Chapter LIV- Pokeball Predicament

By the time Erika and Jarod had gotten out we had already packed everyones stuff onto their pokemon outside. Naturally they were happy to see that Noki was back, and she gave them a perfectly planned white lie to explain why she had left so suddenly. So we

made sure after that, that we were all set, and didn't foget anything, then were on our way

again. We flew south for about and hour along Route 32, which was suprisingly cold. Of

course it was fall so that could explain it. We all had to fly as close as we could to each

other to keep warm, though Ryu did a very nice job with his blue flames. We then flew

over Caves for another hour, as Erika pointed out which one it was. The first ledge that

was passed was the enterance to Union Cave, and all these out croppings were the various

exits and tunnels through it. Finally we came to Route 33, then headed right, flying for

another hour to reach Azalea Town. About 10: 30 we had finally reached the pokemon

center, and landed there.

"Man......I'm hungry!!!" I said as my stomach growled. I unlatched my stuff from Pidgeot

and let it drop to the pavement, then called her into her pokeball.

"You can say that again......." Erika did the same and rubbed her tummy as it made loud

growling noises.

"Well.....We can eat at the pokemon center." Jarod said and pointed just behind us to the

rather small pokemon center.

"I swear....out of all the cities in this region there is only ONE with a restaurant???" I

shouted and Noki leaned over then whispered something into my ear. "Two." I corrected

myself.

"Yeah, but it doesn't help if they're not in this town..." Noki said. Erika took out the map

and started searching on it, unfolding it to make it a little bigger each time, until she had to

ask Jarod to hold the other side of it for her. I looked around as they were doing that and

scouted out the general area. it was a typical small town. Small wood houses, small

pokemon center and pokemart, bushes, shrubs, grass. But then I spotted something that

wasn't even usually for the smallest of towns now adays. A well.

"Hey Erika...what does the map say about that well?" I asked cursiously, pointing to the

well just a few yards away from us.

"Hm....." She moved her finger around and stopped it then said, "Not much. It's just

labled, 'Slowpoke Well'. Hm...there is an item down there called the 'Kings Rock' that is

supposed to be able to assist slowpokes into evolving...but..nothing else." She moved her

finger around a bit more then looked a little more happy as she stopped on something. "Ya

this is better!! There is a guy here that makes pokeballs from apricorns that you can find

here in the Jhoto region, and there is another guy that makes charcol! Hey! I could use

that for Ryu!!" Erika said and looked up. "Why...don't we stop there?"

"Sure!!....but....can we find some food first?" I said and my stomach growled again. We all

sighed as we realized it was going to be another premade, pre-cooked, pokemon center

meal.

"I've got an idea!!" Jarod said and threw his back pack onto the ground, letting his side of

the map fall to the ground. Erika indignantly rolled it up somewhat as he rummaged

through his bag. "I knew I had some!! How about this...?" He stood up and continued to

talk, "What if you girls give me a food item of yours and I'll make something for all of us!"

He said and looked at us. "Come on! It's worth a try! I think I have an idea...!" He said

and our stomachs growled in chorus again.

"right..." We all said and put our packs down. I pulled out an extra pack of beef ramen

flavoring from my pack and game it to him, while Erika handed him a can of corn, and

Noki gave him a potatoe she had gotten from her mom when she went to the future. He

pulled a carrot out of his bag, and ran off towards the well with his backpack.

"I wonder what he's up to..." I said as we watched him begin to gather wood.

"Oh well...we better get going...maybe he'll even be done before we get back."

"And we don't want that now do we?" Noki said with a smile. So we headed off towards

the small house. It was a one floor hut basically with an open area outside that had work

tables, where we could smell burning wood, and could hear someone hammering

something that sounded metallic. We pushed aside the canvas-like blanket thrown across

the doorway and entered to find a girl about our age hammering away at a round hot peice

of metal that looked like a half-melted pokeball.

"Oh...excuse us?" I said and the girl turned around. She had bright pink spikey hair, put

into two short pony-tails on either side. She lifted off her goggles to reveal greenish blue

eyes and said,

"Hi...how can I help you?" She put down her mallet after she had put the pokeball into

some water so that it made a splishing noise.

