We stood there for a few moments, waiting for the boy and girl to make their moves. They both looked at each other and then swiftly nodded. I stood my ground, waiting for them to act. Thankfully, I didn't have to wait long.

"I choose Bulbasaur!" the girl yelled, throwing a Pokeball.

"Go, Abra!" the boy cried, also releasing a Pokeball.

As the two Pokemon burst from their Pokeballs, Scott and I exchanged looks. The Bulbasaur looked around in disdain, whilst the Abra just looked confused. Both seemed to be less than happy to be out in the open. Even as I thought this, the Bulbasaur let out a bored yawn. I found myself wondering if these rookies were actually being serious or just having a laugh…

"Listen Sienna…" Scott said slowly as we eyed the two Pokemon that were meant to be our "competition". "Even after not training for two years… if you lose to these two blockheads here… I'll never associate with you again."

I laughed nervously in the face of Scott's little threat. The bad thing was I knew he was being serious. "Duly noted." I said, managing to muster up a grin.

"Come on, release a Pokemon!" the boy yelled impatiently.

Scott grunted and then nocked a Pokeball from his waist. He threw it into the air, caught it and spun it deftly on one finger, before catching it again. Pretty cool display, I had to admit. He then tossed the Pokeball almost carelessly to the ground. In a flash of white light, the ball burst open revealing one of Scott's Pokemon.

I admit, I almost fell over laughing when I saw what Pokemon emerged from that ball. It had a gormless looking face that could rival even Nikki's Numel, Etna. It yawned lazily and shifted on its feet, looking blankly at the two Pokemon in front of it.

"Quag! Quagsire…" it said with a gormless grin, its eyes practically glazed over.

The boy in front of us suddenly burst into peals of manic laughter. "A Quagsire? Really? It's a Water and Ground type! It won't stand a chance against Jo's Bulbasaur!"

Scott said nothing in return apart from to aimlessly spin his Quagsire's Pokeball again. I got the sneaking suspicion that Scott had purposely chosen a Pokemon that was traditionally weak to the rookies', as if to teach them a lesson. I motioned for Cairo to join Scott's Quagsire and he did so.

"Rookies move first." Scott offered, waving his hand in the kids' directions.

The boy growled. "I don't need your pity."

Scott, in an almost gentlemanly manner, then offered the first move to the female trainer. She stood in shock for a few seconds, then shook her head vehemently, then began appealing to her friend to take the first move. I stood there in annoyance throughout the whole process as the two kids bickered and argued, firmly debating about taking the first move for myself if there was going to be this much aggravation surrounding it.

Eventually though, the boy was convinced and the battle was back on. He took his stance, readied himself and eventually called out an order. "Abra, use Hidden Power!"

The girl quickly got in on the act too. "And Bulbasaur, use your Razor Leaf!"

I watched in mild amusement as the Abra cast its trainer a confused look and then proceeded to teleport itself halfway across the field. This was much to the boy's extreme annoyance and he started yelling angrily at the little Pokemon. I had to fight not to laugh. At least the girl's Bulbasaur seemed to be better trained. As soon as it received the order, it sent a flurry of razor sharp leaves in our direction. Cairo let out a little squeak at the sight of the oncoming attack, but Scott and Quagsire stayed cool.

Scott glanced down as his idle Quagsire, who didn't even look bothered at the approaching attack. Scott's lips opened and he stated a command, so calmly and quietly I almost didn't hear it.

"Quagsire, shoot them down with Mud Shot."

"Quag!"

The gormless look instantly left the Quagsire's face. It straightened itself up to its full height, drew back slightly and quick as a flash, let out a succession of blasts of thick, gloopy mud. The mud soared towards the incoming leaves, covered them and sent them spiralling to the ground, too heavy to fly. The girl stopped in shock as the leaves hit the ground, completely not expecting that turn of events.

A satisfied smile appeared on Scott's face as both the girl and the Bulbasaur could only look on in stunned silence. The boy was still shouting commands towards his Abra, which needless to say went unheeded. I saw a golden opportunity.

"Right, my turn!" I grinned. "Cairo, use Faint Attack on the Abra!"

To be honest, I hadn't been optimistic that Cairo would listen. He had always been a timid Pokemon totally against battling; only ever choosing to battle if it was absolutely necessary. Add that to the fact he hadn't been on a battlefield in one and a half years, I certainly wasn't holding my breath. But to my astonishment, no sooner had I given the command Cairo pulled away from me and started speeding towards the boy's Abra, ready to attack! I was ecstatic! I knew that Cairo with Faint Attack, a Dark type move, would be super effective against the Psychic type, Abra. But the boy, knowing what I was getting at, quickly shouted out a move. "Abra, Teleport away, quickly!"

