Chapter 14

Updated: Feb. 3rd

Please Enjoy,

It was only a week from when she first told Brock about the gathering until the train was set to arrive and she tried to be productive. The gym would be closed so she just had to get things in order to the point where her sisters could effectively take care of the Pokemon. She also wanted to get some training in with the Pokemon she planned to bring with her. Battles occasionally were held between gym leaders and she didn't want to embarrass herself in front of her colleagues. If someone challenged her, she wanted to be able to represent the Cerulean Gym in the way it deserved.

The gatherings were also a hot ground for Pokemon trading it didn't matter which regions were meeting or where they were doing so. There were always pokemon either from a part of their own region that weren't in their area or pokemon in an entirely different region that people wanted to raise. So trading was a major event and Misty wanted to have enough Pokemon to be able to trade without giving away her main Pokemon.

It seemed a bit bad to catch pokemon with the intention of trading them away, but all the gym leaders would treat their Pokemon well so it wasn't like she was subjecting them to a life of pain.

So she took a quick trip training her Pokemon while she searched for new ones. It went well in her opinion and luckily she'd had just enough time to get her recently caught Pokemon used to being trained. She couldn't use them in major battles, but a talented trainer could unlock their potential, that much she was confident about. She couldn't say her own Pokemon got much stronger, but it was only a few days and she was more interested in them fighting in different environments against different opponents.

Misty made it home late in the afternoon the day before she was set to leave and immediately was berated by her sisters. "Misty you should have packed already, like you need good clothes," Violet grabbed her arm and started dragging her to her room. Misty accepted the fact that she probably should have started packing, so she allowed herself to be pulled.

"Lucky for you we already did it," Lily stood in the middle of Misty's room next to a giant suitcase filled with clothing. Misty groaned knowing her sisters would have filled it with clothes she wouldn't normally wear. Now she would have to spend the time she would have spent packing, unpacking.

When she woke up the morning she was set to leave she couldn't help her excitement. She wasn't sure what she'd learn or who she'd meet, but there really was a world of opportunities when she was surrounded by so many talented and experienced trainers. Plus she would get to spend time at a resort in the orange islands which certainly had its own perks and Brock would be there. She hadn't heard from Ash, but Misty had managed to push him out of her thoughts for the most part, she had more important things to think about.

Once the taxi she called arrived and she finally started riding to the dock she called Brock to check on his progress. "Hey Brock, I just left the Gym. How far along are you?" Misty asked when Brock picked up.

"I'm almost there and my mom is excited that she'll be able to go later," Brock responded sounding slightly tired out by his mother.

"I can imagine," Misty laughed, "I'll see you soon, Bye." Misty leaned back in her seat and let her eyes close trying to think of everyone who would be there. She wanted to make sure she remembered the names of the gym leaders she didn't see often to avoid any awkward encounters. Of course she didn't know all the Johto leaders and a few of the Kanto leaders she'd never met, but she'd heard of most of the Kanto leaders and could probably figure out who they were.

Before she knew it the dock and the boat she and Brock would be traveling on came into view. Once the taxi came to a halt she paid the driver, slung her bag over her shoulder, and grabbed her suitcase, which was quite heavy. She was half dragging it when suddenly it was lifted by strong arms, she glanced over to see Brock by her side. "Thanks, Brock," she fell into step with him as he started approaching the cruise ship, carrying her luggage quite easily.

"No problem. I think being chivalrous is ingrained in me after all my attempts to impress women, not that it really works," Brock replied managing to shrug despite the load he was carrying.

"Well I'm sure you'll find someone someday and she will be a very lucky lady," Misty patted his shoulder before opening her drawstring bag checking that she had everything she would need on hand.

For the most part the boat ride was smooth, but as they rode past Johto Misty saw a group of wingull flying through the air and immediately cheered getting the attention of a few of the other passengers. She coughed and blushed at her reaction, but she had hoping to catch a Wingull or Pelipper for a while. Not wanting to miss her opportunity she sent out Starmie in an attempt to catch at least one. "Starmie use hydro pump at the group," Misty commanded pointing at the center of the small flock.

Starmie immediately complied and the attack struck most of them a though few managed to dodge the blast. After the attack most immediately flew away, but one of the larger ones turned towards her. Misty threw a Pokeball hoping to get it done quickly, but with a gust of wind it went flying back at her. "Starmie use swift," Misty called out and a burst of stars flew at the Wingull who valiantly tried to dodge them using agility, but after avoiding them a few times they finally struck the Seagull Pokemon. "Finish it with thundershock." Starmie glowed for a few seconds before a bolt of electricity flew towards Wingull.