"Ugh....yea...but...do you know the famous Kurt? He's supposed to be the pokeball

maker...here..." Erika had started but slowed down as the look on the girls face softened

slightly as tears came to her eyes.

"Yea...Kurt was my grandfather. I'm his grandaughter Lia. He...actually passed away just a

year ago....He left this to me after my dad decided to go work in Goldenrod for the new

Silph Co. HQ there."

"Oh...we're really sorry." Noki said, rubbing her elbow rather roughly.

"Well...ugh..." I couldn't really think of any way to ask her if she could make us some

pokeballs after she had told us that.

"So...you have some apricorns for me?" She said as she smiled and her tears faded.

"Well...actually we were wondering how you make them...see my Raichu here...and

Erika's Ryu over there..." I pointed out both of our pokemon to her, "they don't really like

to be in their pokeballs...we were thinking maybe if we got them custom ones...they would

be a little more inclined to..." But I stopped before I finished my sentence. She was staring

at Ryu and Raichu who were standing just outside beyond the door.

"Oh my gosh......." She looked back at me and Erika. "Y-You two are...the pokemon

masters that just won the Indigo Leauge!!!" She suddenly looked very happy. "What can I

make for you?? It would be an honor!" She said and me and Erika just looked at each

other, shrugged our shoulders and looked back at her. "Oh!! That's ok! I know what I can

make you! Wait right here!" She ran past us and hung a right into the garden just beyond

the tables. We could hear her rustling about, and she came back with some apricorns in

her hand, then put them on the table infront of us. "We always keep some apricorns on

hand in case a trainer needs a pokeball, but doens't have the apricorn!" There were three

round apricorns infront of us, one green, one white, and one pink. "See, this green one

makes a friend ball, this white one makes a fast ball, and this pink one makes a love ball!"

She said and pointed to each of them.

"You know...Marcy...Orion would probably like a fast ball..." Noki said pulling out Orions

great ball. "This one is a little cramped for him I think..."

"That great! Ok. One Fast ball! Then I'll make the other two and..." Lia said, but I

interupted her lightly.

"Actually...." I said and snapped Raichu's masterball off it's chain. "Can you...maybe alter

this one?" I asked, making it bigger and handing it to her.

"Is there anyone in there right now?" She asked wanting to examine the inside of it.

"No..it's his." I said and motioned a thumb over my shoulder to point to Raichu. As I did

this, she opened it up and examined the inside of it. it was strange, I never really looked at

a pokeball open before. There were all sorts of metal parts to it, like buttons, moving

lights, and small mirrors.

"Hm...What would you want to do with it?" She asked and closed it carefully.

"Well...can you alter it somehow to make it more like a friend ball. Maybe he'll like it

better then just a plain masterball."

"Wait!!...This is a masterball???" She said and opened it again, this time moving one of the

mirrors aside to reveal a complicated looking miniscule panel. "Hm....that might be

tough...I've never worked on masterballs before...BUT...I do have this one..." She said,

and making my pokeball smaller gave it back to me. She turned around and pulled down a

bow that had been sitting on the mantle of her fireplace. "This was a gift I got a while

back...but you can buy these in stores by now. They used to be called premier balls." She

set down the box and opened it, pulling out a ball that looked kind of like a masterball but

was purple with light pink instead of white and had a red 'P' on it. "They're probably still

very expensive...but they have a lot more room then even masterballs and should be

perfect for a clastrophobic Raichu. If you buy one of these in Goldenrod and mail it to me,

I can alter the look of it however you want. I won't even have to tinker with the inside of

it." She said and placed it back into it's box with care, then placed it back onto the shelf

behind her. "I think they're called Altima balls now...you can get them in a variety of

colors...at least 4 or 5 that I know of."

"That sounds good. Thanks a lot. I think we will do that. Ryu's pokeball doen't really suit

him anymore..." Erika pulled the ball out of her ribbon and looked at it. it had the

charizard flame and the wings on either side. "Ya....deffinetly needs a change..."

So after goodbyes were said we walked around for a bit and decided to stop at the Charcol makers house as well. Erika wanted to get some for Ryu, I wanted to get some

for Hinoarashi, and Noki wanted some for Orion.