Chapter 11

Disclaimer:We do not own pokemon. Pokemon is owned by Satoshi Tajiri, Game Freak, and Nintendo. OCs and plot belongs to us, game characters' personalities are loosely based off of their game counterparts. We are writing this fanfic for entertainment and self enjoyment while waiting for Pokemon X and Y to come out in October as this chapter is being written in the middle of June.

Olivine City

"Closed?" Mirei stared at the white sign in front of the Olivine City gym. "But she was here yesterday!" The pink clad girl glared at the white piece of paper taped on the locked door with metallic blue writing saying,

'Sorry, I was called last minute to be a Super Contest judge in Sinnoh. Will be back as soon as possible.

- Mikan'.

"I guess we'll have to go to another gym then," Chiharu said, a part of her thankful for the steel clad trainer's departing. Even with Nidorina learning Dig, she had doubts that her friend would last long in a fight against a Steelix that knew Sandstorm along with other physical attacks her pokemon were weak against.

"What other gym is there?" The brunette grumbled and took out her pink Pokegear to check Johto's map.

"There's always Cianwood City!" Chiharu sounded excited now, "The gym leader uses fighting pokemon. Your team should have no problem!"

They left the Pokemon Center early today in hopes of finishing the gym battle early so that they could have a nice long lunch without worrying about training. After stuffing their pokeballs and potions into their bags, they made a run for the cafeteria and had a quick breakfast before leaving. Mirei felt a sudden gain in weight in her bag, but she shrugged it off. She figured that it was the amount of potions that took up the weight.

Mirei bit her lip and said, "I guess we can." Her face turned pale when she took a glance at Johto's map and looked away. She turned her head back to the Pokegear to recheck, hoping that her eyes were fooling her. Route 40 and 41 were still marked on the electronic device's screen. It was a water route.

"I don't have any water pokemon," Mirei didn't like where this was going. She couldn't take her eyes away from the ocean route. "I can't swim..."

"Let me check something," her friend took out her Pokegear and connected it to the gym's Wi-Fi service. She looked up Mirei's team to see if any of them were compatible to learn the HM move Surf. Chiharu got zero results. Kisaki could learn the attack if she was to evolve, but she was still a Nidorina.

"What am I going to do?" The brunette bemoaned. "How are we supposed to get to Cianwood City?" She looked up at the too perfect blue sky. It was like the weather was mocking her.

"You don't have a Moon Stone?" Chiharu asked hopefully. The girl shook her head.

"I guess I have to go fishing again for a pokemon," Mirei grumbled. She opened the upper compartment of her bag in search of the capsule that contained her fishing rod when a blue ball jumped out of her bag with a squeal.

"Chin, chou!" Water! The blue blob screamed. The blob flopped on land like a fish out of water with its mouth gasping for air.

"Chinchou?" Mirei nearly had a heart attack from the pokemon's sudden appearance.

Mirei stared at the very dehydrated water pokemon, whose skin had dried up and was starting to crack from lack of water like an old pumpkin. Its usually bright glowing antennas were lit up dimly and were shriveled up. Its plus sign eyes were close to resembling x's. Chiharu took action and grabbed a spray bottle out of her bag and sprayed the Chinchou.

"Chou, chou!" Water! Water! The angler pokemon danced under the rain, too happy to get moisture back into its small body. Chiharu gave the Chinchou enough water so that it was splashing in a small puddle. Chinchou's antennas instantly shined, blinding the two trainers.

"Can you stop that, Chinchou?" Mirei shielded her eyes from the electric pokemon's glow. Chinchou stopped and smiled at the girl. "How did it get in my bag?" She was annoyed that the pokemon was hiding in her bag the whole time.

"Chinchou is a girl," the blue haired trainer reminded her, ignoring Mirei rolling her eyes at her. "She must have followed us to our rooms yesterday." Chiharu remembered opening the door slightly so they could get some fresh air from outside. She looked down at the angler pokemon and asked, "Are you hungry?"

The pokemon nodded her head very eagerly. The catcher took out Mirei's Poffin Case and handed a blue poffin to the pokemon. It was tough-textured and dry. Chinchou jumped up and down and opened her mouth wide, almost wide enough to swallow a pokeball. Chinchou devoured the blue poffin in one bite, but her face turned purple from the taste.

