A lot of people have asked me why I'm re-doing Magma and Aqua Turf, and the answer is pretty simple. My characters have developed a lot since I first came out with the original version of this story. I mostly wanted to re-do the last few chapters, but then I decided to just re-do the whole thing because there were a lot of things I wanted to change. This story will follow the same path as the last one, it'll just have some changes.
This chapter is probably going to seem super boring to you all and I apologize.
Cassius felt the waves hit his face as he paddled out into the ocean. It was a beautiful day off for him and it was much needed. His muscles ached from work, but that didn't stop him from riding every wave that he could.
"There he is!" Leighton exclaimed, catching sight of Cassius out on the ocean. Mikhail and Jordan stood behind her, neither very impressed. "CASSIUS!" She screamed and the male surprisingly heard her. He paddled back and ran out of the water with his board under his arm.
"Yo." He greeted, approaching the trio. He shook some water out of his hair and smiled at them. "These your friends?"
"Yeah, this is my boyfriend, Jordan." She said, directing his attention to the black haired male. "And Mikhail!" He looked to the blond male with black and blue streaks in his hair, who just crossed his arms.
"Nice to meet ya both, I'm Cassius." He introduced himself, and neither of them were impressed, but Jordan extended his hand and the two shook hands.
"Thanks for keeping Leighton out of trouble while we're away." He said, making Cassius chuckle.
"Eh, she'll end up getting me killed someday." Cassius joked and Leighton pouted at both males. Mikhail stayed silent and it was obvious to Cassius that he was in a foul mood. "You don't like the beach or somethin'?" He asked Mikhail, who pulled himself further back into his hoodie. "I'll take that as a no."
"Mikhail likes to train and battle with his pokemon." Leighton told Cassius. It was obvious to Cassius that Mikhail didn't like him at all, and he was starting to get the feeling that he didn't like Leighton too much either.
"Oh! Then how about a battle?" Cassius offered, trying to get on Mikhail's good side. He was a cute guy, but it was hard to tell when he was practically hiding in his hoodie. "If not me, there's tons of people on the beach who'd love to battle, especially the kids in the inner tubes." He muttered as a kid with a bright yellow inner tube ran by, almost running into Cassius' surfboard.
"All you probably have is water pokemon, so no thanks." Mikhail mumbled and Cassius could barely hear him over the waves.
"Nah, I only got one water type, and it was my first pokemon."
"Me too! Well, my first pokemon is a water type. Almost all my pokemon are water types, actually." Leighton muttered, glancing down at the few pokeballs she had. "We're not a very pokemon diverse group. Jordan has psychic, I have water, and Mikhail has fire."
"I knew it." Cassius replied, grinning. "Kinda easy to spot those who prefer fire types." He thought back to Natalie, she probably preferred fire types too. "All my pokemon were given to me, so I don't really have a favorite type." He walked over to his spot on the beach, which really just had his bag, a towel, and his umbreon stretched out on the towel.
"What was your first pokemon?" Leighton asked, curious.
"Oh, a magikarp." Cassius replied, setting his board down and drying himself off with the towel.
"I didn't realize your parents hated you." Jordan commented, making Cassius laugh.
"It was from my gramps actually, umbreon was from my parents, well, he was an eevee at first. Dude, I love Siren to pieces. Magikarps are cool pokemon."
"I think you mean useless." Mikhail muttered, wondering why Leighton befriended such an idiot. "Hey, Jordan, I wanna get some ice cream! Come on with me so I don't get lost." Mikhail said, slightly whining.
"Yeah, get him some ice cream. I don't know how he's not dying of a heat stroke yet." Leighton murmured. The two boys left and Leighton sighed, plopping down onto the sand next to Cassius' umbreon. "He hates me."
"Who?" Cassius asked, sitting down next to his partner. "Jordan? Isn't he your boyfriend?"
"No, not Jordan. Mikhail. Mikhail hates me." Leighton whined, her hands covering her face. "I think he used to have a crush on Jordan and is mad at me because I'm dating him. He and I haven't always gotten along since I joined their little group a few months ago, but I've been trying really hard to make him like me since I'm dating Jordan now."
