Chapter 16

Japanese Names:

Mikan = Jasmine

Shijima = Chuck

Professor Utsugi = Professor Elm

Disclaimer:Let's say it together now: We do not own pokemon. The only people who own pokemon is Nintendo, Game Freak, Satoshi Tajiri, and the other people who worked together to create us this beautiful game for the fanbase to enjoy. We are college students writing this story for fun and entertainment and strive to make this story as closely accurate to the game as possible while keeping things realistic. Well, as realistic as we can in a world where it's normal to have blue hair and for one foot tall rats to shoot electricity.

Pokemon Center - Cianwood City

"Hey, it's Mirei!" Chiharu said with grin on her face. Though they had fought the day before, she was pretty much okay with anything if it meant getting away from the Johto champion. He had flirted with every trainer, regardless of their gender, on their way back from Route 47. Silver eventually grew tired of his antics and flew off with his Crobat while Gold followed suit, screaming, "Why are you leaving me Silver? Come back, please!"

"Chiharu? What took you so long?" The brunette asked with a confused look on her face. Just as her friend walked into the building, a raven haired teenager waltzed out in front of her and took hold of Mirei's hands.

"Have we met?" he asked her. The brunette girl responded with a questioning look.

The Pokemon Center in Cianwood City looked like any other Pokemon Center in the region. The building opened to trainers with its automatic glass doors to show a big lounge area with tables and seats for trainers to sit in with other trainers. At the front desk was the front desk where the nurses sat to take in trainers' pokemon and heal them. On the side of the buildings were hallways leading to rooms for trainers to stay and rest in along with a buffet style cafeteria that served meals for hungry trainers and pokemon. Healing was free, but meals and room service called for a bit of change.

"Uh, I don't think so," she replied, completely taken by surprise.

Her Chinchou was outside of her pokeball and was still clinging onto her trainer's ankle after the battle. The water pokemon excitedly chattered to her trainer, who didn't understand any of it. Pidgeotto was sitting on the floor because the table was already filled with occupants. After Chiharu greeted Mirei and Red, the group walked over to the Pokemon Center's cafeteria. They group was now occupying a table in the stuffy room with other trainers. The rest of Mirei's team was on the floor talking to the other pokemon.

"Really? If I remember correctly, your name is Natsu, just like the beautiful summer day today is."

"No, my name is Mirei..."

"Well, your name should be Natsu (1), because you're flaming hot babe," he said with a smile on his face.

"Th-thank you?" Her face burned bright red as she awkwardly pulled her hands out of the stranger's grasp.

"Nidorina, rina..." You would think she would learn by now... Kisaki gave an exasperated sigh. Mirei's Nidorina took a big bite from her bowl of food and gave her trainer a worried look.

"Gloom, gloom, gloom?" Maybe she's just not paying attention? Chiharu's Gloom guessed. "Gloom, oom, gloom, gloom, glo!" Hey, I defeated a few trainers today! The smelly flower exclaimed to Nidorina. "Gloom, gloom, oom, gloom, gloom!" Maybe I can defeat the next gym leader and show that I'm not useless! The small plant popped pokemon food into her mouth.

"Golbat, bat, bat!" Don't talk about yourself like that, Phoebe! Kera snapped at the happy plant pokemon. "Golbat, bat!" Chiharu always uses you for battles!

"Chinchou, chou!" I half paralyzed a Poliwrath today! Chouko said happily.

Green's Porygon-Z and Gold's Typhlosion were also out as the virtual pokemon was small and wouldn't take up so much room. The cafeteria was big enough to fit in trainers and maybe a few of their pokemon who were small enough to fit through the door. Pokemon like Snorlax and Wailord had to be fed outside of the Pokemon Center due to their huge size. It was unrealistic to build a center to fit a pokemon that was nearly 15 meters tall.

It is physically impossible for one to half paralyze a pokemon, Green's Porygon-Z announced in its robotic tone. It's like saying that you can make a pokemon half confused. So I herd u liek Mudkipz. I like pop tarts and Skitty.

"Typhlosion, plo, sion?" What is that supposed to mean? Gold's Typhlosion cocked his head to the side. The dark green pokemon stood at the height of a tall man with a yellow underbody on its hind legs. No flame were coming out of its back at the moment and was busy munching on a few berries for dessert. "Plo, sion, si, plo, typhlosion, plo?" Why are you talking about water pokemon and Skitty at a time like this?

Sigh, you uncultured non surfers will never understand the complexity of the interwebs, the normal type pokemon said. I have learned many things from the interwebs. Have you seen that electronic music I posted the other day on my personal blog? It was a masterpiece only the well educated could understand.

"Vee?" Isn't it the 'Internet'? Red's Espeon asked.

