"So this is the boat, huh?" Leon asks looking at an old steam style boat.

"Yeah, cost extra as it is a sightseeing ship, but only one with availability," Zoey explains.

"…how much?" Leon asks, dreading the answer.

"About three hundred more each," Zoey says.

"I'll pay you back," Leon immediately says.

"Forget it," Zoey says waving him off.

"You wasted too much on me," Leon insists.

"Look, it was either this or another two weeks to get passage and I think this is far cheaper than spending money on two more weeks in the hotel," Zoey informs.

Leon didn't say anything until he sighed. "Alright."

"Good. Now it will take four days as it is a cruise around to the outer islands and ports," Zoey says.

"Which means…" Leon starts for the other two to chime in.

"Vacation," Gardenia cheers.

"Food!" Lana adds on as Leon just smiles to Zoey who smiles back and grabs his arm before dragging him off.

"Anything we should know?" Leon asks.

"No. Just hoping to have fun with you," Zoey says smiling.

"And to get ready for the contest?" Leon asks.

"I want to hear ideas," Zoey almost orders in a tone that Leone catches onto.

"Well, let's start, shall we?" Leon asks.

"As soon as we get to our room and drop most of our stuff," Zoey reminds while they rush past the many rooms.

"Apparently, there are a few stops and slow points on this ride. Some islands, rocks in some carvings, pokemon migration patterns, and…a starry dinner every night?" Leon asks confused, looking to Zoey as she follows some of his advice while her pokemon try some intricate moves he came up with for them.

"What was that last part?" Zoey asks.

"Starry dinner every night…is that some sort of fancy dinner like a big old fancy restaurant?" Leon tries to guess.

"Is it on the ship?" Zoey asks.

"Yeah. On the top deck every night at midnight…weird," Leon mutters the last part to himself.

"You want to go to them?" Zoey asks, not really looking interested.

Leon blinks and looks up from the pamphlet. "Not…really. Why…do you…? Because if you want to, I can make some time for you."

"Oh, you will. You will be with me all the time while we practice on the water as the Wallace Cup has in the past had some water-themed parts," Zoey says smirking.

"Water? Let's see…" Leon says to himself, now giving a thinking pose.

"Also, will you be taking Tsunami with you on the boat?" Zoey asks.

"I want to. I do have some ideas she can work on," Leon says almost proud of her.

"You should in case the ship sinks. I have heard a tale of a ship called the S.S. Anne," Zoey says.

"Why does that one sound familiar?" Leon asks himself, tapping his chin in thought.

"It should. It was a major disaster that ended with a few people trapped on board and died as the ship sank. Because of this, the entire protocols and regulations for the ships were assessed and changed," Zoey says.

"Oh, right. It was…" Leon stops dead cold at that point. 'Did she just say died? But…Ash and his friends survived…even team rocket…but…maybe some crew…no…maybe they don't know. I doubt Ash and the others would want to retell that entire bit…but still…the way she said it…' "Where did this happen again?" Leon asks.

"In Kanto," Zoey informs.

"Isn't Ash and Brock from Kanto?" Leon asks.

"I doubt they would be on the ship when it sank if that's what you're saying. Those people died," Zoey almost chuckles off.

"I mean being from there, maybe they heard some first-hand accounts," Leon says.

"We'll give them a call when we have a chance. Now help ralts will you?" Zoey asks almost pleadingly and cutely to his liking as ralts seems to be trying to psychical stab the air while Crystal sits beside and clap along, cheering them on. "For some reason, I think of her in a cheerleading outfit."

"She will soon evolve in and will basically be in one," Leon says.

"Yeah. She will look cute. Maybe she can distract the other pokemon so you can get some shots in," Zoey suggest, almost grinning evilly.

"Also, maybe I should get her different colored scarves to go along with her, your thoughts?" Leon asks.

Crystal cheers at him, trying to look excited as possible. "I think that's a yes," Zoey chuckles at as Leon laughs a little as well while hearing Crystal's cheers ringing through the area.

"Maybe we should get ralts a little cape as well," Leon whispers to Zoey.

Zoey hums. "A noble cape, huh?"

"…do you not know about mega evolution?" Leon asks as he was making a reference to mega Gallade.

Zoey slowly blinks before looking to him. "You're right…maybe I should get him started at least."

"So you do know about mega evolution?" Leon asks.

Zoey nods. "Most do…it's kinda in the papers sometimes," she points out, pointing to a small newspaper stand where there is a small section about a blaziken mega evolution fighting some gangs.

