A Journey
Summary: Ash's daughter has NO interest in Pokemon training. So, Ash, being the enterprising young Master that he is, puts her into the middle of the woods in the night while she's asleep with a pack, no map, a Pokedex, and a VERY angry Pichu.
A/N: I apologize in advance; this chapter is quite long, but I didn't want to separate it and lose momentum. Suffer through it, and you'll have good experience for your senior year of high school.
…
We made it on, and looked at my ticket. 1-09a. The 1 clearly stood for first class, so I was on the top level, room 9a.
I quickly found my room, and noticed that it was next to Lavender's. My room didn't even have a bed, just an extremely small loveseat. We shared a luxurious bathroom, with a whirlpool bathtub big enough for three people at least.
Lavender crossed over, looking extremely awkward. "Who did you get these tickets from?"
"Some couple," I said idly.
"Maybe they ordered the Honeymoon suite, because that's what we got." At this, Lavender let out a girly giggle. "Come see!"
The giant bed in Lavender's room was strewn with flower petals. The fact that the bed was shaped like a giant heart didn't help. The comforters were a vivid red, with several heart shaped throw pillows on them. So that was why the bathtub was so big! I mused to myself. I stared at Lavender, and both of us burst into giggles.
"The bathtub is apparently a Jacuzzi." Lavender said, still giggling. "I'll take it at night. Just save some water for me!" She giggled again.
God, I thought to myself, what a MORONIC girl. Could she go four seconds without giggling, or would that endanger her health? I rolled my eyes, and gestured to Pichu to go back into my room.
"Pichu," I said to it. "We're going to need to have a talk." It folded its arms across its chest and squeaked.
Right at that moment though, a PA announcement echoed through the boat. "We are now having our Pokemon Raffle!"
"Oooh!" Lavender squealed. "I heard about this! All ticketholders are instantly entered into the raffle to get either Sinnoh or the Hoenn Pokemon! Cmon, Twig! Let's go!"
I grinned, and Pichu turned up its' nose, clearly deciding to stay in the room.
"Suit yourself!" I said to my stubborn Pokemon.
Lavender grinned, and we ran out of the room together, towards the Grand Ballroom, in which tables had been set out.
"Hellllllllllllllo! Welcome aboard the 4Trainer Hoenn Launch! To commemorate our 20th anniversary, our Pokemon Raffle is BIGGER THAN EVER! We are raffling off over 500 Pokemon from ALL FOUR REGIONS! That's right, you heard me, ladies and gentlemen, ALL FOUR REGIONS! We have rare Pokemon, too! So, here's how it works. We'll give you twenty tokens with your ticket number on it, and you can put them into different raffle bowls. For example, if you want to join the raffle for a Dratini," the announcer said, pointing at at a bowl with a Dratini drawn onto it, "just plop one of your tokens in it. You can put in as many tokens as you want. Anyways, now for our RAAAAAAAARE POKEMON!"
The announcer, at this, motioned for the lights to dim. After waiting impatiently for twenty seconds, they did.
"Nooooooooooooooooooooow, for our rare and UNUSUAL Pokemon!" I thought the guy seriously talked too looooooooooooooooong, but that was just me. That idiot Lavender looked enraptured, holding her hands with delight. God, what a ditz. Why couldn't I have shared a honeymoon suite with Peter? Wait, I thought, did I just think that? I turned beside me, only to find Peter there, clapping, but also looking annoyed at the annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnouncer. I shared a grin with him, and he shook his head, tossing his hair ever so slightly…
"Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirst off, we haaaaaaaaaave… SINNOHHHHHHHHHHH POKEMON!"
A map of Sinnoh flashed onto the stage. Wow, they are seriously overdoing it!
Meanwhile, Lavender said, "Isn't this great?" I wanted to smack her upside upside the head.
"We have the… Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinoh starters!" The announcer said. Three very, umm, unique looking Pokemon came out. The grass starter didn't look too weird. However, that might be because that my Dad had a Turtwig as well, so I was used to it. However, the Chimchar, the fire Pokemon, was essentially a monkey with a flame constantly spouting from its butt. The water starter, Piplup, was basically a giant blue head with almost no torso and just yellow feet.
Similarly, I tuned out the other Pokemon from all four regions, choosing to merely amuse myself by staring at the other trainers on the boat.
Most of them, like Lavender, had long, flowing, dyed hair in preposterously unnatural colors, such as a black so dark it seemed to suck the light up like a black hole. Shades of pink, violet, and an ostentatious blue also adorned many heads.