(What's the Internet?) Asahi asked out loud. Gold and Silver stared at the talking Espeon who was in the middle of stealing a poffin from her brother. The Leafeon was batting a paw at his sister, who was too busy focusing to pay much attention.

"You talked!" Silver gawked at the psychic pokemon. "Did that Espeon just talked?"

"Um," Chiharu looked at the redhead nervous in fear of another outburst from him. "She's been like that since she evolved..."

It didn't feel right for her to be sitting and eating with two champions and two strong trainers. Chiharu felt the stares and heard whispers from trainers passing by. She closed her eyes when she heard a few trainers saying some unfriendly words she didn't want to think about. The catcher knew that she and Mirei were only tolerated because they just happened to know the suspect of the crime. They were the closest thing they got for evidence. There were many other trainers they could have asked for better service like the police or elite trainers. She could only hope that she would last long enough before the stress kicked in and when the stronger trainers would lose their patience with them for lack of strength.

"Vee, esp?" You just evolved? Red's Espeon asked the embarrassed psychic pokemon.

"Vee..." Yeah... The female pokemon replied back. (How do I stop doing this?) She groaned in frustration when she realized that she spoke out the words unconsciously again.

"Espeon, esp." It takes time and practice, the male psychic pokemon reassured her. "Espeon, esp, peon." My trainer sometimes feels angry because of me by mistake. The Espeon flicked his tail and pat the pokemon on the back. When Espeon first evolved, its emotions would accidentally influence Red and make him share the same emotions as the psychic pokemon. There was a time when Espeon got angry at a Donphan, accidentally making his trainer angry as well for no reason. It took the champion an hour to cool off from the random outburst.

"Growlithe, growl?" Helios asked, Psychic pokemon can do that too? The orange dog felt awkward watching Red's Espeon touching his teammate when they have just met. He felt like an outsider from their conversation about psychic powers.

"Espeon, peon." I'm close to Red, Espeon said. "Espeon, peon, pi." It's the same reason why she can use telepathy.

"At least it's not as strong as Suicune's," Green sighed in relief. "I don't think I can stand another migraine."

"Ah. It's Gold." Red came up from behind the blushing teen with a straight face, as if to say that he is completely used to the Johto trainer's behavior.

Gold perked up, his eyes shining as he bolted away from Mirei and caught the Kanto champion in a tight hug, singing quite loudly, "Senpai! I missed you senpai!" (2)

"Huh..?" The brunette asked in utter confusion as her friend patted her on the back.

"Don't worry, that's just the kind of person he is," she said. Although Chiharu had only met him that day, she felt like it's already been years. His wild and unpredictable personality reminded her of a young boy she used to play with back in the village way back then.

Green felt his blood pressure shoot up as he watched the Johto champion glomp onto his rival. Where Gold's arms went, specifically his waist, made the gym leader twitch from how touchy feely the teenage boy was. The Johto trainer did not know what personal space was. Even more to his annoyance was his former rival's reaction to the whole ordeal. Red's face was of indifference, like it was normal for Gold to cling to him whenever he was around. Gold asked as calmly as he could, "How was your day, Red?"

"A little more frustrating than usual." He replied quietly. The champion had gone over proper strategy with Mirei, and not a single bit had seemed to click in her head. She seemed to somewhat understand the advantages and disadvantages of the seventeen different types of pokemon. However, she couldn't seem to understand the point of status moves or battle items. At all. The girls was dead set on training and over leveling, though she refuses to properly train her water hybrid pokemon.

"Eh? Why are you so quiet today Red?" Gold asked, tilting his head to his right. The teen was almost as tall as his senior although Red is still growing himself. He finally peeled his arms off the Kanto trainer's waist and continued. "How are you feeling? The summer heat isn't getting to you, is it?"

"Isn't he always like this..?" Green asked quietly.

"What? No!" The gold eyed teenage boy exclaimed, "It's the opposite! Red is such a chatterbox! You wouldn't believe half the stuff he told me! Aw man, all those adventures he had in Kanto were so awesome! It makes my journey sound boring. I only ran into one Rocket Grunt in all of Kanto, almost disappointing."

The gym leader stared at the two with a completely confused expression locked onto his face. While Gold was busy talking about his interaction with his senior, Green noticed that he talked very animatedly with hand gestures and wide facial expressions. There was a certain light in his eyes that Red had only when he was battling or when he was interacting with his pokemon. The gym leader almost forgot why he didn't mind giving his phone number to Gold in the first place. It was a stupid thing to do, but staring at him reminded Green of Red when he still talked like a normal child. Red used to talk with a lot of hand gestures too. Like an open book.

"I wouldn't call him a chatterbox, but yeah. He did talk a lot," Mirei confirmed as the Kanto trainer simply stayed silent.

"It's been a long day," Silver stretched, several of his joints cracked from being stiff for so long. "I'm just going to go rent a room and sleep. I'll see you guys in the morning."

