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: Things become complicated, time passes, and the mystery is introduced. Let me know if I fall to the dark depths of the abyss that is the cliché. (I'm too young to die.)
…
He stood there, his unblinking gaze not so much resting as tearing across mine.
He walked over to me, a taut smile drawn and quartered across his face.
"My name's Des I. Manifesto. It's a new moon tonight. What's yours?"
"An insig-" Before being allowed to utter my catchphrase, he interrupted me.
"Want to come back to my room?"
I nodded, and Maestro turned to stare at me apprehensively from my shoulder.
I walked with him, and smiled slightly at him, somewhat worried myself.
He stopped at room 1-31, and held the door open for me.
"Look, are you bored?" He asked abruptly
"Excuse me?" I asked, unsure of what he meant.
"I mean, do you want to do something or whatever?" He asked.
"Sure!" I said.
"Look, I have a flying Pokemon. Want to go for a ride?" He asked, blushing furiously.
"Sure!" I repeated, excited at the thought of getting out and doing something. I dropped my Pokeballs other than Maestro's in my room.
He led me to the deck, and as I followed with Maestro still on my shoulder, he took out a Pokeball, and called out an enormous Gyrados. It roared as it was let out, and Des climbed onto it right behind its head. I followed hesitantly, making sure Maestro didn't fall off.
We got on, and we started speeding off. Gyarados flew off, waving like a ribbon in the sky, undulating like a wave. It flew close to the water, skimming, and occasionally banking down into it.
"Faster!" Des called, and the Gyarados began to speed up, the waves lashing at us like whips now when we dipped down to low.
Des called "faster" twice more, until we were whipping through the air so hard it hurt. The wind snatched my words and I couldn't speak and I fought to breathe and my thoughts were muddled and it's so hard to keep holding on so let go and darkness.
"She's waking up!"
"TWIG!" It was Lavender.
"Lavender, where's Peter?" I asked. Shit, was that out loud?
"I think he's battling again, sorry," she said, sounding sad that I wanted to know where he was. Jealous that I asked about him first before I asked about her, or that I liked him?
"At least you don't have to worry about being bored for the rest of the trip!" Lavender said with a laugh. I opened my eyes, and I saw the concern, sadness, and fear on her features.
"What's the problem?" I asked.
"I've been worried about you! You've been gone and asleep for the past 18 days! How could I not worry?" She seemed a bit hysterical.
"Where was I?" Memory returned. "I fell off the Gyarados?"
"Yes you did." She said sadly. "Maestro swam back as fast as he could for help after dragging you to a piece of driftwood, but by the time he came back and the rescue crews returned, a Wailord had already picked you up.
"He thought you were a castaway from Sinnoh, so he brought you back there, risking beaching in the process. When he got to the beach, it was storming and no one was there, so he turned around. That was five days, because Wailord swim very slowly; he had his Wingull friends bring you some seaweed and they ate it, threw it up into a mush they could feed you while you were conked out, and swimming against the storm, the Wailord came back to where it had found you.
"By then, the boat and rescue crews were long gone, and the Wailord finally realized you must have come from the ship. It started swimming after it as fast as it could, but it wasn't fast enough, and a group of mean Sharpedo tried to attack it. It was saved, and it doesn't remember how, and then a Dragonite, who was given orders by someone whose identity she isn't allowed to reveal, to pick you up and take you here. You were probably awake after those first five days, but the Dragonite like accidentally flew a bit too roughly with you and you suffered a 'concussion' or something and some rescue Pokemon had to pick you up." Lavender said.
"The reason we know about the Wailord and the Dragonite is because that one of the Pokemon that was rescuing you was a Starmie, and it psychically asked the Dragonite." Lavender concluded with a giggle.
I was just sitting there in shock, taking it all in, taking in the surprising fact that Lavender could string that many words together. I looked at her skeptically.
"I've been practicing telling you coherently for like the past two days!" She said with a cute grin.
"I missed you, Lavender, even if I can't remember it," I said, and she blushed and gave me a hug.
"So why am I connected to the IVs?" I asked conversationally.
"Oh, those stringy things? I don't know, probably because all you ate was Wingull throw-up!" She smiled. "Eew!" She squealed cutely. Yup, that was the Lavender I knew.
"Do you know when I'll be able to leave?"
"Hopefully by tomorrow, because that's when we leave the boat!" She giggled.
"Tomorrow! Yeah, eighteen days, that'd be about right," I mused.
"So yeah! I'm just really glad you're feeling okay!" She closed her eyes and gave a cute smile.
"Can I see my Pokemon at least?" I asked her. "You can go get them."
"All of them?" She asked, her brow furrowed.
"Sure, why not."
It was a very dull twenty minutes before she came with all of them. She had had to drag Pichu along on a string, which probably accounted for the delay.
The struggling yellow rat glared at me, and sagged its shoulders slightly.
"Are you disappointed or something?" I asked with an almost laugh. "It'll take more than that to keep me down!" The Pichu growled as if to suggest that it knew exactly what WOULD keep me down, and I laughed.
I turned to Chopin, who warbled happily, and began to warble not a speech pattern, but a happy tune that lasted for three minutes.
"Did you just make that up on the spot?" I asked him, impressed. He nodded, and almost blushed a bit.
I turned to Maestro last. "You saved my life. I don't know if anyone would have noticed I was gone for a long time. Are you alright?" Maestro nodded and squeaked happily, hopping on the bed, grinding his teeth and rubbing his head up against my hands.
"What about the Wailord? Is it okay? It definitely deserves a reward!" I said, remembering what else had helped me.
"It's fine. The Dragonite said that whoever it was that gave her the orders also rewarded the Wailord."
"So we don't know who? I have to thank whoever it is."
"Well," said Lavender, her voice dropping to a gossipy whisper, "it was probably a Legendary Pokemon. Why else couldn't the Dragonite say who it was? It was probably either Lugia or Kyogre." She said in a hushed, awed tone. "You must be pretty special to get saved by them!" She giggled happily, and clapped her hands together in delight.
"Yeah, I guess so," I said, worried slightly. Was it because I was me or because my dad had once saved both of them that they saved me? Probably the second thing, I thought with a scowl.
Concerned by my lapse into silence, Lavender retreated with a smile, with the hurried excuse that I needed rest. I grinned back at her weakly, and smiled, staring at the Pokemon that somehow were mine. I was alive…