"If it makes you feel any better, he hates me too." Cassius told her, patting her back. "It'll be fine, ya just gotta give him some time. He's a real cutie, even if he's a bit of a sourpuss."
"I'm going to try. You think he's cute?" Leighton questioned.
"I think everyone is cute." Cassius shrugged. "Guys and gals are all attractive to me, but yeah, Mikhail is pretty adorable. I'd totally hit that up if he didn't act like he wanted to kill me."
"I think you two could get along! I know he didn't make the greatest impression, but it'd mean a lot to be if you tried to befriend him." Leighton pleaded and Cassius couldn't really say no to her.
"Fine, but you gotta work extra hard at work….do they know you're in Team Aqua?" Cassius questioned.
"Yeah, but I don't think they know what Team Aqua is exactly." Leighton rolled her eyes.
"It'll be fine, I'll protect you so you won't come home bruised and beaten. You wanna meet Siren?" Cassius hopped up, grabbing a pokeball from his bag.
"Your magikarp? Sure." Leighton didn't even try to hide the disinterest in her tone, but got up and let Cassius drag her towards the ocean.
"Okay, come on out Siren!" He called, throwing the pokeball.
"W-What the hell Cassius?!" Leighton exclaimed as a gyarados appeared in the water. It cried out before lowering its head, nudging Cassius affectionately.
"What the fuck is this?" Mikhail questioned as the two boys approached them with their ice cream.
"Siren!" Cassius said turning to the pokemon and scratching the pokemon's large chin. Leighton stepped back, frightened. She had reason too. Gyarados were not friendly pokemon. They were known to go on rampages and destroy cities, but the one in front of them was happily nudging its trainer, who was laughing and scratching its chin in return.
"You…obvious raised it with love…" Jordan murmured, not expecting this.
Natalie never knew what to do with herself on her days off. She didn't have any friends. She didn't really have any hobbies, except legendary pokemon. However, she didn't really feel like researching any of them today. Her mother was at work, which was probably a good thing because if the woman was home, she'd drag Nate out to the contest hall in Verdanturf Town and Nate was not into that.
Her mother loved things like that though, and she was hoping Natalie would give it a try. Natalie didn't have time to do it, nor the real want to do it. Her mother didn't know about her job and she didn't plan to tell her.
She decided that being at home was just too boring, so she left her mother's house in Mauville City with her espeon at her feet. The two wandered around the city, looking in the windows of shops and just wandering around aimlessly. Natalie slowed down when she saw a girl, around her age with dirty blonde hair in a low ponytail, looking around like she was lost or something. The girl held her wallet in her hands and was obviously distressed.
Natalie knew she was going to regret this, but she approached the girl. "You need help with something?"
"Oh, uh, well…" The girl seemed surprised that someone had stopped to speak to her. "Could you direct me towards the police station? It seems someone stole my wallet. I mean, I have my wallet, I found it, but all my money is gone."
"That sucks." Nate muttered, feeling a little sorry for the girl. She obviously wasn't from around here.
"I'm Lily, by the way. I'm from Snowpoint City in Sinnoh." Lily introduced herself.
"Wow, you're really far from home." Nate said, feeling even sorrier for the girl. "I'm Natalie, just call me Nate." She started to walk, leading the girl towards the police station. Natalie wasn't a huge fan of the police, they often tried to arrest her and her coworkers.
"It's nice to meet you Nate! Thank you so much for helping me out!" Lily exclaimed, hurrying after Nate. "I just left my parents in Kanto and of course this would happen to me." She rambled and Nate thought of Cassius, who had difficulty shutting up as well. "I dunno what I'm going to do. I figured I'd just head home or back to my parents, but how am I supposed to get there without any money? Plus, I really don't want my parents or brother finding out this happened. I might just go and find some people to battle and try to make money that way…."
"There's no way you'd make enough money in one day to get to Kanto or Sinnoh." Nate said and Lily seemed to quieten down as she thought of what she'd do.