"Chinchou, bleh!" The water pokemon disliked the dry poffin. "Chinchou! Chinchou, chou?" It's too dry! Can I have something else? Chinchou bounced up for attention.

"Why are you giving food to a wild pokemon?" Mirei asked as she watched Chiharu give the pokemon a pink poffin. Chinchou's expression changed to pleased when it swallowed the sweet poffin whole. The water pokemon cried with joy and jumped to Mirei with a smile on her face.

"Chinchou, chinchou!" This is yummy! Sparks flew out of the angler pokemon and jolted Chiharu, who was in the middle of giving it a few berries.

"Golbat, golbat, bat, gol!" Chiharu's Golbat was out of her pokeball at the moment and shouted, Hey, don't attack my trainer! The angry bat pokemon glared at the electric pokemon and flew in front of her trainer to defend her from further attacks. "Golbat, golbat?" What was that for? She flew in closer so that she and Chinchou were only a few inches apart.

"It's okay, Kera." Golbat's trainer told her pokemon. The electric attacks weren't too bad. They were weak enough that it was static electricity; her hair was slightly frizzled from the electricity.

"Golbat, bat!" No, it isn't! Kera disagreed, still glaring at Chinchou, who was poking Mirei's shoe with a small fin. Mirei didn't look too pleased herself and was trying to ignore Chinchou.

"Chinchou!" Hello! The angler pokemon greeted Mirei.

"You have a pokemon that can learn Surf now," Chiharu tried not to smile as she watched Chinchou look up to the other trainer questioningly. The angler pokemon heard Chiharu's comment and squirted out water from its mouth like a fountain. Mirei moved away from Chinchou's Water Gun as the water pokemon tried to show off its skills to the reluctant trainer.

"Hey!" Mirei complained, "You're getting me wet!" Chinchou was still using Water Gun. The angler pokemon abruptly stopped squirting water and jumped again.

"Chinchou, chou!" Let me come with you! She squeaked. "Chou, ou!" I can learn Surf! Mirei's Nidorina looked at the water pokemon with sympathy and gently pushed the fish away from her trainer.

"Nidorina, rina." Give her some space to breath, the poison pokemon advised Chinchou. "Nido, nido, rina." I don't think she's ready yet.

"Chinchou?" What does that mean? The pokemon didn't understand the situation. Chinchou didn't realize that it was still unwelcome by the brunette girl, who was trying to dry her clothes by fanning herself.

"I'm wet now!" Her pink shirt was soaked from Chinchou's Water Gun. Chiharu cocked her head to the side.

"It's July," she let out a sigh. "I'm sure you're happy getting cooled down from the heat." Chiharu looked at the angler fish, "Besides, at least we can get to Cianwood City."

"Since when was Chinchou my pokemon?" Mirei didn't like having Chiharu suddenly declare that the water pokemon was under her ownership now.

The blue fish pokemon was now hugging her leg. Chinchou wasn't an Octillery, but it acted like one and had its fins wrapped around her ankle, refusing to let go. Mirei was never a big fan of water pokemon as many of them had claws, fins, or stubs for limbs and had an odd texture. Having an angler fish hugging her felt foreign. Its fins felt fragile and slippery against her skin; she could feel the individual bones on its fins covered by thin layers of scales.

"Since you said that you needed a water pokemon," the catcher said dryly. "Chinchou looks very eager to be part of the team." In fact, Chinchou was scooting itself closer to Mirei with adoration in her eyes.

"There is no way," she emphasized the last two words. "This fish can carry me in the water."

"Nidorina..." Oh boy... Kisaki groaned and tilt her head forward towards the ground to do a slight face palm. Golbat seemed to be having the same thought and followed suit by placing one wing over her eyes.

"Chin?" Huh?

Route 40

"Alright, to Cianwood City!" Chiharu cheered. The blue haired trainer was in a blue one piece swimsuit that had star designs. She kept her hair in its usual braided ponytail. The trainer was almost completely underwater besides her head.