Not to say that this made them completely unattractive; many of the female trainers, despite their lurid shades of hair, were very pretty, such as Lavender was. Some of the guys, in a "I stink from walking around the countryside and not showering" sort of way, were even hot. Few of the girls were 'hot' though, persay. Most were just pretty or cute. The hot ones rarely went training, but chose to go into modeling, or something that wasn't as hard on them and their appearance.
There was one notable exception to this standard; one girl sat who, if I was male, would have caused my mouth to go dry with longing for hers.
She had dyed hair, of course, but it was a fluorescent shade of blonde, which, although dyed, was a human hair color, at least. Her eyes were a stormy, clouded gray, and accentuated by dark eye shadow.
One thing that she had that few girl trainers had was breasts, which practically spilled out of the low-cut white camisole she was wearing. Her small pink miniskirt revealed her shapely legs. Her only fault was a mole on the right corner of those puffed up lips. Urgh. More perfection, although her sort was of a different kind than Lavender's.
Most male trainers, the ones who had gone though puberty, which were near her, were staring down her shirt in appreciation of the bountiful goods it contained. Her tight camisole looked in danger of exploding into breasts, and the guys would stare at her until this happened, or so it seemed.
I decided that I would have to go talk to her later.
After what seemed to be about sixteen hours, that aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannouncer finished up his aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamazing spiel, and I was handed twenty circular tokens with my room number on them.
What seemed to be, and probably was, over five hundred bowls, with a card saying what Pokemon raffle they contained, and a photograph of the Pokemon, circled around the room.
Lavender, the intelligent little planner that she was, dropped all of her tokens in for what I assumed to be the rarest Pokemon they offered; a shiny Dratini, magenta and sparkling in the photograph.
I dropped six of my tokens in one for a Rattata with only two other tokens in it. I also added one token each for a Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle, wishing for the familiarity of the starting Pokemon in the far-off region that was my home.
I put two other of my tokens into an interesting looking Pokemon called Chatot that resembled a parrot. Just in case I got lucky, I put the other nine of my tokens into one of the most popular pots; for an Eevee. They actually had two, but the female Eevee was more popular, as she could have more Eevee, and that's what I put in for.
Peter did it in a much more efficient way; he found powerful but unpopular Pokemon, and assumed that he could trade for others. He put ten of his tokens in for a Stantler, a powerful but underappreciated Pokemon. The other ten went towards Mawile, a merciless Steel Pokemon shaped like a giant jaw. It wasn't the most child-friendly Pokemon, but it was very strong.
Finally, another man, thankfully not the announcer, brought in a cart full of Pokeballs in carefully labeled sections.
"Umm, err, I'm the umm captain of the boat." The man said quietly. "And I'm, err, not good with talking with crowds." The trainers, clearly not caring, just stared at him.
"Umm, I should probably start with the Pokemon in order of the National Dex. Umm, the person who gets Bulbasaur is umm, room 3-11." An excited little girl, age five, ran up there, snatched the Pokeball out of his hand, and instantly called it out. It licked her face with a tongue that left grass stains on across her cheek, and she looked delighted. Her parents looked decidedly less delighted.
Similar fanfare occurred for rooms 2-18 and 1-08, a close shave for the Squirtle. Eventually, though, they got to the normal Pokemon. Apparently Caterpie and Weedle weren't that uncommon, even in Sinnoh. However, both of those were rare compared to the Rattata, common in all the lands.
"And this is, umm, strange. Only, umm, one trainer put in for umm, Rattata. Umm, congratulations to 1-09a." I guessed that the other two tokens I saw in there were later taken out by the person who put them in.
I ran up with a grin on my face, and accepted a Pokeball with the cruise's insignia on it. I let it out, and the familiar rat Pokemon from my homeland emerged.
Well, this was it, I thought. This was the chance for me to make a favorable impression on a Pokemon.
"Hi, my name is Twig. I am so happy to meet you." And it was true. I held out my hand for it to sniff, wondering why I was so fascinated by this Pokemon. I loved everything about it. It had this adorable corona of whiskers like a halo around its face. I loved its dainty cream colored paws, like mittens compared to the soft purple shade of its body. Did it look like every other Rattata? Yes, basically, but it was then, thousands of miles from their native habitat, that I realized exactly how beautiful Rattata were. I loved, most of all, the Rattata's ears, so smooth and round.
