Pokémon: Hoenn Travels.

-The Important Stuff:-

1) I am not at all affiliated with Game Freak nor Nintendo, or any other companies that write/produce Pokémon.

2) I do not own any part of Pokémon.

-A Waiver:-

1) This is not a direct steal from anything already Pokémon-related that exists, not the show or a game or a novel/book. It is my own creation, therefore I may bend the rules a little bit to fit my needs.

2) The names of Professors, Gym Leaders, and Cities were taken from Ruby Version.

Chapter Eleven:

Shock

Doug and I sat in the breakfast area of the lobby of our hotel the following morning. The hotel had a generator, and therefore had power, but most of Slateport was still in a black-out. We could hear the hotel staff commenting about it while we quietly ate our breakfast.

"It has to be related, right?" Doug muttered, poking at the remaining bits of scrambled egg on his plate as he reclined in his seat.

"Team Magma has a gathering planned and the entire city loses power? It seems a very hinky coincidence at the very least," I agreed.

"So, either someone is messing with Team Magma because they're trying to do the same thing we are," he continued.

"Or, someone, like maybe a rival gang, is trying to secure all of these trainers for their purposes," I remarked. "Because remember, Rustboro's mart was struck by Team Magma and Team-"

"Aqua," Doug finished. "Rival gang makes more sense."

"But how could they make an entire city lose power?" I quietly asked.

"Were you guys done with your dishes? Can I move some of them for you?" One of the employees of the hotel appeared at our table and asked. Doug handed his plate off to the young woman as I nodded at her, offering her a pleasant smile.

"Oh," she said, as she turned to walk away from us, "sorry for snooping, but the way an entire city lost power is because we are tied to the grid in Mauville City. I am guessing something happened at the power plant there."

She walked away after her comment and Doug and I exchanged glances. "Mauville," he repeated.

"Let's go," I said.

Route 110 was a long road, and a fairly flat and boring road, so it didn't take long for Doug and I to forget the seriousness of our trip to Mauville. By the afternoon, he had successfully caught an Electrike, a green, electric canine-like Pokémon that took a fancy to his Poochyena, especially when it evolved into a Mightyena mid-fight.

Meanwhile, I had engaged in a battle with my Wurmple against a Plusle. I had gotten my Pokémon to evolve into a Silcoon before it was bested by the small, electric Pokémon. I had called out Kira, who handled the remaining bit of the battle beautifully, and then she got a second battle when a Minun came to the fainted Plusle's aid. I caught both of the small Pokémon when Kira finished the second battle, which gave me a palpable lead against Doug in our competition.

"You're not that far ahead," he commented at my smug smile as both of my newly acquired Pokémon were transferred off to storage. "You can wipe that smile off your face."

"Who knew?" I giggled. "The Champion of Johto and Kanto is a sore loser."

"I don't lose very often, cut me a break," he mumbled.

"Apparently you don't lose at all," I snickered, commenting on his five-year streak as Champion, as I returned Kira to her pokéball.

"Are you guys going to move? Or continue to flirt?"

Doug and I glanced up as Phantom called to us. He and Luma were further ahead of us; she was rolling around in the sunshine and he was pouting in the shade of one of the few trees along Route 110.

"I don't think that was flirting," I said.

"It definitely wasn't," Doug agreed. "I could do way better than that."

"Yeah?" I glanced up at him as we headed up Route 110. "Hit me with it, I will give you honest feedback."

Luma was on her feet, trotting happily in the sunshine and Phantom slunk out of the shade and hurried beside her, his ears and tail drooping low.

I felt Doug throw a quick glance at the side of my face, and then I saw him shake his head. "Nah, it's way too much pressure now. I can't do it if you're judging me."

I laughed in response. "Solid, Doug."

I watched a frown form across his face. "There's way too much going on for me to think about flirting with you."

I heard a scoff come from Luma. She threw a coy smile over her furry shoulder at us. Her eyes were on Doug. "That's a lie. I can hear your thoughts, remember?"

"Oh, Luma. You share!" I cheered.

"Most of his thoughts aren't about flirting though," she said.

"What are they about?" I had a pretty good guess, but I wanted to hear for myself.

"That's enough, Luma." Doug's tone of voice clearly expressed his annoyance.

"Aw, come on, Dougie." I gently pushed his shoulder, laughing.

"Let's just say his thoughts skip the flirting stage," Luma giggled, which broke out into full laughter when he picked up a small pebble and threw it after her. It missed, but she took off in a trot, putting distance between herself and Doug as she continued to giggle. Phantom stalked after her.