I cursed as the Abra suddenly disappeared from where it was standing and reappeared right at the other end of the field. Of course, it had to choose now to listen to its trainer. "Don't let it get away, Cairo!" I roared. "Keep on it!"

"Keep teleporting, Abra!"

No matter how close Cairo got to the Abra, it teleported away every time, completely avoiding any attack I sent in its direction. I cursed, almost ready to jump up and down in my frustration, but I was distracted when I felt something wet and cold plop onto the top of my head.

"What the hell?" I wondered, raising my head skyward. It was a bad mistake. I was rewarded with a faceful of water. I realised, as freezing droplets of water started falling all around me that it was raining. "Rain! What the hell? It was sunny two minutes ago!" I cried as it began to pour.

The rain swamped my body; soaking me to the bone and making me shiver with cold within only a few minutes. Behind me, I could hear the sounds of Nikki and Jasmine squealing and the noises of Pokemon being returned into their Pokeballs. I turned around and recalled the remainder of my team, two-at-a-time and then turned back to my battle.

I still wasn't sure where the rain had come from until I noticed the Quagsire happily running around in the pouring rain, and the triumphant look on Scott's face. "Rain Dance…" I realised. "Scott made Quagsire use Rain Dance…"

"Vi! Viiii!" Cairo's cries made me turn around and I realised that my poor Vibrava was having trouble staying afloat in the air. The rain was pounding down so hard that it was weighing down his thin, flimsy wings.

"Dammit!" I cursed, turning towards Scott who was now standing there doing his best impression of a passionless statue. "Scott! What are you doing? Cairo can't stay airborne!"

Scott ignored me. The rain was thundering down so hard, so dense and thick that the grassy ground and earth couldn't absorb it fast enough. The ground became waterlogged and muddy and as I took a tentative step forward, I almost slipped. My feet were sinking into the ground, the mud squelching and bubbling ominously every time I dared to move. I found myself in awe, looking across at a stoic Scott and a gormless Quagsire. "I can't believe it… all this rain from just one Quagsire? That one Quagsire has done this? This is like a flood plain! It's really amazing! But what is Scott's plan…?"

"Now, Quagsire! Mud Shot the ground! Just like we practiced!"

I watched in a strange mixture of amazement and confusion as Quagsire started shooting blasts of mud into the already waterlogged ground. Within a few seconds, the ground was completely churned up, thick mud flying and squelching everywhere.

"What is he doing?" I thought, pushing my rain soaked hair from my eyes in an attempt to see better. The misty haze from the rain was rising up everywhere, blurring my vision, making it increasingly difficult to see. I could vaguely hear the worried cries of the Bulbasaur and Abra in the distance. Next to me, Cairo gave up and plopped down onto the ground, lifting the pressure from his soaking wet wings. I squinted through the haze, waiting for Scott to make his next move.

"Now, Quagsire! Use Water Gun on the ground! Then use Muddy Water!"

I could only watch as Quagsire shot a Water Gun into the giant pool of mud, sloshing it around and thinning it down. Then the mud began to churn and move as if manipulated by an unseen menace. All of a sudden, a huge wave was moulded out of the mud that lay in front of us. The wave rose high above the Quagsire's head and then was released suddenly, and it powered forward straight into the Bulbasaur and Abra. There was no escape from that wave, even from Abra's teleport. It was simply too high and too wide for anyone to escape from. The wave hit straight into the Pokemon, engulfing them in mud and sweeping them right across the field. Even the two trainers were splashed with mud when the wave roared past them. Eventually it slowed to a stop, leaving the Bulbasaur and Abra completely dazed.

Then the rain stopped.

Blinking in surprise as the sunlight streamed down again, I watched as the two young trainers ran up to their Pokemon and tried to haul them out of the mud. However, the heat from the sun was already making the squelchy mud harden, and it was useless. No matter how hard they chipped away at the hardening mud, they couldn't free their Pokemon. So, they had no choice but to recall the unconscious Abra and Bulbasaur to their Pokeballs.

"Wow…" I found myself saying as I looked across at Scott. He was standing there with his arms tightly folded and no expression upon his face. His Quagsire looked up at him with a gormless smile, and he patted it absent-mindedly on its head.

"You… you big meanie!" The little girl suddenly shouted, her voice cutting through my thoughts. She was clutching her Bulbasaur's Pokeball tight to her chest and looked like she was trying to hold back tears. Her voice was choked. "Why'd you have to do that?" she cried.

