A.N. Hello, friends! Ready to continue? Also, quick note: the locations in this chapter switch around very frequently – so pay attention!
Disclaimer: Exactly as planned!
ONLY TWO DAYS UNTIL TRYOUTS…
Kalos
The blonde hiked her red and white bag further up her shoulder as she walked calmly through the bustling airport terminal. As other people and Pokémon jostled her around as they walked (or, in some cases, ran), through the terminal, Bella continued to walk as though none of the commotion around her was happening. She soon approached the Unova gate and sat down in a chair to wait to be called up. A few minutes after, a voice boomed over the loudspeaker that the most recent plane was arriving from Unova, and that all should stand clear of the gate. Soon after the announcement aired, people began streaming out of the Unova gate, towards the baggage pickup. A lady stood up at the podium next to the gate entrance and began calling people up by seat number.
"Seat numbers 1 through 13, please come up and board flight U345." Thirteen people stood up and made their way towards the gate entrance, the flight attendant checking their tickets. "Seats 14 through 26, please come up and board flight U345." Bella stood up and walked up towards the gate entrance, but was stopped by a tap on her shoulder. She turned around, only to meet the navy-blue eyes of a familiar enemy.
"Calem," Bella spat angrily. "What do you want? You're going to make me late for my flight."
"I just came to wish you good luck," Calem smiled, tipping his red hat towards his affronted rival.
"Well, I don't need your good luck," Bella snarled, pulling her black trench coat tighter around her, as a mean of protection. "I'll do fine without it."
"Everyone needs some luck now and then," the brunet replied. "But, I know that you'll do well, Bellatrix."
"Don't call me that." Bella growled, turning around and walking away. "And if that's all you've got to say, then goodbye and good riddance. I don't need your damned luck. If anything, it'll make me do worse."
"Then, I hope you don't get the position." Calem sighed. "After I gave you the money that you needed, this is the thanks I get?"
"Tough luck." Bella shrugged. "Sucks to be you. Whatever. I'm leaving."
"Well, I'll be watching on TV." Calem called after her. "And even though you say you don't need it, good luck!"
"Shut up!" Bella yelled back. "Just go back to your stupid Pokémon League, Champion Calem, and get out of my sight!" She shoved her ticket at the surprised flight attendant and stormed angrily onto the plane.
Back at the gate entrance, Calem sighed. "Regardless of her attitude…if she doesn't get the position, I'll eat my hat."
Oblivia
The Union, a ship once used by the Ranger Union was currently docked at Tilt Village, located on Mitonga Island. However, the fact that the ship was docket there was no big news – unless it was being used by Murph to survey Pokémon in the sea, or take the island Rangers Ben, Summer, and Rand out to sea, the Union sat calmly in Tilt Harbor. But, as of now, the Union was about to take a much bigger journey than it had before – so big, in fact, that the journey had been planned one month in advance. The last big Union journey had been a little less than one year ago, when Rand and his wife Leanne had traveled to an archeological conference to read their paper on the history of Oblivia. But now, another big trip was in the works, a trip that would take five people to Unova, two captains and three passengers.
Down on the dock, Red Eyes and Lyssa were getting ready to board the ship to travel to the Baliar tryouts in Unova, along with Nema, who had convinced her parents (Rand and Leanne) to let her tryout for the position of Steel-type Gym Leader.
"Good luck, you three!" Summer said, giving Nema a hug goodbye. "We might come by for a visit, or a Mission, if things really go awry."
"I doubt that'll happen!" Ben replied cheerfully. "After all, with eighteen Gym Leaders, five Pokémon League Trainers, four Frontier Brains, and a bunch of Contest Stars, if anything weird happens, they'll probably be able to handle it themselves."
"Well, thanks for the 'probably.'" Red Eyes, who was saying goodbye to the rest of the Pinchers (ie, Blue Eyes and Purple Eyes), cut in.
"I didn't mean it like that!" Ben retorted.
"No, of course you didn't." Lyssa grinned, hugging Leanne goodbye. "I'm sure you have full faith in our abilities."
"Just watch out for those stadium announcers." Rand said. "They usually know how to stir things up – especially tempers."
"Yeah, Red Eyes!" Murph, who had been doing a last minute check of the boat and controls, along with the other captain Booker, replied. "Keep that temper of yours in check!"