"Come on, Doug," I sighed, after getting my own giggles under control. "You're telling me after all that time as Champion, you haven't had a girlfriend, a meaningful relationship that you thought was going to turn into something more? A relationship you're in now?"

I couldn't lie to myself, the question was mostly for myself. I wanted to know.

Smooth. Luma's chortle sounded in my head.

Oh, Mew, can he see right through my question? I asked her in return.

Nope. He is actually concerned you're going to tell him you're in a relationship, so be prepared for that.

"Uh, no I am as single as a person can get, Rowan." He was finally answering my question. Though I couldn't tell from his voice, I could tell from him nervously sticking his hands in his pocket that he wasn't totally comfortable with the topic. "I wasn't kidding when I said people don't like when you beat them in battle."

"Okay, I am not telling you to date someone you have battled, Doug," I laughed at him. "You have to do things besides battling."

"I don't," he assured me. "I don't have time for anything else."

I stared at him. "Why?"

"It's something I am good at, and if you're good at something, you commit to it, right?"

I shrugged. "I guess Doug, but that seems lonely, for sure."

It was his turn to shrug his shoulders. "I don't really do the whole dating thing anyway."

Silence fell between us, his comment had knocked the wind out of me a little. It felt like I had spoiled the amusing mood that we had been in previously. After a few seconds, he cleared his throat. "Is this leading up to you telling me that you're involved with someone?"

Told you, Luma chortled in my head.

"I was dating a teacher from Goldenrod's Academy for the better part of a year," I reminisced. "That ended when I met his mother and she thought that someone who willingly chose to teach in Ecruteak was not good enough for her son."

"Ouch." He sounded pleased by my statement.

"I still have an Olivine doctor pining for me," I also told him. "But he seems rather pretentious, doesn't think highly of Ecruteak either."

"You deliberately chose to live somewhere that has snow on the ground more than six months out of the year," he retorted, "I can't say I blame him."

"Ouch!" I laughed, playfully pushing him.

"Thank you!" I heard Luma call out from a head of us.

"Shut up, Luma!" I called in her direction. I could hear her snickering as she continued to trot away from us. Doug's previous comment was still chewing at me, so I decided to follow up on it. "Don't date, huh?"

I could feel his eyes on the side of my face. "Not really."

I shook my head. "Your life is starting make me sad, Doug."

"Forgive me if the opinion of someone who chose to teach children doesn't carry a lot of weight to me." The words snapped out of his mouth with such ferocity that they caught me off-guard. It also dragged me back down into the thoughts of what my actual purpose was for in being in Hoenn with Doug. This time I decided to say them out loud. I froze in the middle of the path, even though I could see a blue roof peaking up over the roadway ahead of us. We weren't far from Mauville.

"Then, why am I here, Doug?" I scoffed.

His hands left the pockets of his pants and he planted them on his face. He stopped, several steps ahead of me, but he kept his back to me. "Seriously, Rowan, this again?"

"Yeah, no, please give me one of your bull-shit speeches again about how you need me here for my, what was it? People skills?"

"Rowan."

"What is seems like, Doug, from the looks, and the comments, and the thoughts, and now the statement of 'I don't really do the whole dating thing', is this is something really pathetic."

"And what do you think it is, Rowan?" He turned slowly to glance back at me.

"This is a thousand-mile booty call." My chest heaved with anger as the words left my lips. "Just expecting me to throw myself at you?"

"I don't really give a shit what you do, Rowan." The words growled out of his throat. "All of this is coming up because of my schoolteacher comment? You're allowed to make snarky little statements about my life choices, but I can't return the fucking favor?"

I was aware of the fact that Luma and Phantom had stopped several yards ahead of us, I also knew that they were watching Doug and I scream at each other in the middle of Route 110. I felt childish, and stupid, and wanted nothing more than to turn around and leave. Leave Doug, leave Slateport, leave the damn region.

But my stubbornness was a different beast. Now I needed to prove that I wasn't just a schoolteacher who had lost her skills and talents as a Pokémon trainer. But I didn't need to prove it to the man glowering at me. I needed to prove it to myself.

I let out my breath, and nodded. "You're right," I said. I took another breath to calm myself further. "My comment was out of line, and I am sorry."

My response seemed to catch him by surprise, so much in fact that he didn't say anything. I cleared my throat and waved out ahead of us. "Blue roof, I am guessing that's Mauville City. We are close, let's go see what's going on at the powerplant."

Based on a few conversations that we had with Mauville citizens at the PokéCenter and at the mart, the powerplant was somewhere between Mauville City and Verdanturf Town, the next town over. However, none of them were particularly clear with their directions, and none of them seemed to think anything was wrong at the plant.