Standing at three feet and seven inches, Psyduck swam in the ocean between Olivine City and Cianwood City. Although the water pokemon was normally clumsy on land, Psyduck was a decent swimmer and moved through the body of water with more grace. The yellow duck was a little over half of his trainer's height, but he surprisingly had no issue having his trainer holding onto him in the water. Psyduck was no Sharpedo, but his swimming speed wasn't too bad. At least compared to...

"Are we there yet?" Mirei groaned. The brunette girl tied her hair into a high bun and was wearing a pink tankini with ruffles and floral designs on it. She was clinging onto her pokemon for life.

"We just left..." Chiharu watched the other girl groan again. Although their village had a few small lakes around it, Mirei had never learned how to swim properly. Her aunt and uncle signed her up for swimming lessons, but the girl was like a piece of lead. She couldn't swim and would panic in the water if she wasn't holding onto a floating device or pokemon.

Chinchou was over a feet tall and was very slowly swimming down south with Psyduck beside her. The angler pokemon was pleased to see its trainer needing it. Mirei was wearing a black life vest while hugging the round pokemon, trying not to get distracted by how deep the ocean was. She no longer seemed to care that Chinchou was a slimy water pokemon and was more concern of holding onto her. It has been an hour since they left the shores. Route 40 was not that shallow lake back in Sacred Heart Village; it was a deep ocean that was probably hundreds of feet deep. The trainer didn't want to think of how deep the body of water was if she was to somehow lose grasp of her only water pokemon. Her entire body was submerged underwater as well.

"Chinchou, chou!" Yay, I'm back home! The blue pokemon bobbed her yellow antennas with happiness.

"Psyduck, psy..." This is the first time I came to the ocean... Shion stared at the seemingly endless ocean. They were starting to lose sight of shore. The duck pokemon hoped that Mirei and Chiharu knew where they were going and wouldn't get lost.

"Don't you just love how calm and soothing the deep blue can be?" Chiharu gushed while swimming. "Look at how it spreads out for miles on end!" There were practically stars in her eyes as the catcher continued ranting about the pokemon found in the ocean. "You can find Mantine, Magikarp, Shellder..."

"Can we stop talking about the ocean?" The brunette interrupted the happy trainer, "I knew Chouko would be too small for this." At the sound of her name, Chouko lit up her antennas and squeaked.

"Chouko?" Chiharu grinned, "I thought you said Chinchou wasn't your pokemon."

"I have to give it a name," the other girl rolled her eyes. "How else can I tell the other Chinchou apart if its name is Chinchou too?"

"Psyduck, psy, yai, duck?" So what is like to live in the ocean? Shion asked the angler pokemon. He continued to tug his trainer through the deep part of the sea. The yellow duck liked living in the water. Everything was lighter and weight didn't matter because swimming didn't limit that. He could go faster and forget about his worries.

"Chinchou, chou, chinchou," Chouko chimed as she struggled to keep up with the duck. The world looks really pretty from underwater.

"Psyduck, duck?" Really? What does it look like?

"Chou, chou, chin, chinchou," Everything sparkles and shines through the view under the sea. The little blue fish smiled in reminiscence. Tentacools and Tentacruels would swim under the sea like lanterns floating in the sky. The jellyfish pokemon held interesting conversations, but they would usually ignore her popping in. The Staryus were always talking about the stars and how they descended from them. There was that one Mantine that would occasionally come by to tell the other pokemon about trainers on land.

"So I heard some trainers swim out here to look for pokemon battles," Chiharu said. "You plan to fight them?" She looked at the terrified girl. Did she hear her? It took Mirei a few minutes to register the question and replied back.

"I think I'll pass," she said in a flat tone. "I'm not ready for that."

"Duck." So that's the ocean, Shion said in amazement.

"Chinchou, chou, chin!" Someday, the electric pokemon chattered with excitement, I'm going to become strong and evolve into a Lanturn! Chouko dreamed of becoming a bigger angler fish and being able to swallow her prays whole in one bite. "Chinchou, chou, chin!" Mirei would think I'm the strongest pokemon ever and love me!

Chinchou was already enjoying the moment of having her trainer rely on her and hugging her while she was surfing. Psyduck mumbled a few words and looked at the electric pokemon sadly. He noticed that Mirei didn't seem too enthusiastic to let the pokemon join her team. The duck pokemon wasn't there when it happened, but Chiharu's Golbat told him that it was an accident that Chinchou became a team member. Psyduck kept quiet about that and refused to mention it to Chinchou, who looked so happy. He didn't want to ruin the moment.