"I gave you every opportunity to walk away." Scott said passionlessly.

"You…didn't have to be so cruel!" tears were now spilling from the girl's eyes.

The boy suddenly reappeared, and starting shouting at Scott, using curses I had only ever heard used by rough, loutish, drunk men. Scott raised his eyebrows at the boy as he raged on, before swiftly turning on his heel. "Get your Pokemon to the centre and heal them up. Next time, pick on someone your own size." He said emotionlessly, and then proceeded to walk away, heading back towards the bridge into the main body of Cerulean City.

"Wow…" I said again, looking at Cairo. Upon seeing me looking at him, he started buzzing weakly. He pushed himself back into the air, but he was noticeably struggling to keep himself afloat. His waterlogged wings were still obviously causing him problems. "You and I didn't do much at all, did we Cairo?"

He shook his head, looking sad.

I held out his Pokeball, maximizing it my hand. "Go back inside for a rest and dry off. You did well."

"Viii! Vii!" he said with relief as he disappeared into the Pokeball.

I stood there for a few seconds before cautiously picking my way across the hardening mud to join up with Jasmine, Nikki and Elliot who were standing out of the way, near to the bridge. The three of them were muddy and soaked through just like me, and looking less than happy about it.

"Come on," Jasmine said, wringing out her blonde hair. "We should all probably get dried off and head to Vermillion as soon as possible,"

"Yeah, you're right." Nikki said with a sigh. "I should probably speak to Scott too."

We continued on to the main body of Cerulean City. We eventually caught up to Scott. His face looked as blank as ever, but he walked with a noticeably confident air. I found myself a little bemused in the aftermath of the battle against the two rookie trainers. Scott's tactics were definitely different from anything I had ever seen before. Unusual, but effective, I had to admit. I had never seen a trainer use the terrain and natural surroundings to launch their offensive attacks. It was effective… really effective.

Nikki was trying desperately to talk to Scott, but he ignored his big sister and instead led the way towards Vermillion in stony silence. For a long time, we walked, no-one speaking. With half an hour, we left the blue city of Cerulean behind. My mind, no matter what I did, kept returning to the battle Scott and I had participated in. Well… more like I had watched from the sidelines. Scott had handled the battle with only a few moves, making quick and easy work of the rookies while I had stood there, not even needed. While one little part of me whole-heartedly wished I had had a chance to battle again in so long, the rest of me still couldn't believe what a good trainer Scott was. He had just been an annoying little kid when I met him two years ago, and up until now, I thought he still was. He had been loud, arrogant, childish… now he was calm, cool and composed, executing attacks almost coldly and distantly. I hadn't realised he was such a good trainer. I mean, even I thought he was crazy sending out a dopey looking Quagsire to deal with the rookie trainers, but he had proved me, and probably everyone else standing there, completely wrong. If the Pidgeot and Quagsire he had showed off were any indication to the rest of the team he owned, I was beginning to hope more and more I would never find myself on the opposite side of a battlefield with him.

The rest of the day passed with little incident. We managed to cover just over half of the distance to Vermillion. We would have managed more distance, had it not been for me. Shameful, I know… My stamina had dramatically decreased since the last time I had been out on the road, and walking for so long over such a long distance almost killed me. I had to stop frequently for rests and breaks, to my utmost embarrassment. Both Elliot and Scott teased me about it, whilst Jasmine sighed with frustration every time I had to stop. Only Nikki actually seemed to care enough to stop and see if I was doing okay.

Night took too long to fall, I thought, exhausted. When it eventually did roll around, we pitched camp and ate our rations for a light dinner. After putting out the fire that Nikki's Blaze conjured up, we all crawled into our various tents to bunk down for the night. As soon as I wriggled into my sleeping bag, exhaustion overcame me and I fell asleep as soon as my heavy and weak body hit the ground.

It took us only a few hours the next day to reach Vermillion. As the familiar waft of salty sea air coated my nose and tongue, I felt another deep-rooted sense of nostalgia come over me. I had felt it too as soon as I had entered Cerulean. The fresh, clean smell of pure water and nature had been so different from the harsh fumes of Viridian and Pewter. I breathed in the sea air smell deeply, finding I quite liked it. It was strange… my fear of water was as present and controlling as it ever had been. But I almost liked some of the memories I had associated with it. I felt at home being in Cerulean and Vermillion, even though they were so close to sea and water.

"Pokemon Centre, then?" Elliot asked our group wearily as the landscape of Vermillion came into our view.

"Definitely."

