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: Long, but not as long as the behemoth chapters of yesteryear. Please give me your impressions of the characters, as they are the meat of the story. Thank you for your time.
…
I glowed with pride. So I didn't do much, just ordered someone else's powerful Pokemon to do one small command, but give me my moment of glory, no matter how small!
Maestro licked me on the cheek and chirped, and I laughed, coming back into the real life of things. The battle was… mesmerizing, to say the least. It was interesting, to try to see the strategies, and it was surprising, almost disgusting how interesting I found it.
I turned to Peter, who was accepting a congratulatory handshake from the girl, who said with a smirk,
"Good job. My name's Lauren, by the way. Room 2-11." She licked the top of her lips slightly, and I rolled my eyes.
I guess I thought that she was journeying to prove that really hot, sexy girls could be trainers as well. Maybe I was misreading things, but it looked like although she was a good trainer, her main purpose was seducing the hapless male teenaged majority of trainers.
She smirked at me, and then snaked an arm around Peter.
"So tell me," she said, "how did you win that match?"
While I was upset at this obvious attempt to steal Peter away, I could see that Lavender looked devastated. At this, I promptly decided that under no circumstances could Lauren become closely affiliated with our group.
I turned to Pichu, which by now had hopped off my shoulder, and was grooming itself with dignity, as though my shoulder was so dirty it needed to cleanse itself.
"What do you think of her, Pichu?" I asked.
Pichu shrugged, to indicate that it wouldn't agree with me in dislike of her, even if he disliked her.
I saw Lavender, who was bravely attempting not to cry in a way that made it plainly obvious to everyone there that she was about to cry. I inched closer to her, feeling distinctly guilty for no real reason.
"Peter likes you, Lavender, he's just trying to be nice to Lauren!" I explained, trying to cheer the intellectually challenged girl up.
"Yeah, she said, but I don't like the way Lauren's trying to be 'nice' to Peter." Sharp humor? From Lavender? Was I hallucinating? I laughed instantly, and then practically reeled when I realized whose joke I was laughing at.
The boy gambler with the Calcudex returned to the bleachers, avoiding Pichu, and he held up a fat wad of cash.
"Ha!" He said triumphantly, and then typed something into his Calcudex, and the money disappeared.
"So how'd you think my sister did?" He said mildly.
My head snapped around. "Your WHAT?"
"Haha, you know, you're pretty gullible!" He said with a laugh. I glared at him, my eyes narrowed.
"Haha, you know, you're pretty immature if that's what you consider to be funny!" I mocked with a laugh.
"So what's your name, anyways?" I asked, putting my feet up on the row of bleachers in front of me. Maestro jumped onto my lap from my shoulder with an 'oof.'
"The name's Brett Senegal. Yours?"
"An insignificant detail," I joked again, figuring that once I had a good line I should keep on using it.
"No it's not," he whined in his little kid voice. "If you're not telling me, it's because you're someone important! Tell me!"
"Alright, but promise you won't tell?" I asked quietly.
"Yeah, yeah," he said with a wave of his hand.
"I'm Ash's daughter."
He gasped. "REALLY?" He yelled more than said.
"Yes." I said quietly.
"Yeah, big whoop," he said, bored. I then realized that his last exclamation was sarcastic.
"Dawn's my mother. You know, the coordinator champion of Sinnoh?"
"Really? You don't look like her." I pointed out.
"I'm only related to Dad," he said somewhat defensively.
"Hey, that's okay, no need to get so defensive," I said quickly.
"Hey, my dad traveled with your mom!" I realized with a laugh.
"This is true," Brett said. "Yeah, mom kind of just wanted me to start on a journey. She thinks I'm becoming a League competitor. I'm going to Hoenn because that gambling isn't legal in Sinnoh gyms."
"Oh," I added with a sigh.
Lavender added in, "Aww, you're so adorable and little!"
He glared at her. No boy likes being called 'little.'
"Hey, do you want to come with us when we journey in Hoenn?" She asked. I rolled my eyes. Any kid that she met, would she invite them along too? And what was with the 'we?' It was kind of a rather unspoken agreement that 'we' were doing anything! We hadn't discussed it officially, she kind of just assumed it.
