Archie smiled, knowing that a liking for Totodiles was something they had in common. For her, it's because that were easy to scribble in the margins of workbooks.

"Well, if Johto's got Murkrow's and Totodiles, count me in."

She said, and then looked down at Taru, who leaned against her leg to get attention. She squatted down ad rubbed his head.

"And where were you when I needed you for an epic pose?"

Taru froze.

Archie blinked, worried.

"Taru? Just joking okay? Loosen up."

Taru unfroze, blushing.

"Anyway, in case you didn't hear Lo shouting, we're going to the Johto region to catch Pokémon."

She said, smiling.

"Which means, we need to practice!"

She said, standing up and pulling the sane pose yet again.

She considered making it her signature pose, and decided it would work.

"Baggies." She called over her shoulder, picking up Taru and heading for the training grounds.

"And maybe you should come too."

Archie said, disappearing around a corner.

Lolita sighed, shaking her head at her friend who disappeared around the corner. Why must she bag the moves she came up with? IT WASN'T FAIR! Fake crying she came up and hugged her two Pokémon.

"'S'not fffaaaaiiiirrrrr~! Chichi bagsed my move again."

"Squirtle squirt." comforted Squirtle while Slowpoke just yawned. She grinned down at them both before standing back up and pulling the pose AGAIN.

"It does not matter! I will also claim it as my own! BWAHAHAHA! Now then, lets go and check out the ferry times to the Johto region~!" And off she skipped with Squirtle following her and holding Slowpoke.

Archie restricted the training session o reviewing what they had already established.

After a while, Archie noticed someone watching and stopped giving orders.

She spun around and gave the person the raised-eyebrow/crossed-arms/tapping foot for here on know as; The Mum's Look.

"Yes? IS there a reason you choose to spy?"

The intruder blinked.

"Spy? I'm not spying!"

Archie snorted.

"Then why are you hiding in that bush?"

The person stumbled out.

Archie blinked, grabbed Taru, who had wandered over to her, and ran.

As they approached the town, Lolita returned both Squirtle and Slowpoke before skipping into the empty ticket box, the only person there being the snoring guard in the ticket box. Lolita giggled as he jumped when she knocked on the glass.

"Huh? Whhaaaa?"

"Hi! I'd like a ticket for the first ferry to Johto!"

"Eh... ah... sure, trainer ID?" Lolita presented her pokedex and then took it back with the tickets.

"Thank you!" And she skipped off again.

Archie stopped, out of breath and set Taru down.

"Bulba?" He said, stretching.

"It's...someone from my old life. Someone I'd rather not talk to." She said, my face twisted.

Taru blinked, then stood up a foot on Archie's knee.

"Saur." He said, solemnly.

She sighed, rubbing her left fore arm.

"Yeah? If only I could know for sure what your saying."

Taru frowned. He'd thought she'd understand.

He back up a few steps and sat down, his ears twitching.

"Bulbasaur." He said, trying to get across he was listening.

"Oh. You... want to know?"

He nodded, and then tilted his head, thinking.

"Well, before... I had an accident, I used to live in a different town, with other friends. Friends I don't talk to anymore. The one spying? Used to be one of my closest friends. We planned to be Pokémon trainers together, traveling the world."

Bulbasaur blinked. This was surprising.

"Then...a lot of things went terrible wrong. And I got hurt, in all different ways."

She sighed.

"Then, I had to move. And well, at the time, I hated his guts, and I don't think he understood anything."

She sighed.

"I'm just not ready to face him again."

She finished, then looked up to see Lo skipping towards them.

Taru jerked his head at Lo, trying to get his point across.

"What? No. She doesn't know. I don't talk about my old life. With any one. I only told you because I thought I ought to let you know why I ran."

She said, then waved at Lo, a smile on her face.

Taru sighed and turned, thinking deeply.

Lolita grinned at Archie before blinking at her and frowning.

"Hey, Chichi, what's wrong?" Something was off

"Some weirdo was spying on me when I was training. So I left. Fast."

She shrugged. Taru stomped his foot, annoyed. He looked over at Squirtle.

(She's lying dammit. Trust me, getting her to talk about her past with anyone is uber hard. She just met an old friend of hers, and ran. We need to do something or she'll never tell!)

He said, turning a full circle.

Squirtle blinked at Taru before sitting down and thinking, Slowpoke was still in his pokeball.

(Well... I really don't know... I'll see what I can think of when I sleep on it, ok?)

Lolita frowned a bit more before shrugging and pulling on her hand, picking up Squirtle as she went.

"Come on! We're going to miss the ferry!"

"Oh YAY! I ferry. I hope they have a snack bar."

She pulled out Taru's pokeball and carefully returned him, concerned about his odd behavior.

Then she hurried after Lo, glad she had already packed her stuff.

Lolita grinned and ran up onto the boarding plank for the ferry, waving to her friend who was lagging behind.

"Come on! Your slower then Slowpoke!"

Arhie rolled her eyes.

She was still freaked out from seeing her old friend like that. Why had he been spying like that? She shook her head.

She had to forget about him. That was all.

She shrugged and looked up, then grinned.

She suddenly burst into a run, zooming up dock to the plank then walking along it with a crazy pirate swagger, swaying with her arms held out. The board swayed dangerously, but she scuttled along it with pride. She reached the end and leapt off, landing right in fount of Lo.

"Arr!" She said, and then zoomed around her, heading for snack bar.

She could not eat for ages, or be hungry only 10 minutes after eating, it varied.

Sitting down on a stool she quickly ordered food and drink, then grabbed it and ran to the steps, taking them two at a time.