"Eh? Wait up, Silv!" Gold cried out as he sprinted to his rival's side and wrapped one arm over his shoulder. "Okay guys, we are going to go up to our room. Please don't bother us, I'm going to keep Silver pretty busy tonight. He won't have any time to sleep." He winked at the group as the redhead kicked him in the stomach without a word. Typhlosion poked at his trainer, who was crouched over holding his abdomen, while Silver simply walked away.

"And to think he still watches Super Sentai..." Chiharu mumbled.

"What?" Mirei stared at her like she was crazy.

"Nothing," her friend waved the question away. "So you won the badge from this city? You plan to train Chouko for Mikan?"

"No need, my other pokemon are strong enough!" She answered with a wide smile.

"She uses steel types," Chiharu talked with her teeth clenched and saw that Red wore a similar expression, although his was more subtle and well hidden. The Kanto champion turned his head away from the brunette girl, but it was clear that the topic made him uncomfortable.

"And?"

Chiharu cried, "I give up!" She walked to the entrance of the cafeteria to head to the main area of the Pokemon Center, "I'm going to get a room!" The girl recalled most of her team except for her Growlithe and stomped to the front area of the Pokemon Center with the fire dog tailing behind her.

"We should rest up for tomorrow," Red suggested, avoiding Mirei's dumbstruck gaze.

Cianwood City

"Vee..?" Why is it so hot? A small brown canine pokemon whined as he followed a tall trainer dressed in black. The trainer's trench coat fluttered behind, occasionally whipping the normal type pokemon's face. It was early morning in the port city of Cianwood, the sun wasn't even that high is the sky yet.

"Elliot, don't complain," His trainer sighed, adjusting the cuff on the left sleeve.

"Eve, eevee ee," Actually, how are you surviving wearing that? They walked through the morning crowd, all on their way to the Safari Zone. Though they received odd stares here and there, her outfit didn't stand out too much in a wave of tourists. She heard whispers saying that she might be from Unova or Kalos, wherever that is. "Vee ee eevee…" I'm worried that you're going to get a heat stroke. Eevee pawed his trainer's leg with a concern look.

"Don't worry, I'll be alright," she smiled gently as she scooped up the normal type pokemon into her arms. She ruffled his fur as she added, "This doesn't bother me."

It actually really warm today, she thought to herself as she scratched behind Elliot's ear. Knowing how humid this season can get, she purposely tailored her outfit to be thin and breathable, allowing the wind to breeze through the fibers. Unfortunately, she was only able to get her hands on two colors, though much more black fabric and barely any white. She noted that the other colored fabrics were nearly gone and weren't enough to supply for making a new outfit for herself. The black fabric was hardly touched.

"So Shijima is a fighting type gym leader," a teenage girl stated.

"That's right," the man replied. "He probably taught his pokemon some moves to combat their weaknesses, so be careful."

"I heard he trains under a waterfall he makes in the gym," she added. "Is that true?"

Satsuki's heart skipped a beat. From the corner of her eye, she saw two trainers approaching to where she was standing. The two trainers, a boy and a girl. The boy, well, more of a young man, had an absurdly spiky hairdo that could only be achieved from spending all morning dumping a liter of hair gel or from oversleeping too much and not bothering to comb his hair. The girl had her blue hair tied into a braid and was walking and talking alongside with the man. Both of them were too absorbed into their conversation to notice Satsuki when they bumped into her.

"Ouch!" The blue haired girl nearly lost her balance and rubbed her head. She stared at the girl in the black attire with a questioning look, probably because of her choice in clothing. "Sorry for that," she apologized and gave her a slight bow.

Satsuki was tongue tied and shifted her eyes from the girl to the other trainer. He didn't seem to recognize her as he was giving her a small sheepish smile, the kind a stranger gives to another for making a foolish mistake. What is this? Satsuki panicked to herself. Why didn't she walk away? She gawked at the two trainers who didn't seem to notice her discomfort of their sudden presence. What were those two doing here of all places? What was a gym leader doing with her childhood friend? They were talking like they have met before. How was that even possible? That gym leader was from Kanto, she knew that for a fact. How could anyone one not? That gym leader claimed the throne of Kanto Champion for a short period of time before being kicked off by another trainer. How did she know him?

"Vee?" Isn't that Chiharu? Eevee tilted his head to one side while his trainer choked on her own saliva. "Eevee ee." Hey, they didn't recognize you at all.

"I suppose that's a good thing…" She answered as she stumbled away from the couple just as gym leader suddenly sneezed.

She wanders to the northern part of the city, closer to where the camera studio shop was. With the high population of tourists, it wasn't too surprising to see the small humble shop stand with a shiny new sign reading out its name. Not too far off, she spotted a brunette girl wearing pink walking along side with tall pale trainer with a red and white cap. Without a second glance, she spun around and waltzed off into the opposite direction, struggling to hold a straight face.

