Dorian had this odd feeling as he returned to reality the morning after he fell asleep in Ayame's bed. Everything was blurry, and he could feel that somebody was in his arms. That someone seemed to be very comfortable, and it didn't take long for him to find out who it was.

A-Ayame...

His best friend, who he loved so much, was happily snuggling in his chest, with a smile on her face. The boy's eyes opened wide, and he couldn't believe what was happening. This was the second time he woke up cuddling with Ayame in the bed. He was nervous, and was unable to say a word. I woke up with her again...this c-can't be...what happened? he thought as his heart beat faster, What can I do now? What do I do? Oh, sweet Arceus, please help me... He decided that he would greet her in a way, but was too shy to do it. But eventually he convinced his scumbag brain that a 'Good Morning' would not do any harm.

"H-H-H-Hey...M-M-Morning A-A-Ayame..." Dorian whispered, his face as red as it could be, "A-A-Are y-y-you a-a-awake?"

As one could see, at that moment, asking for him not to stutter was to ask for a miracle.

George "Buster" Leggingsteele
A Proposal
----------------------------------------------------------------

Buster had smiled that usual, dumb-looking smile - which was almost a trademark of his by now - as he stepped back from the girl while awaiting her answer. He did know that what he just asked was a sore subject for most girls, which was likely the case with this one as well. He also knew that the probability of him getting a smack in the face was high. But as he was an optimist - and a rather stupid one at that - he decided to push away that possibility, only to realize that maybe he shouldn't have.

The girl's eyes flared up for a second, a clear sign that he was about to get smacked hard in the face. He knew that most girls liked to hit people - often men - who they deemed to have been rude to them on the cheek. So George bit down hard to harden the muscles in his cheeks so that the blow wouldn't hurt as much. Then he closed his eyes forcefully to get calmer before the slap landed. But after standing around, looking like an idiot for a few seconds while nothing happened, George grew a bit suspicious. He slowly opened one eye to find the girl standing before him, not having done anything. What? Had he gotten out of this without any injuries? Sweet! But she did look like it had been hard to contain the slap. Instead she explained to him - in an even more agitated voice if possible - why she acted like she was acting.

Upon hearing the explanation, George let out an "Aahaaa..." as if her reasons were the most obvious ones in the world. "Well then," he said afterwards. But Buster didn't get to finish the sentence - which was probably for the best - due to an announcement involving healed Pokémon and his name blaring out in the room. Now a plan formed within his mind. Different papers from different folders were neatly copied and crafted into a new page. One on how to make awesome introductions.

So he enthusiastically ran up to the counter - apologizing to a pair of teenagers that he almost crashed into on his way there - and grabbed his PokéBalls off of the tray which they were lying in. Next he put one of them in his hand and the rest in his pocket. After that he started sprinting from the counter and towards the girl. But as he was a few feet away from her, Buster stopped running which resulted in him sliding across the floor until he was very close to the girl. Maybe even too close depending on her "personal-space" preference.

"So," he said and held up the PokéBall, "Would you deem someone worthy or not to be friendly to over a Pokémon Battle? Because if so, you've got yourself a challenger riiiight here."

Orenji: Double Battle! (part 3)

"Crap Crap Crap Craaaaaaaap! That damn Blaziken should have been out in one hit!" screamed Orenji mentally, now a big bad stream of flames was heading for his Angel. No matter, another burn will just merit another Heal Bell. But still, an eye for an eye.

"Angel try and dodge the flamethrower and use Aura Sphere!" To her credit, she did near instantaneously fire a full power Aura Sphere while strafing. However, strafing while attacking wasn't a strong suit, and her right wing ended up in severe pain from the fire the moment the sphere was shot. The orange ensemble had to do some damage control, but can't risk using Roost with Yipper bulking up. "Maytec return fire with Hydro Pump!" (with matching Sentai pose)

Maytec was suprisingly somber when he shot out the high pressure blast, the Rotom actually wearing a mask of anger of sorts. Guess his soft spot is for the motherly figure of his team. To the point where even he ignored the clearly Bulked Up angry Primape.

Giselle watched as Buster ran towards the counter to get his Pokemon and she turned getting ready to walk away. Now that he left me alone, I'm off to find something to do she thought with a smirk. Maybe she could find some new Pokemon to try to catch. Or she could find some fool to battle with. Yes, that's what she'd do, that always made her feel better. But it seemed fate agreed with her in a way. Before she could even take a step Buster was suddenly in her personal bubble and offering to battle her. Dang he's fast Giselle thought before looking at him with a smirk.

