'Oooooh! It's so...'

Ash waited for Riolu to finish his sentence, but after a few seconds, it seemed like the little fighting type just had no words to describe the sight before him.

To be fair, Ash had never seen it outside of a TV show—which Sabrina was warning him that was never a good source of information at all.

That was nice to know actually, considering most large cruise ships he sees in media sink horribly.

I mean, what were the chances of that happening?

The teen froze mid thought as he recalled crashing and ridding a space ship and meeting two legendaries in the same month have much higher chances of not happening than a boat crashing.

… And both events did happen to him.

Huh… maybe he should look into catching a water Pokemon soon.

Meanwhile, not too far from the trainer and his Riolu, a familiar trio was walking up to the crowd in cue to enter into the ship.

"There seems to be a lot of people in line." A familiar boy with dark green hair, accompanied by a Lucario spoke out as he viewed the large crowd of people waiting for the SS. Anne to open up.

A peppy and also familiar brunette stretched out her hands. "Man, I can't believe we have to wait that long? At least we're finally out of Diagon City. It was so hard to breathe there."

A silver haired, pony-tailed girl walked up after the two. "It wasn't that bad, Verity." The girl from Pallet Town had slightly flushed cheeks before sighing. "I almost didn't get my badge here."

Verity huffed and put her hand on her shoulder. "That old man was a hack! Using that high-leveled Weavile against you like that!"

"I on the other hand, find it outstanding that he could use faulty maintenance so effectively in combat. It truly shows the difference in experience at how something so insignificant can be used in a fight like that." The usually stoic Sorrel seemed to be in awe at the mastery of the Gym Leader of Diagon City.

"Sorrel, not helping." Verity looked towards the male of their group.

The girl from Pallet sighed before putting a hand close to her chest. "No, Verity, Sorrel has a point. Mr. Capone really showed me how strong Gym Leaders really are." She pumped herself up as she brought up her hand and put it into a fist. "It means I need to train more."

"Ahh? You can do that later! Don't you know that the S.S. Anne is a Luxury Cruise Ship?! It's famous even from other Regions! I can't wait to see what kind of cuisine they have!"

Mary's mood also lifted up. "Oh that reminds me, I should look up their brochure! I want to see what kind of activities and sights we'll be passing by! We're going to have so much fun!"

While she said this, at the very front of the line was a very specific red head who seemed as excited as a dead Raticate.

"Are you, sure about this, Sola?" The red haired girl looked towards the other one who seemed to be on the opposite emotional spectrum, and was almost bouncing to mitigate the energy and excitement she had for this..

"Come on, Emily! I've never been on a boat before! Or anywhere near the ocean! This could be a fun experience!" The blonde, stylish girl cried out while her Togepi, Ki, agreed with her.

"I mean," The girl wearing a beret began to say, "What's the worse that can happen?"

At that moment, Ash Ketchum sneezed.

'Wow!' Riolu and all the other Pokemon of Ash Ketchum, including the trainer himself, cooed in awe as they witnessed no matter how far they viewed, there was nothing but water that seemed to blend in with the horizon.

They were currently on what was called the forecastle deck, near the very point of the cruise ship. It wasn't like the large, main deck which was filled with snack bars, pools, and even water park and other fun activities like wall climbing and hook rides which rode for miles.

He was motioned there 'subtly' by Sabrina as her weariness didn't want the walking misfortune near the large amount of people in the cruise ship. It totally and wasn't at all because she was interested in a sunrise smoothie the cruise was complimented for and wanted to enjoy it peacefully.

But Ash was just as excited being on a cruise for the first time and even coming out towards here was just as fun as all those other things on the upper main deck.

The trainer and his Pokemon could just stare into the sea for the entire ride over…

And then the boy was spotted by someone.

"Ash?"

Not that he noticed the way he was being noticed. Yet others noticed the way he didn't notice being noticed.

"Oooo?" The silver haired girl could feel the dread crunch into her heart like fangs on a basketball. "Isn't that your boyfriend?!"

"He'sNotMyBOYFRIEND!" No one could hear the gap of air between those string of rushed words as the girl screamed that towards her two friends. Luckily, the strong winds made her voice die out and only be heard by those two.