It managed to avoid the attack, but Misty used the distraction to throw the Pokeball again managing to strike it this time. "Use Psychic so the ball doesn't fall into the water," Misty said once the ball stopped flashing and started dropping from the sky. Misty placed the ball in her bag and listened as a few passengers clapped, she thanked them and Starmie for a job well done.

The rest of the trip was far less eventful and time seemed to pass quickly until they arrived at the island. She spent the time looking at the ocean and enjoying the view provided. It was gorgeous and she wished she'd remembered to keep her camera on hand, but it was too late to worry.

They weren't given much time to acclimate once they arrived at the island, they were hustled into the fancy hotel and given their rooms. Misty wasn't shocked at the treatment, the League wanted to get their event underway and the boat was on the late end of arrival.

Without much preamble she showered and quickly prepared herself, pulling on a flattering black formal dress and applying a bit of make-up before deeming herself acceptable.

It was the standard to have a large ball for the leaders to gather and socialize, during this ball a time period would be allocated to dancing. It was a simple ballroom dance where the various partygoers switched between partners so they spent a bit of time with multiple people, the waltz was normally a formal dance, but with the random dance partners it often descended into something closer to a joke, especially once people started getting into the alcohol. Nobody took it seriously so when an old man ended up being tugged around by a young person they took it in stride. Misty knew in the past Agatha in particular had fun dancing with younger men who humored her.

The entire dance was meant to foster conversation between people and stood as the ultimate icebreaker. As long as nobody allowed it to become awkward it was fine and actually quite fun. Once Misty arrived the music had just started up and people were already getting onto the dance floor. Misty spotted Brock, who surprisingly hadn't jumped at the first chance to grab a girl to dance with.

Misty quickly moved to him and tugged Brock onto the dance floor so she had a bit of time to prepare herself before she was twirled into dancing with people she knew to varying degrees. She could see that Brock seemed very pleased with the idea of getting to dance with the many young female gym leaders and she was more amused than annoyed at his interest. She couldn't really blame him, everyone looked their best in anticipation of seeing people they knew. Even she was looking forward to being swept off her feet by a young man for a little while. She blatantly ignored the niggling thought that it would have been nice to have Ash be that man and instead scanned the crowd recognizing quite a few familiar faces.

She saw a pair separate near her and they turned towards her and Brock as they split. Before they made it over she whispered to Brock, "Just don't come on too strong." Thankfully Brock merely held out his hand and greeted the young woman before stepping back into the dance.

The woman's partner who stepped up to her was a boy she recognized vaguely. It took her a moment, but she realized he was from a different part of Kanto. His name was Blaze the son of a gym leader, but last time she remembered his father still ran the gym, they specialized in fire-types from what she remembered. "Hi, Misty," he greeted her in a high pitched voice, "Would you like to dance?"

"Of course," she replied to the smaller male, she last saw him a bit over a year ago when he was only seven. "So how is your training going?" She asked the boy who she thought looked adorable in his little suit.

"Great, soon I'll be strong enough to take over the gym," he sounded confident, but Misty knew from experience it took a lot of work. Hopefully he'd have more time to be a kid and enjoy it, she knew he would appreciate it later.

She allowed him to awkwardly try to take her around the room despite the height difference and chatted with him. Soon enough Blaze walked over to Jasmine the steel-type leader and Chuck stepped back turning to Misty. "Hey Misty how're ya?" he boomed.

"I'm good," Misty replied not necessarily intimidated by the older man, but she felt dwarfed. He was a large man physically and had a personality to match. However she knew he was harmless so she relaxed and took his outstretched hand.

"Great, let's dance my wife thinks it's good exercise. Look at me I've lost weight," he told her while tugging her ungracefully into an odd dance that seemed a few beats off the music. Misty found herself laughing slightly and just allowed herself to have some fun.

It wasn't long before they tripped their way over to two other dancers. One of whom she recognized as Bruno the fighting type leader of the Elite Four, she remembered when she spent a bit of time with him alongside Ash and Brock. He seemed serious, but had his goofy moments, still she respected him greatly as she did all the Elite four members.

Chuck was even more excited to see Bruno and Misty wasn't surprised. Chuck was a fighting type specialist and he was standing in front of a Master-class fighting trainer and a member of the Elite four. He was basically what every fighting type trainer aspired to be, so despite Chuck being older he seemed almost in awe of the muscular man. "Bruno great to see ya," he almost yelled and shook his hand a bit more violently than necessary, "Do you want to dance?"

Bruno took it in stride and simply responded, "I was planning on dancing with my acquaintance Misty, but find me later tonight and we can talk." Misty was impressed that he managed to keep cool in the face of a gigantic fan.

