Hi guys! I'm so, so, sorry that I haven't updated for about a month but I've been super busy! And I know that you're excited for Dawn and Paul going to Azalea Town! I hope that this chapter makes up for it! And please forgive me.
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. If I did, then I'd actually have romance in the anime and games. Manga has it anyway, in my book.
Chapter 12: Azalea Town
Dawn's POV
I wake up to my alarm ringing in my ear. I groan and hit it with all my might. It stops, but I think I've just broken it. (A/N How many times have you wanted to break your alarm clock? XD)
I groan when I look at the broken time. Six o' clock in the morning is not good for my complexion. I sit up and remember that Paul wanted us up early and we're meeting downstairs in half an hour. I jump out of bed, wake up Piplup and Buneary (who were sleeping on the end of my bed), strip off my clothes and have a shower.
After my shower, I dry myself and pull on my clothes. I then touch up my make up and head downstairs. Piplup and Buneary trail behind me. I put my alarm in the bin before I left as I didn't want the next person who would stay there to get a shock. They'll think I have anger management!
I see Paul sitting down at a table and I skip up to him. He has his trademark frown on so I decide to annoy him.
"Hiya Iron Man!" I greet. He looks at me and rolls his eyes.
"Hello to you, too Troublesome."
I crack a smile. He then stands up quickly and takes out a map. He's probably planning our route. I get bored and drum my fingers on the table nonchalantly. I can tell that over time, he's getting annoyed. I think he knows what I'm doing because, for the first time, he suppresses his anger and shakes it off.
"Alright, Troublesome." Paul finally says when he's done. "Let's go."
"With out breakfast?" I moan. Not only did I have to wake up too early, but I have to miss the most important meal of the day?!
"With out breakfast." Paul confirms. I groan and stamp my foot in frustration. He smirks in response. I hate him sometimes. Well, I don't. Who could hate this ball of frowny, grumpy plum head?
Paul starts to walk out of the Pokemon Center and I trail behind him. Like a lovesick puppy. I love puppies! They're so cute and squishy! Like all of my teddy bears!
"Stop daydreaming." Paul orders me. How did he notice? And what's so bad about daydreaming? Was I putting him in any kind of danger? No, I wasn't.
"I wasn't daydreaming." I lie. He chuckles.
"You flare your nostrils in and out when you lie." He tells me as we head out of Violet City and step into Route. 32. I decide to change the subject so that he won't see me flare anything else.
"You're observant, aren't you?" I tease. I see Paul blush and I can't help but wonder why he's blushing. "You're blushing now!"
"No I'm not, Troublesome!" Paul growls.
"Okay Mr. Grumpy Pants." I ward him off. Paul calms down. We then get to a crossroad. There are two paths leading off it. One of them leads to these ruins and the other…well I don't know.
"Let's go down this path." I suggest. Paul nods and follows me for once.
As we walk down, we walk through lots of wild grass. Suddenly, a Bellsprout pops out of the grass and tries to attack Paul with its Vine Whip.
Paul quickly takes out his Murkrow and orders it to use Peck. After a few Pecks, the Bellsprout faints. Murkrow looks happy but then Paul dampens his spirits again.
"Don't look so happy; it wasn't a one hit KO." Paul scolds him. Murkrow's body droops and I frown at Paul. He shrugs it off and walks off. Murkrow and I follow.
Lots more Rattatas block our path and Paul takes them out with Murkrow.
"Why do you always use Murkrow?" I ask Paul after Murkrow's defeated the Pokemon. "If you're always complaining about him being too weak, then why don't you just use Turtwig?"
"I'm using Murkrow because in my next Gym battle, Bugsy the Gym leader uses bug type Pokemon. Flying is super effective against bug. You need to know this sort of stuff if you want to become stronger. You need to get prepared." Paul tells me with a chuckle. I huff and keep on walking.
We carry on walking until we get to a pier. We see fishermen scattered all across it, all of them fishing. A fisherman walks up to us when he spotted us and asks us for a double battle.
"Can I join in?" I ask Paul. Paul sighs but nods his head. The fisherman takes out his two Pokemon.
"Go Magikarp!" He shouts. Out come two ugly orange fish. Since they're not in the water, the start to flail about. I laugh and I can see Paul smirking. Good on him! He can laugh!
"This should be easy." I hear Paul mutter. He takes out his other poke ball. "Come on out, Turtwig. Murkrow, you watch this battle for experience."
Turtwig comes out with a shout of joy. He stamps one of his feet and smile. I decide that Buneary should have a chance of battling so I smile at her (both Piplup and her we behind me) and she knows what to do.
Buneary runs in front of me, next to Turtwig, and they start to battle. Paul makes the first move.
"Turtwig, use Grass Knot on Magikarp!" Paul orders. I'm surprised. When did Turtwig learn that move?
"I didn't know that Turtwig knew Grass Knot." I tell him. He looks at me with a frown. Then he sighs.
"I found it before I met you. I didn't teach Turtwig Grass Knot until this morning." Paul explains.
"Why didn't you tell me?" I ask with one of my eyebrows raised.
"You didn't ask." Paul simply answered. I shrug him off when I hear the fisherman cry out when he sees that Magikarp is almost fainting.
"I didn't want to use this move. Its too dangerous." He starts to say. He looks angry and his head is drooped. "But its time for the combo move! Both of you use Splash!"