"What's that?" Chiharu pushed herself slightly up above the water to see two shadowy figures moving towards them.

"Swimmers?" Mirei guessed.

"Maybe," she paused. "But it looks like they're riding on pokemon." Chiharu's eyes widened, "Wait, what...?"

"Hey, do you see that?" Green poked Red's shoulder.

The two were surfing through, trying to find their way to Cianwood on the champion's Lapras. The gym leader had woken up from his nap to conveniently see two trainers traveling not too far behind them. One girl saw them and seemed rather shocked, probably from recognizing the duo, and the other looked stark white in comparison. Green was sitting on the back of the sea-monster-like pokemon's shell. Pikachu was sitting on Red's lap as they were surfing down route 40.

"Hmm?" Red looked up from the map on his Pokegear.

"Hey, can you ask Purasu to slow down a bit?" He asked.

His friend gave the Lapras a couple of pats on its head when the pokemon began to wade through the water rather than speeding by. His pokemon was similar to the loch ness monster in appearance and had four blue flippers and a hard purple shell on its back. Green waited for a couple of minutes for the two trainers to catch up before calling out, "Hey, do you need a hand?" The gym leader held out his hand in gesture of offering help with a kind smile.

"W-what?" the one in the black life jacket sputtered out. She rode on a tiny water electric hybrid pokemon known as Chinchou, who seemed to be a very eager fish. It also didn't seem to notice how terrified its trainer looked as she wrapped her arms around its football-like figure.

"What do you want from us?" The other demanded, giving him a suspicious glare. She herself was holding onto her Psyduck, who was rather curious than the usual clueless face its species normally expressed. Green noticed that Psyduck's tail had a slight glow.

"Are you heading to Cianwood City?" The gym leader asked, his voice light and polite, a habit he picked up from high school for talking to the girls, who were not Blue. He was trying to make the two feel calmer and relaxed around him, knowing that they most likely see him as a stranger. Unwittingly, he only made the Psyduck trainer more cautious.

"Ye-yes we are..." The pale trainer replied as she clung onto her pokemon even tighter.

"We are heading there too, would you like a lift?" He asked, unconsciously making his voice inviting.

"What do a bunch of college guys want with us?" The blue haired girl narrowed her eyes. The trainer was hugging her water pokemon so tightly that the duck pokemon gave a short quack for her to loosen up.

"We will just be taking a little bit of your time," he said sweetly.

"Sure!" The Chinchou trainer said when her friend answered at the same time with, "No!"

"Eh?" Green questioned as he already was pulling one of the girls up from her Chinchou. The Psyduck trainer glared at the gym leader for holding her friend so casually like they were chatting at a bar.

"Mirei, we are going!" She shouted as she pulled her friend back into the water, yanking her out of his grip. "Shion, speed up!" For a pokemon that was known for headaches, her Psyduck changed to turbo speed and torpedoed down south, the opposite direction from where the Kanto trainers were.

"Wait, what?" The gym leader asked with a bewildered expression as he watched the trainer hold her friend, who looked like she was about to die from fright, above water. "H-hey, your friend-!"

"Just because you are some hot shot gym leader and you're with the Kanto champion doesn't mean we would just let you take advantage of us!" She screamed back. The Chinchou, now rider-less, panicked in the waters for a second before chasing down her trainer.

"C-chin, chou!" W-wait for me! Red and Green lost sight of the small water pokemon in the wide open sea.

"Red, follow them," Green said, pointing to the two girls. "If we leave them, I have a bad feeling that the brunette is going to somehow manage to drown herself, with or without a pokemon!"

Without questioning his best friend's thought process, the Kanto trainer silently commanded his water-ice hybrid to chase them down. Lapras could easily out speed a Psyduck, who was holding two trainers. The brunette girl was holding onto her friend by the arm; the additional weight slowed down Psyduck. The duck pokemon started to jabber random sounds, realizing that the two men were catching up to them.

"Chi-chiharuuuu!" Mirei cried out, now clinging to her friend for dear life. "Shouldn't we accept their offer...?"