"Sure!" The kid said thoughtfully. "It'd be a good idea to attach myself to that trainer there," he said, pointing at Peter, who was engrossed in conversation with Lauren.
"Really? I think his strategy is somewhat lacking," I said conversationally. Having a little kid around might crimp our style, hard to say. It means we'd have to wait in tall grass to catch Pokemon, have to wait for him to get a starter, go to every damn gym he saw… Then again, if Peter was doing that already, would it be so terrible? Wait, one thing…
"You said that you don't want to train Pokemon, right?"
Brett nodded.
"Well, you could give me your starter Pokemon that the Professor gives you," I wheedled.
He stared at me, grinning. "Yeah, that'd work. Saves me the time it'd take to raise it. I'd want something in return though."
"I only have one thousand dollars now. How about an IOU? If I get a starter Pokemon, I'm sure I could win more battles…"
He nodded. "Sure, but you'd have to pay me back. Let's say, fifteen thousand dollars?"
"That should work," I said with a smile. I offered the boy my hand, and he shook it.
"So yeah, definitely come with us," I said with a smile. He grinned back.
"Do you battle?" He asked Lavender, staring at her calculatingly.
"I do contests!" She squeaked. "I'm not the best, but I do alright," she said with a cute modesty.
"I can bet on contests, but the stakes aren't as high."
"How high are the stakes?" I asked. I had never heard of Pokemon betting as a profession, but apparently it was.
"Like I said before. Offer up half the money you have on hand. If you lose, you gotta pay that much. If you win, you get that amount. I try to play it safe unless I'm a hundred percent positive; I put most of my money in my PC bank account, so I have less to lose if I make a bad decision. Betting is hard, because you have to judge how much the trainer knows as well as the Pokemon. I'm good at using the Calcudex, but not at judging the trainers." He concluded a little sadly.
"That sounds really interesting!" I said. I never knew money was to be made of off observing people and using a little Calcudex. "I could help you with the people part!" That's what appealed to me. Trying to figure out by what they wore, by the way they scanned the field, by what they said beforehand, their grasp on strategy.
"What do you think of Peter's strategy?" I asked in a somewhat lowered voice.
"I couldn't really tell before the match. He turned out to know all of Infernape's moves well, but he stalls, and doesn't really think outside of the box. I couldn't tell that from just looking at him, though," he said disappointedly.
"What are the contest stakes?" Lavender asked with a frown, sounding surprisingly engaged.
"Only one-quarter of what you have. I'd have to check out a lot of money from my account to bet a good amount of money, and carrying it around is dangerous. At least if I was with you guys, I could feel a bit safer about it." He said with a grin.
"Where's Peter?" Lavender said suddenly, stiffening. She looked around, but he and Lauren were both gone. She let out a little gasp, and turned to me, her eyes brimming with tears and fears.
"Let's go," I said with a resigned sigh. "See you around, Brett."
"My room number is 2-28," he said quickly, eagerly.
We left, Maestro on my shoulder, Pichu at my right, Kricketune at my left, and Lavender jogging in front of me, looking frantic.
"Did you like to watch it?" I asked the musically inclined bug. He nodded.
"How about doing it yourself?" I asked. He shrugged, and made a gesture as if to say 'sort of.'
"Well, let me check," I said, pulling out the ever-handy Pokedex. Chopin knew Growl, Bide, and Fury Cutter. Not the best attack set, and I'd have to raise him four levels before he could learn even Leech Life, a weak attack that even the weakest cave Zubat knew at birth. Good thing I would be getting a Hoenn starter, no matter the shady means; I had actually been mistaken enough to think that Chopin could be my main battling Pokemon! I really needed strong Pokemon because of the wild Pokemon. I really didn't trust them; if even a highly domesticated Pokemon like Ash's Pikachu would have no qualms killing me, what about a wild, untrained Pokemon who didn't know me, let alone care about me? Also, if my dad's run-ins with Team Rocket are any indication, my world is badly policed and full of wack-jobs, which is a bad combination if you can't defend yourself.
I would, unfortunately, have to train Maestro and have him be ready to fight if necessary. Pichu, the most powerful Pokemon I possessed, I didn't even want to try and train. The idea of putting more thunder power in the paws of a trigger-happy electrocution junkie who would want nothing more than to shock my muscles into a burning, quivering pulp seemed foolhardy, to put it mildly.