Mary coughed into her mouth, though it did little to distract her travel companions from the fact her cheeks were the same shade of ruby red as her eyes. "We're just friends."

"Okay then, why don't you say hi to him?" Verity spoke out and elbowed into Sorrel, who was wisely staying out of this by not even choosing to acknowledge the situation in front of him.

The girl huffed and pouted which was as threatening as a newborn Pichu. "I will! I will go up to my friend and do with mundane pleasantries!"

Sorrel opened his mouth to correct that fact no one in the modern age would ever phrase it like that, but wisely once more decided not to.

Maria Indra Sundance then turned and walked towards the boy with all the determination of a soldier on a mission.

She marched on with purpose, moving closer towards the easy going, raven haired boy still staring into the ocean.

She could do this obviously. Verity was just being silly, there was nothing going on between her and…

and…

Ash Ketchum grinned towards his Pokemon hanging on the rails. The direction of the grin also made it so that Mary could easily see it from where she was.

Twas at that moment, her treacherous heartbeat started to beat faster after monetarily stopping at the sight.

(Get it together, girl!) Mary told herself as she stepped forward—

Ash Ketchum laughed from where he was, and Mary swore she saw dimples on his face.

At that moment, her heart and brain turned against her, losing all ounce of previous conviction. Yet the teenage girl swallowed her spit and continued her step…

back towards her friends.

"He seems busy, I can just say hello later." The meekness in her voice did not help her that moment, along with the fact she found herself starring at the wooden floor as if it was done by an ancient artist of long passed eras.

Verity inhaled air— "Don't." Sorrel spoke out fast.

"I was just going to say that was both adorable but sad. Is there a word for combining those two?"

"Perhaps not in this language." Sorrel absentmindedly responded.

Mary buried her face into her hands. "Kimf m ow." despite being muffled greatly, her two travel companions could hear the 'kill me now' she whispered into her palms. Heck, they could feel it.

"Oh you poor thing, shed no more tears." Mary wasn't actually crying but Verity didn't hesitate to pull the girl into a hug. "Lady Verity will help you in your time of need."

"Verity—"

"Hush, Sorrel. A child needs consoling." The brunette interrupted as she half pretended to be a caring person.

Mary just groaned but accepted the hug, unable to do much of anything at this moment.

"Verity—"

"Don't worry, Mary!" The brunette spoke out again, interrupting her more stoic friend who was looking towards the distance. "Next time, we'll all go together and this time, I won't tease you."

Mary looked up from her self made cage. "You won't?"

"Verity? Mary? I—"

Unfortunately for the stoic boy, he was ignored again as Verity kept talking again. "As fun as it is, you're my friend and I value our time together." The girl put her hands firmly onto the shoulders of the silver haired girl. "Let's all go together and you can say hello normally."

The girl from pallet town brightened up after hearing that. "Really?"

Verity nodded in response to the girl's hope.

Yet Sorrel shot it down as fast as it rose. "Ash is talking with someone else."

The two girls snapped their necks towards where the raven haired boy and his Pokémon were originally. Now instead of looking towards the ocean, the teenage boy was smiling and talking to a straight haired blonde girl wearing a pink beret that was just very pleasing to look at.

The girl, while holding a Togepi in her arms pointed towards the inside of the boat where the teen simply nodded and walked along with her back towards inside the ship.

Mary could only gape. "W-Who was that?" She never saw that girl before, and Ash easily went along with her?

"I don't know, but she approached Ash while you two were talking and the two seemed to know each other." Sorrel answered with the same flat tone he usually showed.

Verity snapped her attention towards their male friend. "Why didn't you say so sooner?!" She screamed, completely and utterly unaware he tried to do on multiple occasions before.

The silver haired girl slumped. "I'm going to my bedroom, and..."

She didn't even try or want to finish that sentence as she turned away and walked away with all the energy of a Slakoth with none of it's joy.

As soon as the poor girl was out of their sights, Verity grabbed onto Sorrel's collar with grip much like a wrestler. "Sorrel! We need to follow them!"