"Have you ever seen a pokemon do it or know how it is done?" Leon asks.

"I just know that it is sort of a temporary evolution that some can do," Zoey admits.

"Think of it as more of a power-up state," Leon says.

"Hey!" Gardenia calls.

"Gardenia?" Leon asks back confused as Gardenia walks up to them. "Something you need?"

"Lana was looking for you. She wants to know if you can fish on the boat," Gardenia says.

"I think it would be in here," Leon says, looking through the pamphlet again.

"She wants to know now so she can go shopping at a fishing store," Gardenia says motioning for Leon to go by himself.

"Huh…oh, sure," Leone says walking off.

"So?" Gardenia asks smirking at Zoey.

"So what?" Zoey asks back.

"Did you make a move?" Gardenia asks smirking and elbowing her.

Zoey frowns. "Are you out of your mind? I don't want to push him."

"How…even if he is waiting for you to make the first move?" Gardenia says subtly, trying to manipulate her.

"Would you shut up about it? I'll handle this my own way," Zoey declares.

"Ok…say, you think Lana will make a move on him while you wait?" Gardenia asks.

Zoey frowns before slowly blinking and becomes a little shocked at the implications.

'Oh, this is so fun,' Gardenia thinks as she watches Zoey squirm.

Zoey then runs off and slams the door open. "Lana!"

'Oh, I love doing this,' Gardenia thinks.

"And enjoy your trip aboard the S.S. Latios," the announcement finished over the radio.

'Latios…let's see…I am past that part. Wonder if I will ever see any legendaries like them…or at least give that Latias some comfort,' Leon thinks, looking out to the sea.

"Hey," Lana says moving past him with a fishing pole.

"Caught anything?" Leon asks, still staring out to sea.

"Haven't started yet," Lana says taking a seat.

Leon hums while watching the sea roll by. "So will you be doing this the whole trip?"

Lana smirks. "No. Just most of it."

"Hoping to catch a pokemon?" Leon asks.

Lana giggles. "Yep. Deep sea fishing is always fun."

"Got net balls ready?" Leon asks.

Lana drops a bag near her full of pokeballs.

"Alright, have fun," Leon says.

Lana smiles as she reels the line a little. "You don't want to stay? Could be fun."

"Got to stow all my stuff in the room first," Leon says.

"And you haven't yet? It was easy," Lana almost playfully brags.

"I wanted to look around and ran out of time before the whole safety protocol," Leon informs.

"I can stop and help you," Lana says getting up.

"Nah, I am good," Leon assures.

"Okay…why not release all your pokemon? Let them out and have fun," Lana suggested.

"I would, but Tsunami might scare away most of the fish and pokemon," Leon says.

"Then let her swim the way she wants. She'll catch up. Let her enjoy herself," Lana says encouragingly. "She doesn't have to stick with us."

"I worry about my pokemon, ok," Leon says walking away.

Lana smiles as she casts her line again.

"Where were you two?!" Zoey demands as Leon unpacks. "I got way too worried." Leon looks at her slightly confused. "Playing it up for Gardenia, go along with it," she whispers to him as she points to next door.

Leon smiles and then smirks. "We just went fishing. Lana is maybe still there. And…maybe calm down," he says, resisting the urge to laugh as he hides his snickers behind his hand, making Zoey follow suit with the same way.

"So did you kiss?" Gardenia asks through the connecting door.

Leon smiles to Zoey and she winks at him. "Well…she…might have…" Leon says, acting scared as Zoey snickers.

"Excuse me?!" Zoey yells, trying to control her snickering. "I thought I was the one for you so you went for her?!"

"She went for me. I was unprepared for it," Leon acts.

"You are close to being single again!" Zoey yells, grinning as she pounds on the wall. "So…you going back to her?"

"I don't know. Is it apart of the book you are writing Gardenia?" Leon asks now smirking.

"…"

"I think she's done," Zoey whispers as she wraps her arms around him.

"Probably has a three-way planned," Leon says.

Zoey rolls her eyes amused before dragging him to the couch. "How about staying here with me a bit? Maybe just sleep and relax…it kinda has been a long day…especially finding a ship," she grumbles at the end.

"I would, but you have training to do," Leon says smirking evilly.

Zoey sighs. "You're a downer."

"Up top now," Leon says grabbing her hand.

Zoey raises an eyebrow before reaching up and grabbing his hand before twisting it around his back and pins him. "So…want to keep running your mouth?"