Almost tripping at the top, she did a comical hop to keep upright, then spun and hovered over to a seat by the side of the boat. Dumping her stuff on the spare seat she flex and bended her arms, shrugged of her bag, and sat down, Gathering her food to her lap. she pulled a battered book out of her pack and slipped in next to her hip, opening a packet.

Sitting back, she let her friend process a side that people barely ever saw.

Archie's efficiency mode, which made it possible to dress in under 5 minutes, a stark contrast to her normal cruisey manner.

She pulled Taru's 'ball out of her pocket, setting it in the cup holder of the seat, and picked up her book, munching on some hot chips.

Lolita rolled her eyes at her friend's behavior and then bounded into the main part of the giant cruise ferry ship. It was this nice because it was meant to take several days to get to the Johto region and as such, there was entertainment on the inside. She bounded in and watched as a battle went on. Some new kid with a Flaaffy was calling for a challenge and Lolita smirked. Ah, this would be a good release. He looked like one of those mean trainers too, one of them who were too cocky and didn't give a piece of shit for their Pokémon.

She bounded up in front of him and pulled a dramatic pose.

"Fine! I challenge you to a Pokémon battle!" The boy smirked and nodded.

"Deal, winner gets the others Pokémon that they used for battle, got it?" Lolita nodded, smirking. This idiot was way to cocky.

"Ok then! As challenger I get to choose first! Slowpoke, lets go, we could use some practice!"

"Ha! Your using a water type when I clearly use electric? What a looser! Flaaffy, lets eliminate these losers!"

"Flaa..." Flaaffy seemed reluctant to battle but stepped up when the boy growled some sort of threat at him. Lolita scowled; oh this was DEFIANTLY going to be worth it.

Slowpoke blinked up at the Flaaffy in front of him, analyzing it. Ah, female and quiet, or at least, at the moment, under this trainer, but who knows what she'd be like out of this trainers hold. So... to honor his trainer and to free the Flaaffy, Slowpoke decided that this was to be a proper battle. Lolita pulled her dramatic pose again and pointed ahead.

"Ok, Slowpoke, lets go! Start off with a Water Gun!" A strong current of water blasted out of Slowpokes mouth, making a direct hit on Flaaffy, but doing almost no damage.

"HA! You should know better then to use a water move on an electric Pokémon! Flaaffy! Discharge!" A wide current of electricity went around the field, hitting Slowpoke, but doing little damage. Lolita grinned and pulled the peace sign.

"Ha! There was a reason why I picked Slowpoke, he's a high-leveled Pokémon compared to your Flaaffy. Slowpoke, now use Confusion!" A psychic wave of power hit Flaaffy, doing out its remaining HP, knocking it out.

"See, if I do a little damage at first, you don't bother to heal, and then I deal the killing blow. Now then, I believe I just won your Flaaffy?" The kid snorted and handed it over.

"He, if it lost to you then its useless." He returned Flaaffy and tossed the pokeball over. "Take it, I don't need it anymore." Lolita scowled at his retreating back before picking up Slowpoke and attaching Flaaffy's pokeball next to Squirtle's and wondered away to the food section.

"You deserve a good snack."

Archie looked up from her book, confused by the shadow that had fallen over her.

A terrible familiar face grinned down at her.

"Hello." He said.

Archie went pale, and tried to get up. He pushed her back down, smiling.

"Your supposed to say, 'Hello' back." he prompted, gently.

"Hello back." She said, frowning.

He laughed. Not a mean laugh, but a perfectly honest laugh.

She felt confused. Memories of bad times screamed at her to flee.

"Fancy seeing you here. I heard you were around. Going to Johto are we?" He said, sitting down. He pulled a pokeball out of his pocket, tossing it up and down.

"We? There is no we!" She said, trying to get up.

He pulled her back down, his grip on her arm strong.

"Oh come on. I haven't seen you for years! Can't we just be nice?"

She sighed, watching the poke-ball's movement.

He saw her do it and grinned.

"Fire pokemon. Always my element." He said, cheerfully, fondling her arm, a smile on his face as he turned, that stupid innocent look on his face.

The one that meant he was to try to get his way.

She tied to pull away but he just tightened his grip so she grabbed his hand and twisted, forcing him to let go. Grabbing her book and Taru's poke-ball, she ran for the stairs. She heard him curse, and fiddle with the pokeball.

She went down so fast she practically fell, hitting the ground with a grunt. She hauled her self up, scuttling along the corridor until she stopped.

She had run to the food section.

She walked in, spotting Lo.

She hurried over, checking over her shoulder to see if he had followed her. He hadn't.

She chewed her lip and stared at Slowpoke, before noticing Lo had yet another pokeball.

She sighed, wishing her friend would let her catch up. She went back to staring at Slowpoke, wondering if Lo would let her take care of him for a while.

Something about Slowpoke really calmed her down, but she didn't know why.

She decided to ask, it wouldn't hurt.

"Hey Lo, want me to take care of Slowpoke for a while?"

She said, her voice calm. She heard a laugh coming from the corner and jumped. It sounded familiar, but she didn't look. She didn't care if it was one of her ex-friends or not.

Lolita blinked at Chichi's nervousness that rang though out her voice and narrowed her eyes at Chichi before looking down and whispering to Slowpoke. Something wasn't right here (I still get to control Slowpoke when you have him, got it?).

"Keep her safe and out of trouble, ok?" While Slowpoke nodded she turned to Chichi, grinning and nodding happily.

"Sure! He just won me a competition that helped me save this evil trainers pokemon! A Flaaffy! Make sure to get him something sweet!" And she handed him over and she skipped off to the practice deck, ready to have some fun!