"That suspicious duo? No way!" She replied. Normally, it is Mirei who doesn't take kindly to strangers, but considering how she can't swim and is terrified of water; the trainer would gladly jump at any chance to get out of it.

"Chiharu?" Green asked himself, remembering Keigo and his family mentioning it multiple times. The realization hit him. "WAIT, YOU'RE THAT CATCHER..!"

"HOW THE HELL DO YOU KNOW ME?" She screamed. "Asahi, go!"

The psychic lilac colored pokemon flashed out of her pokeball, landing on the Psyduck's head. (Whoaaa!) She thought aloud as she nearly slipped into the ocean. (Why am I out here?)

"Psy...duck..." Can you get off my head? The duck pokemon whined to the new additional weight.

"ASAHI, USE REFLECT!" Chiharu shouted, her voice shot up a couple of octaves. The sun pokemon looked up to see a rapidly approaching Lapras quickly gaining on her trainer.

"Pii!" Go away! she cried out as her eyes glowed.

A transparent mirror formed right behind them. Lapras, who didn't notice it forming, ran straight into it. The sea monster met the mirror head first and smacked its head against the invisible wall and groaned. The force stopped the water pokemon dead in its tracks. Espeon formed a low horizontal mirror slightly above her head and jumped on it to avoid making Psyduck slow down his swimming.

"Shion, use Psychic to slow them down!" Psyduck's eyes glowed bright blue levitated Lapras for a brief moment and flipped the water pokemon upside down, tossing its riders into the ocean.

"Reflect?" Green pulled his head up above the moving waves and rubbed his head. He took out a pokeball, "Go, Gyarados!" A sea serpent like pokemon dived into the ocean and roared into the sky. It held an intimidating look and had violent looking eyes and an always wide open mouth showing sharp fangs.

"Shion, use Psychic to speed up!" The blue haired girl cried.

Her pokemon's eyes glowed blue again and manipulated the waves to propel itself through the waters. Green heard a cry of a few Tentacools, who had poor timing and appeared when Psyduck used its attack to get ahead of them. The jellyfish pokemon were hit by Psyduck's Psychic and were seen drifting away from the waves to recover from the attack. Before the gym leader shouted a command to his Gyarados, the ocean shone with light.

While Psyduck was swimming through the rough currents with two trainers and an Espeon leaping from mirror to mirror, the duck pokemon had changed its appearance. Psyduck has grown to the height of an average man. The duck pokemon grew claws with webbed hands and feet and a longer tail and beak. The pokemon was blue and had four spikes on its head with a red jewel on its head.

"Golduck!" Sorry for that! The blue duck apologized to the fainted Tentacools.

"You evolved!" His trainer was shocked. His trainer was hugging him around the neck and body when he evolved. Chiharu pulled Mirei out of the water to sit on the newly evolved pokemon's back. She held onto one of Golduck's spikes and turned his head slightly to the right to signal the pokemon where to swim. The speed difference was great.

"Come back here!" Green screeched out as his own water pokemon crashed into another mirror. The giant serpent like pokemon twisted its head in confusion as it nudged its head into the mirror multiple times.

Whoa, what is this? It asked, as it nudged around it to find the dimensions.

(Don't touch her!) The girl's Espeon yelled over the waves. The purple feline formed another mirror and hopped on its flat surface. She lowered her head to use Psychic on them again and had several high waves crashing against the pursuers. Each wave progressively grew until it could even flip Lapras. Gyarados held on, slicing through each crash of water it met.

"Gyarados, use Waterfall!" The sea serpent twisted its body as a wall of water rose above it.

"Asahi, Reflect!" Another mirror appeared to weaken the water attack. With Waterfall being slowed down, it gave the girls a chance to swim further away before the attack was able to do much damage.

"Purasu, Surf!" Red quietly commanded, watching his friend crashing into mirror after mirror. The Viridian city gym leader's face was slightly pink from running into so many invisible mirrors. The water-ice hybrid pokemon cried its name with waves rising above it. The waves surrounded the Golduck and Espeon, forcing them to come in closer to the two Kanto trainers.

The giant tsunamis submerged the pokemon and their trainers underwater. Against a level eighty Lapras, the lower leveled Golduck and Espeon had no chance. When the water finally calmed with the victims floating back up, both pokemon had fainted; swirls twirling in their eyes. The Chinchou trainer began to panic.