"You want to win the Wallace cup or not?" Leon asks.

Zoey groans before letting him go and getting up. "Just don't be here too long," she advises as she walks out.

Leon smirks following after her.

"So what's the plan?" Zoey asks.

"We are going to address your battling skills by battling other passengers and crew," Leon informs.

"Is that all?" Zoey asks smiling now, bit eager for a fight.

"You can't just show off. You have to win," Leon informs.

Zoey chuckles. "Hey. That's my style."

"Your training is battling constantly on this trip. Not just coordinator training," Leon says as Crystal comes out of her pokeball onto his head.

"Ra," Crystal agrees as she raises an arm at her, relaxing and sitting on his head.

"Even Crystal agrees," Leon adds.

"Ra ra," Crystal says, waving an arm at her encouragingly.

"She says good luck," Leon translates and Zoey raises an eyebrow at him. "Bit of a guess," he offers as he shrugs and Crystal seems to be rolling her eyes under her hair as she gives a heavy tap to his head, making him flinch playfully up to her.

"Where am I going to battle?" Zoey asks.

"Up at the front areas. They two fields to do battle on," Leon says, leading her along while watching her nervous and tense her body is, still walking behind her.

"There should be no entry fee to my knowledge," Zoey ponders as they walk along the side decks.

"No. Just needs to have some trainers there ready to battle," Leon says reading the pamphlet as they pass by a dance room with some music that beats and Beacon comes out of his pokeball and run in. "Gah! Beacon!" Leon yells, chasing after him before seeing Beacon just dancing along with the beat of his usual dancing style and sweatdrops. "Should have guessed," he sighs, embarrassed a bit.

"Aw. What a cute dancing pokemon," a girl from the crowd says as they give room to the dancing flaaffy who is just enjoying himself.

Leon gets an embarrassing cloud over his head before Crystal waves it away and taps his head, making him look up and see her nodding her head to Zoey. "I guess Beacon can be fine here for a bit," he says before heading back to Zoey. "He found his calling alright," he notes, slightly amused, but still embarrassed.

"It's raining in here!?" someone yells.

"Now I hope someone doesn't notice he's mine," Leon says, quickly pushing Zoey down to the fields.

"Heh," Zoey says smirking.

"Don't laugh. I can be kicked out," Leon hisses to her, terrified of what the crew might do if he ruins the trip when the song 'It's Raining Men' started to play. 'Oh, come on!'

Zoey laughs now as Leon carries her far away from the dance room, not wanting to get involved anymore.

"Alright, I have set you up for three battles in a roll. You won't know what your opponents will throw at you and you must choose which pokemon you are battling with before entering," Leon informs.

"Tricky…okay…let's see," Zoey says out loud, looking to her pokeballs and trying to decide for each round.

Leon waits as she picks her pokemon.

"Okay. I'll pick Finneon, Ralts, and Misdreavus for my team," Zoey says, picking their pokeballs and putting the others away.

"Alright," Leon says motioning for her to hand over the other pokeballs.

"Oh. That strict are you?" Zoey asks, giving him the rest.

"Taking cues from your training me," Leon reminds.

Zoey rolls her eyes as he leads her to the field. "So who's first?"

"That's for you to find out," Leon says as she enters the field and Leon parts to go take a seat with the spectators, releasing Glameow and Shellos to watch. Glameow meowing at her trainer before curling up on Leon's lap and lets him pet her.

Zoey takes a deep breath before looking between her three pokeballs. "No pressure. Just a simple battle. You can do this…" she says to herself as another trainer from across the field steps into the trainer box. "Okay, let's go Finneon," she calls, throwing the ball out and out comes the fish type in a little pond area.

On the other side, one of the crews came out and threw a pokeball. "Illumise, battle time!"

The bug type materializes onto the field as finneon gives a small battle glare to it, ready for action.

"Here we go, finneon, safeguard," Zoey calls, wondering what attacks illumise knows.

"Illumise, tackle attack!" the sailor calls.

Zoey wasn't quick enough to speak before finneon was hit into the other side of the small pool as illumise stands on the far side. "Finneon, use silver wind," Zoey calls. Leon watching in the spectator area with a raised eyebrow at how this is going already.

'Hum, her reaction time needs some improvement in the battles. Ash's focus punch wasn't a one-time thing. This is a weakness she has,' Leon observes.

Finneon cries out and uses its fins, waving them widely, sending out sharp cuts of wind that strike illumise and sends it back a little before it recovered when the attack ended.