"Don't burn the building down." Blue Eyes smiled. "Can't have that now, can we?"
"I won't burn anything down." Red Eyes retorted.
"Sure, that's what you say now." Purple Eyes shrugged. "But, if we hear on the news that the PWT has burned down, we'll all look at each other and say: 'Oh, it must've been Red Eyes.'" Everyone began to laugh, causing Red Eyes to storm onto the boat, but not before he let out a retort consisting of very nasty words and hand gestures directed at Purple Eyes.
"He always knows how to ruin a moment, doesn't he?" Nema giggled after saying goodbye to her parents.
"Yep." Blue Eyes sighed, looking up at the boat. "He really does."
"I HEARD THAT!"
As Lyssa and Nema walked up the gangplank and onto the Union, the rest of the group began yelling extra advice, or just words of encouragement. The two girls waved at the gangplank was raised and Booker walked onto the deck and took the wheel.
"Y'all ready to set sail?"
"Yeah!" Nema cheered. "We're ready, Booker!" Booker nodded and gestured to Murph, who tugged on a rope, causing a horn to sound. The Union slowly moved away from the wooden port as most of the people who had gathered on the dock waved enthusiastically.
On the boat, Lyssa and Nema were leaning up against the side and talking about what they thought the tryouts would be like, and what the other Trainer that they would be facing would be.
"I wonder if there are going to be other people from the Ranger Union there – or maybe some people that we know!" Nema said excitedly.
Red Eyes, who had been leaning on the side of the boat, a few feet away from the two younger girls, cut into the conversation upon hearing Nema's thought.
"There wouldn't be other people that we knew, obviously, or we would've heard about it."
Nema glared at Red Eyes while Lyssa sighed.
"After all," Red Eyes drawled, "do you really think that there would really be someone else that we knew trying out for a position?"
Lyssa scowled at her older brother. "You'd better not be pretending to be cooler than us, Red Eyes."
Johto
The brunette and her Furret had just boarded the ship that would take them to Unova from Olivine City. The trip promised to be a long one, about 18 hours. After all, Johto was pretty far away from Unova. And, since there wasn't any connection on board the boat, Robin was unable to re-hack into the database of the Pokémon League to find out more about the Champion, or see the Gym Leader, Coordinator, or Frontier Brain data in more depth.
"Which basically means we're going to have more time to plan strategy, huh, Fyur?" Robin said, sitting down at a table on the deck of the ship. She took the same notebook that she had been using to take notes on the Elite Four and flipped it open to a new page. "We've got a pretty sound one in place already, but we're savin' that one until we really need it – until we get to the final round."
"Furrr." Fyur shrugged. "Fure, furrr."
"No! I'm not being overconfident!" Robin argued. "I'm just sayin' that we're savin' the strategy with Ambipom, Khangaskhan, and Porygon-Z until the end." Fyur shrugged and jumped onto the table, making it rock back and forth with the rhythm of the ship.
"ROBIN! ROBIN, HEY!"
"Ack!" Robin jumped. She looked around wildly only to see a purple haired girl wearing a baseball cap, yellow and black striped baseball shirt, white shorts, and carrying a yellow megaphone with a rainbow stone set near the top, running in her direction. "Oh…no!" the brunette groaned. "No, not her…"
"Hi, Robin!" the girl greeted, sliding into the chair across from the older Trainer. Fyur jumped off of the table and onto his Trainer's shoulder upon seeing the Pokémon behind her: an Electivire, a black and yellow striped Pokémon, something that Robin knew the girl had a fondness for.
Biting back a number of rude sayings, Robin forced herself to answer. "Hello, Casey."
"So, why're you on the boat to Unova?" Casey asked cheerfully, setting her megaphone down on the table. Electivire stood behind its Trainer and smiled at the distressed brown and white striped Pokémon.
"Baliar Island." Robin sighed, preparing herself for a heavily one-sided conversation.
"Seriously?" Casey cried. "Me too! What are the odds, huh?" She then put her feet up on the table, revealing yellow and black sneakers. Robin cringed as she was treated to the sight of the bottoms of the younger girl's shoes.
"Actually, I knew y'were going to be tryin' out." Robin sighed. "And could'ya take your feet off of the table?"
"You knew? Oh, right, you must've found out earlier with those hacker ways of yours, Silverbirds."