"I have a bad feeling I know where this is going." The boy's eyes narrowed towards no one in particular.

"We can't let this skank encroach into Mary's crush!"

"At least I'm impressed by the above average vocabulary my friends are using. That's nice." If Verity was ignoring him, he could somewhat do the same.

However, Verity went off, dragging a very disinterested Sorrel after the two. It seemed like this would be a long day.

Unbeknownst to the two from Team Mystic, they captured the attention of a red haired girl also from Pallet Town that was just about to go after her childhood friend and her travel companion.

"Who are they? And why are they following Sola? ... No... they couldn't be?" Emily eyes narrowed, her hands reached her pockets as she stalked after her friend's stalkers.

Sabrina could get used to this. These drinks were to kill for! Hmm, now that she thought about it, has she killed for less?

At first, the idea of being in a crowded luxury cruise was one of annoyance, but she had to admit, the drinks and food have convinced her otherwise with the way they made her taste buds reach tropical bliss.

A few days surrounded by people she didn't like could be tolerated if the food was good.

"Another one!" Sabrina's attention was dragged through the floor and tossed back into reality when she heard a voice near her. To her surprise, it was a girl seemingly around Ash's age and who was drinking tropical juices from the bar like some man on death row.

"Miss, please. I know none of the drinks have alcohol but this is just—"

"Gimme another Strawberry Sunrise! I'm paying you!" The girl cried as she slammed down another bill into the counter.

Sabrina could feel how bad the loser of a girl was acting out beside her and looked over towards the man behind the counter. After meeting eyes, the man behind the bar gave up and started to make another drink to add to the pile of empty glasses next to the girl.

The psychic gym leader raised her brow at the miserable girl trying to get drunk off non-alcoholic drinks. It was almost as naive as a certain someone she knew.

The older woman sighed. "Alright, what's wrong?"

The girl beside her sniffed. "W-What?"

"The drinks are good, but you're ruining the relaxing atmosphere." And her relative times of peace when away from the walking misfortune that was her new student. "So what's got you drinking your sorrows away when you're obviously too young to know how to do that?"

The girl seemed conflicted, seemingly wrestling with the fact if she should share or not.

Sabrina just narrowed her deadpan look, suggesting that there was no point in denying it now, this made the girl relent. "T-There's… this boy I like."

Of course. Sabrina fought the urge to roll her eyes and gag at the same time. Instead she inhaled deeply through her nose. "You don't need to say more." She didn't even want to read her mind for this. "Him being a jerk?"

"Nononono!" The girl quickly corrected. "He's actually my best friend! And I just...I just… I'm just an idiot!" The drink was placed in front of the girl and she didn't even savor the drink, only chugging it like spent athletes and their energy drinks.

Sabrina had an even worse time trying not to gag at how she was looking at a living romantic cliché.

"Blaming anything, including yourself, does nothing. Why do you like this boy enough to blame yourself instead of him?"

The girl froze after hearing that. Ironically, while Sabrina meant some ill will towards this crush, the girl actually calmed down and had this serene smile appear on her face, which caught the older woman in surprise at how pure it was.

The girl motioned to gingerly hold the back tip of her hair and she had a nostalgic smile. "I was born with a rather weird hair color—it was even different than both of my parents who were brunettes, as you can plainly see: must have been because of some deep recessive gene in my parent's line. But other kids used to make fun of my hair color, which made me hate my hair color. My mother thought I was too young to dye my hair, so I had a very miserable kindergarten."

Sabrina walked right into this: a back story dump. Now all she could do was listen and pretend to care, though nowadays she found it much easier to pretend than she previously thought.

"My parents moved from Kalos to Pallet Town not long after, and I wore a hat every time I went out. In my first grade while in recess, a strong gust of wind knocked away my hat, showing my hair color. So I panicked, but there was a kid who told me that my hair was the coolest thing he'd ever seen. It was the first time genuinely complimented my hair."

Oh loners, how easy it is to win their hearts with kindness. "I see, he's the same one isn't he?" Sabrina then drank from her drink.

"Yeah, and we became friends ever since, but..."