"N-no," she gulped down seawater. Despite having a life jacket, the girl struggled too much for it to be much use for her. The life jacket bobbed in and out of the water aggressively from the strong currents and from the trainer's struggle to surface.

"Chinchou!" There you are! The angler fish pokemon have finally caught up to her trainer. "Chinchou, chinchou?" Are you alright? She poked her trainer's arm with one fin with worry.

"Mire-..!" Chiharu began, when she was rudely interrupted by a black fingerless gloved hand plucking her out of the ocean water. Another from the same person pulled Mirei out too.

"Recall your pokemon," the Kanto champion commanded, his tone quiet but ominous as the two younger trainers swallowed hard. The three pokemon were quickly flashed back into their pokeballs just as Green pulled up next to Lapras on his own water type.

"They could have drowned! What were you thinking Red?" He scolded; somewhat relieved that all the mirrors have dissipated when the psychic type fainted.

"You were taking too long," the champion stated simply.

The Kanto champion had the brunette girl sit on Lapras with him. It was clear that she wouldn't bother to escape, as it was she who was very eager to come with them in the first place. She had her arms wrapped around his waist with her head turned away from the water, as if afraid that looking at it would cause her to fall in. The other trainer however, wore a very displeased face and was forced to sit with Green instead so that the gym leader could keep an eye on her. The blue haired trainer had one hand on Gyarados' fin, but the other hand was constantly hovering over her bag.

"What do you want?" The blue haired girl asked boldly, ignoring the glare from the Kanto champion.

"Your friend looked like she was going to pass out and then drown," Red frowned at the angry trainer.

"Haven't you heard of don't talk to strangers?" She asked sarcastically.

"What a brat..." Green groaned. "We were heading to Cianwood City to go find you two, a favor from both your family and the Ecruteak gym leader." They were looking for a couple of high school girls. He didn't think it would be this complicated, or annoying... The gym leader was still rubbing his forehead from the pain of being slammed into Espeon's status moves.

"So my mom hired another person to drag us back home," the blue haired girl looked bored. Mirei was half listening to the conversation and seemed all too relieved that she was on Lapras' back.

"No, she said that she would let you go this time," the champion answered as he patted his Lapras to continue towards the island.

The red-eyed champion caught the trainers' reactions. The blue haired girl's slowly eyes widened. Her eyes and mouth opened slightly before closing them shut. He watched her lips move as if to say, "No way..." The other girl looked happy from the news, but was too distracted by the passing waves to be entirely pleased. Despite riding on a relatively large pokemon, she still got nauseous from Lapras surfing through the rippling water. Pikachu was sitting on Mirei's lap as an attempt to calm down the brunette with little effort. Mirei was stroking the electric rat's back since it landed on her lap. All of the trainers smelled like salt and seaweed from being dumped into the ocean repeatedly.

"And for the record... How the hell do you at all look like your mom..?" The Viridian gym leader asked, his voice incredulous.

"What?" Chiharu said confused.

"She said you look just like her," Green repeated the woman's words, feeling a little stupid for ever bringing up the topic.

The catcher rolled her eyes, "We apparently share the same shape of eyes."

"T-thanks for helping us," the brunette girl chattered from the cold sea wind.

"You were chasing us like criminals," Chiharu said. "You want something from us. This isn't just about my family, is it?" The catcher frowned at the two older men. If they were really going after them to return them back to their family, they wouldn't be so urgent about it. After all, children going missing from their homes to go on a pokemon journey weren't unusual at all.

"Well," he scratched the back of his head, trying to think up a way to put the things he knew together. "Let's start with Matsuba's reason... Two days ago, apparently after you left the town, because we couldn't find you anywhere, Matsuba was attacked."

"Wait, what?" Mirei finally snapped her head up, somewhat succeeding in ignoring the rocking motion of surfing.

"Attacked?" Chiharu looked baffled, "What happened to him?" She had a wild expression.

"Shortly after you left, and his trainers and referee stepped out, another trainer entered to challenge him," he explained. "Matsuba turned his back only to fetch the referee, and then he was greeted by a blast of fire. His right shoulder, back, and chest had suffered third degree burns."