"I could just stay at the pokemon center! But Nurse Joy told me this morning that all the rooms are already booked because of some contest event…..I could still sleep on the sofa there…or maybe I'll try camping out?" Lily questioned, trying to come up with good ideas.
Nate was really going to regret this.
"Lily, do you just wanna stay with me?" She asked, stopping and turning to face the girl. Her mother wouldn't mind Lily, at all, she had a feeling the two would get along wonderfully. Despite being in Team Magma, Nate wasn't a bad person.
"R-Really?" Lily asked, surprised by the girl's offer. "Are you sure? I don't wanna be a burden! Plus, you just met me! What if I was a crazy person?"
"I think I could handle it." Nate glanced down at her espeon, who just looked back at its trainer. "My mom won't mind and we have an extra room." She headed back towards her mother's house now and Lily stayed close behind her. She really didn't know why she was doing this and she knew she'd regret it. It was just so unlike her that it frightened her a bit.
"Ah, Natalie! I was just about to call you to see where you were!" Her mother exclaimed the second Nate opened the door. "I got off work early so I figured we'd go grab some lunch and go down to Slateport City to do some shopping in the market."
"Hey mom. I brought a friend home." She used the term 'friend' hoping to make it sound better when she asked her if Lily could stay with them.
"A friend?!" Her mother poked her head out of the kitchen and hurried into the hallway where Lily and Nate were now standing. "Hello hello! I'm Natalie's mother, please call me Ms. Trish! It's so lovely to meet one of Natalie's friends!"
"Hello! I'm Lily!" Lily replied, surprised at the friendliness of the woman. "It's very nice to meet you too!"
"Mom, Lily had her wallet stolen. She found it, but all her money was gone, so I offered the guest room to her." Nate explained.
"That's terrible! Of course you can stay with us, sweetie! You can stay as long as you'd like." Ms. Trish offered. "Now, let me go grab my purse and we can all head down to Slate Port City!" She disappeared down the hallway and into the kitchen once more.
"Thank you so much, again, Nate." Lily thanked her once more, grabbing a hold of one of Nate's hands. She squeezed it tightly, incredibly grateful.
"I couldn't just leave you out there." Nate shrugged as Lily released her hand.
Nate was right about her mother and Lily. The two got along extremely well. Nate and her mother always had a distance between them, mostly because of Nate's job. She kept it hidden from her mother because Team Magma was the very reason why her parents divorced one another when she was eight. Since then, she had been passed back and forth between them every week. It wasn't too bad, especially since they lived only ten minutes away from one another.
Despite them being divorced, her mother and father got along just fine. They were civil and could spend holidays with each other for Natalie's sake. They acted more as friends towards one another than a divorced couple.
"Heyyyyy! Let's double battle!" A child yelled at Lily when she locked eyes with him. She was startled by this as his twin pointed at her, saying the same thing his brother had just said.
"Fine then, let's battle." Nate interjected, joining Lily's side against the two children. The twins sent out their pokemon, a zizagoon and a poochyena. Nate wasn't worried at all about losing and called out her loyal espeon, as Lily called out her leafeon.
It really wasn't a fair fight at all, but the kids had it coming. Within seconds their pokemon were knocked out and they were running away crying with their injured pokemon.
"Thanks for joining me. I really don't battle much, and I hate to battle kids. I feel so bad when I beat them." Lily returned her leafeon and Nate returned her espeon, shrugging.
"I don't feel bad about it. Maybe that'll teach them not to challenge anyone who looks at them." Nate muttered. Her mother was off in the market, having too much fun shopping. Nate and Lily had gone off towards the beach for a shopping break.
"You're really strange, you know that?" Lily told Nate, looking at her. "I mean, you met me today and you're letting me stay with you and hang out with you and your mom, but you're not the overly friendly and helpful type, I can tell. This is really out of your normal zone."
"Something wrong with that?" Nate asked, narrowing her eyes at Lily. She had spent too long dealing with smart mouthed grunts.
"No no no! Nothing wrong with it at all, I'm just pointing that out!" Lily exclaimed, frightened by Nate's expression.