"He might not feel the same way as you to him." Oh Arceus, why was this so predictable? She wasn't even using her powers for this.

The girl remained silent after that statement. While Sabrina appreciated the lack of talking, looking at the girl frown made her think of a certain student of hers.

"If your expecting any advise to give, I don't have any, girl." Sabrina found herself speaking. "I don't even think kids as young as you should be doing more than crushing on people."

"B-But—"

Sabrina put down her empty glass, stopping any rebuttal from the girl. "You two are friends still, aren't you? Just enjoy and let time decide if those feelings change on either side."

The psychic user didn't care much after that, but the girl's look seemed to be gaining courage. "Y-You're right! I'm still his friend and I do like being his friend! But he's also one of my rivals in becoming a Pokemon Master, and I can't let even him stand in my way!"

Sabrina asked for a refill of her drink then turned to the girl. "I see, then what are you going to do?"

The girl had a much more confident smile. "I'm still going to be his friend, and trust your words. I mean, I know he's friendly, so maybe I just misunderstood him with another girl!"

"What?" Sabrina looked at the silver haired girl. "Hey, girlie that's a different thing all together—"

The silver haired girl seemed to be in her own world as she stood up, looking more determined than before. "This time, I'll just walk up to him and say hello to Ash!"

That last word made every single brain cell in the psychic's head freeze. "Ash?"

The girl turned to her and hurriedly gave a polite bow. "Thank you so much! I feel better than I did a while ago! This time for sure I won't back down!"

And the girl left, leaving a still shocked Sabrina who now had her eye lids twitching in a way that could have been mistaken for someone in the middle of seizure.

"… Ash?"

The bar attendant smiled after seeing the girl go and put Sabrina's drink down. "Hey, good job with that girl. I usually am bad with people going on drinking binges."

The glass of Sabrina's drink shattered mysteriously, causing the employee to look over towards the purple haired woman.

"I want a tab. Now."

'Weeee!' Ki, the Togepi cried out as Ash played with her by tossing her up into the air before catching him back down on the bench he and Sola were sitting under inside the Mall area of the S.S. Anne.

Sola giggled at the sight. "I've never seen Ki like someone else so much, I'm almost jealous."

"I'm just doing what he wanted to do." The raven haired teen gave the laughing egg Pokemon back to the girl. "You know I never got to ask, how did you and Emily meet?"

Sola's happy mood dropped for a second before she answered, "Our families knew each other, but I came to Kanto from Si—Alamia a week before she got her first Pokemon and we met and decided to travel together at Viridian City."

"Oh that's cool. Emily's uncle was always this big and tough guy, he reminded me a lot about those general old guys you see in the movies."

Sola gave another laugh at that. "He's nothing like that, I promise. Mr. Apollo is a nice man."

Ash groaned. "Well, he was our gym teacher ever since second grade. And he made us run so many laps around the town and his exercises got much worse when we became assistants of Professor Oak." However, the raven haired boy lightened up and punched the air a bit. "Still, it was awesome to learn a bunch of self defense techniques! Emily was always the scariest fighter out of all us." The raven haired boy paused and shivered, causing Sola to laugh once more.

"I find Emily charming," Ash raised his brow towards Sola after she said that. "No she is! Haven't you noticed she doesn't really understand expressions?"

Ash blinked before a smile appeared on his face. "Oh yeah! I remember one time Gary spoke about jokes flying over her head, and she actually looked up! It's kinda weird that sometimes she's serious and sometimes she doesn't know stuff other people all know..."

Meanwhile, Verity was pouting hard and glaring towards the fake blonde that was currently laughing and smiling.

"You know, a wise man once said, hatred is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die." Sorrel tried to say from behind the corner wall both he and Verity were hiding.

"Look at them! Sitting under a palm tree! There's a song about this, Sorrel! We need to prevent the spelling part of that song from happening! Quick, Sorrel, use your Lucario to attack them!"

The green haired boy folded his arms while still looking as stoic as ever. "I'm just going to let you reflect about what you just asked me to do."

"I knew it!"

