side is a building with a sign next to it that reads: "Canalave-Olivine Cruise! Take a nice cruise to Olivine City in the Johto region!" Emma parks her car in the parking lot nearby.
Plush immediately comments on the sign he saw. "Is this the place?"
Emma nods. "Yep! We're here, although this is where the tricky part comes in…"
He groans, loathing what will come next. "Do we have to?"
"Yes, unless you decide to suck it up and overcome what I think is a fear of heights?"
He weighs his options once more. If he goes along with the original plan, he'll be stuck in a dark and increasingly hot bag until they get on the boat. If he decides to go with the other plan, he'll be flying in the air being held by nothing with a chance to drop to his death. Both of these plans are quite shitty now that he thinks about it, but he's gotta choose one otherwise they'll never get on the boat. He sighs, annoyed that there's no other way. "Fine… I'll go in the bag… but you better let me out the moment you get on…"
She chuckles a couple of times. "Don't worry! I'll make sure to let you out as soon as I do."
Seeing that this is pretty much the end of the line, Kibou unbuckles himself. "Alright! I get to fly for a bit!"
"WAIT!" yells Emma, hoping he doesn't simply teleport away. She manages to catch him right as he was about to do it and he looks at her with two fingers on his head confused as to why she would stop him. She pulls something out of the duffel bag and shows it to him. "Look for this when you see any boat leaving the port." she then presses a button on it and it starts to glow.
"Oooh! Pretty! I'll look for it, don't worry!" he then teleports away.
Plush shakes his head back and forth slowly. "He's so impatient… he could've at least let you tell him the rest of our plan…"
"He knows to look for the glow stick, so if he doesn't show up within 10 minutes of us getting on the boat, then I know he was caught or ended up getting distracted and that's his loss. I don't mean to sound heartless while saying that, but that's the truth."
He nods. "I know… now let's go before someone tries to search the car."
Emma unbuckles herself and then turns around to unbuckle Plush. She then takes the backpack, opens it up as much as she can, and Plush hops in. While it's a bit uncomfortable, it's much better than he thought it would be. Unfortunately for him, Emma has to zip the entire bag up and put him in the duffel bag as to avoid raising suspicion. She leaves the car, locks the doors, and enters the building with her ticket in hand.
The lobby inside isn't anything too special to mention, pretty basic. There's two large couches on either side of the lobby with two tables full of magazines on them nearby. There's also a TV playing a movie channel at a low volume as well. The front desk is built into the wall, preventing anyone from getting access to it without using the staff entrance. The receptionist notices Emma and greets her.
'Hello ma'am, I need to scan your ticket please."
She hands it over to them and they use a special machine to punch it in, then give the ticket back to her. "Alright, you're all set, just one last thing, when you're about to board the boat, your bags will be checked for anything that you shouldn't have, like a Pokemon for example. It's not my choice that they aren't allowed, but that's what the PCU wants… Anyway, have a nice trip!"
Emma nods. "Thanks!" She then heads out through one of the doors in the back leading to the port itself. There's only a few boats there including the one she's gonna be getting on. As she walks towards the boat, she notices there's two men in black standing guard near the little ramp that she has to climb to get on. They have to be the PCU in disguise and sadly, this "disguise" isn't that great.
As she approaches, one of them addresses her. "Excuse me miss, but are you about to board this boat?"
"Yeah, but I was told that my bags would be searched. I guess you guys are gonna be doing that?"
He nods. "Yeah, just a quick pat down of both your body and bags to make sure you don't have anything dangerous."
Her eyes widen slightly. "M-my body? I was told only my bags…" she's a bit nervous, while it probably won't be like what she's thinking, she doesn't trust anything that has "superiority" over the common citizen when it comes to being physically touched.
He starts to walk towards her. "Yeah, just a quick pat down. Hand over your bags and spread your arms apart okay?"
She puffs her cheeks out a little in a pouty way, cursing under her breath, but she complies. They do exactly as they said they would do. The PCU member that she was talking to pats her down while the other one simply feels around the duffel bag. She's nervous as heck but luckily, she isn't showing it. This whole ordeal feels like it takes 5 hours, but they don't find anything suspicious on her body or in her bags. They take a few steps back and motion for her to board the ship, and as she does, they say something to her. "Sorry for being an inconvenience."
She simply waves it off and once she's out of their sight, she runs towards the staircase to the lower level of the ship where the rooms are, allowing her to finally release Plush from his dark and hot containment. The two sit on the bed in the room and they relax for a few moments. They had a pretty close run-in with the PCU and were lucky enough to get by without any problems, even Plush can't believe it worked.
"You know… I thought we were gonna get caught…"
"Yeah, I thought we were…" she claps her hands together once. "Well! We made it here and nothing can stop us now though so you can relax for a bit, I gotta make sure Kibou finds us."
"Okay mommy, but be careful!"
She stands up with the glow stick in hand. "I will, I'll make sure nobody sees me." She then runs out of the room and heads to the back of the boat where she holds the glow stick as high as she can and with it, she waves it around to hopefully attract Kibou's attention. She doesn't have to wait too long thankfully because within a minute, he notices the light and flies towards it. Now that they're all on the boat, they can relax for a bit but their journey is only just beginning…
PD: Okay! This chapter was such a low point for me that it took 4 days to write ffs so if it's a bit junky blame the fact that it's one of those chapters that's in-between plot and filler and I kinda suck at filler sooo yeah. Next chapter will be infinitely better though so don't worry! I should also mention this story will probably be updated once a week, possibly twice if I'm able to. Anyway, Seeya in the next chapter!
