Chapter 9: Journey to Slateport City and Meiby Some Lucky Events

(A/N: Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition has been a blast, I'm streaming it and other games like League, CoD Warzone and Valorant at /KevinShi3. Come drop by if you wanna watch my games sometime.)

General

Sapphire got on the phone with Ruby (no one was aware that the two were at odds still) and nervously said "R-Ruby, hey uh long time no talk… could you err, possibly hook me and my group up with a plane to Slateport City from Mossdeep?"

Ruby replied in a stern voice "Sapphire where have you been? I haven't heard from you for days. The only thing I heard from Professor Oak was that you were going on a solo mission somewhere and then that was it."

"Solo mission? I mean I was originally solo 'til I met up with Red…" was all Sapphire could get out before being cut off by Ruby

"Oh you're with Red-senpai now huh? Okay got it, so you only call me back after I've been worr-, err, ignored by you, when you need something from me. Fine, I'll get you a flight today but don't call me anymore, I'm sure Red-senpai could handle your needs in the future just fine!" Ruby angrily hung-up on that note leaving Sapphire both upset and confused.

Why was Ruby so upset with me? All I did was mention Red-senpai to him, I guess he's still not over our fight from before… Sapphire mistakenly had pinpointed the symptoms but not the cause of Ruby's moodiness.

With how pressing the pokemon pet kidnapping event was, Sapphire made the executive decision to prioritize others over her personal issues. She grit her teeth and with a brave smile she let the rest of the group know that Ruby had gotten them a flight for later today and that they should finalize preparations in the meantime.

Mei saw through Sapphire's façade, but as she was not poisoned or burnt, she decided to be proactive and confront Sapphire. "Are you alright Sapphire? You looked worried for a moment there."

Sapphire knew that Mei had no idea who Ruby was or what her relationship with him was, so she was grateful that Mei showed concern here. Still, she knew it was her own problem and didn't want to distract the group, so she replied with "I'm alright Mei, Ruby was just being a pain about my sudden request is all".

While Mei didn't look fully convinced, she decided to read between the lines there and drop the issue for now.

After the small conflict was resolved, the rest of the group continued with their preparation and within three hours, the private jet that Ruby had called for had arrived at the plane landing strip near Mossdeep Space Center.

The team boarded the plane and after a small scuffle (away from Red's earshot) it was decided that Mei and Platina would get to sit on either sides of Red so the two people least acquainted with Red's pokemon could learn about his team and figure out potential coordination.

While this was a logical reason, that didn't stop Blue or Yellow from throwing jealous looks at the other two girls from across the aisle.

Meanwhile, Sapphire took this period of time to reflect on her earlier call on Ruby. He had certainly gotten them a nice private jet on very short notice without much explanation besides it being another mission related to Professor Oak.

"That must mean that he's less upset at me for our previous argument right…?" Sapphire thought to herself. "Then again, he also definitely didn't sound that happy about me being with Red-Senpai. I just don't get why though. It has nothing to do with our previous argument. Sigh, I'm just going to save some energy and not think about it, Ruby will get over it eventually like I have… I hope"

With that thought, Sapphire decided to shelf the idea once more and take a nap for the two hours it would take to reach Slateport City.

Speaking of naps, our hero Red was currently taking his own nap as recent events had exhausted him. Sleep debt and built up fatigue were starting to be real issues for him as he wasn't as young as his childhood days anymore. All the battling, near-death experiences, and shocks to his heart from his partners, had really taken their toll.

Sleep issues are serious and all, but the real crisis going on right now was not happening for Red. Well, to be exact, the real crisis wasn't happening to Red, but instead it was happening to Mei's thighs.

Red had terrible sleeping habits. This was the deduction that Mei's plump thighs, under her banana colored flared shorts, were having right now.

With a crimson-hued face, Mei found herself paralyzed between joy and pure fear as Red's head laid snugly on both of her thighs.

"His cheek is so warm on my leg, I can die happy" thought Mei in the moment, which was immediately followed by "there's another kind of heat coming at me from all directions though" as she tacitly acknowledged the lasers being directed at her from the eyes of her jealous teammates.

"Why I oughta…" Blue muttered out as she was preparing to give Red a nice wakeup call that only an old and generous friend could deliver.

"Blue, Red's really tired right now, we should let him rest up even if this situation hurts to watch". Luckily Yellow narrowly managed to calm the raging oni next to her with some sensible words. Meanwhile Sapphire peacefully snoozed away next to them, blissfully unaware of the potential disaster the group had narrowly avoided.

The rest of the flight went by fairly uneventfully as Platina continued to think of contingency plans for any potential snags they might face. She concluded that if something were to happen in Slateport City, it would either be at the port, the super contest hall, or the museum. With her past experiences in mind, museums tended to be places where evil teams would want to gather the most as they often times had rare artifacts related to legendary pokemon.