"I've told ya not to say that out loud!" Robin scolded. "You don't say my hacker name out loud, okay?"
"Alright, alright." Casey relented. "Hey, guess what I saw yesterday?" As the younger girl began to ramble, Robin's mind began to drift elsewhere.
She was in for a long 18 hours.
Sinnoh
The four Trainers and one Coordinator were getting ready to board a boat heading out of Canalave City, bound for Unova. The five were all standing on the top deck of the boat as it pulled out of the port and started sailing through the deep ocean.
"Man, I can't remember the last time I've been on a boat!" a blonde Trainer by the name of Jun said. He wore a light orange and brown striped shirt, brown jeans, and black shoes. He also had on a long green jacket with flared lapels. "I wonder why it's been so long."
"Because the last time you were on a boat, you were seasick the entire time," the one Coordinator, who went by the name of Mitsumi, responded. She had green hair, and wore a black tank top with a white undershirt, a pink skirt and pink boots with black socks. There was also a white knit cap with a pink Pokéball motif perched on her head. "You don't remember that?"
"No, not right at the moment." Jun shrugged.
"Aye, it'll probably come back up to you later on – along with your lunch," the Interpol agent, Phoenix, who was leaning up against the boat railing, laughed. "Then you can have a pleasant reminiscence in the comfort of a ship bathroom."
"Pleasant wouldn't be the word I'd use to describe it," another agent, Koya muttered. "I'm sure it'll all come back to you, Jun."
"That's what I said, idiot!" Phoenix exclaimed.
As the two agents began to argue, Mitsumi looked around the deck. There weren't many people on the top deck besides them – just a lady and her husband, and another man, who was relaxing in a deck chair. "Where'd Hareta go?"
"Huh?" Jun said, looking around. "I dunno, but I bet he's eating somewhere. Probably down in the ship cafeteria."
"Well, then we'd better find him." Mitsumi sighed. "He's a member of the Baliar Elite Four, it wouldn't go over well if we lost him."
"Are you kidding?" Jun laughed. "It's Hareta – he'll probably show up an hour later, stuffed with food."
"Yes, and he'll be able to join you in the bathroom." Mitsumi retorted, walking towards the deck stairs.
"H-Hey! What's with all the bathroom jokes?!" Jun yelled, running after the greenette. "Mitsumi!"
"Wait up!" Phoenix yelled as she and Koya ran after Jun, until the four of them arrived in the ship cafeteria.
There weren't many people in the cafeteria either – but the cooks and waiters were still busy nonetheless, brining food to a certain table, and running back to the kitchen with dirty dishes to be washed.
"Oh, boy…" Koya groaned. "Jun, you're going to have some company."
"What, you?" Jun said, looking over at the younger blonde. "I thought that you didn't mind ships."
"No, him," Koya replied, pointing over at the table. The occupant of the table, was none other than their missing friend, Hareta. He had jet-black hair that stuck out in all directions, a red hat with a white Pokéball motif on the sides, a black vest with a white short-sleeved shirt underneath, baggy jeans, and red shoes with white highlights. "And I thought that Kaisei ate too much…"
Mitsumi sighed and walked over to Hareta's table, battling her way through the wave of waiters running towards and running away from the table. "Hareta, you're going to get seasick from eating this much! What were you thinking?"
"The food here is really good, and we were just so hungry, we couldn't resist!" Hareta cheered, taking a huge bite of an apple. His Pokémon, Minun, was sitting on the table as well, happily chewing on a small cheese cube. Its blue ears and blue cheeks were sparking with happiness. "You can have some too, Mitsumi!"
"Well-" Mitsumi began, but she was cut off by an announcement over the loudspeaker.
"Attention, all passengers: We might be encountering a little bit of turbulence, so don't worry, we'll be just fine!" Halfway through the announcement, the ship began rocking back and forth, just enough to be felt.
"Urgh…" Jun groaned. His face was slowly turning green. "You know what? I'm…just gonna go to the…bathroom…urp…" The blonde ran off in the direction of the bathrooms, as the rest of the group sweat dropped.
"Wait for me!" Hareta cried, nearly falling off his chair. His face had turned a pallid shade of green, and he ambled off after Jun in search of the restrooms.
"Well." Phoenix shrugged. "Looks like they remembered, after all."
A.N. Wow! Long chapter, huh? Thanks for sticking with it – until next time!