"A battle sounds like a swell idea." she said her tone cold and cocky. "how about this, win or lose, if you manage to impress me with your Pokemon I'll try my best to be nice to you" she smirked doubting he would impress her. "just one Pokemon each if that's good with you, there's a battle arena on this floor of the ship"

Sarah Reyes​

Sarah was proud of Blaze as he continued to fight on. No matter what statistics said or how a fight could be calculated, it was the heart that kept a pokemon fighting. She could see that Orenji was panicking at this point. Obviously he hadn't met a tight pokemon and trainer bond yet. She had seen several trainers who had so much devotion to their pokemon that their battling partners would continue to fight well after when they should have been defeated.

Blaze's time was over though as the Aura Sphere smacked into his chest followed by the Hydro Pump. The Blaziken was down, his feather matted to his body.

Sarah smiled and returned Blaze, but the battle wasn't over yet! "Yipper! Seismic Toss again on Maytec!" She called out.

The Primeape howled at the order and moved to grab the Rotom once more to slam it against the ground. Sarah knew Yipper wouldn't last long, but at very least the Primeape was letting out the anger his kind were known for having.

Orenji: Double Battle (part 4)

Orenji was honestly shocked, he completely forgot about the angry Primeape. That's what he gets for focusing on that TOTALLY FREAKING AWESOME....... relax Orenji. Breathe.

After a few breaths and a Sentai pose, he gathered his bearings and made to retaliate. Except that due to Yipper's strength, Maytec was stuck upside down in a hole in the deck, big enough for him to get in, too small for him to get out. "Maytec!" Orenji shouted, worried for his friend. "Status report!" The Rotom laughed for a few seconds, the realm of the upside down was new and funny. The orange teen sighed and looked to Angel, who was carefully hovering in mid-air, careful not to flap too hard. "Angel go the OHKO with Air Slash!"

The Togekiss complied and sent out one buzzsaw of razor sharp air instead of two, right wing trying to not be stressed.

Eve Murphy​

Eve's eyes wandered to the nurse's desk. There was a flashlight there.
"Is that so? Well I wouldn't base that entirely on my Murkrow if I were you, after all, if you knew more about your Sneasels healing qualities, you would have understood that particular 'attack' yourself," Link said with a smile that Eve hadn't gotten to see until now.

"Oh, believe me. Your Murkrow isn't even the half of it," Eve replied bitterly, thinking back to the Dratini who had headbutt her and the Scyther that nearly killed her. From what she knew, those particular Pokémon weren't captivated by shiny things the way Murkrow were.

"Why do you even let it sit on your head? Pokeballs exist for a reason ya know…"

"Holding him in my arms would get tiring." She really didn't have much to say besides that. She thought it should be obvious why one would want their friend to be with them. Achilles couldn't experience much being cooped up inside his pokéball. Now that Eve thought about it, her other Pokémon hadn't even gotten to see the ship yet…

With a smile, the tired nurse returned Link's Pokémon to him. Eve watched her in silence until the boy who had crashed into Giselle shoved by them to get his own Pokémon back.

"Morning folks! As you may have noticed there were a lot of police onboard - there's nothing to worry about, Officer Jenny will be staying with us a while to help out on the next stop - as you can see we're nearing Seafoam Islands now, I hope you're ready for some exploring!" the happy intercom woman announced.

Eve turned to Link with a questioning look on her face. "If only Officer Jenny is helping us out here, why are there so many other police officers? That makes no sense. Raines didn't explain that."

"We've now arrived at Seafoam Islands, you're free to explore for the rest of the day - if you'd like to make your way over to the caves reasonably dry some of the staff are manning lifeboats to escort you over. Have fun!" Raines added shortly after.

"Well, where are you planning to go?" Eve asked Link, and for the first time in seemingly forever, Achilles jumped off of Eve's head and stretched his limbs. She glanced down at the Sneasel and added with extreme excitement, "I know I really want to go in the cave!"

George "Buster" Leggingsteele
An Accepted Proposal
----------------------------------------------------------------

Buster looked at the girl, now realizing how close he really was to her. He took a step back, feeling a bit embarassed. Was this how a grown man was supposed to act? Well technically he had just recently turned eighteen, but still! Anyway, he chose to ignore those thoughts for now and focus on the person standing a few spaces away from him. She let out a little smirk, that was something that intrigued George. Had he managed to make her let out a bit of emotion? Whatever the case, she was quickly back to her cold self, but now with an added tone of cockyness. So she thought that she could win? And he only had to impress her, no matter what to gain her respect of sorts? Sounded like a fair deal to Buster. But then again, everything sounds like a fair deal to Buster.

