Ugh. Is it me, or has this week been really, really long? I dunno. It has been to me. X_X Only one more full week plus exams then. . .HOLIDAY BREAK! ^_^ And man do I need it. Oi.

Hmm. I actually –gasp- have not much to say so I shall reply to my lovely, lovely, lovely reviewers! ^_^;

Karania Avalon—SOME modern technology is evil. Bwahaha. Like printers that eat up twenty pieces of paper. . .pure eeeevil. . .

Melani—Hoenn is. . .baaaad. Indeed. Yeah. –cough-  Your cure is not working! :P

Zero_Chan—Yes. . .I know better than allllll of you. . .even Lurk. . .bwahaha. Give him a noogie from me. ~_^

Luccamajere26—I would hope it's getting interesting by now ^_^;;

Rose—Hrmm hrmm. How WILL Lindsey be introduced to the Den while she's in Hoenn? Well you will just have to find out. . .-evil look- Muhahahaha.

-Sparky appears from a moldy old shelf-

Sparky: Hey, remember me?! I ATE all of the feedback! That's right! –munches on feedback-

ARRRGUH! Hey look. . .invisible Florida snow! Yay!

~Chapter Twelve~

Kitsune was settled in my lap and asleep before we even got out of Cherrygrove City. Lucky him---I was feeling too depressed to sleep.

After what seemed like five zillion hours of staring out the window in silence, I sighed loudly. "Hey, where exactly are we going, anyway? I know we need to take a ferry to get there. . ."

"We're going to the docks in Olivine City," Dad answered.

Olivine City. Hmm. . .that was pretty far. I had never traveled farther than Goldenrod City---seeing what was beyond might be interesting.

Mom, who had been slumped in the passenger seat, suddenly sat up and slowly turned to stare at Dad. "Shane, dear, are we taking the main road?" she said through gritted teeth.

I caught sight of Dad raising an eyebrow in the rearview mirror. "Uh, yeah," he said. "The only other road to Olivine would make us miss our ferry---"

"Pull over!" Mom cried suddenly. Dad swerved over to the side in surprised and turned off the car, even though it probably wasn't really necessary since I hadn't seen a single other car besides the moving van on the road since we left.

"What was that?" Dad asked. Mom just pushed open her door and stomped around the car down the road more. Dad sighed. "Stay here, Lindsey," he commanded, opening the door and running after Mom.

I raised my eyebrows and stroked Kitsune. Somehow, he was still asleep. How did he do that, sleeping through impossible things? I decided to spy on Mom and Dad.

Mom's face was in her hands, and she was walking in circles. Dad was following her pattern with his arms out. I whistled nonchalantly and opened my window a tad so I could maybe hear what they were saying.

"You know damn well. . ." Mom was saying. She turned away so I couldn't hear what she said next, but Dad put a hand on her shoulder and replied with something to probably comfort her. Mom spun around and started yelling again.

"We can't go by there, you know what it said!" she cried. "Don't be an idiot!"

"Diana," Dad sighed. "We'd be even closer if we took the other road, plus we'd miss our ferry. I don't see what the big deal is, anyway, she hasn't shown any signs---"

"For one thing, she has, and for another, you have no part in this!" Mom screamed.

"And that's my cue to stay out of it. . ." I muttered, rolling my window back up. Hmm. . .what were they talking about? Where was there? Who was 'she'?

"Parents," I muttered, still spying. Hey, just because I couldn't hear didn't mean I couldn't look!

Dad was shaking Mom's shoulders, but she looked like she wanted to pull her hair out. She was looking all around like a wild Pinsir or something was about to attack her. Dad put an arm over her shoulders and walked her around in circles---something that works on the Rapidash, but apparently it didn't work on Mom because she pushed him off and yelled some more.

I groaned and banged my head against the front seat. What the heck were they fighting about? Why did Mom get so worked up all of a sudden?

I sighed and closed my eyes, deciding to take a little nap, like Kitsune. Maybe when I woke up we'd be at the docks.

~*~

I slowly opened my eyes and looked up, forgetting for a minute where I was. Oh, that's right---the car. We were moving to Hoenn.

I glanced out the window, not recognizing what city we were currently driving through.

"Hey, where are we?" I asked.

I must've been asleep for quite some time---either that or the car had been totally silent---because my parents jumped about a foot in the air at the sound of my voice.

"Oh, you're awake," Mom said when she calmed down. "Hmm. . ."

"So where are we?" I repeated.

Mom glanced at Dad, who was staring hard at the road. Mom let out a breath. "Ecruteak City," she answered quietly.

At that very second, it felt like something was tugging at my insides---there wasn't any other way to explain it. I lost my breath and stared straight outside, not even aware Kitsune had woken up and was attempted to claw holes in my jeans.

"Lindsey?"

Lindsey. . .Lindsey. . .relax. . .you are. . .the one. . .

The one. . .

It was getting harder to breathe. Everything around me was fading.

Lindsey. . .the one who will. . .you are. . .you cannot escape. . .

Your destiny.

I could see something. . .clear and shiny. Crystal? And a huge pool of water. . .in the background, something seeming to be singing. . .

. . .Is with us. You know. . .you must. . .

Lindsey. . .Tamer. . .

"STO-O-O-OP!" I screamed, covering my ears. "Stop it!"

For the second time that day, Dad swerved over to the side of the road. Someone had been driving behind us, and just missed hitting our car. He gave a very rude gesture as he sped past us.