The Rattata stared at me, chirped, and squeaked lightly. It nudged me with its cool, wet nose, and began to lick me.
"May I pick you up?" I asked. The Rattata nodded. I picked it up gingerly, as though I was carrying the world itself in my arms, and clutched it to my chest. It made a strange noise with its teeth. Grinding teeth was the rat equivalent of purring, I then remembered suddenly, as if in a dream. I held it in my arms out, so I could look at it.
"You're a girl, right?" I hazarded a guess. It was so damn adorable, what else could it be?
It shook its head, and actually blushed a bit.
"Oh," I said, blushing to, feeling terrible for making such a vital mistake. "I'm so sorry!" He batted a paw and me in mock anger, and bared his two main incisors with a playful growl.
"Can I call you Maestro?" I asked hesitantly. "It means someone who controls the music. You make my heart sing." I said. I didn't know why I felt so much for the little Rattata, but I did. At the time, I didn't even stop to think that this must be what Dad felt for Pikachu. He nodded, and then proceeded to lick my face.
"And now, umm, shiny Dratini goes to, umm, room 1-09!" I was about to go up and get the Pokeball, and realized that I had gotten room 1-09a. Maestro chirped and curled up in a ball against my chest, tired.
Lavender ran up with a shining look of that adorable pure happiness. She let the Dratini out of its Pokeball. The magenta colored dragon Pokemon warbled a birdlike chirp.
"Hi, I'm Lavender, and I can tell already that we're going to be best friends!" She gathered the slightly protesting Dratini into her arms without a moment's notice. She kissed it on the jewel on the top of its head, and it blushed pinker.
"I'll call her Rouge!" She added in an awed, somewhat starstruck voice, "It's French for 'pink.' Isn't French so romantic, Peter?"
Peter cleared his throat, and tried to get the look of greed out of his eyes. He instead did something I would never have expected of him.
He slid closer to her, and wrapped an arm around her slender waist.
"Hey, baby Lav," he said, whispering into her ear. "Congrats on the Dratini. You have a nice, long, training ahead of you."
"A long time?" Lavender piped up, blushing furiously. He put his hand on hers.
"Yeah, that's right, baby. It usually takes years to train a Dratini!"
"Wow, that IS a long time," she said stupidly. He stroked her hair with the hand that a second ago had been holding hers.
"Yeah, so what do you say you trade that Dratini of yours for my big, strong Kricketune? You know it's already at its highest evolution." She looked from her Dratini to Peter, and back again, with ever increasing frequency. Finally, he did it; he kissed her lightly on the cheek.
Maestro squeaked loudly, as if to say "Don't do it!" I had wanted to shout out the exact same thing. I stroked his soft ears, and said lightly, softly, so as not to disturb the theft going on only a few feet away from me, "I'll never trade you away unless you want to be." Maestro squeaked happily, as if to say "I'll never want to be traded away." My heart grew warmer and fuzzier at this, and a stupid, happy grin even alighted on my face.
During this, as though in a trance, her eyes glazed over, Lavender handed the ball for the Dratini to Peter, and he handed the ball for Kricketune to Lavender.
Fed up, I told Lavender I was going back to my room. I all of a sudden worried about what Pichu would tell Maestro. I set Maestro on my lap, and said,
"I do have one other Pokemon, I hope you'll become good friends with it. You see, it's a Pichu, and we don't really get along. Please try not to believe everything it says. You see, it's disposed to dislike me. Its father tried to kill me when I was a baby." Maestro squeaked in sympathy.
"Don't let it push you around though," I said. "Your attacks are tackle and tail whip, right?" Maestro nodded.
"Obviously, use your good judgment. Don't do anything you shouldn't." Maestro nodded again.
"PIIIIIII!" Pichu shrieked at the top of its lungs as soon as I opened the door. I instantly tossed Maestro onto the loveseat before he, too, was flooded with electricity. Maestro looked a bit offended that I chucked him, but as soon as he saw me zapped with electricity, I assume he understood. He then tackled the Pichu to the ground, and starting squeaking quickly.
"Pichu," I said, still standing up, but in a lot of muscle pain, "I'd like you to meet Maestro. I hope you two will be great friends!"
Pichu crossed its arms and humphed. Maestro squeaked adorably, trying to make friends.
Then, Lavender ran in. "I think Peter likes me!" She squealed. "Did you see him? He was touching my hair, and holding my hand, and touching my hair! And I got a Cricketune!"