I'm not going to mention it, she repeated over and over in her head. I'm not going to mention it, I'm not going to mention it...

"Vee?" Wait, wasn't that Mirei?

I'm not going to answer that, she silently stared off into the space before her.

This was like lame plotline of a fanfiction written by a thirteen year old middle school student who had too much time to spare. Where everyone was shipped with everyone and lived happily ever after. What kind of nonsense was this? Red and Mirei? Again, how did they even know each other? There was no way the Kanto champion would put the effort of going to Johto after traveling through several regions a few years ago. Why did she always have to run into the strangest scenarios? She shook her head and pushed the thought away.

As Satsuki approached the route to the Safari Zone, known as Cliff Edge Gate to trainers, she sighed in relief when she saw that the cave's entrance wasn't as crowded as it was a few hours ago. It wasn't too difficult having to climb up the flight of stairs after traveling through many parts of the region. Sinnoh had more difficult obstacles than this. Her Eevee was sitting in the inside of her jacket to rest from running away with his trainer. The normal type pokemon was opened one eye from his very short nap when a man came running to them.

"Excuse me miss-...!" A rather bulky man knocked her over. He held out a hand to help her up. "Oh, I'm sorry young man. You're so small, I thought you were a lady!"

Satsuki stared down at her thin figure. Being about 170 centimeters cannot be called small, especially for women in the area being on average 157.5 centimeters tall. However, compared to this hiker looked like he was easily over 183 centimeters tall (3), everyone must be small to him. The hiker appeared to be in his forties and sported a thick, bushy beard and mustache. He wore a green vest and shirt with the usual attire most hikers wore. His pokemon was walking with its trainer and looked very happy. The pokemon, Golem, had a hard green shell with cracks in it and had arms and legs coming out of the rock like shell.

"I'd say you're almost the size of my son!" The hiker mused while stroking his beard, "He takes after me in height, but he definitely has my wife's body structure. He's quite slim, though I would assume so since he is always chasing after them damn flighty birds. I raised him to be big and strong but he ended up as a bird keeper. He's off in Unova right now, who knows what the blazes he is doing right now."

"Oh…" Satsuki passively responded to the man's utterances. She moved her body to the side as a sign to excuse herself, but froze when she heard the hiker continue to talk.

"Did you know there is a weird tower near this area?" He gave her a stage whisper, "Strange patterns on the floors, looks like something from Hoenn. Ever been there?" The hiker didn't stop to let Satsuki answer and said, "It's at the peak of a mountain cliff where the sky, land, and sea meet. My wife found it on an old map while we were shopping for antiques. Did I tell you how beautiful my wife is? Beautiful like a dream. Wears flowers in her hair, has great taste in art and humor. Wonderful cook, can clean a messy room in so little time. Wish I had that skill, I tell ya. Has a lovely garden in the front and loves meeting grass pokemon on hikes. She's an aroma lady, you see."

"A tower?" She mumbled to herself. Does he mean the Embedded Tower? She asked herself. She finally managed to get his attention long enough to ask, "Can you tell me more about this tower?"

"Rumor has it that certain items would bring the building to life," he said. His Golem looked bored as if this wasn't the first time his trainer had explained about the tower. Judging from the rock type pokemon dozing to sleep, this was commonplace. "Place looked shabby when I first found it. I've seen many abandoned places in this world, but this one was in better condition than I thought. A few broken planks, but stable enough to walk inside without any danger. The stairs are demolished though, I don't think anyone can walk up them anymore, even if their legs can leap as far as a Spoink."

"How do you know all of this?" Satsuki asked with hesitance.

"Oh, you don't know?" The hiker cried, "There are many others like me who take it as a hobby to explore abandon buildings of the world! I still prefer exploring caves, although exploring the jungle of the abandoned buildings or city is a whole new adventure itself!"

"Um, thank you for the information…?" Her sentence ended up sounding like a question.

"You know young man, I think you can totally pass for a lady!" He straightened his back as if to say he is proud of being able to notice it. Satsuki felt her body sudden grow three times heavier as he continued on. "Your voice is pretty high for a guy, don't you think? And you're pretty damn slim, plus you are wearing them fancy clothing. Don't they cosplay in those outfits in Unova? Or maybe in Kalos… Well, around there. I'd say you'd fool any poor fellas if you dress yourself up all nice."

"Um, I'll take that as a compliment, but I really must get going." She excused herself. Without allowing the hiker to add comment, she ducked through crowd of trainers and disappeared from his sight.

"What a slippery fella huh?" He pondered out loud before shrugging it off and following the rest of the crowd.