From behind the two, a new, more punk-dressed girl with red hair pointed at the two. "Who sent the two of you!? And why are you after Sola!?"

"Sola!? Is that her name!?" Verity had the wrong reaction as she pointed towards Emily.

Sorrel was about to speak out at how Verity was getting too carried away, but then he paled when he noticed the look on the stranger's face look almost wrathful.

The red haired girl threw out her Pokemon, a Dratini, an Ivysaur, a Staravia, and a Poliwirl. "Everyone, attack!"

Some distance away, Mary was feeling pumped, telling her self over and over she could do it. She could just talk to her crush and not act like a total spaz. She won't blow up a second time!

Boom!

Not like that—the girl blinked and looked to see a dust storm. To her surprise, she saw a very, very familiar and peppy brunette jump out with her Pokemon: a Piplup, a Glameow, and a Mothim.

"Listen here, vile man-stealer!" To the horror of Mary, the over the top voice only confirmed her worst nightmare, "You and the she-witch will not stand in the way of Mary's happiness!"

Annndddd death suddenly didn't seem like the worst thing in the world. "Verity!?" Mary shrieked and ran towards her friend. "What are you saying and doing?!"

As the clouds settled, the red haired girl walked out and instantly locked eyes with the other girl beside her target. "Mary?"

"Emily?" The other girl from Pallet Town repeated with the same tone.

"Emily? Mary?" The two girls, Verity, and a Sorrel who wisely stepped far away as possible, looked over to see Ash with Sola beside him. "What are you guys doing here?"

"I want to dieeeeeeeeeee." The silver haired girl supposed it was an upgrade from feeling flustered in front of her crush, to feeling embarrassed at how carried away her friend got.

"Hehe," Verity rubbed the back of her head as they all sat down on a table in a food court. "Sorry about that, Mary, I got too carried away."

"You did." Sorrel quickly added in.

"I'm sorry, I just assumed… I apologize for any inconvenience." To those that didn't know her, it was interesting to see a girl themed around strength show a moment of openness.

"I didn't know you guys were also onboard. I had a feeling Emily was when I saw Sola, but I didn't know about Mary and the others." Ash began as he slid the cheese pizza towards Riolu who started chomping down on the heavenly meal.

"I actually saw you earlier, I just didn't get a chance to say hi." The silver haired girl responded.

"Oh really? Hey, I'm never to busy for my friends." The raven haired boy easily answered.

"… Yeah. I'll keep that in mind next time." Emily and Verity, once at each other's throats not to long ago at a misunderstanding, were staring in disbelief at the silver haired girl that easily got flustered by compliments, was now more calm and collected.

"So," Ash went on, not seemingly noticing the change. "How did you all come here?"

Emily leaned back into her seat. "It was a suggestion from the Diagon City Gym Leader, but a boat ride was cheaper and faster than traveling back to land."

"That was the same for me." Ash seemed to have another thought come up. "I wonder if we're going to meet anyone else in here."

"I doubt it." "It's unlikely." "We're all pretty far from people and places we know." Was what many of the five other teens spoke up on.

However, there was one thing that many of them overlooked: Ash Ketchum and his flippant luck. The Raven haired teen didn't know that there was someone running up behind him.

"Ash! Ash!"

The six teens turned to the sound of the voice that was heading their way.

The raven haired boy's eyes widened, he stood up from his seat quickly as he saw the person running up to him.

"Molly!?"

A little girl dressed in blue and white clothes with curly, honey brown hair that had a blue bow in it, and looked no older than eight ran up to the teen to hug him. The raven haired boy was surprised but returned the hug towards the girl.

"Molly?!" "Molly?" Both Mary and Emily shouted out the name respectively.

The three other friends looked surprised. "Who is she?" Vertiy asked.

Ash turned around. "We're friends of the people from Pallet Town. One of us moved there some time back." Though, it wasn't his voice that just answered them.

Mary gasped as she pointed to one of the two men. "Dad!?"

+Author Notes+

Just another short and easy going chapter.

I kinda just wanted some silliness and an excuse to make Sabrina start wanting to binge drink.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the story.

Thanks so much and be sure to support the story.