I was honestly about ready to kill that repetitive girl.
"No! Can't you see? He might have liked you, but he was doing all that stuff to get your new Shiny Dratini."
Lavender thought about it for a second, and her face crumpled up sadly, and she burst into tears. I awkwardly patted her on the back, but her face dived into my shoulder, and she sobbed there, cute sniffly little sobs of a tiny, quiet despair.
"There, there. You do have other Pokemon, right?" Lavender nodded.
"It must feel so sad though! I mean, I claimed to like it and then I traded it off!" I was surprised at such an insight coming from her.
"You're going to the Hoenn contests, right?" She nodded.
"Well, after Hoenn, I'm going to Johto and Kanto. In Kanto, I promise you I'll catch you a Dratini and send it to you. OK?" Lavender nodded, and pulled out a lace edged lavender handkerchief and blew her nose in a way that seemed adorable. And then it occurred to me. Yes, she was better looking than me, so I resented her, and yes, she was so stupid it was hard to believe she was alive. But, because of that stupidity, it was my duty to protect little Ms. Perfect. I stood up straight and tall, and all of a sudden, Lavender gave me this fierce hug, which knocked me straight down onto the loveseat.
She got up off of me after a second, and smiled, and skipped into her room, singing "I'm gonna take a bubble bath!" She squeaked the word 'bubble' adorably, high-pitched as ever. I rolled my eyes. Apparently it didn't take her long to recover. But I wouldn't recover from that revelation of mine.
Meanwhile, Maestro and Pichu were done battling, and Maestro jumped onto the loveseat, his tail curling and uncurling energetically. He licked my face, and I smiled. Pichu glared at Maestro and me. Was it jealous? I couldn't tell.
"Umm, Lavender?" I asked.
"Yeah?" She said. Her head poked out of the bathroom. Her lavender hair was wet and fell against the side of her face.
"I'll need to share the bed with you. Remember? My room is just the teeny part of the honeymoon suite."
Lavender blushed and giggled. "It'll be just like a sleepover party!" She clapped her hands together behind the door, and said, "Hey, do you want to come in the bubble bath with me? We could put our bathing suits on!"
I sighed. "Maybe some other time, Lavender. But hey, when we get out of the bathtub, could I see your Pokemon, other than that cricket thingy?"
"What? I couldn't hear you!" She yelled, over the sound of the tub filling.
"Never mind," I said with a roll of my eyes.
"Hey Pichu," I said, approaching the rodent with caution. "You get the whole loveseat! I remember you liked my sleeping bag, and this is almost the same amount of space. Do you want me to get you a pillow, or my sleeping bag?" Pichu huffed and nodded for the second one.
"Maestro, do you want to sleep on the bed, there's plenty of room!" Maestro nodded after a moment of thought, and climbed into the enormous bed. His twitching nose poked out from a particularly large pile of rose petals, and I just cracked up.
Lavender came out wearing only two lavender barrettes and a fluffy lavender towel. "What's so funny?" She asked. I smiled,
"I'll leave so you can change," I said, and retreated to the other room, where Pichu glared at me.
"Okay, I mean, I'm sorry." I fumbled guiltily for a reason it was so irate. "Do you actually want to sleep on the bed with me?" Wrong answer. I found my body, again, flooded with electricity.
"Look," I snapped. "I know you don't exactly love me, but can you try for at least a little civility? Is there nothing in my personality worth your consideration?" The yellow rodent stubbornly shook its little head, which was very oversized for its body.
"Do you like Peter?" I asked jealously, wondering if it really only just hated me. Pichu shrugged.
"Do you like Lavender?" I asked, curious. Pichu shook its head vehemently.
"Oh. Well," I lowered my voice down to a whisper, "She's not the smartest person around," at this Pichu scoffed, "but she's alright. Okay?" Pichu shook its head, and said, "Pii," in an aggravated manner.
"Well, I'm sorry I can't understand you, and you're clearly trying to convey something…"
Maestro squeaked from within the other room. I hastily pat the Pichu on the head, and it shocked me.
"Try not to worry, okay? I mean, Ash understands your father perfectly. I'll get to understand you in time. As soon as I do, tell me what's worrying you." I shivered at the mention of Ash's best friend, my almost murderer. Pichu noticed, and shocked me again, harder this time. Aww, the little sweetie, I thought. It's really warming up to me.