Cianwood City Beach

"This sand…" The raven haired, golden colored eyed trainer said coolly and mysteriously. He allowed the crushed yellow earth to slip through his long fingers. His clear eyes reflected the sun's rays as they deflected off the uneven surface of each grain of sand. Soon his hand was empty and weightless, as if all the burdens had lifted off his shoulders. "Nature shaped each individual grain of sand, like how each living being is different from one another. This, this beach, is such a beautiful plac-"

"Stop trying to make yourself sound mysterious!" Silver interrupted his friend before he could finish his sentence. "Geez, what do you think this is? A shonen manga (4) or a video game? Someone's been watching too many anime lately." The redhead scoffed at Gold's poor attempt of flicking his hair, only for the hair to flop to the side and little else. Also, it was a hot humid day and both of them were sweating like there was no tomorrow. If Gold was trying to make himself look "cool", he looked more washed up than anything.

"Exactly. My life is a popular game that kids and adults enjoy. I have an entire fanbase that I totally do not know about where I am paired up with my sempai or friends, and even original characters. I have no control of my image on the 'interwebs'." The Johto trainer smirked at the thought of having a fandom.

"'Internet' Gold… It's called the Internet, and I don't think you are that popular. Who the hell would be interested in your life?" Silver threw his dark purple jacket off and used it as a pillow while shielding his eyes from the sun.

"How little do you know about the vast unrealistic nature of the 'interwebs' Silver," he whipped his head upwards, allowing his hair to flip up before settling back onto his forehead with a soft flutter. "For all we know, there is a huge database where kids, teenagers, and even adults, submit drawings, ranging from horrible to amazing, of the two of us making out in some random closet. We may be the target of this 'yaoi' fandom. There is so little we actually know…"

"Don't tell me Crystal introduced you to that website," Silver growled.

For the love of… He told Crystal to never show Gold that website! Although the girl was normally a calm and rational person, she did have her odd moments of her hobbies considering the Internet… Silver could never understand the whole hype of certain fandoms online and preferred not to. Some people just had too much time in their hands. One would assume Gold would never have the extra time to go online long enough to know about the existence of fanart and, um, certain pairings.

"What website?" Gold replied in the most derpy smile that can possible light up on his face. His eyes were almost literally dots and the ridiculous chibi smile was slapped on like a sticker from a giant sticker book. Was that even physiologically possible?

Without a second's hesitation, Silver's fist punched the expression off his rival's face. Gold landed flat onto the sand while Silver's aura spiked dangerously as he said in a low menacing tone, "Don't ever show that stupid grin to me again. It makes you no better than those cartoon characters geared to toddlers."

"That's horrible Silv." The Johto champion's whine was muffled in the sand.

The red haired trainer glanced up and noticed that the sun was just setting upon the horizon, coloring the skies and clouds a brilliant array of shades from reddish orange to a softer pastel yellow. The light reflected upon the sea's water, each ripple and form shattered and shifted the colors and left a shimmering impression like when one looks up at the sun from underwater. If he leaned further out to the edge of the water, he would see the black specks in the distance of what was supposed to be the four Whirl Islands. Each island was small in size, perhaps a quarter or one eighth the size of Cianwood City. How deep each island was, he didn't know, but he did know that one of the islands held a huge waterfall that he only saw once. Five years ago.

"How do you think they are doing?" Gold asked quietly when he noticed that his former rival was looking out at the ocean. Silver had been doing that a lot lately. Gold found himself scanning the sky a lot and wondered if this search would end in any results or would it be a fool's errand? Silver looked down to see his rival already sitting criss crossed on the pale yellow sand. He had a bit of a sorrowful look on his face, his eyes narrowed as he gazed upon the islands and his usual grin was closer to twitching down than up.

"I don't know," Silver admitted. "Can't hear him here. Too far away from the islands." He reached his hand out towards the ocean with a distant look in his eyes.

"I haven't heard Ho-Oh since I released him three years ago. In the beginning, I would hear him call out for me, but I ignored his calls so he wouldn't get caught." The capped trainer said with hesitance. There was a tinge of sadness in his voice. "I hated not being able to go see him when I wanted to."

The red haired trainer glanced back to the water, recalling how the ocean pulled and tugged his entire being towards it, as if it was begging him to come. Silver shook his head at the thought of it. This happened too many times. He usually resisted the urge to go towards the ocean, but today, the need was stronger. They needed to go. They had to. Before...something happens. They should have gone to the Whirl Islands earlier, but Gold managed to persuade him to stall time and relax, or what Gold claimed was relaxing. The longer Silver stayed away from the islands, the more he pondered if recatching the legendary pokemon was a good idea. He wondered how the rainbow hued pokemon had called Gold to it, if he felt the same longing towards the sky as he felt towards water.

