I don't own pokémon! Nintendo, Kids WB, Game Freak, and Creatures Inc, do. All I own here is the plot for my fics and the characters for Lupusa, Casey, Michelle and Brooke, though, how can you own people? Oh, well…they're mine here.

Diving In! …To What?

By Ark9

Chapter Four

Lookin' for the Lagoon

Ash yawned and started to sit up but decided to look around first. Lucky for him, no snares had been laid around the center. He smiled and sat up the rest of the way and picked up Pikachu from his bag on the table in the middle.

One of the Chanseys came out from behind the counter and shouted, "Chan!" Pikachu woke up from that and blinked its eyes open. Upon seeing Ash, it smiled and hugged him.

Nurse Joy came out and starting singing, "Rise and Shine and open life's story (story). Rise and Shine and open life's story (story). RISE AND SHINE AND," she shouted and clapped once, "OPEN LIFE'S STORY, STORY, TRAINERS OF THE WORLD!"

Lupusa gave her a wry smile, having been plagued with the song before. But then she brightened up and the sight of Ash and Misty. They definitely were not morning people at all.

Lupusa jumped up and called out a Meganium. "Synthesis!" she said brightly.

The Meganium reflected her smile and then closed its eyes happily. Golden star-like powder seemed to appear out of the air as the auto-heal attack gave the trainers the spirit to get started again.

Everyone looked around them to find their normal clothes on, and their sleeping bags as well as their other things back correctly in their bags.

Ash looked around in confusion and Pikachu did the same and then pointed to Misty who was smiling just as warmly as before.

"What?" Ash asked, realizing that he was the only one still looking. "Don't you want to know how that happened?"

Everyone laughed and Ash once again felt rather pitiful, but he knew asking, "What's going on?" would just make them laugh harder, so he just waited for them to calm down.

"Don't worry about it," Misty finally said and straightened up.

"Pika chu pi, Pikapi," You know who did, Ash Pikachu added and winked at Lupusa.

Ash laughed good-naturedly, too.

"Okay, fun's over. I want to get a badge." He grinned in determination.

*************

"Are we all ready?" Ash asked as they stood on the shoreline of Palm Island.

"You bet!" Misty called. "Misty calls upon Gyaridos!"

"Blastoise, I choose you!"

"Make a splash, vaporeon!"

"Gggggoooooooaaaarrr!"

"Blastoise!"

"Vvooooowah?!"

Lupusa grinned mischievously at them for a second before purposefully blinking. In a bat of an eyelid, they were boarded onto their pokémon.

Ash laughed as he regained his composure on top of Blastoise. "Do you ever do things normally?"

Misty rolled her eyes and grumbled. "Why don't you just teleport us to the gym if you're just bubbling with energy?"

"Of all people to complain about surfing!" Lupusa retorted. "It's not very far. I forgot that you two just surfed here!"

In a few minutes, high ledges could be seen from the water. "Well, this is just great," Misty complained, dreading having to climb those ledges.

To Ash and Misty's surprise, a light blue blur shot out from the landmass to great them. It showed no sign of slowing down until it came to a sudden stop, the figure standing beside Lupusa.

The new girl also rode a strong-looking vaporeon. Her hair was a slightly darker shade of blue that fell a few inches past her shoulders. Her sea-green eyes were a contrast to Lupusa's dark purple, but her slate-colored T-shirt and jeans seems to be modeled in a similar fashion, with the word "swimming" in place of "diving."

Misty looked back and forth between the two. "Are you two twins?" she asked cautiously. "Or just sisters?" 'Of course they couldn't just be sisters, because they are about the same age, but they look so much alike…'

They simultaneously looked at each other and burst out laughing. It couldn't be helped noticing that the unusual laugh that they had noticed from Lupusa seemed to be copied by Brooke.

Lupusa explained. "No, we're not related at all! We only met a few weeks ago when I was here training!"

"You're not the first, though," Brooke continued. "Many of my junior trainers thought so, too."

"Oh," Ash and Misty said in surprise.

"So," Brooke said, decisively. "Are these some friends of yours that you wanted me to meet?"

"Well, yes and no. They are friends of mine, but we're here because Ash wants to battle you for a badge."

"Okay," Brooke nodded. "Let's go, then."

*************

The match was about to begin. If you looked around, you would have realized that the gym was really only a cave that had been formed by water-erosion. Rocks rose up along the whole entrance, holding in the water. It was unusual, but that's where Brooke chose to place it, and that's what mattered.

"This is an official match for the Lagoon badge. The challenger, Ash, has chosen Pikachu, while the gymleader, Brooke, has chosen her vaporeon. No time limit. Let the battle begin!"

"Vappy, Acid Armor!" Brooke spit out before anyone could make a move.

"Pikachu thunderbolt!" Ash grinned, thinking that he had won because of types.