"Why would we want to attack a gym leader?" Mirei asked. "Our pokemon are too weak! You just defeated them!"

"Matsuba has his personal team," Chiharu backed her up. "Even if we were to try something on him, his personal team would knock us out before we even get close to him."

Many gym leaders had two or more teams. One set was normally used for beginner trainers who go to defeat the eight gyms in a specific order to challenge the Elite Four. The other set, their 'personal team' is the team gym leaders use outside of gym matches or against strong trainers who have already completed the gym challenge. Their personal teams are usually stronger than their gym teams as all gym leaders have completed the gym challenge themselves at one point in time.

"He didn't say that you attacked him," Red interrupted their train of thoughts. "He saw who attacked him."

"A steam punk dressed teenager, who has a legendary pokemon, attacked him," Green said, his tone serious and stern. "We just received word from our friends that they met a trainer who matched this guy's descriptions, all the way in New Bark Town."

"How is that related to us?" Mirei chattered in between her teeth. The Kanto champion was unsure of how to react to a teenage girl clinging onto him so tightly. It was worse than being hugged by an Octillery with Pokerus. Poor Pikachu was squished in between the two.

"Matsuba told you the prophecy, that's reason number one." The gym leader answered for his friend. "Two, we were told that you were a catcher, a legendary one at that. Who do you have in your possession?"

"Wait, are you accusing me of capturing legendary pokemon?" Chiharu's eyes went big and round. "How the hell can I catch one? They would murder my team before I can even attempt to stun it!"

"But even your grandfather said-"

"Why would I even want to catch one?" She ignored Green's argument and continued on, "Catching a legendary would destroy the balance as we know it because having too many legendaries in one place would bring too much tension between humans and pokemon. Governments would abuse their power with fear and wars would start!" She seemed to have forgotten that she was on a Gyarados and was now talking very animatedly with hand gestures and a very expressive face.

"Uh, Green," Red tried to warn his friend. He heard the girl behind him groan.

"Even if that didn't happen!" Chiharu shrilled, "Think about the environment! If a Groudon was under someone's ownership, it could cause volcanic eruptions in Sinnoh! That would kill many natural habitats because Sinnoh is a cold region! Or what if Kyogre appeared in Unova and flooded half of the region? Thousands of pokemon would die and humans could die from the extreme weather!" She spat out with a fierce look on her face at the reluctant men who were forced to listen to all of this with her screaming in their ears.

"... Does this ranting thing run in your family?" The Kanto trainer asked, though his question went unheard. Mirei cringed at the mention of the 'environment'. He noticed that as the catcher rambled on, she was choking on her tears, but she quickly rubbed her hand against her eyes to get rid of them.

"Didn't you learn that the capital of Johto was destroyed as a result of trying to gather all of the legendary pokemon? I'm pretty damn sure that it's in history books from grades four to twelve in schools!"

"OKAY, SHUT UP I THINK WE GOT THE POINT." Green shrieked, which failed to stopped her verbal rampage.

Chiharu was still talking, "You think I caught them? Here!" The blue haired trainer took out her blue Pokegear and shoved it in Green's face. The device was opened to the share function, listing all of the pokemon the trainer had caught and had boxed in her PC. "Here's the evidence! Look at it!"

"Whoa... That is a really long list..." Green stared at the little digital screen, cross-eyed, as it just kept scrolling and scrolling down at the push of a button.

"Does it look like I can, or would for that matter, catch them now?" she demanded at the bewildered trainer. When he didn't answer right away, the catcher's vein nearly burst as she shoved him off the Gyarados. He flopped messily into the water with a loud splash.

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry that I suspected you for hunting legendaries," Green called out, but his voice was still very small. The gym leader treaded in the water idly while apologizing to the catcher. He felt Red's eyes staring down at him again. Was it so shocking for him to apologize to anyone? That thought made the gym leader feel uncomfortable. "I'm sorry that I accused you, and chased you down on this route, and that apparently, I made you feel like we were trying to take advantage of you." He spoke quickly, watching Chiharu's expressions. "Now, can I finally get back on my own pokemon?"

"It's your pokemon, why are you asking me?" She snapped.