They all circled back to the same point. If Doug and I had concerns, there was a single person that would be able to best answer our questions.

"Ask Wattson," numerous people had said, referring to the Gym Leader. "He tends to the powerplant in his spare time."

After tending to our Pokémon at the center; I also made the determination to release the two Pokémon that I had caught on Route 110, Doug and I made our way toward the gym in Mauville, aiming to find the man named Wattson.

Entering the building, we found a very clean, almost sterile environment. The floors were white paneling, the walls were a glaring white, and the fluorescent lights overhead were blinding. I made a comment to myself that power didn't seem to be out in Mauville City like it was in Slateport, but I kept it to myself.

Since my apology, Doug and I hadn't really spoken. Luma offered to share his thoughts with me, but I told her I didn't want to know them now. She understood, bumped her head affectionally against me, and trotted off to sit and chat with Phantom.

Now, as we stood in the gym, he finally spoke.

"Power's on."

"I was thinking the same," I remarked.

"Maybe they fixed whatever the problem at the plant was," he said.

"Maybe."

We were still standing in the gym's entrance when the door opened behind us. We heard a startled 'oof' as we turned around to greet the person. We beheld a short man in a yellow jumpsuit. He had white, thinning hair a top his head and a matching beard and mustache. He sized us up, his thick, white eyebrows jumping up onto his wrinkled forehead.

"Now, who the devil are you two?" He coughed at us.

"We are looking for Wattson," I spoke. "We were told there was an issue with the Mauville City powerplant and it's affecting the power in Slateport City too. We wanted to help."

"Help?" He echoed, still coughing.

"That's what she said," Doug spat.

"No," he shook his head. "No, I cannot just let you two go wandering into a dangerous situation. We will battle."

"We don't want to battle," Doug shot back.

"Doug," I muttered. "We kind of do, we are doing the Gym Leader challenge."

"I don't want to right now, we can come back," he argued with me now. His attention returned to down onto the gym leader. "Right now, I want you to tell me where the damn powerplant is."

"Young man," Wattson sputtered. "I appreciate your gusto and your spirit, but if you can't even handle me, I have no faith in you to deal with the issues at the powerplant. Battle me, or leave."

Doug's nostrils flared, but he conceded by ducking away from the doorway and heading toward the trainer's box situated in the middle of the gym. I followed him and took my place beside him.

"Oh, you're gonna battle with me? Figured you'd wanna go at it alone now," he muttered.

I took in a breath. I had forgotten how petulant the man could be when his feelings were hurt. "I thought since we had started it together, we would see it through. Together." I lifted my gaze to his face, trying to make sure I didn't portray the frustration I felt across my features.

He held my stare, but finally swore to himself. "Fine."

Wattson had taken his place across from us and was already calling out two Pokémon. One was a Magneton and the other was a Voltorb. They were all staring expectantly at Doug and I.

"Umbreon, think you can knock this bull-shit out quick?" Doug spat. "I don't feel like waiting on battle techniques."

"Sure do!" Phantom leapt into the field.

"Great, let's make this as quick as possible." I agreed, as Doug's previous snark felt directed at me, since I kept picking my Hoenn Pokémon over my Johto. I grabbed Ty's pokéball from my waist and threw it out in front of me. My fire Pokémon formed with a triumphant roar.

I was going to use Doug's Steelix tactic and take them both out in one attack.

"Umbreon!" Doug was already spitting orders. "The Voltorb, Quick Attack, take him down."

Wattson was shouting orders to his Pokémon as well. Voltorb was to dodge, Magneton was to paralyze Umbreon as soon as he got close. I waited, I needed them to be lined up perfectly for Typhlosion.

My Pokémon could sense my plan, because he patiently waited, his collar slowly flaring and dying down as he watched the battle unfold in front of him. Phantom was dancing in between the two electric Pokémon, dodging and weaving electrical shocks. He landed a few attacks, but for the most part he was spending most of his attention on not getting paralysis.

"Just gonna stand there, Rowan? Or you want to do something helpful?" Doug hissed from beside me. "Just one attack would be helpful to Phantom."

I didn't respond, still watching the battle.

Luma.

Yes?

Would you please tell Phantom to try and get them one behind the other?

Her response didn't come for a moment. He says he will take care of it.

Phantom jumped, ducked, and twisted, landing in a crouch in front of Wattson after swatting at Voltorb and kicking at Magneton. At last, the two Pokémon were standing perfectly one in front of the other.

"Typhlosion," I murmured gently. "Take 'em out."

Typhlosion's stance changed immediately, one of his legs stepping further back and planting itself sturdily to hold him upright through his onslaught. The muscles in his arms tightened as a powerful fireball formed in his chest and worked its way up his throat. His jaws snapped opened and the Flamethrower attack exploded from his mouth. It slammed into the back of Magneton, throwing the Pokémon into the back of its comrade.