When Silver failed to defeat the Elite Four five years ago, he found himself unsure of what to do. He trained his pokemon as much as he could. He pulled through so much effort to catch the right pokemon with the right strengths and movesets. What did he do wrong? Conflicted of his goals, the trainer traveled to Kanto in search of what strength meant. Silver was in Pewter City when an elderly man suddenly approached him and handed him an odd object, a Silver Wing. The redhead rejected the surprisingly generous gift, but the old man insisted and said that the wing called to him. Confused by the strange claim, Silver traveled to Mt. Moon. Perhaps the Silver Wing was connected to the Moon Stones or the strange meteorites nearby the cave. Instead of finding the answer he wanted, Silver ran into Gold and battled him. At another loss, Silver returned to Johto to train his pokemon and his heart. His ship stopped at Olivine City. He meant to leave the city and head to Blackthorn City to train, but instead found his heart yearning for the sea, an odd thing since he was raised inland and far from the ocean.

Unable to ignore the ocean's call, Silver head to the Whirl Islands with the Silver Wing in his hand. He used his water pokemon to surf on its back, ignoring the pokemon's questioning look. The closer Silver was to the center of the sea, the stronger the ocean's calls became. Once he was in front of one of the Whirl Islands, the Silver Wing began to emit a light glow. It was night was it happened. With the aid of the Silver Wing, the tough metallic wing acted as a flashlight to light up the dark cave of the island and lead Silver through the long narrow paths. After hours of silence with only his pokemon to keep him company, Silver knew he found his destination when the Silver Wing's light flickered and shone even brighter. Behind the tall waterfall was Lugia.

"At first, I thought it was cool to have a legendary pokemon trust me enough to even come to me, but then…" Gold admitted, "With Team Rocket… I realized, Ho-Oh needs to be protected from guys like them. I couldn't let him out much because he was too big and would attract attention. I couldn't even bring him to the Pokemon Center properly. I had to use potions and berries to heal him myself. I couldn't let him fly without worrying that he would be seen."

"I couldn't let Lugia swim when he wanted to, or fly and meet other pokemon," Silver sighed out. He lazily kicked his boots aside and dragged his feet to the shore and knelt down, allowing the waves to wash over his bare hands; sea foam tickled his toes. The sensation of the cool dark water running through his body was calming, as if Lugia himself was there by his side.

Awed at the sight of the legendary pokemon, Silver froze at the magnificent waterfall pouring down the psychic hybrid. He was even more surprised when Lugia spoke to him telepathically and requested being caught. Without thinking, Silver came into the battle blindly; he fought the pokemon and caught it after tossing dozens of pokeballs along side with battling Lugia. Once the adrenaline was gone, regret filled Silver and made him question if it was a good idea to catch a legendary pokemon. Two years passed and Lugia was still under his ownership when Silver finally decided that it was better for the legendary pokemon to be released. It was too depressing to watch a flying pokemon stay at low profile by avoiding pokemon and human contact. He took the guardian of the sea back to the Whirl Islands three years ago and released the pokemon at the same waterfall where he found it. Lugia still called to him whenever he was around the area. Silver had learned to avoid the western part of Johto and stayed at the eastern side of the region. He trained in Dragon's Den in Blackthorn City before moving to New Bark Town to live with Professor Utsugi and his family.

"I wonder if Ho-Oh is still where I let him go," Gold wondered out loud, leaning back on the palms of his hands and looking up at the orange sky. He tilted his head towards Silver and asked, "Where did you drop off Lugia?"

"During this time of year, he should where I left him," the silver eyed trainer answered. "Circling around the Whirl Islands, swimming with the residential water pokemon, taking naps at his favorite waterfall…"

"Waterfalls, eh?" His rival smirked. "Ho-Oh loves waterfalls too."

"They are quite nice," Silver breathed out with a small smile on his face.

Hours later

"They finally left," A young teenager released a breath of relief. She watched the two Johto trainers walk back towards the Pokemon Center before she tumbled out of the bush. She stood up and stretched out her back.

"Eevee?" Do you hate your height? A brown canine pokemon asked as he shook out his fur. The normal type pokemon was sitting next to his trainer and dug a hole in the sand. The sand hole acted as a bed for the Eevee and cooled him down from the summer's heat. Elliot hoped that it would rain soon; one of the Tentacool warned him earlier there was going to be a night storm tonight.

"Not really, I like being tall," She smirked. Despite the sun being completely down and the wind started to kick in, the sea air felt nice and cool. Flocks of clouds were off in the distance, but they don't look like the usual summer rain clouds. "I don't think I would be happy being 152 centimeters. I may look too feminine."

"Vee..?" But aren't you a girl…?

"Never liked that fact." She yawned, kicking off her boots and storing them into her backpack. She looked down at the little normal type pokemon and asked, "Are you ready for a swim?"