"One Pokémon?" He began, "Sure, that's fine!" He pulled out the two other occupied PokéBalls that he had on him. He then looked at all three of his Pokémon inside their spherical homes. He zipped across each one of them, closely surveing what to do. "Hmm... Eliza's wing is really busted up after Wolfsbane got his horn lodged in there, so she's a no-no. Then there's Jarvis. However the poor little dude's probably tired from taking that Toxic and that Heat Wave. Besides, he will probably lose it again and that won't be pretty... So that leaves only you Penumbra." His gaze shifted to the PokéBall in the middle, the one who he had used when declaring that battle just now. "I guess it's just you and me again, right buddy?" He thought with a smile on his lips.

"Okay." Buster said, "I've decided on a Pokémon! Shall we go to the Battlefield?" He asked the girl as he started to lead the way without some sort of confirmation from his battle-partner.

Sarah Reyes​

Yipper howled out in victory when he managed to damage the Rotom, but before he could lay down another attack a sphere slammed right into his head. Although Yipper was rather strong, he was nowhere near Blaze's strength nor close to the amount of experience that he had as well. In short, the Primeape fell onto the deck completely out of it.

Sarah nodded and returned Yipper, "Well, match goes to you Orenji." She said with a smile.

She looked over at Maytec still caught in his hole and cocked her head, "Uh... do you need help getting it out?" She asked. Why the washing machine had been laughing while stuck in the hole was rather odd to Sarah. She thought it would have been mad or at least squirming, trying to get out and continue battling.

Angel looked alright for herself despite the burns that the Togekiss had been given. That was good. Every now and then Blaze would pour a bit too much into his fire attacks and that was never good for the other pokemon.

Giselle smirked still as she pulled out Jet's Pokeball. The moment the battle had been suggested she knew she was going to use Jet no matter what. After the battle before when she had caught Draco it had brought Jet even closer to evolving. Maybe just maybe this would be the battle that would do it. Then she would finally have all three starters of Unova, one in basic form, one in it's second form and then one fully evolved. It was a good thing her father had given her two everstones which she had given to Rosie and Flara. She didn't have to worry about them evolving.

She followed after Buster as the walked to the battlefield and she went over to the battlebot. "me and another trainer are going to battle, one Pokemon each"

"Prepare to battle. I will act as the referee." the machine buzzed loud enough for both trainers to hear and Giselle went to one side of the battlefield and called out Jet her Dewott appearing in front of her. "you can go first"

Orenji: Torchic plz

Orenji bowed, thanking the woman for the exciting battle, before realizing his situation and began trying to pull out Maytec. Try as he might the washing machine wouldn't budge. Once Angel pulled on however, after a few tugs he was flung out and landed gracefully....

On his trainer.

Which caused anther small dent in the deck.

"Owwww...." That hurt, the orange ensemble realized. He laughed along with Maytec however, it was kinda funny. He then looked up at the woman, and couldn't help but ask. "Excuse me, if it isn't top much trouble, have you considered putting Blaze to stud? Or does that term only apply to Rapidash? Point is I will pay any price for a young Torchic to call my own, regardless of Egg moves or lack thereof. Perhaps with the right genes it can even have its Hidden Ability! I will love it and cherish it and love it some.more and train it and bond with it and...." Angel had to sigh at this, while the Rotom on top of Orenji giggled at his antics.

He then noticed beyond the deck, the seamfoam islands in view, and the boat having come to a complete stop. "Holy crap we are at the Seafoam Islands! Oh oh I know! We can discuss possible breeding details for the Torchic while exploring the island and cave, after all a Blaziken as powerful as Blaze is bound to sire strong chicks. With the right mother the Torchic could have unique moves along with its father's strength."g

Sarah Reyes​

Sarah had been about ready to lend her support to getting the Rotom out of its hole when it was pulled out.... and landed directly on its trainer. Maytec and Orenji burst out into laughter and Sarah relaxed. She had actually been ready to call out Tim to get the washing machine off of him in fear that he had been harmed. Perhaps the weirdest part to happen was when Orenji went off about how Blaze should be bred and that he really, really, really wanted a Torchic. Sarah sweat dropped as the young man seemed entirely obsessed with getting one of the fire starters.