Still, it is possible that they'd target other places like the contest hall or port as they were places where lots of innocent civilians would gather, and who knows how many more pokemon they could either steal at the contest hall, or smuggle around at the port.

With plans made for every possibility, Platina slowly redirected her mental energies to the nuisance to her left. To be clear, she was not thinking of Red as a nuisance, but instead the fact that Red had unconsciously chosen Mei's thighs over her perfectly suitable ones had made her quite salty.

That was probably why she had put more effort into distrac… planning than she had originally planned for.

To the dilemma at hand, Platina naturally had come to the same conclusion that Yellow had to convince Blue of, leave the poor man alone while he gets some rest. She resigned herself to a cute little pout that Red unfortunately wouldn't get to enjoy and decided to continue thinking of battle strategies with her team and Red's team.

It is also possible that at this time she also thought of which of her pokemon partners she could ship with Red's. It was somewhat common knowledge amongst girls that if your pokemon gets along with the pokemon of the boy you like, then your love was bound to come true.

While this was a popular belief, in reality, a lot of this myth probably stemmed from the fact that if two trainer's pokemon liked each other, they would play together more often. Which would naturally allow the trainers to spend time together and develop their relationship.

It was only when it came to romance that Platina did not use her very logic driven brain to consider that this was possibly the case. Led by the power of the myth, Platina began to plot potential pokemon ships under the very thin guise of "pairs" that would be strong for battle.

After some exhaustive thinking she was only able to come up with Pachirisu x Pika, and Lopunny x pretty much any male pokemon because apparently Lopunnys are popular like that.

Satisfied with the mental fruits of her labor, Platina decided to follow Red and Sapphire's lead to take a small nap before the jet landed.

Thirty minutes later, Slateport came into view underneath the jet plane and they began their descent. As they descended, a flock of wild Swablu and Altaria flew by and seemed to greet the dexholders.

Red finally had awoken from his nap, feeling more energized and comfortable than he had felt in a long time. At first he attributed this to the fact that he had so much fatigue built up that any rest would feel great, especially if it was in a nice private jet like the one they were in.

Then he realized that he didn't recall their being banana colored seats on the plane. That's when he realized that his face was in the most pleasant and also potentially scariest location on the whole plane.

Now it is true that Red wouldn't consider himself a thighdeologist, but after having such a nice lap pillow to recover his HP to full, he was strongly considering converting to that school of thought.

He slowly raised his head hoping that the others on the plane (especially Mei) would still be sleeping so he could take this little taste of heaven to his grave.

Unfortunately for our hero, this was not meant to be as everything that could go wrong, did.

The good news? Mei looked at him with a gentle and content looking face and whispered "Mornin' sleepy head, hope you had a good nap" To which Red felt some unfamiliar feeling of tranquility that he had trouble describing.

(Un)lucky for him, he wouldn't have time to describe it anyways because he was sharply yoinked by Blue into an upright position.

She gave him a death glare and said with barely concealed malice "Did you have a fun time taking advantage of Mei, Red?"

Red cheeks involuntarily heated up, while the rest of his body felt incredible chills. "N-no Blue, it's not what it looks like, you know I have awful sleeping habits." Red desperately tried to buizel his way out of the predicament.

Unfortunately, it wasn't just Blue that had been building up salt over the situation. Both Platina and Yellow gave him stern looks of disapproval and both said similar lines about how he needs to let his kouhais be more comfortable and not abuse their trust in him.

Of course, both girls knew they were being ridiculous, but they wanted to take this time to at least release their frustration for not being the lucky ones here.

Mei quickly came to Red's defense and blurted out "Well you know guys I uh, I didn't really um…" she turned bright red when she realized what she would basically be admitting to, and backed off hesitantly.

She turned away in embarrassment and Blue didn't hesitate to seize on this opportunity to further tease Red. Meanwhile, she thought to herself internally "that was close, Mei almost got a huge leg up in this contest, I'll have to talk to all the girls and set some ground rules. I have been Ms. Nice Girl for way too long. It's time to let them know who's thee boss and also who has known Red the longest."

After the life or death situation had died down and Red was finally released from the judging eyes of his partners.

The pilot of the jet let the party know that they were landing shortly in Slateport City and to fasten their seatbelts.

With a gentler thunk than they were used to in commercial airliners, the jet landed at Slateport City and the team readied themselves for the adventure that was to come.

(A/N: A more intermission like travel chapter for this week. Still grinding away at my video games so who knows when the next chapter will come out. Let me know what you think of this chapter in the reviews! Also, I have more of my ideas hashed out for the story so hopefully stuff will be more coherent going forward. Enjoy!)