His Magikarp both get water around them and then…that's it. That's it?! Paul and I sweat drop. The fisherman looks satisfied, though.
"I'm pretty strong, aren't I?" He asks us with a smirk. Paul face palms and I laugh at the silliness of it all. The fisherman looks confused at our responses so I take this as an opportunity to strike.
"Buneary, use Ice Beam!" I order her. Buneary nods.
"Use Grass Knot at the same time as her, Turtwig!" Paul shouts.
Buneary has a beam of ice coming out of her mouth and easily freezes the Magikarp. The Magikarp miraculously breaks out of the ice but faints straight after that. I fist pump.
Turtwig on the other hand, just touched a bit of grass on Magikarp when the Magikarp faints. Paul smirks and I clap my hands with joy. I hug Buneary and she snuggles into me.
"Wow, you guys are good." The fisherman breathes. I nod with some dignity and fold my arms.
"I know!" He suddenly exclaims. I jump with surprise.
"What is it?" I ask.
"I'll give you these since you beat me!"
He hands me a fishing rod. He then does the same to Paul. We hold the rods in confusion.
"Now you can catch fish, too!" He shouts. "I'm Scott by the way."
"We'll see you around then." Paul says quickly and drags me to the end of the pier. I shout Scott a goodbye and with that, we're off again.
We walk until we get to a cave.
"This is called Union Cave." Paul tells me.
"How did you know that?" I ask.
"Research." He simply says and walks into the cave.
The cave is very dark so Piplup, Buneary, Turtwig and Murkrow follow behind me. I smile at them as we walk though. I'm not afraid of the dark but it can get very creepy sometimes.
But it seems that it's Paul's comfort zone. He walks without any sign of him stopping. He seems really relaxed. I look at him in puzzlement.
We get through the Union Cave without any hassle (except from this Sandshrew but that is a story for another day). As we get out to Route. 33, it weirdly starts to rain. I scream when I realise that my hair will get wet.
I run until I get to our destination: Azalea Town. It weirdly stops raining the minute I step foot in the town. I wait for Paul to catch up with me and we walk on.
I stop in my tracks though because I see a man with a black hat on, black shirt, black trousers and black boots on. He has black gloves on and a red 'R' on his shirt. The man is pushing a kid around.
I don't know why, but something snaps inside of me. This man is hassling a poor little kid (who is now crying) and I won't stand for it! Maybe I was hassled when I was kid? Maybe that's why I'm so emotional over this? I shake the thought though and run at the man.
I stand in front of him and he just sneers at me. I give him the finger and I kick him hard in the junk. He gasps in pain and falls down. I then (I don't know how I do this) pick him up and throw him down a nearby well. I hear the man shouting all the way down until I hear a thump.
I run back to the girl to see if she's okay and she smiles at me and hugs me.
"You were so awesome!" She exclaims. I smile at her.
"You were very brave. And please don't try this on other people. What's your name?" I ask.
"My name is Tia. Since you've been so kind, I'll bring you to my Grandad. He'll need to speak to you." Tia tells me and pulls me through the town. Paul and all our Pokemon trail after me. I wonder why her Grandad will need to speak to me.
We stop at a small, quaint house. I'm guessing that this is her house. She pulls me inside and I smile again.
When we get inside, I see a man sitting on a chair, looking at a picture of a Slowpoke. He looks very sad and I can hear sad music playing on the radio. When he notices us, he suddenly smiles and pockets the picture.
"Tia! Why have you brought these people here?" He asks with a smile. He has grey hair and is wearing a turquoise kimono. Brown sandals adorn his feet.
"I brought these people because they saved me!" Tia explains.
Tia then starts to explain what happened and by the end of it, the man looks grateful.
"I'm very happy that you saved my granddaughter. My name is Kurt. I make poke balls out of apricorns." Kurt thanks.
"It was nothing." I assure him, nodding.
"But Grandad, this is not why I brought these two here." Tia whispers to Kurt. I return my Pokemon because I think that something important will be revealed. Paul does the same.
I see Tia whisper more stuff into Kurt's ear and I see his shocked face.
"Do you think they could do it?" Kurt asks Tia.
"Yes." She answers. Kurt nods and clears his throat.
"I'm sorry to ask you something so out of the blue but we need your help. The whole town needs your help. Can we ask for a favour?" Kurt says his face very serious.
"Of course." I say.
Kurt shows me the picture of the Slowpoke that he was holding before.
"This is my Slowpoke. We love him dearly but we've lost him. He didn't come back about three days ago and since he's so slow, he couldn't have gone far. But we couldn't find him and we think that he's been stolen. And it seems that the whole town's Slowpoke has gone missing." Kurt explains. I gasp and motion for him to carry on.
"We have reasons to believe that something funny is going on in Slowpoke Well and since I'm not as nimble as I used to be, I can't investigate. And that is where you two come in. You're strong, young and you are healthy. That is why we need you two to check out the Slowpoke Well."
Well that was a dramatic chapter! I also thought that Dawn beating up the man in black was hilarious. I won't tell you who he is though. But I'm guessing that you'll find out. If you've played HeartGold and SoulSilver then you'll be able to guess easily. Sorry again for the long wait for the update.
Please: Review, review and review! Oh and have a Merry Christmas!