Disclaimer: I don't even want to own Pokemon, too much stress.

Chapter 3

Aboard the Good Ship Paradise

Ash rounded the corner of the rental boat shop, and saw the ship. It was beautiful, definitely a cruise liner. It was sparkling white, and in the form of a Lugia, moving off into the sunset. Moving! Ash realized. He grabbed Pikachu and set off running for the boat again.

As he was reaching the dock, the sailors were just pulling up the gangplank. "Wait!" Ash yelled, waving his free arm like a maniac. "I'm Ash Ketchum, and I'm coming too!"

One of the sailors spotted him, and threw a pokeball toward him. "Go Machoke!" A flash of light later, a Machoke was standing at the end of the dock with his hands pressed together. "Give him a toss onto the ship Machoke!" the sailor yelled. Ash ran, jumped toward the Machoke, and the Machoke put his hands under Ash's foot and launched him high into the air. "Aaaah!" Ash yelled as he soared toward the boat. "Gotcha!" yelled the Machoke's trainer as he grabbed him and pulled him inside. "Machoke return," he said, pointing his pokeball at Machoke.

"You're very lucky that I was on departure duty today, Ash was it?" the sailor said. "I'm one of three people on this ship who carry Pokemon who aren't professional trainers. The captain and cook are the only other ones. My name's Tom by the way," he said, pulling Ash to his feet. "Now, would you be Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town?" Tom said, pulling a clipboard off the wall.

"Yeah, that's me," Ash said, not knowing what to expect. "Why?"

"This is for you," Tom said, pulling a necklace of some kind out of his pocket and handing it to Ash. It was a gold necklace with a star on the emblem. The star had a silver point in the center and blue, red, black, purple, and yellow outstretches from that point. "This is your Sacred Seal. You need to make sure you look out for this. You have to have at least two of these to enter the finals, and that's after you get the other eight badges. Now, I don't want to keep you here. The party's upstairs, and it's all you can eat for free. At six there'll be a meeting to discuss the full tournament rules, and you can ask any questions there. I'll see you around Ash."

Ash was dumbfounded on how anyone could talk as fast as Tom just had without taking a breath. But, then again, working on a ship will give you that kind of strength. Pikachu walking at his heels, Ash walked up to the party. When he entered he was amazed at how many trainers there. He got himself a plate, and sat down to see if he knew any of them. It was easy to find Gary. He was sitting in the corner with a bunch of other trainers bragging about how fast he was going to beat the first trainer and gym leader. And then he heard a familiar voice from behind him. "Ash!"

He turned and saw Brock coming over with Misty. "We were wondering if you were going to make it," Misty said sitting down.

"Yeah," Brock said, taking a seat next to both of them. "We're competing also. And I think it's really cool that one of the gym leaders uses water pokemon. Hey, maybe we'll see each other at the finals. That is if we don't get creamed by someone else."

"You said it Misty," Brock said. "I've been watching some of these trainers and some of them definitely eat, drink, and sleep train their pokemon. But, what's really going to be interesting is that once you have lost your Sacred Seal, then you are taken to the tournament finals and wait to see who won. The winner gets to keep their Sacred Seal as victory, and they also get a special accommodation from the Elite Four on Indigo Plateau, which is the real reason to participate in this tournament. It's supposed to be something big."

The rest of the afternoon was spent talking about strategies and what they had been doing before this, when the Captain got up in front of them all on a raised platform. "Greetings trainers aboard the good ship Paradise," he said in a very strong voice. He sounded pretty young to be the captain of the ship. "Welcome to The Sacred Mountain Championship Tournament." He paused to allow the applause to go on. When the applause died down enough the Captain began again, "The tournament requirements are very clearly stated that you must defeat the eight gym leaders and gain the eight gym badges of the Eden Isles to participate in the finals. You must also have at least two Sacred Seals. Let me explain about the Seals. Each one is equipped with a tracking device that allows us to see where you are and monitor your progress. Your Seals also have a guide to let you know where the next gym, train or boat, or when the final deadline is. Guard them well. We will be docking very soon at Templus City, the beginning and end of your journey. You will all rest the night there at the pokemoncenter and in the morning you will begin your journey. Good luck and good night."

As Ash walked through the dark town with Misty and Brock he couldn't help but feel something was definitely something odd about the Captain, but he put that out of his mind just thinking it was his nerves working him up. When he settled down to finally go to sleep he couldn't, but with a little warmth and reassurance from Pikachu, Ash soon fell asleep.

A/N: Sorry this took so long to get up. I'm not very good at writing pokemon.