After being rudely dumped into a lake in Ilex Forest, she used her free time to learn how to swim in the small lakes around the area, usually at shore where the water would go up to her neck at highest. At first, it started off as an awkward doggie paddle with Feebas, although the fish was there to keep the trainer from drowning herself. She had to learn how to float in the water without panicking before having enough courage to start putting her head into the water. Once it was assured that Satsuki could float and keep her head in the water long enough, she started practicing on the most simple and efficient swimming style: the front crawl, or as others would call it, freestyle. Kicking to keep herself going was simple enough, keeping her head down long enough to focus on pushing herself with her arms moving forward was another. She still had the urge to pull her head up more often than she should have, but her arms had the right movements where they would touch her ears when swimming. She still brought her head above the surface without lifting her head to the side when swimming.

"Eevee!" You don't have to do this, her pokemon growled. Her pokemon were uncomfortable with the idea of his trainer swimming for long distances when she had only recently gotten the basics down, but there were no other options. Feebas didn't know the move Surf and she was too tiny to hold a human being while swimming for a long distance.

"This is going to be a long swim," Satsuki mumbled to herself and gazed at the sky to see the sun starting to set. "Better get started if we want to get there before the sun comes up."

She called Elliot back into his pokeball, not wanting him to soak in the salt water for too long. Besides, she had doubts that the unevolved pokemon would have the stamina to swim for such a long period of time before tiring out. The only pokemon that was beside Satsuki at the moment was her Feebas, who was swimming slowly beside her in case there was a struggle in the water. The teenage girl once pondered of having the Eevee evolve into a Vaporeon, but of course, the stubborn pokemon rejected the idea the moment she brought it up and refused to evolve through evolution stones. To emphasize his point, the evolution pokemon flicked the water stone away from his trainer and glared at the blue stone, whose materials shimmered in the light like water under the sun.

The waters began to pull underneath and tug above, causing her to bob and burst through the surface quite often. She glances up at the sky to notice the earlier distant clouds were now completely engulfing the sky. Water droplets started prickling her nose, a warning that is was soon going to pour. She should have seen it coming… It was summer and it was common for this region to have rain at night. Satsuki spun around to see that she was quite far from the shore as she took in long deep breathes. As she started up swimming again, she noticed red flashes underwater, towards her right. The water around her bubbled around, probably from the water's inhabitants. She heard a few cries around her from a few water pokemon swimming nearby.

What is that? One flashed out. The pokemon was shaped like a star with a smooth ruby core and gold decorating around it. Staryu had a copper colored body and was surrounded by other pokemon of its kind. The water pokemon clustered around her with curiosity.

Humans! Another one cried in shock. The pokemon didn't "cry", exactly, but it was more like their red gems were flashing out light while making a few noises that was still audible underwater. Mantine was right! So they do exist!

Humans! I so totally told you so! One Staryu cried out. Satsuki stopped swimming, took a breath and then dunked her head back into the water to observe.

Who cares about humans? A Staryu said with boredom, We need to finish our meeting on how to get to space. Our family calls out from the galaxy!

For the last time, you are not from space! This pokemon was different from the others and was bigger in size. The pokemon had ten limbs and was still shaped like a star, but had its red gem in the middle be octagon shaped and polished. Starmie sounded annoyed as if this was an everyday occurrence and turned to Satsuki, Excuse me human, but have you seen Chinchou? She disappeared the other day!

Why are you talking to that thing? Another Staryu screeched; the sound pounded her ears as it rippled through the water.

She stopped me from catching my dinner last week, a Tentacool grumble. The jellyfish pokemon was flying lazily in the water with its red gems glittering in the cool water. If an angler fished her out, then good riddance! Hear they serve that sort of thing in some places.

Hey! Don't talk about her like that! Starmie snapped at the Tentacool angrily, Or you want to see me try out my new Psychic attack? The purple starfish stretched out its long arms in and spun around in the water as if prepared for a battle.

"What's wrong..?" Satsuki asked the ten point starfish. Her head was above the water, but she could still understand their conversation if she pulled her head down.

Humans can't even talk to pokemon. I doubt that she'd be able to help! The tentacle Pokemon continued, completely unaffected by the threat.

"That's quite rude Tentacool..." Satsuki's vein pulsed as she watched the poison hybrid jerk into a random direction from the sound of her voice. Tentacool suddenly blinked its small eyes at her and nearly shot out a Poison Sting in shock. The barb of poison was awkwardly midway from release with the jellyfish pokemon too surprised to notice.

Hello human! The Starmie beamed at her, or she thought it was. It sounded happy and was waving one of its limbs at her and said, Have you seen a Chinchou lately? She's small, a bit naive, but is quite a nice pokemon to talk to?

"A Chinchou?" Satsuki tilted her head before shaking it. "I don't recall meeting a blue water pokemon, I'm sorry." She forced her arms and legs to move while treading in the rough currents. Her Feebas was bobbing in the water with her and tried not to panic from the incoming waves tumbling down on them every few seconds.