"Vui!"

"Piii…kaaaa….CHU!" it shouted and thunderbolted the water.

"Pooorr!" it laughed.

"Agility!" both trainers shouted.

"Pi!"

"On!"

"Haze, then mist," Brooke said gently.

Suddenly the whole area filled with a white fog. Sure, it healed any status problem, but where was vaporeon?

"Pikachu, use light screen!"

"Cha!" Pikachu shouted as it created an electric bubble around itself, creating the same effect as the vaporeon's mist would.

For those who could see vaporeon, they would have seen a very content and relaxed looking blue pokémon, spurting out what looked like a cloud.

"Double team."

Pikachu nodded and soon there were about thirty copies of Pikachu forming a ring around vaporeon. Vaporeon looked at one and then the other, trying to see if one looked more solid than the rest. No. They all looked transparent.

The real Pikachu was using its agility to search out vaporeon. It moved so fast that even Ash couldn't see it. There vaporeon is! …uh, was. Now the chase begins.

Vaporeon tried tackling Pikachu after Pikachu with no avail. Pikachu, in the mean time, followed it and charged up for the thunderbolt that it meant to use earlier.

"Vappy! Look out!"

"CCCCHHHUUUU!!"

"Vvvvaaavavav!" it cried as it was launched into the wall with such a strong electric force. It fell down the wall. One Pikachu stood in front of it. Sparks crackled from its cheeks.

"Vaporeon can no longer battle! The match goes to Ash and his Pikachu!"

"Yea! Great job, Pikachu!" Ash yelled as he caught his excited pokémon.

"I guess you earned it, Ash," Brooke said as she cradled her burnt-looking vaporeon in her arms, its eyes now partially open. "Here's the Lagoon badge."

"Thanks!" Ash said, Pikachu climbing up onto his head.

"I'll come back in a few days to visit," Lupusa said, trying to avoid certain begging to stay.

"Aww," Brooke whined and dropped her head. Then she stood up straight again and smirked. "You better come back 'cause I can't leave and I want to talk to you!"

"You've got it," Lupusa smiled and then faced Ash and Misty, who were looking uncertainly out at the water. She soon realized why.

Storm clouds were gathering tight in the sky, almost completely blocking out the sun. Soon it started to pour.

"Pi…" Pikachu cooed, sparks flying on contact with every raindrop.

"I guess Nurse Joy's the one who's going to be annoyed with me this time," Lupusa sighed. "Bye, Brooke! See ya!"

"Bye!" she called. "Congratulations on your first face badge…" She faded away as the world smudged together.

When it became in focus, they were in a Pokémon Center.

"Haven't you three ever heard of doors?" Nurse Joy scolded. "Using psychic energy confuses the pokémon here!"

*BBOOOOMM!* The storm raged on outside.

"Well…" Misty tried to think of something.

"As you can see, it is storming outside!" Lupusa recovered, matter-of-factly. "We were on the other side of the island in the gym, which is right next to the water, despite the fact that we would have to surf to get here. I think that it was better to teleport here than to risk dying of electrocution, don't you?"

"Hm," Nurse Joy said thoughtfully. "This time, you are right. Sorry I yelled at you, but it is important that I do everything that I can to keep the pokémon here in the center in the best possible condition. Do you have any pokémon that you want me to look at?"

"Just Pikachu and Blastoise," Ash responded for himself.


"I want my Gyaridos healed, too," Misty conceded and placed her pokéball by Ash's on the counter.

"How about you, miss?"

"Vaporeon could use a rest," she decided. "That's all."

"Okay, you may wait in the lobby until your pokémon are ready," Nurse Joy smiled and carried the tray through the double-doors behind the counter.

Ash, Misty and Lupusa walked across the room to where a table with four chairs was set up. Lupusa practically pounced on one of the two farther ones, while Ash and Misty took their seats, sweat-dropping at Lupusa's actions.

"What was Brooke talking about?" Ash asked. "I thought that the badge was the Lagoon Badge, not the Face Badge."

"Hm?" Lupusa looked across the table at him. "Oh! Well, that's because it isn't the Face Badge. I think what she was referring to is the middle gyms. You really are new here, aren't you? Oh, well."

"The middle gyms?" Misty asked.

"Yeah, they all use eevee evolutions. See, Brooke uses the vaporeon you saw today. She has others, but that is all she uses for gym battles. Actually, you will only get one pokémon for the next four, too."

"So…"Ash thought, "the next gym is the Orange Badge, so I'll have to battle a flareon?"

"Yep," Lupusa nodded.

"But that doesn't explain why she called it a face badge," Misty said. "What does that have to do with it?"

"Because the middle gyms are all in a row, and they all use eevee evelutions, they named themselves the 'Faces of the Eevee,'" Lupusa explained.

"That's cool," Misty said.