Once again Misty found herself dancing with a large man, but Bruno was surprisingly gentle and quite fluid in comparison to Chuck. "I suppose we're lucky this event required us to dress up, otherwise you would have been dancing with a shirtless Chuck," Bruno remarked casually. Misty couldn't hide the brief look of horror that crossed her face and Bruno didn't miss it, he laughed the sound reverberating in his chest close to Misty's ear. "It's nice to see you again Misty. I heard you've been doing well for yourself and the gym," he gave her light praise.

"It's nice to see you too and thank you, I've been trying my best." She struggled to look up and meet his eyes.

"As an elite four member I have to keep track of the gyms and I'm glad things are going well. I honestly was worried for Cerulean while your sisters were in charge," He replied with a smile.

"So was I, but I felt like I needed to explore when I was younger," Misty tried to rationalize why she allowed the gym to fall so ungracefully.

"Speaking of that, how are my two disciples doing? I'm fairly sure I saw Brock earlier in the night even though his gym is closed, is Ash here as well?" Misty saw his eyes quickly move around the room resting on someone, who she assumed was Brock.

"I brought Brock along because I think he deserved to be here despite his gym being closed," Misty didn't let her annoyance at the league show and it seemed Bruno agreed with her sentiment

He nodded,"I think so too, but the rule was already in place. Perhaps I'll convince the league to look into changing it a bit. And Ash how is he doing?"

"He's fine, he's back at his home," Misty wasn't sure if her tone changed, but apparently Bruno chose not to comment or ask further about him which Misty appreciated. Ash wasn't exactly who she wanted on her mind.

"I believe our dance is coming to a close," Bruno said turning to see another pair moving twirling their way. "Have a nice night, Misty."

Bruno bent slightly so he could dance with Agatha who released her partner. "Show me your moves Bruno," she said reaching up and Misty watched them start to dance with fascination.

"Good luck grandma," a voice said and when Misty turned to see who spoke she saw Morty watching the pair fondly. "So, Misty can I interest you in a dance?" He held his hand out and Misty took it lightly allowing him to pull her in close. "How have you been? It's been a few years since we saw each other."

"I've been doing well, what about you, Morty?" She asked looking at the Ghost type specialist. She silently admitted he was quite attractive, but had an odd air about him. It was faint, but something almost cold seemed to be following them. His hands were surprisingly warm and because of the chill she could feel the heat of his body.

"Good," he started to speak, but trailed off looking at something behind Misty. He didn't stop dancing, but he seemed to fade out for a few moments.

Misty hesitated before asking, "Um, is something wrong?" Morty blinked seemingly coming back to himself before shaking his head.

"Sorry, that happens sometimes." He apologized spinning her around. "Do you want to get some air?" he gestured with a nod of his head to the large balcony where a few people were relaxing.

Misty would've liked to keep dancing, but she wasn't going to tug him around if he didn't want to. "Alright, but you owe me a dance," she smiled and the ghost trainer sighed in relief.

"Deal. I had to dance with Whitney which was exhausting," he smiled letting go of her hand for a second. Before either of them could start moving he was half shoved out of the way by a boy she didn't recognize.

"Let's dance," it wasn't really a request because the new entrant started pulling her away leaving Morty staring after them in surprise. He was big, but more of it was fat than muscle and appeared to be a few years older than her.

Misty wasn't going to let this guy do whatever he want, but she wanted to find out who it was before she shoved him off. "Who are you?" She wasn't particularly polite about it, but she felt justified in her annoyance.

"Andel, I'm from Johto my father's a league official so he brought me along and I deserve it. I made it all the way to the elite four," he sounded far to proud of himself and Misty was turned off by his attitude.

"Good for you, now you have three seconds to let me go," Misty warned trying to extract herself from his grip.

"Why? We can have a lot of fun together," he leered at her and leaned in far closer than Misty would have liked. She couldn't stop herself from recoiling and wished she still had the mallet she had as a child.

Before she could kick him and smooth deep voice sounded from their side,"May I have the next dance?" he asked politely, but his tone was sharp.

"Yes," Misty said managing to pull away from Andel while he was distracted, the man probably noticed her distress which she was extremely thankful for. It wasn't as if she tried to hide her revulsion, she was just happy someone was nearby.

"Wonderful," he took her hands much more lightly and led her away from the younger man glaring daggers at their backs. "So, you're Misty. I've heard quite a bit about you. I'm glad to meet you in person," he smoothly guided her through the crowd.

He seemed nice enough, but Misty got a slight feeling of danger from the man although she couldn't place why. He was tall and looked to be in his thirties with broad shoulder. There were a few fine lines on his face, but she only noticed because their proximity. He looked like a suave man and it wasn't his expression, which was genial, that made her nervous so she couldn't figure out what it was. It was somewhat similar to the cold air she felt around Morty, but unlike with Morty she felt the need to be on guard.

However she couldn't study him for long without it being apparent so she focused on the other thing she was wondering about, why he was so interested in her. "What have you heard?" Misty asked casually still moving in tandem with him.