'Her timing is also off with the attacks,' Leon observes

"Quick attack!" the sailor calls and illumise starts to dart around the field when it gathered energy and closes in on finneon as it tries to keep up.

"Waterfall finneon!" Zoey calls as quick as she could. Finneon raises its fins up high before splashing down hard, the water splashing upwards and rising up high before coming back down and hits the ground, flooding the area and sending illumise back towards its trainer. "Nice job. Now give it another silver wind."

"That is right. Don't let him even have time to think," Leon says before checking the weather.

Finneon thrills before flapping its fins hard, sending streaks of air at the rushing illumise and stops it, making it cover itself as a way of defense.

'Clear, huh?' Leon thinks before turning back to the battle.

"Moonlight!" he hears the crewman calls.

Illumise's foreheads shine a bit darker, reflecting a bit of light back at everyone.

'…I can see why they don't use every move in the game,' Leon had to think after seeing that, petting glameow. "Well, looks like this has become a battle of attrition," Leon says.

Zoey bites her lower lip, trying to figure out what to do next. 'Think Zoey. You did contests a lot. You can do this.'

'She's stuck. She needs to have listed in her head. Can't be just a flow in battle. A list of both sides is needed…even the unexpected,' Leon observes.

"Here you three," Leon says feeding the three pokemon with him some treats.

Crystal, glameow, and shellos start to dive in as they idly watch the battle still.

"Aqua ring finneon and then waterfall again!" Zory calls, wondering how she can pin and damage illumise the most.

Finneon cries out as a few water rings appear on its tail before sending it onto itself and glow slightly as it splashes the water again, sending a wave that floods the field. Illumise jumps onto a small rock as the water rushes past it. "Tackle," the sailor calls and illumise rushes off, going towards the finneon head on.

"Silver wind!" Zoey calls suddenly, finneon immediately moving its fins widely and sending out streaks of wind at illumise which hit it dead on, sending it flying back into the flooding water and sends it washing away into the rock from before, knocking its head against it and cracking the rock.

"I think it is over," Leon says.

"Illumise is unable to battle. The winner is finneon," the referee calls and Zoey cheers with finneon splashing happily in its pool.

"The first one was a win barely," Leon says as Crystal took her spot once again.

"Ra," Crystal nods, chewing slowly now on his head.

"Having fun?" Leon says.

Crystal takes out a pair of sunglasses out of his pocket and slipped it onto her, relaxing more and chewing more slowly.

"That's my Crystal," Leon says smirking.

Zoey smiles as she returns finneon. "Great job," she sighs in relief as she looks up to another sailor moving into place. "Okay…Misdreavus, let's go," she calls, throwing her pokeball and letting the ghost type loose.

The sailor throws her pokeball and out came a castform.

Zoey blinks at the strange pokemon and takes out her pokedex. "What is that?"

"Castform, the Weather Pokémon. Castform is able to transform its appearance depending on the weather. It uses the power of nature to transform in order to protect its small body," the pokedex says.

"Transform?" Zoey asks in some confusion and looks to the little one as it seems to smile at them.

'Now how will you react?' Leon thinks.

Zoey hums as she watches the floating pokemon for any transformation but it still stays the same. "Okay. Misdreavus, psywave." Misdreavus takes a big breath in before a psychic multi-colored ball form in front of its mouth and fires off a beam of energy, striking castform and moves it back by a few feet before it ended.

"Castform, headbutt," the sailor calls, castform flying towards misdreavus with a glowing forehead and slams into misdreavus, sending her back a little towards Zoey as castform went back to its place.

"Shock wave!" Zoey calls and misdreavus gains some sparks across her body before she sends out an electric lightning at castform and hits it. Sparks flying over castform and making it wince in pain.

"Shake it off. You have taken far worse!" the sailor calls encouragingly. Castform shakes its head and looks back, sparks still flying a little over its body. "Now, ember." Castform breaths in before spitting out tufts of fire that pepper misdreavus.

"Double team!" Zoey calls back, misdreavus immediately forcing herself through the pain and makes copies of herself, spreading around castform and makes it look around at all the copies as it stops the attack to see which is the real one.

"She is playing it too defensive. Castform is basically a jack of trades. No areas are truly its weak point, but yet it doesn't excel in any of them either. She needs to press it and wear it down as it gets worse, the more it's allowed to use it's weather moves," Leon says to himself.