As the boy noticed the islands Sarah also turned and smiled at the sight. It would be a welcome time to get off this boat and stretch her legs a bit! Again Orenji went off on how they could talk about breeding and such. Sarah had met some rather enthusiastic kids in her travels, but it was mostly with the attitude that they could beat anyone at anytime and that some old lady couldn't beat them. Still, this was a rather new attitude she had bumped into! She really didn't know how to respond at first.

"Well... we can. I just need to get Blaze and Yipper healed up first. I did promise another young man a battle with Blaze against his Gliscor. Blaze is looking forward to it actually. I haven't really thought about how to breed Blaze, but if you really want a Torchic you would have to find at least a female pokemon for Blaze to breed with. If we can find a breeder later on, then sure." She said with a soft smile.

"I will be right back, just need to head off to the healing station." She said as she headed off. If anything Orenji was a rather focused boy. He knew exactly what he wanted. Sarah smiled at the nurse once she arrived and gave her two pokeballs. "Just a heal please." She asked.

She noticed that the boy with the Gliscor and girl with the Sneasle she had met on the ship just before her battle with Orenji were here as well!

"Hello there again young man." She said. "I don't think I properly introduced myself last time to you. I am Sarah Reyes. How fares you Gliscor?" She asked politely. It had taken the nurse a few seconds to scan her pokeballs on the healing machine and soon enough she was handed her pokeballs back. She of course released Blaze and the Blaziken flexed his muscles as he came out of the ball.

"If you are still interested, Blaze is still seeking that battle." She said as Blaze locked his gaze onto the boy and crossed his arms, waiting for the trainer's answer.

Ayame opened her eyes as she heard Dee Dee whisper in her ears, that's when Ayame realized that his sleepy voice was kind of cute and blushed a little. 'G-good morning!' Ayame responded as she talked quietly, looking up at him, then snuggling in his chest again, not feeling embaressed for it this time.

'I woke up a moment ago.' Ayame whispered back with a slight smile on her face, then she opened her eyes and her happy smile turned a little sad, she was about to say something. 'I'm sorry for yesterday...' She started. 'I guess i got upset over nothing...' She apologized to him with her soft voice.

Ayame hugged Dorian before she jumped out her bed and looked at him with a challanging pose. 'But today i'll be all cheerful and show a happy smile alllll dayyyy.' Ayame said smiling brightly, maybe being a bit hyper. 'Let's go! I want to see the caved~' Ayame turned around and ran to the door. 'But... Let's get breakfast first~' Ayame looked at him and smiled once more, waiting for him in the door opening.

Hikari had woken up and watched the whole thing. She smiled as she saw how much energy Ayame had, probely because Dorian made her eat yesterday. Hikari jumped from the bed and jumped on Ayame's bed. '(Thank you...)' Hikari thanked Dorian, he might not understand her as well as Ayame, but he would know when a pokemon said "thank you" right?

Hikari ran over to Ayame and jumped to her shoulder, her most favorite place, waiting for Dee Dee as well.

George "Buster" Leggingsteele
An Accepted Proposal
----------------------------------------------------------------

As they traveled to the battlefields, a small yawn escaped George's lips. He had no idea why really, at a moment of excitement like this it should be hard to yawn... Maybe it was just some kind of weird reflex? Anyway, as the girl went up to inform one of the Battlebots - Buster almost felt sorry for the one that had been subjected to Wolfsbane's attacks - that they would do battle, George started thinking of some kind of strategy. The girl had smirked when she had taken out her PokéBall which probably meant that she was planning on using a Pokémon she knew could beat him. But even if Buster was using his Ace, could he still beat her? Only one way to find out...

The young man looked at the Pokémon materializing before the girl's feet, he recognized very well. It was a Dewott. Dewotts were only native to the Unova region as far as people these days knew, and even there they were rare. So usually they were given out as Starter-Pokémon in their pre-evolved form Oshawott. Since his mother was originally from Unova, she had taught their kids about some of the Pokémon living there. Mainly the rare ones such as the starters and the legendaries. He also knew that Dewotts excelled at close-combats, but could also be good for ranged attacks. Their main weapon was the shells situated on the Pokémon's hips which could be quite dangerous if not carefully dealt with. The girl was kind enough to give him the first move, did that mean she had some sort of plan? Whatever the case, Buster decided to just go with the flow.

"Okay Penumbra, you're up!" He said and released the Umbreon from his PokéBall. The black creature looked around, slowly blinking to fully wake up. He yawned and directed his gaze towards the Dewott standing a few feet away from him. Penumbra shuddered slightly at the sight of the Water-type. He had already been blasted with a powerful Water-move once recently, and he didn't want that to happen again.