"Only good things I assure you, Delia is very fond of you," he responded easily, "Besides an up and coming gym leader such as yourself is of interest to me especially because the close proximity of our gyms."

"Wait you know Delia?" Misty blurted out barely taking the time to process the rest of his statement.

"Yes, I'm Giovanni the Leader of the Viridian Gym. I met Delia when we were still young and we were quite close. We reconnected recently and she told me about her son and his friends," Giovanni explained briefly. Misty wondered if he was the man Delia had been spending time with, but brushed the thought away for the time being in favor of asking a few more questions.

"You're the gym leader who took leave for a few years and disappeared," Misty said voicing it somewhere between a question and a statement. She remembered hearing about a five-star gym leader from Viridian suddenly leaving his post. She had no idea what happened afterwards, but apparently Giovanni decided it was time to return.

"Correct, I decided to come back before I was replaced. The league was being quite accommodating, but I suppose they would have had to fill my spot if I didn't return at some point," he replied, but Misty felt there was something he wasn't saying. It wasn't her place to grill him so she allowed the suspicion to pass, his business was his own. He looked like he was going to add something, but stopped when he saw something over Misty's shoulder.

"Is something wrong?"Misty asked surprised at his sudden pause, although she couldn't see what was happening behind her back. His jaw tightened and a glare started to form on his face.

"It looks like that punk from before got into a fight and Delia is trying to diffuse things," he released Misty's hands and started making his way towards the commotion that Misty could now see. Misty assumed the punk was Andel and quickly followed Giovanni.

She realized after she started trailing after him that he'd brought Delia with him as a guest, but a sense of worry overcame her happiness at seeing another familiar face. When she came close enough to clearly see what was happening she saw Brock standing in front of a girl blocking her from Andel with Delia by his side with her arms crossed. She could only guess that they were somehow trying to protect the fallen girl from Andel, but Misty wasn't sure how it reached that point.

Giovanni who had managed to get well away from her with his long strides picked up what was happening and immediately chose to step in.

Misty reached the crowd just in time to see him face down the angry trainer. Misty could tell Giovanni was mad, but the complete sense of calm he displayed was almost unnerving. "What's happening here?" Giovanni asked deliberately, his voice dropping lower as he leaned towards the younger trainer who looked frightened before anger took it over.

"I was trying to dance with that girl," he pointed a finger at the frightened girl, "and she tried to turn me down. When I insisted she freaked out and that old lady decided to step in." He moved his hand to point at Delia who looked indignant.

"You can't manhandle any girl you want, you pig," Delia responded with more bite in her voice than Misty had heard before. She'd never truly seen Ash's mother angry, although Ash mentioned she was terrifying when she was angry at someone.

"You need to be taken down a few pegs," Giovanni said still keeping himself restrained to an extent, but Misty could already see the beginning of anger creeping into him.

"And what, you think you're going to be the one to do it?" Andel growled out trying to seem tough and his bluster seemed to calm Giovanni down and almost amuse him.

"Yes," Giovanni stated simply looking at the other male as if he was merely a child which only served to aggravated him further. "You aren't a gym leader are you?" he asked.

"No, I'm a trainer and I made it to the Elite Four-," Andel started to speak puffing out his chest as he spoke.

"And failed," Giovanni supplied for him.

He growled out, "Point is I defeated plenty of gym leaders in Johto, what makes you think some out of practice gym leader is going to be able to compare to me?"

Giovanni smirked, "I'm just glad Johto doesn't have any gym leaders as deplorable as you. Trust me kid I won't have trouble keeping up with you, despite not participating in many gym battles recently. Before we battle it's only fair that you know I specialize in ground type, so be prepared not that it'll help you."

"Alright let's go," Andel said turning on his heels and leading them to one of the designated battlegrounds. It was a fairly neutral one with rock flooring and a few boulders lying around two Pokemon Transport Systems stood on either end of the room so the trainers could access all their Pokemon to choose the ones they'd be using during the battle.

A/N

I'm sorry this took so long to put out, but I would have had it finished much earlier if it wasn't for the issues I'm having with my computer. I actually wrote this and am posting it from a public computer.

In an unrelated note I am glad that I got to bring Giovanni in, he'll obviously play a role in the next chapters and then pop in and out of the story after that. Just to let you know another member of Team Rocket will be appearing at some point in the next few chapters. I'll probably edit this chapter later if I catch any mistakes, but I hope you enjoy it. Let me know your thoughts in a review.

February 3rd: I just finished editing and I realized this chapter was quite messy and I didn't catch flaws that I normally should have. I apologize for that and cleaned things up. I added a bit to help things flow a bit more easily, I realized there was an odd gap between the boat ride and the actual ball with very little explanation of what happened in between.