The gym leader hesitantly swam to his pokemon and used Gyarados' body to push himself back up and climbed onto the water pokemon's back. Chiharu tossed her head and refused to look at the trainer as he sighed and motioned to his pokemon to continue down the long, long water route.

"We're back to square one," He said quietly after several minutes of silence. "You two seem to know more about that village and about that girl's disappearance."

"Wait!" Mirei snapped her head towards the trainer. "How do you know about Satsuki? We didn't mention it, and Chiharu's mom wouldn't mention it if she didn't have to either!"

"We ran into her. She used Keigo as a shield to get away," Red said. "Chiharu's mom told us the story."

"You what?" the brunette's eyes grew wide. Their friend, their childhood friend. The girl that went missing, appeared almost right after they left the village? It was cruel irony at its finest.

"But you seemed to have seen more than the adults did," the gym leader finished. "Let's hear your side of the story."

"SHE USED MY BABY BROTHER AS A SHIELD?" Chiharu's voice snapped up several octaves. The image of her brother, the stupid fool, always so reckless, was being threatened by her friend? "Not only did she completely disregard me, she even used my baby brother as a hostage to run away? WHAT THE HELL IS SHE DOING?"

"She would never do that!" Mirei yelled at the girl and turned to Red and Green, "You're lying!" She was sobbing, "You're just saying that to make us talk and make her look bad!"

"She didn't hurt Keigo in anyway," Green tried to explain quickly. "She went to her house to grab her Mystic water, and then she tried to run when Red and I confronted her. Then Keigo was in her way, doing some stupid pose, only to get caught as a hostage. But he confirmed that it was her, and she didn't do anything beyond dragging him around, I swear!"

"She always had that with her when we were kids," Mirei said quietly. She always wore it around her left wrist whenever they went out to play.

"That kid was gone for years," Chiharu mumbled.

"What kid?" Red demanded.

"It doesn't matter," the blue haired trainer shook her head. "He left when we were really little, I don't even remember much of him now. As you were saying earlier, your friends ran into a trainer with a legendary pokemon? Did this person attack Matsuba too?"

"We have reason to believe so," Red answered. "What did he say about the trainer again?"

"Umm, he had Entei..." Green recollected. "The steam punk escaped on it after realizing that Silver is a highly skilled trainer... He had a Ralts and an Eevee." Both were rare pokemon, although not as rare as legendaries, of course. With legendary pokemon like Entei, it was no longer shocking to know that someone had an Eevee and a Ralts on their team at low levels.

"An Eevee?" The brunette girl looked up in interest.

"What's its name? Do you know?" Chiharu's eyes narrowed.

"If I remember correctly, it was English... What was it, Elmer? Edgar?"

"Elliot." Red corrected his friend. "They said the Eevee's name was Elliot."

"Okay," Chiharu was oddly calm.

"Hmm...? Do you know something about this Eevee?" The gym leader asked, noticing the girl's sudden change in emotion.

"We'll tell you what happened." The trainer crossed her arms with an odd expression. She had switched from anger to fear to calm in the last several minutes, which was alarming to the gym leader, who was not used to the rapidly changing emotions. It was worse than talking to Blue on certain days.

"It began like this..."

Author's Notes: We are sorry... Many people really, really don't like cliffhangers. (The author who created Satsuki especially) However, the chapter would have been three times longer with the next section. You have to wait a week before finding out what happens next. Question of the Chapter: Who is your least favorite character so far, and why? Remember to R&R!

"RainSonata": After 10 chapters, we finally get to see Chiharu get mad. Well, legitly mad, as in 'pissed off' and flip a person. Literally. I hate typing in the summer. I hate hot weather, SO MUCH. I wish fall would come already... BTW, check out my pokemon one-shot fanfic called "For the Love of Food!" under my RainSonata account. I've been getting into a fanfiction mood lately and have been getting so many ideas for different fanfics and personal projects. My one-shots and non-collaborative projects will be posted under my personal account.

"LunarAbyss": … I have nothing to say, other than AGAIN. NO SCREEN TIME FOR SATSUKI. Hahaha... Funny, cause she's supposed to be a super important character the first original character created in this story. Nah, she's not that egotistic, hahaha. She'll be showing up much more soon. Oh so very soon... Mwahahahahahaha.