"Now, psywave, again," Zoey calls and all the copies of misdreavus form a psywave attack in front of them before most of them disappeared and one remained behind castform, blasting it in the back and sends it skidding forward along the ground before the attack ended, letting it get up. Sun rays starting to shine down on the field in certain areas, even on castform.

"And there is the sunny day move," Leon says, starting to feel the sun rays intensify on him.

Zoey was about to speak another move before castform morphs around like a cloud and slowly becomes a sun style form with balls of yellow clouds and a red styled mask. "Wait…is this transformation?"

"Ember!" the sailor calls excited.

Castform seems to smirk before breathing in and firing out much bigger puffs of fire, hitting misdreavus and making her cry out in pain, making her float back slowly before a large puff of fire sends her down with a cry. "Misdreavus!" Zoey calls in worry as the small smoke settles and shows misdreavus with swirling eyes.

"Battle two is a loss," Leon says watching the trainers return their pokemon and a third sailor come up.

"Okay…come on out ralts," Zoey calls, throwing the pokeball and reveals the ralts that Crystal cheers at.

Leon smiles as Crystal got pom poms out of nowhere and started cheering for her best friend.

"Excadrill hit the deck!" the captain calls, throwing his pokeball onto the field and shows the ground type, glaring and clicking its claws together.

"Oh, boy," Leon sighs at, shaking his head a bit. Feeling as though this will be a fight Zoey cannot win. Crystal sensing her master's thinking a little and cheers louder with more movement.

Zoey fumbles with her pokedex and scans the pokemon in front of her. "Let's see."

"Excadrill, the Subterrene Pokémon, and the evolved form of Drilbur. Excadrill can dig maze-like underground tunnels for over 100 meters and is powerful enough to cut through thick iron plates using its steel claws."

"Wait…why is…oh boy," Zoey realizes, seeing the type and level.

"Fury swipes," the captain calls, excadrill's claws lightning and charging at ralts.

Ralts looking in some fear and tries to wait for Zoey to call something. "Double team!" Zoey calls out, excadrill missing ralts at the last second as a double is destroyed and leaves much more relieved ralts around the ground and steel type.

"We got something for that," the captain points out. "Earthquake!"

"What?!" Zoey shrieks out in shock.

Excadrill slamming a claw into the ground and sends a wave out that broke the ground into pieces and hits the many ralts before flinging the real one into the air. "Metal claw," the captain finishes as ralts starts to come back down, excadrill's claw shining brightly.

Ralts tries to turn itself in the air before it was slash hard and sent flying.

Zoey looks in shock as ralts flies off the field before being caught in the air. Crystal sighs in relief as she slowly lowers ralts back to Zoey, knocked out faster than ever.

"Sorry. But some battles and even those dangerous ones are like this," the captain apologizes as excadrill nods in agreement.

"Thanks…I got to go heal up my pokemon," Zoey says, hurrying off to find a center. Leon hurrying off after her and carrying Crystal in his arms as well.

"She may have lost, but I think that she will learn from this and become stronger, what do you three think?" Leon asks to the pokemon. They all speak their own way as they kept following Zoey as she finds the small center and goes in to give her pokemon. "So…the battle…" Leon tries to start the conversation.

"I lost," Zoey states as a fact to her as she gives her pokeballs and ralts to chansey at the counter.

"Correction. You learned," Leon corrects, walking up and grabbing her hand comfortingly. "Learned you have to be quick and think on your feet. You could have still won both battles, but you didn't know much about your opponent's pokemon nor do anything but the most common battle style," Leon says.

"Yeah…" Zoey distantly says, the last two battles going through her mind.

"Don't forget the first you won. You can never help but improve on everything, just in case they change things up slightly," Leon notes.

"I…now know why you say I need to train more," Zoey says hesitating at first.

Leon hums as he watches her for a bit before smiling. "You know, there is something you can do with me. Help learn and train. You can even learn a bit yourself," he offers smiling.

"How?" Zoey asks.

"By studying pokemon with me. Learn their types, their weaknesses, their strengths, and, most importantly, their habits," Leon says.

Zoey closes her eyes for a few moments and takes a breath before looking at him, smiling and a bit ashamed. "Things change…don't they?" she asks, looking to their positions now.

"But most things stay the same," Leon offers chuckling. "Come on. I already got an idea for your first lesson," he says leading her away. "They will take a while to heal up as this place isn't that fully made to be a center, but good for their purpose," he says, calming her down.

"So what is the first lesson?" Zoey asks.