She disappeared a couple of days ago, the psychic hybrid told her. I saw a yummy treat at the water surface, but she got to it before I did and disappeared after that.

That's because she got fished out, a Staryu said with boredom; it was the Staryu that claimed that its family was from space.

"I'll keep an eye out for her, alright?" Satsuki smiled to the purple starfish as she treads the water, something she picked up while staring at a swimming trainer just yesterday.

Great! Starmie exclaimed, be sure to tell her that I was worried about her and that I evolved yesterday! The water pokemon seemed eager to tell the trainer all of this and didn't seem to question why she could understand it. Anything I can do to repay you? Starmie flashed its core rapidly and swam closer to the girl.

"Will do," she nodded. "Also, do you know which island Lugia would be on? I want to talk to him, but I'm afraid that I'm lost."

Mantine can swim you there, it happily chirped. He knows these islands like the back of his fin. Why visit Lugia? He rarely shows his face to humans, no offense.

"I have an important question for him, and it can only be answered by him," she responded without hesitation.

Lugia? A big white pokemon floated into the conversation. Haven't seen him in awhile. He sometimes comes over, but doesn't talk much nowadays. It had a dark blue body with its lower body being nearly all white. The water pokemon had its body spread out wide and two gills underneath its wings. A Remoraid was attached to one of the pokemon's wing and was feeding some leftover food from dinner.

"I suppose you are Mantine, right?" Satsuki stared at the large ray. It looked as though it can easily swim with her and two other teens her size on its back.

Maybe, or maybe not, it bubbled. It all depends on who wants to know. Though, I have never met a human that can talk to us. Can they all do it, and just choose to ignore our words, or are humans really that stupid?

"I wouldn't call us stupid..." Her eye twitched as she listened to the water hybrid's tone. "But no, I am the only one that I know can talk to you guys."

Lugia...I'll take you to him, Mantine said slowly. But don't blame on me if he gets angry, guy has a temper. The water pokemon swam up to the surface to where Satsuki was still treading and said, Can't swim? It looked at her fidget in the freezing water and mumbled, Humans can't swim either? Geez...

"I'm still here…" Satsuki wasn't in the mood to deal with pokemon with superiority complexes.

Off we go, the ray pokemon announced. Hop on my back, it dove into the water, underneath where Satsuki was, and resurfaced so that Satsuki's body was above ocean level. Hope you like swimming in this kind of weather, it sounded like Mantine was grinning as it speeds through the rough waters.

Satsuki held onto the pokemon's shoulders as support and felt the wind current brushing her skin and clothes with cold water. Mantine's skin was surprisingly rough. Although the ray pokemon's skin was smooth in one direction, it was rough and sharp the other direction. It was like touching sand paper. Satsuki was thankful that she was clothed enough to avoid getting scratches from Mantine's skin if something was to happen. She wore enough clothes so that it wouldn't drag her in the water, but enough so that she wouldn't freeze to death from the sea's temperature. The girl only swam far enough that she was at least half way through with route 40. It was shocking how quickly the ocean's weather changed within a few hours. The sky had dark heavy rain clouds clustered together, but the water pokemon didn't seem to notice or care and surfed towards the route where the Whirl Islands were with a human girl on its back.

Extra Notes:

Natsu (1) = The name means "summer".

Senpai (2) = Senpai is used to refer to someone who is older than you or has higher rank than you, often used for company or school settings. The last time we used senpai was simply written as "my senior" but in this case it's not translatable to where it would sound natural. So we decided to just leave it as senpai for the sake of flow.

170, 157.5, 183 centimeters tall (3) = 5'07, 5'02, 6'00 respectively for those who use the English system. We use the metric system because Johto is based off Japan and most of the world uses the metric system except for Americans… Japanese women are typically 5'02 while men are 5'07.

shonen manga (4) = Manga aimed towards teenage males. Main characters are often loud rowdy teenage boys with spiky hairdos and are very idealistic. These series often last for a long period of time where the characters will get more power ups than Mario and Luigi combined. Some examples include Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Rave Master, etc.

Author Notes:

A chapter of being at the beach. This chapter took awhile to finish. This chapter was written at the end of the summer, so we're trying to write as much as possible before school starts. Question of the chapter: Which starter did you choose for Pokemon X or Y? Any thoughts on the chapter? Leave and comment below and follow or favorite us!

"RainSonata": It was fun writing about the water pokemon talking again! I love writing about the ocean and the mysteries of it. If it wasn't obvious from my love of the sea, I'm starting with Froakie for Pokemon Y!

"LunarAbyss": Hope you enjoyed all the double meanings bwahahaha… Starting with Chespin for Pokemon Y :3