Mom and Dad didn't seem to care. Dad spun around in the seat. "Lindsey, what's wrong?!" he cried.

Mom unbuckled her seat belt and practically threw herself across my lap and shook my shoulders. "Lindsey, snap out of it! Wake up!"

I suddenly gasped and did stop. Mom slowly let go of my shoulders, and I let go of my ears just as slow. I glanced down at Kit, heaving shaky, quick, deep breaths, and saw him staring at me absolutely wide-eyed in shock.

"Kit," I murmured between breaths. "Kit. . .sune."

"Eeeeee," he comforted, putting a paw on my shoulder.

"Lindsey, we're almost out of the city," Dad said, starting to drive again. "When we're out of here, we'll stop and get something to eat, okay?"

"Oh. . .okay. . ." I replied shakily. "Yeah."

Even though I said that, I didn't want to leave the city. Why not? I had never been here before, and even though it was the busiest with all of the trainers traveling everywhere, it wasn't all that big. Why did I feel such a strange connection to this city? And what had pulled on me before?

I decided not to make a big deal out of it. One more swerve from the car and we would probably squash a Caterpie or something.

Not that that would be such a bad thing, really.

~*~

After about an hour of driving and trying not to knock down any traveling trainers, we finally  made it to the next place to stop---Olivine City.

"Well," Dad started, parking in the lot of the Pokemon Center. "We're actually here a little early despite our bumps along the way. . ." He glanced at Mom then got out of car. "Where are those damn movers?" I heard him wonder.

I yawned and staggered out of the car. Kitsune seemed as bright and fresh as a Sunflora and hopped out, running around in circles at everyone's feet.

"Kitsu-u-u-u-ne," I muttered. He immediately ran back to me and climbed up my leg and back and onto my shoulder.

"You're weird," I giggled, stretching out my arms. I walked over to the Pokemon Center's doors. "Hey Mom, can I call Ivy?" I asked.

Mom was leaning her head against the wall of the Center as if deep in thought. "Lindsey, we're not even out of Johto yet," she growled. "Surely you can wait?"

"Well excuuuuuuuuse me," I sneered, spinning and my heel and barging into the Center. A few people who were sitting on the couches in the lobby glanced up, but looked away again when they saw it was only me.

I stomped over to a videophone. Okay, so Mom just said I couldn't, but so what? She acted like she had never had to leave someone before.

I dialed in Ivy's number. "Please be there," I sighed. Usually when Ivy's mother came to impatiently pick her up like she did before I left meant that she needed to go somewhere. But we had been driving quite awhile, so I hoped they were back from wherever they went.

The black screen suddenly flashed and Ivy was on the screen. "Hello?" she asked.

"Ivy!" I grinned. "It's Lindsey!"

"EEEEEEEEEEE!" she shrieked, causing a few people in the lobby to look over towards my call, but I didn't care.

"Lindsey! What's up? Are you in Hoenn already?"

"No, we're in Olivine," I sighed. "Our ferry isn't supposed to come for awhile and I already missed you, so I thought. . .hey, why not call?"

Ivy grinned and shoved her face in the screen. "Hey, is that Kitsune over there?"

"Yeah!" I smiled. Kit looked down into our screen. "Ee, Eevee Eeee!" he said.

"Aw, glad to see you're doin' good!" Ivy laughed. "Hey Lindsey, guess who's here?"

I cocked my head in confusion. "Who?"

Steve suddenly appeared in the screen, waving. "Hey you," he said.

"Steve!" I cried happily. "Hey! What are you doing over there?"

Ivy shoved against Steve so I could see them both. "Well we were just soooooo heartbroken and finally I dragged him over here so we could console each other at the loss of our bestest friend in the woooooorld!"

"Ivy, you're weird," I laughed. "But that's why I love ya, of course."

"She's way beyond weird," Steve sighed. "So when's that no good ferry taking you away from Johto?"

I rolled my eyes, still smiling. "I don't know, it's pretty soon. Actually, like I said to Ivy, I shouldn't even be on here. Mom said I couldn't call you---"

"So of course you did," Steve laughed. "That's my Lindsey!" He shook his head.

I laughed, too. "Hey, listen, I really hate to, but I should go. Can't let the rents catch me."

Ivy and Steve both rushed to shove their faces on the screen. "Aaaak! Wait! Hoenn is evil don't ya know?!" Steve was saying.

"OWWWWWWWWW!!!" Ivy cried. "Steve you blockhead, you stepped on my foot!"

"I'm not the blockhead," Steve muttered.

"STEVE MOCHILES---!"

I laughed again to myself, surveying this scene. Here I was, not even officially gone, and already they were 'fighting'.

"I miss you guys," I said before hanging up.

~*~

When the ferry finally docked, the moving van actually drove into the ferry. Hmm, no unloading boxes for us, I guess.

My parents were talking to the Official Ferry People about our stuff, but I just stepped up to the dock---once I was on it, I was going to leave. For real.

Kitsune was still on my shoulder, surveying everything around him. I turned my head around and looked back. Johto, my home, my first home, and I haven't even fully explored it yet.

"Wait for me, you guys," I whispered over towards Cherrygrove City. I turned around again and stepped onto the ferry, where my new life would soon begin.

~*~*~

GO LINDSEY'S NEW LIFE! YAY!

. . .Kinda sorta? ;D

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