Lavender continued her frenzied search, and finally found them by the prow of the ship. Lauren had her Ambipom out, and Peter had out his Infernape, and was talking to Lauren, gesticulating at her Ampipom. Infernape was staring somewhat fearfully at the water below, while Ambipom glowed at the praise. She was staring at him, interested, not being whorish, as though she was actually trying to learn from him. I was impressed.
"Peter!" Lavender called, and pulled him into a hug. "I was so worried! I didn't know where you were!" Peter rolled his eyes at her pronouncement.
"You're not my mom, you know." He said coldly, and turned back to Lauren and began chatting again. Another thing you shouldn't do with guys is make it seem as though they have to report their actions to you. Their manly pride or whatever will be offended.
I stared at Peter, wondering if he, rather than Lavender, was the clueless one. I liked Peter, Lavender liked, if not loved, Peter, and Lauren wanted to jump his bones. He did not notice anything but Pokemon. Then again, I imagine my dad was like that too. My mom had followed him around for years and he had not bothered to notice that she liked/loved him. He did notice eventually, obviously, or else I wouldn't be here, but he sure took his time.
Lavender pouted her lip, and her eyes filled with tears. She began to lightly run away. I shot Peter my nastiest glance, and Pichu electrocuted both of us before retreating with me, not going near Lavender.
"Look," I said to Lavender, after I had found her curled up on the loveseat in my room, hugging a pillow to her chest, "guys are assholes. Peter is better than some," I added, "but not by much. If he knew he was hurting your feelings, he would stop." I concluded with a shrug of my shoulders.
She didn't look so good.
"Lauren's prettier than me! There's nothing I can do!"
"Not true!" I said. "You're much prettier than her. She might have the sex appeal, but just think about the disgusting, huge, saggy boobs she'll have twenty years from now!" Lavender giggled, and I sighed.
"Look, you're a lot prettier than I'll ever be, and you're adorable. People will go out of their way to protect you, and I don't think I'll ever get that treatment. You have to give Peter time. You know guys have only a two track mind- sex and Pokemon. Try to get in on his Pokemon track, cuz that's obviously stronger for him. Invite him to watch your next contest!"
"That's a good idea!" She said happily. "Thanks for being such a good friend!" I smiled. In only two days, I had given her two pep talks. Not the best ratio. It gave me something to do, at least. I had been banned from the phones because of the Little Chu Wonder, I didn't battle, and the trainers were too advanced to find me good enough to talk to or whatever, and anyways, all they'd talk about would be Pokemon. I didn't think there was really room on the boat for hard-core training, and I had no mail service, so writing letters seemed pointless.
What did people do on three-week-long boat rides? Just hang out and talk?
Probably the Pokemaniacs would battle the day away, but not for me. I did, however, open my Pokedex while Lavender released Ecru the Feebas in the tub.
I registered some additional information about myself on the Pokedex, such as my hair color and eye color and such. I looked up the less-than-impressive attacks my Pokemon could learn. Chopin's moveset was basically hopeless for any real battling, and Maestro's moveset was actually less than completely dismal. For any real competitive battling, yes, it was completely dismal, but he would be able to fend off most weak wild Pokemon. And Pichu had possibilities if it could evolve. I knew how strong Ash's Pikachu was, and although Ash's Pikachu was special, so was this Pichu, according to both Peter and Brett, who had said its thundershock was twice as strong as it should be at this stage.
I sighed, and walked into the dining room with Maestro on my shoulder. Chopin had decided to stay back at the room with Lavender and Pichu. A lot of people had their Pokemon out with them, and I just watched. I watched for the ones that babied their Pokemon, I watched for the ones that treated them dismissively, and didn't even pretend to listen when they talked in their simple languages. I listened for the ones that actually carried on conversations, albeit rather one-sided ones, with their Pokemon, confiding in them, even if they didn't expect anything in return. I watched for the ones that actually laughed at something their Pokemon said. I turned my head in a wide circle to the right, and I met the incredibly piercing blue eyes of someone who was watching people just as I was.