"Okay then Penumbra, get ready! Get close to the Dewott with Quick Attack, then follow it up with a Confuse Ray!" Buster ordered. The Umbreon nodded and started running faster and faster towards his opponent, quickly diminishing the space between them which would make it harder for the Water-type to dodge the oncoming attack. Confuse Ray.

Giselle brushed a piece of her blonde hair out of her face as she stared at Buster from her side of the battlefield. Jet was practically bouncing in excitement, he couldn't wait to battle and a part of him just knew that no matter what, if he won or lost he was going to evolve very soon, and that was showing in his excitement. An announcment on the PA system came on and Giselle listened. "Morning folks! As you may have noticed there were a lot of police onboard - there's nothing to worry about, Officer Jenny will be staying with us a while to help out on the next stop - as you can see we're nearing Seafoam Islands now, I hope you're ready for some exploring!" but she wasn't really fazed by it. Both trainer and Pokemon watched as Buster sent out an Umbreon. Interesting choice Giselle thought as Jet smirked when he saw the Umbreon shudder as it looked at him. A smirk still on her face Giselle watched as the Umbreon ran towards Jet with Quick attack and then hit him with Confuse Ray making the Dewott stumble a bit.

Giselle kept the smirk on her face but the emotion in her eyes showed she was impressed for just a second, long enough for Buster to notice it before the cold determined gleam was back in her eyes. "It'll be okay Jet" she said noticing how close Buster's Pokemon still was to Jet. "use Furry Cutter" she ordered and the tips of Jet's claws turned a light blue. The Dewott saw two of the Umbreon so he did the only thing he could, he swung one paw at both of them, with luck he would hit.

Dorian stared at Ayame with reddish cheeks while she talked. She seemed very comfortable cuddling with him, although her smile turned sad when she apologized about what happened back at the deck during the beautiful sunset from the day before. The boy was about to say something, when all of a sudden Ayame hugged him and jumped out of bed, leaving him speechless. She looked at him in a challenging pose, and said she would be cheerful and show a happy smile all day that day. Boy, she sure got a lot of energy.

Dorian giggled awkwardy and got out of bed, while she suggested going to see the caves, before then mentioning having breakfast before that. Dee Dee nodded timidly as he put his sneakers on, trying to avoid eye contact with her. She sure is cute when she's happy and hyper... he thought, But I'm sure she doesn't find me cute... Hikari then thanked Dee Dee as he was putting on his leather jacket, and the boy could understand her by her body language.

"You're...w-w-welcome...I g-guess..." he said, still blushing.

Then, once he was all set, Dee Dee grabbed his bag and walked up to where Ayame and Hikari were waiting, which was by the door. He gave them a shy smile before looking down.

"Um, so, um, to the Food Aisle?..."

George "Buster" Leggingsteele
Buster VS. Giselle - A Battle of Trust!
----------------------------------------------------------------

As the PA suddenly came on, George turned his head towards one of the little speaker-thingies in the ceiling to hear the announcement better. In the same pace as the message was delivered, Buster's mind started to run. The police, here?! Why in the world was that? Had someone gotten killed, had someone killed someone else, was there a contagious illness on the ship?! Were all of the above on the ship?! As he pondered more and more about it, George's brain started to make up wilder and wilder stories until he almsot scared himself. But then he remembered that he had a battle going on.

"Dangit Buster, focus!" He thought, mentally giving himself a slap in the face. From what he saw from the battlefield, he deduced that Penumbra's attack had connected and that the Dewott was now confused. However, it had taken the opportunity of being close to Penumbra to launch a Fury Cutter at the Umbreon. George knew very well what Fury Cutter could do. Since his father was quite the Bug-type fanatic, George and his siblings had been taught a lot about Bug-types as well as their different moves. Fury Cutter started off a weak, but it would grow stronger if used many times in succession. And with Penumbra being weak to that move, he had to be very careful.

Since the gap between the two battelers was so small, Penumbra had little chance of dodging the attack, even if the Dewott was confused. Which he didn't. The Dewott's claws slammed into Penumbra hard, the Umbreon cringed at the pain coming from the Super-Effective hit.

"It's okay Penumbra!" George exclaimed, "Just retaliate with Faint Attack!" The Umbreon nodded - although still in pain - and started glowing with a dark aura. The good thing about Faint Attack was that it never missed, no matter what. So the Dark-type then threw himself at the Dewott, waiting to slam-dunk the Water-type.