I let out a satisfied yawn, stretching my body as I padded around the Pokemon Centre room. Nikki sat at the desk, tapping out a text message to Christian. Her Magby toddled around the room, climbing on top of anything and everything and getting into general mischief. Jasmine was no-where to be found. I assumed she was downstairs retrieving the SS Anne tickets that were supposed to be arriving at the Vermillion Pokemon Centre. Elliot and Scott, so far I as knew, were in the room next to us, relaxing.

Just as I sat down to rest my aching, weary body, Jasmine burst in the room again clutching a brown padded envelope. She was beaming from ear to ear as she ripped apart the envelope, delving inside and eventually producing five identical tickets. She spread them into a fan before happily skipping up to me and Nikki. I found myself amused at this uncharacteristic behaviour. Jasmine never skipped… It was quite worrying actually…

"Here you go!" she grinned, bestowing a ticket on both me and Nikki in turn. I took it and began to study it intently.

"Wow…" I had to admit I was impressed with the design of the ticket. It was mostly white, with a cool blue stripe crossing it. The words SS Anne were imprinted at the top of the ticket, alongside an image of the SS Anne itself. I felt more than a little nervous when I saw the image. It looked so huge!

"So, what? We just had this over to the SS Anne people?" I asked, turning the ticket over so I could investigate it. There wasn't any place for us to put our names on them; there wasn't even a booking number. However, there was a date for the sailing. The date 19/04/2011 had been stamped on it at the back of the ticket.

"Looks like it," Nikki said, carefully placing the ticket out of reach of her hyper Magby. We had been left alone again, as Jasmine had already steamrollered out the door to pass Elliot and Scott their tickets.

"So the crossing's at what… eleven?" I double-checked.

"Yeah… she doesn't get in till four though."

"Brilliant." I sighed. "Five hour crossing. Only marginally better than the six hours it takes to get to Hoenn."

Nikki shrugged.

"I don't get it." I said, folding out my map of the Kanto and Johto regions. "How come it takes so long to get to Johto when the regions are so close to each other? I mean, they're practically linked up! Go south from Victory Road and pass all those waterfalls in the west and you're in Johto! Why are we even taking the SS Anne when we could technically walk there?"

"The ocean currents are strong around Johto, that's why it takes so long." Nikki explained. "And we have to loop right around the whole region to get into port."

I sighed. "And we can't walk there why?"

It's too difficult to walk there." Nikki said crossing over to point out a few places on the map. "All the trainers that hang around Victory road and south of it are really strong. Too strong for us. Maybe not for Scott and certainly not for Elliot, but they would make quick work of me, you and Jasmine. And there's no way we could cross that waterfall either. None of us have Water Pokemon big enough and strong enough to fight the currents. And even if we could, there's at least a week, maybe even two week's walk from New Bark Town to Goldenrod."

"Okay, okay, fair enough." I said with a sigh. I didn't like the sound of all the strong trainers hanging around Victory Road. As much as I didn't like to admit it, Nikki was right. It was either ferry, or nothing. "So, ferry to Olivine, then cross from Olivine to Goldenrod…" I murmured, collapsing onto my bed. "And then find Dad…"

"Not as simple as that," Nikki pointed out, tracing a path from her finger. "What we really have to do is head north up route 39, east across route 38, stop off in Ercuteak, then go south down route 37, go through National Park, south down route 35 and then we hit Goldenrod."

"Sounds long." I said dryly.

"It's the only way." Nikki said with another careless shrug.

I moaned and turned over. Just as I did so, Nikki's phone rang and she rushed outside to answer it so she could speak privately. Christian probably, I reasoned. I was quite glad she did run outside; it gave me some time to think. I was dreading the journey on the ferry tomorrow. I was also starting to get seriously worried about what was waiting for me in Goldenrod city. I didn't know what to expect, and that scared me. Was dad really some kind of reformed character, like the Officer Jenny had said? I didn't believe it. I can't lie and say he didn't change after the events of one and a half years ago, because he did. He came to his senses, realised what he was doing was wrong and had even protected me against Arceus. But that still didn't excuse the way he treated me as a child, the way he had gone mad with power, the way he had tried so hard to stop me from succeeding against him. He was a dangerous man… I was still a little scared of him, even to this day. I knew if his motives for bringing me to Goldenrod were of malicious intent, he'd have next to no trouble beating me in a battle if he needed to. At this moment, I couldn't believe he wanted me for anything but a weird, twisted sense of revenge. That was why I was glad I had brought friends along. If he turned on me I would have some backup.