Typhlosion took a step forward, continuing the pyroclastic attack into both Pokémon and forcing them into the ground. The fire didn't cease for minutes, the temperature in the arena was increasing. By the time Typholsion's jaw snapped shut, I was sweating slightly. The two orb-like Pokémon remained, completely unconscious, on the ground in front of Wattson's feet. He was staring down at them, his lips pursed, his eyebrows raised, and his eyes wide.

"Well," he finally said as he returned his Pokémon, "you can definitely handle yourself, young lady."

He bopped across the space between us and produced a small, circular badge that was yellow and blue in color. "The Dynamo Badge," he said, "one for each of you."

I took the badge, quietly thanking him and passed it off to Typhlosion as he neared us. He grumbled happily, holding the badge in his paws and stared at it lovingly. He carried it over to Luma to show her, and she offered him an affectionate pat.

"Wattson," I said. "Mauville has power, is the powerplant fixed?"

The elderly man shook his head. "I'm afraid not. I have employed the help of my stronger electric Pokémon, they're currently powering Mauville."

"Where is the powerplant?" Doug asked now.

Wattson waved us toward the exit of the gym; we obliged by following him. He walked us to the eastern edge of Mauville City and pointed out ahead of us. "Halfway down the road, you'll see a chainlink gate tucked off the path on the south-side. The gate is unlocked, that path leads right to the powerplant."

Doug walked away from Wattson and I and headed down the path. Wattson watched him go, shaking his head, before turning his attention to me. "You're going with him, right?"

"Yes, I just wanted to thank you," I said.

He reached out, squeezing my upper arm gently. "Dear girl, that boy needs you. Hurry along."

Doug and I stood just inside the opened chainlink gate, staring down the path ahead of us. Shocked was the only word that came to mind.

When we had left Mauville and headed down Route 117, I thought that Doug would try to catch a couple Pokémon, maybe I would get another snarky comment regarding my delay in acting in our battle against Wattson, but he just stalked silently ahead of me. Luma kept back with me, offering moral support, but remaining silent as well.

I assumed that we would find the chainlink fence open and see the powerplant out ahead of us. I figured a powerplant would be a large, boring building with a stone façade that had multitudes of wires and poles and other electrical things that I wouldn't be able to identify. However, what we found, was destruction.

There were large pieces of gray rubble, fallen trees and posts, and silence. There was no electrical hum in the air.

I left Doug's side, taking several steps closer to the fallen building.

What do you think? Luma's voice perforated into my thoughts.

I shook my head in response. I don't know. I wasn't expecting this.

"I don't think we can fix this," Doug muttered behind me. "Unless you're secretly an engineer and electrician."

"This doesn't seem like something a gang would be able to do," I remarked, spinning around and pointing over my shoulder at the debris.

"So, what do you think did it?" His tone suggested that he didn't really care what I had to say.

I decided to answer regardless. "A Pokémon?"

"I don't think a Pokémon did this, Rowan. Destruction like that is a pretty human thing."

I threw another glance over my shoulder at the remnants of the plant. "What do we do now?"

Doug didn't immediately answer and so I returned my attention to his face. He was shaking his head. "I don't know," he finally said. "I really don't know."

"Maybe we call Norman?" I suggested.

"Or Cornelia Rowe."

I scoffed, walking back to Doug and then continuing past him to head back onto Route 117. "I am sure you would like to call Cornelia Rowe," I couldn't help when the jealously laced comment flew out of my mouth. "She seems just like your type."

"This back and forth, Rowan, really fun." Sarcasm dripped off of his words.

"I think we should go to Verdanturf," I decidedly ignored his quip. "See if anyone there has any further information on all of this." I waved behind us.

"I'm not going to Verdanturd," Doug spat at me.

"Verdanturf, Doug."

"I'm not going, it's a worthless stop and it's just prolonging our stay here," he retorted.

"Oh boy, Doug, I really had forgotten how ruthless you can be," I scoffed. "Fine, I will go to Verdanturf and see if I can find out anything and you just go contact Cornelia Rowe and see what she has to say."

"Great, then I'll see ya when I see ya." He stalked away from me, heading back toward Mauville City. I remained standing in the middle of the path, watching him go. He never stopped, hesitated, or looked back over his shoulder at me. Phantom followed dutifully after him.

"Well," Luma said. I glanced down at her as she dropped her butt to the ground next to me. She met my stare. "Let's go to Verdanturd."

I rolled my eyes. "Turf, Luma, turf."