The rest of the day passed too quickly for my liking. Before I knew it was time to eat dinner, and it seemed like I only blinked and then it was time to go to bed. I bid goodnight to Elliot and Scott, but it was like I was doing it automatically. I felt like a robot, going through the motions, but not connecting emotionally with anything I was doing. I slept erratically that night, falling asleep for short periods of time, waking up again and then falling asleep again. By the time morning came around, I felt like I had seen every hour of the clock.

I ate breakfast in silence, and then we moved down to the port. I could see the giant ship come in to the harbour even as we walked down. It effortlessly glided through the water, kicking up only the smallest of swells as it moved. It was a bigger ship than I had ever expected it to be. It was probably twice or even three times bigger than the ship I had sailed on from Kanto to Hoenn. Everything about it just screamed good taste and luxury.

We handed over our tickets to the man at the terminal. He looked at the tickets oddly and then did a double take as he looked at our party. He then thoroughly began investigating the tickets, turning them upside down and side-to-side under a bright desk light. Jasmine crossed her arms haughtily and made a big deal of sighing and tapping her foot in impatience. Eventually the man seemed satisfied with whatever it was he was doing, turned the tickets back to us and pointed in the direction of the walkway down to the ferry.

"Can you believe it? Can you believe that man?" Jasmine raged as soon as we were out of earshot. "He thought our tickets were fake! Can you believe it?"

"Umm… actually, I can, yeah." I said. "We're not exactly conventional passengers on a luxury liner, Jazz."

"Well maybe you're not…" she muttered when she thought I couldn't hear.

As we walked towards the ship, I took the opportunity to size up my fellow passengers. Most of them were middle-aged men and women dressed in suits or exquisite, expensive clothes. The very few people who were our age or younger travelled with an entourage of older people. Even the younger ones walked with a sophisticated, almost regal air. Many of the older ones had a strange look on their faces as they walked with their shoulders back and noses high in the air. It was like they had a permanent bad smell under their noses. I caught several of them glancing at us, scoffing and tutting at the presence of such scruffy, lower class Pokemon trainers.

We reached the gangplank of the ship and I swallowed nervously. It was so high! The waters were lapping relentlessly at the hull of the ship. Even the sound of it made me feel ill. Elliot appeared next to me, taking my hand and gently leading me up the gangplank.

As soon as I stepped in to the interior of the ship, I almost forgot we were standing in a ship. What lay before me was nothing like the interior of the ship that had taken me to Hoenn. The only word to describe what I was seeing now was "luxury". The ceiling seemed to go on forever, giant windows encircled the interior, chandeliers cast brilliant light everywhere, expensive looking cream and red sofas and armchairs were arranged perfectly, and handsome men attended a nearby bar, dressed in suits and bow ties. Even more amazing was that that was only the half of it. The sounds of classical music filled my ears, and several doors led away to many more rooms, probably just as grand and amazing as the one we were in.

We must have stood there for a full five minutes, just taking in the sheer decadence and elegance of the ship. Many others pushed past us, heading straight for either the luxurious lounge or the bar.

"Looks like they've got their priorities straight." I said darkly, watching women sip up their rich red wine with careless abandon, and men swallow down various other liquors like they were drinking water.

"Eh. Red wine's not all that nice." Elliot replied with a grin. "Me, I prefer something a bit stronger!"

"Okay, Mister I-Can-Drink-Legally-Now…" I said darkly. Sometimes I forgot Elliot was eighteen now and classified as a legal adult. It felt strange sometimes to remember that, especially since I had only just turned seventeen.

He chuckled good-naturedly at me. As we stood there, a horn sounded and the captain began to announce his "welcome to the SS Anne" spiel. Shuddering at the knowledge the ship would be leaving soon, I turned to my friends. "Come on; let's go sit down… the sooner we get off this floating hell-hole the better…"

Author's Note

Hey guys :)

Few things to say.

Anyone who hasn't already checked out the Spirited stuff on my DeviantART, please do! I'm soon to upload an updated Free Spirits concept drawing with all the characters as they are now, i.e. older :)

Another thing to look at it is my fictionpress account. I have a chapter of an original fiction I'd love some people to take a look at and let me know if it's any good or whatever. Find my fictionpress on my profile, or you can also check it out on my deviantART. Thank you.

Finally, I'm going on a small hiatus for a week or so. I'm feeling just a little bit weary of Spirited and Free Spirits of late, so gonna take a break.

Thanks to my reviewers, Hikaru-pichu, Sniper Mudkip, eeveelutionluvr, Padfoot Arcanine, Manser77, May and Dawn are the best, beatlesfan53 and zoeten (apology accepted Zoeten and thank you for clarifying yourself from your last review).

OceanSpiral out.

See you soon.

x